Datasets:

airtrain-ai

/

fineweb-edu-fortified

like 53

Follow

Airtrain AI 9

RadTown USA Topics Everyday activities and environmental factors in common locations such as homes, schools, or offices contribute to an individual's radiation exposure. Being aware of the sources in these locations allows you to better control your personal radiation Industrial uses of radiation in equipment such as moisture and density gauges and consumer products such as ionizing smoke detectors are sources of radiation that if improperly handled can result in environmental contamination or personal exposure. Food, mail, and other items are treated with radiation to kill pathogens. The materials that are treated do not become radioactive, although the processes that create them are potential sources of worker exposure or environmental contamination. Radioactive waste often must be transported from its generation site to a disposal facility. Federal, state, and local governments and response agencies put rules and safeguards in place to prevent accidents and to prevent exposure in the event an accident does occur. Industrial processes that use radioactive materials or extract minerals from soil that contains naturally-occurring radioactive materials inevitably create radioactive waste. Uranium, radium, plutonium, and most other radioactive materials have been present in Earth's crust since it was formed. Natural resources such as air, water, and soil may become contaminated when they come in contact with these naturally-occurring Radiation is involved in many aspects of homeland security. Radiation is used in devices that help ensure our safety, such as smoke detectors and airport luggage screeners. It is also used in military applications, such as submarines and nuclear weapons. In addition, much of the cargo entering our ports is screened for radioactivity.

<urn:uuid:a2ea2acc-b97a-4650-8fc4-22a784dcff73>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://epa.gov/radtown/topics.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383160/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00091-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Salmonella, a bacterium often found in undercooked meats and raw eggs, can also be found in other foods as well. The latest outbreak, which has been responsible for over 400 cases in 42 states since the fall of 2008, is the result of peanut butter. On Saturday January 11th, King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio recalled all brands of peanut butter distributed under the company’s name after it was discovered the day before by Minnesota health officials that salmonella was present in a five-pound open container of creamy King Nut peanut butter that company distributes to hospitals and schools. Their products are not sold directly to consumers and business clients have been asked to take all King Nut peanut butter and Parnell’s Pride peanut butter distributed by King Nut out of distribution immediately Martin Kanan the president and CEO of King Nut Companies issued an apology for the outbreak and said that the company took immediate action to ensure safety. “We are very sorry this happened,” said Martin Kanan, president and chief executive officer of King Nut Companies. “We are taking immediate and voluntary action because the health and safety of those who use our products is always our highest priority.” The CDC says ingesting foods that have been infected with animal waste normally contracts salmonella bacteria contamination. The symptoms that people generally experience are abdominal cramps, diarrhea and fever, which generally occur within three days after contamination. The infection usually disappears after seven days & often does not require treatment, though some people have been hospitalized due to dehydration. For more information about the recall, please visit http://www.kingnut.com

<urn:uuid:939cceca-4304-4a73-96ff-095d8f21fa05>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://gymsoap.com/blog/2009/01/salmonella-not-just-for-raw-animal-meat-byproducts/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702718570/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111158-00090-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Stir frying is an umbrella term used to describe two techniques for cooking food in a wok while stirring it: chǎo (炒) and bào (爆). The chao technique is similar to the Western technique of sautéing. A traditional round-bottom cast iron or carbon steel pan called a wok is heated to a high temperature. A small amount of cooking oil is then poured down the side of the wok (a traditional expression in China regarding this is “hot wok, cold oil”), followed by dry seasonings (including ginger and garlic), then at the first moment the seasonings can be smelled, meats are added and agitated. Once the meat is seared, vegetables along with liquid ingredients (for example often including premixed combinations of soy sauce, vinegar, wine, salt, sugar, and cornstarch) are added. The wok then may be covered for a moment so the water in the liquid ingredients can warm up the new ingredients as it steams off. The wok is heated to a dull red glow. With the wok hot, the oil, seasonings, and meats are added in rapid succession with no pause in between. The food is continually tossed, stopping for several seconds only to add other ingredients such as various seasonings, broths, or vegetables.

<urn:uuid:59e42be8-9bac-42db-aedf-3740b9a5fc0a>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://1tess.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/stir-fry-on-an-electric-stove/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Ask most people how much a a Billion dollars is, and they have a concept in their head of 'more than a million', but in actual fact it is 1,000 times more, which is actually a really large and staggering number, considering how large a million already is. Try counting to 1,000 sometime, and it will give you a much improved concept of how much bigger a Billion is than a Million. This issue of comprehending large numbers gets us into trouble, because we often end up making scenarios equivalent in our minds that really aren't. For example - 3,000 Americans dying in 9/11 was a terrible tragedy, but was it really that much more important than the 1,000,000 people that died in the genocide in Rwanda, where basically the whole country cut each other up with machetes, an event that the world pretty much ignored? Geeks are the perfect people to deal with these issues, because they are much more used to dealing with large numbers. Where a normal person might be tempted to spend $100,000 to try and save a first-world person dying of self-induced lung cancer and diabetes from smoking and over-eating, Bill Gates does the math and works out that he can save people in Africa for just a few bucks each, and therefore that is a much more efficient way to spend his money. So when it came to spend a huge amount of money, and build the worlds largest and most advanced machine, of course geeks were our only option. A week or so ago, the Large Hadron Collider was switched on, bringing to life an amazing machine that: was built by 10,000 of the worlds smartest people; must be kept colder than the outer reaches of space; can accelerate particles to 99.999999% the speed of light; has a diameter of 27kms; houses the worlds most powerful electromagnets; uses more power than most countries; and can essentially re-create the conditions that were present at the dawn of the universe. Now - The LHC was deemed so expensive and complex that no one country could fund it or design it - so a consortium of 80 countries pulled together to try and find the money to answer the largest question of all - "where did we come from, and what are we made of" - and the total cost of the LHC? Around $10 Billion. Now - knowing that figure, and the fact that 80 countries pulled together to find that kind of money (which is actually an ENORMOUS sum), do you feel a bit more nervous that the USA is having to bail out it's financial institutions to the sum of SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION? I sure do - that's about $2,500 for every man, woman and child in the USA, and considering how many people I saw there that can't even afford a square meal, it makes me wonder if the problem won't take a bit more fixing than good 'ol boy Bush signing a cheque. I think that the only way that that kind of money can be found is if the USA frantically starts printing money (as I believe it has already been doing to fund the 'war on terror'), the end result of which I suspect may be a permanent devaluation of the US currency. Are we witnessing the end of US world dominance? I suspect so, but we'll all be worse off, as the US has done a pretty good job of keeping the world an orderly place. In the future, with a USA that's falling apart, high oil prices, high food prices, Global Warming, and an environment that's falling apart every where you look, humanity will really need to start rolling up it's sleeves...

<urn:uuid:4c196eb7-d566-403b-b747-490534decec3>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://seeby.blogspot.com/2008/10/maths-worlds-largest-machine-and-us.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Taqiyyah is the practice of hiding one's belief under duress and it is mentioned in the Noble Quran in three places: Let not the believers take the disbelievers as guardians instead of the believers, and whoever does this will never be helped by Allah in any way, unless you indeed fear a danger from them (illa an tattaqu minhum tuqat). These three verses clearly point to the permissibility of concealing one's ideology and opinion whenever in danger. Those living in countries with zero tolerance for the followers of the Ahlul Bayt, where democracy is absent and tyranny, oppression, and abuse of human rights are rampant, and people are subjected to persecution, torture, and killing on account of their beliefs should according to the Quranic teachings, practice taqiyyah - to conceal their lives, wealth, properties, families, and friends. Taqiyyah should only be practiced whenever there is fear of danger or harm. If there is no fear of danger or harm, such as for the Muslims in the United States of America and Europe, then taqiyyah should not be practiced. Surah 16:106 illustrates this point, as it was revealed to allow some of the companions of the Prophet in Makkah to express disbelief with their tongues and hide their true faith in their hearts when they were being tortured by Abu Sufyan. Even the most prominent companion of the Prophet, 'Ammar ibn Yassir declared disbelief when the infidels were torturing him in Makkah. People came to the Prophet and complained that 'Ammar had become a disbeliever, a kafir. The Prophet replied, “No, indeed 'Ammar is full of faith (iman) from head to toe,” and he told 'Ammar that if the disbelievers were to torture him again, then he should again deny his faith in public. This story is also mentioned in the explanation of verse 106 of Surah 16. The first person in Islam to practice taqiyyah was the Messenger of Allah himself; when he concealed his mission in the beginning of Islam. For three years, his mission was very secret, and in order to protect the message and the ideas he was carrying, he did not reveal them to the Quraysh until Allah commanded him to speak openly. “Therefore, proclaim openly the message of Allah—that which you are commanded—and turn away from the idolaters,” as Allah instructed the Prophet. Afterwards, the Prophet began openly inviting people to Islam after this period of taqiyyah. Moreover, Islamic history shows that many prominent leaders, of all schools of thought, from various recorded traditions practiced taqiyyah on different occasions. For example, Imam Abu Hanifah when he gave verdicts to abandon prayers and break fast during the month of Ramadan for the person who was being coerced. Similarly, Imam Malik was obliged to use high levels of diplomacy with the Umayyad and 'Abbasid dynasties by using Surah 3, verse 28 as justification. Imam Shafi΄i also used taqiyyah in his verdict regarding a man who swore falsely by the name of Allah under coercion that he will not have to pay the kaffarah (expiation). Imam al-Ghazzali narrates that protecting the Muslim blood is obligatory thus lying is obligatory, if it means preventing the shedding the blood of a Muslim. Some people associate taqiyyah with nifaq (hypocrisy). However, hypocrisy is defined as falsely displaying faith (iman) while hiding disbelief (kufr), whereas taqiyyah is showing agreement, while in the heart there is disagreement in order to protect one's self, family, money, or religion. Noble Quran, 3:28 Noble Quran, 16:106 Noble Quran, 40:28 Sirat ibn Hisham, Vol. 1, 274. Tarikh al-Tabari, Vol. 2, 216 and 218; Ibn Sa΄ad, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, 200 Noble Quran, 15:94 Al-Amidi, Difa ‘an al-Kafi, Vol. 1, 627 al-Ghazzali, Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din

<urn:uuid:8b794f04-65a2-4a4d-bb7f-e7e7b553186d>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.al-islam.org/shiism/12.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705948348/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120548-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The aim of this study was to assess the caries prevalence in the adult population of Pomerania, Germany in comparison to national and international data. The study sample comprised 4,022 randomly selected subjects who were examined from October 1997 to May 2001 within the Study of Health in Pomerania (medical and dental, population-based cross-sectional study in Pomerania, Northeast Germany. Response rate: 69%. Age range of subjects: 25 - 79 yrs). Carious defects, fillings and missing teeth were diagnosed and the DMFT/S scores were calculated according to WHO guidelines (1997). These figures were compared to other German, Swedish and US data. Women exhibited higher mean DMFT and DMFS values in all age groups than men. The mean DMFT/S scores were slightly higher than the values for the only two available nationally representative age groups in Germany. The prevalence of primary carious lesions or secondary caries was very low, resulting in minor treatment needs (decayed surfaces: mean 0.95 ± 3.3) and high care indices (FS/DFS) for all age groups (90 - 95%). In contrast to this, the mean numbers of fillings in adults and especially of missing teeth in seniors were much higher in Pomerania for all age groups than in the Swedish and US adult population, where a caries decline was demonstrated. In spite of a very low prevalence of primary carious lesions and secondary caries, the mean number DMFT/S and especially MT/S scores in the Pomeranian adult population are high in comparison with Swedish and US data, but differed only slightly from the limited available national data for Germany. Keywords: caries prevalence, DMFT, Germany, missing teeth, oral health

<urn:uuid:9cf00a2e-af1b-45da-a18f-5b2b85e0f84d>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.quintpub.com/journals/ohpd/abstract.php?iss2_id=843&article_id=9667&article=9&title=Caries%20Prevalence%20in%20an%20Adult%20Population:%20Results%20of%20the%20Study%20of%20Health%20in%20Pomerania,%20Germany%20(SHIP)

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703293367/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112133-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

What Should I Be Teaching My Teenager? Part 3: Ways to Guide a Child to Financial Maturity and Security! If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, you’ll be familiar with these suggestions for introducing and teaching children about money and how to manage it. Here are the pointers that were discussed: - Show emotional joy when saving - Teach them the difference between a “want” and a “need” - Teach them to set goals - Teach them how to save - Teach them how to make a deposit and how to read an account statement As the children grow up through junior high and into high school, it is a good time to teach them more about the household budget, credit and interest. We all know that learning comes best by doing, so it is highly recommended that you provide more opportunities for them to work with cash. The objective is to see if they work toward their goals and within their budget. Setting goals and really being able to understand the difference between a “want” and a “need “is so crucial to creating a budget. It is important to show that a well-planned budget not only leads to living a meaningful life but also to a healthy savings program. As parents, we may want to make sure that we help them create a budget that not only makes sense to them but fits in with the family budget too. Like everything in life, children/teens should learn and understand that everything has a parameter to grow and expand in. It should come as no surprise that children and teens really like receiving an allowance. As a teaching mechanism, provide a meaningful amount that is based on joint expectations between them and you as the parent. It is probably not a good idea to come across as a dictator of why the allowance is limited to whatever you decide to make it because they would fail to see any reason for your decision. In other words, you should really consider having an open discussion about the family budget and what goals are set for the financial well-being of the family. By doing this, the youth are more likely to understand the importance of money management, why their allowance is what it is and how they fit into the larger picture of supporting the family. If they receive an allowance, allow them to use it with the stipulation that they must also be accountable for how they used it. Practice is the key to learning and the only way for them to learn is to actually take control of their actions while you provide mentoring, direction and oversight. Your role is to monitor if they are living within the means of their budget and saving for the goals that they created. Once they show some signs of responsibility and financial maturity, it is a great time to talk about interest and credit. Earned interest can be described as free money – or the best use of it. Everyone likes free money so teaching them how to make their money work for them should be a welcome conversation. Point out that credit unions, banks, investment firms and others are willing to pay you (interest) for the use of your money. Some are willing to pay you more than others and although that is important, it is not the only thing to consider when loaning it out. Share with them the different ways you let your money work for you and why you chose to put your money to use. This should include the discussion of risk and how every decision made should consider the risk of the borrower. Create a game to play in the family where members are willing to pay interest to them for the use of their money. Be sure to explain that each family member has a certain risk that may affect their ability to repay and then watch how they react and make decisions. This makes for a realistic situation provided in a safe environment that can be used for teaching. Now would be a great time to introduce a discussion about credit cards. A great way to describe the use of a credit card is to say that “credit cards are used to purchase things just like using cash. If you purchase something with a credit card then you are actually borrowing money that must be paid back in a certain time with interest. Using a credit card is just like taking out a loan.” The credit card is definitely not free money because you have to pay it back, and the longer it takes for you to pay back the more it will cost you. However, there are times a credit card can be a great tool to use for the right reasons. Some good reasons are: - For emergencies when cash is not available - To help build up your credit score which is a representation of your reputation to keep promises on paying back money to people on time - To make smart investments that fit your goals and budget - Some give rewards for making payments on time - If they are stolen, a credit card company will usually not penalize you for what the thief purchased with it providing that you immediately reported the card stolen or lost. Hopefully you can use this information to help teach your teenagers more about the importance of using a budget, cash, interest and credit cards. If you implement these suggestions as well as the techniques provided to you in our previous posts, you’ll be on the way to having a Money Smart Teen before you know it! Our next blog post, Part 4, is the last in the series: Ways to Guide a Child to Financial Maturity and Security. We will provide suggestions geared for the college student! Please stay tuned and feel free to leave your comments.

<urn:uuid:f89b7923-6287-4abb-87a4-778b154582a9>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://blog.midillinicu.com/2012/02/what-should-i-be-teaching-my-teenager/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705543116/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115903-00079-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

WASHINGTON, DC - The Department of Energy today announced it will be seeking public comments on the environmental impacts of its Carbon Sequestration Program and has scheduled eight evening meetings in various parts of the country for citizen input. "DOE's long-term goal is to develop a cost-effective, commercially ready, and environmentally sound portfolio of technology options to reduce greenhouse gases and stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide," said Acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Mark Maddox. "We're offering this series of public meetings as a constructive step toward providing the foundation for future decisions about those options as they relate to future sequestration activities." Carbon sequestration includes various methods for capturing and permanently isolating carbon dioxide gases that otherwise could contribute to global climate change. Affordable and environmentally safe sequestration approaches could offer a way to stabilize atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide without requiring the United States and other countries to make large-scale and potentially costly changes to their energy infrastructures. DOE's Carbon Sequestration Program currently includes several efforts: - The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, an international ministerial-level panel that meets regularly to discuss the growing body of scientific research and emerging technologies and plan joint projects for carbon sequestration. - Regional Partnerships Program, a nationwide network of federal, state and private sector partnerships to determine the most suitable technologies, regulations, and infrastructure for future carbon capture, storage and sequestration in different areas of the country. - FutureGen - A full-scale sequestration demonstration project announced by President Bush in 2003 that will capture and store carbon emissions, making it the world's first coal-fueled prototype power plant to incorporate carbon sequestration technologies. - Carbon Sequestration Core R&D Program, a portfolio of technologies that will capture and permanently store greenhouse gases. The meetings will give interested parties the opportunity to address issues contained in an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the Carbon Sequestration Program. Three areas are covered by the EIS: the current state of greenhouse gases and their sources; potential problems resulting from greenhouse gas emissions; and the role of DOE's Carbon Sequestration Program in addressing the problems on both a national and global scale. Each of the eight meetings will begin at 7 p.m. and will include a series of DOE presentations and an open period for public comments. The sessions will be preceded by an informal, informational open house from 4-7 p.m. The meetings will be held in: Alexandria, Va.; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.; Houston, Texas; Sacramento, Calif.; Atlanta, Ga.; Bozeman, Mont.; and Grand Forks, N.D. Following public input, DOE plans to complete a draft programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) by summer 2005 and seek follow up input at the same locations. The final PEIS is scheduled for release by spring 2006. For more details about the meetings, please visit DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory Web site.

<urn:uuid:b7c6d32e-6bac-4949-b8c3-f60040353c4a>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/press/2004/PrinterFriendlyHTML_1_49183_49183.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705618968/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120018-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Dalai Lamas—in History and in Person A week before His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to Middlebury, a large audience at Dana Auditorium heard some answers to the questions, “What is a Dalai Lama?” and “Who is this Dalai Lama?” Professor William Waldron sketched the spiritual and temporal role Dalai Lamas have held since their rise to prominence in 16th century Tibet, adding insights about the particular life and role of Middlebury’s honored guest. The title “Dalai Lama” itself suggests the complex history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. “Lama” is Tibetan for “guru” or “teacher”; “Dalai” is Mongolian for “ocean.” The title is loosely translated as “Ocean of Merit” or “Ocean of Wisdom,” and Waldron explained how it harkens back to the Buddhist leaders’ patronage by Mongolian princes who ran—and defended—Tibet from the 13th through 17th centuries. Far from otherworldly spiritualists, these Buddhist lamas operated amidst Mongolian and Chinese political plays, with each power exercising control over Tibetans through their spiritual leaders. Buddhism didn’t arrive in Tibet until the 7th century, and the monks who brought it from India were not entering a spiritual vacuum: practitioners of Tibet’s indigenous shamanic spiritual tradition, Bön, resisted the Buddhist influence. Originally armed pastoralists like the Mongolians, the Tibetans took to the Buddhist teachings of compassion. Bön and Buddhism ultimately developed a syncretic relationship, and during the four-century span prior to Mongolian political rule, it was the Buddhist monasteries who provided a stabilizing cultural force, serving as keepers of literacy and iconography, even lending money (similar to the role the Catholic monasteries played after the fall of the Roman Empire). Waldron noted that while Dalai Lamas have for centuries wielded political and spiritual influence, it is the latter role Tibetans value most. Traditionally, the Dalai Lama is considered the reincarnation of the revered bodhisattva (or “enlightened being”) of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. Bodhisattvas cycle through many earthly lifetimes, delaying their own rest in nirvana in order to help liberate others from suffering. In the Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist tradition especially, Waldron noted, “the many bodhisattvas represent the potential for cultivating awakened properties within oneself.” This awakening, through meditation and other practices, allows a person to see reality without the ulterior motives and grasping of the ego; the awakened person is free to engage others with compassion and wisdom. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was a toddler in his mud-and-stone village when a lengthy, detailed process identified him as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. Given the restless time into which he was born, he went from a closely tutored child in a Lhasa palace whose only exposure to technology was an old film projector, watches, and a telescope to a world traveler who counts among his friends prominent scientists, philosophers, and religious leaders. (His own education demanded decades of studying scriptures and the highly advanced logic of Buddhism; he earned the equivalent of a Ph.D. in philosophy and is the author of dozens of books.) And although Waldron noted that the 14th Dalai Lama “is not the first to be beleaguered by politics,” the politics that have beleaguered His Holiness are of a modern scale. Fearing for his life during the increasingly restrictive Chinese occupation of Tibet, he fled in 1959 and found asylum in Dharamsala, India, with many other Tibetans. As Pico Iyer notes in his biography of the Dalai Lama, The Open Road, “One in five Tibetans—more than a million—died of starvation or in direct encounters with the Chinese. One in 10 was jailed; all but 13 of the more than 6,000 monasteries in Tibet were leveled.” While he has tirelessly engaged in efforts on behalf of Tibet’s autonomy, His Holiness recently abdicated his political role as his people’s temporal leader (Waldron noted that his traditional political authority lodged mostly in central Tibet, but that this abdication nonetheless changes “the religious polity of classical Tibet”). He remains active fostering Tibet’s monastic and cultural traditions in exile while calling for a “global ethics” that supersedes religion or culture to engage and develop what is common to all humans—kindness, responsibility, and compassion. Toward this end, he regularly hosts conferences in Dharamsala that pursue questions about cognitive science and meditation, Buddhist doctrine and quantum mechanics, and commonalities among religions. This self-described “simple Buddhist monk” doesn’t claim to have universal answers, and in fact, suggests that while Buddhism works for him, it may not be a good fit for others. As a quote from the Buddha displayed in the Dalai Lama’s home temple in Dharamsala says, “As one assays gold by rubbing, cutting, and melting, so examine well my words and accept them, but not because you respect me.” Tickets to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama are now sold out. Live video feeds will be provided to both Dana Auditorium and the McCullough Social Space during both of his talks. Seating for these on-campus video viewing areas is free and open to the public, and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. We will also be streaming the lectures live online. This link will be live a few minutes before the lectures begin: http://go.middlebury.edu/dlstream

<urn:uuid:8f819410-61a6-47b4-9b47-dfa7b0bc8479>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://sites.middlebury.edu/middmag/2012/10/10/dalai-lamas-in-history-and-in-person/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702525329/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110845-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

This story is scary for so many reasons. New Science writes: Researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona have come up with an ingenious solution for keeping track of embryos and egg cells during in vitro fertilisation procedures: microscopic bar codes.This makes perfect sense if you accept as a given that human life is a commodity to be accepted or rejected by the decisions of others. If you agree that the creation of human beings and storing them in a freezer in perpetuity might be fine then bar codes on embryos probably make a lot of sense to you. These mouse eggs were tagged by injecting microscopic silicon bar codes into their perivitelline space, the gap between the cell membrane and an outer membrane called the zona pellucida, which binds sperm cells during fertilisation. The bar codes, which carry unique binary identification numbers, are biologically inert: they do not affect the rate of embryo development and are shed before the embryos implant into the wall of the uterus. The technique aims to simplify individual embryo identification, streamlining in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer procedures. The Government of Catalonia’s Department of Health has granted permission for the technique to be developed using human eggs and embryos from fertility clinics in Spain. It all comes down to those assumptions. I do not share them. I'm horrified by this man made barcoded limbo we've created for human beings. Chelsea Zimmerman at the excellent Reflections of a Paralytic writes: As if we needed more evidence that IVF makes human life a commodity.

<urn:uuid:3a3f6a5d-a575-415f-8a9f-c37063916971>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/12/bar-codes-for-ivf-embryos.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705936437/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120536-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Modern Women Persuading Modern Men: The Nineteenth Amendment and the Movement for Woman Suffrage, 1916–1920Author: Jonathan Soffer Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: Featured Primary Sources Fowler, Robert Booth. Carrie Catt: Feminist Politician. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986. Stuhler, Barbara. For the Public Record: A Documentary History of the League of Women Voters. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Lunardini, Christine A. From Equal Suffrage to Equal Rights: Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party, 1910–1928. New York: New York University Press, 1986.

<urn:uuid:08af4833-ecd4-4fd0-ba5d-bd0459f79d87>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/progressive-era-new-era-1900-1929/politics-reform

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708143620/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124223-00085-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Ram (?), n. [AS. ramm, ram; akin to OHG. & D. ram, Prov. G. ramm, and perh. to Icel. ramr strong.] The male of the sheep and allied animals. In some parts of England a ram is called a tup. 2. Astron. (a) Aries, the sign of the zodiac which the sun enters about the 21st of March. The constellation Aries, which does not now, as formerly, occupy the sign of the same name. An engine of war used for butting or battering. In ancient warfare, a long beam suspended by slings in a framework, and used for battering the walls of cities; a battering-ram A heavy steel or iron beak attached to the prow of a steam war vessel for piercing or cutting down the vessel of an enemy; also, a vessel carrying such a beak. A hydraulic ram. See under Hydraulic. The weight which strikes the blow, in a pile driver, steam hammer, stamp mill, or the like. The plunger of a hydraulic press. Ram's horn. (a) Fort. A low semicircular work situated in and commanding a ditch. [Written also [ramshorn[.] Farrow. (b) Paleon. An ammonite. © Webster 1913. Ram, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rammed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Ramming.] To butt or strike against; to drive a ram against or through; to thrust or drive with violence; to force in; to drive together; to cram; as, to ram an enemy's vessel; to ram piles, cartridges, etc. [They] rammed me in with foul shirts, and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy napkins. To fill or compact by pounding or driving. A ditch . . . was filled with some sound materials, and rammed to make the foundation solid. © Webster 1913.

<urn:uuid:9a2444ec-4733-48dd-b872-ebd759b1aafb>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://everything2.com/title/RAM

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701281163/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104801-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Lapis is a gemstone with quite a history! It’s named ‘lapis’, the Latin word for stone, and ‘azula’, which is Arabic meaning blue. Lapis lazuli is made up of several minerals, including but not limited to: lazurite, sodalite, hauyne, calcite and pyrite. Painters from pre-Renaissance and later used ground lapis as pigment . “In ancient Egypt, lapis lazuli was a favorite stone for amulets and ornaments such as scarabs; it was also used in ancient Mesopotamia for seals and jewelry. Lapis jewelry has been found at excavations of the Predynastic Egyptian site Naqada (3300–3100 BC), and powdered lapis was used as eyeshadow by Cleopatra. In ancient Mesopotamia, lapis artifacts can be found in great abundance, with many notable examples having been excavated at the Royal Cemetery of Ur (2600-2500 BC).” – Wikipedia The ancient Egyptian book of the dead said that Lapis, set in gold in the shape of an eye, was a very powerful amulet! So it’s been used magically for a very long time… Because the highest quality Lapis comes from Afghanistan, it may not be as readily available currently as it has been in the past. So if you find a good specimen at a reasonable price, snatch it up! Ruled by Jupiter, Lapis is known to cleanse all the chakras, associated some with the throat charka but especially with the Third Eye. It’s said to impart ancient wisdom and knowledge to it’s bearer, and insists that you raise your vibration to connect with it as opposed to the other way around. It’s used for expanding your vision and perspective, psychic seeing, and protection from psychic attack. Holding it, the energy does indeed have an expansive quality. You can place it directly to your third eye (middle of the forehead, centered a little above your physical eyes) for psychic vision work. I sometimes use it in readings. I also have a pendulum made of Lapis (thanks, Cedar!), and it’s served me well. Look to Lapis when you want and need clarity and objectivity—when you’re ready to understand the bigger-picture truths! There is a timelessness about it. It is a good stone to use for dreamwork as well. Creativity and awareness are both enhanced by Lapis. It’s suggested for teachers and public speaking. For healing, it’s said to aid thyroid, speech or hearing issues, insomnia, and relieve anxiety. It’s historically been used to draw poisons or fever out of the body. It’s also used to address deeply buried emotional trauma. Caring for your Lapis Lazuli: This stone is of moderate hardness; it should be protected from acidic substances, avoiding chemical contact in general and should not be exposed to too much sunlight. It can also chip or crack, so be aware when wearing Lapis jewelry. Water can destroy the protective coating on polished pieces, so don’t store in water for cleansing. Do you use Lapis Lazuli? How?

<urn:uuid:231ba00c-a518-4eb4-93b2-7bbf100c4ebb>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.afoolsjourney.com/8595/metaphysical/gemstones/lapis-metaphysical-properties-healing/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00077-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The Internet provides a wealth of knowledge you can use in your homeschool program. Unfortunately, finding the right lesson or activity at the right time can be both difficult and time-consuming. If your child suddenly declares a passion for the study of electricity, you don’t want to waste time scouring the Internet for reading materials and fun projects; you want to get right down to the business of exploring his interest. Likewise, if you’ve decided to teach your child about the American Revolution, you’ll want an easy source of information that will allow you to make history come alive for your child. LessonPathways.com was designed to help you use the Internet to your advantage while reserving plenty of time to teach your children and enjoy other activities. This innovative educational toolprovides prescreened Pathway units for Years K through 3, covering the core subjects of history, language arts, math, and science. You’ll find a wide range of resources in each unit, including reading material, worksheets, videos, games, experiments, and hands-on activities. A Ready-to-Use Homeschool Curriculum You can use LessonPathways.com as a complete curriculum. Just choose the grade level that best suits your child’s needs and complete one Pathway per week in each core subject. Our Guided Journeys are carefully planned, so you don’t have to spend hours on research. Each unit isready to use; you can simply click on a Pathway and get started! Has your child already covered the material in one of our Guided Journeys? That’s no problem; just select the next grade level for that particular subject. You can mix and match Guided Journeys to fully customize your child’s learning experience. A Powerful Educational Supplement If you have a curriculum you’re happy with for this year; LessonPathways.com still has plenty to offer you. Use it to supplement your current homeschool program. For example, use our science Pathways to supplement your science textbook with fun projects, experiments, and videos. Our Pathways provide an all-around educational experience that will help your child both enjoy learning and retain what she learns. You can also use LessonPathways.com in combination with other curriculum choices. For example, you may combine our Language Arts and History Guided Journeys with your current textbooks for math and science. You might use our site for math, science, and history while employing another choice for language arts. Perhaps a visually appealing video presentation on volcanoes will enhance your child’s studies. Maybe long division will be easier if he can see the steps in a video, apply them to hands-on activities, and complete online drills. Take some time to explore Lesson Pathways and experience the convenience of having quality resources ready for your use, whenever you need them. Watch your child’s face brighten as he enjoys a multisensory education, with quality content from a wide range of websites. Use our handyPlanner to stay organized and plan your next exciting homeschool exploration. Combine Pathways to make unit studies that are tailored to your child’s unique needs and interests. See how easy and fun homeschooling can be with LessonPathways.com!

<urn:uuid:fcf789d1-604d-41ae-9269-cc9f0596b85f>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://blog.lessonpathways.com/index.php/about/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702444272/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110724-00089-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Match 57 DB Rec# - 7,509 Dataset-WOFACT Title :Comoros Text : Comoros Geography Location: Southern Africa, group of islands in the Mozambique Channel, about two-thirds of the way between northern Madagascar and northern Mozambique Map references: Africa Area: total area: 2,170 sq km land area: 2,170 sq km comparative area: slightly more than 12 times the size of Washington, DC Land boundaries: 0 km Coastline: 340 km Maritime claims: exclusive economic zone: 200 nm territorial sea: 12 nm International disputes: claims French-administered Mayotte Climate: tropical marine; rainy season (November to May) Terrain: volcanic islands, interiors vary from steep mountains to low hills Natural resources: negligible Land use: arable land: 35% permanent crops: 8% meadows and pastures: 7% forest and woodland: 16% other: 34% Irrigated land: NA sq km Environment: current issues: soil degradation and erosion results from crop cultivation on slopes without proper terracing; deforestation natural hazards: cyclones and tsunamis possible during rainy season (December to April); Mount Kartala on Grand Comore is an active volcano international agreements: party to - Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection; signed, but not ratified - Desertification Note: important location at northern end of Mozambique Channel People Population: 549,338 (July 1995 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 48% (female 131,334; male 132,327) 15-64 years: 49% (female 137,083; male 133,629) 65 years and over: 3% (female 7,860; male 7,105) (July 1995 est.) Population growth rate: 3.56% (1995 est.) Birth rate: 46.22 births/1,000 population (1995 est.) Death rate: 10.6 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.) Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.) Infant mortality rate: 77.3 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 58.27 years male: 56.04 years female: 60.57 years (1995 est.) Total fertility rate: 6.73 children born/woman (1995 est.) Nationality: noun: Comoran(s) adjective: Comoran Ethnic divisions: Antalote, Cafre, Makoa, Oimatsaha, Sakalava Religions: Sunni Muslim 86%, Roman Catholic 14% Languages: Arabic (official), French (official), Comoran (a blend of Swahili and Arabic) Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1980) total population: 48% male: 56% female: 40% Labor force: 140,000 (1982) by occupation: agriculture 80%, government 3% Government Names: conventional long form: Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros conventional short form: Comoros local long form: Republique Federale Islamique des Comores local short form: Comores Digraph: CN Type: independent republic Capital: Moroni Administrative divisions: three islands; Grand Comore (Njazidja), Anjouan (Nzwani), and Moheli (Mwali) note: there are also four municipalities named Domoni, Fomboni, Moroni, and Mutsamudu Independence: 6 July 1975 (from France) National holiday: Independence Day, 6 July (1975) Constitution: 7 June 1992 Legal system: French and Muslim law in a new consolidated code Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal Executive branch: chief of state: President Said Mohamed DJOHAR (since 11 March 1990); election last held 11 March 1990 (next to be held March 1996); results - Said Mohamed DJOHAR (UDZIMA) 55%, Mohamed TAKI Abdulkarim (UNDC) 45% head of government: Prime Minister Halifa HOUMADI (since 13 October 1994); note - HOUMADI is the fifteenth prime minister appointed by President DJOHAR in the last three years cabinet: Council of Ministers; appointed by the president Legislative branch: unicameral Federal Assembly (Assemblee Federale): elections last held 12-20 December 1993 (next to be held by NA January 1998); results - percent of vote by party NA; seats - (42 total) Ruling Coalition: RDR 15, UNDC 5, MWANGAZA 2; Opposition: UDZIMA 8, other smaller parties 10; 2 seats remained unfilled Judicial branch: Supreme Court (Cour Supreme) Government Political parties and leaders: over 20 political parties are currently active, the most important of which are; Comoran Union for Progress (UDZIMA), Omar TAMOU; Islands' Fraternity and Unity Party (CHUMA), Said Ali KEMAL; Comoran Party for Democracy and Progress (PCDP), Ali MROUDJAE; Realizing Freedom's Capability (UWEZO), Mouazair ABDALLAH; Democratic Front of the Comoros (FDR), Moustapha CHELKH; Dialogue Proposition Action (DPA/MWANGAZA), Said MCHAWGAMA; Rally for Change and Democracy (RACHADE), Hassan HACHIM; Union for Democracy and Decentralization (UNDC), Mohamed Taki Halidi IBRAHAM; Rally for Democracy and Renewal (RDR); Comoran Popular Front (FPC), Mohamed HASSANALI, Mohamed El Arif OUKACHA, Abdou MOUSTAKIM (Secretary General) Member of: ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AL, CCC, ECA, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS (associate), ILO, IMF, INTELSAT (nonsignatory user), IOC, ITU, NAM, OAU, OIC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WMO Diplomatic representation in US: chief of mission: Ambassador Mohamed Ahamadu DJIMBANAO (ambassador to the US and Canada) chancery: (temporary) care of the Permanent Mission of the Federal and Islamic Republic of the Comoros to the United Nations, 336 East 45th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10017 telephone: (212) 972-8010 FAX: (212) 983-4712 US diplomatic representation: none; ambassador to Port Louis, Mauritius, is accredited to Comoros Flag: green with a white crescent in the center of the field, its points facing upward; there are four white five-pointed stars placed in a line between the points of the crescent; the crescent, stars, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam; the four stars represent the four main islands of the archipelago - Mwali, Njazidja, Nzwani, and Mayotte (a territorial collectivity of France, but claimed by Comoros); the design, the most recent of several, is described in the constitution approved by referendum on 7 June 1992 Economy Overview: One of the world's poorest countries, Comoros is made up of several islands that have poor transportation links, a young and rapidly increasing population, and few natural resources. The low educational level of the labor force contributes to a subsistence level of economic activity, high unemployment, and a heavy dependence on foreign grants and technical assistance. Agriculture, including fishing, hunting, and forestry, is the leading sector of the economy. It contributes 40% to GDP, employs 80% of the labor force, and provides most of the exports. The country is not self-sufficient in food production; rice, the main staple, accounts for 90% of imports. The government is struggling to upgrade education and technical training, to privatize commercial and industrial enterprises, to improve health services, to diversify exports, and to reduce the high population growth rate. Continued foreign support is essential if the goal of 4% annual GDP growth is to be reached in the late 1990s. National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $370 million (1994 est.) National product real growth rate: 0.9% (1994 est.) National product per capita: $700 (1994 est.) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 15% (1993 est.) Unemployment rate: 15.8% (1989) Budget: revenues: $83 million expenditures: $92 million, including capital expenditures of $32 million (1992) Exports: $13.7 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.) commodities: vanilla, ylang-ylang, cloves, perfume oil, copra partners: US 44%, France 40%, Germany 6%, Africa 5% (1992) Imports: $40.9 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.) commodities: rice and other foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement, consumer goods partners: France 34%, South Africa 14%, Kenya 8%, Japan 4% (1992) External debt: $160 million (1992 est.) Industrial production: growth rate -6.5% (1989 est.); accounts for 6% of GDP Electricity: capacity: 16,000 kW production: 17 million kWh consumption per capita: 27 kWh (1993) Industries: perfume distillation, textiles, furniture, jewelry, construction materials, soft drinks Economy Agriculture: accounts for 40% of GDP; most of population works in subsistence agriculture and fishing; plantations produce cash crops for export - vanilla, cloves, perfume essences, copra; principal food crops - coconuts, bananas, cassava; world's leading producer of essence of ylang-ylang (for perfumes) and second-largest producer of vanilla; large net food importer Economic aid: recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY80-89), $10 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $435 million; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $22 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $18 million Currency: 1 Comoran franc (CF) = 100 centimes Exchange rates: Comoran francs (CF) per US$1 - 297.07 (January 1995), 416.40 (1994), 254.57 (1993), 264.69 (1992), 282.11 (1991), 272.26 (1990) note: beginning 12 January 1994, the Comoran franc was devalued to 75 per French franc from 50 per French franc at which it had been fixed since 1948 Fiscal year: calendar year Transportation Railroads: 0 km Highways: total: 750 km paved: bituminous 210 km unpaved: crushed stone, gravel 540 km Ports: Fomboni, Moroni, Mutsamudo Merchant marine: none Airports: total: 4 with paved runways 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 with paved runways 914 to 1,523 m: 3 Communications Telephone system: over 1,800 telephones; sparse system of radio relay and high-frequency radio communication stations for interisland and external communications to Madagascar and Reunion local: NA intercity: high frequency radio and microwave radio relay international: high frequency radio Radio: broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 1, shortwave 0 radios: NA Television: broadcast stations: 0 televisions: NA Defense Forces Branches: Comoran Security Force Manpower availability: males age 15-49 117,349; males fit for military service 70,178 (1995 est.) Defense expenditures: $NA, NA% of GDP |Index to 1995 World Factbook...||UMSL Govt. Docs...||UMSL Libraries...||UMSL Home...| This publication is also available online from the CIA (http://www.odci.gov/cia) as 1995 World Factbook (http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/95fact/index.html). The printed version of this item can be found under the title: The World Factbook 1995, SuDoc No: PREX 3.15:995 Select this link for contact information about the UM-St. Louis Librarians maintaining this site. Updated: March 12, 1996

<urn:uuid:25e6daef-6856-4a72-9b77-cc3e689011ce>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact95/wf950056.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710299158/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131819-00097-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

I have described the ‘Marine Lightwheel’ phenomenon in detail in previous articles, so will only briefly describe it here for those who haven’t read or heard of it, and since the excellent eyewitness accounts of the Milius’ crew provide a vivid description. Basically, it seems a nearly unbelievable sight to witness, according to those who’ve been fortunate enough to have experienced it. It is a rare phenomenon that can only be seen in waters rich in bioluminescent plankton-type organisms that are apparently agitated in a massive area of the water by an electromagnetically related planetary force that discharges in geometrically configured shapes as far as the eye can see, such as huge rimless rotating wheels, expanding and imploding concentric rings, and spinning spirals among others. The electromagnetic energy of a source open to speculation, causes the bioluminescent organisms to fluoresce with a light greenish blue glow, rapidly moving in the shapes of and revealing the vortically spinning energy systems agitating them to flouresce. The displays can “stretch to the horizon”, moving like “an underwater Disco light show” at speeds “close to the speed of sound”. All made visible by the agitated bioluminescent micro-organisms that fill the water where the, what would otherwise be invisible, seemingly electromagnetic, and wide ranging ‘energy discharges’ occur. Imagine standing on the bridge wing of a ship on a dark moonless overcast night. Looking down at the water from a height of about 50 feet. Just above the surface of the sea appears to be waves of white light (low intensity) pulsating out of nowhere with a synchronized rhythm. Outward expanding circles, inward imploding circles, waves, moving snakes and boomerangs! The waves of light appear to be traveling at or near the speed of sound and reach as far out on the horizon as the eye can see. With each pulse, the sea explodes with millions of tiny green lights that appear as emeralds on the surface of the water (bioluminescent). It was Incredible and almost unbelievable. It would be hard for me to believe if I had not seen it myself. The light show continued for about 40 minutes before we steamed out of the area and it faded in our wake. “Last night the ship passed through a bizarre natural phenomenon. Don’t know what it was and have never read about anything like it. There was energy hovering and spinning just above the water. It was pulsating. A little like glowing mist but it spun and moved faster than the waves and made circles and other patterns. It sped out as far as you could see and lasted over 20 minutes. Like the northern lights but on the surface of the water and not in the sky. There was also lightning in the air and tons of florescent plankton in the water and maybe that had something to do with it but not really sure. It was definitely something like St. Elmo’s Fire or Ball Lightning and I suspect I will never see it again.” My scientific side kicked in. I did suspect that bioluminescence was at least partially responsible for the light show at hand. Generally this is caused when the ship’s wake disturbs species. It tends to glow in a bright green color, much like that of a phosphorescent light stick. It usually splits like a giant V from the ship’s hull as we pass through the water. If something biological was being disturbed then what was causing it? Looking at the speed and pattern… I assumed that it was sound. It was obviously slower than light but much quicker than anything that I had ever seen caused by wind or waves. That theory was quickly put to rest when the spirals began. It wasn’t as if something was producing the light at the center and it was following the spiral by growing. More like if you had a giant light that had a spiral cutout blocking part of it and then rotated it. Like something that belonged on a dance floor. The centers of these spirals passed directly down our ships beam. You could pinpoint the exact center. I couldn’t believe or begin to explain what I was seeing. More evidence of an Electric Universe.

<urn:uuid:b5fd33a2-94c2-47da-85ff-cff8350f9191>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=21217

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706298270/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121138-00096-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Children with Asperger's Syndrome: Characteristics/Learning Styles and Intervention Strategies by Susan Stokes Autism Consultant If you reprint or use this article, or parts of it, please include the following citation:"Written by Susan Stokes under a contract with CESA 7 and funded by a discretionary grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. " Asperger's Syndrome was named for a Viennese psychiatrist, Hans Asperger. In 1944 Asperger published a paper in German describing a consistent pattern of abilities and behaviors that occurred primarily in boys. In the early 1980s Asperger's paper was translated into English, which resulted in international recognition for his work in this area (6). In the 1990s, specific diagnostic criteria for Asperger's Syndrome were included in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV, 1994) as well as the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD10) (3) & (15). In general, DSM-IV and ICD10 base their diagnostic criteria for Asperger's Syndrome on the following: - Impairment of social interaction - Impairment of social communication - Impairment of social imagination, flexible thinking and imaginative play - Absence of a significant delay in cognitive development - Absence of general delay in language development (in Wisconsin, the child may still have an impairment under the state eligibility criteria for speech & language) Recent research establishes the prevalence of Asperger's Syndrome as approximately 1 in 300, affecting boys to girls with a ratio of 10:1 (6). Children with clinical (medical) diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and who have been identified by schools as "children with disability" are typically found by the IEP Team conducting the evaluation to have an impairment in such areas as Autism, Speech/Language, or Other Health Impaired. Depending on the unique characteristics of the child, other impairment area listed under state law for special education may also be considered and used. This link will connect to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for additional information on these areas: http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dlsea/een/program.html. The general features and characteristics exhibited by children diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome are similar to the general features and characteristics exhibited by children who have been clinically diagnosed with Autism and are described as having "high functioning autism". For educational purposes, the remainder of this paper focuses on the child with Asperger's Syndrome who has been identified by the IEP Team as being a child with a disability. Much of the following information is also relevant for consideration in working with children identified as having autism and who are described as having "high functioning autism". Each person who comes in contact with a child diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (either school staff or peers) should receive training on the unique characteristics and educational needs of such children. Due to confidentiality issues this should always be discussed first with the parents of the child with Asperger's Syndrome. Their written consent should be obtained prior to providing peer training. Educational Staff Training should include the following two components: - General training of the entire school staff: Prior to working with children with Asperger's Syndrome, it is critical to understand the unique features and characteristics associated with this developmental disability. Staff should be informed that children with Asperger's Syndrome have a developmental disability, which causes them to respond and behave in a way which is different from other students. Most importantly, the responses/behaviors exhibited by these children should not be misinterpreted as purposeful and manipulative behaviors (4). - Child specific training for educational staff who will be working directly with the child: Educational staff who will be working directly with a child with Asperger's Syndrome should understand his individual strengths and needs prior to actually working with the child. A team of persons familiar with the child and his disability should provide this training. The team may include previous teacher(s), speech/language pathologist, occupational therapist, teacher aide and most importantly, the child's parents. The peers/classmates of the child with Asperger's Syndrome should be told about the unique learning and behavioral mannerisms associated with Asperger's Syndrome. It is important to note that parent permission must always be given prior to such peers' training. A successful protocol for training peers at the kindergarten to approximately second grade level was developed by Division TEACCH and is available at their web site http://www.unc.edu/depts/teacch/ . Another peer training protocol designed for children between the ages of 8-18 is Carol Gray's "Sixth Sense" (10). Characteristics and Learning Styles: General The following characteristics and learning styles associated with Asperger's Syndrome are important to consider, particularly their impact on learning, and in planning an appropriate educational program for the child (7). Children with Asperger's Syndrome exhibit difficulty in appropriately processing in-coming information. Their brain's ability to take in, store, and use information is significantly different than neuro-typically developing children. This results in a somewhat unusual perspective of the world (7). Therefore teaching strategies for children with Asperger's Syndrome will be different than strategies used for neuro-typically developing children. Children with Asperger's Syndrome typically exhibit strengths in their visual processing skills, with significant weaknesses in their ability to process information auditorilly. Therefore use of visual methods of teaching, as well as visual support strategies, should always be incorporated to help the child with Asperger's Syndrome better understand his environment. The remainder of this article describes ten primary characteristics of children with Asperger's Syndrome and intervention strategies for each. Social Relation Difficulties Characteristics: Children with Asperger's Syndrome tend to exhibit a lack of effectiveness in social interactions rather than a lack of social interactions. They tend to have difficulty knowing how to 'make connections' socially (4). Social situations are easily misread by children with Asperger's Syndrome and as a result, their interactions and responses are often interpreted by others as being odd (4). Children with Asperger's Syndrome can exhibit low self-esteem and possible depression, particularly when they reach adolescence, due to their painful awareness of the social differences that exist between them and their peers (12). They have a desire to "fit in" socially, yet have no idea how to do this. Children with Asperger's syndrome can be significantly impacted by the following characteristics of social relations: - Social Reciprocity: Children with Asperger's Syndrome can exhibit an imbalance in reciprocal social relations (i.e., the "give and take" in social relationships), which can be exhibited in several ways: - The child can exhibit the need to take control and direct social situations according to his own limited social rules and social understanding. Although the child may be able to initiate interactions with others, these interactions are typically considered to be "on his own terms". These interactions appear to be very egocentric in that they relate primarily to the child's specific wants, needs, desires and interests and do not constitute a truly interactive, give-and-take social relation with another person. - The child can appear very quiet, withdrawn and even unresponsive. He exhibits limited social drive. It can be extremely difficult for the social participant to engage the child in a social relation. (e.g., A child with Asperger's Syndrome was having a birthday party at her home. When the other children arrived, she stayed in the living room with them for a short while. She then said, "good-night", and stayed in her room for the rest of the party.). - Recognizing and interpreting various social situations: Typically developing children are able to recognize and interpret the social nuances of various social situations without being specifically taught. Their intact processing systems allow for this to occur. However children with Asperger's Syndrome typically have great difficulty recognizing, understanding and thus applying appropriate social skills to various social situations. Their unique processing/learning systems do not readily allow for accurate recognition and interpretation of this seemingly abstract information (14). - Social rules: Children with Asperger's Syndrome typically do not learn social rules, either by observing others or through frequent verbal reminders. These children do not appear to be intentionally ignoring and/or breaking these rules. Instead, they have a difficult time accurately perceiving social environments and thus, they do not understand that a particular social rule is to be applied in a specific social context. Example: A teacher frequently reminds a child with Asperger's Syndrome, prior to going out for recess, that he cannot push other children. The child repeats this rule prior to going out to recess. However, when the child goes onto the playground at recess, he pushes several children. - Friendship skills: Children with Asperger's Syndrome tend to exhibit limited knowledge of the concept of friendship. Example: When a teenager with Asperger's Syndrome was asked if he had any friends he responded that friendship was an area where he had some problems. He was able to name two peers whom he considered "friends"; however, he did not know the last name of one of the students. He proceeded to physically describe the student to see if the listener knew the student's last name. When asked why these students were his friends, he said because he saw them in the hallway during passing period, and that he also saw one of the students at a weekly church youth group meeting. When asked if he and his "friends" went to each others' houses, talked on the phone, etc., the teen with Asperger's Syndrome said no, that he just saw them at different places). Children with Asperger's Syndrome also do not appear to attend to or respond to peer pressure. They may have definite preferences for clothing due to comfort level, in relation to sensory sensitivities without regard or concern for popular styles as worn by peers. Example: Some children prefer no ridges on the collar, no buttons down the front of a shirt, no blue jeans - only elastic waist pants, no long/short sleeves or long/short pants, etc. - Understanding and expressing varied emotional states: Children with Asperger's Syndrome may have difficulty identifying (labeling and understanding) varied emotional states, both in themselves and in others. In addition, regulation of emotional states can be extremely difficult. Example: When experiencing great distress, a child with Asperger's Syndrome continually asks others for monitoring of his emotional states, "Am I under control yet?", He has limited awareness of when he is calm, versus extremely upset. Another example would be laughing, seemingly inappropriately, when others are hurt, embarrassed, etc. One child with Asperger's Syndrome physically manipulates his face when requested to exhibit various emotional states. Social Relation--Intervention Strategies: The child with Asperger's will need to be directly taught various social skills (recognition, comprehension and application) in one-to-one and/or small group settings. Social skills training will also be needed to generalize previously learned social skills from highly structured supportive contexts to less structured settings and, eventually, real-life situations. It is important to emphasize that children with Asperger's Syndrome will not learn social relations by watching other people, or by participating in various social situations. They tend to have great difficulty even recognizing the essential information of a social situation, let alone processing / interpreting it appropriately. - Tools for teaching social skills: - The use of Social Stories (9) and social scripts can provide the child with visual information and strategies that will improve his understanding of various social situations. (See the previous article on "Assistive Technology" for an explanation on social stories.) In addition, the Social Stories/scripts can teach the child appropriate behaviors to exhibit when he is engaged in varied social situations. The repetitious "reading" of the Social Story/script makes this strategy effective for the child with Asperger's Syndrome. A 3-ring binder of Social Stories/scripts kept both at home and school, for the child to read at his leisure, has proven very successful for many students with Asperger's Syndrome - Role-playing various social situations can be an effective tool for teaching a child appropriate social responses. - Video-taping/audio-taping both appropriate and inappropriate social behaviors can assist the child in learning to identify and respond appropriately to various social situations. - "Lunch/recess club" is a structured lunch/recess time with specific peers to focus on target social skills for the child with Asperger's Syndrome. This strategy can assist in generalizing social skills previously learned in a structured setting. "Personal Rule" Card" - Comic Strip Conversations (8) can be used to visually clarify social interactions and emotional relations (see sample ComicStrip conversations photo). - Peer partners/buddies: Specific peer(s) can be chosen to accompany and possibly assist the child with Asperger's Syndrome during less structured social situations and when experiencing social difficulties (e.g., out of class transitions, recess, lunch, etc.). This peer support network should initially be established in a small group setting. - Individualized visual social "rule" cards can be taped to the child's desk as a visual reminder regarding appropriate social behaviors to exhibit. Portable "rule" cards can be used for environments other than the classroom. The rules can be written on index cards, laminated, and then given to the child to carry along as visual reminders of the social "rules" for any particular context. Social Communication Difficulties Characteristics: The child with Asperger's Syndrome typically exhibits highly articulate and verbose expressive language skills with large vocabularies, particularly regarding specific topics (high interest areas). However, his convincing language skills can easily be misinterpreted as advanced communication skills. In turn this can result in a mislabeling of the child's actions as purposeful or manipulative, rather than behavior that is due to the child's significant difficulty in understanding and using appropriate social communication skills. Children with Asperger's Syndrome often lack social communication skills to sustain even minimal social communicative interactions in any of the following areas: - Conversational discourse skills: Children with Asperger's Syndrome can generally engage in routine social interactions such as greetings. However, they may exhibit significant difficulty engaging in extended interactions, or "two-way" relationships (12). They can have difficulty initiating and maintaining appropriate conversations, engaging in conversational turn-taking, and changing topics in an appropriate manner. Their language can be extremely egocentric in that they tend to talk at people, instead of to them, exhibiting seemingly one-sided conversations (2). Incessant question asking can also be prevalent, as well as difficulty in repairing conversational breakdowns. - Understanding and using non-verbal social communication (discourse) skills: Children with Asperger's Syndrome can have significant difficulty interpreting non-verbal social communication skills used to regulate social interactions (e.g., tone of voice, facial expressions, body postures, gestures, personal space, vocal volume, use of eye contact to "read" faces, etc.). For example, they may not understand that a raised vocal volume can convey an emotional state such as anger (e.g., A student with Asperger's Syndrome stated, "Why are you talking louder? I can hear you" when his mother raised her voice to communicate anger). These children may also have difficulty interpreting non-verbal cues, which the listener might be giving to communicate that a conversational breakdown has occurred (e.g., facial expressions to indicate not understanding the message, boredom, etc.). Some children with Asperger's Syndrome can exhibit conversational speech with a somewhat flat affect: limited vocal change regarding vocal tone, volume, pitch, stress and rhythm, particularly to indicate emotion and/or emphasize key words. - Narrative discourse skills: Children with Asperger's Syndrome can exhibit difficulty with their narrative discourse skills, including relating past events, or retelling movies, stories, and T.V. shows in a cohesive and sequential manner. They may leave out important pieces of relational information, as well as referents, and may use many revisions, pauses and/or repetitions. Example: A child with Asperger's Syndrome was relating his weekend to the class. The child with Asperger's Syndrome related: "Back through time, uhm, uhm, at my Grandma's, uh, it was (pause) back through time. I was, I was, I (pause) I uh, a long time ago. I was at my Grandma's." Social Communication - target skills and strategies for intervention: The following social communication skills (pragmatic language skills) may be focused on for direct instruction, depending upon the child's individualized needs: - Initiation of appropriate social interactions for various situations through appropriate verbal utterances, rather than actions or behaviors (e.g., On the playground, the child with Asperger's Syndrome should use the words "Wanna play chase?" to ask a peer to play tag, rather than going up to the peer and shoving them); - Topic initiation of varied topics - not only topics related to high interest areas; - Topic maintenance, particularly for topics initiated by others. - Conversational turn-taking across 3-4 turns (reciprocal communication skills); - Asking questions of others related to topics initiated by others; - Calling attention to communicative utterances. The child directs his communication to someone by first calling the other person's attention to himself; - Comprehension and use of nonverbal social communication skills: tone of voice, personal space, vocal volume, body orientation, facial expressions, etc.; - Narrative discourse skills: relating past events, retelling stories sequentially and cohesively by including important pieces of relational information as well as referents; - Seeking assistance appropriately (e.g., raising his hand for help in the classroom). Tools for teaching social communication skills: All of the tools listed previously for teaching social skills can also be used to teach social communication skills, with the addition of the following: Visual support strategies can be used to teach conversational discourse skills such as turn-taking, topic initiation, topic maintenance, etc. For example, a visual "my turn" card can be used to physically pass back and forth between conversational partners, to visually indicate who's turn it is in the conversation.

<urn:uuid:54e7058e-8da2-4a48-97dd-90c285792086>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.specialed.us/autism/asper/asper11.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382920/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00079-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

[For trouble viewing the images/movies on this page, go here] Two Saturnian moons meet in the sky. Dione departs after crossing the face of Rhea for several minutes. Dione (1,123 kilometers, 698 miles across), at right, has a notably smoother-looking surface than Rhea (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles across), suggesting the former has been modified more recently. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 14, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione and 3.1 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Rhea. The Sun-moon-spacecraft, or phase, angle is about 134 degrees on both moons. Image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Dione and 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on Rhea. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

<urn:uuid:72dc7f8c-b3d9-4956-a8b9-f4f5f2579084>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.ciclops.org/view/2041/Uncovering_Rhea

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702414478/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110654-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

From Mary Landesman, former About.com Guide Depending on who you ask, the term virus can be used to refer to many different things. Unfortunately, this mislabeling can be problematic. It's important to understand the distinctions as it can play an important role in your defenses. For example, many refer to worms as viruses, but the techniques for cleaning a system infected with a worm are completely different than the steps for disinfecting a virus. These links will help you understand what a virus really is and how it compares to worms, trojans, and other forms of malware. - What is a Virus? Worm? Trojan? - What is Adware and Spyware? - The Most Damaging Malware - Beware of Scareware - What are Autorun Worms? - Clean, Quarantine or Delete? - What is a Virus Signature? - How to Decipher a Malware Name - Top Windows Antivirus - Mac Antivirus Reviews There's an old acronym in the computing industry - WYSIWYG. Pronounced "wizzy-wig", it stands for "What You See Is What You Get". While that used to be true with computers, today nothing could be further from the truth. Today, many of the websites we trust and visit routinely are being compromised and hidden code references are being inserted. While you can't see any visible signs of the compromise, that hidden code reference is silently loading exploits and malware onto susceptible visitors' computers. This turns another old saying on its head: What you can't see can hurt you. - Why is Internet Safety Important? - The Web as an Attack Tool - The Dangers of Botnets - The Insider Threat: Man-in-the-Middle Attacks Social Engineering Attacks Cybercriminals know that the best way to breach defenses is to trick the user into doing something harmful. Their methods range from cleverly worded email, to fake websites, to even phone and snail mail. Everyone is a potential target and anyone who uses the Web risks social engineering attacks each time they open their email or browse to a website.

<urn:uuid:31175e98-f4f0-494b-b5e9-51b49676fad4>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://antivirus.about.com/od/whatisavirus/u/malware.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705305291/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115505-00084-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Computers and Elementary School Mathematics Computers are becoming commonplace in school as aids to learning. Children can work individually or in pairs at a computer. Some schools place computers in the classroom, others locate the computers in computer labs. They are used in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies instruction. Some programs teach keyboarding. When children use computers to learn mathematics, the computer serves as a tutor, a tool and a tutee. In this article, each of these functions is described briefly, followed by suggestions for introducing computers. Computers as Tutors The computer works as a tutor when it teaches concepts or skills. In most cases, the computer presents information and asks questions. The learner responds; the computer evaluates the response and decides what to present next. This type of teaching is known as Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI). The types of CAI are tutorials, drill and practice, simulations, and instructional games. Tutorials present new subject matter. Usually the program explains the material, presents information in small segments, and asks for specific responses, so that the learner will be involved in learning each step of a procedure, such as multiplying two-digit numbers. After this walk-through, the learner is given more leeway in responding. If the learner types a wrong response, the computer usually repeats the information required to give a correct response. Some tutorials have pictures that illustrate the ideas being taught. However, many tutorials for elementary school mathematics do not emphasize meaning, but merely present the steps in a procedure, so that students will learn to respond in a prescribed way. Drill and practice programs are designed to help students remember material. The computer asks a question, and the learner responds. When responses are correct, the learner is usually reinforced with comments such as "Super" or a smiling face on the screen. If the response is incorrect, the computer will usually tell the learner to "try again." Repetition is built into drill and practice programs and thus can be boring. Some are in a game format, which increases interest in the drill and practice. The program may be designed to give a record of the student's work to the student and :he teacher. To enable children to grasp the meaning of the material they are endeavoring to remember, Clements (1989) recommends that drill and practice programs be used only after understanding has been developed. Simulations enable learners to step into the real world. Simulation programs are designed to allow students to carry out activities as they would in real life, They stress exploration, decision making, and problem solving. An example is the Whatsit Corporation (Sunburst) that enables groups of learners to set up and manage a business that markets one product for six months. Instructional Games are not drill and practice activities but, rather, motivating activities with an element of competition. The programs are designed to teach concepts or strategies. An example is How the West Was One + Three x Four (Sunburst). This game involves a race between a stagecoach and a locomotive along a number trail. Each player is given three randomly generated numbers to use to plan a move that will advance him or her and will interfere with the progress of the opponent. Students can play together, or one student can play with the computer as the opponent. © ______ 1995, Allyn & Bacon, 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

<urn:uuid:8c895e3e-f6d3-4247-ad3d-a14e81cd8962>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.education.com/reference/article/computers-elementary-school-math/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708145189/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124225-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are at risk of extinction. The rescue project aims to save more than 20 species of frogs in Panama, one of the world’s last strongholds for amphibian biodiversity. While the global amphibian crisis is the result of habitat loss, climate change and pollution, chytridiomycosis is likely at least partly responsible for the disappearances of 94 of the 120 frog species thought to have gone extinct since 1980. Read more about the Panamanian Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, and check out their blog, here. (h/t Smithsonian Institution)

<urn:uuid:435a40f6-7d1c-4517-89ec-6afd7e076883>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://scienceblogs.com/thoughtfulanimal/2010/11/19/video-of-the-week-panamanian-a/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Kids & glasses 7 Healthcast: Kids & glasses Optometrists are seeing a lot more kids these days who need glasses. Dr. Michael Bloom says he knows why. "Children stare at things up close, like the computer, more so than they did in the past and that definitely creates more vision problems," Dr. Bloom said. Dr. Bloom says teachers are often the first to notice that a child is having trouble seeing. "The classic ‘I can't see the board at school' is one of the most common complaints we hear with children," Dr. Bloom said. He recommends kids get an annual eye exam once they reach school age, and he urges parents to opt for polycarbonate lenses that are shatterproof. And when it comes to getting a child to actually wear the glasses, Dr. Bloom suggests parents and teachers work together. "The glasses help, when children put on their glasses it makes them see better and there's a direct motivation to wear them. Some pre-teens and teens might want to try contact lenses. Eye doctors say it's fine as long as the child is responsible enough to care for their contacts. (Copyright 2007 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

<urn:uuid:e9e4221f-086d-468c-9e1a-966075c54b9c>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/healthcast/BO60772/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699632815/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102032-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

|Content Provider||Cleveland Museum of Art 2007-08, 2008-09 Honorable Mention, 2009-10, 2010-11 Honorable Mention, 2011-12| 11150 East Boulevard Cleveland, OH 44106 Phone: (216) 707-2491 Fax: (216) 421-9277 |Program Type||Individual Program| |Program Rating||based on 2 evaluation(s).| |Target Audience||Education: Grade(s): 8, 9, 10, 11, 12| |Maximum Number of Participants||30| |Minimum Number of Participants||1| |Primary Disciplines||Mathematics, Social Studies/History| |Secondary Disciplines||Fine Arts| |Program Description||This program lets students explore the relationship between building form and function by focusing on three Cleveland area historic houses of worship: St. Theodosius, an Orthodox Church, Temple Tifereth Israel, a synagogue and the Kirtland Temple--a 19th c. Community of Christ (Latter Day Saints) Church. Through extensive interactivity students will be introduced to architectural history and to the use of geometry and mathematics in order to understand how these buildings compare in their design| 1. Introduce first building, Kirtland Temple. 2. Analyze the architectural forms and identify the geometric shapes, including use of the Golden Section and the Fibonnacci Series. 3. Compare the two floorplans. 4. Introduce second building, St. Theodosius. 5. Describe the architectural elements, giving background on church history. 6. Introduce third building, Temple Tifereth Israel, and follow analysis as in second. 1. Students will explore the relationship between building form and function and be introduced to the concept of functional morphology—that the building takes shape based on its intended 2. Students will discover and compare three historic sacred landmarks, which focuses the lesson on diversity of design and diversity of worship traditions. 3. Students will be introduced to reading architectural plans and will participate in interactivity during the videoconference in which they follow a floor plan while viewing the building it 4. Students will be introduced to the concept of sacred geometry. |National/Common Core Standards to which this program aligns||All programs are aligned with the National Education Standards, the Ohio Department of Education Academic Standards, and New York State Learning Standards.| |Program Length||45-60 minutes| This program is available by request ONLY By Request Cost: $135.00 By Request Cost with Premium Service: $120.00 What's this? |Program Fee Notes|| * All payments must be made within 30 days of registration. * Purchase orders are due within 10 days of registration * Bulk discounts available * Multi-point discounts available |Cancellation Policy||Programs are non-refundable, however cancellations due to technical difficulties, school closings, or those received 48 hours in advance may be rescheduled for no additional charge. Rescheduling is subject to availability| |Is recording allowed?||No| |Program Delivery Mode(s)|| Videoconference - H.323 (Polycom, Cisco/Tandberg, LifeSize, etc...) |Minimum Technology Specifications for sites connecting to this provider|| Sites can connect to the CMA directly via IP - all other connections (ISDN, IHETS, Vision Athena) must be bridged. Schools are required to dial into the CMA. Please state connection speed on registration form. CMA can connect from 384 kbps up to 3 mbps speed. Request this Program Now It is necessary to have a PIN to request a connection. Find out how to get your free PIN, or Find your PIN. For additional assistance, phone 866-302-CILC (2452) toll free. Forward this Program Flyer

<urn:uuid:4b82cd09-2e0e-45e7-8ff7-923475d24a52>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://cilc.org/program_detail_new.aspx?id=495

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699632815/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102032-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Overview of Pacerpoles + the basics of Walking Heather Rhodes © 2010 Pacerpole Overview - and Walking Basics Written as an explanation as to why Pacerpoles are different, and used differently to conventional walking poles of all kinds. It is included here for those interested in reading a little about the background to Pacerpoles - and a lot about how we 'move' - to gain a better understanding of how we can help ourselves improve. ......It is difficult to cover the complex aspects of walking in a few lines - so this piece should really start with an apology for its length. I hope that the content will be of interest to most, so I have tried to keep the terminology inclusive and open to all. Having trained as a physiotherapist 40 years ago I have been analysing muscle and bone relationships for 4 decades - with specialist interest in 'functional' anatomy (the anatomical/biomechanical analysis of how to improve performance) and being aware of the benefits gained by doing an action one way, compared to another to maximise potential. For example - when doing a press-up; think of the trunk as a horizontal box and the arms as levers lifting it up and down, with the hands as pivot points ....then do another press-up but this time move the hands further forward with the elbow slightly straighter .... and you'll note that the second press-up was not as effective and took more effort, even though it was the same trunk (weight) using a similar arm lever action (slightly straighter) with its marginally different pivot point. Aspects of this arm-leverage scenario are referred to later. A. Pacerpole Overview: To clarify; the main difference in concept between Pacerpoles and other poles is that Pacerpoles were designed from first principles, and based on anatomical/biomechanical analysis of the arm's walking stride actions above the legs. From this data came further analysis of how the arm's leverage can be accessed without distortion - in order to complement that of the legs and maximise the users walking potential (whatever their fitness level or walking terrain ... those with ME, amputees (Mark Inglis, climber/first bilateral amputee to summit Everest - 2006), or the team who chose to use Pacerpoles In the Race to the North Pole last April - and won by a margin of 2 days (5 teams competing). In contrast, the concept designs of conventional poles of all kinds are based on 'modification of existing' i.e the ski pole whose original design comes from the wooden staff thousands of years ago - but has been modified over the years using high-tech materials, padded straps/gloves and well engineered shaft sections which lock together. What hadn't been addressed over the years (or perhaps hadn't been realised that there was an issue to address) was the inability to maximise full potential of our upper body leverage to improve posture and walking performance, which was being undermined by 2 things; the inefficient link between the hand and the shaft to transmit power without wasting it - and the distortion of the arm's leverage as it attempts to use what equates to a portable prop or pole, to push or pull against. In the early chronology of "Health&Fitness Walking", Pacerpoles (i.e. p a c e r pole which is an acronym for physiotherapist architect clinician engineering research) should be included - as in 1994 the MD of a major German pole manufacturer met with us here in the UK to discuss the innovative benefits of pacerpole design and use; but because they were handed Left and Right and costly to produce - plus a walking-education programme would be needed to explain how-to-use, so the body performs better on the slopes, or when just wanting to get fit; this would be too expensive, and so not commercially viable. As people were already buying their single poles for either hand - why bother. We were obviously ahead of our time! Therese Iknoian writing in the American publication 'Gear Trends' Winter Outdoor 2004 p20 - 22 ('Walking the Walk'), gives an enlightening account of those early days "since Exel rolled out the activity in 1997". As a follow-up, despite obviously being aware of the name P a c e r pole since 1994, the name chosen more recently to promote a range of Fitness poles has been the Leki Pacer Vario NW pole - which could cause confusion. Just to clarify, these poles should not be confused with Pacerpole (TM.reg), with its unique 'geometry' of handle design - and its use to improve posture and "walking" performance - whether on expedition, or in the local park for general health. B. Walking Basics : for those unfamiliar with how the body organises itself for walking......... The trunk is like a rectangular box balanced vertically on the pelvis with the 2 leg levers underneath lifting it upwards and forwards (which is why you'll have seen heads bob up and down in a crowd as people walk). We move around a vertical axis (a vertical line through the head and trunk, down through our centre of gravity just behind the navel - should fall between our feet as we walk). We know that the wider shoulder girdle should balance directly above the narrower pelvis (pelvic girdle) so that the spine is kept vertical - spanning between the two ...with the postural muscles such as the abdominals in front, and the group of back muscles behind, all working like guy ropes to keep us erect as the vertical box/trunk 'wobbles' free above the legs (with 'wobbling' more noticeable when moving over rough ground etc so more tiring with more corrective muscle work required to keep us vertical). We also know that we need to keep vertical to breathe properly. The rib cage needs space to expand; the lower ribs are like bucket handles moving up-and-out, expanding so that air is sucked down to the base of the lungs, which has the bigger capacity. If the space between the top of the pelvis and the bottom of the ribs is reduced ...such as when we 'droop' or tip forward ...then the rib cage can't expand properly and shallower breathing occurs, with air moving in/out more from the top segments of the lungs with less capacity (perhaps think of the lungs as pyramids - with a bigger base and smaller apex). Efficient breathing will be compromised as you droop (tire) ......or even worse, consciously stoop forward when going up-hill, causing poor body posture away from the vertical - and so struggle for breath unnecessarily. To teach people to move uphill in this way is biomechanically flawed - and I question the fundamental basis that underpins such practice. We know too that keeping the trunk vertical allows the leg levers underneath to perform better. In simplistic terms ... for example, the familiar sprint to the line in the 100metres - and the dip to get the chest across that line. If the commentator shouts 'oh - he's dipped too soon!' i.e. his vertical 'form' has come out of alignment and the leg leverage is underperforming for the last few strides - so he loses the race. Keeping the trunk vertical when walking is just as important for performance - and the Core Body Posture of the Pilates and Alexander Technique promote this posture too ... The question is how can we 'programme' better body posture of shoulders over hips, without our potentially wobbly-box eventually sagging into bad habits? Well fortunately we have our own natural walking resource - our arm levers under the shoulder girdle to keep the top of the trunk vertical on the pelvis, to lever the trunk upwards and move it forwards as we walk ....just like the leg's stride leverage under the pelvis. With the top two corners of the vertical trunk being supported as well as the bottom two underneath, then better body alignment can be sustained as we move - and to keep the trunk as stable/vertical as possible, the top Right corner works with the bottom Left corner i.e. when these are fixed to the ground via the arm and leg, then the top Left corner and bottom Right can move through, repetitively - whatever the terrain or fitness level. The basic bipedal walking action is the same whether you are fit, in which case - the longer the stride length and quicker rate, compared to those who are less fit - with shorter strides and slower rate. "Briskness" is a personal speed, with slightly longer strides and quicker rate than normal - so what is quick for one is slow for another. By tapping-in to the arm's stride leverage to complement that of the legs leverage underneath (i.e. supporting the trunk, lifting it up and moving it forward) better and quicker progress can be made with slightly longer strides. The improved cardiovascular function, respiratory function - and muscle strength - as well as the feeling of well-being, are all well documented as the benefits of a brisk walk. It is how to harness the arm's natural 'walking' stride (rather than creating a new one) to enhance our 'briskness' which is at issue. Ancient neorological pathways still retained, mean our arms are already walking stride for stride above the legs. It might be helpful here to be aware that structurally, even though the muscle groups of our limbs are similar - in the sense that the familiar quadriceps at the front of the leg which straighten the knee, equate to the triceps at the back of the upper arm which straighten the elbow ...... and the biceps at the front of the upper arm equate to the hamstrings, which include 'biceps' femoris, at the back of leg, and so on. It can be recognise from this that in one way the arms are fastened-on-back-to-front, compared to the legs ...and it is this anomaly which has an affect on the range of joint movements needed, such as at the shoulder. When walking the leg swings forward from the hip; this is because as your knee bends, the foot goes backwards - so the hip has to swing to bring the foot forward. For the arm, when the elbow bends the hand/pole comes forward automatically - so a forward shoulder swing in front of the body is unnecessary, and would bring the arm/pole too far forward for effective leverage to supplement our bipedal gait which lifts the vertical trunk upwards and forwards each stride. Another example to help understand how the arm-stride works so you disrupt its natural action the least, is to consider the way your upper arm moves in an arc as you run; the emphasis is behind the trunk - not in front. Within the walking-stride, the arc of the upper arm has the same emphasis but is less extreme - so when integrating the arm/pole, the general arc made by your upper arm goes from behind the trunk towards the vertical - rather than reaching in front. As fitness improves and the walking stride lengthens then instead of the shaft tip placement on the ground being just under the shoulder - it moves further behind - increasing the emphasis of the upper arm's arc stride action behind the body. The legs increase their length naturally, by extending further onto the toes for the final push-off. To complement this, the arm's stride length can be increased by shifting the elbow's action back slightly - which has the effect of lengthening the arm's stride range (for example if training and wanting to keep changing speeds i.e. length and rate of stride, from normal to brisker - for set distances). Referring to the 'Press-ups' scenario earlier, and using the arm's leverage effectively, to lift the horizontal trunk .... it is the 'geometry' - or the 'angles' made by the limb's joints, and the pivot point position on the ground from where they thrust - which affects performance. As another example, position the shaft tip (which equates to our new arm 'pivot point') on the ground underneath the shoulder. The upper arm is angled slightly back, with the elbow bent to just below 90degrees. The forearm is in its midline position (i.e. midway between pronation and supination) so the hand/palm face the vertical as they rest within the Pacerpole handle ........ this means that as the hand thrusts down against the contoured handle, the 'geometry' of these arm joints straighten to lever the trunk upwards and so enhance the vertical posture whilst instigating the stride .... and as the arm's leverage straightens behind - it thrusts the trunk forwards (our walking gait pattern). Compare this action to the straighter arm-lever action in front of the body, so as the hand thrusts down - the leverage causes excessive trunk rotation rather than an effective trunk lift necessary to instigate the stride. Whilst trunk rotation is inherent when we move the right arm with the left leg etc, it is always proportionate. As our walking gait spans from little more than a shuffle through to a race walk, the degree of trunk rotation is only excessive when race walk mode is achieved. It follows that the straighter arm stride-leverage as an action in front of the trunk, produces the excessive trunk rotation from the top half of the body which would 'naturally' require a super-fit race-walk length of leg stride, or a slide-and-stride one on X-C skis - to be underneath it, if there is to be a 'natural' balance of this degree of rotation. When walking there is also a Timing and Sequencing of the joints comprising the limb's movement pattern - so it is seen to flow along, fulfilling its function. The limbs don't just bend and straighten, they also rotate as a 3D stride-action. If there is excessive movement eg of rotation, at one of the limb's joints disproportionate to the rest in the sequence then the limb underperforms - for example when walking on soft sand, where the foot/lower leg keeps on rotating (pronating) as it trys to push-off, making it difficult to control. These disruptive actions are very tiring - as well as distorting the joint alignments with potential knee/ankle trauma through uncontrolled movements at their extreme range. Such imbalance also affects the body's posture poised above.The arm's stride leverage works in 3D too. For it to be accessed (instead of dissipating its force into thin air) it needs an artificial extension. The design for this is critical anatomically, as in effect it is an add-on body part (even though temporary) with the 'new' arm which is now in three segments, spanning from the shoulder to the shaft tip on the ground. The upper arm, the forearm, and the shaft. With the shaft segment being inherent as a body lever, its length is also critical if it is to fulfill its function without distorting the arm's stride action. The joints of our 'new' arm align the three sements into a conformation for effective walking leverage without wasting effort (so the leverage is focused on improving body posture and generating brisker strides). These joints are the ball-and-socket joint of the shoulder, the hinge and the pivot joints of the elbow, and what should be defined as the new 'artificial' joint between the hand and Pacerpole's contoured handle. Synchronised movement takes place at all these joints as the arm's stride naturally bends/straightens/rotates in various degrees (like the leg's stride leverage underneath) this is why Pacerpole handles have a unique contoured shape and angle of attachment to the shaft. They control our walking stride leverage (which is moving in 3 dimensions, so there is a lot happening). If there is excessive rotation at any of these joints - then leverage will be compromised (as per the equivalent of the legs walking on soft sand). Pushing against a conventional pole's strap, causes problems for the arm as it is unable to control the excessive rotation/pronation movements as it straightens. It equates to not being able to maximise the arm's leverage potential to improve posture and performance. The arm actions, and range of movement used when holding other poles does not negate their value for use as an outdoor gym - with the pleasure gained from being in the fresh air. When using modified ski poles though, with straps/suspended gloves, care should be taken as in the event of a fall the protective reflex action of the outstretched hand would have difficulty in freeing itself from the pole - and could be a cause for concern. Pacerpoles by definition are not modified ski-poles - and their correct use enhances the better body posture of our bipedal gait for brisker walking. By controlling the arm's stride leverage they mimic the leg's own walking-lever actions to lift the trunk upwards and forwards as we move around our vertical axis - with the effect that we become a "Double-Biped"! .................

<urn:uuid:c4305217-0ca9-4277-a7c2-ccad69b10642>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.pacerpoles.com/background/pacerpole-basics

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382398/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

3.8 Related Rates Two variables, perhaps x and y, are both functions of a third variable, time, t, and x and y are related by an equation. Example A fire has started in a dry, open field and spreads in the form of a circle. The radius of the circle increases at a rate of 6 ft/min. Find the rate at which the fire area is increasing when the radius is 150 ft. Strategy: Draw and label picture. What are we finding? Name variables and equations involved. (Substitute) and differentiate, then "plug-in" values. Implicitly differentiate with respect to t. Note: The area and radius are both functions of t. Given: ft/min and r = 150 Example: A ladder 26 ft long leans against a vertical wall. The foot of the ladder is drawn away from the wall at a rate of 4 ft/s. How fast is the top of the ladder sliding down the wall, when the foot of the ladder is 10 ft from the wall? Strategy: Draw and label pictures. What are we finding? Name variables and equations involved. (Substitute) and differentiate, then "plug-in" values. Differentiate implicitly with respect to the variable t. Note: x and y are both functions of t. Given: Must find y using Example: Water runs into a conical tank shown at a constant rate of 2 ft3 per minute. The dimensions of the tank are altitude of 12ft and base radius of 6 ft. How fast is the water level rising when the water is 6 feet deep? Draw a picture. Need both the volume of a cone and similar triangle proportions. Find: Volume of cone = Similar Triangle: Example: A spherical balloon is inflated with gas at the rate of 100 ft3/min. Assuming the gas pressure remains constant, how fast is the radius of the balloon increasing when the radius is 3 ft? Find: Volume of Sphere = Given: r = 3 Know: Example: A man 6 ft tall walks at the rate of 5 ft/sec. toward a street light that is 16 ft. above the ground. At what rate is the tip of his shadow moving? Find: Similar Triangles Assignment 3.8 pg 186; 1-11 odd, 12 [ans:-1/(20π)], 13,15, 16 [ans: 0.6 m/s]19, 20 [ans: ] 21, 27, 29, 30 [ans: -1/8 rad/s], 31

<urn:uuid:d92309e6-638e-41ad-bb14-b4e6b182bbd3>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://homepages.ius.edu/MEHRINGE/M215/Fall%2007%20Notesr/Section3.8.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00091-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

|Back to Lexicon Entries List League of National German Jews (Verband national deutscher Juden) A Jewish-German organisation founded in 1921 in Berlin under the leadership of attorney Max Naumann, who was also a German army officer. The league, also known as the "Naumann group", urged German Jews to integrate fully into the German people and state, opposed any indication of Jewish nationhood, stressed German patriotism, and criticised the Central Association (CV) for calling too much attention to Jewishness and treating Zionism too tolerantly. Throughout its years of existence, the league maintained a small membership and failed to erode the strength of the CV. In the first few months of Nazi rule, its leaders attempted - unsuccessfully - to interact with the heads of the Nazi government by expressing loyalty to it. The league disintegrated in the mid-1930s after the regime placed its activities under severe restrictions. Back to top

<urn:uuid:3b5923c8-5feb-4992-8d39-aa7336ef5442>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.zupdom.com/icons-multimedia/ClientsArea/HoH/LIBARC/LEXICON/LexEntry/LeagNaGe.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703748374/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112908-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Carbon Sequestration in Idaho Carbon Sequestration marketing is bringing new conservation and economic opportunities to Idaho farmers, ranchers and foresters. Conservation efforts that remove atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), and sequester them in the soil will produce credits that can be sold in a new trading exchange. The Idaho Soil and Water Conservation Commission (ISWCC) is leading this effort on behalf of Idaho state landowners and operators. You may already be using some of the conservation practices that can provide salable credits, or you may be thinking of making some cropping or land use changes. In either case, the annual sale of carbon credits may provide additional income for your operation, and also help the environment. Sequestration is the capture and storage of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and thereby helps make life on planet Earth possible. The rising CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, however, has been related to global warming. Carbon sequestration in terrestrial systems is a mechanism to help manage atmospheric CO2 levels. In a given carbon pool (storage reservoir through which carbon cycles) sequestration occurs when carbon intake exceeds carbon losses. Terrestrial ecosystems, including farms, forests and rangelands, have the potential to sequester carbon in the form of plant and animal biomass as well as soil organic matter. Plants take CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, emitting oxygen while using the carbon to build biomass—i.e., stems, branches, roots, and leaves—some of which is consumed by animals, another form of biomass. Plants and animals give off CO2 during respiration, and when they die CO2 is released slowly through decomposition or rapidly during combustion as biomass burns. Over time, some carbon from plants and animals enters the soil carbon pool, where it is stored for relatively long periods of time (sequestered). The Feb., 2003 report of the Idaho Carbon Sequestration Advisory Committee, Carbon Sequestration on Idaho Agricultural and Forest Lands describes Idaho's great potential for both terrestrial and geologic carbon sequestration. ISWCC's Carbon Sequestration fact sheet (and more information on the ISWCC website) describes this exciting new opportunity. The focus of the Idaho Carbon Sequestration Advisory Committee is: - Outreach to educate Soil Conservation Districts, land owners and operators, legislators, and agency partners about the concept of carbon credit trading; - Pilot Projects for Agricultural, Forestry and Rangeland (terrestrial) sequestration of carbon; - Research Needs that continue to update carbon sequestration measuring protocols, techniques, and modeling; - A Carbon Sequestration Inventory to track Carbon Trading in Idaho. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) The Chicago Climate Exchange is North America's only and the world's first global marketplace for integrating voluntary legally binding emissions reductions with emissions-based trading and offsets, for all six greenhouse gases. Landowners and operators will use the services of aggregators to group carbon credits from several suppliers and offer those carbon credits to the market in the form of a portfolio. Aggregators will help determine: - The potential value of the carbon credit along with the practices necessary to achieve that potential; - How those practices can be verified in a cost-effective manner to assess carbon sequestered; - How to market them in the most desirable package for buyers. The Chicago Climate Exchange has many aggregators in which they draw upon; their website has a list of approved aggregators. One aggregator working in our region to facilitate carbon trades on various land resources is the National Carbon Offset Coalition (NCOC). NCOC is working closely with ranchers in eastern Idaho to put together a carbon trade this spring on several thousand acres of rangeland. The role of the aggregator is critical in determining the success of land management based carbon sequestration projects. NCOC has expressed interest in hosting workshops in other areas of Idaho where land owners and operators might have interest. The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership led by Montana State University, is one of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) seven regional partnerships whose purpose is to develop a framework to address carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership's (BSCSP) vision is to prepare its member organizations for a possible carbon-constrained economy and enable the region to cleanly use its abundant fossil energy resources and sequestration sinks to support future energy demand and economic growth. The BSCSP will achieve this vision by demonstrating and validating the region's most promising sequestration technologies and creating the infrastructure required to deploy commercial-scale carbon sequestration projects. Pilot projects in Idaho Several pilot projects are underway in Idaho. In 2003, the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association (PNDSA) was the first group in North America to compile and register a listing of direct seed acres available for a Carbon Offset Trade. These acres were contracted to be direct seeded for 10 years and the stored carbon was marketed, in the form of a lease, to an energy company. Growers were paid for their CO2 as an offset to the energy company's emissions. They continue today to lead the charge on independently marketing carbon credit trading in the agricultural sector in the Pacific Northwest. The Nez Perce tribe, headquartered in Lapwai, Idaho, is the first forest landowner in the state to receive payment for selling carbon credits from forest management activities. The details and procedures of the stewardship actions and requirements for obtaining and selling carbon credits provide a case study for other landowners who may be interested in payments for carbon credits. The Nez Perce example has attracted regional and national attention (see "Trees eat carbon, emit cash," Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA, Jan. 26, 2007; Sale of carbon credits helping land-rich,but cash-poor, tribe, The New York Times, May 8, 2007). High Country Resource Conservation & Development Council, Three Rivers RC&D Council, and soil conservation districts in eastern Idaho are in the process of developing a rangeland pilot carbon trade through the CCX. This project will inform ranchers and farmers on how to use their private grazing lands for carbon credits, a commodity sold on the Chicago Climate Exchange. The goal of the project is to collectively reach a minimum of 100,000 metric tons of carbon sequestered in the rangeland soils from eligible landowners. That is roughly equal to approximately 125,000 acres of rangeland in and around eastern Idaho. The Clearwater RC&D Council is also involved in a potential carbon credit pilot project in north central Idaho, and has recently been approved as a NCOC Affiliate Member. They are using the city of Moscow, Idaho as a pilot to establish inventory procedures and protocol to document carbon credits. The City now has an excellent greenhouse gas emissions inventory as the 2005 baseline, a unanimously-supported City Council resolution adopting a 20% GHG reduction target by 2020, and the Moscow Tree Commission has a web page on Community Forestry and an urban forest inventory that includes information on carbon sequestration and other valuation data for trees in Moscow. It is the hope to eventually aggregate all the communities in Idaho and market the aggregated credits. In support of these pilot project efforts, the Advisory Committee is currently working directly with the CCX to get a designated cropping region established for future cropland trades in Idaho. As part of this effort the Committee is working with area and regional soil scientists to compile the most up to date soil organic carbon information available to validate this designation. There are several categories of carbon sequestration credits available. CCX has developed protocols for forestry, cropland, rangeland, grassland, methane and others. The NCOC website has more information about these protocols, and applications for: - Forest Carbon Offset Projects - Cropland Carbon Offset Projects - Rangeland Carbon Offset Projects - Grassland Carbon Offset Projects - Agricultural Methane Carbon Offset Projects Carbon Credit Calculator The Illinois Conservation & Climate Initiative website has a carbon credit calculator that may give an Idaho operator a rough idea as to the quantity of carbon credits on his operation, given various market parameters. CCX has determined that zones with annual precipitation between 14 and 40 inches best meet the criteria for carbon sequestration. A map of Idaho (2MB PDF) is now available showing eligible areas based on precipitation and land resource regions in the state.

<urn:uuid:80be3256-e324-4b85-8f9d-59efc946999e>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.oneplan.org/CarbonSequestration.asp

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706469149/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121429-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

A man in the middle attack is one in which the attacker intercepts messages in a public key exchange and then retransmits them, substituting his own public key for the requested one, so that the two original parties still appear to be communicating with each other. The attack gets its name from the ball game where two people try to throw a ball directly to each other while one person in between them attempts to catch it. In a man in the middle attack, the intruder uses a program that appears to be the server to the client and appears to be the client to the server. The attack may be used simply to gain access to the message, or enable the attacker to modify the message before retransmitting it. Man in the middle attacks are sometimes known as fire brigade attacks. The term derives from the bucket brigade method of putting out a fire by handing buckets of water from one person to another between a water source and the fire.

<urn:uuid:7b5c4c6e-2bbe-4756-812f-5f387d39fa32>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/man-in-the-middle-attack

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709135115/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125855-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Writing began in ancient Mesopotamia, and Ever takes place in a fantasy version of that time and place. Cuneiform appears in the chapter headings, so you can copy the numbers up to sixty-nine, since there is no Chapter 70. The Mesopotamians were marvelous mathematicians. Our sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour originated with them. They were good plumbers too. Their sewage systems surpassed anything in medieval Europe thousands of years later. But medicine was not so good, which plays into the plot of Ever. I had fun researching long-ago food, clothing, religion—learning enough to picture how it might have felt to walk down a baked-mud street, enter a house made of baked mud, proceed through the reception room into the cool interior courtyard where household activities may have taken place. Oh, look! Kezi's mother is weaving. And here comes Kezi to weave at her side. What can happen next?

<urn:uuid:391bb200-9c04-4cd2-bc92-df18ad24c102>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://gailcarsonlevine.com/ever.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711441609/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133721-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

April 23, 2012 - A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests people who get short, disrupted amounts of sleep have an increased risk of diabetes and obesity. The study examined 21 healthy people in a lab setting where their sleep schedules were tweaked throughout the day. Scientists reported disrupted sleep schedules altered insulin levels and sent three people into a pre-diabetic state. Those getting irregular or restricted sleep had a slower metabolic rate. If they endured such sleeping patterns for a whole year without changes in routine or diet, the study suggests a person could gain as much as 12 pounds. Also, a new study indicates keeping your body active is just as important as exercising your brain when it comes to warding off Alzheimer's disease. The research published in the Journal Neurology showed study participants who scored in the bottom 10 percent of physical activity were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's. Researchers say "physical activity" encompasses more than just exercise, it includes chores, cooking and even gardening. They say the study shows that people who are unable to exercise can utilize other physical activities to lower their risk for the disease.

<urn:uuid:9388457d-9707-4ad9-b0dc-e6e960cd43e0>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.wctv.tv/health/healthalert/headlines/Health_Alert_4-23-12_148526335.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Photo: Tino SielandTown hall in MühlhausenWith eleven Gothic churches, a nearly complete city wall, the Old Synagogue, and a town hall housing the archive of the free imperial city, Mühlhausen provides an opportunity to explore various historical epochs ¬including that of the Reformation. The radical Protestant reformer Thomas Müntzer preached in the city’s St. Mary’s Church and, during the German Peasants’ War, made the city a focal point of German history. Following his studies in Leipzig and Frankfurt an der Oder as well as pastoral ministries in several communities, Müntzer left Allstedt in 1524 and came to Mühlhausen. After an attempt to alter the city’s balance of power failed that September, he was forced to leave Mühlhausen. Müntzer must leave the town In February 1525, he was back in the city and preaching at St. Mary's Church about the return of the faithful to 'God's order'. Müntzer became the intellectual leader of the radical Protestant reformers involved in the German Peasants’ War. Müntzer was captured after the insurgents’ defeat near Bad Frankenhausen and then executed outside the gates of Mühlhausen.

<urn:uuid:29381514-0d54-4f70-b889-0085ba85bcd5>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.luther2017.de/en/orte/791/muehlhausen

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699730479/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102210-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

From Parenting 24/7: University of Illinois Extension Learning & Schoolwork - DVDs for toddlers poorly designed: study [Jan 5, 2010]. - Study: TV can impair speech development of young children [Jun 6, 2009]. - Research-based program found to enhance impact of Head Start on school readiness [Nov 17, 2008]. - Learn the Signs. Act Early. [Apr 30, 2008]. - Turn Off TV To Teach Toddlers New Words [Jun 28, 2007]. - Report puts pacifier on 'smarter baby' debate [Apr 4, 2007]. - Day care study raises hackles, more questions [Apr 4, 2007]. - Poor Behavior Is Linked to Time in Day Care [Mar 27, 2007]. - Rise in autism cases may not be real [Apr 27, 2006]. - Helping Children Make Career Plans [Dec 10, 2003]. © Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois University of Illinois Extension

<urn:uuid:9196dbfe-b101-4bc6-9e25-9a242b4b98d8>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://parenting247.org/list.cfm?AgeGroup=2&Challenge=5&Strategy=&ContentType=2

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703788336/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112948-00082-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Mpath: A Loop-Free Multipath Routing Algorithm Using Predecessor Information Tech ID: 10191 / UC Case 2000-355-0 BACKGROUNDCurrent routing algorithms in the IP Internet provide either a single path between each source-destination pair or paths of equal length in cases where more than one path is provided. However, single-path routing is inherently slow in responding to congestion and temporary traffic bursts. Multiple paths are better suited to congestion, but can suffer from the bouncing effect and counting-to-infinity problems, which can be debilitating to network performance. DESCRIPTIONScientists at the University of California have developed a novel distributed routing algorithm for computing multiple paths that does not require equal length between each source-destination pair in a computer network. As a result, the paths are loop-free at every instant in steady state mode as well as during network transitions. APPLICATIONSThis UC invention has applications in several internet routing applications, such as: - Traffic load-balancing, for minimizing network delays; - Providing an alternative to MPDA. REFER ALSO TO UC CASES 2000-303, 2000-311, 2000-314, 2000-349 THROUGH 356, 2000-360, 2000-380, 2000-383 THROUGH 385 |United States Of America||Issued Patent||7,203,191||04/10/2007||2000-355| - Garcia-Luna-Aceves, Jose Joaquin(JJ - Vutukury, Srinivas ADDITIONAL TECHNOLOGIES BY THESE INVENTORS - Scalable Integrated Services Architecture For Computer Networks - Multicast Routing Protocol For Wireless And Mobile Computer Networks - Receiver Initiated Channel Hopping (Rich) - Bandwidth Efficient Source Tracing (Best) For Wireless Networks - On-Demand Loop-Free Multipath Routing - Differentiating Congestion Vs. Random Loss: A Method For Improving Tcp Performance Over Wireless Links - Improving Tcp Congestion Control Over Internets With Heterogeneous Transmission Media - Receiver Initiated Multiple Access For Ad-Hoc Networks - Group Coordination Protocol For Networked Multimedia Systems - System And Method For Ad Hoc Network Access Employing The Distributed Election Of A Shared Transmission Schedule - Tree-Based Ordered Multicasting

<urn:uuid:27ca16c3-6dc8-4cad-a978-137ee69a2f2d>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://techtransfer.universityofcalifornia.edu/NCD/10191.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704752145/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114552-00097-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Noun: reasonableness 'ree-zu-nu-bul-nus - The state of having good sense and sound judgment - rationality, reason - Goodness of reason and judgment "the judiciary is built on the reasonableness of judges" - The property of being moderate in price or expenditures "the store is famous for the reasonableness of its prices"; - moderateness, modestness - Moderation in expectations "without greater reasonableness by both parties we will never settle this matter!" - The quality of being plausible or acceptable to a reasonable person "he questioned the reasonableness of my claims"; - tenability, tenableness See also: reasonable, sensible, unreasonable Type of: inexpensiveness, level-headedness, moderateness, moderation, plausibility, plausibleness, saneness, sanity, soundness, wisdom, wiseness

<urn:uuid:57adf2d9-9ce9-4b5e-97b0-bc1e53ee8630>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/REASONABLENESS

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382989/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Fairy bells (Disporum flavens), which comes from the gardens of Korea, is a shade-loving companion for hostas and ferns. In early spring, the plant produces a spectacular display of primrose-yellow, pendent blooms on tall, 30-inch stems. The delicate, bell-shaped flowers are followed by black berries that rise above lance-shaped leaves. Fairy bells resembles its relative Solomon's seal in plant habit, except that its flowers emerge at stem ends rather than the lower sides of the stem. Common name: Fairy bells Botanical name: Disporum flavens Plant type: Clump-forming, rhizomatous perennial Height: 30 inches Zones: 4 to 9 - Sun: Part to full shade - Soil: Well-drained soil, rich in organic matter - Moisture: Prefers moist soil - Mulch: Add a 1- to 2-inch layer of organic mulch such as compost or shredded leaves to help maintain even soil moisture. - Fertilizer: Apply a balanced fertilizer once per season if needed. - Pruning: Trim back foliage in late fall or early spring. Pests and diseases - Fungal spots occasionally occur. - Slugs may attack foliage. - Sow seeds in fall. - Divide rhizomes in spring. - D. cantoniense bears dark red or white flowers in spring to early summer and deep red berries in fall. It grows 36 inches tall and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9. - D. hookeri bears cream flowers in spring and red-orange berries in fall. It grows 36 inches tall and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9. - D. sessile bears white flowers in late spring and black berries in early fall. It grows 24 inches tall and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9. - Plant fairy bells in a woodland setting or shady border with hostas, ferns, lungwort, toad lilies, and other shade-tolerant plants. - If summer temperatures are cool, foliage will turn an attractive yellow in fall. - Disporum flavens spreads slowly and is easy to maintain. All in the family - The Lily family includes Oriental and Asiatic lilies, the flowering allium, trout lily, fritillaria, tulip, and trillium, plus the edible onion and garlic. Text by Mary Pestel, photo courtesy of Plant Delights Nursery

<urn:uuid:3c50535d-884d-492c-8d3b-b55e65c5568a>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.gardeningclub.com/gardening/articletype/articleview/articleid/343/categoryid/273/fairy-bells

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697420704/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094340-00082-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

By Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation We live in a complex world where sometimes it is difficult to connect our actions to their ultimate impact. This is especially true when the behavior involves many people, distance between causes and effects, a time delay or other complicating features. “We walk around and see certain kinds of patterns and relationships, but our attention is constrained in each of these instances,” says Tina Grotzer, associate professor of education at Harvard’s graduate school of education and director of the Understandings of Consequence Project. “We don’t necessarily see the connections between causes and effects when they are spread out, or happen over time, or are distributed among lots of different people.” One example she uses to illustrate this involves the quintessential scene in the school cafeteria where many children are eating lunch and trying to talk to their friends. Their voices keep getting louder as they try to be heard above the voices of others. “There is a de-centralized agency spread across all of the children that organically results in too much noise--it is a form of emergent causality,” she says. The pattern is an escalating one, with all of the kids contributing, and it finally draws the attention of those responsible for keeping order. The children are chastised, and punished. “One of the difficulties of distributed causality is that individual intentions and emergent group outcomes are often unaligned,” she says, citing the work of educational research colleagues Mitchel Resnick and Uri Wilensky. “The idea is that the children are all just intending to be heard. No one is meaning to be too loud, but they all get yelled at for being too noisy, and told they can’t go out for recess. All of the kids are saying ‘it’s not my fault,’ and looking for the noisiest kid. In some sense, it is no one’s fault, but, yet, it’s everybody’s fault. These kinds of complexities can be really hard to wrap your head around. “But these experiences can have similar dynamics to some of the most intransigent problems that we face,” she adds. “Consider climate change. When I jump into my car to go get groceries for my family, I’m not intending to contribute to climate change because of my carbon emissions, but ultimately that’s what I am doing. The individual intention is just like those kids in the cafeteria. I have individual level intent, but there is this emergent outcome from all these people around the world just doing their everyday thing. None of us is necessarily aware of it, and none of us is tracking it. We are all at fault, but nobody intends it.” Yet, today, we know about such connections. “You’re aware now, but you didn’t get that way by figuring it out on your own,” Grotzer says. Grotzer hopes that her research will help people, especially children, use these experiences to build a broader understanding of the nature of causality--its features and patterns. Working from a wealth of research in child development, she is identifying aspects of complex causality that children of different ages do understand, related everyday experiences that they have, and figuring out how to help them expand upon their understandings. She is examining how “causal” understanding develops in “supported” contexts, such as the classroom, and how, specifically, it affects science learning with the goal of developing new curriculum. “Why is it so important to go beyond their everyday understandings and actually focus on learning complex causalities? Our attention is pulled in too many directions in the everyday world and we tend to be efficient in our reasoning,” she says. “Unless we stop to reflect upon the patterns, to trace out extended impacts, and to reason over time, we end up reducing complexity to simpler patterns. “For example, understanding climate change involves reasoning about non-obvious causes,” she adds. “Because you can’t see it every single day, it’s harder to keep it in mind. When you start to see things slowly changing, you get lulled into thinking: this is just sequential, and I can deal with it over time. It’s too easy to become anesthetized if it plays out over time.” Her research has major implications for education practices, as well as for policy and decision-making. She works with scientists and other experts, and collaborates with teachers to develop curriculum and new teaching approaches that she hopes will guide the next generation to reason well about causal complexity. Grotzer is conducting her research under a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which she received in 2009. The award supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization. She is receiving $750,544 over five years. Also, last September, Grotzer was among 94 researchers who received a Presidential Early Career Award, the highest honor the United States bestows upon science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. A book on her work, Learning Causality in a Complex World: Understandings of Consequence, was released in June, published by Rowman Littlefield. “We are conducting very close studies of the reasoning of kindergartners, and second, fourth and sixth graders,” she says. “The focus is on figuring out what pieces of these concepts they seem to understand, and with learning support, how we can use those ideas to build understanding.” The children learn about the different types of causality. There is, for example, domino causality: someone spreads a rumor on the playground and off it goes, and what precipitated it originally?; cyclic causality: you send a letter to a pen pal and she sends one back to you; and, spiraling causality: getting into a fight on the playground and ultimately doing things that you couldn’t imagine doing at the start. Thus far, the research has yielded important insights for helping children build a broader understanding of the types of causality at play, she says. “For instance, children have experiences today that help them to understand action at a distance--the idea that we can impact things that are far away from us--but that part of the problem is finding mechanisms to keep the distant effects in our minds on a regular basis,” she says. “There are also differences in what particular children understand. Those children who do understand certain concepts are helping us to find ways to teach the concepts to other children.” The first three years of the award focused on a close study of children. The next two years will concentrate on curriculum development, with an emphasis on climate change and ecosystems understandings. Grotzer believes that our current legacy to our children is a range of serious and intractable problems. “We are not leaving them in a good place,” she says. Ultimately, however, she hopes her research will help children “grow up and do a much better job understanding and managing the complexities of the world than previous generations,” she says. Causality in the Classroom Researcher studies student learning and understandingAugust 24, 2012 RSS Feed Print By Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation

<urn:uuid:72c69436-e84e-47b6-a5f2-ca93bfe02a94>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2012/08/24/causality-in-the-classroom

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Sea Surface Temperatures Off East Coast Of U.S. And Canada Remain Warmer Than Normal Over a year has past since Hurricane Irene rolled up the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern coastline of the United States. While the storm caused considerable damage, and ended up being the seventh costliest hurricane on record in the U.S., it could have been far worse. Irene had a lot of things going for it at the time. Among them were sea surface temperatures, which usually run in the lower 70s off the Jersey shore, were running into the upper 70s. Fortunately, dry air became entrenched in the storm, and prevented it from coming into the New York Metropolitan area as a strong Category Two storm or worse. However, Irene could be a sign of things to come for New Jersey. Twelve months after Irene, sea surface temperatures along the Jersey coast are running from the upper 70s to low 80s. Remember, tropical storms and hurricanes are energized by warm water that is 80 degrees fahrenheit, or 27 degrees celsius, or warmer. The unusually warm water has been great for those journeying to the coastal towns in New Jersey. It has also been a curse for fishermen, and others who live off the sea. According to a recent article by Stephen Stirling of the Star-Ledger, Warmer waters have caused migration of fish into the area that have never been in this region before. Other fish that are more familiar in these parts such as fluke have moved further north. Meanwhile, in places such as Maine and Canada, Lobster harvests have been more than abundant, which has caused a drop in price for the very popular seafood, and that has made it difficult for lobstermen to make a profit. Here at Hurricaneville though, the concern is about tropical storms and hurricanes. Warmer waters along the Jersey coast means more powerful storms and hurricanes being able to maintain themselves longer, and further north. Last year, the Garden State dodged a bullet with Hurricane Irene, and is still long overdue for a powerful hurricane of Category Two strength or better. Recently, Rick Schwartz of Mid-Atlantic Hurricanes.com indicated in his monthly column that the entire Mid-Atlantic from Virginia to New Jersey has been long overdue for a powerful land hurricane similar to Hurricane Hazel back in October 1954. Climatologically, the region is due for a significant storm that can bring hurricane force wind gusts of 75 to 90 miles per hour east of the eye of the storm with some gusts reaching 100 miles per hour and between 50 and 75 miles per hour west of the eye. About every 57 to 58 years, a Category Three or Four storm has done this in the Mid-Atlantic going back to 1667, and that is originate in the Caribbean Sea, make landfall in North Carolina, and then pound the Mid-Atlantic region. So far in 2012, the East Coast of the United States has gone unscathed to date. The statistical peak of the season, September 10th, has passed, and even though there have been 14 depressions, 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes, and one major hurricane, only several have made some sort of impact on the United States. Beryl, which made landfall near Jacksonville in late May and Isaac, which hammered Louisiana and Mississippi late last month. Recent storms such as Leslie, Michael, and Nadine have had tracks taking them well away from land. All of that could change with one storm. Like anywhere along our coastline from Maine to Texas, one storm is all it takes to change everything forever. Remnants Of Tropical Cyclone Keila Brings Heavy Rains And Gusty Winds While the Hurricane Season is winding down in the Atlantic Basin, things are getting interesting in the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Gulf of Oman region. Over the past few days, Tropical Storm Keila has dissipated into a remnant low, but it has been producing torrential rains and gusty winds along the Oman and Yemen border. Of all the basins on the planet, the Indian Ocean produces the fewest storms in comparison to the Western Pacific, Eastern Pacific, and Atlantic. However, because of the low lying terrain that lies along the Indian Ocean including the shallow depth of water along coastlines. Places such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are known for their devastating and deadly cyclones that have left tens and even hundreds of thousands dead. Such storms have been the reasons for wars in that part of the world. The most deadly of these cyclones was the one that struck Bangladesh back in November 1970. Then called East Pakistan, the country was struck by a powerful cyclone that left between 300,000 and 500,000 dead. The geopolitical ramifications from this storm were tremendous. Due to the lack of response by the central government of Pakistan, which was based in the western part of the country, East Pakistan declared its independence, and war erupted. Neighboring India became involved, and the result of the conflict was the rise to power of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Recently, there have been some notable cyclones. One was in early June, 2007 when Cyclone Gonu threatened Oman. At one point, the storm was as powerful as a Category Five Hurricane with 160 mile per hour winds. It was rare to see such a powerful storm in that part of the world at that time of year because weather conditions in that part of the world are usually not favorable to such strong storms. In addition, Oman and Yemen are on the Arabian Peninsula, which is desert. Remember, tropical storms don’t like dry air. Another notable cyclone in the past few years was the one that struck the Myammar Republic in May 2008. The cyclone struck as the equivalent of a Category Three Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale with 120 mile per hour winds. The storm may have left 100,000 dead, but the actual death toll is not know due to the very isolated military government in Myammar, which not only refused to help its own people, but also kept the media from coming in to cover the disaster. Returning to Keila, the storm has not had a very long life. It formed as a tropical depression on October 29th, and has basically hugged the coast of Oman over the past couple of days. Keila has strengthened to become the equivalent of a minimal tropical storm before moving into the interior of Oman. According to the article on the web site, Earthweek: Diary of a Planet, the storm has left 6 dead from flash flooding. Tropical Cyclones are quite rare in the Arabian Sea region. Storms only form during two brief periods each year. However, there has been a growing concern that pollution created by the industries in the growing economic power of India is creating more favorable climatic conditions in the Arabian Sea for powerful storms like the one in June 2007. Looking at the latest satellite imagery out of that part of the world, there appears to be another tropical disturbance in the making to the east of Keila in the heart of the Indian Ocean. Flood Waters In Neighborhood The Worst Ever (40 Years!) Good afternoon again everyone. For those of you, who may have seen the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow,” and recall the ending, you may find my latest blog post ironic. During the course of the morning since my last post, the flood waters in the neighborhood swelled and grew to their worst levels in the 40 years I’ve lived there. Consequently, we had to have the gas and electricity shut off, and ultimately evacuated. As I write this post to you, I’m situated in a hotel off Route 27. It was a very traumatic experience for me. Having to decide what to take was very difficult. Very stressful. I made sure that I took my mobile gadgets with me so that I would be still able to communicate via the blog, and more importantly, be able to access the internet, and contact people at work to let them know of my situation. I also made sure that I took essentials such as the medications I take as well as some of the food I bought at the store the other day. Good thing I did that. Obviously I grabbed whatever clothes I could get to take with me for this excursion. My family drove through a lot of South Plainfield, Edison, and Metuchen. Traffic lights were out at a number of locations throughout the area we drove through. Some trees were down including a couple right in front df the hotel we’re staying in. Branches and leaves were scattered about as well. A few roads were also flooded. Before we fled the house, rainfall totals had reached five inches, and the barometer fell to 28.64 inches, which is the lowest pressure ever recorded by my weather station. Winds weren’t really bad, but they were bad enough to knock out the power, and combine with the flooding to down trees. Winds are still whipping outside in the storm’s wake. The eye went through at about 9:00 AM this morning, and thankfully the second half of the storm was like I said it would be, uneventful. Other areas in my neighborhood were also hit very hard. Some streets were flooded that I never though would be flooded. Spring Lake has overflowed its banks, and as a result, the high school football practice field was inundated, and that was just all I could see. There may be more casualties from this storm. Right now, I will try to make the best of it here, and hope for the best. Thankfully, we have three straight days of nice weather coming up, which will help dry things out. However, with many if not all of the New Jersey rivers yet to crest, and the added storm surge from places such as Raritan Bay, it doesn’t look good. Good afternoon everyone. Things continue to get going in the tropics, and I have been watching, but I wanted to take some time out to mention to you some of the books that I’ve read over the past several months. I hadn’t had much of a chance to read books in recent years due to my work schedule. However, I made it a point this spring to read several books that I bought. One of the three books was related to hurricanes while the other two dealt with global warming and the Super Tornado Outbreak of 1974. Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming by Chris Mooney was the hurricane related book I read. It talked about the increased debate on the possible link between global warming and increased tropical activity worldwide. The debate was between two camps. One camp, led by Dr. William Gray and consisted of such proteges as Chris Landsea that developed ideas on hurricanes from empirical evidence while the other camp, led by Kerry Emanuel, Peter Webster, and Judith Curry based their beliefs on hurricanes mostly through computer models. The book also goes into detail on the backgrounds of both Dr. Gray and Emanuel, and where they developed their schools of thought. Mooney also points out how the folks at the National Hurricane Center stood mostly on the sidelines while the debate was taking place. Storm World looks at how the debate became personal between Dr. Gray and others in the field including one of his prized pupils, Greg Holland, who originally felt that there wasn’t a link between global warming, and hurricanes, but as more and more evidence during the 2004 and 2005 seasons came in, began to change his thinking. Storm World also looked at how the controversy began to make scientists more aware of how they needed to interact with the media about their studies and papers on the subject of global warming and hurricanes. It changed the way they communicated with the public. Some began to take the debate to message boards and other spots on the internet. After the stormy seasons of 2004 and 2005, the number of papers on the subject of global warming and hurricanes increased dramatically. The book also talked about the controversy between the Bush administration, NOAA, and researchers, who felt that they were being censored on the subject. Mooney does a great job of explaining all of this, and putting it all together to present a clear picture on the debate. Another book on climate change that I read was by Dr. James Hansen, the director of the NASA Goddad Institute and adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. His book, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, discusses the long fight that he has had to overcome government censorship and apathy to get his message across that the planet is in peril. He discusses the different ways and methods that he used to convey his message to the public. He admits that his communication skills aren’t great, but he tries to improve that by doing such things as improving his vocabulary. He cares very deeply about the subject, and is suspicious of politicians. He believes that money needs to be taken out of politics, and people, particularly our youth, need to get involved and ask the tough questions to our politicians so that the best possible candidates are elected. Hansen talks about how we need to get off coal completely, and that clean coal is just an oxymoron. He adds that if we are unable to get off of coal, we have no grounds to tell the leading oil producing countries such as Saudi Arabia to stop drilling for oil. Hansen has been taking on his battle since the late 1980s when he first warned Congress about climate change. He believes that the planet is at a critical point, and measures must be taken now in order to prevent the warming of the planet from getting out of control. If you can get through some of his very scientific and detailed discussions on climate, you can find this book interesting, and feel empathetic towards Hansen. I greatly admired the way he tried so hard to get his message out. He tried publishing papers, talking to leaders in not only the United States, but also Great Britain, Germany, and Japan. Hansen also made public speeches, and talks about climate change. Most notably, he battled censorship from the Bush Administration, and refused to be silent. The final book I read was F5: One Town’s Survival of One of the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the Twentieth Century by Mark Levine. The book looked at how Limestone County in Alabama dealt with several deadly tornadoes that were spawned during the Super Tornado Outbreak of 1974. Levine not only goes into vivid detail about the storms and their effects on the towns in that part of the world, but describes the people affected by the twisters. The book paints a picture of each of the participants before, during, and after the storm. Most importantly, though, not all of these stories have a happy ending, but Levine talks about how these people have endured and moved on since the outbreak. The story of the Super Outbreak of 1974 is given amongst a background of the political scandal that is Watergate, President Nixon’s ultimate resignation, and in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Good evening. Sorry that I’ve been away from posting something in the Hurricaneville Blogosphere these past few days, but I’ve been busy with my job, and also work on another site that I do called GMC Hoops. The site is devoted to covering high school basketball in Middlesex County, New Jersey, and the summer league season is beginning to heat up. However, I continue to watch things in the news, and pass interesting stories I find on the internet to the readers on the Hurricaneville Mailing List. A couple of interesting articles caught my eye this week including the discovery of a new tool to predict hurricane season activity in the Atlantic, and another scientist’s findings in regard to the link between global warming and hurricanes. Earlier this week, a highly regarded American scientist, Tom Knutson, stated in a recent published study that there is no link between the recent increased tropical activity and global warming. As a matter of fact, Knutson believes that in the long run, tropical storm and hurricane occurrences will dramatically be reduced by warming although storms that do occur will be stronger and more devastating. In the study that was released on Sunday, Knutson, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fluid dynamics lab in Princeton, N.J., stated that by the end of the 21st century, the number of hurricanes will be reduced by 18 percent. Furthermore, the number of tropical storms will decrease by about 27 percent. However, the number of major hurricanes, ones that reach an intensity of Category Three or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale will only fall by eight percent. Looking at this information, one would wonder how would that be possible. I gave it some thought, and while I didn’t read Knutson’s work, I logically deduced that he came up with the findings using a model that showed a relationship between the oceans increased temperatures due to global warming, and wind shear. Say for example, we have increased sea surface temperatures globally. Well, that means for the Atlantic that the Eastern Pacific would be more likely an environment that is similar to an El Nino episode, where warmer sea surface temperatures off Western Mexico, Central America, and South America would produce stronger hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific. These storms in turn would come ashore in Mexico and Central America, and then bring its remnants across into the Atlantic bringing hostile upper level wind conditions that would hamper the development of fledgling storms such as tropical storms and minimal hurricanes. Wind shear for a developing tropical storm, or hurricane, can be a death sentence. Hurricanes need light winds aloft to help nurture its very delicate vertical cloud structure. You’ll often hear the term, vertically stacked when forecasters refer to the cloudy system of a hurricane, and that is because the storm produces towering cumulonimbus clouds that produce the rain and fierce thunderstorms. Consequently, we have the reduction in those numbers for developing storms. This idea has come up before during the constant and sharply contested debate on this subject. In response to Knutson’s findings, MIT professor, Kerry Emanuel, who is author of the book, Divine Wind, admired Knutson as a scientist, but stated that one of the government’s top weather researchers was wrong in his analysis. According to the USA Today article that features the results of Knutson’s findings, Emanuel stated that his conclusion was, “demonstrably wrong” since it was “based on a model that doesn’t properly look at storms”. Another highly regarded researcher, Kevin Trenberth, also criticized Knutson’s model as being inadequate for assessing tropical weather, and “fails to replicate storms with any kind of fidelity.” Earlier this year, Emanuel issued results of another study that he had done on the subject that indicated he was at a quandry over some of the results since they demonstrated that global warming may not dramatically increase hurricane activity after all, which was a revision of his earlier thoughts from the summer of 2005 just weeks before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Central Gulf Coast of the United States. When the average person reads these stories, and the basic theme of these studies, he or she may wonder if the hurricane researcher has gone the way of their medical brethren. Often, you’ll hear on the news that the Journal of American Medicine has come up with a study that revealed the benefits that drinking coffee has on people only to have another one come up a year or so later that conflicts what they’ve previously found. Perhaps, this is the journey that is called learning. You’ll always find out new things. These things are ones that you’ve never considered before. Obviously, this global warming question in regard to hurricanes is still open ended. While there a consensus that global warming is occurring on the planet, there is still doubt on its impact on tropical storms and hurricanes. The moral of the story here is that residents along the coast from Maine to Texas need to be prepared for anything each and every year, and also doing things to fortify the coastline against the present threat from storms. As I mentioned in my previous post on the massive storm moving through the Eastern United States, there have been a number of important topics being discussed at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Florida. Besides the fact that the idea of seasonal forecasts have been debated at the conference as I mentioned earlier in the week, attendees at the week long event have taken on such issues as insurance rates in Florida, global warming and hurricanes, and the National Hurricane Center has introduced an initiative of lengthening the forecast track from five to seven days. In this era of increased activity, and with the recent devastation of past seasons such as 2004 and 2005 still fresh in everyone’s minds, the discussion of these topics are becoming more and more passionate. Take for instance, the issue of insurance, particularly in the Sunshine State, which receives the most in the way of impacts from tropical storms and hurricanes. For background, it has been two full seasons since a major hurricane, one of Category Three strength on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, has made landfall anywhere in Florida. While it is true that Florida survived the 2006 and 2007 seasons unscathed, it still has lingering memories from storms such as Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. However, insurance companies situated in that state have either discontinued policies of some residents, or raised premiums on those policies, which have frustrated a great many people. The insurance companies contend that those, who choose to live along the coastline in Florida, have made the decision to live with great risk, and they must recognize and deal with the consequences of that fact. On the other hand, the Florida State Government determines these rates, and ensures that they are made affordable to the residents. However, the fear of a major hurricane such as an Andrew, Katrina, Rita, or Wilma has made many fear that it could devastate the economy with huge losses that far outweigh those of Andrew or Katrina. According to the article posted on Orlando station WESH’s web site, the tension exists on how to equally distribute the burden without heavily taxing those not affected by the storm while not singling out those living in coastal areas, and taking the greatest risk. The key to an improved policy will be how much stricter the building codes in Florida become. Recall that after Andrew, it was revealed that these codes had slackened due to complacency brought about by the fact that the Atlantic tropics had gone into a dormant state from 1970 to 1991. Hurricaneville believes that this is a vital issue for those not only living in Florida, but throughout the Eastern United States coastline from Maine to Texas. With the revelation this week that the Florida Catastrophe Fund is encountering financial trouble due to the credit crisis that has gripped the nation’s economy, this issue becomes even more paramount. Many states such as New Jersey have attempted to follow in the path of Florida with a fund of their own thanks to the support and encouragement of organizations such as Protecting America. Take a look at what happened after Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. Many in those affected states are still fighting insurance companies for what they feel is rightfully theirs. On top of that, residents in New England states such as Maine and Masschusetts have had policies modified by their insurance companies over the last two years in reaction to the heavy toll in losses brought about by Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Moving on with the other news from the conference, the subject of global warming raised its head again. Experts at the conference such as NOAA’s Chris Landsea and Colorado State’s Dr. William Gray continued to deny any link between global warming, and increased hurricane activity. As a matter of fact, they contend that it has actually caused it to go down. There are those, however, such as Greg Holland, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research that beg to differ citing that the rise in sea surface temperatures, which is a key component in increased hurricane activity and strength since these tropical systems are so dependent on warm water for fuel, and global warming are closely related. Hurricaneville encourages everyone to keep in mind several things here: First, that there are probably a great deal of storms from over the years that have been left out from current records since there was no history of them. Second, the recent uptick in activity can also be attributed to the shift in the multi-decade cycle of tropical development in the Atlantic. Third, that while we have been contending with global warming, there have been two seasons of below average hurricane activity in the Atlantic. And, finally, both Landsea and Gray have been proponents of the idea that there has been no link between global warming and increased tropical activity, and their views should have been neutralized more in the article written in the Miami Herald. The last major topic brought up by the conference was introduced by a team at the NHC led by Ahsha Tribble. An aggressive federal plan called the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project calls for the extension of the current five day forecast track to seven days by the end of the present decade. Starting with the 2001 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the NHC has been issuing five day forecasts as an improvement over the three day forecast, which had been the standard bearer for decades. The then expansion of the forecast was attributed to the steady improvement of forecast tracks since 1990 according to an article posted on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel web site. Over the past 17 seasons, the hurricane center has improved its forecast paths of storms by 50 percent. This giant step forward began to take shape with the great success of the forecast tracks issued during the course of the 2007 season. The forecasters at the NHC have all but mastered the 24 hour prognostication by being able to predict highly accurately the position of a particular storm within 60 nautical miles of landfall. More significantly though, the hurricane center was able to accurately predict the final landfall position of a storm, or hurricane to within 290 nautical miles of actual impact. Furthermore, there is great urgency to have the forecast track time span expanded since many in emergency management and state and local governments are trying very hard to get as much lead time as possible to properly inform the public, and have them ready to evacuate when called upon to do so. Hurricaneville applauds this effort and advancement, but cautions that this many open up a whole new variety of problems as scenarios with Hurricane Elena in 1985, Felix in 1996, and Dennis in 1998. Good early morning to everyone. Sorry that I didn’t update the site during portions of the day and evening. On Monday, I began training for a new job, which ran from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. In addition, when I got home, I was up until about a bit past 7:00 PM EDT, and fell asleep. As you can see, my sleeping patterns are adjusting from the three years of night shift work I did in computer operations. Anyway, I’ve just gotten myself up to speed on the latest with Hurricane Dean, and as expected, it became a Category Five Hurricane a bit after the 8:00 PM Advisory. The National Hurricane Center issued an update at 8:35 PM EDT on Monday night. At 5:00 PM EDT, maximum sustained winds were still at 150 mph with a minimum central pressure lowering to its previous lowest point at 918 millibars, or 27.11 inches of Hg. Still a strong Category Four storm on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, Dean raised its intensity a notch three hours later with 155 mile per hour winds, and a minimum central pressure of 915 millibars, or 27.02 inches equaling that of Hurricane Isabel back in September 2003. A little more than a half hour after that, Dean was reclassified as a Cat Five storm as its winds were bumped up to 160 mph. Pressure then dropped another millibar, but seemed to stabilize at the 11 PM EDT advisory. The storm appears to be pushing toward a landfall in the area of the Southern Yucatan near Belize. More specifically, the coastal area some 20 miles to the east of the town of Chetumal, which according to CNN, has a population of about 100,000 people. With Dean becoming a Category Five Hurricane, we’ve had seven such monster storms in the Atlantic since 2003: Isabel (2003), Ivan (2004), Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in 2005, and Dean. In addition, Hurricane Mitch was a powerful Category Five Hurricane prior to coming ashore in Honduras, and dumping torrential rains that produced devastating and deadly floods and mudslides that claimed the lives of an estimated 11,000 people in October 1998. So, this active cycle has produced more than its share of monster storms. All seven of these highly dangerous storms are ranked in the top dozen of all time Atlantic hurricane powerhouses including the strongest ever recorded (Wilma), and five in the top ten (Wilma, Katrina, Rita, Mitch, and Ivan). Cat Five systems are usually a rare breed since they represent the optimal condition of a tropical system. These storms require the most ideal conditions to not only develop, but to maintain itself. However, since 1970, there has been an increasing number of powerful storms not only in the Atlantic, but throughout the world according to Kerry Emanuel, a professor at MIT. Once again, this raises the debate on whether or not the occurrence of more Category Four and Category Five Hurricanes is due to the increased presence of global warming, or is this just a part of the periodic, decadenal cycle that we are going through. Obviously, one key contributor to this debate is the fact that researchers, forecasters, and even the general public have more data and information to go on these days than in past years. As mentioned many times on this web site, the 1933 Atlantic Hurricane season, which had the previous high for most named storms with 21, may have had more named storms, and perhaps hurricanes and major hurricanes had the technology we enjoy today been around then. Satellites didn’t come about until the Tiros I was launched in 1961, and Radar wasn’t used until World War II. In addition, reconaissance flights weren’t routine until the 1950s although there had been some during the 1940s. These tools are also a big reason why we are so much more aware of the presence of such storms well before they come ashore, which has saved numerous lives over the years. Regardless of what side you are on in the global warming debate, one thing is for sure. These are dangerous times we are living in along the coast. With populations increasing year after year, and people wanting to have a nice view of the ocean, risk is increasing. Consequently, there is a chance for a large loss of life as we saw with Katrina and Rita back in 2005, and even more importantly, monumental costs in property damage. Insurance companies are going to find it tougher to stay in business, and those difficulties will be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher rates, or an unwillingness to provide coverage. Emergency management officials at all levels will also feel the strain since evacuations will become more troublesome, and shelters will not be equipped to handle the increased number of people. Good afternoon everyone. I got another interesting news article in my e-mail box today that I shared with those on my mailing list. The article was courtesy of WLOX, a television station out of Biloxi, Mississippi that is an ABC affiliate, and it discussed a new study that was done by a researcher from NOAA, and another from the University of Miami. This particular study found that global warming could produce increased wind shear in both the Eastern Pacific and the Atlantic. What does this have to do with tropical storms and hurricanes you ask? Well, if you look at the factors that are critical to tropical formation, light upper level winds are right up there when it comes to hurricanes. The reason for that is because tropical cyclones are vertically stacked systems, meaning that the cloud structure around the center of low pressure, or the eye of the storm, build high on top of each other, and it’s vertical profile is not slanted or sloping like that of mid-latitude cyclones. Light upper level winds or low wind shear is important especially for fledgling tropical systems, which are trying to put the right ingredients in place to blossom and mature into the intense storms that we are familiar with. The NOAA researcher involved in this study is Gabriel A. Vecchi, which works at GFDL, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. Both Vecchi and Brian J. Soden of Miami’s Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science put forth their findings after using 18 different computer models to “anticipate the effects of global warming in the years 2001-2020 and 2018-2100.” Wind shear is defined as the difference in winds at different levels in terms of both speed and direction. Both researchers found that vertical wind shear increased in the two basins adjacent to the United States when all other factors such as increased sea surface temperatures are all equal. But, in a situation with global warming, you have a scenario in which all other factors are “not equal.” However, other studies included those by MIT professor and Divine Wind author, Kerry Emanuel conclude that increased ocean temperatures have been linked to more powerful storms since 1970. In addition, the study done by Vecchi and Soder did not find similar changes occurring elsewhere in other basins such as the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. According to this article, “The models projected that the west and central Pacific should become more favorable to development of the storms, called typhoons in those areas.” Emanuel also believes that the finding on wind shear may be overrated. The MIT professor stated that “storms’ sensitivity to wind shear may be overestimated.” He believes that the increase in sea surface temperatures that was the basis for his study, has a much more significant impact on tropical development than increased wind shear. Meanwhile, Chris Landea from the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA contends that this was an important study. Landsea, who has worked with Dr. William Gray of Colorado State in putting together seasonal Atlantic Hurricane forecasts called the research, “a very important contribution to the understanding of how global warming is affecting hurricane activity.” Keep in mind though that Landsea and Gray are supporters of a natural cycle of increased hurricane activity while Emanuel is a proponent of the global warming impact on sea surface temperatures and increased tropical activity. What are my thoughts on this? Well, I believe that global warming is happening, and that the climate change is already making an impact in certain parts of the world. However, I also believe that while we need to do something about the environment now to prevent the climate problem from continuing to decline, we need to do something about the upcoming season, and years in the immediate future. We need to deploy practices and policies in coastal areas to protect those that are in harm’s way now. Now, while I believe that this research and Emanuel’s findings are important, and must continue, the media and the federal government must do more to call attention to protecting coastal areas, and discourage building and increased population in those regions. In addition, other parts of the world that are not as well off as the United States, are even more in peril as the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004, devastating floods in Central America caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and catastrophic flooding in Venezuela in 1999 proved.

<urn:uuid:916a9ff3-6609-4b62-aa1d-f567c94140ae>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://hurricaneville.com/blog/?cat=12

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706578727/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121618-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Science Fair Project Encyclopedia The Holden Apollo was an automobile that was a badge-engineered version of the Toyota Camry sold in Australia, built from 1989 to 1997 (paralleling two generations of Camry). There were some minor differences in the grille, trim and rear end. It was less successful than the original Camry and was eventually replaced in the Australian market by the Opel Vectra B, locally built and sold as the Holden Vectra. The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details

<urn:uuid:9cdb6cba-ace3-4bed-bae0-cb0ebf6d36b0>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Holden_Apollo

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708664942/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125104-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

This tutorial covers some general topics on writing scripts using the Alertra Scripting Language. For more detail discussion of specific topics, please see the Articles section of the Alertra web site under the heading Scripting: Unlock the Power of Alertra Note: Some of the sample code blocks have been reformatted to fit comfortably within your web browser. Lines that end with the underline character, "_" continue the same statement on the next line. When writing your own ASL scripts, you must include the entire statement on the same line. There is no line-continuation character in ASL. 2.1. Check a Site The simplest script to write is one that checks an Internet resource and accepts the default actions when the script fails: # Check the following URL and # take the default action if it fails dns "www.alertra.com" tcp $HTTP_PORT http get,redir "/" The dns call looks up the given host name and stores the IP address for use by the other commands in the script. The tcp call makes a socket connection to port 80 (HTTP_PORT is a predefined constant representing the default connection port for HTTP servers) of the server. The http command actually retrieves the default page from the web server at the selected host. If there is a problem performing any of these tasks, an error is generated and notifications are generated based on the schedule for the script. We can get a little fancier and check to see if the page has the size we expect and a required key phrase: # Check a site, make sure the page is the correct # size and has the given key phrase. dns "www.alertra.com" tcp $HTTP_PORT http get "/login.asp?userid=jsmith&password=pocahontas" if not "Sample Site Corp" in $CONTENT then begin error "Returned page not correct" end if not $CONTENT_LENGTH > 1024 then begin error "Page not correct size" end 2.2. HTTP Parameters We've already seen how you can pass parameters in the URL used to retrieve an HTTP document. Those used the GET method, but you can also use the POST method: # Pass some parameters to an HTTP form dns "www.sample.com" tcp $HTTP_PORT form userid = "jsmith" form password = "pocahontas" http post "/login.asp" In case you're wondering, the socket connection created by the tcp command doesn't need to be explicitly closed. Any of the other protocol commands (except send and recv) will automatically close the socket. 2.3. Error Handling If you want, you can change the default error handling used by ASL. Normally, any problem with a command aborts the script immediately and an error notification is sent to all contacts scheduled to be notified for this script. You can change this by creating your own error handler. The on error command allows you to either install your own handler: on error goto error_handler Or you can just ignore errors: on error goto next Here is an example of installing and using a custom error handler. on error goto script_error # Get the IP address for the site dns "www.alertra.com" # Connect to the FTP server tcp $FTP_PORT # Request the readme.txt file with the anonymous login ID # Only get the first 512 bytes of the file ftp "/pub/readme.txt" "anonymous" "[email protected]" 512 # Make sure we got the right file if not "Alertra" in $CONTENT then error "Returned file not correct." goto exit :script_error # Ignore DNS errors if not $LAST_COMMAND = "dns" then goto send_error exit "DNS failed, site not checked." :send_error on error goto 0 error $LAST_MSG :exit The first line of our script changes how ASL handles errors. Anytime the error command is called or an internal command generates an error, the script will jump to the ":script_error" label. This allows you to handle script errors in a central location. This script looks at the name of the command that generated the error ($LAST_COMMAND). If the command was a DNS lookup DNS, the script chooses to ignore the error, log the fact that it failed, and exit gracefully. The final section of the error handler removes the error handler and then re-generates the error so ASL's normal notification mechanism will notify the scheduled contacts of the error. In your scripts, there really isn't any reason to do this, but just to show that it can be done, lets recode the original example with a totally custom error handler: on error goto next dns "www.alertra.com" if not $LAST_CODE = "0" then goto bad_dns tcp $HTTP_PORT if not $LAST_CODE = "0" then wait 20;tcp $HTTP_PORT if not $LAST_CODE = "0" then wait 20;tcp $HTTP_PORT if not $LAST_CODE = "0" then goto bad_socket http get,redir "/" if not $LAST_CODE = "0" then goto bad_http goto exit :bad_dns on error goto 0 info "(" + $LAST_CODE + ") " + $LAST_DESCRIPTION error "Unable to resolve DNS entry. Check primary " + "and secondary DNS servers." :bad_socket on error goto 0 info "(" + $LAST_CODE + ") " + $LAST_DESCRIPTION error "Unable to connect to host. " + "Make sure HTTP server is running on port " + $HTTP_PORT + "." :bad_http on error goto 0 info "(" + $LAST_CODE + ") " + $LAST_DESCRIPTION error "Unable to retrieve " + $LAST_RESOURCE + "." :exit This example shows two other features of ASL scripting. While trying to make the socket connection to the server, we attempt the connection 3 times and wait 20 seconds between each attempt. The IF statement allows you to chain commands together with a semi-colon, so we can wait and retry the connection in one statement. You could also use the begin/end construct to accomplish the same thing: if not $LAST_CODE = "0" then begin wait 20 tcp $HTTP_PORT end 2.4. Saving Data You can save the contents of variables for use the next time your script is called. This can be used to determine when things change. For instance, if you want to know that the IP address the DNS server returns for your site changes you could do something like this: dns "www.alertra.com" if $SAVE_IP = "" then set SAVE_IP = $LAST_IP if not $SAVE_IP = $LAST_IP then goto new_ip :check tcp $HTTP_PORT http get "/" goto exit :new_ip warning "IP address used to be " + $LAST_IP + " but is now " + $SAVE_IP goto check :exit set SAVE_IP = $LAST_IP save SAVE_IP In this script, we check the site as normal. If ASL is unable to connect to the web server, an error notification will be sent to the scheduled contacts. However, we also check to see if the IP address has changed. After we retrieve the IP address from the DNS server, we compare it to what the IP address was last time the script ran. To do that we have to work a little magic. If you ask for the contents of a variable and it doesn't exist, ASL returns an empty string. So our first IF checks to see if we have a valid SAVE_IP. If we don't then we set the SAVE_IP to the value of the current IP. This keeps the next IF statement from firing the first time we run the script. The last bit of magic is taken care of in the ":exit" section. The save command stores the contents of the variable. The next time the script is run, the variable will already exist which is what we want. This final script demonstrates how you can detect if there have been changes made to your site. dns "www.alertra.com" tcp $HTTP_PORT http get "/index.html" if $SAVE_DIGEST = "" then digest SAVE_DIGEST = $CONTENT digest HASH = $CONTENT if not $HASH = $SAVE_DIGEST then goto possible_hacker goto exit :possible_hacker error "Page has been modified." :exit set SAVE_DIGEST = $HASH save SAVE_DIGEST The digest command creates a digest of the string it is given. The digest is like a fingerprint and it would be very difficult for someone to change the contents of a file in such a way that it would have different content but generate the same digest. 2.5. Low Level Functions Low level functions can be used to interact with any socket based service that uses a text based protocol. dns "www.alertra.com" tcp 5602 send "HELO\n" recv if $CONTENT = "Widget Server/1.0" then goto WidgetServer error "Server did not return proper version." :widgetserver recv "login:" send "jsmith\r\n" recv "password:" send "pocahontas\r\n" recv "READY.\r\n" goto exit :exit The commands send and recv are low level functions that allow you to send and receive character data (and to a limited extent binary data) on an open socket. The send command is fairly straight forward; when called it sends the data provided to the server. You can include \r and/or \n to signifiy the carriage-return and new-line characters respectively. The recv command acts a little differently depending on how it is called. In the first call to recv, the socket is read until no more data is available and that data is placed in the $CONTENT variable. If no data is received before the default timeout, an error is generated. Since we don't have an error handler installed, the script would be aborted. In the later recv calls we tell recv the text we expect to receive. Instead of storing the response in a variable, the string you pass is compared to the data read from the socket. If the data read doesn't end with the string passed, an error is generated. Notice that in the receive string you can also pass \r and \n to signify the carrige-return and line-feed characters. The for loop can be used to iterate over a fixed number of items: for INTERATOR = START_INDEX to END_INDEX begin ... end The for loop initializes ITERATOR to the value of START_INDEX. By default ITERATOR will then be incrememnted by 1 each time through the loop until it reaches END_INDEX. for REC = 1 to $MYSQL_ROW_COUNT begin mysql cursor next if $MYSQL_COLUMN_status = "A" then begin info $MYSQL_COLUMN_0 + ", " + $MYSQL_COLUMN_email + ", Active" else info $MYSQL_COLUMN_0 + ", " + $MYSQL_COLUMN_email + ", Not Active" end end In this example, the loop iterates the over the rows in a MySQL resultset. The variable REC will be set to the current index of the for loop through each iteration. In the example above, the loop will start at 1 and increment REC by 1 until REC is equal to the value of the variable $MYSQL_ROW_COUNT. The default increment is 1, but you can control this by using the step modifier. With step you can increment by any integer value as well as use negative values to run the loop backwards: for I = 10 to 1 step -1 begin info $I end Would result in the log containing the text: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 If you only have one statement to execute in the loop, like the previous example, you could rewrite it like this: for I = 10 to 1 step -1 info $I The while loop allows a script to execute the same block of commands an indefinate number of times (note: ASL scripts are not allowed to execute more than 5,000 commands; a script that exceeds this limit will be killed by the system). while EXPRESSION begin ... end As long as the EXPRESSION remains true (1 is true in ASL while 0 is false), the loop will continue to execute. Once the EXPRESSION becomes false (0), then execution of the script will continue with the next statement after the while loop's end statement. set N = 0 while $N <= 10 loop begin info "The value is " + $N set N = $N + 1 end This example loops until the value of $N is greater than 10. Alertra Script Language: Language Reference Copyright © 2000-2013 Alertra, Inc. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy statement and our terms of service. [C]

<urn:uuid:ab4bdb28-8b95-4c21-b8cc-9f8a92252cf4>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.alertra.com/asl/tutorial.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

ASTR 1210, O'CONNELL. MARS IMAGES ASTR 1210 (O'CONNELL) SELECTED MARS IMAGES Mars features the most interesting surface of any planet other than Earth. Even though Mars is a smaller planet, its land area is about the same as Earth's (since two-thirds of Earth's surface is covered by oceans). Mars' terrain is an exaggerated version of the Earth's. The spacecraft campaign of orbiters and landers which began in the mid-1990's has yielded an enormous amount of information on Mars. You can find a large number of beautiful Mars images taken by terrestrial telescopes and spacecraft on the Web. Some of the better sites are linked to the Study Guide 16 page on Mars. Here, I've selected images which illustrate the variety of terrain on Mars and the extent to which we are now able to study it from spacecraft. Earth, Moon, and Mars Compared to Scale | THARSIS HEMISPHERE || HELLAS HEMISPHERE MOLA Maps of Mars Topographic maps produced by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission (1998-2006). Left: Tharsis hemisphere. Right: Hellas hemisphere. Color coding is for altitude (blue is lowest, red high, white is highest---but doesn't indicate snow). Click on the images for larger versions. For a high-resolution enlargement, click here. Identifications for the various Martian features visible here are given here (main areas), here (details), or in a The Tharsis hemisphere is dominated by the "Tharsis Bulge" a huge, elevated surface deformation which produced striking volcanoes and canyons. The Hellas hemisphere consists mainly of cratered highlands, punctuated by a single enormous impact basin (Hellas). The cratering density shows that the Tharsis hemisphere is significantly younger, on average, than the Hellas hemisphere. Tharsis is probably 2-3 billion years old. An even more remarkable asymmetry revealed by the MOLA altitude maps is the large 5 km (16,500 ft) difference between the mean elevations of the (low) northern hemisphere and the (high) southern hemisphere. The north is less heavily cratered (meaning younger) and smoother. It is dominated by a huge, flat depression (blue in the images above), which may be the bed of an ancient ocean. [Images: MOLA Team] Map of Tharsis MOLA map of the dramatic Tharsis (left) and Chryse (right) regions on Mars, color-coded for altitude as above. Clearly marked are the major Tharsis volcanoes: Olympus Mons (18N, 228E), Alba Patera (40N, 250E) and the volcanic chain consisting of Ascraeus, Pavonis and Arsia montes. Olympus Mons is the isolated peak off to the west. In the lower center of the map is the gigantic Valles Marineris canyon system (stretching from 265E to 310E). At the right side are the Chryse channels, running toward the northern plains. The large red blotch corresponds to the "Tharsis Bulge." [Image: MOLA Volcano Olympus Mons Olympus Mons, located west of the Tharsis bulge, is the largest volcano known in the Solar System, with an altitude of 88,000 feet Mt. Everest at 29,000 ft above sea level and 43,000 ft above the ocean floor), a diameter of 340 miles, a caldera 44 miles in diameter and flanking cliffs reaching 20,000 feet in altitude. If situated in Virginia, it would occupy most of the land area of the state. It is a shield volcano, like the large volcanos in Hawaii. These tend to have relatively quiescent eruptions of fluid lava, without the explosiveness associated with ash eruptions or more viscous lava (as in Mt. St. Helens). The massive concentration of magma which built up Olympus Mons and the Tharsis bulge apparently originated in an enormous mantle plume. This is a composite of Viking images, projected in perspective as if seen from an altitude of about 30 miles at a distance of about 1500 Here is a mosaic looking straight down on Olympus Mons. Caldera of Olympus Mons (Viking) Volcano Apollinaris Patera This view of Apollinaris Patera, shows characteristics of an explosive origin and an effusive origin. Incised valleys in most of the flanks of Apollinaris Patera indicate ash deposits and an explosive origin. On the west side (bottom), landslides that have shaped its surface also indicate ash deposits. Towards the south flank, a large fan of material flowed out of the volcano. This indicates an effusive origin. Perhaps during its early development Apollinaris Patera had an explosive origin with effusive eruptions taking place later on. [Image & caption by Calvin J. Hamilton.] A Viking vertical view of Ceraunius Tholus, a "small" volcano in the Tharsis Bulge just north of the three large Tharsis volcanos described above. Ceraunius is about 21000 feet high; the caldera at the summit is about 15 miles across. The true base of the volcano is submerged in the flood of lava which produced the surrounding Tharsis plain. Here is a perspective view, created in software from Mars Express images, from the top of Ceraunius' caldera. Gigantic stress fractures caused by the upwelling of magma from below cross this region. Click the image for an enlarged view. Tharsis Plume Computer Simulation This image shows a computer simulation of processes in the interior of Mars that could have produced the Tharsis region. The color differences are variations in temperature. Hot regions are red and cold regions are blue and green, with the difference between the hot and cold regions being as much as 1000 C (1800 F). Because of thermal expansion, hot rock has a lower density than cold rock. These differences in density cause the hot material to rise toward the surface and the cold material to sink into the interior, creating a large-scale circulation known as mantle convection. This type of mantle flow produces plate tectonics on Earth. The hot, rising material tends to push the surface of the planet up, and the cold, sinking material tends to pull the surface down. These motions contribute to the overall topography of the planet. This deformation of the planet's surface is shown in gray along the outer surface of the planet in this image. The amount of deformation is highly exaggerated to make it visible here. The actual uplift in Tharsis is estimated to be about 8 kilometers (5 miles) at its center. This uplift also stretches the crust, forming features such as grabens and Valles Marineris. In addition, the hot, rising material may melt as it approaches the surface, producing volcanic activity. [Simulation & caption by Walter S. Kiefer and Amanda Kubala, LPI.] This great rift canyon on Mars, seen here in a Viking mosaic image, has a length of 2400 miles (it would reach from Washington, DC to Los Angeles), a maximum width of 70 miles, and a maximum depth of 22,000 feet. It is vastly the US "Grand" Canyon, which would barely qualify as a "side channel" here. Valles Marineris was not produced by water flow (although many smaller Martian channels were). Instead, it appears to have formed by a stretching and tearing of the Martian crust during the Tharsis plume upwelling event. Here is a video animation (9 MB) of a "flyover," based on Mars Odyssey images, which gives a good sense of the scale and structure of Valles A collapsed section of the south wall of Valles Marineris. The transected crater is 10 miles across. The cliff walls are about 20,000 feet high, and the canyon is about 100 km wide. Click on the image for a wide field view of another set of mega-landslides in the northern Ophir Chasma canyon of Valles Marineris. [From MGS Closeup of Valles Marineris Rim Closeup of the rim of Valles Marineris showing details of cliff walls, thousands of feet high. Layering is visible under the rim at the left hand side. On Earth, such layers can be produced by both sedimentary and volcanic processes. Both are also possible on Mars. Original Mars Global Surveyor image has a resolution of 20 feet per pixel. [Image by Malin Space Science Systems.] Hellas Impact Basin A MOLA map of the Hellas impact basin, the largest on Mars. The upper panel shows a cross section through the basin. It is 1400 miles across and over 29,000 feet deep from the rim to its lowest point (enough to accommodate Mt.Everest). It is surrounded by a huge volume of excavated material, which, distributed evenly, would cover the continental US to a depth of 2 miles. It is in the same league with, but slightly smaller than, the Aitken basin on the Moon. Here is a graphic comparison of the two largest basins on Mars with the US. Hellas is one of the few major topographic features on Mars that were readily identified with telescopes on the Earth (see the best Earth-based map here.) [Image by MOLA team] Views of Mars' Northern Polar Cap The frame at the left shows Mars' northern polar cap shrinking from its maximum size in winter to its minimum in summer (images taken from near-Earth orbit by the Hubble Space Telescope). In winter the cap is predominantly frozen carbon-dioxide ("dry ice"), whereas the persistent summer cap consists of water ice. The spiral patterns that emerge in summer are enlarged in the MGS image at the right, which has been digitally rendered by R. Kosinski. The patterns are shaped by strong windflows. The long, dark indentation is Chasma Boreale, a 300-km long canyon reaching almost through the polar cap. The Cliffs of Chasma Boreale A perspective view, constructed from High Resolution Stereo Camera images (Mars Express orbiter), showing parts of the canyon walls of Chasma Boreale in summer. The cliffs here are nearly 2-km (6500 ft) high. The layered terrain is evident in the image. Residual frost is water ice. A Mars Express view of the strange Cydonia region, on the Martian northern Acidalia Planitia lowlands. The many sharply defined elevated regions have evidently been heavily eroded by water flows. Cydonia elicted great excitement when the Viking spacecraft first returned a low-quality image that appeared to show a gigantic, carved human face in the region. Later, high resolution imaging showed that the "face" was a completely natural formation, although some enthusiasts continue to argue that Cydonia contains artificial structures. The "face" feature is at the lower right of this image. See Guide 23 for more discussion of the "face." Click for a full-resolution version of the image. Kasei Valles Boundary A high-resolution view from the Mars Express orbiter of the boundary between the large outflow canyon system Kasei Valles (above) and the Lunae Planum plateau (below). Kasei Valles runs northward from near Valles Marineris and feeds into the the northern lowlands/ocean basin. North is to the right in the image. The jumbled terrain was scoured by large water flows in the past, which also eroded the outer wall of the 22-mile diameter crater at the right of the image. Click for a much enlarged image. Acidalia Planitia Channels A high-resolution view from the Mars Express orbiter of a region about 600 miles northeast of the previous image. This shows the channels feeding into the northern Acidalia Planitia lowlands (below) from the Tempe Terra plateau (above). Color-coded for altitude. Resolution is 15-m per pixel. Note the large number of older craters that have been filled in/submerged by wind or water-borne material. Water on Mars: Sedimentary Layering This image from MGS shows a part of the floor of the Candor Chasma canyon, about 0.5 mile wide. It contains a number of layers of material, each about 30 feet are similar layered regions. On Earth, deposits like this form from sedimentary deposits at the bottom of a lake. This is strong circumstantial evidence for water on Mars at an earlier time. If these are sediments, they might contain fossils of ancient Martian lifeforms. Similar features might be produced by lava flows or windblown dust deposits, but their ubiquity on Mars suggests water is involved. Click for a full-scale version. [Image by Malin Space Water on Mars: Ravi Vallis A Viking mosaic of the Ravi Vallis channel. Unlike Valles Marineris, this channel was carved by water. The region shown is about 225 mi long. Like many other channels that empty into the northern plains of Mars, Ravi Vallis originates in a region of collapsed and disrupted ("chaotic") terrain within the planet's older, cratered highlands. Structures in these channels indicate that they were carved by liquid water moving at high flow rates (up to 1000's of times the outflow of the Amazon river). The abrupt beginning of the channel, with no apparent tributaries, suggests that the water was released under great pressure from beneath a confining layer of frozen ground. As this water was released and flowed away, the overlying surface collapsed, producing the disruption and subsidence shown here. Three such regions of chaotic collapsed material are seen in this image, connected by a channel whose floor was scoured by the flowing water. The flow in this channel was from west to east (left to right). This channel ultimately links up with a system of channels that flowed northward into Chryse Basin. [Image & caption: LPI] Water on Mars: Runoff Channels These networks of smaller tributaries leading to larger channels resemble those produced by ground water flow (as opposed to rain) on Earth. Click [Image by Calvin J. Hamilton.] Water on Mars: Ares Vallis, The Pathfinder Site A plain showing prominent scars of catastrophic flooding, probably 1-3 Byr ago. This is an artist's rendering, based on a Viking orbiter mosaic, with identifications for the more prominent features. The original photograph can be found here. The arrow shows the initial landing zone targeted for the Mars Pathfinder in July 1997. Note the "Wahoo" crater(!) [Painting by NASA. Images from NSSDC.] Water on Mars: Frozen Lake in Crater This image of a crater in near the Martian North Pole was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the Mars Express orbiter. It shows a large lake of water ice. The temperature when the image was taken was above the sublimation temperature of carbon dioxide ("dry") ice, so the material must be water ice. The lake is about 10 km (33,000 ft) across. Water on Mars: Hematite "Blueberries" The Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" took this close up of the surface near its landing site showing thousands of tiny spherules called "blueberries" because of their blueish tint in false-color images. They contain hematite, an iron-oxide mineral precipitated from water. Such "concretions" are also found on Earth. Water on Mars: Ancient Ocean Beds? This is a MOLA elevation map of the north polar hemisphere, with the outline of the US added for scale. It shows a huge depression which has many characteristics expected for an ancient ocean bed. Its border is level in elevation, like a coastline; terraces run parallel to the coastline; its floor is smooth and relatively flat, suggesting sedimentation; it is "fed" by channels running from south to north. Its volume is consistent with other estimates of the total volume of water on Mars. [Image by MOLA Team] Water on Mars: Ice Under the South Pole This picture shows a map made with the MARSIS ground-penetrating radar instrument on the Mars Express orbiter (March 2007). The radar is reflected from regions up to 13,000 feet below the surface of Mars' South Pole, and the image shows the thickness of the layers of water ice. The black circle is an area without data. This is the largest water reservoir yet detected on Mars. If distributed uniformly over the Martian surface, it would cover the planet 36 feet deep in liquid water. But the flood plains seen on the surface suggest that there was over 10 times as much water originally present on Mars. [Image from Mars Express] Water on Mars: Volume Spectroscopic measurements of molecular hydrogen in the Martian atmosphere with the FUSE satellite provide an estimate of the total volume of water once present on Mars: the equivalent of a global Martian ocean some 4000 feet deep. The image above is an artist's concept of what Mars might have looked like when all its low-lying areas were filled with water. July 2012 by rwo Original text copyright © 1998-2012 Robert W. O'Connell. All rights reserved. These notes are intended for the private, noncommercial use of students enrolled in Astronomy 1210 at the University of Virginia.

<urn:uuid:baaf4f46-ee64-460c-9ed9-1a98e4a2d7fe>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.astro.virginia.edu/class/oconnell/astr121/marsImages.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702019913/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110019-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Why Some Mothers (Wrongly) Let Kids Try Alcohol WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Many parents wrongly believe that allowing young children to taste alcohol may discourage them from drinking when they're teens, a new study finds. "The idea that early exposure to alcohol can discourage a child's interest in drinking has a strong foothold among some parents of elementary-school-aged children," lead author Christine Jackson, a social ecologist at RTI International, a nonprofit research organization, said in an RTI news release. Early introduction to alcohol is a major risk factor for problem drinking during the teen years, the researchers warned. They analyzed interviews conducted with 1,050 mothers of third-grade children and found that one-quarter of them said allowing their children to taste alcohol would discourage their curiosity about it because they would not like the flavor and because it would remove the "forbidden fruit" appeal of it. The researchers also found that 40 percent of the mothers felt that not allowing their children to taste alcohol would only increase their desire to have it, 22 percent believed children who taste alcohol at home with their parents would be better able to resist peer pressure to drink alcohol, and 26 percent thought it would make their children less likely to experiment with risky drinking in middle school. Nearly 33 percent of the children in the study said they had tasted beer, wine or other alcoholic drinks. There was a strong association between parents who were in favor of allowing their children to taste alcohol and children's reported alcohol use. "These findings indicate that many parents mistakenly expect that the way children drink at home, under parental supervision, will be replicated when children are with peers," Jackson said. "More research is needed to understand how parents acquire these ideas and to understand the relationship between early sipping and alcohol use in adolescence." The study was published online Sept. 17 in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offers tips on parenting to prevent alcohol use. SOURCE: RTI International, news release, Sept. 19, 2012

<urn:uuid:b5ea904f-b026-4d15-97df-4c50ab4505d1>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.martinhealth.org/taxonomy/relateddocuments.aspx?id=0&ContentTypeId=6&ContentID=668895

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Slide2: Once there was a very good man. His name was Noah, and he loved God very much. And God loved Noah. Slide3: But many people were doing very bad things and God was very sad. Slide4: God decided to send a flood over all the earth to wipe away the people who had become so bad. Slide5: So God said to Noah, "Build a huge ark just the way I tell you, put rooms in it and coat it with tar so it will float a long time." Slide6: Then God said, "Take your whole family into the ark because I have found you to be very good." Slide7: And God told Noah to put two of every kind of animal on the ark to keep them alive during the flood also. Slide8: Then the rain began and it rained for 40 days but it flooded for 150 more days! Slide9: Finally the rain stopped. Slide10: Soon the waters dried up and Noah and his family and all the animals were able to leave the ark. Slide11: God said, "I promise I will never again send a flood to destroy the whole earth." And then God put His rainbow in the sky as a reminder to us of his promise.

<urn:uuid:564535c5-cab0-45bd-b867-157143049b99>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Wen12-16459-Noah-great-flood-2-10-Bible-Stories-Part-1-veronarda-Entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705043997/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115043-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Our Nature Lover @ Work Our son thrives on being outdoors. My 'work' is 'less' when we are outdoors in that our son does not need toys or my constant attention or 'something to do'. When we are outdoors, he is free to play and explore and be one with nature. He really is at peace when he sees anything green. When he was 1, after being in a big city for a week and not having been outdoors very much, he honed in on one patch of green around a struggling tree on a side walk. He just sat there touching and looking at the grass and tree trunk - and suddenly a cranky baby became a very calm one. My husband asked me today, "What would we do if we lived in the city?" I guess if we lived in a big city, we would just hang out in parks a lot! Why and How Outdoors? Be Out There™ - the National Wildlife Federation's initiative to inspire families across America to open the door and get outside! According to the National Wildlife Federation: - Daily unstructured free play improves children’s physical and mental health - Children who play outside are more physically active, more creative, less aggressive and show better concentration - Outdoor experiences and education enhances children’s ability to learn and retain knowledge - Outdoor experiences build a conservation ethic and concern for the natural world. Charlotte Mason Method of Education - emphasises nature walks and nature studies Last Child In The Woods - thoughts on the book Waldkindergartens - fascinating concept of kids attending kindergartens outdoors through the year rain or shine, hot or cold! And the kids reportedly have better immune systems.

<urn:uuid:6b25170c-d088-4554-856f-eefa2740d5b2>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://thecardinalhouse.blogspot.com/2009/10/be-out-there.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699675907/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102115-00080-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The following HTML text is provided to enhance online readability. Many aspects of typography translate only awkwardly to HTML. Please use the page image as the authoritative form to ensure accuracy. Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I, Grains environments and conditions. Moreover, its seeds can be stored for years without insect damage, which makes them lifesavers for famine-prone areas. Given all these qualities, it is perhaps hard to understand why finger millet is being rejected. But the reason is simple. People are giving it up in favor of maize, sorghum, and especially cassava because producing finger millet takes a lot of work.2 The truth is that finger millet, as produced at present, demands a dedication to drudgery that, given a choice, few people are willing to invest. Part of the terrible toil is in weeding the fields, part in handling the harvest, and part in processing the grain. Even though finger millet is declining in the heartland where 30 years ago it was the major crop of the land, all is not lost. Indeed, if immediate attention is given, the impediments causing the decline will probably be eliminated. In fact, there are already signs that the slide may be bottoming out. Prices paid for finger millet have risen dramatically in some places, and the crop is enjoying something of a resurgence—and a highly profitable one at that. In Kenya, for instance, the grain currently sells at more than twice the price of sorghum and maize.3 In Zimbabwe, too, the government offers an attractive producer price, which has tended to slow the decline. And Uganda's most recent statistics indicate that finger millet still occupies 50 percent of its cereal area. If this crop is given proper attention, it has the following possibilities within Africa. Excellent prospects. Certain varieties are adapted to heat, humidity, and tropical conditions. (Finger millet was once the principal staple for people in southern Sudan and northern Uganda, for instance.) Given research, recognition, and sympathetic policies, production could expand dramatically. At least one reviewer speculates that abandoning this nutritious grain millet for the less nutritious ones is "likely one of the causes of increasing famine in many areas." What is more, the government-controlled price (630 shillings per quintal, or $0.29 per kilo in 1991) is only half the open-market price (1,200-1,400 shillings per quintal, or $0.60 per kilo).

<urn:uuid:469b2ef8-d183-4b75-8766-290ef83e76be>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2305&page=40

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00098-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

INFORMATION ABOUT AFRICAN NILE LILY… Image by The Marmot Simply a delight to look at, the African Nile Lily makes for a very beautiful landscape. Also called the Lily of the Nile, or Agapanthus, this flower is very soft and romantic looking. Very appropriate, considering that the name Agapanthus comes from the Greek words meaning love and flower. Originating from South Africa , the African Nile Lily is valued for its bluish purple flowers and contrasting deep green leaves. Although white varieties of this perennial do exist, the blue version is much more popular among gardeners. Perhaps what is so striking about the African Nile Lily is the fact that each flower is a huge sphere made up of many smaller flowers – actually they are bell-shaped florets. Held up on a 2′ sturdy stalk, the African Nile Lily can have as many as a dozen blooms at a time. To get the most out of your African Nile Lily, plant in an area that gets full sun to light shade and make sure soil is kept moist (but not soggy). It should be fertilized every 2-3 weeks. The African Nile Lily has a long flowering period – from early summer to the beginning of fall. Plant the African Nile Lily rhizomes about an inch deep and space 18-24 inches apart. When grown in containers (which is actually how they grow best), plant a single rhizome in a 12″ pot or three in a 20″ pot. It is recommended that you water and fertilize regularly for the best results, but amazingly these lovely flowers will endure almost total neglect. The African Nile Lily is hardy in zones 7-11. They can be grown in colder zones, but must be planted deeper into the ground and lifted for the winter. These amazing flowers will certainly draw attention to your garden. Whether in a border or in a pot, visitors are sure to fall in love with this blue beauty. The African Nile Lily truly is the flower of love.

<urn:uuid:5252ddc1-3de3-4ef8-85fc-6e2b7458e679>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.plantingflowerbulbs.com/african-nile-lily.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704658856/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114418-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole. Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages. Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines. OCR for page 43 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation 4 Feeding Practices, Food, and Diarrhea Risk FOOD CONTAMINATION Enteric pathogens are transmitted by the fecal-oral route, and foods ingested by children are major vehicles of this transmission. In developed countries, the enteric pathogens most commonly associated with food-borne disease are Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium perfringens, and Bacillus cereus (Horwitz, 1977). Salmonella also occurs in developing countries, but it is not responsible for a large fraction of episodes. S. aureus, C. perfringens, and B. cereus almost certainly cause enteric illnesses in children in developing countries, but the importance of these agents is unknown. These organisms have been implicated in outbreaks occurring in food service establishments and the home. Outbreaks are defined as two or more persons with a similar illness and an epidemiologic and laboratory investigation which confirms that a food was the source of illness. The incrimination of S. aureus or C. perfringens as the cause of an outbreak is particularly problematic since both organisms are normally found in stools of healthy people. Phage typing or serotyping of the isolates from stools of a number of ill individuals and from food is required to determine that these agents are responsible for the outbreak. The incrimination of these agents as a cause of a single case of enteric illness is almost impossible. However, if these foodborne enteric pathogens can cause outbreaks involving multiple individuals, they can certainly cause single, sporadic cases in susceptible individuals. In developing countries, enteric pathogens can be found in at least half of the children with endemic diarrhea, with most of the agents being bacterial (Black et al., 1982b). The most commonly found bacterial pathogens in children in developing countries are enterotoxigenic and OCR for page 44 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation enteropathogenic E. coli and Shigella sp. They can be transmitted by means of contaminated food, although the relative importance of this route compared with water contamination or direct person-to-person transmission is unknown. Other bacterial pathogens, such as Campylobacter jejuni or vibrios also could be transmitted by food in developing countries. It is also likely that certain viral pathogens, such as 27nm viruses like Norwalk virus, and parasitic agents, such as Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, or Cryptosporidium sp. are often ingested with food. The offending organism may be present in raw foodstuffs or it may be introduced during food preparation or storage. It then replicates under suitable temperature and pH conditions. These conditions, which can also occur because of critical defects in food handling in developed countries, are very common in household settings in developing countries. Bacterial multiplication may be particularly important for some pathogens, such as enterotoxigenic E. coli or vibrios, that require a large ingested dose to cause disease. Food control investigations often use enumeration of indicator organisms, rather that isolation of pathogens (Frank and Barnhart, 1986). These organisms, predominantly E. coli, are indicators of fecal contamination, since that is their usual origin. Coliform or fecal coliform indicators have been used extensively to assess water quality, and the presence of any coliforms in water is considered unacceptable for potable water (APHA, 1989). The presence of indicator bacteria in food simply suggests that there is a risk that food also is contaminated with an enteropathogen. In settings with poor sanitation and hygiene, that risk of contamination is determined in part by the frequency of enteropathogens in the stools of healthy people, and the prevalence of diarrhea during which higher numbers of enteropathogens are excreted. FECAL CONTAMINATION OF WEANING FOOD IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES In studies done in Bangladesh, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Peru, and The Gambia, high levels of fecal bacteria were found in the milk or formula given to infants (Barrell and Rowland, 1979; Black et al., 1982b; Black et al., 1989). A similar hazard of fecal contamination has also been demonstrated with traditional weaning foods (Black et al., 1982a, 1989; Rowland et al., 1978). Cereal gruels and other foods specially prepared for infants were the most frequently and heavily contaminated. Pathogens, namely, enterotoxigenic E. coli and Salmonella sp. and possible pathogens, including Aaromonas hydrophila and Vibrio cholerae non-O group one, have been isolated from foods consumed by infants in studies done in The OCR for page 45 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation Gambia, Bangladesh, and Peru (Black et al., 1982a, 1989; Rowland et al., 1978). Source of Contamination Water often is used for the preparation of liquids and other foods given to infants, and if it is fecally contaminated, it can contribute to the contamination of weaning foods. Water that has been mixed with milk or other foods often is ingested before it has been boiled adequately or given some other treatment, as indicated by the demonstrated high levels of fecal coliforms and by the isolation of specific pathogens, such as enterotoxigenic E. coli (Black et al., 1982b). In addition, the limited availability of water contributes to poor personal and domestic hygiene, which leads to food contamination. Feeding bottles and nipples are possible sources of contamination of milk (Phillips et al., 1969). For example, in Nigeria 48 percent of feeding bottle nipples had E. coli contamination, and enteropathogenic E. coli was found on 24 percent of the nipples (Elegbe et al., 1982). In Peru, 35 percent of nipples and 23 percent of feeding bottles contained E. coli, which were also commonly found on spoons (Black et al., 1989). Cups, spoons, feeding bowls, can openers, and the hands of food preparers have also been found to be contaminated, although to a lesser degree than feeding bottles. In fact, boiled teas served in cups in Peru were rarely contaminated, but the same teas served in feeding bottles contained E. coli in 31 percent of the samples (Black et al., 1989). Poor personal hygiene of food handlers, inadequate cooking, and storage of food at improper temperatures (Frank and Barnhart, 1986) are also important determinants of fecal coliform contamination and growth in food in households in developing countries. These households also have overcrowding, poor sanitation, and insufficient water. An important specific hygienic practice is handwashing (Feachem, 1984). Limited evidence indicates that a substantial reduction in diarrhea rates can be achieved by improved handwashing practices. The feasibility and essential components (e.g., quantity of water and/or soap) of hygiene education programs remain to be determined. Raw foods are often contaminated with coliforms, although this is less of a problem with dry foods than with foods having a high moisture content With the application of beat, usually boiling, they are usually heated to sufficient temperatures to kill the bacteria. However, secondary contamination often occurs from the introduction of contaminated utensils or hands into the foods. The bacteria thus introduced can then multiply in the food. OCR for page 46 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation A very serious hazard in food preparation is the storage of food at ambient temperature in households in developing countries. The proportion of foods with contamination and the count of indicator organisms were found to increase with the length of storage time after preparation in studies done in Bangladesh and The Gambia (Black et al., 1982a; Rowland et al., 1978). In other studies weaning foods such as gruels were found to be contaminated, and it was demonstrated that there is an even greater increase in bacterial contamination if consumption is delayed. It is likely that the seasonality of bacterial diarrheas, with a predominance in the warmer months, reflects the greater survival and multiplication of pathogens in food at higher environmental temperatures (Black et al., 1982b). A special concern with regard to storage is that the heat-resistant spores of some pathogenic bacteria, such as C. perfringens and B. cereus, survive cooking and can germinate and multiply during subsequent storage. Inadequate reheating then permits ingestion of high numbers of the pathogens, and even subsequent boiling is not sufficient to destroy heat-stable toxins such as the emetic toxin of B. cereus. The importance of these factors is unknown since the role of organisms such as C. perfringens or B. cereus in diarrhea in people in developing countries is poorly understood. Microbial survival or multiplication is affected by the chemical, physical, and microbiological characteristics of food (Genigeorgis, 1981). Survival or growth of enteropathogens in food can be reduced or eliminated through alteration in specific characteristics, such as the microbial flora, pH, moisture content, oxidation-reduction potential, available nutrients, natural inhibitors of microbial growth, or addition of food preservatives. Each of these has been used to inhibit bacterial growth in processed foods. Many have also been used in traditional food preparation methods because they delay food spoilage caused by microbial growth, although few have been purposefully used to inhibit enteropathogen multiplication in weaning foods in developing countries. One of the most important factors with regard to multiplication of enteropathogens is the degree of competition from other organism in the food. Food-borne pathogens are not strong competitors and are rather easily suppressed by the nonpathogenic flora of the food. This inhibition of pathogen growth or of production of toxins can be mediated by a decrease in pH from the microbial production of certain acids, hydrogen peroxide, or other inhibitory substances (including antibiotic-like substances), or by microbial competition for essential nutrients. Milk products fermented by lactobacilli (e.g., yogurt) contain lactic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and antibiotic-like substances, which may inhibit the growth of enteropathogens. OCR for page 47 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation Relationship of Weaning Food Contamination to Diarrhea The relationship between weaning food contamination and diarrhea can be inferred from available evidence. The high relative risk observed in infants given weaning foods (even supplementary water) compared with that observed in exclusively breastfed children in many countries suggests that food contamination may cause diarrhea in these children. The high levels of fecal contamination and the isolation of specific pathogens from some weaning foods further support the supposition that weaning foods are an important vehicle for transmission of enteric pathogens, and in one study there was a significant relationship between the degree of fecal contamination of weaning food and a child's annual incidence of diarrhea associated with enterotoxigenic E. coli (Black et al., 1982a). POTENTIAL INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE WEANING FOOD CONTAMINATION Personal and Utensil Hygiene The greater availability of water, improved sanitary conditions, and enhanced concern about domestic hygiene would likely reduce transmission of enteropathogens via foods, as well as by other routes. Specific hygienic behaviors such as handwashing have been shown to reduce the incidence of diarrhea, even in developing countries (Feachem, 1984). Virtual elimination of feeding bottles has been successfully accomplished in Papua New Guinea and has been reported to reduce the rate of diarrhea. Even if their elimination cannot be achieved, improved cleansing of bottles and nipples may reduce the risk of contamination of milk or formula by (1) boiling of bottles and nipples and (2) using disinfectant solutions (commonly, 1 percent hypochlorite solution). Proper use of such procedures is often difficult because poor households may have only one feeding bottle, which is constantly in use, i.e., it contains milk or formula that is consumed by the infant ''on demand'' or the proposed methods are not applied appropriately. One study in Nigeria reported that soaking of bottle nipples in hypochlorite solution is associated with a marked reduction in bacterial contamination, even in comparison to working with detergents (Elegbe et al., 1982). OCR for page 48 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation Holding of Food Between Cooking and Saving The storage of weaning foods for many hours in the home provides an opportunity for secondary contamination of foods from feeding utensils or hands, for germination of spores, for multiplication of enteropathogens, and for production of enterotoxins. Reheating to a proper temperature for sufficient time, which is not commonly done, would avert the problems that arise from storage, except for those caused by heat-resistant toxins. Without refrigeration it is difficult to achieve a sufficiently cool temperature to limit microbial multiplication in hot tropical climates. However, the safest practice would be to eat all foods at each setting and to prepare new servings, at least for infants, at the next meal. If this cannot be done, leftover foods should be reheated for a sufficient amount of time and at a sufficient temperature to kill pathogenic bacteria. SUMMARY Infant feeding practices are important determinants of diarrhea in infants and children in developing countries. Since contaminated weaning foods are an important route of transmission of enteric pathogens, reduction in food contamination should reduce the incidence of diarrhea. Interventions might include improved personal and utensil hygiene, reduction of storage time of weaning foods, or improvement of storage conditions or the use of processed, e.g., fermented foods that resist contamination. Such interventions should become important components of programs to control diarrhea. REFERENCES APHA (American Public Health Association). 1989. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 17th ed. APHA, Washington, D.C. 1624 pp. Barrell, R.A.E. and N.G.M. Rowland, 1979. Infant foods as a potential source of diarrheal illness in rural West Africa. Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 73:85–90. Black, R.E., K.H. Brown, S. Becker, A.R.M.A. Alim, and M.H. Merson 1982a. Contamination of weaning foods and transmission of enterotorigenic Escherichia coli diarrhoea in children in rural Bangladesh. Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 76:259–264. Black, R.E., K.H. Brown, S. Becker, A.R.M.A Alim, and I. Huq. 1982b. Longitudinal studies of infectious and physical growth of children in rural Bangladesh. II. Incidence of diarrhea and association with known pathogens. Am. J. Epidemiol. 115:315–324. Black, R.E., G. Lopez de Romana, K.H. Brown, N. Bravo, O.G. Bazalar, and H.C. Kanashiro, 1989. Incidence and etiology of infantile diarrhea and major routes of transmission in Huascar, Peru. Am. J. Epidemiol. 129:785–799. OCR for page 49 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation Elegbe, I.A., O.O. Ojoteitimi, I. Elegbe, and M.O. Akinola. 1982. Pathogenic bacteria isolated from infant feeding teats. Contamination of teats used by illiterate and educated nursing mothers in Ile-Ife , Nigeria. Am. J. Dis. Child. 136:672–674. Feachem, R.G. 1984. Interventions for the control of diarrhoeal diseases among young children: Promotion of personal and domestic hygiene. Bull. W.H.O. 62:467–476. Frank J.F., and H.M. Barnhart. 1986. Food and dairy sanitation. Pp. 765–806 in J.M. Last, J. Chin, J.E. Fielding, A.L. Frank J.C. Lashof, and R.B. Wallace, eds. Public Health and Preventive Medicine, 12th ed. Appleton-Century-Crofts, Norwalk, Conn. Genigeorgis, C.A. 1981. Factors affecting the probability of growth of pathogenic microorganisms in foods. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 179:1410–1417. Horwitz, M.A. 1977. Specific diagnosis of foodborne disease. Gastroenterology 73:375–381. Phillips, I., S.K. Lwanga, W. Lore and D. Wassawa. 1969. Methods and hygiene of infant feeding in an urban area of Uganda. J. Trop. Pediatr. 15:167–171. Rowland, M.G.M., R.A.E. Barrell, and R.G. Whitehead. 1978. Bacterial contamination in traditional Gambian weaning foods. Lancet 1:136–138. OCR for page 50 Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries: Part I: Diarrheal Diseases - Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation This page in the original is blank. Representative terms from entire chapter:

<urn:uuid:6d3b13f8-c72c-4e9c-8bad-4ce03a6abeb8>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1979&page=43

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700212265/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103012-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Nov. 19, 2012 Injured patients were less likely to die in the hospital if they had alcohol in their blood, according to a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health -- and the more alcohol, the more likely they were to survive. "This study is not encouraging people to drink," cautions UIC injury epidemiologist Lee Friedman, author of the study, which will be published in the December issue of the journal Alcohol and is now online. That's because alcohol intoxication -- even minor inebriation -- is associated with an increased risk of being injured, he says. "However, after an injury, if you are intoxicated there seems to be a pretty substantial protective effect," said Friedman, who is assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at UIC. "The more alcohol you have in your system, the more the protective effect." Friedman analyzed Illinois Trauma Registry data for 190,612 patients treated at trauma centers between 1995 and 2009 who were tested for blood alcohol content, which ranged from zero to 0.5 percent at the time they were admitted to the trauma unit. Of that group, 6,733 died in the hospital. The study examined the relationship of alcohol dosage to in-hospital mortality following traumatic injuries such as fractures, internal injuries and open wounds. Alcohol benefited patients across the range of injuries, with burns as the only exception. The benefit extended from the lowest blood alcohol concentration (below 0.1 percent) through the highest levels (up to 0.5 percent). "At the higher levels of blood alcohol concentration, there was a reduction of almost 50 percent in hospital mortality rates," Friedman said. "This protective benefit persists even after taking into account injury severity and other factors known to be strongly associated with mortality following an injury." Very few studies have looked at the physiological mechanisms related to alcohol and injury in humans. Some animal studies have shown a neuro-protective effect from alcohol, but the findings of most animal and previous human studies often contradict one another because of different study criteria. Friedman says it's important for clinicians to recognize intoxicated patients but also to understand how alcohol might affect the course of treatment. Further research into the biomechanism of the protective phenomenon is needed, he said. If the mechanism behind the protective effect were understood, "we could then treat patients post-injury, either in the field or when they arrive at the hospital, with drugs that mimic alcohol," he said. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: - Lee S. Friedman. Dose–response relationship between in-hospital mortality and alcohol following acute injury. Alcohol, 2012; 46 (8): 769 DOI: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2012.08.006 Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

<urn:uuid:818ea4cb-eb46-4c5e-bf7c-ec5b38e32023>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121119132108.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Exploring trends and developments in project management today Once you have planned your project, turn your attention to developing several goals that will enable you to be successful. Goals should be SMART - specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time-based. A goal might be to hold a weekly project meeting with the key members of your team or to organise and run a continuous test programme throughout the project. The acronym SMART has a number of slightly different variations, which can be used to provide a more comprehensive definition for goal setting: S - specific, significant, stretching M - measurable, meaningful, motivational A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable This provides a broader definition that will help you to be successful in both your business and personal life. When you next run a project take a moment to consider whether your goals are SMART goals. To quote renowned American philanthropist Elbert Hubbard: "Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organised their energies around a goal." - Well defined - Clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the project - Know if the goal is obtainable and how far away completion is - Know when it has been achieved - Agreement with all the stakeholders what the goals should be - Within the availability of resources, knowledge and time - Enough time to achieve the goal - Not too much time, which can affect project performance Download our free SMARTER Goals template. How to Write a SMART Goal (Video) The acronym SMART tells us to write achievable and effective goals, but how do you write a SMART goal? This short video tutorial looks at the dos and don'ts of writing SMART goals. 8 Strategies for Achieving SMART Goals Setting goals is easy but achieving them isn't. That's why setting "SMART" goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely - is the first step in making your goal a reality. Use SMART Objectives to Focus Goals, Plans and Performance Objectives that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic/Relevant, and Time-bound) are likely to be achieved. Learn how to develop SMART objectives with the power to focus goals, work plans, and commitment to performance targets. Because meaningful and practical measures are built in, SMART objectives also enable feedback and learning that can keep you on track to success. Setting SMARTER Goals in 7 Easy Steps The mnemonics SMART and SMARTER are useful when setting project goals and objectives. They provide a way of ensuring everyone understands them, they are trackable, relevant, there are enough resources to achieve them and a firm deadline is set. Try these seven steps to help you set SMARTER goals for your projects. Common Cost Management Mistakes - Not understanding what is involved to complete an item of work. - Starting with an amount of money and making the project cost fit it. - Assigning resources at more than 80% utilisation. - Failing to build in contingency. - Providing estimates under pressure in project meetings. 21 Ways to Excel at Project Management The popular project management eBook fully updated and available as a website.

<urn:uuid:19b8f9d3-9474-4921-b80b-51ba74b34994>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.html?comments_page=5

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704133142/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113533-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

UNICEF appeals for global community to rise to the survival challenges facing children as flood waters drop DHAKA/NEW YORK/GENEVA, 12 August 2004 - After overwhelming floods some of the poorest children in the world are trying to rebuild their lives while facing increasing risks of disease. The devastating effects of the continuing Monsoon rains are threatening the development gains made by people in Bangladesh, which is one of the densest populated countries in the world. Millions of households have had their safe drinking water, food and shelter snatched away. Children who are exposed, thirsty and under nourished will be particularly vulnerable to disease and diarrhoea for the immediate future. UNICEF is concentrating efforts to address the immediate survival needs of affected children, while trying to ensure that long term health, education and sanitation is not neglected. The agency’s US$ 54.946 million component of the UN’s flash appeal launched today in Dhaka highlights infant and young child food needs disease and illness prevention as well as funding requests to restore safe water supplies and latrines. ‘The type of shock that children and their families have suffered in Bangladesh will continue to threaten their survival and well being for months, if not years, to come,’ said Morten Giersing, the UNICEF representative in Bangladesh. ‘We know that there are at least 1 million malnourished children amongst the affected population. We are taking immediate steps to access the most vulnerable to ensure basic health and nutrition as a life saving priority. As the flood waters recede the amount of dangerous pathogens from sewage concentrated in every cup of water is likely to increase. These are immediate concerns as diarrhoea will be a major killer if it is not treated.’ UNICEF has already answered requests from the government by providing vital supplies. By today the agency had provided 1 million packets of oral rehydration salts, 25,000 bags of IV fluid as well as water containers and cleaning materials for food shelters and health clinics. UNICEF has staff working in all 64 affected districts of the country. ‘We need more support, and quickly,’ said Mr Giersing. ‘Malnutrition contributes to two thirds of the child deaths in Bangladesh and increasing rates translates into large numbers of children dying or having a life of impaired development.’ * * * * For further information, please contact: Naseem-Ur Rehman, UNICEF Bangladesh Chief, Comm. & Information Tel: 9335807, 9336701/209, 0171 595045, Kate Donovan, UNICEF New York, 212 326 7452 For nearly 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children, working on the ground in 158 countries to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, quality basic education for all boys and girls, access to clean water and sanitation, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of governments, businesses, foundations and individuals, and through our National Committees for UNICEF we sell greeting cards and other products that help advance humanity.

<urn:uuid:9f2c610e-396f-443d-88c4-7077179d3063>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_32822.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704134547/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113534-00091-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

- Enter a word for the dictionary definition. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48: Northwestern \North`west"ern\, a. Of, pertaining to, or being in, the northwest; in a direction toward the northwest; coming from the northwest; northwesterly; as, a northwestern course. [1913 Webster] Northwestward

<urn:uuid:41625f8f-3d8c-4fc1-9cd3-a84f7008837c>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.crosswordpuzzlehelp.net/old/definition/northwestern

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705318091/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115518-00094-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Cryptanalysis of MD5 and SHA: time for a new standard At the Crypto 2004 conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., this week, researchers announced several weaknesses in common hash functions. These results, while mathematically significant, aren't cause for alarm. But even so, it's probably time for the cryptography community to get together and create a new hash standard. One-way hash functions are a cryptographic construct used in many applications. They are used with public-key algorithms for both encryption and digital signatures. They are used in integrity checking. They are used in authentication. They have all sorts of applications in a great many different protocols. Much more than encryption algorithms, one-way hash functions are the workhorses of modern cryptography. By Bruce Schneier at Computerworld. [ Read more ] By subscribing to our early morning news update, you will receive a daily digest of the latest security news published on Help Net Security. With over 500 issues so far, reading our newsletter every Monday morning will keep you up-to-date with security risks out there.

<urn:uuid:3ab636e2-8914-4bca-ad11-9d63c314ef8e>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.net-security.org/news.php?id=5891

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700497024/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103457-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

June 20, 2008 In the microcosm, electrons move with awesome rapidity. Within just a few attoseconds the particles in atoms jump between adjacent atoms in a molecule or solid from one location to another. These jumps are the cause of light being emitted in the region of the visible, ultraviolet or X-ray spectrum. They are also responsible for deformation and resulting malfunctioning of biomolecules, or transmission of biological information in the nerves. Observation of such jumps calls for technologies allowing such short times to be measured. This is done with light pulses. To generate attosecond pulses the Garching physicists use the strong electric field of flashes in the near, infrared laser light. In the hyper short laser flashes this field performs hardly more than a single strong oscillation with a period of approx. 2.5 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is 1000 attoseconds). That is: the light wave now comprises just two high wave peaks and a deep wave valley between them. The force exerted by the electric light field on the electrons is strongest at the summits and the lowest point of the valley; strong enough to liberate electrons which are ejected from rare-gas atoms in the experiment at Garching. This leaves ion rumps. With the oscillation of the light field the force changes direction and very soon hurls the electrons back to the ion rumps. The re-colliding free electrons induce extremely fast electron oscillations which last just attoseconds and thereby emit light flashes of the same duration. These flashes are then in the region of extreme ultraviolet light (XUV, approx. 10 to 20 nanometers wavelength). Controlled production of this single strong light oscillation within a hyper short flash has now allowed the Garching research team for the first time to release electrons exactly three times during a single laser pulse. On returning to the ion they then emit exactly three attosecond pulses. Each femtosecond laser flash thus generates three attosecond pulses. One of these pulses has a particularly high intensity, providing more than 100 million photons in a period of just 80 attoseconds. This pulse is filtered out with special x-ray mirrors from Prof. Ulf Kleineberg, resulting in a single isolated x-ray pulse of 80 attosecond duration. The new generation of attosecond pulses, with unprecedented brevity and intensity, owes its existence to the physicists’ ability to use their laser flashes to limit ionisation (release of electrons) to a single oscillation period of the laser light. With their experiments the Garching physicists are advancing measurement technology into hitherto unknown time dimensions. "Pulses shorter than 100 attoseconds will provide access to hitherto unresolved electron dynamics, particularly electron-electron interactions in real time", states Dr. Eleftherios Goulielmakis, who is head of the team, conducting the experiments in Prof. Krausz’ research group. "Electrons are omnipresent in vital microscopic processes just as in technology. Their ultrafast motion governs the course of all biological and chemical processes, as well as the speed of the microprocessors constituting the core of computers", explains Ferenc Krausz. Many of these processes, such as the energy transfer between electrons or the reaction of particles to external influences, can take place within just a few attoseconds. "With our light pulses we are making these phenomena more clearly visible", adds the Austro-Hungarian physicist. Just as with high speed-photography, the images from the microcosm are made all the sharper, the shorter the light pulses with which they are flashed. "By means of attosecond technology we shall one day be able to observe in real time how the microscopic motion of electrons in molecules initiates diseases such as for example, cancer. We shall likewise be able to switch electric current in atomic circuits with infrared light many trillionth times per second", says Ferenc Krausz.

<urn:uuid:38fefbf3-e198-4cf8-b594-8eb206d47be1>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.mpg.de/568449/pressRelease20080620?filter_order=LT&research_topic=PA-TP_PA-PP_PA-QP

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706637439/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121717-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Around the globe, many countries have set 2020 renewable energy goals with the hope of reducing emissions and dependence on expensive foreign oil and gas imports. Scotland is right on track for its goal of 100 percent energy from renewables by 2020, according to a new government report. The Electricity Generation Policy Statement (EGPS) released by the Scottish government emphasized emissions reduction by means of carbon capture and storage for fossil fuel power plants as well as addition of renewable energy generation instead of new nuclear plants. Nuclear energy currently comprises nearly a third of the country’s electricity generation (see graph above). But the government predicts that if major changes can be put into effect in the coming decades, nuclear will become a smaller percentage of the mix and overall emissions will drop drastically, with carbon being eliminated completely from emissions by 2030. If succesful, the government predicts that household electricity prices will also fall from the projected 2020 cost of £1,379 to £1,285. Scotland’s goal might not be so far-fetched. The country already boasts a relatively high percentage of renewables: nearly a fifth of the country’s power is from hydro and other renewable generation sources, more than any other country in the United Kingdom. Wave and tidal power may become more significant sources of electricity generation for Scotland as well, as the country is surrounded by water and has easy access to waves. Scotland houses the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) that is busy researching and developing wave and tidal power. Devices there range from small underwater wind turbines to large 500 kilowatt (kW) and even 800 kW wave and tidal devices. Pages: 1 2

<urn:uuid:54c2ed91-9e36-4993-8ae7-96b720926ea8>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.earthtechling.com/2012/03/scotlands-clean-energy-path-avoids-new-nukes/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Search for native plants by scientific name, common name or family. If you are not sure what you are looking for, try the Combination Search or our Recommended Species lists. Search native plant database: Ribes oxyacanthoides L. USDA Symbol: riox USDA Native Status: Native to U.S. Not recommended; carries disease which kills white pine. Plant CharacteristicsDuration: Perennial Habit: Shrub Autumn Foliage: Bloom InformationBloom Color: Yellow , Green , Brown AK , ID , ME , MI , MN , MT , ND , NE , NV , OH , OR , SD , UT , WA , WI , WY Canada: AB , YT Native Habitat: Forest Edge,Rocky Bluff,Lakeshores USDA Native Status: L48(N), AK(N), CAN(N) Growing ConditionsLight Requirement: Sun , Part Shade , Shade BenefitConspicuous Flowers: yes Recommended Species Lists Find native plant species by state. Each list contains commercially available species suitable for gardens and planned landscapes. Once you have selected a collection, you can browse the collection or search within it using the combination search. View Recommended Species page Record Modified: 2007-01-01 Research By: TWC Staff

<urn:uuid:a786c575-8422-4ea3-9b58-0c7a4f9b6719>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=riox

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699755211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102235-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Ever since the invention of the printing press and the rise of literature, architecture faded as a method of artistic communication. Victor Hugo lamented, “Architecture is dead, irrevocably dead, killed by the printed book.” Robert Venturi referenced Hugo’s claim in an admission that architecture’s artistic communication had indeed been skewed. Yet he strongly disagreed that “architecture left to itself, abandoned by the other arts, because human thought has deserted it, must employ the artisan in default of the artist.” Human thought had abandoned architecture only because architecture attempted to create culture rather than communicate its image. The role of the architect could once again be significant by how he engages art and human thought. Venturi sought to connect human thought with architecture in order to retain its artistic necessity. Human communication, like in literature, was essential for architecture. Philip Johnson likewise asserted, “Today, architecture is not acknowledged as basic to human activity… Our thinking is dominated by the word… Yet values can change… architecture, as in all the world’s history, could be the art that saves.” These Post-Modernists used cultural and symbolical references eclectically to communicate in architecture, overturning Modernists ideals. Post-Modernism's emphasis of artistic communication returned architecture's focus to aesthetics and image, which Johnson and Venturi achieved by different means. Focus on aesthetics made architecture a medium of communication rather than the source and its timeless purpose became once again to serve culture rather than dictate it. It's About Cultural Image, Not Morality Venturi and Johnson ignored moralism as they concentrated on aesthetics and image. This often clashed with the "reformation" effort of Modernism that sought to influence culture. Robert Venturi assimilated the new big cultural influence- “counter-reformation” art into architecture by considering the values of Las Vegas’ flashy, theatrical atmosphere. Las Vegas’s sea of bright signs clashed with Modernist ideals of pure form. In the introduction of his book ‘Learning from Las Vegas,’ he asserted such art was valuable strictly for its “architectural communication”, that “as the analysis of the structure of a Gothic cathedral need not include a debate on the morality of medieval religion, Las Vegas’ values are not questioned here…” He refused to sacrifice culture for a moral agenda. The morals of Philip Johnson were also questionable, for example his well-known ties to Nazism. Johnson maintained it was the power of the Nazis that was so attractive rather than their ideals, and when his attention turned to architecture, he remained affixed on the powerful display of an edifice, the aesthetic quality rather than the social, economic, political, or moral values. As Venturi was focused on culture, Johnson was focused on power. He was a romantic architect, and for this reason he was impressed by “pageantry- the leather jackets, the parades of goose-stepping soldiers, the nocturnal rallies with search lights scanning the skies- at which the Nazis were so skilled.” The fixation seemed to reflect his own career, as he was more significant in how he talked than how he produced architecture; he was a celebrity who produced celebrity architecture, achieving greatness mainly by talking. Likewise, his designs aimed for greatness by their image rather than by some profound innovation. It's about Impression, not FunctionPost-Modernists went on to question Modernism’s purity and pristine demands, starting with throwing out the notion that form depends on function. Philip Johnson studied at Harvard University under Walter Gropius who had Bauhaus training, but made a huge splash in the architectural world when he declared that aesthetic image and monumentality of a design are more important than functionalism. He concentrated on how one viewed the building, including his “procession”, or experience as he moved through it. He played with how the occupant might be tricked; taking advantage of what he expects to him comfortable, something which he called “safe-danger.” His design of the Kirstein Tower included high steps with no railing, giving the user a precarious feeling. The steps of his Fort Worth Water Garden design included a chasm with water running through it. Such sublime devices helped restore architecture’s subliminal influence on people, more so than mere function. As well as influencing him as a romantic, concentration on form led him to integrate landscape and natural surroundings into his design. Even though function was less important for the form, the context of the building was all the more pertinent. He was impressed by how Frank Lloyd Wright used landscape to produce an effect. His first major work, the Glass House, took advantage of its natural surroundings and created a wonderful overall impression in this way. The little building was entirely framed glass, in which the outside of the building greatly influenced the inner dwelling. Complexity and ContradictionVenturi also valued continuity between the inside and outside of a building, finding this a major opportunity for contradiction in architecture, something which he championed in his ground-breaking book ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.’ He stated “The inside should be expressed on the outside,” because a building's context changes the meaning of its form. Johnson worked with Mies van der Rohe whose slogan was "less is more," and also had minimalist tendencies himself as he used straightforward forms to achieve aesthetics. Robert Venturi agreed that form is superior to function, but disagreed with Johnson on minimalism and declared "less is bore." Venturi’s book "Complexity and Contradiction" elevated him to greatness in effecting change in the architectural world. It became an important benefit by throwing out the dependence on function. Once again things could be multifarious. Venturi revived the Baroque inclination to change things around merely to discover a more interesting form. In ‘Complexity and Contradiction’ he boldly stated: "I like elements which are hybrid rather than “pure,” compromising rather than “clean,” distorted rather than “straightforward,” ambiguous rather than “articulated,” perverse as well as impersonal, boring as well as “interesting,” conventional rather than designed,” accommodating rather than excluding, redundant rather than simple, vestigial as well as innovating, inconsistent and equivocal rather than direct and clear. I am for messy vitality over obvious unity. I include the non sequitur and proclaim the duality." He allowed social or economic issues to exist rather than designing them away, for the design was about the impression over anything else. The entire complexity and contradictory nature of culture was in the impression. Johnson was a romantic, but Venturi was an impressionist, looking for how all the details could create a visual whole. In searching for “image- image over process or form,” Venturi considered how symbolic or representational elements may contradict the form, structure, or program of a building. He gave two examples. The “duck” building’s space, structure, or program is distorted by an overall symbolic form, for example a building shaped like a duck. The “decorated shed’s” space and structure is at service of a program and ornament is applied independently. This is like a shack that is prettied up to sell T-shirts at the beach. Both are contradictory in design, but the important thing is that they use past experience and emotional association rather than function to achieve the form. Quoting Icons of the PastTo create a perceptual whole, both Venturi and Johnson utilized past styles and edifices. Venturi worked with the history of architecture, specifically Italian Mannerism, French and German Rococo, and the Early Modern works. He referenced Isfahan, Samarakand, and Samarra styles to respond to Islamic architecture in his design of Iraq’s State Mosque. He looked at the forms independent of their specific cultural or historical significance, and all that mattered to him was how they might contribute to the perceptual whole experience of his project. Johnson looked at European architecture, particularly Germany’s International Style. He leaned classical in his eclectic choices, and was always varied and indiscriminant. But he was consistent in that he looked at history for impressive forms. He appeared with Hitchcock in the Museum of Modern Architecture in 1932 and was monumental running the museum through the years. This showed his dedication in keeping the body of architecture through history intact in people. He looked at Duchamp’s varied juxtaposition of scales in his art piece ‘Drunken Rook’ as inspiration for the contrast of between the larger than normal lamp posts and his tower on Boston 500 Boyston Street. With his Guadalajara, Mexico project he manipulated Platonic solids for his forms. For the famous cap of his AT&T Building in New York, he looked at the broken pediment at Petra in Jordan. He sought a formidable entrance, based the façade on Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel, and re-established the stone clad buildings that New York used to know. New Perceptions of Old FunctionsVenturi was interested in the lost art of using symbols in architecture for human communication. He used the symbol of a window frame on the outside façade simply to accentuate the window’s appearance. But he went further in using symbols, searching for symbols that might be used out of their normal context, like the duck building example, and how they might effect the viewer. Such rearranging of form, he said, changes the architectural meaning: “Familiar things seen in an unfamiliar context become perceptually new as well as old.”) Thus, all styles could be used, according to the tastes of society. It was up to society, the social or technological relevance of the day, to decide which elements were relevant to the design. As an example of this, he referenced electronics, calling that the “relevant revolution today” in a sculptural design of antennas. This showed that if books had killed architecture, television and other recent media advances were to kill the book. Literature, architecture, television, and all other media had important relationships in art. One could be a symbol in the other’s communicating. Like the book uses symbols to convey messages, and as Cathedrals used statues and other symbols to communicate, Venturi found such symbols to be timelessly relevant to architectural design. Hugo was the first to connect symbols with architecture: “Architecture… developed with human thought; it became a giant with a thousand heads and arms, capable of holding in on visible, tangible, eternal form all this floating symbolism.” And so, his architectural references to history and symbols were what made Venturi’s buildings artistic, and his ability to eclectically design generated forms that were interesting to the people. The Ghost of Architecture When Venturi looked upon Modernism and found that what Hugo had predicted was true, that “this architecture… survived only as a specter, a shadow,” that it was “decrepitude and decay,” what was he to do? In his Franklin Court project, he built a “skeleton” where Benjamin Franklin’s house once stood, called it a “ghost structure,” and said, “Might not this ghost also symbolize the death of architecture predicted by Hugo?” For him and Philip Johnson, architecture was still an essential art, which could be saved by admitting that its ability to communicate determined its livelihood. They didn’t attempt to create a new movement; indeed Venturi always removed himself from any ties with the “post-modernist movement.” But they returned Modernism’s focus to aesthetics through various means, by removing the moralist, social, and political baggage, and the dominance of function over form, and by applying complexity and contradiction to engage the occupant. The use of symbols to communicate, they found, was timeless for this art, and history could be used to find forms which effect people. The final form of the edifice was its saving grace as art, and as the book is essential after the advent of television, so architecture will always be essential to mankind. It is an art that goes with trends rather than sets them, that reacts to and maintains culture. Can this attitude keep architecture alive, or is it just prolonging the inevitable death? Postmodernism suggested architecture may in fact already be dead, but is still so important to mankind that even its ghost is the art that saves. *See Robert Venturi’s Reference to Hugo in “Venturi, Rach & Scott Brown” by Stanislaus von Moos (3) Wodehouse “A World History of Architecture” McGraw Hill, 2004. pages 542,544

<urn:uuid:c632f62f-f009-498a-9c7e-454fd5f164eb>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://architecturerevived.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711406217/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133646-00083-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Do you feel bad after eating certain foods? Are your symptoms caused by a food allergy? This health blurb offers some fundamental information, yet one way to be sure is to have a food allergy test done. A food allergy is your body’s immune system inappropriately responding to a component in food, usually a protein. Allergic reaction symptoms to food could happen in a matter of minutes or take as long as an hour. And for some, the reaction is so severe that it causes death. Basically what happens when you’re allergic to a certain food is at some point your body determined it to be allergen. As a result, an antibody is produced that’s designed to guard against another invasion by that food. Eat it after this faulty determination and a histamine bombardment causes many of those symptoms associated with an allergy. When you first take a bite of an allergic reaction causing food you may experience mouth itchiness, swollen tongue, metallic taste and swallowing difficulty. As this food is digested through your gastrointestinal system, it may cause some of these symptoms: Should the food allergen be absorbed into your bloodstream and travel out to your skin, then hives and rash may appear. And your skin condition may or may not itch. You could also experience further symptoms, like: - runny nose - throat tightness - difficulty breathing - hypotension causing faint feeling The degree of allergy symptoms and the amount of food needed to elicit a reaction varies among individuals. Some foods known to cause an allergic reactions are: - tree nuts Nuts are the leading cause of the potentially deadly anaphylaxis reaction. What is the difference between a food allergy and food intolerance? Those with food intolerance (gluten, lactose) may experience digestive type symptoms similar to a food allergy, but the cause is typically due to a lacking enzyme and not a reaction generated by the immune system. A food intolerance is far more common than a food allergy. Other chemicals affiliated with food that might be causing your symptoms are: - food additives - food poisoning If your symptoms indicate you have a food allergy, then a confirming test probably should be done by your health care provider. Food Allergy Test There are a couple approaches when testing for a food allergy. One is a skin prick test wherein a small amount of the food is placed on the skin and the area is pricked with a needle to get it under the surface. If you’re allergic your skin will react. Another is a blood test that checks the amount of antibodies produced in response to eating a particular food. Standing alone, these food allergy tests are not considered foolproof. In order to strengthen these test results, any other health condition that could cause your symptoms needs to be ruled out as well.

<urn:uuid:9fa35faf-83f3-4969-b908-f9aa5aa37162>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.healthblurbs.com/food-allergy-causes-allergic-reaction-symptoms-food-allergy-test/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702652631/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111052-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

PULLMAN, Wash. -- A disease you are suffering today could be a result of your great-grandmother being exposed to an environmental toxin during pregnancy. Researchers at Washington State University reached that remarkable conclusion after finding that environmental toxins can alter the activity of an animal's genes in a way that is transmitted through at least four generations after the exposure. Their discovery suggests that toxins may play a role in heritable diseases that were previously thought to be caused solely by genetic mutations. It also hints at a role for environmental impacts during evolution. "It's a new way to think about disease," said Michael K. Skinner, director of the Center for Reproductive Biology. "We believe this phenomenon will be widespread and be a major factor in understanding how disease develops." The work is reported in the June 3 issue of Science Magazine. Skinner and a team of WSU researchers exposed pregnant rats to environmental toxins during the period that the sex of their offspring was being determined. The compounds – vinclozolin, a fungicide commonly used in vineyards, and methoxychlor, a pesticide that replaced DDT – are known as endocrine disruptors, synthetic chemicals that interfere with the normal functioning of reproductive hormones. Skinner's group used higher levels of the toxins than are normally present in the environment, but their study raises concerns about the long-term impacts of such toxins on human and animal health. Further work will be needed to determine whether lower levels have similar effects. Pregnant rats that were exposed to the endocrine disruptors produced male offspring with low sperm counts and low fertility. Those males were still able to produce offspring, however, and when they were mated with females that had not been exposed to the toxins, their male offspring had the same problems. The effect persisted through all generations tested, with more than 90 percent of the male offspring in each generation affected. While the impact on the first generation was not a surprise, the transgenerational impact was unexpected. Scientists have long understood that genetic changes persist through generations, usually declining in frequency as the mutated form of a gene gets passed to some but not all of an animal's offspring. The current study shows the potential impact of so-called epigenetic changes. Epigenetic inheritance refers to the transmission from parent to offspring of biological information that is not encoded in the DNA sequence. Instead, the information stems from small chemicals, such as methyl groups, that become attached to the DNA. In epigenetic transmission, the DNA sequences – the genes – remain the same, but the chemical modifications change the way the genes work. Epigenetic changes have been observed before, but they have not been seen to pass to later generations. While this research focused on the impact of these changes on male reproduction, the results suggested that environmental influences could have multigenerational impacts on heritable diseases. According to Skinner, epigenetic changes might play a role in diseases such as breast cancer and prostate disease, whose frequency is increasing faster than would be expected if they were the result of genetic mutations alone. The finding that an environmental toxin can permanently reprogram a heritable trait also may alter our concept of evolutionary biology. Traditional evolutionary theory maintains that the environment is primarily a backdrop on which selection takes place, and that differences between individuals arise from random mutations in the DNA. The work by Skinner and his group raises the possibility that environmental factors may play a much larger role in evolution than has been realized before. This research was supported in part by a grant to Skinner from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's STAR Program. Source: Eurekalert & othersLast reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009 Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. -- Emily Dickinson

<urn:uuid:9fd4c036-38d1-49e5-a45f-b8b705ffbef0>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2005-06/wsu-wsu052605.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00092-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Image Release - Credit: UNICEF photographs are available for use by bona fide news media organizatioins on condition that photo credit must be given to UNICEF and photographer. For high resolution pictures on this website, please contact [email protected] The 8th October earthquake has had a devastating impact on education in NWFP and Pakistan Administered Kashmir. Officials estimate that 50 percent of the dead were children, many of whom were in schools at the time of the quake. It is estimated that nearly 8000 schools have been destroyed in NWFP and 2000 in UNICEF with support from government and partners has rapidly set up schools in tents and provided school supplies, text books and teaching aids etc. UNICEF is the United Nations focal point for Emergency Education with responsibility for supporting the government to ensure that children return to school. UNICEF has procured 3000 'School in a Box' kits each of which can help operate a primary school with 40 to 80 children. These kits are being used in quake-affected areas to establish temporary schools. UNICEF is also working with International Red Crescent to devise a framework of psycho-social support in schools.

<urn:uuid:7a4789d1-0a50-4b03-a77c-4ffa0c4f58ec>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.unicef.org/pakistan/media_989.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699977678/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102617-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Until about five or so years ago, most exercisers and fitness trainers embraced the idea of the fat-burning zone—a moderate exercise intensity range associated with burning more fat. Today, you’ll find countless articles about “The Fat-Burning Zone Myth". These articles say you need to exercise at a high intensity to burn the most fat. Myth or no myth, the important question is how this all affects your personal weight loss strategy. The idea of a fat-burning zone has its roots in solid science. When you exercise—and even when you’re at rest—your body uses the carbohydrates, proteins and fats it obtains from the foods you eat as fuel. Under normal conditions, the amount of protein your body uses for energy is so small (under 2 percent at rest and for exercise sessions lasting less than an hour) that we don’t consider it in the fuel-burning equation. The battle is between carbohydrates and fats. When your body burns food to create energy, it uses oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. You remember the elementary school diagrams: While plants “breathe in” carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, people do the reverse. By analyzing the air you breathe out, scientists can measure the amounts of these gases produced and consumed. Then, they can determine how much fat and carbohydrate you are burning. The relative levels of carbon dioxide produced to oxygen used are expressed in a ratio called the respiratory quotient, or RQ. This number reveals the relative use of carbohydrates and fats in the energy equation. A quotient of 1.0 would point to complete use of carbohydrates for energy, while a quotient of 0.7 would indicate pure use of fats. Most people have a number that falls somewhere in between. Your body uses varying percentages of fats and carbohydrates throughout the day, largely determined by the level of activity you are engaged in. The less intensely you are working out, the higher the ratio of fat burning to carbohydrate burning. As you increase the intensity, a greater percentage of your calories are burned from carbohydrates rather than fat. In this respect, the low- to moderate-intensity fat-burning zone exists. Now for the myth part. You might infer that you burn more total fat per session when exercising in your “fat-burning” zone than at a higher intensity during which carbohydrates are used more. Minute for minute, this isn’t true. Here’s why: Because you burn more total calories when exercising at higher intensities, the overall total calories burned from fat is still greater at those intensities, even though the percentage of calories coming from fat is slightly lower. Here is a hypothetical example: If Sally exercises at 65 percent of her maximum heart rate, she burns 150 calories in 30 minutes. Of those, 50 percent (or 75 calories) will come from fat. If she increases her intensity to 85 percent of her maximum heart rate, she burns 210 calories. Only 40.5 percent of those come from fat, but that totals 85 fat calories—10 more than she would burn at the lower intensity. So even though your body uses a higher percentage of calories from fat at the lower intensity, it still uses more overall fat at higher intensities because the total number of calories you burn is higher. So is the fat-burning zone a myth? No. Is it a myth that you should exercise in that zone to burn the most fat or lose the most weight? Sometimes. It all depends on your personal preference, how much time you have to exercise and your physical condition. Personal preference: If you do not enjoy working at high or moderately high intensities, you will likely not do it very often or very long. And if you don’t do it often or only do it for a few minutes, you’re not going to burn many calories from any fuel source. From a fat-burning/weight loss perspective, you would be better off working out for 45 minutes at 65 percent of your maximum heart rate than for 20 minutes at 85 percent. If you’re into high-intensity workouts, shoot for a longer duration of 30 to 60 minutes. Time: If you want to lose the most weight and burn the most fat as efficiently as possible, meaning with the least amount of time spent, ramp up the intensity. Physical condition: If you have circumstances that make exercising at high intensities unsafe or uncomfortable (such as excess weight, cardiac issues, arthritis, body alignment challenges or multiple sclerosis), you are better off going lighter (light to moderate exercises) and for longer. In a nutshell: Good: Short duration (20 minutes total) at higher intensities. Better: Long duration (45 minutes total) at moderate intensities. Best: Long duration (45 minutes total) at higher intensities. The next time you workout, also keep these points in mind: Calories are cumulative. They don’t have to be burned in one workout session. Four 5-minute sessions are as good as a 20-minute bout—and maybe better, because you can likely work at higher intensities in the 5-minute sessions and burn more total calories. Also, all calories are created equal. It doesn’t matter if you’re burning calories from formal exercise, recreation, romance or work. Calories are calories, and burning them from any physical activity will reap benefits. Last but not least, when it comes to exercise and weight loss, more is more. The more you workout, the more you calories you’ll burn. Get some inspiration from these ladies and learn to appreciate your behind. Say "goodbye" to winter dryness and get your skin ready for the sunny days ahead! From cave paintings to Kim Kardashian, a review of the bright side and the dark side of the backside. Could you boycott beauty for a year? This author did. Return to the Mobile Site

<urn:uuid:320dc4e0-ed07-4fc8-8a40-4ff60a5d47f7>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.youbeauty.com/body-fitness/columns/lifes-a-sport/exercising-to-lose-weight

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698493317/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100133-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

PRUDHOE BAY, ALASKA RISING along the tundra shores of the Arctic Ocean, 1,200 miles from the North Pole and hundreds of miles from the nearest tree, is a complex of gleaming metal edifices, pipes, flares, electric lights, and gravel roadways. A quarter of the domestic oil supply of the United States is pumped from the oil fields here. Still steaming from subterranean heat, it is fed into the mouth of the trans-Alaska pipeline. Prudhoe Bay, North America's largest oil field with 11 billion recoverable barrels, accounts for 15 percent of the US domestic supply. But after 13 years, America's biggest oil source is starting to run dry. In 1988 Prudhoe production started a 10- to 15-percent annual decline. Within 10 years, state estimates say, production from all North Slope oil fields will be less than half of the current output of 1.7 million to 1.8 million barrels a day. The decline worried producers long before the Persian Gulf crisis erupted. To squeeze as much oil as possible from the sandstone 6,000 to 10,000 feet below the surface, British Petroleum Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and Arco Alaska Inc., the major North Slope operators, have started enhanced-recovery techniques, such as reinjecting water and natural gas beneath the tundra to increase subterranean pressure on remaining oil. They are also working on increasing the natural gas that is pumped up along with oil. However, gas prices are too low to make it worthwhile to ship the gas to market; it is either reinjected or burned off. After the invasion of Kuwait, the US Department of Energy called for North Slope producers to speed up production. But trying to meet short-term demand poses risks of sacrificing long-term recovery. One enhanced-recovery technique, known as ``fracturing,'' which involves cracking oil deposits and filling in the cracks with porous sand granules, can result in cave-ins or clogs that permanently seal wells.

<urn:uuid:808b9885-5039-4b4b-bcb0-f36dbe616250>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://m.csmonitor.com/1990/1016/aoil.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705948348/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120548-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Prof K S Jacob Indian reality calls for regional research, local solutions and national perspectives rather than subservience to international approaches, which do not prioritise India’s needs. Improved public health standards and the antibiotic revolution resulted in the conquering of infectious disease in the western world. Although the HIV/AIDS epidemic did dent human confidence in our ability to tackle infections, its control though education, public health strategies and development of new treatments re-focussed attention and efforts at controlling non communicable diseases in developed countries. The conquest of infections among the upper classes in India through effective interventions of clean water, sanitation, nutrition, housing, vaccination and easy access to health care has made Indian decision makers also take on the challenge of non communicable diseases. Yet, decades after the availability of technology and solutions, India continues to face disproportionate morbidity and mortality from infectious disease. The situation begs the question why. The answer lies in our refusal to take into account the local reality, our reduced emphasis on national priorities, our submission to international recommendations and our failure to set our own health agenda. The polio paralysis: The west eradicated polio by the use of clean water, improved sanitation and the oral polio vaccine. India adopted the use of the oral polio vaccine, sans clean water and sanitation. Many arguments were used to support the use of the oral vaccine over its injectable cousin. The policy pursued for over forty years has not made India polio-free. The voices within the Indian research community that had been arguing for the use of the injectable vaccine were sidelined; the Indian administration listened to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and continued the use of the oral vaccine. The recent re-emergence of polio including the incidence of vaccine-associated polio in many parts of the country has resulted in a rethink of the policy. It is now fashionable to list the merits of the injectable polio vaccine, both in India and within the international research fraternity. Clean water and sanitation, despite their significant contribution to population health, are still not part of India’s battle against polio and infectious diseases. The all-persuasive argument for the use of vaccinations as a panacea to prevent diseases is an example of the medicalisation of public health. The elimination of small pox through vaccination was an outstanding example of disease prevention. However, not all infections are similar. The presence of asymptomatic carriers and feco-oral transmission make the polio virus a completely different cup of tea. The eradication of polio will surely also involve the provision of safe water and sanitation in order to prevent the spread of the virus. The fact that different departments at the WHO and at the Government of India handle water, sanitation and vaccines means a compartmentalisation of the holistic view required to take on the challenge of polio. The swine flu fiasco: The much-hyped swine flu pandemic, predicted by the WHO and fanned by national and international media, never materialised. More people probably died of seasonal flu than from the “pandemic.” It, however, resulted in public panic and the possible re-direction of massive resources to procure medication, masks and vaccines. One suspects that many pharmaceutical companies laughed all the way to the bank. The WHO failed to revise its prediction, after the initial hysteria and despite mounting evidence of the low level of intensity of the infection, resulting in massive financial losses to many governments. International health agencies faced similar situations when the predicted avian flu epidemic also failed to appear. However, the panic resulted in huge economic losses with the culling of millions of birds and the restrictions on travel and tourism across many regions and countries. Typhus tales: The past decade had seen the emergence of acute and debilitating fevers with high mortality rates in India. These patients were negative for the standard aetiologies of typhoid and malaria, common in the country. A systematic investigation into such presentations resulted in the documentation of the re-emergence of scrub typhus and rickettsial infections. Investigations from several districts and states documented the wide prevalence of such fevers. These fevers did not generally respond to the newer antibiotics but showed dramatic improvement with the older but currently infrequently prescribed medication (such as doxycycline). Typhus is localised to India and Asia and falls below the radar of global health agencies, resulting in a lack of international guidelines. Diligent Indian researchers identified the re-emergent typhus and solved the mystery infection. Vacuous new vaccines: Financial institutions and the pharmaceutical industry support vaccines, which are profitable, for the prevention of disease over provision of clean water and sanitation. Despite several recent key reports, which emphasise the dramatic health and economic benefits gained from improvements in water and sanitation, such solutions receive low priority in funding. On the other hand, vaccines, which target diseases with much lower prevalence and that have much less impact on the health of populations, receive generous support. Many lobbies are now arguing for newer vaccines (E.g. vaccines against Haemophilus influenza type b and Streptococcus pneumoniae), developed and used in the west, in India. However, these vaccines target rare conditions in India and play into the hands of the pharmaceutical industry. They take away resources from the task of providing basic public health needs for the country. A cost benefit analysis taking into account the effectiveness against the risks is mandatory for countries with limited health budgets and in resource poor settings. WHO is to advise? : The WHO was set up to promote and coordinate efforts at improving the health of populations across nations. It is responsible for the analysis of causes of ill-health and for recommending solutions to improve the health of populations. It is actively involved in developing international guidelines for the control and eradication of disease. However, the organisation by its very nature, takes an international perspective on issues. While its advice may be technically correct, the diversity of health contexts across nations may make its recommendations less appropriate to country-specific situations. Developed nations rarely follow its advice and set their own health agenda. Some countries like China study its recommendations but employ their own solutions by tailoring the suggested proposals to their local reality. The World Health Organisation, by its composition and funding, is controlled by international and western expertise. Its advice is tailored to a broad context of low and middle-income countries. However, its ability to mobilise resources are limited. Nevertheless, its advice is followed by western and international donor agencies that use their funding schemes to control the health care agenda in low and middle-income countries. Yet, such solutions may not exactly fit the Indian context. While India does provide know-how to the WHO, such expertise seems to be subservient to the overall goals of the international health and financial communities. The way forward Despite over 60 years of independence, India continues to be colonised by the west, but in subtler form. We seek and receive advice from international agencies, which do not fully understand our different context nor acknowledge our priorities. Indian problems require Indian solutions. India needs to highlight its own health priorities and formulate its own health policies. While international advice from the WHO and from donor agencies should be considered seriously, we need to make our own decisions suited to the Indian context. We need to encourage independent thought and local expertise, which provides advice to national authorities and which are accountable for the nation’s health. International advice tailored to meet the needs across national borders may not be suitable for India. Following international advice and recommendations also means throwing one’s hands up in despair, when the suggested solutions fail to deliver. There is a need to set up statutory bodies composed of experts with a genuine track record of research and policy making. Decisions should be based on good evidence, honest discourse and intelligent policymaking. The experts will need to evaluate the health problems of the country, study its context and be involved in decision and policymaking. They should be accountable for their impact on the health of populations. A regular review of strategies, the identification of policies and plans that fail and course corrections or a different approach and direction are mandatory. India has such expertise in health. It needs to be empowered to assess local reality, suggest solutions, make decisions, set the national health agenda for the health of its people. Unless India decides to take the destiny of the health of its people in its own hands, we will not be able to tailor solutions for the Indian context, improve the health of our population and empower our people. Prof. K.S Jacob is on the faculty of the Christian Medical College, Vellore. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the position of any institution or organisation.) An open letter published in Hindu Daily Courtesy : www.thehindu.co.in

<urn:uuid:7c1e518a-ebcc-459b-8f72-d7986c92f308>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.similima.com/infectious-diseases-and-the-colonised-mind/comment-page-1

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704933573/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114853-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Lucky Imaging is a remarkably effective technique for delivering near-diffraction-limited imaging on ground-based telescopes. The basic principle is that the atmospheric turbulence that normally limits the resolution of ground-based observations is a statistical process. If images are taken fast enough to freeze the motion caused by the turbulence we find that a significant number of frames are very sharp indeed where the statistical fluctuations are minimal. By combining these sharp images we can produce a much better one than is normally possible from the ground. We have routinely taken Hubble resolution images (0.15 arcsec resolution) on the Hubble sized telescope is (~2.5 m). More recently we have used the same techniques behind a low order adaptive optics system in order to give even higher resolution on telescopes that are too big to have a significant chance of conventional lucky imaging without adaptive optics assistance. Lucky imaging is not a new idea. The name "Lucky Imaging" came from Fried (1978) though the first calculations of the Lucky Imaging probabilities were first carried out by Hufnagel in 1966 (see reference pages (click here) for copies of the Hufnagel papers that are otherwise difficult to find) and these principles have been used really quite extensively by the amateur astronomy community who have been able to take very high quality images of bright objects such as Mars and the other planets. There is more information about Amateur Lucky Imaging here.. A recent paper by Craig Mackay looks at ways in which the overall efficiency of Lucky Imaging might be improved. One of its perceived disadvantages is that it does require that are relatively large percentage of the images recorded are discarded. By changing the lucky image selection criteria to do some of the selection in the Fourier plane much higher selection percentages may be used. The paper will be published soon in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is entitled "High-Efficiency Lucky Imaging". The abstract of the paper is as follows: "Lucky Imaging is now an established observing procedure that delivers near diffraction-limited images in the visible on ground-based telescopes up to ~2.5 m in diameter. Combined with low order adaptive optics it can deliver resolution several times better than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. Many images are taken at high speed as atmospheric turbulent effects appear static on these short timescales. The sharpest images are selected, shifted and added to give a much higher resolution than is normally possible in ground-based long exposure time observations. The method is relatively inefficient as a significant fraction of the frames are discarded because of their relatively poor quality. This paper shows that a new Lucky Imaging processing method involving selection in Fourier space can substantially improve the selection percentages. The results show that high resolution images with a large isoplanatic patch size may be obtained routinely both with conventional Lucky Imaging and with the new Lucky Fourier method. Other methods of improving the sensitivity of the method to faint reference stars are also described." A copy of the paper may be found here. A second paper has recently been published by Peter Aisher et al., that looks at various strategies that may be used in fitting wavefronts when multiple near-pupil plane images have been recorded. The abstract is as follows: "Increasing interest in astronomical applications of non-linear curvature wavefront sensors for turbulence detection and correction makes it important to understand how best to handle the data they produce, particularly at low light levels. Algorithms for wavefront phase retrieval from a four-plane CWFS are developed and compared, with a view to their use for loworder phase compensation in instruments combining adaptive optics and Lucky Imaging. The convergence speed and quality of iterative algorithms is compared to their step-size, and techniques for phase retrieval at low photon counts are explored. Computer simulations show that at low light levels, preprocessing by convolution of the measured signal with a Gaussian function can reduce by an order of magnitude the photon flux required for accurate phase retrieval of low-order errors. This facilitates wavefront correction on large telescopes with very faint reference stars." A copy of the paper may be found here. AOLI Is a major collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Institute of Astronomy, the IAC in La Laguna, Tenerife, the ING in La Palma and the Universities of Cartegena and Cologne. The acronym AOLI stands for “Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager”. This project aims at building a camera able to deliver diffraction limited images in the visible range. This instrument is first designed for the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope, in the island of La Palma (Canary Islands), but later intended for use on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC). Obtaining optical diffraction limited images is almost impossible to achieve from the ground because of the lack of efficient adaptive-optics systems for wavelength below 1.2-1.6 microns. The atmospheric turbulence rapidly degrades the wavefronts entering the telescope, which results in seeing-limited images with no spatial information below 0.8-1” resolution. Until recently, optical diffraction-limited images were only delivered by the Hubble Space Telescope By combining Lucky Imaging techniques with low order adaptive optics it is possible to obtain diffraction limited images in the visible on ground-based telescopes. AOLI is intended to give a resolution of approximately 3 times that of the Hubble Space Telescope from the ground on the WHT 4.2 m telescope and approximately 8 times that Of the Hubble Space Telescope on the 10.5 m GTC telescope More details about how AOLI works may be found (click here). A recent observing trip (July 2007) to the Palomar 200 inch telescope has been extremely successful. The images we obtained are the highest resolution direct images, about 35 milliarcsec FWHM, ever obtained either from the ground or from space in the visible at about twice the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. Images shown below are of the core of globular cluster M 13. The blinking image shows what the telescope delivers on its own, followed by what it delivers with the adaptive optic system and LuckyCam. The images below show a direct comparison between the conventional image taken under conditions of good seeing (0.65 arcsec), the Hubble image from the ACS (centre) and our Lucky/AO image (right). The Hubble picture goes fainter because the exposure is longer and the wavelength shorter (where CCDs have a much higher sensitivity). The ACS image has been "drizzled" to improve its appearance. The Lucky image is as taken. The markedly better resolution of the Lucky image is clear. This is exactly what is predicted purely because the Palomar 5.1 m telescope is twice the size of the 2.5m Hubble. A planetary nebula is formed when the central star evolves from a red giant to its final white dwarf phase. A relatively short time in the life of the star, possibly 10,000 years in total, gas is ejected from the surface of the dying star. We can look at the expansion velocity of these filaments and sure that the age of the bright inner shells is probably only about 1000 years. The nebula is about 3000 light years from Earth. The image below shows the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) as imaged conventionally by the Palomar 200 inch telescope. The green light is oxygen emission, the red is hydrogen emission, and the blue is near-infrared radiation, again followed by the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC7543) as imaged with the Lucky Camera behind an adaptive optics system on the Palomar 200 inch telescope. The resolution in the Lucky image is lower than Hubble as the image covers four times the area of the M13 images above, but it is still a good demonstration of what can be done from the ground. These images are all slightly lower resolution than those of the globular cluster but nevertheless show the considerable improvement over conventional ground-based imaging that the AO system produces with LuckyCam.

<urn:uuid:8c64fa01-aa25-4ad0-aa28-1772161be864>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/research/lucky/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The economic debacle of 2008 brought the modern economic system to the brink of total collapse. In fact, there was a brief period of weeks in September and October of 2008 when the most powerful people in the world were unsure what was going to happen. The incredible shock and general mayhen that swept through the market when Lehman Brothers and Fannie and Freddie faced collapse resulted in frenzied selling and fear on a catastrophic level. In response to these dire circumstances, Central Bank leaders around the world joined in a historically unprecedented move of unity as they all slashed short-term interest rates to historically low levels in order to ease credit markets and stimulate interbank lending. Magically, it somehow worked. Ailing financial firms were artificially propped up in the United States through an emergency act of Congress, and record low interest rates proved to keep the economy from utter collapse. In fact, just a few months later in March 2009, the global economy bottomed out and global equity markets began quite a substantial bull run, which has lasted for about two years. Of course, the market is still below pre-2008 levels, but the rebound has been remarkable. The question now is what can the Federal Reserve and regulators do to prevent another economic collapse? Too Big To Fail Most experts agree that the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act in the 90’s was a major contributor to the debacle of 2008. This basically made it possible for banks to operate in both commercial and investment banking industries, which means that commercial banks could suddenly take huge risks with cash on deposit. Regulations have now been passed, however, that give regulators the power to break up firms that are too big to fail. If regulators see that a particular firm is structured in such a way that a collapse of the firm could bring down the entire U.S. economy, then the regulators have power to see that the firm is broken up into separate companies. Congress worked with regulators and the Federal Reserve to pass the largest financial regulatory overhaul in July 2010. In response to the 2008 Crisis, Congress sought to bring greater accountability to the entire financial industry. The 2300 page bill signed into law by President Obama outlines numerous significant changes including how large firms can be liquidated. These regulatory moves to bring stricter financial accountability to banks and other financial firms has not had a dramatic impact on the U.S. dollar yet. By far, the largest influencer of U.S. dollar price movement over the last year has been the Federal Reserve’s decision to move forward with a second round of Quantitative Easing. When the Fed began hinting toward a second round of Treasury security purchases, the U.S. dollar came under strong selling pressure in the EUR USD currency pair, as investors shifted capital out of the low yielding dollar and into the higher yielding euro. From July to November 2010, the U.S. dollar underperformed significantly as the forex market worked to price in QE2. The Federal Reserve and regulators continue to work together to help foster an economic environment that possesses certain safeguards in order to prevent another economic debacle akin to that of 2008.

<urn:uuid:aa5e694f-737b-40bf-9f36-1b840d4ba692>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://moneybol.com/federal-reserve-and-regulators-work-together-for-financial-reform/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Modem Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are becoming very popular in embedded systems and high performance applications. FPGA has benefited from the shrinking of transistor feature size, which allows more on-chip reconfigurable (e.g., memories and look-up tables) and routing resources available. Unfortunately, the amount of reconfigurable resources in a FPGA is fixed and limited. This paper investigates the mapping scheme of the applications in a FPGA by utilizing sequential processing (e.g., Altera Nios II or Xilinx Microblaze, using C programming language) and task specific hardware (using hardware description language). Genetic Algorithm is used in this study. We found that placing sequential processor cores into FPGA can improve the resource utilization efficiency and achieve acceptable system performance. ln this paper, three cases were studied to determine the trade-off between resource optimization and system performance. Wang, JingXia and Loo, Sin Ming. (2010). "Case Study of Finite Resource Optimization in FPGA Using Genetic Algorithm". International Journal of Computers and Their Applications, 17(2), 95-101.

<urn:uuid:d02b42e2-001d-4bde-91b7-b1d4f3cb59e6>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/electrical_facpubs/64/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706624988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121704-00096-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The Mothman is one of the strangest creatures to ever grace the annals of weirdness in America. Observers described the Mothman as a man-sized creature, with large reflective red eyes, large moth-like wings and a sign of impending doom. A mysterious and unsolved case, "The Mothman" is the name given to a creature sighted in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia between November 1966, and December 1967. The creature often appeared to have no head, with its eyes set into its chest. A number of hypotheses have been presented to explain eyewitness accounts, ranging from misidentification and coincidence, to paranormal phenomena and conspiracy theories. The strange events connected to the Mothman began on November 12, 1966 near Clendenin, West Virginia. Five men were in the local cemetery that day, preparing a grave for a burial, when something that looked like a "brown human being" lifted off from some nearby trees and flew over their heads. The men were terrified. It did not appear to be a bird, but more like a man with wings. A few days later, more sightings would take place, electrifying the entire region. Sightings of the Mothman started to escalate, with the Mothman plaguing the residents of the area for just over one year. The sightings climaxed and ended with the collapse of the Silver Bridge, plunging 46 vehicles in to the Ohio river. It was proposed that sightings of The Mothman were a sign and warning of the impending doom that was going to befall Point Pleasant in less than 12 months. The Mothman has also been sighted just before other major world disasters; the Chernobyl explosion, the Tsunami in India, Afghanistan and Iraq, and in New York on September the 11th. On November 15, 1966, two young married couples from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, named David and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette, were traveling late at night in the Scarberry's car. They were passing the West Virginia Ordnance Works, an abandoned World War II TNT factory, about seven miles north from Point Pleasant, in the 2,500 acre McClintic Wildlife Station, when they noticed two red lights in the shadows by an old generator plant near the factory gate. They stopped the car, and were startled to discover that the lights were actually the glowing red eyes of a large animal, "shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, with big wings folded against its back," according to Roger Scarberry. Terrified, they drove toward Route 62, where the creature supposedly chased them at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour. Whilst driving away, the Scarberrys claimed to have noticed a dead dog on the side of the road, and in fact made such accurate note of its location that they claimed to have gone back the very next day and looked for it. They drove to the Mason County courthouse to alert Deputy Millard Halstead, who later said, "I've known these kids all their lives. They'd never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously." He then followed Roger Scarberry's car back to the secret ex-U.S. Federal bomb and missile factory, but found no trace of the strange creature. According to the book Alien Animals, by Janet and Colin Bord, a poltergeist attack on the Scarberry home occurred later that night, during which the creature was seen several times. The harrowing experience of the two couples was not the only unusual occurrence that night in Point Pleasant. About 10:30pm contractor Newell Partridge was sitting at home in front of the television. Suddenly, the picture on the screen disappeared. It was replaced by a "herringbone pattern" and a "loud whining noise." He could now hear the familiar sounds of his dog Bandit howling on the porch. Bandit was a big muscular German Shephard who was always on guard, alerting Partridge of any unusual happenings around the house. He was a country dog, and used to defending himself and his family. Partridge quickly made his way to the porch to see what his loyal dog Bandit was making such a fuss about. The dog headed to the family barn, located about one hundred and fifty yards away from the house. Partridge aimed his flashlight in the direction of the barn, and was shocked to see "two circle-like eyes" glowing red in the darkness of the night. "I shined the flash light in that direction, and it picked up two red circles, or eyes, which looked like bicycle reflectors. I certainly know what animal eyes look like... these were much larger" described Partridge after the events. "It's a good length of a football field to that hay barn, still those eyes showed up huge for that distance." Something wasn't right, and Partridge ran back inside the house to get his shotgun, to defend himself from whatever or whoever was trespassing on his property. He spent the night with the gun at his side. When morning broke, he went to find Bandit, worried that he was hurt, or worse, dead. There was no sign of Bandit, but Partridge did find a worrisome clue to his whereabouts. He found tracks in a circular pattern, telling him that Bandit had gone round and round probably barking at something in the air! Bandit was never seen again. Could the body of the dog seen on the outskirts of town by the Scarberry's been that of Bandit? The news of this strange event quickly spread from police headquarters to the local news media. By the next day, more reports of this strange creature were reported to the police. In one report, the Mothman had swooped down over another moving car, frightening the passengers. The following night, on November 16, several armed townspeople combed the area around the TNT plant for signs of the Mothman. Mr and Mrs Raymond Wamsley, and Mrs Marcella Bennett, with her baby daughter Teena in tow, were in a car en-route to visit their friends, Mr and Mrs Ralph Thomas, who lived in a bungalow among the "igloos" (concrete dome-shaped dynamite storage structures erected during WW-II) near the TNT plant. The igloos were now empty, some owned by the county, others by companies intending to use them for storage. They were heading back to their car when a figure appeared behind their parked vehicle. Mrs Bennett said that it seemed like it had been lying down, slowly rising up from the ground, large and gray, with glowing red eyes. While Wamsley phoned the police, the creature walked onto the porch and peered in at them through the window. On November 24, four people reported seeing the Mothman flying over the TNT area. On the morning of November 25, Thomas Ury, who was driving along Route 62 just north of the TNT, claimed to have seen the Mothman standing in a field, and then it spread its wings and flew alongside his car as he sped toward the Point Pleasant sheriff's office. On November 26, Mrs Ruth Foster of Charleston, West Virginia reportedly saw the Mothman standing on her front lawn, but the creature was gone by the time her brother-in-law went out to investigate. Later on the morning of November 27, the creature apparently pursued a young woman near Mason, West Virginia, and was reported again in St. Albans the same night, by two children. A Mothman sighting was again reported on January 11, 1967, and several other times that same year. On the evening of December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge, which crossed the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, collapsed in rush-hour traffic. 46 Cars plunged into the Ohio River, killing many people. There had been a number of sightings of the Mothman on the bridge by drivers just before it collapsed. The Silver Bridge, so named for its aluminum paint, was an eyebar chain suspension bridge that connected the cities of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga over the Ohio River. The bridge was built in 1928. Investigation of the bridge wreckage pointed to the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain due to a small manufacturing flaw. Sightings continued to pour in. Certain features remained consistent - the creature's size, build and hypnotic eyes. Also, malfunctioning radios and televisions featured in many of the reports. Another consistent feature was the fear - people were terrified of the Mothman. Also, a sudden increase of dog disappearances and animal mutilations were reported - and the Mothman was thought to be responsible for those as well. As one would expect with this kind of media coverage, thousands of people poured into the T.N.T. area, hoping for a sighting. Television crews set up at the generator plant, hoping to catch Mothman on film. It was the biggest disaster ever to hit Point Pleasant and it seemed to mark the end of the flurry of Mothman sightings. People began to speculate that the Mothman was somehow responsible for the bridge's collapse. The severity of the accident seemed to turn public attention away from the Mothman and only scattered reports of him have surfaced since then. There were many theories of what the Mothman was, the demonic result of a magic ritual, a biochemically altered bird, or perhaps the embodiment of a 200-year-old Shawnee curse on the land. Not surprisingly, skeptics scoffed at these theories, stating instead that Mothman was probably just some normal bird; probably a sandhill crane. The sandhill crane has reddish patches on its head that could possibly be mistaken for large red eyes. However other large birds have been found in the area as well. In July 1967, several boys found a large vulture near New Haven. And at Gallipolis Ferry, a farmer shot an Arctic snow owl; it was two feet tall with a five-foot wingspan. Many local people were not interested in logical explanations - they were afraid and, by the one year anniversary of the first report, over one hundred incidents linked to Mothman had been reported. A plaque on the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant provides a version of the original legend: "On a chilly, fall night in November 1966, two young couples drove into the TNT area north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, when they realized they were not alone. Driving down the exit road, they saw the supposed creature standing on a nearby ridge. It spread its wings and flew alongside the vehicle up to the city limits."

<urn:uuid:a96899dc-ae46-4cd1-9229-18b3997adfd4>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/index.php/unclassified/351-the-mothman-prophecies-west-virginia-usa

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382560/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) photo courtesy Howard Hall Natural History of the White Shark Range: White Sharks are found in temperate waters around the world. They are most often seen in waters off of large seal and sea lion colonies. Major world wide concentrations occur off South Africa, Austrailia, California, New England and the Mediterranean. We now know they are capable of migrating large distances so for all we know, White Sharks may be travelling between these areas. Breeding: As recently documented at the Farallones female White Sharks appear to give birth only every other year. In the North Pacific pregnant females have been recorded off Japan but not off California suggesting that the California female sharks may migrate to the west Pacific to breed. Litter size ranges from 4-11 pups, which are born live (referred to as ovoviviporous). The annual reproduction rate therefore is only 2-6 pups per year, a very slow reproductive rate. Slow reproduction rates are why sharks are very vulnerable to overfishing. Feeding: Until White Sharks reach about 10 feet in length, they feed exclusively on fish, including skates, rays and other sharks. Once over 10 feet (about 10 years of age) their teeth change shape from pointed and needle like to broad and triangular with sharp cutting edges. This allows their diet to shift to marine mammals including seals, dolphins and whale carcases. White Sharks are visual predators that ambush live prey from below. Life Span: We do not know how long White Sharks live. We have observed several adult sharks at the Farallones for over 15 years, and they do not seem to have changed in appearance. White Sharks do not breed until they are 15 years of age or older, and other animals that defer breeding this long live to be 50-100 years old. We will be able to predict longevity using mark-recapture analysis. Behavior Notes: White Sharks are thought to be solitary in their travels, although they form loose groups in feeding areas. White Sharks must continue to swim at all times or they drown. No one has ever observed White Sharks copulating. Females at the Farallones exhibit bite scars along their gills, assumed to be recieved from males during copulation. Human Interactions: Documenting White Shark attacks along the California coast from 1973 to 1992, John McCosker and Bob Lea authenticated only 43 on humans, mostly surfers and snorkelers; fewer than 10% of these (only four in 20 years) were fatal. Until 1993 it was legal to fish for White Sharks off of California, but PRBO helped draft a state bill to protect them from hunting in California waters. Because of their slow reproductive rate they are very sensitive to disturbance. We are currently recommending regulations to protect the White Shark from disturbance due to "Adventure Tourism" at the Farallones. Download our one-page educational handout: White Sharks: Dispelling the Myths. For more on the Natural History of White sharks visit: Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department shark program Funding for the creation of this web page was generously provided by the Wendy P. McCaw Foundation.

<urn:uuid:a7d18a05-1818-4e11-a15b-1825a9c7b8c1>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.prbo.org/cms/176

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701445114/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105045-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Nov. 26, 2012 Biologists at UC San Diego have demonstrated for the first time that marine algae can be just as capable as fresh water algae in producing biofuels. The scientists genetically engineered marine algae to produce five different kinds of industrially important enzymes and say the same process they used could be employed to enhance the yield of petroleum-like compounds from these salt water algae. Their achievement is detailed in a paper published online in the current issue of the scientific journal Algal Research. The ability to genetically transform marine algae into a biofuel crop is important because it expands the kinds of environments in which algae can be conceivably grown for biofuels. Corn, for example, which is used to produce ethanol biofuel, requires prime farmland and lots of fresh water. But the UC San Diego study suggests that algal biofuels can be produced in the ocean or in the brackish water of tidelands or even on agricultural land on which crops can no longer be grown because of high salt content in the soil. "What our research shows is that we can achieve in marine species exactly what we've already done in fresh water species," said Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology at UC San Diego, who headed the research project. "There are about 10 million acres of land across the United States where crops can no longer be grown that could be used to produce algae for biofuels. Marine species of algae tend to tolerate a range of salt environments, but many fresh water species don't do the reverse. They don't tolerate any salt in the environment." "The algal community has worked on fresh water species of algae for 40 years," added Mayfield, who also directs the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, or SD-CAB, a consortium of research institutions in the region working to make algal biofuels a viable transportation fuel in the future. "We know how to grow them, manipulate them genetically, express recombinant proteins -- all of the things required to make biofuels viable. It was always assumed that we could do the same thing in marine species, but there was always some debate in the community as to whether that could really be done." That debate came to a head last month when a National Academy of Sciences committee examining the future potential of algal biofuels for the U.S. Department of Energy published a report pointing out that the production of algal biofuels might be limited by fresh water because no published research study had demonstrated the feasibility of using engineered marine species of algae. "But now we've done it," said Mayfield. "What this means is that you can use ocean water to grow the algae that will be used to produce biofuels. And once you can use ocean water, you are no longer limited by the constraints associated with fresh water. Ocean water is simply not a limited resource on this planet." The UC San Diego biologists focused their study on a marine species of alga, Dunaliella tertiolecta, which had been earlier targeted by scientists for potential biofuels production because of its high oil content and ability to grow rapidly under a wide range of salinity and acidic conditions. To demonstrate that it could be used in commercial biofuel production, they introduced five genes into the alga that produced five different kinds of enzymes that could be used in an industrial setting to not only convert biomass to fuel, but also increase nutrient availability in animal feed. Some of these enzymes, for example, came from a fungus that degrades plant material into simple sugars. The scientists said in their paper that "we hope to eventually determine whether whole algae, post-oil extraction, may be used as a feed additive to improve animal feeds. Animal feed is a relatively high volume market that may be able to benefit from algae-produced proteins as a feed additive." The UC San Diego biologists -- who included D. Ryan Georgianna, Michael Hannon, Marina Marcuschi, Alex Lewis, James Hyun -- collaborated on their project with three scientists from Sapphire Energy, Inc., a San Diego algal biotechnology company -- Shuiqin Wu, Kyle Botsch and Michael Mendez. Their research effort was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the State of California Energy Commission. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: - D. Ryan Georgianna, Michael J. Hannon, Marina Marcuschi, Shuiqin Wu, Kyle Botsch, Alex J. Lewis, James Hyun, Michael Mendez, Stephen P. Mayfield. Production of recombinant enzymes in the marine alga Dunaliella tertiolecta. Algal Research, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.algal.2012.10.004 Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

<urn:uuid:d4f21f70-2327-4a65-8f7b-763c94cb9f4a>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121126142850.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

October 31, 2011 Slouching toward the 1930sBy Monty Pelerin The current economic crisis rivals the one of the 1930s. Despite shameless propaganda by government and its cronies in the media, people understand that the situation is getting worse. Consumer confidence continues to decline as does confidence in the future. We are headed for an event that history will record as worse than the Great Depression. It is unavoidable. The Level of Debt The principal reason for the dire prediction is the level of debt outstanding. Current debt levels are simply not sustainable. Assets and cash flows cannot support or service this debt. No economic recovery can occur without massive debt reduction. As shown below, current debt is much higher than the 1930s: As a percentage of GDP, debt is at an all-time high. Immediately prior to the Great Depression US debt was about 200% of GDP. It rose briefly to 300% as a result of massive government interventions to combat the Depression. At the beginning of the current downturn, debt was about 370% of GDP. It is about 400% currently. Eyeballing the chart from 1870 forward, debt levels are generally in the range of 150% of GDP. That appears to be the norm for the last 140 years. Only in the 1920s and recently did debt exceed 180% of GDP. Even funding World Wars I and II did not drive debt above 180%. To return to 150% requires a reduction of about $30 Trillion in debt. That represents about two full years worth of GDP! The Political Myths After the 1930s politicians convinced themselves and the public of two things: Both beliefs were false, but both aided politicians' insatiable drive for power and control. Once the public came to believe these myths, government owned the economy. Any economic problem became a political one. Economic slowdowns were no longer politically acceptable. "Don't just stand there, do something" drove economic policy. It was politically impossible to allow an economy to correct on its own. Political action was required, even if such activity was ultimately harmful. Politicians had to do something, anything! Their constituents demanded it. The "government is responsible" attitude quickly spread. Today, virtually any perceived problem or inequity is assumed to be fixable by government. Government readily took on responsibility for virtually every aspect of our lives. The madness is evident. It is assumed that government creates jobs, educates kids, designs toilets and light bulbs. It is necessary to provide mortgages, retirement benefits and healthcare. "Green energy" and other new technologies are assumed impossible without the assistance of government. This litany of the presumed need for government could continue for pages. Virtually all these presumptions are false. Worse, many in the public still believe that these "services" are "free." Every swing in the business cycle, no matter how mild, became the responsibility of government. Government was to step in and "fix" economic problems. Seventy years of such "fixes" preceded our current problem. Economic downturns are both normal and necessary. Individual and business mistakes are remedied via economic slowdowns. Misplaced capital and labor is freed up for more productive uses. When this cleansing does not occur, an economy becomes less efficient and grows at a slower rate. The mistakes remain in place and are perpetuated. Government intervention is not corrective. It is a cover up of prior mistakes. The phrase "pretend and extend" describes what happens. Instead of allowing the economy to correct, government attempts to avoid the correction and the pain by covering up the mistakes. That has been the history of much of the last 80 years. Continued interventionism brought the economy to this crisis point. The artificial boom that began decades ago is exhausted. Response to the dot-com stock market bubble was the last coverup that "worked." The system was flooded with credit and one bubble was replaced with another. Now the housing bubble has burst, marking the high point of "pretend and extend." Credit expansion since 2008 has been impotent. The real economy has stopped responding. Economists who advocate more stimulus or credit are either ill-trained or have political motives. Governmental stimulus and credit expansion created the problem. Recommendations for more of the same qualify as insanity per Albert Einstein's definition. A Worldwide Problem The US is not unique. Most of the developed world is burdened by excessive credit and government spending. Easy credit enabled governments to grow too large and individuals to take on too much debt. The point where markets are unwilling to provide more debt has arrived. The position of the US, thought to be stronger than other countries, is not, as shown in this chart: Rumors of another US credit downgrade circulate for good reason. Governments everywhere are trying to prevent a massive economic and financial correction, but they will not succeed. In order for economies to return to health, debt must be liquidated. De-leveraging must occur. Debt will be paid down and/or defaulted upon. Normal economic growth cannot resume until excess debt is removed from the system. The Problem With De-Leveraging Reducing debt is known as de-leveraging. The ramifications of de-leveraging are not widely understood. Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates discussed the process on the Charlie Rose show (full transcript): The current credit bubble is bigger than the one that preceded and caused The Great Depression. Consumer and government balance sheets are worse than they were eighty years ago. Income is incapable of supporting current debt levels. Reducing debt to manageable levels will produce another Great Depression, likely greater and more painful than the original. Debt reduction requires lower spending and higher savings. Large amounts of debt will not be paid and will be liquidated via defaults. Until now, governments have done everything to prevent this natural process from occurring. According to Dalio, governments have "no more tools in the tool kit." Some governments and private companies will experience bankruptcy. Harrisburg, PA just did so. National government defaults will occur with Greece most likely be the first. When the economy begins to shrink, private companies will follow. The Other Alternative There is no other alternative cure for the economy other than de-leveraging. Governments around the world will attempt to avoid de-leveraging because of the associated pain of a Great Depression. Unfortunately, that is not possible as Ludwig von Mises pointed out: Prior attempts to avoid corrections got us to this point. Now the supply of credit has been exhausted and taxpayers deeply indebted. Another coverup is not possible. The simple summary of what years of governmental intervention accomplished is the impending economic and financial tragedy. Politicians from the past may have gleaned benefits. Our generation is left to pick up the pieces. A printing press is available to most countries. It is no solution to the underlying economic problems, but is the method that the political class will try once again. Doing so will make the situation worse. It steals purchasing power from the private sector. In extremis, it will cause hyperinflation, effectively wiping out the value of savings and fixed contract obligations. Credit creation cannot prevent de-leveraging. It merely defers it and impoverishes the citizens of a country prior to the onset of a Depression. Will the US government engage in such chicanery? Based on past history, the answer must be an unqualified Yes! Jon Hilsenrath, sometimes referred to as the unofficial trial balloon holder for the Fed, has reported: Steve Englander of Citibank describes how Europe will be set up as an excuse for more credit creation: That a Great Depression lies in our near future is not at issue. Whether we are forced down the route of hyperinflation before the correction occurs is unknown. Our best outcome is a Depression tomorrow. Better sooner than later. That is what politicians have provided. Hopefully they will not "do something" but "just stand there." The economy needs to be left alone. Their help is killing us. Hyperinflation will truly destroy. Monty Pelerin blogs at Monty Pelerin's World. FOLLOW US ON

<urn:uuid:18f9d31c-fdad-4398-98f1-c35bb62a7406>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/slouching_toward_the_1930s.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382705/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

created by Edith Blackwood Introduction | The Task | The Process & Resources | Conclusion | HyperText Dictionary You are what you eat. How would you respond to this statement. Come along! Browse through these web links to be: enlightened, educated, entertained, and to set your mind thinking about tomorrow's meal today. Based upon what each of you will learn about a balanced diet and other nutritional facts you will be in a better positon to make sensible decision about what you and your family eat and appreciate the value in the variety of foods in your environment. You will also be more aware of what makes your body ticks and want to explore further information about your nutritional needs for a healthy lifestyle. In the following WebQuest, you will use the power of teamwork and the abundant resources on the Internet to learn all about A Balanced Diet. Each person on your team will learn one piece of the puzzle and then you will come together to get a better understanding of the topic then do a project to share your what you have learned with others. What is the importance of eating a balance diet? In this WebQuest you will be working together with a group of students in class. Each group will answer the Task or Quest(ion). As a member of the group you will explore Webpages from people all over the world who care about A Balanced Diet. Because these are real Webpages we're tapping into, not things made just for schools, the reading level might challenge you. Feel free to use the online Webster dictionary or one in your classroom. You'll begin with everyone in your group getting some background before dividing into roles where people on your team become experts on one part of the topic. Use the Internet information linked below to answer the basic questions of who? what? where? when? why? and how? Be creative in exploring the information so that you answer these questions as fully and insightfully as you can. 1. In your groups access the website http://www.purchon.com/biology/diet.htm 2. Read through the text on A Balanced Diet. While you read focus on the different parts of a balance diet. 3. After reading answer the folling questions. Why does the body need proteins? Name three foods which provide the body with protein? What is the meaning of carbohydrates? What food provie carbohydrates? Why does the body need carbohydrates? What are the nutrients that make a balance diet? 4. Re-group for whole class discussion to complete KWL chart on What we learn about a balance diet. In your journal draw or collect pictures to show your favorite meal and identify the food(s) that provide the nutrients for your diet. role, job or perspective #1Use the Internet information linked below A Balanced Diet to to answer these questions. 1. What is a Balanced Diet? - Definition of a Healthy Balanced diet - A Balanced Diet - This site gives a detail description of the food groups that make up a balanced diet. - Food Facts - TThis is a very colorful site for students with links to explain each food group and activities for food experiment, games an worksheets for students. role, job or perspective #2In your groups access the website http://www.veggie-mon.org/.../food pyramid_fp.gif. Clioc on Nutrition. Group 1 Look at the food pyramid then label the sections correctly on your sheet. Group 2 Click on Nutrition and list each food group and the daily food serving for each group. Group 3 Write the each food group and one food item that provides a daily serving Group 4 What food group is the largest part of the pyramid and why? List foods you eat that fall under this group. 1. What is a daily serving of food? - The Food Pyramid - Displays a graphical presentation of the food pyramid allowing the user to see the propotion of each nutrient for the diet - The Food Guide Pyramid - This is a kids friendly site with many graphical illustrations and activities to entertain and educate the user. - Interactive Food Guide Pyramid - This site has evaluation activities such as quizes and other things to reinforce content while you browse. role, job or perspective #3Access the website http://www.quakeroatmeal.com/wellness/Articles/HE_Food labels.cfm. Read the nutritional facts shown on the label. Click on the different food values such as calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein and read the information.Print a copy of the label. Return to your desk in your groups and read the labels for each food item in the collection ( juice boxes, chips, fruit drink boxes, Complete the blank spreadsheet by filing in the names of the product and the amount og sugar, fats and calories they contain. 1.What do we learn from food labels? - How to read food labels - The site provides information on the different parts of a food label. - Food values per serving - Explains the concept of a daily serving for each of the food groups. - What to look for when reading food labels - Gives on example of a food label explains what percentage of the daily serving the each nutritional fact represents. and the percentage nutritional v role, job or perspective #4Use the Internet information linked below to explore and compare the traditional diets of different cultures.(Click on a cultural group). Then discuss in your groups your likes and dislikes of What food you and your family eat for special celebration. What food you would prepare for Thanksgiving. How is food in America different from other countries. 1.What are some of the factors that influence what people You have all learned about a different part of A Balanced Diet. Now group members come back to the larger WebQuest team with what they have learned about diet and nutrition and prepare a scrapbook on Promoting healthy eating habits. You will also display information by constructing a graph on nutritional value in different brands of snacks, and juices. You will write in your journals how you will use this knowledge to make better food choices. You will plan a balanced breakfast for the class. You and your teammates have learned a lot about the importance of a healthy balanced diet. Now's the time to put your learning into a project that will educate and enlighten others of the value they get from the foods they eat and the different sources of nutrients. Together you will will write a letter to a Nitritionists letter that contains opinions, information, and perspectives that you've gained and invite him/her to come and give a talk on Promoting healthy eating habits to your school family. 2. You will also design a poster to promote healthy eating in your school. 3. Create a graphic illustration of the Food Pyramid using pictures grocery coupons. 4. Collect labels of food served at your school cafeteria and highlight the nutritional values. Your Contact is: Edith Blackwood So do you agree with the statement you are what you eat. Can you help to make the grocery list for the family and ensure all the nutrients are accounted for in the right amount? Were you one of those persons who hate to eat vegetables? Oh! you had so much candy during Halloween now you are wondering if that was a smart choice. Whatever is your concern about eating the right foods this webquest should have provided you with a clearer picture of the importance of the food you eat to your body. Now you all know a lot more. You should be proud of yourselves! What other parts of A Balanced Diet could still be explored? Continue the quest for proper nutrition. It pays to eat right. Remember, learning never stops. Content by Edith Blackwood, [email protected] Last revised Mon Nov 3 21:55:21 US/Pacific 2003

<urn:uuid:d9e5f3ee-7870-4a1d-b721-45c2e8dc186c>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/webabalanced1.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702957608/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111557-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The amazing XO laptop is designed for the half-billion kids in the world who have no electricity and it can run very well on solar energy, batteries, electricity or even pedal power! " can all be used to create energy and provide great alternatives to using fossil fuels. We burn tons of coal — a non-renewable resource that takes MILLIONS of years to make — to create electricity. And burning it creates huge amounts of carbon dioxide that making global warming even warmer. It's true — two researchers created a stool that captured the energy of someone sitting down to power LED lights! Scientists are doing just about everything but turning the power off in schools! Water has been used as a power source for thousands of years. Hydropower rocks because it doesn't pollute and it's super-cheap! Heat is created continuously deep in the center of the Earth and can be used for geothermal They all exist, but the foot-powered car is the greenest, using human power instead of electricity or gas. and rivers are constantly moving, creating hydropower. The pool only moves when someone does a cannonball! Good thing: nuclear power plants don't produce carbon dioxide. Bad: they produce dangerous radioactive waste. Just how green are you? Count up the number of answers you got right and check the greenometer below:

<urn:uuid:031cadf8-f6df-44dd-943a-a7952b392691>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://meetthegreens.pbskids.org/episode5/energy-quiz.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709101476/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125821-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Gulf of Thailand Basins The regional pattern of the grabens and related faults strongly suggests that the grabens in the Gulf of Thailand are the result of the collision of India with Central Asia that began in Eocene time. The collision forced the area to the west of the Gulf of Thailand to the north and west relative to the area to the east, causing grabens and strike-slip faults with right- lateral movements, as well as en-echelon normal faults trending generally north-south. A similar structural picture has been mapped onshore Thailand. The only modern Southeast Asian analogue to the Gulf of Thailand basins during Tertiary time is the Tonle Sap area in Cambodia. This large lake is today being filled with lacustrine sands and shales and in places with fresh-water limestones. These lacustrine shales are sufficiently rich in organic matter to be excellent oil source rocks. The reason that most hydrocarbon production in the Gulf of Thailand is gas is the combination of deep burial and high thermal gradients. Because the source units are not laterally extensive, they are absent on the basin flanks where they would be in the oil window. Not all basins in the Gulf of Thailand have adequate lacustrine source rocks. An important factor in the deposition of lacustrine shale source rocks is that the lake in question should have a limited sediment supply relative to the rate of subsidence, so an open lake can form. In the Gulf of Thailand, the sediment supply was probably controlled by the river systems in existence during the Tertiary. The thick source rock sequences of the Chumpon, Kra and North Pattani Basins indicate that the Paleo Chao Phraya River system probably bypassed them. Migration of hydrocarbons in rift basins tends to be lateral in the central parts but nearly vertical along the basin margins. The major reason for this is that the basin-bounding faults are usually active over much of the basin's history, which causes many normal and strike-slip faults to form that serve as barriers for lateral migration of hydrocarbons. In the central parts of the basins, faults are scarcer and turbidite distributary fan lobes act as conduits for hydrocarbon migration toward the basin margins. Carbon dioxide content is a common problem in gas reservoirs in the Gulf of Thailand. This problem occurs intermittently from the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area in the south all the way to Jasmine Field in the north. The problem is not unique to the deepest parts of the basins, suggesting that it may be due to overmature source rocks in the Pre-Tertiary section. The Malay Basin is a major oil-producing basin offshore peninsular Malaysia, but yields mostly gas in Thailand. The Thai portion of the Malay Basin includes the Bongkot Gas Field, Thailand's largest, as well as recent major gas discoveries in the Arthit area that have added substantially to Thailand's gas reserve base. The Malay Basin has more marine influence than the Pattani Basin. Although large voumes of oil are produced from this basin in Malaysia, the only oil production on the Thai side is from oil rims in shallow gas reservoirs in the northern part of Bongkot Field. These have been developed with horizontal wells. The deepest part of the Malay Basin is beneath the southern part of Bongkot Field and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area. In these areas, carbon dioxide content is a problem in most gas reservoirs. The carbon dioxide content is highly variable but, as a general rule, deeper reservoirs and those further south tend to have higher carbon dioxide content. The northern part of the Bongkot Field is a north-south trending trans-tensional structure similar to the Erawan Field in the Pattani Basin, but the structural style changes to the south because of a component of north-south compression. Fields such as Muda in the Joint Development Area have multiple structural culminations along an east-west trend. Many of the oil fields offshore Malaysia display this same structural style. The Pattani Basin is an important producer of both oil and gas, with nearly all of the oil production in the northern part of the basin and most of the gas production in the southern part. The basin contains marginal-marine and non-marine sediments up to a maximum thickness of about 10,000 meters. The depth of burial of the source rocks in this basin is sufficient to generate oil and gas. The southern part of the basin contains thicker sediments and produces mostly gas and condensate while the northern part produces much more oil. This difference could be explained by differences in burial depth and thermal gradient (the southern part of the basin is deeper and hotter) but it is more likely due to differences in the source section. Southern Pattani Basin The largest gas field in the Pattani Basin is Erawan, operated by Unocal. This field is a large structure in a basin-center location. The structure is antiformal but pervasively faulted. A story about this field illustrates the structural and stratigraphic complexity of this basin. After the field had been discovered and delineated, the first development well was a dry hole. A major 3-D seismic effort followed (one of the first in the world) and resulted in a very successful development. The second largest gas field in the Pattani Basin is Pailin, also Unocal operated, which has only recently been developed due to the need for costly carbon dioxide removal. Other, smaller, Unocal-operated gas fields in the southern Pattani Basin are Moragot, Gomin, Funan, Jakrawan, Satun, Trat, Pladang, Pakarang, Platong, Surat and Kaphong. Surat Field also has significant oil production. Unocal geochemists have published articles describing a dual-source model for natural gas generation in the southern Pattani Basin. The two sources cited are coals in the shallower part of the section and lacustrine shales near the base of the Tertiary section. It is likely that the source section in the southern part of the Pattani is more gas-prone, while the source section in the northern part of the Basin contains more oil-prone lacustrine shales, with their type-1 kerogens. Northern Pattani Basin The most important fields in the northern Pattani Basin are Benchamas, which is mostly an oil field and Tantawan, which produces gas and some oil. Recent oil discoveries at Pakakrong, Maliwan and Jarmjuree account for much of the recent increase in Thailand's oil production. All of these fields are operated by Chevron in partnership with Thaipo. The Yala Field is the southern extension of the Tantawan structure into Unocal's acreage. Jasmine Field sits at the very northern end of the Pattani Basin on the basement high separating the Pattani and Rayong Basins. Seismic mapping shows a deeper section in the North Pattani Basin, below the level often mapped as base Tertiary. These sediments are generally seen as a seismically transparent asymmetrical wedge of more than one second thickness with a prominent basal reflector. This could represent Lower Tertiary or even Mesozoic sediments that may be the source of the oil in this part of the Pattani Basin. This older graben trends north as far as the Jasmine Field and dips eastward. More recent movement along the bounding faults of this older graben has produced two north-south striking structural trends. Benchamas Field is associated with the eastern of these two trends and is characterized by a higher proportion of gas on the east flank of the structure, with more liquids on the west flank. This distribution of hydrocarbons could be explained if the liquids are being generated in the older graben fill. The northern Pattani Basin is as complex as the southern part, as evidenced by the 8-238-1X dry hole drilled by Sun Oil. Producing wells of Chevron's Benchamas Field now surround the 8-238-1X well. The area was evaluated and dropped by Sun, Gulf and Unocal before Thaipo drilled the Benchamas Field discovery well. Besides basin-centered antiformal structures such as Benchamas, the northern Pattani Basin also contains oil-productive, basin-edge structures such as Pakakrong. The Chumpon Basin has one oil field, Nang Nuan. The field produces light oil from vuggy carbonates along a pre-Tertiary ridge in the center of the basin. This basin is known to have at least 1,000 meters of source rock. The thermal maturity of this source rock is demonstrated by the light (40° API) oil produced from Nang Nuan. The Kra Basin is known to have over 1200 meters of excellent source rock, but it has yet to yield a commercial oil discovery. One well, the B5/27-2, has tested oil. The oil tested in that well may have come from lacustrine carbonates of Tertiary age, rather than karstified Paleozoic limestones. The reservoir interval in that well displays good sonic log porosity, which should not be the case for the Paleozoic. Lacustrine carbonates associated with the initial opening of the South Atlantic Ocean during the Cretaceous have produced hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in Angola (Malongo West and Limba Fields) and Brazil's Campos Basin (Badejo, Linguado and Pampo Fields). These carbonates are skeletal grainstones commonly described as coquina. Oil has been tested in the Songkla Basin, but there is no history of oil production. The Western Basin has one well that penetrated a source rock sequence and had oil shows, but the well was lost before reaching its objective. Hua Hin Basin The Hua Hin Basin is an elongate feature with more than one sub-basin. One well drilled in the northern sub-basin did not encounter source rock. The one well drilled to date in the Rayong Basin did not encounter source rock. Onshore Mae Sot Basin and other Analogs The uplifted and eroded lacustrine basin at Mae Sot is a possible analog to the older Tertiary lacustrine basins in the Gulf of Thailand. The sequence there has been described in some detail by Thanomsap and Sitahirun (1992) and begins with alluvial fans of the Mae Ramat Formation. That formation is overlain by the limestones and clastics of the Mae Pa Formation, which are overlain in turn by the marls and oil shales of the Mae Sot Formation. The Mae Sot Formation represents an oil prone source rock. Similar sections of varying ages in the deep lacustrine basins of the Gulf of Thailand are the most likely source of the oil and much of the gas there. The Songliao Basin of China is the most important oil producing region in China. Daqing is not a single oil field, but two ternds of numerous oil reservoirs along the flanks of a rifted lacustrine basin. The large production of this area is obtained from many thousands of wells. At its peak, the Songliao Basin produced more than one million barrles of oil per day. The San Jorge Basin of Argentina has been an important oil producing area since 1907. The oil in this basin is produced from basin-edge structures. Faulting has created updip seals in turbidite channels and fan lobes. The oil fields of southern Sudan and Chad are also analogs to parts of the Gulf of Thailand. In these basins, oil is produced from pervasively faulted trans-tensional structures. Geology Meets Economics The combination of structural and stratigraphic complexity means that individual oil or gas reservoirs are small, even in the larger fields. If you look at an oil field map of Argentina's San Jorge Basin, the two trends of oil fields that run eastward along the flanks of the basin stop at the shoreline. Conditions in the Gulf of Thailand are not as rough as in the South Atlantic, but the economics of developing these fields offshore remains a challenge. This problem was recognized early on by the Gulf of Thailand operators and they have used a strategy of aggressively reducing drilling costs along with utilizing 3-D seismic data to optimize the wells. Thailand uses a tax and royalty regime for oil and gas production. Most of the production in the Gulf of Thailand is covered by Thai 1 terms which are a fixed royalty plus income tax, but the newer Thai 3 terms include a sliding-scale royalty and a secondary tax. Because of the complex geology of the Gulf of Thailand, geophysical and drilling costs consume a large proportion of revenues. For this reason, increasing the Thai content of these services is as important as fiscal terms in any strategy to maximize Thailand's benefit from the development of its resources. If a competitive, low-cost oil service industry is developed in Thailand, it could also become a valuable service export. This is not a far-fetched idea; France is a major exporter of oil services even though it is not an important oil producing country. It is also worth noting that no member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is a major exporter of oil services. A good start would be to translate open-source technical software into Thai so it could be used in Thai universities. One example is Seismic Unix, a seismic data processing system provided by the Colorado School of Mines. Its user agreement only prohibits selling the software at a profit, not translation nor commercial use. This is but one example of the numerous open-source programs now available. In the future it may become politically possible to improve Thailand's fiscal terms if the majority of the benefits remain in Thailand rather than accruing to foreign companies. This is a worthwhile goal because Thailand has substantial oil and gas resources that lie at or close to the economic margin, and Thailand's economy is vulnerable to oil price shocks otherwise. 1. Jardine, Eric, Dual Petroleum Systems Governing the Prolific Pattani Basin Offshore Thailand, Proceedings of the International Conference on Stratigraphic and Tectonic Evolution of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, Department of Mineral Resources, 1997 2. Nares Sattayarak, Petroleum Exploration Opportunity in Thailand, Proceedings of a National Conference on Geologic Resources of Thailand: Potential for Future Development, Department of Mineral Resources, 1992 3. Surapol Thanomsap and Suparuek Sitahiran, Mae Sot Oil Shale, Proceedings of a National Conference on Geologic Resources of Thailand: Potential for Future Development, Department of Mineral Resources, 1992 4. Surawit Pradidtan and Robert Dook, Petroleum Geology of the Northern Part of the Gulf of Thailand, Proceedings of a National Conference on Geologic Resources of Thailand: Potential for Future Development, Department of Mineral Resources, 1992 5. Surawit Pradidtan, Suwit Jaroonsitha and Yutthorn Gonecome, Petroleum Systems of the Petroliferous Basins of Thailand, Symposium on Mineral, Energy and Water Resources of Thailand: Towards the Year 2000, Chulalongkorn University, 1999 6. Supaporn Pisutha-Arnond, A Discussion on the Pre-Tertiary Rocks in the Gulf of Thailand, Symposium on Mineral, Energy and Water Resources of Thailand: Towards the Year 2000, Chulalongkorn University, 1999

<urn:uuid:4f14a1a1-63e8-46fd-a6aa-b7aad4b34fe9>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.gregcroft.com/thailand.ivnu

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698150793/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095550-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Case Number: 3-112-001, Year Published: 2012 HBS Number: KEL682 Financial Analysis, Financial Planning, Marketing, Marketing Planning, Break-Even Margin This exercise is one in a series intended to help students learn how to perform financial calculations in marketing contexts. Helmut Schmidt, product manager for Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG, the world’s foremost manufacturer of harmonicas, accordions, melodicas, and ukuleles, was sitting at his desk reviewing his first assignment from the company’s senior executive team. Schmidt had been asked to calculate the break-even point for the company’s flagship product, the Marine Band harmonica, under a number of different scenarios. After completing the exercise, students should be able to: • Calculate unit contribution and margin • Calculate break-even units and market share Return to Search Results

<urn:uuid:a3683c0e-5f6c-4982-a1d2-9a7bee198a1a>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/kellogg-case-publishing/case-search/case-detail.aspx?caseid=%7B5801AA8D-93D8-43DD-8337-DC5770F74375%7D

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710963930/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516132923-00091-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Guide to Wind Energy in North Carolina With volatile energy prices, concerns about increasing electricity demand and uncertain supply, and a greater awareness of environmental threats, energy issues in the United States are under greater scrutiny now than at any other time in our nation’s history. As citizens and policy makers become more cognizant of these energy challenges, more attention is being paid to the increasing role of renewable sources of electricity. In addition to national attention, there has been an increase in statewide consideration of renewable electricity generation in recent years. In August 2007, the N.C. General Assembly acknowledged the benefits of renewable energy when it officially passed Senate Bill 3, creating a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). The North Carolina REPS requires state electric utilities to gradually increase the portion of their electricity that comes from renewable sources or energy efficiency measures. By 2021, the investor-owned utilities operating in the state – Duke Energy Carolinas, Progress Energy Carolinas, and Dominion North Carolina Power – must derive at least 12.5 percent of the electricity they deliver from renewable sources or make equivalent consumption reductions through efficiency programs. Smaller electricity providers such as municipal utilities and electric membership cooperatives must generate at least 10 percent of their electricity from similar sources by 2018. One such renewable source – wind power – is attracting particular attention due to its abundance and cost-competitiveness. In fact, to examine the potential role of wind power in the future of the national electricity portfolio, the U.S. Department of Energy produced a detailed analysis of how the U.S. could derive 20 percent of its electricity from wind energy. The report, produced in July 2008, highlights North Carolina as possessing significant wind resource potential, estimating the state could install 12,000 MW of onshore and offshore wind energy capacity by the year 2030. Based on 2010 estimates from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, North Carolina has an onshore wind resource of 1500 megawatts (MW) for sites with potential capacity factors of 30 percent or greater. North Carolina also has exceptional offshore wind resources – National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates show that N.C.’s offshore wind potential is higher than any other East Coast state. - Wind Energy Overview - Wind Farm Development and Lifespan - Benefits of Wind Energy - Responsible Community Integration - Utility and Transmission Toolbox North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. A Citizen’s Guide: The North Carolina Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. June 2012. http://energync.org/assets/files/podcast_episodes/a-citizens-guide-to-the-nc-reps/a-citizens-guide-north-carolina-renewable-energy-energy-efficiency-portfolio-standard.pdf U.S. Department of Energy. 20% Wind Energy by 2030. July 2008. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_2030.html National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Estimates of Windy Land Area and Wind Energy Potential by State. February 2010. http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/pdfs/wind_maps/wind_potential.pdf National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Assessment of offshore wind energy resources for the United States. June 2010. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/45889.pdf

<urn:uuid:a6c263c9-e6fd-4f11-87c2-c96f28f0cf07>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://ncsc.ncsu.edu/index.php/technology/renewable-energy/wind-energy/guide-to-wind-energy-in-north-carolina/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710299158/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131819-00086-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Performance Pay Has Little Merit “We tested the most basic and foundational question related to performance incentives—Does bonus pay alone improve student outcomes?—and we found that it does not.” In what is described as the first scientifically rigorous study of merit pay, researchers concluded that "pay for performance" alone does not work. Vanderbilt University’s National Center on Performance Incentives conducted a three–year study in Nashville, Tennessee schools before concluding that rewarding teachers with bonus pay, in the absence of any other support programs, does not raise student test scores. “We tested the most basic and foundational question related to performance incentives—Does bonus pay alone improve student outcomes?—and we found that it does not,” Matthew Springer, executive director of the Center, said. “These findings should raise the level of debate to test more nuanced solutions.” Paying teachers bonuses based upon their performance has been a controversial issue for years and is a major component in the current wave of school reform including Race To The Top, but until this report had not been subjected to in-depth scientific research. This study has practical application in Maine’s 2010 election as gubernatorial candidates Paul LePage and Eliot Cutler are proponents of performance pay. Merit pay is also gaining popular support as shown in the latest Gallup Poll based upon the misconception that it will improve student learning, so educators may expect to hear more about it in future contract negotiations. The Center’s data-based conclusions confirm what Mainers’ practical application had proven over the years. After performance pay failed in such diverse communities as SAD 31 Howland and Cape Elizabeth, MEA members concluded that those compensation systems were without merit. The only alternative compensation program that is working well in Maine is Portland’s Professional Learning Salary System that rewards teachers for instructional leadership and for professional development that results in the acquisition of skills and knowledge sought by the school system. FMI on Portland’s compensation system. On the whole the study found that students in the control group’s classrooms did not learn more than students in the classrooms of teachers eligible for performance pay. When researchers tried to find reasons why the student test scores did not improve, they considered several alternative explanations, including that the bonuses were too small or out of reach. In the end, they concluded that the incentives had not “induced teachers to make substantial changes to their instructional practices or their level of effort.” The Nashville study took place over the 2007–2009 school years, tracking nearly 300 middle school math teachers. Half of the volunteers were randomly assigned to a “treatment” group in which they were eligible for bonuses of up to $15,000 based on their students’ test–score gains on Tennessee’s standardized exams. The Vanderbilt study was supported by the local and state education associations and local and state authorities. Their full report is available. Locate your state and congressional representatives and share your views through our CyberLobby program.

<urn:uuid:4ff40707-bac0-4c9f-8fad-8a1fb7c33b36>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.maine.nea.org/home/781.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705948348/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120548-00096-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

International data on child maltreatment are largely derived from child protection agencies, and predominantly report only substantiated cases of child maltreatment. This approach underestimates the incidence of maltreatment and makes inter-jurisdictional comparisons difficult. There has been a growing recognition of the importance of health professionals in identifying, documenting and reporting suspected child maltreatment. This study aimed to describe the issues around case identification using coded morbidity data, outline methods for selecting and grouping relevant codes, and illustrate patterns of maltreatment identified. A comprehensive review of the ICD-10-AM classification system was undertaken, including review of index terms, a free text search of tabular volumes, and a review of coding standards pertaining to child maltreatment coding. Identified codes were further categorised into maltreatment types including physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, and neglect. Using these code groupings, one year of Australian hospitalisation data for children under 18 years of age was examined to quantify the proportion of patients identified and to explore the characteristics of cases assigned maltreatment-related codes. Less than 0.5% of children hospitalised in Australia between 2005 and 2006 had a maltreatment code assigned, almost 4% of children with a principal diagnosis of a mental and behavioural disorder and over 1% of children with an injury or poisoning as the principal diagnosis had a maltreatment code assigned. The patterns of children assigned with definitive T74 codes varied by sex and age group. For males selected as having a maltreatment-related presentation, physical abuse was most commonly coded (62.6% of maltreatment cases) while for females selected as having a maltreatment-related presentation, sexual abuse was the most commonly assigned form of maltreatment (52.9% of maltreatment cases). This study has demonstrated that hospital data could provide valuable information for routine monitoring and surveillance of child maltreatment, even in the absence of population-based linked data sources. With national and international calls for a public health response to child maltreatment, better understanding of, investment in and utilisation of our core national routinely collected data sources will enhance the evidence-base needed to support an appropriate response to children at risk. In Australia and many other countries, data on child maltreatment are largely derived from child protection agencies, predominantly reporting on events reported for investigation and/or substantiated cases of child maltreatment . This approach underestimates the incidence of maltreatment [2,3] and makes inter-jurisdictional comparisons difficult, as each jurisdiction can have their own definition of what constitutes child maltreatment, unique definitions on what constitutes a report, and different processes for investigating and substantiating or refuting such reports. The World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) has called for common conceptual and operational definitions of child maltreatment to enable identification of cases across sectors involved in child maltreatment response and prevention WHO and ISPCAN define child maltreatment as "all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power" (, pg 9), with the four types grouped as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, and neglect. Nationally and internationally, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of health professionals in identifying, documenting and reporting suspected child maltreatment [5,6] and for child maltreatment to be recognised as a public health problem . The WHO in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) called for child maltreatment to be recognised as a global public health concern, with an urgent recommendation for uniform reporting procedures to register both fatal and non-fatal child maltreatment . The WHO highlighted health professionals as being in the best position of all professions to obtain evidence of child maltreatment, and called for better systems to enable communication between health professionals and social services. If health professionals identified, documented and reported suspected child maltreatment routinely in patients medical records, statistical data derived from these records could potentially provide information about populations at risk as well as populations where maltreatment is already present (as provided by data derived from child protection agencies). To use hospital morbidity data for surveillance of child maltreatment, clear operational case definitions are required to ensure the system is both sensitive and specific to ensure accurate identification of true cases and limited inclusion of false cases . The information contained in the medical record is coded according to the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) system developed by the WHO , which provides an internationally standardised system for classifying and aggregating diseases, injuries, causes of injuries and related health conditions for statistical purposes. To provide greater specificity for morbidity data collection, many countries modify the international ICD for clinical purposes. The WHO sanctions these clinical versions, with all of these versions of the classification required to be comparable to the international version at the three/four character code level, though supplemental characters may be added to the base three/four character code to increase specificity for clinical purposes. In Australia as well as many other countries, including New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Romania, Slovenia and Saudi Arabia, the clinical modification that is used is the ICD-10 Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) (. As the ICD is a statistical classification, with specificity of case identification a critical element, the ICD provides stringent rules which coders are required to follow when assigning ICD codes to medical records. For a clinical coder to apply a definitive maltreatment code ('T74 Maltreatment syndromes', 'Y06 Neglect and abandonment' or 'Y07 Other maltreatment syndromes'), there must be clear clinical documentation of evidence of maltreatment. If the presentation is injury related, the coder is first directed to assign a code/s to describe the nature of the injury itself or if the presentation is disease related, the nature of the disease and then a code/s to describe the external cause of the injury. A single external cause code includes three dimensions: intent (i.e. accidental, assault, or undetermined), mechanism (i.e. struck by, fall/push, poisoning etc), and object/substance involved (i.e. knife, firearm, etc)). If documentation in the medical record indicates that the cause of the injury/disease is 'queried' or 'suspicious' of maltreatment but evidence of further investigation to rule out maltreatment or to substantiate it is not documented, the coder cannot assign a definitive maltreatment code. Instead the coder may assign a range of codes indicating possible maltreatment (such as 'Z04.4 Examination and observation following alleged rape and seduction') or problems related to previous alleged maltreatment ('Z61.4 Problems related to alleged sexual abuse of child by person within primary support group') . An outcome of these rigid coding requirements is that case identification using morbidity data is likely to be specific (i.e. limiting inclusion of false cases), but not sensitive (i.e. not identifying all true cases). Hence morbidity data are likely to underestimate the true magnitude of child maltreatment if the clinical documentation is not clear, concise and complete and unless a broad range of indicative codes are used to identify possible cases of child maltreatment. Schnitzer et al found that ICD-9-CM codes were highly specific indicators of maltreatment, with 100% of records containing documentation about maltreatment, almost 90% regarding current maltreatment and just over 10% describing a history of maltreatment . However, Winn et al found 25% of injuries to children resulting from violence identified through a multi-hospital surveillance system were not coded as assault-related using ICD external cause codes and concluded that assault-related external cause codes were specific (99.7% specificity) but not sensitive (74.6% sensitivity) . Recognising that definitive maltreatment codes are likely to miss true maltreatment cases, a variety of diagnosis and external cause ICD codes have been used in an attempt to better identify cases of child maltreatment in health data sets . Recent research conducted using linked hospital data and child protection data for a prospective case-control birth cohort found risks of allegations of child maltreatment and risks of substantiations of child maltreatment increased by 1.49 and 1.74 respectively for each single hospital admission per year . Furthermore, cases with a discharge diagnosis of a mental or behavioural disorder had a 26 times greater risk of a child maltreatment substantiation and cases with a discharge diagnosis of an injury or poisoning had a 21 times greater risk of a child maltreatment substantiation compared to other discharge diagnoses . Even in the absence of population-based linked databases, hospital morbidity data collections could enable an efficient population-based nationally standardised source of data to provide information on child maltreatment-related separations and at-risk populations. However, this would rely on clear documentation and more inclusive coding to enable the coding of both cases of queried as well as confirmed maltreatment (whilst still clearly differentiation such cases). However, to date, there has been no research conducted which explores the issues, methods and patterns of child maltreatment information in routinely collected health data collections in the Australian context and only limited research, using previous versions of the classification system, at an international level. The aim of this paper is to stimulate discussion and contribute to the future development of non-fatal child maltreatment surveillance initiatives. This study aimed to describe the issues around case identification using ICD coded morbidity data, outline methods for selecting and grouping relevant codes, and illustrate patterns of maltreatment identified when using the outlined approach. This study involved a systematic review of the ICD-10-AM classification system underpinning hospitalisation data to identify relevant codes for case identification of maltreatment-related presentations and a descriptive analysis of these data to explore patterns of code utilisation. Classification system review A comprehensive review of the ICD-10-AM classification system was undertaken to identify the range of possible codes to be used for identification of maltreatment-related presentations, and to review the guidelines and rules affecting the use of these codes. To identify the range of ICD-10-AM codes, a search was conducted of all ICD-10-AM index terms for diseases, external causes, and procedures referring to abuse (excluding the phrase 'substance abuse') or maltreatment. Additionally, a free text search of ICD-10-AM 6th edition tabular volumes was performed to search for 'abuse' (excluding the phrase 'substance abuse') and 'maltreatment' to ensure there were no additional codes which were missed in the index search. Coding standards in the ICD-10-AM pertaining to child maltreatment coding were also reviewed in order to understand the instructions provided to coders regarding the appropriate assignment of codes around child maltreatment . The relevant coding standards which were identified were 1909 Adult and Child Abuse, 2008 Perpetrator of Assault, Abuse and Neglect, and 0526 Münchhausen's by Proxy. Potential flags for maltreatment-related events included both codes that signified a current episode of maltreatment and codes which signified a prior history of maltreatment. The rationale for this approach was that for any maltreatment codes (current or prior) to be coded as co-morbidities in the medical records the patient needed to have been treated for and/or had their hospital stay extended due to the condition which was coded. Codes were only included if they indicated specific reference to maltreatment in order to avoid capturing a large number of broad conditions through non-specific codes (such as 'Z61.8 Other negative life events in childhood', 'Z61.9 Negative life event in childhood unspecified', 'Z62.8 Other specified problems related to upbringing', 'Z62.9 Problem related to upbringing unspecified' etc. 'F94.1 Reactive attachment disorder of childhood' which is defined as "a disorder starting in the first five years of life with abnormal patterns of social relationships, probably as a direct result of severe abuse or neglect" was excluded as it specifically excludes maltreatment syndromes (T74) and sexual or physical abuse in childhood resulting in psychosocial problems (Z61.4-Z61.6). In ICD-10-AM, fifth character supplemental codes are used to specify the perpetrator where cases are coded as being assault-related. The key perpetrator codes for identification of maltreatment include the specific perpetrator codes for Parent, Other family member, Carer, as well as the non-specific codes for 'Other specified person' and 'Unspecified person' (as these codes may be used where there isn't an appropriate code in the classification system to capture the perpetrator, or where the documentation doesn't provide information about the perpetrator). For children 14 years of age or younger, cases were included in the 'maltreatment' category if either a specific perpetrator code for Parent, Other family member, Carer was used or a non-specific code for 'Other specified person' and 'Unspecified person' was used. For children 15 to 17 years of age, cases were only included in the 'maltreatment' category if a specific perpetrator code for Parent, Other family member, Carer was used. This restriction was applied as early exploratory analysis demonstrated that a large portion of assault cases for teenagers between the age of 15 and 18 were coded as being caused by an 'other specified' perpetrator (n = 70 out of a total of 1615 cases which had a perpetrator code) or 'unspecified' perpetrator (n = 989 out of a total of 1615 cases which had a perpetrator code). It is likely that the majority of these cases were due to peers/partners and as these cases were not in the scope of the definition of maltreatment used in this study, these cases were not included in this analysis to ensure a conservative estimate of maltreatment-related cases. Following the selection of potential codes, expert health information managers were consulted to review the list, ensuring broad coverage of maltreatment codes within the classification system. In addition, two separate consultations were conducted with emergency department (ED) clinicians at two major paediatric hospitals to identify any other additional codes that the review process may have overlooked. Following consultation with ED clinicians the procedure code for 'skeletal survey' was included, as this was acknowledged to be a key diagnostic procedure conducted when child maltreatment was suspected. The final list of codes used for identification of cases of maltreatment included diagnosis codes, external cause codes and procedure codes and these are shown in Table 1. Table 1. ICD Codes Selected for Case Identification of Maltreatment-Related Cases As the WHO categorises maltreatment into physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, and neglect, ICD maltreatment codes were further grouped to create variables to flag the presence of each of these forms of maltreatment. Table 2 provides a summary of the code groupings used to create these variables. For cases with any maltreatment coded, descriptive analysis was used to show the frequency of each type of maltreatment and the number of maltreatment types assigned by patient demographics. Table 2. ICD Code Groupings by Maltreatment Type Descriptive analysis of National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) was conducted for children under 18 years of age (to comply with the operational definition of 'child' in the Child Protection Act (1999) which governs Queensland child protection ) who were admitted to an Australian hospital between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2006. The database is collated by the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (AIHW) using summary records for hospital discharges provided by state and territory health authorities and contains data from 1 July 1993 to 30 June 2008. The AIHW technical appendices of the national hospital statistics reports suggest the quality of the data contained in this database are relatively good and this database is routinely used by the AIHW and other key health agencies to provide national morbidity statistics . PASW Version 18 was used to conduct descriptive analyses, using frequencies and percentages to quantify the numbers and proportions of patients assigned relevant child maltreatment related codes and to explore the characteristics of cases assigned any child maltreatment related codes. Ethics approval to conduct this analysis was obtained from the relevant Human Research Ethics Committees. National hospitalisation separation data for cases with and without a maltreatment code There were 647,819 hospital separations for children under the age of 18 years in Australia during the financial year 2005-2006. Exploratory analyses found that, of the 647,819 total separations, 2120 (0.3%) had a maltreatment code present in their hospitalisation data (See Table 3). While males comprised the larger proportion of hospital separations overall (55.4%), females comprised the larger proportion of hospital separations where a maltreatment code was assigned (57.8%). For males the age group with the highest proportion of cases with a maltreatment code assigned was the 10-14 year olds with 0.5% of the total hospital separations having a maltreatment code assigned, compared to females where the 15-17 year old age group for females had the highest proportion of maltreatment codes assigned (0.9% of total hospital separations for females). Table 3. Age Group and Gender and Presence of Maltreatment Code of Australian Children Hospitalised between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2006 To examine the broad principal diagnoses of children with any maltreatment code present compared to those without a maltreatment code present, analysis was conducted comparing these group by ICD chapter of the principal diagnosis(See Table 4). Separations with a principal diagnosis from the mental and behavioural disorders chapter had the highest proportion of cases where a maltreatment code was assigned accounting for 3.6% of cases. Separations with a principal diagnosis from the injury and poisoning chapter had the second highest proportion of cases where a maltreatment code was assigned accounting for 1.1% of cases. Furthermore, of all cases with a maltreatment code assigned, the injury and poisoning chapter was the most common principal diagnosis chapter, accounting for 46.3% of cases where a maltreatment code was assigned. Table 4. ICD-10-AM Chapter for Principal Diagnosis for children with maltreatment code present in Diagnosis String in Australia July 2005-June 2006 There were 2670 cases with a perpetrator code assigned in the dataset, and of these 1059 were excluded from inclusion in the maltreatment-related sample as they were coded as 'other' or 'unspecified' perpetrators for 15-17 year olds (as described in methods). For cases where a maltreatment code and a perpetrator code was assigned: • Under 1 year of age: 188 cases had a parent, carer or family member coded as the perpetrator, 3 cases had a spouse coded, 44 cases had an 'other' or 'unspecified' perpetrator; • 1-5 years: 166 cases had a parent, carer or family member coded, 3 cases had a spouse coded, and 55 cases had an 'other' or 'unspecified' perpetrator; • 6-9 years: 52 cases had a parent, carer or family member coded, 1 case had a spouse coded, and 30 cases had an 'other' or 'unspecified' perpetrator; • 10-14 years: 122 cases had a parent, carer or family member coded, 1 case had a spouse coded, and 145 cases had an 'other' or 'unspecified' perpetrator; • 15-17 years: 122 cases had a parent, carer or family member coded, 10 case had a spouse coded as the perpetrator, and 38 cases had an 'other' or 'unspecified' perpetrator. Principal diagnosis for cases where a maltreatment code was assigned Table 5 depicts the top five most commonly assigned ICD Principal Diagnosis codes (to the 3 character ICD-10-AM code level) per age group in those children who also had any of the relevant maltreatment codes in their separation data. For each age group, these top 5 principal diagnoses accounted for between one-third to one-half of all diagnoses in each age group. Table 5. Top 5 Principal Diagnoses for Cases with an Maltreatment Code by Age Group T74 (Maltreatment Syndromes) was the most commonly assigned principal diagnosis code for children under 5 years of age. Where injury codes were assigned as the principal diagnosis, head injuries were the most common injury coded for all children under 15 years of age. For the 6-9 year olds, the most common principal diagnosis for cases coded with a maltreatment code was 'F91 Conduct disorder', accounting for 13% of separations in this age group. In the 10-14 year old age group a mixture of injury and mental and behavioural disorder codes were present as the top principal diagnoses. In the oldest group of children, those from 15-17 years of age, the majority of Principal Diagnosis codes assigned were associated with Mental and Behavioural Disorders with the top 4 principal diagnoses in this chapter accounting for 45% of separations in this age group. Most common maltreatment types assigned by age group and sex Table 6 shows the pattern of maltreatment types by age group and sex (Note: each child could have more than one maltreatment code assigned reflecting different maltreatment types). For males physical abuse was most commonly coded (62.6%). This was true for all age groups except children under the age of one year where the largest proportion (48.3%) was assigned an 'Other abuse' code. In females with a maltreatment code, sexual abuse was the most commonly assigned form of maltreatment accounting for 52.9% of cases. When analysed by age group however, this was only true for those females older than 10 years of age with 59.3% of girls aged 10-14 and 73.4% of girls aged 15-17 with a maltreatment code being assigned a 'Sexual Abuse' code. In females younger than 1 year of age, the largest proportion were assigned an 'Other abuse' code (37.9%), and in females aged 1-5 and 6-9 females, 'Physical Abuse' was the most common maltreatment type assigned (36.2% and 55.6% respectively). Table 6. Age group and sex by maltreatment type Most children, regardless of age or gender had only one type of maltreatment coded. In males only 3% of cases had more than one type of maltreatment coded, with most of these aged over 10 years of age (the age breakdown of males where more than one type of maltreatment was coded was: <1 yr n = 2, 6-9 yrs n = 5, 10-14 yrs n = 15, and 15-17 yrs n = 7). In females only 6% of cases had more than one type of maltreatment coded, with most of these aged over 10 years of age (the age breakdown of females where more than one type of maltreatment was coded was: <1 yr n = 2, 1-5 yrs n = 3, 6-9 yrs n = 1, 10-14 yrs n = 35, and 15-17 yrs n = 31). This study undertook a review of routinely collected and coded hospital data as a source of information on child maltreatment. While less than 0.5% of children overall hospitalised in Australia between 2005 and 2006 had a maltreatment code assigned in their separation data, almost 4% of children with a principal diagnosis of a mental and behavioural disorder and over 1% of children with an injury or poisoning as the principal diagnosis had a maltreatment code assigned. This result supports previous research which identified that cases with a discharge diagnosis of a mental or behavioural disorder or an injury or poisoning had significantly increased risk of child maltreatment substantiation using linked hospital and child protection data . While the ICD-10-AM classification system provides both definitive codes for child maltreatment (such as T74 Maltreatment Syndrome) as well as possible codes for maltreatment (such as those indicating examination for or problems related to previous alleged maltreatment), in the current data, only 18.8% of cases identified as having any of the range of maltreatment codes were coded using the definitive T74 Maltreatment Syndrome code. Relying on this code alone would have significantly underestimated the prevalence of maltreatment-related presentations, with previous research indicating that definitive maltreatment codes are highly specific but not sensitive indicators of maltreatment [10,11]. The codes more commonly assigned for those cases identified as having a maltreatment code were those referring to problems related to the alleged sexual abuse (27.4% Z61.4 and Z61.5) or alleged physical abuse (10.8% Z61.6). The most commonly assigned principal diagnosis code in those children coded with a maltreatment code varied according to age group. In those younger than 5 years, the 'T74 Maltreatment syndrome' case was the most commonly assigned principal diagnosis code for children under 5 years of age', similar to O'Donnell et al who found that most children with a maltreatment code were aged under 5 years . For older children the most common principal diagnosis for 6-9 year olds was 'F91 Conduct disorder', in the 10-14 year old age group a mixture of injury and mental and behavioural disorder codes, and for 15-17 year olds were also mental and behavioural disorders. A higher proportion of mental and behavioural disorder codes and injury codes for children who are known to the child protection system has previously been identified by researchers in Western Australia . Patterns of maltreatment types varied by sex and age group. Physical abuse was most common overall for males with 62.6% of males with a maltreatment code assigned a physical abuse code. Sexual abuse was most commonly assigned overall for females with 52.9% of females with a maltreatment code assigned a sexual abuse code. Similarly, O'Donnell et al found a much higher proportion of females (71.4%) than males (28.6%) aged between 2-13 years with a notified sexually transmitted infection . However, in females younger than 1 year of age, the largest proportion of cases with a maltreatment code were assigned an 'Other abuse' code (37.9%), and in females aged 1-5 and 6-9 females, the largest proportion of cases were assigned a 'Physical Abuse' code (36.2% and 55.6% respectively). For cases with a maltreatment code and a perpetrator code, the most common perpetrator coded for all age groups up to 9 years was parent, carer or family member. However, within these age groups there were 7 cases coded as having a perpetrator of 'spouse', which is defined as the spouse of the injured patient. It is possible that these cases were cases of child maltreatment by the 'spouse' of the parent (i.e. step-parent or defacto partner of parent) which were wrongly assigned a 'spouse' code. A conservative estimate of maltreatment-relatedness of cases was used in this study, through removing all other and unspecified perpetrator codes for children aged 15-17 years of age. This may have underestimated the number of cases in this age group who were victims of child maltreatment, and further research is needed to examine this group in more detail to enable a better estimate of the likely proportion of child maltreatment cases for 15-17 year olds. However, recent research has found that around 50% of interpersonal violence cases (all ages) are assigned an 'other' or 'unspecified' perpetrator code . Patterns of diagnoses by maltreatment codes/maltreatment types can provide valuable insight into the epidemiology of severe child maltreatment and the resultant harms to children over time. Were researchers able to have some confidence in the sensitivity and specificity of maltreatment codes, these data could form a valuable source of information to target intervention, reduction and prevention initiatives. A potential limitation of this study, and any study reliant on the clinical coding of morbidity data, is the requirement for complete and accurate clinical documentation and consistent, quality clinical coding to ensure reliable coded data. The capture of complete, timely, relevant and accurate maltreatment data is reliant on a number of processes. Firstly there needs to be a suspicion of child maltreatment in the clinical context, the clinical documentation of indicators of maltreatment for children suspected of maltreatment needs to be provided and the coder needs to assign relevant ICD codes to identify the type of maltreatment documented. If the documentation in the medical record is ambiguous, incomplete or illegible, coders are unable to assign appropriate codes. This could result in underestimations of child maltreatment in coded morbidity data. In order to quantify this underestimation a medical record and coding audit is required, and further stages of our current research study seek to explore these issues. This study has demonstrated that hospital morbidity data could provide valuable information for routine monitoring and surveillance of non-fatal child maltreatment even in the absence of population-based linked data sources. ICD coded hospital morbidity data provides codes for both definitive and possible maltreatment as well as types of maltreatment, and being a statistical classification, there are strict rules and definitions to improve the specificity of case identification. Further work is needed to evaluate the reliability of coding of identified maltreatment codes and to enumerate the likely sensitivity and specificity of the system for case identification of maltreatment-related presentations. In the meantime, health professionals and administrators can use this information to conduct follow-up audits of possible cases of maltreatment. Where linked databases are available, researchers could use these codes to further interrogate hospitalisation data for indicators of maltreatment in addition to the use of disease diagnosis codes and child protection outcome data. With national and international calls for a public health response to child maltreatment, better understanding of, investment in and utilisation of our core national routinely collected data sources will enhance the evidence-base needed to support an appropriate response to children at risk. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Both authors made an important contribution to the development of the ideas and conduct of the research. Both authors were primarily responsible for developing the first drafts of the manuscript; KM made a major contribution to the analysis. All authors have been integrally involved in reviewing and extensively editing the text as it has progressed through several iterations. We thank Professor Michael Dunne, Mrs Sue Walker, and Associate Professor Jenny Fraser who all contributed to the design of the study. We acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0882093) and our industry partners at the Department of Communities, Queensland Health, and the Abused Child Trust. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2010, 34(3):238-42. Publisher Full Text World Health Organization and International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect: Preventing child maltreatment: a guide to taking action and generating evidence. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organisation; 2006. Br Med J [News Roundup] 2005, 331(7509):129. Publisher Full Text In Edited by Amsterdam CSI, Adelaide ANISU. 2004. National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH): The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM). Sixth edition. Sydney: University of Sydney; 2008. O'Donnell M, Nassar N, Leonard H, Jacoby P, Mathews R, Patterson Y, et al.: Rates and types of hospitalisations of children with subsequent contact with the Child Protection System: A population based case-control study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2009. ePub(23 Sept 2009) The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:

<urn:uuid:53c4fd7c-874b-4f7f-bd61-3cca1a3429ec>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/7

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705957380/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120557-00077-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

What causes Myopia ? Myopia is caused by an eyeball that is too long, causing light rays (and the image data it contains) to fall in front of the retina. How do I correct my Myopia ? Myopia can be corrected with concave corrective lenses such as in spectacles or contact lenses. These vision aids help to better focus the light entering the eye. Other ways to correct myopia are refractive surgery options such as LASIK, Epi-LASIK and implantable contact lens, subject to assessment for suitability.

<urn:uuid:db596cce-2161-48bc-868c-df7eaadf5901>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://parkwayeye.com/viewservice.php?Id=Mg==

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706635063/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121715-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Solomon Robert Dresser (1842-1911), a U.S. engineer noted for his inventions key to improved recovery of oil and natural gas. In 1880, he patented a cylindrical packer that sealed crude oil from water and other elements in a well, a problem that had long vexed oil producers. He also invented a new type of rubber coupling that connected pipes in such a way that they would not leak natural gas (1891). This invention permitted for the first time the long-range transmission of natural gas from the fields of origin to urban centers for consumption. Due to these developments, Dresser Industries would grow to be a huge commercial success. Dresser Industries (Handbook of Texas Online)

<urn:uuid:18b47076-061e-417f-aaf7-a0c94395df96>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Dresser,_Solomon_Robert

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383160/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Genomic research sheds light on how various organisms and lifestyles evolved and how they are adapting to changing conditions today. Much of the research in this lab focuses on sequencing (or mapping) DNA strands in the chromosomes and mitochondria of Lepidoptera. Researchers also sequence RNA, proteins and entire nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. Today, considerable research on the nature of life and relationships between organisms occurs at the molecular level. For example, scientists here study molecular patterns to reconstruct the evolutionary history of butterflies and moths and to help identify newly discovered species. Other genetic studies explore how parts of the Lepidoptera genome controls behavior, development and morphology. More than 15 students regularly use this lab.

<urn:uuid:4c55552e-a0ea-4b22-ac0e-a46e5a7645b8>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/mcguire/lab_genomics.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706470197/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121430-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Spain Electoral System Sources: The Library of Congress Country Studies; CIA World Factbook The electoral system--with the exception of the Senate, which uses a majority system--is set forth in the electoral law of 1977, updated in 1985, which is based on the d'Hondt system of proportional representation. A party must obtain a minimum of 3 percent of the vote in order to qualify for parliamentary representation. Each province is to have a minimum of two seats in the Congress of Deputies, plus one additional seat for every 144,500 inhabitants or fraction over 70,000 inhabitants. Each province is allotted four seats in the Senate, regardless of population. This system tends to overrepresent the more traditional, rural, and thinly populated parts of Spain and to favor the larger parties, which also benefit from the system of postelectoral subsidies. Under this arrangement, the state allocates funds to the party of each elected candidate. Parties are also given smaller sums for each vote received by their candidates, provided that at least one candidate is elected. One of the effects of this system is that parties able to demonstrate probable electoral success are able to obtain loans to finance their campaigns based on their expected subsidies. The electoral law guarantees universal, free, and direct suffrage and stipulates that voting shall be by secret ballot. It permits postal balloting for those away from their areas of registration. Voting is done by party list. Only the names of an individual party and its leader appear on ballots, with the exception of those of the Senate, for which a multiparty list is used, and voters choose any three candidates. Elections are held every four years, although an early dissolution of the Cortes will mean early elections for this body. Elections in the autonomous communities--except those in the "historic regions" of Galicia, Catalonia (Spanish, Cataluna; Catalan, Catalunya), the Basque Country (Spanish, Pais Vasco; Basque, Euskadi), and Andalusia (Spanish, Andalucia), which received their autonomy earlier than the other thirteen communities--are held simultaneously. Data as of December 1988 NOTE: The information regarding Spain on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Spain Electoral System information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Spain Electoral System should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA.

<urn:uuid:072a8c99-da53-45be-a323-02648d776f04>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.photius.com/countries/spain/government/spain_government_electoral_system.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703108201/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111828-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Warning Signs That Your Child’s Behavior Is Dangerous To Pets Children are naturally interested in interacting with—and getting a reaction from—the family pet. It’s not uncommon for them to hide food, play a little too rough, play dress up with the pet or put makeup and hair products on her. In these situations, parental guidance is needed, as a pet may feel uncomfortable or suffer harm if dangerous substances are ingested. More serious, however, is when a child intends to hurt an animal. Whether the cause is peer pressure or a cry for help, true malicious animal cruelty is not a behavior that children outgrow by themselves. Professional intervention may be needed to prevent behavior problems that can stay with a child into adulthood, and even be acted out on other human beings. The following behaviors may indicate that intervention is needed to guide your child away from cruel behaviors toward animals: - Chasing a fleeing pet - Locking a pet in a closet - Leaving a pet outdoors - Knowingly or unknowingly feeding a pet harmful human foods. - Feeding human medications that are dangerous to pets to see what effect the pills will have - Placing a tight rubber band around a paw - Painting a pet’s body - Putting a small animal in a washing machine, microwave or other appliance - Staging fights between dogs or letting one animal chase another - Deriving pleasure from seeing a frightened or suffering pet - Responding to adult reprimands by engaging in secretive, hostile acts toward the pet - Burning an animal - Teasing an animal with firecrackers - Repeatedly showing off the inhumane handling of a pet to others - Putting an animal in dangerous situations, such as dangling her outside a window or bringing her into the road If you discover your child repeatedly putting an animal into dangerous situations, act swiftly to teach him that these behaviors are not acceptable. The following guidelines may help: - Do not ignore or dismiss pet-unfriendly actions. Most children, when dealt with as though they’ve committed a serious offense, will think twice before repeating the behavior. - Use the same serious tone of voice that you would use if you saw your child running across the street without stopping to look for oncoming traffic. - A simple, clear statement such as, “We don’t hurt animals” is far more effective than lecturing. - If your child persists in hitting, kicking, pinching or teasing your pet in spite of your repeated corrections, consult with your pediatrician or an expert in child development. - You set the example. Never hit, shake, jerk or yell at your family pet—your child may imitate you and go too far. - If you overreact in anger toward your pet, show your child that it’s all right to apologize to the pet, just as you would apologize to a person. - If your teenager involves the family dog in high-risk activities such as dog fighting, not only should you intervene, but check in to see if your child is being influenced by alcohol, drugs, gambling or other unhealthy behaviors that involve peer pressure. - Remember that for most children, learning empathy and respect toward animals is part of the normal socialization process. These values are instilled the same way as learning not to hit friends or tease mercilessly.

<urn:uuid:8a9dd975-4413-4f41-89bb-801cd324d0e4>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://justonemorepet.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/warning-signs-that-your-child%E2%80%99s-behavior-is-dangerous-to-pets/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Evolution of Mobile Phones: 1995 – 2012 Mobile phones have become a crucial part of our daily life nowadays. Everyone – from teenagers to old men – has a personal cell phone of their own. But the mobile phones we see now didn’t look like this earlier, instead they were something totally different, something you wouldn’t even think of having around you or using. Improved technology has made a great change in the history of mobile phones, transforming the huge brick-like mobile phones of 1995 to sleek and stylish smartphones we carry with us now. Let’s take a ride back to the past and look at how cellphones developed from the bulky walkie-talkie look to today’s swipe-savvy descendants. More related posts: - Evolution of: Apple Products - Evolution of: Photoshop - Evolution of: Home Video Game Consoles - Evolution of: Greeting Card Designs - Evolution of: Microsoft Windows - Evolution of: Horror Movie Poster Designs - Evolution of: Logo of 25 Famous Brands In 1995 mobile phones used to look like this, huge in size and with a pretty long antenna. It is similar to today’s cordless phone. It must seem real odd to us now, but back then this cell phone were the craze of the day. In 1996, mobile phones became a little more defined and better looking than how they were before. Antennas were shortened and the designs modified; the features were also upgraded. The above image shows Nokia 9000 which was one of the most popular phones of that time. In 1996, the antennas vanished from the mobile phones, giving an improved look than how it was before. This enhancement also saved space and marked the introduction of internal antennas in the mobile phones. The above image shows a typical cell phone of 1997 from telco AT&T. Though antennas were removed from most of the mobile phones, there are still some of them who retained antennas and changed the typical colour of black to vibrant coloured cases instead. The above image shows Nokia 5110 which was launched in 1998 and was available in a variety of colours to choose from. In 1999, mobile phones were given a more compact look. The above image shows a Nokia 3210, features cool colours, internal antenna and better graphics in a much smaller package than previous phones. In 2000, the world’s first touchscreen phone came out. Although it didn’t have advanced touchscreen technology like those available today, but at that time it was a huge craze and the introduction of a promising technology. The image shows a Motorola phone which has a simple black and white touchscreen, allowing easier access to various features than before. 2001 was the birth year of the world’s first monochromatic display cell phone, and with that we wave goodbye to the old and boring black display. The image shows a Nokia 8250, which had a single colour display, for example the background was not the same grey background anymore, it had backgrounds of different colours like blue, which along with the compact design made this phone a great choice for everyone. In 2002, technology made another huge change in the history of mobile phones, putting a great full colour display and integrating camera to mobile phones, producing the world’s first camera cell phone. The Nokia 7650 shown here is on sliding mode, features a great colour display and a 0.3MP camera allowing you to snap pictures on the move. In 2003, the clam shell phone very much like the Samsung S300 above was introduced. mobile phones are no longer limited to single screen. This model has a small screen on the outside to notify calls and text messages coming in, and a big screen on the inner for the user to type messages and carry out other functions of the phone. 2004 gave rise to the one of the slimmest cell phone of the time, created by Motorola. The above image shows a Motorola V3, which was in a class of its own, bearing stunning looks, a slim shape, dual screen, VGA Camera and lots of other exciting features. mobile phones have come a long way from brick-like bulky to stylish sleek that can fit in your shirt pocket. Surely we’ve reached the pinnacle of cell phone evolution, right? In 2005, Sony unveiled the world’s first Walkman phone, and W800i was truly an awesome phone definitive of the series. The Sony W800i shown here was built for delivering great music and with dedicated buttons for music playback, Memory Stick support, which made it a great gadget for enjoying music anytime on the go. And it still serves all the main purpose of a cell phone. In 2006, mobile phones were transforming with into a stylish gadget. It began its new role as an accessory to mark the personality of the owner, to make a statement of what defines one’s preferences, likes and dislikes. The LG Chocolate, was a great example of how cellphone designers are putting style in the forefront of cell phone design. In 2007, Apple Inc unveiled the Apple iPhone, which was the world’s first advanced touchscreen smartphone. It’s the first phone to have an operating system, the iOS, and by enabling apps to run on the phone, it had allowed cellphones to become the primary mobile device of use. Having an iPhone became a source of pride. In 2008, as dependence on the laptop as a necessary tool for work increase, mobile phones undergo transformation to become the device to have with you on-the-go. The HTC G1, which was a slider cell phone that hides a full QWERTY keypad beneath its large screen, runs on the Android OS. In 2009, mobile phones can still fit in your palm but the screens get bigger and bears higher resolutions for high performance display. The Motorola Milestone carries a large touchscreen, full QWERTY Keypad and ran on Android OS, delivering advanced features to work with. In 2010, mobile phones were transformed into something like this. Have you ever imagined that you could see this kind of cell phone evolving from the typical brick type heavy phones in the past? The above image shows a Motorola Backflip, which featured a new kind of form, allowing the user to flip the screen on the back of the phone for easy working, as shown above. 2011 marked the return of the touchscreen which dominated the mobile gadget scene with its powerful hardware and sleek looks. The above image shows a Samsung Galaxy S II, which has just about all the things that a cell phone and its owner needs in this modern age. It has an 8MP camera and AMOLED Display, runs on the Android OS, is less than 1 cm thick, supports web browsing, calls and has an in-built GPS. This was the phone to beat in 2011. In 2012, we have the Nokia Lumia 800, which runs on the Windows 7 Mobile Edition OS. No one could have imagined that in a mere 17 years, mobile phones could have made the leap from just being the alternative to landlines to becoming a computer, GPS, radio and our lifeline to the Internet, and still be able to fit in your pocket. mobile phones have evolved a lot in terms of their form, performance and features, and will continue to evolve more and more in the future. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us on the next evolutionary stage of mobile phones.

<urn:uuid:5a601077-7664-4c97-ba58-de2abb8e10d3>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/evolution-of-mobile-phones/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709135115/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125855-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Definition of ThinPrep Pap test ThinPrep Pap test: A modified Pap test technique designed to reduce some of the technical problems inherent in the traditional type of Pap smear. In the traditional Pap test, cell samples are obtained from the vagina, cervix, and cervical canal and spread on a glass slide. In the ThinPrep Pap test, cell samples are collected using a special brush that is immediately washed in a special fluid. The ThinPrep machine then filters out the cells from the solution and deposits them in a thin uniform monolayer (a single layer of cells) on a glass slide. The ThinPrep Pap method has some significant advantages. It removes contaminants such as blood and mucus which frequently obscure cells in the traditional Pap smear. The monolayer of cells is also easier to examine under the microscope. This results in an increased rate of detection of abnormal cells. The disadvantage is the increased cost incurred by the collection fluid and cost of continued operation of the machine.Source: MedTerms™ Medical Dictionary Last Editorial Review: 9/20/2012 Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z Search Medical Dictionary eMedicineHealth Top News Find out what women really need. Women's Conditions Resources - 5 Most Common MS Symptoms - 7 Tips for Hiding Dandruff and Flakes - 7 Things You Should Know About Your Vagina Health Solutions From Our Sponsors Most Popular Topics Pill Identifier on RxList - quick, easy, Find a Local Pharmacy - including 24 hour, pharmacies

<urn:uuid:3c6c24e3-ad06-42d9-aa19-cf43ab17bdfe>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=10645

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704933573/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114853-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Northeastern states participating in America’s first carbon cap and trade program have outperformed the rest of the country in GDP growth and reduction in global warming pollution. That’s according to a new report from Environment New Jersey, which examined emissions data and economic growth indicators from 2000 to 2009. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a nine-state cap-and-trade market designed to reduce emissions in the utility sector 10% by 2018. A recent independent analysis showed that the program has already created $1.6 billion in economic value and set the stage for $1.1 billion in ratepayer savings through investments in efficiency and renewable energy. This latest report shows that states under the RGGI program saw a 20% greater reduction in per-capita carbon emissions than non-RGGI states — all while growing per-capita GDP at double the rate of the rest of the country. It is, however, very difficult to pinpoint the exact impact that RGGI had on these emissions reductions. While the program has been in the works since the early 2000′s, it was only implemented in 2008. The combination of increased penetrations of natural gas and the economic downturn likely had the biggest roles to play in the emissions dip. But some officials in the region believe that RGGI did play a part. InsideClimate News reported on reactions to the news: “It’s very clear that emissions have decreased in the Northeast. I think it’s largely because of low natural gas prices, plus the effects of RGGI on top of that,” said Bob Teetz, vice president of environmental services at National Grid USA, a Waltham, Mass.-based electric and gas company. The utility operates 4,000 megawatts of natural gas power plants in Long Island, N.Y. “All of these efforts are bearing fruit,” Ken Kimmell, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, told InsideClimate News. “We very much expect that that progress will continue,” as the economy gains strength, he said. While we can’t say exactly what role RGGI played in these drops, we can make many other observations with certainty: The program has helped stimulate more efficiency and renewable energy, it has helped local businesses grow, it has added enormous economic value to the region, and it has not driven up electric rates. Let’s compare real-world experience to the outlandish claims made by opponents of the program. The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity actually claimed that RGGI would drive rates up in New Jersey by 90%. And New Jersey Governor Chris Christie pulled his state out of the program, calling it a “gimmicky tax.” According to program administrators, proceeds from carbon credit auctions brought $29 million to New Jersey in 2010, leveraging $3 to $4 in benefits for every dollar invested. Opponents who claim cap and trade is bad for the economy simply don’t have a leg to stand on.

<urn:uuid:876a69c5-6cd9-4d85-a078-554635e86e8a>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/04/20/468659/states-in-northeast-cap-and-trade-program-reduce-co2-faster-grow-gdp-other-states/?mobile=nc

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710115542/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131515-00088-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Extraterrestrial impacts and their importance to the Earth's, and Alabama's, history will be the topic at the Tuesday, July 19, meeting of the Birmingham Astronomical Society. The public is invited to the 7 p.m. meeting at the Christenberry Planetarium in Samford University's Sciencenter. The speaker, Dr. Jim Lacefield, will discuss the nature of the earth's geological record and how the planet has been affected through time by the impacts of objects such as comets, asteroids and meteorites. A semi-retired professor at the University of North Alabama, Lacefield is the author of Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks: A Guide to the State's Ancient Life and Landscapes. For information, contact planetarium director George Atchley at (205) 726-4139.

<urn:uuid:7a3d2259-333b-43ee-a181-4846b7ce489d>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.samford.edu/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=21474841280

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706578727/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121618-00080-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The rite which prevailed in Gaul from about the 4th to the 8th century. It must not be considered as a general uniform rite, but a variety of uses built around a common outline. Its origin is disputed. Some hold it to be of Roman descent, others Eastern, others a local development of the original common rite brought by the first missionaries. Some differences from the Roman Rite are to be found in the arrangement of the liturgical year. In the Mass the catechumens were dismissed before the Offertory. The bread and wine for the sacrifice were brought in amidst great ceremony. The prayers of nearly the entire Mass were variable according to the day. The liturgies used at Milan and Toledo today are generally believed to be Romanized survivals of the Gallican Rite. - “Gallican Rite”. . Saints.SQPN.com. 21 August 2010. Web. 19 June 2013. <http://saints.sqpn.com/gallican-rite/>

<urn:uuid:cff0c323-2e75-4ebf-a57e-2d276e650dd3>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://saints.sqpn.com/gallican-rite/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708690512/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125130-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, it is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our historic and archeological resources. The National Register is administered by the National Park Service under the Secretary of the Interior. Properties listed in the National Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture. The National Register includes: America's historic places embody our unique spirit, character and identity. Representing important historical trends and events, reflecting the lives of significant persons, illustrating distinctive architectural engineering, and artistic design achievement, and imparting information about America's past, historic places tell compelling stories of the nation, and of the states and communities throughout the country. The National Register of Historic Places helps preserve these significant historic places by recognizing this irreplaceable heritage. Its primary goals are to foster a national preservation ethic; promote a greater appreciation of America's heritage; and increase and broaden the public's understanding and appreciation of historic places. Listing properties in the National Register often changes the way communities perceive their historic places and strengthens the credibility of efforts by private citizens and public officials to preserve these resources as living parts of our communities. Listing honors a property by recognizing its importance to its community, state, or the Nation. The National Register, which recognizes the values of properties as diverse as a dugout shelter of an Oklahoma pioneer settler, the Breakers Mansion in Newport, and a 12,000-year-old prehistoric site, has helped many to appreciate the richness and variety of the Nation's heritage. One of the most common questions that property owners have about the National Register is, "Will there be restrictions on my property after listing?" Owners of private property listed in the National Register have no obligation to open their properties to the public, to restore them, or even to maintain them, if they choose not do so. Owners can do anything they wish with their property provided that no Federal license, permit, or funding is involved. For the private property owner, Federal funding for historic buildings usually comes in the form of Federal tax credits for rehabilitation. Owners of National Register properties who choose to participate in the preservation tax incentive program must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and receive approval by the National Park Service of the rehabilitation project in order to receive the tax credit. Local historical commissions, design review committees, or special zoning ordinances are established by State legislation or local ordinances, and are not part of the National Park Service's National Register program. The State Historic Preservation Officer and the mayor, city council or other community officials can provide information on any State or local law which may affect a historic property. Private preservation efforts, spurred by the honor of National Register listing and made feasible by financial incentives, have resulted in a rise in the value of historic property and in the creation of construction, business, and employment opportunities throughout the Nation. Documentation used for evaluating and registering historic properties is the basis for decisions about which properties merit tax incentives or available Federal, and, in some cases, State and local assistance, and how these properties should be treated to respect their historic character. Federal Tax Incentives for Rehabilitation. Since 1976, the Federal Internal Revenue Code has contained a variety of incentives to encourage capital investment in historic buildings and to spur revitalization of historic properties. These incentives, including a 20% investment tax credit, encourage the preservation of historic commercial, industrial, and rental residential buildings listed in the National Register by allowing favorable tax treatments for rehabilitation and discouraging destruction of historic properties. Owners of National Register properties who choose to participate in the preservation tax incentive program must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and receive approval by the National Park Service of the rehabilitation project in order to receive the tax credit. Information about the Federal Historic Preservation tax incentives program is on the Web at: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/tax/, or can be obtained by contacting Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives at the address listed in the "Quick Reference" section of this brochure. Information about this program can also be obtained by contacting your State historic preservation office. Information on obtaining the address and phone number for your State historic preservation office is also found under the "Quick Reference" section. The Federal Internal Revenue Code also provides for Federal income, estate, and gift tax deductions for charitable contributions of partial interests in real property (land and buildings). Taxpayers' gifts of qualified interests must be "exclusively for conservation purposes." One of these purposes is defined as "the preservation of an historically important land area or certified historic structure." Further information on easements may be obtained from the sources listed above in the tax incentives section. Federal Historic Preservation Grants. Owners of National Register listed properties may be able to obtain Federal historic preservation funding, when funds are available. Information about Federal historic preservation grant assistance is available on the Web at: www.nps.gov/history/hps/grants.htm. or by contacting your State historic preservation office. Information on obtaining the address and phone number for your State historic preservation office is found under the "Quick Reference" section of this brochure. State Historic Preservation Grants and Tax Programs. States also administer State grant assistance programs and many of them allow for property tax abatements and State income tax credits for rehabilitated historic properties. Information about State administered historic preservation grant assistance, property tax abatement, and State income tax credit programs may be obtained by contacting the appropriate State historic preservation office. Information on obtaining the address and phone number for your State historic preservation office is found under the "Quick Reference" section. Information gathered during identification, evaluation, and registration is important in identifying preservation needs and in planning protection strategies for historic places on a Federal, State, and local level. Federal agencies are required by law to locate, inventory, and nominate to the National Register historic properties in Federal ownership or control. The Federal agencies also are responsible for preserving historic properties under their ownership or control and for assuring that any property that might qualify for inclusion in the National Register is not inadvertently transferred, sold, demolished, substantially altered, or allowed to deteriorate significantly. If, as a result of Federal action or assistance, a historic property is to be substantially altered or demolished, records are to be made for deposit in the Library of Congress or other agency designated by the Secretary of the Interior, for future use and reference.Agencies proposing projects that may affect a property listed in or eligible for the National Register must allow the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (an independent Federal agency that provides a forum for influencing Federal activities, programs, and policies as they affect historic resources) an opportunity to comment prior to funding, licensing or granting assistance on such projects. The law does not mandate preservation by the Federal agency and its purpose is not to impede or halt development. Rather this process assures that the value of historic properties is given direct consideration in project planning decisions. For more information on this process, go to the following Web site: www.achp.gov, or contact the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation at the address given in the "Quick Reference" section Consideration of historic values is also a part of the decision to issue a surface coal mining permit, in accordance with the Surface Mining and Control Act of 1977. State Activities and Tribal Activities In addition to nominating historic properties to the National Register, the State Historic Preservation Officer prepares and implements a comprehensive Statewide Historic Preservation Plan, administers the State program of Federal assistance for historic preservation within the State, conducts a statewide survey of historic properties, assists in administering the Federal preservation tax incentives, and cooperates with Federal, State, and local officials and others to assure that historic properties listed in or eligible for the National Register are taken into consideration at all levels of planning and development. The State Historic Preservation Officer also provides public information, education and training, and technical assistance relating to the Federal and State historic preservation programs. Tribal Historic Preservation Officers perform the same type of preservation planning activities as those performed by the State Historic Preservation Officers. These activities, however are associated with historic properties located on Tribal lands. Local governments can receive Federal assistance for their preservation activities by obtaining Certified Local Government status from the National Park Service and the appropriate State historic preservation office. Certified Local Governments receive small matching grants and technical assistance from the National Park Service and the State historic preservation office to aid local preservation projects, such as producing historic theme or context studies, cultural resource inventories, assessments of properties to determine their eligibility for local and National Register designation, building reuse and feasibility studies, design guidelines and conservation ordinances, and publications to educate the public about the benefits of historic preservation. For more information on the Certified Local Government Program, go to the following Web site: www.nps.gov/history/hps/clg, or contact the Certified Local Government Program at the address listed in the "Quick Reference" section. Anyone can prepare a nomination to the National Register, working with the appropriate State Historic Preservation Officer, Federal Preservation Officer, or Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. Their offices are partners of the National Park Service and are responsible for surveying and evaluating properties in their jurisdictions, determining which of these properties are eligible for listing, working with individuals to prepare nominations to the National Register, and officially nominating properties to the National Register. The procedures for nominations are found in 36 CFR Part 60, which is available on the Web at http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/regulations.htm. 36 CFR Part 60 can also be obtained by contacting the National Register Reference Desk at the address listed in the "Quick Reference" section. Ordinarily, local citizens or the staff of the State Historic Preservation Officer prepare National Register nomination forms. Next, a State review board, composed of professionals in the fields of American history, architectural history, architecture, pre-contact and post-contact archeology, and other related disciplines - and sometimes citizen members - reviews the nominations. This review board makes a recommendation to the State Historic Preservation Officer either to approve each nomination, if in the board's opinion it meets the National Register criteria, or to disapprove the nomination if it does not. During the time the State Historic Preservation Officer is reviewing the proposed nomination, property owners and local authorities are notified. All property owners are given the opportunity to comment on the nomination. Owners of private property are given the opportunity to concur in or object to the nomination. If the owner of a private property (or the majority of such owners of a property) or a district with multiple owners object to the nomination, the State Historic Preservation Officer forwards the nomination to the National Park Service only for a determination about whether the property is eligible for listing. If a majority of private property owners do not object, the State Historic Preservation Officer may approve the nomination and forward it to the National Park Service to be considered for listing. If the property is approved by the National Park Service, it is officially entered in the National Register. Further information on the procedures to nominate properties to the National Register and the preservation program within your State is available from the appropriate State historic preservation office. You can receive the address and phone number for your State historic preservation office on the Web at http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/shpolist.htm (note, this Web address does not begin with "www"), or by contacting the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers at the address listed in the "Quick Reference" section. Nominations to the National Register for properties under Federal ownership or control are submitted to the National Park Service through Federal Preservation Officers appointed by the agency heads. Federal agencies prepare National Register nominations, notify local officials and provide the State Historic Preservation Officer an opportunity to comment prior to sending nominations to the National Park Service. The Federal Preservation Officer approves each nomination and forwards it to the National Park Service for final consideration. If the National Park Service approves the nomination, the property is officially entered in the National Register.Information on Federal nominations to the National Register and other preservation programs of Federal agencies is available from the Federal Preservation Officer for each agency. A list of Federal Preservation Officers is found on the Web at: www.achp.gov/federal.html or by contacting the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, at the address listed in the "Quick Reference" section. Nominations to the National Register for properties on Tribal lands are submitted to the National Park Service through Tribal Historic Preservation Officers appointed by each Tribal government. The process for considering nominations is substantially equivalent to the process used by the State historic preservation offices. Before a Tribe can assume these responsibilities, the Secretary of the Interior must approve a Tribe's plan for carrying them out. Further information on the procedures to nominate properties on Tribal land to the National Register and the Tribal preservation programs is available from the appropriate Tribal Preservation Officer. A list of Tribal Preservation Officers is available on the Web at: www.nps.gov/history/hps/tribal or by contacting the Tribal Historic Preservation Program at the address given in the "Quick Reference" section. Nominations by Persons and Local Governments The National Park Service may accept a nomination directly from any person or local government for inclusion of a property in the National Register if the property is located in a State where there is no State Historic Preservation Program approved by the National Park Service. Criteria for Evaluation The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and: Ordinarily cemeteries, birthplaces, or graves of historical figures, properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings, properties primarily commemorative in nature, and properties that have achieved significance within the past 50 years shall not be considered eligible for the National Register. However, such properties will qualify if they are integral parts of districts that meet the criteria, or if they fall within the following categories: The National Historic Preservation Act also gives the Keeper of the National Register authority to determine that historic properties are eligible for listing in the National Register, without formally listing them. This occurs when Federal agencies request a determination of eligibility to assist in their planning (see "Federal Activities"). Frequently, consensus on the National Register eligibility of a property, that may be affected by a Federal project, is achieved between the Federal agency, the State or Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, and any interested parties, which may include Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations, local governments, and permit or license applicants. When consensus cannot be achieved between the parties, the Federal agency will request the Keeper of the National Register to determine whether or not the property is eligible. More information on this process is found in the National Register procedures 36 CFR Part 63. In addition to the regulations, information can be obtained from the following Web site www.achp.gov, or by contacting the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation at the address given in the "Quick Reference" section. Determinations of eligibility also occur when: As is the case with formal listing, determinations of eligibility do not restrict the rights of private property owners to do what they wish with their property, provided that no Federal license, permit, or funding is involved. To recognize the national significance of properties that possess exceptional values or qualities in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States, the Secretary of the Interior designates some historic places as National Historic Landmarks. National Park Service historians and archeologists study and evaluate these properties within the context of major themes of American history. Properties judged to be nationally significant are nominated by the National Park Service and forwarded to the National Park System Advisory Board, which may recommend to the Secretary of the Interior that the property be designated a National Historic Landmark. If not previously listed in the National Register, National Historic Landmarks are automatically listed in the Register when they are designated. For more information on the National Historic Landmarks program, go to: www.nps.gov/history/nhl, or contact the National Historic Landmark Survey at the address listed in the "Quick Reference" section. The National Register is a rich source of information for public education, interpretation, tourism, and research on our past and the places that document the contributions of all people. Detailed information about the National Register and its various research, education, tourism, and technical assistance efforts is located on the National Register homepage at: www.nps.gov/history/nr. The National Register Collection and the National Register Information System The National Register Collection documents the properties listed in and determined eligible for the Register. The documentation on each property provides a physical description of the place, information about its history and significance, a bibliography, photographs, and maps.. Researchers can take advantage of this unparalleled collection in a number of ways. The National Register Information System (NRIS), a computerized index to the National Register, is available to the public through the Web at: http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/. Researchers can visit the National Register collection at 1201 Eye St, NW, in Washington, D.C. between 9 am--noon, Monday through Thursday except Federal holidays. Copies of individual nominations can be received by contacting the National Register Reference Desk at the address given in the "Quick Reference" section. National Register Bulletins and Videos The National Register has developed a broad range of published and audiovisual technical assistance materials to meet the needs of States, Federal agencies, national parks, local governments, Indian tribes, and private citizens seeking to nominate properties and use the National Register. A publications order form, the National Register Starter Kit, consisting of National Register Bulletins How to Complete the National Register Form; How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation; and Researching a Historic Property; registration forms; and a number of other technical bulletins are available on the Web at www.nps.gov/history/nr/publications , or by sending your request to National Register Reference Desk at the address given in the "Quick Reference" section. Teaching with Historic Places Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) is an educational program that uses places listed in the National Register to enhance traditional classroom instruction of history, social studies, geography, and other subjects. Whether or not they can visit a site, students can investigate historic places near and far and discover how places all around us in our communities and States reflect broad themes in American history and connect us to the past. Through lesson plans, workshops and technical guidance, and an extensive Web site, TwHP provides information on topics such as using places in education; writing lesson plans; deciphering clues in the physical evidence of historic places; and forming interdisciplinary collaborations. The cornerstone of TwHP is a series of tested classroom lesson plans written by historians, educators, preservationists, historic site interpreters, and teams, and accessible in print, on the Web, or both. Teachers and others can search online lesson plans by theme, State, or historic time period. For more information on the program, and for a complete list of available lessons, visit the following Web site: www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/. Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Series The National Register promotes heritage tourism through the Discover Our Shared Heritage travel itinerary series. The itineraries, some of which are available in print, others exclusively on the National Register Web site, explore a historic theme, region, or city by highlighting, describing and linking properties listed in the National Register. Each itinerary is a self-guided tour that provides descriptions of the properties, maps, and links to other pertinent Web sites. For more information, go to the following Web site: www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel, or contact Discover Our Shared Heritage at the address listed in the "Quick Reference" section. National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places This address also applies to Teaching with Historic Places, Discover Our Shared Heritage travel itineraries, and the National Register Reference Desk. 202/354-2211; [email protected]; www.nps.gov/history/nr National Historic Landmarks Survey National Historic Landmarks Survey State, Federal, and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices State historic preservation office list: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/shpolist.htm Or contact: National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers Or contact: Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Or contact: Tribal Preservation Program, Heritage Preservation Services Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on Historic Preservation Certified Local Government Program Certified Local Government Program |National Register Home | Publications Home | Previous Page | Next Page|

<urn:uuid:7209fac6-fc36-4ddc-8f2b-2b608289942e>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nR/publications/bulletins/brochure/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Today's featured Invention Award winner: ReWalk, the lightweight, affordable, powered smart exoskeleton. After breaking his neck in a 1997 fall, Israeli engineer Amit Goffer learned that he would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He soon concluded that this mode of transportation was outdated and began work on the ReWalk, the only wearable exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to stand, amble, and even climb stairs. Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.

<urn:uuid:54ebb27f-4dca-4e7b-a84f-58534410009b>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.popsci.com/category/tags/paraplegic

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700107557/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102827-00081-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Dyspraxia: A Quick Look What you should know about dyspraxia: - The term dyspraxia refers to a specific type of disorder in the area of motor skill development. - It is estimated that dyspraxia affects at least 2% of the general population. - Seventy percent of those affected by dyspraxia are male. - Like all learning disabilities, dyspraxia is a life long condition. - With the help of alternate learning methods, repeated practice of basic tasks, and in some cases occupational, physical and speech therapy, a person with dyspraxia can learn to function and succeed independently. - Dyspraxia often co-exists with other learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia. - Dyspraxia can affect a variety of basic functions required for daily living. It is often broken down into different categories - see below for a detailed explanation. Dyspraxia by Category Indicates difficulty with: Inability to complete single-step motor tasks such as combing hair and waving goodbye. Indicates difficulty with:Difficulty with multi-step tasks like brushing teeth, making a bed, putting clothes on in order, as well as buttoning and buckling Oromotor Dyspraxia Indicates difficulty with:Difficulties coordinating the muscle movements needed to pronounce words Indicates difficulty with: Problems with establishing spatial relationships - for instance being able to accurately position or move objects from one place to another Dyspraxia at Different Ages - Difficulty learning to walk, jump and skip - Trouble pronouncing words and being understood - Slow to establish left- or right- handedness - Frequently bumps into things - Easily irritated by touch - clothing on skin, hair brushing, etc. School Age Children - Trouble with activities that require fine motor skills, like holding a pencil, buttoning, cutting with scissors - Poor coordination - trouble with sports activities - Slow or difficult-to- understand speech - Speech difficulties can cause severe social awkwardness and unwillingness to attempt social interactions Teenagers & Adults - Trouble with speech control - volume, pitch, articulation - Difficulty writing - Extreme sensitivity to light, touch, space, taste, smells - Difficulty with personal grooming - Difficulty driving - Very clumsy If a person continues to display difficulty over time in the areas outlined above, testing for dyspraxia by trained professionals should be considered. Get the facts on learning disabilities - Sign up for email updates from NCLD Reprinted with the permission of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. © 1999-2009 National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Add your own comment Today on Education.com - Kindergarten Sight Words List - The Five Warning Signs of Asperger's Syndrome - What Makes a School Effective? - Child Development Theories - Why is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development - 10 Fun Activities for Children with Autism - Bullying in Schools - Test Problems: Seven Reasons Why Standardized Tests Are Not Working - Should Your Child Be Held Back a Grade? Know Your Rights - First Grade Sight Words List

<urn:uuid:325aac15-b17b-458e-8a1d-3729b9ace794>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Dyspraxia_Quick_Look/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Skip to Main Content Municipal water systems must meet strict requirements set by EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act; bottled water falls under less proscriptive regulations promulgated by the FDA under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Bottled water is responsible for more than 200 times the greenhouse gas emissions of tap water over a full life cycle, which includes water extraction, treatment, bottling, and distribution. (Source: Swiss Gas and Water Association) Plastic water bottles account for more than two million tons of trash sent to US landfills each year. That’s 1 billion dollars worth of plastic (Source: Earth Policy Institute) In 2007, Americans spent over 12 billion dollars on bottled water. Furthermore, bottled water corporations benefit from the commoditization of a common resource; extraction can adversely impact the water supplies of nearby communities. (Source: International Bottled Water Association) Check out the Green Team's "water map" to find out where you can find tap water. Back to Top

<urn:uuid:47905b97-c6aa-4a40-a97f-7e0fb3f28fea>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://law.harvard.edu/about/administration/facilities/sustainability-pages/bottled-water.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383259/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

(CBS News) Higher education could help people in more ways besides finding a job. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found educated Americans are less likely to be obese and suffer from chronic diseases, compared to those with less education. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics released its 35th annual report on health in the United States on Wednesday, which compiled data from government and private sector resources on Americans' health habits. This year's edition spotlighted the role socioeconomic status has in determining a person's health. It found between 2007 and 2010, heads of households with a bachelor's degree or more were less likely to have obese children, with rates around 11 percent for boys and 7 percent for girls. Meanwhile, in households where the head holds a high school education or less, 24 percent of boys and 22 percent of girls were obese. But what about the adults themselves? Twenty-five percent of women 25 and older who hold a bachelor's degree were obese, compared with 39 to 43 percent of women who had less education. In 2010, 31 percent of U.S. adults with a high school diploma or less were smokers, compared with 9 percent of adults who graduated with a bachelor's degree or higher. According to the report, on average in 2006, 25-year-old men without a high school diploma had a life expectancy 9.3 years less than those with a bachelor's degree or higher, while women without a high school diploma had a life expectancy 8.6 years less than those with a bachelor's degree or higher. "Highly educated people tend to have healthier behaviors, avoid unhealthy ones and have more access to medical care when they need it," the report's lead author, Amy Bernstein, a health services researcher for the National Center for Health Statistics, told USA Today. "All of these factors are associated with better health." People with less education are also less likely to have health insurance or good access to health care, Bernstein told HealthDay. Rates like these aren't exactly new either - previous CDC reports have also found health disparities related to levels of income and education. "It's frustrating to the public health community that this is not changing. We want to eliminate health disparities," she said. The report also found half of adults over 18 fail to meet federal recommendations for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity, with older adults less likely to exercise than their 18-24 counterparts. Designed by Gray Digital Media

<urn:uuid:23e32ac0-72aa-48f0-9531-cc33a3167841>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.wibw.com/home/internationalnews/headlines/Bachelors_Degree_Boosts_Health_CDC_Report_Suggests_151819205.html?site=mobile

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Downloadable SPSS Code Preparing Data for Analysis Reading a Multilevel Data File Into SPSS Creating An Incident-Level Aggregated Flat File In SPSS Prepare Individual File Segments for Detailed Analysis Tips and Shortcuts for Working with NIBRS Data Converting alphanumeric age codes to numeric values Converting alphanumeric offense codes to numeric values Creating offense groupings for person, property, and society offenses Creating age groups from ages of victims, offenders, and arrestees Converting offense times into quarter hour groupings Ensure that required fields contain data Ensure that the required homicide (09A, 09B, 09C) offense segment data fields are complete Ensure that the required homicide (09A, 09B, 09C) victim segment data fields are complete Ensure that offenses coded as occurring at midnight are correct Ensure that victim variables are reported where required and are correct when reported but not required Check that assaults are properly coded Check that negligent homicides do not include motor vehicles Check that stepparent is coded correctly Check that incest involves only family members Check that relationship codes made sense based on reported ages Check that Offender Suspected of Using is completed, when required Check that Type of Criminal Activity is recorded correctly Check that Drug Type is included in the property description Check that Drug Type is recorded when required Check that reported drugs are measured correctly Check that property loss types make sense Check that property descriptions make sense Check property values Standardizing the Display of IBR Data: An Examination of NIBRS Elements Percent of Incidents, by Time of Day Time of Juvenile Firearm Violence Time of Day of Personal Robberies by Type of Location Incidents on School Property by Hour Temporal Distribution of Sexual Assault Within Victim Age Categories Location: Percent Distribution of Offense, by Type of Crime Location of Juvenile and Adult Property Crime Victimizations Robberies by Location Location of Rape Frequency Distribution for Victim-Offender Relationship by Offender and Older Age Groups and Location Number of Offenses Known by Weapon Comparison of Personal Weapons vs. Firearms for Selected Offenses Type of weapon/force used to commit rapes reported in 3 NIBRS states, by relationship of offender to victim Weapon Use Among Juvenile and Young Adult Arrestees Violent crimes by the type of weapon used Weapons Associated With Reported Injuries Incidents Involving Juvenile Offenders by Number of Victims Injured Domestic Violence Victim Injuries Frequency Distribution for Victim Injury by the Three Traditional Age Groups for Elders School Violence Victims by Injury Percent Distribution of Victims by Age and Relationship to Offender Relationship of Victim to Offender in Simple Assaults School Violence Victims by Victim/Offender Relationship Forcible Rape: Victim to Offender Relationship Relationship of offender to victim in personal robberies reported in 3 NIBRS states, by age of victim and race of offender and victim Number of Incidents, Offenses, Persons Victimized, and Known Offenders User- and Dealer-Related Drug Activity Drug Offenses Occurring in Conjunction with Other Offenses Demographics of Offenders in Drug Offenses Location of Drug Offenses Value of Property Loss Due to Criminal Action, Property Type Value of Property Recovered/Seized by Law Enforcement Agencies, Property Type Larceny, Value of Stolen Property Types of Property Stolen from Juvenile and Adult Victims Are juveniles aged 10 - 17 more likely than adults to be involved in multiple offender incidents? What types of offenses are reported in both juvenile and adult multiple offender incidents? At what time of day are most juvenile multiple offender property offenses committed? What offenses are reported in juvenile multiple offender incidents in which the most serious offense is a Part I Index property crime? For which violent crimes perpetrated in residential settings are adults aged 65 or older more likely than people aged 64 or younger to be victimized? For violent person crimes, when is the victimization of a person aged 65 or older in a residential setting most likely to occur? Does the offender age differ by victim-offender relationship for older adult and younger victims of robbery? Is there a difference between gender and age groups in the types of injuries sustained by victims in violent intimate partner incidents? What violent offenses did intimate partners commit and where were the offenses committed? Is there a difference in weapon use against female vs. male victims of intimate partner violence? FBI's Analysis of Robbery FBI's Analysis of Motor Vehicle Theft Using Survival Model FBI's Drug Offense Analysis IBR Resource Center Reports Using State Data Exploring the Dynamics of Race and Crime Using Vermont NIBRS Data Linking Incident-Based Crime Data and Court Records: A Pilot Study of Domestic Relationship and Driving Under the Influence Incidents Crime in WV Cities: A Comparative Analysis of Selected Population Groups and Victim-Offender Relationships

<urn:uuid:b3a60e29-ab50-4348-aae3-45f77992cb15>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.jrsa.org/ibrrc/samples/spss.shtml

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Morphine blocks the brain’s memory making mechanismPublished On: Thu, Apr 26th, 2007 | Neurobiology | By BioNews April 26 : A recent research, conducted by the Brown University, has found that analgesic drug Morphine blocks the brain’s ability to strengthen connections at inhibitory synapses. The findings, published in Nature, may help clarify the genesis of addiction in the brain and also support a challenging new theory of addiction as a disease of learning and memory. “We’ve added a new piece to the puzzle of how addictive drugs affect the brain. We’ve shown here that morphine makes lasting changes in the brain by blocking a mechanism that’s believed to be the key to memory making. So these findings reinforce the notion that addiction is a form of pathological learning,†lead scientist Julie Kauer said. Kauer, a professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology at Brown, said that the brain stores information with the help of Long-term potentiation, or LTP. In LTP, connections between neurons, called synapses, the major spot of information exchange in the brain, become stronger after recurring stimulation. This improved synaptic power is believed to be the cellular foundation for memory. In her experiments, Kauer found that LTP is blocked in the brains of rats given as little as a single dose of morphine. The drug’s impact was powerful as LTP continued to be blocked 24 hours later, long after the drug was out of the animal’s system. “The persistence of the effect was stunning,†Kauer said. “This is your brain on drugs.†Kauer recorded the fact in the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, a small section of the midbrain that is occupied in the reward system that reinforces survival-boosting behaviors such as eating and sex, a reward system linked to addiction. The affected synapses, Kauer found, were those between inhibitory neurons and dopamine neurons. In a healthy brain, inhibitory cells would bound the release of dopamine, the “pleasure chemical†that gets released by naturally rewarding experiences. Drugs of abuse, from alcohol to cocaine, also increase dopamine release. So the net effect of morphine and other opioids, Kauer found, is that they enhance the brain’s reward response. “It’s as if a brake were removed and dopamine cells start firing,†she explained. “That activity, combined with other brain changes caused by the drugs, could increase vulnerability to addiction. The brain may, in fact, be learning to crave drugs.†Kauer and her team not only recorded cellular changes caused by morphine but also molecular ones. Indeed, the researchers located the very molecule that morphine disables, guanylate cyclase. This enzyme, or inhibitory neurons themselves, would be effective targets for drugs that prevent or treat addiction.(ANI)

<urn:uuid:48fac6c4-aa06-4374-b39f-deb17ff385a0>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://news.bioscholar.com/2007/04/morphine-blocks-the-brains-memory-making-mechanism.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706477730/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121437-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Researchers after the Second World War found themselves wondering about a very interesting fact. In Italy and Greece, it was known that deaths due to coronary disease were in much lower occurrence rates than in other countries, such as the USA and countries in northern Europe. Two researchers ended up to the conclusion that the main factor, which contributed to this low death rate was the ‘Mediterranean diet'. This lead to further research, called the 7 countries study, which was conducted in 1950. More than 15.000 people were examined aged between 40 and 59 and the study lasted more than 15 years. This study provided evidence that the average consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol is directly connected to deaths due to coronary disease. This saturated fat consumption in Mediterranean countries was a lot less than that in N. Europe and the USA. The advantages of Mediterranean diet have been proved by a lot of research. These advantages include: Olive oil is the main ingredient of the Mediterranean diet. Compared to other types of fat such as margarines and butter, it has been proved that olive oil is by far the healthiest. In 2004, the food and drug administration of the united states in its attempt to educate people about healthy eating habits allowed producers of olive oil to use the following inscription on their labels: "Limited and non conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about two tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil. To achieve this possible benefit, olive oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day." This fact shows how important it has become for countries to educate people about the benefits of a healthy diet such as the Mediterranean. Therefore, there is a worldwide trend to promote olive oil for health reasons. It must be noted that the benefits in health can be achieved by consuming exclusively extra virgin olive oil (top quality olive oil that has been bottled as it comes from nature without industrial refining).

<urn:uuid:2e1f387c-9568-4c73-83bb-cfb69cf24098>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.spartagold.gr/page1.php?id=2

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705618968/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120018-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Now watch South America's weather BY BRYAN DOHERTY Since becoming a more dominant player in the agricultural world the last 15 years, South American weather has become increasingly important to price for U.S. commodities. Weather developments can be critical but often overanalyzed. Weather outlooks change constantly, but in most years normal conditions generally prevail. Typically in South America, weather talk starts in early fall. From our perspective, the real weather for making or breaking South American crops begins about the middle of December. With heightened volatility and declining world inventories, this year's weather developments in South America, especially for beans, will be more critical than in past years, affecting where prices may go. Now that December has arrived, it is time to take a serious look at South American weather. The September/October/November time window is similar to the April/May/early June window for U.S. crops. Fall in the U.S. represents the planting season for the Southern Hemisphere. While dry conditions concern producers in South America, early rain deficit also allows for rapid planting progress. This year South America, especially parts of Brazil, experienced net drying during the planting, which led to some replant. Over the last 4 to 6 weeks, though, Brazilian weather has turned more conducive while Argentina's weather has more concerns. Looking ahead, we see a growing concern due to a drying pattern in northern Argentina, a key growing area. Current soil moisture conditions are estimated at short to very short in all major grain, oilseed and cotton regions. This, along with a forecast that does not offer much near-term moisture, may affect early planted crops. Late planted crops may not be as affected as much for now but still will need moisture sooner than later. As for Brazil, the situation does not look as concerning. However, the Southern states are drying fast. The forecast appears, at least as of this writing, to hold better promise for moisture in most major producing regions. As time passes and late December/early January loom closer, weather conditions will be critical for crop development. The market will rapidly reflect weather changes while also digesting a shrinking trend to world projected carry-out. So how does this affect you as a farmer in America? First of all, expect volatility to remain high into the winter months. Weather in South America could dramatically change the outlook for all U.S. crop prices. If you have aggressively sold, it may prove beneficial to cover these sales with fixed risk option strategies. If you are holding a lot of inventory but want to continue to store, then consider PUT options as safety valves to provide a price floor. As for making additional cash sales, you need to determine when you can deliver as well as your cash flow needs. Keep in mind if it appears South American weather is in good shape by mid January, price rally potential will probably be limited. Therefore, cash sales are recommended on both old and new crop, especially on price advances into the winter months. Expect normal weather, but also plan strategically for the unexpected weather events in South America this winter.

<urn:uuid:ac969def-73ec-490e-b249-f3c2eb4b26b6>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.agriculture.com/markets/analysis/Now-watch-South-Americas-weather_8-ar3455

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707439689/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123039-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Stay informed with daily news and our newsletters!Learn more The focus of an AUP should be on the responsible use of computer networks. Such networks include both the Internet (the World Wide Web, external e-mail, and so on) and any Intranets (classroom networks, communications between classes within a school or district, library catalogue and database access, etc.). According to the US Department of Education's online Alphabet Superhighway, AUPs should include: In addition, an AUP should: Some ministries of education and school boards have developed acceptable use guidelines for all stakeholders. An excellent model can be found on EdNet, the Web site for Nova Scotia's Department of Education and Culture (see right sidebar). It clearly defines the responsibilities of the ministry, school boards, schools, parents, teachers and students. However, responsibility for AUPs usually rests with school boards and individual schools. A downside of AUPs is that because they emphasize surveillance and control rather than supervision and guidance, they imply an absence of trust in students. But when AUPs are properly designed and implemented, they respect the rights of both child and school - and are certainly less restrictive than filtering software. However, AUPs are not a foolproof solution to issues of students' use of technology. Although some AUPs attempt to protect school boards from legal liability, the mere fact that schools or boards assume the role of "gatekeepers" may actually set them up for litigation if students are exposed to questionable material. In such an environment, administrators can understandably become edgy about topics that seem controversial - and this can lead them to restrict or deny students access to some information. A parent asks: "If my child's school has Internet access but no AUP, who should I talk to?" Contact your local school board to determine whether any guidelines have been established for Internet use. If neither school nor board has any such guidelines, you might consider contacting: Interested in supporting MediaSmarts?Charitable Registration No. 89018 1092 RR0001 Find out how you can get involved.Learn more

<urn:uuid:cd34ecd9-af1a-4c55-894c-53b1cd4113e1>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://mediasmarts.ca/backgrounder/acceptable-use-policies-internet-use

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701577515/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105257-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

There’s nothing like swimming in rivers to bring home the message that we need to turn off our taps and hosepipes to keep them full, clean and living. Water consumption in the UK has gone up 30% since the 1970s, with people using 150-180 litres a day on average. We need to use less! Low water flow in rivers concentrates pollutants, which kills plants and fish. Ideally we would use no more than 125 litres a day each, reducing this to 100 litres in hot summers when water is scarce. The OSS has been awareness-raising on this since 2006, and in 2008 the OSS December Dip had a use less water message: the 12 water saving ways of Christmas (see news page). in January 2009 the environment agency are releasing a report about the issue - see advance information here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/29/water-shortage-england-wales-meters Want to save water? Here are some tips for now and later (when you get to DIY): SAVE WATER NOW: in the house Turn taps off while brushing teeth or shaving – leaving them running wastes 5-9 litres a minute Keep cool water in the fridge instead of running taps till the water runs cold Load washing machines with a full load. The average wash needs about 95 litres of water. A full load uses less water than two half loads. Wash fruit and veg in a bowl rather than under a running tap, and use the leftover water to water house plants Boil the minimum amount of water you need in kettles and saucepans Put cotton wool and tissues in a waste bin rather than flushing them away (old toilet cisterns use as much as 9 litres of clean water with every flush). Baths use approximately 80 litres of water (power showers can use much too in just five minutes). Reuse water for houseplants: water from boiled eggs contains beneficial nutrients from the shell, and water from dirty fish tanks is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus – both good fertilisers. Wash cars with a bucket and sponge: a hosepipe can use up to 1000 litres of water an hour. SAVE WATER NOW: in the garden Water your garden in the early morning or evening when it’s cooler. This will reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation. Let grass grow a little longer. It will stay greener than a close mown lawn and need less watering. Even if the grass turns brown, it will quickly recover after a few days of rain. Use a watering can instead of a hose. Established trees and shrubs do not generally need watering. If you water plants and shrubs too often their roots will remain shallow, weakening the plant. Leave them alone until they show signs of wilting. Don’t use sprinklers (they can use as much water in an hour as a family of four uses in a day). SAVE WATER SOON: in the house Old toilet cisterns use as much as 9 litres of clean water every flush. Placing a ‘save-a-flush’ in the cistern can lower the volume of water used by up to 3 litres while still giving an efficient flush. Replace old toilet cisterns with new ones with a half-flush option. Replace worn tap washers - dripping taps can waste up to 4 litres of water a day When replacing washing machines and dishwashers chose ‘water efficent’ models – machines with an A rating are the most economical Install a trigger nozzle in the kitchen – they using it only when needed. This can save up to 225 litres a week. Lag water pipes and external taps to avoid burst pipes in the winter, which can cause serious damage and waste water. Install a water meter to save water and money by monitoring how much you use. SAVE WATER SOON: in the garden Collect rainwater in water-butts and use a watering can instead of a hose. If you prefer to use a hosepipe, fit a trigger nozzle to control the flow. Plant flowers and shrubs that thrive in hot and dry conditions such as thyme, evening primrose, rock rose, Californian poppy, pinks, lavender, buddleia and hebes. For more tips on saving water in the garden see [Alan Titchmarsh suggestions from the Environment Agency] and Royal Horticultural Society advice on saving water http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/watering.asp

<urn:uuid:eab3971b-0f2b-4a9e-80d5-b01368bc4d1e>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/index.php?p=about&s=save_rivers

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702298845/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110458-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

This day in history – looking at the road America didn’t take 19th century US history is mostly a horror show, but it need not have been so. As we are reminded by this, reposted from the always-interesting Today in History page of the History Channel’s website: After more than a decade of ineffective military campaigns and infamous atrocities, a conference begins at Fort Laramie to discuss alternative solutions to the “Indian problem” and to initiate peace negotiations with the Sioux. The United States had been fighting periodic battles with Sioux and Cheyenne tribes since the 1854. That year, the Grattan Massacre inspired loud calls for revenge, though largely unjustified, against the Plains Indians. Full-scale war erupted on the plains in 1864, leading to vicious fighting and the inexcusable Sand Creek Massacre, during which Colorado militiamen killed 105 Cheyenne women and children who were living peacefully at their winter camp. By 1867, the cost of the war against the Plains Indians, the Army’s failure to achieve decisive results, and news of atrocities like those at Sand Creek turned the American public and U.S. Congress against the Army’s aggressive military solution to the “Indian problem.” Concluding that peaceful negotiations were preferable to war, the attendees at the Fort Laramie conference initiated talks with the Sioux. The talks bore results the following year when U.S. negotiators agreed to abandon American forts on the Bozeman Trail in Wyoming and Montana, leaving the territory in the hands of the Sioux. However, the promise of peace on the central plains was fleeting. Concern about wars between the different Indian tribes led the U.S. to renege on its promise to provide guns to the Cheyenne, and the angry Indians took revenge on Kansas settlements by killing 15 men and raping five women. By late 1868, American soldiers were again preparing for war on the Plains. For More Information Summary from the Milestone Documents website, by Mark R. Ellis (Assoc Prof of History, U Nebraska at Kearney): The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) was an agreement between the United States and various bands of Lakota Sioux, Yanktonai Sioux, Santee Sioux, and Arapaho. The treaty ended Red Cloud’s War (1866–1867), established the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation, and protected Sioux hunting grounds and the sacred Black Hills from white encroachment. Other provisions of the Treaty of Fort Laramie served as agents of assimilation by trying to induce the Indians to take up farming, wear non-Indian clothing, and educate their children. The Treaty of Fort Laramie was one of the last great treaties signed between the American government and the Plains Indians. Despite the peaceful intentions of the treaty, the unwillingness of the federal government to live up to its stipulations and the inability of the signing tribes to enforce the treaty on all their members resulted in the Great Sioux War (also known as the Black Hills War) of 1876–1877 and their eventual removal. … See the Wikipedia entry on the second Treaty of Fort Laramie, aka the Sioux Treaty of 1868. How it was made. How it was broken. Results, echoing down to our time. See the text of the Treaty at the PBS website, in pages about the 1996 documentary New Perspectives on the West. Posts about Notes from the Past For more see the FM Reference Page History – economic, military and geopolitical. Notes with advice from our past: - From the 3rd century BC, Polybius warns us about demographic collapse, 11 June 2008 - America’s grand strategy: lessons from our past, 30 June 2008 - President Grant warns us about the dangers of national hubris, 1 July 2008 - de Tocqueville warns us not to become weak and servile, 21 July 2008 - Napoleon’s advice to President Obama about the financial crisis, 29 April 2009 - Another note from our past, helping us see our future, 16 September 2009 — by Daniel Ellsberg - A note from America’s diary: “My power proceeds from my reputation…”, 22 September 2009 - A lesson from the Weimar Republic about balancing the budget, 10 February 2010 - France gives us tips for the Afghanistan War, from their successful role in the American Revolution, 11 March 2010 - A great philosopher and statesman comments on the Bush-Obama tweaks to the Constitution, 10 October 2010 — by Edmond Burke - Important history to remember on Earth Day, 23 April 2011 - A warning from the past. Might the American Empire drag down America?, 4 August 2011 - Advice from one of the British Empire’s greatest Foreign Ministers, 18 November 2011 — by Lord Palmerston - George Orwell sends us a note, giving some perspective on our situation, 22 January 2012 - Rome speaks to us. Their example can inspire us to avoid their fate., 22 April 2012

<urn:uuid:937fa4d3-df25-4cda-979a-6bdc8ac0c66c>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://fabiusmaximus.com/2012/11/13/war-native-americans-45719/

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701806508/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105646-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

The most extensive drought since the 1950s in the continental U.S. keeps getting worse. For the 10th consecutive week, drought conditions expanded. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing at least moderate drought (as of July 17) - an increase of three percentage points from last week (on July 10), the latest U.S. Drought Monitor reports. More than 80 percent of the land surface is abnormally dry. 42 percent of the U.S. is in severe, extreme or exceptional drought. The report comes out just one day after Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack described the drought as “the most serious situation” in about 25 years, stating about 1,300 counties across the country had been designated “drought disaster” areas. Vilsack cautioned food prices would increase into 2013 due to the drought. The Drought Monitor contains this sobering report on the state of crops in the Heartland: Another week of hot and dry weather continued the deterioration of crop conditions in America’s breadbasket. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports for the week ending July 15 indicated that 38 percent of the nation’s corn crop was in poor to very poor condition, compared to 30 percent a week ago, and 30 percent of soybeans were in poor to very poor condition (compared to 27 percent last week). Fifty-four percent of the nation’s pasture and rangeland was in poor to very poor condition, which is a jump of 4 percent compared to last week and is an all-time high for the 1995-2012 growing season weekly history. NOAA animation shows monthly composites of vegetation health index derived from satellite data. Areas colored in shades of orange are experiencing moderate through exceptional drought conditions and are consistent with areas of vegetation stress. Blistering temperatures and lack of rain are not only desiccating soils, but also drying out rivers and streams. The Drought Monitor says: Streamflows were in the lower tenth percentile of record, or at record low values at several time scales, across much of the Midwest and parts of the central Plains, West, Southeast, and even parts of New England. On the plus side, wildfire activity has lessened in the West, thanks to monsoon rains. The number of wildfires burning was cut in half in the last week from about four dozen to two dozen, the Drought Monitor reported. Looking ahead, drought conditions - for the most part - are not expected to improve and may worsen in the hardest hit areas. Over the next five days, the Drought Monitor projects no rain and excessive heat in the country’s midsection: The southern to central Plains will likely be devoid of precipitation. Temperatures for much of the country east of the Rockies will be above normal, with departures possibly 10 to 15 degrees above normal from the central Plains to Great Lakes. For July 24-August 1, dry weather is expected to dominate in the southern to central Plains.... Drought evolution by month from NOAA’s Environmental Visualization Laboratory

<urn:uuid:9bdc50c3-f9f5-4901-ae80-76d7ff9b16f2>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/historic-drought-covers-nearly-two-thirds-of-continental-us/2012/07/19/gJQAOp6fvW_blog.html

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705956263/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120556-00087-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Viognier is no easy grape to grow. The plants are susceptible to all kinds of diseases, such as powdery mildew. Yields can be extremely low, due in no small part to uneven ripening. To make matters worse, if growers pick the grapes too late, the acidity will be so low they might as well make brandy out of them. This may be why the grape was headed toward extinction. In 1965 only a few acres of Viognier remained under cultivation in Condrieu, in the grape's Rhone Valley homeland. Since then, Viognier has been making a comeback — first in Condrieu and then in the south of France in Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence. Later, the plantings spread to California and Australia. To give you an idea of the escalation: In 1993 California crushed 231 tons of Viognier grapes. Ten years later that increased to 9,800 tons. A Gift of Flowers and Perfume When Viognier prospers it produces arguably the most aromatic wines in the world, replete with vibrant floral qualities. The classic Old World style of Viognier is crisp, dry, and intense. As winemakers around the world craft their own Viogniers, more style variations appear. While cooler regions of California produce a style closer to the French classic, wines from warmer areas are richer and fuller. It's rare for France to permit the use of a white wine grape in a high-quality red wine. But in an unusual twist in the vineyards of the Côte Rôtie, Viognier vines are planted among Syrah vines. The white and red grapes are harvested and vinified together to produce the highly regarded Côte Rôtie red wines. A FEW VIOGNIER SELECTIONS Alban Vineyards Viognier (Arroyo Grande, California) Château de Campuget Viognier (France) Yalumba Viognier (Australia) Pride Mountain Viognier (Spring Mountain, Napa Valley, California)

<urn:uuid:a14cc528-c7df-4bc5-85f4-f28c0942f59b>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.netplaces.com/wine-guide/a-primer-on-white-grape-varieties/viognier.htm

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703662159/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112742-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

What to Expect in an AAC Assessment A formal evaluation by a speech-language pathologist may be necessary before an appropriate augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is acquired; e.g., if Medicare funding is necessary to cover the cost of the device. Assessments for AAC strategies are somewhat different for children and for adults. This article covers what to expect and look for in evaluations for either audience. AAC Evaluations for Children The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) definition of assistive technology covers "[a]ny item, piece of equipment, product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities." According to the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, this definition includes AAC. Because the IDEA definition of assistive technology also specifies the need for an evaluation, AAC evaluations are covered by IDEA. The PBSParents Inclusive Communities website has a page on How to Get an AAC Assessment. Suggested resources include the child's school district and the speech/language therapy departments of local postsecondary institutions. The University of Nebraska YaacK website suggest four basic questions that should be at the core of any AAC assessment: - "What are the child’s communication needs or goals? - "What are the child’s strengths and abilities? - "What barriers are preventing the child from achieving his or her full communication/participation potential? - "What aids and adaptations (e.g. AAC devices or systems, environmental modifications, policy changes, etc.) will best accomplish the child’s goals given his or her strengths and abilities, and current circumstances?" The YaaCK site also points out that the mutable nature of a child's needs, including their growth, changing communication strategies, and expanding environments, should be taken into account when providing an assessment. Michael Gamel-McCormick and Stacy Dymond have created a Augmentative Communication Assessment Protocol for Symbolic Augmentative Systems checklist which provides specific questions to be addressed during an evaluation. Most of the questions would also be relevant for an assessment for a text-based system. AAC Evaluations for Adults There are no general parallels to IDEA for adults in terms of requiring the provision of AAC devices or evaluations. For adults who are employed or seeking employment, AAC devices are likely to be considered "personal devices" on a par with wheelchairs, glasses, or hearing aids, and the employer therefore does not have an obligation to provide them. In many cases, adults being evaluated for AAC use will have prior language skills but have acquired a disability that makes using these difficult. These disabilities can include stroke, traumatic brain injury, ALS, and multiple sclerosis. In other cases, the adult may have a congenital condition such as cerebral palsy but may not have had a prior opportunity for an evaluation. Evaluations are generally performed by a speech-language pathologist affiliated with a hospital or university or in private practice. Once the need for a communication aid is determined, an evaluator needs to figure out what type of device will be most appropriate. The Augmentative Communication, Inc. website lists several considerations for adult evaluations, including the ability to independently generate messages, the need for storing preprogrammed messages, the optimal access strategy (e.g., whether switch use is required), and whether the user is likely to benefit from a trial period using one or more device options. The Speech Pathology Guru site provides an example of one type of report that may be generated as the result of an adult AAC evaluation.

<urn:uuid:01b53bf1-a451-41c8-9227-d435d362c4b2>

CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://atcoalition.org/article/what-expect-aac-assessment

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706474776/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121434-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en