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HISTORY OF FLIGHT Use your browsers 'back' function to return to synopsisReturn to Query Page On October 7, 2002, at 1017 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 525A, N57E

HISTORY OF FLIGHT Use your browsers 'back' function to return to synopsisReturn to Query Page On October 7, 2002, at 1017 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 525A, N57EJ, was substantially damage during a runway overrun at the Dexter Regional Airport (1B0), Dexter, Maine. The certificated airline transport pilot and one passenger received serious injuries, and two passengers received minor injuries. Visual meteorological conditions (VMC) prevailed for the business flight that departed Robertson Airport (4B8), Plainville, Connecticut, about 0930. An instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan was filed and activated, and the flight was conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. According to the pilot, he departed Plainville and climbed to flight level 290. The flight progressed without incident, and when the airplane was approximately 80 miles south of Dexter, the pilot initiated a descent. While being vectored for the GPS runway 34 approach, and descending through 6,000 feet mean sea level (MSL), the airplane entered VMC. Once clear of the clouds, flight visibility was approximately 10 miles. The pilot cancelled his IFR clearance when the airplane was about 10 miles south of the airport, and proceeded under visual flight rules (VFR). The pilot further stated: "...touchdown accomplished within first 1/4 of runway...throttles in idle before touchdown, flaps in landing position. At touchdown, flaps to ground position (spoilers deployed), apply brakes, pedal pressure was firm, felt sensation of anti-skid pulsing. Aircraft did not decelerate noticeably. Released brakes to allow reset. Reapplied brakes, no difference. Commenced go-around. Throttles full forward, ground flaps to take-off position...This was the last I remember until regaining consciousness. I tried to shut engines down, couldn't get levers to idle cut-off...." The pilot added that he left the cockpit and went to the tail cone baggage compartment where he disconnected the battery. He returned to the cockpit and brought the throttles to idle cut-off, after which the engines stopped. In a follow-up interview, the pilot reported that about half way down the runway, he became concerned about stopping within the distance remaining, so he aborted the landing. With approximately 1,500 feet remaining, he removed his feet from the brake pedals, advanced the power levers to takeoff, and raised the flaps two notches to the takeoff position. The airplane, continued down the runway, but did not accelerate as expected. The pilot's memory regarding the aborted landing and subsequent impact was fragmented. He remembered the airplane departing the far end of the runway, and then impacting the ground, but he could not recall the airspeed when he overran the runway, or if he reapplied the brakes after aborting the landing. The pilot added that the winds reported by approach control favored runway 16. He chose to land on runway 34 because the tailwind component was negligible, and to land on runway 16 would require a steeper approach due to a hill north of the runway. The pilot further stated that the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) sounded "Sink Rate," while on final. He added it was not unusual for him to get the "Sink Rate" warning, and that the system had sounded in the past even when the airplane was descending on a visual glidepath at 500 fpm. The accident occurred during the hours of daylight. The wreckage was located at 45 degrees, 00.50 minutes north latitude, 69 degrees, 14.45 minutes west longitude, and an elevation of approximately 530 feet msl. The pilot held an airline transport pilot certificate with an airplane multi-engine land rating, and type ratings in the CE-500, CE-525, and CE-525S (single pilot authorization). He also held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single engine land rating. He was last issued a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first-class airman medical certificate on January 25, 2001. The pilot's total fligh

|Product #: EMC3392013_TQ| Bats (Thinking Skills) (Resource Book Only) eBookGrade 2 Please Note: This ebook is a digital download, NOT a physical product. After purchase, you will be provided a

|Product #: EMC3392013_TQ| Bats (Thinking Skills) (Resource Book Only) eBookGrade 2 Please Note: This ebook is a digital download, NOT a physical product. After purchase, you will be provided a one time link to download ebooks to your computer. Orders paid by PayPal require up to 8 business hours to verify payment and release electronic media. For immediate downloads, payment with credit card is required. This thinking skills unit for grade 2 presents a variety of activities about bats, including listing words that rhyme with 'bat,' solving word problems about how far a bat flies, writing about bat attributes, and more. (For similar units on animals, search the term 'Animals-Thinking Skills.') Submit a review

Jessie Fauset biography Jessie Fauset was born in Camden County, New Jersey, on April 27, 1882. In 1912, she began to write for The Crisis, a magazine founded by W.E

Jessie Fauset biography Jessie Fauset was born in Camden County, New Jersey, on April 27, 1882. In 1912, she began to write for The Crisis, a magazine founded by W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois hired Fauset to be the magazine's literary editor in 1919. In this role, she encouraged many Harlem Renaissance writers. She also wrote four novels of her own. Fauset was 79 when she died on April 30, 1961, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jessie Redmon Fauset was born on April 27, 1882, in New Jersey's Camden Count

|WELCOME||16th Century Pennsylvania Maps||WELCOME| There are a surprising number of printed 16th century maps of North America, Burden describes a total of 132. McCorkle includes 59 in the catalog of New

|WELCOME||16th Century Pennsylvania Maps||WELCOME| There are a surprising number of printed 16th century maps of North America, Burden describes a total of 132. McCorkle includes 59 in the catalog of New England maps, however continental maps are included also. There are only about a half dozen 16th century printed regional maps of Pennsylvania using the definition adopted here. A couple are essentially the same map with the same name; a couple can only figuratively be said to include a piece of the state and are listed here for completeness; another just barely includes a piece of the state. So, it is just as accurate to say there are only two 16th century printed maps of the Pennsylvania region. In addition, there are a few regional maps from manuscript atlases which survive because they were prepared as presentation pieces for important people, like monarchs. Most of the manuscript and printed maps of America from this era are world or continental maps, or also show the Caribbean and part of South America which were the first areas settled, and so are not included. The Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was publishe

James Manning was born October 22, 1738 in Piscataway, New Jersey. In 1762, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1763.

James Manning was born October 22, 1738 in Piscataway, New Jersey. In 1762, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1763. That same year he was sent by the Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches to Rhode Island for the purpose of establishing a college to be principally under the direction of the Baptists. Rhode Island College (renamed Brown University in 1804) was granted a charter on March 3, 1764, and Manning became its first president when it opened the next year. He served as the College's only professor until 1767, when the in

ASP.NET Web Deployment Overview [This documentation is for preview only, and is subject to change in later releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.] After you have created an ASP.NET Web application project or an ASP.NET Web site project in

ASP.NET Web Deployment Overview [This documentation is for preview only, and is subject to change in later releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.] After you have created an ASP.NET Web application project or an ASP.NET Web site project in Visual Studio 2010, you typically deploy the project to a Web server running IIS where others can access your application or site. Several tasks must be accomplished before a Web application project or a Web site project can be made available to a larger audience on the Internet or on an internal company intranet. You can deploy a Web site or Web application in several ways, though the technique for deploying a Web sites and a Web application are different. To deploy a Web site: you can copy the site files to a Web server using the Copy feature in Visual Studio. use a file transfer protocol like FTP. To deploy a Web application: you use Visual Studio to either package the application and copy the package to a Web server or use the Publish feature to deploy an application. To deploy a Web application project or a Web site project to a third-party or hosted server, you must have the following: An account on a third-party server or access to a Web server. A URL or domain name where users will access your Web application project or Web site project. A way to upload your application or site files to the server. Administration rights to the server or a way, such as a control panel, to provide information to the server administrator. A way to set IIS settings for the application or site. A way to deploy a databases with a Web application. Deploying a Web site project or Web application project to an internal company intranet follows similar requirements. In that case, you typically have a corporate network account for the company intranet, or work with a server administrator to copy the files to a particular location. Additional settings would be made by the administrator. A hosting company provides space on their Web servers where you can upload a Web site or Web application and keep the data for your site. The Web server handles the Web requests that come to your site, and the hosting company manages tasks such as backing up the server, upgrading the server, and maintaining the.NET Framework and IIS software required to run a site. Every hosting company is different, but they generally all offer a hosting package that provides disk space for your site and data storage, plus a bandwidth quota which determines how much data your site can send out every month. Some packages include access to Microsoft SQL Server or another database server. In other packages, you might pay extra for database storage. In most cases you do not have administrator rights on the hosting company's servers. Therefore you are restricted in how you can move files or databases onto the hosting servers and how you provide settings, such as IIS settings. Many hosting companies provide custom control panels to accomplish this task. Deploying an ASP.NET Web application can involve copying many files and an assortment of settings from a development computer to a testing, staging, or production server. In addition to application content (.aspx files, images, XML files, debug files, binaries, and so on), Web applications can require files, settings, and other assets that might be created or tracked in Visual Studio, including the following: IIS settings such as error pages, default documents, directory browsing and so on. Assemblies that need to be installed in the GAC on the target computer and COM components. Application pool settings. Visual Studio 2010 lets you package your Web application files and settings, and then to provide information about how and where the Web application is to be deployed. Packaging the assets of a Web application makes deploying the application much easier. The deployment features in Visual Studio are designed to eliminate the manual steps required to deploy many of these settings and assets to an IIS server. The Web packaging technology enables you to create either a compressed (.zip) file or a folder structure called a Web package that contains all the assets and metadata that must be deployed in order to run a Web application. One-Click Publish enables you to create a Web package and deploy it with one mouse click, using a publishing profile that you create. The Web packaging technology uses the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool (MSDeploy.exe) to deploy a Web package. The Web Deployment Tool must be on the target server. For more information about MSDeploy.exe, see How to: Use MSBuild to Publish a Web Application. A Web site project is deployed in a different way than a Web application project. A Web site is often copied to the Web server by using the Copy Website menu command under the Website menu. You can also use FTP to copy the Web site files to the server. Visual Studio 2010 provides two ways to deploy an ASP.NET Web site project. Visual Studio includes the Copy Web Site tool, which copies files of the current Web site to a target server. Visual Studio also includes the Publish Web Site utility, which compiles a Web site into a set of executable files. You can then copy the files to a target server by using any method that you want. For more information about how to deploy Web sites, see ASP.NET Web Site Deployment Overview. Most hosting companies do not support SQL Server 2008 Express, the database edition that

Soil conservation is not new in Kentucky. Most farmers are aware of the need to protect soil and have used practices such as crop rotation, residue management, contour tillage, sod waterways, and no-till for many years. However,

Soil conservation is not new in Kentucky. Most farmers are aware of the need to protect soil and have used practices such as crop rotation, residue management, contour tillage, sod waterways, and no-till for many years. However, soil erosion is of never-ending concern and still remains a problem in many areas. The 1985 Farm Bill (Food Security Act) included several new provisions intended to improve soil and water conservation in the U.S. (see Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service publication AGR-138, "1985 Food Security Act"). The Conservation Program Improvements Act, Title XIV of the 1990 Farm Bill, basically extends the 1985 bill, but with several major differences. These will affect Kentucky farmers through 1995 and beyond. The CRP was continued by the 1990 Farm Bill with few changes. The program has two primary goals: Bids for CRP are accepted only during scheduled signup periods, which are announced in advance by ASCS. Two types of bidsstandard and easement are currently used in Kentucky. Participants must list, in dollars per acre per year, how much land they want to keep in an approved conservation cover. All bids go into a national "pool" where they are evaluated as to their "agricultural use value." All standard bids will be accepted or rejected based on their environmental benefit. The factors considered are: surface and ground water quality, soil productivity, conservation compliance assistance, tree planting, and assistance to state 319 and conservation priority areas which have been identified by agencies for special emphasis. Eligibility for CRP has been expanded to include: One million of the maximum 45 million acres will be reserved for the 1994-95 signup periods. The purpose is to help producers in meeting conservation compliance requirements before the 1995 deadline by placing some land in the CRP. Land placed in CRP will retain its crop acreage base during the contract and can be returned to crop production when the contract expires. However, at that time it will be subject to the conservation compliance provisions which are described later in this publication. The farmer's options on CRP land coming out of contract are the same as they are on similar non-CRP land. During the CRP contract, the land can only be used for recreational purposes. During natural disasters such as drought, it might be released for hay harvesting. The wetlands reserve is a new program authorized by the 1990 Farm Bill. It provides for the voluntary enrollment of a million acres of wetlands in 30-year or permanent easements or the maximum allowed by state law. The lands eligible are those classed as farmed wetlands, prior-converted wetlands, functionally dependent lands, and other wetlands if functional values will be enhanced. CRP lands with high wetland values may be eligible along with riparian areas that link wetlands. Under this program, the landowner agrees to implement a wetlands conservation plan that will be developed by SCS and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for the area. The land can only be used for compatible uses specified in the plan. Cost-share of at least 50% will be provided for implementing the plan. Payments for WRP cannot exceed the fair market value of the land minus the value of the land as encumbered by the program. Payments are to be spread over a 5- to 20-year period, but lump-sum payments may be allowed for permanent easements. The program will probably be administered through a bid process similar to CRP. Land placed in WRP loses its commodity crop base and crop acreage history. At the end of the easement, it will be subject to swampbuster and/or any other provisions in effect at that time. Through this program, farm owners and operators will be able to enter into 3- to 5-year agreements which are intended to reduce the impact of surface or subsurface agricultural drainage on water quality in certain targeted areas. Areas to be targeted include: wellhead protection areas within 1,000 feet of a public well; karst, or sinkhole land; critical cropland within targeted areas where endangered species habitat is threatened; and other environmentally sensitive areas that may be identified. The goal is to enroll 10 million acres in the program by the end of 1995. The farmer is required to implement a water quality protection plan on the affected land. This will involve a minimum of a permanent cover crop to reduce runoff and soil erosion. A nutrient management plan may also be required. A wetland and wildlife habitat treatment option will be available in some areas. The cropland base will be protected during the agreement period. Benefits to the land owner-operator include incentive payments of up to $3,500 per year. Cost share is also available for establishing the wetland and wildlife habitat options. Cost share is for approved protection and enhancement practices and limited to a maximum of $1,500 per contract. This program takes out of production and protects "environmentally sensitive land" through long-term easements. These will be permanent easements in most cases. No enrollment goal was set, but no more than 10% of cropland in a county can be entered into easement programs. Eligible land includes riparian corridors, CRP land that is likely to return to production, critical habitat areas for threatened or endangered species, and other environmentally sensitive areas. The land owner-operator is required to implement a natural resources management plan on the program land. The plan will be developed by SCS in consultation with other agencies. Crop ba

MacBook users are being warned their Apple laptop batteries are vulnerable to being hacked. After studying the batteries in several MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, security researcher Charlie Miller found that Apple laptop microcontroller chips are shipped with default passwords that

MacBook users are being warned their Apple laptop batteries are vulnerable to being hacked. After studying the batteries in several MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, security researcher Charlie Miller found that Apple laptop microcontroller chips are shipped with default passwords that, once discovered, can be used as a hiding spot for malware as well as a conduit for disabling the battery and even blowing it up. "These batteries just aren't designed with the idea that people will mess with them," Miller told Forbes. "What I'm showing is that it's possible to use them to do something really bad." Using passwords associated with a 2009 Apple software update, Miller was able to permanently disable several batteries, manipulate readings sent to the operating system and charger, and completely rewrite the chip's firmware. He said a culprit could install malware on the chip to infect the rest of the computer and steal data, control its functions, or cause it to crash. And even though the batteries he studied have safeguards against explosions, he thinks it would be possible to remotely cause them to explode on command. What complicates the issue is that Apple notebook batteries are built-in instead of removable. "That change began in 2009 with the 17-inch MacBook Pro, and trickled down to the other models, resulting in considerable battery life gains at the expense of easy replacement. This means if a battery were to somehow be compromised, it's a trickier fix. At the same time, it means potential attackers need to gain control of that system before they can do anything, short of taking apart the machine," writes Josh Lowensohn for CNET. Here are some tips to avoid problems. --Only accept installs or updates that you've researched or scanned with security software. --Never trust spam email. -

A government study suggests that St. John's wort provides no apparent benefit to children and teens with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It's another blow to herbal supplements and to parents who want to avoid stimulants like Ritalin and

A government study suggests that St. John's wort provides no apparent benefit to children and teens with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It's another blow to herbal supplements and to parents who want to avoid stimulants like Ritalin and other drugs used to help children control their behavior. The study focused on St. John's wort because studies in rats found it increases brain chemicals that are thought to help focus attention. The researchers thought St. John's wort might work the same way as the prescription drug Strattera that makes those chemicals more available in the brain. The study involved more than 50 children and teens with ADHD. And after eight weeks, there appeared to be no difference in symptoms or side effects between those who took St. John's wort capsules and those who took placebos. The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

“The ETS is not fit for purpose,” Joanna Cabello from Carbon Trade Watch said in Climate News Network’s story. “It has generated windfall profits for polluting corporations, postponed the needed transition away from fossil fuels, and its unintended

“The ETS is not fit for purpose,” Joanna Cabello from Carbon Trade Watch said in Climate News Network’s story. “It has generated windfall profits for polluting corporations, postponed the needed transition away from fossil fuels, and its unintended consequences are locking the EU into another generation of energy production based on fossil fuels. These structural flaws remain unaddressed by the [European] Commission. “Instead of taking their responsibility, politicians have voluntarily put their main instrument to fight climate change in the hands of the financial markets. As we know, market mechanisms have their own dynamic. Profit-making and not fighting climate change has become the overriding objective of the players involved in carbon trading.” The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, was the first large emissions trading scheme in the world, and remains the biggest. It was launched in 2005 to combat climate change and is a major pillar of EU climate policy. As of January 2013, the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories, power stations, and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries—all 27 EU member states plus Croatia, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. The installations regulated by the EU ETS are collectively responsible for close to half of the EU's emissions of CO2 and 40% of its total greenhouse gas emissions. When the Kyoto Protocol was being negotiated in 1997, the European Union opposed the United States’ proposal to introduce carbon trading and “offsetting” as a form of compliance with mandated greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Instead, the EU favoured coordinated policies and measures. But by 2001, when the US unilaterally abandoned climate negotiations, the EU had already reversed its position and enthusiastically supported delivering the fate of climate policy to a speculative market. In 2005, industrial lobbies and big fossil fuel corporations, such as BP and Shell, finally got what they wanted: a market for CO2 emissions rights that would allow industries to continue polluting and even reap a profit. The first phase of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), from 2005 to 2007, was, by any standard of evaluation, a complete disaster. CO2 emissions from covered sources went up, not down. The 20

If you’ve ever read the National Dietary Guidelines you’ll probably agree they’re too difficult to put into practice, and now a new analysis has confirmed that fact. If you head over to the US Health and Human Services website you can grab yourself a

If you’ve ever read the National Dietary Guidelines you’ll probably agree they’re too difficult to put into practice, and now a new analysis has confirmed that fact. If you head over to the US Health and Human Services website you can grab yourself a copy of the most current Dietary Guidelines for Americans as created by the USDA and HHS. Some example guidelines include: On the surface that might sound simple but an analysis out of the UK says that trying to put such guidelines into practice is anything but. In fact, it appears these guidelines are causing people to adopt one of two basic diets, and neither are particularly healthy. Published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, researchers investigated the findings of 53 previous studies and found a “strong and consistent” inverse relationship in the percentage of energy that comes from fats and sugars. This means that individuals either follow a high-fat-low-sugar dietary pattern, or a high-sugar-low-fat dietary pattern. And as a nutritionist myself I certainly find this to be the case with my clients. The Sugar-Fat Seesaw In the nutrition world this phenomenon is known as the sugar-fat seesaw. Lead author of the study Dr Michele Sadler said, “A key reason that we see this sugar-fat seesaw is likely to be because sources of sugars such as fruit, breakfast cereals and juices are low in fat, while sources of fat such as oils and meat products are low in sugar.” This is definitely true of low-fat product varieties too, which tend to have a much greater sugar content to compensate for the taste and mouth-feel changes. For example, next time you’re at the grocery store compare the sugar content of a low-fat fruit yogurt to that of a full-fat yogurt. In fact, you can even look at popular diets today — such as the Paleolithic Diet which basically restricts any carbohydrates (sugars) except for potato — to see that this is certainly the case. Looking at the guidelines mentioned above you can see there is a yawning gap between what the government recommends you to do and what individuals will actually do.

Given by Delaware in 1934 This statue of Caesar Rodney was given by Delaware to the National Statuary Hall Collection in 1934. Caesar Rodney was born in Dover, Delaware, on October 7, 1728. Politics

Given by Delaware in 1934 This statue of Caesar Rodney was given by Delaware to the National Statuary Hall Collection in 1934. Caesar Rodney was born in Dover, Delaware, on October 7, 1728. Politics was one of his early interests. He was high sheriff of Kent County from 1755 to 1756, justice of the peace, judge of all lower courts, captain in the Kent County Militia in 1756, superintendent of the printing of Delaware currency in 1759, a member of the state assembly from 1762 to 1769, and an associate justice of the Delaware Supreme Court from 1769 to 1777. A delegate to the Stamp Act Congress and a strong supporter of the Revolution, he participated in the First and Second Continental Congresses. His dramatic ride to Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, enabled the Delaware delegation to vote two to one for the Declaration of Independence. Rodney was elected the first president of Delaware and was responsible for keeping the militia loyal and efficient. He had a close relationship with General Washington. He was also responsible for guiding Delaware's ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1779. The last 10 years of his life were difficult as he suffered from cancer. Rodney died at his farm, Poplar Grove, on June 26, 1784. His remains were reinterred in 1888 at the Christ Episcopal Churchyard in Dover.

Petra, a 2,500-year-old city in Jordan, is one of the world’s most revered cultural sites. But time and tourism are taking their toll on its monuments, carved into sandstone cliffs. Chemistry professor Talal Akas

Petra, a 2,500-year-old city in Jordan, is one of the world’s most revered cultural sites. But time and tourism are taking their toll on its monuments, carved into sandstone cliffs. Chemistry professor Talal Akasheh, who has devoted 26 years to documenting Petra scientifically, is set to complete a

Scientific progress sometimes comes not from new methods, but from new concepts, new ways of framing old problems. The cognitive revolution is a wonderful example of this. The language of information processing and computation provided a new way of thinking about what the brain

Scientific progress sometimes comes not from new methods, but from new concepts, new ways of framing old problems. The cognitive revolution is a wonderful example of this. The language of information processing and computation provided a new way of thinking about what the brain does. Recently, though, I was forcefully reminded that this revolution is not yet complete. It’s not just a matter of explaining its implications to the scientific community at large. We psychologists have barely begun to tap the potential of the cognitive revolution for transforming our own field. What occasioned these thoughts? Recently, I had to explain to a panel of eminent biomedical scientists — most were pharmacologists, biophysicists, chemists, molecular biologists, and physiologists — what I spend my time doing and why they should care. You all know the problem this poses. No one thinks that having a heart gives them special insight into how it operates. But it is seductive to think that having a brain gives us each special insight into its internal workings — a problem made worse by the theory of mind mechanism, which generates the intuition that the causes of behavior are simple: our beliefs and desires. So I started by connecting what I do to what they do: We all study organ systems. Each organ in the body evolved to serve a function: The heart was designed by natural selection to pump blood, the intestines to digest, the liver to detoxify poisons. The brain is also an organ, but its evolved function is not primarily metabolic. Its evolved function is to extract information from the (internal and external) environment and use that information to generate behavior and regulate physiology. From this perspective, the brain is a computational device — a physical system that was designed to process information. So to describe the brain’s operation in a way that captures its evolved function, you need to think of it as composed of programs that process information. This requires theories expressed in information-processing (computational) terms. I explained that these are not the poor relations of neural or molecular theories: Neural circuits were retained or discarded by selection because of the computations they created. This means the information processing level of description is essential for knowing what the neural circuits are doing, and will never be made obsolete by progress in molecular biology and neuroscience. This powerful insight turned the study of perception, attention, memory, reasoning, and learning into a real science. But, there are so many topics to which it has barely been applied! So far, the cognitive sciences have told us a reasonable amount about the computations that go on in our brains when we are learning mathematics, reading, or reflecting on our day — so-called “higher-level” or “cold” cognition. But they have told us very little about the automatic, spontaneous, and largely nonconscious computations that go on in our brains when we are angry, grieving, falling in love, jealous, feeling guilty, helping friends, or soothing a child, let alone the computations that give rise to family love and conflict, the desire to be part of an “us” or to compete with “them,” the impulse to contribute to the common good or to punish those who don’t. Clinical psychologists deal with phenomena like these on a daily basis. But how many cognitive scientists study these topics? Would a program in cognitive science be likely to hire someone who did? The psychological sciences are poised to make remarkable progress in understanding these emotional/motivational states as evolved adaptations to the social lives of the huntergatherers from whom we evolved. Evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology are providing detailed formal models of the adaptive problems that arise when family members interact, friends cooperate, groups compete, and lovers bond. These models tell us that what counts as a functional outcome in each of these domains is different, suggesting that natural selection will have engineered distinct computational specializations for each. The cognitive sciences, in turn, provide methods and a language in which the information processing architecture of each computational system in the brain — socio-emotional or otherwise — can be precisely stated and empirically investigated. Given content-specific theories of the adaptive problems our brains evolved to solve, we can now search for previously unknown computational systems, ones that are well engineered by selection for producing evolutionarily functional outcomes. This will lead to a field populated by topics far different from those to which we are accustomed. Let me illustrate the promise — and institutional problems — of this upcoming approach with a simple example. Kin selection theory leads one to expect a computational system regulating when you should feel the impulse to help siblings. This system requires a special kind of learning mechanism, one that detects which individuals in your social environment are likely to be biological siblings. A domain-general learning mechanism that picks up local, transient cues to genetic relatedness cannot solve the problem (to deduce which cues locally predict relatedness, the mechanism would need to already know who it was related to!). This line of reasoning leads one to expect that the brain will be equipped with a human kin-detection system: a neurocomputational system that is well engine

For kids who love science, it’s easy for them to get into such topics as fossils, space, chemistry, physics, and the like. How do you get the other kids interested? Try some of fun ways listed below about various science topics

For kids who love science, it’s easy for them to get into such topics as fossils, space, chemistry, physics, and the like. How do you get the other kids interested? Try some of fun ways listed below about various science topics. You can play a game to learn about the parts of a body or you can sing a song about the env

Putting Risk into Perspective Understanding the risks that may – or may not – be posed by agricultural technologies is an important component of sustainability. Careful consumers may research the facts behind a particular technology and decide for themselves whether or not they consider it healthy

Putting Risk into Perspective Understanding the risks that may – or may not – be posed by agricultural technologies is an important component of sustainability. Careful consumers may research the facts behind a particular technology and decide for themselves whether or not they consider it healthy. Take pesticides for example. Some risk is inherent within pesticide use, but those risks are well known and studied. Following rules for handling and use of pesticides effectively manages those risks. Still, people express concerns, but how much concern is warranted? Here’s a surprising example: Glyphosate is a popular herbicide used on soybean crops to kill weeds. Some people are concerned about glyphosate. But glyphosate has less oral toxicity than table salt. (This is not true of all pesticides; each one is different.) Simply saying “pesticides are risky” doesn’t do justice to the facts. Each pesticide has a different risk, and nearly all crops are protected by pest control practices of one form or another. For a fun look at how “spin” can make even tap water appear dangerous, check out www.dhmo.org for some “surprising facts.” This website uses careful language to make ordinary water sound positively dangerous, which it can be.

Skywatchers heading out to walk their dogs these late evenings may have noticed a very bright star in the southern sky. This white beacon is Sirius, the lead star in the constellation Canis Major – the Great Dog. You can use the

Skywatchers heading out to walk their dogs these late evenings may have noticed a very bright star in the southern sky. This white beacon is Sirius, the lead star in the constellation Canis Major – the Great Dog. You can use the 3 belt stars of Orion the hunter, as a convenient guidepost that points directly to the Dog Star. Sirius is the brightest star in our nighttime sky, and has a faint, tiny stellar companion called Sirius B or the celestial pup. The two stars revolve around each other every 50 years. Sirius A, only 8.6 light-years from Earth, is the fifth closest star system known. White dwarfs are the leftover remnants of stars. They have exhausted their nuclear fuel sources and have collapsed down to a very small size. Sirius B is about 10,000 times fainter than Sirius A. You will need a mediaum sized telescope – at least or 10 inches to spot Sirius B next to the glare of its neighbouring behemoth. It’s amazing we can glimpse them at all, because a white dwarf is about the size of the Earth -12,000 km diameter, yet they still have about 90% of the mass of the Sun. Somethings to think about next time your out walking your four legged friend out on the next clear night. Tags: Canis Major, Sirius Posted in Constellations, Stargazing, stars | Comments Off Early bird skywatchers will get a couple beautiful end of year sky shows at local dawn. First on Tuesday morning look towards the southern horizon about an hour to half hour before local sunrise. The crescent Moon will b

Shore Lore: Common Problems Site Challenges: Sandy Soils Sandy soils are prone to erosion and drought and it is often difficult to establish plants in these types of soils. To ensure a good survival rate for your plantings, it

Shore Lore: Common Problems Site Challenges: Sandy Soils Sandy soils are prone to erosion and drought and it is often difficult to establish plants in these types of soils. To ensure a good survival rate for your plantings, it is important that you select plants appropriate for sandy soils. The list of appropriate plants may be more limited, but there are plenty of species available that grow well in sandy soil. List of species that grow on sandy soils See the "Starter Lists" in the Native Plant Encyclopedia.

Although Scientists clear up the Myth of Sharks there is a great Uncertainty regarding to the deep Ocean. Sharks are one of the oldest Species. They haven´t changed much. So, what do you think: Is it possible that Megalodon

Although Scientists clear up the Myth of Sharks there is a great Uncertainty regarding to the deep Ocean. Sharks are one of the oldest Species. They haven´t changed much. So, what do you think: Is it possible that Megalodon Shark is still alive out there? There was a time, about three million years ago in Miocene: The climate is similar to today, but severe climate changes are already arising. On land there are living ancestors of deer’s, wolves and horses existing simultaneously with representatives of dinosaurs. It is a hard and ruthless time. It is a time in which the largest carnivores ever dominate land and sea. And at sea there rules the most dangerous predator of all time: Many Thrillers are written, telling about this largest prehistoric shark. Some researchers claim, that the Megalodon shark is still alive. The Megalodon existed in Miocene, from 5 to 1, 6 million years ago. But recently found Megalodon teeth could be dated to an age of 10.000 years. What do you think, is it possible that the Megalodon is still alive, somewhere, in the deep, blue Sea? Click here, if you want

Last month, The New York Times reported that despite 20 years of “public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers’ markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables.”

Last month, The New York Times reported that despite 20 years of “public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers’ markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a comprehensive nationwide behavioral study of fruit and vegetable consumption. Only 26 percent of the nation’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day, it concluded. (And no, that does not include French fries.) These results fell far short of health objectives set by the federal government a decade ago. The amount of vegetables Americans eat is less than half of what public health officials had hoped. Worse, it has barely budged since 2000. The government recommends four and a half cups of fruits and vegetables (which equals nine servings) for people who eat 2,000 calories a day. People know that vegetables are good for them and can improve health, but they are also seen as a lot of work and have a much quicker “expiration date” than processed foods. Even if you buy veggies with the best of intentions, if you don’t consume them fast enough, they are doomed to rot in your refrigerator. I think this is something we’ve all been guilty of at one time or another. A survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by White Wave Foods indicates that almost half of us leave our fruit in the refrigerator until it rots. I can only assume that even more vegetables suffer a similar fate. At Mother Nature Network, Katherine Butler asks, “what is the price of not eating vegetables?” Mostly, it means that Americans are lacking in vital nutrients. Antioxidants and fiber fill vegetables, as well as key nutrients such as potassium, beta-carotene, iron, folate, magnesium, calcium and vitamins A, C, E and K. Fiber can reduce cholesterol; potassium, found in foods like spinach, helps blood pressure. Vitamin C helps gums and teeth, while vitamin E fights against premature aging. Apparently, orange veggies are something we should be focusing on too. According to The Ohio State University Extension blog: Orange vegetables, like pumpkin, squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes contain nutrients and phytonutrients found in no other group of vegetables. That’s why experts recommend we eat at least 2 cups a week of orange vegetables. How many do you eat? If you’re not eating enough, now is the perfect time of year to start! All types of winter squash — acorn, butternut, hubbard, etc. are in season and cheap. Pumpkins and canned pumpkins are stocking the shelves. Carrots and sweet potatoes are found commonly throughout the year. I’m not sure there’s a solution for getting adult Americans to consume more vegetables. They know they are healthy, but they still don’t eat them. Even with convenient options like prepackaged servings of broccoli and bagged salads available, they aren’t biting (pun intended). Until Americans make eating vegetables a priority, it’s not going to happen. After all, you can’t force feed them. Maybe we could hide vegetables in french fries? Hmm. Probably not. Although that is a technique some people use to get children to eat their veggies (remember Jessica Seinfeld’s book Deceptively Delicious?), though not everyone agrees with it. Organic Authority points out the important of fruits and vegetables for children. “A diet high in fruits and vegetables is important for optimal child growth, maintaining a healthy weight, and prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers—all of which currently contribute to healthcare costs in the United States,” says William H. Dietz, MD, PhD, director of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. Lisa Johnson mentions that some high schools have added baby carrot vending machines next to the typical junk food machines and wonders if the packaging (designed to look similar to a potato chip bag) will entice kids to buy them. Lisa says, “I have to say I think it’s a good idea. It might seem a little condescending to some but we are visual creatures and we react positively to colorful items that grab our attention while glossing over the ho-hum stuff. Shouldn’t we just capitalize on human nature to achieve a greater good?” The Huffington Post reports “The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced what it called a major new initiative, giving $2 million to food behavior scientists to find ways to use psychology to improve kids’ use of the federal school lunch program and fight childhood obesity.” Some schools are employing psychology tricks in hopes of getting teens to make healthier lunch choices in the cafeteria. Cornell researches have dubbed these little tricks a success: “Keep ice cream in freezers without glass display tops so the treats are out of sight. Move salad bars next to the checkout registers, where students linger to pay, giving them more time to ponder a salad. And start a quick line for make-your-own subs and wraps, as Corning East High School in upstate New York did.” Perhaps the veggie avoidance can be traced back to infancy. I wrote in 2007 about a study that showed breast-fed babies are more likely to like fruits and vegetables (if their mother ate them while breastfeeding) than their formula-fed counterparts. Senior author of the study Julie A. Mennella, PhD said, “The best predictor of how much fruits and veg

Arboretum: Penn Treaty Elm Penn Treaty Elm News: Not every tree leaves a legacy as massive as the Penn Treaty Elm, the Ulmus americana under which William Penn met with Lenape Chief Tamanend in 1682

Arboretum: Penn Treaty Elm Penn Treaty Elm News: Not every tree leaves a legacy as massive as the Penn Treaty Elm, the Ulmus americana under which William Penn met with Lenape Chief Tamanend in 1682 and pledged a treaty of friendship. The tree became famous during its lifetime along the banks of the Delaware River in Shackamaxon, what is today the Kensington area of Philadelphia just north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. In 1771 Benjamin West painted a depiction of the meeting. Artist Edward Hicks made several renditions of the event. Voltaire spoke of it; poets praised it. When the tree fell during a storm on March 5, 1810, its wood was treas

This work presupposes the child already knows that names of each of the objects A bag as attractive as possible with approximately 10 objects that are very different from each other such as, a key, a cotton ball, a pine cone, a

This work presupposes the child already knows that names of each of the objects A bag as attractive as possible with approximately 10 objects that are very different from each other such as, a key, a cotton ball, a pine cone, a button, a small basket, etc. Invite the child or children to come and work with you. Show the child/children the Mystery Bag and name it for him/them. Tell the child/children that we will be working with the Mystery Bag today. Bring the bag over to a table and have the child sit to your left, or if there is a group, have them sit around the table. - Place the bag flat on the table with the opening near you. - Put one of your hands into the bag. - Choose one object to feel. - Feel the object and tell the child/children what you feel, i.e. soft, fluffy, light, etc. - Once you think you know what you are feeling, say the object’s name out loud: i.e. “I think this is a cotton ball.” - Pull the object out of the bag and you can say, “Yes! It is a cotton ball.” - Place the object to the side of the table. - Allow the child sitting to your left to try. - Remind the child to feel, and then to say the object’s name before taking it out of the bag. - Once the child has had a turn, allow the next child to have a turn or if there is only one child, you can have another turn. - If you are working with one child, you can take turns feeling and guessing the objects in the bag until all of the objects have been chosen. - If you are working with a group, make sure each child has a turn until all of the objects have been chosen. The names of the objects. To refine the stereognostic sense and material visualization. In the other children (if they happen to be watching a child working with this material) The child, when the object is taken out of the bag. 3 1/2 – 4 years Change the objects as often as needed to keep the childrens’ interest. Use real objects. Do not put any objects in the bag that are sharp, dangerous, or breakable. Share your experiences in the

Good educators are experienced designers. The research shows that the teacher is the single most important variable in any classroom! Among so many other distractions, you are responsible for the learning environment in which you teach and your students learn. No need for any qualifiers

Good educators are experienced designers. The research shows that the teacher is the single most important variable in any classroom! Among so many other distractions, you are responsible for the learning environment in which you teach and your students learn. No need for any qualifiers there… they are always learning something; hopefully that new life experience includes something from your lesson plan. Great educators have mastered the magic of minimizing ‘waste’ in terms of time, tools, and especially, non-essential effort. (That’s why it’s not at all surprising that we share this common interest in HippoCampus!) Engaging today’s students in yesterday’s classrooms can be a challenge indeed. In fact, it’s an uphill battle at times! But thankfully recent trends in teaching and learning are encouraging creativity in the classroom – for both teachers and students finally! Problem-based learning centered on real-world issues is one of the ways we can challenge learners to maximize their unique potential. I was fascinated by the universal implications of upcycling as explained in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002) by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Far beyond the relatively simple recycling practice we ‘boomers’ practice, the goal of upcycling is to prevent wasting potentially useful materials by making use of existing ones. Of course, recycling is still a key component of modern waste reduction; however, students may not realize that it does not provide a long-term solution. In contrast to the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy, upcycling is a process that can be repeated in perpetuity of returning materials back to a pliable, usable form without degradation to their latent value – moving resources back up the supply chain. Upcycling requires innovative design and is likely critical to maintaining a balance between consumption and availability in our current system. Hence, the new activity Cycling Up Hill was designed as a summative assessment! Click on the following image to download a copy. I’m certainly not suggesting that reducing and reusing and recycling are a waste! There are many excellent tools and resources on the EPA’s Learn the Issues page on Waste. For example, Individual WAste Reduction Model (iWARM) is the consumer version of the WAste Reduction Model (WARM) created by the EPA to help solid waste planners and organizations estimate the energy and greenhouse gas emissions reductions from several different waste management practices. Extending the Energy Watchers activity, it explains the energy saved by recycling small quantities of common household products, rather than landfilling them. HippoCampus Connections: As you’d expect, the HippoCampus site also includes relevant resources you can design into your lessons in a variety of ways! A Modern Landfill shows how landfills are created and illustrates the lasting change to the natural environment. The next option for garbage disposal is detailed in Incineration, which also contributes to landfills. The External Costs video explores relates the cost of pollution clean-up to private production costs and the overall economic and environmental imp

The 2009 U.S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of global arms spending. The 2012 budget is 6-7 times larger than the $106 billion of the military budget of China, and is more than the

The 2009 U.S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of global arms spending. The 2012 budget is 6-7 times larger than the $106 billion of the military budget of China, and is more than the next twenty largest military spenders combined. The United States and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world’s military spending (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for the majority). In 2005, the United States spent 4.06% of its GDP on its military (considering only basic Department of Defense budget spending), more than France’s 2.6% and less than Saudi Arabia’s 10%. information 2006 This is historically low for the United States since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP (it reached the lowest point of 3.0% in 1999–2001). Even during the peak of the Vietnam War the percentage reached a high of 9.4% in 1968. Countries such as Canada and Germany spend only 1.4% of GDP on their military. Wikipedia: Military budget of the United States

This page was produced as an assignment for an undergraduate course at Davidson College. How to Determine EC Numbers Enzyme Classification (EC) numbers are assigned to chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes. Most EC numbers are associated with a name that

This page was produced as an assignment for an undergraduate course at Davidson College. How to Determine EC Numbers Enzyme Classification (EC) numbers are assigned to chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes. Most EC numbers are associated with a name that should refer to the enzyme catalyzing the reaction called a systemic name. Combining the EC number with the systemic name to describe one protein allows for greater consistency across organisms and clarity across scientific disciplines. How An Enzyme's Name Is Determined EC numbers come in the following form: "EC #.#.#.#". Each level within the EC number denotes some part of the enzyme's function. The first number splits all catalyzed reactions into 6 major groups: First EC Number Typical Enzyme Name |Oxidation or Reduction Reactions: The transfer of O, H, or e- atoms and particles from one molecule to another.||Dehydrogenase, Oxidase| |Functional Group Transfer Reactions: The functional group may be methyl-, acyl-, amino-, or a phosphate group||Transferase, Kinase| |Hydrolysis Reactions: Cleaving a molecule by adding H2O||Lipase, Amylase, Peptidase| |Non-hydrolytic Cleaving Reactions: Cleaving a molecule with a C-C, C-N, C-O, or C-S bond||Decarboxylase, Lyase| |Isomerization Reactions: Intramole

For centuries, scientists have created technology for gathering information about celestial bodies in the night sky. In the Time & Space exhibition in the U of L Main Gallery and Helen Christou Gallery, artists Dianne Bos, Joe Kelly and John Noesth

For centuries, scientists have created technology for gathering information about celestial bodies in the night sky. In the Time & Space exhibition in the U of L Main Gallery and Helen Christou Gallery, artists Dianne Bos, Joe Kelly and John Noestheden take their own approaches to exploring the process of interpreting astronomical data and representing it using historical and contemporary modes. Scientists have produced systems for interpreting information not visible to the human eye and rendering this information both visible and comprehensible. Early technologies simply magnified what was visible from Earth, while recent options include gathering digital data and representing this information in visual forms based on earlier depictions of the night sky. “The artists in this exhibition each take their own approach to exploring this process of rendering visible that which cannot be seen and interacting with scientific approaches,” explains Director/Curator Dr. Josephine Mills. “The exhibition is entirely work by artists and does not include contributions from scientific communities.” Bos is a Calgary-based artist who has a successful career working with pinhole photography. Since 2000, she has explored her interest in astronomy by producing pinhole photographs, which resemble the images of celestial bodies produced by high-technology imaging devices. In fact, her photographs are “faked” using such approaches as multiple pinholes and manipulating the light source in relation to the exposure times. The exhibition also includes the use of books as pinhole cameras. “For this exhibition, Bos transformed a French dictionary, a

Three years after the official incorporation of the Institute in April 1861, William Barton Rogers, its founder and first president, presented detailed plans for the courses to be offered and teaching methods to be used in the new School of Industrial Science. One

Three years after the official incorporation of the Institute in April 1861, William Barton Rogers, its founder and first president, presented detailed plans for the courses to be offered and teaching methods to be used in the new School of Industrial Science. One of the main projects he described in the “Scope and Plan of the School of Industrial Science” was the establishment of four laboratories—physics and Mechanics, General Chemical Analysis and Manipulation, Metallurgy and Mining, and Industrial Chemistry. Among those four, the physics laboratory was to play an important role as one of the early hands-on teaching laboratories in the country, serving as a model for other schools. Edward Charles Pickering In 1866, Rogers appointed Edward Charles Pickering as an “Assistant Instructor in Physics,” to help him in his teaching duties. Pickering, twenty years old, summa cum laude graduate of the Lawrence Scientific School, soon replaced Rogers as the Thayer Professor of Physics and became the main force behind the organization of the laboratory. He set to work on the “Plan of the Physical Laboratory,” which was approved by the Institute’s Government in May 1869. Several months later, in the fall of the same year, the first thirty students were able to conduct their own experiments, acquiring a practical, first-hand experience of physical laws they were taught in class. The first laboratory, located in the newly constructed building on Boylston Street in Boston and named after Rogers, contained a variety of instruments arranged with different experiments set up at individual tables, so the students could conduct the measurements by proceeding from one experime

This past week in synagogues throughout the world we rolled the Torah scroll forward and began reading from the Book of Leviticus. Each week during Shabbat services congregations all over will be reading the account of the sacrificial system that

This past week in synagogues throughout the world we rolled the Torah scroll forward and began reading from the Book of Leviticus. Each week during Shabbat services congregations all over will be reading the account of the sacrificial system that encompassed the ritual life of the Jewish people throughout their wanderings in the desert with the Tabernacle, and later with the construction of both the first and second Temples. These readings can feel foreign and removed from the lives we lead, as people disconnected from a religion that revolves around sacrifices, whether animal or grain based. What can there possibly be to learn from these sections of Torah? Maimonides in his chief work of philosophy, The Guide to the Perplexed, suggests that the sacrificial system instituted in the Torah was a pedagogical tool meant to transform us and to change us in radical ways. What precisely is the educational aim of the sacrifices? Rabbi David Tzvi Hoffmann, the 19th century rabbi of Berlin, in his introduction to the Book of Leviticus, connects the sacrificial system recorded in Leviticus to that near sacrifice of Isaac at the hands of his father Abraham in the Book of Genesis. That moment, bracketing the psychological and emotional dilemmas it presents, demonstrated in an extreme fashion the notion of self-sacrifice, of giving up something precious for a more lofty purpose. It involved taking a “leap of faith,” as the philosopher Soren Kierkagaard understood the near sacrifice of Isaac to be, that giving of yourself, sacrificing a part of what is important to you for someone or something else, will not only benefit the recipient but will benefit you as well. Thus, we can see the Torah’s sacrificial system as being the institutionalized mechanism by which the Jewish people live that value on a daily basis. This very much is reminiscent of the famous line by President John F. Kennedy: “And so my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Kennedy was leading the country towards understanding that when we all invest into the project of building America, not only will America as a whole become stronger and greater, but each citizen, each person who puts of themselves into the project, will also reap the reward. Likewise, the impact and meaning we want and need from Judaism in our lives will only be realized and only be possible if we take the time and the energy to give of ourselves into it. We will receive according to what we put in and we will benefit and all those similarly invested will benefit from our efforts as well. As we progress through Leviticus, let us ask ourselves: What am I ready to give of myself into the Jewish project so that it becomes richer, deeper, more profound and meaningful and will come to enrich, deepen and add meaning to my life as well? Jewish tradition takes pride in these words, we will do and heed-na’aseh v’nishmah and one Talmudic passage even have God wondering who revealed this great secret, these words to the Jewish People. The context of course is Sinai and these words are seen as the great acceptance of Torah. The technical term for these words is hysteron proteron, “latter before” where the first term actually occurs after the second term, for example, put on your shoes and socks, but is placed first to emphasize its importance. Israel commits herself at Sinai to the totality of practice, even without necessarily knowing the extent of the laws. Rabbi Sholom Noach Berezovsky, author of the Netivot Shalom, offers an additional reading of these words. He sees na’aseh as a commitment to do God’s will, even in the absence of specific details or legal injuctions. While fully faithful to traditional Jewish practice as legally binding, Berezovsky still understands that even in the most strict attention to observance, one must ask am I doing God’s will. While one could use this idea in an antinomian direction, for Berezovsky the question might be as I observe a particular practice, am I doing it in a way pleasing to God and one that really reflects the will of the Divine? One of the best examples where this insight can be seen is in the case of Maimonides. In his legal work, he discusses the laws of slavery. While many would initially recoil from imagining that such laws should play a role in our tradition, nonetheless they are firmly rooted in Biblical practice. While the laws associated with Jewish slaves serve as a way for a slave to pay off enormous debt, Jews were permitted to own non-Jewish slaves. Even while acknowledging this, and codifying it, Maimonides says as follows: It is permissible to have a Canaanite slave perform excruciating labor. Although this is the law, the attribute of piety and the way of wisdom is for a person to be

|Plot Summary of The Power of One| |"The Power of One is a novel based on war, prejudice, and aparthied in South Africa in the 1930's. It's about Peekay, a precocious British chid

|Plot Summary of The Power of One| |"The Power of One is a novel based on war, prejudice, and aparthied in South Africa in the 1930's. It's about Peekay, a precocious British chid whose mother suffers from depression. He is sent to boarding school, and is constantly bullied and teased by other kids, especially an older kid called "the judge". Peekay survives the first school and then encounters some very important people, including Hoppie, the boxing champion of the railways, who tells Peekay about many things, including life, prejudice, and boxing. SaxanRG, Resident Scholar |"The Power of One will take its readers on a journey during the time of apartheid in South Africa. Peekay, a precocious British boy, faces many challenges and learns how to deal with the South African culture and the many adversities that come his way. Throughout his childhood, Peekay meets several people that impact his life deeply. On the train to Barberton, he meets Hoppie, a boxing champion who works with the railways. Hoppie introduces Peekay to boxing, forever changing his life. From then on, Peekay has the ambition to dominate the world of boxing. Before meeting Hoppie, though, Peekay was sent to boarding school, where he was tortured and bullied on to no end. Boxing helped Peekay physically and mentally to overcome his fears and to defend himself. This is a book that teaches the values of friendship, and the importance of confidence and determination, the power of one. " EAcurio, Resident Scholar |"The Power of One is a novel about a young British boy, Peekay, who grows up in South Africa during WWII. Throughout this novel, Peekay has many encounters that change his life, some more positive than others. His frist experience with hate and prejudice came at an early age. An older boy at Peekay's first boarding school, who was called "The Judge", was a Boer, an Afrikaner. The Boers hate the British because the British are trying to change South Africa. Peekay is discriminated against by "The Judge" on many occasions. He is peed on, beat on, degrated, and forced to eat human waste. On occasion changed Peekay's life forever. His best animal friend, a chicken named Grandpa Chook, was stoned to death by The Judge and Jury. On Peekay's train ride home he meets Hoppie Groenwald, a professional Welter Weight boxer. Hoppie puts this outrageous idea in Peekay's head that Peekay can become the next Welter Weight Champion of the World. Hoppie's appearance in the novel is very short but very important. Hoppie tells Peekay to always say to himself "First with the Head, then with the Heart". This saying stays with Peekay and becomes essential to his life. Peekay then meets Doc, a German scientist who is also a professional classical musician. Doc teaches Peekay to always think, always ask questions. Doc encourages Peekay to NEVER hide his intellect. Doc however, is put into the Barberton Prison because he is a German. Doc receives special treatement from the Kommandant and guards for his accomplishments. He is allowed to keep his piano at the prison and continue private lessons with Peekay among many other things. Peekay also begins taking lessons on boxing from Lt. Smit. He coaches the Barberton Blues and holds practices at the prison gym in the mornings. The Barberton Blues compete in many tournaments throughout South Africa. Peekay soon becomes the youngest and the best boxer on the squad. Much of Peekay's success is due to a black prisoner named Geel Piet. Geel Piet was looked down upon as scum of the earth except when he was coaching in the ring. Geel Piet became a dear friend of Peekay and his death greatly affected Peekay. Ms. Borenstien helps Peekay recieve a scholarship to yet another boarding school in Johannesburg called The Prince of Whales School. There he meets his first friend of the same age named Morrie. Peekay realized that without Geel Piet, his dream of becoming Welter Weight Champion would never come true. He discusses this with Morrie and the two place a rather large bet on a rugby match to earn enough money to pay for a coach. Solly Goldman ran a gym where he taught people how to box. Blacks and whites arn't allowed to fight in public for the same title. Solly furthers Peekay in boxing and Peekay has never lost a boxing match--ever. Morrie attends a boxing match of Peekay and sees just how horrible segregation is. The two boys start a school for the blacks. They feel that the blacks deserve j

June 5, 2007 What did dinosaurs hear? Probably a lot of low frequency sounds, like the heavy footsteps of another dinosaur, if University of Maryland professor Robert Dooling and his colleagues are right. What they likely couldn’t hear

June 5, 2007 What did dinosaurs hear? Probably a lot of low frequency sounds, like the heavy footsteps of another dinosaur, if University of Maryland professor Robert Dooling and his colleagues are right. What they likely couldn’t hear were the high pitched sounds that birds make. Yet, it was what Dooling knows about bird hearing that led him and research collaborators Otto Gleich and Geoffrey A. Manley to determine what might have been in the extinct animal’s world of sound 65 million years ago. It seems that dinosaurs and their archosaur descendants, including birds and crocodiles, have very similar ear structure. By comparing those structures and applying other rules of hearing, the scientists have devised an idea of the dinosaur’s hearing range. “The best guess is that dinosaurs were probably somewhat similar to some of the very large mammals of today, such as the elephants, but with poorer high frequency hearing than most mammals of today,” says Dooling. “As a general rule, animals can hear the sounds they produce. Dinosaurs probably also could hear very well the footsteps of other dinosaurs. Elephants, for instance, are purported to be able to hear, over great distances, the very low frequency infrasound generated by the footsteps of other elephants.” Dooling will present the team’s findings at the Acoustical Society of America annual meeting, Tuesday, June 5, in Salt Lake City. Big and Low Dooling and his colleagues study the evolution of hearing of living organisms, including pressures their extinct ancestors might have faced. Dooling specializes in bird hearing. Today’s birds are the closest living relatives of the dinosaur. The researchers focused on the part of the inner ear called the basilar membrane to conjecture about dinosaur hearing. Small, lightweight species with a short basilar membrane – a bird, for instance – can hear higher frequencies than larger species with a longer basilar membrane – a dinosaur. “As a general rule, large organisms hear best and produce sounds at lower frequencies, while smaller organisms hear best and produce sounds at higher frequencies,” Dooling says. “General physical principles suggest that small, lightweight structures for producing sound can be moved at higher frequencies using less energy than can large, heavy structures.” The dinosaur’s hearing range probably exte

Methanol (methyl alcohol) is an alternative fuel made from woody plant fiber, coal or natural gas; it is used primarily as a supplement to gasoline. It can be harvested from the methane gas in landfills in addition to fermented

Methanol (methyl alcohol) is an alternative fuel made from woody plant fiber, coal or natural gas; it is used primarily as a supplement to gasoline. It can be harvested from the methane gas in landfills in addition to fermented waste products such as sewage and manure. Pure methanol is not sold as a stand-alone motor fuel, although in its pure form it is commonly used as racing fuel. As a motor fuel for general transportation it is mixed with gasoline to produce M85 (85% methanol and 15% gasoline). It is also the primary alcohol used to mix biodiesel. Pros: A Yes Vote - It offers lower exhaust emissions and higher vehicle performance. - It can easily be made into hydrogen, offering a promising future for use in methanol direct fuels cells. - Methanol has a lower risk of flammability than gasoline. Cons: What to be Aware of - High amount of formaldehyde in emissions. - It has a 50 percent energy ratio: that means it produces half of the power content of gasoline. - Highly corrosive: Methanol tends to deteriorate non-synthetic and natural rubber fuel system parts. Handling & Safety In its pure state, it burns with an invisible flame. However, when it is mixed with gasoline as in M85, it burns with a noticeable color. It's more corrosive than gasoline, but less toxic. The future looks cloudy. Even in blends methanol is not readily available, and a wide-spread distribution network is not plannedethanol is gaining more favor.

This chapter in Stan Weir's Singlejack Solidarity tells the history of how, from the victory in the 1934 General Strike through the first Mechanization & Modernization (M&M) Agreement in 1961, longshore workers in

This chapter in Stan Weir's Singlejack Solidarity tells the history of how, from the victory in the 1934 General Strike through the first Mechanization & Modernization (M&M) Agreement in 1961, longshore workers in San Francisco had 27 years of near-total control of the labor process on the waterfront in the "largest, longest, and most successful formal experiment in workers' control ever conducted in the United States." With the M&M the ILWU negotiated those gains away, exchanging huge individual pay-outs for containerization and a 90% reduction of the workforce. The 134-day longshore strike in 1971 was the last attempt to reverse this. In the late 1950s the longshore industry began to experience its first major technological change in almost a century, or since the introduction of steam-driven cargo hoisting machinery onto the decks of ships. The decade following World War II saw the development of large containers in which freight could be hauled by trucks as trailers or on railroad flatcars, "piggyback." Maritime shipping was left as the one obstacle to a totally integrated freight transport system. By 1975, more than two-thirds of all dry cargoes moving across the docks of the major American ports were containerized in metal boxes, 40x8x8 feet in length, height, and width. Ships of traditional design whose double bottoms and sweat battens once felt the burdens of sacked coffee, spices, sugar, and various cartoned goods and absorbed their smells became unusual sights at long-used piers. More common were new or remodeled ships whose holds are slotted exactly to receive and nest the rectangular, locked, sealed, clean, and odorless containers. The automation of the cargo shipment process continues apace. The ships of newest design do not require the presence of longshoremen on their docks or in their holds. The interlocking containers are stowed or discharged by giant shoreside cranes with automatic hook on and hook release devices. Not only is it increasingly rare for one longshoreman to touch the same piece of sweated cargo touched by another longshoreman somewhere in the world, longshoremen of different ports and countries are seldom anymore allowed to sense each other's presence. The old ships which carried break-bulk cargoes provided hold and dock longshore men around the world with physically identical work environments. The workplaces traveled the globe and were the same. What changed in each ship as it went from port to port was the cargo and the nationality of the men who worked on it. As each longshore gang boarded a ship and uncovered the hatches, they found each other's city and union newspapers, cargo hand hooks lost or left behind, and evidences of secret feasts made possible by edible or imbibable articles in the cargo. This very special form of international communication is becoming extinct. More and more, longshoremen work exclusively on the dock in the shadow of the ships, but not inside them. The movement of traditional break-bulk cargoes demanded that longshoremen form partnerships. Most cargoes came in sacks, boxes, cartons, bales, or barrels which were too heavy to be lifted by an individual. Then too, the stowage of each piece within a vessel or its discharge from its place of rest within the vessel onto a sling, board, or net regularly presented one or more logistical problems. Improper stowage could cause shifting at sea and consequent unseaworthiness of the ship. Incorrect stacking of loads could cause cargo damage and serious accidents. The problems were best solved by consultation and the critical double checks allowed by the partner system. Moreover, a partner provided another set of eyes for the detection of a dangerous condition in an industry where the number of accidents is second only to those in hard coal mining. The longshore partnership was and still is (when and wherever it survives) a total social institution. Partners not only move cargo together and communicate their moves, the casual nature of the industry demands that they seek job assignments together, an activity made easier if both live near one another. Counting the time spent traveling to the union hiring hall to obtain a job assignment, the waiting, the trip to the pier, work, lunchtime, coffee-time, and the trip back to the hiring hall to sign in for the next day's or night's work, longshore partners in large number were commonly within each other's

DANIEL DUGAN was born 17 July 1784 in either Virginia or Maryland. Some sources state VA; while others say MD; so we can surmise he was born on or near the state boundaries, which were not stable

DANIEL DUGAN was born 17 July 1784 in either Virginia or Maryland. Some sources state VA; while others say MD; so we can surmise he was born on or near the state boundaries, which were not stable at that time. He moved with his parents, whose identities are yet unknown, to Ohio while he was very young. When seventeen, Daniel moved to Kentucky. While we do not yet know the identity of the parents of Daniel, we do know that he had a younger sister, Mary Dugan, who married William Burk. Daniel Dugan married Catharine Vaden on 10 April 1808, at Little Prairie, MO, on the banks of the Mississippi River. This little settlement, also known as La Petite, was located at a point a short distance from the present town of Caruthersville. It was destroyed by a series of earthquakes in 1811-1812. Catharine Vaden, born in Shelby County, KY, was the daughter of William Vaden, Jr. and his first wife, yet unidentified. Her father's second wife was Hanna Johns. (Vaden Family) Daniel Dugan claimed land in St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, MO, in 1806 and 1809, but soon moved on to Indiana. The Dugans became the parents of eleven children born between 1809 and 1833. It appears that they often moved from state to state leaving only a few traces. We know they left Missouri and lived in Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, and Arkansas before coming to Texas. Daniel Dugan's oldest son, George Cox Dugan, preceded the family to Texas in 1835 to check out the situation. When he returned to Arkansas, where the family waited, the Dugans began their journey to Texas, which was filled with many trials and hardships. On this wagon trip, there were Daniel and Catharine and eight of their 11 children. Cynthia, their eldest child, had married Arnold Hutton in Greene County, Illinois, 30 March 1824, and likely never came to Texas. They were thought to have migrated to California. Two other daughters, Millicent and Mary, had died young. The children accompanying the family were George Cox, 24; Daniel Vaden, 19; Mary Pierceall, 17; Emily, 14; William Burk, 12; Catherine Cleopatria, 10; Henry Patrick, 7; and James Martin, 3. The following description of the trip is taken from "Indian Depredations in Texas" by Wilbarger as told by Catherine Dugan Taylor to her daughter, Mary Taylor Shearer: "Our first camp fire on that journey," says my mother, "is a bright spot in my memory, and will be as long as I live. I would paint it if I could draw figures. The campfire was burning low, the wagon, with its white cover, stood near by and the oxen were grazing not far away. Our beds were spread on the grass under the trees, among which were the beautiful dogwood, with its pale green leaves quivering above the dim firelight. Mother was sitting in one of the two chairs we had brought with us, holding brother James in her lap, and the rest of us were gathered around her. Father soon came, and standing by mother's chair, joined us in singing a hymn; then we all knelt down while he prayed for God's mercy and protection." Proceeding upon their journey without special incident, they arrived at Red River. Here their youngest child, James, died. With sorrowful hearts they prepared the little body for burial. Daniel cut down a tree and from the trunk made a little coffin. A man who happened to be passing, fastened down the lid. Daniel and George dug the grave. There they buried little James. They moved on to Bois d'Arc Creek, now in Fannin County. Their nearest neighbors were fifty miles away, and for a time they were in straightened circumstances, owing to the scarcity of provisions. Their principal food for a time was buffalo meat and other wild game, varied by a diet of turnips and water. After remaining at their new homesite on Bois d'Arc Creek nea

MCKENZIE CREEK. McKenzie Creek rises sixteen miles north of Snyder in north central Scurry County (at 32°56' N, 100°51' W), at an elevation of about 2,500

MCKENZIE CREEK. McKenzie Creek rises sixteen miles north of Snyder in north central Scurry County (at 32°56' N, 100°51' W), at an elevation of about 2,500 feet. The intermittent stream runs northeast through ranchlands for twenty miles to its mouth on the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River, twelve miles southwest of Clairemont (at 33°06' N, 100°54' W). The creekbed falls to an elevation of 2,100 feet during its journey. The dissected gullies and low hills are bare or surfaced by shallow soils and sparse plants. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article."MCKENZI

CAPI (Common Application Programming Interface) is an international standard interface that application s can use to communicate directly with ISDN equipment. Using CAPI, an application program can be written to initiate and terminate phone calls in computers equipped for ISDN.

CAPI (Common Application Programming Interface) is an international standard interface that application s can use to communicate directly with ISDN equipment. Using CAPI, an application program can be written to initiate and terminate phone calls in computers equipped for ISDN. Computer telephony ( CTI ) applications can be written for ISDN users. Officially, CAPI is referred to as Common-ISDN-API and

posted on May, 22 2011 @ 12:11 PM It would appear that efficiency in Ethanol fuel will be showing some promising results for future fuel consumption. Iowa State University's Hans van Leeuwen has moved his

posted on May, 22 2011 @ 12:11 PM It would appear that efficiency in Ethanol fuel will be showing some promising results for future fuel consumption. Iowa State University's Hans van Leeuwen has moved his research team's award-winning idea for improving ethanol production from a laboratory to a pilot plant. Now he knows the idea, which produces a new animal feed and cleans water that can be recycled back into ethanol production, works more efficiently in batches of up to 350 gallons than on a lab bench. "We're learning we can reliably produce good quality and good quantities," said van Leeuwen, Iowa State's Vlasta Klima Balloun Professor of Engineering in the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering. No doubt that this will save millions of dollars for ethanol producers here in the states but how much exactly will they be saving? Van Leeuwen said the production technology can save United States ethanol producers up to $800 million a year in energy costs. He also said the technology can produce ethanol co-products worth another $800 million or more per year, depending on how it is used and marketed. So many uses for ethanol as a Fuel, Antiseptic, and for other purposes as well. I just hope they can make more cars run on this stuff as well but most likely will never happen.

You also can see everything move on the camera at http://LEGOcamera.marshall.edu as you Teleoperate it on http://LEGO.Marshall.edu. Helpers set up April theme. Send programs to SENSORSCITY. - See

You also can see everything move on the camera at http://LEGOcamera.marshall.edu as you Teleoperate it on http://LEGO.Marshall.edu. Helpers set up April theme. Send programs to SENSORSCITY. - See Instructions- Click this link for the directory with Example programs to use at SENSORSCITY. Click and save a file that ends in.vi to your computer to use to send a mission. The RoboLab Programs are the files that end in.vi and the.jpg are pictures of the programs. Note: A car goes between the Lamp on port A which is across from the light sensor on port 1. Monorail motor is on port B and touch sensors on both ends of the track are on port 2. Port C changes each month. Port 3 is a light sensor facing the flag stand. (See the color challenge.) Below is an example of the data you will get back. The red line dips at each time the car passes in front of light sensor on port 1. The blue line steps up each time the touch sensor at an end of the monorail was touched. The yellow line is the data back from the light sensor facing the windmill. See if you can tell what color is in front of the light sensor when the program stops. Look at the camera then look at your data to see if you are right. Various parts of the CITY also operate when you run programs through To see the camera refresh faster use Red Rover as an Earth site. LEGO simple machines have been constructed on the Space Station. How will that be diffe

With the success of best sellers such as Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, writing memoir has attained a new status in the literary world. It has achieved such power because it invites memoirists to select incidents in their past and interpret them with

With the success of best sellers such as Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, writing memoir has attained a new status in the literary world. It has achieved such power because it invites memoirists to select incidents in their past and interpret them with the emotional honesty and wisdom that only time, distance and maturity can illuminate. Memoir is not autobiography, chronicling the epic of one's life and creating a genealogy. It is the genre that gives credibility to our deepest feelings. It can be one page or 100 and be as simple as a 10-year-old's paragraph on his love for his grandfather. It can also be as profound as James McBride's The Color of Water, a 314-page remembrance written from two viewpoints. By writing memoir, children and adults become critical thinkers. One of the best comp

Bananas Vs. Asthma Source Newsroom: Dole Nutrition Institute Available for logged-in reporters only European Respitory Journal Newswise — Going bananas may help kids breathe easier. Children who ate just one banana a day had

Bananas Vs. Asthma Source Newsroom: Dole Nutrition Institute Available for logged-in reporters only European Respitory Journal Newswise — Going bananas may help kids breathe easier. Children who ate just one banana a day had a 34% less chance of developing asthmatic symptoms, according to new British research. The Imperial College of London collected dietary information from 2,640 children, ages 5 to 10, and found that banana-eaters were one-third less likely to encounter breathing problems like wheezing. Children who drank apple juice daily experienced a 47% reduction. Other research suggests that children with low fiber intake are more vulnerable to the respiratory problems associated with secondhand smoke. The pineapple enzyme, bromelain, also appeared to reduce the inflammation associated with asthma in one animal trial. These results offer yet more proof of the potential of food to affect asthma symptoms for better...or for worse. As previously reported in this space, kids who eat even one burger a week are more likely to suffer from asthma. Banana Bonus: Early banana consumption may also be associated with lower risk of childhood leukemia. Bananas' fiber, potassium, vitamin C and B6 content support heart health. Bananas also contain tryptophan, an amino acid which may play a role in preserving your memory and boosting your mood. To get the health benefits of bananas try this issue's featured recipe. Founded by David H. Murdock, Chairman of the Dole Food Company, the Dole Nutrition Institute provides consumers with educational resources on the benefits of a plant-based diet. These include an award-winning newsletter, Dole Nutrition News (2.5 million circulation), the recently published Dole Nutrition Handbook, videos, brochures, cookbooks and more.

Download now Free registration required Criminals have long employed the tactic of masking their true identity, from disguises to aliases to caller-id blocking. It should come as no surprise then, that criminals who conduct their nefarious activities on networks and

Download now Free registration required Criminals have long employed the tactic of masking their true identity, from disguises to aliases to caller-id blocking. It should come as no surprise then, that criminals who conduct their nefarious activities on networks and computers should employ such techniques. When a user of an information system takes an action that user was not legally allowed to take, it is called intrusion. Internal intruders have legitimate access through user accounts; external intruders break into a system without benefit of a user account A server is a system which keeps running continuously and the administrator cannot monitor the system all the time. - Format: PDF - Size: 222.3 KB

How to: Execute Expression Trees This topic shows you how to execute an expression tree. Executing an expression tree may return a value, or it may just perform an action such as calling a method. Only expression trees that represent lambda expressions can

How to: Execute Expression Trees This topic shows you how to execute an expression tree. Executing an expression tree may return a value, or it may just perform an action such as calling a method. Only expression trees that represent lambda expressions can be executed. Expression trees that represent lambda expressions are of type LambdaExpression or Expression<TDelegate>. To execute these expression trees, call the Compile method to create an executable delegate, and then invoke the delegate. If the type of the delegate is not known, that is, the lambda expression is of type LambdaExpression and not Expression<TDelegate>, you must call the DynamicInvoke method on the delegate instead of invoking it directly. If an expression tree does not represent a lambda expression, you can create a new lambda expression that has the original expression tree as its body, by calling the Lambda<TDelegate>(Expression, IEnumerable<ParameterExpression>) method. Then, you can execute the lambda expression as described earlier in this section. The following code example demonstrates how to execute an expression tree that represents

September 3, 2004 Phone: (504) 865-5714 New Orleans public school teachers now have a powerful ally in their efforts to educate young people. The Online Louisiana Knowledge Center, hosted by the Howard-Tilton

September 3, 2004 Phone: (504) 865-5714 New Orleans public school teachers now have a powerful ally in their efforts to educate young people. The Online Louisiana Knowledge Center, hosted by the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, offers a variety of online and personal reference services previously unavailable to public school educators. "It's about increasing connectivity and getting people online," says the program's coordinator, librarian Penny Hecker. Funded in 2003 by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the knowledge center is part of a larger grant called Online Louisiana, which, according to Hecker, is charged with helping "bridge the digital divide in Louisiana." Tulane's grant proposal was written by four Howard-Tilton librarians: Andy Corrigan, Anne Houston, Jean-Paul Orgeron and Kate Montgomery. According to Hecker, the Howard-Tilton library had been searching for a way to use the Internet and new reference technologies to provide outreach assistance to public schools. The Online Knowledge Center is directed specifically at teachers, with help for developing classroom lesson plans and materials for professional development. "What we offer public school educators is free access to a set of K-12 appropriate online databases, as well as access to the many and varied collections within the Tulane library system, such as Special Collections, the Latin American Library, the Hogan Jazz Archives and others," says Hecker. The databases, which are all donated, are invaluable resources, says Hecker. Among the databases are "Xreferplus," an online reference library that includes dictionaries, encyclopedias and factbooks; "EBSCO," a daily updated database of approximately 60 magazines that can help teachers research current events; "EBSCO Animals," a science source with in-depth information on animals and their habitats; and "Web Feet," a set of high-quality, K-12-appropriate websites. While the knowledge center primarily benefits teachers, students also can directly access some of the same databases to do their own research. When the program kicked off in 2003, Hecker's first order of business was to get out word about the center to the large number of teachers in the public school system. Hecker began by pitching the center's benefits directly to certain key educators, such as school librarians and literacy facilitators who coach teachers on how to achieve literacy goals set for the schools. In addition, this summer Hecker is giving weekly presentations at the school system's technology training center on Athis Street, a facility where teachers and staff learn basic or advanced computer skills. With grant funds, the library also purchased 25 laptop computers as prizes in a contest to raise awareness of the center's purpose and resources. For a chance at a laptop, teachers wrote essays about how they proposed to use the center to enhance their teaching or professional development. Hecker received 34 applications, and the library designated eight team and individual awardees. The winners attended a workshop at the library, where the laptops were presented to them and they, in turn, gave more feedback to library staff about their use of the knowledge center. "The awardees were those who showed the most understanding of the center's aims and resources," says Hecker. "They were also those who seemed most likely to spread the word about the center to their colleagues." The laptops are considered a donation to the school system, says Hecker. Individuals or teams awarded the laptops can use the laptops as long as they teach at a New Orleans public school. A second phase of the laptop contest is now in progress. Hecker and her colleagues are reviewing approximately 40 laptop mini-grant applications. These laptop computers will be distributed to awardees at a second workshop in August. The publicity campaigns are working and inquiries from teachers are increasing, says Hecker. "One thing we've been stressing," she says, "is that we are not just a web portal where people can go to consult databases. Teachers also can e-mail questions, phone questions, they can go online and use our live chat reference, or they can fax us for reference or research assistance. "We're also working on an expansion of the program that will allow teachers to have circulation privileges from Howard- Tilton," says Hecker, who hopes to be able to offer even more services to public school teachers in the near future. Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118 504-865-5000 [email protected]

Goldstone is a type of glittering glass made in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere. The finished product can take a smooth polish and be carved into beads, figurines, or other artifacts suitable for semiprecious stone, and in fact

Goldstone is a type of glittering glass made in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere. The finished product can take a smooth polish and be carved into beads, figurines, or other artifacts suitable for semiprecious stone, and in fact goldstone is often mistaken for or misrepresented as a natural material. Another common name for the material is aventurine glass, based on the original Italian name avventurina (from avventura, "adventure" or "chance"). It is also sometimes called "stellaria," "sang-e sitara" or "sun sitara" (sang means'stone' and sitara means'star' in Persian) for its starry internal reflections, or "monk's gold" or "monkstone" from folkloric associations with an unnamed monastic order. Curiously, "aventurine" glass is one of the few synthetic simulants to provide the eponym for the similar natural stones. The mineral name "aventurine" is used for forms of feldspar or quartz with mica inclusions that give a similar glittering appearance; the technical term for this optical phenomenon, "aventurescence," is also derived from the same source. The original manufacturing process for goldstone was invented in seventeenth-century Venice by the Miotti family, which was granted an exclusive license by the Doge. Urban legend says goldstone was an accidental discovery by unspecified Italian monks or the product of alchemy, but there is no pre-Miotti documentation to confirm this. The most common form of goldstone is reddish-brown, containing tiny crystals of metallic copper that require special conditions to form properly. The initial batch is melted together from silica, copper oxide, and other metal oxides to chemically reduce the copper ions to elemental copper. The vat is then sealed off from the air and maintained within a narrow temperature range, keeping the glass hot enough to remain liquid while allowing metallic crystals to precipitate from solution without melting or oxidizing. After a suitable crystallization period, the entire batch is cooled to a single solid mass, which is then broken out of the vat for selection and shaping. The final appearance of each batch is highly variable and heterogenous. The best material is near the center or "heart" of the mass, ideally with large, bright metal crystals suspended in a semitransparent glass matrix. Copper colloid size and failure modes Copper-based "red goldstone" aventurine glass exists on a structural continuum with transparent red copper ruby glass and opaque "sealing wax" purpurin glass, all of which are striking glasses, the reddish colors of which are created by colloidal copper. The key variable is controlling the colloid size: goldstone has macroscopic reflective crystals; purpurin glass has microscopic opaque particles; copper ruby glass has submicroscopic transparent nanoparticles. The outer layers of a goldstone batch tend to have duller colors and a lower degree of glittery aventurescence. This can be caused by poor crystallization, which simultaneously decreases the size of reflective crystals and opacifies the surrounding glass

Japan is weighing raising the severity level of its nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to a level 7 from level 5, putting it at par with the accident at the Chernobyl reactor in 1986, Kyodo

Japan is weighing raising the severity level of its nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to a level 7 from level 5, putting it at par with the accident at the Chernobyl reactor in 1986, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday. Kyodo said the government's Nuclear Safety Commission has estimated the amount of radioactive material released from the reactors in Fukushima, northern Japan, reached a maximum of 10,000 terabequerels per hour at one point for several hours, which would classify the incident as a major accident according to the INES scale. The scale, short for International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, is published by the International Atomic Energy Agency and ranks nuclear and radiological accidents and incidents by their severity from 1 to a maximum of 7. Japan had previously assessed the accident at reactors operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co, which engineers are still trying to bring under control, at level 5, the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. On March 11 a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a massive tsunami triggered the nuclear disaster where reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi complex were crippled due to a loss of power which disabled cooling functions. A spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan's nuclear safety watchdog, said on Tuesday that the level of the Fukushima incident was still a 5 and that he was unaware of any move by the government to raise the level.

Spherical geometry is the use of geometry on a sphere. It was started for cartography, as well as for making maps of stars. It is different from Euclidean geometry (which is always on a plane, and Non-Euclidean geometry

Spherical geometry is the use of geometry on a sphere. It was started for cartography, as well as for making maps of stars. It is different from Euclidean geometry (which is always on a plane, and Non-Euclidean geometry. [[Points are defined in the same way as they are in Euclidean geometry: A point is at a defined location on the sphere. A "staight line" is different though: It is the shortest path between two points, which stays on the surface of the plane. Some theorems of Euclidean geometry cannot be used on the sphere, many of them have been adapted though.

While doctors have cited many reasons for these differences, they all agree that the most important thing is to better understand the facts so you can better control your symptoms. Fast Facts About Women and RA Though scientists don’t know what causes RA, they

While doctors have cited many reasons for these differences, they all agree that the most important thing is to better understand the facts so you can better control your symptoms. Fast Facts About Women and RA Though scientists don’t know what causes RA, they do know it hits women harder: - More women than men have rheumatoid arthritis. About 1.3 million American adults have RA. Nearly three times more women have the disease than men. - Rheumatoid arthritis tends to strike women younger. Many women are at the height of careers and child-care responsibilities when it strikes. - Women with RA are less likely than men to be in remission. A study released in 2009 showed that women are about half as likely to be in remission. In the study, 17% of women were in remission compared to 30% of men. Recent studies have revealed other important differences for women with RA. RA Is on the Rise in Women Researchers from the Mayo Clinic reported in 2008 that while RA appears to have been on the decline from 1955 and 1994 in the U.S., that no longer appears to be the case for women. The study found that from 1995 to 2005 the number of women who got RA increased by nearly 50% over the number that got it in the previous decade. RA rates among men remained stable. Studies Show RA To Be More Severe in Women In a large study released in 2009, researchers found that women with RA reported more symptoms — and more severe symptoms — even when they appeared to have the same level of the disease as men. Women also did not respond as well to the same treatment — both in terms of what their doctor

Bias is an inclination of temperament or outlook to present or hold a partial perspective and a refusal to even consider the possible merits of alternative points of view. People may be biased toward or against an individual, a race, a religion, a social class

Bias is an inclination of temperament or outlook to present or hold a partial perspective and a refusal to even consider the possible merits of alternative points of view. People may be biased toward or against an individual, a race, a religion, a social class, or a political party. Biased means one-sided, lacking a neutral viewpoint, not having an open mind. Bias can come in many forms and is often considered to be synonymous with prejudice or bigotry. In statistics, there are several types of bias: - Selection bias, were there is an error in choosing the individuals or groups to take part in a scientific study. - Spectrum bias consists of evaluating the ability of a diagnostic test in a biased group of patients, which leads to an overestimate of the sensitivity and specificity of the test. - The bias of an estimator is the difference between an estimator's expectation and the true value of the parameter being estimated. - Omitted-variable bias is the bias that appears in estimates of parameters in a regression analysis when the assumed specification is incorrect, in that it omits an independent variable that should be in the model. - In statistical hypothesis testing, a test is said to be unbiased when the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis exceeds the significance level when the alternative is true and is less than or equal to the significance level when the null hypothesis is true. - Systematic bias or systemic bias are external influences that may affect the accuracy of statistical measurements. - Data-snooping bias comes from the misuse of data mining techniques. In judgment and decision making A cognitive bias is the human tendency to make systematic decisions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence. Bias arises from various processes that are sometimes difficult to distinguish. These processes include information-processing shortcuts, motivational factors, and social influence. Such biases can result from information-processing shortcuts called heuristics. They include errors in judgment, social attribution, and memory. Cognitive biases are a common outcome of human thought, and often drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. It is a phenomenon studied in cognitive science and social psychology. A cognitive bias also has the tendency to make systematic decisions in certain situations. In the media Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, in the selection of which events and stories are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed. Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories and facts, and the requirement that selected facts be linked into a coherent narrative (Newton 1989). Since it is impossible to report everything, selectivity is inevitable. Government influence, including overt and covert censorship, biases the media in some countries. Market forces that result in a biased presentation include the ownership of the news source, concentration of media ownership, the selection of staff, the preferences of an intended audience, and pressure from advertisers. Political bias has been a feature of the mass media since its birth with the invention of the printing press. The expense of early printing equipment restricted media production to a limited number of people. Historians have found that publishers often served the interests of powerful social groups. - Economic: when people/government interpret a law/contract in their favor for economic reasons. - Inductive bias in machine learning. - Cultural bias: Interpreting and judging phenomena in terms particular to one's own culture. - Racism, regionalism and tribalism: Judging people or phenomena associated with people based on the race/ethnicity, region of origin, or tribe of the people, rather than based on more objective criteria. - Sexism: Judging based on gender, rather than on more objective criteria. - Sensationalism: Favouring the exceptional over the ordinary. However this sentence structure makes is sound like an appeal to popularity or normalcy fallacy. This is actually a more com

Healthy habits in both exercise and nutrition need to be learned at an early age. Recent studies show that obesity, especially in children, is on the rise in the United States. Healthline helps address this issue and then dives into a very special type

Healthy habits in both exercise and nutrition need to be learned at an early age. Recent studies show that obesity, especially in children, is on the rise in the United States. Healthline helps address this issue and then dives into a very special type of therapy, which helps children with disabilities or deficencies learn vital everyday skills. Learn more about raising happy, healthy children with the episodes below. - Back to School - Help your child avoid the stress of going back to school. - Bullying - Learn how to help your chi

The Role of Photoperiodism in Alpine Plant Development Franziska Keller, Christian Körner Is alpine plant development in spring controlled by photoperiod irrespective of actual temperatures at the time following snowmelt? We investigated phen

The Role of Photoperiodism in Alpine Plant Development Franziska Keller, Christian Körner Is alpine plant development in spring controlled by photoperiod irrespective of actual temperatures at the time following snowmelt? We investigated phenological responses to day length and temperature in 33 high-elevation species of the Central Alps (2600-3200 m a.s.l.), Austria. Plants were collected in the field in August, potted, and overwintered in a freezer at -1°C. Released from dormancy, plants experienced various photoperiods (12, 14.5, 15, and 16 h) and two temperature regimes (6/11°C and 8/18°C). Day length was extended with tungsten lamps, which do not contribute a significant dose of photosynthetically active photon flux density but provide a day-length signal. Only 23 species produced sufficient flowers to be included in the analysis. Flowering (yes or no) was sensitive to photoperiod in 54% of the species. Surprisingly, only 24% of the species showed temperature sensitivity at longer photoperiods, whereas at shorter photoperiods, 65% of the species were sensitive to an increase in temperature. The number of days between thawing of soil and flowering is sensitive to photoperiod in 46% of the species. Cerastium uniflorum, Elyna myosuroides, Saxifraga oppositifolia, Saxifraga seguieri, and Ranunculus glacialis are insensitive to both photoperiod and temperature and thus flower as soon as released from the snow irrespective of co-occurring light and temperature conditions. Specific leaf area and the duration of leafing were responsive to photoperiod and temperature in forbs but not in grasses. These results suggest that about half of the tested alpine species are sensitive to photoperiod and may not be able to fully utilize periods of earlier snowmelt.

May 21, 2013 Having the biggest playlist doesn't make a male songbird the brainiest of the bunch, a new study shows. "For songbirds, singing a lot of songs indicates a bird is smart, but that signal is

May 21, 2013 Having the biggest playlist doesn't make a male songbird the brainiest of the bunch, a new study shows. "For songbirds, singing a lot of songs indicates a bird is smart, but that signal is not necessarily indicative of intelligence for everything," said Duke biologist Steve Nowicki. In a series of problem-solving tests with the birds, he and his colleagues found that the male song sparrows that sang the most songs learned to solve food-finding puzzles more slowly than the birds singing fewer songs. The results are the first to show that a larger song repertoire links to cognitive deficits in other mental processes. The researchers think that female song sparrows may use potential mates' songs to gauge both mental strengths and weaknesses. Since birdsong is a good model for studying speech development, the findings, published May 22 in Biology Letters, could also help neuroscientists better understand the trade-offs taking place as the human brain matures. Nowicki and collaborators first measured the number of songs 14 male song sparrows sang. They then taught the birds to identify where a mealworm was hidden in one of 12 shallow wells on a wooden rectangle. The scientists put plastic caps over six wells so that the birds had to learn and remember spatially where the worm was on the wooden block. The birds that learned to solve the food puzzle more quickly sang fewer songs -- an observation opposite of what the scientists expected. "This study is very exciting," said University of Nevada-Reno biologist Vladimir Pravosudov, who was not involved in the study. "It is the first of its kind to show a negative correlation between song repertoire size and spatial memory in songbirds, and it goes against the grain of what many scientists had thought about the relationship between song and other cognitive abilities in birds." Earlier studies with starlings had shown that the birds with larger playlists learned to solve spatial tasks more quickly. Other studies had also shown that a bird that sang more songs performed better on other cognitive tasks. This newly discovered negative relationship between the number of songs a bird sings and speed of solving a spatial task suggests there is a trade-off between song learning and other cognitive abilities, Nowicki said. He noted one caveat with the experiment -- the fact that song sparrows don't cache their food or migrate long distances. Both require advanced spatial learning and memory, but the ability isn’t as important for sparrows as it is for blue jays and other species. Still, the negative correlation suggests birds' brains may develop differently depending on how much effort is put toward learning songs or doing other mental tasks. Song learning happens in the HVC, the area of the bird's brain that controls song. Spatial learning happens in the hippocampus. During development, more resources may go to one area or the other, giving an individual bird a strength in one cognitive ability and a weakness in the other, Nowicki said. The study supports the idea of trade-offs in the development of the birds' brains. But, "this behavioral data is only tip of iceberg," Pravosudov said. Scientists will need to look at the structures, circuits and chemicals in the birds' brains to better understand mechanistically what the new results mean for brain development. Nowicki agrees and said his team may perform those experiments next. If the work pans out, he added, scientists could one day use songbirds and birdsong to better understand how trade-offs in brain development influence behavior and cognition in humans too. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: - Sewall, K., Soha, J., Peters, S., Nowicki S. Potential trade-off between vocal ornamentation and spatial ability in a songbird. Biology Letters, 2013 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0344 Note: If no author is given, the source is cited

Managing sexually harmful behaviour in a residential special school Article first published online: 15 NOV 2011 © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd British Journal of Learning Disabilities Volume 40, Issue 4, pages 302

Managing sexually harmful behaviour in a residential special school Article first published online: 15 NOV 2011 © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd British Journal of Learning Disabilities Volume 40, Issue 4, pages 302–309, December 2012 How to Cite Pritchard, D., Graham, N., Ikin, A., Penney, H., Kovacs, L., Mercer, D., Edwards, R., Jones, D. and Mace, F. C. (2012), Managing sexually harmful behaviour in a residential special school. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40: 302–309. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-3156.2011.00712.x - Issue published online: 14 NOV 2012 - Article first published online: 15 NOV 2011 - Behavioural contract; - cognitive behaviour therapy; - differential reinforcement of other behaviour; - learning disability; - sexually harmful behaviour; - token economy - •Children and young people with learning disabilities who present sexually harmful behaviour are often not allowed into the community. - •This study describes the work carried out with a boy with sexually harmful behaviour attending a residential special school. - •The staff helped teach the boy how to behave in social situations and about sex, consent and relationships. - •Afterwards, the boy was able to participate in supervised community activities. Children and young people with learning disabilities who present sexually harmful behaviour are marginalised and do not always participate in community activities. This case study describes a multi-component intervention that successfully reduced the sexually harmful behaviour of a 16-year-old boy with a mild learning disability. The intervention was comprised of cognitive behaviour therapy, Social Stories™ and a behavioural programme that reinforced appropriate behaviour with social praise and access to preferred items and a range of community activities. Following the intervention, he was able to participate in a wide range of supervised community activities.

With the array of thread available, how do you know which thread is best for your project? The following are some guidelines to help you select the perfect thread for your project. General Thread Rules Color: Pick thread that is one shade darker than

With the array of thread available, how do you know which thread is best for your project? The following are some guidelines to help you select the perfect thread for your project. General Thread Rules Color: Pick thread that is one shade darker than the fabric. Weight: Match the thread weight to the fabric weight. Threads are ranked by a number system. A high number indicates a light (or fine) thread, and the medium weight of thread is a 50 weight. Fiber: Try to match thread fiber to fabric fiber. Cotton fabric should be sewn with cotton thread; polyester or manmade fiber should be sewn with polyester thread. If possible, don't sew natural fibers with polyester thread. Polyester fiber is stronger than most natural thread, so over time, the stronger polyester thread can break the weaker cotton fiber of the fabric. For quilting, look for thread labeled "machine quilting" or "hand quilting." Twist: The amount of spin of the thread fibers. A thread with a high amount of twist will be smoother, shinier and stronger than thread with little or no twist. Types of General Sewing Threads For general sewing, use thread spun from cotton, polyester or a polyester/cotton blend. Specialty threads change as often as consumer tastes change. Rayon thread: Designed for machine embroidery, it has shine to give the embroidered design a decorative effect. Rayon thread is perfect for rolled edges on your serger. Use it in the upper looper only. Metallic thread: A man-made thread which is ideal for machine-embroidery or decorative serger finishes. Basting thread: A lightly twisted thread used to hand- or machine-baste garments together. Easily broken, it's typically made of cotton fiber and available in white. Try using basting thread for fitting garments prior to sewing. Invisible thread: Great for blind hemming or when it is difficult to match colors. It's typically made of a single strand of polyester and has no color. Because of the lack of color, it is difficult to see. Its one drawback is that it can be stiff and distort the fabric. I use invisible thread in my blind hemmer for hemming pants, draperies and other projects. Buttonhole and carpet threads: Heavy duty and designed for heavy fabric where additional strength is desired. Often used for hand-sewing, it will work in the bobbin of most sewing machines and can give your sewing a decorative effect. General purpose thread: A medium-weight thread made from cotton, silk, polyester or a blend of cotton and polyester. Cotton is usually mercerized. This is a finishing process that makes the thread smooth and shiny and adds strength. Cotton mercerized thread is ideal for woven fabrics that require little or no stretch in the seams. Cotton is also heat-resistant, making it a better choice for quilting because of the need for pressed, consistent seams. Silk is natural fiber that is strong and very fine. It has some stretch which makes it a better choice for topstitching or tailoring when the fabric needs some shaping and some give. Polyester is suitable for most fabrics because it has some stretch. It is a better choice for knit fabrics but may break cotton fibers if the knits are designed with cotton fiber. Blended threads are suitable for knits, wovens, man-made or natural fabrics. Blended threads are typically designed with a cotton filament wrapped around a polyester core thread giving the thread both durability and stretch. Plus, the cotton fiber makes the thread heat-resistant. Serger threads are available in the same fibers as general sewing threads, with the exception of woolly nylon. Woolly nylon is a nylon thread that has little or no twist. Used in the upper looper for a rolled edge or in the upper and lower loopers for lingerie sewing, this thread is designed to gently relax after it's sewn and cover the edge finish. It has lots of stretch and is soft against your skin. Its one drawback is that it will melt in the dryer or under a hot steam iron. Most serger thread is sold by the cone. Look for cone thread that is tightly wrapped and consistent in width. When using your serger for edge finishing, don't worry too much about matching the thread color. Most serger owners will invest in the basic colors of thread, black, brown, gray and white, to match the edge finishes as needed. If using your serger for seaming and edge finishing, it's the outside needle that creates the seam. Often, just matching this thread to the fabric is enough.

Platform for the 15 years of continuous Southern Ocean measurements, L'Astrolabe, enters the ice in January en route to the French Antarctic base, Dumont D'Urville. The wind, climate change and the Southern oceans We

Platform for the 15 years of continuous Southern Ocean measurements, L'Astrolabe, enters the ice in January en route to the French Antarctic base, Dumont D'Urville. The wind, climate change and the Southern oceans We all know that the oceans are warming, especially in our polar regions. But what role does wind play in raising surface, or deeper, ocean temperatures? A 15 year study of water temperature profiles undertaken by CSIRO, French and US scientists is revealing some surprising answers. (5:46) 18 February 2008 | Updated 24 November 2011 The player will show in this paragraph This is a very long term collaboration between the French Polar Institute, the CSIRO’s Wealth from Oceans Flagship, and scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In this podcast, Dr Rosemary Morrow from the French Polar Institute explains how the French supply ship, L’Astrolabe, its crew and volunteers have played an important part in revealing the shifts in temperature and salinity in the very cold waters between Hobart and the French Antarctic base of Dumont Durville. Called SURVOSTRAL (Surveillance of the Ocean Austral), the program has provided researchers with thousands of individual readings. Read more about Antarctic route highlights new ocean-climate links (Media release 18 Feb 08).

The Course of Hostilities The outbreak of the war was preceded by the alliance (1699) of Peter I, Frederick IV of Denmark, and Augustus II of Poland (who was also elector of Saxony) against Charles XII,

The Course of Hostilities The outbreak of the war was preceded by the alliance (1699) of Peter I, Frederick IV of Denmark, and Augustus II of Poland (who was also elector of Saxony) against Charles XII, whose youth and inexperience they hoped would make him an easy victim. The war began with the invasion of Swedish Livonia by the Poles and of ducal Schleswig (which had rebelled against Danish rule with Swedish support) by the Danes. The bold and unexpected landing of Charles XII in Sjæland threatened Copenhagen and forced Denmark out of the war (1700). Charles then turned his attention to the east; late in 1700 he routed a much superior Russian force at Narva and relieved Riga, which the Poles were besieging. Invading Poland, Charles took Warsaw and Cracow (1702), secured the election of Stanislaus I as king of Poland (1704), followed Augustus into Saxony, and forced him to break his alliance with Russia and to recognize Stanislaus as king by the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706). While Charles was victorious in Poland, however, Peter I occupied Ingermanland and part of Livonia. Resuming (1707) his campaign against Russia, Charles invaded Ukraine, where Mazepa had promised to foment an anti-Russian uprising. Mazepa's project failed, and the Swedes, cut off from reinforcements and in need of a stronghold, laid siege to the fortress of Poltava. There a superior Russian army utterly defeated (1709) the Swedes, and Charles retired with a handful of men to Bes

A ruddy complexion may run in your family, or it could be the result of certain medical conditions, acne, prescription medications or too much sun over a long period of time. Regardless of the cause, what you put inside your body can exacerb

A ruddy complexion may run in your family, or it could be the result of certain medical conditions, acne, prescription medications or too much sun over a long period of time. Regardless of the cause, what you put inside your body can exacerbate your symptoms. Including certain foods and excluding others can help minimize a ruddy complexion. Your ruddy complexion may consist of a light flush to the cheeks, rough patches of redness or inflamed acne-like pustules. The skin disease rosacea is a common cause of ruddy skin and affects approximately 100 million people, according to the website of the International Rosacea Foundation. Rosacea symptoms appear when the blood vessels at the surface of the skin become inflamed or dilated. Although no one is certain what makes some people more vulnerable to rosacea or ruddiness than others, certain lifestyle behaviors can trigger outbreaks or exacerbate existing symptoms. Whether your ruddiness is hereditary, related to rosacea or results from another trigger, it can make you self-conscious, and in the case of rosacea, can lead to permanent changes to your appearance. Rosacea and hereditary ruddiness cannot be cured, but may be controlled with lifestyle changes – including your diet. Fruits and Veggies A healthy diet full of vegetables and fruits may help promote healthier looking skin, notes MayoClinic.com. These foods are a rich source of antioxidants, which fight inflammation-causing free radicals in the body. You are exposed to free radicals from the sun, pollution and skin irritants such as cigarette smoke and alcohol -- all of which can contribute to a ruddy complexion. Leafy greens, berries and pomegranates are especially high in antioxidants. Beans, a plant-based source of protein, offer zinc which can have antioxidant properties that fight redness. Omega-3 Fatty Acids Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids that fight inflammation. When you do not get enough omega-3 fatty acids, but too many omega-6 fatty acids – found in deli meats; oils such as cottonseed, peanut and canola oil; and many soy foods -- yo

|This month we feature a colourful collection of 57 Japanese prints dating from the period of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Telling the story of the war from the Japanese point of view, the prints depict many of

|This month we feature a colourful collection of 57 Japanese prints dating from the period of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Telling the story of the war from the Japanese point of view, the prints depict many of the significant battles of the war and those who were involved in it. Issued by a variety of publishers, the prints were donated to the University of Glasgow together in a bound volume by Professor Percy Archibald Hillhouse in 1935. This donation demonstrates the great connection that existed between Glasgow and Japan through ship building and naval architecture over 100 years ago.| ||The Russo-Japanese war was a conflict between Russia and Japan over land ownership in Manchuria and Korea. Russia was particularly keen to gain control of the ice-free port of Port Arthur in Korea, over which the

In simple terms diarrhea is an abnormal increase in the frequency and fluidity of stools.Depending on the time frame a diarrhea can be called acute (Short Term) or chronic (Long terms). Almost everyone gets acute diarrhea during the course of life and

In simple terms diarrhea is an abnormal increase in the frequency and fluidity of stools.Depending on the time frame a diarrhea can be called acute (Short Term) or chronic (Long terms). Almost everyone gets acute diarrhea during the course of life and is normally caused by infections and as side effect of certain medicines. It is short lived. Just lasts for a few days! Chronic diarrhea lasts for many weeks and is indicative of a serious underlying problem that requires treatment. Depending on the causes of diarrhea it can be categorized mainly into the following different types: 1- Osmotic Diarrhea This is caused by the inability of the digestive system to absorb certain components of food such as sugars (lactose and fructose), sugar alcohols (sorbitol) and some minerals (magnesium, sulfate and phosphate). Water is drawn by these unabsorbed into the intestines, causing passing of watery stool. Normally osmotic diarrhea disappears after the foods containing these elements are removed from the diet. 2- Secretory Diarrhea This is caused by secretion of water and salts by intestine into the stools. This happens during various kinds of infections. The infections release toxins that secrete water and salt by interfering with the intestines. Carcinoid tumors and medical conditions like celiac disease can also stimulate secretions. 3- Exudative Diarrhea This occurs when inflammation of the lining of the colon causes the release of blood, mucus and/or other fluids. This type of diarrhea can be caused by a number of conditions such as tuberculosis some types of cancers and irrigational bowel disease (IBD). 4- Paradoxical Diarrhea This is a false indication of diarrhea. The symptoms are diarrhea-like but actually the complication is constipation called a fecal impaction. In case of paradoxical diarrhea, liquid stool flows around hard, impacted stool which still inside the rectum. Paradoxical diarrhea

Mohammad Hossein Nikzad, a close personal friend and a senior student of political science just called me a few hours ago, worriedly talking about the dire situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the atrocities the Buddhist Rakhines are

Mohammad Hossein Nikzad, a close personal friend and a senior student of political science just called me a few hours ago, worriedly talking about the dire situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the atrocities the Buddhist Rakhines are committing in the East Asian nation. He called my attention to the mainstream media’s flagrant inattention to the heartrending genocide of the Muslims in Myanmar, saying that there are only a few second-rate news websites and Iranian news agencies which have given coverage to the course of events. And unfortunately he was right. My searching for factual reports and articles regarding the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar by the extremist Buddhists yielded no significant results. I only found some pictorial reports of the burning of Myanmarese children published by Iranian news websites, an article by Ramzy Baroud which was republished in some Asian newspapers and an editorial by Dr. Ismail Salami on Press TV. Neither Reuters, nor New York Times, nor Washington Post, nor Fox News nor their comrades and cronies in France, Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada had uttered a single word regarding the painful days the Muslims of Myanmar are experiencing. Rohingyas are a Muslim people living in the Arakan region. As of 2012, 800,000 Rohingyas live in Myanmar. The United Nations says that they are one of the most persecuted minorities of the world. As a result of systematic discrimination they have endured over the past years, many of them have migrated to Bangladesh and Malaysia and currently 300,000 Rohingya Muslims live in Bangladesh and 24,000 in Malaysia. The persecution of the Rohingya Muslims dates back to the early World War II when the Japanese forces invaded Burma which was then under British colonial rule. It’s said that on March 28, 1942, about 5,000 Muslims were massacred in Minbya and Mrohaung Townships by Rakhine nationalists. According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya Muslims have long suffered from human rights violations and as a result, scores of them emigrated to neighboring Bangladesh for better living conditions. One instance of discrimination against the Muslims of Rohingya is that they are denied the right of citizenship by the government. Many of them have escaped to Bangladesh and as many as 111,000 of them live in the Thai-Myanmar border area. According to the website of Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO), Rohingya Muslims require government permission to marry, are forbidden from having more than two children per family and are subjected to modern-day slavery through forced labor. Because the national government denies them the right to citizenship in their homeland, many Rohingyas have their land confiscated and they are restricted from travel. Human Rights Watch considers the denial of the right of citizenship the most important problem the Muslims of Rohingya face. The government of Myanmar considers the Rohingyas to be “resident foreigners.” This lack of full citizenship rights means that the Rohingya are subject to other abuses, including restrictions on their freedom of movement, discriminatory limitations on access to education, and arbitrary confiscation of property. Some independent sources have told Human Rights Watch that the government authorities continue to require Rohingya Muslims to perform forced labor. According to HRW, those who refuse or complain are physically threatened, sometimes with death, and children as young as seven years old have been seen on forced labor teams. But what brought to light the deplorable situation of the Rohingya Muslims once again was the “2012 Rakhine State riots” which led to the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims who were murdered by a Rakhine mob of 300 while on their way back from the country’s former capital Rangoon. It said that three Rohingya youths raped and killed a Rakhine woman and as the government sentenced two of them to death, a self-directed group of extremist Rakhine nationalists attacked a bus of Rohingya Muslims and killed ten of them. According to a group of UK-based NGOs, 650 Rohingya Muslims were killed from June 10 to 28, 1,200 went missing and more than 80,000 others were displaced as a result of rioting, arson and rape. As reported by Associated Press, 1,336 homes belonging to the Rohingya Muslims were burnt during the unrest. However, The Platform, a UK-based human rights organization puts the number at 6,000. The Burmese army and police were accused of playing a leading role in targeting the Rohingyas through mass arrests and arbitrary violence. Due to a media blackout in Myanmar and the lack of direct access by independent journalists in the region, it’s impossible to verify the number of those who have been killed or the homes which were destroyed in the recent riots; however, what is clear is that the Rohingya Muslims are undergoing intolerable hardships and should be paid due attention by the international community. In the recent weeks, the Burmese opposition leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi made the headlines when it was announced that she finally delivered her Nobel acceptance speech at Oslo’s City Hall two decades after being awarded the prize and almost two years after being released from house arrest. Suu Kyi, however, unpardonably ignored the plight of the Rohingya Muslims and never spoke a word about the hardships and injustices that have befallen them. In a blatant act of censorship, the Western mainstream media have also stayed away from the massacre of Rohingya Muslims, showing their strong anti-Muslim bias and their duplicitous attitude toward the concept of human rights. The Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are living under extremely appalling circumstances. The dictatorial government of Myanmar has deliberately neglected their ordeal and the internati

Author: Cole, Sarah Rose Date published: April 1, 2012 In July 1844, the barrister and journalist George Venables found a mysterious volume in the Temple chambers that he shared with his lifelong friend Henry L

Author: Cole, Sarah Rose Date published: April 1, 2012 In July 1844, the barrister and journalist George Venables found a mysterious volume in the Temple chambers that he shared with his lifelong friend Henry Lushington. As leading members of the Cambridge Apostles, the secret society whose "brethren" kept up their bonds long after their days of college debating, Venables and Lushington allowed their chambers to be used as an unofficial meeting ground for Cambridge men passing through London.1 Thus, Venables may not have been much surprised to discover that his bookshelf contained an apparently abandoned manuscript by his fellow Apostle, Alfred Tennyson. Stuck behind the other books, the strange volume resembled a butcher's account book in a very shabby condition; it contained the drafts of Tennyson's untitled "elegies," the brief poems that he had been periodically writing since the sudden death of his closest Cambridge friend Arthur Hallam in 1833. In response to Venables's inquiry, Tennyson wrote: You had better keep the MSS which you mention till I see you. I suppose I must myself have slipt it behind your books to keep it out of people's way, for I scarcely liked everyone who came in to overhaul those poems & moreover the volume itself was not fit to be seen, foul with the rust dust and mildew of innumerable moons.2 When Tennyson finally decided, in 1849, that it was time to make his private elegies "fit to be seen" by a wider public, he discovered that he had once again mislaid the manuscript in the Temple, where Venables and Lushington had often offered the poet a resting place in his life of "genteel vagrancy."3 This time, Tennyson decided that the manuscript must be retrieved at once, and assigned the task to his young disciple Coventry

Can rats read minds? Perhaps not usually, but researchers at Duke University have developed what they call a brain-to-brain interface, which transfers information directly from one rat’s brain to another. The interface allows the decisions of a rat on one continent

Can rats read minds? Perhaps not usually, but researchers at Duke University have developed what they call a brain-to-brain interface, which transfers information directly from one rat’s brain to another. The interface allows the decisions of a rat on one continent to control the behaviors of a rat on another. To accomplish this, researchers in North Carolina implanted tiny electrodes into the brain of a rat to record its activity, and then trained the rat to distinguish between a wide chute and a narrow one by whisker feel. The rat had to correctly match the sensation (wide or narrow) with a corresponding hole (left or right) by poking it with its nose. When the rat correctly matched the width and hole, which it did 96 percent of the time, the rat was rewarded with a drink of water. Researchers called this rat the encoder. “Slow down. Sound it out.” This is the mantra for most dyslexic students learning to read. But results from a new computer training program suggest that the opposite may be true for dyslexics once they’ve learned to read—going faster could improve reading skills and comprehension. Researchers in Israel compared the reading skills of dyslexic and non-dyslexic university students, before and after using a custom computer training program. The program’s premise is this: a sentence appears on the computer screen, which the participant is supposed to read silently. One by one, the letters disappear off the screen, from left to right, pushing the reader through the sentence. When the entire sentence has been removed from the screen, the user is prompted with a question about the content of the sentence he or she just read. This ensures that the participant did not just read the sentence, but actually understood what it meant. Every person thinks and acts a little differently than the oth

PH and pOH in Everyday Life While the ability to calculate the pH of a solution from the hydronium-ion concentration and vice versa is useful, it is not the only thing we need to understand about pH. If someone gives you

PH and pOH in Everyday Life While the ability to calculate the pH of a solution from the hydronium-ion concentration and vice versa is useful, it is not the only thing we need to understand about pH. If someone gives you a solution whose pH is 14.74, it is true that the hydronium-ion concentration must be 1.82 × 10–15 mol dm–3 but it is perhaps more important to know that the solution is corrosively basic and should be handled with respect. In general, then, we need not only to be able to calculate a pH but also to have some realization of what kind of solutions have what kind of pH. The following table is designed to meet this need. It is also part of our collection of acid-base resources. The pH Scale. In pure water at 25°C the hydronium-ion concentration is close to 1.00 × 10–7 mol dm–3, so that the pH is 7. In consequence any solution, not only pure water, which has a pH of 7 is described as being neutral. An acidic solution, as we know, is one in which the hydronium-ion concentration is greater than that of pure water, i.e., greater than 10–7 mol dm–3. In pH terms this translates into a pH which is less than 7 (because the pH is a negative logarithm). Small pH values are thus characteristic of acidic solutions; the smaller the pH, the more acidic the solution. By contrast, a basic solution is one in which the hydroxide-ion concentration is greater than 10–7 mol dm–3. In such a solution the hydronium-ion concentration is less than 10–7 mol dm–3, so that the pH of a basic solution is greater than 7. Large pH values are thus characteristic of basic solutions. The larger the pH, the more basic the solution. We have some direct experience of pH through our sense of taste, which responds to the concentration of hydronium ions. Most of us are able to detect a sour, tart, acidic taste in a solution with a pH of between 4 and 5. Black coffee with a pH of 5 does not taste acidic to most people, whereas carbonated water (soda water) with a pH of 4 does. A somewhat more acidic solution with a pH of 3 or even 2 tastes pleasantly acidic, especially if sweetened with sugar. Most fruit juices and most soft drinks have a pH in this range. If the pH of the solution is lower than 2, the taste is too tart for us to tolerate it for long. When someone experiences 'acid reflux', they experience the taste of a solution with a pH of 1.4, since this is the normal pH of stomach acid. Any pH below this value is not only unpleasant to the taste but acidic enough to attack the skin. Note that a sufficiently concentrated solution of strong acid can actually have a negative pH. Sulfuric acid in a car battery has a concentration of about 5 mol H2SO4 dm–3 and a pH of about – 0.7. Since we do not often intentionally swallow basic solutions, we cannot rely on the sense of taste to guide us through pH values which are greater than 7. Examples of very weakly basic solutions are sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, NaHCO3), which has a pH close to 8, and a solution of soap, which usually has a pH slightly greater than 9. Solutions with a pH of 10 or 11 (which we can describe as mildly basic) are to be found in the weekly wash. Most laundry powders contain a weak base such as a phosphate or a carbonate, which raises the pH to this value. Solutions with a pH of 11 feel noticeably “soapy” to the touch and also cause a characteristic wrinkling of the skin. If the pH is greater than 12 or 13, the solution attacks skin rapidly enough to be dangerous. Very basic solutions are more

Vitamins are crucial participants in the body’s reactions and are obtainable from food. Vitamin C, for example, comes from citrus fruits and vegetables. Vitamin K comes from green vegetables. The B vitamins are found in meats, soy, dairy

Vitamins are crucial participants in the body’s reactions and are obtainable from food. Vitamin C, for example, comes from citrus fruits and vegetables. Vitamin K comes from green vegetables. The B vitamins are found in meats, soy, dairy products, and grains. Vitamin A comes from carrots, squash, and other orange and green colored vegetables. How about vitamin D? What foods contain vitamin D? The list includes: Food International Units(IU) vitamin D per serving Cod liver oil, 1 Tablespoon 1,360 Salmon, cooked, 3½ ounces 360 Mackerel, cooked, 3½ ounces 345 Tuna fish, canned in oil, 3 ounces 200 Sardines, canned in oil, drained, 1¾ ounces 250 Milk, nonfat, reduced fat, and whole, vitamin D fortified, 1 cup 98 Margarine, fortified, 1 Tablespoon 60 Pudding, prepared from mix and made with vitamin D fortified milk, ½ cup 50 Cheese, Swiss, 1 ounce 12 Ready-to-eat cereals fortified with 10% of the DV for vitamin D, ¾ cup to 1 cup servings (servings vary according to the brand) 40 Egg, 1 whole (vitamin D is found in egg yolk) 20 Liver, beef, cooked, 3½ ounces 15 (Modified from the Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health) You’ll note that the only naturally-occurring food sources of vitamin D are the modest quantities in fish, egg yolks, and liver. All the other vitamin D-containing foods like cereal, milk, and other dairy products have vitamin D only because humans add it. It takes me (personally) 6000 units of vitamin D per day to bring my blood level to an acceptable 50 ng/ml. To obtain this from eating salmon, I would have to eat 58 ounces, or 3 1/2 pounds of salmon–every day. Or, I could eat 30 cans of tuna fish. If I didn’t want to eat loads of fish every day, I could drink 60 glasses of milk every day. After I recovered from the diarrhea, my vitamin D might be adequate, provided the milk indeed contained the amount stated on the label (which it often does not when scrutinized by the USDA). If vitamin D is a vitamin, how are humans supposed to get sufficient quantities? I don’t know anybody who can eat 3 1/2 lbs of salmon per day, nor drink 60 glasses of milk per day. But aren’t vitamins supposed to come from food? The problem is that vitamin D is not really a vitamin, it’s a hormone. If your thyroid hormone level was low, you’d gain 20, 30, or more pounds in weight, your blood pressure would skyrocket, you’d lose your hair, become constipated, develop blood clots, be terribly fatigued. In other words, you’d suffer profound changes. Likewise, if thyroid hormone levels are corrected by giving you thyroid hormone, you’d experience profound correction of these phenomena. That’s what I’m seeing with vitamin D: restoration of this hormone to normal blood levels (25-OH-vitamin D3 50 ng/ml) yields profound changes in the body. If there’s one thing that I’ve come across lately that packs extraordinary potential to help us in reducing heart scan scores, it’s the vitamin–sorry, the hormone–cholecalciferol, or D3. Change your life in 60 seconds

How much will temperatures rise in 30, 40, or 50 years? How could changing weather affect rainfed crops in the Horn of Africa, or winter flooding and summer droughts in Uzbekistan? And what should countries do to prepare

How much will temperatures rise in 30, 40, or 50 years? How could changing weather affect rainfed crops in the Horn of Africa, or winter flooding and summer droughts in Uzbekistan? And what should countries do to prepare for more intense droughts and storms? These are the kinds of questions the World Bank hopes to answer with its latest initiative to expand access to climate data and spark innovation in the fight against climate change. The latest additions to the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative are accessible from a new Climate Change page (data.worldbank.org/climate-change) that provides links to a new Climate Change Knowledge Portal, Climate Change data topic page, the Open Data for Resilience Initiative, the Apps for Climate competition, and other Open Data resources such as World Development Indicators data and data catalog. A new Climate Change Knowledge Portal, launched today, includes visualization tools depicting temperature and rainfall scenarios to the year 2100. It links users to more than 250 climate indicators, and risk profiles for 31 countries where climate open data websites may launch in the next year. In addition, Apps for Climate will kick off in December at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. Modeled after the Bank’s 2010 Apps for Development challenge, the competition will encourage scientists, software developers, and others to create applications that use the wealth of climate data being made available to help solve the development problems that climate change poses. Recent News Posts 12/09/2013 - 16:26 10/01/2013 - 06:46 07/02/2013 - 11:42 05/24/2013 - 12:38 04/18/2013 - 12:38

- NAME: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev - OCCUPATION: World Leader, Government Official - BIRTH DATE: March 02, 1931 (Age: 82) - EDUCATION: Moscow State University

- NAME: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev - OCCUPATION: World Leader, Government Official - BIRTH DATE: March 02, 1931 (Age: 82) - EDUCATION: Moscow State University - PLACE OF BIRTH: Privolnoye, Russia - Full Name: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev - AKA: Mikhail Gorbachev - AKA: Gorbachev - AKA: Gorbachov - AKA: Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev - ZODIAC SIGN: Pisces Best Known For Mikhail Gorbachev was the first president of the Soviet Union, serving from 1990 to 1991. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for contributing to the break-up of the USSR. Think you know about Biography? Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.Play Now Unfortunately, U.S.-Soviet relations took a major hit when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in the Ukraine on April 26, 1986. The Soviet Union failed to release a full report until more than two weeks after the event. In light of Gorbachev’s policy of “openness,” some considered his reaction hypocritical. During the 1985 and October 1986 summits, the resulting strain on Gorbachev’s relationship with Reagan was apparent. The two disagreed over whether to do away with or continue developing the Strategic Defense Initiative, with Gorbachev leaning toward the latter. Both summits ended in stalemates. At the end of 1987, Gorbachev gave in to Reagan’s argument. At this point, the Soviet Union’s economy was in crisis. Gorbachev’s economic reforms weren’t working. In 1987, Gorbachev and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the first-ever mutual agreement on nuclear weapons reduction. The Soviet Union welcomed some desperately needed relief from the expenses of the space race. Included among Gorbachev’s key political reforms was a new, more democratic election system. In 1989, he organized elections that required Communist Party members to run against nonparty members. He revoked the Communist Party’s special status as set forth in the USSR’s constitution. State power was handed over to the Congress of People’s Duties of the USSR, the Soviet Union’s first parliament, based on democratic elections. On March 15, 1990, the Congress of People’s Duties elected Gorbachev the first president of the Soviet Union. During his presidency, Gorbachev promoted more peaceful international relations. He ordered Soviet troops to withdraw from Afghanistan. Through his peaceful negotiations with President Reagan, Gorbachev was also instrumental in ending the Cold War. He is likewise credited for his crucial role in the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent reunification of Germany. For his excellent leadership and his contributions to the overall betterment of world development, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 15, 1990. In addition to fielding conflicts with other nations, Gorbachev tackled pressing issues within the Soviet Union. Different ethnic groups within the USSR had begun to wage war against one another, while other groups, such as Ukrainians and Lithuanians, demanded that they become independent nations. As Gorbachev was grappling with these fractures, along with a still flailing Soviet economy, a new rival leader came on the scene. Boris Yeltsin, a former Communist Party member, emphasized radical changes to the economy. In the summer of 1991, Yeltsin was voted president of the Russian Republic. Gorbachev now faced the problem of how to balance the shared power between him and the opposing leader. In August 1991, while Gorbachev was vacationing in the Crimea, Communist conservatives captured him in a coup to seize power. Ironically, among the Communist Party conservatives who organized the coup was Prime Minister Pavlov, whom Gorbachev had hired to help him balance power with Yeltsin. profile name: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev profile occupation: Sign in with Facebook to see how you and your friends are connected to famous icons. Your Friends' Connections Included In These Groups When Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel died in 1896, he left his fortune to create an annual series of prizes for the individuals who confer "the greatest benefit on mankind." The most prestigious of the awards is the Nobel Peace Prize. Historians believe Alfred Nobel wanted to award people who work for peace to compensate for his own role in inventing dynamite. Since its establishment, the prize has gone to many courageous individuals who have fought for peace and human rights around the world. Nobel Peace Prize Winners 44 people in this group Fa

Posted on Thursday 29th March 2007 Sick teddy bears at one Birmingham primary school will get a special visit on Wednesday (28th March). Children from Year One at the Rosary Catholic Primary School in Saltley are being

Posted on Thursday 29th March 2007 Sick teddy bears at one Birmingham primary school will get a special visit on Wednesday (28th March). Children from Year One at the Rosary Catholic Primary School in Saltley are being encouraged to bring their teddy bear to school for a special consultation with medical students from the University of Birmingham. Birmingham Teddy Bear Hospital is a project, involving more than 40 students, which aims to teach young children (aged 3-7) about basic public health ideas. The students use the teddy bear consultations to try and dispel some of the children’s fears about visiting the doctor. During the session every child will be able to visit five different stations, where they can find out more out about dental health, road safety, healthy eating, and special needs, before taking their teddy bear to meet the doctor. The project co-ordinator Nav Dhillon says: “For some children, visiting the doctor can be a scary experience. By getting the children to bring their teddies for a consultation, we want to get them used to seeing how doctors work. Each teddy bear will get a pawscription at the end of their consultation, to take home. The children will spend some time at each station, so the

As policymakers begin fighting over this year’s appropriations, the Congressional Budget Office has released a long-term projection that puts today’s budget battles in broader context. The federal government is in the most unique and dangerous fiscal situation that it has ever been in during

As policymakers begin fighting over this year’s appropriations, the Congressional Budget Office has released a long-term projection that puts today’s budget battles in broader context. The federal government is in the most unique and dangerous fiscal situation that it has ever been in during peacetime. Federal spending and debt as a share of GDP are being sustained at very high levels, and that is sapping the nation’s economic vitality. Spending and debt remove resources from the voluntary, productive, and innovative sector of the economy and put those resources in the hands of the coercive, mismanaged, and centrally planned sector. The more that spending and debt rise, the more of our freedom and prosperity are destroyed. During brief periods to fight justified wars, it is reasonable to hand over more resources to the government. But the following two charts show that spending and debt are already at remarkably high levels for peacetime, and CBO projections to 2050 show the situation getting much worse. Figure 1, below the jump, shows federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP from 1790 to 2050. The data for past years are from CBO analyses here and here. The projection is CBO’s new extended baseline. Before the current spike, federal debt never rose above 48 percent of GDP during peacetime. Right now debt is 73 percent of GDP and CBO projects that it will rise to 129 percent by 2050 without reforms. In the past, debt peaked during wars (the War of 1812, Civil War, WWI, and WWII), but afterwards there were always long periods of fiscal retrenchment. Indeed, for the nation’s first 140 years, the Jeffersonian dislike of government debt held sway among policymakers. The rise of Keynesianism in the 1930s started to soften views about debt, but the recent political acceptance of peacetime debt at near-WWII levels is very disturbing. High debt is caused by high spending. Figure 2 shows total federal outlays over the same 260-year period. Spending data for the first 110 years are from the Census, while GDP data are from CBO. Data since 1900 are from OMB and CBO, and the projection to 2050 is CBO’s extended baseline. The wartime spending spikes in Figure 2 match the debt spikes in Figure 1. But since the 1930s, the welfare state has grown dramatically, and federal spending has gobbled up an increasing share of the economy during both peacetime and wartime. Wars tend to ratchet up spending even after the shooting stops, but before WWII this didn’t seem to be a severe problem. From 1790 to the War of 1812, federal spending averaged 1.5 percent of GDP. From after the War of 1812 to the Civil War, spending also averaged 1.5 percent. From the end of the Civil War to WWI, spending averaged 2.6 percent. During the 1920s, spending averaged 4.1 percent. But after that point, Figure 2 shows a sharp upward trend from 1930 to about 1980. Spending rose from 4 percent to 21 percent of GDP—a quintupling of the federal government’s grab of the nation’s income. The federal share has gyrated around 20 percent since then, but CBO’s projection of spending to 2050 shows spending climbing to 29 percent. If we have more wars, there will be spikes in future spending and debt that make CBO’s scary projections even worse. Regarding the current budget battle, the effort to remove Obamacare funding from this year’s appropriations is laudable. Not only will the health care law add distortions to our health care system, it will also spend a lot of money. Repealing the law would reduce federal spending by about half a percentage point of GDP annually within a decade. However, much more needs to be done to ward off the tidal wave of spending and debt shown in the CBO projections. History shows that policymakers should be cutting spending and debt during periods when we are at peace and the economy is growing—like right now. Let’s hope that we don’t enter any more foreign wars, but we do need a domestic war

One day a giant robotic octopus might save your life. That’s one of the applications a team of European scientists thinks its robotic octopus could have beyond navigating underwater and grasping objects. Recently they took the first step by creating a robotic oct

One day a giant robotic octopus might save your life. That’s one of the applications a team of European scientists thinks its robotic octopus could have beyond navigating underwater and grasping objects. Recently they took the first step by creating a robotic octopus arm. "What we want to copy is not just being soft, but it’s being soft and having the capability of controlling the stiffness," said Cecilia Laschi, an associate professor of biorobotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa who is working on the robot. The arm is part of a larger interdisciplinary European project funded by the European Commission to create a functional full-

MOOC may be a silly-sounding acronym, but this new breed of online classes is shaking up the higher education world in ways that could be good for cash-strapped students and terrible for cash-strapped colleges. Taking a class online might not

MOOC may be a silly-sounding acronym, but this new breed of online classes is shaking up the higher education world in ways that could be good for cash-strapped students and terrible for cash-strapped colleges. Taking a class online might not sound revolutionary—after all, in the fall of 2010, 6.1 million students were enrolled in at least one online course. But those classes were pretty similar to the bricks-and-mortar kind, in that students paid fees to enroll in classes taught and graded by a professor and some teaching assistants. But MOOCs, short for massive open online courses, are a different animal. They can be taken by hundreds of thousands of students at the same time. And perhaps the most striking thing about MOOCs, many of which are being taught by professors at prestigious universities, is that they’re free. Since MOOCs first made waves in the fall of 2011, when then-Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun opened his graduate-level artificial intelligence course up to any student anywhere and 160,000 students in more than 190 countries signed up, the free online classes have been heralded as revolutionary, the future, the single most important experiment that will democratize higher education and end the era of overpriced colleges. Thrun has even gone so far as to say he envisions a future in which there will only need to be 10 universities in the world. In January, he launched Udacity, a private educational organization, offering a dozen courses that anyone can sign up for and complete at his or her own pace; it now says it has more than 739,000 students. A similar company, created by two Stanford computer science professors, called Coursera, launched in April with four major university partners—Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton. Since then, Coursera, which features humanities as well as science courses, has added more big-name partners, including Duke, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia, and says it has one million registered students. The third major player in this space, edX, was launched by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in May. It has a more limited, high-level course catalog, but announced in July that the University of California-Berkeley was joining. Read more »

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2001 October 13 Explanation: This artistic portrait of Saturn depicts how it might look from

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2001 October 13 Explanation: This artistic portrait of Saturn depicts how it might look from Titan, Saturn's largest moon. In the foreground sits ESA's Huygens probe, which will be released by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and parachute to Titan's surface. Cassini will reach Saturn in 2004 and release the Huygens probe later that year. Titan is one of only two moons in the Solar System to have an atmosphere. It has been suggested Titan might have gasoline-like lakes and an atmospheric chemistry like that found on early Earth. The Cassini spacecraft was launched in October 1997 and has now traveled beyond Jupiter. Authors & editors: Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.

IV: The Hedonic Good 1. OUR discussion in Chapter III brought us into touch with the notion of the good of a being. This in its turn was found to be related to the notions of pain and pleasure, i.e. to

IV: The Hedonic Good 1. OUR discussion in Chapter III brought us into touch with the notion of the good of a being. This in its turn was found to be related to the notions of pain and pleasure, i.e. to a further form of goodness, which is here called the hedonic good. Our term ‘hedonic goodness’ is supposed to cover roughly the same ground as the word ‘pleasure’ in ordinary language. But, as we shall soon see, this ground is very heterogeneous and the use of one word to cover it may produce an appearance of conceptual homogeneity, by which we must not let ourselves become deluded. To realize the heterogeneity of the conceptual field, in which we are moving in this chapter, some observations on language may be helpful. In English, one is used to speaking of pleasure and pain as a pair of contraries or opposites. In other languages, this contrast is not so clearly marked. In German, for example, the nearest parallel to the pair ‘pleasure-pain’ in ordinary parlance is ‘Lust-Unlust’. But the German word for ‘pain’ is not ‘Unlust’. It is ‘Schmerz’. The German pair of substantives ‘Lust-Unlust’ answers in meaning more closely to the English pair of adjectives ‘pleasant-unpleasant’ than to the substantive-pair ‘pleasure-pain’. But this correspondence too is not perfect. The words ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’ in English would most naturally be translated by ‘angenehm’ and ‘unangenehm’ in German. Considering the important rôle which the concept of pleasure has played in ethics all through the history of the subject, it is surprising how little this concept has been made the object of special investigation. Neither Hume, nor the British utilitarians, nor Moore and the critics of ethical naturalism in this century, seem to have been aware of the problematic character of this key-notion of their own writings.1 Most writers in the past regard pleasure as either some kind of sensation or as something between sensation and emotion. Moore, Broad, and the non-naturalists in general take it for granted that pleasantness is a ‘naturalistic’ attribute of things and states and not an axiological term.2 This, I think, is a bad mistake. Some of the orthodox views of pleasure were challenged by Professor Gilbert Ryle in an important essay a few years ago.3 Since then there is noticeable a new interest in the concept for its own sake—and not merely as an item in the ethicists’ discussions of moral value. Our discussion here of the concept of pleasure can claim neither to be deep-searching nor even very systematic. My own feeling is that I am only scratching a surface, under which important problems lie hidden. I think it is useful, at least for purposes of a first approximation, to distinguish three main forms —as I shall call them—of pleasure.4 The first I call passive pleasure. It is the pleasure, or better: the pleasantness, which we attribute primarily to sensations and other so-called states of consciousness and secondarily also to their causes in the physical world. Pleasantness as an attribute of sensations can also be spoken of as ‘the pleasures of the senses’ or as ‘sensuous pleasure’. It seems to me that this sub-form of passive pleasure is largely regarded as the prototype of all pleasure whatsoever, and that this one-sided view has been much to the detriment of the philosophic discussion of these topics. The second form of pleasure I shall call, by contrast, active pleasure. It is the pleasure which a man derives from doing things which he is keen on doing, enjoys doing, or likes to do. Active pleasure can also be called ‘the pleasures of an active life’. To the discussion of the ethical relevance of pleasure, the pleasures of the active life seem to me to be at least as important as the pleasures of the senses. Yet there are few moralists, apart from Aristotle, who have paid much attention to active pleasure. In addition to passive and active pleasure there is that which I shall call the pleasure of satisfaction or contentedness. It is the pleasure which we feel at getting that which we desire or need or want—irrespective of whether the desired thing by itself gives us pleasure. The pleasure of satisfaction has played, implicitly if not explicitly, a great rôle in the formation and discussion of the doctrine known as psychological hedonism. 2. As specimens of the use of ‘good’ to refer to the sub-form of passive pleasure, which we call sensual, one may offer the phrases ‘a good wine’ or ‘a good apple’. Let us here consider the case of the good apple in some detail. It should first be noted that there are many points of view, from which the goodness of apples may become assessed. Apples are food. When we say that it is good to eat apples or that apples are good for the children, we are probably thinking of the nourishing value and wholesomeness of apples. This goodness of the fruit is of the form we have called the beneficial. When the beneficial nature of apples

Lord Brougham and Vaux, appointed Lord Chancellor in 1832, energetically pursued additional changes to the judicial role of the House of Lords. He further increased the number of hours in which the House sat judicially and also established

Lord Brougham and Vaux, appointed Lord Chancellor in 1832, energetically pursued additional changes to the judicial role of the House of Lords. He further increased the number of hours in which the House sat judicially and also established a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which took over responsibility for the long-established practice of hearing appeals from British colonies from the main Privy Council (a body which advises the Monarch). The same judges sat on both House of Lords appeals and appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Other Brougham and Vaux reforms, such as the separation of the Lord Chancellor's legal and political roles, and merging the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council with the House of Lords as an appellate court, failed. The role of lay Members in deciding cases gradually diminished and in June 1834 the House decided an appeal in the traditional manner (with the Lord Chancellor on the Woolsack and lay Members voting) for the last time. Ten years later, the convention that lay Members did not vote on appeals was permanently established following the controversy surrounding the case of O'Connell v. The Queen, in which the Irish politician Daniel O'Connell was convicted of conspiracy by the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland.

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards Cross-Content Workplace Readiness Standards And Progress Indicators All Students Will Use Critical Thinking, Decision Making And Problem-Solving Skills Descriptive Statement: Students will be expected to develop original thoughts and ideas,

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards Cross-Content Workplace Readiness Standards And Progress Indicators All Students Will Use Critical Thinking, Decision Making And Problem-Solving Skills Descriptive Statement: Students will be expected to develop original thoughts and ideas, think creatively, develop habits of inquiry, and take intellectual and performance risks. They will be expected to recognize problems, devise a variety of ways to solve these problems, analyze the potential advantages and disadvantages of each alternative, and evaluate the effectiveness of the method ultimately selected. Cumulative Progress Indicators All students will be able to: - Recognize and define a problem, or clarify decisions to be made. - Use models, relationships, and observations to clarify problems and potential solutions. - Formulate questions and hypotheses. - Identify and access resources, sources of information, and services in the school and the community. - Use the library media center as a critical resource for inquiry and assessment of print and nonprint materials. - Plan experiments. - Conduct systematic observations. - Organize, synthesize, and evaluate information for appropriateness and completeness. - Identify patterns and investigate relationships. - Monitor and validate their own thinking. - Identify and evaluate the validity of alternative solutions. - Interpret and analyze data to draw conclusions. - Select and apply appropriate solutions to problem-solving and decision- making situations. - Evaluate the effectiveness of various solutions. - Apply problem-solving skills to original and creative/design projects. |Go Back to Previous Page||Back To Main Page||Go To Next Page|

Ernst’s Ions Week Concludes: NERVA-Ion Mars Mission (1966) Through most of 1966, it was still reasonable to assume that NASA and the United States might enjoy an expansive post-Apollo future off the

Ernst’s Ions Week Concludes: NERVA-Ion Mars Mission (1966) Through most of 1966, it was still reasonable to assume that NASA and the United States might enjoy an expansive post-Apollo future off the Earth. Manned missions beyond the moon were expected to evolve from programs already in place; namely, the Apollo lunar landing program, the joint NASA/Atomic Energy Commission NERVA nuclear-thermal rocket program, and the Apollo Applications Program of advanced lunar missions and Earth-orbiting space stations. With these programs in mind, in March 1966 the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics and the American Astronautical Society jointly convened the Stepping Stones to Mars conference in Baltimore, Maryland. It would, as it turned out, be the last major Mars-focused engineering meeting until the 1980s. Attendees heard a team of engineers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, describe a piloted Mars mission based on both high-thrust NERVA-II nuclear-thermal rockets and low-thrust nuclear-ion (electric) propulsion. The study team’s leader was veteran German-born rocketeer Ernst Stuhlinger, the director of MSFC’s Research Projects Laboratory. Stuhlinger had begun his work on ion propulsion in the 1930s. He earned a Ph.D. at age 23, then worked for Hitler’s nuclear program. In spite of his science training, in 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and sent to the Russian front. After suffering wounds in the Battle of Moscow and surviving the Battle of Stalingrad, he was reassigned to Wernher von Braun’s rocket team at the Baltic Sea rocket base of Peenemünde in 1943. There he worked on the guidance system for the V-2 missile. He arrived in the U.S. in 1945 courtesy of the U.S. Army with von Braun, 124 other German rocketeers, and a trainload of captured V-2 missiles. Stuhlinger resumed his ion propulsion work in Huntsville in the early 1950s, while von Braun’s team was part of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal. Under von Braun’s leadership, the Peenemünde rocketeers became the nucleus around which NASA MSFC coalesced in July 1960. In the years before the Stepping Stones to Mars meeting, Stuhlinger had put forward several ion-drive spacecraft designs. His 1954 Sun Ship would have relied on concentrated sunlight for electrical power to drive its ion thrusters, but his other designs – the 1957 Mars and Beyond and 1959 lunar ion freight disc ships and his 1962 lunar ion freighter and 1962 spinning ion Mars spacecraft – would have employed large nuclear reactors. The hybrid NERVA/nuclear-ion approach would, the MSFC engineers explained, magnify the benefits and mitigate the drawbacks of both propulsion methods. Efficient ion propulsion would slash the amount of the propellant required to reach and return from Mars. This would in turn reduce the number of costly rockets required to place a hybrid Mars spacecraft into Earth orbit for assembly. Five uprated Saturn V rockets would be sufficient to launch a hybrid spacecraft into Earth orbit, or about half as many as required to launch a Mars spacecraft propelled by NERVA nuclear-thermal rocket engines alone. Nuclear-thermal rockets, for their part, would trim trip time and reduce crew radiation exposure. Nuclear ion spacecraft could escape from Earth orbit only after spiraling outward for weeks or months. Because of this, they would linger in the Van Allen radiation belts for days or weeks. Nuclear-thermal spacecraft, on the other hand, could escape from Earth orbit in hours and race through the Earth-girdling belts in minutes. Stuhlinger and his colleagues scheduled their NERVA/nuclear-ion Mars expedition for launch in 1986, 20 years after they presented their paper, because in that year the amount of energy needed to travel from Earth to Mars and back would be relatively small and solar activity would be at an ebb. The MSFC team assumed (rather naively) that their expedition would encounter no solar flares, so they skimped on radiation shielding to reduce spacecraft mass. They also anticipated that ion propulsion would be applied first to Earth-orbital satellite station-keeping in the late 1960s, and that enough ion propulsion research would be completed by 1974 to justify government approval of the NERVA/nuclear-ion Mars expedition. That would leave 12 years for spacecraft development and testing. The hybrid Mars expedition would occur in three phases. Phase 1 would see nuclear-ion spacecraft components and propellant launched from Earth’s surface. To enhance safety, four identical manned spacecraft would undertake the Mars voyage. If one failed, its crew could find refuge on board the remaining three spacecraft. Each spacecraft would in fact be capable of returning all 16 crewmembers to Earth in cramped conditions. For each Mars spacecraft, three uprated two-stage Saturn V rockets would launch a total of 388 tons of components and propellant into 485-kilometer-high assembly orbit. For the four-spacecraft expedition, 12 uprated Saturn Vs would launch a total of 1552 tons. The spacecr

How wearing more can cool you off | News GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- Many people wear less clothing to stay cool in the summer heat, but for centuries people in another part of the world have actually worn several layers

How wearing more can cool you off | News GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- Many people wear less clothing to stay cool in the summer heat, but for centuries people in another part of the world have actually worn several layers of clothing and stayed cool. In the deserts of the Middle East, Bedouins and Arabs wear robes of many layers from head to toe -- even on the hottest days. "When I wear these things, I don't feel hot," says Wafa Haddad of the TigerLily Arabic Language Academy in Grand Rapids. "They don't add heat. They will help you absorb all the sweat, and you will protect yourself from the sun." Haddad is from Lebanon, where temperatures often hit 100 degrees or more. Over thousands of years, people in the Middle East developed sub-blocking garments that allow perspiration and skin-cooling evaporation to maximize the body's natural air conditioning. "I am cool because the material is protecting me from the heat," says Haddad. "When you take off clothes, the sun is attacking the skin." Because the head is the closest body part to the Arabian sun, it gets protection of its own, called the hattah. Often, the folded layers of cloth are 100% cotton and are very light. Another way people in the Middle East beat the heat is to avoid activity in the hottest part of the day. "You avoid walking in the street between noon and three," says Haddad. "You avoid walking too much and you stay in the shade." The desert dwellers also refresh their bodies with plenty of fluids. "You cool your body off from the inside to outside so you don't even notice the sun anymore," says Haddad. Wafa Haddad will share more information about Middle Eastern climate and culture during a presentation later this month at her TigerLily Arabic Language Academy. The event is on July 25, and it is free. The academy is on Plainfield Ave. NE near Leonard St.

The production of beeswax starts in the field on flowers from which bees collect both pollen and nectar. Most of this water-thin, low sugar content nectar is converted into honey within the hive; however, a portion is converted into

The production of beeswax starts in the field on flowers from which bees collect both pollen and nectar. Most of this water-thin, low sugar content nectar is converted into honey within the hive; however, a portion is converted into beeswax. In the adjacent photo, a Fain's Honey bee is seen collecting nectar in late February from an algerita blossom. This early blooming, sweet smelling flower is eagerly sought after by the bees as they emerge from a cold winter and once again begin rearing brood in anticipation of the coming spring. The production of beeswax by a colony of bees is essential to the very survival of the colony, for it is from beeswax that their combs are built. The combs are described as hexagonal cylinders naturally laid side-by-side and then back-to-back. These marvels of engineering are said to be the very most efficient use of material for the volume of honey they contain. In addition to honey, the combs are also used to store pollen and for the raising of brood. After a field bees returns to the hive with a load of nectar, it is typically handed off to one or more of the younger hive bees with a tongue-to-tongue transfer. The hive bees (especially those in the 10 - 16 day-old bracket) are especially efficient at wax production. After consuming honey or nectar, wax is extruded as small flakes on their abdomens. It is masticated and then applied to the combs being constructed or repaired. In the hive, honey is stored in "frames" that are easily removed so the honey can be extracted. One such frame is shown here in the photo to the right. Notice the white cappings that cover the ends of the hexagon shaped cells. It is the very presence of these cappings that indicates that the bees have pronounced that their nectar has been completely transformed in the thick golden viscous liquid we know as honey. It is these cappings that is the source of much of the world's supply of beeswax since the cappings must be removed in order to extract the honey from the underlying cells. Actually, the cappings must be removed from both sides of the cells. This can be understood by viewing a cross section of a honey comb. Notice that cells extend out from both sides of the midr

At least some of those crops, however, are grown to test the effectiveness of their pesticide-resistant genes — a fact that has led to numerous protests by islanders in recent months. On Wednesday, the Kauai County Council voted 6 to

At least some of those crops, however, are grown to test the effectiveness of their pesticide-resistant genes — a fact that has led to numerous protests by islanders in recent months. On Wednesday, the Kauai County Council voted 6 to 1 to require agricultural companies to disclose the types of chemicals they use. The bill would establish distance restrictions to keep pesticides from being sprayed too close to schools, hospitals, waterways and residential areas. The bill originally also would have limited GM crop planting, but were removed from the bill after companies said they would challenge the rules in court, Ag Professional reports. The law will take effect in nine months, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat. It will impact the island’s heaviest users of restricted-use pesticides, including Kauai Coffee Co., and four biotech companies with operations there: Syngenta, DuPont-Pioneer, Dow and BASF.© Food Safety News

Corrado III Trinci Corrado III (or IV) Trinci (died June 14, 1441) was lord of Foligno from 1421 until 1439. Trinci ruled Foligno with his

Corrado III Trinci Corrado III (or IV) Trinci (died June 14, 1441) was lord of Foligno from 1421 until 1439. Trinci ruled Foligno with his brothers Niccolò and Bartolomeo, until their assassination by the castellan of Nocera Umbra. Corrado Trinci took his revenge by attacking the town and killing the castellan. Initially a fierce enemy of the Pope, Trinci was known for plundering monasteries. Attacked by Francesco I Sforza, however, he obtained the title of vicar of Foligno and Nocera Umbra from Pope Martin V. After this appointment

Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry DescriptionGrowth form irregularly massive to globular (up to 1 m in diameter, 50 cm in height); oscules large (0.5–1 cm in diameter) with a short collar

Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry DescriptionGrowth form irregularly massive to globular (up to 1 m in diameter, 50 cm in height); oscules large (0.5–1 cm in diameter) with a short collar, often grouped in a central depression at the top of the body. Consistency soft and strong. Colour is medium grey, but brown or black varieties have been also recorded (Vacelet 1959). Surface is smooth or covered by several epizoans. Conules are 2–3 mm high and 10–15 mm apart. Dry specimens become very hard and smaller (1/5) than living ones, also colour changes regularly into black. The skeleton does not differ from the other Mediterranean species belonging to the genus; the main skeleton composed by a reticulate network of primary (ca. 100–200 µm in diameter) and secondary (ca. 50–100 µm in diameter) fibres. Filaments abundant (1–3 µm in diameter).

What Time Did The Potato Die? In this Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum activity, students use "crime scene" data of body temperature vs. time to determine the time of death of a potato crime victim. Students will learn to create a spreadsheet

What Time Did The Potato Die? In this Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum activity, students use "crime scene" data of body temperature vs. time to determine the time of death of a potato crime victim. Students will learn to create a spreadsheet, make graphs, add trend lines, and work with linear and exponential curves in an effort to graphically estimate and algebraically calculate the potato's time of death. The module introduces the mathematical concepts of linear and exponential graphing, unit conversions, and trend lines. - Learn how to create and work with a spreadsheet in Excel. - Learn how to create a graph within Excel. - Gain experience with adding and working with trend lines. - Gain experience with converting units while solving a problem. - Gain experience with interpreting graphs and choosing the best graph to represent a given set of data. - Model an exponential-decay phenomenon to solve a problem. - Learn more about the complexities of interpreting time of death in a forensic setting. Context for Use Description and Teaching Materials PowerPoint SSAC2005:HV8079.RS1.1_student (PowerPoint 403kB May27 10) The module is a PowerPoint presentation with embedded spreadsheets. If the embedded spreadsheets are not visible, save the PowerPoint file to disk and open it from there. This PowerPoint file is the student version of the module. An instructor version is available by request. The instructor version includes the completed spreadsheet. Send your request to Len Vacher ([email protected]) by filling out and submitting the Instructor Module Request Form.

before Henry Bessemer had been scarce. It was made only through a costly and arduous process by artisans who created small batches out of pig iron, and was used mainly to make tools and weapons. Then came the Besse

before Henry Bessemer had been scarce. It was made only through a costly and arduous process by artisans who created small batches out of pig iron, and was used mainly to make tools and weapons. Then came the Bessemer Converter, and with it a revolution in manufacturing. For the steel manufacturing process he pioneered, Henry Bessemer will be honored posthumously by being inducted this year into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Henry Bessemer made it possible for unskilled workers to make vast quantities of steel cheaply. His interest in steel came not out of manufacturing, but an idea he had during the Crimean War to make a new type of artillery using a spinning projectile. Existing cannons for his artillery were not strong enough and the artillery would make them explode, so he needed to find better materials. Although England rejected his invention of spinning shells, Bessemer happened to have lunch with Emperor Napoleon III, who liked the idea. the process of perfecting the cannons for France by strengthening the steel, Bessemer created the Bessemer Converter. The idea seemed simple: an egg-shaped vat would hold molten iron and cold air could be blown into perforations in the bottom to remove the carbon and other impurities in the iron. Until his converter, it was thought that cast iron had to be converted to wrought iron by removing the carbon, and then converting to steel by re-adding carbon--a painstaking process. Bessemer's process took only 20 minutes from start to finish, raising annual steel production enormously and reducing cost dramatically. 3-Point Seat Belt Ceramic Substrate For ENIAC Data Translating Device Bessemer Steel Process

10. Selaginella weatherbiana R. M. Tryon, Amer. Fern J. 40: 69. 1950. Plants on rock, forming clumps. Stems radially symmetric, underground (rh

10. Selaginella weatherbiana R. M. Tryon, Amer. Fern J. 40: 69. 1950. Plants on rock, forming clumps. Stems radially symmetric, underground (rhizomatous) and aerial, not readily fragmenting, irregularly forked; rhizomatous and aerial stems often with 1 branch arrested, budlike, tips straight; aerial stems erect, less often ascending, cespitose, stout, branches not conspicuously arrested, budlike branches mostly near base. Rhizophores borne on upperside of stems, mostly restricted to rhizomatous stems or to lower 1/2 of aerial stems, 0.16--0.26(--3) mm diam. Leaves dimorphic, not clearly ranked. Rhizomatous stem leaves persistent, loosely appressed, ascending, often incurved, scalelike. Aerial stem leaves tightly appressed, ascending, green, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 1.7--2.4 X 0.36--0.43 mm; abaxial ridges prominent; base cuneate and decurrent on main stem or rounded and abru

Stink bugs create problems in homes and crops Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 3:16 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 3:16 p.m.

Stink bugs create problems in homes and crops Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 3:16 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 3:16 p.m. They are like lady bugs; they fly around erratically, and they're harmless, but many people don't feel cute, fuzzy feelings toward them when they find them crawling on their home's wall or ceiling. The brown marmorated stink bug has become an annual autumn occurrence for the past few years, and they aren't going anywhere for quite a while, said Cooperative Extension agent Scott Welborn. "The stink bugs have been in the environment all summer long, but they've been coming in at night because it's getting colder," Welborn said. This breed of stink bug is fairly new to the East Coast; the first detection of this insect was in 2009. The stink bug is originally from Asia, travelling across the sea in shipping containers. While North Carolina is not completely new to the world of stink bugs, having a native green stink bug for many years, the brown marmorated stink bug multiplies quicker, and as of today there is no known magic bullet for removing them out of homes. Adult stink bugs may seek shelter inside houses and other buildings, although they do not bite people or pets, nor do they damage buildings, according to the United States Environment Protection Agency. "Try to fill up any open spaces, such as door frames and windows, but they always seem to find a way in. They can fit through the smallest of openings," Welborn said. There also seems to be some pesticides that work directly on the insects in the dwelling, but it does not prevent more from entering, said Andy Miller, director of Davidson County Soil & Water Conservation. "Stink bugs are one of those things that are out there in nature, and depending on weather they are cyclical. Some years we have much greater numbers of them," Miller said. In 2010, certain areas seemed to have a massive influx of the insects. "The newer and tighter the house is sealed up, the less you will have," Welborn said. "The older homes have gaps everywhere, in the bottom of walls, in heating and air vents. Agriculture areas tend to have more stink bugs because there is a better food source; they can breed better and reproduce a lot faster." The brown, shield-shaped stink bug cannot harm a home, only irritate its owners, but it can cause a lot of damage to crops. Welborn said the stink bug does not have a biting mouth but instead a sucking mechanism. While tree fruits are the primary crops of concern, this species has also been observed to feed successfully on numerous fruit and vegetable crops including apples, apricots, Asian pears, cherries, corn (field and sweet), grapes, lima beans, nectarines and peaches, peppers, tomatoes and soybeans, according to the U.S. EPA. The problems come when homeowners attempt to rid their homes of the stink bug. If the insect is squished or even presented with a stressful environment, it will emit a strong odor used to deter attackers. Welborn suggested sucking up the insects with a vacuum cleaner but acknowledged that the household tool will smell of the stink bug odor for a while if it is used. Miller said an aerosol-type spray for the domestic breed of stink bugs can be used, but it is not a long-term solution due to the fact it is a chemical the homeowner will inhale until the house is aired out; it also does not prevent more stink bugs from entering once the pesticide clears. Miller also suggests a soap and water solution. Water and dishwashing soap can be placed in a cup, which seems to attract the insect; they fly in the solution and drown. This way, the stink bug will not emit the odor, but it also doesn't prevent more from entering. "They won't be around forever — just through the fall," Welborn said, noting that the insects hunker down for the winter but can't say if that means they leave the structure or just hide. "More than likely they will die because there is no food source in a house." Management of the pests is about the best a homeowner can hope for. "Even people that are in a pest control business will tell you they have no silver bullet for those things. Make sure your house is sealed, caulk around the windows and try to close any openi

When your child is scheduled for a radiology test, both you and your child may have questions about it. We encourage parents to read this information, then talk about the test with your child. What is a GE reflux (milk scan)?

When your child is scheduled for a radiology test, both you and your child may have questions about it. We encourage parents to read this information, then talk about the test with your child. What is a GE reflux (milk scan)? A GE reflux (milk scan) test determines whether or not your child has reflux (food or liquid coming up from the stomach). It also determines how much reflux your child has and how well the stomach empties. How is the test performed? A technologist will take you and your child into an exam room. You will see a large table and camera connected to a computer. The nuclear medicine technologist will ask for a bottle of your child's formula or will provide milk for older children. A small amount of radionuclide will be added to the milk (there is no taste or smell), and your child will be asked to drink it. When your child is full, he will lie on his back on the exam table for about 1 hour while diagnostic information is gathered. There are no side effects, and the radionuclide loses radioactivity within a few hours. The technologist will check the pictures to make sure they are complete before you and your child leave the hospital. How do I tell my child about this test? Because you know your child best, explain this test to your child in a way that he will understand before you come to Children's. The staff also will explain the procedure to you and your child before and during the test. Will it hurt? For many children, the most important thing to know is whether or not this test will hurt. Assure your child that although there may be some discomfort, it will only last a few minutes. Remind your child that this test is being done to help the doctor find out how her body is working inside. By talking about the test with your child, you may help her be more comfortable during the test, which will make the procedure easier for your child and you. There are no injections used for this procedure. Does my child have to do anything different before the test? Your child's stomach needs to be empty for the test, so she may not eat or drink anything, including water, for a number of hours before the test, depending on her age. A Children's staff member or your child's doctor will tell you how long your child will have to fast. After the test, your child may return to normal eating routines. The test itself usually takes 90 minutes. If your child's stomach is slow to empty, the test will take longer. If your child drinks formula from a bottle or has special diet needs, please bring a full bottle of formula with you for the test. Children under 18 years old must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. What can my child expect after the test? Your child may resume normal activity and diet. General radiology requirements - Pregnant mothers: Women who are pregnant can't be in the exam room. They must have a family member or friend over the age of 18 accompany their child into the examination room during the exam (with the exception of the ultrasound and nuclear medicine rooms). - Family or friends under the age of 18 years old: If you are not the patient and under the age of 18 years old you will not be allowed to remain in the radiology exam room during the exam. - Siblings

As explained last month, a microwave oven will cook food with a minimum waste of energy. But it can, in principle, cook more than food. It can cook out the oil (and other fuels) from oil shale. At present, oil

As explained last month, a microwave oven will cook food with a minimum waste of energy. But it can, in principle, cook more than food. It can cook out the oil (and other fuels) from oil shale. At present, oil shale is processed in a two-stage process. First, the shale is crushed and ground mechanically to release the kerogen contained in the rock; and the kerogen is then heated in an oxygenfree atmosphere (retorted) for conversion to synthetic crude oil. (All processes are, as yet, in the research stage. ) But there are other and more promising ways, such as using microwaves to heat the oil shale. Although the rock still has to be crushed in a preliminary stage, it need only be reduced to relatively large fragments, for the thermal stress due to the microwaves will fracture the pieces and release the kerogen, which is then heated by the same microwave field for conversion to crude oil single stage. Moreover, the electrical properties of oil shale are such that more energy is absorbed by the kerogen and less by the remaining rock, so that less energy is wasted in heating the rock. The conventional processes heat both equally. There are yet other advantages. Oil shale also contains hydrocarbon gases and other carbonacious fuels which are released together with the kerogen. In the conventional process. the gas loses much of its heating value and is wasted. In the microwave process. both tapes ot tuel remain for use. Though the gas is not ot pipeline quality, it can be used to fuel the on-the-spot power plant energizing the microuaxe installation. as can the other fuels obtained in t he process. All of these assertions hase been demonstrated in the laboratory The question is whether these principles can be utilized economically in a largescale facility. and this is about to be investigated by a team headed by Dr. Edward T. Wall of the Universits of Colorado

The South Rim Road is open to the Visitor Center, but the remainder of the road is closed to allow for grooming the ski trail. Grooming is expected to start soon but the snowpack is thin. The North Rim and East Portal Roads

The South Rim Road is open to the Visitor Center, but the remainder of the road is closed to allow for grooming the ski trail. Grooming is expected to start soon but the snowpack is thin. The North Rim and East Portal Roads are closed for the season. 1900 - Pelton Expedition Settlement of the Uncompahgre Valley, which lies just to the west of the B

Applied Technology: Vycon Flywheel Systems While many things are changing in radio, one thing is certain. Electrical power is the lifeblood of broadcasting. A momentary glitch in power can result in dead air that pushes listeners to change stations -

Applied Technology: Vycon Flywheel Systems While many things are changing in radio, one thing is certain. Electrical power is the lifeblood of broadcasting. A momentary glitch in power can result in dead air that pushes listeners to change stations - resulting in revenue reduction for advertisers and negatively impacting ratings. The challenge is that radio transmission systems are notoriously difficult to protect against power anomalies because of their sensitivity to even the smallest disruption. Analog and digital transmitters, audio consoles and networking systems all require clean, continuous power to operate at optimum levels. Traditionally, these systems are protected by battery-based uninterruptible power systems (UPSs). These systems are effective in mitigating power interruptions and conditioning dirty power. However, broadcast engineers are finding that by adding flywheel energy storage in place of UPS's lead-acid batteries, power reliability is significantly increased, green initiatives are advanced and total cost of ownership of the UPS systems are lowered. UPS batteries are chemically based. This means that frequent battery maintenance, testing, cooling requirements, weight, toxic and hazardous chemicals and disposal issues are key concerns. One dead cell in a battery string can render the entire battery bank useless - not good when you're depending on your power backup system to perform when you need it most. Every time the batteries are cycled, even for a split second, the more likely it is that they will fail the next time they are called upon. A chemical-free alternative Many broadcasters are depening on flywheel energy storage systems especially when energy efficiency, costs, space and environmental impact are concerns. This green technology is solving sophisticated power problems that challenge broadcasting operations every day. According to the Meta Group, the cost of downtime can average a million dollars per hour, so engineers can't afford to take any risks. Flywheels used with three-phase double-conversion UPS systems provide reliable mission-critical protection against costly transients, harmonics, voltage sags, frequency deviations, spikes and total power failures. How they work Flywheel technology stores kinetic energy in a quiet, spinning disk to provide a reliable and predictable source of dc power. With recent advances th

First known period of prehistoric human culture, characterized by the use of stone tools. The term is little used by specialists today. See Paleolithic Period; Mesolithic Period; Neolithic Period; stone-tool industry. See also Bronze Age; Iron

First known period of prehistoric human culture, characterized by the use of stone tools. The term is little used by specialists today. See Paleolithic Period; Mesolithic Period; Neolithic Period; stone-tool industry. See also Bronze Age; Iron Age.

Submitted to: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Integrated Nutrient Managemen Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: April 1, 1999 Publication Date: N/A Interpretive Summary: Soil organic matter plays

Submitted to: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Integrated Nutrient Managemen Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: April 1, 1999 Publication Date: N/A Interpretive Summary: Soil organic matter plays a major role in terrestrial ecosystem development and functioning. In both undisturbed and cultivated systems, potential productivity is directly related to soil organic matter concentrations. The dominate effect that soil organic matter has on ecosystem structure and stability is clear evidence of the need to protect current soil organic matter levels and develop management practices which will enhance soils with declining soil organic matter contents. Organic matter contents range from less than 0.2% in desert soils to over 80% in peat soils. In temperate regions soil organic matter ranges between 0.4 and 10.0%, with humid region soils averaging 3-4% and semi-arid soils 1-3%. Although it is only a small fraction of the soil, components of soil organic matter are the chief binding agents for soil aggregates which, in turn, control air and water relationships for root growth and provide resistance to wind and water erosion. The dynamic nature and complex chemistry of soil organic matter makes it a major source of plant nutrients. With 95% of soil nitrogen (N), 40% of soil phosphorus (P) and 90% of soil sulfur (S) being associated with the soil organic matter fraction, decomposition and turnover can supply the majority of macronutrients needed for plant growth. During decomposition microorganisms assimilate complex organic substances for energy and carbon (C), and release inorganic nutrients. This process is controlled by temperature, moisture, soil disturbance and the quality of soil organic matter as a microbial substrate. These factors, together with the size and activity of the microbial population regulate the rate of decomposition and nutrient release. Technical Abstract: Soil organic matter is a complex and dynamic entity. The interaction of soil organic matter with microorganisms, soil particles, nutrient elements, the abiotic environment and plants is the critical factor in e

This post was imported from Livejournal on 2008.07.18 We all love labels. Who doesn't? It's a way to tell someone a lot of information about a person without having to explain a lot. This can get

This post was imported from Livejournal on 2008.07.18 We all love labels. Who doesn't? It's a way to tell someone a lot of information about a person without having to explain a lot. This can get us into a lot of trouble when labels are ambiguous or in transitional states. For example, atheism/theism/agnosticism. The zeitgeist right now seems to be the following: -Atheists actively believe there are no gods. -Agnostics aren't sure if there are any gods, but are open to the possibility. -Theists believe in at least one god. I have a lot of trouble identifying my belief system using one of these labels. These labels are not enough to describe our complex thoughts regarding philosophical topics. The more "correct" definitions of those three terms are as follows: -Atheists don't believe in any gods. -Agnostics don't believe we can ever know whether or not gods exist. -Theists believe in at least one god. What have we here? Atheists and agnostics are not mutually exclusive? It's true. Here are some great definitions (courtesy of Wikipedia) of types of agnosticism: - Strong agnosticism (also called hard agnosticism, closed agnosticism, strict agnosticism, absolute agnosticism)—the view that the question of the existence or nonexistence of an omnipotent God and the nature of ultimate reality is unknowable by reason of our natural inability to verify any experience with anything but another subjective experience. A strong agnostic would say "I don't know, and neither do you." - Mild agnosticism (also called weak agnosticism, soft agnosticism, open agnosticism, empirical agnosticism, temporal agnosticism)—the view that the existence or nonexistence of God or gods is currently unknown but is not necessarily unknowable, therefore one will withhold judgment until/if more evidence is available. A weak agnostic would say "I don't know, but maybe you do." - Militant agnosticism—similar to weak agnosticism, but with the additional imposition of that view on others. A militant agnostic would say "I can't know, and neither can you." - Apathetic agnosticism—the view that there is no proof of either the existence or nonexistence of God or gods, but since any God or gods that may exist appear unconcerned for the universe or the welfare of its inhabitants, the question is largely academic anyway. An apathetic agnostic would say, "I don't know, and who cares anyway?" - Model agnosticism—the view that philosophical and metaphysical questions are not ultimately verifiable but that a model of malleable assumption should be built upon rational thought. This branch of agnosticism does not focus on a deity's existence. A model agnostic would say "I don't know, but maybe it can be figured out." - Agnostic theism (also called religious agnosticism)—the view of those who do not claim to know existence of God or gods, but still believe in such an existence. An agnostic theist would say "I don't know, but I think so." - Agnostic atheism—the view of those who do not know of the existence or nonexistence of God or gods, and do not believe in them. An agnostic atheist would say "I don't know, and I don't think so." - Ignosticism—the view that a coherent definition of God must be put forward before the question of the existence of God can meaningfully be discussed. If the chosen definition isn't coherent, the ignostic holds the noncognitivist view that the existence of God is meaningless or empirically untestable. It should be noted that A.J. Ayer, Theodore Drange, and other philosophers see both atheism and agnosticism as incompatible with ignosticism on the grounds that atheism and agnosticism accept "God exists" as a meaningful proposition which can be argued for or against. The ignostic would say, "I don't know what you're talking about when you refer to God." Based on these definitions, I would place myself squarely in the Ignostic camp. I can't tell you whether or not a god exists because nobody can define what a god would be. If you define it, maybe I'll take an opinion on it. Even the Christian God isn't clearly defined. I don't know how this "agnostics aren't sure, atheists don't believe" black/white simplicity got started, but we need to educate people on what these words really mean. I'm tired of saying I'm an atheist and having people say "You can't prove God doesn't exist!" and saying I'm agnostic and having people say "Choose a side, fence-sitter!" If you took everyone in the U.S. who labeled themselves "Christian" and lined them up, and asked them exactly what they believe, I think you'd find a whole lot more "agn

Species population trend data continue to be collected with regular addition of large volumes of high quality data to the Living Planet Database. The aim is to increase the species population data coverage in tropical regions (which are species rich but data poor) and for less

Species population trend data continue to be collected with regular addition of large volumes of high quality data to the Living Planet Database. The aim is to increase the species population data coverage in tropical regions (which are species rich but data poor) and for less well represented vertebrate groups (amphibians, reptiles, fishes). This will allow greater scope for the application of the LPI method and will enhance the data set for the global index. An online version of the database is currently being developed and will be released in the near future. This will disseminate biodiversity trend information in a transparent and accessible format. It will also allow users to submit their own data for inclusion in the LPI, and view the information that is

3. A list of these contributions should include at least the following fi ve: concrete causal, abstract acausal, abstract varying, scaling and constitutive.The contrast between concrete causal and abstract acausal is perhaps the most intuitive. Many successful

3. A list of these contributions should include at least the following fi ve: concrete causal, abstract acausal, abstract varying, scaling and constitutive.The contrast between concrete causal and abstract acausal is perhaps the most intuitive. Many successful scientific representations purport to accurately represent the causal relationships which obtain in a target system. Different accounts of causation present different views on what this special causal content comes to. For example, one may require the representation of a certain sort of process or mechanism. Alternatively, approaches like Woodward's insist only on the representation of what would happen under a certain kind of intervention or manipulation of the system. If this is how we understand causal representations, then it is clear that many representations are acausal. They may abstract away from the constituents and their causal interactions. This can happen in several ways. In this chapter of the book I consider how mathematics helps both with causal representations and with acausal representations. There is a second sort of abstraction: abstraction by varying. In this case, we have a family of representations with a different physical interpretation, but with a core overlap in their mathematics. In such cases, the mathematical links between the representations take center stage. It may be the case that all members of the family are causal representations, or some may abstract away from causes. Aspects of many successful representations turn on considerations of scale. The scale of a feature can be thought of as a comparison between that feature and some given parameters. So, for example, we may consider the relative time scales of two processes and use this comparison to adjust our representation of some target system. More generally, procedures for understanding the relative scale of this or that magnitude are central to simplification and idealization. Unsurprisingly, there is a central place for mathematics in determining which manipulations are acceptable and what the best interpretation of the resulting representations should be. Finally, I distinguish between constitutive and derivative representations. As neutrally as possible, we can think of a derivative representation as one which is successful only if some related 'constitutive' representations are successful. Carnap, Kuhn and Michael Friedman have all tried to motivate this distinction, and for each philosopher mathematical claim

Web Search ResultsResults 1-20 of about 2,000,000 for mlk day To support MLK Day of Service as 'A Day ON, Not a Day Off', the Corporation for National Service and the King Center

Web Search ResultsResults 1-20 of about 2,000,000 for mlk day To support MLK Day of Service as 'A Day ON, Not a Day Off', the Corporation for National Service and the King Center provides grants to observe the holiday as... http://mlkday.gov/ - 33k - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.) is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day - 160k - Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday held on the third Monday of January. It celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., an influential... http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/martin-luther-king-day - 24k - The latest from MLK Day (@MLKDay). Join one of the nation's largest days of service on January 16, 2012! https://twitter.com/MLKDay - 185k - Martin Luther King Jr day is celebrated on the third Monday in January. Read a biography of the civil rights hero, find a timeline about him, read his speeches... http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mlkjrday1.html - 30k - The History of Martin Luther King Day. Who originated the idea of a national holiday in honor of MLK? by Shmuel Ross and David Johnson... http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mlkhistory1.html - 32k - Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities. The MLK http://www.serve.gov/?q=site-page/mlkday - 36k - Legislation for a King Holiday was first introducted four days after Dr. King's... At The King Center in Atlanta, King Day is the culmination of a week-long... http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-holiday - 32k - On the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service millions of Americans honor the memory of Dr. King by contributing their time, voice and money to improve their... http://www.pointsoflight.org/signature-events/martin-luther-king-jr-day-service - 43k - Aug 22, 2013... As the federal agency tasked with leading the annual day of service... of CNCS programs and particularly the MLK National Day of Service. http://www.nationalservice.gov/blogs/mlk-day - 77k - MLK Day of Service. MLK Day 2014. Be one of the 1,800 volunteers coming together in King County to give back on Monday, Jan 20. It's your chance to be http://www.uwkc.org/ways-to-volunteer/mlkday/ - 48k - YSA (Youth Service America) and CNCS (the Corporation for National and Community Serv

Though modest in size, WEIMAR is the spiritual capital of German culture. A young Robert Schumann noted in his diary, “Germans are powerfully drawn to Weimar”, and like those to Stratford in England they are not

Though modest in size, WEIMAR is the spiritual capital of German culture. A young Robert Schumann noted in his diary, “Germans are powerfully drawn to Weimar”, and like those to Stratford in England they are not idle tourists so much as aesthete pilgrims come to revere a pantheon of intellectual and artistic saints. Saxe-Weimar dukes were patrons of Lucas Cranach and Johann Sebastian Bach as an overture to the town’s finest hour in the late eighteenth century. During the rule of aesthete duke Carl August (1757–1828), the court capital was an intellectual hothouse of rare talents such as dramatist Friedrich Schiller, poet Christoph-Martin Wieland, theologian Johann Gottfried Herder and, more than anyone else, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The city flowered as the home of the German Enlightenment whose beauty and ideas astounded Europe. Later names in the roll call of honour include Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Friedrich Nietzsche and Bauhaus founders Walter Gropius, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. The town’s name is also synonymous with the ill-fated Weimar Republic of post-imperial Germany. Weimar is the museum city par excellence whose every street is steeped in a revered past. Thankfully it is charming, too, thanks to frantic efforts to buff up its looks as European City of Culture in 1999. Definitively small-scale, notwithstanding the handsome Park an der Ilm south and the odd gallery, almost everything worth seeing lies within a ten-minute radius of the Markt in the lattice of streets bound to the north by Graben, track of a medieval moat, and to the south by Steubenstrasse. Here you’ll find first-rate art in the ducal Schloss, a gorgeous Rococo library, the Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek, and Goethe’s house. Erudite stuff and proof that Weimar most rewards those who apply their minds – others may find it rather provincial.Read More Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe No figure commands German culture like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1748–1832). A lazy comparison is often made to Shakespeare, which underplays the achievements of the last great Renaissance man of European culture. Not content with producing some of the most insightful drama in the German language, Goethe penned poetry, novels, travelogues and short stories, as well as philosophical essays and treatises on theology, humanism and science. His influence on Germ

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary would + -n't - Contraction of would not. - 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, Mr. Pratt's Patients: - She was so mad she

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary would + -n't - Contraction of would not. - 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, Mr. Pratt's Patients: - She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.

Russia and Siberia Today northern Siberia and the Far East are home to approximately 28 groups of indigenous peoples who continue to live traditional lifestyles in remote areas as fishers, hunters, and nomadic herders. Extreme regional diversity is evident

Russia and Siberia Today northern Siberia and the Far East are home to approximately 28 groups of indigenous peoples who continue to live traditional lifestyles in remote areas as fishers, hunters, and nomadic herders. Extreme regional diversity is evident in all aspects of indigenous Siberian material culture, including clothing and footwear. The embellishment of these items, using embroidery, relief, appliqué, fur inserts, and beadwork, invariably reflects Siberian beliefs, including strong connections to the spirits of ancestors, animals, and the land. Boots are almost universally worn, and are made primarily of reindeer and sealskin. Each indigenous group has characteristic designs, ranging from tube-like 'foot bags' of the Nganasan to sealskin boots with preformed soles favoured by the Chukchi and Yupik. Among the coastal Amur, salmon skin is often used for the making of

A government’s revenue system is the entire means by which a government acquires funding. States rely on a broad range of revenue sources to fund government. On average, states generate more than one-third of their revenues from personal income taxes and another one

A government’s revenue system is the entire means by which a government acquires funding. States rely on a broad range of revenue sources to fund government. On average, states generate more than one-third of their revenues from personal income taxes and another one-third from general sales taxes. The remaining revenues are split between excise taxes (on gasoline, cigarettes and alcohol); corporate income and franchise taxes; and taxes on business licenses, utilities, insurance premiums, severance, property and several other sources. That being said, the general character of a state or state and local revenue system is more important than the nature of any single one of its components. The relative importance of the major revenue sources for state and local governments changed since 1971. Property taxes declined in importance, and their share was picked up mostly by state individual income taxes, charges and miscellaneous revenues. Since state revenue systems have developed gradually and tax policy is used to address multiple objectives, state revenue systems are likely to include inconsistencies. Each year NCSL conducts a survey at the close of legislative sessions and, based on information provided by legislative fiscal directors, reports the significant revenue changes in State Tax Actions.

SEEDS For the Wide World (Apr, 1946) SEEDS For the Wide World Tons of foods from thousands of American acres will help the starving world feed itself PEOPLE in many parts of the world will eat better vegetables

SEEDS For the Wide World (Apr, 1946) SEEDS For the Wide World Tons of foods from thousands of American acres will help the starving world feed itself PEOPLE in many parts of the world will eat better vegetables because of vast quantities of top quality vegetable seed the United States has furnished Europe, India, China and the South Pacific as part of its war and rehabilitation efforts. Succulent red tomatoes, tasty melons, crisp carrots, juicy beets and a dozen other high grade vegetables of disease-resistant varieties are being grown today in regions that used to depend on poor, native-bred strains. Some of the vegetables common in this country were completely unknown in these areas until now. The excellence of American vegetables is the result of scientific breeding for sturdiness, size, taste, coloring and resistance to diseases. For years Europe has purchased the seed for its favorite brown head lettuce in California, for the climate on the continent is too uncertain for lettuce seeds. Similarly, England buys much of its onion seed in California. The onions flourish in England but the climate there is too cool for good seed production. Normally the United States produces about 130 million pounds of pea, bean, corn and other large seeds and about 70 million pounds of the smaller vegetable seeds. This production was tripled and quadrupled during the war. It is much better to ship seed abroad, to be raised into edible crops, than to transport bulkier food. Early in the war such increases in production didn’t seem possible because most seed harvesting jobs were done by hand labor, and hand labor was rapidly disappearing from the farms as the busy war plants beckoned. Leaders in the industry turned to mechanization and devised new types of automatic equipment for harvesting. One type of thresher developed by Ferry-Morse speeds the harvesting of seed from cantaloupes, cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes and watermelons. The thresher smashes the melons by means of ribbed cylinders and then throws the pulp inside a large rotating screen. The seeds and a small amount of pulp fall through the screen into sacks while the rinds and the balance of the pulp are discharged. The sacked seeds go to a mill for washing and drying. The latest thresher, adapted from Army equipment, is built on a 1-1/2-ton four-wheel-drive truck chassis and uses hydraulic pressure supplied by its engine to operate hydraulic motors that turn the conveyors, cylinders and drums. Head lettuce won’t go to seed unless the mature heads are chopped open to allow the seed stalks to push their way through. Once done by field labor, now a mechanical header with rotating disk blades is drawn down the rows, slicing open the heads of lettuce as it moves. After the seed stalks have matured, a mechanical harvester cuts them down and dumps them into a trailer for hauling to the drying sheets. One new piece of equipment is a “land planer” that shaves the ground to billiard-table smoothness. Most fields have slight hills and valleys that cause a drill seeder to plant some seed too deep and some too shallow. The land planer is a tractor-drawn iron framework 12 feet wide and 60 feet long, with a wide scraper blade at its center. Its long wheel-base permits the scraper blade to remove slight rises in the ground and to fill in depressions. Chemical weeding has replaced most hand weeding of narrow-leafed seed crops. Sprays of light stove oil, as much as 100 gallons per acre, kill 80 percent of the early weeds in such crops as carrots, parsnips and parsley. One of the largest producers of vegetable seed in the world raises nearly 500 separate varieties of 50 different vegetable seeds on 50,000 acres in California and other states. Some seeds are almost microscopic in size, others are as large as your thumbnail. Each is a separate problem to the mill men who must remove all chaff, stems, dirt, weed seeds and other field debris. Seeds from any of approximately 3000 weeds may need to be removed. Three types of separation machines are used for most seeds. Fanning mills employing air pressure blow away chaff, light seeds and dust. Next, vibrating screens allow the seed to fall through while trapping all larger material. The final step, usually, is a gravity mill that has a rapid up and down and sideways motion. An air blast from underneath the deck keeps the seed in partial suspension as it jogs and bounces along. The heavy seeds slowly concentrate at one side of the table and the lighter seeds, chaff and dirt are carried off at the other side. Good onion seed is separated easily in water. The onion seed sinks and the chaff and light weed seed can be skimmed off. Beet seed is cleaned by a “hill climber” machine resembling a mechanical laundry ironer. Beet seeds roll down the canvas or rubber belt and are collected in a hopper while sticks, chaff and some weed seeds are carried awa

With most international media and the royal family celebrating the birth of the third in line to the British throne and the first child of Prince William and Kate Middleton, RFE/RL took a look at a few interesting age-old traditions and factual details surrounding

With most international media and the royal family celebrating the birth of the third in line to the British throne and the first child of Prince William and Kate Middleton, RFE/RL took a look at a few interesting age-old traditions and factual details surrounding royal births. 1. Born With A Silver Spoon (Or Two) In Its Mouth The royal baby could inherit $1 billion some day, according to Wealth-X a company that specializes in intelligence on high-net-worth individuals. The wealthiest person in Britain’s royal family is the royal baby’s great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. Her assets have an estimated worth of $600 million. The royal stamp, car, wine, art, and medal collections alone are worth about $100 million. 2. A Boost To The State’s Coffers The birth of the new British royal could also make a significant contribution to the British economy. According to the Center for Retail Research, sales of royal-baby paraphernalia could generate some $380 million. Even expectant grandfather Prince Charles was selling baby shoes at a shop on his Highgrove country estate. The baby might well prove an extension of the “Kate effect” — the phenomenon whereby sales skyrocket for anything the duchess wears. 3. No Parliamentary Oversight British Home Secretary Theresa May didn’t attend the royal birth. The custom of having the home secretary on hand ended in 1948, prior to the birth of Prince Charles. May has pointed out that the practice existed to exclude the possibility of a royal baby being “smuggled” in. The last royal baby to have been born under this tradition was Princess Alexandra, Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin, in 1936. 4. The Next Monarch Regardless Of Gender A major change to the rules of succession ended Britain’s ancient laws of male primogeniture in April 2011, so the first child of the duke and duchess of Cambridge could have become a monarch even if he had been born a girl. (Queen Elizabeth II became a monarch only because her father had no male children.) However, the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013 will not come into force until all Commonwealth countries make the appropriate amendments to their laws. Theoretically, this could have produced a scenario whereby an older daughter could have become queen of England but a younger brother could have been king of Australia. Incidentally, the birth of a child to William and Kate bumps Prince Harry down into fourth place in the line of succession. 5. An Unprecedented Media Frenzy It is fair to say that no royal baby in history has been at the center of such an immense social media frenzy and garnered so much international media attention. For weeks, hordes of journalists have been camped out in front of the central London hospital where Kate was scheduled to give birth. As soon as news broke of the duchess going into the early stages of labor on July 22, more than 200 tweets a minute were being posted that featured the words “Kate” and “labour.” 6. Birth Announcement — Mixing The Old With The New The royal family adhered to the old custom of announcing the new heir via a proclamation on a special ornate easel. The news of the royal birth was also simultaneously announced on the monarchy’s official Twitter and and Facebook accounts. 7. There Is A Choice Of Surnames For The Baby According to the monarchy’s website, it is not required for the baby to have a surname, because prior to 1917 members of the royal family did not have surnames as they adopted the name of the house or dynasty to which they belonged. If the duke and duchess decide to include a surname, there are three choices available: Mountbatten-Windsor, Wales, or Cambridge. In 1917, King George V replaced his house name with Windsor (from Windsor Castle), while Prince Philip adopted the surname Mountbatten from his British maternal grandparents. The couple could also decide to keep it simple and leave it as “His Royal Highness Prince of Cambridge.” 8. The New Royal Has Already Been Wikified Within hours of Kate’s early stages of labor but well before the birth, the royal child already had a 900-word Wikipedia entry. By Deana Kjuka. July 22, 2013. Eight Factoids About Britain’s Royal Baby. Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. Update: The baby was named George Alexander Louis. His last name (surname) is Windsor. His title is Prince George of Cambridge.

KARNAIM (Heb. קַרְנַיִם), city of Bashan, associated with *Ashteroth in Genesis 14:5; in the Book of Jubile

KARNAIM (Heb. קַרְנַיִם), city of Bashan, associated with *Ashteroth in Genesis 14:5; in the Book of Jubilees, it is mentioned as one of the cities of the *Rephaim (29:11). Amos probably alludes to the capture of Karnaim by Jeroboam II (6:13). After the destruction of Ashteroth by Tiglath-Pileser, Karnaim became the capital of Bashan and gave its name to the Assyrian district of Qarnini. Judah Maccabee conquered the city in his campaign to Gilead (I Macc. 5:43; the Karnion mentioned in II Macc. 12:21 seems to be a different locality). It appears in Midrash Ruth Rabbah 2:10 as Kiryanos (קרינוס). Eusebius identifies Karnaim with the village of Karnaia in Arabia, "where the house of Job is shown" (Onom. 112:3ff.). This would place the ancient site at Sheikh Saʿad in Bashan, 3¾ mi. (6 km.) south of Nawā, where neo-Hittite sculpture and a stele of Ramses II (known locally as "Job's Stone") have been found. Albright, in: BASOR, 19 (1925), 14–15; E. Schumacher, Across the Jordan (1886), 187–8; Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 413–4; Aharoni, Land, index. Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

Mercedes Benz brakes are composed of a number of parts that all work together to help bring your car to a stop. From the disc brakes to drum brakes, brake pedal to hydraulic brake fluids, the brake system is vital to safe car operation.

Mercedes Benz brakes are composed of a number of parts that all work together to help bring your car to a stop. From the disc brakes to drum brakes, brake pedal to hydraulic brake fluids, the brake system is vital to safe car operation. Simply put the brake system works this way: when you step on the brake pedal the brake caliper clamps down on the brake rotor bringing your car to a stop. Typically, in a car with four-wheel disc brakes there are four calibers each clasping a pair of brake pads that work as a friction surface against the rotor. The brake caliper plays an essential part in the brake system since it is the part that literally stops the car. Brake calipers have a sliding mount with a single or duel hydraulic pistons. When the brake pedal is depressed some kind of sandwich effect occurs. This means that upon stepping on the brake pedal the piston is shoved out and this drives the inner brake pad against the inner side of the rotor. The brake caliper then slips inward drawing the brake pad in the outer side of the caliper against the outer surface of the rotor. Some vehicles have fixed calipers with one or two pistons in each side of the caliper. Since the wheel spins at thousands RPM, you can just imagine the stress that it has to take up to stop your wheel. Although most of the heat created from friction is dispersed by the brake disc and the brake pads, it is the brake caliper that has to bear most of the stress.