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A lethal fungus infection is killing Anjili (Artocarpus hirsutus) trees in Southern Kerala. Plant specialists from the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Thrissur, have identified the pathogen as Ganoderma sp. The

A lethal fungus infection is killing Anjili (Artocarpus hirsutus) trees in Southern Kerala. Plant specialists from the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Thrissur, have identified the pathogen as Ganoderma sp. The spread of disease was recently reported in Anjili trees on the Indian Space Research Organisation campus at Valiyamala and the plantations at Pachamala, Bharathannur and Chekkonam forest stations under Palode forest range. Once infected, the trees gradually dry up. The decay sets in at the wood collar, the base part of the wood, which comes into contact with the soil. Anjili is one of the widely found homestead trees of Kerala. The species is also endemic to Western Ghats. This is also one of the indigenous trees which are farmed for its hardwood. “The pathogen causes heart rot and root decay and takes a long time to cause tree mortality and hence the infection would have happened a few years before. The heavy monsoon showers the State received during the present season might have provided a favourable condition for the increased activity of the pathogen and sudden incidence of tree mortality,” said T.V. Sajeev, a scientist at the Institute. The infection, it is feared, would leave a significant economic impact as the timber is widely used for making furniture and construction of boats and body of lorries. The presence of fibre in the wood, which reduces its brittleness, makes it a preferred species for such uses. “The close spacing of the trees in the plantation would have facilitated the spread of the pathogen which happens through soil, water and air. Spores of the pathogen will also remain in the soil keeping live the possibility of spread of disease,” said P. Sujanapal, another scientist who inspected the trees at the plantations. The team that inspected the infected trees included T.K. Hrideek and Mallikarjuna Swamy. “As the infection leads to the degeneration of the wood, the trees will have to be cut down and converted into timber. Once cut, the infected trees would still decay if left at the humid sites. Hence, it is important to season the timber early enough,” said Dr. Sajeev. Many homesteads consider the species as a capital asset tree, which is harvested to meet a big economic demand. It is also considered as an upper stratum tree as the mature tree would grow up to a height of 30 metre. The slow-growing species would take around 50 years to mature. The timber of a fully grown tree would have an average girth (diameter of the wood at chest level) of 2 metre, researchers said. The plant specialists have suggested treating the stump of the tree, which remains in the soil, with Bordeaux mixture. An area of one meter space around the stump should be sprayed with 0.4 per cent Copper oxychloride at the rate of 15 litres per tree.

great gatsby quotes Quotes from Fitzgerald's most famous book by Jenny Lorenz Published in 1925 "The Great Gatsby" is considered to be one of the greatest literary documents of the 1920s. This era was

great gatsby quotes Quotes from Fitzgerald's most famous book by Jenny Lorenz Published in 1925 "The Great Gatsby" is considered to be one of the greatest literary documents of the 1920s. This era was not only marked by economical prosperity and the discussed and often ignored Prohibition law but also by the social phenomenon of compensating the cruel experiences of World War II. As you will already see in these Great Gatsby quotes, Fitzgerald succeeded with his novel to give the reader an impression of the life-style of this weird period which he named "The Jazz Age". Enjoy your lecture of the best Great Gatsby Quotes!

View of the Alboran Sea from inside Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar. |Location||Southeast face of the Rock of Gibraltar, Gibraltar| |Depth||18 metres (59 ft)| Gorham's Cave is a natural sea

View of the Alboran Sea from inside Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar. |Location||Southeast face of the Rock of Gibraltar, Gibraltar| |Depth||18 metres (59 ft)| Gorham's Cave is a natural sea cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals. It is located on the southeast face of the Rock of Gibraltar. When first inhabited, it would have been approximately five kilometres from the shore but, due to changes in sea level, it is now only a few metres from the Mediterranean Sea. The cave is named after Captain A. Gorham of the 2nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers who discovered it in 1907 when opening a fissure at the back of a sea cavern. Capt. Gorham inscribed his name and the date of his discovery in lamp-black on the wall of the cave which has borne his name ever since. After this initial discovery, it seems the cave was forgotten at least at an official level as Gibraltarian historian and potholer George Palao recalls an inscription on the cave wall that read J. J. Davies 1943. Since its discovery, Gorham's Cave has been a site of considerable archaeological interest. A few years later two Royal Engineers, craftsmen Keighley and Ward, were the first to find an archaeological deposit in the cave when the beach leading to Gorham’s Cave (Governor's Beach) became temporarily accessible from the cliffs above via a pile of spoil that resulted from tunnelling inside The Ro

Today's Daily Tip Teaching Yoga for Scoliosis For additional standing poses helpful for scoliosis, consult B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga (Shocken Books, 1971). Utthita Pars

Today's Daily Tip Teaching Yoga for Scoliosis For additional standing poses helpful for scoliosis, consult B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga (Shocken Books, 1971). Utthita Parsvakonasana (Lateral Angle Pose), Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose), Parighasana (Cross Beam of a Gate Pose) are three excellent lateral stretches to do for scoliosis that follow the same guidelines as Trikonasana. Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose), and Parivrtta Parsvakonasana (Revolved Lateral Angle Pose), two twisting standing poses, are highly recommended for intermediate yoga students. Even in a healthy spine, the continual pull of gravity can compress the intervertebral disc and eventually cause nerve damage or disc herniation. In a spine with scoliosis, the problem is even more pronounced. Your student will tend to feel the uneven pressure of gravity constantly but have no understanding of how to create alignment to alleviate it. Inversions create a freedom in her body to experience alignment without the usual distortions caused by gravity. As a result, it is often easier, particularly for students with scoliosis, to feel what alignment is upside down than while standing on the feet. The inversions also develop strength in the back and arms; increase circulation to the vertebrae, brain, and other organs, and encourage lymphatic circulation and venous blood return. Ardha Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Half Handstand). Handstand is generally one of the first inversions students learn. It helps to develop arm and shoulder strength, preparing them for other inversions such as Headstand. By learning to lift up in Handstand, they also learn to lengthen the spine against gravitational force, a movement that is particularly important for those with scoliosis. If your students are new to Handstand and afraid to try it, Ardha Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Half Handstand) is an alternative that can help them build confidence and strength. To warm up, ask your students to do Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose) with their heels at the wall. Have them lift the right leg and extend through the heel with the ball of the foot pressing against the wall. Then ask them to reverse this, bringing the right leg down and lifting the left leg. This movement helps build upper body strength, often lacking in practitioners with scoliosis; it also teaches students to lengthen both sides of the body evenly, despite the distortion in the spine. Have your students rest in Child's Pose. Now ask them to go back into Adho Mukha Svanasana and lift both legs onto the wall, hip-width apart and parallel to one another. The feet should be at hip level, no higher, and the arms, shoulders, and torso should be in a straight line. Have them press actively into the wall with the heels. Ask them to spread the shoulder blades away from each other and draw them away from the ears. Instruct them to press into the inner hands, draw the elbows in and keep the arms straight. If this is difficult, let them use a belt around the arms, just above the elbows.

Do students tell the truth on surveys? Decades of research suggest that self reports of alcohol use are an accurate source of data about drinking. Many surveys have been administered to assess drinking behavior, and studies have examined the validity, reliability, and effectiveness

Do students tell the truth on surveys? Decades of research suggest that self reports of alcohol use are an accurate source of data about drinking. Many surveys have been administered to assess drinking behavior, and studies have examined the validity, reliability, and effectiveness of these surveys. This research has shown that self-reported data on alcohol use are valid. In simple terms, this means that the survey questions regarding alcohol use are accurately measuring the behaviors they are intending to measure. In scientific terms, validity is demonstrated by showing that it is highly correlated with other measures of alcohol con

Mt Tongariro has erupted with a 2km-high ash plume seen in the sky and residents reporting the sulphur is making it harder to breathe. GNS Science confirmed the eruption, at the Te Maari crater, happened shortly after

Mt Tongariro has erupted with a 2km-high ash plume seen in the sky and residents reporting the sulphur is making it harder to breathe. GNS Science confirmed the eruption, at the Te Maari crater, happened shortly after 1.20pm. It lasted for about five minutes. It has updated the alert on Tongariro to 2, meaning there is "minor eruptive activity". The aviation colour code has been lifted to red, meaning there is "significant emission of ash'' into the atmosphere. Send your photos, videos and information to: [email protected] Wellington Airport spokesman Greg Thomas said no flights had been affected yet, however that could change and the situation was being monitored. Up to 90 Napier schoolchildren, two hours into a tramp on the Tongariro track, are safe and well. Two bus drivers from Nimon and Sons, who took the children up to the mountain, had reported back to their base that they could see a plume 2km high, a spokesman said. Conservation Department (DOC) area manager Jonathan Maxwell said 30 to 50 people were being evacuated from the Tongariro Crossing track. No injuries had been reported. State highways in the area had been closed. A national advisory has been issued by Civil Defence saying regions from Waikato down to Hawke's Bay could be affected by as

Voyeurism will reach new heights this week as astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia video the mating behaviour of two pairs of Japanese medaka fish. If the fish succeed in mating in orbit, and produce eggs and fry, scientists will have a

Voyeurism will reach new heights this week as astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia video the mating behaviour of two pairs of Japanese medaka fish. If the fish succeed in mating in orbit, and produce eggs and fry, scientists will have a unique chance to study the role gravity plays in the development of the embryo. Successful mating could also pave the way for further experiments aimed at providing astronauts on long missions with a renewable source of food. The experiment is one of about 80 set up by an international team of scientists to fly in a microgravity laboratory aboard Columbia. In the absence of gravity, many species of fish lose their balance and swim in loops rather than straight lines. This makes mating unlikely, says Victor Schneider, one of the NASA scientists overseeing the programme of biological research. To find fish with some prospects of mating in space,... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

Planet orbits as seen from earth The planets revolve around the sun. The innermost planets go around the fastest History of how this model came about. - Astronomy developed (in many places) from time keeping and prediction - But it

Planet orbits as seen from earth The planets revolve around the sun. The innermost planets go around the fastest History of how this model came about. - Astronomy developed (in many places) from time keeping and prediction - But it is/was more important: it concerns the whole universe and mankind's place in it. - The stars seem relatively simple (although they are not). They seem to be simply light sources fixed to a giant sphere that rotates around the earth once a day. - The sun seems relatively simple too. It seems to be carried around with the stars once a day; and in addition it moves in a circle around the ecliptic once per year. - But the planets are a problem. They don't stay put on the celestial sphere, and their motions are complicated. Davison E. Soper, Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403 USA

Fifty years ago, Thomas Kuhn came up with a philosophy for science that challenged the traditional viewpoint at the time. Fifty years later, his philosophy has captured the hearts and minds of many scientists. Instead of using science philosophies such as “

Fifty years ago, Thomas Kuhn came up with a philosophy for science that challenged the traditional viewpoint at the time. Fifty years later, his philosophy has captured the hearts and minds of many scientists. Instead of using science philosophies such as “empirical falsification” to see if it will stand up to the test of time as highly regarded British philosopher Karl Popper believed, Kuhn on the other hand was an advocate of science being a puzzle to be solved that was conducted by bias researchers with occasional questioning of the paradigm, which may lead to a shift as a result of its complexity. Kuhn’s approach provided the establishment with more control over hindering new ideas of interpreting the data or coming up with new theories.. There is a fundamental difference between operational science and historical science. Historical science is where various worldviews (different biases) can look at the same evidence but come up with different conclusions. And these conclusions are always based mostly on circumstantial evidence! Lyellian geology (which came from James Hutton’s book “Theory of the Earth” ) had a substantial influence on Charles Darwin who read the three-volume series “Principles of Geology” by Charles Lynell. Lyellian geology eventually replaced “flood geology” which was the prevailing viewpoint for a long time that is based from the Bible. Its principle known as “uniformitarianism” postulated that the same natural processes that operate now have always operated in the past along with the same rates, with the same laws. Recently, in Science Magazine, claims of a Mexican crater named Chicxulub being responsible for the dinosaurs demise! This hypothesis flies in the face of prevailing views about gradualism. The prevailing viewpoint in the scientific community 30 years ago was unwilling to consider anything outside its paradigm! A far cry on claiming that scientists are happy to be wrong because there is more to learn! Luis Alvarez whose father proposed the impact hypothesis which claims that is how Dinosaurs went extinct rebuked those who protected the puzzle of gradualism. In Live Science… “The main culprit behind the end of the dinosaurs is now widely accepted to be an extraterrestrial collision of epic proportions, one that left behind the gargantuan crater of Chicxulub at Mexico. Evidence for this theory grows more ironclad over time – yet only 30 years ago it was often thought to be nonsense.“ “It took a long battle to win many scientists over, researchers say. One of those researchers is University of California at Berkeley geologist Walter Alvarez, who recalls the resistance to his team’s claim that such a major change could happen abruptly instead of gradually.” “It flew in the face of the position that geologists and paleontologists at the time had for gradual explanations for everything that happened in the Earth’s past, a position that went by the name of uniformitarianism,” said Walter Alvarez. “The notion that this mass extinction was caused by an impact, or even the notion that there was a sudden mass extinction, raised a lot of dispute at the time, and people strongly challenged the idea.” Catastrophic changes is more in line with flood geology than with gradualism. But what about this dinosaur extinction scenario? Is it plausible because more researchers are accepting it? No! This hypothesis is flawed, for example, scientists used assumption-laden dating and then forced that data into another flawed assumption-laden dating for its conclusion. Then there is the impact itself which leaves a major question mark, if true, an impact like that would have affected other animals and insects as well, not just dinosaurs! The impact wasn’t a smart bomb which is able to limit its destruction to a certain area with a certain effect. So how could this impact at that level of destruction just select the dinosaurs for extinction while not affecting other animals? It’s not logical! The research does suggest, “other f

As a variant of the popular painkiller Percocet, OxyContin is a combination of acetaminophen and thebaine chemically known as oxycodone. While OxyContin’s time-released version of the drug was

As a variant of the popular painkiller Percocet, OxyContin is a combination of acetaminophen and thebaine chemically known as oxycodone. While OxyContin’s time-released version of the drug was aimed at more convenient pain management with fewer necessary doses, the opiate’s powerful narcotic effects when abused have led it to become a street drug in high demand. As tolerance builds and use perpetuates, OxyContin can create an intense addiction with long-term physical and psychological consequences – and one that places prescription drug addicts at a high risk for fatal outcomes. Table of Contents History of OxyContin First created in the early 20th century, oxycodone – the active ingredient in OxyContin – rose to popularity as an alternative to heroin and morphine for providing pain relief. According to the University of Maryland’s Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR), oxycodone was designated as harmful under The United Nation’s Dangerous Drugs Ordinance of 1960, a decision fueled by growing health concerns over OxyContin abuse. Illicit oxycodone use continued to rise across the country amid the drug experimentation and prescription drug abuse of the 1960s. Approved in the United States by the FDA in the mid-1990s, OxyContin was introduced to the market by Purdue Pharma. Due to widespread cases of OxyContin abuse and overdose, the narcotic remains classified as a Schedule II drug in the United States, limiting its production, use and distribution. Street Slang for the Drug According to the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center, some of the most popular street names for OxyContin are “blue,” “kickers” and “Oxycotton.” Frequently called “hillbilly heroin,” for its strong opiate effects and relatively affordable price tag, OxyContin also can be referred to as “killers,” “oxy,” “OCs” or the simple nickname “ox.” Sometimes, particularly during illegal sale, OxyContin can also be called “40” or “80” – references to the milligram content of drug tablets. What Makes OxyContin Addictive? Physical signs of OxyContin addiction may include pulmonary complications such as slowed breathing and chronic respiratory infection (such as bronchitis). Many times, OxyContin addicts will display classic “pinpoint pupils” as their pupils constrict in response to the opiate. According to the Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA),signs of OxyContin can include headaches, flushed or rosy skin, fatigue and weakness, or sedation. Chronic itching is often a side effect of withdrawal from opiates such as OxyContin, accompanied by dry, cracking or broken skin from dehydration and repetitive scratching. Emotionally, OxyContin addicts may experience intense emotional difficulties. Mood swings, depression and anxiety attacks are common, particularly when the OxyContin high subsides. Cognitive abilities may be impaired, attention spans lowered and response time slowed. Memory can also become faulty during periods of OxyContin intoxication, as the drug interferes with the brain’s ability to form new memories, retain information and recall memories on demand. In severe cases, amnesia can even onset due to addiction. Family and friends may notice dependent loved ones experiencing a loss of appetite, chronic insomnia and frequent anxiety attacks. Other indications of addiction can involve environmental cues, such as drug paraphernalia. According to the San Diego Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), OxyContin paraphernalia can include sheets of tinfoil with burn marks on them, lighters, and hollowed out pens or straws — all used for smoking the opiate. Hypodermic needles and metal spoons may indicate OxyContin use, used for “cooking” (liquefying) and injecting the drug. Other common drug paraphernalia associated with OxyContin can include tweezers, razorblades, empty prescription drug bottles and the pills themselves. Long-Term Health Concerns As addiction develops and endures, it places the body at risk for serious health conditions over time. OxyContin’s pharmaceutical makeup – including both the opioid agonist thebaine and complementary acetaminophen content – can take a toll on the body as addiction persists. From impacts on automatic functions regulated by the central nervous system to serious organ damage, OxyContin can cause the following health problems for habitual users. - Increased sensitivity to pain - Slowed respiration and respiratory arrest - Lowered immunity and proneness to infections - Chronic insomnia - Sore muscles - Deep bone pain - Lethargy and fatigue - Chronic tension headaches and migraines - Loss of appetite - Anorexia nervosa - Muscle spasms - Cardiovascular disease risk, including fatal blood clots and stroke - Stomach hemorrhaging - Slowed digestive motility - Proneness to bleeding and bruising - Cavities and gum disease - Slowed, rapid or irregular heartbeat - Low or high blood pressure - Enlarged prostate glands - Liver damage and liver failure - HIV and Hepatitis infection risk due

Fetal ultrasound - 6 months Roll your cursor over each weekly button to see an ultrasound image At 25 weeks, your baby weighs nearly 660g and measures about 35cm from crown to heel. He's beginning to exchange

Fetal ultrasound - 6 months Roll your cursor over each weekly button to see an ultrasound image At 25 weeks, your baby weighs nearly 660g and measures about 35cm from crown to heel. He's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for some baby fat. At 26 weeks, fetal brain scans show response to touch. If you shine a light on your belly, your baby will turn his head, which means his optic nerve is working. Your baby also continues to take small breaths, getting plenty of practice for when he's born. It's all preparation for when he takes that first gulp of air. Your baby is growing fast, and his brain development is intense at this stage. Some experts even believe that babies begin to dream by week 27! By 29 weeks, not only will you be into the third trimester, but your baby will have grown to about 39cm, head to toe. Note: Every baby develops differently. This page is designed to give a general idea of how a fetus grows in the uterus. Questions about our timing? Ultrasound images:Previous month | Back to the main fetal development page | Next month Articles:25 weeks pregnant | 26 weeks pregnant | 27 weeks pregnant | 28 weeks pregnant | 29 weeks pregnant Inginkah anda membaca versi Bahasa? Track your baby’s development Join now to receive free weekly newsletters tracking your baby’s development and yours throughout your pregnancy.

| First graders do yard work at Idlewild Park.| The Country School’s Helping Others, Helping Ourselves program is a community service program that involves all grades in the school. Through our Helping Others, Helping Ourselves initiatives,

| First graders do yard work at Idlewild Park.| The Country School’s Helping Others, Helping Ourselves program is a community service program that involves all grades in the school. Through our Helping Others, Helping Ourselves initiatives, we hope that children will more fully learn the importance of being a part of something bigger than themselves, that a part of individual human responsibility is to help others, and that seemingly small, every day actions matter and can make a tremendous difference. We want children to develop greater empathy, learn about the importance of long-term commitment and follow through, understand that material goods aren’t everything, and that by helping others, we also help ourselves. Our teachers work with our students to discern meaningful projects that work toward these goals. The children take a significant role in shaping each grade level or advisory group’s efforts. Activities are hands-on and ongoing in nature. They build long term relationships with people and organizations in our community, and promote active involvement. Projects evolve over time. Click here for a summary of "HOHO" projects throughout the school, by Lower School grade and Upper School advisory.

Genetic counseling is when patients who are prospective parents seek advice regarding genetic disorders that may be prevalent in their gene pool. Genetic counselors provide information and counseling regarding the probability of the fetus inheriting a genetic disorder, the nature of the disorder and the

Genetic counseling is when patients who are prospective parents seek advice regarding genetic disorders that may be prevalent in their gene pool. Genetic counselors provide information and counseling regarding the probability of the fetus inheriting a genetic disorder, the nature of the disorder and the possible difficulties that may arise if the child is born with the disorder. A genetic... Genetic counseling is when patients who are prospective parents seek advice regarding genetic disorders that may be prevalent in their gene pool. Genetic counselors provide information and counseling regarding the probability of the fetus inheriting a genetic disorder, the nature of the disorder and the possible difficulties that may arise if the child is born with the disorder. A genetic counselor must have a master of science degree and will usually have studied genetics, nursing, psychology, biology, social work and public health. A genetic counselor is simultaneously a scientist and counselor. The job involves explaining hard facts and statistics to prospective parents, a role that requires sensitivity and caution. Counselors analyze the genetic history of the patients, predict the probability of the fetus inheriting any disorders and advise the patients regarding the risks and consequences of the specific disorder. Patients tend to seek out genetic counselors when they plan to conceive or are already aware of genetic disorders in the family. A woman already pregnant will often go through prenatal testing in order to learn whether or not the fetus is at risk. If she discovers there is a possibility for genetic disorder or the fetus shows signs of one, she may seek out a genetic counselor for further information and advice. The parents may decide to continue with the pregnancy or terminate it. Some prospective parents prefer not to be tested at all so as not to be forced to make a difficult choice. In the event of the onset of a disease later on in life, patients may refer to a genetic counselor for information and advice. At times, testing can reveal conditions that are easily treatable and preventable. There are two types of tests: diagnostic tests and screening procedures. Diagnostic testing involves invasive procedures such as chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis. Both are extremely effective in detecting chromosomal disorders, but CVS does not detect neural tube defects. These tests may increase the chance of a miscarriage, so they must be performed by an experienced doctor. Screening procedures are routine procedures every pregnant woman receives, such blood testing and ultrasound scans. Genetic disorders that can be detected during pregnancy include: Down syndrome, Tay-Sachs disease, spina bifida, some types of mental retardation, muscular dystrophy and sickle cell anemia. Some diseases are only passed on if both parents carry the gene, such as cystic fibrosis. Others, like Huntington's disease, pass down through only one parent. If any of these disorders is detected early on in the pregnancy, the parents have the option of referring to a genetic counselor. Not only does a genetic counselor provide objective information, but may also inform the parent as to what services are available for a child with disabilities, the potential growth and development of the disabled child and possible employment opportunities and general quality of life. Abortion in the case of findings of disease is often considered a medical necessity. The rate of pregnancy termination depends on the type of disability de

Chapter V.—Kronos and Rhea Explained. “Now you must think of Kronos as time (chronos), and Rhea as the flowing (rheon) of the watery substance. 1064 For the whole

Chapter V.—Kronos and Rhea Explained. “Now you must think of Kronos as time (chronos), and Rhea as the flowing (rheon) of the watery substance. 1064 For the whole body of matter was borne about for some Time, before it brought forth, like an egg, the sphere-like, all-embracing heaven (ouranos), which at first was full of productive marrow, so that it was able to produce out of itself elements and colours of all sorts, while from the one substance and the one colour it produced all kinds of forms. For as a peacocks egg seems to have only one colour, while potentially it has in it all the colours of the animal that is to be, so this living egg, conceived out of infinite matter, when set in motion by the underlying and ever-flowing matter, produces many different forms. For within the circumference a certain living creature, which is both male and female, is formed by the skill of the indwelling divine spirit. This Orpheus calls Phanes, because when it appeared (phaneis) the universe shone forth from it, with the lustre of that most glorious of the elements, fire, perfected in moisture. Nor is this incredible, since in glowworms nature gives us to see a moist light. [Comp. Recognitions, x. 17, 31, 32.—R.]

This article from the Chicago Tribune on fire retardants has everything, from regulations that benefit a small industry group to tort lawyers effectively forcing the propagation of a bad standard to playing the race card and the "for the children" card in policy debates.

This article from the Chicago Tribune on fire retardants has everything, from regulations that benefit a small industry group to tort lawyers effectively forcing the propagation of a bad standard to playing the race card and the "for the children" card in policy debates. Here is a bit of history I did not know: These chemicals are ubiquitous not because federal rules demand it. In fact, scientists at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have determined that the flame retardants in household furniture aren't effective, and some pose unnecessary health risks. The chemicals are widely used because of an obscure rule adopted by California regulators in 1975. Back then, a state chemist devised an easy-to-replicate burn test that didn't require manufacturers to set furniture on fire, an expensive proposition. The test calls for exposing raw foam to a candle-like flame for 12 seconds. The cheapest way to pass the test is to add flame retardants to the foam inside cushions. But couches aren't made of foam alone. In a real fire, the upholstery fabric, typically not treated with flame retardants, burns first, and the flames grow big enough that they overwhelm even fire-retardant foam, scientists at two federal agencies have found. Nevertheless, in the decades since that rule went into effect, lawyers have regularly argued that their burn-victim clients would have been spared if only their sofas had been made with California foam. Faced with the specter of these lawsuits — and the logistical challenge of producing separate products just for California — many manufacturers began using flame retardant foam across their product lines. The "if only the manufacturer had used technology X, little Sarah would not be dead" argument should be very familiar to readers of Walter Olson's blog. Part II of the story argues that the Tobacco industry helped reinforce this story to shift the blame for fires started by cigarettes to the furniture (can't any of this be, you know, the person's fault who dropped burning items onto flammable items?) It also, by the way, has plenty of elements of environmental panic in it. For example: "When we're eating organic, we're avoiding very small amounts of pesticides," said Arlene Blum, a California chemist who has fought to limit flame retardants in household products. "Then we sit on our couch that can contain a pound of chemicals that's from the same family as banned pesticides like DDT." I am open to believing that flame retardant chemicals pose some harm to humans, though one must posit some way for them to get out of the foam and into people for it to be harmful (just existing nearby is not enough). Further, being from the "same family" as another chemical is meaningless, particularly as compared to DDT which was banned for suspected thinning of bird eggs and not for demonstrated harm to humans. I finally read through all four parts of the story, and its interesting to compare the approaches to science. The authors make a really good case that the science of flame retardants effectiveness is deeply flawed and that lobbying pressure and actions in tort cases have led to their expanded use rather than any particular benefit. But the authors' scientific standards change wildly when it comes to their own side's science (I write it this way because the authors clearly have a horse in the race here, they want these chemicals banned). I kept waiting for their bombshell study that these chemicals posed a danger, but we never get it. All we get is the typical journalistic scare quotes about trace quantities of these chemicals being found in house dust and in certain animals. OK, but with improving detection technology, we are constantly finding traces of chemicals at tiny levels we did not know were there before. How much risk do they pose? We never find out. It would be nice to know. I'm convinced I would rather not have this crap in my couch, but there has to be a better standard for legislation than this. Ironically, the whole point of their story is to highlight regulation pushed by small groups based on bad science, and their response is to... mobilize a group to push different legislation based on bad science. There is a heck of a lot of "OK for me but not for thee" here. Here is what is really going to happen: After years of being stampeded by tort lawyers into putting these chemicals into furniture as a defense against "you should have..." lawsuits based on bad science, these same furniture makers are now going to be sued by people claiming the chemicals make them sick based on bad science. And yet another industry will find itself in a sued-if-you-do-sued-if-you-don't trap. The one group never interviewed in all four parts were furniture makers. It would have been fascinating to get an honest interview out of them. I am sure they would say something like "legislatures just need to tell us what they freaking want, chemicals in or out, and then shield us in the courtroom when we follow the law." Update: The updates to the story are classic. After describing how the race card was abused in what should

Melanie Haiken, Contributor I'm insatiably curious about how to stay healthy & where to go next. Would you add chickpeas to your soup and celery to your salad if you knew they might sharpen your thinking and prevent age

Melanie Haiken, Contributor I'm insatiably curious about how to stay healthy & where to go next. Would you add chickpeas to your soup and celery to your salad if you knew they might sharpen your thinking and prevent age-related memory loss? That’s the premise behind this list of foods rich in compounds that nourish neurons, boost neurotransmitter production, reduce inflammation, and protect against neural degeneration. Turmeric, the spice that gives curry and mustard their yellow color, contains a chemical called curcumin that’s the subject of numerous neurologic studies right now. Research has shown curcumin’s ability to boost memory, slow the progression of Alzheimer’s and stimulate neurogenesis, which is the process of creating new brain cells. Studies suggest curcumin may also clear out amyloid plaques, the brain gunk thought to be a cause of Alzheimer’s, and calm inflammation of brain and nerve cells. In 2010, an intriguing study came out linking the plant compound luteolin with lower rates of age-related memory loss. The reason: Luteolin appears to calm inflammation in the brain, which experts now believe to be primary cause of neurodegeneration. By inhibiting the action of inflammatory cytokines, luteolin seems to prevent a cycle of degenerative changes in the brain. Celery is one of the richest sources of luteolin; other good sources include peppers and carrots. 3. Broccoli and Cauliflower For some time, researchers have been investigating the role of choline in brain development, looking at whether choline has the potential to spur the growth of new brain cells and neural connections. Studies have shown that prenatal choline supplementation appears to boost later intelligence while choline deficiency has been linked with neural tube defects. In adults, choline keeps neurotransmitters healthy, keeping you sharp and your memory strong. Remember wheat germ? One cup has 202 mg of choline; beef liver is the best dietary source of choline with 473 mg in a five-ounce serving. Much easier to incorporate brocoli and cauliflower, with 182 and 177 mg, respectively. Added value: Broccoli is also high in vitamin K, studied for its effect in boosting cognition. Scientists don’t know exactly how omega-3 fatty acids exert such a protective effect on the brain, but research suggests they boost the function of neurotransmitters. One study found that seniors whose blood contained high levels of omega-3 fatty acds, particularly DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) had the greatest brain volume and also tested highest on a set of memory and cognitive skills. Omega-3s are heart-healthy too, helping keep arteries clear and blood flow strong, and good circulation benefits the brain as well. While salmon is one of the best known and richest source of omega 3s, it’s also not a food you want to eat every day due to the mercury content. But you can make walnuts a daily habit, sprinkling a handful on a salad or eating them as an afternoon snack. Walnuts also contain memory-protective vitamin B6 (see below). You don’t see crab on many power food lists, do you? But you should. One serving of crab has 1840 mg (more than your entire daily requirement) of phenylalanine, an amino acid needed to make the important neurotransmitter dopamine, as well as brain-stimulating adrenaline and noradrenaline and thyroid hormone. Many types of fish and seafood are rich in phenylalanine, but I’m singling crab out because it’s easy to find and it’s less likely to be high in mercury, an issue with tuna and other popular fish. Research also suggests phenylalanine may be helpful in combating Parkinson’s disease. Added value: Crab is also one of the best dietary sources of vitamin B12 (see below) with one serving providing 192 percent of your daily requirement. 6. Chickpeas or Garbanzo Beans It’s not easy to find good food sources of magnesium, a mineral that plays a key role in energy metabolism. But it’s important – magnesium is highly beneficial for brain cell receptors, speeding message transmission. Magnesium also relaxes blood vessels, letting more blood through to feed the brain. But studies show that our American diet is magnesium poor, and most adults average only 66 percent of the recommended requirement of magnesium. Meanwhile, stress has been shown to leach magnesium from the body. So where to find this scarce mineral? Answer: in strange places. For example, the most potent magnesium source is kelp, with 780 mg of magnesium in a serving. But since kelp probably isn’t on your dinner menu, build a meal around chickpeas instead, which contain 220 mg of magnesium in a one-cup serving.

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition - n. The back part of the head or skull. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License - n. The back part of

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition - n. The back part of the head or skull. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License - n. The back part of the head or skull (contradistinct from sinciput). from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English - n. The back, or posterior, part of the head or skull; the region of the occipital bone. - n. A plate which forms the back part of the head of insects. from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - n. In man, the hinder part of the head, or that part of the skull which forms the hind part of the head; the hindhead; the posterior part of the calvarium, from the middle of the vertex to the foramen magnum: opposed to sinciput. - n. In other vertebrates, a corresponding but varying part of the head or skull: as, in most mammals, only that part corresponding to the supraoccipital bone itself, or from the occipital protuberance to the foramen magnum. - n. In descriptive ornith., a frequent term for the part of the head which slopes up from nucha to vertex. See diagram under bird. - n. In herpetology, the generally flat back part of the top of the head, as where, in a snake for example, the occipital plates are situated. - n. In entomology, that part of the head behind the epicranium, belonging to the labial or second maxillary segment, and articulating with the thorax. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. - n. back part of the head or skull Middle English, from Latin occiput, occipit- : ob-, against; see ob- + caput, head; see kaput- in Indo-European roots.(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) From Latin occiput, occipitium ("the back part of the head"), from ob ("over against") + caput ("head"). Compare sinciput. (Wiktionary)

Published by the American Geological Institute Newsmagazine of the Earth Sciences In the past decade, electronic communication changed the way scientists do business. Beginning with e-mail and continuing with the creation of the Web, scientists are busily

Published by the American Geological Institute Newsmagazine of the Earth Sciences In the past decade, electronic communication changed the way scientists do business. Beginning with e-mail and continuing with the creation of the Web, scientists are busily exploring the possibilities, strengths and weaknesses of electronic communication. Quite simply, electronic communication has created possibilities that didnít exist ten years ago. This change is at the heart of the feature articles in this issue of Geotimes. Judy Holoviak of the American Geophysical Union discusses the impact of electronic communication on scientific publishing. With electronic journals, scientists can disseminate their research faster and easier. E-journals let authors include data, color figures and other information expensive to print, and they allow the use of other media, such as video, that isnít possible with hard copy. Even so, electronic journals havenít been well received in the earth sciences ó partly because of concerns about their acceptability for university promotion and tenure and partly because of concerns about archiving. Will this information be available, in a form we can get to, 100 years from now? Tim Carr of the Kansas Geological Survey discusses the effect of electronics on doing research. Computers and the Internet allow scientists to compile, analyze and exchange mountains of data in ways not possible before. Tim points out that the Internet also lets researchers collaborate in new ways, and enables them to cut across disciplines. One additional, perhaps unintended consequence of this change is that far more data is now available to the public. This change affects everybody, especially educators. And the implication of electronic communication for educators is the topic of John Butlerís article. John was quick to use e-mail to communicate with his students at the University of Houston. That action dramatically altered the way he and his students interact, affecting the way students learn and, perhaps, what they learn. Today, distance learning ó or taking entire courses over the Internet ó is a major topic on college campuses, raising questions about the ownership of course material, the effectiveness of virtual field trips, and the role of face-to-face interaction between teachers and students. The impact of these moves into electronic communication are enormous. Libraries offer an example. The research behavior of my 15-year-old son constantly reminds me of one thing: if it ainít digital, it ainít. Libraries have to offer electronic journals and databases, and must find ways of digitizing photographs, manuscripts, maps and other records so that researchers no longer have to travel to the library to use them. At the same time, librarians have to continue to acquire, catalogue, store and loan much of the hard-copy information theyíve traditionally handled. None of us know w

Here is the third instalment in our series of blogs all about prions! This is in preparation for our upcoming Science Live event on Oct 22nd at 1:50 pm NZ time when you can accompany us into the lab via live

Here is the third instalment in our series of blogs all about prions! This is in preparation for our upcoming Science Live event on Oct 22nd at 1:50 pm NZ time when you can accompany us into the lab via live streaming (a permanent link to the YouTube video can be found below). For more details please see: http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/allevents/Pages/ScienceLiveWhalebirds.aspx Today’s blog was written by Dr. Ricardo Palma, one of our Invertebrates Curators here at Te Papa. He is a world-renowned specialist of lice. Lice are wingless insects adapted to live as permanent parasites on birds and mammals. Those on birds are called “feather lice” because they not only live among feathers but, also, feed on them. All seabirds have an assortment of different lice living on them, and prions are no exception. All the species of prions are parasitised by the same species of lice, a fact that indicates the very close evolutionary relationships of the hosts. In total, there are 5 species (in 5 genera) of lice living on prions, and each one has evolved different ecological adaptations. The scientific and vernacular English names of the 5 species of prion lice are: Ancistrona vagelli (J.C. Fabricius, 1787) – “giant body louse” Austromenopon stammeri Timmermann, 1963 – “small body louse” Longimenopon sp. – “feather-shaft louse” Naubates prioni (Enderlein, 1908) – “wing louse” Saemundssonia desolata Timmermann, 1959 – “head & neck louse” As their vernacular names indicate, each species lives in different parts of the host plumage. Lice have developed diverse morphological and behavioural adaptations – strong claws and jaws to cling onto feathers, diverse body shapes to hide, ability to run, etc. – to survive on the host and avoid being dislodged into oblivion by the cleaning activities performed by the birds, such as preening, bathing, dusting and sunning. Thus, both species of prion body lice – which live primarily close or on the skin of the birds – have round bodies and long legs adapted to run fast, allowing them to escape from being eaten or dislodged by the prion bill while preening or bathing. Prion shaft lice are sausage-shaped and able to drill a hole on the soft shaft of growing primary tail feathers (called rectrices) and feed on the pith and blood inside them. As the feather grows and dries up, the holes of different rectrices form a straight line across the tail. These lice also lay eggs, moult their skin and defecate inside the feather shafts. By the time the feather is lost during moulting, its shaft is completely full of lousy debris. Wing lice are long, narrow and flat, so that they find suitable protection between the barbs of wing feathers to avoid being dislodged by the host bill while preening. Head & neck lice are flat, round and short. They have very large triangular heads with powerful muscles to operate their jaws, which they used to attach themselves firmly onto the feather barbs and survive the bird’s scratching and other cleaning activities. In summary, there is a kind of eternal “arms race” going on between hosts and all their lice: the former always trying to get rid of them, the latter always trying to hang onto the host. Ricardo L. Palma The video of the Oct 22 Science Live event can be watched by clicking below.

(China 1757 – 1808) 126.8 x 30.2cm each: a - right scroll; 126.8 x 30.2 cm b - left scroll; 126.8 x 30

(China 1757 – 1808) 126.8 x 30.2cm each: a - right scroll; 126.8 x 30.2 cm b - left scroll; 126.8 x 30.2 cm ‘In a mundane world, with the orchid the pure spirit reaches the extreme; And the modest mind of a worthy person resembles the bamboo.’ Inscription and signature: For the appraisal of Mr Danting; written by Huang Danshu. In traditional Chinese culture, numerous features of nature symbolised human moral qualities. The orchid was prized primarily for its delicacy. Its fragrance was thought to be ethereal, yet so pervasive as to ‘steal into one’s sleeves’ almost unnoticed, thus symbolising the exemplary character of the superior gentleman. Bamboo has a hollow interior, which suggests an unassuming, open mind. Apparently this couplet was a gift extolling the high moral character of the recipient. It is uncertain whether or not Huang himself composed the couplet. It was included in ‘Yinglian yehua’ (Remarks on selected couplets), compiled in 1840 by Liang Zhangju (1775–1849), and in ‘Zhizu zai ji xiexu yingqie’ (An assembly of calligraphy and couplets by the Zhizu Studio) by Zheng Kaixi (who gained the ‘jinshi’ in 1814). Huang Danshu (alias Tingshou, style name Xuzhou) was a native of Shunde, Guangdong province. He gained the provincial ‘juren’ degree in 1795, but failed in the metropolitan ‘jinshi’ examination. He was appointed an educational administrative position at Kaiping County in Guangdong and later became the administrator of the famous Yuxiu Academy in Guangzhou. Huang was admired in that region for his ‘sanjue’ (the Three Perfections), in poetry, calligraphy and painting. Having published three anthologies of poetry, he was honoured, along with three other scholars, as one of the Four Masters of the Lingnan (Guangdong) region. Huang is best known for his ‘caoshu’ (cursive style) and ‘lishu’ (clerical style) calligraphy. Yet what is demonstrated in this couplet is running script, which is written elegantly, reflecting early Qing taste which favoured the running and cursive scripts of the past masters. During the Jiaqing reign (r1796–1820), a new trend in calligraphy emerged, in which the seal and clerical scripts were emphasised because of the enthusiasm in ancient stele inscriptions, yet the preference for running and cursive scripts pers

Millions of tons of tiny bits of plastic float in giant patches — or gyres — in oceans around the world. There are five large patches of plastic. One of them, the North Pacific Gyre, is roughly twice the size of the

Millions of tons of tiny bits of plastic float in giant patches — or gyres — in oceans around the world. There are five large patches of plastic. One of them, the North Pacific Gyre, is roughly twice the size of the United States. All of them are a problem. These bits of plastic look like food to fish and birds and once consumed, end up killing these animals. 4 Recent Stories Are you busy preparing for Earth Day this Sunday? Are you worried that you'll end up being a slacktivist when it comes to saving the planet? Don't fret -- there's plenty you can do to make a real difference, even if it's only from your computer or mobile device. Check out the following ways you can use digital channels to get involved this year. 1. While Facebook may be the social media platform to beat, there’s an even more powerful social networking force that promises to be in all American homes one day. A growing number of startups are applying the principles of social networking to home energy management, and bringing social media to the smart grid. In the process, they are revolutionizing people’s understanding of their energy use, building successful companies and helping to lessen the impact of each individual on the environment. In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we thought it fitting to compile a list of free green-inspired iPhone apps that promote continued environmental awareness. Although incredible progress has been made in this movement over the past few decades, the fate of the environment still hinges on immediate action from all of us.

Agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits. It has been practiced in the United States and around the world for centuries. The USDA Agrofore

Agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits. It has been practiced in the United States and around the world for centuries. The USDA Agroforestry Factsheet (PDF, 1.8MB) provides more information about agroforestry and its future. For a management practice to be called agroforestry, it typically must satisfy the four "i"s: - Integrated, and There are five widely recognized categories of agroforestry in the United States: Agroforestry Farming Systems Silvopasture combines trees with livestock and their forages on one piece of land. The trees provide timber, fruit, or nuts as well as shade

OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education: SWEDEN - Stockholm – 7 December 2011 by OECD Education on Dec 09, 2011 - 1,259 views Deborah Nusche... Education

OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education: SWEDEN - Stockholm – 7 December 2011 by OECD Education on Dec 09, 2011 - 1,259 views Deborah Nusche... Education and Training Policy Division OECD Directorate for Education The OECD Review on Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes, launched in late 2009, is designed to respond to the strong interest in evaluation and assessment issues evident at national and international levels. It will provide a description of design, implementation and use of assessment and evaluation procedures in countries; analyse strengths and weaknesses of different approaches; and provide recommendations for improvement. The Review looks at the various components of assessment and evaluation frameworks that countries use with the objective of improving student outcomes. These include student assessment, teacher appraisal, school evaluation and system evaluation. The analysis focuses on primary and secondary levels of education. - Total Views - Views on SlideShare - Embed Views

A Sustainable Hope Africa is the continent Westerners most misunderstand. An experience my classmate, who was born in Zimbabwe, had a couple years ago here in LA sums up the knowledge many Americans share about this continent. While the local cable guy

A Sustainable Hope Africa is the continent Westerners most misunderstand. An experience my classmate, who was born in Zimbabwe, had a couple years ago here in LA sums up the knowledge many Americans share about this continent. While the local cable guy (who was black) wired up her apartment, he asked her where she was from, and she said, "Africa," and his response was... "Where's that?" It's a shame; though I've never been to Africa, over the years I've had friends from countries including Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. They told me stories about warm, generous people with deep family values; incredible topography; a respect and thirst for education; and a sophisticated way of thinking that doesn't get filtered through a 24 hours news cycle and educational cable TV shows. And yes, Africa does have its challenges: international borders that don't respect the lands of various ethnic groups; corruption from the chief executive down to the lowliest bureaucrat; the ravages of HIV/AIDS; and lack of reliable foreign investment. One issue endemic through Africa is the lack of reliable sources of energy. Many Africans are relegated to using charcoal, which creates several festering problems: increased deforestation coupled with air pollution; making the hard choice between buying food or fuel; and parents, mostly mothers, spending less time with their families and risking physical danger as they trek farther and farther to find sources of wood. Fuel shortages are particularly acute in Darfur, where refugees confront these challenges with even greater severity. Women foraging for wood risk the danger of getting raped and murdered. Meanwhile the time spent looking for wood is less time finding any economic opportunity. So in a place where people are least thinking about “sustainability,” such a solution is critical to their survival. No solar panels here: these refugees have got to get by with the fuel sources at hand. Recently, several NGOs, including the Technology Innovation for Sustainable Societies (TISS) and CHF International, have paired up to create the Darfur Stoves Project. Leveraging the skills of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory engineers, the Darfur Stoves Project came up with a stove design that succeeds at many levels. The stove burns wood far more efficiently, the danger of housing structures catching fire is eliminated, there's less danger of smoke inhalation, and women are free to pursue opportunities to build income for their families. Meanwhile, men are learning metalworking skills that they can hopefully take with them once they are resettled away from their current hell. This one small project is one of many at a micro level that goes beyond humanitarian aid for as suffering people; it’s an effort to establish a livelihood that ensures economic survival while healing their land at the same time. 0 comments on “A Sustainable Hope” Pingback: State Department and Clinton Initiative Team for Cleaner, Safer Cookstoves

A historian who lived the kind of history he wrote, Francis Parkman is a major—and controversial—figure in American historiography. His narrative style, while popular with readers wanting a "good story," has raised many questions with professional historians.

A historian who lived the kind of history he wrote, Francis Parkman is a major—and controversial—figure in American historiography. His narrative style, while popular with readers wanting a "good story," has raised many questions with professional historians. Was Parkman writing history or historical fiction? Did he color historical figures with his own heroic self-image? Was his objectivity compromised by his "unbending, conservative, Brahmin" values? These are some of the many issues that Wilbur Jacobs treats in this thought-provoking study. Jacobs carefully considers the "apprenticeship" of Francis Parkman, first spent in facing the rigors of the Oregon Trail and later in struggling to write his histories despite a mysterious, frequently incapacitating illness. He shows how these events allowed Parkman to create a heroic self-image, which impelled his desire for fame as a historian and influenced his treatment of both the "noble" and the "savage" characters of his histories. In addition to assessing the influence of Parkman's development and personality on his histories, Jacobs comments on Parkman's relationship to basic social and cultural issues of the nineteenth century. These include the slavery question, Native American issues, expansion of the suffrage to new groups, including women, and anti-Catholicism. “... an important contribution because [Jacobs] deals with hotly debated issues about the role and place of Francis Parkman within the field of American history.” —Joseph C. Porter, Curator of Western American History and Ethnology, Center for Western Studies, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha

|One of the goals of Geography Week is to assist us in becoming more aware of our global community and global interdependence. This got me to thinking about Arkansans. When the territory and state were new, there were no Arkansans

|One of the goals of Geography Week is to assist us in becoming more aware of our global community and global interdependence. This got me to thinking about Arkansans. When the territory and state were new, there were no Arkansans except by emigration and immigration. Where did everyone come from to form Washington? How closely connected were those early residents by reason of their neighbors to the global community and its influences. I decided to take a look through the 1860 United States census to get an idea of where the people who lived here came from. Here is what I found. States people moved here from - Alabama, Maine, Vermont, South Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, and Michigan. Countries people moved here from - England, Russia, Ireland, Norway, and Germany. This list reflects only part of the story because people like Abraham Block moved here from another state, but were born in another country. In his case, he was born in Bohemia. All of these people brought with them skills and life ways which contributed to the community. Washington was just a microcosm of Arkansas. We have been a diverse and rich global community right from the start. Oh, stop by and check out International Education Week while you are out scrolling around. Out of the Park Programming Kirby School District contacted Historic Washington State Park to see if they could have assistance with a project they are working on. The school as a whole is incorporating extra learning opportunities using the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. Jeannie York, School Librarian, requested historic games that might have been played by a young Laura and her contemporaries.Leita Spears, park historian, Kerry Spears, park volunteer, and Patricia Thomas, park sales director, prepared a program and went to Kirby on November 7, 2012 to help all classes - kindergarten through 12th grade- learn and have fun for the day. Students saw a demonstration on throwing tops and learned about their place in history as one of the oldest toys on earth. Then, they all got a chance to play hoops and sticks, graces, and marbles. Librarian Jeannie York had this to say after the program, "Thank you so much.. for you and Kerry coming and spending the day teaching our students. They had such a fun time and so did I." We had a great time too because the students were cooperative and eager to participate. See for yourself by looking through our online album. Bird Watchers Unite! Or drop by Historic Washington State Park and do a little birding in some of our great protective areas. Behind many of our historic structures and surrounding the Pioneer Cemetery are natural areas perfect for bird habitat. This makes a

More Lakeshore Houses Can Mean Smaller Fish People love living on lakes, but they may be damaging the ecosystems they treasure. Compared to lakes with no residential development, lakes with many houses along the shoreline have bluegill sunfish that

More Lakeshore Houses Can Mean Smaller Fish People love living on lakes, but they may be damaging the ecosystems they treasure. Compared to lakes with no residential development, lakes with many houses along the shoreline have bluegill sunfish that grow more slowly and are smaller for their age, according to new research presented in the May/June issue of Ecosystems. This work is the first study of how lakeshore development affects the growth rates of fish in those lakes and was done by Daniel Schindler of the University of Washington in Seattle and co-authors. To determine if lakeshore development affects the growth of fish, Schindler and his colleagues surveyed bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus, a fish common throughout the contiguous U.S.) in 14 lakes in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Three of the lakes had no development, seven had low-density residential development, and four had high-density residential development (nearly all of the shoreline was developed). Residential development in watersheds can increase the nutrient levels in lakes and can decrease the number of dead trees in nearshore waters. Dead trees are critical fish habitat, providing foraging grounds and refuge from predators. The researchers had noted that people remove trees from lakes, presumably to improve both the view of and access to the lake. Schindler and his colleagues found that as lakeshore residential development increased, bluegill growth rates decreased. The average annual bluegill growth rate in heavily developed lakes was only about 40% of that in undeveloped lakes. The researchers also found that as residential development increased, bluegill populations had increased numbers of older fish, suggesting that the adverse effects of lakeshore development might be greater for young fish than for adults. These findings suggest that extensive lakeshore development can reduce a lake’s capacity to maintain fish populations. Schindler and his colleagues urge lake and land managers to develop proactive plans that protect a lake’s nearshore and riparian habitats. Schindler’s co-authors are Sean Geib of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Monica Williams of the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore in Princess Anne. Schindler, D.E., S.I. Geib, and M.R. Williams. 2000. Patterns of fish growth along a residential development gradient in north temperate lakes. Ecosystems 3:229-237. Daniel E. Schindler

do (province), southeastern North Korea, facing the Sea of Japan (East Sea). The province consists of the small northern part of the former Kangwon Province, which was divided by the 38th parallel in 1945 and, after the

do (province), southeastern North Korea, facing the Sea of Japan (East Sea). The province consists of the small northern part of the former Kangwon Province, which was divided by the 38th parallel in 1945 and, after the armistice following the Korean War (1953), by the truce line. In 1945 Wonsan city and two counties from Hamgyong-namdo (South Hamgyong Province) were included as part of Kangwon-do. Most of the province's area of 4,100 sq mi (10,600 sq km) is in the northern end of the T'aebaek-sanmaek (mountains), where Kumgang-san (mountain; 5,374 ft [1,638 m]) has been known since antiquity as one of the most picturesque places in the Far East. It has fantastic rocks and peaks (12,000 have been counted), precipices and stone pillars formed by erosion, deep ponds and waterfalls, a variety of thick broadleaf and needle-leaf trees, and more than 100 old temples, including the Changan-sa, Maha-yon, and Sin'gye-sa temples. Agriculture has developed since the war, and products include grains and fruits, especially persimmons. Fishing has also become important. There are abundant reserves of such underground resources as lead, zinc, gold, silver, nickel, manganese, anthracite coal, and brown coal. Industries, including shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, refining, and cement manufacturing, are concentrated around Wonsan, the provincial capital. Pop. (1987 est.) 1,227,000. Learn more about Kangwon with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Revision as of 13:08, 1 July 2008 by Cms13ca The books in this section are not books about evolution per se. These books offer introductions into basic science which are necessary to various subjects of evolution

Revision as of 13:08, 1 July 2008 by Cms13ca The books in this section are not books about evolution per se. These books offer introductions into basic science which are necessary to various subjects of evolution. Also, these books may be used for reference. - Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts and Peter Walter: Essential Cell Biology : An Introduction to the Molecular Biology of the Cell, ISBN 0815320450 - Friedrich G. Barth Insects and Flowers : The Biology of a Partnership, ISBN 0691025231 - Contains a chapter on the Coevolution of Flowers and its pollinating insects. Also covered is the evolution of the language of bees. - Extremely popular in creationist circles, Darwin's Black Box lays out the case for irreducible complexity. - Gish's classic attack on some well know transitional fossils. - A short piece intended to help creationists witness. Light on content, heavy on polemics. - His most popular work, Johnson critiques science as excluding supernatural accounts of creation a priori. - A classic of the modern YEC movement. - William Paley, Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity online copy - The original Intelligent Design book. - A response by Sarfati to the NAS's "Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science". - A highly biased "rhetorical history" of the so-called intelligent design movement. About The Debate - Miller takes on the arguments of Behe and others, and attempts to reconcile evolution with his Christian faith. - Dorthy Nelkin, The Creation Controversy ( ASIN 0807031550 ) - A sociologist of science, Nelkin looks at creationism in public education, focusing on major court battles. - A convincing critique of intelligent design arguments, focusing primarily on the work of Phillip Johnson. - A rhetorical analysis of arguments used by both creationists and evolutionists, and a discussion of their common features. A detailed analysis of Creationist pamphlets and texts. - While examining the conflict between science and religion, this book dispels the myths and superstitions that have long been used as an excuse for political and religious extremism. - Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of the US government's increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.

Painful menstruation is difficult to treat, not because the disorder will not yield to therapy, but because women have about the worst record of noncompliance to medical counsel with this disorder that with any other. The reason for noncompliance

Painful menstruation is difficult to treat, not because the disorder will not yield to therapy, but because women have about the worst record of noncompliance to medical counsel with this disorder that with any other. The reason for noncompliance will become obvious as the causes of dysmenorrhea are discussed. One important cause of dysmenorrhea is that of wearing improper clothing. Tight bands around the waist, hips, or thighs impede the circulation to the pelvic organs and increase the likelihood of painful menstruation. Also, the clothing of the extremities must be proper. There should not be one inch of chilled skin on the extremities any time during the month, not only during the menstrual period itself. The extremities should be covered with as many layers of clothing as is the trunk. To fail to do so is to cause the circulation to be imbalanced, and increases the likelihood of pelvic congestion and painful menstruation. Most American women do not get sufficient exercise; this fact is second only to improper clothing in the causation of dysmenorrhea. A study showed that 75% of a group of 5,000 junior high school girls were either cured or had definite improvement of menstrual discomfort with simple bending and stretching exercises. The first exercise was stretching, done by touching the fingers to the ankles with the knees held straight. The second exercise was thrusting the leg backward as the arms were swung high over the head. These two exercises performed 4-10 times daily, four times weekly for several weeks resulted in a 75% improvement rate. In our experience, one hour of useful vigorous labor out-of-doors daily has been more effective in curing dysmenorrhea than have calisthenics. Posture is also important as a cure for painful menstruation, as reported in Archives of Surgery 46:611-613, May, 1943. The contracted ligaments give rise to compression of the nerves which increases the symptoms of painful menstruation. Dietary measures can be of great benefit, particularly since many of the things that irritate the gastrointestinal tract reflexively irritate the genitourinary tract. All irritants in the gastrointestinal tract such as spices, alcohol, aspirin, other drugs, hot pepper, vinegar, overeating, failure to chew properly, and any other matter known to irritate the gastrointestinal tract should be eliminated. Constipation should be corrected, particularly just prior to the onset of the menstrual period. Rest and regularity are mandatory for the sufferer from dysmenorrhea. After the age of 20, eight hours of sleep or bed rest daily should be obtained. From childhood a pattern of regular bedtime and rising time without weekend or seasonal variation is the ideal order of life. Such a person rarely has difficulty with relaxing or sleeping. Regularity in all things is essential. At least one bowel movement daily is ideal, two or more bowel movements being preferred. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are helpful in maintaining good bowel health. The avoidance of oil is advisable, particularly, since oil tends to cause red blood cell clumping, creating circulatory problems through the rich meshwork of tiny capillaries found in the reproductive organs. Fats also alter the platelet function of the blood, causing clotting of the blood to be improper, a condition which may lead to painful menstruation. One should develop a good emotional outlook. A mature, vigorous, and healthy adult should be able to cope with any problems that are presented to her during a 24-hour day. With Divine aid and sympathetic understand of family and friends, the individual should have the emotional equilibrium to cope with all of life's trials. When the painful menstruation occurs, a "hot half bath" in a bathtub, or a hot foot bath up to the upper portions of the calf muscles using a deep bucket, tub or trash can will very often provide complete relief. Warm or hot water as determined by experimentation are both acceptable for the hot water baths. The majority of this content is taken from Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute, printed with permission by Wildwood Inn Health Retreat.

What are inverse functions? Take a function f: draw its graph in the usual way; interchange x and y axes, and you have the graph of the inverse function f -1. y = f(x) means x = f -1(y

What are inverse functions? Take a function f: draw its graph in the usual way; interchange x and y axes, and you have the graph of the inverse function f -1. y = f(x) means x = f -1(y). This can be accomplished with a drawing on a piece of paper by turning the paper over, orienting so that the old first quadrant appears in the upper right corner, and looking through the paper at the old graph. Do not confuse the inverse with the reciprocal function; they are completely different concepts. Careless people may use notation that is the same for both. This is a bad thing to do since it promotes confusion. Notice that if you substitute x = f -1(y) into y = f(x) you get x = f -1(f(x)). This last equation can be used as an alternate definition of the inverse function to f. There is a problem with defining inverse functions. A function can have only one ordered pair for each argument, while the same value can occur many times. This means that interchanging arguments and values which is what we do in creating an inverse, will create a non-function, unless the original function takes on each value exactly once. When a function takes a value more than once, we have to do extra work to define an inverse function for it. Namely, we have to select one of its values to be the new argument and throw away the others. This can be done in many different ways when f is not single valued, so that there is always some arbitrariness in the definition of f-1 when f is not single valued. The clearest example for this is the function x2. It takes on each positive value twice. Both 4 and -4 have the same square. The standard thing to do for this function is to define its inverse, x1/2, to be the positive square root, ignoring the negative one. (The negative square root is then denoted by -x1/2.) This definition has two virtues: one is that positive numbers are more positive than negative ones. The other is, that with this definition (and not had we chosen the negative root as inverse) the square root of a product is the product of the square roots of its factors. In general, you can make the choice of what you want to call the inverse of f by looking at the graph of f, selecting a domain on which f is single-valued, and making that the range of f -1. Some interesting pairs: Exercises 1.8 For what values can you define the inverse of the function cos(sin x). (Hint: set f = cos(sin x) look at its inverse and figure out the answer.) Solution

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 What is Transition Planning? The post-school outcome for students with disabilities does not look as bright as it does for their non-disabled peers. Individuals with disabilities are more likely than their non-disabled counterparts to

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 What is Transition Planning? The post-school outcome for students with disabilities does not look as bright as it does for their non-disabled peers. Individuals with disabilities are more likely than their non-disabled counterparts to be unemployed or under-employed. The transition plan, developed by the Team during regular IEP meetings, should improve the post-school outcome of individuals with disabilities by planning for their future in several different areas. Transitional planning considers an individual's needs based on his or her disability and then draws up a plan for for the education of a student with disabilities that takes into account the students' interests, skills, deficits, community and social needs, and independent living. The Team addresses long-term goals that student may have with the assumption that planning ahead will provide the student with better options in the future and lead to a satisfying life experience and community involvement. Federal mandates state that transition planning begin by age 16, but Massachusetts law mandates transition planning begin for students at age 14.

Have Fun with Descriptive Essays on Summer If you want to think about something pleasant, you, definitely, think about summer. So, to write good descriptive essays on summer is as easy as it can be, and even enjoyable. Your descriptive

Have Fun with Descriptive Essays on Summer If you want to think about something pleasant, you, definitely, think about summer. So, to write good descriptive essays on summer is as easy as it can be, and even enjoyable. Your descriptive essay on summer can belong either to the category of informal essay or opinion essay (or to some others). Brainstorming ideas for your descriptive essays about summer The first thing to do, when starting to write descriptive essays on summer, is to brainstorm ideas on the subject. Let us do this “essay on summer brainstorming session” together. So, take a piece of paper and write at the top of it “essays about summer”. Creative Story: Huck Finn Setting : A rainy night, Jim and Huck find a cave to stay in for the night. Jim caught some fish for dinner. Huck: Gee Jim, dis fish be tastin mighty fine. Jim: I knows it, I's catched dem fish and cooked it good. Huck starts choking on a fish bone and Jim gives him the hymlic to get it out. He gets it out. My favorite, Beatrix Potters first charming tale of Peter Rabbit. Children around the world love to hear about the adventures of this lovable little rabbit as he sneaks to the forbidden garden of Mr McGregor. How about the silly antics of Winnie The Pooh by A.A. Milne. Every child adores a romp through... There are lots of ways to go about writing a descriptive essay. A descriptive essay is usually written with a view to engage the reader more thoroughly so as to provide him/her the same experience as one is getting while observing or going through any event or incident. A few descriptive essay samples can be viewed before you actually sit down to write your essay so that you are completely familiar with how to write one that portrays what you want to showcase in the best possible manner. There are many types of essays that can be written in various functions. These types of written projects depend mainly on how the contents influence the readers. One of these essays is called a descriptive essay. They are among the most crucial school requirements which allow you to delve in numerous subject matters and provide some characteristics of the things involved in the written article. While writing a descriptive essay, you have to describe event, period of time, phenomenon, person, etc. Your task is to describe something, not to argue or persuade your reader. Of course, you, as a descriptive essay writer, know what you are writing about, but your essay reader may know nothing about the topic. Writing Descriptive Essay Outline Help There’s a useful way to make good descriptive essay – to create strong descriptive essay outline. With the descriptive essay outline help we offer it will be easier for you to put all your thoughts in order and write down the main points that will show the main essence of your work. Remember, the points you are jotting down are the things you will actually use in your essay. It’s not bad if you do not include all thoughts into it. You can always do it later. First of all, gather all interesting and urgent descriptive essay topics. All of them should be related to the subject you’re going to write your essay about. Perhaps, you’ve already got a list of descriptive essay topics, so, you have a variety of titles to choose. Remember, it is important to choose the topic you’re familiar with and have deep knowledge at. Descriptive Writing Essays Descriptive Writing Essays: A Plan for Writing You see it is always simpler to do something if you know what to do for sure, is not it? That is why one of the best advices of all the times devoted to academic writing is to write a plan for any activity you are going to be engaged with. Descriptive writing essays writing is not an exception and in order to be able to cope with this very kind of writing in a simpler way, it is very useful to run to the use of plan for this very kind of writing. Thus, this article is nothing else than useful descriptive writing essays plan for you. Follow it and you will succeed in descriptive writing essays. Well, to win success in descriptive writing essays you have to follow some of the steps, which we have presented in this very article.

New research from Columbia's Primate Cognition Laboratory has demonstrated for the first time that monkeys could acquire meta-cognitive skills: the ability to reflect about their thoughts and to assess their performance. The study was a collaborative effort between Herbert Terrace, Columbia

New research from Columbia's Primate Cognition Laboratory has demonstrated for the first time that monkeys could acquire meta-cognitive skills: the ability to reflect about their thoughts and to assess their performance. The study was a collaborative effort between Herbert Terrace, Columbia professor of psychology & psychiatry, and director of its Primate Cognition Laboratory, and two graduate students, Lisa Son — now professor of psychology at Barnard College — and UCLA postdoctoral researcher Nate Kornell. The study, which appears in the January issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, was designed to show that a monkey could express its confidence in its answers to multiple-choice questions about its memory based on the amount of imaginary currency it was willing to wager. Their experiment was derived from the observation that children often make pretend bets to assert that they know the answer to some question. According to Son, "the ability to reflect on one's knowledge has always been thought of as exclusively human. We designed a task to determine if a non-human primate could similarly learn to express its confidence about its knowledge by making large or small wagers." In the experiment, two monkeys were trained to play a video game that would test their ability to remember a particular photograph while also allowing them to make a large or a small bet. Ultimately, this wager would reflect the monkey's perception of their memory accuracy. The test used touch-screen technology and a multiple-choice format. Six novel photographs were presented at the beginning of each trial, one at a time. One photograph was selected at random and then displayed simultaneously with 8 novel photographs. The monkey's task was to select the photograph that appeared at the beginning of the trial. The monkey then evaluated the accuracy of its choice by selecting a high and a low-risk icon presented on the screen. It earned a large reward if it selected the high-risk icon after a correct response (3 tokens dropped into a bank displayed on the video monitor). Choosing the high-risk icon following an incorrect response resulted in the loss of 3 tokens. Low risk bets were always followed by a small reward (a gain of 1 token). When the monkey accumulated enough tokens, it was rewarded with food. The results demonstrated that with the monkeys, there was a strong correlation between high-risk bets and correct responses and between low-risk bets and incorrect responses. Terrace argues that, "the pattern of the monkeys' bets provided clear evidence of their ability to engage in meta-cognition, an ability that is all the more remarkable because monkeys lack language." But the results may have further reaching implications as well. Terrace notes "our results are of general interest because non-verbal tests of the type used in this and other experiments on animal cognition can be adapted to study cognitive abilities of infants and autistic children." Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10 general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information. For a copy of the article "Transfer of Metacognitive Skills and Hint Seeking in Monkeys" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Catherine West at (202) 783-2077 or [email protected] The Primate Cognition Laboratory at Columbia focuses on complex sequential learning that can be explained by the principles of conditioning theory and that which requires language. For more information, go to http:

Just after 500,000 young people were evacuated from London, an Atlantic correspondent roamed the streets of the city, reporting on the weirdness of a metropolis suddenly missing a generation. In 1939, visions of a darkening Europe

Just after 500,000 young people were evacuated from London, an Atlantic correspondent roamed the streets of the city, reporting on the weirdness of a metropolis suddenly missing a generation. In 1939, visions of a darkening Europe began to fill the pages of The Atlantic. Reading these pieces now is like watching dark clouds gather, but with full knowledge of the destruction that is about to unfold. Over half a million children were hurried out of the city. Some further hundreds of thousands went independently, packed off to relatives and boarding schools in the country. On Wednesday, September 6, London looked as it would look if some fantastic death pinched off the heads under fifteen. It was an exquisite day; we have had a poor summer, much rain and low gray skies; today, and all this first week, sunlight, the wind mild and fitful, the sky clear. In this light, London is extremely handsome. Very early in the morning the balloon barrage looks unreal and very frail. As the light strengthens, the balloons become clear and hard, oversize stars in a perfectly blue sky. A pity there are no children to point at them. MORE WWII ARCHIVES The balloon barrage was a string of blimp-like vessels connected to ground by steel cables. It acted like a barbed-wire fence around the city, making it difficult for enemy aircraft to maneuver into the city and attack. But these, Jameson illuminates, were only superficial changes to London. The loss of the children ran much deeper. "Overnight, London has become what it will look like in another half century -- war or no war, bombs or no bombs -- when fewer and fewer children are being born," Jameson writes. "Half a million grown men could be moved out of the city and it wouldn't make any serious change. But without children, an essential part of the picture has been wiped out." The most striking passages in the piece are about mothers who either regretted sending their children away, or had an uneasy time justifying why they let them stay. One sobbed over the thought of the war preventing her from ever having a family. She and her husband had built a nice home for themselves, but what was that worth if they couldn't have children? No. We didn't send a child away because we haven't one to send.... Oh, can you understand this war? Tell me why it had to come, spoiling our lives, tell me! Perhaps we shall never have a child now, never; it's all been wasted. Excuse me, I feel ashamed of crying, but when I look at my nice things over two pounds we paid for that carpet -- and he has a shelf for his books, and we were going to have,

Summer’s thaw normally releases Antarctica’s Ross Sea and McMurdo Sound from the thick sea ice that accumulates over the winter, but this year the process is being blocked. As the Southern Hemisphere enters summer, the 3,000-square-k

Summer’s thaw normally releases Antarctica’s Ross Sea and McMurdo Sound from the thick sea ice that accumulates over the winter, but this year the process is being blocked. As the Southern Hemisphere enters summer, the 3,000-square-kilometer (1,200-square-mile) B-15A iceberg is disrupting the normal wind and current patterns that break up the ice, leaving McMurdo Sound frozen. An official from Antarctica New Zealand—the government organization that oversees New Zealand’s research on Antarctica—told the Associated Press that more ice has accumulated in the sound this year than any other year on record, thanks to the giant berg. The effect of the B-15A iceberg on McMurdo Sound is apparent in these true-color images, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on December 13, 2004, top, November 9, 2004, bottom left, and November 7, 2003, bottom right. By November 7, 2003, sea ice had begun to clear from McMurdo Sound. In 2004, the ice remained solid through December 13. Though the B-15A iceberg was present both years, its position has shifted just enough to block the f

Live Long. Live Healthy. by Isagenix What Happens to Fat When you Cleanse? Ah, the visual joy of weight loss—your face is more defined, your belly no longer protrudes over the waist of your pants,

Live Long. Live Healthy. by Isagenix What Happens to Fat When you Cleanse? Ah, the visual joy of weight loss—your face is more defined, your belly no longer protrudes over the waist of your pants, and parts that used to jiggle are now toned. On the outside, fat loss seems like a fairly simple process. However, what happens in your body during weight loss involves an intricate web of metabolic changes that include structural transformation of fat cells, the breakdown and use of fat for energy, as well as changes in hormone production. Performing Isagenix Cleanse Days—a combination of intermittent fasting with herbs and vitamins that support detoxification—is an effective approach for weight loss, especially for targeting fat loss. In fact, the UIC study using Isagenix products found that those who follow the Isagenix system had more fat loss and twice as much visceral fat loss than those who followed a “heart healthy” diet. How does fat loss occur when you incorporate Cleanse Days into your routine? To understand, we’ll have to start with the basics, or Fat 101. Getting to know fat Adipose tissue—or body fat—is comprised of millions of fat cells, also called adipocytes, with the average adult having around 40 billion. The weight of adipose tissue is about 20 percent of body weight, making it one of the biggest organs in the body. Fat can be defined by where it’s found in the body: subcutaneous fat is located just below the surface of the skin while visceral fat is found in the abdominal cavity, surrounding the internal organs. Furthermore, there are two types of adipose tissue: white and brown. White adipose tissue is primarily used as an energy reserve and brown adipose tissue functions to generate heat. Adipose tissue is a metabolically active organ rather than just an inert mass as many may have guessed. In fact, each depot of the organ even receives its own vascular and nerve supply. Adipose tissue has been identified as an endocrine organ because of its production of hormones known as adipokines. These signaling proteins influence several important functions including glucose and lipid metabolism, blood coagulation, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and steroid hormone modulation (1). Excessive adipose tissue has been shown to disrupt the normal endocrine functions of fat cells and can negatively affect health through insulin resistance, abnormal blood lipids, and even increased ca

We all know that eating lots of fruits and vegetables is part of a healthy, natural lifestyle. But if we spend our time cooking them, it may cancel all the health benefits associated with it. The longer it cooks, and the higher the cooking

We all know that eating lots of fruits and vegetables is part of a healthy, natural lifestyle. But if we spend our time cooking them, it may cancel all the health benefits associated with it. The longer it cooks, and the higher the cooking temperature, the greater will be the loss of vitamins. The key to get the maximum health benefits of eating vegetables is to avoid overcooking them, or even best, to eat them raw. Whatever cooking method you might choose, the most important thing is to use only a tiny bit of water and to cook it as quickly as possible. From all the cooking methods that doesn’t involve water, oven baked vegetables are some of the worst on a nutritional point of view, as they are cooked under high heat and for a long period of time. Grilling methods are also among the worst, as it implies high heat and imparts some toxins (acrylamyde) to food. Food preparation also plays an important role in keeping all the healthy stuff in. As soon as the vegetables are cut, they start to loose beneficial elements through oxidation. When possible, try to cut your fruits and vegetables just before using them, instead of preparing them in advance. The best of all, if you have a garden, is to pick-up the vegetables directly on the plant, just before using them. This is the very best way to eat vegetables at their peak. But while heat can destroy vitamins, cooking can however be beneficial for some foods. Many antioxidants are boosted when heated. Cooked tomatoes, as example, contain far more lycopene than uncooked ones, and heated cinnamon have more antioxidant power than raw. Dark leafy greens also benefit of a little cooking, as heat will destroy a substance they contain that can slow down metabolism and thyroid activity. The same thing goes with legumes: cooking destroys the toxin that forms in uncooked sprouted beans. Cooking also makes some food easier to digest. This is especially true for starchy food like root vegetables or squash. To get the most of your fruits and veggies, the ideal is to eat most of it completely raw, with the exception of tomatoes, dark leafy greens, beans and starchy vegetables. When cooked, vegetables should ideally be lightly steamed or sautéed in 1tbsp of broth or grape seed oil. Do you eat most of your vegetables completely raw? What are your favorite cooking methods?

G1.9+0.3 in 60 Seconds Narrator (Megan Watzke, CXC) About a hundred and forty years ago, the light from a supernova explosion in our galaxy reached the Earth, but no

G1.9+0.3 in 60 Seconds Narrator (Megan Watzke, CXC) About a hundred and forty years ago, the light from a supernova explosion in our galaxy reached the Earth, but no one saw it. That’s because, as this infrared version shows, the center of the Milky Way contains thick bands of gas and dust, making it impossible for astronomers to detect this explosion using optical telescopes. However, the debris field created by the supernova shines brightly in x-ray and radio wavelengths. A combination of data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in space and the Very Large Array of radio dishes in New Mexico allowed astronomers to identify this object and nail down its age. The discovery of this supernova remnant helps astronomers better understand how often these stellar time-bombs go off in our galaxy.

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition - n. A grating of iron or wooden bars or slats, suspended in the gateway of a fortified place and lowered to block passage. from Wiktionary

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition - n. A grating of iron or wooden bars or slats, suspended in the gateway of a fortified place and lowered to block passage. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License - n. A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the entrance to a castle, fort, etc. - v. To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar. from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English - n. A grating of iron or of timbers pointed with iron, hung over the gateway of a fortress, to be let down to prevent the entrance of an enemy. - n. An English coin of the reign of Elizabeth, struck for the use of the East India Company; -- so called from its bearing the figure of a portcullis on the reverse. - transitive v. To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar. from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - n. In fortification, a strong grating of timber or iron, somewhat resembling a harrow, made to slide in vertical grooves in the jambs of the entrance-gate of a fortified place, to protect the gate in case of assault. - n. In heraldry: Same as lattice - n. The representation of a portcullis: a rare bearing, but familiar in English art of the fifteenth century from its adoption as a badge by the Tudors and in the city arms of Westminster. - n. One of the pursuivants of the English College of Heralds: so called from his distinctive badge. - n. A coin struck in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, with a portcullis stamped on the reverse. - To arm or furnish with a portcullis; hence, to bar; obstruct. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. - n. gate consisting of an iron or wooden grating that hangs in the entry to a castle or fortified town; can be lowered to prevent passage Middle English port-colice, from Old French porte coleice, sliding gate : porte, gate (from Latin porta; see per-2 in Indo-European roots) + coleice, feminine of coleis, sliding (from Vulgar Latin *cōlātīcius, from Latin cōlātus, past participle of cōlāre, to filter, strain, from cōlum, sieve).(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) From Anglo-Norman porte coliz and Old French porte coulëice, from porte ("door") + feminine of colëis ("sliding"), from couler ("to flow"). (Wiktionary)

Information About California Mugwort Common Name: Mugwort, Sagewort, Dream Plant, Moxa, Traveler’s Herb, Artemis Herb, Felon Herb, Muggons, Old Man, Sailor’s Tobacco Latin name

Information About California Mugwort Common Name: Mugwort, Sagewort, Dream Plant, Moxa, Traveler’s Herb, Artemis Herb, Felon Herb, Muggons, Old Man, Sailor’s Tobacco Latin name: Artemisia douglasiana Habitat: A. douglasiana is found in many plant communities, from low disturbed areas up to 3100 meters elevation; from California to Nevada and north to Washington and Idaho. Habit: Pretty felted grey foliage is aromatic. Good for an herb garden. This plant spreads by underground roots to form colonies. More compact habit than the species. Needs some summer water. Deer resistant. American Indian uses: According to the comprehensive database there are over 55 catalogued entries for how indigenous people’s of southern United States used this plant. Costanoan and Karok tribes used the plant as an analgesic making a compress of the plant to treat pain associated with rheumatism, arthritis, and for skin wounds. This tribe also treated earaches by making a poultice of heated leaves and applying to the ear. A decoction of the plant was drunken to treat asthma, and urinary problems. The Karok Drug placed a poultice of leaves applied for rheumatism and arthritis. The Kawaissa used the plant as an abortifacient used to induce menstration. An infusion of the plant was used as a hair wash to prevent the hair from falling out, and also used to bath a mother and father after childbirth. Heavily associated with life force this plant was also prepared as an infusion to ”prevent a girl from aging prematurely.” The Miwok placed leaves in their nostrils to treat headaches. Leaves also used this way for those in intense morning, the pungent odor clearing the head. The plant was also used as Witchcraft Medicine. Leaves were rubbed on the body to keep ghosts away. The plant was worn as a necklace to prevent dreaming of the dead. Poisoned leaves were carried to avoid personal injury. Leaves rubbed on corpse handlers to ward off ghosts of the deceased. The Paiute burnt and inhaled the plant to treat grippe. They also used the branches of the plant, placed over a bed of ashes to make a bed warm for someone with a cold or fever. The Pomo and Kashaya took an infusion of leavesfor stomachache and cramps associated with diarrhea. They also used the poultice of warmed leaves on a baby’s severed umbilical cord. The Pomo used a wash of the plant to treat itching sores, to stop excessive menstruation or to ease cramps, and given to children for “pin worms.” The Tolowa used a poultice of fresh leaves used for arthritis and as a liniment. They steamed the herb for fractures. The Washo Drug made a tea of leaves as a wash for headaches. The Yuki used a tea of leaves for pains or “troubles inside” and dysentery; prepped a poultice of pounded leaves applied for rheumatism, arthritic or back pains. If wounded while out on a hunting expedition, this plant was chewed and applied to the wound. For difficulties attending childbirth the plant was used as a steam bath. Plant was also used as veternary medicine given an infusion of plant given to injured animals. The Costanoan burned branches and used as torches during night fishing, also used torched to smoke bees from nests. The Karok used the plant as an insecticide, shoots used with drying salmon to keep “salmon beetles” away. This plant was used in many ceremonies by the Kawaiisu. For example, after his first hunting kill, the boy along with his parents would eat the plant and meat. The Pomo, Kashaya smoked the dried leaves like tobacco. Herbal uses: Chologogue, vermifuge, emmenagogue, hemostatic, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, mild narcotic, bitter narcotic. Woman’s Moon and a Dream Herb. A nervine. Used for insomnia and nervousness. Kills internal parasitic worms. Mugwort is considered feminine in nature and has been linked through out history has been used as remedy for women’s health. It is an emmenagogue; promotes suppressed menses. Useful for young women just starting menses. Believed to increase fertility. Used for moxabustion in Chinese Medicine. Used in treatment of liver disorders and as a digestive aid (digestive bitter). Drink infusion before and/or after eating to promote digestion. Promotes sweating. Which can be a benefit when intentionally sweating out an illness; a very old healing technique when one first feels the effects of an illness. Strong infusion can be used in a bath for an invigorating bath or one before Ritual or Dreaming. For more info click here. Propagation: Seeds are collected in mid October from mature inflorescences which are gray. Seeds are dark brown at maturity. Seed Cleaning: Seeds are rubbed over screens to remove chaff. Seed Storage: Seeds are kep

|Native name: Bouvetøya| |Area||49 km2 (19 sq mi) |Elevation||780 m (2,560 ft)| Bouvet Island (Norwegian: Bouvetøya, also historically known

|Native name: Bouvetøya| |Area||49 km2 (19 sq mi) |Elevation||780 m (2,560 ft)| Bouvet Island (Norwegian: Bouvetøya, also historically known as Liverpool Island or Lindsay Island) is an island in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is in the sub-antarctic areas, 2500 km (1500 miles) south-southwest of the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). It belongs to Norway and is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty (which says that land south of 60°S, including Antarctica, do not belong to any country). It is the most remote island in the world, which means that is farther from other land than any other island on Earth. The closest piece of land to the island is Queen Maud Land in Antarctica, which is more than 1600 km (994 miles) away. Nobody lives there, and there are rarely any visitors. The island is volcanic and has high cliffs on all sides (created by high waves over thousands of years). 90% of its area is covered by glaciers (ice). The climate is cold and does not change much, with an average of +1°C in the warmest month, and −3°C in the coldest. References[change | edit source] - "Bouvet Island" at CIA World Factbook; retrieved 2013-4-19. - "Global Volcanism Program - Volcanoes of the World - Volcanoes of the Atlantic Ocean - Volcanology Highlights". volcano.si.edu. http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/region.cfm?rnum=18&rpage=highlights. Retrieved November 25, 2010. - "Most Remote Places in the World - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com". associatedcontent.com. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2734985/most_remote_places_in_the_world.html?cat=16. Retrieved November 25, 2010. - "NASA - Bouvet Island, South Atlantic Ocean". nasa.gov. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/IPY/multimedia/ipyimg_20081006.html. Retrieved November 25, 2010. - "The Unofficial Bouvet Island Pages". phys.ucalgary.ca. http://www.phys.ucalgary.ca/~trondsen/Bouvet/adv25.unis.no/. Retrieved November 25, 2010. |Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bouvet Island|

Louisville City Hall Louisville City Hall Complex |Architectural style||Beaux Arts |Governing body||City of Louisville| |NRHP Reference #||76000905 | |Added to NRHP||September

Louisville City Hall Louisville City Hall Complex |Architectural style||Beaux Arts |Governing body||City of Louisville| |NRHP Reference #||76000905 | |Added to NRHP||September 1, 1976| Louisville City Hall is a registered historic building in Louisville, Kentucky, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Completed in 1873 to house the Louisville city government, the structure is located at 601 West Jefferson Street in what became Downtown Louisville, the center of the city's civic district. Since the merger of the former City of Louisville with Jefferson County, Kentucky, it now primarily houses the offices and chambers of the Louisville Metro Council. The former Jefferson County Courthouse, now known as Louisville Metro Hall, is now primarily home to the offices of the metro mayor of Louisville. The site was already Louisville's civic center. The first log courthouse was built across the street in 1784, and a brick courthouse stood on the site from 1811 to 1837. Prior to the construction of the City Hall, city government officials shared space with the courthouse. Before the City Hall's construction, there was no dedicated building for city government, whose officials used space in the county courthouses. The plan was selected by way of a design competition held in 1867 with the winner receiving $500. The contest was won in April 1867 by local architect John Andrewartha and C.S. Mergell. In late summer 1870, the final plans for City Hall construction were made by Andrewartha, who was named managing architect, and architectural firm C.L. Stancliff and Co. The remaining government buildings were demolished before ground was broken on the city hall in 1870. City engineer I.M. St. John was selected by the Lousivlle General Council to supervise the project. Indiana Limestone, from White River quarries near Salem, Indiana was used. Construction took place between 1870 and 1873 at a final cost of $464,778. The exterior has been renovated several times but remains basically unchanged, while the interior has been completely remodeled several times. A Greco-Roman annex building was built just west of City Hall in 1909. It was designed by Cornelius Curtin. An 1891 firehouse, the next building down Jefferson Street, was integrated to the complex in 1937. The building housed the city's tax collectors and quickly acquired the name "Sinking Fund Building." By the late 20th century it housed the Inspections, Permits and Licenses Department, which moved out in 2004. All three buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places as the City Hall Complex in 1976. The building was a striking blend of Italianate and Second Empire styles, both popular at the time in civic buildings. Designs on the building represented the city's outlook in the post-Civil War era, which was very optimistic. The pediment over the main entrance features a relief of the city seal and a train steaming forward past Southern flora with the inscription, "Progress, 1871." Other engravings, over the tympana of the side windows, depict livestock heads, representing the importance of agriculture in Louisville's early history. It has three full stories had a raised basement. The most prominent feature is the 195-foot four-faced clock tower with mansard roof, not completed until 1876 after an earlier one burned in 1875. The tower included a three-ton bell which rang until 1964, when the clock broke. It was repaired in 1968 but broke in the 1970s. It was repaired in 1991. - Brown, Theodore (1960). Introduction to Louisville Architecture. - Lebovich, William L. (1984). America's City Halls. - "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. - Douglas L. Stern. "City Hall." The Encyclopedia of Louisville (2001) (ed. John E. Kleber). University Press of Kentucky: p. 189. - Gregory A. Luhan, Dennis Domer, and David Mohney. The Louisville Guide (2004). Princeton Architectural Press: p. 122. - G. E. Kidder Smith, Source Book of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present (2000). Princeton Architectural Press: p. 193. - William L. Lebovich and Historic American Buildings Survey. America's City Halls (1984). Preservation Press: p. 64.

Dec. 11, 2005 New research has shown that the immune-stimulating hormone known as interleukin-12 (IL-12) can safely be administered with interferon, another immune-system protein, as an experimental therapy for

Dec. 11, 2005 New research has shown that the immune-stimulating hormone known as interleukin-12 (IL-12) can safely be administered with interferon, another immune-system protein, as an experimental therapy for some cancers. Normally, interferon is used alone to stimulate the immune system to attack certain cancers. This strategy, a form of immunotherapy, is sometimes used to treat melanoma, advanced kidney cancer and other tumors that respond poorly to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. But interferon can have serious side effects that limit its use. Surprisingly, the two drugs used in sequence caused no serious side effects in patients. "Interferon can be quite toxic when used alone," says principal investigator William E. Carson, III, associate professor of surgery and associate director for clinical research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We were initially concerned that the addition of IL-12 might increase that toxicity. Instead, we found that the two drugs can be used together without additional side effects." The findings are published in the December 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. They suggest that IL-12 primes white blood cells such that a lower dose of interferon will stimulate the same level of immune activity as a higher dose of interferon when used alone. The results come from a phase-I clinical trial, which marks the first time a treatment is tried in human subjects. The trial, conducted by Carson and a team of colleagues, involved 49 patients ages 23 to 84 with different types of advanced cancer, including cancers of the colon, lung, kidney and bladder and melanoma. On the first day of treatment, patients were given IL-12, initially by injection and then intravenously. That was followed by injections of interferon over the next five days. On average, patients received five such cycles over the course of the study. The drug combination not only proved to be safe -- which was the purpose of the study -- but the researchers found that it stopped disease progression in five of the patients for at least six months. "Our findings were encouraging," Carson says. "They indicate that we can safely administer IL-12 in combination with interferon, that it enhances the action of interferon in some patients with advanced cancer, and that it can be an effective way to stimulate the immune system." Based on the study's results, and the results of earlier animal studies led by the research group, Carson and his colleagues are conducting a multicenter phase II clinical trial of the two drugs in people with melanoma. Phase-II trials are the first step in determining the effectiveness of new therapy against a specific disease. "We believe that use of the two drugs together will give us more bang for the buck," says first author Gregory B. Lesinski, a research assistant professor in the Human Cancer Genetics Program. "We hope that the IL-12 will allow us to use lower doses of interferon in patients, which should result in fewer side effects and potentially a longer use of interferon, giving the immune system more time to fight the tumor." Funding from the National Cancer Institute and The Valvano Foundation for Cancer Research Award supported this research. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source ci

On the one hand, we’re taught that we have certain needs as human beings, including survival needs (food, water, shelter, etc), emotional needs (belongingness, love), self esteem needs, etc. Whether or not all

On the one hand, we’re taught that we have certain needs as human beings, including survival needs (food, water, shelter, etc), emotional needs (belongingness, love), self esteem needs, etc. Whether or not all of these concepts qualify as true needs is debatable. The idea of there being a clear hierarchy of needs, such as Maslow’s, is debatable too — and as far as I can tell, that model has been pretty well debunked. But we can probably agree that some non-essential aspects of living can preoccupy us at times, giving us the perception that these unsatisfied elements qualify as unmet needs. On the other hand, we’re also taught that it’s undesirable to be needy or clingy, as if needy people have been afflicted with a disease that we wouldn’t want to catch. Needs vs. Neediness What’s the difference between having needs and being needy? It has to do with how you approach getting your needs met. There’s nothing wrong with having needs and wanting to see them met. That’s perfectly fine and doesn’t automatically lead to neediness. What causes neediness is when the supply is scarce. This can lead to a competitive stance, whereby meeting your needs requires that someone else must necessarily have their needs unfulfilled. If you need water and there’s a scarcity of water, that can certainly put you in a needy situation. You may experience thirst, and when you’re in that state, you’ll go out of your way to quench that thirst. If other people want water too, but there isn’t enough to go around, the landscape becomes competitive. Someone may end up going without. What about emotional needs? The same situation can come up. For example, if you perceive that you have a need for touch and affection, then whether you’ll experience neediness or not depends on the scarcity or abundance of people willing and able to help you meet that need. If you perceive this supply as scarce, you’re likely to feel needy, which encourages you and others to assume a socially competitive posture. But if you have a need and there’s an abundant supply that you can access, you’re unlikely to feel needy. You can simply go and access that supply whenever you want, and you won’t deplete the supply enough to feel that you’re in competition with others. Accessibility is a key factor here. For some emotional needs, there may technically be a vast supply available, but you may find that supply inaccessible at times. Often this is due to a lack of skill or some limiting beliefs that prevent you from having full access to the resource. Suppose you perceive a strong need for sharing touch with other people. The supply is readily

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (Feb. 5, 2013) —Dermatologists stress any dietary changes need to be combined with proven medical treatments to fight acne OVERVIEW: Myths about acne are almost as common

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (Feb. 5, 2013) —Dermatologists stress any dietary changes need to be combined with proven medical treatments to fight acne OVERVIEW: Myths about acne are almost as common as the skin problem. The exact cause of acne is unknown, but there are a number of factors that can bring on acne or make it worse, including hormones, genetics, and emotional stress. Recently, dermatologists have taken another look at whether diet’s role in acne is a myth. Several new studies have examined the possible link between diet and acne — particularly carbohydrates and dairy products.1 The emerging evidence has prompted dermatologists to reexamine the possibility that certain foods can worsen or trigger acne. However, dermatologists agree that diet should not be used as a sole treatment for acne but rather as a complement to proven acne treatments. AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DERMATOLOGY EXPERT Information provided by Whitney P. Bowe MD, FAAD, a board-certified dermatologist and clinical assistant professor of dermatology at State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, and lead author of the article, “Diet and Acne,” published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology . HIGH-GLYCEMIC INDEX FOODS COULD WORSEN ACNE The glycemic index (GI) is a ranking of carbohydrate-rich foods based on their potential to increase blood sugar levels. Foods with higher glycemic index values raise blood sugar levels much quicker than foods with lower glycemic index values. The glycemic load (GL) takes into account both the quality and quantity of carbohydrates being consumed in a serving of food. For example, high-GI foods include white bread, chips, and white potatoes; low-GI foods include multi-grain bread, peanuts, vegetables, and beans. For years, there has been speculation that high-GI foods could contribute to acne. Recent research includes: AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DERMATOLOGY EXPERT ADVICE: - A study of 23 Australian males ages 15-25 who followed a strict, low-glycemic load (LGL) diet provides the strongest evidence available of an association between glycemic load and acne. Specifically, this group of males experienced significant improvement in acne severity by adhering to a LGL diet. However, the participants in the LGL group also lost weight, which means the LGL diet may not solely be attributed to the outcome. - Other evidence of the link between diet and acne stems from patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome because acne is a common symptom of this condition. Specifically, studies have shown that acne improves when these patients are treated with medications that improve their body’s ability to regulate or control blood sugar, and a low-carbohydrate diet also has been shown to stabilize these patients’ hormones, which can cause breakouts. - A Web-based survey assessing the role of a low-glycemic diet in the treatment of acne found that 86.7 percent of the 2,528 dieters who completed this online survey reported improvements in their skin while following this diet. Based on some of the flaws in the design of the study, the results must be interpreted with cautious optimism. “The strongest evidence we have to date of a link between diet and acne comes from the glycemic index studies,” said Dr. Bowe. “These studies show that low-glycemic index diets may improve acne. The consumption of high-glycemic index foods appears to trigger a cascade of responses, which can lead to acne through effects on growth hormones and sex hormones.” DAIRY PRODUCTS SHOW WEAK, BUT POSSIBLE, ASSOCIATION WITH ACNE Although early studies dating as far back as 1949 have raised the possibility that an association between dairy consumption and acne may exist, the evidence supporting this theory has been weak. However, studies conducted in recent years have continued to examine the influence of dairy products — particularly milk — on acne severity. - In 2005, a retrospective study was conducted in which 47,355 adult women were asked to recall their high school diet and if they ever had “physician-diagnosed severe acne.” The study found that acne was positively associated with the reported quantity of milk ingested — particularly skim milk. - In 2006, a study examined the self-reported food consumption as well as the frequency and amount of pimples experienced by 6,094 girls aged 9 to 15 over three years. The study found positive associations be

|According to Quitterie and Daniel Cazes, these carvings were made before 1082-83 when the Bishop of Toulouse expelled the Canons of St. Sernin because he believed they were not following the rules for

|According to Quitterie and Daniel Cazes, these carvings were made before 1082-83 when the Bishop of Toulouse expelled the Canons of St. Sernin because he believed they were not following the rules for Canons. The Pope arbitrated the case and they were reinstated the following year. But this conflict caused a break in the building of the church (12).| |The Count's Portal is at the southern end of the south arm of the transept. (See plan.) Each doorway has a shallow porch with columns supporting the arches; they are part marble and topped by historiated capitals. Several of the eight capitals are depicted below. A number of vices are illustrated-lust and avarice for example, with monster demons attaching the sinners.| The left side (west) of the portal with capitals depicting demons attacking sinners Right side of portalThe two capitals here illustrate the parable of Dives and Lazarus. In the left capital, Lazarus' soul is being carried to heaven by angels. They lift a mandorla with a small naked figure that symbolizes Lazarus' soul. On the right the rich man feasts at his table with a servant to his right. The haloed figure represents Lazarus whose wounds are licked by dogs. This theme is popular in Romanesque art. See, for example, the porch of Saint Pierre at Moissac. Left: modillions on the cornice above the door with heads of humans and animals; center and right: fragments of Paleo-Christian stone coffins set into one of the piersThe reliefs depict pastoral and hunting scenes. The ancient coffins were reused in the 11th century.

How the Book is Organized The Practice of Oil Painting is divided into two parts. In the first, Solomon provides a series of seful exercises to help the student progress from charcoal drawings to full-color oils. Drawing upon his long experience as

How the Book is Organized The Practice of Oil Painting is divided into two parts. In the first, Solomon provides a series of seful exercises to help the student progress from charcoal drawings to full-color oils. Drawing upon his long experience as an instructor, he proposes remedies for common faults in student work. He makes a point of explaining the materials he uses at each stage, such as grounds, palettes, brushes, and paints, and he offers sound methods for achieving accurate measurements of lines and shapes in drawing, and precise relationships of values in painting. The second section, “The Methods of the Masters,” comprises more than half of the book. It extends the practical advice of the first section by applying the same principles to the work of great artists of the past, such as Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Velázquez. He analyzes both the strengths and the shortcomings of composition in these works, but he leaves the usual iconographic interpretations to art historians. His is a tour by a working artist for other working artists. The paintings he selects as examples come mainly from the collection of London’s National Gallery. The original editions of the book showed those works in black and white, but Dover's new edition includes a section with the old master works reproduced in color. Solomon’s approach to painting Solomon was a thorough and methodical craftsman, and he practiced what he preached. According to an eyewitness, he spent “an infinity of time over draughtsmanship and composition.” Eternally dissatisfied, he painted, scraped off, and repainted key figures until they were right. He once destroyed a painting called "Sacred and Profane Love," even after it was accepted and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was uncompromising in his quest for accuracy of historical detail or realistic lighting. Once, to properly observe the effects of theatrical footlights on a portrait of the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell as “Paula Tanqueray,” he had a replica of the Saint James’s stage erected in his studio, complete with footlights. What Solomon taught in Oil Painting and Drawing was in some respects consistent with the tradition of academic instruction in Britain. Drawing instruction was based on careful observation of the figure, as we

The Flame and the Light: Meanings in Vedanta and Buddhism Theosophical Pub. House (1969) |Abstract||This article has no associated abstract. (fix it)| |Keywords||Vedanta Comparative studies Buddhism Hindu

The Flame and the Light: Meanings in Vedanta and Buddhism Theosophical Pub. House (1969) |Abstract||This article has no associated abstract. (fix it)| |Keywords||Vedanta Comparative studies Buddhism Hinduism Hinduism Buddhism| |Categories||categorize this paper)| |Buy the book||$2.99 new $71.95 direct from Amazon Amazon page| |Call number||B132.V3.F35 1976| |External links||

Popular Science Monthly/Volume 6/April 1875/Miscellany Capture of a Herd of Elephants.—A correspondent of Land and Water tells of the capture, in the Mysore district, India, of a

Popular Science Monthly/Volume 6/April 1875/Miscellany Capture of a Herd of Elephants.—A correspondent of Land and Water tells of the capture, in the Mysore district, India, of a herd of elephants, numbering forty-nine head. An irrigating canal winds through a dense jungle, at some points approaching a small river, at others stretching away from it into the jungle. In one place a bend of the canal forms, with the river, an inclosure in the shape of a horseshoe, containing about fifteen acres of wooded ground. To this place elephants resort during the monsoon, crossing the canal at three or four points where the banks have become trodden down by constant use. In order to trap the entire herd, two lines of chains were stretched across the river at the ends of the horseshoe, and a trench was dug on the river-bank to cut off escape on that side. The elephants having crossed into the inclosure, the fords were barricaded with cocoa-nut trees, the canal deepened at those places, and two deep trenches cut from the canal to the river. Fires were kept up at night on the banks of the canal Meanwhile a deep, circular trench was dug, inclosing about an acre of ground, and two parallel trenches were also dug, leading from the horseshoe to this small inclosure. Drop-gates were made to prevent the animals leaving this keddah when once they had entered it. A large force of men were now directed to drive the herd into the keddah. The first attempt failed, the elephants stampeding back into the horseshoe after a few of them had entered the inclosure. A second effort was crowned with success. First came a female with her calf; then seven other females, and after a while on came the entire herd with a rush, males, females, and calves, of all sizes, "like a herd of rather large pigs, jostling and pushing one another through the gateway." When the last was in, down went the gate, and they were all secured. The catching of the elephants one by one was the work of several days. "The men ride in among them on tame beasts, and put ropes round their legs and necks, after which the tame elephants drag them out in spite of all resistance, and they are chained one by one to trees to be trained at leisure. They do not mind the tame elephants mixing with them at all, even with men on their backs, but they object strongly to the men on the ground, who have to put on the ropes. The clever way in which the tame elephants help is wonderful: they move close up to the wild ones, and understand how to put their legs so as to shield the men from all kicks; they take hold of the wild ones' legs and trunks with their own trunks, and are invaluable." Habits of the Cotton-Worm.—According to Mr. Aug. R. Grote, the cotton-worm dies out every year, with its food-plant, and its next appearance is always the result of immigration. He has observed that the appearance of the worm in the cotton-fields is always heralded by flights of the moth. The worm is always heard of to the south-ward at first, and never to the northward of any given locality in the cotton-belt. Mr. Grote never could discover any traces of the insect in any stage during the months preceding the appearance of the first brood heralded by the moth, and after the cotton was above the ground. Hence he concludes that while the cotton-plant is not indigenous to the Southern States (where it becomes an annual) the cotton-worm moth may be esteemed not a denizen but a visitant, brought by various causes to breed in a strange region, and that it naturally dies out in the cotton-belt, unable to suit itself as yet to the altered economy of its food-plant and to contend with the changes of our seasons. Possibly in the southern portions of Texas, or in the Floridian peninsula, the cotton-worm may be able to sustain itself during the entire year. Its true home, however, appears to be the West Indies, Mexico, and Brazil, where the cotton-plant is perennial. Coal in California.—Dr. J. C. Cooper, formerly connected with the State Geological Survey of California, made some interesting remarks at a late meeting of the California Academy of Sciences on the subject of California coal. The frequent reports in the newspapers of discoveries of valuable coal deposits in different parts of the State he characterized as misleading, not more than one in a hundred of such so-called coal-beds having any value whatever. Unlike the true coal of the carboniferous rocks formed from tree-ferns, algæ, and other plants of low organization, that of the Pacific coast contains the remains of coniferous and dicotyledonous trees, and belongs to the cretaceous rocks, or is of even later origin. It is the lignite of geologists. Many of the beds of this material are too thin to work, a thickness of two feet being the minimum that can be economically taken out. For all practical purposes this lignite in many localities is as good as the older coal, but the th

My last post, which I had to cut short, discussed the recent paper by Scheffer et al. (2009) on the early warning signs of impending catastrophe. This paper encapsulates a number of things that I think are very important and

My last post, which I had to cut short, discussed the recent paper by Scheffer et al. (2009) on the early warning signs of impending catastrophe. This paper encapsulates a number of things that I think are very important and relate to some current research (and teaching interests). Scheffer and colleagues show the consequences on time series of state observations when a dynamical system characterized by a fold bifurcation is forced across its attractor where parts of this attractor are stable and others are unstable. In my last post, I described the fold catastrophe model as an attractor that looks like an “sideways N.” I just wanted to briefly unpack that statement. First, an attractor is kind of like an equilibrium. It’s a set of points to which a dynamical system evolves. When the system is perturbed, it tends to return to an attractor. Attractors can be fixed points or cycles or extremely complex shapes, depending upon the particulars of the system. The fold catastrophe model posits an attractor that looks like this figure, which I have more or less re-created from Scheffer et al. (2009), Box 1. The solid parts of the curve are stable — when the system state is perturbed when in the vicinity of this part of the attractor, it tends to return, as indicated by the grey arrows pointing back to the attractor. The dashed part of the attractor is unstable — perturbations in this neighborhood tend to move away from the attractor. This graphical representation of the system makes it pretty easy to see how a small perturbation could dramatically change the system if the current combination of conditions and system state place the system on the attractor near the neighborhood where the attractor changes from stable to unstable. The figure illustrates one such scenario. The conditions/system state start at point F1. A small forcing perturbs the system off this point across the bifurcation. Further forcing now moves the system way off the current state to some new, far away, stable state. We go from a very high value of the system state to a very low value with only a very small change in conditions. Indeed, in this figure, the conditions remain constant from point F1 to the new value indicated by the white point — just a brief perturbation was sufficient to cause the drastic change. I guess this is part of the definition of a catastrophe. The real question in my mind, and one that others have asked, is how relevant is the fold catastrophe model for real systems? This is something I’m going to have to think about. One thing that is certain is that this is a pedagogically very useful approach as it makes you think… and worry.

|Advertising|Jobs 転職|Shukan ST|JT Weekly|Book Club|JT Women|Study in Japan|Times Coupon|Subscribe 新聞購読申込| |Home > Life in Japan > Education| Saturday, March

|Advertising|Jobs 転職|Shukan ST|JT Weekly|Book Club|JT Women|Study in Japan|Times Coupon|Subscribe 新聞購読申込| |Home > Life in Japan > Education| Saturday, March 25, 2009 Brush up your Japanese the traditional way Special to The Japan Times Last week, I suggested that if you're really serious about mastering kanji, you should add brush calligraphy to your study regimen. Assuming I've won you over at this point, the next step would be to procure a complete set of implements, including a medium-size 筆 (fude, writing brush), made from animal hair; a 硯 (suzuri, inkstone), 半紙 (hanshi, writing paper); and 墨 (sumi, Indian ink). In traditional calligraphy, water is poured onto the inkstone and ink is produced by rubbing a rectangular stick of solid ink. These days most people find it more convenient to buy liquid ink and pour it onto the inkstone as needed. In addition to the above, you should have a cloth to place under the paper to keep it from slipping and to absorb any ink that might seep through onto the writing table. You will also need a receptacle for water to wash residual ink from the brushes after use. Expect a full ensemble to set you back at least ¥3,500. A less expensive but still effective approach would be "water calligraphy," using water to practice on specially treated reusable paper. The results appear the same as ink writing, but after the water evaporates the paper becomes blank and can be reused, making it an eco-friendly way to get started. A boxed beginner's set called Mizu de Oshūji Setto sold by Nara-based Kuretake Co. contains everything you'll need to get started. For just ¥1,890, you get five sheets of reusable paper, a brush, a small plastic "inkstone" to hold the water, and an eight-page booklet of instructions (in simple Japanese). Unlike pencils or pens, a calligraphy brush is held perpendicular to the writing surface. You dip the brush into the ink (or water) and then press against the inkstone to remove any excess. Kanji are organized according to 214 classifiers, or "radicals," components signifying water, tree, earth, fire, etc. These classifiers are listed in ascending order according to the number of "strokes," referred to as 点 (ten) or 画 (kaku), literally points and strokes. A character composed of four strokes, for example, is called 四画の字 (yon kaku no ji, four-stroke character). The order of the strokes follows specific rules, beginning at the top or left and ending at the bottom, and usually, but not necessarily, on the right. Each variety of stroke — be it a dot, a horizontal line, a line curving downward to the left, an upward hook at the bottom of a straight vertical line, etc. — has a specific name, but you won't need to know them at this stage. As you write, you move the brush not only across the paper's surface, but also up and down to vary the pressure on the tip. A character like 大 (dai or ōkii) for example ends with a thick stoke called 啄 (taku) or 右はらい (migi-harai), made by first pushing down more firmly on the brush while moving to the right. The thing to keep in mind is that all kanji, regardless of their number of strokes, must be of uniform height and width. A character of three strokes like 土 (tsuchi or do, earth) and one of, say 21 strokes like 鶴 (tsuru, crane), should occupy roughly the same dimensions. Until you get the hang of it, it may be helpful to crease the calligraphy paper into quarters or eighths. So now you're ready to start. But what to write? Your mailing address? A poem? The name of the prime minister? You might want to practice with the eight-stroke character 永 (ei, permanence), which from antiquity was adopted as the prototypical model for calligraphers, because its composition was believed to incorporate all the essential elements for refining one's technique. Gain a mastery of the 永字八法 (eijihappō, or eight principles of ei), it is said, and you'll be on your way to becoming an accomplished brushman.

Educators are always seeking the 'Holy Grail' of teaching - engaged learners. It's even better when students don't realise they are learning but do so through having fun and being creative. That's where the iPad comes in. Children especially

Educators are always seeking the 'Holy Grail' of teaching - engaged learners. It's even better when students don't realise they are learning but do so through having fun and being creative. That's where the iPad comes in. Children especially are naturals at wanting to interact through the touch interface, many computer owning Parents will testify to that after repeatedly cleaning smudgy fingerprints off their screens. Here are a couple of videos demonstrating how the iPad is being used to engage and teach children through fun and creative learning. iPad Pilot Project - RCEF This video from the Redwood City Education Foundation (RCEF) shows how one elementary school is using the iPad to help children get involved and interactive with learning, mainly in Maths and Literacy lessons: Using DoInk to envision the future This video, one of many from the Clay Animation Network, shows what children from the Lawton Elementary school think the future will be like. Apparently in 50 years time the world will be full of aliens, robots, teleportation and floating people. Sounds about right to us (apart from the aliens probably). The elementary school students used the brilliant iPad animation app DoInk to create their vision of the future: At Lawton elementary 66 students are creating animations in groups of 2 and 3 students using the animation program called DOINK. Each group will create a 10-15 second animation showing a scene that could happen in a school 50 years from now. There are a lot of ideas in this video, it's quite a long one, but stick with it, we think you'll enjoy the animations: Share your story We love hearing about how the iPad is being used in the Education field, so if you have any good examples of creativity in the classroom with any age group, young or old, please let us know about it.

FROM a maze of unknown and undescribed afflictions besetting mankind, hay fever was extracted and held up to the light. Thus exposed, it was at first ignored, then ridiculed, misnamed, and misunderstood. This mutation among diseases grew

FROM a maze of unknown and undescribed afflictions besetting mankind, hay fever was extracted and held up to the light. Thus exposed, it was at first ignored, then ridiculed, misnamed, and misunderstood. This mutation among diseases grew by leaps and bounds. It poked its tentacles into the eyes and nose of millions of humans located all over the world. Spreading like wildfire, hay fever could no longer be ignored. It attracted the attention of great scientists in many fields. Individually and collectively they probed and explored every branch of its being. They sought to determine where and how it originated. They worked to bare its very nature and separate it into its many parts. Specialists in turn have apportioned these parts among themselves for more profound research into its every fiber. The results of these explorations have not been without success. Although the demise of hay fever is not yet in sight its control is imminent. The story of this struggle between man and disease is extremely interesting. No familiar beaten path existed. The disease was and is a strange one. The imagination had to be stretched to accuse the very plants that man relied upon for food and shelter. The story of the quest for understanding, by examination and experimentation in the face of seemingly fathomless contradictions is the narrative we shall now tell. The Medical profession came upon the road that was hay fever somewhere in the early stages of its career. In 1819, John Bostock, a learned London doctor, presented to the medical profession the first description of a case of hay fever. This earliest account stands today as one of the best and most completely detailed descriptions of hay fever as it is seen in many a doctor’s office. The vividness and accuracy of Bostock’s presentation of the symptoms is easily understood. The case was that of the good doctor himself who had suffered with the affliction from the time he was eight years of age. We shall let him tell you of his symptoms in his own words as he related them to the Medical Society of London. About the beginning or middle of June in every year the following symptoms make their appearance, with a greater or less degree of violence. A sensation of heat and fulness is experienced in the eyes, first along the edges of the lids, and especially in the inner angles, but after some time over all of the ball. At the commencement the external features of the eye are little affected, except that there is a slight degree of redness and a discharge of tears. This state gradually increases, until the sensation becomes converted into what may be characterized as a combination of the most acute itching and smarting, accompanied with a feeling of small points striking upon or darting into the ball, at the same time that the eyes become extremely inflamed and discharge very copiously a thick mucous fluid. This state of the eyes comes on in paroxysms, at uncertain intervals, from about the second week in June to about the middle of July. The eyes are seldom quite well for the whole of this period, but the violent paroxysms never occur more than two or three times daily, lasting an hour or two each time; but with respect to their frequency and duration there is the greatest uncertainty. Generally, but not always, their invasion may be distinctly traced to some exciting cause, of which the most certain is a close, moist heat, also a bright glare of light, dust, or other substances touching the eyes and any circumstance which increases the temperature. After the violent inflammation and discharge have continued for some time, the pain and redness gradually go off, but a degree of stiffness generally remains during the day. After this state of the eyes has subsided for a week or ten days, a general fulness is experienced in the head, and particularly about the fore part; to this succeeds irritation of the nose, producing sneezing, which occurs in fits of extreme violence, coming on at uncertain intervals. To the sneezings are added a further sensation of tightness of the chest, and a difficulty of breathing, with a general irritation of the fauces and trachea. There is no absolute pain in any part of the chest, but a feeling of want of room to receive the air necessary for respiration, a huskiness of the voice, and an incapacity of speaking aloud for any time without inconvenience. To these local symptoms, are at length added a degree of general indisposition, a great degree of languor, an incapacity for muscular exertion, loss of appetite, emaciation, restless nights, often attended with profuse perspirations, the extremeties, however, being generally cold. This graphic presentation of a case of early summer or grass hay fever is indeed a landmark. Especially, when we consider that John Bostock was not aware of the role played by grass in the cause of his ailment which he called “A Periodical Affection of the Eyes and Chest.” Until Bostock published another paper in 1828 nothing further had been written about hay fever as an ailment. Nevertheless, duri

Category Archives: Venipuncture Training If you’re interested in learning how to work as a Phlebotomist, you need to know exactly what venipuncture training is and how you can find this type of specialized medical training. In

Category Archives: Venipuncture Training If you’re interested in learning how to work as a Phlebotomist, you need to know exactly what venipuncture training is and how you can find this type of specialized medical training. In general, venipuncture training is the art and science of drawing blood from live patients. This type of work is usually performed in a [...] Venipuncture technique is a medical procedure used to draw blood from human beings. Also known as phlebotomy, the art and science of venipuncture is taught in a variety of medical training academies, colleges, and community colleges. These days, important information about venipuncture technique may even be found through online articles and online learning academies. If you’re [...]

A set of non-traditional copyright-related principles, practices, and laws that exist alongside and attempt to extend traditional copyright protection. Also: para-copyright. The movie and music industries have succeeded in lobbying lawmakers to allow them to tighten their grips

A set of non-traditional copyright-related principles, practices, and laws that exist alongside and attempt to extend traditional copyright protection. Also: para-copyright. The movie and music industries have succeeded in lobbying lawmakers to allow them to tighten their grips on their creations by lengthening copyright terms. The law has also extended the scope of copyright protection, creating what critics have called a "paracopyright," which prohibits not only duplicating protected material but in some cases even gaining access to it in the first place. Robert S. Boynton, "The Tyranny of Copyright?," The New York Times, January 25, 2004 The anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act penalize both the circumvention of technical protection measures, and supplying

Start learning with our library of video tutorials taught by experts. Learn how to use computed-aided design (CAD) software like AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp, and SolidWorks to create 3D models for architectural, industrial design

Start learning with our library of video tutorials taught by experts. Learn how to use computed-aided design (CAD) software like AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp, and SolidWorks to create 3D models for architectural, industrial design, and engineering projects. Start creating manufacturing-ready parts and assemblies, as well as detailed drawings and bills of materials with SolidWorks 2014. View, review, and print 2D drawings and complex 3D CAD models and assemblies with this free design-review tool. “Your training goes way more in-depth than most classes at my school, and you can pause and rewind it if you don't follow it the first time.” —Jared L. more from our members »

Space station to host new cosmic ray telescope The University of Chicago said: The U.S. collaboration is part of a 13-nation effort to build the 2.5-meter ultraviolet telescope, called the Extreme Universe Space Observatory. U

Space station to host new cosmic ray telescope The University of Chicago said: The U.S. collaboration is part of a 13-nation effort to build the 2.5-meter ultraviolet telescope, called the Extreme Universe Space Observatory. UChicago Prof. Angela Olinto leads the U.S. collaboration. The telescope will search for the mysterious source of the most energetic particles in the universe, called ultra high-energy cosmic rays, from the ISS’s Japanese Experiment Module. The source of these cosmic rays has remained one of the great mysteries of science since physicist John Linsley discovered them more than 50 years ago. These cosmic rays consist of protons and other subatomic scraps of matter that fly through the universe at almost light speed.

Issue informationThis issue presents two articles focusing on the prevalence of obesity in adults and children using measured height and weight data collected in Cycle 2.2 of the Canadian Community Health Survey - Nutrition. The articles look at the differences between obesity rates calculated

Issue informationThis issue presents two articles focusing on the prevalence of obesity in adults and children using measured height and weight data collected in Cycle 2.2 of the Canadian Community Health Survey - Nutrition. The articles look at the differences between obesity rates calculated using measured versus self-reported estimates of a respondent's height and weight. The articles also look at the change in measured obesity rates through time and how they compare with changes estimated using self-reported data. Comparisons are made for a broad range of demographic and socio-economic characteristics and links between obesity rates and various health conditions are also explored. ([B] = Bilingual; see "Bilingual products" below ) - HTML (Information on this page is for this format.) |Product:||Nutrition: Findings from the Canadian Community Health Survey| |Latest issue:||no. 1||Free| |Release date:||July 6, 2005| |Subscription:||one year (365 days)||N/A| analytical products, body mass index, fast food restaurants, health problems, health surveys, height and weight, nutrition, obesity, overweight persons, socioeconomic profiles. This product may also be accessible for free at these libraries. Some bilingual products have changed to separate English and French products. In these cases, back issues are bilingual and the more recent issues are unilingual. ContactsFor more information about our products or services, please contact us. - Date modified:

As a former teacher, I know that the best way to encourage people to learn something new is to make it fun! That’s why The Bright Eyes Kit on Kickstarter got my attention. It is a DIY kit that is designed to encourage people to

As a former teacher, I know that the best way to encourage people to learn something new is to make it fun! That’s why The Bright Eyes Kit on Kickstarter got my attention. It is a DIY kit that is designed to encourage people to learn programing. The Bright Eyes Kit comes with a pair of glasses that have 174 LEDs and a micro SD card. The first thing you need to do is put the glasses together. The video describes this process as being easier than IKEA. Once you have the glasses put together, it is time to learn how to program the LEDs. The kit talks you through the process in a way that will encourage people who have never done programming before to give it a try. Ultimately, you will learn how to program the lights on your glasses to flash in a specific way. Make the lights respond to graphics, animations, or whatever else sounds fun to you. Connect your glasses to your Twitter account and let the LEDs flash to your Tweets. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and interest in learning how to make it work. They recently added a microphone that you can use to program your Bright Eyes glasses to respond to sound. If that doesn’t interest you, perhaps you would prefer to play around with an ambient light sensor that you can attach to the glasses instead. The Bright Eyes glasses look really cool and are attention getters. I could see Elton John, or Lady Gaga, wearing them. Code them, wear them out in public, and you are certain to have someone start a conversation with you about your Bright Eyes glasses. All of the code will be open source and freely available. Learn to code, and have some fun doing it! For more information, check out this video from the Bright Eyes Kit on Kickstarter.

Puku (Kobus vardonii) |Size||Head-body length: 126 - 146 cm (2) (3)| Tail length: 28 - 32 cm (3) Shoulder height: 73 -

Puku (Kobus vardonii) |Size||Head-body length: 126 - 146 cm (2) (3)| Tail length: 28 - 32 cm (3) Shoulder height: 73 - 83 cm (2) Horn length: 52 cm (4) Male weight: 67 - 78 kg (2) Female weight: 47 - 80 kg (2) - Only male pukus have horns. - When alarmed, the puku may give a shrill, repeated whistle. - Around 75% of the puku’s entire world population occurs in one location, in the Kilombero Valley in Tanzania. - Male pukus hold small territories, with each male attempting to keep herds of females on its territory for as long as possible. - To avoid predators, puku calves lie hidden in vegetation for the first few weeks of life. The puku is classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List (1). A medium-sized antelope, the puku (Kobus vardonii) has a bright golden-yellow to reddish-brown coat with shaggy, somewhat curly fur along its back and loins (2) (3) (4). Its legs are uniformly reddish-brown, and it has black tips to its large, furry ears (4). The underparts and throat of the puku are white (2). The puku has a robust, bluntly rounded head, a large black nose and black eyelashes, and white markings around the eyes and mouth. The tail has a black tuft of hair at the tip (2) (5) (6). Horns are present only in the male puku, and are black, stout and relatively short, with heavy ridges and a slightly lyre-shaped curve (2) (3) (5) (6) (7). The puku formerly occupied grasslands near permanent water sources in the savanna woodlands and floodplains of south-central Africa. However, its range has been much reduced and it now occurs in fragmented, isolated populations (1) (8). Large numbers of pukus only now occur in two countries, Tanzania and Zambia, with smaller populations in Angola, Botswana, Malawi and the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo (1) (3) (7) (8). Around 75 percent of the global puku population is restricted to the Kilombero Valley in Tanzania (1) (8) (9) (10). The puku occupies grassland habitats near permanent water sources, including moist savanna, floodplains, and the margins of lakes, swamps and rivers (1) (3) (7). However, although it is associated with wet, swampy areas, the puku tends to avoid deep standing water (1). The puku is a social species, preferring to live in groups. Females us

A Brainstorming Activity for ESL/EFL StudentsHall Houston City University of Hong Kong, English Language Centre (Hong Kong, China) hallhouston ( at ) yahoo.com IntroductionWhile brainstorming is a commonplace activity for generating new ideas

A Brainstorming Activity for ESL/EFL StudentsHall Houston City University of Hong Kong, English Language Centre (Hong Kong, China) hallhouston ( at ) yahoo.com IntroductionWhile brainstorming is a commonplace activity for generating new ideas, many students have not had guided practice. This lesson will enable them to brainstorm more effectively. Lesson1. Ask the class, "How do artists and businesspeople come up with new ideas?" Give them a couple of minutes to think, then call on a few students to give you their answers. 2. Tell the class you are going to do an activity called brainstorming. Ask students to raise their hands if they have ever participated in a brainstorming session before, then call on anyone with their hand up to describe their experience. 3. First, put the students into two groups, Team A and Team B. Assign one student in each group to be a leader. Give the team leaders the following slips: |Team A - Leader:| Your job is to encourage the other students to contribute ideas on how to improve this English class. However, you do not want to waste any time. If a student states an idea which seems useless, tell the student "That’s no good" or "Bad idea", then move on to another student. |Team B - Leader:| Your job is to encourage the other students to contribute ideas on how to improve this English class. Ask one student in the group to write down all ideas. Offer praise for everyone's contributions and don't criticize any of the ideas. Make sure all ideas are written down. 4. Give students ten minutes to do the brainstorming activity. 5. Now ask for feedback. Which group produced more ideas? Which group enjoyed the activity more? 6. Ask both group leaders to read out their slips of paper. Ask the class to guess which one was brainstorming the right way. 7. Write these rules of successful brainstorming on the board: - write down all ideas - the more ideas, the better - wild, unusual ideas are welcome - feel free to take someone else's idea and expand on it - save criticism until the end of the session 9. When they are finished, have both groups choose their three best ideas and write them up on the board. Ask a few students how they feel about brainstorming. 10. Now, tell the class you want to arrange a brainstorming activity for a future lesson. (Note: While it might be tempting to turn this discussion into another brainstorming activity, I would recommend changing the format to add variety to the lesson.) Give each student an index card and tell them you want them to write the answers to the following questions: - Topic: Which topic should we work on? - Location: Where should we have our brainstorming activity? - Time: When should it take place? - Duration: How long should we spend brainstorming? - Number of groups: How many brainstorming groups will we have? - Participants: Who will be in each group? - Leader: Who will be the leader of each group? - Secretary: Who will take notes in each group? - Other considerations: What else would make our brainstorming activity more productive (music, pictures, snacks, etc.)? - End product: How should we present our best ideas (poster, presentation, role play, short essay)? 11. Take notes and mark your calendar for the brainstorming session. 12. After the students' scheduled brainstorming session, ask for some feedback. What did they like about the brainstorming session? What could have been improved? Would they like to do more brainstorming in a future lesson? ConclusionBrainstorming is just one of a wide range of creativity exercises you can use to develop students' thinking skills. If you are interested, you can look into other variations of brainstorming such as rolestorming (students role play different characters to brainstorm), brainwriting (students write down ideas and pass them on to other students who expand on them) and reverse brainstorming (students come up with ideas for producing a problem instead of solving it). Better yet, you might come up with your own twist on brainstorming. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XII, No. 12, December 2006

For decades computer scientists have strived to build machines that can calculate faster than the human brain and store more information. The contraptions have won. The world’s most powerful supercomputer, the K from Fujitsu, computes four times faster and

For decades computer scientists have strived to build machines that can calculate faster than the human brain and store more information. The contraptions have won. The world’s most powerful supercomputer, the K from Fujitsu, computes four times faster and holds 10 times as much data. And of course, many more bits are coursing through the Internet at any moment. Yet the Internet’s servers worldwide would fill a small city, and the K sucks up enough electricity to power 10,000 homes. The incredibly efficient brain consumes less juice than a dim lightbulb and fits nicely inside our head. Biology does a lot with a little: the human genome, which grows our body and directs us through years of complex life, requires less data than a laptop operating system. Even a cat’s brain smokes the newest iPad—1,000 times more data storage and a million times quicker to act on it.

Happy World Wetlands Day! February 2nd, as well as being Groundhog Day, is World Wetlands Day. It’s an important day in Canada partly because there are more wetlands in Canada than in any other country in the world

Happy World Wetlands Day! February 2nd, as well as being Groundhog Day, is World Wetlands Day. It’s an important day in Canada partly because there are more wetlands in Canada than in any other country in the world. Canada is home to about one quarter of the world’s wetlands, covering 14% of our country. Wetlands are important because they provide some essential services, including ecological services such as flood control and water filtration, to food production for wild rice and cranberries. Wetlands also create recreational opportunities such as fishing, wildlife viewing and canoeing. In honor of World Wetlands Day, the Nature Conservancy recently posted on their website 5 fun and easy ways to celebrate. 1. Thank wetlands as you drink a glass of water – wetlands play a key role in removing sediments, excess nutrients and even bacteria from our drinking water. 2. Visit a wetland and look for tracks left by the small mammals that make the wetlands their home. 3. Create your own wetland field guide by researching what animals live in the wetlands near your home. Make a list of wetland plants and animals, along with pictures, and you’ll have a checklist to use on your wetland visit. 4. Ensure that you dispose of hazardous wastes and chemicals properly, following guidelines set by your municipal government, to reduce the amount of toxins entering our water system. 5. Help the Nature Conservancy of Canada in protecting our wetlands. You can either make a donation or volunteer. Or sponsor them in cause related marketing for your business. Enjoy their television show A Force For Nature, their email newsletter, The Leaflet, and their member newsletter, The Ark

Picture of the Day: Santiago, Chile from Above SANTIAGO, CHILE FROM ABOVE Santiago, also Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile. It is located in the country’s central valley, at an

Picture of the Day: Santiago, Chile from Above SANTIAGO, CHILE FROM ABOVE Santiago, also Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile. It is located in the country’s central valley, at an elevation of 520 m (1,706.04 ft) above mean sea level. The city has a population of 5.4 million, with a the total metropolitan area totaling a staggering 7.2 million people. Chile’s steady economic growth has transformed Santiago into one of Latin America’s most modern metropolitan areas, with extensive suburban development, dozens of shopping centers, and impressive high-rise architecture. It has a very modern transport infrastructure, including the steadily growing underground Santiago Metro, an effort at modernizing public bus transport and a free flow toll-based ring road and inner city highway system, part of which is tun

- The Intrepid Experience - About Intrepid - Booking Intrepid Uganda Culture, Geography and History Culture and Customs of Uganda Uganda is home to many different tribal groups, and a wide variety of different customs

- The Intrepid Experience - About Intrepid - Booking Intrepid Uganda Culture, Geography and History Culture and Customs of Uganda Uganda is home to many different tribal groups, and a wide variety of different customs and traditions can be observed depending on where you travel in Uganda. Spontaneous dance and song is a hallmark of African culture and this is not an exception in Uganda, where tribes and villages will often greet groups of newcomers with rousing song and dance. Greeting others is a very important part of Ugandan culture and not greeting or acknowledging someone you are passing or meeting can be seen as impolite, especially in rural areas and villages. Shaking hands is an appropriate greeting when meeting someone for the first time and often both hands are given for a handshake. Food or drink is often extended to visitors, even though many Ugandans have very little, and it is viewed as impolite to decline an offer of food or hospitality. Accept willingly and graciously eat or drink what has been offered to you. Generally, most of Uganda’s population lives in rural or regional centres, although urban areas are rapidly expanding and modern influences are infiltrating Ugandan society at a fast rate. With this modernisation, some of the old ways are dying out as younger Ugandans become more adept at using technology, although many still live tribal lives based on hunting and agriculture. Geography and Environment of Uganda Uganda sits in East Africa and shares borders with Sudan, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Kenya. Despite being landlocked, Uganda still has access to fresh water via surrounding lakes (Lake Victoria, Lake Edward and Lake Albert). As a well-watered country with rich soil, much of Uganda’s land is used for agriculture and cash crops. Coffee, cotton, tea and tobacco plantations are common sights, as are farms of plantains, corn and cassava. The rest of the country is a combination of woodlands, swamp, forest and savanna, as well as pockets of protected nature reserves and national parks. History and Government of Uganda Inhabited by hunter-gatherer tribes for centuries, it's thought that the Hamitic people from neighbouring countries arrived sometime before 1000 AD, bringing with them knowledge of animal husbandry and agriculture. Migration from neighbouring countries continued, with tribespeople from Kenya and Tanzania flowing into Uganda well into the 16th century, as well as Arab traders moving inland from the coast and Christian missionaries arriving during the 1800s. Uganda came under colonial rule during the late 1800s, and was known as the Kingdom of Uganda under British rule. Colonial rule continued for many years until independence was granted in 1962. From 1971 to 1979, Uganda came under the rule of Idi Amin, hallmarked by a time of economic decline and human rights violations. By the time Amin had fled to Libya, many Ugandans were suffering from extreme economi

THE FATE OF ARECA from abuse to loss? In Southeast Asia—Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, and along the coast of China—and the Pacific Islands—from Indonesia, the Philippines, and east to Guam and

THE FATE OF ARECA from abuse to loss? In Southeast Asia—Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, and along the coast of China—and the Pacific Islands—from Indonesia, the Philippines, and east to Guam and Micronesia—a practice undertaken by about 600 million people is chewing betel nut, an activity akin to chewing Coca leaves as done in South America. These are nuts of the tree Areca catechu, a type of palm tree that is believed to have originated in the area of the Philippines and Malaysia and was then cultivated over a wide region. The nut (seed with the husk removed) is chewed with a pepper leaf (Piper betle) and a small amount of either lime (calcium oxide) or slaked lime (calcium hydroxide); various flavor ingredients, such as spices, can also be added, and tobacco might be included. The pepper leaf, known as the betel leaf, wraps up the ingredients into a ball, commonly called a quid, that is chewed. This practice is traced back at least 2,000 years in India, and appears to have been much older in some areas, based on archeological evidence of betel nuts in caves and remains of human teeth showing characteristic signs of the chewing. The main purpose of chewing the betel nut is to extract out the alkaloids, of which the dominant one is arecoline (related alkaloids present in smaller quantities are arecaidine, guvacoline, and guvacine) a process aided by the added lime (1). Additionally, betel chewing is a distracting activity like chewing gum or smoking a cigarette, and it can also serve as a focal point for socializing. The areca alkaloids are cholinergic agonists, which affect the nervous system functions via acetylcholine, and result in a stimulant action that increases capacity to work, and has euphoric effects with heightened alertness (as well as physical responses of increased salivation, warmth, and sweating). Other natural cholinergic agonists are muscarine (from Amanita mushrooms) and nicotine (from tobacco); arecoline interacts preferentially with the muscarinic receptors, rather than those affected by nicotine (nicotinic receptors). Muscarine is very toxic, arecoline is only mildly toxic. If too much betel nut is used at one time, the symptoms of Amanita poisoning will result: intense discharges, including production of saliva, tears, and sweat; diarrhea and vomiting (accompanied by nausea and stomach cramps); and urinary incontinence; other symptoms can include fever and flushing, confusion, difficulty walking, memory lapse, and anxiety. However, in ordinary amounts, chewing betel nut produces a desired response, which is a pleasant feeling. The positive effects lead many to use betel nut habitually; the extent ranges from occasional to frequent. Unfortunately, when people regularly chew betel nut, there can be adverse developments, particularly for the mouth, including inflammation (leukoplakia), fibrosis, and oral cancers (2). Frequent use has the effect of turning the lips red and the mouth black (though that is reversible after ceasing its use), and the teeth can be damaged. The carcinogenic agents in the betel quid are thought to be at least three of the constituents: arecoline, arecaidine, and safrole. Safrole, from the pepper leaf, is the ingredient in original root beer that led to reformulation of the product without its key flavor ingredient: the safrole rich sassafras bark. Arecoline and arecaidine from the nut may be promoters for other carcinogens (especially N-nitroso compounds with which they can combine); the areca alkaloids also contribute to changes in the oral mucosa that lead to the other detrimental oral effects. The evidence for carcinogenicity in humans is primarily based on findings such as this one (3) relayed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): Oral cancers are more common in parts of the world where betel quid is chewed. Of the 390,000 oral and oro-pharyngeal cancers estimated to occur annually in the world, 228,000 (58%) occur in South and South-East Asia. In some parts of India, oral cancer is the most common cancer. Striking evidence has emerged from Taiwan, where the incidence of oral cancer in men has tripled since the early 1980s, coinciding with a steep rise since the early 1970s and predominantly among men, in the practice of chewing betel quid. Tobacco generally is not added to the betel quid in that region. The absence of tobacco in the Taiwanese quids, helps avoid the objection that it is inclusion of tobacco in the chewing material that is causing oral cancers. In addition, it is suspected, though not proven, that regular chewing of betel nut also increases the occurrence of other cancers besides those of the mouth. Areca Nut in Chinese Medicine Chinese herbalists have used betel nut for centuries in herbal decoctions and pills. The inner portion (areca seed; binglan

The Sahel region of West Africa is recovering from its third major food crisis in seven years, which affected 18.7 million people in 2012. Drought, poor harvests, high food prices and a drop in remittances

The Sahel region of West Africa is recovering from its third major food crisis in seven years, which affected 18.7 million people in 2012. Drought, poor harvests, high food prices and a drop in remittances from relatives forced to flee conflicts in Libya and Ivory Coast put millions at risk, aid agency Oxfam said. Nine countries were hit, particularly Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. Parts of Chad, Senegal, Gambia, Cameroon and Nigeria were also affected. In Niger, many families had not yet fully recovered from the previous drought in 2010 and had even less to fall back on in 2012 than they did then, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. Whereas droughts in 2005 and 2010 were felt most in Niger and parts of Chad, the food crisis in 2012 affected the entire region. Food prices in the region were much higher than they had been in 2010, WFP said. Conflict in Mali displaced tens of thousands of people and made it difficult for aid agencies to reach the most vulnerable in the north of the country. Most agencies withdrew their international staff from the area. Many of those displaced fled to areas with limited food and water supplies. Apart from Senegal and Burkina Faso, all affected governments were quick to declare an emergency, devise plans and call in international aid, according to the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter. But governments in the region need to invest more in local agriculture and acknowledge that trade and aid cannot provide all the answers, especially when international grain prices are so high, De Schutter said. The number needing aid in 2013 is 10.3 million, according to U.N. figures. The number of children in need of urgent aid has risen from 1 million to 1.4 million. Although the situation has improved following better rains and harvests in the last few months, it will take farmers some time to recover the assets they lost in the crisis, and many did not have the resources to plant crops in 2012. The rebellion in northern Mali, and the regional military response to it, will have profound effects in 2013 on Mali and its neighbours, the United Nations said. Many people are likely to flee their homes in 2013 and food production will be affected in conflict-hit areas where farmers are unable to work in their fields, Plan International said in January 2013. For more see: W. African food crisis 2010 - Thomson Reuters Foundation W. African food crisis 2005 - Thomson Reuters Foundation

The Egyptian Mau is one of the oldest breeds of domesticated cats on the planet. So old, there are pictographs from the tombs of ancient Egypt depicting theses small, yet highly prized creatures. One papyrus from 1100

The Egyptian Mau is one of the oldest breeds of domesticated cats on the planet. So old, there are pictographs from the tombs of ancient Egypt depicting theses small, yet highly prized creatures. One papyrus from 1100 BC shows the Egyptian god Ra in the form of a spotted cat beheading a rival along with even earlier drawings from thousands of years ago. The word “mau” is Egyptian for cat and may have come from the noise they made while hunting. Although most evidence is lost to history, the Mau is considered the direct descendant of the African Wild Cat, the animal from which it is believed all modern domestic cats developed. Domestication occurred between 4000 and 2000 BC. The Mau is only one of two domestic cat breeds with naturally occurring spots (the other the Bahraini Dilmun Cat). Ocicats and Bengal cats are modern crosses between other cats or cats and wildcats that create spots. The Cat Fancier’s Association (CFA) considers the Mau to be a living relic. Cats were revered in ancient Egypt and played an important role in religion, mythology and even everyday life. The cats were regarded as stealth hunters and were important for clearing rodents and were especially adept at hunting birds. But they were also worshipped as gods and even mummified for a life after death while their families would shave their eyebrows in mourning. Egyptian law also protected the cats and harming one was punishable by death. Like most ancient cat breeds, through the centuries, purebred Maus grew smaller in number as cats and mankind spread around the Earth. But the Mau, like most “exotic” cat breeds such as the Siamese and the Burmese, had a resurgence in popularity in the early 1900s and appeared in cat shows around Europe. By World War II the Mau once again became rare with only a handful of them found in Italy. However, a chance meeting with modern royalty changed the course of Mau history. Shortly before WWII, Princess Nathalie Troubetskoy of the Russian monarchy was living in exile in Italy. The story says that a young boy gave her a silver spotted female kitten that he had been given by a Middle Eastern diplomat. She named this cat Baba. Using her political connections, she learned the cat was an Egyptian Mau and she obtained several males from the Syrian Embassy and began breeding the cats herself. In 1956 she immigrated to the US bringing some of the cats with her and established a cattery. It is believed that all North American Maus can trace some of their ancestry back to her original Italian finds. Her cats were accepted into the Cat Fanciers’ Federation in 1968 and in 1972 a silver Egyptian Mau bred by the princess became the first Mau named Grand Champion of the Canadian Cat Association. The Mau was accepted into the CFA in 1977. Egyptian Maus are extremely dignified, graceful and intelligent beings. They come in a variety of colors from black to blue although only Silver, Bronze and Smoke are allowed in championship competition. Even if not eligible for showing, all Maus make excellent pets as they are lovingly devoted to their families. Maus are covered with random spots and also have the tabby marking “M” on their foreheads and at least one “necklace” marking around their throats. Their eyes are green and have “mascara” lines around them, which make look like their wild ancestors. It is also believed that the elaborate mascara the ancient Egyptians wore was to make their eyes appear like the Mau. Another interesting fact is that Maus are the fastest domestic cats having been clocked at a top speed of 36 MPH. While the Egyptian Mau’s exotic looks are what first attract people to them, it is their personalities that keep cat lovers wanting more. They love to play with toys, even fetch, and while not talkative, they do let their families know what’s on their minds. While these cats are quite popular in North America and Europe, with kittens fetching thousands of dollars for breeders, the Maus of Egypt are having a more difficult time. With the recent troubles in Egypt the Egyptian Mau is once again under duress as many cats are living on the streets in their native country and suffering from poisoning, malnutrition and disease. The Egyptian Mau Rescue Organization (EMRO) is based inCairo and dedicated to rescuing this living antiquity. The organization assists both local and international adoptions of tame Maus along with vet clinics, boarding and humane education. The organization is a registered non-profit in Egypt (NGO or Non-Governmental Organization) and receives funding only through private donations. To learn more about the organization, visit their website or their Facebook Page. There is also a special webpage for North American Mau adoptions.

Researchers at a Texas university have designed a chip that could give smartphones the long-envied ability of comic book hero Superman to see through walls, clothes or other objects. A team at University of Texas at Dallas tuned a small, inexpensive microchip to

Researchers at a Texas university have designed a chip that could give smartphones the long-envied ability of comic book hero Superman to see through walls, clothes or other objects. A team at University of Texas at Dallas tuned a small, inexpensive microchip to discern a "terahertz" band of the electromagnetic spectrum. The design works with chips made using CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) technology behind processors commonly found in personal computers, smartphones, televisions and videogame consoles. "CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips," electrical engineering professor Kenneth O said in a statement. "The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and a transmitter on the back of a cellphone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects." To assuage privacy worries, the professor and his team at the Texas Analogue Center of Excellence are limiting their study to what the chips can make visible at distances of four inches (10cm) or less, according to the university. The terahertz band has wavelengths that fall between microwaves used for mobile phone signals and infrared that is employed for night vision goggles. The chip designed by O's team detects terahertz waves and shows the resulting imagery, perhaps on a smartphone screen. O's team highlighted potential medical uses such as enabling doctors to peer easily into patients' bodies and practical applications along the lines of finding studs in walls. "We've created approaches that open a previously untapped portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for consumer use," O said. "There are all kinds of things you could be able to do that we just haven't yet thought about." - AFP/Relaxnews 2012

SILVERY trails of slime trace the path of a slow-motion rampage. These are the telltale signs that slugs or snails have somehow found a crack in your defences and invaded your flowerbed, greenhouse or even your home.

SILVERY trails of slime trace the path of a slow-motion rampage. These are the telltale signs that slugs or snails have somehow found a crack in your defences and invaded your flowerbed, greenhouse or even your home. But while such domestic problems can usually be solved with a few strategically placed slug pellets, the trails pose a sticky conundrum for biologists. It's not easy being slimy. Making mucus is an exceptionally expensive mode of transport. And to what end? Other animals manage to creep around in a similar fashion without producing a bed of slime. So why do the slugs and snails that live in our gardens and on our seashores ooze mucus? What's becoming clear is that there are hidden benefits lurking in the creatures' slime. The animals recoup some of the costs of their expensive locomotion by putting their slimy tracks to a wide range of uses, from... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

How do children learn that they have a brain, and become aware of what it does for them? How do they learn about its complexities? According to Eric Chudler, Ph.D., creator of the Neuroscience for Kids Web site, children learn

How do children learn that they have a brain, and become aware of what it does for them? How do they learn about its complexities? According to Eric Chudler, Ph.D., creator of the Neuroscience for Kids Web site, children learn about the five senses early in their education. By kindergarten or first grade, many know that the brain receives the incoming information from the senses. As they become older, they begin to recognize movement, thinking, emotions, language, and memory as functions of their brains—and of all human brains. “From parents, many children learn early on that they should protect their brains. This includes things like wearing helmets and wearing seatbelts,” says Chudler. “Parents might also tell their kids to eat properly so their brains get enough energy, or to go to sleep to get enough rest. In school, children will learn more specifics about the structure and function of the brain.” Just as literacy about the brain has spread among adults, it needs to grow among the young. How should parents and educators go about teaching children about the body’s most complicated organ? Whether you are teaching a classroom unit about the brain or sharing your enthusiasm for the subject with a daughter, grandson, or young friend, start with a few good books. Any library can supply you with children’s books about the brain, but a dull, inaccurate, or outdated book can be worse than none at all. A well-written and illustrated children’s book, though, can help spark the imagination of the next generation of scientists, doctors, and citizens. Children’s boo

World’s first teeth grew outside of mouth before moving into oral cavityPublished On: Fri, Nov 18th, 2011 | Dental Health | By BioNews The world’s first teeth grew outside of the mouth before later moving into the

World’s first teeth grew outside of mouth before moving into oral cavityPublished On: Fri, Nov 18th, 2011 | Dental Health | By BioNews The world’s first teeth grew outside of the mouth before later moving into the oral cavity, a new study has claimed. Scales on the exterior of the prehistoric shark-resembling fish appear to have evolved into teeth, and these were retained among most vertebrates and were passed down to multiple species, including humans. The study supports what is known as the “outside-in” hypothesis of tooth evolution, but negates “inside-out” theory, which holds that the first teeth emerged from structures in the pharynx progressing into the mouth. The first teeth and smile were likely flashed by small and spiny shark-like fishes rather than the fictional Cheshire cat, who’s smile seemed to have a life of its own. “The first smile would probably have been a prickly one, with many tiny teeth that looked like pointy cheek scales, and other small tooth-like scales wrapping around the lips onto the outside of the head,” Discovery News quoted Mark Wilson, co-author of the study as saying. Stephanie Blais and her colleagues from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta studied animals called ischnacanthid acanthodians, an extinct group of fish that resembled sharks. The ischnacanthid acanthodians lived during the Early Devonian period, which lasted from 416 to 397 million years ago. The researchers determined that head scales from these fish were in transition, evolving from scales to teeth, and the pointy structures were identified on the lips of the fish. “Our findings support the idea that teeth evolved from modified pointed scales on the mouth margins lips as we see in Obtusacanthus,” Blais said. The study has been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

If you take a bunch of random particles and put them together, why should a pole form on each side of this collection? Some particles already have a magnetic field. Many particles are polar, such that they will orient themselves in a magnetic field.

If you take a bunch of random particles and put them together, why should a pole form on each side of this collection? Some particles already have a magnetic field. Many particles are polar, such that they will orient themselves in a magnetic field. If you jumble them all together, they will self align, and eventually one strong field will be externally detectable even though their individual fields were small and unorganized at the start. Perform this experiment: Drop a bunch of magnetic powder and dirt into a bag. Shake vigorously. What is the resulting clump's magnetic signature? Is it in practice possible to create a device capable of canceling the earth's magnetic field in a region the size of the north sea? No. What you want is a Helmholtz coil, adjusted electronically to react to the earth's changing field. However, the area of the field required, even though it would be relatively low magnetic force, would require entirely too much energy to be practical. Further, an ideal Helmholtz coil, where the field is uniformly 0 everywhere inside the coils, requires essentially a cubic structure. The North Sea is 970 KM long, and thus the coils would need to be 970KM in diameter, vertically oriented, buried a significant portion of that depth into the ground on either side of the north sea. Further, it would really mess up the compasses of people traveling anywhere near the coils, not to mention other animals that appear to depend on magnetic fields, such as some migrating birds.

Some of the most fascinating photographs are those made under adverse weather conditions. You’ve seen the pictures. They are phenomenal shots, ones that you’re sure you could take under the same circumstances, but they were shot when the climate was such that you

Some of the most fascinating photographs are those made under adverse weather conditions. You’ve seen the pictures. They are phenomenal shots, ones that you’re sure you could take under the same circumstances, but they were shot when the climate was such that you would rather be inside, enjoying the warmth and comfort of your own home. Well, when photographing lighting, you can have it both ways. Lightning is very dangerous, and where it will strike next is completely unpredictable. It must be treated with utmost respect, and should only be watched from a safe distance, and from inside a building that is adequately grounded. That’s where you should be when photographing lightning. This is fortunate for those of us who enjoy a photographic challenge, but also want some comfort along with it. Lightning can occur at any time of the day or night, but it can only be photographed after dark. The reason is that the duration of a flash of lightning is so short that you would not be able to press the shutter release fast enough to capture it on film. To photograph lightning, the camera’s shutter must remain open. When the lightning strikes, it will expose the film. Leaving the shutter open during the day would drastically overexpose the film, and if you got any image at all, you would not see the lightning. To photograph lightning, you’ll need a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. In order to hold the shutter open for an extended length of time, the camera should have a “B” setting on the shutter speed dial. This is standard on most film SLRs. The camera must have manual exposure capabilities. It should also be a camera that can be focused manually. You will want to focus on infinity because, hopefully, the lightning will strike at least a half mile from you. You will also need a tripod and cable release, or some other means of keeping the camera steady so the shutter can remain open for a considerable length of time. The basic technique for photographing lightning is really quite simple. When a thunderstorm is predicted, set the camera up in a window facing the direction in which you anticipate the lightning to be the most prominent, and wait. But don’t wait until a lightning storm is upon you before setting up. Be prepared, and let the storm come to you. Most storms originate in the west, so this is probably the direction in which you will want to face, although lightning can strike from any direction. If possible, photograph lightning through an open window. If this can’t be done because of the weather or other reasons, at least remove or avoid shooting through a window screen. A screen will soften the image and give it an out-of-focus effect. Important: All lights in the room from which you are shooting must be turned off so there is no other illumination that could expose the film. Lock the door if there is any possibility that it could be opened inadvertently by an intruder. It is also important that there are no bright outside light sources, such as streetlights, in line with the lens. These would also expose the film. You might want to avoid pointing the camera toward a street where car headlights could shine into the lens. On the other hand, if the street is some distance from the camera and is placed very low in the image frame, headlights from one or two cars should cause no great problem, and, along with lightning, the overall effect could be quite interesting. Next time we’ll cover lightning from the standpoint of film or digital, exposure, and more on composition.

Liposuction may yield more than just a leaner figure – it can potentially produce stem cells for tissue reconstruction. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma, in Norman, Okla., have successfully extracted adult stem cells during liposuction and used

Liposuction may yield more than just a leaner figure – it can potentially produce stem cells for tissue reconstruction. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma, in Norman, Okla., have successfully extracted adult stem cells during liposuction and used them to generate healthy blood vessels. These newly formed blood vessels can be used in heart bypass surgery and other complicated procedures requiring healthy vessels, according to the researchers, who presented their findings at the American Heart Association’s Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2012 Scientific Sessions. While stem cells are typically derived from other sources in the body, the researchers said liposuction-derived stem cells could be useful for an elderly demographic. “For doing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, people who get that are typically elderly, frequently diabetic and usually pretty sick,” Matthias Nollert, associate professor at the University of Oklahoma School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering and the study’s lead author, told FoxNews.com. “The more typical way for getting stem cells from adults for transplantation is to extract cells from the bone marrow.” “However, you can’t extract bone marrow very easily,” Nollert explained. “It’s a very invasive procedure and patients don’t tolerate it well, so we were looking for alternate source of adult stem cells for older, sicker patients.” Extracting adipose-derived stem cells – or stem cells derived from fat tissue – would be less invasive and also gets rid of unnecessary body fat in the process. According to Nollert, creating tissues from fat stem cells is a fairly new science, having only been experimented with in the past decade. Nollert and his team are the first to create a vascular graft out of fat stem cells with muscle cells making up the blood vessel’s wall. To create the vascular graft, the researchers turned the stem cells into smooth muscle cells in the lab and “seeded” them onto a thin coll

Twin Transistor RAM |Computer memory types| |Early stage NVRAM| TTRAM is similar to conventional one-transistor, one-capacitor DRAM in concept, but eliminates the capacitor by relying on the floating body effect

Twin Transistor RAM |Computer memory types| |Early stage NVRAM| TTRAM is similar to conventional one-transistor, one-capacitor DRAM in concept, but eliminates the capacitor by relying on the floating body effect inherent in a silicon on insulator (SOI) manufacturing process. This effect causes capacitance to build up between the transistors and the underlying substrate, originally considered a nuisance, but here used to replace a part outright. Since a transistor created using the SOI process is somewhat smaller than a capacitor, TTRAM offers somewhat higher densities than conventional DRAM. Since prices are strongly related to density, TTRAM is theoretically less expensive. However the requirement to be built on SOI fab lines, which are currently the “leading edge”, makes the cost somewhat unpredictable at this point. In the TTRAM memory cell, two transistors are serially connected on an SOI substrate. One is an access transistor, while the other is used as a storage transistor and fulfils the same function as the capacitor in a conventional DRAM cell. Data reads and writes are performed according to the conduction state of the access transistor and the floating-body potential state of the storage transistor. The fact that TTRAM memory cell operations don't require a step-up voltage or negative voltage, as DRAM cells do, makes the new cell design suitable for use with future finer processes and lower operating voltages. With the Renesas TTRAM, a read signal from a memory cell appears as a difference in the transistor on-current. A current-mirror type sense amplifier detects this difference at high speed, using a reference memory cell that allows reliable identification of the 0 and 1 data levels. This reading method significantly decreases power consumption by eliminating the charging and discharging of bit lines, operations required for reading DRAM memory cells. A similar technology is Z-RAM, which uses only a single transistor and is thus even higher density than TTRAM. Like TTRAM, Z-RAM relies on the floating body effect of SOI, and presumably has a similar manufacturing process. Z-RAM also claims to be faster, as fast as SRAM used in cache, which makes it particularly interesting for CPU designs which are being built on SOI lines anyway. TTRAM should not be confused with TT-RAM, Atari's name for a special bank of DRAM in Atari TT030 personal computers. - Renesas develops capacitor-less TTRAM - Renesas Technology develops capacitorless twin-transistor RAM, enabling faster, more power-efficient embedded memory for SoC devices |This computer hardware article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|

Neurotoxin Found in Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 7, 2011 (ENS) – A potent toxic chemical that affects the nervous system has been identified in the bodies of Crit

Neurotoxin Found in Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 7, 2011 (ENS) – A potent toxic chemical that affects the nervous system has been identified in the bodies of Critically Endangered Hawaiian monk seals. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, have found that Hawaiian monk seals are exposed to ciguatoxin, a toxin produced by marine algae common on coral reefs. “This work provides first confirmation that Hawaiian monk seals are exposed to significant levels of ciguatoxins and first evidence of transfer of ciguatoxin to marine mammals,” the researchers write in their report. Monks seals rest on shoreline rocks, Molokai, Hawaii, February 2011 (Photo by Gail Koza) Ciguatoxins are potent neurotoxins that concentrate in fish preyed upon by the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, Monachus schauinslandi. “Based upon this study, we believe that ciguatoxin exposure is common in the monk seal population,” said Charles Littnan, study co-author and scientist with NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. The scientists suspect ciguatoxin exposure might be linked to the ongoing decline of these seals, whose numbers are estimated at between 1,100 and 1,200. “This study is an important first step. However, we still need to understand more clearly how widespread exposure is and more importantly what role it may be playing in the decline of the species,” said Littnan. Monk seals were sampled throughout the Hawaiian Islands, including in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. The samples were then shipped to NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina for toxin analyses. Tissue analysis from dead stranded animals revealed ciguatoxin activity in brain, liver, and muscle, while analysis of blood samples from 55 free-ranging animals revealed detectable levels of ciguatoxin activity in 19 percent of the animals. The chemical threat could pose “management challenges” for this endangered marine mammal species, which has been dwindling at four percent annually due to poor foraging success and other environmental and human factors, the researchers write in their report. The only previous report for Hawaiian monk seal ciguatoxin exposure occurred during a 1978 mortality event when two seal liver extracts tested positive by mouse bioassay. The Hawaiian monk seal is considered to be a special treasure in the Hawaiian islands. Native to the islands, they are one of

Six State Consortium In 1993, Maine - along with 5 other states (Washington, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, Kansas and South Carolina) - began a prevention needs assessment project called the Six State Consortium. The Social Development Research Group

Six State Consortium In 1993, Maine - along with 5 other states (Washington, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, Kansas and South Carolina) - began a prevention needs assessment project called the Six State Consortium. The Social Development Research Group (SDRG) at the University of Washington served as technical consultants for the six-state federal contract. The project was funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project had three components: School Surveys, Archival Data Collection, and a Household Telephone Survey. The results of this project are presented in Substance Abuse Prevention Maine's 1997 Data Report (PDF). (The free Adobe Acrobat Reader is necessary to view this PDF document. Printouts of this document are available upon request.)

Most Active Stories Fri June 28, 2013 Fireworks meant for fun--not fire LANSING, MI (AP)-- With summer underway and the Fourth of July fast approaching, Michigan officials are urging caution with campfires

Most Active Stories Fri June 28, 2013 Fireworks meant for fun--not fire LANSING, MI (AP)-- With summer underway and the Fourth of July fast approaching, Michigan officials are urging caution with campfires and fireworks. Fire prevention specialist Ada Takacs of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources says the best way to avoid risk is to attend public fireworks displays and "leave the lighting to the professionals." But if you do light fireworks, the DNR recommends a number of safety tips. Sparklers should be placed in a bucket of water after the spark is gone. Point fireworks away from homes — and keep them away from brush, leaves and other things that burn. Campfires should be built inside fire rings. Never leave a campfire unattended, and keep water and a shovel nearby. Be sure to put your fire out completely before turning in for the night.

This is called induction. You assume it's true for n=k. Then, if it's true for k, you show that it must also be true for k+1. Then, show it's true for n=1. That means

This is called induction. You assume it's true for n=k. Then, if it's true for k, you show that it must also be true for k+1. Then, show it's true for n=1. That means it's true for n=2, thus 3, and so on. So, assume that 1+2+3+...+k = k(k+1)/2 Assuming our hypothesis is tur for n=k, that means that 1+2+3+...+k+1 = k(

"It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof." (p. 6)Walden is a well known book. Just about everyone knows that it is

"It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof." (p. 6)Walden is a well known book. Just about everyone knows that it is about some guy who lived in the woods, but how many people can accurately tell you what his message was? A summary, or even a comprehensive review, does not suffice. People need to read Thoreau's actual words to get the full and complete picture. McKibben provides an outstanding introduction to this version of Thoreau's classic which points out why this book is still important for people entering the 21st Century. The times have changed but many aspects of the message are as applicable today--if not more so--as ever. McKibben (correctly IMO) identifies the two questions Thoreau presents the reader: How much is enough? and How do I know what I want? Thoreau doesn't pretend to answer these questions for the reader. He doesn't even necessarily want the reader to follow his lifestyle. Rather, like Emerson, he wants to get the reader to at least think through some of the basic questions of life that few stop to think about. Interestingly, McKibben points out in the very first footnote he provides in Walden that "you will get very little from Walden if you read it hunting for contradictions". Although the contradictions are abundant, I think they should be hunted for or at least acknowledged by any reader. Thoreau included the contradictions on purpose to illustrate a major theme of the book--a diversity of opinions and ideas should be explored. Contradictions are only a problem if you are arguing that both of the items are true. Instead, Thoreau uses them to provoke thoughtfulness and open-mindedness. He would have probably agreed with Martin Wells when Wells said that "principles are as often as not an excuse to stop thinking". Look at the issues from various vantage points is Thoreau's message. For about the first half of the book, Thoreau questions the lifestyles people choose. The remainder is largely filled with nature writing that has a strong philosophical undertone. During this section you almost want to read most things twice--once with your nature-lover's cap on and once trying to figure out the metaphor Thoreau may be trying to get across. In questioning the lives of others the reader is forced to wonder if they have chosen the kind of life that will really offer them happiness. Are they merely living a career or some other narrowly focused routine or is a worthwhile life being lived? Thoreau wonders if the truly valuable elements of life are being taken advantage of if a person isn't living simply. If a person is so caught up in working or never having enough then life, its wonders, and satisfaction are difficult to obtain. As he states near the very beginning (p. 4), "Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them." It is doubtful that Thoreau would own a car if he was around now, but if he did it would likely have a bumper sticker on it that says, "He who dies with the most toys loses". The chase is better than the catch even though people don't seem to understand this and instead live from one unsatisfying catch to the next. Thoreau describes the wonder of this chase and the disappointment of the catch via a thought-provoking story on pages 261-2. Thoreau encourages a deeper look at life. Too many are content with the surface, with going along with the flow, and merely following tradition. Thoreau wants us to look not at the "sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself!" (p. 15) The descriptions of Walden Pond later in the book show by example that Thoreau was able to observe things on the pond that no casual observer would have the privilege of experiencing. I highly recommend this classic to any and all thinkers, nature lovers, and people who aren't satisfied with their life and need something to spark them in a new direction. "In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to

Where is Tibet? Tibet is a plateua in Asia located north of the Himalayan mountains. India, China, and Nepal are her neighbors. Tibet was invaded by China in the 1950s. Many Tibetans fled their country to India

Where is Tibet? Tibet is a plateua in Asia located north of the Himalayan mountains. India, China, and Nepal are her neighbors. Tibet was invaded by China in the 1950s. Many Tibetans fled their country to India and Nepal. Children of these refugees are growing up in exile wondering where their homeland is. In the children's book Where is Tibet? author Gina Halpern writes of the

where does "native yeast" actually come from? I posted this question as part of an answer in another forum, but it really belongs here. Are these native yeasts we use for sourdough actually from the surrounding environment, or are they

where does "native yeast" actually come from? I posted this question as part of an answer in another forum, but it really belongs here. Are these native yeasts we use for sourdough actually from the surrounding environment, or are they perhaps just hiding in the wheat, deposited there in the field or in the mill? That is, are they really native to my kitchen (in Texas), or maybe native to somewhere like Montana, where my hard winter wheat comes from? I suspect there are yeasts from both places that end up in my sourdough, but it is by no means clear which one is dominant. I guess if one wanted to ensure that local native yeasts were dominant, one might sterilize the flour, perhaps by hydrating it with chlorinated water, and just letting the chlorine evaporate. To test for flour-resident yeast, could just cultivate the starter with flour and water in a sealed container, and see if anything grows. Anyone done these things? Would be interesting to be read something for bakers about native yeasts for bread from a yeast biologist. Anything out there in the literature?

Metabolic syndrome affects approximately 20-30% of the population in industrialized countries, and encompasses a group of medical risk factors such as lack of exercise, central obesity and high blood pressure. In combination, these risk factors increase the likelihood of

Metabolic syndrome affects approximately 20-30% of the population in industrialized countries, and encompasses a group of medical risk factors such as lack of exercise, central obesity and high blood pressure. In combination, these risk factors increase the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disorders and diabetes. People with metabolic syndrome are three times more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular disease than those without a metabolic syndrome. Therefore, reducing mortality in metabolic syndrome sufferers is of high importance. In a research article published this week in BMC Medicine, Dorthe Stensvold and colleagues followed a large cohort of people with metabolic syndrome for a decade and assessed them for rates of mortality in relation to levels of exercise. Physical activity was associated with a lower risk of death, and this occurred in a dose dependent fashion, with higher levels of physical activity being associated with lower risks of mortality. However, strikingly, even a low level of physical activity was associated with reduced mortality compared with being inactive. This research highlights the importance of physical activity, and its role in reducing the risk of premature death in those with metabolic syndrome.

Incidentally, as the Olympic torch makes its way to Beijing I've noticed several press references to the modern German origins of the Olympic torch ceremony. The New York Times ran a good article on it that highlighted Leni Riefenstahl's

Incidentally, as the Olympic torch makes its way to Beijing I've noticed several press references to the modern German origins of the Olympic torch ceremony. The New York Times ran a good article on it that highlighted Leni Riefenstahl's role in creating the myth of the torch run out of Wagnerian allusions and giving it a contemporary political meaning: Reportedly, Jody Foster has purchased the rights to Leni Riefenstahl's autobiography and will portray her in a movie, but that project seems to have been hung up for years. Riefenstahl is such a fascinating figure that I can't understand why she hasn't received far more critical attention. Sergei Eisenstein can be studied and even revered for his brilliant and original films despite the fact that those films served the political interests of the Soviet Union. But evidently not all Political Cinema is the same, and the special opprobrium that attaches to Nazism prevents treating Riefenstahl apart from her political context. So Riefenstahl [in her film Olympia] creates the myth the Greeks never got around to telling, creating a filmic counterpart to the opening of Wagner’s “Ring,” in which an entire world gradually emerges from elemental fragments...... Humanity is given its purpose; the relay begins. The torch is conveyed from one bearer to the next and ends in Berlin at a 110,000-seat stadium where it ignites an altar of flame. Through shimmering heat the sun itself can be seen, vibrating in sympathy. And Hitler salutes the cheering crowds...... This passing of the torch thus demonstrates a lineage of inheritance — a historical relay — making Nazi Germany the living heir to Ancient Greece. A claim was being staked. Personally, I find someone like Riefenstahl all the more fascinating for the fact that her high artistry was put to an atrocious political purpose. Another such figure is Jacques-Louis David, the great Neoclassical painter who served the French Revolution's Reign of Terror as, in effect, its artistic director. Studying David's paintings, like Riefenstahl's movies, is a great way to access the self-image of the mass movements they romanticised, and maybe to understand the appeal they held for so many.

Amending the Constitution an Uphill Battle for State Senator The leader of Indiana's State Senate wants to amend the U.S. Constitution as it has never been amended, using state legislatures to call for a constitutional convention. History shows he has

Amending the Constitution an Uphill Battle for State Senator The leader of Indiana's State Senate wants to amend the U.S. Constitution as it has never been amended, using state legislatures to call for a constitutional convention. History shows he has an uphill battle. Republican Senator David Long wants Indiana to become the first of what he hopes will be 34 legislatures to propose a convention to amend the constitution. But while this is one of two ways to amend as outlined in Article 5 of the Constitution, it has never been successful. Political scientist Georgia Wralstad Ulmschneider of IPFW says there are too many things that can go wrong in organizing a convention, not to mention participants with multiple agendas at work. Ulmschneider says the use of the legislative amendment method has come close to being a success twice. The first was in the late 1960's when an amendment was proposed to overturn a pair of U.S. Supreme Court decisions requiring states to adhere to the one man, one vote principal in the drawing of districts for state and federal elections. A convention resolution was passed by 33 states, one shy of what was required, when the amendment's main support, Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, died in 1969. The second convention movement to come close was in the early 1980's, when 32 states approved resolutions supportive of a balanced budget amendment. Long is hopeful that a constitutional convention would consider amendments that would limit the federal government's use of the Commerce clause as well as limit federal taxing authority. But Ulmschneider says nothing in Article 5 outlines procedures for conventions, such as the selection of delegates or topics to be covered. While Long says those topics would be covered in the resolution, Ulmschneider says even holding a convention is no guarantee that the amendments would be approved by delegates, nor approved by three-quarters of states after the convention takes place.

Intel has reached a milestone in its Tera-Scale research programme to develop massively parallel computer systems, delivering a 48-core processor designed for energy efficiency. The so-called single-chip cloud computer includes a high-speed on-chip network for sharing

Intel has reached a milestone in its Tera-Scale research programme to develop massively parallel computer systems, delivering a 48-core processor designed for energy efficiency. The so-called single-chip cloud computer includes a high-speed on-chip network for sharing information and new power management techniques. The 48 cores will use 25W when idle, or 125W when running at maximum performance, which is equivalent to today's Intel processors. "With a chip like this, you could imagine a cloud datacentre of the future which will be an order of magnitude more energy-efficient than what exists today, saving significant resources on space and power costs," said Justin Rattner, head of Intel Labs and Intel's chief technology officer. Researchers from Intel, HP and Yahoo's Open Cirrus collaboration have begun porting cloud applications to the 48-core chip using Hadoop, a Java software framework supporting data-intensive, distributed applications.

Pyramids of Giza As you step out of Time Machine 7, you are hit by a wave of heat. You and Ms. Bamboo are draped in white to reflect the sun’s heat so both of you can stay cool. In

Pyramids of Giza As you step out of Time Machine 7, you are hit by a wave of heat. You and Ms. Bamboo are draped in white to reflect the sun’s heat so both of you can stay cool. In the distance you can see a giant pyramid with two smaller pyramids. An Egyptian brings a camel to you and you get on, thus beginning your journey to the Pyramids of Giza. Meanwhile, Ms. Bamboo stays behind to sunbathe. After traveling for three hours, you have finally arrived at the site of the pyramids. The largest pyramid, or the Great Pyramid, stands before you. You look up and are blinded by the shining gold peak of the pyramid. When you regain your sight, you see the Egyptian king before you. The pharaoh steps out of a mass of palm leaves used for shade and the queen follows him. Then the king greets you, “Welcome to the Pyramids of Giza.” Author: Scarre, Chris Title: Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World Place of publication: London, England Publishing company: Thames & Hudson Copyright date: © 1999 Author: Ash, Russell Title: Great Wonders of the World Place of publication: New York Publishing company: Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. Copyright date: © 2000 Author: Perrottet, Tony Date of publication: June 2004 Title of article: Journey to the Seven Wonders Title of periodical: Smithsonian Date retrieved: 2/8/08 Send mail to questions or comments about this web site.

A new university-public research partnership will help physicians and researchers work toward a better understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS), the development of novel treatments and ultimately the goal of finding a cure. The Oak Clinic/Kent State University Consortium for Multiple Sclerosis and

A new university-public research partnership will help physicians and researchers work toward a better understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS), the development of novel treatments and ultimately the goal of finding a cure. The Oak Clinic/Kent State University Consortium for Multiple Sclerosis and Neurodegenerative Disease Research combines the clinical expertise of physicians dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of MS patients with substantial expertise in basic neuroscience research by Kent State biomedical researchers. MS is a chronic, potentially disabling disease that affects the central nervous system and typically strikes individuals during their early adult years. The disease can be especially devastating due to the profound disability associated with its progression and its economic impact, since MS persists through what is often a normal lifespan. The interdisciplinary research group at Kent State is using advanced molecular techniques and three-dimensional imaging to visualize the basic mechanisms of MS, which have yet to be clearly understood. The consortium's use of advanced imaging techniques will provide a great deal more information to clinicians and scientists than is currently available through the use of two-dimensional images. Early diagnosis techniques and more effective treatments may potentially result. This technology also will be used to better track the effectiveness of current and future therapies. Use of high-resolution, three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging of the central nervous system is just one component of the consortium's efforts. Consortium scientists also are investigating a new hypothesis endorsed by the National Institutes of Health--that the destruction of nerves which underlies MS begins with changes to the internal machinery inside a cell rather than to destruction of the covering that normal nerve cells have. The Kent State approach complements standard MS research programs, in which the autoimm

Indian art and architecture Indus Valley Civilization The earliest Indian art emerged from the valley of the Indus River during the second half of the 3d millennium B.C. The best-known sites are Harappa, destroyed in the 19

Indian art and architecture Indus Valley Civilization The earliest Indian art emerged from the valley of the Indus River during the second half of the 3d millennium B.C. The best-known sites are Harappa, destroyed in the 19th cent., and Mohenjo-Daro; these are among the earliest examples of civic planning. Houses, markets, storage facilities, offices, and public baths were arranged in a gridlike scheme. There was also a highly developed drainage system. The Indus civilization produced many statuettes made of steatite and limestone. Some statuettes resemble the hieratic style of contemporary Mesopotamia, while others are done in the smooth, sinuous style that is the prototype of later Indian sculpture, in which the plastic modeling reveals the animating breath of life (prana). Also found in this region are square steatite seals adorned with a range of animals, including naturalistically rendered bulls; ceramic storage jars with simple, stylized designs; toys with wheels; and figurines, which may be mother goddesses. Bronze weapons, tools, and sculptures indicate a sophistication in craftsmanship rather than a major aesthetic development. Sections in this article: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. More on Indian art and architecture Indus Valley Civilization from Infoplease: See more Encyclopedia articles on: Asian and Middle Eastern Art

On the podcast this week, Michael Nelson, Associate Professor at Old Dominion University, developed, along with colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, “Memento,” a technical framework aimed at better integrating the current and the past web. In the

On the podcast this week, Michael Nelson, Associate Professor at Old Dominion University, developed, along with colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, “Memento,” a technical framework aimed at better integrating the current and the past web. In the past, archiving history involved collecting tangible things such as letters and newspapers. Now, Nelson points out, the web has become a primary medium with no serious preservation system in place. He discusses how the web is stuck in the perpetual now,

Cerebrovascular disorders refer to a number of conditions that in children are typically linked to congenital malformations (conditions the child was born with), of the arteries and/or veins that circulate the blood supply throughout the brain. Many of

Cerebrovascular disorders refer to a number of conditions that in children are typically linked to congenital malformations (conditions the child was born with), of the arteries and/or veins that circulate the blood supply throughout the brain. Many of these conditions can increase the risk for hemorrhage (excessive bleeding) or stroke due to compromised blood flow. In all of these cases, there is the risk of brain damage. Cerebrovascular disorders are generally rare in children, but among them are: More detail about some of these rare malformations: Aneurysms are rare in children and typically are due to congenital weakness of the walls of the arteries and veins. Sometimes these are discovered through testing for other conditions, and when found, surgery is frequently recommended because ruptures can result in hemorrhage. Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) result from non-development of the capillaries between arteries and veins. This produces an enlargement of the vessels, as they try to compensate and create pathways for the blood to flow, leading to a large tangle of vessels and abnormal or compromised blood flow. This disorder can affect the heart as well, and may even present as heart failure. AVMs can also put pressure on parts of the brain, blocking the flow of fluids and resulting in hydrocephalus. Moyamoya malformations are rare, progressive, cerebrovascular disorders caused by blocked arteries at the base of the brain. The term “moyamoya” means “puff of smoke” in Japanese, the language of the physicians who were the first to diagnose the condition. Moyamoya disease involves a tangle of tiny vessels

Unusual geology seen during Enceladus fly-by The NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft has obtained detailed images of the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. They reveal distinctive geological features and the most youthful

Unusual geology seen during Enceladus fly-by The NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft has obtained detailed images of the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. They reveal distinctive geological features and the most youthful terrain seen on the moon, pointing to a very complex evolution. Cassini's fly-by of 14 July brought it within 175 kilometres of the surface of the moon. The close encounter revealed a landscape near the south pole almost entirely free of impact craters. The area is also littered with house-sized ice boulders carved by unique tectonic patterns found only in this region of the moon. As Saturn's brightest, whitest satellite, Enceladus has the most reflective surface in the Solar System. Previous Cassini fly-bys revealed that, in contrast to Saturn's other icy moons, Enceladus has lightly cratered regions, fractured plains and ‘wrinkled’ terrain. The new findings add to the story of a body that has undergone multiple episodes of geological activity spanning a considerable portion of its lifetime. The moon's southernmost latitudes are likely to have seen the most recent activity. These same latitudes may also bear the scars of a shift in the moon's spin rate. If true, it may help scientists understand why Enceladus has a tortured-looking surface, with criss-crossing faults, folds and ridges. The most remarkable images show ice blocks about 10-100 metres across in a region that unusually lacks the very fine-grained frost that seems to cover the rest of the moon. Scientists did not expect a landscape littered with building-sized blocks. The minimal cover of finer material and the preservation of small, crossing fracture patterns in the surrounding areas indicate that this region is young compared to the rest of Enceladus. False colour composite views of this region, created from the most recent images, show the largest coverage of coarse-grained ice fractures seen anywhere on the moon, which also supports the notion of a young surface at southern latitudes. The images also revealed examples of distinctive ‘Y-shaped’ tectonic features. In these elements, parallel ridges and valleys appear to systematically fold and deform around the south polar terrains. Th

News Release Distributed 07/26/13By Allen Owings LSU AgCenter horticulturist HAMMOND, La. – One of the programs at the LSU AgCenter, “Louisiana Yards and Neighborhoods,” was

News Release Distributed 07/26/13By Allen Owings LSU AgCenter horticulturist HAMMOND, La. – One of the programs at the LSU AgCenter, “Louisiana Yards and Neighborhoods,” was developed several years ago to inform home gardeners about sustainable landscaping and home horticulture practices. The program is focused on seven landscape principles: – The right plant for the right place. – Water efficiently. – Maximize mulch and recycle organic materials. – Fertilize efficiently. – Manage pests. – Protect surface water and wetlands. – Provide for beneficial wildlife. The “right plant, right place” motto is frequently heard in horticultural circles these days. This simply advocates matching the plant to the planting location. Consider sun exposure at the planting site and the sun/shade recommendation of the plant going there. The same holds true for soil drainage, pH and other factors. We also need to give serious consideration to mature plant height and mature plant spread. Many times shrubs and trees are planted too close together and become overgrown in a short time. Watering efficiently is another yards and neighborhoods principle. We need to know the irrigation requirements of all the plants in our landscape; know the needs for our different lawn grasses. Centipede grass is less drought-tolerant than others. Water deeply and infrequently instead of watering shallowly and frequently. Using mulch in the landsc

In 1816, Coleridge's doctor sent a letter to a London physician named James Gillman, asking if Gillman would take in a patient desiring "to fix himself in the house of some medical gentleman, who will have courage

In 1816, Coleridge's doctor sent a letter to a London physician named James Gillman, asking if Gillman would take in a patient desiring "to fix himself in the house of some medical gentleman, who will have courage to refuse him any laudanum."21 Coleridge moved into the Gillman family home in the Highgate neighborhood of London, intending to stay a few weeks. He lived there until his death eighteen years later. Coleridge was never able to quit laudanum completely, but with Gillman's help he drastically reduced his intake. His health improved, and he began to write and lecture again with more clarity. Coleridge was the type of person whom people loved to be around, one who talked and made friends easily. The brilliance he exhibited when talking even outshone his writing. "Sometimes after an evening with him, [his friends] felt he had just talked a book greater than any he had written,"22 one scholar noted. He was also too smart for most people to keep up with. His nephew Henry Nelson Coleridge described his uncle's style as an "exhaustive, cyclical mode of discoursing" that followed "an almost miraculous logic."23 Devotees would come to visit him and leave dazed and confused by what they'd just heard. Coleridge's personal life was still in turmoil. He suffered from depression, and often felt that his work was inadequate. Many of his best lectures and essays were not published until after his death. His eldest son Hartley, a ne'er-do-well sort who had been kicked out of Oxford University for drunkenness, was a constant source of heartache. In 1822, while the pair strolled through London, Hartley asked to borrow some money and promised to meet his father later that evening. Instead Hartley skipped town, going on to fail at one career after another. A heartbroken Coleridge never saw his son again. On 25 July 1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge died of heart and lung problems at the London home of James Gillman. He was buried in the aisle of St. Michael's Church in Highgate. Charles Lamb, his longtime friend and fellow poet (who died just five months later), gave his eulogy. We think that they are the perfect, final words. "When I heard of the death of Coleridge, it was without grief. It seemed to me that he long had been on the confines of the next world,—that he had a hunger for eternity. I grieved then that I could not grieve. But since, I feel how great a part he was of me. His great and dear spirit haunts me. I cannot think a thought, I cannot make a criticism on men or books, without an ineffectual turning and reference to him. He was the proof and touchstone of all my cogitations.... Great in his writings, he was greatest in his conversation. In him was disproved that old maxim that we should allow every one his share of talk. He would talk from morn to dewy eve, nor cease till far midnight, yet who ever would interrupt him,—who would obstruct that continuous flow of converse, fetched from Heli

Health experts have known for decades that high levels of lead in the bloodstream can be bad for your health. But a new study has found that even low lead levels can have a harmful affect - particularly for pregnant women and their babies. The study

Health experts have known for decades that high levels of lead in the bloodstream can be bad for your health. But a new study has found that even low lead levels can have a harmful affect - particularly for pregnant women and their babies. The study, conducted at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, looked at the links between the level of lead in a pregnant woman's blood and her blood pressure at the time she was admitted to the hospital to deliver her baby. Researchers found that even low lead levels - levels that are currently thought to be safe - are associated with blood pressure increases both at the time the woman is admitted to the hospital and throughout her labor and delivery. For the study, researchers measured umbilical cord lead levels after the delivery of almost 300 babies. They then used medical record data on the blood pressure of mothers at the time of admission to the hospital as well as her blood pressure readings throughout labor and delivery to determine if there were a link between lead levels and blood pressure. The researchers divided the women into four groups based on their lead exposure levels. They found that women with the highest lead levels also had higher maximum blood pressure and higher admission blood pressure levels than women with the lowest lead exposure. Specifically, an increase in lead levels of about 20 parts per billion - which works out to 2 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood - led to a 10 percent increase in blood pressure during labor and delivery. This research also took into account other factors that might affect blood pressure, such as family history, smoking, and weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood is the 'limit of concern' in pregnant women. The goup advises pregnant women with blood lead levels above this to get medical attention and help in reducing their lead exposure. However, this study suggests that even this limit may not be enough to protect a pregnant women’s health - or her baby's.

For information regarding AP Kanji specifically, please click here What is Kanji? In Japanese, nouns and stems of adjectives and verbs are almost all written in Chinese characters called Kanji. Adverbs are also fairly frequently written in Kanji

For information regarding AP Kanji specifically, please click here What is Kanji? In Japanese, nouns and stems of adjectives and verbs are almost all written in Chinese characters called Kanji. Adverbs are also fairly frequently written in Kanji as well. This means that you will need to learn Chinese characters to be able to read essentially almost all the words in the language. Not all words are written in Kanji however. For example, while the verb ‘to do’ technically has a Kanji associated with it, it is always written in Hiragana. Individual discretion and a sense of how things are normally written is needed to decide whether words should be written in Hiragana or Kanji. However, a majority of the words in Japanese will be written in Kanji almost always. (Children’s books or any other material where the audience is not expected to know a lot Kanji is an exception to this.) This guide begins using Kanji from the beginning to help the reader read “real” Japanese as quickly as possible. Therefore, we will go over some properties of Kanji and discuss some strategies of learning it quickly and efficiently. Mastering Kanji is not easy but it is by no means impossible. The biggest part of the battle is mastering the skills of learning Kanji and time. In short, memorizing Kanji past short-term memory must be done with a great deal of study and, most importantly, for a long time. And by this, I don’t mean studying five hours a day but rather reviewing how to write a Kanji once every several months until you are sure you have it down for good. This is another reason why this guide starts using Kanji right away. There is no reason to dump the huge job of learning Kanji at the advanced level. By studying Kanji along with new vocabulary from the beginning, the immense job of learning Kanji is divided into small manageable chunks and the extra time helps settle learned Kanji into permanent memory. In addition, this will help you learn new vocabulary, which will often have combinations of Kanji you already know. If you start learning Kanji later, this benefit will be wasted or reduced. All the resources you need to begin learning Kanji are on the web for free at Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC. In addition to its huge dictionaries, it has stroke order diagrams for the 1,945 jouyo Kanji (essentially almost all the Kanji you will need to know). Especially for those who are just starting to learn, you will want to repeatedly write out each Kanji to memorize the stroke order. Another important skill is learning how to balance the character so that certain parts are not too big or small. So make sure to copy the characters as close to the original as possible. Eventually, you will naturally develop a sense of the stroke order for certain types of characters allowing you to bypass the drilling stage. All the Kanji used in this guide can be easily looked up by copying and pasting to the WWWJDIC. Almost every character has two different readings called 音読み （おんよみ） and 訓読み（くんよみ）. 音読み is the original Chinese reading while 訓読み is the Japanese reading. Kanji that appear in a compound or 熟語 is usually read with 音読み while one Kanji by itself is usually read with 訓読み. For example, 「力」（ちから） is read with the 訓読み while the same character in a compound word such as 「能力」 is read with the 音読み （which is 「りょく」 in this case）. Certain characters (especially the most common ones) can have more than one 音読み or 訓読み. For example, in the word 「怪力」, 「力」 is read here as 「りき」 and not 「りょく」. Certain compound words also have special readings that have nothing to do with the readings of the individual characters. These readings must be individually memorized. Thankfully, these readings are few and far in between. 訓読み is also used in adjectives and verbs in addition to the stand-alone characters. These words often have a string of kana (called okurigana) that come attached to the word. This is so that the reading of the Chinese character stays the same even when the word is conjugated to different forms. For example, the past form of the verb 「食べる」 is 「食べた」. Even though the verb has changed, the reading for 「食」 remain untouched. (Imagine how difficult things could get if readings for Kanji changed with conjugation or even worse, if the Kanji itself changed.) Okurigana also serves to distinguish between intransitive and transitive

Between mid-September and 19 October 2008, nine clusters of norovirus infection involving around 90 primary cases and over a hundred secondary cases were identified in patients from the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy and France, linked to pilgrimage to

Between mid-September and 19 October 2008, nine clusters of norovirus infection involving around 90 primary cases and over a hundred secondary cases were identified in patients from the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy and France, linked to pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. Norovirus is a highly infectious causative agent of acute gastroenteritis (AGE). Transmission can easily occur through contact with people shedding the virus, through consumption of contaminated food or water, through contaminated aerosols resulting from vomiting, and through environmental contamination. Once the virus is introduced in settings with a high concentration of people, person-to-person transmission is likely to occur. Attack rates are high among all groups of people, however, the impact of the disease is more serious among the elderly. Within Europe, norovirus outbreaks are monitored by the Food-borne Viruses in Europe (FBVE) network, which has been collecting molecular and epidemiological data since 1999. Lourdes, France, is a major destination for Christian pilgrimage following claims of apparitions in 1858. A yearly number of five million people, including many with underlying diseases, visit Lourdes and often collect spring water for consumption, which is believed to possess healing properties. With 2008 being the 150th anniversary of the apparitions, the number of visitors has increased to eight million this year, with a peak in visitor numbers around the time of the Pope’s visit. Norovirus outbreaks have previously been linked to pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2002 [5, FBVE unpublished data]. On 20 October 2008, the FBVE network was notified of an outbreak due to norovirus in a mental health care institution for the elderly in the Netherlands, that had serious consequences. Norovirus was confirmed in two patients. A group of 10 patients and 14 health workers at the institution had visited Lourdes between 26 September and 1 October as part of a group of 1,025 Dutch pilgrims. On 29 September, one o

Veillonella are gram-negative anaerobic cocci. This bacterium is well known for its lactate fermenting abilities. They are a normal bacterium in the intestines and oral mucosa of mammals. In humans they have been rarely implicated

Veillonella are gram-negative anaerobic cocci. This bacterium is well known for its lactate fermenting abilities. They are a normal bacterium in the intestines and oral mucosa of mammals. In humans they have been rarely implicated in cases of osteomyelitis and endocarditis, for example with the species Veillonella parvula. Lactate → acetate + 2 propionate + CO2 + H2O - Brook I (May 1996). "Veillonella infections in children". J. Clin. Microbiol. 34 (5): 1283–5. PMID 8727920. PMC: 228999. http://jcm.