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Tonsils are a source of sore throats and an excuse for ice cream. But they also provide an important protective service, their immune-cell-rich tissue acting as the body’s first defense against the germs about to be swallowed or inhaled

Tonsils are a source of sore throats and an excuse for ice cream. But they also provide an important protective service, their immune-cell-rich tissue acting as the body’s first defense against the germs about to be swallowed or inhaled. Researchers have known that tonsils are packed with B cells, which flag invaders for other cells to attack. But a new study by Rockefeller University scientists shows that tonsils also house a different, very specialized cell that helps protect against the Epstein Barr virus (EBV). EBV is a member of the herpes virus family and can cause a variety of ailments, from infectious mononucleosis to cancers such as Burkitt’s lymphoma. It acts by working its way into B cells and transforming them into virus-infected cells that continuously multiply. Some people manage to control the virus with no symptoms whatsoever, while others succumb. New research published in PLoS Pathogens may help explain why. In comparison to peripheral blood, the tonsils contain just a small number of natural killer cells, immune cells named for their ability to recognize something as foreign and destroy it. But Christian Münz, head of the Laboratory of Viral Immunobiology, and Ph.D. student Till Strowig have found that the majority of the tonsils’ natural killer cells are a specific kind, called CD56bright cells, and incredibly potent — nearly a hundred times better at preventing EBV from transforming B cells than natural killer cells located in peripheral blood. “These cells are not only enriched in this organ, but they are better than at any other site,” Münz says. In fact, the researchers found

The poplar tree often goes by the name cottonwood; the name comes from the seeds of the tree, which develop in clusters of hanging capsules that ripen and open, scattering the white fluffy hairs with the seeds attached. The poplars

The poplar tree often goes by the name cottonwood; the name comes from the seeds of the tree, which develop in clusters of hanging capsules that ripen and open, scattering the white fluffy hairs with the seeds attached. The poplars in North America include the eastern cottonwood as well as the swamp cottonwood and species like the balsam poplar. Recognition of the poplars comes with identifying its special characteristics. Judge the size of the poplars you encounter, focusing on overall height and the width of the trunk. Some eastern cottonwoods are massive. One in Ohio, according to the Ohio Public Library Information Network, grew to 139 feet tall with an 8-foot wide trunk. Not all poplars are this large, although most are at least medium-sized. The balsam poplar grows between 60 and 80 feet. Others, like black cottonwood, commonly grow to over 100 feet. Observe the shape of a poplar from afar. A vase shape indicates species like the eastern cottonwood and the plains cottonwood, while others are upright with a narrow crown of limbs, such as the balsam poplar. An introduced ornamental from Europe, Lombardy poplar is a distinctly narrow tree shaped almost like a column of a building. Examine poplar leaves carefully, paying attention to their size, colors and shapes. Most poplars native to the U.S. have leaves in the 4- to 6-inch-long range. The shapes will vary from one poplar type to the next. Some are oval or almost round (swamp cottonwood), but other have tapered ends and a triangular shape, like the foliage on a black cottonwood. Poplar leaves have serrations along their edges and the leaves are green, with the upper surface often darker than the lower. Many species' leaves change to yellow in the fall, before eventually flying off the limbs. Study the reproductive process of the poplars to identify these trees. The poplars will have male and female flowers develop on separate trees, before the leaves emerge on the twigs. These flowers are catkins, compact drooping clusters of no ornamental importance, the University of Connecticut Plant Database says. Some are yellow while others may be brownish. The female cottonwood flowers turn into the hanging seed chains that will ripen and release the white tufts that fill the air in late June of July.

| Learning in Context by Laura Martin Why talk about context? My experiences as a grade school teacher in the 1970s made me curious about children’s thinking. I decided to attend a graduate program in developmental psychology so I could study

| Learning in Context by Laura Martin Why talk about context? My experiences as a grade school teacher in the 1970s made me curious about children’s thinking. I decided to attend a graduate program in developmental psychology so I could study why children thought the way they did. I was already familiar with Piaget and had seen real-life evidence supporting his theory. Once I watched a first grader at a school fair paying for a nickel item with a quarter and getting two dimes back as change. He was delighted: "Now I have more money!" In graduate school, one study was presented to us as a significant breakthrough,a 1948 study of children’s memory by Z.M. Istomina, translated from Russian, and reprinted in an obscure journal. The study looked at how well four- and five-year-olds remembered a list of grocery items, in what’s called a free-recall test. Istomina presented the task in two different conditions: a regular laboratory-like interview setting and an embedded dramatic play situation in a preschool. Children in the preschool condition remembered significantly more items from the grocery list: The play setting facilitated learning and remembering. This result is difficult to explain if you believe that what people think resides inside their heads and has nothing to do with why or where they’re asked to do remembering. Since the mid-70s many scholars of cognitive functioning and development have criticized standard laboratory studies of cognitive performance. These critiques address some of the problems researchers have had in explaining individual differences in performance and in understanding cognitive processing outside the school or laboratory. The approach I adopt in understanding thinking outside of school is an activity theory, or sociocultural, approach to cognitive development. It is based on the theoretical work of L.S. Vygotsky, whose theory accounts for a lot of the results in individual performance that Piaget's theory and others' can't address. Vygotskian theory is concerned primarily with the development of higher mental functions like speech and reasoning. It also is concerned with the relation between everyday (intuitive) and scientific (tutored) concept development. Vygotsky recognizes that development occurs on different planes (for example, the interpersonal and the intrapersonal), that these planes intersect, and that they cannot be understood entirely independently of each other. Activity theory (an offshoot of Vygotsky's work) posits that individual human action is that intersection and that it exists within a goal structure defined by cultural circumstances. To me, this is a critical part of understanding learning within the contexts of specific cultural institutions. One important insight that came out of this work deals with goals and motivational settings. The same formal problem can be encountered, for instance, as part of a school assignment, as part of a job in the stockroom of a factory, or as a practical task in the kitchen. We now know that individuals will apply different sorts of mental strategies in each case, not only because the tools at hand differ, but also because the task goal differs in the three settings: completing an assignment, filling an order, adjusting a recipe. Most of the research looking at science learning was conducted in schools, and school tasks themselves exist in their own particular context. Researchers have noticed that the general goals of the schoolwork context may be at odds with thos

Social justice is about securing fairness for all in the everyday issues of life. It means having access to safe and appropriate housing, an education that develops children’s potential and respects their culture, services that promote good health and opportunities for satisfying employment. Social

Social justice is about securing fairness for all in the everyday issues of life. It means having access to safe and appropriate housing, an education that develops children’s potential and respects their culture, services that promote good health and opportunities for satisfying employment. Social justice also means recognising the distinctive rights that Indigenous Australians - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - hold as the original peoples of this land. The Commission keeps social justice issues before the Australian Government and promotes community understanding and respect for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. - preparing an annual Social Justice Report and Native Title Report, which are tabled in federal Parliament - monitoring and reviewing the impact of laws, policies and programs on Indigenous peoples - providing policy advice and research on Indigenous human rights issues including health, family violence, children’s rights and the ‘Stolen Generations’ - supporting Indigenous education initiatives. - Support constitutional reform to recognise the distinctive

MANY students struggle to get out of bed before midday, so launching a €100,000 satellite was a major achievement. Unfortunately, Europe's student-built SSETI Express spacecraft began to lose power just hours after entering orbit, and the

MANY students struggle to get out of bed before midday, so launching a €100,000 satellite was a major achievement. Unfortunately, Europe's student-built SSETI Express spacecraft began to lose power just hours after entering orbit, and the mission is now in jeopardy. The spacecraft was launched on 27 October. But as mission controllers monitored the satellite, they noticed the voltage on the probe's batteries drop. "We're having some problems charging the batteries from the solar panels," explains Neil Melville, project manager for SSETI Express at the European Space Agency's base in Noordwijk in the Netherlands. So around 13 hours after launch the probe was put into a standby mode, with all non-essential systems turned off to conserve power. The washing-machine-sized satellite was built by 100 students across Europe. It carries three instruments: a camera, a radio transponder and a nitrogen gas propulsion system. To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

• When completing this project with students, it’s always a great idea to let them play with and explore how the materials work, on their own. For example, give the students the LEDs and batteries and with out any explanation and challenge them to

• When completing this project with students, it’s always a great idea to let them play with and explore how the materials work, on their own. For example, give the students the LEDs and batteries and with out any explanation and challenge them to make the LED light up. • Let students make mistakes in how to align their LED leads. Show them how to use the battery to test which lead is positive. The positive lead is the one that is touching the + side of the battery when the LED lights up, and also the longer lead on the LED. If that doesn’t work, the leads may be reversed. • Challenge the students to prevent a “short circuit.” Tell them nothing from the positive side can EVER touch anything from the negative side. The tricky part is that this includes the battery, itself. When connecting the conductive copper tape to the top of the battery, it usually ends up touching the sides as well, leading to a short circuit unless an insulator is placed on the side to protect it. Hint: regular scotch tape can serve as both an insulator and a fastener to keep the battery attached to the card. Paving bumps in the road: So, when I decided to take on the task of creating an awesome pop-up Make Robot card, I came across a few bumps in the road. To make this project easy and simple for you, I am sharing those tricky spots with you in hopes that your project will go smoothly (especially if you are working with students). • Making tracers for designing the inside of the card can give students more direction when trying to figure out what to make. • With the design you have chosen, make sure that you aren’t making it too big! You will want to measure from your card’s bottom cut out (essentially from where you are gluing on your design to the edge of the bottom of your card). • When creating your circuit, you should note that the adhesive on the bottom of your copper tape could potentially cause your circuit to not work at all. It is working as an insulator and not a conductor. You will know this is the case after you double check to make sure no cross connections have been created (positive and negative leads touching, for example). To resolve this dilemma, take a piece of your copper tape with the adhesive cover still connected, and flip it upside down. Then, take a piece of scotch tape and tape the copper onto the lead. The adhesive side should be facing you. Then tape the other side of the copper tape on the battery. That should do the trick! The original inspiration for awesome LED-spangled cards is http://pdxyoungmakers.com. You will find the PDF project under the "How To" category. There are many websites and books available on how to design simple and complex pop-up cards. For other pop-up card ideas visit Enchanted Learning.

CASTLE HEDINGHAM - HALSTEAD The DeVeres' Great Norman Keep of Essex The DeVere family goes back to the Norman conquest of 1066. Alberic DeVere was the brother-in-law and a

CASTLE HEDINGHAM - HALSTEAD The DeVeres' Great Norman Keep of Essex The DeVere family goes back to the Norman conquest of 1066. Alberic DeVere was the brother-in-law and a favorite knight of William the Conqueror, given a collection of lands in Middelsex after the Battle of Hastings. The first Aubrey DeVere was created the Earl of Oxford in 1103, despite his lands being in Essex, while the Earl of Essex's lands were in Oxford - but that's another matter. The Castle at Hedingham was built in 1140 by the second Aubrey DeVere, who was killed in a London riot while it was being constructed. It was once somewhat larger with an attached entrance gate complex, but the square keep which remains today is perhaps the best preserved original Norman keep in England, singular and formidable. Birthplace of "Real" Shakespeare Earl of Oxford? Hedingham Castle also holds a pecular place in a literary mystery. Depending on one’s point of view, this may be the real birthplace of Shakespeare. Edward DeVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, one of the principal candidate in the undying Shakespearan authorship debate, and even presented in a Hollywood movie on the subject was, born at Hedingham Castle on April 8, 1550. Recently a portrait was miraculously “discovered” of a crisply dressed Elizabethan man in collared shirt and put on tour as a portrait of the William Shakespeare of Stratford-Upon-Avon. The portrait in question was almost bought by a descendant of the DeVere family as a portrait of Edward DeVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. You, dear reader of these presents, may not care a groatsworth for the intrigues of literary authorship controversies, but may find a visit to the DeVere family ancestral castle an entertaining experience just the same. The DeVeres were a rich and powerful family in medieval England. The second Earl of Oxford fought the crusades with Richard II “The Lion Heart” (see Varazdin Castle Croatia) and the 3rd Earl was among the barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, while King John later besieged the castle at Hedingham. The 13th Earl of Oxford, John DeVere led Henry VII’s army to defeat Richard III (see York Wall Walks) at the Battle of Bosworth and the 15th Earl was Henry VIII’s Lord Chamberlain. The 17th Earl, Edward DeVere of the Shakespeare controversy, born at Hedingham Castle April 8, 1550, handsome, arrogant and funny, was one of Elizabeth’s favorites, at least early on. One tantalizingly salacious theory has it that the Bard of Avon’s reputed patron the 3rd Earl of Southampton was actually the illegitimate issue of Queen Elizabeth and Edward DeVere, resulting in DeVere’s travels to Italy (indiscretions banishment?), where he fought in tournaments (apparently a rather good jouster) and did a fair bit of bed-hoping among the Montagus and Capulets. Though, Elizabeth was later disenchanted with DeVere when he refused to command the port city of Harwich during the assault of the Spanish Armada (see Derry Tower Museum Armada). One will find no evidence of Shakespearean authorship at Hedingham. What contributes to the mystery is indeed what you will not find at Hedingham. For one of England’s great families, the Hedingham keep seems so bare and austere, certainly in comparison to Edward DeVere’s father-in-law, William Cecil, Lord Burghley’s great Elizabethan palace, Burghley House in Lincolnshire (see Burghley House). The castle at Hedingham retains its pure Norman architecture partly because it was never directly added to like many other English castles. Instead, a great Tudor Manor house was built next to the castle in which the Earls of Oxford lived, but the great mansion called the Brick Tower was torn down and sold, mostly to satisfy the poet Earl’s lavish lifestyle and bad investments - perhaps his losses in theatrical ventures - with only excavations from the 1800s to be found today. The Rose Window of the brick tower Great Chamber is believed to be seen in the Church of St Nicholas in the little village of Castle Hedingham. A detailed stone relief depicting the battle of Bosworth, once over the main fireplace is now at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, though the brick tower’s vaulted cellars under the excavated foundations still remain in remarkable condition Castle Hedingham's Norman keep is 110 feet high, with four floors to explore, including the great Banqueting Hall which is supported by one of the largest Norman arc

their judgment…: or, from them shall proceed the judgment of these, and the captivity of these their…: or, the supping up of their faces, etc: or, their faces shall look (Heb. the opposition of

their judgment…: or, from them shall proceed the judgment of these, and the captivity of these their…: or, the supping up of their faces, etc: or, their faces shall look (Heb. the opposition of their faces) toward the east established: Heb. founded iniquity: or, grievance plenteous: or, dainty: Heb. fat The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition that it was written a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before the commencement of the Christian era. -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3404. -Year of the Julian Period, 4114. -Year since the Flood, 1748. -Year since the vocation of Abram, 1321. -Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 412. -Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 376. -First year of the forty-fifth Olympiad. -Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 121. -Year before the birth of Jesus Christ, 596. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 600. -Cycle of the Sun, 26. -Cycle of the Moon, 10. -Third year of AEropas, king of Macedon. -Twentieth year of Alyattes II., king of Lydia. -Twenty-sixth year of Cyaxares or Cyaraxes, king of Media. -Sixth year of Agasicles, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of -Eighth year of Leon, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the -Seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. -Seventeenth year of Tarquinius Priscus, king of the Romans. -Eleventh year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. The prophet enters very abruptly on his subject, his spirit being greatly indignant at the rapid progress of vice and Upon which God is introduced threatening very awful and sudden judgments to be indicted by the ministry of the Chaldeans, The Babylonians attribute their wonderful successes to their The prophet then, making a sudden transition, expostulates with God (probably personating the Jews) for permitting a nation much more wicked than themselves, as they supposed, to oppress and devour them, as fishers and fowlers do their prey, 12-17. We know little of this prophet; for what we find in the ancients concerning him is evidently fabulous, as well as that which appears in the Apocrypha . He was probably of the tribe of Simeon and a native of Beth-zacar . It is very likely that he lived after the destruction of Nineveh, as he speaks of the Chaldeans makes no mention of the Assyrians . And he appears also to have the Jewish captivity, see Hab 1:5; 2:1; 3:2, 16-19 ; and therefore Abp. Newcome thinks he may be placed in the reign of Jehoiakim, between the years 606 B.C. and 598 B.C. As a poet , Habakkuk holds a high rank among the Hebrew prophets. The beautiful connection between the parts of his prophecy, its diction, imagery, spirit, and sublimity, cannot be too much admired; and his hymn, Hab 3:1-19 , is allowed by the best judges to be a masterpiece of its kind. See Lowth's NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. The burden signifies not only the burdensome prophecy, but the prophecy or revelation God presented to the mind of Habakkuk, and which he saw perceived, in the light of prophecy, and then faithfully declared, as this book shows. The word signifies an oracle general; but chiefly, one relative to future calamities 啊！我呼求 你，你不应允 ，要到几时呢？我因强暴哀求 你，你还不拯救 。 , how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Verse 2. O Lord, how long shall I cry ] The prophe

ARCHIVE: Disease factsheet: Rabies Rabies is a notifiable disease. If you suspect signs of any notifiable disease, you must immediately notify a Defra Divisional Veterinary Manager. - Background information - Advice to the public

ARCHIVE: Disease factsheet: Rabies Rabies is a notifiable disease. If you suspect signs of any notifiable disease, you must immediately notify a Defra Divisional Veterinary Manager. - Background information - Advice to the public - Review of UK rabies policies - Rabies in Bats - European Bat Lyssaviruses (EBLV) - Contingency Plan for Exotic Animal Diseases Rabies is a fatal viral disease of the nervous system caused by a rhabdovirus which can affect all mammals including humans. The disease is usually spread by saliva from the bite of an infected animal. Clinical signs include paralysis and aggression leading to a painful death. Classical rabies was eradicated from the UK in 1922 and the Pet Travel Scheme and quarantine help protect against infected animals entering the UK, but because of the existence of the disease elsewhere there is concern about rabies being reintroduced by illegally imported mammals. Some European bats carry rabies related viruses. Most species of rabies-susceptible animals entering the UK are required to spend six months in quarantine, unless arriving under and complying with all the conditions of the EU Regulation 998/2003 on the non-commercial movement of pet animals, or Balai (commercially traded animals - contact Animal Health Divisional Office, Beeches Road, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 2RU (tel: 01245 358383; nightline: 01245 353632; fax: 01245 351162) or e-mail: [email protected] for more information). Further information on the level of rabies in other countries around the world is available on the World Health Organisation website. Information on rabies in Europe can be found on the Rabies Bulletin Europe website. The Health Protection Agency provides guidance to members of the public about rabies and human health implications. Defra has been conducting a review of its policies aimed at preventing rabies entering the UK through an imported animal. The main aims of the review are to ensure that UK rabies controls on all rabies-susceptible mammals are proportionate and sustainable, given that their primary purpose is to protect public health, and to inform the UK’s response to the European Commission's review of certain requirements of EC regulation 998/2003 on the non-commercial movement of pet animals. A 12 week public consultation by Defra closed on 9 February 2006. - Consultation letter on Defra's review of rabies disease import control policy (PDF 27 KB). - Rabies review list of consultees (PDF 11 KB) - Summary of consultees comments (PDF 28 KB) - Strategy document (PDF 33 KB) - Terms of reference (PDF 30 KB) - News release: Rabies prevention policies to be reviewed - 17 November 2005 (Link to Government News Network). Other stakeholder involvement included inviting interested parties to give their views on the current requirements and future direction of the policy. The UK review takes account of evidence on the risk of introducing rabies or other exotic animal diseases or zoonoses through an imported animal, the practical aspects of implementing current policies, as well costs and benefits, and the way in which other parts of Europe address the risk of rabies and other exotic diseases. It also includes an assessment of the scientific evidence on which current policies are based. On 8 October 2007, the European Commission’s report on rabies movement controls was published along with a draft proposal to extend the transitional arrangements applicable to the UK, Sweden, Malta, Ireland and Finland. A Regulation (PDF 33 KB) confirming the extension to 30 June 2010 of the UK’s current controls for pet movements has now been published. The European Commission is currently considering what sort of arrangements should be in place across the EU after June 2010. The European Commission has published a proposal to extend the transitional arrangements applicable for the movement of pet dogs, cats and ferrets into the UK, Ireland, Finland, Malta and Sweden until 31 December 2011. This proposal needs to be agreed by the European Parliament and Council before it can be formally adopted. No decisions have yet been made on any changes to rabies quarantine or Pet Travel Scheme requirements. All the current controls continue to apply. Any changes will be explained on this website in due course. - Veterinary Risk Assessment - Rabies (PDF 655 KB) - Veterinary risk assessment: Exotic diseases other than rabies (PDF 191 KB). - Appendix 1 - Global Disease lists and Disease Summaries (PDF 2.1 MB) - Appendix 2 - Questionnaires and Responses (PDF 1 MB) - Appendix 3 - List of Consultees (PDF 167 KB) - Appendix 4 - Original Tender and Workplan (PDF 121 KB) - Appendix 5 - Disease Distribution Tables (PDF 1.1 MB) - Appendix 6 - References (PDF 543 KB) Rabies in Bats - European Bat Lyssaviruses (EBLV) British bats are most active during the summer. This is the time when many householders discover they are sharing their space with bats, which may have established a roost in their roof space or garden. Bats will generally avoid contact with humans but occasionally may enter property or get caught by a cat. If you find a bat, dead or alive, do not touc

The First Inhabitants The first inhabitants in what is now Wilson County arrived here approximately 10,000 years ago. These people were the descendants of the people that had migrated from Asia 10,000 years before, and who became American

The First Inhabitants The first inhabitants in what is now Wilson County arrived here approximately 10,000 years ago. These people were the descendants of the people that had migrated from Asia 10,000 years before, and who became American Indians. They were primarily hunters who traveled in small groups from one place to another, wherever the animals they hunted led them. These early hunters lived and hunted in North Carolina for about 5,000 years, then began to develop new ways of getting food and making tools. At this time, they began to fish and dig fresh water clams in the numerous streams in Eastern North Carolina. They ate such foods as berries and acorns, roots and bark, which were ground on flat stones with a round rock held in their hand. Because they were hunters and gatherers of native foods, they rarely stayed in one place for very long. Numerous camp sites have been located along the steams in Eastern North Carolina. As time passed, these small groups banded together into tribes and formed more permanent villages and began the first farming. The Wilson County area became part of the lands of the Tuscarora Nation of Indians. The Tuscaroras claimed the land between the Tar River and the Neuse River, from the Pamlico Sound to near Raleigh. One of the major Indian Villages was located in Wilson County at the confluence of Buck Branch and Toisnot Swamp. This village was called Tosneot. The Tuscaroras were friendly with the early colonists in the seventeenth century and for the first part of the eighteenth century, and acted as traders between the colonists and the Siouan Indians to the west. As more settlers moved inland and trading problems began to occur, unrest among the Tuscaroras developed and a secret attack on the settlers along the Neuse River was planned to take place on September 22, 1711. A few days before that date, John Lawson, an English surveyor, was taken prisoner by the Tuscaroras and executed at the village of Catecna near Grifton in Pitt County. The ensuing war lasted nearly three years and cost the lives of several hundred settlers and thousands of Indians. Years later, the remaining Tuscaroras left the area and moved to New York State to live [ (among the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederation)) ] with the Iroquois Indians, who were distant relatives. The area that was to become Wilson County began permanent settlement approximately twenty years after the Tuscarora attack. By Marion Moore

The mission of the FSU Arboretum is to provide a growing, sustainable and safe resource for the campus and regional communities to engage in education, research, observation and contemplation while maintaining the natural miniature of the mountains of

The mission of the FSU Arboretum is to provide a growing, sustainable and safe resource for the campus and regional communities to engage in education, research, observation and contemplation while maintaining the natural miniature of the mountains of Appalachia. To this end a management plan has been constructed to meet these goals. 1. The first and foremost part of the management plan is to remove invasive plant species growing in the Arboretum. As the Arboretum has not been well maintained in the past many species of invasive plants (such as Japanese Knotweed) have become a major problem within this vital resource. By removing these alien invaders we can reach one of our goals of maintaining the natural setting of the Appalachia mountains. 2. Several different types of planting will be constructed within the Arboretum to increase the conservation awareness and aesthetic properties of the Arboretum. These planting may include: - Native plants of Maryland. - Native plants of the Appalachia Mountains - Medical plants from the US (and some possibly from around the world with careful selection). - Aesthetically pleasing plantings that will serve to draw visitors from the surrounding area. 3. To increase the teaching and research potential of the arboretum, plantings will also be instructed to meet the needs of particular classes (e.g., Ethnobotany, Dendrology, Geography, Plant Physiology, Plant taxonomy) offered by Frostburg State University and other surrounding institutes of learning (ACM, Appalachian Laboratory). Instructional/identificational markers for self-guided tours and general information for people visiting the Arboretum will be installed.

Nov 02 2010 Western Pennsylvania was a changed landscape last Sunday when I drove to Shenango Lake. Only a week before the trees showed some fall color and many still had leaves, but now most trees are bare except for russet

Nov 02 2010 Western Pennsylvania was a changed landscape last Sunday when I drove to Shenango Lake. Only a week before the trees showed some fall color and many still had leaves, but now most trees are bare except for russet stands of oaks and lone tulip poplars with yellow tops like candle flames. For many years I kept track of the date when the trees lost their leaves. It’s a useful marker for scientific studies. For instance, it’s the first piece of local information you need for doing a deer density count in which you count the number of deer droppings on top of winter’s fallen leaves. (Deer density is a calculation based on the number of days since all the leaves fell and the number of times an individual deer drops scat per day.) Once I started tracking the dates when “Most Trees Are Bare” and “Most Trees Have Leaves” (real leaves, not just hints) I realized there are leaves on our trees only six months of the year. In the City of Pittsburgh, where our growing season is longer because of urban heat, most trees are bare by November 15 and most have leaves by May 5. You can track this too. The oaks still had their leaves last weekend so I’ll wager none of you have reached the “Most Trees Are Bare” stage. But that date is coming very soon. (photo by Kate St. John)

Picturing Indian Spells in Medieval China Presented in association with China Institute The Buddhist mantra or spell (dharani) is to be chanted, but it was a common practice for the medieval Chinese to illustrate this verbal formula.

Picturing Indian Spells in Medieval China Presented in association with China Institute The Buddhist mantra or spell (dharani) is to be chanted, but it was a common practice for the medieval Chinese to illustrate this verbal formula. What visual form could possibly capture the imagined efficacy of a dharani? The matter became more complicated when the Indian mantra met the Chinese spell. Were they visualized or pictured differently? Could they work together? What was the division of labor between them? To make the matter even more complicated, there were many cases when the visual renditions of verbal spells were hidden in places where they could not be seen. Why bother to make pictures that have no audience? This richly illustrated keytalk is part of Exporting Enlightenment, a ten-part series over the summer that traces the spread of Buddhism and Hinduism along these cultural and trade trajectories. For the full series that accompanies the exhibition From India East see www.rmanyc.org/exportingenlightenment About the Speaker Eugene Wang is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard Universi

Exhibits like this fully-working Colossus replica are in danger of being abandoned unless funding can be found. , the home of code breaking during the Second World War, is hoping to secure its future as an important historical site – with a

Exhibits like this fully-working Colossus replica are in danger of being abandoned unless funding can be found. , the home of code breaking during the Second World War, is hoping to secure its future as an important historical site – with a little help from IBM and PGP. The unassuming set of buildings in Milton Keynes was home to some of the brightest minds in the world – and was key in the Allied victory in World War 2. It was at Bletchley Park where some of the most important work was done on codebreaking and computing, and without advances such as the Turing Bombe it's fair to say modern computing would look very different. Bletchley Park, as well as being a code museum, is home to the National Museum of Computing – an ambitious project to gather fully-working examples of as many different computing devices as possible, from a fully-working Colossus to the microcomputers of my youth. Sadly, the future of the facility is starting to look uncertain. According to CNet many of the buildings are in a poor state of repair, and without an injection of cash soon both the museums may have to close their doors. Accordingly, two companies that have perhaps the most to thank Bletchley Park for have joined forces to begin a fundraising drive: IBM, one of the earliest successful computing corporations; and PGP, the encryption specialist corporation founded by Phil Zimmerman. The current CEO of PGP, Phil Dunkelberger, told CNet that his company hopes to call “attention [to the fact] that Bletchley is falling into disrepair, and that, probably, the world owes a debt of gratitude to that place. The National Museum of Computing is feeling the squeeze especially badly: with no external funding, the Museum attempted to get a National Lottery grant and was turned down. Following this, it applied for funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – a company with more than a passing knowledge of the history of computing – but was again denied. I can only hope that the fundraising campaign is a success, as the nation – and, indeed, the world – will lose a valuable memorial and educational resource with regards the early days of computing technology should the facility be allowed to moulder. Have any of our readers been to Bletchley Park, or were you unaware of its existence? Share your thoughts over in the forums

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro: Newly-released records show that the Cuban Missile Crisis was only one of two nuclear crises, the other being between Cuba and the Soviet Union. Soviets, Castro Turned to Ex

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro: Newly-released records show that the Cuban Missile Crisis was only one of two nuclear crises, the other being between Cuba and the Soviet Union. Soviets, Castro Turned to Ex-Nazis During Cuban Missile Crisis (Die Welt, a sharp letter of protest about Moscow’s giving in [to Kennedy]. The Cuban revolutionary also refused to return his heavy Soviet weapons.... He blamed Stalin's envoy for betraying Cuba: 'We took the risk, believing that the socialist camp would also take the risk for us. We were even prepared for a nuclear war in the event the Soviet Union was attacked. Now I can see that the Soviet government was not prepared to do the same for us.'" Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and President John F. Kennedy in Vienna at the beginning of Kennedy's term in 1961: Little did they know that soon, they would face off in one of the most dangerous showdowns in world history, and then, shortly after that, both would be gone from the scene. President Kennedy was assassinated in late 1963, and Khrushchev was ousted in 1964. The revolutionary leader wanted to keep Soviet tactical nuclear weapons, and was angry at the Kremlin. Never was the world as close to a nuclear war as at the end of October, 1962. The Soviet Union had stationed medium-range missiles in Cuba and was preparing them to be fired; in Washington, U.S. generals planned air strikes against these positions and a subsequent invasion of the island. Published before the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, newly-released documents show that the situation was far more explosive than previously assumed, because Fidel Castro was playing his own game. This may well have worsened already-dangerous tensions between the U.S. and the USSR. At the height of the crisis, on October 26, 1962, the German Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND) in Pullach learned that Castro had recruited former members of the Waffen-SS. According to the report, the men were instructed to come to the Caribbean to be instructors for the Cuban military. Former German paratrooper officers and technical troops - so-called pioneers - were also welcome. The pay offered was approximately four times more than the average German income: around 1000 deutsche marks in Cuban currency a week [about $4000 in 1962 dollars], and the mercenaries were to receive another 1000 deutsche marks in the Western currency of their choice, payable to any European bank account. Up to the time of the BND report, four former SS-men had accepted the offer, although only two can be shown to have reached Cuba. BodoHechelhammer, director of historical investigations at the BND, concludes: "This shows clearly that the Cuban revolutionary army had little fear of recruiting staff with a Nazi past when it served their own cause." Apparently, Castro was not only keen on making use of experienced German World War II soldiers, but he also tried to procure weapons in Europe. With the help of an arms trafficking network led by two right-wing extremists, Otto Ernst Remer and Ernst-Wilhelm Springer, the Cuban government tried to purchase 4,000 Belgian submachine guns - via Western Germany. The BND informed the government about this and reported: "Since October 25, 1962, actions have been taken resulting in executive access to this shipment of weapons." The obvious and probable conclusion is that Castro wanted to free himself of total dependence on Soviet weapons and instructors. This, however, suggests that he wanted to pursue his own politics. The documents reveal that the BND was well informed about the contacts between the Cuban regime and Europe. Thanks to several viable sources of information in the Caribbean, the BND seems to have had amazingly-accurate information about Castro's secret rearmament. For quite some time, information about these events in 1962 have been known to the Federal Archive in Koblenz. Now we have the original reports. They can be downloaded from the BND Web site. In June 1962 at the latest, BND analysts recognized that Cuba’s ongoing rearmament has changed from being defensive in character to offensive. For the first time, construction sites were identified as potential sites for offensive missiles. At the same time, according to the documents, the CIA assumed that only conventional weapons - not nuclear ones - were being shipped to Cuba. On September 12, 1962, the BND informed the Federal Chancellery that since the end of the previous July, about 15 Soviet ships with more than 5,000 troops, mainly technicians and trainers, has landed in Cuba. Nine days later, they reported: "By the end of November, Cuban missile launch sites will be operational." At the time, for technical reasons and because of bad weather, CIA surveillance flights had been suspended: not a single U-2 flew over the Cari

Connexions Resource Centre Focus on Agriculture and Farming Recent & Selected Articles - This is a small sampling of articles related to education and children in the Connexions Online Library. For more articles, books, films, and other

Connexions Resource Centre Focus on Agriculture and Farming Recent & Selected Articles - This is a small sampling of articles related to education and children in the Connexions Online Library. For more articles, books, films, and other resources, check the Connexions Library Subject Index, especially under topics such as - Deformities, sickness and livestock deaths: the real cost of GM animal feed? (November 29, 2013) Feeding animals a diet containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients or more specifically feed made from GM soya and sprayed with the controversial herbicide glyphosate is responsible for deformities and other defects in pigs. - The Very Future of Third World Agriculture Is at Stake (November 28, 2013) Food security is simply a smokescreen to provide a cover-up for the global efforts being made to dismantle the very foundations of Third World agriculture. Putting more income into the hands of Third World farmers is not acceptable, as it makes developing country agriculture economically viable and therefore deals a blow to U.S. agribusiness trade interests. - Vandana Shiva On Resisting GMOs: "Saving Seeds Is a Political Act" (November 19, 2013) Sarah van Gelder interviewed Vandana Shiva, renowned for her activism against GMOs, globalization, and patents on seeds and traditional foods. - Fair Shares of Food (July 8, 2013) Concern over lagging production has prompted a search for technological tricks that might revolutionize food production. - GM crops: Hunger as the key to world domination (May 29, 2013) Weapons and energy resources are apparently insufficient for total control over the world's nations, power-hungry globalists like David Rockefeller have come up with the idea of using people's daily need for food as a means to achieve global dominance. - Farming Under the Wall (April 4, 2013) The difficulties of Palestinian farmers as their lands are placed behind the Wall. - In 2011 the dacha gardens of Russia produced 40% of the nation's food. (2013) While many in the world are completely dependent on large scale agriculture, the Russian people feed themselves. Their agricultural economy is small scale, predominantly organic and in the capable hands of the nation's people. It's not just a hobby but a massive contribution to Russia's agriculture. - The Vertical Farming Scam (December 11, 2012) Vertical farming would involve using the floorspace of tall urban buildings for growing food plants through largely hydroponic methods. This is envisioned as a way to integrate food production with dense human populations, increase production per unit of land area, protect crops against pests without the use of chemicals, and take vulnerable agricultural soils out of production by relocating crops to cities. It can, in fact, achieve none of these goals. - Farming Without Machines: A Revolutionary Agricultural Technology (July 23, 2012) Originally published in 1974, How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition: (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land than You Can Imagine1 remains a vital resource for farmers, agricultural researchers and planners, sustainability activists and home gardeners. - Deconstructing The Locavores Dilemma (July 8, 2012) The book 'The Locavore's Dilemma' constructs a straw man argument while ignoring what the locavore movement really has to say. - The false solutions of Rio+20 (June 28, 2012) Food production and people's sovereignty in Africa could be seriously compromised by carbon capture projects and the so-called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) mechanism. - Without Women, No Food Security (March 1, 2012) In the countries of the Global South, women are the primary producers of food: the ones in charge of working the earth, maintaining seed stores, harvesting fruit, obtaining water and safeguarding the harvest. - A Concerted Effort From Europe Against Israeli Produce Exporter Agrexco (June 11, 2011) In Montpellier, France, over 100 activists from 9 countries gathered for the first ever European Forum Against Agrexco. Delegates from Italy, UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Palestine joined the French organizers for two full days of workshops aimed at strengthening the boycott campaign against the Israeli agricultural export giant. - Local and Organic Food and Farming (February 28, 2011) When the local chemical grower tells you that local is better than organic, tell them that they should switch to organic so that you can trust their food to be safe,

This is going to be another tutorial on a character from the tales of Winnie the Pooh. Today you are going to learn how to draw Eeyore. Now I’m sure everyone is familiar with Eeyore. He is a m

This is going to be another tutorial on a character from the tales of Winnie the Pooh. Today you are going to learn how to draw Eeyore. Now I’m sure everyone is familiar with Eeyore. He is a mule or donkey which ever word you prefer, and he is the purple stuffed animal that mopes around all day where ever he wonders. In some episodes of the series that use to air a while back he is often asking Rabbit, Tigger or Pooh to tack his pined tail back on his back side. This character is most famous for his downer personality and he absolutely refuses to get happy about anything at all. Eeyore is seen mopping around the forest with little or no excitement in his step. He has a house made of sticks tied together and he is constantly getting rained on. His house is located in the south west corner of the Hundred Acre Wood which is known as Eeyore’s Gloomy Place. Not only does he get rained on because his house was so poorly built, it often falls apart on poor Eeyore. His two best friends Pooh and Piglet are the ones that tried to build that very house he lives in now. Before the house was built Eeyore had it piled up stacked on top of each other. He kind of makes you wonder, can a stuffed animal that is that depressed and sad for no particular reason have anything he loves at all? The answer is yes Eeyore loves his friends and his forest. He also has a favorite food and it is called thistles. His name Eeyore was actually created out of the sound a donkey or mule makes when yakking. Cool huh. Either way I love Eeyore even if he is a sad character. He reminds me of myself when I go threw those gloomy days where life just bothers me. In this tutorial you will learn how to draw Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh step by step. The instructions will put you on your way to a drawing success. Sit back and have some fun, and remember put a smile on your face.

Photo courtesy of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. For centuries, people of all ages and ethnicities have left their mother countries in order to begin a new life in America. Discovering your ancestors' immigration experiences can be one of the most

Photo courtesy of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. For centuries, people of all ages and ethnicities have left their mother countries in order to begin a new life in America. Discovering your ancestors' immigration experiences can be one of the most rewarding parts of genealogy, enabling you to appreciate your role in the American melting pot. For more information about the immigrant experience and finding records related to immigration, select one of the topics below. Immigration and migration in America Locating Ship Passenger Lists, by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG Notes on Naturalization, by Donna Przecha Finding the date of arrival into the U.S. Finding the port of exit Finding the port of arrival Major U.S. ports of entry and exit Finding the country, town, or parish of foreign birth

Parents Quit Smoking (For Awhile) When Kids Have Surgery Then they start smoking again. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found a child's surgery may inspire parents to quit smoking, but they have no better chance than anyone else of kicking the habit

Parents Quit Smoking (For Awhile) When Kids Have Surgery Then they start smoking again. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found a child's surgery may inspire parents to quit smoking, but they have no better chance than anyone else of kicking the habit permanently. According to US News & World Report, researchers studied 1,112 children who lived with at least one person who smoked. When a child or parent had surgery, the magazine reporters, the smoker was likely to quit. But the attempt was more likely to succeed only if it was the parent having surgery. About one in seven U.S. children who undergo surgery are chronically exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes, the magazine reports. Secondhand smoke can increase the risk of respiratory complications associated with anesthesia. In adults, smoking after surgery has been shown to increase the risks of lung and cardiac complications and infections to the wound. "Our current findings suggest that having a child undergo surgery can serve as a teachable moment for quit attempts," lead researcher David Warner tells the magazine. "The scheduling of children for surgery may present us with an opportunity to provide tobacco interventions to parents, who are apparently more motivated to at least try to quit -- but who need assistance to succeed." Ask Us Anything About Parenting Start by teaching him that it is safe to do so.

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract. Although urine contains a variety of fluids, salts, and waste products, it usually does not have bacteria in it. When bacteria get into the

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract. Although urine contains a variety of fluids, salts, and waste products, it usually does not have bacteria in it. When bacteria get into the bladder or kidney and multiply in the urine, they cause a UTI. The most common type of UTI is a bladder infection which is also often called cystitis. Another kind of UTI is a kidney infection, known as pyelonephritis, and is much more serious. Although they cause discomfort, urinary tract infections can usually be quickly and easily treated with a short course of antibiotics. Studies have shown that breastfeeding can reduce the risk of UTI's in infants. Since bacteria can enter the urinary tract through the urethra (an ascending infection), poor toilet habits can predispose to infection, but other factors (pregnancy in women, prostate enlargement in men) are also important and in many cases the initiating event is unclear. While ascending infections are generally the rule for lower urinary tract infections and cystitis, the same may not necessarily be true for upper urinary tract infections like pyelonephritis which may be hematogenous in origin. Allergies can be a hidden factor in urinary tract infections. For example, allergies to foods can irritate the bladder wall and increase susceptibility to urinary tract infections. Keep track of your diet and have allergy testing done to help eliminate foods that may be a problem. Urinary tract infections after sexual intercourse can be also be due to an allergy to latex condoms, spermicides, or oral contraceptives. In this case review alternative methods of birth control with your doctor. Indwelling urinary catheters in women and men who are elderly, over placement of a temporary Prostatic stent can be a major cause of UTI's. Also, people experiencing nervous system disorders, people who are convalescing or unconscious for long periods of time, will have an increased risk of urinary tract infection for a number of reasons. Scrupulous aseptic techniques may decrease these associated risks. The bladder wall is coated with various mannosylated proteins, such as Tamm-Horsfall proteins (THP), which interfere with the binding of bacteria to the uroepithelium. As binding is an important factor in establishing pathogenicity for these organisms, its disruption results in reduced capacity for invasion of the tissues. Moreover, the unbound bacteria are more easily removed when voiding. The use of urinary catheters (or other physical trauma) may physically disturb this protective lining, thereby allowing bacteria to invade the exposed epithelium. Elderly individuals, both men and women, are more likely to harbor bacteria in their genitourinary system at any time. These bacteria may be associated with symptoms and thus require treatment with an antibiotic. The presence of bacteria in the urinary tract of older adults, without symptoms or associated consequences, is also a well recognized phenomenon which may not require antibiotics. This is usually referred to as asymptomatic bacteriuria. The overuse of antibiotics in the context of bacteriuria among the elderly is a concerning and con

The Desegregation of Virginia Education (DOVE) project, hosted by Old Dominion University Libraries, recently received a $2,000 grant from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission of the Virginia General Assembly. “The locations of many

The Desegregation of Virginia Education (DOVE) project, hosted by Old Dominion University Libraries, recently received a $2,000 grant from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission of the Virginia General Assembly. “The locations of many of Virginia’s historically important records of school desegregation remain unknown. DOVE will train volunteers to conduct onsite surveys of school desegregation collections,” said Sonia Yaco, ODU Special Collections librarian and university archivist. Training sessions will be held in the four communities where public schools were closed to prevent integration in the late 1950s under Massive Resistance: Norfolk, Prince Edward County, Charlottesville and Arlington/Front Royal. The DOVE project was created in 2008 as a collaborative effort to develop a guide to historic resources that document Virginia’s school desegregation process from the mid-1940s through the mid-1980s. Participants in DOVE include ODU, Norfolk State University, College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, National Archives and Records Administration – Mid Atlantic Region, R.R. Moton Museum, Virginia State University, Norfolk Public Library, Virginia Tech, Washington and Lee University and the Library of Virginia.

Google Earth Tool Provides Local CO2 Inventory Localizing the effects of climate change remains challenging. But a new tool makes it easier to at least pin down the local sources of one of the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide. The inventory, which

Google Earth Tool Provides Local CO2 Inventory Localizing the effects of climate change remains challenging. But a new tool makes it easier to at least pin down the local sources of one of the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide. The inventory, which is presented on a Google Earth platform, was led by scientists at Purdue University, and has been named Vulcan. With a glance, you can see the relative total CO2 emissions of every county in the US, or get a county-level breakout for categories such as industry, electricity production, nonroad vehicles, and aircraft. The team is working on identification of emitters at the scale of individual buildings and streets. The current data is based on 2002 information from sources such as EPA, the Dept. of Energy, and NASA; more current data, with updates every 6 months, and historical data are in the works. So is expansion of the information to Canada and Mexico, then to other countries. In the US, there are dramatic differences in total emissions among counties, and the makeup of their contributing sources. Some counties are dominated by a source such as a power plant, and others by vehicle emissions, but some have a relatively even mix among the seven identified categories. As climate change debates move forward, this tool can help you determine what role the counties, states, or regions of interest to your audience are playing in initial emissions of a key greenhouse gas, and how improvement efforts might be targeted locally. You can extract broadcast-quality images of Vulcan's information to enhance your story.

This piece was published on May 5, 1954. In the Mogollons, and farther east where the great range of the White Mountains slope into New Mexico, cattle rustlers and horse thieves operated most successfully in early Territorial

This piece was published on May 5, 1954. In the Mogollons, and farther east where the great range of the White Mountains slope into New Mexico, cattle rustlers and horse thieves operated most successfully in early Territorial days. The New Mexico rustlers drove stolen cattle and horses into those mountains and set up their own camps, adding to their herds by raiding the ranges in the low lands of the Gila and San Pedro. New Mexico was the market for most of the livestock stolen by Arizona rustlers. Often the rustlers from the two territories met on trails and battled for the possession of the livestock. Many of the old trails have unmarked graves where defeated rustlers were laid away. There were settlers in those Arizona mountains whom rustlers never bothered. Gustave Becker, a merchant in Springerville, was one. Kid Swilling for many years rode the mountain ranges defiantly, and was one of the worst badmen of his time. One day he was in Gustave Becker's store, buying a new outfit for himself. Hidden from other customers, he was behind a counter piled high with bolts of cotton goods, donning his new clothes. As he selected a bright colored pair of suspenders, two officers entered the store. The kid had been peering between bolts of cloth as he dressed - he stole from behind the counter, covered the two officers with two six-shooters, walked out of the store, mounted his horse and rode away. A week later Becker received a letter from the kid enclosing a dollar bill. "Didn't have time to pay for th' galluses," it read. These stories were part of a column, Pioneer Anecdotes, written by George H. Smalley, editor of the Tucson Citizen from 1898 to 1901.

Saturday, June 4, 2011 Oil on canvas 92 x 118,5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610). Car

Saturday, June 4, 2011 Oil on canvas 92 x 118,5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610). Caravaggio's novelty was a radical naturalism which combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as Tenebrism, the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value. Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. He was thrown in jail on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death warrant issued for him by the Pope. In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. In Malta in 1608 he was involved in another brawl, and yet another in Naples in 1609. By the next year, after a relatively brief career (39-year-old), he was dead. Posted by merryhaha at 00:09

Rye is the common name for the cereal grass Secale cereale, grown extensively as a grain crop. As a member of the grass family Poaceae and the tribe Triticeae, it is closely related to wheat and barley. The term

Rye is the common name for the cereal grass Secale cereale, grown extensively as a grain crop. As a member of the grass family Poaceae and the tribe Triticeae, it is closely related to wheat and barley. The term rye also refers to the edible grain of these plants. The term rye also can be used for any of the members of the Secale genus, but is particularly used for Secale cereale, which will be the focus of this article. Rye serves a variety of purposes. It is used for making flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskies, and some vodkas, as well as serving as a livestock feed. It can also be eaten whole, eith

Geography of the Pitcairn Islands ||This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (January 2010)| The only inhabited island, Pitcairn, has an area of 5 km2 (

Geography of the Pitcairn Islands ||This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (January 2010)| The only inhabited island, Pitcairn, has an area of 5 km2 (1.9 sq mi) and a population density of 10/km²; it is only accessible by boat through Bounty Bay. The other islands are at a distance of more than 100 km (62 mi). Wikimedia Atlas of the Pitcairn Islands The inhabited island, Pitcairn, is at 25.04 south, 130.06 west. Pitcairn is about 2,170 kilometres (1,350 mi) southeast of Tahiti, 5,310 kilometres (3,300 mi) from Auckland, New Zealand, and over 6,600 kilometres (4,100 mi) from Panama. Total: 47 km² Land: 47 km² Water: 0 km² Pitcairn Island is about 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) long and 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) wide. Area - comparative About 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC Exclusive economic zone: 200 nmi Territorial sea: 3 nmi Tropical, hot, humid; modified by southeast trade winds; rainy season (November to March) Rugged volcanic formation; rocky coastline with cliffs Lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m Highest point: Pawala Valley Ridge 347 m (1,138 ft) Typhoons (especially November to March) Environment - current issues Deforestation (only a small portion of the original forest remains because of burning and clearing for settlement) Worldwide map services show very little detail of the islands, and are even of limited use to show the location of them with respect to each other and to other islands, because they are so small and far apart. However, Mapquest zoom level 1 is a suitable map to see the location between Peru and New Zealand. See also map showing location of the Pitcairn Islands with respect to other island groups and to continents - Shadle, Robert (1996). Historical Dictionary of the British Empire. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 890. ISBN 978-0-313-29367-2. Retrieved 31 October 2011. - Ntumy, Michael A. (1993). South Pacific islands legal systems. University of Hawaii Press. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-8248-1438-0. Retrieved 31 October 2011. - "Home." Government of the Pitcairn Islands. Retrieved on October 31, 2011.

For years, one of the main goals in computer graphics has been to recreate a totally convincing human being on screen, something that looks and acts so life-like that it is indistinguishable from a real person. By Spencer Kelly But human beings

For years, one of the main goals in computer graphics has been to recreate a totally convincing human being on screen, something that looks and acts so life-like that it is indistinguishable from a real person. By Spencer Kelly But human beings are hard to recreate, because along with all those tiny details in the way we look, there is the way we move, our expressions. The Dawn demo draws detailed graphics at high speeds Now there is a new type of computer graphics card which is bringing virtual humans a lot closer. Dawn Fairy is a virtual human, or avatar, created by Nvidia to showcase their new Geforce graphics card. In the past, each frame of her scenes would take a computer hours to draw, and the whole thing would be stuck together afterwards to make the movie. If you wanted to draw each frame faster, in real-time, you would have to go for a less detailed, more cartoon-like character, like Lara Croft. The Dawn demo takes the best of both worlds, with very detailed graphics being calculated and drawn at very high speed as the frames are needed. "If we look at how games are done currently, you can see that although they have the right skin colour and the faces have eyes and noses and mouths, they lack the imperfections that make them look realistic," said Nvidia's Andrew Humbar. "Typically, the closer you zoom into a real-time character, the worse the image quality gets. But the closer you get to Dawn, the better she gets. "That's when you really start to see the detail. So if you look at her skin, she has moles; if you look at her eyes, she has a retina, she has a cornea and blood vessels in the eye." The Geforce chip is made of copper instead of aluminium, which means it can run faster, at 500 MHz or thereabouts. It gets quite warm, which is why it comes complete with its own cooling system. It is this extra speed that allows the chip to handle a similar quality of image to those in recent animated movies. "Dawn is made up of over 150,000 triangles. These triangles form a mesh, and this mesh is controlled to create the very realistic movement that we see in this particular demo," said Mr Humbar. "The smaller the triangles, and the more triangles there are, the

A Beginner's Guide to Anime Anime, or 'Japanimation' as it's sometimes called, is in it's most basic form simply an animated feature produced in Japan. Nothing more, nothing less. There's some dispute about the origins of

A Beginner's Guide to Anime Anime, or 'Japanimation' as it's sometimes called, is in it's most basic form simply an animated feature produced in Japan. Nothing more, nothing less. There's some dispute about the origins of the word itself: some claim that its origins are French, but more likely is the theory that it's a shortened "loan-word" from the English word, animation. (It's not unusual for the Japanese to approximate, and even truncate words to suit their purposes. Two prime examples of this are the words terebi, a loan word for 'television,' and biilu,, a shortened form of 'building.') It should be noted that anime is not a genre -- in fact, anime covers as many genres as any other communications media -- as it should, since anime is in fact, a just another medium of communications. The only difference is that it carries the "Made in Japan" label. Obviously, this doesn't explain the near-feverent mania surrounding this 'art form.' What's so different about anime that's drawing the attention of so many? Perhaps the most obvious difference from North America's traditional view of "cartoons" is that anime has a much broader audience appeal. This is not "just for kids" stuff. Characterisations can be as flat at those found in Archie comics, or as complex and rounded as found in films such as The Remains of the Day. Topics can vary tremendously: from giant robots to war; daily family life to whimiscal fantasy; parodies to hard-core pornography -- the subject matter is boundless. And just like the film counterpart in Hollywood, Japanese animation varies from the truly remarkable films, to the remarkably innane. It should be noted that cultural differences between Japan and the West invariably result in several "objectionable" elements in anime. The most common one being nudity, sexual scenes and explicit scenes of violence and sexuality. Casual nudity was generally accepted in bathing situations until about the 1980's. Public baths, and shared family baths were very commonplace at one time. Loincloths for men on family farms, and public nursing of children was not unusual. The influx of western culture and morals has made this less acceptable, though elements of casual nudity will often appear in animation features, including animated features for children. Ironically, public nursing of children is on the rise in North America... Sekuhara (or "sexual harassment"), and sexual overtones are a common theme in many anime programs, including those for young adults. Unlike their North American counterparts, Japanese studios do not differentiate this from showing violence on screen; it's just another element that might be used to advance plot, or merely titlate. A more extreme offshoot of this is the production of animated features specifically geared towards the adult (usually male) audience. Explicit sexual acts and even acts of extreme violence and perversion can be depicted. It should again be emphasised that just because something is animated, does not mean that it's for kids. (Remember Fritz the Cat and Heavy Metal?) Recently, Spawn has also taken the adult approach in animated features. Because of the wide variety of subject matter, it's impossible to showcase a single title as the definitive work of Japanese anime. However, there are a few titles that could be considered as'starting points' for those of you who are uncertain where to begin. Romance: There are several very good examples of this genre, but there are two that come immediately to mind: Takahashi Rumiko's Maison Ikkoku, and Izumi Matsumoto's Kimagure Orange Road. Both are fairly long-running series (96 and 48 TV episodes respectively), and the two are aimed a slightly different target audiences: Maison Ikkoku is aimed at the older, more adult crowd (but that doesn't mean it has a lot of adult content -- it doesn't), and Kimagure Orange Road is aimed squarely at the young adult audience. Both convey the hardships of daily life and uncertain romance with an innocent honesty that's missing from many of our sit-coms today, albeit with a distinctly Japanese flair. Science Fiction: Probably the largest genre in anime, there are several very good example of this topic. For action SF fans, there's Macross, including the very impressive Macross Plus. Hardcore SF fans will probably enjoy the dark, serious tones of the Patlabor movies, or the ambitious Ghost in the Shell. Fantas

Art with a Christian Emphasis Developing Motor Skills and Art With a Purpose To see the table of contents and sample lessons, click on the curriculum sets below. Art With a Purpose Simple step-by-step art lessons for children in grades

Art with a Christian Emphasis Developing Motor Skills and Art With a Purpose To see the table of contents and sample lessons, click on the curriculum sets below. Art With a Purpose Simple step-by-step art lessons for children in grades 1-8. Each Artpac has ready-to-use pupil art sheets, bound in tablet form. Directions, examples, and needed materials are listed for the teacher. Each student will need a separate student packet. The teacher will should also have a packet to do as samples beforehand. Extra packets will allow the teacher to demonstrate doing the project in class and provide spares for the times someone needs to start over. The Artpac number is the recommended grade level, but grades may be effectively combined using a packet near the actual grade level. You will appreciate the simplicity and ease of art in this well-planned course. Concepts covered in the various Artpacs: - Artpac 1 Simple coloring skills, color-by-number, cutting and pasting. - Artpac 2 Simple coloring skills, cutting, pasting, simple perspective drawing. - Artpac 3 Coloring, shading with crayons, simple grid drawing and painting. - Artpac 4 Coloring, shading with crayons, drawing stick figures, simple grid drawing, and perspective drawing. - Artpac 5 Shading with colored pencils, drawing faces, painting and paint mixing, lettering, and grid work. - Artpac 6 Shading with colored pencils, drawing faces, lettering, grid work, freehand and perspective drawing. - Artpac 7 Advanced shading with soft lead colored pencils, grid drawing, calligraphy, paint mixing and painting, and sketching. - Artpac 8 Shading with pen and ink. |Developing Motor Skills||Artpacs: Gr. 1||Gr. 2||Gr. 3||Gr. 4||Gr. 5||Gr. 6||Gr. 7||Gr. 8|

Living in space should be an amazing challenge, but however practical and (relatively) easy to create will be spaceships and habitats, there is nothing above a genuine planet to live on. Besides, it’s much safer during those galactic wars

Living in space should be an amazing challenge, but however practical and (relatively) easy to create will be spaceships and habitats, there is nothing above a genuine planet to live on. Besides, it’s much safer during those galactic wars than fragile space bases, where a single hit can leave you grasping for air… or maybe not, considering planets cannot escape. But I digress. If we ever rise into space, and find planets close enough to ours, then, no doubt, our kind will seek to change them to our own image, and make them habitable. This is a collection of ideas around the concept of terraforming. Which of them are likely to be used will depend on the level of technology, and too many other factors. Additional thoughts are welcome. Please try to keep the format (major themes as scroll comments, lesser topics as replies). And sorry for the broken outside links. :| Additional Ideas (10) Whenever the requirement of stability is mentioned, you should also consider the proper timescale, as compared to the human lifespan. Geological and astronomical phenomena can take LONG. If a planet becomes uninhabitable after ten thousands years, it is perfectly fine for settling down now! Even centuries may be okay. Changing the kinetic properties of a planet is not an easy task, though more a question of raw power than of intricate knowledge. A typical method would be bombarding it with directed comets and asteroids, giving it little pushes at the right moments (and handily depositing organic substances, incidentally heating up the atmosphere a little). But this is not only a matter of how long you prefer your day, or year to be! Distant planets receive less sunlight, closer ones more; a too distorted elliptic orbit may cause extreme shifts in temperatures over the year, and require intervention. Day and night mean variations as well, so they need to be balanced similarly. Checking rare constellations is not always astrology. For planet-based life, an atmosphere is a most handy place to deposit the waste, and find basic nourishment. As everything diffuses in it fast, basically any lifeform from the surface can be expected to interact with the atmosphere to some degree. It is therefore of key importance to have this part covered. Small planets may have none to speak of, so a weak adaptation would be to make an atmosphere that is sufficient to allow people to carry masks instead of vacuum suit. A breathab

You are here: Ludwig Prandtl “Father of modern aerodynamics” Ludwig Prandtl is today considered one of the key founding fathers of institutionalised aerospace research. When he founded the Modellversuchsanstalt

You are here: Ludwig Prandtl “Father of modern aerodynamics” Ludwig Prandtl is today considered one of the key founding fathers of institutionalised aerospace research. When he founded the Modellversuchsanstalt für Aerodynamik der Motorluftschiff-Studiengesellschaft [Institute for testing of aerodynamic models of the powered airship society] which would later become the Aerodynamischen Versuchsanstalt, [Institute for Aerodynamic Testing] or AVA, a precursor of the modern day German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in 1907 in Göttingen, he was laying the foundations of modern aerodynamic research. He is considered the “Father of modern aerodynamics” and founder of modern study of aerodynamics Colleagues describe him as “an extroadinary scholar, a successful teacher and a good man“. Send article link to: Your e-mail address: Any details you supply are not stored. You will receive no unsolicited e-mails as a result. Created: 09/02/2007 13:20:00

Obese children, who are at increased risk for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, may not be getting the most appropriate test to screen for these conditions, a new Canadian study found. Results were presented Sunday, June 15, at

Obese children, who are at increased risk for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, may not be getting the most appropriate test to screen for these conditions, a new Canadian study found. Results were presented Sunday, June 15, at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The standard screening test for high blood sugar in children with risk factors—a blood test called the fasting plasma (or blood) glucose test—identified nearly 3 times fewer the children with prediabetes than did a longer blood test, said the study's lead author. Katherine Morrison, MD, from the pediatrics department of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, said the more accurate test was the glucose stress test, also called the oral glucose tolerance test. This test takes longer because the patient has blood drawn after fasting and again 2 hours after drinking a sugary solution. Compared with the glucose stress test, the fasting blood glucose test also was not as sensitive in detecting metabolic syndrome. This syndrome is a cluster of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, including a high blood sugar level. "Prediabetes and metabolic syndrome are common in obese children but are not readily identified with the currently recommended test," Morrison said. "They require a glucose stress test." The authors studied 172 obese children, ages 5 to 17, who joined a program to help attain a healthy weight. All children had evaluation of risk factors for diabetes (or its precursor, prediabetes) and metabolic syndrome, including testing of blood sugar. Using the glucose stress test, the researchers found that 25 percent of the children met the diagnostic criteria for prediabetes. But when they relied on results of the fasting blood glucose test, as recommended by the American and Canadian diabetes associations, they found that only 8 percent of the children had prediabetes. "A large proportion of the children with prediabetes would not have had their condition recognized," Morrison said.

Much of the evidence that human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8) is associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) has come from molecular studies of HHV-8 DNA. Seroepidemiological studies

Much of the evidence that human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8) is associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) has come from molecular studies of HHV-8 DNA. Seroepidemiological studies have been hampered by the lack of a reliable assay. The serological data reported here were obtained by means of a mouse monoclonal antibody-enhanced immunofluorescence assay for antibodies to lytic and latent HHV-8 antigens. 1435 single samples of serum (or plasma) from many different disease groups and parts of the world were assayed. All patients with African endemic KS and 96% of American patients with AIDS-associated KS were seropositive for lytic antigen, as were 90% of American HIV-infected homosexual men; by contrast only 23% of HIV-seropositive drug users and 21% of HIV-seropositive women were positive for HHV-8 antibody. Factor VIII treatment before 1983 did not increase the risk of HHV-8 infection in patients with haemophilia. In the American general population, about 25% of adults (including volunteer blood donors) and 2—8% of children had antibodies to HHV-8. Our data are consistent with HHV-8 being primarily associated with sexual transmission, but the HHV-8 seropositivity rate in American children suggests that there is a non-sexual route of HHV-8 infection also. On the evidence available so far, the risk of parenteral transmission is low. To read this article in full you will need to login or make a payment

The Cambridge Modern History/Volume II/Chapter XI |The Cambridge Modern History Volume II: The Reformation The Reformation emerges as an inevitable result from the interaction and opposition of many and complex forces. The spirit of the time,

The Cambridge Modern History/Volume II/Chapter XI |The Cambridge Modern History Volume II: The Reformation The Reformation emerges as an inevitable result from the interaction and opposition of many and complex forces. The spirit of the time, even when intending to be its enemy, proved its friend. The Renaissance, which had raised the ancient classical world from its grave, was not in itself opposed to the Catholic Church; but in the reason it educated and the historical temper it formed, in the literature it recovered and the languages it loved, in the imagination it cultivated and the new sense of the beautiful it created, there were forces of subtle hostility to the system which had been built upon the ruins of classical antiquity. Erasmus used his wit to mock the vulgar scholasticism of Luther. But Erasmus more than any man made Protestantism necessary and the Papacy impossible, especially to the grave and reverent peoples of the North. The navigators, who by finding new continents enlarged our notions both of the earth and man, seemed but to add fresh provinces to Rome; but, by moving the centre of social and intellectual gravity from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the Atlantic, they inflicted on her a fatal wound. Moreover, by the easy acquisition of the wealth which lower races had accumulated, there was begotten in the Latin peoples so fierce and intolerant an avarice that their highest ambitions appeared ignoble, in contrast with the magnanimity and the enterprise of the Teutonic nations that became Protestant. And just as the history of man's past lengthened and the earth around him broadened and with it his horizon, so the nature beneath him and the heavens above began by telling him their secrets to throw over him their spell. With the new knowledge of nature came new hopes which looked more to the energies that were creating the future than to the authorities that had fashioned the past. Faith in man as man, and not simply as King or noble, as Pope or priest, was reborn; and he appeared as the maker of history and the doer of the deeds that distinguish time. The most famous of the humanists were either themselves poor or sons of poor men, though they might affect, especially in Italy, the Courts of Kings and the palaces of the great, who had patronage as well as power in their hands. The most eminent of the explorers was a Genoese sailor; the best known conqueror was an officer's bastard; the author of the new astronomy was a clerk who never became a priest; the foremost scholar of the day was a child born out of wedlock; the most acute political thinker was a plain Florentine citizen; and the most potent English statesman was the son of a rustic tradesman. And this strenuous individualism found its counterpart in religion; the rights of man in religion were declared; the individual asserted his competence to know and to obey the truth by which he was to be judged. But the Reformation, at least in its earlier phase, bore also upon its face the image of the man whose genius gave it actual being. Luther had become a Reformer rather by necessity of nature than by choice of will. His peasant descent may have given him a conservative obstinacy which was concentrated and intensified by his narrow scholastic education. No man ever clung with more tender intensity to the customs and beliefs that could be saved from the wreckage of the past. But he did his work as a Reformer the more thoroughly because he did it from nature rather than from choice. It is doubtful if in the whole of history any man ever showed more of the insight that changes audacity into courage. By the publication of his Theses he proclaimed a doctrine of grace that broke up the system which Europe had for centuries believed and obeyed. By burning the papal Bull he defied an authority which no person or people had been able to resist and yet live. By his address to the nobles of the German nation he appealed from ecclesiastical passion and prejudice to secular honour and honesty. By his appearance and conduct at the Diet of Worms he showed that he could act as he had spoken. By his translation of the Bible he spread before the eyes of every religious man the law by which he was bound. And by his marriage he declared the sanctity of the home and the ties which attached man to woman. But, though Luther was by nature strong and heroic, he was yet so intellectually timid that he could not bear suspense of judgment, even where such suspense was an obvious duty. And so the system he created was, alike in what it sacrificed and what it spared, a splendid example of dialectical adaptation to personal experience. He was indeed so typical a German that his Church suited the German people; but for the same reason it could not live outside Teutonic institutions and the Teutonic mind. He had no constitutional tendency to scepticism, for his convictions did not so much follow or obey as underlie and guide the processes of his logic. Hence he was a man equally powerful in promoting

Guest Author - Debra Kelly It's no secret that a dog's sense of smell is much, much more sensitive than that of their human companions. That's just part of what makes them such invaluable companions to law enforcement officers and search and

Guest Author - Debra Kelly It's no secret that a dog's sense of smell is much, much more sensitive than that of their human companions. That's just part of what makes them such invaluable companions to law enforcement officers and search and rescue teams, but every household dog -- a guard dog in their own right -- has the same superhuman ability to not just smell, but process the information they receive. Smells are detected by olfactory receptors in the nose. A human has about 5 million of these receptacles in their nasal passages, while a dog has about 220 million. Receptacles aren't just in the dog's nose, but continue throughout their nasal cavity and are even found on the delicate bones and membranes within the nasal passages. The portion of a dog's brain that processes information from smells is also more highly developed than a human's, allowing the dog to better interpret the information that their nose is giving them. In addition to more highly sensitive organs, dogs also have some extra structures that humans don't. The vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's organ, sits alongside a dog's nasal passages and mouth. These sacs are filled with a fluid that contains still more scent receptors. It is believed that this is the organ that also allows dogs to distinguish different types of pheromones in addition to the same kinds of scents and smells human can recognize. Ever taken your perfectly calm and collected dog somewhere, and all of a sudden she's concerned or afraid when nothing seems to have happened? It's possible that she's smelling the trace remnants of something that may have happened before -- and this can be as simple as the passage of a fearful dog leaving pheromones yours is now detecting and understanding as a reason to be afraid. The last dog there was afraid, so in her mind, she should be, too. That's the effects of pheromones. It's also estimated that about 33% of the information that's processed by a dog's brain is received from their sense of smell. This means that your dog's behavior isn't just based on what he or she is seeing, but it's also based on what they are smelling -- and these smells are often way beyond your abilities to detect. One of the most obvious examples of smelling behavior is when two dogs meet each other. Their first instinct is to sniff each other, completely and thoroughly -- sometimes to the embarrassment of their owners. Even if they know each other well, the behavior is still there. Why? Dogs aren't just using their sense of smell to identify each other -- their ability to smell is

In Latin, Ninth century This fine Carolingian manuscript of the Roman comic poet Plautus, like many others of the Latin classics, was brought to Italy by the bookhunter Poggio Bracciolini, who entered notes in

In Latin, Ninth century This fine Carolingian manuscript of the Roman comic poet Plautus, like many others of the Latin classics, was brought to Italy by the bookhunter Poggio Bracciolini, who entered notes in it and copied it, as did Niccolo Niccoli. The latter's copy in turn gave rise to many other manuscripts which were studied, imitated, and performed in Rome and elsewhere. The revival of secular drama in Renaissance Europe largely stems from the discovery of this work. As for this manuscript, Nicholas of Cusa brought it to Rome, where it passed through the library of Cardinal Giordano Orsini into that of the Chapter of Saint Peter's, who gave it to Pope Leo X. Vat. lat. 3870 fols. 1 verso-2 recto vlib26 INT.08 This print of Michelan

Over 8,000 websites created by students around the world who have participated in a ThinkQuest Competition. Ancient Egypt's Sands of Time Our web page is based on ancient Egypt. From our site you will find out information on how the

Over 8,000 websites created by students around the world who have participated in a ThinkQuest Competition. Ancient Egypt's Sands of Time Our web page is based on ancient Egypt. From our site you will find out information on how the pyramids were built, why the mummification process took place, the gods and goddesses they worshiped, along with, the types of medicine used and different animals which inhabited ancient Egypt. 19 & under Geography & Travel > Africa > Egypt History & Government > Ancient Civilizations & Archaeology > Egypt

Identity Almost 700,000 Tibetans belong to the Gtsang Tibetan language group. They are located in a wide geographical area, stretching east to west over roughly the entire length of the Tibet-Nepal border. Gtsang is spoken

Identity Almost 700,000 Tibetans belong to the Gtsang Tibetan language group. They are located in a wide geographical area, stretching east to west over roughly the entire length of the Tibet-Nepal border. Gtsang is spoken in the cities of Xigaze and Gyantse, the second and fourth largest cities in Tibet respectively. The main attraction of Gyantse is the immense pagoda, or Kumbun, built by Rapten Kunsang Pha

alternative words: Geigi, Geiko, Geishas, Geisha girl keywords: artist, music related topics: Edo period, Meiji period explanation: Traditional entertainers who offer music, dance and companionship in

alternative words: Geigi, Geiko, Geishas, Geisha girl keywords: artist, music related topics: Edo period, Meiji period explanation: Traditional entertainers who offer music, dance and companionship in private restaurants and banquets. Professional entertainers without prostitution appeared during Edo period, both women and men. The latter was called "Taikomochi" i.e. "drum holder". During Meiji period, the profession of geish was prosperous but known some abuse: young girls were bought to form geisha. After WWII, because of the police control, the number of geisha has considerably declined. related topics: Nanbokucho period, Muromachi period, Sengoku period explanation: Initially all the samurai leaders had stemmed from aristocrats. From Nanbokucho disturbance in early 14th century, Japan plunged into a long civil war until the late 16 century. During this period, many farmers were part time warriors and talented people could become a leader of troops without consideration of social rank. This situation pushed ambitious to betray their boss to become themselves seigniors. This lawless state in Japan was called Gekokujo, i.e. "lower (rank) beats upper (rank)" alternative words: Genpei gassen, Gempei war, Gen

The living room is somewhere that has taken on some fundamental changes from century to century and now is one of many focal points within a home. The actual term living room was one that was found within the decorative and somewhat glorious period of the 189

The living room is somewhere that has taken on some fundamental changes from century to century and now is one of many focal points within a home. The actual term living room was one that was found within the decorative and somewhat glorious period of the 1890’s. Throughout this article I intend to show you the change in the living room from the 17th Century until now. In times gone by the decoration, theme and design of a living room would be a reflection of the designer’s personality not so much the Victorian Conventions of the day. In the 19th Century this room in a home would be known as ‘the parlours’ but known to us now as either the living room, sitting room, lounge etc. One thing the living room has always been used for is the entertainment of guests, or somewhere we can relax, play games and read for example. However once upon a time it was seen as a much more formal place. After plenty of time researching the change in the living room it is obvious to me that this was a place in which you could cement your signature on the home and people have always taken advantage of this. The 17th Century In the 17th Century it was obvious that there was one specific room in the home that especially the middle class would use more than any other, this room was known as ‘The Hall’ and it had many functions to entertain, socialise and dine whether this being just family or when guests where present also. It is obvious to me that within this century a great deal of time was spent on empathising the hierarchy within a family and the furniture would be symbolic of this. We would have seen furniture such as the famous ‘Great Chair’ being apparent throughout the 17th Century and this chair would be occupied by the head of the

Alliance Co-director, Rick Bogle and UW researcher, Paul Kaufman, M.D. face off on the issues surrounding the use of monkeys at the University of Wisconsin. Approximately 250 University of Wisconsin students, faculty, researchers,

Alliance Co-director, Rick Bogle and UW researcher, Paul Kaufman, M.D. face off on the issues surrounding the use of monkeys at the University of Wisconsin. Approximately 250 University of Wisconsin students, faculty, researchers, Madison citizens and animal rights activists did anything but monkey around when they gathered to debate the rights of non-human primate research subjects Monday. Department of Ophthalmology Chair Paul Kaufman — who regularly uses monkeys in his research — debated Co-Director of Alliance for Animals Rick Bogle — who said he ate his last animal in 1972 and has been campaigning for animal rights ever since — on the ethics of non-human primate research. Before the debate began, Chair of the Department of Medical History and Bioethics Susan Lederer gave a presentation on the history of animal use in scientific research. She said animal research dates back to the 2nd century, when Roman physician and philosopher Galen documented his experiments on many animals. She said one well-known experiment involved severing the spinal cord of an ape to observe the ape’s lack of mobility below the cut. She said the ethics of non-human primate research are a relatively new discussion. She gave the example of Claude Bernard, a French scientist who experimented on one monkey and then decided he would no longer work on them due to their resemblance to humans in the 1800s. Kaufman began the debate, saying his work on glaucoma would probably not be possible without the option of non-human primate research, adding a number of drugs currently in human clinical trials were made possible by monkey research. He said these drugs are not trivial things, but rather drugs that save lives. “I would ask you how many are prepared to die earlier, sustain physical disability or disease earlier in our lives, or watch your child, or your spouse, or your sibling sustain one of those things,” Kaufman said. He said the key question for him in deciding the ethics of the issue is: “Are monkeys us?” If monkeys are included in our group, doing research on them would be unethical. If they are not, we should be allowed to use them in research. Bogle agreed the question “Are monkeys us?” is of central importance. He cautioned against making a quick decision on that point, however. He recalled many people over time — including women, African Americans and Jewish people — who are now accepted as part of the group, but were historically considered outcasts. He said he thinks monkeys display many characteristics of humans, such as the ability to grieve, count, order things by quantity and deal with complex environments, yet their lives are being valued less. During the question and answer portion of the debate, every public comment made was anti-animal research. However, overall the crowd was calm. UW sophomore and debate attendant Jimmy Gowin said he thought researchers were taking emotion out of the question, but he feels it should be central to the debate. “I don’t think it’s right to just discount emotion because it doesn’t fit,” Gowin said. “I think what makes us human is that emotion and our ability to feel.”

ERIC Number: ED432509 Record Type: RIE Publication Date: 1998 Reference Count: N/A World Concerns and the United Nations: Model Teaching Units for Primary, Secondary, and Teacher Education Based on the Work

ERIC Number: ED432509 Record Type: RIE Publication Date: 1998 Reference Count: N/A World Concerns and the United Nations: Model Teaching Units for Primary, Secondary, and Teacher Education Based on the Work of Participants in the UN Fellowship Programme for Educators and the UNESCO Associated Schools Project. Second Revised Edition. Arkin, Linda, Ed. Today's educators face the daunting challenge of preparing new generations of young people for life in a world undergoing economic, political, and cultural changes on a scale unmatched in history. After five decades, the United Nations remains at the center of the global effort to ensure peace and the equitable enjoyment of the planet's resources. Yet instruction about the United Nations' work in the curricula and textbooks in many of schools remains inadequate. There is a vital need to enhance the education of young students regarding the ever more dynamic interconnections of their world and the central role that the United Nations plays in promoting harmonious relations among governments and peoples everywhere. Various United Nations organizations have produced practical teaching materials to help meet the need. This edition has been thoroughly updated, reflecting many innovative ideas and practices adopted by international educators. Chapter titles include: (1) "We, the Peoples--Lower Primary"; (2) "Developing Our Community--Upper Primary"; (3) "The Great World Changes--Lower Secondary"; and (4) "Challenges Ahead--Upper Secondary." Eight appendices, an index, a listing of principle editorial counselors and pedagogical advisors, and a section for comments and suggestions conclude the volume. (BT) Descriptors: Citizenship Education, Conflict Resolution, Elementary Secondary Education, Environmental Education, Foreign Countries, Global Approach, International Cooperation, Social Studies, Student Development, Teacher Education, Units of Study, World Affairs, World Problems Bernan Associates, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706; Tel: 301-459-7666; Tel: 800-865-3457 (Toll-Free); Fax: 800-865-3450 (Toll-Free); Web site: http://www.berman.com Publication Type: Books; Guides - Classroom - Teacher Education Level: N/A Audience: Practitioners; Teachers Sponsor: Council on International and Public Affairs, New York, NY. Authoring Institution: United Nations, New York, NY. Identifiers: Global Issues; United Nations Note: For first edition, see ED 266 047.

Putting Prevention into Practice: An Evidence-Based Approach Screening for Chlamydial Infection Am Fam Physician. 2002 Jul 1;66(1):139-140. TC is a 24-year-old woman who comes

Putting Prevention into Practice: An Evidence-Based Approach Screening for Chlamydial Infection Am Fam Physician. 2002 Jul 1;66(1):139-140. TC is a 24-year-old woman who comes to your office for a well-woman visit. Her last physical examination was at age 16 with her pediatrician. She has been sexually active since the age of 15 and has had three “lifetime” partners. TC has been monogamous with her current partner since they were married four months ago. She is currently taking oral contraceptive pills and has used condoms inconsistently in the past. TC has had two miscarriages and also has a family history of breast cancer. She has never been tested for sexually transmitted infections and asks if this is necessary. Case Study Question 1. Which one of the following statements regarding recommendations accepted by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for chlamydial infection screening is correct? A. The USPSTF strongly recommends routine screening for chlamydial infection in all sexually active women 25 years of age and younger. B. The USPSTF strongly recommends chlamydial screening for all pregnant women, regardless of risk factors. C. The optimal timing of chlamydial screening in pregnancy is during the second trimester. D. The USPSTF does not recommend the routine screening of high-risk young men. 2. Which one of the following is the most important risk factor for chlamydial infection? A. Having new or multiple sexual partners. B. History of miscarriages. C. Inconsistent use of barrier contraceptives. D. Age younger than 25 years. 1. The answer is A: The USPSTF found good evidence that screening women at risk for chlamydial infection reduces the incidence of pelvic inflammatory disease and fair evidence that community-based screening reduces the prevalence of chlamydial infection. A number of tests that use endocervical or urethral swab specimens and urine specimens are available to identify chlamydial infection. Until recently, culture has been accepted as the most specific test, but it requires specialized handling and laboratory services. Antigen detection tests and nonamplified nucleic acid hybridization, as well as newer technologies based on amplified DNA assays, may provide improved sensitivity, increased availability, faster turnaround time, and reduced cost as compared with culture. New urine-based tests provide a noninvasive method of screening men and women. The optimal interval for screening is uncertain. For women with a previous negative screening test, the interval should take into account changes in sexual partners. Rescreening at six to 12 months may be appropriate for previously infected women because of the high incidence of reinfection. Fair evidence exists to indicate that screening for and treating chlamydial infection in asymptomatic, high-risk, pregnant women improve pregnancy outcomes. Two nonrandomized trials demonstrated improved pregnancy outcomes following treatment of chlamydial infection, including lower incidences of premature rupture of the membranes, low birth weight, and small-for-gestational-age births, and higher rates of infant survival. Little evidence is available regarding the effectiveness of screening and treatment of asymptomatic pregnant women who are not at high risk. The incremental benefit of repeated screening is unknown. The optimal time for screening during pregnancy is uncertain. Screening early in pregnancy provides greater opportunities to improve pregnancy outcomes, including low birth weight and preterm delivery; however, screening in the third trimester may allow for more effective prevention of transmission of chlamydial infection to the infant during birth. Screening of high-risk young men is a clinical option. Before the advent of urine-based screening tests, routine screening was rarely performed in men. Trials are under way, but currently little evidence exists regarding whether screening in asymptomatic men can help reduce infection rates in men and their partners. Partners of infected persons should be tested and treated if infected, or treated presumptively. 2. The answer is D: Age is the most important risk factor for chlamydial infection. Women and adolescents through 20 years of age are at highest risk for chlamydial infection, but most reported data indicate that infection is prevalent among women 20 to 25 years of age. Other patient characteristics associated with a higher prevalence of infection include being unmarried, African-Ameri

PHOTOGRAPHY. On April 17, 1839, almost three years after the Texas victory at the battle of San Jacinto, the Telegraph and Texas Register reprinted an article that described (with considerable inaccuracy) the processes then

PHOTOGRAPHY. On April 17, 1839, almost three years after the Texas victory at the battle of San Jacinto, the Telegraph and Texas Register reprinted an article that described (with considerable inaccuracy) the processes then being perfected to produce a permanent image entirely through the action of light and chemistry by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre in France (on a silver-plated copper sheet) and William Henry Fox Talbot in England (on paper). By 1841 or 1842 photographers in the northeastern United States were producing daguerreotype portraits, but the process apparently did not arrive in Texas until December 1843, when a Mrs. Davis advertised her photographic services in the Houston newspapers. Although she might have remained for "two or three weeks" and was probably the first person to produce a photograph in Texas, none of her work is known to exist. Dozens of transient daguerreotypists followed Mrs. Davis to Texas. They adopted the same procedure that she had used by advertising in the local newspapers

Throughout your life, you have a 1 in 600,000 chance of being struck by lightning, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). As you’d expect, the overwhelming majority of those struck are hit while outside. However,

Throughout your life, you have a 1 in 600,000 chance of being struck by lightning, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). As you’d expect, the overwhelming majority of those struck are hit while outside. However, it is possible to be struck while inside. The NWS says it is indeed possible to be struck while showering because lightning can travel through your pipes. NWS’s John Jensenius suggests you “wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder you hear before taking a shower.” Other potential ways a person can be struck by lightning while inside: Washing dishes: Using the sink presents the same problem as showering. In fact, using any part of your home’s plumbing is a risk during an electrical storm. Telephone: If you still have a cord telephone, do not use it. In a car: You should be safe, but don’t touch any metal. Other safety precautions to employ while at home include unplugging computers, air conditioners, and refrigerators to avoid damage from surges.

Focus on the pronunciation of program English definition of “program” /ˈprəʊgræm/ noun [C] › (also computer program) IT a series of instructions put into a computer so that it does particular tasks

Focus on the pronunciation of program English definition of “program” /ˈprəʊgræm/ noun [C] › (also computer program) IT a series of instructions put into a computer so that it does particular tasks: load/download a program The service will prompt you to download the appropriate program.install/uninstall a program When I try to install a program, I get an error message.design/develop/write a program The company is trying to develop a program that will predict terrorist acts.run/execute/use a program The command allows computer users to run a program with administrator rights. › US (UK programme) GOVERNMENT, MANAGEMENT an officially organized system of services, activities, or opportunities that help people achieve something: a government/state program The governor proposed a state $500 million program to build new schools.a health insurance/product-development/construction program The tax funds health insurance programs for the working poor. We had to end the bonus program for non-executive staff.a program to do sth A financial advisor analyzes clients' finances and prepares personalized programs to meet objectives. build/develop/finance a program launch/initiate a program → Compar

Most of these are the same as for the British Go Journal. Double quotation marks should be used only to indicate speech. Use single quotes to indicate textual quotations, unusual terms, names of publications and in any other situation where some form of emphasis is

Most of these are the same as for the British Go Journal. Double quotation marks should be used only to indicate speech. Use single quotes to indicate textual quotations, unusual terms, names of publications and in any other situation where some form of emphasis is required. The word Go must have an initial capital. The same applies to the name of any other game. The words Black and White must be capitalised according to whether the word is used as a noun or an adjective. Thus: “After Black 23, the white group is dead.” Sometimes this can be hard to resolve. If in doubt, refer to a well produced book—such as the Ishida Joseki Dictionary—to see how it should be done. Japanese terms such as sente or joseki will not normally be emphasised as they are common currency in the Go player’s language. Unusual terms or those being introduced, for example in an article aimed at beginners, should be set within single quotes, for example ‘Katte Yomi’. When referring to diagrams, the word Figure should be used to refer to a diagram that constitutes part of a game record. The word Diagram should be used in all other cases. The words Figure and Diagram should always be capitalised. If letters are used in a Diagram these should be set in uppercase. Prefer English, for example (note, not ‘e.g.’) ‘that is,’ rather than ‘i.e.’.

Refuge conservation plans are called “comprehensive conservation plans” (CCPs). The Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Kirtland’s Warbler Wildlife Management Area was signed on Sept. 10, 2009, completing a planning process that began in

Refuge conservation plans are called “comprehensive conservation plans” (CCPs). The Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Kirtland’s Warbler Wildlife Management Area was signed on Sept. 10, 2009, completing a planning process that began in 2006. Management highlights include: • Management of jack pine stands will shift toward a more ecologically-based approach that better emulates natural, wildfire-generated jack pine stands. • The Service will explore opportunities for land exchange and consolidation with the state of Michigan and possibly the U.S. Forest Service. The Service and others involved in Kirtland’s warbler recovery believe than consolidation could increase the total area of land managed for the warbler as well as increase efficiency for state and federal agencies.

A debate is raging over whether biotechnology crops such as Bt corn should be labeled as plant pesticides, as directed by the EPA. What will consumers think? Consumers may decide that America's golden fields of waving grain are not so golden once

A debate is raging over whether biotechnology crops such as Bt corn should be labeled as plant pesticides, as directed by the EPA. What will consumers think? Consumers may decide that America's golden fields of waving grain are not so golden once they learn that Washington, DC, considers the plants pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shocked plant scientists four years ago when it came out with an interpretation of the term "pesticide" that includes many field crops. In the interpretation, EPA says plants with the ability to resist insects or disease are pesticides and therefore subject to its oversight. EPA calls plants like Bt corn "plant-pesticides." This means that the agency considers any plant that has been genetically altered to resist pests and cut the need for insecticides and herbicides to be a pesticide. Plants are not what they used to be. Sound crazy? Not to EPA and some biotechnology companies involved in developing the new pest-resistant plants. They believe someone needs to provide oversight of plant varieties with pesticidal properties. With European activists clamoring about genetically modified organisms, the United States needs some avenue to prove these plants are safe. Since announcing its plant-pesticide interpretation, the EPA has spent four years developing a proposed list of exemptions to it. The exemptions take the pressure off plant varieties generally derived through traditional breeding methods. But some scientists are not satisfied with the exemptions. In what it calls a "dying gasp," a group of plant researchers recently authored a report pleading with EPA to revise its interpretation and proposed exemptions. "To call a living plant the same thing as DDT goes against my understanding of the plant as a living organism," states Arthur Kelman, a North Carolina State University plant pathologist who helped author the report. "This is like saying a chicken with a resistance to a bacteria should be called a pesticidal chicken." The debate between these groups of highly educated, biotechnology experts and a government agency highlights the dilemmas sure to face the food industry in the years ahead. Biotechnology and gene manipulation have changed the nature of growing food. And farming will never be the same. EPA steps in. The EPA first was given its duty to oversee pesticides in a 1947 bill called the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFR). Until 10 years ago, this basically meant that the EPA regulated the chemicals applied to plants. But then genetic manipulation blossomed and pl

We have some tough news to deliver: You’re probably not getting enough fruits and veggies. Researchers in Europe found that people may need at least eight servings of vegetables a day (vs. the now recommended five) to cut the risk of heart disease

We have some tough news to deliver: You’re probably not getting enough fruits and veggies. Researchers in Europe found that people may need at least eight servings of vegetables a day (vs. the now recommended five) to cut the risk of heart disease significantly. The study found that eating 8 servings a day will cut your risk of heart disease by 22%, and that each fruit or veggie you eat can cut it by 4%. So we know that everyone is probably already struggling to get their daily fruits and veggies, bu

Farsight New Viewer 20 Target: Titanic/Original Sinking Event Date of Session: 10 August 1996 The target for this session is "Titanic/Original Sinking Event." Soon into the session, the

Farsight New Viewer 20 Target: Titanic/Original Sinking Event Date of Session: 10 August 1996 The target for this session is "Titanic/Original Sinking Event." Soon into the session, the viewer heard whooshing sounds, and smelled something electrical burning. The viewer then drew a sketch showing something breaking apart. The viewer perceived people that were fearful and in shock. There was a vehicle breaking apart at the site. The viewer sensed that this was a "gripping type of event," and deducted that it was a disaster. The viewer perceived something vibrating and humming, and sensed chaos at the target location. The viewer then heard a cracking,tearing, loud sound, and smelled something acrid. The viewer drew a sketch resembling a structure falling apart in the water. The viewer sensed that there was "something forceful producing waves," and perceived people and hard, metal objects nearby. The people were horrified with disbelief. There was a cloudy mist at the site. The viewer heard clanging, crunching, screeching, and popping sounds, and sensed that something was breaking apart in the dark. In the viewer's words, there was a "sinking feeling like from a ship going under water." The viewer then deducted that the target event was the Titanic

A large comet hurtling through the inner solar system could make a splashy display in the western sky Tuesday evening, appearing alongside a thin crescent moon. The comet, named PanSTARRS after the sky survey that discovered it, might be

A large comet hurtling through the inner solar system could make a splashy display in the western sky Tuesday evening, appearing alongside a thin crescent moon. The comet, named PanSTARRS after the sky survey that discovered it, might be making its first visit to the inner solar system, its itinerary including a close pass by the sun and the planet Mercury. "I think this is going to be really pretty," said Amy Mainzer, principal investigator with NASA's NEOWISE asteroid project. "These naked-eye comets are really rare opportunities to see something extraordinary in the night sky." The primordial chunk of frozen material is releasing gas and particles, creating a characteristic comet's tail as the sun's heat pushes the gas and particles away. "It's kind of like putting an ice cube in the oven," Mainzer said. But how much material it will emit – and thus how spectacular a display it will make – is difficult to forecast. "It could sort of fizzle; we don't know," she said. "That is part of the fun of these kinds of comets. You never know what they are going to do." Craig Bobchin of the Orange County Astronomers said he was unable to catch a glimpse of the comet over the weekend; Mainzer said a hazy western horizon prevented her from seeing it Sunday evening. If it does become visible (and a pair of binoculars might help), it will show up low in the western sky just after sunset. The comet climbs a bit higher in the sky in the weeks ahead. On Tuesday evening, however, it could be visible just to the left of the crescent moon. The comet's close approach is a delight for scientists as well as skywatchers. Such comets are messengers from the "Oort cloud" at the solar system's farthest edge. "They really are frozen time capsules from the beginning of the solar system – especially something that has sat out there for so long, and that hasn't been affected by the sun, or anything else," Mainzer said. "If you can study it, learn what it is made out of, you can learn about the building blocks of our solar system, right at the very beginning." The comet is moving at about 170,000 mph, she said, though its journey from the Oort cloud to the inner solar system likely took millions of years. A comet'

The Virgin of Guadalupe, though quintessentially Mexican, inspires devotion throughout the Americas and around the world. This study sheds new light on the long-standing transnational dimensions of Guadalupan worship by examining the production of sacred space

The Virgin of Guadalupe, though quintessentially Mexican, inspires devotion throughout the Americas and around the world. This study sheds new light on the long-standing transnational dimensions of Guadalupan worship by examining the production of sacred space in three disparate but interconnected locations—at the sacred space known as Tepeyac in Mexico City, at its replica in Des Plaines, Illinois, and at a sidewalk shrine constructed by Mexican nationals in Chicago. Weaving together rich on-the-ground observations with insights drawn from performance studies, Elaine A. Peña demonstrates how devotees’ rituals—pilgrimage, prayers, and festivals—develop, sustain, and legitimize these sacred spaces. Interdisciplinary in scope, Performing Piety paints a nuanced picture of the lived experience of Guadalupan devotion in which different forms of knowing, socio-economic and political coping tactics, conceptions of history, and faith-based traditions circulate within and between sacred spaces. List of Illustrations Introduction: Locating Transnational Devotion Part I. BUILDING 1. Virgen de los Migrantes: Transposing Sacred Space in a Chicago Suburb Part II. WALKING 2. “¡Qué risa me da!” (Oh, how it makes me laugh!) 3. Feeling History: Calambres, Ampoyas y Sed (Muscle Spasms, Blisters, and Thirst) Part III. CON

Male Western Meadowlarks have a complex, two-phrase “primary” song that begins with 1–6 pure whistles and descends to a series of 1–5 gurgling warbles. Males develop a repertoire of

Male Western Meadowlarks have a complex, two-phrase “primary” song that begins with 1–6 pure whistles and descends to a series of 1–5 gurgling warbles. Males develop a repertoire of up to a dozen songs, and may switch the songs they sing in response to an intruder. When chasing competing males or responsive females, male Western Meadowlarks give a hurried, excited “flight song” of short-spaced whistles and warbles. Although Western Meadowlarks seldom sing more than 10–12 songs, their eastern counterparts exhibit a much larger repertoire o

Compare book prices at 110 online bookstores worldwide for the lowest price for new & used textbooks and discount books! 1 click to get great deals on cheap books, cheap textbooks & discount college textbooks on sale.

Compare book prices at 110 online bookstores worldwide for the lowest price for new & used textbooks and discount books! 1 click to get great deals on cheap books, cheap textbooks & discount college textbooks on sale. Cat lovers who have learned to communicate with their pets can modify feline behavior--contrary to popular belief. Here, an experienced veterinarian discusses how to understand a cat's manners under varying circumstances. Causes of inappropriate behavior are described along with modification techniques. The text is complemented with full-color photos and line illustrations. Recent Book Searches: ISBN-10/ISBN-13: 0521013070 / 978-0521013079 / SMP Interact for GCSE Book I2 Part A Pathfinder Edition (SMP Interact Pathfinder) / School Mathematics Project 0521013232 / 978-0521013239 / SMP Interact for GCSE Practice for Book I2 Part B Pathfinder Edition (SMP Interact Pathfinder) / School Mathematics Project 0521013321 / 978-0521013321 / A Modular Approach to Testing English Language Skills: The development of the Certificates in English (Studies in Language Testing) / Hawkey 0521013399 / 978-0521013390 / CXC Integrated Science Student's Book / June Mitchelmore, John Phillips, John Steward 0521013690 / 978-0521013697 / Monsters, Dogs and Spiders Teacher's Booklet (Cambridge Storybooks) / Brenda Kent 0521013801 / 978-0521013802 / Boxes, Bears and Bubbles Audio Cassette (Cambridge Storybooks) / Various Authors 0521013909 / 978-0521013901 / Clocks, Spots and Dragons Audio CD (Cambridge Storybooks) / Various Authors 052101395X / 978-0521013956 / Phonics for Reading Set 2 Evaluation Pack (Cambridge Reading) / Various Authors 0521014298 / 978-0521014298 / The Magic Porridge Pot (Cambridge Reading) / Cynthia Rider 0521014913 / 978-0521014915 / Case (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) / Barry J. Blake 0521016479 / 978-0521016476 / A History of Thailand / Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit 0521016533 / 978-0521016537 / Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) / Paul R. Kroeger 0521016541 / 978-0521016544 / Analyzing Syntax: A Lexical-Functional Approach (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) / Paul R. Kroeger 052101655X / 978-0521016551 / Law in a Market Context: An Introduction to Market Concepts in Legal Reasoning / Robin Paul Malloy 0521016584 / 978-0521016582 / Magnetic Materials: Fundamentals and Device Applications / Nicola A. Spaldin 0521016711 / 978-0521016711 / International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance / Balakrishnan Rajagopal 052101686X / 978-0521016865 / Empires, Systems and States: Great Transformations in International Politics / 0521016916 / 978-0521016919 / Competition Policy: Theory and Practice / Massimo Motta 052101283X / 978-0521012836 / SMP Interact for GCSE Book F2 Part A Pathfinder Edition (SMP Interact Pathfinder) / School Mathematics Project 0521012848 / 978-0521012843 / Descartes and Augustine / Stephen Menn 0521013011 / 978-0521013017 / SMP Interact for GCSE Practice for Book F2 Part B Pathfinder Edition (SMP Interact Pathfinder) / School Mathematics Project 0521013364 / 978-0521013369 / Cambridge IELTS 3 2Audio CD Set: Examination papers from the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (IELTS Practice Tests) / University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate 0521013496 / 978-0521013499 / SMP Interact for GCSE Practice for Book H2 Part B Pathfinder Edition (SMP Interact Pathfinder) / School Mathematics Project 0521013534 / 978-0521013536 / I'm Telling You! Pack of 6 (Cambridge Reading) / Cambridge Young Wri

John Everett Millais (1829-1896) A child prodigy in art, John Everett Millais entered the Royal Academy Schools at age 11, and exhibited at the RA from age 17. He became ARA

John Everett Millais (1829-1896) A child prodigy in art, John Everett Millais entered the Royal Academy Schools at age 11, and exhibited at the RA from age 17. He became ARA as early as 1853, then RA and finally, in the year of his death, President of the Academy. He was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Millais quickly moved from a mannerist to a realistic style in keeping with the Pre-Raphaelite ideal. In 1853, he went to Scotland and was coached by John Ruskin and incidentally married the wife of Ruskin after the latter's marriage was annulled. She was later be his model for the soldier's wife in The Order of Release. His St Isumbras at the Ford, showing the knight and two

Southern Pacific Railroad Daylight Train 1937 Between Los Angeles and San Francisco,California The Coast Daylight was a passenger train originally run by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, California

Southern Pacific Railroad Daylight Train 1937 Between Los Angeles and San Francisco,California The Coast Daylight was a passenger train originally run by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, via SP's Coast Line. In the eyes of many the "most beautiful passenger train in the world," it featured a stunning red, orange, and black color scheme. The Daylight Limited began in 1922 and became daily in 1923; by 1924 its schedule was 12 hours each way between San Francisco and Los Angeles Central Station. For the first few years it claimed to make no passenger stops en route, and it was the fastest SF-LA train— unusual for a train with no sleepers or parlor cars. One-way fare in the 1920s was $13. The streamlined Daylight began on March 21, 1937, pulled by GS-2 steam locomotives built by Lima (Baldwin Locomotive works) on a 9-3/4 hour schedule. It was the first of the Daylight series that later included the San Joaquin Daylight, Shasta Daylight, Sacramento Daylight, and Sunbeam. By 30 June 1939 the streamlined Daylights had carried 268.6 million passenger-miles on 781,141 train-miles for an average occupancy of 344 passengers. The Coast Daylight ran behind steam until January 7, 1955, long after most streamliners had been powered by diesel. On May 1, 1971 Amtrak took over and rerouted their Coast Daylight to Oakland so it could continue north to Portland. A second train, the Noon Daylight, ran the same route 1940-42 and 1946-49 with a suspension during World War II. The original Coast Daylight was known as the Morning Daylight during this time. In 1949 the Noon Daylight was replaced by the overnight Starlight using the same equipment. In 1956 coaches from the Starlight were added to the all Pullman Lark and the Starlight was discontinued in 1957. Amtrak later revived the name for its Los Angeles to Seattle service known as the Coast Starlight. create & buy custom

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin was correct in his assessment of both death and taxes, but while taxes have been certain, they’ve been far from consistent. America was tax-free

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin was correct in his assessment of both death and taxes, but while taxes have been certain, they’ve been far from consistent. America was tax-free for much of its early history. That is, free of direct taxation like income tax. It was, after all, taxes that led Americans to revolt against the British in 1773. Following the Revolutionary War, the new American government was understandably cautious when it came to taxation–direct taxation was prevented by the constitution for all practical purposes. Therefore, government revenues had to be collected through tariffs and duties on certain items. These excise taxes on liquor, tobacco, sugar, legal documents and so on betrayed a social agenda as well as a revenue-gathering attempt. The first challenge to the system came in 1794, when the Whiskey Rebellion broke out. It was basically groups of Pennsylvanian farmers angry about the tax on whiskey burning down tax collectors’ houses and tarring and feathering any collectors too slow to get away. Defending the right to collect their indirect taxes, Congress put down the revolt by military force. War Is Hell, but Taxes Last Longer The sanctity of the constitution and the ancestral aversion to taxes was tested again in the 1790s, when a war with France led to a property tax. The implementation of this tax was far from perfect, so the later war of 1812 was funded by higher duties and excise taxes. It would take a Civil War to bring income tax into the young nation. The American Civil War was disastrous and expensive for the nation in that massive amounts of debt were incurred waging war against itself. In order to help pay for the war, the Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861. The tax was levied on incomes exceeding $800 and was not rescinded until 1872. This act created most of what we consider the modern tax system. The U.S. Internal Revenue

The New Meaning of AI If you answered, "What/who is WATSON?" you are correct. Though WATSON might have beaten you to this conclusion, the mechanism for his "thinking" is very different from that of humans

The New Meaning of AI If you answered, "What/who is WATSON?" you are correct. Though WATSON might have beaten you to this conclusion, the mechanism for his "thinking" is very different from that of humans. While we rely on a gut feeling from reinforced neural connections to tell us the validity of our answer, WATSON does a comprehensive search connecting the dots to find the "needle in the haystack answer" (Jeopardy) from all the information available in published works saved on his hard drives. Our nervous systems, unlike those of computers, allow us to focus only on relevant input to the brain rather than every sensory input. A computer search for a keyword or phrase on Google may produce too narrow or too broad a selection of irrelevant information. WATSON differs from the ordinary PC in that he is programmed to use probability algorithms to rule out irrelevant information and is programmed to associate words with similar words as we do in natural language. In emulating human neural connections through word association, WATSON's makers at IBM have created the closest successful T3 Turing Machine yet with regard to the human mind. Today we think of the age of computers for the layperson dawning in the eighties with the iconic super bowl release of the 1984 Macintosh PC; however, the foreground for computers like WATSON lies in Turing's 1950 paper on his "Turing Machine" and "Turing Test". A Turing Machine (TM) is a form of artificial intelligence that has the ability to pass a Turing Test (TT). Turing believes that a proper way to test whether a machine is really artificially intelligent is to have the machine attempt to trick a human into believing that it is a human male playing a female. If a machine can conquer this feat of fluid ambiguous gender, then it is really artificially intelligent (See link to Rapaport below). Turing Machines are gradated (T1-T5) to account for technological advances and the fact that some Turing machines come closer to the definition of a true Turing Machine than others. The T1 level of artificial intelligence (AI) is a machine's ability to trick a human into believing that the machine is human on a single instance. T1 machines such as "SmarterChild" on AOL Instant Messenger can provide what seem like insightful responses at the onset; however, their lack of ability to learn and follow a conversation make them easily detectable after a few minutes of conversing. The T2 Turing Machine is a pen pal. It can maintain a conversation for a lifetime through text but lacks functional "organs" to interpret pictures and to speak. T3 machines are functionally the same as humans and display real intelligence; however, their organs are physiologically and anatomically different from humans. T4 machines are virtually human in all regards but they are composed of synthetic materials even though their organs can be swapped with those of humans. T5 machines are indistinguishable in every sense and are composed of biological molecules differing only in how they were created. Most of our robots today are only T1 TMs. WATSON is not a full T3 machine, as he cannot solve word puzzles that involve complex puns and therefore his "mind" is not equivalent to that of a human with respect to natural language. He lacks the ability to hear and see so we could easily detect that he is a robot and thus he is only T3 with regard to his mind. Turing’s description of artificial intelligence seems to differ in its goal from what we value today in robotics. The focus of early AI as presented by the Turing Test aims at creating an artificial human indistinguishable from a real one. Today I believe this goal has changed. We no longer fear a hostile takeover by machines that will begin to think and decide to revolt against humanity. WATSON could easily possess a simulated human face as his avatar on Jeopardy; however, what good is an android really to us? The developers of WATSON described their goals for the system in medicine and business during the three-day Jeopardy challenge. None of these goals involved competing with human capabilities but rather using the advantages of computer systems in instantly sorting through massive loads of information that is irrelevant to us. Daniel Dennett uses the anecdote of a robot attempting to rescue it's power supply from a room with a bomb in Minds, Machines & Evolution to show how the human ability to function without extraneous sensory information from the autonomic nervous system allows us to do what machines can't: we can tune into only what is important at the moment. The battery the robot seeks is on a wagon with the bomb. The Robot pulls the wagon out of the room but does not realize that the bomb also came with th

Albert S Humphrey (1926-2005) who during his work at the Stanford Research Institute developed SOFT analysis that was later developed into SWOT analysis, also outlined an early version of the business model concept in 1968. For

Albert S Humphrey (1926-2005) who during his work at the Stanford Research Institute developed SOFT analysis that was later developed into SWOT analysis, also outlined an early version of the business model concept in 1968. For a business to be successful, Humphrey defined six inter-related areas which had to be developed simultaneously: - Products & Services - What are they, how do they work, and when and how should they be improved - Process - How the products and services are to be made and/or assembled, including subcontracting and purchasing labor and machinery - Customer - Who will buy the products and services and how will customers be persuaded to buy them - Distribution - How the product and services be warehoused, transported and delivered - Finance - Where will the money come from and how will the cash flow be controlled - Administration - How the organization will be managed, the management style, the organization structure and the people skill required This was part of TAM (Team Action Management), a step by step method for improving company performance. The inter-related areas above are almost identical to modern definitions and elements of the business model concept. To read more about TAM see this article.

is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Vir

is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:... (1897–1965) to collectively describe those pianistic extended technique Extended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres.... s in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"... , instead of or in addition to striking the piano The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the... . Pioneered by Cowell in the 1920s, such techniques are now often called upon in the works of avant-garde classical music composers. String piano compositions can involve a wide range of techniques. Among those employed by Cowell, the first major proponent of the approach, are: - plucking (pizzicato Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument.... - flicking back and forth across a string with a fingernail (similar to a mandolin A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family. It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single... Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration... - sweeping chromatically The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size... across the strings with the fingers - sweeping across the strings with the flat of the hand (producing a tone cluster A tone cluster is a musical chord comprising at least three consecutive tones in a scale. Prototypical tone clusters are based on the chromatic scale, and are separated by semitones. For instance, three adjacent piano keys struck simultaneously produce a tone cluster... - sweeping along one or more strings with the flesh of the finger(s) - scraping along one or more strings with the fingernail(s) Strings may also be pressed at specific points along their length with the fingers of one hand while being played by the other to produce different harmonic A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f,... etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental... Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,... . These sounding techniques may be combined with direct muting A mute is a device fitted to a musical instrument to alter the sound produced: by affecting the timbre, reducing the volume, or most commonly both.- Musical directions for muting :... of the strings with devices similar to those used to mute violins. In string piano pieces that call for the performer to sit at the keyboard, the keys may be depressed and held down silently with one hand to create chords A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords... , including tone clusters, that are played by the other on the strings; use of the sustain and soft pedals offer additional variation

LONDON (Jul. 9) Post-war possibilities of Jewish colonization in various parts of the world were outlined by Joseph Mirkin of the Jewish Colonization Association, one of the leading authorities on the subject, addressing the Council of Continental Zionists

LONDON (Jul. 9) Post-war possibilities of Jewish colonization in various parts of the world were outlined by Joseph Mirkin of the Jewish Colonization Association, one of the leading authorities on the subject, addressing the Council of Continental Zionists here. “We shall have to face a grave problem of Jewish emigration from various European countries after this war,” Mr. Mirkin said, “and we must have a clear and sober view about the prospects. First of all,” he continued, “we must consider whether there will be any possibility of settling Jews on the land in Europe. There are only two European countries where Jewish colonization on a large scale was tried before – Poland and Russia. Poland had a fairly large number of Jewish farmers, but in view of the hunger for land among the Polish peasantry, there is no prospect that Jews could be settled on the land in Poland. As regards Russia, very favorable conditions for Jewish land settlement existed during the period of 1927 and 1932. The Soviet Government was anxious to have Jews settled on the land. The climate and other conditions in the districts selected for Jewish settlement were very favorable, but after 15,000 families had been settled, the experiment came to an end. There was no more land available in Russia, and the Biro-Bidjan project was put forward as an alternative.” Mr. Mirkin went on to review the possibilities for settling Jews on the land in overseas territories, such as British Guiana, Madagascar and others. He pointed out that all overseas countries offered for Jewish settlement have a tropical or sub-tropical climate. They are covered with dense forests which can be cleared only by native labor after many years of hard work; there are no communications and no hinterland to absorb those who must fall out – and their number among Jewish colonizers has never been larger than the number of such people among non-Jewish colonizers. There are also difficulties for using agricultural machinery in hilly areas, and there are no markets nearby where the products of the colonists could be disposed of. The lecturer came to the conclusion that without regard to political questions, Palestine from a point of view of agricultural expediency was the only place in the world where Jewish mass colonization could be carried out successfully. There is a large and prosperous Jewish community in Palestine, he said, there are good communications, there are adequate markets, and any future colonization can be based on the experience gained in fifty years of successful work.

This release can be found in the USGS Newsroom at: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/leads.asp?ID=2132. Redoubt Volcano could be on the verge of eruption! Want to watch the volcano in

This release can be found in the USGS Newsroom at: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/leads.asp?ID=2132. Redoubt Volcano could be on the verge of eruption! Want to watch the volcano in real-time? In this edition of USGS science picks, we'll tell you how! You can also learn about the impact of airport runway deicers on the environment, how hot things are really getting in the Arctic, a diet gone bad for sea otters on the central Californian coasts and what may be causing the increase of tree deaths in the West. Also, view aerial maps of last summer's devastating Indiana floods, learn more about the affects of soil carbon and understand how water will be managed in a changing climate. But that's not all - we have the results of a landmark grizzly bear study and a new joint effort between the USGS and NASA that will put you over the moon! If you would like to receive Science Picks via e-mail, would like to change the recipient or no longer want to receive it, please email [email protected]. - Webcam Recording Redoubt Volcano, AK as Activity Increases - Airport Runway Deicers Impact on the Environment Greater Than Previously Thought - Arctic Heats Up More than Other Places - What Exactly Is that Oscar Made Of? - Risky Behavior and Diet Diversity Can Make Sea Otters Sick - Doubled Over from the Heat: Tree Deaths in the West - Photo Maps Depict the Severity of Indiana's Summer Floods - Potential "Hot Zones" for CO2 Emissions in Boreal Forests - Managing Water Resources in a Changing Climate - USGS and NASA Cook Up Moondust Recipe - Seeing Double Trouble for Receding Glaciers - Results of Landmark Montana Grizzly Bear Study Published Webcam Recording Redoubt Volcano, AK as Activity Increases In response to the current increase in activity of Redoubt Volcano, in the Cook Inlet region of Alaska, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) has deployed a web camera approximately 7.5 miles north-northwest of the summit of the volcano. A second webcam also is pointed at Redoubt from a platform within Cook Inlet. Photos of eruption plumes from Redoubt's 1989 - 1990 eruptive sequence are incredibly beautiful and provide great scientific information - so much so that one in particular serves as the AVO logo. The AVO has 16 webcams throughout the state of Alaska pointing at 11 different, active volcanoes. These webcams can be viewed from the AVO Webcam Web page. AVO has also set up a Redoubt Activity Web page on its site displaying all available information, data streams and current updates of activity at the volcano. For more information, contact Jennifer Adleman at (907) 786-7019 or [email protected], or contact Bill Lukas at (703)-648-6168 or [email protected]. Airport Runway Deicers Impact on the Environment Greater Than Previously Thought The most widely used compound to remove dangerous ice from runways at many of the nation's airports may impact the environment more than previously realized. New research shows that potassium acetate deicers may be harmful to aquatic life. This is the first published study of potassium acetate in airport runoff. These findings follow a major shift in formulations used to deice airports across the country. Want to know more? View the report at the ACS Publications, Environmental Science & Technology Web site or contact Steven R. Corsi at (608)-821-3835 or [email protected]. Arctic Heats Up More than Other Places Temperature change in the Arctic is happening at a greater rate than other places in the Northern Hemisphere, and this is expected to continue in the future. As a result, glacier and ice

Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1990-1991 Modernizing and Equipping the Army Modernization: Into the Post-Cold War Era The Persian Gulf war in Southwest Asia served as both an end and a beginning

Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1990-1991 Modernizing and Equipping the Army Modernization: Into the Post-Cold War Era The Persian Gulf war in Southwest Asia served as both an end and a beginning for the Army's equipment and systems modernization programs. In one sense, the war was the ultimate proving ground for the equipment fielded during the Army's aggressive modernization program that began in the 1970s and reached fruition during the 1980s. The performance of the Army's equipment in the sands of Saudi Arabia was the test of the decisions that had been made when the Army, after emerging from the jungles of Southeast Asia, reconsidered the threat posed by the Warsaw Pact on the fields and in the forests of Central Europe. Even before all of the troops were withdrawn from Vietnam, the Army had initiated a wide-ranging re examination of its doctrine, force structure, and equipment. The demands of the Vietnam War had compelled the service to postpone its plans to modernize its forces. The Army's force structure was an amalgam of units, and most of its equipment was rooted in the 1950s. As the Army reduced its size and began a reshaping process after Vietnam, the service's leadership realized that equipment and systems modernization needs could not be met all at once. Consequently, the Army projected its equipment needs for the next decade. Five major pieces of equipment were identified as top priority-a main battle tank, an attack helicopter, a utility helicopter, an air defense missile, and an infantry fighting vehicle. This group of equipment, which became identified collectively as the "Big Five," constituted the centerpiece of Army modernization throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Guided by the specific need to develop, test, and field weapons and technologies to offset the threat from the Warsaw Pact, the Army in the 1980s underwent the largest peacetime modernization in its history; fielding a vast array of equipment, in addition to the Big Five. This equipment ranged from tanks to mobile kitchen trailers to helmets, and modernization occurred in both the active and the reserve components. When the President directed the deployment of Army active and reserve forces to Southwest Asia in August 1990, these forces were armed with the weapons and equipment developed during the last decade and a half. The lead brigade of the 82d Airborne Division deployed with AH-64 Apache helicopters, and Abrams M1 tanks and M2/M3 Bradley fighting vehicles were on board the ships that carried the 24th Infantry Division's equipment to Southwest Asia. Following in the wake were Patriot air defense system launchers from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the UH-60 Black Hawks of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq the plans, policies, and procedures that guided the development and fielding of this equipment and many other types were tested in combat. The Persian Gulf war validated-some in part, others more fully-the ideas, concepts, and hardware that had modernized the Army during the 1970s and 1980s. The performance of Army equipment in Operation DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM also established a foundation for the future. Like the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the Persian Gulf war did much to define the lethality and dynamics of the future battlefield. The Gulf war provided the Army with a performance baseline from which it could delineate further its future requirements and develop and field equipment to meet them. This baseline would be of critical importance for the Army's development of its modeling, designs, and simulations in the 1990s and beyond. By the late 1980s the Army had begun adapting to budget reductions, with significant implications for the service's future modernization objectives. The rapid disintegration of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union removed a main pillar of the rationale that had supported large-scale defense spending. Lack of a specific "threat" and the desire for a "peace dividend" accelerated cuts in the Army's budget, which had been decreasing both in absolute terms and as a percentage of defense appropriations. Army decisionmakers were faced with difficult choices to ensure the most efficient use of the money appropriated. In addition, the Army's general modernization program was nearing completion. The Army would enter the twenty-first century armed largely with the equipment developed and fielded during the last quarter of the twentieth century. In FY 89 the Army received $14.8 billion for procurement, but by FY 91 the service's procurement had been cut to $9.0 billion. (Offsetting somewhat the decrease in procurement funds, the amounts for research and development increased slightly.) By the end of FY 91 the situation had reached the point at which Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research, Development, and Acquisition Steven K. Conver warned that "Army modernization efforts are severely curtailed by constrained resources" and that "our procurement funding is dangerously low." Because of the lack of funds, he declared, the Army was "at a crossroads.... Time and technology do not stand still. Tomorrow's battlefield will see increased firepower, better armor protection, and more advanced target acquisition sys- tems." In Mr. Conver's opinion, the key to success on the futu

Prior Mayo Clinic epidemiologic and laboratory studies have pointed to a role for estrogen in defending the brain from attack as a woman ages. "We conducted a previous study suggesting that hysterectomy, that is, removing the uterus, and younger age at men

Prior Mayo Clinic epidemiologic and laboratory studies have pointed to a role for estrogen in defending the brain from attack as a woman ages. "We conducted a previous study suggesting that hysterectomy, that is, removing the uterus, and younger age at menopause are related to an increased risk of Parkinson's disease," says Dr. Rocca. "These findings suggested that the estrogen produced normally by the ovaries is involved in protecting the brain during aging. "Also, there is biological evidence from animal studies that estrogen is protective for the specific part of the brain that is involved in controlling movements," he says. "Damage to this part results in Parkinson's disease. If an animal receives a toxic chemical able to destroy the cells of this part of the brain along with estrogen, the damage will be reduced compared to injecting the toxic substance alone." Dr. Rocca indicates that the design of the current study does not provide the data needed to address the question of whether a woman's risk of parkinsonism after having both ovaries removed is altered by taking estrogen therapy. The Mayo Clinic investigators studied 1,202 women who had both ovaries surgically removed and 1,283 women who had one ovary surgically removed. All women were recruited from the general population of Olmsted County, Minn., from 1950 through 1987. For each woman who underwent ovarian surgery, the researchers selected a woman of the same age who did not undergo ovarian surgery. All the women studied were followed through the onset of parkinsonism or Parkinson's disease, death, loss to follow up or the time the study was conducted. Among women who had no ovaries removed, 29 cases of parkinsonism developed, 18 of which were Parkinson's disease. In contrast, among women who had one or bo Contact: Lisa Lucier

Teen Survey on Epilepsy Foundation of Alabama Report of Findings October 2001 This report presents the results of a study conducted by the Epilepsy Foundation to evaluate teen awareness about epilepsy, and to gain a better understanding of their

Teen Survey on Epilepsy Foundation of Alabama Report of Findings October 2001 This report presents the results of a study conducted by the Epilepsy Foundation to evaluate teen awareness about epilepsy, and to gain a better understanding of their knowledge, attitudes and perceptions about epilepsy and people with epilepsy. The questionnaire for the study was designed by the Epilepsy Foundation. Respondents were asked about their awareness of epilepsy, their knowledge about the health condition, stigmas associated with epilepsy and their awareness of several health conditions. A series of questions was also asked to gather demographic characteristics. The 2-page survey was distributed to teens nationwide by 20 affiliates of the Epilepsy Foundation from March 2001 through July 2001 in schools selected by the affiliates. This report presents the results of the Southern Alabama affiliate, for which 1802 valid surveys were collected. Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc. edited the surveys and performed the data entry. Greenwald & Associates was also responsible for the tabulation, analysis and reporting of the data. The data were weighted by age and region to reflect national percentages. Of seven diseases or disorders mentioned, teens are least familiar with epilepsy. More than two-thirds (68 percent) are either "not too familiar" or "not at all familiar" with epilepsy and only 8 percent are "very familiar." Only about half of the teens (52 percent) surveyed have ever heard of or read about epilepsy. The following are some key findings that were gathered in a national survey conducted in 2001: - Of seven diseases or disorders mentioned, teens are least familiar with epilepsy. More than two-thirds (68 percent) are either "not too familiar" or "not at all familiar" with epilepsy and only 8 percent are "very familiar." - Only about half of the teens (52 percent) surveyed have ever heard of or read about epilepsy. - Due to a lack of knowledge about this disorder, most teens do not fear epilepsy. Fear is higher among teens that know more about epilepsy. - The majority of teens surveyed do not know about the specific nature of epilepsy. For example, they do not know if it is contagious, if it is a mental illness, whether doctors know its cause, or if people die by having seizures. - Teenagers are mostly unclear about the levels of stigma associated with epilepsy. One third (37 percent) however, did view kids with epilepsy as more likely to be bullied or picked on by peers. - Teens are unable to describe how epilepsy can impact lifestyle. The biggest misconceptions involve people with epilepsy and driving. One in five surveyed think people with epilepsy cannot drive cars and only 32 percent know that most can drive. - Two-thirds (67 percent) of teens responded that they would not or probably not know what to do if someone had a seizure. - Awareness and understanding of epilepsy tends to be higher among girls, older students, and white students.

Supporting a Grieving Child Young children feel the pain of bereavement, but they learn how to express their grief by watching the adults around them. After a loss – particularly of a sibling – children need support, stability and honesty.

Supporting a Grieving Child Young children feel the pain of bereavement, but they learn how to express their grief by watching the adults around them. After a loss – particularly of a sibling – children need support, stability and honesty. They also need extra reassurance that they will be cared for and kept safe. As an adult, you can support children through the grieving process by demonstrating that it’s okay to be sad and helping them make sense of the loss. Answer any questions children may have as truthfully as you can. Use very simple, honest and concrete terms when explaining death to a child. Children, especially young children, may blame themselves for what happened and the truth helps them see they are not at fault. Open communication will smooth the way for a child to express distressing feelings. Children often express themselves through stories, games and artwork — encourage this self-expression, and look for clues in those activities about how they are coping. How parents can help a grieving child - As soon as possible after the death, set time aside to talk to your child. - Provide professional support for your child; talk to your family doctor or your child’s school counselor for a referral to a child therapist. - Give your child the facts in a simple manner – be careful not to go into too much detail. Your child will ask more questions as they come up in his/her mind. - The explanation that worked best for some of our members with young children was that death occurs when someone’s body stops working, with reassurance that this will not happen to them and that it usually happens when people are very old. - Allow your child, however young, to attend the funeral if he or she wants to. - Convey your spiritual values about life and death with your child. - Meet regularly as a family to find out how everyone is coping. Talk about feelings, such as: sad, angry, feeling responsible, scared, tearful, depressed, worried, etc. - Use the given name of the deceased when speaking of him or her. - Be willing to hear and discuss your child’s feelings and encourage him or her to talk about the person who died. Recalling memories (both good ones and not so good ones) might have great value to one child while others might not be ready to talk about the person. Be conscious of their response. - Write down memories of the child because every single memory you have will be treasured. - Help children find ways to symbolize and memorialize the deceased person. - Keep your child’s daily routine as normal as possible. - Pay attention to the way a child plays; this can be one of a child’s primary ways of communicating. - Watch out for “bad dreams.” Are they occurring often? Talk about the dreams. - Watch for behavioral changes in your child both at home or at school. What not to do - Don’t force a child to publicly mourn if he or she doesn’t want to. - Don’t give false or confusing messages, like “Sally went to sleep.” - Don’t tell a child to stop crying because others might get upset. - Don’t try to shield a child from the loss. Children pick up on much more than adults realize. Including them in the grieving process will help them adapt and heal. - Don’t stifle your tears; by crying in front of your child, you send the message that it’s okay for him or her to express feelings, too. At the same time, try not to sob or lose control in front of your child; it’s too scary for him or her. - Don’t turn your child into your personal confidante. Rely on another adult or a support group instead. - Don’t tell a child they have grieved too long or to “get over it.” For additional information on what to say to a grieving child, visit What to Say to Someone Who Has Lost a Loved One.

Autumn 2004 Issue 48 Nasrid plasterwork: symbolism, materials & techniques As part of the display for the new Architecture Gallery, and to represent the art in architecture within the Spanish Islamic style, five fragments of plaster

Autumn 2004 Issue 48 Nasrid plasterwork: symbolism, materials & techniques As part of the display for the new Architecture Gallery, and to represent the art in architecture within the Spanish Islamic style, five fragments of plasterwork from the Alhambra Palace of Granada, Spain were selected from the V&A Collection. These fragments date from the fourteenth century when Nasrid art was at its most splendid. This article, based on the analysis 1 of samples taken from mortars and paint layers and on observations during conservation treatment, forms an introduction to traditional materials and techniques used in Nasrid plasterwork as well as explaining their style and symbolism. The first Islamic invasion of the Iberian peninsula occurred in 711 AD; three years later almost the whole Iberian territory was under the rule of Berber troops. The occupation lasted almost eight hundred years, giving place to one of the most extraordinary periods of art and culture in medieval Europe. Al-Andalus, the name given to the occupied Iberian territories, was slowly re-conquered by the Christian Kings through the centuries. However it was not until 1492 that the Catholic Kings finally conquered the last standing Muslim kingdom in Europe, Granada, ruled at the time by the Nasrid dynasty. Muhammad ibn Nasr I was the founder of this dynasty, which ruled this kingdom from 1238-1492. They originated the most monumental, sophisticated and lavish period within Spanish Islamic art, making Granada the artistic centre of North Africa (Marinid Art) and the Iberian Christian Kingdoms (Mudéjar Art). The best example of Nasrid art is the Royal residence of the Alhambra (Al-hamra = the red), a world of luxury and comfort, obtained through a combination of splendid architecture and formally designed gardens with numerous fountains and pools. The main architectural features within the buildings are ceramic mosaics, plasterwork and carved wooden ceilings all profusely decorated, reflecting the Islamic tendency to cover all surfaces with complex ornaments (Horror Vacui), and blended together with subtle light effects, carpets, curtains and hanging textiles. Nasrid plasterwork covers almost every single surface of walls, arches, vaults and ceilings, gaining an almost textile quality through their intricate ornament and vibrant palette of colours. Its almost overwhelming appearance is the result of the interconnection and superimposition of different ornamental elements: calligraphic inscriptions, geometric lazo, ataurique and mocárabes. The calligraphic inscriptions found in the Alhambra correspond to two different styles: Kufic (dry style) and Nashkhid-Thuluth (cursive style). Kufic calligraphy, which usually refers to quotations from the Holy Qur'an, consists of a combination of square and angular lines with bold circular forms. When applied to plasterwork it tends to form part of the decoration becoming almost illegible. In figure 1, the kufic inscription at the bottom of the panel elongates and transforms its characters into decoration. References to some invocations as the 'baraka' (blessing), with its elongated "kāf" and "tā'marbūt' a" letters, appear in the centre and corners of the panel. And on top of the central baraka the letter "nūn" makes an invocation to happiness (yumn). Nashkid-Thuluth calligraphy is a more elegant style used for describing the function of the rooms or as a reference to poetic quotations. In later periods, the Nasrid used it as a vehicle for their propagandistic aims, displaying their dynastic motto 'Wa la ghalib ila Ala' ('There is no conqueror but God') in key locations of the design (bottom centre of figure 1). Geometric lazo: these geometric compositions, so popular in Islamic art, appear in Granada with such distinctive, accurate and rigorous design that they form a western school within Muslim art. Creations peculiar to Nasrid art are the square grid, the geometric lazo of eight and the eight pointed star. These stars were the central point for bigger compositions called 'ruedas' (wheels) where the lazo creates a geometric composition around the star (figure 2). Ataurique (al-tawrīq = leaves, foliage, flora) is the name given to Nasrid floral and vegetal decorations. These patterns come from classic decorative elements, such as fruits, flowers and acanthus leaves, which evolved into more typical Hispano-Muslim abstractions. These are found as free decorations on arches and windows, or filling spaces created by the geometric lazo (figure 2) and the calligraphic inscriptions (figure 1). During the time of Muhammad V (1354) more themes and variations appear: complex palm leaves (background of figure 1), shells (symbol of the origin of life, figure 3), peppercorns, pine cones, and for the first time, they begin to appear intertwined with calligraphic inscriptions. Mocárabe is a type of ornament built up from vertical prisms applied one over another. They would be joined in multiple different arrays resembling stalactites, probably relating to the cave where the prophet Mohammed received the inspiration for the Qur'an. The mocárabe is found located on ca

is not merely compliance with a set of rules and regulations drawn up for the purpose of preserving order in an organization. This is only one phase of discipline. In its deeper and more important sense discipline may be defined as the habit

is not merely compliance with a set of rules and regulations drawn up for the purpose of preserving order in an organization. This is only one phase of discipline. In its deeper and more important sense discipline may be defined as the habit of instantaneous and instinctive obedience under any and all circumstances ‑ it is the habit whereby the very muscles of the soldier instinctively obey the word of command, so that under whatever circumstances of danger or death the soldier may hear the word of command, even though his mind be too confused to work, his muscles will obey. It is toward this ultimate object that all rules of discipline tend. In war, the value of this habit of instantaneous and instinctive obedience is invaluable. shows that drill, routine, military courtesy, attention to details, proper rewards for good conduct, and invariable punishment of all derelictions of duty, are the best methods of attaining good discipline and the most effective means to that end. shows that the chief factor of success in war is discipline, and that without discipline no body of troops can hold their own against a well‑directed, discipline disappears morale becomes low – and without morale success in battle is practically impossible. stress and excitement of battle the habits of obedience created on the drill ground save an organization from becoming a mob. Military authority is to be exercised with firmness, but with kindness and justice to inferiors. Punishments shall be strictly conformable to military law. is the duty of an officer or non-commissioned officer who gives an order to see that it is obeyed; carrying out orders received by him does not end with their perfunctory transmission to subordinates - this is only a small part of his duty. He must personally see that the orders so transmitted are made effective. Superiors of every grade are forbidden to injure those under them by tyrannical or capricious conduct, or by abusive language. It is enjoined upon all officers to be cautious in reproving non-commissioned officers in the presence or hearing of privates, lest their authority be treatment of soldiers should be uniform and just, and under no circumstances should a man be humiliated unnecessarily or abused. Reproof and punishment must be administered with discretion and judgement, and without passion; for an officer or non-commissioned officer who loses his temper and flies into a tantrum has failed to obtain his first triumph in discipline. He who can not control himself can not control others. the orders and directions that they give, company non-commissioned officers represent the company commander and they must be obeyed and respected at all times and under all circumstances. soldier should obey first and if aggrieved complain afterward. is not for a private to question in any way the fairness, justice, propriety or wisdom of an order received from a non-commissioned officer. When ordered by a non-commissioned officer to do a thing, whatever it may be, do it promptly and thoroughly, and then if you feel that you have been injured in any way, report the matter to your company commander, who will see that you receive justice. if a non-commissioned officer made a mistake, exceeded his authority, or treated you unfairly, he will be punished by the company commander. The company commander and not the privates of the company, is to judge the conduct of his non-commissioned officers, who are directly responsible to him for every act of theirs. If every subordinate were to question the fairness, justice, propriety or wisdom of orders received from non-commissioned officers or other superiors, there would be no discipline, and the Army would soon degenerate into a mob. A soldier should be soldierly in dress, soldierly in carriage, soldierly in courtesies. The soldier should take pride in his uniform. A civilian owes it to himself to be neat in dress. A soldier owes it to more than himself - he owes it to his comrades, to his company - he owes it to his country, for just so far as a soldier is slack, so far does his company suffer; his shabbiness reflects first upon himself, then upon his company and finally upon the entire army. is a well known fact that laxity in dress and negligence in military courtesy run hand in hand with laxity and negligence in almost everything else. The utmost attention will be paid by commanders of companies to the cleanliness of their men, as to their persons, clothin

Drought is a period during which precipitation is insufficient to meet the usual needs of a region. It is a natural part of the climate cycle that occurs at intervals of several months to several years. During summer, drought is often accompanied by heat waves

Drought is a period during which precipitation is insufficient to meet the usual needs of a region. It is a natural part of the climate cycle that occurs at intervals of several months to several years. During summer, drought is often accompanied by heat waves. Drought's long time scale and its potential to impact a large area make it the costliest weather-related hazard, capable of billions of dollars in damage in Oklahoma. Drought affects different socioeconomic sectors to varying degrees, depending on the timing, duration, and intensity of each event. Localized, short-term (one- to two-month) events are common in Oklahoma and tend to occur somewhere in the state during most years. These events can stress municipal water distribution systems and increase the danger of wildfire. Seasonal droughts can occur during any time of the year, and those that resonate with crop cycles can cause billions of dollars in agricultural losses in the state. Water supply is more sensitive to multiseason or multiyear events. During the twentieth century Oklahoma's major multiyear and multiregional droughts occurred during the spans of 1909 to 1918, 1930 to 1940, 1952 to 1958, and, to a lesser extent, 1962 to 1972. The Great Plains drought of 1988 and 1989 was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, causing about $40 billion dollars in direct agricultural damages. A 1998 summer drought (a four-to five-month event) caused about $2 billion dollars of damages (including multiplicative effects) in Oklahoma. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Howard L. Johnson and Claude E. Duchon, The Atlas of Oklahoma Climate (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995). Robert L. Tortorelli, Ellen J. Cooter, and James W. Scheuelein, "Floods and Droughts: Oklahoma," in National Water Summary, 1988-89, Hydrologic Events and Floods and Droughts, U.S. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 2375 (Denver, Colo.: Government Printing Office, 1991). © Oklahoma Historical Society

Front Page Titles (by Subject) A, B, C, OR ALPHABET. - The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) The Online Library of Liberty A project of Liberty Fund

Front Page Titles (by Subject) A, B, C, OR ALPHABET. - The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) The Online Library of Liberty A project of Liberty Fund, Inc. A, B, C, OR ALPHABET. - Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version. A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901). In 21 vols. Vol. III. About Liberty Fund: Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The text is in the public domain. Fair use statement: This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. A, B, C, OR ALPHABET. Why has not the alphabet a name in any European language? Alphabet signifies nothing more than A, B, and A, B, signifies nothing, or but indicates two sounds, which two sounds have no relation to each other. Beta is not formed from alpha; one is first, the other is second, and no one knows why. How can it have happened that terms are still wanting to express the portal of all the sciences? The knowledge of numbers, the art of numeration, is not called the one-two; yet the first rudiment of the art of expressing our thoughts has not in all Europe obtained a proper designation. The alphabet is the first part of grammar; perhaps those who are acquainted with Arabic, of which I have not the slightest notion, can inform me whether that language, which is said to contain no fewer than eighty words to express a horse, has one which signifies the alphabet. I protest that I know no more of Chinese than of Arabic, but I have read, in a small Chinese vocabulary, that this nation has always had two words to express the catalogue or list of the characters of its language: one is ko-tou, the other hai-pien; we have neither ko-tou nor hai-pien in our Occidental tongues. The Greeks, who were no more adroit than ourselves, al

Contact: Richard Lewis Caption: Gold atoms create orderly places for iron and platinum atoms, then retreat to the periphery of the fuel cell, where they scrub carbon monoxide from fuel reactions. The tighter organization and cleaner reactions extend the cell's

Contact: Richard Lewis Caption: Gold atoms create orderly places for iron and platinum atoms, then retreat to the periphery of the fuel cell, where they scrub carbon monoxide from fuel reactions. The tighter organization and cleaner reactions extend the cell's performance life. Credit: Sun Lab/Brown University Usage Restrictions: None Related news release: Touch of gold improves nanoparticle fuel-cell reactions

Habitat for Humanity has projects in over 70 countries. Habitat for Humanity Great Britain works with other national offices to eliminate housing poverty and homelessness from the face of the earth. We share a common vision of a world where everyone has a safe

Habitat for Humanity has projects in over 70 countries. Habitat for Humanity Great Britain works with other national offices to eliminate housing poverty and homelessness from the face of the earth. We share a common vision of a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live. Housing has a catalytic impact on the many areas of international development. These include: - Income generation - The poor often use their home for income generation, such as home cooking for sale, collecting and sorting cloth, sewing, etc. - Education - A room that is quiet and well lit enables students to do homework and improves educational prospects. - Personal safety - A home that can be secured protects vulnerable adolescents, and also enables adults to leave their home unoccupied while they

July 15, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ironing out the causes of wrinkles Physicists find clues to the origin and evolution of wrinkles in thin sheets This thin plastic sheet is floating on liquid wrinkles under stress.

July 15, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ironing out the causes of wrinkles Physicists find clues to the origin and evolution of wrinkles in thin sheets This thin plastic sheet is floating on liquid wrinkles under stress. Physicists hope experiments such as these will help develop new models to explain how other materials wrinkle. Image on right is a detail of left image. As a sign of aging or in a suit, wrinkles are almost never welcome, but two papers in the current issue of Physical Review Letters offer some perspective on what determines their size and shape in soft materials. Jiangshui Huang and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst explore how wrinkles in a sheet adapt to an edge that prefers to be flat. They float a thin, rectangular film of common plastic (polystyrene) on water and compress the sheet along one direction to make folds. In the middle of the film, competition between gravity (which prefers shallow, frequent ripples) and the energy cost of bending the film (which favors longer, higher folds) determine the height and frequency of the folds. Near the edge, however, surface tension forces the film to lie flat. Huang et al. show the film interpolates between these two limits by smoothly tapering from larger, undulating folds in the center to higher frequency ripples at the edge. In a related paper, Douglas Holmes and Alfred Crosby, also at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst quantify the transition from soft wrinkles to sharper folds. Similar to lifting a tissue from a box, they pull up an elastic sheet floating in water, and image the sheet as first wrinkles, and then folds, appear. They show that folds, like the edges of a neatly made bed, strain the sheet and smooth out the wrinkles. The experiments offer complimentary insights into how defects, such as an edge or a fold, influence the presence of wrinkles and could prove helpful in understanding the formation of wrinkles in biological tissue. The American Physical Society (www.aps.org) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy and international activities. APS represents over 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, MD (Headquarters), Ridge, NY, and Washington, DC.

This podcast gives an overview of malaria, including prevention and treatment, and what CDC is doing to help control and prevent malaria globally. Created: 4/18/2008 by National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enter

This podcast gives an overview of malaria, including prevention and treatment, and what CDC is doing to help control and prevent malaria globally. Created: 4/18/2008 by National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (NCZVED). Date Released: 4/18/2008. Ser

By Frederick J. Bowlen, Battalion Chief San Francisco Fire Department 1938 The first steam fire engine ever built was in London, England, in 1829, and on account of its enormous weight was so arranged and constructed

By Frederick J. Bowlen, Battalion Chief San Francisco Fire Department 1938 The first steam fire engine ever built was in London, England, in 1829, and on account of its enormous weight was so arranged and constructed that it could be drawn by horses. This is the first record we have where horses were used for drawing fire apparatus to fires. (Ref: "Our Firemen" Hist, of the New York Fire Dept. Vol, and Paid, by Augustine E. Costello 1887 - p. 991.) The first record we have of horse-drawn fire apparatus in America was during the prevalence of the epidemic of Cholera in 1832 in the city of New York when the working forces of the fire department was much weakened by reason of sickness and death. Very often not enough men could be mustered to drag the hand-engines to the scene of the conflagration. Horses had to be brought into requisition, as is attested by the fact that in November, 1832, the city authorities were authorized to pay the bill of James Gulick for eight hundred and sixty-three dollars and seventy-five cents, for horses "to drag the Engines and Hook and Ladder Trucks to the fires." (Ref: "Our Firemen" Hist, of the New York Fire Dept. Vol. and Paid by Augustine E. Costello - 1887 -p. 94.) In the year 1865, the fire department of New York City was reorganized and many of the hand-drawn fire engines and hook and ladder trucks were altered so as to be drawn by horses. (Ref: "Our Firemen" by Augustine E. Costello - 1887 - p. 94.) The use of horses in the San Francisco Volunteer Fire Department in the pioneer days was restricted to such occasions as parades and celebrations. In the picture is shown the St. Francis Hook and Ladder Company with its ladders pyramided, the horses being led by the firemen and the apparatus followed by the members of the company with fire axes over their shoulders in the parade of July 4, 1851. This was the first time that horses were ever used in the San Francisco Fire Department. All the apparatus in use had been especially designed and constructed to be drawn by hand. The substitution of horse power for man power in the department would have required so few men that the social and political features of the fire department would have been weakened. There would also have been a heavy expense involved as new apparatus would have to be purchased and appropriations made for the construction of stables, as well as to defray the cost of remodeling the houses, and the cost of feed and harnesses. As the expenses of the Volunteer Fire Department were in most part borne by contributions from various merchants and men of means, who had their own and their city's welfare in view, there had been no definite budget upon which to depend, now any other practical way by which the expenses of the Volunteer Department might be assured. It was not until August 19, 1863 that Pennsylvania Engine Company No. 12 received a new steam fire engine from the East that was built and designed to be drawn by horses exclusively that horses were used. In the evening of the same day three black horses were harnessed to the fine steam fire engine (one leader and two wheel horses, known as a spike team) and trotted through the streets performing in an entirely satisfactory manner to the company. The house was then remodeled and stalls constructed for the reception of the horses; this took about two months during which time the engine was thoroughly gone over and put in perfect working order under the superintendency of a competent engineer, who had been in charge of a "steamer" in Washington belonging to the Government. The other Volunteer companies resented this very much and continued to draw their apparatus by hand. The Volunteers with their hand pumps had done well in zealously caring for the needs of a small community, principally of wooden construction. They were at first loathe to relinquish the prestige and showmanship which accompanied their calling. However, in a short while after horse-drawn engines were adopted all classes looked upon the change with a feeling of civic pride and as the Volunteer Fire Companies had served their day, the change was inevitable just as the firehorses had to step out of his role as hero and give place to the automobile with the demand for progress and ever increasing speed. The first alarm of fire ever responded to by horse-drawn apparatus in San Francisco was on October 14, 18

The putcher is a funnel shaped fishing trap made from willow and hazel. Eighteen straight rods of two to three year old withy are bound together with four or five hoops of woven willow. The open end of the putcher

The putcher is a funnel shaped fishing trap made from willow and hazel. Eighteen straight rods of two to three year old withy are bound together with four or five hoops of woven willow. The open end of the putcher is 24" in diameter narrowing to 4" over its 60" length. Individual putchers are grouped together to form a fishing weir. Oak, Larch or

Have you ever heard someone saying “he made me feel x” or “because of her I felt y”? Maybe you even said it yourself. Stop for a moment and think about it, did they point a gun to your head and forced

Have you ever heard someone saying “he made me feel x” or “because of her I felt y”? Maybe you even said it yourself. Stop for a moment and think about it, did they point a gun to your head and forced you to feel something? The truth is we and no one else are responsible for our emotions. Have you ever felt great even though something you consider negative happened? For instance maybe it was raining and you were all soaked and you still smiled and enjoyed the moment, or maybe something you consider good happened and you still felt bad. These examples show us that we can choose our emotions and we don’t have to react to the situation or to the others. Change your negative emotions into positive emotions Usually our decision to feel a certain emotion is unconscious but it doesn’t have to be that way. At first you’ll notice your emotions only after you feel them. Start by accepting your emotions and take full responsibility for them, you can’t change something until you accept it. Think about the positive intent of the feeling. E.g. Perhaps the fear helps saving your life or gives you a feeling of safety. If you don’t know what the intent is you can use the Six-Step Reframing technique to find the positive intentions and to find alternative ways to accomplish your positive function. Permit yourself to feel sad, frightened, angry or any emotion you consider negative. Explain yourself that it’s ok to feel that way and distinguish between the emotion and yourself. If you feel angry it doesn’t mean that you’re an angry person and if you feel scared it doesn’t mean you’re a coward. Don’t try to block the emotion, instead let yourself feel it as much as you can. If

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured the dramatic effects of the collision early July 4 between comet 9P/Tempel 1 and an 820-pound projectile released by the Deep Impact spacecraft. A sequence of images is available online at

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured the dramatic effects of the collision early July 4 between comet 9P/Tempel 1 and an 820-pound projectile released by the Deep Impact spacecraft. A sequence of images is available online at Time-lapse video images are available at The visible-light images show the comet before and after the impact. They were taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys' High Resolution Camera. The first of the three still images at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2005/17/ shows the comet about one minute before the impact. The encounter occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT. In the second image, captured 15 minutes after the collision, Tempel 1 appears four times brighter than in the pre-impact photo. Astronomers noticed that the inner cloud of dust and gas surrounding the comet's nucleus increased by about 120 miles (200 kilometers) in size. The impact caused a brilliant flash of light and a constant increase in the brightness of the inner cloud of dust and gas. The Hubble telescope continued to monitor the comet, snapping the third image in the sequence 62 minutes after the encounter. In that photo, the gas and dust ejected during the impact are expanding outward in the shape of a fan. The fan-shaped debris is traveling at about 1,200 miles an hour (1,800 kilometers an hour), or twice as fast as the speed of a commercial jet. The debris extends about 1,200 miles (1,800 kilometers) from the nucleus. The potato-shaped comet is 8.7 miles (14 kilomet

Office of University Communications From Martha Mitchell’s Encyclopedia Brunoniana: James Manning (1738-1791), first president of Brown University, was born October 22, 1738 in Piscataway, New Jersey, the son

Office of University Communications From Martha Mitchell’s Encyclopedia Brunoniana: James Manning (1738-1791), first president of Brown University, was born October 22, 1738 in Piscataway, New Jersey, the son of James and Grace (Fitz-Randolph) Manning. He studied at the Latin Grammar School conducted by Isaac Eaton in Hopewell, New Jersey, and graduated second in a class of 21 from the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) in 1762. He was licensed to preach by the Scotch Plains Baptist Church, February 6, 1763, and ordained April 19, 1763. He married Margaret Stites on March 23, 1763. That same year he was sent by the Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches to Rhode Island for the purpose of establishing a college to be principally under the direction of the Baptists. The college was chartered March 3, 1764. In April 1764 Manning opened a Latin school in Warren, Rhode Island, and became the first pastor of the Warren Baptist Church founded in November 1764. In September 1765 he was elected the first president of Rhode Island College. Manning was the only professor until 1767, when the increase in students presented a need for an additional instructor. David Howell, a graduate of the College of New Jersey was engaged as a tutor and was appointed professor of natural philosophy in 1769. In September 1769 the first Commencement was held. Seven students received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and 21 honorary degrees were awarded. On the evening of Commencement the Corporation appointed a committee to select and buy a site for the College and to solicit subscriptions. A lively competition arose, as the inhabitants of East Greenwich, Newport and Providence vied for the location of the college in their towns. When the final decision rested between Newport and Providence, depending on which raised the higher subscription of funds, Manning himself favored Providence and entered into the contest by writing an “anonymous” letter to Nicholas Brown, in which he outlined a strategy by which the fact that the Browns could build the edifice themselves at less cost in Providence could be taken into account in calculating the amount of the subscriptions. The College Edifice was built in Providence in 1770, and Manning moved to Providence and lived in Benjamin Bowen’s house while the president’s house was being built. The Revolutionary War soon interrupted the life of the College, when the Edifice was taken over from December 7, 1776 to May 27, 1782, and used as barracks and as a hospital by American and French troops, and left in dilapidated condition. The war left Rhode Island short of food, as a large part of the state was in the hands of the enemy and provisions could not by law be brought from another state. Manning was commissioned to visit Connecticut and confer with the government on this matter, after which the restrictions were removed and contributions of money and provisions were sent to Rhode Island. On April 29, 1779 he left Providence with Mrs. Manning, and traveled to Philadelphia, visiting relatives in New York and New Jersey, preaching in churches along the way, and returning to Providence on September 29, at which time he wrote in his journal, “Reached Providence at six o’clock, the road better than usual; being just five months to an hour absent from home.” When the war was over, the College reopened, poor, with few students and a damaged building. David Howell had resigned as professor in 1779, leaving the College with no faculty other than the president. A subscription was begun to raise funds for the repair of the Edifice. Asher Robbins, a graduate of Yale, was appointed as tutor. In 1783 John Brown offered to pay half the price of a “compleat Philosophical Apparatus & Library,” and the other half was quickly raised. In 1784 two professors were appointed, Joseph Brown as professor of experimental philosophy, and Benjamin Waterhouse as professor of natural history, both of whom “engaged to give Lectures in their respective Branches, without any Expence to the College while destitute of an Endowment.” A Commencement was held in 1783 for six graduates, who had been students before the war or had studie

One of the most serious problems now facing the planet is that associated with historical patterns of unsustainable consumption and production, leading to environmental degradation, aggravation of poverty, and imbalances in the development of countries. -Agenda 21, presented at

One of the most serious problems now facing the planet is that associated with historical patterns of unsustainable consumption and production, leading to environmental degradation, aggravation of poverty, and imbalances in the development of countries. -Agenda 21, presented at 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development From that simple, self-evident fact a corollary hypothesis has arisen: as population and economies grow, resource depletion accelerates until physical limits are reached and resource exhaustion occurs. Such a corollary would hardly strike one as radical. After all, if resources are fundamentally scarce, it stands to reason that increased demand for them hastens the day when they will disappear from the planet. Warnings of impending catastrophe, which have been around for almost 200 years, have arisen with increasing frequency in the 20th century. The population explosion in the Third World, coupled with the dramatic postwar growth of the global economy since 1950, has increased the volume, pitch, and urgency of warnings that civilization is living on borrowed time. The gasoline lines and inflation of the 1970s brought warning voices from the intellectual wilderness squarely into the center of public debate. International best sellers such as Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth, and the Carter administration's Global 2000 Report all helped convince millions of people that civilization as they knew it was on the verge of collapse. Although the boom years of the 1980s temporarily quieted voices of doom, the "conservation ethic" has become an institutionalized element of American politics. Both political parties agree government must intervene in the economy to protect us from potentially catastrophic overexploitation of natural resources. The debate tends to be ove

- Infowars - http://www.infowars.com - Mosquito Bioweapons: The History of Testing Inside the United States Posted By kurtnimmo On December 26, 2011 @ 5:17 pm In

- Infowars - http://www.infowars.com - Mosquito Bioweapons: The History of Testing Inside the United States Posted By kurtnimmo On December 26, 2011 @ 5:17 pm In Science & Technology | Comments Disabled December 26, 2011 With the recent announcement by UK-based biotechnology firm Oxitec that the company would be releasing thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes in Southern Florida as early as January, 2012, GM opponents, environmentalists, and a diverse group of Floridians have issued calls to suspend the experiment at least until further tests have been undertaken. Many are simply calling for informed consent protocol to be followed such as is required by law. Yet, unfortunately, a great many of the responses to theGE (genetically engineered) mosquito release are missing the deeper agenda which is at work here. Undoubtedly, the sordid history of experimental tests involving mosquitoes, mosquito-borne illnesses, and uninformed and unwitting humans has been largely overlooked. For instance, many of the articles I have read over the last few days dealing with this issue have made the claim that the release scheduled for early January would be the first ever of this type of experiment in the United States. This, however, is not the case; and considering the history of such testing — specifically that conducted via the release of mosquitoes — the American people should be very concerned. I, myself, wrote a detailed article close to a year ago, entitled “Viruses and the GM Insect ‘Flying Vaccine’ Solution,” in which I chronicled the experiments that have taken place over the years both inside and outside of the United States involving mosquitoes and mosquito-borne illnesses, specifically Dengue Fever. That being said, it has already been discussed in other recent presentations after my initial article in 2010 how, under the guise of eradicating Dengue Fever, GM mosquitoes were released into the environment in the Cayman Islands in 2009. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne, virus-based disease that has largely been non-existent in North America for several decades. Dengue Fever can morph into a much more dangerous form of the illness known as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. Symptoms of Dengue Fever are high fever, headache, pain behind the eyes, easy bruising, joint, muscle and bone pain, rash, and bleeding from the gums. There is no known treatment for Dengue Fever besides adequate rest and drinking plenty of water. Generally speaking, it is one specific type of mosquito, Aedes Aegypti, which transmits the virus. The publicly given method for using these GM mosquitoes to eradicate Dengue Fever was that thegenetically modified mosquitoes were “engineered with an extra gene, or inserted bacterium, or have had a gene altered so that either their offspring are sterile and unable to spread dengue, or simply die.” More specifically, the male GM mosquitoes are supposed to mate with natural females which produce larvae that die unless tetracycline, an antibiotic, is present. Without the antibiotic, an enzyme accumulates to a level that is toxic enough to kill the larvae. Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/mosquito-bioweapons-the-history-of-testing-inside-the-united-states/ Copyright © 2013 Infowars. All rights reserved.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — With the magical sound of wooden flutes, the scent of incense, and the warm Andean sun making shadow patterns across the rolling hills, this event has all the hallmarks of a happy, festive

LIMA, Peru (AP) — With the magical sound of wooden flutes, the scent of incense, and the warm Andean sun making shadow patterns across the rolling hills, this event has all the hallmarks of a happy, festive occasion. Families spread out picnics; strolling musicians and vendors sell cotton candy, toys, flowers and food. But this celebration is taking place in a cemetery, el Cemeterio de Nueva Esperanza, one of the largest cemeteries in the world. And the event is the Day of the Dead, celebrated throughout Latin America on Nov. 1, a day after American kids go trick-or-treating for Halloween. It's a day when families from across Peru congregate in the gigantic graveyard in Lima to connect with their ancestors, and many even spend the night here. While Day of the Dead is most famously observed in Mexico, it's also an important holiday in Peru and neighboring Bolivia, where traditions honoring the dead predate Catholicism. The Incas honored their ancestors by displaying their mummies in a prominent place and sharing a meal and liquor with them. A shaman would be called upon to communicate with them and bring blessings from the relatives back to the living. The observance at the cemetery includes a procession honoring Santa Muerte, a female folk saint, originating in Mexico, the saint of death. A grim reaper-like skeletal figure dressed in a long robe, she is associated with healing, protection and the afterlife, and represents the mummies once honored by native people. An altar with a sculpture of the boney lady, flanked by flowers, incense and candles, is carried by four to six men through the cemetery while crowds follow. Colectivo Intinarte, a Lima artist cooperative that was founded in 2008, organizes the fiesta of Santa Muerte. The statue is made primarily of maguey, an Amazonian jungle plant related to agave.

Electric car guru Martin Eberhard said last week that EVs will reach 500 miles of range by 2020. There’s nothing new about electric car proponents making wild predictions, of course, but in an interview with the U.K.

Electric car guru Martin Eberhard said last week that EVs will reach 500 miles of range by 2020. There’s nothing new about electric car proponents making wild predictions, of course, but in an interview with the U.K. publication, Autocar, Eberhard provides some interesting reasoning for his prediction. Eberhard, who’s best known for co-founding Tesla Motors and then famously leaving the company, is now working for Volkswagen’s Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, CA. There, he’s involved in development of lithium-ion battery packs for Volkswagen’s Blue-e-motion Golf and the Audi e-Tron. Last week, he told Autocar that the future lies in the use of 18650 lithium-ion batteries – cylindrical cells a little larger than a AA-battery – instead of the monolithic batteries employed in the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. “(The) 18650 cells are at the leading edge of battery development, and by using them we can benefit from state-of-the-art technology straight away,” he said. “Put simply, 18650s develop faster than any other kind of battery because there’s more demand for them; the industry is already making two billion of them a year. “To illustrate the point, the lithium-ion cells we’re currently working with contain 2.9 amp-hours of power; five years ago the ones we were using at Tesla only had 1.4 amp-hours. That rate of development has already had an impact on the cars we’re working on. The batteries we used in the original Audi e-Tron prototype, for example, gave it 60 kWh of power and a range of just over 150 miles.” Eberhard isn’t the first to use 18650s. Tesla Motors also employed 18650 batteries in its Roadster. Big automakers such as Chevrolet and Nissan, however, have opted for larger-scale batteries to enhance thermal safety and improve battery pack reliability. Many engineers question the reliability of connecting thousands of small batteries together to form a battery pack. Autocar’s interview doesn’t address those issues but it does say that Eberhard believes that 18650s can solve the so-called “range anxiety” problem associated with EVs. “At the current rate of progress, I’d say we will have banished the range anxiety problem, and will be making EVs with greater than 500 miles of operational range within ten years,” he told Autocar. “At that point, the further development of fast-charging infrastructure won’t be so important – because how often do you drive more than 500 miles in a day?”

KL Aviation uses Explain Everything as a whiteboard tool to teach aviation lessons. With the ability to either draw on a blank sheet, or draw over pre-existing graphics, we can easily teach a variety of subjects. With just over 10 videos complete

KL Aviation uses Explain Everything as a whiteboard tool to teach aviation lessons. With the ability to either draw on a blank sheet, or draw over pre-existing graphics, we can easily teach a variety of subjects. With just over 10 videos complete, and more on the way, we are looking forward to using Explain Everything long into the future. Will from Klaviation shared his resource of video flight lessons created with Explain Everything. The website describes the need that Will observed for both experienced and n

400,000 ha of new Ramsar sites for Romania “The new sites represent 400,000 ha of new Ramsar sites”, said Orieta Hulea, Conservation Director of the WWF Danube-Carpathian programme. “

400,000 ha of new Ramsar sites for Romania “The new sites represent 400,000 ha of new Ramsar sites”, said Orieta Hulea, Conservation Director of the WWF Danube-Carpathian programme. “This is another protection layer for this very valuable area”, Hulea said. Romania now has a total of 19 Ramsar sites, covering an area of 1,156,448 hectares. Globally, the Ramsar Convention has 2,094 sites, totaling 205,035,960 hectares. About the new Ramsar sitesBlahnita The landscape of this site is represented by swamps, permanent lakes and sand dunes covered with acacias, poplars, oak forests and grasslands, inhabited by a rich and diverse fauna which finds exceptional conditions for nesting and breeding in the area. The site has been designated as a special protection area (SPA) under the Birds Directive for the protection of 16 bird species listed in Annex I, such as the Himantopus himantopus, the Chlidonias hybridaand the Egretta garzetta. The site is also important for the protection of many migratory species listed under the Bonn Convention as for example the Coracias garrulous, the Ixobrychus minutusand the Phalacrocorax pygmeus. Borcea Arm (Bratul Borcea) Located along a major migratory route, the Danube meadow site represents an important area for resting and feeding of a great variety of bird species. It contains many breeding populations of Accipiter brevipes, Acrocephalus melanopogon, Alcedo atthis and Ardea purpurea among others. During migration, the site is also important as a resting area for populations of Aythya nyroca, Ciconia ciconia, Haliaeetus albicilla and Pandion haliaetus in their way from Russia to the Mediterranean and African countries. The Danube meadow shapes the landscape with lakes between sand dunes, marshes, fishponds, islands, canals and drainage channels, transforming the site into a cradle of biodiversity richness. The site provides a regulatory ecosystem service, reducing the Danube floods in the area. The site, situated in the southwestern part of the Oltenia Plain, very close to the Danube River, comprises three Nature Reserves for the protection of migratory and water birds under the Bonn Convention and the Birds Directive. Some of these species find ideal conditions for nesting, such as the Haliaetus albicilla, Ciconia ciconia and Burhinus oedicnemus. During the migration seasons, the site is also important for Tringa glareola, Pelecanus crispus, Platalea leucorodia and Plecadis falcinellus. The site plays a very important role in mitigating Danube flood damages. Canaralele de la Harsova Situated in the confluence of two Danube branches, Dunarea Veche and Bratul Borcea, on a major migratory route, the site represents an important area for resting and feeding of rare bird species. It provides shelter to important populations of protected birds catalogued under Annex I of the Birds Directive, as for example Accipiter brevipes, Circus macrourus and Pelecanus onocrotalus. The land situated in the surroundings of the Danube branches is covered by temporary lakes which also represent an important space for breeding and nesting of many other birds like Accipiter brevipes, Alcedo atthis and Botaurus stellaris. The site plays an important role in reducing an

When the French colonized New Orleans in the 1700's they brought many of their Catholic traditions with them, including the lively celebration of Mardi Gras, which literally translates to "Fat Tuesday." Mardi Gras is the final day

When the French colonized New Orleans in the 1700's they brought many of their Catholic traditions with them, including the lively celebration of Mardi Gras, which literally translates to "Fat Tuesday." Mardi Gras is the final day of the Carnival season, a period of great indulgence that leads up to Ash Wednesday and Lent. See also: Welcome to New Orleans! While Mardi Gras is observed around the world, the headquarters for traditions and festivities in the United States is New Orleans. Parades, costumes, music and dancing characterize the spirit of Carnival season, but front and center are the Creole and Cajun foods that New Orleans is known for. Bring the celebration of Mardi Gras to your own kitchen table with a few of New Orleans’ best-known and beloved dishes. Technically, gumbo is simply a stew served over rice, but in New Orleans cuisine its importance is elevated almost to a food group of its own. Okra, which plays a starring role in classic gumbo recipes, was brought over by West African slaves and is believed to be the namesake of the stew, as “kimgombo” is the word for okra in the Bantu language. Okra and “filé,” sassafras leaves introduced to settlers by Native Americans, appear in gumbo recipes as both a flavoring and thickening agent. Jambalaya is similar to gumbo in its combination of stock, vegetables, meat and fish, but the rice is usually incorporated into the dish itself. In this dish, the Creole version distinguishes itself from the Cajun interpretation with the inclusion of tomatoes. - Jambalaya by Victoria Blashford-Snell and Brigitte Hafner - Seafood jambalaya by Ti Adelaide Martin and Jamie Shannon - Creole-Cajun jambalaya by Tom Fitzmorris - Chicken and turkey kielbasa jambalaya by Robert W. Surles Red beans and rice It’s said that red beans and rice composed the traditional dinner of Monday nights, as Monday was “wash day” and laundry could be done while red beans cooked largely unattended. An emblematic meal in Creole cuisine, the beans and rice were usually flavored with ham bones left from Sunday’s dinner. - Red beans and red rice by Judith Finlayson - Red beans, rice and filé by Alton Brown - Red beans and rice soup with ham by Sara Moulton Italian heritage plays an important role in New Orleans, and the Italian cold-cut sandwich known as a muffuletta has become a signature New Orleans specialty. Piled high with meats, cheese and an antipasto-like olive salad, this giant sandwich is best shared. - Muffuletta by Tom Fitzmorris

SMOG is a stealthy killer. It creeps up on cities on still days. On 12 December 1991, when southern England was basking under a ridge of high pressure, levels of nitrogen dioxide in the misty London air

SMOG is a stealthy killer. It creeps up on cities on still days. On 12 December 1991, when southern England was basking under a ridge of high pressure, levels of nitrogen dioxide in the misty London air began to rise. They soared above the WHO's guideline of 200 parts per billion and stayed there for three days-by which time 160 people had died from respiratory problems caused by the pollution. One of the largest contributers to smogs in cities is the internal combustion engine. In 1992, the European Commission brought together researchers and representatives from the car and oil industries to find the cheapest way of banishing vehicle pollution from Europe's cities. The Auto-Oil Programme was supposed to be a collaboration, but since late last year, when the Commission published a clutch of directives based on the programme's recommendations, environmentalists, car makers, oil companies and member nations of the European... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

source of figure from Gleckler et al 2012 There is a new paper P. J. Gleckler, B. D. Santer, C. M. Domingues, D. W. Pierce, T.

source of figure from Gleckler et al 2012 There is a new paper P. J. Gleckler, B. D. Santer, C. M. Domingues, D. W. Pierce, T. P. Barnett, J. A. Church, K. E. Taylor, K. M. AchutaRao, T. P. Boyer, M. Ishii & P. M. Caldwell: 2012 Human-induced global ocean warming on multidecadal timescales. Nature Climate Change doi:10.1038/nclimate1553 which has been receiving media attention; e.g. see from the ABC Radio Australia Research shows humans main cause of global warming. Judy Curry has a post on June 12 2012 worth reading on this paper and other papers on this subject on her weblog in Causes(?) of ocean warming The news article contains the text [highlight added] Scientists say this is the most comprehensive study to date on global ocean warming. The research has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The team looked at rising ocean temperatures over the past 50 years, and a dozen models projecting climate change patterns. Australian based co-author, Dr John Church from Australia’s island state of Tasmania says there’s no way all of the world’s oceans could’ve warmed by one tenth of a degree Celsius without human impact. He says nature only accounts for 10 per cent of the increase. Dr Church says researchers from America, Australia, Japan and India examined a dozen different models used to project climate change, past studies have only looked at a couple at a time. “And this

Auroras Off the Page Did our February 2013 cover story inspire you to become an aurora hunter? The Internet provides several sources for aurora forecasting. Combined with weather predictions, these forecasts are a useful tool for both hardcore hunters

Auroras Off the Page Did our February 2013 cover story inspire you to become an aurora hunter? The Internet provides several sources for aurora forecasting. Combined with weather predictions, these forecasts are a useful tool for both hardcore hunters and curious tourists. The Kjell Henriksen Observatory on Svalbard actively tracks the auroral oval and has maps available both online and through its smartphone app, which works on all platforms and is available for download through Windows Marketplace, the iTunes Store, and Google Play. You can check if the northern lights are visible where you live at any time using either method. There are also several useful webpages, among them: - The KHO UNIS forecaster, which indicates where the aurora oval is located right now: kho.unis.no/Forecast.htm - The KHO mobile apps: kho.unis.no/News/3xMobile.htm - 1-7 days forecast from the University of Alaska Fairbanks: www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast - Spaceweather.com gives updates about upcoming auroras, too — and many amateurs submit images of the latest auroras: www.spaceweather.com/ The substorm process is a hard thing to describe. It all starts when the extended feelers of the Sun’s magnetic field interact with Earth’s magnetic field. If the two fields point in opposite directions, they link up. This linking is called magnetic reconnection, and it happens when magnetic lines of force snap into new arrangements, releasing heat and energy. The process opens Earth’s field on the side facing the Sun, allowing particles and magnetic energy to enter our planet’s protective magnetic shield. This energy then travels to the nightside and stretches the shield’s tail, eventually causing it to pinch off and snap back toward the planet in an event called a substorm. When this substorm happens, it sends solar wind particles zooming to Earth’s polar regions. The Conceptual Image Lab at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center created this great animation that shows the whole process. As if the aurora’s sights weren’t enough, people have long heard clapping noises during auroral storms. Finnish scientists recently caught the sound on tape (the buzz is not the aurora, listen for the sharp sound): The author of February's article, Pål Brekke, has coauthored a new book on the aurora, the preview video for which is below:

A Rails application has many configuration options. Learn how to test one of them. Well, what are the consequences of an improperly configurated application? Poor performance? Loss of revenue? Litigation? None of these consequences is desirable. We can avoid

A Rails application has many configuration options. Learn how to test one of them. Well, what are the consequences of an improperly configurated application? Poor performance? Loss of revenue? Litigation? None of these consequences is desirable. We can avoid them by configuring an application correctly. And, we can be confident that it will stay that way by running examples of correct behavior against the configuration every time it's changed. Exploring the Configuration Rails application configuration is primarily exposed in config/application.rb via an class. Here's an elided example. Testing the Configuration I've highlighted the filter_parameters option in the file and the console. It informs the application to censor the listed request parameters from logs. Rails filters :password by default. Let's write an example that proves :social_security_number will be filtered. In an editor, create a new file named spec/config/application_spec.rb, and write the following two examples. Run the examples, specifying the "documentation" format for output. Perfect. We have one passing example for :password, and we have one failing example that indicates exactly what we need to do to correct our configuration. config/application.rb in an editor and find the To satisfy the failing examples, add Rerun the examples. filter_parameters is set as desired. A Rails applicaton exposes its configuration via an Application class. We can easily and simply test that the configuration is what we want it to be and that it remains that way. Thus, we can mitigate the risks, some severe, of an improperly configured application. Environment-specific configuration can be set in files in Here, pry is useful for its much nicer format than the default. It's so much more than that, though. I highly recommend adding it to your toolset. It vastly expands your capabilities to interact with Ruby code. --format documentation option commands RSpec to display examples grouped and nested under their descriptions. rspec --help for more information. If you find a set of options that you always want to use, you can add them to a .rspec file in your home directory. See read command line configuration options from files.

On June 4, 1996 an unmanned Ariane 5 rocket launched by the European Space Agency exploded just forty seconds after its lift-off from Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket was on its first voyage, after a decade

On June 4, 1996 an unmanned Ariane 5 rocket launched by the European Space Agency exploded just forty seconds after its lift-off from Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket was on its first voyage, after a decade of development costing $7 billion. The destroyed rocket and its cargo were valued at $500 million. A board of inquiry investigated the causes of the explosion and in two weeks issued a report. It turned out that the cause of the failure was a software error in the inertial reference system. Specifically a 64 bit floating point number relating to the horizontal velocity of the rocket with respect to the platform was converted to a 16 bit signed integer. The number was larger than 32,767, the largest integer storeable in a 16 bit signed integer, and thus the conversion failed. The following paragraphs are extracted from the report of the Inquiry Board. An interesting article on the accident and its implications by James Gleick appeared in The New York Times Magazine of 1 December 1996. The CNN article reporting the explosion, from which the above graphics were taken, is also available. On 4 June 1996, the maiden flight of the Ariane 5 launcher ended in a failure. Only about 40 seconds after initiation of the flight sequence, at an altitude of about 3700 m, the launcher veered off its flight path, broke up and exploded. The failure of the Ariane 501 was caused by the complete loss of guidance and attitude information 37 seconds after start of the main engine ignition sequence (30 seconds after lift-off). This loss of information was due to specification and design errors in the software of the inertial reference system. The internal SRI* software exception was caused during execution of a data conversion from 64-bit floating point to 16-bit signed integer value. The floating point number which was converted had a value greater than what could be represented by a 16-bit signed integer. *SRI stands for Système de Référence Inertielle or Inertial Reference System.

Indian Independence Act, 1947 contains the following provision regarding Indian States: All treaties, agreements, etc between His Majesty`s Government and the rulers of the Indian States shall lapse. The words `Emperor of India` shall be omitted from Royal

Indian Independence Act, 1947 contains the following provision regarding Indian States: All treaties, agreements, etc between His Majesty`s Government and the rulers of the Indian States shall lapse. The words `Emperor of India` shall be omitted from Royal Style and Titles. The Indian states will be free to accede to either of the new Dominion of India or Pakistan. Monarchy was abolished and hence, the princely states were to be annexed. In the National Provisional Government, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel headed the State Department. Patel and his chief aide, VP Menon appealed to the sense of patriotism of the Indian princes and persuaded them to join the Indian union. The annexations were to take place on the basis of surrender of three subjects of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication. Lord Mountbatten aided Patel in his mission too. As a result by 15th August, as many as 136 jurisdictional states acceded to the Indian union. Kashmir`s Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26th October, 1947 and the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1948. V P Menon, on the other hand, successfully negotiated instruments of accession with a number of small states of Orissa with the Province of Orissa. On 18th December, the Chattisgarh rulers merged with the Central Provinces. Between the periods of 17th to 21st January 1948, Menon acquired the agreement for scores of minor states in Kathiawar to form the Union of Kathiawar, which began to govern on February 15. This set the pattern for the subsequent accession and merger of many tiny remaining states over the next five months. For geographical and administrative reasons, Baroda and Kolhapur were annexed to the then Bomaby Province; Gujarat states were also merged with the Bombay Province. A second form of integration of 61 states was the formation of the seven centrally administered areas. Thus the states of Himachal Pradesh , Vindhya Pradesh (present day Madhya Pradesh), Tripura , Bhopal, Kutch and Bilaspur were formed. Apart from these the states of United States of Matsya, Union of Vindhya Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, Rajasthan and United states of Cochin-Travancore were also integrated to the India. However, the unification of India was still incomplete without the French and Portuguese enclaves. The French authorities were more realistic when they ceded Pondicherry (Puducherry) and Chandannagore to India on 1st November, 1954. However, the Portuguese Government maintained that since Goa was part of the metropolitan territories of Portugal, it could be in no way affected by the British and French withdrawal from India. When negotiations and persuasions did not move the Portuguese government, units of Indian army had to be mobilized and Goa , Daman and Diu were liberated and annexed to India on 19th December, 1961. Thus, after much toil Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and his aides successfully integrated the Indian states to form a unified country.

- Why was the assessment done? Under the 1996 Amendments to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the NH Department of Environmental Services (DES) is required by the US EPA to assess each of the 3,000 sources of public drinking

- Why was the assessment done? Under the 1996 Amendments to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the NH Department of Environmental Services (DES) is required by the US EPA to assess each of the 3,000 sources of public drinking water in NH for their susceptibility to contaminants regulated by the Act. This assessment is based on the results of the most recent sanitary survey performed at this system and a land use inventory of each source's protection area. It describes susceptibility in terms of multiple land use and water quality susceptibility factors. Factors that are ranked medium or high generally increase the risk of drinking water contamination. - How were land uses identified? Land uses shown on the map from Part 3 are characterized as potential or known contamination sources. Known contamination sources are sites where contaminants are known to have been released onto or into the ground (currently there are no known ongoing releases of contaminants to surface water in source water protection areas). Potential contamination sources are facilities that typically use large quantities of regulated substances. Many of the land uses are regulated by DES and were already in a DES database and the DES Geographic Information System. Others were identified by driving through source water protection areas. Although the most current land use information was used to rank the susceptibility factors in Part 1, it should be noted that the ranking and maps could contain errors and should be reviewed carefully by the user of this information. - What area was evaluated for this assessment? The source water protection area is the critical area surrounding a public water supply well or an intake on a surface source. For a public water supply well, this is the wellhead protection area (WHPA), which is the estimated area from which groundwater and surface water will flow to the well under severe pumping conditions. For most bedrock wells, this area is a volume dependent circle. For wells in sand and gravel there is generally enough site specific information to delineate the area of flow. If not, a 4000 foot circle was used. For a public water supply intake or a surface source, the source protection area is the watershed area, or a portion of that area from which surface and groundwater flow to the intake. - Will the potential contamination sources shown on the attached map contaminate my source? Potential contamination sources are facilities that typically use, produce, handle, or store contaminants of concern, which, if improperly managed, could find their way to a source of public drinking water. It is important to understand that a release may never occur from a potential contamination source provided it is using good management practices. Many potential contamination sources are regulated at the federal level, the state level, or both to reduce the risk of a release. There are a number of methods that water systems can use to work cooperatively with potential contamination sources. These often involve educational visits and inspections of stored materials. Minimizing the risk from potential contamination sources is discussed in our fact sheet. - How should this assessment be used? This assessment should be used to plan for improved protection of public drinking water sources. Additional information may also be useful. For instance, a community may wish to add additional features to the map from Part 3 such as 100-year flood plain, tax map information, soils information or high-density development, etc. The assessment is a good starting place for planning protection programs. This system may or may not be currently implementing source protection measures. Regardless of the current level of protection activity, or current land use scenario, DES encourages water suppliers and municipalities to use this information and available resources to improve water supply protection. Whether the source currently has a pristine protection area or numerous industrial land uses which require education and surveillance, the way to ensure good water quality in the future is to act now to protect valuable water supply resources. Once contamination occurs, clean up is costly and sometimes technically infeasible. Additionally, unprotected watersheds and wellheads can lead to deterioration of water quality that may eventually lead to higher treatment costs. An effective local source water protection program is tailored to the particular source water protection area. DES and others are available to assist municipalities or water suppliers in designing a program to address the most significant concerns in a pragmatic and cost effective manner. Our fact sheet shows a list of options that could be considered at the local level for inclusion in a source water protection plan. These options are explained in detail in The DES Guide to Groundwater Protection and NEIWPCC's Source Protection, A Guidance Manual for Small Surface Water Supplies in New England, which are available by calling DES at 271-7017. - If I have questions or want help protect drinking water whom should I contact? Adobe Acrobat Reader format. Download a free reader from Adobe.

In this task students are organized into expert groups. Each group of students receives only one component of five different air quality informational resources (a press release, fact sheet, map, data, or chart). In Activity 2, group studies its set

In this task students are organized into expert groups. Each group of students receives only one component of five different air quality informational resources (a press release, fact sheet, map, data, or chart). In Activity 2, group studies its set of materials and answers questions particular to this material, and each student thus becomes an expert. Students then jigsaw into new groups for Actrivity 3. Each of the new groups has one representative from each of the original groups to serve as an expert on the resource material which that student studied. There are five sets of resource materials, A through E, and related questions. Plan a way to divide your class into five groups. Each member of a group should receive a copy of the resource material assigned to their group. Write a code on each student's resource material to facilitate jigsaw regrouping that occurs later in the task. Write A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5 for the five students in Group A. Similarly, code groups B through E. When students jigsaw all the 1's will form a new group, all the 2's form a group, etc. Adjust the pattern to fit your class size and the group size you prefer. Before passing out the Student Booklet, ask your students to take a deep breath and hold it. Tell them to keep on holding their breath while they listen to you. Read or paraphrase the following: We all know breathing is vital, yet we often take it for granted. Maybe we could try to estimate or count the number of times a day that we take a breath. How many? Hundreds or thousands per day? Don't stop holding your breath yet! I just have a few more minutes to talk! Oh... OK, you can breath again. It feels good to breathe again doesn't it? Now think about the air we were breathing. What kinds of gases are in the air that we might breathe? Most of the air we breathe is healthy for us, but sometimes... Group students into pairs. Distribute Student Booklets. Have students follow along as you read the directions to Activity 1. Allow three minutes for students to write their own questions. Have pairs share their questions with the class. As they share, write the questions on the board. Make sure the list includes questions which refer to statin

The Study of Human Anatomy Picking up where the ancient Greeks and Romans left off As we can see from Donatello's sculpture of David, the study of human anatomy was enormously important for Renaissance artists. In this, they continued where

The Study of Human Anatomy Picking up where the ancient Greeks and Romans left off As we can see from Donatello's sculpture of David, the study of human anatomy was enormously important for Renaissance artists. In this, they continued where the ancient Greeks and Romans had left off. Once again, as in classical antiquity (ancient Greece and Rome) the human figure was considered beautiful. Donatello, David, bronze, late 1420s to the 1460s, Likey the 1440s (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence) Remember that in the Middle Ages, there was very little interest in the human body, which was seen as only a temporary vessel for the soul. The body was therefore not important at all. If anything, the body was seen as sinful, the cause of temptation. In the Old Testament, Adam and Eve, after they eat the apple from the tree of knowledge, realize that they are naked and cover themselves. So nakedness, and the body generally in the Middle Ages, is associated in Christianity with temptation and sin and the fall of man. The best way to learn human anatomy is not just to look at the outside of the body of course, but to study anatomy. Dissections of the human body were performed in the Renaissance, although they were rare because of church prohibitions. Renaissance artists were anxious to learn about the body and gain the knowledge which would allow them to show the body in many different positions. Scientific Naturalism and the Changing Status of the Artist The artists of the Early Renaissance use scientific tools (like linear pespective and the study of anatomy as well as geometry) to make their art more naturalistic. When artists use science to make their art more naturalistic, we can use the term scientific naturalism. Scientific naturalism allows artists in the Early Renaissance to begin to demand that society think of them as more than just skilled manual laborers. They argued that heir work—because it is based on science and math—happens with their intellect just as much as with their hands, and they therefore argued that they should be considered the same status as intellectuals and philosophers. Remember that during the Middle Ages, artists were only considered as skilled craftsman (for instance, painters were in the same guild as pharmacists, because both grind and mix things), and so they are demanding quite a change.

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition - n. A light thin fabric, generally cotton or rayon, with a crinkled surface and a usually striped pattern. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition - n. A light thin fabric, generally cotton or rayon, with a crinkled surface and a usually striped pattern. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License - n. A thin, all-cotton fabric, commonly striped, used to make clothing for summer wear. - n. An article made from such fabric. from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English - n. A light fabric, originally made in the East Indies, of silk and linen, usually having alternating stripes, and a slightly craped or puckered surface; also, a cotton fabric of similar appearance. from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - n. A thin linen fabric, usually imported from the East Indies, though sometimes imitated in Europe. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. - n. a light puckered fabric (usually striped) Hindi sīrsakar, from Persian shīroshakar : shīr, milk (from Middle Persian) + o, and (from Middle Persian u, from Old Persian utā) + shakar, sugar (from Sanskrit śarkarā, from the resemblance of its smooth and rough stripes to the smooth surface of milk and bumpy texture of sugar).(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) From Hindi शीर - शक्कर (śīr-śakkar), from Persian شیر و شکر (shir-o shekar), meaning'milk and sugar'. (Wiktionary)

Could stress be affecting your heart health? Content provided by www.HealthBytesNYC.com What stresses you out? Looming deadlines? Juggling family members’ schedules? Relationships? While stress can actually be helpful sometimes, motivating you to finish

Could stress be affecting your heart health? Content provided by www.HealthBytesNYC.com What stresses you out? Looming deadlines? Juggling family members’ schedules? Relationships? While stress can actually be helpful sometimes, motivating you to finish projects and prioritize your life, it can also be harmful. It can affect you emotionally, behaviorally, cognitively and physically, manifesting in an array of symptoms that you may not even recognize as stress-related. According to Margaret L. Furman, MD, Attending Physician in the Department of Cardiology at Beth Israel Medical Center, stress is an emotional defensive response to upsetting events or circumstances such as the sickness or death of a loved one, a breakup or the loss of a job, that can manifest physically and have an effect on your heart health. Stress raises your blood pressure, which can contribute to heart disease as well as other conditions. Unhealthy habits, such as eating or smoking that many turn to to combat stress can lead to obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol — all of which also impact your heart health. The first step in knowing how to handle stress is recognizing it in the first place. I’m not stressed out — Am I? If you regularly experience a lot of stress in many areas of your life, you could actually begin to stop noticing it. Over time, stress can have negative effects on your health and well-being — and you can’t address problems if you don’t know they exist, so it’s good to know the symptoms. Be aware of these signs, outlined by Dr. Furman below: Changes in appetite Increased use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco Increased anxiety or feeling overwhelmed Moodiness or increased agitation Avoiding social situations Inability to focus or forgetfulness Once you’ve identified you are stressed, you can take a look at what is causing it and try to find better solutions. Deal with and reduce stress If your first instinct when faced with stress is to buy a pack of cigarettes, pour yourself a drink or have a second helping, you’re not alone — but those reactions are unhealthy and can end up hurting you even more. Dr. Furman recommends replacing harmful coping mechanisms with healthy ones. “Moderate exercise can help reduce stress. You need to be sweating and getting your heart rate up for 30 minutes for it to count.” Exercise releases endorphins which produce a feeling of well-being. Burning off extra energy lowers blood pressure and cholesterol and contributes to weight loss. Taking time for yourself and doing something you enjoy, whether it’s shopping or ice skating or going on vacation, can also help reduce your stress

L11 — March 2011 — Whooping Cough Intro: Whooping cough. It's a bacterial infection that's risen to epidemic levels in some parts of the U.S. In adults, the symptoms can be mild, but if

L11 — March 2011 — Whooping Cough Intro: Whooping cough. It's a bacterial infection that's risen to epidemic levels in some parts of the U.S. In adults, the symptoms can be mild, but if the infection is spread to a baby who hasn't yet received a full course of vaccinations, whooping cough can be very serious. Here's more on how to handle this disease. 21-month-old Pedro Esqueda's symptoms started out like those of a typical cold. He had a little runny nose and started having a little cough, and I just thought he caught something. But over the next four to five days, Pedro's mom, Chelsi, says the cough got much worse. It was like nothing I ever heard before. (sound) He was coughing, doing the whoop, and he would vomit. And he couldn't catch his breath. When they took Pedro to the doctor, the coughing had subsided, so they figured, maybe it was just a cold or some other infection. But Chelsi knew there was something else wrong. So the next time Pedro had a coughing fit, her husband got it on video. A nurse practitioner saw it and diagnosed it right away. She saw it and goes, "That's pertussis. That's definitely pertussis." Whooping cough is also known as pertussis. It's caused by a bacterial infection that is spread from one person with whooping cough to another. Dr. Thomas Boyce says whooping cough is particularly tough on kids younger than Pedro who haven't had the full course of vaccinations given at 2, 4 and 6 months. They're particularly susceptible to getting the infection, and because of their small airway, they're particularly susceptible to having very severe disease. You see, the infection happens in the airway, or trachea. The pertussis bacteria produce toxins that irritate and inflame the airway. This causes the severe, repeated cough that lasts for months. They call it the 100-day cough. Pedro and his entire family took antibiotics to treat the infection and prevent further spread. Now he's back to health after months of illness. (sound) For Medical Edge, I'm Vivien Williams. Dr. Boyce says babies usually get whooping cough from adults who have a mild infection. He says that's why it's important for adults to get booster vaccines every 10 years. Ask your doctor for the tetanus-diphtheria shot that also includes a pertussis booster. For more information, visit our website at… STATIONS: Per the licensing agreement, please provide a link from your station's website to http://www.MayoClinic.org or voice tag "MayoClinic.org" for more information.

Lions : Day 1 |September 12, 2011||Posted by Mommy Cameron | Homeschooling under ABCs, Fun at 4, Handwriting, Kiddos In Action, Letter Ll, Lions, Our

Lions : Day 1 |September 12, 2011||Posted by Mommy Cameron | Homeschooling under ABCs, Fun at 4, Handwriting, Kiddos In Action, Letter Ll, Lions, Our Classroom, Reading, Subjects & Themes, Tricky 2, wONEderland| We started our L is for Lion Theme this morning. The boys were ready to go right after breakfast. While I was cleaning the kitchen, I found Thing 1 and Thing 2 in our classroom reading the books about lions that I displayed on top of the cubby shelf that houses Thing 3 distractions. Once I finished cleaning the kitchen, I headed to the classroom so that we could do our morning time and read a couple of the lion books. All three boys enjoyed the books about lions. It amazes me how much Thing 1 has remembered from reading the book only once this morning. Next up was our lion craft. Basically we used a paper plate and rotinini noodles to make a lion face. Thing 1 did an awesome job on his. Thing 2 just wanted to play in the glue. Thing 3 wanted to get in on the action too, so I gave him a few of the noodles to explore while I helped the boys. We finished up our “school” later in the afternoon. I started with Thing 2, who really got into the feeding the lion pre writing activity that I had made. I am so glad that I had put it in a sheet protector, because he did it at least 4 times. We then worked with the pattern blocks. The first design was the letter L. Once we talked about what we were going to do, he took off and completed the L. The next picture was a lion. This definitely was a much more complicated picture. However, he figured it quickly. He was so happy each time he would figure out where a shape went. This is how he finished his day. Next up it was Thing 1’s turn. He reviewed the numbers 1-10, by lacing beads onto a pipe cleaner with a number taped to it. I think he liked it at first, but then he grew a little tired of it. Then we worked on his reading. We are covering the sight words: my, in, big, jump, down. These are the sight words in the Ready to Read : Unit 3. We are also working on the –at family words. We covered all of these words using the sight word train that I had made especially for him. The caterpillar that came with the Ready to Read Units, just wasn’t working for him. So I made him a train, one of the advantages of home school. We were soon finished with all I had planned for the day, however, Thing 1 wasn’t done. So I looking into tomorrow’s folder and let him pick out what he wanted to do. He chose the math activity. In this activity he rolls two dice and adds the numbers. I even let him choose which dice he used. He chose the two 12 sided dice. Figures. To end the day, the boys and I played with something else that Starts with the letter L, Lincoln Logs. Learning with the Cameron Clan!