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Accounting Organizational Structure by Jeremy Bradley Google Companies that are fortunate to have more than one staff member in their finance and accounting departments often have an organizational structure in place to streamline management. The hierarchy in the accounting division helps to ensure that finances are managed effectively and responsibly. Chief Financial Officer The CFO or vice president of finance is the executive at the top of an accounting organizational structure. This person reports directly to the business owner or CEO and is responsible for ensuring that all aspects of accounting and finance are carried out in accordance with the company's policies. In smaller businesses, the CFO may have only one or two reports, but the gravity of the job is the same -- responsibility for keeping the company financially sound. Financial Controller Many companies have a financial controller that reports to the CFO but has more specific responsibilities for accounting. The controller manages the day-to-day income and expense ledgers, assigns tasks to other accounting staff and liaises with the CFO to help make companywide financial decisions. However, this person is not a member of the executive team and her input is therefore considered advisory. Division Managers In larger companies, the controller will generally have three main reports -- the accounts receivable manager, the accounts payable manager and the payroll manager. In smaller companies, one person might perform all these functions, or they may be left to the discretion of the controller or CFO. In any event, these divisions represent the core elements of the accounting structure; they have responsibility for managing income, expenses and salaries. Accountants and Clerks The division managers may have a team of accountants and clerks working for them. These are specialized professionals with expertise in tracking income, managing expenses or administering payroll and HR policy. A larger company will tend to separate these areas so that the workload doesn't get too overwhelming, but in a smaller company they may be streamlined, with just one accountant or clerk reporting to the division manager. Companies of all sizes take on interns -- students or young professionals -- to help them in doing the daily work of the accounting and finance department. Interns can be paid or unpaid, but typically their duties will be at the lowest rung of the ladder. They may assist in research, filing, data entry and any other administrative tasks assigned to them by their managers, who are usually either division managers or the controller. About the Author Photo Credits • Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images Suggest an Article Correction
Friday, May 09, 2008 "Nuclear reactors are expensive to build. Nuclear Power is very expensive." Answer : It is true that nuclear reactors are more expensive to build than coal plants. But, if environmental costs are taken into account, nuclear plants quickly rise to be much cheaper. In the USA, there have been several re-legislations for improving nuclear safety, which required the removal and reconstruction of nuclear reactors. These made the costs of construction to spiral out of control. Thus, nuclear power industry had a political death in the US. In other countries, several nuclear power reactors have been built to operate on profit. France currently obtains 80% of its electricity needs through nuclear power. The produced electricity is the cheapest in Europe. Now that we have designs of very safe reactors available to us, scale-economics come to play in the construction process. Nuclear plants of today are already cost-competitive with coal plants. Clean energy is expensive in the first stage of construction - whether it be nuclear or solar power. But we cannot afford to build coal plants for the reason of meagre short term profits. The long-term costs far outweigh any such benifits. No comments:
GET A QUOTE: Markets chart Average costs of long-term care in 2006: Private room in a nursing home $206 a day; $75,190 annually Semi-private room in a nursing home $183 a day; $66,795 annually Home health care aide $19 an hour Source: MetLife Mature Market Institute Supporting a parent? Check for tax breaks Updated \| Comment \| Recommend E-mail \| Print \| If your mom needs money for a new roof, you'll write her a check, right? And you won't even mention the time that she unfairly grounded you for sneaking into an R-rated movie, which was, by the way, your brother's idea. You'll help her out because she's your mom, and she deserves a dry house. But for some boomers, looking after Mom and Dad entails more than sending an occasional check for home repairs. According to an AARP study released Monday, nearly a quarter of unpaid caregivers say that caregiving is a financial hardship. If you're supporting an elderly parent, you may qualify to claim that parent as a dependent on your tax return. For tax year 2007, claiming an additional personal exemption would reduce your taxable income by $3,400. But to claim this tax break, you must pass the following tests: Income. To qualify as a dependent, your parent's income can't exceed the amount of the personal exemption. For 2007, the cut-off is $3,400. In most instances, Social Security benefits aren't counted. But if your parent receives more than $3,400 from other sources, such as pension benefits, interest and dividends from investments, or withdrawals from retirement savings plans, you can't claim her as a dependent. Francis Degen, an enrolled agent in Setauket, N.Y., says the income requirement prevents most taxpayers from claiming a parent as a dependent, because even a small pension will make the parent ineligible. Support. In addition to the income test, you must provide more than half a parent's costs for food, housing, medical care, transportation and other necessities, says Cynthia Jeanguenat, an enrolled agent in Virginia Beach. Even if all your mother's income is from Social Security, you can't claim her as a dependent unless you pay more than half her living expenses. Your mom doesn't have to live with you to qualify as a dependent, as long as she meets the income test and you provide more than half her financial support, says Donna LeValley, a tax lawyer and spokeswoman for J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2007. If your mother lives with you, you can include a percentage of your mortgage, utilities and other expenses in calculating how much you contribute to her support, LeValley says. You can find a worksheet in: IRS Publication 501: Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information (pdf) Shared support Many older parents receive support from several of their children. If that's the case in your family, you or one of your siblings might still be eligible to claim a parent as a dependent. But you'll need to convene a family meeting to figure this out. Bring a calculator. Here's how it works: If one sibling is providing more than half the parent's financial support, only that sibling can claim the parent, LeValley says. Consider a situation in which each sibling provides less than 50% support, but their combined assistance exceeds half the parent's support. In that case, any sibling who provides more than 10% can claim the parent as a dependent, LeValley says. But only one sibling can claim the tax break in any given year. "My recommendation is to give it to the person who gets the most financial bang out of it," LeValley says. Alternatively, siblings can agree to rotate the tax break, with one claiming the parent one year and another the next. The sibling who claims the parent as a dependent must fill out IRS Form 2120 and file it with his or her tax return: IRS Form 2120: Multiple Support Declaration (pdf) Medical deductions Even if you can't claim your mom as a dependent, you may still get a tax break for helping pay her medical costs. The IRS lets taxpayers deduct money spent on a parent's health care, even if the parent doesn't qualify as a dependent. To claim this deduction, you still must provide more than half your parent's support, Degen says, but your parent doesn't have to meet the income test. The deduction is limited to medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. You can include your own unreimbursed medical expenses in calculating the total. Most taxpayers don't have enough medical expenses to clear the 7.5% threshold. But if you're paying thousands of dollars a month for a parent's nursing home care, you might not have trouble overcoming that hurdle (see box at the left). Children who pay for a parent's care in an assisted-living facility could also qualify for a deduction. Most administrators of these facilities will break out how much of the monthly payment goes toward medical services, as opposed to food and other amenities. The portion that goes toward medical care is deductible, LeValley says, once your total medical expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. E-mail \| Print \|
The Harry M. Zweig Memorial Fund for Equine Research Cloning of L. interrogans serovar pomona type Kennewicki Immunogen Genes Dr. Yung-Fu Chang Leptospirosis is caused by a group of highly invasive spiral bacteria (spirochetes) that are capable of infecting people and animals, including horses. Transmission occurs either through direct contact with an infected animal or through indirect contact with soil or water contaminated with urine from infected animals. Infection of horses with Leptospira interrogans serovar pomona type Kennewicki causes uveitis (periodic ophthalmia), corneal opacity, abortion, and fever and icterus. Lipoproteins have been identified in many spirochetes including Treponema pallidum, T. denticola, T. phagedenis, Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, Borrelia burgdorferi, and the relapsing fever borreliae. Several surface-exposed lipoproteins from spirochetes are protective immunogens. We have shown that outer surface protein A (OspA), a lipoprotein from another spirochete (B. burgdorferi), can protect dogs and horses against Lyme infection and disease. Thus, it is logical that surface-exposed lipoproteins of Leptospira spp. would also be immunogenic and therefore, potential candidates for vaccine development. Our long-term goal is to develop a genetic (DNA) vaccine or a recombinant vaccine against equine leptospirosis. This novel class of vaccines, based on immunization with plasmid DNA, has the potential of protecting against disease without many of the disadvantages associated with conventional vaccines presently in use. Inoculation with plasmid DNA vectors encoding immunogenic proteins induces both antibody and cell-mediated immune responses that provide protective immunity. During our first year of study we have cloned and sequenced the 31 and 41 kDa outer membrane lipoprotein genes of L. interrogans serovar pomona type Kennewicki. In this study, we propose to use 31 and 41 kDa protein genes as DNA vaccine candidates in a hamster model. If the results of this study are promising, we will then propose to carry out a vaccination trial in horses next year.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] What is a puzzle? Puzzles can be just about anything imaginable. You might be presented with images of famous people, crosswords, chemical symbols, or even just a list of numbers! The common aspect of these puzzles is that you are not told what to do with the information supplied and that each puzzle will produce an English word or phrase as an answer. Half of the challenge is figuring out what to do. To help teams, each puzzle with have a title that gives some hint as to what to do. The Stanford Puzzle Hunt will be divided into multiple rounds that teams solve simultaneously. The answers to each round will themselves form what's called a meta puzzle. Sometimes the meta puzzle consists of only the answers from that round (called a pure meta) or sometimes additional information will be provided to be used in conjuction with the puzzle answers (called a shell meta). Usually, a meta is solvable with about 2/3 of the answers.
Having Problems? How accurate are these baby quizzes floating about? There are hundreds of baby quizzes online, taking the Internet by storm. These quizzes are usually the multiple-choice type questionnaires that ask questions about everything from you and your partner’s ethnicity, looks, original hair color, height, weight, age, etc. After making the right choices, the website comes up with a probable answer to your query. How baby generators work? There are several factors such as genetics, heredity, etc., that govern the looks and built of the future baby of a couple. Usually a baby looks like either of the parents. But sometimes this does not happen. Many a times, people fail to understand which of the parents the baby actually resembles. There maybe several biological as well as evolutionary reasons behind it. The baby may also be born looking slightly like an outcast to the particular ethnicity he or she is born in to, even if both the biological parents have the same ethnic or racial background. Almost all the quizzes available online take the general scenario in to their perspective and try and work out a logical solution accordingly. For example, when these quizzes get the answers to their questions telling them that both you and your partner have dark hair, they automatically assume that the baby would be born with dark hair too, and they generate an answer accordingly. What many of these quizzes do not take into account is the genes of the respective parents of the baby’s parents. They also play a role in shaping up the baby’s looks in reality. Usually a pregnant woman is very curious to know more about her baby. At this point, she finds waiting for nine months to find out how the new member of the family will look like, an ordeal. This is where these quizzes come into the picture. These quizzes target this curiosity and impatience of the expecting mothers about their unborn babies and design the questions and answers accordingly. Thus before commencing with the quiz, the website usually warns the quiz taker to take the answer as a reference point only. No related posts. Category : Blog Leave a Reply You must be logged in to post a comment. About Us
What Do South Florida Doctors Think About Legalizing Pot? Dec 5, 2013 Credit Vlado / Flickr CC Opponents of legalization say the potential consequences outweigh the benefits. Dr. Christopher Lariche, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction matters, says there has been an increased use of the drug in states where the legality has recently changed. “I look at it more from the level of patients: an increase of addictive disorders, and a decreased price of marijuana and more availability,” Lariche says. Medical marijuana is still currently illegal under federal law. However, 21 states and the District of Columbia have laws legalizing the drug in some form. Supporters of legalization argue that marijuana has indisputable medical benefits. Dr. Neil Miransky says at this point, any debate is purely driven by politics. “Can people who have non-medical excuses get medical marijuana cards if we legalize it? Sure,” Miransky says. “Is it worth not having this as a medication available to people who desperately need it and have no other effective alternatives? That’s the political question.” If the Supreme Court strikes the measure down, efforts to legalize will be dead for at least another year. If the item passes, close to 700,000 additional voter signatures will be required to get the item on the ballot.
Today In History, Sunday June 22nd Published: . Updated: . Today's Highlight in History: On this date: In 1870, the United States Department of Justice was created. In 1959, the Swedish film "Wild Strawberries," written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, opened in New York. In 1964, in a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Henry Miller novel "Tropic of Cancer" and the French film "The Lovers" were not obscene. In 1984, the British airline Virgin Atlantic began operations. In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court, in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, unanimously ruled that "hate crime" laws that banned cross burning and similar expressions of racial bias violated free-speech rights. Ten years ago: Islamic militants beheaded Kim Sun-il, a South Korean hostage who'd pleaded for his life in a heart-wrenching videotape; he was the third foreign hostage decapitated in the Middle East in little over a month. Mexican newspaper editor Francisco Ortiz Franco was shot to death by masked gunmen in Tijuana. Former President Bill Clinton's memoir, "My Life," was officially released. Child poet Mattie Stepanek, a prominent voice for muscular dystrophy sufferers, died in Washington, D.C., at age 13. Thought for Today: "Study men, not historians." - President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972).
Greece, Cyprus, geopolitics and future world orders Greece, Cyprus, geopolitics and future world orders Dimitris Konstantakopoulos speaks with Alexander Dugin published partly in the Greek newspaper ”REAL.NEWS” 21.04.2013 and entirely in the Greek magazine “Hellenic Nexus”, May 2013) Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: There is a theory about Greece as an inseparable part of Sea Power, proponents of which very often refer to the so called Sea Power dogma of Thucydides: «Μέγα το της θαλάσσης κράτος». What’s your comment? Alexander Dugin: Being involved in geopolitical studies for decades and being founder of the modern Russian school of geopolitics I have made much historical research on the geopolitical identity of Greece, ancient and modern. In the first place, according to the core texts of geopolitics (starting from Halford Mackinder), it’s regarded as essentially double: Athenian thalassocracy vs. tellurocracy of Sparta. So both principles, Sea and Land, defined the dialectic nature of Greek history. That was precisely what Thucydides who in his history of Peloponnesian war, developed in his dialectic: Fleet/Sea as the main weapon of Athenian Empire, and Infantry/Land as of Sparta. In this way thalassocracy was linked to democracy, and tellurocracy to aristocracy. Therefore all depends on the point of view: if we consider (against Plato and Aristotle) democracy as the absolute form of polity then Greece is seen from thalassocratic angle, but if we prefer nobility, spiritual tradition and hierarchy then Land power and Sparta are taken as ideal. Moreover, in the commentaries of neoplatonic Proclus on Plato’s dialogue “Kritias” (Κριτίας ), that forms a part of Proclus commentaries on “Timeus” (Τίμαιος), he developed a very important geopolitical vision concerning the symbolic function of Athenians and Atlantians during the mythical war (seen essentially as Land and Sea Power respectively). According to Proclus the Greeks or to be more precise Athenians (αρχαία πόλη των Αθηναίων) were representatives of the three main principles: 1) Athena (Αθήνα) – the Goddess of Wisdom and War, 2) Hephaestus (Ἥφαιστος) – the Formgiver, the Demiurge and 3) Gaia (Γαία) – Mother Earth, the element of Land. Together they formed the universe of Athenian people as opposed to the one of Atlantians (βασιλείο της Ατλαντίδας), rooted in Titans’ spirit and linked to the element of Water. Between them there were the Pillars of Hercules (Ἡρακλέους στήλας) in the Strait of Gibraltar which separated the realm of gods from the realm of infernal daemons (Titans). Originally that was the sense of the sign or “aegis” placed on the two Columns – Nec plus ultra (“nothing further beyond”), serving as a warning to sailors and navigators. Interestingly, nowadays we see the same symbol on the US dollar but with the omitted “Nec” that gives us “Plus Ultra” (“go further”). The people of Atlantis were described by Proclus as typical thalassocratic. Their life was based on materiality, richness, inventiveness, was a kind of Ancient Carthage society. On the contrary, the Athenians were noble, hierarchically orientated, on the side of honor and courage. Beyond the Pillars of Hercules lay the domain of lie, materiality, calculation, developed machinery, brutal force – the power of hybris. This area of sacred geography was put under the power of Hecata (Ἑκάτη), Goddess of hell (I presume all Greeks recognize the Statue of Liberty in New York. No doubt its headgear with characteristic spikes has Hecatean nature). For Proclus the Athenian land was not West (West was Atlantis), nor East (East was Persia). Greece was the absolute center of the world, Axis Mundi. And its destiny was the war for divine Justice and for love of Wisdom. Accordingly, in terms of modern geopolitics Greece forms a part of Rimland or of what Mackinder called “inner crescent”. That’s why its geopolitical identity is essentially open: Greece can choose between Land Power (Eurasia) and Sea Power (the USA, UK and NATO). Obviously the other geopolitical players are interested in the attraction of Greece and every side uses its own methods. The thalassocratic lobby in Greece insists on the “unique” identity presuming the thalassocratic orientation of the country, putting it in the camp of the USA and other atlantist states and opposing it to Russia and/or Germany as well as Turkey. As far as I know, the main proponent of the thalassocracy in Greek decision-making circles is Ch. Lazaridis (Χρύσανθος Λαζαρίδης), advisor to prime-minister A.Samaras (Αντώνης Σαμαράς). But I have to say that such a geopolitical vision is quite subjective and one-sided. Certainly, Greece can choose to be thalassocratic or better to become thalassocratic, to behave in thalassocratic way. And there are some arguments that justify it. It is obvious that NATO and the USA as well as the global financial networks support this kind of orientation. But that is not its destiny, nor identity – it is no more than a choice. Greece could be thalassocratic but with the same right it could be tellurocratic. All depends on Greece and the free will of its people. It is unnecessary to say that Byzantine Empire was tellurocratic. Modern Greece has never actually depended essentially on Sea Power. It was to a considerable degree continentally orientated. The Left forces were attracted by the Eurasian Soviet Union. The Right forces were also rather ethnocentric and tellurocratic with focus on the Greek tradition, the Orthodox church, national values, hierarchy and so on. Only liberalism, globalism and NATO guide-lines are typically thalassocratic. Even the vast merchant marine fleet of Greece is in fact not so Greek but controlled and exploited by the outside players, advantageously the USA and the UK (that’s why it failed to help the country in time of the current crisis). So I reiterate once more, the geopolitical orientation of Athens is the subject of choice, not destiny. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: The previous Cypriot “left” government, under Mr. Christofias, asked a rather low - for Russian standards and financial possibilities - loan from the Russian government, which Moscow did not provide and which could probably impede or delay the fall ofCyprus under the colonial yoke of “troika” (EU, ECB, IMF). What was the reason? Do you consider this decision as correct in the light of what has followed? Alexander Dugin: As far as I understand Mr. Christofias (Δημήτρης Χριστόφιας) was more or less adequate as the political leader of Cyprus, but he made some grave tactical errors. Russia supported him up to the certain point. Maybe we should have been more consistent and insistent… But when it became obvious that Christofias was going to lose the elections Moscow behaved in realist, pragmatic way. I consider that to be an erroneous step of Russia. The Kremlin didn’t appreciate in time the gravity of what was going on and underestimated the importance of the geopolitical battle for Cyprus. So the coming of Anastasiadis was a real catastrophe for Cypriots as well as for Greeks and Russians. The control over this strategically key island, as you have said, passed to the third player (troika). I could explain that only by the early stage of geopolitical consciousness of Putin’s government and by the inertia of Russian diplomacy and who knows by effective strategic counter-operation of atlantist elite in Russia itself not fully purged yet by Putin. The example of such groups is Sergey Karaganov (Сергей Караганов), visiting member of American Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) who tries to convince Putin not to meddle in Cyprus’ affairs and to stay away from Greek politics… We should have foreseen the dramatic repercussions and we didn’t. Being honest, I have nothing to say to justify our passivity… Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: After the recent crisis around Eurogroup’s decisions on Cyprus and the rather unsuccessful trip of Cypriot Finance Minister to Moscow, many people in Greece and Cyprus have drawn the conclusion that Russia is unable or unwilling to help two states in dire straits. How do you comment? Alexander Dugin: I think that all the story about Mr.Anastasiadis (Νίκος Αναστασιάδης) and his government is a kind of successful, alas, atlantist plot. All he’s done, just after his election, shows that he is manipulated by external powers in order to put Cyprus under direct control of the USA and global oligarchy. This means that all steps toward Russia were feigned. Mr.Sarris (Μιχάλης Σαρρής), who has been dismissed now, while staying in Moscow rejected any real proposals by Russia with regard to finance, economics and possible loans. It was obvious for those who interacted with him that his real goal was simulacrum of activity and all real decisions regarding Cyprus were already made somewhere else. As far as I understand there is a kind of similar strategy of the USA/globalist circles being applied both in Greece and Cyprus: to implement a chaos, to make the social and economic situation explode and to put both States with strong Christian Orthodox identities and high level of the historic and politic self-consciousness under direct control of American strategists and financial oligarchy. But that presupposes the weakening and eventual break of all existing links with continental Russia (Land Power), especially of the common projects in the field of energy. Most of them have been sabotaged in accordance with the will of the USA/EU atlantist groups by the “Greek side” against Greece’s actual interests. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos:By simply announcing their first decisions on Cypriot banks, the Finance Ministers of Eurozone, European Commission, ECB and IMF have dealt a terrible blow to any trust in Cypriot financial sector and to the Cypriot economy as a whole, given the fact that this economy was based essentially on the financial sector. The result was thatCyprus was crushed in a way no general could have achieved so quickly and so effectively by military means. Are we in an environment of war, by non military, financial and information means? If so, who is organizing this campaign and what are the means to resist it? Alexander Dugin: You are right. We are dealing with new forms of war. Finally in any war the main goal to achieve is control. If it could be realized without direct confrontation with the enemy the victory is only greater. If a defeated foe doesn’t realize it’s been defeated the victory is greatest. In our world the financial system is the core of the economy. That is the foundation of the famous post-industrial society. Therefore the control over finances is the source of power, including political one. But this state of affairs cannot be changed without overthrowing the whole global power of financial oligarchy and planetary liberal world order. It proclaims the eternal exponential growth of market economy. This narrative serves to dismiss as obsolete and archaic any other segments of economy which leads to buying them up by dumping price. Big finance is international by its nature and can always demonstrate the dominance over any nationally-framed economy. The Cyprus case clearly illustrates the extreme fragility of sovereignty in the era of post-modern globalization and poses not local but universal questions. Can we conserve the very principle of the national state or has the time of the world government truly arrived and the point of no return already passed by? From my point of view the national state can not stand any more – or can but not for too long. Its days are numbered. The real problem is elsewhere: will the future world order be unipolar (and hence in the hands of the global, mostly Western, financial oligarchy) or multipolar (BRICS is a kind of sketch of what it could be). There are countries with limited freedom of choice, incorporated firmly in the global West. There are others that can choose. I think that Cyprus and Greece belong to the type of States that can choose. So their inclusion in the global Americano-centric atlantist system is certain violence, a kind of geopolitical “rape”. Eurasia could present the decent and free “affiance”. But I agree, as I have just said, that Russia should behave with Cyprus and Greece in a much more intelligent and truthful manner… Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: Libya was destroyed, Syria is under attack, the most friendly to Russia countries of EU, Greece and Cyprus, are in a process of destruction and/or complete colonization,Israel and Turkey are rebuilding their alliance. Seen from Moscow, the strategic landscape in Eastern Mediterranean begins to be comparable to what happened in this region after the Crimean War. How Russia apprehends this new situation? Alexander Dugin: We consider that as an ongoing attack against us and the multipolar world. I doubt that the Greater Middle East Project that is being realized in front of our eyes will lead to stability. It is clear that the USA bets on chaos. There is no positive goal. Turkey’s involvement in Syria and the Arab region is a prelude to its own split. Israel will be torn apart by inner contradictions. I fear the same fate of bloody destruction awaits all other Eastern Mediterranean States. Libya after the end of Colonel Gaddafi didn’t become more democratic or peaceful, nor did Iraq. The former friends of the USA in the region lose as well as American foes do. To propose something really effective as an alternative to the new American strategy of bloody turbulence is not easy. The old geometry of the balance of power cannot stand eternally. The entropy corrodes the regimes established in other epochs and under different circumstances. Russia should make an effort and imagine something completely new, Eurasian analog of the Greater Middle East Project but conversely oriented. We lack such a strategy currently, hence we are losing precious time. Personally, I think that we should bet on Antiamerican, tellurocratic, antiliberal revolution. Something like the Fourth Political Theory which is against the first one (liberalism) and beyond the second (communism) and the third (nationalism). Only going in that direction will we be able to suggest the real alternative. But that demands no more nor less than the Global Geopolitical Revolution, the Eurasian Revolution. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos:What are the reasons behind Israeli-Turkish reconciliation? What are the probabilities of a more intense military campaign against Syria or Iran?How do you analyze the prospect of Kurdish-Turkish reconciliation? Alexander Dugin: Israel and Turkey are Rimland powers so theoretically are, for them, both geopolitical orientations (thalassocracy and tellurocracy) possible. But the main trend in these countries now is Atlanticism. It hasn’t changed even during the so called “cold period” of mutual relations between the countries after the incident of the Turkish citizens killed by Israeli assault group. Turkey used this incident to enforce its influence in Arab world (in the sense shown by the USA in order to prepare for the intervention in Syria). Israel used the same opportunity to get closer to traditionally more or less anti-Israel oriented Greece and Cyprus. So their reconciliation is absolutely logical: both countries managed to achieve in the interim of the pretended “quarrel” their (but in the reality American) tactical goals. Israel and Turkey are following the road map made by the “third side”. All that are obviously steps in preparing for the final invasion of Iran. After the fall of the Assad regime there will be the turn of Iran. About Turkish-Kurdish reconciliation I think of as something quite impossible. The Kurds and the Turks in the present situation are both under American guidance, but they are exploited to achieve different goals. Turkey wants to reinforce its national cohesion, the Kurds want to create the national state of Kurdistan, starting from Northern Iraq and aiming at Iranian Kurd territories (in case of intervention in Iran). But it is evident that Turkish Kurdistan can’t be exempt from the process and sooner or later Ankara will be obliged to pay the full price for its Atlanticism. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: Do you believe Obama’s policies provide, after all, some ground for a kind of a USA-Russia understanding in the Middle East? Under which conditions could this happen? Alexander Dugin: It is absolutely impossible. We have nothing in common with the American strategy. Our relations are based on the law of zero-sum game. Our vision of the situation all over the world is quite opposite. The American order contradicts multipolar vision of Moscow in general as well as in the details. We are playing a sort of chess game. I once asked Mr. Brzezinski about what he thought about the second player on the “Great Chess Board” as he called Eurasia in his famous book. He answered (and I think sincerely): “I’ve never thought of the second player…” So the USA plays both parts. Such an attitude excludes Russia a priori: the only Russian politics in the region that could be accepted by Washington is the American politics. Putin is not such a kind of man. He is a realist. That’s why the conditions for the USA-Russia understanding in the Middle East as well as elsewhere are nonexistent. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: German-Russian relations are going to follow in the long run the Rapallo or the Ribbentrop-Molotov path? Berlin is following in Europe a policy which begins to look very much like the policy it followed during the first half of 20thcentury, creating the conditions for intra-European financial “debt wars” which can destroy Europe and create again conditions for its domination by outside forces. In the same time, many observers are shocked by recent revelations in Germany about the extremely close relationship between Chancellor Merkel and Goldman Sachs. One wonders for the leverage of Finance over States those days. Do you believe that Berlin, under such, may evolve into a reliable partner of Moscow in “multipolarity”? Alexander Dugin: Geopolitics today is not linear but a complex multilevel game. There are actors who, belonging to the same political entity, behave in a quite different manner and pursue quite different ends. There is the USA as a national state which means unipolarity, Empire, the image of America defended by recently famous but today a little forgotten Neocons and so on. It represents open Atlanticism in an explicit way. What is good for the USA is good for the Rest. It is one level of global action and we shouldn’t dismiss it too early. The USA remains the hyperpower. It is in decline but such a decline can last long enough. Before its final disappearance the USA can do much harm. There is global oligarchy represented by Rothschilds, Soros and other powerful world financial groups. Goldman Sachs is rather on that side. These circles are fully international and cosmopolitan. Although for some operations they prefer Europe, their real HQs are always on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in the realm of the demons of the matter (according to Proclus). It is possible that both groups see the future of the world order and the ways to its installation a bit differently. But they share the same of values and the addiction to the liberal-capitalist globalization. The only disagreement is a matter of timing and methods. There is also the EU. On one side it is an atlantist creature, liberal, capitalist zone of NATO and the free market society based on the ideology of human rights and so on. It is a kind of prolongation of the two USA ruling groups in Europe: the American financial elite control the European banking system, while the American military strategists rule in NATO. The other side of Europe is the weak sense of continental, purely European identity – placed more to the left or to the Gaullist vision of independent sovereign Europe from Atlantic to the Urals. It is “European Europe”, “parallel Europe”, more virtual than real. Alas… Where do we situate Germany in this multilevel geopolitical field? Being dependent on the USA and NATO it isn’t politically and military free. Economically it is much more self-reliant but also up to a certain point. So actually playing any game Germany is obliged much more than France to follow atlantist directives. In the German economy there are some domains where continental Land-power features are visible. Germany is inclined to develop economic and energy cooperation with Russia, tries to save euro, sees itself as the pole of the united Europe (as the virtual possibility of future geopolitical revival). But in the main areas Berlin depends on the USA as all other countries of the EU do. Therefore in Greece Germany plays a game reflecting this double identity. Sometimes it follows the American orders (from both centres of decisions), sometimes strives to save the EU from the collapse that some in Washington consider as one of the probable scenarios in the near future. What we need is the other global geopolitical pole in the person of Eurasia. It would give to the whole European system the dimension of real freedom it fatally lacks now. If Russia (and eventually China) remains passive, the USA and the global oligarchy in Europe or elsewhere are free to play exactly as Brzeszinsky described – moving on their own white and black chessmen as well as pieces of other more nuanced colors. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: President Obama has postponed the realization of the antimissile program, but he has announced, in the same time, a huge state research program, BRAIN, to study human mind and its behavior, invoking medical and economic reasons. Do you think that it will be ever possible for humans to control the use of their technological products, will there be any effective way to impede the use of Science as a weapon? Alexander Dugin: The science has always served as a powerful weapon and human “brains” has been under constant scrutiny beginning from the first Greek philosophers. I think that the USA works simultaneously in many directions – from “hard power” (including new types of the so called “smart defense” and “network warfare”) up to different kinds of “soft power” (informational and psychological wars and so on). We can not impede such a process by peaceful means. The war is in human nature as well as hankering after knowledge. We are to follow the path of self-destruction up to the end. But instead of accepting this process as the fate we must rise against the status quo, hegemony, USA, global domination, materialism and capitalism. Science is the techne (τέχνη) in Heideggerrian sense. In order to go out of its control we should change the regime of our existence, we need to exist authentically. Heidegger calls it the Event (Er-eignis). Politically it could be called the Global Revolution. It is a spiritual exploit, not technical one. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: In the 5th century BC, Man created the miracle of the City of Athens beginning a struggle against Money. It seems like Money takes revenge these days from Man. How do you see such a reading of what is happening in Europe? Where can Man look for salvation? Alexander Dugin: Exactly! This reading is the one I share. Money is the matter and the principle of division. The digitalization of Money is one more step towards their real nature. Plotinus called the matter “the being of no-being” and “the truth of the lie”. Or elsewhere “the phantasm of the mass”. So the order of Money is the extreme form of degradation, dehumanization and global hallucination. It is the most unjust and corrupted form of existence. Money is the limit of decay and degradation. It is not just an instrument; it is the metaphysical evil itself. So the civilization that put itself under the power of Money will perish as Atlantis did. But I am persuaded that the struggle of Man against Money, of authentic Dasein against the Gestell and techne, of the Athenian order of things against the atlantic seduction has not finished yet. Not in Greece nor in the other parts of the world. Speaking neoplatonicly: we are in the extreme phase of progress (πρόοδος), where the noetic Principle reaches the material periphery. The modern world is profoundly stupid and banal. It is the material world, the world of Money, the kingdom of evil and apostasy, the Antichrist. But that is the last call to switch the regime of existence. It is the time of epistrophe (επιστροφή), the Great Turn (Kehre) and the Event (Er-eignis), the time of Other Beginning (AndereAnfang). The first beginning, the beginning of philosophy as the destiny of Man, happened in Greece. Let’s repeat it ones more. Repeat for the sake of Man and against the order of Money. Dimitris Konstantakopoulos Dimitris Konstantakopoulos is a Greek journalist and writer, specializing in international politics. He has studied Physics in the University of Athens and he has got a DEA on Information Process from the University of Rennes, in France. Among other posts, he served as a special advisor in the Office of Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, specializing in East-West relations and Arms Control. He was chief correspondent for Athens News Agency in Moscow (where he represented also various other Greek and German media) from 1989 to 1999. He has traveled extensively covering crises in ex-USSR, Cyprus, Western Europe and the Middle East. He is the writer of one book on relations between Greek and Soviet Communist Parties and of two books on the Cyprus issue, the first focusing on the role of Cyprus in the US strategies towards Europe and the Middle East, the second on the relations between Nation and the Left. He is a member of the editorial committee of the international review “Utopie Critique” and of the scientific council of the French review “La Pansee Libre”. He had various political activities, among them he was elected and served as the Secretary of the Movement of Independent Citizens “Spark”(«Искра») created by resistant fighter and worldwide known music composer Mikis Theodorakis.
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Boutilette relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 1 more person named Boutilette in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 11 people named Boutilette in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 9% more people named Boutilette in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 12 people named Boutilette were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • On average men worked 43 hours a week • The average annual income was $1,158 • 4 were children Learn where they came from and where they went. As Boutilette families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • 7 migrated within the United States from 1935 to 1940 • 27% were first-generation Americans • 3 were first-generation Americans • They most commonly lived in Massachusetts
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Goursan relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 4 less people named Goursan in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 10 people named Goursan in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 40% less people named Goursan in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 6 people named Goursan were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • 50% of women had paying jobs • 67% were children • 1 woman had paying job • The youngest was 6 and the oldest was 52 Learn where they came from and where they went. As Goursan families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • 60% were first-generation Americans • Most immigrants originated from France • 6 were first-generation Americans • 30% were born in foreign countries
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Jackue relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were the same number of people named Jackue in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 7 people named Jackue in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 0% more people named Jackue in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 7 people named Jackue were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • 14% were children • 7 rented out rooms to boarders • 67% of women had paying jobs • 2 women had paying jobs Learn where they came from and where they went. As Jackue families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • They most commonly lived in Ohio • 57% were first-generation Americans • 2 were born in foreign countries • 29% were born in foreign countries
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Lagen relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 119 more people named Lagen in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 76 people named Lagen in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 157% more people named Lagen in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 195 people named Lagen were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • The average annual income was $906 • 46 adults were unmarried • 184 rented out rooms to boarders • 5% were disabled Learn where they came from and where they went. As Lagen families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • 22% were born in foreign countries • The most common mother tongue was German • 12% migrated within the United States from 1935 to 1940 • Most immigrants originated from United States
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Lastick relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 11 less people named Lastick in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 20 people named Lastick in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 55% less people named Lastick in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 9 people named Lastick were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • 2 owned their homes, valued on average at $4,750 • 22% were children • The youngest was 11 and the oldest was 65 • The typical household was 3 people Learn where they came from and where they went. As Lastick families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • 7 were born in foreign countries • They most commonly lived in Pennsylvania • 65% were first-generation Americans • Most immigrants originated from Poland
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Loutsis relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 12 more people named Loutsis in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 13 people named Loutsis in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 92% more people named Loutsis in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 25 people named Loutsis were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • The average annual income was $740 • 36% of women had paying jobs • 44% of adults were unmarried • The youngest was 3 and the oldest was 63 Learn where they came from and where they went. As Loutsis families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • 46% were born in foreign countries • 7 were first-generation Americans • The most common mother tongue was Greek • 54% were first-generation Americans
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Mcinelly relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 9 more people named Mcinelly in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 59 people named Mcinelly in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 15% more people named Mcinelly in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 68 people named Mcinelly were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • 32 were children • On average men worked 47 hours a week • The typical household was 2 people Learn where they came from and where they went. As Mcinelly families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • 3 were born in foreign countries • 5% were born in foreign countries • They most commonly lived in Idaho • 16% migrated within the United States from 1935 to 1940
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Naresky relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 4 less people named Naresky in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 11 people named Naresky in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 36% less people named Naresky in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 7 people named Naresky were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • 43% were children • On average men worked 38 hours a week • Although 29% were female, the most common name for males was Anthony • 3 were children Learn where they came from and where they went. As Naresky families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • They most commonly lived in Pennsylvania • 6 were first-generation Americans • 3 were born in foreign countries • 55% were first-generation Americans
You've got family at Ancestry. Find more Selzner relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 3 more people named Selzner in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you. Start a tree and connect with your family. Create, build, and explore your family tree. What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 8 people named Selzner in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 38% more people named Selzner in the United States. What was life like for them? Picture the past for your ancestors. In 1940, 11 people named Selzner were living in the United States. In a snapshot: • 18% were children • On average men worked 35 hours a week • The typical household was 3 people • 11 rented out rooms to boarders Learn where they came from and where they went. As Selzner families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map: • They most commonly lived in New York • 6 were first-generation Americans • Most immigrants originated from Hungary • 2 were born in foreign countries
Corinth today In 1858, the old city of Corinth (now known as Αρχαία Κόρινθος / Ancient Corinth; a town 3km/2mi SW of the modern city) was totally destroyed by an earthquake. The new city of Corinth was founded on the coast of the Gulf of Corinth. Corinth is the second largest city in the periphery of Peloponnese after Kalamata (53,659 inh. in 2001). In the census of 1991 the city had a population of 28,071 while latest data 2001 showed an increase of 2,363 inhabitants (+8,4%) to 30,434. It should be noted the fact that between the census of 1981 and that of 1991 the city had one of the fastest increasing populations in the country. The Municipality of Corinth or Dimos Korinthion had a population of 36,991 in 2001. The municipality includes the town of Ancient Corinth (1,770 inh.), where the ancient and the medieval city used to be built at the foothills of the rock of Acrocorinth 3km from the new city centre, the town of Examilia (1,547 inh.), and the smaller settlements of Xylokeriza (777 inh.) and Solomos (686 inh.). The Corinth Canal, carrying ship traffic between the western Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, is about 4 km east of the city, cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth. A city square is located next to its port. The port operates north of the square, and serves the local needs of industry and agriculture. It is mainly a cargo exporting facility. The town centre is home to some surprisingly glamorous shops and bars for a relatively small town, as well as high quality local leather and jewellery outlets. Corinth is a major industrial hub at a national level. Copper cables, petroleum products, medical equipment, marble, gypsum, ceramic tiles, salt, mineral water & beverages, meat products, and gums are produced nearby. Currently (2005) a period of de-industrialization has commenced as a large pipework complex, a textile factory and a meat packing facility disrupted their operations. A large oil-refinery complex is situated about 12 km northeast of the city, which some think is the line marking the Athens metro area. The complex is amongst the largest in the eastern Mediterranean. It is surrounded by Greece Interstate 8A and a 3+1 lanes per direction freeway. A modern rest area with restaurants and gas stations is located nearby on the freeway. The city is the terminal point of a newly-built ultra-modern electric railway line (Proastiakos) to the Athens metropolitan area. Expectations for further economic and residential expansion are significant due to this new development. The city is also a major road hub being the entry point to the Peloponnesian peninsula, the southernmost area of continental Greece. Port of Corinth The Port of Corinth is situated close to the northwest entrance of the Corinth Canal, at 37 56.0’ N / 22 56.0’ E (Local Time: [GMT +2]). It is an artificial harbour (depth app. 9 metres/27 feet), protected by a concrete mole (length app. 930 metres, width 100 metres, mole surface 93,000 m2) in front of the town of Corinth. A new pier finished in the late 1980s doubled the capacity of the port. The reinforced mole protects anchored vessels from strong northern winds. The port facilities are well protected around their perimeter by high iron fences. Within the port a customs office facility and a Hellenic Coast Guard post operate 24/7. Sea traffic is limited to trade in the export of local produce, mainly citrus fruits, grapes, marbles, aggregates and some (less) domestic imports. The Port of Corinth operates as a contingency facility for general cargo ships, bulk carriers and ROROs, in case of strikes at Piraeus port. There is a ferry line (RORO) connecting Corinth to Italy. © 2016 www.ancientcorinth.net - Web Design, Hosting & Development eDesigner
My Puzzles Report bug Collected Puzzles User listed puzzles Random Puzzle Log In/Out Chemistry Crossword Puzzle Steven Tu No description henryslaw a special type of dipole-dipole force that exists between an electronegative atom. suspension F and C are... miscible can be dissolved. molarity properties of solutions that depend on the number of particles in a given volume of solvent. vaporpressure a balance between those two opposite reactions. nonelectrolyte the measure of how much exposed area an object has. freezingpointdepression polar compounds will only dissolve in... hydrogenbonding a substance whose molecules in solution do not dissociate to ions and thus do not conduct an electric current. dilutesolution absorbing moisture. hygroscopic a diamond is made with great... surfacearea to convert or change into a vapor. brownianmotion same uniform appearance and composition. surfactant containing more solute then it could hold. boilingpointelevation the pressure exerted by the molecules of vapor. soluble the maximum amount of solute dissolved in a solvent at equilibrium. liquid capable of being mixed. unsaturated fluid matter having no fixed shape, but a fixed volume. solution a solution in water. temperatures another name for homogenous mixture. supersaturatedsolution freezing point of 0c and boiling point of 100c. dynamicequilibrium oil and water is... solute he visible path of light produced by the scattering action of the particles in a colloidal solution on a beam of light passed through it. insoluble e(p)=e(kc) percentsolution relative capability of being dissolved. water the freezing point of a liquid(a solvent) is depressed when another compound is added. evaporation having the power to dissolve still more of a substance. pressure a process of to stir. waterofhydration cannot be dissolved. tyndalleffect the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas. colligativeproperties the particulate matter so dispersed. stirring A solution that contains a small amount of solute relative to the amount that could dissolve. polarsolution the molar concentration of a solution. surfacetension water chemically combined with a substance in such a way that it can be removed, as by heating, without substantially changing. saturatedsolubility a way to express the mixture of a soluble chemical completely dissolved in water. aqueoussolution the substance dissolved in a given solution. homogenousmixture The elasticlike force existing in the surface of a liquid. colloid having the power of dissolving; causing solution. Web armoredpenguin.com Copyright information Privacy information Contact us Blog
Thursday, July 8, 2010 currants, the gem of the edible landscape Your experience with currants may be those shriveled little black things in the scone you buy at your neighborhood coffee shop, or in preserves so laden with sugar that you can't even discern the flavor of the currant. But have you ever plucked a string of ruby-red berries off the bush and tasted the tangy-sweet juiciness of a perfectly ripe currant. Let me just tell is like sunshine in your mouth! A 'Red Lake' Currant was planted in the 2009 edible landscape, but since it was still too young, we didn't get any fruit last year. The plant was moved early this year to the new edible landscape, and though I wasn't sure of it's fate after the move, it proved to be resilient. The plant produced an abundance of these juicy gems. The currant (and its cousin, the gooseberry) are great additions to the edible landscape. The currant especially, for two reasons I can think of right off the top of my head. One, the currant isn't quite as vigorous as the gooseberry, and while it requires regular pruning, will not become a scary thicket of prickly canes like it's more rugged relative. Second, come mid-June brilliant strands of glistening red berries will begin peeking out from within the dark green foliage. You'll have trouble resisting picking them too early - they're almost impossible to resist. But once you taste an unripe currant you'll understand the value of patience. Best to wait until they are deep red and look like they're about to burst. Then the sweet-tart, juicy explosion of each little berry will have you feverishly plucking the tiny gems from their stems. Oh, and I thought of a third! Currants are quite hardy in zones 4 and 3, and some cultivars are hardy to zone 2. Yay for Minnesotans! Another fruit we can successfully grow! Three species of currant run the range of color from red-pink-yellow-white. These are Ribes rubrum, R. sativum and R. petraeum. The black currant (Ribes nigrum) has not been widely grown in the US due to it's susceptibility to White Pine Blister Rust. However, some cultivars have been bred with rust resistance. The red and white species tend to have more resistance. There's some great info out there if you're interested in adding currants to your edible landscape. The U of M Fruit website has a nice fact sheet to get you started, and has a long list of available cultivars. When looking for plants, I always check locally first, then check online if there's a cultivar I can't find here. There are several nurseries that carry many interesting cultivars. Just do a search for the cultivar name and 'nursery' to find a source.
Star Constellation Facts: Eridanus Star Facts: Achernar Eridanus photographed above Sinai seashore in northeast Egypt by Stephan Seip Eridanus, like the river it depicts, is a long winding constellation that starts in the northern sky near Rigel in Orion, before eventually winding its way far south close to Hydrus. It is the 6th largest of the 88 constellations, taking up an area of 1,138 square degrees of the night sky, and is a southern hemisphere constellation visible for observers situated between latitudes +32° and -90°. The “Celestial River”, as Eridanus is known, has represented many different rivers to various civilizations over the centuries. In early times, Eridanus is believed to have depicted the river Tigris or Euphrates, while to others it was seen as the Nile. By Greek and Roman times, the constellation referred to the river Po (“Eridanos” in Greek), Italy’s longest river which runs 405 miles (652 km) from northwestern Italy to the Adriatic Sea on the east. Similarly, in classical Sanskrit, the constellation was known as Srotaswini, which roughly translates into “stream,” “current,” or even “torrent.” Heavenly Waters Family of Constellations Notable Stars The constellation Eridanus contains no Messier objects, but it does have some notable stars and deep sky objects, among which is Achernar (9th most luminous stars in the sky), seven known stars with planets, and the mysterious Eridanus Supervoid, an empty region of space that defies explanation. Star Constellation Facts: Eridanus– Achernar (Alpha Eridani), located about 139 light years away, is the most luminous star in the constellation, and the ninth most luminous in the entire sky (0.445 mag). Classed as B6 Vep, Alpha Eridani is about eight times as massive as the Sun, but it is a spectacular 1,350 times as luminous. It is also one component of a binary system, the other companion star being twice as massive as the Sun, and having an orbital period of about 15 years, and a separation of only about 12.3 astronomical units (AU). The name Achernar derives from the Arabic akhir an-nahr, which translates into “End of the River”, and is best time seen during November in the southern hemisphere. It never rises above 33 degrees north of the horizon, and never sets below 33 degrees south of the horizon, which means that far northern observers may never see it. – Cursa (Beta Eridani), located about 89 light years away, is the second most luminous star in the constellation, and has an average apparent magnitude of 2.796, although being a variable star its magnitude varies between 2.72 and 2.80. Classed as a A3 III star, Beta Eridani is orbited by a visual companion with an apparent magnitude of 10.90. Beta Eridani also has a high spin rate, with an estimated rotation of at least 196 km/second. The name, Cursa, derives from the Arabic Al Kursiyy al Jauzah, which roughly translates into “the chair of the central one,” that is taken to refer to a star association that among others, include Lambda Eridani, Psi Eridani, and Tau Orionis in Orion. – Acamar (Theta Eridani), located about 161 light years away, and with a magnitude of 3.2, is a binary system consisting of an A4 star that is orbited by a A1 star. The name, Acamar derives from the Arabic Akhir an-nahr, which means “the end of the River”, but since Achernar is not visible from Greece, both Ptolemy and Hipparchus chose Acamar to denote the termination of Eridanus, the River in the Heavens. Notable Deep Sky Objects Eridanus Supervoid (CBM Cold Spot/WMAP Cold Spot), supervoids are huge regions in space that are completely devoid of galaxies, and while several others are known, the Eridanus Supervoid stretching over about a one billion light years makes it the biggest yet discovered. Since the cosmic microwave background radiation is relatively uniform, with only very slight variations in temperature, the void was exposed by linking the discovery of a huge cold spot with the observed absence of radio galaxies. At present, there are no explanations as to how such a huge area of space could be empty, but some investigators are inclining to the controversial idea that the area represents a type of “quantum entanglement” between our Universe and another, neighboring universe. Eridanus Group (Eridanus Cloud); also known as the Eridanus Cloud, this major grouping of around 200 galaxies is about 75 million light years away. Of the group, about 70% are spiral and irregular galaxies, while the remaining 30% are either irregular, or lenticular (lens shaped) galaxies. However, the Eridanus Cloud is a much larger structure that consists of several sub-groups, of which the Eridanus Group is but one, with only 31 galaxies. Nine of the 31 members are listed in the NGC, while two others are listed in the IC, or Index catalogue. The most luminous member of the Eridanus Group is NGC 1395, a large elliptical galaxy. Two other prominent members of the Eridanus Group are the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1407, and spiral galaxy NGC 1332, both of which are surrounded by smaller sub-groups within the Eridanus Group. Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118); with an apparent visual magnitude of 13, and about 1,000 light years away, the Witch Head Nebula is an exceedingly faint reflection nebula that is assumed to be associated with the star Rigel, in the neighboring constellation of Orion. It is also suspected that the nebula is the remains of a very old supernova, but there is no certainty on either notion. NGC 1187; while Eridanus contains several prominent galaxies, the 11.4 magnitude spiral galaxy NGC 1187 is the location of two recently observed supernovas. The first, SN 1982R, was discovered in October of 1982, and he second, SN 2007Y, during 2007.
Probable Cause #42: Racing Weather • E-Mail this Article • View Printable Article • Text size: • A • A • A This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, August 2005. Probable Cause Pilots are a curious bunch. Arguably the result of concentrated, lengthy training in everything from reading and understanding aviation regulations, manipulating an aircraft's controls, and obtaining and understanding weather reports and forecasts, we still find ways to bend sheet metal and injure people. Yes, every now and then, some pilot or another finds a new and inventive way to file an accident report but, most of the time, the latest accident is simply a variation on a theme. Amazingly, and despite the fact that our training proves we are capable of learning something new and different, it seems the granting of a pilot certificate is often interpreted as a license to forget what we've learned and invent a new set of rules. For example, even though a great deal of our training is spent learning about weather, pilots still manage to have weather-related accidents. In its 2004 report on general aviation accidents and trends, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation noted, "The top trouble spots remain: too many takeoff and landing accidents due to poor skill, and too many fatal maneuvering flight accidents due to lack of either skill or judgment. Weather accidents, particularly pilots attempting to maintain VFR into instrument meteorological conditions, still occupy a significant portion of the fatalities. Time after time, post-accident analysis shows that had the pilot diverted to an alternate or changed course even a few minutes earlier, it would have made a huge difference." Piper Seneca That summary certainly applies to the accident that occurred on August 2, 2003, at about 1500 Eastern time, when a Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II was destroyed after colliding with trees and terrain while maneuvering near Galion, Ohio. The 1300-hour Commercial pilot/owner and a passenger were fatally injured while two other passengers sustained serious injuries. The flight originated at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport in Akron, Ohio, destined for the Galion Municipal Airport (GQQ), in Galion, Ohio. At 1210, the pilot's weather briefing included information that the air mass along the route of flight was unstable, and cumulous clouds were starting to appear on satellite imagery. The "potential" for thunderstorm activity existed and could occur at any time, anywhere and be any size, according to the briefing. The weather briefer told the pilot that if he left in the next hour, he should not run into any weather problems, but should obtain another weather briefing prior to departing Galion. No AIRMETS were issued, but the Area Forecast reported a threat of scattered rain showers and thunderstorms after 1300. The briefing ended at 1216. The pilot departed at 1411, approximately two hours after the weather briefing, and proceeded to the destination VFR with flight following. At 1447, as the airplane approached the Galion, Ohio, area, the pilot asked an air traffic controller where the airport was located. The controller responded that he was directly over the airport. There was no further communication with the pilot. Subsequently, the pilot's wife, who was seated in the front right seat, said they did not encounter any weather until they reached the Galion Airport, and it was raining so hard that they could only see out the airplane's side windows. The sound of the rain on the windshield was so loud that they could barely hear ATC. Her husband had tried to land, but he couldn't see, and added power to get out of the weather. After adding power, he repeatedly said, "It won't climb ... It won't climb." A witness, a CFI with over 17,000 hours of flight experience, landed at the Galion Airport at 1420. Upon landing, he called a waiting student and cancelled the flight due to the "threatening weather approaching from the west." At about 1440, the witness saw the airplane fly over the airport approximately 600 feet above the ground, with the landing gear down and flaps extended, and enter the downwind leg for Runway 5. At that time, it was raining moderately, and there was frequent lightning and wind. The witness and his student elected to run for their cars. The witness then observed the accident airplane about 25-50 feet above the runway centerline, about halfway down the runway, climbing. The landing gear was down, and "some" flaps were extended. The witness then watched the airplane disappear into heavy rain. The weather then intensified; it began to hail, with extremely heavy rain, and winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour. The witness thought "he might be getting close to a tornado." The witness never saw the airplane again. At about 1600, the pilot's wife knocked on the door of a nearby residence, saying she had been involved in an airplane accident. The airplane's wreckage was about 300 feet from the residence. Examination of weather radar data revealed level 5 thunderstorm activity was located over the Galion Airport at the time of the accident. Galion (Ohio) Airport All major aircraft components were accounted for at the accident site. The initial impact point was in a stand of 25- to 30-foot-tall trees located about 1360 feet from the runway and about 700 feet right of centerline. The wreckage was scattered for about 220 feet, along a heading of 130 degrees magnetic from the initial impact point. Flight control continuity was established to all control surfaces; however, all the cables were separated, exhibiting "broomstraw" ends, consistent with overload. The manual flap handle was found extended, and locked in the 25-degree detent position. The accident report did not note the landing gear's position, whether it was extended or retracted. Both propeller controls, both mixture controls and the right throttle control were found in the full forward position. The left throttle control was found about 1-inch aft. No evidence was found indicating pre-impact problems with the aircraft, including an engine failure, structural failure or fuel exhaustion/starvation. Probable Cause The NTSB determined the probable cause of this accident to be "The pilot's improper in-flight decision-making and flight into known adverse weather conditions while maneuvering to land. Also causal was the pilot's failure to regard the pre-flight weather briefing. Factors were the thunderstorm, rain, wind gusts and hail." Thunderstorms are, perhaps, the most dangerous weather with which a pilot can contend no matter what type of aircraft he's flying. In addition to the wind, rain and hail noted by the NTSB, they can generate turbulence, lightning and microbursts, which are described in detail in the sidebar at right. Microbursts are particularly dangerous during takeoff and landing operations, when an aircraft is, by definition, close to the ground. During these operational phases, an aircraft lacks the speed/energy to overcome downdrafts or sudden windshears. No evidence exists that this accident resulted from a microburst. However, and presuming the pilot was attempting to execute a maximum performance go-around maneuver at the time of the accident, a microburst preventing the aircraft from climbing is consistent with the weather information available. Still, by attempting to "beat" the thunderstorm to the airport, the pilot succumbed to one of general aviation's nagging safety problems: pilots' failure to respect adverse weather and place too much faith in their skills and in the airplane's performance capabilities.
Are You Familiar with the Key Vocabulary of Big Data? Big Data is no longer a new phenomenon in the business world. It has established itself as an essential tool to test, track and analyse datasets of unprecedented scale in order to obtain breakthrough results. As such, a large number of people are taking keen interest in various aspects of Big Data and are trying to explore its potential in new business fields. However, Big Data is a huge field that involves a lot of technologies. There are many among us who are not fully aware of the vocabulary generally associated with Big Data. Crowned Crane. Photographer MD Ramaswami Crowned Crane. Photographer MD Ramaswami Given below are some of the key terms that are important to understand the phenomenon of Big Data: Algorithm: A mathematical formula based on which one or more software carries out analysis on a set of data. An algorithm may consist of multi-step calculations that can be used to process data in an automated manner Analytics: A procedure to collect, process and analyse data in order to obtain meaningful insights that can be helpful for decision-making Application: Software developed to perform a particular task or a group of tasks Behavioural Analytics: A process that utilizes data about people’s behaviour in order to recognize or comprehend their purpose and predict their future course of actions Biometrics: A process to use technology and analytics for the purpose of identification, extraction and analysis of data in order to identify people based on their physical traits. Biometrics generally involves face recognition, fingerprint recognition, etc. Business Intelligence (BI): A process that deals with identification, extraction and analysis of data in order to improve business decisions and optimize business performance Cloud: A term that refers to a network of remote servers that are hosted on the internet and are utilized to store, manage and process data Columnar Database: A database management system that stores data in columns instead of in rows and offers the advantage of faster hard disk access Content Management System (CMS): A computer application that is used to edit, modify, publish and maintain content on the Web from a central interface Crowdsourcing: A process that refers to the act of obtaining information or input by enlisting the services of a large number of people, generally through the internet Data Cleansing or Data Cleaning or Data Scrubbing: A process that involves reviewing and revising data in order to remove duplicate entries, rectify spelling mistakes, add missing data, remove inaccurate data and bring about more consistency in the data Data Aggregation: A term used to describe the act of gathering data from various sources and expressing in a summary form for the purpose of analysis. Data aggregation can be performed manually or through software Distributed File System (DFS): A data storage system that stores huge volumes of data across multiple storage devices in order to reduce the cost of data storage and to simplify the process Data Migration: A process to transfer data between storage types, formats, or computer systems Data Mining: A process that is used to inspect large databases with the intention to derive new information through data analysis Distributed Processing: The act of execution of a process or application across multiple computers connected by means of a computer network Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): A software system that can be used by an organisation to process and manage all its resources, information and business functions Event Analytics: A process involving a number of steps that are carried out in order to lead to an action Failover: A procedure through which a computer system automatically switches or transfers control to another computer system when it discovers a fault or failure Gamification: A process to utilize game elements in non-game contexts. In Big Data terms, gamification is a way to incentivize data collection. Grid Computing: The process of performing computer functions by collecting resources from a number of distributed systems. The systems that become part of a grid computing network can be of different designs and can be located in various geographical locations HANA: A software/hardware in-memory computing platform from SAP that can carry out high volume data transactions and analytics Hadoop: An open-source software developed by the Apache Software Foundation. It is a framework that allows storage and analysis of large data sets through the use of distributed hardware Hive: A data warehouse engine that allows querying. It is similar to SQL. In-database Analytics or In-database Processing: The process of integration of data analytics into data warehousing functionality Internet of Things: A term that describes the phenomenon in which everyday objects are connected through network and they possess the ability to send and receive data Kafka: An open-source message broker project developed by the Apache Software Foundation. It is designed to provide a unified platform for managing real-time data feeds. Latency: The delay that occurs between input into a system to desired outcome. Legacy System: An obsolete or out-dated application, computer system or technology that continues to remain in use because it performs a needed function in an adequate manner MapReduce: A process to break up an analysis into pieces in order to distribute them across multiple computers on the same network or across dissimilar and geographically separated systems (map), and then collecting the results to combine them into a report (reduce) Mashup: A process to combine various datasets within a single application with the objective to increase output Natural Language Processing (NLP): A software algorithm that enables computers to have better understanding of human languages to enhance human-computer interactions NoSQL: A database management system that allows for storage and retrieval of data that is modelled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases Online Analytical Processing (OLAP): A process to analyse various dimensions of multidimensional data Operational Data Store (ODS): A database that allows the storage of data from multiple sources in order to enable more operations to be performed on the data before it is sent to a data warehouse for reporting Pig: A data flow language and execution framework that allows parallel computation Predictive Analytics: A process of extracting information from existing data sets with the intention to determine trends or patterns in order to predict future events Query Analysis: A process to analyse a search query in order to optimize it for the best possible result R: An open source programming language and software environment used for statistical computing and analytics Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID): A technology used to transfer information about an object or item from one point to another through the use of wireless communications Software as a Service (SAAS): A software distribution model that allows applications to be hosted and made available to customers over a network, generally the internet Storm: An open-source computation system that allows the processing of multiple data streams in real time Transactional Data: Data that change in an unpredictable manner Unstructured Data: Data that has no identifiable structure or is not organized in a pre-defined manner Variable Pricing: A pricing strategy to change prices based on supply and demand through real-time monitoring of consumption and supply Latest Columns BPO August 2010 News TN promoting rural BPOs As part of its policy to take the IT sector to rural areas, Tamil Nadu government is holding talks with various companies and colleges for setting up of Rural business process outsourcing centres.The government recently unveiled its ambitious rural business process outsourcing Policy, unveiling an incentive-based approach to encourage establishment of […] The changing face of the outsourcing industry in India Speak Your Mind
Located in northeastern Italy, the Dolomites have been called the most beautiful mountains on Earth, and certainly they are among the most dramatic. They offer some of the best alpine thrills in Europe, whether you want to stay firmly planted on the ground or soar high above the valley floor. While no secret to the Italians, many Americans aren't aware of these remarkable peaks. The mountains differ from the rest of the Alps because of their dominant rock type, dolomite, which forms sheer vertical walls of white, gray and pink rising abruptly from green valleys and meadows. It's here you'll find Europe's largest alpine meadow, Alpe di Siusi. The huge meadow - 3 miles long by 7 miles wide - seems to float at 6,000 feet. It's dotted by farm huts and wildflowers, surrounded by soaring peaks and crisscrossed by meadow trails - ideal for flower lovers, walkers and equestrians. For a good home base, try the nearby village of Castelrotto, which offers accommodations and restaurants with Tirolean flair. Many chairlifts Because the Alpe di Siusi is a popular winter destination for skiers, chairlifts are everywhere, providing springboards for dramatic summer hikes or bike rides. Mountain bikes are easy to rent, welcome on many lifts, and permitted on the meadow's country lanes. While the Dolomites are peaceful now, during World War I the front line between the Italian and Austrian forces ran through these mountains, and many paths were cut into the range for military use. Today mountaineers can follow a network of metal rungs, cables and ladders - what Italians call aviaferrata. One famous wartime trail is the Stradadelle Gallerie (Road of Tunnels), which passes through 52 tunnels. Those battles are part of a hard-fought history that has left the region bicultural and bilingual. For many centuries it was part of Austria. But after its World War I defeat, Austria lost this land, and Sudtirol became Alto Adige. Many locals still feel a closer bond with their Germanic ancestors than with their Italian countrymen. Most have a working knowledge of Italian, but they watch German-language TV, read newspapers auf Deutsch and live in Tirolean-looking villages. Overall, 7 in 10 Italians living in the South Tirol speak German as their mother tongue. The main city of the region - Bolzano (or "Bozen" to its German-speaking residents) - exemplifies this split personality: If it weren't so sunny, you could be in Innsbruck. This arcaded old town of 100,000 is worth a Tirolean stroll. The main square, Piazza Walther, is the town's living room. It was the site of Italy's first McDonald's, which - in the early 1990s - became the first McDonald's to be shut down by locals protesting American fast food. 'Ice Man' Bolzano's top attraction is a 5,300-year-old man named Otzi. This frozen "Ice Man" was discovered high in the mountains on the Italian-Austrian border in 1991. Police initially believed the corpse was a lost hiker, and Otzi was chopped roughly out of the glacier, damaging his left side. But upon discovering his copper-bladed hatchet, officials realized they had found a nearly perfectly preserved Stone Age hunter. Later, researchers pinned down the cause of his death - an arrowhead buried in Otzi's left shoulder that led to uncontrollable bleeding and a quick end. As the body was found right on the border, Austria and Italy squabbled briefly over who would get him. Tooth enamel studies have now shown that he did grow up on the Italian side, so it's only fair that Bolzano's South Tirol Museum of Archaeology is Otzi's final resting place ( www.iceman.it). With Otzi as the centerpiece, the museum takes you on an intriguing journey through time, recounting the evolution of humanity - from the Paleolithic era to the Roman period and finally to the Middle Ages. The exhibit offers informative displays and models, video demonstrations of Otzi's extraction, and his personal effects. You'll see Otzi himself - still frozen - as well as an artist's reconstruction of what he looked like when alive. Also in Bolzano, you can take a quick, easy cable car ride over the countryside to the touristy resort village of Oberbozen, where Sigmund Freud and wife once celebrated their wedding anniversary. The reasonably priced, 12-minute ride offers views of the town, made-for-yodeling farmsteads and distant views of the Dolomites. But if you want to hike among real mountains, linger in the Alpe di Siusi instead. Despite all the ski resorts, the regional color survives here in a felt-hat-with-feathers way. Whether you experience the Dolomites with your hand on a walking stick, a ski pole or an aperitivo while mountain-gazing from a cafe, it's easy to enjoy this Germanic eddy in the whirlpool of Italy.
Forced Marriage Seen As Abuse of Human Rights London ( - As dozens of young women from Great Britain go through the horrors of abduction and forced marriage each year, the British government this month moved towards making it illegal. Declaring that the practice was a violation of universal human rights, officials said parents and clergy who participated in such arrangements face serious prison time. Currently, the Foreign Office says it deals with around 250 cases of forced marriage a year -- incidents where young British women are tricked into going abroad by their families and then compelled to marry strangers. In addition, campaigners against the practice said that many more cases went unreported in the United Kingdom itself, usually involving immigrants from India and Pakistan but sometimes from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Government officials stressed that they weren't acting against arranged marriages -- traditional arrangements freely entered into by both bride and groom -- but ones which involved threats and violence. "The defense of diversity is no reason to let abuse go unchallenged," said Baroness Patricia Scotland late last year. "Forced marriage is wrong and every major world religion condemns it. It is an abuse of human rights." As part of the consultation period leading up to the introduction of specific legislation, the government said it was considering prison sentences of up to five years for anyone who participated in a forced marriage. Though such acts can now be prosecuted as kidnapping and child cruelty offenses, ministers said making it an official crime would send a symbolic message. During the consultation period, which ended last month, groups such as the Church of England and various police associations have come out strongly for the proposed law. However, other campaigners said last week that it could possibly make the fight against forced marriage more, rather than less, difficult. Melanie McCarry, a professor at the University of Bristol who's long studied the phenomenon, said that many young women would be reluctant to testify against their parents or send them to jail. "It doesn't make sense because it's asking people to help prosecute their mothers and fathers," McCarry said. "It's not something that many young people would want to do." In the past few years, she said the government has made commendable efforts in trying to eradicate the problem -- both through community outreach efforts and the creation of a dedicated unit in the Foreign Office. McCarry said continuing education efforts are the best solution in the long term -- particularly when dealing with cases that involved emotional pressure and not physical abuse. "When does coercion become force?" she asked. "When does it happen that you're doing something to please your family?" Huma Awan, a researcher for the Council of British Pakistanis in Edinburgh, said that ignorance of the current law often prevented outsiders from helping the victims of forced marriage. "A lot of the times police won't know what they do," Awan said. "And often teachers and nurses don't feel they have the remit to interfere in these cases." In general, she said that women involved in forced marriages are often much younger than those in arranged marriages, and are much more isolated from the mainstream community. In the more than 300 cases of forced marriage she's seen, she said that many immigrant parents acted because they wanted to preserve their cultural identity. Ironically, though, they only succeeded in driving their daughters away from their family and towards western values. Subscribe to the free daily E-Brief. Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Exploring Nice Ride job accessibility and station choice Although bike share systems are becoming more popular across the United States, little is known about how people make decisions when integrating these systems into their daily travel. For example, when more than one bike share station is located nearby, how do users choose where to begin their trip, and what factors affect their decision? In a study funded by CTS, researchers from the U of M’s civil engineering department sought to answer this question by investigating how people use the Nice Ride bike share system in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Professor David Levinson and graduate student Jessica Schoner examined how Nice Ride affects accessibility to jobs and developed a model to predict station choice. In the first part of the study, the researchers created maps showing accessibility to jobs by census block for both Nice Ride and walking—as well as the difference between the two—at time thresholds ranging from 5 to 55 minutes. At lower thresholds, fewer census blocks have job accessibility via Nice Ride because of the time it takes for a person to walk to the Nice Ride station. However, at higher time thresholds, Nice Ride provides an improvement over walking. Overall, in blocks with both Nice Ride and walking job accessibility, Nice Ride provides access to 0.5 to 3.21 times as many jobs as walking. “This type of information can be used by bike share system planners to identify where new stations could be built to maximize their impact on job accessibility,” Schoner says. “They could also look at accessibility to other destinations, like parks, grocery stores, or tourist attractions, depending on the goals of their system.” Findings show that people generally prefer to use stations that don’t require long detours to reach, but a station’s surroundings also play an important role. For example, stations located near a park and in neighborhoods with lower crime rates were more likely to be chosen as the starting point of a bike share trip. Results also show that commuters value shorter trips and tend to choose stations that minimize overall travel time, while users making non-work-related trips choose stations that allow them to spend more of their time biking, even if the total travel time is longer. Understanding people’s station preference can help provide guidance to planners for bike share system expansion, densification, and optimization, Schoner says. “For instance, even though spacing stations along a route would allow people to walk in the direction of their destination to pick up a bike, people’s strong preference to spend more time biking indicates that clustering stations near where they are starting and ending their trips might make more sense,” Schoner says.
Channels ▼ Timing Out XMLHttpRequest Calls in IE8 The XMLHttpRequest (XHR) object is at the foundation of AJAX and a native object in nearly all Web browsers available today. The programming interface of the object is largely based on the first released example of it, which dates back to 1999 when Microsoft released it as an ActiveX control bundled with Internet Explorer 5. XMLHttpRequest is a de-facto standard, though. A standard specification is still in the works at W3C and the latest working draft was released about one year ago, in the Spring of 2008. Two key features are not currently comprised in the standard being developed at W3C-- cross-site calls and timeout. Both of them are being discussed a lot and will probably make the way into the official standard pretty soon. In Internet Explorer 8, both of these features find full support. In particular, client-side cross-site calls happen through a new object built from the ground up to make it secure and easy. The object is named XDomainRequest. As far as the timeout of plain XHR requests is concerned, Internet Explorer 8 also comes to help with a new property -- the timeout property. Support for timeout during client-side Web calls is so important that it is frankly surprising that only Internet Explorer 8 provides a native support for it. With the timeout property you can specify for how long (in milliseconds) the client has to wait for a response to come before aborting the connection. This simple feature is beneficial in a number of ways and it is especially helpful in relation to the limited number of connections that can exist between the browser and the server. Before Internet Explorer (and Firefox 3) the number of concurrent connections was limited to 2, increased to 6 now. The ability to set a timeout enables the browser to reuse connections more quickly and often. The browser doesn't have to wait for a dead connection but can reuse it after a specified number of milliseconds. In Internet Explorer 8, you use the timeout property as shown below: xhr.timeout = 5000; The timeout property defaults to 0, meaning that no timeout applies to the request unless you explicitly set it. The timeout property is read/write and affects only the instance of the XHR object it is defined on. It is recommended that you choose the timeout value carefully and opt for a value longer than the ideal maximum response time to make up for unexpected latency. When a request times out, the response is null and this is fully reflected by response properties on XHR such as responseText. When the request times out, an event is fired to the JavaScript environment for you to handle and instruct the client code on what to do. The event is ontimeout and it is demonstrated below. xhr.timeout = 5000; xhr.ontimeout = onRequestTimeout; xhr.send( ... ); The timeout callback doesn't get any parameter and it is a mere notification. It is worth mentioning again that the timeout property is not referred to any standard and is currently only offered by Internet Explorer 8. Is this really a problem? Well, not exactly. Most of the JavaScript code used in Web sites today is based on client-side libraries such as jQuery and Microsoft AJAX Library. Both libraries fully support timeout in their respective wrappers for the XHR object. The timeout property in Internet Explorer 8 just makes it easier for libraries to implement the feature in future releases. It is a breaking change for developers only if developers are coding AJAX directly against the XHR object -- a not-so-common scenario these day. Related Reading More Insights Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments: Single tags <br> Defines a single line break <hr> Defines a horizontal line Matching tags <a> Defines an anchor <b> Defines bold text <big> Defines big text <blockquote> Defines a long quotation <caption> Defines a table caption <cite> Defines a citation <code> Defines computer code text <em> Defines emphasized text <fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form <h1> This is heading 1 <h2> This is heading 2 <h3> This is heading 3 <h4> This is heading 4 <h5> This is heading 5 <h6> This is heading 6 <i> Defines italic text <p> Defines a paragraph <pre> Defines preformatted text <q> Defines a short quotation <samp> Defines sample computer code text <small> Defines small text <span> Defines a section in a document <s> Defines strikethrough text <strike> Defines strikethrough text <strong> Defines strong text <sub> Defines subscripted text <sup> Defines superscripted text <u> Defines underlined text
Yi Cui might just change the world. Last month the Stanford University professor of material science and his 50 strong team of researchers published a paper on the biggest battery breakthrough in decades – a self proclaimed ‘Holy Grail’. Now I speak to Cui to discover the real world practicalities behind what is potentially one of the most exciting scientific breakthroughs of recent times. “It’s all about stabilizing lithium,” explains Cui, with understandable excitement in his voice. “When today’s Lithium Ion batteries are adapted to use lithium which remains stable in both the anode and electrolyte everything changes. The world can change.” Cui is a man who talks fast, directly and on the move. While we talk he is preparing papers and heading back to the lab. There is the inescapable sense of a man on a mission. Professor Yi Cui Professor Yi Cui And so there should be. Cui’s reference to ‘stabilizing lithium’ is a big deal. Lithium is a highly reactive substance, i.e., prone to overheating and catching fire. To avoid such nasty issues, today’s lithium ion batteries combine a lithium electrolyte (which conducts electricity through the movement of ions) with a silicon or graphite anode (which sends the electricity into a device). If battery makers were able to use lithium in the anode itself, battery capacity would more than quadruple, and this is exactly what Cui’s team has pulled off. “Our batteries have the same form factor as standard Lithium ion batteries,” says Cui. “From the outside they are identical to [the batteries we use today] the change is only on the inside.” This is key. Pure lithium-anode batteries could be inserted straight into a remote control, phone or electric car. “You could have a cell phone with triple the battery life or an electric car with a range of 300 miles which can compete with an internal combustion engine,” claims Cui. “It changes how everything can be used.” Read more: Battery Life 'Holy Grail' Discovered. Phones May Last 300% Longer Pure lithium anode batteries have been made before, just not with the same success. Until now the best lithium-anode batteries have carried a 96% ‘Coulombic efficiency’ rating which means they lose 4% of their capacity with every charge as the lithium anode eats away the lithium electrolyte. They die after 25 full charging cycles. Cui’s team has raised this efficiency to 99%, taking the charge cycles up to 100. Still, that's not enough for a commercial product. "The difference between 99 percent and 96 percent, in battery terms, is huge but the threshold for commercial viability is 99.9%,” says Cui. “While we're not quite to that 99.9% threshold, we're close.” Coulombic Rating Coulombic Rating How Cui and his researchers are solving this is by building ‘nanospheres’ – protective layers of interconnected carbon domes on top of the pure lithium anode. Lithium expands almost infinitely while charging, stretching out in wild hair-like structures which can warp, break or even cause the battery to explode. The nanospheres stem this. Each layer has a honeycomb structure which is flexible, uniform and non-reactive which both stops the lithium ions expanding too much and the anode reacting with the electrode and generating excess heat. Remarkably the nanosphere barrier in each battery is just 20 nanometers thick – 1/5,000th the width of a human hair. Effect of carbon nanospheres Effect of carbon nanospheres The pay-off in achieving this extra 0.9% is almost immeasurable because elsewhere there are virtually no downsides to this new battery structure. For starters Cui explains that pure lithium anode batteries charge just as fast as standard batteries, but given they have 3x the battery life in reality it is 3x as fast. Furthermore Cui says this is just the start: “Where we are headed now is to speed it up and signs are it should be able to charge faster. I can certainly see it becoming a lot faster.” Cost isn't a problem either. “At first there may be a small premium, but this type of tech will have a low cost pathway at least comparable to existing costs,” says Cui. The reason for the professor's confidence is pure Lithium anode batteries don’t use any new resources – there is still lithium and carbon just in slightly different quantities and both are commodity materials. Cui even says the costs for pure lithium anode batteries may be lower than standard batteries over time as their greater efficiency means they store more energy from less electricity. “From where I'm standing I can’t see price being an issue,” he concludes. Yi Cui Research Team at Stanford University Which leads to the biggest question on everyone's lips: when will these batteries be available? Cui is typically matter of fact: “Three years intense research and a commercial prototype in five years.” In the last 13 years Cui has picked up 16 scholastic honours. If he and his team manage to commercialise the ‘holy grail’ battery, he can expect many more and they won't only be academic. More on Forbes
Gliding and Motorgliding Magazine The online magazine community for glider pilots worlwide Home News Features Stories Shopping Gliding Photos IGC Editor - Val Brain Derek On Instructing By Derek Piggott Issue 8/2004 In this very worthwhile series Derek writes some more about spins and spiral dives and makes the observation "contrary to the advice given in some books on aerobatics, always keep the full opposite rudder on until the spin stops". There is much sound advice in this article so read on Although most unintentional stalls occur from flying too slowly, it is useful to show one or two very steep stalls with the nose up 60 to 70°. In this case, the complete wing stalls together and the nose drops into a steep dive. The glider then gains speed so quickly that it can be levelled out almost immediately with a remarkably small loss of height. This is an excellent opportunity to emphasise the total lack of control while the nose is dropping, which is often the only obvious symptom by which a stall can be recognised once it has happened. A similar situation can occur with a cable break during the full climb on a ground launch. Ground launch failures With winch and car launching the heavier and faster gliders, there have been many stall/spin accidents after launch failures. Usually following a cable break in the full climb, the nose of the glider is pulled up very steeply as the pull from the cable stops and the heavy cable falls away. By the time the pilot has realised what has happened and moves forward on the stick to get the nose down into the normal gliding attitude, the glider is at a very low speed, often well below the usual stalling speed. It may seem from the noise of the airflow that the speed has increased and that a full recovery has been made. When the pilot has put the nose down to the normal gliding attitude or lower and makes a move to start a turn, the glider will flick into a violent spin without warning. This is so sudden and unexpected that the pilot may be too confused or disorientated to make a normal recovery. The reason for the rapid entry is that at this moment both wings can be well past their normal stalling angle. After recovering from the nose high position to a normal approach attitude does not mean it is safe to turn. It takes much longer than you might expect to regain a safe speed, probably 10-12 seconds. As the noise of the airflow increases, it is easy to believe it is safe to make a turn and this can be fatal. You can only be certain by checking the speed by the ASI. The same situation can even occur following a rope break on aerotow, particularly if the glider is pulling up from being too low when the rope breaks. Unless a positive nose down movement is made to regain speed, the glider may be semi-stalled and at risk of spinning if a turn is started. At low heights, it is absolutely vital to check the actual indicated airspeed before making any turn and particularly following a launch failure. Demonstrating a simulated winch launch failure This demonstration may even be possible in some docile two-seaters but it takes practice to make it work satisfactorily. You need to start high enough to try it two or three times to determine the best moment to push over the nose down into the normal gliding attitude. First the glider is put into a dive to obtain at least 80kts before pulling up into the very steep climb, simulating a winch launch. As the speed falls close to the stalling speed, the nose is pushed down quickly into the normal gliding attitude and held there. At this time the airspeed should still be wel
The borders or the frontiers of the Roman Empire, were a combination of natural frontier and man-made fortifications which separated the lands of the empire from the “barbarian” countries beyond. It stretched over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast. Also known as “the limes”, it was a border defence or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the roman empire at its greatest extent in 2nd centruy. The word limes was utilized by Latin writers to denote a marked or fortified frontier. So basically limes was a boundary. The remains of the limites (plural) today consist of vestiges of walls, ditches, forts, fortresses and civilian settlements. The remains of the Limes today consist of : • vestiges of built walls • ditches • forts • fortresses, • watchtowers • civilian settlements. Some of the famous limites were: • Hadrian’s Wall, also known as Limes Britannicus • Antoinie Wall– in Scotland • Limes Germanicus, the Germanic and Raetian Limes • Limes Arabicus, the frontier of the Roman province of Arabea Petrecea (facing the desert) • Limes Tripolitanus, the frontier in modern Libya facing the Sahara • Limes Alutanus, the eastern border of the Roman province of Dacia • Limes Transalutanus, the frontier in the lower Danube • Limes Moesiae, the frontier in eastern Romania and Moldavia • A medieval limes is the Limes Saxoniae in Hostel Individual fortifications had been constructed by the Roman Military from as early as the building of Rome’s first city walls in the 6th or 7th century BC. However, systematic construction of fortifications around the periphery of the empire on a strategic scale began around 40 AD under Emperor Caligula. However, it was under Hadrian’s rule, which began in 117, that the Roman frontier was systematically fortified. He spent half of his 21 year reign touring the empire and advocating for the construction of forts, towers, and walls all across the edges of the empire. The limes consisted of fortresses for legions or vexillations (e.g. Segendenum) as well as a system of roads for the rapid transit of troops and, in some places, extensive walls. Perhaps the most famous example of these is in Great Britain, which was built across the entire width of the island to protect from attack from tribes located in modern-day Scotland. In the Northern Fortifications, called the Limes Britannicus, the average garrison of the wall fortifications is thought to have been around 10,000 men. Along with a continuous wall (except in the case of Gask Ridge), there existed a metaled road immediately behind the wall for transport of troops. Along the wall there existed a few large forts for legions or vexillations, as well as a series of milecastles – effectively watchtowers that were unable to defend a stretch of wall against anything but low-scale raiding but were able to signal attack to legionary forts by means of fire signals atop the towers. Although the border was not a continuous wall, a series of fortifications known as Gask Ridge in mid-Scotland may well be Rome’s earliest fortified land frontier.Rather than representing a series of consecutive advancements, the border should be seen as fluctuating – the Antonine Wall for example was built between 142 and 144, abandoned by 164 and briefly re-occupied in 208. Continental Europe In continental Europe, the borders were generally well defined, usually following the courses of major rivers such as the Rhine and the Danube. Nevertheless those were not always the final border lines; the province of Dacia, modern Romania, was completely on the far side of the Danube, and the province of Germania Magna, which must not be confused with Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, was the land between the Rhine, the Danube and the Elbe(although this province was lost three years after its creation as a result of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest) It consisted of: • The Upper Germanic Limes (just to be confusing, also called the Rhaetian Limes or simply “the Limes”) started from the Rhine at Rheinbrohl (Neuwied (district)) across the Taunus mountains to the river Main (East of Hanau), then along the Main to Miltenberg, and from Osterburken (Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis) south to Lorch (Ostalbkreis) in a nearly perfect straight line of more than 70 km; The eastern borders changed many times, of which the most enduring was the Euphrates river, bordering the Parthian Empire in modern Iraq and western Iraq. Rome advanced beyond the Euphrates for a time upon defeating their rivals, the Parthians in 116 AD, when Trajan captured Ctesiphon, and established new provinces in Assyria and Babylonia. Later that year he took the Parthian capital,Susa, deposed the Parthian King Osroes I. However, the Romans did not Romanize the entire Parthian Empire, leaving Parthamaspates a puppet king on the throne to rule over former Parthian lands with the exclusion of modern Iraq, which became Assyria and Mesopotamia • Limes Arabicus (called the Limes Uranus) was the frontier of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea facing the desert. • Limes Tripolitanus was the frontier in modern Libya facing the Sahara. ProgramWHS researchWorld Heritage SitesGoUNESCO Campus Ambassador,The Frontiers of the Roman Empire,whsresearch,world heritage The borders or the frontiers of the Roman Empire, were a combination of natural frontier and man-made fortifications which separated the lands of the empire from the 'barbarian' countries beyond. It stretched over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea...
Bluest Eye Bluest Eye Study Guide Published in 1970, The Bluest Eye came about at a critical moment in the history of American civil rights. Morrison began Pecola's story as a short piece in1962; it became a novel-in-progress by 1965. It was written, as one can see from the dates, during the years of some of the most dynamic and turbulent transformations of Afro-American life. One of those transformations was a new recognition of Black-American beauty. After centuries of coveting white dolls and decades of longing to look like Caucasian Hollywood stars (and thinking that it was perfectly appropriate to do so), Black-Americans began to argue for a new standard of beauty. This new standard was meant to be racially inclusive, allowing blacks to see black as beautiful, but the need to argue for this new standard reveals how firmly the white standard of beauty was entrenched. In a new Afterword to the novel's 1993 reprint, Morrison says that she got the idea for The Bluest Eye in part from an elementary school classmate. The girl, whose wish for the eyes of a white girl revealed her contempt for her own racial identity, raised troubling questions about beauty and oppression. As an emerging writer, she remembered the girl and became interested in the mechanics of feelings of inferiority "originating in an outside gaze." Pecola's tragedy was not meant to be typical, but by showing societal and situational forces working against an extremely vulnerable little girl, Morrison hoped to get at a truth about those societal forces. The effect is like speeding up film of a slow process?by looking at the extreme case of Pecola, we learn the truth about our world, a truth that we are normally incapable of noticing. The novel also set up many of the issues with which Morrison has been concerned ever since. The style is fragmentary?a kind of democratic narrative in which many narrative voices are privileged to speak. Morrison has used variations of this system in other novels, favoring this strategy as a way to look at a story from many angles without giving too much control to one voice. And Morrison's concern with oral Black-American traditions is apparent from the very first lines of Claudia's prelude. But in this particular novel, Morrison has attempted to examine the forces that can make the oppressed take part in their own oppression?how can it be that a little girl could be made to feel so ugly? Why do the black children of the novel?and of the period?insult each other by calling each other black? What does it mean (and what does it do) when a black woman wishes she could look like Jean Harlow? How has this happened? What has been lost? Is there a way out? The Bluest Eye enjoyed some (but far from universal) critical success on its first publication, but the novel was also a commercial failure. In 1993, after Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Plume published a new edition with a new Afterword by the author.
The Garden Community for Garden Lovers By Nikkib United Kingdom Gb I have just moved into a flat with a garden, and found these weird bud type things with tendrils wrapped round them. They are at the base of some roses, but I don't know if that's important! Can you please tell me what they are and if I should do anything about them? Don't worry, they're seed pods of Cyclamen - either Cyclamen hederifolium or Cyclamen coum. The roses must be underplanted with corms of these plants. They produce pink or white flowers - about September - December for C.hederifolium or December - March for C.coum. The pretty marbled leaves come out after the flowers, then the plants rest during the summer, ready to be lovely again in autumn/ winter. You'll find that there are more cyclamen appear here and there after a while. Ants like the seeds as they are covered in a sweetish substance designed to appeal to them, so they carry the seeds away to their nests. The seedlings take several years to get to flowering size so you'll need to be patient. I grew these in my last garden and was amazed to find that they'd crossed the lane and were popping up on the roadside some way up the hill. Thank you ants! 5 Jun, 2011 You are lucky to have them - a delightful little plant. 5 Jun, 2011 Those bits that look like coiled springs are exactly that, in a way - when the seed is ripe, they uncoil and shoot the seed some distance, and then curl back up and wither gradually. 5 Jun, 2011 That may be the theory, Bamboo, but I think they have a design flaw. I found that the springs uncoil a bit, but the seed pod acts as an anchor and splits exactly where it was lying before, so the corms get covered in germinated cyclamen seeds - coming up like cress all over the shop. It's a good job the ants help out in spreading them. I used to spend ages easing the seedlings out and planting them further away, then found that they were coming up in the strangest places, courtesy of my six-legged assistants. :-) 5 Jun, 2011 I noticed they don't work so well in damp weather, but a garden I did for someone a couple of years ago was full of these - the weather was hot and dry, and the damned things were pinging all over the shop, so sometimes they work well, lol! 5 Jun, 2011 Ah, well, Cornwall is always damp, so I think that's where the design flaw must be. :-) 5 Jun, 2011 Most are native to more or less Mediterranean climates, so in their native habitat, they are pretty much assured of a dry summer to practice their shot put. ; ) 6 Jun, 2011 That's amazing - thank you all so much! I grew up in the Middle East where not a whole lot grows except Hibiscus, Oleander & Jasmine - all very lovely but not much variety. I haven't the fainest idea what some of the things are growing, and am sure I will have all sorts of lovely surprises throughout the next year. I'm kind of loathe to tinker too much before I know what's actually in my lovely garden! 6 Jun, 2011 You're absolutely right to wait and see what you've got first, before tinkering. We love "What's this plant?" type questions - you'll usually find they're answered within minutes if you post a few clear photos with your question. Bring 'em on! :-) You can keep a list of what's in your garden on this website, and you can add your photos to the list so you'll have a record, if you want to. 6 Jun, 2011 How do I say thanks? Answer question Not found an answer?
Dwarf Fruit Trees Dwarf fruit trees are perhaps the most exotic plants you can grow indoors. Native to tropical regions around the world, their lush foliage, exotic flowers and edible fruits make captivating conversation pieces for a sunroom -- or a sunny room. banana plant flower Dwarf Banana Plants If you've ever thought about growing banana plants indoors, you'll want 'Dwarf Cavendish', a compact variety that tops out at 6 ft (1.8 m) tall. Red flowers (shown at left) are followed by a bunch of bananas. It's perfectly happy in a container, as long as you can provide the sunlight it needs. calamondin, calamondin orange, calamondin orange tree Miniature Orange Tree Calamondin is one of the easiest indoor citrus trees to grow. Not a true orange, this dwarf citrus tree is actually a cross between a kumquat and a tangerine. With good citrus tree care, you'll enjoy your calamondin tree for many years. It's long-lived and adaptable to indoor living. Dwarf tangerine and kumquat trees are other delightful citrus trees to grow indoors. You'll love their fragrant flowers and sweet fruits in winter. Meyer Lemon Tree 'Meyer' lemon tree is productive indoors, producing sweet, yellow fruits throughout the summer. It has something to offer for any season, though -- glossy, dark-green foliage, and fragrant white flowers. You'll often find flowers and fruit on the tree at the same time during the summer, making it an attractive dwarf citrus tree to have in your home. growing olive trees, growing olives, olive tree care Olive Tree An olive tree...indoors? Why not. This beautiful Mediterranean native is quite at home in your kitchen window, your sunroom, or any sun-drenched spot you choose. Tolerant of the dry conditions of its native region, this dwarf fruit tree is easy to grow in a pot as long as it gets plenty of sunlight. Dwarf olive trees stay small when grown indoors. And with some pruning, you can control its size and keep it shapely. Get tips for growing olive trees here. Dwarf Pomegranate Tree Dwarf Pomegranate makes a charming and unusual house plant. Put it in a sunny window and you'll enjoy its orange-red blooms followed by mini pomegranates throughout the summer. The fruits of this dwarf tree are purely decorative. The dwarf cultivar 'Nana' only grows up to 3 ft (90 cm) tall. Prune it back as much as you want. You can even grow one as a bonsai. growing pineapple plants, starting a pineapple plant, pineapple plants, pineapple plant care Variegated Pineapple Ananas nanus is a dwarf species of pineapple that only reaches 16 in (40 cm) tall. Although, if you want a stunning indoor accent, A. cosmosus 'Variegatus' (shown at left) is truly spectacular. Its spiny foliage edged in cream and red makes an impressive house plant. These South American natives are happy in a container as long as you meet their needs for sunshine and humidity. Get care tips for growing pineapple plants indoors and find out how to grow, plant and propagate pineapple plants. It's not the heat, it's the humidity... Forty percent relative humidity is considered "average" in most homes. Fortunately, that's a comfortable level for people and most house plants. However, many tropical house plants grow best with 60-70% humidity. Short of turning a room into a misty rain forest, there are a few things you can do for your plants. Check out these easy tips for raising the humidity for your house plants. Buying Tip Buy a plant from a reputable grower to ensure that it will produce fruit. Plants grown from seed may not grow true to type. You'll find indoor fruit trees for sale from online nurseries. Grow a Papaya Tree Discover how to grow a papaya tree and enjoy this tropical dwarf citrus indoors. If you have a sunny window for papaya, you'll find that it's easy to grow. Lime Trees Dwarf key lime tree produces starry, white flowers and key limes nearly year-round, making it a delightfully fragrant house plant. Ever heard of a kaffir lime tree? You'll want to explore this unusual citrus tree you can grow indoors.
60 facts about the Queen you didn't know As she celebrates six decades as head of state, i uncovers some curious facts about Her Majesty. Click to follow The Independent Online 1 On a state visit to Brazil in 1968, the Queen was given two sloths. The animal gifts she receives tend to be placed in zoos, though a horse donated by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was housed in the Royal Mews. 2 The Queen costs the public purse £36.2m each year, including £359,000 paid directly by the Government to Prince Philip. 3 Since 1952 the Queen has given royal assent to more than 3,500 Acts of Parliament. 4 Each morning, the Queen's breakfast table is laid out with cornflakes and porridge oats in Tupperware containers, yoghurt and two kinds of marmalade – light and dark. 5 A royal footman who poured whisky into the corgis' water as a party trick was rewarded with a salary cut and a demotion. 6 When she crossed a corgi with a dachshund to create the dorgi the Queen perhaps unwittingly began the craze for designer cross-breeds. 7 The Queen is patron of more than 600 charities and organisations. 8 The Queen is the first monarch to have seen three of her children divorce. 9 Britain's monarchy is the most expensive in Europe, though the Netherlands isn't far behind. Spain's royal family gets a comparatively meagre £7m allowance each year. 10 The Queen is thought to be worth around £300m, making her the 257th richest person in the UK. 11 All 5,300 breeding pairs of mute swan in Britain are officially owned by the Queen. 12 'Fishes Royal' applies to all sturgeon, whales, porpoises and dolphins in the water around the UK. Like swans, they also officially belong to the Queen. 13 The Queen sent her first email in 1976 from an army base. 14 The top video on Her Majesty's official YouTube Channel is a clip of Prince William and Kate leaving Buckingham Palace in an Aston Martin. 15 At an official photocall marking the end of 2009's G20 summit, Her Majesty was offended by Silvio Berlusconi hollering "Mr Obama!" at the US President. Unimpressed, the Queen snapped: "What is it? Why does he have to shout?" 16 The Queen was educated by her governess Marion Crawford, to whom she gave the nickname "Crawfie". 17 Ms Crawford's services were not enough to grant her everlasting favour with the royals, however. In 1950, she published a book titled The Little Princesses, recounting the time she spent with Elizabeth and Margaret. The royals were apparently furious. 18 There have been six Archbishops of Canterbury during the Queen's reign – Geoffrey Fisher, Michael Ramsey, Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey and Rowan Williams. There have also been six popes – Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. 19 Should the royal chauffeur take a day off, the Queen is quite capable of driving for herself, having learnt to drive in 1945. 20 The Royal Train comes with chefs, lace-trimmed pillows, and a no bumpy track rule during the Queen's 7:30am bath. 21 According to former Arsenal player Cesc Fabregas, the Queen is a Gunners fan. The first football match the Queen attended was the 1953 FA Cup Final. 22 When Her Majesty visited Centre Court's Royal Box for an Andy Murray match in 2010, it ended a 33-year Wimbledon snub. 23 When former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating dared to put an arm round his royal overlord, the press branded him "the Lizard of Oz". 24 The Queen's vocal range is as yet untested, but a recording of a concert to celebrate her Golden Jubilee titled Party at the Palace sold 100,000 copies in its first week of release, making the Queen the first member of the Royal Family to be awarded a gold disc. 25 Her Majesty has endured 36 Royal Variety Performances. 26 Diageo, the world's biggest distiller, is selling 60 decanters of Scotch whisky for £100,000 apiece for the Diamond Jubilee. 27 According to Margaret Rhodes, the Queen's cousin, HM's alcohol intake never varies. She takes a gin and Dubonnet before lunch, with a slice of lemon and a lot of ice. She will take wine with lunch and a dry Martini and a glass of champagne in the evening. That comes to 6 units per day, which would make Her Majesty a binge drinker by government standards. 28 On a state visit to Australia in 1954, during an argument with Prince Philip, the Queen was filmed "hurling shoes, threats and sporting equipment, and venting the sort of regal fury that, in another age, would have cost someone their head", according to writer Robert Hardman. "I'm sorry for that little interlude," she later said, "but, as you know, it happens in every marriage." 30 A message of the Queen's congratulations to Apollo 11 astronauts for the first moon landing was microfilmed and deposited in a metal container on the satellite's surface. 31 What gives the Queen the giggles? Ali G impressions, according to Prince William. 32 The Queen is the 40th monarch since William the Conqueror obtained the crown of England. 33 The Queen, the official head of the Church of England, first entered a mosque in July 2002, at Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. 35 She's also received 102 inward state visits from 1952 to the end of 2011, the last being Turkey in November 2011. 36 The first "royal walkabouts", designed so the Queen could meet the public, took place in Australia and New Zealand in 1970. 37 She has broadcast a Christmas message every year since her coronation in 1952, except in 1969. 38 The Queen was born on 21 April 1926, but her official birthday is celebrated in June. 39 The Royal Collection, a vast hoard of art including 150,000 paintings by the likes of Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian and Raphael, is held in trust by the Queen for the nation. 40 The monarch has answered around three and a half million items of correspondence and more than 175,000 telegrams sent to centenarians in the UK and the Commonwealth. 41 The Queen has sat for 129 portraits during her reign, painted in a variety of styles. Lucian Freud's 2001 depiction of HM divided critics and was slated by the tabloids. 42 During the past 60 years almost one and a half million people have attended garden parties at Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Holyroodhouse, with 8,000 people head through the gates every year. 43 Owing to the collapse of the Empire the Queen has presided over the loss of sovereignty of more countries than any of her predecessors. 44 Since 1952, the Queen has conferred more than 404,500 honours and awards. 45 The Queen's first portrait was painted in 1933, when she was seven, and the most recent was for Rolf Harris in 2005. 46 During her reign the Queen has visited Canada 22 times, Australia 18 times, New Zealand 10 times and Jamaica six times. 47 The monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh have sent approximately 45,000 Christmas cards. 48 The Queen became the first monarch to open the doors to Buckingham Palace to the public in 1993. She needed the cash for the repair of Windsor Castle after a fire. 49 The design of the 1st class stamp is to be updated for the Jubilee. The traditional gold will be replaced with a blue colour scheme and the words "Diamond Jubilee" highlighted in iridescent ink. 50 It's been forecast that the four-day holiday for the jubilee will hit the economy with up to a 0.5 per cent reduction in GDP, despite the boost to tourism and retail. 51 The Queen has seen 12 different Prime Ministers during her reign – from Sir Winston Churchill through to the incumbent David Cameron. 52 Apparently, it has always been the Queen's dream to see one of her horses win the Epsom Derby. Aureole came second in 1953, and last year Carlton House managed third. 54 The Queen and duke have been married for a whopping 64 years. 55 Queen Victoria was the last, and previously the only, British monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee. 56 The Queen has bought a lot of Christening gifts thanks to her huge list of 30 godchildren. 57 The only time the sovereign has had to interrupt an overseas tour was in 1974 during a visit to Australia and Indonesia when she was called back to the UK when a snap general election was called. 58 The Queen's official visits have ranged from the Cocos Islands, 5.4 square miles with a population of 596 to China, 3.7 million square miles with a population of 1.34 billion. 59 In May 2011, the Queen became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since Irish independence.
Forgot your password? Intrinsic Value of Money By Edited Jan 18, 2014 0 1 What is the distinction between intrinsic value and market value? Lately, people don't seem to be recognizing any distinction at all, or insisting that there's no such thing as intrinsic value, only market value. Market value[1] is the price at which an asset trades at competitive open auction, e.g. on an exchange or between competitive retail locations. Market value includes such factors as supply and demand and sentiment. Market value is the aggregate belief of market participants of what an asset is worth in fair trade at the present time. Intrinsic value, on the other hand, is the factually-based objective worth of an asset, absent extenuating circumstances such as shortages, fads, growth expectations, bubbles, etc. Still, even some definitions on various investing websites such as fool.com list intrinsic value as a "belief" held by an investor[5]. That is more understandable when considering the intrinic value of equities, however, which may depend on factors such as discounted cash flow and P/E ratio, which are open to interpretation, and because the supply of company stock is usually static until the company's board of directors decides to issue more stock. Insofar as stock investing is partly a matter of predicting the future, intrinsic value of equities may be a matter of justified belief about fundamental facts. But when it comes to a commodity, the intrinsic value is more cut and dry. The "intrinsic value" is equivalent to the all-in cost of producing one additional unit[2]. E.g. the intrinsic value of a bottle of Coca-Cola is the all-in cost of the sugary liquid, plastic bottle, labeling, marketing, labor, equipment purchases and repairs, delivery trucks, etc. Adam Smith referred to this as the prime cost of a commodity[3][4]. You might estimate such a figure by dividing the number of bottles the Coca-Cola company produces in a year by the total expenses of the company in that year. Of course it's not that easy since Coca-Cola produces more than just bottles of one size, but also syrup, other beverages, and other foodstuffs. But the point is that there exists a figure for the break-even cost of a bottle of Coke which is not open to interpretation. It is literally what it costs to produce the next bottle. Every bottle that is sold for more than that represents a profit to the company. Anything sold for less is a loss. It would be hard to argue that anything has less embodied value than what it costs to produce it. Any given individual could of course deign a particular good of less value to himself than it would cost to produce it, and therefore choose not to procure it, but for anyone who does desire a good, he must be prepared to at least cover the costs of its production. If you were able to obtain a bottle of Coke for less than its intrinsic value or prime cost, you would have realized an objective net gain in wealth in the transaction. Everyone who buys a bottle of Coke realizes a subjective gain, in that they value the consumption of Coca-Cola more than the $1.50 or whatever they paid. But to buy a bottle for less than the intrinsic value -- i.e. what it costs to produce one -- represents not just a great buy, but an investment. You could theoretically resell it at a price which undercuts the manufacturer, since their wholesale price must include the intrinsic value plus a profit margin. And the retail price includes the wholesale price plus a profit margin for the retailer. The market value is usually something close to the retail price, perhaps somewhat less when you consider promotions and sales, but nearly the same. So the market value of an asset -- what someone will pay -- is not the same as the intrinsic value -- what it actually costs to produce it. Arbitrage and investing comes into play when the market value of something strays wildly from its intrinsic value. Some people will recognize that the market is temporarily out of whack and make a profit from anticipating a reversion to the mean. One way to do so is to "sell short" the asset in question[6]. For example, if there were, say, a shortage in pencils causing their prices to far exceed their cost of production, an entrepreneur might borrow a stock of pencils now, sell them at market prices, invest the proceeds into a pencil factory, and then return the borrowed pencils from the production of new ones. Another way is to "buy long" an undervalued asset (this is called value investing)[7]. For example, the pencil factory produces a glut of pencils far exceeding demand, crashing the prices below the cost of production. An investor might see this opportunity to buy up the stock of pencils at a market price of below the intrinsic value, wait for the factory to cut back production or go out of business, and then sell them when pencil prices return to a level above intrinsic value. If there were no intrinsic value, but only a market value (this is basically, especially in regard to equities, the "efficient market hypothesis")[8], such investing would not even be possible. So besides the role that intrinsic value has in directing production and stabilizing market prices, why is this important? One reason is in deciding what we consider to be money. Since the time of Aristotle, money has been defined as something which functions as a medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, and standard of deferred payment[9]. The main distinction between money and currency is that currency does not have to be a store of value and standard of deferred payment. Money has intrinsic value; currency need not and generally does not have any intrinsic value. In particular, fiat currency -- such as U.S. Federal Reserve Notes (a.k.a. Dollars), Euros, and Bitcoins -- have no intrinsic value, by definition. Fiat literally means to declare "it shall be" with no rational intrinsic basis, but just the desire of legal authorities that it be so.[10] The cost to produce another dollar, euro, or bitcoin is virtually zero. Paper notes may have an intrinsic value similar to toilet paper, but most fiat currency is simply digits in a computer, not even notes. E.g., the Federal Reserve bailed out banks in 2008 by creating digital entries in their computer system "valued" at trillions of dollars[11]. As such, fiat currencies will not retain their market value and any deferred payments denominated in them will be less valuable when paid than when incurred. Fiat currencies do have a market value, either because of legal tender laws, fraud, or bubble, but it is mostly predicated on the greater fool theory[12]. This is the idea that you will accept something as valuable not because you believe in its intrinsic worth, but because you assume that you'll be able to pawn it off to a "greater fool" for the same or higher price in the future. Legal tender laws essentially assure the market that the government will always be the "greater fool" in that you can at least pay your taxes in the currency granted legal tender status[13]. Fraud has long been the method of giving market value to fiat currencies by pretending that there is some intrinsic value when there isn't. E.g. prior to the Federal Reserve, when banks printed their own notes, they routinely printed more notes than they had reserves to back them up -- this is called a fractional reserve banking system -- which resulted in "bank runs" when people wised up[14]. The Federal Reserve then nationalized this process by establishing a "gold standard" convertibility system wherein an FRN (Dollar) was fully exchangeable for 1/20th oz of gold. Except that they also operated on a fractional reserve system, and so in 1933, they debased the currency to 1/35th oz of gold[15], and in 1971 removed all convertibility whatsoever[16]. So essentially the Federal Reserve operated on fraud from 1913 til 1971 by promising and then reneging on convertibility to gold; and then they operated on legal tender laws and simply ubiquity of "greater fools" in the general market (including through Petrodollar Hegemony[17]) to continue it thereafter. Likewise, so-called crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin operate partly on fraud and mostly as a bubble. Most people simply don't understand them and so take it on faith when others tell them they are valuable, usually by citing the usefulness or security of the currency, or by pointing out that it's not issued by a government. But none of these things imbues bits with intrinsic value. It costs nothing to produce a bitcoin and any effort required to do so is arbitrarily imposed[18]. As evidence of this, competing crypto-currencies have been created, including Litecoin and Peercoin. In fact, as of this writing, over 144 different cryptocurrencies are being circulated[19]. Since it costs nothing to create them, scam artists are able to pump-and-dump a crypto-currency as though it were valuable. But without legal tender laws, there is no guarantee of any greater fool, and so they operate mostly as bubbles like Ponzi schemes do. Real money has intrinsic value. Gold and silver are good examples of real money or honest money, terms to distinguish it from fraudulent money or bubble money, which is to say fiat currencies pretending to be money. Scotiabank estimates that the all-in average cost in 2013 for major mining companies to produce an ounce of gold is $1,690, or 35% above the current market price of $1,250 per ounce[20]. That is to say that if you buy gold today at $1,250, you instantly gain $440 of intrinsic wealth because gold cannot be produced at that price. Someone who sells it to you for that price is losing $440 of intrinsic wealth in the transaction. There are all kinds of reasons why an asset such as gold might be trading at below its intrinsic value, including excessive naked shorting of it. But all such undervalued assets always revert to their mean (and usually overshoot) in the long run. Gold doesn't only have value because the market says it does. It has intrinsic value (not only equal to the market value, but currently exceeding the market value), which is what makes gold a store of value and standard of deferred payments, and also currently just a good investment. One day, perhaps very soon, there will be a run on fiat currencies as people flee to real money in order to preserve their purchasing power. The scope of promises made by governments and central banks -- approaching thousands of trillions of dollars -- versus the quantity of actual currency is an unimaginably enormous discrepancy, which once clear to the public at large, will blow away any "greater fool" illusions[21]. People will seek the safety of intrinsic value. When that happens, the demand for real money will explode, sending the market price of gold to multiples of its intrinsic value until mining companies (currently struggling to stay above water) are able to ramp up production to fill the demand. Prudent investors and prepared individuals will get ahead of this inevitable outcome by accumulating precious metals at currently undervalued levels. The Theory of Money & Credit Amazon Price: $20.00 $14.00 Buy Now (price as of Jan 16, 2014) The Wealth of Nations (Modern Library) Amazon Price: $26.95 $12.12 Buy Now (price as of Jan 16, 2014) Jan 17, 2014 7:08am Two methods I recommended to accumulate gold and silver bullion, both to preserve purchasing power and also to capitalize on the inevitable reversion to the mean, are Silver Saver (http://PassantGardant.com/SilverSaver) and Bullion Vault (http://PassantGardant.com/BullionVault). Silver Saver is a U.S.-based company which allows you to deposit small amounts of cash (Federal Reserve Note-denominated) into a silver-denominated account, allowing you to average in over time without making a single large silver purchase all at once. They also have gold available. Once you have enough to make a delivery feasible, you can have your bullion sent as various types of bars, coins, or rounds to keep in your own possession. Bullion Vault is a U.K.-based company which is both an international bullion vaulting system and also an online precious metals trading system. You can deposit your FRN (or Euro or Pound) cash into Bullion Vault and then use their trading system to enter into gold or silver positions or other currencies as you see fit. You can also use it to automatically average in over time. The main benefit of Bullion Vault is that your precious metals can be designated for storage in any of several jurisdictions including Zurich, London, Singapore, Toronto, and New York. As such, you can geographically diversify your holdings as a hedge against oppressive government actions toward your savings and investments in monetary commodities with intrinsic value. Add a new comment - No HTML 1. "Definition of 'Fair Market Value'." Investopedia. 14/01/2014 <Web > 2. "Marginal Cost (MC)." EconModel. 14/01/2014 <Web > 3. Adam Smith, Edwin Cannan, ed. "Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or of their Price in Labour, and their Price in Money." Library of Economics and Liberty. 14/01/2014 <Web > 4. "Definition of 'Prime Cost'." Investopedia. 14/01/2014 <Web > 5. "Intrinsic Value." The Motley Fool. 14/01/2014 <Web > 6. "Short Sales." U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 14/01/2014 <Web > 7. "Value Investing." Wikinvest. 14/01/2014 <Web > 8. "Efficient Market Hypothesis." Morningstar. 14/01/2014 <Web > 9. Scott Meikle "Aristotle on Money." Phronesis. 39 (1994): 26-44. 10. Ludwig von Mises The Theory of Money and Credit. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953. 11. Lawrence Hunter "Is the Federal Reserve Using Money-Laundering Techniques to Cleanse Banks' Balance Sheets?." Forbes.com. 29/10/2012. 14/01/2014 <Web > 12. "Greater Fool Theory." BusinessDictionary.com. 14/01/2014 <Web > 13. "What is lawful money? How is it different from legal tender?." Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 14/01/2014 <Web > 14. "Bank run (bank panic)." NASDAQ. 14/01/2014 <Web > 15. Thomas E. Woods, Jr. "The Great Gold Robbery of 1933." Ludwig von Mises Institute. 14/01/2014 <Web > 16. Michael D. Bordo "The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Gold Standard." Library of Economics and Liberty. 14/01/2014 <Web > 17. Jerry Robinson "The Rise of the Petrodollar System." Financial Sense. 14/01/2014 <Web > 18. Jerry Brito and Andrea Castillo "Bitcoin: A Primer for Policymakers." Mercatus Center, George Mason University. 14/01/2014 <Web > 19. "Crypto Coins List." CryptoCoin Charts. 14/01/2014 <Web > 20. Richard (Rick) Mills "A Quest for Profitability in PM's." AheadOfTheHerd.com. 14/01/2014 <Web > 21. Richard A. Marin Global Pension Crisis: Unfunded Liabilities and How We Can Fill the Gap. Hoboken: Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2013. Explore InfoBarrel Follow IB Business & Money
Forgot your password? How to convert temperatures between Celsius and Fahrenheit By Edited Dec 3, 2016 7 8 When I'm talking to coworkers in Canada from our office in Texas, the weather is a common topic. Whether I want to complain about 100-degree summer days or they want to brag about a temperature of 25, it's a good idea for us to convert the temperature into the other person's units. While Canada uses the metric system that gives temperatures in degrees Celsius, the United States is one of a few countries that still uses degrees Fahrenheit. The different temperature scales mean that while I might find myself shivering at 25°F (degrees Fahrenheit), my Canadian pals would be quite comfy at 25°C (degrees Celsius). That's because that temperature works out to a balmy 77°F. Different temperature scales Credit: renaissancechambara / Flickr.com Easy formulas for converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit So how do you convert between the two? There are two simple formulas: To convert °C to °F F = (9/5 C) + 32 1. divide the Celsius temperature by 5 2. multiply the answer by 9 3. add 32 to the result Example, 15°C = 59°F (15 / 5 = 3, 3 * 9 = 27, 27+32 = 59) To convert °F to °C C = 5/9 (F-32) 1. subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit temperature 2. divide the answer by 9 3. multiply the result by 5 Example, 104°F = 40°C (104-32 = 72, 72/9 = 8, 8*5 = 40) This method works for any Celsius or Fahrenheit temperature. Why does this work? Celsius temperatures are based on the freezing and boiling points of water: 0°C is the freezing point and 100°C is the boiling point. Compare those to the somewhat illogical values for the same points in Fahrenheit, 32°F and 212°F. If you look at the numbers for a while, you can see that the difference between boiling and freezing points is 100 degrees in Celsius and 180 degrees in Fahrenheit. So each Fahrenheit degree is 100/180 Celsius degrees, or 5/9 of a degree. Now, all you need to do is get the two scales starting at the same point. If you could subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit scale, both scales would start at zero. That's the basis of the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius: subtract 32 so the scales match at zero, and then add 5/9 of a degree to the Celsius temperature for every degree of the Fahrenheit temperature. Mar 7, 2013 12:46am Spending time in both the Yukon and Alaska, there is one great constant in the winter, 40 below is the same in both systems of measuring temperature, Cold! Good job. Mar 7, 2013 4:18am I have used some online converters for converting between celsius and fahrenheit . Thank you for providing the simple formula for finding it. Mar 7, 2013 5:03am Great, I've been wondering about a simple formula. Now I know-informative article. Thanks Peggy! Mar 7, 2013 6:53am Thank you for this simple formula for converting Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures. Until I practice/learn it, I will keep this article bookmarked. Good choice for Featured Article -congratulations. Thumbs Up! Mar 15, 2013 4:47am very useful. this is always a tricky thing for americans living abroad Mar 23, 2013 5:37am Thanks for the formula and explanation. I linked to this from my article about heat energy for kids :) Mar 26, 2013 10:13am That is a great (and very accurate) formula for converting temperatures in C and Fahrenheit. Very useful, if you have a piece of paper laying around... However, I simply cannot divide by 9 in my head (I am "mathematically challenged"). Instead, I convert F to C by subtracting 30 and dividing the result in half. From C to F, I simply double the temperature celcius and add 30. This is NOT extemely accurate, but will get you very close for daily weather temperatures. Of course, this is not a good method to use where accuarcy matters, like cooking! Apr 3, 2013 10:02pm Oh!! great to know about that.Keep posting these nice articles.. :) Add a new comment - No HTML Explore InfoBarrel Follow IB Technology
Forgot your password? The British Army Defeated by Insects: The Battle of the Bees By Edited Nov 25, 2016 4 4 Battle of the Bees The First World War, as a truly global conflict, involved a number of actions outside of Europe, many of which have since become obscure. Perhaps the single least glorious moment for the British Army in these colonial engagements occured during their invasion of German East Africa, today Tanzania, on the 4th of November 1914. British Expeditionary Force "B", composed of only partly trained Indian volunteers and led by an old Indian army officer, Arthur Edward Aitken, was tasked with the invasion. Instead of attacking from neighbouring British East Africa, today Kenya, Aitken had decided to invade with an amphibious assault on the major port city of Tanga. Though his plan relied on surprise, the press had widely reported the task force's departure from India, and the British ships had then sailed in broad daylight down the coast of East Africa. The element of surprise was further eliminated when the British protected cruiser HMS Fox was sent to Tanga to both inform the German governor that the previous truce guaranteeing the neutrality of Dar es Salaam (the capital) and of Tanga was off, and to demand the immediate surrender of the port. However when, on 2 November, the HMS Fox arrived off of Tanga and the ship's captain, Commander F.W. Caufield, went ashore to deliver the British ultimatum, the governor was away. Instead the German Commissioner, Herr Auracher, took the message. Stalling for time, Auracher asked for an hour's grace with which to consult his superiors, which Caufield granted. Caufield then asked whether Tanga's harbour was mined and was assured that it was, though there actually were no mines. Auracher immediately rushed off to find the German military commander, Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck, to inform him of the situation. Caufield waited three hours for the commissioner to reappear before returning to his ship. He ordered the harbour swept for the non-existant mines, a process which lasted well into the next day, and then the HMS Fox departed to escort in the Force "B" troop transports. While the British wasted time, Lettow-Vorbeck's men were being rushed, by rail, to the defense of Tanga. Eventually Force "B" began landing two miles from the city in Manza Bay. This area, though recommended by Caufield, consisted of a mangrove swamp and was a terrible location for a beachhead, so bad in fact that it took two days for Aitken to disembark his 8,000 men. The Germans soldiers, one thousand strong, had plenty of time to arrive in Tanga, establish defensive lines, and scout the British position. At noon on 4 November, Aitken, without any preliminary scouting of his own, set out from the swamp and headed for the city. Force "B" marched right into the withering fire of well-concealed defenders waiting in ambush. All hell broke loose. Some British troops managed to break through to Tanga and seize the customs house but were soon forced to retreat by naval shelling from the HMS Fox, which had no idea where the German positions were. Fierce fighting lasted into the late afternoon, when further German reinforcements launched a flanking bayonet charge which broke the British line. German troops on march As the British fell back in disorder they were set upon by thousands of the local (and very aggressive) African bees, which had been angered by the firing. The bees harried the British viciously, turning their already chaotic retreat into a full-fledged rout back to the troop transports. As well as suffering one thousand casualties, Force "B" abandoned virtually all of its equipment, including thousands of modern rifles, 600 thousand rounds of ammunition, 16 machine guns, and valuable field telephones, all of which Lettow-Vorbeck captured and with which he re-equiped his men. Though the Germans had been outnumbered eight to one they had only lost sixty-nine men. Under a British flag of truce the following morning, Lettow-Vorbeck promised to care for the injured British soldiers. The defense of Tanga was the first of a series of successes for Lettow-Vorbeck in East Africa. For the next four years, in one of the most impressive guerrilla campaigns in history, Lettow-Vorbeck held 300,000 Allied troops in check with a force never greater than 14,000. He was also the only German commander to successfully invade British soil during the First World War and went undefeated for the duration of the conflict. For the British the battle was an unmitigated disaster. The British government intially tried to cover up this East African debacle. Yet the news eventually reached the press, at which point it became obvious that a scapegoat was needed. Blame didn't fall on the inept Major General Aitken, or on the equally bungling Commander Caufield, or even on Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Rather the surviving soldiers and the press agreed that the British had been beaten because of the Germans' deliberate and unsporting use of bees on the battlefield. Map of Tanzania Jun 7, 2013 4:22am My husband is a history fan, and really enjoyed this tale about how the British were defeated by the bees. Thanks for the laugh. Jun 8, 2013 12:40pm I'm glad you enjoyed it Jun 12, 2013 7:07pm My husband also loved this article, great job Jun 13, 2013 2:07pm Thank you Add a new comment - No HTML Explore InfoBarrel Follow IB History
• You're all caught up! What Are the Factors That Influence Urine pH? Urine, like other body fluids, can be either acidic or alkaline. Acidic substances have a pH of less than 7 and alkaline substance... Raw Carrots for a Hyperactive Bladder A hyperactive bladder, more often called overactive bladder syndrome, refers to increased frequency of urination. Most people urin... Bladder Removal Complications Bladder removal, a surgical procedure called radical cystectomy, is a form of treatment for bladder cancer. After a patient has he... What Causes Bladder Spasms? According to MedlinePlus, a publication of the National Institutes of Health, bladder spasms occur when bladder muscles involuntar... How to Neutralize Acid in the Bladder The bladder is part of the urinary system and has the role of storing urine until you are ready to eliminate it. A properly workin... Can Certain Foods Soothe an Irritated Bladder? Bladder irritation can occur on a temporary or long-term basis. Short-term causes include urinary tract infections, recent childbi... Five Facts About the Bladder The urinary bladder is a muscular sac-like organ that receives urine from the kidneys, storing it until it is voluntarily expelled... Bladder & Pregnant During pregnancy, your body goes through myriad changes. Hormonal balance and physical differences inside your body will affect yo... Bread Preservatives & Bladder Irritation It wasn't too long ago that we baked fresh bread with nothing more than yeast, flour, water and salt. With the advent of mass prod... Common Diseases of the Bladder The bladder is a hollow, distensible organ located in the pelvis that serves to both store and expel urine from the body. A variet... Load More... Demand Media
Bruno Petzold (1873–1949) was born at Breslaw, Silesia, which at that time was part of the German Empire. He attended Leipzig University and Berlin University. For several years he was the correspondent in Paris for the Berliner Tageblatt and other German newspapers and periodicals and became acquainted with Georges Clemenceau, Emile Zola and other literary and political figures. He was later a correspondent in London and China before moving to Japan in 1910. He lived there for the rest of his life. He taught German at a school, Dai Ichi Kotogatta, in Tokyo, while his wife taught at the Ueno Academy of Music. In Japan Petzold converted to Buddhism and he eventually became a priest of the Tendai sect. Most of his published articles and monographs related to Buddhism. They included: Die Triratna; Grundsätzliches űber das Wahre des Buddhismus (1933), Goethe und der Mahāyāna Buddhismus (1936), Les classifications du Bouddhisme (1937), Japanese Buddhism: A Characterization. His most important writings were published posthumously: Tendai Buddhism: Collection of the Writings of Bruno Petzold (1979), Die quintessenz der T’ien-t’ai (Tendai) (1982), The Classification of Buddhism=Bukkyō Kyōhan (1995). The Petzold Collection was purchased by the Library in 1952 from Arnulf H. Petzold, the son of Bruno Petzold. The original collection consisted of about 960 books, mainly relating to Buddhism but also to Hinduism, Indian history and Western philosophy. They were written in German, French and English and were mostly published in the period 1870–1945, although there are a few earlier imprints. Subsequently, the Library disposed of 130 titles, as they were duplicates. Among the authorities on Buddhism and Asian philosophy represented in the collection are Caroline Rhys Davids, Thomas Rhys Davids, Paul Deussen, Julius Dutoit, Georg Grimm, Arthur Lillie, F. Max Műller, Karl Eugen Neumann, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Max Walleser and F.L. Woodward. Other writers include Henri Bergson, René Descartes, Georg Wilhelm Frierich Hegel, Immanuel Kant, Josiah Royce, Georg Simmel, Albert Schweitzer, Rudolf Steiner and Max Weber. The books in the Petzold Collection have been catalogued individually and integrated in the general collection. There is a listing of the books by Arnulf Petzold. Related Collections Harvard University Library at Cambridge, Massachusetts, holds the bulk of the library of Petzold, comprising over 10 000 volumes and including 416 scrolls, mainly emanating from Japan. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria at Victoria, British Columbia, holds the Petzold Collection of Japanese artefacts. Hanayama, Shinshō, Preface to Petzold, Bruno, The Classification of Buddhism=Bukkyō Kyōhan, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1995, pp. xiii–xviii. Petzold, Arnulf H., Catalogue of the Buddhist Library of the Late Bruno Petzold, Vancouver, c. 1949.
Russian Space Dogs From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, by MultiMedia Back \| Home \| Up \| Next Belka and Strelka orbited the Earth and returned safely on Korabl-Sputnik-2 Belka and Strelka orbited the Earth and returned safely on Korabl-Sputnik-2 During the 1950s and 1960s the USSR used a number of dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. Before becoming cosmonauts, the dogs were strays from Moscow. In total in the 1950s and 60s, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs. The actual number of dogs in space is smaller as some dogs flew more than once. Stray dogs, rather than animals accustomed to living in a house, were chosen because the scientists felt they would be able to tolerate the rigours and extreme stresses of space flight better than other dogs. Female dogs were used because of their temperament and the fact that they did not need to lift their leg to urinate. Their training included standing still for long periods of time, wearing space suits, being placed in simulators that acted like a rocket during launch, riding in centrifuges that simulated the high acceleration of a rocket launch and being kept in progressively smaller cages to prepare them for the confines of the space capsules. Dogs that flew in orbit were fed a nutritious gel. Sub-orbital flights Original russian space dog box used on suborbital and orbital flights Original russian space dog box used on suborbital and orbital flights Several dogs made high-altitude flights on R-1 series rockets between 1951 and 1952. Dezik, Tsygan and Lisa Dezik (Дезик) and Tsygan (Цыган, "Gypsy") were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight on July 22, 1951. Both dogs were recovered unharmed after travelling to a maximum altitude of 100km. Dezik made another flight in September with a dog named Lisa, although neither survived. Lysa and Ryjik Lysa (Лиса, "Fox" or "Vixen") and Ryjik (Рыжик, "Red One") flew to an altitude of 100km on June 2, 1954. Smelaya and Malyshka Smelaya (Смелая, "Bold" or "Courageous") was due to make a flight in September but ran away the day before the launch. Russian officials feared she had been eaten by wolves but she was found the next day and went on to make a successful flight with a dog named Malyshka (Малышка, "Little One"). Bolik and ZIB Bolik (Болик) ran away just days before her flight in September 1951. A replacement named ZIB (allegedly, a Russian acronym for "Substitute for Missing Dog Bolik") was quickly located and made a successful flight. Otvazhnaya and Snezhinka Otvazhnaya (Отважная, "Brave One") made a flight on July 2, 1959 along with a rabbit named Marfusha (Марфуша, "Martha") and another dog named Snezhinka (Снежинка, "Snowflake"). She went on to make 5 other flights between 1959 and 1960. Albina and Tsyganka Albina (Альбина, "Whitey") and Tsyganka (Цыганка, "Gypsy girl") were both ejected out of their capsule at an altitude of 85km and landed safely. Albina was one of the dogs shortlisted for Sputnik 2 but never flew in orbit. Damka and Krasavka Damka (Дамка, "Little Lady") and Krasavka (Красавка, "Little Beauty") were both planned to make an orbital flight on December 22, 1960, however after the upper stage rocket failed the flight was aborted. Both were recovered successfully after an unplanned sub-orbital flight. Damka was also known as Shutka (Шутка, "Joke") and Zhemchuzhnaya (Жемчужная, "Pearly") and Krasavka was also known as Kometka (Кометка, "Comet") and Zhulka (Жулька, "Mutt?"). Other dogs that flew on sub-orbital flights include Dymka (Думка, "Smoky"), Modnitsa (Модница, "Fashionable") and Kozyavka (Козявка, "Little Gnat"). At least four other dogs flew in September 1951 with two or more lost. Orbital Flights Laika became the first living being in orbit on Sputnik 2 Laika became the first living being in orbit on Sputnik 2 Main article: Laika Laika (Лайка, "Barker"), originally named Kudryavka (Кудрявка, "Little Curly") became the first living Earth-born creature in orbit aboard Sputnik II on November 3, 1957. Some call her the first living passenger to go into space, but others claim sub-orbital flights passed the edge of space first. She was also known as Zhuchka (Жучка, "Little Bug") and Limonchik (Лимончик, "Lemon"). The American media dubbed her "Muttnik." She died between five and seven hours into the flight from stress and overheating. Her true cause of death was not made public until years after the flight, with officials giving conflicting reports that she was either euthanized by poisoned food or died when the oxygen supply ran out. The Russian scientist responsible for the project has since expressed regret for allowing Laika to die. Bars and Lisichka Bars (Барс, "Panther" or "Lynx") and Lisichka (Лисичка, "Little Fox") died after their rocket exploded 28.5 seconds into the launch on July 28, 1960. Bars was also known as Chayka ("Gull"). Belka and Strelka Russian Stamp commemorating Belka and Strelka Russian Stamp commemorating Belka and Strelka Stuffed Strelka on tour in Australia in 1991 Stuffed Strelka on tour in Australia in 1991 Belka (Белка, literally, "Squirrel," but as a dog's name it more likely means "Whitey", from Russian: "belyi" (for "white") and Strelka (Стрелка, "Little Arrow") spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Sputnik 5) on August 19, 1960 before safely returning to Earth. They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, flies and a number of plants and fungi. All biological passengers survived. Strelka went on to have six puppies, one of whom named Pushinka (Пушинка, "Fluffy"), was sent to President John F. Kennedy's children as a present. Pushinka's descendents are still living today. After death, the bodies of both Strelka and Belka were preserved. Belka is on display in Moscow, while Strelka continues to tour the world as part of a travelling exhibition. Pchelka and Mushka Pchelka (Пчелка, "Little Bee") and Mushka (Мушка, "Little Fly") spent a day in orbit on December 1, 1960 on board Korabl-Sputnik-3 (Sputnik 6) with "other animals", plants and insects. Due to a navigation error their spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry on December 2 and all were killed. Mushka was one of the three dogs trained for Sputnik 2 and was used during ground tests. She did not fly on Sputnik 2 because she refused to eat properly. Chernushka (Чернушка, "Blackie") made one orbit on board Korabl-Sputnik-4 (Sputnik 9) on March 9, 1961 with a cosmonaut dummy (whom Russian officials nicknamed "Ivan Ivanovich"), mice and a Guinea pig. The dummy was ejected out of the capsule during re-entry and made a soft landing using a parachute. Chernushka was recovered unharmed inside the capsule. Zvezdochka (Звездочка, "Little Star"), who was named by Yuri Gagarin, made one orbit on board Sputnik 10 on March 25, 1961 with a wooden cosmonaut dummy in the final practise flight before Gagarin's historic flight on April 12. Again, the dummy was ejected out of the capsule whilst Zvezdochka remained inside. Both were recovered successfully. Veterok and Ugolyok Veterok (Ветерок, "Little Wind") and Ugolyok (Уголёк, "Ember") were launched on February 22, 1966 on board Voskhod 3 and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on March 16. This spaceflight of record-breaking duration was not surpassed by humans until Skylab 2 in 1974 and still stands as the longest space flight by dogs. See also Home \| Up \| List of U.S. Presidential Pets \| Russian Space Dogs \| Dempsey \| Hachiko \| Laika \| Lassie Dogs, made by MultiMedia \| Free content and software
Curaçaoans played dominoes near the harbor in the Punda area of Willemstad, capital of the Netherlands Antilles. Credit Meridith Kohut for The New York Times Papiamentu, a Creole language influenced over the centuries by African slaves, Sephardic merchants and Dutch colonists, is now spoken by only about 250,000 people on the islands of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba. But compared with many of the world’s other Creoles, the hybrid languages that emerge in colonial settings, it shows rare signs of vibrancy and official acceptance. Most of Curaçao’s newspapers publish in Papiamentu. Music stores do brisk business in CDs recorded in Papiamentu by musicians like the protest singer Oswin Chin Behilia or the jazz vocalist Izaline Calister. “Mi pais ta un isla hopi dushi, kaminda mi lombrishi pa semper ta derá,” goes a passage in Ms. Calister’s hit song “Mi Pais.” (That roughly translates as “My island is a lovely place, where my umbilical cord forever lies.”) Of 30 or so radio stations here, nearly all broadcast in Papiamentu. Legislators in Parliament debate in Papiamentu. Bookstores sell novels and poetry collections in Papiamentu. Turn on the television and there, too, one hears Papiamentu. Transforming status quo into law, officials here recognized Papiamentu as an official language in 2007, with Dutch and English. That was a rare distinction for a Creole, and one made in few other countries. Papua New Guinea made its English Creole, Tok Pisin, official, as the island nation of Seychelles did with its French Creole, Seselwa. Still, linguists say the endurance of Papiamentu stands out at a time when many Creoles face the threat of being swallowed up by dominant world languages like English or French. Definitions vary, but Creoles are generally considered to be restructured languages formed in the last several centuries from contact with colonial languages like English, Portuguese or Arabic. “While English and French Creoles get more attention, the extension of Papiamentu into different domains like writing, education and policy is incredibly high,” said Bart Jacobs, a Dutch linguist who studies Papiamentu. “This bodes very well for the language’s chances to survive, and possibly even thrive well into the future.” Scholars, writers and composers here say Papiamentu’s resilience has roots in a mixture of radical politics and pragmatic planning. They often tie Papiamentu’s resurgence to a violent uprising against symbols of Dutch power on May 30, 1969, known here as Trinta di Mei. “Trinta di Mei allowed us to recognize the subversive treasure we had in our language, which existed for centuries so we could keep secrets from the Dutch,” said Frank Martinus, 73, a Curaçaoan writer and founder of Kolegio Erasmo, a grade school where Papiamentu is the main language. Papiamentu still has a way to go in usurping Dutch from some spheres. Curaçao’s laws are still written in Dutch. Some schools start out teaching children in Papiamentu, but then transition to Dutch, bowing to the economic opportunities the Netherlands still provide for many islanders. Even Mr. Martinus wrote his 1973 novel “Double Play,” considered the masterpiece of modern Curaçaoan literature, in Dutch. He said that was a necessity at the time he wrote it, since he needed money fast while living in the Netherlands. Now the novel is being translated into Papiamentu by Lucille Berry-Haseth, a Curaçaoan poet. Ms. Berry-Haseth, 73, revels in Papiamentu’s playfulness and capacity to absorb new influences, joking in an interview, for instance, that she was a “puitu killer,” or “cradle robber,” since she was a few years older than her husband. “Puitu” (pronounced poo-EE-too), she explained, came from the Spanish word “pollito,” for “little chicken” or “chick,” while “killer” came from English. Papiamentu’s origins fascinate linguists; it emerged in a Dutch colony but its core vocabulary is a mix of Portuguese and Spanish. (Dutch Creoles crystallized elsewhere in the Dutch empire.) Some scholars say Papiamentu evolved from a Portuguese-based lingua franca once used in West Africa, developing further in the 17th century when Curaçao was an entrepôt for South America’s slave trade and a cosmopolitan Dutch outpost settled in part by Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking Jews. Whatever its origins, Papiamentu today evokes a bit of the rhythm of Brazilian Portuguese, sprinkled with words from Dutch and English but also largely from the Spanish of Venezuela. Papiamentu speakers frequently employ racy slang that would seem out of place in the pages of a family newspaper but not on the streets of Caracas. Moreover, many Curaçaoans are remarkably polyglot, fluently speaking Papiamentu, Dutch, English and Spanish. Papiamentu’s vibrancy is related to the creation in 1998 of the Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma, a language institute that maintains an orthography. Papiamentu also thrives on the street level, with immigrants from Haiti and Suriname often picking up the language quickly and using it instead of Dutch. Derek Bickerton, an American scholar of Creoles (he defines them as “bastard tongues” of “dubious and disputed parentage”), suggests other reasons for Papiamentu’s strength, including the weakness of Dutch compared with other colonial languages. Other linguists say the language thrives because of its use in trade and the relative prosperity of Papiamentu-speaking islands, which have per capita incomes of more than $16,000 a year. Officials here said Papiamentu will keep its official status when the Netherlands Antilles is dissolved in October, a largely anticlimactic political rearrangement. Curaçao and the Dutch half of St. Maarten will become independent nations in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while three other islands become the equivalent of Dutch municipalities. The Netherlands will continue to oversee the defense and foreign affairs of all the islands involved, as it does now with Aruba. For some here, the secret of Papiamentu’s survival lies in its use as a language of both resistance and renewal. Helmin Wiels, 51, leader of the leftist party Pueblo Soberano, which favors a complete break from the Netherlands, said that if Curaçao were to achieve full independence, its official language should be Papiamentu, along with English and Spanish. As for Dutch, he said: “No way. Dutch is a dead language the same as Greek or Latin.” “The preservation of Papiamentu would allow us to absorb the influences of our South American brothers,” he said, “while keeping alive that which makes us unique.” Continue reading the main story
Sealing Stone Foundations: Keep Water Out With Plastic Membrane and Footing Drains Scott Gibson, Contributing Editor I am French-draining around a 1920 sandstone foundation to stop some serious water leaks in the basement. I would like to pressure wash the stone then waterproof it with something. What will seal and stick to sandstone? I have been told to cover the wall with rubber roofing prior to backfilling with pea gravel. Is this a good idea? Old stone foundations can be tough to seal. You're absolutely on the right track with tackling the problem from the outside. Digging a trench around the house to expose the foundation is not something every homeowner is willing to do, but any efforts to seal the foundation from the inside are not likely to work nearly as well. Go to the bottom of the wall, but no farther. For suggestions on your dilemma I called Larry Janesky, the president of a company called Basement Systems. Janesky knows a lot about fixing wet basements. His company does business in the U.S., Canada, and even Europe. You'll want to expose the full depth of the foundation. However, if the foundation does not rest on a separate footing don't dig below the bottom course of stone. You don't want to undermine the wall. Start by replacing any missing or badly damaged mortar. Lime mortar, rather than cement-based mortar, is your best choice. Now for the water. Janesky suggests starting with a coat of asphalt damp-proofing. If your foundation was concrete, he'd probably spray on a rubber-based material that does a much better job of sealing cracks. In your case, though, it would take an awful lot of material to fill all the nooks and crannies in a stone foundation. So instead brush on a good coat of damp-proofing to help seal mortar joints. Add a plastic membrane What will really keep water out of your basement is not the damp-proofing but a special plastic membrane, such as Delta-MS. It's made from high density polyethylene and has a dimpled surface that goes against the foundation wall. The membrane itself is impervious to water. Should any water get behind it, the dimples create a space so moisture can drain down to the footing drains. Those footing drains are your last step. Drain water away from the house In new construction, footing drains are customary. That probably wasn't the case in 1920. Drains are typically perforated 4-in. PVC (some contractors use flexible pipe, others prefer rigid PVC). The pipe is buried in a bed of 3/4-in. stone and protected from an accumulation of silt by filter fabric. Perforations in the pipe pick up water that would otherwise accumulate at the bottom of your foundation wall. Drain lines should run to daylight. That is, you'll have to give that water a place to go by taking advantage of any slope on your property. You might also consider gutters if you don't already have them. They help keep water away from the foundation. One other suggestion: add 2 in. of rigid foam insulation (extruded polystyrene would be a good choice) between the foundation and the Delta-MS membrane. It will make the basement warmer and cut your heating bills. Follow these steps and you should have a dry basement. It's a lot of work. Then again, so is dealing with a wet basement every time it rains. About the Author Search Improvement Project
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 Helen Keller, when asked which of her senses she missed most, chose hearing. She said it was because she so missed the gentle, reassuring sound of her mother’s voice. Hearing is an amazing sense—different from all the others in several important ways. First off, unlike the other senses, the perception of sound starts out as a purely mechanical process. Sound enters the ear as fluctuations in air pressure and those waves physically move the surface of the eardrum. So, technically, our ears feel sounds before we hear them. This is why we can experience certain sounds—like music with a solid bass—in the rest of our bodies as well as our ears, and why even deaf people can enjoy music. What sounds transport you? Where do they take you? Sound has the power to transport us to another place, another time. This effect is pretty obvious when you're listening to music from a bygone era. Not only are those tunes—and often the way they were recorded—dated in their own right, they’re also full of associations with movies, plays and other cultural representations of the time. But I’m also carried away by other, more timeless sounds: a dog barking or children laughing in the distance on a still summer night; the “sizzle” of insects and wind-rustled grasses in a hot August meadow; the congenial snapping of a campfire. These sounds may not remind me of one specific time or place, but they transport me nonetheless—to a place of peace, contemplation and vague yearning. Is their seduction a call back to my childhood, or just to the idea of a simpler, purer life? The otherworldly little clicks, glugs and whines of life underwater in a lake or river; the gregarious chatter of a high "V" of Canada geese cutting its way south through an October evening’s sky. What sounds transport you? Where do they take you? There is hearing—as in simply noticing sounds—and then there is listening. Even though I’m a highly visual person, I find myself listening with every nerve in my body. It completely commands my attention, effectively turning off my other senses. This can be unnerving. For example, when my wife and I go somewhere in the car, if I listen to her (I don’t mean just nod and say “Yes, dear” once in a while; I mean really listen) I cannot see. Let me say that again: when I listen, my eyes don’t work. We could pass our exit, miss a detour, or fly haplessly into a speed trap; I wouldn’t have a clue. We need to turn off that interference, allowing beauty and wonder to begin their quiet, compelling conversation with us. Things we hear, like those we see and touch, have layers. And sound, like those other senses, lets us approach a curiosity in various ways. Sometimes it's not the most obvious sounds that are the most interesting. We’re used to enduring so much man-made noise that Nature’s whispers—wave lap, ruffed grouse thump, wind breath through crispy leaves—get shouted down. Sometimes the only reason for one obnoxious racket is to snatch our attention away from another: TV, radio, cell phones, that breaking and entering of automated pitchmen on our answering machines. Why do we put up with it? And then there’s the “noise” of our own thoughts and concerns. These, too, like static over an old recording, can stifle our ability to hear other kinder, gentler sounds. As we do with our other senses, we need to turn off that interference, allowing beauty and wonder to begin their quiet, compelling conversation with us. When Nature speaks, it’s for a reason; we should listen. She may be speaking to our minds, letting us know of something we should either interact with or avoid. Sometimes the message is for our bodies, reminding us of our physical limits. But she also speaks, as Helen Keller’s mother did to her, to our hearts and our spirits, reminding us of our belonging to her. pea said... Ah, beautifully put Jeffery. It is not surprising that so may folks are out of touch with 'listening' with all the electronic interruptions around. This is why I personally choose to have so few of them. With so many 'things' around to grab we grab them instead of pausing to listen to what our bodies REALLY want when we think we feel hunger or pain. I heard a quote recently that said something like, 'where we used to think we buy instead.' Still, it is up to the individual to feel the emptiness having lots of 'things' actually delivers and find their own way back to nature and realness. Jeffrey Willius said... Hi Pea -- I'm so glad you've found your way to my site! May I ask how you found it? I see you have a wonderful site yourself, one that inspires me (apparently, you've done what I and many others only wish they had the clarity and resolve to do -- good for you!) I've thought a lot about how much of importance in life occurs in the spaces between other, often more insistent things. In your case, you've found meaning in the absence of things so many others embrace. I hope you'll come back again! Please, if you see something of special interest, share it with others! Thanks!! pea said... "I've thought a lot about how much of importance in life occurs in the spaces between other, often more insistent things" - you have a way with words Jeffrey. I am having enormous fun right now talking to lots of people online and I believe I saw your comment on another site but alas I don't know which one - that's how I found you. Share? I already did. I tweeted this fine piece yesterday. Jeffrey Willius said... Thanks, Pea -- Yes, I know how easy it is to forget the often winding route we're led through on our way from one place to another in this virtual cosmos. At any rate, many thanks for your RT and following on Twitter! I hope we'll "see" a lot of each other... Post a Comment
lobby verb definition in Parliament topic from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary verb: Parliament topic (lobbies, lobbying, lobbied, lobbied) [transitive, intransitive] lobby (somebody) (for/against something) to try to influence a politician or the government and, for example, persuade them to support or oppose a change in the law Farmers will lobby Congress for higher subsidies. Women's groups are lobbying to get more public money for children.
Definition of exhortation noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary BrE BrE//ˌeɡzɔːˈteɪʃn// ; NAmE NAmE//ˌeɡzɔːrˈteɪʃn// [countable, uncountable] exhortation (to do something) (formal) jump to other results an act of trying very hard to persuade somebody to do something The play becomes a strong exhortation to enjoy life while you still can. Experience shows that encouragement and exhortation have not produced change.
Visit Your Local PBS Station PBS Home Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason learn more at: BILL MOYERS: What interested me when I read it is that Homer tells the story of Odysseus and his ten years at the Trojan War and his ten years of wandering until he gets back. He tells it from Odysseus standpoint, he tells it from the masculine world view. And you have taken the story of Penelope, his wife, who's a relatively inconspicuous figure, not inconspicuous, she's a relatively marginal figure in Homer's account of it. And you've give her her own voice. So that's how the audience-- THE ODYSSEY goes, it's goes back and forth. Some of it is from Penelope's point of view. She happens to be rather tearful in The Odyssey. I didn't have to deal with that. It's true that people cry a lot more in both THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY then we might find agreeable nowadays. They do a lot of public waling. So I had to deal with the tearfulness. But she must have been a pretty shrewd practical person to have run things for so long by herself. So I make her much more obviously shrewd and practical then she is in the Odyssey. MARGARET ATWOOD: Life is not sugar and spice for anybody. If you're telling it from a female point of view it's going to seem life is not sugar and spice for little girls. But if you tell it from the point of for instance Oliver Twist then it's not sugar and spice for little boys. I did a novel from an entirely male point of view recently cause I was tired of people saying to me, "Why do you always write from the point of view of a woman?" And I was tired of saying, "Cause it's easier." So I wrote one entirely from a male character. And then of course they said, "They did you choose that-- novel from the point of view of a man," at which point I said, "Why not? Is there something wrong with that?" People always wanna know this, but there isn't a hard and fast answer. Historically women have been on the less visibility powerful side of things. However, you'll notice in THE ODYSSEY that all of the characters who help Odysseus are female, almost all of them with the exception of-- of Hermes. The goddesses and the human women who help him out are all women — what am I saying — the human beings who help him out are all women. So they have quite a lot of power within this story, but it's not the kind of power that an Agamemnon and Menelaus etcetera has. BILL MOYERS: It's not their story, they are the extras in a way. I mean they're not-- they-- they--
Expert: Holding a gun changes the way people perceive others, objects March 26, 2012 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Just the act of holding a gun affects a person's perception in a way that makes them more likely to incorrectly perceive others holding weapons that aren't really there, says a Purdue University perception expert. "There are many examples of an unarmed person being shot because it was believed they were holding a weapon," says Jessica K. Witt, an assistant professor of psychological sciences. "We wanted to approach the role perception plays in these scenarios, because perception goes beyond just what a person sees, and awareness of this change in perception could keep people from getting hurt. "We hope that this information will be helpful to anyone who relies on a firearm for self-defense." Witt and James R. Brockmole, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, tested how holding a gun influences a person's ability to identify an obscure object being held by another person in a series of five experiments. The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of Journal of Experimental Psychology. They evaluated when study participants, who were not regular gun users, believed others were holding guns and how quickly they reacted to that perception. The researchers found those holding a gun were more likely to report a gun present compared to those not holding a gun, and they also reported it as a gun more quickly. The situations in the computer images varied across experiments to show some people holding the object to the side or directly at the camera. Other variations included images of people of different races or some people wearing ski masks. Witt will next be looking at similar studies to evaluate perception and gun bias with people who are trained to use guns. "When someone holds a gun they become a shooter, and this changes how that person perceives other people and things," Witt says. "This starts with what the gun is doing to a person as it is held or used because as a shooter, your perceptual systems align with seeing yourself as a shooter. We've seen in other studies how action can influence perception, such as when softball players or golfers have better batting averages or scores they see their target as larger." The study also looked at race, but found that there was not a bias. "However, there are other factors related to race, and that is where stereotypes come in," she says. "If you have stereotypes, and your perception is changed when holding a gun, those factors could interact to increase the likelihood of an overreaction. In our study, there was a gun in 50 percent of the trials. In the real word that is not typically the case, but I would expect in the real world, this gun effect and race stereotype could amplify each other." Her work is supported by the National Science Foundation. Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, Source: Jessica K. Witt, 765-496-1916, Related websites: Difference Makers Note to Journalists: Jessica K. Witt and James R. Brockmole
Rubella Virus Rubella virus is the cause of congenital rubella syndrome when infection occurs during the first weeks of pregnancy. Humans are the only known host of this virus. It is the only member of the genus of Rubivirus and belongs to the family of Togaviridae. Members of the Togaviridae family typically have a genome of single-stranded RNA of positive polarity which is enclosed by an icosahedral capsid. This genome has a length of about 9,757 nucleotides and encodes for two non-structural as well as three structural proteins. The molecular basis for the causation of congenital rubella syndrome is not completely clear. To replicate they attach to the cell surface though specific receptors and are taken up by an endosome being formed. Once the capsid reaches the cytosol it decays and releases the virus genome.
Three Facts that Show Millennials Are More Conservative Than You Think Three Facts that Show Millennials Are More Conservative Than You Think “A new paper analyzing voter trends reveals three surprising facts” There is a reoccurring myth in American politics that states that youth are generally extremely liberal. Conservatives are invited to write off the new generations until they mysteriously reappear later on their voter rolls when they become older, presumably after gaining experience in life. However, there are other explanations as to the cause of the continuous drift to the right over the last decades. One of them is that many young people have always been conservative in the first place. Reports about cohorts of liberal young people are grossly exaggerated. This is particularly the case with millennial voters. A new paper analyzing voter trends reveals three surprising facts that should encourage people to rethink conventional wisdom on their political outlooks. Published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the new study collected data from three surveys that monitored about 10 million American adults from 1970 to 2015. The paper especially recorded the political views of the last three generations. Fact 1: Young People Are More Conservative than Ever The findings are indeed surprising, if not shocking. According to this new paper, millennials are much more likely to identify themselves as conservative than members of Generation X or even the Baby Boomers when they were the same age. Equally astonishing is the fact that more high school seniors identify as political conservatives than those ten years ago. Finally, there is the extraordinary finding that more young people today consider themselves conservative than in the eighties, a heyday of young conservativism during the Reagan era. Fact 2: Young People are More Polarized Than Past Generations A second surprising fact is that not only are millennials more conservative, but they are more polarized than previous generations. Young Americans are more politically polarized now than at any time since 1970. Overall, researchers found that twice as many adults hold “extreme” political positions in the 2010s than in the 1970s. But millennials are not trailing their elders; they are leading the way. This polarization is not around the extremely liberal positions that have long been assumed to be the domain of youth. Rather researchers are finding this polarization is driven by conservative issues. Incredibly, the young people are even more conservative than their parents or grandparents. Among new college students, for example, some 23 percent of millennials lean far right, while only 17 percent of Baby Boomers and 22 percent of Generation Xers now accept the same identifier. Never have such figures been found in previous generations. Fact 3: Researchers Don’t Know Why Millennials Are More Polarized or More Conservative The final fact is that researchers don’t understand why millennials are more polarized or conservative, which is an indication that the data is not biased. Indeed, the research runs counter to the liberal narrative about youth that automatically assumes them to be extremely liberal and Democratic Party-aligned. According to the progressive leftist view of history, youth over time should become more liberal not less. Conservatives should be losing support not gaining it. Subscription8There is nothing in the credentials of the study’s survey takers and compilers to indicate they have a political agenda. If anything, they would probably tend to lean left. This is confirmed by the fact that the researchers and those commenting on the study have expressed surprise by the findings. Some have conjectured that the rise of the Internet and 24-hour news has made the social identifying process more robust. Others point to a political climate that is much more ideological than in the past. However, the search for causes for the increasing shift right have yielded no firm conclusions save that further follow-up research is needed. The importance of these three facts is highlighted by the growing influence of the new generations. Millennials and Gen Xers are now the largest sectors in the American electorate with 126 million voters compared to 98 million Baby Boomers and those from prior generations. It will also force the political parties to be more articulate and convincing since nearly 59 percent of millennials now identify politically as independents. Studies like that of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin are good news for conservatives who desire a return to order. To those who feel blue about the nation’s political future, there is a lot of political red on the horizon. As seen on • jrj90620 Probably leaning right because they have parents leaning left.Normal for teenagers to rebel and go the opposite of what their parents want.I think in the long run.a minority will become more right,if they aren’t gaining from big govt.Unfortunately,govt has grown so large,most people are getting some kind of welfare and will be supporting Democrats.Expect that in 10 years,Hillary’s platform will be considered far right and Sanders the center. • Greg Nagel What about the probability that those who are having and rearing children are probably as a whole more conservative, and therefore their children are tending to also be more conservative? I have long suspected that as a society we may tend in this direction. It is interesting that the research may be proving this hypothesis true. • salesgirl Good point…Liberals tend to abort, contracept or engage in sterile, selfish perversions instead of acting like grown ups about their God given sexuality. • Michael Skaggs I’m not surprised. Young people can spot a phony a lot faster than adults. Also, the one age group in 1998 that was in favor of Bill Clinton’s impeachment was the 15-24 age group. • Alex Being conservative won’t save America just like it won’t save your soul. Besides, America wasn’t founded on conservative principles. Rather, it was founded on Enlightenment principles which were/are very liberal and progressive. These principles are also anti-God. If we could bring back 1776 we would still end up where we’re at now in 2016 only faster. • Lindapg27 Were they, really, anti-God?? Show me where. Thanks! • DavidMacko The reason for the current hopeful trend is not too difficult to understand. Young people have seen the terrible mess which leftist, big government policies have created. The more intelligent ones realize that they will have to suffer a lot longer due to these policies than the rest of us if they are not changed quickly. The study should have looked more closely at the libertarian trend of this conservative revival. • salesgirl Young people have had to suffer the consequences of previous generations’ “liberal” ideology – they suffer the fallout from no fault divorce, “open marriages,” same sex “marriage,” and legalized drugs; they suffer loneliness because of contraception and other perversions of human sexuality have denied them siblings and spouses, they suffer poor education and formation because parents insist on delegating their responsibilities to strangers, institutions and various media (TV video games etc to keep kids quiet, they will not be able to save for retirement thanks to the ponzi scheme they call social security …in short they live the human cost of liberal ideals, they are the losers in the system. Who’d want to perpetuate it, to inflict it on others? • Cole While they claim they are conservative and polarized, are they really? Do they oppose “gay marriage”? Do they oppose BOTH the death penalty and abortion? It is easy to claim something and not even understand what is being claimed. Also, it is not a good thing being polarized. There are certain things that a strong stance in necessary on, but on most other things, some compromise is necessary. This polarization plays itself out in a congress that can’t get anything accomplished. I would have really liked to see more evidence backing up this article.
Learn or Die Why financial education is the key to prospering or perishing in a fast-paced world Everybody learns. For instance, in order to make bread, bakers follow a recipe they've learned, even if it's in their head. Surgeons follow a recipe for complicated procedures, with certain steps and actions that must be taken to see a positive outcome. Even employees at McDonald's have a formula they must follow in order to be good at their jobs. When it comes to money, the same is true. Most of us have heard the saying, "You are what you eat." I have a similar saying: "You become what you study." In other words, be careful what you learn, because your mind is so powerful that you generally become what you put into your head. This is why it's important to be proactive in your learning rather than passive. When you're a passive learner, you become whatever others want you to be rather than what you want to be. When you're an active learner, you take control of your life and your future. Unfortunately, most people are passive learners, and as a result, they are perishing financially in a world that is active and changing. Most people have learned to be employees When it comes to money, the masses generally have one basic formula that they follow, which they learned in school: Work for money. The predominant formula I see in the world is that every day millions of people get up, go to work, earn money, pay bills, balance checkbooks, buy some mutual funds, and go back to work. That is the basic formula. The problem is that those are the old rules of money. They don't work in today's world. The rich know this and have long since moved onto new formulas for making money work for them and for getting rich. This is because the rich have a financial education that they use to prosper. The poor have a traditional education that causes them to perish. The rich take control of their education The thing that separates the rich from the poor is what they learn, how they learn, and the speed at which they learn. If you're tired of what you're doing, or you're not making enough, it's simply a matter of changing your formula for making money by changing what, how and the speed at which you learn. Years ago, when I was 26, I took a weekend class called "How to Buy Real Estate Foreclosures." I learned a formula there that I didn't learn in school. That formula, once I put it into practice, has made me very rich. I also worked to learn while employed at Xerox. I learned how to sell. That skill has also made me very rich. I didn't stop there, however. I'm continually learning new formulas and investing in my financial education. I have attended classes designed for derivative traders, commodity option traders and chaologists. I was way out of my league, but I learned a lot that made my stock and real estate investing more meaningful and lucrative. The point is that I took control of my education, and I am rich because I didn't leave my financial education to what others wanted to teach me or what I was told I should learn. The rich learn fast If you want to take control of your financial education, most junior colleges have classes on financial planning and buying traditional investments. They are a good place to start, but I am always searching for a faster formula. That is why, on a fairly regular basis, I make more in a day than many people will make in their lifetime. The reality is that traditional education is often teaching yesterday's formula. If you want to learn today's formula, you need to be more proactive in your education and be learning much quicker. This is why I suggest attending conferences and seminars, reading books, and being mentored by people who are actually in the industries you're interested in. If you want to be a technical trader, learn from the best technical traders who are actually making money and working everyday, not from professors who have yesterday's theories. The same is true for real estate, business, commodities, and more. These types of people know what's changed, what's changing, and how to adjust to prosper. They have valuable knowledge that will make you rich. In today's world, it's not so much what you know that counts because what you know is old. Rather, it's how fast you learn. If you can find information others are looking for quicker then they can, you'll go far in life. It's a priceless skill. What are you going to do today to boost your financial literacy? Join Our Community—1.5 Million Strong Register for free!
Sand pattern Sand pattern C001/5788 Rights Managed Request low-res file 530 pixels on longest edge, unwatermarked Request/Download high-res file Uncompressed file size: 50.8MB Downloadable file size: 1.8MB Price image Pricing Please login to use the price calculator Caption: Sand pattern. These formations, known as Chladni patterns, occur when fine particles, such as grains of sand or salt, form a unique pattern in response to pure tone vibrations such as musical notes. This sand was placed on a brass plate that was then vibrated using a violin bow. Keywords: brass plate, chladni figure, chladni pattern, form, formation, formed, forming, forms, grains, induced, mathematical, mathematics, maths, movement, pattern, patterned, patterns, physical, physics, plane, pure tone, response, sand, shape, shaped, shift, shifting, sound, soundwaves, symmetrical, symmetry, unique, vibrated, vibrating, vibration, vibrational, vibrations, violin bow
Incredible quadruple transit on Saturn! Incredible quadruple transit on Saturn! Incredible quadruple transit on Saturn! Bad Astronomy The entire universe in blog form March 17 2009 10:45 AM Incredible quadruple transit on Saturn! The folks at Hubble just released this fantastic image! Hubble sees a quadruple transit of moons across Saturn Phil Plait Phil Plait Saturn orbit diagram showing how rings appear Saturn, like the Earth, is tilted with respect to its orbit around the Sun. Our tilt is about 24 degrees, and Saturn's is about 27. This means that twice every Saturn year (which are roughly 30 Earth years in length) we see Saturn's rings edge-on. They can get so thin they practically disappear! That happens in September of this year, and as you can see from the image above image, our viewing angle of the rings is currently very shallow. The icy particles in the rings orbits over Saturn's equator, just as the moons do. That means that if we're seeing the rings nearly edge-on, the orbits of the moons are that way as well. This makes transits -- moons moving across the face of the planet -- more common. So on February 24 of this year, Hubble was able to snap a spectacular series of images of four of Saturn's moons projected on Saturn's visage. You can see how the moons moved in the image below, showing the time-sequence Hubble took of the event. Sequence of Saturn transit images Besides the relative rarity of this event, what strikes me the most is how seriously frakkin' big Titan is: if Titan were orbiting the Sun, there's be no question is would be a planet; it's easily bigger than Mercury! This also shows just how monstrous Saturn is; over 800 Earths could fit inside it. Saturn's gravity is so powerful in can hold all those moons in sway, keeping them in their clockwork orbits for billions of years. I'll add that I went out to look at Saturn a few days ago; it's up when the Sun sets, easily visible in the constellation of Leo. I couldn't help but notice how faint it looked compared to last year, and I realized with a start that this was because the rings appear so thin right now. They reflect so much light from the Sun that when we see them edge-on, Saturn is visibly dimmer! It really brought home to me that Saturn is not just a wandering point of light in the sky, but a world in and of itself, and in fact a system of worlds which interact with each other. And they dance around each other, as they have danced for eons, and will for eons to come.
Argentina's biometrics database and more Latin American surveillance. Latin America's Hypocrisy About U.S. Surveillance Latin America's Hypocrisy About U.S. Surveillance Future Tense The Citizen's Guide to the Future Nov. 4 2013 9:35 AM Latin America's Hypocrisy About U.S. Surveillance Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Photo by NORBERTO DUARTE/AFP/Getty Images A version of this piece first appeared on Global Voices Advocacy. GVA logo In Argentina, a government database holding the pictures and fingerprints of its citizen will soon allow officials to identify citizens based on their DNA, their iris information, and the way they walk. The government-made promotional video (below) explains SIBIOS, the Federal System of Biometric Identification, and now airs on huge LCDs at selected border control stations. In addition to technical details, the video offers dubious philosophical assertions (like a metanarrative on how knowing who you are is equal to the state ID system and/or your physical features) and bold claims about what technology can do—for instance, the video suggests that technology can capture footage from CCTV’s cameras and use a facial recognition software to identify people. But in Argentina, at least, we are not quite there yet. With visual references creepily reminiscent of Michael Radford’s 1984, the video is a significant glimpse into both a political practice and a human rights issue. On one hand, the Argentine case shows how presenting new policies as technological updates to long-standing practices can help them advance unscathed by criticism. Indeed, the new database just takes the national ID registration scheme to a new level. Meanwhile, the Snowden leaks have produced outrage among Latin American presidents, rendering offers of asylum, harsh words at the U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly, and vows to take action “to create the conditions to prevent cyberspace from being used as a weapon of war, through espionage, sabotage and attacks against systems and infrastructure of other count.” Yet privacy and surveillance practices are in Latin America are deeply troubling. Apart from Argentina’s biometric data retention scheme, the country also suffers from a chronic lack of control over its intelligence agencies. Every now and then, the accounts of public officials, politicians, and journalists are hacked and scandal erupts. It happened in 2011 when the emails of famous TV journalists, businessmen, and politicians suddenly were published in dodgy websites of dubious origins. (It's currently under judicial investigation, and reports suggest that the intelligence agencies were involved in what's now known as the Leakymails scandal.) And it happened this year, when it was discovered that the chair of the political desk at a left-leaning news agency—a position he held for 10 years—was a spy from the federal police. As a human rights lawyer working at the Association for Civil Rights in Buenos Aires, I have joined other advocates and organizations in pushing for reform. With the support of Privacy International, we are currently studying the ways in which oversight mechanisms fail and the extent and scope of the SIBIOS initiative. But Argentina isn’t alone in troubling privacy practices in Latin America. In Brazil, during a demonstration against a raise on public transportation fares that took place a few months ago, the intelligence agency designated a special team to monitor activities on social networks and the Whatsapp mobile application. And in Colombia, a now-dissolved intelligence agency, the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, was found to be not only snooping on journalists but also threatening them. They even developed a manual for this initiative. Yet major obstacles lie ahead. First, citizens who happily share information on social networks might not understand the importance of privacy from government intrusion. Second, the counter-narrative usually invoked to thwart privacy arguments is related to crime-fighting, which is—according to polls—one of the main concerns of Latin American citizens. How can we make the case for privacy when questionable practices and policies—as ineffective as they may be—are seen as concrete steps in fighting rising crime rates? Finally, the risks involved in some of the most problematic practices are seen as merely hypothetical: After all, we all live in democratic regimes, and most citizens have not felt the full effect of privacy-invasive policies. Overall, governments have the upper hand, thanks to habit and fear. This can change only through activism inspired by careful research to uncover the actual practices of the states—and a fierce commitment to the basic idea that freedom demands that our conversations are really, truly private.
Register - WIN a $10,000 Safari \| Login Dehumanisation - humans respond May 18, 2004 The writer Ahmad Shah Abed left Afghanistan to avoid forced recruitment by the Taliban. "They started collecting young lads again and many people were killed," he writes. He is in a psychiatric hospital after three years in detention in Port Hedland. Mary Yousefi, an Iranian secretary still in Baxter after three years, writes: "My son finds it hard to sleep and when he does he has very bad nightmares and wakes up screaming." The journalist Cheikh Kone fled Africa after penning an article critical of the Ivory Coast Government. He spent three years at Port Hedland, and writes: "... we have been painted as criminals and terrorists ... we have been dehumanised and our plight ignored". These stories come from Another Country, a collection of refugees' writing published this week, giving voices to people usually not heard. They show the consequences of the Federal Government's actions, which were examined in detail in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's report on Australia's immigration detention policy regarding children. The commission measured the Government's policies and practices against the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia is a signatory. That convention requires detention of children to be a measure of last resort - Australia uses it as the measure of first resort for all children, irrespective of their individual situation. That detention, the commission says, is "automatic, indeterminate, arbitrary and effectively unreviewable". Advertisement Advertisement Imprisoned children are exposed to riots, fires, hunger strikes, protests, lip-sewing, suicide attempts, tear gas and water cannons. They see razor wire and feel frightened and unsafe. Their health - physical and mental - suffers. The trauma that led them to flee to Australia - 93 per cent of children in detention are eventually granted refugee status - is compounded by their treatment in what they thought would be a haven. "No other country in the world has a policy like this," writes the commission, not in praise. It attacks as mean-spirited and destructive a Federal Government policy which goes way beyond the stated aim of border protection. The Federal Government justifies its approach, and maintains a level of support for it, in two ways. It states that the Government should decide who is allowed to enter the country. But it also ensures Australians are ill informed about who these refugees are. Detention centres are placed in deserts and on remote islands; it denies access to most visitors and to the media; and uses terms such as "illegals" and "queue-jumpers". But reports such as the commission's, and books like Another Country, provide an alternative view - that asylum seekers are people rather than numbers, that Australia provides punishment rather than refuge, and that children detained suffer enormously. Overhauling detention laws and practices regarding children, as the commission recommends, is the starting point for a reassessment of Australia's treatment of asylum seekers. Bigger targets for the taxman Apart from its well-publicised blitz on barristers in recent years, the Australian Tax Office's compliance efforts have been directed more towards small fry than the bigger fish waiting to be caught. Now the partners in two large tax advisory and accounting firms have been asked to pay substantial amounts. One firm's partners are said to have settled recently with the Tax Office. Present and former partners in another, KPMG, hit with unpaid tax assessments totalling up to $100 million, are about to. KPMG's chief executive, Lindsay Maxsted, says the firm has no lessons to learn because it has not avoided tax. "We're prepared to settle for a certain amount," he says, "just to keep the monkey off our back." That unyielding stance leaves unclear how much will be paid and indeed, the extent of tax properly payable at all. Assuming, however, that the Tax Office's assessment is fair and correct, these cases point to the potentially significant sums that so far have gone uncollected from professionals and others in the business world. The collection of all taxes properly owed is essential not only to the economic health of the nation, which depends on taxation revenue for the functioning of government and its manifold public services. It is also essential to the taxation system itself. Nothing does more to disincline citizens from paying their fair share than the perception that others are not paying theirs. Strengthening the Tax Office's anti-avoidance capacity is therefore to be welcomed - as long as it operates fairly in all cases. Its successful pursuit of members of the legal profession - uncovering in some cases egregious examples of lack of civic responsibility - and now the settlement of claims against partners in large tax and accounting firms are good signs. The fact that in these latest cases those caught with unpaid assessments have decided to settle rather than go to court suggests another advance. Some years ago, high among the Tax Office's greatest difficulties was not its lack of resources but the willingness of the High Court - especially in the days of the Barwick court - to interpret taxation laws in ways that added to their complexity and defeat the plain intent of the Parliament. That made avoidance easier, at least for those able to pay for the smartest lawyers. If judges no longer prop up the tax avoidance industry that has in the past made the fortunes of many at the bar, it is a huge advance towards a fairer system for all taxpayers.
How To Study Hard Without Getting Bored Part Two In part one of How to study hard without getting bored i said that to enjoy studying, studying each hour a different subject is a way to study hard without getting bored, in this article i will continue talking about this subject by emphasizing some techniques. How to study hard without getting bored part two Since thoughts are the most thing we use while studying, I'll talk about thoughts in this article and how to change it while studying not to get bored. I said earlier in how to study without getting bored that linking things that you like to things that you don't like and connecting uncommon things to common things, are all ways to decrease boredom while studying, so lets now talk about how to study hard without getting bored part two. How to study hard without getting bored part two in points 1. To study hard without getting bored: you have to study different subjects each hour, studying different subject keeps your mind refreshed for more, and keep you out of being bored of studying. For example: if you are interested in studying a certain subject like social studies, you can begin your studying day by studying social studies and then study any other subject that you are not interested about, like math, and then return back studying a subject that you are interested in, like history, and then study a subject that you are not interested in, like chemistry and this goes on till the end of the day. 2. Scan read your subjects: Scan reading is about moving quickly with your eyes on each page to find something that you know about the page and then switch to the next page. This technique can be best done at the end of the year when you have taken your entire subject and know more about your subject than any time else. Scan reading will make you finish the subject more than one time which is a great method to boost your confidence about the subject. 3. Exercise between each time frame (or each hour): Do push-ups and some crunches after each hour, this way you break the boredom you feel each hour. A recent study showed that boredom comes from stagnant thoughts or thoughts that comes from one source, which make you think the same thoughts each time you open a certain subject, and to kill boredom you should shack these thoughts by studying different subjects each hour, also exercising shack the blood in your brain to change your thoughts. 4. Meditation: Meditation is good way to kill boredom while studying hard, it relax your mind, empty some space for more info to come in and give you the energy to study more without getting bored. (for more information read How to Study Hard) Studying hard is about sitting for long hours to study your subject, and this comes at the time of exams, and without having some techniques not to get bored, studying hard can be a hard thing to pursuit, that's why you should always try innovative techniques to study hard without getting bored so that you accomplish your studies better. Many students think that getting high grades in an exam is all about studying harder than thier peers, moreover they studied hard previously but found no additional results for thier hard studying, 3 Hours (Your Exams Guide) is where you will learn how to make use of every minute of studying, because studying in the right way is what you need to know more how to do. Add me on Facebook :) Ahmed Al Abyad \| Create Your Badge
man on pool float Open body language can make you look more attractive. moodboard/Flickr Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy saw her now-husband for the first time on Facebook. She noticed his photo, she said in a recent talk at the 92Y in New York City, because he was positioned "in the most extreme 'power pose' imaginable." 'Power pose' is a term that Cuddy coined in her 2012 TED Talk, and it describes an expansive posture that can make you feel more powerful and confident. Cuddy said her first thought on seeing her husband that way was, "What a jerk!" And second: "He must have a good sense of humor." That Cuddy was drawn to her husband because of his body language isn't as unusual as it sounds. Research suggests that we're more attracted to people in expansive — as opposed to contracted — postures, even if we don't consciously realize it. A 2016 study tested this phenomenon in two settings: speed dating and online dating. In the speed-dating experiment, experimenters filmed 144 speed dates, and reviewed them looking specifically at whether people sat still or waved their hands and arms a lot. They asked each person to indicate how attractive they found their partner and whether they'd like to see their partner again. Sure enough, people who took up a lot of space with their bodies were rated more attractive. What's more, people who displayed open body language were rated higher on dominance, suggesting that postural expansiveness is attractive because it conveys a sense of power. But the researchers wanted to know — could open body language directly cause you to seem more attractive? crossed arms Closed body language can be less attractive. Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design/flickr In a second experiment, they created profiles on a GPS-based dating app for three men and three women. In one set of profiles, the men and women were pictured in contractive positions, for example by crossing their arms or hunching their shoulders. In the other set of profiles, the same men and women were pictured in expansive positions, for example by holding their arms upward in a 'V' or reaching out to grab something. Results showed that people in expansive postures were selected more often than those in contractive postures. This effect was slightly larger for women selecting men. In a follow-up experiment, the researchers had another group of people rate the profile photos on openness and dominance. As it turns out, when people were rated high on openness, they were likely to be rated high on dominance, too. The researchers say looking dominant suggests you have resources to spare, and openness may suggest that you're willing to share them. For online daters, the takeaway is simple. Instead of posting a photo where you're curled up or slouching, consider using one where you're taking up space.
Energy Tower May Reverse Global Warming By: Going Like Sixty - Dec 11, 2007 References: inventorspot Global warming, energy problems, and water shortages could be solved by one gigantic invention: the Energy Tower. Researchers claim that the tower, which stands 3,000 feet high and measures 1,200 feet across, could produce up to 20 times the energy the entire world uses today. It relies on solar power for hot air and work function optimally in hot, arid environments. It can use any form of water flowing through the tower to turn turbines in order to create energy and remove salt if sea water is used. "The Energy Tower might help the Earth cool itself, and actually reverse global warming," Inventor Spot explained. "'Hadley Cell Circulation' is a natural process whereby the earth cools itself, but it mostly occurs only near the equator. But by cooling air around it, often in desert regions, the Energy Tower could expand the effects of this global cooling process." The project is only awaiting funding for a prototype to be built.
Survey Shows More Students Are Bored in Class By \| A yawn in the classroom, a head on the desk, and eyes on the clock are just a few ways students are making time pass during the school day. Corey McGuire is a senior at Leon High School and said, "I'd had days where I sit in class and I say, ‘oh man, when is it gonna ring?’" Saved by the bell, but not by boredom. A new survey by Indiana University Researchers shows daily classroom boredom at the top of the list for many students. Susanna Zorn is a junior at Leon High School and said, "Teachers are really routine sometimes, they don't keep the subject interesting, they just get up there and stick to the schedule and don't change it up." Not for teachers like Rod Durham, who says his own excitement about what he teaches, keeps his classroom alive. "We need to stay motivated and innovative and not fall into a rut, cause if we fall into that than certainly they feel it and they don't want to participate and be part of the class," said Rod Durham, a teacher at Leon High School. Lorrie O'Dell teaches English and added, "I try and gage my classroom experience with what I liked in high school and I teach the way I wanted to be taught, and we have a lot of fun." Moving from the traditional teaching style to one that's more engaging is at least keeping these students away from boredom, and on the ball. The research also reveals more than just boredom. Half of the students surveyed said they have skipped school without a valid excuse and more than one in five has considered dropping out of school.
Edit Article wikiHow to Stop Armpit Sweating Three Methods:Using Topical Anti-PerspirantsReducing SweatinessUsing Medical TreatmentsCommunity Q&A Underarm sweat can be frustrating and unsightly, but knowing how to control the situation will keep you dry and confident. Deodorants only mask the sweat odor, so if you are serious about stopping sweating, you will need to take active measures to address the glands in your underarm area. Learn to use topical antiperspirants correctly, as well as lifestyle changes that can affect underarm sweat, and more vigorous medical options available., Using Topical Anti-Perspirants 1. 1 Diagnose the problem specifically. Before you go buy more of the same old deodorant at the store, you need to think a bit about what exactly your problem is, to get the right product for the job. For some people, the biggest problem with sweaty pits is body odor, while for others the biggest problem is unsightly sweat stains and the resulting embarrassment. • If you struggle from body odor and sweat stains, you need to use an approach that addresses these problems individually. Applying deodorant will do nothing to stop your armpits from sweating though it will mask the odor. • You can't stop your body from perspiring completely without medical procedures, which are typically only performed in extreme cases. If your body stopped excreting salts and toxins through the skin, you would die. 2. 2 Buy an appropriate product for your problem. Depending on your problem, you may either need commercial deodorant, antiperspirants, or a hybrid product, or you may need to talk to your doctor about more powerful prescription anti-perspirant products on the market. • If you've got a problem with body odor, you need to use deodorant that uses gentle, natural ingredients that will mask the odor, and practice other good hygiene practices that will remedy the problem. Read the section for general hygiene tips. • If you've got a problem with sweat stains, most commercial anti-perspirants that use aluminum chloride hexahydrate are effective at controlling the amount of sweat that your underarms produce. 3. 3 Try making your own natural deodorant treatments. There are all-natural commercial deodorants, but you can also create your own natural deodorant to control sweat produced in your underarms. • Mix equal parts of baking soda and water to create a sweat-controlling paste, then let it sit for 20-30 minutes. After that time, rinse off the mixture with water. • Try using apple vinegar or other malt vinegar to neutralize the armpits' natural odor-causing bacteria. This in turn creates a drying effect in your underarm, which conditions your armpits to sweat less and to stay dry. • Try a mixture of lemon juice and tomato pulp before bed. Let sit for 15 minutes. • Make a paste from ground walnut leaves and eucalyptus. • Some people think that sage tea helps to act as a "coolant," keeping the body from sweating. 4. 4 Apply your products properly. In general, if you struggle with underarm sweat, you need to apply your anti-perspirant or deodorant to clean underarms before bed, first thing in the morning, and any time after bathing. Always wash your arms thoroughly with clean water and soap, dry, then apply a thin layer of deodorant or anti-perspirant to your dry underarms. • Some people will only apply deodorant before going out, or before getting dressed. If your underarms have already gotten sweaty, you're doing nothing to control odor or sweat. You need to clean your underarms first, always. • If you've noticed that you're already sweaty, don't apply products over the sweat, which won't do anything to control odors. Instead, you need to wash your armpits using soap and water, try to cool yourself down, then apply fresh product under your arms. Reducing Sweatiness 1. 1 Shower more regularly. Controlling underarm sweat requires more than just products and remedies. Keeping your body clean and dry is essential to controlling your underarm sweat throughout the day. If you struggle with it, it's a good idea to shower your body, or at least your underarms, at least once and as many as two times a day to keep it in check. • During the summer time, if you live in a humid climate, try to keep a little time between a hot shower and getting dressed, if you struggle with underarm sweat. Let yourself completely dry and let your body cool down before you put clothes on, or you may immediately start sweating. 2. 2 Wash your shirts after every use. Especially if you've sweated in a shirt, it's essential that you thoroughly wash your clothes between wearings. Again, underarm body odor is not caused by sweat, exactly, it's caused by the bacteria left from dried sweat, which produces an unpleasant odor. • If you don't wash sweat from clothes, the bacteria from the sweat you leave builds up over time, making the smell worse. It's very important to change clothes regularly and keep them clean. • If you really sweat a lot, change your shirt more often, even if it's in the middle of the day. If you know you might get sweaty at work, keep a pressed shirt if your bag, ready to go if necessary. 3. 3 Wear undershirts. Clean white t-shirts can do a lot to absorb extra sweat, keeping it away from your outer shirt layer. If you're a big sweater, consider layering your clothes so that the sweat won't come through to your outer shirt as easily. • Like your outer shirts, it's also important to keep these washed and clean regularly to avoid unpleasant smells. 4. 4 Shave your armpits. If you have a big sweating problem, it's sometimes true that shaving your armpits can help, somewhat. While shaving your pits won't make your armpits cooler, or produce less sweat, it will keep the sweat from collecting in your armpits, which can make the sweat stains more pronounced, and the odor more prevalent. • It's important to know that body hair, including armpit and even facial hair, actually helps to cool your body in hot temperatures collecting the sweat you secrete, which cools as it evaporates. Shaving body hair might make the sweat less present in your armpits, but it might also make your body sweat slightly more. 5. 5 Change your diet. Strong-smelling foods and some food families will affect the way your sweat smells, according to recent studies.[1] If you already tend toward sweatiness, it's important to be aware of dietary issues that might be making it worse. • Onions, garlic, and other foods in the alliaceous family will cause sulfurous, pungent sweat upon drying. Some spices, like asafetida, cumin, and curry powder will likewise be detectable in the underarms, as well as cruciferous vegetables like cabbage or broccoli. • Diets high in red meat, dairy, or alcohol produce distinctive-smelling sweat that many people become acclimated to over time. • Capsaicin, found in hot peppers, will stimulate the nerve receptors in your mouth in the same way that actual heat does, tricking your body into thinking that you're hot. Your hypothalamus will send out a signal to sweat. 6. 6 Exercise to lower your body-mass index (BMI). If you have more mass on your body, your body will sweat more to keep itself cool. If you're really struggling with underarm sweat, it may be something you can remedy by incorporating cardiovascular exercise into your routine and losing some weight. Get all your sweating out with exercise. • The best and quickest way to lose weight is to increase your physical activity and decrease the number of calories you consume in a day to a stable level. try to incorporate leaner proteins, like legumes, lean chicken, and eggs to replace fried foods, dairy, and red meat, and increase the number of whole grains and vegetables in your diet. • Stay well hydrated throughout the day and try to start exercising small. Start going on long walks in the morning and at night, then showering to remove the sweat from your body and cool down. Using Medical Treatments 1. 1 Talk to your doctor about treatment options. Axillary hyperhidrosis is the clinical name for excessive sweating, and various treatment options available, with consultation from your general practitioner. It's likely that you'll first be recommended specific aluminum-based topical treatments, but there are a variety of other more aggressive treatments available, if the situation is severe. • In some cases, an oral anticholinergic such as Rubinol will be recommended, which helps to curb sweating, particularly in the underarms. • Talk to your doctor about onabotulinumtoxina injections. This treatment method is minimally invasive, and supposedly effective, offering an average efficacy rate of six-eight months. 2. 2 Consider iontophoresis treatment. This type of electrotherapy involves, typically, two to four 20-minute sessions per week. Water is used to conduct a small electric current on your skin, which can help to reduce sweating for several weeks or months. While the treatment has mixed results and is somewhat uncomfortable, it's effective in some cases. 3. 3 Think about thoracis sympathectomy as a last resort for treatment. This treatment uses a small endoscopic instrument that is inserted below the armpit to interrupt the sympathetic nerves that cause you to sweat. This treatment is effective, but risky, with side effects that include complications in breathing, nerve damage and/or causing other parts of your body to sweat excessively. 4. 4 Consider Botox as a longer-term solution. Theoretically, Botox injections can and have been used to control underarm sweat for up to six months, with limited success reported among some people. This should only be considered if you have a problem with severe underarm sweating as treatments can run from $700, and they can be very painful. • There's no proven medical link between Botox and sweating, and it's not generally recommended to seek this as treatment by the medical community. Still, it's used by some. Community Q&A Add New Question • Why do I sweat twenty minutes after I put on deodorant? wikiHow Contributor Deodorant does not cease sweating altogether. It's only meant to prevent you from smelling. Hence its name. I suffer from the same issue. I carry a handkerchief in my bag and wipe the sweat. A bit of cologne helps too. • Why do my armpits sweat if I am still a kid? wikiHow Contributor Even if you are a kid, your sweat glands are producing sweat possibly because you are active or hot and need to cool down. • Why would I smell right after taking a bath, even when I do nothing? How do I get this under control? wikiHow Contributor It's probably because of the heat of the bath. Try rubbing lemon on your underarms, sounds silly but it works. • Why do I always get sweaty armpits only, not any of my other body parts? wikiHow Contributor The armpits are one of the warmest parts of the human body, and they have many sweat glands. They are generally the part of a person that sweats the most. That's why deodorant/antiperspirant is mainly used on the armpits. • I sweat even in the morning, when the weather is cool. Why is that? wikiHow Contributor Your core body temperature increases as your internal clock starts up for the day. Your cells are waking up! • How can I stop sweating all day and night? wikiHow Contributor Use a prescription-strength anti-perspirant if possible. • Can puberty cause excessive sweating? wikiHow Contributor You do tend to start sweating more when you go through puberty than you did as a child. This is most likely permanent. You can use an antiperspirant to help control the sweating. • Why do I sweat and smell all the time? wikiHow Contributor Everyone's body odor can vary from many factors, including what you are eating. Talk to your doctor and use a stronger antiperspirant. • Why do I still sweat a lot even after I've applied deodorant? wikiHow Contributor Deodorant is for masking the smell of your sweat; antiperspirant keeps you from sweating. Look into buying an antiperspirant. • Does deodorant spray work better? wikiHow Contributor There is practically no difference. Antiperspirant is antiperspirant. If you look closely at your deodorant, the ratios between all the ingredients are almost exactly the same, although one is a solid and one is an aerosol. Show more answers Unanswered Questions Show more unanswered questions Ask a Question 200 characters left • Always clean your underarms before you apply the deodorant, or the bacteria will stick to the deodorant. • Let your deodorant fully dry before getting dressed. • Make sure you are cleaned around the area and then dab to dry around the armpit. You may then apply the chosen product. • Applying deodorant at night before you go to bed might help. • Using a talcum powder right after taking bath helps. • Wearing cotton clothing naturally minimizes perspiration. • Shaving your armpits may help, if you do not already.[citation needed] • Keep applying deodorant when necessary. • Oral medication can cause dryness of your mouth or blurred vision, so many people choose not to try this route because of the potential side effects. Article Info Categories: Sweating and Body Odor Hygiene \| Articles in Need of Sources In other languages: Español: detener el sudor axilar, Português: Parar a Sudorese nas Axilas, Italiano: Fermare il Sudore delle Ascelle, Deutsch: Achselschweiß verhindern, Français: arrêter la transpiration des aisselles, Русский: перестать потеть подмышками, Nederlands: Okselzweet stoppen, Čeština: Jak se přestat potit v podpaží, Bahasa Indonesia: Menghentikan Ketiak Berkeringat, 中文: 防止腋下出汗, العربية: معالجة تعرّق الإبط, ไทย: สยบรักแร้เปียก, हिन्दी: बगलों (कांख) के पसीने से छुटकारा पाएं, 한국어: 겨드랑이 땀 억제하는 법, Tiếng Việt: Ngăn Mồ hôi Vùng Dưới Cánh tay, 日本語: ワキの汗を止める Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 1,841,061 times. Did this article help you?
Skip to definition. Noun: wind chime 1. A decorative arrangement of pieces of metal, glass or pottery that hang together loosely so the wind can cause them to tinkle - wind bell Derived forms: wind chimes Type of: decoration, ornament, ornamentation Encyclopedia: Wind chime
Pinterest • O catálogo de ideias do mundo todo A genet is a member of the genus Genetta, which comprises 14 to 17 species of small African carnivorans. Genet fossils from the Pliocene have been found in Morocco. The common genet is the only genet present in Europe and occurs in the Iberian Peninsula and France (Wikipedia). Mais The maned wolf is the largest of the South American canids. It looks like a large fox with reddish fur and long, deer-like legs. The mammal is found in open habitats like grasslands with scattered bushes and trees. The tall legs are likely an adaptation to the tall grasslands of its native habitat. Da Natureza,Maravilhas,Animais Selvagens,Rinoceronte Ameaçada,Rinoceronte Africano,Hipopótamos Rinocerontes,Altura,Fotos Animais,Rhinoceros Animals The Iberian lynx, brought back from the brink of extinction by a team of dedicated biologists in Spain de Tempo da Delicadeza Moçambique: A África que fala Português Baby Monkey in Africa Serval. This African wild cat lives on the savanna. Relative to its body size (2-3 feet,) it is the longest-legged cat in the world. It does not like to climb, but is a very fast runner and agile jumper. The population has been reduced due to killing it for its fur. Animal portrait by Wil Wardle. Cacomistle - tlacomiztli "half-[size]-puma" Aww
Explore BrainMass Economic Indicators Automotive industry, SWOTT etc Working on body of report (AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY) need introduction and conclusion relating to below requirements or any other assist on body, but intro and conclusion are most important. a. Prepare a 1,400-1,750-word paper based on your (instructor-approved) selected industry or firm. Include in your paper a brief histor Monetary policy 1. What major economic indicators would you examine if you were planning to make a large purchase and needed a loan? For example, think about buying a new car, some business equipment, or a house? 2. Describe how the Federal Reserve?s policy-makers influence interest rates. Explain the difference between expansionary and cont Compare and contrast economic indicators for auto industry Compare and contrast at least two different, two-year forecasts from two separate sources, for the six different economic indicators listed below. economic indicators for the auto industry: 1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 2) Unemployment rate 3) Consumer price index (inflation rate) 4) Auto sales 5) foreign exchange rate Income issues Is it possible for the real income of everyone in society to rise even though the income distribution has become more unequal? Prove your answer with a numerical example and show your work. Return on Capital Employed, Residual Income & Balanced Score Card (i)Critically evaluate the use of return on capital employed (ROCE) as a measure of divisional performance on the company's divisions (30%) (ii)Demonstrate whether the move to residual income (RI) as a key indicator of divisional performance would resolve any of the conflicts relating to the capital expenditure proposals bein General Motors summry Can you help me compare and contrast at least two different, two-year forecasts from two separate sources, for the Stock Market and Interest Rates of General Motors? I also need to explain the differences between each indicator in the forecast and a rationalization for which forecasts I believe are most accurate. Lastly, how d Money Supply for Federal Reserve (a) Does the Federal Reserve have complete control over the money supply at all times? Why or why not? (b) What is the difference between the monetary base and the money supply? Economics Multiple Choice 1.In demand analysis, endogenous variables include: a. the weather b. consumer incomes c. interest rates d company advertising 2. Which of the following is a leading economic indicator? a. average prime rate charged by banks b. commercial and industrial loans outstanding c. change in credit for business and consumer Scenario Analysis Huang Industries is considering a proposed project whose estimated NPV is $12 million. This estimate assumes that economic conditions will be "average." However, the CFO realizes that conditions could be better or worse, so she performed a scenario analysis and obtained these results: Economic Scenario Economic indicators and computer hardware industry Pattern of Yield Curve The following statement was released by the FOMC following its recent meeting on March 21. The Committee, although hopeful for a future of moderate growth with moderating inflation, seems more concerned with the potential inflation threat than with a recession threat The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its Economics and Management Review Questions 1. When the exponents of a Cobb-Douglas production function sum to more than 1, the function exhibits A. Constant returns B. Increasing returns C. Decreasing returns D. Either increasing or decreasing returns 2. A major advantage of the ___________ production function is that it can be easily transformed into a line The answer to New Deal The US was devastated by the Crash of 1929 and the following depression. What policies were enacted during the New Deal contain finance speculation and turbulence? CPI calculation Suppose the price index is 100 and a typical basket of goods and services cost $8. Within the basket, you had 4 hamburgers and 3 hot dogs. In 2001 the basket cost $100.00, 2002 the basket costs $175.00, 2003 the basket costs $250.00. Name 4 weaknesses and 4 strengths in the CPI calculation. In addition, if the CPI is imperf 1. (a) What is forecasting? Why is it so important in the management of business firms and other enterprises? (b) What are the different types of forecasting? (c) How can the firm determine the most suitable forecasting method to use? 2. (a)What are qualitative forecasts? What are the most important forms of qualitative fo 18 month forecast of economic indicators Feds Budget/Deficit 1) What is the current US Federal Budget is (2006). What are the major categories of expenditures? What has changed since 2005? Why? 2) What is the current US Federal deficit is. How has it changed since 2005? Why? 3) Increases in real GDP are often interpreted as increases in welfare. What are some problems with th Underground Economy Does the economic activity that takes place in the Underground Economy have any impact upon any Economic Indicator(s)? If so name three Economic Indicators that are affected by activity in the Underground Economy and how they are affected. If not then briefly state your reason(s) why there is no impact. Examining Amazon: E-Commerce Example Problem What type of market structure does Amazon have? Can any of the economic ratios or indices be applied to Amazon (four-firm concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index, Lerner index, Rothschild index)? unemployment in the Cattle Industry 1. Define unemployment in the cattle Industry. 2. Describe a current status of unemployment in the Cattle Industry. 3. I need a graph illustrating the historical trends on unemployment for the Cattle Industry. The answers need to be related to the indicators and their historical development to the Cattle Industry. Ca Financial Statement Analysis Based on the information shown below for Pegasus, Inc.: A. Compute the reported ROA for each portfolio component for 2003 and 2004. B. Compute the mark to market ROA for each portfolio component. C. Explain what the data set forth in A and B suggest about investment performance for 2004 compared with 2003 and which is a Economics problems- 35 Multiple choice questions on economics Please see the attached file for full problem description. --- 1. In the long run, a firm is said to be experiencing increasing returns to scale if a 10 percent increase in inputs results in : A. an increase in output from 100 to 120. B. a decrease in output from 100 to 90. C. an increase in output
Explore BrainMass political parties What are the differences in the functions of the party-in-government, the part-in-electorate, and the party-in-organization? Solution Preview Hi There, <br>The answers to your questions can be found in the below text: <br>Although American parties are known by a single name and, in the public mind, have a common historical identity, each party really has three major components. The first component is the party-in-the-electorate. This phrase refers to all those individuals who claim an attachment to the political party. They need no be members in the sense that they pay dues or even participate in election campaigns. Rather, the party-in-the-electorate is the large number of Americans who feel some loyalty to the party or who use partisanship as a cue to decide who will earn their vote. Most Americans who actually identify with one of the parties acquired that affiliation either as a result of their family upbringing or by coming of age during the era of their party's dominance. Party membership is not really a rational choice; rather, it is an emotional tie somewhat analogous to identifying with a region or a baseball team. Although individuals may hold a deep loyalty to or identification with a political part, there is no need for members of the party-in-the-electorate to speak out publicly, to contribute to campaigns, or to vote a straight party ticket. Needless to say, the party leaders pay close attention to the affiliation of their members in the electorate. <br>The second component, the party organization, provides the structural framework for the political party by recruiting volunteers to become party leaders; identifying potential candidates; and organizing caucuses, conventions, and election campaigns for its candidates. It is the party organization and its active workers that keep the party functioning between elections, as well as make sure that the party puts forth electable candidates and clear positions in the election. When individuals accept paid employment for a political party, they are considered party professionals. Among that group are campaign consultants; fundraisers; local, state, and national executives; and national staff members. If the party-in-the-electorate declines in numbers and loyalty, the party organization must try to find a strategy to rebuild the grassroots following. <br>The party-in-government is the third component of American political parties. The party-in-government consists of those elected and appointed officials who identify with a political party. Generally, elected officials cannot hold official party positions within the formal organization. Executives such as the president, governors, and mayors often have the informal power to appoint party executives, but their duties in office preclude them from active involvement in the party organization most of the time. <br>Ties to a political party are essential to the functioning of government and the operation of the political process in the United States. Republican representatives, senators, and governors expect to receive a hearing at a Republican-controlled White House if they request it. In return, Republican presidents call on party loyalty when they ask the legislators to support their programs. This runs true for Democrats, ...
LECTURE 18 : Chronic diseases – Psora Psora is the beginning of all physical sickness. Dr Samuel HAHNEMANN (1755-1843) Dr Samuel HAHNEMANN (1755-1843) All the diseases of man are built upon psora ; hence it is the foundation of sickness ; all other sickness came afterwards. Psora is the underlying cause, and is the primitive or primary disorder of the human race. It is a disordered state of the internal economy of the human race. This state express itself in the forms of the varying chronic diseases, or chronic manifestations. If the human race had remained in a state of perfect order, psora could not have existed. The susceptibility to psora opens out a question altogether too broad to study among the sciences in a medical College. It is altogether too extensive, for it goes to the very primitive wrong of the human race, the very first sickness of the human race, that is the spiritual sickness, from which first state the race progressed into what may be called the true susceptibility to psora, which in turn laid the foundation for other diseases. If we regard psora as synonymous with itch, we fail to understand, and fail to express thereby, anything like the original intention of Hahnemann. The itch is commonly supposed to be a limited thing, something superficial, caused by a little tiny bit of a mite that is supposed to have life, and when the little itch mite is destroyed the cause of itch is said to have been removed. What a folly ! From a small beginning with wonderful progress, psora spreads out into its underlying states and manifests itself in the large portion of the chronic diseases upon the human race. It embraces epilepsy, insanity, the malignant diseases, tumors, ulcers, catarrhs, and a great proportion of the eruptions. It progresses from simple states to the very highest degree of complexity, not always alone and by itself, but often by the villainous aid of drugging during generation after generation for the physician has endeavored with all his power to drive it from the surface, and has thereby caused it to root itself deeper, to become more dense and until the human race is almost threatened with extinction. Look at the number of the population upon the face of the earth, and notice how few arrive at the age of maturity. It is appalling to think of the number of infants that die, and these largely from the outgrowths, or outcoming of psora. We see little ones born who have not sufficient vitality to live. The congenital debility, and marasmus, and varying diseases of a chronic character that carry off the little ones have for their underlying cause the chronic miasms. The principal underlying cause is psora, next syphilis and next sycosis. It required twelve years for Hahnemann to discover and gather together the evidence upon which he came to his conclusions. When a patient came to him who manifested chronic disease in any way he took pains to write down carefully in detail all the symptoms, from beginning to end, with the history of the father and mother, until he had collected a great number of appearances of disease, not knowing yet what the outcome would be ; but after this careful writing out of the symptoms of hundreds of patients, little and great, and comparing them and then gathering them together in one grand group, there appeared in the totality of this collection a picture of psora in all of its forms. Up to this time the world had been looking upon each one of these varying forms as distinct in itself, e.g., all the striking features of epilepsy would be gathered together, and epilepsy was then called a disease ; but epilepsy is only one of the results of disease, and never appears twice alike. Every person who has epilepsy differs from every other epileptic on earth. But epilepsy, insanity, diabetes, cancer, Bright’s disease, and every other case of so-called disease have all had a beginning and one beginning. They are not distinct, but operate in each person in accordance with that individual. Hahnemann says that before he began that collection of symptoms he was struck somewhat with wonder that Nux Vomica and Ignatia and such short acting medicines were able to cure only a single manifestation of disease, a group of symptoms, or they would relieve for a time and then the symptoms would come back, although he had followed up the treatment to the best of his knowledge. At the end of a case, he could discover that there had been a continuous progress in spite of the fact that he had relieved his patient of suffering a good many times. So it is, while acute acting remedies are used, and you will use them if you do not know the psoric doctrine. The short acting medicines are the ones that contain the counterparts of the acute, manifestations of psora, and hence when these acute manifestations appear in groups of symptoms you will naturally select acute remedies, and you will palliate them from time to time, but at the end of years you will look upon every individual case, and will notice that the case has been steadily progressing. You will find that you have not shuck at the root of the trouble, that there is an underlying something present and prevailing and that the disease is steadily growing worse. Hahnemann saw this and it was a mystery to him because he had acquired a perfect mastery over the acute diseases with the acute remedies. Such apsorics had been at this time very well proved, Belladonna, Aconite, Bryonia, Arnica, China, Nux Vomica, etc., etc., and these had been found to be perfectly suitable for the acute manifestations of psora and for the acute miasms. Hahnemann had not yet learned that the acute miasms were utterly and strictly acute miasms, and could not, therefore, compare acute miasms with chronic miasms, or vice versa. He had not seen them yet as miasms. One will not understand the acute miasms clearly until able to compare them with chronic miasms. They side up one with another, and make it wonderfully manifest. The acute miasms come on either with sufficient violence to cause death to patients, or with less violence, wherein there is a period of progress and a tendency to recover. They cannot be prolonged in the patient, and must subside. The acute miasms are not governed in accordance with fixed time in order to be acute miasms, because they have times of their own. Neither is there a time after the lapse of which the chronic miasm is said to be chronic. According to the old school, diseases have been divided into acute, sub-acute and chronic. If any sickness ran longer than six weeks, it would be placed among the sub-acute ; if it ran on indefinitely, it was called chronic. But a chronic miasm is chronic from its beginning, and air acute miasm is acute from its beginning. It is from its nature, from its capabilities, from what it will do to the human race, that we must name the miasm. So Hahnemann tells us frankly that he was astonished to find at the end of a certain length of time no progress had been made with his remedies in chronic diseases. The symptoms appeared with their own regularity, much stronger than before, which showed they were progressing. Hahnemann enters not only a difficult study, but with all sorts of difficulties, and after studying for twelve years he developed the fact that in all the cases observed there was an underlying chronic disease, a chronic miasm, which had a tendency to progress and to end only with the life of the patient. Then he bent himself to the provings of medicines in order to discover from them a likeness to the chronic miasms. Had he never come to this conclusion, he would not have noticed such things. When he had brought all the symptoms before the mind in one grand collective view, he began to observe and reflect as to what was the first, and what was the second, and later appearances in the line of progress in this deep-seated chronic miasm. Thus it was that he observed amongst those who were dying with phthisis that in their younger days they had a vesicular disease between the fingers and upon the body, which had been suppressed by the ointments in vogue at that time. Then the question naturally arose, what had this suppression to do with that which came afterwards ? As to how Hahnemann figured out the answer to that question you can read in his Chronic Diseases, but he does not tell it all ; although he gives many pages of experiences and observations. You will more clearly understand and be better prepared to take up Hahnemann’s line of thinking, if you enter into the use of appropriate medicines and apply principle to the progress of disease — that is, you will see a demonstration of his teaching in the curative treatment of a very large number of cases of sickness by applying principles : that diseases get well in the reverse order of their coming, that the latest symptoms will be the first to go away, and that the older symptoms will come and go in reverse order in which they appeared ; old symptoms, in the form of eruptions, come back, old chills, which have been suppressed, come back, and many other chronic manifestations come back again in a sort of successive order. If we observe these things we must come to the conclusion that when we have driven these oldest and deepest troubles back to their original manifestations, which was perhaps a vesicular eruption, and if we see nothing more simple than this eruption, we must conclude that the suppression of such an eruption was the beginning of trouble. If you practice accurately, you will observe these things ; if you are not a success in practice, you will not observe these things. Many patients are so badly off that this is never observed, and then we have the onward progress ; that is, we have the patient declining, instead of the disease declining. If that patient is only better as to symptoms, and his old symptoms do not come back, we know that he is only being palliated, that the disease processes are only being restrained, but that it is not a case of cure. There is one thing that you should know and it is sometimes best to say it to the patient, and that is that they should not take too much courage, because a patient that takes too much courage may take too much discouragement when reverses come. So when a woman walks into your office and says beautiful things by way of gratitude for what you have done for her, because you have mitigated the deep-seated trouble, perhaps chronic sick headache, or epilepsy, but she cannot tell you of an eruption returning or you have observed no backward progress of that disease, no reverse order of the symptoms, it is often well to say to that patient, that notwithstanding the fact that she appears to be much improved the trouble is not over for all that. On the other hand, it is sometimes wise to say : “If an eruption should come out, do not on your life meddle with it,” because they will probably use what they say relieved it in the first place, some Sulphur ointment, or some other miserable stuff. The physician should bear in mind to caution the patient against removing any of the symptoms in the case. When the patient comes and reports such wonderful tales of progress, take down your record and look it over. If you have in the record failed to get the earlier history of the case, endeavor then, if possible, to find out something about the previous symptoms, the earlier symptoms, and then it is sometimes well with an intelligent person to say : “Do not be surprised, do not be alarmed, if such and such symptoms return,” cautioning the patient to report to the physician and apply nothing. Now, it is from these circumstances that we observe finally, where the patient is so well instructed not to do anything, to take no drugs, to keep the life as pure as possible, to keep the physical forces untrammeled by violence, it is under such circumstances that we shall observe the coming back of symptoms that have long been suppressed. Long after the treatment has ceased, a patient will come back and say : “This old trouble has come back on me ; can you do anything for it ?” You have now to look over the record, and you see that sure enough this is like what came out in the beginning of this trouble ; that psora existed in its simplest form of a vesicular eruption upon the child, and that it was suppressed. These are the simplest cases of psora, because these can be counted collectively in one person ; but the complicated forms of psora are those that are inherited. Amongst the simple forms of psora, after the eruptions disappear, catarrhal troubles come on, with their varying manifestations. You prescribe for all these symptoms, and presently the eruptions of childhood come back, especially in a younger person. If it is in a more complicated state, we do not get the patient back to the original form of psora, because the parent had the simple form of psora, and the child gets a complex form from those which were present when the patient came to you. You will seldom see the vesicular form or simple form brought back except in those who have had the simple form, but forms approximating the simple will return if the vital energy of the economy is being turned into order. Since this, then, is the natural form of economy, we see we are gradually travelling back towards the beginning of psora or its earlier forms. If you are treating a vicious form of scaly eruptions, dry hard homey scales, you will, under accurate prescribing, notice these scaly formations disappear, but after the vital force has become strong enough you need not be surprised to see vesicular eruptions develop, for the original so-called disease had changed from its vicious squamos form to the milder vesicular form. Different names have been given to the skin diseases, but we see that names are of very little value. The different eruptions change into varying forms but they are all from one cause, and will come back in their successive stages under true homoeopathic treatment, This is seen quite often enough to demonstrate what I am talking about, and from this alone we can ascertain that psora begins with the simple isolated vesicular form of eruption. At times you will be treating the more advanced and complicated forms of psora, where there are organic changes ; after the patient gets the homoeopathic remedy for a while he comes to a standstill, seems to be doing nothing, but in the course of time vicious ugly eruptions come out upon the body. This is a good sign in so far as the disease manifests itself upon the skin, or in catarrhal discharges, the internal organs are safe, but when these outward manifestations are stopped the internal parts suffer. If this be true, what conclusion must we come to as to the good or injury done to patients when every catarrhal discharge is stopped and every eruption upon the skin is driven away by outward applications ? What are we to conclude when we see that the idea of the medical world of today is to stop everything that appears upon the surface ? When we know the truth in regard to psora, we see what a wonderful damage it is to the patient to have these outward signs stopped in this way, what a tremendous shock it is to the economy, and how it is that psora is pushed on and made worse, made more complex from year to year, from generation to generation, until it is the fundamental disease of the human economy and the basis of all the trouble in man. At the present day, as you are now prepared to hear, we can really learn more about psora by watching it in its backward progress than by watching it in its onward progress in any particular case. It is the cause of the chronic manifestations of disease that are not syphilitic or sycotic. We are able to group together in the mind all those vicious constitutional states (not syphilitic or sycotic) that are called organic disease, as the results of psora. Then the five forms of Bright’s disease are not diseases, but the result of psora operating upon the economy and attacking the kidney. The common chronic diseases of the liver are not diseases, but the localization of psora in the liver ; the lung diseases and heart diseases and brain diseases are not diseases, because they have one single origin, and from this origin we follow their progress and thus study them from their beginnings to their ends, from cause to ultimates. Only in this way will we have a clear knowledge of their internal cause and beginnings. 9 thoughts on “LECTURE 18 : Chronic diseases – Psora 1. Dr Imtiyaz says: I found your website by searching in Google. I am very glad that you spent your time, money & effort for spreading the information from book’s to everyone who have an access to internet. I appeciate your aim & my best wishes is always for these types of works for making good things available breaking the business of the profit-hunting businessmen. Thank you very much. 2. Rohini says: Thank you for a very interesting article. Being a lay person, I am sure I have not understood it in its entirety, but somethings have certainly been understood! Can psora also manifest as a dry itch on the skin, where there is nothing noticeable on the surface, not even a redness? I am asking this because a person known to me had been complaining of an itch on the skin just below the left shoulder blade. The area was rubbed, off and on, with natural oils (olive, mustard, etc.) for relief from the itchiness. No allopathic medicines were applied or eaten. It now turns out – about a year later – that she has destructive lesions on the ends of the 4th and 5th ribs, a small soft internal growth in the same area, and some effusion either in the lung or in the pericardium. Could the extremely itchy skin, which lies above these internal problems, have been an indications of these things? Thank you. • Golam Md Sarwar Jahan says: Thank you for excelent article abouct chronic diseace. Can I prescibe Conium or kastikam for vein tumor or cyst of kneck and wich is by born. Best Regards 3. Adi seshu Kumar says: Dear Dr. Sheila, Thank you very much for your excellent presentation of the manifestation of psora in to a chronic disease when it is not treated right and suppressed by allopathic. I am a perfect example to your article and Dr. Hahnemann’s doctrain To give my history of supressed psora related eczema condition , from child hood (4-5 years) on wards and until 25 years old, I suffered from skin eczema on my both legs not able to be cured by many treatments. As I grew up, realized that I have sea food allergy though I was force fed fish while I was young later I stopped eating fish, eggplant resulted in reduction of my eczema. Having been told about the greatness of homeopathy, I tried my homeopathic doctor for eczema from my home town back in 1980-81, my symptoms flared up so badly that I had very bad eruptions with oozing discharge and my lymph nodes swollen, my homeo doctors acknowledged that he gave high potency medication which resulted in a severe flare up, since I could not tolerate the symptoms, he was worried, advised me to take steroids to bring down the eruptions which ultimately resulted in a chronic lung disease called “Sarcoidosis. The trigger point being the death of my father back in 2001 and followed by grief and suppression of anger resulted in panic attacks and anxiety and suppression of anger. I came down with sarcoidosis in 2000 December yet no cure. I tried different homeo treatments from my hometown in Andhra but no solution and cannot get off the Prednisone (steroids). I tried Marshall’s protocol out of desperation 2008 August-2010, which was too difficult and dangerous. Now I am trying homeo medications from reputable doctor from India and find relief and I am being treated for Psora and the other two conditions which my only hope. Could you please let me know that if I am going to get my eczema an eruptions re-appear as a part of healing that you described above? If so how can I be more prepared than last time and any suggestions? Have you treated any sarcoidosis patients affected with pulmonary granulomas, effecting lungs, if so could you let me know. Thank you so much. • Melvin says: Dear Adi, It is very unfortunate to have such a disease, You shouldnt have taken steroids to suppress ur symptoms. Try pranayam (Breathing exercises, yoga) , it would definitely help . I myself is suffering from psoriasis, Pranayam helped me a lot. It increases ur oxygen levels, and oxygen is what we need, as oxygen reaches each and every part of ur body, all ur organs would be nourished & rejuvenated.Once ur health improves,its marvelous healing powers would cure itself Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Extension (Mac OS) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search On the classic Mac OS (the original Apple Macintosh operating system), extensions were small pieces of code that extended the system's functionality. They were run initially at start-up time, and operated by a variety of mechanisms, including trap patching and other code modifying techniques. Initially an Apple developer hack, extensions became the standard way to provide a modular operating system. Large amounts of important system services such as the TCP/IP network stacks (MacTCP and Open Transport) and USB and FireWire support were optional components implemented as extensions. The phrase "system extension" later came to encompass faceless background applications as well. Extensions generally filled the same role as DOS's terminate and stay resident programs, or Unix's daemons, although by patching the underlying OS code, they had the capability to modify existing OS behaviour the other two did not. The INIT mechanism[edit] The concept of extensions was not present in the original Macintosh system software, but the system nevertheless had a private patching mechanism that developers soon learned to take advantage of - the INIT loader. This code would search for system resources of type 'INIT', and load and run them at boot time. The code resources had to be stored directly in the Mac System suitcase's resource fork, meaning it was only really available to "power users" who would be comfortable using ResEdit or other resource editor. Since taking advantage of this mechanism was an unsupported hack, and only 32 INITs could be loaded in this manner, Apple responded by providing a more managed solution. Initially this itself was in the form of an 'INIT' resource with ID 31 placed in the System file that would search for further files of type 'INIT' in the System Folder, and load and run INIT resources inside them. (This is why some veteran Mac programmers still refer to the extensions loading mechanism as the "INIT 31 trick".[1] INITs could now be installed simply by placing a file in the System Folder, well within the abilities of the average Mac user. Starting with System 7, extensions were relocated to the Extensions folder within the System Folder for convenience, and an auto-routing mechanism was implemented so that placing an extension into the System Folder through drag and drop would actually place the file in the appropriate subfolder. Extensions retained the resource type of 'INIT' throughout their lifetime, and the loader was gradually enhanced to search for these resources in numerous places, including in the resource forks of control panels in a variety of formats and the Chooser. INITs evolved into system extensions, gaining additional ad hoc protocols along the way, such as supplying an icon to be displayed at boot time (the origin of this was 'ShowINIT'). The 'parade of puzzle pieces and icons' across the screen as each extension loaded became familiar to all Mac users. Apple themselves eventually released major (but optional) pieces of the operating system as extensions, such as QuickTime, QuickDraw 3D and many others. A substantial amount of services and drivers in Mac OS—both official and third party—were provided as extensions, allowing for the OS to be trimmed down by disabling them. System extensions were a common source of instability on the Macintosh, as third-party code was of variable quality and would often patch the system in ways that did not always work correctly. Some extensions didn't work properly together, or worked only when loaded in a particular order. In addition, different extensions might try to patch the same part of the system, which could lead to extension conflicts and other instability. Tracking down these sources of trouble was another task most Mac users encountered at some point. Troubleshooting Mac OS extensions could be a time-consuming process of bisecting and trial and error. The simplest way to clean-boot the operating system was to hold the shift key: loading of extensions would be bypassed. System 7.5 added the Extensions Manager, which allowed the user to quickly enable or disable particular extensions, and also to define sets of them that would work correctly together. Extensions Manager came with two read-only base sets provided: one that contained the subset of extensions needed for basic OS operation, and one that enabled all the official extensions that shipped with the OS but disabled all third-party extensions. The loading order of extensions was a side-effect of the GetFInfo function that was used by the loader to enumerate the files in the Extension folder. While Apple always have said that the order that results from enumeration of files using this function is undefined, on HFS volumes this function enumerated files in the order stored in the HFS catalog. People figured out that changing the first character in the file name could change the extension loading order, which caused trouble when Mac OS 8.1 moved to HFS+. Apple ended up having to change the loader to manually sort the filenames returned by this function into a table, and provided an interface to allow software to manually change the table.[2] Configuration and control panels[edit] System extensions had no user interface: there was no standard mechanism by which the user could configure the services provided by an extension. Extensions were able to alter the graphical interface (such as adding new menus to the menu bar) and thus accept user configuration, or they could be accompanied by an application to provide the configuration interface. With System 7, control panels become separate Finder plugins on disc that could be launched by the user. By inserting INIT code into a control panel, it became possible to build extension/control panel hybrids that modified the operating system at boot time and contained their own in-built configuration interface in the same form as any other operating system control panel. Faceless background applications[edit] MultiFinder and System 7 and later supported faceless background applications similar to UNIX daemons, though using cooperative multitasking. Examples included Time Synchronizer (daylight saving time adjustment and remote time synchronisation), Software Update Scheduler, and Folder Actions (folder event handling). Faceless background applications were regular applications with the restriction that they did not show up on the application menu. The only technical differences between a faceless background application and a regular application were that the "Only background" flag was set in the 'SIZE' resource. They were prohibited from opening a normal application-level window: if they did so, the system would freeze. They were free to open global floating windows, however, since these could neither gain nor lose focus. The Control Strip in Mac OS 8 and 9 was an example of a faceless background application that displayed a global floating window to provide user interaction. The Application Switcher was another. However, the user was not aware at any time that the Control Strip was a running process; it was simply presented as an extra interface feature. The system simply described faceless background applications as "system applications".[citation needed] Language features in the Open Scripting Architecture (and thus AppleScript) were initially implemented as dynamically loadable plugins known as "scripting additions" or OSAXes. In Mac OS 8 and 9, these were augmented by faceless background applications that were loaded in the background on demand. Just as with regular applications, these applications were accessed using tell clauses: the global namespace was not updated as was the case with OSAXes. The operating system did not indicate the launch of such processes nor indicate whether or not they were running. Other non-INIT extensions[edit] INIT-type extensions were loaded at boot time to update the operating system. Confusingly, various other files could be placed into the Extensions folder as well, many of which were not loaded at boot time. The most notable of these were shared libraries which were commonly put into the Extensions folder for ease of location. Shared libraries were not loaded at boot time. INIT-type files were not the only type of system extension. Another type was scri, or WorldScript extension. The BootX Linux bootloader was implemented as a scri simply such files were loaded very early on in the boot process, before all other extensions. BootX could then display a dialog offering to let the user finish booting Mac OS or load Linux instead. See also[edit]
Triangle choke From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the triangle choke using the legs. For usage of the arms in a similar manner, see Arm triangle choke. Triangle choke The triangle choke applied at an early judo tournament. Classification Chokehold Style Judo AKA Sankaku-Jime Parent hold Guard (grappling) A triangle choke, or sankaku-jime (三角絞) in judo, is a type of figure-four chokehold which strangles the opponent by encircling the opponent's neck and one arm with the legs in a configuration similar to the shape of a triangle. The technique is a type of lateral vascular restraint that constricts the blood flow from the carotid arteries to the brain. Technique history[edit] The triangle choke was seen in early Kosen judo competition,[1] and Tsunetane Oda, a judo groundwork specialist who practiced in the early 20th century,[2] demonstrated the triangle choke on video. [3] The technique is often used in grappling and mixed martial arts, a notable early example being UFC 4 when Royce Gracie used the choke to defeat Dan Severn to win the tournament. The standard triangle is particularly favored by practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, however several side or inverted triangles, typically seen more often in Judo competition, have been used in higher-profile MMA matches, such as when Toby Imada won 2009 Submission of the Year with an inverted triangle choke,[4] when Welterweight Chris Lytle submitted Matt Brown with an inverted mounted triangle/straight armbar at UFC 116 in 2010,[5] or in the Flyweight bout of Bellator LXXVII in 2012, when Matthew Lozano submitted Dave Morgan with an inverted triangle choke.[6]McGeary faced Kelly Anundson in the finals at Bellator 124 on 12 September 2014.[7] He won the fight via inverted triangle choke in the first round.[8] It was the first time an inverted triangle was attempted in Bellator MMA, also used by Fabrício Werdum to defeat Fedor Emelianenko at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum on 26 June 2010, thus ending Emelianenko's 28 unbeaten fight streak. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt Marcos Torregrosa landing a flying triangle choke. Tactically speaking, the triangle choke is a very effective counterattack employed from the bottom position, generally applied from the guard, or open guard (defensive positions). The choke can also be applied in the mount, side mount and back mount positions by more advanced grappling practitioners. The need for isolation of one arm could be a rationale for the frequency with which it is attempted in mixed martial arts and combat sports due to the brief vulnerability of one arm while executing hand strikes against an opponent in one of the aforementioned positions. Soldiers demonstrating a triangle choke Defensive Action[edit] To escape a triangle choke, the defending practitioner must first elevate the head so as the preclude the full force of the submission, subsequently the practitioner must bring his arm away from opposition with his own carotid artery. Once out of immediate danger of loss of consciousness, the practitioner can concentrate reversing or escaping the figure-four lock. In popular media[edit] In the film Lethal Weapon, Mel Gibson's character Martin Riggs uses the triangle choke on a villain Mr. Joshua played by actor Gary Busey. Rorion Gracie is credited as the film’s special technical advisor: Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[9] In the film Abduction, Taylor Lautner's character uses the triangle choke on an antagonist. In the film Haywire, Gina Carano's character uses the triangle choke on Michael Fassbender's character. During a school fight in the anime Ikki Tousen, the character Ryomou Shimei uses the triangle choke on another character, Hakufu. In the 2013 film Oblivion, Tom Cruise's character (Tech 49, Jack Harper) subdues Tech 52 with a triangle choke, to avoid injuring him. Paul Walker, who was a practitioner of Brazilian Ju Jitsu, attempted to triangle Vin Diesel's character in the Fast and Furious series. In episode 5 of Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series, a pit fighter named 'Bloodsong' uses this technique while on supine position to choke Asher, one of the 5 playable protagonists in the game. In episode 3 of the God Eater anime, Alisa Illinichina Amiella uses the triangle choke on Lenka Utsugi, the main protagonist. Further reading[edit] See also[edit] External links[edit]
Sunday, July 1, 2007 What is it School teachers, preachers, parents, and even a few philosophers often claim to be authorities on the dictates of morality. But where does morality really come from? From society’s customs? From God’s commandments? From the cold, impersonal commandments of pure reason? Or from human emotions and sentiments? Join John as Ken as they explore the meaning and origins of morality with Alex Miller from the University of Birmingham Listening Notes John begins by asking Ken where morality can possibly originate, and Ken describes one of the most common theories of morality: what God says is right is right, and what God says is wrong is wrong. John relates this to one of Plato's early dialogues, and wonders whether what is right is right because God makes it right, or because God recognizes that there is something about it that makes it right? Ken suggests that social conventions and human psychology could be an alternative origin for morality, but John points out that the same paradox applies: does society cause certain actions to be right or wrong, or does it just recognize the right-ness or wrong-ness of actions? Of course, sometimes societies are wrong, they justify slavery and allow the mistreatment of women, and this creates a whole new set of problems for John and Ken, who ultimately conclude that moral relativism has serious flaws, and these injustices are truly wrong. But this insistence on absolute moral truths brings them back to the original question! In order to help them along, Ken introduces Alex Miller, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, and author of An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics, and excellent introductory text on the subject. John begins by asking Alex what it says about morality that people are constantly arguing about its nature and origins. Alex thinks this might show that there is not really a fact of the matter concerning morality, just like an opinion about the tastiest ice cream is subjective, so too ideas about morality might not be based on any fact of the matter. On the other hand, Alex also suggests all the disagreement might indicate that morality is really a very complex issue that requires the consideration of many different disciplines and factors to resolve--maybe there is a fact of the matter but it just can't be found easily from the armchair! John, Ken, and Alex all agree that the second possibility is more likely, and the great variety of moral disagreements are indicative of the very difficult nature of the subject. John points out that there are some moral questions which are easy to agree on, are these possibly universal, or are they just easy? Alex thinks moral agreement can be even more confusing than disagreement, because the same moral principle can be justified in many ways. Is one justification more apt or correct than another? Does the justification matter, or is only the conclusion important? Even though Alex proclaims he has no worked out moral theory of his own, Ken asks him if deep down he thinks there are objective moral truths, and if he had to justify them what he might argue. Alex relates his position to the great philosopher Bertrand Russell, who could not argue for objective moral truths, but realized as soon as he thought un-philosophically that there were obviously moral right and wrongs in the real world. Alex thinks that ultimately moral truths are related to the actions and the consequences of these actions that they support. John compares Alex's view to Hume and Kant, and wonders: what is more important, feelings about actions or the effects they really have in the world? Ken tries to describe the difference between morality and ethics, and then tries to cast morality in terms of approval and disapproval, is there really anything more to morality than just social agreement and disagreement on what it is right to do? This leads the discussion towards the connection between moral judgments and moral actions--we all know those who make a lot of moral judgments but do not act on them, or do not live by them themselves. John, Ken, and Alex continue to take calls and emails concerning the status of moral truths, how to recognize a moral truth if you stumble upon one, and whether or not the origins of moral truths are justified as long as they ultimately lead to positive actions. • Roving Philosophical Report (Seek to 3:43): Zoe Corneli travels to downtown San Francisco to ask the average person what they think morality is, and where it comes from. • Sixty Second Philosopher (Seek to 48:56): Ian Shoales discusses the connection between morality, Flaubert, propriety, and the bourgeoisie at lightning speed. Get Philosophy Talk Alex Miller, Professor of Philosophy, University of Birmingham Upcoming Shows 11 December 2016 Weapons of Mass Destruction Read More 18 December 2016 The Metaphysics of Color Read More 25 December 2016 Risky Business: The Business of Risk Read More
L'affaire Snowden and (Computer) Security Compartmented Information Because of aggregations and some related issues that I'll mercifully not explain, another big part of classification is something called compartmentalization; you break the information down into related groups by project, or a target of interest, or by source, or by some technical factor like how it was obtained. There are also compartments involved with how the information can be transmitted, up to and including the famous guy with the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. Often these compartments have names that are literally words drawn at random from a pool of possible words. These are called codewords. When someone tells you about something classified "above TOP SECRET" they're not quite telling the truth -- there is no classification level above TOP SECRET -- but what they mean is that it's information that has to be handled by special channels, or it's peculiarly sensitive, like information about codes and cryptography, or it's under a restrictive codeword. Access to Compartmented Information I told you we'd come back to the problem of determining if you're actually trustworthy; here we are. For a low-level clearance, like for CONFIDENTIAL or SECRET, all that's done is a National Agency Check. Basically they look at public records to see if you have a criminal record, or something similar. For codeword information though, you have a much more thorough examination: they not only look at any open records, but they check back on places you've lived, and literally send people out to talk to people you've known in order to confirm that everything you told them is true, to check if you ever had any questionable ties (like joining a Tea Party group I guess), and to build up a picture of your life in order to look for anything that makes you seem untrustworthy. Survive that and you then get interrogated by a specially trained agent while on a polygraph. This whole process is very expensive, probably now upwards of a million dollars, and people who have a full polygraph clearance are quite rare.
Bob Carter’s climate counter-consensus is an alternate reality Bob Carter sees the world a little differently to the rest of the scientific community. AAP CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Professor David Karoly goes down the rabbit hole of Bob Carter’s climate theories. In his book Climate: The Counter-consensus, Bob Carter describes three different realities on climate change; a science reality, a virtual reality and a public reality. After finishing the book, I realised that there is another reality on climate change, the Carter reality, which seems to be from a different world. As described in earlier posts in this series, the “science reality” of climate change has involved developing and testing our understanding against all available observations and modelling. For the science of climate change, as for all other sciences, questioning and scepticism are fundamental aspects. New science is not based on a single scientific publication, but on the accumulation of evidence from many published studies. This is summarised in a recent report from the Australian Academy of Science, The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers. This report was thoroughly reviewed by an independent Oversight Committee, comprised of a number of Fellows of the Academy and a well-known climate change sceptic. They all approved the whole report, including its key conclusions: Lets fall through a rabbit hole and enter a different world: the “Carter reality”. In that world, it is OK to select any evidence that supports your ideas and ignore all other evidence. In that world, geologists like Carter “hold the key to delineating climate history” and “many (though not all) geological scientists see no cause for alarm when modern climate change is compared with the climate history.” In the real world, this is not true. The Geological Society of Australia, the Geological Society of America, the Geological Society of London and the American Geophysical Union have all recognised the reality of human-caused climate change and called for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In the Carter reality, “there has been no net warming between 1958 and 2005.” Of course, in the real world, there is no basis for this statement from scientific analysis of observational data. The decade of the 2000s was warmer than the 1990s, which was warmer than the 1980s, which was warmer than the 1970s, which was warmer than the 1960s. So where does Carter’s statement come from? In the Carter reality, he finds a hot year early in the period and a cold year much later, and says there’s been no warming. This would be like saying that winter is not colder than summer because a very hot day in winter might happen to have much the same temperature as a very cold day in summer, ignoring all the other days. In the Carter reality, “human-caused emissions will have an insignificant impact on the amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the ocean” and the observed increases in carbon dioxide are due to emissions from volcanoes or from the oceans. Of course, this Carter reality has ignored the contrary evidence, such as decreases in oxygen in the atmosphere, and downplayed evidence from changes in carbon isotopes, both associated with fossil fuel burning. It has also ignored the evidence that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are higher than the concentrations in the upper layers of the ocean, so there is a net flow of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the ocean. In the Carter reality, year-to-year climate variations due to El Niño explain the variations in global temperature, including global warming, much better than increases in greenhouse gases. Of course, you have to ignore the fact that you have to remove the long-term warming trend in global temperatures to get this result.. In the Carter reality, the increase in global temperatures due to a doubling of carbon dioxide is low, only about one degree. This is a strange thing to mention as, in that world, there is supposed to be no warming and the increases in greenhouse gases are not due to human activity. In the real world, the feedbacks in the climate system that were important in amplifying the global warming from the last ice age to the current geological period, the Holocene, are also important in amplifying the warming response for a doubling of carbon dioxide. This geological evidence, together with evidence from the observed warming over the last century, show that the climate response to a doubling of carbon dioxide will be about three degrees. But in the Carter reality, there has been “noble cause corruption” to promote alarm about global warming and hide the contrary evidence, by individual scientists, by the CSIRO, by the scientific academies, and by the IPCC. Of course, this Carter reality ignores the multiple independent inquiries of climate scientists and of the IPCC that have found no evidence of corruption, and only evidence of normal scientific practices. In the Carter reality, there are many other strange conclusions based on selecting some evidence and ignoring most. The rules of science have been replaced by non-science. In that world, there are large benefits from more carbon dioxide and no adverse impacts, no sea level rise nor increasing acidification of the ocean. In the Carter reality, it is better to adapt to climate change as it occurs, rather than to act on the best scientific understanding. In the Carter reality, consensus is not needed around scientific understanding, yet he tries to establish that there is a counter-consensus. If you search the web, you can find several reviews of his book by non-scientists, who also inhabit the strange world of the Carter reality and accept everything he writes. Or you can read a review by a New Zealand scientist who says the book “is a curious read, full of misinformation, straw-man arguments, and poorly-documented assertions.” If you live in the Carter reality, it is fine to accept non-science. I hope that most people live in the real world and accept the science reality, not the Carter reality. This is the twelfth part of our series Clearing up the Climate Debate. To read the other instalments, follow the links below:
definitions - Acculturation: Cultures are in contact for so... View Full Document Right Arrow Icon Acculturation: Cultures are in contact for so long that they change Ambilineal: Inheritance from both mother and father Agriculture: Growing crops and raising animals for food. Sedentary. About 25,000 yrs old. Band: Group of people 100 or less who are related through birth or marriage Berdache: Third gender found in many cultures. Usually takes on a uniform role of man and woman Capitalism: Work in exchange for money. Sedentary unless moving for work. About 200 yrs old. Childbirth: Rite of passage in which child is born into a particular culture. Biocultural event . Culture: That which one learns as a member of society and that which is taught to others. Cultural relativity: What’s right or wrong in ones culture is only understood through that culture. Diffusion: Cultural artifact moves into another culture Economic System: Human mode of making a living that is culturally and environmentally defined Egalitarian: Power system in which everyone within culture has equal access to power Background image of page 1 Ask a homework question - tutors are online
ANS3319C Final Exam ReviewFall2011 ANS3319C Final Exam ReviewFall2011 - ANS3319C Final ... View Full Document Right Arrow Icon Unformatted text preview: ANS3319C Final Exam Review Fall 2011 The final exam will consist of the following: 1. Lecture notes (30- 40% of Final Exam; approximately 60 pts): includes fetal growth & development, parturition, lactation, synchronization, reproductive technologies notes (Pages 142- 172). Take- home messages from labs for pregnancy detection, In vitro fertilization, and the synchronization & AI. Reading in book: Chpts 9 (pp 201- 212), 14 (pp 317- 325), 15 (pp 326- 345). 2. Three hour exams and quizzes & take home messages not listed above (60- 70% of final exam; approximately 140 pts). The material will come from the concepts covered on the three lecture exams and three quizzes. It will not be the same questions but the same material. It will also be beneficial to review all of the previous Take- home messages and worksheets from the start of the semester. Fetal Growth, Development, and Physiology. 1. What are the primary components of the fetal diet? 2. What structure in the fetus shunts blood away from the liver (except in pigs/horses)? 3. What structure in the fetus moves fetal blood from the right atrium to the left atrium of the heart? 4. What structure in the fetus shunts fetal blood away from the lungs to the descending aorta? 1. Relative to fetal development in the bovine, understand what significant physiological events of both fetal and placental development that occur during the three major stages of growth in the bovine model (Early 0 to 90; Mid 90 to 180; Late gestation 180 to 280). 2. What type of cellular growth is characteristic of early fetal growth? 3. What type of cellular growth is characteristic of mid to late fetal growth? 4. What type of cellular growth is characteristic of late fetal growth? 5. What stage of fetal development in the cow, do external stimuli have the least effect on fetal growth? Explain why. 6. What stage of fetal development in the cows, do external stimuli have the greatest effect on the fetus? Explain why. 7. Environmental factors such as excessive cold and warm temperatures can effect fetal growth and development. Please explain how these external stimuli affect physiological events associated with fetal development. 8. Why do increased fetal numbers in polytocous species amplify the effects of poor nutrition and(or) external environmental insults? What is the general order of tissue development of 4 major tissue layers in the developing fetus? Parturition 1. Be able to identify the behavioral and physiological signals associated with the onset of parturition. 2. Know where the signal that initiates parturition originates from and its significance in the parturition process. 3. Know the cascade of endocrine events and hormones that initiate parturition and expulsion of the fetus. 4. Know the three stages of parturition and the significant events associated with each respective stage. 5. Be able to define “dystocia” and possible causes of it. Lactation 1. Be able to define what “Uterine Involution“ is. 2. Know what the intervals are from parturition to uterine involution for farm and companion animals. 3. Know what steroid hormones stimulate development of the mammary gland in the postnatal animal and during what stages of development that usually have their greatest effects. 4. Understand what the relationship is between mammary gland development and fat deposition in prepubertal animals as it relates to future milk production of the animals. 5. What are the functional milk producing units are of the mammary gland. 6. Know the sequence of events including tactile, endocrine, and neural factors that stimulate milk ejection from the mammary gland. 7. Be able to define what the term “pressure atrophy” is in relation to milk production and the end of lactation. 8. Know the compositional differences between colostrum and regular milk. 9. What is the significance of colostrum relative to its function on animal well- being and what is the component part of colostrum that is associated with this function. Synchronization 1. What is the function of synchronizing animals? 2. Know what the functions and limitations are for prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) and how it can be used in a synchronization program. 3. Please be able to explain the relationship between follicle development and why there is so much variation in how long it takes for estrus to occur after a PGF2α treatment in some animals. 4. Know how PGF2α can be used to induce premature parturition in farm animals, cats and dogs. 5. Know what the functions of GnRH are and how it can be used in an estrous synchronization program. Note this includes GnRH ate the start of a synchronization program and in conjunction with a timed- AI. 6. Know what the sources and functions of progestogens are and how they can be used in estrous synchronization programs. (Please note that progestogens do not stimulate CL development. They serve as a replacement for the CL when they are under the influence). 7. Understand that long term (> 7 d ) progestogen treatments have a negative effect on fertility and be able to explain what the reason is for this negative effect. (Please note: these effects typically occur in animals that either lack a CL or the CL loses its ability to produce progesterone during the progestogen treatment. Additionally, understand the association of low progesterone concentrations with LH secretion and the effect of LH secretion on follicle development.) 8. Know what the different synchronization programs are for farm animals and what the purpose of each component is in the synchronization programs. For example, what is the function of a CIDR, GnRH, and PGF2α are when an animal is on day 5 or 10 or 15 of the estrous cycle when it is started on the synchronization treatment. 9. Understand the functions of the component parts of the birth control pill used in humans. Additionally, know what the other types of short and long- term progestogens are that are used for birth control in humans. ... View Full Document Ask a homework question - tutors are online
News update from the British Fertility Society 27 Oct 2011 VF linked to ovarian tumours (BBC News Online, 27 October 2011) Researchers from The Netherlands publishing in Human Reproduction have found that ovarian stimulation, used in fertility treatments to increase the number of eggs that can be harvested, may be linked to an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer. Read full article The British Fertility Society has released a response to the research. This research shows the importance of long term follow up of patients who have fertility treatments as the impact of these therapies may not be fully appreciated or known for a considerable period of time afterwards. The research suggests that the risk of borderline ovarian tumours is increased compared to other infertile women who do not have IVF. However, it is essential that this increased risk is kept in perspective, as the overall risk still remains extremely small. The cumulative life time risk for borderline ovarian cancer up to the age of 55 was 0.45% in the general population compared to 0.71% in those having IVF treatment. The data in this study are not powerful enough to show a link between the number of cycles and this increased risk. In the UK the HFEA has a comprehensive database of all women undergoing IVF procedures since 1991, over 300,000 treatment cycles. Up until a recent change in legislation it was not possible due to restrictive confidentiality covenants to link the HFEA database with the UK cancer register. However, researchers are now looking at such linkage studies which should be able to demonstrate the true risk of developing cancer after IVF treatment in the UK population. “Screening for ovarian malignancy using ultrasound and serum markers has been shown to be effective in picking up ovarian cancer at an early stage, although there is no evidence to date that screening will actually save lives. Moreover, screening increases the risk of surgery and operative intervention when it may not be required. “Clearly there needs to be a balanced approach. Clinicians should ensure that all patients are made aware of the potential risks of ovarian stimulation and until further evidence is available, the pros and cons of future ovarian screening, to allow them to make a fully informed choice about their treatment options.” See the article on the British Fertility Society website
How to Puff Up a Puffer Fish Puffer fish puff up as a defense mechanism, as a way to scare off rivals and as a way to attract a mate. The body of a puffer fish can swell to over two and a half times its original size as a way to scare off predators. Any time a puffer fish is severely frightened it will puff itself up to look larger. This is very stressful on the fish. It is not recommended to provoke the fish to puff up but there are some occasions when it may be medically necessary. Puffer fish puff up as a defence mechanism. Place a fish net in the water upside down (with the handle end in the tank). Some puffers have sharp spikes that can get caught in a net so keep the netting out of the water. Tap the puffer with the handle of the net. It will probably just swim away. Follow the puffer with the net, continuing to tap it. This will eventually either scare or anger the fish into puffing up. It may not puff up all the way at first so you may need to tap it again.
Skip to Content Medical Term: Pronunciation: dis'ker-a-to'sis 1. Premature keratinization in individual epithelial cells that have not reached the keratinizing surface layer; dyskeratotic cells generally become rounded and they may break away from adjacent cells and fall off. 2. Epidermalization of the conjunctival and corneal epithelium. 3. A disorder of keratinization. [dys- + G. keras, horn, + -osis, condition]
How many diagonals are there in a polygon with n=50 sides? 1 Answer \| Add Yours justaguide's profile pic justaguide \| College Teacher \| (Level 2) Distinguished Educator Posted on In a polygon, the sides are the lines that join consecutive points. All other lines between points that form the polygon are called diagonals. For example, the simplest polygon which is a triangle does not have any diagonals as all the lines drawn between points that form the polygon are sides of the triangle. A rectangle has 4 sides and 2 diagonals. The number of sides that a polygon has is equal to the number of points that make up the polygon. As examples, triangles have 3 sides and are formed by 3 points, rectangles have 4 sides and are formed by 4 points, etc. A polygon with 50 sides is formed by 50 points. The number of lines joining consecutive points is 50 and these are the sides of the polygon. All lines between non-consecutive points are called diagonals. From each point of the polygon we can draw 47 diagonals. But the diagonal between two points is the same irrespective of which point is considered the starting point and which is considered the ending point. This gives the number of diagonals as 50*47/2 = 1175 The number of diagonals in a polygon with 50 sides is 1175. We’ve answered 318,983 questions. We can answer yours, too. Ask a question
Cookies policy 22 July 2013 Five things the royal baby knows about the world The pitter-patter of tiny feet was not far behind The fresh prince might be just a couple of hours old, but the future king of the UK already knows a surprising amount about the world. 1. Kate is the centre of his universe While the baby might not know the story of Kate Middleton’s journey from girl-next-door to Duchess of Cambridge he already knows her voice and smell, having already spent months getting used to them in the uterus. In one study, babies just a few hours old demonstrated a preference for their mum reading the Dr Seuss book And To Think That I Heard It On Mulberry Street over a stranger reading the same story. Babies also seem to be attracted to their mother’s smell. Newborns offered a choice between a clean and an unwashed breast will opt for the smellier one; five-day-old babies will also wriggle their way towards a cotton pad that has been worn by their mother. Recent research suggests that babies are being drawn towards smelly secretions from the nipples, rather than the scent of milk itself. Within hours, the young heir will also have memorised Kate’s face and should be able to pick her out from a group of similar-looking women, which is remarkable given newborns’ relatively poor eyesight. 2. His future subjects are people, not dogs or horses Babies seem hard-wired to appreciate the proportions of human faces and know that they hold special significance. Show a newborn a collection of shapes resembling a human face and it will choose to look at this over the same shapes organised into a random pattern. The little fellow also cares about whether people are paying attention to him or not. When newborn babies in Cambridge, UK, were shown a picture of a woman with her eyes open and another where her eyes were closed, the babies spent significantly longer looking at the open-eyed picture. Newborns also prefer to look at happy faces over sad faces – and may even be able to contemplate their own future. 3. Being third in line to the British throne is different to being sixteenth Baby Wales is now third in line to the throne, after his grandfather, Prince Charles, and dad, William. When Zara Phillips’ baby is born in January, he or she will be sixteenth. Although it will be some time before the fresh prince can count to 10, he already understands this difference. Until recently, people had assumed that an appreciation of numbers as abstract concepts was something you learned, rather than possessing from birth. But when newborn babies were played recordings of spoken syllables repeated a set number of times – “ba ba ba”, for example – and shown collections of circles or squares on a screen, babies could spot when the numbers matched up. Separate studies have hinted that the brain contains specialised “accumulator neurons” that fire in response to different numbers of objects. 4. Essentials of the English language Kate and William’s baby does not yet speak his great-grandmother’s English, but he already appreciates the uniqueness of the English language. For several months he has been hearing sounds from the outside world filtering in through the walls of Kate’s uterus, and learning from them. Newborns recognise when someone switches to a different language, probably due to changes in their rhythm and intonation. However, though babies may start categorising sounds and rhythms even before birth, they remain “international” in the sense that they can hear and discriminate all 150 speech sounds that occur across the world’s languages until they are about nine months old. After that their brains begin to specialise, which is why Japanese speakers often fail to differentiate between “r” and “l” sounds, for example. 5. God Save the Queen has a beat Ok, so the new future king cannot yet click his fingers in time with a tune, but newborns do seem tuned to detect rhythm from the moment they emerge. When adults are wired up to sensors that detect electrical signals in the brain and played a regular rhythm, their brain produces a characteristic signature if that rhythm is disrupted. The same is true of babies. When newborns were played variations of a rock rhythm in which certain beats were omitted, the babies’ brains detected when the beat critical to the overall rhythm was removed. Linda Geddes is the author of our Bumpology column on the science of pregnancy, and the book of the same name. When this article was first published, it incorrectly stated that the royal baby is the future king of the Commonwealth. This has now been corrected. More on these topics:
It was easy to suppose that people have free will when little was known about how brain processes produce decisions. But traditional ideas about free will are becoming increasingly implausible. Nevertheless, autonomy can remain an important ideal, even if free will is an illusion. The Amygdaloids is a New York rock band whose members are neuroscientists. On their web site,, you can find their songs about the mind and brain, including a catchy one called "How Free is Your Will." Its lyrics ask questions like "Do you have control?" and "Who's running your soul?". As neuroscientists, they should have ample reason to be skeptical about many traditional ideas concerning free will. John-Dylan Haynes and other researchers have found that the outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10 seconds before it enters awareness. Brain scans can show whether someone is choosing to add two numbers together or subtract them. The neural mechanisms underlying human decision making are increasingly being understood through a combination of experimental work involving brain imaging and theoretical work with computational models of brain processes. These results have major implications for the classic philosophical problem of free will, supporting the determinist position that free will is just an illusion that derives from lack of knowledge about the neural processes that produce decisions. Of course it goes against common intuitions to think that your choice to eat an apple rather than a chocolate derives from the interactions of billions of tiny neurons. But many intuitions have been overthrown by scientific advances, leading to conclusions such as that the sun's heat is the result of fusion of countless hydrogen atoms, and that influenza is the result of infection by myriad flu viruses. Similarly, we should be prepared to accept the counterintuitive conclusion that our apparently free choices are the causal results of brain processes. I argued in my book The Brain and the Meaning of Life that you don't tell your brain what to do, and your brain doesn't tell you what to do: you are your brain deciding what to do in your physical and social environment. The devil didn't make you do it either. Many people find the abandonment of free will very disturbing, and it certainly is a major challenge to traditional notions about the mind as an immortal soul that is only influenced but not determined by physical processes. But there is no good evidence for the existence of non-material souls, so people need to learn to live with the increasingly probable hypothesis that whatever you do results from neurochemical processes in your brain. Do we therefore need to toss out notions such as morality, responsibility, and autonomy along with wishful thinking about immortality? Not at all. Consider first autonomy, which can be rethought in a way that does not require the complete freedom from physical processes that the traditional soul-based idea requires. Your actions are autonomous if they result from normal brain processes that help to satisfy your needs. Actions are NOT autonomous if the brain processes that produce them are malfunctions arising from disorders such as schizophrenia, or products of external coercion by other people. Disease and coercion can lead people to do things that violate their vital needs such as health and social relationships. When people act autonomously, it is reasonable to hold them responsible for their actions, because doing so can increase desirable social behaviors and decrease undesirable ones. The point of responsibility is then based on social concerns, not on religious ideas about sin and blame. The ethical view that the rightness or wrongness of actions depends on their consequences does not require the traditional, absolute notion of free will, only the science-compatible idea of autonomy as normal brain functioning. The importance of self-control can survive, as long as the self is understood as a system of mechanisms rather than as a transcendental entity. Hence recognition that free will as usually conceived is an illusion is not nearly as distressing as it first seems. Enjoy your autonomy. You are reading Hot Thought The Emotional Coherence of Donald Trump Why did millions of people vote for Trump? Spiritual but Not Religious Does it makes sense to be reject religion while maintaining spirituality? Power and Emotion Four kinds of power in interpersonal relations rely on emotional effects.
What is Laser Liposuction? Doctor Answers 17 Laser liposuction CoolLipo Smartlipo, SlimLipo Traditional liposuction, ultrasonic liposuction (e.g., Vaser) and laser liposuction (e.g., CoolLipo, CoolTouch, Smartlipo, SlimLipo, LifeSculpt) are all forms of liposuction, using different approaches to injure fat and reduce or remove it. Some companies have brand names associated with their proprietary liposuction machines. The most frequently seen brand names in advertising today may be CoolLipo, Smartlipo and SlimLipo, all of which are recently released laser liposuction devices. Laser Liposuction: A small laser-containing cannula is placed through incisions in the skin and utilized to injure fat cells and the deep layers of the overlying skin. A traditional liposuction cannula can then be used to extract injured fat cells. Because the effects of thermal injury to fat and overlying skin are not seen immediately, the outcome yielded by this technique may change over time. Although the laser-induced injury to the deep layer of the skin may result in tightening of the skin, as asserted in many company advertisements, it may be difficult to achieve a smooth, consistent degree of tightening. If every aspect of the tissue is not treated with the same amount of power from the laser, dimpling, or even burns, may result. Because of these risks and the absence of good studies demonstrating consistent results, the Plastic Surgery community has generally avoided the early adoption of CoolLipo, CoolTouch, Smartlipo, SlimLipo, LifeSculpt, or other laser liposuction machines in their practice. What is Laser Liposuction? Smart lipo and Slim lipo are different brands of laser machines which can aid in disrupting and liqiufying fat cells in a liposuction procedure. These laser machines along with other ultrasound machines, such as Vaser lipo, can help the surgeon remove fat in areas where the fat may be more dense and/or fibrous. To a small degree, all of these machines can aid in improving skin tone by causing collagen to shrink in the deeper layers of the skin. However, all of these machines do carry an increased risk of burns to the skin and seroma formation and should be used with care. Vincent D. Lepore, MD San Jose Plastic Surgeon 4.9 out of 5 stars 50 reviews Descritpiton of Laser Liposuction Laser Assisted Liposuction is one form of liposcution that used the added benefit of light energy to enhance fat removal and skin tightening in the right patients. Patients should have mild to moderate fat excess and mold to moderate skin laxity. The wavelength of the light can be important in that 1440nm has 40x the affinity for its fat target as compared to other wavelengths. The skin tightening issue has been a controversy as you read in this section claiming to have no evidence. I can refer you to the Aesthetic Surgery Journal Vol 30 Number 1 Jan/Feb 2010 pages 593-602 which describes the effect on the skin with laser as compared to liposcution alone in the same patients. The consclusion of that paper is stated below. Laser-assisted liposuction has increased usage in clinical practice. Previous work has confirmed safety, efficacy and temperature parameters to elicit skin tightening. In the present study, the sequential delivery of the 1064 and 1320-nm laser energies, as the only variable parameter in this internally controlled study, has led to data suggesting that the delivery of laser energy prior to liposuction has a statistically significant effect on skin shrinkage and tightening of the skin in the abdominal area. How laser lipo works After filling the area requiring treatment, like the abdomen or neck, with a dilute anesthetic fluid a laser fiber is inserted to heat up the overlying skin as well as help seal blood vessels and melt fat cells. A small suction cannula is then inserted to suck out excessive fat. This procedure combines tumescent liposcuplture with a laser to ensure optimal results and tight overlying skin. Mitchel P. Goldman, MD San Diego Dermatologic Surgeon 4.8 out of 5 stars 21 reviews Laser liposuction options Thank you for your question. There are a variety of companies that produce similar technologies – the basic principle being to remove volume via a minimally-invasive approach. Some technologies also offer a secondary benefit of skin retraction, depending on the type of energy that is used. If you are considering liposuction, please seek consultation from a provider with significant experience in aesthetic body contouring. Best wishes, Dr. David Amron David Amron, MD Beverly Hills Dermatologic Surgeon 4.6 out of 5 stars 57 reviews Laser Lipo Smart and slim Lipo are Invasive lasers that assistant in liposuction techniques. They help loosen up the fat by melting it. This then facilitates the removal of the fat by suctioning techniques. The laser also provides heat and this promotes skin tightening. Slim and Smart Lipo are not exactly the same but they do lead to the same outcome. I have used them both so I speak from experience. Justin Yovino, MD, FACS Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon 4.9 out of 5 stars 85 reviews Smartlipo vs Slimlipo Laser liposuction devices such as Slimlipo and Smartlipo essentially offer the same thing. They may use different wavelengths of laser, but the effects are to break down fat, control small blood vessels and tighten skin. They all offer similar results and there is no clear advantage to one laser liposuction device over another in terms of results when used by an experienced surgeon. In my practice we have performed thousands of laser liposuction cases with the Slimlipo device and I feel it is safer than the other devices on the market. Shim Ching, MD Honolulu Plastic Surgeon 4.6 out of 5 stars 41 reviews How "Smart" is your lipo The traditional liposuction procedure has been employed for many years and remains an effective procedure to eliminate excess fat. In traditional liposuction, the surgeon moves the cannula back and forth to disrupt the fat cells which are then suctioned out with a vacuum device. The primary difference between SmartLipo and traditional liposuction is the use of the laser which facilitates the fat removal. Rather than manipulating the cannula to manually break up the fat cells, the laser melts the excess fat. This allows for a gentler, less invasive procedure with less discomfort, less bruising and swelling, and a quicker return to normal activities. Studies also suggest the laser also leads tightening of the skin, however, it may take some time to obtain this result. One benefit of laser liposuction in particular is in addressing areas of more firm or fibrous fat deposition (back fat). As always, you should consult with a board certified plastic surgeon to determine what modality is best for you. Donovan Rosas, MD Westchester Plastic Surgeon 5.0 out of 5 stars 7 reviews The Benefits of Laser Liposuction Laser liposuction differs from traditional liposuction in two main ways. First, the laser energy is used to "melt" the fat. This turns the fat into a liquid and makes it easier to aspirate from the surrounding tissue, as well as ensuring a smooth, even result. This is a distinct benefit in areas where the surrounding tissue is firm, like the "love handles" or "back fat" in the upper torso. In addition, the laser energy can be applied to the underside of the skin after the fat is removed. This heating of the skin causes the deep layer of the skin to become thicker and to contract, tightening the skin. This gives a distinct advantage in treating areas of thin skin, such as the upper inner thighs, arms, neck and knees. LASER is the energy source Liposuction is the removal of fat. In all forms of liposuction, the endpoint is the removal of unwanted subcutaneous fat - this is true irrespective of which "energy" source is used. In its simplest form: 1) Traditional liposuction uses the "muscle" of the surgeon, 2) Ultrasonic liposuction (including VASER) uses ultrasonic waves, 3) Power assisted liposuction (including Micro-Aire) uses electrical energy to move the cannula, and 4) Laser liposuction uses light energy. Of course, it is important to keep in mind, that technology is only as good as the technician - meaning, laser unit does not perform the surgery - the surgeon does. I always warn patients not to be "sold" on technology, as the operator still dictates much of the outcome. I have performed over 1000 liposuction cases in last several years, utilizing both laser and power assisted units. I hope my patients have trusted me as their surgeon because of who I am and my experience, and not because of my fancy tools. Please get to know your surgeon - you deserve it - it's your health. Christopher Chung, MD Corona Plastic Surgeon 5.0 out of 5 stars 26 reviews
What is the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? Quick Answer Yams have blackish or brown skin with white, purple or red flesh, while sweet potatoes have white, yellow, red, purple or brown skin. Sweet potato flesh can be white, yellow or orange. Yams are more rich in starch and drier in taste. Continue Reading What is the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? Credit: Gary Stevens CC-BY 2.0 Full Answer Both yams and sweet potatoes are root vegetables, but yams have a cylindrical shape and come from Africa as part of the lily family. On the other hand, sweet potatoes are related to the morning glory family. Sweet potatoes are elongated in shape with tapered ends and are more commonly found than yams in American grocery stores. Sweet potatoes also feature two varieties: firm and soft. The firm sweet potatoes have a golden skin and pale flesh. They stay firm after being cooked. The soft sweet potatoes have a copper skin and orange flesh. They tend to change to a creamy and moist texture after being cooked. Soft sweet potatoes may be labeled incorrectly as yams in local grocery stores. In fact, true yams are a rare find. Firm sweet potatoes were first on the market. When the softer variety began to be produced, the two had to be distinguished from one another. With the soft sweet potatoes slightly resembling yams, stores adopted the name "yam" for them. Learn more about Fruits & Veggies Related Questions
How do you repair an electric dryer that doesn't heat? Quick Answer If the electric dryer doesn't heat and doesn't spin, a fuse may have blown or the electrical connection may be faulty, while if it spins but doesn't dry clothes, the problem may be with the heating element or fans. Improper ventilation can cause problems as well. Continue Reading How do you repair an electric dryer that doesn't heat? Credit: Westend61 Brand X Pictures Getty Images Full Answer The first step to troubleshooting dryer problems is ensuring that it's connected properly. If the unit is plugged in but doesn't turn on, one of the electrical fuses needs to be replaced. Newer dryers typically have thermal fuses that keep the dryer from overheating. Replacing fuses is fairly simple, although a second broken fuse may indicate that the dryer needs professional inspection. If the dryer spins, it's important to determine if the unit is not producing heat or if it's not blowing heated air into the drum. If the sides of the dryer stay cool after it runs for a few minutes, the problem is likely with the heating element. Visually inspecting the heating element may reveal cracks. If the element looks intact, it may be best to hire an expert to determine if the heating element or other electrical components are to blame. If the unit warms up but the clothing stays cool and wet, the fan or its motor has likely failed. Determining precisely what has failed with the fan and its motor may require expert help, but it's worth cleaning around the fan to determine if it's obstructed first. Learn more about Washers & Dryers Related Questions
Emerging Technology from the arXiv A View from Emerging Technology from the arXiv New Desalination Technique Also Cleans and Disinfects Water Electrodialysis has the potential to desalinate seawater quickly and cheaply but does not remove other contaminants such as dirt and bacteria. Now chemical engineers have worked out how to do that too. • February 11, 2014 One of the world’s most pressing needs is to supply clean drinking water to the its population. In rural areas, almost half the population does not have access to clean water so the challenge is clear and present. The problem, of course, is that most of the planet’s water is saline. So finding ways to desalinate seawater is a key goal. Martin Bazant, postdoc Daosheng Deng, and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, say they’ve developed a new way to desalinate water, known as shock electrodialysis, that not only removes salt but particulate matter and bacteria too. “Shock electrodialysis has the potential to enable more compact and efﬁcient water puriﬁcation systems,” they say. One of the big problems with desalination is its cost. The most common method is to distill seawater in a vacuum so that its boiling point is lower than usual. However, this is an energy intensive process that is expensive. So engineers are constantly on the lookout for cheaper methods. The most common of these is reverse osmosis. This works by pumping water through a membrane that does not allow sodium or chlorine ions to pass. That’s significantly less energy intensive than traditional desalination methods but is limited by the rate at which water can pass through the membrane. So in recent years, engineers have begun to study a process called electrodialysis. This works in the opposite way by allowing sodium and chlorine ions to pass through a membrane in the presence of an electric field, leaving purified water on the other side. Because only the ions, rather than the water molecules, pass through the membrane, the rate at which this can desalinate is much higher than reverse osmosis. But there is a problem with electrodialysis. Although it removes the salt from water, it does not remove other contaminants such as dirt and bacteria. So it requires additional stages of filtration and disinfection to make the water drinkable. Bacteria tend to be smaller though. But Bazant and co show that these do not pass through the material either, probably because they get trapped or because they are destroyed by the powerful electric fields close to the cathode. “We were able to kill or remove approximately 99% of viable E Coli bacteria present in the feedwater upon flowing through the shock electrodialysis device with applied voltage,” they say. Either way, the output from the new device is purified water with little if any of the original contaminants. That’s a useful machine. Anything that can desalinate water while also filtering and disinfecting it is worthy of further study. Bazant and co suggest that it could be useful for chemical engineering. The bigger question, of course, is whether such a device could cost-effectively purify water on a larger scale for those who need it most. That would mean using photovoltaic power, for example, and producing reliable flow rates over an extended period of time. That’s another challenge entirely. Turning a lab-based prototype into a practical, reliable machine is just as hard again. But given the stakes, the lives of millions of people, it’s certainly worth aiming for. Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1402.0058: Water Purification by Shock Electrodialysis: Deionization, Filtration, Separation, and Disinfection Insider Online Only $19.95/yr US PRICE You've read of free articles this month.
Daily Tree: The London Plane One of my favourite trees. The London Plane Tree is a modern hybrid species, mixed they believe from the Platanus orientalis (oriental plane) and the Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore). It’s an excellent city tree. It has a compact root growth, ideal for congested underground pipe systems and building foundations. Polluted urban air is readily absorbed into its mottled bark, which stores the grim and sheds once full. Much indeed like the tree’s leaves, for it is deciduous. It's camouflage bark is distinctive and so are its seeds (see picture above), resembling spiky baubles and completing the ammo look. This tree is indeed a city species. Tough and tenacious - their leaves can take over a year to disintegrate. They’ve become increasingly popular, boosted by their combined resilience and pleasant greenery to beautify world cities. Despite its name, the London Plane tree is found across the globe in temperate climes, from European neighbours Paris and Madrid to Australia’s Sydney and China’s Shanghai. This makes it a true cosmopolitan tree. Photo Credit: 1. Seeds 2. Bark
. . . “... [O]n the heat wave story. Sometimes you’ll see ‘that heat wave was due to climate change’ That’s not a very accurate statement, not a very helpful statement. But it’s not entirely untrue either.” Above: Google hangout to discuss climate change and severe weather. Stanford Professor Noah Diffenbaugh is joined by Harold Brooks of the NOAA National Severe Storms Lab, Martin Hoerling of the NOAA Earth System Research Lab, Angela Fritz of Weather Underground, Dave Metz of the FM3 opinion research firm, and Jason Samenow of the Washington Post. . . . “There’s a certain chance that ... a daily maximum temperature record is going to be set any place any given day...” “. . . [Presently] we’re breaking high temperature records much more frequently than by chance. And, by some estimates, the ratio of that exceedance of breaking highs compared to what you would expect by chance would lead to us say to that there’s about an 80 percent chance that the record high you experienced was due to climate change.” “That’s a very nuanced statement when you start thinking about it but it’s a very interesting statement. It speaks to the power at which climate change is operating.” “A heat wave itself - most of it is due to natural variability. But that extra little step to record proportions pushing over a prior threshold is what climate change is doing. It’s adding an edge to that heat wave.” How confident is Hoerling in his statement that there’s an 80 percent chance record highs being set are due to climate change?: “[It’s] a strong statement and a defensible scientific statement,” he said. Consider Hoerling is no climate change alarmist. An expert on detection and attribution of climate change, Hoerling has even been criticized by peers and bloggers for being too conservative in connecting the dots between climate change and extreme weather. As such, what Hoerling is claiming about heat records and climate change is not controversial in the climate science community. A joint study by UK Met Office and NOAA scientists published today draws similar conclusions about this link. The study, “Explaining extreme events of 2011 from a climate perspective” (PDF), notes for example, climate change is increasing the odds of La Niña-related heat waves like the one that occurred in Texas last summer. It found a heat wave of the intensity of last summer is about 20 times more likely now compared to the 1960s. It also describes how climate change altered the odds of recent weather experienced in the United Kingdom. It examined very warm weather that occurred in the UK in November 2011 and very cold weather in December 2010 and possible connections to climate change. NOAA summarizes its findings: A key conclusion of the NOAA/UK Met Office study reads accordingly: While much work remains to be done in attribution science, to develop better observational datasets, to improve methodologies, to make further progress in understanding and to assess and improve climate models, the contributions in this article demonstrate the potential that already exists for meaningful assessments of the connection between specific extreme weather or climate events that occurred in a particular year and climate change.
terça-feira, 9 de março de 2010 O cinco (5) é o número natural que segue o quatro e precede o seis. Na numeração romana representa-se com um V. O 5 é o terceiro número primo, depois do 3 e antes do 7. O 5 é também o segundo número de Fermat (n=1), depois do 3 e antes do 17. É o terceiro número primo de Sophie Germain. O número 5 (cinco) é o único número escrito na língua portuguesa que se escreve com o mesmo número de letras que o valor que representa. O quinto número da Sequência de Fibonacci é 5. Agora em inglês Five is between 4 and 6 and is the third prime number. Because it can be written as 221+1, five is classified as a Fermat prime. 5 is the third Sophie Germain prime, the first safe prime, the third Catalan number, and the third Mersenne prime exponent. Five is the first Wilson prime and the third factorial prime, also an alternating factorial. Five is the first good prime. It is an Eisenstein prime with no imaginary part and real part of the form 3n − 1. It is also the only number that is part of more than one pair of twin primes. Five is a congruent number. Five is conjectured to be the only odd untouchable number and if this is the case then five will be the only odd prime number that is not the base of an aliquot tree. 5 and 6 form a Ruth–Aaron pair under either definition. The classification however may be frowned upon. There are five solutions to Znám's problem of length 6. Five is also the number of Platonic solids.[1] There are five Exceptional Lie groups. 1 comentário:
Squirrels in the Attic stop attic squirrels from getting in Here is an example of what one person did to try to stop squirrels from getting into the attic. It didn't work very well, and it looks unattractive. We do NOT recommend this! A very common animal problem is squirrels in the attic . People call me because they hear scratching, chirping, jumping and bumping noises coming from above their ceiling. The problem could be bats, mice, rats or raccoons, but a good percentage of the time it is squirrels. Squirrels like to be up off the ground, which is why they live in trees, but an attic is a good substitute. From the attic, they may fall down inside the walls. I have also found squirrels many, many times in chimneys . Squirrels enter human homes looking for shelter, food, warmth, and a nice place to raise their young. They are not usually aggressive and do not enter homes looking to attack people. They are just sponges looking for free rent! It is possible for squirrels to carry rabies and other diseases, but that is not often the case. Most rabies cases come from bats. I was bitten by a squirrel myself once, when it ran up my pant leg, but that was just an animal reacting to stress. They are not usually ferocious animals. (But if you want to know the truth, it hurt a lot more than I thought it would.) Their front teeth are quite sharp. Sharp enough to chew through your soffit to get in! At any rate, you'll want to get rid of the attic squirrels before they do significant damage to your home. They will make your attic stink of urine and feces , and will destroy, chew, and mat your insulation. This seriously cripples your home's efficiency and increases your utility bills. A dead giveaway of animals in your attic is finding pieces of insulation outside on the ground. And not only do they rip insulation out, they bring their own nesting material in, such as leaves and grass. If you see signs of animal entry, call me for a complete home inspection. I can tell you which animals are present just by looking at their droppings, and I have an awesome steel exclusion system to prevent animals from entering your home again! . Squirrels and rats are guilty of chewing on power lines that run through the attic, which will play havoc with your electrical system. Of course, the biggest concern with squirrels in the attic is the danger of fire hazard . Many a house fire of unknown origin was ultimately blamed on wires exposed by wild animals. I have seen dead squirrels and rats that were electrocuted because they chose the wrong wire to chew through. Can you imagine what would happen if a live wire were to contact something flammable in your attic? Something flammable like, for instance, all that nesting material they hauled in? It would catch you totally by surprise. Speaking of surprises, a woman called me recently who came home from work to find three squirrels in her fireplace . They had fallen down the chimney and got stuck there. She didn't want to scare them even worse (they were already pretty frantic) and she didn't want to be bit (naturally) so she called me to remove them. After I got them out safely, I installed a special chimney cap to keep the problem from recurring, while still allowing her to use the fireplace. We all get to live happily ever after on that one. I'm glad that lady thought to call a professional to remove the squirrels. Sometimes people try all kinds of things to get rid of unwanted animal guests and you know what? It never works. Mothballs, Tabasco sauce, urine from a predatory animal.the things people will try stretch as far as the imagination. In my opinion, it is better to get it done right the first time because if you piddle around with these homemade remedies, it just gives the problem time to grow bigger. I use high-quality, very effective traps for squirrels. There are several styles for different purposes, but basically they are small, steel traps with entry points and no exits. They are completely humane, and after I catch the squirrels I can usually release them in a wildlife area far away from your home, as permitted by law. I will absolutely follow the laws and regulations of your area. I will also do everything I can to make the process easy for you and painless for the squirrels in your attic . I am a full-service operation and even provide clean-up of the infested area to remove waste, bacteria, and odors. This final step is very important, both for your health and as to not attract more animals with the scents. Call Allstate Animal Control to schedule an inspection of your home or attic today. Our excellent service will make you glad you did! . squirrels on roof If you frequently see squirrels on the roof, you may also have squirrels in the attic.
PMO downplayed rich Inuit link to discovered Franklin ship - APTN National NewsAPTN National News PMO downplayed rich Inuit link to discovered Franklin ship By Jorge Barrera APTN National News The Franklin expedition ship found by researchers on the Arctic seabed has a detailed and colourful history within Inuit oral tradition, yet the Inuit garnered only one 17-word sentence among the press releases and backgrounders released by the Prime Minister’s Office at the time after Tuesday’s announced discovery. An analysis of ice patterns and movements reveals the wreck was likely pushed from the area where Inuit said they initially found the ship to where Canadian researchers discovered it over a century later, said Tom Zagon, a research scientist with the Canadian Ice Service. “We can see the natural drift of ice actually occurs and supports the Inuit oral history,” said Zagon, during a press conference Wednesday. Ryan Harris, the Parks Canada marine archeologist who led the ship’s search, said both Franklin ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, appear in the oral tradition. The Inuit, however, provided a more detailed description of one ship said to have been found south of King William Island off Grant Point on the Adelaide Peninsula in an area known as Ootloo-lik “the place of the bearded seal.” Harris said this was the shipwreck discovered by his search team. “The information that was gleaned from the Inuit with respect to that second, southern vessel is far more detailed and nuanced,” he said. “For that reason, we, like previous searchers, started in the south in the belief that the information was a bit more informative and it’s quite detailed with reports of the vessel there when it was first identified by the Inuit. They were ultimately able to visit the ship and obtained useful material from the ship.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the discovery of the submerged shipwreck Tuesday. The hunt for the Franklin ships, which were last seen by European eyes in 1845, has been a priority for the Harper government. Parks Canada led six searches for the ships since 2008. Yet, the general public wouldn’t know about the key role Inuit oral history played in the selection of the search area by reading the information posted on the PMO’s website. There, the role of the Inuit in the Franklin saga is mentioned only in passing. “Indeed, except for some encounters with the Inuit, the crews of the vessels were never seen again,” said the historical backgrounder on the PMO’s website, which is also available in the Inuit language of Inuktitut. The PMO did not respond to an APTN National News question on why the Inuit received barely a mention. According to the historical record, the Inuit provided several detailed accounts of their encounter with the wrecked ship south of King William Island to 19th Century and early 20th Century explorers who went searching for the ill-fated Franklin expedition and its two lost ships. It’s unknown which of the two ships was found south of the island. In Dorothy Harley Eber’s book, Encounters on the Passage; Inuit meet the Explorers, one of the most detailed accounts of the location of the wrecked ship south of King William Island was given to American journalist William Henry Gilder who accompanied American explorer Frederick Schwatka on his 1878 search of the Franklin expedition. Gilder reported the team managed to interview a man named Ikinnelikpatolok who had been to a ship trapped in the sea ice. “The next white man he saw was dead in a bunk of a big ship which was frozen near an island about five miles due west of Grant Point, on Adelaide Peninsula. They had to walk about three miles on smooth ice to reach the ship…About this time he saw the tracks of white men on the mainland. When he first saw them there were four and afterward only three. This was when the spring snows were falling,” reported Gilder, who is quoted in Eber’s 2008 book. “When his people saw the ship so long without anyone around they used to go on board and steal pieces of wood and iron. They did not know how to get inside by the doors and cut a hole in the side of the ship, on a level with the ice, so that when the ice broke-up during the following summer the ship filled and sunk.” A similar story was told by the Inuit of the Boothia Peninsula to British naval officer Leopold McClintock in 1859. McClintock led a search for the lost Franklin ships and crew funded by Sir John Franklin’s widow Lady Jane Franklin. “After much anxious enquiry we learned that two ships had been seen by the natives of King William Island; one of these was seen to sink in deep water and nothing was obtained from her…but the other was forced on shore by the ice where they suppose she still remains, but is much broken,” reported McClintock, according to Eber’s book. “And Ootloo-lik is the name of the place where she grounded…The latter also told that the body of a man was found on board the ship, that he must have been a very large man and had long teeth.” McClintock, however, thought Ootloo-lik was on the west coast of King William Island, wrote Eber, while the area was later thought to be south of the island. Eber said successive interpretations placed the area on O’Reilly Island and on Grant Point. In 1969, L. A. Learmoth, a Hudson Bay Company trader who knew Inuktitut, wrote in the spring issue of The Beaver that the area was actually a large swath of territory where Inuit regularly hunted for bearded seal, wrote Eber. The area extended south from King William Island, down to the Adelaide Peninsula, west to Jenny Lind Island and to the coast of the Queen Maud Gulf, wrote Eber. “This represents quite a stretch of water intermixed with dozens and dozens of small islands which makes it very tricky to survey and all essentially uncharted, though we have made significant inroads,” said Harris. Another explorer who searched for the remains of Franklin’s ship and crew, American Charles Hall, also heard a similar story. Hall went to King William Island in 1864 and spoke to Inuit from the Boothia Peninsula who told him they had been on a stranded ship. “A native of the island first saw the ship when sealing; it was far off seaward, in the ice. He concluded to make his way to it, though at first he felt afraid, got aboard, but saw no one, although from every appearance somebody had been living there. At last he ventured to steal a knife and made off as fast as he could to his home. But on showing the (Inuit) what he had stolen the men of the place all started off for the ship. To get into the (cabin) they knocked a hole through because it was locked. They found there a dead man whose body was very large and heavy, his teeth very long,” reported Hall, according to Eber’s book. “They said they had made a hole in the bottom by getting out one of the timbers or planks. The ship was afterwards much broken up by the ice, and the masts, timbers, boxes, casks, etc., drifted to shore…The (Inuit) saw that nearly the whole side of one side of the vessel had been crushed in by the heavy ice.” Eber wrote that Inuit gave accounts they boarded the ship to five 19th Century and early 20th Century explorers searching for Franklin and his. Three of the accounts claimed the Inuit made a hole in the hull and the ship sunk, Eber wrote. Harris said it would have been difficult for the Inuit at the time to break through the hull, which was 36 inches thick and comprised of layered wood. As for the second ship, the accounts on this one are sparse. It seems, according to Inuit accounts, the second ship ended up east of King William Island near Matty Island, according to Eber. Eber said in an interview with APTN National News the stories of the Franklin ship are still circulating and it’s worthwhile to sift through them for clues. “The difficulty with these stories is that they eventually begin to be not second-hand stories or third or fourth-hand stories, but really old stories that are pretty difficult to check out. But they can be checked out physically and pay off,” she said. “We do learn things from them.” During her research for the book, Eber came across one story that led her to believe part of the ill-fated Franklin expedition’s tale may never be known. Two Inuit from Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region told her a story handed down from grandfather to grandfather. “This great-great grandfather went hunting caribou east of Chantrey Inlet about (240 kilometres) south of Gjoa Haven (Nunavut) and he saw an inuksuk he hadn’t seen before. He decided to go and investigate and in this cairn was a lot of white and brownish-coloured material wrapped in a leather pouch that was paper for sure. There were a lot of strange markings. That’s writing. They were brownish coloured papers, not dark brown but light brown. He figure these papers were cursed by a spirit who had left them there and he took them and destroyed every last one of them,” wrote Eber, quoting Tommy Anguttitauruq who heard the story from Matthew Tiringaneak who heard it from his grandfather. “What mysteries might have been solved by those brown-coloured papers?” wrote Eber. Tags: , , , , , , , , • Kelvin Are there accounts of Inuit people helping the Franklin Expedition?
Free music lessons abound on the Web April 20, 2009\|By Louis R. Carlozo, TRIBUNE REPORTER On the ladder of starving artists, where musicians already perch on a splintered rung, this nasty blues we call the recession only adds insult to melody. How's a guy or gal supposed to take lessons to hone their craft when, to borrow from a certain soul smash, money's too tight to mention? The musical answer could well be this: The best things in life are free. Thanks to the Internet, abbreviated music lessons have become easier to spot than dolts yelling "Free Bird!" at a rock concert. Trawl YouTube and you'll soon hit on video after video of music tutorials. Name an instrument and someone has posted a lesson for it, be it the banjo, bassoon, harp or tuba (the YouTuba, if you will). Want more cowbell? You can even find a cowbell primer. And although music pros agree that instruction on the Internet can't replace what you absorb with a live teacher, it's not a bad stopgap. What's more, some instructors use YouTube to supplement their lessons, often in creative ways. "I was in Moscow teaching country blues guitar with a bunch of slide players, and I was working on 'Death Letter Blues,' a piece by Son House," recalls Chris Walz, a guitar instructor and program manager at the Old Town School of Folk Music. "I was going through an interpreter, and only part of [the lesson] was getting through. So I told the students, 'You all have computers. When you go home tonight, go to YouTube, type in 'Son House/Death Letter Blues' and watch. You'll see what I mean.'" Walz describes what happened the following day: "They came to the next lesson with their eyes like saucers. They'd never seen anything like that, ever." (You can watch the video for yourself, complete with close-up hand shots, at In other instances, music legends aren't merely teaching via live performance -- they're simply teaching. Look long enough and you can find stars giving personal instruction, often in clips copied from instructional videos. So although Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits probably won't invite you to his London digs for a guitar seminar any time soon, you can get some pointers from the fingerpicking wizard via a 3-minute video that documents his private lesson to an admirer. But the blessing of free music lessons on YouTube, like a scratchy 45 single, has at least one not-so-fab flip side: information overload. Walz notes: "You get into the most trouble when you're beyond the stage of beginner and you look at YouTube for other ideas to inspire you. That's good, but there's so much out there that it's hard to find the right video lessons that will really help you." Like a stroll through the world's largest cyber-music university, a YouTube cruise can prove as intimidating as diving into iTunes cold. The snippets run the gamut from an earnest (and worthwhile) 8-minute intro to Hawaiian ukulele to a Police bass lesson straight from "Wayne's World" public access cable. At the Old Town School, eight weeks of private lessons run from $205 (for 30-minute lessons) to $375 (1-hour lessons). Beginners can snag group lessons for less. Eight once-a-week gatherings running 80 minutes cost $145 to $160. Another option: Check out local coffeehouses, where you'll often spot fliers advertising a wide range of music lessons for anywhere from $25 to $60 for a 45-minute session. If you go the DIY route and opt for YouTube lessons instead of paid instruction, you can pick up excellent tips from great players, though you'll notice pronounced limitations too. Clips run in the 2- to 10-minute range. And although you can study video for fingering positions and phrasing, you may not get a sense of some important nuances from watching a screen: posture, for starters. "A non-fretted instrument like the fiddle is complicated," Walz says. "You have to hold it a certain way in relationship to your body, and hold the bow in a certain way -- not only to produce the right sound, but to play without pain." One good strategy for YouTube tutorials involves finding a video mentor you like and sticking with her. If a pianist posts a clip you find valuable, she likely has others at the site. Many YouTube musicians use the Web portal to promote their instructional videos, and often give out their e-mail addresses. Walz sums it up best: "Even as sophisticated as computers become, you're never going to replace the interaction and moment-to-moment exchange that happens with two musicians sitting in the same room. Coming in contact with a real, live human being, you can observe, and steal from them in the best sense." That may explain why even in a recession, enrollment at Old Town continues to run strong, says Todd Lido, the school's director of marketing (and an aspiring fiddle player to boot). "There's the real need for community in times like these." "Plus," Lido adds, "it's tough to ask a question to a video." - - - More cowbell! And didgeridoo! And conga!
YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsChildren Lost Boys of Sudan Look West Unwilling to join fighting and unable to go home, many of the thousands of civil war refugees believe their last, best chance is to move to the U.S. for an education and a fresh start. That wish might come true. KAKUMA, Kenya — The horsemen came by night, thundering from one mud-and-thatch hut to another, shooting and slashing men, women and children. Startled from his sleep, 6-year-old Gabriel Majok Bol jumped from the wicker mat that served as his bed. He, his parents and five siblings scattered. The sprawling settlement in southern Sudan was burned to the ground. Bol survived unharmed--and alone. He hasn't seen his family since that night 11 years ago, and thinks they probably are dead. But he did link up with hordes of others fleeing nearby villages that he later learned were torched by marauding Arab militias from the north. Survivors formed a human river flowing east to neighboring Ethiopia, where masses of southern Sudanese already were settled in dreary refugee camps. Once there, Bol was lumped together with thousands of other boys, many from the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups. Some also had been burned out of their homes; others were sent away by elders to seek an education and escape their country's civil war. As Bol grew, these "lost boys of Sudan," as they are known, became his family. And with lives punctuated by long periods of inactivity, they have been running ever since--finally to another refugee camp, this one in a dusty, hot, fly-infested corner of Kenya. Now, as they reach manhood, the boys--and some aid workers--believe that their last, best chance is to move on again, this time to the United States or another Western country. They have few prospects in Kakuma. Most are unwilling to join rebel fighters and unable to go home again. Estranged from their tribal cultures, they also lack the means to support themselves or establish their own families. Bol, now 17 and a "head boy" put in charge of 172 others, wants desperately to get an education and a fresh start. Many of his 4,797 "brothers" share his sentiments. Their wish might come true if the U.S. government signs off on a proposal to resettle them. A decision is expected sometime this year. But the issue has sparked a new debate over an age-old issue of emigration--relinquishing family and cultural ties versus the possibility of a new and better life in a foreign land. Supporters of resettlement believe that most of the boys would benefit from the opportunities and quality of life in the United States, and would gain skills that will be needed to help rebuild their country if they ever have the chance to go home. Critics argue that family reunification is the top priority for the boys, about half of whom are minors. They also maintain that the physical and mental trauma many of the boys suffered, plus their years as an isolated, tight-knit community, would make it hard for them to adjust. Many adult Sudanese here have mixed feelings about losing thousands of their young men to a foreign country, perhaps never to return. Abandoning Africa would probably mean forsaking their native customs and beliefs. Displaced by Civil War Civil war in Sudan, territorially Africa's largest country, has dragged on for 15 years, pitting rebels from the predominantly black African, animist and Christian south against government forces of the dominant Muslim and Arab north. Southerners are pressing for increased autonomy, exemption from Islamic laws, and a fair share of development money. An estimated 1.9 million people have died, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced because of the conflict. Negotiations have led to agreement that the south should hold a referendum on whether to secede or gain autonomy within a federation. While a date for the vote remains to be set, the fighting rages on. Relief workers and journalists familiar with refugee camps in the region say the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army helped hundreds of boys reach safety in Ethiopia, where it planned to give them military training and considered them a recruitment pool. But with an upsurge of fighting in Ethiopia's civil war in 1991, all refugees were forced to return to Sudan. And fighting there soon sent them fleeing again, this time toward Kenya. Accustomed to living together and depending on one another, the boys continued their odyssey as a group. Some were attacked and eaten by wild animals as they trekked across the semiarid plains; others survived by picking clean the carcasses of antelopes and wart hogs, eating leaves and berries, and making plaited grass traps for birds and mice. Desperate for water, some drank their own urine. In the spring of 1992, about 10,000 lanky, ebony-skinned boys straggled across the Kenyan border. Bol was among them. They were eventually sent to Kakuma, 80 miles from the border with Sudan, where Kenya's pastoral Turkana people have eked out an existence for centuries. Los Angeles Times Articles
Straight Descents Straight Descents When unexpected adverse weather is encountered by the VFR pilot, the most likely situation is that of being trapped in or above a broken or solid layer of clouds or haze, requiring that a descent be made to an altitude where the pilot can reestablish visual reference to the ground. Generally, the descent should be made in straight flight. A descent can be made at a variety of airspeeds and vertical speeds by reducing power, adding drag (gear and flaps), and lowering the nose to a predetermined attitude. Before beginning the descent, it is recommended that first the descent airspeed and the desired headings be established while holding the wings level. In addition, the landing gear and flaps should be positioned up or down, to help in maintaining either a slow rate of descent, or a fast rate of descent, as desired. Establishing the desired configuration before starting the descent will permit a more stabilized descent and require less division of attention once the descent is started. Rather than attempting to maintain a specific rate of descent, it is recommended that only a constant airspeed be maintained. The following method for entering a descent is effective either with or without an attitude indicator. First the airspeed is reduced to the desired airspeed by reducing power while maintaining straight and level flight. When the descent speed is established, a further reduction in power is made, and simultaneously the nose is lowered to maintain a constant airspeed (Fig. 13-2). The power should remain at a fixed (constant) setting and deviations in airspeed corrected by making pitch changes. Jockeying the throttle to control airspeed only adds to the pilot's workload. If an attitude indicator is available, the pitch attitude can be adjusted by reference to the representative airplane and the artificial horizon, and then checking the airspeed indicator to determine if the attitude is correct. Deviations from the desired airspeed are corrected by again adjusting the pitch attitude. If no attitude indicator is available and the airspeed is too high or too low, the pilot should apply only sufficient elevator pressure to start the airspeed pointer moving toward the desired airspeed, since it takes a little time for the airspeed to stabilize. Trying to "nail down" the airspeed immediately will only result in overcontrolling. Additional pressure can then be added as necessary, to attain the desired airspeed. In any case, the pilot need not be concerned with slight deviations in airspeed. The main objective is to descend at a safe airspeed - well above the stall but not more than the airplane's design maneuvering speed. While descending, directional control should be maintained by reference to the directional instruments just as described for straight and level flight. Pilots are cautioned against "chasing" the instrument pointers. If any thought was given to the matter before starting the flight, the pilot will have at least a rough idea of the height of obstructions and terrain in the vicinity of the descent. Before starting the descent, then, a decision must be made regarding the minimum altitude to which the descent will be made.
Differentiation: Help for Building Functional Relationships When two separate people come together, their union will be stronger if they have experienced differentiation. Hearing the word relationship, most of us think family, loved one, friend. And if we have healthy relationships with those folks, we get a warm fuzzy feeling. We know there is warmth and support behind us as we make our way in the world. But another important word about relationships is differentiation. That word doesn’t sound as warm and fuzzy, but it’s extremely important to a person’s happiness and success. When I think of my family of origin, we have strong bonds, but we are also very different. Take careers: one brother is a professor and one writes and promotes music. I’m a nurse educator; my mother worked in the insurance industry. So healthy! Why? A major task of the family unit is to provide nurturance and emotional support to each child, so that child can self-differentiate from the family circle and go off and function on his or her own. Then each child can achieve emotional maturity and become his own person, able to form healthy relationships. A functional, healthy marriage or long term relationship only occurs between two mature, independent people who are responsible for their individual selves. Family therapist, Murray Bowen, created the term self-differentiation, the process of finding a balance between autonomy (being a separate YOU) and connection (being with OTHERS) and at the same time creating goals and working toward them. Which of Bowen’s statements, defining self-differenciation, applies to you or your children or grandchildren? 1. I understand the position I hold in my family, and the power given and not given to that position. 2. I am committed to be fully responsible for my own life, while committed to those I love. 3. In developing autonomy, I set goals for my dreams and ambitions, yet develop intimacy by allowing those close to me to see and know me as I really am. 4. I can tell people what I need, ask for help, but not impose my needs upon them. 5. I am able to detect when controlling emotions and reactive behavior have sent me in the wrong direction; then I opt, instead, to use creative thinking to make better and more purposeful choices. To read more of Bowen’s truthful ideas ( I gave up the search for the arrival of a Knight in Shining Armour who will save me from the beautiful struggles and possibilities presented in everyday living! ) go to: http://www.difficultrelationships.com/2006/03/25/bowen-differentiation/ Can you share any of the ways you helped your children or grandchildren differentiate– or how you helped yourself??
How to Create Self-Sufficient food System in your Garden Please follow and like us: You’ve been gardening for years, and have mastered the art of growing food on your homestead. You do it organically, without using commercial pesticides and fertilizers. You save your own seeds, can your own produce, and are practically self-sufficient. But in the event of a local or nationwide disaster that closes stores and causes people to become desperate, how are you going to protect your garden from potential thieves? Sure you could be generous and help a number of people for a while, but you can’t possibly feed each every individual that shows up at your door every time. If you want to play it safe and make your garden “invisible” from unwanted elements, turn it into a “secret garden” with planting guilds. A guild is a design principle in permaculture that groups assorted plants together, usually in a circle, surrounding a central plant. Each plant is carefully chosen to complement the others, ensuring each other’s growth. Like forests, guilds mimic the wilderness by having multiple layers of diverse vegetation: trees, shrubs, vines, herbs, root crops, ground cover, and even animals, insects and beneficial microorganisms. All of these work together to meet the four basic needs of plants: food (mostly in the form of nitrogen), mulch, pollination and protection. A guild is an ecosystem in itself, with different members in symbiotic relationship with one another. On a larger scale, a forest garden, also known as a “food forest,” is a great example of a guild. I first heard about guilds after watching a video of renowned natural farmer Sepp Holzer, who grew a food forest in the mountains of Austria. He cultivated a sundry mix of fruits, flowers, legumes, corn, buckwheat, herbs and spices, pumpkins, salad greens, medicinal plants and different kinds of root crops all across his acreage. He didn’t plant them in neat rows, but scattered seeds at random and just let nature do its course. Guild-planting, he says, makes the garden so much more dynamic, abundant and efficient. In fact, the yield in his food forest in the Appalachians is five times more than it would be if he did traditional row gardening. How To Plant A ‘Camo Garden’ No One Will Ever FindThe benefits of guilds are undeniable: less or practically no irrigation, no mulching, no commercial pesticides and fertilizers and, ultimately, minimal maintenance. You get high yields from a very small space. And, because food forests look like a wild, untended, neglected hodge-podge of overgrown bush, nobody will think it’s a virtual paradise brimming with food! Even animals and pests would have a hard time fighting an array of repellents to get through to your goods. Here are the different layers to plant in a guild: 1. Trees. In a guild, the trees are strong, deep-rooted plants that reach deep under the ground to absorb minerals and bring them up to the surface. They’re the canopy layer, dominating but not saturating the surrounding plants. They provide shelter for smaller trees and shrubs, beneficial animals and insects. The trees grown in the center of guilds are normally fruit or nut trees. In the northern states, they’re most likely apples, pears, cherries, plums and figs; in the subtropics, citruses like oranges, limes and lemons. Click here for more info. 2. Shrubs. Shrubs provide a windbreak to reduce stress on your central tree. They can be low or understory fruit trees like bananas and papayas, stalks like corn, various woody perennials and most berry bushes. Comfrey, borage and dandelion are good because they’re “miners” – they collect nutrients from the soil, store it in their leaves and feed it to surrounding plants when they shed their leaves. You can also chop-and-drop them to use as green manure. Click here for more info. Story continues below video 3. Vines. Vines make up the vertical layer that climb up the central and understory trees. They need little soil and ground space to thrive, but they require physical support from stronger plants beside them. Vines provide much food in less space, not just for humans but also for surrounding plants since they are nitrogen-fixers – they absorb nitrogen from the air and make them bio-available for surroundings plants. Examples of good leguminous vines are lima and runner beans. Annual climbers that seed themselves easily are gourds like cucumbers and squashes. Other edible vines are honeysuckle, jasmine, bramble, passionflower and of course, grapes. Click here for more info. 4. Herbs and flowers. Herbs and flowers protect the fruits and nuts in your guild. Spices like peppers and herbs from the allium family like chives and onions ward off harmful insects. Even mice are said to be repelled by chives. On the other hand, fennel and dill attract wasps that prey on those harmful insects. Flowers, for their part, mostly attract pollinators, but certain ones draw predator insects: those from the daisy family, the Umbelliferae family when flowering (carrots, parsley, celery), yarrow and allysum. Marigolds, nasturtiums, lavender, tansy, elderberry, wormwood and peppermint geraniums are known pest repellents, while daffodils are said to keep deer at bay. The thing to remember is that pests are attracted through sight and smell. Having an assortment of flowers, whether pungent-smelling or aromatic, will give mixed signals and confuse them. Other plants that can protect your guild from bigger animals and unwanted folks are thorny ones like cacti and osage orange. How To Plant A ‘Camo Garden’ No One Will Ever FindSpeaking of protection, try attracting beneficial animals, too, like frogs, lizards and birds, or keep ducks or guinea fowl to control slugs. They’re natural predators. Put up birdhouses or consider building a pond to help attract these garden friends. The key is to simulate a balanced natural ecosystem so the different elements can regulate each other’s growth.Click here for more info. 5. Ground cover – Ground cover plants protect the soil around the guild from too much sun, and reduce erosion during heavy rains and strong winds. They are your living mulch, building the soil while smothering unwanted weeds. They hold moisture and nutrients in the soil, keeping beneficial microorganisms underneath happy. They are usually in the form of grasses, legumes and brassicas. Ground covers that are wonderful nitrogen-fixers are comfrey, alfalfa, hairy vetch, field peas, soybeans and clovers. Other great edible cover crops are oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, canola, flax, rapeseed, spelt, spinach, mustards, strawberries, globe artichokes, parsnips, radishes, fava beans, fenugreek, chamomile, nasturtiums, elderberry, dandelions, sunflower and chicory.Click here for more info. 6. Rhizomes — These are root crops that are diligent diggers: white and sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, yams, daikon radish, and edible tubers like turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, cassava and yacon. They loosen compacted soil, make it soft, and mine nutrients underground. In the level which they belong to, called the rhizosphere, permaculturists like to include beneficial organisms like worms, insects and fungi. As you can expect, you’ll have to prioritize growing perennials so you won’t have to sow and pull out parts of your garden year after year. Use open-pollinated heirloom seeds, and just let them go to seed to replenish themselves. And remember: The more diversity you have, the greater the variety and nutrients on your plate … and, the more confusion and camouflage you’ll create for both pests and people.Click here for more info. I highly recommend you to watch this free survival video that reveals most important skills By Off The Grid News for beforeitsnews Other Survival Solutions: Please follow and like us: Leave a Reply
Phosphonic acid the systematic name for phosphorous acid Read Also: • Phosphonium [fos-foh-nee-uh m] /fɒsˈfoʊ ni əm/ noun, Chemistry. 1. the positively charged group PH 4 + . • Phosphonium-iodide noun, Chemistry. 1. a colorless to slightly yellowish, crystalline, water-soluble solid, PH 4 I, used in chemical synthesis. • Phosphoprotein [fos-foh-proh-teen, -tee-in] /ˌfɒs foʊˈproʊ tin, -ti ɪn/ noun, Biochemistry. 1. a , as casein or ovalbumin, in which one or more hydroxyl groups of serine, threonine, or tyrosine are hydroxylated. /ˌfɒsfəˈprəʊtiːn/ noun 1. any of a group of conjugated proteins, esp casein, in which the protein molecule is bound to phosphoric acid phosphoprotein phos·pho·pro·tein (fŏs’fō-prō’tēn’, […] • Phosphor [fos-fer, -fawr] /ˈfɒs fər, -fɔr/ noun 1. any of a number of substances that exhibit luminescence when struck by light of certain wavelengths, as by ultraviolet. 2. Literary. a substance. adjective 3. Archaic. . [fos-fer, -fawr] /ˈfɒs fər, -fɔr/ noun 1. the morning star, especially Venus. 1. variant of before a vowel: phosphorate. /ˈfɒsfə/ noun […]
Date of Award Degree Type Degree Name Master of Science (MS) Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering First Advisor Dr. Stephen A. Whitmore Second Advisor Dr. David Geller Third Advisor Dr. R. Rees Fullmer Hybrid rocket ignition has historically involved either dangerous energetic materials or inefficient and failure-prone plasma sources. The vast majority of such systems cannot sup- port multiple restart cycles, thus limiting the applicability of hybrid rockets–especially for in-space propulsion. During research investigating its use as a fuel for hybrid rockets, it was discovered that Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic possesses unique electrical breakdown characteristics. During a properly designed breakdown event, application of a strong electric field induces a high-temperature arc along the surface of the ABS, concurrent with rapid production of hydrocarbon vapor. This behavior forms the basis of a novel ABS arc ignition system. Several such systems were designed, built and tested. Minimum con- ditions for successful operation were discovered, including minimum ignition pressure and electrical power requirements. Hands-off restart capability was demonstrated repeatedly. Finally, paths of inquiry for future research are outlined.
Got Cancer Killers? Breast-feeding protects babies from cancer, but no one knows quite how. So when biologists in Catharina Svanborg's lab saw mothers' milk kill cancer cells, they knew they were onto something big. By Peter Radetsky, Thomas Wester\|Tuesday, June 01, 1999 When Catharina Svanborg and her research associates began mixing mothers' milk and cancer cells together seven years ago, she wasn't looking for a cure for cancer; she was after a way to fight germs. Nevertheless, the physician and immunologist at Lund University in Sweden has discovered that a previously taken-for-granted component of ordinary human breast milk compels cancer cells--every type of cancercell tested--to die. Now Svanborg must prove her discovery, demonstrating to wary scientists that her surprising find is for real. So far, it hasn't been easy. “It’s an extremely important observation, interesting and provocative,” says breast cancer researcher David Salomon of the National Cancer Institute. “But it’s novel, and novelty always runs the risk of challenging the current dogma. A lot of times you run up against a brick wall of people who have tunnel vision.” It doesn’t help that Svanborg’s lab is not a large, high-profile cancer research facility. In fact, it’s not a cancer lab at all; her specialty is an entirely different field, infectious disease. Says Salomon: “If this work had come from a well-known lab at the NCI, you’d have reporters calling six days to Sunday. You’d have scientists eager to collaborate. But it’s coming from a small lab in a foreign country. It’s like General Motors versus a garage operation.” If so, this is the kind of garage you’d take your Porsche to. Tall, poised, and professional to the core, Svanborg leads a team of dedicated young researchers who have worked overtime to make their discovery matter. With the first phase of research finally finished, the group has decided to launch a fusillade of papers to scientific journals. Soon skeptics may have a tough time denying that they are onto something big. Lund is dark and bleak in winter. A medieval town of 95,000 people (almost half are students), it nestles into Sweden’s southern tip. At its heart stands a twelfth-century cathedral with Romanesque towers that disappear into the gloomy low mist. As an occasional vehicle slowly skirts the town’s commons, bundled bicyclists glide by silently. People hunch forward against the cold. Across the way, university halls from the seventeenth century proclaim in stone Lund’s role as Scandinavia’s historical center of learning. So it is a surprise, away from the town center, to come suddenly upon modern brick and concrete buildings: the university hospital, the library, science classrooms, laboratories. It was here nearly seven years ago that her student Anders Håkansson rushed into Svanborg’s office with perplexing news. He had been experimenting with human cancer cells, microbes, and mothers’ milk. (Like lab mice, cancer cells make popular experimental models because they come in standardized lab strains. In many important respects they behave just like other human cells, and they live indefinitely in lab dishes.) The idea was to pinpoint how the milk, a terrific germ-fighter, blocks bacteria from infecting other cells. But the cancer cells in this experiment were acting up. “Their volume was decreasing,” Håkansson recalls. “Their nuclei were shrinking. Something was wrong.” When Svanborg sat down at the microscope, she diagnosed the problem immediately. “The cancer cells,” she announced in her calm, deliberate manner, “are committing suicide.” Cells commit suicide all the time, a phenomenon called apoptosis, in which the body rids itself of old or unnecessary cells (see “Apoptosis,” on page 73). They simply fall apart and are recycled. For cancer cells, however, suicide is rare indeed. Their defining characteristic is uncontrolled reproduction. Yet somehow, the breast milk induced these cancer cells to take their own lives. The circumstance opened up an enormous vista of mysteries—which pleased Svanborg to no end. “Discovery is at the heart of science. If you ask me for specific goals, I wouldn’t be able to name them. The process is fascinating enough.” Svanborg was eager to dive into finding out what in mothers’ milk was killing the cancer cells. “And I always hope that new information will be practical and useful for people who need it,” she adds, the physician rising to the fore. Discerning the basic mechanism wasn’t enough—Svanborg wanted to find out if the cells might be induced to commit suicide on demand: Could the discovery be developed into a cancer cure? Attempting to do so would require manpower, and fewer than 20 people worked in Svanborg’s lab. Most were already involved in their own projects targeting infectious diseases. “If this were a pharmaceutical company, you could say, ‘Take a bunch of people and move them to this,’” Svanborg says. “But this is a university. These are students. If they already have thesis projects going, you can’t change their focus just like that.” “You have freedom here,” says a graduate student. “Although we’re still in training, we are working as scientists. Catharina is very good at giving feedback, but we get to decide what experiments to do and how to do them.” Which is also the way their professor likes it: “I want to facilitate creative environments. I like encouraging people to contribute based on who they are and what they think. After all, this cancer find is pure serendipity. And serendipity arises when people are in a situation that fosters creativity. Nobody can define how it happens, but there’s a lot of happiness involved.” So when Svanborg decided to go after the cancer, she couldn’t just pull her colleagues from their projects to help her. The undertaking would largely fall to her and Håkansson alone. Fortunately, much of Svanborg’s work has prepared her for this specific research. She and her group had studied the nature and function of epithelial cells, the gut-lining cells that come into contact with breast milk in nursing infants. And they had experimented with mothers’ milk many times. They had shown that it does a terrific job of blocking infection by pneumococcus bacteria, the cause of pneumonia, and that breast-fed children suffer significantly fewer ear and upper respiratory tract infections than babies who don’t nurse. And her team had already done much of the homework that would be needed. They had tracked down studies showing that breast milk also protects against cancer (the relative risk of childhood lymphoma is nine times higher in bottle-fed infants, and the risk for carcinoma is also elevated). She wondered what accounted for that discrepancy. Now she had at hand the results that might provide an answer. “We felt sheer excitement and enthusiasm,” she says. It took more than two years before her team felt ready to share its discovery with the rest of the world. In August 1995 they announced that breast milk kills cancer cells and pinpointed the killer, which turned out to be one of the most abundant proteins in the milk. It’s called alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-lac for short), and it helps produce lactose, the sugar found in milk. Many scientists had already studied alpha-lac, but no one had ever noticed anything like this before. If the protein was persuading cancer cells to commit suicide, it must be the microscopic version of a comic-book superhero, leading a quiet life by day, transforming itself into a swashbuckling crime-fighter by night. Indeed, as Svanborg and her colleagues discovered to their astonishment, the protein was performing the decidedly unprotein-like trick of changing its shape (see “Protein Folding,” below). Now it was making cancer cells an offer they couldn’t refuse. Proteins roll off cells’ assembly lines, the ribosomes, as long chains of links called amino acids. Amino acids come in 20 different varieties; proteins typically contain between 100 and a few thousand linked in different sequences. The links function like an alphabet, spelling out the form and function of the protein. Just as the 26 letters in the English alphabet can form a virtually infinite collection of words, the 20 amino acids combine to spell a mind-boggling array of proteins. Muscle, skin, hair, cartilage, antibodies, enzymes, and hormones are just a few of the structures made of proteins. The human body contains some 50,000 different kinds of proteins. But as one-dimensional chains, proteins are useless. To carry out their varied functions, proteins bend and twist into intricate three-dimensional shapes. Imagine crushing a length of yarn in your hand—the tangled mass resembles a folded protein. Some regions coil into loops, some into spirals. Others bend into hairpins, and still others press into pleated sheets resembling accordions and washboards. Proteins depend on these shapes to carry out their functions. Their nooks and crannies interact with the proteins’ environment. For example, digestive enzymes trap starch molecules in their folds, placing them near chemicals that break them down into sugar. Similarly, antibodies hold tight to invading microbes while summoning help from the immune system’s bigger guns. Then there are prions—proteins found in the brain. Prions, whose normal function is unclear, are the likely cause of mad cow disease and similar brain disorders in animals and humans. Prions seem to bring about destruction by unfolding from their normal helical shape and aggregating into relatively indestructible clumps. For reasons yet unknown, tissue around these clumps dies, leaving Swiss-cheeselike holes in the brain. No one knows what causes prions to change their shape. Prions are a dramatic example of a protein that changes shape to perform different functions. Apha-lactalbumin seems to be another. In its completely folded state it helps produce lactose and nourishes babies, but when it’s partially unfolded, it forces cancer cells to burst open and die. These proteins, and a few others, offer evidence that a standard dogma in biology must fall. According to the old view, one DNA sequence produces one amino acid sequence that produces a particular structure that performs one function. But now biologists must recognize the existence of proteins with more than one structure that perform more than one function. “The accepted scientific rule has been, ‘one structure, one function,’ ” says Svanborg. “But having multiple functions would be a very energy-saving, economical way for a protein to operate.” It’s altogether too practical for nature to pass up. —P. R. The discovery also suggested a possible explanation of how breast milk protects against cancer. Perhaps, Svanborg reasoned, the errant cells that give rise to malignancies first show up in infants. The key is breakneck reproduction, a characteristic of the cells lining an infant’s gut. Some of these cells may proliferate out of control. That’s called cancer. Or they may never fully mature or stabilize, lurking in the system like time bombs, ever ready to burst forth into tumors. Transformed alpha-lac “targets not only cancer cells but all kinds of immature, rapidly growing cells, and leaves mature, stable cells alone,” Svanborg says. Alpha-lac, then, may be conducting surveillance missions within the nursing child, rooting out potentially malignant cells and encouraging properly growing cells to mature. Because the lining of the gut, a prime meeting point between the inside of the body and the hazards of the outside world, is a headquarters of the immune system, the vigilance may help the child’s immune defenses develop. Recycling is the way of nature and apoptosis, or programmed cell suicide, is the linchpin of the body’s recycling program. All healthy cells have a built-in mechanism for suicide; it’s switched on by signals received from their environment. (In contrast, cancer cells fail to respond to the environmental signals that regulate cell death. In cancer cells, the apoptosis machinery is short-circuited, allowing the cells to grow unchecked. The result can be the chaotic mass of cells called a tumor.) Once activated, the mechanism for programmed cell death shrinks the cell’s nucleus, decreases the cell’s fluid, or cytoplasm, and snips up the cell’s DNA. The cell literally falls apart, fragmenting into its constituent parts. Catharina Svanborg and her group at Lund University in Sweden, in collaboration with scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, are investigating how alpha-lac turns on the suicide mechanism in cancer and other immature cells. They now know that the protein can slip through the cells’ outer membrane. Once inside, the alpha-lac may light out toward the cell’s energy source, the mitochondria, or it may make a beeline for the cell’s nucleus, pass through the nuclear wall, and head directly to the DNA. Once there, it may activate DNA-destroying enzymes, in effect taking molecular scissors to the strands of genes, snipping them to bits. That’s one scenario. Another possible one involves the mitochondria. Lurking within a cell’s cytoplasm, inactive, just waiting to be turned on, is a family of protein-cutting enzymes, or proteases, called caspaces. Like the Borgias, this family is not to be regarded lightly. Once persuaded to burst into action, caspaces can kill their host cells. Through what’s called a caspace cascade, the sequential activation of one enzyme after another, caspaces slash to pieces protein after protein, eventually bringing about the destruction of the cell’s DNA. In so doing the caspace cascade kills the cell—causing apoptosis. Mitochondria can awaken these sleeping killers. They secrete a substance called cytochrome c that switches on a messenger protein that latches onto the caspaces and jars them awake. Alpha-lac, the Lund and Karolinska teams have demonstrated, can persuade mitochondria torelease cytochrome c. So alpha-lac may induce apoptosis by directly causing the destruction of DNA from within the cell’s nucleus, or it may instigate the suicide-generating caspace cascade through the mitochondria. Svanborg has a standing wager with co-researcher Anders Häkansson as to which strategy is the essential one. “He’s standing by the mitochondria,” she says. “I’m betting on the nucleus.” —P. R. It was quite an exhilarating observation. But the excitement was not mirrored by cancer researchers. “There was . . . a mixed reception from the establishment,” Svanborg says dryly. “In our world, people don’t accept things as fact until they are proven over and over.” The laconic Håkansson is more pointed: “When there was a reception at all, it tended to be skeptical.” Someone who did notice, however, was John Stevens, a vice president of grants at the American Cancer Society. After reading the Svanborg team’s research paper, he made a journey to Sweden. “I had not known of Lund University before, but we found Catharina and her team to be very talented researchers, very dedicated, and their work fascinating.” A $200,000 grant made Svanborg’s the only non-American lab with ACS support. So she got back to work with renewed enthusiasm. “The grant gave us recognition,” says Svanborg. “We came into this from nowhere, and the cancer society gave us the stamp of quality. Now the weight was on us to prove that this is real and reproducible.” That effort has taken another four years. In January, Svanborg released the team’s most recent findings, bolstered by the work of new collaborators, including researchers from the renowned Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and Oxford University in England. The studies explain how transformed alpha-lac snuffs out cancer and other risky cells, and characterizes the protein down to the molecular level. And they announced that not only does it kill cells, it eliminates pneumococcus bacteria, too. Svanborg, with her long-standing interest in infectious disease, is as excited about this finding as any. She envisions using alpha-lac as a tonic to stop infections before they begin. Breast-fed infants take in more than just nutrition with their mothers’ milk. The American Academy of Pediatrics calls breast-feeding “the ideal method of feeding and nurturing infants.” Like a magic elixir, the milk promotes the nursing infant’s general health, growth, and development, while significantly decreasing the risk of infection. Breast-feeding has also been related to possible enhancement of cognitive development. It protects the nursing infant against a slew of diseases, including diarrhea, lower respiratory infection, otitis media, bacteremia, bacterial meningitis, botulism, urinary-tract infection, necrotizing enterocolitis, sudden infant death syndrome, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and allergic diseases. And, of course, there is evidence that mothers’ milk protects against lymphoma and carcinomas. Several studies indicate that breast-feeding may induce an infant’s immune system to mature more quickly than that of a formula-fed child. For example, breast-fed babies produce higher levels of antibodies in response to immunizations. And animal studies indicate that the intestines develop faster in newborns that nurse on mothers’ milk. For these reasons, the American Academy of Pediatrics has some strong recommendations: • Human milk is the preferred feeding for virtually all infants, including premature and sick newborns. • Breast-feeding should begin as soon as possible after birth, usually within the first hour. • Newborns should be nursed whenever they show signs of hunger—increased alertness or activity, mouthing, or rooting. • No supplements (water, glucose water, formula, etcetera) should be given to breast-feeding newborns unless for medical reasons. Pacifiers should be avoided. • Breast-feeding provides ideal nutrition. It is all an infant needs for optimal growth and development for the first six months. Breast-feeding also helps mothers. Nursing contracts the uterus and results in less postpartum bleeding and less menstrual blood loss over the months after delivery. Nursing women return to their prepregnancy weight earlier than those who don’t nurse. Nursing improves bone strength (leading to fewer hip fractures in postmenopausal women) and reduces the risk of ovarian cancer and premenopausal breast cancer. Finally, breast-feeding is one of the best contraceptives going. It delays the resumption of ovulation in nursing women. Despite these benefits, there are some situations in which breast-feeding should be avoided. A mother can pass harmful drugs and active infections to her child through breast milk. TB and HIV are prime examples. And infants who inherit a condition called galactosemia should not be breast-fed. Their inability to process one of the sugars in breast milk could lead to mental retardation. —P. R. The team has given the new protein a name: HAMLET for Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumor cells (appropriate for a Scandinavian hero that alters its nature to take lethal action). They now know just how the protein changes into a cancer assassin. One key is the acid content of its surroundings. When Svanborg initially prepared milk to pour over cells, she added acid to the solution, hoping to separate out the microbe blockers. Little did she know that this acid bath, like some magic potion, would transform the well-mannered alpha-lac into HAMLET. But acid alone wasn’t enough. Another mysterious factor was needed. That, too, turned out to be a component of the milk itself. (The lab has not yet made its identity public). Imagine a mother nursing her baby. Her milk contains alpha-lac in its ordinary, lactose-producing form. It also contains lots of the secret component. Milk cascades into the child’s digestive tract, where it encounters an environment radically different from the mammary gland in which it was produced. The infant’s stomach is awash in powerful digestive acids. In fact, it almost exactly mimics the acid level of the milk solution that changed the alpha-lac to its cancer-killing form in Svanborg and Håkansson’s experiments. The acid content in the child’s gut probably implements the crucial shape shift, transforming alpha-lac into HAMLET. Now that the team can generate genetically engineered HAMLET, they can make changes in it, helping them learn the function of its structural parts. “That means we know what we’re doing,” Svanborg says. “I think people will start seeing this as a fact.” “My prediction,” agrees Stevens, “is that with the current publications, interest in this research will increase. People will see this as real and novel and important.” As they await reaction from the scientific community, the team is exploring how to turn HAMLET into a usable treatment for cancer and bacterial infections. And that becomes the topic of the team during dinner at Svanborg’s home on a wet January night. “We often work here,” says Svanborg. “We use the house as an extension of the lab.” A snug cottage with white plaster walls and wide wood-plank floors, a brisk walk from the cathedral, it fills with people, the windows fogging. The team has come directly from the lab, as long hours are the norm these days. Anders Håkansson is here, along with graduate student Malin Svensson, technician Ann-Kristin Mossberg, chemist Sara Linse, and a new colleague, physician and immunologist Hans Belfrage. They crowd around Svanborg’s dinner table for halibut casserole, bread, and red wine, with blue cheese tart and grapes for dessert. (“Catharina has had this table for a long time,” says the effervescent Svensson, who tracked down the secret ingredient in HAMLET. “Students have been sitting here writing papers with her for years. If only this table could talk. . . .”) “HAMLET looks so good and so exciting,” says Belfrage, nursing his coffee. “But we need to consider the pros and cons.” Tall and grave, Belfrage resembles a young Max von Sydow striding through the bleak landscape of early Bergman movies. Svanborg has entrusted him with the responsibility of escorting the discovery into the clinic for trials. The first step is to test HAMLET as a tumor killer in animals. Svanborg and her team hope that because HAMLET is a naturally occurring substance, it might not be toxic like so many other cancer drugs. They’ve already tried it in mice, who tolerate very high doses with no side effects. If animal tests go well, the next trials will be with humans, a process that involves three stages—one for safety, the next to see if the protein kills cancer in a limited number of people, and the last to turn it loose in a large group. That can take years. And then, says Svanborg, “A major pharmaceutical company must become convinced that this is worth their investment. But if we can demonstrate that HAMLET works, I think no major company would be able to refuse.” “This is a substance that kills lots of tumor cells, every cancer we test it against,” Svensson says. “Lung cancer, throat cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer, bladder cancer, lymphoma, leukemia, and pneumococcus bacteria too.” “That’s a very big pro,” says Belfrage. “But cancer cells in the lab don’t necessarily indicate the response of human tumors,” Håkansson reminds the group. “That may be a con,” Belfrage agrees. “The only way to know is to test in people. It may be possible to do a small-scale, pilot safety study quite soon, perhaps in six months. We don’t want to wait years.” Svanborg smiles at the group crowded around her table. This is the life she enjoys—working to further her colleagues as they prepare to lift another veil from the mysteries and magic of HAMLET. “When we started doing research here, in this little town, in this little country on the edge of the known world, few people were aware of it. Now that this enormous opportunity has come to us, we want the world to know.” Next Page 1 of 3 Comment on this article
Quick Start for Implementing Essbase Also see: The following table provides a process map for implementing Essbase. Each step in the process is described at a high level, with references to where you can obtain more detailed information. Table 1. A Process Map Process Step Learn the fundamentals of Essbase and distributed OLAP. Assess your needs and requirements. Have a clear idea of your data analysis needs and which calculations and reports you want to run. Your budget, forecasting, and other financial reports with notes on how you want to improve them Analyze your data from a multidimensional perspective: • Where are your data sources? • What type is the data? Is it detailed, relational data, or is it higher-level, hierarchical data that can be used for analysis? • In what format is the data? • How will you access the data? If you must access relational data, you may need Oracle Essbase SQL Interface or Integration Services. Install Essbase. Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide Design your application and database. • Identify business and user requirements, including security. • Identify source data and determine the scope of the Essbase database. • Choose whether to leave lowest-level member data in a relational database and access with Hybrid Analysis, or to load all data. • Define standard dimensions and designate sparse and dense storage. • Identify any need for attribute dimensions. • Identify any need for currency conversion applications that track data in different currencies. • Define calculations needed for outline dimensions and members. • Identify any need to monitor data changes in the database. You monitor data changes using the Essbase triggers feature. Case Study: Designing a Single-Server, Multidimensional Database Estimate the size of your database, check disk space, and ensure that the sizes of the index, data files, and data caches in memory are adequate. Create an application and a database. Creating Applications and Databases Design a currency application. Designing and Building Currency Conversion Applications Build an outline for your database. Creating and Changing Database Outlines Assign alias names to your members. Setting Dimension and Member Properties Build the dimensions. Decide whether your data loads will introduce new members into the outline. If so, consider dynamically building your dimensions using a rules file and a data source. If not, set up regular data loads. Load your data. You can load data in these ways: • Free-form • With a rules file • With Hybrid Analysis Calculate your database. • Decide on a type of calculation: outline or calculation script, or a combination • Ensure that relationships between members and member consolidations in the database outline are correct. • Consider whether tagging some members as Dynamic Calc or using Intelligent Calculation will improve calculation efficiency. • Consider which members you should tag as two-pass calculation to ensure correct calculation results. Learn about dynamic calculations and how they can improve performance. Dynamically Calculating Data Values View data with Spreadsheet Add-in, other Oracle tools, or third-party tools. • See the Oracle Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in User's Guide • For third-party tools, see vendor documentation Learn about Partitioning. Think about whether your data can benefit from being decentralized into connected databases. Link files or cell notes to data cells. Linking Objects to Essbase Data Copy or export data subsets. Copying Data Subsets and Exporting Data Back up and restore your data. Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Backup and Recovery Guide Allocate storage and specify Essbase kernel settings for your database. • Data compression: Specify data compression on disk and the compression scheme. • Cache sizes: You can specify the index, data file, and data cache sizes. To prevent a slowdown of the operating system, ensure that the sum of index and data cache sizes for all the active databases on the server is not more than two-thirds of the system’s RAM. • Cache memory locking: You can lock the memory that is used for the index, data file, and data caches into physical memory. • Disk volumes: You can specify the storage location of Essbase index files and data files, appropriate disk volume names, and configuration parameters. • Isolation level: Specify committed or uncommitted access. Generate a report. • Choose a type of report: structured or free-form. • Plan the elements of the report, such as page layout, column number, member identity, data value format, and title content. • For a structured report, create page, column, and row headings (unnecessary for free-form reports). • Create and test a report script using Administration Services Report Script Editor or any other text editor. • Save the report on Essbase Server or on a client computer. Fine-tune your database performance and storage settings. Automate routine operations by using MaxL or ESSCMD. Design security for your database. • Create a security plan for your environment based on database security needs. • Create users and groups and assign them administrative or data-access permissions, if necessary. • Define common data access permissions at the scope of the server, applications, databases, or data-cell levels. • To define global application or database permissions, select the relevant application or application and database and adjust the settings. Maintain your applications. Analyze and improve performance and troubleshoot errors if they occur. • Ensure that block size is not excessively large. • Set the correct size for the index, data file, data, and calculator caches. • Validate the database to ensure data integrity. • Consider using partitioning to distribute data across multiple cubes for better scalability and performance. • Ensure that disk space is adequate to allow the application to grow over time. • Archive data from Essbase Server on a regular basis. • Enable logging for spreadsheet update to ensure that log files are updated after archiving. • If sorting on retrievals, increase the size of the retrieval sort buffer.
frieze (n.1) Look up frieze at "sculptured horizontal band in architecture," 1560s, from Middle French frise, originally "a ruff," from Medieval Latin frisium "embroidered border," variant of frigium, which is probably from Latin Phrygium "Phrygian; Phrygian work," from Phrygia, the ancient country in Asia Minor known for its embroidery (Latin also had Phrygiae vestes "ornate garments"). Meaning "decorative band along the top of a wall" was in Old French. frieze (n.2) Look up frieze at type of coarse woolen cloth with a nap on one side, late 14c., from Old French frise, probably ultimately from a German or Dutch word meaning "to curl" and related to frizzle.
Do Death Benefits From an Annuity Become Part of the Estate Value? When you die, all of the assets titled in your name become part of your estate. For federal tax purposes and for states that impose estate tax, there is a maximum estate valuation exemption before taxes are imposed. If your death benefits from an annuity pass to your spouse, it is not usually included in your taxable estate. If the death benefit passes to any other beneficiaries, it is part of your estate valuation. Purchasing an annuity means that you establish an agreement with an insurance company under which you receive periodic payments, beginning at a specific date and generally continuing for the rest of your life. You may purchase the annuity in either a lump sum or by a series of payments to the insurance company. Investment options vary by the type of annuity. Like many retirement accounts, annuities are tax-deferred, meaning you do not pay money on income until you actually begin receiving payments. Death Benefits If your annuity has a death benefit, you select the beneficiary to receive proceeds after your death. The amount is generally either a guaranteed minimum or all of the funds in the account. The guaranteed minimum might include all of the payments minus your previous withdrawals. If your annuity permits a "stepped-up" death benefit, the guaranteed minimum could be the account value on a particular date, such as the date of your demise. This locks in the account value, so if the amount declines in the near future, the beneficiary receives this designated amount. You will pay extra fees for the "stepped-up" option. If you leave your death benefits from an annuity to a nonspousal beneficiary, the amount becomes part of your gross estate valuation. Because it is left to a beneficiary, it might not pass through the probate process, but that does not mean the value of the annuity is not part of your estate valuation for tax purposes. The estate tax exemption depends on the year in which you die. For 2012, the federal exemption is $5 million, but it is likely to change in subsequent years. Gross Estate Valuation When planning for the disposition of your estate, be aware of what the Internal Revenue Service considers part of the gross estate valuation. This includes not only annuities but real estate, stocks and bonds, cash, trusts, mutual funds, insurance or business interests. For estate evaluation, the fair market value of the assets is used. Estate deductions include mortgages, debts, funeral expenses, estate expenses and property passing to your spouse. To ensure that your estate need not pay more taxes than necessary, consult an estate planning professional. Zacks Investment Research is an A+ Rated BBB Accredited Business.
Characterization of trafficking and processing determinants in the outer pore -forming region of Kv1 potassium channels Barbara Gomez, Fordham University The Kv1 subfamily of voltage-gated potassium channels (Kv1.1-Kv1.6) is involved in repolarizing the membrane potential after an action potential, shaping the action potential, and neurotransmitter release. The ability to carry out these functions requires proper trafficking and localization to the cell surface. Kv1 subfamily members have very different trafficking and TGG patterns despite having very similar amino acid sequences. Both positive and negative amino acid trafficking determinants of these processes have been mapped to the outer pore-forming region, which differ in these channels. The two important amino acid determinants responsible for those differences have been identified by lab personnel. ^ Using a site-directed mutagenesis approach to make targeted substitutions, I have defined the physical and chemical properties at those two key positions that affect the Kv1.4 potassium channel's localization pattern and TGG. The mutations were characterized by their effect on levels of surface and total protein, protein stability, and on cellular localization. It is hypothesized that the trafficking determinant on the channel's outer pore-forming region exerts its effect by binding a trafficking factor that causes either high partial intracellular retention or trafficking through the secretory pathway. ^ Members of the Kv1 subfamily have very similar amino acid sequences. Kv1.1 and Kv1.4, for instance have 74.0% similarity over their core region. However, Kv1.1 and Kv1.4 homomers display different cell surface expression levels and TGG efficiencies when assembled as homomers in transfected cultured cell lines. Alterations in either parameter are predicted to affect cell signaling. When cotransfected into the same cell lines, Kv1.1 and Kv1.4 assemble into heteromers in which Kv1.1 acts in a dominant negative manner to reduce cell surface expression of the heteromers compared with Kv1.4 homomers. Both Kv1.1/Kv1.4 heteromers and Kv1.4 homomers have been observed in brain, suggesting that neurons may also combine subunits with differing trafficking programs into heteromers to regulate surface levels of channels. ^ Subject Area Biology, General Recommended Citation Barbara Gomez, "Characterization of trafficking and processing determinants in the outer pore -forming region of Kv1 potassium channels" (January 1, 2006). ETD Collection for Fordham University. Paper AAI3255043.
Smart Body Art: Glucose-Monitoring Tattoos for Diabetics Several-times-daily testing of blood sugar can make life difficult for diabetics. They’re chained to their glucose monitors in a way, making it hard to live a regular life. Continuous glucose monitoring is helpful, but just as intrusive in one’s life. A team at MIT is developing a method for tattooing diabetics with a nanoparticle ink that will keep track of glucose levels, eliminating the need for multiple finger pricks every day. The method is different from the implantable medical monitors being developed by the University of Pennsylvania; rather than tiny LEDs under the skin, the diabetes-monitoring tattoos would consist of nanotubes wrapped in a glucose-sensitive polymer. The “ink” is sensitive to changes in glucose levels and fluoresces in a way that can be seen under near-infrared light. To read the fluorescent information, the diabetic patient would wear a small wristwatch-like device over the tattoo that would provide an instant, real-time reading of his or her blood sugar level. And unlike most tattoos, the nanoparticle ink only lasts for about six months before it needs to be refreshed with a touch-up tattoo. submit to reddit See more in Cybernetics or under Technology. June, 2010. Become a Fan on Facebook

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