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Why are Indians Vegetarian?
by Armaan Bhati on March 6, 2010
in Arts and Living
Indians are vegetarian because of their religion. Not all Indians are vegetarian. In India mainly Jainism and Hinduism teach about vegetarianism as moral conduct. These religion believe that killing animal for eating is unethical.
These days it is easy to find people in all religion who eats non-veg. But religious people are still vegetarian.
What are your comment on being vegetarian ?
Leave a Comment
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Booking John Baker
Book John for Genealogy Groups ∙ Museums ∙ Libraries ∙ Churches ∙ Colleges ∙ Schools ∙ History Groups ∙ Book Clubs ∙ Family Reunion Groups ∙ Fraternal Organizations.
References available.
Using Dynamic PowerPoint presentations with hundreds of rare photographs John brings history to life.
Have Expert Genealogist and Historian John Baker talk to your group about tracing their ancestors. Your group will learn about genealogy, American history, African American culture and history, the Civil War, DNA testing, and overall knowledge for creating their own family tree. He will also discuss how he traced his family history for over thirty years and the astounding information he found to write The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Family's Journey to Freedom.
Contact: [email protected]
John presents many topics relating to his research: African American Genealogy and History • Civil War • Plantation Life • Slavery • DNA Testing • Genealogical Research.
Tracing Your History & Genealogy
30-Year Journey and Research -John Baker takes you along with him on his thirty-year journey of discovery to find his ancestors and hundreds of others once enslaved on Wessyngton Plantation, the largest tobacco plantation in America. He shares with you his research techniques using thousands of documents, and how he came to write The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Family's Journey to Freedom.
How to Document Your Genealogical Research Step by StepDiscovering your roots has great rewards for you and your family but most people don’t know where to start. John Baker reveals very simple steps in how to research and document your history. He also discusses the thirty-year journey that led him to uncover the history of his ancestors as well as the owners of one of America’s largest plantations. By the end of this presentation you’ll know how to create a family tree that can be treasured by you and your entire family.
How to Effectively Document An Oral History to Preserve Your Roots Older family members have valuable information and the spoken word is oftentimes the most compelling portrait of our ancestors. This presentation teaches you how to preserve your family history, through interviews and compilations of amazing oral histories, to create a body of work to be shared with the world and future generations.
Discover How to Use Research & DNA to Unravel Your Family HistoryGive the wonderful gift of your family history to generation after generation. In an inspiring and exciting presentation, John Baker teaches you how to unravel your family history through researching historical documents, using current technologies such as DNA, and documenting oral histories. You’ll take a look at rare documents and photos that John Baker collected to uncover 250 years of his family’s history, and hundreds of others.
African American History
The Impact of Uncovering African American History to Educate Today’s Youth – Teach today’s children that the sky is the limit by educating them about their past. John Baker will talk to the youth about tracing their history and empower them to celebrate their ancestors’ accomplishments. This presentation will encourage today’s youth to achieve great success and fulfill their dreams.
Tracing the African American Legacy to Empower Your CommunityJohn Baker shows you how to find the treasures in African American history to empower your community and others around you. He reveals hundreds of historical photos and documents that have been recovered to show the triumphs of the African American family.
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• View of Grand Canyon National Park at sunset from the South Rim
Grand Canyon
National Park Arizona
Archeological Resources
Humans have been around the Grand Canyon region for up to 12,000 years.
Split-Twig Figurines
Some of the most facinating artifacts found here in the Grand Canyon are split-twig figurines.
Each one is made from a single twig, often willow, split down the middle, and then carefully folded into animal shapes.
These figurines date from 2,000 to 4,000 years ago and were found in remote caves.
Courtesy: Western Mapping Co, Tucson, AZ
Often they are in the shape of deer or bighorn sheep, sometimes with horns or antlers. Occasionally, they are pierced with another stick, resembling a spear, or are stuffed with artiodactyl dung. Split-twig figurines have been found in dry caves in the Great Basin and on the Colorado Plateau, and were first recognized in the Grand Canyon in 1933.
--While their exact function remains a mystery, recent research suggests that split-twig ----figurines were totems associated with the Late Archaic hunting and gathering culture. Their occurrence in remote, relatively inaccessible uninhabited caves indicates that these figurines were not toys. They are usually found under rock cairns, indicating careful placement.
You may view some of these amazing and ancient figurines at the Tusayan Museum in the park at Desert View. (South Rim) Download the Desert View Map Here (235kb PDF File)
Archeology Virtual Tour Console
Take the virtual tour
Grand Canyon Archeology Virtual Tour
Discover ancient places within the Grand Canyon where people lived long ago.
What did the archeologists find
during the first major excavation to occur along the Colorado River corridor in nearly 40 years? Interactive 360° photos, show archeologists at work, along with their tools, such as shovels, trowels, screens and buckets.
http://www.nps.gov/features/grca/001/archeology/index.html
Learn more by watching a video of these archeological excavations here.
Prehistory of the Grand Canyon
The earliest known period of occupation, the Paleoindian period, began at approximately 11,500 Before Present (B.P.) and lasted approximately 3,000 years to the end of the last ice age. During this occupation, small, mobile bands of people hunted megafauna such as mountain goats, ground sloth, and bison; and gathered wild plants. Paleoindian sites are extremely rare in the Southwest; one known site has been found within the Grand Canyon.
Around 9,000 years B.P. environmental changes led to the expansion of differing environmental zones across the Southwest. During this environmental expansion, Paleoindians adapted to new environments and developed new subsistence strategies. The descendants of the Paleoindians, known as the Archaic, hunted smaller game and moved seasonally across the landscape to procure seasonal resources across vast territories. Tool kits included atlatls for dart throwing and chipped stone tools and groundstone tools such as metates and manos for plant processing. Archaic sites generally consist of temporary camps, rock art panels, caves, rock shelters, hearths or fire pits, grinding and processing tools, projectile points, flake debitage, animal and plant remains. Archaic sites have been identified throughout Grand Canyon (Fairley et al. 1994).
Experimentation with horticultural subsistence began in the Southwest around 3500 B.P. with the appearance of maize agriculture. Horticultural subsistence strategies still relied heavily on hunting and gathering local resources, though maize, beans, and squash were planted in locations where seasonal flooding allowed for the germination and growth of cultivated plants. With the adoption of a more sedentary lifestyle, storage cists and granaries were used to store surplus supplies and pottery appeared by A.D. 500. The gradual shift to village life is referred to as the Formative Period, lasting from A.D. 500 to 1540 (Neal et al. 1999).
During the Formative Period, the semi-sedentary occupants of Grand Canyon began producing baskets, sandals, and storage features such as slab-lined cists and granaries. This tradition first appears in the Southwest around A.D. 1. The period, often viewed as a transition to agriculture, marks the beginning of horticultural subsistence strategies. Initially, dwellings appeared as shelters in overhangs and caves. By A.D. 500, circular pithouses appear in small aggregates, suggesting the beginning of village life. Pottery appears at this time, often graywares with black painted designs. In eastern Grand Canyon, these occupations have been associated with Cohonina peoples (Schwartz 1969).
The appearance of ceramic vessels, both jars and bowls, seems to be associated with an increase in sedentary lifeways and the development of habitation structures. These structures began with semi-subterranean pithouses and shifted to above ground masonry room blocks or pueblos. The bow and arrow replaced the atlatl, and the geographic region of resource procurement expanded.
A more stable subsistence strategy of combined agriculture and hunting and gathering allowed for the continued aggregation of individuals into small villages or hamlets. Ceramic technology and design styles became more elaborate and new technologies developed, including the use of cotton for textiles. Surface storage rooms developed into above ground habitation structures and later, contiguous pueblos in some locales. By A.D. 900 along the river corridor, Puebloan peoples were cultivating maize, evidenced by the presence of corn pollen on living floors (Schwartz 1969). Both Tusayan Gray Ware and Tusayan White Ware ceramics increased in eastern Grand Canyon, signaling the expansion of the Kayenta Branch from the southeast.
During the later portion of the 10th century, masonry surface pueblos and semi-subterranean kivas appeared. Population growth was gradual, with the addition of single rooms to existing structures that resulted in linear pueblos of two to seven contiguous rooms. Ceramics continued to be dominated by Kayenta wares, with a gradual increase in ceramics from their northern neighbors, the Virgin Branch.
While ceramic styles remained relatively stable, after A. D. 1100 an abrupt change in architecture occurred in eastern Grand Canyon. Habitation structures became more interspersed with storage rooms and bins, fire pits, and increased use of outdoor activity areas (Schwartz 1969). Pottery distributions continued to increase in Virgin Branch styles. Habitation appears to have moved to higher terraces, perhaps to fully exploit regions adjacent to water sources for increased fertile agricultural productivity. According to Schwartz (1969), it appears that rather than population influxes from different indigenous groups, trade connections with the north were more fully developed in conjunction with localized ceramic traditions.
It is believed that by A.D. 1300, semi-nomadic, non-puebloan peoples also occupied the river corridor of Grand Canyon. These Pai and Paiute hunter-gatherers had a stable subsistence economy based on combined agriculture and hunting and gathering, supplemented by trade. Dispersed settlements included wickiup rings, rock shelters, extensive roasting complexes that included ceramics and abundant flake stone tools and debitage. It is also believed that these hunter-gatherers made use of perishables such as baskets, mats, sandals, and twine. These ancestors of the present day Hualapai and Havasupai continued to seasonally utilized both the rim and river corridor until interdiction by the U. S. Government.
In addition to indigenous populations, Europeans also traversed the Grand Canyon. The historic period includes visitation by Spanish Missionaries, mining and tourism entrepreneurs, and more recently, hydroelectric power exploration and production.
The prehistory of the river corridor in Grand Canyon closely follows the sequences of regional occupation and abandonment generally agreed upon by southwestern archaeologists. Localized variation in habitation, construction, and ceramic technologies are to be expected. No doubt the inhabitants of Grand Canyon were influenced by the same climatic changes that occurred across the entire southwest. Archaeologists also assume that population expansion along the river corridor itself was a direct result of population growth along the rims of the Grand Canyon. Because there are only a limited number of entrance and exit points into Grand Canyon, a majority of the sites recorded at permanent water sources and along access routes consist of multiple occupations through time.
Related Information
Grand Canyon National Park Archeological Resources
The River Monitoring Program
generates data regarding the effects of Dam operations on historic properties, identifies ongoing impacts to historic properties within the APE [Area of Potential Effect], and develops and implements remedial measures for treating historic properties subject to damage.
Archeological Excavations at 9 Sites along the Colorado River Corridor
Between 2007 and 2009, the National Park Service, in cooperation with the Museum of Northern Arizona, undertook the first major archeological excavations along the river in Grand Canyon National Park in 40 years.
Archeologists Make Exciting Discoveries Along the Colorado River
In October, 2007, archeologists excavated a habitation site along the Colorado River. The fascinating artifacts they found provide insight into the lives of people who once made the Grand Canyon their home.
Canyon Sketches Vol 03 - May 2008
Archeologists Excavate Kiva by the Colorado River
Archeologists excavated nine archeological sites along the Colorado River because they are being impacted by severe erosion. In April and May 2008, crews discovered a complete kiva during the excavation of one of these sites.
Canyon Sketches Vol 09 - March 2009
Archeologists Excavate Two Sites Along the Colorado River.
In fall 2008, archeologists excavated two archeological sites during a three-year project along the Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon. One of the excavated sites has evidence of as many as six different human occupations over a time span of 3,500 years.
The Vanishing Treasures Program
Grand Canyon National Park is one of 45 National Park Service areas that participate in the Vanishing Treasures Program. The goal of the Vanishing Treasures program is the conservation of architectural remains through research, documentation, and preservation treatment.
Canyon Sketches Vol 04 – June 2008
Vanishing Treasures Archeologists Stabilize Transept Ruin (North Rim)
In late June 2008, archeologists from Grand Canyon National Park’s Division of Science and Resource Management cleaned and stabilized Transept Ruin, a two-room ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) ruin on the North Rim.
Did You Know?
THE VIEW FROM TOROWEAP OVERLOOK
The view from Toroweap Overlook (North Rim), 3,000 vertical feet above the Colorado River, is breathtaking; the sheer drop, dramatic! Renowned Lava Falls Rapid, just downriver, can be seen and heard easily from the overlook. This remote area is located on the northwest rim of the Grand Canyon. More...
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Encyclopedia > Historiography
Article Content
Historiography
Historiography refers both to the process of writing history as well as to the products derived from that writing (articles, books, monographs, conference papers, etc.). Historiography also examines the methods and approaches of history, especially as they change in response to new ideas or fashion.
The study of Historiography demands a critical approach to what goes beyond the mere examination of historical fact. Historiographical studies consider the source, often by researching the author, his position in society and the type of history being written at the time. Once these factors have been determined, we can often determine any ulterior motives on the author's part. These motives are then taken into consideration and incorporated into the final historical effort.
Some of the basic questions considered in historiography are:
• Who wrote the source (primary or secondary)?
• For primary sources, we look at the person in his society, for secondary sources, we ask if his approach is usually, for example, Marxist or Annales School ( "total history"), if he's working outside his normal field, etc.
• What was the view of history when he wrote it?
• Was it a list of things that happened in previous years?
• Was history supposed to provide moral lessons? to provide a neutral viewpoint?
• What or who was the intended audience?
The broad range of answers to these types of questions help to explain a great deal about why so much of historical study seems imprecise. For example, an especially interesting problem is that of dividing the world into usable chunks, or Periodization. Referring to the years between the fall of the Roman Empire and his own, Petrarch coined the term, "Dark Ages." For him, western history had three periods, the Classical Age, the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance. Compared to the excitement Petrarch must have felt at the Renaissance beginning around him focusing upon a revival of the Classics, and absent the archaeological and paleographical techniques available today, we can understand Petrarch's view.
That view remained in vogue for several hundred years, until new approaches to historical study gave rise to a much different view of the Middle Ages. By the late 20th century, most historians agreed that the Classical period needed to be divided by time and subject into Hellenic and Hellenistic Greece, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. There were the Middle Ages, and the High Middle Ages. The more we learn, the more arguments there are for new periods and subperiods. Moreover, it can now be argued that chronological divisions may not always be the most accurate way of looking at history.
--- Approaches to History
Paleography
Diplomatic History, also called Political history
The Annales School - 20th Century French movement
History from below
Numismatics
Social History
Oral History
Deconstructionism
Postmodernism
See also List of historians
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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Healing MindN Power Circle Learn How to Unlock the Power of Your Healing Mind.
20. April 2012
How do You Vote? By Your Caucus or Your Conscience? part 3: Projection
Filed under: Evil Control,Mind Control,Self Improvement — HealingMindN @ 01:05
Conscience, Judgment, and Value Systems
A while back, I said this blog was for expressing personal opinions, especially mine; this series on conscience is no exception. Although HealingMindN is based in psychic human potential, that human potential is only as stable as the conscience which supports it.
Conscience is the guiding recognition of right and wrong in regards to our actions and motives. Although this may seem to be a global definition of conscience for every human being, let’s have a look at a popular quote by Thomas Hobbes from Leviathan, part 2, chapter 29:
“A man’s conscience and his judgement is the same thing, and as the judgement, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.”
For a moment, let’s focus on what might make us erroneous. As individuals, we are all brought up with different values. For me, that’s OK. I respect different cultures with their different value systems – as long as they’re life-positive.
Projection
Problems happen when people with different value systems project undesirable attributes upon each other. Bless the Beasts and the Children who innocently project positive qualities to others, but let’s talk about people who project negative qualities onto others for a moment.
At the crux of psychological projection, people want freedom. They want freedom of freedom of mind; this includes a clear conscience. In order to maintain that freedom, or, at least, the illusion of it, we may use defense mechanisms such as denial and projection. Although, we have different value systems, globally, we all know what is life-positive and what is life-negative. Projection is a way for us to free our conscience of our own undesirable, life-negative behavior as we point our fingers to blame others of the same. For your reference:
Life-positive
Protects and supports life
Life-negative
Controls and weakens life
Denial and Projection
For example, religious zealots among Christians, Jews, and Muslims like to judge each other. They blame each other for a bloody history that caused great pain and suffering. They blame each other for being war criminals and terrorists because of that history, thus ignoring their own bloody history. Can we agree that problems happen when these zealots rise to power?
That reference on psychological projection also speaks of denial, a well proliferated defense mechanism. An example is big pharma and their lackeys. No matter how many life-negative side effects they acknowledge to prescribed drugs, they deny that their drugs cause over 100,000 deaths a year. Instead, they project the problem onto their patients: They prefer to say, “The patient didn’t respond well to treatment (therefore, the patient is at fault)” – “BTW, we are exonerated of any fault by the supreme courts and the patient signed a waiver exonerating us of any fault… so there.”
Most people in law enforcement grew up ascribing negative attributes onto others because of their own experience, family values, feelings of guilt for something they did, etc. On the surface, they may say, “Protect the people, serve the law.” But When they abuse their authority and treat the people they are supposed to be serving as beneath them, inside, what they really say is “Protect my ego, serve me.” Their conscience is clear as long as they wear that badge and catch the “bad guys” who are really guilty. BTW: What made these farmed pigs criminals in the eyes of law enforcement in that they had to be killed?
Every walk of life has people in authority positions who project their undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings onto people beneath them. Obviously, you’re not one of them because you’re still here reading this. Think of this as a guide to the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Authoritarian Projection
Dictatorships, kingships, and tyrannys have all gone through the same trials throughout the millenia wherein authority figures treated their subjects as cattle. Time after time, I’ve heard the same words: “I’ll give you the leadership you deserve…”
They all fell by the hands of the people who knew the difference between right and wrong. They knew the difference between life-positive and life-negative.
But there is a difference now. Like any “high” achiever who tries and fails, the dictators, kings, and tyrants have been tweaking and perfecting their methods throughout time. As long as their successors figured it out, they didn’t care how long it took to succeed. For a “high achiever,” each failure is one step closer to success; it doesn’t matter if the goals are good or evil.
In earlier posts, I have referred to them as the people of Psalm 73, so I’ll do it again. The people of Psalm 73 have figured out a way to control human beings: Sedate them and breed fear into them.
When human beings are sedated, they are out of touch with their own feelings, their own instincts and intuition about right and wrong. When they are bred with beliefs based in fear rather than love, then they resonate more with life-negative dictators, kings, and tyrants rather than life-positive human spirit. Such a people are more self-involved and self-centered rather than caring about the future of the human race.
In essence, the people of Psalm 73 desire to make their citizens underneath them in their own image. Therefore, their projection of undesirable attributes onto others becomes justified.
You don’t believe me. OK, let’s look at a few social studies that are part of mainstream academic psychology.
Social Studies Projection
The famous Milgram Experiments done a few decades ago seem to prove that ANYONE will give into authoritarian commands to do harm to another human being. I’ll leave it to you to examine the shocking details of the Milgram Experiments.
A recent study from UC Berkeley implies, given the impetus, that anyone can and will give into greed. BUT upper classmen, mainly people who become authoritarian figures, are raised to be greedy.
The above experiments are based in the notion that anyone and everyone gives into human frailty, given the impetus, to behave unethically. As you see, the objective of these experiments is to project or ascribe undesirable attributes to all humans. Then they “clutch at every straw” by reaching for every piece of data that might prove their theory – while discarding all other data as anamolous; the researchers, in the guise of “postulating their theories,” are also guilty of projecting their own unethical behavior upon their experimental subjects.
Are you beginning to understand how mainstream science works?
Like all the other grade school kids, when I was presented with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I also believed that any person will sacrifice morality, ego, personal safety, and more, when deprived of the most basic needs such as food, water, and sleep. I still recall the example that one college health teacher provided on how a man will crawl through manure, mud, and dead bodies to fulfill their basic needs.
These same teachers failed to cite examples through out history/herstory that seem to suggest an inversion of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. What about Indian Yogis and Shaolin Monks who sacrifice their basic needs for self actualization? Like Mahatma Ghandi? Dalai Llama? St. Francis of Assisi? David Blaine? Not that he’s a holy man, but was David Blaine looking for fame or was he just plain nuts looking for self actualization when he suspended himself high on a perch or a big plastic box for days at a time – depriving himself of food, sleep, and excretion?
What about the personal sacrifices of musicians who deprive themselves of food, sleep, and safety for their art? Our favorite recording artists sacrificed regular meals and, sometimes, a roof over their heads to finally get that big break and record their music and play their dream venues. These are people who have placed self actualization as their most basic need.
What about scientists who personally sacrificed their safety and security for their beliefs like Nikola Tesla, Wilhelm Reich, Royal Raymond Rife, and Ruth Drown? These are people who placed self actualization of the human race as their most basic need.
Are there exceptions to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Are they anamolies to true human nature? Or are these people just a few samples of true human nature?
You Decide.
My next post in this series covers “Upper Class Cheating” in a little more detail. In the mean time, Stay Free – I mean in a good way.
Healing thoughts,
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Maps of World
We do magic to Maps
World Map / Pages / Fast Facts / Fast Facts – Ghana
Fast Facts – Ghana
Search
Infographic of Ghana Fast Facts
Click to view full Infographic
What is the capital of Ghana?
The capital of Ghana is Accra, which is also the largest city in the country. Accra is a port city along the Atlantic coast. Established in 1877, Accra was also the capital of the British colony, Gold Coast.
Where is Ghana located?
Ghana is located in Western Africa along the Gulf of Guinea, only a few degrees above the equator.
Where is the center of the Earth?
The center of the Earth could be considered to be located at the geographic coordinates 0°, 0°, which is located just off the coast of Ghana’s capital, Accra, making Ghana the country closest to the center of the Earth.
What countries does Ghana border?
Ghana borders Cote d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to the east.
How big is Ghana?
Ghana has an area of approximately 238,500 square kilometers (or about 92,100 square miles).
What is the population of Ghana?
Ghana’s population is approximately 25 million.
What are the administrative divisions of Ghana ?
Ghana has ten administrative regions.
Administrative regions and their capitals:
• Ashanti – Kumasi
• Brong-Ahafo – Sunyani
• Central – Cape Coast
• Eastern – Koforidua
• Greater Accra – Accra
• Northern – Tamale
• Upper East – Bolgatanga
• Upper West – Wa
• Volta – Ho
• Western – Sekrondi-Takoradi
What are the largest cities in Ghana?
1. Accra
2. Kumasi
3. Tamale
4. Takoradi
5. Tema
What form of currency is used in Ghana?
Ghana’s currency is called the cedi (GHS). The name “cedi” means Cowry shell, which was once used as currency in the country. The Ghana Cedi has been used since 2007.
What are the main features of Ghana’s economy?
Ghana is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The country has many natural resources, and is one of the top gold producing countries in the world. Agriculture is also central to Ghana’s economy, producing cocoa, rice, peanuts, wood, and more. Tourism has been rapidly increasing, and adding to Ghana’s growing economy. Ghana has recently begun produce oil offshore.
What countries colonized Ghana?
The quest for gold brought European traders beginning in the 15th century. The first European country to form settlements in Ghana was Portugal, followed by the Dutch. In the mid-seventeenth century, Britain, Denmark, and Sweden joined the other European nations in colonizing Ghana. The UK called their portion of Ghana the Gold Coast. After World War II, the people of the Gold Coast formed the United Gold Coast Convention which rioted and fought for independence with the Convention People’s Party. Their leader was Kwame Nkrumah, who later became the president of the newly formed Ghana, which was made from the merging of British colonies the Gold Coast and Togoland. Nkrumah led negotiations with the United Kingdom, eventually declaring Ghana’s independence.
When did Ghana gain independence from Britain?
Ghana gained independence on March 6, 1957, making it the first sub-Saharan country to become independent.
What is the origin of Ghana’s name?
The Ghana Empire was a ancient civilization in northwestern Africa that lasted until 1235. The Ghana Empire was located north of what is now Ghana, in Senegal and Mauritania. The British colonies Gold Coast and Togoland adopted the name Ghana, which means Warrior King, when merging their colonies to form a single country.
Who are the political leaders of Ghana?
President of Republic of Ghana is John Dramani Mahama
and Vice president is Kwesi Amissah-Arthur.
What languages are spoken in Ghana?
English is the official language of Ghana, and French is taught in many schools, but there are around 80 regional languages also spoken around the country. Some of the major regional languages spoken are Asante, Ewe, Fante, Boron, and Dagomba.
What religions are practiced in Ghana?
A majority of Ghana’s population is Christian, especially of Pentecostal denomination, though there is a significant Muslim population. Animism and ancestor-based spirituality is also widely practiced in Ghana.
Ref. : Ghana Map
ACOD~20120921
Click on any of the below sections for its Information
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Steamer on Windermere copyright LDNPA
Steamer on Windermere
Topic 7 - Tourists
Bowness Bay, Windermere
Bowness-on_Windermere
This photo is taken at Bowness Bay on the shores of Windermere lake. The fells in the background are the Langdales.
Windermere Lake Cruises (opens in new window) are the 16th most popular tourist attraction in the UK and the most popular attraction in the Lake District, with over 1,000,000 people using them each year. They take visitors up to the head of the lake as far as Waterhead, near Ambleside and down to Lakeside at the southern end.
The 17km length of Windermere make it England’s longest lake and it has its own rangers and patrol boats in the busy summer months. There is a 10mph speed limit which came into force in 2005 to enable smaller vessels such as sailing boats and kayaks to enjoy the lake safely, unhampered by the jetskis, water skiers and fast motor boats. However this decision was a controversial one; and many local businesses had to diversify in order to continue trading. Tourists in general bring jobs and money into the area but increase traffic congestion and have a significant environmental impact.
The Lake District National Park was formed in 1951 but the idea of an area for all to enjoy and have access to began long before. William Wordsworth, the poet who wrote ‘The Prelude’ and ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, along with other famous Lakeland characters such as John Ruskin, the art critic and social reformer, all thought that this area of outstanding beauty should be protected for everyone to enjoy in the future.
The railway from Kendal to Windermere that was completed in 1847 improved access for many, but it was the advent of the motorised vehicle which brought the high visitor numbers, firstly the charabancs of the early 1900s and latterly the private car. Initially it was only the local factory workers who would visit from the surrounding counties on their days off, but now visitors from the southeast of England outnumber those from any other region and many people come from overseas too.
Current surveys show that 15.8 million visitors come to the Lake District each year. Most come to enjoy the scenery, peace and quiet and walking but many others visit specific attractions or take part in an outdoor activity. They stay in a mixture of self-catering and serviced accommodation. The National Park Authority's current challenge is finding ways of encouraging sustainable tourism without further damaging the very landscape which visitors come to enjoy.
Lakeshore erosion is a continuing problem around Windermere. Tourists and locals alike enjoy walking by the lakeshore but it destroys plant life and leads to erosion of the area. Soil gets washed away and then only a stony beach remains rather than a natural area of reeds, and water-loving plants. Some sections of lakeshore have been cordoned off to allow regrowth of natural lakeshore habitats. Many studies have been conducted on the ecology of the lake, and other measures have been taken to reduce pollutant levels in the water to encourage plant and fish life.
Grid reference of Bowness Landing Stages: 402968 (English Lakes SE 1:25,000)
Important vocabulary:
tourist, erosion, access, attraction, environmental impact
Discussion starters/questions:
What season is it likely to be?
What do you think the positive and negative effects of all these people to the area might be?
Are there competing uses for the lake?
What facilities do you think there might be for tourists in nearby Bowness?
What impacts do the ferry boats have on the lake and the other lake users.
What might people be saying to each other?
Use five words to describe the landscape
Imagine what the lake shore would look like if no humans had visited it, what differences would there be?
Useful links
All open in a new window:
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A Reevaluation of the Impact of the Hundred Years War On The Rural Economy and Society of England
Brad Wuetherick
Abstract
Most scholars have argued that the Hundred Years War negatively impacted the economy and society of England. They have focused primarily on four aspects of the war: the burden of taxation on the English populace, the effects of purveyance on rural society, the effect of recruitment on the labour force of England and the costs of supporting military expeditions. However, in each case the actual degree of impact can be called into question or offset by appealing to other scholarship, or by drawing attention to related positive benefits that are too often overlooked. Beyond this, one must also consider the benefits of war in the form of new industry and the influx of money from high wages, rewards, ransoms, and the spoils of war.
This paper seeks to examine both the positive and negative impacts of the Hundred Years War on the rural society and economy of England and to demonstrate that the overall impact of the war was not as negative as the majority of historians have previously maintained.
Full Text: PDF
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Notebooks of Paul Brunton
The personal ego of man forms itself out of the impersonal life of the universe like a wave forming itself out of the ocean. It constricts, confines, restricts, and limits that infinite life to a small finite area. The wave does just the same to the water of the ocean. The ego shuts out so much of the power and intelligence contained in the universal being that it seems to belong to an entirely different and utterly inferior order of existence. The wave, too, since it forms itself only on the surface of the water gives no indication in its tiny stature of the tremendous depth and breadth and volume of water beneath it.
Consider that no wave exists by itself or for itself, that all waves are inescapably parts of the visible ocean. In the same way, no individual life can separate itself from the All-Life but is always a part of it in some way or other. Yet the idea of separateness is held by millions. This idea is an illusion. From it springs their direct troubles. The work of the quest is simply this: to free the ego from its self-imposed limitations, to let the wave of conscious being subside and straighten itself out into the waters whence it came. The little wave is thus reconverted into the infinite Overself.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 102
The Notebooks are copyright © 1984-1989, The Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation.
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Lindsay Wilson
I'm doing 22 things
Lindsay Wilson's Life List
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The Vedas and Polytheism
The Vedas and Polytheism
Hinduism in India traces its source to the Vedas, ancient hymns composed and recited in Punjab as early as 1500 B.C. Three main collections of the Vedas--the Rig, Sama, and Yajur--consist of chants that were originally recited by priests while offering plant and animal sacrifices in sacred fires. A fourth collection, the Atharva Veda, contains a number of formulas for requirements as varied as medical cures and love magic. The majority of modern Hindus revere these hymns as sacred sounds passed down to humanity from the greatest antiquity and as the source of Hindu tradition.
The vast majority of Vedic hymns are addressed to a pantheon of deities who are attracted, generated, and nourished by the offerings into the sacred flames and the precisely chanted mantras (mystical formulas of invocation) based on the hymns. Each of these deities may appear to be the supreme god in his or her own hymns, but some gods stand out as most significant. Indra, god of the firmament and lord of the weather, is the supreme deity of the Vedas. Indra also is a god of war who, accompanied by a host of storm gods, uses thunderbolts as weapons to slay the serpent demon Vritra (the name means storm cloud), thus releasing the rains for the earth. Agni, the god of fire, accepts the sacrificial offerings and transmits them to all the gods. Varuna passes judgment, lays down the law, and protects the cosmic order. Yama, the god of death, sends earthly dwellers signs of old age, sickness, and approaching mortality as exhortations to lead a moral life. Surya is the sun god, Chandra the moon god, Vayu the wind god, and Usha the dawn goddess.
Some of the later hymns of the Rig Veda contain speculations that form the basis for much of Indian religious and philosophical thought. From one perspective, the universe originates through the evolution of an impersonal force manifested as male and female principles. Other hymns describe a personal creator, Prajapati, the Lord of creatures, from whom came the heavens and the earth and all the other gods. One hymn describes the universe as emerging from the sacrifice of a cosmic man (purusha ) who was the source of all things but who was in turn offered into the fire by gods. Within the Vedic accounts of the origin of things, there is a tension between visions of the highest reality as an impersonal force, or as a creator god, or as a group of gods with different jobs to do in the universe. Much of Hinduism tends to accept all these visions simultaneously, claiming that they are all valid as different facets of a single truth, or ranks them as explanations with different levels of sophistication. It is possible, however, to follow only one of these explanations, such as believing in a single personal god while rejecting all others, and still claim to be following the Vedas. In sum, Hinduism does not exist as a single belief system with one textual explanation of the origin of the universe or the nature of God, and a wide range of philosophies and practices can trace their beginnings somewhere in the hymns of the Vedas.
By the sixth century B.C., the Vedic gods were in decline among the people, and few people care much for Indra, Agni, or Varuna in contemporary India. These gods might appear as background characters in myths and stories about more important deities, such as Shiva or Vishnu; in some Hindu temples, there also are small statues of Vedic deities. Sacrificial fire, which once accompanied major political activities, such as the crowning of kings or the conquest of territory, still forms the heart of household rituals for many Hindus, and some Brahman (see Glossary) families pass down the skill of memorizing the hymns and make a living as professional reciters of the Vedas (see Domestic Worship, this ch.). One of the main legacies of Brahmanical sacrifice, seen even among traditions that later denied its usefulness, was a concentration on precise ritual actions and a belief in sacred sound as a powerful tool for manifesting the sacred in daily life.
Country Studies main page | India Country Studies main page | Celebrity
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Anoskopey Family History
Anoskopey Surname History
Summary
The last name Anoskopey is an old heredity that has spread all across the world over time, and as the Anoskopey family has spread, it has changed making its origin difficult to piece together. This Anoskopey origins and history page contains the accumulated history of the Anoskopey last name made up of user-contributed content from users like you. Anoskopey family history has a complex evolution of which the particulars have been accumulated over the years by Anoskopey family researchers.
Anoskopey History
No content has been submitted here about Anoskopey. The following is speculative information about Anoskopey. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The evolution of Anoskopey starts with the origins of thesurname. Even in the earliest days of a name there are variations in that single name simply because family names were infrequently written down back when few people could write.
Anoskopey families have emigrated across various regions all throughout history. It was not uncommon for a last name to change as it enters a new country or language. As families, tribes, and clans moved between countries, the Anoskopey name may have changed with them.
Anoskopey country of origin
No content has been submitted about the Anoskopey country of origin. The following is speculative information about Anoskopey. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The nationality of Anoskopey may be very difficult to determine in cases which country boundaries change over time, making the nation of origin indeterminate. The original ethnicity of Anoskopey may be in dispute based on whether the surname came about organically and independently in various locales; e.g. in the case of names that come from a profession, which can appear in multiple regions independently (such as the family name "Miller" which referred to the profession of working in a mill).
Meaning of the last name Anoskopey
No content has been submitted about the meaning of Anoskopey. The following is speculative information about Anoskopey. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The meaning of Anoskopey come may come from a craft, such as the name "Clark" which evolved from the profession of "clerk". A lot of these profession-based last names might be a profession in some other language. This is why it is good to research the country of origin of a name, and the languages spoken by its ancestors. Many western names like Anoskopey originate from religious texts such as the Bible, the Bhagavadgītā, the Quran, etc. In many cases these surnames are shortened versions of a religious sentiment such as "Lamb of God".
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Anoskopey spelling variations
No content has been submitted about alternate spellings of Anoskopey. The following is speculative information about Anoskopey. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
Family names like Anoskopey change in how they're spelled as they travel across communities, family branches, and countries across time. In the past, when few people knew how to write, names such as Anoskopey were transcribed based on how they were heard by a scribe when people's names were written in government records. This could have given rise misspellings of Anoskopey. Understanding spelling variations and alternate spellings of the Anoskopey surname are important to understanding the history of the name.
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Anapu Family History
Anapu Surname History
Summary
This Anapu research page contains the accumulated history of the Anapu family name made up of user-submitted content from other AncientFaces users. Anapu family history has rich origins whose details have been accumulated over the years by Anapu family members. The Anapu family is an old lineage that has migrated all across the world over the centuries, and as the Anapu family has migrated, it has changed making its history difficult to piece together.
Anapu History
No content has been submitted here about Anapu. The following is speculative information about Anapu. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The evolution of Anapu starts at it's earliest origins. Even in the earliest days of a name there are different spellings of that name simply because surnames were infrequently written down that long ago.
It was not uncommon for a last name to change as it enters a new country or language. As Anapu families moved between countries, the Anapu name may have changed with them. Anapu ancestors have travelled across various regions all throughout history.
Anapu country of origin
No content has been submitted about the Anapu country of origin. The following is speculative information about Anapu. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The nationality of Anapu is often difficult to determine in cases which regional boundaries change over time, leaving the nation of origin indeterminate. The original ethnicity of Anapu may be in dispute depending on whether the surname came in to being naturally and independently in various locales; e.g. in the case of names that come from a professional trade, which can come into being in multiple regions independently (such as the last name "Dean" which may have been adopted by members of the clergy).
Meaning of the last name Anapu
No content has been submitted about the meaning of Anapu. The following is speculative information about Anapu. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The meaning of Anapu come may come from a trade, such as the name "Dean" which may have been adopted by members of the clergy. A lot of these craft-based surnames might be a profession in another language. For this reason it is important to know the ethnicity of a name, and the languages spoken by its early ancestors. Many modern names like Anapu originate from religious texts such as the Bhagavadgītā, the Quran, the Bible, and so forth. Commonly these names are shortened versions of a religious expression such as "Favored of God".
Anapu Genealogy
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We do not have a record of the primary ethnicity of the name Anapu. Many surnames travel around the world throughout the ages, making their original nationality and ethnicity difficult to trace.
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Anapu spelling variations
No content has been submitted about alternate spellings of Anapu. The following is speculative information about Anapu. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
In early history when few people could write, names such as Anapu were transcribed based on how they sounded when people's names were recorded in public records. This could have led to misspellings of Anapu. Researching misspellings and alternate spellings of the Anapu last name are important to understanding the etymology of the name. Family names like Anapu change in their spelling as they travel across villages, family unions, and eras over generations.
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Chhoeum Family History
Chhoeum Surname History
Summary
This page is dedicated to a detailed history of the Chhoeum surname, Chhoeum origins, and stories of people with the Chhoeum name. Chhoeum family history has rich origins whose details have been accumulated over the years by Chhoeum family members. The Chhoeum family name is an old lineage that has migrated all across the world over time, and as the name Chhoeum has spread, it has evolved making its origin tricky to uncover.
Chhoeum History
No content has been submitted here about Chhoeum. The following is speculative information about Chhoeum. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The evolution of Chhoeum begins with the origins of thefamily name. Even in the earliest days of a name there have been different spellings of that name simply because last names were infrequently written down that long ago.
It was commonplace for a family name to change as it enters a new country or language. As these families emigrated between countries and languages, the Chhoeum name may have changed with them. Chhoeum ancestors have emigrated around the world all throughout history.
Chhoeum country of origin
No content has been submitted about the Chhoeum country of origin. The following is speculative information about Chhoeum. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The nationality of Chhoeum can be complicated to determine because countries change over time, making the nation of origin a mystery. The original ethnicity of Chhoeum may be difficult to determine based on whether the surname came about naturally and independently in different locales; e.g. in the case of family names that come from a professional trade, which can come into being in multiple countries independently (such as the family name "Baker" which refers to the craft of baker).
Meaning of the last name Chhoeum
No content has been submitted about the meaning of Chhoeum. The following is speculative information about Chhoeum. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The meaning of Chhoeum come may come from a craft, such as the name "Fisher" which was given to fishermen. Some of these craft-based last names might be a profession in some other language. This is why it is good to know the country of origin of a name, and the languages spoken by its early ancestors. Many modern names like Chhoeum originate from religious texts such as the Bhagavadgītā, the Quran, the Bible, etc. Commonly these surnames relate to a religious phrase such as "Favored of God".
Chhoeum Genealogy
Chhoeum Family Tree
Coming soon...
Famous people named Chhoeum
No famous people named Chhoeum have been submitted. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
Nationality and Ethnicity of Chhoeum
No content has been submitted about the ethnicity of Chhoeum. The following is speculative information about Chhoeum. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
We do not have a record of the primary ethnicity of the name Chhoeum. Many surnames travel around the world throughout the ages, making their original nationality and ethnicity difficult to trace.
More about the name Chhoeum
Fun facts about the Chhoeum family
We have no fun facts about Chhoeum. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
Chhoeum spelling variations
No content has been submitted about alternate spellings of Chhoeum. The following is speculative information about Chhoeum. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
In early history when few people could write, names such as Chhoeum were transcribed based on their pronunciation when people's names were written in public records. This could have given rise misspellings of Chhoeum. Knowing spelling variations and alternate spellings of the Chhoeum last name are important to understanding the possible origins of the name. Family names like Chhoeum vary in how they're said and written as they travel across communities, family lines, and languages over the years.
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Bible Questions Answered
What are some different methods of Bible study?
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Bible study methods
Question: "What are some different methods of Bible study?"
Answer:
There are several different methods we can use to study the Bible in an organized or systematic way. For the purpose of this article, we will classify them into two broad categories: Book Studies and Topical Studies. Before discussing the different types of Bible study methods, it is important to recognize that all of them have certain things in common and must follow certain hermeneutic rules or principles in order to avoid misinterpreting what the Bible says. For example, whatever type of Bible study method we use, it is important that the study carefully takes into consideration the context of the subject or verse being studied, both within the immediate context of the chapter or book itself and within the overall context of the Bible. Our first goal must be to understand what the original or intended meaning of the passage is. In other words, what was the human author's intended meaning, and how would his original audience have understood what he wrote? This principle recognizes that the Bible was not written in a vacuum, but is an historical document written at a specific point in history with a specific audience in mind for a specific purpose. Once the true meaning of the passage is understood, then we should seek to understand how it applies to us today.
Book Studies: This method of Bible study focuses either on a complete book in the Bible or specific part of a book, such as a specific chapter, a range of verses, or a single verse itself. With chapter and verse-by-verse methods and with the study of an overall book, the principles and goals are the same. For example, in order to do a thorough book study, we must necessarily also study the context of individual chapters and verses. Likewise, in order to correctly study a particular verse, we need to also study the overall message of the chapter and book that verse is found in. Of course, whether it is on the individual verse level, or a complete book study, we must always consider the overall context of the whole Bible as well.
Topical Studies: There are many varieties of topical studies that we can do. Some examples include biographical studies, where we study all the Bible says about particular person; word studies, where we study all the Bible says about a particular word or subject; and geographical studies, where we learn all we can about a particular town, country, or nation mentioned in the Bible. Topical studies are important for understanding all the Bible teaches on a particular subject or topic. We must be careful, though, that the conclusions drawn from a topical study do not come from taking verses out of their original context in order to imply a meaning that could not be supported by doing a verse study or book study. Topical studies are helpful in systematically organizing and understanding what the Bible teaches on specific subjects.
In studying the Bible, it is really quite beneficial to use different methods at different times. Sometimes, we might want to devote extended time to do a book study while at other times we can benefit greatly from doing some type of topical study. Whichever type of study we are doing, we must follow these basic steps: 1-Observation-what does the Bible say? 2-Interpretation-What does the Bible mean? and 3-Application-How does this biblical truth apply to my life, or how is this passage relevant today? No matter what method of Bible study we do, we must be careful to rightly divide the Word of God so that we are workmen that need not be ashamed (2 Timothy 2:15).
Recommended Resources: Logos Bible Software and Bible Study Methods: Twelve Ways You Can Unlock God's Word by Rick Warren.
While he is not the author of every article on GotQuestions.org, for citation purposes, you may reference our CEO, S. Michael Houdmann.
Related Topics:
What is inductive Bible study?
Why are there so many different Christian interpretations?
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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7213
Title: Evaluation of the effects of spatial separation and timbral differences on the identifiability of features of concurrent auditory streams
Authors: Song, Hong Jun
Keywords: auditory display
spatial separation
timbral differences
identifiability of concurrent auditory streams
sonification
Issue Date: 1-Mar-2011
Publisher: University of Sydney.
Abstract: When using non-speech as an information delivery medium, information patterns are mapped onto auditory variables. The efficiency of delivering information to listeners depends on the usage of auditory variables. A discriminable auditory display can reduce the ambiguity of listeners’ perceptual representation of auditory inputs. However, there is lacking an understanding of the way in which listeners decode information embedded in sound through identifying auditory variations. This thesis aims to develop an understanding of the influence of auditory variables on the identifiability of the features of auditory display. The auditory display in this thesis relates to auditory graph where series of quantitative values were mapped onto pitches and presented over time. This thesis explores the effects of spatial separation and timbre on the identifiability of the features of simultaneously presented auditory graphs. Features that listeners were required to identify included an increased periodic modulation in pitch that occurred in only one stream of two displayed auditory streams or a difference in the overall shape of the pitch contour of two displayed auditory streams. Both of these tasks required divided attention between stimuli forming two auditory streams, which were presented via headphones in order either to appear at two separate spatial locations, or to be co-located at a single location. Also, the displayed stimuli could differ in timbre, allowing for an evaluation of the relative influences of timbral difference and spatial separation on the identifiability of the target features. One hypothesis tested here was that when simultaneously presented auditory graphs were composed of the same timbre, their pitch contours would be more easily identified when displayed at spatially separated locations. A second hypothesis tested here was that the enhancement of identification performance due to spatial separation of simultaneously presented auditory graphs would be greatest for auditory streams that differ least in timbre, and that discrimination performance given streams with more distinct timbre would be less influenced by spatial separation of the streams. In a subsequent divided attention study using only spatially separated auditory streams, the perceptual salience of timbral differences in an identification task was investigated using timbral attribute ratings. Finally, in a data sonification case study employing multiple auditory streams exhibiting spatial and timbral differences, a qualitative approach was taken that aimed to deepen understanding of the way people listen and think in such contexts. Overall, the applied method demonstrated the influence of spatial separation and timbral differences on the feature identification for simultaneously presented auditory streams. Although there is potential for further refinement of the methods applied here, this work provided an examination and elucidation of the relative salience of two prominent factors involved in determining the effectiveness of concurrent auditory displays and delineated some of their limitations in supporting two different identification tasks. The responses, collected using an open questionnaire administered after participation in some of the experiments, highlighted the intricate relationships that exist in the allocation of attention between perceptually segregated concurrent streams, and in the auditory display processing activities and listening strategies of human subjects engaged in divided attention tasks.
Description: PhD
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7213
Appears in Collections:Sydney Digital Theses (Open Access)
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Interandean Valles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Dry valleys in the central Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, known as "valles", are marked by a rain shadow effect of the surrounding mountains, and thus rainfall is limited, and mostly falls in a brief rainy season. The interandean valles comprise most of the mid-elevation areas of the "sierra" of Peru, "los valles" of Bolivia and the "cuyo" region of Argentina
Contents
Geography [edit]
The rugged topography of the Central Andes creates the warm dry valleys that typifies the valles. Generally lying between 1,200 and 3,500 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) or 4,000 - 13,000 feet above sea level. Much of the area features steep hillsides and deep canyons, including the world's deepest canyon, the Colca Canyon.
Most of the major cities and towns of the valles are found in broader, open valleys with expansive flat land created by ancient lakes or floodplains that is more amenable to agriculture than the highly erodible slopes.
To the south and west, are the harsh, frigid deserts, salt flats and alpine graslands of the altiplano. To the north and east are the lush, wet, dense cloud forests or "yungas" of the front-range, downslope, and foothills of the Andes. Higher ridges, peaks, and plateaus, dominated by high-elevation alpine puna grasslands, Polylepis woodlands, or snow-capped peaks separate the valles from both of these ecoregions.[1][2]
Climate [edit]
The valles are marked by mild, wet summers, and cool dry winters. Timing of the seasons varies according to latitude. Generally, most rainfall occurs during summer ("el verano") from December through March. These rainy seasons can in fact be cool and damp for extended periods, though it can be quite warm during dry spells. Dry seasons are substantially colder; these dry winters ("el invierno") last from April through August. Any precipitation that does occur often falls as snow at higher elevations, though snow is extremely rare below 10,000 feet above sea level (3400m.a.s.l.). The warmest times of the year are the transitional months of Sep.-Nov.
Ecoregions [edit]
The World Wildlife Fund identifies several distinct tropical dry forest ecoregions in the Interandean Valles:
Vegetation [edit]
Vegetation is often sparse or deciduous, resulting from the long dry season. Most of the native vegetation has been replaced by agriculture or invasive exotics that are still widely used, such as Eucalyptus spp., Phragmites spp., Pinus radiata Notable endemic plants include Schinus molle and various cactus species, though some of those may be non-native as well.
Human settlement and influence [edit]
The majority of the human population of the central Andes, including most major cities, large towns, and agriculture, are found in these valleys.[3]
Agriculture [edit]
Much of the land is devoted to agriculture, and the valles tend to be the breadbaskets of their departments or countries. A longer frost-free period, and a generally warmer climate makes the valles more amenable than the higher, colder altiplano for many crops. Further, many valles feature broad plains created by river floodplains or ancient lake beds, that serve better than the steeper more formidable terrain of the yungas. And the drier climate supports fewer parasites and diseases than the yungas or tropical regions.
Of particular importance are the production of potatoes and corn. At higher elevations, oca and other tubers as well as quinoa, wheat, barley and other grains. At lower elevations, peanuts, grapes and numerous other varieties of fruits and vegetables are also produced.
Cities and large towns in the Interandean Valles [edit]
Peru:
Bolivia:
Argentina:
Notes and references [edit]
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Demaza Family History
Demaza Surname History
Summary
Demaza family history has rich origins whose details have been accumulated over the years by Demaza family members. The Demaza family is an old family line that has migrated all across the world for many generations, and as the name Demaza has migrated, it has changed making its origin challenging to uncover. This page is dedicated to a detailed history of the Demaza family name, Demaza origins, and history of Demaza family members.
Demaza History
No content has been submitted here about Demaza. The following is speculative information about Demaza. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The evolution of Demaza starts at it's earliest origins. Even in the earliest days of a name there are changes in that name simply because surnames were infrequently written down at that stage in history.
As these families moved between countries, the Demaza name may have changed with them. Demaza families have migrated around the world all throughout history. It was common for a family name to change as it enters a new country or language.
Demaza country of origin
No content has been submitted about the Demaza country of origin. The following is speculative information about Demaza. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The nationality of Demaza can be complicated to determine in cases which country boundaries change over time, leaving the nation of origin indeterminate. The original ethnicity of Demaza may be in dispute as result of whether the surname came in to being naturally and independently in various locales; e.g. in the case of family names that come from a professional trade, which can come into being in multiple regions independently (such as the surname "Miller" which referred to the profession of working in a mill).
Meaning of the last name Demaza
No content has been submitted about the meaning of Demaza. The following is speculative information about Demaza. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
The meaning of Demaza come may come from a craft, such as the name "Brewster" which refers to a female brewer. Some of these craft-based family names might be a profession in another language. This is why it is good to understand the country of origin of a name, and the languages spoken by its early ancestors. Many names like Demaza originate from religious texts such as the Quran, the Bible, the Bhagavadgītā, etc. In many cases these family names relate to a religious phrase such as "Grace of God".
Demaza Genealogy
Demaza Family Tree
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Nationality and Ethnicity of Demaza
No content has been submitted about the ethnicity of Demaza. The following is speculative information about Demaza. You can submit your information by clicking Edit.
We do not have a record of the primary ethnicity of the name Demaza. Many surnames travel around the world throughout the ages, making their original nationality and ethnicity difficult to trace.
More about the name Demaza
Fun facts about the Demaza family
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The Power of Truth: 20 Years
Museum Education Research History Remembrance Genocide Support Connect
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Defiance: The Bielski Partisans
By Nechama Tec
Nechama Tec, scholar, writer and Holocaust survivor, tells the history of the largest Jewish partisan forest community and its founders, Tuvia Bielski and his three brothers.
In 1906, Tuvia Bielski was born into a Jewish family of farmers living close to the town of Nowogrodek. Theirs was the typical life of peasants living in Eastern Poland, struggling to get by and building a family, but all that changed with the Russian occupation of Poland, and later, the German advancement. When the Nazis began the mass executions of Jews in 1941, slaughtering Bielski’s parents and other relatives in the Nowogrodek ghetto, Tuvia Bielski fled to the Naliboki forest with his three brothers.
What began there as a gathering of family developed into a well-organized partisan unit with far-reaching impact. Hundreds of Jews who escaped the mass killings and deportations joined up with the Bielski otriad (“partisan detachment”) and participated in countless acts of resistance and rescue. From the depths of the forest, they staged raids on the Germans, Byelorussian police, and local farmers who had collaborated with the Nazis. They smuggled Jews out of the ghettos and picked up fugitives along the rural roads, all while building a small community in the forest.
The Bielski group, known as “Kalinin,” differed from other otriads in Belorussia in this sense of community. Rather than a group exclusively of young men, Kalinin was composed of entire families, including children and the elderly, and the group continued to welcome all Jews into their ranks, regardless of their ability to fight. Their camp resembled a small Jewish shtetl, with a school, workshops, a medical dispensary, a court of law, and even a synagogue. Nevertheless, life was harsh, with members of the otriad living under military rule and fear their constant companion.
Tec reconstructs this life in the forest, and describes its growth, its organization, and the social structures that developed to sustain the community. As the War progressed, Kalinin became by far the largest Jewish partisan group, but Bielski refused to break up his otriad or to abandon its non-fighting members. His leadership and courage held them together through the years, and finally, in the summer of 1944, after the Russian army pushed back the German forces, Bielski’s unit emerged from the forest and marched into the town of Nowogrodek. This group, now numbering 1,230, survived the War together thanks to an unlikely leader determined to keep himself and his fellow Jews alive.
Defiance: The Bielski Partisans is based in large part on personal interviews Nechama Tec conducted with former partisans, including Tuvia Bielski himself, who died in 1987 in Brooklyn, New York, where he and his family had settled in 1956. The book includes rare photographs, an organizational directory of the Bielski partisan group, a biographical appendix, and a glossary of foreign terms.
276 pages
13 b&w illustrations
ISBN: 0-19-507595-1
Call no: D810 .U8 SOV T43 1993
The Library always welcomes suggestions for acquisitions. While we cannot guarantee that we will acquire the recommended title, we do appreciate your input.
To make a recommendation, please fill out our Acquisition Suggestion Form.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Before the War 3
2. The Russian Occupation 14
3. The German Invasion 24
4. The Beginning of the Bielski Otriad 41
5. Escapes from the Ghetto 50
6. The Partisan Network 63
7. Rescue or Resistance 80
8. Eluding the Enemy 94
9. The “Big Hunt” 108
10. Building a Forest Community 126
11. The Emergence of New Social Arrangements 138
12. The Fate of Women 154
13. Keeping Order 170
14. The End of the Otriad 186
15. From Self-Preservation to Rescue 204
Notes 211
Biographical Appendix 257
Organization of the Bielski Otriad 267
Glossary 269
Index 271
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intelligence
navon1
Autism and ADHD: the intelligent and the creative child!
ResearchBlogging.org
A new study by Ruthsatz and Urbach is doing the rounds nowadays. That study has nothing to do with Autism or ADHD per se. The study focuses on child prodigies and finds that they have high levels of intelligence, enhanced working memory and that they pay attention to details.
What the study also found was high level of autistic relatives and high scores on Autism spectrum for the prodigies. The relation between autism and prodigiousness was mediated by the endo-phenotype ‘paying attention to detail’ and none of the other symptoms of ASD seemed to play a role.
Many savants also are high on ASD and have exception working as well as long term memory. There too they pay excessive attention to details and are fascinated by speical interests.
On the other hand there is gathering literature that suggests that the ADHD kid is basically on the creative side of the spectrum – restless, trying multiple strategies, having diffused and peripheral attention, and to an extent novelty and sensation seeking.
Also, if one thinks about that for a minute, autism and ADHD seem to be opposed on a number of dimensions. The three basic features of ADHD are 1) inattentiveness and distractibility vs too much focus and fascination for an object shown by Autistic kid 2) impulsiveness vs restricted and repetitive motions and interests of the autistic kid and finally 3) hyperactivity vs restrained interactions and communications of the autistic kid.
There is also some data from fly models that suggest that autism and ADHD are opposites in a sense.
I may even go ahead and stick my neck and say that while autism is primarily characterized by emotion of Interest/ fascination/ attention ; ADHD is characterized by emotion of Wonder/Awe/surprise.
One theory of autism suggests that the social and communicative difficulties arise as the child hides in a cocoon to prevent over-stimulation and sensory overload; a theory of ADHS says that the child is under-stimulated and needs stimulants like Ritalin to achieve baseline of activation and sensory stimulus.
Another popular theory of autism posits that it arises primarily due to ‘weak central coherence’, or inability to see the context/ gestalt/ ‘the big picture’. The ADHD kid on the other hand is hypothesized to use a lot of peripheral attention and daydreams missing what is being centrally taught in the classroom.
And that brings me to the root of the differences in my opinion; while the Autism spectrum is characterized by a local processing style, the ADHD-psychotic spectrum is characterized by a global processing style.
Some clarifications are due here. I believe ADHD to fall on the psychotic spectrum and have been proposing the autism and psychosis as opposites on a continuum model for close to eternity.
Also, when I say global/local processing styles I dont restrict the application to perception alone, but extend it to include cognitive style too.
There is a lot of work that has been done on global/ local processing styles with respect to perception, using Navon letter tasks and it is fairly established that normally people lean towards the global processing style.
Forrester et al extend this to cover there GLOMOSYS system that posits two basic types of perceptual/cognitive style- global and local.
It is instructive to pause and note here that psychosis is associated with a global processing style while autism with attention to details.
It is also instructive to pause and note that similar to autism-psychosis continuum , it seems Intelligence and creativity are also in a sense opposed to each other. Also while creativity is associated with broad cognitive style that is divergent; intelligence is conceived of as narrow and focused application of abilities.
That brings me to my final analogy: while autistic kids may have pockets of intelligence and savantism and may be driving the evolution of intelligence; it is the ADHD kids who are more likely to be creative and are driving the evolution of creativity.
The romantic notion that psychosis is the price for creativity may not be untrue.
Joanne Ruthsatz, & Jourdan B. Urbach (2012). Child prodigy: A novel cognitive profile places elevated general intelligence,
exceptional working memory and attention to detail at the root
of prodigiousness Intelligence DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2012.06.002
Jens F¨orster, & Laura Dannenberg (2010). GLOMOsys: A Systems Account of Global Versus Local Processing Psychological Inquiry, DOI: 10.1080/1047840X.2010.487849
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Environmental factors like teacher quality and SES affect the full flowering of potential
ResearchBlogging.org
In some combinations of environments and genot...
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This should be a no-brainer: in an era when increasingly words like ‘gene-environment interaction‘ are bandied around, it would be self evident that for full flowering of a prototypical trait, the genotype has to get the right environmental inputs. In absence of the right environmental conditions, the genetic differences may be masked and the trait under consideration suffer from universal stunted growth, thus even different genotypes leading to same phenotype -that of survival trait. contrast this with the condition where the environment provides rich conditions for the flowering of the trait under consideration. Here the trait will be having maximal value and would be a thriving trait value. Here genotype differences , if any , would be accentuated and become visible as difference sin phenotype expression.
If the above is a bit abstract , take the concrete example of SES and the corresponding low environmental condition and its relation to IQ/brain/cognitive ability. In an impoverished environment differences due to genetics would be masked and everyone will have a low IQ/cognitive ability. As opposed to this in an enriched environment condition, not only the average IQ would be higher (a thriving condition), there would be more differences in the IQ of children/people concerned as the right environment will make it possible for genetic effects to come into play and determine the IQ/cognitive ability. The above is a bit paradoxical and counter-intuitive- one advocates environmental interventions only to see that effects of environment becoming less for the trait and effects due to genetics becoming more prominent as more and more conducive environment is provided. The rationale for providing the right enriched environment /high SES to all would thus be not to eliminate inequality (inequality would paradoxically be accentuated) ; but to raise the trait value to maximum possible under the right environmental and that perhaps is for the good of all.
I have debated this issue earlier in my low IQ and SES series of posts, but thought will comment on the same in light of two articles that I cam across recently. The first article is a bit old, but has the devastating effect of waking one form ones slumber as one realizes that low SES leads to brain effects in low SES children that are akin to those faced by normal children/people who suffer brain damage due to stroke etc. I came across this via this science daily release tweeted by someone today (forgot the source).
The second study is a brand new one , published just today (and I have just read the extract and accompanying Sci Am article). The study, using identical and fraternal twin studies, in essence found that children’s reading ability was largely genetic (82 % genetic component), but that teacher quality mattered a lot. The genotype was able to flower fully when teacher was high h=quality- not only the reading ability was better; differences were accentuated. In contrast, when teacher quality was low, environmental had a much stronger effect by leveling everyone to a smaller value. To quote from the article:
“When children receive more effective instruction, they will tend to develop at their optimal trajectory,” said study lead author Jeanette Taylor in a prepared statement. “When instruction is less effective, then children’s learning potential is not optimized and genetic differences are left unrealized.”
The researchers found that good instruction promoted stronger reading development. Without it, children were less likely to reach the potential conferred by their genes. “When teacher quality is very low, genetic variance is constricted, whereas, when teacher quality is very high, genetic variance blooms,” they report. While teacher quality appears to be an important contributor, other classroom factors, such as classmates and resources, might also influence reading ability, the researchers noted.
To me, the results are important, though self-evident. Hopefully they will seal the endless confusion on the matter and allow a more reasoned dialogue and intervention to happen where IQ and SES/enriched environment is concerned.
Taylor, J., Roehrig, A., Hensler, B., Connor, C., & Schatschneider, C. (2010). Teacher Quality Moderates the Genetic Effects on Early Reading Science, 328 (5977), 512-514 DOI: 10.1126/science.1186149
Kishiyama, M., Boyce, W., Jimenez, A., Perry, L., & Knight, R. (2009). Socioeconomic Disparities Affect Prefrontal Function in Children Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21 (6), 1106-1115 DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2009.21101
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Sibling-correlation-422
IQ,SES and heritability
ResearchBlogging.org
A reader of this blog wrote to me recently regarding a series of posts I have written regarding IQ,SES and heritability, and I thought it would be good to share the comments with the rest of the mouse trap community and to delineate my position on the matter (and what I believe the studies show the relation is). First I’ll like to quote extensively from the comment (private mail):
Let me start with my belief that I think we share the same idea about IQ and its origins.
That is, genetics endows each and every person with a maximum IQ that can be achieved if and only if the environment is perfect for the development of this IQ.
Agreed!
Consequently, in identical twins, environment is the only cause of differences in IQ; IQ differences between persons that are not identical twins must be related to both environment and genes.
Sibling-correlation-422There are subtle nuances here. (no I’m not being pedantic, the importance of these will become clear in the course of this post). First if MZ twins are raised in the same family, they share the same genotype (A), they share the same ‘shared environment’ (C), so the difference is due to the non-shared environmental factor (E) only. In case of DZ twins raised in the same family, they share half the genotype (A), they share the same shared environment (C) and the difference in say IQ, is due to both genotype (A) and non-shared environmental factors (E). Twin studies with MZ and DZ twins (and in some cases siblings, half-siblings etc ) raised in the same family are used to tease apart the contribution of shared environmental factor, as opposed to genetics and non-shared environmental factors and can be used to find at a broad level if the trait is highly ‘genetically’ heritable (correlation between MZ>>DZ>>siblings), has high ‘shared environmental’ factors operating (MZ~DZ~sibling , but correlation still high) or is largely controlled by random non-shared environmental influences (low correlation in DZ/MZ/siblings). Please see accompanying Wikipedia figure.
Adoption studies are another method that is used to tease apart the shared environmental factors from genetic factors in calculating the heritability of a trait. Thus, even if correlation in MZ twin IQ is high, the effect could be due to shared environment factors (if say both MZ and DZ twin show similar correlation) , or it may be largely genetic (if MZ>>DZ when it comes to correlation between the trait in affected twins.
So it is necessary to qualify your statement: In identical twins, raised in the same family, , non-shared environment is the only cause of differences in IQ. IQ differences between persons that are not identical twins must be related to both shared environment , non-shared environment and genes.
I fully back up this citation:
“suffice it to say that I believe (and think that I have evidence on my side) that shows that in low SES conditions, a Low SES does not lead to full flowering of genetic Intelligence potential and is thus a leading cause of low IQ amongst low SES populations.”
In this case, I think that the problem starts only with your following comments; while you write “a leading cause”, I think that, by yourself, you mean “way more important than genetics”. If this is the case, would you explain to me why you think that?
Here goes. Consider a large sample of children in say low SES populations. IQ may be represented by a formula IQ= aA+cC+eE; where A reflects genotype, C shared environment and E non-shared environment. Here we are assuming no interaction of IQ with SES, so this equation (given values of a, c, e ) should hold for all SES data (both high as well as low SES cohort) . Unfortunately, life is not that simple, and one can not fit the same equation to low SES as well as high SES data set without changing the slopes of variables involved. Thus, Turkheimer and colleagues in two sets of studies have shown that there is an interaction of IQ and SES and there is direct affcet (SES mediated by s) and indirect interaction effects mediated via effects on A(a’), C(c’) and E(e’). Thus our equation becomes
IQ= sSES+(a+a’SES)A+(c+c’SES)C+(e+e’SES)E.
This equation, with suitable values of s, a, a’, c, c’, e and e’ now holds for all values of SES and IQ and the data fits nicely and can be interpreted. Remember that a+a’SES is sort of indicative of contribution of genetic factor to IQ and the proportion of variance due to genetic factor(at any given SES) can be found by squaring this and dividing this by sum of all other variances .
Var(A) =SQR(a+a?SES)
Similarly heritability or proportion of variance due to A :SQR(h)=SQR(a+a?SES)/(SQR(a+a?SES)*SQR(c+c?SES)*SQR(e+e?SES))
Turkheimer have plotted nice plot of their data which sows clearly that in LOW SES situations, the proportion of variance in IQ is largely due to shared environmental factors (C) , while in HIGH SES situations, the proportion of variance in IQ is largely due to genetic factors (A). the figures (in the free PDF available at Turkheimer’s side) is a must see to grasp the significance of this. I am quoting a bit from the paper:
Figure 3 shows the FSIQ variance accounted for by the three components, with 95% confidence intervals. In the most impoverished families, the modeled heritability of FSIQ is essentially 0, and C accounts for almost 60% of the variability; in the most affluent families, virtually all of the modeled variability in IQ is attributable to A.
Let us pause here and reflect on what this means. This means that in low SES families, IQ is independent of genotype and is mostly dependent on the SES status. Let us take some concrete examples. Say the mean IQ of low SES sample (income as a proxy for SES ranging from 1000-5000 rs p.a.; mean 2500 and variance 250)) is 80 with mean variance of 20. Thus, in this sample a typical child has IQ in range 80 +-20 or between 60 and 100. Suppose further that there are 5 alleles that confer differential advantage for IQ on a locus thus representing 5 genotypes, then having either of the genotype will essentially give us no predictive power to say whether the IQ of a particular sample is 80 or 60 or 100. Also, let us assume that there are 5 classes of C and they are highly correlated with SES. First class of C (is 1000-1500 SES range) and so on and so forth. Then knowing whjat kind of family (C) the child grew up in we could easily predict his IQ (if he is of class C where SES ranges from 1000-1500), his IQ is most probably 60. This is what I mean when I say that in low SES environments IQ is largely determined by environment and not by genetics. Now , I have taken a jump here and equated C with SES, but that is a justified leap in my opinion (more about that later).
What this also means is that given the right type of environment (say class C with SES in upper range of 3500-5000 rs p.a.) , all children (irrespective of their genotype (any 5 variants of genotype) can still achieve an IQ in the upper range , say 100 as the environment is the only predominant factor operating at this level and the impact of genetics is still not felt. Thus, if we do increase SES and provide the right C, then every child in this group can have mean IQ of 100.
Contrast this with the case at the upper end of the strata (SES). Here most of the variation in IQ is predominantly due to genetics (A) and shared environment C does not seem to play a big factor. Thus, knowing a genotype of a child has greater predictive power in this sample, than knowing his C (or family income or SES). Thus, evenif we provide a very enriched environment to all children (increase their C to the highest percentile), it would have no effect on increasing the mean IQ of the sample as now the IQ is mostly under genetic control.
This in a nutshell, is what I mean when I claim that low SES is the leading cause of low IQ in low SES families.
Before I rest, some objections might be readily apparent to a keen observer. First is the assumption inherent that SES and C are the same. I would like to propose here a new shared and universal sub-threshold environmental factor and would like to elaborate with a couple of examples. Let us say that those below poverty level do not have access to iodized salt and are thus prone to goiter and also mysteriously to low IQ as there is a module of brain (5 diff alleles at a particular locus leading to differences in abilities using this module) that needs iodine for its flowering and in absence of iodine, none of the alleles have any effect whatsoever- the module itself does not develop, so there are no questions of differences in ability or IQ due to differences in genotype etc. Now, given this state of affairs and also the fact that low SES families do not have access to iodine, when IQ is measured (then because of absence of this factor X), all children in this proband will have an IQ that does not measure abilities of this module (say this module adds 20 points of IQ) and thus all of them will have an IQ less by 20 points than was actually possible.Say the mean IQ measured is 80. Given the fact that some of the higher SES within this low SES group may have partial and sporadic access to iodine , the variance will be entirely environmental and no genetic variance would be found with some people having IQ close to 100 , who are in relatively upper start and have decent access to iodine. Contrast this the higher SES proband all of whom have access to iodized salt and thus can use their additional 20 points advantage on IQ tests. It would not be surprising if most of the variation here was genetic based on factor X allele) rather than due to income level or SES.
Another example to ruminate on is another universal and shared sub-threshold factor like having a golf course in the house. Let us assume that within higher SES group, this environmental enrichment factor plays a role, with some lower strata of higher SES (the middle class) not able to afford a golf course, while the higher higher SES strata (the upper class) abvle to afford a golf course and expose their children to them . Further, suppose that there is a module in the brains and genes switched on only if exposure to golf course takes place. Then within this higher SES group, what we will observe is that though the genetics plays a good role (due to factor X-iodine: remember, which is available to all in this group) ; still there would also be variation due to environment (golf course exposure) and that a full 20 points more can be added to all people of this group (with mean IQ 100 raising their IQ to 120), if all were exposed to a golf course and a intelligence-module-dependent-on-golf-course-exposure was allowed to develop. And on the higher end of IQ (and SES) what we would find is that most of the variance now is genetic (due to this golf-course module coming into play), while at the lower end, most of the variance is still environmental within this ‘high’ SES group.
If the above seems far fetched this is exactly what Turkheiemrs et al found in their follow up study focusing on mid to high SES children. I quote from it (again the pdf has beautiful figures and you should see them) :
Figure 2 illustrates the relations between income and genetic and shared environmental proportions of variance, as implied by the parameters estimated in Model 3. Genetic influences accounted for about 55% of the variance in adolescents’ cognitive aptitude and shared environmental influences about 35% among higher income families. Among lower income families, the proportions were in the reverse direction, 39% genetic and 45% shared environment. Although the shared environmental proportion of variance decreased with income, shared environmental variance per se did not decrease. The interactive effect was driven entirely by the increase in genetic variance. Genetic variance in cognitive aptitude nearly doubled from 4.41 in families earning less than $5000 annually to 8.29 in families earning more than $25,000 annually.
Our investigation supports our hypothesis that the magnitude of genetic influences on cognitive aptitude varies with socioeconomic status. This partially replicates the results presented by Turkheimer et al. (2003); however, no shared environmental interaction effects were demonstrable in the current study. Genetic influences accounted for about 55% of the variance in adolescents’ cognitive aptitude and shared environmental influences about 35% among higher income families. Among lower income families, the proportions were in the reverse direction, 39% genetic and 45% shared environment. This pattern is similar to the pattern seen in Turkheimer et al. (2003), although less marked.
So, I want you to pause here and grasp the significance of this- at every level of IQ-SES, there may be threshold factor that giverns whether IQ modules flower to full potential and this is the putative mechanism that leads to SES causing low or high IQ directional and causal relation. At each level, as the threshold factors become available,. more and more IQ starts coming under genetic control, but , and this is important, for jumps in IQ to take place , increasing SES (removing the sub-threshold conditions) is VERY important.
I mean “not following up on the ‘a leading cause’”, because in a later post, you write:
“Now, I have shown elsewhere that low SES causes low IQ”
Here, there is no mention of any other possible cause besides the environment anymore.
Yes, because as shown very strongly by Turkeihems and team , at low SES, shared environment/SES is the putative mechanism and genetics has no/negligible role to play. So for low SES, low SES causes low IQ. period.
in another post, you write
“A series of studies that I have discussed earlier, clearly indicate that in the absence of good socioeconomic conditions, IQ can be stunted by as large as 20 IQ points. ”
This same post also contained this citation “Children of well-off biological parents reared by poor/well -off adopted parents have Average IQ about 16 point higher than children of poor biological parents”
In my opinion, the latter would indicate the approximate range of genetic IQ differences for the samples in this study, while the former would indicate the approximate maximal environmental gain that can be hoped for in the environments that were encountered in these studies.
No they don’t. They talk about different SES groups, so as shown findings from one cannot be extrapolated to the other. In the low SES group, there is no genetic variation. We can thus not conclude that that (16 points diff.) is the ‘average’ genetic component taken the entire sample together. what one can say is that if mean IQ of high SES children was 100, the mean IQ of low SES children was 84 . Period. The difference is likely due to the fact, that the module X has not developed in low SES people (more later) .
Regarding the former, yes I agree that that is the maximum gain that one can hope for if all children of low SES were given the right environment (raised to high SES). Put another way, if mean IQ of poor/low SES children is 84 , then given the right conditions the mean of the low SES children can be raised to 104 (greater than high SES children’s mean :-) .
As both of them do cover the same IQ range (10-20), the logical consequence for a broad statement on IQ and genetics seems therefore to be, that these studies may say that overall, IQ changes can be expected to be determined to approximately equal parts by genetics and environment, with environment being responsible for a typically larger part in low SES families, and genetics playing a relatively larger part in high SES families.
Agreed partially, but that glosses over the fact of sub-threshold universal shared environments and the fact that the role of genetic and environmental component varies with SES, an therefore an ideal statement would be IQ is under gentic controltolarge extent, but that gentics needs threshold environments to flower and thus the importance of environment component- not in explaining variance , but by its direct effect on IQ enabling/flowering.
This same post also contained this citation “Children of well-off biological parents reared by poor/well -off adopted parents have Average IQ about 16 point higher than children of poor biological parents”
In my opinion, the latter would indicate the approximate range of genetic IQ differences for the samples in this study, while the former would indicate the approximate maximal environmental gain that can be hoped for in the environments that were encountered in these studies.
As both of them do cover the same IQ range (10-20), the logical consequence for a broad statement on IQ and genetics seems therefore to be, that these studies may say that overall, IQ changes can be expected to be determined to approximately equal parts by genetics and environment, with environment being responsible for a typically larger part in low SES families, and genetics playing a relatively larger part in high SES families.
There also is this citation:
“The normal observation that identical twins belonging to well-off/middle class families have IQ rates similar as compared to fraternal twins, thus indicates that for children from well-off background (biological/adopted), the IQ (observed phenotype) is mostly due to genetic factors (underlying genotype) and environmental factors are not a big determinant.
The paradoxical observation that identical twins belonging to poor families have IQ rates as varying as compared to fraternal twins, should indicate that for children from poor background (biological/adopted), the IQ (observed phenotype) is mostly due to environmental factors and genetic factors (the underlying genotype ) are not a big determinant.”
These are extremely nice observations. I would be interested in the conclusions one might be tempted to draw from them. Reading the latter part of this sentence, one might come to the following conclusion (conclusion 1): “if in low-SES families the variations in IQ are largely determined by environmental factors, then providing a positive environment for the development of IQ would increase the IQ levels in these families impressively (up to 20 points; but, this is an up to value, means would be more interesting).”
While I completely agree with this thinking, one might also be tempted to draw the conclusion that (conclusion 2) “As IQ variations in low-SES families are largely due to environment, providing an IQ-stimulating environment in low-SES families might completely eliminate the IQ differences between low-SES families and high-SES families”
At the least, a non-cautious reader might understand your words as such. I am not sure whether you think that way or not. I would like to hear your opinion on that. I think that this citation “Children of well-off biological parents reared by poor/well -off adopted parents have Average IQ about 16 point higher than children of poor biological parents” provides an argument that precludes conclusion 2. It would rather say that (conclusion 3), ” providing a perfect IQ-stimulating environment for low-SES families as encountered in these studies, one should think that their offspring would achieve an IQ level that is 16 points lower than that of the offspring of high-SES families.”
I would like to hear your opinion on my conclusion 3.
I agree with conclusion 1. I also agree with conclusion 2 (not based on political correctness, but hard data). The paper on which these figures are based can be found here. The mean IQ of high SES persons is 113.5 and the mean IQ of low SES children is 98.00, thus a difference of ~16 points. The variation in IQ of high SES children raised in high SES families is 12.25; as shown this variance is likely due to genetics (say hundred percent is due to genetics); then changing the SES within the given range should have no effect on average IQ and it would remain 119 (for this high +/high+ group). On the other hand, the variance in low SES, reared by low SES families is 15.41 and mean is 92.40;thus if all were given enriched environment, their mean IQ would become 92.4+ 15.4 = ~ 108 . We still have a 10 point difference which can be accounted for by the fact that genetics had not come into play for low SES , low SES group yet and as genetics enters and increases the variance due to genetic flowering,, their IQ would be in the same league as high IQ/High IQ children.
So definitely the conclusion 3 is flawed- the difference would not be close to 16 points, but negligible, as the 16 points nowhere measures gentic difference in abilities, but reflects the genetic factor not yet active in low SES, due to improper environmental exposure.
I think that this is a rather important conclusion, as it tells us something about the differences in IQ that can be expected to exist between distinct population stratums (don’t know whether this is an appropriate word for what I try to say; I hope you understand what I mean).
If this is the ballpark of figures that we can expect between low-and high SES IQ differences, this would have important effects on future IQ-distributions. Population-wide stability of IQ-performance, if measured in a saturated environment (maximum stimulation of all members of society), can then only be achieved if all stratums of society have the same number of offspring per individuum. If low-SES families have more children, we have to expect that the 16-point lower IQ will decrease the whole-population IQ.
Here, the 16 points only apply to the sample as measured in your example; the true value of the saturated stratum-dependent-IQ together with stratum-dependent birthrates will determine the shift of the saturated IQ-distribution for the generations to come.
Do you agree with this point of view?
To use a very strong and negative connotation word, the above smacks of eugenics. And I wont comment further on this. Each according to his own philosophy, but beware that science does not support your conclusions. Instead of population controlling the poor, please try to elevate their vicious loop of undeserved poverty, low IQ and harmful stigma.
Turkheimer, E., Haley, A., Waldron, M., D’Onofrio, B., & Gottesman, I. (2003). Socioeconomic status modifies heritability of iq in young children Psychological Science, 14 (6), 623-628 DOI: 10.1046/j.0956-7976.2003.psci_1475.x
Harden, K., Turkheimer, E., & Loehlin, J. (2006). Genotype by Environment Interaction in Adolescents’ Cognitive Aptitude Behavior Genetics, 37 (2), 273-283 DOI: 10.1007/s10519-006-9113-4
Capron, C., & Duyme, M. (1989). Assessment of effects of socio-economic status on IQ in a full cross-fostering study Nature, 340 (6234), 552-554 DOI: 10.1038/340552a0
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Living on the edge of chaos; implications for autism and psychosis
SMI32-stained pyramidal neurons in cerebral co...Image via Wikipedia
I serendipitously came cross this article today about how our brains are self-organized criticality or systems living on the edge of chaos. There are many interesting ideas and gold nuggets in that article, and I’ll briefly quote from it.
In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise.
Neuroscientists have long suspected as much. Only recently, however, have they come up with proof that brains work this way. Now they are trying to work out why. Some believe that near-chaotic states may be crucial to memory, and could explain why some people are smarter than others.
In technical terms, systems on the edge of chaos are said to be in a state of “self-organised criticality”. These systems are right on the boundary between stable, orderly behaviour – such as a swinging pendulum – and the unpredictable world of chaos, as exemplified by turbulence.
The quintessential example of self-organised criticality is a growing sand pile. As grains build up, the pile grows in a predictable way until, suddenly and without warning, it hits a critical point and collapses. These “sand avalanches” occur spontaneously and are almost impossible to predict, so the system is said to be both critical and self-organising. Earthquakes, avalanches and wildfires are also thought to behave like this, with periods of stability followed by catastrophic periods of instability that rearrange the system into a new, temporarily stable state.
Self-organised criticality has another defining feature: even though individual sand avalanches are impossible to predict, their overall distribution is regular. The avalanches are “scale invariant”, which means that avalanches of all possible sizes occur. They also follow a “power law” distribution, which means bigger avalanches happen less often than smaller avalanches, according to a strict mathematical ratio. Earthquakes offer the best real-world example. Quakes of magnitude 5.0 on the Richter scale happen 10 times as often as quakes of magnitude 6.0, and 100 times as often as quakes of magnitude 7.0.
These are purely physical systems, but the brain has much in common with them. Networks of brain cells alternate between periods of calm and periods of instability – “avalanches” of electrical activity that cascade through the neurons. Like real avalanches, exactly how these cascades occur and the resulting state of the brain are unpredictable.
Two of the power laws that are found in human brains relate to the phase shift and phase lock periods of EEG/fMRI or human brain systems etc. As per this PLOS comp biology paper:
Self-organized criticality is an attractive model for human brain dynamics, but there has been little direct evidence for its existence in large-scale systems measured by neuroimaging. In general, critical systems are associated with fractal or power law scaling, long-range correlations in space and time, and rapid reconfiguration in response to external inputs. Here, we consider two measures of phase synchronization: the phase-lock interval, or duration of coupling between a pair of (neurophysiological) processes, and the lability of global synchronization of a (brain functional) network. Using computational simulations of two mechanistically distinct systems displaying complex dynamics, the Ising model and the Kuramoto model, we show that both synchronization metrics have power law probability distributions specifically when these systems are in a critical state. We then demonstrate power law scaling of both pairwise and global synchronization metrics in functional MRI and magnetoencephalographic data recorded from normal volunteers under resting conditions. These results strongly suggest that human brain functional systems exist in an endogenous state of dynamical criticality, characterized by a greater than random probability of both prolonged periods of phase-locking and occurrence of large rapid changes in the state of global synchronization, analogous to the neuronal “avalanches” previously described in cellular systems. Moreover, evidence for critical dynamics was identified consistently in neurophysiological systems operating at frequency intervals ranging from 0.05–0.11 to 62.5–125 Hz, confirming that criticality is a property of human brain functional network organization at all frequency intervals in the brain’s physiological bandwidth.
Further, as per research by Thatcher et al, the EEG phase shift is larger in people with high IQ, while phase lock is smaller in the people with high IQ.
Phase shift duration (40–90 ms) was positively related to intelligence (P < .00001) and the phase lock duration (100–800 ms) was negatively related to intelligence (P < .00001). Phase reset in short interelectrode distances (6 cm) was more highly correlated to I.Q. (P < .0001) than in long distances (> 12 cm).
Further, in this paper , thatcher eta look at autistics and conclude that the people with autism show some deficits in phase shift and phase lock.
Results: In both short (6 cm) and long (21 – 24 cm) inter-electrode distances phase shift duration in ASD subjects was significantly shorter in all frequency bands but especially in the alpha-1 frequency band (8 – 10 Hz) (P < .0001). Phase lock duration was significantly longer in the alpha-2 frequencyband (10 – 12 Hz) in ASD subjects (P < .0001). An anatomical gradient was present with the occipitalparietal regions the most significant.
Conclusions: The findings in this study support the hypothesis that neural resource recruitment occurs in the lower frequency bands and especially the alpha-1 frequency band while neural resource allocation occurs in the alpha-2 frequency band. The results are consistent with a general GABA inhibitory neurotransmitter deficiency resulting in reduced number and/or strength of thalamo-cortical connections in autistic subjects
It is interesting that in the original new scientist article , thatcher speculates that the pattern in schizophrenia may be reverse of what is seen in autism (exactly my thoughts, though the confounding of low IQ with autism may explain his autism results to an extent):
He found that the length of time the children’s brains spent in both the stable phase-locked states and the unstable phase-shifting states correlated with their IQ scores. For example, phase shifts typically last 55 milliseconds, but an additional 1 millisecond seemed to add as many as 20 points to the child’s IQ. A shorter time in the stable phase-locked state also corresponded with greater intelligence – with a difference of 1 millisecond adding 4.6 IQ points to a child’s score (NeuroImage, vol 42, p 1639). Thatcher says this is because a longer phase shift allows the brain to recruit many more neurons for the problem at hand. “It’s like casting a net and capturing as many neurons as possible at any one time,” he says. The result is a greater overall processing power that contributes to higher intelligence. Hovering on the edge of chaos provides brains with their amazing capacity to process information and rapidly adapt to our ever-changing environment, but what happens if we stray either side of the boundary? The most obvious assumption would be that all of us are a short step away from mental illness. Meyer-Lindenberg suggests that schizophrenia may be caused by parts of the brain straying away from the critical point. However, for now that is purely speculative. Thatcher, meanwhile, has found that certain regions in the brains of people with autism spend less time than average in the unstable, phase-shifting states. These abnormalities reduce the capacity to process information and, suggestively, are found only in the regions associated with social behaviour. “These regions have shifted from chaos to more stable activity,” he says. The work might also help us understand epilepsy better: in an epileptic fit, the brain has a tendency to suddenly fire synchronously, and deviation from the critical point could explain this. “They say it’s a fine line between genius and madness,” says Liley. “Maybe we’re finally beginning to understand the wisdom of this statement.”
Thus, it seems Autism and Psychosis are just two ways in which self-organized criticality can cease to do what it was designed to do- live on the edge , without falling on either side of order or chaos.
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Major conscious and unconcoscious processes in the brain: part 3: Robot minds
This article continues my series on major conscious and unconscious processes in the brain. In my last two posts I have talked about 8 major unconscious processes in the brain viz sensory, motor, learning , affective, cognitive (deliberative), modelling, communications and attentive systems. Today, I will not talk about brain in particular, but will approach the problem from a slightly different problem domain- that of modelling/implementing an artificial brain/ mind.
I am a computer scientist, so am vaguely aware of the varied approaches used to model/implement the brain. Many of these use computers , though not every approach assumes that the brain is a computer.
Before continuing I would briefly like to digress and link to one of my earlier posts regarding the different traditions of psychological research in personality and how I think they fit an evolutionary stage model . That may serve as a background to the type of sweeping analysis and genralisation that I am going to do. To be fair it is also important to recall an Indian parable of how when asked to describe an elephant by a few blind man each described what he could lay his hands on and thus provided a partial and incorrect picture of the elephant. Some one who grabbed the tail, described it as snake-like and so forth.
With that in mind let us look at the major approaches to modelling/mplementing the brain/intelligence/mind. Also remember that I am most interested in unconscious brain processes till now and sincerely believe that all the unconscious processes can, and will be successfully implemented in machines. I do not believe machines will become sentient (at least any time soon), but that question is for another day.
So, with due thanks to @wildcat2030, I came across this book today and could immediately see how the different major approaches to artificial robot brains are heavily influenced (and follow) the evolutionary first five stages and the first five unconscious processes in the brain.
The book in question is ‘Robot Brains: Circuits and Systems for Conscious Machines’ by Pentti O. Haikonen and although he is most interested in conscious machines I will restrict myself to intelligent but unconscious machines/robots.
The first chapter of the book (which has made to my reading list) is available at Wiley site in its entirety and I quote extensively from there:
Presently there are five main approaches to the modelling of cognition that could be used for the development of cognitive machines: the computational approach (artificial intelligence, AI), the artificial neural networks approach, the dynamical systems approach, the quantum approach and the cognitive approach. Neurobiological approaches exist, but these may be better suited for the eventual explanation of the workings of the biological brain.
The computational approach (also known as artificial intelligence, AI) towards thinking machines was initially worded by Turing (1950). A machine would be thinking if the results of the computation were indistinguishable from the results of human thinking. Later on Newell and Simon (1976) presented their Physical Symbol System Hypothesis, which maintained that general intelligent action can be achieved by a physical symbol system and that this system has all the necessary and sufficient means for this purpose. A physical symbol system was here the computer that operates with symbols (binary words) and attached rules that stipulate which symbols are to follow others. Newell and Simon believed that the computer would be able to reproduce human-like general intelligence, a feat that still remains to be seen. However, they realized that this hypothesis was only an empirical generalization and not a theorem that could be formally proven. Very little in the way of empirical proof for this hypothesis exists even today and in the 1970s the situation was not better. Therefore Newell and Simon pretended to see other kinds of proof that were in those days readily available. They proposed that the principal body of evidence for the symbol system hypothesis was negative evidence, namely the absence of specific competing hypotheses; how else could intelligent activity be accomplished by man or machine? However, the absence of evidence is by no means any evidence of absence. This kind of ‘proof by ignorance’ is too often available in large quantities, yet it is not a logically valid argument. Nevertheless, this issue has not yet been formally settled in one way or another. Today’s positive evidence is that it is possible to create world-class chess-playing programs and these can be called ‘artificial intelligence’. The negative evidence is that it appears to be next to impossible to create real general intelligence via preprogrammed commands and computations.
The original computational approach can be criticized for the lack of a cognitive foundation. Some recent approaches have tried to remedy this and consider systems that integrate the processes of perception, reaction, deliberation and reasoning (Franklin, 1995, 2003; Sloman, 2000). There is another argument against the computational view of the brain. It is known that the human brain is slow, yet it is possible to learn to play tennis and other activities that require instant responses. Computations take time. Tennis playing and the like would call for the fastest computers in existence. How could the slow brain manage this if it were to execute computations?
The artificial neural networks approach, also known as connectionism, had its beginnings in the early 1940s when McCulloch and Pitts (1943) proposed that the brain cells, neurons, could be modelled by a simple electronic circuit. This circuit would receive a number of signals, multiply their intensities by the so-called synaptic weight values and sum these modified values together. The circuit would give an output signal if the sum value exceeded a given threshold. It was realized that these artificial neurons could learn and execute basic logic operations if their synaptic weight values were adjusted properly. If these artificial neurons were realized as hardware circuits then no programs would be necessary and biologically plausible artificial replicas of the brain might be possible. Also, neural networks operate in parallel, doing many things simultaneously. Thus the overall operational speed could be fast even if the individual neurons were slow. However, problems with artificial neural learning led to complicated statistical learning algorithms, ones that could best be implemented as computer programs. Many of today’s artificial neural networks are statistical pattern recognition and classification circuits. Therefore they are rather removed from their original biologically inspired idea. Cognition is not mere classification and the human brain is hardly a computer that executes complicated synaptic weight-adjusting algorithms.
The human brain has some 10 to the power of 11 neurons and each neuron may have tens of thousands of synaptic inputs and input weights. Many artificial neural networks learn by tweaking the synaptic weight values against each other when thousands of training examples are presented. Where in the brain would reside the computing process that would execute synaptic weight adjusting algorithms? Where would these algorithms have come from? The evolutionary feasibility of these kinds of algorithms can be seriously doubted. Complicated algorithms do not evolve via trial and error either. Moreover, humans are able to learn with a few examples only, instead of having training sessions with thousands or hundreds of thousands of examples. It is obvious that the mainstream neural networks approach is not a very plausible candidate for machine cognition although the human brain is a neural network.
Dynamical systems were proposed as a model for cognition by Ashby (1952) already in the 1950s and have been developed further by contemporary researchers (for example Thelen and Smith, 1994; Gelder, 1998, 1999; Port, 2000; Wallace, 2005). According to this approach the brain is considered as a complex system with dynamical interactions with its environment. Gelder and Port (1995) define a dynamical system as a set of quantitative variables, which change simultaneously and interdependently over quantitative time in accordance with some set of equations. Obviously the brain is indeed a large system of neuron activity variables that change over time. Accordingly the brain can be modelled as a dynamical system if the neuron activity can be quantified and if a suitable set of, say, differential equations can be formulated. The dynamical hypothesis sees the brain as comparable to analog feedback control systems with continuous parameter values. No inner representations are assumed or even accepted. However, the dynamical systems approach seems to have problems in explaining phenomena like ‘inner speech’. A would-be designer of an artificial brain would find it difficult to see what kind of system dynamics would be necessary for a specific linguistically expressed thought. The dynamical systems approach has been criticized, for instance by Eliasmith (1996, 1997), who argues that the low dimensional systems of differential equations, which must rely on collective parameters, do not model cognition easily and the dynamicists have a difficult time keeping arbitrariness from permeating their models. Eliasmith laments that there seems to be no clear ways of justifying parameter settings, choosing equations, interpreting data or creating system boundaries. Furthermore, the collective parameter models make the interpretation of the dynamic system’s behaviour difficult, as it is not easy to see or determine the meaning of any particular parameter in the model. Obviously these issues would translate into engineering problems for a designer of dynamical systems.
The quantum approach maintains that the brain is ultimately governed by quantum processes, which execute nonalgorithmic computations or act as a mediator between the brain and an assumed more-or-less immaterial ‘self’ or even ‘conscious energy field’ (for example Herbert, 1993; Hameroff, 1994; Penrose, 1989; Eccles, 1994). The quantum approach is supposed to solve problems like the apparently nonalgorithmic nature of thought, free will, the coherence of conscious experience, telepathy, telekinesis, the immortality of the soul and others. From an engineering point of view even the most practical propositions of the quantum approach are presently highly impractical in terms of actual implementation. Then there are some proposals that are hardly distinguishable from wishful fabrications of fairy tales. Here the quantum approach is not pursued.
The cognitive approach maintains that conscious machines can be built because one example already exists, namely the human brain. Therefore a cognitive machine should emulate the cognitive processes of the brain and mind, instead of merely trying to reproduce the results of the thinking processes. Accordingly the results of neurosciences and cognitive psychology should be evaluated and implemented in the design if deemed essential. However, this approach does not necessarily involve the simulation or emulation of the biological neuron as such, instead, what is to be produced is the abstracted information processing function of the neuron.
A cognitive machine would be an embodied physical entity that would interact with the environment. Cognitive robots would be obvious applications of machine cognition and there have been some early attempts towards that direction. Holland seeks to provide robots with some kind of consciousness via internal models (Holland and Goodman, 2003; Holland, 2004). Kawamura has been developing a cognitive robot with a sense of self (Kawamura, 2005; Kawamura et al., 2005). There are also others. Grand presents an experimentalist’s approach towards cognitive robots in his book (Grand, 2003).
A cognitive machine would be a complete system with processes like perception, attention, inner speech, imagination, emotions as well as pain and pleasure. Various technical approaches can be envisioned, namely indirect ones with programs, hybrid systems that combine programs and neural networks, and direct ones that are based on dedicated neural cognitive architectures. The operation of these dedicated neural cognitive architectures would combine neural, symbolic and dynamic elements.
However, the neural elements here would not be those of the traditional neural networks; no statistical learning with thousands of examples would be implied, no backpropagation or other weight-adjusting algorithms are used. Instead the networks would be associative in a way that allows the symbolic use of the neural signal arrays (vectors). The ‘symbolic’ here does not refer to the meaning-free symbol manipulation system of AI; instead it refers to the human way of using symbols with meanings. It is assumed that these cognitive machines would eventually be conscious, or at least they would reproduce most of the folk psychology hallmarks of consciousness (Haikonen, 2003a, 2005a). The engineering aspects of the direct cognitive approach are pursued in this book.
Now to me these computational approaches are all unidimensional-
1. The computational approach is suited for symbol-manipulation and information-represntation and might give good results when used in systems that have mostly ‘sensory’ features like forming a mental represntation of external world, a chess game etc. Here something (stimuli from world) is represented as something else (an internal symbolic represntation).
2. The Dynamical Systems approach is guided by interactions with the environment and the principles of feedback control systems and also is prone to ‘arbitrariness’ or ‘randomness’. It is perfectly suited to implement the ‘motor system‘ of brain as one of the common features is apparent unpredictability (volition) despite being deterministic (chaos theory) .
3. The Neural networks or connectionsim is well suited for implementing the ‘learning system’ of the brain and we can very well see that the best neural network based systems are those that can categorize and classify things just like ‘the learning system’ of the brain does.
4. The quantum approach to brain, I haven’t studied enough to comment on, but the action-tendencies of ‘affective system’ seem all too similar to the superimposed,simultaneous states that exits in a wave function before it is collapsed. Being in an affective state just means having a set of many possible related and relevant actions simultaneously activated and then perhaps one of that decided upon somehow and actualized. I’m sure that if we could ever model emotion in machine sit would have to use quantum principles of wave functions, entanglemnets etc.
5. The cognitive approach, again I haven’t go a hang of yet, but it seems that the proposal is to build some design into the machine that is based on actual brain and mind implemntations. Embodiment seems important and so does emulating the information processing functions of neurons. I would stick my neck out and predict that whatever this cognitive approach is it should be best able to model the reasoning and evaluative and decision-making functions of the brain. I am reminded of the computational modelling methods, used to functionally decompose a cognitive process, and are used in cognitive science (whether symbolic or subsymbolic modelling) which again aid in decision making / reasoning (see wikipedia entry)
Overall, I would say there is room for further improvement in the way we build more intelligent machines. They could be made such that they have two models of world – one deterministic , another chaotic and use the two models simulatenously (sixth stage of modelling); then they could communicate with other machines and thus learn language (some simulation methods for language abilities do involve agents communicating with each other using arbitrary tokens and later a language developing) (seventh stage) and then they could be implemented such that they have a spotlight of attention (eighth stage) whereby some coherent systems are amplified and others suppressed. Of course all this is easier said than done, we will need at least three more major approaches to modelling and implementing brain/intelligence before we can model every major unconscious process in the brain. To model consciousness and program sentience is an uphill task from there and would definitely require a leap in our understandings/ capabilities.
Do tell me if you find the above reasonable and do believe that these major approaches to artificial brain implementation are guided and constrained by the major unconscious processes in the brain and that we can learn much about brain from the study of these artificial approaches and vice versa.
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• Cannon and Cornfield at Dawn
Antietam
National Battlefield Maryland
Researching Civil War Ancestors
The following are some guidelines and suggestions on researching Civil War ancestors. Usually, it is best to start with the soldier’s full name, his military unit (regiment, battery, ship, etc.) and the county where you believe he enlisted. Then, each of the following steps may yield more information. In many cases, information about Confederate soldiers is limited.
1. The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System database, Internet accessible at www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/ is a good place to start. The CWSS database contains over 5 million soldier names from over 30 states and territories, and the website has several other useful links to possibly obtain more detailed information.
2. The National Archives has copies of official military and pension records for Civil War soldiers. You may request a search of these records by first obtaining NATF forms 85 (for pension files) and 86 (for military record) from the National Archives, by either email at [email protected] or by postal mail at:
Textual Reference Branch (NWDT1)
National Archives and Records Administration
7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20408
Be sure to include the type of form(s) you are requesting (NATF 85, NATF 86, or both), the quantity of forms you need, and your postal mailing address. The National Archives website, www.nara.gov, also has useful information.
3. In addition, check with the state archives in the home state of your ancestor’s unit to see what records are available. County and local historical societies are often another good source of more detailed information.
4. Studying your ancestor’s military unit may also be beneficial. Frederick Dyer’s A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion has short histories of Union regiments, while Joseph H. Crute, Jr.’s Units of the Confederate States Army includes Southern regiments. Specific histories on your ancestor’s regiment may also be available in local libraries. The Antietam National Battlefield library has some reference materials, plus unit files on regiments that fought in the Battle of Antietam. You may do research at the library by making an appointment with the park historian at (301) 432-8674. Other NPS battlefield sites may also have more information on particular units.
5. Many other resources for genealogical research, such as guidebooks and websites, may help you further your search. Check your local bookstore, or do a word search on the Internet and see what you can find. Good luck!
Did You Know?
Nelson Miles during the Civil War
Colonel Nelson Miles of the 64th New York Infantry was a volunteer officer at Antietam and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery at Chancellorsville. After the Civil War he remained in the Army and by the Spanish American War in 1898 he was the Commanding General of the U.S. Army.
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This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 367 pages of information about My Year of the War.
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There is the very point of the war that ought to make any neutral take sides. If the Belgians had not received bread from the outside world, then Germany would either have had to spare enough to keep them from starving or faced the desperation of a people who would fight for food with such weapons as they had. This must have brought a holocaust of reprisals that would have made the orgy of Louvain comparatively insignificant. However much the Germans hampered the Commission with red tape and worse than red tape through the activities of German residents in Belgium, Germany did not want the Commission to withdraw. It was helping her to economize her food supplies. And England answered a human appeal at the cost of hard-and-fast military policy. She was still true to the ideals which have set their stamp on half the world.
XI Winter In Lorraine
Only a winding black streak, that four hundred and fifty miles of trenches on a flat map. It is difficult to visualize the whole as you see it in your morning paper, or to realize the labour it represents in its course through the mire and over mountain slopes, through villages and thick forests and across open fields.
Every mile of it was located by the struggle of guns and rifles and men coming to a stalemate of effort, when both dug into the earth and neither could budge the other. It is a line of countless battles and broken hopes; of charges as brave as men ever made; a symbol of skill and dogged patience and eternal vigilance of striving foe against striving foe.
From the first, the sector from Rheims to Flanders was most familiar to the public. The world still thinks of the battle of the Marne as an affair at the door of Paris, though the heaviest fighting was from Vitry-le-Francois eastward and the fate of Paris was no less decided on the fields of Lorraine than on the fields of Champagne. The storming of Rheims Cathedral became the theme of thousands of words of print to one word for the defence of the Plateau d’Amance or the struggle around Luneville. Our knowledge of the war is from glimpses through the curtain of military secrecy which was drawn tight over Lorraine and the Vosges, shrouded in mountain mists. This is about Lorraine in winter, when the war was six months old.
But first, on our way, a word about Paris, which I had not seen since September. At the outset of the war, Parisians who had not gone to the front were in a trance of suspense; they were magnetized by the tragic possibilities of the hour. The fear of disaster was in their hearts, though they might deny it to themselves. They could think of nothing but France. Now they realized that the best way to help France was by going on with their work at home. Paris was trying to be normal, but no Parisian was making the bluff that Paris was normal. The Gallic lucidity of mind prevented such self-deception.
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My Year of the War from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
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Nationalism Leading To World War I - Faizan Sadiq
Essay by Faizy123, High School, 12th grade, A, December 2008
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Nationalism can be defined as having a sense of belonging and loyalty to ones country or nation state. Of all the European nations, France was the first to sport the idea of nationalism. Many countries became influenced by the French's ideas of nationalism, As a result nationalism had spread throughout Europe by the nineteenth and twentieth century. One result that nationalism had on Europe was, the wanting of unification. The people of nation states wanted their country to belong to. This wanting lead to the unifying of Italy and Germany. Soon nationalism had increased the peoples confidence, and a feeling of imperialism ran through the unified countries. Unified countries such as France, Germany, Russia wanted to extend their empires. But this Imperialism in Europe led to many conflicts between countries. All this Conflict eventually resulted in the beginning of World War I. .
In the 19th Century nationalism had a strong up rise in society. The nation would benefit from action independently rather then collectively, emphasizing nation rather then international goals. A lot of countries want to come one with all of the people in the country. But there were a lot of problems get people to think and belief the same things. Religion was one of the main reasons the nationalism didn't work. One of the countries that used nationalism to unite was Germany. Germany had strong country in the past but the after Napoleons rule the country went all down hill. In 1814-1815 the Congress of Vienna created the so-called German Confederation under Austrian and Prussian hegemony, but this would make it hard for the dreams of nationalism. The rivalry of Austria and Prussia paralyzed it in a way comparable to the effects of Soviet-Americans dualism on the United Nations during the cold war. In Germany the old...
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History of the Escalante Area
Although little is known about the early history of this area, most investigators assume that a sequence of human occupancy began prior to AD 1 and included Desert Archaic and Basketmaker cultures. For several hundred years, centered around 1100, both Kayenta and Fremont agricultural peoples occupied the area. The abandonment of a large Kayenta Anasazi village at Boulder in approximately 1275 ended the most significant period of prehistory. Hopi peoples apparently visited and hunted in the region for 200 to 300 years. In the 1500's, Southern Paiutes began to visit the area and then occupied the region to historic times.
Archaeological sites include habitation areas, campsites, storage cysts, petroglyphs, and pictographs. Little scientific research has been conducted since the University of Utah conducted the Glen Canyon Right Bank Survey in 1959. Much of this early work was exploratory, and the conclusions reached are still somewhat tentative and subject to review. The area is significant to the understanding of cultural relationships between variant groups of the Anasazi and between the Fremont culture and Anasazi. All archaeological sites on public lands are protected by Federal law. Please don't harm or destroy a site with graffiti, by sitting on walls, using ruins for shelter, etc. Protect your cultural resources. Take nothing but pictures.
The Anasazi Indian Village State Historical Site, located in Boulder and operated by the State of Utah, provides visitors a unique opportunity to view artifacts and increase their understanding and knowledge of Anasazi culture.
Jacob Hamblin Home, Santa Clara The Escalante River is generally considered to be the last major river discovered in the contiguous United States. In 1866, Captain James Andrus led a group of calvarymen into the headwater branches of the Escalante River near the present community of Escalante. Members of the first and the second Powell expeditions overlooked the mouth of the Escalante River when they passed through Glen Canyon in 1869. In 1871, the Second Powell Expedition enlisted Jacob Hamblin of Kanab, Utah to resupply the expedition at the mouth of the Dirty Devil River. Hamblin mistook the Escalante River for the Dirty Devil River. Thus, in 1871, Hamblin became the first Anglo to travel through the Escalante River Canyon. In 1872, John Wesley Powell sent the Almon Harris Thompson-Frederick S. Dellenbaugh party to the mouth of the Dirty Devil River to recover a cached boat. Upon climbing the escarpment above Pine Creek and the present community of Escalante, the Thompson-Dellenbaugh party realized that the canyon was not the canyon of the Dirty Devil River. Thompson then credited the party with the formal discovery of the river. Thompson named the Escalante River and the surrounding canyon country the Escalante Basin in honor of the Friar Silvestre Valez de Escalante expedition of 1776.
Since historic times, the Escalante River canyons have been a barrier to east-west vehicular travel in the region. The river is presently bridged only at its upper end. Much of the history and the present recreation access is associated with early attempts to pioneer routes around or across the river and the canyons. These include the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail, the Harris Wash-Silver Falls Canyon Wagon Route, the Boynton Road, the Boulder Mail Trail or Death Hollow Trail, and the Old Boulder Road.
The Escalante River was not bridged until 1935. Boulder is often cited as one of the last communities in the United States to gain automobile access.
The history of these roads and trails enables visitors to envision and appreciate the hardships of early pioneer life.
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Ross Dependency
Definition of Ross Dependency
• part of Antarctica administered by New Zealand, consisting of everything lying to the south of latitude 60° south between longitudes 160° east and 150° west.
Origin:
named after J. C. Ross (see Ross, Sir James Clark)
Ross Dependency in other Oxford dictionaries
Definition of Ross Dependency in the US English dictionary
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• dogwood across creek
Prince William Forest
Park Virginia
There are park alerts in effect.
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• Firewood
Outside firewood is prohibited in Prince William Forest Park, unless it is certified USDA 'bug free' firewood. Dead and downed wood may be collected from designated areas for use while in the park. Help us protect the forest from invasive species!
• Warm Wet Spring = More Ticks
Please check yourself and your pets for ticks continually during and after your visit. Ticks are less prevelent if you stay on trail or in mowed areas. Wearing light colored clothing helps you spot them before the attach.
• Temp. Closure C-Loop Bathroom
Due to sequestration cuts, the C-Loop bathroom at Oak Ridge Campground will remain closed. Please use the B-Loop restroom, a short walking distance away. We apologize for the inconvenience.
American Indian Heritage
Native American Prehistory in the Park
(10,000 – 3,000 Years Ago)
Thousands of years ago, Prince William Forest Park was part of the great forest that spanned most of eastern North American. Oak, hickory, chestnut, and other trees covered the hills. Under the trees, ancient Native Americans hunted, fished, camped and traveled. In what archeologists call the Archaic period, between 10,000 and 3,000 years ago, Native Americans lived by hunting and gathering. They roamed the forests, and the marshes and shores of the Potomac and other rivers, searching for food and necessities. They did not stay long in one place, but moved frequently. They traveled along or in small groups, but sometimes may have come together in gatherings of a few hundreds people. Elaborate burials from this period have been found in some places, so we know Archaic people had a rich spiritual life, but from the artifacts, it is hard to know what they believed about the world.
In the Archaic period, Native Americans made tools of wood, bone, and stone, but in most places only stone tools survive the ravages of time. It is therefore spear points, knives, axes, and other stone tools that tell us where Archaic peoples wandered and camped. Small stone flakes left behind from making tools are the most common artifacts found by archeologists. These artifacts were left by Native Americans wherever they camped. Small flakes of quarts and other stones are scattered across the ridge tops overlooking both branches of Quantico Creek. From these flakes we know that people camped on these ridges, and from their tools we can learn something about what they were doing on the site. Spear points tell us they were hunting large game, and we can sometimes tell if knives and other tools were used for scraping hides or cutting wood.
Where are the sites?
It is not difficult to find evidence of native Americans from the Archaic period in Prince William Forest Park. Professional archeologists can go to any level ridge top overlooking either branch of Quantico Creek, place a shovel in the soil, and most likely turn up small flakes of quarts and other stones. (PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS ILLEGAL FOR VISITORS TO COLLECT ANY ARTIFACTS IN OUR NATIONAL PARKS). These stone flakes, which archeologists call debitage, are the discarded remnants of stone left by people making stone tools. People who relied on stone tools left them behind whenever they camped, and we can get a general idea of how a camping spot was used by Native Americans from the numbers of flakes we find. On most of the small Native American sites in the Park, archeologists have found only a few flakes, on to three per shovel-dug hole. In a few places they have found many more pieces of debitage along with stone tools and other traces of Native Americans. These larger camps are mostly on the lower reaches of the streams, within an easy day’s walk of the Potomac River.
The Williams Branch Site
The Williams Branch site is one of a group of Archaic period sites on hills that surround a swampy floodplain along the South Fork Quantico Creek. These hills are strewn with evidence of ancient campsites. Archeologists found more than 4,500 artifacts during test excavations of the Williams Branch Site. Most of this material was flakes of quartz left by people making stone tools from cobbles; in all, 3,690 flakes were recovered. One part of the site must have been a quarry and stoneworking shop, where people collected quarts cobbles and made them into spear points and other tools. We also found cobbles broken by head, known to archeologists as fire-cracked rock, showing us that fires were built in stone-lines hearths on the site. Several stone tools were found including spear points and scrapers. These spear points where manufactured between 4,500 and 500 BC.
The archeological work conducted at the Williams Branch Sites tells us that the site was not permanently occupied, but rather, it was camping place. These types of sites are actually common. Follow almost any stream that flows into the Potomac up to where it forks, and if there is a suitable camping spot nearby, you will fin d sites similar to Williams Branch. Add too these large sites the thousands of smaller sites that dot the countryside and you begin to understand that the hunter-gatherers of the Archaic period have left an enduring record of their presence all across the landscape. These Archaic period people did not invest a great deal into any single site; instead, they spread their activities throughout the woods, swamps, and waterways of their homeland. It is clear they returned often to certain favored locations; at the meeting places of major streams and rivers, near groves of nut-bearing trees or stands of plants with medicinal roots and bark. Still other sites may be way stations along well-used trails. When all we find are flakes and a few stone tools, we can say very little about why people came to a particular spot, but the broad patters of these sites in the landscape provides us with important clues about how these people lived.
Did You Know?
View along Farms to Forest Trail.
At over 15,000 acres, Prince William Forest Park protects the largest example of eastern Piedmont forest ecosystem (one of the most heavily altered ecosystems in North America) in the National Park System.
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1. Education
Discuss in my forum
A Brief History of Ghana - Part 1
From
Migrants From an Ancient Kingdom?:
The history of the Gold Coast before the last quarter of the 15th century is derived primarily from oral tradition that refers to migrations from the ancient kingdoms of the western Soudan (the area of Mauritania and Mali). The Gold Coast was renamed Ghana upon independence in 1957 because of indications that present-day inhabitants descended from migrants who moved south from the ancient kingdom of Ghana.
Building the Portuguese Military Factory of El Mina:
The first contact between Europe and the Gold Coast dates from 1470, when a party of Portuguese landed. In 1482, the Portuguese built Elmina Castle (São Jorge da Mina) as a permanent trading base. Thomas Windham made the first recorded English trading voyage to the coast in 1553. During the next three centuries, the English, Danes, Dutch, Germans, and Portuguese controlled various parts of the coastal areas.
Britain Takes Control:
In 1821, the British Government took control of the British trading forts on the Gold Coast. In 1844, Fanti chiefs in the area signed an agreement with the British that became the legal steppingstone to colonial status for the coastal area. From 1826 to 1900, the British fought a series of campaigns against the Ashantis (specifically the 1st Ashanti War 1863-64 and the 2nd Ashanti War 1873-74), whose kingdom was located inland. In 1902, they succeeded in establishing firm control over the Ashanti region and making the northern territories a protectorate.
Addition of German Togoland Following World War I:
British Togoland, the fourth territorial element eventually to form the nation, was part of a former German colony administered by the United Kingdom from Accra as a League of Nations mandate after 1922. In December 1946, British Togoland became a UN Trust Territory, and in 1957, following a 1956 plebiscite, the United Nations agreed that the territory would become part of Ghana when the Gold Coast achieved independence.
Road to Independence After World War II:
The four territorial divisions were administered separately until 1946, when the British Government ruled them as a single unit. In 1951, a constitution was promulgated that called for a greatly enlarged legislature composed principally of members elected by popular vote directly or indirectly. An executive council was responsible for formulating policy, with most African members drawn from the legislature and including three ex officio members appointed by the governor.
Kwame Nkrumah Takes Power:
A new constitution, approved on April 29, 1954, established a cabinet comprising African ministers drawn from an all-African legislature chosen by direct election. In the elections that followed, the Convention People's Party (CPP), led by Kwame Nkrumah, won the majority of seats in the new Legislative Assembly. Kwame Nkrumah became Prime Minister.
Achieving Independence:
In May 1956, Nkrumah's Gold Coast government issued a white paper containing proposals for Gold Coast independence. The British Government stated it would agree to a firm date for independence if a reasonable majority for such a step were obtained in the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly after a general election. The 1956 election returned the CPP to power with 71 of the 104 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Ghana became an independent state on March 6, 1957, when the United Kingdom relinquished its control over the Colony of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, the Northern Territories Protectorate, and British Togoland.
Reorganizing the Territory:
In subsequent reorganizations, the country was divided into 10 regions, which currently are subdivided into 138 districts. The original Gold Coast Colony now comprises the Western, Central, Eastern, and Greater Accra Regions, with a small portion at the mouth of the Volta River assigned to the Volta Region; the Ashanti area was divided into the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo Regions; the Northern Territories into the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West Regions; and British Togoland essentially is the same area as the Volta Region.
A Stable Beginning:
After independence, the CPP government under Nkrumah sought to develop Ghana as a modern, semi-industrialized, unitary socialist state. The government emphasized political and economic organization, endeavoring to increase stability and productivity through labor, youth, farmers, cooperatives, and other organizations integrated with the CPP. The government, according to Nkrumah, acted only as "the agent of the CPP" in seeking to accomplish these goals.
Introducing Authoritarian Rule and a One-Party State:
The CPP's control was challenged and criticized, and Prime Minister Nkrumah used the Preventive Detention Act (1958), which provided for detention without trial for up to 5 years (later extended to 10 years). On July 1, 1960, a new constitution was adopted, changing Ghana from a parliamentary system with a prime minister to a republican form of government headed by a powerful president. In August 1960, Nkrumah was given authority to scrutinize newspapers and other publications before publication. This political evolution continued into early 1964, when a constitutional referendum changed the country to a one-party state.
Next: A Brief History of Ghana - Part 2
Next: A Brief History of Ghana - Part 3
(Text from Public Domain material, US Department of State Background Notes.)
©2013 About.com. All rights reserved.
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where the writers are
Descartes' Bones: Russell Shorto
On a brutal winter's day in 1650 in Stockholm, the Frenchman René Descartes, the most influential and controversial thinker of his time, was buried after a cold and lonely death far from home. Sixteen years later, the French Ambassador Hugues de Terlon secretly unearthed Descartes' bones and transported them to France. Why would this devoutly Catholic official care so much about the remains of a philosopher who was hounded from country to country on charges of atheism? Why would Descartes' bones take such a strange, serpentine path over the next 350 years—a path intersecting some of the grandest events imaginable: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, the mind-body problem, the conflict between faith and reason? Their story involves people from all walks of life—Louis XIV, a Swedish casino operator, poets and playwrights, philosophers and physicists, as these people used the bones in scientific studies, stole them, sold them, revered them as relics, fought over them, passed them surreptitiously from hand to hand. The answer lies in Descartes’ famous phrase: Cogito ergo sum—"I think, therefore I am." In his deceptively simple seventy-eight-page essay, Discourse on the Method, this small, vain, vindictive, peripatetic, ambitious Frenchman destroyed 2,000 years of received wisdom and laid the foundations of the modern world. At the root of Descartes’ “method” was skepticism: "What can I know for certain?" Like-minded thinkers around Europe passionately embraced the book--the method was applied to medicine, nature, politics, and society. The notion that one could find truth in facts that could be proved, and not in reliance on tradition and the Church's teachings, would become a turning point in human history. In an age of faith, what Descartes was proposing seemed like heresy. Yet Descartes himself was a good Catholic, who was spurred to write his incendiary book for the most personal of reasons: He had devoted himself to medicine and the study of nature, but when his beloved daughter died at the age of five, he took his ideas deeper. To understand the natural world one needed to question everything. Thus the scientific method was created and religion overthrown. If the natural world could be understood, knowledge could be advanced, and others might not suffer as his child did. The great controversy Descartes ignited continues to our era: where Islamic terrorists spurn the modern world and pine for a culture based on unquestioning faith; where scientists write bestsellers that passionately make the case for atheism; where others struggle to find a balance between faith and reason. Descartes’ Bonesis a historical detective story about the creation of the modern mind, with twists and turns leading up to the present day—to the science museum in Paris where the philosopher’s skull now resides and to the church a few kilometers away where, not long ago, a philosopher-priest said a mass for his bones.
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Is Your Brain in a Box?
by Jeff Cobb
Caged BrainAre you just not the creative type? Is it simply impossible for you to learn a new language? Is all this social media stuff just for the kids? If you answer yes to any of these questions—or know people who do—read on.
I’ve been digging into learning styles and “learning to learn” lately, and in the process keep bumping into three bits of conventional wisdom about the human brain that, in fact, are not as clear cut as people often think they are. I highlight them here not because there is no truth to them, but because people have a tendency to give them far too much weight, and in doing so, erect barriers to their own learning. Here they are:
Left Brain vs. Right Brain Thinking
You know how it goes: The left brain is logical and analytical; the right brain is spatially-oriented and creative. Careers and fortunes have been made off of this one, and people tend to get passionate about it. But the real story is much more complex. While there are clearly differences in how the hemispheres of the brain process sensations, neither side is “specialized” to the degree that more popularized left brain/right brain theories suggest. A normal brain acts in an integrated fashion whether it is focused on painting a masterpiece or analyzing a profit and loss statement.
Granted, you may not be the next Picasso, but it is highly unlikely your artistic shortcomings stem from the fact that one side of your brain is dominating the other. A variety of other factors have a role, and the simple fact is, just about anybody can draw, paint, or perform any number of other creative acts reasonably well with a bit of training, discipline, and a sincere will to learn.
Just do a search on “left brain right brain myth” and you will find plenty to read, but I also came across this succinct list posted by Gary Platt on the TrainingZone UK site (the original list contains additional links, but I eliminated three that appear not to function any more):
If you’d still like to have some fun testing out your right brain/left brain and general thinking preferences, I suggest:
There is a “Critical Period” for Learning
I have felt the burden of this one as someone who took up the study of various languages and musical instruments relatively late in life. The idea is that there is a window early in life when a person is much more capable of learning certain things—second languages, including music, tend to be highest on the list—and that the window more or less closes at some point, usually around the onset of puberty.
Well, as with the right brain/left brain phenomenon, the truth is significantly more complex. Few who study such things dispute the idea that younger brains have certain distinct advantages in mastering complex systems like languages. The question is what happens to these advantages as people get older. Does the “window” really close at some point as we all turn into proverbial old dogs who can’t learn new tricks?
In certain limited ways, yes. For instance, we don’t tend to pick up the phonological aspects of a language nearly as easily as we get older. This means most of us butcher the accents of new languages we pick up as adults. But we can still master grammar and acquire new vocabulary. And how well we can do these things depends on a variety of factors ranging from personality to motivation to a range of environmental factors. In short, our ability to learn a new language does not cut off at a certain age. Perhaps more importantly, there is little, if any, evidence to support the idea that our ability to learn things besides languages cuts off or even declines all that substantially as we age.
Let’s face it: If you are really interested in learning, the “critical period” is now.
Old Brains Don’t Change
Notions of brain “plasticity”—i.e., the ability of the brain physically to change and grow over time—are closely related to the “critical period” theory above. It used to be believed that the neural connections in our brains, or at least in certain parts of our brains, became fixed as we aged and then eventually began to erode. We now know that the brain can continue re-wiring itself and changing well into old age and that in certain areas of the brain—the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus—the brain actually has the ability to generate new cells throughout adulthood.
Experience alone drives much of the reorganization of neural connections that occur over time. We adapt to new environments (the social Web, for example) and build up new connections to meet the challenges that we encounter in our everyday life and work activities. But an active focus on learning can accelerate and augment this process. Some research even indicates that a consistent focus on cognitive activity helps to generate a “brain reserve” that can help defend against age and disease-related damage. Of course, this is an idea attractive to so many people that a whole industry is growing up around it, so keep a few grains of salt on hand if you head out onto the Web for more information in this area.
As with critical period theory, the brain’s ability to change and grow throughout life doesn’t mean that the young—particularly the very young—do not possess a biological advantage when it comes to raw learning capacity. But neither do the young bring the experience and judgment to the game that we older learners possess. Part of the challenge for older learners is not to let oversimplified conventional wisdom cloud our judgment and box us in. The brain enables a great deal, if we let it.
JTC
P.S. If you enjoy what you read here on Mission to Learn, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed or use the e-mail subscription form at the top right side of this page.
posted on May 13, 2008
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Geider charisma Family History
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Geider charisma Surname History
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