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Decades of breakneck development in China have taken a terrible toll on the air, water, and soil. The good news is that the government has started a massive anti-pollution campaign, investing at least $477 billion in environmental protection and shutting down thousands of factories. While many are being driven out of business by the campaign, it’s also creating new opportunities for green technology companies and pushing manufacturing companies to upgrade. And although a government-led campaign, further clean-up efforts can be made by private companies as local governments search for clean solutions.
As the world’s most populous country, China should have the potential to become the world’s most profitable music market, yet it is far away from that—China was the 12th largest market in 2016, with $202 million in revenue compared to the US’s No.1 ranking of $5.3 billion. But there are important differences in the way music is consumed that may give China a business edge. Led by internet firms like Tencent, China has adjusted to the digital future of music more quickly, with a whopping 96% of music revenue from digital releases and 75% of that number coming from streaming sales.
Although China views space exploration as important for bolstering national prestige and influence, boosting national defense, and promoting domestic industries and economic realignment, the country’s space program is still far behind the United States. It has fast caught up fast with other nations, however. China aims to send a rover to Mars and launch a manned space station by 2020, and is also testing the ability of astronauts to stay on the moon for extended periods. And while the government increases its efforts, private companies are also joining to make a presence in space exploration.
On April 1st, 2017, the Chinese government announced the formation of a new special economic and development zone: the Xiong’an New Area. About 60 miles southwest of Beijing, in Hebei province, the area will combine the now relatively rural counties of Rongcheng, Anxin and Xiong. With an expected investment of $583 billion over the next 20 years in infrastructure alone, Xiong’an is set to transform from a largely agricultural and low-tech manufacturing region, into a high-tech, environmentally sustainable modern metropolis. It will also, according to the plan, alleviate some population pressures from Beijing while serving as a destination for some administrative departments, logistics bases and other government offices.
The sharing economy exploded in China this year, with companies for all kinds of shareable objects taking part in this new business model. While there are businesses familiar to Westerners—shared offices, cars and rides—there are also ideas that seem a little kooky, such as shared basketballs and umbrellas. Although some call it innovative, many realize these companies are just “rental 2.0” companies, assisted by digital technology. As the concept reaches fever pitch, however, it is also facing a reality check, especially as many firms, ballooned by venture capital funds, start to show signs of failing.
For the past few years, China has been pursuing a new and ambitious state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform program. SEOs are huge in terms of size, yet they only provide 16% of jobs, less than a third of national economic output, and a return on assets of only 2.9%. Hugely inefficient, debt-ridden and responsible for most of China’s ballooning corporate debt, SOEs are a drag on an economy that Beijing wants to transition—unlike past efforts which is about privatization, but just the opposite—from investment and export-driven to services and consumption-driven.
Many developing nations see China as a champion and as an investor. Western countries wish to see China shoulder a greater share of the burden of global leadership, and a growing number of Chinese citizens want China to reclaim its ancient role of international dominance. But is China ready to “lead the world?” Has it reached the stage where it can set the international tone, take the central role on global issues and provide preeminent guidance toward the future? To many the answer might be “yes”, but as the foundations of the powerhouse economy are actually weaker than they seem, that assessment may be premature.
Historians say that paper currency was invented by the Chinese during the Tang Dynasty. Today, their descendants are taking the lead again: Young Chinese are abandoning cash. Shop anywhere in China–from a grand shopping mall to a small street vendor–and you can use your smartphone to pay. Of course, the wide acceptance of smartphones and 4G internet is one thing, the rise of fintech firms like Ant Financial is another. Yet to seriously phase out cash, authorities and professionals are pursuing something more than just QR codes: digital currencies based on blockchain technology. Despite the cracking down on unfavorable operations like ICOs, China is studying blockchain in a rather serious way.
The wish to be healthier and the benefits that can come of it are boosting the growth of fitness gyms and sporting events. During the past couple of years, over 37,000 fitness clubs mushroomed in China. And in 2016 alone, 2.8 million people participated in 328 marathons, the latter number now being 14 times the level of five years ago, according to the 2016–2017 China Fitness Industry White Paper and the Chinese Athletic Association (CAA). So Chinese consumers are ready to pay for health and wellness, but have the fitness clubs figured out their best offer?
Wellness tourism is a $3.7 trillion market globally and China is becoming one of the largest source countries for tourists who wish to combine tourism and medical treatment. 2016 saw the greatest number yet of Chinese tourists opting for such medical travel, and the largest spending ever. The rising numbers can be explained by a lack of medical resources domestically combined with people making overseas medical tours a form of luxury entertainment. What are the most favorable destinations for medical tourism? How do people book these tours and how emerging tourism companies make money from such customized trips?
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Happy Friday the 13th!
For many superstitious people out there, today is a day to avoid at all possible, as it is a day supposedly full of bad luck. A fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia, and an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected. Many people do not travel or conduct business on this day.
One of the biggest superstitions surrounding this day revolves around black cats – they say if one crosses your path, it is bad luck, so if you encounter one, turn around and change your path. Some say this superstition originated in the Middle Ages, when the black cat was linked to witches and Satan. Since it was believed that a witch had the power to transform herself into a cat, it was thought likely that a cat who crossed one’s path was a witch in disguise.
The number thirteen in general also has a long history of being seen as bad luck. Many highrise buildings do not have a 13th floor and many cities and towns do not have a 13th Street.
Here are some other common superstitions:
- Never walk under a ladder
- If you spill salt, throw a pinch over your left shoulder
- Be extra careful with mirrors as a broken mirror brings seven years bad luck
- Never open an umbrella in a house
- Make sure all bouquets have an odd number of flowers, unless the bouquet is for a funeral or cemetary
Are you superstitious? Are you changing your daily routine today because it is Friday the 13th?
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Before we can get started adapting our C++ code to our favorite scripting language we must have a C++ compiler installed and a copy of Excentury. First we start with the installation of Excentury.
Pip or Manual Installation¶
The easiest way to install Excentury is to use pip. If you wish to perform a global installation and you have admin rights then do
sudo pip install excentury
or to install in some directory under your user account
pip install --user excentury
Or if you prefer to do do a manual installation then you may do the following from the command line (where x.y is the version number):
wget https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/e/excentury/excentury-x.y.tar.gz tar xvzf excentury-x.y.tar.gz cd excentury-x.y/ sudo python setup.py install
The last command can be replaced by python setup.py install --user. See PyPI for all available versions.
To be able to call excentury from the command line you must have the executable directory in your $PATH. This can be taken care of my calling the install command in excentury. Since the executable is not yet available you will have to call the excentury script from python.
python -m excentury install
To verify that excentury is now in your path you can try the help option
The install command also takes care of the C and C++ include paths. This will make sure that you can access the C++ libraries as well as the MATLAB libraries.
To be able to use excentury we need a C++ compiler. We may obtain this by installing XCode.
The next step is not required but if you are having trouble installing python packages then you may want to try Homebrew. Try installing it and then try installing a fresh installation of python.
Regardless of what operating system we are using, we need to make sure that our $PATH contains the mex script that comes with MATLAB.
Before we can use excentury we need to make sure that mex is working properly. To do a test, you should try to work with one of the mex examples provided by MathWorks.
With every release of OS X and MATLAB there are a few changes that need to be done. If either the operating system or MATLAB is updated you should always first try to compile one of their examples to make sure that mex files can be compiled successfully before attempting to figure out what is wrong with excentury.
If you have OS X 10.9 and you are having trouble compiling the mex example then you may want to look at this stackoverflow question. Note that one solution is to upgrade your gcc/g++ compilers using either homebrew or macports and specify this in the mex setup.
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Comfrey is an introduced erect perennial herb, growing on hairy winged branching hollow stems from one to three+ feet high.
The leaves are both basal and stem. The lower basal leaves are broad and up to 8 inches long, ovate-lanceolate in shape with pointed tips and a base that tapers to a winged stalk. Leaves decrease in size up the stem the very upper leaves may be stalkless. The wings of the stalks continue down the stem creating the wing on the stem. Leaves are thick and rough, fine hair on both surfaces with longer hair on the underside veins, the margins and the leaf stalks; dark green surface on top, paler on the underside. Margins are without teeth and the veins have a distinctive net pattern.
The inflorescence is a leafless curving branched cluster (a cyme) which is terminal and can also arise from the upper leaf axils. These cymes are usually in pairs and the curve is said to resemble a scorpion's tail. Flowers are all on one side of the cyme.
The individual flowers have stalks with spreading hairs, leading to a green hairy calyx that has 5 lance-shaped pointed lobes. The entire calyx is much shorter than the corolla which is tube shaped, about 1/2 inch long with a distinct waistband where the upper section is a little more inflated. The color is whitish with purple tones to pink to purplish. The five lobe tips of the corolla are very short and spreading. The flowers are perfect but frequently the ovary is sterile. There are 5 stamens which cluster together at their tops around the single style.
Seed: Flowers that are fertile produce 4 brownish-black nutlets that are nearly smooth, angled on two sides with a concave base.
Toxicity and medicinal use - parts of the plant are toxic - see notes at page bottom.
Habitat: Comfrey grows from large coarse spindle shaped tuberous roots that have a black outer coating and produce a stout deep taproot. They are white, fleshy and juicy inside. In the wild it has escaped from cultivation and will generally be found in disturbed sites. When planted it needs plenty of moisture when young, rich soils, and does best under tree shade.
Names: The common name is from the Latin conferva meaning knitting together, referring to the plants medicinal qualities. The genus Symphytum is from the two Greek words - symphyo, meaning 'make to grow together' and phyton, meaning 'plant'. From those terms you may derive the meaning of healing broken bones - one of the former herbal uses of the plant tissue. The species officinale usually means 'sold in shops' referring to the use of this plant in herbal medicine. The author name for the plant classification - 'L.' is for Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy. All the various alternate common names have reference to the medicinal uses of the plant in old medicine. "Asses' Ears" refers the large soft lower leaves.
Above: The upper section of a plant with 3 cymes. Drawing of Comfrey courtesy of Kurt Stüber's Online Library.
Below: 1st photo - The green calyx has some purplish tints and is much shorter than the corolla. It has 5 lance shaped pointed lobes and those and the flower stalk and the cluster stalk are hairy. After the corolla of the fading flower falls away, the long style remains. 2nd photo - The five lobe tips of the corolla are very short and spreading. The 5 stamens cluster around the tip of the style
Below: 1st photo - The inflorescence usually has a pair of curving cymes which are said to look like a scorpion's tail. 2nd photo - Comfrey was growing in the Woodland Garden of Eloise Butler at the time of this photo - July 16, 1999.
Below: 1st photo - The underside of the leaf has hair on the veins and margins and shows off the distinctive net pattern. 2nd photo - After flowering, the curved cymes straighten out as the seed capsules are maturing. Not all flowers are fertile.
Below: One on the long lower leaves with its long winged stalk.
Below: 1st photo - The wing of the leaf stalk descends down the stem forming a wing on the stem. 2nd photo - Flowers that are fertile produce 4 brownish-black nutlets that are nearly smooth, angled on two sides with a concave base.
Notes: Comfrey has made its appearance in the Garden in the 1990s up through at least 2005 when it was mentioned in a Naturalists' report; it was found in the Woodland Garden along Lady-slipper Lane in the Marsh. It has not been recorded on any Garden census and is currently absent from the Garden. Comfrey is found in most of North America except the far north Canadian Provinces and the far south states of the U.S. Mostly absent also in the great plains states. It is a native of Eurasia, brought to North America by the early settlers from Europe. It is the only species of Symphytum found in Minnesota. The DNR reports its presence but they do not give a county breakdown.
Medicinal Use: Comfrey has been used for medicinal purposes for several thousand years, beginning in China and then spreading to Europe. An external poultice made from the leaves and a decoction or tincture made from the roots has been considered effective in reducing inflammation in the area of a sprain or fracture, allowing the body to heal - and from that ability came the derivation of the common and scientific names. The root also contains an abundance of mucilage and the chemical Allantoin in about 0.6% to 0.8% concentration. This is is used in ointments for psoriasis and other skin problems. Mucilage is used to create a medicine for intestinal disorders. The reputation of Comfrey in reducing inflammation, treating of wounds and burns is attributed to the Allantoin. Comfrey tea is said to ease bronchial and intestinal disorders but caution was advised in making this as when not in bloom the plant resembles foxglove which is a poisonous plant. Mrs. Grieve (Ref. #7) has much detail on the use of this plant.
Comfrey grows new leaves very rapidly so harvesting leaves for medicinal purposes from this plant provided a never-ending supply during the growing season as long as harvesting stopped in autumn, allowing the plant to build up reserves for the following year. Culpepper (Ref. #4b) wrote in the English Physician: "The great Comfrey helpeth those that spit blood, or make bloody urine. The root boiled in water or wine, and the decoction drank, helps all inward hurts, bruises, wounds, and ulcers of the lungs, and causeth the phlegm that oppresseth them to be easily spit forth... The roots being outwardly applied, help fresh wounds or cuts immediately, being bruised and laid thereto; and is special good for ruptures and broken bones; yea, it is said to be so powerful to consolidate and knit together, that if they be boiled with dissevered pieces of flesh in a pot, it will join them together again." Wow! He goes on to talk about soothing women's breasts during milk flow, to treating hemorrhoids and gout.
That these remarks, echoing the ancient Chinese, were still the belief in the mid 1600s when Culpepper first wrote is a testament to the ability of Comfrey to actually have some effects. Somewhat earlier in 1597 Gerard (Ref. #6a) wrote almost the same words in his Herball: "The rootes of Comfrey stamped, and the juice drunke with wine, helpeth those that spit bloude, and healeth all inward wounds and burstings." Among other uses Gerard lays out this tidbit: "The slimie substance of the roote made in a posset of ale, and given to drinke against the paine in the backe, gotten by any violent motion, as wrastling, or overmuch use of women, doth in fower or five daies perfectly cure the same; although the involuntarie flowing of the seed in men be gotten thereby."
Food and forage use: Young leaves are said to be edible when boiled and treated as a vegetable but John Lindley wrote in the 19th century "not, however, valued by persons of refined taste." The leaves have been used, even recently, as cattle fodder as they contain 35% protein. Cattle usually don’t care for it but will eat it when nothing else is available.
Toxicity: The leaves contain a toxic hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloid and in humans, ingesting large amounts of this can lead to liver failure. In addition the hairs on the leaves and stems irritate the skin. Gloves should be worn when handling the plant. Culpepper (Ref.#4b ) wrote: "The Great Comfrey hath divers very large hairy green leaves lying on the ground, so hairy or prickly, that if they touch any tender part of the hands, face, or body, it will cause it to itch."
References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 1A, 32, W2, W3, W7 & W8 plus others as specifically applied. Distribution principally from W1, W2 and 28C. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.
Identification booklet for most of the flowering forbs and small flowering shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. Details Here.
Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. Text and photos are by G. D. Bebeau unless otherwise credited. "www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org"
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DC motors are electric motors that use direct current to run. They work by converting electrical energy into mechanical energy.
Thanks to their simplicity and low cost, DC motors are the most popular electric motor type in the world today. They’re common in a broad range of industries, including automotive, robotics, and manufacturing, handling tasks involving propulsion, braking, and steering.
There’s more than one type of DC motor. If you use mechanical energy in your industry, it’s worth learning about the different types of DC motors and how they work. This information can help you make a smarter choice when investing in new DC motors for your business. Plus, you can purchase one at any reputable supplier e.g. RS Components.
- Series DC Motors
A series DC motor uses the principle of electromagnetism to produce motion. The motor uses a large wire carrying the entire armature current to wind the field. They’re also known as universal motors because you can use them for DC or AC supply.
Series DC motors boast a range of benefits over other motor types. For example, they offer:
- High starting torque
- Simple assembly and design
- Low cost
- Easy protection
On the other hand, DC motors cannot regulate their speed and, when you run with them with no load, they can become damaged. They’re not a great choice for variable speed applications for these reasons.
Click here – What is Test Automation? Does test automation work in agile environments?
- Shunt DC Motors
The field connects parallel to the armature’s windings in a shunt type DC motor. They’re a brushless motor and commonly power household appliances like vacuum cleaners, lawnmowers, blenders, refrigerators, and washing machines.
Some benefits of shunt DC motors include:
- Great speed regulation
- Simplified reversing controls
- Can run at a predetermined speed
- Permanent Magnet DC Motors
As you might guess, permanent magnet DC motors work thanks to a permanent magnet creating a field flux.
Among other benefits, these motors offer:
- Low cost
- High efficiency
- Great starting torque
- Good speed regulations
Because torque is limited with permanent magnet DC motors, you’ll typically find them in low horsepower applications such as windshield wipers, children’s toys, and computer hard drives.
- Compound DC Motors
Compound DC motors, like shunt motors, are self-excited, meaning the motor generates its own current for the magnetic field system. Essentially, they’re a combination of shunt and series motors.
In terms of advantages, compound DC motors have:
- Good speed control
- Good starting torque
Despite their good speed control, compound DC motors are a poor choice for applications with varied loads or where the load is set to zero initially. Because compound DC motors combine shunt motors and series motors, they have some disadvantages of both, such as the risk of damage when running them with no load.
DC motors boast a huge range of applications, from moving rudders on boats to helping trains brake safely. Different DC motors serve different applications, with some common types including series motors, shunt motors, compound motors, and permanent magnet motors.
You’ll need to weigh up the pros and cons of each motor type, considering your budget, needs, and applications, to decide which DC motor is right for your business.
Click here – What Are The Benefits of Trading With Offshore Forex Brokers?
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NOT JUST SUPERFICIAL. Clay — it’s good for pottery, for tennis courts, and sometimes for your face. But it turns out at least one type of clay is good for something else: helping the body heal.
According to a study by researchers from the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University, Oregon blue clay can kill bacteria in wounds — even bacteria resistant to other forms of treatment.
REMARKABLE CLAY. In lab-based tests, the researchers found that the Oregon blue clay killed off several types of bacteria that often cause sounds to get infected, including Escherichia coli (E. coli) and MRSA, a hard-to-treat form of Staphylococcus aureus.
The clay also eliminated bacteria that grew as biofilms — hard-to-kill films that form when bacteria latch onto surfaces — which physicians see in two-thirds of infections.
ENDING THE RESISTANCE. In December 2016, the United Nations (UN) declared that the problem of antibiotic resistance (bacteria’s ability to resist medicinal treatments as it evolves) was officially a global crisis.
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He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.
I like quotes.
Moving on, Adjectives. If you still do not know what they do.
Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. There are five types of adjectives – possessive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives, adjectives of number/quantity, descriptive adjectives and interrogative adjectives.
These adjectives show ownership of certain nouns in a sentence/clause. They come before the noun. For example:
- His watch is on fire.
- Sally trashed my doll.
These adjectives show the place of the noun. They also come before the noun. For instance:
- These newspapers are old.
- Dolly made that boy cry.
Adjectives of number/quantity
These adjectives show the amount/quantity of an object (the noun). E.g:
- Twenty-three students were present on that day.
- There are still some cookies left.
The common ones, like:
- He was amazing.
- I am blue.
These adjectives ask questions. They come before the noun. For instance:
- What colour is that dog?
- Which guy did it?
Degrees of Adjectives
There are three degrees of adjectival usage, which are the positive, comparative and superlative degrees.
Positive degrees are used when you are describing only one element/noun in the sentence/clause. For example:
- He is good.
- I am bad.
Comparatives are used when you are comparing an element/noun with another.
- John is better than Leroy.
- I am more interesting than Leana.
Superlatives are used to describe an element/noun of the highest quality/degree. E.g:
- He is the tallest among others
- That soldier was the most brutal during war
Since adjectives have already taken so much space, we’ll press on adverbs on #4. Stay tuned!
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Study Animal Husbandry and Best Practices with this Custom Learning Bundle
In this course, you'll learn about a variety of livestock, meat, dairy, eggs, and other agricultural production, and general animal health care and breeding. Start with core modules then add specialty electives to meet your unique needs.
Course Duration: 100 hours
This learning bundle is comprised of 5 core modules and 10 electives.
These modules provide foundation knowledge for the 1500 hour learning bundle in Animal Husbandry.
In addition to the core modules, students study any 10 of the following modules.
Ready to get started? Click on the orange enrol now button.
Have questions? Click here to email our course counsellors.
Explore Crops and Animal Options for Farming
One of the most important choices for any farmer is what to grow. The choice should never be taken lightly, and a good farmer should be aware of all of the options, and always open to make changes.
Conditions do change. Demand for some produce may increase at times and decline at other times; and new types of crops or animal breeds become popular while old ones sometimes wane in popularity.
If a farmer wants a sustainable farm, they need to be prepared to adjust to the times and changing opportunities.
Animal Management and Meat Production
Breeding, feeding and health are of relative importance in increasing the production of both wool and meat, with feeding having a far greater influence than either health or breeding.
Each animal at birth inherits a certain potential for production from both its parent. The percentage of this potential reached depends on how well it is so fed during its growing stages and later in its adult stage.
The producer has two ways in which he/she can increase production by selection of breeding stock. Firstly through the sires he purchases and secondly thorough the young female breeders coming into the breeding group. If he effectively culls these young females heavily on weight (body weight or fleece weight) he will increase the average production of the remainder. If he can also improve the standard of sires used by going a class above his usual purchases and mates these with the above average females then the progeny will inherit these improvements.
Feeding affects production in a number of ways:
- The growth and development of young stock and their subsequent producing capacity as adults: retarding the growth and development of young animals to reduces their ultimate producing ability as adults.
- The quality of product: nothing has a greater effect on the final product than the food they eat: not only does it affect their ultimate producing ability by retarding growth development but also the rate of growth and the quality of the meat or wool.
- The feeding value of pastures fluctuates throughout the year due to fluctuations in seasonal growth. These fluctuations cause similar changes in the live weight of the animals grazing the pasture.
- The stocking rate: by improving the feeding value of pastures not only is the amount of product/head increased but also the stocking rates can be increased. Most farmers prefer to lay safe and adjust the stocking rate to the feed available at the worst time of the year. This is sound policy in low rainfall areas but in the higher rainfall areas it results in an enormous waste of feed at certain times of the year.
Disease in contrast to health is a destructive force responsible for more loss of production than is realised. When deaths occur, the presence of a disease is obvious, or if they are affected by blight, fly strike or foot rot the signs are again obvious. Under these circumstances the correct diagnosis is of vital importance. If it is not corrected it will go on resulting in greatly reduced production. The cause of such trouble is usually parasite infestation but teeth abnormalities and soil deficiencies may also be responsible. Such diseases usually affect production by reducing appetite which in turn reduces production.
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In large and even medium sized composting systems it can be difficult to directly measure the mass of substrate once the composting process has started, so it is difficult to determine the mass that has been degraded to CO2 and H2O. For a completely mixed reactor, the ash and volatile solids percents of a sample and the original mass data can be used to calculate the volatile solids mass remaining using the following equation:
Note that for any sample, ash and volatile solids are related by:
The reduction in volatile solids concentration is gradual and often small, so replicated samples should be ashed to insure a statistically representative result.
You can combine this result with moisture data to determine the moisture loss from the compost. First, calculate the VS loss, and then subtract this DVS from the total dry solids (TS) in the system to get the TS mass at time t (note that the ash fraction of TS is conserved, so the loss of TS is equal to the loss of VS):
At any point in time, the mass of water remaining in the compost can be calculated from:
In addition to the mass changes in volatile solids or water, one can also calculate the percent reductions in VS or H2O using the following formulas:
Many thanks to Mr. Vladimir Knezevic for correcting an error in the formula for the percent reduction in the mass of water. The corrected formula was posted on this page November 17, 2000.
Cornell Waste Management Institute © 1996
Ithaca, NY 14853
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With the pandemic still looming in people’s minds, the issue of cleanliness has become more important than ever, and food is no exception. Whether you get your food from the grocery store, subscribe to a meal service, or grow it in your garden, practicing safe habits can stop the spread of foodborne illnesses.
But what is the best way to prevent poor food safety?
In this guide, our experts at TDI Packsys explain food safety best practices for individuals, manufacturers, and businesses in the food and beverage industry, including prevention, proper handling practices and storage, cross-contamination, and more.
Why Is Food Safety Important?
Why is it important for people handling food to observe safety practices? Bacteria, germs, diseases, and other contaminants in food can make you sick or even kill you.
However, implementing proper safety practices, standards, and techniques during cleaning, producing, processing, cooking, and serving food can eliminate harmful contaminants, lowering the risk of foodborne illness.
Even though America’s food supply is one of the safest in the world, foodborne illnesses still run rampant. According to the Food and Drug Administration, around 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses occur annually in America, which equals approximately one in six people.
Those 48 million cases result in 128,000 hospitalizations and around 3,000 deaths. It’s clear to see the importance of proper safety practices within the food supply chain to reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses, which threaten people of all ages.
What Are Some Basic Food Safety Practices?
You can learn proper food safety practices by remembering these four simple steps: Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill.
Clean: Washing Hands, Foods, and Surfaces
Clean your hands, cooking utensils, foods, and surfaces with soapy water frequently. When washing your hands, scrub both sides, under your nails, and between your fingers for at least 20 seconds — just hum the “Happy Birthday” song twice before you finish scrubbing. You should rinse off fruits and vegetables under the faucet, but don’t wash eggs, poultry, or meat.
Separate: Separating Raw Meats and Vegetables
Keeping foods separate prevents cross-contamination. Use separate cutting boards for different food types and keep raw meat away from other foods and surfaces.
Cook: Cooking Food to the Proper Temperature
Cooked foods must reach a high enough internal temperature to kill off the germs that can cause illnesses. If you don’t already have one, buy a food thermometer. After your food finishes cooking, place the thermometer into the thickest part and avoid touching any fat or bone. If you’re cooking food without immediately serving it, keep it in a warming dish or slow cooker.
Chill: Refrigerating Food Promptly
You need to refrigerate or freeze any perishable food as quickly as possible. Items that require refrigeration should only stay at room temperature for a maximum of two hours. If the temperature is above 90°F, the limit is one hour.
The two-hour rule also applies to leftovers and takeout.
Best Ways to Prevent Poor Food Safety
What is the best way to prevent poor food safety practices? We’ll outline some of the most effective methods for educating people to avoid food contamination.
Education and Training
Implement Food Safety Guidelines
Whether you work in food service or just cook at home, familiarize yourself with the food safety guidelines (Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill) and put them into practice. If you follow the guidelines correctly, there’s minimal risk of contaminating your food or contracting a foodborne illness.
Train Food Handlers
Anyone who manufactures, processes, cooks, prepares, distributes, or handles food should receive on-the-job training regarding safety practices. With proper education and training, food handlers can reduce the chance of contamination for consumers.
Proper Food Handling Practices
Proper Storage and Handling of Food
Food handling and food storage are two areas where the chance of contamination or illness is particularly high. For foods that may be too old for safe consumption, remember this saying: “When in doubt, throw it out.”
While you should follow manufacturer best-by dates, you should also use your senses (smell, taste, sight) to determine if a food item is no longer edible or use a guideline chart for cold food storage.
Hygiene and Sanitation
Of course, proper hygiene and sanitation are critical aspects of food safety. Wash your hands before, during, and after handling or preparing food. Additionally, you should wash:
- After handling raw meats
- Before eating
- After using the bathroom
- After coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose
- After touching animals
- After handling uncooked eggs
- After handling raw seafood
Adequate Cooking and Reheating
Cooking food to the correct internal temperature is essential to eliminate harmful bacteria. For eggs, poultry, fish, and meat, internal temperatures range between 145°F and 165°F.
Food that you’ve cooked, stored, and reheated is also at high risk of contamination. You’ll need to reheat food up to 165°F for at least 15 seconds and within two hours of removing it from the fridge.
Regular Inspection and Monitoring
Inspect Food Premises
Food safety inspections are mandatory for all businesses in the food and beverage industry. These inspections detect the presence of bacteria, germs, microbes, and other contaminants within the premises.
Agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA monitor compliance with food safety programs and perform safety inspections.
Test Food Products
Food testing is an accurate and effective safety practice. It utilizes scientific-based methods to assess the food’s chemical, microbiological, and physical composition to determine if it’s safe for consumption.
Methods like food metal detectors are essential to detecting the presence of harmful contaminants like:
- Staphylococcus aureus
- Escherichia coli (E.coli)
Implementation of Technology
Use of Food Safety Software
Many businesses use cutting-edge software to better manage their food safety processes and ensure compliance with regulatory standards like the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). These software systems are an end-to-end solution for all control points in the food supply chain.
Food Safety Testing Machines
Food metal detectors and x-ray inspectors are two of the most common types of food safety testing machines and are invaluable to the food and beverage industry.
Food safety testing machines (like canned food detection) can detect unwanted or hazardous items or conditions within food, such as bone and cartilage, glass, metal, or plastic.
Pest Control Program
What is the best way to prevent poor food safety due to pests? Pests like rodents and insects plague the food and beverage industry. They cause financial losses by damaging food and often carry diseases that they transfer to food products, which could then spread to humans.
Pest control programs take a traditional, reactive approach, typically using either pesticides or traps. Implementation of these programs occurs after the pests have already caused damage.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Integrated pest management (IPM), on the other hand, takes a preventative approach. Instead of eliminating pests after they’ve invaded, it uses a systemic approach to control the environment and prevent pests altogether.
For example, one aspect is exclusion, which prevents access points by sealing up holes. Altogether, it’s an effective and sustainable solution for managing pests and ensuring food safety without using dangerous chemicals or pesticides.
Commonly Used Food Safety Prevention Programs
In the United States, agencies have developed and implemented food safety prevention programs. These programs are essential to food safety and play a major role in ensuring all Americans have access to a safe, healthy food supply.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a management system that identifies, manages, and controls physical, chemical, and biological hazards at certain points in the food supply chain.
It includes four primary programs:
- Dairy Grade A Voluntary HACCP
- Seafood HACCP
- Juice HACCP
- Retail and Food Service HACCP
Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP)
The FDA enforces the Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) regulations, which all food and dietary manufacturers must follow.
The CGMPs consist of quality control management, industry standards, and other techniques that aim to eliminate and prevent foodborne contaminants and other hazards within facilities that produce, process, or store foods.
Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
In 2011, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) made sweeping changes to food production safety regulations and control methods. In addition, the FDA gained more oversight and enforcement authority within food supply chains.
The primary objective of the FSMA was to change how production facilities approached food safety and foodborne illnesses. Now, the FSMA takes a proactive, preventative approach rather than a reactive approach that involves responding after these illnesses occur.
Safe Quality Food (SQF)
The Safe Quality Food (SQF) standard involves certification of food safety within the industry at all levels of the supply chain.
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognizes the SQF as a worldwide standard that addresses food safety certification throughout the entire chain, from farm to store. It includes the SQF Code and the Compliance and Integrity Program.
Food Safety System Certification (FSSC)
The GFSI recognizes the Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000), a certification standard for food safety, quality management, and packaging for food manufacturers and companies in the supply chain. It applies to:
- Food, ingredients, and packaging manufacturers
- Animal and pet food manufacturers
- Food transportation, storage, logistics, and distribution
- Biochemical manufacturers
How to Store Food Properly
One crucial answer to the question, “What is the best way to prevent poor food safety?” involves storage. To keep food safe with proper food storage, choose the right storage temperature, location, and container.
Listeria, the bacterium that causes foodborne illnesses, thrives in temperatures between 40°F and 140°F. If you have perishable food items, refrigerate or freeze them as quickly as possible and leave enough space for adequate air circulation.
Your refrigerator should be at or below 40°F, and your freezer should be at 0°F. It’s important to note that freezing food won’t kill bacteria but rather prevent it from growing. The longer you keep food in the freezer, the more its quality will decrease.
Proper Storage Area
In addition to temperature, the place where you store food also impacts its safety and quality. Keep raw foods like meat, poultry, fish, and seafood separate from fruits, veggies, and cooked foods.
Perishable foods will spoil quickly, but the food in boxes, bags, cans, and jars in your cupboards and pantry can also lose freshness, quality, or nutrients. Dry goods like sugar, flour, salt, etc., need a cool, dry place, ideally out of the sun.
Proper Storage Container
The type of container you choose to store food in can affect its longevity, freshness, and quality. Only use food-grade plastic containers with markings 1, 2, 4, or 5. Avoid 7, which contains bisphenol A (BPA).
While it’s tempting to keep and reuse leftover food packaging containers, it’s not a good idea. Most are single-use only and not dishwasher- or microwave-safe.
What Is Cross-Contamination?
Food cross-contamination is the transfer of harmful contaminants (like bacteria) from one place to another, like food touching other food, surfaces, people, utensils, etc. It can happen at any point in the food supply and production chain, like in manufacturing plants, in the grocery store, at a restaurant, or during food preparation, cooking, and serving.
Cross-contamination transfer methods include:
You can categorize cross-contamination either by the method of transfer or the type of contaminant. The most common types of contaminants are the bacteria responsible for causing foodborne illnesses, like E. coli and Salmonella. However, viruses like norovirus and hepatitis A can also contaminate food.
Another form of food cross-contamination occurs when allergen proteins transfer during food production, packaging, and handling. For example, plants that process or package foods like peanuts, shellfish, soy, eggs, and tree nuts could cross-contaminate those allergen proteins onto other food items simply by using the same packaging machinery.
Restaurants and food service businesses also are at risk of cross-contamination between food and chemicals, as they use powerful cleaners and solvents on cooking equipment and surfaces.
How to Avoid Cross-Contamination
What is the best way to prevent poor food safety, like cross-contamination? Remember, you can’t smell, taste, or see the bacteria causing foodborne illness, which makes cross-contamination so dangerous. It’s easy to cross-contaminate surfaces when buying, storing, preparing, cooking, and serving food, particularly if you’re distracted.
These four practices help you prevent contamination from raw foods or other harmful bacteria:
- Proper food and chemical storage
- Proper food safety training and education
- Regular hand washing and cleaning
- Strict food hygiene standards
Here are the best ways to avoid cross-contamination and maintain proper food safety practices.
When Buying Food
Take advantage of those free, super-thin plastic bags in the grocery store to prevent cross-contamination in your shopping cart. You’ll find them in the produce and meat sections. Always place raw meat, poultry, and seafood in a bag, and separate them from ready-to-eat foods, fruits, and veggies.
When Storing Food
Before storing raw meat, poultry, or seafood in the fridge or freezer, wrap or package them tightly to prevent the juice from dripping onto surfaces or other foods. You can use food-safe plastic containers, glass, silicone, or heavy-duty plastic zip-bags.
When Preparing Food
The risk of cross-contamination is very high when handling, preparing, and cooking raw foods. Follow these tips to help you prevent cross-contaminating your food:
- Wash hands for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food
- Use separate cutting boards for produce and meat
- Always throw away the container or packaging materials from poultry, seafood, and raw meat
- Wash the knife, cutting board, and counter with hot, soapy water after cutting raw meat products
- Cook foods until they reach a safe internal temperature (use a food thermometer)
When Serving Food
You can avoid cross-contamination while serving food by following the same basic food safety guidelines of Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill. In addition, keep these tips in mind:
- Never use the same utensils, preparation surfaces, or dishes for raw and ready-to-eat or cooked food
- Wash your hands thoroughly and regularly after handling food and before serving it
- Keep cooked foods at a high enough temperature when waiting to serve
- Wash your hands after going to the bathroom, coughing, sneezing, or tending to a sick person
- Use individual serving utensils and plates for each dish or type of food, and avoid mixing
- Keep raw foods separate from cooked foods
- Cover dishes and food containers when transporting between areas
What Should You Do if You Consume Contaminated Food?
Maybe you ate some bad calamari from that new restaurant down the block, or you just couldn’t resist trying a few spoonfuls of raw brownie batter.
No matter the source, eating spoiled, raw, or contaminated food can make you sick with food poisoning. So can certain types of food, including:
- Raw flour
- Raw shellfish and seafood
- Fruits and vegetables
- Raw milk and milk-based products
- Raw eggs
- Beef, pork, turkey, and chicken
Depending on the type of germ or contaminant you consumed, your symptoms may vary. However, the most common food poisoning symptoms include:
- Stomach cramps or pain
Symptoms usually begin about six hours after you’ve ingested contaminated food. Most people have mild cases and can stay at home to recover. If you have a mild case of food poisoning, here’s what to do:
- Get as much rest as possible
- Drink plenty of fluids and water (no caffeinated beverages), even if you can only take sips
- If you have diarrhea, don’t eat solid foods until it passes
- Don’t eat or drink any dairy products
Sometimes, food poisoning can be so severe that it requires professional medical attention. You should go to the emergency room or see a doctor if you experience the following symptoms:
- Bloody diarrhea
- Fever higher than 102°F
- Vomiting so frequently that you can’t keep liquids down
What Are Some Common Foodborne Illnesses?
Every year, almost 50 million people become sick with a foodborne illness. According to the CDC, the top five germs that cause foodborne illnesses in the U.S. are:
- Norovirus (can cause death)
- Salmonella (can cause death)
- Clostridium perfringens
- Campylobacter (can cause death)
- Staphylococcus aureus
Additional germs that often cause illness or severe health problems include Toxoplasma gondii, Listeria, and E. coli. Botulism is another serious illness that can result from consuming contaminated food.
Ensure Proper Food Safety with TDI Packsys Food Inspection and Testing Equipment
What is the best way to prevent poor food safety? Ultimately, no single method can 100% prevent poor food safety or contamination. Instead, you should use a combination of common sense, education and training, quality standards, good hygiene, safety guidelines, and testing.
At TDI Packsys, we proudly contribute to creating a safe food supply with our advanced products and solutions, including food testing equipment, inspection systems, packaging automation, and more. Check out our blog for more information, or give us a call at 877-834-6750 to learn more about our end-to-end inspection and packaging solutions.
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Herbert Spencer (April 27, 1820 – December 8, 1903) was a prominent English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia.
Spencer is best known for coining the expression "survival of the fittest" in his Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. He supported the theory of evolution and expanded it to embrace not only the development of the physical world and biological organisms but also of the human mind and culture.
He contributed to a wide range of subjects besides biology, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, sociology, and psychology.
Spencer's reputation among the Victorians owed a great deal to his agnosticism. However, Spencer insisted that he did not want to undermine religion in the name of science, but to bring about a reconciliation of the two.
Spencer argued that either from the point of view of religion or science, whether we are concerned proposing a Creator or a substratum that underlies our experience of phenomena, we can frame no conception of it. Therefore, religion and science agree in the supreme truth that the ultimate reality ('the absolute') cannot be grasped by human understanding, which is only capable of "relative" knowledge. For this reason H. P. Blavatsky wrote that Spencer "like Schopenhauer and von Hartmann, only reflects an aspect of the old esoteric philosophers, and hence lands his readers on the bleak shore of Agnostic despair..." He called this principle "the Unknowable", and thought that the It represented the ultimate stage in the evolution of religion, the final elimination of its last anthropomorphic vestiges. In reference to this position, Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the “First Cause,” which the Occultist more logically derives from the “Causeless Cause,” the “Eternal,” and the “Unknowable,” may be essentially the same as that of the Consciousness which wells up within us: in short, that the impersonal reality pervading the Kosmos is the pure noumenon of thought. This advance on his part brings him very near to the esoteric and Vedantin tenet.
Under whatever form or mask motion may appear, whether as light, heat, magnetism, chemical affinity or electricity — all these must be but phases of One and the same universal omnipotent Force, a Proteus they bow to, as the Great "Unknown" — (See Herbert Spencer) and we, simply call the "One Life" the "One Law" and the "One Element".
The spiritual witness
Blavatsky contended Spencer's questioning of the possibility of self-knowledge. For example, she quotes the following statement from Spencer:
The mental act in which self is known implies, like every other mental act, a perceiving subject and a perceived object. If, then, the object perceived is self, what is the subject that perceives? Or if it is the true self which thinks, what other self can it be that is thought of? Clearly, a true cognition of self implies a self in which the knowing and the known are one—in which subject and object are identified; and this Mr. Mansel rightly holds to be the annihilation of both! So that the personality of which each is conscious, and of which the existence is to each a fact beyond all others the most certain, is yet a thing which cannot truly be known at all; the knowledge of it is forbidden by the very nature of thought.
To Spencer's conclusion that the knowledge of self or soul is thus “forbidden by the very nature of thought,” Blavatsky answers that the process of thinking is not watched by the psychological self, but by a "higher self":
The Higher Self or Buddhi-Manas, which in the act of self-analysis or highest abstract thinking, partially reveals its presence and holds the subservient brain-consciousness in review.
- Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 19, fn.
- Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 14.
- Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), ???.
- Herbert Spencer, First Principles, (New York and London: D. Appleton & Co., 1927), 55.
- Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. VIII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 608.
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The service provides hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to children, including all assessments and follow up. It covers anyone up to the age of 16, but young people known to the service still receive treatment until the age of 18. The Paediatric Stem Cell Transplantation Service is located at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.
What is stem cell transplantation?
Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a medical procedure in which a patient receives healthy stem cells (precursors of blood cells) to replace bone marrow that's either faulty or destroyed during chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
In an allogeneic transplant, the patient receives stem cells donated by another person. This is in contrast to autologous transplantation, where the patient's own cells are used. Conditions requiring allogeneic HSCT fall under two main categories:
- disorders that comprise mostly blood cancers, such as leukaemia
- non-malignant conditions, like haemoglobinopathies, primary immune deficiencies, inherited metabolic disorders and non-malignant bone marrow failure
A full list of all paediatric indications for HSCT is maintained by the British Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BSBMT) and available from their website.
Dr Brenda Gibson, Consultant and Programme Director
Senior Programme Manager, Anke Roexe – [email protected] - 0131 3141053
Royal Hospital for Children
1345 Govan Road
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Often as designers, we’re told that excellent design needs to be inclusive to all regardless of users’ backgrounds or disabilities. And as great designers, we need to take these factors seriously.
But we tend to forget that one small, yet important factor when creating interfaces, and that is our users’ age.
When faced with a critique of older generations, we millennials tend to say ‘Okay, boomer’. But when it comes to design we need to make sure that older generations are also able to use our digital products. And it’s not just the older users we tend to forget. Our target audience can be teenagers, young adults, kids, or older adults. All of these groups come with their own set of needs and requirements. So from now on when we say that design is inclusive to all, let’s not forget about different age groups. Sounds good, right?
Now that we’ve established this, let’s dig deep and see how we can become even better at designing with our users’ age in mind!
Inclusive design challenge
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of design examples, let’s just see exactly how age impacts design.
As explained previously, each age group has their own specific needs, requirements, and demands. Not taking this into account when designing can lead to creating an interface that is not entirely accessible. No one likes to use an interface that has usability issues because it makes users feel frustrated or irritated. In order to avoid this, we’ll go over some recommended good design practices to make sure that the user experience is top-notch.
When talking about usability in general, some of the factors that can help you make an interface accessible is taking into account color and contrast for optimal visibility. Imagine using an interface where the contrast is too low and you can’t read what is written. Doesn’t this sound frustrating?
Another important factor is font size. Some users will have difficulty reading the content if the font is too small. And that doesn’t really sound inclusive to all. So making sure that type is big enough to be read is necessary.
It doesn’t take much to make the whole experience better.
Design for Kids – Tap, tap, tap the screen
Source: Unsplash, McKaela Taylor
According to research conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group, when working on a design specifically for kids it’s important to target a very narrow age group.
What this means is that it’s not a good idea to design for children and then include everyone between the ages of 3 and 12 because there is too big of a discrepancy in age between these groups.
Instead, we need to distinguish between young (3-5 years), mid-range (6-8 years), and older (9-12 years) children. Each of these groups has different behaviors, and cognitive and physical capabilities. Also users get substantially more tech-savvy as they get older. So it really isn’t the same thing to design an interface that will be used by 5-year-olds and 9-year-olds.
Studies have also shown that young users have reacted negatively to content designed for kids that were even one school grade below or above their own level. I mean do you really want 8-year-olds to say that your design is for babies? I’m sure you don’t, so keep that in mind.
Once it’s established who our target audience is we need to make sure that the user experience is consistent throughout the entire app or site. Don’t target different age groups throughout pages because kids will notice discrepancies and this will confuse them. So instead, stick to one age group and design for them in your product.
Now that we’ve concluded what not to do and why it’s not enough to just design for kids in general, let’s go over some design recommendations for young users.
What to do (Recommendations)
When working on a design for young users, it’s really important to give clear and specific instructions. You can do that by stating the goal of a game or task, and how to achieve the goal. Basically, provide them with clear instructions and examples.
First you can show how kids can successfully complete this puzzle and then show them how to complete this (by dragging the hats with their finger)
But it’s not enough to just give instructions. Keep in mind that kids have different levels of understanding so these instructions need to be written accordingly. Make sure that they’re in alignment with their reading and overall comprehension.
And lastly, young users have already developed certain mental models and knowledge about the world, so it’s always a good idea to make use of this in your designs. Including metaphors of the real world reduces the amount of effort that is required for young users to understand what is expected of them and how to use your product.
A drawing app interface like this is based on the mental model of a coloring book, so colored pencils would be a familiar metaphor for young users.
Design for older people – I like big fonts, and I cannot lie
Source: Unsplash, Beth Macdonald
Next up we’ll go over some do’s and don’ts of design for senior citizens. Before we begin, let’s see what type of users belong to this group. Senior citizens are users of 65 years or older.
When working on designs inclusive to older users, we need to be aware of the facts that hearing, vision, and manual dexterity decline with age. All of these factors affect how older users use and interact with our designs.
Studies conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group have shown that small type sizes and targets are considered an issue among older users, and this in turn means that readability is still a big issue on the web and apps.
Two other big issues have also been mentioned in these studies. One of them is that users often see interfaces as inflexible and unforgiving when making a mistake. And the second issue mentioned is that older users often feel left out when it comes to the content of sites or apps.
What to do (Recommendations)
In order to make your design accessible to older users, it’s important to avoid font sizes that are too small. You can also provide your users with the choice to make the font size bigger. Also make sure that the targets aren’t too small and that they can be easily clicked or tapped on.
Providing users with the option to change the font size to increase readability
In addition to avoiding small font sizes and small targets, low contrast text should also be avoided because it adds to the issue of low readability. Making sure that you have enough contrast in your designs has really become easy to do nowadays. You can easily check if you have good contrast with the help of various plugins in the design tool of your choice.
An example of why contrast matters in design
Every user can make a mistake when using an app or site. So don’t punish your users if they do make a mistake and make it easy for them to fix it.
Keeping this in mind, you should really avoid making your design seem inflexible and unforgiving. In order to avoid this make sure that you provide your users with the option to easily change and correct their mistakes.
Also, user actions should be considered in a wider range. For example, allow for different methods of input – allow for a manual input, not just select.
And, of course, make sure that error messages are clearly worded and placed near the error on the interface. Studies have shown that the wording in error messages is often seen as too complicated and unclear, which does not add to a good user experience.
This is an example of how to word an error message and where to place it
In the end
In this blog post we’ve gone through some examples of good design principles and practices when designing digital products for various age groups. These are just some guidelines you should follow when designing interfaces. Each user group has their specific needs, requirements, and goals, so try to align with those as much as possible. Keep in mind that the goal is to make your design inclusive to all and you should definitely avoid making your users feel frustrated when using it.
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For Parents/Caretakers: Experiencing the loss of a family member, good friend, or classmate can create feelings of anger, denial, depression, and confusion in young children. Your child may or may not have a good understanding of what happens when someone dies. Don't be afraid to ask simple questions to find out how your child perceives death. His or her responses will help you to know how much information needs to be shared in order to comfort emotions or clarify issues about this sensitive subject. Opportunities to respond to questions like "How do YOU feel about (person's) passing?" or "Do you understand what happened to (person)?" will give both you and your child the chance to communicate your individual feelings about losing someone special.
Like adults, children handle stress and loss in different ways. They may cry excessively, become easily agitated, experience nightmares, or show little emotion, perhaps causing you to wonder if they are upset at all. Share with your child that grief or hurting for someone else that is lost forever. It is a normal emotion and a reality of life. As you spend time together, consider using the following ideas to help your child better understand his or her own emotions and concerns after the passing of a loved one:
- Encourage your child to deal with personal feelings in healthy ways by sharing favorite memories, creating art, writing letters, and performing acts of kindness for someone else.
- Playing is a natural, healthy way for children to deal with emotional stress. Allow your child "space" to enjoy favorite toys, friends, and relaxation activities like watching cartoons or spending time with a favorite pet.
- Become aware of teachable moments in everyday life that can help you better prepare your child for dealing with challenges, change, or the loss of a loved one. Nature itself can present age-appropriate opportunities for meaningful conversations about life cycles, the natural progression of aging, and the sensitive issue of death.
For young children: Everyone needs a good friend, especially when someone special moves away, gets sick, or dies. No one knows more about how to be a good friend than Clifford and his pals on Birdwell Island! Good friends make playtime fun. Good friends make us laugh when we are sad, worried, or afraid. Being a good friend is one of the best ways we can show love and respect for someone else. Think about a time when you needed a good friend. Who was it? What did they do to make you feel better?
Show someone special what a good friend you are by using these ideas:
For a friend in the hospital:
- Clowning Around - Spread some cheer making silly faces by playing with props like big noses, wigs, face paint, big ears, mustaches, glasses, etc.
- Bedside Picnic - Prepare a picnic basket filled with your favorite books, videos, and doctor approved snacks for a fun beside picnic.
- Share-a-Heart - Cut out colorful paper hearts together. Write loving messages to share some heartfelt surprises with other patients and hospital staff.
- Get-Well Chain - Cut out 3x6 inch strips of colorful construction paper. Gather friends to write and draw get-well messages on strips. Add stickers and glue on small wrapped candy treats. Staple strips together to make a one-of-a-kind "Get-Well Chain"... sure to brighten up any hospital room décor!
For a friend who has lost a loved one:
- Pillow Pals - Show a friend that has lost someone special that they are being thought of during this time by gathering friends to write kind messages on a "friendly" pillowcase. Fill the pillowcase with treats, books, toys, games, etc. Gather open end and tie with a colorful bow.
- Just the Two of Us - Invite your friend over to join you in some light-hearted activities like cooking, coloring, and watching cartoons.
- Planting Love - In memory of someone special, invite your friend to join you in planting a small tree, shrub, or perennial variety of plant. This will give you both something full of life throughout the seasons to care for in memory of someone special.
- Memory Maker - Remember someone special by creating a journal, photo album, or illustrated collection of drawings. Write about fond memories and sincere thoughts associated with this person. Be sure to sign and date each entry.
- Reading for the Heart: Sometimes, a book can say it all. In times of hurt and uncertainty, sharing age-appropriate messages of hope and love can help support the process of coping with the stress and loss of losing a loved one.
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The Museum's main window display contains a fantastic stag's head (made by Marti Dean). As the wheel of the year turns, we change the display so that it fits with the current season and festival. To celebrate Beltane we've decorated the stag's head with red and white ribbons and put a pair of Horned God and Goddess statues in the window. Here is the text as it appears in the window and some photos.
The Wheel of the Year
The Ancient Festivals
The year can be divided into eight major festivals which mark the passage of the Sun through the year and relate directly to the agricultural cycle. This is significant to many people (including witches). The current festival is: Beltane (Eve of April 30th to May 1st).
The ancient festival of Beltane is celebrated on the evening of April 30th through May 1st.
In former times villagers would dance around the May Pole and bedeck their homes with greenery gathered overnight, May or hawthorn is popular to gather today.
The celebration of Beltane recognises that the warmer weather is with us, and Spring gives way to Summer. The countryside is blossoming, Morris dancers are back and fertility is in the air!
Traditionally the Horned God also known as Jack-in-the-green unites with the maiden Goddess at Beltane resulting in the re-birth of the Sun Child at the Winter Solstice.
The Festival of Beltane is celebrated across Europe and the Celtic countries.
Stag’s Head by Artist Marti Dean
Of the animals connected with witchcraft and magic, the stag is closely associated with the Horned God of Witchcraft. With roots set in the pagan histories and traditions of Europe, the symbolism of the stag has been represented in a variety of ways, from the Neolithic painting of the antlered 'Sorcerer' within the cave Trois-Frères in France, to the Gundestrup Cauldron, a piece of Iron Age silverwork depicting the Celtic antlered god Cernunnos.
For some modern witches, the stag–god Cernunnos is recognised as the horned god of nature and magic, and thus is celebrated in the rituals, art, and magic of modern witchcraft. This anthropomorphic sculpture of a green stag with branch-like antlers symbolises the magic of the regenerative force in nature. The objects hung on the antlers will be changed throughout the coming year.
For Beltane, the stag has been used as a Maypole and is decorated with ribbons. Dancing around the Maypole is said to symbolise the union of the Horned God and the Goddess (the ribbons intertwine and represent their union).
Dancing round the Maypole occurs in many communities at this time of year. It seems to have originally been a fertility ritual.
The phallic symbol (the pole) is danced around by the young people of the village. Some traditions say that the ribbons should be red (to symbolise the female) and white (to symbolise the male) The two are twined during the dance as male and female join together.
God and Goddess figures
Pair of plaster figures - Moon Goddess in silver dress with garland of grapes and crescent moon on head and a naked bearded God with antlered black animal head as head-dress were handmade and donated to the Museum by White Witch.
The Horned God, the masculine is represented by the pole in the Maypole dance. The Goddess is represented by the ribbons and (typically) female dancers. Beltane (May Eve) is the time of their union.
The Horned God and the Goddess mean many different things to different people but a brief attempt at summarising their symbolism has been attempted below:
The Horned God represents the masculine, the hunt, the killing of food and the winter months.
The Goddess represents the divine feminine, creation, birth, food gathering, agricultural plenty and the summer months.
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Many Canadians have been anxiously following the ongoing "oilpocalypse" in the Gulf of Mexico and are experiencing a deep sense of unease as they scan the daily media reports. Such foreboding is clearly understandable as one can't help thinking this might be a nightmarish peek into one possible future for British Columbia as federal and provincial politicians here in
Canada lay the groundwork to transform our Pacific coast into an"energy corridor." They dream of seismic testing, offshore drilling, pipelines from the tar sands, and oil tankers plying our rocky coast; this is what passes as visionary in the age of government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.
In the wake of the Gulf Coast disaster, Canadian federal opposition parties have called for emergency hearings before the Commons Natural Resources Committee to discuss the need for more stringent safeguards against oil spills in Canada's Arctic. But the public needs to be properly and clearly informed as to the risks and tradeoffs with regard to proposed
oil development and transport for the B.C. coast as well; Raincoast Conservation Foundation's recently released report, What's at Stake: The cost of oil on British Columbia's priceless coast, is designed to do just that; we encourage you to go to the Raincoast website and download the report.
Enbridge Inc.'s proposal to build a twin pipeline from Alberta's tar sands to the north coast of B.C. means we could see supertankers on the coast transporting "the world's dirtiest oil" to hydrocarbon hungry Asian and American markets. Enbridge proposes to construct and operate two pipelines, 1,170 kilometers in length, between an inland terminal at Bruderheim, Alberta, and a marine terminal near Kitimat, B.C. One of the pipelines will carry crude oil west to Kitimat and the other line will carry
condensate east to Bruderheim. The pipeline would ship over 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day and, twice a week, 350-metre long supertankers would pass by the very spot where B.C. Ferries' Queen of the North went down in 2006.
This presents a very significant threat to coastal marine and terrestrial species and ecosystems, as well as to the food supply and livelihoods of First Nations and coastal communities. Coastal First Nations executive director Art Sterritt summed up the threat posed by oil tankers: "The minute there is tanker traffic, there is damage to a way of life."
It was fascinating to recently read in the Financial Post how Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel is flogging his company's "Northern Gateway Pipeline" project, tossing out empty warm and fuzzy platitudes like "We're doing it...for Canada." His assertion that tar sands development and the Enbridge pipeline, as well as the attendant oil tanker traffic that will put B.C.s coastal environment at great risk, is at heart an egalitarian crusade to help poor energy-starved third world countries is cynical beyond belief.
In another related news item in the Globe and Mail, Daniel was quoted as follows: "But can we promise there will never be an accident? No. Nobody can." Glib statements regarding the risk of a catastrophic oil spill on the B.C. coast if his company's pipeline is approved and constructed are likely cold comfort to most British Columbians, the majority of who would prefer an
oil-free coast according to polling on the issue. In fact, a newly released
Mustel Group poll shows that 80 percent of British Columbians support banning crude oil tankers in B.C.'s coastal waters, up from 72 percent in a similar 2008 poll.
Enbridge has made much of the fact that double hull tankers would be used to transport tar sands crude from the north coast terminal in Kitimat. But double hulls have their own set of problems. In an article for the Prince Rupert Daily News, Jennifer Rice, energy campaigner for the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation, delineated several of those issues, including this
one: "When double-hulled tankers are traveling at low speeds and a collision occurs, only the first hull is punctured preventing the oil from spilling out. At higher speeds the extra hull has done little to prevent oil spills. In reality, the speed at which both hulls can be pierced is surprisingly low, as little as three knots depending on the strike angle."
Blind faith in modern technology is often misplaced; only eighteen days before the Gulf Coast disaster, in justifying his position on off shore drilling, President Barack Obama asserted that "oil rigs today don't generally cause spills as they are technologically very advanced."
Attaching a dollar value to the damage that spilled oil does to marine and terrestrial ecosystems is an impossible task. As the Wall Street Journal reported, the blame game in the Gulf of Mexico has been in full swing as BP is claiming "this was not our accident." Who will pay? If history is any indication, it likely won't be the corporate entities responsible for the disaster. The cost of the Exxon Valdez spill has been estimated at $9.5 billion, of which Exxon paid $1 billion, with taxpayers footing the rest of the bill. British Columbians cannot trust that Enbridge or any other oil industry player operating in Canada would behave any differently than BP or Exxon in the face of a catastrophic spill on B.C.'s coast.
A version of this article originally ran on Buzzflash.
Follow Chris Genovali on Twitter: www.twitter.com/raincoast
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West Bloomfield Township Library
365体育直播投注The West Bloomfield Township Public Library is a place where everyone in our community can explore, discover, learn and grow.
365体育直播投注Visit the .
TumbleBooks is a great resource for young readers in elementary grades.
TumbleBooks is an online collection of animated digital picture books, chapter books, read-alongs, graphic novels, math stories and nonfiction that help children develop reading skills, along with a love of reading.
Children build vocabulary and comprehension skills by following along with the text. The online resource also comes with lesson plans that parents can use.
365体育直播投注Tumblebooks can be viewed on a computer or mobile device. A free app is available for both Apple iOS and Android devices. Browse the TumbleBooks collection by visiting and clicking “eLibrary.”
Plan a playdate for fun and games at the Library.
The Library’s collection of board games includes classics like Battleship and Trouble and new games like Dino Math Tracks and Robot Face Race. The games span a range of ages and interests. In an increasingly digital world with game consoles and apps, board games remain popular. Games help develop deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills. They use problem solving and sharpen memory and concentration skills.
Board games are a great family activity that can be enjoyed over and over. Games are for use at the Library. Find games in the Youth Services rooms at the Main Library and Westacres Branch.
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Nepal is a biodiversity hotspot due to its broad ecoregions that include mountainous areas, savannah and grasslands, and marine ecosystems. The country has established numerous parks and reserves to protect its diverse fauna since it adopted the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1973. By 1992, the country had seven national parks covering a total of approximately 3,500 square miles. A decade later, it had nine national parks, three conservation reserves, three wildlife reserves, four world heritage sites, three Ramsar sites, and one hunting reserve. There are about 208 mammal species in Nepal, including the clouded leopard, Bengal Fox, Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, and the Tibetan wolf. Snakes and lizards dominate the reptiles. There are over 800 bird species and 27 bird sanctuaries in Nepal. One species is endemic; one is introduced, and30 are globally threatened. The danphe pheasant is the national bird. Other bird species include warblers, flycatchers, minivets, and cuckoos. The following are some animals found in Nepal.
The clouded leopard is found in the foothills of the Himalayas through Southeast Asia and Southern China. It was listed as vulnerable in 2008 since its wild population is fewer than 10,000 individuals and declining. The clouded leopard was believed to be extinct in Nepal since the 1860s, but in 1987 four individuals were observed near Chitwan National Park. The presence of the leopards extended their range westwards and proved that the animal could survive in degraded woodlands. Since then, a few individuals have been spotted in Annapurna Conservation Reserve and Shivapuri Nagarjuna Park. The clouded leopard is also found in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Bhutan, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. It has since been declared extinct in Taiwan and Singapore.
The red panda is native to Southwestern China and Eastern Himalayas. It is an endangered species since there are fewer than 10,000 individuals in the wild and continues to decline due to poaching, habitat destruction, inbreeding, and fragmentation. The red panda and the giant panda are not closely related but have similar characteristics such as tree climbing and preference for bamboo. It is found in a cool temperate climate where it survives by eating bamboo, cane, grass, and fruits. In Nepal, they can be found in Langtang, Sagarmatha, and Makalu-Barun national parks. Unfortunately, they are close to vanishing in these areas due to poaching.
Greater One-horned Rhinoceros
The greater one-horned rhinoceros is the second largest animal in Asia after the Asian elephant. It is found across South East Asia and South Asia. It is an endangered species with less than 2,000 individuals in the wild. About 90% of the animals are found in Kaziranga National Park, India (1,200), and Chitwan Valley in Nepal (600). A few animals are found along the border between Bhutan and India. Before the 1950s, there were more than 1000 rhinos in Chitwan Valley, but human activities drove the animals to less than 100 individuals by the late 1960s. A massive conservation effort by the government recovered the species from imminent extinction.
The Bengal tiger is native to the Indian subcontinent. The species is threatened by loss of habitat and poaching. At the beginning of the decade, there were about 2,500 individuals in the wild, but the population has since risen to about 3,300 thanks to conservation efforts. India has the largest number of Bengal tigers at about 1,900, a further 400 are in Bangladesh, 235 in Nepal, and 100 in Bhutan. Despite the loss of habitat in Nepal, the population of Bengal tigers in the wild has nearly doubled in the past decade to 235 individuals. However, the population is significantly lower compared to the 1950s. Bengal tigers are found in Chitwan National Park, Parsa Wildlife Reserve, and Bardia National Park.
The Asian elephant is the largest mammal in Asia though it is smaller than its African counterpart. They are found across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The elephant was listed as endangered in 1986, and since then, the population has declined by over 50%. Elephants are part of the Nepalese culture and are domesticated for various purposes. They are a symbol of strength and social status. There are about 46,000 elephants in Asia, of which a third are captive. Wild populations are found in Chure hills, Chitwan National Park, Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve, Parsa Wildlife Reserve, and Bardia National Park. The elephants of Nepal are endangered as they are hunted for their tusks and teeth.
The great hornbill is found across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is important in many tribal rituals and cultures for its impressive color and size. The bird has a long life span of about 50 years in captivity. Greater hornbills are found in groups of up to 150 birds. They congregate in fruit trees where they spend the entire day foraging for fruits and small insects. They were found in plenty in the Terai region of Nepal, but poaching has significantly reduced their population. The fat and bones of the hornbill are used to prepare traditional medicine. The greater hornbill is a protected species in the country.
Asiatic Rock Python
The Asiatic rock python is also known as the black-tailed python, Indian python, or Indian rock python. It is lighter-colored compared to the Burmese python and can reach 9.8 ft from head to tail. The snake is found in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The Asian rock pythons inhabit the swamps, grasslands, marshes, river valleys, and open forests of Nepal, where they spend time in trees, mangroves tickets, and burrows. They feed on birds, small mammals, and reptiles. Although they avoid humans, they are attracted to settlements by domestic animals.
The Assamese monkey is a near-threatened species. It is unique to Nepal and is believed to be an entirely separate species from other monkeys. The Assamese monkeys have a lifespan of about 31 years. They inhabit the tropical and subtropical forests, but their population has significantly declined compared to the 1980s due to illegal hunting and loss of habitat. The Raute people hunt and eat the monkeys while many more are killed as they invade farmlands.
Ganges River Dolphin
The Ganges River dolphin is one of the four freshwater dolphins. It is found in the Brahmaputra and Ganges Rivers and their tributaries in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. The dolphin has poor sight since it lacks an eye lens and is sometimes known as the blind dolphin. Unfortunately, these dolphins live in one of the world’s most densely populated regions and are therefore threatened by pollution and habitat loss.
Pangolins are locally known as “salak” in Nepal. They are insectivorous animals with scale in their back. When threatened, the animals curl into a ball. Pangolins are living fossils since they have undergone a minor evolutionary change in the past 80 million years. Unfortunately, they are among the most trafficked animals in the world due to their precious scales that are used to make traditional medicine in China and other parts of Southeast Asia.
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Could have the kids do this, upload to Edmodo, and then include a write-up explaining the different phases. Hands On Science: Phases of the Moon Activities for Kids - Inspire Creativity, Reduce Chaos & Encourage Learning with Kids
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Activity: Do a lesson on owls after reading this book. Have the students describe what owls are like and put it on a big poster for the entire class. Afterwards, construct an owl project!
Here's my example for the moon page (the idea came from my fabulous teaching partner). I have them glue beans down and then cover the beans with a circle of aluminum foil to make the bumpy surface of the moon. You can grab the sentence pages here.
STEM Activity for Kids: How to Make Straw Rockets (w/ Free Rocket Template)- Fun for a science lesson, outdoor play activity, or unit on space! Great for students in a special education classroom. Work on oral motor skills as well as sensory play.
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Is it your first time appearing for a competitive entrance examination at the national level? If yes, then naturally you must be under a lot of stress during your preparatory period before you appear for the Joint Entrance Examination, commonly known as JEE. As one of the most important competitive exams, more than 2 lakh students appear for it every year to get admission in various engineering colleges all over the country. Hence, when the population of students appearing for the exam increases the competition, it is very natural for students to get stressed and under pressure. However, we are here to help you with some simple yet effective tips and tricks that will help you ace the JEE exam.
What is JEE? What is the exam pattern?
JEE is the short term used for the Joint Entrance Examination which was formerly known as AIEEE or the All India Engineering Entrance Examination. This competitive exam is held every year as an entrance to various engineering colleges including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), and other universities known as the “centrally funded technical institutes” or CFTIs.
The examination is two-folded, which means students first appear for JEE Mains. Further, the candidates who clear this examination are eligible to appear for the JEE Advance exam, clearing which can help them get into IITs. These examinations are based on a syllabus that contains Physics, Chemistry, and Maths from Class 11 and 12. The JEE Mains is further divided into two different papers. Out of these two, Paper – 1 is conducted for candidates aiming to get admission in engineering courses like B.E and B.Tech. Paper – 2 is conducted for students who are interested in the architecture courses like B. Planning and B. Arch.
The JEE Mains are a computed-based test with objective type and numerical based questions for each of the three subjects. The exam is worth a total of 300 marks with 100 marks each for Physics, Chemistry, and Maths. Scoring well in this examination is really important for students who aim to study in the best engineering colleges and get admissions into their desired branches of engineering. Preparing for this examination and covering the syllabus can be difficult for students without feeling distressed and worried about scoring well. We are providing here five tips to study in an effective way for your JEE Examination.
5 tips to studying efficiently for the JEE Exam
Cover the entire syllabus
You must be well aware of the enormity of the syllabus that is to be covered when you are appearing for the JEE Mains. During their preparation, students should ensure that they do not ignore any topics even in case they hold a lesser weightage of marks. The candidates have to prepare every topic that has been taught in Physics, Chemistry, and Maths throughout classes 11 and 12. The good thing here is that every student has already studied these topics once so now they need to revise and practise questions from all such topics.
Learn time management
The JEE Mains is held for a duration of 3 hours. During these three hours, it is important that candidates are able to properly manage time and answer all questions accurately. Time management is also important during your preparation so that you can cover the entire syllabus in enough time that you get some period for practice and revision before the JEE Mains. For effective time management, you can create a timetable during your preparatory period and practice solving mock tests or sample papers exactly within 3 hours to know your accuracy and speed.
Invest in quality study material
It is crucial for candidates to not waste time on the study material that does not provide them with the appropriate and sufficient knowledge on the topics that are a part of the syllabus. Some most helpful and commonly referred study materials include the NCERT Books for Classes 11 and 12 and the books that consist of sample papers and question papers from the previous 12 years. The NCERT books are often considered enough as they cover the entire syllabus and provide all the important details that can be questioned in the JEE Mains.
Practice sample papers/mock papers
Once you are done studying and understanding all the topics that are a part of your syllabus, it is important that you keep practising and revising them regularly until the Mains. The most efficient way to practise and assess how much you have learned and understood is to attempt to solve sample papers and mock tests. The JEE Main Sample Question Papers with Solutions can help you with time management and improve your speed of solving the questions. Candidates will also be able to assess their accuracy by solving the JEE Main Question Paper with Solutions. By understanding their mistakes, it can also be helpful for candidates to rectify and not repeat them in the exam.
Equal focus on PCM
Many students put more effort into practising the subjects that are their strengths when it comes to the JEE Mains syllabus. Providing less focus or ignoring your weaknesses and thinking that the stronger subjects will cover the marks up is a mistake on the candidate’s part. Please ensure that you study each of the three subjects with equal focus and practise. Do not leave out any topics. When it comes to topics with a lower weightage of marks than others, do not ignore such topics but revise them at least once every now and then. In case you find a particular subject more difficult, break its syllabus into intervals for better understanding.
When it comes to preparing for the JEE Mains, students often end up compromising their health and sleep habits. It is important that candidates appearing for the JEE Mains also focus on their health during the preparatory period. Eat well, sleep on time, and regularly engage in physical activity. All the best!
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Art and Design
At Grove Street Primary School we believe that the Arts are fundamental in supporting children’s learning. We are committed to providing your children with a variety of opportunities to explore, experience and develop their skills within the four main art forms; Art, craft and design, dance, music and drama. Please read the policy below to learn more about the Arts at Grove Street.
Art, craft and design is a natural form of expression. At Grove Street we encourage pupils to develop their creativity and express themselves through a high quality art and design curriculum which engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. Pupils are encouraged to appreciate works of art and use artistic language to describe paintings, sculptures and other artefacts. We invite local artist in to inspire and work alongside pupils. We also use the environment as a source of enrichment including visits to places of interest such as museums and galleries.
Art in the Early Years is developed through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity. Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to think about problems, and relate to others.
The Early Years Foundation Stage has two strands within it that focus on Expressive Arts and Design:
- Exploring and using media and materials
- Being imaginative
In KS1 and 2 the Art and Design Curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
- Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
- Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
In 2015 we were awarded with the Artsmark Award in celebration of all of the fantastic arts activities taking place in our school. The validator for Artsmark said “It was a pleasure to visit Grove Street” and she was particularly impressed with the Arts Committee who she said showed “evident leadership schools”.
“Grove Street Primary School is providing its children with a high level of arts experiences” (Artsmark 2015)
We are currently running Arts Award Explore with the children in Year 3. They are enjoying trips to the local art gallery, learning new skills from local artists and exploring a variety of different art forms.
Arts Award is a range of unique qualifications that supports anyone aged up to 25 to grow as artists and arts leaders, inspiring them to connect with and take part in the wider arts world through taking challenges in an art form - from fashion to digital art, pottery to poetry.
Offered at five different levels, young people get to:
- discover the enjoyment of creating and participating in any art form
- develop their creativity and leadership skills
- learn new skills and share them with others
- get to work with or experience working with creative arts professionals
- gain experience and knowledge to progress into further education and employment
To achieve their Arts Award, young people take on challenges in an art form, participate in arts activities, experience arts events, get inspired by artists and share their arts skills with others. Young people create a portfolio to keep a record of their creative journey.
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Today The Irish Volunteers Commemorative Organisation marked the 106.th year of the foundation of
Fianna Éireann . The private ceremonies were held by the 4.th Battalion
Fianna Éireann which has been incorporated in to the IVCO some time ago.
On Monday 16 August 1909, in the Camden Street hall, Hobson chaired a meeting ‘to form a National Boys’ Organisation to be managed by the boys themselves on national non-party lines’.20 Estimates suggest that between thirty and 100 boys, ‘mostly adventurers from the Coombe and neighbourhood’, turned up for this meeting to form what became known as Na Fianna Éireann.21 Markievicz and a few other adults were also in attendance. In his address, Hobson explained that the organisation would be run on a semi-military basis along the lines of the Boy Scouts’ movement founded in the previous year by Baden-Powell. In fact, it was one of the immediate objectives of this new group to counteract the influence in Ireland of Baden-Powell’s pro-British body.
For a full understanding please see http://irishvolunteers.org/category/fianna-eireann-2/
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James G. Ryan
Inst. for Microstructural Sci., Natl. Res. Council, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, Canada
Microphone pickup of sound in typical rooms is impaired by the combined effects of reverberation and noise. This degrades speech intelligibility and quality particularly in applications where the microphone is located far away from the talker. Recent advances in microphone array technology suggest a potential solution to such problems. This paper gives an overview of current microphone array techniques and discusses the potential benefits for speech communication. Various criteria for measuring the performance of a microphone array are described. A flexible, experimental microphone array intended for research in speech communications is under construction and will be described.
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Extortion: A key trigger of internal displacement and forced migration in the North of Central America and Mexico - RedLac
|Tipo de documento:
Informes y documentos sobre políticas
|Idioma del documento:
This snapshot explores the links between extortion, internal displacement and forced migration in the North of Central America (NCA) and the migration route in Mexico. Although the definition varies across different national legislations, we understand extortion as being the use of intimidation, violence or threats to force someone to do something or to obtain someone’s property¹. This type of aggression one of the main drivers of displacement in the region, but it is also one of the main crimes that people are subjected to during displacement, as well as after deportation back to their countries of origin. As such, extortion transcends international borders as one of the main human rights violations committed against displaced people and migrants.
(PDF, 2.68 MB)
||Guatemala - Refugees, Honduras - Refugees, El Salvador - Refugees, Honduras - IDPs, Mexico - Refugees
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Voles are small mouse-like rodents that can be highly destructive to lawns, ornamental gardens, vegetable gardens, orchards, forests and some field crops. They tunnel around underground creating an elaborate network of tunnels from which they use to feed on roots, tubers, and bulbs. Above ground they feed on seeds, berries, fruits, vegetables, herbs, grasses and other vegetation. In the fall they switch to eating the lower bark of trees and shrubs often girdling them. Some species like the woodland vole stay almost completely underground and are difficult to identify, while other species like the meadow vole, prairie voles and Montane vole spend a great deal of time on the surface. They differ from mice in that they have shorter hairy tails, smaller more rounded ears, smaller eyes, blunt noses rather than elongated, are stockier, have longer fur, and most North American voles do not climb. Mice mostly feed at night whereas voles feed day and night.
Voles are often confused with moles, another rodent who likes to tunnel under ground. Moles however look quite different from voles with their more elongated heads, long pointed pink snouts, no visible ears, shorter velvety fur (backs and belly same dark grey or brown colour) and unique paddle like feet that have long, thick claws. Moles spend most of their time underground tunneling around in straight lines, just below the soil surface, (deeper in the winter), which leaves slightly raised ridges on the soil surface where the grass eventually dies. They also create mole hills, which are volcano like mounds of soil on the soil surface, usually about 5cm (2″) high and up to 30cm (1′) wide. These hills are the result of the excavated soil the mole pushes up from their tunneling and burrow building activity. The hills may or may not have an entrance/exit hole in the center of it. As a general rule the farther apart these mole hills are the deeper the tunnel. A mole’s diet is also much different, feeding on grubs and insects underground rather than roots, tubers and bulbs.
Their appearance can vary slightly, depending on the species, but typically they are small measuring about 8–23 cm (3–9 in) in length, and have stalky builds. Their fur is course, thick and silky consisting of both long and short hairs. The shorter hairs are often greyish with the longer hairs being either brown, yellowish-brown, reddish-brown or dark grey and can have black, red or yellowish tips giving the voles fur a grainy look. Their belly and underside of their tail is lighter in colour than their backs, usually silver-grey to white or a grayish buff colour. Their tails are usually significantly shorter than mouse tails and are covered in thin hairs, although there are some long tailed species. Their noses are blunt, rather than tapered and they have small black eyes and small rounded ears. They feed on grasses, roots, tubers, bulbs, seeds, bark, clover, alfalfa, herbs, fruits, and vegetables.
Voles tend to be quite specific about their habitat preferences, and those preferences can be used to help identify the species present. Following is a list of species and their preferred habitats, that you might find in North America.
- Meadow Voles aka Field Mice are the most common species of voles in North America, occurring all across Canada, Alaska and the mid-north and northeastern United States. The 2 most common species are the eastern meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) being found in eastern Canada and the United States and the western meadow vole (Microtus drummondii) being found in the western Canada, Alaska and the mid and northwest United States. Their preferred habitat is, as the name suggests, moist meadows with dense vegetation, grasslands near bodies of water, lightly grazed pastures, orchards with tall fescue (especially apple orchards), and to a lesser degree, open woodlands. They also commonly take up residence in home gardens, golf courses and farms, especially those located near their preferred habitat. The fur on their back is typically chestnut-brown or grey, often peppered with black and red with their belly being a lighter gray or a grayish buff colour. They grow to about 15-20 cm (6-8″) in length and have a short hairy tail measuring about 3-6 cm (1-2.4″) in length. Unlike many of the vole species who live mainly underground, meadow voles spend much of their time above ground, feeding on grasses, seeds, tubers, bulbs, fruit and other vegetation during the summer and switching to bark in the winter. They mow down shallow, crisscrossing runways in the grass, that they use to travel from their burrows to feeding sites.
- Long-tailed Vole (Microtus longicaudus) can be found in western North America, in a variety of habitats including, forests, grasslands, mountains, wetlands, shrubland, along riverbanks and in disturbed habitats. They measure about 15 to 23 cm (6-9″) long with brownish-grey fur on their backs that has black-tips, and a lighter grey belly. The most distinguishing feature of this species is it’s long bi-coloured tail which is longer than most vole species measuring about 8 cm (3″) in length.
- Prairie Voles (Microtus ochrogastor) are found in some southern areas of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and in the central prairie regions of the United States. Their preferred habitat, as their name suggests, is the drier prairies and areas with longer grasses such as undisturbed grasslands, ungrazed pastures and grassy fields. They can however be a problem in home gardens and landscapes, agricultural fields and golf courses that are located near their preferred habitats. They measure about 13-18cm (5-7″) in length and have greyish-brown fur on their backs, with the longer hairs having black or yellowish-brown tips, and their belly is a tan colour (a distinguishing feature). Like the meadow vole they mow down surface runways in the tall grasses that they use to travel from their burrow to food sources.
- Woodland vole aka Pine Vole (Microtis pinetorum), is found in the very southern tip of Ontario and Quebec and across pockets in the eastern United States. In Ontario it is classified a species at risk. Woodland voles, as the name suggests, prefer deciduous woodlands with a deep layer of leaf litter. They also are fond of apple orchards. They are difficult to identify as they spend almost all their time below ground in their tunnels and burrows. They are one of the smallest vole species measuring about 10 cm (4 inches) in length. They have short, silky, dense reddish-brown fur on the top and lighter buff or grayish fur on their belly. Distinguishing features include a shorter tail, (about the size of the hind foot, about 1.5 to 4cm), slightly larger front claws and smaller eyes.
- Montane Vole aka Mountain Vole (Microtus montanus), is found in some mountainous regions in southern British Columbia and in the north/western United States. Their preferred habitat is alpine meadows and drier grasslands near a water source, but they will also inhabit home gardens and landscapes and agricultural areas as well as pastures. They measure about 15-20 cm (6-8″) in length with brownish-grey fur on their backs, with some black tips and a light grey belly. Their tails are bi-coloured and measure about 2-7 cm in length.
- Southern red-backed vole aka Gapper’s red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi) can be found across Canada and the northern tip of the United States. Their preferred habitat is cool coniferous forests with plenty of moisture, rock and mosses, but they can be found in any forest setting, as well as tundra and bogs. This is a small slender species that grows to about 12-16 cm (5-6″) in length with a short 4cm (1 ½”) long tail. They are grey in colour, with a lighter coloured belly and a red band that runs down their back, from head to tail. Two distinguishing characteristics of this species are that it does not tunnel underground, but rather nests in other animal’s empty burrows or constructs nests in sheltered areas on the forest floor; and secondly the species is able to jump and climb, thus may also be found nesting in trees.
- North American Water Vole aka Richardson’s water vole (Microtus richardsoni) can be found in some mountainous regions of southwestern British Columbia and Alberta as well as the northwestern United States. Their preferred habitat is alpine and semi-alpine meadows that are located near bodies of water. They are the largest vole species in North America measuring about 14-22cm ((5.5–8.7″) in length. The fur on their back is varying shades of brown with a light grey belly. Distinguishing features include large hind feet (used for swimming) that measure about 2.5-3.4 cm in length. They also have longer tails measuring about 6–10 cm long. (Microtus richardsoni) found in some southern parts of British Columbia and Alberta.
- Rock vole (Microtus chrotorrhinus) is found in moist rocky slopes along south-eastern Ontario, southern and coastal areas of Quebec and a couple of small bands in the north/eastern United States. Rock Voles have yellowish-brown fur on the top and a silvery-gray belly. Distinguishing features include yellowish noses and longer tails (about 5-cm).
A few other species found in North America include Singing vole, Townsend’s vole, Taiga vole, Creeping voles, Sagebrush Voles, Western heather vole, Eastern heather vole.
Identifying Vole Presence and Damage
In the winter, the voles live on the soil surface and tunnel around underneath the snow chewing on the bark of trees and shrubs. Vole damage only extends up to 30 cm (1′) in height but often is only a few inches both above and below ground. The trunk or branches can be partially girdled (in which case they may survive), or fully girdled (in which case the tree or branch will die). If you look closely at the damaged wood, you will see patches of gnaw marks made in the wood, which appear like 3mm wide by 1.5mm deep (1/8 by 1/16″) side-by-side grooves in an irregular pattern. Conversely rabbit damage has a more uniform appearance and goes higher up the tree, or shrub, between 60 and 90 cm (1-2′), depending on snow cover. Rabbits also have larger teeth and thus leave larger grooves and also cleanly cut off young branches at a 45-degree angle. Other rodents like gophers and mice also create similar damage and it can take some real detective work to properly identify the party responsible. Look for signs of their tracks, feces, surface runways, nests, entrance holes to burrows, etc. to get the whole picture.
Other signs of vole presence include small entrance holes to their surface tunnels, in the snow. As the snow melts it will reveal the surface runways in the lawn or garden, that appear as series of crisscrossing and snaking trails, where the grass has been chewed down. These trails are about 5cm (2″) wide. You may also find little grass nests which are often located in sheltered areas like under evergreens, decks, wood piles and such. As the frost comes out of the ground, they move underground constructing an extensive network of meandering tunnels and burrows up to 30cm (1′) below the soil line. Look for their neat circular holes that measure about 25-35mm (about 1-1.5in.) on the soil surface where they access their burrows. These hollow tunnel systems may make the ground feel oddly cushiony underfoot. As the voles’ tunnel around they feed on underground roots, which can weaken plants causing them to fail to thrive. You may observe yellowing or wilting leaves. In the perennial garden plants may fail to come up in the spring. If you try digging them up, you may find their roots are mostly gone. In the vegetable garden you may find half eaten carrots or potatoes or perhaps just empty holes where they once were. Also look for vole droppings which are cylindrical in shape, measuring about 6mm (1/4 in.).
The reproduction period is typically March through to October. Many vole species mate for life, such as prairie voles, a few exceptions being meadow and montane voles. After mating the female gives birth to a litter of 3-8 pups in about 3 weeks. In 3 more weeks, the pups are weaned and become sexually fertile around 5 weeks of age. This makes many litters a year possible, 4-5 in colder climates and as many as 10 in warmer climates. They have one of the shortest lifespans of rodents with the majority dying in their first few weeks of life. The average life span of those that survive is about 3-6 months for the smaller species and 1 to 1 1/2 years for the larger species. Vole population explosions tend to rise and fall in 3-5 years cycles, with mild snowy winters favouring higher populations.
Controlling Voles in the Garden
Voles have many predators in the wild such as owls, falcons, hawks, cats, weasels, skunks, racoons, snakes, coyotes, fox and others. Thus, attracting their natural predators will be helpful. Beyond this they are a difficult pest to control, largely because they live underground, but there are a few things home gardeners can do to help control their populations.
- Keep the lawn mowed shorter, as voles prefer longer grasses.
- Eliminate bird and squirrel feeders that also attract voles and other rodents to the spilled feed on the ground.
- Cleanup vegetable gardens in the fall to eliminate food sources for voles.
- Remove wood piles and other debris around the yard to remove hiding places for voles.
- Rat traps can be laid at their entrance holes. Place a cage or tote box over them or place them inside a piece of PVC pipe, so as to not accidently snare local cats and wildlife. Bait with peanut butter and check them daily.
- Remove mulch and vegetation away from the base of tree trunks to make the area less appealing to voles.
- Construct protective barriers around vulnerable trees and shrubs using 1/4″ hardware cloth placed around the drip line extending 15cm (6″) below the soil line and 30-45cm (1-1.5 ft.) above soil line.
- Use commercial plastic tree guards around the trunks of trees to protect against girdling.
- Install a gravel barrier around the parameter of your fenced yard with gravel to prevent voles from entering the yard. The barrier should be about 20 cm (8″)) deep by about 30cm (1′) wide. This will not help to control any voles already within your property.
- Deterrents like hot sauce, onion, mint, castor oil, coyote urine, ammonia and others can be put down their holes. They dislike these smells very much and may leave on their own.
- Skoot Animal Repellent can be painted on full strength or diluted half and half with water and sprayed on dormant trees, shrubs and evergreens as a taste deterrent. It is safe to consume but has such a bitter taste the animal will not feed on that plant. Treat before it snows when the temperatures is at least 4 °C.
- Protects dormant ornamentals, shrubs, nursery stock, young fruit trees, evergreens, hedges and perennials. This chemical repellent is distasteful but harmless to rabbits, mice and deer. The bad taste discourages feeding on any plants that have been treated with this product. Seldom is a second bite taken by the same pest.
- Capsaicin-based products can be sprayed directly on susceptible trees and shrubs and plants material, (according to manufactures instructions). On any plants that will be consumed they must be sprayed before the edible parts form or after they are harvested.
- If you have a serious problem with voles, you may want to hire a professional pest control company.
If you do receive some damage to your shrubs prune out the badly damaged branches. For trees that have had their main trunk damaged if the gnawed area is not to extensive wait and see how the tree responds to the damage. For young tree seedlings that have been completely girdled, they can be cut back below the damaged area (but above the graft on grafted trees). If the tree has not been completely girdled, but the damage is still extensive an arborist may be able to do a Bridge Graft Repair if the tree has great value to you.
Photo credits: all photos taken by the author.
Ballenger, L. 2011. “Myodes gapperi”, Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Myodes_gapperi/
Brittingham M. C., (2007). Voles (Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences). https://extension.psu.edu/voles#:~:text=Description%20of%20Damage
Cosens, L. 2004. “Microtus longicaudus” (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed November 12, 2022 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Microtus_longicaudus/
Critter Control, (n.d.). Common Vole Species. https://www.crittercontrol.com/wildlife/voles/types-of-voles
Fuller W.A. (2006, rev. June 3, 2015). Vole. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/vole
GBIF.org, (n.d). Microtus drummondii (Audubon & Bachman, 1854). https://www.gbif.org/species/184544814
Gov. of Canada, (n.d., mod. 2013-06-04). Moles and voles. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/pest-control-tips/moles-voles.html
Lanier L.D., (Revised: 03/2011). Vole Damage to Lawns. UMass Extension Turf Program. https://ag.umass.edu/turf/fact-sheets/vole-damage-to-lawns
Menken J., (n.d. rev. 2019). How to manage vole damage on lawns, trees and shrubs. University of Minnesota Extension. https://extension.umn.edu/planting-and-growing-guides/vole-damage
Ontario Crop IPM (2009, mod. March 12, 2009). Vole. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/IPM/english/tender/diseases-and-disorders/vole.html
Pest Centric, (n.d.). 11 Natural Ways to Get rid of Voles [Step by Step Process & Precautions]. https://www.pestcentric.com/natural-ways-to-get-rid-of-voles/
Saunders, D. A. (1988). Rock Vole (Microtus chrotorrhinus Miller). Adirondack Mammals. State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 216pp. https://www.esf.edu/aec/adks/mammals/rock_vole.htm
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, (n.d.). Southern Red-back Vole, Myodes gapperi. https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife/mammals/small/southern-red-back-vole.html
Terminix Canada, (n.d.). Voles. https://terminix.ca/pest-library/voles/
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, (n.d.). Vole. https://www.britannica.com/animal/vole
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, (2014, Updated: August 12, 2021). Woodland vole. https://www.ontario.ca/page/woodland-vole
Vole Control, Inc., (n.d.). All About Voles – Common Questions and Answers. https://www.volecontrol.com/blog/all-about-voles-common-questions-and-answers
Vole Control, (n.d.). Montane Voles. https://volecontrol.com/vole-mole-gopher-info/voles/types-voles/above-ground-foraging-voles/montane-voles
Wikpedia, (edited on 16 September 2022). Western Meadow Vole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_meadow_vole
Wikpedia, (edited on 13 August 2022). Water vole (North America). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_vole_(North_America)
Wikpedia, (edited on 1 August 2022). Rock vole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_vole
Yordan Z. (updated May 13, 2020) Vole Lifespan and Life Cycle. https://insectcop.net/voles-lifespan-and-life-cycle/
All rights reserved
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"The word ‘community’ is derived from Old French comuneté, from Latin communitas, communis, things held in common" ~ Oxford Dictionaries (2014)
What does it take to make a community? A common interest, obviously. People sharing a common interest naturally come together and share information and experiences. The recently launched ‘Wise Assessment’ Community of Practice Project at HKU is a notable example. Assessment and feedback are intertwined; assessment without feedback does very little to support student learning. Assessment and feedback is such a genuine and universal concern that the project briefings shall be useful and relevant to every teacher. A wise initiative, the project not only enables colleagues to cross boundaries between disciplines; it also facilitates the long overdue interplay between the Common Core and the disciplinary curricula (Common Core being featured in one of the project briefings). Who are the players in a learning community anyway? To cultivate a truly vibrant learning environment, we should do more than reflecting on our own courses. There should be channels for teachers (both full-time and part-time) to communicate and collaborate with each other and with colleagues who contribute to co-curriculum development, technological support, student surveys and quality enhancement. It would be great if we could include everyone and talk to everyone. Break the ice and break the boundaries. Most important of all, we should include the students, the stakeholders, in our feedback loop. We hear their voice, we discuss issues among ourselves, and we must not forget to inform them of the steps we take to address their concerns. Justice must be seen to be done. Quality enhancement too. Written by Alice Lee, guest blog for the first issue of "Teaching and Learning Connections" a new e-newsletter published by HKU's Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL).
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Human Trafficking Is Modern-Day Slavery
- Religious Liberty
- Reproductive Freedom
- Women's Rights
- HIV/AIDS and Discrimination
- HIV/AIDS and Criminal Justice
- Government Promotion of Religion
- Birth Control
- Religion and Reproductive Rights
- Women's Rights in the Workplace
- Pregnancy and Parenting Discrimination
- Using Religion to Discriminate
Today is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement today:
The scourge of modern slavery, including human trafficking, continues to tear at our common humanity and to rip the social fabric of communities around the world.
The international community must redouble its efforts to combat modern slavery and human trafficking by fully implementing existing trafficking laws and prosecuting its perpetrators.
We couldn't agree more, which is why the ACLU is battling human trafficking in the United States on a few different fronts.
The ACLU Women's Rights Project (WRP) is fighting the abuse of domestic workers trafficked to this country by foreign diplomats. These workers — most often women from poor countries — are brought to the U.S. believing they'll have good jobs with benefits and the protection of U.S. laws. Instead, they're often held in slavelike conditions. This situation is made worse by the fact that current U.S. law grants foreign diplomats immunity from civil actions and criminal prosecution. As a result, diplomats have a free pass to mistreat domestic workers deliberately and without penalty. The ACLU is working to make sure that diplomats and their sending countries can be held accountable for human trafficking.
In 2007, WRP petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of five domestic workers. The petition asks the IACHR to hold the United States responsible for its neglect and failure to protect domestic workers employed by diplomats from human rights abuses and to ensure that these workers can seek meaningful redress for their rights. One of the women in the petition, Raziah Begum of Bangladesh, was forced to work 6 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week without a single day off, for employers who worked for the Bangladesh mission. Her employers paid her $29 per month — approximately six cents per hour.
WRP also recently submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Vishranthamma Swarna, a domestic worker employed by a former Kuwaiti diplomat. The diplomat and his wife subjected Swarna to involuntary servitude and torture. The Women's Rights Project also joined a coalition of other groups to advocate for the publication of a State Department pamphlet that informs domestic workers coming into the U.S. of their rights.
The ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, and HIV/AIDS Project is litigating a case against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS has awarded as much as $3.5 million to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The USCCB, in turn, gives grants to organizations to assist trafficking victims. But the bishops parse out the grants according to their religious beliefs, thereby denying abortion referrals and contraceptive services to victims who need such care. This means federal funds are being used to promote the USCCB's religious agenda, a violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause. We just got a good ruling on this case Monday, so this case will proceed against HHS.
Finally, the ACLU's Human Rights Program is co-litigating a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of over 500 guestworkers trafficked from India to work in shipyards in Mississippi and Texas. The men came to the U.S. with assurances of becoming lawful permanent residents. But instead, they were subjected to squalid living conditions, fraudulent payment practices and threats of serious harm upon their arrival. Under the U.S. guestworker program, foreign guestworkers (or temporary workers) are left at the mercy of employers who can exploit, isolate and abuse them. Guestworkers are frequent victims of trafficking often arriving in the U.S. deep in debt after paying exorbitant amounts of money to recruiters who promise them job opportunities. With inadequate governmental oversight of labor abuses in the guestworker program, it is only after they arrive in the United States that workers discover that they have no way to escape an abusive situation because, under the terms of the guestworker program, they are unable to lawfully transfer their visas from one employer to another. (The ACLU is co-counsel with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Louisiana Justice Institute, the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice and Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. This litigation arose out of a broader organizing campaign spearheaded by the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a project of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice.)
No matter where you fall on the immigrant worker issue, most people would agree that all workers — no matter where they're from — shouldn't be abused or cheated, and should be paid the promised wage for their labor. And they shouldn't be subjected to someone else's religious beliefs to get the services they desperately need when they're abused and mistreated.
The Obama administration has asserted that it will fight to protect trafficking victims and fully implement laws such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. We'll do our best to hold them to that promise (PDF).
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As monoclonal antibodies make a comeback, nobody’s claiming miracle cures anymore. Having passed through the cycle of “Holy Grail to dirty word,” says Lehman Brothers biotech analyst Rachel Leheny, monoclonal antibodies have become a working technology with an established set of strengths and weaknesses.
Monoclonal antibodies are designed by the immune system to bind only to specific target molecules, making them much more precise than typical small-molecule drugs, the relatively simple compounds that have been the staple of the pharmaceutical industry. And unlike other protein therapeutics, which can activate or block only one specific biological process each, monoclonal antibodies can be developed for any target protein or cell type imaginable. This combination of built-in precision and flexibility can mean faster development and lower toxicity. The risk of a potential antibody drug failing in clinical trials because of unwanted side effects is considerably less than it is for small molecules.
“The probability of success is much higher, and the time course of developing them is much quicker,” says Geoff Davis, chief scientific officer at Abgenix, a Fremont, CA-based antibody drug company. Considering that pharmaceutical companies now spend an average of 15 years and $800 million to bring a new drug to market, saving a few years in development and reducing the risk of a drug’s failing in clinical trials can translate into an enormous profit.
The latest boost to the monoclonal-antibody revival comes from the sequencing of the human genome and the burgeoning genomics industry. Suddenly, pharmaceutical and biotech researchers are deluged with genes, tens of thousands of them, many of which may be valuable drug targets. The result is a gold rush mentality, as researchers race to establish which of these genes and their accompanying proteins are the best targets for inhibiting disease processes. Here monoclonal antibodies-in the guise of laboratory tools that will bind to specific proteins and knock them out of action-represent one of the quickest ways to answer those questions. And once a viable target is nailed down, the low risk and precise targeting of monoclonals can make them the easiest drugs to get to market against it. “They cut right to the chase,” says Immunex’s Carter.
The object of the pursuit, the antibodies themselves, are Y-shaped proteins that constitute the immune system’s first line of defense. They will bind to anything the immune system finds unfamiliar and hence potentially dangerous-say a bacterium or virus-and then hold on tight, calling forth the full range of the immune system’s forces to neutralize or destroy the target (see “Mobilizing Immunity”).
Over the course of a lifetime, the human body generates roughly 100 billion different antibodies. In each case, the base of the Y is virtually identical; the arms of the Y differ from antibody to antibody, thus providing the vast variability that maximizes the possibility that the immune system will spot almost any conceivable invader.
Researchers have long envisioned inducing antibodies to cure or treat diseases that the immune system either ignores, such as cancer, or causes, like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Biologists have known for decades that if you immunize a mouse with a human cancer cell, or even a single protein from such a cell, the mouse will respond by generating its own antibodies to fight the foreigner off-in effect, an anticancer antibody. If you inject the same cancer cell over and over and over again, your mouse will generate antibodies exquisitely specialized to target the cancer cells you put in.
Illustration by John MacNeill
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Photo courtesy: Washington State Department of Agriculture
If you think you’re seeing more wasps than usual this year, you’re probably seeing a critter we inherited recently from Europe, the European paperwasp.
The European paperwasp Polistes dominulus was first recorded in the U.S. in Massachusetts in 1981 and has moved its way West since then, reaching Washington State in 1998. As Keith Seinfeld, KPLU News Seattle, reported in 2006, “So far there’s no sign of environmental damage done by the European wasps and it’s not particularly aggressive, in fact it may do a little good in the garden by eating other pests.”
These paperwasps are often confused with yellowjackets, another kind of wasp, because they have similar markings. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is their nesting habits. European Paperwasps create nests that are only one cell deep forming a single comb and resembling a Dixie cup-sized upside down umbrella. Yellowjackets create large aerial nests that are entirely enclosed in paper. Yellowjackets will also construct nests below the soil surface.
Fortunately, there are some good things about both the European paperwasp and yellowjackets: wasps eat flies, aphids, caterpillars and other invertebrates making them an important insect-controlling predator. “We would have serious pest problems if it weren’t for yellowjackets,” says Todd Murray, an entomologist from Washington State University’s Extension program. In fact, yellowjackets are used as biological control agents in corn, cotton and tobacco crops. A few well-placed nests can clean acres of crops of any pests. It’s the wasp larvae that feed on other insects, supplied to them by adults. Adults feed on nectar, pollen, fallen fruit and other dead insects.
So far, the European paperwasp has been described as docile in the Pacific Northwest. Murray says that from what he’s witnessed the wasps are only concerned about maintaining their nests. “While photographing a queen, I bumped her with the camera lens. She just shot me a dirty look and went back to work,” says Murray. “Rarely do I see aggression when I’m present around their nests.”
European paperwasps like to build nests on human structures like roof eaves, decks, overhangs, doorways, outdoor light fixtures, BBQ grills, birdhouses, mailboxes – and pipe coral fencing along horse paddocks. Murray recommends that when possible leave the nests alone. You may actually benefit by having them around to feed on barn and garden pests. But remember, unlike bees, wasps can sting you as many times as they want and some people can react very violently and undergo anaphylactic shock as an allergic reaction.
Prevention is key for keeping wasps out of wall voids, attic spaces, tack rooms and barns. Seal any cracks, gaps and holes to prevent wasps from entering and setting up shop. For air vents, install small-sized wire screen to prevent wasps and other critters from entering. If you must remove a nest, contact your local extension office for more information on the best way to go about it--some people can be highly allergic to wasp venom.
And one more thought: Fall is the time when all wasps are most prevalent. By the end of summer nests are at maximum capacity, which means lots of adults are around with fewer larvae to care for. Plus, in autumn the wasp’s nest is about to be abandoned and adult wasps are reaching the end of their life cycle. So beware of these flying insects when trail riding with your horse.
Trail riding rules and wasps
My rules for end-of-summer trail rides in areas where ground-dwelling yellowjackets are more active are:
1) Make sure all riders in your party are aware of the risks and nature of ground-dwelling yellow jackets.
2) Find out ahead of time whether any member of the party is allergic to wasp stings. If so, determine if they carry an EppiPen kit.
3) While riding in a line, the #2 and #3 riders have a particular responsibility to watch for angry wasp activity. Ground-dwelling wasps are usually stirred up by the first rider who doesn’t see them, then the angry insects inflict their punishment on the remaining riders in line.
4) If anyone spots wasp activity we yell “BEES” (much easier to yell than “wasps”) and we RUN! Horses stung by wasps often want to stand in the same spot and rub off the stinging insects; bad idea when the rest of the angry hoard is still piling out of the nest. You may have to kick hard to get your horse to move quickly from the area but it is imperative for your safety and that of others that you do so.
5) After you are well away from the area then it is safe to dismount and inspect your horse, riders and dogs for possible stings.
Treating wasp stings on horses
A few stings on your horse’s body can be soothed with a cold water hosing and perhaps something like aloe vera gel. If your horse experiences excessive swelling, irritability, pain or difficulty breathing contract your veterinarian immediately. Stings on your horses’s head, muzzle or other sensitive areas need to be watched very closely for signs of excessive swelling or other serious problems.
For more information on how to be prepared for wasps and yellowjackets on your trail rides and what to do if your horse gets stung, check out Bee Prepared in The Horse.
For help in identifying the two wasps and more on European paperwasps see this article by Washington State University, Garden Friends and Foes, European Paperwasps.
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Washington, July 8 (IANS) NASA is set to release a new book ‘Benefits for Humanity’ that will showcase how research aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is helping improve lives on the Earth while advancing NASA’s ambitious human exploration goals.
It highlights benefits in a number of key areas including human health, disaster relief and education programs to inspire future scientists, engineers and space explorers.
“Some 250 miles overhead, astronauts are conducting critical researches, which makes tremendous advances in our lives while helping to expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
“In the next few years, SpaceX and Boeing will send our crews to orbit from the US, increasing the size of space station crews to seven, doubling the amount of crew time to conduct research for all of humanity,” he said.
The space station, which has been continuously occupied since November 2000, has been visited by more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft.
In a partnership between five member space agencies representing 15 countries, it advances a unified goal to utilise the orbiting laboratory for the betterment of humanity.
“People do not realise how much their lives today have been made better by the space station,” said Julie Robinson, ISS chief scientist,” he added.
Scientists use the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), also known as Kibo, to research effective drugs that may improve the lives of patients suffering around the globe.
The ISS with its European Columbus laboratory is steadily producing lots of important research results which are relevant for many areas of life on Earth.
“The Canadian robotics system that helped build and now operates on the ISS has led to tools that give doctors new ways to detect cancer, operate on sick children, and perform neurosurgery on patients once considered to be inoperable,” added Nicole Buckley, chief scientist with CSA.
The book will be released at the fourth annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference this week.
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Addicks and Barker Dams and Reservoirs Construction
More than a half century ago, in response to devastating floods that occurred in Houston in 1929 and 1935, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction of the Addicks and Barker dams in what was then undeveloped areas in the far west Harris and east Fort Bend counties. This undertaking was a milestone in a longstanding partnership between the Corps and the greater Houston community. But like much of our national infrastructure, Addicks and Barker dams have been around a long time and require structural updates. The Corps will begin construction work in May 2015 to implement permanent structural changes to ensure the integrity of the dams so they may continue to protect downtown Houston and the greater metropolitan area as they have done for the previous 70 years. Please take a moment to share with us your thoughts.Learn more online http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Missions/DamSafetyProgram.aspx.
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Far before the terms Native American or Indian were created, the tribes were spread all over the Americas. Before any white man set foot on this territory, it was settled by the forefathers of bands we now call Sioux, or Cherokee, or Iroquois.
For thousands of years, the American Indian developed its culture and heritage without interference. And that history is captivating.
From Mayan and Incan ruins, from the mounds left in the central and southern parts of what is now the U.S. we have learned much. It’s a tale of beautiful art and deep spirituality. Archaeologists have unearthed remarkably elaborate buildings and public works.
While there was unavoidable tribal conflict, that was simply a slight blemish in the account of our ancestors. They were at peace with this beautiful continent and intensely plugged into nature.
The European Settler Arrives
When European leaders sent the first vessels in our direction, the aim was to discover new resources – but the quality of weather and the bounty of everything from wood to wildlife subsequently changed their tune. As those leaders heard back from their explorers, the drive to colonize spread like wildfire.
The English, French and Spanish rushed to carve up the “New World” by transporting over poorly prepared colonists as fast as they could. Initially, they skirmished with the alarmed Indians of America’s eastern seaboard. But that soon gave way to trade, since the Europeans who arrived here understood their survival was doubtful with no native help.
Thus followed years of comparative peace as the settlers got themselves established on American soil. But the pressure to push inland came soon after. Kings and queens from thousands of miles away were impatient to locate additional resources, and some colonists came for freedom and opportunity.
They required more space. And so began the process of pushing the American Indian out of the way.
It took the shape of cash payments, barter, and famously, treaties which were almost uniformly ignored after the Indians were moved away from the land in question.
The U.S. government’s policies towards Native Americans in the second half of the nineteenth century were determined by the desire to expand westward into areas occupied by these Native American tribes. By the 1850s virtually all Native American tribes, roughly 360,000 in number, were living to the west of the Mississippi River. These American Indians, some from the Northwestern and Southeastern territories, were confined to Indian Territory located in present day Oklahoma, while the Kiowa and Comanche Native American tribes shared the area of the Southern Plains.
The Sioux, Crows and Blackfeet dominated the Northern Plains. These Native American groups experienced misfortune as the constant flow of European immigrants into northeastern American cities pushed a stream of immigrants into the western lands already populated by these various groups of Indians.
Video: American Indians
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The early nineteenth century of the United States was marked by its steady expansion to the Mississippi River. However, due to the Gadsden purchase, that lead to U.S. control of the borderlands of southern New Mexico and Arizona as well as the authority over Oregon country, Texas and California; America’s expansion would not end there. Between 1830 and 1860 the U.S. roughly doubled the amount of land under its control.
These territorial gains coincided with the arrival of hordes of European and Asian immigrants who wanted to join the surge of American settlers heading west. This, partnered with the discovery of gold in 1849, presented captivating opportunities for those willing to make the extended quest westward. As a result, with the military’s protection and the U.S. government’s assistance, many settlers started building their homesteads in the Great Plains and other areas of the Native American tribe-inhabited West.
Native American Tribes
Native American Policy can be defined as the regulations and procedures established and adapted in the United States to summarize the relationship between Native American tribes and the federal government. When the United States initially became a sovereign nation, it adopted the European policies towards these native peoples, but throughout two centuries the U.S. adapted its own widely varying policies regarding the changing perspectives and requirements of Native American oversight.
In 1824, in order to execute the U.S. government’s Native American policies, Congress formed a new bureau within the War Department referred to as Bureau of Indian Affairs, which worked closely with the U.S. Army to enforce their policies. At times the federal government recognized the Indians as self-governing, separate political communities with numerous cultural identities; however, at other times the government attempted to force the Native American tribes to give up their cultural identity, surrender their land and assimilate into the American traditions.
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With the steady flow of settlers in to Indian controlled land, Eastern newspapers published sensationalized reports of cruel native tribes committing massive massacres of hundreds of white travelers. Although some settlers lost their lives to American Indian attacks, this was far from the norm; in fact, Native American tribes generally helped settlers cross over the Plains. Not only did the American Indians offer wild game and other necessities to travelers, but they served as guides and messengers between wagon trains as well. Despite the genial natures of the American Indians, settlers still feared the risk of an attack.
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To soothe these worries, in 1851 the U.S. government placed a conference with several local Indian tribes and established the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Under this treaty, each Native American tribe consented to a bounded territory, allowed the government to construct roads and forts in this territory and agreed to not go after settlers; in return the federal government agreed to honor the boundaries of each tribe’s territory and make total annual payments to the Indians. The Native American tribes responded quietly to the treaty; in fact the Cheyenne, Sioux, Crow, Arapaho, Assinibione, Mandan, Gros Ventre and Arikara tribes, who signed the treaty, even consented to end the hostilities amidst their tribes in order to accept the terms of the treaty.
Navajo Jewelry is Celebrated Worldwide by American Indian Art Collectors
This peaceful agreement between the U.S. government and the Native American tribes did not stand very long. After hearing testimonies of fertile terrain and great mineral wealth in the West, the government soon broke their pledge established in the Treat of Fort Laramie by allowing thousands of non-Indians to flood into the area. With so many newcomers heading west, the federal government established a plan of limiting Native Americans to reservations, modest swaths of land within a group’s territory that was earmarked exclusively for Indian use, in order to grant more property for “” non-Indian settlers.
In a series of new treaties the U.S. government commanded Native Americans to surrender their land and migrate to reservations in exchange for protection from attacks by white settlers. In addition, the Indians were allocated a yearly stipend that would include money in addition to foodstuffs, animals, household goods and farming tools. These reservations were established in an effort to clear the way for increasing U.S. growth and involvement in the West, as well as to keep the Native Americans divided from the whites in order to lessen the potential for friction.
History of the Plains Indians
These agreements had many problems. Most importantly many of the native people did not properly grasp the document that they were confirming or the conditions within it; furthermore, the treaties did not consider the cultural norms of the Native Americans. In addition to this, the government institutions responsible for administering these policies were overwhelmed with poor management and corruption. In fact many treaty conditions were never executed.
The U.S. government rarely held up their side of the deals even when the Native Americans went quietly to their reservations. Unethical bureau agents frequently sold off the supplies that were intended for the Indians on reservations to non-Indians. Additionally, as settlers demanded more territory in the West, the government continually reduced the size of Indian reservations. By this time, many of the Native American peoples were unhappy with the treaties and angered by settlers’ persistent demands for land.
A Look at Native American Symbols
Angered by the government’s deceitful and unfair policies, some Native American tribes, including bands of Cheyennes, Arapahos, Comanches and Sioux, fought back. As they fought to defend their territories and their tribes’ survival, over a thousand skirmishes and battles broke out in the West between 1861 and 1891. In an attempt to push Native Americans onto the reservations and to end the violence, the U.S. government reacted to these conflicts with significant military operations. Clearly the U.S. government’s Indian regulations required an adjustment.
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Native American policy changed dramatically after the Civil War. Reformers felt that the policy of driving Native Americans onto reservations was far too strict even while industrialists, who were concerned about their property and resources, looked at assimilation, the cultural absorption of the American Indians into “white America” as the single long-term means of assuring Native American survival. In 1871 the federal government enacted a pivotal law stating that the United States would not deal with Native American tribes as independent nations.
This legislation signaled a major change in the government’s working relationship with the native peoples – Congress now regarded the Native Americans, not as nations outside of its jurisdiction, but as wards of the government. By making Native Americans wards of the U.S. government, Congress imagined that it was better to make the policy of assimilation a broadly recognized part of the cultural mainstream of America.
More On American Indian History
Many U.S. government officials looked at assimilation as the most effective answer to what they deemed “the Indian problem,” and the only permanent means of guaranteeing U.S. interests in the West and the survival of the American Indians. In order to accomplish this, the government pressed Native Americans to move out of their customary dwellings, move into wooden dwellings and grow into farmers.
The federal government handed down laws that required Native Americans to quit their established appearance and lifestyle. Some laws banned customary religious practices while others ordered Indian men to cut their long locks. Agents on more than two-thirds of American Indian reservations organized tribunals to impose federal regulations that often banned traditional ethnic and spiritual practices.
To speed up the assimilation course, the government established Indian training centers that tried to quickly and vigorously Americanize Indian kids. As per the founder of the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, the schools were created to “kill the Indian and save the man.” To be able to achieve this objective, the schools forced students to speak only English, wear proper American attire and to replace their Indian names with more “American” ones. These new regulations brought Native Americans closer to the end of their classic tribal identity and the beginning of their daily life as citizens under the absolute control of the U.S. administration.
Native American Treaties with the United States
In 1887, Congress approved the General Allotment Act, the most significant component of the U.S. government’s assimilation platform, which was created to “civilize” American Indians by educating them to become farmers. In order to make this happen, Congress planned to establish private title of Indian property by splitting up reservations, which were collectively held, and offering each family their own plot of land.
Additionally, by pushing the Native Americans onto small plots, western developers and settlers could purchase the left over land. The General Allotment Act, better known as the Dawes Act, required that the Indian lands be surveyed and every family be given an allotment of between 80 and 160 acres, while unmarried adults received between 40 to 80 acres; the residual territory was to be sold. Congress expected that the Dawes Act would break-up Indian tribes and inspire individual enterprise, while reducing the cost of Indian supervision and producing prime land to be purchased by white settlers.
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The Dawes Act turned out to be catastrophic for the American Indians; over the next decades they lived under policies that outlawed their traditional way of life but failed to offer the critical resources to support their businesses and families. Splitting the reservations into small parcels of land triggered the significant decrease of Indian-owned land. Inside thirty years, the tribes had lost in excess of two-thirds of the territory that they had controlled before the Dawes Act was enacted in 1887; the majority of the remaining land was sold to white settlers.
Commonly, Native Americans were duped out of their allotments or were required to sell their property in order pay bills and feed their own families. Consequently, the Indians were not “Americanized” and were generally unable to become self-supporting farmers or ranchers, like the makers of the policy had expected. It also produced animosity among Indians toward the U.S. government, as the allotment operation sometimes destroyed land that was the spiritual and social focus of their activities.
Native American Culture
Between 1850 and 1900, life for Native Americans changed dramatically. Due to U.S. government policies, American Indians were forced from their living spaces as their native lands were parceled out. The Plains, which they had previously roamed without limits, were now filling with white settlers.
The Upshot of the Indian Wars
Over the years the Indians had been cheated out of their territory, food and lifestyle, as the “” government’s Indian regulations coerced them onto reservations and attempted to “Americanize” them. Many American Indian bands did not survive relocation, assimilation and military defeat; by 1890 the Native American population was decreased to under 250,000 people. As a result of generations of discriminatory and dodgy policies instituted by the United States government between 1850 and 1900, life for the American Indians was changed forever.
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One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
A board on which vegetables and other types of food are chopped.
- ‘Bradford magistrates heard how the officers also came across dirt on shelves, on the kitchen floor, and on a chopping board.’
- ‘As the vegetables become nicely charred and cooked through, remove from the barbecue to the chopping board.’
- ‘While the bread is toasting, place the garlic cloves on a chopping board, then press down on them hard with the flat side of a large kitchen knife so that they squash slightly and the skin cracks and is easy to peel off.’
- ‘He was also given a set of cooking knives and a chopping board.’
- ‘Scrape the flesh out and on to a chopping board, discarding the skin.’
- ‘When the chicken is nearly ready, place the parsley, zest and garlic on a chopping board and chop together.’
- ‘Use separate chopping boards and utensils or wash them thoroughly to avoid cross-contamination between raw meat, and any cooked or ready-to-eat foods.’
- ‘Cameras above the preparation areas beamed a bird's-eye view of the chopping boards to screens around the auditorium to enable the audience to pick up some handy tips from close range.’
- ‘Keep raw meat in a sealed container or bottom shelf of the fridge to stop it dripping onto cooked meat, and always use a different chopping board and utensils for preparing raw and cooked meat.’
- ‘The bacterium is killed by cooking, but can spread on knives, chopping boards, cloths and unwashed hands.’
- ‘Take three squares of the filo pastry and place the first one down on a surface (a chopping board will do), then brush with clarified butter.’
- ‘On a chopping board, using a kitchen knife, cut the baguette in half and then slice each half in two again lengthways.’
- ‘One in ten of those surveyed said they never used separate chopping boards and knives when preparing raw meat and ready-to-eat foods such as salads, meaning there could be a real risk of cross infection.’
- ‘Place the salmon on a chopping board, skin side down, wrap in foil and place a weighted tray or plate on top of it.’
- ‘The chopping board is sloped and has grooves to grip the food and to encourage liquid to run away from the cutting area.’
- ‘This leaves space at the back of the worktop for extra storage, in the form of roll-down aluminium shutters, open shelving, sliding glass panels or recessed knife racks with fold-down chopping boards.’
- ‘Lay the sardines on their side on a chopping board.’
- ‘The trick is to use a long, sharp knife and a large chopping board.’
- ‘There were rows and rows of tables and work surfaces, covered in chopping boards, bowls, recipes books and various cooking utensils, as well as fruit, vegetables, meat, bags of rice and flour and jars of spices.’
- ‘And I worry about the serving area; have they sterilised the knife, or used a separate chopping board, for example?’
Top tips for CV writingRead more
In this article we explore how to impress employers with a spot-on CV.
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Some homeowners living near shale gas wells appear to be at higher risk of drinking water contamination from stray gases, according to a new-led study.
The scientists analyzed 141 drinking water samples from private water wells across northeastern Pennsylvania’s gas-rich Marcellus Shale basin.
They found that, on average, methane concentrations were six times higher and ethane concentrations were 23 times higher at homes within a kilometer of a shale gas well. Propane was detected in 10 samples, all of them from homes within a kilometer of drilling.
“The methane, ethane and propane data, and new evidence from hydrocarbon and helium content, all suggest that drilling has affected some homeowners’ water,” said Robert B. Jackson, a professor of environmental sciences at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “In a minority of cases the gas even looks Marcellus-like, probably caused by poor well construction.”
The ethane and propane data are “particularly interesting,” he noted, “since there is no biological source of ethane and propane in the region and Marcellus gas is high in both, and higher in concentration than Upper Devonian gases” found in formations overlying the Marcellus shale.
The scientists examined which factors might explain their results, including topography, distance to gas wells and distance to geologic features. “Distance to gas wells was, by far, the most significant factor influencing gases in the drinking water we sampled,” said Jackson.
The team published its peer-reviewed findings this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Shale gas extraction – a process that includes horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – has fueled concerns in recent years about contamination of nearby drinking water supplies.
Two previous Duke-led studies found direct evidence of methane contamination in water wells near shale-gas drilling in northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as possible hydraulic connectivity between deep brines and shallow aquifers. A third study, conducted with U.S. Geological Survey scientists, found no evidence of drinking water contamination from shale gas production in Arkansas. None of the studies found evidence of current contamination by hydraulic fracturing fluids.
The new study is the first to offer direct evidence of ethane and propane contamination.
“Our studies demonstrate that the integrity of gas wells, as well as variations in local and regional geology, play major roles in determining the possible risk of groundwater impacts from shale gas development. As such, they must be taken into consideration before drilling begins,” said Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s Nicholas School.
“The new data reinforces our earlier observations that stray gases contaminate drinking water wells in some areas of the Marcellus shale. The question is what is happening in other shale gas basins,” Vengosh said.
“The helium data in this study are the first in a new tool kit we’ve developed for identifying contamination using noble gas geochemistry,” said Thomas H. Darrah, a research scientist in geology, also at Duke’s Nicholas School. “These new tools allow us to identify and trace contaminants with a high degree of certainty through multiple lines of evidence.”
Co-authors of the new study are Nathaniel Warner, Adrian Down, Kaiguang Zhao and Jonathan Karr, all of Duke; Robert Poreda of the; and Stephen Osborn of . Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and the Duke Center on Global Change funded the research.
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Friday, November 03, 2006
Why could the British not build better ships in 1905 to 1918?
D. K. Brown's assessment is that the explanation for the state of British warship design in 1905 to 1918 is that especially after 1908, the demands on the naval contructors were beyond what the staff could meet. They were short of men to do calculations, which were done by hand in this period, so not enough could be done. I think that another negative factor were the extremely conservative elements in the Royal Navy, who would not give up features that compromised the ships' protective systems. D. K. Brown especially implicates the ammunition transfer passage between the forward and aft magazines. That was not only a vulnerability for flooding, but allowed flash to pass from one end to the other. The most relevant of D. K. Brown's books to this topic is The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development 1906-1922 (1999). In some ways, the book is disappointing. While there is some good material there, the book needed to be two or three times a long.
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Article 13 (freedom of expression) Every child must be free to express their thoughts and opinions and to access all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law. Although it is one thing to generally accept freedom of expression as a basic human right, it’s quite another to actively respect another person’sContinue reading “Liberty of Expression”
Author Archives: i5htar
The Importance of Affection and Acceptance to a Child’s Health, Emotional Well-Being and Behavioural Orientation.
In this project I will detail how holding an accepting space for a child across their development is of vital importance to their feeling secure enough in themselves to develop the psychological robustness required to grow emotionally and cognitively. When I was in the setting an incident occured. A child got out the play-do andContinue reading “The Importance of Affection and Acceptance to a Child’s Health, Emotional Well-Being and Behavioural Orientation.”
Observational Techniques and the Value of Nonviolence in Childcare
I will explain the value of observations, both inner and outer, and how they can be used in practice to benefit stakeholders. We observe the children in our care to better understand them, recording these observations in an effort to allow that understanding to inform how we may best protect and nurture them, and soContinue reading “Observational Techniques and the Value of Nonviolence in Childcare”
Happiness in a time of uncertainty
In order to be fully present and compassionate caregivers it is necessary that we assume accountability and discipline over our measured and appropriate responses.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right. You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click theContinue reading “Introduce Yourself (Example Post)”
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The most immediate goal on the particle physics roadmap as part of the Energy Frontier campaign is to fully understand the unification of the electromagnetic and weak nuclear interactions into a single, “electroweak” force. Scientists expect this to occur at an energy scale of about one trillion electron volts (TeV), or the terascale. The Standard Model has successfully explained almost all particle physics below 1 TeV in energy. Above that energy range, however, a new physical mechanism must be present to confirm Standard Model predictions.
Physicists call this mechanism electro-weak symmetry breaking. The need for this mechanism arose from a problem with the Standard Model. Theoretical calculations indicated that certain so-called gauge bosons (force carriers such as the W and Z bosons) had zero mass, which obviously wasn’t the case as their masses had been measured. Still, the Standard Model was very successful in predicting many other physical phenomena. So the question became: How can gauge bosons gain rest mass, as we already know they have, without violating other parts of the theory that successfully explain many experimental observations? This problem was tackled in the 1960s by a number of theoreticians who postulated a new field and a new boson as a quantum of that field. By convention, these became known as the Higgs field and the Higgs boson, named after the theorist Peter Higgs.
For many years, research at Fermilab’s Tevatron accelerator led the Energy Frontier in search of this theoretically postulated particle. Many significant discoveries and precision measurements were made at this historical facility, such as the discovery of the heaviest quark, known as the top quark, in 1995; direct observation of CP violation in the decay of neutral kaons in 1998; and precision measurements of top quark and W boson masses. In 2012, the Tevatron saw hints of a new particle, but statistics weren’t strong enough to claim that a new particle had indeed been found.(Click here for a Tevatron timeline.)
The Tevatron, shutdown in September 2011, collided protons and antiprotons at an energy of 2 TeV. The LHC collides protons. In March 2012, the LHC achieved center of mass collision energies of 8 TeV and will ultimately reach 14 TeV. After more than two decades of intensive search, physicists may have at last found the long sought-after have Higgs boson. On July 4, 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN jointly announced their results to the world. Both experiments observed a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 GeV.
If the new particle proves to be the Higgs then this implies the existence of the Higgs field. Because mass is everywhere in the universe, then the Higgs field must be everywhere. Unlike gravitational and electric fields, the strength of which decrease with distance, the strength of the Higgs field must be constant. It has been likened to a giant vat of molasses spread throughout the universe through which particles wade. If a specific elementary particle is heavier than another, then it is more strongly coupled to the Higgs field. The Higgs boson, as the quantum of the Higgs field (analogous to a photon for the electromagnetic field), mediates the interaction between the particle and the field. The strength of this interaction decides the particles mass. If the new particle is not the Higgs, then some other explanation for electroweak symmetry breaking must be found and experimentally verified.
Originally scientists proposed that a single Higgs boson is the answer, but newer theories such as supersymmetry and extra hidden dimensions, suggest that multiple Higgs bosons could solve the TeV scale conundrum in the Standard Model. No matter which of these theories is proven to be correct, it will provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental nature of matter, energy, space and time. One thing is clear: the terascale will unlock a new world of physics for scientists to explore.
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“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Edmund Hillary
Self-efficacy is defined by psychologist Albert Bandura as “people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives.” This translates into a belief not about what we believe our skills to be, but what we believe we can do with our skills under certain conditions. Even if we belief ourselves to be quite skilled in a certain area of life, this belief does not translate into self-efficacy unless we believe that these skills will manifest into competent action.
Premises of Social Cognitive Theory
The Handbook of Positive Psychology (Snyder & Lopez, 2005) explains that self-efficacy beliefs develop over time and through experience. Self-efficacy is best understood in relation to social cognitive theory, which has four basic premises:
1. Our cognitive capabilities allow for the creation of internal models of experience and the communication of complex ideas to others. We are capable of self-observation and analyzing our own thoughts and experience. This reflective capacity enables us to engage in self-regulation.
2. Environmental factors and internal factors influence one another. We respond to events cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally. Our thinking controls our behavior, which in turn influences both the environment and our emotional and physiological states.
3. Self and personality are socially embedded terms. Since perceptions of self and other are socially embedded, personality and self are more than what we bring to interactions with others – they are created in these interactions.
4. We are capable of self-regulation. We select our goals and regulate our behaviors in pursuit of goals. The core of regulation involves the ability to anticipate expectancies – using past knowledge and experiences to predict future events about our abilities and behavior.
Development of Self-Efficacy
These basic assumptions of social cognitive theory tell us that self-efficacy is influenced by two interacting factors: (1) the development of the capacity for symbolic thought (understanding cause and effect relationships) and the capacity for self-reflection and self-observation, as well as (2) the responsiveness of the environment to the child’s attempts at control (Snyder & Lopez, 2005). As children, we begin to learn that events cause other events, recognizing our personal power to influence future events through our present actions.
What do we do if we didn’t learn as children that we were capable of influencing our external environment through deliberate action? Many children grow up in chaotic households where they gradually learn that the environment around them does not change no matter what they do. This pattern can continue into adulthood as a lack of personal agency or a sense of helplessness. It is then incumbent upon these individuals, as adults, to begin to build up self-efficacy through repeated attempts at mastery and development of competence.
Benefits of Self-Efficacy
There is a great deal of research on the benefits of self-efficacy. For starters, self-efficacy positively influences the likelihood of adopting healthy behaviors, letting go of unhealthy behaviors, and maintaining healthy habits in the face of adversity. Research has also shown that enhancement of self-efficacy beliefs “is crucial to successful change and maintenance of virtually every behavior crucial to health, including exercise, diet, stress management, safe sex, smoking cessation, overcoming alcohol abuse, compliance with treatment and prevention regimens, and disease detection behaviors” (Snyder & Lopez, 2005; Bandura, 1997; Maddux et al., 1995).
How to Build Self-Efficacy
Clearly there is a wide range of benefits to cultivating self-efficacy, but how do we begin to develop this belief in our own competence? Michelle Gielan, journalist and wellness expert, suggests the following strategies to develop a stronger sense of self-efficacy:
1. Recall times in the past when you experienced success. Set aside time to write down these successes. What contributed to your success in that event? How were you resourceful? What was different about that time that made it so successful?
2. Seek out stories of people who have overcome adversity or experienced great success. These stories can serve as powerful inspiration for your own life. How did that person manage to face challenges and realize their goals?
The final message on building self-efficacy involves striving to remember that “confidence, effort, and persistence are more potent than innate ability” (Snyder & Lopez, 2005). Rather than focusing excessively on “talent” or “skill” that you believe successful people to innately have, remember that success requires great perseverance and willingness to expend considerable effort. How can you begin to build up a more powerful sense of self-efficacy in your own life? Think of the next challenge that you face as an opportunity to prove to yourself that you are competent.
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Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Gielan, M. (2011, January 6). How to go from “i think i can” to “i know i can” [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/lights-camera-happiness/201101/how-go-i-think-i-can-i-know-i-can
Snyder, C.R. & S.J. Lopez. (2005). Handbook of Positive Psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Featured image: 14er Portrait by Zach Dischner / CC BY 2.0
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A failed bridge constructed over the Jordan at Ghoraniye, likely undermined by the flooding waters of the river.
April 2 1918, Ghoraniye–Allenby had turned his attention east in early 1918, hoping to cut the Hejaz Railway at Amman. Even if the Turks were not permanently ejected from the city, the destruction of a rail bridge and tunnel in the area would disrupt rail traffic for months, and hopefully force the Turks to abandon all positions to the south. In late March, he intended to cross the Jericho and attack Amman, while his Hashemite allies attacked Ma’an to the south. However, heavy rains interfered with this plan; the Arabs postponed their attack on Ma’an as “camels and pack animals were floundering in mud,” and flooding of the Jordan meant that the British could not cross until March 23, and had severe supply difficulties thereafter. Critically, the wet and muddy conditions meant that all but the lightest British artillery could not reach Amman. Attacks on Amman from March 27 to 30 were all repulsed by machine-guns in positions that could not be taken out without artillery support. The British lost a third of their force wounded in attacks that were destined to fail before withdrawing back to the west, followed by refugees who were afraid of Ottoman retribution. By April 2, the British had withdrawn all but a small detachment back across the Jordan.
The German offensive in France meant that the time for offensive operations in Palestine and Jordan was quickly running out. The War Office had already ordered one of his divisions away to bolster the Western Front, and two more would leave before the end of April. Allenby hoped to try one more attack before the summer heat set in, but it would be with a quickly-diminishing force.
Today in 1917: Wilson Asks Congress to Declare War on Germany
Sources include: Roger Ford, Eden to Armageddon; Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans.
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Growth of Trade Unions in India
The trade unions in India developed quite slowly as compared to the western nations. Indian trade union movement can be divided into three phases:
1. The first phase (1850-1900):
During this phase the inception of trade unions took place. During this period, the working and living conditions of the labour were poor and their working hours were long. Capitalists were only interested in their productivity and profitability. In addition, the wage were also low and general economic conditions were poor in industries. In order to regulate the working hours and other service conditions of the Indian textile labourers,the Indian factories Act was enacted in 1881. As a result employment of child labour was prohibited.
The growth of trade union movement was slow in this phase and later on the Indian factory Act of 1881 was amended in 1891. Many strikes took place in the two decades following 1880 in all industrial cities. These strikes taught workers to understand the power of united action even though there was no union in real terms.
2. The Second Phase (1991-1946):
This phase was characterized by the development of organized trade unions and political movement of the working class. Between 1981 and 1923, many unions came into existence in the country. At Ahemedabad, under the guidance of mahatma Gandhi,occupational unions like spinners. ‘unions and weavers’ unions were formed. A strike was launched by these unions under the leadership of mahatma who turned it into a Satyagrah. These unions federated into industrial union known as textile labour association in 1920. In 1920, the first national trade union organization was established (AITUC). Many of the leaders of this organization were leaders of the national movement. In 1926,trade union law came up with the effort of me.N. N joshi that became operative from 1927. During 1928, All India trade union federation (AITUF) was formed.
3. The Third Phase (1947- till now):
The third phase began with the emergence of independent India in 1947. The partition of country affected the trade union movement particularly Bengal and punjab. By 1949, four central trade union organizations were functioning in the country:
- The all India Trade Union Congress.
- he Indian national Trade Union Congress.
- The Hindu Mazdoor Sangh.
- The united Trade cogress.
The working class movement was also politicized along the hens of political parties. For instance, Indian national trade cogress (INTUC) is the trade union arm of the congress party. The AITUC is the trade union arm of the communist party of India. Besides workers,white-collar employees,supervisors and managers also organized by the trade union, as for example in the Banking,insurance and petroleum industries.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the balanced English approach
program on five-year-old children's English reading and writing ability.
For this study, two classes consisting of five-year-old children in
HATBEAT kindergarten in D city were selected. One class was designated
as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The
balanced English approach program was performed on the experimental
group but not on the control group. The balanced English approach
program was carried out for 8 weeks. The experimental procedures were
in the order of pre-test, the experimental treatment, and post-test. The
result of the experiment was evaluated by comparing the pre-test and
post-test results. Analysis of data was performed by ANCOVA.
The result of the study are as follows.
First, in the English reading ability, the experimental group was more
enhanced than the control group. Also, for sub-factors of English reading
such as alphabet and English word reading ability, the experimental group
was more enhanced than the control group. However, in the English book
reading ability as a sub- factor of the English reading, there was not much
difference in the result between the experimental group and the control
Second, in the English writing ability, the experimental group were more
enhanced than the control group.
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By Staff Reports
(Victor Valley)– From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Nicholas Garlow with HHS HealthBeat.
Myth – smoking hookah is a safe alternative to cigarettes. Smoking hookah may in some waysactually be worse. A study at the University of California, San Francisco compared the effects of hookah to cigarette smoking.
Dr. Peyton Jacob led the study.
“Exposure to carbon monoxide was about 2.5 times higher during hookah smoking. High carbon monoxide exposure increases the risk for acute events such as a heart attack, stroke, or sudden death in people who have cardiovascular or lung diseases.”
Hookah also exposed users to higher levels of benzene – a cancer-causing chemical, also found in gasoline.
Jacob warns hookah is not a safe alternative for cigarette smokers.
The study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Nicholas Garlow.
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book chapter on wisdom, organizational scholar Karl Weick builds on age-old wisdom by philosophers like Confucius who said: "To know that one knows what one knows, and to know that one doesn't know what one doesn't know, there lies true wisdom".
Weick quotes J. Meacham (1990) who wrote: "The essence of wisdom ... lies not in what is known but rather in the manner in which that knowledge is held and in how that knowledge is put to use. To be wise is not to know particular facts but to know without excessive confidence or excessive cautiousness. To both accumulate knowledge while remaining suspicious of it, and recognizing that much remains unknown, is to be wise."
Weick builds on this view on wisdom and describes wisdom as keeping a balance between knowing and doubting. The balance can be disturbed in two ways: 1) overconfidence in one's own knowledge can keep one from asking new questions, paying attention things unknown, new and uncertain which can diminish one's capacity to adapt and thereby threaten one's vitality. 2) Too much doubt can lead to inertion, indecision and passivity.
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Cocaine and Alcohol – Cocaine and alcohol are frequently consumed together – people are sometimes seeking an enhanced effect, and other times, alcohol is used to help reduce the symptoms of a cocaine comedown. In either case, using cocaine and alcohol together can be even more dangerous than when abusing either drug alone.
Alcohol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant, meaning it slows activity in the brain and body. Alcohol consumption, however, results in a huge surge of dopamine, a chemical that is associated with feelings of euphoria. It is this intense feeling of well-being that, at least at first, masks alcohol’s depressant effects.
Cocaine, on the other hand, is a CNS stimulant, meaning that it increases, rather than suppresses activity in the body. Mixing cocaine and alcohol, therefore, results in a sort of conflict of interests, so to speak, from the brain and body’s perspective.
Some Combined Side Effects
✔ Breathing Problems
✔ Rapid heart rate
✔ Cognitive impairment
✔ Increased blood pressure
✔ Impaired coordination and motor function
✔ Heart palpitations Cerebral infarction (death of blood vessels and blood tissue)
✔ Brain aneurysm
✔ Brain damage
Cocaethylene – An Unexpected By-Product
Cocaethylene is a chemical that is formed as the byproduct of the combined use of cocaine and alcohol metabolized by the liver. In fact, cocaethylene is the only known example of the development of a third drug in the human body after the consumption of two others.
Cocaethylene is toxic in the liver, has a longer duration of action than cocaine, and is also thought responsible for many cardiac arrests among younger people in their 20s and 30’s.
But in fact, very little is known about the drug and its potential threat to users, other than it may be even more toxic to the heart, possibly carrying a much higher risk of sudden death.
Where Does Cocaine Come From?
The purest form of cocaine, cocaine hydrochloride, is a substance derived from the coca plant native to South America. While the coca leaf itself has stimulating effects, it is this powerful chemical isolated from the plant that makes cocaine both desirable as a drug and very dangerous.
Types of Cocaine
- Pure cocaine is almost never seen on the street, but can rarely be found up to a 98% purity. Most of the time, however, it is less than 40% pure and is cut with additives such as caffeine, sugar, and other drugs. Cocaine often comes in powder form and with colors ranging from whitish-grayish (chalk.) Cocaine has effects that make the user feel happy, energetic, and talkative. Cocaine use results in a relatively short high, however, and even inexperienced or first-time users are not likely to feel its effects for more than an hour.
- Freebase cocaine is cocaine that is nearly free of the drug’s hydrochloride additive. Freebase cocaine is the result of the conversion of powder cocaine to cocaine sulfate. This drug is therefore nearly 100% pure and highly dangerous to use. Crack cocaine can also be yellowish in color, is wax-like, and usually smoked in a pipe.
- Crack is a combination of cocaine and other chemicals such as ammonia, ether, or baking soda, and often has stronger effects compared to refined, powdered cocaine. It also has a greater potential for addiction.
Methods of Use
Cocaine powder is most commonly aspirated or “snorted.” However, some users inject it. Snorting cocaine can lead to frequent nosebleeds, infections, and irreversible damage to the nasal septum and surrounding tissues.
Injecting cocaine into a blood vessel or under the skin can result in damage to both the veins and skin, including sores, abscesses, and infections.
Smoking cocaine increases the risk of bronchitis and pneumonia.
Alcohol addiction, however, even without the presence of other drug use can be very destructive and have devasting consequences. It can result in mental and health problems, legal issues, and family/social conflicts.
Alcohol addiction is characterized by the excessive use of alcohol, tolerance, and dependency. Tolerance is a term to describe how the body becomes desensitized to alcohol use, and therefore, over time, more is needed to achieve intoxication.
Dependency occurs when the brain becomes accustomed to the drug’s presence and can no longer function “normally” without it. When the drinker tries to drastically cut back or quit altogether, unpleasant withdrawal effects result.
Treatment for Alcoholism and Cocaine Abuse
When someone regularly uses alcohol and cocaine together, this is known as polysubstance abuse – a condition that is more complex than addiction to either substance is alone.
Treatment for polysubstance abuse requires long-term therapy and a comprehensive approach that also includes counseling and group support. Ideally, polysubstance abusers should undergo a residential stay in our addiction treatment center for a minimum of 30 days. For those who need more flexibility, however, intensive outpatient care is also available.
After professional treatment has been completed, support groups can be incredibly useful for maintaining long-term abstinence, as is ongoing treatments such as psychiatric services and counseling. Also, after discharge from treatment, clients can still participate in our aftercare program and alumni activities.
If you or your loved one is suffering from substance abuse, please seek help as soon as possible.
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Every parent wants their child to be able to smile with confidence but for many, that’s not the only reason to investigate orthodontics at an early age. While the average age for orthodontic treatment is around 12 years old, we at O’Neill Orthodontics have a mission to focus on children 7 and up, keeping with the American Association of Orthodontics’ guidelines. Why, age seven, you ask?
Early Orthodontic treatment has many benefits. An orthodontic consult at an early age can catch future issues and adjust for them before they become problems. Some of these issues include:
Crossbites: by age 7 most children’s permanent molars and incisors have come in. A trained eye can see early on if crowding or crossbites will be an issue as the rest of your child’s permanent teeth come in. The earlier treatment begins, the easier it will be because your child’s jaw is less developed at this early age and can be guided along the right path rather than working to reverse issues at a later age.
Overcrowding: Traditionally, orthodontists would say wait until age 11 or 12 to treat a crowding problem, but the problem isn’t going to get any better by waiting. Early treatment has been proven to correct narrow arch and create space for the teeth as well as for the tongue so it may function correctly when swallowing. Plus, early treatment can avoid the need for future tooth extraction or jaw surgery.
Airway Obstruction: well-developed airways allow normal breathing through the nose when the mouth is closed. While this may sound trivial, nasal breathing is important because it’s now known to be vital to good health. Airway obstruction has been linked to developmental delays, sleep disorders, behavioral disturbances, and later can lead to hypertension, stroke, heart disease and even premature death. These sound scary but the treatment is easy if we are able to catch it early on!* We all can relate to our little ones that struggle with allergies!
The benefits of Early Orthodontic treatment are clear:
Early treatment can also regulate the width of the upper and lower dental arches, gain space for permanent teeth, avoid the need for permanent tooth extractions, reduce the likelihood of impacted permanent teeth, correct any habits that can cause bad bite later on, and eliminate abnormal swallowing or speech problems. In other words, early treatment can simplify later treatment. Speaking of…
Two-Phase Treatment. Phase 1 works with your young child to make space for their permanent teeth. Phase 2 begins once they’ve arrived. Often children who undergo Phase 1 treatment have a much shorter Phase 2. This makes life easier for both them and you as their schedules get busier and busier.
Not every 7 year old will need early treatment, but if they do need early treatment and if it is caught early on by a trained orthodontist, like Dr. O’Neill, it could make a big difference in their overall treatment outcomes. Phase one orthodontics allows Dr. O’Neill to take advantage of your child’s growth to guide his or her teeth and jaw, possibly avoiding future extractions.
Knowing the importance of early orthodontics is only part of the battle. Then the question is who do you trust to give you an accurate and individualized opinion? We at O’Neill Orthodontics focus on your child’s individual needs – there is no universal treatment plan. We will work with your child and your family to create a treatment plan that addresses your child’s best interests.
Our unique office is located in New Freedom, PA – we’re an easy drive for all our PA and Maryland patients and provide top-notch care in a sophisticated, tech-savvy office. Dr. Nancy O’Neill is a Board Certified Orthodontist and a graduate of the University of Maryland. If you’re looking for excellence, you’re looking for O’Neill Orthodontics. We can’t wait to meet you.
Contact us today for a complimentary consultation! Click below to request an appointment:
*Note: While Dr. O’Neill can spot airway obstruction, she will always refer your child to a specialist to diagnose. If diagnosed with Sleep Apnea or Airway Obstruction, Dr. O’Neill is certified and an expert with treatment!
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What aspect of winemaking has the biggest impact on the environment? It's an important question for wineries looking to go greener, but figuring out the answer can be challenging. And according to a new study that tracks the life cycle of one wine from grape planting to bottle disposal, packaging—primarily the production of heavy glass bottles—has a greater environmental impact than viticulture or vinification. Wine Spectator's Dana Nigro explains.
For the full article, check out the new issue of Wine Spectator, on newsstands February 25, 2014.
Do you have a Wine Spectator magazine subscription? Save 50% on your Online Membership right now!
Sips & Tips | Wine & Healthy Living
Video Theater | Collecting & Auctions
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Incident Insight reprinted from Alert Diver magazine
By Marty McCafferty
Lessons in Gas Management
Running out of breathing gas is the most significant trigger in diver deaths.
>DIVER NO. 1
>A 37-year-old male diver with approximately 30 lifetime dives was doing his first night dive. It was also his first cold-water and first drysuit dive. He was healthy and not taking any medications. The diver descended to 95 feet, breathing air and using a dive computer. He had some difficulty beginning his descent due to his failure to adjust his weight to compensate for the increased buoyancy of the drysuit. After some time at the bottom he checked his air gauges and found he had less than 300 psi remaining. He signaled to his buddy he was terminating the dive and began to ascend. Because of inexperience, the ascent was not fully controlled, and the diver reported feeling "close to panic." After surfacing, he waited for his buddy, and they swam back to shore. The diver never experienced symptoms, but he contacted DAN® the next day to discuss the events and inquire if he was still in any danger.
>DIVER NO. 2
>A 72-year-old male with hundreds of lifetime dives, including several technical dives, was participating in a series of wreck dives with three buddies. He was not known to have any medical conditions or to be taking any medications; he was reportedly in good general health. The first dive was an uneventful wreck dive to 112 feet for 28 minutes. The second dive was planned as a shallower dive, and the diver's three buddies descended ahead of him. His body was later found floating on the surface a half mile away from the initial descent area. One witness reported the decedent's snorkel was in his mouth when his body was recovered. His weight belt was not in place, and his tank was empty. Circumstances indicated he made a buoyant emergency ascent. His computer recorded a nine-minute dive to 29 feet. Apparently, each of the four divers used a single tank (per diver) to make both dives. The autopsy findings were consistent with drowning.
>DIVER NO. 3
>The diver was a 24-year-old female with approximately 100 lifetime dives. She reported a history of regular exercise and good general health, and she denied taking any medications. Her dives were warm-water ocean dives hunting lobster. The first dive was along a reef structure at a maximum depth of 73 feet, and some time passed before she located her prey. Trying to capture one lobster required a short chase and raised her respiratory rate. The diver checked her gauge only when she became aware of increased breathing resistance. It displayed "0." She admitted to panicking and swimming rapidly toward the surface. She failed to jettison her weights or inflate her BCD, which she would have to have done orally because of her empty cylinder. Other divers saw her struggling to keep her head above water and remove the regulator from her mouth. They helped her return to the dive boat, where she had difficulty breathing and coughed up pink, frothy sputum. Crew members provided oxygen and returned to shore, where emergency medical service personnel were waiting. She was transported to the hospital and diagnosed with seawater aspiration. She developed pneumonia and was hospitalized for two weeks, after which she was discharged with no residual problems.
>To many people who drive a car every day, running out of fuel may seem improbable, but according to AAA it is a daily occurrence. Likewise, ineffective breathing-gas management while diving is a recurrent problem. During peak season, DAN Medicine speaks with at least two divers every week who have concerns about having made a "rapid ascent" after finding themselves low on or out of breathing gas. Although the incidence of fatal injuries is very low, about 41 percent of dive fatalities involve insufficient breathing gas as the trigger that led to other harmful events and, ultimately, the death of the diver. Drowning is the leading cause of death in these situations.
>The reasons behind bad gas management are numerous and varied. The first diver in this case study introduced new environmental factors (a night dive in cold water) and new equipment (a drysuit), and he failed to make adjustments for any of it. As a result, poor buoyancy control, unfamiliar equipment and stressful dive conditions increased his air consumption and reduced the volume in his tank faster than usual. He had an adequate gas supply to make a safe ascent, but his inexperience left him unable to control his ascent rate.
>The second diver started his second dive with a practically empty tank, which was either an oversight or a bad decision. He followed his training in making a buoyant emergency ascent, though he clearly ignored it in failing to ensure he had an adequate gas supply at the start of the dive. The third diver was involved in vigorous and distracting activities. These increased her respirations and sped up the depletion of her gas supply, which she did not monitor carefully. She failed to follow her training by not releasing her weights to increase her buoyancy at the surface.
>Exertion, stress, anxiety and environmental factors can all increase respiratory rate. Activities like lobster hunting or spearfishing may consume gas supplies five to 10 times faster than usual. Wearing too much or too little weight can cause divers to work harder, increasing gas consumption. Regardless of factors, however, divers should monitor gas supply frequently and consistently.
>When planning a dive, incorporate a breathing-gas limit in the plan. For example, a buddy pair might agree to head back to the exit point when the first diver has used a third or half of his breathing gas (not counting the reserve to be left in the cylinder at the end of the dive). Maintaining buddy contact can make a life or death difference. Safe diving practices and sharpening skills such as buoyancy control reduce the risk of a breathing-gas emergency but do not eliminate it completely.
>Proper responses to breathing-gas emergencies rely on experience and skill recall. Establishing and practicing responses are essential; confidence in being able to use an alternate air source provided by a buddy can lead to a much better outcome. Through planning and practice, effective breathing-gas management can become second nature and reduce the likelihood of a diving emergency.
>© Alert Diver — Spring 2011
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Thursday, October 14, 1999 Published at 23:28 GMT 00:28 UK
World: Middle East
Egypt unearths world's oldest stables
Chariots played an important role in ancient Egyptian life
By Caroline Hawley in Cairo
A joint German-Egyptian archeological team says it has uncovered some of the world's oldest horse stables on the edge of the Nile Delta, about 100km northeast of Cairo.
The stables comprise six rows of buildings which would house at least 460 horses.
They have linked the stables to the pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled more than 3,000 years ago and was one of ancient Egypt's most prolific builders.
The head of the excavation team, Edgar Pusch, described it as the biggest and best preserved stable ever uncovered from the ancient Near East.
He told the BBC it stretched for more than 17,000 square metres - six identical rows of buildings, each with rooms containing limestone basins and stones to tether the hundreds of horse.
20 year search
The stable floors were sloped, Doctor Pusch says, to collect the urine of the horses, which was then used to fertilise surrounding areas.
Archaeologists believe the horses themselves were used to draw the two-wheeled chariots that were an important part of warfare at the time, and were used by Ramses II to fight off invaders.
The German-Egyptian team had been digging in the area, which is close to the pharaoh's ancient capital, for nearly 20 years searching for the temple of a goddess on horseback depicted on a statue.
They concluded several years ago that they may have uncovered a stable, but they only realised the scale of the find recently.
Archaeologists believe that a wealth of other discoveries lies beneath the fertile fields of the Nile Delta. Until recently, most excavation work in Egypt has focused on Upper and Middle Egypt.
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[by Dean Smith] An American judge has recently given two chimpanzees the same rights as humans.
The two chimps are part of a research lab in Stony Brook University in New York state. The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) took the lab to court in challenging its detention of the two primates.
On April 20, 2015, New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe issued a writ of habeaus corpus demanding representatives of the lab come before her court and answer the accusation the chimps are “unlawfully detained.” The hearing is tentatively booked for May 6, 2015. This is the first time any animal has received such a ruling.
NRP argues these two chimps are not property, but rather “autonomous” beings — “being able to self-determine, be self-aware, and be able to choose how to live their own lives.”
The organization first took the case to court in December 2013 asking for habeaus corpus writ be issued on behalf of the two animals. It was turned down by judges in two earlier rulings, but continued to appeal. According to NRP, since New York State only allows humans to have a habeaus corpus issued on their behalf, the court’s recent ruling essentially granted the chimps human-like status.
Though the ruling only requires lab representatives to stand before the court to answer the charge, it nevertheless significantly alters how the court looks at these two animals.
The Bible tells us that God created humans in His “image” and “likeness”and that we are unique among His creation.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26 NASV)
By elevating chimps to the level of humans, does it devalue humans to chimp status?
If it does, this is not the only thing that devalues humans. Evolution does the same by treating men and women as little more than evolved animals.
The baby in the womb has been devalued to a fetus so it can be killed with impunity. Women are now getting abortions because it is inconvenient. One English woman recently went public with her desire for abortion because her pregnancy prevented her from participating in the Big Brother television program.
Premeditated murder can result in minimal penalties which shows how much a person’s life is valued. In April, a Bali court sentenced Americans Tommy Schaefer to 18 years in jail and Heather Mack to 10 for brutally murdering Mack’s mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack. The court described the attack as “sadistic.”
The three from Chicago were vacationing on the island in August 2014, when the two killed Sheila. Her battered body was found stuffed in a suit case in the trunk of a taxi cab. According to the court record, Sheila did not approve of Schaefer, apparently for good reason.
In Tokyo, Japan, an American man Richard Hinds could be out of jail in as little as five years for strangling an Irish girl, Nicola Furlong, to death in 2012. The nineteen year old man was sentenced in 1993 for a murder the court described as “atrocious and vicious in nature.” The mother of the dead girl called the decision a “travesty.” In addition it sentenced James Blackston to three years in jail for raping Nicola the same night she was killed.
Do these sentences reflect how much society values human life?
- Chimpanzees given human rights: NY Judge rules that two primates held at research labs are covered by same laws that govern the detention of people: Daily Mail
- Judge recognizes two Chimpanzess as legal person, grants them writ of Habeas Corpus: Nonhuman Rights Project
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February 27, 2011: Matthew 25:31-46, Told for Younger Children
February 21, 2011 Length: 3:01
One day, our Lord Jesus Christ told about a time that is coming. He said that at the end of the world, He will come back and sit on a throne. It will be full of glory, and all the holy angels will be with Him!
Then everyone from the whole world will come together there. Our Lord Jesus will divide everyone into groups, just like a shepherd separates out sheep and goats.
Our Lord said that the good people will get God’s Kingdom! They have fed hungry people, given drinks to thirsty people, been friendly to people they didn’t know, given clothes to people who didn’t have enough, visited sick people, and gone to see prisoners. Our Lord said that, when the good people do these things to other people, they do it to Him.
Then He said a sad thing. He said that the people who do not help others around them will need to go away from Him. They will go into fire with the devil. Because they did not help others they did not help our Lord. So they will be punished, but the good people will live forever with God!
Here are some questions about the Gospel story:
1. When Jesus told this story, he told about when He will come back. He said that He will divide everyone into two groups, just like when a shepherd separates what two animals?
2. Which kind of people did God welcome into His kingdom?
3. What did they do that pleased God?
4. God wants us to help those in need. Did you ever . . .
open the door for someone?
help someone who was hurt on the playground?
bring in food for a food drive?
play with someone who was all alone?
5. Jesus wants us to be helpful and caring, so we can be like Him.
"I have been an AFR listener for years. It helped to lead me out of the chaos that had become my life-long pilgrimage in Anglicanism, and now sustains me and helps me to grow in Orthodoxy."
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Neuroscientists are learning new tricks from professional magicians, as they struggle to understand how the brain works. Magicians take advantage of how our nervous systems, including our eyes and sense of touch, are wired to perceive "impossible" illusions (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show). In Live Science.com, Wynne Parry quotes researcher Susana Martinez-Conde as saying, "Scientists have only studied cognitive illusions for a few decades. Magicians have studied them for hundreds, if not thousands, of years."
Magicians manipulate our attention, by subtly directing it to a location AWAY from where the trick is actually is taking place. Parry quotes her husband, neuroscientist Stephen Macknik, as saying, "You don't see it because the information doesn't make it to the parts of your brain that are conscious. This is very similar in many ways to what magicians do with misdirection. It's always interesting to learn more about why this works." We agree: It's always interesting to learn more about how EVERYTHING works (including meditation!)
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Bryan Mazor helped lead the Solar Car Team as both an LSA student and alum. He and a group of Solar Car Team alumni won an international race in Abu Dhabi by a mere 2.5 minutes in the Quantum car.
This is an article from the fall 2017 issue of LSA Magazine. Read more stories from the magazine.
Bryan Mazor (B.S. ’14) talks about populating other planets like it’s inevitable. So does Elon Musk, who founded the company SpaceX, where Mazor works as a solar array engineer.
“Ultimately, I’m an explorer and a physicist,” says Mazor. “I want to go to Mars. It’d be fun to be the John Muir of Mars. Just go there, explore, and get mountains named after you.”
The prospect of exploring unknown lands has pretty much ended here on Earth. The red planet may offer our next best viable chance to have such adventures, and a main objective of SpaceX is to engineer affordable rocket transportation so people can really go. Maybe the SpaceX passion has proved contagious: This year’s team of NASA astronauts came from a pool of 18,300 applicants, the biggest since NASA began.
The other driving mission of SpaceX? To populate Mars with at least one million people in what ultimately will become a self-sufficient community, which would persist in the case of human extinction on Earth.
The plan to colonize Mars in case of emergency is “like doom and gloom,” Mazor admits, and even a bit wild. But Mazor believes that desperate times call for desperate measures. “In the short amount of time we’ve been on the Earth, we’ve managed to go to the moon, but we’ve also been able to heat this place up by a couple degrees and possibly make living here a lot more complicated,” he says.
Part of the solution is sustainability. And Elon Musk’s trifecta of companies—which includes SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity — interweaves it right into the business plan. SpaceX will build reusable rockets rather than dump single-serve spacecraft after every launch, which cuts down costs in a major way. “We’re trying to keep it as cheap as possible,” says Mazor.
“The landings we do are still shell-shocking,” Mazor marvels about SpaceX. “This 140-foot rocket can land itself on a small boat! Those are some of the most amazing things I’ve seen.”
And Tesla’s electric cars consume sustainable energy that SolarCity helps create. Zero-emission electric cars, especially if charged through the solar grid, don’t contribute to climate change the way gas engines do. “Electric motors can become 98 percent efficient,” says Mazor, “whereas in a gasoline motor, efficiency and transmission averages something like 20 percent.” An efficient electric motor makes a cost-effective car, which gets even cheaper because Elon Musk promises that Tesla charging stations will operate for free forever.
Mazor makes reliable solar arrays that power SpaceX.
“Less than five percent of our society is farmers — people actually feeding each other — and it’s nuts that a very small percentage of our society can feed everybody,” he says. “If you carry that analogy to a spacecraft, our solar team is kind of like the farmers. Solar arrays are where the energy and power come from to run everything. Batteries are like storage silos.”
“The reason gasoline motors persisted for such a long time is the energy storage,” Mazor says. “It was more efficient to store energy in chemical bonds and gasoline than it was in battery packs. So in the 1920s, it was a technological maturity problem. Internal combustion engines prevailed because battery technology was lagging.”
Mazor knows about harvesting solar energy based on a few years of experience racing on the U-M Solar Car Team as an undergraduate studying physics. His roles on the team called for both physics and engineering expertise, and he was up for the challenge.
“I thought about transferring to engineering when it became more apparent that I was interested in it. But ultimately, I just love physics,” says Mazor. As a kid, Mazor and his family would often lapse into deep conversations about science and math around the dinner table. “When I’m just sitting around in the grass under a tree or something, my mind gravitates to physics problems.
“At SpaceX, we are advancing technology in a lot of different realms, and hopefully some of those advances can help attack climate change. We’re reducing the activation energy to get into space and making space more accessible. We’re trying to make it so cheap to go to Mars that people’s imaginations can extend there, and we can start thinking of creative ways to make society better.
“We’re trying to open up people’s imaginations. What if you could fly a satellite? What would you fly? If you could go to Mars, what would you do? We are trying to make all of that real.”
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Why the pucker with your morning OJ?
After you jump out of bed and brush your teeth, health experts are saying your next step toward maintaining good health is eating a healthy breakfast—but sometimes that morning glass of orange juice seems more bitter than healthful.
Scientists at the American Chemical Society recently posted a new episode of its award-winning Bytesize Science video series (www.BytesizeScience.com) that sheds some light "on a common breakfast disturbance—the foul taste of orange juice after you brush your teeth," the ACS's website says.
The components of toothpaste include a variety of ingredients that add flavors, body, texture and, of course, cleaning power. Toothpastes contain water, abrasive agents to clean plaque, fluoride to fight cavities and a detergent to produce the suds in your morning oral health routine.
Although the detergent used in toothpaste, sodium lauryl sulfate, does a great job cleaning teeth, it also affects your mouths 10,000 taste buds. Each of your taste buds has about 100 taste molecules, and there are taste molecules that can distinguish five different types of taste: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and another type of taste called umami (a Japanese term for a pleasant and savory taste).
The sodium lauryl sulfate not only inhibits the sweet receptors in your mouth, it also opens the pathways to the bitter taste buds, making that morning glass of orange juice taste unappealing.
View the video for all the details.
The ADA offers consumers advice on choosing a toothpaste on its consumer website MouthHealthy.org.
When you see the ADA Seal on a package, you can be sure the product inside has been scientifically evaluated to be safe and effective. You may take it for granted that's true of all products, but not all products submitted for the Seal meet the ADA's stringent requirements. In fact, to obtain the ADA Seal companies frequently are asked to meet higher standards than what is required by law.
The ADA Seal is never sold. No profit goes to the ADA when a company earns the Seal. The ADA Seal is not an endorsement of a particular product; rather it is designed to help you know that claims made on the label say what they do and do what they say. These claims are approved by the ADA before the product ever hits the market.
View a list of toothpastes with the ADA Seal by clicking on the ADA Seal Products tab on MouthHealthy.org. And, for maximum taste and enjoyment, save that glass of OJ for a little while after you brush your teeth!
©2010 American Dental Association. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission from the American Dental Association.
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Definition of 'call it a day'
Example sentences containing 'call it a day'
UNTO THE GRAVE (2002)
I followed them as far as their first contact in a lock-up garage in Bradford, then I decided to call it a day.DEAD BEAT (2002) ANASTASIA KRUPNIK (3-IN-1) (2002)
"I have a quick question for you, then I think you can call it a day.PAYBACK (2002)
Definition of call it a day from the Collins English Dictionary
Why every generation is at risk
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A concussion is an injury to the brain that disrupts how the brain normally works. Most young people recover completely from a concussion within a matter of days to weeks, although every one's recovery may be different. You should be aware of symptoms that commonly occur after a concussion and consult with an appropriate healthcare provider following any head injury.
After a concussion, children and adolescents may experience a variety of physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms. Although physical symptoms, like headaches or dizziness, and cognitive symptoms, like being more forgetful or easily distracted, are more commonly discussed, emotional symptoms should be monitored as well. Emotional adjustment issues can interfere with recovery.
Do concussions cause emotional distress?
After a concussion (and many other injuries), children and adolescents can experience increased stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety. These difficulties can occur for a variety of reasons but most are indirectly related to the injury.
For example, stress could relate to being removed from sports for medical reasons or falling behind at school. These emotional symptoms typically resolve as usual daily activities are resumed and the youth returns to pre-injury functioning.
How can I reduce the emotional effects of a concussion?
There are a few steps you can take to reduce the emotional effects of a concussion. Following a concussion, it's important to:
- Sleep: Ensure adequate sleep. This is important for reducing stress, improving mood and helping support a return to typical functioning. Sleep deprivation can lead to more severe mood symptoms, along with increased cognitive and physical symptoms. Most school-aged children benefit from 10 to 11 hours of sleep per night and most adolescents need at least nine hours of sleep per night.
- Exercise: Ensure engagement in regular aerobic exercise (that doesn't worsen symptoms, as long as your healthcare provider says it's ok), social and family activities and relaxation. This can all assist with improving mood and supporting recovery following concussion.
- Pre-existing conditions: Pay attention to pre-existing developmental and psychosocial factors such as underlying learning, attention, and emotional difficulties. These pre-existing difficulties can be overlooked after a concussion, but often contribute to ongoing symptoms and school difficulties. By recognizing when pre-existing conditions are impacting recovery, you can minimize family anxiety about brain "damage" and unnecessary restrictions from sports, schoolwork and social activities.
How should I monitor my child for emotional and behavior changes after a concussion?
It's common that a child or teen experiences mild emotional changes within the first days to weeks following a concussion, such as feeling irritable or having low frustration tolerance. If emotional or behavioral symptoms are severe, like depressed mood or significant anxiety, or persist longer than the first few weeks, our experts recommend prompt behavioral health intervention or counseling with a qualified professional familiar with concussion. At Children's Colorado, we have psychologists in our Concussion Program team to help address and evaluate these concerns.
It is important to monitor for these symptoms in children and adolescents who have sustained a concussion:
Mood and emotional well-being
- Increased tearfulness
- Feelings of intense sadness
- Excessive worry (worry disrupts ability to focus or participate in activities)
- Loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy
- Feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness
- Increased fatigue
- Withdrawal from social activities: for example, no longer participating in sports even after receiving medical clearance or dropping out of extracurricular activities
- Isolation from friends and family: for example, staying in bedroom or not talking to friends
Sleep and eating habits
- Sleep disturbance: for example, takes 30 minutes or more to fall asleep at night and/or experiences frequent night awakenings and has difficulty falling back to sleep
- Change in appetite: for example, eating more or less than usual
Do concussions increase a teen's suicide risk?
The cause of suicide is complex. Increased risk is associated with multiple factors such as severe depression, hopelessness, impulsivity and drug misuse. No good scientific evidence supports a direct relationship between a history of concussion and suicide. In fact, a scientific study found that ex-NFL players were 60% less likely to commit suicide than the general public.
To learn more about how we diagnose and treat concussions, call our Concussion Program at 720-777-2806.
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Wheat is one of the most important food crops on the planet. Yet, its production can’t keep up with the increase in population. One solution is genetic modification in wheat, which is discussed in this article, along with its pros and cons.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the precursor to AIDS, targets the immune system and makes it difficult for the body to fight infection. Once thought incurable, scientific research indicates that a cure for HIV may be on the horizon. Learn about the possible cure and its implications.
Is genetic engineering good or bad? This is a question heavily debated throughout the science community. Before you form an opinion, read this objective analysis to learn about the pros and cons of genetic engineering.
Therapeutic Cloning, or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), is a somewhat controversial procedure that has been used to help heal and cure people. There are limitations to its widespread use, however. Some of the reasons are outlined here.
Scientists working on yeast have identified a way to make the microorganism live to the equivalent of 800 human years. This research may open up ways for scientists to extend the life span of human beings as well.
A faulty gene produces abnormal protein or no protein at all to cause disease. The treatment? Replace the bad gene with a good one. Simple in concept, harder in practice. Find out more about this fascinating technology with some key gene therapy facts.
Burkitt’s lymphoma is a particularly aggressive and virulent form of B-cell lymphoma, where tumours can sometimes double in size in 24 hours. However, despite this it is one of the most treatable and curable lymphomas. Further research may one day provide a gene therapy-based treatment.
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A port scan is a series of messages sent by someone attempting to break into a computer to learn which computer network services, each associated with a "well-known" port number, the computer provides. Port scanning, a favorite approach of computer cracker, gives the assailant an idea where to probe for weaknesses. Essentially, a port scan consists of sending a message to each port, one at a time. The kind of response received indicates whether the port is used and can therefore be probed for weakness.
By submitting your personal information, you agree that TechTarget and its partners may contact you regarding relevant content, products and special offers.
Types of port scans include:
- Vanilla - An attempt to connect to all ports (there are 65,536)
- Strobe - An attempt to connect to only selected ports (typically, under 20)
- Stealth scan - Several techniques for scanning that attempt to prevent the request for connection being logged
- FTP Bounce Scan - Attempts that are directed through an File Transfer Protocol server to disguise the cracker's location
- Fragmented Packets - Scans by sending packet fragments that can get through simple packet filters in a firewall
- UDP - Scans for open User Datagram Protocol ports
- Sweep - Scans the same port on a number of computers
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Pain is a complicated thing as symptoms cannot always be fully attributed to an organic origin for those suffering from depression. Dirk Frieser, psychologist at the Institute of Psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, notes in a recent Science Daily report that women are more frequently affected by depression and by the so-called somatoform pain disorder.
Somatoform symptoms are those that cannot by fully explained in medical terms. Surprisingly, this is a widespread phenomenon. Frieser noted, “up to 80 percent of the symptoms reported in GP practices are somatoform. However, this does not mean that patients are simply ‘imagining’ that they have these symptoms.”
For patients, these symptoms are very real and impair their quality of life. They often include pain symptoms in addition to other symptoms such as dizziness, sensations of hypersensitivity in various regions of the body, and even fatigue or exhaustion. The symptoms can also cause clinically relevant disorders requiring psychological treatment, including cognitive behavioral therapy.
The results of this study indicate there is a significantly higher occurrence of somatoform pain in various body regions in patients with existing depression or those who have suffered depression in the previous 12 months. As a result, it is very possible that those patients who report multiple pain symptoms to their doctors that cannot be explained in clinical terms are in fact suffering from a depressive disorder requiring treatment.
When major depression is present, affected patients often exhibit dejection, despair, swings in appetite and body weight, insomnia or an increased need for sleep, tiredness, lack of energy and psychomotor disturbances. Suicide has also been considered by these patients, sometimes quite frequently.
As a result of this research, it has been determined that general practitioners identified pain was somatoform in 73 percent of cases and could only be fully explained in medical terms in 27 percent of cases.
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Name: _____ Perimeter Perimeter is the distance around a polygon. Find the perimeter of each polygon by adding the length of the sides.
Perimeter, Area and Volume - Grade Four 1 Commentary: A measurement is a number that compares the attribute of an object being measured to the same attribute of a unit of measure (Van de Walle, 1998).
PRAYER FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH & WORLD AWARENESS (May 2008, Vol. 4) Items and issues to watch carefully in prayer and to ponder as to their implications in relation to the fellowship and increase in Christ.
Welcome Letter from Debra Potter Dear Community Outreach Volunteer, Thank you for volunteering your time and talents to serve with us on Perimeter's Community Outreach (CO) team.
Name: Super Teacher Worksheets - www.superteacherworksheets.com Farm Perimeter N W E S Use a ruler to answer the questions below. 1. Measure the lengths of the sides of the corn field in centimeters.
PERIMETER: GETTING AROUND AN AREA Subject Matter: Mathematics Grade Levels: 3-5, but may be adapted to other grade levels Time Allotment: Two 40-minute class sessions Master Teacher: Christine Barr Overview How do we determine the size of an object?
Area, Perimeter, and Ratios Using Pentominoes Overview : Students will, through exploration develop the set of pentominoes. Students will be able to calculate the perimeter and area of geometric shapes made with pentominoes.
Part 1: Calculating Perimeter. Finding Perimeter and Area MATH SKILLS Math Skills for Science Copyright © by Holt, Rinehar t and Winston.
CMST Review Unit 2 Geometry Unit Summary This booklet is designed to help prepare CMST students for both the Core Math Test and the Core Math Tutorials.
Task : How to calculate Area, Perimeter, and Acreage Created by: Rosemary Neal, DPR Date: 03/19/04 There are several approaches to this task. Before you begin, make sure that your View Units have been set correctly.
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RSV Revealed: What You Need to Know About Respiratory Syncytial Virus
Most of us are used to seeing news stories about the flu and COVID-19, especially during the winter months. But another virus is getting a lot of attention these days: respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV.
RSV typically leads to 58,000-80,000 hospitalizations for children under the age of five each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, cases of RSV soared in 2022, putting even more young lives at risk.
Because the flu, COVID-19, and RSV share so many symptoms, it can be difficult to tell one virus from another. Take a moment now to learn all about RSV, how the virus spreads, and when to seek medical care, so your entire family can breathe easier.
What Is RSV?
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common virus that infects the lungs and respiratory tract. It only takes a week or two for most people to recover from RSV. However, the virus can cause life-threatening complications in others.
For example, RSV can develop into two dangerous conditions that affect breathing – bronchiolitis (an infection that clogs the small airways in the lungs) or pneumonia (an infection that inflames the air sacs in the lungs). Today, RSV is the number-one cause of both conditions in children under the age of one in the United States.
Can Adults Get RSV?
RSV is often associated with infants and young children for good reason. Most children are infected with RSV by age two. However, older children and adults can be infected as well.
Infants (especially those born prematurely), children with asthma, older adults, and people of all ages with heart disease, lung disease, or a weakened immune system are all at risk of severe complications from RSV.
What Are the Symptoms of RSV?
Children infected with RSV almost always show symptoms, while many adults do not. RSV symptoms are usually mild and can easily be mistaken for the flu, COVID-19, or even the common cold.
- Sore throat
- Congested or runny nose
For infants under six months of age, the only symptoms of RSV may be:
- Refusing to feed
- Less activity
- Pausing their breath for 10 seconds or more
Is RSV Contagious?
Yes, very. Just like the flu and COVID-19, RSV is spread through respiratory droplets. You can get RSV when:
- An infected person coughs or sneezes and the droplets land near your eyes, nose, or mouth
- You have direct contact with the virus (for example, by kissing or holding a child with RSV)
- You touch a surface with RSV on it (such as a doorknob or child’s toy) and then touch your own face
Children of all ages are often infected with RSV at places like school or daycare, then bring the virus home and transmit it to others in their household. With mask-wearing mandates all but gone in public places, the threat of RSV is real for everyone.
How Long Is RSV Contagious For?
People with RSV are usually contagious for a week or less. But some at-risk people, including infants, can continue to spread the virus for as long as four weeks – even after they stop showing symptoms.
Can You Get RSV More Than Once?
Yes, you can get infected at any age and more than once in your lifetime. Currently, there are no vaccines to prevent RSV.
Is RSV Fatal in Children?
Sadly, it can be. The CDC estimates that RSV causes 100-300 deaths in children under age five each year – and any preventable death is one too many.
How Is RSV Treated?
A rapid antigen test using a nasal swab can quickly confirm RSV. Again, most cases of RSV are mild and do not require medical treatment. However, infants, toddlers, and children with asthma are another story.
Some children need treatment in a hospital where they can be monitored closely for breathing issues or dehydration. If you’re treating your child at home, be sure to:
- Give them plenty of fluids. Clearing your child’s nose before offering fluids can make it easier for them to drink. Use saline nasal drops and a nasal aspirator (bulb syringe) if they’re too young to blow their own nose.
- Always use non-aspirin medicine to reduce fever. Never give aspirin to a child with a viral illness. Instead, use acetaminophen or ibuprofen (if your child is more than six months old).
- Avoid hot water or steam humidifiers. These can be hazardous and scald or burn your child’s skin. Cool mist humidifiers are fine, but must be cleaned daily to prevent mold and bacteria growth.
Seek immediate medical attention if your child – or anyone at risk of RSV complications – has a high fever, difficulty breathing, severe coughing/wheezing, or bluish-colored skin (especially around their mouth or fingernail beds).
Could It Be RSV? Visit TrustCare Kids to Find Out
At TrustCare Kids, our goal is to help your child Feel Better Faster®. Located in Madison, Mississippi, TrustCare Kids offers pediatric primary care and urgent care from birth through college. Because kids often get sick beyond regular business hours, our pediatricians are available for weeknight and weekend care.
TrustCare Kids is designed to calm even the most anxious child with our jungle theme, treats, and interactive games in every exam room. Services include:
- Sick and well-child visits
- School, sports, and camp physicals
- Flu, COVID-19, and RSV testing
- And more
Don’t take chances with RSV or any other illness or injury that can threaten your child’s health. Instead, trust the pediatric experts at TrustCare Kids! Schedule an appointment today.
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By Lisa Smith, W&M Contributor
Beagles, that adorable and humble breed of hunting dog, were at the centre of a debate about the meaning of civilisation and nature in the eighteenth century. Long before Charles Darwin, scientists (or natural philosophers as they were called at the time) wanted to understand the process of breeding, as well as the differences between people of different cultures.
Dogs, with their wide variety of breeds and accessibility, provided a particularly fruitful ground of investigation. The work of French natural philosopher Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon was particularly controversial and well-known—so much so, that it made its way into the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd vol. (Edinburgh, 1771) under the entry for ‘canis’.
The Encyclopaedia summarised Buffon’s arguments for a wider audience. In his thirty-six volume Natural History (1749-1789), Buffon had suggested that all quadrupeds were descended from a small number of distinct types. Differences in climate, treatment or diet could result in variations, which Buffon saw in terms of improvement or degeneration. Buffon hypothesised that the first dog (the Adam of the canine world) would have been something like a shepherd’s dog, but “when brought up in a country fully civilised, as Britain or France, loses his savage air”. The dog also changed appearance. Rather than having thick and long hair or pointed ears, the dog became a bull-dog, mastiff or hound. These changes were not universal, however. For example, the bull-dog’s ears remained partly straight “and resemble in their manners and sanguine disposition the dug [breast] from which they derive their origin”.
The beagle looked even less like the original shepherd’s dog. “Its ears are long and entirely pendent; the softness, the tractability, the timidity of this dog”, proclaimed the Encyclopaedia, “Buffon considers as many proofs of its degeneracy, or rather of that perfection which it acquires by culture, and living among a civilised people”.
Not everyone agreed with Buffon’s assertion that the changes occurred because of civilisation. James Anderson, in one of his monthly issues of Recreation in agriculture, natural-history, arts and miscellaneous literature (London, 1799-1802) dismissed Buffon as a bit daft for thinking that all varieties of every species might descend from common stock.
From a post-Darwinian perspective, we can understand the sense in Buffon’s argument, but Anderson had legitimate grounds for complaint: that Buffon had failed to provide good evidence. Indeed, Anderson pointed out that dogs were not a particularly good example and objected, specifically, to Buffon’s claims that climate and geographic region could transform an animal. A British dog might, for example, accompany his owner to the other side of the world, but would remain the same. Anderson was adamant that a bull-dog in England showed the same obstinacy in ancient Rome as today and that a greyhound’s litter in Norway could not suddenly become bull mastiffs! A dog possessed the same qualities at birth that it would possess throughout life, no matter its location. While a dog’s temperament might change—becoming leaner, fatter, healthier or sicker—it would never become another breed.
Unless… a female mated with a male of a different breed, resulting in an “impure race” that had the qualities of both parents. This, then, was how Anderson explained breed variety. Different breeds were in fact artificial creations. There was no such thing as a natural dog. Although Buffon had thought that wild and domestic dogs were so distinct that they were unable to reproduce, surgeon John Hunter demonstrated through a series of experiments that such matings frequently resulted in offspring. According to Anderson, the beagle only differed from a bull mastiff because of selective breeding on the part of humans rather than its climate or food.
The debate itself reflected several strands of Enlightenment thought. Throughout the eighteenth century, scholars set up dichotomies between civilisation and nature. Civilisation was alternately good (allowing reason and order to flourish) and bad (resulting in artifice, corruption and inferior stock). In an increasingly imperial age, the implications went beyond how people saw their pets. Such ideas reflected the way that the British and French encountered the natural world and other cultures across the globe. Whether one thought civilisation was good or bad, however, one thing remained the same: the world could only be understood in terms of hierarchies, classifications and dichotomies.
Lisa Smith is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Saskatchewan. She writes on gender, family, and health care in England and France (ca. 1600-1800), as well as teaches a course on “Defining Boundaries: Natural and Supernatural Worlds in Early Modern Europe”. She also blogs weekly on history of medicine and science at her Sloane Letters Blog and edits The Recipes Project. Follow her on Twitter, where she tweets as @historybeagle.
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It’s a real treat to come into the Montrose Basin Visitor Centre and see the Sand Martin Wall. Every visitor who comes in asks about it! Whether they want to know what the wall is for, why the holes are numbered or just what the birds are doing flying into the hole at full speed; the wall is always being pointed out and is a great topic of conversation at our windows.
Our Sand Martin Wall was built in 2002 and this year is home to at least 55 adult Sand Martins and their first fledglings. The wall is split into 4 sections with each hole numbered. This allows us to identify which section of the wall and which holes are most commonly used and if there is any pattern to this annually. The Sand Martins arrive at the Basin in March/April, hunting insects and preparing their tunnel to become a nest for their young. They stay for the whole summer and around September they migrate back to the Sahara, Africa where they spend the winter.
These birds are the smallest of the Swallow and Martin families and are also the weakest in flight, however when they fly straight into the correct hole in the wall at full speed they certainly don’t seem it!
The Martins and Swallows can be difficult to identify from afar, with many assuming the wall is the home of Swallows. But, there are some key features to help spot a Sand martin within the vast variety of birds that make the Basin their home. The Sand Martin is completely brown on top and has a white underside with a breast band. The underwing and underside of tail are also brown and the Sand Martin has no tail spots. A Swallow has more of a blue colouring on top and can be identified from the deep red colour on the adult’s throat. The House Martin is more black on top and also has characteristic white feathered legs.
Just now, during Sand Martin Counts, we are seeing tiny heads and beaks popping out of their numbered holes as the chicks have begun hatching and fledging. They wait patiently whilst their parents twist and turn at an exhausting pace to bring them back food and then go out again and again. Of course, the story of the happy Sand Martin families is not always so happy. Just as the chicks are getting ready to fledge, a heron can be seen lurking around the pond waiting on the young to jump out and get an easy meal. This year, we even saw a heron poke its beak into the wall and pull out an adult Sand Martin for its tea! Sand martins can have 4-5 broods each summer so hopefully there will be more successes than casualties at the Sand Martin Wall. We are still counting the Sand Martins daily so why not come along and see how many you can spot.
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It’s a real treat to come into the Montrose Basin Visitor Centre and see the Sand Martin Wall. Every visitor who comes in asks about it! Whether they want to …
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Article posted: December 26, 1997
Saskatchewan Residents Index
By: Ryan Taylor, Biography and Archived Articles
Imagine an index that lists everyone who ever lived in a particular place. One glance and you could tell if your family member was there.
The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society has set out to do this for its province. The Saskatchewan Residents Index (SRI) gathers references to individuals from various kinds of historical resources and lists them alphabetically. This database, which is available at the SGS offices in Regina, will quickly narrow down the possibilities for researchers who have lost someone in Saskatchewan.
Aside from homesteaders who spent a lifetime in the west, many Canadians spent brief periods of time in the prairie provinces during the early days. Men who were looking for work could take special trains west at harvest time to help bring in the grain. Many of these men might have stayed for only a few short months or may have stayed many years. Others tried the prairie life and found it too difficult so they returned to Ontario.
The SRI was first suggested as a way of celebrating the SGS's 25th anniversary in 1994. Although everyone knew "this was going to be a monster", they began indexing in 1990 using only family names.
As the index grew, they realized that family names were not enough . "What can you do with a thousand Smiths?" points out Marge Thomas, Executive Director of SGS.
So they scrapped what they had and started again, this time indexing persons. As well as their names, the index located them in a specific place and time, giving the source of the information and where you can access the material for further research. At a time when most indexes tend to be too brief, this one seems to have considered everything you will need to know.
Thomas says that the SGS is concentrating on local histories, "Saskatchewan has lots of these", she points out. Thomas estimates that newer local histories run from 400 to a thousand pages each and most of these contain lots of specific family histories.
In addition to local histories, the index includes archival files of various kinds, government documents, maps and newspaper indexes. By "government documents", they mean such things as enumerators' lists. Currently, the SGS is adding its collection of cemetery inscriptions to the SRI
The SGS has a network of volunteers to keep the SRI growing. Every entry is verified and then re-checked to ensure accuracy. The initial data entry is generally done by people at home with some working directly to disk, but some laboriously transcribe by hand and then the data entry is done by someone else. The toughest job is actually extracting the material. Thomas says that some volunteers reckon that it takes five hundred hours to index one of these huge local histories.
Currently the index contains more that 1,100,000 names. To consult the index in person costs $1 per name for members, $2 for non-members. If you are not going to be in Regina, you can have the SGS do it for you at a cost of $3 for three pages of printout (members) or $6 (non-members). Considering the labour involved and the excellent information it contains, this is remarkably inexpensive.
The SGS is a going concern, with offices and a library at 1870 Lorne Street, Room 201, in Regina, Saskatchewan and some twenty five branches spread around the province. Although many of them are very small, they represent contacts which might help you find your Saskatchewan connections. For a list of their addresses, look at the December 1996 issue of the SGS Bulletin, if available at your local Public Library.
To enquire about using the SRI in person or by mail, you can write to the SGS at Box 1894, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4P 3E1. Telephone is (306) 780 9207 or fax them at (306) 781 6021. More information about their activities including the SRI, can be found at their website
More: The SGS website includes access to their library catalogue so you can find out what they have from the comfort of your own computer and a separate area for the personal home pages of SGS members. One of them may live in your family's home town.
The huge local histories which March Thomas mentions are now common in Manitoba and Alberta as well as Saskatchewan. Libraries which own large collections of these include the National Library of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario at and the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.. You can check their catalogues from home on the Internet and then consider a visit to look at the volumes which interest you.
Books By Ryan Taylor
Across The Waters, Ontario Immigrants Experiences 1820 - 1850 - by Frances Hoffman & Ryan Taylor, 1999. Riveting first-hand accounts of the immigration and settlement experience, taken from the diaries and letters of 150 immigrants.
Routes To Roots, The Best of Ryan Taylor's columns from the Kitchener Waterloo Record, by Ryan Taylor 1997
More Family History Research Resources
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We witness changes to the world every day — plants grow, tides advance and recede, the sun moves across the sky. But changes happen also happen on much bigger scales, away from the view of any individual.
That’s where satellites come in. A vast network of orbiting cameras and data-collectors help us keep an eye on things we can’t see, and the results can be fascinating, beautiful and devastating.
NASA’s Earth Observatory collects some of these images in a feature called World of Change, which displays periodic photos of the same area to see how it evolves over time. From one picture to another, the change might be imperceptible, but over time, larger patterns become clear.
Some take place over short time frames, like the growth of a fire in a Namibian wildlife preserve over the course of 10 days. Others span decades, like the expansion of mountaintop mines in Boone County, West Virginia. Some of the changes are purely the result of nature, while others are clearly acts of mankind.
Click through the slideshow above to see some of the photos. For the rest of the collection, visit the NASA Earth Observatory web site.
MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Stunning Photos of Glaciers in Retreat
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Whatever happened to acid rain?
Recently, my coworkers and I have started tracking the internet chatter about acid rain. We were curious about what the world was saying about this iconic environmental issue. Acid rain is taught in most schools across the country so imagine our surprise when we found a pretty significant number of people who thought the problem of acid rain has been solved.
So…what really did happen to acid rain? It was a big problem in the 80s and early 90s, but now we don’t hear much about it. This year marks the 20th anniversary of EPA’s Acid Rain Program….
To continue reading this blog please visit EPA’s Greenversations blog here. Thanks!
Josh Stewart is the Communications Intern with the EPA’s Clean Air Markets Division. Josh is currently working on his Master’s Degree in Political Management at The George Washington University.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
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In prose, characters will often stand at the crux of the piece, and everything the reader knows about them will be gained from the descriptions the author provides. Their actions, mannerisms, speeches; all are pieces that make up the finished product – a complete character that can be manipulated by the author to shape the narrative. These creations may seem simple, fundamental elements of literature, but through close analysis of them – with particular attention paid to formal and thematic issues – we can often understand many completely new levels of thinking in relation to the text.
Of all the aspects that make up a person, status is perhaps one of the most confusing and indefinable. It is something intangible, elusive; often existing only in the minds of other characters. ‘Col. Grangerford was a gentleman, you see’ begins the passage of Huckleberry Finn, illustrating the subjective difficulties when dealing with status. Huck’s command to us of ‘You see’ sees him telling us to see Grangerford in the same way as he does, to treat him with the same level of respect. This is backed up by the rather unnatural appendage of ‘Col.’ to his name. Grangerford is elevated above other characters who are referred to singularly by their name – he is afforded this additional instant tag of status. By the very nature of Huck’s colloquial narration, the image we are given of Grangerford is a biased one, coloured by Huck’s thoughts. So when he is introduced to us as ‘Col. Grangerford’, this is directly how Huck imagines him – the status and rank is just as integral part to the man as his name itself.
This concept of someone’s status becoming an integral part of them as a character is continued in the next sentence when Huck describes Grangerford as being ‘a gentleman all over; and so was his family’. There is the sense that describing him as a just ‘a gentleman’ isn’t enough, that it doesn’t do justice to his status. Instead, the sense of him being a gentleman manifests itself in every aspect of his life, even his family. Here, it becomes an all encompassing trait; and this is before the rest of him has even been described. Thus, the reader is presented with the rather unusual situation in which we have been told repeatedly that Grangerford is a gentleman, but not why, or how. Huck’s selected release of information forces us to think similarly to him, and so we are made to approach the characters with a mindset like his own.
In his description of Captain Ahab, Melville uses a number of different techniques to set him up as a man of status. Whereas Twain uses a formal rank to introduce Grangerford and set him apart from other men, Melville sets Ahab apart by his very unnaturalness. There was ‘no sign of common bodily illness about him’, establishing Ahab as uncommon, unusual, somehow beyond the normal mortal man. He too is labelled, but in a very different way to Grangerford. Ishamel’s description of the man focuses primarily on a ‘rod-like mark’ Ahab bears on his skin. The mark is made even more unusual by the techniques of metaphor and analogy Melville uses to describe its appearance. He compares Ahab to the ‘lofty trunk of a great tree’, again highlighting his status with the word ‘lofty’; he is above others, a man of ‘greatness’.
The image presented is of lightning striking, ‘leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded’. The links between this image and Ahab himself are obvious -the language employed emphasises Ahab’s vigour and energy, as well as the natural feel of his lifestyle here amidst the ocean and sea-life. And if Ahab is the tree, then the lightning can be seen as Moby Dick himself; a powerful force of nature in his own right. Moby Dick irreversibly damaged Ahab, like the lightning did to the tree – they remain living but branded by the incident; Ahab’s artificial leg is evident for all to see. It gives an almost mythic quality to the man; the reference to lightning, an immaterial force created in the heavens, could be seen almost as the touch of God – a touch that Ahab has received. The passage continues to describe the ‘elemental strife’ of Ahab’s life at sea, again elevating his life beyond that of normal mortal men. His life is defined by danger and action, a constant battle with nature and forces beyond the comprehension of others.
The idea of a character being made up from their actions and behaviour is something explored in the Huckleberry Finn extract too; in particular, repeated behaviour. The description of Grangerford continuously highlights how he ‘was clean-shaved every morning’, put on a clean shirt ‘every day of his life’ and how ‘he warn’t ever loud’. All these elements create the impression of a very rigid, structured man; his behaviour can be counted on to be exactly the same every single day. All these various elements combine to help make up Grangerford’s character. Indeed, it is the very monotony of his life that has left its impression on Huck. When he describes Grangerford to us, it is a subjective view of him – Huck only relates certain aspects to us. There may be certain elements to Grangerford’s character he leaves out, but as readers, we can only base our opinion of Grangerford on what the text provides us.
As first person narratives, this is an important aspect to consider in both Huckleberry Finn and Moby Dick. Huck’s language in particular draws attention to this – his description of Grangerford is centred around the concept of personal opinions. When talking about Widow Douglas, he says how ‘nobody ever denied’ her claims to aristocracy. As Huck continues to talk about Grangerford’s appearance, he employs the phrase ‘as you may say’. In both instances, the reader’s attention is drawn to personal subjectivity. These characters are seen in certain ways, but these ways of ‘seeing’ them are down to the beholder – ‘as you may say’ suggest to the reader a certain way of seeing Grangerford but it is important to remember it is not fact, only Huck’s personal view of him. The passage also draws attention to the dangers of personal subjectivity – the fact that ‘nobody ever denied’ Widow Douglas’s position highlights how when personal opinion becomes common opinion, it is treated more like fact. This links into some of the social and cultural ideas dealt with at large in the rest of Huckleberry Finn, and while this passage only explores the more benign aspects of social norms, it highlights how a certain view can become the accepted standard, and how it then becomes very hard to change back out from that way of life. Indeed, Grangerford’s monotonous and predictable lifestyle is a physical reminder of this aspect of human nature.
In Moby Dick the theme of group opinions manifests itself in a far more mysterious way. Here, the opinions of the other sailors about Ahab come through in superstition and analogy. Ishmael’s narration talks of ‘old sea-traditions’ and we are given the sense of an intensely concentrated society amidst the confines of the boat where individuals are ‘popularly invested’ with the opinions of their peers. Thus, they are not so much a creation of their own actions, but of their beliefs of others. In this way, the analogy of Ahab’s death is not so much a hypothetical scenario, but an almost mythical event that comes to define Ahab even though the events described have not happened.
In addition, when Melville writes that Ahab’s death ‘might hardly come to pass’, we as readers have become invested with the superstitious society of the sailors and the statement becomes almost prophetic, foreshadowing Ahab’s actual death at the end of the book. In this way, the world of fiction created through Melville’s writing becomes something constantly fluid and mutable; characters, opinions and beliefs all flowing together into one overall sensation or feeling that helps to place us, as readers, within the text. This is a world of rumours and gossip, as highlighted when Ishmael says ‘no one could certainly say’ where Ahab got the strange mark from. Information regarding characters is created through mere hear-say, again adding to the mythic quality of Ahab.
The status of characters is explored further in the Huckleberry Finn extract when Grangerford is described as ‘well born’. In this respect, he is potentially very similar to Ahab in Moby Dick – Ahab’s brand is said to be potentially a birth-mark, ‘born with him’. In both cases the theme is an idea of something being imprinted on someone from birth, but having a lasting effect on their status throughout their life – and by association, how other people treat them. This birthright of status is said to be ‘worth as much in a man as it is in a horse’, establishing a contrast between humans and animals that is continued later in the extract when Huck compares ‘pap’ to a ‘mud-cat’. This image of a ‘muddy’ creature has obvious lowly connotations and furthers the theme that a person belonging to a higher class sets them apart as somehow being a person of better ‘quality’; naturally above other people.
In terms of the most detailed levels of description applied to Grangerford and Ahab, there are the precise physical details of their appearances. In both instances, the men are described in largely negative terms. With Grangerford, he is said to be ‘thin’ four times, the repetition reinforcing a specific image of him that Twain is keen to convey to us. Indeed, it is important to note that the majority of this description is focused on the man’s face – his eyes are picked out as ‘deep’, ‘black’ and like ‘caverns’. Individually, these words might seem innocent enough, but placed together in rapid succession – like the repetition of ‘thin’ – the impression created is a negative one. This passage of Huckleberry Finn highlights how a great deal of how we see a person and their personality can be created by their physical appearance and connotations we draw from that.
This sense of categorizing people by their appearance is displayed in Moby Dick too where Ishmael also focuses on a character’s face to describe them. We hear of Ahab’s ‘tawny scorched face’, importantly introduced before we are even introduced to the full nature of the brand on Ahab’s body. As the focal point of a person, the face is the aspect of them we notice first. Interestingly, there is one aspect that both Grangerford and Ahab bear in common, that of whiteness. In Grangerford’s case it is his linen suit, ‘so white it hurt your eyes’ – in Ahab’s case it the ‘lividly white’ brand itself. In both instances, like the rest of their physical features, it is given negative overtones; going against traditional ideas of whiteness as something reflecting purity, innocence and goodness.
In this way, both Grangerford in Huckleberry Finn and Ahab in Moby Dick show how the characterisation of a person can become such a key part of literature. While Twain’s Grangerford has status, it is of a far more immaterial quality, whereas Ahab is a man defined by the physical. Equally though, the two men bear many aspects in common, particularly in the techniques used to illustrate their physical appearances. This draws attention to the importance of signs – every aspect of a character’s description is a sign; something the reader can pick up on. This is how we gain an impression of someone; of what they are like, how they behave. In both Twain and Melville’s works, all that we know of their characters is gleaned from what we are told, and what we can comprehend from the various symbols and signs that are associated with their persona. For us, their lives become almost real before our eyes, a deep well of meaning and association that serve to prompt our thoughts into even further analysis of these characters.
Bryant, John, Moby-Dick as Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998)
Delbanco, Andrew, Melville, His World and Work (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005)
Doyno, Victor, Writing Huck Finn: Mark Twain’s creative process (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991)
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher, Lighting out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)
Hutchinson, Stuart, Mark Twain: Critical Assessments (London: Routledge, 1993)
Melville, Herman, Moby Dick (London: Penguin Classics, 2007)
Olson, Charles, Call Me Ishamel (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)
Twain, Mark, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (London: Penguin Classics, 2007)
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In the article, program of Microprocessor 8085 to count negative numbers from block of data in assembly language programming (ALP) is explained.
It is highly recommended to learn the instruction set of 8085 in detail before programming.
Find the number of negative elements (most significant bit 1) in a block of data. The length of the block is in memory location 2200H and the block itself begins in memory location 2201H. Store the number of negative elements in memory location 2300H
Flowchart for Program
MOV C, A ; Initialize count
MVI B, 00 ; Negative number = 0
LXI H, 2201H ; Initialize pointer
BACK: MOV A, M ; Get the number
ANI 80H ; Check for MSB
JZ SKIP ; If MSB = 1
INR B ; Increment negative number count
SKIP: INX H ; Increment pointer
DCR C ; Decrement count
JNZ BACK ; If count 0 repeat
MOV A, B
STA 2300H ; Store the result
HLT ; Terminate program execution
(2200H) = 04H
(2201H) = 56H
(2202H) = A9H
(2203H) = 73H
(2204H) = 82H
Result = 02 since 2202H and 2204H contain numbers with a MSB of 1.
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Environmentalists warn us that apocalypse awaits. Economists tell us that minimal fixes will get us through. Here’s how we can move beyond the impasse.
Not long ago, my newspaper informed me that glaciers in the western Antarctic, undermined by the warmer seas of a hotter world, were collapsing, and their disappearance “now appears to be unstoppable.” The melting of these great ice sheets would make seas rise by at least four feet—ultimately, possibly 12—more than enough to flood cities from New York to Tokyo to Mumbai. Because I am interested in science, I read the two journal articles that had inspired the story. How much time do we have, I wondered, before catastrophe hits?
One study, in Geophysical Research Letters, provided no guidance; the authors concluded only that the disappearing glaciers would “significantly contribute to sea level rise in decades to centuries to come.” But the other, in Science, offered more-precise estimates: during the next century, the oceans will surge by as much as a quarter of a millimeter a year. By 2100, that is, the calamity in Antarctica will have driven up sea levels by almost an inch. The process would get a bit faster, the researchers emphasized, “within centuries.”
How is one supposed to respond to this kind of news? On the one hand, the transformation of the Antarctic seems like an unfathomable disaster. On the other hand, the disaster will never affect me or anyone I know; nor, very probably, will it trouble my grandchildren. How much consideration do I owe the people it will affect, my 40-times-great-grandchildren, who, many climate researchers believe, will still be confronted by rising temperatures and seas? Americans don’t even save for their own retirement! How can we worry about such distant, hypothetical beings?
In our ergonomic chairs and acoustical-panel cubicles, we sit cozy as kings atop 300 years of flaming carbon.
Worse, confronting climate change requires swearing off something that has been an extraordinary boon to humankind: cheap energy from fossil fuels. In the 3,600 years between 1800B.C. and 1800 A.D., the economic historian Gregory Clark has calculated, there was “no sign of any improvement in material conditions” in Europe and Asia. Then came the Industrial Revolution. Driven by the explosive energy of coal, oil, and natural gas, it inaugurated an unprecedented three-century wave of prosperity. Artificial lighting, air-conditioning, and automobiles, all powered by fossil fuels, swaddle us in our giddy modernity. In our ergonomic chairs and acoustical-panel cubicles, we sit cozy as kings atop 300 years of flaming carbon.
In the best of times, this problem—given its apocalyptic stakes, bewildering scale, and vast potential cost—would be difficult to resolve. But we are not in the best of times. We are in a time of legislative paralysis. In an important step, the Obama administration announced in June its decision to cut power-plant emissions 30 percent by 2030. Otherwise, this country has seen strikingly little political action on climate change, despite three decades of increasingly high-pitched chatter by scientists, activists, economists, pundits, and legislators.
The chatter itself, I would argue, has done its share to stall progress. Rhetorical overreach, moral miscalculation, shouting at cross-purposes: this toxic blend is particularly evident when activists, who want to scare Americans into taking action, come up against economists, with their cool calculations of acceptable costs. Eco-advocates insist that only the radical transformation of society—the old order demolished, foundation to roof—can fend off the worst consequences of climate change. Economists argue for adapting to the most-likely consequences; cheerleaders for industrial capitalism, they propose quite different, much milder policies, and are ready to let nature take a bigger hit in the short and long terms alike. Both envelop themselves in the mantle of Science, emitting a fug of charts and graphs. (Actually, every side in the debate, including the minority who deny that humans can affect the climate at all, claims the backing of Science.) Bewildered and battered by the back-and-forth, the citizenry sits, for the most part, on its hands. For all the hot air expended on the subject, we still don’t know how to talk about climate change.
As an issue, climate change was unlucky: when nonspecialists first became aware of it, in the 1990s, environmental attitudes had already become tribal political markers. As the Yale historian Paul Sabin makes clear in The Bet, it wasn’t always this way. The votes for the 1970 Clean Air Act, for example, were 374–1 in the House, 73–0 in the Senate. Sabin’s book takes off from a single event: a bet between the ecologist Paul R. Ehrlich and the economist Julian Simon a decade later. Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb (1968), which decried humankind’s rising numbers, was a foundational text in the environmental movement. Simon’s Ultimate Resource (1981) was its antimatter equivalent: a celebration of population growth, it awakened opposition to the same movement.
Activist led by Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, protest the building of the Keystone XL pipeline at the White House, February 2013. (AP)
Ehrlich was moderately liberal in his politics but unrestrained in his rhetoric. The second sentence of The Population Bomb promised that “hundreds of millions of people” would starve to death within two decades, no matter what “crash programs” the world launched to feed them. A year later, Ehrlich gave even odds that “England will not exist in the year 2000.” In 1974, he told Congress that “a billion or more people” could starve in the 1980s “at the latest.” When the predictions didn’t pan out, he attacked his critics as “incompetent” and “ignorant,” “morons” and “idiots.”
Simon, who died in 1998, argued that “human resourcefulness and enterprise” will extricate us from our ecological dilemma. Moderately conservative in his politics, he was exuberantly uninhibited in his scorn for eco-alarmists. Humankind faces no serious environmental problems, he asserted. “All long-run trends point in exactly the opposite direction from the projections of the doomsayers.” (All? Really?) “There is no convincing economic reason why these trends toward a better life should not continue indefinitely.” Relishing his role as a spoiler, he gave speeches while wearing red plastic devil horns. Unsurprisingly, he attracted disagreement, to which he responded with as much bluster as Ehrlich. Critics, motivated by “blatant intellectual dishonesty” and indifference to the poor, were “corrupt,” their ideas “ignorant and wrongheaded.”
In 1980, the two men wagered $1,000 on the prices of five metals 10 years hence. If the prices rose, as Ehrlich predicted, it would imply that these resources were growing scarcer, as Homo sapiens plundered the planet. If the prices fell, this would be a sign that markets and human cleverness had made the metals relatively less scarce: progress was continuing. Prices dropped. Ehrlich paid up, insisting disingenuously that he had been “schnookered.”
Schnookered, no; unlucky, yes. In 2010, three Holy Cross economists simulated the bet for every decade from 1900 to 2007. Ehrlich would have won 61 percent of the time. The results, Sabin says, do not prove that these resources have grown scarcer. Rather, metal prices crashed after the First World War and spent most of a century struggling back to their 1918 levels. Ecological issues were almost irrelevant.
The bet demonstrated little about the environment but much about environmental politics. The American landscape first became a source of widespread anxiety at the beginning of the 20th century. Initially, the fretting came from conservatives, both the rural hunters who established the licensing system that brought back white-tailed deer from near-extinction and the Ivy League patricians who created the national parks. So ineradicable was the conservative taint that decades later, the left still scoffed at ecological issues as right-wing distractions. At the University of Michigan, the radical Students for a Democratic Society protested the first Earth Day, in 1970, as elitist flimflam meant to divert public attention from class struggle and the Vietnam War; the left-wing journalist I. F. Stone called the nationwide marches a “snow job.” By the 1980s, businesses had realized that environmental issues had a price tag. Increasingly, they balked. Reflexively, the anticorporate left pivoted; Earth Day, erstwhile snow job, became an opportunity to denounce capitalist greed.
Climate change is a perfect issue for symbolic battle, because it is as yet mostly invisible.
The result, as the Emory historian Patrick Allitt demonstrates in A Climate of Crisis, was a political back-and-forth that became ever less productive. Time and again, Allitt writes, activists and corporate executives railed against each other. Out of this clash emerged regulatory syntheses: rules for air, water, toxins. Often enough, businesspeople then discovered that following the new rules was less expensive than they had claimed it would be; environmentalists meanwhile found out that the problems were less dire than they had claimed.
Throughout the 1980s, for instance, activists charged that acid rain from midwestern power-plant emissions was destroying thousands of East Coast lakes. Utilities insisted that anti-pollution equipment would be hugely expensive and make homeowners’ electric bills balloon. One American Electric Power representative predicted that acid-rain control could lead to the “destruction of the Midwest economy.” A 1990 amendment to the Clean Air Act, backed by both the Republican administration and the Democratic Congress, set up a cap-and-trade mechanism that reduced acid rain at a fraction of the predicted cost; electric bills were barely affected. Today, most scientists have concluded that the effects of acid rain were overstated to begin with—fewer lakes were hurt than had been thought, and acid rain was not the only cause.
Rather than learning from this and other examples that, as Allitt puts it, “America’s environmental problems, though very real, were manageable,” each side stored up bitterness, like batteries taking on charge. The process that had led, however disagreeably, to successful environmental action in the 1970s and ’80s brought on political stasis in the ’90s. Environmental issues became ways for politicians to signal their clan identity to supporters. As symbols, the issues couldn’t be compromised. Standing up for your side telegraphed your commitment to take back America—either from tyrannical liberal elitism or right-wing greed and fecklessness. Nothing got done.
As an issue, climate change is perfect for symbolic battle, because it is as yet mostly invisible. Carbon dioxide, its main cause, is not emitted in billowing black clouds, like other pollutants; nor is it caustic, smelly, or poisonous. A side effect of modernity, it has for now a tiny practical impact on most people’s lives. To be sure, I remember winters as being colder in my childhood, but I also remember my home then as a vast castle and my parents as godlike beings.
In concrete terms, Americans encounter climate change mainly in the form of three graphs, staples of environmental articles. The first shows that atmospheric carbon dioxide has been steadily increasing. Almost nobody disputes this. The second graph shows rising global temperatures. This measurement is trickier: carbon dioxide is spread uniformly in the air, but temperatures are affected by a host of factors (clouds, rain, wind, altitude, the reflectivity of the ground) that differ greatly from place to place. Here the data are more subject to disagreement. A few critics argue that for the past 17 years warming has mostly stopped. Still, most scientists believe that in the past century the Earth’s average temperature has gone up by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rising temperatures per se are not the primary concern. What matters most is their future influence on other things: agricultural productivity, sea levels, storm frequency, infectious disease. As the philosopher Dale Jamieson points out in the unfortunately titled Reason in a Dark Time, most of these effects cannot be determined by traditional scientific experiments—white-coats in laboratories can’t melt a spare Arctic ice cap to see what happens. (Climate change has no lab rats.) Instead, thousands of researchers refine ever bigger and more complex mathematical models. The third graph typically shows the consequences such models predict, ranging from worrisome (mainly) to catastrophic (possibly).
Such charts are meaningful to the climatologists who make them. But for the typical citizen they are a muddle, too abstract—too much like 10th-grade homework—to be convincing, let alone to motivate action. In the history of our species, has any human heart ever been profoundly stirred by a graph? Some other approach, proselytizers have recognized, is needed.
To stoke concern, eco-campaigners like Bill McKibben still resort, Ehrlich-style, to waving a skeleton at the reader. Thus the first sentence of McKibben’sOil and Honey, a memoir of his climate activism, describes 2011–12, the period covered by his book, as “a time when the planet began to come apart.” Already visible “in almost every corner of the earth,” climate “chaos” is inducing “an endless chain of disasters that will turn civilization into a never-ending emergency response drill.”
Bill McKibben says we must “start producing a nation of careful, small-scale farmers … who can adapt to the crazed new world with care and grace.”
The only solution to our ecological woes, McKibben argues, is to live simpler, more local, less resource-intensive existences—something he believes is already occurring. “After a long era of getting big and distant,” he writes, “our economy, and maybe our culture, has started to make a halting turn toward the small and local.” Not only will this shift let us avoid the worst consequences of climate change, it will have the happy side effect of turning a lot of unpleasant multinational corporations to ash. As we “subside into a workable, even beautiful, civilization,” we will lead better lives. No longer hypnotized by the buzz and pop of consumer culture, narcotized couch potatoes will be transformed into robust, active citizens: spiritually engaged, connected to communities, appreciative of Earth’s abundance.
For McKibben, the engagement is full throttle: The Oil half of his memoir is about founding 350.org, a group that seeks to create a mass movement against climate change. (The 350 refers to the theoretical maximum safe level, in parts per million, of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a level we have already surpassed.) The Honey half is about buying 70 acres near his Vermont home to support an off-the-grid beekeeper named Kirk Webster, who is living out McKibben’s organic dream in a handcrafted, solar-powered cabin in the woods. Webster, McKibben believes, is the future. We must, he says, “start producing a nation of careful, small-scale farmers such as Kirk Webster, who can adapt to the crazed new world with care and grace, and who don’t do much more damage in the process.”
Poppycock, the French philosopher Pascal Bruckner in effect replies in The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse. A best-selling, telegenic public intellectual (a species that hardly exists in this country), Bruckner is mainly going after what he calls “ecologism,” of which McKibbenites are exemplars. At base, he says, ecologism seeks not to save nature but to purify humankind through self-flagellating asceticism.
To Bruckner, ecologism is both ethnocentric and counterproductive. Ethnocentric because eco-denunciations of capitalism simply give new, green garb to the long-standing Euro-American fear of losing dominance over the developing world (whose recent growth derives, irksomely, from fossil fuels). Counterproductive because ecologism induces indifference, or even hostility to environmental issues. In the quest to force humanity into a puritanical straitjacket of rural simplicity, ecologism employs what should be neutral, fact-based descriptions of a real-world problem (too much carbon dioxide raises temperatures) as bludgeons to compel people to accept modes of existence they would otherwise reject. Intuiting moral blackmail underlying the apparently objective charts and graphs, Bruckner argues, people react with suspicion, skepticism, and sighing apathy—the opposite of the reaction McKibbenites hope to evoke.
The ranchers and farmers in Tony Horwitz’s Boom, a deft and sometimes sobering e-book, suggest Bruckner may be on to something. Horwitz, possibly best known for his study of Civil War reenactors, Confederates in the Attic, travels along the proposed path of the Keystone XL, a controversial pipeline intended to take oil from Alberta’s tar-sands complex to refineries in Steele City, Nebraska—and the project McKibben has used as the rallying cry for 350.org. McKibben set off on his anti-Keystone crusade after the climatologist-provocateur James Hansen charged in 2011 that building the pipeline would be “game over” for the climate. If Keystone were built, Hansen later wrote, “civilization would be at risk.” Everyone Horwitz meets has heard this scenario. But nobody seems to have much appetite for giving up the perks of industrial civilization, Kirk Webster–style. “You want to go back to the Stone Age and use only wind, sun, and water?” one person asks. A truck driver in the tar-sands project tells Horwitz, “This industry is giving me a future, even if it’s a short one and we’re all about to toast together.” Given the scale of the forces involved, individual action seems futile. “It’s going to burn up anyhow at the end,” explains a Hutterite farmer, matter-of-factly. “The world will end in fire.”
Whereas McKibbenites see carbon dioxide as an emblem of a toxic way of life, economists like William Nordhaus of Yale tend to view it as simply a by-product of the good fortune brought by capitalism. Nordhaus, the president of the American Economic Association, has researched climate issues for four decades. His The Climate Casino has an even, unhurried tone; a classic Voice of Authority rumbles from the page. Our carbon-dioxide issues, he says, have a “simple answer,” one “firmly based in economic theory and history”:
The best approach is to use market mechanisms. And the single most important market mechanism that is missing today is a high price on CO2 emissions, or what is called “carbon prices” … The easiest way is simply to tax CO2 emissions: a “carbon tax” … The carbon price [from the tax] will be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.
Nordhaus provides graphs (!) showing how a gradually increasing tax—or, possibly, a market in emissions permits—would slowly and steadily ratchet down global carbon-dioxide output. The problem, as he admits, is that the projected reduction “assumes full participation.” Translated from econo-speak, “full participation” means that the Earth’s rich and populous nations must simultaneously apply the tax. Brazil, China, France, India, Russia, the United States—all must move in concert, globally cooperating.
To say that a global carbon tax is a simple answer is like arguing that the simple answer to death is repealing the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Alas, nothing like Nordhaus’s planetary carbon tax has ever been enacted. The sole precedent is the Montreal Protocol, the 1987 treaty banning substances that react with atmospheric ozone and reduce its ability to absorb the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. Signed by every United Nations member and successfully updated 10 times, the protocol is a model of international eco-cooperation. But it involves outlawing chemicals in refrigerators and spray cans, not asking nations to revamp the base of their own prosperity. Nordhaus’s declaration that a global carbon tax is a simple answer is like arguing that the simple answer to death is repealing the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Does climate change, as Nordhaus claims, truly slip into the silk glove of standard economic thought? The dispute is at the center of Jamieson’s Reason in a Dark Time. Parsing logic with the care of a raccoon washing a shiny stone, Jamieson maintains that economists’ discussions of climate change are almost as problematic as those of environmentalists and politicians, though for different reasons.
Remember how I was complaining that all discussions of climate change devolve into homework? Here, sadly, is proof. To critique economists’ claims, Jamieson must drag the reader through the mucky assumptions underlying cost-benefit analysis, a standard economic tool. In the case of climate change, the costs of cutting carbon dioxide are high. What are the benefits? If the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rises only slightly above its current 400 parts per million, most climatologists believe, there is (roughly) a 90 percent chance that global temperatures will eventually rise between 3 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit, with the most likely jump being between 4 and 5 degrees. Nordhaus and most other economists conclude that humankind can slowly constrain this relatively modest rise in carbon without taking extraordinary, society-transforming measures, though neither decreasing the use of fossil fuels nor offsetting their emissions will be cheap or easy. But the same estimates show (again in rough terms) a 5 percent chance that letting carbon dioxide rise much above its current level would set off a domino-style reaction leading to global devastation. (No one pays much attention to the remaining 5 percent chance that the carbon rise would have very little effect on temperature.)
In our daily lives, we typically focus on the most likely result: I decide whether to jaywalk without considering the chance that I will trip in the street and get run over. But sometimes we focus on the extreme: I lock up my gun and hide the bullets in a separate place to minimize the chance that my kids will find and play with them. For climate change, should we focus on adapting to the mostprobable outcome or averting the most dangerous one? Cost-benefit analyses typically ignore the most-radical outcomes: they assume that society has agreed to accept the small but real risk of catastrophe—something environmentalists, to take one particularly vehement section of society, have by no means done.
On top of this, Jamieson argues, there is a second problem in the models economists use to discus climate change. Because the payoff from carbon-dioxide reduction will occur many decades from now, Nordhausian analysis suggests that we should do the bare minimum today, even if that means saddling our descendants with a warmer world. Doing the minimum is expensive enough already, economists say. Because people tomorrow will be richer than we are, as we are richer than our grandparents were, they will be better able to pay to clean up our emissions. Unfortunately, this is an ethically problematic stance. How can we weigh the interests of someone born in 2050 against those of someone born in 1950? In this kind of trade-off between generations, Jamieson argues, “there is no plausible value” for how much we owe the future.
Given their moral problems, he concludes, economic models are much less useful as guides than their proponents believe. For all their ostensible practicality—for all their attempts to skirt the paralysis-inducing specter of the apocalypse—economists, too, don’t have a good way to talk about climate change.
Years ago, a colleague and I spoke with the physicist Richard Feynman, later a national symbol of puckish wit and brash truth-telling. At the frontiers of science, he told us, hosts of unclear, mutually contradictory ideas are always swarming about. Researchers can never agree on how to proceed or even on what is important. In these circumstances, Feynman said, he always tried to figure out what would take him forward no matter which theory eventually turned out to be correct. In this agnostic spirit, let’s assume that rising carbon-dioxide levels will become a problem of some magnitude at some time and that we will want to do something practical about it. Is there something we should do, no matter what technical arcanae underlie the cost-benefit analyses, no matter when we guess the bad effects from climate change will kick in, no matter how we value future generations, no matter what we think of global capitalism? Indeed, is there some course of action that makes sense even if we think that climate change isn’t much of a problem at all?
As my high-school math teacher used to say, let’s do the numbers. Roughly three-quarters of the world’s carbon-dioxide emissions come from burning fossil fuels, and roughly three-quarters of that comes from just two sources: coal in its various forms, and oil in its various forms, including gasoline. Different studies produce slightly different estimates, but they all agree that coal is responsible for more carbon dioxide than oil is—about 25 percent more. That number is likely to increase, because coal consumption is growing much faster than oil consumption.
Geo-engineering involves tinkering with planetary systems we only partially understand. But planet-hacking does have an overarching advantage: it’s cheap.
Although coal and oil are both fossil fuels, they are used differently. In this country, for example, the great majority of oil—about three-quarters—is consumed by individuals, as they heat their homes and drive their cars. Almost all U.S. coal (93 percent) is burned not in homes but by electric-power plants; the rest is mainly used by industry, notably for making cement and steel. Cutting oil use, in other words, requires huge numbers of people to change their houses and automobiles—the United States alone has 254 million vehicles on the road. Reducing U.S. coal emissions, by contrast, means regulating 557 big power plants and 227 steel and cement factories. (Surprisingly, many smaller coal plants exist, some at hospitals and schools, but their contributions are negligible.) I’ve been whacking poor old Nordhaus for his ideas about who should pay for climate change, but he does make this point, and precisely: “The most cost-effective way to reduce CO2 emissions is to reduce the use of coal first and most sharply.” Note, too, that this policy comes with a public-health bonus: reining in coal pollution could ultimately avoid as many as 6,600 premature deaths and 150,000 children’s asthma attacks per year in the United States alone.
Different nations have different arrangements, but almost everywhere the basic point holds true: a relatively small number of industrial coal plants—perhaps 7,000 worldwide—put out an amazingly large amount of carbon dioxide, more than 40 percent of the global total. And that figure is rising; last year, coal’s share of energy production hit a 44-year high, because Asian nations are building coal plants at a fantastic rate (and, possibly, because demand for coal-fired electricity will soar as electric cars become popular). No matter what your views about the impact and import of climate change, you are primarily talking about coal. To my mind, at least, retrofitting 7,000 industrial facilities, however mind-boggling, is less mind-boggling than, say, transforming the United States into “a nation of careful, small-scale farmers” or enacting a global carbon tax with “full participation.” It is, at least, imaginable.
The focus of the Obama administration on reducing coal emissions suggests that it has followed this logic. If the pattern of the late 20th century still held, industry would reply with exaggerated estimates of the cost, and compromises would be worked out. But because the environment has become a proxy for a tribal battle, an exercise in power politics will surely ensue. I’ve given McKibben grief for his apocalyptic rhetoric, but he’s exactly correct that without a push from a popular movement—without something like 350.org—meaningful attempts to cut back coal emissions are much less likely to yield results.
Regrettably, 350.org has fixated on the Keystone pipeline, which the Congressional Research Service has calculated would raise this nation’s annual output of greenhouse gases by 0.05 to 0.3 percent. (James Hansen, in arguing that the pipeline would be “game over” for the climate, erroneously assumed that all of the tar-sands oil could be burned rapidly, instead of dribbling out in relatively small portions year by year, over decades.) None of this is to say that exploiting tar sands is a good idea, especially given the apparent violation of native treaties in Canada. But a popular movement focused on symbolic goals will have little ability to win practical battles in Washington.
If politics fail, the only recourse, says David Keith, a Harvard professor of public policy and applied physics, will be a technical fix. And soon—by mid-century. Keith is talking about geo-engineering: fighting climate change with more climate change. A Case for Climate Engineering is a short book arguing that we should study spraying the stratosphere with tiny glittering droplets of sulfuric acid that bounce sunlight back into space, reducing the Earth’s temperature. Physically speaking, the notion is feasible. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines, created huge amounts of airborne sulfuric acid—and lowered the Earth’s average temperature that year by about 1 degree.
Keith is candid about the drawbacks. Not only does geo-engineering involve tinkering with planetary systems we only partially understand, it can’t cancel out, even in theory, greenhouse problems like altered rainfall patterns and increased ocean acidity. The sulfur would soon fall to the Earth, a toxic rain of pollution that could kill thousands of people every year. The carbon dioxide that was already in the air would remain. To continue to slow warming, sulfur would have to be lofted anew every year. Still, Keith points out, without this relatively crude repair, unimpeded climate change could be yet more deadly.
Planet-hacking does have an overarching advantage: it’s cheap. “The cost of geoengineering the entire planet for a decade,” Keith writes, “could be less than the $6 billion the Italian government is spending on dikes and movable barriers to protect a single city, Venice, from climate change–related sea level rise.”
That advantage is also dangerous, he points out. A single country could geo-engineer the whole planet by itself. Or one country’s geo-engineering could set off conflicts with another country—a Chinese program to increase its monsoon might reduce India’s monsoon. “Both are nuclear weapons states,” Keith reminds us. According to Forbes, the world has 1,645 billionaires, several hundred of them in nations threatened by climate change. If their businesses or homes were at risk, any one of them could single-handedly pay for a course of geo-engineering. Is anyone certain none of these people would pull the trigger?
Few experts think that relying on geo-engineering would be a good idea. But no one knows how soon reality will trump ideology, and so we may finally have hit on a useful form of alarmism. One of the virtues of Keith’s succinct, scary book is to convince the reader that unless we find a way to talk about climate change, planes full of sulfuric acid will soon be on the runway.
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September 22nd, 2015
Episode 55 of 152 episodes
The car manufacturer VW has admitted that more than eleven million diesel cars could be affected by the company rigging car emission tests in the US. Calls for testing of VW diesel cars outside the US are growing, with Italy, France and South Korea opening investigations. But can current technology accurately test real world driving emissions? Professor Chris Brace from the University of Bath explains what can be done now. Blockchain Money Transfer Could Bitcoin blockchain technology be moving into mainstream banking, making money transfers faster and more secure? Gareth Mitchell speaks to David Rutter, CEO of R3, a financial innovation company that will be working with nine major banks to develop blockchain technology for tracking real life financial transactions. The technology works by making a chain of all transactions and sending this updated chain to everyone who has ever made a transaction. But will this method lead to faster more secure and cheaper transactions? Getting Online for the First Time A new project is about to be launched in the Philippines to help people who have never used a computer get online. It is an extension of the work currently being done by the Tinder Foundation, a ‘not for profit’ in the UK that helps a quarter of a million people use the internet every year. The Philippines, like the UK, is increasingly moving to an online system where many government services will soon only be accessible through the internet. Helen Milner, CEO of the Tinder Foundation, spoke to Click just before she set off. Future of Cities The Vision of Cambridge report 2065 has just been published with leading scientists and entrepreneurs contributing to predictions as to how the city will develop. Much of this predicted expansion will be possible because of smart technology; big data, the internet of things, driverless cars, online teaching. Dr David Cleevely (founding Chairman of the Cambridge Science Centre and Founding Director of the Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge), who contributed to the report, tells us if other cities around the world can benefit from these advances and which one’s already are. (Photo caption: A vehicle being tested at the Centre for Low Emission Vehicle Research University of Bath) Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
Welcome to the Brain Training Podcast, the daily audio workout for your head. In this podcast we have two games for you, each with three rounds which get progressively harder. To enjoy the full experience, relax, and avoid distractions whilst you listen.
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In this volume the authors tell the real stories of the planners, politicians, and everyday people who shaped contemporary Chicago, starting in 1958, early in the Richard J. Daley era. Over the ensuing decades, planning did much to develop the Loop, protect Chicago’s famous lakefront, and encourage industrial growth and neighborhood development in the face of national trends that savaged other cities. But planning also failed some of Chicago’s communities and did too little for others. The Second City is no longer defined by its past and its myths but by the nature of its emerging postindustrial future.
This volumelooks beyond Burnham’s giant shadow to see the sprawl and scramble of a city always on the make. This isn’t the way other history books tell the story. But it’s the Chicago way.
1. Introduction 2. Chicago’s Planning Context Part 1: Chicago’s Central Area 3. The Origins of Chicago’s Post-Industrial City: Planning Change In 1955-1958 4. The High-Water Mark of City-Led Planning: The 1966 Comprehensive Plan 5. Growth Coalition Takes the Lead for Planning 6. Chicago’s Equity Planning Moment 7. Planning in The Void: Redevelopment In The North Loop And Near South Part 2: Neighborhood Change And Planning Response 8. Chicago and Community Planning Innovation 9. Englewood 10. Uptown 11. Little Village 12. Remaking Public Housing: The Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation Part 3: Industrial Policy in Chicago: City Planning for Industrial Retention and Growth 13. Defending The Industrial Base: Sector and District Strategies 14. Has It Worked? A Changing Employment Scene 15. The Calumet District: Planning for Brownfields 16. Planning for Global Freight in The Chicago Region Part 4: Chicago in Current Era 17. The Tourist City: Navy Pier, Mccormick Place, And Millennium Park 18. The Era of Big Plans Is Over 19. The Lost Decade 20. The Disconnect Between Financing and Planning 21. Examples of Positive Middle-Ground Planning 22. Conclusion: Restore Planning to Chicago
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TIME CAPSULES: Writings from the Warsaw Ghetto
Time Capsules: Writings from the Warsaw Ghetto is a moving, informative and even timely book about resistance to tyranny. David G. Roskies has curated eighteen selections from the Ringelblum Archive, a contemporaneous record of the catastrophe that was the Warsaw Ghetto. The voices, translated from Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish, are from a cross-section of Polish Jewry that includes chroniclers, poets and prose writers, a playwright, a visual artist, a Chassidic rabbi. This collection, which is for a general readership, carries the material of history and the power of art. Each of the individual entries has a distinct quality and tone, but this assemblage is much more than the sum of its parts. The writings are bracketed by David Roskies’ introduction and Samuel D. Kassow’s afterword, both of which are superb and invaluable.
The Ringelblum Archive was generated and preserved by a clandestine group organized by Emanuel Ringelblum, a hero of the Warsaw Ghetto. It operated from September 1939 to January 1943, under the code name Oyneg Shabbos (Pleasure of Shabbat). The group was committed to describing life in the ghetto during the Nazi occupation, so that there would be a record outside of that created by the Germans. The original intention of Oyneg Shabes was to collect material and write a book after the war. But when the pace of deportations to Treblinka increased and it became clear that there would be few if any survivors left, the archives were stored in three milk cans and ten metal boxes and buried in three places in the ghetto. In 1946, two milk cans containing thousands of documents were unearthed, and ten boxes were found in 1950. The third cache is believed to be buried under what is now the Chinese Embassy, but a 2005 search was unsuccessful.
The publication of Time Capsules will be timely, because a feature-length, major documentary about the Archive, based on Kassow’s book Who Will Write Our History, is due to be released at the end of this year; the film is directed by Roberta Grossman and produced by Susan Spielberg. http://whowillwriteourhistory.com
Rights Sold to:
USA: Yale University Press
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The role of behaviour
The three interlocked factors for an enterprise’s success are: strategy, process and behaviour.
- Strategy sets the direction for the enterprise
- Work processes organise the work toward strategic objectives.
- Behaviour is the enabler of both strategy and process.
Behaviour is what we say and what we do.
Successful personal, professional and organisational development come down to what people do and don’t do to make each task a reality.
Developing behaviours to a level of skill takes time and effort. Behavioural skills deal with how you interact with yourself, other members of your organisation and the organisation itself. Important behavioural skills include giving-seeking information, making decisions, influencing people, and building relationships as well as a broad range of other interpersonal and individual skills.
Our actions are controlled by our thinking processes, attitudes, beliefs and feelings about specific ideas, situations or other people. If we are to develop behavioural skill then we must look at the reasons and source of our behaviour as well as what we want to accomplish.
You will find benefit from examining behaviour and behavioural skills if there are issues around:
- a desire to become more effective at a professional skill
- a desire to develop more productive working/social relationships
- a need to be in step with organizational objectives
By positively changing an individual’s behaviour at any one of these levels the organisation as a whole will benefit as the individual increases his or her effectiveness.Click here to contact me and find out more.
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Updated: Nov 16, 2020
The Vidarbha region of north eastern Maharashtra has been described as the epicenter of farmer suicide in India. It also has the unenviable reputation of being one of the worst places in the nation to be a farmer. These circumstances are connected. More than 300,000 farmers in India have committed suicide since 1995. Over this period, the State of Maharashtra has experienced the highest rate of farmer suicides in the nation. Recent data (2014-2018) indicate that an average of eight farmers per day end their lives in Maharashtra. 2019 data revealed a modest downward trend of farmer suicide in the state. Unfortunately, the district of Yavatmal (where Umarkhed Taluka is located) experienced the opposite trend - farmer suicide increased. Numerous factors outside the control of the farmers make identifying a solution to this agrarian crisis elusive. National agricultural policies, minimum support prices, weak political leadership, climate change and its worsening effects, problematic water policies and poor irrigation systems, competition for water from industries, increasing input costs of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, insufficient crop insurance policies, and unscrupulous, opportunistic lenders all combine to put farmers in the region under overwhelming stress. Moreover, cultural practices, specifically gender roles in patriarchal rural communities, operate as a confounding variable. A farmer is expected to be both the provider for his family and the producer of food for his community. Under the confluence of contemporary conditions, farmers in the Vidarbha region often feel that they are falling short of these expectations, triggering feelings of shame, powerlessness, and despair.
Psychological postmortem information on suicides in general (e.g., information gleaned from incomplete suicides or notes left behind) indicate that individuals do not want to end their lives but ‘want to end the pain.’ Thus, the experience of powerlessness or perceived impotence to improve one’s situation may lead individuals to despair and ultimately suicide.
Because the Maati-Paani-Asha vision exemplifies a systems approach, it has the potential to influence change at the microlevel (viz. the farmer) by empowering the farmer and thereby impacting the food production system positively and at a sustainable level. The strategies outlined in this proposal will allow farmers to reclaim some of their agency and power, as well as to become less dependent on factors that are outside their control. Specifically, the introduction of farming practices that regenerate and rehydrate land via reduced reliance on expensive external inputs is expected to reduce the negative impact of unsustainable chemically dependent farming practices, increase crop yield, improve health, and mitigate some of the effects of the global climate crisis. Additionally, technical and financial assistance and market connections provided to farmers will reduce the dependence on multinational corporations, unscrupulous lenders, and opportunistic traders. These interventions are mechanisms for empowering at the individual level and building local community capacity. Moreover, community-led initiatives such as a women-led barter system for sharing nutritious foods and collaborations with local educational and health care institutions will be a significant factor in complementing culturally relevant community networks that can provide psychological insulation in the face of stressors that have previously resulted in despair, powerlessness, and suicide.
In sum, empowerment at the individual level will enhance self-esteem and positively influence farmers' sense of purpose and meaning, enabling them to see themselves as valuable and productive members of the Umarkhed community. The reshaping of the status quo through this vision project, although not a panacea, will in the medium and long term go a long way in improving the quality of life for the individual farmer, their families and their local communities; reduce farmer suicide; and enhance sustainable eco-friendly food production at the macrolevel.
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About 30 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease can be prevented in people at high risk if they switch to a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables, and even drink wine with meals, a large and rigorous new study has found.
The findings, published on The New England Journal of Medicine’s Web site on Monday, were based on the first major clinical trial to measure the diet’s effect on heart risks. The magnitude of the diet’s benefits startled experts. The study ended early, after almost five years, because the results were so clear it was considered unethical to continue.
The diet helped those following it even though they did not lose weight and most of them were already taking statins, or blood pressure or diabetes drugs to lower their heart disease risk.
“Really impressive,” said Rachel Johnson, a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. “And the really important thing — the coolest thing — is that they used very meaningful endpoints. They did not look at risk factors like cholesterol of hypertension or weight. They looked at heart attacks and strokes and death. At the end of the day, that is what really matters.”
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I is for Iridiomyrmex cordatus
Drawing uses photo taken by Alex Wild – website here
Iridiomyrmex cordatus is a species of ant, that lives high in the trees in the rainforests of southeast Asia and Australia, inside a epiphyte – a plant that lives its life on the tree and gains its needs from it.
This particular epiphyte lives very high up and has plenty of sun and rain, but cannot get nutrients – and amazingly, this is what the ants provide!
They live in the honeycomb of tunnels in the round plant, protected by the spiky outer walls, and in return they leave the remains of their prey inside little growths in the plant’s tunnels. These remains decompose and the plant can gain its nourishment from them.
This is their slightly insane poem – with apologies to Max Bygraves (feel free to sing it to the tune of ‘There’s a Tiny House‘:
In a small round plant,
in the canopy,
live some shiny ants,
in a colony –
and they live their lives
All material © Liz Brownlee
If you’d like to blog hop to another A-Z Challenge blog please press here.
- Posted in: A-Z Challenge 2013
- Tagged: animals, ant, art, Australia, beautiful, nature, poetry, science, sustainability
A fun poem, Liz, and fascinating to see how the natural world interacts. A great post.
Thanks, Ann! Yes, it’s sadly the case that every loss of an animal affects so many more species than one would imagine – all the way up to us.
Where DO you find them? Another fun poem in little ant-size bites.
Thanks, Liz! I have a library of animals books, so it’s not hard to come up with something interesting. Actually, only one book would do, they are ALL interesting!
Liz Its great to know about so many animals. That was a cute poem. I like your posts.
Hello Yamini, thank you, I’m really pleased you are enjoying my blog.
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The Playing Action
For beginners, it is important not to have strings that are too high off the
fingerboard, because this increases the necessary pressure for the left-hand fingertips
to hold down a clear note or chord.
The strings are supported by detachable bones at the nut and bridge (see illustration).
The nut bone, which is slightly grooved to provide a guide for each string, sets
the height above the fingerboard at that end. If the strings are too low they will
buzz against the frets. If they are too high, the guitar becomes hard to play, which
can completely discourage you from continuing.
If the setting is too high, the nut bone needs to be removed and filed down from
the underside. If it is too low, a sliver of cardboard or similar material may be
inserted underneath, but this should be a temporary solution until a new bone of
the right height can be obtained. On a classical guitar the height of the strings
at the first fret will be about 1/16 in (1.5 mm).
At the bridge end, a similar adjustment can be made to the bridge bone to produce
a height at the twelfth fret of approximately 3/16 in (5 mm). The reason the measurements
are approximate is that the exact amount depends on the height of the frets and
the total string length, both of which vary from maker to maker.
Note that these measurements are for the nylon string guitar. The metal strings
of the acoustic guitar are set lower due to the greater tension, and for the sake
of the left hand, steel strings need to be as low as is practical, consistent with
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Do you recall the first time you learned to ride a bike? Many of us have had the experience of falling, getting up, and falling again, gradually improving until we can go around the block. This is an excellent example of experiential learning, or learning by doing. This form of learning entails acting, watching, reflecting, correcting errors, implementing what has been learned, and repeating the process until the learning is mastered.
Experiential learning is natural; we've all benefited from it in a variety of scenarios. Simply considering how a newborn learns to talk and walk with experience shows how powerful this approach is.
Experiential learning, as applied to education, is an active process that engages the learner rather than a passive one that happens to the student. Experience serves as the foundation for learning in this process, while rigorous analysis and reflection on experience foster learning. Rather than instructing, the instructor encourages students to find things out for themselves and helps them through their learning. The assumption that there are no "right methods of thinking," "following rules," or "perfect actions" that must be studied and implemented is implicit in the learning that pupils generate.
Educational psychologists such as John Dewey, Carl Rogers, and David Kolb investigated the notion of experiential learning throughout the twentieth century. Kolb argued that "learning is the process by which we form knowledge via the transformation of experience," and he suggested a "learning cycle" that included the following four stages:
First, the student interacts directly in an authentic scenario, either at school or outside of it, in a tangible experience. Second, reflective observation requires you to see and recognize what is working and what is not, as well as to link it to prior experiences. Third, throughout the stage of abstract conceptualization, the learner generalizes and turns his or her perceptions into abstract notions. He asks himself, "How?" and "What would happen if...?" It is his or her critical thinking that is at work. And lastly, new ideas emerge, skills are polished, and we gain a fresh experience through active experimenting.
According to the University of Texas at Austin, "experiential" learning includes the following components: reflection, critical analysis, and synthesis. It allows kids to take initiative, make decisions, and be held accountable for their actions, allowing them to contribute academically, creatively, emotionally, socially, or physically.
Increases the incentive for students to learn. When students take part in meaningful learning activities, the product is more important than the grade; they are more motivated to learn, and they generate a more considered result.
Produces pupils that are self-sufficient. Students must discover for themselves what they know, what they don't know, and how to learn to solve issues and accomplish tasks in novel settings in a real-world environment.
Reflection increases learning and assists students in applying existing knowledge to new situations, acquiring new concepts, principles, and abilities, and understanding how they got this knowledge.
Students gain confidence, develop abilities, and engage successfully in group projects as they develop tenacity, curiosity, and responsibility.
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Set up in position; install or establish: many of the troops had only joined up when the new regime was instated
Más ejemplos en oraciones
- This clearly proves that instating a draft has negative results, and only leads to more soldiers coming home in body bags.
- After the thugs easily overthrow the Baath party, Rudie instates a strict fundamentalist form of Rastafarianism as state religion.
- When this district agreed to accept David, in light of his ‘special’ abilities, several rules were instated to ensure both his safety and that of his classmates.
Definición de instate en:
- el diccionario Inglés de EE.UU.
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January 14, 2014
Professor Nina Chernoff’s new article “The 16 Things Every Defense Attorney Should Know About Fair Cross-Section Challenges,” co-authored with Joseph B. Kadane, is the lead article in the December 2013 issue of Champion, from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Chernoff and Kadane write, “There is a significant amount of data indicating that jury systems across the country underrepresent people of color, primarily African-Americans and Latinos. Defense attorneys can challenge this underrepresentation by raising a fair cross-section claim under the Sixth Amendment, the JSSA, and parallel state constitutions and statues.”
Read the full article [PDF]
Nina Chernoff teaches evidence and lawyering. Her scholarship focuses on the role of juries in the criminal justice system.
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- Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child's? If this were then subjected to an appropriate course of education, one would obtain the adult brain [...] Our hope is that there is so little mechanism in the child brain that something like it can be easily programmed. The amount of work in the education we can assume, as a first approximation, to be much the same as for the human child. (Turing, 1950, pp.456)
Developmental robotics (also known as epigenetic robotics or ontogenetic robotics) is a highly interdisciplinary subfield of robotics in which ideas from artificial intelligence, developmental psychology, neuroscience, and dynamical systems theory play a pivotal role in motivating the research. The main goal of developmental robotics is to model the development of increasingly complex cognitive processes in natural and artificial systems and to understand how such processes emerge through physical and social interaction. Robots are typically employed as testing platforms for theoretical models of the emergence and development of action and cognition – the rationale being that if a model is instantiated in a system embedded in the real world,a great deal can be learned about its strengths and potential flaws. Unlike evolutionary robotics which operates on phylogenetic time scales and populations of many individuals, developmental robotics capitalizes on “short” (ontogenetic) time scales and single individuals (or small groups of individuals).
Human intelligence is acquired through a prolonged period of maturation and growth during which a single fertilized egg first turns into an embryo, then grows into a newborn baby, and eventually becomes an adult individual – which, typically before growing old and dying, reproduces. The processes underlying developmental changes are inherently robust and flexible as demonstrated by the amazing ability of biological organisms to devise adaptive strategies and solutions to cope with environmental changes and guarantee their survival. Because evolution has selected development as the process through which to realize some of the highest known forms of intelligence, it is reasonable to assume that development is mechanistically crucial to emulate such intelligence in machines and other human-made artifacts.
History and Early Theorizations
The idea that development might be a good avenue to understand and construct cognition is not new. Already Alan Turing suggested that in order to build “intelligent machines” one might want to start by “simulating the child’s mind” (see epigraph). In the context of robotics, many of the tenets underlying developmental robotics can be traced back to at least three conceptual breakthroughs in research on intelligent systems: (a) embodied artificial intelligence (embodied AI), that is, the notion that intelligence (e.g. common sense) can only be the result of learned experience of a body living in the real world (e.g. Brooks et al., 1998; Pfeifer and Scheier, 1999; Pfeifer and Bongard, 2007); (b) synthetic neural modeling, i.e. a technique in which large-scale computer simulations are employed to analyze the interactions among the nervous system, the phenotype, and the environment of a designed organism as behavior develops (Edelman et al., 1992; Reeke et al., 1990); and (c) the notion of enaction according to which cognitive structures emerge from recurrent sensorimotor patterns that enable action to be perceptually guided (Varela et al., 1991). These three breakthroughs share the assumption that intelligence and intelligence-like processes might be best understood by studying the dynamical and reciprocal interaction across multiple time scales between brain and body of an agent, and its environment. Not surprisingly, many of the early theorizations of developmental robotics discussed the emergence and development of sensorimotor intelligence in the context of embodied systems (e.g. Ferrell and Kemp, 1996; Rutkowska, 1994; Sandini et al., 1997).
Aspects and Areas of Interest
Developmental robotics differs from traditional robotics and artificial intelligence in at least two crucial aspects. First, there is a strong emphasis on body structure and environment as causal elements in the emergence of organized behavior and cognition requiring their explicit inclusion in models of emergence and development of cognition (Asada et al., 2001; Blank et al., 2005; Lungarella et al., 2003; Weng et al., 2001; Zlatev and Balkenius, 2001). Although some researchers use simulated environments and computational models (Kuniyoshi and Sangawa, 2006; Mareschal et al., 2007; Westermann et al., 2006), more often developmental robots are embedded in the real world as physical analogues of real organisms (e.g. Arbib et al., 2007; Kozima and Nakagawa, 2007; Metta and Fitzpatrick, 2003; Pfeifer et al., 2007; Sporns, 2007; for examples, see Figs. 1 and 2). Second, the idea is to realize artificial cognitive systems not by simply programming them (e.g. to solve a specific task), but rather by initiating and maintaining a developmental process during which the systems interact with their physical environments (i.e. through their bodies, tools, or other artifacts), as well as with their social environments (i.e. with people, other robots, or simulated agents) – cognition, after all, is the result of a process of self-organization (spontaneous emergence of order) and co-development between a developing organism and its surrounding environment. Andy Clark uses the term “cognitive incrementalism” to denote the bootstrapping of intelligence, the rationale being that throughout life “you get indeed get full-blown, human cognition by gradually adding bells and whistles to basic strategies of relating to the present at hand” (Clark, 2001). In other words, incrementalism designates the process of starting with a minimal set of functions and building increasingly more functionality in a step by step manner on top of structures that are already present in the system.
The spectrum of developmental robotics research can be roughly segmented into four primary areas of interest. The borders of these categories are not as clearly defined as this classification may suggest and instances may exist that fall into two or more of these categories. We do hope, however, that the suggested grouping provides at least some order in the large spectrum of issues addressed by developmental roboticists.
- Socially oriented interaction: This category comprises research on robots that communicate or learn particular skills via social interaction with humans or with other robots. Examples include research on imitation learning, communication and language acquisition, attention sharing, turn-taking behavior, and social regulation (e.g. Breazeal and Scassellati, 2002; Dautenhahn, 2007; Fong et al., 2003; Steels, 2006).
- Non-social interaction: These studies are characterized by a direct and strong coupling between sensor and motor processes and the local environment (e.g. inanimate objects), but do not involve any interaction with other robots or humans. Examples are visually-guided grasping and manipulation, tool-use, perceptual categorization, and navigation (e.g. Fitzpatrick et al., 2006; Metta and Fitzpatrick, 2003; Nabeshima et al., 2006).
- Agent-centered sensorimotor control: In these studies, the goal is to investigate the exploration of bodily capabilities, changes of morphology (e.g. perceptual acuity, or strength of the effectors) and their effects on motor skill acquisition, self-supervised learning schemes not specifically linked to any functional goal, and models of emotion. Examples include self-exploration, categorization of motor patterns, motor babbling, and learning to walk or crawl (e.g. Demiris and Meltzoff, 2007; Kuniyoshi and Sangawa, 2006; Lungarella and Berthouze, 2002).
- Mechanisms and principles: This category embraces research on mechanisms or processes thought to increase the adaptivity of a behaving system. Many examples exist: developmental and neural plasticity, mirror neurons, motivation, freezing and freeing of degrees of freedom, and synergies; research into the characterization of complexity and emergence, as well as the effects of adaptation and growth; practical work on body construction or development (e.g. Arbib et al., 2007; Blank et al., 2005; Lungarella and Sporns, 2006; Oudeyer et al., 2007; Pfeifer et al., 2007). Further work in this area of interest relates to design principles for developmental systems.
By contrast to traditional subjects such as physics or mathematics, which are described by basic axioms, the fundamental (“universal”) principles governing the dynamics of developmental systems are unknown. Could there be laws governing developmental systems? Could there be a theory? Although various attempts have been initiated (Asada et al., 2001; Brooks et al., 1998; Metta, 2000; Weng et al., 2001), it is fair to say that to date no such theory has emerged (Lungarella et al., 2003). Towards such a theory, one attractive possibility is to point out a set of candidate design principles. Such principles can be abstracted from biological systems (e.g. they can be revealed by observations of human and animal development), and their inspiration can take place at several levels, ranging from a “faithful” replication of biological mechanisms to a rather generic implementation of biological principles leaving room for other dynamics that are intrinsic to artifacts but are not found in natural systems. It is generally believed that such a principled approach is preferable for constructing intelligent autonomous systems with desired properties because it allows the capturing of design ideas and heuristics in a concise and pertinent way, avoiding blind trial-and-error (for additional information and principles refer to: Lungarella, 2004; Pfeifer and Bongard, 2007; Pfeifer et al., 2007; Prince et al., 2005; Smith and Breazeal, 2007; Smith and Gasser, 2005; Sporns, 2007; Stoytchev, 2006).
The further success of developmental robotics will depend on the extent to which theorists and experimentalists will be able to identify universal principles spanning the multiple levels at which developmental systems operate. In what follows, we briefly indicate some of the “hot” issues that will need to be tackled in the future.
- Semiotics: It is necessary to address the issue of how developmental robots (and embodied agents in general) can give meaning to symbols and construct semiotic systems. A promising approach – explored under the label of “semiotic dynamics” – is that such semiotic systems and the associated information structure are not static, but are continuously invented and negotiated by groups of people or agents which use them for communication and information organization (Steels, 2006).
- Core knowledge: An organism cannot develop without some built-in ability. If all abilities are built in, however, the organism does not develop either. It will therefore be important to understand with what sort of core knowledge and explorative behaviors a developmental system has to be endowed so that it can begin developing novel skills on its own. One of the greatest challenges will be to identify what those core abilities are and how they interact during development in building basic skills (e.g. RobotCub Roadmap, 2007; Spelke, 2000).
- Core motives: It is necessary to conduct research on general capacities such as creativity, curiosity, motivations, action selection, and prediction (i.e. the ability to foresee consequence of actions). Ideally, no tasks should be pre-specified to the robot, which should only be provided with an internal abstract reward function, some core knowledge, and a set of basic motivational (or emotional) "drives" that could push it to continuously master new know-how and skills (Breazeal, 2003; Oudeyer et al., 2007; Lewis, 2000; RobotCub Roadmap, 2007; Velasquez, 2007).
- Self-exploration: Another important challenge is the one of continuous self-programming and self-modeling (e.g. Bongard et al., 2006). Control theory assumes that target values and statuses are initially provided by the system’s designer, whereas in biology, such targets are created and revised continuously by the system itself. Such spontaneous “self-determined evolution” or “autonomous development” is beyond the scope of current control theory and needs to be tackled in future research.
- Active learning: In a natural setting, no teacher can possibly provide a detailed learning signal and sufficient training data. Mechanisms will have to be created for the developing agent to collect relevant learning material on its own and for learning to take place in an “ecological context” (i.e. with respect to the environment). One significant future avenue will be to endow systems with the possibility to recognize progressively longer chains of cause and effect (Chater et al., 2006).
- Growth: As mentioned in the introduction, intelligence is acquired through a process of self-assembly, growth, and maturation. It will be important to study how physical growth, change of shape and body composition, as well as material properties of sensors and actuators affect and guide the emergence and development of cognition and action. This will allow connecting developmental robotics to computational developmental biology (Gomez and Eggenberger, 2007; Kumar and Bentley, 2003).
The study of intelligent systems raises many fundamental, but also very difficult questions. Can machines think or feel? Can they autonomously acquire novel skills? Can the interaction of the body, brain, and environment be exploited to discover novel and creative solutions to problems? Developmental robotics may be an approach to address such long standing issues. The field is currently bubbling with activity. Its popularity is in part due to recent technological advances in robotics which have allowed the design of humanoid robots whose “kinematic complexity” is close to that of humans (Figs. 1 and 2). The success of the infant field of developmental robotics will ultimately depend on whether it will be possible to crystallize its central assumptions into a theory. While much additional work is surely needed to arrive at or even approach a general theory of development, the beginnings of a new synthesis are on the horizon. Perhaps, finally, we will come closer to understanding and building (growing) human-like intelligence. Exciting times are ahead of us.
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Evolutionary Robotics, Social Robotics, Machine Learning, Adaptive Behavior, Biologically Inspired Robotics, Computational Intelligence, Embodied Intelligence, Symbol Grounding Problem, Artificial Intelligence
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Moore v. Ogilvie
| Initiative law|
Ballot access rulings
Recent court cases
Ballot title challenges
| Laws governing|
local ballot measures
The plaintiffs in the case desired to be presidential electors from Illinois in the 1968 election. However, the state's Electoral Board denied them certification for the ballot because of defects in their nominating petitions. An Illinois statute required presidential candidates to have 25,000 signatures including 200 signatures from each of at least fifty of the state's 102 counties. The plaintiff's petitions contained over 25,000 signatures, but not 200 voters from each of 50 counties.
At the district court level, the plaintiffs lost. They appealed and eventually won. The highest court reasoned that "The Illinois statute, which is an integral part of the election process, applies a rigid, arbitrary formula to sparsely settled counties and populous counties alike, and thus discriminates against the residents of the populous counties in the exercise of their political rights in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
At the time, as evidence showed, of the state's registered voters, 93.4% lived in the 49 most populous counties, and only 6.6% in the remaining 53 counties.
Citation in Bush v. Gore
Moore v. Ogilvie was cited by the Supreme Court in its 2000 ruling in the famous case of Bush v. Gore. That ruling says, "An early case in our one person, one vote jurisprudence arose when a State accorded arbitrary and disparate treatment to voters in its different counties. Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368 (1963). The Court found a constitutional violation. We relied on these principles in the context of the Presidential selection process in Moore v. Ogilvie, 394 U.S. 814 (1969), where we invalidated a county-based procedure that diluted the influence of citizens in larger counties in the nominating process. There we observed that “[t]he idea that one group can be granted greater voting strength than another is hostile to the one man, one vote basis of our representative government."
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| 0.935242 | 433 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Coding for Conservation
By Elizabeth Bach
Ecosystem Restoration Scientist
It’s a chilly, rainy spring afternoon, and I sit in front of the computer. Yet I can feel the heat of a sticky August afternoon, hear the whine of cicadas, and see the golden blooms of sunflowers. Mentally, I’m systematically walking through the prairie, carefully identifying all the plants. At Nachusa, many of us, myself included, find working outside in the prairies, savannas, and wetlands most rewarding. However, there is an incredibly important part of conservation work that happens at the computer: data entry and analysis.
As the staff scientist at Nachusa, one of my primary duties is to analyze and share data. My primary tool for this work is a free program called “R.” In R, I can manipulate data, produce graphs, run statistical tests, and even produce a final report. Analyzing these data helps everyone at Nachusa refine restoration practices, inspires new ideas, and deepens our knowledge of the habitats and the organisms that live there. Sharing these data in presentations and publications allows us to share lessons learned and best practices used at Nachusa with others in both the conservation and scientific communities. In turn, we also learn from data from other sites. At Nachusa we are lucky to have several scientific researchers working at the site, who collect, analyze, and share data with us. We also have some data, collected over the years by The Nature Conservancy staff and collaborators, which haven’t been analyzed and shared. A key goal for Nachusa is to analyze these legacy datasets and share them.
All this brings me back to my computer on an early spring afternoon. When there is less work to be done outside, I’m busy working with datasets on the computer, building graphs, thinking through which metrics best represent the observations made on the prairie, and building statistical models to understand how the Nachusa ecosystem has changed and how it might continue to change into the future. All this work is done with a few lines of code on the computer. While very different from the outdoor joys and challenges of data collection, there are both joys and challenges with this work.
I often think of data analysis as a mystery to solve. What will the data show? What will I learn? How might this challenge or confirm observations from other scientists in other places? Every dataset is a new adventure, and I find a sort of excitement in that. It can also be frustrating. I spend a lot of time finding and correcting mistakes. There is no travel guide to inform my decisions. Fortunately, I can work with collaborators as travel buddies on these adventures, to bounce ideas off them, and gain a new perspective. One of the joys of working at Nachusa is being at the intersection of many paths of scientific research and natural history observation. Working with people with different expertise, skills, and perspectives deepens my understanding of science, the tallgrass prairie, and Nachusa.
Elizabeth Bach is the Ecosystem Restoration Scientist at Nachusa Grasslands. She works with scientists, land managers, and stewards to holistically investigate questions about tallgrass prairie restoration ecology.
By Angie Burke
Volunteer Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy
We are all familiar with the saying “It’s the little things that matter”, and it’s the management of the tallgrass prairies at Nachusa Grasslands that has made a big difference for the littlest of things— mammals. Our paper “Early Small Mammal Responses to Bison Reintroduction and Prescribed Fire in Restored Tallgrass Prairies”, coauthored with Dr. Holly Jones and Dr. Nick Barber, sheds light on how the varying management of prescribed fire, coupled with the reintroduction of grazing bison, has created a habitat haven for the small mammals in a mix of agriculture and rural development.
blocking our safe access to a site, to capturing meadow jumping mice awakening from their winter slumber, every sampling season held a new adventure for us.
Some of the little buddies we captured and released were deer mice, white-footed mice, prairie voles, northern short tailed shrew, meadow jumping mice, harvest mice, and my favorite, the 13-lined ground squirrel. Rain, snow, or shine, the little buddies are welcomed to the study each season with excitement by the many stewards, volunteers, and scientists that call Nachusa home.
In the first two years since bison were reintroduced, we found fewer small mammals in older sites relative to new restorations and fewer as time since fire increased. Additionally, there was a higher diversity of what we did document in those older sites and slightly lower diversity (fewer than one species, on average) in sites where bison were present. This difference was driven mainly by prairie voles; fire removes litter and residual dead vegetation which is important habitat for voles. The overall abundance was especially influenced by the deer mice, which are able to use the areas with a higher prevalence of bare ground associated with frequent/recent fire on the landscape.
Overall we found that bison reintroduction had fairly weak impacts to small mammal communities in the first few years. Bison, when reintroduced at a relatively low stocking rate, are not likely to cause significant shifts to this community or, by extension, to the seed predation and dispersal functions they serve in prairies. The many different types of habitat created by the managers at Nachusa varying prescribed fire with grazing bison maintain the diversity of small mammals on the landscape scale. Continuing to document the changes in the small mammals through time, while capturing the changes with other animal, invertebrate, and plant composition, will help to show how the little things matter on a big scale when it comes to tallgrass prairie restoration.
By Jess Fliginger
In 2013, Dr. Holly Jones started conducting a long-term research project at Nachusa Grasslands on quantifying the effects of disturbance-related management strategies on small mammal populations at restored and remnant prairie sites. The reintroduction of bison in 2014 allowed for a powerful before and after bison impact study that documented the effects of bison grazing on the small mammal communities. Data collected on species responses to bison, prescribed fire frequency, restoration age, and vegetation composition will inform decisions regarding abundance and biodiversity for small mammals. Small mammals play important roles in the food web by influencing vegetation structure through herbivory and seed predation, as well as serving as prey for predator species. So far, plant communities with bison grazing are becoming more diverse and more abundant with small mammals. In the beginning, Dr. Jones ran the small mammal project by herself for a year until she was able to pass it on to her Master’s student Angela Burke in 2014. It was quite a challenge to run the project on her own, and volunteers have become an essential component to keep it going. Over the years, we have had more than 100 volunteers participate to help check traps in the morning and reset traps in the afternoon.
On the first day of small mammal trapping, or as we like to call it “smammaling”, we prep 150 metal Sherman traps by baiting them with peanut butter and oats. Our small army of volunteers, 3 or 4 people, create an assembly line, with one person spreading just a dab of peanut butter on the backplate and the other sprinkling a small pinch of oats inside. Once all traps have been prepped, we start stacking rows of them, Tetris style, in the back of Scarlet, our NIU mule.
Out of the four seasons we sample for small mammals, August and October have the tallest vegetation, making it difficult to locate our poles. We flag the highest plant we can find nearby; for me it’s usually prairie dock or good ol’ big bluestem, and we try to navigate our way through the meandering paths of the tallgrass prairie jungle."
We take off to set 25 traps at six of our 5x5 grid sites, hoping our plans don’t get foiled by any bison delays or strange weather. Each site has flagged poles to indicate where the trap must be set; however, finding them can sometimes be a challenge. Bison love using our poles as backscratchers, and they are often found sprawled across the prairie. At each pole we place an open trap where it will sit until an unsuspecting critter passes by and catches a whiff of irresistible Jif.
The mice spend the night at their “mouse hotel” feasting on peanut butter and oats until we are back to process them in the morning.
I always get a rush of excitement as I walk up to a trap and notice the door is closed. When I peek inside the trap, I am usually able to see a little face staring back at me. Occasionally, I’ll get a trigger-no-capture and my excitement will fade to dissatisfaction. Likewise, thieves are a constant problem. Some especially small, speedy daredevils are able to run in to the trap, take some quick bites of peanut butter, and run out without triggering it. We keep tabs on which traps have been thieved and adjust/replace them accordingly.
To process the small mammals, we record the weight and take measurements on the right hind foot, tail, and body using a caliper. In addition, we determine their sex, age, reproductive status, species, and PIT tag number. Some of the species we have captured at our sites and record data on include thirteen-lined ground squirrel, deer mouse, white-footed mouse, western harvest mouse, meadow jumping mouse, prairie vole, meadow vole, and masked and short-tailed shrews. The most common species we capture is the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus. Depending on whether it’s a new capture or recap, we will carefully insert a PIT tag underneath its skin – similar to microchipping your pet – as a way to keep track of its movements, survival, and reproduction throughout the study. It’s always a treat when we have an overwinter or recapture from the previous year; they were the lucky ones to survive the long cold winter! Finally, we provide complimentary haircuts to all new buddies and collect the hair to run in the stable isotope lab. The information gathered from each sample result can tell us about their diet and role in the food web.
Since 2015, I have been volunteering with Dr. Jones’ small mammal project. This year I was given the opportunity to help run the project and process the small mammals until her incoming PhD student, Erin Rowland, arrived. I took up the challenge, and with practice I became a pro. I would say my favorite part of the job is meeting the volunteers and training them how to be great smammalers. I enjoy acting as a Nachusa tour guide to all newcomers, young and old.
Although anyone is welcome to volunteer, the majority of our helpers are undergraduate students who enjoy a break away from the classroom. Volunteering for the small mammal project gets you to spend time outside, which is beneficial to your health and well-being. It inspires the public to engage in the scientific process, appreciate native plants and animals, and meet others who care about our environment. Furthermore, it helps develop team building skills that are important for any job setting. Volunteers are the heart and soul of the small mammal project, and without them I’m not sure it would be able to persist. There is a lot to accomplish within the 12 consecutive days we are at Nachusa smammaling, and any help is greatly appreciated! If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Erin Rowland. To me, the small mammal project is all about making new and old friends — volunteers and mice alike.
Small mammal research has been supported by the Friends of Nachusa Grasslands science grants from 2015 to 2018.
Consider a donation to the Friends of Nachusa Grasslands to support the ongoing science!
By Jason Willand, PhD
I first visited Nachusa Grasslands in August 2008 while I was working for the Illinois Natural History Survey. I was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the restorations that comprised the preserve and never envisioned myself conducting research on these restored prairies. As fate would have it, I returned to school in 2009 to start work on my doctorate degree and was able to fit part of my research into the restorations at Nachusa. The research was for the first chapter of my dissertation, where I examined the role of seed and bud banks for plant community regeneration during prairie restoration. The field portion of this work lasted only five days, and afterwards I was hoping that I would have a chance to return to conduct more research. As fate would have it again, I was able to conduct a small research project at Nachusa as I was wrapping up my dissertation in July 2014.
The research project was the result of brainstorming between my dissertation advisor Sara Baer and myself. With the imminent introduction of bison on the preserve in October 2014, we wanted to develop a potential long-term monitoring project. We decided that an interesting study would be to examine the resource availability of the remnant and restored prairies before the bison were introduced. Bison were the dominant grazers in the tallgrass prairie ecosystem before settlement by the pioneers. They play a “keystone” role in the maintenance and diversity of prairies because of their wallowing behavior and preferential grazing on graminoids (grasses and sedges). Most bison research to date has been conducted either on private game ranches or remnant prairies, with little research coming from restored prairies.
We collected data on three resources that could affect where bison would graze in the introduction area: plant biomass, the forage quality of the biomass, and soil carbon and nitrogen. Knowledge of plant biomass provides a rough estimate of the amount of plant matter available for bison consumption. Forage quality of plant biomass is informative because it not only tells us how much of the plant matter is actually digestible to the bison, but also the fat and crude protein content of the plant matter. Soil carbon and nitrogen are vital because as a plant uptakes them, they allow a plant to produce important macromolecules for growth, such as proteins.
In order to adequately sample the bison introduction area we surveyed three different prairie types: remnant prairies, restored prairies more than 15 years old and restored prairies less than 5 years old. To quantify potential differences in resource availability between the three prairie types we collected plant biomass and soil samples from three different “fields” in each prairie type. Both the plant biomass and soil samples were returned to the laboratory at Southern Illinois University, where they were processed. Forage quality samples were sent to the University of Wisconsin Madison Soil and Forage Laboratory for analysis of seven components of forage quality.
We found that the restored prairies less than 5 years old had almost twice the amount of plant biomass compared to the restored prairies more than 15 years old and more than twice that of the remnant prairies. Surprisingly, there was little difference in forage quality and stored carbon and nitrogen in soil among the three prairie types. The similarity in forage quality between the three prairie types may be attributed to prescribed burning, as all the fields were burned in April 2014 three months before we sampled them. Prescribed burning has been found to increase forage quality for up to a year after a fire and may have created homogenous plant biomass on the landscape. We expected soil carbon and nitrogen to be higher in the remnant prairies because these soils have not been tilled, a disturbance that has been found to reduce the storage of carbon and nitrogen in agricultural soils. The remnant prairies we sampled perhaps had a lower storage of carbon and nitrogen than expected because the soil was fairly shallow in comparison to the typical deep, loamy soils that characterize many remnant prairies.
The findings of this study suggest that bison may prefer the youngest restored prairies because there is simply more plant biomass available and little difference in the forage quality from the other prairie types. Even with these preliminary data it is still difficult to predict where bison will graze. Other factors that need to be considered are the dietary preferences of male and female bison and how prescribed burning creates a more heterogeneous landscape in the three prairie types. Post-introduction data have not been collected, so at this point any predictions of landscape use by bison is speculative at best. Maybe fate will strike again and I will be able to collect more data at Nachusa sometime in the near future.
Jason Willand is an associate professor of biology at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, MO where he currently serves as the assistant department chair and chair of the conservation section of the Missouri Academy of Sciences.
By Jenn Simons
Nachusa Grasslands Science Extern
On January 10th, 2019 I made a simple phone call to Nachusa Grasslands. Four months later, I was packing up my things to spend the summer living 480 miles east of my hometown. And with that, this Nebraska native ended up in an eastern tallgrass prairie state of both mind and place.
Prior to that fateful January day, as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison I had narrowed down my research interests to the impact of conservation grazing on vegetation in midwestern prairies. My goal was to meet the requirements of my degree with a research project at the intersection of stewardship and applied ecology. Though the importance of disturbance to prairie management is well known, grazing on restored and remnant prairies has been a contested issue. Additional data to understand some of the trade-offs to using grazing for land management facilitate better understanding and application of the tools available in a land manager’s toolbox. The only thing that I was missing to begin my research was access to a herd of conservation grazers (nothing too significant, right?).
During my quest to connect with folks using grazing as a land management tool in prairies, I ended up on the phone with Dr. Elizabeth Bach at Nachusa. As many of you know, it’s hard not to fall in love with a site as beautiful and biodiverse as Nachusa Grasslands. It’s even harder not to fall in love if that site also features a herd of grazing animals and the existing infrastructure to study their impacts. After my first conversation with Dr. Bach, I was sold. Nachusa was where I wanted to be, and the impact of their bison was what I wanted to study.
In my case, and the case of many other grad students, there’s a gap in available funding between spring and fall school semesters. Grants and assistantships don’t always pan out, and many degrees in ecology require a large amount of data collection during the summer months (something rather at odds with working full time). Fortunately, 2019 marked the first summer for a Science Extern position at Nachusa. Open to all graduate students currently or beginning to conduct research specifically at Nachusa, the externship was to be awarded as an external grant to the student’s home university and paid as a salary, allowing the student to remain enrolled and continue receiving benefits. Just as the crew of seasonal employees spends their week supporting land stewardship needs throughout the summer, the role of the science extern was to support data stewardship needs throughout the summer. This position continues Nachusa’s history of encouraging research and providing opportunities for budding conservationists.
With my fingers crossed, I submitted my application for the position and tried not to get my hopes up. I made a mental plan B (and C and D) for how I might be able to make my Nachusa research dreams come true if my application wasn’t successful. Work full time and collect data on the weekends? Take out loans? Choose a simpler research question? These are questions most grad students have had to seriously consider at some point. When sites like Nachusa are able to offer summer positions that merge science with practice, both the student and the site benefit from the results.
Much to my delight, plan A came through, and I never looked back. Since May I’ve been assisting in collection, entry, and analysis of core ecological data for Nachusa while simultaneously collecting my own data. To answer my research questions, I’m leveraging twenty-two fenced plots (10mx18m) replicated across habitat types in the 1,500 acres of bison habitat that were designed and built by Bill Kleiman, Cody Considine, TNC staff, and collaborating scientists prior to the introduction of the bison in 2014. As opposed to keeping something inside a fenced in area, these fenced plots function as “exclosures” and keep bison outside the fenced area. Building on plant community data taken in 2014-15 and 2017-18, I’m collecting additional data to compare changes in the vegetation diversity, structure, and abundance along with soil compaction between grazed and ungrazed land over time. With the mentorship of Dr. Bach and my advisor, John Harrington, these data will be analyzed and contribute to both the advancement of my degree and the understanding of how bison have impacted Nachusa’s vegetation.
In addition to the various science program tasks, opportunities abound to participate in stewardship activities and learn more about careers in ecology outside of academia. I’ve gotten to track Blanding’s turtle, set traps for small mammals, participate in evening moth surveys, observe rare plants in their natural settings, improve my R coding ability, utilize ArcGIS to create new maps, collect seeds and control weeds with the seasonal crew, and talk with highly knowledgeable volunteer land stewards. I can honestly say there’s no place I’d rather be this summer than at Nachusa Grasslands, and I’ve already become a better ecologist as a result.
By Leah Kleiman
Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) is a perennial shrub native to temperate Asia and is invasive in the Midwestern United States. It now infests many savannas and woodlands and is difficult to eradicate.
Bill and Susan Kleiman and I are co-authors of a study recently published in the journal Ecological Restoration, titled “The Successful Control of Lonicera maackii (Amur honeysuckle) with Basal Bark Herbicide” (http://er.uwpress.org/content/36/4/267.full.pdf+html). Our study looked at the efficacy of basal bark application, where a mineral oil solution of herbicide is sprayed in a 6-inch band on the bark without cutting the plant. Our study found 100% mortality with basal bark treatment.
A variety of other treatment methods are used to battle honeysuckle. Manual pulling works well on small individuals in soft ground, but becomes impossible with larger sizes. Cutting and treating the stumps with herbicide is effective, but very time-consuming. We recommend the cut-and-treat method for sensitive high-quality areas. A foliar spray of herbicide is effective and efficient, but will have much more off-target damage and can only be used in the growing season. Fire is a useful tool in keeping brush at bay, but it will only top-kill shrubs. The basal bark method is efficient, effective in all seasons, and has minimal off-target damage.
Some things to keep in mind: 1) Re-treating is important for success. One treatment is not enough. Some shrubs will inevitably be missed, and yearly recruitment will occur until the seedbank is exhausted. 2) Honeysuckle treated in the dormant season may still leaf out and die later in the growing season. So if you notice this, it does not mean that your treatment has failed, but rather that you need to check back at a later date (typically late summer/fall).
Our study concludes that basal bark treatment paired with regular fire is the optimal way to eradicate honeysuckle invasions. For more information on treating honeysuckle with basal bark, see the February 3, 2019 blog post “A Study on Controlling Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)” by Kaleb Baker.
By Kaleb Baker
Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) is an invasive shrub that flourishes along forest edges and in open woodlands such as those at Nachusa Grasslands. Amur honeysuckle shades out native flora with its early leaf-out and prolonged leaf retention, and when left uncontrolled, can produce a near monoculture, threatening biodiversity.
Land stewards everywhere have implemented a variety of different eradication methods, including hand pulling, cut-and-treat with herbicide, foliar-applied herbicide from backpacks or helicopters, basal bark herbicide treatments, and prescribed fire. Continuous treatments and monitoring are needed to eradicate Amur honeysuckle, making the cost, effort, and time requirements of controls important.
Knowing the efforts we go through to manage honeysuckle, as well as the amount of conjecture surrounding the best practices, I worked with my advisor Dr. Nick Barber to study how effective basal bark treatments and prescribed fire are at controlling honeysuckle., I decided to study how effective basal bark treatments and prescribed fire are at controlling honeysuckle. Basal bark and fire are regularly-used control methods at Nachusa. Basal bark treatments involved spraying a 20% solution of triclopyr herbicide around each plant’s base from a backpack, which was both quick and easy. In this study I included 800 individually-marked Amur honeysuckle at 5 different sites within Nachusa Grasslands and Franklin Creek State Natural Area. Basal bark treatments were applied in fall 2017, winter 2018, early spring 2018, and late spring 2018 to see if the season of application affected the mortality of honeysuckle or the extent of damage to non-target flora. Prescribed fire was administered to half of each of the 5 sites in spring 2018. I then checked mortality in the early fall of 2018 to allow the honeysuckle time to either drop its leaves and regrow them (falsely dead) or to retain its leaves for an extended period of time before dying (falsely alive).
I found that basal bark applications were equally effective at killing Amur honeysuckle, regardless of treatment timing. The combined mortality rate of herbicide treatments was 98.4% across all herbicide treatment seasons, compared to a 2.5% mortality with no basal bark treatment. Prescribed fire did not impact mortality positively or negatively.
I also placed a 1m2 quadrat around 200 Amur honeysuckle to measure off-target damage to the plant community in spring 2018, finding a decrease of living cover equating to about a 10-inch radius. The off-target “ring of death” did not differ based on fire treatment or basal bark season.
I was lucky to receive a grant from the Friends of Nachusa Grasslands where I will be able to return in May 2019 to resample the off-target vegetation quadrats to evaluate how quickly the flora recover from the various treatments.
From my current results, I highly recommend using basal bark treatments to control Amur honeysuckle for all but the highest quality of areas. The speed and ease of use allow managers to cover large swaths of invaded areas across fall, winter, and spring seasons. The standing dead material from the honeysuckle can be reduced with a masticator or brush mower in the non-growing season or with regular prescribed fire, which should be implemented anyway.
Kaleb Baker is a Master's Candidate at Northern Illinois University, focused on natural areas management practices, and current Stewardship Committee Chair for Franklin Creek Conservation Association.
By Dr. Elizabeth Bach, Ecosystem Restoration Scientist
December 5 is World Soil Day, a time to recognize the vital role soils play in our ecosystems and health: growing food, filtering water, recycling air, mitigating climate change, and supporting more than 25% of all biodiversity! Soil is the foundation of prairie restoration at Nachusa Grasslands, the starting point of a prairie planting. There are many questions about how soils impact prairie restoration success and how prairie restoration affects soils. Today, we highlight a few of the soil-focused scientific studies that have been conducted at Nachusa Grasslands:
Question: Do communities of soil critters like earthworms, ants, ground beetles, centipedes, millipedes, and spiders change during prairie restoration?
Prairie restoration increases the number, abundance, and mass of soil critters like earthworms, ants, centipedes, and spiders with time since planting. Interestingly, different prairie remnants, even within the Nachusa preserve, have very different communities of soil invertebrates, and it’s difficult to know what a typical remnant invertebrate community may look like.
Wodika & Baer 2015. If we build it, will they colonize? A test of the field of dreams paradigm with soil macroinvertebrate communities. Applied Soil Ecology 91:80-89
Wodika et al. 2014. Colonization and recovery of invertebrate ecosystem engineers during prairie restoration. Restoration Ecology 22: 456-464
Ground beetles show a different pattern, with high numbers of species and abundance in young plantings. Although older plantings had lower species richness, the roles those species play in the ecosystem diverged, indicating that older plantings support stable, diverse beetle communities that fill multiple roles in the ecosystem (e.g. different sizes, active at different parts of the day/night, eating different things).
Barber et al. 2017. Species and functional trait re-assembly of ground beetle communities in restored grasslands. Biodiversity and Conservation 26:3481-3498
Question: Do soil microbial communities change during prairie restoration?
Older restorations at Nachusa host microbial communities that are distinct from younger plantings, and that more closely resemble remnant communities. A couple of the key bacterial groups distinctive of prairie remnants and older restorations are Verrucomicrobia and Acidobacteria. The next question is to learn more about what those bacteria do!
Barber et al. 2017. Soil microbial community composition in tallgrass prairie restorations converge with remnants across a 27-year chronosequence. Environmental Microbiology 19: 3118-3131
Question: How does plant diversity impact ecosystem functions like soil carbon and nitrogen cycling?
Nachusa’s high plant diversity restorations had more roots, more microbial mass (especially mycorrhizal fungi), more structured soil, and less “leaky” nitrogen compounds that can wind up in water ways compared with low plant diversity restorations in the same area. This is the first study to show that very high plant diversity restoration can lead to improved ecosystem functioning.
Klopf et al. 2017. Restoration and management for plant diversity enhances the rate of belowground ecosystem recovery. Ecological Applications 27:355-362
Bison Diet and their Impacts on Plant Communities in a Restored Tallgrass Prairie
By Ryan Blackburn
In the spring of 2013, I had little to no knowledge of tallgrass prairies or the various forms of life they held. I was an undergraduate at the time, and my class at Northern Illinois University had an opportunity to visit Nachusa Grasslands and receive a tour given by one of their dedicated stewards, Jay Stacy. As the class looked out across the beauty rolling over the tallgrass landscape, Jay directed our view downwards at our feet and started naming twenty or more plant species in just a little patch of dirt the size of a laptop. Jay also spoke of the rumors that bison may be coming to the landscape and how they were thought to have the ability to increase diversity of the prairie plant communities which already seemed teeming with life. This was the moment I realized that the tallgrass prairie and plant communities they held were something that I wanted to know more about. After a couple of growing seasons, a reintroduction of bison onto the landscape was accomplished, and my masters research was born.
Bison are large animals that require a lot of energy, which mainly comes from one family of plants, the grasses (Poaceae). Due to this selective grazing, bison create open space in their habitats for wildflowers to take root and increase the diversity of the tallgrass prairie overall. At least this is a summary of what had been observed in the research of remnant (never-plowed) prairies west of the Mississippi River which reintroduced bison as well. In hopes to recreate this tale of romance between bison and tallgrass prairies, Nachusa Grasslands reintroduced bison to their preserve of both remnant and restored lands. The question still remained: will their diet in this new area largely be made up of grasses, and how soon would we see changes in the plant communities following their reintroduction? To study this, I looked at both bison diet and differences of plant communities between sites with and without bison over a period of two years.
To figure out what the bison were eating, I used a technique called stable isotope analysis on bison tail hair pulled during the annual roundup. This allowed me to find signatures of plants within the bison hair and estimate these plants' abundance within bison diet. Better yet, I could cut bison hair into segments and look for seasonal changes. Through this analysis I was able to estimate major dietary groups of their diet between May 2016 and September 2016. I found that bison were doing what Nachusa brought them here to do: eat grasses (for the most part)! However, in late summer bison started to transition from largely grass species to wetland species and some wildflowers, something that had never been documented before. This was an unexpected shift that may lead to unforeseen consequences to wetlands, but further research is needed to speak to this.
Now that we know bison are mostly eating grasses during the growing season, we want to know how this might be impacting prairie plant communities. Attempting to answer this question, I, along with a team of dedicated plant enthusiasts, counted and measured percent cover of plant species across sites with and without bison. I quantified these communities in a variety of ways and compared them to see if bison were driving any differences between the two communities. Even though the bison had only been at Nachusa for three years, there were already evident changes happening within the plant communities. As predicted, areas with bison had more variation within their plant communities and had a higher ratio of native to non-native plants than those sites without bison. Further analysis shows that both variation and native to non-native ratios may be driven by bison preference of certain species such as bluegrasses (Poa compressa and Poa pretensis) suggested by a higher occurrence of these species in sites without bison.
The bison of Nachusa Grasslands were reintroduced to do a job: increase the diversity of plant communities. Though my research does not yet see an increase in diversity, it does suggest that bison are starting to go to work eating grasses and changing plant communities around them. Continued monitoring of these communities (especially those tasty wetland communities) is needed to gain a better understanding of bison impacts and how they progress in restored tallgrass prairies.
Ryan Blackburn just received his M.S. degree studying bison diet and their role in the restoration of plant communities in tallgrass prairies. Ryan is also looking at grazing impacts on a landscape scale using drone aerial imagery. In 2016, he received a $1,500 Friends of Nachusa Grasslands Scientific Research Grant for his "Determining Bison Diet and Bison Effects on Vegetation in a Chronosequence of Restored Prairie at Nachusa" project.
By Heather Herakovich, MS
Birds are known harbingers of spring. Although most stick around during the brutally cold Illinois winter, we don’t take much notice until they are everywhere in our yard, waking us up in the morning and pooping on our cars: spring time!
It’s finally springtime, and at Nachusa the birds are singing, vying for territory, and finding mates. These aren’t your typical backyard birds like the American robin and northern cardinal, who are your usual early morning alarm and repeating snooze. Nachusa holds a wide variety of bird species, including some of the ones in the most need of conservation: grassland birds. They come with funny names like bobolink and dickcissel, and in all shades of brown and yellow and sometimes black.
Grassland (prairie) birds are declining at a faster rate than most bird species, and a majority of this has been caused by habitat loss. Illinois is the prairie state, but only one hundredth of its original prairie remains. Places like Nachusa are doing their best to restore the agriculture fields and recreate the best prairie as humanly possible. Doing this requires a lot of hard work, hours of picking seed, planting seed, removing unwanted plants, burning portions of the prairie and mowing. The birds seem to be responding to this management fairly well. However, there is an elephant in the room, or shall I say a bison in the prairie.
American bison are our national mammal, and rightfully so. These large herbivores used to roam most of the contiguous United States, until they were hunted to near extinction. I’m sure you’ve heard the story. But now they’re back! Grazing is a crucial disturbance in prairie habitat, providing habitat for a lot of species and open space for a lot of plants. But how will birds respond to this large, iconic grazer on its new home in Franklin Grove, Illinois? When I started my graduate degree at Northern Illinois University in 2013, I was able to start trying to answer that question more specifically by looking at how their nests were going to be impacted by bison.
Bison can impact bird nests in a variety of ways. There are the obvious negative direct ones like trampling and dislodgement, but there are also some not-so-obvious impacts. These impacts can be either positive or negative and can affect the nesting habitat, nesting material, clutch size, and ultimately the survival of the chicks until they leave the nest (nest success). Seeing if bison are impacting nest success means I must find the nests first. This is the most difficult part. They are roughly the size of a compact disc, made from the vegetation they are in, and wickedly hard to find. If you come by Nachusa early in the morning this summer, I’m sure you’ll see me walking in the prairie, waving around a stick, and waiting “patiently” for a bird to fly from the vegetation.
Although difficult, watching these nests through time is a very rewarding experience. I’ve seen nests being built, eggs being laid, chicks hatching, and chicks leaving the nest. Please don’t try this at home, though. Nests are sensitive to human disturbance, and I follow specific protocol to not influence their nest success. Bison don’t seem to be influencing their nest success either, negatively or positively. This is good news. They are one of the main sources of disturbance in the prairie, and it is a relief that they are not trampling nests of birds in decline, at least four years post-reintroduction. Watching these nests is only a part of my graduate research. I am also looking at how bison may influence nest predators, brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds, and what bird species are present. So far, I am not seeing anything change enough to be consider a bison impact. Time will tell if there will ever be a noticeable impact of bison on grassland birds. If I were here in ten years, I would try to find out.
The beautiful prairie and bison are a great reason to visit Nachusa, but don’t forget about the birds. Sure, they all look similar and are hard to spot, but they are our harbingers of spring and make the prairie sing in the summer.
Heather Herakovich is a PhD graduate student at Northern Illinois University. Heather studies grassland bird nest density, nest success, and species composition in restored plots of varying age as well as remnant control prairies. Heather is attempting to quantify the effects of bison reintroduction, prescribed fire, and restoration age on grassland bird populations at Nachusa.
I am a nature photographer, a freelance graphic designer, and steward at Nachusa's Thelma Carpenter Prairie. I have taken photos for Nachusa since 2012.
I have been a high school French teacher, registered piano technician, and librarian. In retirement I am a volunteer historian at Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society.
CONNECT WITH US
2075 Lowden Road | Franklin Grove, IL 61031 | Contact Us
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Every year, as soon as March comes around, we get constant emails asking why do we wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s a fair questions. Especially as some people wear orange.
Green is the colour most associated with Ireland and its Patron Saint, however, it wasn’t always the colour associated with March 17th.
Some quick-need-to-knows about wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day
Before we go into detail on why do we wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, lets get you up-to-speed quickly:
1. Green wasn’t the original colour of St Patrick
The earliest images of St. Patrick show him wearing blue, and this probably dates back to early Irish mythology when the sovereignty of Ireland – “Flaitheas Éireann” – was typically symbolised by a woman dressed in a blue robe.
2. Why people wear green
Green represents the Catholic side of the Irish flag, and it’s also seen as symbolic of other icons of Ireland, such as the shamrock and the emerald isle.
3. Getting pinched if you don’t
One of the many St. Patrick’s Day traditions involves getting pinched if you don’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. Now, I’ve spent 33+ years in Ireland and I’ve never seen/heard of this practised, so it’s likely a very only tradition or one that’s only practised across the pond.
Wearing green on St Patrick’s Day
Right – now that the need-to-knows are out of the way, let’s look further into why do we wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.
Below, you’ll find info on St. Patrick and his original colour, the religious element and more.
1. What green symbolises
The colour green, along with the harp, the Claddagh and the Shamrock, is one of several notable Irish symbols.
From the jerseys worn by Ireland’s rugby team to the liveries on Aer Lingus’s aircraft, green is now the colour of Ireland and it’s everywhere on St Patrick’s Day!
And the green you’ll see on March 17th is symbolic of a number of iconic images of Ireland, such as the three-leaved shamrock plant, the idea of Ireland as the ‘Emerald Isle’ and, of course, the green third of the Irish flag.
2. How people wear it
Wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day takes a number of forms. Some like to give a gentle nod to March 17th by wearing a green tie or green socks.
Others (and I’m including my younger self in this) go all out and lash on every bit of green they can find.
I can remember after one particularly rowdy St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin spending many hours the following day trying to remove green hair dye from my eyebrows… which are normally white.
3. Some people wear orange
Not everyone wears green on St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland and elsewhere! The colour orange is symbolic of the Protestant community and their heritage, and may be something they wish to showcase on St Patrick’s Day.
It derives from Protestant William of Orange defeating Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne and is often seen around Protestant Ireland.
St. Patrick was born centuries before the country’s religious divide, however, and the day can be celebrated by both communities.
4. The pinching tradition
Not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day comes with a warning – you may get pinched!
Now, this is an old tradition and one that you don’t see practised that often.
Don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it, as it seems to be a ‘tradition’ cooked up in America. In fact, it was over in the States where they came up with the wearing green on St Patrick’s Day thing in the first place!
Anyway, if you’re not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day then you may be on the receiving end of a pinch, so the tradition goes.
5. It may make you invisible…
The idea is that wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day is supposed to make you invisible to leprechauns.
Hence, if you’re not wearing green then they’ll be able to spot you in a crowd and the mischievous little cretins will give you a wee pinch for such a huge sartorial blunder.
But whether you think they’re a quaint part of Irish folklore or not, at least it’s only one day of the year you’ll need to hear stuff like this!
FAQs about why green on St. Patrick’s Day
We’ve had a lot of questions over the years asking about everything from ‘Why is green associated with St. Patrick’s Day?’ to ‘Do you have to wear green?’.
In the section below, we’ve popped in the most FAQs that we’ve received. If you have a question that we haven’t tackled, ask away in the comments section below. Here are some related reads you should find interesting:
- 73 Funny St. Patrick’s Day Jokes For Adults And Kids
- The Best Irish Songs And The Best Irish Films Of All Time For Paddy’s Day
- 8 Ways That We Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day In Ireland
- The Most Notable St. Patrick’s Day Traditions In Ireland
- 17 Tasty St. Patrick’s Day Cocktails To Whip Up At Home
- How To Say Happy St. Patrick’s Day In Irish
- 5 St. Patrick’s Day Prayers And Blessings For 2023
- 17 Surprising Fact’s About St. Patrick’ Day
- 33 Interesting Facts About Ireland
What was the original color associated with St. Patrick’s Day?
The colour blue was originally associated with St. Patrick and it is therefore likely that it would have been associated in some way with the early St. Patrick’s Days.
Should I wear orange or green on St. Patrick’s Day?
It’s up to you. Wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day is arguably more traditional. Some Protestants looking to celebrate the Patron Saint along with their heritage may choose to wear orange.
Are you supposed to wear green on St Patrick Day?
There’s no real rules but people generally wear green on St. Patrick’s Day as it’s the colour most associated with both Ireland and our Patron Saint.
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The squid's skin contains many cells of different colors. These cells are called chromatophores. Each cell can be made smaller or larger by the contraction of muscles.
So the squid simply flexes the correct muscles to make the cells of the desired color larger and to make all the other colored cells smaller. And that makes the squid change color.
Photo courtesy of Photoshot Holdings Ltd./Alamy
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How to Transplant Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum spp.) add a splash of color to the fall garden. Nursery transplants are sold in early summer through fall. Spring transplants establish fully in the garden before bloom, often resulting in larger, healthier plants. Fall transplants add immediate color to empty areas in the garden after summer annuals have died back. Transplant spring mums after frost danger has passed, and transplant fall mums at any time in late summer or fall, at least six weeks before the first expected frost.
Full sun results in fullest growth and maximum bud production, although chrysanthemums can tolerate some light afternoon shade. A location that supplies at least six hours of daily sun works best. Mums also need well-draining soil. Avoid beds with heavy clay or compacted soil that becomes soggy after rain or watering. Overly sandy soils can drain too quickly, which means you need to water more often to keep the roots from drying out.
Adding organic matter, usually compost, improves good soil and can make slightly sandy or clay-filled soils suitable for planting. Dig in up to 4 inches of compost, using more for poorer soil and less for good soil. The organic matter also improves soil aeration which allows the mums to access more oxygen from the soil and establish more quickly after transplanting. Adding a balanced granular fertilizer provides most of the nutrition the plants need to establish and grow well.
Whether you transplant chrysanthemums in early summer or fall, make the planting holes no deeper than the nursery container. The top of the root ball should set even with the soil's surface when properly transplanted. Burying the roots deeper results in root rot and plant death. Most mums require 18 inches of space between each plant, although larger varieties may require more room. Refer to the plant tag for spacing specifics for your mum type.
Summer-planted chrysanthemums need to be pinched out in the weeks following transplanting to produce full plants and plenty of buds for fall bloom. Break off 1 inch from the tip of each stem after transplanting and repeat each time the stems reach 6 to 8 inches tall. Stop pinching out in June so the plants can't start forming buds. Fall-planted mums don't require pinching and are often ready to bloom soon after transplanting. Once weekly watering that keeps the soil moist and prompt removal of dead flowers keeps the transplants healthy.
Jenny Harrington has been a freelance writer since 2006. Her published articles have appeared in various print and online publications. Previously, she owned her own business, selling handmade items online, wholesale and at crafts fairs. Harrington's specialties include small business information, crafting, decorating and gardening.
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This July 14, 2015, photo provided by NASA shows a synthetic perspective view of Pluto, based on the latest high-resolution images to be downlinked from NASA s New Horizons spacecraft. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via AP))
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The spigot has opened again, and Pluto pictures are pouring in once more from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
These newest snapshots reveal an even more diverse landscape than scientists imagined before New Horizons swept past Pluto in July, becoming the first spacecraft to ever visit the distant dwarf planet.
“If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that’s what is actually there,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons’ principal scientist from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
In one picture, dark ancient craters border much younger icy plains. Dark ridges also are visible that some scientists speculate might be dunes.
This July 14, 2015, photo provided by NASA shows a 220-mile-wide view of Pluto taken from NASA s New Horizons spacecraft. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via AP))
One outer solar-system geologist, William McKinnon of Washington University in St. Louis, said if the ridges are, in fact, dunes, that would be “completely wild” given Pluto’s thin atmosphere.
“Either Pluto had a thicker atmosphere in the past, or some process we haven’t figured out is at work. It’s a head-scratcher,” McKinnon said in a written statement.
The jumble of mountains, on the other hand, may be huge blocks of ice floating in a softer, vast deposit of frozen nitrogen.
After several weeks of collecting engineering data from New Horizons, scientists started getting fresh Pluto pictures last weekend. The latest images were released Thursday.
Besides geologic features, the images show that the atmospheric haze surrounding Pluto has multiple layers. What’s more, the haze crates a twilight effect that enables New Horizons to study places on the night side that scientists never expected to see.
Monday marks two months from New Horizons’ close encounter with Pluto on July 14, following a journey from Cape Canaveral, Florida, spanning 3 billion miles and 9½ years. As of Friday, the spacecraft was 44 million miles past Pluto.
So much data were collected during the Pluto flyby that it will take until next fall to retrieve it all here on Earth. The spacecraft is operated from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which also designed and built it.
New Horizons’ next target, pending formal approval by NASA, will be a much smaller object that orbits 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. It, too, lies in the so-called Kuiper Belt, a frigid twilight zone on the outskirts of our solar system. Following a set of maneuvers, New Horizons would reach PT1 — short for Potential Target 1 — in 2019.
Johns Hopkins: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
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College Park, MD (April 19, 2011) -- Using well-known patterned media, a team of researchers in France has figured out a way to double the areal density of information by essentially cutting the magnetic media into small pieces and building a "3D tower" out of it.
This greatly enhances the amount of data that can be stored in a magnetic storage device and provides a method to reach beyond a wall of physical limits that the currently used technology is hitting. The team presents their findings in the American Institute of Physics' Journal of Applied Physics.
"Over the past 50 years, with the rise of multimedia devices, the worldwide Internet, and the general growth in demand for greater data storage capacity, the areal density of information in magnetic hard disk drives has exponentially increased by 7 orders of magnitude," says Jerome Moritz, a researcher at SPINTEC, in Grenoble. "This areal density is now about 500Gbit/in2, and the technology presently used involves writing the information on a granular magnetic material. This technology is now reaching some physical limits because the grains are becoming so small that their magnetization becomes unstable and the information written on them is gradually lost."
Therefore, new approaches are needed for magnetic data storage densities exceeding 1Tbit/in2.
"Our new approach involves using bit-patterned media, which are made of arrays of physically separated magnetic nanodots, with each nanodot carrying one bit of information. To further extend the storage density, it's possible to increase the number of bits per dots by stacking several magnetic layers to obtain a multilevel magnetic recording device," explains Moritz.
In that context, Moritz and colleagues were able to demonstrate that the best way to achieve a 2-bit-per-dot media involves stacking in-plane and perpendicular-to-plane magnetic media atop each dot. The perpendicularly magnetized layer can be read right above the dot, whereas the in-plane magnetized layer can be read between dots. This enables doubling of the areal density for a given dot size by taking better advantage of the whole patterned media area.
ABOUT JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
Journal of Applied Physics is the American Institute of Physics' (AIP) archival journal for significant new results in applied physics; content is published online daily, collected into two online and printed issues per month (24 issues per year). The journal publishes articles that emphasize understanding of the physics underlying modern technology, but distinguished from technology on the one side and pure physics on the other. See: http://jap.aip.org/
The American Institute of Physics is a federation of 10 physical science societies representing more than 135,000 scientists, engineers, and educators and is one of the world's largest publishers of scientific information in the physical sciences. Offering partnership solutions for scientific societies and for similar organizations in science and engineering, AIP is a leader in the field of electronic publishing of scholarly journals. AIP publishes 12 journals (some of which are the most highly cited in their respective fields), two magazines, including its flagship publication Physics Today; and the AIP Conference Proceedings series. Its online publishing platform Scitation hosts nearly two million articles from more than 185 scholarly journals and other publications of 28 learned society publishers.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Global Analysis - Annual 2011
Note: The data presented in this report are preliminary. Ranks and anomalies may change as more complete data are received and processed. Effective September 2012, the GHCN-M version 3.2.0 dataset of monthly mean temperature replaced the GHCN-M version 3.1.0 monthly mean temperature dataset. Beginning with the August 2012 Global monthly State of the Climate Report, released on September 17, 2012, GHCN-M version 3.2.0 is used for NCDC climate monitoring activities, including calculation of global land surface temperature anomalies and trends. For more information about this newest version, please see the GHCN-M version 3.2.0 Technical Report.
*The GHCN-M version 3.1.0 Technical Report was revised on September 5, 2012 to accurately reflect the changes incorporated in that version. Previously that report incorrectly included discussion of changes to the Pairwise Homogeneity Algorithm (PHA). Changes to the PHA are included in version 3.2.0 and described in the version 3.2.0 Technical Report. Please see the Frequently Asked Questions to learn more about this update.
Contents of this Section:
- This year tied 1997 as the 11th warmest year since records began in 1880. The annual global combined land and ocean surface temperature was 0.51°C (0.92°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). This marks the 35th consecutive year, since 1976, that the yearly global temperature was above average. The warmest years on record were 2010 and 2005, which were 0.64°C (1.15°F) above average.
- Separately, the 2011 global average land surface temperature was 0.8°C (1.49°F) above the 20th century average of 8.5°C (47.3°F) and ranked as the eighth warmest on record. The 2011 global average ocean temperature was 0.40°C (0.72°F) above the 20th century average of 16.1°C (60.9°F) and ranked as the 11th warmest on record.
- La Niña, which is defined by cooler-than-normal waters in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean that affects weather patterns around the globe, was present during much of 2011. A relatively strong phase of La Niña opened the year, then dissipated in the spring before re-emerging in October and lasting through the end of the year. When compared to previous La Niña years, the 2011 global surface temperature was the warmest observed during such a year.
- The 2011 globally-averaged precipitation over land was the second wettest year on record, behind 2010. Precipitation varied greatly across the globe. La Niña contributed to severe drought in the Horn of Africa and to Australia's third wettest year in its 112-year period of record
The year 2011 tied with 1997 as the 11th warmest year since records began in 1880. The annually-averaged temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was 0.51°C (0.92°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). This marks the 35th consecutive year (since 1976) that the yearly global temperature was above the 20th century average. The warmest years on record were 2010 and 2005, which were 0.64°C (1.15°F) above average. Including 2011, all eleven years in the 21st century so far (2001–2011) rank among the 13 warmest in the 132-year period of record. Only one year during the 20th century, 1998, was warmer than 2011.
21st Century (2001–2011) Annual Temperature Ranks
The following table list the global combined land and ocean annually-averaged temperature rank and anomaly for each of the years to date in the 21st century.
1 = Warmest
Period of Record: 1880–2011
|Anomaly °C||Anomaly °F|
Natural climate patterns that persist for days, months, or even years can affect weather patterns around the world and impact the average global temperature. One such well-known global-scale pattern—the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)—is a natural episodic fluctuation in sea surface temperature (El Niño) and the air pressure of the overlying atmosphere (Southern Oscillation) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Over a period of months to a few years, ENSO fluctuates between warmer-than-average ocean surface waters (El Niño) and cooler-than-average ocean surface waters (La Niña) in that region.
Two separate cool-phase La Niña events took place in 2011, according to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC). These events affected weather patterns in many parts of the world during the year and dampened the global temperature compared with the record warmth of the previous year, 2010 (which is tied for warmest with 2005). The coolest monthly global anomalies occurred during the beginning of the year, where both January and February each ranked as 17th warmest for their respective months. Monthly temperature anomalies increased as the La Niña episode waned and ENSO-neutral conditions emerged during May. June and July ranked as the seventh warmest for their respective months while August and September each ranked eighth warmest. La Niña conditions returned in October and moderately strengthened during the remainder of the year. Global monthly temperature anomalies during this period cooled compared to those during the middle of the year.
With CPC ENSO records dating back to 1950, 2011 ranked as the warmest "La Niña year" in the 1950–2011 period of record. Two of the three warmest years on record (2010 and 1998) are "El Niño years". A La Niña (El Niño) year is defined here as occurring when the first three months of a calendar year meet the La Niña (El Niño) criteria as defined by the CPC.
Separately, the average global land temperature was 0.83°C (1.49°F) above the 20th century average and ranked as the eighth warmest year on record. It was also the warmest annual global temperature over land during a La Niña year. The average monthly land temperature anomaly ranged from 0.45°C (0.81°F; January) to 1.12°C (2.02°F; April), a difference of 0.67°C (1.21°F).
Already well into the La Niña phase that began in mid-2010, the globally-averaged January ocean surface temperature was the 11th warmest January on record, but the warmest among all Januaries when La Niña was present. The ten warmest Januaries occurred during either El Niño or ENSO-neutral conditions. During the year, the global monthly ocean temperature anomaly ranged between 0.32°C (0.58°F; December) and 0.47°C (0.85°F; July), a difference of 0.15°C (0.27°F). For the period January–December, the ENSO-neutral conditions that were sandwiched by La Niña events at the beginning and end of 2011 contributed to a globally averaged ocean surface temperature anomaly of 0.40°C (0.72°F) above the 20th century average, the 11th warmest year on record. It was also the warmest global ocean temperature anomaly among all La Niña years. 2003 and 1998— both El Niño years—tie for the warmest years on record, at 0.51°C (0.92°F) above average.
(out of 132 years)
|Land||+0.84 ± 0.20||+1.51 ± 0.36||Warmest||7th||2010||+1.07||+1.93|
|Ocean||+0.41 ± 0.03||+0.74 ± 0.05||Warmest||11th||1998||+0.53||+0.95|
|Land and Ocean||+0.52 ± 0.09||+0.94 ± 0.16||Warmest||11th||2010||+0.66||+1.19|
|Land||+0.93 ± 0.25||+1.67 ± 0.45||Warmest||5th||2007||+1.20||+2.16|
|Ocean||+0.40 ± 0.04||+0.72 ± 0.07||Warmest||12th||2005||+0.56||+1.01|
|Land and Ocean||+0.60 ± 0.14||+1.08 ± 0.25||Warmest||11th||2010||+0.78||+1.40|
|Land||+0.60 ± 0.12||+1.08 ± 0.22||Warmest||10th||2005||+0.90||+1.62|
|Ocean||+0.42 ± 0.03||+0.76 ± 0.05||Warmest||11th||1998||+0.55||+0.99|
|Land and Ocean||+0.45 ± 0.06||+0.81 ± 0.11||Warmest||11th||1998||+0.60||+1.08|
The 1901-2000 average combined land and ocean annual temperature is 13.9°C (56.9°F), the annually averaged land temperature for the same period is 8.5°C (47.3°F), and the long-term annually averaged sea surface temperature is 16.1°C (60.9°F).
Top Ten Global Weather/Climate Events for 2011
The following table list the top ten global weather/climate events of 2011. These events are listed according to their overall rank, as voted on by a panel of weather/climate experts. For additional information on these and other significant 2011 climate events, please visit NCDC's Top Ten Global Events webpage.
|1||East Africa Drought||Ongoing|
|3||Eastern Australia Flooding||December 2010–February 2011
|4||Consecutive La Niña Events||Throughout 2011|
|5||Brazil Flash Floods||January 6th–12th|
|6||Tropical Storm Washi (Sendong)||December 16th–17th|
|7||Arctic Sea Ice Extent||Throughout 2011|
|9||Mexico Drought||Throughout 2011|
Warmer-than-average temperatures occurred during 2011 for most of the world's surface. The greatest above-average annual temperature anomalies occurred across the Northern Hemisphere high latitude land areas, particularly central and northern Russia, Scandinavia, and Canada. Also noteworthy, it was warmer than average across the eastern half of the United States, Mexico, most of Europe and Africa, and the north central Pacific Ocean. Temperatures were below normal across the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, west central North America, and north and central Australia.
The map, above left, is created using data from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN), a network of more than 7,000 land surface observing stations. Temperature anomalies are with respect to the 1961–1990 average. The map, above right, is a product of a merged land surface and sea surface temperature anomaly analysis developed by Smith et. al (2008). For the merged land surface and SST analysis, temperature anomalies with respect to the 1971–2000 average for land and ocean are analyzed separately and then merged to form the global analysis. For more information, please visit NCDC's Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page.
A natural hemispheric-scale climate pattern called the Arctic Oscillation (AO) can be a dominating driver of winter temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Its effects were particularly felt during January, when the AO was strongly negative. A negative AO is associated with cold polar air that spills southward into the mid-latitudes from the Arctic region and warm air that advects northward.
Due at least in part to this pattern, the contiguous United States reported its coolest January since 1994. December 2010 was also slightly below average, helping to bring the United States its second cooler-than-normal winter (December–February) in a row. In China, 2011 was also off to a cold start. It was the coolest January, behind 1977, since records began in 1961. In Europe, the UK reported its second coolest winter (behind 2009/10) since 1985/86.
Conversely, in the higher northern latitudes, Canada reported its sixth warmest winter since national records began in 1948. The warmest winter occurred the previous year (2009/10). Most of the above-normal temperatures occurred in the northern half of the country. Temperatures were more than 4°C (7°F) above normal for large areas of Nunavut, northern Quebec, and Labrador. The negative-phase AO contributed to these warm northern temperatures.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the summer (December 2010–February 2011) was Australia's coolest since 2001. These cooler temperatures can be attributed in part to the ongoing La Niña event. Cool conditions, in association with increased cloudiness and above-average rainfall, continued across Australia into March as nationally-averaged March daytime temperatures ranked as the coolest March on record. With cool conditions persisting into April and May, Australia had its coolest autumn (March–May) on record.
Parts of Western Europe reported record or near-record warmth during April. Germany experienced its second warmest April since national records began in 1881, behind April 2009, with the average nationwide temperature almost 4.4°C (7.9°F) above average. It was the warmest April on record across the United Kingdom, with temperatures 3°C to 5°C (5°F to 9°F) above normal in many areas, breaking the previous record set in 2007 by 0.5°C (0.9°F). This warmth also contributed to the UK's warmest spring on record (tied with 2007).
Spain experienced its third warmest May on record, behind 1964 and 2006. But in Australia, the effects of La Niña continued. Cool weather brought the country its seventh coolest May on record and it's coolest May since 2000, at 1.33°C (2.39°F) below averageIn contrast to Australia, New Zealand reported its warmest May since records began in 1909, with the temperature 2.2°C (4.0°F) above the monthly average. New Zealand also had its third warmest June on record, with the temperature 1.5°C (2.7°F) above the monthly average. .
Summer was warm across China. June 2011 was the second warmest June for the country since records began in 1951, July was the seventh warmest, and August was the fourth warmest on record.
In July, with ENSO-neutral conditions in place, maximum temperatures were above normal for all states and territories in Australia for the first month since April 2010. La Niña conditions during 2010/11 kept temperatures below normal across most of the country for more than a year.
The UK had its coolest average monthly July temperature since 2000. The average minimum temperature was the coolest since July 1980. Spain had its coolest July since 2002, although the temperature was only 0.1°C (0.2°F) below the 1971–2000 average. The cooler-than-average temperatures continued into August in some regions. Scotland and Northern Ireland had their coolest average monthly August temperatures since 1993.
In North America, a major heat wave contributed to the third warmest July on record for the United States. This warmth was followed by more heat, particularly in the South, giving the U.S. its second warmest August. The warmth in the United States during July and August contributed to the country's second warmest summer. Two states, Oklahoma and Texas, reported the highest U.S. summer temperatures for any state in any year since records began in 1895.
In Northern Europe, Finland had its fourth warmest summer since records began in the early 1900s. In Iberia, Spain rebounded from its cool July and reported its sixth warmest August on record since 1961. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia had its fifth warmest August maximum temperature in the 62-year period of record.
As Northern Hemisphere fall (September–November) began, it was the warmest September in Spain since 1990 and fifth warmest in the past 50 years. The UK marked its warmest September since 2006 and sixth warmest in the last 100 years. It also reported its warmest October since 2006 and eighth warmest in the last 100 years. However, most of southern and western South America was cooler than average. According to the Argentina Meteorological Service (Servicio Meteorologico Nacional), several locations in Argentina experienced their coolest October in the past half century.
In Asia, China reported its sixth warmest October and third warmest November since national records began in 1951.
The November average monthly temperature in Norway was 4.6°C (8.3°F) above average, making this month the country's warmest November since records began in 1900. The average temperature for Northern Norway was 5.3°C (9.5°F) above normal, also a new November record. These warm temperatures helped give Norway its warmest autumn on record. It was also Finland's warmest autumn since 1938.
The average November temperature for Austria's high elevation stations was 2.6°C above average, giving this region the second warmest November in the country's 161-year period of record, behind 2006.
November 2011 was the second warmest November on record for the UK, behind 1994, at 2.9°C (5.2°F) above normal. It was also the second warmest autumn on record for the UK in more than a century, with temperatures 2.1°C (3.8°F) above average. November 2006 was the warmest at 2.3°C (4.1°F) above average. In Central England, autumn temperatures were the second warmest in at least 350 years.
In December, a strong positive Arctic Oscillation kept polar air contained to the very high northern latitudes and much warmer-than-normal temperatures were observed in lower, but still high, northern latitudes. Alaska reported its third warmest December on record and Northern Norway had its 10th warmest December in the 112-year period of record. In Europe, the UK had its sixth warmest December on record. This is more than 5°C (9°F) warmer than the record cold of the previous December (2010), when the Arctic Oscillation was strongly negative.
Australia temperatures were plagued by the La Niña that emerged in October. It was the country's coolest December since 2001.
For the year, in Northern Europe, the 2011 annually-averaged temperature for Norway was 1.8°C above average, tying with 1990 and 2006 as the country's warmest year on record. Finland tied with 1989 for its second warmest year on record, behind 1938, with March–December all warmer-than-average months. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the average temperature for 2011 was 1.9°C (3.4°F) above the long-term average.
In Southern Europe, it was the warmest year on record for Spain, at 1.49°C above the 1971–2000 average.
In Western Europe, the UK reported its second warmest year on record, behind 2006. The UK Met Office also reported that the UK's seven warmest years have all occurred within the past decade.
Germany reported its fifth warmest year on record, with all months except July warmer than average. The annually-averaged temperature was 0.7°C above the 1981–2010 average.
For Austria's high elevation alpine stations, the average temperature was the warmest since records began in 1851, at 1.6°C above the 1971–2000 average, according to ZAMG. This surpassed the previous record set in 1994 by 0.3°C. The average temperature for the country's low elevation stations ranked as sixth warmest on record, at 1.2°C above average.
In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia experienced its first cooler-than-average year since 2001, due in part to the impacts of La Niña during most of 2011.
New Zealand, which experienced a year of extreme weather, both hot and cold, observed an annually-averaged temperature that was 17th warmest since records began in 1919, or warmer than about 80 percent of all years, according to NIWA.
Global precipitation over land in 2011 was well above the 1961–1990 average for the second year in a row, ranking as the second wettest year on record, behind 2010. Precipitation anomalies were variable across the globe. It was wetter than normal across much of the northeastern United States, Central America, much of coastal South America, Australia, and northwestern China. It was particularly drier than normal in far southwestern Canada, the south central United States, northern Mexico, southern and northeastern China, Mongolia, Hawaii, and French Polynesia and Kiribati in the South Pacific Ocean.
La Niña conditions during much of 2011 brought plenty of precipitation to Australia, making 2011 the country's third wettest year since records began in 1900. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology also attributed a record warm eastern Indian Ocean to the extreme wetness. It was particularly wet at the beginning of 2011, as the country reported its second wettest summer (December 2010–February 2011) and wettest March on record. On a longer time scale, the two-year period 2010–2011 ranked as the second wettest such period on record.
However, in East Africa, two consecutive seasons of poor rainfall—the short Deyr rains from October to December and the long Gu rains that typically begin in early April but were late and scattered—resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Djibouti were majorly impacted. The lack of Deyr rains in October–December 2010 was attributed to the ongoing La Niña. On July 19th, the United Nations offically declared a famine in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia, the first time famine has been declared in this country since 1992. Please see the July 2011 Global Hazards report for detailed information.
La Niña also played a role in the intense drought observed in northern Mexico and the south central United States. As of the end of November, Mexico was suffering from its worst drought since national records began in 1941. Five states in northern Mexico—Durango, Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi—were the hardest hit. On average those states had received less than 60 percent of average rainfall for that time period. Devastating drought conditions were seen across much of the southern tier of the United States. Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico were particularly hard hit and billions of dollars in economic losses were incurred. Please see the annual U.S. and Drought reports for details.
While some parts the U.S. were extremely dry, other parts were record or near-record wet. Two major tropical storm systems, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, each brought heavy rainfall to much of the northeastern U.S. within about a one-week period during late August and early September, respectively. These systems contributed to several states, including heavily populated New York, reporting their wettest years on record. Please see the U.S. annual report for detailed precipitation information.
In October, two separate storm systems—a tropical depression from the Pacific and another system from the Caribbean—dumped nearly five feet (1520 mm) of rain in some areas across Central America from the 10th to the 20th. Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua were majorly impacted. Please see the October Global Hazards report for detailed precipitation information.
In India, rainfall during the Southwest Monsoon season (June–September) was near normal, at one percent above the long-term average for the country as a whole. According to the India Meteorological Department, precipitation ranged from 14 percent below normal in the northeast of the country to 10 percent above normal in Central India.
Conversely, Sindh Province in southern Pakistan had its wettest monsoon season on record, with three and a half times its average rainfall. Most of the rain fell in a four-week period from mid-August to early-September.
The East Asian Monsoon brought heavy precipitation to South Korea in 2011. The country had its wettest summer on record, according to the World Meteorological Agency (WMO). On July 27th, the capital city of Seoul, South Korea experienced its heaviest single-day rainfall (11.8 inches; 300 mm) since 1907.
Storms and heavy monsoon rains from late July to November contributed to the worst flooding in Thailand since 1942. Some areas were under six feet (two meters) of water. Other countries in Southeast Asia were affected by the heavy rainfall, including Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Please see the November Global Hazards report for detailed precipitation information.
The WMO reported that, in Europe, both France and the Netherlands each had their driest spring on record. The Netherlands followed with its wettest summer on record.
Austria's precipitation was 15 percent below the 1971–2000 average, making this the driest year since 2003. Contributing to this dryness was November, which was Austria's all-time driest month on record.
In contrast, Norway reported its wettest year, with records dating back to 1900. According to Meteorologisk Institutt, on average, the country received 130 percent of average rainfall, breaking the previous record of 125 percent set in 1983.
Annual precipitation varied greatly across the UK. The UK Met Office reported that Scotland had its wettest year on record, at 122.2 percent of average, while it was the second and third driest years on record for East Anglia and the Midlands, respectively.
Peterson, T.C. and R.S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Database. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 78, 2837-2849.
Quayle, R.G., T.C. Peterson, A.N. Basist, and C. S. Godfrey, 1999: An operational near-real-time global temperature index. Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 333-335.
Smith, T.M., and R.W. Reynolds (2005), A global merged land air and sea surface temperature reconstruction based on historical observations (1880-1997), J. Clim., 18, 2021-2036.
Smith, et al (2008), Improvements to NOAA's Historical Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis (1880-2006), J. Climate., 21, 2283-2293.
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Resurrectionist and Murderer. An Irish navvy who came to Scotland, to work on the Union Canal. When his work on the canal was finished, he moved into Edinburgh taking up lodgings in Tanner's Close in the home of William Hare (d. c.1860). The pair frequented the drinking dens of the Old Town but soon turned to the lucrative occupation of obtaining bodies for Dr Robert Knox (1791 - 1862), the anatomist, based in Edinburgh University's Medical School, for which they were paid £7 10/- each. Initially the pair are said to have satisfied their employer by digging up freshly buried corpses, but they quickly resorted to murder, luring victims to their lodging house. Here they plied their victims with drink before smothering them. They were captured after killing 16 people, the so-called 'West Port Murders'. Only Burke stood trial in the High Court in Edinburgh, because Hare had turned King's evidence and testified against his partner. He was convicted and hanged in front of a large crowd in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. Burke's body was subject to a public dissection by Professor Alexander Monro (1773 - 1859) and curiously a wallet made from his tanned skin remains preserved in the Anatomy Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, along with his death-mask.
The events inspired The Body Snatcher (1884), a short-story by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94); a play The Anatomist (1930) by James Bridie (1888 - 1951) and two Holywood films; The Body Snatcher (1945) and Burke and Hare (2010).
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|Bolivia Table of Contents
Historically, organized labor in Bolivia had been one of the most politically active and powerful in Latin America. Owing to the importance of mining in the economy, the Trade Union Federation of Bolivian Mineworkers (Federacíon Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia -- FSTMB) has been the backbone of organized labor since the mid-1940s. Before the 1952 Revolution, the FSTMB orchestrated opposition to the three dominant tin barons and led protests against worker massacres.
During the first few days of the revolution, the MNR founded the COB in order to group the FSTMB and the other labor unions under an umbrella organization that would be subordinate to the party. In creating the COB, the MNR was following the example of Mexico's PRI, which effectvely controlled labor through the party's structures. In Bolivia the COB and especially the FSTMB, which controlled labor in the nationalized mining sector, pushed for worker comanagement and cogovernment. Moreover, worker militias were allowed to form freely when the military as an institution was downgraded.
As a result, the COB became an autonomous institution that challenged the primacy of the MNR. Relations between the MNR and the COB were more state to state than party to subordinate labor union. In fact, the COB came to perceive the state as an apparatus that had been appropriated by the MNR politicians and that had to be captured in order to further the interests of the working class. This relationship was to characterize the relations between the COB and the Bolivian state until the mid1980s .
As the COB grew in power, the MNR relied on the reconstructed military to control labor and its militias. With the adoption of a state capitalist model of development that postponed the aspirations of organized labor, the conflict between the state and labor deepened. This conflict climaxed in the mid-1960s under the military government that overthrew the MNR. With the exception of the 1969-71 period, the military initiated a long period of repression that sent the COB into clandestine existence.
When the military called for elections in 1978, the COB, despite being outlawed between 1971 and 1978, reemerged as the only institution able to represent the interests of the working class. Moreover, the COB directed the workers to demand economic, political, and social rights that had been denied to them throughout the military period.
Labor's strength climaxed during Siles Zuazo's second term (1982-85). However, the economic crisis had reached such extremes that in surrendering to the demands of the workers the UDP government only exacerbated the economic situation. Although this period demonstrated the power of the COB to coerce governments, it also led to the downfall of organized labor. As the COB staged hundreds of strikes and stoppages, the economy faltered and public opinion turned against labor.
The MNR government headed by Paz Estenssoro thus was able to impose the NPE on the workers. The COB attempted to stage a strike, but three years of confrontation with the Siles Zuazo government had seriously weakened its ability to mobilize labor. With the support of the pacto, Paz Estenssoro imposed a state of siege that effectively debilitated organized labor. Indeed, the COB's power was undermined so effectively that in the late 1980s it was incapable of staging a general strike.
After 1985 labor's efforts centered on preventing the decentralization and restructuring of Comibol. The restructuring of the nationalized mining sector, especially the mass layoffs, had decimated the FSTMB. As a result, the COB demanded the rehabilitation of Comibol and respect for the rights of labor unions. In September 1986, the FSTMB sponsored a workers' march, dubbed "March for Life," to fend off plans to restructure Comibol, to halt mass firings, and to raise miners' salaries. In response, the government declared a congressionally sanctioned state of siege and immediately imposed Decree 21337, which called for the restructuring of Comibol along the lines originally prescribed in Decree 21060.
The "March for Life" forced government and labor to enter into negotiations, mediated by the Bolivian Bishops Conference (Conferencia Episcopal Boliviano--CEB), that postponed the implementation of Decree 21337. The result was an accord whereby the government agreed that all production and service units targeted for elimination by the decree would remain intact. Moreover, the government agreed that all management decisions in Comibol would be made only after consulting with labor unions. Finally, the MNR government promised to end massive layoffs and agreed that employment would be capped at 17,000 in Comibol.
Because the accord was opposed by radical labor leaders grouped under the so-called Convergence Axis, the agreement fell through, and Decree 21337 was imposed. Labor had suffered its worst defeat. In July 1987, radical labor leaders were ousted at the COB's convention. COB strategies in 1988 proved more effective. In May 1988, for example, it helped defeat proposals to decentralize health care and education. For the moment, labor had been reduced to defensive actions that sought to protect its few remaining benefits. Nonetheless, the COB was still a formidable force that would have to be faced in the future. For democracy to survive in Bolivia, it was clear that the demands and aspirations of labor would have to be taken into account.
More about the Government and Politics of Bolivia.
Source: U.S. Library of Congress
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Rather than downloading various apps and software to accommodate their needs, the visually impaired are getting an Android smartphone developed specifically for them.
Telecom-product manufacturer Qualcomm and Project Ray are partnering to create one do-it-all device for visually impaired consumers. The off-the-shelf Android device will be able to read your messages, navigation and audio books aloud. It also has object recognition and will adapt to users' preferences and usage patterns. Users will navigate the touchscreen phone using vibration and sound.
This phone will reach an entirely under-served market when it comes to smartphones. There are 285 million visually impaired people in the world, 39 million of which are blind. Currently, several smartphone apps help visually impaired people identify paper currency, navigate streets and read text messages out loud. These options might be preferable to some visually impaired people who are strictly iPhone users, as Qualcomm and Project Ray's phone is Android-based.
In recent times, technology has proven to help thevisually impaired. This May, a woman in Australia received a bionic eye implant. When the implant was turned on, she was able to see shapes and lights, after being blind for 30 years. Other tools such as EyeMusic, a set of glasses that have a camera and headphones, use music to identify objects to the wearer.
What other features would you add to this Android phone for the visually impaired? Tell us in the comments below.
Thumbnail photo courtesy Flickr, ~Deez~.
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Summer’s here. The getaways, outdoor adventures are all planned. The summer wardrobe is also ready along with tubes of sunscreen to guard the skin from harsh sunlight.
But this isn’t where safety ends this summer.
Along with skin, the harmful Ultra Violet (UV) rays of the sun can damage the long-term health of the eyes and the delicate skin surrounding them.
UV radiation can play a contributory role in the development of various disorders including age-related cataract, cancer of skin around eyelids and photokeratitis.
In fact, the eye may be at a greater risk from the sun than the skin.
The skin has the capacity to adapt to UV radiation by producing melanin (tan) that protects against UV exposure.
The eye does not develop a tolerance to UV rays, but becomes more sensitive with repeated exposure.
So, the importance of protecting eyes from UV exposure should not be overlooked.
According to Dr Ritika Sachdev, additional director, Medical Services, Centre for Sight, “Other UV damage to the skin around eyes, otherwise known as ‘photo ageing’ manifests itself as dryness, sagging or loss of elasticity and mottled pigmentation. WHO estimated that 20 per cent of cataracts are primarily due to sun and excessive UV exposure which results in the development of skin cancers, of which 10 per cent occur on eyelids.”
One should also focus on the kind of eyewear they wear.
“Appropriate eyewear and hats are not just fashion accessories but are essentials. It is important to ensure that one invests in good quality eyewear that blocks 100 per cent UV radiation. People who wear prescription glasses need not fret. UV rays blocking eyeglasses provide the most complete and convenient eyewear to shield the eye from harmful effects of the sun. While most prescription lenses offer some UV ray protection, not all are equally effective,” says Dr Ritika.
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Bulgaria has the highest concentrations of the two major varieties of particulate matter (airborne droplets or gas particles). This can lead to major health problems like asthma and cancer. If you walk through Sofia, Bulgaria is a white shirt, you will notice that by the end of the day, the shirt will have a yellow- gray hue. Bulgaria is not alone. Poland is a runner up and cities located in northern Italy lead in ozone. Reports have shown that there is less and less air pollutants throughout Europe, but particulates and ozone remain problems in this continent. The population in Bulgaria does not live in a healthy environment. Because of Bulgaria’s history with the Soviets, it has made little progress cleaning up its air. Part of the problem is that Bulgarians and their neighbors is that they use wood for home heating. Poland is where coal-burning dominates. That causes a lot of problems in the air. Italy’s ozone problem is because of a combination of weather and industry. Surveys show that a large majority of citizens understand well the impact of air quality on health and are asking public authorities to take action.
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Roasting and Blending
After quality coffee beans are obtained, the most important phase of the production of gourmet coffee begins, the roasting and the blending.
A good roaster must be part artist, and part scientist, to maintain quality and consistency. It is during the roasting process that the sugars and other carbohydrates within the bean become caramelized, creating a substance which is known as the coffee oil. Technically, this fragile chemical is not actually an oil (since it is water soluble), but it is what gives the coffee its flavor and aroma.
Specialty coffees are generally roasted in small batches. The two most common roasting methods are: drum-roasting and hot-air roasting.
Drum-type roasting machines roast the coffee beans as they tumble in a rotating drum that is typically heated by gas or wood.
When the desired roast is achieved, the beans are poured into a cooling hopper to keep them from overcooking. The hot-air roaster, also known as a fluid-bed roaster, roasts the coffee beans as they tumble on a current of hot air. Most green coffee is roasted at approximately 200 °C degrees. The roasting process causes the coffee beans to swell and increase in size by over 50%, while at the same time greatly reducing their weight.
A lightly roasted bean may range in color from cinnamon to a light chocolate tan. Lighter roasts are generally not used for espresso since they produce a sharper, more acidic taste than do darker roasts. Darker roasts, in contrast, have a fuller flavor approaching a bittersweet tang. The amount of oil drawn to the surface of the bean increases proportionately to the length of roasting time.
As the roast darkens, caffeine and acidity decrease proportionately. Dark roasts can range in color from a medium chocolate brown with a satin-like luster, to an almost black bean with an oily appearance. The darker the roast the more you will taste the char, rather than the flavor of the bean. Extreme dark roasts will tend to have a smoky flavor, and are better suited for brewed coffee rather than espresso.
Many roasters refer to the following terms concerning the degree of roast, from light to dark: Cinnamon, Medium High, City, Full City, French, and finally, Espresso or Italian roast. On the West coast of the U.S., French roast is the term generally used to describe the darkest roast. It is important for you to understand that these terms have no relationship to where the coffee is grown or roasted.
A single coffee bean will generally not possess the complexity necessary for great espresso. Many espresso blends will contain three to seven different types of beans. The experienced roaster, with his knowledge of each bean, artfully combines them to create the desired blend of flavors. The roaster’s blending knowledge is usually a closely guarded secret.
In the United States, 100% Arabica beans are generally used for gourmet espresso blends. As we mentioned earlier, in Italy, some robusta beans will often times be added for the additional crema, caffeine, and complexity they contribute to the blend. The Italians possess generations of expertise in the art of blending coffees for espresso.
Argument still exists among roasters as to which should occur first, the roasting or the blending. Generally, roasting each varietal separately to maximize its flavor characteristics, and then blending, will produce the best result. Freshly roasted beans will release hundreds of chemical substances in the form of vapors. A day or two will generally be required for these gases to dissipate before the beans will reveal their optimal flavor characteristics. Today, many quality roasters are packaging their beans in air tight bags with a one way valve, which allows the gases to escape, without the beans being exposed to the damaging air. This type of packaged should help retard flavor deterioration. If beans are not packaged this way, or once beans packaged air tight are exposed to the air, they will begin to deteriorate. Roasts where oils are exposed on the surface of the bean are much more vulnerable.
Once exposed to the air, and if properly stored, beans will stay reasonable fresh for 7 to 10 days. We recommend storing beans in a clean, dry, air-tight container, in a cool dark place. We do not recommend storing beans in a refrigerator, because coffee tends to absorb flavors. Freezing coffee beans can also have a damaging effect, and is not recommended, unless the the beans must be stored for a prolonged period of time. Ideally, you should strive to purchase and use-up your supply of roasted beans on a weekly basis.
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Are there any best practices that I should follow while writing a parser?
2a parser for what? A compiler or ip messages?– TimFeb 20, 2009 at 16:11
The received wisdom is to use parser generators + grammars and it seems like good advice, because you are using a rigorous tool and presumably reducing effort and potential for bugs in doing so.
To use a parser generator the grammar has to be context free. If you are designing the languauge to be parsed then you can control this. If you are not sure then it could cost you a lot of effort if you start down the grammar route. Even if it is context free in practice, unless the grammar is enormous, it can be simpler to hand code a recursive decent parser.
Being context free does not only make the parser generator possible, but it also makes hand coded parsers a lot simpler. What you end up with is one (or two) functions per phrase. Which is if you organise and name the code cleanly is not much harder to see than a grammar (if your IDE can show you call hierachies then you can pretty much see what the grammar is).
- Simpler build
- Better performance
- Better control of output
- Can cope with small deviations, e.g. work with a grammar that is not 100% context free
I am not saying grammars are always unsuitable, but often the benefits are minimal and are often out weighed by the costs and risks.
(I believe the arguments for them are speciously appealing and that there is a general bias for them as it is a way of signaling that one is more computer-science literate.)
Few pieces of advice:
- Know your grammar - write it down in a suitable form
- Choose the right tool. Do it from within C++ with Spirit2x, or choose external parser tools like antlr, yacc, or whatever suits you
- Do you need a parser? Maybe regexp will suffice? Or maybe hack a perl script to do the trick? Writing complex parsers take time.
Don't overuse regular expressions - while they have their place, they simply don't have the power to handle any kind of real parsing. You can push them, but you're eventually going to hit a wall or end up with an unmaintainable mess. You're better off finding a parser generator that can handle a larger language set. If you really don't want to get into tools, you can look at recursive descent parsers - it's a really simple pattern for hand-writing a small parser. They aren't as flexible or as powerful as the big parser generators, but they have a much shorter learning curve.
Unless you have very tight performance requirements, try and keep your layers separate - the lexer reads in individual tokens, the parser arranges those into a tree, and then semantic analysis checks over everything and links up references, and then a final phase to output whatever is being produced. Keeping the different parts of logic separate will make things easier to maintain later.
Read most of the Dragon book first.
Parsers are not complicated if you know how to build them, but they are NOT the type of thing that if you put in enough time, you'll eventually get there. It's way better to build on the existing knowledge base. (Otherwise expect to write it and throw it away a few dozen times).
Yep. Try to generate it, not write. Consider using yacc, ANTLR, Flex/Bison, Coco/R, GOLD Parser generator, etc. Resort to manually writing a parser only if none of existing parser generators fit your needs.
- Choose the right kind of parser, sometimes a Recursive Descendant will be enough, sometimes you should use an LR parser (also, there are many types of LR parsers).
- If you have a complex grammar, build an Abstract Syntax Tree.
- Try to identify very well what goes into the lexer, what is part of the syntax and what is a matter of semantics.
- Try to make the parser the least coupled to the lexer implementation as possible.
- Provide a good interface to the user so he is agnostic of the parser implementation.
First, don't try to apply the same techniques to parsing everything. There are numerous possible use cases, from something like IP addresses (a bit of ad hoc code) to C++ programs (which need an industrial-strength parser with feedback from the symbol table), and from user input (which needs to be processed very fast) to compilers (which normally can afford to spend a little time parsing). You might want to specify what you're doing if you want useful answers.
Second, have a grammar in mind to parse with. The more complicated it is, the more formal the specification needs to be. Try to err on the side of being too formal.
Third, well, that depends on what you're doing.
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A species once thought extinct turns out to be very much alive.by Martin Ehl 30 July 2013
A report in the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita – that the Poles, according to sales figures, no longer enjoy their traditional drink, pure vodka – could have been just an anecdote. But anyone who has recently visited Poland knows that the Poles are becoming a nation of beer drinkers and, in this respect, are similar to other Central Europeans.
Coincidentally, I recently attended the traditional Visegrad Summer School in Krakow, where participants took a full day in the course of the two-week program to discuss the ties that bind Central Europeans – even if plenty of other things keep them apart. The popularity of beer is one of them, but don’t remind the Poles that the Pilsner Urquell sold in their country was produced in the Silesian city of Tychy until the production license was revoked for poor quality in 2011. Thanks to the Polish-Swedish sociologist Barbara Tornquist-Plewa and a debate with other experts, we didn't just stop at beverages and food but could discuss deeper bonds.
Despite joining the European Union, NATO, and other organizations, Central and Eastern Europe still lag behind the West because of the common bonds of belated modernization and the peculiarities that marked their journey from vassals to nation states, all underscored by the dual destructive experiences of the world wars and the subsequent government of communist totalitarianism.
It is precisely because of this common heritage that Central Europe is, in pan-European debates, seen as a rather gloomy place. Take, for example, the name of the excellent book by the American historian Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, or Brussels’ aversion to any proposals from the new member countries trying to limit the political and economic influence of Russia in Europe.
Given the current political and social situation in the Czech Republic, it was interesting when Tornquist-Pleva pulled out the old concept of “Soviet man” or homo sovieticus. She wanted to show the commonalities of Central European nations, which otherwise see themselves quite differently and have better road and rail links with the West than with each other.
So to recap, what were (are?) the behavioral patterns for the species known as homo sovieticus, according to Tornquist-Pleva:
That list, based on a study of socialist states from the time of Soviet rule, describes surprisingly well the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The victors in elections are those parties that promise a strong role for the state in taking care of citizens from cradle to grave. The legacy of socialism is thus stronger than it might seem.
Even Poland, where the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is nominally liberal, isn't much of an exception to the homo sovieticus rule. Government efforts to limit the privileges of various social or occupational groups there dramatically fell off after encountering fierce resistance. And the conservative Law and Justice Party, which advocates a strong state role in the economy and society, is now beating Tusk's Civic Platform in opinion polls.
The economic crisis after 2008 showed how weak the institutions of a democratic liberal state are. These were built in the post-communist countries after 1989 with a view to the region extricating itself from the heritage of war and Soviet rule by entering into the Western community.
But perhaps only in Poland is there still a genuine effort to continue the geopolitical journey from East to West. It manifests itself in the pro-European speeches of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and in the pressure to pump in the largest amount of European funds. In the midst of a precarious economic situation, these funds have become a main source of economic growth and a means to improve infrastructure from Eastern to Western standards.
In the rest of the Visegrad countries due to the failure (and incapacity) of pro-Western politicians to overcome the effects of the crisis and bad governance – including corruption in the highest places – homo sovieticus in various forms has returned with new strength. The possibility that Central Europe might not become part of the West has thus dramatically increased.
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The idea of traveling through time has fascinated people for centuries. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells continues to be a popular example of science fiction and fantasy dealing with this possibility.You can read it online.
In this book, a time traveler from 1895 goes into the very distant future and finds what initially seems to be a utopia, the land of the Eloi. The disappearance of his time machine leads The Time Traveler to discover the Morlocks, whose work makes the ease and pleasure of life possible for the Eloi. In another twist, The Time Traveler learns that the Eloi are not the masters of the Morlock slaves, but the livestock on which they feed.
Before reading, discuss with students other time travel fiction they might have experienced, such as books from Time Warp Trio or Magic Tree House series or the movie Back to the Future. List the methods for time travel used in any books or movies students know about. Time machines are fairly rare in recent speculative fiction; magic portals and wormholes are more common.
Space.com has an interesting collection of methods in an infographic format. Project this and go through it with students to get a sense of background. The Time Machine is included.
- A Penguin Teacher’s Guide for the book
- A collection of fairly advanced discussion questions
- Crayola suggests creating a timeline with sidewalk chalk and traveling through time with movement and discussion.
- Build a time machine from recyclables.
- Any serious discussion of time travel has to include the theory of relativity and Einstein’s space traveling twins (I think it’s a law). Introduce the concept with a Shockwave game.
- Check out retrofuture, the ideas people in the past had about our present, which was their future.
- An article on the subject from The Daily Mail will clarify some of the scientific points and paradoxes for older students.
- The future world visited by The Time Traveler has two kinds of humanoids, which have evolved from the upper and lower classes. The theory of evolution was fairly new when this book was written. If you study evolution in your science classes, discuss the processes which could lead to two distinct species of humans.
- A theme in the book which is related to the theory of evolution is the degeneration of humanity and of the world. The theory of evolution doesn’t actually hold that organisms keep getting better and better or that they get worse, though people sometimes talk about it in those terms. The Time Traveler thinks that a lack of danger and hardship has caused people to become weak. Discuss and have students write a response to this idea.
- This is the perfect time for the classic dinner party question: If you could have a dinner party with eight guests from any time in the past, whom would you invite? Have groups of students create such a dinner party, with each student researching one of the guests. Groups can write up scripts for a dinner table conversation among the guests and present it to the class.
- Another way to bring drama and research into the study is to have each student study a period in history which they find intriguing, and then report to the class as time travelers who have just returned from a visit.
- The Time Traveler visits a society in which advancing technology has made life so easy that there is no longer any advantage to being smart or hardworking. Since the book was written in 1895, technology has advanced significantly, and our lives are in many ways easier. We haven’t quit working, though. Have students discuss and then write about the consequences of increasingly advanced technology and easier lives.
- Some people today worry that robots and artificial intelligence will take away jobs from people. H.G.Wells didn’t have a reason to worry about that, but it might help your students understand his concerns.
- Wells sees serious consequences from the gap between the haves and the have nots which was very evident in his day. Have things improved? See a chart-rich discussion of U.S. wealth inequality from a University of California sociologist. Set aside plenty of time to analyze and understand the charts — it’s a great visual literacy lesson as well as a good way to apply math skills. Once students have digested the data, discuss whether this is a problem, as Wells believed.
- The Time Traveler muses on adaptation and evolution, thinking of how in 1895 physical courage was becoming less important than it previously had been. Family feeling, he thought, would become unimportant in the future, and he figured he was seeing the end of intelligence and creativity in the Eloi. Compare the culture of Victorian England, our modern time, and the Eloi to determine whether there is a continuum, as The Time Traveler expected.
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There are three main branches on the tree.
- The road from Rome to the United States
- History of Roman Catholicism
- The conspiracy centered in the United States foretold in the Bible 2500 years ago
This synopsis describes the most important historical events on the conspiratorial road from the end of medieval papal tyranny in Europe (the 1500s) and up to the adaption of a global government – partly adapted by deception and partly by enforcement.
THE REFORMATION AND THE COUNTER-REFORMATION
Before the Reformation, the center of political, religious and economic power in Europe was centered in Rome. From Rome, the Catholic Church controlled the kings in Europe and no other religion was allowed except what the pope dictated. The Reformation directed a major blow to this tyrannical condition in Europe.
In an attempt to stop the reformation spreading all over Europa the Catholic church initiated a counter-reformation. It was an attempt to win back its lost territory and lead the lost sheep (the protestant apostate heretics) back to the only true church, ruled by the popes.
The Jesuit Order became the primary tool in the counter-reformation. The Jesuit Order gradually gained control over the education in Europe and became diplomats and political and religious advisors to the kings of Europe. They became extremely powerful. The newly founded American colonies became one of their major targets.
Before the Reformation, the center of political, religious and economic power in Europe was centered in Rome. From Rome, the Catholic Church controlled the kings in Europe and no other religion was allowed except what the pope dictated. But that changed in the 1500s when the Reformation directed a major blow to the tyrannical power. Both the religious authority of the pope and his self-proclaimed right to rule the world politically was questioned by the discovery of a very important series of prophecies in the Bible. The reformation played an enormous role in the emerging independent nation-states free from papal dictate.
The papacy was in chock. In 1636 it was ready to start a counterattack – the counter-reformation. The counter-reformation was set in motion as the papacy’s attempt to win back its lost territories. The papal secret army, Jesuit order became the secret police of that day. They spread out all over the globe. They infiltrated nations all over the world in order to destabilize and create “regime change” and bring them under papal rule. Their strategy was to gain control over education in Europe and in that way control the thoughts and ideas of the youth. They also become highly educated diplomats and political advisors to the kings and governments in Europe. Where they were discovered they often suffered severe punishment and execution because they attempted to undermine governments by incite revolutions and create wars between countries. In many countries, including Denmark, the Jesuit order was declared illegal by law.
HOW THE AMERICAN FOUNDING FATHERS DECEIVED THE PEOPLE
In the 16-1700s America became a refuge for thousands of protestant Christians fleeing Catholic persecution in Europe. But the Jesuit Order also sent their secret “soldiers” over the Atlantic. They came in disguise as printers, teachers, writers and all sorts of professions. They founded the state called Maryland and they were sworn to the pope to fulfill his mission. The Jesuit was (and never will be) servers of the nation they are allegedly working for. They have higher goals than serving nations. They take their orders from a higher authority – the Jesuit general in Rome called, the black pope.
It is a widely spread narrative that the American founding fathers were brave, honest, protestant Christians. But they were not. They were traitors of the protestant protestant colonies and they only gained power by deception. Their own writings reveal the truth.
They hated the religion described in the Bible. They wrote intensively about their disgust for the Christian religion and Jesus Christ. They were in reality formed by Enlightenment philosophy and secularism, and pagan spirituality. Some of them were members of European, occult secret societies which many points out became under the control of the Jesuit Order.
In the protestant american colonies, every child at that time was taught the prophecies in the Bible that foretold about an antichrist power that was predicted to set up its power in Rome right after the fall of the Roman Empire under a pretended Christian cloak and rule Europe for over 1000 years. The knowledge about this prophecy became the prime moving cause for millions of people in Europe to dare turn their back to the Catholic authorities that for centuries had brainwashed people with the doctrine that “outside the Catholic church there exists only eternal damnation after death”.
The protestants realized that the described characteristics of the antichrist power in the prophecy could only fit the Papacy. The same interpretation was also prevailing in all other protestant nations in Europe. As long as that interpretation was widespread it would never be possible for the Catholic Church to gain a foothold again. The American colonies were under the protection of the protestants, British law. Therefore, if the Jesuit Order should gain a political and religious stronghold in the American colonies it had to free the colonies from British protestant rule and thereafter slowly erode away protestant teaching from the schools. That was the true aim of the American Constitution. It was never intended for the benefit of the common, protestant people. Freedom of religion was a necessary institution for the Jesuit order to institute in the law because without that the Catholics were by law disallowed from having leading positions in society both in protestant Europe and in the protestant American colonies.
It is a historical fact that the Jesuit order was deeply involved in writing the American Constitution and setting up the new government of the United States.
- The Jesuit schooling system
- The Founding fathers (documentary)
- Total Onslaught, episode
- Page with quotes about the Jesuit take over of United States
- More about the Jesuit order
- Georgetown University
- A funny story about me searching a danish dictionary
- Jesuit order behind communism (Paraguay)
- Noam Chomsky – about the founding fathers and the constitution
SIZING CONTROL OF THE AMERICAN BANKING SYSTEM
In the 1800s there had developed a ruling elite in the United States. Large monopolies were emerging and the industrial and financial sector sized gain control over the banking system by a coup. from now on the government became gældsslaver to the new, private “Federal Reserve Bank”. From now on the government could not any longer print its own money.
- Antony Sutton:
A THEORY AND A SYSTEM WAS DEVELOPED TO CONTROL THE MINDS AND ACTS OF PEOPLE IN DEMOCRATIC NATIONS WITHOUT USING FORCE
Noam Chomsky: The people as spectators to democracy
Edward Bernays, quote…
THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION, 1917
THE COLD WAR
The Cold War was the baggrundstæppe on which the United States could gain public acceptance for invasions and destruction of countless nations under the pretext that these countries were on the road to becoming communist regimes which were a serious threat to world peace and could possibly lead to a third world war.
CIA´s SECRET COUT DETAT IN IRAN, 1953
A BLUEPRINT FOR FUTURE REGIME CHANGE STRATEGY
THE LIST OF US REGIME CHANGE OPERATIONS IS VERY LONG
Syria is a modern example of the CIA´s blueprint for creating regime change.
CIA´s CULTURAL WAR IN EUROPE
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Edema is a condition characterized by the accumulation of excess fluid in body tissues, leading to swelling and discomfort. This fluid retention can occur due to various factors, such as heart failure, kidney disease, venous insufficiency, or as a result of surgery or injury. Coping with edema can be challenging, but advancements in medical technology offer hope and relief. In this article, we will explore how NormaTec 3 Compression Therapy can be a valuable tool in managing edema and promoting better overall circulation.
Edema occurs when the fluid from blood vessels leaks into surrounding tissues, causing them to swell. This swelling can affect the legs, arms, ankles, and other body parts, leading to pain, restricted movement, and potential skin complications. Proper management of edema is crucial to prevent further health issues and improve the patient's quality of life.
The Role of NormaTec 3 Compression Therapy:
NormaTec 3 is an innovative compression therapy system that uses dynamic compression to improve blood flow, reduce swelling, and aid in the removal of excess fluid from the affected areas. This technology mimics the body's natural circulatory processes and enhances lymphatic drainage, making it a promising solution for individuals dealing with edema.
How NormaTec 3 Helps with Edema:
- Enhanced Circulation:
NormaTec 3's dynamic compression stimulates blood flow, helping to move stagnant fluid back into the blood vessels. By improving circulation, the therapy assists in reducing fluid buildup and alleviating swelling in affected body parts.
- Lymphatic Drainage:
Edema often results from compromised lymphatic system function. NormaTec 3's rhythmic compression aids the lymphatic vessels in removing excess fluid and waste products, supporting a more efficient drainage process.
- Reduction of Swelling and Discomfort:
By promoting fluid movement and drainage, NormaTec 3 helps decrease the swelling associated with edema. This can lead to reduced discomfort and an improved range of motion.
- Customizable Treatment:
NormaTec 3 offers various attachment sizes to cater to specific body areas, ensuring that the therapy targets the affected regions accurately.
- Portable and User-Friendly:
NormaTec 3 is designed to be lightweight and portable, allowing patients to receive compression therapy conveniently at home or during travel.
- Non-Invasive Approach:
Unlike invasive procedures, NormaTec 3 provides a non-invasive and gentle method of managing edema, making it suitable for various individuals, including those with certain medical conditions.
Edema can significantly impact a person's well-being and daily life. However, with the help of cutting-edge technology like NormaTec 3 Compression Therapy, individuals with edema can experience relief and improved circulation. By enhancing lymphatic drainage and reducing swelling, NormaTec 3 offers a non-invasive and effective approach to managing edema. If you or a loved one is dealing with edema, consult with a healthcare professional to explore how NormaTec 3 can be integrated into a comprehensive treatment plan. Embrace the benefits of NormaTec 3 and take a step towards better edema management and enhanced quality of life.
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