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June Buggie’s Taking a Walk on the Wild Side
Meow! My name is June Buggie and I have something to say.
You humans have a problem, especially your kids, and it’s called Nature Deficit Disorder.
What is Nature Deficit Disorder? It’s a term coined by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods. Louv shows that humans are tied to nature, and require contact with the natural world in order for children to develop into both physically and emotionally healthy adults. He asserts that children who don’t have sufficient contact with the natural world and who are not able to adapt to our high-tech, indoor world are more likely to suffer from obesity, attention disorders, and depression.
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 8- to 18-year-olds spend more than 53 hours a week using entertainment media (TV, computer, etc.).
Now I know what you’re thinking. What does this have to do with animals, June Buggie?
Kids who don’t have regular contact with nature don’t have a concept of animals being free in nature. A disconnect with nature could lead to further destruction of the few places left where animals can live in the wild.
Kids who don’t have regular contact with the natural world will be more accepting of livestock animals living in cruel, cramped conditions. How many of you know what kind of conditions pigs and chickens live in?
Kids who never experience the wonder of insects will not understand the valuable role they play in the ecosystem, and will instead think that all bugs should be killed with pesticides.
Let’s consider that Nature had a reason for creating the living things that inhabit the Earth and knows more than humans about what this world needs.
So how about teaching your children a healthy respect for the natural world by experiencing it firsthand, not just by watching it on TV.
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Combat Capability [42%], Role and Missions, Structure of the Navy, in-service ships, surface ships, submarines, chronology.
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Ukrainian Navy: ferial excursions into the past and present
Battleship Volya (Freedom) (till April 16, 1917 — Imperator Alexander Tretiy (Emperor Alexander the 3rd)). While Hetmanate and Ukrainian Peoples’ Republic times she was one of the first to raise the Ukrainian flag. Photo of 1916.
Ukraine is maritime power that must protect its waters and economic interest at seas, protect the country from possible sea intrusion. The Navy should also serve this purpose. Right now the Ukrainian Navy consists of 28 ships… 27 of which require the overhaul or under repair already.
Armored deck cruiser Getman Ivan Mazepa (Hetman Ivan Mazepa) (former Kagul, Pamyat Merkuriya (Memory of Mercury). While Hetmanate and Ukrainian Peoples’ Republic times she stationed in Sevastopol. Broken down in 1943 only.
The Ukrainian Navy arose in stormy 1917—1918. The Naval personnel of the tsarist navy mainly consisted of the Ukrainian recruits. Just recall one of the heroes of Sevastopol’s Defense seaman Koshka, a serf from Osmitincy village of Vinnitskaya oblast Peter Markovich Kishka. Upon the February Revolution of 1917 the Ukrainization spreaded over the Black Sea Fleet. Starting October 1917 the crews of the ships had been establishing military councils; the blue-yellow flags were flying from the masts. Destroyer Zavidniy (Enviable) and Pamyat Merkuriya were the first examples. The General Secretariat for Naval Affairs was established within the government of the Central Rada in Kiev (in January 1918 it was reformed in a Ministry). The head of it become D. Antonovich. The Head Navy Staff was led by Captain Yu. Pokrovski. For the educational and agitational purposes of the seamen the Central Rada seconded the commisars to Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson and Sevastopol. November 22, 1917 the whole crew of the newest and powerful battleship of the Black Sea Fleet Volya made fealty to the Central Rada, followed soon by several ships and submarines. Rear-admiral M. Steblin a descendant of Cossack family of Shabliiv was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Navy. A telegram to Kiev was sent form the staff ship Georgy Pobedonosets “Effective today the Sevastopol fortress and the Fleet in Sevastopol raised the Ukrainian flag. Admiral Sablin assumed the command of the Fleet”. Having no reply the admiral ordered to repeat the telegram started with the words “The Comrades of Kiev Central Rada…”. The brave officer was unaware that the Central Rada in Kiev was already a history at the moment.
From October 1917 till March 1918 the following came to the disposal of the Ukrainians: nine battleships, seven cruisers, 18 destroyers, 14 submarines, 16 patrol ships and avisos, 11 military transports and mother ships. In addition the Fleet’s Headquarters, all military institutions and plants, all coastal fortifications were in hands of the Ukrainians. But they were yet to face a disaster.
Kaiser’s forces had been advancing to Sevastopol with a goal to capture the Black Sea Fleet. Having no support from the land forces Admiral Sablin was forced enter the negotiation regarding cessation of hostilities. The Germans however had rejected the armistice proposals and the advance continued. The Centroflot (the combined fleet revolutionary committee) in order to save the Fleet took a decision on moving to Novorossiysk. April 30, 1918 the main high sea fleet under command of Admiral Sablin headed for Novorossiysk. Only 25 auxiliaries and small crafts as well as 15 submarines left in Sevastopol under Admiral Ostrogradskiy who assumed the command.
May 1, 1918 the German army entered Sevastopol and two enemy battleships anchored in the bay. Under the guns of the enemy the admiral gave an order to the Fleet to strike the Ukrainian colors. That was the first tragical page in the history of the Ukrainian Navy.
The modern Ukrainian Navy is fully equipped by the ships inherited from the former USSR. It is hard to imagine of the criteria that had guided the politicians while splitting of the Black Sea Fleet in early nineties but Ukraine obtained not the best part of it. Presently the Ukrainian Fleet consist of 28 ships, motor boats and other crafts: frigate Getman Sagaidachniy, built in 1993; submarine Zaporizhzha built in 1970; six corvettes, the oldest built in 1976, Lut’sk the newest in 1994; three assault landing ships – Kostyantin Ol’shanskiy – 1985, Kirovgrad – 1971, Donetsk - 1992; four mine warfare vessels all but one built in the seventies of the last century, Genichesk – 1984; three gunboats – 1971, 1972, and 1990; two sister ships missile boats Priluki – 1979 and Kakhovka – 1980; two amphibious ships Bryanka - 1970 and Svatove - 1979; three scout ships Slavutich – 1992, Simferopol – 1973, Pereyaslav – 1987; command ship Donbas – 1970 and anti-diversion boat Feodosiya – 1983.
Car enthusiasts are well aware that upon ten years of service life their iron horse starts falling to pieces, which means you need to get rid of it as soon as possible. Was that the way our “big brother” in the Black Sea Fleet did? But a ship is not a car but a city with its own power plant, water supply, flushing system, ventilation, air conditioning, wastes treatment equipment, etc, stuffed with armament and ammunition. Its hull and machineries are under permanent exposure of hostile environment – sea water.
Is it possible that our naval officials care the entrusted crafts so much that they can be easily called to protect our waters at any moment? The report The Technical Condition of Ships and Crafts of the Ukrainian Navy as of May 5, 2005 originated by the Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian Navy for logistics says that 27 ships are being refitted or require immediate repair. For the year of 2005 it is planned to repair 21 ships that requires 9207.8 thousand grivnas (what an accurateness! – author’s note). One gets really scared while reading the following words from the report “On route from Novoozernoe to Sevatopol the port engine was shut down on an emergency (assault landing ship – Kostyantin Ol’shanskiy – author’s note). An investigation was carried out … an estimated work cost makes 120 thousand grivnas”; amphibious ship Svatove: “… the outer shell is distorted and deformed in some places; immediate paining required. The underwater hull has a spreading corrosion; general condition of the hull is satisfactory (Thanks God! – author’s note). Fuel tanks subject to corrosion. 20% of the upper deck is covered with rust and needs maintenance”; command ship Donbas “The date of the last maintenance — 1986. The date of the next interim overhaul has expired in 1991”; fleet’s flagship frigate Getman Sagaidachniy — crankshaft of diesel generating set is broken; missile hydrofoil boat Kakhovka “Hull’s condition is satisfactory but hydrofoil run is impossible due to vast fouling”; assault landing air-cushion ship Donetsk (the only in the fleet) “Ship’s effective life has expired. The ship is to be excluded from the list of navy’s operational force and transferred into “equipment” category. Almost similar situation can be observed about every ship in the fleet. By the way somebody’s kids, grandkids, brothers, and husbands serve at this sort of “equipment”.
The only Ukrainian submarine has long become a subject of numerous jokes. Starting February 28, 2002 the submarine is under repair at SSRZ (Sevastopol ship repair yard) of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. 60% of works of the total scope has been completed to date. The notorious accumulator plant of the sub is located ashore since February 2003 meaning the two years of the five year warranty period have already spent. Our dear Ministry of Defense (read – tax payers) let’s start accumulating currency for the purchase of the new plant. We are going to pay Russia for the sub’s repair over 15 million grivnas.
The former president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma noted in one of his speeches that basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is beneficial for Ukraine apparently meaning the funds due to the budget as community charges, land tax, custom duties for railage and other. This is right of course should our neighbor pay in time. For instance, the Assistant of the Russian Black Sea Fleet for financial activities admits “The Fleet (Russian – author’s note) year in and out is in debt to both military and Ukrainian companies – suppliers of energy and material resources”.
Unfortunately Ukraine has got not a single manufacturer of naval armament. That is why we are forced to by it abroad mainly in Russia. But how stupid should be a government to supply his neighbor with the most sophisticated equipment? Who knows what is going to happen in the future. As a result we possess ships with expired operational life, not mission capable submarine, out-of-date armament. In other words all these are “equipment and materials”. A saying “The thing you don’t want is dear at any price” is true for our navy. So what, do nothing and let it sink by itself? Too early, it is not so bad.
During the years of independence Ukraine managed to complete construction and commission four ships: frigate Getman Sagaidachniy, corvette Lutsk, command ship Slavutich, and assault landing air-cushion ship Donetsk. The following are at different stages of construction: missile cruiser Ukraina (Ukraine), corvettes Lviv, Lugansk, and Ternopol. The latter is being built at CJSC Leninskaya Kuznitsa for fourteen years already, as per the project 1125 Albatros (Albatross) developed yet in the seventies. The completeness of cruiser Ukraina makes up to 95%. About 150 million grivnas is needed to finalize the construction. Her fate is uncertain because it is being considered that she does not fit into the military doctrine of our country. Yet the aim of any country has always been the possession of maximum efficient armament.
The future is not known for two hydrofoil corvettes being constructed at shipbuilding facility More in Feodosiya. Due to the expensiveness and operation complexity the ships have become hostages because of their own technical excellence.
The Armament Program for the Period until 2010 specifies three main classes of ships for the Ukraininan Navy, namely corvette, missile boat and a mine sweeper. The program does not include submarines (although naval experts consider the need of three), landing crafts as the offensive weapon (?) and the fleet of auxiliaries notwithstanding the existence of military forces that can be supported from sea only. The projects for corvettes have been developed: Pahar-C in the Central Design Bureau Shkhuna (Shooner) located in Kiev, Mirazh (Mirage), Mistral – 1500T (foreign customer) and è Gaiduk – 21 (Heyduck) at the State Experimental Design Office of Shipbuilding in Nikolaev. The latter on account of using stealth technologies already today is being referred to as stealth-ship.
Ukraine possesses unique shipbuilding potential but the lack of funding as always imposes obstacles in realization of designers’ ideas. Former head of naval shipbuilding and armament office in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Rear-admiral M. Serdyuk says in his interview for Sudnobudutovannya ta sudoremont (Shipbuilding and Ship Repair) magazine “The only thing is needed for the Ukrainian Navy, namely stable funding of the new ships construction program. Let the fleet be moderate but with the predictable future.” You can paraphrase the well known saying “Those not supporting their own fleet will be sure supporting the enemy one soon”. This is what we almost have today.
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Woman's Mysteries of a Primitive People, by D. Amaury Talbot, , at sacred-texts.com
FROM the moment when the death of a great Efik chief was announced his widows came under the care of the Ndito Than society, known among Ibibios by the name of "Iban Isong," i.e. Women of the Soil. Should an unfortunate widow offend against custom in any way, such as by washing face or feet, or plaiting her hair, the society at once fined her; for members were continually passing in and out of the house of mourning to watch that the rules were observed. At cock-crow each day the women of the household had to wake and start crying for an hour or two, and should one of them not be thought to perform her part of the ceremony in a sufficiently energetic manner, external aids were applied of sufficient strength to remedy any lack of naturalness. Widows were not allowed to leave the compound on any pretext, but were forced to stay, each in her own house, sitting upon a small mat in a dark corner. No covering was permitted, save the narrow strip usually worn round the waist beneath the robe and called the "woman's cloth."
When women from other families came, the visitors seated themselves just before their hostess. No sooner had they settled down than the widow
started to weep anew, and the guests joined her in lamentation. After a certain time spent in this way they went on to another wife, and so on till all had been condoled with. Sisters and cousins of the dead man usually received visits in the room beneath the floor of which the corpse was buried.
Only legal wives were thus secluded. Other women of the household, no matter how near or dear they might have been to the dead, were not expected to stay in their little corners, but were free to come and go within the compound. The time of seclusion was called that of the "Mbuk Pisi" house, i.e. house of mourning.
When a very great chief dies his widows make a certain offering to the Ndito Than Society. For this purpose they prepare long wrappings of silk, and, after having presented these, send to inform their families of the bereavement which has befallen them. In olden days a year or more was usually spent in this seclusion. Now it is only a week or two, or at most a month.
As the time of mourning drew to an end, about nine o'clock one night a cry was heard coming from the Egbo house. This was the signal for the beginning of what was called a very "strong night" at Calabar. All the widows stepped, one by one, out of the compound where they had so long been confined, and proceeded to the Egbo shed, each with her family walking round her like a fence The building was full of the great chiefs of the town, while crowds of spectators stood outside. After all the wives had been stationed before the entrance, the name of each was called in turn, from the lowest to the highest, with the words:
"You must 'cry' your husband before the Egbo, that Egbo may hear."
Then, in the stillness, the poor woman raised her voice bewailing her loss, and the Egbo answered the cry from within, "a very thick and heavy sound amid the silence." After awhile came a pause, then all began again as before. Seven times the wail rose; but the seventh was the last. All this time the family of the first woman stood in readiness to pass her along from one to another. Suddenly bells were heard ringing, and the widow started to run, sheltered always by her kinsfolk. The same happened to all in turn, and, should some unfortunate woman have no strong family to encircle and save her, Egbo caught her and she died there and then.
After having "cried their husband before the Egbo," the widows went back once more to the house of mourning, and early next day Idemm Ikwaw (i.e. lesser Egbo) came out and went round the town. All the principal chiefs followed him, holding in their hands twenty to forty young palm stems, each about four feet long, from which the hard skin had been stripped off, so that only the soft inner part was left.
When these had gathered in the courtyard, the women came out from the Mbuk Pisi house one by one with folded arms and stepping backwards "softly, softly"; for they might not turn their heads. Each was shaking with terror, for none knew what was coming and they feared "too much." All around them bells were ringing with deafening clang and bang. The Egbo image struck at each, as she came forth, and, if the woman was lithe and nimble of mind as
well as body, at the first stroke she sprang back into the house, but many were too bewildered to know where to turn. For each blow a new stick was used, the others being thrown away immediately. After every widow had been struck in turn, the ceremony was over. "The minds of the women could rest in peace now. There was nothing more to fear."
Later in the day all went down to the river to bathe. There they washed the little cloths which had so long been worn unchanged, and shaved their heads. "Each widow was laved by the women of her family and those who were her dearest friends. No man could see them walking unrobed because of the press of women about each. After bathing they dressed themselves in cloth woven of plaited grasses, the fine kind called Ofon Ndam, black, red, and yellow in colour, which is as soft as linen." Then the "woman's cloth," and every spoon, calabash and other utensil used during the time of mourning was thrown into the river; were this not done it was thought that their continued possession would entail barrenness upon their owner. After these had been cast away the widows returned for the last time to the house of their late husband. They did not enter, however, but only sat on the veranda.
Next some of the principal women of the town and five or six chiefs went thither as witnesses that all had "cleansed themselves," and now wished to go back to the homes of their fathers. The household juju was brought out and set upon the ground, and before it each widow took oath:
"During my husband's lifetime if I was unfaithful
to him or did any bad thing against his family may the juju punish me! If not, may I go clear!"
After this each woman's kin surrounded her. She raised her clasped hands above her head, resting them with interlocked fingers upon the crown, and cried, "My husband divorces me to-day!" The spectators took up the cry, calling in chorus upon the dead man by his "fine names" such as "Helper of the Town," etc.
After each widow had thus set herself free, the household dependents came forward and "cried" in much the same manner. Then the "free born" amongst them all went back to the homes of their fathers.
For seven days only the native grass cloth "Ofon Ndam" might be worn by the bereaved women, and, when this was laid aside, custom ordained that a kind called "Isodoho" should be substituted.
Sisters, cousins, and women "members" of the deceased's family wore a blue cloth two fathoms long, knotted over the left shoulder and hanging straight down like the usual farm dress. As a further sign of mourning they used to grind charcoal and mix with a little oil to form a black pigment, with which they painted a mark from temple to temple across the forehead, much in the shape of a crescent moon. It is quite probably from this circumstance that the "house of mourning" among the Ibibios is termed "the moon house," though, when the supposition was mentioned, some of my informants disclaimed all knowledge of the point.
Male members of the family or household were
supposed to wear black or dark blue cloth, sometimes for as much as a year and a half, until a date was fixed upon by the principal men among them, who said, "On such and such a day we will finish mourning." They liked to arrange so that this "throwing off of mourning" took place about Christmas time, before the planting of new farms.
It would seem that the period of mourning is purposely made as disagreeable as possible for the widows, in order to deter these from the temptation to poison their husbands so as to clear the way for another suitor.
As with the Greeks of old, both men and women shaved their heads in sign of mourning. Like the widows, some of the dependents wore Isodoho cloth, and some a kind dyed a lighter shade of blue called "Utan Okpo."
From the day when the widows "took oath before the juju" and returned to their fathers' homes they were free to marry again. 1
On the occasion of the funeral rites of the head chief of Ikotobo, the cattle offered to the "Manes" of the dead were laid out to the left of the throne upon which the corpse sat in state; while on the right, as if to balance the slaughtered sheep, which in this case were twenty in number, crouched the deceased's twenty wives with their children, all wailing and wringing their hands. But for the presence of the "white man," 2 most, if not all, of these unfortunate women would have been sacrificed also and buried with their lord. Even as
it was their fate was sad enough. They were painted over with black pigment and forced to go into mourning for six months, though in the case of lesser men the period is sometimes shortened to as little as seven days. During this time they were obliged to observe the strictest seclusion. On such occasions none is allowed to wash either body or clothes. They are even forbidden to stand at the door of their prison while rain is falling, lest a single drop should touch them and thus cleanse a fractional part of the body. During this time the wretched women exist under conditions too hideous for description. At the end of their seclusion the Egbo "images" come with attendants and drive them forth from the dead man's house, which is then broken down. Images and attendants bear sharp machets, with which they slash the arms of the terrified women, who run weeping to seek out former friends and beg them to bind up their wounds. After this they remain homeless until parcelled out among the heirs of the dead man.
The wives of even poor Ibibios must remain secluded for a week after their husband's burial. During this time they may wear no garment save a small loin cloth and a piece of goat's skin tied over the right hand. 1 Before coming forth they are allowed to dress their hair, bathe and resume their customary garments. The first use they make of freedom is usually to go and pluck themselves boughs of ntung leaves, which they wave to and fro "to drive away the scent of the ghost," for Ibibios, like the ancient Babylonians, believe that ghosts have a very evil smell. Thus
protected, the women approach the grave and lay upon it, folded into a small roll, the cloth and piece of skin which they have worn during the time of their seclusion. After this has been duly done they may return to their ordinary mode of life, mixing with their fellows and going to market as before.
In the neighbourhood of Awa when a chief fell sick his nearest kinsmen used to go to the Idiong priest and ask the cause of the illness. Should the oracle declare, as was usually the case, that this had been brought about in consequence of a wife's unfaithfulness, Idiong was next asked to point out the guilty woman. So soon as her name was pronounced she was called upon to confess and give the name of her lover. Should she refuse and as a result, according to general opinion, the husband died, the oracle was consulted once more, and, on the almost invariable pronouncement that the woman was guilty of the death, a meeting of the townsfolk was called to decide upon her fate. By ancient custom this might be meted out in two ways; either she was buried alive by the dead man's side, in place of a female slave usually sacrificed on such an occasion, or forced to sit above the grave. In the latter case a slender pole of hard wood was brought, sharpened to a fine point before the eyes of the wretched woman, and then driven into the skull, right through the body, and deep down into the earth, in such a manner as to impale her above the place of burial.
Before killing such victims the people used to gather round and order them to pronounce a blessing upon the town. "Make plenty piccans be born to
us," they would cry; "plenty girls and plenty boys." Should the victim refuse to repeat the words they coaxed her, and said:
"If you will but speak this blessing we will let you go free."
Should she again refuse they beat her very cruelly, crying, "Now speak." If, despite the pain, she still refused, the "fearful Egbo" would come out--hideous beyond description--and threaten nameless tortures till she yielded.
In some rare cases the woman has still been known to hold out, as is also recorded of one or other of the slaves ordained by custom to share the grave of their lord, and from whom a like "blessing" was demanded. Under such circumstances the victims were never sacrificed, since to do so would have been to draw down a period of barrenness and poverty upon the town. Instead of killing such steadfast souls, therefore, they were sold into slavery, while a victim who could be forced or cajoled into pronouncing the necessary formula was offered instead.
It was of the utmost importance to the well-being of the spirits of parents in the Ghost Realm that a son should be left behind who would carry out the burial rites with all due observances. The straits to which good sons were sometimes put in order to make sure that the necessary ritual was performed are illustrated by the story of the sham burial of the mother of the head chief of Ikot Okudum--a town not far from Ubium Creek.
Many years ago when the present head chief, Etuk Udaw Akpan by name, was a young man, he
was very strong and brave. For a certain reason his fellow-townsmen wanted to kill him. They tried their best, and set many snares, but lie always escaped them.
One day he went to visit the house of a friend in the Ubium country. His host prepared "chop" and set it before him, with palm wine and all things necessary for the refreshment of an honoured guest. During the meal his enemies heard that he was within, so they sent a message to the owner of the compound, saying:
"For a long time we have wanted to kill this man but could never catch him. We beg you, therefore, to give him into our hands, and in return we will pay you a great sum."
The host said, "I agree, provided the amount you offer is large enough!" So they brought much money, whereon he said, "It is good. Do to him what you will."
Then the people surrounded the house and fastened the doors of the encircling fence so that Etuk might not escape them. When all was ready they called:
"Come out. We wish to ask you a word." He, however, answered, "No. If you have anything to say, it can be said while I am within." The people replied, "You must come out." Then when they found that he would not do this, they tried to force in the door and fall upon him.
On that Etuk drew out a sharp machet which was hidden beneath his gown, and springing through the door shut it suddenly behind him, and stood facing his foes. So unexpected was his appearance, and so
fierce his blows, that momentarily the people all gave way before him. At a glance he saw that the gates were barred, so, as he was an excellent climber, before anyone could stop him, he sprang upon the mud wall of the veranda and thence to the roof. Along this he rushed till he came to a place where the building was very near the fence, cleared this at a bound, and alighted safely on the other side. Then he ran for his life toward the bush, crying out, "If you want me, follow me now!"
It was some time before those within the enclosure could unbar the gate which they themselves had so carefully fastened, and by the time this was done Etuk had disappeared.
All day he hid, but after nightfall managed to reach his home unnoticed. There he said to his mother:
"To-day I went to a house in the Ubium country, whither the townsmen followed to kill me. I was very sorry for myself and also for you, because you are my mother and, unless I am killed, you will probably die before me. In that case it would be my duty to bury you. Now that they want to kill me so soon I fear that you may be left with no grown-up son to perform the rites for you, since my brothers are still very young. I think, therefore, it is best, while there is yet time, to call all the townsfolk together and do that which is proper for a son to do for a dead mother."
To this the woman answered, "Do as you say, for the people want to kill you, and leave me alone in the world with no one to bury me when my time shall come."
Then Etuk sent one of his small brothers to summon the townsfolk. Goats, cows and much mimbo had been provided, together with everything necessary to do honour to a dead woman.
When all were assembled before the house Etuk said to his mother, "Go now and bathe." Then when the bath was finished he robed her as is done with a corpse. Afterwards he went outside and placed a chair for his mother, who sat thereon in the sight of all the people, as the dead are used to sit in state.
Next all the beasts were slaughtered, and Etuk Udaw took the blood and poured it out before the feet of his mother, as is customary for women who leave behind them a son of fitting age to carry out the burial rites. When this was finished he ordered the people to play the death play for his mother, and at the end bade her go back into the house while he addressed the company.
First he told them to keep silence for a while, and then asked:
"Do you know what I mean by dressing my mother like a dead woman and holding her burial rites while she is still alive?" They answered, "No, we cannot even guess, though we question much among our selves on this very matter." So he continued:
"You want to kill me, and should I die before her she would be left in the world without a son old enough to bury her properly when the time comes. Therefore I have done all this before you slay me, that everything may be performed in due order and she may not suffer in the Ghost Realm."
They answered, "We have drunk all this mimbo
and eaten these sacrifices to no purpose as it appears! Never have we seen such a thing as this!" So they went away, much amazed. Nevertheless, from that time they left the man in peace, and did not strive to harm him as they had before.
Not long afterwards one of the small brothers fell ill, so Etuk went to the Idiong man and asked the reason. The diviner consulted the oracle, and replied:
"It is because you have carried out the death rites of your mother, and the evil spirits grow impatient, watching for her to die. As she has not yet reached the ghost town, they are trying to take one of your young brothers."
On hearing this, Etuk went home and bought many medicines, he also offered sacrifices to save the boy, but in spite of all that was done the little one died.
The mother herself lived for many, many years. Indeed, it is only about four years since she went to the ghost town, but the son still lives, and has become head chief over all those who formerly wished to kill him, and he now sits as a "member," judging cases in the Eket Native Court.
230:1 A full description of the obsequies of Iboibo chiefs will be found in my husband's book, "By Haunted Waters." Only so much as directly concerns the women is attempted here.
230:2 Mr. W. W. Eakin, of the Kwa Ibo Mission.
231:1 We could learn no reason for this last, seemingly inconsequent, tabu.
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It may not be improper here to give the story which is the foundation of this poem, as it is handed down by tradition. Usnoth, lord of Etha, which is probably that part of Argyleshire which is near Loch Eta, an arm of the sea in Lorn, had three sons, Nathos, Althos, and Ardan, by Slissáma, the daughter of Semo, and sister to the celebrated Cuthullin. The three brothers, when very young, were sent over to Ireland by their father, to learn the use of arms under their uncle Cuthullin, who made a great figure in that kingdom. They were just landed in Ulster, when the news of Cuthullin's death arrived. Nathos, though very young, took the command of Cuthullin's army, made head against Cairbar the usurper, and defeated him in several battles. Cairbar at last, having found means to murder Cormac, the lawful king, the army of Nathos shifted sides, and he himself was obliged to return into Ulster, in order to pass over into Scotland.
Dar-thula, the daughter of Colla, with whom Cairbar was in love, resided at that time in Seláma, a castle in Ulster. She saw, fell in love, and fled with Nathos; but a storm rising at sea, they were unfortunately driven back on that part of the coast of Ulster, where Cairbar was encamped with his army. The three brothers, after having defended themselves for some time with great bravery, were overpowered and slain, and the unfortunate Dar-thula killed herself upon the body of her beloved Nathos. The poem opens, on the night preceding the death of the sons of Usnoth, and brings in, by way of episode, what passed before. it relates the death of Dar-thula differently from the common tradition. This account, is the most probable, as suicide seems to have been unknown in those early times, for no traces of it are found in the old poetry.
DAUGHTER of heaven, fair art thou! the silence of thy face is pleasant! Thou comest forth in loveliness. The stars attend thy blue course in the east. The clouds rejoice in thy presence, O moon! They brighten their dark-brown sides. Who is like thee in heaven, light of the silent night? The stars are shamed in thy presence. They turn away their sparkling eyes. Whither dost thou retire from thy
course when the darkness of thy countenance grows? Hast thou thy hall, like Ossian? Dwellest thou in the shadow of grief? Have thy sisters fallen from heaven? Are they who rejoiced with thee, at night, no more? Yes, they have fallen, fair light! and thou dost often retire to mourn. But thou thyself shalt fail one night and leave thy blue path in heaven. The stars will then lift their heads: they who were ashamed in thy presence, will rejoice. Thou art now clothed with thy brightness. Look from thy gates in the sky. Burst the cloud, O wind! that the daughters of night may look forth; that the shaggy mountains may brighten, and the ocean roll its white waves in light!
Nathos is on the deep, and Althos, that beam of youth! Ardan is near his brothers. They move in the gloom of their course. The sons of Usnoth move in darkness, from the wrath of Cairbar of Erin. Who is that, dim by their side? The night has covered her beauty! Her hair sighs on ocean's wind. Her robe streams in dusky wreaths. She is like the fair spirit of heaven in the midst of the shadowy mist. Who is it but Dar-thula, the first of Erin's maids? She has fled from the love of Cairbar, with blue-shielded Nathos. But the winds deceive thee, O Dar-thula! They deny the woody Etha to thy sails. These are not the mountains of Nathos; nor is that the roar of his climbing waves. The halls of Cairbar are near: the towers of the foe lift their heads! Erin stretches its green head into the sea. Tura's bay receives the ship. Where have ye been, ye southern Winds, when the sons of my love were deceived? But ye have been sporting on the plains, pursuing the thistle's beard. O that ye had been rustling in the sails of Nathos, till the hills of Etha arose! till they arose in their clouds, and saw their returning chief! Long hast thou been absent, Nathos! the day of thy return is past!
But the land of strangers saw thee lovely! thou wast lovely in the eyes of Dar-thula. Thy face was like the light of the morning. Thy hair like the raven's wing. Thy soul was generous and mild, like the hour of the setting sun. Thy words were the gale of the reeds; the gliding stream of Lora! But when the rage of battle rose, thou wast a sea in a storm. The clang of thy arms was terrible: the host vanished at the sound of thy course. It was then Dar-thula beheld thee, from the top of her mossy tower; from the tower of Seláma, where her fathers dwelt.
"Lovely art thou, O stranger!" she said, for her trembling soul arose. "Fair art thou in thy battles, friend of the fallen Cormac! Why dost thou rush on in thy valor, youth of the ruddy look? Few are thy hands in fight against the dark-brown Cairbar! O that I might be freed from his love, that I might rejoice in the presence of Nathos! Blest are the rocks of Etha! they will behold his steps at the chase; they will see his white bosom, when the winds lift his flowing hair!" Such were thy words, Dar-thula, in Seláma's mossy towers. But now the night is around thee. The winds have deceived thy sails---the winds have deceived thy sails, Dar-thula! Their blustering sound is high. Cease a little while, O north wind! Let me hear the voice of the lovely. Thy voice is lovely, Dar-thula, between the rustling blasts!
"Are these the rocks of Nathos?" she said, "this the roaring of his mountain streams? Comes that beam of light from Usnoth's nightly hall? The mist spreads around; the beam is feeble and distant far. But the light of Dar-thula's soul dwells in the chief of Etha! Son of the generous Usnoth, why that broken sigh? Are we in the land of strangers, chief of echoing Etha?"
"These are not the rocks of Nathos," he replied,
[paragraph continues] "nor this the roar of his stream. No light comes from Etha's hall, for they are distant far. We are in the land of strangers, in the land of cruel Cairbar. The winds have deceived us, Dar-thula. Erin lifts here her hills. Go towards the north, Althos: be thy steps, Ardan, along the coast; that the foe may not come in darkness, and our hopes of Etha fail. I will go towards that mossy tower, to see who dwells about the beam. Rest, Dar-thula, on the shore! rest in peace, thou lovely light! the sword of Nathos is around thee, like the lightning of heaven!"
He went. She sat alone: she heard the roiling of the wave. The big tear is in her eye. She looks for returning Nathos. Her soul trembles at the bast. She turns her ear towards the tread of his feet. The tread of his feet is not heard. "Where art thou, son of my love! The roar of the blast is around me. Dark is the cloudy night. But Nathos does not return. What detains thee, chief of Etha? Have the foes met the hero in the strife of the night?"
He returned; but his face was dark. He had seen his departed friend! it was the wall of Tura. The ghost of Cuthullin stalked there alone; the sighing of his breast was frequent. The decayed flame of his eyes was terrible! His spear was a column of mist. The stars looked dim through his form. His voice was like hollow wind in a cave: his eye a light seen afar. He told the tale of grief. The soul of Nathos was sad, like the sun in the day of mist, when his face watery and dim.
"Why art thou sad, O Nathos!" said the lovely daughter of Colla. "Thou art a pillow of light to Dar-thula. The joy of her eyes is in Etha's chief. Where is my friend, but Nathos? My father, my brother is fallen! Silence dwells on Seláma. Sadness spreads on the blue streams of my land. My friends
have fallen with Cormac. The mighty were slain in the battles of Erin. Hear, son of Usnoth! hear, O Nathos! my tale of grief.
"Evening darkened on the plain. The blue streams failed before mine eyes. The unfrequent blast came rustling in the tops of Seláma's groves. My seat was beneath a tree, on the walls of my fathers. Truthil past before my soul; the brother of my love: he that was absent in battle against the haughty Cairbar! Bending on his spear, the gray-haired Colla came. His downcast face is dark, and sorrow dwells in his soul. His sword is on the side of the hero; the helmet of his fathers on his head. The battle grows in his breast. He strives to hide the tear.
"'Dar-thula, my daughter,' he said, 'thou art the last of Colla's race! Truthil is fallen in battle. The chief of Seláma is no more! Cairbar comes, with his thousands, towards Seláma's walls. Colla will meet his pride, and revenge his son. But where shall I find thy safety, Dar-thula with the dark-brown hair! thou art lovely as the sunbeam of heaven, and thy friends are low!' 'Is the son of battle fallen?' I said, with a bursting sigh. 'Ceased the generous soul of Truthil to lighten through the field? My safety, Colla, is in that bow. I have learned to pierce the deer. Is not Cairbar like the hart of the desert, father of fallen Truthil?'
"The face of age brightened with joy. The crowded tears of his eyes poured down. The lips of Colla trembled. His gray beard whistled in the blast. 'Thou art the sister of Truthil,' he said; 'thou burnest in the fire of his soul. Take, Dar-thula, take that spear, that brazen shield, that burnished helm; they are the spoils of a warrior, a son of early youth! When the light rises on Seláma, we go to meet the car-borne Cairbar. But keep thou near the arm of Colla, beneath the shadow of my shield. Thy father,
[paragraph continues] Dar-thula, could once defend thee; but age is trembling On his hand. The strength of his arm has failed. His soul is darkened with grief.'
"We passed the night in sorrow. The light of morning rose. I shone in the arms of battle. The gray haired hero moved before. The sons of Seláma convened around the sounding shield of Colla. But few were they in the plain, and their locks were gray. The youths had fallen with Truthil, in the battle of car-borne Cormac. 'Friends of my youth,' said Colla, 'it was not thus you have seen me in arms. It was not thus I strode to battle when the great Confaden fell. But ye are laden with grief. The darkness of age comes like the mist of the desert. My shield is worn with years! my sword is fixed in its place! 1 I said to my soul, Thy evening shall be calm; thy departure like a fading light. But the storm has returned. I bend like an aged oak. My boughs are fallen on Seláma. I tremble in my place. Where art thou, with thy fallen heroes, O my beloved Truthil! Thou answerest not from thy rushing blast. The soul of thy father is sad. But I will be sad no more! Cairbar or Colla must fall! I feel the returning strength of my arm. My heart leaps at the sound of war.'
"The hero drew his sword. The gleaming blades of his people rose. They moved along the plain. Their gray hair streamed in the wind. Cairbar sat at the feast, in the silent plain of Lena. He saw the coming of the heroes. He called his chiefs to war. Why should I tell to Nathos how the strife of battle grew? I have seen thee in the midst of thousands, like
the beam of heaven's fire: it is beautiful, but terrible; the people fall in its dreadful course. The spear of Colla flew. He remembered the battles of his youth. An arrow came with its sound. It pierced the hero's side. He fell on his echoing shield. My soul started with fear. I stretched my buckler over him: but my heaving breast was seen! Cairbar came with his spear. He beheld Seláma's maid. Joy rose on his dark-brown Taco. He stayed his lifted steel. He raised the tomb of Colla. He brought me weeping to Seláma. He spoke the words of love, but my soul was sad. I saw the shields of my fathers; the sword of car-borne Truthil. I saw the arms of the dead; the tear was on my cheek! Then thou didst come, O Nathos! and gloomy Cairbar fled. He fled like the ghost of the desert before the morning's beam. His host was not near; and feeble was his arm against thy steel! Why art thou sad, O Nathos?" said the lovely daughter of Colla.
"I have met," replied the hero, "the battle in my youth. My arm could not lift the spear when danger first arose. My soul brightened in the presence of war, as the green narrow vale, when the sun pours his streamy beams, before he hides his head in a storm. The lonely traveller feels a mournful joy. He sees the darkness that slowly comes. My soul brightened in danger before I saw Seláma's fair; before I saw thee, like a star that shines on the hill at night; the cloud advances, and threatens the lovely light! We are in the land of foes. The winds have deceived us, Dar-thula! The strength of our friends is not near, nor the mountains of Etha. Where shall I find thy peace, daughter of mighty Colla! The brothers of Nathos are brave, and his own sword has shone in fight. But what are the sons of Usnoth to the host of dark-brown Cairbar! O that the winds had brought thy sails, Oscar king of men! Thou didst promise to come to the battles
of fallen Cormac! Then would my hand be strong as the flaming arm of death. Cairbar would tremble in his halls, and peace dwell round the lovely Dar-thula. But why dost thou fall, my soul? The sons of Usnoth may prevail!"
"And they will prevail, O Nathos!" said the rising soul of the maid. "Never shall Dar-thula behold the halls of gloomy Cairbar. Give me those arms of brass, that glitter to the passing meteor. I see them dimly in the dark-bosomed ship. Dar-thula will enter the battles of steel. Ghost of the noble Colla! do I behold thee on that cloud! Who is that dim beside thee? Is it the car-borne Truthil? Shall I behold the halls of him that slew Seláma's chief? No: I will not behold them, spirits of my love!"
Joy rose in the face of Nathos when he heard the white-bosomed maid. "Daughter of Seláma! thou shinest along my soul. Come, with thy thousands, Cairbar! the strength of Nathos is returned! Thou O aged Usnoth! shalt not hear that thy son has fled. I remembered thy words on Etha, when my sails began to rise: when I spread them towards Erin, towards the mossy walls of Tura! 'Thou goest,' he said, 'O Nathos, to the king of shields! Thou goest to Cuthullin, chief of men, who never fled from danger. Let not thine arm be feeble: neither be thy thoughts of flight; lest the son of Semo should say that Etha's race are weak. His words may come to Usnoth, and sadden his soul in the hall.' The tear was on my father's cheek. He gave this shining sword!
"I came to Tura's bay; but the halls of Tara were silent. I looked around, and there was none to tell of the son of generous Semo. I went to the hall of shells, where the arms of his fathers hung. But the arms were gone, and aged Lamhor sat in tears. 'Whence are the arms of steel?' said the rising Lamhor. 'The
light of the spear has long been absent from Tura's dusky walls. Come ye from the rolling sea? or from Temora's mournful halls?'
"'We come from the sea,' I said, 'from Usnoth's rising towers. We are the sons of Slissáma, the daughter of car-borne Semo. Where is Tura's chief, son of the silent hall? But why should Nathos ask? for I behold thy tears. How did the mighty fall, son of the lonely Tura?' 'He fell not,' Lamhor replied, 'like the silent star of night, when it flies through darkness and is no more. But he was like a meteor that shoots into a distant land. Death attends its dreary course. Itself is the sign of wars. Mournful are the banks of Lego; and the roar of streamy Lara! There the hero fell, son of the noble Usnoth!' 'The hero fell in the midst of slaughter,' I said with a bursting sigh. 'His hand was strong in war. Death dimly sat behind his sword.'
"We came to Lego's sounding banks. We found his rising tomb. His friends in battle are there: his bards of many songs. Three days we mourned over the hero: on the fourth I struck the shield of Caithbat. The heroes gathered around with joy, and shook their beamy spears. Corlath was near with his host, the friend of car-borne Cairbar. We came like a stream by night. His heroes fell before us. When the people of the valley rose, they saw their blood with morning's light. But we rolled away, like wreaths of mist, to Cormac's echoing hall. Our swords rose to defend the king. But Temora's halls were empty. Cormac had fallen in his youth. The king of Erin was no more!
"Sadness seized the sons of Erin. They slowly gloomily retired: like clouds that long having threatened rain, vanish behind the hills. The sons of Usnoth moved, in their grief, towards Tura's sounding
bay. We passed by Seláma. Cairbar retired like Lena's mist, when driven before the winds. It was then I beheld thee, O Dar-thula! like the light of Etha's sun. 'Lovely is that beam!' I said. The crowded sigh of my bosom rose. Thou camest in thy beauty, Dar-thula, to Etha's mournful chief. But the winds have deceived us, daughter of Colla, and the foe is near!"
"Yes, the foe is near," said the rushing strength of Althos." I heard their clanging arms on the coast. I saw the dark wreaths of Erin's standard. Distinct is the voice of Cairbar; loud as Cromla's falling stream. He had seen the dark ship on the sea, before the dusky night came down. His people watch on Lena's plain. They lift ten thousand swords." "And let them lift ten thousand swords," said Nathos with a smile." The sons of car-borne Usnoth will never tremble in danger! Why dost thou roll with all thy foam, thou roaring sea of Erin? Why do ye rustle on your dark wings, ye whistling storms of the sky? Do ye think, ye storms, that ye keep Nathos on the coast? No: his soul detains him, children of the night! Althos, bring my father's arms: thou seest them beaming to the stars. Bring the spear of Semo. It stands in the dark-bosomed ship!"
He brought the arms. Nathos covered his limbs in all their shining steel. The stride of the chief is lovely. The joy of his eyes was terrible. He looks towards the coming of Cairbar. The wind is rustling in his hair. Dar-thula is silent at his side. Her look is fixed on the chief. She strives to hide the rising sigh. Two tears swell in her radiant eyes!
"Althos!" said the child of Etha, "I see a cave in that rock. Place Dar-thula there. Let thy arm, my brother, be strong. Ardan! we meet the foe; call to battle gloomy Cairbar. O that he came in his sounding
steel, to meet the son of Usnoth! Dar-thula, if thou shalt escape, look not on the fallen Nathos! Lift thy sails, O Althos! towards the echoing groves of my land.
"Tell the chief that his son fell with fame; that my sword did not shun the fight. Tell him I fell in the midst of thousands. Let the joy of his grief be great. Daughter of Colla! call the maids to Etha's echoing hall! Let their songs arise for Nathos, when shadowy autumn returns. O that the voice of Cona, that Ossian might be heard in my praise! then would my spirit rejoice in the midst of the rushing winds." "And my voice shall praise thee, Nathos, chief of the woody Etha! The voice of Ossian shall rise in thy praise, son of the generous Usnoth! Why was I not on Lena when the battle rose? Then would the sword of Ossian defend thee, or himself fall low!"
We sat that night in Selma, round the strength of the shell. The wind was abroad in the oaks. The spirit of the mountain 1 roared. The blast came rustling through the hall, and gently touched my harp. The sound was mournful and low, like the song of the tomb. Fingal heard it the first. The crowded sighs of his bosom rose. "Some of my heroes are low," said the gray-haired king of Morven. "I hear the sound of death on the harp. Ossian, touch the trembling string. Bid the sorrow rise, that their spirits may fly with joy to Morven's woody hills!" I touched the harp before the king; the sound was mournful and low. "Bend forward from your clouds," I said, "ghosts of my fathers! bend. Lay by the red terror of your course. Receive the fallen chief; whether he comes from a distant land, or rises from the rolling sea.
[paragraph continues] Let his robe of mist be near; his spear that is formed of a cloud. Place an half-extinguished meteor by his side, in the form of the hero's sword. And, oh! let his countenance be lovely, that his friends may delight in his presence. Bend from your clouds," I said, "ghosts of my fathers! bend!"
Such was my song in Selma, to the lightly-trembling harp. But Nathos was on Erin's shore, surrounded by the night. He heard the voice of the foe, amidst the roar of tumbling waves. Silent he heard their voice, and rested on his spear! Morning rose, with its beams. The sons of Erin appear: like gray rocks, with all their trees, they spread along the coast. Cairbar stood in the midst. He grimly smiled when he saw the foe. Nathos rushed forward in his strength: nor could Dar-thula stay behind. She came with the hero, lifting her shining spear. "And who are these, in their armor, in the pride of youth? Who but the sons of Usnoth, Althos and dark-haired Ardan?"
"Come," said Nathos, "come, chief of high Temora! Let our battle be on the coast, for the white bosomed maid. His people are not with Nathos: they are behind these rolling seas. Why dost thou bring thy thousands against the chief of Etha? Thou didst fly from him in battle, when his friends were around his spear." "Youth of the heart of pride, shall Erin's king fight with thee? Thy fathers were not among the renowned, nor of the kings of men. Are the arms of foes in their halls? or the shields of other times? Cairbar is renowned in Temora, nor does he fight with feeble men
The tear started from car-borne Nathos. He turned his eyes to his brothers. Their spears flew at once. Three heroes lay on earth. Then the light of their swords gleamed on high. The ranks of Erin yield, as a ridge of dark clouds before a blast of wind! Then
[paragraph continues] Cairbar ordered his people, and they drew a thousand bows. A thousand arrows flew. The sons of Usnoth fell in blood. They fell like three young oaks, which stood alone on the hill: the traveller saw the lovely trees, and wondered how they grew so lonely: the blast of the desert came by night, and laid their green heads low. Next day he returned, but they were withered, and the heath was bare!
Dar-thula stood in silent grief, and beheld their fall! No tear is in her eye. But her look is wildly sad. Pale was her cheek. Her trembling lips broke short an half-formed word. Her dark hair flew on wind. The gloomy Cairbar came. "Where is thy lover now? the car-borne chief of Etha? Hast thou beheld the halls of Usnoth? or the dark-brown hills of Fingal? My battle would have roared on Morven, had not the winds met Dar-thula. Fingal himself would have been low, and sorrow dwelling in Selma!" Her shield fell from Dar-thula's arm. Her breast of snow appeared. It appeared; but it was stained with blood. An arrow was fixed in her side. She fell on the fallen Nathos, like a wreath of snow! Her hair spreads wide on his face. Their blood is mixing round!
"Daughter of Colla! thou art low!" said Cairbar's hundred bards. "Silence is at the blue streams of Seláma. Truthil's race have failed. When wilt thou rise in thy beauty, first of Erin's maids? Thy sleep is long in the tomb. The morning distant far. The sun shall not come to thy bed and say, Awake, Dar-thula! awake, thou first of women! the wind of spring is abroad. The flowers shake their heads on the green hills. The woods wave their growing leaves. Retire, O sun! the daughter of Colla is asleep. She will not come forth in her beauty. She will not move in the steps of her loveliness."
Such was the song of the bards, when they raised the tomb. I sung over the grave, when the king of Morven came: when he came to green Erin to fight with car-borne Cairbar!
374:1 It was the custom of ancient times, that every warrior, at a certain age, or when he became unfit for the field, fixed his arms in the great hall, where the tribes feasted upon joyful occasions. He was afterward never to appear in battle; and this stage of life was called "the time of fixing the arms."
379:1 By the spirit of the mountain, is meant that deep and melancholy sound which precedes a storm, well known to those who live in a high country.
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What the above painting shows? A road through a grassland, a distant church and nothing much.This is “Vladimirka” by Russian painter Issac Levitan.
Vladimirka is the way from Muskova (Moscow) to Vladimir since the middle ages and later became the part of the road to Siberia and that’s what makes it important and interesting.
Siberia, the Wild East of Russia, long stretches of grass, marsh and forest, extreme climates in both summer and winter.
So this is the road trodden by generations of fortune seekers, adventurers,convicts, exiled political prisoners who made the establishment unhappy, all who does not fit well into the mould of the prevalent social structure.
This is the road curved out in this wilderness by the feet of these misfits.
This painting is a hint to that history, where core subject is missing and needs to be felt through your knowledge of the past
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Most avian plumage colors are the result of different types of pigments that are deposited into feathers while they are regrowing after moult. However, pigments alone do not produce all avian feather colors. Blues, such as those seen in hyacinthine macaws, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, and white, such as the snowy color of Bali mynahs, Leucopsar rothschildi, typically result from small changes in feather structure that alters their light reflective properties. These fundamental modifications cause violet and blue light to be selectively reflected from the feather surface in the case of violet/blue feathers, while white feathers reflect all visible light. In short, violets, blues and whites are structural colors, or schemochromes.
Visible light is composed of many colors of light, each with distinct wavelengths. Red light, for example, has a long wavelength (~700nm) while violet and blue light (which I shall refer to as blue light throughout the remainder of this essay) has a much shorter wavelength (~400nm). When visible light encounters particles with the same or larger diameter than its component wavelengths, those specific light photons are reflected. For example, particles that are 400nm or slightly larger will selectively reflect blue light photons, while allowing other light photons to pass by. Some of these reflected light photons are collected and thus seen by an observer’s eye, thereby adding color to the perceived image.
Because blue light has very short wavelengths, it is reflected more easily than other colors of light with longer wavelengths. This was first understood in 1869, when scientist John Tyndall noted that miniscule particles in earth’s atmosphere preferentially scattered blue light resulting in the familiar “sky blue” of a clear summer day. Shortly afterward, Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt) demonstrated that Tyndall’s “fine particles” are actually individual gas molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, specifically, nitrogen and oxygen. In feathers, preferential scattering of light by small air cavities or keratin particles overlying a dark melanin layer results in blue coloring. The other colors of light are absorbed by the melanin layer, intensifying the color. Blue plumage color is often referred to as a “Tyndall blue” structural color.
Tyndall scattering can be demonstrated at home using a simple experiment to produce a pale Tyndall blue color. First, mix one or two drops of milk into a glass of water then place this glass in a dark room and focus a flashlight upon it. The fluid will appear bluish. This bluish color results from blue light bouncing off milk particles suspended in the water while other, longer, light wavelengths pass unobstructed through the fluid. Of course, milk has some larger diameter particles in it that also reflect light wavelengths that are slightly longer than blue, thereby contaminating the pure “Tyndall” blue color.
Like the above described milk experiment, blue colors in the plumage of most bird species results from preferential scattering of blue light by feather structure. For example, when a blue feather is observed under a powerful microscope, the surface layer of keratin appears cloudy or milky due to the presence of small air cavities. Keratin is the proteinaceous connective tissue that feathers, hair and nails are comprised of. A cross-section of a feather reveals an underlying layer of melanin granules and tiny air pockets in the middle of the feather barb. These small air cavities act like tiny particles by selectively scattering blue light while dark-colored melanin granules absorb longer wavelengths of light, intensifying the blue color.
In contrast, structural differences are immediately obvious when a red feather, which derives its color from red pigments, is viewed under the same microscope. The surface of a red feather is transparent and colorless while the underlying structures are filled with red pigment granules that reflect only red light.
Further, differences between structural and pigment colors can be easily demonstrated using several simple experiments. Because structural color is entirely dependent upon reflective structure, a blue feather becomes dark when it is ground into a powder. However, a red or yellow feather will retain its original color when subjected to the same treatment because the pigments are not damaged even though the feather structure was destroyed.
Pigments can also be removed, or “extracted”, from a feather. When a red or yellow feather is ground up and placed into an appropriate solvent, the pigment granules will dissolve into the solvent (McGraw et al. 2005). Interestingly, blue feathers can also lose their coloring when placed into certain types of liquids (you can also rub this liquid onto the surface of a feather instead of submerging it). However, this depends upon the liquid’s optical density instead of its ability to leach pigments out of the feather’s structure. One such liquid, Cresol (Sigma, St Louis, MI), causes a blue feather to become dark because it fills the air cavities in the feather structure. Because it has a refractive index that is nearly identical to that of keratin, it prevents reflection of blue light. However, the Cresol doesn’t turn blue and, after the feather is dried, its lovely blue color returns.
The physical phenomena that generate structural blue colors are similar, but not identical to, those that produce iridescent colors, such as those seen in magpies and on the head of a male mallard duck. Iridescent feathers get their color from interference, which is due to waves of light interacting with each other to produce either constructive reinforcement or destructive cancellation of particular wavelengths, or colors.
(a) Two sources close to each other and oscillating in phase emit two waves that are everywhere in phase, and thus interfere constructively. (b) Two close, out-of-phase sources emit waves that interfere destructively everywhere. (taken from Seeing the Light by D. Falk, D. Brill, and D. Stork (J. Wiley, New York, 1986).)
For example, even though oils are colorless, a thin film of oil on water produce a rainbow of brilliant colors due to this light interference phenomena. These colors are referred to as thin film interference colors. Similarly, iridescent feathers often appear to be very bright and colorful when compared to a structural blue feather viewed under the same light. But unlike iridescent feathers, blue feathers remain blue to the observer when the feather is rotated in relation to the light source whereas the coloring of iridescent feathers varies and then becomes black as the angle of the light shifts. But both iridescent and blue feathers will appear dark when placed directly between the light source and the observer because light cannot be reflected from the feather surface into the observer’s eye.
Bali mynah or Bali Starling, Leucopsar rothschildi,
one of the rarest birds in the world.
Image: Bali Children’s Project.
White plumage, such as that seen in the Bali mynah, Leucopsar rothschildi, is also a structural feather color. White plumage relies upon the same principles described for blue feathers, except that white is produced when all wavelengths of light are reflected by the feather. A white feather also shows interesting structural characteristics when viewed under a powerful microscope. The surface structure of a white feather appears crystalline, resembling cut glass or snow — clearly capable of reflecting all visible light. White feathers also contain many air cavities in the feather barbs that increase the total reflection of all spectrums of visible light. As previously described, both melanin granules and air pockets are found in the middle of blue feathers; but predictably, white feathers lack melanin and they contain many more air cavities. This lack of underlying melanin granules can be easily demonstrated because a lustrous white feather becomes transparent when immersed in balsam.
Fischer’s Turaco, Tauraco fischeri.
Image: Daph Chloe [larger view].
Unique among all bird families are the turacos (Family: Musophagidae) because they alone produce their own special green pigment. This pigment is known as turacoverdin in honor of the birds that produce it. All other bird species make green feathers by relying on a combination of both structural and pigment colors. Basically, the feather retains its blue-reflecting structures but embedded within its keratin structure are either yellow carotenoids (producing pure bright greens) or yellow carotenoids combined with melanins (producing darker olive greens). Thus, it is possible to produce either blue, yellow or white plumage color variants from green parent birds. This happens when a bird experiences loss of its genetic ability to either produce yellow pigments or to grow feathers with blue-reflecting structures or both simultaneously — a fact that has provided thousands of bird breeders with many decades of pleasure.
Surprisingly, despite humanity’s deep appreciation for colors, especially violet and blue, there remain many questions yet to be answered about colors in animals. For example, why don’t birds routinely produce blue pigments? Why is blue such a rare color in animals? What is the evolutionary significance underlying this general lack of blue pigments among birds and other animals?
Richard O. Prum, Rodolfo H. Torres, Scott Williamson and Jan Dyck. (1998). Coherent light scattering by blue feather barbs. Nature 396:28-29 | doi:10.1038/23838) [PDF]
Kevin J. McGraw, Jocelyn Hudon, Geoffrey E. Hill, and Robert S. Parker. (2005). A simple and inexpensive chemical test for behavioral ecologists to determine the presence of carotenoid pigments in animal tissues. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 57:391-397 | doi 10.1007/s00265-004-0853-y).
A. A. Voitkevich. The Feathers and Plumage of Birds. (London: Sidgwick & Jackson; 1966).
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It’s been a while since we’ve had any good, solid physics content here, and I feel a little guilty about that. So here’s some high-quality (I hope) physics blogging, dealing with two recent(ish) papers from Chris Monroe’s group at the University of Maryland. The first is titled “Bell Inequality Violation with Two Remote Atomic Qubits” (and a free version can be found on the Arxiv); the second is “Quantum Teleportation Between Distant Matter Qubits” (and isn’t available on the arxiv because it’s in Science, but you can get it from their web site). Both of these deal with the physics of entanglement, the “spooky action at a distance” of the famous Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen paper.
The idea of entanglement is that two quantum systems can have their states correlated in ways that no classical system can match. If you prepare two atoms in an entangled quantum state, measuring the state of one of them instantaneously and absolutely determines the state of the other. The state of either atom prior to the measurement is indeterminate– it can be in one of two states, but is not definitely in either– but the states of the two together are correlated– if one atoms is found to be in State 1, the other will always be found in State 2, and vice versa.
Once you have that, you can use the entangled state to show conclusively that quantum mechanics is a non-local theory (that’s the “Bell Inequality” paper), or you can use the fact that the two states are entangled to transfer quantum information from one to the other, through “quantum teleportation” (the second paper). These two papers showcase the aspects of entanglement that make it just about the coolest thing in modern physics: first, the utter weirdness of non-local quantum states, and second, the fact that these non-local states can be used to do useful tricks.
Of course, before you can do either a Bell inequality experiment or a quantum teleportation experiment, you need to somehow entangle the states of two atoms. That turns out to be a tricky business, and is the main reason why we don’t see these sorts of effects all the time. The Monroe group has used a neat trick from quantum optics to entangle the states of two different ytterbium ions held in two different vacuum chambers essentially by accident. They just coax the ions into emitting photons, direct those photons onto a beamsplitter (as shown below), and 25% of the time, the ions end up with their states entangled.
The figure above is taken from Fig. 1 of the first paper linked above, and shows the two different correlation experiments that they do to demonstrate the entanglement. The left-hand part, part a), shows how they establish that the state of the ion is correlated with the light that it emits, by collecting an emitted photon into an optical fiber, measuring its polarization, and then measuring the state that the ion is in.
The key to this trick is that the basic principle of atomic physics (ions are just atoms stripped of one of their electrons) establish certain “selection rules” determining what sort of transitions those atoms can undergo, and what sort of light they absorb or emit along the way. The details are kind of technical, but the essential idea is that an atom or ion placed in a high-energy state can drop down to one of two different lower-energy states, emitting a photon in the process. Which state the atom ends up in depends on the polarization of the light emitted, so if you measure the light to have, say, vertical polarization, you know that the atom ended up in State 1, and if you measure horizontal polarization, you know that the atom ended up in State 2.
Of course, quantum mechanics complicates everything, and it turns out that prior to a measurement of the photon polarization or the atomic state, neither of those things is defined. The atom is equally likely to be in State 1 or State 2, and the photon is equally likely to be either horizontal or vertical. Until you measure one or the other, both are in an indeterminate state of both possible outcomes at the same time. When you finally measure them, they’ll always end up correlated, but until you measure them, they don’t have well-defined values.
That allows you to establish entanglement between the polarization of one photon and the state of the ion that emitted it. How does this help you establish entanglement between two different ions, though? that’s the right-hand side of the figure, part b). The trick is simple: you take two ions in two traps, collect the light from each, and direct those two photons not onto a detector, but onto a 50-50 beamsplitter that is equally likely to transmit or reflect the photons. You line the beamsplitter up so that the transmitted photons from one ion follow the same path as the reflected photons from the other (and vice versa). Then you put one detector in each of the output ports of the beamsplitter, and look for photons (without measuring their polarization).
How does this help? Well, to understand how this leads to entanglement, you need to think carefully about what happens when two photons arrive at the beamsplitter at the same time. There are four possible outcomes: both photons can go to Detector 1; both photons can go to Detector 2; both photons can reflect off the beamsplitter, giving one photon at each detector; or both photons can be transmitted through the beamsplitter, again giving one photon at each detector. You might think that these four would be equally likely, so there would be a 50% chance of detecting two photons at the same detector and a 50% chance of detecting one photon at each detector, but you’d be wrong. In fact, there’s only a 25% chance of finding one photon at each detector, and a 75% chance of finding two photons at the same detector.
This happens because of the quantum character of photons when you include the polarization. Photons are in the class of particles known as bosons, which for our purposes just means that they like to be in the same state– that is, with the same polarization, traveling in the same direction. When two photons of the same polarization hit a beamsplitter at the same instant, they will always leave together– one will be reflected, and the other transmitted. In the ion experiments done in the Monroe group, this happens half of the time.
When the two photons arriving at the beamsplitter have different polarizations, they don’t have any effect on each other, in terms of how they depart. Each photon is equally likely to be reflected or transmitted, meaning that half of the pairs of photons with different polarization will end up leaving together, while the other half split. But the photons only arrive with opposite polarizations half of the time, and the pairs with the same polarization always leave together, meaning that only one half of one half of the incoming pairs of photons will leave and fall on separate detectors.
Notice, though, that I didn’t say what the polarizations were, just that they were the same or different. The polarization might be vertical, or it might be horizontal– there’s no way to tell without measuring it, and we didn’t do anything to determine the polarization of the photons. That means that the polarization is still indeterminate– when we detect one photon at each detector, we don’t know if the photons were horizontal or vertical, but we know that the operation of the beamsplitter guarantees that they were opposite– if we had measured one to be vertical, the other would be horizontal, and vice versa. That’s an entangled state– the photons are neither definitely horizontal nor definitely vertical, but we know that they’re different.
If we back up a step, though, we know that the sources of those photons were ions, and that the state of the ions was entangled with the state of the photons– that is, if we measured Ion 1 to be in State 1, we know that the photon it emitted was vertically polarized. So the ions were entangled with the photons, and the beamsplitter entangled the two photons with each other.
This means that now the ions are entangled with each other. If we measure Ion 1 to be in State 1, we know that the photon it emitted must have been vertically polarized. But we know that the photon emitted by Ion 2 must have had the opposite polarization, which in turn means that Ion 2 must be in State 2.
So, by collecting the light emitted by two trapped ions in two different traps separated by about a meter, and letting that fall on a beamsplitter, the Monroe group can establish a quantum correlation between the state of the two ions, without the ions themselves coming in contact with one another, or exchanging photons directly. And this happens more or less by accident– they set up the experiment, let the photons fall where they may, and 25% of the time, they get entangled ions. And, more importantly, they know that they have entangled the two ions– when both photon detectors record a photon, they know that the ions are in opposite states, even though the exact states of the ions remain indeterminate.
This entanglement allows them to demonstrate fundamental quantum effects, first showing that the correlation between the states of the ions is stronger than can be achieved with photons of definite states (the Bell inequality measurement). The experiment is essentially the same as the Aspect experiments (described with bonus bloggy infighting!), and shows a respectable three-and-a-bit standard deviation difference from the classical prediction. They can also use this system to do quantum teleportation by preparing Ion 1 in a particular state, and then moving that state to Ion 2 using the entanglement as a resource. They successfully “teleport” the state 90% of the time, exceeding the classical limit of 2/3 by a large margin.
Of course, you may be saying to yourself “Sure, it’s cool that they can do all this with no real effort, but isn’t this accidental entanglement an awfully inefficient way to do things?” You’d be right– they only collect a small fraction of the emitted photons, and when they do get both photons, they only get the right entangled state 25% of the time, and then there are transmission losses and detector efficiencies, and all sorts of other factors. In the Bell inequality paper, they manage to produce an entangled pair once every 39 seconds or so, while in the teleportation experiment, they accomplish the teleportation about once every 12 minutes (the teleportation scheme is a lot more complicated, making the efficiency worse). They’re not exactly going to realize the full promise of quantum information processing with a millibit-per-second data transfer rate.
There are a few tricks they can pull to increase the success rate, and make the overall system more efficient. For now, though, this is just good enough for demonstrating and exploring the weirdness of quantum physics. But really, isn’t that cool enough?
(Looking at the Monroe group’s web page, I see that there’s a third paper using the same system, this one demonstrating quantum gate operations. I haven’t have a chance to read it, though. Maybe that’ll be the next ResearchBlogging post…)
Matsukevich, D., Maunz, P., Moehring, D., Olmschenk, S., & Monroe, C. (2008). Bell Inequality Violation with Two Remote Atomic Qubits Physical Review Letters, 100 (15) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.150404
Kim, M., & Cho, J. (2009). PHYSICS: Teleporting a Quantum State to Distant Matter Science, 323 (5913), 469-470 DOI: 10.1126/science.1169279
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On the U.S.-Canadian border, Passamaquoddy, Maine, was a major port of arrival for immigrants from Great Britain. Many of them first landed at New Brunswick and Nova Scotia before continuing to the United States. The deep waters of Passamaquoddy Bay, an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, afforded excellent anchorages. Campobello Island, in New Brunswick, was a favorite vacation place for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other large islands are Deer Island, N.B., and Moose Island, site of Eastport, Maine.
Among the passengers on this list were the great ornithologist John James Audubon and his son James W. Audubon, returning from a stay in England, in the summer of 1833.
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Hard disks manage the base-level media format that includes sectors and tracks. All the physical characteristics involved in reading and writing data are managed by the disk drives, also by tape drives by the way. The disk drive manages the bulk data structures -- in other words the way data is addressed.
Think about it this way: When you partition a disk, there has to be some way of knowing what is there to partition -- the disk drive provides that low level capability. The disk drive also keeps track of bad areas on disk and has the ability to provide substitute areas on media when others become unreliable. This is part of logical block addressing (LBA) in disk drives and it's why host algorithms to manipulate access by block location do not necessarily work any more.
Editor's note: Do you agree with this expert's response? If you have more to share, post it in one of our .bphAaR2qhqA^0@/searchstorage>discussion forums.
This was first published in September 2002
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View Sample Pages Powerful Vocabulary for Reading Success is the first vocabulary program to offer you a systematic, teacher-directed approach to improving your students’ reading achievement—in just 15 minutes a day!
This unique program is: • Research-Based • Developed based on research that is proven effective for all students. • Aligns to the State Standards for Vocabulary Development • Explicit and Comprehensive
This easy-to-manage, complete instructional program models effective word learning and gives multiple exposures to hundreds of important words to ensure mastery.
Strategy Based: Teaches word learning principles and strategies together to increase vocabulary rapidly and to make vocabulary learning an on-going, cumulative process.
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A powerful combination for ensuring higher test scores! 445 pages.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader® software, version 4.0 or higher, to view and print the sample page above. Get Adobe Reader® for FREE.
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(Reuters) – A major international conference on AIDS starts in Vienna on July 18, when thousands of scientists, health workers, activists, and government officials will gather to discuss the latest advances against the disease.
There are many drugs to treat HIV and prevention and measures have been deployed try to stop its spread, but so far there is no vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.
However, this year’s meeting comes as optimism among scientists about the prospect of developing vaccine is at its highest for a decade.
Here are some facts about the search for an AIDS vaccine, and some of the recent developments in the field:
* The AIDS virus is difficult to fight in part because it attacks immune system cells and in part because it is constantly mutating, making it a constantly moving target
* Researchers have been looking for parts of the virus that do not mutate so they can design vaccines that will protect against these constantly changing versions.
* In July 2010, researchers in the United States discovered antibodies that can protect against a wide range of AIDS viruses and said they may be able to use them to design a vaccine.
* In September 2009, researchers reported their biggest success yet with a vaccine that appeared to slow the rate of infection by about 30 percent in Thai volunteers, but the researchers have since described the effect as “weak” and “modest.” The vaccine is a combination of Sanofi-Aventis ALVAC canary pox vaccine and the failed HIV vaccine AIDSVAX, made by VaxGen and owned by a non-profit group called Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.
* Also in September 2009, U.S. scientists said they had found two antibodies against HIV, called PG9 and PG16, which are known as broad neutralizing antibodies and can block the ability of a relatively large number of HIV variants to infect cells.
* There are currently around 100 clinical trials of potential AIDS vaccines going on around the world, but many of them are in the very earliest stages.
* Even a vaccine that is not 100 percent effective or is not given to 100 percent of at-risk populations could have significant benefits. According to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a vaccine that is 50 percent effective and given to just 30 percent of the population could cut the number of new HIV infections in developing countries by 24 percent over 15 years.
* SOURCES: Reuters, IAVI
(Writing by Kate Kelland, editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
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Nigeria’s worst oil spill in a decade of over 40,000 barrels at its Bonga oil field is set to cost the beleaguered Nigerian economy further billions.
Bonga was discovered in 1993, first oil in 2004, and cost $3.6 billion constructed by Samsung 120km offshore in deepwater. Bonga’s target was to produce 225,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. It is operated by SNEPCo – 55% on behalf of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC). SNEPCo has a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with Esso 20%; Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) 12.5% and Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited 12.5%.
Nigeria’s production has fallen at Bonga and a serious of other minor spills including at Shell’s $1.1 billion Nembe Creek Trunkline – mostly attributed to “vandalism” – is causing increased political tension and slimmer government coffers at a time of national angst at fuel subsidy withdrawal compounding the international economic slowdown.
At this time, the total costs are unclear, but there is strong evidence that it is directly impacting fisherman, and has doubled the price of fish at markets. Coupled with other economic turmoil in Nigeria, a tightening of environmental governance is vital to restore belief that the resource curse can be beaten.
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Solar flares are huge releases of energy in the Solar atmosphere, thought to be caused by the magnetic energy freed during a physical process known as magnetic reconnection. In magnetic reconnection, magnetic field lines (which emerge from the photosphere - the Sun's 'surface') break and reconnect with neighbouring lines, releasing the vast amounts of energy observed in the chromosphere.
This energy heats the surrounding plasma, and has the effect of brightening the plasma at the ends of the field lines in the chromosphere. UV radiation can be emitted as can x-rays. My research project is looking into an aspect of the energetics of magnetic reconnection:
Two ribbon flares are flares in which 'ribbons' of emission can be observed, usually in the UV region of the EM spectrum. These ribbons can be seen to evolve spatially as the flare proceeds However, if the same flare is observed in Hard X-Rays (HXRs), these ribbons are not observed. Instead, the HXR sources appear as kernels or footpoints in the chromosphere.
I will be analysing the 15th Jan 2005 two-ribbon flare (an X2.6 Class flare) using UV 1600Å TRACE images, and the SOHO MDI Magnetogram of the region to compute several physical properties of the magnetic reconnection process. I will then compare these results to the HXR analysis performed by Prof. Jiong Qiu and Dr J. Cheng, which were obtained from RHESSI data.
By comparing the UV and HXR analysis, conclusions can be drawn regarding the heating process at work as the flare occurs. Specifically, I will be measuring the reconnection rate of the flare as time progresses and comparing these to the light curves of the data. I will then look at the change in parallel distance along the Polarity Inversion Line (PIL) and the perpendicular distance outwards from the PIL. The last finding will be to observe which component of the reconnection is dominant, the parallel or perpendicular component,and to look briefly at energetics.
The second part of my project will involve studying the brightening profiles of the individual pixels in the TRACE data to research the decay of the UV photons over the course of the flare. I will be fitting exponential functions to the data to try and observe a pattern in the rise and decay times of the radiation. It is this long UV decay that we think is responsible for the UV being detected as continuous ribbons. In reality, we think, the UV sources are also footpoints (maybe coinciding with HXR) but the long decay means we see 'residual' brightening.
For more information about the Solar Physics at work in my project see the RHESSI Nuggets article Jiong wrote.
For Prof. Jiong Qiu's homepage and weblog see, Jiong's Homepage and Jiong's Log.
For Prof. Richard Canfield's homepage see, Richard's Homepage
Here is a movie of the Flare I am studying. The very bright portion is the 'front' of UV radiation...we think that the rest is the long decay in brightness. You can also see some flashes- these are cosmic rays.
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Many of the current spate of articles reporting on the Senate’s struggles to put together a farm bill talk about the potential—or lack thereof—for radical reforms that would turn away from the farm programs we have had since the 1930s.
The basic premise is that we need something new that would avoid the pitfalls of the current program: paying farmers fixed payments when prices are high, making payments to people who have houses on land that was once farmed, and pumping up the profits of crop insurance companies.
Actually farm programs have already undergone radical reform. Reform occurred over a period of years beginning with Earl Butz in the 1970s and culminating in 1996 with the so-called Freedom to Farm legislation. These policies were locked into place with the 2002 farm bill. With the reform, the mechanisms of earlier legislation were made ineffective.
What has the three-decade long reform journey included?
-- Lower loan rates offered in a vain attempt to “recapture” export markets,
-- A marketing loan program that enabled prices to fall below the loan rate and keep it there,
-- Export loan programs and subsidies that have been ruled to be trade distorting,
-- A plethora of new federally subsidized crop insurance products,
-- Elimination of the Farmer-Owned Reserve in addition to taking away the price floor function of the nonrecourse loan program,
-- Elimination of the set aside program and therefore the ability to adjust production
-- The enabling of users of program crops to buy grains at subsidized prices
-- Massive “emergency payments,”
-- Direct payments to crop farmers when crop prices are high,
-- And on and on the list goes.
So, before we undertake another set of reforms, and we are not defending the current set of policies, we need to look carefully at the rationale for farm programs in the first place.
If markets worked during the unregulated years of the 1920s, there would have been no reason for the farm programs of the 1930s – programs that are often referred to in current news articles and editorials. And if there were good economic reasons for the farm bills of the 1930s, then those reasons must still be true today, unless the economic structure of agriculture has changed between then and now.
That leaves us with three questions. 1) Was there an economically justifiable reason why farm programs were needed in the 1930s? 2) Are those conditions still present today? 3) If they are not present today, what changed?
Let us start with the last question first. The 1996 farm bill was called “Freedom to Farm” because its authors believed they had set up a program that would enable farmers to respond to market signals instead of “farming the program.”
To bribe farmers into accepting the reforms, they offered AMTA payments that were designed to transition to zero, ending farm programs as we know them.
Instead by 1998, crop prices had fallen to below the loan rate, farmers were in dire straits and Congress responded with emergency payments in the form of a “double AMTA.” Not only did AMTA payments not transition to zero, the emergency payments continued for three more years before they were institutionalized in the form of counter-cyclical payments.
In response to low prices, exports did not increase as promised and consumers did not increase their consumption either. In the face of low prices, farmers did not treat the AMTA payment as a windfall and reduce production. Instead they farmed nearly every acre possible and continued to use yield-enhancing technology when what was needed to right the price ship was to lower production.
Despite the fact that inputs had to be purchased instead of hauled out of the barn, crop farmers tended to plant all of their acres all of the time unless prevented from doing so by weather.
The basic overriding question is: Has the economic structure of crop agriculture changed between the 1920s and today.
That is, do both the total quantity supplied and the total quantity demanded still respond minimally to changes in price? If so, market forces will not return crop agriculture to profitability in a timely manner.
The last three decades of reform assumed that, indeed, the economic structure of crop agriculture had changed. The implication being that external production adjustment and price stabilization programs were no longer needed.
What we learned was that acting on that “things-are-different-now” assumption costs hundreds of billions of dollars in the form of emergency payments and payments from several government check-writing programs.
We agree that there is a need for radical reform of the farm programs that are currently in use. But when changes are made, it is important to remember the economic context within which farm programs operate – that is, the demonstrated nature of aggregate crop markets.
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Friday, 13 May 2011
The Silver Apples of the Moon, the Golden Apples of the Sun
But what is it about apples? Why are they so evocative? Why was the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – not named in the Bible – assumed to be an apple? Not only did golden apples of immortality grow in the Garden of the Hesperides, but the goddess Idun was the keeper of golden apples which preserved the youth of the Norse gods. Why was the Apple of Discord – with its inscription To the Fairest - an apple at all, and why were three golden apples so irresistible to Atalanta that she paused to pick them up and lost her race?
The apple as the fruit of immortality, or perhaps equally of death, appears as a symbol in Celtic mythology too. Heralds from the Land of Youth would bear a silver apple branch, with silver blossom and golden fruit, whose tinkling music lulled the hearers to sleep – perhaps to everlasting sleep… And Arthur, after his final battle, went to the island of Avalon, the island of apples, to be healed of his mortal wound. And of course there’s the apple Snow-White’s stepmother gave her, of which one poisoned bite sent her into a death-like sleep.
Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love... Apples are tokens of love and promises of eternity. In Yeats' ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’, the lovelorn Aengus seeks forever for the beautiful girl from the hazel wood.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
But such an eternity is probably also the land beyond death.
Where do apples even come from, why are they so ubiquitous? Why are there, even today, so many varieties available even in supermarkets, usually the home of homogeneity? I went into our local Sainsburies the other day and counted eleven different named varieties of apple all on sale at once: Empire, Royal Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Russets, Granny Smiths, Pink Ladies, Jazz, Braeburns and Bramleys. (In comparison, there were four named varieties of pears, and everything else was generic – bananas, strawberries, oranges, etc.)
But if you look here, you'll find names and pictures of many more, older varieties with names like poems. Adam's Pearmain. Foxwhelps. D'Arcy Spice. Marriage-Maker. St Ailred. Sops-in-Wine. And Ribston's Pippin, of which Hilaire Belloc wrote:
I said to Heart: "How goes it?"
"Right as a Ribston Pippin!"
But it lied.
Apples are related to roses, I’m delighted to tell you. According to a rather lovely book called ‘Apples: the story of the fruit of temptation’, by Frank Browning (Penguin 1998):
‘In the beginning there were roses. Small flowers of five white petals opened on low, thorny stems, scattered across the earth in the pastures of the dinosaurs, about eighty million years ago. …These bitter-fruited bushes, among the first flowering plants on earth, emerged as the vast Rosaceae family and from them came most of the fruits human beings eat today: apples, pears, plums, quinces, even peaches, cherries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.
‘The apple [paleobotanists believe]… was the unlikely child of an extra-conjugal affair between a primitive plum from the rose family and a wayward flower with white and yellow blossoms of the Spirea family, called meadowsweet.’
Isn’t that wonderful? Apples as we know them today developed in Europe and Asia. The Pharoahs grew them. The Greeks and Romans grew them. And they keep. You can store apples overwinter, eat them months after you’ve picked them: fresh fruit in hard cold weather when there’s nothing growing outside. So perhaps you would think of them as life-giving, immortal fruit. They smell fragrant. They feel good too: hard-fleshed, smooth, a cool weight in the hand.
The medieval lyric Adam lay y-bounden provocatively celebrates the Fall of Man when Adam ate the forbidden fruit:
And all was for an appil
An appil that he toke
As clerkes finden
Written in her boke.
…by ending with the mischievously happy thought that, if Adam had not eaten the apple, Our Lady would never have become the Heavenly Queen:
Blessed be the time
That appil take was!
Therefore we maun singen:
Here is a poem by John Drinkwater (surely the most poetically-named poet ever) which consciously or unconsciously captures some of those mystical coincidences of apples, eternity, sleep, moonlight, magic and death.
At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows,
And the skylight lets the moonlight in, and those
Apples are deep-sea apples of green. There goes
A cloud on the moon in the autumn night.
A mouse in the wainscot scratches, and scratches, and then
There is no sound at the top of the house of men
Or mice; and the cloud is blown, and the moon again
Dapples the apples with deep-sea light.
They are lying in rows there, under the gloomy beams
On the sagging floor; they gather the silver streams
Out of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams
And quiet is the steep stair under.
In the corridors under there is nothing but sleep.
And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep
Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep
On moon-washed apples of wonder.
Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides: Red-Figured hydra made in Athens circa 370-360 BCE.
The Golden Apple Tree and the Nine Peahens: Arthur Rackham
Adam and Eve: Lucas Cranach
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We all – in a more or less emphatic mode – have been raised in accordance with the common acceptation that is not considered manly to weep, especially in public, and only sometimes – under a very restricted range of circumstances – men are allowed to cry, albeit they are expected to conceal their tears. Furthermore according to our culture, if this occurrence is not deemed appropriate for ordinary men, it becomes rather unacceptable for heroes: it would be in fact unconceivable this behaviour for a middle age knight or 18th century patriot, and perhaps also for a modern soldier. Nevertheless all the Homeric heroes do cry and do weep often, and their tears are not masked but showed publicly with emphasis: they tear out their own hair, they sob, they weep aloud with convulsive gasping.
Even Achilles, a tremendous hero – solitary and ready to die anytime for its own glory – weeps the loss of Patroclus:
Now from the finish’d games the Grecian band
Seek their black ships, and clear the crowded strand
All stretch’d at ease the genial banquet share,
And pleasing slumbers quiet all their care.
Not so Achilles: he, to grief resign’d,
His friend’s dear image present to his mind,
Takes his sad couch, more unobserved to weep;
Nor tastes the gifts of all-composing sleep.
Restless he roll’d around his weary bed,
And all his soul on his Patroclus fed:
The form so pleasing, and the heart so kind,
That youthful vigour, and that manly mind,
What toils they shared, what martial works they wrought,
What seas they measured, and what fields they fought;
And Agamemnon, the supreme general of the Achaean expedition, after the last day’s defeat, proposes to the Greeks to quit the siege, and return to their country.
Such various passions urged the troubled host,
Great Agamemnon grieved above the rest;
Superior sorrows swell’d his royal breast;
Himself his orders to the heralds bears,
To bid to council all the Grecian peers,
But bid in whispers: these surround their chief,
In solemn sadness and majestic grief.
The king amidst the mournful circle rose:
Down his wan cheek a briny torrent flows.
So silent fountains, from a rock’s tall head,
In sable streams soft-trickling waters shed.
With more than vulgar grief he stood oppress’d;
Words, mix’d with sighs, thus bursting from his breast.
Odysseus, the shrewd and at the same time courageous hero, while guest of Alcinous weeps when he listens to Demodocus narrating of Troy:
So from the sluices of Ulysses’ eyes
Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs.
And again Odysseus, during his detention in the Island of Ogygia cries when thinking to his homeland:
But sad Ulysses, by himself apart,
Pour’d the big sorrows of his swelling heard;
All on the lonely shore he sate to weep,
And roll’d his eyes around the restless deep:
Toward his loved coast he roll’d his eyes in vain,
Till, dimm’d with rising grief, they stream’d again.
Sometimes the tears are of sorrow and grief, but often they are also tears of rage:
Full of the god that urged their burning breast,
The heroes thus their mutual warmth express’d.
Neptune meanwhile the routed Greeks inspired;
Who, breathless, pale, with length of labours tired,
Pant in the ships; while Troy to conquest calls,
And swarms victorious o’er their yielding walls:
Trembling before the impending storm they lie,
While tears of rage stand burning in their eye.
Greece sunk they thought, and this their fatal hour;
But breathe new courage as they feel the power.
Teucer and Leitus first his words excite;
Then stern Peneleus rises to the fight;
Thoas, Deipyrus, in arms renown’d,
And Merion next, the impulsive fury found;
Last Nestor’s son the same bold ardour takes,
While thus the god the martial fire awakes.
It has been for a long while that rage was – especially for renaissance and pre-romanticism commentators and scholars – the only justification of this unmanly behaviour. Tears were acceptable and in fact accepted, if inspired by uncontrollable rage being thus a sign of power and courage and not as a womanly demonstration of weakness and subjection. However this interpretation has been more recently enriched and revised especially under an anthropological perspective.
Weeping for Homeric heroes was a simple way to express them; no shame was associated to their sorrows. The only tears we are not supposed to find in Epic are those connected to what was judged a weakness itself – such as compassion, pity and sympathy. Homeric heroes were different, they were even diverse compared to the classic period heroes (Themistocles, Leonidas, Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Alcibiades, Agesilaus…). Their foremost aspiration was to gain eternal fame through a celebrated life and glorious death. There was still no extent and therefore no trace of the future spirit of πολις, the aggregative power of citizenship and the comradeship consequent to the hoplite phalanx – they fought principally for their own glory, not purely for their country. The Homeric heroes were natural born protagonists and each of their feelings, every attitude and expression was naturally meant to be magnified, provided this was not going to diminish but augment their stature.
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Ever wonder if you have enough willpower to stop stress eating and lose the weight you want?
5 decades ago, there was a famous study, fondly called the “marshmallow study.”
Preschool kids were asked to sit in front of a marshmallow, and not eat it for a full 15 minutes.
The kids who were successful at accomplishing this task were studied over the next 2 decades and shown to do better in almost every area of life than kids who grabbed the marshmallow and ate it right away.
For instance, kids who delayed gratification:
- scored hundreds of points higher on standardized tests in school
had stronger relationships
- were promoted more often, and
- were happier.
Unfortunately, to this day, this study is misinterpreted. Most people draw the wrong conclusion, by assuming that the only reason (among all the possible reasons) that some kids were better at delaying gratification is that they had more “willpower.” That they were somehow stronger, in some way, to be able to withstand the temptation. Period.
This is the same simplistic conclusion that we make when we think about why we don’t change our own bad habits. When we fall off the wagon and overeat, we blame it on a lack of willpower. When we succeed, we also attribute it to our persistence and commitment to the goal. Either way, we blame or give credit to one single factor – the almighty willpower.
This is tragically wrong…
It’s wrong because it’s incomplete, and it’s tragic because it gives us no wiggle room when things don’t go as we would like. When you believe your ability to make good choices depends only on willpower, you will eventually stop trying. It’s not something you can get more of, really…and the more you use it, the more you use it up and the more likely you are to quit.
This pattern keeps you in a depressing cycle starting with massive commitment to change, and followed by eroding motivation and relapse into old habits.
That’s the willpower trap.
Fortunately, a follow up study, showed that what seems like will, may be more about skill. The kids who were successful developed skills to manage the challenge. Some even developed clever strategies, like distracting themselves or creating a game out of it, until the researchers returned.
In fact, it was shown in this later study that when kids were taught skills, 50% more were successful. No willpower necessary.
One of the biggest barriers to success is NOT lack of willpower, but the belief that willpower is the key to change.
Latest posts by Carol Solomon (see all)
- What Story Do You Tell Yourself? - March 28, 2013
- What If You Had To Post Everything you Ate Online? - February 5, 2013
- Your Story Matters - February 4, 2013
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Internet tools for teaching and learning.
Building Web Animations
- Animation Tips
Links to several tutorials, tips and other resources relating to animation both on and off the Web. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Creating a Web Animation
An article which discusses three principals you should consider when using animation for your Web page. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Tutorialized. Photoshop Tutorials and Flash Tutorials
This website provides links to a large array of tutorials demonstrating how to use Photoshop and Flash to create special effects and animation for the Web. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Web Developers Notes. Advanced Flash Tutorial.
Provides links to a comprehensive array of tutorials on the use of Flash to create Web animations.
http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tutorials/adflash/flash_animation_tutorial_fade_and_motion_tween_together.php3 (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Freehand Support Centre. Creating Web Graphics and Animation.
This site provides links to a variety of tutorials and articles using Adobe Freehand to create Web graphics and animation. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
Creating a WebQuest
- Creating a WebQuest: It's Easier Than You Think
An article providing a detailed overview and discussion of the topic including the relevance of Web Quests, how to begin and the various stages in the design process. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- How to make a WebQuest
Provides links to a number of articles that show the design process, the tasks and resources needed to create a Web Quest. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- T-Spider.net. WebQuest Training.
Designed for both teachers and students, this site provides two training components for WebQuest; ‘doing’ a Web Quest and ‘creating’ a Web Quest. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Teachnology. WebQuest Generator.
This site allows you to generate your own customised Web Quest by filling in sections with required information for each step. You can save your work in a file you create. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Create your own WebQuests
This site explains what a WebQuest is and provides links to samples, templates and websites. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
Downloading images from the Internet
- Why Good Images Go Bad. Guide to Effective Use of Images on Your Website.
This site suggests that graphic files should be made as small as possible without sacrificing image quality. It provides links to articles on the effective use of images on web sites. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- When and How to Use Internet Image Formats
A very useful guide discussing how to use the correct image formats for the correct situation. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Graphics from the Web
Simple instructions for downloading images. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Getting Pictures from the Internet
A tutorial giving directions for downloading pictures from the Internet. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
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I think we often get confused about all the things we are supposed to be, or have. Like self-confidence, self-esteem, self-image - and I’ll add another few things – self-worth, self-respect and self-regard.
Are they all the same thing? And what is the difference between them?
Carl Jung once said, “The things that worry us the most are the things we don’t understand”. Perhaps if we understood the difference between self-esteem and self-confidence and all the other "selfs", we’d come to the wonderful realisation that we are actually healthy in all our "selfs" except one – so at least we can work on that one and not spend pointless time worrying about all the others.
I think we get all of these confused and we lump them all in the same barrel, so in the pursuit of understanding I think it’d be useful to define what we’re talking about here ...
Your self-image is what you think about yourself and what you tell yourself about what and who you are. It’s also severely affected by what you think other people think of you – your weight, attractiveness, intelligence etc.
Once you’ve decided on your self-image it’s a bit hard to change it. You form a rigid picture or "schema" about yourself. I and other practitioners can help you to change it but in the end it’s really up to you.
What do you think about yourself? What do you believe people think about you (like friends and especially parents)?
Genes come into it too. For instance if you got the "fat" gene, if the amount of exercise you do and what you eat doesn't change your size, and if "plump" isn’t in at the moment (which it isn’t) you’ll probably have a body image problem.
First let’s take a look at the word esteem – which means to like, admire, hold in high regard. Self-esteem is the ability to do this for yourself: to like, admire, and value yourself. What other people say might be hurtful at times but it doesn’t affect your core belief in yourself as a likeable and worthwhile person.
There’s an old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. People with good self-esteem live out this old saying. They like themselves no matter what, and they think they deserve happiness.
I think it has something to do with resilience – the ability to ‘bounce back’. There’s a gene for reslience – lucky are those to whom it comes naturally. But it can be learned. Words can only hurt you if you choose to let them, setbacks in life can only break your spirit if you allow them to.
The famous American psychologist and philosopher William James rejected the term self-esteem because he perceived that if you didn’t achieve, you couldn’t have self-esteem - it is dependent on achieving. He even made up a formula for it (I hope this right, if not apologies to him and all his issue).
AchievementSelf-Esteem = ________________Aspiration (goals etc.)
If you believe this is a reasonable premise, then you can only feel good about yourself, "esteem" yourself if you have achieved your goals. I think having goals and achieving them is important, but it isn't crucial to whether you like yourself or believe in yourself.
Self-worth is often how we perceive ourselves compared to others, for example in terms of skills, wealth, attractiveness and so on. William James’s equation is, I think, more an accurate appraisal of self-worth than self-esteem. Many of us feel worthy if we achieve, live a certain lifestyle, or even if we are "good people" who contribute and help, sit on boards and committees or volunteer.
We might feel "worthy", but it’s often useful to challenge our motives for doing good or for accumulating possessions or status. If we lose the things we base our self-worth on, we can become bitter and disillusioned. I’m reminded here of the line from Max Ehrman’s wonderful poem "Desiderata":
If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Being self-confident is trusting in your own abilities to perform, whether the circumstances are familiar to you or not. Self-confident people are seldom fearful. They are courageous, whether it’s exploring unknown territory, braving embarrassment by standing up to speak, or standing up for what they believe in. People often have self-confidence because they accumulate knowledge of the situation to prepare themselves, and this helps them to make the most of their faith in their abilities. Self-confidence is not the same as brashness, or recklessness.
Different types of self-confidence have been described as "social confidence", "physical presence", "stage presence", "status confidence" and "peer independence".
However, self-confidence is not always accompanied by self-esteem. People can be full of self-confidence but not necessarily like, or "esteem" themselves.
Self-respect is unconditional and independent of how others see us, or any mistakes we might have made. Self-respect is acceptance of ourselves just as we are, as opposed to self-esteem, which is dependant on our liking ourselves. Liking ourselves often requires judgement of whether we are "good" or "bad".
We might not like everything we do or are, but we can still respect who we are by accepting and forgiving ourselves, and because we respect ourselves, striving to be a better person.
This is a "self" I’m particularly fond of, and in this case I’ll leave the definition to the man who invented it, Albert Bandura of Stanford University in the U.S.
Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, feeling and selection processes.
A strong sense of efficacy enhances human accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways. People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided. Such an efficacious outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep engrossment in activities. They set themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them. They heighten and sustain their efforts in the face of failure. They quickly recover their sense of efficacy after failures or setbacks. They attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills which are acquirable. They approach threatening situations with assurance that they can exercise control over them. Such an efficacious outlook produces personal accomplishments, reduces stress and lowers vulnerability to depression.
Albert Bandura, Stanford University, http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/BanEncy.html
So which "self" do I prefer? I’m going for self-respect, because it can be unconditional in the sense that you can respect and regard yourself well without the pressure of having to achieve, or be good looking, or flattered, or have "stage presence" or anything – you can just respect yourself for being you, warts and all – because you’re worth it. But that’s my choice. I really like self-efficacy too. The great thing about knowing about these "selfs" is that you have a choice. So maybe you’re good in all the "selfs" except self-image – then you only have to work on that one thing.
How do you work on it? Watch this space!
I'm so glad you accepted yourself and stopped stressing about your weight.I like your point that changing your self-image (to a positive one) yourself contributed to your success.I think it lessens stress when we accept ourselves and less stress means less comfort eating and more self control and self-confidence that we can ignore cravings.Well done!
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As a young girl, Shirley Ann Jackson spent many of her days collecting bumble bees in her parents’ backyard. Her childhood fascination with nature would later bloom into an illustrious career in science.
After becoming the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from M.I.T., Jackson became a professor of physics at Rutgers University. In 1995, she returned to her native Washington, D.C., where President Bill Clinton appointed her as the first African-American woman to serve as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. During her four years as chair, Jackson made sweeping changes to the commission’s reactor oversight program. She also discovered an “emerging gap” of workers, particularly women and minorities, in the STEM workforce (fields of science, technology, engineering and math).
Jackson later coined her observation as the Quiet Crisis. She explains that after the Soviet Union successfully launched its Sputnik satellite in 1957, there was an intense push in the U.S. toward math and science, which created an influx of scientists like herself. But Jackson says as that generation retires, there are not enough young people in the pipeline to take their place.
“Our colleges and universities are not graduating enough scientists and engineers… and we are doing a particularly poor job of recruiting the underrepresented majority of minorities and women,” Jackson commented during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in 2009.
As president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, Jackson is hoping to change that. During her eleven years of leadership, the number of women faculty has grown by 60 percent and the number of minority faculty has more than doubled. Jackson is also working to fill the gap through government and business. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed her to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and she currently sits on the board of directors of several energy and technology companies, including IBM and Marathon Oil.
It’s enough to keep Jackson as busy as a bee – pollinating the next generation of the nation’s innovators.
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Daily Grammar Practice en francais (DGPF) is a simple yet effective grammar supplement for French students. A Teacher Guide (with answer key) is all you need to teach this program, although an inexpensive Student Workbook is available and recommended for ease. Three levels of DGPF are available, but this review is based solely on the first level, which corresponds to first year high school French.
The main author, Kathleen Porto, has ample qualifications to write this program. She is a current high school French teacher in Georgia, where she also serves as chairperson of the Foreign Language Department. She has multiple degrees in French and teaching French, and she has received training to prepare students for the AP French exam. As if that were not enough, she is also a member of the Alliance Francaise, the American Association of Teachers of French, and the Foreign Language Association of Georgia!
The first half of the teacher book explains the teaching philosophy behind DGPF along with suggestions for using the program. The second half includes all 30 lessons with reference charts, grammar helps, teaching points, and answers. The optional workbook provides a page for each of the 30 weekly sentences, with room to write answers. The workbook also includes the reference charts and grammar helps that are included in the teacher book.
DGPF is a “daily grammar vitamin,” according to its authors. Students work with one sentence per week, analyzing it first and then imitating it. Unlike other grammar programs that present isolated units on nouns and verbs with copious practice exercises, DGPF uses one complete sentence per week and breaks it down into parts. Early sentences are very simple, but they build in complexity as the year progresses, providing opportunities for review in context.
Let me explain the format of a weekly lesson of DGPF. On Monday, students translate a French sentence into English. On Tuesday, they identify the parts of speech of each word in the sentence (noun, pronoun, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, verb, verbal). On Wednesday, they identify the sentence parts (subject, verb, complement, prepositional phrase, infinitive phrase, etc). On Thursday, students diagram the sentence. Finally, on Friday, they build a new sentence from the provided “dehydrated structure.”
Now, let’s look at a week in practice. The sentence provided for week four of DGPF is this: “Le grand garcon parle francais avec Paul.” On Monday, students translate, “The tall boy speaks French with Paul.” On Tuesday, they label the parts of speech using the abbreviations provided on their reference chart. In order, they are as follows: definite article, adjective, noun, action verb/present tense, noun, preposition, proper noun. On Wednesday, students identify the parts of the sentence. In order, here are those parts: subject, transitive verb, direct object, adverbial prepositional phrase. On Thursday, students diagram the sentence. Finally, on Friday, students write a similar sentence from a “dehydrated structure” given as follows: petit/ fille/ parler/ anglais/ avec/ Amandine. They write, “La petite fille parle anglais avec Amandine.” So with just one sentence, students have learned about adjective position and nouns of nationality. In addition, they have reviewed subject/verb agreement and agreement of adjectives.
Now all this takes only a few minutes at the beginning of your French class. My daughter does her DGPF for about five minutes before her Rosetta Stone computer lesson. I am very pleased with how well these programs complement one another. My one complaint about Rosetta Stone has been the lack of systematic grammar study, and DGPF provides the perfect supplement.
The content of level one corresponds to first year high school French. At present, three levels of DGPF are available, each corresponding to one year of high school French. You may view a scope and sequence and sample lessons at www.dgppublishing.com.
My only caveat regarding this program is that students need to know English grammar fairly well in order to successfully use DGPF. Lesson one begins very simply but assumes a knowledge of nouns (common/proper), verbs (action/being, transitive/intransitive, tenses), and the subject/predicate relationship. If your student has never studied English grammar, you might consider looking into the original Daily Grammar Practice in English, available from www.dgppublishing.com. I have not personally seen this program, but I have heard from other homeschoolers that it is very good. My own sister used it with her daughter and saw her SAT scores leap after one year using the program.
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Science author and classical educator, Paige Hudson, is back for the second installment of our Science and Classical Education series. You can read the first post HERE.
In yesterday’s post, I shared a little about how science fits into the classical education model. Today, I want to share with you the nuts and bolts of grammar stage classical science.
What is a grammar stage student?
A grammar stage student can mean different things to different people. So let me clear up the confusion by saying that I mean the years when your student is learning the foundational basics, such as phonics, spelling and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. These are the years when your student is full of wonder and when they wants to know everything about everything. During the grammar stage years your student is peppering you with questions that begin with, “Mom, what’s…”. This is what I mean when I say a grammar stage student.
The grammar stage typically begins with when traditional school begins or in first grade. It ends when the student starts needing to know the why’s and how’s behind what they are learning. For some, this means they leave the grammar stage by the end of 4th grade, for some they leave by the end of 5th grade and for some students this phase ends earlier or later than that.
I compare the grammar stage students to an empty bucket that is begging to be filled. They have a natural curiosity and a high capacity for retaining information. So, when teaching science, you will be playing to these strengths while building their knowledge base of scientific facts. You can also use science to work on their basic skills of writing and reading at this stage.
What are your goals for grammar stage classical science?
Simply put, your main goal is to spark their interest for learning science. You want to capitalize on their natural curiosity by showing them that science can be fun. You want them to become aware of the world around them and to learn how to observe the things they see. These are also the years to build a basic knowledge bank for your student to be able draw on later.
How do you teach classical science to grammar stage students?
A good grammar stage classical science program should include the following*…
- Lab Demonstrations: I used the word “demonstrations” because at the grammar stage level, you are essentially demonstrating experiments for your student to observe. They are watching, helping where they can, taking in what is happening and filing the information away for later use. The purpose of this doing demonstrations, or experiments, at this level is twofold. The first reason is to work on their observation skills and the second aim is to increase their scientific knowledge. Although you are modeling the scientific method for them, you are not expecting them to predict the results because they do not have a knowledge base of the principles of science that are at work in the experiment to draw from. So, their “hypothesis” would no longer be an educated guess, it would simply be a guess, which has little value and can lead to frustration when they get it wrong. Instead you are asking them the following questions, “What did we use?” (Materials), “What did we do?” (Procedure), “What happened?” (Results) and “What did I learn?” (Conclusion). If you are need help finding experiments to demonstrate, check out any of the books by Janice VanCleave. You can also use projects and/or nature study to fulfill the purpose of the lab demonstrations.
- Reading: At this stage your student is an empty bucket waiting to be filled with information and books are a wonderful way to do that. There are many children’s encyclopedia publishers, such as Usborne, Kingfisher and DK, that present scientific information in an interesting way on the level of a grammar stage student. I also personally love the “Let’s Read and Find Out” series of books as supplemental science reading. As your student begins to be able to read more complicated stories on their own, add in one or two books on scientists per year. These will help your student to engage with the face of science which will spark their desire to learn more.
- Narration: Narration is one of the hallmarks of a classical education. It’s an extremely effective tool that will teach your student how to assimilate and release information. The purpose of narration in science is for you to know that your student has placed at least one new piece of information into their bucket. So, you simply ask them, “What is one thing that you found interesting about what we just read?” or “Can you tell me something that you have learned from what we just read?” In the beginning you will write down what they say, but as your student gets older, you will expect more out of them. As they progress through the grammar stage, you can expect them to give several pieces of information as well as have them begin to write their own answers.
- Memory Work: For some memory work is optional, for some it is not. Remember that your grammar stage student is an empty bucket that is begging to be filled and memory work is another tool that you can use to fill their knowledge banks with information that they will be able to draw on later. Memory work can include poems, lists of facts and/or vocabulary.
When you plan out your year, make sure that your lab demonstrations, readings, narrations and memory work all tie together. In other words, if you create a model of the spine, you should read about the skeletal system, have your student write about what they have learned about the skeletal system and work on memorizing what they skeletal system is. When you tie the 4 areas together, they reinforce one another and create a stronger peg of knowledge in the mind of the grammar stage student.
A quick word about kindergarten:
If you decide to do science before the grammar stage years, it should be very hands on and parent directed. You can use demonstrations, nature study, books and crafts to introduce them to the world of science. However, kindergarten science should only be done if your student enjoys it.
Before planning out your year of grammar stage science, I highly recommend reading The Well-trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. This book will give you a fuller picture of classical education as well as the learning stages that your student will go through. If you would like to see what the grammar stage classical science education looks like, check out Elemental Science, which offers science curriculum with a classical bent. If you want to see what a week looks like with Elemental Science, you can read a blog series that I did on Physics for the Grammar Stage. Be sure to come back tomorrow to learn more about logic stage classical science.
*Note: The information in this blog post was loosely based on ideas presented in a lecture entitled “Science in the Classical Curriculum” by Susan Wise Bauer as well as pp. 157-187 of The Well-trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home.
Paige Hudson is an author and homeschooling mom. She writes science curriculum for homeschoolers which you can view at the Elemental Science website. She also has a passion for sharing the wonders of science, which is why she writes the bi-weekly Science Corner at Elemental Blogging. She holds a BS in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech and currently resides in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia with her husband and 2 children.
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Security and Privacy of Information
Security threats to technology systems continue to grow, with more than 76,000 security incidents identified in the first six months of this year compared to about 82,000 for all of 2002. Users are increasingly demanding authorized access and use only, while most companies report having at least the fundamentals of IT security in place, including firewalls (81%), antivirus software (79%) or using virus protection access management and other security applications (71%). It is estimated that an average of 5.4% of IT budgets will be spent on security in 2003. Many tools are helping to manage access and determine what's on the network, but in no way has the problem been solved. Many serious consequences have resulted due to the lack of security, including:
Identity theft. Individuals are buying millions of dollars worth of merchandise using other people's credit cards. As stated in InformationWeek (Aug. 4, 2003), about 7 million individuals found themselves guilty of identity theft, an increase of nearly 80% over the 1.9% rate reported in February 2002. According to research and advisory firm Gartner Inc., only one in 700 of these thieves may be identified because this crime is often misclassified. A presidential commission has recommended that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) work with the Department of Homeland Security to develop sender identification technology such as personalized stamps that embed digital identification information. However, civil liberties groups and others are objecting to what's being called "intelligent mail" for all users. USPS has not accepted the commission's report, but d'es intend to award a contract in November for mobile data-collection devices that could serve as intelligent mail scanners.
Student access to data. Loaded with course grades, credit card numbers, home addresses and social security numbers, educational records hold particular fascination for hackers, most of whom are curious students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 99% of all public schools have access to the Internet. Most schools rely solely on teacher monitoring and a student honor code. Many schools even allow students to manage their own accounts, register for classes and pay tuition online. Thus, data such as student and alumni records, social security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal information must be secured.
Abundance of spam. Unsolicited e-mail advertisements, commonly known as spam, are estimated to cost about $875 for each employee per year. One statistic states that 49% of users spend from 40 minutes to almost four hours a week deleting spam. Many users are installing anti-spam software, but legally there is very little that can be done against spammers directly. Several bills are being discussed in Congress, but bickering between Democrats and Republicans is delaying the process. Conversely, the European Union has declared that an e-mail account is more private than a mailbox, and a business needs explicit permission before sending an e-mail message.
Filtering devices. Filtering software is being installed in more networks and on more computers, but it is also raising some questions as to what, when and how to filter. For example, librarians are challenging the way filters are used, while school administrators have transferred their decision-making authority to private companies with little public disclosure and credibility for their decisions. Therefore, override capabilities should be made available to educators.
We know the problem of security and privacy of information will not go away. It is recognized as a serious problem that requires top priority. For example, in the Palo Alto Unified School District in California, where wireless computer connections are used throughout its offices and on various campuses, a reporter from the Palo Alto Weekly was able to obtain students' grades, home phone numbers, addresses, medical information, psychological information and full-color photos of the students using a laptop and wireless connection card. This situation has been given top priority by the district.
However, what extreme situations are we willing to tolerate. When public schools in Biloxi, Miss., opened last month, the district had digital cameras recording each minute of every classroom lesson. Now, hundreds of Internet-wired cameras are running all day in an effort to deter crime and general misbehavior among the district's 6,500 students and teachers. The system lets principals and security officers view a classroom from any of the school's computers by using a password.
We must all be fully aware of what is happening to information, which we previously thought was private and secure. Perhaps, we need more education as to what we should and should not do.
This article originally appeared in the 09/01/2003 issue of THE Journal.
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Pre-Socratic philosophy is a title that applies generally to the philosophical views of ancient Greek philosophers up until the time of Socrates (469–399 B.C.). Several thinkers comprise the group known as the “Pre-Socratic philosophers” including Thales, Pythagoras, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Empedocles, Democritus, Parmenides, and Heraclitus.
In general, Pre-Socratic philosophy was concerned with offering rational and logical explanations as to what the world was made of and how it worked. That is why the Pre-Socratic philosophers are often referred to as “cosmologists” (cosmos means “world). Thales, for instance, argued that the primary substance of the world was water. Anaximander said it was fire. Anaximenes said air, and Xenophanes said earth. Empedocles said reality consisted of all four elements. Some of the Pre-Socratics anticipated future scientific discoveries and theories. Democritus, for example, posited a view of atoms and held that atoms and void were the only two realities. Anaxagoras promoted a view similar to that of the Big Bang theory of today. Anaximander held to a crude form of the theory of evolution.
With the exception of Parmenides (b. 515 B.C.), most of the writings of the Pre-Socratic philosophers have been lost. Much of what we know today about them comes from the writings of Aristotle. The Pre-Socratics have usually been lumped together as a group, but in the last two centuries some of them have emerged as important philosophers in their own right. With the coming of Socrates and the Sophists philosophy turned away from cosmology to ethical and social matters.
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Well, apparently today’s theme is going to be the environment, and the real differences in policy preferences between the two major political parties in the United States. Yesterday, the Democrats and the Obama administration’s EPA took a-something-is-better-than-nothing approach to hydraulic fracturing pollutant regulation.
The Obama administration took a heavy swing in the ongoing battle over fracking today by imposing new rules that would, for the first time, restrict the release of smog-causing pollutants from natural gas wells. But the law turns a blind eye to greenhouse gases released by fracking; the EPA admits fracking accounts for 40 percent of the nation’s overall methane (an even stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) emissions.
By 2015, all fracked wells will be required to implement “green completion” equipment, which catches toxic gases like benzene on its way out of the earth and into the atmosphere. But the rule does not directly limit emissions of greenhouse gases.
While the new rules will prevent toxic pollutants like Benzine from leaking into the air, reports, like the one above, say it will do little to prevent the largest and most dangerous pollutant from leaking into the atmosphere, methane. While other reports claim that the new regulations could reduce methane leakage by up to 25%.
The new rules seek foremost to cut down on cancer-causing chemicals released during hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” But the new regulations will have another benefit: They’ll reduce by 25 percent the amount of methane gas that escapes during fracking operations. This is critical, because methane is at the center of a growing debate whether natural gas really is a “cleaner” source of energy than coal.
“The president has been clear that he wants to continue to expand production of important domestic resources like natural gas, and today’s standard supports that goal while making sure these fuels are produced without threatening the health of the American people,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “By ensuring the capture of gases that were previously released to pollute our air and threaten our climate, these updated standards will not only protect our health, but also lead to more product for fuel suppliers to bring to market. They’re an important step toward tapping future energy supplies without exposing American families and children to dangerous health threats in the air they breathe.”
When natural gas is produced, some of the gas escapes the well and may not be captured by the producing company. These gases can pollute the air and as a result threaten public health. Consistent with states that have already put in place similar requirements, the updated EPA standards released today include the first federal air rules for natural gas wells that are hydraulically fractured, specifically requiring operators of new fractured natural gas wells to use cost-effective technologies and practices to capture natural gas that might otherwise escape the well, which can subsequently be sold. EPA’s analysis of the final rules shows that they are highly cost-effective, relying on widely available technologies and practices already deployed at approximately half of all fractured wells, and consistent with steps industry is already taking in many cases to capture additional natural gas for sale, offsetting the cost of compliance. Together these rules will result in $11 to $19 million in savings for industry each year. In addition to cutting pollution at the wellhead, EPA’s final standards also address emissions from storage tanks and other equipment.
While dangers to drinking water continue, and the relationship between earthquakes and fracking continues to be explored, the new regulations are certainly a step in the right direction. We will need to further restrict the emission of methane from well sites and prevent the contamination of groundwater supplies in the future. Several scientists are describing the new regulations as a floor rather than anything truly meaningful, but it is more than we could expect from a Republican administration.
“It sets a floor for what the industry needs to do,” said attorney Erik Schlenker-Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center. “The reality is we can do far better.”
Over the past few years, more information has come out about fracking’s potential harms to the environment and human health, particularly relating to the risk of groundwater contamination. In addition to the many potentially toxic components of the highly pressurized fluid injected into the ground during the natural gas drilling process, fracking can also release cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and greenhouse gases like methane into the air. The federal government has made moves to tighten regulations, and we’ve chronicled the history of those regulations.
The EPA’s new rules don’t cover most of those issues. Instead, they address a single problem with natural gas: air pollution.
Unfortunately, the only legitimate means of preventing contamination of drinking water and the emission of greenhouse gasses is to outlaw the practice altogether. While I am generally loathed to approach an issue of human health and environmental destruction pragmatically, I am nonetheless somewhat heartened by what appears to be a thoughtful analysis by the EPA. It is important that activists and members of the public continue to protest peacefully and write and call their representatives so that we can ultimately restrict this behavior, which will ultimately exacerbate climate change, inconvenience millions, and certainly lead to the deaths of thousands. Many of those affected continue to be in rural areas of little influence. The economic despair and dearth of good paying jobs wrought by the financial collapse has made it less troublesome for oil and gas companies to convince residents as well as state and local governments to permit fracking in their jurisdictions. It is also important that we work diligently to provide alternative employment in these areas.
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Vegetables & Sustainable
|Topic||Can crop rotation reduce pest problems?|
Crop rotation can be practiced to reduce soil borne pest problems in the garden, particularly nematodes, and root diseases such as verticillium wilt. These problems can increase in severity when susceptible crops or crops in the same family are grown in the same location year after year.
It is important to be aware of what pest you are trying to reduce in your crop rotation efforts. For example, plants susceptible to verticillium wilt, such as tomato, should be rotated with plants such as broccoli. There is mounting evidence that broccoli will help to reduce the amount of verticillium in the soil. If reducing nematodes, then it is important that you know which nematode you are trying to reduce. Not all will be helped by crop rotation. Root knot nematode is probably the most well known nematode.
Choosing suitable rotations can be confusing because even crops such as corn and onions, that are not seriously damaged by root knot nematodes may still allow build up in the soil. Annual crops that are useful for reducing root knot populations include small grains such as wheat and barely, and resistant tomato and bean varieties. Also, within the rotation it is important to include “fallow” which means to have no plants, not even weeds present in order to prevent the nematodes from feeding and then reproducing. See rotation schedule for a root knot nematode infested garden.
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|University of California, Berkeley|
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|Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Key to families | Table of families and genera
Indexes to all accepted names and synonyms:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Annual to woody per; roots generally fibrous.
Stem: generally round, hollow; nodes swollen, solid.
Leaf: alternate, 2-ranked, generally linear, parallel-veined; sheath generally open; ligule membranous or hairy, at blade base.
Inflorescence: various (of generally many spikelets).
Spikelet: glumes generally 2; florets ( lemma, palea, flower) 1–many; lemma generally membranous, sometimes glume-like; palea generally ± transparent, ± enclosed by lemma.
Flower: generally bisexual, minute; perianth vestigial; stamens generally 3; stigmas generally 2, generally plumose.
Fruit: grain (rarely achene-like).
650–900 genera; ± 10550 species: worldwide; greatest economic importance of any family (wheat, rice, maize, millet, sorghum, sugar cane, forage crops, ornamental, weeds; thatching, weaving, building materials). [Barkworth et al. 2003 FNANM:25; Barkworth et al. 2007 FNANM:24] Generally wind-pollinated. Achnatherum, Ampelodesmos, Hesperostipa, Nassella, Piptatherum, Piptochaetium, Ptilagrostis moved to Stipa; Elytrigia, Leymus, Pascopyrum, Pseudoroegneria, Taeniatherum to Elymus; Hierochloe to Anthoxanthum; Lolium, Vulpia to Festuca; Lycurus to Muhlenbergia; Monanthochloe to Distichlis; Pleuraphis to Hilaria; Rhynchelytrum to Melinis. The following taxa (in genera not included here), recorded in CA from historical collections or reported in literature, are extirpated, lacking vouchers, or not considered naturalized: Acrachne racemosa (Roth) Ohwi, Allolepis texana (Vasey) Soderstr. & H.F. Decker, Amphibromus nervosus (Hook. f.) Baill., Axonopus affinis Chase, Axonopus fissifolius (Raddi) Kuhlm., Coix lacryma-jobi L., Cutandia memphitica (Spreng.) K. Richt., Dinebra retroflexa (Vahl) Panz., Eremochloa ciliaris (L.) Merr., Eustachys distichophylla (Lag.) Nees, Gaudinia fragilis (L.) P. Beauv., Miscanthus sinensis Andersson, Neyraudia arundinacea (L.) Henrard, Phyllostachys aurea Rivière & C. Rivière, Phyllostachys bambusoides Siebold & Zuccarini, Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) Clayton, Schedonnardus paniculatus (Nutt.) Branner & Coville, Schizachyrium cirratum (Hack.) Wooton & Standl., Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash, Themeda quadrivalvis (L.) Kuntze, Thysanolaena latifolia (Hornem.) Honda, Tribolium obliterum (Hemsl.) Renvoize, Zea mays L., Zizania palustris L. var. interior (Fassett) Dore, Zoysia japonica Steud. Paspalum pubiflorum E. Fourn., Paspalum quadrifarium Lam., are now reported for s CA (J Bot Res Inst Texas 4:761–770). See Glossary p. 30 for illustrations of general family characteristics. —Scientific Editors: James P. Smith, Jr., J. Travis Columbus, Dieter H. Wilken.
Unabridged references: [Hitchcock 1951 Manual grasses US, USDA Misc Publ 200; Clayton & Renvoise 1986 Kew Bull Add Series 13]
Key to Poaceae
Perennial, generally from rhizomes.Key to Calamagrostis
Stem: 1–15 dm, generally not branched, ± smooth; nodes (1)2–8.
Leaf: generally basal and cauline; sheath smooth or scabrous; ligule membranous; blade flat to inrolled.
Inflorescence: panicle-like, open to dense; branches ± drooping to appressed; spikelets ascending to appressed.
Spikelet: glumes subequal, generally lanceolate, acute to acuminate, lower generally 1-veined, upper 3-veined; floret 1, breaking above glumes; axis prolonged beyond floret, hairy; callus hairy; lemma < glumes, awned from below middle to near base, tip generally 4-toothed, veins 3–5, awn straight to twisted, bent; palea ± = lemma, thin.
± 265 species (including Deyeuxia): cool temperate (especially moist montane); some forage value. (Greek: reed grass) [Marr et al. 2007 FNANM 24:706–732] Hybridization, polyploidy (diploids unknown), and asexual seed set contribute to taxonomic difficulty.
Unabridged references: [Greene 1980 Ph.D. Dissertation Harvard Univ]
Stem: 2–12 dm.
Leaf: sheath smooth; ligule 1–5.5 mm; blade 2–5 mm wide, generally inrolled, lower surface generally smooth, upper surface smooth to scabrous.
Inflorescence: 5–20 cm, dense, narrow; branches < 1.5–9.5 cm, ascending to appressed.
Spikelet: glumes 2–6 mm, smooth to scabrous; axis 0.5–1.5 mm, hairs 1.5–3 mm; callus hairs 1–4.5 mm; lemma 2–5 mm, finely scabrous, awned at or below middle; awn ± = glume tip, generally straight. Subspp. intergrade. [Online Interchange]
Stem: 4–12 dm.
Leaf: ligule 2–5.5 mm; blade flat, strongly scabrous, upper surface generally glaucous.
Inflorescence: 6–20 cm; longest branches 1.5–9.5 cm.
Spikelet: glumes 3–6 mm, generally thick, margin opaque; axis 1–1.5 mm; callus hairs 2–4.5 mm; lemma 2.5–5 mm; awn occasionally twisted, bent, stiff; anthers generally sterile.
Slopes, meadows, coastal marshes; < 3400 m. Northwestern California, Cascade Range, n&c High Sierra Nevada, Central Coast;
Previous taxon: Calamagrostis stricta
Next taxon: Calamagrostis stricta subsp. stricta
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].
Copyright © 2012 Regents of the University of California
We encourage links to these pages, but the content may not be downloaded for reposting, repackaging, redistributing, or sale in any form, without written permission from The Jepson Herbarium.
|Bioregions in which taxon occurs||Red area (if present) is the part of the bioregion lying between the upper and lower elevation limits of the taxon;|
markers link to CCH specimen records. If the markers are obscured, reload the page [or change window size and reload]. Yellow markers indicate records that may have georeferencing or identification issues.
Chart based on elevation range in Manual and elevations and coordinates of CCH records.
Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
Note: About half of the CCH records include both elevation and coordinates.
|Map made in collaboration with Scott Loarie. Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
View all CCH records
CCH collections by month
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Today, we ride a gurney. The
University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the
machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
No, I don't mean a hospital gurney (as best we know, it was
developed by one Theodore Gurney in 1883.) We want to meet another inventor of vehicles,
Goldsworthy Gurney, born in 1793 and knighted seventy years later. The knighthood was
probably arranged by senior Parliament officials who wanted to give him an excuse to retire.
Gurney was then near the end of a long and remarkable life as an inventor -- scraping
along on an unreliable payroll, and working on air circulation systems in the aging
He'd been raised in Cornwall, studied medicine and chemistry when he was young, married a
Cornish woman, moved to London at 27, and became a lecturer in chemistry. Then the
He invented a new oxygen-hydrogen blowpipe for chemical analysis and he built an organ.
He invented another musical instrument that looked like a piano, but was more akin to
Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica. Its mechanisms
drew silken ribbons over edges of a set of musical glasses to make a very gentle sound.
He invented electric lighting systems and a new kind of heating stove that found use in
English Cathedrals. But he's most famous for his steam car. And it was no single invention.
His interest in steam-powered vehicles went back to a friendship with another Cornishman,
Richard Trevithick, whom he'd known since childhood. Trevithick pioneered steam cars,
then turned to rail. Steam went on rails to avoid the terrible problems of running heavy
iron vehicles on the unpaved roads of that time.
So Gurney focused on weight reduction. Furnaces and boilers were the big problem. He
invented a small steam jet that pulled air into a firebox and made it burn hotter. He
designed boilers in which water was heated in tubes passing through the firebox. He also
used his steam jet to draw burned gases up the smokestack.
Much that's written about Gurney and his so-called "steam jet engines" leaves the impression
that his vehicles were jet propelled. Well, nothing of the sort. But that takes nothing
from his genius. He developed a fine commercial steam coach that carried six people in its
cab and fifteen more on open benches.
It traveled 12 miles an hour -- much faster than a horse coach, and it was not terribly noisy.
He went into production in 1827 and one might think the automobile had been invented. But
it was not to be. Public fears, then open resistance -- stone throwing, barricade building --
put Gurney's cars out of business.
Almost bankrupt, he went on to other inventions. Though he's little remembered today, he set
the groundwork for the steam cars that appeared at the century's end. He influenced analytical
chemistry, mine lighting systems, and telegraphy.
When Gurney's first wife (ten years his senior) died, he married another Cornish woman 36 years
his junior. But then, Gurney's entire life seems to've been a kind of time dislocation -- ideas
out of time, and inventions whose real impact would be of another generation as well.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
D. H. Porter, The Life and Times of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney: Gentleman Scientist and Inventor,
1793-1875. (Bethlehem, PH: Lehgh University Press, 1998).
G. B. Smith, Gurney, Sir Goldsworthy. Dictionary of National Biography,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
See also, this Cornish history site on Gurney
or F. J. Ferris's account of Gurney's work.
An early Gurney car (from D. Lardner, The Steam Engine Familiarly Explained and Illustrated, 1836)
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is
Copyright © 1988-2005 by John H.
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| 0.966424 | 902 | 3.375 | 3 |
Illinois National Parks
In their search for a water route to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis & Clark opened a window onto the west for the young United States.
Abraham Lincoln lived in this home for 17 years (1844-1861) before becoming President.
Led by Brigham Young, roughly 70,000 Mormons traveled along the Mormon Trail from 1846 to 1869 in order to escape religious persecution.
Come on a journey to remember and commemorate the survival of the Cherokee people despite their forced removal from their homelands in the Southeastern United States in the 1830s.
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A large number of synthetic glucocorticoids have been developed with the goal of increasing efficacy while decreasing the
number of adverse effects (Table 1). In most cases, the mineralocorticoid-related effects of sodium and water retention and potassium excretion are unwanted
consequences of glucocorticoid use. Most synthetic glucocorticoids have been designed to reduce or eliminate these properties.
Table 1. Relative Glucocorticoid Potencies and Duration of Action of Selected Glucocorticoids*
Prednisone vs. prednisolone
One of the most commonly used glucocorticoids in veterinary medicine is prednisone, or prednisolone, though this is based
more on familiarity and common practice than on a proven increased efficacy of this particular corticosteroid. No studies
in cats suggest that any particular glucocorticoid is more effective for the treatment of a specific disease, provided equipotent
doses are used. For prednisone to be effective, however, it first must be converted to the active form, prednisolone, in the
liver. In dogs, this process occurs efficiently, and prednisolone and prednisone can be considered to be bioequivalent.3 In cats, the absorption and conversion of prednisone to prednisolone is less efficient, and after the oral administration
of prednisone, only about 21% of the drug occurs in the bloodstream as the active form prednisolone.4 For this reason, prednisone and prednisolone should not be considered bioequivalent in cats, and the active form, prednisolone,
should be used preferentially.
The relative potency data presented in Table 1, while commonly cited in the veterinary literature, are based predominantly on studies performed in other species, as well
as clinical experience. Similar relative potencies are likely in cats, but no specific studies have been performed in this
area. In particular, a discrepancy exists regarding the estimated potency of triamcinolone.
In the veterinary literature, triamcinolone is commonly estimated to be five times more potent than hydrocortisone; however,
some authors think it may be up to 40 times more potent.5 This is supported by studies in people in which the ability of triamcinolone to suppress lymphocyte proliferation was used
as a measure of the immunosuppressive potential of a glucocorticoid. Triamcinolone was shown to be more potent than dexamethasone
in this respect.6
Moreover, the binding affinity of a glucocorticoid to the glucocorticoid receptor correlates with anti-inflammatory potential.
Triamcinolone also has a higher glucocorticoid-receptor binding affinity than dexamethasone, suggesting equivalent or increased
anti-inflammatory activity.6 I consider an estimate of 40 times that of hydrocortisone to be a more accurate approximation of triamcinolone's glucocorticoid
potency in dogs and cats, and I adjust doses accordingly.
Dosing and intended effect
Glucocorticoid doses are commonly separated into physiologic, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive ranges. These terms
can be somewhat misleading because there is no exact dose at which a glucocorticoid changes from providing merely anti-inflammatory
to immunosuppressive effects. Some cited dose ranges in veterinary medicine may not specify to which species they refer, and
in most of these situations the doses are often most applicable to dogs. These ranges do provide a useful guide when selecting
an initial glucocorticoid dose, depending on the condition to be treated.
Physiologic doses of prednisolone, such as would be used as replacement therapy in dogs with hypoadrenocorticism, are estimated
to be 0.2 to 0.3 mg/kg given orally or parenterally once a day. Anti-inflammatory doses of prednisolone in dogs are cited
to be 0.55 to 1.1 mg/kg orally or parenterally once a day and would be appropriate for treating conditions such as atopic
dermatitis. Immunosuppressive doses in dogs range from 2.2 to 4.4 mg/kg once a day and are needed when treating immune-mediated
or autoimmune conditions such as pemphigus foliaceus or autoimmune hemolytic anemia.7
These dose ranges have not been verified scientifically in cats, but it is anecdotally noted that cats often require higher
glucocorticoid doses than dogs do in order to achieve equivalent effects. This is supported by a study that showed cats had
fewer numbers of glucocorticoid receptors than dogs in the organs that were evaluated (liver and skin).8 The binding affinity of the feline glucocorticoid receptor also was shown to be less than that of the dog.8 Consequently, many authors suggest that glucocorticoid doses in cats be doubled to achieve equivalent effects, resulting
in anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive dose ranges of prednisolone extending to 2.2 mg/kg/day and 8.8 mg/kg/day, respectively.7,9,10 Doses for other glucocorticoids should be adjusted based on the relative potencies shown in Table 1 with the exception of triamcinolone, whose potency may be closer to that of dexamethasone, as noted above.
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| 0.902237 | 1,156 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The History of the Bee Gees
Formed in the late 1950s in Manchester, England, the Bee Gees' core has always consisted of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb. After briefly moving to Australia, the siblings tried their luck back in England. They really hit it big in the 1970s with their disco-influenced sound and this was due in large part to the film "Saturday Night Fever." The Bee Gees members also had success working with other artists, and despite the death of disco, continued to make music together. They remain pop music legends today. In this video, WatchMojo.com takes a look at the history of the Bee Gees.
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| 0.974684 | 140 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) is the largest shorebird, and the most southerly breeding curlew, in North America. Once abundant over most of the prairie regions of the United States and Canada, populations of the Long-billed Curlew have declined throughout most of the species' breeding range since the early 1900s as a result of both overhunting and habitat loss. Long-billed Curlews are currently on the Blue List of species that may be at risk of declining to nonviable population levels in Alberta in the event of further reductions in population, habitat, and/or provincial distribution.
The breeding habitat of Long-billed Curlews is typically described as shortgrass or mixedgrass native prairie but varies from moist meadows to very dry grasslands. Within certain parameters, curlews appear to be somewhat flexible in their breeding habitat preferences. In general, Long-billed Curlews prefer to nest in areas with large open expanses of relatively low vegetation. Curlew foraging efforts are hampered in years in which weather conditions resulted in abundant thick, standing-dead vegetation.
Long-billed Curlews are a late-maturing, long-lived species with low reproductive output. Females lay only one clutch each breeding season and only one case of a re-nesting attempt following nest failure has been recorded.
Young Long-billed Curlews are precocial (able to walk and feed themselves shortly after hatch) and hatch at the same time. Adults lead their chicks to areas of dense vegetative cover shortly after hatching where invertebrates, such as grasshoppers, constitute the majority of the diet for both adults and young. Adult curlews may also feed upon small amphibians. Major predators on curlew eggs include: Coyotes, Black-billed Magpies, Bullsnakes, Common Ravens, and Badgers. In addition to these predators, curlew chicks are also vulnerable to predation by Ferruginous Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, and Great Horned Owls.
Long-billed Curlews rely upon the cryptic colouration of their plumage and eggs to avoid predation and will crouch low on the nest in the presence of potential avian predators. The effectiveness of this crypsis may be enhanced when breeding territories are located within large tracts of unfragmented habitat. Adult curlews actively defend their eggs and young by feigning injury to lead predators away, and by calling and diving at predators. Non-incubating curlews often assist neighbours in attempts to drive predators away. Curlew breeding territories are frequently clumped in loose aggregations and it has been suggested that this aids in predator defense.
Like many species in which both parents incubate the eggs, the female Long-billed Curlew often abandons the brood 2 to 3 weeks after hatching. Thereafter, the male cares for the young until they are old enough to survive on their own -- generally 41 to 45 days after hatching. In July and August, adults and juveniles join post breeding flocks prior to migration and, by the end of August, Long-billed Curlews leave Alberta.
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| 0.955234 | 669 | 3.96875 | 4 |
What is the Fall Equinox?
So long, summer. Saturday is the first day of fall and we have an idea for celebrating near Weston.
Summer is officially behind us; the fall (or autumnal) equinox is today.
But what is the autumnal equinox? Most people don't quite know, so let Weston Patch serve as the great explainer for all things equinoctial.
Equinoxes fall on the halfway point between solstices and occur, according to the Washington Post, "when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of roughly equal length, everywhere in the world."
The nearly equal 12 hours of light and darkness can be attributed to the Earth's lack of an axial tilt on the day of the equinox. In fact, the word equinox is derived from the Latin words aequus, meaning equal, and nox, meaning night.
In Weston on the autumnal equinox, according to sunrisesunset.com, the sun will come up at 6:33 a.m. and set at 6:43 p.m. As you notice, that is not actually a perfect 12 hours of light and darkness. As timeanddate.com reports, this is because of issues such as light refraction and other reasons.
The exact moment of the autumnal equinox this year is 2:49 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time, or 10:49 a.m. in Wellesley.
If you're interested in celebrating the autumnal equinox in a truly unique fashion, join the Sudbury Valley Trustees for a canoe trip down the Concord River. You'll be on the river when the equinox takes place for this area. Check out additional information and register online at the link above.
See ya next year, summer. Hello fall, and happy autumnal equinox!
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| 0.928098 | 396 | 3.140625 | 3 |
A bioteam is an organizational structure in which peers share power and responsibility and each member of the team is a both a leader and a follower. The structure is modeled after a fluid leadership structure found in nature.
Each member of a bioteam has the same knowledge, training and authority. The team uses review meetings to decide upon goals and ways to evaluate how the goals are being met. By establishing priorities and procedures right at the beginning, the team eliminates the likelihood of failure because of the actions of one team member
Software developer Ken Thompson coined the term bioteam after observing how bees and birds communicate and collaborate to get work done. Canada geese, for instance, take turns being at the front of their “V” flying formation. (Being in front requires the most energy.) An observer will see the V constantly changing shape as the birds take turns leading and followers adjust position to reduce drag and fly long distances efficiently. Some scientists think the leadership rotation also encourages the birds to communicate more effectively. The geese’s honking is thought to be a kind of broadcast where the birds are issuing instructions about speed, warning about danger or sending messages of encouragement.
Thompson proposes that although birds in a flock of geese or ants in a colony function in close proximity to each other, a human bioteam can be just as effective when team members are working remotely. A traditional team whose members are in different countries, for instance, might waste time waiting for orders from superiors who live in different time zones. In the bioteam self-managing model, there's no waiting. By allowing individual team member to make decisions and take action without requiring permission, the entire team improves its reaction time and productivity.
A bioteam works best when each team member broadcasts information and updates to the entire team frequently. This prevents confusion and redundancy, while still allowing team members to react quickly to any given situation they encounter. Transparent communication increases the probability that any decision a team member makes will be in the team’s best interests.To facilitate communication and let team members know when actions have been taken, bioteams can use collaborative and social software tools such as Sharepoint, wikis, SwarmTeam or Twitter. According to Ken Thompson, the most efficient bioteams use one-way broadcasts and save two-way communications (which take more time) for when they’re really needed.
In The secret DNA of high-performing virtual teams, Ken Thompson explains why bioteams treat every team member as a leader.
Thompson provides an overview of bioteaming as it applies to the modern workplace in Virtual Teams - a new paradigm from nature.
This case study shows how the Intermediate Care Team at DaisyHill Hospital used bioteam principles to communication and collaborate more effectively.
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| 0.942195 | 569 | 2.984375 | 3 |
History of Shoofly Pie
© copyright 2004 by Linda Stradley - United States Copyright TX 5-900-517- All rights reserved. This web site may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission and appropriate credit given. If you quote any of the history information contained below for research in writing a magazine or newspaper article, school work or college research, and/or television show production, you must give a reference to the author, Linda Stradley, and to the web site What's Cooking America.
Photo taken at the Yoder’s Deitsch Haus restaurant in Montezuma, GA.
Check out my Shoofly Pie (Wet Bottom) recipe.
Visit the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania and indulge in a Pennsylvania Dutch original, the Shoofly Pie. Also know as Shoo-Fly Pie, and Shoo Fly Pie. First time visitors to the area always comment on this pie and its strange name. Most of the area restaurants and bakeries sell this favorite pie. The pie is more like a coffee cake, with a gooey molasses bottom. Some cooks put chocolate icing on top for a chocolate shoofly pie. Some use spices; some don't. Today, the biggest debate being whether to use a flaky or a mealy crust for the pie dough. The bottom of the pie can be thick or barely visible and is referred to as either a "wet bottom" or a "dry bottom." Everyone agrees the shoofly pie is best when slightly warmed and with whipped cream on top.
Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is indigenous to those areas of southeastern Pennsylvania that were settled by the Mennonites and Amish. William Penn (1644-1718), founder of Pennsylvania, was seeking colonists for the Pennsylvania area. The Amish and Mennonites both settled in Pennsylvania as part of William Penn's "holy experiment" of religious tolerance. He wanted to establish a society that was godly, virtuous and exemplary for all of humanity. Encouraged by William Penn’s open invitation to persecuted religious groups, various sects of Christian Anabaptists-Mennonites and offshoots such as the Amish and the Brethren-emigrated from Germany and Switzerland. The first sizeable group arrived in America around 1730 and settled near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
These settlers were addicted to pies of all types and they ate them at any time of day. The most famous of their pies is the shoofly pie. As the very earliest settlers came to North America by boat, they brought with them the staples of their diet - long-lasting nonperishable that would survive a long boat trip. These staples were flour, brown sugar, molasses, lard, salt, and spices. Arriving in the new land during late fall, they had to live pretty much on what they had brought with them until the next growing season. The women, being master of the art of "making do," concocted a pie from the limited selection that could be found in the larder. This resourcefulness led to the creation of shoofly pie.
Shoofly pie seems to be a variation of the older Treacle Tart. Treacle is the British generic name for any syrup made during the refining of sugar cane; i.e., Treacle, Black Treacle, Molasses, Golden Syrup and Blackstrap are all treacles. During the 17th century, treacle was used chiefly as a cheap from of sweetener. By the late 1700s, refined sugar became affordable to the masses in Britain and overtook treacle as a general sweetener. Molasses was often substituted for treacle in colonial American recipes. Many early cookbooks have Molasses Pie recipes.
The origin of the name has been debated for years and will probably never ultimately be solved. The most logical explanation is related to the fact that during the early years of our country, all baking was done in big outdoor ovens. The fact that pools of sweet, sticky molasses sometimes formed on the surface of the pie while it was cooling, invariably attracting flies, show how such a pie could come to be called shoofly pie.
To Return to my main
History Index Page, click
Comments from readers:
Hi and greetings from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania! I was looking at your website at the article about shoe fly pie (that is how we spell it). I am most certain that you meant to write the Amish in "southeastern Pennsylvania" and not "southwestern Pennsyvlania". We have always been told that pies were not a German idea and that the PA Dutch borrowed the idea from the English here in Pennsylvania. Nothing finer that a warmed up piece of wet bottom shoe fly pie and a nice cup of coffee. Yummy! - Craig Benner (4/22/05)
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| 0.963097 | 995 | 2.921875 | 3 |
You are looking at historical revision 13923 of this page. It may differ significantly from its current revision.
Use define-option to define command-line options and define-command for defining subcommands that control specific sub-functionality. Basic usage of a program that uses this facility is
PROGRAM [OPTION | ARGUMENT] ...
PROGRAM [COMMAND [OPTION | ARGUMENT] ...]
where PROGRAM is the program name, COMMAND is an optional subcommand and OPTION and ARGUMENT are command-line options and arguments to those, respectively. define-option defines global or subcommand-specific command-line options, define-command defines subcommands and specifies their behaviour. After you have finished declaring options and commands, invoke tool-main to process the remainingcommand-line arguments and invoke command and option processors.
The option -h / --help is predefined and invokes tool-usage.
This extension supports static linking.
[syntax] (define-option OPTION DOCUMENTATION [PROC])
Defines the command-line option OPTION which may be a character, string or SRFI-37 option value. The option expects a required argument. If an option, the option argument flag (required or optional) must be a string which is used in tool-usage to show a more informative option documentation. DOCUMENTATION should be a string describing the option.
PROC, if given, should be an option-processor as described in SRFI-37 or a symbol. If PROC is a symbol then giving this option on the command line will set the global variable with the same name to the option argument. If PROC is missing the name of option global variable is the same as OPTION which should be a string, symbol or character.
[syntax] (define-flag OPTIONNAME DOCUMENTATION [VARIABLE])
Defines an option that takes no arguments and sets VARIABLE to #t if the option is given. If VARIABLE is not specified, the name of the variable is the same as OPTIONNAME which should be a string, symbol or character.
[syntax] (define-command NAME DOCUMENTATION BODY ...)
Defines a subcommand. NAME should be a string or symbol. DOCUMENTATION should be a string describing the operation of this command. BODY ... is evaluated and should return a one-argument procedure that is invoked when the subcommand is specified on the command-line, with all non-option arguments collected in a list.
If a tool provides subcommands, then the command name must be the first program argument given on the command line.
Note that you can use define-option and define-flag in the body to declare command-specific options.
[syntax] (define-tool (NAME [INPUTVAR [COUNTVAR [INDEXVAR]]]) HELPSTRING BODY ...)
A convenience macro that wraps common uses of tool-name, tool-help and tool-main. Defines a tool named NAME with a help string HELP, and calls tool-main with the value of (command-line-arguments) and an argument processor that invokes body ... for each given command line argument, with INPUTVAR bound to the current argument. If no command line arguments were given, the value of (current-input-port) will be bound to INPUTVAR. When INPUTVAR is missing the variable named argument is in scope.
The number of arguments is bound to COUNTVAR. When COUNTVAR is missing the variable named arguments-count is in scope.
The current argument index is bound to INDEXVAR. When INDEXVAR is missing the variable named arguments-index is in scope.
define-tool can be defined like this:
(define-macro (define-tool head help . body) (let-optionals head ((name (string->symbol (tool-name))) (input 'argument) (args-cnt-var 'argument-count) (args-idx-var 'argument-index)) (let ((args-var (gensym))) `(begin (tool-name ,(symbol->string name)) (tool-help ,help) (tool-main (command-line-arguments) (lambda (,args-var) (let ((,args-cnt-var (length ,args-var)) (,args-idx-var 0)) (for-each (lambda (,input) ,@body (set! ,args-idx-var (+ ,args-idx-var 1))) (if (null? ,args-var) (list (current-input-port)) ,args-var) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )
[procedure] (tool-main ARGUMENTS [PROC [THUNK]])
Starts command-line processing of ARGUMENTS. If no arguments are given THUNK is invoked (which defaults to a procedure that calls (tool-usage 1)). If non-option arguments are supplied, PROC is called with the argument list, if given.
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[procedure] (tool-name [STRING])
Sets or returns the name of the program, which defaults to (car (argv)).
[procedure] (tool-help STRING)
Sets or returns the program description.
[procedure] (tool-usage STATUS [COMMAND])
Shows usage information collected from (tool-help) and the option and subcommand documentation and exits with status code STATUS. If COMMAND is given, the usage information shown lists global options and the description of the command. If no command is given, then global options and all available subcommands are shown. Finally (tool-exit STATUS) is invoked.
[procedure] (tool-exit [STATUS])
Terminates the program and returns STATUS (which defaults to 0). If invoked inside the dynamic scope of tool-main, then the call to tool-main returns with the given status code. If called outside of the dynamic scope of tool-main, (exit STATUS) is performed.
[procedure] (tool-error MESSAGE [STATUS [COMMAND]])
Displays an error MESSAGE and invokes tool-usage with the any optional arguments. Default value for STATUS is 1. Default value for COMMAND is the same as tool-usage.
A simple cat(1) tool:
;;;; cat.scm (use tool utils format-modular) (define-flag #\n "number output lines" numlines) (tool-name "cat") (tool-help "Concatenate input files (or standard input) to standard output") (tool-main (command-line-arguments) (lambda (args) (for-each (lambda (f) (if numlines (do ((i 1 (add1 i)) (lns (read-lines f) (cdr lns)) ) ((null? lns)) (format #t "~6d\t~a~%" i (car lns)) ) (display (read-all f)) ) ) (if (null? args) (list (current-input-port)) args) ) ) )
Copyright (c) 2007, Felix L. Winkelmann All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
- added 'tool-error' procedure, "argument-index" to 'define-tool' [Kon Lovett]
- binding of 'tool-exit' in 'tool-main' should be "fluid" [Kon Lovett]
- added count of non-option arguments to 'define-tool' [Kon Lovett]
- didn't work with syntax-case at all
- uses args-doc for usage information [Thanks to Ivan Shmakov]
- toplevel help output is somewhat compressed
- fixed bug in handling of option processor in define-option
- order of non-option arguments was reversed
- added define-tool [suggested by Arto Bendiken]
- initial release
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Hunt 5304: CWMU Buck pronghorn
DescriptionThe Deseret Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit (CWMU) takes up parts of Weber, Morgan and Rich counties, with Rich county having the most area. The higher points on the Deseret CWMU are along Horse Ridge (8500 feet). On the west the Unit drops away to about 6400 feet in the south and 8000 feet in the north. On the eastside of Horse Ridge the Unit makes a less steep drop, dropping down to around 6400 feet in the north and 6800 feet in the south along the Utah - Wyoming state border. The most common elevation is 6400 feet but ranges from 6000 feet to 8700 feet with an elevation difference of 2700 feet. Fifty-two percent (52%) of the CWMU elevation ranges between 6800 feet and 7800 feet an elevation difference of 1000 feet.
The Deseret Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit (CWMU) is much larger than other CWMUs in Utah, therefore land cover is more diversified. About half (50%) of the land cover on the Deseret CWMU is Inter-Mountain Basins Montane Sagebrush Steppe (62). Towards the northeast and at lower elevation, there are large areas of Inter-Mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Steppe (66). Thet higher elevations on the west of the Unit, mixed with Sagebrush Steppe are extensive areas of Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest and Woodland (22). At lower elevations towards the northeast are several patches of Agriculture (114) land. At minor extents are Southern Rocky Mountain Montane-Subalpine Grassland (71), Inter-Mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Shrubland (48), and Rocky Mountain Gambel Oak-Mixed Montane shrubland (41).
One of the Deseret Cooperative Wildlife Mangement Unit (CWMU) nearest weather stations, WOODRUFF (429595), is about 10.5 km north from the north edge of the CWMU. WOODRUFF has one hundred eleven (111) years of records, 1897 - 2008. During the FALL (September, October and November) the average precipitation is 2.64 inches, but it can be as high as 5.18 inches or as low as 0.64 inch. During the 91-day FALL period, 15 days will experience greater than or equal to 0.01 inch of precipitation, 8 days of greater than or equal to 0.10 inch, or 1 day of the greater than or equal to 0.50 inch of precipitation. Snowfall during the FALL averages 8.7 inches but can be as high as 29.2 inches. FALL temperature at WOODRUFF averages 40.8 degrees F. but can be as high as 111.0 degrees F. or as low as -26.0 degrees F. During the FALL, 73 days will be below freezing (32 degrees F.) and 6 days above 90 degrees F. This map is provided for general reference only and does not constitute a legal hunt boundary. The Division does not guarantee access to any private or public land. Hunt unit boundaries may include private property or other excluded areas.
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<urn:uuid:7ef7e26c-9f83-41b4-87ed-5403a09637e7>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://wildlife.utah.gov/maps/public/details_hunt.php?hunt_id=2666
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| 0.909307 | 657 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Scripts are Python modules or packages containing one or more Python functions. When Wing starts up, it will search all directories in the configured Script Search Path for modules (*.py files) and packages ( directories with an __init__.py file and any number of other *.py files or sub-packages).
Wing will load scripts defined in each file and add them to the command set that is defined internally. The script directories are traversed in the order they are given in the preference and files are loaded in alphabetical order. When multiple scripts with the same name are found, the script that is loaded last overrides any loaded earlier under that name.
Functions in scripts are exposed as commands in Wing unless their names start with an underscore. Commands may be bound to keys, added to menus or run via Command by Name on the Edit menu.
Commands can be referred to either by their short name or their fully qualified name (FQN).
The short name of a command is the same as the function name but with underscores optionally replaced by dashes (cmdname.replace('_', '-')).
The FQN of a command always starts with .user., followed by the module name, followed by the short name.
For example, if a function named xpext_doit is defined inside a module named xpext.py, then the short name of the command created will be xpext-doit and the FQN will be .user.xpext.xpext-doit.
Once script files have been loaded, Wing watches the files and automatically reloads them when they are edited inside Wing IDE and saved to disk. As a result, there is usually no need to restart Wing when working on a script, except when a new script file is added. In that case, Wing will not load the new script until the reload-scripts command (Reload All Scripts in the Edit menu) is issued or the IDE is restarted.
Reloading will not work for any file that sets _ignore_scripts or for modules outside of the script path. For details on how reloading works, see Advanced Scripting.
Overriding Internal Commands
Wing will not allow a script to override a command that Wing defines internally (those documented in the Command Reference). If a script is named the same as a command in Wing, it can only be invoked using its fully qualified name. This is a safeguard against completely breaking the IDE by adding a script.
One implication of this behavior is that a script may be broken if a future version of Wing ever adds a command with the same name. This can generally be avoided by using appropriately descriptive and unique names and/or by referencing the command from key bindings and menus using only its fully qualified name.
|« 17.0. Scripting Example||Table of Contents||17.2. Script Syntax »|
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http://wingware.com/doc/scripting/overview
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| 0.885739 | 598 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Can They Coexist?
Airports and Cities: Can They Coexist?
As high-speed global commerce expands, and demand for air transport explodes, airports and cities are invading each-other's space in increasingly hazardous ways. The conventional response is simply to keep expanding airport capacity. But more imaginative solutions are now needed.
"Some people think the world is flat," says the voice on the phone-a voice I have listened to many times in the past year.
At first I hear this as a comment on myopic worldviews, but then I realize it's not just a figure of speech. The man I'm listening to, Jim Starry, is being droll. He really is talking about geometry. But he's not referring to sailors who once worried that their ships might sail off the world's edge. He's ruminating about the people who build airports. Their runways are flat, and to Starry, a Colorado-based ecological designer, this doesn't make sense. A flat runway forces the 425-ton jet that is landing on it to throw its engines into reverse and burn a huge amount of fuel to come to a stop, he says. Imagine, instead, a landing strip that is slightly inclined-so that as the plane touches down it decelerates by rolling up a 2- to 3-percent grade.
Imagine that the plane, too, has been given a couple of key design changes. First, just before touch-down, a set of electric motors begins pre-rotating the wheels so that when the plane lands it won't encounter the huge, rubber-pulverizing friction that occurs when a motionless wheel hits pavement at 130 miles per hour. Then, as wing lift is transformed to wheel load, these electric motors begin functioning as generators, using the forward momentum of the plane the way a hydroelectric plant uses a river current. By tapping the energy of the plane's momentum, they slow the plane-without any further reliance on fuel to produce reverse thrust-and recharge the batteries that will later power them as motors at take-off. As the plane rolls up the incline, the gravity-assisted braking brings it to a halt directly atop a 3-kilometer-long, multi-story terminal. Unlike a conventional landing, which typically ends at a place that necessitates a 10-minute, jet-powered crawl to a distant gate, this plane needs only to roll under battery power for a half-minute or so to a gate where its passengers can alight directly into the building below. When it's time to depart, the plane heads back down the other side of the incline, relying initially on its electric motors for acceleration, then switching on its turbines as the slope gently rounds to a level stretch for liftoff.
Supposing such changes are technically feasible, what would be achieved? First, if the plane is a typical Boeing 747, about 4,000 kilograms less jet fuel would be burned for each landing and takeoff-roughly 300 gallons of fuel for deceleration, 300 for takeoff, and 300-plus for all the taxiing around large expanses of tarmac in between. (Building the runway like an elongated highway overpass, with the terminal underneath it, would eliminate miles of taxiways and cut down on the airport's use of land, as well as of fuel.) This adds up quickly, because a typical major airport accommodates around 1,000 flights a day-meaning a potential daily savings of close to 1 million gallons of fuel from that airport alone. There would also be a substantial reduction of noise, which has become a cause of rising tensions as growing cities and their airports become jammed closer and closer together in the same space.
These differences could turn out to be critical, because airports-often celebrated for their futuristic architecture and technology-have turned out to be surprisingly damaging in their effects on human and ecological health, and in the past few years their impacts have taken a turn for the worse. In the first two minutes after a 747 takes off, it emits as much air pollution as 3,000 cars, says a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). People living or working near airports have been found to suffer sharply increased rates of psychological impairment, degenerative illness, and mortality. Hundreds of grassroots groups now say it's time to rethink the way we let these giant machines roar in and out of our populated areas.
An Obsolescent Mindset
Jim Starry isn't just talking about a new kind of runway. To him, the whole mindset that has created the modern major-hub airport doesn't make sense. It's a mindset based on an almost never-questioned assumption-that the solution to rapidly increasing demand for air travel is to provide an ever-increasing supply of land, fuel, and air space. As a result, in its total impact on climate, ecology, and health, today's mega-airport may be one of the most ill-conceived forms of large-scale infrastructure humankind has ever devised-yet it is also one of the least accountable.
Moreover, airports are both multiplying and expanding at a breathtaking rate. In the past few years, huge new airports have appeared all over the world-from Denver to Abu Dhabi to Bangkok. Constructing such an airport is not on the same scale as building a new office tower or highway; it's more like building a city. In China, 18 new airports are under construction and another 21 will have been built by 2005. In Mexico, 20 new airports are planned just for the Baja peninsula. Major airport expansions, which in some respects create even more urban strains than new "green fields" airports carved out of virgin land, are underway in hundreds of cities or suburbs. In the United States alone, the recently enacted Airport Reform and Investment Act for the 21st Century (so-called AIR-21) will subsidize runway expansions or additions at 2,000 airports. New York's heavily congested La Guardia, for example, will increase its capacity by 600 flights per day. And in much of Asia, the pressure to expand is even greater. By 1998, Manila's Ninoy Aquino Airport was operating at twice the capacity it was designed for, and Taipei's Kaohsiung Airport at over three times capacity. Several Pacific Rim governments have embarked on a kind of airport arms race, as they attempt not only to accommodate skyrocketing traffic, but to establish their respective claims to having the pre-eminent "hub" airport of the region.
As Starry ruminates, I become conscious of a distinction I hadn't much thought about before-the difference between air travel and airports. Over the past decade or so, air transport has been increasingly recognized as an environmental threat. It accounts for an estimated 13 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions from all transportation sources, and its emissions of this primary greenhouse gas are expected to grow sharply in the years ahead. Moreover, carbon dioxide combined with other exhaust gases and particulates emitted from jet engines could have two to four times as great an impact on the atmosphere as CO2 emissions alone, says a recent U.S. government study. Jet contrails have also been implicated in the development of enormous heat-trapping clouds, which may be escalating the planes' impacts on climate. The exhaust from a single plane may spread to cover as much as 34,000 square kilometers (13,000 square miles). For each passenger on a trans-Pacific flight, about a ton of CO2 is added to the earth's atmosphere. By 2050, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the contribution by contrails may be almost twice as large as the contribution from aircraft CO2.
But Jim Starry notes that jets are at their worst, by far, when they are on the ground-landing, idling, getting de-iced, taxiing, or taking off. Because airports are designed as they are, most airplanes spend a large part of their working life doing those things. At Denver International, for example, up to 23 planes may be running at "high idle" simultaneously, waiting for takeoff, and some wait up to 40 minutes. In the air, planes produce all that CO2 because they're burning fuel so prodigiously. On the ground, jet engines operate at extremely poor efficiency and the fuel is burned very incompletely. Instead of being converted to energy, vapor, and carbon dioxide, huge amounts of fuel are blown into the ground-level air in the form of carbon particulates and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Starry thinks airports could be designed so that the bulk of that low-efficiency combustion-and pollution-is eliminated.
When he first suggested this, I was reflexively skeptical. To begin with, Starry didn't have the credentials one would like to see from someone who's about to challenge a dominant system. He's always been an outsider-a pilot who has flown thousands of hours, to be sure, and a technician who did some inventive work designing high-altitude balloon launching devices for the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). But Starry has never been a prominent player in the world of aeronautic or architectural engineering. It took me a while to decide that this aptly named man might not be just another of those hyper-educated dreamers who live in the twilight between technology and society, trying haplessly to provide world-changing solutions. Eventually, though, I realized he might be on to something I'd been largely oblivious to. When I'm in an airport, I'm in a kind of twilight zone of my own, my thoughts dwelling on either the place I'm coming from or the place I'm going to. The airport itself doesn't seem quite real. But as I listen to Starry, my focus shifts.
Pollution in High Places
Starry tells me about Denver International Airport (DIA)-a subject he returns to again and again in our conversations. When the site was being prepared in the early 1990s, the amount of soil bulldozed off the prairie could have filled a building 10 feet high, 20 feet wide, and 3,000 miles long. The ostensible reason for constructing DIA was to replace Denver's Stapleton Airport, where air traffic was projected to explode from around 35 million passengers in 1985 to 100 million in the early 21st century. During the five years after this rationale was first offered, Stapleton's traffic declined by 5 million passengers, but the new airport was built anyway. Today, instead of driving 11 kilometers (7 miles) from downtown Denver to Stapleton, people drive 57 kilometers (32 miles) to DIA. Denver officials estimated that the amount of air pollution generated by the new airport and its added traffic was six to eight times what had been generated before. And this project was not unique. What happened in Colorado is now beginning to happen all over the world. Seoul's new Incheon Airport is about 60 kilometers from downtown, as are the two international airports outside Buenos Aires. Kuala Lumpur International is 66 kilometers out.
Watching the building of DIA got Jim Starry to thinking more seriously about the old assumption that the only satisfaction for fast-rising demand is a rising supply. He saw manifestations of this assumption on several fronts of our globalizing economy. In the energy industry, the impulse is to drill for more oil, rather than to use existing supplies much more efficiently. In waste management, the impulse is to find more space to dump. In housing, it's to develop more land, rather than design for higher density on the land already claimed for human use. All these impulses are vestiges of pioneer times, when it was always possible to find more resources by moving on-opening up new territory.
Airports epitomize all three of these resource fronts: they consume land, energy, and dumping capacity at rates rarely equaled anywhere else. Denver is a telling case, because as one of the world's newest mega-airports, it was supposed to be among the most efficient. But instead, DIA seems to have set new standards for excessive consumption. It covers 138 square kilometers (53 square miles), which makes it twice the size of New York City's Manhattan Island. It has greatly increased the region's overall oil consumption; it has increased the time and money travelers spend even before they get on their planes (it has one of the worst on-time records in the nation); and it has accelerated Denver's spread over the Colorado prairie.
As Starry speaks, I'm well aware that this is the kind of thing many people don't like to hear. I'm listening because it's my job to try to keep track of such things. But I'm acutely conscious that we environmentalists have failed, so far, in our mission to halt the accelerating degradation of the planet. In the 30 years since the first Earth Day, every major trend has worsened on a global level. And now I'm hearing about something we have never paid much attention to, because it hasn't fallen into our conventional environmental categories. We study cities and suburbs, agricultural land and wildlife habitat. But airports aren't really any of these. We study green building techniques, but those techniques usually focus on houses and hotels and office buildings, not airports. We've studied the contribution of jet aircraft to air pollution as a function of miles traveled, but not as a result of landing and idling and taking off. Yet, we know these ground-level effects are substantial. Gar Smith, of the Earth Island Institute, reports that in the first five minutes of flight, a commercial airliner burns-turns to CO2-as much oxygen as 17,000 hectares (44,000 acres) of forest produce in a day.
But even more significant than what the plane burns is what it poisons. Studies of neighborhoods near airports such as Chicago's O'Hare and Seattle's Sea-Tac have shown that jet exhaust is subjecting residents to extremely high concentrations of the carcinogens benzene formaldehyde and 1,3-butadiene, and at least 200 other toxic compounds. According to Jack Saporito, president of the Chicago-based U.S. Citizens Aviation Watch, these studies also indicate that significant increases in cancer risk are found among people living near airports with as few as 15 jet flights per day, yet most major cities launch hundreds, and some of them-where there's more than one major airport-launch thousands.
Of course, many of those flights-and their accompanying cargo-have brought important benefits. They've helped bring the world together. But in replacing no-man's lands with busy tarmac, they've brought a new set of threats. For the sake of mental neatness, I divide these threats into five broad categories, though in truth they're not entirely separable-it's a little like trying to separate the risks of overeating, underexercising, smoking, and breathing polluted air in a man who's a heart-attack-waiting-to-happen.
Land Consumption: The Biggest Sprawl of All
Chicago's O'Hare Airport sits on the site of former apple orchards. The St. Louis airport was once soybean fields. DIA is where winter wheat was once grown. China's Macau International spans two ecologically sensitive wetlands. You'd think that as the human population expands, and development consumes more and more of the world's remaining open land, airport planners would design with increasing efficiency. Instead, as old airports add new runways, planners continue to use the same basic principles they've always used; and new airports tend to be more sprawling than the old. Denver's new DIA is 50 times the size of New York's old La Guardia, though they carry comparable traffic. The new Kuala Lumpur International, when finished, will be 30 times the area of the old Osaka Itami. Germany's new Munich Franz Josef Straus is 5 times the area of Norway's old Oslo Gardermoen.
The problem is not just that these huge projects cut sharply into each country's declining environmental assets; they also disrupt existing infrastructure, which increases the pressure on the surrounding environment still further. The impending expansion of Lambert-St. Louis International, for example, will bulldoze one-fifth of the adjoining neighborhood of Bridgeton, wiping out 2,000 houses. If the relocation of those houses' residents follows recent U.S. patterns, their new homes will take up even more land than the airport is taking from them, as they move farther out to larger, cheaper tracts.
Air Pollution: Autos and Airplanes
For the moment, disregard the emissions of airplanes in flight. Consider just what happens at ground level. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), a Boeing 747 spends an average of 32 minutes landing, taxiing, and taking off. In that time, it can generate 87 kilograms of nitrogen oxides (NOx)-equivalent to over 85,000 kilometers of automobile emissions. In a major international airport, with 1,000 flights a day, that would come to 87 metric tons of NOx a day, or roughly the amount that might be produced by all the cars in a city of 2 or 3 million people. NOx, of course, is one of the principal precursors of smog.
Of course, not all of the planes in a big airport are 747s, so actual NOx totals should be smaller. And indeed, a 1995 survey conducted by NRDC, in which U.S. airports offered their own estimates, reported NOx emissions topping out at around 5 tons a day for a major airport-though it should be noted that this figure is based only on the data from those airports that responded, which included fewer than half of those contacted. Still, 5 tons equals the NOx output of close to 5 million kilometers (about 3 million miles) of automobile driving, and the average number of flights handled by a major airport appears likely to have tripled from its 1995 level by 2010. As population growth and globalization continue to drive up air traffic, while competing demands for land continue to
narrow the ground-level bottlenecks through which all this traffic must flow, the amount of idling and taxiing time is likely to grow well beyond that 32-minute average. It is during this idling and taxiing that fuel efficiency is poorest, so as traffic rises, pollution can be expected to rise even faster.
Public knowledge of what happens to our air in airports has been blocked not only by a lack of any systematic monitoring, but sometimes also by a lack of candor about the meaning of the few measurements that are made. Consider, for example, the role of particulate matter (PM) measurements in the approval of Denver International. When DIA was being designed, its particulate matter emissions were projected by using a "PM10" standard which counted all the particles that are 10 microns in diameter or larger (a micron is one-millionth of a meter). According to Gerald Rapp, a chemical engineer who works as an air quality consultant, 99 percent of the particulates spewed out by jet engines are smaller than 10 microns, meaning that the actual PM output was up to 100 times worse than the measurements suggested. "A 10-micron particle is a boulder," Rapp told me. "What's important biologically, for human health, are the really small ones. Tobacco smoke is a tenth to a quarter of one micron."
When DIA was first proposed, the city of Denver opposed it. In 1983, the city residents elected a new mayor, Federico Peña, who had said he saw no reason why a new airport was needed. "In terms of access, convenience, and land-use impacts, development of a new regional airport represents an inferior choice," he said. A study by the city projected that with the huge increase in car driving it would bring, DIA would generate 224 tons of air pollution per day, including NOx, PM, unburned hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide. This projection did not include carbon dioxide, since global warming had not yet arrived as a political issue.
Shortly after he was elected, however, Peña became an enthusiastic DIA booster. He championed the project with federal authorities, who were interested in supporting a model project to show how new airports could improve urban air quality by dissipating the pollution-by moving the flight paths farther from cities. And the particulate projections for Denver neatly supported that idea. By not measuring the smaller-than-10-micron particles, and disregarding the emissions from the 33 million passenger-miles of daily airport commuting, Peña would later be able to claim that his project had cleaned up the air in Denver, which in a narrow sense it had. But for the region as a whole, DIA made the air worse. Nonetheless, Peña's claim of success helped catapult him into the job of U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the Clinton administration, and DIA, in turn, became a model for airport building around the world.
Water Pollution: Off the Edge of the Tarmac
In the United States, little has been written about the impacts of airports on the surrounding land and water, in part because of the aforementioned "neither-here-nor-there" quality of such projects, and in part because only one major new urban airport (DIA) has been built in the United States since the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which made environmental assessments mandatory. While a number of "regional" airports have been built since then, their more rural locations have allowed their environmental assessments to largely escape public notice.
In the assessment for Denver International, it seems there was never any doubt that the project would be approved. In the 550-page book Denver International Airport: Lessons Learned, by Paul Stephen Dempsey (McGraw-Hill, 1997), the first reference to any environmental issue appears in this sentence: "By late summer 1989, the first federal funding installment ($60 million) was received, the FAA approved the final environmental impact statement, and groundbreaking on the project occurred on September 28, 1989." (Italics added.) The book includes little mention of environmental issues involving DIA, and none at all of water pollution.
For Jim Starry, this is a dumbfounding omission. "Look at what happened with de-icing," he says. "When ice forms on planes, as happens often in Colorado, workers remove it with ethylene glycol. At Stapleton, they were using 51 million gallons a year, and most of it ran off into the ground." By then, Starry had left NCAR and was running his own environmental design firm. When city officials invited him to present his design ideas for the proposed new airport, he suggested building a set of containment ponds to catch the ethylene glycol for recycling. The idea was adopted, though he was never either credited for it or paid for his consulting. (Bill Smith, the assistant mayor who invited him, died before the project got underway, and his successor seems to have pushed Starry out of the picture.) After the ponds were built and the airport began operation, however, a curious thing happened. According to Starry, one of the owners of a major airline company that was being heavily courted by DIA (none of the major carriers wanted the new airport), was also the contractor who had been selling ethylene glycol to Stapleton. At DIA, with the ponds catching the fluid for recycling, there was no need to buy so much of it-until one day the ponds were fitted with a 3-foot-diameter pipe that carried the used antifreeze about two miles and dumped it into Barr Lake.
"Now, you can fish in Barr Lake year-round, even when all the other lakes in Colorado are frozen," says Starry. He pauses thoughtfully. "But you won't catch any fish."
DIA's antifreeze management, it seems, was not atypical. In the mid-1990s, U.S. Citizens Aviation Watch (US-CAW) sued Baltimore-Washington Airport (BWI) for allowing its de-icing chemicals to enter an aquifer from which the people of Anne Arundel County get their drinking water. In Michigan, state environmental officials recently cited Wayne County for allowing ethylene glycol from Metro Airport to be discharged into a drain that empties into the Detroit River. And it's not just in de-icing country that airports pose threats to water quality. In Florida, Miami-Dade County has just filed the largest environmental lawsuit in the state's history, citing American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and 15 other companies for dumping airplane fuel, solvents, and other toxic chemicals into the ground around Miami International Airport, where they have seeped into the county's only drinking water source. But so far, the problem of airports leaking or dumping their multifarious fluids has remained largely below the radar-so to speak-of public scrutiny. Saporito notes that US-CAW won its suit against BWI, but the contamination continues. Holding tanks are still leaking ethylene glycol and other chemicals into the aquifer, and people in Maryland continue to drink it.
Noise: The Psychological Pollution
The scream of jets-of fuel igniting and turbine blades striking the air as planes take off-has become the most noticeable of the environmental impacts of airports worldwide, for obvious reasons. Whereas the effects of contaminated air or water may take years to emerge, airplane noise produces instant irritation. As both cities and airports expand, more and more people find themselves living under the flight paths of ascending jets. Only in the past decade have planners begun to react. In the Netherlands, for example, a 1979 study found that 42,000 homes were being subjected to severe noise from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, and in 1990 Schiphol adopted a plan to reduce the impact by noise-insulating some houses and relocating others, and by curtailing night operations. At Paris's Orly, a night curfew has been imposed, and noisier aircraft are required to pay higher taxes. In at least a few places (Osaka, Hong Kong, Seoul), officials have mitigated both noise and land scarcity by filling coastal wetlands or bays so that flight paths go over water instead of homes.
In the United States, where suburbanization has caused the most extensive friction, irritation over noise has spurred the formation of scores of grassroots groups opposing airport expansion projects. In Seattle, a citizens' group called the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs has mobilized to stop the building of a third runway at Sea-Tac Airport, claiming that "the only plan for mitigation of noise from the new runway is to buy more nearby houses," and that "this provides no relief for the tens of thousands who will be newly exposed to overflight noise in neighborhoods miles from the airport." In California, a group called Citizens Against Airport Pollution (CAAP) is suing to stop expansion of San Jose International Airport because the project "would cause traffic gridlock and lead to more air and noise pollution." Similar groups have formed to fight noise at New York's La Guardia, Chicago's O'Hare, Los Angeles International, and St. Louis's Lambert-St. Louis International, among others. It was a national coalition of such groups that gave rise to Saporito's organization, which now has 1.5 million members. "There are expansion plans coming up everywhere, and you just can't roll over the objecting communities anymore," says Dennis McGram, who heads a national coalition called NOISE-the National Organization to Insure a Sound-controlled Environment.
Impacts on Health
There's a NOMBYish (not over my back yard) quality to the political battles being fought over airports and their adjacent communities; many people like the commercial boost an airport can bring, and like the convenience of having ready access to air travel-but don't want planes roaring over their homes. Many of the battles have featured accusations by one neighborhood that it is being used as a dumping ground for noise being diverted from another, more politically connected and vocal neighborhood. "They Complain, We Get the Planes!" read one recent website headline. "How Our Neighbors to the North Screwed Us," said another. In some cases the tug-of-war has become an environmental justice issue, with flight paths tending to be located over the city's poorest neighborhoods. But in the long run, these local concerns may be subsumed by a more pervasive one: the emerging realization that airports may affect the health of anyone living within about a 20-mile radius. In the United States today, 70 percent of the population lives within 20 miles of a major airport.
As reported by Sharon Skolnick of the Earth Island Institute, the State of Washington's Health Department Census, which compared 1991-1995 health data for people living near SeaTac Airport with those of Seattle residents overall, found that "infant mortality near the airport was 50 percent greater, heart disease was 57 percent greater, cancer deaths were 36 percent greater." For people living near the airport, overall life expectancy was found to be 5.6 years shorter. That's not to say we know airport-generated pollution was the cause (or more likely one of several causes), but it suggests that far more attention to that possibility is now warranted. In Chicago, a similar pattern was found, as people living near O'Hare Airport had cancer rates 70 percent higher than those for Chicago overall.
One of the newer and more alarming findings concerns the effects of noise. Apparently, the complaints of groups like NOISE are not just matters of frayed nerves or disrupted sleep. In Germany, when the new Munich airport went into operation, a study of third- and fourth-grade children living in the flight path found significant increases in blood pressure and stress hormones, compared with a similar group of children living in the same area before the airport began operation. "These hormones are linked to adult illnesses, some of which are life-threatening, including high blood pressure, elevated lipids and cholesterol, heart disease, and reduction in the body's supply of disease-fighting immune cells," noted the report.
The Munich study, conducted by the Cornell University College of Human Ecology, also found that the children subjected to flight-path noise did not learn to read as well, because they tended to tune out speech. "This is probably the most definitive proof that noise causes stress and is harmful to humans," said Gary Evans, a professor of design and environmental analysis at Cornell.
The Physics of Catching a Ball
Listening to Jim Starry talk about ethylene glycol in Barr Lake, I feel a certain frustration, because I have come to empathize with the public reaction: "Everything causes cancer now, and everything is killing the environment. What can I do about it?" I sense that Starry is frustrated too, but not because of a lack of solutions. He has a solution that makes intuitive sense and is clearly worth pursuing-getting funding for feasibility studies, and perhaps pilot projects-but people aren't taking it seriously.
I question him more closely about his central concept-the inclined runway. Has the idea ever been tried?
He laughs. "Lots of airports have runways that are inclined because that was just the lay of the land when they built them," he says. "Telluride, Colorado has a 4-percent grade. Aspen has a 112-foot dip. Oh, yes-a big airport in Nepal has a 15-percent incline. We've just never done it on purpose, taken advantage of what it could save in fuel, if we did it systematically."
How about the pilots? Do they have a problem with it?
"No. But pilots are not allowed to have input into runway design. Pilots would actually find it easier, because as you land, you can see the whole runway ahead, like when you're driving and you see the road ahead going up a hill. On a flat, the heat waves often distort visibility-you get that shimmer, and sometimes you can't see all the way down the runway."
He recalls the time a captain at Gurnsy airbase in Wyoming invited him to video a C130 landing on an incline. It went smoothly, although Starry was so transfixed by what he was seeing through the camera that he almost got run over by the plane.
What about the terminal? I understand that having the runway pass over it eliminates most of the taxiing, but are there any other advantages-or disadvantages?
"Think again about the de-icing," he replies. "With the whole airport complex built under the runways, the fuel could be kept underground, at 58 degrees. Instead of filling the wing tanks with fuel that's been stored in freezing trucks, it would go into the planes warm, so the wings would usually have no need to be de-iced in the first place. Then think of ice on the runway. The heat radiating from the terminal's roof melts the ice on the runway overhead, which is good for safety. Then there's the energy conservation of a complex where all the buildings are combined into one, and where it's all insulated by earthen embankment. The whole airport could be built on one-third the land, at one-half the cost, with lower operating cost, and a cleaner environment-which also means the airlines and other airport-related businesses could operate a lot more profitably. It's like designing a city, really; the more compact design is more energy-efficient, more materials-efficient, and more pleasant to be in."
Starry has clearly thought this concept through, and I feel a growing curiosity about its implications. As an editor at Worldwatch, I've long been wary of technological solutions to problems caused primarily by poor judgement or confused values. There are the sobering lessons we've learned about pesticides-the 1950s PR photos of kids smiling happily as they play, free of fear from mosquitos, in a protective cloud of DDT. There's the PR mail I get every week or so from Los Alamos National Laboratory, about its latest proposed technological fix for humankind. But Starry's proposal intrigues me, not because it's new technology but because it seems to be a more intelligent way of using techniques we humans have had all along. I wondered how long it has been since Homo sapiens has known how to cup his hand to catch a ball instead of trying to catch it with the hand held flat.
But if his concept has real potential, why don't people listen? Starry is a gentle person, and doesn't like to blame. He prefers to say the problem is that no-one is in charge of the airport system, and it turns out there's some truth in this. On a micro level, someone controls every movement-the air traffic controllers directing the planes in the air, the security guards monitoring your luggage and your pockets. But on a macro level, when it comes to planning and building, there seems to be no place where the buck stops. In the United States, FAA guidelines tell builders to limit runways to a maximum slope of 1.58 percent, but no-one seems to be able to explain why. It's like the "least common denominator" standards of product safety or quality in commerce, which provide a level playing field for all jurisdictions, but which some jurisdictions complain about because it may prevent them from adopting their own, higher, standards. Airplane pilots, wherever they may be landing, understandably like some degree of uniformity in runway design. And because airports are used by all nations, governments can't impose unilateral regulations on them to the extent they might on their strictly domestic operations. So airport administrations have become worlds unto themselves-quasi-independent, and fully accountable to no-one. I find myself wondering if this lack of accountability isn't a manifestation of the same mental compartmentalization that shackles so much of our thinking-so that, for example, public health agencies enforce no-smoking rules in airport terminals, but have no say in runway design, which may account for vastly larger differences in the amounts of carcinogens to which people in airports are subjected. According to NCAR, each gallon of jet fuel burned pollutes over 8,400 gallons of air to a level of toxicity that would be dangerous, if not lethal, to breathe. The only reason we're not seeing it kill anyone is that it's so rapidly dispersed through the atmosphere. But how long can a finite atmosphere continue to absorb it?
In any case, jet pollution isn't regulated the way car exhaust is. In the United States, legal loopholes have left airports exempt from either reporting to the Toxic Release Inventory or regulation under the Clean Air Act. And when U.S. Aviation Watch sued Baltimore-Washington International for its contamination of drinking water, Saporito says that "EPA was so out-of-the-loop that they had to come to us to find out what was going on. That's scary."
The Boy Who Flew Backward ... But Remembered to Keep Looking Ahead
Still, it seems that the biggest reason why people don't pay attention to the environmental damage done by large airports-and to the kind of remedies proposed by people like Jim Starry-is neither administrative buck-passing nor corruption. Rather, it's that blind spot about supply-side solutions. For most people, airport dysfunction still seems to be just a matter of passenger crowding and delays. Even in terms of passenger capacity, the usual view is narrow-considering only how to expand the numbers of runways and flights, not how to either reduce demand or make supply more energy- and land-efficient.
Two recent accounts illustrate this tunnel vision. A 2000 Consumer Reports review of U.S. airports, ostensibly considering all major factors in consumers' interests, concludes that the solution is to build more outlying airports. Noting that 635 million passengers flew on U.S. carriers in 1999, with a projected increase to 1 billion by 2010, the authors argue that the answer is "public policy that equitably provides easier access to the skies," and that as new airports are planned for locations farther and farther from city centers, "the increasing availability of alternative arrival and departure points for air travel doesn't come a moment too soon."
A front page article in USA Today (September 12, 2000) comes to essentially the same conclusion. "Can gridlock be cured by expanding airports?" asks the headline. And a sub-head answers: "Using alternative sites may be a better solution." The story goes on to suggest that the money being spent to add new runways to large hub airports would be better invested by building more new airports in outlying areas "where land is cheaper and the population more welcoming." Both publications thus echo the prevailing 19th-century notion that the way to get rid of any kind of congestion-whether of people, traffic, or waste-is simply to remove it to a more open space.
But this is the same primrose path that led to suburban sprawl. By looking only at the profitability of new tracts, versus the redesign of cities, we missed the costs of destroying habitat, paving over farmland, increasing per capita energy consumption, and so on. But the proliferation of new runways and access roads isn't just a parallel phenomenon; it's an escalation of sprawl. New airports almost invariably mean major new roads and additional developments along those roads.
Breaking this kind of vicious circle will require looking at efficiency not just in the narrow way airlines do when they try to fly without empty seats, but in the broad way that considers how much energy is consumed by the whole system. An airport that reduces congestion on the runways and in the air by moving out from the city isn't necessarily more efficient if it requires hundreds of millions of passenger miles of added driving each year, as does DIA. A project that makes people use more energy may boost local business and add to GNP, but ecologically it moves us backwards.
Jim Starry says he knows what it's like to fly backwards-and it's a scary feeling. Here, again, he's not speaking figuratively. One time when he was in high school, he deliberately slowed the plane he was flying-a J3 cub that he and a friend had rebuilt-to stalling speed, as part of a training exercise. The stalling speed of the J3 is 30 miles per hour. Flying into a head-wind of 50 miles per hour, "I was actually flying backwards at 20 mph," he recalls. "I was 18 years old-what can I say?" Now older and more circumspect, he doesn't like the idea of unnecessary risk on either a personal or societal level. There are better ways to find thrills, and one of the best is to allow for more imaginative, more out-of-the-box thinking about how to solve some of the world's most threatening problems.
Starry's solutions don't solve the problem of sprawl, but they help to redirect consciousness in an important way. They show that innovative design-in runways, terminals, and airplanes-can provide non-destructive substitutes for new jet fuel supplies or numbers of flights. In doing so, they may also help attune us to the idea that airport design is becoming an increasingly important part of the larger issue of urban design. That, in turn, is critical to determining how our increasingly congested and restless human population can adapt successfully to the limitations of its fast-shrinking planet.
Ed Ayres is editor of World Watch and editorial director of the Worldwatch Institute.
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Who says dead men tell no tales?
On an autumn morning in 1981, the tap-tap-tap of a hammer and chisel banging against bricks and mortar echoed through the still air over Colonial Park Cemetery in downtown Savannah. As powdered mortar gave way and steady hands removed the first brick, shafts of blue sunlight filtered into the Graham–Mossman vault for the first time in close to eight decades. It was a defining moment for Savannah historian Preston Russell—in spite of the overpoweringly musty smell and the sight of a brown recluse spider scampering off into a dark corner of the tomb. “I was thinking of a certain French archaeologist who, in the 19th century, entered the tomb of the Pharaohs, and he noticed some footprints in the dust which had been left there from 3,000 years before,” Russell explains. “That’s the way I felt.” Like Egyptologist Pierre Montet before him, Russell was indeed searching through ancient graves—but in pursuit of facts rather than gold. He eventually solved one of the most important mysteries of this old Savannah burial ground, where nearly 9,000 bodies have been misplaced in a little more than two centuries.
Colonial Park’s story begins in 1750. The city’s first cemetery, located in what is now the southwest corner of Wright Square, was completely full. Out of space and desperate for a solution, colonial authorities opened a new, roughly 6-acre plot on the corner of modern day Oglethorpe and Abercorn streets.
From its opening in 1750 to the end of authorized burials in 1853, Colonial Park was the place for Savannah’s dead: From princes to paupers, they all called the graveyard their final home. Twenty-first century tourists flock to the cemetery’s iron gates to see long, florid—and sometimes unusual—inscriptions on gravestones like the one belonging to Susannah Gray, who “departed this life by the will of God, being killed by lightning on the 26th of July, 1812.” Some are buried beneath crooked, weathered markers bearing strange, ancient symbols, ranging from bats representing the dark night of death, to poppy flowers for the forgetful sleep of the dead. Others sleep forever with members of their families in brick vaults that historians believe are unique to Savannah, Charleston and the central Georgia town of Sandersville.
One of these vaults is the Graham–Mossman mausoleum, which originally belonged to John Graham, Georgia’s royal lieutenant governor. After the Revolutionary War, it was given as part of a war-prize package deal to General Nathaniel Greene, a Patriot hero and trusted aide to George Washington. When Greene died in 1786, his remains were placed inside the old Graham vault, sealed up and forgotten about.
Like what you’re reading? Read the full article in the October/November issue of South magazine.
Tags: cemetery, Haunted, history
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Choosing sustainable seafood in Canada
North America > North America > Canada
Once considered inexhaustible, the world’s oceans are in a state of global collapse. More than 70% of the world’s commercial marine fish stocks are either fully exploited or overfished. The seafood you choose can determine whether tomorrow’s generations will continue to enjoy our oceans’ riches.
In Canada, WWF is working with the seafood industry to promote sustainable fisheries and to raise the profile of sustainable seafood products with consumers and markets. Some of the work involves supporting the activities of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an independent organization that certifies sustainable marine fisheries and products.
You can do your bit by always looking out for seafood carrying the distinctive blue MSC label. This gives you a simple way to identify and purchase fish from well-managed sources.
Worldwide, seafood consumption continues to rise, with over 1 billion people, or nearly 20% of humanity, relying on the ocean for protein. The human population has doubled in the last 50 years, but annual catch has quadrupled from approximately 20 to 90 million tonnes.
This means that pressure on fish stocks and the marine ecosystem has risen and continues to rise drastically. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates that 75% of all global fish stocks are overfished or fished to the limit.
Canada’s fisheries are under similar pressure, with many high profile collapses in the past decade, including Atlantic cod, Pacific rockfish, and Atlantic salmon. This pattern of fishing is clearly unsustainable.
By 2020, WWF-Canada would like sustainable levels of seafood harvest achieved through credible third party certification.
Loblaw has committed to source all seafood sold in its retail locations from sustainable sources by the end of 2013. This commitment covers all canned, frozen, fresh, wild and farmed seafood products. The Loblaw Sustainable Seafood Policy Initiative represents Loblaw's commitment to conservation of marine resources and a healthy environment.
The Sustainable Seafood project will support delivery of conservation targets in WWF-Canada’s priority marine ecoregions as well as WWF-Canada’s corporate objective to engage urban Canadians in consumption and lifestyle choices. These 2 concepts are featured in WWF-Canada’s 2006-2010 Strategic Plan.
In addition, the project will help meet WWF’s global goal of using positive market-based pressure to drive fisheries’ sustainability.
Fostering an understanding of the sustainable seafood concept in rural fishing communities will be key to gaining support and reaching project conservation goals.
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Scientists find best hint of elusive Higgs particle
Scientists have discovered a sub-atomic particle they believe is crucial in the formation of the universe.
The Higgs boson, otherwise known as the God particle, is thought to give all other particles in the universe their mass.
Scientists in Geneva and Melbourne say the discovery still needs to be verified, but it is the strongest evidence yet that the particle exists.
The particle is "consistent with (the) long-sought Higgs boson", the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said in a statement.
Scientists have wrestled with the elusive particle for nearly half a century.
"We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," said CERN director general Rolf Heuer.
"The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle's properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe."
Finding the Higgs would validate the Standard Model, a theory which identifies the building blocks for matter and the particles that convey fundamental forces.
It is a hugely successful theory but has several gaps, the biggest of which is why some particles have mass and others do not.
Mooted by British physicist Peter Higgs in 1964, the boson is believed to exist in a treacly, invisible, ubiquitous field created by the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
When some particles encounter the Higgs, they slow down and acquire mass, according to theory. Others, such as particles of light, encounter no obstacle.
The discovery was announced simultaneously in Geneva and in Melbourne, where the international High Energy Physics conference is taking place.
Extensive and expensive testing has been conducted in a quest to either prove or disprove the existence of the Higgs boson.
CERN led the search but have been hesitant to announce their results in case of statistical flukes.
In scientific parlance, the goal was "five sigma", meaning that there is just a 0.00006 per cent chance that what the two laboratories found is a mathematical quirk.
Because the Higgs boson cannot be seen, scientist had to infer its existence. The process has been likened to proving the existence wind - it cannot be seen, but we know that it exists from the effect it has on other things.
This inference is done by smashing protons together at in the CERN's Large Hadron Collider, a massive 27 kilometre-long particle accelerator that lies beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva.
Inside the underground tunnel, scientists created tiny but fierce collisions that caused sub-atomic debris to fly into detectors that were built into the 360-degree walls of a car-sized lab.
Scientist then sifted through the signals of the collisions and look for patterns that point to the existence of the Higgs boson.
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"Truth" is defined as: "the real state of things; fact; reality; an accepted statement or proposition." Some suggest that there is no true reality, only perceptions and opinions, while others argue that there must be some absolute basis. This being said, we can say that there are two diametrically-opposed beliefs related to absolute truth:
1. There are no absolutes that define reality. Everything is relative, and thus there is no actual reality. There is ultimately no authority for deciding if an action is positive or negative; right or wrong.
2. There are absolutes that define what is real and what is not. Thus, actions can be deemed right or wrong based upon how they measure up against these absolute standards.
Our perspective on absolute truth should be determined by the one who is the ultimate authority, or maker, of all things. (This follows because the maker of all things has defined reality, thus becoming the standard for what we understand to be real.) For those who believe that the "maker" was God (a personal, all-powerful Intelligent Being), absolute truth is derived from properly understanding who God is and what His "will" is for His creation.
Those who reject the idea of a personal maker must believe that an impersonal one -- chance -- has determined reality. Hence, chance (which by definition has no standard or objective sense) is the only "real" thing in the universe. Everything is a chance occurrence, including our ability to understand who and what we are talking about! "Meaning" is a fantasy. There is no way to derive a standard of truth that has any authority. Anything goes!
Let's consider some of the logical outcomes of believing one way or the other:
If I believe that a personal God created all things, I can know:
--I was created for a purpose
--My level of fulfillment in life will be based on how well I accomplish the objectives ("will") of my Creator.
--Some actions are right, while others are wrong. I can discover this difference by learning about the Creator's plan.
--I am accountable to the Creator for my behavior.
If I believe that "forces" of chance randomness created all things, I can know:
--That nothing is truly knowable, since there is no standard by which to define reality or by which to measure the factual nature of any given idea.
--That no action is any better than another, hence, all actions are meaningless.
--My life has no value or purpose, because, in a very real sense, it is an accident
--I am not accountable for my behavior, because nothing I do matters.
PROOF THAT ABSOLUTES MUST EXIST
The denial of absolute truth has more than a few serious logical problems. If we will "follow the train of thought to the station" we will find that it "derails."
Problem #1 -- Self-Contradiction. Those who would insist that there are NO absolutes are believing in an absolute. They are absolutely sure that there is nothing that is absolute. Such a philosophy is self-defeating and self-contradictory. Their statement of belief is, in itself, evidence against their belief!
Problem #2 -- Limited Knowledge. A human being, with a limited and finite mind, cannot make absolute negative statements. You can't say: "There are no dogs in Alaska" unless you have absolute knowledge of Alaska...every home, cave, etc. You would be forced to say: "With the knowledge I have now and the small evidence I have observed, I don't think there are any dogs in Alaska." (On the flip side, making an absolute positive statement is possible, because if we see dogs in Alaska, we could make the absolute statement "There are dogs in Alaska.") Likewise, a finite human cannot make the statement: "There is no God" (although many try), because they would have to have absolute knowledge of the entire Universe from beginning to end in order to know that. The best one could really do would be to say: "With the limited knowledge I have, I don't believe that there is a God." The same logic applies to the statement people make "There are no absolutes."
Problem #3 -- The Real World. Let us, for a moment, suppose that everything really is relative (no standards of any kind). That would mean that everybody does what they think is right--setting their own rules for life. The problem comes when one person's rules clash with another's. What if one person decides that killing is a noble thing to do, and so attempts to kill everyone in sight? If things are relative, then killing is just as right as not killing. Cruelty is equal to non-cruelty. Would you have a problem with that? Of course, most of us would.
When locked in the chambers of philosophy, we can kick around wild ideas about nothing really existing, or nothing being absolute. But the real world greets us when we emerge from that chamber--a world full of life and death, suffering and pleasure, evil and good. If there is no standard of truth in the Universe, then one can never be sure of anything. It is all an accident. We would be free to do as we please--rape, murder, steal, lie, cheat, etc. Who is to say that those things are wrong? A world without absolutes would be horrible indeed!
So, the other possibility--that there is indeed absolute truth in the Universe, can be our only other option. There must be a "reality" somewhere, that defines what is and what is not, what is right and what is wrong. In order for there to be absolute truth, there must be an authority that establishes that truth. You cannot have a law without a lawgiver. You cannot have a design without a designer.
Proof #1 -- Conscience. If you believe in absolute truth then you must accept the idea of a Creator--someone made you and implanted in you a moral code--a conscience. Our conscience tells us that the world "should be" a certain way. It informs us that something is wrong with suffering, starvation, rape, pain, and evil. It informs us that love, generosity, compassion, and peace are positives for which we should strive.
The only rational explanation for the existence of such a "inner knowledge" is God. The Bible makes it clear that it was God who established the Universe. It testifies that God created the world and made mankind. It records God's moral absolutes that He expects His creations to live by. According to the pages of the Word of God,
--it was He who set in motion the laws of nature and conscience.
--he is the architect behind the grand design of our world.
--he is the author of the moral absolutes that govern the hearts of men.
If one accepts the idea of God as Creator, then it becomes easy to understand where morality came from. Why do people disagree with innocent killing? Why are people repulsed by the idea of sexually abusing little children? Why do we think it is wrong to steal someone else's property? It is because God told us. Those morals certainly did not flow out of millions of years of chance evolution and the survival of the fittest-- in fact, evolution would teach us the exact opposite set of guiding principles! Evolution tells us to do whatever it takes to survive and get ahead...not to show love and compassion to the weak!
Proof #2 -- Science. The word science simply means "knowledge." It is the study of what we know, and the quest to know more. Thus, any scientific study must necessarily be founded upon the belief that there are objective realities in the world. (Interestingly enough, many historical scholars surmise that the scientific revolution in the West grew out of the study of the Bible following the "Reformation." As the Bible was printed and distributed, people began to realize that there were laws by which God governed the universe, and began giving up superstition in order to learn about the world God had made.) At any rate, we understand that it would be very difficult for someone to pursue a field of study, while at the same time rejecting that there is any definition of reality. Without absolutes, what would there be to study? How could you know if your ideas were correct? How would you even know if your perceptions of what you were studying were real? You wouldn't, because you wouldn't believe in "real" to begin with!
Proof #3 -- Religion. All the religions of the world are an attempt to give meaning and definition to life. They represent the fact that humanity is craving something "more" than physical existence. We want assurance for the future, hope for the afterlife, forgiveness for our sins, peace through our struggles, and answers for our deepest questions. Why do we want these things? It seems clear enough that the animal world is not pursuing philosophy or grappling with issues of eternity. If we are mere chance accidents, all flowing out of a common animal ancestor, why did we turn out with an insatiable desire to know and grasp reality? Religion is proof that mankind was built with something more...a higher purpose. There must have been a Creator, personal and purposeful, who implanted in us this desire. If there is a Creator, then there is a reality which He has defined in creation. He becomes the standard for absolute truth.
THE ULTIMATE PROOF
If you want to know what the absolute answers are, then get to know the One who has absolute knowledge. If you want the truth about the beginning of the world and the purpose we are on earth...talk to the One who was there! If you want to understand what standards we must follow as human beings, talk to the One who has defined reality! The ultimate proof that there is absolute truth will not come through some clever philosophical argument. It will come from a personal encounter with the One who declared: "I am the Truth."
The Bible says in Romans 1:18-20 that
"..What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
God has implanted in us and all around us the knowledge of Himself. Creation testifies that He is real…so men are left without excuse.
He has laid down His absolute moral code for His creation….one only need look at the Law of God in the Bible. There it clearly outlines right and wrong--good and evil.
Psalm 19:7-10 declares:
"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure, and altogether righteous." (NIV)
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Starting Position: Sit on the stability ball with your feet flat on the floor. Engage your abdominals to support your spine. Slowly tuck your tailbone under, curling the spine. Begin to walk your feet away from the ball until your head, shoulders and upper back are resting on the ball. Knees should be bent to 90 degrees and your thighs and torso should be at or near parallel to the floor. Knees should be hip-width apart and your feet should be facing forward. Distribute your weight evenly through both feet.
Pull your shoulders down and back to make firm contact with the ball. Maintain this position throughout the exercise. Bring your arms over your chest, reaching your arms toward the ceiling. Straighten your elbows and keep your hands together. Press your hands toward one another to help maintain stability and control during the movement.
Rotational Movement: Exhale. Brace your torso by contracting your abdominal/core muscles to stabilize your spine. Slowly rotate your torso to one side while keeping your shoulders on the ball and feet firmly planted on the floor. Keep your hips and torso parallel with the floor. Avoid the tendency to let your hips drop down. Push your feet into the floor and hips towards the ceiling to help maintain stability and control. Inhale and hold this position briefly before rotating to the opposite side.
Exercise Variation: As you learn to perform this exercise with good form, you can increase the exercise challenge by moving your feet together or adding resistance in the form of holding a medicine ball or cable.
Controlling your balance over the ball is critical for your safety. Avoid fast or bouncy movements that can cause you to lose control and fall.
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September 13, 2010, 02:16PM PT in Exam Preparation Blog |
As the world turns...so does your body
And just like the world, the body turns on an axis of rotation. But unlike the earth, the body has multiple axes of rotation options. And closely linked with the axis of rotation are planes of motion. Before you can understand the axis of rotation you need to review which planes of motion exist and how they divide the body. Below are the relevant manual pages:
ACE’s Essentials of Exercise Science: pg 110
Group Fitness Instructor 2nd edition: pg 34
Don’t forget the Exam Prep blog post on planes of motion!
(Going forward I'll assume you're familiar with planes of motion.)
So how does axis of rotation relate to planes of motion? Well, they work together! The axis of rotation is the imaginary line or point about which the lever rotates. The axis of rotation intersects the center of the joint and is perpendicular to the plane of movement. And if you just went…huh?, then check out the graphic examples of these movements - page 18(Essentials…) or pg 53 (Group Fitness Instructor) for the images - and think about the movement directionally. We’ll use the hip joint as our example.
The medio-lateral axis refers to the axis of rotation running towards the midline (medial) and away from the midline (lateral). Visualize a rod that goes through your hip joint from left to right (lateral to medial). The only action you hip can now make is flexion and extension (as the hip joint moves around the rod). Flexion and extension only occur in the sagittal plane. Therefore, flexion/extension occurs about the medio-lateral axis in the sagittal plane.
Anteriorposterior axis of rotation refers to the axis running from front to back (remember…anterior/front to posterior/back) Visualize a rod that goes in the front of your hip joint and sticks out the back. The only action your hip joint can now make is abduction and adduction. Abduction/Adduction only occurs in the frontal plane. Therefore, abduction/adduction occurs about the anterioposterior axis in the frontal plane.
Finally, the longitudinal axis of rotation follows the long line of the body. Picture a rod that goes in the top of your shoulder, down through your hip bone, and out the bottom of your foot. The only hip action you can make is internal and external rotation of the hip. Rotation only occurs in the transverse plane. Therefore, internal and external rotation occurs about a longitudinal axis in the transverse plane.
Just like with planes of motion, you may improve your comprehension of the material by getting up and doing the movements yourself while comparing with the manual images. Don’t be bashful - you can always tell people it’s an ACE recommended part of your studying technique!
Questions? Contact an Education Consultant at 1-888-825-3636 x782.
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Being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel is a positive metaphor. It invokes in our mind the idea of being able to be in the middle of a very difficult situation, and still understand that, with perseverance you are going to be able to meet your goal. In our mind, it makes us think about a person who is traveling through a dark system of caves, and gets lost. However his friend is on the other end of the caves with the flashlight that he purchased at http://www.batterymax.com.au/. His friend with the flashlight keep shouting to him, just keep going. And as a result the individual that is lost is able to find his way out of the cave and be rescued.
Many times athletes need to have this same type of mentality. At times for them their physical limitations, and they’re tired bodies can be likened to that system of caves. There may be a time where individual is so tired and so worn out, that they, physically, feel like they’ve lost it all. They may want to throw in the towel and just give in. However if an athlete is going to be successful, and if an athlete is going to make it to Olympic level their minds have to serve as that beacon of light, that light at the end of the tunnel that encourages their battered body to just keep moving.
Very few sports require this type of determination like Olympic wrestling. Olympic wrestling, is a very difficult and demanding sport which requires the participant to push themselves physically to the max, and mentally maintain their edge. Of all of the individuals who wrestled and the 2012 Olympics only a handful of medals were given out. This proves that only a small amount of individuals had what it took to overcome their body’s tiredness, and mentally push themselves to success. The countries that were the most successful of the 2012 Olympics were the, Russian Federation, with a total of 11 medals, and Japan who had a total of six medals, including four gold medals.
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|The University of Adelaide||Home | Faculties & Divisions | Search|
Dr Simon Holford (email)
Lecturer in Petroleum Geoscience
Deputy Director, Centre for Tectonics, Resources and Exploration (TRaX)
The University of Adelaide
Business: 08 8313 8035
Mobile: 0424 197 916
Mr David Ellis (email)
Media and Communications Officer
Marketing & Communications
The University of Adelaide
Business: +61 8 8313 5414
Mobile: +61 421 612 762
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
University of Adelaide geologists have shed new light on the origin of Australia's largest delta, the Ceduna Delta, and the river systems which drained the continent millions of years before the Murray-Darling system came into existence.
It has long been thought that a massive river system, almost 2000km long, extended from Queensland's eastern margin and entered the sea near Ceduna, depositing enormous quantities of sediment from across the continent.
In contrast, this research has revealed that between 85 and 70 million years ago the river system depositing sediment into the delta was restricted to a series of smaller, fast-flowing rivers in the area around Ceduna. This area was being uplifted as Australia and Antarctica began to break apart, forming a series of hills which were then eroded, producing a more subdued landscape that today encompasses the Nullarbor Plain.
The University of Adelaide researchers are the first to analyse the ages of mineral grains contained in sediments from the only well drilled to date into the centre of the delta in the Great Australian Bight - revealing the nature and original sources of the sediment.
"By analysing this sediment, we've been able to reconstruct the landscape and major river drainage systems of the Australian continent about 80 million years ago," said project leader Dr Simon Holford. "It also gives us a better understanding of the hydrocarbon potential - the possibility of economic oil and gas production - from the region.
"To understand the hydrocarbon potential, we need to know the origin and nature of the reservoir rocks."
The 700km-wide Ceduna Delta, off the West Coast of South Australia, is about the same size as the Niger Delta in Western Africa, containing about 0.5 million cubic kilometres of sedimentary rock including sandstones and shales.
Many deltas contain large hydrocarbon reserves, and last year BP announced it would invest up to $1.4 billion exploring the Ceduna Delta for oil and gas.
Analysing the sediment, Dr Holford, PhD candidate Justin MacDonald, fellow researchers and Melbourne-based Geotrack International Pty Ltd, dated almost 1000 grains of the mineral zircon from the well's core samples.
"By looking at the distribution of the ages of the minerals, we were able to identify different 'age populations' of zircon and produce a model of a river system which transported these minerals and deposited them on the margin of the continent," Dr Holford said.
"Our results showed that most of the sediment was derived much closer to the Great Australian Bight than has been previously thought. It gives us a much better handle on the geology and geomorphology of Australia 85-70 million years ago."
The research has been published in the Journal of the Geological Society.
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An Iranian bomb might be closer than previously thought. Continuing his assessment of Iran's nuclear program, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) analyst Maseh Zarif points that Iran:
- Needs to produce an additional 14 kg of near-20% enriched uranium (which has to be converted to weapons-grade uranium) to have enough for one 25 kg nuclear bomb.
- It could take as little as 3 weeks or as long as 4 months for Iran to produce enough weapons grade uranium for one bomb.
Please click here for Zarif's latest brief.
Maseh Zarif is the Iran team lead for AEI’s Critical Threats Project. He is available for interviews and can be reached at [email protected] or through [email protected] (202.828.6035).
For additional help, other media inquiries, or to reserve AEI's in-house TV studio or ISDN facilities, please contact:
TV Jesse Blumenthal [email protected] / 202.862.4870
Radio Michael Pratt [email protected] / 202.862.5823
Print or Web Jesse Blumenthal [email protected] / 202.862.4870, Michael Pratt at [email protected] / 202.862.5823, or Veronique Rodman at [email protected] / 202.862.4871
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The previous discussion on the subject of love and affection was an introduction, and now we want gradually to draw a conclusion. The most important part of our discussion - it is in fact the foundation of our discussion -is whether love and affection for those near to God, and devotion to persons of excellence, is an aim in itself, or whether it is a means for refining the soul, reforming one's morals, and acquiring human virtues and excellences.
In animal love, all the interests and endeavour of the lover is towards the form of the loved one and the harmony of the loved one's limbs and the colour and beauty of the skin, and these are instincts which pull and attract man. However, after the satisfying of the instinct, these fires have no brightness, become cool, and are eventually extinguished.
But human love, as we have said, is life and vitality; it engenders obedience and loyalty. This is the love which makes the lover resemble the loved one, makes him try to be a manifestation of the loved one and a copy of the loved one's behaviour, just as Khwajah Nasiru'd-Din at-Tusi says in his commentary to Ibn Sina's Kitabu 'l-isharat wa 't-tanbihat (Book of Directives and Remarks)
(The love of) the soul is that whose source is the essential resemblance of the soul of the lover with the soul of the beloved. Most of the lover's delight is in the characteristics of the beloved which proceed from the soul of the beloved . . . It makes the soul tender, yearning and ecstatic and gives it a delicacy of feeling which detaches it from the distractions of the world.
Love pushes towards similarity and resemblance, and its power causes the lover to assume the form of the beloved. Love is like an electric wire which joins the being of the beloved to the lover and transfers the qualities of the beloved to him; and it is here that the choice of a beloved is of fundamental importance. Thus Islam has given much importance to the subject of finding a friend and taking a companion. There are many verses (of the Qur'an) and sayings (of the Prophet and the Imams) in this domain, because friendship causes resemblance, creates beauty and brings imprudence. Where its shines its light it sees the defect as art, and the thorn as rose and jasmine.
In some of the verses (of the Qur'an) and sayings (of the Prophet and Imams) a warning is given about frequenting and befriending unwholesome and rotten people, and in some of them a call is made to pure-hearted friendship.
Ibn `Abbas said: "We were in the presence of the Prophet when it was asked: `Who is the best companion?' He replied: `That person who when you see him, you are reminded of God; when he speaks, your knowledge increases; when he acts, you fall to thinking of the hereafter and the Resurrection.' "
Mankind is in dire need of the elixir of love for pure and virtuous people, so that love may be cultivated, and so that love for such people may create a resemblance and similarity to them in mankind.
A variety of ways have been recommended for reforming one's morals and refining the soul, and various methods have come into existence, one of which is the Socratic method. According to this, man must reform himself by way of his intellect and his own devising. A man should first of all find complete faith in the benefits of the purification of, and the harm of confusion in, the morals, and then, one by one, find the blameworthy qualities with the instrument of his intellect - like someone who wants to pick out the hairs from inside his nose one by one, or like a farmer who, by his own hand, pulls out the tares from the furrows of his land, or like someone who wants to clean his wheat of small stones and soil by his own hand - and then cleanse these bad qualities from the harvest of his being. According to this method, one must gradually remove moral depravities by patience, perseverance, careful reckoning and applied thought, and purify the gold of one's being from false coin. Perhaps it should be said that it is not possible for the intellect to acquit itself of this task.
Philosophers seek to reform morality by thought and reckoning. For example, they say that purity and continence are the cause of man's honour and character in the eyes of people, and greed and avarice are the consequences of hardship and inferiority; or they say that knowledge is the consequence of power and ability, knowledge is like this and like that, knowledge is "the seal of the kingdom of Solomon", knowledge is the light along man's path which illuminates the pitfalls in his way; or they say that envy and malevolence are spiritual sicknesses, from which evil consequences will result as far as society is concerned; and so on.
There is no doubt that this way is a correct way, and this means is a good means; but we are talking about the balance of the value of this means in comparison with any other means. Just as a car is, for example, a good means, but when it is compared to an airplane we must examine carefully the extent of its value.
First of all, we have no argument with the value of the way of the intellect as regards guidance, that is to say from the point of view of how far so-called intellectual reasoning reveals reality in the matter of ethics, how far it is true, and in conformity with the facts, and is not faulty and erroneous. We will only say this much, that there are countless philosophical schools of ethics and education, and this problem has still not passed beyond the boundaries of discussion and argument as far as reasoning is concerned. Moreover we know that the Sufis are all in agreement when they say:
The leg of the reasoners is of wood;
A wooden leg is very infirm.
At the moment, our discussion does not concern this aspect, instead it concerns how far this way can reach.
The mystics and people of the spiritual journey have recommended the way of love and fellowship in place of following the way of the intellect and reasoning. They say that one should find a perfect being and hang the halter of love for, and fellowship with, him round one's heart, since this is both less dangerous that the way of the intellect and reasoning, and also swifter. By way of comparison, these two paths are like the old-fashioned way of doing something by hand and the way of doing it by machine. The effect of the power of love and fellowship on the doing away with moral vices from the heart is similar to the effect of chemicals on metals; for example, an etcher removes what is unwanted on his plate by the application of strong acid, not by using a nail, or the point of a knife, or anything like that. However, the effect of the intellect in reforming moral evils is like the work of someone who wants to separate iron-fillings from dust by hand; how excruciating and troublesome that would be! If he had a powerful magnet to hand, perhaps he could separate them with one sweep. The force of love and fellowship gathers the vicious qualities like the magnet and castes them away. The mystics believe that love of, and fellowship with, purified and perfect individuals is like an automatic apparatus which gathers the vices together by itself and ejects them. If the state of being attracted finds the right object, it is one of the best states, and it is this which refines and bestows exceptional qualities.
Truly those who have taken this path want to reform their morality through the strength of love, and they have relied on the power of affection and fellowship. Experience has shown them that companionship with the pure and fellowship and love for them has affected their spirits to an extent which reading hundreds of volumes on ethics has not.
Rumi has related the message of love by the complaint of the reed; he says:
Whoever saw a poison and antedote like the reed?
Whoever saw a sympathiser and a longing lover like the reed?
Whoever's garment is torn by love
Is entirely cleansed of covetousness or blemish.
Hail, O Love, that bringest us good gain -
O physician of all our ills.
Sometimes we see some great person whose followers imitate him even in the way of walking, dressing, meeting with people and gesturing. This imitation is not voluntary, it is automatic and by the force of nature. It is the strength of love and fellowship which has influenced all the elements of the lover's existence and has made him resemble his beloved in every one of his states. This is why every human being must search for a man of reality and truth for his own reformation, and devote himself to him so that he can truly reform himself.
If there is the desire for union in your head, O Hafiz,
You must become like clay in the craftsman's hands.
When a man who, however much he may at first have decided to be pious and do good deeds, again falls prey to weakness in the fundamentals of his aspiration, finds love and fellowship, that weakness and lethargy will then go away, and his resolution will become firm and his ambition strong.
Love of the good ones unscrupulously took away heart and religion;
The rook in chess cannot take as much as a beautiful face can capture.
Do you imagine that Majnun became deranged by himself ?
It was the glance of Layla that transported him among the stars.
I did not find my way alone to the source of the sun,
I was a mote, and love for you bore me up.
It was the curve of your eyebrow, it was your heavenly hand,
Which circled round in this revelry and drove my heart insane .
History tells of great persons in whose spirit and soul a revolution was created by love and fellowship with a perfect one - at least according to the idea of their followers. Mawlana Rumi is one of such persons. He was not from the first so consumed (by love) and full of commotion. He was a scholar, and was calmly and quietly engaged in teaching in a corner of his town. But from the day that he encountered Shams-a Tabrizi and the desire for fellowship with him seized his heart and soul his manner completely changed and a fire flared up inside him. It was like a fuse which has fallen into a gunpowder store and bursts into flames. He was, apparently, a follower of Ash'arism, but his Mathnavi is without doubt one of the greatest books in the world. All the poetry of this man is surging, in movement. He composed the Divan of Shams in memory of his desire, his beloved; and in the Mathnavi too, he mentions him a great deal. We see Mawlana Rumi in the Mathnavi searching after something, but as soon as he remembers Shams a wild storm brews up in his spirit, and roaring waves surge up in him; he says:
At this moment my soul has plucked my skirt;
He has caught the perfume of Joseph's vest.
(He said:) "For the sake of our years of companionship,
Recount one of those sweet ecstasies,
That earth and heaven may laugh,
That intellect and spirit and eye may increase a hundred fold. "
I said: "The one who is far from his beloved is Like an invalid who is far from the doctor.
How should I describe (not a vein of mine is sensible) That Friend who hath no peer.
The description of this severance and this heart's blood Do thou at present leave over till another time.
Do not seek trouble and turmoil and bloodshed:
Say no more concerning Shams-a Tabrizi.
And this is the fitting meaning of what Hafiz said:
The nightingale learnt its song by the favour of the rose, otherwise there would not have been
Any of this song and music fashioned from its beak.
From this we can infer that exertion and being drawn, or action and attraction must go together. Nothing can be accomplished from effort without attraction, just as being drawn where there is no effort will not reach its aim.
. Sharh Kitab al-isharat wa 't-tanbihat, Tehran, 1379 A.H., vol.3, p.383.
. As for love, there are blemishes also. Among these is the fact that the lover, as a result of his preoccupation with the goodness of his beloved, is heedless of the beloved's defects:
Love of anything brings a blindness and a deafness.
Anyone who loves something, his sight becomes defective and his heart sick. (Nahju 'l-balaghah).
Sa'di wrote in his Rose Garden (Gulistan):
For everyone it is the same, one's own mind seems perfect and one's own child beautiful.
This bad effect is not inconsistent with what we said earlier on, i.e., that the effect of love is a sensitization of the intelligence and perception; sensitization of the intelligence means that it brings man out of slow-wittedness, and actualises his potential. However, the bad effect of love is not that it dulls man's wits but that it makes man heedless, and the question of intelligence is different from that of heedlessness. Very often, as a result of the preservation of a balance in sensibilities, dim-witted persons are less prone to heedlessness.
Love makes the understanding more keen, but the attention one-sided and one-tracked. Thus, we said before that the property of love was singleness, and it is as a result of this singleness and focality that the defect arises, and attention to other things diminishes.
What is more, not only does love cause defectiveness, but it shows the defects as something good; for one of love's effects is that wherever it shines its light, it makes that place seem beautiful, it turns one speck of goodness into the sun. It even makes black seem white and darkness light. As Vahshi said:
If you sat in the ball of my eye, Naught would you see but the goodness of Layla.
And it is perhaps for this reason that love is unlike knowledge, which is completely a function of what is known. Love's inward and psychic aspect is greater than its outward and real aspect; that is to say, the equilibrium of love is not a function of the scales of goodness, but more a function of the scales of the potentiality and essence of the lover. In fact, the lover has an essence, a matter, a latent fire which is seeking an excuse, an object. Whenever it happens to encounter an object and finds compatibility - the secret of this compatibility is still unknown, and that is why it is said that love is unreasonable - this inner potentiality manifests itself and creates goodness according to its own ability, not according to what exists in the beloved. This is what the sentence above refers to when it says that the lover sees the defect of the beloved as art and the thorn as rose and jasmine.
. Biharu 'l-anwar, vol. 15, bk. 10, p.51 (old edition).
. Rumi, Mathnawi, bk.l
. `Allamah Taba'taba' i.
. Adapted from Nicholson's translation of Rumi, Mathnavi, bk.1
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‘Tall Order’ Sunlight-to-Hydrogen System Works, Neutron Analysis Confirms
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a biohybrid photoconversion system – based on the interaction of photosynthetic plant proteins with synthetic polymers – that can convert visible light into hydrogen fuel.
Photosynthesis, the natural process carried out by plants, algae and some bacterial species, converts sunlight energy into chemical energy and sustains much of the life on earth. Researchers have long sought inspiration from photosynthesis to develop new materials to harness the sun’s energy for electricity and fuel production.
In a step toward synthetic solar conversion systems, the ORNL researchers have demonstrated and confirmed with small-angle neutron scattering analysis that light harvesting complex II (LHC-II) proteins can self-assemble with polymers into a synthetic membrane structure and produce hydrogen.
The researchers envision energy-producing photoconversion systems similar to photovoltaic cells that generate hydrogen fuel, comparable to the way plants and other photosynthetic organisms convert light to energy.
“Making a, self-repairing synthetic photoconversion system is a pretty tall order. The ability to control structure and order in these materials for self-repair is of interest because, as the system degrades, it loses its effectiveness,” ORNL researcher Hugh O’Neill, of the lab’s Center for Structural Molecular Biology, said.
“This is the first example of a protein altering the phase behavior of a synthetic polymer that we have found in the literature. This finding could be exploited for the introduction of self-repair mechanisms in future solar conversion systems,” he said.
Small angle neutron scattering analysis performed at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) showed that the LHC-II, when introduced into a liquid environment that contained polymers, interacted with polymers to form lamellar sheets similar to those found in natural photosynthetic membranes.
The ability of LHC-II to force the assembly of structural polymers into an ordered, layered state — instead of languishing in an ineffectual mush — could make possible the development of biohybrid photoconversion systems. These systems would consist of high surface area, light-collecting panes that use the proteins combined with a catalyst such as platinum to convert the sunlight into hydrogen, which could be used for fuel.
The research builds on previous ORNL investigations into the energy-conversion capabilities of platinized photosystem I complexes — and how synthetic systems based on plant biochemistry can become part of the solution to the global energy challenge.
“We’re building on the photosynthesis research to explore the development of self-assembly in biohybrid systems. The neutron studies give us direct evidence that this is occurring,” O’Neill said.
The researchers confirmed the proteins’ structural behavior through analysis with HFIR’s Bio-SANS, a small-angle neutron scattering instrument specifically designed for analysis of biomolecular materials.
“Cold source” neutrons, in which energy is removed by passing them through cryogenically chilled hydrogen, are ideal for studying the molecular structures of biological tissue and polymers.
The LHC-II protein for the experiment was derived from a simple source: spinach procured from a local produce section, then processed to separate the LHC-II proteins from other cellular components. Eventually, the protein could be synthetically produced and optimized to respond to light.
O’Neill said the primary role of the LHC-II protein is as a solar collector, absorbing sunlight and transferring it to the photosynthetic reaction centers, maximizing their output. “However, this study shows that LHC-II can also carry out electron transfer reactions, a role not known to occur in vivo,” he said.
The research team, which came from various laboratory organizations including its Chemical Sciences Division, Neutron Scattering Sciences Division, the Center for Structural Molecular Biology and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, consisted of O’Neill, William T. Heller, and Kunlun Hong, all of ORNL; Dimitry Smolensky of the University of Tennessee; and Mateus Cardoso, a former postdoctoral researcher at ORNL now of the Laboratio Nacional de Luz Sincrotron in Brazil.
“That’s one of the nice things about working at a national laboratory. Expertise is available from a variety of organizations,” O’Neill said.
The work, published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, was supported with Laboratory-Directed Research and Development funding. HFIR is supported by the DOE Office of Science.
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2011, February 3). ‘Tall order’ sunlight-to-hydrogen system works, neutron analysis confirms. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 03, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2011/02/110203152544.htm
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| 0.908739 | 1,059 | 3.09375 | 3 |
by Randolph T. Holhut
American Reporter Correspondent
May 26, 2011
THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF HOW THE FALLEN OF WORLD WAR II CAME HOME
DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Fifteen million Americans served in the military during World War II, and about 359,000 Americans died in the war.
Today, when someone dies in Iraq or Afghanistan, their body comes home within a matter of days. During World War II, the dead were buried in temporary cemeteries, most of them near the battlefields where they died.
After the war ended in 1945, the U.S. government embarked on an unprecedented project - to recover as many of the dead as possible and to bring them back to America for reburial.
Every family who lost a service member overseas was given three options: have their loved one's body shipped back to their home towns for burial, have them reburied in one of the 14 permanent military cemeteries that were being set up in the Philippines, Hawaii and in Europe, or have them reburied in a national cemetery in the United States.
All shipping costs were paid for by the government, and each casket received a military escort back to the deceased's hometown.
In the fall of 1947, the first of the transport ships started arriving - to the port of San Francisco for casualties from the Pacific and to the port of New York for European casualties.
The Joseph V. Connolly arrived in New York on the morning of Oct. 26, 1947, containing 6,248 steel caskets containing the remains of those killed in the European theater of operations. On the deck of the Connolly was a solitary flag-draped casket surrounded by an honor guard.
The casket contained the body of an unnamed Medal of Honor winner who died in the Battle of the Bulge, selected to represent the rest of the fallen aboard the Connolly, and the tens of thousands more young men who would be coming home in the months and years ahead.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the casket was carried ashore by pallbearers and placed on a caisson. A procession of 6,000 military personnel, including Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, escorted the body up Fifth Avenue in a solemn parade to Central Park for a memorial service. More than 400,000 New Yorkers lined the streets to watch the sad procession and another 150,000 were at the park for the service.
The next day, the Connolly was moved to the Brooklyn Army Base, where the caskets were unloaded and prepared for shipments to cities and towns all over America.
In the back issues from 1947 and 1948 of my local daily newspaper, the Brattleboro Reformer, you will see the names and faces of the dead who came home, one by one. Every few weeks, a new notice appeared - a reminder of the sacrifices made by so many families in World War II.
Typical of the honors given those returning was what was done for Sgt. Robert C. Brooks of Brattleboro, Vt. He was the first of that town's war dead to return under this program. The 1942 Brattleboro High School graduate enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was a gunner on a B-24. He was killed in a plane crash on the island of Morotal, Netherlands West Indies, on Jan. 10, 1945.
His body arrived by train at Brattleboro's Union Station on Tuesday night, July 6, 1948. A group of fellow veterans escorted his casket up Main Street in a procession to Rodhe's Funeral Home, where they posted an honor guard at his bier. The next day, funeral services were held at the First Baptist Church and Brooks was buried with full military honors in Meetinghouse Hill Cemetery.
This scene was repeated all around Vermont and New Hampshire, and the rest of the nation, as the fallen were returned to their hometowns.
They had a funeral service at the Hinsdale, N.H., town hall for Ensign Channing Rouillard, a Naval pilot who was killed in the South Pacific. He came home on Oct. 30, 1947, and services were held three days later.
The stores in Bellows Falls, Vt., shut down on the morning of Oct. 31, 1947, for the funeral procession of Lt. Edward J. Nachajski of nearby North Walpole, N.H. He was a bomber pilot who was shot down in the South Pacific on Jan. 24, 1944.
Lt. Michael E. Butinsky of South Vernon, Vt., was only in the European Theater of Operations for one month when he was shot down over Poland in December 1944. His grave was found in May 1948 and his body eventually made it home to Vermont.
Pvt. Charles E. Cole of Wilmington, Vt., and Sgt. Alfred G. Tier of West Dummerston, Vt., were both killed in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. Both their bodies returned home in July 1948.
It took more than six years and cost more than $200 million (the equivalent of several billion dollars today) to return the bodies of 233,181 dead American servicemen to their homes and to rebury another 93,000 in overseas military cemeteries. More than 78,000 remain missing in action six decades later.
"The vast reburial program after World War II is all but forgotten today," wrote historian David P. Colley, who detailed the program in his 2004 book, "Safely Rest."
"There is no glory in the saga of the dead, and this operation was not connected to any massive invasion armada or to a victorious battle or campaign where heroes are made. It was conducted for the most part in obscurity, and the men in this huge army of the dead were mute. Today we think of these men, many merely boys, but once a year and not so much as real individuals but as part of the fabric of myth on which the nation is built. We think of them as abstractions and we do not know the details of their return."
But they weren't abstractions. For 359,000 American families, they were sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers who never got the chance to live out their lives.
The memories have dimmed with the passing decades, but for the survivors of those who died in World War II, and in subsequent wars, the pain never completely goes away. As we stop and remember the fallen on this Memorial Day, let us think of these families and their pain.
AR Chief Correspondent Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than 30 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He can be reached at [email protected].
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In the 1970’s, the global demand for ivory threatened to make the elephant population extinct. Poachers with access to automatic weapons derived from civil wars and international arms sales were killing herds of elephants faster than ever before. From 1970 to 1985, the total elephant population of Africa decreased by half. But, owing to the rapid decline in the elephant population due to the poaching, especially during and before the 1980’s, many countries have banned or severely restricted the importation and sale of ivory. At a 1989 CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora) meeting, 115 countries decided to ban the international trade of ivory in the hopes of restoring elephant populations to healthy levels. In 1996 and 1997, a severe effort was made by certain countries to lift this ban, at least partially. Elephant populations in Africa as a whole are increasing, in part, thanks to the CITES ban and with elephants being listed on the most endangered species list.
During the 1980’s, poachers killed an estimated average of 200 African Elephants every day for their tusks. This caused the population to plummet from 1.3 million in 1979 to 625,000 in less than a decade. In 1990, a ban was placed on the international trade of ivory. As a symbolic gesture of this, Kenya destroyed its ivory stockpile valued at over $3 million. This ban, however, did not affect the domestic sale and use of ivory. Since the ban went into effect, the population has fallen only slightly, to 580,000.
Kenya has, since the 1980’s, been foremost in the effort to promote elephant conservation. In the 1970’s, 1900 elephants were killed in Kenya for their tusks and, in the 1980’s, 8300 elephants died at the hands of poachers. But, since the 1990 CITES ban, only 34 have been killed illegally, which dramatically increases Kenya's elephant population from 19,000 in 1989 to 26,800. The United States was one of the main countries to impose the ivory ban and it continues to oppose the lifting of the ban. Most of the illegal import of ivory has been into China, a non-member of the CITES.
Some countries have programmes that involve regulated hunting, mostly by foreigners who pay for hunting licenses, with local community decision-making and participation. But because of the monetary resources derived from limited hunting and community use, these countries are in a better position to afford improved patrolling facilities and monitoring. In addition, the local residents are less inclined to kill elephants because they are receiving revenues from the use of these animals. Communities sell access to their elephants to safari operators, thereby increasingly obtaining real benefits from elephants. They are, in return, investing resources to defend their elephants against poachers.
Here is more on elephants and their ivory: http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/poach.htm
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| 0.955873 | 607 | 3.875 | 4 |
Although she is over a hundred years old, Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens resident Alberta didn’t let her age stop her from motherhood. Alberta, a Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise, hid her eggs and nest from keepers for months while they incubated. On Thursday, the zookeepers made a surprising discovery of four hatchlings in a buried nest. A fifth baby was later found wandering around the exhibit.
The babies are currently small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. But Galapagos tortoises can reach 400 kg (880 lb.) in their long lifetime.
Galapagos tortoises are the largest species of tortoise. In the wild, they inhabit the Galapagos Islands, which are located 1,000 km (620 mi) west of Ecuador. They are considered vulnerable of extinction by the IUCN Redlist.
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| 0.962376 | 179 | 2.9375 | 3 |
HSUS Condemns the Use of Carbon Monoxide (CO) for Euthanasia of Animals in SheltersAugust 2, 2012
When shelters find themselves in the position of having to euthanize an animal, it is incumbent upon them to ensure that the death is as humane as possible. The HSUS, the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, and all other national animal welfare organizations agree that direct injection of approved euthanasia drugs (referred to as Euthanasia by Injection, or EBI), by which the animal quickly loses consciousness without experiencing pain or distress, is the most humane method of euthanasia currently available. Lesser alternatives like carbon monoxide gas chambers (CO chambers), which can virtually never provide a stress and pain free death, must therefore never be used in shelter settings.
Gas chambers cannot provide humane euthanasia for shelter populations: Often the animals euthanized in shelters are old, young, ill or injured; none of these animals can be humanely euthanized in a gas chamber. Old, ill, injured or otherwise compromised animals may suffer from medical conditions that delay the effects of carbon monoxide, causing them to experience distress prior to unconsciousness. Neonatal animals are resistant to hypoxia and can survive much longer without oxygen than adults, making the use of inhalants such as carbon monoxide ineffective. Some small mammal species such as rabbits and guinea pigs share this quality, making them inappropriate for gas chamber euthanasia regardless of their age. Even healthy adult dogs and cats will suffer stressed just by being placed in the dark, unfamiliar environment of a gas chamber, and may become panicked by the sights, sounds and smells of the equipment and the presence of other animals. For these reasons, CO chambers cannot be relied upon to consistently produce a humane euthanasia for shelter animals, and their use cannot be condoned.
CO Chambers Pose Grave Dangers to Staff: A common fallacy is that the use of CO chambers is safer for staff members than euthanasia by injection because it avoids direct handing of animals and is more palatable than directly administering a fatal drug. In fact, the opposite is true – the use of CO chambers actually poses greater physical and psychological harm to staff. Staff must still handle, transport and place fractious and fearful animals into the CO chamber, and as such are at risk of bites and scratches. Even otherwise friendly, tractable animals may react adversely when forced into a small, dark, confined space like a CO chamber. Moreover, there is no evidence that euthanasia-related psychological stress is any less prevalent in caretakers euthanizing with a CO chamber than with EBI; if anything, staff report their stress is greater when the chamber is used instead of EBI. Even the use of the CO chamber equipment itself poses a grave risk to caretakers, as animal care workers have been injured and killed by carbon monoxide.
CO Chambers are More Costly: A CO chamber must be commercially manufactured and properly equipped and maintained or its operation will be painful and inhumane even for healthy adult dogs and cats. Studies have proven that it is actually more expensive to operate a CO chamber within the strict operational parameters required than it is to purchase and use approved euthanasia drugs.
To date, 19 states (AL, AZ, AR, CA, DE, FL, GA, IL, LA, ME, MD, NJ, NM, NY, OR, RI, TN, VA and WV) have already banned gas chambers. In 15 states (AK, CO, IN, KY, MI, NE, NC, NV, OH, OK, SC, TX, VT, WA and WY) the gas chamber is not banned outright, but shelters have the legal authority to acquire and use euthanasia drugs (referred to as “direct licensing”), so eliminating their chambers is a shelter policy choice. In the remaining 16 states, shelters have no authority to acquire euthanasia drugs directly, they must rely on the cooperation of a local veterinarian to provide them. Thankfully, there are relatively few shelters remaining in these states that are not able to acquire the drugs they need.
For the reasons cited above, when euthanasia must be performed in a shelter setting, EBI is the only acceptable humane method. In states where shelters have the ability to acquire euthanasia drugs directly, all shelters still using a CO chamber should convert to EBI immediately. Where direct licensing is not yet available, The HSUS will partner with the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA) in an effort to help shelters secure access to euthanasia drugs until a direct licensing measure is passed. The HSUS will provide necessary training and assistance to any shelter committed to converting from use of a CO chamber euthanasia to EBI.
For questions that are not answered here, contact our shelter services experts.
The information in this statement replaces any and all previous recommendations regarding HSUS standards for euthanasia methods. Last updated 8/02/12.
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| 0.935659 | 1,007 | 2.65625 | 3 |
If you could turn back the pages to 1961, one would see that a national organization "Keep America Beautiful" was beginning to have an impact, by educating communities how litter and other forms of pollution were tarnishing our environment. However, it wasn't until later that the pollution prevention campaign became embedded in American culture. Ten years later in fact, on Earth Day a public service announcement shown on television for the first time throughout the United States featuring Native American actor Chief Iron Eyes Cody with a tagline, "People Start Pollution, People Can Stop It." Iron Eyes Cody became synonymous with environmental concerns and achieved lasting fame as "The Crying Indian" during the height of the Keep America Beautiful campaign.
In 1976 the United States celebrated its 200th birthday with a parade of tall ships sailing up the Hudson River titled "Operation Tall Ships." Inspired by the title given to that Fourth of July birthday celebration "Operation Cleanup," Massapequa's version of Keep America Beautiful began to form.
Numerous community leaders realized the impact the program would have and wanted to be a part of it. Under the umbrella of Operation Cleanup several committees with a coordinator were formed that included waterways and wetlands, wooded areas, graffiti, parks, parking lots, roadsides, etc. The goal of the project was to help clean up the communities and keep in step with the Keep America Beautiful campaign to fight the negative attitudes and behaviors that lead to pollution.
During the past 45 years on any given day thanks to KAB's lead, volunteers concerned about the environment can be seen picking up debris in wooded areas and parklands, pulling shopping carts from ponds and streams and painting out graffiti from fences and the walls of public and private buildings, and bridge overpasses. The Historical Society of the Massapequas takes credit for keeping the graffiti in check on the old brick New York City water supply building no longer in use on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa.
According to Rich Schary, president of Friends of the Preserve, his group spearheads work groups in the Greenbelt Preserve on a regular basis. Schary says at present they're very concerned with the water flushed from water mains being released in the Tackapausha Preserve stream at Jerusalem Avenue. Other concerned groups who regularly volunteer their time are members of high school Key Clubs, Scouts, Telephone Pioneers, Geese Peace, and Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and concerned citizens who just want to do their part to protect nature's natural beauty.
Over the past several years a host of new and important environmental, energy and conservation issues have taken center stage. Groups have been getting together for the past 18 years in March to help save the dunes by placing discarded Christmas trees and planting dune grass to prevent erosion. Crews from the USDA based in Amityville are constantly on the lookout for traces of the Asian Longhorned Beetle that kills trees and spoils the appearance of the preserves and private properties. A group known as Geese Peace is working to control the population of the Canada Geese that have become a nuisance and a health hazard for children playing on our athletic fields. Long Island Sound and the Great South Bay organizations are gaining momentum with their marine clean-up and environmental programs to protect the waters fishing industry and unwise commercial development projects. And, out on the East End of Long Island there are several environmentally conscious groups including the Long Island Farm Bureau keeping an eye on the use of fertilizers and pesticides/herbicides used for growing green vegetables, potatoes, corn, etc. Green Peace, the Clamshell Alliance, the Sierra Club and the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference all have very active and successful with programs that benefit the country's beauty, quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.
Other issues have been brought up at town and village meetings by organized groups. One in particular concerns a law that requires tow truck operators to cleanup debris caused by an accident before any vehicles are removed from the scene. The law is not enforced by the police and debris can be seen for weeks later. On a positive note, recycling laws and depositis on bottles and cans in 1983, are keeping our wooded areas and roadsides much cleaner.
To find out more about "Friends of the Preserve" there is a 14-minute video at local libraries for loan or call 541-2461.
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| 0.964519 | 891 | 2.953125 | 3 |
|Delaying brain damage in cardiac arrest victims|
|Written by APB Staff|
After a heart attack victim stops breathing, a process of irreversible brain damage starts to occur within 3 to 4 minutes. What if there was a way prevent brain damage - for up to an hour? Perhaps there is. While researching cardiac arrest, Philadelphia area resident Jeffrey Dobkin, read about a boy drowning in icy waters. Although submerged for over half an hour, the boy was rescued, resuscitated, and recovered completely. No brain damage.
Dobkin wondered how someone can drown, be completely submerged for over 30 minutes, then resuscitated and yet experience no brain damage. What is it that delays brain damage in cold water drowning victims? Can this be applied to heart attack victims? His research pointed to yes. Dobkin's research showed the injury that occurs to the brain from lack of oxygen (anoxia) can be delayed for up to an hour by triggering an all-natural oxygen-conserving reflex that occurs in all mammals, called the Mammalian Diving Reflex.
"The triggering of the Mammalian Diving Reflex," says Dobkin, "allows cold water drowning victims to survive for a greatly extended time period without brain damage. This oxygen-conserving reflex is responsible for delaying brain death in cold water drownings. The best news is that the specific trigger point of this reflex is the application of cold water to the face - and in particular the eyes - of the victim."
Based on his research on delaying anoxic brain injury, Dobkin advocates a simple technique to trigger this delay of brain damage in victims of cardiac arrest by immediately applying cold (58 degrees or colder) wet compresses to the face and eye area of the victim. The Dobkin Technique is an emergency time-buying procedure to delay brain damage until emergency medical personnel arrive. It works by itself, or in conjunction with CPR. Compresses are left on the victim's face and kept cold until full resuscitation efforts can be initiated by medical personnel.
The Dobkin Technique immediately starts to delay brain damage and gives emergency medical personnel a much greater window of time to respond to non-breathing victims before brain damage starts to occur. His technique works whenever the oxygen supply to the brain is shut off (Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy) such as cardiac arrest, drug overdose, choking, warm water drowning, stroke, sleep apnea, SIDS, suffocation and electrocution.
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| 0.913967 | 505 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Submitted to: Soil & Tillage Research
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: March 21, 1996
Publication Date: N/A
In the northern Corn Belt, plant residue retained on the soil surface increases the risk of poor stand establishment and growth of corn. This limits the adoption of no-tillage and other conservation tillage production systems that are effective in reducing soil erosion. Field and laboratory research has shown that surface residue reduces soil heat unit accumulation by reducing soil heat flux and increases soil moisture by reducing evaporation rate. Surface residue also hinders planter operation and uniformity of seed placement. Removing plant residue from the seed row increases germination and emergence rate by improving seed depth uniformity and increasing soil heat unit accumulation. Appropriate use of planter attachments to manage surface plant residue have been shown to improve conditions in the seed zone for reliable corn establishment in the northern U.S. Corn Belt.
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http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?SEQ_NO_115=60699
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| 0.920641 | 195 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Significance and Use
The ash content is an approximate measure of the mineral content and other inorganic matter in biomass.
The ash content is used in conjunction with other assays to determine the total composition of biomass samples.
1.1 This test method covers the determination of ash, expressed as the mass percent of residue remaining after dry oxidation (oxidation at 575 ± 25°C), of hard and soft woods, herbaceous materials (such as switchgrass and sericea), agricultural residues (such as corn stover, wheat straw, and bagasse), wastepaper (such as office waste, boxboard, and newsprint), acid and alkaline pretreated biomass, and the solid fraction of fermentation residues. All results are reported relative to the 105°C oven-dried mass of the sample. For particulate wood fuels, Test Method E 1534 should be used.
1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard.
1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.
2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard.
E1534 Test Method for Determination of Ash Content of Particulate Wood Fuels
E1756 Test Method for Determination of Total Solids in Biomass
E1757 Practice for Preparation of Biomass for Compositional Analysis
agricultural residue; ash; biomass; fermentation residue; herbaceous; waste paper; wood; Agricultural residue; Ash; Bagasse; Biomass; Boxboard; Corn stover; Dry oxidation; Fermentation cycles; Hardwoods; Herbaceous materials; Newspaper/newsprint; Office waste; Oxidation; Sericea; Softwoods; Switchgrass; Wastepaper; Wood; Wheat straw; Wood products;
ICS Number Code 65.040.20 (Buildings and installations for processing and storage of agricultural produce)
ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.
Citing ASTM Standards
[Back to Top]
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http://www.astm.org/Standards/E1755.htm
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| 0.86702 | 470 | 3.046875 | 3 |
|Most bright stars in our
Milky Way Galaxy reside in a disk.
Since our Sun also resides in this disk, these stars
appear to us as a
diffuse band that circles the sky.
The above panorama of a
northern band of the
Milky Way's disk covers 90 degrees and is a
digitally created mosaic of several independent exposures.
Scrolling right will display the rest of this spectacular picture.
Visible are many
dark dust lanes,
red emission nebulae,
blue reflection nebulae, and
clusters of stars.
In addition to all this matter that we can see,
suspect there exists even more
dark matter that we cannot see.
John P. Gleason, Celestial Images
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| 0.867102 | 160 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Online safety Web sites
Kids and the Internet
- US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center
Federal Trade Commission
- FBI SOS: Safe Online Surfing
Resources for parents and kids
Computer Crime (United States Department of Justice)
Law Enforcement Issues in Cyberspace
Reporting online crime
U.S. Department of Justice
Resources for law enforcement
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Online safety Web sites
: BlogSafety.com is an informational resource and forum about keeping safe on the social web. In addition to articles and tips, it features an interactive forum where parents, teens and others can ask and answer each other's question. The forum is staffed by experts who make sure that all questions are answered with accurate up-to-date information.
: Cyberbullying is sending or posting harmful or cruel text or images using the Internet or other digital communication devices. Cyberbully.org is provided by the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, http://csriu.org/
. CSRUI provides resources for educators and others to promote the safe and responsible use of the Internet.
Families Online Magazine
Parenting advice and family fun resource. It includes expert parenting advice for babes to teens from doctors, teachers, psychologists, nutritionists, nanny and special need children, child safety and child development specialists. Family Fun includes crafts, games, party ideas and family vacation travel. Families Online Magazine also provides answers to those important questions: What's for dinner, and Are we there yet?
: This is a useful informational site run by internationally recognized Internet safety and technology expert Linda Criddle. It includes information on staying safe in various online services, blogs on current safety topics, a Safety in the News page with today’s stories about privacy and safety online and an Ask Linda feature where you can ask questions about safety issues.
Run by Internet lawyer Parry Aftab, this site provides useful information for parents, educators, law enforcement, and includes a section on women’s issues. The site offers tutorials and answers to Frequently Asked Questions about online safety.
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Kids and the Internet
The following are resources that we have found helpful. Although this is not an exhaustive list of resources, we consider these to be leaders in promoting Internet safety.
- Cyberbullying.us: a central repository and information clearinghouse for the phenomenon of cyberbullying. To note, cyberbullying is also called "cyber bullying," "electronic bullying," "e-bullying," "sms bullying," "mobile bullying," "online bullying," "digital bullying," or "Internet bullying." We define cyberbullying as "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices."
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — The FBI and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children jointly published the Parents Guide to Online Safety. The guide was prepared from actual investigations involving child victims, as well as investigations where law enforcement officers posed as children. The site features a cyber tip line.
- Internet and Your Child — This program was developed by a Seattle Police Detective who saw too many avoidable cases of children being victimized on line. She believed if parents were taught some basic computer navigation and savvy, they would better understand their children’s activities on line. This free class is a seven-hour lecture and hands-on program designed to deal with all aspects of computer use, ethics and crime. Classes are led by certified volunteer law enforcement officers and computer professionals. Request an Internet and Your Child class in your community.
- Internet Crimes Against Children Research Center — The mission of the Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) is to combat crimes against children by providing high quality research and statistics to the public, policy makers, law enforcement personnel, and other child welfare practitioners. CCRC is concerned with research about the nature of crimes including child abduction, homicide, rape, assault, and physical and sexual abuse as well as their impact.
- Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe) -- Governors and and first spouses formed this coalition in partnership with crime prevention organizations, law enforcement, foundation and corporate sponsors. It teaches basic rules of Internet safety to children and parents.
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) — The private, nonprofit National Center for Missing & Exploited Children serves as a focal point in providing assistance to parents, children, law enforcement, schools, and the community in recovering missing children and raising public awareness about ways to help prevent child abduction, molestation, and sexual exploitation. Report suspected exploitation of a child or contact from an online predator to NCMEC at: or 1-800-843-5678.
- NetSmartz — The NetSmartz Workshop was created by the National center for Missing & Exploited Children in partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and uses computer-based, interactive games and activities to teach students ages 5-17 how to be safer when using the Internet.
If you have suggestions for other non-profit organizations that we should include, please e-mail the link and a description of the site to: [email protected]
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Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (CAUCE)
File a complaint with the:
Attorney General's Office
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Adware - A form malicious code that displays unsolicited advertising on your computer. Typically, adware gets installed when you browse or download from a shareware or freeware application. These stealth downloads bring targeted advertisements to your computer that can seriously impact the performance of your computer.
Blog –A diary or personal journal kept on a Web site, usually updated frequently that may be private or may be intended for public viewing
Browser Helper Object (BHO) - A Browser Helper Object (BHO) may look like a useful browser toolbar available in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). However, malicious BHO's may change your default home page to point to some other site, or they may sell you’re your web-browsing history and information about your online habits to third-parties for the purposes of targeted advertising.
Chat room – An online site used for social interaction usually based on a topic or theme where people with shared interests can meet others.
Content filtering - Allows you to block certain types of content from displaying certain websites that you know you don’t want your children to see. Many software programs allow you to block out information that you find inappropriate or offensive. Some of the things you can screen for include coarse language, nudity, sex and violence.
Cyberbully, cyber bullies, cyberbullying – Bulling that occurs online. This type of bullying can be particularly damaging because it can occur 7x24. It may be bullying over a cell phone through a threatening call, or text message or a humiliating or threatening image. It may be a ‘fake’ blog that is created to embarrass the victim, or through other online posts.
Cyber crime - Criminal activity that targets computers or information or leverages computers and online information to find real world victims.
Cyber criminals – Those who commit cyber crimes
Cyber sex – Also called ‘computer sex’, ‘net sex’, ‘hot chat’, etc. refers to virtual sexual encounters in which two or more persons stimulate each other through text, images, voice, and video.
Dialers - This is software that is installed on your PC that dials a phone number. Some dialers connect to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and are designed to provide genuine assistance. However, malicious dialers can attempt to connect you to long-distance or toll numbers without your consent, resulting in expensive phone bills.
Download - Transfer material from a server or remote computer to your PC/mobile device/game console etc.
E-mail Signatures – this is a block of text added at the end of e-mails – usually automatically. It often contains your full name, possibly your job description, location, phone number, an inspirational thought etc.
File sharing - Refers to the ability to store files either in a central place that can be shared with as few as one other person, or publicly. Files could be stored on the Internet, or on any computer that provides access to others. File sharing allows others who have permission to access the shared file to modify or down load it.
Freeware – This is software that is owned and copyrighted, but that the owner is giving away for free. This may be entirely benevolent or it may be intentionally created and distributed to mask the malicious code bundled with it to spread on computers.
Game console - A machine that is specifically designed for playing video games - (though they may also play movies, etc.) often these are hooked up to a TV or computer screen for viewing. Not all game consoles are capable of Internet connections, or are connected to the Internet, but if they are connected they allow users to play games with others remotely.
Grooming – In this context, it means the systematic way that sexual predators manipulate their victims into trusting them, depending on them, and ultimately meeting them in order to sexually abuse them. Grooming usually involves sympathy, subtle ways to alienate the victim from others and flattery. It may also involve money, gifts or promises of work- especially “modeling jobs”. This may occur over only a few days, or may happen over an extended period of time.
Identity theft – Stealing someone’s identity in order to impersonate them, usually for financial gain. Identity theft may also be involved in abusing identity for other purposes – to ‘give’ your identity to someone else like an illegal alien, to steal your photos and reuse them for other purposes, to abuse your reputation, etc.
Key stroke logging - This can be a legitimate method for software developers to understand what is happening as they write code. It can also be used to track all the activities a user performs while online for other purposes - either monitoring or spying (depending on your point of view) on what people type and where they go online. These may be downloaded by the parent to watch their children, by children to watch their parents, by one adult to watch another adult, or downloaded onto your PC in stealth by malicious cyber criminals who then have the information collected from your online activities sent to them so that they learn your passwords and banking information.
Layered Service Provider (LSP) - LSPs refers to code that is inserted between your computer and the Internet application connecting to your computer – for example your Internet Browser. Malicious LSPs are used to steal information that you submit through the Internet.
Malware - stands for Malicious software and is an umbrella term that includes any type of harmful code - "trojans", "worms", "spyware", "adware", etc that infiltrate a computer without consent of the computer user and are designed to damage the computer, collect information, or allow your computer to be subverted and used remotely to send spam.
Peer-to-peer - refers to the ability to share files over the Internet directly from one Internet-enabled device to another (computer, mobile phone, etc). This sharing may violate copyright laws if the people involved are making copies of material without the permission to do so.
Persona – in this context, a persona is the person a user chooses to appear to be – rather than the person they are. For example: a 56 yr. old man may assume the persona of a 12 year old girl who wants to meet other 12 year old girls or a gamer may assume the persona of a warrior to play an online game.
Posting information – To upload information to the Web.
Predator – Anyone who preys on others. Often this is narrowly associated with sexual predators, but any online predator trying to exploit computers, or users, financially, physically or emotionally is a predator/cybercriminal.
Scam – to con, cheat, trick, swindle, sting, or rip-off others.
Shareware - Shareware is method of product advertising that let's you ‘try before you buy’. This type of software can be downloaded from the Internet or may be distributed on CD/DVD and can be used free of charge. If you find the product useful you are supposed to buy it, using an honor system. Be sure that you are dealing with reputable companies that will not stealthily download other programs (malware) onto your computer at the same time as you download the shareware.
Social networking - Refers to a category of Internet applications to help connect friends, business partners, or other individuals using a variety of tools
Spam - Unsolicited e-mail attempting to sell you something. Also known as junk mail.
Spyware - Stealthy software that leverages your Internet connection to collect information about you without your knowledge or consent. Like adware, spyware is often installed when you download ‘freeware’ or ‘shareware’ programs. Spyware may be looking for your banking information, personal information, etc., and is illegal and pervasive.
Text messaging - Is a method of sending short messages (also called SMSes, txts, or texting ) between mobile phones, other computing devices, and even some landline phones.
Tracking Cookies - Internet browsers write and read cookies, which are small text files with small amounts of data (such as Web site settings) which are placed onto your computer when you visit certain Web sites. In many cases, cookies provide a benefit to users as they can retain settings so that when you next visit a Web site, it recognizes you and your buying preferences. In some instances, however, cookies are used to consolidate and track your behavior across different Web sites, providing marketers with information about your Web browsing habits.
Trojans - Like spyware, Trojans (also known as Trojan horses) are programs that can be installed on your system and run without your knowledge. They are capable of a variety of functions. For example, some use your computer's modem to dial long-distance or toll numbers (like a dialer), potentially generating expensive phone bills. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not replicate themselves.
URL – (Uniform Resource Locator) refers to a unique Internet address of a file or Web destination. To find a particular site or document you type the URL into your browser window and the browser will open up that particular document or site.
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LOOKBOTHWAYS Inc. © 2008 not for commercial use
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War Is A Racket By Major General Smedley Butler
This is General Smedley Butler's concise and informative 1933 book, War is a Racket, which explicitly outlines how wars are waged by the few at the expense of the many, and how to stop it.
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows. How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?"
"In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join the army. So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side... It is His will that the Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies...to please the same God. That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious. Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the 'war to end all wars.' This was the 'war to make the world safe for democracy.' No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a 'glorious adventure.'"
"Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed. Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face"! This time they had to do their own readjustment, sans [without] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more. So we scattered them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades. Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone. In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are in pens! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around outside the buildings and on the porches. These already have been mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their faces! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are gone."
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Emergent Literacy Lesson Design
Recognition of phonemes in a word is an important step in learning to
read. Children must understand that each letter of
the alphabet represents a phoneme and that the spellings of phonemes
are mapped out in words. They must learn to
recognize phonemes in spoken language as well. This
lesson will help students identify the short u sound (u = /u/).
Students will learn to recognize /u/ in spoken words by learning
a meaningful representation and a letter symbol, and then practice
finding /u/ in spoken words.
primary paper and pencil; chart with "Three bugs juggled plums under an
umbrella;" class set of flash cards with a picture of a bug on one side
and an X on the other; drawing paper and crayons; book that
incorporates /u/, Fuzz and the Buzz by Sheila Cushman;
picture page with illustrations of bug, nut, bed, plum, tub, sun, pan,
cup, rug, & pig.
- Introduce the lesson by explaining that each
letter of the alphabet has its own special sound as well as its own
special way of being spoken by moving our mouth a certain way.
Then ask the students if they know how to write the letter u
and if they know what sounds it makes. "Today
we are going to learn about the letter u. The
letter u has two different sounds, just like all the other
vowels, a long sound and a short sound. The short u
makes the /u/ sound. Today we are going to be
looking for /u/ in all kinds of words."
- Ask students: "Does anyone know what a
foghorn is? Tugboats sound a foghorn to warn other
boats that they are coming through the fog. It
makes the /u/ sound." Model for them how to
do the pulling of the foghorn motion while saying /u/, then ask them to
do the same. "That is the sound we will be
looking for in words today. As I say bug,
listen for the /u/. bbb-u-u-u-u-u-u-gg.
When you find a word with the /u/ sound in it, I want you
all to do the foghorn motions with your arms, like we just did."
- "Now let's try a tongue twister (on chart).
'Three bugs juggled plums under an umbrella.'
Good job! Let's all say it together
again, only this time, let's stretch out the /u/ sound in the words—and
don't forget to sound your foghorns! 'Three
pl-u-u-u-u-ms u-u-u-u-nder an
Let's try it one more time, but this time we are going to
break off the /u/ from the words. 'Three
b /u/ gs j /u/ ggled pl
/u/ ms /u/ nder an /u/
mbrella.' Nice job!"
- Have students take out primary paper and pencil.
The teacher will model every step of the letter making
process as it comes. "The letter u
represents /u/. Let's write it. Start
at the fence, draw straight down to the sidewalk, curve over, and back
up to the sidewalk; now, without lifting your pencil, draw straight
back down to the sidewalk. I am going to walk
around to see everyone's u. After I put a
sticker on your paper I want you to write a whole row of u's
just like the one we wrote together. Don't
forget—when you see the letter u in a word, that means it makes
the foghorn sound (/u/)."
- Pass out flash cards to students. "I
am going to say some words one at a time. If you
hear /u/ in a word show me the side of the card with the bug on it; if
you don't hear /u/ in a word then show me the side of the card with the
X on it." Say words one at a time: bug,
nut, bed, plum, tub, sun, pan,
cup, rug, & pig.
- Read Fuzz and the Buzz aloud to
students and talk about the story. Read it again
stretching out the /u/ in words, each time having the students do the
foghorn motion. After reading the story a second
time, list all the words in the story that have the /u/ sound in them
on the board. Finally, have the students draw and
color a picture to illustrate the story and write a short message to go
along with it (they may use inventive spellings).
- For assessment, the teacher will help the
students identify the names of images on a picture sheet. The
students will circle the pictures with the /u/ sound and then use
inventive spellings to write the names of the circled pictures.
Marilyn-Jager. (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning
About Print. Center for the Study of Reading
and The Reading Research
and Education Center,
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. Pg. 12.
Click here to return
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Animal Species:Whitespot Parrotfish, Scarus forsteni (Bleeker, 1861)
The Whitespot Parrotfish can be recognised by its colouration, which varies as the fish grows. It is a solitary species that feeds by scraping algae from rocks and coral.
Forsten's Parrotfish, Tricolor Parrotfish
Initial phase Whitespot Parrotfish have a reddish-brown body. There is a blue-green zone that extends from the eye to the middle of the body. A white spot near the tip of the pectoral fin gives this fish its name. The emarginate caudal fin is reddish-brown.
Terminal phase Whitespot Parrotfish have a green body with scales edged in pink. The head is purple and the lips are blueish, with a blue stripe extending from the mouth to below the eye. The dental plates (teeth) are blue-green. The pectoral fin is green and purple. The blue-green caudal fin is lunate.
The species grows to 55 cm in length.
The Whitespot Parrotfish occurs in tropical marine waters of the Western and Central Pacific, from the Philippines, north to Japan, throughout Micronesia, south to Australia and east to the Ducie Islands. In Australia the Whitespot Parrotfish is known from the north-western coast of Western Australia around the tropical north of the country and south to the Capricorn Group, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.
The map below shows the Australian distribution of the species based on public sightings and specimens in Australian Museums. Click on the map for detailed information. Source: Atlas of Living Australia.
Distribution by collection data
The species inhabits outer reefs, lagoons and coral-rich reef slopes, usually between depths of 3 m and 30 m.
Feeding and Diet
The Whitespot Parrotfish is a solitary species that feeds by scraping algae from rocks and coral.
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 220.
- Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. & G.R. Allen. 2006. Fishes. In Beesley, P.L. & A. Wells. (eds) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 35. ABRS & CSIRO Publishing: Australia. parts 1-3, pages 1-2178.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2002. Fairy and Rainbow Wrasses and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Selected Labroids. TMC Publishing. Pp. 208.
- Myers, R.F. 1999. Micronesian Reef Fishes. Coral Graphics. Pp. 222.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 415.
Mark McGrouther , Collection Manager, Ichthyology
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These waterbirds are found throughout much of Australia, even at inland waterways during times of flood. These birds are very intelligent and in some overseas countries they are trained by fisherman to capture fish in place of using nets.
Fact about Cormorants and Darters
Darters are also known as Snake Birds because of their habit of swimming around with their body underwater and their long slender necks 'snaking' about the water.
Check Out Our Cormorants and Darters:
Our Cormorants And Darters Species
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Click here for further information.
Wire drawing is a metalworking process used to reduce the diameter of a wire by pulling the wire through a single, or series of, drawing die(s). The engineering applications of wire drawing are broad and far-reaching, including electrical wiring, cables, tension-loaded structural components, springs, paper clips and spokes for wheels.
This all-new, classical text is the first to explain the complex theory and sophisticated engineering concepts with relation to wire drawing in an accessible and universal way for practicing engineers.
Wire Technology is designed to facilitate the entry and training of new engineers and upgrade the professional practice of those already in the field in the face of increased product demands and tightening specifications, this essential resource by industry expert Roger Wright provides:
- A technical overview and introduction of engineering concepts related to wire drawing, suitable for beginners and practiced engineers looking to brush up on the theory behind the process
- An interface with basic engineering education so as to provide an accessible introduction for engineers new to the field
- Real-world worked examples, problems and protocols based on true life engineering scenarios and challenges
- Unique coverage of the author's own pass design and risk prediction calculations, developed through decades of research and wire industry consulting
Whilst most competing titles are less practical in their approach and focus on either ferrous, non-ferrous or electrical, our book takes a universal approach more suited to the practicing engineer who needs knowledge of wire drawing across the board. Ideal for use as a complete insight into the process from start to finish or a dip-in resource for practical problem-solving, this versatile work-a-day guide, training tool and desk reference will help readers train their staff and adapt and improve processes at minimal cost for maximum performance.
Key features of Wire Technology include:
- Provides a unique universal approach, covering ferrous and non-ferrous metals
- Authored by an internationally-recognized specialist in wire drawing with extensive academic and industry experience
- Real-world worked examples, problems and protocols based on true life engineering scenarios and challenges allow engineers to easily apply the theory to their workplace to improve processes, productivity and efficiency
- Compact, concise and practical in comparison to the large, competing handbook tomes that are overwhelming for beginners and impractical for day-to-day work use
- Ideal for use as a complete insight into the process from start to finish or as a dip-in resource for practical problem-solving, analysis and trouble-shooting
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| 0.934315 | 507 | 3.015625 | 3 |
|Celery is a biennial generally grown as an annual. It requires deep, well drained soil with plenty of organic matter and a pH between 6.5 and 7.5.
Celery seed is notorious for slow germination, and if the ground is too warm, it may never come up at all. Aim for a soil temperature of about 70 Fahrenheit for best results, and plant indoors. Seeds require light to germinate.
When seedlings have 5 or 6 leaves, harden them off and transplant to their permanent growing site, about 4 inches deep. If your variety is not self-blanching, plant seedlings in a 1 foot deep trench, which gradually is filled in as the celery grows, preventing it from greening and becoming bitter.
Celery is a very thirsty plant, and must have a strong continuous supply of water. Mid-season fertilization will also help. Be on the lookout for slugs, and place beer traps if they become a problem. Incecticidal soap can discourage aphids.
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| 0.959719 | 216 | 3.328125 | 3 |
write a paper
- Generate, edit, and publish an MLA Works Cited list or APA References list that complies with the rules of the current MLA Handbook and APA Publication Manual. To use NoodleBib, you must first create a personal folder. Click on the New User link and follow the instructions.
Sites for ESL and ELL Students
Bibliography of Writing Handbooks and Style Manuals
||Ref. BF 76.7 .A43 1994
||American Psychological Association.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
Washington, D.C., American Psychological Association. 1994.
||Ref. Z253.U69 1993
||Chicago Manual of Style. 14th edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
||Ref. T11 S386 1994
|| Council of Biology Editors. Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Style Manual. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
||Ref. T 11 D33 1998
||Day, Robert A. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. 5th edition. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998.
||Ref. LB 2369 .G53
||Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association,1995.
||Ref. PN 147 G444
||Modern Language Association. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. New York: Modern Language Association, 1998.
||Ref. PE 1408 .S772 2000
||Strunk, William S. and White, E. B. The Elements of Style. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2000.
||Ref. LB 2369 .T8 1996
||Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Reference Desk Handbooks and Style Manuals
These books are located behind the reference desk on the first floor of the library. Please don't hesitate to ask a reference librarian for assistance!
- Cite Right by Charles Lipson.
Very user friendly. Covers citation formats for Chicago, MLA, APA, AAA (anthropology), CSE (biology), and ACS (chemistry).
- Chicago Manual of Style
- MLA Handbook
Comprehensive Guides to Writing a Research Project:
- How to Write a BA Thesis by Charles Lipson
- A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian
- The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader, Research Manual, and Handbook by X. J. Kennedy et al.
Writing about Art:
- A Short Guide to Writing About Art by Sylvan Barnet
- Writing About Visual Art by David Carrier
- Writing About Art by Henry M. Sayre
Writing about Film:
- A Short Guide to Writing About Film by Timothy Corrigan
Writing about Literature:
- A Short Guide to Writing About Literature by Sylvan Barnet and William E. Cain
- Writing Essays About Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet by Kelley Griffith
Style and Grammar:
- The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White
- A Writer’s Reference by Diane Hacker
- Rules for Writers by Diane Hacker
- A Pocket Style Manual by Diane Hacker
This list was compiled by Bard Academic Resources Center - Phone: 845-758-7812 - E-mail: [email protected]
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Photo: Wind Farm
Benefits of Wind Power
Benefits to Texas
The offshore wind farms Baryonyx are planning represents a tremendous opportunity for Texas:
- Direct cash inflow to State treasury through taxation
- Substantial royalty payments to the Texas School Fund
- Dollars spent in capital expenditure and operations and maintenance expenditure to fabricators. Port facilities and associated companies on the Texas coast
- Direct and indirect job creation
- Revitalize the well established existing supply chain for offshore operations
- Supply Chain job security at a time when operators in the offshore oil and gas exploration industries are facing reduced future work orders.
Economic benefits and job creation
According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the wind industry now employs around 85,000 people in the United States with some 35,000 added in 2008 alone. The majority of these jobs are in the manufacturing sector. In 2008, developers invested $17 billion in U.S. wind power - mainly in agricultural and rural areas.
U.S. based manufacturing of wind turbines and their components has also greatly expanded in recent years, with more than 70 new facilities opened, expanded or announced in 2007 and 2008. (Source: AWEA Windpower Outlook 2009). As a result of this continued expansion, the share of domestically made components is increasing rapidly from 30% in 2005 to 50% in 2008. This trend is expected to continue with the re-training of workers from the U.S. automotive and other industries in green energy manufacturing processes.
According to the DOE study (EERE 2008), the proposed increase of wind power to 300,000MW would create more than 500,000 new U.S. jobs (Source: U.S. Department of Energy: 20% Wind Energy by 2030).
Protecting the environment
Wind power is one of the cleanest and most environmentally friendly energy sources. Compared to fossil power plants, wind power does not emit pollutants that contribute to acid rain and smog. Additionally, wind projects do not cause the extraction and transportation of fuels.
According to the DOE study, 300,000MW installed capacity by 2030 would:
- Displace 50% of the natural gas used to produce electricity, and reduce the use of coal by 18%, restraining fuel price rises and stabilizing electricity rates.
- Reduce global warming emissions from power plants by 825 million metric tons or 20%, the equivalent of taking 140 million vehicles off the road.
- Reduce water use in the sector by 8%, saving 4 trillion gallons
Reducing long term energy prices
Wind power has no input fuel costs in the electricity generation process. Therefore, following the initial capital investment in the plant, the annual operating expenses are negligible when compared to traditional fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. This has the effect of stabilizing long term consumer energy prices given the ability to forecast both energy production and costs over a long period without the exposure to fluctuations in fossil fuel prices.
A 2009 Union of Concerned Scientists study estimates that under a 25% national renewable electricity standard, all other things being equal, average consumer electricity prices would be 7.6% lower, with an average annual reduction of 4.3% through 2030.
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LONDON — The biggest ever study of chronic fatigue syndrome treatments has challenged the strategy championed by patient groups — taking it easy is not the best treatment, exercise and behavior therapy are.
For years, patient groups warned such treatments could be dangerous, instead promoting a strategy known as adaptive pacing — which advises patients to adjust to their illness by simply doing less. But the study found that approach didn’t help.
The research, published Friday in the medical journal Lancet, concluded that behavior and exercise seemed to moderately reduce fatigue and improve activity levels, while pacing and medical care weren’t much help.
The findings also suggest the crippling condition can sometimes be reversed.
“I hope more people will be convinced you can treat chronic fatigue syndrome and that this isn’t necessarily something people will have forever,” said Hans Knoop, a clinical psychologist at the Expert Centre for Chronic Fatigue in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, who co-authored an editorial on the research, which was funded by the U.K. Medical Research Council and others.
Chronic fatigue syndrome affects up to 2 percent of people worldwide. It is characterized by persistent tiredness, muscle pain, insomnia and memory problems. The cause is unknown, though the syndrome can be triggered by certain viral infections, and there is no cure.
In the study conducted across the U.K., British researchers analyzed common treatment approaches: cognitive behavior therapy, which uses psychology to address fears of activity; exercise such as walking to boost energy; adaptive pacing and medical care, including self-help advice and drugs for insomnia or pain.
More than 600 British patients were divided into four groups, and each given a strategy for around six months. The first group received just medical care, while the remainder received medical care and one of the strategies. Patients were then monitored for up to one year to see if the strategy had any permanent effect.
Since pacing is championed by many patient groups, scientists wanted to test whether it works. Previous patient surveys have suggested behavioral and exercise therapy make people worse, though the study found all treatments tested were safe.
Knoop said behavior and exercise therapies may help patients increase their activity levels, control their symptoms better, and change the way they perceive their tiredness.
Still, the treatments only helped about 60 percent of patients, and researchers were unsure how long the results lasted.
“Even with the best therapies we have, four out of 10 people don’t improve,” said Peter White, a professor of psychological medicine at the Queen Mary University of London, who led the study. “This is a genuinely disabling condition, and we need to do more to determine how to enhance current therapies.”
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Android apps 'leak' personal details
Millions of people are using Android apps that can be tricked into revealing personal data, research indicates.
Scientists tested 13,500 Android apps and found almost 8% failed to protect bank account and social media logins.
These apps failed to implement standard scrambling systems, allowing "man-in-the-middle" attacks to reveal data that passes back and forth when devices communicate with websites.
Google has yet to comment on the research and its findings.
Researchers from the security group at Leibniz University of Hanover and the computer science department at the Philipps University of Marburg tested the most popular apps in Google's Play store.
By creating a fake wi-fi hotspot and using a specially created attack tool to spy on the data the apps sent via that route, the researchers were able to:
- capture login details for online bank accounts, email services, social media sites and corporate networks
- disable security programs or fool them into labelling secure apps as infected
- inject computer code into the data stream that made apps carry out specific commands
An attacker could even re-direct a request to transfer funds, while making it look to the app user like the transaction was proceeding unchanged.
Some of the apps tested had been downloaded millions of times, the researchers said.
And a follow-up survey of 754 people suggests users could struggle to spot when they were at risk.
"About half of the participants could not judge the security state of a browser session correctly," the researchers wrote.
"Most importantly, research is needed to study which counter-measures offer the right combination of usability for developers and users, security benefits and economic incentives to be deployed on a large scale."
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One Month of Black History is Not Enough
Julio Stevens, Staff Writer
February 25, 2013
Filed under Editorials
February is a time where we acknowledge blacks for their achievements and celebrate African American culture.
As Morgan Freeman once said, “I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.” I totally agree. Black History Month is really the only time we learn about achievements by blacks that are often overlooked. There isn’t a need for a White History Month because whites are recognized all year round for their achievements. I feel black achievement should be praised in the same way.
These achievements are important and should be taught year round in schools rather than discussed only during the month of February. After February, the shortest month of the year, you rarely hear about Madame C.J. Walker, or Benjamin Bradley.
However, I can say that for the 28 days that black history is celebrated, it is very effective, and comes alive in society. Throughout the country, Black History programs are aired and television specials are produced. Last February, President Obama issued a proclamation highlighting the Black History Month theme, “Black Women in American Culture and History.”
I also feel that the Beachwood community does a great job of celebrating this month. The Diversity Matters group produces on an annual Black History Month community celebration, and Black History Month is usually recognized at BHS. This year, D.A.C. Scholars did a great job of coordinating a Black History Month assembly.
Black History Month is a great way to recognize the achievements of many great black Americans, and to recall the events of black history. I just feel that the black community and American society at large should celebrate such achievements for more than just a month, because black history is American history.
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One way to bring the price of ethanol down is to make it from something other than corn!
C-4 plants are more limited in their growing region than C-3 plants - they are more specialized. They perhaps offer an advantage in lowered 'respiration' - they breathe out less C02, because they fix more of the carbon. However corn is a pesticide intensive pain to grow, and it seems we make the EtOH only from the grain, not from the stalks - thus wasting most of the biomass. These other plants are also C-4, so will grow in similar environments to that of corn. Tropical and well watered areas would do better making ethanol from one of the many many C3 plants than from a C4. They are much easier to grow. Also, Ethanol needs to be generated from the entire biomass, so that we dont have a ton of wasteproduct.
(Sugarcane does not strike me as drought tolerant, so the wikipedia list below puzzles me. )
C4 plants have a competitive advantage over plants possessing the more common C3 carbon fixation pathway under conditions of drought, high temperatures and nitrogen or carbon dioxide limitation. C4 carbon fixation has evolved on several occasions in different groups of plants, so is an example of convergent evolution. Plants which use C4 metabolism include sugarcane, maize, sorghum, Eleusine, Amaranthus, and Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum
If someone wants to do a bit more reading and shoot me down, have at it.
Prove that corn makes economic sense. Cause I'd feel a lot better about things if it did. (Right now the economics of corn seem to be driven by two things - animal feed and HFcorn syrup replacing sugar in many manufactured products. I sure wish Huell Hauser had drunk that mexican coke on the air, he'd have showed a happy surprised face indeed - that is stil lmade with sugar and the difference is obvious).
Altoid - curiously strong.
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Date: Saturday, September 15, 2012 At 10:30 AM
Duration: 2 Hours
A Holy Convocation, a remembrance by blowing of trumpets - Yom Hazikaron Teruah - Leviticus 23:24:
"Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Shabbat, a memorial of blowing of horns, a holy gathering. You shall do no labor in it; but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
Rosh Hashanah - literally ”Head of the Year” - is the Jewish New Year. It is called in the Bible the Day of the blowing of the Trumpets, the Day of Judgment, and the Day of Memorial. Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first day of Tishrei - Rosh Chodesh Tishrei which is the first month of the Jewish secular year, and the seventh month of the Biblical year. It is celebrated as a two day holiday in the Diaspora, but only one day in Israel. It is customary on Rosh Hashanah to eat foods symbolizing sweetness, blessings and abundance. The regular Hallah is replaced with a round one symbolizing the passing of the year, sweet apples and Hallah are eaten dipped in honey symbolyzing the desire for a sweet new year. Also, the head of a fish is eaten symbolizing the beginning of a new and good year, at which the parents bless their children with the words, “May you be the head and not the tail” from Devarim 28:13.
The traditional greeting for Rosh Hashanah is:
“L’Shanah tovah tikotevu”
"May you be inscribed for a good year!"
The day is not one of merrymaking, but of quiet self-inventory, repentance, and resolving to be guided by the teachings of the Torah in the year to come. The name “Rosh Hashanah” is not mentioned in the Torah.
YOM TERUAH — A DAY OF BLOWING THE SHOFAR. This name recalls the sound of the Shofar of God at Mount Sinai, the day when God would drive out the powers of darkness by giving us His Torah. The Shofar was also used as a rallying call to all Israel to battle for the Kingdom of God. The Shofar is to remind the worshipers of God's providence, of the ram that was substituted for the sacrifice of Isaac, thus to remind us about the substitutionary sacrifice of Yeshua at His first coming. And the Shofar is to presage the second coming of Moshiach Yeshua, whose arrival will be heralded by the “Great Shofar.” There are four different sounds associated with the blowing of the Shofar:
1. TEKIAH - a pure, unbroken sound that calls man to search his heart, forsake his wrong ways, and seek forgiveness through repentance.
2. SHEVORIM - a broken, staccato sound, consisting of three short blasts. It typifies the sorrow that comes to man when he realizes his misconduct and desires to change his ways.
3. TERUAH - a succession of nine tremulous sounds of alarm calling upon man to stand by the banner of God.
4. TEKIAH GADOLAH - the prolonged, unbroken sound typifying a final appeal to sincere repentance and atonement.
Combinations of one hundred of these sounds are arranged in three sets of blasts throughout the Rosh Hashanah service
YOM HA-ZEKARON — A DAY OF MEMORIAL. It may recall Israel's forebears as God's people or it may refer to a public commemoration of the dead. The power of memory is to recall one's deeds for personal introspection.
YOM HA-DIN — A DAY OF JUDGMENT. This day the world was called into existence; this day He causes all mankind to stand in judgment. Tradition tells that the Book of Life is opened on Rosh Hashanah and sealed on Yom Kippur. In this book the fate of the righteous, the wicked, and those uncertain are recorded. The first are inscribed for life, the second are blotted out from the book of the living, and the third are given respite to repent.
Rosh Hashanah commemorates the birth of Adam, Isaac, Samuel, the Binding of Isaac, and the birth of the world.
On the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah it is customary for pious Jews to go to a body of water and symbolically cast away their sins with prayer, called Tashlich. “And You will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea” (Micah 7:18). Because bread is symbolic of sin, the participants in this ceremony empty their pockets of bread crumbs and throws them into the water.
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Chinese language is a highly tonal and homophonic language. It means there are a vast number of Chinese words having the same sounds while expressing different meanings. In such case, correct tonal pronunciation is essential for intelligibility since different tones help clarify meanings of words and distinguish words from each other.
Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones–five if you count the “neutral” tone or the “toneless” tone. The four tones are usually depicted graphically with the following diagram to visualize “where” each one occurs in tonal space.
Tones help the relatively small number of Chinese syllables (approximately 400 compared to around 12000 English syllables) to multiply and express meanings. Can you imagine that the Chinese use only one syllable in four different tones to express a sentence “did mother scold the horse”?
The following table illustrates tone markings above the sound ma and describes how each tone is vocalized:
|1st||High and level|
|2nd||Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top|
|3rd||Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top|
|4th||Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom|
|neutral||Flat, with no emphasis|
Now you understand why it is so important to use the right tone: if you use the wrong tone, you may end up calling your mama a horse. It also means learning Chinese in context is very important.
How to help children learn Chinese characters? (Method 1)
How to help children learn Chinese characters? (Method 2)
How to help children learn Chinese characters? (Method 3)
How to help children learn Chinese characters? (Method 4)
How to help children learn Chinese characters? (Method 5)
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Daily News Archive
EPA Proposes Label Changes to Address Pesticide Drift, Misses Several Key Issues
Geraldine Perron, a farmer in Kelvington, Saskatchewan, sent us this photo, taken four years ago, of a neighbor's crop duster applying pesticides on grains adjacent to her property. The pesticides would often drift, making her sick both physically and emotionally. In recent years, things have turned for the better. Because grain prices have dropped and crop dusting is expensive, her neighbor hasn't been using his plane. Without the drifting pesticides, she has been able to certify her cattle pastures as organic.
Pesticide drift, the movement of pesticide particles or droplets during or after a pesticide application, is a serious problem almost anywhere pesticides are applied. To address this problem, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently proposed label changes to all pesticide products that are registered for use outdoors, excluding fumigants and pesticides used soley for public health applications.
While environmentalists view the label changes as an important first step, to truly protect public health, more steps must be taken. Currently, EPA's definition of drift only includes particles that move from their target during or immediately following application. It ignores some of the most important sources of drift, such as pesticide evaporation and pesticide-coated dust particles. Because drift is inevitable, EPA should ban carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, reproductive toxins, developmental toxins, neurotoxins and pesticides listed by EPA as a toxicity category I or II. Problematic spray technologies, such as crop dusting should also be banned. EPA should require buffer zones around all sensitive areas, including schools, homes, hospitals and other public space. Notification to nearby residents should also be reqired so that exposure can be avoided.
Beyond Pesticides submitted comments to EPA on the pesticide drift label changes. The comments tell the stories of victims of pesticide drift that have contacted Beyond Pesticides and lays out recommendations to minimize and eliminate public exposure. Comment period closes March 31, 2002. For more information, see the Pesticide Reregistration notice. Read Beyond Pesticides' drift comments.
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Thermography is a technique of obtaining an image of the heat distribution over the surface of an object. The usual method is to use a special television camera with an infrared sensitive detector and a lens which transmits infrared radiation. Such cameras can operate at normal video rates.
Temperature variations in the subject are then displayed as shades of grey or can be converted into pseudo-colour image. Temperature variations as small as 0.1°C can be detected.
The two main fields of application are:
a) to look at the heat distribution in hot specimens such as furnace walls, insulated structures, electronic circuits, etc in steady state – generally known as passive thermography;
b) to provide a pulsed source of heat on one side of a specimen and examine the other side for non-uniformities in infrared emission which would correspond to internal inhomogeneities or large flaws – generally known as active thermography.
The heat pulse may be supplied by a laser and the method is used to examine CFRP laminates and honeycomb bonded panels.
One limitation of thermography is that the infrared emission depends also on the surface condition of the specimen (surface emissivity).
Thermographic images can also be obtained by coating the specimen surface with heat-sensitive (cholesteric) liquid crystals before applying the heat source to the opposite side.
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There is a common belief amongst many Americans that race and ethnic discrimination is no longer an issue. The problem is many people are confronted with the problems caused by people who are ethnically or racially discriminating against others.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Discrimination is a very hard problem to overcome because many people believe that it doesn’t exist in today’s society. By raising awareness and educating the public that discrimination is an issue, many people can be aware of the issue and work to come up with a solution. Here’s a look at some ways you can raise public awareness about discrimination.
Public speakers are a great way to raise awareness on discrimination. Whether it is the Kazakhstan President or a local Congressman, public speakers can share their experiences with discrimination and really give people a chance to see how it affects people on a daily basis.
Create a Social Media Campaign
One of the most popular ways to raise awareness about issues is to create a social media campaign. Social media campaigns involve creating Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and websites that help give you a platform to spread the message you want. With millions of people on social media outlets, you can begin to raise awareness that discrimination is still an issue in today’s society.
By raising the public’s awareness about discrimination, either by hearing personal accounts from public speakers or by launching a social media campaign, you can help others become aware of the issue and hopefully work to overcome it in the future.
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BCI Aust. Projects
PLEASE DONATE TODAY
Our Approach to Bonobo Conservation- Community-led Conservation
Given almost all bonobo habitat is shared by indigenous people, BCIA believes the best and most effective way of protecting the maximum number of bonobos is to support local communities in bonobo-rich areas by making the bonobos more valuable to them alive than dead. This involves scientific surveys to determine bonobo density and social surveys to determine community traditions, taboos and needs. Agreements are then made with local communities and NGOs to prevent hunting, logging, poaching and habitat encroachment in exchange for agreed conservation and community development assistance (training and support for anti-poaching/monitoring teams, health clinics and mosquito nets, schools and scholarships, microcredit, agriculture and transport, legal support and awareness-raising of land rights against loggers etc). Periodic evaluation and monitoring ensures this exchange continues for as long as bonobos are protected. This model has a mushrooming effect, as other communities in nearby bonobo-rich areas also seek to enter such agreements and cooperate with each other.
This bottom-up approach has succeeded in effectively preserving vast amounts (more than 40,000km2) of bonobo habitat, which we aim to connect by corridors in a linked constellation called the Bonobo Peace Forest. This contrasts to the top-down approach of large traditional environmental organisations (which typically involves having an area declared a national park, clearing local people out and then ineffectively trying to keep them (and hunters) out) which has shown very poor results, despite the large amounts of funds they receive. With this community-focused approach, we are helping bonobos by helping some of the very poorest people in the world, as well as fighting global warming by preserving the Congo Basin rainforest. Some examples-
Monitoring and Tracking Teams in the following rainforest habitats where bonobos have healthy although endangered populations: Kokolopori, Lac Tumba, Mompono, Moneika/Bokote and Lingomo.
These teams, consisting of local villagers with phenomenal tracking and bushcraft skills, form a vital conservation presence. They unobtrusively follow different bonobo groups on a daily basis, warding off poachers and helping to ensure that bonobos conservation is given a high priority by their local communities.
Funds raised go directly to equipment, training and salaries necessary to keep these teams viable. A mere $US100 is sufficient to employ one tracker for a full month. Please help.
Bonobo Health Clinic
In the bonobo-rich region of Kokolopori, around 8000 people have had almost no access to health services. Since 2006, led by BCIA Director (and Flying Doctor) Dr Luke Bennett and in partnership with the Indigo Foundation and the Kokolopori Falls Church Sister City Program, BCIA has supported the development of a health clinic there, staffed by a doctor, four nurses and 10 midwives (with more trained every year) with a particular focus on infant and maternal health and malaria bednet distribution. Two other dispensaries have been established nearby, staffed by nurses. People who don't have to worry about dying in childbirth are better able to value and support bonobo conservation. But we need your support.
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Quiz: Preface | Part 1, Chapter 1 Politics of Slavery, Section 1 | Part 1, Chapter 1 Politics of Slavery, Section 2 to Part 5, Chapter 13 Pragmatisms, Section 4 | Part 5, Chapter 13 Pragmatisms, Section 5
|Name: _____________________________||Period: ___________________________|
This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
Directions: Circle the correct answer.
1. Henry Sr. viewed _________ as he did everything, with a distrust of institutions.
2. _________ was able to integrate polygenism into the South by linking it to Christianity.
a) Louis Agassiz.
b) Josiah Nott.
c) George Glidden.
d) Samuel Cartwright.
3. The Civil War saw the end of the __________ industry in New England.
4. Hall gave lectures to educators concerning an...
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WASHINGTON — George A. Miller, an iconoclastic scholar who helped topple the behaviorist school of psychology and replace it with cognitive science, a shift that amounted to no less than a revolution in the study of the human mind, died July 22 at his home in Plainsboro, N.J. He was 92.
The death was announced by Princeton University, where he was a professor emeritus. He had pneumonia and dementia, said his wife, Margaret.
Dr. Miller came to prominence in the mid-1950s at Harvard University, where he and colleague Jerome Bruner founded an intellectual hothouse known as the Center for Cognitive Studies. There, Dr. Miller established his reputation as one of the leading psychologists of the late 20th century. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of Science.
Before Dr. Miller, Bruner, and Noam Chomsky came on the scene, the field of psychology was dominated by behaviorists such as B.F. Skinner. Behaviorist theories, long regarded as dogma, basically posited that people act in accordance with rewards and punishments. Cognitive processes such as thought and memory could not be directly observed, Skinner argued, and therefore did not merit scientific inquiry.
Reflecting on the transformation of psychology that he helped bring about, Dr. Miller said that the field was like a ‘‘dog turning around three times before it lies down.’’
Bruner said that Dr. Miller helped ‘‘put the emphasis back on the human being as a mental being’’ who observes the world, processes information, commits it to memory, and makes decisions.
‘‘If any person deserves credit for creating the field of cognitive psychology as it has developed in the past roughly 60 years,’’ the linguist and philosopher Chomsky said in an interview, Dr. Miller is ‘‘the one.’’
Many of Dr. Miller’s publications are considered classics, none more than his paper ‘‘The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two,’’ published in the journal Psychological Review in 1956. In that essay, Dr. Miller observed that for most people, short-term memory is limited to about seven ‘‘chunks’’ of information.
More than five decades later, the essay remains one of the most widely cited papers in psychology. It has been trotted out to explain the human capacity to remember phone numbers. In 1981, The Washington Post editorial board pointed to the theory to argue against the US Postal Service’s proposal for a nine-digit ZIP code system.
‘‘The Magical Number Seven’’ was not pop science. To write it, Dr. Miller started with the premise that the brain was not a simple machine akin to the early computers.
By using ‘‘intelligence intelligently,’’ as Bruner described the ability, humans can organize bits of information into what Dr. Miller called ‘‘chunks.’’ Nine letters — C, I, A, F, B, I, I, B and M, for example — can be transformed into three easily remembered ‘‘chunks’’ of information: CIA, FBI, and IBM.
‘‘Why did this apparently simple point have a decidedly major impact?’’ wrote Howard E. Gardner in the book ‘‘The Mind’s New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution.’’ ‘‘Psychologists had been trying for approximately a century to discover the basic laws of the human mental system. . . . Miller was holding out hope of marriage between the quantities of data collected by psychologists over the years and the rigorous new approaches of the engineering-oriented scientists. The result might be a genuine science of psychology with its own set of immutable laws.’’
Unlike many other psychologists of his era, Dr. Miller embraced disciplines outside his own, including math and the fledgling science of information technology. Chomsky credited Dr. Miller with helping develop psycholinguistics, which joined the study of the mind and the study of language.
George Armitage Miller was born in Charleston, W.Va. He received a bachelor’s degree in history and speech in 1940 and a master’s degree in speech in 1941, both from the University of Alabama.
After World War II, when he worked in a military voice communications laboratory, he received a doctorate in psychology from Harvard in 1946.
The Center for Cognitive Studies, started in 1960, got early support from the Rockefeller Foundation and Harvard dean McGeorge Bundy, the future national security adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
‘‘Were we surprised at the swiftness of the acceptance?’’ Bruner said. ‘‘I think we didn’t recognize that people all over the place were just as bored with the narrow behaviorist approach as we had been.’’
Dr. Miller was a past president of the American Psychological Association and had taught over the years at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rockefeller University, and Princeton, which he joined in 1979.
Dr. Miller wrote and co-wrote books including ‘‘Plans and the Structure of Behavior’’ (1960), ‘‘Psychology: The Science of Mental Life’’ (1962), ‘‘Mathematics and Psychology (1964), and ‘‘Language and Perception’’ (1976).
One of his later projects was the creation of WordNet, a database of the English language that Philip N. Johnson-Laird, a Princeton colleague, described as a computerized version of ‘‘Roget’s Thesaurus.’’
Dr. Miller’s first wife, Katherine James, died in 1996 after 57 years of marriage. He leaves his wife of four years, Margaret Ferguson Skutch Page Miller of Princeton; two children from his first marriage, Nancy Saunders of Durham, Ark., and Donnally Miller of Morris Plains, N.J.; two stepsons, David Skutch and Christopher Skutch, both of Montclair, N.J.; and three grandsons.
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This Activity is meant for Boy Scouts.
Each patrol leader is responsible for writing down his patrol's answers as well as making sure his patrol's name is on each notecard turned in.
When a question is read, the patrol writes down its answer as quickly as possible. The notecard is then run to the scoring judge.
The judge puts a mark on the first card received to indicate it was turned in first. The judge then checks the answer for accuracy, writes the score on the card, and puts it in a pile for that patrol.
When all the questions have been asked, the scoring judge tallies the scores and gives 5 extra points for every notecard turned in first.
Use as many questions as you have time for and interest remains.
Maybe use 5 questions in a round and award a winner for each round.
Give 1 point for every correct item in a list. It might be better to NOT say the number of items. For example, say, "Name the Beattles" rather than "Name the four Beattles". Astute patrols may just run a blank sheet up to the front quickly if they know a mark for being first turned in is worth 5 points and a completely correct answer is only worth 3 points. Or, do not announce the value for being the first turned in answer.
- Name Santa's nine reindeer
- Name the seven dwarfs in Snow White
- Name the eight planets
- Name the original 13 American colonies
- Name the seven continents
- Name the five United States that touch the Pacific Ocean
- Name the four Beatles
- Name the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Give the value of pi to 6 places
- List the three main parts of an egg
- List the 7 colors in a rainbow in correct order from outside to inside
- What three colors are used in a color printer
- Name three villans that Batman fought on TV
- Name the capitols of Canada, USA, and Mexico
- Name the face cards in a suit from lowest to highest
- Name the five departments of the Armed Forces
- List the 6 smallest non-negative prime integers
- Name Christopher Columbus's 3 ships
- Name the 5 coins smaller than a dollar
- Name the presidents on Mt. Rushmore in order from left to right
- List the months with 31 days
- Name the 4 railroads on a Monopoly board
- Name the 4 suits in a card deck
- Name 8 of the 11 states that border Canada
- Name the 5 oceans of the world
- List the 5 colors of rings on the Olympic flag
- List the events in the decathlon
- Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen
- Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, Sleep, Grumpy, Happy
- Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, Venus
- New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia
- Antarctica, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, N. America, S. America
- Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington
- Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon
- Michaelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo
- yolk, white, shell
- Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
- cyan, magenta, yellow
- catwoman, clayface, joker, riddler, two-face, penguin, egghead, king tut
- Ottowa, Ontario; Washington, DC; Mexico City
- Jack, Queen, King
- Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard
- Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria
- penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar
- Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln
- Jan, Mar, May, July, Aug, Oct, Dec
- B&O, Pennsylvania, Reading, Short Line
- Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades
- Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Vermont, Washington
- Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, Southern
- blue, yellow, black, green, red
- 100 meter run, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter run, 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1500 meter run
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You are racing a child that you are twice as fast as and you want to give him a head start in a race from one side of a field to the other. How much of a head start should you allow so that you will come close to finishing the race even? Draw a picture and label the length of the field as L and the head start distance as H. What is the length that the child needs to run? If your speed is S what is the child's speed? You want to finish at nearly equal times; the time that it takes you would be L/S (the distancerun divided by the speed run), what would it be for the child? Set those equal and solve for H.
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amnesiaArticle Free Pass
amnesia, loss of memory occurring most often as a result of damage to the brain from trauma, stroke, Alzheimer disease, alcohol and drug toxicity, or infection. Amnesia may be anterograde, in which events following the causative trauma or disease are forgotten, or retrograde, in which events preceding the causative event are forgotten.
The condition also may be traced to severe emotional shock, in which case personal memories (e.g., identity) are affected. Such amnesia seems to represent a psychological escape from or denial of memories that might cause anxiety. These memories are not actually lost, since they can generally be recovered through psychotherapy or after the amnesic state has ended.
Occasionally amnesia may last for weeks, months, or even years, during which time the person may begin an entirely new life. Such protracted reactions are called fugue states. When recovered, the person is usually able to remember events that occurred prior to onset, but events of the fugue period are forgotten. Posthypnotic amnesia, the forgetting of most or all events that occur while under hypnosis in response to a suggestion by the hypnotist, has long been regarded as a sign of deep hypnosis.
The common difficulty of remembering childhood experiences is sometimes referred to as childhood amnesia.
What made you want to look up "amnesia"? Please share what surprised you most...
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Simply begin typing or use the editing tools above to add to this article.
Once you are finished and click submit, your modifications will be sent to our editors for review.
demography of Sudan
...only among the nomads of the plains who raise cattle, sheep, and camels. Each Arab tribe or cluster of tribes is in turn assigned to a larger tribal grouping, of which the two largest are the Jalayin and the Juhaynah. The Jalayin encompasses the sedentary agriculturalists along the middle Nile from Dongola south to Khartoum and includes such tribes as the Jalayin tribe proper, the...
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Norman RockwellArticle Free Pass
Norman Rockwell, (born February 3, 1894, New York City, New York, U.S.—died November 8, 1978, Stockbridge, Massachusetts), American illustrator best known for his covers for the journal The Saturday Evening Post.
Rockwell, a scholarship winner of the Art Students League, received his first freelance assignment from Condé Nast at age 17 and thereafter provided illustrations for various magazines. In 1916 he sold his first cover to The Saturday Evening Post, for which in the next 47 years he illustrated a total of 322 magazine covers. From 1926 to 1976 Rockwell also illustrated the official Boy Scout Calendar. During World War II, posters of his paintings portraying the “Four Freedoms” were reproduced and distributed by the Office of War Information.
Rockwell was a careful craftsman with an ability to represent detail realistically. The subjects of most of his illustrations are taken from everyday family and small-town life and are often treated with a touch of humour. Though loved by the public, Rockwell’s work was dismissed by most critics as lacking artistic merit and authentic social observation. In 1977 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest peacetime award—by Pres. Gerald R. Ford.
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rosewoodArticle Free Pass
rosewood, any of several ornamental timbers, products of various tropical trees native to Brazil, Honduras, Jamaica, Africa, and India. The most important commercially are the Honduras rosewood, Dalbergia stevensoni, and the Brazilian rosewood, principally D. nigra, a leguminous tree up to 125 feet (38 metres) called cabiúna, and jacaranda in Brazil. Jacaranda also refers to several species of Machaerium, also of the Fabaceae (or Leguminosae) family, and a source of commercial rosewood.
Rosewood is a deep, ruddy brown to purplish-brown colour, richly streaked and grained with black resinous layers. It takes a fine polish but because of its resinous nature is difficult to work. The heartwood attains large dimensions, but squared logs or planks are never seen because before the tree arrives at maturity, the heartwood begins to decay, making it faulty and hollow at the centre. Once much in demand by cabinetmakers and piano makers, the wood is still used to fashion xylophone bars, but waning supplies restrict its use. Rosewood earlier was exported in quantity from Brazil, Jamaica, and Honduras.
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With the global population at more than 7 billion people and growing by the second
, we thought we'd take another look at what the world could look like in the coming years.
Though most of us won't be around to see it, the United Nations has projected that our incredible population growth will level off at around 10 billion people by the year 2100.
Already, at 7 billion, we are experiencing severe poverty, hunger, a shortage of resources, increased urbanization and climate change issues.
Will we be doomed by 2100, or can we make it work? Since we've only got one planet (so far), let's hope for the latter.
By 2100, 80 percent of the world's populations will live in cities
Increased urbanization will be one of the main ways the planet will sustain 10 billion people. There will be a lot of new cities, and mega-cities (cities with a population of over 20 million) will become more common.
Possible candidates for mega-city status include: Beijing, Delhi, Jakarta, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, and Shanghai.
Global life expectancy will be around 81 years
Nowadays, our life expectancy is at 68 years.
The UN report does not, however, include the possibilities of improvements in life expectancy from "research in genetic engineering, nanomedicine, exponentially increasing intelligence."
It also doesn't consider risks such as alien invasion or pandemics in its projections.
The world's coral reefs, and the delicate ecosystems they house, could disintegrate
Carbon dioxide is expected to reach a level of 560 parts per million by the end of the century, resulting in the destruction of over 9,000 coral reefs worldwide.
Besides being nice to look at, reefs are home to thousands of species of fish and are the feeding and spawning grounds of countless other animals.
The ability of coral reefs to regenerate is compromised when water acidity levels and temperature are too high.
There might be up to five billion more of us — or a billion fewer
The UN report that predicts 10 billion people by 2100 also had two alternate, though less likely, scenarios: there could be as many as 15.8 billion people, or as few as 6.2 billion.
While 6.2 billion would be manageable, 15.8 could be "a danger" to the planet.
We would need to take drastic steps to control population levels if we were to survive. 10 billion may be too much of a strain as it is.
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Helping, Not Hovering, to Get Kids Ready for School
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Most parents want to support and nurture their child’s education without being labeled as overly involved “helicopter” moms and dads. Advocating for your student without trying to protect them from every negative consequence is not easy to do, said Arthur Hochman, Butler University associate professor of elementary education. “Others are so ready to judge us, and we are so ready to judge ourselves as parents.”
Hochman suggests ways in which parents can foster children’s self-reliance and help them get ready for a great school year.
· Demonstrate your own “readiness” to learn and take risks. “If we, as parents, are living vital and productive lives, we approach new ideas, people and experiences with openness and positivity,” Hochman said. “We see possibilities; we forgive ourselves for falling short. And we share this with our children in a natural way that doesn’t feel like a lecture every time.”
· See if your child’s passion can be integrated into schooling. Tell your child’s teacher that your daughter loves to draw, needs to move, is fascinated by bugs, always has a book nearby or lives well inside her imagination.
· Help kids feel relaxed and comfortable about school. “Sometimes when we over-prepare our children, we create a feeling of heightened worry and anticipation,” Hochman said. Think about and discuss with your child what needs to be done to be ready for the start of school. In order to feel refreshed for the new year, enjoy some fun family get-away time before school begins.
· Remember that readiness for learning is individual. Some children love school and take to it naturally. If that’s not the case for your child, give him or her plenty of opportunities to tell you their concerns and challenges. Prompt them to come up with solutions.
If you want to discuss an issue with your child’s classroom teacher, do so with respect. “Listen and attempt to learn and understand what the teacher is trying to do before you judge it,” Hochman said. Keep the discussion upbeat by acknowledging the teacher and school’s good qualities, he added. “Teachers and administrators do not often hear about the great things they are doing.
“If I come in angry and confrontational, I am teaching my child that, when faced with a challenge, the proper response is anger.”
Sometimes a child loves going to school and is making educational progress, and yet a parent may be looking for something he or she feel is missing from the curriculum, Hochman said. “I would be careful about advocating in this case since I may be unintentionally chipping away at my child’s success.”
Ultimately, there is no “magic formula” for how much parents should push a child’s efforts and how much they should pull back, Hochman said. “It is different for each child.” Parents should guard against fostering overdependence. A child who always needs someone else pushing them to complete assignments and succeed is less likely to develop the internal focus and motivation necessary to function as an independent adult, he said.
A member of the Butler University College of Education faculty since 1989, Associate Professor Arthur Hochman specializes in Early/Middle Childhood Education, Curriculum Development and Construction Arts Integration. He has frequently served as a consultant, author and speaker on child development, teacher preparation standards and arts integration across curricula. To schedule an interview with Arthur Hochman, contact Mary Ellen Stephenson, (317) 940-6944 or [email protected]
To find other Butler University experts, visit http://www.butler.edu/experts/.
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© 2005-2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). All rights reserved worldwide.
Staging is a way of describing where the tumor is located, if or where it has spread, and whether it is affecting the functions of other organs in the body. A staging system is used for most other types of cancer. There is a formal staging system for adult brain tumors; however, the grading system described below is always used instead.
After a brain tumor has been diagnosed, additional tests will be done to learn more about the tumor. If the tumor is a glial brain tumor, the pathologist will assign a “grade” using a number from I to IV (one to four). The grade indicates how different the tumor cells are from healthy cells, with a higher grade tumor having cells that are the least like healthy cells. The characteristics of the tumor, as seen under the microscope, help determine how cancerous a tumor is. Generally, the lower the grade, the better the prognosis (chance of recovery or long-term control of the tumor).
There are several other factors that help doctors determine the appropriate brain tumor treatment plan and determine prognosis:
Tumor histology. As outlined under Diagnosis, a sample of the tumor is removed for analysis. How a tumor looks under a microscope is called tumor histology.
Normal brain tissue usually has differentiated tissue (different types of cells grouped together). Brain tissue that is cancerous is usually made up of cells that look more alike. In general, the more differentiated the brain tissue (and the lower the grade), the better the prognosis.
To determine histology of a glial tumor, doctors look at several factors including, but not limited to, the following:
- Mitosis (the number of cells dividing)
- Hypercellularity (if the tumor contains large numbers of cells)
- Vascular proliferation (if blood vessels in the tumor are growing)
- Necrosis (if there is any dead tissue in the tumor)
The pathologist can determine the type of tumor and its grade. To decide on the best treatment for a brain tumor, both the type and grade of the tumor must be determined. In general, a tumor is referred to by grade. The higher the grade, the more rapidly growing the tumor is.
Specifically for glial tumors, the grade is determined by its features, as seen under a microscope, according to the following criteria:
- Grade I is a separate group of tumors called juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma (JPA). The term juvenile does not refer to the age of the patient, but rather the type of cell. This is a noncancerous, slow-growing tumor that can typically be cured with surgery. It is different from a low-grade astrocytoma or Grade II glioma, which are likely to recur.
- A grade II tumor does not have mitosis, vascular proliferation, or necrosis, but shows increased cellularity.
- A grade III tumor is hypercellular and has mitosis but no vascular proliferation and no necrosis. It is often called anaplastic astrocytoma
- A grade IV tumor (glioblastoma, also called glioblastoma multiforme or GBM) has vascular proliferation and/or necrosis in addition to the factors common to grade II and III tumors.
Age of patient. In adults, the age of the patient (as well as his or her level of functioning, called functional status, see below) when diagnosed is one of the best ways to predict a patient's prognosis. In general, a younger adult has a better prognosis.
Extent of tumor residual. Resection is surgery to remove a tumor, and residual refers to how much of the tumor remains in the body after surgery. Four classifications are used:
- Gross total: The entire tumor was removed (microscopic cells may remain).
- Subtotal: Large portions of the tumor were removed.
- Partial: Only part of the tumor was removed.
- Biopsy only: Only a small portion, used for a biopsy, was removed.
A patient's prognosis is better when all of the tumor can be surgically removed.
Tumor location. A tumor can form in any part of the brain. Some tumor locations cause more damage than others, and some tumors are harder to treat because of their location.
Functional neurologic status. The doctor will test how well a patient is able to function and carry out everyday activities by using a functional assessment scale, such as the Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS), outlined below. A higher score indicates a better functional status. Typically, the better someone is able to walk and care for themselves indicates a better prognosis.
100 Normal, no complaints, no evidence of disease
90 Able to carry on normal activity; minor symptoms of disease
80 Normal activity with effort; some symptoms of disease
70 Cares for self; unable to carry on normal activity or active work
60 Requires occasional assistance but is able to care for needs
50 Requires considerable assistance and frequent medical care
40 Disabled: requires special care and assistance
30 Severely disabled; hospitalization is indicated, but death not imminent
20 Very sick, hospitalization necessary; active treatment necessary
10 Moribund, fatal processes progressing rapidly
Metastatic spread. A tumor that starts in the brain or spinal cord, if cancerous, often spreads within the CNS only and rarely spreads to other parts of the body in adults. For that reason, with few exceptions, tests looking at the other organs of the body are typically not needed. A tumor that does spread to other parts of the brain or spinal cord is associated with a poorer prognosis.
Biogenetic markers. Certain molecular markers found in the tumor tissue can provide information on the tumor's response to treatment. For instance, for oligodendroglioma, the loss of part of chromosome 1 on the p part of the chromosome, and the loss of part of chromosome 19 on the q part of the chromosome (called a 1p and 19q co-deletion) is associated with a much better response to chemotherapy and more successful treatment and can be used to help plan treatment, especially for anaplastic oligodendroglioma. Also, in glioblastoma, whether a gene called MGMT is changed can help understand a patient's prognosis, and it is being tested in clinical trials (research studies).
Recurrent tumor. A recurrent tumor is one that comes back after treatment. If there is a recurrence, the tumor may need to be graded again using the system above.
Currently, the factors listed above are the best indicators of a patient's prognosis. As discussed in Diagnosis, researchers are currently looking for tumor markers in the tumor tissue that could make a brain tumor easier to diagnose and the staging of an adult brain tumor possible in the future. These tools may someday help doctors analyze the possibility that a brain tumor will grow, develop more effective treatments, and more accurately predict prognosis.
Used with permission of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), Chicago, Illinois. The original source for this material is the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, Seventh Edition (2010)published by Springer-Verlag New York, www.cancerstaging.net.
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What Works for Women : Joint Report on Women and Smallholder Agriculture
In Africa, women own 1% of agricultural land, receive 7% of agricultural extension services and access just under 10% of agricultural credit. But women constitute 43% of the agricultural labour force in the developing world and they are invariably responsible for critical if not all household consumption responsibilities.
The FAO estimates that increasing women’s contribution to food production and enterprise by providing equal access to opportunities and resources could reduce the number of chronically hungry people by between 12% and 17% - or between 100 million and 150 million people. For CARE, addressing this challenge represents the front line in the improving global food security.
On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Hunger Alliance and partners in the UK developed a good practice paper that draws on evidence from various programmes and provides analysis and recommendations for various actors to increase targeted attention to the gender dimension of food production.
To read the report, Click Here
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| 0.923128 | 195 | 3 | 3 |
The Response of Traditional Medicine A standard practice of modern medicine is to inject steroids into the area of cartilage damage or to prescribe anti-inflammatory medications. However, in the long run, these treatments do more damage than good. Although cortisone shots and anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to produce short-term pain benefit, both result in long-term loss of function and even more chronic pain by actually inhibiting the healing process of soft tissues and accelerating cartilage degeneration. Plus, long-term use of these drugs can lead to other sources of chronic pain, allergies and leaky gut syndrome. In other words, the problem with this treatment approach is that it does nothing to repair the deteriorated cartilage and, thus, does not alleviate the chronic pain that people with this condition experience.
Another, more recent, treatment approach involves the use of Synvisc, a synthetic derivative of hyaluronic acid, a normal component of joint fluid, which acts as a temporary, and very costly cushion. The obvious problem with this approach is that not only is it temporary, but it also does nothing to deal with the underlying cause of the problem – cartilage damage. And when all else fails, patients who experience chronic joint pain are usually referred to a surgeon. Unfortunately, surgery often makes the problem worse. Surgeons will use x-ray technology as a diagnostic tool, which does not always properly diagnose the pain source. Decisions to remove cartilage tissue will most commonly result in arthritis.
Chronic pain is most commonly due to tendon and ligament weakness or cartilage deterioration. The safest and most effective natural medicine treatment for repairing tendon, ligament and cartilage damage is Prolotherapy. In simple terms, Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair painful areas. It does so by inducing a mild inflammatory reaction in the weakened ligaments and cartilage. Since the body heals by inflammation, Prolotherapy stimulates healing.
Prolotherapy is the only treatment found to stimulate cartilage repair and regeneration, as is shown by the X-rays.
Furthermore, Prolotherapy offers the most curative results in treating chronic pain. It effectively eliminates pain because it attacks the source: the fibro-osseous junction, an area rich in sensory nerves. What’s more, the tissue strengthening and pain relief stimulated by Prolotherapy is permanent!
Caring Medical is a full time Prolotherapy doctor’s office. We have successfully treated all of the conditions we write about. This is why patients travel from across the country and internationally to be treated by our Prolotherapy physician Dr. Ross Hauser. The difference is in the care, technique, and experience you get with Dr. Hauser and team at Caring Medical.
The treatment regimens suggested here are based on the experience of Caring Medical. They do not apply to every case or condition. A person using these recommendations without the aid of a personal physician does so at their own risk.
This information is provided for informational purposes only. It is essential to have your condition evaluated by your own personal physician.
For an appointment with Ross Hauser, M.D., please call 708-848-7789. or email us at [email protected].
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Many books have been accumulated in the Community of Casale. Many hundreds can be found; their classification has already started.
The origins, genre and dates of these books are very different. The main bulk is totally formed by prayer or study books (Written or Oral Torah ), but most varied topics can be found: a book concerning children’s education, another on the way of curing children, a book explaining the functioning of the sabbatical year or a handwritten book concerning the prayer to be recited in front of a Jew’s grave.
These books were printed between 1600 and 1900, mainly in Italy and in particular by the community of Livorno. They belonged to the community, to an association (i.e. the Talmud Torah, the Jewish religious school) or to private individuals of Casale or other places in Italy (Livorno, Acqui, Torino) or in Europe (France and Eastern countries).
In these books handwritten notes can be found about the ancient proprietary of the book (the Talmud Torah’s books are often full of incomprehensible writings or scribbles; those belonged to adults contain unusual notes as mathematical calculations or lists of commissions). The most interesting books present sometimes letters or messages like a dedication for a deceased person.
The ancient books’ archive lets us understand the relation between the Jews and their religion through the prayer and the study of Judaism.
Today only half of the books have been archived. In order to support the important -yet demanding- task of archiving those historical treasures; please click here.
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'Psychopaths' Have an Impaired Sense of Smell
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:04:39 pm
People with psychopathic tendencies have an impaired sense of smell, which points to inefficient processing in the front part of the brain. These findings by Mehmet Mahmut and Richard Stevenson, from Macquarie University in Australia, are published online in Springer's journal Chemosensory Perception.
Psychopathy is a broad term that covers a severe personality disorder characterized by callousness, manipulation, sensation-seeking and antisocial behaviors, traits which may also be found in otherwise healthy and functional people. Studies have shown that people with psychopathic traits have impaired functioning in the front part of the brain - the area largely responsible for functions such as planning, impulse control and acting in accordance with social norms. In addition, a dysfunction in these areas in the front part of the brain is linked to an impaired sense of smell.
-ADVERTISEMENT-Mahmut and Stevenson looked at whether a poor sense of smell was linked to higher levels of psychopathic tendencies, among 79 non-criminal adults living in the community. First they assessed the participants' olfactory ability as well as the sensitivity of their olfactory system. They also measured subjects' levels of psychopathy, looking at four measures: manipulation; callousness; erratic lifestyles; and criminal tendencies. They also noted how much or how little they emphasized with other people's feelings.
The researchers found that those individuals who scored highly on psychopathic traits were more likely to struggle to both identify smells and tell the difference between smells, even though they knew they were smelling something. These results show that brain areas controlling olfactory processes are less efficient in individuals with psychopathic tendencies.
The authors conclude: "Our findings provide support for the premise that deficits in the front part of the brain may be a characteristic of non-criminal psychopaths. Olfactory measures represent a potentially interesting marker for psychopathic traits, because performance expectancies are unclear in odor tests and may therefore be less susceptible to attempts to fake good or bad responses."
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More and more people over the age of 65 are finding ways to connect using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The number of people using technology as a means of communicating grows each day, and seniors are no exception. A study in 2012 reported that people over the age of 65 are the fastest growing segment of society using a computer for personal use, and 34 percent of those using the Internet are using social networking sites such as Facebook with 18 percent doing so on a daily basis.
Once a territory typically thought of as only for young people, social networking and devices such as smartphones and tablets are fast becoming a common way for families and friends to stay connected to each other and the world around them.
With the introduction of these devices, people are finding getting online easier than ever. Apps such as Skype and Facetime are making it simple for grandparents to communicate with grandchildren in ‘real time’ like no generation in the past.
Dawn DuBois of Chatham says she uses Facetime at least twice a week to communicate with her grandchildren, and Joyce Thomas of Delmar says she has friends who use Skype regularly to keep in touch with grandchildren who live out of town. With these and similar apps, grandparents are able to see their grandchildren's soccer games or dance recitals from miles away.
It’s not only video chatting that is making the grade with seniors, for DuBois, social networks such as Facebook have helped her to keep in touch with people she otherwise wouldn’t have in the past.
“I connect with my college-aged nieces and nephews on Facebook all the time,” she says. “If it wasn’t for Facebook, I probably wouldn’t connect with them at all.”
DuBois says when her brother’s kids grew up she wasn’t able to keep in touch with them the way she wanted to and felt the distance, but with Facebook that has changed.
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As a motivator for good behavior during testing, I took them to the infamous Georgia Aquarium. We started our day in the park with lunch and explored the aquarium. Most saw aquatic animals for the first time, touched sharks, and asked so many questions. My students are often labeled as lost and are not included by many teachers because they are misunderstood. It has been part of my mission to dispel that myth and this trip helped to do that.
As an end of the year reward and bonding moment, I took just my students to a local animal rehabilitation park with lions, tigers, monkeys, and even roaming peacocks. Again, the trip started with a picnic; however this one included surprise visits from peacocks, ducks, and the occasional wild bird that roamed free. My students worked together and served each other lunch and then served my paraprofessional and myself as well!
After a great meal of stories and questions on the animals, we took a walk around the park and they played on swings and found frogs and turtles in a pond, even bonded with a few cows and bison in a pasture. As we strolled through the park looking at all the animals, my students would walk side by side with myself and my paraprofessional, with an arm occasionally grabbing us and pulling us to something exciting.
My 6th grader who struggles with reading took extra time to stop and read every single informational sign out loud to me and would ask for help on hard words; he beamed with joy when he finished. He then promised to come back next year able to read much better and even made a bet for a free ice cream if he could do it on the first day of school.
These trips were done as a reward to my students; however they may have been more of a reward to my paraprofessional and myself. We were able to see our students, our new family, demonstrate just how far they have grown and matured during the year. We were able to laugh and joke and prove to the school and to the students themselves that they are just as capable as students without disabilities to go on field trips and have a great time. My students were thankful, their parents wrote thank you cards to us, and most of all, the students all said they can’t wait to come back next year!
How did you finish the year with your students and how did you inspire them to keep learning over the summer?
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- PDF (283 kb)
- Full Text with Thumbnail Figures
- Full Text with Large Figures
- Cited by in Scopus (151)
- Request permission
- Circling the enemy: cyclic proteins in plant defence
Trends in Plant Science, Volume 14, Issue 6, 1 June 2009, Pages 328-335
David J. Craik
AbstractCyclotides are ultra-stable plant proteins that have a circular peptide backbone crosslinked by a cystine knot of disulfide bonds. They are produced in large quantities by plants of the Violaceae and Rubiaceae families and have a role in plant defence against insect predation. As I discuss here, recent studies have begun to reveal how their unique circular topology evolved. Cyclization is achieved by hijacking existing plant proteolytic enzymes and operating them in ‘reverse’ to form a peptide bond between the N- and C-termini of a linear precursor. Such studies suggest that circular proteins are more common in the plant kingdom than was previously thought, and their exceptional stability has led to their application as protein-engineering templates in drug design.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (426 kb)
- Processing of a 22 kDa Precursor Protein to Produce the Circular Protein Tricyclon A
Structure, Volume 13, Issue 5, 1 May 2005, Pages 691-701
Jason P. Mulvenna, Lillian Sando and David J. Craik
SummaryCyclotides are a family of plant proteins that have the unusual combination of head-to-tail backbone cyclization and a cystine knot motif. They are exceptionally stable and show resistance to most chemical, physical, and enzymatic treatments. The structure of tricyclon A, a previously unreported cyclotide, is described here. In this structure, a loop that is disordered in other cyclotides forms a β sheet that protrudes from the globular core. This study indicates that the cyclotide fold is amenable to the introduction of a range of structural elements without affecting the cystine knot core of the protein, which is essential for the stability of the cyclotides. Tricyclon A does not possess a hydrophobic patch, typical of other cyclotides, and has minimal hemolytic activity, making it suitable for pharmaceutical applications. The 22 kDa precursor protein of tricyclon A was identified and provides clues to the processing of these fascinating miniproteins.
Summary | Full Text | PDF (497 kb)
- Protease-catalysed protein splicing: a new post-translational modification?
Trends in Biochemical Sciences, Volume 33, Issue 8, 1 August 2008, Pages 363-368
Ivana Saska and David J. Craik
AbstractIn all organisms, proteases catalyse peptide-bond hydrolysis and mediate protein function for a multitude of cellular processes. Mechanistically, nothing prevents proteases from also catalysing peptide-bond ligation; however, this ‘reverse’ reaction rarely is observed. In eukaryotes its presence has been viewed as an anomaly. Recent studies from plants and animals now challenge this assumption, indicating that protease-catalysed protein splicing is a bona fide post-translational modification. Increasing evidence indicates that the proximity of protein substrates, imposed either by their structure or by the physical constraints of the local environment, dictates when the splicing reaction will occur. This previously under-recognized splicing mechanism could increase intracellular protein diversity, thereby expanding the size of the proteome and sequence diversity beyond the predictions from genomic studies.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (574 kb)
Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved.
Trends in Biochemical Sciences, Volume 27, Issue 3, 132-138, 1 March 2002
Circular proteins — no end in sight
Circular proteins are a recently discovered phenomenon. They presumably evolved to confer advantages over ancestral linear proteins while maintaining the intrinsic biological functions of those proteins. In general, these advantages include a reduced sensitivity to proteolytic cleavage and enhanced stability. In one remarkable family of circular proteins, the cyclotides, the cyclic backbone is additionally braced by a knotted arrangement of disulfide bonds that confers additional stability and topological complexity upon the family. This article describes the discovery, structure, function and biosynthesis of the currently known circular proteins. The discovery of naturally occurring circular proteins in the past few years has been complemented by new chemical and biochemical methods to make synthetic circular proteins; these are also briefly described.
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Your First Visit
Be ready to provide your medical history, which will be essential for preparing a course of treatment for you. Medical records, such as diagnostic test results, or imaging results, such as X-rays and MRIs, also will provide important information about your condition.
Certain things in your health history are particularly vital to a chiropractor. This information could provide important clues that will allow your chiropractor to properly diagnose your problem. Such clues include whether you have or have had:
- Bone disorders, such as osteoporosis
- Circulatory problems (poor circulation could be a sign that you have a subluxation, for example)
- Dizziness or blurred vision
- Heart conditions such as hypertension or high blood pressure
- Infections, especially those affecting your spine
- Injuries, such as bone fractures, muscle sprains, or disc injuries
- Joint disorders such as arthritis
- Sleep apnea
Be prepared to answer such questions as:
- Did the onset of your pain immediately follow an injury?
- Is there anything you do that improves or worsens the pain?
- When and how did your pain start?
- Where is the pain centered?
The physical exam
Here's what to expect:
The first order of business is checking your vital signs, reflexes, and blood pressure.
Sometimes measurements will be taken to determine arm and leg length. Next, you will be asked to do a series of simple and easy activities or exercises. These exercises will provide information about your motor skills, balance, and gait, among others. These tests also help determine your range of motion, muscle tone and strength, and integrity of your nervous system. Any abnormalities could provide clues about a condition. You may be asked to:
- Bend forward, sideways, or backwards – Misaligned spinal vertebrae can sometimes be detected during this exercise.
- Flex and extend your leg – This is a test for signs of sprain and helps determine the integrity of your joints (also called the "Yeoman's Test").
- Grip something such as a rubber ball – Your grip strength is vital for showing signs of muscular or nerve damage.
- Lie down and raise one leg – This is often referred to as the "Thomas Test," in which the chiropractor gently pushes on your raised leg to check for hip joint mobility.
- Stand and raise one leg – This test can sometimes show whether you have sciatica, a nerve disorder in your lower back. Another test may involve pushing on your raised leg to determine whether you have pain, inflammation, or imbalance in the joints between your spinal vertebrae. (This is also called the "Psoas Muscle Test.")
- Stand or sit – Posture can sometimes show whether you have misalignments in your spine.
- Walk a straight line – This test measures your gait, and helps to determine if you have a normal walking pattern.
- Walk in Place – Abnormalities in the way your pelvis and spine coordinate can be seen during this test.
Next, a short physical exam by the chiropractor will involve palpation, or use of the hands, to explore the alignment of your spine and other structures, as well as provide information on any stimuli that may cause pain. Depending on your condition, a series of diagnostic tests may follow. These tests may include MRIs, CT scans, X-rays, blood work, and other laboratory tests.
The chiropractor may also consult with you about making important lifestyle changes, such as exercise, nutrition, and smoking cessation to improve your chances of healing faster or preventing further injury.
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Aluminum is soft, and it is...
Aluminum is soft, and it is possible to accidentally grind rust particles into the metal if you try to clean it with a wire brush that is also used on steel. Andy Weyenberg, Miller Electric's welding technician for the racing industry, recommends keeping two sets of brushes marked for either steel or aluminum.
Pedaling Power TIG welders offer the advantage of being able to continuously control the amount of amperage flowing from the torch to give better control of the weld. When welding materials with high heat conductivity, you need to establish enough heat to create a weld puddle quickly. Then, you will need to gradually reduce the amperage as the heat builds up in the metal for the longer welds. For better control, the maximum amperage is normally set on the console of the main unit. Welders are also classified by their maximum amp output. Weyenberg recommends welding at one amp per thousandths of thickness of the material to be welded. Since everything on a race car is less than 11/44 inch thick (or at least it should be), a 250 amp welder should do just fine.
Controlling the amperage is relatively easy with a foot control. Operating exactly like a gas pedal, the foot control (there are other designs, like a sliding fingertip control, but few are as easy to use) provides a level of control not possible with typical MIG welders. Once an arc is struck between the torch and the material to be welded, the welder looks for the affected area to appear bright, shiny silver (from behind a welder's helmet) before applying the filler metal. It is easy with limited experience to tell how much is enough. If the area to be welded isn't hot enough, the filler metal will not melt correctly because the metal won't be melted. It will also appear medium to light gray instead of silver. If the area is too hot, the weld will still be good; the silver area will just be larger than necessary.
One thing that makes TIG welding so versatile is the variety of filler metals available for use. For example, there are currently 7 filler metal options for welding steel, 13 for titanium, and 12 for aluminum. Of course, that amount of variety can be intimidating, but once you know your needs, it's easy to settle on a few options and sizes. When it comes to aluminum, an excellent all-purpose rod is ER4043. The "ER" stands for electrode rod, and the "4043" designates a specific chemical composition.
Here's a nice example of TIG...
Here's a nice example of TIG welding on a race car chassis. Notice how the overlapping "droplets" of filler material are nice and tight and the center of the droplet is never exposed. Many people describe the look of a good TIG weld as a roll of quarters on its side.
It's easy to check with a tech rep for the correct filler metals for your welding needs, but generally you need to use a filler metal that matches both the tensile strength and malleability of the metals you are welding. Although it may seem safe to go with a super-strong material as a filler metal, it actually isn't the best idea, especially for critical welds like rollcage tubing. The mild steel tubing is designed to bend or flex on impact and not break or tear. If you use a stronger filler metal than the mild steel, it is likely to shear off in impact, significantly weakening the cage.
Safety In any welding process, using good safety procedures is a priority. Electric energy is used to heat the metal to a molten state. Remember that electricity will always take the path of least resistance. If you are standing in a puddle, you become that path. That may sound unlikely, but race cars are notorious for leaking coolant, brake fluid, and other wet stuff. Likewise, sweat increases the risk of electric shock. Although TIG welding doesn't produce slag or sparks, it's still a good idea to wear a good pair of welder's gloves to ward off the risk of getting a good shock.
TIG welding doesn't produce nearly the same volume of harmful fumes as many other methods, but they are still there. A respirator isn't usually necessary, but make sure you work in a well-ventilated area and keep your head out of the fumes. Because there is little smoke produced, ozone can be produced from the ultraviolet light emitting from the arc when it travels through the oxygen molecules in the air. Unfortunately, you can't exactly keep a fan blowing on yourself because this type of welding is a gas-shielded process and you don't want to blow the gas away from the weld too quickly.
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- CPR Classes
- Emergency Preparedness & Response
- Fire Explorer Program
- Fire Prevention
- Request Files & Reports
- Statistics & Reports
- Support Your Fire Dept.
- Contact Us
After almost every disaster, search and rescue teams find victims who might have survived if they had known whether to stay with or leave their cars. The following tips should be remembered by drivers in various types of emergencies. The most important advice to remember is not to panic.
Earthquake: Stay in the car. Bring the car to a halt as soon as is safely possible, and then remain in the car until shaking stops. Avoid stopping near or under buildings, overpasses and utility wires. After quaking stops, proceed cautiously avoiding bridges and other elevated structures that could have been damaged by the quake.
Hurricane: Evacuate early. Flooding can begin well before a hurricane nears land. Plan to evacuate early and keep a full tank of gas during hurricane season. Make arrangements to stay inland until the storm has passed. Avoid driving coastal or low-lying roads.
Flood: Get out of the car. Never attempt to drive through water on a road. Water can be deeper than it appears and water levels can rise quickly. Wade through floodwaters only if water is not flowing rapidly and only in water no higher than your knee. Attempt to get to higher ground.
Tornado: Get out of the car. A car is the least safe place to be during a tornado. Leave it and find shelter in a building. If there are no safe place structures nearby, lie flat in a ditch with your arms over your head.
Blizzard: Stay in the car. Avoid driving in severe winter storms. If you are caught in a storm and your car becomes immobilized, stay in the vehicle and await rescue. Do not attempt to walk from your car unless you can see a definite safe haven at a reasonable distance. Disorientation during blizzards comes rapidly. Turn the heat on for brief periods. Leave a down-wind window open to avoid build-up of deadly carbon monoxide poisoning. Make sure your exhaust pipe is clear of snow. Exercise occasionally by clapping hands and moving around. Leave dome light on as a signal for rescuers. Sleep one at a time only.
Emergency supplies to keep in the car: Blanket, sleeping bag, booster cables and tools, bottled water, canned fruits and nuts, can opener, necessary medication, shovel, rain gear and extra clothing, traction mats or chains, first aid kit, a 1lb. coffee can, matches and candle, and a flashlight.
Emergency Preparedness & Response
Ladd Arboretum Committee
Board of Ethics
- Update: Evanston Missing Person Located
- Evanston Residents Called to Contribute to Historic Cancer Research Effort
- Evanston Police and Fire Foundation to Hold Inaugural Golf Outing June 17
- Evanston Ordinance Banning Hand-held Cell Phones While Driving in Third Year
- Water Shut Down for Washington St. & Florence Ave. Area for Repair Work May 17
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T.I.G.E.R! Read is a book club designed to encourage reading and articulate the character traits that are the basics of Clemson Athletic Department's Be a T.I.G.E.R! Character Education program. The program is an additional component to the character focus and is targeted for the third-fifth grade student.
1. Encourage elementary students to read
2. Promote development of good character as outlined in Be a T.I.G.E.R!
3. Nurture the development of civic responsibility
4. Provide an additional component to enhance program
5. Practice traits associated with good character
Clemson Athletics is partnering with students in the English Department's Literature classes to select and review appropriate book selections. Student-athletes will run the program.
Books are selected to reflect each of the five character traits: Teamwork, Integrity, Gratitude, Education and Respect. Books may be read in any order. Students will be asked to have an adult representative verify that they have read the book and will select an activity to practice the trait they have read about. These activities will be held in reserve by a designated elementary school partner until completion of the program. The student's work may be published in the Be a T.I.G.E.R! Newspaper or on the Community Relations web page on ClemsonTigers.com.
Here is how it works:
Elementary students who wish to participate will be able to go to Clemson University YouTube and select the BeATIGERProgram channel or watch a DVD provided by athletics and view a video featuring a student-athlete giving a preview/snapshot of the book along with reasons the book reflects the particular character trait.
Upon completion of the book, a student-athlete will present an action item to practice what they have learned. The participant will submit the action item to a designated elementary school representative who will keep submissions.
Each book will have the same format. Student-athletes present overview of book, questions to guide their understanding and then action items.
Books need not be read in any certain order, but one book and activity must be completed before a new book is started.
- Clemson Athletics will provide student-athlete reviews for each book.
- Clemson's Solid Orange Squad will administer the program.
- Children's Literature classes will select the books, students will write a script/synopsis of each and assist in developing action items for each.
- Clemson Athletics will host an awards ceremony/party for students who complete the program.
If all books are read, and action items completed for each trait, the student will be invited to an awards ceremony at Clemson. Tentative plans would include a party at a selected winter basketball and/or spring baseball game, recognition in pregame ceremonies, name posted on PAWVision, and a tribute in the Be a T.I.G.E.R! Newspaper.
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| 0.924906 | 603 | 2.78125 | 3 |
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