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Not Just for Kids The Hunt for Falling Leaves... Nature's Color on the Ground by Mary Catherine Ball Being a reporter, I am always looking for an adventure. Last week, I found one. I left work to go on a simple journey, but it turned out to be much more. First, I crossed a mud-ridden stream. Then, I came face to face with flying creatures, fighting to get near me. I even endured webmakers spinning my hair into a shiny maze. Where did I go? Into the woods, of course. Why? I wanted to gather some fallen leaves. My luck was good that day. I was able to spy lots of different kinds of leaves lying on the ground. Some were leaves I had never seen. Some were still green, while others were changing to their autumn colors. Have you ever hunted for leaves? I wonder if you know the names of five of the trees that live in your neighborhood? I bet the answer is no. Well, me neither. So I had five of the leaves analyzed. I had found the leaves from an oak, a beech, a sweet gum tree and more. Now, I invite you to make this journey. Narrow body with pointy edges Narrow body with pointy edges May grow berries Good for sap & color 3 distinct leafs May grow nuts This is your task... Travel to the deep, dark woods (in the daylight) to find these 5 leaves. Cut out the page and take it with you. Make sure you can match your discovery with mine. Happy leaf-hunting! Stone Soup October 9 (11:30am)-Enjoy lunch and a show. After you eat peanut butter & jelly, watch Stone Soup, performed by the Lost Caravan. Lunch is at noon; show starts at 12:30. Chesapeake Music Hall, Off Rt. 50 approaching the Bay Bridge: 410/406-0306. All Aboard October 9 & 10 (2pm)-Chug a chug to Zany Brainy for train fun. Listen to stories and sing railroad songs. Build your own trains. Ages 3+. Zany Brainy, Annap. Harb. Ctr.: 410/266-1447. Tiny Tots Fall for Nature Tues. Oct 12 (10:30am-noon) Three- to five-year-olds (and their adult) hike into the woods to hear autumn stories, gather leaves and make a craft. Bring a bag lunch to enjoy w/apple cider @ King's Landing Park, Huntingtown. $3 rsvp: 800/735-2258. Spooky Stories in the Woods Tues. Oct. 12 (10:30-noon)-Hike with a ranger to a clearing in the woods. Listen to autumn stories and drink warm apple cider. Gather leaves to make a craft. Bring a bag lunch. Kings Landing Park, Huntingtown: 410/535-5327. Musical Minds Wed. Oct. 13 (4-4:45pm)-Music makes the world go round. So sing, listen to stories and play musical instruments. Ages 2-4. Chesapeake Children's Museum, Festival at Riva. $8.50; rsvp: 410/266-0677. Nature Designs Deadline Oct. 15-Create your favorite nature scene out of clay or on paper to win prizes. Age categories are 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 years. Place winners win nature books or statues. All art forms accepted. Take your masterpiece to Wild Bird Center, Annapolis Harbour Center: 410/573-0345. Tiny Tots get in Touch with Mother Nature Sat. Oct 16 (10-10:30am) Tiny tots (2-3 w/adult) learn nature by touch, feeling the many different textures rough and soft in the world around us. @ Battle Creek Cypress Swamp, Prince Frederick: 800/735-2258. \| Issue 40 \| Volume VII Number 40 October 7-13, 1999 New Bay Times \| Homepage \| \| Back to Archives \|
Since 1993, RAN’s Protect-an-Acre program (PAA) has distributed more than one million dollars in grants to more than 150 frontline communities, Indigenous-led organizations, and allies, helping their efforts to secure protection for millions of acres of traditional territory in forests around the world. Rainforest Action Network believes that Indigenous peoples are the best stewards of the world’s rainforests and that frontline communities organizing against the extraction and burning of dirty fossil fuels deserve the strongest support we can offer. RAN established the Protect-an-Acre program to protect the world’s forests and the rights of their inhabitants by providing financial aid to traditionally under-funded organizations and communities in forest regions. Indigenous and frontline communities suffer disproportionate impacts to their health, livelihood and culture from extractive industry mega-projects and the effects of global climate change. That’s why Protect-an-Acre provides small grants to community-based organizations, Indigenous federations and small NGOs that are fighting to protect millions of acres of forest and keep millions of tons of CO2 in the ground. Our grants support organizations and communities that are working to regain control of and sustainably manage their traditional territories through land title initiatives, community education, development of sustainable economic alternatives, and grassroots resistance to destructive industrial activities. PAA is an alternative to “buy-an-acre” programs that seek to provide rainforest protection by buying tracts of land, but which often fail to address the needs or rights of local Indigenous peoples. Uninhabited forest areas often go unprotected, even if purchased through a buy-an-acre program. It is not uncommon for loggers, oil and gas companies, cattle ranchers, and miners to illegally extract resources from so-called “protected” areas. Traditional forest communities are often the best stewards of the land because their way of life depends upon the health of their environment. A number of recent studies add to the growing body of evidence that Indigenous peoples are better protectors of their forests than governments or industry. Based on the success of Protect-an-Acre, RAN launched The Climate Action Fund (CAF) in 2009 as a way to direct further resources and support to frontline communities and Indigenous peoples challenging the fossil fuel industry. Additionally, RAN has been a Global Advisor to Global Greengrants Fund (GGF) since 1995, identifying recipients for small grants to mobilize resources for global environmental sustainability and social justice using the same priority and criteria as we use for PAA and CAF. Through these three programs each year we support grassroots projects that result in at least:
An EV’s speed controller is the equivalent of the carburetor or fuel-injection system in an ICE vehicle. To control the vehicle’s speed, the controller takes the energy from the battery pack and feeds it to the motor in a regulated manner. Modern controllers do this by pulse-width modulation, taking the full voltage from the battery pack and feeding it to the motor in thousands of tiny on–off pulses per second. The longer the duration, or “width” of the “on” pulses, the more electricity the motor receives and the faster the vehicle moves. Because the pulses are so tiny, the process feels completely smooth to the driver. EVs can have AC motors or DC motors, and each needs its own kind of controller. In EVs with AC motors, an AC controller must first convert the DC from the batteries into AC before feeding it to the motor. How does the controller know how much energy to give the motor? The potbox tells it. This linear potentiometer is a sensor that produces a resistance output proportional to its displacement or position. It responds to the driver’s foot pressure on the throttle pedal and sends a corresponding signal to the controller. The throttle pedal in an EV works just as it does in an ICE vehicle—the more you depress it, the faster you go. The motor is the brawn of the EV, converting electrical energy from the batteries into mechanical energy to propel the vehicle. Instead of invisible electrons flowing through wires, we now have rotating components. It’s the relationship between electricity and magnetism that enables the motor to do work. Passing electricity through a wire creates a magnetic field around the wire. By winding wire in a motor and running electricity through it, magnetic poles that repel each other are created, causing the shaft of the motor to spin. If the EV has regenerative braking, the motor can also act as a generator. When the vehicle is coasting or braking, the momentum of the car drives the motor—rather than the motor driving the car. The magnetic fields induce current in the wires, the flip side of the process described above. The electricity flows backward through the controller (which rectifies it from AC back into DC) and into the battery pack. This process also creates drag on the motor—the “braking” part of regenerative braking, which is very similar to what happens in an ICE car when you lift your foot off the throttle in a low gear. Though it’s an intrinsic part of AC drive systems, regenerative braking is more rare in DC systems, where a special controller and extra wiring are required to allow the motor to serve as a generator. The energy output from the spinning shaft of the motor now needs to reach the drive wheels. On a very small EV, the motor might drive the wheels directly, but with full-size vehicles, at least one level of gear reduction is necessary to reduce the revolutions per minute (rpm) of the motor to a usable speed at the wheels. A “direct-drive” vehicle will have a single gear reduction, which might be a gearbox or a belt-and-pulley arrangement. No shifting is necessary. This is common with AC motors that have upper limits of 8,000 to 13,000 rpm. DC motors with limits of about 5,000 to 6,000 rpm usually use the same kind of multiple-gear manual transmissions found in ICE cars. In EVs with manual transmissions, the clutch is usually retained and works the same as in an ICE vehicle.
Products marketed for infants or billed as "microwave safe" release toxic doses of the chemical bisphenol A when heated, an analysis by the Journal Sentinel has found. The newspaper had the containers of 10 items tested in a lab - products that were heated in a microwave or conventional oven. Bisphenol A, or BPA, was found to be leaching from all of them. The amounts detected were at levels that scientists have found cause neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. The problems include genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands. The changes to the mammary glands were identical to those observed in women at higher risk for breast cancer. The newspaper's test results raise new questions about the chemical and the safety of an entire inventory of plastic products labeled as "microwave safe." BPA is a key ingredient in common household plastics, including baby bottles and storage containers. It has been found in 93% of Americans tested. The newspaper tests also revealed that BPA, commonly thought to be found only in hard, clear plastic and in the lining of metal food cans, is present in frozen food trays, microwaveable soup containers and plastic baby food packaging. Food companies advise parents worried about BPA to avoid microwaving food in plastic containers, especially those with the recycling No. 7 stamped on the bottom. But the Journal Sentinel's testing found BPA leaching from containers with different recycling numbers, including Nos. 1, 2 and 5. "There is no such thing as safe microwaveable plastic," said Frederick vom Saal, a University of Missouri researcher who oversaw the newspaper's testing. The American Chemistry Council disputed the findings, saying publishing the results amounts to a "serious disservice by drawing a conclusion about product safety that simply cannot be drawn from either this study or the overall body of scientific research." Food company officials say the doses detected in the tests are so low that they are insignificant to human health. "These levels are EXTREMELY low," wrote John Faulkner, director of brand communications for Campbell Soup Co. Tests of the company's Just Heat & Enjoy tomato soup showed its container leached some of the lowest levels of BPA found. "In fact, you might just be able to find similar levels in plain old tap water due to 'background' levels. We are talking 40 to 60 parts per trillion (ppt). What is 40 to 60 ppt? 40 to 60 seconds in 32,000 years!" But the Journal Sentinel identified several peer-reviewed studies that found harm to animals at levels similar to those detected in the newspaper's tests - in some cases, as low as 25 parts per trillion. Scientists with an expertise in BPA say the findings are cause for concern, especially considering how vulnerable a baby's development is and how even tiny amounts of BPA can trigger cell damage. Harm done during this critical window of development is irreparable and can be devastating, they say. "This is stuff that shouldn't be in our babies' and infants' bodies," said Patricia Hunt, a professor at Washington State University who pioneered studies linking BPA to cancer. Scientists say BPA and other chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system do not act like other toxins that become more potent as their doses increase. BPA behaves like a hormone. It mimics estrogen with effects that are ultra-potent. Even tiny amounts can trigger cell change. Nira Ben-Jonathan, a professor at the University of Cincinnati whose studies found that BPA interferes with chemotherapy, said the chemical's effects might not be immediately obvious, but can be devastating over time. "They used to say DDT was safe, too," Ben-Jonathan said. The Journal Sentinel's tests were done to determine the prevalence of BPA in a typical modern diet for babies and small children. Based on the test results, the newspaper then estimated the amount of BPA a child might consume and compared it with low-dose amounts of BPA used by researchers in animal studies. In what is believed to be the first analysis of its kind by a newspaper, the Journal Sentinel found that an average 1-month-old girl is exposed to the same amount of BPA that caused mammary gland changes in mice. Those same changes in humans can lead to breast cancer. The label "microwave safe" is stamped on thousands of products sold across the country. But that is not an official designation regulated by the government. Companies are able to place it on their products without any official testing by the Food and Drug Administration. BPA makes its way into food from plastic packaging when those containers are heated. In the Journal Sentinel's tests, the highest amounts of leaching were found in two items: a can of Enfamil liquid infant formula and a Rubbermaid plastic food-storage container. The lowest levels, trace amounts, were found to be leaching from disposable frozen-food containers. Hunt, the Washington State University scientist, called the levels found leaching from the plastic food-storage containers "real doozies." It is likely that the newspaper's tests underestimated the amounts of BPA that normally would be leaching from reusable products, BPA experts say. All products the newspaper had tested were new. Studies show that as products age and are repeatedly heated and washed, they are more likely to leach higher amounts of BPA. "You can't see this happening," vom Saal said. "You can't taste it, you can't smell it, but you are getting dosed at a higher and higher amount." Also, testers did not examine the food in those containers for BPA levels. They replaced food with a mixture of water and alcohol, a standard laboratory practice that makes measuring easier and more accurate. But that also eliminates other variables that are in the food, such as fats and acids that are more likely to encourage BPA to leach. BPA's effects also can be magnified by other chemicals in the plastic. This has been proved in one experiment after another, said vom Saal, who has become a vocal critic of the chemical industry. While BPA is potentially dangerous to all humans, scientists are especially concerned about how the chemical affects fetuses and newborns, whose systems are not developed. Babies up to age 12 months or so can't metabolize BPA as efficiently as adults. But no one is more exposed to BPA than a newborn. A newborn's small size means that he or she gets a more concentrated dose of the chemical. Many products that contain BPA - such as baby bottles, infant formula, some pacifiers and toys - are marketed for mothers and newborns. Exposure for babies can be exaggerated by the fact that many have diets exclusively made up of liquid baby formula from cans lined with BPA. Babies who drink liquid formula from bottles made with BPA are effectively getting a super-dose of the chemical, said Hunt, the Washington State University scientist. The U.S. surgeon general has advised that breast milk is the healthiest food for newborns, though BPA has been found in breast milk, too. Less than one-third of babies are breastfed until they are 3 months old, and just one in 10 is exclusively breastfed to 6 months, a 2004 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Gail McCarver, a physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin who led the National Toxicology Program's investigation of BPA earlier this year, declined to be interviewed for this article. But McCarver said at an FDA hearing in September that she is particularly concerned about premature babies who are exposed to plastic tubing in hospitals. The government should be protecting the smallest, most vulnerable baby, not just the average child, she said. Four million babies are born in the United States each year, and roughly 500,000 are born prematurely. Christina Deppoleto, 36, of Hartland says she does her best to protect her 18-month-old son, Carson. Deppoleto, interviewed recently at the Milwaukee County Zoo, said she was troubled to hear about the newspaper's test results - especially findings that showed BPA to be leaching from "microwave safe" containers. "I try to be a good consumer and a good parent," she said. "But you have to be able to trust the labels." Reviewing scientific studies The newspaper examined all the published literature on BPA spanning two decades. A total of 21 studies have looked at effects on mammals at doses that were similar to the amounts found leaching from the products. All but four concluded that BPA caused damage to animals. In one 2006 study, pregnant mice were exposed to BPA from the eighth day of pregnancy to the 16th, a period critical for the development of neurons that regulate sexual behavior. Scientists found the female offspring had fewer such neurons than usual. Their activity levels dropped and mirrored that of their brothers. In another experiment, newborn mice were fed BPA at doses common in human diets. They were found to have changes in the patterns of their mammary glands at the time of puberty. They had more ducts and duct extensions, more developed fat areas and additional cell changes associated with a more mature gland. The consequences of this early alteration in breast tissue development are likely to increase vulnerability to breast cancer later in life, the scientists found. Animals tested were fed BPA through pumps under the skin that regularly administered the chemical. Some critics say that method exaggerates the chemical's effects. But others say it is an acceptable method because newborns are constantly feeding. Scientists also add that the Journal Sentinel analysis of how much BPA a baby might ingest is just a small window into a child's typical day of exposure. Studies have shown the chemical can be absorbed through the skin. And babies also put items other than food in their mouths, including pacifiers and toys that might contain the chemical. The findings have disturbed and angered parents and consumer advocates who say the government needs to do a better job of protecting people from potentially harmful chemicals. "The safety of this compound is in major question, and our government is not taking steps to address this," said Urvashi Rangan, senior analyst for Consumers Union, a watchdog group that regularly tests products. "Consumers shouldn't have to be the guinea pigs here." Canada has declared BPA a toxin and is moving to ban it from baby bottles, infant formula and other children's products. But U.S. regulators have been conflicted. The National Toxicology Program has expressed concern about the chemical for fetuses, newborns and young children. But the FDA has declared it to be safe. That assessment, however, was found to be flawed, and the FDA since has reopened its examination. The conflict has further heightened consumer anxiety about how much BPA, if any, is safe. Bradley Kirschner, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the father of three young girls, said his patients are increasingly concerned about the chemical. "If an entire country is banning it, that makes it hard to ignore," he said. Parents are confused, he said. And he is not certain how to advise them. "If you ask, 'Should a baby sleep on his back?' I can tell you what to do," he said. "But this is muddy." Kirschner said he would like a more definitive answer from U.S. regulators about whether BPA is safe. Increasingly, consumer groups are calling for BPA to be banned. Last month, the consumer watchdog Environmental Working Group sent letters to infant formula makers, asking them to stop packaging their products in containers made with BPA. The attorneys general in New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware sent letters to 11 companies that make baby bottles and baby formula containers, asking that they voluntarily stop using BPA. Six U.S. senators have called for a federal ban on the chemical, and more than 35 lawsuits have been filed in recent years against companies using BPA, claiming the chemical has caused physical harm. Companies are beginning to proactively back away from BPA. In April, after Canada's announcement of a ban, several corporations said they would stop producing and selling certain products made with BPA. The companies and retailers include Nalgene, Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us, Playtex and CVS pharmacies. But plenty of products designed for heating food still contain BPA. Many companies that use BPA now include safety information about the chemical on their Web sites. But those sites maintain that BPA is safe at low doses. Their claims are based largely on studies that were paid for by the chemical industry. Jackie Chesney, a grandmother from Spring Grove, Ill., said she assumes a certain level of safety in products that are allowed to be sold. "You should think the things you are using would be safe," Chesney said as she strolled through the Milwaukee County Zoo with her daughter and grandchildren. Chesney said things have changed a lot since her children were small. There is so much more plastic these days, and food is more likely to be individually wrapped, she said. The proliferation of plastic worries her. "Yes, it's handy and convenient," she said. "But at what cost?"
Recommended Grade Levels: 7-12+ Tips for using the site with students Before using this activity in class (or at home with your kids), go through the activity once to make sure it works correctly on your computer(s). This activity is recommended for broadband internet access - expect load times between 15 seconds and 1.5 minutes depending on your internet connection. If the activity does not load after clicking the 'start' button, you may be asked to download a Flash Player from Adobe.com. Please click yes as this allows you to view the Edheads Aortic Aneurysm Surgery activity. If you are using school computers, you might need to contact your tech support team to download the Flash Player. If you are using an iPad or other iDevice, our games will not play without downloading an app or browser. We recommend the Photon browser available at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photon-flash-player-for-ipad/id430200224?mt=8. Your computer(s) will need to have some sort of sound output. Either speakers or headphones will work well. The majority of this activity has voice audio. We highly recommend headphones in a classroom setting. Students with hearing impairments can read the text at the bottom of the screen. If you are having difficulty hearing, check the audio settings on your computer. We strongly recommend that students use a real mouse, as the touch pads on laptop computers are more difficult to use for this activity and slow students down significantly. If the teacher would like students to fill out a worksheet while doing the activity, that can be printed here. The worksheet is NOT necessary to complete the activity, but is a way for students to show they have done the activity or for teachers to track student progress. Students in the target grade-range will take approximately twelve to fifteen minutes to complete surgery working individually or in groups of two to three. Some students can get queasy using this activity. We recommend closely monitoring students when they experience this activity for the first time. Answers to Questions Asked in the Activity Q1. Do you think we should continue with surgery? Q2. Why don’t we just cut through the abdominal muscles from side to side instead of up and down? A2. This would cause the patient more pain and take longer to heal. Q3. Why do you think we clamp the iliac arteries first? A3. To avoid embolisms, or blood clots, going down into the legs. Q4. Why do we clamp the aorta below the renal arteries? A4. To prevent kidney failure during or after surgery. Q5. Why would we use permanent suture here instead of dissolvable suture? A5. We can’t take the chance on dissolvable suture dissolving too soon. Q6. Why would we close the aorta around the graft instead of just cutting away the diseased parts of the artery? A6. The aorta wall, even though diseased, provides an extra layer of protection to prevent the bowel from rubbing on the graft. Q7. Why use a permanent suture on the abdominal wall? A7. Abdominal muscles are very strong and could potentially put a lot of pressure on the sutures that might dissolve too soon. Q8. Why do we use staples instead of suture for the skin? A8. Staples are more sturdy and easier to remove if an infection in the skin develops. The worksheet for this activity is optional. Teachers may choose to have their students do the worksheet as a means of ascertaining that the students have completed the activity. However, the worksheet is NOT required to complete the activity. Assessment and Discussion For an assessment tool, teachers may want to have students put their names on the Worksheets and turn them in. These should indicate if students completed the assigned activity. A quick five question quiz can be found here. Answers to the quiz questions can be found here. After students use the site, additional in class discussion questions (which can also act as assessment tools) can be asked or assigned as homework: - How do you think the surgeon knew to put the clamps at the bottom (near iliac arteries) of the aneurysm first, instead of at the top near the renal arteries? How do you think knowledge like that is gained? Answer: Somewhat through personal experience or through the personal experience of the surgeon that trained the one performing the operation. Primarily through published papers and continuing education seminars and conferences for medical personnel. This clearly illustrates the need for scientists to share their work and data sets. - Students can research and, if desired, write a report on the history and advancement of the grafts used to repair aortic aneurysms. - Students can design an experiment or process that would allow them to determine the answer to the question of why so many more men than women have aortic aneurysms (80% of patients are men). This would most likely involve something like the Framingham Study, referenced here: http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/ or could also involve genetic studies or perhaps even the development of a test to determine which individuals might be more likely to develop aneurysms. Students can discuss their ideas in class or write a report to turn in to the teacher. Ohio Science Standards Science & Technology - Give examples of how technological advances, influenced by scientific knowledge, affect the quality of life. - Design a solution or product taking into account needs and constraints (e.g., cost, time, trade-offs, properties of materials, safety and aesthetics). - Explain that there are differing sets of procedures for guiding scientific investigations and procedures are determined by the nature of the investigation, safety considerations and appropriate tools. Scientific Ways of Knowing - Explain how ethical considerations shape scientific endeavors. - Explain how societal issues and considerations affect the progress of science and technology. National Science StandardsContent Standards - Understandings about scientific inquiry. - Understanding of structure and function in living systems, reproduction and heredity. - Abilities of technological design and understandings about science and technology. - Personal health risks and benefits, science and technology in society. - Understandings about scientific inquiry. - Matter, energy and organization in living systems and behavior of organisms. - Abilities of technological design, understandings about science and technology. - Natural and human-induced hazards, science and technology in local, national, and global challenges. - Understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge and science as a human endeavor.
\|\|This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2009)\| In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure. Usually the payload is an artificial satellite placed into orbit, but some spaceflights are sub-orbital while others enable spacecraft to escape Earth orbit entirely. A launch vehicle which carries its payload on a suborbital trajectory is often called a sounding rocket. Launch vehicles, particularly orbital launch vehicles, have at least two stages, but sometimes up to 4 are employed. Types of launch vehicles Expendable launch vehicles are designed for one-time use. They usually separate from their payload, and may break up during atmospheric reentry. Reusable launch vehicles, on the other hand, are designed to be recovered intact and used again for subsequent launches. For orbital spaceflights, the Space Shuttle has been the only launch vehicle with components which have been used for multiple flights. SpaceX is currently developing a reusable rocket launching system slated for use on both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. A second-generation VTVL design was announced in 2011. The low-altitude flight test program of an experimental technology-demonstrator launch vehicle began in 2012, with more extensive high-altitude over-water flight testing planned to begin in mid-2013, and continue on each subsequent Falcon 9 flight. Non-rocket spacelaunch alternatives are at the planning stage. Launch vehicles are often characterized by the amount of mass they can lift into orbit. For example, a Proton rocket has a launch capacity of 22,000 kilograms (49,000 lb) into low Earth orbit (LEO). Launch vehicles are also characterized by the number of stages they employ. Rockets with as many as five stages have been successfully launched, and there have been designs for several single-stage-to-orbit vehicles. Additionally, launch vehicles are very often supplied with boosters, which supply high thrust early on in the flight, and normally in parallel with other engines on the vehicle. Boosters allow the remaining engines to be smaller, which reduces the burnout mass of later stages, and thus allows for larger payloads. Other frequently-reported characteristics of launch vehicles are the nation or space agency responsible for the launch, and the company or consortium that manufactures and launches the vehicle. For example, the European Space Agency is responsible for the Ariane V, and the United Launch Alliance manufactures and launches the Delta IV and Atlas V rockets. Many launch vehicles are considered part of an historical line of vehicles which share the same or similar names such as the Atlas V being the latest member of the Atlas rocket family. By launch platform - Land: Spaceport and fixed missile silo (Strela) for converted ICBMs - Sea: fixed platform (San Marco), mobile platform (Sea Launch), submarine (Shtil', Volna) for converted SLBMs - Air: aircraft (Pegasus, Virgin Galactic LauncherOne, Stratolaunch Systems), balloon (ARCASPACE), JP Aerospace Orbital Ascender, proposal for permanent Buoyant space port \|\|This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source. (May 2013)\| \|\|The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (May 2013)\| - A sounding rocket cannot reach orbit and is only capable of sub-orbital spaceflight - A small lift launch vehicle is capable of lofting up to 2,000kg (4,400lbs) of payload into low earth orbit (LEO) - A medium lift launch vehicle is capable of lofting between 2,000 to 20,000kg (4,400 to 44,000lbs) of payload into LEO - An heavy lift launch vehicle is capable of lofting between 20,000 to 50,000kg (44,000 to 110,200lbs) of payload into LEO - A super-heavy lift vehicle is capable of lofting more than 50,000kg (110,200lbs+) of payload into LEO Various methods are used to move an assembled launch vehicle onto its launch pad, each method with its own specialized equipment. These assembly activities take place as part of the overall launch campaign for the vehicle. In some launch systems, like the Delta II, the vehicle is assembled vertically on the pad, using a crane to hoist each stage into place. The Space Shuttle orbiter, including its external tank, and solid rocket boosters, are assembled vertically in NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building, and then a special crawler-transporter moves the entire stack to the launch pad while it is in an upright position. In contrast, the launch vehicles such as the Soyuz rocket and the Falcon 9 are assembled horizontally in a processing hangar, transported horizontally, and then brought upright once at the pad. As an alternative, Project Vanguard provided a contraction of the phrase "Satellite Launching Vehicle" abbreviated to "SLV". This provided a term in the list of what the rockets were allocated for: flight test, or actually launching a satellite. The contraction would also apply to rockets which send probes to other worlds or the interplanetary medium. Orbital launch vehicles Sounding rockets are normally used for brief, inexpensive space and microgravity experiments. Current human-rated suborbital launch vehicles include SpaceShipOne and the upcoming SpaceShipTwo, among others (see space tourism). The delta-v needed for orbital launch using a rocket vehicle launching from the Earth's surface is at least 9300m/s. This delta-v is determined by a combination of air-drag, which is determined by ballistic coefficient as well as gravity losses, altitude gain and the horizontal speed necessary to give a suitable perigee. The delta-v required for altitude gain varies, but is around 2 kilometres per second (1.2 mi/s) for 200 kilometres (120 mi) altitude. Minimising air-drag entails having a reasonably high ballistic coefficient, which generally means having a launch vehicle that is at least 20 metres (66 ft) long, or a ratio of length to diameter greater than ten. Leaving the atmosphere as early on in the flight as possible provides an air drag of around 300 metres per second (980 ft/s). The horizontal speed necessary to achieve low earth orbit is around 7,800 metres per second (26,000 ft/s). The calculation of the total delta-v for launch is complicated, and in nearly all cases numerical integration is used; adding multiple delta-v values provides a pessimistic result, since the rocket can thrust while at an angle in order to reach orbit, thereby saving fuel as it can gain altitude and horizontal speed simultaneously. Under international law, the nationality of the owner of a launch vehicle determines which country is responsible for any damages resulting from that vehicle. Due to this, some[who?] countries require that rocket manufacturers and launchers adhere to specific regulations in order to indemnify and protect the safety of people and property that may be affected by a flight. In the US, any rocket launch that is not classified as amateur, and also is not "for and by the government," must be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST), located in Washington, DC. Specific to launch vehicles \|\|This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (August 2009)\| - See for example: "NASA Kills 'Wounded' Launch System Upgrade at KSC". Florida Today. - "SpaceX says 'reusable rocket' could help colonize Mars". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 4 October 2011. - "Elon Musk says SpaceX will attempt to develop fully reusable space launch vehicle". Washington Post. 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-10-11. "Both of the rocket’s stages would return to the launch site and touch down vertically, under rocket power, on landing gear after delivering a spacecraft to orbit." - Lindsey, Clark (2013-03-28). "SpaceX moving quickly towards fly-back first stage". NewSpace Watch. Retrieved 2013-03-29. - there are no Russian roadless terrain or railway car based mobile launchers converted for spacecraft launches. - NASA Space Technology Roadmaps - Launch Propulsion Systems, p.11: "Small: 0-2t payloads, Medium: 2-20t payloads, Heavy: 20-50t payloads, Super Heavy: >50t payloads" - HSF Final Report: Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation, October 2009, Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, p. 64-66: "5.2.1 The Need for Heavy Lift ... require a “super heavy-lift” launch vehicle ... range of 25 to 40 mt, setting a notional lower limit on the size of the super heavy-lift launch vehicle if refueling is available ... this strongly favors a minimum heavy-lift capacity of roughly 50 mt ..." - S. A. Kamal, A. Mirza: The Multi-Stage-Q System and the Inverse-Q System for Possible application in SLV, Proc. IBCAST 2005, Volume 3, Control and Simulation, Edited by Hussain SI, Munir A, Kiyani J, Samar R, Khan MA, National Center for Physics, Bhurban, KP, Pakistan, 2006, pp 27–33 Free Full Text - S. A. Kamal: Incorporating Cross-Range Error in the Lambert Scheme, Proc. 10th National Aeronautical Conf., Edited by Sheikh SR, Khan AM, Pakistan Air Force Academy, Risalpur, KP, Pakistan, 2006, pp 255–263 Free Full Text - S. A. Kamal: The Multi-Stage-Lambert Scheme for Steering a Satellite-Launch Vehicle, Proc. 12th IEEE INMIC, Edited by Anis MK, Khan MK, Zaidi SJH, Bahria Univ., Karachi, Pakistan, 2008, pp 294–300 (invited paper) Free Full Text - S. A. Kamal: Incompleteness of Cross-Product Steering and a Mathematical Formulation of Extended-Cross-Product Steering, Proc. IBCAST 2002, Volume 1, Advanced Materials, Computational Fluid Dynamics and Control Engineering, Edited by Hoorani HR, Munir A, Samar R, Zahir S, National Center for Physics, Bhurban, KP, Pakistan, 2003, pp 167–177 Free Full Text - S. A. Kamal: Dot-Product Steering: A New Control Law for Satellites and Spacecrafts, Proc. IBCAST 2002, Volume 1, Advanced Materials, Computational Fluid Dynamics and Control Engineering, Edited by Hoorani HR, Munir A, Samar R, Zahir S, National Center for Physics, Bhurban, KP, Pakistan, 2003, pp 178–184 Free Full Text - S. A. Kamal: Ellipse-Orientation Steering: A Control Law for Spacecrafts and Satellite-Launch Vehicles, Space Science and the Challenges of the twenty-First Century, ISPA-SUPARCO Collaborative Seminar, Univ. of Karachi, 2005 (invited paper) - Christmas turns bad for ISRO, GSLV mission fails.
As the city of Baghdad grew, it developed a reputation for learning and research. Scholars from all across the Islamic world were attracted to Baghdad, quickly turning it into an intellectual hub. This was no surprise because Islam puts so much emphasis on acquiring knowledge. In fact, the very first verses revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) enjoined him to read, and informed him that God taught man everything that he never knew before. At another place, God exhorts the believers to ask Him: “O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge.” (20:114) Furthermore, God constantly tells humankind to reason, to reflect, to analyze throughout the Quran. The Prophet himself is known to extol the benefits of knowledge and wisdom. For example, he once said, “The seeking of knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim.” (Baihaqi) Additionally, he has stated, “He who goes forth in search of knowledge is in the way of Allah till he returns.” (Tirmidhi) Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) valued literacy so much that he would promise literate prisoners of war freedom if they taught Muslims how to read and write. Hence, Islam provided the necessary platform and support, leading to wondrous discoveries, inventions, and developments.
- What is race? Is race a biological fact, or is it a historical construct? - Does everyone belong to a race? How does one know? - If there is such a thing as “mixed race,” is there a “pure race”? - In what ways is the concept of race like, or unlike, the concept of “breed”? - How is diversity of race related to diversity in terms of culture, religion, language, and nationality? - How does the idea of race inform our sense of origins, origin of ourselves, our kin, origin of a people, of the human species, etc.? These questions are indeed complex, often contentious, and difficult to resolve. In this team-taught course, we will explore these questions by focusing on a particularly controversial idea: the Aryan race. Who first called themselves “Aryans,” and what did they mean by that? When and how did the notion of the Aryan become associated with a particular kind of white-ness? What is the relation identity and/or difference between “Aryan” on the one hand and “Caucasian,” “European,” “Western,” “Christian,” and “Judeo-Christian” on the other? Who today call themselves “Aryans,” and what do they mean by that? The course material to be covered will include selected historical writings in anthropology, archeology, biblical studies, criminology, philology/linguistics, physiology, zoology, etc., a few 19th- and 20th-century novels, films, as well as some contemporary scholarly book chapters and articles.
The simplest definition of biotechnology is "applied biology." The application of biological knowledge and techniques to develop products. It may be further defined as the use of living organisms to make a product or run a process. By this definition, the classic techniques used for plant and animal breeding, fermentation and enzyme purification would be considered biotechnology. Some people use the term only to refer to newer tools of genetic science. In this context, biotechnology may be defined as the use of biotechnical methods to modify the genetic materials of living cells so they will produce new substances or perform new functions. Examples include recombinant DNA technology, in which a copy of a piece of DNA containing one or a few genes is transferred between organisms or "recombined" within an organism.
Treasures of the Deep Summary:With higher log values, interest is growing in BC in salvaging `sinkers' and standing trees in man-made lakes created years ago by hydro dam construction. By Reg Barclay A barge with a grapple-equipped crane floats quietly on the placid waters of the lake, which reflects the greens and blues of the surrounding hills. In the cab of the crane, the operator stares intently at a video screen. A sector-scanning sonar unit dangling below the barge produces an image of the bottom of the lake, showing a criss-cross pattern of long, cigar-like shapes. The operator lowers the grapple, the barge tilts slightly, and the sought-after treasure _ sinker logs _ soon breaks the surface. Loaded onto the barge, the logs will ultimately end up at a sawmill or pulp mill for conversion into a commercial product. Recovering sinkers on a commercial scale like this is relatively new in BC; there are now up to a dozen underwater salvage operations, while five years ago there may have been only one or two. What is the commercial potential of recovering wood like this? According to Roger Stanyer, CEO of Forest Renewal BC, it is significant. He refers to the "lost gold mine" sort of stories, where divers have reported piles of logs underwater 300' high, some of the logs of a size that we haven't seen logged for years. It has been reported that one out of every 17 logs harvested on the Coast has ended up underwater. No one knows the source of that estimate, but if it's true, it is roughly six per cent of the harvest lost over the last 80 years. In addition to sinkers, nearly one million acres of standing timber has been submerged behind hydro dams in BC over the last 80 years. Whatever the potential, it is clear that there is a substantial opportunity awaiting the hard-working entrepreneur, with the capital, skill and patience to harvest these treasures of the deep. Stanyer points out that underwater logs are, of course, a non-renewable resource. Still, sinkers and drowned trees represent an opportunity, if taken on an incremental basis over 10 years, that could be "significant in volume, partially offsetting the declining timber supply, forecast for the next decade." How big is the expected supply decline? Russ Taylor, writing in the Widman World Wood Review, said, that as a result of new reserves for parks and the new Forest Practices Code, the annual harvest of logs in BC will decline 12 to 15 million m 3 [or 1.5 billion fbm], by the year 2000. This represents a loss of enough fibre to close 12 large sawmills. The surprise about salvaged logs is their condition. "They are as bright and sound as the day they sank, as long ago as 50 years," says Stewart Mossman of Marwood Industries, who, with partner Norm Ross, has been operating on Cowichan Lake for four years. About 80 percent of the salvaged logs are sold as pulp wood. They also have an operation in Nimpkish Lake where the yield is about 50 percent saw logs . That salvaged logs are commercially useable is not a surprise and was confirmed by scientific research in previous years. John Hatton, Principal Scientist at the Canadian Pulp and Paper Research Institute at UBC found that salvage logs from Williston Lake were eminently suitable for kraft pulp manufacture. This included floating logs, as well as partially and fully submerged trees. A paper by John Dobie of the former Western Forest Products Lab in Vancouver confirmed that logs from Ootsa Lake developed satisfactory quality lumber, although, because of their saturation, special drying schedules may be required to dry the lumber to KD standards and to prevent a higher-than-normal degrade. Ken McKeen, Director of Technical Services of COFI, says, "logs in deep, fresh water are not subject to rot as bacteria requiring oxygen are not present. The structural integrity of the wood is sound, although there may be some slight discolouration." Ownership of salvage logs is a consideration but not an insoluble problem. Where ownership is clear, the salvage operator usually arranges a salvage contract with the owner. Frank Marks of Underwater Logging Ltd., has been operating on the lower Arrow Lake since April, 1994. Initially operating at Nakusp, his operation is now located ab ove t he Hugh Ke e n l eyside Dam at Castlegar, and he sells to Pope and Talbot and Celgar. His logo reads, "retriever of lost treasures." Under normal operating conditions, Frank Marks says he salvages 50 to 60 m 3 of logs per day, the equivalent of two truckloads. Assuming 12 operators in the province work a full year, this represents a salvage volume of approximately 100,000 m 3 per year, or about one-tenth of one percent of the annual harvest in BC. However, a strong wind is the nemesis of the salvage logger. In the Interior, cold weather forces closure during the winter, so a full operating season is not always possible. A capital investment of up to $500,000 is required to set up a sal-vage operation. Equipment required is a barge, grapple-equipped crane, multiple anchoring system, log storage tray, sector-scan imaging sonar with video screen, and a small tug. With this equipment, Bill Maitland, operations manager of Goat Lake Wood Products working on Lois Lake near Powell River, says he can recover logs in depths up to 300', but prefers shallower depths for better production. Oddly enough, operators are currently facing a weak market for pulpwood and some curtailment has taken place, despite the loom-ing harvest reduction. This is the result of panic buying of logs from outside the province, combined with an unexpected weakness in overseas pulp markets. Consultant John Mees says the market is now temporarily awash in logs, and pulp log prices have collapsed, after doubling in the third quarter of 1995 from the average of 1992 and 1993. The Ministry of Forests has not been too interested in underwater salvage logging up to now. Proper timber sales have not been possible, as volume, quality and species of logs on lake bottoms is unknown. The MOF has been content for independent operators to make their own arrangements and the MOF charges 25 cents per m 3 for recovered logs. However, Ian Haman, MOF Castlegar says, "this may change and timber sales are under consideration. Stumpage may be increased, but the operator, because it's a crown sale, would be free to sell to anyone, which is attractive to operators generally." While there appears to be room for more sinker recovery, the real volume potential lays in salvaging the drowned timber in hydro dam reservoirs. In his report, Dobell estimated a volume of 28 million m 3 . If harvested over a 10-year period, this could theoretically add 2.8 million m 3 or four per cent to the BC annual harvest. In line with this thinking, the MOF has advertised its first reservoir salvage timber sale. Involving three forest districts, the sale volume is 7 million m 3 to be harvested over 10 years on Ootsa Lake, part of the Nechako River watershed, which is dammed to provide power for the Alcan mill at Kitimat. Bill Brennan, MOF Prince George, is responsible for the sale and says "while providing additional fibre is a priority, there are other benefits. There is an environmental problem to resolve, as submerged trees are a hazard to boating and broken tops litter the shore and are unsightly. In addition, employment will be increased in the region by extending the work season into the sum-mer months." He noted also that the sale requires bidders to consider Native Indian claims and consequently he said, "bidders intend to include Indian bands in joint ven-ture relationships." The sale stipulates salvage of three types of fibre-floating logs, trees partly or completely submerged, and shoreline debris. The lake is relatively shallow, averaging 150' in depth. Operators must take everything to 35'' below the surface. This means that clearing will be much deeper, when standing trees, whose tops are in the 35' zone, are recovered. As an incentive, stumpage will be 25 cents per m 3 , as this is in the nature of a test sale, and the sale volume is strictly a guess. The sale has generated considerable interest by major companies, such as Canfor and Slocan. Small, independent salvage companies are also bidding, such as Fred Host, who has been salvage logging on Harrison Lake for several years, but has now decided to concentrate on Ootsa Lake. Canfor's Sandy Long, Manager of Special Projects, Prince George office, is enthusiastic. "The plan," he said, "is to pull up the submerged trees by their tops, and because the roots are dead, the tree should come up with little difficulty. Roots will be re-entered in the Lake, where they provide an environmentally friendly habitat for marine life." Unrelated to the Ootsa sale, but recognizing the same benefits, is a $350,000 project to map and inventory Kinbasket Lake, north of Golden. BC Hydro estimates that 1.8 million m 3 of standing timber was drowned, when this lake was created. Because of its extreme depth, salvage will be difficult, and so the project will also test equipment for commercially recovering the wood. The successful bidder, Bluewater Marine Services, has employed Sylvametrics, a forestry consultant specializing in forest inventory methods, to assist. "We feel this project will benefit the for-est industry by supplementing fibre supply and providing more fo re s t ry jobs,'' says Stanyer." Undoubtedly, technology will be a key element in the Kinbasket project, as it has been for the lake salvagers to date. A Vancouver company, Imagenex Technology Corporation, is a world leader in producing and distributing specialized imaging equipment such as the sector-scanning unit used by salvagers to recover `sinkers'. They also produce an underwater side-scan module for mapping lake bottoms and locating concentrations of drowned timber. Through adaptations, even the size and volume of the timber can be measured. This equipment is towed behind a slowly moving boat or mounted on a remotely operated underwater vehicle. A global positioning receiver and antenna are connected to the sonar processor to measure position. Sonar images, GPS latitude and longitude, plus the time and date are stored on a computer disc for printing later at a more suitable place. All this can be powered with a portable generator supplying a few hundred watts. Alan Mulvenna, Vice President said, " Imagenex has made sales and deliveries to customers all over the world through agents in the US, Europe, Scandinavia and Australia." Salvage logging illustrates that ways can be found to supplement a fading harvest of standing timber. Despite the usual short-term peaks and valleys, the trend towards a higher value for fibre will undoubtedly support other new ways to increase the fibre supply. This page and all contents ©1996-2007 Logging and Sawmilling Journal (L&S J) and TimberWest Journal.
Volunteering For A Clinical Trial Every year, millions of people volunteer to take part in clinical trials. For some, it is an opportunity to help advance medical research. For others, it is a chance to gain access to latest potential treatment. For everyone, however, it is a very personal decision and one that requires careful thought. Below is a list of online resources that will help you decide whether participation in a clinical trial is the right decision for you. Understanding Clinical Trials An introduction to clinical trials provided by the National Institutes of Health. Your Rights and Informed Consent Information regarding patients' rights for deciding to participate in a clinical trial. Children and Clinical Studies US Government website explaining the need for pediatric clinical research and information on child participation. The following areas are the primary focus of ITN research and trials. Click on the links below for more information.
Yakko: a manservant to a samurai. Yakusha-e (Actor pictures): painting or print of an actor. Yoko-e (Horizontal picture; also called yoko-ban): prints with a horizontal format. Yokohama: a port near Edo, opened to foreigners in 1859. Yokohama-e (Yokohama pictures): late style of ukiyo-e which was popular between 1860 and 1880 and which illustrated scenes of Yokohama in the late Edo and the early Meiji. Yoshiwara: name of the licensed quarter in Edo. Yukata: an informal cotton kimono or bathrobe. back to top
By Mahdi Al-Kaisi, Department of Agronomy; Mark Hanna, Department of Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering; Mark Licht, Extension Field Agronomist Normally early spring soil moisture is a challenge when the soil profile is fully charged. Depending on the amount of snow we receive and duration of winter, there is a tendency for producers to enter fields at less-than-ideal soil conditions, especially when there is a short window for conducting field operations. Soil compaction caused by field traffic and machinery increases with high soil moisture. Over the past decade the size of Iowa farms has increased, leading to larger and heavier equipment. However, equipment size is only one factor among many causes of the soil compaction problem. Rushing to the field when the soil is wet, combined with the weight of equipment and traffic pattern in the field, can increase chances for severe soil compaction. Conducting field operations during wet field conditions compounds the amount of compaction occurring. Maximum soil compaction occurs when soil moisture is at or near field capacity (Figure 1) because soil moisture works as a lubricant between soil particles under heavy pressure from field equipment. Figure 1. Relationship between soil moisture and potential soil compaction. Indications of soil compaction during and immediately following a normal rainfall include slow water infiltration, water ponding, high surface runoff, and soil erosion. Additionally, soil compaction can be diagnosed by stunted plant growth, poor root system development (Photo 1), and potential nutrient deficiencies (i.e., reduced potassium uptake). These soil compaction symptoms are a result of increased bulk densities that affect the ideal proportion of air and water in the soil. Photo 1. Effect of soil compaction on root growth at three different soil bulk densities: Low, 0.7 g/cm3; Medium, 1.1 g/cm3; High, 1.6 g/cm3. The most efficient way to verify soil compaction is to use a tile probe, spade, or penetrometer to determine a relative soil density. Soil moisture conditions can have a significant effect on penetration resistance. For example, in dry soil conditions soil penetration resistance is much higher than wet conditions because soil water acts as a lubricant for soil particles. Therefore, it is wise to determine soil compaction early in the season or compare observations and measurements from suspected areas with adjacent areas that have little chance of soil compaction due to traffic patterns. Management decisions to minimize soil compaction The most effective way to minimize soil compaction is to avoid field operations when soil moisture is at or near field capacity. Soil compaction will be less severe when soil tillage, fertilizer application and planting operations occur when the field is dry. Soil moisture can be determined using a hand ball test or observing a soil ribbon test. Properly adjusted tire size and correct air pressure for the axle load being carried is a second management tool. Larger tires with lower air pressure allow for better flotation and reduce pressure on the soil surface. Additionally, using larger tires that are properly inflated increases the "footprint" on the soil. A third management decision is to use the same wheel tracks to minimize the amount of land traveled across. Most damage occurs with the first pass of the implement. Using control traffic patterns can be done effectively by using implements that have matched wheel-tread configuration for soil preparation, planting, row cultivation, spraying and harvesting. Soil compaction can be a serious problem for Iowa farmers, but with proper farm management, compaction can be minimized. Remember to hold off soil tillage operations until soil conditions are drier than field capacity and look into the benefits of conservation tillage systems. Top 10 Reasons to Avoid Soil Compaction 1. Causes nutrient deficiencies 2. Reduces crop productivity 3. Restricts root development 4. Reduces soil aeration 5. Decreases soil available water 6. Reduces infiltration rate 7. Increases bulk density 8. Increases sediment and nutrient losses 9. Increases surface runoff 10. Damages soil structure Source: Iowa State University Extension publication PM 1901b - Understanding and Managing Soil Compaction -- Resource Conservation Practices Mahdi Al-Kaisi is an associate professor in agronomy with research and extension responsibilities in soil management and environmental soil science. Mark Hanna is an extension agricultural engineer in agricultural and biosystems engineering with responsibilities in field machinery. Mark Licht is an Iowa State University Extension field agronomist serving Calhoun, Carroll, Crawford, Greene, Ida, Monona, and Sac counties.
Osteopathy uses ‘hands-on’ techniques to influence the way the body works. By manipulating the muscles, tendons, joints, connective tissue and ligaments, treatment can provide relief to the musculoskeletal system, the nervous system, and also the circulatory, respiratory and immune systems of the body. In this way, it is seen as a form of manual medicine which can influence all systems of the body towards a more efficient and holistic state of health. The osteopath will use highly developed skills of palpation (feeling) to find areas of stress, strain or weakness in the body and after making a diagnosis, treat specific areas relating to your complaint. The techniques employed are safe, gentle and effective. Most people come to see osteopaths because they are in physical pain. Headaches, backaches, neck pain and sporting injuries are the most common complaints that osteopaths treat. Osteopathic treatment is for everyone from young to old, to all family members and can help with a wide and varied range of conditions including: Osteopathic Practice is statutorily regulated by The General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) (Osteopath’s Act 1993).
DNA of extinct frog revived Washington, March 18, 2013 First Published: 20:06 IST(18/3/2013) Last Updated: 20:10 IST(18/3/2013) blog comments powered by A team of scientists has revived and reactivated the genome of an extinct Australian frog. They used sophisticated cloning technology to implant a dead cell nucleus into a fresh egg from another frog species. The bizarre gastric-brooding frog, Rheobatrachus silus – which uniquely swallowed its eggs, brooded its young in its stomach and gave birth through its mouth - became extinct in 1983. But the Lazarus Project team has been able to recover cell nuclei from tissues collected in the 1970s and kept for 40 years in a conventional deep freezer. The de-extinction project aims to bring the frog back to life. In repeated experiments over five years, the researchers used a laboratory technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. They took fresh donor eggs from the distantly related Great Barred Frog, Mixophyes fasciolatus, inactivated the egg nuclei and replaced them with dead nuclei from the extinct frog. Some of the eggs spontaneously began to divide and grow to early embryo stage – a tiny ball of many living cells. Although none of the embryos survived beyond a few days, genetic tests confirmed that the dividing cells contain the genetic material from the extinct frog. “We are watching Lazarus arise from the dead, step by exciting step,” the leader of the Lazarus Project team, Professor Mike Archer, of the University of New South Wales, in Sydney said. “We’ve reactivated dead cells into living ones and revived the extinct frog’s genome in the process. Now we have fresh cryo-preserved cells of the extinct frog to use in future cloning experiments,” he said.
Keep friends, family and yourself safe during grilling season by following these food safe tips. Use an instant-read thermometer to check if meat is finished rather than cutting into it as the natural juices will escape. Cook food thoroughly — cooking times and temperatures vary for different meat and poultry. Whole poultry should be fully cooked at 82°C (180°F), burgers at a minimum of 71°C (160°F) and beef, veal and lamb roasts and steaks can vary from 63°C (145°F) for medium-rare to 77°C (170°F) for well done. When cooking in advance, divide large portions of food into small, shallow containers for refrigeration to ensure safe, rapid cooling. Keep cold food cold and hot food hot until it's served. You can keep cooked meats hot by setting them to the side or upper tray of the barbecue grill. The refrigerator should be set at 4°C (40°F) or colder and the freezer at -18°C (0°F) or colder. THE CANADIAN PRESS
There's a new reason to worry about the security of your Social Security number. Turns out, they can be guessed with relative ease. A group of researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University say they've discovered patterns in the issuance of numbers that make it relatively easy to deduce the personal information using publicly available information and some basic statistical analysis. The research could have far-ranging implications for financial institutions and other firms that rely on Social Security numbers to ward off identity theft. It could also unleash a wave of criminal imitators who will try to duplicate the research. Details of the research were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal and will be explained at the annual Black Hat computer hacker convention in Las Vegas later this month. The report means companies and other agencies should once and for all stop using Social Security numbers as passwords or unique identifiers, said Professor Alessandro Acquisti, who authored the report. "We keep living as if they are secure, a secret," he said. "They're not a secret." The Social Security Administration says SSNs are issued using a complex process that is effectively random, making them impossible to guess in practical terms. But Acquisti and fellow researcher Ralph Gross used public lists of Social Security numbers to look for patterns. They found several. The two say they can guess the first 5 digits of the Social Security number of anyone born after 1988 within two guesses, knowing only birth date and location. The last four digits, while harder to guess, can be had within a few hundred guesses in many situations -- a trivial hurdle for criminals using automated tools. "Someone filling out credit card applications using a Web site and a botnet could easily succeed (in getting someone's number)," he said. 'Public should not be alarmed' Acquisti shared the report with the Social Security Administration's office before publication. He said he could not disclose what steps the agency is taking in response to the research. The Social Security administration played down the discovery. In a statement to msnbc.com, Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter called any suggestion that Acquisti had cracked the code for predicting Social Security numbers "a dramatic exaggeration." "The public should not be alarmed by this report because there is no foolproof method for predicting a person's Social Security Number," the statement read. But privacy expert Daniel Solove, a law professor at George Washington University who reviewed the report, called the discovery a "really big deal." "If you have a password and you can readily figure it out, that's absurd," he said. "This paper points out just how ridiculous it is that we think there's a way to really keep Social Security numbers confidential. There effectively is no way you can keep them totally confidential. It's just not possible." How it works Acquisti said he's discovered simple patterns in the Social Security numbering system. It involves the elusive concept of randomness. To most people, a number is either random or it's not. But to mathematicians, randomness is a sliding scale. Developing perfectly random numbers -- the science of cryptography -- is nearly impossible. Often, software programs designed to create random numbers erroneously spit them out with a faintly distinguishable pattern. With a large enough sample, the numbers begin to form clusters. Even a small discovery of such a cluster can make an enormous difference to someone trying to crack a crypto code, making predictions of supposedly random numbers an order of magnitude easier. That's what the Carnegie Mellon researchers found. A completely random guess at a 9-digit SSN should be a one in one billion chance. But instead, their newly educated guesses have narrowed the odds down to roughly 1 in 1,000. Making matters worse, because of changes in the way the numbers have been issued since 1988, the numbers are getting easier and easier to guess as time passes. In one example, the researchers said, they can uncover a Delaware resident's 9-digit SSN within 10 guesses about 5 percent of the time. The SSN is actually broken up into three parts - the first three digits are the "area number," the second two are "group number" and the last four are the "serial number." The Social Security Administration already offers considerable information about the first part of the number. The area number is based on the zip code used in the application for an SSN. High population states have many area numbers -- New York has 85, for instance – but many others, like Delaware, have only one. The other two parts the number, however, are assigned in a way that the Social Security Administration believes it nearly impossible for someone to guess. But the Carnegie Mellon work shows they are not. He took the largest publicly available list of SSNs -- the agency's master death file, which publishes numbers of the deceased to make them hard to use by imposters -- and sorted the list by state and date of birth. Immediately, it became clear that the second portion -- the group number -- was sequentially issued and also trivial to guess. For example, every SSN issued in Pennsylvania during 1996 contains the middle two numbers 76. That made guessing the first 5 digits of someone's SSN easy in some cases. During a test, the group was able to predict the first five digits of Vermont residents born in 1995 with 90 percent accuracy. That's important, because there are many ways to determine the last four digits of someone's Social Security number. Some data brokers sell truncated SSNs, with either the first five or the last four numbers visible to the purchaser. And many financial firms use those numbers as a PIN code for verification. Also, endless customer service operators ask for the last four digits when consumers call for help. Any agent who knows where and when a caller was born could quickly amass a large set of complete Social Security numbers. The report contains even more bad news. The serial numbers -- the last four digits -- can often be guessed using formulas and patterns, he said. It turns out that the Social Security Administration doesn't utilize true randomization to create serial numbers. For example, a graph plotting the numbers issued to Oregon residents in 1996, shown below, shows bands that cluster around certain numbers. In fact, there are five discernable lines. A truly random issue would show dots scattered throughout the chart. The pattern inside SSNs With additional analysis, Acquisti said, the researchers were able to discern that the serial numbers are issued sequentially, in a way that ties them to the holder's birth date. "The SSA believes that scheme is so complex that it's sufficiently random," he said. "We show it is way less random than apparently they believe." As a result, instead of a the four digits yielding a 1 in 10,000 chance in guessing SSNs, he said he can improve the odds to at least 1 in 1,000, and in some cases, far less than that. The Social Security Administration seems to agree with Acquisti on this issue. In its statement to msnbc.com, the agency said that "for reasons unrelated to this report, the agency has been developing a system to randomly assign SSNs. This system will be in place next year." Birth dates easy to obtain For now, an attacker who wanted to guess someone's SSN would still need a birthday and hometown, but these data points are readily available from a number of sources. Many people volunteer such information on social networking sites like Facebook. Voter registration lists and other public databases also include such information, and it is often available for a small charge (or free) from data brokers that operate on the Internet. There are additional challenges in guessing SSNs for residents born before 1988, because many older Americans did not receive a Social Security number at birth -- so their hometown and their Social Security number application zip code might differ. But beginning that year -- in a move ironically intended to combat fraud -- the Social Security Administration began forcing many families to order SSNs at birth, thereby eliminating one more element of chance for a would be SSN-guesser. It's far easier to guess SSNs for anyone born in 1988 or later, Acquisti said. The formula for issuing the numbers is, in fact, not designed to withstand attacks from cryptography experts or mathematicians. It was invented in 1936 as a simple numbering system for paper file cabinets. "This was before there were computers," Acquisti said. "SSNs were never designed for the purpose we use them." The group is not disclosing the precise formula, because doing so would be akin to publishing the list of all Social Security numbers. But Acquisti said one "provocative" strategy that government officials might take: Setting a date in the future -- perhaps in three to five years -- where all SSNs are made public, so companies and government agencies stop using SSNs for security purposes. He called current efforts to protect Social Security numbers from public view "well intentioned, but misguided." The researchers recommend that the Social Security Administration immediately implement a much more random formula for generation SSNs. But that won't help the millions of Americans whose SSNs are now easily guessable. For that, there is only one answer, the report says: "Industry and policy-makers may need, instead, to finally reassess our perilous reliance on SSNs for authentication and on consumers' impossible duty to protect them," it said.
This information is addition information and a shorter version of my previous article called The Moors Of Early Jamaica. Some of our history is hidden in names, titles, tags such as Blackamoors, the word Moor spelled in many variations, Free Negros/Blacks/Colored, Black Indians, the 1828 Webster definition of American, West Indian, Muslim, Mohammadians, Moslem. Also thanks to the sister from Canada that runs Ebony Intuition, check her blog out. Source: Crescent Magazine formally known as muslimedia.com Unearthing the buried legacy of African Muslims in America AFRICAN MUSLIMS IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA: TRANSATLANTIC STORIES AND SPIRITUAL STRUGGLES. By Allan D. Austin. 1997. New York and London: Routledge. Pp: 194 By Yusuf Progler The Muslim legacy in African American history is receiving a lot of scholarly and popular attention lately. Even Hollywood has had to include Muslim characters in its historical reconstructions. But this was not always the case. Though Muslim historians have written for decades about the Islamic identity of Africans kidnapped into American slavery, mainstream historians ignored or downplayed this research in their work. Then, in the early 1970s, when prominent American historians rejected out of hand novelist Alex Haley's assertion that the lead character in his acclaimed work Roots was a Muslim, a young professor of English and Afro-American Studies became intrigued and embarked on his own research into African American Muslim history. That was over 20 years ago, and since then Allan D. Austin has become a respected scholar in the field, recently serving in the Dubois Institute at Harvard for his work. Austin's original research led to the ambitious and oft-cited reference work, African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook (1984). But that volume soon went out of print and became a hard to find item. It also suffered from poor translation of Arabic documents, and some confusion with respect to Islamic doctrines. However, the original work did attract a number of Muslim historians and enthusiasts to Austin's cause. Since the publication of the sourcebook, many people have helped unearth additional sources for African American Muslim history, and have improved the translation of Arabic documents and aided Austin's overall understanding of Islam. The author thanks in particular Muhammad al-Ahari of Chicago, as 'an indefatigable tracer of lost Muslims.' The present volume, newly extracted and bridged from the original sourcebook, is a long awaited and carefully updated return to print of Austin's valuable research. Austin begins by discussing obstructions to knowledge of African Muslims in the Americas. From literature and history, to missionary polemics, there seems to have been a collective denial about the presence of African Muslims. Part of this is due to the way in which African Muslim histories and lives were intertwined with other aspects of American history. The presence of Muslims in the slave population challenged and confused white slave owners, who had constructed a paternal and self-serving image of Africans as without religion, culture, or language. This is not to suggest that Africans had none of these attributes - quite the contrary - but that Muslim expressions of what was considered to be 'civilization' were uncomfortably similar to white norms. Muslims had a literary tradition and believed in Holy Books, and they knew Biblical stories of Jesus and Moses (upon them both be peace), which were recognized by Christian captors. Yet, Muslims also had the Qur'an, which was in a non-European language, and which superseded the Bible, so many whites could not see Islam as anything but a Christian heresy. Despite these prejudices and obstructions, knowledge of African Muslims has survived. A growing collection of Arabic documents provides the most solid evidence for the presence of African Muslims in the Americas. Buried in archives and libraries for decades, many of these valuable documents are now seeing the light of research. Ranging from letters and autobiographical statements, to personal reflections and quotations from the Qur'an, African Muslims made ample use of their literary tradition while in American captivity. Sometimes, their ability to write Arabic was seen as a novelty by whites, who on occasion asked slaves and freedmen to reproduce the exotic looking twists and turns of Arabic script. In other instances, Africans in captivity wrote eloquent letters in Arabic to Muslim rulers overseas, asking to be manumitted from their Christian owners. While many of these Arabic documents were no doubt intercepted, lost or destroyed, many others have survived, and Austin reproduces several of them in photographs and in translation. And, as similar work continues, more will likely be found. Being recognized as a Muslim in American slavery had its difficulties, and this must have provoked many Muslim slaves into hiding their faith to protect their skin. Still, many persisted and there are some ironic cases on record. In one notable instance, the cruel son of a white slave owner constantly tormented a Muslim slave as he bowed in prayer. When the Muslim got an eye infection from dirt kicked in his face, a doctor who treated him took an interest in his story, which eventually led to his repatriation to Africa. Other Christian slave owners and missionaries incessantly tried to convert Muslims to their Christian faith, sometimes even providing Bibles in Arabic in the hope that Muslims would make the switch to a new faith in the same language. But many Christians did not know anything about Arabic. In one case, missionary zeal in converting an African Muslim, coupled with ignorance of Arabic, led to an interesting example of the subversive use of language. After working with his Muslim charge on Christian doctrine, a white man asked that the Christian Lord's Prayer be written in his native African tongue. The Muslim, Abdul Rahman, wrote several lines in Arabic. The Christian then wrote that he witnessed the 'foregoing copy of the Lord's Prayer' on December 1828, and then filed the letter away. But many decades later, when someone who knew the Arabic read it, the letter was revealed to contain the 'Fatihah.' Abdul Rahman had duped his Christian interlocutor. In addition to their language, Muslims were often known by their names: Abdul Rahman, Ayyub Sulayman, Abu Bakr Siddiq, Muhammad Ali, and Salih Bilali, to name only a few. While many Muslims were given Christian names by their owners, as was general practice in slave America, and while others must have dropped their Muslim names in dissimulation, Christians also seem to have used the Biblical spelling of Muslim names. So, for example, we find Ayyub Sulayman referred to as Job Solomon. Austin notes that this name-switching may be a factor in further identifying African Muslims in the historical record. He suggests, for instance, that a slave name like Bailey could have been a corruption of Bilali, which in this case is significant, since famed African American abolitionist Frederick Douglas's full name included Bailey. Reading through the chapters with this in mind, one wonders if a name like Ben Sullivan was from Ibn Sulayman. Other Muslims are recognizable by their actions, with slave owners and descendants of slaves noting and recalling many practices and habits of Black men and women which suggest that they were Muslims. For example, a plantation owner in Georgia noticed that each morning at dawn, one of his slaves would bow down facing East. On other occasions, practices resembling ablution and fasting suggest a Muslim presence. During the 1930s, descendants of slaves on the Georgia Sea Islands recalled their ancestors as praying on mats and using beads in prayer. While the jihad tradition of West Africa played an important role in slave rebellions in Brazil, few researchers seem to have noticed that this might have been a factor in North America. Even so, some sources suggest that the Amistad slave ship revolt included Muslim participants. In the 1970s, a group of musicologists traced Black musical traditions to Qur'anic recitation and to the music of West African Muslims. In short, there remains much material to be mined, and Austin's work ought to be seen as a beginning, as an invitation into the study of what will continue to be a rich legacy.
Respect Your Children and Yourself It's a Good Idea! The fact that children are little, seemingly-irrational, and inexperienced shouldn't be held against them. Children should be held against you—gently. It's a Good Idea! Respect your child's challenges! Children test you to see how far they can go. It's not that they want total freedom, rather they want to know what the limits are. Setting reasonable (and respectful) limits for them will enable them to set their own limits as they grow older. Element number two of the Twelve Disciplinary Elements is to respect your children and yourself. Positive discipline is based on mutual respect. Assume that children are basically reasonable human beings who want to do well, and treat them with the respect they deserve. Kids learn by imitation, and just demonstrating respectful behavior will take you a long way. The basic rule is: You get what you give. Sound familiar? Some call it the Golden Rule, and some call it karma, but the idea is the same: Treat your child as you would like to be treated and your child (eventually and usually) will treat you that way back. How do you show respect for your child? By discussing her feelings and beliefs and acknowledging that they are valid—for her. By helping her improve her critical thinking skills and empathy by discussing other people's perspectives on the same issues. By respecting who she is, and the integrity of her body. By starting with the child, and moving forward from there. You don't show respect when you agree with everything she says or by letting her make all her own choices or decisions. Look, kids don't always know what's right for them. They're kids, after all. You show respect for your child when you: - respect her feelings; - respect her opinions; - respect her privacy; - respect her temperament; and - respect her body and personal space. More on: Values and Responsibilities Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Well-Behaved Child © 1999 by Ericka Lutz. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. To order this book visit Amazon's web site or call 1-800-253-6476.
LONDON (Reuters) - People should be cautious about taking vitamin E supplements regularly because doing so can increase the risk of a certain type of stroke, an international team of scientists said on Friday. Researchers from the United States, France and Germany reviewed existing studies of vitamin E and its effect on stroke and found that taking the vitamin increased the risk of haemorrhagic stroke, where bleeding occurs in the brain, by 22 percent, but cut the risk of ischaemic stroke by 10 percent. Ischaemic stroke accounts for around 70 percent of all cases and happens when a blood clot prevents blood reaching the brain. "These findings suggest that the use of vitamin E may not be as safe as we have believed and is actually associated with some harm in the form of increased risk for hemorrhagic stroke," said Markus Schurks, of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the United States, who led the study. The researchers stressed the effects on absolute risk are small, with 0.8 more haemorrhagic strokes and 2.1 fewer ischaemic strokes per 1,000 people taking vitamin E. This is equivalent to one ischaemic stroke being prevented for 476 people taking the vitamin, they said, and one extra haemorrhagic stroke for every 1,250 people taking it. "While the risk is small ... we caution against widespread uncontrolled use of vitamin E," Schurks said in a statement. Previous research has suggested that taking vitamin E has a protective effect against heart disease and around 13 percent of the U.S. population takes vitamin E as a supplement, the scientists said in their study published in the British Medical Journal. Stroke is the most common cardiovascular problem after heart disease and kills around 5.7 million people worldwide each year. For their analysis, the scientists studied nine trials that had investigated the effect of vitamin E on stroke in more than 118,000 people, half of whom were taking at least 50 mg daily of vitamin E and half of whom were taking a placebo or dummy pill. None of the trials suggested taking vitamin E increased the risk for total stroke, but the researchers found there were stark differences when looking at individual types of stroke. The analysis found there were 223 haemorrhagic strokes among people taking vitamin E and 183 such strokes among those taking a placebo, meaning the group taking the vitamin were 22 percent more likely to have this kind of stroke. A total of 884 people taking vitamin E had an ischaemic stroke compared with 983 people taking a placebo, meaning people taking the vitamin were 10 percent less likely to have this form of stroke. "Although the effects of vitamin E that are shown ... are both relatively small, haemorrhagic strokes generally have more severe outcomes," said Tobias Kurth, of France's Hopital de la Pitie-Salpetriere, who also worked on the study. "Based on these findings, we suggest considering other preventive strategies to reduce the risk of stroke such as a well balanced diet, not smoking, being physically active and maintaining a normal weight." SOURCE: http://link.reuters.com/xus93q British Medical Journal, online November 5, 2010. The #1 daily resource for health and lifestyle news! Your daily resource for losing weight and staying fit. We could all use some encouragement now and then - we're human! Explore your destiny as you discover what's written in your stars. The latest news, tips and recipes for people with diabetes. Healthy food that tastes delicious too? No kidding. Yoga for Back Pain Pets HelpYour Heart Are YouMoney Smart?
Make Clay Letters What you need: What you do: 1. Write a few letters of the alphabet on a piece of paper, at least three inches tall. 2. Roll lumps of clay into long, thin pieces. 3. Help your child form the strips of clay into letters, using the written letters as a guide. Why it works: Your child becomes familiar with creating the shapes of letters. More on: Reading and Language Arts
Kids Crafts Easter Bonnets Kids crafts Easter bonnets are so much fun to make. Once they are done you can attend the Easter parade, bonnet and all. - White glue (PVA) - Pair of scissors - Crepe or tissue paper in different colors (including green) - Thin garden wire - Cotton wool balls - Sticky tape - Cut a circle out of card, about 14 inches (35cm) across. - Paint it so that it looks like a straw bonnet. - Draw a smaller circle in the middle and draw four lines that cross each other in the center, inside of that circle. - Cut along these lines and bend up. - Make lots of paper flowers, keeping the stems short.(see below) - Glue the paper flowers all around the brim of the hat, overlapping them to hide the stems. - To Make The Paper Flowers: - Cut a piece of thin garden wire about 4inches - 6inches (10-15cm) long. - Tape a cotton wool ball to the one end of the wire. - Cut a small square of black crepe or tissue paper and tie it over the cotton wool. - Cut a long strip of colorful crepe or tissue paper, about 2.4inches (6cm) wide. - Fold it over about eight times to make a concertina. - Download these petal shapes and print it out. - Cut out to make eight petals. - Using the PVA sparingly, glue each petal just below the cotton wool ball, overlapping them slightly. - You might need to let the glue dry between each petal. - Cut a long, thin strip of green crepe or tissue paper. - Glue one end to the top of the stem, then wind it tightly down like a bandage. - Glue or sticky tape the other end at the bottom. - Once the glue has dried properly, gently pull back the edges of the petals. - You are now ready to attend the Easter parade, bonnet and all. Return from Kids Crafts Easter Bonnets to Easter Crafts Return from Kids Crafts Easter Bonnets to New Kids Crafts Homepage
Reports on 'gay' animal research criticised Talking sex The media's coverage of scientific research into same-sex animal behaviour promotes negative stereotypes of gay and lesbians, say researchers. "People who identify with these minority groups in a human population see themselves presented for titillation, humour and not to be taken seriously," says Barron. He and Brown identified 11 recent scientific papers on key areas of same-sex animal behaviour research. They then searched for media coverage of these papers and chose 48 representative press reports to analyse in detail. "Consistently any scientific report of same-sex sexual contact in any animals is reported as gay or lesbian behaviour," says Barron. "It's presented for titillation, often for humour, regardless of what the science actually is." "Gay and lesbianism is more than same-sex copulation in humans. Let's not turn this animal behaviour into something that it isn't," he says. "Scientists would never call it gay." And Barron says in many cases the animals in the scientific study didn't even copulate but simply showed some form of atypical male or female behaviour. "It's not just a simplification but a gross misrepresentation of the science and it's having a negative effect," he says. Barron says sometimes the media portray homosexuality as something that is a result of a genetic fault and then coverage "goes from being derogatory to downright dangerous". He quotes a study in which female mice that had a certain gene knocked out exhibited some male typical sexual behaviour. "The Telegraph presented this as 'Female mice can be turned lesbian by deleting gene'," says Barron. "If we're saying we can induce lesbian behaviour by a mutation then we are, by extension, saying lesbian behaviour is a pathology," he says. "That's neither an accurate or positive message about lesbians. It perpetuates profoundly homophobic attitudes." Another study of neurobiological features associated with male-male sexual behaviour in domestic rams was reported in the media under the headlines "Brokeback Mutton" and "Gay sheep may help explain biology of homosexuals". Barron says media reports portrayed the research as being part of an effort to "cure" homosexuality in sheep, which "could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans". Appeal to scientists Barron says scientists can make a difference by being careful about what they say to journalists. "When scientists themselves ... used the term 'gay', 'lesbian', 'she-male', 'transvestite' or 'drag' it was lept on by the popular media," says Barron. He contrasts this with reports on the work of researcher Lindsay Young, who studied pairs of female albatross involved in caring for their young. While one press report referred to "Lesbian albatrosses", most used the term "same-sex couples" and reported Young's active denial that the findings were relevant to humans. She was regularly quoted as saying "Lesbianism is a human term. The study is about albatross. The study is not about humans." Barron says Young managed to get a lot of media coverage despite not sensationalising her research. "Research on sexual behaviour in animals does not need to be sensationalised to catch public attention," conclude Barron and Brown. Science in the media expert, Dr Joan Leach of the University of Queensland, welcomes the study and agrees some of the examples of media coverage given by Barron and Brown are "outrageous", but thinks their analysis of the problem is simplistic. She says reports on scientific research have to prove newsworthiness in a very competitive media environment, which likely encourages sensationalism. But beyond this, it is not just the media that is to blame for such coverage, says Leach. She says press officers and press releases play a major role in shaping the messages about research. And scientists themselves are pressured to think about the impacts and implications of their research when talking to journalists, says Leach. "Scientists are in a double bind," she says. "They have all been to media training and been told to make their work relevant ... and interesting to the general public. Talking about sex is definitely a way to do that," says Leach. And Leach says in some fields of research - for example evolutionary psychology - scientists are actively linking human behaviour to animal behaviour. "You read this stuff not just about gay behaviour but about female versus male behaviour and it's irritating," she says. "I get really tired of evolutionary psychology explanations that my behaviour has to do with hunters and gatherers."
Looking at this contribution margin example, we'll develop a contribution margin income statement to demonstrate the effect of the contribution margin and break-even point on the income statement: Here is the example: Break-even point in units = Fixed Expenses/Price - Variable Expenses Break-even point = $60,000/$2.00 - .80 = 50,000 units In order to develop the contribution margin income statement, we have to convert breakeven in units to breakeven in dollars. We use the contribution margin ratio to do this. Using the same example, variable expenses of $0.80 are 40% of sales of $2.00 per unit ($0.80/$2.00). To calculate breakeven in dollars, divide its fixed expenses by the contribution margin ratio of 60% ($60,000/.6 = $100,000). This means that the company has to make $100,000 in sales to breakeven. If you want to check your work, calculate the company's variable costs using this method. Variable expenses are 40% of sales ($100,000 X .4 = $40,000). Sales of $100,000 minus variable expenses of $40,000 equal fixed costs of $60,000. You now know your calculations are correct because $60,000 are the stated fixed expenses of the company. The table below shows you the firm's income statement in contribution margin format. It shows you that if one more unit of the product is sold, to total 50,001 units, then the Net Operating Profit will rise above zero and the firm will make a profit. However, if one unit less than 50,000 is sold, the firm will incur a loss. Contribution Margin Income Statement for the Month of May, 2011 \|Less: Variable Expenses\|\|40,000\|\|0.80\| \|Less: Fixed Expenses\|\|$60,000\| \|Net Operating Profit\|\|$0\|
Rabbits are really popular pets in the UK, second only to cats and dogs, and they can make great companions. However, despite peoples best efforts their needs are often misunderstood and rather than being treated as the intelligent, social animal they are, many are condemned to a life of loneliness and boredom in a cage at the bottom of the garden. It is not difficult to look after rabbits in a way that will keep them both healthy and happy, so what do they really need? The most important thing you can do to keep a rabbit healthy is feed them a balanced diet. The most common problems that vets see in rabbits are over-grown teeth, tummy upsets and obesity related disease, all of which are directly related to them being fed incorrectly. The vast majority of a rabbit’s diet, at least 80%, should be good quality hay. As a rough guide, every day a rabbit should eat a pile of hay as big as it is. Rabbit’s teeth grow continually and without hay to grind them down, they can develop painful spikes, which rip into the tissues of the mouth, and nasty abscesses in the roots. Hay is also required for good digestion (rabbits can easily die from upset tummies) and helps prevent them getting fat. In addition to hay rabbits should have a small amount of fresh vegetables every day, half a handful is enough and a small amount of pelleted rabbit food, no more than a tablespoon twice a day. This is often where people go wrong, leaving the rabbit with an over-flowing bowl of rabbit food, which, because it is high in calories and very tasty, it is all they eat, giving them a very unbalanced diet. Rabbits are extremely social creatures, in the wild they live in large family groups, and they should never be kept on their own. The best thing to do is to buy sibling rabbits when they are young. You can introduce rabbits when they are adults but it has to be done with care as many will fight at first. However, it is important to persevere and get the right advice as rabbits are miserable when alone. They are also very intelligent, so make sure they have a variety of toys in their cages and runs to keep them entertained. These don’t have to be expensive, there are plenty of commercially available rabbit toys or just a couple of logs they can play on and nibble are fine. All rabbits should be neutered, even if they are kept with others of the same sex, and this can be done from the age of 4 months for boys and 6 months for girls. Neutered rabbits make much calmer pets and are far easier to handle. They are also much less likely to fight with each other; 2 entire males kept together, even if they are siblings, can become very aggressive once their hormones kick in. Neutering also has huge health benefits, particularly for the females, of whom 80% will get uterine cancer if they are not spayed. For most people the whole point of owning a rabbit is because they are cute and cuddly creatures but anyone who has tried to pick up a startled or poorly handled rabbit will know that they can do a lot of damage with their strong nails and back legs! So, it is important that they are played with and handled everyday so they are used to human interaction. Rabbits are prey animals in the wild and their only defence mechanism when frightened is to struggle and try to run away. This is why they don’t always make great pets for children, who can be, unintentionally, quite rough or unpredictable in their handling and it is a big reason why rabbits bought as pets for children end up forgotten and neglected at the bottom of the garden; because no child will play with a pet which has hurt it. However, with regular, careful handling from an early age rabbits can become great companions and members of the family. Rabbits can make great pets but they need just as much care and attention as other animals and shouldn’t be seen as an ‘easy’ option. Although they are often bought for children they are not always the most suitable pet for young people and they should always be kept with at least one other rabbit. However, they can be real characters once you get to know them and really give back what you put in, provided, of course, you give them what they really need! For details on examining a rabbit, neutering and vaccinations, take a look at our Pet Care Advice pages. If you are worried about any symptoms your rabbit may be showing, talk to your vet or use our Rabbit Symptom Checker to help decide what to do.
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index] Re: "Dinosaurs Died Within Hours After Asteroid Hit Earth..." > And - they had FEATHERS, which turned out to be > remarkably good insulation against cold - think of > birds huddling together in a burrow, and you get an > idea why they survived while the dinosaurs did not. - most birds did die out; - likewise, lots of mammals died out; - while lizards were heavily culled and turtles didn't exactly sail through unscathed, many of them survived, and crocodiles fared even better, so that alone can't be it; - most if not all small theropods of the time, not just birds, had feathers.
Michigan has had great success reintroducing two large mammals to the state. The eastern elk, once common in Michigan, had disappeared from the state by 1875. In 1918, state officials relocated seven Rocky Mountain elk to Cheboygan County in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. Today, nearly 900 Rocky Mountain elk roam the woods and meadows of a four-county area. The largest concentration lies within the Pigeon River Country State Forest near Vanderbilt. In the 1980s, moose were reintroduced to a remote area south of the U.P.’s Huron Mountains, where officials released a total of 59 moose from Ontario in two separate operations. Most interesting was the method of reintroduction: Wildlife biologists airlifted the moose one by one in a sling dangling beneath a helicopter to a base camp where they were trucked 600 miles to the Huron Mountains. Van Riper State Park near Michigamme has an interesting display with photos of the infamous “moose lifts.” It worked—today, about 500 roam the central U.P. by Laura Martone from Moon Michigan, 3rd Edition, © Avalon Travel
Center for Remote Sensing Earth & Marine Science Bldg. Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Maps & Directions Other UCSC Links: ©2005 UC Santa Cruz. Last reviewed by the CRS webmaster. FOCUS ON RESEARCH Remote sensing of the Earth and other Planetary surfaces is a rapidly growing science that cuts across a wide range of disciplines, including volcanic, tectonic, biologic, oceanographic and environmental studies of the Earth’s surface, as well as the search for past and present life on other planetary surfaces. It involves multispectral, hyperspectral and thermal imaging, RADAR and LiDAR imaging, and the engineering development of new remote sensing tools. The close interaction between scientists and engineers at UCSC distinguishes this program from many others and leads to exciting interdisciplinary ventures not possible without such interactions. Above Image: 3D visualization and temperature measurement within the crater of Mt. St. Helens, Washington. Topography from LiDAR and temperature values from MASTER thermal observations. Flown by the Airborne Sensor Facility on October 14, 2004. Image processed by JPL. UCSC takes over operation of NASA Ames Airborne Sensor Facility The University of California, Santa Cruz, has taken over the operation of NASA's Airborne Sensor Facility, a major program for observation and monitoring of Earth's environment based at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field. [More] UC Santa Cruz engineering students develop a coral reef monitoring system Five senior engineering students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are trying to push the limits of low-power wireless transmission to facilitate the monitoring of remote natural environments. [More] UCSC to lead ambitious multidisciplinary research project on wireless communication networks Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are leading a major collaborative effort to develop the technology for complex wireless communication networks that can be set up in rapidly changing environments such as battlefields and emergency situations. [More]
No. 1. Used for choice roasts, the porterhouse and sirloin steaks. No. 2. Rump, used for steaks, stews and corned beef. No. 3. Aitch-bone, used for boiling-pieces, stews and pot roasts. No. 4. Buttock or round, used for steaks, pot roasts, beef a la mode; also a prime boiling-piece. No. 5. Mouse-round, used for boiling and stewing. No. 6. Shin or leg, used for soups, hashes, etc. No. 7. Thick flank, cut with under fat, is a prime boiling-piece, good for stews and corned beef, pressed beef. No. 8. Veiny piece, used for corned beef, dried beef. No. 9. Thin flank, used for corned beef and boiling-pieces. No. 10. Five ribs called the fore-rib. This is considered the primest piece for roasting; also makes the finest steaks.No. 11. Four ribs, called the middle ribs, used for roasting. No. 12. Chuck ribs, used for second quality of roasts and steaks. No. 13. Brisket, used for corned beef, stews, soups and spiced beef. No. 14. Shoulder-piece, used for stews, soups, pot-roasts, mince-meat and hashes. Nos. 15, 16. Neck, clod or sticking-piece used for stocks, gravies, soups, mince-pie meat, hashes, bologna sausages, etc. No. 17. Shin or shank, used mostly for soups and stewing. No. 18. Cheek.The following is a classification of the qualities of cuts of meat, according to the several joints of beef, when cut up. First Class — Cuts of meat include the sirloin with the kidney suet (1), the rump steak piece (2), the fore-rib (11). Second Class — Cuts of meat include the buttock or round (4), the thick flank (7), the middle ribs (11). Third Class — Cuts of meat include the aitch-bone (3), the mouse-round (5), the thin flank (8, 9), the chuck (12), the shoulder-piece (14), the brisket (13). Fourth Class — Cuts of meat include the clod, neck and sticking-piece (15, 16). Fifth Class — Cuts of meat include the shin or shank (17). No. 2. Cuts of meat include the fillet, used for roasts and cutlets. No. 3. Cuts of meat include the loin, chump-end used for roasts and chops. No. 4. Cuts of meat include the hind-knuckle or hock, used for stews, pot-pies, meat-pies. No. 6. Cuts of meat include the breast, best end used for roasting, stews and chops. No. 7. Cuts of meat include the blade-bone, used for pot-roasts and baked dishes. No. 8. Cuts of meat include the fore-knuckle, used for soups and stews. No. 9. Cuts of meat include the breast, brisket-end used for baking, stews and pot-pies. No. 10. Cuts of meat include the neck, scrag-end used for stews, broth, meat-pies, etc. In cutting up veal, generally, the hind-quarter is divided into loin and leg, and the fore-quarter into breast, neck and shoulder. The Several Parts of a Moderately-sized, Well-fed Calf, about eight weeks old, are nearly of the following weights:—Loin and chump, 18 lbs.; fillet, 12 lbs.; hind-knuckle, 5 lbs.; shoulder, 11 lbs.; neck, 11 lbs.; breast, 9 lbs., and fore-knuckle, 5 lbs.; making a total of 144 lbs. weight. No. 1. Cuts of meat include the leg, used for roasts and for boiling. No. 2. Cuts of meat include the shoulder, used for baked dishes and roasts. No. 3. Cuts of meat include the loin, best end used for roasts, chops. No. 4. Cuts of meat include the loin, chump-end used for roasts and chops. No. 5. Cuts of meat include the rack, or rib chops, used for French chops, rib chops, either for frying or broiling; also used for choice stews. No. 6. Cuts of meat include the breast, used for roast, baked dishes, stews, chops. No. 7. Cuts of meat include neck or scrag-end, used for cutlets, stews and meat-pies. NOTE.—A saddle of mutton or double loin is two loins cut off before the carcass is split open down the back. French chops are a small rib chop, the end of the bone trimmed off and the meat and fat cut away from the thin end, leaving the round piece of meat attached to the larger end, which leaves the small rib-bone bare. Very tender and sweet. Mutton is prime when cut from a carcass which has been fed out of doors, and allowed to run upon the hillside; they are best when about three years old. The fat will then be abundant, white and hard, the flesh juicy and firm, and of a clear red color. For mutton roasts, choose the shoulder, the saddle, or the loin or haunch. The leg should be boiled. Almost any part will do for broth. Lamb born in the middle of the winter, reared under shelter, and fed in a great measure upon milk, then killed in the spring, is considered a great delicacy, though lamb is good at a year old. Like all young animals, lamb ought to be thoroughly cooked, or it is most unwholesome. No. 1. Leg, used for smoked hams, roasts and corned pork. No. 2. Hind-loin, used for roasts, chops and baked dishes. No. 3. Fore-loin or ribs, used for roasts, baked dishes or chops. No. 4. Spare-rib, used for roasts, chops, stews. No. 5. Shoulder, used for smoked shoulder, roasts and corned pork. No. 6. Brisket and flank, used for pickling in salt and smoked bacon. The cheek is used for pickling in salt, also the shank or shin. The feet are usually used for souse and jelly. For family-use the leg is the most economical, that is when fresh, and the loin the richest. The best pork is from carcasses weighing from fifty to about one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Pork is a white and close meat, and it is almost impossible to over-roast or cook it too much; when underdone it is exceedingly dangerous and you could end up with tape worm. No. 1. Cuts of meat include the shoulder, used for roasting; it may be boned and stuffed, then afterwards baked or roasted. No. 2. Cuts of meat include the fore-loin, used for roasts and steaks. No. 3. Cuts of meat include the haunch or loin, used for roasts, steaks, stews. The ribs cut close may be used for soups. Good for pickling and making into smoked venison. No. 4. Cuts of meat include the breast, used for baking dishes, stewing. No. 5. Cuts of meat include the scrag or neck, used for soups.The choice of venison should be judged by the fat, which, when the venison is young, should be thick, clear and close, and the meat a very dark red. The flesh of a female deer about four years old, is the sweetest and best of venison. Buck venison, which is in season from June to the end of September, is finer than doe venison, which is in season from October to December. Neither should be dressed at any other time of year, and no meat requires so much care as venison in killing, preserving and dressing. A fillet of veal is one of the prime roasts of veal; it is taken from the leg above the knuckle; a piece weighing from ten to twelve pounds is a good size and requires about four hours for roasting. Before roasting, it is dressed with a force meat or stuffing placed in the cavity from where the bone was taken out and the flap tightly secured together with skewers; many bind it together with tape. To carve it, cut in even thin slices off from the whole of the upper part or top, in the same manner as from a rolled roast of beef, as in the direction of the figs. 1 and 2; this gives the person served some of the dressing with each slice of meat. Veal is very unwholesome unless it is cooked thoroughly, and when roasted should be of a rich brown color. Bacon, fried pork, sausage-balls, with greens, are among the accompaniments of roasted veal, also a cut lemon. To attempt to carve each chop and serve it, you would not only place too large a piece upon the plate of the person you intend to serve, but you would waste much time, and should the vertebrate have not been removed by the butcher, you would be compelled to exercise such a degree of strength that would make one's appearance very ungraceful, and possibly, too, throwing gravy over your neighbor sitting next to you. The correct way to carve this roast is to cut diagonally from fig. 1 to 2, and help in slices of moderate thickness; then it may be cut from 3 to 4, in order to separate the small bones; divide and serve them, having first inquired if they are desired. This joint is usually sent to the table accompanied by bacon, ham, tongue, or pickled pork, on a separate dish and with a cut lemon on a plate. There are also a number of sauces that are suitable with this roast. In carving a roasted leg, the best slices are found by cutting quite down to the bone, in the direction from 1 to 2, and slices may be taken from either side. Some very good cuts are taken from the broad end from 5 to 6, and the fat on this ridge is very much liked by many. The cramp-bone is a delicacy, and is obtained by cutting down to the bone at 4, and running the knife under it in a semicircular direction to 3. The nearer the knuckle the drier the meat, but the under side contains the most finely grained meat, from which slices may be cut lengthwise. When sent to the table a frill of paper around the knuckle will improve its appearance. The next process is to divide the ribs from the brisket by cutting through the meat in the line from 1 to 2; then the ribs may be carved in the direction of the line 6 to 7, and the brisket from 8 to 9. The carver should always ascertain whether the guest prefers ribs, brisket, or a piece of the shoulder. To reach the choicer portion of the ham, the knife, which must be very sharp and thin, should be carried quite down to the bone through the thick fat in the direction of the line from 1 to 2. The slices should be even and thin, cutting both lean and fat together, always cutting down to the bone. Some cut a circular hole in the middle of a ham gradually enlarging it outwardly. Then again many carve a ham by first cutting from 1 to 2, then across the other way from 3 to 4. Remove the skin after the ham is cooked and send to the table with dots of dry pepper or dry mustard on the top, a tuft of fringed paper twisted about the knuckle, and plenty of fresh parsley around the dish. This will always insure an inviting appearance. Roast Pig.—The modern way of serving a pig is not to send it to the table whole, but have it carved partially by the cook; first, by dividing the shoulder from the body; then the leg in the same manner; also separating the ribs into convenient portions. The head may be divided and placed on the same platter. To be served as hot as possible. A Spare Rib of Pork is carved by cutting slices from the fleshy part, after which the bones should be disjointed and separated. A leg of pork may be carved in the same manner as a ham. The fat of this meat is like mutton, apt to cool soon, and become hard and disagreeable to the palate; it should, therefore, be served always on warm plates, and the platter kept over a hot-water dish, or spirit lamp. Many cooks dish it up with a white paper frill pinned around the knuckle bone. A haunch of mutton is carved the same as a haunch of venison. Next, cut downward from the breast from 2 to 3, as many even slices of the white meat as may be desired, placing the pieces neatly on one side of the platter. Now unjoint the legs and wings at the middle joint, which can be done very skillfully by a little practice. Make an opening into the cavity of the turkey for dipping out the inside dressing, by cutting a piece from the rear part 1, 1, called the apron. Consult the tastes of the guests as to which part is preferred; if no choice is expressed, serve a portion of both light and dark meat. One of the most delicate parts of the turkey are two little muscles, lying in small dish-like cavities on each side of the back, a little behind the leg attachments; the next most delicate meat fills the cavities in the neck bone, and next to this, that on the second joints. The lower part of the leg (or drumstick, as it is called) being hard, tough and stringy, is rarely ever helped to any one, but allowed to remain on the dish. To separate the breast from the body of the fowl, cut through the tender ribs close to the breast, quite down to the tail. Now turn the fowl over, back upwards; put the knife into the bone midway between the neck and the rump, and on raising the lower end it will separate readily. Now turn the rump from you, and take off very neatly the two side bones, and the fowl is carved. In separating the thigh from the drumstick, the knife must be inserted exactly at the joint, for if not accurately hit, some difficulty will be experienced to get them apart; this is easily acquired by practice. There is no difference in carving roast and boiled fowls if full grown; but in very young fowls the breast is usually served whole; the wings and breast are considered the best parts, but in young ones the legs are the most juicy. In the case of a capon or large fowl, slices may be cut off at the breast, the same as carving a pheasant. Some are fond of the feet, and when dressing the duck, these should be neatly skinned and never removed. Wild duck is highly esteemed by epicures; it is trussed like a tame duck, and carved in the same manner, the breast being the choicest part. Another method of carving a roast partridge is to cut it into three pieces, by severing a wing and leg on either side from the body, by following the lines 1 to 2, thus making two servings of those parts, leaving the breast for a third plate. The third method of carving a roast partridge is to thrust back the body from the legs, and cut through the middle of the breast, thus making four portions that may be served. Grouse and prairie-chicken are carved from the breast when they are large, and quartered or halved when of medium size. Place your fork firmly in the center of the breast of this large game bird and cut deep slices to the bone at figs. 1 and 2; then take off the leg in the line from 3 and 4, and the wing 3 and 5, severing both sides the same. In taking off the wings, be careful not to cut too near the neck; if you do you will hit upon the neck-bone, from which the wing must be separated. Pass the knife through the line 6, towards the neck, which will detach it. Cut the other parts as in a fowl. The breast, wings and merry-thought of a pheasant are the most highly prized, although the legs are considered very finely flavored. Pheasants are frequently roasted with the head left on; in that case, when dressing them, bring the head round under the wing, and fix it on the point of a skewer. A very good way of carving these birds is to insert the knife at fig. 1, and cut both ways to 2 and 3, when each portion may be divided into two pieces, then served. Pigeons, if not too large, may be cut in halves, either across or down the middle, cutting them into two equal parts; if young and small they may be served entirely whole. Tame pigeons should be cooked as soon as possible after they are killed, as they very quickly lose their flavor. Wild pigeons, on the contrary, should hang a day or two in a cool place before they are dressed. Oranges cut into halves are used as a garnish for dishes of small birds, such as pigeons, quail, woodcock, squabs, snipe, etc. These small birds are either served whole or split down the back, making two servings. Do you have anything that you would like to add after reading this page? We would love to hear your thoughts. If you can add additional information to what has been written here you will be adding value to the website! No need to have any special skills - just type and submit. We will do the rest!
The GED test is designed to measure critical thinking skills in five areas.Typically, the test is given over three nights or, if offered during the day, two days. The test covers: Language Arts Writing: Part I is multiple choice questions regarding grammar and writing. (50 questions 75 minutes) Part II is writing an essay on an assigned topic. (45 minutes) Social Studies: U.S. History, World History, Civics and Government, Economics, and Geography (50 questions 70 minutes) Science: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Physical Science (50 questions 80 minutes) Language Arts Reading: Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (40 questions 65 minutes) Mathematics: Part I with calculator--Casio fx-260 only. (25 questions 45 minutes) Part II without calculator (25 questions 45 minutes) Topics include: Numbers and Operations, Measurement and Data Analysis, Geometry, and Algebra To pass the GED, you must score a total of 2,250 points with a minimum of 410 points in each of the five test categories or an average of 450 points out of the five tests. That means students must score at least 410 on each test and in addition, score an extra 200 points. These 200 points may be spread over all the tests ( average of 450 a test) or can be achieved collectively on one or more tests. The highest score possible on a single test is 800. Essays are graded on a 1-4 scale with 2 being a passing score. If you do not score a "2" on the essay, Part I of the Writing test will not be scored. If a score of 2250 is achieved, yet any ONE test is below 410 points, then you must test again until a score of 410 is achieved. You may test up to three times in one year. If you do not pass one subject, your other subject scores will be retained, and you need only make up that one subject test.
Places to Avoid Planting Trees and Shrubs Planting the right trees and shrubs in the right place is not just an aesthetic strategy. It promotes safety and prevents damage to the plants, nearby buildings and utilities, and relations with the people who live next door. Anticipate the consequences of poorly placed plants — dangerous limbs hanging over your roof or growing into electrical wires, roots clogging your sewer pipe or leach field, inaccessible utility service boxes, unhappy neighbors, and unsafe driving conditions. Pruning efforts to correct the problems after the trees and shrubs mature can damage the plants and leave them looking unnatural and more prone to pests and diseases. Consider the following situations before you plant: Overhead power lines and utilities: The best way to keep your overhead wires clear of tree limbs is to consider the mature height and spread of trees before you plant. The International Society of Arboriculture recommends planting trees that grow no taller than 20 feet directly beneath utility wires. Taller trees should be planted so that their mature canopy grows no closer than 15 feet from the wires. Buried wires and gas lines: Frequently, utility companies bury electric, telephone, and cable television wires underground, especially in new developments. Don’t assume that the wires are buried deeper than your planned planting hole — sometimes, they’re buried just below the surface. Although pipes should be buried at least 3 feet below ground, gas companies prefer a tree-free corridor of 15 to 20 feet on either side of pipes to allow for safety and maintenance. Gas leaks within a plant’s root zone can also damage or kill it To avoid disrupting underground utilities, many states have laws that require you to contact utility companies that may have wires or pipes on or close to your property before you dig. Service boxes and wellheads: You may want to disguise your wellhead and the unattractive metal box that the utility company planted in your front yard, but someone will need access to them someday. Plan your shrub plantings so that the mature shrubs won’t touch the box or wellhead. Better yet, allow enough space for someone to actually work on the utilities located in the box without having to prune back your shrubs. Buildings: A strong wind can send branches crashing through your roof. Overhanging limbs also drop leaves that clog your gutters and sticky sap that can stain siding. Keep shrubs at least several feet from your house and plant trees that grow to 60 feet or more at least 35 feet away. Streets, sidewalks, and septic lines: Some trees, such as poplar and willow, grow large roots close to or on the ground’s surface where they heave paving and everything else out of their path. Shallow-rooted trees also compete with lawn grasses and other plants, and make for bumpy mowing. Plant roots usually grow two to three times farther from the tree trunk than the aboveground branches do, so leave plenty of room between the planting hole and your driveway, sidewalk, or septic field for outward expansion. Property boundaries and public rights of way: Your state and municipal governments own the land on either side of all public roads. Many communities and highway departments prohibit planting in the public right-of-way. Contact your local government office for guidelines, or call the State Highway Department if your property borders a state or federal highway. Homeowners commonly plant privacy hedges along their property boundary. If you plan to plant a hedge or row of shrubs or trees between you and the neighbors, avoid future disputes by hiring a professional surveyor to find the actual property lines. When you plant the shrubs, allow enough space so that mature shrubs won’t encroach on the neighboring property. You’ll also have room to maintain them from your own yard. Merging traffic: Shrubs and hedges near intersections, including the end of your driveway, must be lower than that height or planted far enough from the road to allow drivers to see oncoming motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Violence pervades the lives of many people around the world, and touches all of us in some way. To many people, staying out of harm’s way is a matter of locking doors and windows and avoiding dangerous places. To others, escape is not possible. The threat of violence is behind those doors – well hidden from public view. And for those living in the midst of war and conflict, violence permeates every aspect of life. This report, the first comprehensive summary of the problem on a global scale, shows not only the human toll of violence – over 1.6 million lives lost each year and countless more damaged in ways that are not always apparent – but exposes the many faces of interpersonal, collective and self-directed violence, as well as the settings in which violence occurs. It shows that where violence persists, health is seriously compromised. The report also challenges us in many respects. It forces us to reach beyond our notions of what is acceptable and comfortable – to challenge notions that acts of violence are simply matters of family privacy, individual choice, or inevitable facets of life. Violence is a complex problem related to patterns of thought and behaviour that are shaped by a multitude of forces within our families and communities, forces that can also transcend national borders. The report urges us to work with a range of partners and to adopt an approach that is proactive, scientific and comprehensive. We have some of the tools and knowledge to make a difference – the same tools that have successfully been used to tackle other health problems. This is evident throughout the report. And we have a sense of where to apply our knowledge. Violence is often predictable and preventable. Like other health problems, it is not distributed evenly across population groups or settings. Many of the factors that increase the risk of violence are shared across the different types of violence and are modifiable. One theme that is echoed throughout this report is the importance of primary prevention. Even small investments here can have large and long-lasting benefits, but not without the resolve of leaders and support for prevention efforts from a broad array of partners in both the public and private spheres, and from both industrialized and developing countries. Public health has made some remarkable achievements in recent decades, particularly with regard to reducing rates of many childhood diseases. However, saving our children from these diseases only to let them fall victim to violence or lose them later to acts of violence between intimate partners, to the savagery of war and conflict, or to self-inflicted injuries or suicide, would be a failure of public health. While public health does not offer all of the answers to this complex problem, we are determined to play our role in the prevention of violence worldwide. This report will contribute to shaping the global response to violence and to making the world a safer and healthier place for all. I invite you to read the report carefully, and to join me and the many violence prevention experts from around the world who have contributed to it in implementing its vital call for action.
Village Tribes of the Desert Land By Edward S. Curtis Illustrations from Photographs by the Author In former articles in Scribner's s Magazine I have pictured the Apache and their linguistic kin, the Navajo; the Indians of the Northern Plains; the community-dwelling Indians in stone houses, the descendants of the cliff-dwellers. In this I will describe the tribes of Southwestern Arizona. They are in appearance, mythology and religion, as well as in life and manners, quite different. In the region spoken of we find the Yuma, Mohave, Havasupai, Walapai and Maricopa of the Yuman linguistic stock; the Pima, Papago and Kwahatika of the Piman stock. The combined population of these groups is approximated at twenty thousand, the Pima and Papago being the two largest tribes. With the exception of the Walapai and one branch of the Papago they are sedentary tribes, living in fixed villages. Their home structure is of poles and brush with an outer earth covering, naturally lacking the stability of the stone homes to the North, and for this reason a study of their prehistoric life is more difficult. Compared to the Northern Plains Indians, who reverence a brave heart nest to their worship of the Great Mystery, these tribes lack bravery and the war spirit. The Pima and Papago did, however, prove rather brave in defensive warfare with marauding Apaches, who crept down on them from their mountain homes. The Yuma and Mohave were too indolent to have a brave heart, but rather preferred a life of idleness. These dwellers in the valley of the Colorado are physically a magnificent group of people. Previous to the introduction of the white man's diseases, there was probably nothing comparable to them as physical types in the United States. Their lazy life, low altitude, with its excessively hot climate, seemed to develop their physique, but the same conditions which made giants in stature seemed to require no mental activity or development. Their mythology is apparently an incipient one, and, compared to that of the Pueblos, is so crude that it would seem to be of a people uncountable ages closer to the beginning of man. This probably is not the case, however, but merely indicates a lack of mental activity. The ease with which they gained food undoubtedly tended to retard their mental growth. The valley had its great annual overflow. Following this, the vegetation, wild and planted, sprang up and grew as those unacquainted with such localities cannot realize. The river had countless quantities of fish to be caught in rude traps with little effort. Rats, rabbits and small game were abundant and close at hand. The swift-footed deer of the hills they did not molest, as that would require effort. The greatest display of natural intelligence seen among them is their tribal custom of cremation. This, according to their legends, was taught them by their creator, Matevilye, and they follow his instructions with true Indian tenacity. One of my Yuma interpreters of the past season came to me with considerable anxiety: "Missioner wants me to come to church. I go to church, when I die they put me in the ground to rot. I no like that. Burned up the way Matevilye say, just ashes. That all right. What you think?" I must confess, as one rather favoring his way, to not being able to see why the old chap should be punished for going to church by being buried against his will. It is likely that an ethnologist would make a poor missionary. However, the missionary has something of an argument for his desire to change their way of disposing of the body, as it is certain that we see in the Indian cremation much that is not a part of the modern method, as it is here that he pays the greatest attention to the teachings of the Yuman creeds as taught them by the Creator. At their approach of death, relatives, friends and neighbors gather about waiting for the soul to take its flight to the sand-hills of the after-world: a land of plenty, where when one melon is picked another comes; "no one sees it come; you just pick it, another one there." The body is prepared at once after death and carried out in blankets to the place of cremation which has in the meanwhile been prepared. A shallow hole has been dug in the earth and the fuel piled high on this. The body is placed on the top of the fuel, after which fire is applied at the four cardinal points. During the time of the burning the multitude stand about and wail in the most melancholy fashion, continuing until fuel and body are but a mass of embers and ashes. These are raked into a pit and covered with earth. And so are the last rites to the departed among the tribes of the Yuman stock. The Havasupai, who have their home in Cataract Canon, a branch of the Grand Canon of the Colorado, have the most unique home-land of any tribe of our Indians. It is but a tiny garden spot in this vast chaotic wilderness. To reach the home of the Havasupai one must first make the trip across the plateau to the rim of the canon, no small part, and then he who would enter must take his choice of two trails; either one will try the courage of all but the experienced traveller of canon trails. Once there, you feel well repaid for your effort. If the season is midsummer, while every rock wall and crag is reflecting the sun's heat, the upper regions are a veritable Hades, and this garden spot, with its cool shadows and bubbling streams, an oasis in it. On my first journey here the upper world at the canon's rim was wrapped in a blinding snow-storm which chilled one's very life. As our pack animals picked their way down the trail and entered this canon home the peach trees were in bloom, birds were singing, all in the joy of life and spring. I could but think, "This is paradise." Theirs is a world of but a few hundred acres walled in first by sheer red stone walls 400 feet high, and beyond those perpendicular walls are broken, crumbling piles of rock of many colors, reaching on and on, but ever up, until one comes out on the pinon-clad plateau. These canon dwellers have always been a small group. Disease and change in manner of life have dwindled their ranks until there is now but a few more than a hundred, and it is a safe prophecy that ten years from now there will be no more than half of that. They are an agricultural people, and have been from prehistoric times. They insist God gave them the seeds of the corn and vegetables, and the peach-tree, but admit that man brought the fig. Their water-supply is from a beautiful spring which has its source in the upper end of their home spot. Here it springs from the canon's floor, a beautiful, transparent stream, flowing along with willow-bordered banks, then, as a cataract, leaps high over a sheer cliff and forms in dark pools below. The water of the stream is used for irrigation; they throw out ditches and guide them close along the outer margin of the field. They call this "making water run uphill," and claim it was taught them by Lee, who, after the Mountain Meadow massacre, took refuge with these people for a time. In the spring they gather and cook great quantities of the mescal, cooking it in large pits like other tribes of the region. These pits can be seen all through Grand Canon and its many branches. Many of them undoubtedly have been used from pre-Columbian times. In the winter season the Havasupai went out on the plains above in their annual hunt for deer, at once changing from vegetarians to meat-eating people, fairly gorging themselves on the flesh of the deer. All this is changed. The deer are scarce, and permission to hunt now rarely and grudgingly given by their Father in Washington. The Maricopa long ago seceded from the parent Yuman group in the valley of the Colorado, and slowly worked their way up the Gila valley until they reached the land of the Pima. Here they became neighbors of the Pima and affiliated with them, particularly in war of defence against the wandering tribes. When or why the secession from the original group is buried in the confusion of Indian traditions. However, that the wandering began but a few generations ago is quite certain, as the type still retains traces of the Yuman. In life and manners they have become as Pima, but in language, religion and mythology they show but little change by reason of the tribal separation and contact with an alien culture; this seems to be a good argument that it is here we should anticipate the least change in studying any primitive people. Looking on the map, the smallness, as indicated, of the Pima Reservation would lead one to presume that they were a small tribe. Far from it! They are a large and strong tribe, mentally one of the keenest in our land. The Pima claim to have lived always in the Gila valley, their lands stretching along some sixty miles of its length. They farm by irrigation and likely had canals larger and longer than other tribes. The very large prehistoric canals which formed a part of the development, with the building and occupancy of the Casa Grande and other like large prehistoric ruins, are in the country of the Pima. In their legends they account for these ruins and ditches and claim them as the work of Pima. There is, however, little to encourage this claim. The ruins of the region show structures of massive walls, many rooms and several stories in height, while the Pima home structure, when first observed, was, as it is now, a single-room affair, round in shape, built of poles, covered with earth. Their traditions of the former occupancy of these many-roomed communal structures is probably but an attempt to fit their tradition to the fact of the old ruins. One of the most picturesque features of the Pima home country is the giant cactus, Sahuaro. This strikingly grotesque plant is of much importance in their life. Great quantities of its fruit are gathered; they use it fresh, dried, make it into a thick, heavy jelly; and, lastly, but by no means least, is the making of it into wine. They, like the Maricopa and Papago, are expert basket-makers and potters. Their large ollas are the universal water container, while ollas of small size and more graceful lines are used as head-jars in carrying water from the supply to the home. The principal kitchen-utensils are pottery-ware of their own making. One can, without too far stretching of fact, say that the Pima are well advanced in the ways of civilization, much of which is due to one man--the sort of man that is born, not made. It is Dr. Cook, the Pima missionary. No doubt the advance has seemed to him heart-breakingly slow, and there have been many days when he could but wonder, "What is the worth of it all?" Still, his thirty years of patient, faithful work have brought a real uplifting of the tribe, a showing that few men can make for their life effort. The Papago, close kin to the Pima, can well be divided into two groups, the sedentary and the wandering. The community-living, home-loving group can scarcely be driven from their homes, while those of the gypsy-like bands cannot be kept in any one place. Good authorities, like Dr. Cook, insist they wander from mere necessity of gaining a livelihood. These wandering Papago, numbering several thousand, are scattered about the whole of South-western Arizona from the juncture of the Gila and Salt Rivers to and into Old Mexico. Some villages of a few families will be dwelling far down in the mountains to the border of Old Mexico, and probably have small herds of scrubby cattle, and, as well as the cattle, patches of wheat which are grown from freshet water, flowing down out of the hills. Their wheat harvest is very early in the spring, and when it is closed they trek off to the north to take part in the Pima harvest. The harvest season is always hot, so the wily Pima prefers to hire the wandering Papago to do the work while he dozes in the shade. The Papago's pay is a portion of the wheat, which he loads onto his ponies and takes back to his winter's home in the mountains of the south. To add to this store the Papago takes advantage of the proverbial Indian hospitality and desire to make gifts, and gives a Papago dance for the entertainment of the Pima. The Pima, to show their appreciation, give them much grain. The sedentary Papago's home is in the valley of the Santa Cruz, about the mission of San Xavier, one of the finest ever built in North America, and without doubt the finest still standing in the United States. The wonderful old church is on a slightly raised plain, overlooking the valley of the Santa Cruz, and about it are grouped the homes of the Papago. Their home structure has, in a great part, changed from the old-time round houses, and has become the rectangular one, half Papago, half Mexican. Below their village lie the well-kept farms, small in size, yet ample, as the Indian's wants are few. A few days' journey to the south of these people are the Kwahatika villages, so little known that the name scarcely appears in print. Broadly, they are like their linguistic kindred of the Piman group, from which they probably separated within the last few hundred years. In religion and mythology they are still the same. They are, in fact, like a degenerate outcast from the family; in appearance the same, but not of the good blood. They can truly be termed "desert Indians." Their five villages are scattered about in the desert, and he who did not know the way of the land could well wonder how even the hardiest of human beings could contrive to live here. The secret of their existence is that they were past masters in dry farming before Colorado was named. Each village is located where it receives the natural drain of a vast area. The Kwahatika will prepare his small farm, and if there is not a natural rise of ground about it, will enclose it in an earth embankment. When the severe winter rains come on the freshet water flows down the valley and they catch this and guide it out on the prepared land, using the collected water of tens of thousands of acres to thoroughly soak their five or ten. With a rain or two of this sort they are certain of a fair crop. The low foot-hills of the region abound in the giant cactus, furnishing fruit in endless quantities, the only limit of the supply being their ability to gather it in the few weeks of the harvest. Six months after the harvest season one can see huts still containing wagonloads of the earthen jars filled with the thick jelly, each jar carefully sealed with clay. The mesquite pod, which forms such a large part of the natural food of this region, does not abound in the land of the Kwahatika, but the mesquite forests are not so far away but what they can journey to them in harvest time.
Syrian Woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus) - Wiki From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Photo] Syrian Woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus). Picture taken by Ofer Faigon, 18-December-2005, French Hill, Jerusalem, Israel. The Syrian Woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus) is a member of the woodpecker family, the Picidae. The Syrian Woodpecker is a resident breeding bird from southeastern Europe east to Iran. Its range has expanded further northwest into Europe in recent years. It is an inhabitant of open woodlands, cultivation with trees and scrubs, and parks, depending for food and nesting sites upon old trees. It is often an inconspicuous bird, in spite of the plumage. The large white shoulder patch is a feature that catches the eye. Syrian Woodpecker is 23-25 cm long, and is very similar to the Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major. The upper parts of the male are glossy black, with a crimson spot on the nape and white on the sides of the face and neck. On the shoulder is a large white patch and the flight feathers are barred with black and white. The three outer tail feathers show only a few white spots; these show when the short stiff tail is outspread, acting as a support in climbing. The under parts are buffish white, the abdomen and under tail coverts reddish. The long bill is slate black and the legs greenish grey, The female has no crimson on the nape, and in the young this nape spot is absent, but the crown is crimson.it differs from the smaller Lesser Spotted Woodpecker by the crimson on the abdomen. It is much harder to distinguish Syrian Woodpecker from Great Spotted Woodpecker. Syrian has a longer bill, and lacks the white tail barring of Great Spotted. Another important distinction is that Syrian does not have the black line connecting the moustachial stripe to the nape shown by the more widespread species. When hidden by the foliage, the Syrian Woodpecker’s presence is often advertised by the mechanical drumming, a vibrating rattle, produced by the rapidly repeated blows of its strong bill upon a trunk or branch. This is not merely a mating call or challenge, but a signal of either sex. It is audible from a great distance, depending on the wind and the condition of the wood, and a hollow bough naturally produces a louder note than living wood. The drumming is longer than Great Spotted Woodpecker’s, and decreases in volume. It is faster tand shorter than the drumming of White-backed Woodpecker. The call is a sharp quit, quit, softer than Great Spotted Woodpecker, and something like Redshank. The Syrian Woodpecker’s food mainly consists of those insects which bore into the timber of forest trees, such as the larvae of wood boring moths and beetles. The woodpecker usually alights on the trunk, working upwards. During the ascent it taps the bark, breaking off fragments, but often extracts its prey from crevices with the tip of its sticky tongue. Seeds, nuts and berries are eaten when insect food is scarce. Its actions are jerky, and it hops rather than climbs, leaping forward with one foot just in advance of the other. When a space is crossed the flight is easy and undulating. The neat, round 5cm diameter nesting hole, is bored in soft or decaying wood horizontally for a few inches, then perpendicularly down. At the bottom of the shaft, a small chamber is excavated, where up to 11 creamy white eggs are laid on wood chips. The hole is rarely used again, but not infrequently other holes are bored in the same tree. Almost any tree sufficiently rotten is used. The young, when the parents are feeding them, cluster at the mouth of the hole and keep a continuous chatter, but when alarmed slip back into the hole. \|The text in this page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article shown in above URL. It is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.\|
What's The Difference Even after reaching dry land, Yonah does not verbally acknowledge that he had received a Divine command; neither does he set off on his mission. Hashem speaks to Yonah again… but why was that necessary? Now that Yonah humbled himself in the belly of the fish, should he not simply fulfill the original command? Was it because the first command lapsed? Or was it because it had changed? An examination and comparison of the first and second command reveal significant differences between them. Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city and cry against it for their evil has come unto me. Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city and cry to it the call that I speak to you. In the later version, there is no mention of the wickedness of the people of Nineveh; neither is the prophet told to go against the city but rather to speak unto it something that he already knows. Granted, "evil" may not refer to the sins of the city but to the evil that G-d has planned to bring upon it (see Ibn Ezra), as some have argued on the basis of similar usages in Exodus 32,14 ('and G-d repented from the evil that He spoke against His people') or even in the book of Yonah itself (1,7 -'let us throw lots and we will know on whose account this evil has come upon us' and 3,10 'and G-d repented of evil that He spoke to do to them'). I tend to side with the interpreters, such as Malbim and Metsudos, who understood it as referring to the wickedness of the inhabitants of Nineveh. It seems to me that this interpretation is strongly supported by the implied parallel to the other great ancient city, one that is alluded to several times in the course of our story - the city of Sodom (see Genesis 20, 21-22). Both of them were great metropolises that deserved destruction; when we discuss what the actual sins of Nineveh may have been, we will return to this point. What has changed? Where did their wickedness go? G-d no longer seems as antagonistic to this city as in the beginning; instead He asks the prophet to call it to repentance. This question led some commentators, for example Abarbanel, to conclude that during delay caused by Yonah's escape, G-d changed His mind. For some reason He became more favorably disposed to Nineveh, offering it another chance and no longer actively seeking its destruction. If so, this would be a fine example of Divine irony, for Yona's escape availed only to bring closer that which he sought to prevent. In this view the second version of the command is necessary because the first one is no longer operative. One might suggest a different explanation. Perhaps, the original command included within it two different imperatives. It allowed for the possibility of repentance but its focus was on the stern message of coming annihilation. The same is true of the second prophecy. This is pointed out by Rashi to 3,4. And Yonah began to come into the city one day's walk and he called out and he said: "Forty days more and Nineveh is overturned". Rashi: Overturned means destroyed. He did not say "destroyed" because "overturned" has two meanings, one good and one evil. If they do not repent - destroyed. If they do repent it will be overturned for the men of Nineveh will turn over from evil ways to ways of goodness. As we have previously discussed (see Malbim, Abarbanel to 1,2 and Responsa Radvaz 2, 842), Yonah did not fully perceive or completely understand the full depth and content of the original prophecy. Its full meaning escaped from him for he was committed to Justice over Compassion. His spiritual point of view and assumptions were such that only the message of destruction came through loud and clear. The pain, suffering, and his own near death led to a process of growth that awakened in the soul of the recalcitrant prophet a measure of empathy for hapless inhabitant of Nineveh. Only now was he able to hear fully, though not yet fully accept, the other side of Hashem's message. The rest of the book of Yonah is about the growth of this realization and Yonah's struggle to reconcile it with his previous world-view, in short, his engagement with Divine Mercy as the underlying element of Divine Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Dr. Meir Levin and Torah.org.
The site of a Medieval fortress in Svätý Jur, outside Bratislava, Slovakia, was researched by archaeologists who uncovered artefacts of one of the most important Slavic castles in the region. The site with the remains of the earthworks is situated on the mountain ridge of the Little Carpathians above Svätý Jur, at a height of 342 meters above sea level. Archaeologists believe that the fortress served a military-strategic function in 8th century. Artefacts from the 9th to 10th century indicate that the fort was an important military refuge, but we also know that it was a manufacturing centre and a very populated place. Archaeologists suppose that the castle and two other forts on the other side of the Little Carpathians – sat on the borders between the joined principalities Nitra and Moravia of the Great Moravian Empire. The ruins of the former fortress are in the woody outcrop above the cottage area. They are identified by mighty, still preserved mounds of the elliptical acropolis and two younger horseshoe-like lower fortifications connected to the acropolis from the northwest. On the two sides of the valleys under the fort are two tributaries of Starý Potok river. The length of the fort, including both wards, is about 680 meters. The area of the fort is about 8.5 ha. Experts state that the castle of Svätý Jur supplied castles in Bratislava and Devín with products and military support. It could have also been a possible refugium at the rear. The fort in Svätý Jur was probably one of the most important castle in the region, just after Preslava and Dovina, although each castle had its own function. The defence system was formed gradually.Archaeologists believed that the predecessor of the massive wall of the acropolis had been built by the second half of the 8th century. The bulwark of the acropolis was later reinforced with a wooden slatted construction, which was protected from the front by a stone parapet. The thickness of the biggest walls was at least 4.5 meters. The height of the wall might have been the same as its thickness. The walls of the acropolis and the first ward were lined from the inside and outside by moats, and both parts of the fort were protected in the more accessible northwest part by additional walls and moats. Among the finds made over the years at the hillfort is a deposit which included jewellery (earrings, a knob pendant and a ring), a knife, a spear and a vessel. Another significant discovery was of a quadratic building on stone foundations from the Great Moravian period, which has few comparisons. An Arabic coin from the Abbasid caliphate, or Arab Empire was also found. It dates to 867 and was emitted by Caliph Al-Mu´tazz. It is the first Arabic silver coin found in Great Moravia. Other coins found at the fortress include Roman, one Celtic coin and specimen from the 17th century. Archaeologists also managed to document a place where jewellery may have been produced. Interesting find, attesting to trade links of the site is a glass whorl, similar to one found in the territory of the Frankish Empire, dating from the 6th and 7th century and the times of the Merovingian dynasty. Moreover numerous finds of iron products, coloured metal, and ceramics were also made at the site. (after The Slovak Spectator, Archive of Malokarpatské Múzeum in Pezinok & Malokarpatské Múzeum in Pezinok)
Homonyms are words that have the same spelling but different meanings. “I’m sorry” is what I dub a homonym phrase because there are, based on my observations of the world, four major ways this phrase is used. - The repentant sorry in which the speaker realizes she has done something to hurt someone, intentionally or not, and truly wishes to change her actions in the future. These are rare. These are also the kind of sorry that God wants to hear from us. - The empathetic/sympathetic sorry in which the speaker knows that the listener has experienced a heartache. Whether the speaker can relate to the situation or not, she wants to show empathy. These are not to be belittled, but if not used carefully, they can become trite. - The empty sorry. This sorry could be intended for either of the other categories but lands in this third category due to a lack of sincerity. This is best represented by the child whose mother or father has commanded the child to say “I’m sorry” to another child or adult whom this child has offended or hurt. Adults do this as well to placate one another or make themselves feel better. This is the most common “I’m sorry” and most often is expressed by “sorry” (probably to avoid personally feeling the words). - The insecure “I’m sorry” in which the speaker has a vague feeling that they’ve upset someone and wants to smooth things over. This may come from a selfish desire to be liked or it could be an insecurity within the speaker. While the intention is closer to the repentant sorry, the words are often used so often it becomes an empty sorry in the ear of the listener. The speaker could improve the sorry by following with a specific reason for apologizing. I do not write this to cause you to start questioning the motives of others when they apologize to you because it’s generally a good practice to assume the best intentions of others. Instead, pay attention to the way you use these potentially powerful words. Aim for the first or second category. Be genuine.
By Maria Depenweiller, P.H.Ec. Here is something to ponder the next time you are sorting out your laundry, one of probably the most unappreciated household chores. Ancient Roman Laundry As we know, almost everything new is well forgotten old. This is particularly true in the case of ancient Roman laundry. With their well developed urban systems Romans were the first to offer public laundry services. Fullones, the clothes washers, were in charge of washing and cleaning the garments of the Roman citizens. As the Romans generally wore clothes made out of wool (there was no cotton in ancient Rome) they needed frequent washing in the hot climate of Italy. The way in which this was done has been described by Pliny and other writers, but is most clearly explained by some paintings which have been found on the walls of a fullonica (laundry service) at Pompeii. In ancient Rome laundry was a man’s job. The clothes were first washed, which was done in tubs or vats, where they were trodden upon and stamped by the feet of the fullones. After the clothes had been washed, they were hung out to dry, and were allowed to be placed in the street before the doors of the fullonica. When dry, the wool was brushed and carded to raise the nap, sometimes with the skin of a hedgehog, and sometimes with some plants of the thistle kind. The clothes were then hung on a special basket - viminea cavea, under which sulphur was placed in order to whiten the cloth (just imagine the odour!). A fine white earth, called cimolian by Pliny, was often rubbed into the cloth to increase its whiteness. Ancient Europe Laundry Unlike the ancient Rome, medieval Europeans tended to rely on their own forces rather than public services when it came to laundry. Most often this was done on river banks, even if the rivers were frozen. Special tools were used for this purpose – washing bats and scrubbing boards. They were used to agitate the clothing in running water to force the dirt out and to smooth the fabric during drying. No ironing was done at that time. After thorough wash the garments were laid out flat on the ground to allow the sun do the bleaching and drying. Clearly such an exercise was not a weekly routine and was only done once in a while, whenever a large enough amount of dirty clothes accumulated. Finer parts such as lace collars, trimmings and fine under shirts were laundered separately and more often with less aggressive methods. Soap, mainly soft soap made from ash lye and animal fat, was used by washerwoman who were paid for their work. Soap was rarely used by the poorest people in medieval times but by the 18th century soap was fairly widespread: sometimes kept for finer clothing and for tackling stains, not used for the whole wash. Starch and bluing were also available for better quality linen and clothing. The First Washing Machines Hand (or feet) laundry washing reigned for centuries until the first washing machine was designed by H. Sidgier of Great Britain in 1782. It consisted of a cage with wooden rods and a handle for turning From this design in the late 1800's different companies started producing hand operated machines that used paddles or dollies. Then came the revolving drum from James King in 1851. This was shortly followed by a revolving drum with reversing action, from Hamilton Smith in 1858. The earliest manual washing machines imitated the motion of the human hand on the washboard, by using a lever to move one curved surface over another and rubbing clothes between two ribbed surfaces. This type of washer was first patented in the United States in 1846 and survived as late as 1927 in the Montgomery Ward catalogue. The first electric clothes washers, in which a motor rotated the tub, were introduced into America about 1900. The motor was not protected beneath the machine and water often dripped into it causing short-circuits and jolting shocks. By 1911, it was possible to buy oscillating, cylinder, domestic washing machines with sheet metal tubs mounted on angle-iron frames with perforated metal or wooden slat cylinders inside. Beatty Brothers of Fergus, Ontario was the first company to produce an agitator washing machine. The early Beatty machines had ribbed copper tubs which were nickel or nickel-chromium plated. In the US, the first firm to adopt agitator technology was Maytag. The vertical orientation of these machines became the industry standard replacing the horizontal rotating axis of earlier machines. Starting in the 1920s, white enamelled sheet metal replaced the copper tub and angle-iron legs. By the early 1940s, enamelled steel was used and sold as being more sanitary, easier to clean and longer lasting than the other finishes. The sheet-metal skirt was also designed to extend below the level of the motor mount. In the early 1920s, a number of Canadian machines were offered with built-in gas or electric water heaters. By the 1930s, domestic water heaters were in many homes and the washing machine heater was of little use. The addition of a motor-driven drain pump at this time moved the machine one step closer to complete automaticity. The next development of the washing machine was the fitting of a clock timing device which allowed the machine to be set to operate for a pre-determined length of wash cycle. Now, the operator no longer needed to constantly monitor its action. By the early 1950s, many American manufacturers were supplying machines with a spin-dry feature to replace the wringer which removed buttons, and caused accidents involving hair and hands. In 1957, GE introduced a washing machine equipped with 5 push buttons to control wash temperature, rinse temperature, agitation speed and spin speed. Not bad progress for a household chore, don’t you think? Maria Depenweiller is the owner of The Wooden Spoon, a consulting service, that provides services such as cooking classes, educational seminars and workshops, recipe development and testing as well as food writing. Maria is the author of several books in Russian language on food history and low protein cooking. For further details please www.thewoodenspoon.ca Maria is a Toronto-based Professional Home Economist and an active member of the Ontario Home Economics Association (OHEA), Ontario Home Economists in Business (OHEIB), and a newsletter editor for the Toronto Home Economist Association (THEA). Ontario Home Economics Association © 2013 The Ontario Home Economics Association, a self-regulating body of professional Home Economists, promotes high professional standards among its members so that they may assist families and individuals to achieve and maintain a desirable quality of life.
How it works Recirculation cooker hoods draw in cooking vapours, filtering the air through a charcoal filter and then re-circulating the cleaned air back into the kitchen, leaving it free from cooking odours. Keep your kitchen fresh The carbon filtration process ensures air purification and a pleasant cooking environment. This active carbon filter absorbs grease and moisture while cooking, preventing unpleasant odours in the kitchen.
Digital cameras remote controls are used to release the shutter on a camera rather than the photographer pressing the shutter button. There are two types of digital camera remote controls: cable or wireless systems. To eliminate camera shake, remotes are used along with a tripod or other camera support. Basic remote controls have a single button which lets you trigger the shutter at your command. More sophisticated and expensive remotes not only release the shutter but control zoom settings, time-interval shooting, playback and turn the LCD on and off. Some remotes even include a small, built-in LCD that displays information such as camera mode and the number of frames to be captured. Digital camera remote controls are especially useful when taking long telephoto and close-up shots, time exposed pictures and when using a bulb setting. Not all compact cameras can be used with remote controls, though most digital single lens reflex cameras can be used with remotes. Tip: check the battery compartment cover as soon as you receive the remote, even if the remote works. Some covers can be very difficult to slide open. Make sure yours is okay while you have time to return it if necessary.
Every year over 300,000 cataract operations are performed in the UK, making the surgery the most common surgical procedure in Britain today. Although cataracts can affect people of any age, it is in later life that many of us will develop the condition. This guide will explore the essential facts about cataracts, helping you to get to grips with the optical condition. What are cataracts? Cataracts are a condition that cause vision to become cloudy. The condition affects the lens of the eye, which is located behind your pupil. When an individual develops cataracts, their lens, which is transparent in a healthy eye, becomes more opaque, limiting the amount of light which can reach the retina from the cornea and pupil. This results in increasingly poor, misty or cloudy vision. Who can develop cataracts? Anybody can develop cataracts at any point in their lives. Yet this is typically an age-related condition most common in those over 65. There are, however, many cases of younger people developing cataracts. Childhood cataracts are another, less common form of the condition. What are the symptoms of cataracts? Cataracts are very difficult to detect at the early stages of their development. This is because the condition worsens steadily over time, making it hard to notice initially. As the condition develops, you may find that you are increasingly suffering from cloudy, misty, or unclear patches in your vision. Other symptoms may include vision problems in dim and low light, desaturated or unclear colours, difficulty looking at bright lights, a dazzling or halo effect around bright lights, double vision and a yellow or brown tinge to your vision. What causes cataracts? In many cases, cataracts are simply a symptom of ageing. However, there are some conditions and factors which may increase your risk of developing this vision problem. The link between diabetes and cataracts, for example, is strong and diabetes sufferers are more likely to develop cataracts earlier in life. Trauma to the eye can also trigger the condition, as can eye surgery and certain medications such as steroids. If you are already suffering from an ocular problem such as myopia (short-sightedness), retinitis, uveitis, glaucoma or pigmentosa, your likelihood of developing cataracts may also be heightened. What are the treatments for cataracts? Unfortunately there is no helpful prescription you can take to deal with cataracts – the only option is surgery. However, as the UK’s most common surgical procedure, cataract surgery is now very advanced and successful. During the surgery, the clouded lens is removed from the eye and replaced with an artificial version known as an IOL (Intra Ocular Lens). The whole procedure takes no more than 30-40 minutes and can be performed under local anaesthetic to reduce health risks and minimise downtime. Typically performed on a “day patient” basis, you can receive your surgery and go home on the same day. For those with cataracts in both eyes (which is common) the surgeries are usually completed on two separate occasions, 3-5 weeks apart to give you time to heal. Recovery from cataract surgery Once a friend or family member has helped you get home from the hospital (you will not be allowed to drive), you’ll be able to go about your everyday life as usual. You may, however, want to rest for 1-2 days. Take extra care to protect your recovering eye from bacteria, dust, soap and water for 2-3 weeks. It’s common to find that your vision is somewhat blurry for a few days following surgery, however, this will steadily improve and you should begin to find focussing and looking at bright lights much easier. Your vision should be clearer and colours will appear brighter and more distinct. You may require a change in prescription or need to begin wearing glasses. For even more in depth information, Focus Clinic’s comprehensive guide offers extra insight and detail.
A Clip from The China Study, by T.Colin Campbell “…These studies document the fact that vegetarians consume the same amount or even significantly more calories than their meat-eating counterparts, and yet are still slimmer. The China Study demonstrated that rural Chinese consuming a plant-based diet actually consume significantly more calories per pound of body weight than Americans. Most people would automatically assume that these rural Chinese would therefore be heavier than their meat-eating counterparts. But here’s the kicker: the rural Chinese are still slimmer while consuming a greater volume of food and more calories. Much of this effect is undoubtedly due to greater physical activity…. but this comparison is between average Americans and the least active Chinese, those who do office work. Furthermore, studies done in Israel and the United Kingdom, neither of which represent primarily agrarian cultures, also show that vegetarians may consume the same or significantly more calories and still weigh less. What’s the secret? One factor that I’ve mentioned previously is the process of thermogenesis, which refers to our production of body heat during metabolism. Vegetarians have been observed to have a slightly higher rate of metabolism during rest, meaning they burn up slightly more of their ingested calories as body heat rather than depositing them as body fat. A relatively small increase in metabolic rate translates to a large number of calories burned over the course of 24 hours..” To Be Continued
Putting Down Roots Gardening Insights from Wisconsin's Early Settlers Walk into a garden and you can find more than tomatoes heavy on the vine, trellises filled with green beans, and rows of flowers meant to please the eye and occasionally the palate. History and culture are planted there. This is the premise of Putting Down Roots by Marcia C. Carmichael, the historical gardener at Old World Wisconsin, the largest of Wisconsin’s living history museums. In this fascinating cultural history amply complemented with 188 contemporary and historic photographs and illustrations, Carmichael examines the gardening practices and related traditional foodways that Wisconsin’s Yankee settlers and major European immigrant groups—the Germans, Norwegians, Irish, Danish, Finnish, and Polish—brought with them to their new state in the nineteenth century. The author bases the book on her research and gardening at the 576-acre Old World Wisconsin, which contains traditional immigrant homes moved from their original homesites throughout the state, as well as nineteenth-century heirloom gardens specific to each immigrant group. The color photographs of these gardens are not only educational but inspiring. The helpful introduction presents a brief history of the first European immigration to Wisconsin and what that meant—particularly in a state known for its harsh climate—in terms of gardening. The rest of the book, set up in chapters by nationality, looks at planting trends, particular garden tools, popular plant varieties, and favorite foods and meals, including easy-to-follow recipes. Within the chapters, Carmichael uses as examples the family histories of those who owned the homes in Old World Wisconsin to give readers a true feel for the people who worked the gardens and relied on them for sustenance. Additionally, each chapter contains interesting sidebars; advertisements for tools, seeds, and available land; and documents illustrating garden plans and gardening techniques. The appendix contains tables of the plants commonly grown by each of the groups. For further reading, Carmichael includes extensive notes by chapter and a selected bibliography. In a time when people are increasingly concerned about organic gardening practices and the need for more variety in our plants for the health of the planet, Carmichael shows readers the value in drawing from the past for the good of the present. For avid gardeners and simple admirers of other people’s gardens alike, Putting Down Roots is an absorbing book of Wisconsin’s history and culture. Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the author will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
New condition but for diagonal corner crease on rear cover. An Eighth Day View: The three books considered in this volume constitute the principal biblical witness to Israel's early history. According to A. Graeme Auld, "they tell the story of how under Joshua the land was first taken by Israel and then apportioned to her various tribes. They tell how after Joshua there was a long period of ups and downs; of religious apostasy within the community and repeated harassment from abroad answered by a series of divinely impelled 'Judges' or 'Deliverers.' They offer some samples of life in Israel, 'in the days when the Judges ruled' or 'when there was not yet a king in Israel.'" Carrying forward brilliantly the pattern established by Barclay's New Testament series, the Daily Study Bible has been extended to cover the entire Old Testament as well. Invaluable for individual devotional study, for group discussion, and for classroom use, the Daily Study Bible provides a useful, reliable, and eminently readable way to discover what the Scriptures were saying then and what God is saying today.
Nayaks of Kandy \|Kandy Nayak Dynasty\| \|Founder\|\|Sri Vijaya Raja Singha\| \|Final ruler\|\|Sri Vikrama Rajasinha\| \|Dissolution\|\|1815 under the terms of the Kandyan Convention\| Part of a series on the \|History of Kandy\| \|Kingdom of Kandy (1469–1815)\| \|Colonial Kandy (1815–1948)\| \|Sri Lanka portal\| They were related to the Madurai Nayak dynasty and to the Tanjore Nayak dynasty. There were four kings of this lineage and the last king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, was captured by the British and exiled to Vellore Fort in India Much earlier to the establishment of the Kandy Nayak dynasty, it was not unknown for the Sinhalese to take wives from ruling clans across Southern India. The first to do so was King Vijaya who procured his royal consort from the city of Madurai. Later kings followed suit. Because the Kandy kings received military support from the Nayaks of Madurai and the Tanjore Nayak dynasty to fight off the Portuguese, alliances between Kandy, Madurai and Tanjore were already established. In the 17th and 18th centuries, marital alliances between Kandyan kings and Nayak princesses were a matter of policy. When a Sinhalese Kandyan king, Narendra Sinha, died without an offspring, the brother of his Madurai Nayak queen succeeded the throne in 1739 under the crown name of Sri Vijaya Raja Sinha. Thus in 1739 the Nayaks came to rule the Kandy kingdom. These Nayak kings continued to marry with their Tanjore and Madurai counterparts. The Nayak kings were Hindus. They later converted to Buddhism and were responsible for renaissance of Buddhist culture in the Island. - 1 Origins - 2 The preceding dynasty - 3 Monarchs - 3.1 Sri Vijaya Rajasinha 1739–1747 - 3.2 Kirti Sri Rajasinha 1747–1782 - 3.3 Sri Rajadhi Raja Singha 1782–1798 - 3.4 Sri Vikrama Rajasinha 1798–1815 - 4 Public works - 5 See also - 6 References - 7 Sources - 8 External links The Nayaks of South India started as governors of Vijayanagara Empire ruling parts of Tamil Nadu during the 14th and 15th centuries. After the Vijayanagara Empire collapsed in the mid-16th century some of these governors declared independence and established their own kingdoms in Gingee, Tanjore, Madurai and Chandragiri. They were Tamil speaking community of Telugu ancestry. According to a Telugu work called Sinhaladvipa Katha, the Nayak king Kumara Krishnappa, who reigned at Madurai (1562–1572), is said to have conquered Kandy. Kumara Krishnappa killed the then reigning Kandy king, sent the late king's wife and children to Anuradhapura and placed his own brother-in-law Vijaya Gopala Naidu as his viceroy in Kandy. There was a continuous interaction between the Madurai, Tanjore and Ceylonese kingdoms. As with Kandy, military assistance and interaction also existed with the Jaffna Kingdom. When the Jaffna ruler Sankili II wanted to suppress a revolt by the growing Christian minority in Jaffna led by two Christian Mudaliyars, Dom Pedro and Dom Luis in 1618, he requested the support of the Tanjore king, Raghunatha Nayaka. Raghunatha Nayaka thence sent 5000 troops under the leadership of Varuna Kullatan. However, later attempts by Raghunatha Nayak to recover the Jaffna kingdom from the Portuguese for his proteage, the prince of Rameshwaram, met with failure. Raghunatha Nayak had made a number of attempts to recover the Jaffna Kingdom for the Prince of Rameshwaram with the help of Moors, Vadugas/Badagas and Maravas and the renegade King of Kandy, Dom Joas Wimaladharma. The former princesses of Jaffna had been married to the Kandy King Senarat's stepsons, Kumarasingha and Vijayapala. However, all their attempts to recover the Jaffna Kingdom from the Portuguese met with failure. Earlier, during the reign of Achyutappa Nayaka of Tanjore, a Prince of Jaffna, Cankili II (Sankili Kumara) had murdered the regent Arasakesari and had been dispossessed of his kingdom by the Portuguese. The Jaffna King went to Tanjore to aid assistance of the Tanjore King in regaining his kingdom. With troops under Kheen Naick of Tanjore, Sankili II went back to Jaffna and defeated the Portuguese. Soon later however the Portuguese dethroned him and repossessed Jaffna. Thus it is seen that the Nayaks were linked with Ceylonese history, and with the Kandy and Jaffna kingdoms, prior to the formation of the Kandy Nayak line. The last king of the Kandy Mahanuwara dynasty, Narendra Sinha, died in 1739 without an offspring from his queen. His queen was a Madurai Nayak princess. Narendra Sinha's had nominated a brother of his Madura queen to succeed him; and he was crowned under the assumed title of Sri Vijaya Raja Sinha. Thus, Sri Vijaya Rajasinha succeeded the throne and established the Kandy Nayak line. The preceding dynasty The last king of the Kandy Mahanuwara dynasty was Vira Narendra Sinha who ruled from 1707 to 1739. This king ascended the throne in 1707 when he was seventeen and was considered to be a very pious and scholarly. In 1708 the king married a bride from Madurai Royal family, the daughter of Pitti Nayakkar. Again, in 1710, he married another bride from Madurai. He had no children by either of the queens. He also had a secondary Kandyan wife from noble family of Matale. She bore him a son. However, the children of the secondary wife were not considered heirs to the throne. The king also had a concubine from a high caste, who bore him a son named Unambuwe, and did survive. The bar to his succession was the lack of royal status in the mother. Thus, the king nominated, as his successor, the brother of his first queen who had remained at the court ever since his sister married him. According to the law of succession that prevailed in Ceylon, the throne passed almost always from father to son, born of a mahesi or from brother to brother. However, when Narendra Sinha's brother-in-law succeeded the throne, the Sinhalese Kandyan aristocracy had no problem with this new form of succession. The practice of marrying princesses from Madurai is said to have come into occurrence as the Kandy kings insisted on consorts from the Suryavamsa lineage to grace their coronation and to produce heirs acceptable to the people. Sri Vijaya Rajasinha 1739–1747 The new king, considered to be a man of considerable culture, devoted his entire attention to the furtherance of the national religion Buddhism despite being a Hindu. He is said to have commissioned life sized images of Buddha in recumbent, standing and sitting postures to be cut in the rock caves in various parts of the country. His reign also marked several conflicts with the Dutch who were ruling the coastal provinces, based on trading issues. Sri Vijaya Rajasinha destroyed the churches and initiated a persecution against the Portuguese and Dutch, which was continued under Kirti Sri Rajasinha. It ceased only because the king considered that certain calamities which fell upon the country were due to his action. He married a bride from the Royal family of Madurai. But by 1736 the 200-year-old Nayaka dynasty of Madurai came to an end with Muslims taking control of the whole country. Marriage alliance with Madurai royal family When the king ascended the throne he sought a wife from South India. For this purpose he sent messengers to Madurai in 1739. Since the Madurai Nayaks had now lost the power and prestige they enjoyed in the days of Vijayaranga Chokkanatha, the family members thought it advisable and even desirable to accept the offer from the king of Kandy. Hence the family of Bangaru Thirumala, who was now residing in Vellaikuruchi Fort near Thirupachetiram in Sivaganga Zamin responded. Two brothers Rama Krishnappa Nayaka and Narenappa Nayaka, kinsmen of Bangaru Tirumala Nayaka meet the Kandyan envoys at Ramnad. Narenappa Nayaka had a daughter of marriageable age and agreed to the Kandyan request. The brothers with their families and some kins accompanied the envoys to Ceylon for the daughter's nuptial; settled in Kandy with their kith and kin. Narenappa Nayaka was destined to be not only the father-in-law of one king, but the father of the next two kings of Kandy; for his two sons, the one five or six years old in 1740, and the other still an infant were successively to succeed Sri Vijaya Rajasinha. The king, however, died childless soon after, having nominated as his successor, his eldest brother in-law who had been living in the court ever since his sister had married the king. Thus by this peculiar mode of succession the son of Narenappa Nayaka who claimed kingship with the ruling Madurai Nayak family now ascended the throne of Kandy as Kirti Sri Rajasinha. Kirti Sri Rajasinha 1747–1782 Kirti Sri Rajasinha was a prince from the Nayaks of Madurai royal family and brother-in-law to Sri Vijaya Raja Singha. He succeeded his brother-in-law to the throne in 1751. He devoted the first few years of his reign to the advancement of literature and religion. The king, later with the Dutch assistance got down to learning Bhikkus from Siam (Thailand) for the purpose of advancing Buddhism in Sri Lanka, also building the Raja Maha Vihara (Gangarama) was built at Kandy. Kirti built the existing inner temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, and caused the Mahavansa chronicle to be continued from the time of Parâkkamabâhu IV down to his own reign. Attack on Dutch forts In 1761 King Kirti Sri Rajasinha attacked the Dutch garrisons and forts at Matara, Katuwana, Tangalle, Marakade and Urubokke, completely destroying them, and killing Dutch while some surrendered and ended as prisoners. In order to revenge the humiliation, the new Dutch governor Van Eck had immediate plans to attack Kandy, but the weakness in fortification and garrison forbade the Dutch. Later they did attach in 1764 and in 1765. Hence, in the early part of 1763 the Dutch were only consolidating their positions and gradually expelling Kandyans from the territories taken over from Dutch. Throughout 1763 the King continually sought peace and sent his envoys to discuss terms. The Governor wished the King to cede the three four and seven Korales and Puttlam and hand over the entire coastline of island to the Dutch. The king was not agreeable to any demand that diminished his sovereignty and was deliberately delaying a settlement hoping for help from the English in Madras after his discussion and negotiations with John Pybus 1762. Meeting with the British The King in mid-1762 sought help from George Pigot, Governor of Fort St George Madras for assistance. The British eager to obtain the monopoly of trading in cinnamon, pepper, betel nut (puwak) from the Kandyan Kings also wanted to expel the Dutch from the coasts. A reason to call on the British for assistance by the Kandyan King in 1762 was that after the treaty of Paris, the Dutch poured troops into Sri Lanka. They were bent on capturing Kandy from six directions (1764). Anticipating such a scenario the King sent an envoy to the English Governor of Madras to assist him in expelling the Dutch. This envoy, a junior Kandyan Official in the military made a clandestine trip to Madras Fort, and the English responded by sending their councillor Mr Pybus. John Pybus, a writer of the British East India Company, sailed to Kandy with a backup of five ships and about 200 armed men. A British vessel brought Pybus to Trincomalee on 5 May 1762. The Dutch knew of the arrival of Pybus through their spies and they were kept informed of his movements. Pybus took an exhausting covert trip to meet the King on 24 May 1762. After several talks without any conclusive decisions Pybus left after a month. The King gave him a ring, sword, a gold chain with breast jewels and left the country crossing the river at Puttalam pass while the Dissawa who accompanied Pybus presented the ships commander Samuel Cornish a gold chain and a ring in the name of King "Kirti Sri Rajasinha". John Pybus in his notes described the King as a man of tolerable stature, reddish in complexion and very brisk in his movements. Pybus was amazed as to how the kandyans had managed to fight a war with Dutch and had captured Matara Dutch Fort. He wrote that "They had put every European to the sword except two officers who are now prisoners of the country." The Kandy King, Kirti Sri Rajasinha (Kirti Sri Maha Raja), married two daughters of Vijaya Manan Naicker, the grandson of Vijaya Raghava Nayaka of Tanjore and also brought some dispossessed Nayaks of Tanjore to live in Kandy. He also married the daughter of one Nadukattu Sami Nayakkar in 1749. He further married three more Nayakkar queens from Madurai, but had no children from them. He had six daughters and two sons by his favourite Sinhala lady (Yakada Doli), daughter of the late Dissave (Headman) of Bintenna and granddaughter of the blind and aged Mampitiya Dissave. Both his sons survived the king and his daughters' married Nayakkar relatives of the king. Mampitiya's sons claim for the throne was overlooked and the choice fell on the king's brother who was living in court. The king died on 2 January 1782, of the injuries caused two months before by a fall from his horse after a reign of 35 years which the people saw as a great religious revival, and had a sentimental attachment to the King. Sri Rajadhi Raja Singha 1782–1798 Brother of Kirti Sri Rajasinha, the new king who ascended the throne as Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha. He came from Madurai as a child along with his brother. Hence he was raised as a Kandyan and a Sinhala; emerging as a brilliant pupil of the Malwatte Temple's chief Prelate at that time. He was quite a sophisticated person and learned many languages amongst which were Pali and Sanskrit. A lavish patron of Buddhism, he was a great aficionado of poetry and he himself was a poet. He died childless in 1798 without nominating a successor. The burden fell on Pilimatalava, the first Adigar (Prime Minister) Pilimatalawe, an able, ambitious and intriguing chief, to select a successor to the vacant throne. The controversial Adigar was also seen as one of the main reason for the demise of the dynasty. Sri Vikrama Rajasinha 1798–1815 The next king who ascended the throne was Prince Kannasamy, the former kings' nephew, barely 18 years old. He was crowned under the title of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. He would also be the last king of the Kandy Nayakar dynasty and the last of Sri Lanka. During his time the British colony was fully established on other parts of Sri Lanka. There was a rival claimant to succeed King Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha, the brother of Queen Upendramma, who had a stronger claim. However, Pilimatalawe, the first Adigar (prime Minister) choose the South Indian Prince to the Kandyan Throne, with reportedly deep seated plans to usurp the throne to set a new dynasty of his own. The young king, upon ascending the throne, faced many conspiracies and reigned through one of the most turbulent periods in Sri Lanka's history. During his time, the British who had succeeded the Dutch in the Maritime Provinces had not interfered in the politics of the Kandy. But Pilimatalava, the first Adigar of the king, started covert operations with the British to provoke the King into acts of aggression, which would give the British an excuse to seize the Kingdom. The Adigar manipulated the king into beginning a military conflict with the British, who had gained a strong position in the coastal provinces. War was declared and on 22 March 1803 the British entered Kandy with no resistance, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha having fled. The adigar massacred the British garrison in Kandy in June and restored the king to the throne. Pilimitalava plotted to overthrow the king and seize the crown for himself, but his plot was discovered, and, having been pardoned on two previous occasions, he was executed. The disgraced adigar was replaced by his nephew, Ehelepola, who soon came under suspicion of following his uncle in plotting the overthrow of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. A rebellion instigated by Ehalepola was suppressed, after which he then fled to Colombo and joined the British. After failing to surrender (after 3 weeks of notice), the exasperated king dismissed Ehelepola, confiscated his lands, and ordered the imprisonment and execution of his wife and children. A propagandised account of the execution was widely circulated by sympathisers. Ehelepola fled to British-controlled territory, where he persuaded the British that Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's tyranny deserved a military intervention. The pretext was provided by the seizure of a number of British merchants, who were detained on suspicion of spying and were tortured, killing several of them. An invasion was duly mounted and advanced to Kandy without resistance, reaching the city on 10 February 1815. On 2 March, the kingdom was ceded to the British under a treaty called the Kandyan Convention. Exile and death Sri Wikrama Rajasinha is said to have governed the Kandy Kingdom as per the laws of Manusmṛti. On 2 March, the kingdom was ceded to the British under a treaty called the Kandyan Convention. Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was captured and sent along with his family and attendants as a royal prisoner by the British to Vellore Fort in southern India. A son was born to him while he was in exile but he died without an issue. The king then adopted the son of his daughter as his own son who was titled Alagia Manawala Sinhala Raja. During Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's time as a royal prisoner in Vellore Fort the erstwhile king received a privy purse, which his descendants continued to receive from the Government of Sri Lanka until it was abolished in 1965. Sri Wikrama Rajasinha died of dropsy on 30 January 1832 aged 52 years. For centuries Kandy, originally known as Senkadagala, has been the bastion of Sri Lanka's culture and its spiritual centre. The palace complex at Kandy includes Sri Lanka's most venerated shrine, the Dalada Maligawa or Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. Raja Maha Vihara (Gangarama) was built at Kandy by the second Nayak king Kirti Sri Rajasinha while his successor Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha was a lavish patron of Buddhism. The first Nayak king Sri Vijaya Rajasinha is noted for various erection of Buddhist statues throughout the Kingdom. The Kandy Lake overlooking Kandy was commissioned by Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. - Enemy lines: childhood, warfare, and play in Batticaloa, By Margaret Trawick, p.40-41. - University of Ceylon review, Volumes 14–16, p.129. - The Nayaks of Sri Lanka, 1739–1815: political relations with the British in South India, by Subramanian Gopalakrishnan, p.11-15. - Enemy lines: childhood, warfare, and play in Batticaloa, By Margaret Trawick, p.40. - Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands, By Chandra Richard De Silva, p.111, p.137. - Llc, Books (2010-05-01). Madurai Nayak Dynasty: Puli Thevar, Palaiyakkarar, Nayaks of Kandy, Srivilliputhur, Thirumalai Nayak, Mangammal, Chokkanatha Nayak. General Books LLC. ISBN 9781155798967. - Ancient Jaffna: being a research into the history of Jaffna from very early times to the Portug[u]ese period, by C. Rasanayagam, p.385. - Nayaks of Tanjore, By V. Vriddhagirisan, pp.79–92. - Nayaks of Tanjore, By V. Vriddhagirisan, p.79. - An historical relation of the island Ceylon, Volume 1, by Robert Knox and JHO Paulusz, p.43. - Ancient Jaffna: being a research into the history of Jaffna from very early times to the Portug[u]ese period, p.386-387 - Census of Ceylon, 1946, Volume 1, Part 1, p.20 - Contacts Between Cultures: South Asia, by K. I. Koppedrayer, Amir Harrak, p.376 - University of Ceylon review, Volumes 14–16, p.129 - University of Ceylon review, Volumes 14–16, p.127 - Ceylon: a general description of the island and its inhabitants, By Henry Marshall, p.132 - Twentieth century impressions of Ceylon: its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources, by Arnold Wright, p.65 - Robert Binning, A Journal of Two Years' Travel in Persia, Ceylon, etc. Volume 1. (Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1857) - Horace Hayman Wilson, The history of British India, from 1805 to 1835. (James Madden, 1858) - Great Dynasty of Sri Lanka - King Keerthi Sri Rajasinha and British Envoy John Pybus - Establishment of Madurai Rule in Kandy - Kandy Rulers - Last King of Kandy, Sri Wickrama Raja Singha - Capture and last days of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha - Transition to British Administration - Conflicts with the Dutch - The Last King - Kings & Rulers of Sri Lanka - "Lankan legacy". The Hindu. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
Improving Access to Energy Usage Data The amount of electricity and fuel a building uses is recorded using meters. Utilities collect this information and use it to bill their customers. When tracked over time, the data provide information on trends in energy use. Tracking and analysis of these same energy data is valuable because it can be used to identify actions to address high energy costs and improve building performance. Working with utilities is essential to accessing and making the best use of this information. This toolkit provides best practices and highlights case studies for how utilities, policymakers, building managers, and community stakeholders can improve access to energy usage data while working towards the goal of improving efficiency in their communities. Many of the best practices and policies outlined in this guide may also apply to water use, but the focus remains on energy. Who uses energy data and why is it important? Access to energy usage data is critical to various parties working on energy efficiency across different levels of aggregation, from individual buildings to entire communities: - A household in a single-family home can use their usage data to notice trends in their usage and identify changes in their behavior or equipment investments that will save energy and money. Energy data collected from a single meter are referred to as “account-level data.” - A multi-family or commercial building owner can use energy data to see the usage across an entire building, and separate the energy used in common areas in the building from that used in tenant units. Compiled data from an entire individually metered commercial or multi-family building are called “building-level aggregated data.” - Aggregated data can also be presented across a community or neighborhood with multiple buildings. Many stakeholders are interested in using “community-level aggregated data” to develop programs and projects which can reduce consumer energy bills by increasing energy efficiency. These stakeholder groups include local governments, third-party efficiency programs, and consumer advocates. Accessing energy usage data is only the first step in the process of identifying a building’s or a community’s energy-efficiency possibilities. To unleash the full potential, the usage data must be analyzed along with other data sources (e.g. weather data, information on other similar buildings) to identify patterns. Many efficiency service providers, energy use analysts, or software companies are capable of running this analysis and producing actionable results. They can unpack the usage data to show intensity across time, separate the energy usage across end-uses like appliances, lighting, or heating and cooling, and generate high-level recommendations for improving energy performance in the building or community. Using Account-Level Data for Energy Usage Feedback and Program Evaluation Account-level data are the most precise level of data available from the utility company, as they show electric or natural gas use pinpointed to the household or meter level. Depending on the meter installed, usage data can be available in increments ranging from monthly to real-time. Access to these data and the ability to analyze them in a variety of ways is critical to consumers wishing to make informed decisions about their energy use. Once utility customers gain access to data, the next step they can take to identify appropriate and actionable energy efficiency measures is through an analysis of their own energy usage. Energy usage may be presented to a customer in many ways, but not every unit of measurement is easily comprehensible. Energy usage data should be presented in a way that is easy to understand, such as in comparison to common uses or to the usage of their peers. Information on the relative cost of energy also helps customers to make decisions about when to use more or less energy. Customers should also be able to access their energy data and usage analysis at any time online, and/or receive regular updates, such as through a monthly mailing. In many cases, customers may want to disclose energy usage data to a third party for detailed analysis, recommendations or to participate in efficiency programs. Some utilities automatically disclose energy use data to third parties with customer permission. Some utilities require customers to first download their data, and then upload the information to a third party. Still other utilities have no policy for sharing data with third parties. Open EI shows a map of the variations in these data accessing policies. Individual customers and policymakers may be hesitant to approve sharing of account-level information for fear that private information may also be shared, such as payment history and billing information, address, social security number, and other personal identity information. States or utilities can ensure that private customer information will be stripped from the energy-use data when shared with a third party, bringing customers peace of mind in disclosing energy use data. Best Practices for working with account-level data include: - Leverage an existing data sharing format . Use of a standardized format makes data sharing among utilities, customers, and third parties timely and eliminates some soft business costs such as the need for time-intensive, custom reformatting of the data before analysis is performed. - As a standard data download and disclosure tool, the White House presented the energy industry with the idea of a “Green Button” which allows customers instantaneous access to energy use data in a common, standardized format. Green Button was then developed by the US Department of Energy as a standard data format designed to support sharing and analysis. The data can be shown in any increment of time the consumer may choose and customers may upload their data to any trusted third party. The full list of utilities that have committed to or have fully implemented Green Button is available at greenbuttondata.org. - Make account-level data easily comprehensible and accessible to the bill-payer. When bill-payers can access and understand their energy usage data, they become educated about their usage trends and may become engaged to make energy-efficiency improvements in their homes or units. - Account-level energy usage data should be made available to each customer in an online platform and/or through the mail. Usage and its cost should be presented in a standard and intuitive way. - One example of many utilities that is currently implementing an energy usage dashboard for its customers is Connecticut Light and Power. CL&P mails or emails its customers with Home Energy Reports with the goal of engaging their customers to take ownership of their own energy use. CL&P customers also have access to an online portal, which collects customer’s historic home energy reports, and provides them with additional tips and analyses of their usage. - Ensure the private information of bill payers is protected . States or localities may create mandates for privacy protection, or utilities may take this practice on themselves. - California Public Utility Code Section 8380 ensures that an electric or gas company won’t share customer usage data unless “all information has been removed regarding the individual identity of a customer (e-1).” A further decision, D.11-07-056, ensures that energy usage data is only shared for “the purposes of providing energy efficiency or energy efficiency evaluation services pursuant to an order of the Commission.” - In states that have not written customer privacy laws, “Data Transfer Agreements” (DTAs) between utilities and third parties may be signed. An example of such a Wisconsin DTA is available here. - Provide a means to share approved data with trusted third parties . States and utilities should develop simple mechanisms for customers to authorize automatic disclosure of their energy data to third parties. In places where no such policy is in place, individual customers should be able to access their own data and disclose them to a third party energy efficiency provider. - Many states still require customers to sign their consent to share energy usage data. In states such as those, automatic disclosure may be problematic. Xcel energy in Wisconsin has developed a consent form for customers to sign that authorizes safe transfer for a three-year or longer period. By signing this form, customers can have their monthly energy usage data automatically uploaded to the third-party of their choice. - For customers of utilities participating in Green Button, data can be easily accessed and uploaded to a trusted third party. The information downloaded through the Green Button can be analyzed to reveal actionable energy efficiency improvements above what an individual would consider independently. Case Study: ComEd’s Energy Usage Data tool ComEd, an Illinois-based electricity utility, provides a benchmarking tool with functionality beyond EPA’s Portfolio Manager to its customers. The “ Energy Usage Data” tool provided by ComEd is an automated benchmarking tool, which helps building owners collect energy usage data automatically, at whichever interval the owner may require (half-hourly, daily, monthly). This tool may be used to benchmark one building, or an entire portfolio of buildings which receive service from ComEd. This tool is useful because it allows building owners to compare electricity usage between properties in a portfolio, it outlines energy usage trends, and proves the value in a whole building energy-efficiency upgrade through a comparison of before and after data. Case Study: Single-Family Chicago Home Data Tracking ComEd provides an energy-use tracking tool to its single-family customers called MyHomeEQ. A user may request to have his or her home energy usage data uploaded to the tool where it is automatically compared to the community aggregate. The tool then makes physical and behavioral energy efficiency recommendations to the homeowner tailored to his or her actual energy usage. The goal of the tool is to connect homeowners with energy-efficiency contractors, save users money on bills, and improve the value of the home. MyHomeEQ is able to estimate energy use of a house based on its characteristics through the Home Energy Saver, a system developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Another program available in Chicago is innovating the real estate market by building home energy reports for listed properties, just by entering that home’s utility account number into the Multiple Listing Service. The report is generated in a format similar to vehicle information on the window sticker at an auto dealership. The information on the car window sticker outlines the total cost of ownership and operation. The information on the home energy report offers the same respective information, in terms of electricity and/or natural gas. Prospective buyers may access this energy use information for the uploaded properties while home-searching. For further more information please see the press release form the City of Chicago and ACEEE’s associated blog post. Using Aggregate-Level Data for Multi-Tenant Building-Level Energy Management When energy usage data from many meters are combined across multiple accounts such as an apartment complex, or office building, the energy usage patterns are displayed as a total across that area, and individual contributions to the trends cannot be distinguished. This lump sum of energy use is called “aggregate-level” data. The average household usage, or blind average, can be extrapolated by simply dividing aggregate electricity usage by the number of dwellings in an area. This average offers no insight to a single unit’s contribution, but it can enable energy management at the aggregate scale. Tenants in apartment or office buildings may be apprehensive of being included in the building’s aggregate energy use. But, personal information is completely scrubbed from the aggregate-level data. Thus, these aggregated data can be disclosed to a third party or building manager without individual accounts being identified. Multi-tenant buildings, which may be office buildings, condo blocks, or apartment complexes, can either be master- or individually-metered. In a master-metered building, the electricity for the entire building is measured through one meter. In that case, the data from the meter are presented on the aggregate level (as it encompasses all units and shared spaces). A third party or building manager would not be able to distinguish individual-tenant usage. For the most part, the energy bill in a master-metered complex would be paid by the landlord and the costs would be passed on in rent, as opposed to each tenant receiving gas or electric bills. After energy efficiency retrofits are completed, the landlord would see a savings on the overall energy bill. In an individually metered building, each suite’s electricity usage runs through its own meter and the tenant is billed to an individual account. The energy used in common areas (hallways, elevators, etc.) runs through its own meter as well, which is paid by the landlord. Privacy laws are often in place to keep building owners from accessing tenants’ usage data without their consent. It can become very time-consuming for the building owner to collect each individual account’s usage data, and manually input those data into a benchmarking tool in order to understand the energy usage of the entire building. The continual tracking and recording of a building’s monthly aggregate level data is called “benchmarking.” Analysis of benchmarking data shows how a building uses energy over time. Analysis of benchmark data separates trends in energy use from incidences that may skew usage. Examples of confounding instances are unseasonable weather or unusual periods of vacancy. Building managers can also use benchmark data to become aware of and compare the energy intensity of their property or properties with that of similar buildings, or to track energy savings after efficiency improvements. The federal government provides building owners with an industry standard benchmarking tool called Portfolio Manager, through its ENERGY STAR program. Residential and Commercial building associations alike have endorsed Portfolio Manager as the industry standard. Tracking and analyzing whole-building energy use data holds many benefits. Building owners can use these data to make a variety of retrofits to the units, including weatherization or appliance upgrades, which will lower the tenants’ energy bills while adding value to the entire building. Building owners can also use the data to provide their tenants with educational programs, teaching them how they could alter their behavior to save money on their individual bills. Furthermore, if individual tenants have access to their own energy use, competitions among tenants can be designed to be based on the aggregate blind average. Analysis of public-space electricity usage such as hallways, elevators, washing machines, or other public amenities pinpoints where retrofits or upgrades could cut down owner operating costs. Benchmarking whole buildings also directly benefits utilities. Many states require the utilities that operate within the state to conserve certain percentages of energy each year through a requirement called an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS). In order to achieve these required savings, utilities run ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs. Benchmarking has been proven to lead to engagement in energy management and implementation of energy efficiency actions. Thus, building managers may be apt to participate in additional utility-run energy efficiency programs which in turn helps utilities achieve their mandated targets. Benchmarking can also be a tool with which utilities evaluate their programs and verify their effectiveness. The benchmarking data offer insight into the savings brought by their demand side management programs in order to help utilities improve their programs or to provide utilities with marketing material to engage new customers into energy efficiency programs. Various public and private efforts are working to improve automated access to whole-building energy data. The Data Access and Transparency Alliance (DATA) is an alliance of non-profits and real estate associations working with utilities and various levels of government to promote electronic access to whole-building energy use data. NASUCA, a member of DATA, passed a resolution requesting that utility regulators and utilities themselves improve access to whole-building energy usage data. Another member, NARUC, passed a resolution requesting that regulators develop more comprehensive benchmarking policies. The US Department of Energy’s Better Building Program recently launched the Energy Data Accelerator. The Accelerator aims to bring together local governments and utilities that are willing to partner with building owners to share standard approaches and best practices for access to data and whole-building benchmarking. Best practices for working with aggregate-level energy data: - Encourage building owners to track building energy data . Tracking and analyzing in the energy use of a building is the first step in lowering energy bills, adding value for the building owner and tenants alike. - All building owners can use benchmarking tools like Portfolio Manager to track energy use and identify efficiency opportunities. - Utilities and state and local governments can encourage building owners to voluntarily participate in whole-building benchmarking. Many places have begun doing so through programs and regional competitions. Examples of programs using Portfolio Manager are available here. - Local governments can also require certain commercial and/or residential buildings to benchmark and disclose their energy use publicly or to the market for potential buyers or tenants. This disclosure allows energy usage to be included in the cost/benefit thought process in a purchase. Jurisdictions which require benchmarking and disclosure, and details on their polices, are listed at Buildingrating.org. - Provide a means for building managers to collect whole-building data . Building mangers should be able to collect complete aggregated energy use for their buildings, whether their buildings be master- or individually-metered. - Utilities should partner with state and local governments to develop methods to automatically and systematically share whole-building aggregate data to use in automated benchmarking tools. This greatly decreases errors, saves time, and alleviates privacy concerns. For utility customers that support automated benchmarking, use of ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager only requires a building manager to input building characteristic information, and then a request is sent to the utility company, which automatically uploads aggregate level building energy use from owner and/or tenant meters. - If a utility has not yet implemented an automatic benchmarking tool, building owners can circulate energy usage release forms to their tenants, which will allow a utility to aggregate the approved data and send them to the building manager. This method is less desirable, as it requires considerable time investments and may fall prey to non-response bias in that some tenants may not complete or understand the paperwork. Including the release forms in the upfront lease terms simplifies the process, but only captures new tenants. - Developing and establishing an aggregate standard helps to ensure privacy, easing the concerns of the account-holders and the utility. As an example, Austin Energy uses a grouping of four or more as a rule of thumb. Austin Energy states that individual contribution cannot be distinguished in a grouping of four or more, unless one user contributes 80% or more to the aggregate total. However, it is important to keep in mind that different types of data come with different privacy concerns, and standards may be different across residential and commercial properties. - Provide owners with insight into actionable improvements in a building – Building owners can use analyzed energy use data to uncover appropriate energy efficient improvements for their buildings. - Continual benchmarking eliminates confounding variables from energy use data, which helps pinpoint where retrofits should be considered. - Analysis of energy use data can reveal which building updates or programs (infrastructural or behavioral) are most cost effective for the individual building. Several firms have developed growing businesses providing this service. - Sharing benchmarking data can help utilities document energy and cost savings achieved through programmatic improvements or behavioral interventions, helping to drive additional participation. - Engage utilities, local governments, and building managers to develop partnerships – Working together with a variety of community stakeholders is often essential to develop common goals and city-specific mandates for sharing data and expanding adoption of benchmarking practices. - For example, in the beginning of 2012, the Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) Hub and the Philadelphia PUC met with PECO, the local Pennsylvania electric and gas utility, to share interests and concerns surrounding elements of energy efficiency planning. The series of meetings culminated in PECO committing to Green Button, Portfolio Manager, and developing an automatic data uploading system. The city of Philadelphia also passed a benchmarking and disclosure mandate for large commercial buildings. Case Study: Energize Phoenix Program Energize Phoenix is a partnership among the City of Phoenix, Arizona Public Service (APS), and Arizona State University (ASU). The partnership, initially funded by the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program (BBNP) through the US Department of Energy, offers a group of programs promoting and strongly subsidizing energy-efficiency measures across homes of any income level along a 10-mile corridor in Phoenix. Energize Phoenix is a three-year program, and the first two years have been completed. At the end of the second year: 154 commercial buildings, 7 single-family homes, and 182 multi-family units have been completed. The third year will expand to finish retrofits in 73 new homes, ~1,000 new apartment units, student dorms, and municipal housing. To evaluate the energy and dollars saved across the program, data must be collected on the aggregate and account levels. Aggregate level data identify where new programs are needed, and provides an average at which to compare account level usage. When a program is put in place, before and after account-level data are used to account for the actual level of energy savings. To collect data on the city-block aggregate level, BBNP signed a legal MOU with APS. To collect monthly account-level data from APS, BBNP customers signed authorization waivers, which were accepted by the utility. All in all, the residents engaged in the program saved 10% on their energy bills in comparison to the baseline year. Case Study: SimpleEnergy Simple Energy , based in Boulder, Colorado, offers electric utility customers an online engagement platform outlining each customer’s electricity usage, comparing them to a blind average, and motivating them to action. SimpleEnergy receives aggregated energy usage data from its utility partners, and collects smart-meter data from individual customers who have authorized data sharing. SimpleEnergy motivates its customers to become more energy efficient by using social comparison and competition. By comparing account-level data to a blind community average, individual households can engage in a competition to increase efficiency. An example of SimpleEnergy’s model in action is the Delmarva Energy Challenge. SimpleEnergy partnered with Delmarva Power in Wilmington, DE to help customers lower their levels of energy use and learn how to make their homes more energy efficient. SimpleEnergy used account-level data (as authorized by the customers willing to participate, and provided by Delmarva Power) normalized to the aggregate. The goal of the competition was for customers to lower their energy use, relative to other players. To further foster this neighborhood competition, SimpleEnergy offers valuable prizes to their most efficient customers. The competition ended May 2013, and the results of the Delmarva Energy Challenge should be available by the end of 2013. Using Community- and Regional-Level Data for Planning and Program Implementation Aggregated community-level energy data from utilities can provide information to improve community planning processes and the development and implementation of energy efficiency programs. Analysis of community-level data can be used to establish and track energy savings goals, and in the implementation of strategies to achieve the goals. The trends and patterns identified can also be used to improve the delivery of efficiency programs, and for regional or community comparisons and competitions. Energy data in combination with other data, such as building characteristics and demographics, can be used to determine where efficiency programs may have the greatest impact, where outreach efforts should be targeted, or what kinds of programs are most needed in particular areas. Community-based programs can often achieve greater participation rates and energy savings than traditional efficiency programs, in part because of use of community data. In order to first establish a baseline and then step-wise goals for achieving greater energy efficiency, aggregate data should be collected across the community. After the first collection of information, and as new iterations are produced, analysis can take place to present the results to stakeholders. Information can be presented through community maps or other methods for providing peer comparisons of energy use or savings. Best Practices for working with community-level energy data: - Allow data to be aggregated in multiple ways – On the community level, aggregated data should be provided in any division conducive to individual projects. - As long as enough individual meters exist within an aggregation to ensure privacy, usage can be aggregated at the scale of the city block, neighborhood, zip code, town or region. These aggregations can be mapped for additional analysis and community engagement. Efficiency Vermont serves as a primary example of aggregate data mapping. To read more, please see the sidebar case study. - Aggregated data should be free and publicly available – Many community stakeholders and businesses could provide additional services enabled by access to aggregated energy data. - States or regions should develop virtual warehouses, or online databases of account-level data points, which could be aggregated and displayed as needed in accordance with certain standards to provide adequate privacy protections. - Until a virtual data warehouse for a location becomes available, ad hoc agreements can be made between utilities and project planners for data sharing. An example of a project that used ad-hoc agreements to gather aggregate data is the Energize Phoenix program. To learn more about this program, please see the case study below. - Use data for community -wide energy management and improvements in efficiency – Energy usage data can be combined with other neighborhood characteristic data to further guide community energy efficiency engagement. - Energy usage maps can be layered with maps of different types of data to help community stakeholders pinpoint where action should be taken. Examples of other useful map data includes average income levels, average building age, tree canopy, etc. - Data can be used to analyze the results of policies or programs and to improve them. Policies such as benchmarking and disclosure result in considerable amounts of data that can be tracked over time to identify improvements in energy use and the impact of the policies themselves. - Many models of neighborhood competitions exist to lower energy use, but nearly all of them require access to aggregate usage data. Competitions can be where an individual household compares their account-level usage to the average based on the aggregate, or neighborhood against neighborhood. An example of a neighborhood competition to lower energy usage is the Delmarva Energy Challenge. Case Study: Efficiency Vermont Town Energy Data Project Efficiency Vermont , the state-wide energy efficiency program administrator operated by the non-profit Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC), has a the goal of reaching 2.2% annual energy savings state-wide by providing technical assistance and rebates to Vermonters who wish to increase their energy efficiency and lower their utility bills. Efficiency Vermont has been collecting energy usage data since 2006, and with that information, developed a state map of electricity usage and savings. The map offers basic information about any regions of interest, shows where energy efficiency measures have been installed, and the resulting energy savings. The data sharing policy set forth in VPSB Docket 7307 requires the electric utilities to share town-scaled aggregate data with VEIC on a monthly basis. This data is used to pinpoint which communities have achieved the greatest saving through efficiency, and also how much the need for new electricity generation has been reduced. The mapping tool also helps target communities where new efficiency measures are needed by comparing communities to their regional averages. Case Study: Build Smart, Washington, DC Build Smart DC is an online database profiling the energy use of the municipal building portfolio of Washington, DC. This database is built in accordance with the Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008. The act requires that public and private buildings be ENERGY STAR rated, and that benchmarking results be disclosed annually. All of DC’s commercial and multifamily buildings over 50,000 ft2 will fall under his requirement. DC has put together this toolkit for gathering whole-building data from Pepco, and account-level data from the tenants. The Build Smart DC database includes information about efficiency projects completed and ongoing, as well as building energy data. Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES), Pepco, and the DC Department of General Services (DGS) have partnered to provide data from public buildings to the database in 15-minute or hourly intervals. The data are presented to the public either in energy use per square foot or aggregated over the entire building. Citizens can see directly where their tax-dollars are working, and also how much each building is saving on energy costs, not to mention the productivity, environmental, aesthetic and capital improvement benefit.
To help boost your immune system, particularly useful during the winter months when colds and flu are prevalent, you may consider to eat foods that contain some of the following spices… GingerGinger or Ginger Root is traditionally used in Western cuisines mainly in sweet foods, including ginger ale, gingerbread, ginger snaps, and ginger biscuits. Elsewhere it is used widely as a main ingredient in traditional medicines, consumed in salad dishes (shredded and preserved in oil), ingredient in beverages, soups, tea, sliced with fish, chopped and paired with meat, and countless other garnishes and uses as an ingredient or spice. The health benefits of ginger are thought to include anti fungal, antibacterial, anti clotting, antiviral, analgesic, increases blood flow, and more… CurryCurry is a generic term for a wide variety of dishes originating in Indian and other cuisines. These dishes are typically loaded with turmeric, of which India is a significant producer. Some research shows compounds in turmeric to have anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. ClovesCloves are the aromatic dried flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae. Cloves are native in Indonesia and used as a spice in cuisines all over the world. Cloves are used in Indian medicine, Chinese medicine, and western herbalism and dentistry where the essential oil is used as an anodyne (painkiller) for dental emergencies. Although most spices are excellent sources of antioxidants, cloves rank as the richest source of them all. The abundant health benefits of cloves have been well known for centuries. Cloves have antiseptic and germicidal properties that help fight infections, relieve digestive problems and arthritis pain. CilantroCilantro is an herb commonly found in Mexican dishes and salsas, and is sometimes referred to as Mexican parsley. It is featured in dishes cooked everywhere from Spain to Mexico, the Middle East to the South America. Cilantro has apparently been effectively used to help remove heavy metals and other toxic agents from the body. The chemical compounds in cilantro apparently actually bind to the heavy metals, loosening them from the tissues, blood and organs. Cilantro’s chemical compounds then aid to transport these harmful substances out of the body through elimination. ThymeThyme is a culinary herb native to Southern Europe, and used widely in European cuisine. It has a faintly lemony flavor that goes well with vegetables, poultry, fish, meats, stuffings, and sauces, and it is available in both fresh and dried form at many markets. Thyme contains an essential oil that is rich in thymol, a powerful antiseptic, antibacterial, and a strong antioxidant. The oil of thyme is used in mouthwashes to treat inflammations of the mouth, and throat infections. It is a common component of cough drops. RosemaryRosemary is an aromatic evergreen shrub that is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves. The leaves, both fresh and dried, are typically used in traditional Mediterranean cuisine. It is also often used to flavor foods while barbecuing. Health benefits of rosemary include the ingredient, carnosol, which has been found in studies to be a potent anti-cancer compound. It has long been believed to have memory-enhancing properties. It has been a popular natural migraine remedy for centuries. Rosemary boosts the immune system thanks to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic properties. Safety Alert: Rosemary in culinary or therapeutic doses is generally safe, but can cause allergic skin reactions. Consumption of large quantities of rosemary should be avoided. People with high blood pressure should not take rosemary because it may raise blood pressure. NutmegThe spice called nutmeg comes from the ground seed of a tree found in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. It is harvested from plants of which there are about 100 species native to Australia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. In Western Europe, nutmeg more often appears in savory dishes, including cheese sauces, soups, and potato and meat dishes. Other ‘sweet’ uses include pies, puddings, custards, cookies, souffles, cakes and pastries. In India, nutmeg is commonly used in sweet dishes while in Japan it is often used as an igredient in curries. Nutmeg has strong antibacterial properties. ‘Myristicin’ found in nutmeg has been shown to inhibit an enzyme in the brain that contributes to Alzheimer’s disease and is used to improve memory. It is effective in killing a number of cavity-causing bacteria in the mouth. Safety Alert: Nutmeg should be used in moderation—a pinch or two is considered safe. However, large doses can trigger psychiatric disorder (ill effects may occur in adults after ingesting between 1 to 3 Tbsp). Do your due diligence and research the health benefits and safety concerns before you ingest anything you are unfamiliar with. And there’s this… the obligatory statement, “check with your doctor”. Appreciate topics of survival, emergency preparedness – or planning for disaster? Read our current articles on Modern Survival Blog Similar Articles You Might Enjoy: - Mayan Cacao Powder: A Super Survivor Food - Turmeric – A Super Spice - Top 100 High ORAC Value Antioxidant Foods
I blinked in surprise when my Philosophy professor posed this question in our first ever class. I looked around and saw that most students were equally puzzled. I mean, everyone knows what education is right? What kind of a question is that to start a Master’s program?! But, by the end of those 2 hours, I realised I was mistaken. That question was the perfect start to the whole program: What really is education? Is it a product, measured by the student achievement level? A service? A process? [Tweet “I am still in the process of defining what education is to me. On the other hand, I do know what it isn’t!”] Charlotte Mason (1842 –1923) said, “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life”. This definition rings true to most parents. Not many would dispute that every parent, whether deliberately or unintentionally, creates an environment where a child can learn and thrive. In the 21st century, education has come to mean different things to different people. I’ve compiled a very brief list of the many definitions:. “Education involves essentially processes which intentionally transmit what is valuable in an intelligible and voluntary manner and which create in the learner a desire to achieve it, this been seen to have its place along with other things in life”- R.S. Peters “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel- Socrates. “There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an exam and finish with education. From the moment you were born to the moment you die, it is a process of learning”- Jiddu Krishnamoorthy. On the one hand, I am still in the process of defining what education is to me. On the other, I do know what it isn’t and know enough to resist succumbing to common misconceptions. The first among them is… A pattern of reasoning which dominates the current educational system is: My child gets 90%(or more) in annual exams every year and because marks are a good indicator of learning, s/he is getting a superlative education. Let me attempt to debunk this reasoning. Firstly, although a test measures what one knows at a certain point in time, knowledge of a topic is highly dependent on how a test is constructed. In other words, what is the test actually testing? Secondly, high marks need not necessarily lead to a person being educated. Because performing excellently on a test requires 2 conditions: test taking and study skills. If both the 2 conditions are not fulfilled, performance tanks. Focussing excessively on high marks will possibly lead to academic burn out in your child. I say possibly because I accept that there are children who enjoy a competitive environment. I also acknowledge that there are just as many (if not more) students who have test anxiety and under perform. Most children seek validation of their learning and sometimes their personal worth from teachers, parents, and their test marks. You can probably see how this external validation seeking can be dangerous in the long run. An assessment is meant to be a snapshot of a performance on a particular day. As a parent, you are in an enviable position of influence over your child. (Don’t believe parents who claim to have no influence over their children!) What do you focus on? What do you not focus on? Do you scold when your child gets low marks? Do you praise them when they get good marks? Do you ask “Who got the highest”? Do you expect your child to study every day? Do you answer all your child’s questions? How do you encourage curiosity? Do you question (or not) their teachers during a PTM? Are you, the parent, through everyday micro interactions and with the child’s best intentions at heart, telling your child (ren) that a good or great performance in school (and college) is education? That school and college is his/her fate is determined? Almost all Indian parents from the so-called middle and upper classes are having similar conversations with their children. Is it any surprise that our current society is intensely competitive and performance focussed and where students commit suicide because they have failed or disappointed their parents? What about the situation where the parent is not performance focussed but the school is? When my daughter comes home with 10/10, I say “Looks like the test was easy for you” “I suppose the test content was not something you were familiar with”, when she comes with 5/10. The premise behind those statements is to remind children (as well as ourselves) that an assessment is meant to be a snapshot of a performance on a particular day. The purpose of a test is to inform the teacher as well as student of how well the child is learning what she/he’s supposed to learn; to revise teaching strategies and change study habits. Knowing what you know now, and assuming that most parents want to inculcate a lifelong love for learning in their children, how are you going to approach the all- consuming ‘performance’ and ‘marks’ focus in society today? Maybe it begins by recognizing that education does not end at a poor performance on a test in school. This brings me to my second point… That’s right. Most schools with a certain student demographic base will do a satisfactory job of teaching your children. So, why do parent place an undue importance on where the child goes to school? As long as the child is in a safe environment, teachers are more or less friendly, and the curriculum is engaging, one would think that schooling would not take too much of our mind space, right? Most parents agonise over choosing a school. Firstly because of the enormity of school choice faced by our generation of parents. There are elite private schools charging over 14 lakhs a year, next layer is upper- mid range schools anywhere from Rs 3 to 10 lakhs. The mid-range will set you back by Rs 1-3 lakhs. Then come the chain schools or so-called public schools with fees in Rs 80,000-1 lakh range. The lower income group also has a choice of schools costing anywhere between Rs.1000 to Rs.30,000 annually.(My domestic help’s children go to one such Low fee private school) Second, because parents are misinformed about the actual effect of schooling on a child’s future. These parents are under the assumption that a good school leads to a better ‘quality’ education. (Recognise that both the italicised words are highly subjective and have multiple interpretations.) Do schools make a difference? But, most schools, assuming some uniformity in resources, have negligible impact on student achievement or learning outcomes. I’ll explain why… “Schools make no difference; families make the difference.” – (Adam Gamoran, Daniel A Long, 2006) In the mid-1960s, about the time when Dr. Kothari and his team of eminent academicians, scientists, economists (Kothari commission) were busy drawing up a report( The report was based on democratic principles of social justice, equality and opportunity and is most famous for recommending a ‘common school system’ to ensure a more egalitarian society) on the education system in India on the behest of the then Education Minister- M.C. Chagla; The then U.S. Commissioner of education Harold Howe asked professor James Coleman from John Hopkins University to do the same. The aim of the study was to answer a question: “Which strategy was more likely to equalize educational opportunities for poor minority students-compensatory education or racial integration” Family background is more powerful than which school the child goes to. The report was titled Equality of Opportunity and findings of the almost 800 page report have been summed up insightfully in a single line quoted above. The implications of the controversial Coleman Report( Controversial because, up until the Coleman report, the widely accepted belief to equalise educational opportunity was to pour resources into schools.) crushed the long held belief that school quality is tied to achievement. It demonstrated a strong correlation between the family background and student achievement. Putting aside student achievement, the point I’m trying to make is that the family background is more powerful than which school the child goes to. What did the report mean by family background? It could be interpreted as a complex system of values, beliefs, habits and practices. In short, the family ‘culture’. Culture is a fluid concept, it is constantly in flux, reinforced and moulded every time humans interact. In a family unit, the parents determine, reinforce or shape the family culture. What is the dominant culture in society and schooling at present? -An excessive focus on ‘marks’ and ‘performance’. The aim of becoming a ‘rank holder’ encourages super achievement. Children get categorised into winners and losers. I propose that it is time to reculture these binary notions. Reculturation, as the prefix implies, is a process of re-establishing the culture in a unit. Be it a family, school, community or an organisation. Fullan (2001) calls it as ‘transforming the culture…changing the way we do things..” And this reculturation can only come through changing my own belief system. It begins with me challenging those taken for granted, hegemonic norms in society about ‘achievement’ and ‘success’. When what I believe goes through a paradigm shift, it has a ripple effect. Every single conversation with daughter, husband, family and friends undergoes a change. It is easy to underestimate the effect of changing one’s beliefs because it seems insignificant in the larger scheme of things. Yet, Gandhi had it right. Be the change you wish to see. Preeti Konaje is an inquirer at heart. In her past avatars, Preeti has been a copywriter, baker, event manager, homeschooler and tutor. Now, we can add educator and teacher to that mix. She is currently pursuing the ‘Master of Education’ program from Azim Premji University.
Interesting creatures are often seen within the fantastic habitats of carnivorous plants across Long Island. Some can be somewhat common, while others rare. But all are beautiful in their own ways, and are always wonderful to discover. Visits to the Sphagnum bogs and ponds near the Peconic River were where these photographs were taken, and these are just a few of the interesting subjects that were observed on those summer days. In the first photograph, a cluster of traps of the spoonleaf sundew, Drosera intermedia, with brilliant red coloration is seen. The second photograph, we have a detail of these traps sparkling in the mid-day sun, showing the particular shape of the traps of this species. For the third photograph, a detailed look of a trap from the hybrid sundew, Drosera x belezeana (Drosera rotundifolia x intermedia). Known from other parts of the world, this hybrid was recorded for the first time in New York, by the author in the summer of 2012. This particular trap is a great example of the blending of characteristics between the parent species. For quick observation, the trap appears much like that of Drosera rotundifolia, yet is nowhere as wide, and a little more elongated, inheriting some traits from Drosera intermedia. Onto the fourth photograph, there is a trap from the purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, springing forth from its mossy habitat of the Sphagnum bog. The fifth photograph, is a flower of the Broadleaf Arrowhead, Sagittaria latifolia, which often grows near carnivorous plants in the wetter parts of the habitats. Sometimes known as the Duck Potato, which is strange, because ducks rarely eat the tubers of this plant. And for the final photograph, we see a female Green Frog, Lithobates clamitans, sitting on the edge of a coastal plains pond. The frog was very cooperative, allowing for close-up photographs with a 50mm lens coupled with a set of macro tubes. Was she remaining so perfectly still hoping to go unnoticed by a potential predator? Or was she gracefully posing for the photography session, basking in the adoration and recognition of her glorious beauty? I asked, but she only replied “ribbit”.
As the big debate of nature versus nurture continues, one thing is clear, there is no fighting genetics when it comes to dental health. Studies have shown that even those who have amazing oral hygiene habits, 30 percent of the population has a genetic predisposition for developing gum disease. Recently research was released that one's DNA coding may also influence the success (or lack of) in regards to dental implants. Tooth loss can happen to anyone at anytime, regardless of if it is triggered by dental problems or a blow to a face. While young children can expect a second chance (thanks to the shedding of baby teeth and the eventual growth of permanent teeth) adults who lose a tooth must pay for professional dental care to fill the void left behind. Repairing missing teeth is a necessity in adults as if left alone the void can contribute to greater health issues including increased levels of dental plaque, tooth decay, communication issues and flat out embarrassment. Dental implants are just one option for restorative dental care, but researchers have found that specific gene combination may indicate a negative response to dental implants. An article published in the Journal of Oral Implantology indicated that patients with the gene combination of interleukin (IL)-1 allele 2 at IL-1Aâˆ’889 and IL-1B+3954 are vulnerable to the natural disintegration of periodontal tissue (http://www.dental-tribune.com/articles/content/scope/news/region/usa/id/6353). In order for a dental implant to successfully stay intact for a lifetime, healthy gum tissue is a must. The article authors analyzed two groups of patients and all study participants had one or more dental implants as tooth replacements. The groups (comprised of 25 members each) were created by the following criteria; group A had peri-implantitis ("destructive inflammatory process affecting the soft and hard tissues surrounding dental implants," Mombelli, A. "Microbiology and antimicrobial therapy of peri-implantitis," Periodontology 2000 2002;28:177â€“189) and group B members sporting healthy gums. Seventeen group A members tested positive for the genotype, while five B members also had the marking (meaning that their dental implants may be at risk in the future). Dental braces, dentures and dental bridges are all options for fixing missing teeth, but typically, dentists prefer dental implants to other options because once affixed, they can become a permanent part of a smile. According to Dr. Ron Ingle, the dental director for Washington Dental Service (and an insurance executive), â€œFor a single tooth replacement, over the long run we think itâ€™s more beneficial to get the implant" (New York Times). Dental implants are a type of fake tooth, that becomes permanently affixed courtesy of oral surgery. The process can take up to a year and will only be successful in those with good oral health. The process begins with a tiny by tough titanium rod being implanted into a jawbone. It is this device that will replace the root structure. A temporary tooth will be used until the gum tissue and the surgical area properly heal. Once the healing process is complete and the fake tooth is hand constructed to look natural, a dentist will attach the permanent structure. Ultimately, unhealthy mouths will not be able to handle the stress associated with the apparatus as both a substantial jawbone and healthy gums are essential to the healing process. Dentists will not even bother suggesting dental implants for patients that show indicators of dental implant failure, and over time the gene testing may be one criteria used to determine a tooth replacement strategy. Despite dentists and a majority of patients favoring dental implants over other types of tooth repair, the expense is not adequately covered by dental insurance. Insurance companies tend to categorize all types of tooth replacement as cosmetic dentistry, a type of dentistry never paid for by insurance. Additionally, some insurance providers simply reject the claims for dental implants as they may categorize the main cause for the devices as pre-existing condition, eliminating their legal obligation to make good on the debt. Consumers in need of a dental implant can expect out-of-pocket expenses of about $3,000 to $4,500 per dental implant or a large expense ranging from $20,000 to $45,000 for a full set of teeth (New York Times). Individuals who may be in need of dental implants can implement a number of strategies now to lower dental bills and save money. Patients needing to pay for these types of expenses should spend the extra time to find a dentist who may be willing to provide in-office financing or even a dental discount. Consumers in need of finding a financially friendly dental care provider can call 1-800-DENTIST to find a dentist close to home.
FADO is a new analysis tool developed by Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) astronomers Jean Michel Gomes and Polychronis Papaderos, which uses light emitted by both stars and ionised gas in a galaxy to reconstruct its formation history by means of genetic algorithms. This tool was presented in a recent article, accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. 'Fado' derives from the Latin 'Fatum,' which means fate or destiny, and it's a tribute to Portugal's immaterial cultural heritage type of music of the same name. Each galaxy has a fado—a narrative of its biography since the birth of its first stars. This fate is written in its electromagnetic spectrum, which contains the fossil records of multiple stellar populations that formed over several billion years, as well as the gas that those stars ionise with their radiation. Deciphering the star formation history of a galaxy from its spectrum is one of the most challenging tasks in astronomy. An innovative and distinctive feature of FADO is the use of genetic algorithms, which simulates galaxy evolution like the evolution of a living organism. It works by 'breeding' multiple genetic threads for a galaxy, each defined by a set of parameters (similar to the genetic code in DNA), which evolve through exchange of "chromosomes," mutations and selection effects, until a population that matches the observed stars and gas emission of the galaxy is reached. Jean Michel Gomes (IA & University of Porto) says, "FADO is the first spectral modeling code employing genetic differential evolution optimisation in combination with artificial intelligence algorithms. This results in key improvements in computational efficiency and accuracy to which the star formation history of galaxies can be reconstructed." Previous computer models developed for this purpose suffer from severe uncertainties, partly because they take into account only the light from stars. However, the contribution from ionised gas can add up to 50 percent of all emitted light in a galaxy. Researcher Polychronis Papaderos says, "FADO is the first code of its type that simultaneously models stellar and ionised gas emissions in galaxies. It also integrates physical prescriptions which ensure that the star formation history computed for a galaxy consistently reproduces its observed ionised gas emission". "This presently unique self-consistency concept, in conjunction with the innovative mathematical foundation of FADO will allow us to gain new sharp insights into the galaxy formation history." FADO's unique physical and mathematical concept yields great gain in computational efficiency, making the exploration of the star formation history of millions of galaxies an affordable task. FADO will be an essential analysis tool to use with new generation instruments like MOONS, to be installed in the VLT (ESO). "MOONS is being constructed under the co-coordination of IA, and includes a substantial scientific and technical contribution from the Portuguese team. FADO will enhance tremendously our capability of exploiting the state-of-the-art observations MOONS will do from 2019 onwards," states the coordinator of IA, José Afonso.
Many schools have begun to encourage students to bring their mobile phone or tablet to school so that they can use it during class to access instructional resources, participate in online discussions and interact with curricular materials. It's called "BYOT - Bring Your Own Technology" and a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 73% of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers have students use the technology in class to complete assignments. Dan Domenech of the American Association of School Administrators reports that about 25% of schools now allow phones. George Fornero, a Chicago area superintendent described his districts rationale. "The kids taught us a lesson. They're still going to bring their phones anyway, so let's allow them to use them in a constructive way." More detail about these initiatives is available from a recent USA Today article. I'd enjoy learning from you about whether your school welcomes student use of phones and tablets on campus.
When your computer's Internet connection is bogged down due to heavy traffic on your network, it can cause your "ping" to get excessively high. A ping is the amount of time it takes for a data packet to make a round trip from your computer to a remote computer. It is one measure used to tell how fast your Internet connection is. While you normally want a low ping, you can artificially inflate your ping by inducing an abnormally large traffic pattern on your computer. Click the Windows "Start" button. Type "cmd" into the search field at the bottom of the Start menu, then press Enter to open a Command Prompt window. Type "ping 127.0.0.1 -t" into the Command Prompt. Press Enter and your computer will start pinging itself, creating more traffic that will help to cause a higher ping on your connection. When you are finished, you can close the Command Prompt window to stop your computer from pinging itself.
The National Literacy and Numeracy Framework The National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) is designed to help embed literacy and numeracy into all subjects for learners aged 5 to 14 and is statutory throughout Wales. The LNF sets the skills we expect learners to develop. Within literacy we expect learners to become accomplished in: Within numeracy we expect learners to become accomplished in: National Numeracy and Literacy Tests All children in years 2 to 6 take tests in literacy and numeracy in the summer term that are issued by the Welsh Government. The children sit three tests: reading, numerical reading and numerical reasoning. More information for parents about these tests can be found here: http://learning.wales.gov.uk/docs/learningwales/publications/140721-information-for-parents-carers-2-9-en.pdf How can I help my child prepare for the National Tests? Practice and example test questions can be found here: Welsh Government National Tests: Numerical Reasoning ADDITONAL NUMERICAL REASONING PRACTICE MATERIALS CAN BE FOUND HERE:
Nearly a year has passed since Pakistan was devastated by floods on an unprecedented scale. The disaster left many scars, but none so surprising as the ghostly ‘spider trees’ along the country’s river banks. In July 2010, Pakistan experienced the equivalent of ten years worth of rain in less than a week. The downpour left several thousand people dead and 21 million refugees. The economic fallout was also disastrous, with tens of thousands of cattle drowned and an estimated seven billion euros of material damage. A study carried out by the American Geophysical Union recently concluded that the disaster could have been limited if the Pakistani authorities had known how to analyse the meteorological indications in the days leading up the disaster. These photos were taken in the Sindh Valley, in south-eastern Pakistan. The waters receded more slowly from Sindh than any of the other zones affected by the floods. "They were just small, harmless spiders, but there were a lot of them" Russell Watkins works for the Department for International Development (DfID), the British governmental department responsible for promoting development and poverty reduction. I took these photos in December 2010. We do not know when this phenomenon first appeared but the residents, who had left the region in August during the floods, discovered these trees on their return in November 2010. They had never seen anything like it before. As the waters rose, the spiders instinctively climbed the trees, bit by bit, to protect themselves. The floods took so long to recede that the spiders ended up colonising whole trees. The spider webs which they wove ended up embalming the branches, creating these strange sights. They were just small, harmless spiders, but there were a lot of them ! "Locals say the spiders reduced the risk of malaria infection" Local residents told us that the spider webs trapped a large quantity of mosquitos, which are especially prevalent in the marshy areas. Although they say they have no scientific verification, they believe that the risk of malaria infection has decreased as a result. Some of my colleagues have recently been back to these sites. They noticed that the spider webs are beginning to disappear as the waters recede and the rains start. But most trees were asphyxiated by the webs, and did not survive the spider invasion. There are still a million displaced people in the Sindh region. We are working to build homes and deliver food and medical supplies, but it takes time. We are in for the long-haul." Post written with FRANCE 24 journalist Ségolène Malterre.
In The Power Of Peak State, one concept that I describe is the idea of self-actualization. If you are familiar with psychology or self-help literature, you may have heard this term before, but if you have not, it is an important concept to grasp in order to understand peak state. The term “self-actualization” originated with Humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow is renowned for his hierarchy of needs, an outline of the needs by which people are motivated, depicted in a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid, there are the basic biological needs we all have, such as food, water, shelter, and sleep. Next, there are the needs related to safety — protection from the elements, stability, freedom from fear, and more. Third on the pyramid is our needs related to belonging — the need for friendship, for affection, for intimacy. Next are our esteem needs, meaning our need to achieve, be independent, to have a certain status, and to gain the respect of ourselves and others. Finally, the peak of the pyramid is self-actualization. Self-actualization is the achievement of your full potential. Self-actualization is growing towards total self-fulfillment. When you reach peak state, where you are at the pinnacle of performance, you are self-actualized. If you are wondering what self-actualization looks like, there are several characteristics Maslow describes that are shared by self-actualized people: - They are realistic and tolerant of the unknown. Self-actualized people are capable of accepting reality for what it is, and are not afraid of what they do not know. They may even be attracted to the mysteries of life, instead of experiencing fear about them. - They accept themselves and others for who they are. They have a realistic perception of themselves and others, and therefore, do not need to pretend to be anyone but themselves. - They are spontaneous. Self-actualized people enjoy the present moment more than other people. They have the ability to be spontaneous and truly enjoy life. They respond organically to the world around them, so they are more open with themselves. - They help others and are not self-obsessed. Self-actualized people want to help their fellow man, and are motivated by a responsibility to the external world and not just themselves. - They have a sense of humor. They are able to laugh at themselves and observe the humor in daily life, but do not feel the need to mock other people. - They are very creative. They do not merely survive, they create. They are passionate about contributing to the larger world around them. - They have deep, intimate relationships. Self-actualized people are able to form deep bonds with a few people. While they show kindness to strangers and feel a connection with the world as a whole, they have just a few truly deep bonds in their life. - They appreciate solitude. Self-actualized people value alone time because it gives them time to explore themselves. While they enjoy the company of others, they are not uncomfortable being alone, and actively seek privacy. - They have peak experiences. Self-actualized people experience transformative moments of wonder, joy, and awe. For more information on self-actualization and how to achieve it, read The Power Of Peak State.
Denisovans were a now extinct species of humans that were contemporaries of Neanderthal and that lived in a range from Siberia to Southeast Asia. Their genome has now been completely sequenced and, among other things, reveals that they had brown hair, brown eyes and dark skin. It also reveals that they interbred with Neanderthal and us. Per the article: In addition, more Denisovan genetic variants were found in Asia and South America than in European populations. However, this likely reflects interbreeding between modern humans and the Denisovans' close relatives, the Neanderthals, rather than direct interbreeding with the Denisovans, researchers said....These current Denisovan findings have allowed the researchers to re-evaluate past analysis of the Neanderthal genome. They discovered modern humans in the eastern parts of Eurasia and Native Americans actually carry more Neanderthal genetic material than people in Europe, "even though the Neanderthals mostly lived in Europe, which is really, really interesting," Reich said....Comparing the Denisovan genome with ours confirmed past research suggesting the extinct lineage once interbred with ours and lived in a vast range from Siberia to Southeast Asia. The Denisovans share more genes with people from Papua New Guinea than any other modern population studied. Wait, if Neanderthals and modern human interbred, wouldn't their offspring be infertile like a Liger? I thought that hybrids were always infertile, or am I just mistaken? The offspring are not always infertile. Certainly significantly different species of dogs when interbred can produce fertile offspring. I suppose it depends on how different the species are. Per the article below: ....A small amount of that genetic mingling survives in "non-Africans" today: Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, which is why sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA.... Well, I guess if the two species are closely related enough, such as when they're insame genus and share a very recent common ancestry (as in Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis), than hybrids of the two specie could be fertile. But back to the above article, where does this place the Denisovans on the human family tree? Are they an entirely new species or rather a subspecies of an existing one, such as Neanderthals My understanding is that they are supposed to be a distinct species but closely related to Neanderthal. My understanding is that they were more closely related to Neanderthal than to us. However, some of their genes are supposed to exist in some of us and so it seems that they were closely related enough to us to interbreed with us. It could very well be true that female Neanderthals had difficulty passing their X chromosomes to hybrid offspring involving modern partners because, according to the article of this discussion, Denisovans (which were closely related to Neanderthals) produced a disproportionately low X chromosome gene pool in our population. Per the article: Intriguingly, comparing the X chromosome, which is passed down by females, to the rest of the genome, which is passed down equally in males and females, revealed "there is substantially less Denisovan genetic material in New Guinea on the X chromosome than there is on the rest of the genome,"researcher David Reich at Harvard Medical School in Boston told LiveScience. One possible explanation "is that the Denisovan gene flow into modern humans was mediated primarily by male Denisovans mixing with female modern humans," Reich said. "Another possible explanation is that actually there was natural selection to remove genetic material on the X chromosome that came from Denisovans once that entered the modern human population, perhaps because it caused problems for the people who carried it." I have read that when considering extinct races it is difficult to set a clear demarcation on whether they are a distinctly different species or not. If humans and Neanderthals interbred it suggests that differences between the two involved a genetic distance that while noticeable was not insurmountable. Regarding skin colour, I have read that some researchers think that fair skin, hair and eye colour evolved fairly recently, say in the last 30,000 years or less. This paper argues that variations in hair and eye colour among Europeans were mainly due to sexual selection, as people with say blonde hair and green or blue eyes had a distinctive appearance that made them particularly attractive. This might be true because native Asians of Northern Siberia nonetheless have dark hair and eyes. That is, the cold climate there did not induce lighter hair and eyes. However, people with lighter hair and eyes do have the advantage in a cold climate of getting more Vitamin D from the sun. Therefore, this might also have had something to do with its occurrence in Northern Europe. However, again this did not induce lighter hair and eyes in Northern Siberia. Yeah, that's what people don't understand, when they only learned about Evolution from their fundamentalist preachers who have an agenda to keep them ignorant. The same gene that saves your life in one climate will kill you in another climate. There are very few variances in the human genome that are 'better' in every situation. Dark skin decreases your chances of skin cancer, in a more equatorial climate. Pale skin decreases your chances of dying of rickets, in a more polar climate. This is a very interesting topic. Let me first say I am not aware enough of the science to venture on using the correct terms. I probably understand them, but won't risk using them, as a layman. However, when you consider the visual differences between the present "races" and the fact that this means very little at all, if anything at all, to the viability of our off-spring, and then you consider what we know about the visual differences of Neanderthals and Cro-magnons, it makes one wonder where exactly you can draw a iine between populations that were contemporary. If they could breed together, could they be considered separate species at all?. Are they not just one species wildly variant in superficial ways?. It is interesting, and I wish I had more time to learn about it in depth. I don't know that much about it either. I suppose they should be considered different breeds (for lack of any other term that comes to mind) of the same species just as there are different breeds of dogs that can produce hybrid offspring. I agree that an interesting question is that of how far back in archaic human examples one can go and still find some that could have interbred with us. Thinking out of the box a little (or a lot) I think eventually, and probably illicitly, archaic human examples will be cloned and then, for whatever the reasons, will be desired by modern humans as marital partners. Yup. One thing you learn when you mix with any of the humans, is that they have a roving eye like mice have a cheese fetish. 70 000 year old grandmama by way of what might even be another species "Why, helloooo there Nanna . . . wanna bump uglies?". ( sorry. lol ) Looks are almost not an issue with people, of course. Some of us find it more compelling than otherwise, a large difference in superficial appearence. I guess we will never know just how far back we were "human" enough that someone from then could make humans with someone from now. Exactly so. If they ever shared a cave I am thinking they would first have to have considered each other somehow "people". Stranger things have happened of course. One thing I know as a life long fisherman, is you can meet up with someone else who is fishing, and you don't need language, or anything like a common culture for the other parts of your life, you have an instant kinship of fishing. With hand signals and smiles you can swap ideas of surprising complexity about the sport, with someone who you could not even find out where in the world they are from with words. I remember meeting two blokes from one of the French speaking parts of Africa, we couldn't do more than swap names, verbally. Yet we fished together side by side for a morning, laughing, joking and trying to interact and showing one another our tackle :P and in the end I would have let them come back to my campsite for sure, even if we had been different flavours of caveman. I think probably the C.Manon and Neanderthals had a lot more in common than they did different.
- Within 35 years, Shenzhen has grown from a town of 30,000 to a megacity of 10 million - Recent rural migrants make up a high proportion of the city’s population – their right to cultural provision is a key driver in city policy - Shenzhen’s creative industries have boomed following a policy decision in 2005, with the ‘culture+technology’ model becoming central to its economy City data: Key facts - Geographical area: 1,997sq. km - Total population: 10,778,900 - Percentage of total national population living in the city: 0.8% - Education level – percentage with degree level or higher: 41.10% - GDP (PPP) million: $453,335 - Percentage creative industries employment: 2.76% By any standard, Shenzhen is a very new city. In 1980, when it became China’s first Special Economic Zone, it was a fishing town of 30,000. Since then it has become a world centre of manufacturing, specialising in electronics, software and telecommunications. Today Shenzhen is a megacity, with a population of over 10 million. Of its residents, over 95% are Han Chinese. The city’s dramatic growth has been fuelled entirely by internal migration. Shenzhen is the largest migrant city in China: even now, millions of people lack permanent residency in Guangdong province, often living in factory dormitories. Although Shenzhen’s population is projected to increase to 12 million by 2025, its rate of growth has slowed dramatically. It is now facing a shortage of space for further expansion along with high housing prices. It is part of a much larger mega-region, the Greater Pearl River Delta, which stretches from Hong Kong to Shenzhen to Guangzhou and embraces some 120 million people. Much of Shenzhen’s prosperity was built upon its nearness to Hong Kong’s open economy, but its growth and success means that it now can consider Hong Kong a competitor. A challenge for Shenzhen over the next decade will be to develop its own unique identity to differentiate itself from its powerful neighbours. In 2005, when most Chinese cities were still developing their manufacturing base, Shenzhen developed a strategy to transition its economy. It aimed to develop four pillars: high technology, modern logistics, finance, and the cultural and creative industries. Since then, the cultural and creative industries have been growing by 20% annually: in 2014 they represented 9.8% of Shenzhen’s GDP. Areas of importance include design, software, animation and video games, new media, digital publishing, television and the performing arts. Shenzhen has a large creative workforce drawn from across China, and aims to become a city of innovation, focusing on digital, IT and ‘smart cities.’ At the same time Shenzhen has a massive population of rural migrant workers with limited education and no roots in the city. These are particularly concentrated in suburban districts such as Longgang, Longhua and Bao’an (which is 95% migrants). The city government faces the major challenge of providing cultural facilities and activities to these migrants and ensuring their integration into the life of the city. A Migrant Workers’ Cultural Festival helps to encourage participation. Culture is now a priority for Shenzhen, which emphasises the right of citizens to cultural provision. The Publicity Department of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China has established a wide range of cultural facilities: by the end of 2013, Shenzhen had 633 public libraries, 34 museums, 20 theatres, and 11 public art galleries receiving more than 2 million visitors per year. Yet it still faces challenges: in particular it has many fewer universities and academic institutions than other leading Chinese cities. This lack of academic talent has impacted Shenzhen’s ability to define, create and assess its cultural offer as a city. Shenzhen was named as a global model for the promotion of reading by UNESCO. Creating a reading culture is a key aim for the city, which sees reading as directly influencing its capacity to create and to compete economically. Shenzhen currently has four ‘book malls,’ each with over 10,000 square metres of floor space. The Shenzhen Book Mall in the city centre is arguably the city’s most vibrant public culture venue. More informal participation in culture is also growing. One important cultural hub is OCT LOFT Creative Culture Park. Starting in 2003, a large state-owned enterprise, Overseas Chinese Town (OCT) Group, led the revitalisation of a former industrial district which has been converted into offices for creative businesses, bookshops, cafes, bars, artist studios and design shops. The LOFT hosts festivals and exhibitions and is also the home of OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, a major gallery for Chinese contemporary art. For Shenzhen, culture is a concept that can be deployed across sectors to support innovation. The ‘culture+technology’ model is central to its economy, with examples including Tencent, China’s largest and most used Internet service portal, and Arton, a group that runs art spaces and an on-line art market. Similarly, the OCT group illustrates the ‘culture+tourism’ model. Shenzhen hosts the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF), run by the Chinese Ministries of Culture and of Commerce. In 2014 it attracted over 2,000 exhibitors, 17,000 overseas buyers and 5 million visitors. Another important event is the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. Bringing together these two neighbouring cities, it is internationally unique in its focus on urbanism and urbanisation. It is sponsored by the Shenzhen Municipal Government and organised by Shenzhen Public Art Center. After its amazing growth and development over the past three decades, Shenzhen now faces the challenge of transitioning into a mature city. Culture and creativity are key tools in the process, as Shenzhen works to develop its identity.
If little Manisha Kalindi did not have the good fortune to receive the attention of a local anganwadi worker, hers would have been one more name in the long list of newborn deaths of Pathergora village in Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district. East Singhbhum is predominantly tribal with high levels of poverty. Manisha, weighing just two-and-a-half kilogrammes, was already underweight at birth. Instead of gaining weight as most babies do, her weight dropped to one kilogramme a couple of months later. With her undernourished mother unable to breastfeed her or take her to a hospital, she hovered dangerously close to death. It was at that point that a village anganwadi worker took charge and gave her a new lease of life. Considering that close to 50 per cent of newborn deaths in India occur during the first seven days of birth, Manisha is lucky to be alive. Although the two-year-old continues to be underweight and is susceptible to periodic illnesses like diarrhoea and malaria, her chances of growing up normally are bright thanks to a new approach of infant care adopted by her carer: The integrated management of neonatal and childhood illness (IMNCI) approach. The IMNCI was adopted by the Jharkhand government as the central strategy under the Reproductive and Child Health Programme, a five-year programme of the National Rural Health Mission. It offered a package of preventive, promotive, and curative interventions. The Jharkhand government is being aided by UNICEF in this programme which is currently being implemented in 28 states and 145 districts across the country. The Government of India assesses that India will fall far short of its Millennium Development Goal target of achieving an Infant Mortality Rate of 26.7 deaths per 1000 live births by 2015, and the idea behind programmes like the IMNCI is to achieve a faster pace of change. As part of this effort, frontline health workers like auxiliary nurse midwives and anganwadi workers are trained to focus on the prevention, treatment and management of malnutrition and minor childhood diseases like measles, malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea, in a holistic manner. A key component of IMNCI is a home visit to promote best practices for infant care, with mothers and families being counselled on the importance of breastfeeding. Low-birth weight babies are monitored at the village level, with serious cases being referred to local health centres. Jharkhand has a neonatal mortality rate of 49 per 1000 live births - higher than the national average - and the IMNCI approach is making all the difference between life and death. In East Singhbhum, for instance, where many severely undernourished newborns like Manisha die because mothers are extremely malnourished and do not have sufficient knowledge of the importance of practices like breastfeeding, 1,455 anganwadi workers and 312 auxiliary nurse midwives have been trained so far. These frontline workers have been able to reach over 26,592 newborns within 24 hours of birth in the span of four years (2006-09). The challenges of course were many. Making women aware of the importance of breastfeeding and the correct way of doing it was initially difficult in Pathergora. Santhi Hanoda, an anganwadi worker of Pathergora, recalls, "Breastfeeding was not considered crucial for a newborn. Women would wait until religious ceremonies were conducted before breastfeeding their babies. They didn't realise this could have fatal consequences. Information about the benefits of breastfeeding soon after birth has now brought about some change in feeding practices." Hanoda realised that getting women to listen would be easier when they all congregate with their children during the Village Health and Nutrition Day, an event held every second Wednesday of each month. During this event, a broad range of services are provided, including delivering rations for pregnant and lactating women, immunising babies and administering Vitamin A and iron supplements. While Hanoda has been an anganwadi worker for the last 11 years, it was only in 2008 that she received IMNCI training. She could not help but notice the difference the programme made. "It helped me understand better the correct way of breastfeeding and also recognise the danger signs of imminent illness that mothers often overlook. When I counsel them about health, pregnancy care and nutrition, I ensure that they understand the importance of breastfeeding. They don't feel shy because I come from the same community of Santhals as they do," says Hanoda. Currently, 47,707 children under five years of age in East Singhbhum have been assessed for feeding problems, undernourishment, diarrhoea and serious infections. Geeta Kumari Mahato, an auxiliary nurse and midwife, has been coming to the village since 2002. She believes that attitudes of women have changed ever since they became more aware about newborn care. "They see the difference in their children's health by following the right nutrition and immunisation practices. Which mother doesn't want a healthy child?" she remarks. In the nearby Lovekeshra village, the IMNCI colour coded booklet classifies symptoms and severity of illness in three colours: Red, yellow and green. It has helped an anganwadi worker like Yamini Made take the right decisions. She knows that symptoms related to improper breastfeeding are marked in green - green, in fact, indicates mild health conditions that require simple home care. So when Mukti Saber's three-month-old underweight daughter kept falling ill, Made showed her the right way to breastfeed. When children display symptoms similar to those mentioned under the red code, she knows their illnesses are serious enough to warrant a visit to a health facility. Additionally, another home care solution that Made learnt about was to keep the infant warm through the 'kangaroo care' method, named after the marsupial, which carries its young close to itself. It was initially developed to look after premature infants in areas where incubators were unavailable. Explains Made, "Since people here don't understand what a kangaroo is, I substitute it with a monkey. For instance, I told Mukti to hold her baby close to her chest, like a monkey does and she knew immediately that she needs to clasp her baby to provide it with warmth. She followed the suggestion and now her daughter no longer falls ill," explains Made. Saber beams in agreement. She is simply delighted that her daughter's weight has increased to four kilogrammes. According to Arun Kumar, UNICEF IMNCI supervisor, every month a review meeting is held to see whether protocols are followed. "If kangaroo care has been given to anyone I visit the mother to verify details. We also check to see whether they (anganwadi workers) have been able to diagnose the problem correctly and can tell whether the illness needs home-based remedies or requires treatment in an institution. This way, they always have their thinking caps on," claims Kumar. The encouraging results have ushered in other innovations. The Jharkhand government plans to rope in M.S. Dhoni, the Indian cricket team captain, and former Indian women's hockey captain, Sumrai Tete, to join in its awareness campaign. Celebrity endorsement is expected to give health awareness campaigns a higher profile. Hopefully, this combined effort will help Jharkhand's babies to win the match of life! They desperately need to win: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Report 2010 notes with concern that while child deaths are falling, especially after the year 2000, they are not falling quickly enough. As India prepares for the September review of the world's progress on the MDGs and plans its blueprint for meeting its targets by the year 2015 - the deadline year for MDGs - it will do well to keep in mind the lessons learnt from the story of little Manisha. She is alive today because of timely, focused and planned care. By arrangement with WFS
The distance you plant English laurel hedges (Prunus laurocerasus) depends on the desired effect you want in the landscape -- whether you want a living privacy fence or a windbreak, for example. These shrubs, which grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 6 through 9, reach heights of 12 feet and can spread 8 feet wide when left unpruned. The shrub works well in the landscape to fill in large areas or pruned back to fit in smaller spaces. Spacing for Privacy The English laurel's fast growth rate -- up to 3 feet per year once established -- means that the shrubs create privacy for the landscape within a few seasons. The shrubs should be spaced 4 to 5 feet apart, measuring from center to center, so there is ample room for the growing plants. This spacing is for shrubs that grow freely, without pruning. You can plant the shrubs closer together if you prune them each year. Creating a Windbreak Left to grow freely, the English laurel hedge works well as a windbreak when you plant two rows of shrubs approximately 2 feet apart. The second row must be staggered behind the first row so the combined planting pattern of the two rows looks like a zigzag. The windbreak spacing gives you about 16 feet of hedgerow thickness when you do not prune the shrubs. This means that the noise from neighbors or the road is reduced by approximately 32 decibels. The human voice ranges from 30 to 60 decibels. Vehicles on the road can range up to 80 decibels. If you live beside a busy highway, plant a third row of English laurel shrubs to decrease the sound level another 16 decibels. Plant the third row about 2 feet behind the second row of shrubs so it is in line with the first. The height and width of the English laurel shrub makes it a good choice for hiding unsightly structures in the landscape, such as a utility meter or fuel tank. Two or three shrubs planted in front of the structure should be spaced 4 to 5 feet apart in a row to conceal about 24 feet of space. Keep the hedgerow at least 6 to 8 feet away from the structure so you can work around the shrubs and their growth does not interfere with the structure. - Monrovia: English Laurel - Landscape Architecture Blog: Plant of the Week: Prunus Laurocerasus - University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program: Laurel - Clemson University Cooperative Extension: Laurel - Nursery Trees.com: Laurel Hedges - The University of Tennessee Cooperative Extension: Evergreen Trees for Screens and Hedges in the Landscape - Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service: Hedges - Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
Last weekend, I went to the Cambridge Museum of Technology. This was great fun and is highly recommended. Until 1968, the museum was the sewage pumping station for Cambridge; sewage was pumped from the city through a great big pipe up to the sewage works at Milton. Originally this was done using two enormous steam engines, which ran continuously from 1894 until 1968. These, naturally, are all finished out in red paint and polished brass, and are very pretty. Distributing steam to the two cylinders of the engine at the proper points in the cycle requires an insanely complex contraption involving numerous little pipes, valves, and two additional small steam engines. (Later, to cope with surges of runoff water during wet weather, internal combustion engines powered by gas from the next-door gasworks were installed. These are also pretty crazy.) We should all be grateful that the people who came up with this stuff did not -- as any sensible person would -- throw up their hands in despair and say ``Sod this, let's just wait until somebody invents a microprocessor so that we can use that to control the engine.'' In fact, that seems to have been the antithesis of the attitude: wanting an electrically-lit engine room but lacking a connection to any mains electricity supply the people in charge of the pumping station installed an electric generator and a little steam engine to drive it. They got water from a well using yet another steam engine. ``If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail.'' As originally envisaged, the entire thing was run by steam produced from burning household rubbish, which was delivered by horse cart from around the city. This was fed into the gloriously-named `Destructor' furnaces, which are visible in a partially-deconstructed state in the museum. When they first started, household refuse apparently contained a lot of partially-burned coal from house fires, which made it an economical fuel; as time went on, households burned less coal and acquired more efficient hearths, so that the calorific value of the refuse dropped; simultaneously, labour costs rose, and since it was necessary to separate glass from the other rubbish -- to prevent it from melting and clogging up the furnaces -- this eventually made the `Destructors' uneconomical; from 1923 coke from the adjacent gasworks was burned, and the coke boiler is the one which operates the engines now. The boiler -- which, let's face it, is basically a big tube with a fire underneath it -- does incorporate one really excellent invention, which is a water level gauge working on a simple optical principle. A transparent vertical pipe connects to the boiler at top and bottom in view of the stokers, and behind it is placed a pattern of diagonal black-and-white stripes. When the tube is empty, the stripes show through as normal; when it is full of water, it acts as a lens, and an inverted image of the stripes is seen. So the level of water in the boiler can be seen instantly by looking at the direction of the stripes behind the tube. Isn't that clever? In another bit of the complex there's a collection of various ages of printing equipment, which is fascinating. Among numerous other clever devices was a machine invented by a German gentleman named Dr. Hell for making halftone printing plates from photographs. Rather than using a chemical procedure, this worked by placing the photograph underneath a sheet of metal which was drilled out to form the plate; the machine drilled a hole, measured the brightness of the bit of the picture underneath it, and expanded the hole accordingly. This thing dated from the 1950s and apparently took only about 20 minutes to make a plate from a photo.... Equally scary was a plate of type made up for a mathematical journal; a real labour of love in those dark, far-off days before TeX. For some slightly more recent technology, yesterday I went to a talk by Peter Duffett-Smith of Cambridge Positioning Systems. These people make `technology' -- meaning, of course, `computer software' -- for determining where mobile 'phones are. It grew out of a project called `CURSOR' which used medium-wave radio signals to infer location data; the game here is that you build a radio interferometer, one end of which is at a known location, and try to find out the location of the other end. By comparing the phase information measured at the fixed and mobile receivers, a position can be obtained; we were shown a demo of this in which eight radio stations over about a 200km baseline were used to determine the position of a car to within about five meters. Apparently the British Airports Authority were interested in using this technology to track aeroplanes taxiing around Heathrow and other large airports. Duffett-Smith was, he said, rather relieved that GPS filled that niche instead. The game with positioning mobile 'phones is sort-of-interferometry. Every 50 milliseconds, each base station transmits an `extended training signal' which a 'phone will lock on in order to synchronise its own transmissions. This apparently gives a spatial (radial) accuracy of about 50 meters, though the clocks in the base stations are not synchronised, so there's a timing uncertainty as well. So if you measure the timing differences between a fixed and a mobile receiver for three base stations -- whose positions are, of course, known -- you get to figure out your position. This is one of the technologies being used for the `E911' emergency-call location service being implemented by federal mandate in the United States. This mandate is apparently the source of most of CPS's income, since telecoms companies aren't exactly swimming in money any more. Adapting handsets to talk to the CURSOR system requires, apparently, about 2kB of code running on the 'phone; the remainder of the system is made up of a large collection of acronyms which, I think, basically constitute `a big computer and some software'. Since data have to be sent from the handset being located and all the relevant fixed `location measurement units', the whole location procedure takes a few seconds to do, although the measurements are being made twenty times per second or whatever. The competing technologies for the E911 stuff are all based either on GPS -- a bit of a bummer if you're indoors when you want to report an emergency -- or on measuring the transmissions of the phone at a variety of fixed receivers, which has serious scalability problems. (Naturally, one shouldn't believe this stuff coming straight from the mouth of the company against which they're competing, but these limitations sound plausible.) They have another technology which doesn't require the fixed stations at all. The game with this is that with two mobile receivers which can each see five base stations, you can infer the position of both receivers. With a bunch of receivers and base stations, you can continuously update a model of the positions of all of the handsets. We were shown a demonstration in which a hundred people had wandered around Cambridge with CURSOR-enabled 'phones; 95% of them were located to within 50 meters of their true positions. Now, this is all very clever, but ever so slightly scary. Admittedly, the 'phone company already knows where I am to within one cell, but cells can be quite big; in particular, a lot bigger than 50 meters across. And, of course, in the event of an emergency, it would be nice if the emergency services could locate me to high accuracy. But a requirement of the no-fixed-stations scheme is that a large fraction of 'phones in use are always transmitting the timing data which can be used to determine their location; otherwise, there wouldn't be enough data to locate an emergency caller. So in order for this to work, the positions of all the 'phones in any given region will be recorded at all times. Will the data be logged? Who knows. Let's hope that questions of this sort are made by some higher authority than a system administrator concerned about disk space.... (Another thing to wonder about is what happens in a remote region when there are very few 'phones -- perhaps only one -- in a given cell; presumably in this case you're out of luck when it comes to location data....)
EIRLSBN: Twenty years of achievements in rice breeding Eastern India is an area with a largely agrarian society and high poverty incidence. Rice is the dominant crop, but yields are low. Most of the rice is grown under rainfed conditions in which rainfall is highly unpredictable, and numerous abiotic and biotic stresses occur in combination during all growing seasons. Farmers have limited access to inputs such as fertilizer and good-quality seed. Despite these challenges, a progressive increase in rice production must be maintained, especially within the vast rainfed areas, if India and other Asian countries are to achieve food security. Considerable progress has been made in developing new rice varieties for eastern India, although the literature on this topic is limited. Evidence for this is the development and release of many new improved varieties. At least 20 of these varieties have been released within the Eastern India Rainfed Lowland Shuttle Breeding Network (EIRLSBN). In addition to producing new varieties, this network has conducted considerable research on many high-priority traits and has identified new donor parents, key maturity groups for the region, elite lines that can be transplanted at normal or delayed times, and target variety profiles for eastern India. More importantly, the network has been an exemplary model for synergistic rice breeding partnerships. It demonstrates the benefits of regional and international scientific collaboration for working to overcome food insecurity. Indeed, it has influenced the formation and structure of many other breeding networks.
Using fusion to improve a fig tree is a valuable technique. However, it is necessary to use genetically identical material or the fusion my show differences in bark, leaf, etc. that can detract from the uniformity and believability of the design. In this case seedlings of Ficus virens while very young were fused to create a sprout style tree. On careful examination of the trunks it is clear that they are not identical in bark character. Ficus virens in a clump style created by fusion of seedling trees Note that these three trunks do not look identical because genetically they are not the same One of my favorite techniques to obtain larger material is to fuse young rooted cutting together. I use cuttings all taken from the same mother plant so that the bark, leaves and general character of the fused plant will be completely the same. In this way I can develop larager plants since my growing space is limited to one indoor growing room and I do not have space for really large pots or the ability to grow plants in the ground. Growing in the ground or in large growing containers would be faster and easier ways to get larger material. Some images of fusing materials follows. Most are just early on and not totally fused. It takes anywhere from 1-7 years to achieve good fusions depending upon the age of the material, growth and the genetics of the plant. Ficus virens of a special deep red leaf color This is a young plant grown from a root cutting of a Ficus natalensis. The root cutting sprouted three branches. To develop a new apex and create a better transition to the new apex, two of the sprouts were pulled together with electrical ties. A month or two passed and the ties were removed. The lower part of the fusion appears to be nicely grown together but the upper portion is not fused. So several new electrical ties were placed in areas adjacent to the old ties. Root cutting of Ficus natalensis Side view shows three sprouts have grown from the root cutting To develop a thicker transition to the trunk two of the sprouts were tied together with electrical ties After a month or two the ties appear to have worked The ties were removed and the upper part of the fusion was not together. Some mild scars from the ties will be present for about 6 months. With growth they will disappear. Two new ties were placed adjacent to the old ones and growth will be allowed to speed the fusion more completely Some basic wiring was done to give the young bonsai a bit of shape The definitive reference work on Ficus for bonsai. The book is a softcover, 8 by 10 inch volume, with 144 color pages, containing detailed information for the beginner as well as the advanced hobbyist. In creating a bonsai from rought stock there are some typical steps in the process. Two young rooted cuttings of Ficus craterostoma Cuttings are allowed to grow vigorously without cutting them back or other training Using plastic ties the two trunks were brought tightly together to let them fuse and thicken up the trunk Again vigorous growth to help with fusion of the small trunks Trees shortened and all branches cut to a roughly triangular silhouette for the tree. Lower branches are temporary and kept to thicken the trunk Low branches have been kep to help thicken the lower trunk. Once again the tree will be allowed to grow wildly until it is time to select branches to keep and branches to remove and some preliminary wiring to shape. Multiple trunks fused together from separate seedlings Ficus infectoria is an invalid name, according to the botanists, and should technically be called Ficus virens. This material shows a coarser grower than some of my other virens. It seems to be quite happy in container culture with no special needs. This bonsai is actually 3 or 4 root fused trees that were grown from seed. The seedlings were never separated to their own containers so that over time the root and bases fused to form one tree. Defoliated once or twice yearly to improve branching, produce smaller leaves and to allow visualization of the branches As the trees grew they naturally fused to each other so that now this is one root connected tree.
An abscessed tooth occurs when the decaying tooth is left untreated or there is a gum disease or a chipped tooth and which results in a pus filled and often painful infection that could spread and damage other teeth and even the bones of the face. It usually occurs in tooth socket, or the root area below the tooth. Here are some of the simple and most used remedies for abscessed tooth. Garlic is known for their anti-inflammatory and anti bacterial properties and can be highly beneficial in clearing our infections and inflammations. This remedy can also be used for cleansing our lymphatic system and improving blood circulation. Apply garlic juice onto the affected tooth or chew a garlic clove and keep chewing until the pain subsides. Know How Garlic Benefits Your Health. Oil pulling has been used in ayurvedic practice for treating abscessed tooth. Due to the presence of lipids in the oil, bacteria are flushed out of the walls in the oral cavity during oil pulling. This method relieve pain and swelling. Put a tablespoon of coconut oil in your mouth and swish it nicely and then spit it out. Make sure not to swallow it as it might contain bacteria or fungus pulled out from your teeth. Rinse your mouth atleat 2 or 3 times a day with oil until infection clears out. Clove as well as clove oil both are amazing home remedy for tooth ache and infection. Clove has antiseptic, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties that clear out infections and treats toothache. Omega- 3 fatty acids and mineral like manganese in cloves make it highly effective in reducing pain and inflammation. Rub clove oil onto the teeth and gentle message it on your infected tooth and gum or chew on a clove. Baking soda relieves from abscessed tooth by maintaining a healthy pH in the mouth. It neutralizes saliva to prevent demineralization of tooth. Take a half teaspoon of salt and baking powder. Mix well and apply it over your infected tooth. Leave it for 20-25 minutes until the pain subsides. Repeat as needed. Do not over use it as it could be harsh to the teeth. Apple cider vinegar Rinse your mouth with a table spoon of organic apple cider vinegar without swallowing. It disinfects and reduces swelling in the affected tooth. Repeat this steps 2 to 3 times daily or as needed. Instead of rinsing your mouth, you can drink a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar by mixing it in a glass of water. Rinse you mouth with salt water after meals so as to keep any food particles from further irritating the abscess. Salt water rinse brings temporary relief and reduces swelling of the gums. Mix 1 teaspoon of salt into a cup of lukewarm water and swish it around in your mouth to rinse and then spit it out. Repeat this step few times. Salt water won’t be able to cure your tooth abscess but provide a relief from the pain. Turmeric contains curcumin which is known for its antiseptic, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties and helps in cleaning out infection and improves overall oral health. Add water in a teaspoon of turmeric and make a paste. Rub it on your infected tooth and leave it about half an hour and then rinse it with lukewarm water. Tea contains tannin which helps in treating infection and even pain by absorbing the pus from the infected tooth. This also helps relieve swelling and inflammation. Take a dry tea bag and sprinkle it with salt and place it besides the affected area or the infected tooth. Leave it for about 30 minutes for instant pain relief. Peppermint also has anti-septic and anti-inflammatory properties. Massage peppermint oil to the affected area and repeat as needed. This will help in destroying the bacteria and reducing infection and painful swelling.. It is also considered as an effective home remedy for abscessed tooth as it contains a chemical called eugenol which helps in eliminating bacteria and alleviates pain. Dip a cotton ball in a tablespoon of olive oil and place it over your infected tooth. Repeat daily until pain subsides. Note: Remember, you may experience more pain when you start gargling. It’s perfectly normal. Keep gargling, and then you will feel better after that. Don’t swallow any blood or pus that comes out of the abscess because of gargling.
Written by Sophie Lynford, Acting Assistant Curator of American Art The term “Hudson River School” first appeared in print in 1879 in a review by the American art critic Earl Shinn. “Hudson River School” is an appellation that is still broadly applied to landscape paintings produced in the United States during the 19th century. Shinn, though, did not intend the moniker as a compliment. In his article, he pitted the Hudson River School against the newly minted American Impressionists. Landscape painters such as Martin Johnson Heade, David Johnson, Worthington Whittredge, and Jasper Francis Cropsey adhered to what Shinn believed was an outmoded style. Works by these artists are currently on view in our exhibition A Hudson River School Legacy: The Newman Bequest and Other Gifts. They hang alongside paintings by Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and Albert Bierstadt, long acknowledged as the leading figures of 19th-century American landscape painting. First used as an insult, the designation “Hudson River School” has shed its pejorative connotations and is today widely regarded as the country’s first homegrown art movement. But the label “Hudson River School” carries with it a set of imperfect assumptions: that its artists represented the Hudson River Valley and its surrounds; that its adherents shared a set of practices; and that the painters—who did not use this label to describe themselves—were unified into a group that subscribed to the same artistic principles. Our current exhibition, however, allows us to dismantle some of these assumptions. The exhibition demonstrates the heterogeneity of experiences and aesthetics of these landscape painters and reveals that they cannot be neatly accommodated under one art-historical umbrella. They did not confine themselves to representing the Hudson River Valley: Church’s Cayambe (1858) features an Andean volcano; Louis Remy Mignot was fascinated by Ecuador’s built environment, as his three works in the exhibition attest; and Heade’s Study of an Orchid (1872) was part of a group of over one hundred canvases inspired by the artist’s trip to Brazil. One painter in the exhibition, Robert Scott Duncanson (1821–1872), never painted the Hudson River Valley, Catskills, Adirondacks, or Connecticut River Valley—the regions made famous by artists in the Northeast. His career occupies a distinct position in the history of American painting. Duncanson is often referred to as the only African American painter of the Hudson River School. Indeed, he is regarded as the first African American artist in the United States to achieve an international reputation. Duncanson’s unconventional career and body of work allow us to challenge the notion that artists classified as members of the Hudson River School were a homogeneous group. Born in 1821 in Seneca County, New York, Duncanson was the son of a Scottish-Canadian father and a free black mother, whose family, by some accounts, was three-generations removed from slavery. Duncanson spent the majority of his childhood in Canada with his father, reuniting with his mother in 1841 in Cincinnati. Over the 1840s, Duncanson progressed from housepainter to traveling portraitist to a well-respected fixture in Cincinnati’s burgeoning art scene. Although slavery was abolished in Ohio in 1802, Cincinnati was a border town between the North and the South and the site of several violent encounters between its black and white communities throughout the 19th century. Duncanson’s career, which ended with his death in 1872, spanned three decades, and during that time he encountered the city first as an antebellum center for abolitionist activity and later during the tumultuous eras of Emancipation and Reconstruction. Few artists of color received significant attention in the 19th-century art world, which was, both before and after his time, dominated by white male artists living in northeastern states. Reviews of his work locally and abroad rarely mentioned the color of Duncanson’s skin. Nonetheless, Duncanson’s social position as a black artist was formative in the development of his career. Duncanson painted portraits of several local anti-slavery advocates including James G. Birney, Reverend Robert H. Bishop, Lewis Cass, and Richard S. Rust. Other prominent abolitionists such as Reverend Charles Avery, Senator Charles Sumner, and Henry A. Walker were either gifted paintings by Duncanson or commissioned works by the artist. There are other reasons Duncanson resists characterization as a Hudson River School painter. Instead of the depictions of famous or characteristic American scenery painted by his contemporaries, many of Duncanson’s landscapes incorporate mythical themes, taking inspiration from works by the British Romantic poets and novelists, including William Wordsworth, Walter Scott, and Thomas Moore. The masterpiece of Duncanson’s career, Land of the Lotos Eaters, was based on Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters,” which was itself inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey. Duncanson was less attracted to the texts by American authors that his contemporaries found most resonant, including those by transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and writers William Cullen Bryant and James Fenimore Cooper. Duncanson’s attraction to Romantic poetry developed on trips to Europe taken over a period of 20 years, funded by wealthy Cincinnati patrons and a local anti-slavery league. These grand tours of the continent, a rite of passage for many contemporary American painters, allowed artists like Duncanson to study works by old masters and witness the picturesque ruins that dotted the Italian countryside. Two paintings by Duncanson on view in A Hudson River School Legacy are works he completed in the U.S. following his first trip abroad in 1853. Italian Landscape with Ruin and Italian Landscape (1861) are small oval canvases depicting imagined Italian scenery, featuring ancient or medieval ruins. Although these two paintings are of modest dimensions, they testify assertively to Duncanson’s visual literacy not only with the work of his American predecessors but also with the oeuvre of the 17th-century painter Claude Lorrain and the picturesque tradition he established, as well as the painterly conventions of British Romanticism. Duncanson, as did his contemporaries, painted American landscapes in the middle decades of the 19th century and crossed the Atlantic in search of a more expansive pictorial repertoire. But these Italian compositions powerfully evince both the uniqueness of experience and the diverse sources that belonged exclusively to Duncanson. Banner image: Detail of Land of the Lotos Eaters. Robert S. Duncanson. 1861. Oil on canvas. Swedish Royal Collections, Stockholm. - John K. Howat, American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1987). - Joseph D. Ketner, “Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872): The Late Literary Landscape Paintings,” American Art Journal 15.1 (1983): 35–47. - David M. Lubin, Picturing a Nation: Art and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century America (Yale University Press, 1994). - Robert S. Duncanson: A Centennial Exhibition, Cincinnati Art Museum March 16 – April 30 1972 (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1972). - Margaret Rose Vendryes, “Race Identity/Identifying Race: Robert S. Duncanson and Nineteenth-Century American Painting,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 27.1 (2001): 82–104.
Ask the Geriatrician: Persistent Pain Ask the Expert David R. Mehr, MD, MS William C. Allen Professor in Family and Community Medicine University of Missouri School of Medicine Keela A. Herr, PhD, RN, AGSF, FAAN University of Iowa College of Nursing AGS Expert Panel, The Management Of Chronic Pain in Older Persons Persistent pain is pain or discomfort that lasts for a long period of time. The pain can come and go for months or years. Pain can keep people from being happy with life. It can cause depression, disability, and problems with walking and with sleep. Yet, there is good news! There are many treatments and methods that can help. Talk to your healthcare provider about your pain. Telling your healthcare provider about your pain is the only way he or she can know how you feel. Q. Is persistent pain just part of growing old? A. No. Pain is very common in older people but it is not normal or healthy. It should not be ignored or said to be a “part of getting older.” Q. How can I explain my pain to my doctor or health care provider? A. You can use a “pain diary” to help you describe your pain to your healthcare professional. A pain diary is a journal or record of your pain. A pain diary can help your doctor or health care provider find a cause for your pain and a plan of care. Here is what you can write down: - Where it hurts - How often it hurts - How much it hurts - What the pain feels like? (Does it burn? Is it sharp or dull? Does it ache? Does it feel like pins and needles, or does it "shoot" through a part of your body?) - What makes the pain go away? - What makes the pain get worse? - What medicines or treatments have been tried? Do they work? What side effects (if any) they caused. Q. Can I take over-the-counter medicine for pain? A. Ask your healthcare provider. Over-the-counter (no prescription needed) pain medications are safe and helpful for mild-to-moderate pain for a few days. For severe pain or pain that lasts longer than a few days, you should talk to your healthcare provider. If you are already taking prescription medicines you need to be sure that it will be safe to take over-the-counter medications along with your prescription drugs. Q. What type of over-the-counter medicine can I take? A. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, for example) may be the best choice for mild-to-moderate pain caused by muscle or bone conditions, such as osteoarthritis or broken bone. If you take acetaminophen for more than a few days, you should talk to your health care provider. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are another type of over-the-counter pain medicine. Aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen, are some examples of NSAIDs. NSAIDs should be used very carefully because they may have more side effects in older adults. These medicines may also interact with other health problems and medicines. If you have heart problems or stomach bleeding, you should not use NSAIDs. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider about all of your medications, including any over-the-counter medicines. Q. I am already taking a prescription pain medicine. Can I take another over-the-counter medicine for pain? A. Many medicines should not be taken together. They may have overlapping ingredients, leading to getting too much of a drug. Medicines can also interact with each other or with foods, and cause unpleasant or dangerous side effects. Your healthcare provider can tell you how to take your medicines in a safe way. Be sure to follow the instructions on the bottle label, for both over-the-counter and prescription medicines. If you have any questions, you can also ask the pharmacist at your local drugstore or call your healthcare provider. Q. My health care provider suggests that I take antidepressants for my pain. Does this mean the pain is just in my head? A. No! Research has shown that some antidepressants (medicines used to treat depression) can help ease some types of pain. These medicines can help pain caused by nerve damage. Q. I don’t like the side effects from my pain medicine. What can I do? A. Always talk to your healthcare provider about any side effects. He or she may be able to help you find a different medicine, or make sure you are taking your medicine the right way. Your healthcare professional can help you to find the safest and most effective medicine for your pain. Q. What can I do besides taking medicines? A. There are many things you can do that do not involve taking medicine. The more you know about your pain, the more you can do to control it. There are education programs that can teach you about pain and how to cope with it. Ask your health care provider about programs in your area. Exercise is also extremely helpful. Ask about physical therapy, exercise, or fitness programs. These programs can help make you stronger, improve the way you move your joints and limbs, steady your walking and increase your endurance. Other non-drug treatments may help some people. These treatments include using heat, cold, massage, acupuncture, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). Other mental and physical treatments such as relaxation, music and distraction may help as well. It is important to ask your healthcare provider about these non-drug options for your specific problem. Q. What if my pain is not going away? A. Don't give up! Ask your healthcare provider for a referral to a pain management center. Your local hospital may offer patient education programs and support groups for patients and family members. Some persistent pain problems are very complex. You may need a team of specialists to diagnose and manage them. Although you may not get complete relief of all pain, a lot can be done to control or manage most persistent or chronic pain problems. Updated: October 2013 Posted: October 2013 Healthinaging.org gratefully acknowledges the support of Purdue Pharma, L.P. and McNeil Consumer Healthcare. The Health in Aging Foundation and Healthinaging.org maintain complete oversight of this content. No input was provided by any supporting companies.
By: James Garcia Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in history. It dates all the way back to 708 B.C. So how is it possible that wrestling can be taken out of the Olympics so easily? The main reason why wrestling is being taken out is that it makes the least amount of money. However, money should not get in the way of people fulfilling their dreams to get a gold medal. Also, it is completely unfair to wrestlers throughout the United States who will not get a chance to cheer on their sport, and their country in the next Olympics. Taking wrestling out of the Olympics is devastating to many wrestlers because it takes away their dreams of getting to participate in the largest competition in the world. Many of them have been working towards this goal their whole lives. Ryan McCormick, wrestling coach at Camden Catholic High School said, “Wrestling is such a true sport, the self-discipline and dedication it takes, the price your body and mind pay. Yet at the end, not one wrestler does it for money or fame.” Jordan Burroughs, a gold medalist in the 2012 London Games, said on his Facebook page that the wrestling community should fight back. He stated. “As an Olympic Gold Medalist I feel an obligation to fight for the sport that I love most.” It’s not fair that wrestling gets very little airtime on sports channels and does not receive enough publicity. It’s unfair to the athletes whose hard work goes unnoticed. Lastly, it is not fair that wrestling, the most grueling sport in the country, is being taken out of the Olympics.
In every facet of life there is a process of innovation going on. In business in particular the process of innovation is your potential opportunity to gain some marginal advantage over other sellers. That advantage may for a short time produce super-profits. Innovations tend to be dependent on new knowledge. Producing art that's unique and original, is a sure way to distinguish yourself. But being unique is a necessary but not sufficient distinction to make the work saleable. Innovation always carries some element of risk, failure is highly likely. But there is a strong upside even to failure, you learn unique lessons that give you a strategic advantage for making new innovative attempts. Innovation is always driven by a champion, someone who sees what needs to be achieved clearly enough to become an advocate for that. But most modern innovations are the product of many people working as a team and using several different forms of specialist knowledge. Most modern innovations are new services rather than new industrial products. The "problematique" suggests why modern innovations are likely to be complex. An engine for instance must be powerful, durable, easy to maintain, and fuel efficient; but also capable of running on "green fuels" and low cost, and recyclable.
Here's Cecchetti laying out the basic theme that finance is useful in building growth--until it isn't. "We teach that, because it allocates scarce resources to their most efficient uses, one of the best ways to promote long-run growth is to promote financial development. And, a sufficiently well-developed financial system provides the opportunity for everyone – households, corporations and governments – to reduce the volatility of their consumption and investment.To tackle this question, Cecchetti provides some key figures from a January 2012 working paper co-authored with Enisse Kharroubi. Their approach starts by collect data on the size of finance in an economy, which they measure by the share of employment and the share of value-added happening in the financial sector. They collect this data for 16 OECD countries from 1980 to 2009. They also collect data on labor productivity growth. They then estimate regressions with productivity growth as the dependent variable, one of the measures of the size of the financial sector as an explanatory variable, and controlling for level of investment, employment growth, openness to trade, initial labour productivity, and country-specific dummy variables. "It sure sounds like finance is great. But experience shows that a growing financial system is great for a while – until it isn’t. Look at how, by encouraging borrowing, the financial system encourages an excessive amount of residential construction in some locations. The results, empty three-car garages in the desert, do not suggest a more efficient use of capital! "Financial development can create fragility. When credit extension goes into reverse, or even just stops, it can induce economic instability and crises. Bankruptcies, credit crunches, bank failures and depressed spending are now the all-too familiar landmarks of the bust that follows a credit-induced boom. "What is more, financial development is not costless. The expansion of finance consumes scarce resources that could be used elsewhere. And finance’s large rewards attract the best and the brightest. When I was a student, my classmates dreamed of curing cancer, unifying field theory or flying to Mars. Those in today’s cohort want to become hedge fund managers. Given finance’s booms and busts, is this the most efficient allocation for such scarce resources? I doubt it. So, when does financial deepening turn from good to bad and become a drag on the economy?" They find an upside-down U-shape: that is, a larger financial sector helps an economy up to a point, but not after that point. Here are two figures, the first one showing the relationship from finance's share of employment to productivity, and the second showing the relationship from finance's share of value added to productivity, holding the other factors constant. As Cecchett summarizes: "[T]he conclusion emerges that there is a point where both financial development and the financial system’s size turn from good to bad. That point lies at 3.2% for the fraction of employment and at 6.5% for the fraction of value added in finance. Based on 2008 data, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland were all beyond the threshold for employment (4.1%, 5.7%, 3.5% and 4.5%). And the United States and Ireland were also beyond the threshold for value added (7.7% and 10.4%)." In another calculation, Cecchetti finds that when the financial sector is growing faster, growth is slower: "Faster-growing financial employment hurts average productivity growth, as does “too much” value added. In particular, a 1 percentage point increase in the growth rate in finance’s share of employment cuts average productivity growth by nearly one-third of one percentage points per year." Cecchetti summarizes the overall findings this way: "Combined, these facts lead to the inescapable conclusion that, beyond a certain point, financial development is bad for an economy. Instead of supplying the oxygen that the real economy needs for healthy growth, it sucks the air out of the system and starts to slowly suffocate it. Households and firms end up with too much debt. And valuable resources are wasted. We need to do something about this." I have less confidence in this evidence than Cecchetti seems to have (although in fairness, he is giving opening remarks at a conference and hoping to spur discussion). It is notoriously difficult to draw strong inferences about cause-and-effect from a panel of cross-country data. The economies of these 16 countries, and the development of their financial sectors, are surely influenced by a number of other events and variables. Perhaps it's not the sheer size of the financial sector, but some other characteristic of the financial sector. But with a certain degree of explanatory froth, the bottom line that growth of financial markets will not always benefit an economy certainly seems plausible.
Reading Comprehension Cubes Learning Resources • In Stock • 21322 Grades 1 & up. Help your students concentrate on what they read by adding a bit of surprise to the lesson. Students answer the questions before reading (red cubes), during reading (blue cubes) and after reading (green cubes). Can make for a lively discussion. Each cube measures 1 5/8" x 1 5/8". Set of 6 cubes total.
Engaging Students through 21st Century Learning Tools Continuing its leadership in STEM education, MdBio Foundation is developing an immersive learning environment called MdBioSphereTM to improve STEM learning outcomes, engage students in underserved communities, and challenge exceptional students. MdBioSphere will be a collection of serious video games that cover a wide variety of biology topics while incorporating mathematics, chemistry, and other cross-disciplinary content. The games will be designed for the formal education setting and are consistent with Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The first of many games for the platform is Survival!, a classroom complement to learning high school genetics. Survival! integrates a series of challenging educational mini-games that tests a student’s proficiency and provides critical milestones to teachers. The topics in Survival! have been identified by high school teachers as subject areas that are particularly challenging to students, thus enhancing their curriculum for greater learning impact. The primary goal of this effort is to develop a validated and engaging game-based learning tool, ready for adoption in the education market, specifically to support high school science students learning STEM-related curriculum outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards. Additionally, the MdBio Foundation is committed to developing a first-rate product that is cost-effective and scalable for school systems across the United States. Further, MdBioSphere will provide individualized learning experiences for students that bolster interest in STEM related coursework. Why Serious Gaming? Serious games are a highly interactive medium that supplement traditional educational modalities. - Adapts to the pace of the user - Presents information in multiple visual and auditory modes, capitalizing on different learning styles - Provides continuous, immediate feedback with tailored instruction and cognitive modeling - Encourages experiential, inquiry-based learning - Promotes self-efficacy, goal setting, and cooperation Meeting students where they are, while filling a critical economic need Outside of the classroom setting, students are well versed in video game use. Approximately 46 million K-12 students are current gamers. MdBioSphere is designed to leverage the power of video games to captivate and engage users in education-oriented gameplay while sparking interest in lucrative and economically viable STEM-related careers. Try our beta test games We recommend Google Chrome to play these games. Sorting Genetics can be used to practice genotype and phenotype. The game must be downloaded and installed on a computer. It is played in a browser window but does not require an active internet connection. Player will be asked to login; this is to track play data on player’s local machine only. No specific login required to play. Play Sorting Genetics DNA Mutations can be used to practice finding single base mutations in chromatograms and amino acid chains, and identifying mutation type (insertion, deletion or substitution). The game is played in a browser window and requires an active internet connection. No download is required. Player will be asked to login; this is to track play data on player’s local machine only. No specific login required to play. Play DNA Mutations
Isn’t it satisfying to harvest your own raspberries? I love the way a perfectly warm, ripe raspberry rolls off its mount into my fingers. Raspberry aroma is tangy, and the taste of a fresh raspberry is delightfully warm, sweet and tart! Raspberry plants are worth growing. That being said, there are many diseases of raspberry plants so it is good to educate yourself about how to grow the delectable raspberry. Canes turning brown are a common symptom of many different diseases of raspberry plants. Understanding Raspberry Plant Problems One of the first things you need to know is the difference between a primocane and a floricane. A primocane is a leafy stalk formed during its first year on a raspberry plant. It may produce buds but doesn’t typically produce fruit. You want to let the primocanes grow and then overwinter for producing flowers and fruit the second year. During the second year of this cane’s life, it is called a floricane. Floricanes produce flowers and fruit. They typically die or become non-productive after that. You should cut floricanes down to ground level after you harvest your berries. Leaving floricanes uncut can lead to unnecessary raspberry plant problems. Reasons for Raspberry Canes Turning Brown Raspberry cane diseases that result in browning can be caused by bacteria or fungi. Browning raspberry canes can also be a sign of normal growth. In general, a floricane is not as lush and green looking as a primocane. It becomes a bit woodier and browner in its second year. This is not a problem. Bacterial diseases include fire blight and bacterial blight. Both of these diseases cause significant browning raspberry canes – very dark or burnt looking stems and leaves are a sure sigh. These diseases can ruin fruit production and are favored by moist, wet springs or winters. They need a wound opening or pruning cut to infect the plant. It is best to cut out the infected plant material at least 12” below the diseased area. Destroy the plant material. Do not compost it. Copper sprays applied periodically throughout the season can help protect the plant but will not prevent the disease. Some important fungal diseases that lead to raspberry canes turning brown include spur blight, cane blight and anthracnose. Look at your primocanes in late summer or early fall before they harden up for winter to see if you have signs of these diseases. - Anthracnose displays round, sunken white to tan colored pits in the internodes of the cane or stem (the areas between leaves or smaller branches). These pits often have a purple margin. The disease weakens and cracks the bark and often leads to death of the cane over the winter. - Spur blight initiates its disease course in the leaves or at the node where the leaf attaches to the cane (stem). In the leaves, you’ll see yellowing and browning. The leaves will die and drop off leaving the leaf petiole. On the branch stem, you’ll see little ½” purple or brown spots around the nodes. These spots might expand around the entire stem. During the next year, these areas will be non-productive and appear leggy. - Cane blight is caused by wounds in the stem. The wounds form reddish-brown streaks and can eventually girdle the entire cane causing cane death. All three of these fungal diseases of raspberry plants are spread from cane to cane rather than root to cane. They love moist conditions. The diseases may overwinter on the plant and then spread from floricane to primocane. Splashing water spreads transmits the fungi in all three of these diseases. Wind also spreads the fungi of spur blight. The keys to controlling these diseases are: - Reduce moisture and humidity in the area - Keep your rows narrower than 18” - Remove non-productive floricanes every year - Don’t prune if you expect rain in the next 5 days. In severely infected patches, you can mow the whole area down and start over and/or apply an appropriate fungicide. Note that you may be applying a poison to an edible crop if you use a fungicide. Check the label carefully. If you are starting from scratch with your raspberry patch, be sure to look for disease resistant varieties. Make sure your patch gets enough sun, regular water and is amended with compost every year.
Chris, please help me. I didn’t figure out the sentence. In line 54, why was it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to whole families, only to end as a heap of feathers feet up, on the bottom of the cage? Although I read the key poin you wrote, I still didn’t understand the meaning of the sentence. Thank you. -->Why should birds that sing beautifully and make whole families happy have to die and end up lying with their feet up in the air, on the bottom of the cage? the sentence underlined refers to "it" (同位語)
; rather rare in the Anglo-Saxon world. Origin: An anglicisation, made known by James Macpherson, of Oisín, diminutive form of os. Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson from 1760. Macpherson claimed to have collected word-of-mouth material in the Scots Gaelic said to be from ancient sources, and that the work was his translation of that material. Ossian is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a legendary bard who is a character in Irish mythology. Contemporary critics were divided in their view of the work's authenticity, but the consensus since is that Macpherson framed the poems himself, based on old folk tales he had collected, and that "Ossian" is, in the words of Thomas Curley, "the most successful literary falsehood in modern history." The work was internationally popular, translated into all the literary languages of Europe and was influential both in the development of the Romantic movement and the Gaelic revival. "The contest over the authenticity of Macpherson's pseudo-Gaelic productions," Curley asserts, "became a seismograph of the fragile unity within restive diversity of imperial Great Britain in the age of Johnson." Macpherson's fame was crowned by his burial among the literary giants in Westminster Abbey, and W.P. Ker, in the Cambridge History of English Literature, observes that "all Macpherson's craft as a philological imposter would have been nothing without his literary skill." The Nuttall Encyclopedia the heroic poet of the Gaels, the son of Fingal and the king of Morven, said to have lived in the 3rd century, the theme of whose verse concerns the exploits of Fingal and his family, the translation of which he brought home from fairyland, to which he had been transported when he was a boy, and from which he returned when he was old and blind; James Macpherson, who was no Gaelic scholar, professed to have translated the legend, as published by him in 1760-62-63. Song lyrics by ossian -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by ossian on the Lyrics.com website. The numerical value of ossian in Chaldean Numerology is: 2 The numerical value of ossian in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5 Images & Illustrations of ossian Find a translation for the ossian definition in other languages: Select another language:
Transgender employees face many challenges in the workplace – not the least of which are vulnerability to and fear of discrimination. But there are many ways in which an employer can support its trans employees while meeting its legal obligations to all of its employees. Here are five ways in which employers can support transgender employees in the workplace. An employer doesn’t need to know everything about the LGBTQ community. But it should have a basic understanding of terminology and of the big picture. A transgender person is someone whose own gender identity or expression is different from the gender assumption others make based on that person’s sex. Sex identifies the strictly biological description of a male or female; gender is much broader, encompassing biological, cognitive and social aspects of a human being including identity, expression and the expectations of others. A person’s gender identity is how that person sees and feels about him or herself. The gender identity for many people corresponds with their biological sex; for transgender people, however, gender identity and sex don’t align with one another. Some, though not all, transgender people will undergo gender reassignment (or transition) to align their sex with the gender role in which they live and better reflect their gender identity. Transgender people in the workplace may have already transitioned, just be beginning the reassignment process, or be somewhere in the middle. Human rights legislation prohibits employers from discriminating against an employee – treating them differently, directly or indirectly, with an adverse effect – based on certain personal characteristics listed in the law. The personal characteristics (or grounds) that human rights legislation protects varies depending on the applicable legislation (which province or territory or the federal legislation), but they are generally similar. Differential treatment of an employee in the workplace because of the employee’s biological gender, or because of attributes associated with their gender, regardless of their transition status, constitutes discrimination and is prohibited by law. Some human rights legislation expressly states that discrimination is prohibited on the grounds of gender identity or gender expression; for examples, see the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act at section 5(na-nb), the Prince Edward Island Human Rights Act at section 1(d)) and the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Act at section 9(1). However, even if the legislation doesn’t specifically include this ground, the grounds of “sex” and/or sexual orientation will include it. One of the most important things an employer can do to support trans employees in the workplace is to implement LGBTQ policies and provide visible support. Trans employees seek out employers that have a well-implemented LGBT policy. A 2012 survey by the APLS Group, “Transgender In the Workplace”, found that 51% of trans individuals would not work for an employer who does not have a LGBTQ staff policy in place. In particular, a trans workplace policy should incorporate transition guidelines. These guidelines should be flexible enough to meet the particular needs of a transitioning employee, while specific enough to provide a consistent framework that eliminates confusion and mismanagement. You may want to address issues like these in the guidelines: Employers should also update their employee orientation programs on discrimination and harassment to include gender identity and LGBTQ policies, and review all existing workplace policies to ensure they are gender-neutral. For example, a workplace dress code policy may appear neutral on its face, but have an adverse effect on transgender employees; it often takes minimal revision to transform such policies into gender-neutral ones. One of the most crucial ways an employer can support an LGBTQ employee through transition is by communicating to other employees in the mutual workplace. When an employee is transitioning, a message of support from senior management addressed to co-workers, and specifically those who work in direct contact with the transitioning employee, announcing the employee’s plan to transition, communicating its values and relevant policies promotes a diverse and harassment-free workplace and can set a positive tone about the transitioning employee. Other employees may express discomfort with a co-worker’s transition. This sense of discomfort is natural and may be attributed to a lack of education, grief surrounding the loss of an existing relationship, uncertainty surrounding the future relationship or religious beliefs. Regardless of the source of the discomfort, it’s important for the employer to address the transitioning employee’s co-workers’ feelings and concerns through education and discussion. The employer should handle concerns based on religious beliefs by referring the employee to human rights legislation and its harassment policy intended to ensure equitable treatment of, and compliance with the employer’s legal obligation to, all employees. Additional education and training around workplace respect can often help co-workers’ understanding and reduce their discomfort. To discuss this or any other legal issue, contact any member of McInnes Cooper’s Labour and Employment Team. Read more McInnes Cooper Legal Publications and subscribe to receive those relevant to your business. McInnes Cooper prepared this article for information; it is not legal advice. Consult McInnes Cooper before acting on it. McInnes Cooper excludes all liability for anything contained in or any use of this article. © McInnes Cooper, 2016. All rights reserved. About the author: Ryan Baxter is a member of McInnes Cooper’s Labour and Employment Team and practices in the areas of labour and employment, immigration and litigation. He regularly advised and represents clients in all manner of employment matters, including human rights compliance and complaints. You can reach Ryan at email@example.com.
Lyme disease is a debilitating, sometimes deadly infection, transmitted to humans through bites of blacklegged ticks, commonly known as deer ticks. Lyme disease typically induces flu-like symptoms, including sore joints, and headaches. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, 300,000 Americans are infected with Lyme disease each year. In the last 10 years, Lyme disease has been diagnosed in every state except for Hawaii. However, 96% of all confirmed cases of Lyme were isolated to only 14 states in 2014. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed CDC data on confirmed cases of the disease to determine the worst states in the country for Lyme disease. In Maine, there were 87.9 confirmed cases of Lyme disease for every 100,000 state residents, the most of any state and more than 11 times the nationwide diagnosis rate of 7.9 cases per 100,000 Americans. In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Candice Hoffmann, a spokesperson with the CDC, explained that what is now known as Lyme disease “was described in Europe in the early 20th century,” but not identified in the United States until the 1970s. The first known cases in the U.S. were in Lyme, Connecticut when children experienced flu-like symptoms in the summer months. Since then, the disease has been widely studied and diagnosed in nearly every state. According to Hoffmann, various types of blacklegged ticks that carry the disease are found in humid areas. In certain parts of the country, such as the Midwest and Northeast, “ticks feed upon small mammals and birds that have the Lyme disease bacteria in their blood” and then “spread the bacteria to humans.” Given the geographic location of the disease’s namesake, it is perhaps not surprising that Lyme disease cases are most common in New England. All six of the New England states are among the seven worst states in the country for Lyme disease. Other states with the highest incidences of Lyme disease are either Mid-Atlantic or Midwestern states. Lyme disease is contracted from blacklegged ticks that typically live in wooded areas. “Highly urbanized settings generally are not considered to present high risk of Lyme disease because of the lack of suitable tick habitat,” said Hoffman. By contrast, Lyme-carrying ticks are relatively common in rural areas. As a result, those who spend time in these areas are at greater risk of infection. Maine and Vermont, the two states with the highest infection rates, are also home to the largest share of residents living in rural areas. However, not every state with the highest Lyme disease incidence are especially rural. People are also likely to come into contact with infected ticks in suburban environments “whether in backyards, public parks, or hiking trails,” Hoffmann said. The incidence of Lyme disease is on the rise in the United States. Hoffmann noted that due largely to climate change, the geographic regions suitable to ticks are getting larger. While the factors involved are very complex, Hoffmann added this will likely continue in future decades. The diagnosis has rate has gone up by 8% across the U.S. in the last 10 years. Diagnoses of the disease have spiked even more dramatically in certain states. However, according to Hoffmann, the increases may be due largely to reporting methods. “Surveillance data are subject to each state’s abilities to capture and classify cases, which are dependent upon budget and personnel and varies not only between states, but also from year to year within a given state,” Hoffmann said. Some of these especially dramatic increases may not actually represent a true change in disease incidence. While the disease is widespread and public awareness is increasing, there is much to be learned about Lyme disease. People are often misdiagnosed as symptoms can vary from patient to patient. For example, while many associate a bull’s eye-shaped rash with the disease, such a rash does not always appear. Even blood tests that check for the presence of antibodies are not always an accurate diagnostic tool. While the disease is often curable with a regimen of antibiotics, in some patients, symptoms can linger for months and even years. In order to determine the 12 worst states for Lyme disease, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed CDC data on the number of confirmed cases in each state for every 100,000 residents in 2014. States were ranked in order from the lowest incidences to the highest, and only those states with a confirmed infection rate more than double the national rate were ranked. We also reviewed the total number of confirmed cases, along with the incidence rate, for each of the previous 10 years. The number of probable cases in 2014 also came from the CDC. Supplemental data, including the percent of physically active adults, percentage of a population with access to places for physical activity, and the percentage of the population living in rural areas came from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program. These are the worst states for Lyme disease.
“The makaʻāinana were the planters and fishers who lived on (ma) the (ka) lands (‘āina;) the final na is a plural substantive.” Or, they may be viewed as maka (eye) ‘āina (land) – ‘the eyes of the land.’ Pukui notes the name literally translates to ‘people that attend the land.’ “They were the commoners who were a class distinct and apart from the aliʻi, or class of chiefs, the temple kahuna or priests, koa or warriors, and konohiki or overseers.” The rulers were set apart from the general populace, the makaʻāinana, by an elaborate, strictly enforced series of kapu or restrictions. The makaʻāinana made up the largest segment of the population. In addition to their work as the planters and the fishermen they were the craftsmen and the soldiers. They were the major source of manpower.
Balanced, comprehensive nutrition helps to fetal growth and development, but there are also some food products on the health of the fetus may have adverse effects. Mother to her unborn baby's safety and health, in some food choices, we should make sacrifices, being discarded. The following ratio of 7 categories of food to the fetus, pregnant women should not eat: 1. Fried food and spicy seasoning. Fried foods contain more aluminum and aromatic compound containing benzene ring will not only accelerate the aging of the impact of fetal development, and can induce cancer, deformities, so expectant mothers should not eat. Fried fritters contain a certain amount of added aluminum alum, aluminum can through the placenta into the fetal brain, causing the baby brain development disorder. And pepper, star anise, cinnamon, allspice, pepper and other food can cause constipation, pregnant women. 2. Alcoholic beverages, and caffeinated coffee, Coca-Cola, tea and other beverages. Too much to drink during pregnancy the mother, the baby is likely to happen, "fetal alcohol syndrome", after the birth of a central nervous system dysfunction, facial and body that the problem of deformities, such as cardiac structural defects, hands, feet, means other models. After birth than normal children of low intelligence. Excessive consumption of caffeinated beverages can cause spontaneous abortion, low birth weight. Arrhythmia and so on. The tea contains a high concentration of tannic acid and food easily in the intestine of iron, calcium combined with precipitation, affect the intestine at the end of the absorption of iron and calcium, and iron deficiency anemia can be induced hypocalcemia, affecting fetal growth and development, so Pregnant women should not drink tea. 3. Contain preservatives, coloring a variety of canned food. Preservatives, artificial colors and other food additives, chemical composition mainly normal low intakes are safe for the physiological stage of pregnancy is a sensitive, or to exempt free good. 4. Raw fish, raw meat, raw eggs and undercooked meat. Undercooked meat, eggs and food with a large number of pathogens, bacteria after eating can cause food poisoning; immature meat ingestion may also cause toxoplasmosis. 5. Smoky products. Such as sausage, bacon, smoked fish, bacon and so on. These foods contain nitrosamines, if excessive can cause fetal malformations. 6. Suspicious food. If not fresh meat, fish, shellfish, sprouting potatoes, moldy peanuts, wild mushrooms can not be confirmed, and the tainted fruits and vegetables. 7. High sugar content of food (or the heat is too high fattening foods) and salty, too spicy food. Such as butter, fatty meat, candy, cakes, chocolate and so on. Because these foods contain more calories, eating too much will lead to sharp increase in maternal body weight, fat accumulation, reduced organizational flexibility, delivery could easily lead to prolonged labor or bleeding, pregnant women, I also susceptible to gestosis by obesity, diabetes, kidney go far diseases, salty foods can trigger Shuinazhuliu, the formation of lower extremity edema, and spicy food the one hand with the irritating, negative to the fetus, on the other hand easy to induce or aggravate constipation and hemorrhoids mothers.
Dr. Shaaban Fundi Will Uranium Mining Be a Natural Resource or Curse to Tanzania? Tanzania will soon be joining African countries like Namibia, Niger, and Malawi as uranium exporters if proposed uranium mining projects are approved by the government. Short term benefits of uranium mining include job opportunities for thousands of Tanzanians and tax income for the Tanzanian government. These benefits cannot be ignored. However, the long-term health and environmental consequences associated with uranium and all other mining activities also need to be seriously evaluated. One important environmental consequence of uranium mining is that the process uses enormous amounts of water. A recent estimate by a mining company in Namibia, Canadian Forsys Metal Company, suggested that its mining operation utilizes 1 million liters of water per day. One of the proposed areas for Uranium mining in Tanzania is in Manyoni District in Singida region. Water is already a scarce commodity in this region and it would be very unwise to let one company consume so much water at the expense of current inhabitants. In addition to using enormous amount of water, uranium mining relies on open-pit operations which leave huge craters once mining activities have ceased. The soils in the remaining craters are usually contaminated with radioactive materials and therefore the soil become useless for many years in the future.Furthermore, radioactive dust particles can travel by wind to larger areas and affect the health of communities surrounding the mining areas. It has been documented that exposure to even relatively low levels of radiation over a long period of time can be extremely harmful to the health of workers and communities living around uranium mines. What plans are currently in place to ensure that the workers and people already living in these areas are protected and will be taken care of if this radioactive contamination should occur? Current estimates suggest that Tanzania has about 53.9 million pounds of uranium oxide deposits and at the current price of $41 per pound, these deposits are worth an estimated $2.2 billion. Despite the estimated large sum of dollars, Tanzania has no control over uranium pricing variability on the world market. Demand and supply does. Yet very few countries can actually use uranium for energy generation and bomb creation due to its high cost of operation, need for skilled personnel, and international restrictions on development of nuclear programs. If global demand for uranium were to decrease, the estimated value of these deposits would also decrease. Thus, it is unclear how much revenue uranium mining would really bring to Tanzania. Furthermore, the Tanzania Mining Act of 1998 gives a disproportionate amount of revenue benefits to mining companies. This has meant that the average Tanzanian citizen has seen limited benefit from current mining projects while the vast majority of profits go to mining companies based in other countries. Take gold, for example. Tanzania is the fourth largest producer of gold in sub-Saharan Africa behind Ghana and South Africa. Yet Tanzanians have failed to benefit from the gold mining ventures in the country. What assurances do Tanzanians have that it will be different for the proposed uranium mining ventures? Given the serious environmental and health impact associated with uranium mining, Tanzania needs a Mining Act that will address the health and environmental concern of its citizens and that will ensure local communities also profit from mining activities. Without a comprehensive legislative framework to deal with all the implications of uranium mining, Tanzania opens itself up to abuse by companies who pursue an agenda of short-term profits and pay very little attention to the long-term health and environmental consequences for the host country and its citizens. Tanzania needs to develop a legislative framework and monitoring program to ensure these companies will protect the welfare of their workers and the environment before allowing mining to start. These tasks require a high level of technical competence and strong political will. The decision whether or not to proceed with uranium mining in Tanzania should be discussed thoroughly with all stakeholders including the mining companies, the government and the local people residing in the proposed mining areas and in the transit routes. The locals should be told about the potential benefits and consequence of the proposed mining including the increased risk for developing cancer associated with living or working in uranium mining areas. Who will be responsible for their health once they start to develop cancer related illnesses? The water issues also need to be looked at carefully. How can the community and the uranium mines share the water resources so that there is enough water for everyone? How can the community share in the revenue generated by the uranium mines? And finally, who will be responsible to remediate the contaminated soils in the crater that will remain after mining operation ceases? These issues need to be decided before the Tanzanian government approves uranium mining in the country.
IBM DisplayWrite was a word processor software application that IBM developed and marketed for its line of IBM PCs. Its document files used the RFT (revisable format text) or DCA (document content architecture) filename extension, both of which were standards on IBM mainframe computers. DisplayWrite's feature set was based on the IBM Displaywriter System, a dedicated microcomputer-based word processing machine. DisplayWrite/370, a much more powerful version with full graphics and WYSIWYG support, is still available for IBM zSeries mainframe computers (see IBM Displaywriter). IBM Displaywriter System History of Word Processors
Calculates the month from the given date argument passed to the function using the Gregorian Calendar. A string or expression that can represent a date value. This includes any combination of date literals, numbers that look like dates, strings that look like dates, and dates from functions. Returns an integer between 1 and 12 inclusive, that represents the month of the year. Date \| Year \| WeekDay \| Day Dim varMyBDate, varMyMonth varMyBDate = "08 July 1958" varMyMonth = Month(varMyBDate) ' returns 7 for July
Glyphosate, diquat and 2,4-D are a few common chemicals found in weed killer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About.com mentions additional chemicals such as MCPP and dicamba. Atrazine is another chemical found in weed killer, according to Wikipedia.org, along with TCDD and Triazine. For post-emergent weed control, chemicals such as fenoxyrop ethyl, dithiopyr and quinclorac are also used.Continue Reading According to Pennsylvania State University, carfentrazone and clopyralid are two other weed chemicals. Other chemicals such as MCPA, triclopyr and isoxaben are also used. Pre-emergence weed killers are usually applied during the summer to prevent weed growth. Chemicals in this category include benefin and trifluralin when used in unison. Benefin itself is another effective weed killer, along with bensulide, oxadiazon and siduron. Prodiamine and pendimethalin are more chemicals. Agent Orange is another herbicide that kills weeds and other plants, according to Garden Guides. Wikipedia.org notes organic-based chemicals in weed killer, including corn gluten meal, which is used in pre-emergent weed control. Vinegar is another effective method of killing weeds because of its acetic acid content. Citrus oil strips the cuticle away from weeds, causing dehydration in the plant. Saltwater applied at the root level of weeds is another way of achieving weed control. Garden Guides mentions alcohol as another element commonly found in natural weed killers.Learn more about Gardening & Landscapes
Eucalyptus botryoides (mahogony gum) may develop into a tall tree up to 40 metres in height, with grey brown bark covering the main trunk and larger lower branches having a heavy dense canopy. This species is tolerant of semi coastal conditions. Eucalyptus botryoides (mahogony gum) has white flowers in summer and is bird attracting. Click on Map to Enlarge Image. Notes on Maps. Generally, the concentrated clusters of markers represent the geographical range where this species occurs naturally. Outlying markers and geographically disassociated markers represent observations of the species in cultivation and/or recorded in herbaria etc. These maps are provided by, and are used with the permission of, Australia’s Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
By Wesley Kumfer, Ph.D., Seth LaJeunesse, MCRP, Laura Sandt, Ph.D., and Libby Thomas, M.S. This article originally appeared in the April 2019 issue of ITE Journal. Thirty-five thousand people die on U.S. roadways each year—the equivalent of a completely full jumbo jet crashing weekly—leaving no survivors.1 The vast majority of these deaths occurred on roadways funded with state and federal dollars and designed according to state and federal guidance or standards. In other words, how we design transportation infrastructure has a direct impact on the unacceptable safety outcomes we have experienced. Traditional injury prevention efforts—such as targeted high-visibility enforcement or spot engineering treatments—may be effective at reducing the magnitude of crashes and mitigating significant risks at particularly dangerous locations. Unfortunately, they may simply push the problem to other areas of the system (as when impaired drivers use back roads to avoid high-visibility speed enforcement). Moreover, there is tension between the minimal safety gains made by adherence to older design standards and policies and the continuing focus on motor vehicle capacity and efficiency, often considered in isolation from safety, that exists in our transportation system (see the discussion of four-lane highways and road diets).2 Many nations have addressed this tension head-on, adopting an ethical philosophy of traffic safety management that holds kinetic energy reduction as a central, organizing principle.3,4 To varying degrees, at least four countries—Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden—have adopted a Safe Systems approach. Taking into account these countries’ traffic safety paradigms and understanding the cultural realities in the United States, the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety (CSCRS)—has identified four key principles of Safe Systems: Adapt the structure and function of the transportation system to the complexities of human behavior Manage the kinetic energy transferred among road users Treat road user safety as the foundation of all system interventions Foster the creation of a shared vision and coordinated action In this piece, we discuss the ways in which a Safe Systems approach allows us to rethink and explore the systems that lead to fatal crashes and to identify more effective approaches and opportunities for coordinated action. Specifically, we focus on the importance of managing the kinetic energy produced by high speeds and heavy vehicles that is transferred among users of the transportation system. The reduction in kinetic energy transfer, primarily through speed management, is a core tenet of the Safe Systems approach. The policies and design standards that produce the transportation system can be re-engineered to build more forgiveness into the system, both limiting speeds naturally and changing the way that collisions occur to reduce kinetic energy exchange. *The CSCRS is a National University Transportation Center supporting the FAST Act research priority of promoting safety. The Center unites transportation research, planning, public health, data science, and engineering programs at Duke University; Florida Atlantic University; University of California, Berkeley; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Read more at: roadsafety.unc.edu. One fundamental approach to speed management is to consider appropriate speed limit setting. Although research shows that factors beyond the posted speed limit influence traffic speeds, evidence also suggests agencies may reduce speed limits (and travel speeds) to safe levels without dramatically reducing travel time.5 Given the susceptibility of all road users, but especially vulnerable road users, to the kinetic energy produced by vehicle speeds in excess of even 30 kilometers per hour—19 miles per hour (mph) 6— a new approach to speed limit setting beyond the 85th percentile speed is warranted.7 Figure 1 shows injury outcomes based on the kinetic energy of a vehicle traveling a specific speed when striking a vulnerable road user; this information can be used to set speeds in order to minimize negative consequences to road users. The City of Boston, MA, USA has already found some success in reducing dangerous motor speeds by lowering posted speed limits by five mph across the city, thereby granting more flexibility to communities to address safety beyond expensive engineering projects. A complementary practice to responsible speed limit setting is an approach to design that manages speed. Historically, more than half of serious and fatal injury crashes have occurred at or near intersections.9 Although a variety of kinetic energy-reducing intersection designs are used abroad, one example of a kinetic energy-reducing intersection design used in the United States is the roundabout. Roundabouts fit into the Safe Systems framework by reducing the number of conflict points and slowing and changing vehicle trajectories, thereby reducing kinetic energy without sacrificing throughput.10 Both international and domestic evaluations attest to the safety benefits of roundabouts; replacing traditional intersections with roundabouts has been shown to reduce severe crashes by 46 percent in the Netherlands,11 fatal and serious injury crashes in Minnesota, USA by 86 percent and 8 percent, respectively,12 and severe crashes by 88 percent in Maryland, USA.9 A variety of other Safe Systems compliant treatments, both at intersections and along segments, have been demonstrated to effectively reduce kinetic energy to safe levels for all road users. In their 2015 paper, Candappa et al. highlighted the following Safe Systems intersection and approach treatments and their benefits: Although many of these intersection treatments have been adapted to the unique conditions of the United States and are already used today, other designs are also used domestically to separate vulnerable road users from dangerous kinetic energy transfer. For example, many cities have adopted Complete Streets programs that implement projects specifically intended to protect pedestrians and bicyclists. One key design used often in Complete Streets programs is the protected intersection (see Figure 2 for an example protected intersection). This intersection design utilizes corner safety islands, forward stop bars, approach tapers, and more, combining some of the most advantageous measures of the designs listed by Candappa et al.4 to accomplish the same goals and reduce speeds. The success of protected intersections in the United States demonstrates the potential for the Safe Systems approach in our country.12 Of course, to ensure that these treatments are implemented correctly and with public acceptance, engineers and policymakers must engage stakeholders in the process; this cooperative approach to road safety is an important component of Safe Systems. Roundabouts, again, serve as an example of how this implementation process can be managed in the United States. The state of Maryland was an early adopter of roundabout intersection conversions and today maintains an estimated 200 roundabouts. Although roundabout installation in the state is largely driven by mandate, for public outreach, State Highway Administration officials often bring with them illustrative brochures that feature drawings of roundabouts, describe their function, and convey their social benefits. Their myriad safety and operational benefits help explain why roundabouts have effectively diffused throughout the United States, from one facility in 1990 to more than 3,000 as of 2013 (see Figure 2).14 Intersection design is just one component of a kinetic energy-oriented approach to roadway design where functional classification is matched to realistic roadway purpose. This type of design orientation sends an intuitive message to drivers on what speed is appropriate for the type of street they are traveling. For example, a road designed to grant access will naturally reduce speed through accommodations for multiple modes, roadside features, and narrow lanes. Conversely, a road designed for mobility will cue drivers that higher speeds are acceptable with wider lanes and larger setbacks.15 Figure 3 contrasts an urban collector that has undergone a road diet and naturally reduces speeds while accommodating other modes to an urban, multilane collector that optimizes flow. Where mobility of motorized vehicles is in demand, new and innovative roadway treatments that separate pedestrians and bicyclists from heavy traffic flows can be used. However, a Safe Systems approach to road design also considers the needs of all road users in adjacent communities in a looping design process. Another way in which engineers can actively take part in a Safe Systems approach is to more closely coordinate roadway design and project delivery with other system stakeholders. Adjacent land uses in many areas change over time, as do other features of the transportation network (such as bus stops and shelters added along a roadway), outside of the purview of the state or local engineer. If these components of the roadway environment change faster than the roadway design can accommodate, then conflicts and fatalities inevitably emerge, as the roadway purpose is no longer self-evident to its users. In a Safe System, there would be a continual feedback loop between traffic engineers, planners, transit agencies, and law enforcement.11 Rather than simply installing bus stops within an environment hostile to transit users, the transit agency would coordinate with the department of transportation to prioritize a remodeling project that installs speed tables, refuge islands, or other measures to reduce the approach speed near crosswalks. Even more ideally, the department of transportation could work with planners to implement a road diet that induces speed reductions by channelizing traffic into a single lane per direction while prioritizing bus and bicycle movements on the outside of the cross section.2 In a Safe System, the organizational structure of the responsible agencies is designed to facilitate and reward coordination among roadway stakeholders to realize traffic safety for all road users. Both the organizational structure as a whole and the actions of individual agents within the agency are aligned with spending practices and funding policies that prioritize safety for all road users and enable staff to effectively identify and address safety issues in a systemic way. In this article, we outlined the importance of kinetic energy within a Safe Systems framework and illustrated how engineers and transportation agency managers in the United States could implement policy and design approaches that reduce kinetic energy transfer to improve transportation safety on the roadway network. These are not revolutionary or unorthodox practices. In fact, they are being implemented more and more across the United States every day, with support from FHWA, ITE, Road to Zero Coalition, Vision Zero network, and a substantial body of transportation research. But more work is needed to universally adopt Safe Systems and translate principles into practice. Getting to one’s destinations unharmed is a unifying desire of all roadway users, and with the political will behind the various zero fatality initiatives, there has never been a better time to embrace proven speed reduction measures that reduce the harmful effects of high kinetic energy. As safety champions within state and local departments of transportation engage their colleagues and the public to implement Safe Systems-oriented speed management, others around the country will follow.16 The United States is ready for a paradigm shift toward Safe Systems, and traffic engineers, planners, and other road safety practitioners will be critical to this transition. Wes Kumfer, Ph.D. Wes Kumfer is an engineering research associate at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center and the research program manager for the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety. He has a doctorate in civil engineering and researches crash prediction models, risk-based pedestrian safety analysis, and safe systems. Seth LaJeunesse, MCRP Seth LaJeunesse is a research associate at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center and specializes in behavioral interventions designed to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety. Seth combines a background in clinical psychology and a master’s degree in city and regional planning to bring a unique perspective to safe roadway design. Laura Sandt, Ph.D. Laura Sandt is a senior research associate at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center, director of the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety, and director of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center. Laura has a doctorate in epidemiology and researches public health approaches to traffic safety. Libby Thomas, M.S. Libby Thomas is a senior research associate at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center and specializes in pedestrian and bicycle safety. Libby has vast experience in crash typing and risk analysis, allowing her to serve as an expert principal investigator and key researcher on a variety of state and national projects.
Since World War II, the common reaction to the horrendous crimes of the Nazis has been to wonder how such extreme behavior was possible. But the more important point is how the process of killing could be made so mundane, a question that remains relevant today, as Gary G. Kohls explains. By Gary G. Kohls A couple of years ago, the iconic sign over the gate to the infamous World War II-era extermination camp at Auschwitz was stolen. (It was later recovered after being found cut into three pieces). At the top of that gate was this classic bit of Nazi propaganda, proclaimed to the millions of doomed incoming victims: “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes One Free). “Arbeit Macht Frei” is a pretty good summary of what is otherwise known as “the Protestant work ethic” that started in Europe during the Protestant Reformation. Right-wing nationalists, anti-communist, pro-capitalist, pro-war, anti-Semitic, racist and religious reformers such as John Calvin and Martin Luther would have agreed that “Arbeit Macht Frei” supported their dogmatic teachings about fulfilling one’s patriotic duty to the state, the church or the industry that employed the people. Following Hitler’s fascist takeover and the total destruction of Germany’s liberal democratic government in 1933, Germans were indoctrinated to believe that it was their patriotic duty to defend the Nazi’s Thousand Year Reich by any means necessary, including laboring, killing or dying for the cause. Indeed, the efforts instituted by the fascist government (including the abolition of labor unions) resulted in virtually full employment in all of the war-related industries that were set up to ensure the success of the Thousand Year Reich, including the military arts, police, fuel, chemical, agriculture, mining and weapons production. All of these industries thrived with willing, reasonably well-paid and grateful “Good Germans” who blindly applauded Hitler for orchestrating his “economic miracle”. The transportation and communications industries that were essential for war-making – but which were also domestically beneficial – also thrived. Good examples included the building of the Autobahn for rapid troop movement and the increased production of automobiles, including the affordable Volkswagen for the masses and the not-so-affordable Mercedes for the elite. The provision of cheap mass-produced radios and plenty of entertainment (propaganda) that was overseen by Joseph Goebbels made sure that everybody would be able to hear the demagogues spout their Nazi propaganda demonizing non-Aryan foreigners, Jews and various anti-fascist leftists, such as trade unionists, socialists, liberals and subversive antiwar activists. Little more than a decade earlier, in 1922, hyperinflation, joblessness and hunger had followed the fiasco of World War I. Then, just as the economy was recovering, the Wall Street Stock Market crash of 1929 sealed German democracy’s doom. So, after Hitler was appointed to the Chancellorship in 1933, even many of the most ethical Germans were thankful for the war industry work, and they liked the state-sponsored (socialized) medical care, educational opportunities and the paid vacations of Hitler’s “Strength Through Joy” campaign, even though there was essentially no freedom of movement in the labor market. ‘Good German’ Christians Until Hitler started occupying, colonizing and brutalizing other nations, things were going well for most obedient, white “Good German” Christians. Not so for non-Christians and other minorities who were suffering under the police-state jackboot of Prussian militarism. “Good Germans” dutifully averted their eyes and closed their ears to keep from seeing the hateful anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination that were happening all around them, including the aggressive building of concentration camps all over Germany and the occupied territories. The Nazi concentration camps started in 1938 at Dachau. The scores of concentration camps that eventually dotted Germany’s military empire (especially occupied Poland) also provided a lot of work for Hitler’s obedient (and silenced) Volk, for each camp needed, in addition to the SS troops and Gestapo (who beat any resister into submission), numerous citizen-workers to keep them running smoothly. The notorious extermination camp at Auschwitz employed 60 physicians and 300 nurses and many other ancillary staff members for just the medical facility, much of which was involved in human experimentation. Many of the people involved in those crimes against humanity were professed Christians. The gulag of camps was good for the economy, though, for each of the camps was aligned with very profitable German corporations, whose bottom lines flourished with the cheap labor costs. The prison camps played a major role in Hitler’s economic boom. Germany’s Gross National Product grew substantially, for the labor was free and the food and lodging expenditures were minimal. Auschwitz was located in Poland, far away from the eyes of most Germans back in the homeland. It was the most infamous of the camps, but the German occupiers of the newly acquired Polish territories knew what was going on inside. Still, most “Good Germans” averted their eyes and ears and noses. Most of them claimed that they were unaware that mass murder was happening on the other side of the electrified fences. But it was a time of war and telling the truth in wartime is always a revolutionary act that requires a lot of courage. Witnessing to the truth in a time of war is also frequently regarded by military regimes as an act of treason. And so the Volk lied to themselves and to others. Cognitive dissonance happened in Nazi Germany, although there was no such phrase back then that described the conscious or unconscious denial of and confusion about unwelcome new truths that contradicted deeply held beliefs. But the truth was obvious to all. Only one conclusion could be drawn from the 24/7 stench of burning flesh and the red smoke that came out of the crematorium’s tall stacks of each of the extermination camps. After the total collapse of the militarists, financiers, investors and industrialists who had been behind Germany’s attempts to steal the resources of Europe and Asia (especially the oil fields of Eastern Europe and western Russia), more unwelcome truths were to be revealed. Among these revelations was the story of the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess (not to be confused with Rudolf Hess who was Hitler’s # 2 early in the Nazi regime). Cruelty in Child-Rearing The Rudolf Hoess, MD, of Auschwitz infamy was the son of a devout, well-to-do, conservative Roman Catholic family that had wanted him to go into the priesthood. But circumstances were such that he instead chose to serve Hitler in the thuggish Freikorps, that group of traumatized and unemployable World War I veterans who became his street fighters and mercenary soldiers and who believed the lie that leftists, especially Jews, socialists and communists on the home front had “stabbed Germany in the back” and were the real cause of the humiliating defeat in the trenches on the Western Front. Just like most men who grew up in authoritarian Europe, Hoess learned unconditional obedience to authority early in his life. Cruelty in child-rearing, especially in males, usually elicits the unconscious desire for vengeance, often only acted upon in a delayed fashion, frequently against a scapegoat rather than against the original perpetrator of the cruelty, which is usually an abusive parent-figure. Harshness in child-rearing was the norm for most German and Austrian children for centuries prior to Hitler, whose regime also promoted punitive child-rearing methods. It makes for vicious, obedient Nazi soldiers or, for that matter, Special Forces soldiers in any country. Such “parenting” was reinforced by the similarly harsh discipline that was often practiced in most German churches and schools – and not just in Catholic schools, but in secular schools as well. And so Hoess wrote the following explanation for his willingness to reflexively carry out the decidedly un-Christ-like – indeed, satanic – orders he received from his superiors: “Above all, I was constantly reminded that I was to comply with, and follow, the wishes or commands of parents, teachers, priests, etc., indeed all grown-ups including the servants, and that I was to allow nothing to distract me from that duty. Whatever they said, went. These fundamental values of my upbringing became part of my flesh and blood.” [See Alice Miller’s Breaking Down the Wall of Silence.] This is how military recruits in basic training internalize the killing arts. So it should come as no surprise when soldiers react automatically and violently in the war zone, obeying even illegal orders given in the kill-or-be-killed chaos of the battlefield. After the psychological trauma, humiliation and threats of punishment experienced in their child-rearing, school yards, mean streets or their basic training, soldiers can be relied upon to react automatically, even unconsciously, and do what they have been indoctrinated to do when their own physical survival is threatened. Duty and honor; solemn oaths of allegiance to a flag (the Swastika or the Stars and Stripes); obedience to god and country; patriotism; nationalism; “America # 1” and “Deutschland Uber Alles” are common examples that will promote the blind patriotism that has driven the killing machines on all sides of every war throughout the entire history of warfare. Internalizing such propaganda allowed Hoess to perform his gruesome “duties” at Auschwitz, without any obvious signs of remorse when he was later tried, convicted and hanged for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The baptized Lutheran Adolph Eichmann, a contemporary of Hoess’s, also reacted without remorse during his trial in Jerusalem long after the war, as did most of the other defendants at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. Consequences of Violence Sadly, the soldier-victims (willing or unwilling) of chronic brainwashing (which can easily create robotic humans willing to inflict pain on others) learn much too late that being involved in state-sponsored terrorism, directly or indirectly, can also be lethal to their souls and psyches, not to mention the souls and psyches of their battlefield victims (and loved ones when they come home), all of whom are mostly innocent, unarmed and decidedly defenseless women and children. The invisible spiritual wounds of the warrior can also be experienced by another group: the guilty bystander, who witnessed the violence and then may have stood silently by, doing nothing to stop it. The guilt felt later for not intervening (or feeling helpless to intervene) often becomes too much to bear, with the resultant depression, anxiety, anger, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, drug use, homicidality and suicidality of combat-induced posttraumatic stress disorder symptom, often identical to that experienced by the guilty perpetrator. One has to wonder what kind of Christianity is it that promotes harshness in parenting, racism, discriminatory attitudes toward the “enemy-other, and pro-war theologies. And what kind of Christianity remains silent about its country’s extrajudicial assassinations by drone warfare or the manufacturing, stockpiling, and training to use, the lethal weapons that are only intended for human destruction? From where in the human soul comes the willingness to kill, torture and cooperate with the evils of state-sponsored homicide and economic oppression, irrespective of what militarized nation one lives in, fascist/capitalist Germany or “democratic”/capitalist America? As Bob Dylan asks so poignantly in his classic antiwar song, “Blowin’ in the Wind”: “How many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?” “How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?” “How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?” “How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?” “And how many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn’t see?” The answers aren’t really mysteriously blowing in the wind. The answers to the questions about why there is an epidemic of violence instead of sustained peace are understandable and therefore preventable. The solutions to the problems (and the prevention of the consequences) concerning both military and domestic violence lie in whether or not children and recruits are treated humanely (with unconditional love and mercy) or with brutality and/or neglect in their families, schools, churches, neighborhoods, workplaces and streets. Gary G. Kohls, MD, is a founding member of Every Church A Peace Church (www.ecapc.org) and is a member of a local non-denominational affiliate of ECAPC, the Community of the Third Way.
Vacation Tours in Croatia Get a crash course in Croatia’s history Coming to Croatia on holiday is an ideal way to get away from it all, see some amazing sites and learn about a magical land that you never knew existed. Of course, you know by now that Dubrovnik, Croatia’s walled city, is the mecca for the filming of the incredible show, Game of Thrones. But there is more to this wonderful country than that. Plan a vacation tour of Croatia! From Roman occupation of Dalmatia through the post-Bosnian War era, we are going to take you on a crash course through Croatia’s unique history to understand the country’s development and rich culture. From about 11 BC to about the 5th century AD, Romans ruled the roost. During this era, the territory of what is now Croatia was organized into the coastal area called Dalmatia and the northern area known as Pannonia. The Romans build a network of roads that linked the Dalmatian coast with the Aegean and Black seas. While the Roman Empire was first thriving and then imploding, Croats and other Slavic tribes were eking out an existence in what some historians think may have been the marshlands of modern-day Ukraine. Historians argue that by the middle of the 7th century, Croat tribes moved into Pannonia and Dalmatia, and powerful clans and rulers emerged. In 800 AD, the Frankish emperor Charles the Great, the ruler of Western Europe and the first real superpower since the fall of Rome, conquered Dalmatia and swiftly launched a campaign to convert Croat rulers to Christianity. After Charles’ death in 814 AD, the Byzantine Empire controlled most of Dalmatia, while the Pannonian Croats remained under Frankish rule. The spread of Christianity, however, encouraged cultural ties with Rome, which proved to be a factor in forging a future national identity. Today a large majority of Croats are Catholic (about 90%). Beginning with the crowning of King Tomislav in 925, Croatia the Kingdom was born. Tomislav united Dalmatia and Pannonia into a single kingdom, and under his rule, Croatia became one of the most powerful forces in the Balkans. After his death, his royal successors continued to rule the kingdom until the latter part of the 11th century, when Hungary stepped in. Mergers and Acquisitions How and why exactly Croatia merged with Hungary are points of debate among historians but according to research, King Ladislaus of Hungary became the new ruler of Croatia in 1091, after the death of the last Croatian king. In the 1400s when the Ottoman Empire was attempting to take over the Balkans, Croatia was stuck in battles between the Turks and the Hungarians. Croatia would eventually be incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yugoslavia as Kingdom In 1918, after the end of World War I and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Croatia’s loyalties were once again up in the air. A Croatian delegation decided to align forces with the Serbs, forming the “Kingdom of Yugoslavia.” It was a quick failure; declining into the uprising and civil war, with one rebel Croat group, the Ustase, waging a brutal terrorist campaign to exterminate all Serbs and Jews. Another group, the Partisans, led by Josip Broz, or Tito, gained support and after World War II, Tito became the leader of Yugoslavia. Under Tito’s leadership, Yugoslavia, which included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Serbia, adopted a type of planned market socialism, and privately owned factories and estates were nationalized. Tito transformed Yugoslavia from a largely agricultural nation into an industrialized one. After his death in 1980, however, cracks in the system grew. Finally, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991, a day that is now celebrated as “Statehood Day.” At the same time, Serbs living in the Croatian territory of Krajina proclaimed their independence from Croatia and a civil war was coming. War and Peace The Bosnian War, from 1992 to 1995, was a territorial battle among Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians that is characterized as the bloodiest event in Europe since World War II. 100,000 people died, a large number of them civilians, and horrific war crimes were rampant. When NATO finally intervened with airstrikes in 1995, opposing parties were forced to come to the table. The Dayton Peace Accords were signed on December 14, 1995, officially ending the war. Almost two decades after the end of the war, Croatia is well established as a safe, independent and tourist-friendly country. With a strong economy and stable government (and Game of Thrones!), Croatia is a country worth recognizing.
From regulations to production to technology, there’s a lot that goes into oil and natural gas development here in Colorado. But not everyone is aware of the ins and outs of the industry, leaving room for people to peddle myths. Here are some top myths about fracking to be ready for: MYTH: The oil and natural gas industry in Colorado is not regulated. FACT: Colorado has some of the strongest fracking regulations in the nation. Environmentalists, regulators, and oil and natural companies all work together to build an expansive regulatory framework that includes everything from air pollution to industry transparency. In fact, Colorado was the first to pass groundbreaking methane regulations and the first to require water sampling both before and after drilling. MYTH: Fracking is not necessary for our energy economy. FACT: Fracking alone provides more than half of the oil produced in the United States. A recent report revealed that in 2015, hydraulic fracturing made up 51% of all crude oil produced in the United States. And here in Colorado, we have the one of the strongest energy industries in the U.S. MYTH: Fracking is a new technology. FACT: Fracking has been around since 1947, but technology is evolving to keep the oil and natural gas industry efficient and effective and the public and environment safe. Take flex rigs, for example. New flex rig technology can drill up to 3 times the number of wells from a single pad, minimizing land disturbances and preserving Colorado’s environment. MYTH: Fracking is harmful to groundwater. FACT: Over two-dozen studies show that fracking does not contaminate groundwater, including studies from Yale University, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Colorado State University. Their findings? No link between fracking and contamination.
Ferrets (Mustela furo) are common but unconventional pets. They are from the mustelid family, which includes weasels, badgers and polecats. Unaltered male ferrets are called hobs, and unaltered females are called jills. Ferrets are photoperiodic in their breeding cycle, which means that longer daylight hours will trigger aggression and territorial behavior in the hob and will trigger estrus, or heat, in jills. The Mating Process Ferrets reach sexual maturity between 5 months of age and 9 months of age, and they remain fertile for three to four years. Because of their photoperiodic breeding tendencies, female ferrets who are exposed to natural light will go through cycle after cycle during the spring and summer months. When a jill in estrus is paired with a hob who is ready to mate, the result will be an aggressive and seemingly violent process. The ferrets will mate several times over a few hours or an entire day. The gestation period for a pregnant ferret is typically about six weeks -- 38 to 44 days. About a week before the jill is ready to give birth, she should be separated from other ferrets in her enclosure. She will begin nesting with whatever materials are available. Some jills begin to pull out their own fur to build a nest to prepare for the whelping process. At this point, give your pregnant jill an ample amount of food and water, as you do not want to disturb her once the birthing process begins. When the jill goes into labor, it is imperative that she is left alone to give birth. A jill who is bothered during the birthing and nursing stages may kill and eat their young, especially her first litter. She will need her privacy to have her kits, and should be interacted with only if something appears to be going wrong. Signs of difficulty during pregnancy are glossy eyes and weakness. In these cases, seek veterinary attention immediately. Jill in Labor The exact length of the labor period for a jill will vary. The delivery process for the entire litter can take as few as two or three hours, but longer is not abnormal for larger litters or older jills. However, if your jill appears to be in labor for longer than 24 hours, seek veterinary attention quickly -- she could be suffering from complications, such as a kit being stuck inside her. Newborn Kit Development The average ferret litter has about eight kits, who are born without fur and with closed eyes and ears. Their fur will begin to grow in after about a day. They will nurse continuously. Their ears and eyes open, and their coats fill out by the age of 5 weeks. At 8 to 10 weeks, they will be eating solid food and drinking water on their own. - Creatas/Creatas/Getty Images
A while ago I saw something in the sky early in the evening. At first, I thought it was a plane since it seemed far too bright to be a star - no other stars could be seen. However, it didn't move, so I ruled out that possibility. It seemed to be relatively close to the horizon so I considered if it was a very high pole with some sort of light at the top, but after I walked for a few kilometres it was still at the same location. During the few hours I looked at it, it moved a bit across the sky. I considered a satellite, but it didn't seem to move quite enough of what I anticipated a satellite would move. Since then, I have seen it every evening when I remember to look for it. Apart from this object only the moon could be seen. To me, it seemed like the moon moved in the same arched way across the sky as the object, but I could be wrong on the. I have seen several questions on this site where someone asks "what was it?" which has been closed with "too broad". So I am not going to ask what it was. Instead I am curious about what I can do to figure out what it is? Which observations is relevant to make when looking at such objects? As someone who is curious about the sky, but does not have any instruments for doing any actual measurements can I actually do anything?
Documenting the invisible damage of Katrina Anthropologist's account of a family's eight-year recovery after Hurricane Katrina yields lessons for future disasters August 28, 2015 The most iconic images of Hurricane Katrina are those of the people. Families who had lived there for generations, with cultures and modes of livelihood specific to that place, were forced to flee. It would be months or years before they could return. Cultural anthropologist Katherine E. Browne was on the ground shortly after the storm. With support from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate's Cultural Anthropology Program, Browne worked to make sure the human devastation was recorded as it unfolded in the storm's immediate aftermath and the years that followed. In her academic writings and her new book, "Standing in the Need: Culture, Comfort and Coming Home After Katrina," she shows how her work can be applied to future disasters, and how understanding a culture and applying that knowledge to recovery efforts can make the process easier on survivors, and more effective. Browne's NSF support helped her to produce "Still Waiting: Life After Katrina," a 2007 documentary that follows the members of one family, representative of a way of bayou life, as they were suddenly displaced 500 miles from home and then gradually made their way back. She says the long duration of her study allowed for insights into the entire recovery process, a rare opportunity for anthropologists. "The real insight of this work is that the suffering was made much worse by the outsiders in control of recovery efforts because they had no awareness or knowledge of the local situation," said Browne, a professor at Colorado State University. "With that kind of attention to cultural meaning, we could lessen suffering in a systematic and profound way." As we reflect on the storm and its aftermath 10 years later, Browne shares other thoughts about her research with NSF. Q. How, as a scientist, do you approach research like this? A. I'm a cultural anthropologist, and we operate with the assumption that to make sense of a group's way of life and adaptations to change, we need to approach it holistically. This recognition carries implications for research and doing it right can take a long time. When something like a disaster happens, people have to adapt in one way or another. In my case, I knew it would take not only systematic interviewing with as many people as possible, but also successive interviewing with those same people again and again over time. That's the surest window into seeing the complex nature of cumulative effects and how these effects are distributed, understood, experienced, and what, in the end, they mean. Q. Your NSF-funded work examined the coping strategies of families after Katrina. How did you choose these families? A. I began my research effort with the goal of locating a large African American family. I knew from my long-term Caribbean research and reading about New Orleans, such large, interconnected families were typical. We were fortunate to locate a family in Dallas that included 155 people, and they were willing to be the focus of our funded documentary. Q. That seems like an enormous number for a family. A. Yes, and the amazing thing is that the 155 who had evacuated to a relative's home in Dallas were just about half of the larger family group of more than 300 relatives. Making those kinship charts was quite a project! Before the storm, they had lived in close proximity to each other, within 15 minutes' drive. Like other big families in the area, their everyday world involved spending time together, cooking big meals and gathering to share them. They shared child care and skills and knowledge. The concept of "nuclear family" just does not resonate for people like this. Big families like theirs are partly legacies of slave adaptations. Q. What were some of the factors affecting them in Dallas? A. The real hardship was less about their grief or not having their "stuff" than about being in an alien environment. It was total culture shock. They didn't have their food. They didn't have their neighborhoods. They weren't around people who spoke like them. They didn't have the bayou landmarks and smells. They were cut off from their larger network. They might as well have been on the moon. They were without. In the film we captured the resourceful ways they replicated everyday cultural practices like gathering together in large groups to cook, eat and talk, made possible because their Dallas relative had a big kitchen and a big back yard. They found comfort by returning to these habits. Q. You followed this family for a long time. As an anthropologist looking at these important cultural touchstones, did you find that these people were able to continue their way of life? Rebuild? Or was this an event that essentially ended it? A. I believe that, for the moment, this culture is healthy. All but two people of those 155 who fled to Dallas are back, in rebuilt or new homes. They returned to a total wilderness of ruin. Most of them had to live in FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] trailers for years because getting funding from the Road Home program [a program to compensate homeowners funded by the federal government and administered by the State of Louisiana] was so slow. The isolation imposed by the FEMA trailers cut off the circulation of information, childcare, cooking and helpfulness that characterizes black culture on the bayou. Ultimately, the most serious culture shock they experienced was returning home to find a recovery "culture" directed by people who brought their own assumptions and paperwork and language and who knew nothing about the people hurt. They had no idea that their lack of knowledge would significantly slow recovery. They did not work to understand local dialect, or local ways that family systems work and thrive. By neglecting everything that was steeped in group meaning and cultural comfort, they imposed a second disaster, one much worse from the point of view of people themselves, because they lost their sense of agency, their sense of optimism, their access to collective-level comfort. Q. What does "comfort" refer to in this context? A. It's worth pointing out here that the word "comfort" means "with strength," and as an anthropologist, I am trained to identify how some human experiences, like comfort, operate at a collective level. I documented the joy and satisfaction and strength that family members drew from practicing their familiar habits of everyday life. These practices help maintain the health and vitality of the group. For example, we in this country place a high value on the notion of self-reliance, and we tend to value it as an individual quality. But in many cultural groups outside the U.S., and in domestic cultural settings like this one, the importance of self-reliance may also function at a collective level. The family I studied was self-reliant, together. They helped each other. They shared child care, they shared skills, they shared food and they shared information. None of them had ever gotten any government assistance. They made things work as an interdependent system, a system I refer to in the book as similar to a rhizome. They constantly renewed their bonds, and survived through the resilience of the group's strength. Q. You later received NSF funding to study how the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected a region still recovering from Katrina. That involved going back to the same family. How did the two projects fit together? A. They are related because I never stopped researching the experiences of members of this family. The big insight for me related to the oil spill was that, in this case, most people doing research were studying people directly impacted because their livelihoods were destroyed. I was interested in learning how indirect impacts of the damaged environment can also be significant. In 2010, the family was five years into recovery. The BP oil spill was a dispiriting double dunk. Seafood is at the center of the everyday diet of people on the bayou. When fresh shrimp and crab disappeared, people had to substitute--they used things like turkey necks to make their gumbos. I had learned from five years of study just how important the right ingredients were to the cultural art of cooking. Q. Without research that follows the recovery process from start to finish, would we see these types of problems people were facing? A. Very few scholarly studies cover the full trajectory of recovery. So much of it is invisible, and we wouldn't know about it without this kind of whole-frame study. I can't tell you how much I value NSF for the support I've gotten over the years. It's allowed me to do work at a consistent, long-term, fully human pace. It's the kind of work that helps us understand the "how" questions and the "why" questions. And in the end, I believe the results offer some of the richest insights science can produce.-- Rob Margetta, (703) 292-8070 firstname.lastname@example.org Cooking and the right ingredients were important comforts for the displaced. Credit and Larger Version Browne describes family members as remarkably close, playing active roles in each other's lives. Credit and Larger Version Colorado State University
Have you lived with swollen or infected gums? The experience isn’t fun. Infected gums can swell, bleed, and cause pain. During advanced stages of gum disease, gums can also excrete pus while fighting bacterial infection. When these problems develop, your oral health obviously needs attention. You might wonder what is happening in your mouth and how to correct the problem. In this article, Lake Forest dentist, Dr. James Fondriest, explains why gums swell and how to treat them. Why Do Gums Swell? Although they protect teeth roots, gums are sensitive and made of delicate tissues. A number of things can irritate and inflame gums. Brushing and flossing too aggressively can damage and weaken gum tissue. Gum recession can start with incorrect brushing techniques, and gums may bleed when forcing floss between teeth. Most poor gum health issues stem from gum disease, or periodontal disease. More than 75% of adults in the U.S. have gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. Plaque buildup that breeds bacteria initiates gum disease. In most cases with gingivitis, gums can swell and bleed easily. If left untreated, gingivitis evolves into periodontitis, during which damage to connective tissues between teeth and gums can take place. Ignoring swollen or infected gums can eventually lead to receding gums and root exposure. Finally the teeth will be lost. In fact, gum disease is the primary cause of adult tooth loss in the U.S. Treating Infected gums Practicing better oral care when you notice signs of gingivitis can prevent periodontitis and reverse damage from bacteria. Eating a balanced diet provides nutrients like calcium or vitamin C for healthy gums. Avoiding sugary foods prevents bacteria from feasting on sugars and producing acid that erodes tooth enamel. Drinking water regularly will help cleanse the mouth of food particles and plaque. Brushing and flossing regularly, but gently, can cleanses the mouth of excessive bacteria, but if your infection has advanced, you may need to take extra steps to treat swollen gums. See Dr. Fondriest for a treatment plan that can save your teeth from periodontitis. Schedule an Appointment to confirm infected gums Is self-treatment not enough for your swollen and infected gums? Visit Dr. Fondriest at our office for a periodontal evaluation. Scaling and deep cleaning may bring your gums back from the grips of periodontitis. Call (847) 234-0517 to schedule an appointment today. Our practice serves the Chicago metropolitan area including the North Shore and Northwest suburbs
While building contractors remodeled Fillmore School this summer, Fillmore teachers renovated their traditional classrooms to incorporate blended learning. Fillmore will be implementing 1:1 devices for their K-12 students, and the teachers are readily adapting their classes to incorporate technology into daily instruction. The CA BOCES Learning Resources and Model Schools teams worked with Fillmore teachers at Tech Camp for three full-day workshops. Teachers were introduced to Nearpod’s mobile interactive presentation software, Socrative’s quick assessment tool, Moodle’s Learning Management System, iPad Apps for Elementary and High School, CA BOCES Library and Media resources, and much more. Opening discussion each day with the Fillmore teachers included: Wendy Clark, who built a Moodle course she named Phenomenal Fourth Grade Readers shared, “I can't wait to use all of the fantastic apps that we learned about in my guided reading lessons! When we get our iPads; I’ll be all ready to go thanks to our summer tech training days!” Cristin Glasner, MS Science Teacher added, “I had an amazing experience this summer. I brought back a huge amount of new knowledge on new technology to use in my science class. I was especially excited to incorporate Nearpod, Moodle, WEO and Edge factor into my classroom. I am so excited about using this technology to engage my students in their STEM lessons, add in Brain breaks, and trying some flipped lessons. This technology helps me make my content more relevant to my students and draws them into the lesson. They have so much fun, ask great questions, and have a better retention of the content.” Every teacher at Fillmore has developed a Moodle course filled with interactive items for students, including: Math modules to reinforce math concepts, STEM videos, Music exploration videos, Spanish glossaries, Art concepts, Reading surveys, English journals and forums, Quizlet flashcards, Geography maps, News feeds from historical, language, STEM and Arts sites, and much more! Fillmore’s journey to a 1:1 classroom environment has proven to highlight some great new strategies and tools that teachers are embedding into their day. Placing technology into the hands of every student allows students access to continue learning beyond the typical school day. Shaping the future of blended learning and global citizenship within the newly remodeled walls of Fillmore Central School is on an exciting path to great success. By: Betsy Hardy, Distance Learning Coordinator, CA BOCES Learning Resources Check out this month's Advancing STEM Challenge, "Cube Launcher". Advancing STEM Challenges are designed to bring engineering and design to your classroom in a simple, easy-to-implement, challenge-based way. Modify our Advancing STEM Challenges for your classroom. A new challenge will be posted monthly. Post a photo of your students in action in our comment section or post a comment on how you modified the Challenge to work in your classroom. By Clay Nolan, CA BOCES Regional STEM Coordinator Teachers across the region have learned to embrace change in their classrooms, most recently with the adoption of the Common Core Learning Standards in both English Language Arts and Mathematics. As we know change is often met with frustration, exasperation and fear. I would be a liar if I said that the teacher in my success story didn’t feel all of those emotions and more. Bill Connelly (Pioneer Central School District) is a veteran High School Math teacher. Last school year he embraced the challenge of adapting the Common Core Algebra II content. During monthly work sessions, Bill dove deeply into the module lessons to determine what content needed more foundational lessons and which content needed more lessons to solidify the concepts. Not only did Bill work closely with the content, but he also embraced the use of technology in his classroom. In an effort to support his students in both the foundational concepts and the solidification of content, Bill added a technology piece to his classroom. Bill decided to record his daily lessons and post them to Youtube for students to use as they attempted their homework or if they were absent from class. As you can imagine, this was met with several technological set backs and some missed recordings early on. With perseverance and flexibility Bill eventually created a Youtube channel for his classroom. In addition to the audio recordings, Bill embraced the help of Khan Academy and its abundance of resources. Bill identified gaps in student needs based on formative assessments and assigned practice for them to fill the gaps and/or reinforce concepts. This year, Bill is continuing to embrace change. He is still incorporating the technology from last year and of course improving its usefulness. In addition, he is dabbling in flipping his classroom and making full video recordings. Bill has continued to search for the best instructional resources to use with his students to tackle the Common Core Algebra 2 standards. As he embraces the changes in his instruction he continues to focus on what is best for students learning and understanding. Thank you Bill for embracing change! By Karen Insley, CA BOCES Professional Development
There are only a few days (typically six) each cycle when you can get pregnant, the days leading up to and the day of ovulation. So, knowing when these days are in your cycle is key if you are trying for a baby. There are various signs and symptoms of ovulation and most methods of detecting ovulation rely on these to help you identify your fertile days. In this article, we look at these signs and symptoms and show how they can be used to help you: - Signs and symptoms of ovulation : - LH surge - Temperature rise - Ovulation pain – Mittelschmerz - Changes in saliva - Changes in cervical mucus - Using these signs and symptoms to detect your most fertile days - Ovulation tests - The calendar method - Basal Body Temperature recording - Ovulation pain – Mittelschmerz - Saliva observations - Cervical mucus observations Signs and symptoms of ovulation - Many women experience no ovulation symptoms. Women who experience symptoms find these can vary from cycle to cycle. - Some of the signs only occur after ovulation has happened which makes them of little help in predicting a woman’s fertile days in that cycle - The LH surge (detected by ovulation tests) happens 24 – 36 hours before ovulation Ovulation is the name of the process that happens usually once in every menstrual cycle when hormone changes trigger an ovary to release an egg. This typically happens 12 to 16 days before the next period starts. These are the common signs and symptoms of ovulation. As a woman approaches ovulation, her body produces increasing amounts of a hormone called estrogen, which causes the lining of her uterus to thicken and helps create a sperm friendly environment. These high estrogen levels trigger a sudden increase in another hormone called luteinising hormone (LH). This LH surge causes the release of the mature egg from her ovary - this is ovulation. Ovulation normally occurs 24 to 48 hours after the LH surge, which is why the LH surge is a good predictor of peak fertility. A woman’s basal (resting) body temperature rises by 0.4-1.0°C after ovulation. This rise is normally too small for a woman to notice, but can be detected by an accurate thermometer. Ovulation pain – Mittelschmerz About one in five women have pain associated with ovulation. The pain may occur just before, during, or after ovulation. There are several explanations for the cause of this ovulation pain. Just prior to ovulation, follicle growth may stretch the surface of the ovary, causing pain. At the time of ovulation, fluid or blood is released from the ruptured egg follicle and may cause irritation of the abdominal lining. Mittelschmerz may be felt on one side one month then switch to the opposite side the next month, or it may be felt on the same side for several months in succession. It typically lasts for only a few minutes but it can last for longer, possibly as long as 24-48 hours, and can be a sharp, cramping, distinctive pain. It is rarely described as severe pain. Changes in saliva It has been found that a woman’s saliva changes according to the amount of the hormone estrogen in her body. During a woman’s monthly cycle, there is a large rise in estrogen a few days before ovulation and another smaller rise a few days before her period is due. Changes in cervical mucus During a woman’s menstrual cycle, the type and amount of cervical mucus (a secretion made by glands in the cervix) changes. It can be sticky or stretchy, white or cloudy. In the days leading up to ovulation it changes to being clear and stretchy (and is often compared to egg white – leading to the name ‘egg white cervical mucus’). This mucus is supportive to sperm and helps them to reach the egg. Using these signs and symptoms to detect your most fertile days - Some methods can only identify when ovulation has already occurred, therefore they are of little value in helping a woman to conceive during that cycle. - Ovulation tests detect the LH surge which happens 24-36 hours before ovulation. - Clearblue Ovulation Tests are at least 99% accurate in detecting the LH surge. - The calendar method has been found to predict the correct fertile days in only a third of cycles1. To maximise your chances of becoming pregnant, it’s important to time intercourse for the days leading up to and the day of ovulation. These are ways in which you can use the signs and symptoms of ovulation to help you identify these fertile few days each cycle. Clearblue Ovulation Tests and the Clearblue Advanced Fertility Monitor are easy to use and detect the key fertility hormones from a urine sample. They are at least 99% accurate in pinpointing the LH surge and can identify up to six fertile days during each cycle when you are most likely to become pregnant. The calendar method If you have a regular menstrual cycle, you can try to predict ovulation by carefully recording the length of each cycle. You will need to record the length of your cycle for at least a couple of months to start to build up a picture. For a very regular menstrual cycle, ovulation normally happens between 12 and 16 days before your next period starts. However, the day you actually ovulate can still vary by several days between cycles, even with a regular menstrual cycle. Basal Body Temperature (BBT) recording This method uses the fact that your basal body temperature rises by 0.4-1.0°C after ovulation by which time it is too late to optimize the chances of conception in that menstrual cycle2. To use this method accurately, you have to take your basal body temperature first thing every morning before moving out of bed, and it will take several menstrual cycles before you start to build up a picture of your fertility window. There are also many factors, like sleep cycles changes, travel, and alcohol consumption that can change your BBT. Studies have shown that using a woman’s basal body temperature to predict her fertile days (to within a day) is less than 70%2 successful. Ovulation pain – Mittelschmerz Approximately one in five women have pain associated with ovulation. However, because the pain may occur during, or even after, ovulation this is often not that helpful to identify the days prior to ovulation and the day of ovulation itself when you are most fertile. It has been found that your saliva changes according to the amount of the hormone estrogen in your body, and there are kits available that can help you to monitor these changes. They usually consist of a tiny microscope with a glass surface – you place some spit on the glass surface, wait for it to dry and then look through the microscope for a ‘ferning’ pattern that is caused by salt crystals in the saliva when your estrogen level is high. However, changes in saliva have been shown to be an unreliable method of ovulation prediction and are hard to interpret2. Saliva can also be affected by smoking, drinking alcohol and eating. Cervical mucus observations During your menstrual cycle, the type and amount of cervical mucus (a secretion made by glands in your cervix) changes. It can be sticky or stretchy, white or cloudy. In the days leading to ovulation it becomes clear and stretchy and is often likened to egg white. By making a note of these changes, you can predict when you will ovulate so you can have sex on your most fertile days. The main advantage of this method is that it gives you a better understanding of your body, making you more aware of the changes your body goes through during a menstrual cycle. However, it can take time to learn how to ‘read’ the changes, and your cervical mucus can be influenced by other factors, including infections, sex and some medication What to read next? - 1. Ellis JE., et al. Human Reproduction (2011) 26: i76 - 2. Brezina PR., et al. Fertil & Steril (2011); 95(6): 1867-78
What is ADHD? Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the most prevalent childhood developmental disorders. In fact, 9.4% of children from ages 2 – 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD and the numbers are increasing. Common symptoms include inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. In other words, you might notice that your child with ADHD has a tendency to daydream, squirm, make careless mistakes, or have difficulty with focus. ** If your child exhibits such symptoms, please seek advice from a healthcare professional. This article is not meant to be used for diagnostic purposes, as ADHD is a complex disorder and should only be diagnosed by a healthcare professional. How can swimming help children with ADHD? 1) Swimming can increase attention span Kids with ADHD often seem to have too much energy, resulting in fidgety, restless behavior. Swimming is a fantastic way to release this excess energy as it helps with the lack of focus and impulsivity seen in children with ADHD. Additionally, during rigorous exercise such as swimming, their brains release chemicals called neurotransmitters. One of the neurotransmitters released is dopamine, which is involved with attention and focus in the brain. Interestingly, medications used to treat ADHD often work by increasing the same chemical, dopamine, in the brain. Hence, swimming can be a natural method for kids to increase their attention spans! 2) Individualized participation is key Experts agree that team sports could be difficult for children with ADHD. In team sports, it is important to maintain focus and awareness on not only their own roles but also those of other players. Swimming is one of the best sports for children with ADHD. This is because there are few opportunities for distraction, no physical contact with others, and low complexity of rules and strategies. As swimming is a sport with individualized participation, it provides children with all the energy release and endorphins of physically rigorous activity without the challenges of the disorder, including heightened distraction and decreased spatial awareness. 3) Swimming can boost self-esteem This might seem contradictory to the last point, but swimming can actually help to boost self-esteem as it can be a team activity! According to child psychiatrists, kids with ADHD often feel isolated from their classmates. Team sports can offer social interaction and encouragement from peers. Although swimming is largely an individual activity, it also contains the social benefits of team sports if your child is swimming on a team. Ready to start swimming? Book a lesson with AquaMobile here! How has swimming helped you or your child with ADHD? Let us know in the comments below.
What causes spinal metastasis? Certain types of cancers are more likely to spread to the spine. The most common types of cancers to form spinal metastases are primary cancers affecting the lung, breast, bowel and prostate. What are the symptoms of spinal metastasis? Although some people do not experience any symptoms with spinal metastases, most people with this condition will experience symptoms; which may include some or all of the following: - Pain in the spinal region, particularly at night - Pain, weakness, numbness or tingling into the legs or arms - Problems with bladder or bowel control - Pain is sometimes worsened by coughing or sneezing What is the treatment for spinal metastasis? If you have been diagnosed with spinal metastasis, your doctor will first thoroughly investigate your condition to determine the best course of treatment. You will most likely be referred for a number of scans, usually including an MRI scan. Treatment decisions will be made in consultation with yourself, your oncologist, your neurosurgeon and other members of your management team. Your doctor may prescribe medication for pain. Steroid treatment is also often prescribed and is effective in many cases in relieving bone pain. Physical therapy and bracing can also offer symptomatic relief in some cases. For some people, radiotherapy will be advised. The type of primary cancer you have may determine whether radiotherapy is appropriate for your condition. Radiotherapy can be effective in some cases in shrinking the tumor and providing pain relief. For a group of people, surgery will be recommended. This treatment may sometimes occur in conjunction with radiotherapy. Your surgeon will try to remove as much of the tumor as possible and relieve any pressure on the spinal cord or spinal nerves. Sometimes implants are used to help stabilize the spine. With recent advances in spinal surgery techniques, surgery is now sometimes carried out earlier and is suitable for more candidates than in the past. This is due to new minimally invasive techniques. Surgery for this condition takes many forms and your surgeon will discuss in detail with you the technique that is recommended for you. Spinal surgery for this condition may help to reduce pain and to improve mobility.
This is our first in a series of blog posts dealing with the topic blockchain token, what they are, and how they can be used. Historically, the term “token” has been used to describe a physical object, like coins, made of base metals or other low-value substitutes (such as wood, ceramic, plastic or paper). These tokens are a form of private replacement money and serve the purpose of a medium of exchange for goods and services. Further, the concept of tokens has been studied and approved as a method of behavioral therapy in mental health facilities to incentive and reinforce desired behavior. In the blockchain space, a token describes a qualifiable and programmable unit within a blockchain network. Sometimes a distinction is made between tokens and coins, in which coins refer to the native unit of a blockchain network while tokens don’t have an own underlying blockchain but are hosted on another one. Tokens within a blockchain network are associated with addresses. These addresses are mathematically derived from a private key. A private key refers to a random created string of characters, 64 in the case of Bitcoin. To transfer a token from one address to another, the initiator of the transaction of needs to identify and authenticate himself to the network, that he is indeed the legitimate owner of these tokens. This is done by signing the transaction with the correlated private key of address from which the tokens shall be transferred. While the digital nature of blockchain tokens makes transferring them more complicated, in comparison to their physical ancestors, however, it grants them also with distinct advantages. First, the cost of issuing and maintaining blockchain tokens is marginal. For example, only a couple lines of solidity code and a fraction of 1 Ether, the native token of Ethereum, are required to create a new token on Ethereum. The token is then secured by the blockchain network its hosted on. Second, tokens are programmable. This allows to create various distinct types of tokens and to implement special features, allowing to tailor them to serve countless purposes. For example, a token can be programmed to be either fungible or non-fungible. Fungible tokens, just like a 1EUR coin are, identical, interchangeable and divisible into smaller units, e.g. two 50ct coins. In contrast, a non-fungible token is unique and therefore neither interchangeable nor divisible.A real-world example for a non-fungible token would be a one of a kind art piece like a painting of Pablo Picasso. Also, a token can be programmed to be transferable or non-transferable. Further, it is possible to connect tokens to another asset or a basket of assets, which allows, for example, to tokenize a security or to create a stable token. Today already plenty of different tokens exist with use cases varying from currency and supply chain traceability to digital collectibles and countless more are going to be discovered in the following years. Time will show if blockchain tokens will have a similar impact on our financial system like the internet and e-mail had on the postal one as being considered by Dr. Shermin Voshmgir, the director of the Institute for Crypto-Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. In the following post, we will examine the use of blockchain tokens in-depth based on real-world use cases.
Dental disease is the most commonly-diagnosed health problem in dogs and can lead to painful mouth infections. These infections can spread and cause other health problems; sometimes, in the most severe cases, these infections can become life-threatening. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), approximately 80% of dogs begin showing signs of dental disease by the time they turn three. Food particles will naturally accumulate on and between tooth surfaces when your pet eats. Bacteria in the mouth digest these particles to form plaque which is the sticky yellow film seen on the teeth. As this infection spreads, dental disease starts. When enough plaque builds up, these bacteria cause infection of the gums (gingivitis) which is often seen as a red line along the teeth. If enough time passes, plaque hardens to form tartar which binds the infection to the tooth surface and helps push bacteria and debris under the gum line. Periodontal disease is this deeper infection of the teeth and tooth roots which ultimately results in the loss of infected teeth. Pets that exclusively eat hard food have fewer problems than pets that eat any amount of canned, semi-moist, or table foods. Food particles are constantly accumulating on the teeth, but soft food types seem to speed up the process as much as three times the normal rate. Dirty teeth may smell and look bad, but the damage that you don’t see is much worse. The gum tissue has an extensive blood supply; and when periodontal infection starts, bacteria gets into your pet’s circulatory system and may eventually lead to heart, liver, kidney, bone/joint disease, and possible organ failure. What Can One Do To Identify and Prevent Dental Problems in Dogs? •It is suggested by many veterinarians that you can get a good idea of what’s going on in your dog’s mouth by just looking at your dog’s gums. Healthy gums are pink, as opposed to red, and have no buildup of tartar along the gum line. In addition, a healthy mouth does not produce bad breath. Bad breath and possibly drooling or frequent licking may be the first signs of dental disease. •Have your veterinarian perform an oral exam during each annual visit. Older dogs should be given special attention as they can get abscesses with no easily-visible signs. There is the possibility that your dog may have to be sedated in order for a thorough examination to be performed. •Try to brush you dog’s teeth on a regular basis. Start slowly by simply handling your dog’s mouth several times a day. After your dog is comfortable with this, try brushing the outside surfaces of the teeth with your finger, a wet gauze sponge, or even a small toothbrush. If your dog is comfortable with this, start using some type of paste or solution when brushing. Use a flavored toothpaste made especially for dogs–not your own toothpaste. Using your own toothpaste is not a good idea as most human products are high in detergent content which is not good for dogs as they can’t rinse and spit after brushing as we can. •It is recommend that you feed your dog only dry hard chow as this will greatly slow the buildup of plaque. Any amount of soft food fed may mean that more professional care will be needed. In addition to brushing, treats and rawhide chew toys can help maintain your dog’s dental health. Look for a treat with a seal of approval from the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) as it’s guaranteed to be a good dental treat or food. You can protect your dog’s teeth just like you protect your own with daily brushing and regular checkups. The major difference between your dental health and your dog’s is that your dog can’t tell you about any dental problems going on so you have to be responsible and check your dog’s mouth regularly. Prevention is the key with dental disease and one should consider beginning a dental routine with your dog as soon as possible. If you put as much emphasis on taking care of your dog’s teeth as you do your own, then dental disease shouldn’t be a problem. Remember: “Prevention Pays. Neglect Costs.”
Simple tips to Compose a Definition Essay Outline For You PersonallyHiếu Determining an idea or an idea in the shape of an essay is very common amongst the pupils. It is one of many assignments that are classic people reach universites and colleges. Its creation begins with crafting a plan. And though they frequently face the need to cope with this task, not all the learning students learn how to write a meaning essay outline. We now have written this guide which will give an explanation for process in details. Therefore, if you’re to locate a clear description of exactly what a plan for this kind of essay appears like, search no further: it is all here! What exactly is a Definition Essay? A definition essay works to offer the details that are nitty-gritty a term or concept. A specific approach to creating art for example, in an art class, you may be asked to write a definition essay on Vermillion (a vivid reddish-orange color) or Cubism. a meaning essay must always consider a subject that is complex simple subjects won’t offer enough details to acceptably compose an essay. Even though the topic might alter, the dwelling of an essay continues to be the exact same. All meaning essays ought to include an introduction, human body paragraphs, and a summary. What exactly is HandMadeWriting? HMW is just a platform for swamped students who look for assistance with their endless paper tasks. Kinds of Definition Essays Teachers frequently assign meaning essays towards the start of a course. The main focus with this sort of essay is always to explore a concept that is specific. These ideas in many cases are split into certainly one of three groups: In this particular essay, the project explores just how to completely determine an arduous subject. By meaning, a concept that is abstract one that’s vast and complicated. Samples of abstract ideas consist of freedom, aspiration, love, hate, generosity, and pride. The main focus regarding the essay must be to break down the concept into more workable parts when it comes to market. Definition essays that focus for a place have a tendency to explore a particular variety of place and just how you since the writer regard this place that is particular. Kinds of places which might be assigned certainly are a nation, state, town, neighbor hood, park, home, or a space. The area may be huge or tiny. A vital to writing a beneficial meaning essay centered on the spot is always to pick a particular destination you’re acquainted with; it shouldn’t be a spot you will need to research — it must be a location you know intimately. An adjective essay concentrates on producing a meaning for an adjective. Typical subjects can sometimes include explaining a “good” or “bad” friend, present, or legislation. The main focus regarding the essay should explore the characteristics and faculties of a great buddy or a bad present. “i would like anyone to compose my essay!” – That’s something we hear a great deal. The great news is the fact that you’re in just the right destination to find assistance. HandMadeWriting could be the most readily useful essay composing solution on the net. Perfecting the meaning Essay Outline – and past! Before sitting yourself down to publish a meaning essay, you’ll need certainly to find out all of the components towards the entire. Put another way, just exactly how, precisely, are you going to determine the main topic of the essay? You’ll need certainly to give consideration to most of the various components, or perhaps the gears, which make the clockwork. As soon as you’ve brainstormed the parts, you’re ready to produce an overview, and then compose some paragraphs. The outline because of this essay can be simple as in five essay that is paragraph it has an introduction, human body paragraphs, and a summary. The sheer number of human body paragraphs is dependent upon exactly exactly just how many aspects you’re subject needs defined. This sort of essay is strictly just just just what it appears like: it really works to determine a word that is specific concept. simply simply Take Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s advice is the best custom writing service whenever writing: “Never say a lot more than is essential.” Therefore, some tips about what comprises the outline of this meaning essay: An introduction paragraph should behave as a gateway towards the topic associated with definition essay. Make use of this paragraph to carefully introduce the niche, and gain the reader’s interest. This paragraph has to start having an attention grabber (the “hook”) that produces your reader interested and would like to read more. Quotations will always a good idea because are interesting facts. Next, provide history details that the audience will have to comprehend the style or concept become defined into the physical human body paragraphs. The definition essay is unique in that it requires the writer to provide the dictionary definition of the word, and then the thesis definition unlike other papers, like cause and effect essay. Since dictionary definitions in many cases are dry and narrow, the thesis meaning can be your possibility certainly encompass the complexity associated with the term. Each human body paragraph should give attention to a various aspect that contributes into the general concept of the niche being discussed into the meaning essay. - The Real History Paragraph A meaning essay typically contains three human anatomy paragraphs, though there could be more in the event that author desires. The very first human anatomy paragraph delves in to the beginning of this term and just how it became mainstreamed in to the language. This paragraph can speak about any root words, prefixes, and/or suffixes within the term, plus the development associated with term (if you have one). - The Denotative Definition Paragraph The 2nd human body paragraph should concentrate on the dictionary definition, and exactly how the phrase may be used written down and discussion. For instance, love can appear as various areas of message; it may be a noun, verb, or adjective. - The Connotative Definition Paragraph The body that is third, and frequently the longest one, should give attention to conveying the writer’s definition of this term. This meaning ought to be predicated on both the writer’s experience that is personal well as research. Don’t forget to be bold – describe this term in a fashion that no body else has! Be initial; explain the expressed term being a color or animal, and protect your decision. Provide samples of the expressed term doing his thing and retain the reader’s engagement without exceptions. Shoot for sentences similar to this: Quixotic describes the eternal quest of positive individuals striving to get the magical, the visionary, the idealistic experiences in life despite all hurdles and naysayers. This exists as a fantastic sentence with magical, visionary, and idealistic because it provides clues as to the type of word quixotic is by pairing it. By saying it’s more positive than negative that it’s a word optimistic individuals would gravitate towards, the audience inherently understands. Certainly, the body that is third should concentrate on interacting the writer’s comprehension associated with the concept, concept or term. Simply because here is the shortest paragraph, does mean that it n’t could be the simplest to create. In reality, the better the physical body paragraphs are, the easier and simpler composing the final outcome paragraph will undoubtedly be. Just because a conclusion that is good reiterates the key points stated in each human body paragraph. In the event that human anatomy paragraphs are obvious and avoid rambling, pulling the primary tips for in conclusion is effortless! Keep in mind: you don’t desire to duplicate your self word after word, however you do wish to echo your primary ideas; therefore summarize your self rather than content and pasting. Numerous professors may produce the meaning essay being a individual writing project. Should this be the actual situation, then it could be appropriate to additionally talk about exactly what your message or concept means actually to you personally. Pick a good example in your very own life and validate your descriptions regarding the term. Great tips on Writing a Definition Essay from Our professionals Require some advice from our expert authors? We’ve got you covered. Check out great easy methods to write A a-level meaning essay: - Whenever composing a meaning essay, maintain the sentences simple when you are able; nonetheless, periodically, you’ll need certainly to create much much longer, more descriptive sentences. Start thinking about juxtaposing quick sentences with longer people to keep up audience interest. - Incorporate literary products whenever wanting to determine an abstract term or concept. Take a look at this instance: appreciate is a campfire on a chilly november night. Its warmth glides over your complete being, through the top of the check out the guidelines of one’s toes – but be careful: get too near, and catch that is you’ll and burn. - Stuck on selecting a subject? If you are free to pick your very own subject, keep in mind that choosing an abstract topic is most readily useful: love, forgiveness, contentment, or hero are typical great choices. Don’t end up in the trap of choosing the topic with too aspects that are many determine for instance the reputation for guy.
Dr Richard Graham and Dr Elly Hanson explain how to teach your children about healthier night-time routines at a younger age to prepare them for later life. Most of us will have hated bedtime as children, when we had to leave our parents or some exciting event to get the sleep we needed. But as adults, we now know we really do need sleep. It’s important for learning and behaviour, growth and mental wellbeing. A lack of sleep can affect growth, and when a sleep problem is resolved, a growth spurt can occur. What can you do? X Avoid high stimulation activities such as TV, video games or social media for at least an hour before bedtime. ✓Establish a regular evening routine, reading to younger children or encouraging them to read. X No caffeine or fizzy drinks during the evening. ✓Listen to relaxing music and have them take a bath or shower before bed. Dr Richard Graham is a Consultant Psychiatrist with an expertise in technology addiction Adolescents have a different sleep/wake cycle to younger children and adults, preferring later bedtimes and wake times. However, if scrolling through phones or watching videos at night, the light from these devices can disrupt the body’s natural wind-down to sleep, creating bodily confusion about whether it is night or day. What can you do? X Let teens lie in as much as possible – but avoid a huge difference between weekdays and weekends. ✓Later evenings should be spent in lower light, avoiding devices as much as possible closer to bedtimes. X Devices should be kept out of bedrooms at night. ✓Speak to like-minded parents in your child’s social circles to agree a rough consensus around bedtime rules – this can help to avoid frustration and arguments. Dr Elly Hanson is a Clinical Psychologist with expertise in children, young people and digital technology. This article was originally written in partnership with Parent Zone.
James Watson, born 1928, is an American molecular biologist, who is credited, along with Francis Crick, with discovering the form of the DNA molecule, for which he shared the Nobel Prize. Molecular biology, zoology 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins) for 'their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material. Variously director, president and chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CHSL) on Long Island, New York. Head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health, 1990 - 1992. He resigned in protest at the Institute desiring to patent gene sequences. Discovery of the structure of DNA, deoxyribose nucleic acid, and the relationships of the four bases. Nature April 25, 1953 (Francis Crick and James Watson). Molecular Biology of the Gene, 1965, a textbook. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 1983, a textbook. Contributions to the first edition. Recombinant DNA, a textbook. The Double Helix, 1968, a bestseller. New edition, The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix, 2012. Autobiography: Avoid Boring People Watson and Crick used data from Rosalind Franklin's X-ray crystallography to deduce the double-helix structure of the DNA, described as the most important scientific discovery of the 20th century. Watson proposed in 2004 that oxidants have a different role in disease than previously thought. Crick and Watson's work depended greatly on Rosalind Franklin's groundbreaking crystallography photographs of DNA structures. James Watson's talents were discovered early, and he was given a scholarship to the University of Chicago at the ripe young age of 15. Watson was inspired by Erwin Schrödinger's book What is Life? (1944) to enter the field of genetics, although his BSc was in zoology (1947). At the time of Watson's initial research, 1948, the DNA was considered to be 'a stupid tetranucleotide', and had no functional role apart from structural support to proteins. Genes were thought to be proteins. Watson first encountered Maurice Wilkins, at a meeting in Italy, where he learned of Wilkins' X-ray diffraction of DNA. Things began to move apace when Linus Pauling published his findings, in 1951, concerning his model for the amino acid alpha helix - also using X-ray crystallographic techniques. Many people worked on determining the DNA structure. A co-Nobel laureate, Maurice Wilkins, worked in the laboratory of Rosalind Franklin, herself a contender for the Nobel Prize, if she had not tragically died in 1958 of cancer. She had taken the famous 'helix crystallography photo' of an x-ray diffraction pattern of strands of DNA, which permitted Crick and Watson to decipher the DNA structure. Some acrimony resulted, since Franklin felt she had been sidelined in the press furore following the publication. The concluding sentence of Crick and Watson's 1953 paper is: "The significance of this structure has not escaped us." A justly prophetic, if massively understated conclusion! James Watson was a vocal opponent of 'ownership of laws of nature', and resigned as director of the Human Genome Project in protest at the Institute hosting it wanting to patent gene sequences commercially. Watson published his genome online to 'encourage the development of an era of personalized medicine'. (Biographies of famous scientists no. 26) The most recent article is: View this item in the topic: and many more articles in the subject: Mathematics is the most important tool of science. The quest to understand the world and the universe using mathematics is as old as civilisation, and has led to the science and technology of today. Learn about the techniques and history of mathematics on ScienceLibrary.info. 1809 - 1882 Charles Darwin is one of the most famous of all scientists, and a true hero of science. His theory explaining the mechanisms of evolution were published in his book On the Origin of Species (1859), which launched a storm of controversy from religious dogma adherents. Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French. Website © renewable-media.com \| Designed by: Andrew Bone

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