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China. China ( i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a sovereign state located in East Asia.
It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party, with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The PRC also claims Taiwan – which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity – as its 23rd province, a claim which is controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan. Etymology History Prehistory Early dynastic rule.
History of China. Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization.
With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations. The written history of China can be found as early as the Shang Dynasty (c. 1700–1046 BC), although ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian (ca. 100 BC) and Bamboo Annals assert the existence of a Xia Dynasty before the Shang. Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy further developed during the Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 BC). The Zhou Dynasty began to bow to external and internal pressures in the 8th century BC, and the kingdom eventually broke apart into smaller states, beginning in the Spring and Autumn Period and reaching full expression in the Warring States period. Prehistory Paleolithic Neolithic.
Tang Dynasty. History Establishment Administration and politics Initial reforms Taizong set out to solve internal problems within the government which had constantly plagued past dynasties.
Building upon the Sui legal code, he issued a new legal code that subsequent Chinese dynasties would model theirs upon, as well as neighboring polities in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. The Tang had three departments (Chinese: 省; pinyin: shěng), which were obliged to draft, review, and implement policies respectively. Tang era gilt-gold bowl with lotus and animal motifs Although the central and local governments kept an enormous number of records about land property in order to assess taxes, it became common practice in the Tang for literate and affluent people to create their own private documents and signed contracts. Qing Dynasty. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Northeastern China, historically known as Manchuria.
In the late sixteenth century, Nurhachi, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Jurchen clans into "Banners," military-social units and forming a Manchu people. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of southern Manchuria and declared a new dynasty, the Qing. In 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital Beijing. Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan dynasty (Chinese: 元朝, Modern Yuán Cháo; Mongolian: Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus, Их Юань улс, Ikh Yuanʹ Üls) also Mongol dynasty, was the empire established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borjigin clan, after he conquered the Southern Song dynasty in China.
Although the Mongols had ruled territories which included today's northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Chinese style. Zhou Dynasty. During the Zhou dynasty, the use of iron was introduced to China, though this period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making.
The dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. History Foundation Ming Dynasty. Chinese Civil War. The war represented an ideological split (Left vs.
Right) between the Communist CPC, and the KMT's brand of Nationalism. The civil war continued intermittently until late 1937, when the two parties formed a Second United Front to counter a Japanese invasion. China's full-scale civil war resumed in 1946, a year after the end of hostilities with Japan. After four more years, 1950 saw the cessation of major military hostilities—with the newly founded People's Republic of China controlling mainland China (including Hainan), and the Republic of China's jurisdiction being restricted to Taiwan, Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu and several outlying islands.
Historian Odd Arne Westad says the Communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang Kai-shek, and because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China. Background Northern Expedition and KMT-CPC split NRA soldiers marching. Communist Party of China. While the CPC is still committed to communist thought, mainstream foreign opinion believes the party to be non-ideological.
Quotations from Chairman Mao. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (simplified Chinese: 毛主席语录; traditional Chinese: 毛主席語錄; pinyin: Máo zhǔxí yǔlù), is a book of selected statements from speeches and writings by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party, published from 1964 to about 1976 and widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution.
The most popular versions were printed in small sizes that could be easily carried and were bound in bright red covers, becoming commonly known in the West as the Little Red Book. It is considered to be one the books with the largest number published in history. Publication process Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung was originally compiled by an office of the PLA Daily (People's Liberation Army Daily) as an inspirational political and military document. Zhou Enlai. Zhou Enlai (pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade-Giles: Chou En-lai; IPA: [tʂóʊ ə́nlǎɪ]; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976.
Zhou served under Mao Zedong and was instrumental in consolidating the control of the Communist Party's rise to power, forming foreign policy, and developing the Chinese economy. Mao dominated any gathering; Zhou suffused it. Mao's passion strove to overwhelm opposition; Zhou's intellect would seek to persuade or outmaneuver it. Mao was sardonic; Zhou penetrating. Mao thought of himself as a philosopher; Zhou saw his role as an administrator or a negotiator. Early life Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping (Pinyin: Dèng Xiǎopíng, [tɤŋ˥˩ ɕjɑʊ˩ pʰiŋ˧˥] ( ); 22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a politician and reformist leader of the People's Republic of China who, after Mao's death led his country towards a market economy. Jiang Zemin. Hu Jintao. During his term in office, Hu reintroduced state control in some sectors of the economy that were relaxed by the previous administration, and has been conservative with political reforms. Along with his colleague, Premier Wen Jiabao, Hu presided over nearly a decade of consistent economic growth and development that cemented China as a major world power.
He sought to improve socio-economic equality domestically through the Scientific Development Concept, which aimed to build a "Harmonious Socialist Society" that was prosperous and free of social conflict. Meanwhile, Hu kept a tight lid on China politically, cracking down on social disturbances, ethnic minority protests, and dissident figures. In foreign policy, Hu advocated for "China's peaceful development", pursuing soft power in international relations and a business-oriented approach to diplomacy.
Through Hu's tenure, China's influence in Africa, Latin America, and other developing regions has increased. Early life
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Birds are capable of extraordinary behavioral feats, from solving complex puzzles to tool making. There may be good reason for that. A new study shows that, pound for pound, birds pack more neurons into their small brains than mammals, including primates.
With much of our attention focused the rise of advanced artificial intelligence, few consider the potential for radically amplified human intelligence (IA). It’s an open question as to which will come first, but a technologically boosted brain could be just as powerful — and just as dangerous – as AI.
New research shows the brain’s memory capacity is ten times greater than previous estimates. That means it’s in the petabyte range—which puts it close to World Wide Web territory.
This video shows us what happens when a kid has to judge someone else’s reaction. Surprisingly, even a baby can do this, and this test shows how scientists find that out.
There’s this persistent notion that we use a mere 10 percent of our brains at any given moment. If only we could tap into more of the magnificent, squishy machine in our heads, we’d become quicker, cleverer versions of ourselves.
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The struggle on the Czech-German language border 1880-1940.
The English Historical Review, 109, (433), . (doi:10.1093/ehr/CXI.433.914).
Full text not available from this repository.
An analysis of the struggle and mentality of Czech and German nationalist activists on the Czech-German language border (1880-1940). The article focuses on three sections of the border as case studies and assesses how far the claims of the activists matched the realities on the ground and how far their work fomented anatagonism between Czechs and Germans
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Feliz Cinco de Mayo!
Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day (which is celebrated on September 16). Actually, Cinco de Mayo is meant to commemorate an 1862 skirmish called the Battle of Puebla. Led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, a rag-tag group of Mexican militiamen defeated a well-equipped contingent of French forces outside the village of Puebla. Although the Battle of Puebla was minor — and the overarching conflict lasted more than five years afterwards — the victory was viewed as symbolic of Mexican tenacity and independence.
Like St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo (as we know it) has evolved as an American holiday and is distinct from its Mexican counterpart. In Mexico, the day is celebrated primarily in (and near) the town of Puebla with parades, speeches, and reenactments. In the US, the holiday rose to popularity during the ‘50s and ‘60s as a way to build cultural bridges, express Chicano pride, and voice anti-imperialist sentiments. During the ‘80s Cinco de Mayo saw widespread commercialization and developed into the full-blown, Corona-sponsored event we know today.
Ultimately, Cinco de Mayo is about a lot of things. Yes, it’s a great day to kick back with some chips and guacamole. But it’s also about something much bigger: It is a day for Mexican-Americans — and other Latinos — to bond over common culture, and to share that culture with others. It’s a day for community celebration.
Join the celebration by heading to the National Mall between 12 noon and 6pm today for the National Cinco de Mayo Festival. There will be music, dancing, arts & crafts, food, games, and more.
You can also learn more about the cultural legacy underlying Cinco de Mayo by checking out these Trinity resources:
Cycles of conflict, centuries of change: crisis, reform, and revolution in Mexico / Ed. Elisa Servín, Leticia Reina & John Tutino
Many Mexicos / Lesley Byrd Simpson
Mexican postcards / Carlos Monsiváis; Trans. John Kraniauskas
The silver galleons: Mexico, heart of two ocean trade 1565-1815 / Houston Museum of Natural Science, Mexican Cultural Institute Washington
Treasures of ancient Mexico / Maria Antonieta Cervantes
The eagle and the virgin: Nation and cultural revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940 / Ed. Mary Kay Vaughan and Stephen E. Lewis
Mexico / William Weber Johnson
For more titles, browse the shelves in room 101 of the library. Look under call numbers beginning with 972 and/or F1200 for materials relating to Mexico and Mexican history. Or, search the catalog for “Mexico” under “Subject Heading” and browse the resulting list of topics
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Noh or Nō (Japanese: 能) is the oldest surviving form of classical Japanese musical drama. It has been performed since the fourteenth century. Together with the closely-related kyogen farce, it evolved from various popular, folk and aristocratic art forms, including Chinese acrobatics, dengaku, and sarugaku and was performed at temples and shrines as part of religious ceremonies. During the second half of the fourteenth century, Noh was established in its present form by Kan'ami and his son Zeami Motokiyo, under the patronage of the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.
Noh dramas are highly choreographed and stylized, and include poetry, chanting and slow, elegant dances accompanied by flute and drum music. The stage is almost bare, and the actors use props and wear elaborate costumes. The main character sometimes wears a Noh mask. Noh plays are taken from the literature and history of the Heian period and are intended to illustrate the principles of Buddhism.
Noh is the earliest surviving form of Japanese drama. Noh theater grew out of a combination of sarugaku, a type of entertainment involving juggling, mime, and acrobatics set to drums and associated with Shinto rituals; dengaku (harvest dances); Chinese-style dances; and traditional chanted ballads and recitations. Performances were sponsored by shrines and temples and were intended to illustrate religious teachings as well as to entertain. By the middle of the fourteenth century, Noh had evolved into the form in which it is known today.
In 1375 at Kasuge Temple, 17-year-old Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, a powerful shogun, witnessed a Noh performance by Kan’ami Kiyotsugu and his twelve-year-old son Zeami Motokiyo. He took a passionate interest in Noh, and under his patronage it developed into a highly refined and elegant form of drama. Zeami (1363–1443) wrote approximately one hundred plays, some of which may have originated with his father Kanami (1333–1385), and also a manual for Noh actors, published in 1423 and still used today by young performers. Zeami wrote in the upper-class language of the fourteenth century, but drew most of his subject material from the people, events and literature of the Heian period (794–1185), which was considered a sort of “Golden Age.” Many of Zeami’s plays are performed today, including Takasago and The Well Curb. The shogun also elevated the social status of Noh actors, and in an effort to restrict Noh to the aristocracy, commoners were forbidden to learn the music and dances.
During the Muromachi period (1339–1573) the repertoire of Noh expanded to more than one thousand plays. Originally a stage was constructed for each performance at a temple or shrine; by the end of the Muromachi period separate Noh theaters were being built. From 1467 to 1568, civil war prevented the shogunate from involving itself in cultural pursuits, but the popularity of tea ceremony and art forms such as Noh spread through the samurai class to all levels of society. With the return of peace, the shogunate once again took an interest in Noh, and both Hideyoshi and later Ieyasu Tokugawa included Noh performances in their coronation festivities. In 1647, the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa decreed that no variations to Noh plays would be permitted. Near the end of the Edo period (1600–1868), as the status of the samurai class declined, Noh became increasingly popular with the middle and lower classes. Government sponsorship of Noh ended with the Meiji reforms (1868–1912), but it continued to flourish under the private patronage of the nobility.
During intervals or between Noh plays, there is a half-hour kyogen performance. Kyogen is an elaborate art form in itself, derived from various traditions including sarugaku, kusemai (mime performed by Buddhist monks while reciting poetry), kagura (Shinto fan dances used to invoke the presence of God), eunen (dances performed by Buddhist priests at festivals), dengaku (harvest dances), bugaku (Imperial court dances from the twelfth century) and furyu (popular songs and dances of the fourteenth century, performed at intervals to ward off pestilence or achieve salvation). A kyogen may reinforce or explain the moral of the Noh play, or it may offer nonsensical comic relief.
Kyogen usually involves two characters on the stage, a shite and an ado (supporter). They can also be Taro Kajya and the Jiro Kajya, young male servants to royalty.
The Noh play takes place on a sparse stage made out of hinoki (Japanese cypress wood), and has four basic parts, hombutai (main stage), hashigakari (corridor), atoza (back stage) and giutaiza (side stage). The pillars built on each corner of the stage support the roof. The stage is bare with the exception of the kagami-ita, a painting of a pine tree at the back of the stage. There are many explanations for this tree, one of the more common being that it symbolizes a means by which deities were said to descend to earth in Shinto ritual.
Another unique feature of the stage is the hashigakari, the narrow bridge to the left of the stage that the principal actors use to enter the stage. There is a row of plants around the stage and along the hashigakari are three pine trees, representing positions at which an actor may stop and declaim while making an entrance to the main stage. The trees and plants are carried over from the early period when stages were constructed outdoors on the grounds of temples and shrines. Today most Noh plays are performed on indoor stages. There is still a tradition of illuminating the plays with bonfires when they are performed in the open at night.
Noh has a current repertoire of approximately 250 plays, which can be organized into five categories: plays about God, plays about warriors, plays about women, plays about miscellaneous characters (such as madwomen or figures from history and literature) and plays about demons. A Noh program usually includes one play from each category, in that order.
A Noh play portrays one emotion, such as jealousy, rage, regret or sorrow, which dominates the main character, the shite. All elements of the play (recitation, dialogue, poetry, gestures, dance and musical accompaniment) work together to build this emotion to a climax at the end of the play. Many plays depict the return of a historical figure, in a spiritual or ghostly form, to the site where some significant event took place during his life. Buddhists during the fourteenth century believed that a person who had died was tied to this earthly life as long as he continued to possess a strong emotion or desire, and that it was necessary to relive the scene in order to obtain “release.” During a Noh performance, the characters’ personalities are less important than the emotion being portrayed. This is conveyed through stylized movements and poses.
The progress of the play can be ascertained by the positions of the two main actors on the stage. The stage has almost no scenery, but actors use props, especially chukei (folding fans) to represent objects such as swords, pipes, walking sticks, bottles and letters. The main character wears an elaborate costume consisting of at least five layers, and sometimes a mask. He arrives on stage after all the other characters, appearing from the hashigakari, or bridge, behind the main stage.
Each actor occupies a designated position on the stage. A chorus of six to eight people sits to one side and echoes the characters’ words, or even speaks for them during a dance or other movement. Four musicians sit behind a screen to the back of the stage; the four instruments used in Noh theater are the transverse flute (nohkan), hip-drum (okawa or otsuzumi), the shoulder-drum (kotsuzumi), and the stick-drum (taiko).
There are four major categories of Noh performers: shite, or primary actor; waki, a counterpart or foil to the shite; kyōgen, who perform the aikyogen interludes during the play; and hayashi, the musicians. There are also the tsure, companions to the shite; the jiutai, a chorus usually composed of six to eight actors; and the koken, two or three actors who are stage assistants. A typical Noh play will involve all these categories of actors and usually lasts anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours.
The waki are usually one or two priests attired in long, dark robes, and play the role of observers and commentators on behalf of the audience. A play usually opens with a waki who enters and describes the scene to the audience; all the scenes are actual places in Japan. The shite (main character) may then enter, dressed as local person, and explain the significance of the site to the waki. The shite then leaves and returns fully costumed in elaborate robes, with or without a mask.
Dances are an important element of many Noh plays. The dances are slow, and the style varies according to the subject matter of the play. They are usually solos lasting for several minutes. The ideal technique is to carry out the dance so perfectly that the audience is unaware that any effort is being made. Noh dancing is meant to be smooth and free flowing, like writing with a brush. The dancer performs a variety of kata, or movements, the most important of which is walking by sliding the foot forward, pivoting it up and then down on the heel. The highest compliment that can be paid to a Noh dancer is that his walking is good. Other movements include viewing a scene, riding a horse, holding a shield, weeping, or stamping. When a play contains the stamping movement, large clay pots are placed under the floor to enhance the acoustics. One movement is to “dance without moving.” The rhythm of movement is extremely important; the rhythm should grow and then fade like a flower blooming and withering. Some movements are so subtle that they cannot be taught; although dancers begin training in childhood, they are said to achieve their best performance in middle age.
Okina (or Kamiuta) is a unique play that combines dance with Shinto ritual. It is considered the oldest type of Noh play, and is probably the most often performed. It will generally be the opening work at any program or festival.
The Tale of the Heike, a medieval tale of the rise and fall of the Taira clan, originally sung by blind monks who accompanied themselves on the biwa, is an important source of material for Noh (and later dramatic forms), particularly for warrior plays. Another major source is The Tale of Genji, an eleventh-century work about the romantic entanglements of an emperor’s illegitimate son. Authors also drew on Nara and Heian period Japanese classics, and on Chinese sources. The most popular play in the Noh repertoire is Lady Aoi (Aoi no Ue), which is based on events from the Tale of Genji.
According to Zeami, all Noh plays should create an aesthetic ideal called yugen (“that which lies below the surface”), meaning subtle and profound spirit, and hana, meaning novelty. Noh truly represents the Japanese cultural tradition of finding beauty in subtlety and formality. The text of Noh dramas is full of poetical allusions, and the dances are slow and extremely elegant. The starkness of the bare stage contrasts with the rich beauty of the costumes and reflects the austere Buddhist lifestyle adopted by the aristocracy during the fourteenth century. The strict choreography, in which every detail is prescribed by tradition, is typical of many Buddhist art forms in which the essential meaning of a work of art never changes, and the audience gains a profound understanding by reflecting on it repeatedly. The Noh plays were intended to make the audience reflect on the transitoriness of earthly life and the importance of cultivating one’s spirit.
The aesthetics of Noh drama anticipate many developments of contemporary theater, such as a bare stage, the symbolic use of props, stylized movement, and the presence of commentators or stage-hands on the stage.
The masks in Noh (能面, nō-men, or 面, omote) all have names.
Usually only the shite, the main character, wears a mask. However, in some cases, the tsure may also wear a mask, particularly for female roles. Noh masks are used to portray females, youngsters, old men or nonhuman (divine, demonic, or animal) characters. A Noh actor who wears no mask plays a role of an adult man in his twenties, thirties, or forties. The side player, waki, wears no mask.
Noh masks cover only the front of the face and have small holes for the eyes, nostrils and mouth. They are lightweight, made of cypress wood, covered with gesso and glue, sanded down and painted with the prescribed colors for that character. Hair and the outlines of the eyes are traced with black ink. The facial expression of the masks is neutral. Before putting on the mask, the actor gazes at it for a long time to absorb its essence. When he dons the mask, the actor’s personality disappears and he becomes the emotion portrayed by the mask.
When used by a skilled actor, Noh masks have the ability to depict different emotional expressions according to head pose and lighting. An inanimate mask can have the appearance of being happy, sad, or a variety of subtle expressions. Many of the masks in use today are hundreds of years old. Noh masks are prized for their beauty and artistry.
There are about 1,500 professional Noh actors in Japan today, and the art form continues to thrive. The five extant schools of Noh acting are the Kanze (観世), Hōshō (宝生), Komparu (金春), Kita (喜多), and Kongō (金剛) schools. Each school has a leading family (iemoto) known as Sōke, whose leader is entitled to create new plays or edit existing songs. The society of Noh actors retains characteristics of the feudal age, and strictly protects the traditions passed down from their ancestors. Noh drama exists today in a form almost unchanged since the fourteenth century. Every movement in a Noh play is choreographed and usually conveys a symbolic meaning essential to the story. There is no improvisation or individual interpretation by the actors in a Noh play.
Traditionally all the actors in a Noh play were male. Recently Izumi Junko became the first female Noh performer, and also played the lead in a movie, Onmyouji, set in the Heian period.
All links retrieved January 21, 2015.
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Color Preference and Gender Research
While mostly dealing with font type and size, the effect of background textures and colors as factors of readability are examined. It is also noted that approximately 8% of males and 0.5% of females have some type of color deficit. A section on international web design includes information on color meanings in different cultures and the degree to which traditional masculine roles of assertiveness and competition are emphasized by color usage and by web design. For instance, in Japan and the United States, red indicates danger or anger; but in India, it means life and creativity. If a country supports traditional masculine roles, then the emphasis on gender roles is important. An extensive bibliography is provided.
Chattapadhyay, Amitava; Gorn, Gerald, & Darke, Peter. (2000). East, west, blue is best. Available: http://www.bm.ust.hk/newsletter/autumn2000/autumn00-10.html. Last accessed: 4/21/03.
In a series of market research studies, blue was found to be the best-liked color across cultures. Results also showed that there was far greater homogeneity in hue preference across countries and gender than thought. The studies also showed that higher chroma (more saturated) colors are preferred but that there is also a preference towards whiteness in colors, perhaps for the calming effect. Subjects from Hong Kong and Canada were used in this study. In choice of wrapping paper color, the occasion for the gift did play a part in selection of color, showing that the knowledge of convention influenced response. The results from the study suggest that there is “far greater opportunity for standardization in the usage of color globally” than originally thought.
Conroy-Liebman, M. (1992). The Antecedent Color Choice Model: An Examination of Emotional Responses to Color Stimuli and Predictors of Preference Formation. Dissertation. Drexel University.
This dissertation examined the effects of emotional responses to product specific color stimuli and assessed the relationships of these responses to product color preference formation. Actual product specific color stimuli were used in a “full factorial experimental design” with social class held constant for a balanced sample of males and females. Study results indicate that males and females exhibit distinctly different emotional responses to product specific color stimuli, but the results were not consistent across product categories. Emotional color responses are related to individual’s color preferences even when gender differences are not evident. The researchers conclude that emotional components should be examined when studying color preferences.
Dolsky, Stephanie. (1993). Adult Preferences for Combinations of Colors Used in the Design of Computer Displays. Masters Thesis. University of Alberta (Canada).
The purpose of the study was to investigate adult preferences for four colors presented on a computer display using gray background with subjects rating their preference for combinations of four colors using a base of eight colors: red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, magenta, and black. According to ANOVA analysis, the preferred color combinations were blue, red, purple, black; purple, magenta, black, yellow; and purple, blue, black, magenta. The least preferred combinations were orange, magenta, green, red; black, green, yellow, blue; and yellow, magenta, green, red. Gender and age showed no significant difference in results. The study determines that adults have distinct preferences for combinations of color as presented on a computer display.
Dorothy Shamonsky. (1999). The Influence of Computer Interface Aesthetics on Positive Affect in Users. http://architecture.mit.edu/~dorothy/projects/affectS99/index.html Last accessed: 4/21/03.
Different people, by how they express themselves, have apparently varying
degrees of sensitivity to aesthetics. Some people were very enthusiastic
about the aesthetic difference in the testing and some were unfazed. It
might be informative to test different groups who express these different
appreciation levels (computer programmers and architects for instance)
to see if the difference carries over into the scoring. It might address
the question, is aesthetic appreciation embedded in human nature, even
with those that are not consciously aware of it?
Fischler, Karen. (1998). Kids talk back. Adobe Magazine Summer, 41-45.
Brief discussion of what kids like in web design: bright colors, interactivity, small files with short downloads. No specifics on color preferences are given.
Hotzschlag, Molly. (2000). Color my World. Available: http://webtechniques.com/archives/2000/09/desi/. Last accessed: 4/21/03.
The use of color in a worldwide context is an element of web design that is often misunderstood or overlooked. Perception of color depends not only on the ability to see that color, but also on the interpretive context of emotional and cultural realities. Blue is the most globally accessible and safe color, perhaps because of its relationship to the sky and therefore, to deities. For some colors, cultural significance makes them more risky. For example, while pink is popular with both sexes in Japan, in East Indian and American cultures, pink signifies femininity. Purple and red are also colors with significant cultural meaning differences. Another important issue is that men and women’s reactions to color differ significantly. Web designers need to think carefully about what the colors they choose could be saying to their chosen audience.
Khouw, Natalia. (1995). The meaning of color for gender. Available: http://www.colormatters.com/khouw.html. Last accessed: 4/21/03.
Khouw reviews the research of gender differences in the response to color. Using slides of interior environments with different color palettes and a list of words describing the characteristics of these environments, Khouw’s analysis showed color response to be influenced by gender differences, especially in regard to combinations of color properties such as hue, value, and chroma. Rooms with high chromatic relationships were rated higher by men than by women and in general, men were more tolerant of the use of either chromatic or achromatic colors in interiors. An extensive review of literature of early color research is also included.
Lee, Seonsu & Barnes, James H. Jr. (1989/1990). Using color preferences in magazine Advertising. Journal of Advertising Research (December/January), 25-30.
Color is widely used in advertising to influence emotional behavior, and each color has a certain psychological effect on human beings. Using previous research, especially that of Luckiesh (1927), the researchers hypothesize that advertising using blues will appeal more to men and red will appeal more to women. Also, using research by Petterson (1982), they hypothesize that color preference is also impacted by race. Stating their hypotheses as null hypotheses, the researchers test their conjectures by using four types of magazines, those published for Whites, Afro-Americans, men, and women. Content analysis of the ads and the colors used formed the methodology. The researchers find that there are definite differences in the colors of advertising in magazines for the two races but not between male and female oriented magazines. Their research also seems to indicate that color is not being used to improve advertising response among targeted consumers. The recommend more research into gender and racial color preferences.
Marcus, Aaron & Gould, Emilie. (2000). Cultural dimensions and global web user-interface design: What? So what? Now what? Paper presented at the Sicth Conference on Human Factors and the Web, 19 June 2000, Austin, TX.
This article uses the classic study by Geert Hofstede of cultures in organizations and considers how they might affect user-interface design. Hofstede identifies femininity and masculinity as one of five dimensions of culture. Pertinent points examine cultural differences in regard to color meaning and masculinity/femininity as gender roles. He identifies countries with a strongly masculine culture and discusses websites that fit into both roles. Japan and Austria are considered countries with strongly masculine cultures while Sweden is the least masculine. No specific color recommendations are made although the importance of color is mentioned.
MarketingProfs.com. (2001). All that Glitters Is Not Sold. Available: http://marketingprofs.com/Perspect/trendlines2.asp. Last accessed: 4/21/03.
Highlights from Lee Eiseman’s keynote address at the 2001 International House-wares Show provides information on today’s most popular colors. For instance, orange is very popular in the European marketplace, but not as popular in the United States while yellow is almost universally happy and upbeat. Blue is regarded as the number one consumer favorite. Consumers base their purchases on a number of factors and color is one of the most important of these factors. Eiseman also categorizes colors as traditional, nurturing, tranquil, contemplative, whimsical, sensual, casual, and eclectic, all of which give different messages to the consumer.
Micro Academy. (1998). Color Preference. Available: http://www.coloracademy.co.uk/Subjects/Psychology/Pref1.htm. Last accessed: 4/21/03.
In summarizing some early tests of color preferences conducted since the early 20th century in regard to gender preference, early research on children found little difference in the preferences of boys and girls. Tests conducted by S.J. Warner in the 1940’s showed that females preferred pastel colors, pale and subdued mid-tones, and warm rather than cool and deep shades. Males in the survey preferred brilliant hue tints, light full colors, and cool rather than warm and greyed shades. The color preference theories of German scientist Max Luscher were also discussed. The extensive bibliography only includes research conducted prior to 1971 and the value of the article is primarily in the summarization of previous research.
Milne, Lisa & Greenway, Philip. (1999). Color in children’s drawings: The influence of age and gender. The arts in psychotherapy 26(4), 261-263.
The hypothesis of this study was that males and females differ in their use of color in drawings. The results showed that for females, the use of color did not vary significantly across the age groups, but that for males there was a significant difference in the use of color across age groups with males under 10.63 years tending to use color and males over that age tending not to use colors. These results suggest that males develop emotional inhibitions just prior to puberty while the emotional expression for females remains constant.
Morton, Jill. (1998). Color, the chameleon of the web. Available: http://www.colormatters.com/chameleon.html. Last accessed: 4/21/03.
Views the problems of accurate color representation caused by both operating systems and monitors and discusses the use of color as a communicator, especially in its symbolic representation. Also stresses that when color and form are combined, the symbolic power is increased. For example, in China a green hat signals that a man’s wife is cheating on him and in Japan, white carnations signify death. As a result, colors have the capacity to “mutate both technically and symbolically” on the web.
Pantone. (1999). Results of the Roper/Pantone Consumer Color Preference study. Available: http://pantone.com/products/products.asp?idArticle=123&idArea=16. Assessed: 11/08/01.
The Roper/Pantone Consumer Color Preference study reveals that blue is the country’s most popular color with 35% choosing it, although the hues were different for men and women. Green was the second most popular color with purple third. Red is viewed as the most exciting color and black as the most mysterious. The study also examined color preferences in clothing and the home.
Passig, David & Levin, Haya. (1999). Gender interest differences with multimedia learning interfaces. Computers in Human Behavior 15, 173-183.
In a study using kindergarten students, researchers found some marked gender differences in learning interests of different designs of multimedia interfaces. The males spent more time on task and looked for navigational buttons. Female subjects were more likely to ask for help and preferred games that included writing. The males preferred green and blues but were more interested in the movement of the game while girls preferred reds and yellows and were more interested in colorful screen filled with drawings.
Picariello, Martha; Greenberg, Danna; & Pillemer, David. (1990). Children’s sex-related stereotyping of colors. Child Development 61, 1453-1460.
A series of four studies examines children’s sex-related stereotyping of colors. In the first study, the children were given stuffed animals of different colors and asked to determine the sex of the animals. Their responses were consistent with adult color stereotypes. The second study involved color of clothing and both determining the sex of a child due to the color of the clothes and the impressions about a child because of the color of the clothes when the sex of the child was known. The last two studies found that color stereotyping was mild when compared to stereotyping based directly on sex. Color stereotyping did not show any regular age-related increase that was characteristic of sex-role stereotyping.
Scharff, Lauren & Hill, Alyson. (1999). Readability of websites with various foreground/background color combinations, font types and word styles. Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. 4, 123-130.
While no findings on gender color preferences are presented, the research into readability of websites in regard to color combinations, background texture, and font size contributed to developing the research questionnaire, especially in the summary of research on color and web design.
Singh, Vaishali. (2000). Color design for the web. Available: http://www.coolhomepages.com/cda/color/ Last accessed: 4/21/03.
Brief discussion of elements of web design in regard to use of colors. Section on gender quotes article by Natalie Khouw. Other sections include use of colors to determine site’s mood and personality, use of color to set an identity, color in context with emotional and cultural realities, juxtaposition of colors, natural associations of colors, and use of white.
Principal Investigator: Kay E. V. Vandergrift, Professor
Research Team: Janet Hilbun, Ph.D. Student and Graduate Assistant; Lin Lin, Ph.D. Student and Teaching Assistant; Alex Daley, Manager, Information Technology Services; Jane Anne Hannigan, Professor Emerita, Columbia University, Consultant (Members of the team conducting the actual research have passed the Human Subjects Certification Program)
Photography: Lin Lin
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, SCILS - Rutgers University
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Stem Cell Therapy
Stem cell therapy is promising yet there is misunderstanding regarding the current state of its readiness for treatment of cerebral palsy. There are only two institutions in the United States conducting carefully designed research trials of stem cells in cerebral palsy but there are a number of clinics outside the US offering this therapy.
Recently Dr. Luigi Titomanlio and colleagues and colleagues published an excellent review of stem cell therapy for neonatal brain injury, one cause of cerebral palsy (Titomanlio L et al. Ann Neuorl 2011:70:698-712. As this review was intended for a medical audience, it is somewhat technical. However, it does explain the many aspects of stem cell therapy and summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding their use. I asked Drs. Gordon Worley and Jessica Sun from Duke University to comment on this article. Afterwards, I will provide less technical comments on stem cell treatment in cerebral palsy and list several excellent on-line sources of dependable information.
This European review of stem cell therapy for neonatal brain injury is written for physicians interested in learning about where we stand now. Background about the five different types of stem cells that are used in animal experiments to treat neonatal injury is provided. These types are neural stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells harvested from bone marrow, and umbilical cord blood stem cells. Each has some advantages and some problems for cell therapy, as discussed in the paper.
Strategies for use of stem cells in newborns are presented. Obstacles that need to be studied are cell dose, timing of transplantation, route of administration (directly into the brain or other), and assessment of mechanism of action. An issue that needs to be determined by animal studies is whether stem cells after injury improve outcome (when they have been shown to) by “paracrine” effects, that is, by secretion of growth and differentiation factors that stimulate endogenous regeneration, or by engraftment (the stem cells themselves forming the neural cell elements). Potential complications of engraftment of some kinds of stem cells are neuroblastoma (with human neural stem cell transplantation), teratoma (with embryonic stem cell transplantation), and acute and chronic rejection (with neural stem cell transplantation).
Clinical trials of stem cell therapy in neonates with brain injury were reviewed. All studies are preliminary. The authors conclude that “based on animal models of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, human cord blood cells and mesenchymal stem cells (MCS) may be the most promising stem cells, as they are effective and potentially available for human studies. Human cord blood stem cells have advantages over MCS that may support their use for neonatal insults.”
We at Duke are conducting a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an intravenous infusion of a child’s own umbilical cord blood in young children with cerebral palsy, ages 12 to 72 months. The safety and feasibility of an intravenous infusion of autologous cord blood in children with acquired brain injuries was demonstrated in a “lead up study” to the clinical trial. The trial is a double-blind placebo controlled study, with crossover at one year. The placebo infusion looks and even smells like the cord blood infusion. Three challenges we have faced in designing a robust trial are: parents willingness to have their children randomized to placebo treatment; defining eligibility criteria that allow assessment of endpoints without unduly limiting enrollment and assessing change due to cellular therapy above what is expected in the development trajectories of children with CP. Gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, and speech and language capabilities are assessed objectively with accepted measures. MRI with DTI and tractography provide objective measures of neuroplasticity. Quality of life is also assessed.
We are actively recruiting subjects to participate in what we consider to be an important study. Interested parents or physicians with potential referrals are encouraged to e-mail Dr. Jessica Sun at firstname.lastname@example.org the Study Coordinator, or Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg at email@example.com for more information.
─ Gordon Worley, MD, Program in Neurodevelopmental Disability and Jessica Sun, MD, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (Bone Marrow Transplant Service), Duke University
Dr. Michael Fehlings and colleagues at the University of Toronto have published an online newsletter, aimed at a non-scientific or health professional audience, on stem cell treatments for cerebral palsy. More detail can be obtained at that website. Here are some of the key points:
- Transplanting stem cells into the brain could support and/or replace deteriorating brain tissue during the process of white matter damage in cerebral palsy.
- Animal models used in research on cerebral palsy have shown that many types of stem cells can be used to reduce damage and return motor function after brain injury.
- New technological improvements make it possible for skin cells to be taken from a patient and turned into the exact cell needed to repair injured tissue, getting rid of the need for tissue donor waiting lists and anti-rejection drugs.
- Once stem cells are put in, they can never be removed.
- There are no proven stem cell treatments available for patients with cerebral palsy right now, and it will take a number of years for safe and effective therapies to make it to the clinic.
- Unregulated clinics outside of North America are offering stem cell transplants; however, these clinics have shown no scientific proof that their procedures offer any effect beyond placebo effects and/or normal development.
- Stem cell transplantation would probably have to be performed within the window of time between the first appearance of injury and irreparable loss of neurons.
Here are some excellent websites for information on stem cell treatments that you can trust.
International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
A world leader for stem cell research. A very authoritative and helpful source of practical information. http://www.isscr.org/
U.S. National Institutes of Health
A government-sponsored initiative providing upt-to-date information on stems cells in regenerative medicine. http://stemcells.nih.gov/
A bilingual (French and English) website linking information and new knowledge on childhood disability to service providers and families.
Current North American Clinical Trials on stem cells for cerebral palsy
Duke University http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01147653
Georgia Health Sciences University http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01072370
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How Addiction to Alcohol and Drugs Develops
Teen substance use can progress, sometimes rapidly, from experimenting or occasional use to abuse and dependence (addiction).
Teens try alcohol, cigarettes, chemicals (inhalants), and other drugs for many of the same reasons that adults use them, to relax or feel good. But they also have other reasons for drug use, such as curiosity, rebellion against their parents, or seeking acceptance from their peers.
Often the first substance used by a teen is alcohol or cigarettes, and many times these are obtained from the teen's own home. Some parents expect and tolerate experimentation with these substances because at least the teen is not using "drugs." But these substances are considered gateway drugs, because they can lead to the use of other drugs.
Most teens never go any further than experimenting with substance use. But if experimentation begins before the age of 15, a teen is likely to continue and to develop problems related to use. Other things that make a teen likely to develop a substance use problem include:
- Using a substance alone rather than in a peer group.
- Having untreated behavioral problems or psychiatric conditions.
At this stage, teens frequently seek opportunities to use the chosen substance or substances. Also, a teen may start to need more and more of the substance to achieve the same effect: this is called tolerance.
Often the first signs of substance abuse are school problems, such as a sudden increase in absences or falling grades. The teen may also have problems at home, including conflicts with parents. Teens often give up activities that they enjoy in order to use the substance. Also, teens may use the substance in school or in situations that lead to legal problems. They may sell drugs as well as use them.
Substance abuse is a condition that needs treatment to prevent the progression to dependence (addiction). Over half of teens who abuse drugs or alcohol eventually become addicted. Although treatment for substance dependence can be effective, it is best to intervene before dependence develops.
Substance dependence (addiction) is physical or psychological or both. It results in increased tolerance and in withdrawal symptoms if the dependent person stops using the substance.
As your teen progresses toward dependence, he or she experiences increasing difficulty carrying out normal daily responsibilities and routines. Getting and using the substance may take up a large portion of the teen's activities, regardless of the consequences. Over time, tolerance increases, and the teen loses control over use of the substance.
At this stage, your teen's physical appearance or health may change or get worse. These changes may include weight loss, dental or gum disease, or complexion problems. Your teen may show less interest in personal hygiene or clothing. Lying about alcohol and drug use is common. And the teen often becomes isolated from family and friends. Since abusing drugs can be expensive, the teen may steal from family members or sell drugs to support his or her habit. Your teen may even stop using the substance for 2 to 3 weeks at a time, creating the false belief that his or her use is under control.
Substance dependence is a lifelong (chronic) disease, which can be controlled with the help of professional treatment. Returning to use after treatment (relapse) is common. And treatment may have to be repeated several times. Usually a long-term support system is needed for the teen to maintain a lifestyle that does not include substance use.
To learn more about Healthwise, visit Healthwise.org.
© 1995-2016 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
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FSC622 Law and Criminal Procedure
Lead Faculty: Dr Ismail M. Sebetan
Course DescriptionThis course is an examination of the foundation for understanding Constitutional laws. The course will cover various sections of the Constitution and how law enforcement officials may obtain evidence, and conduct a search and seizure.
- Describe the legal system and the role that the U.S. Supreme court plays in affecting the criminal justice system.
- Know how to research the law and find significant federal and state decisions affecting the criminal justice system.
- Identify from fact patterns what possible constitutional issues may be involved in determining the viability of a successful prosecution.
- Describe and identify the significant constitutional and statutory rules that may affect the civil right and civil liberties of citizens including the meaning of First amendments freedom of speech and freedom of association and the Second amendments right to bear arms.
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Thank you, ABC Exercise Cards, for giving us a fun and burn-some-steam kind of activity this afternoon!
After a rainy weekend and another rainy–but exciting!–morning at the College Park Aviation Museum with Owen’s class, I found that by the afternoon, my kids had crazy energy to burn.
After playing dress-ups and swinging from the downstairs rings, we used this set of ABC Exercise Cards to keep us busy, make us laugh a lot, and get little brains moving–and reading–along the way.
- ABC Exercise Cards: These are simple cards each with an uppercase and lowercase letter on them and an action that begins with that letter.
They are similar to our Action, Action 123 Cards, but these cards have the pictures already included and have one action for each letter of the alphabet. And we didn’t use a dice for this game to indicate the number of times to do each action, but you certainly could.
If you’d like to download a set of the ABC Exercise Cards, please visit Homeschool Share, a fantastic site rich with resources for parents and teachers. I found them under ‘My Body Lapbook‘.
Owen’s rockin it out, running in a zig-zag. Obviously.
Owen was in a game-playing mood, so when he suggested we an alphabet board game that we’ve been playing every day (almost for the last two weeks), I said, Hey, I have an idea. I think we have a game that has the letters of the alphabet in it, but it will get us moving and grooving. And I think we all have some energy to burn. Let me get it.
I dumped the bag of cards onto the floor and said, Now here I have a card with an action for each letter of the alphabet. When it’s your turn, you’ll pick a card, we’ll read it, and then you’ll do that action. And what do you think we’ll do with the card after we’re finished?
Owen yelled, Put it in a line! (He has such a good memory from all of our ABC- Style Hide-and-Seek playing. . . )
Exactly, I said. We’ll put the cards in alphabetical order. And if we need to, we can just sing the ‘ABC Song’ to help us. Okay, the first person to spot a circle in the room goes first. Ready, search!
Owen found a circle first, so he led the party, and we went through the entire pile of cards, jumping, hopping on one foot, riding a unicycle (on our backs), waving our arms (like windmills), acting like an inchworm, running in place, and touching our toes–all from A to Z.
Maddy, in her princess shoes, is hopping on one pretty little foot.
When we finished the first time, Maddy and Owen immediately asked to play a second time (Cora was too busy dressing up and playing kitchen). I said, Let’s play tomorrow. Why don’t you go through the pile and read and follow the cards you want? Soon it’ll be dinnertime.
And so they did, and soon it was, and as soon as I slapped my husband five, I grabbed my bags and headed out the door to tutor. A busy, happy Monday it was.
Not only did these cards get us moving, but they also reinforced the all-important letters of the alphabet. Putting the letters in alphabetical order after we completed each card gave Maddy and Owen more practice in understanding where the letters of the alphabet fit in relation to each other, and pictures next to the action instructions made reading easier.
Other variations of this activity (that we’ll probably try later this week) include:
- hiding the cards around the room and having the kiddos find them;
- trying to do the actions in order, from A to Z and then Z to A;
- having the kids spell their names with the cards and then complete the actions for their name;
- spelling our last name and then completing the actions together as a family ‘routine’ (just kidding. . . but not really);
- giving the kids 3-5 cards and then allowing them to pick an action, demonstrate that action, and then we could guess what letter they had.
Who knew ABC Exercise Cards could be so much fun?
A long while back, I found the ABC Exercise Cardson someone’s website, and (gulp!) I’m not sure whose site it was or who actually created this great resource. However, you can download the same pdf that I downloaded and saved by clicking here: ABC Exercise Cards.
My most sincere apologies go out to the talented creator of these cards, which I did link back to Homeschool Share. I feel strange sharing them without proper linking–which I do feel is extremely important in the world of educational resource sharing–but I am sharing them today because we used them, because I think they’re awesome, and because with rainy spring on its way, I think many others may want to use them, too. Anyone who knows where they originated, please let me know, and I’ll link more properly.
UPDATE, 9/10/11: I did hear back from the sweet Ami, of Homeschool Share, and she asked that I direct readers to The Homeschool Share site, My Body Lapbook, to download this resource. Thank you, Ami, for sharing your incredible work at HSS!!
Happy ABC Exercising and sneaking in a little bit of learning!
Want a few more alphabet activities? Check out:
- backyard alphabet hunt
- homemade alphabet book
- leafy letter learning
- ABC hunt
- on the road ABC hunt
- lowercase ABC hunt
- build your own bingo: uppercase and lowercase match
- ABC cards and clothespin match
- alphabet letter splash
- alphabingo (play with lowercase letters)
- alphabet letter lids
- leafy outdoor alphabet hunt
- build your own board game
- clothespin letter match
- 10 fun ways to learn the alphabet
Follow us on pinterest, and check out our literacy pins:
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By Peter Oliver
Every Saturday morning, from May into October, the center of Waitsfield is transformed into a farmers market, where local farmers — as well as artisans producing non-foodstuff items — gather to sell their goods. Valley residents and visitors alike (along with many dogs) make a weekly ritual of attending, almost as if it were a secular religious gathering.
The market, however, is more than just an event for social mingling and stocking up on locally grown food products for the week. It is a key showcase of the current health of the Mad River Valley farming community.
There have been many stories in the last few decades about the decline of the American family farm, and in many ways that trend extends into Vermont. Over the last 30 years, farm acreage in Vermont has declined by about 25 percent, and agriculture, once Vermont’s chief industry, has given way to tourism.
But over the last 200 years, farming in Vermont and the Mad River Valley has been in a state of constant flux. In the mid-1800s, sheep farming was the big thing, and at one time, roughly 4,000 sheep grazed on Warren pastures. That number is more than three times the town’s present-day human population.
Toward the end of the 19th century, dairy farming took over as the leading agricultural activity, and in 1880 in Waitsfield alone there were 135 farms. By 1870, about 70 percent of all Vermont land had been cleared for agriculture.
As a sign of how times have changed, however, roughly 80 percent of the state’s land today is classified as forested. And the total number of dairy farms in Vermont today is about a third the number 30 years ago. That might suggest a farming decline, but here’s the curious counterpoint: the total number of Vermont farms in the last 30 years has actually gone up by about 20 percent.
While larger farms — those of 180 acres and more — are on the decline, the number of farms under 10 acres has almost quadrupled, according to the most recent agricultural census. It has been almost 15 years since the last Valley farm of more than 1,000 acres closed its doors.
Susan Klein, head of the Valley chamber of commerce, calls the smaller operations “boutique farms,” offering “specialized or organic products.” The Waitsfield town plan for 2010-2015 seems to confirm this, pointing out a “trend toward increasing numbers of small, diversified farms and local food production.”
This is good news to someone like Robin McDermott, a cofounder of the Mad River Valley Localvore Project. In the last few years, several smaller farms or producers of specialty agricultural products have opened, offering everything from vegetables to flowers to mushrooms to specialty cheese. “There are a lot of exciting new things going on,” says McDermott.
In many cases, the excitement comes not just in what these new farms are producing but in the ways in which they were enabled to come into being. The growing of shiitake mushrooms at Nick Laskovsi’s Dana Forest Farm in Waitsfield, for example, has been spurred on by a grant and support from the University of Vermont’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture. According to McDermott, the recently opened Solstice Farm in Moretown has the Vermont Land Trust to thank. The Small Step Farm in Waitsfield recently opened primarily to supply vegetables for the restaurant at the Big Picture.
Perhaps the most interesting of these enabling arrangements is the partnership between the Kingsbury Market Garden, straddling the Warren-Waitsfield town line on Route 100, and the Vermont Foodbank. The Foodbank owns the land, but in exchange for 30,000 pounds of root vegetables to be produced on the roughly seven tillable acres, proprietors Aaron Locker and Suzanne Slomin can operate a for-profit vegetable-farming business.
How has this swell of newcomers affected some of the farms — such as the Gaylord and Harshorn farms — that have been well-established in the Valley for years? McDermott concedes that, with new farms emerging, “There is some overlap. But people are trying not to step on anyone’s feet.” Indeed, the Hartshorn and Gaylord farms, both active participants at the farmers market and suppliers to local restaurants, have been attentive to current trends and have switched to certified organic production in recent years.
The vitality of Valley farming extends beyond the economic success of local farmers. It also is an essential component of what makes the area unique within the ski-and-summer-resort world. The balance between the Valley’s resort attractions and amenities and its rural roots is something that has become harder to find, where elsewhere resort development so often creeps outward to consume the rural landscape.
“The strength of the Mad River Valley is that it is a collection of real, vibrant communities not beholden to the resort,” says Adam Greshin, Sugarbush Executive Vice-President who also represents the Valley in the state legislature. “The farm economy is important to the resort — it’s a part of our brand. We are intimately related to the Vermont brand — vital, beautiful, and rural.”
The Vermont brand — if that’s what you want to call it — is on display every Saturday in the summer from 9am to 1pm at the Waitsfield Farmers Market.
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| 0.959656
| 1,137
| 2.53125
| 3
|
A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered that they can improve data speeds over cellular networks by reducing dropped packets without any new or added hardware. Using just algebraic equations, the researchers can transfer dropped packets to the receiving device in order to solve the problem of a missing chunk, which then frees up the network for other tasks.
Dropped packets are a huge culprit when it comes to clogging up network bandwidth, so letting the device itself solve the problem of missing data frees up the cellular network. Plus, the load put on the devices themselves are said to not be stressful at all for the devices, meaning that solving dropped packets takes little effort and few resources.
This also means devices can weave data streams from WiFi and LTE together, instead of having to use one or the other at any given time. The technology has already begun testing at MIT and researchers are seeing positive results. When 2% of data packets were dropped, speeds were boosted from 1Mbps to 16Mbps. When 5% of data packets were dropped, bandwidth increased from 0.5Mbps to 13.5Mbps.
Companies are apparently already licensing the technology, but MIT is still working on it to improve it further, and there are still a few bugs that need to be kinked out. Sadly, since the project is still under development, the researchers are subject to nondisclosure agreements, so we most likely won't know more about the tech until it's ready to be deployed.
Image via Flickr
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<urn:uuid:0fb5faf2-e8ed-493f-b6cc-d3d664e0deb3>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.slashgear.com/researchers-use-algebra-to-boost-bandwidth-reduce-network-congestion-24253775/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.964867
| 304
| 3.328125
| 3
|
Here Comes Urban Heat
16, 2000: As sweltering summer days linger just around the
corner, scientists are working to demonstrate the verity of Atlanta's
popular epithet - "Hotlanta."
Urban Atlanta can reach 5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit or higher than surrounding rural areas.
"Heat hunters" Dr. Dale Quattrochi and Dr. Jeff Luvall study the urban heat island effect for the Global Hydrology and Climate Center, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Above: Equipped with remote sensing technology developed for the space program, "heat hunters" fly NASA aircraft over urban areas, documenting patterns of heat formation in large metropolitan centers. This simulation shows how these remote sensing studies identify thermal "hot spots" in metropolitan Atlanta and its suburbs. It also shows potential weather phenomenon created by Atlanta's sizeable urban heat island.
Heat islands are created when city growth alters the urban fabric by substituting manmade asphalt roads and tar roofs and other features for forest growth. Trees provide shade and cool the air through evaporation. The hard, dark surfaces like pavement store heat during the day, heat that is then released at night, keeping the city hotter for longer periods of time. Air-conditioning is then kicked into overtime to combat the heat.
Quattrochi says that two major goals of their studies are to "understand how the characteristics of the urban landscape drive this urban heat island effect and how urbanization and growth shape the dynamics of the effect."
One concern is the ability of urban heat islands to create or alter weather patterns - specifically to cause thunderstorm activity.
The 1996 Olympics in Atlanta afforded scientists a chance to scrutinize data collected by the National Weather Service's ground-based meter used to predict weather for the athletes. Urban meteorologists Robert Bornstein and Qing Lu Lin of San Jose State University found that 5 of 9 days of precipitation were caused by the urban heat island effect.
By analyzing Landsat 7 images from the 1970s to the present, scientists can determine trends in urbanization and rising temperatures. They found that suburban development in Atlanta gobbled up 380,000 acres of trees from 1973 to 1992.
Right: Heat builds in a city when forests are cut down to build roads. Not only do paved roads hold in heat, cars also compound the problem by generating smog and more heat (inset). Photo credits: Department of Energy, Warren Gretz.
"If you believe in averages," says Quattrochi, "that's 55 acres of trees per day."
While much of the growth in Atlanta has been residential in nature, Quattrochi cautions that commercial and residential development often go hand-in-hand. As Atlanta expands, more trees are cleared to accommodate the growth. Trees are replaced with paved roads that retain heat and host the deluge of traffic -- traffic that now must travel the longest average daily commute in the nation.
Vehicle emissions and rising temperatures also contribute to an increase in ozone, a pollutant detrimental to the environment and human health. During last year's ozone season in Atlanta, which runs from the end of April to the end of September, the city suffered through 62 straight days of ozone alerts. Quattrochi says that, based on models, there is potential for a temperature decrease of 2 degrees Celsius in Atlanta to lower the ozone by 10 to 14 percent, a significant drop.
With no indication that urban sprawl will slow in the near future scientists are searching for ways to curb urban heat islands.
"Why do rooftops and asphalt have to be black?" asks Quattrochi.
Left: A worker installs white roofing on an Atlanta school. Photo credit: Department of Energy.
Quattrochi and other team members hope that state and local governments will use their findings as a springboard to adopt "cool community measures." These alternatives include planting trees and using reflective roofing materials that can reflect 60-80 percent of incoming sunlight, more politically viable options than air quality restrictions.
The 1996-2000 NASA-funded study in Atlanta, The Atlanta Land-use Analysis: Temperature and Air-quality (ATLANTA), has been mirrored by the Urban Heat Island Pilot Project (UHIPP). This study sequence, also funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency, has been conducted in Baton Rouge, Sacramento and Salt Lake City. Up next for satellite data analysis are Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Chicago, Nashville and Houston. Houston -- the nation's fourth largest and most heavily polluted city -- has no zoning laws.
Quattrochi professes an ulterior motive for his work. He is concerned with the prediction that by 2025, 80 percent of the world's population will live in cities.
"We need to make cities more sustainable, habitable environments -- for our kids, their kids and future progeny."
The Global Hydrology and Climate Center is a joint venture between government and academia to study the global water cycle and its effect on Earth's climate. Jointly funded by NASA and its academic partners, and jointly operated by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the Center conducts research in a number of critical areas.
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<urn:uuid:98f2bda1-1b1e-4b53-9943-713551d824b2>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/essd16mar_1m/
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en
| 0.928867
| 1,069
| 3.765625
| 4
|
Easy (to Sun Notch)
115 feet elevation gain
Open July to early November
Moderate (to Crater Peak)
6.8 miles round-trip
1010 feet elevation gain
Left: Cloudcap from Sun Notch.
These two uncrowded hikes on the south side of Crater Lake reveal the difference between a crater and a caldera. The 0.2-mile Sun Notch Trail climbs to a spectacular Crater Lake viewpoint above Phantom Ship’s craggy little island. But the astonishingly blue, 6-mile-wide lake you see here is not in a crater at all—it fills a caldera, a giant pit created by a mountain’s collapse. To see a true volcanic crater, take the nearby 3.2-mile path to Crater Peak, a cinder cone with a wildflower meadow in a cute little summit bowl. Pets are not allowed on either trail.
Start at the...
Much of Crater Lake’s geologic story is exposed at Sun Notch’s viewpoint. When eruptions started building Mt. Mazama 400,000 years ago, they began near here. Phantom Ship is a fragment of the volcanic plug from those early eruptions. As Mt. Mazama grew to an estimated height of 12,000 feet, the volcanic vents moved farther north, finally pouring out a thick dacite flow to create Llao Rock, the largest cliff visible across the lake. By then, glaciers were scouring deep U-shaped valleys into the mountain’s flanks. Sun Notch is a remnant of one of the largest of these glacial troughs, amputated when the mountain exploded 7700 years ago.
If you’d like to see a genuine crater after visiting Sun Notch, drive ...
This chapter taken from the book 100 Hikes in Southern Oregon.
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<urn:uuid:723f4eff-a128-4800-b93e-66663b9b6d06>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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https://sites.google.com/site/navilluspress/oregon-adventures/100-hikes-in-southern-oregon/diamond-crater-lake-hikes/crater-peak-hike
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.911272
| 390
| 2.671875
| 3
|
The Vietnam War and related political upheavals caused devastation throughout Southeast Asia. Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian families often had no choice but to seek a new life in America.
Vietnamese left on crowded boats, braving pirates. In refugee camps, they met with Mien and Hmong from Laos who had helped the CIA during the war and feared for their lives. Cambodians either fled the Khmer Rouge regime or left after it ended. These immigrants had to negotiate a new country with little notice. US government systems were swamped with new languages and cultures, and in Minneapolis and other cities, Hmong from Laos are still arriving.
Tune in to KFAI on Monday, July 2nd from 8:30 to 9:30pm for Refuge from War, a Crossing East special from PRI.
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<urn:uuid:f92ba012-3caa-429f-a919-4865f38c6a52>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://kfai.org/news/2007/07/21442
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en
| 0.975715
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The flood in Florence, Italy, in Nov., 1966, was among the greatest disasters in modern history in terms of the destruction of works of art. Conservators and restorers from all over the world applied emergency treatment to the treasures of painting, sculpture, and architecture that could be saved. Among those were five panels from the bronze doors of the Baptistery by Ghiberti, which had been ripped apart and ruined by the furious, oily waters. In replacing them experts made use of an exact replica of the doors in San Francisco. In 1972, Michelangelo's Pietá in St. Peter's, Rome, was attacked and mutilated by a madman with a hammer. The most delicate restoration work was required to make unobtrusive repairs on this masterpiece of sculpture. A number of well-known paintings also have been damaged by attackers in recent years, and these, too, have been restored as unobtrusively as possible. In a more recent emergency, a 1997 earthquake centered in the Italian town of Assisi damaged many works of art, most notably its 13th-cent. basilica. An international team worked on restoring its architectural and sculptural elements as well as its fragile frescoes. In late 1999 the newly earthquake-proofed and nearly completely restored basilica was reopened to the public; Giotto frescoes on two ceiling vaults still await restoration.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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<urn:uuid:3a76845a-acf0-4eb2-aeee-59b0edc82009>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/art-conservation-restoration-restoration-emergencies.html
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|
en
| 0.977763
| 301
| 3.046875
| 3
|
We had the opportunity to visit Sungai Merbok and Sungai Sepetang to study the mangrove ecosystem for our tropical ecology class. Mangroves are unique trees because they are adapted to live in saline conditions, as well as with changing tidal levels. They have unique root adaptations that will stabilize them in the soil and also allow for gas exchange. Mangroves are also prime habitat for fish, crabs, prawns, and other animals, because of the availability of shelter. When we arrived at the field site on the Merbok River, we took a boat (it was high tide) to observe the root systems from a distance, and to observe the wildlife of the river. In a series of ten traps, we caught a huge Tiger prawn, ikan gerut-gerut (a fish used in local dishes), juvenile jellyfish, and two horseshoe crabs. Along the river, there are many sustainable floating fisheries, and we stopped at one to feed the fish.
A second trip later in the afternoon was specifically for exploring the mangrove habitat, because the tide was low. At the first site we visited, there were many knee roots and a few buttress roots, which indicate the particular species of tree. There were small Grapsid crabs everywhere over the silt, and we observed a few other crab species as well, like a Fiddler crab. Getting on and off the boat was an adventure in itself, with no official dock and knee-deep mud on the river banks, but we made it to the second site, which was populated by mangroves of family Rhizophora, as indicated by their stilt roots. In observing the mangroves up close, it felt like we were in a National Geographic spread about exotic, tropical places, and it was amazing to experience them first-hand. Our last stop of the afternoon was at a mangrove replanting site, where the government had clear cut a section of mangroves, and we each got to try planting mangrove seedlings. Because the muddy silt was soft enough, all you had to do was find a big stick, stand it firmly in the ground, and make wide circles to create a hole for the mangrove seedling. Mangroves can be harvested for charcoal (we visited a kiln on our way to Matang), and are also clear cut to establish aquaculture ponds. As Malaysia becomes more developed and more industrialized, it will be interesting to see how this effects mangrove conservation.
After meeting with the locals at Kampung Sungai Bujang and attending a traditional Malay wedding, we drove south to Perak to see synchronized fireflies on the Sepetang River. The mangroves in this area is the best conserved site in Malaysia, and it has been under protection for many years. I’ve never seen a firefly before, so it was amazing to see so many fireflies at once! They live in a colony, usually in one or two trees. The male fireflies have synchronized flashes to attract the females. From the boat, it looked like dimmer, flashing Christmas lights. We talked about these later in class. The particular species of firefly (actually a beetle, pteroptyx tener) likes to colonize in a particular species of mangrove (sonnaratia caseolaris), which is another reason why habitat conservation is essential for so many species.
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<urn:uuid:e32f393c-0b80-4ad5-9fb5-28d6f9468c49>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
|
https://cice.blog.gustavus.edu/2014/04/03/merbok-and-matang-mangrove-ecology/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.971398
| 709
| 3.140625
| 3
|
When was the last time you hugged a tree? Ah, the texture of rough bark beneath your skin, the rustle of leaves overhead, the heady smell of sap rising. Come on, don’t be shy, we’re among arboreal friends here — and you might have done yourself a favor without even knowing it.
Researcher Geoffrey Donovan recently led a team in an interesting study looking at correlations between loss of trees and human health. What they found was certainly revealing: in a survey covering almost 1,300 U.S. counties where the emerald ash borer was destroying forests, in areas where trees declined, the human mortality rate, specifically for lower respiratory tract illness and cardiovascular illnesses, went up. This was after controlling for other factors that might be involved, like age, income and education.
In their abstract, the researchers noted that:
There was an increase in mortality related to cardiovascular and lower-respiratory-tract illness in counties infested with the emerald ash borer. The magnitude of this effect was greater as infestation progressed and in counties with above-average median household income. Across the 15 states in the study area, the borer was associated with an additional 6113 deaths related to illness of the lower respiratory system, and 15,080 cardiovascular-related deaths.
Don’t leap to conclusions here: correlation is not causation. While it might be tempting to say that fewer trees results in worse air (especially since we know trees do act to scrub the air and sequester carbon) and thus we might expect a higher rate of respiratory illness, for example, it’s not actually that simple. But the study does show that something interesting is going on here, and it might be worth taking a closer look.
Donovan’s work provided a great opportunity to actually see public health changes in action, which makes it rather unique. Thanks to a huge body of demographic data, there’s a lot of information on what human communities were like before the emerald ash borer invasion, and similar research provides information about environmental profiles and the nature of forests. As the invasion has moved through the country, it’s been tracked by researchers, while continuous public health reporting has kept pace in the human population. By combining the data, it’s possible to see an amazing cross-section of society at various points in the invasion, providing a very enlightening picture of what’s happening at any given point in time.
We’ve known for decades that trees play a vital role in the environment, and that the more diverse nature is in a given region, the better. A managed plantation for tree harvesting, for example, doesn’t provide as many environmental benefits as a greenbelt or wildland forest offering habitat for lots of plants and animals. Conservation of forests and nature preserves has long been considered important for intrinsic environmental reasons as well as practical ones; for example, more trees helps keep temperatures more stable, requiring less artificial temperature control. Likewise, maintaining forests and undergrowth prevents topsoil loss, and offers habitat to animals that might otherwise be pushed into urban areas, where they could become a nuisance.
What Donovan is suggesting is that it’s possible trees may also have some direct public health benefits too, and it may be necessary to start thinking of them as part of the public health framework. Not just in the sense that being around trees feels good, but in the sense that trees may actually be creating a more healthy environment for the people who live around them. In a conversation with PBS, Donovan said that:
There’s been some famous research showing that people recover faster from surgery and take fewer drugs if their hospital room has a view of trees. Other research — including some of my own — has shown that mothers with more trees around their homes are less likely to have underweight babies. It’s been shown that if you put people in a natural environment, it can reduce their blood pressure, heart rate and other measures of stress.
The study allowed for research of a very broad scope across a broad period of time, allowing Donovan and his team to pull together some extremely useful data. While it’s too early to rush to conclusions, his evidence does seem to suggest that it’s a good time to start thinking about planting trees and supporting them into adulthood to start replacing those destroyed by the emerald ash borer and other infectious pests. And, of course, it’s critical to protect the United States and other regions of the world from further deforestation, because, it turns out, trees are more than just pretty carbon sinks: they may just be important mediators of human health.
Photo from Thinkstock
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<urn:uuid:0ff44987-8be9-43bd-8afd-709337286b5f>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.care2.com/causes/go-on-hug-a-tree-it-might-be-good-for-you.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.963783
| 967
| 3.296875
| 3
|
Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
|| Teacher Perspectives:
Jose Velazquez: I think what I would do differently next time is broaden discussion on the powers of the mayor as opposed to the city council, so that we could tie in exactly what the mayor can do about certain issues. For example, a group was talking about the minimum wage. The minimum wage is a federal issue, but it’s also a state and local issue. [Another] issue came up around the Board of Education and the powers of the mayor over education in the city of Newark. If I had to redo the lesson I would give them background information on the whole debate over who should control the Board of Education. The reason I brought it up in this discussion is not that I expected them to know about that debate, but to get their views as to whether they felt the mayor should have input and decision-making power over issues of education. I think we made the connection but if we had to do it over again, I would probably bring in a more formal discussion of the powers of the mayor in relationship to the Board of Education as an example of the limits of the power of the mayor and also highlight the powers of the mayor in a mayor-council relationship. I think students understand that there is a city council and there is a mayor but the limits of the mayor’s power would be something I would introduce in a much more formal way.
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<urn:uuid:3198eb4f-538e-42c1-af29-e25d25da84a5>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.learner.org/workshops/civics/workshop2/teacherperspec/learned.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.98348
| 308
| 2.921875
| 3
|
China in Space
This page is dedicated to the manned space program and flights of China.
China became the third nation to launch men into space* on 15 October 2003. Details of the Chinese space program is somewhat sketchy as the program is run by the military and is closely held.
In May 2002, China disclosed that 14 yuhangyuans ("astronauts") were in intense training. The first two selections received extensive training in Russia. Since then, all have received some training in Russia.
Just what China should call its men or women in orbit is still undecided. Common terms are: (1) Hangtianyuan ("space navigator") which is preferred in the Chinese press; (2) Taikonaut ("taikong", Chinese for outer space, and "naus", Greek for sailor) is preferred by Westerners because it is easier to pronounce; and (3) Yuhangyuan (literally "universe travel worker") which has been used for many years to describe participants in the American and Russian space programs. Oddly enough, when Xinhau news agency issues dispatches in English, they use the term "astronaut". Taikonaut seems to be the most popular at this time.
The Chinese space program is ambitious and includes a small space station by 2010, and a larger station about 2020. Lunar exploration is also underway. However, officials have stated that there is no current plan or timetable for a manned lunar landing. The manned portion of the Chinese space program falls under the purview of Project 921. A earlier venture into manned space flight took place under the guise of Project 714.
In the first phase of lunar exploration by the Chinese, Chang'e-1 was launched 24 October 2007 and successfully inserted into lunar orbit. It is in the process of photographing and mapping the lunar surface. The second phase of lunar exploration has plans for a moon rover to a specific area in 2012. A third phase calls for a return to earth of lunar material in 2017.
* China became the fifth nation to orbit an artificial satellite on 24 April 1970 when Dong Fang Hong 1 (The East is Red) was launched.
Learn more about the Chinese Long March Family of rockets.
Find astronaut and cosmonaut nationalities, date and place of birth, flights, and EVA's on these pages dedicated to the Astronauts & Cosmonauts.
China has three major Satellite Launch Centers. These are Jiuquan in Gansu Province, Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, and Xichang in Sichuan Province. Chinese manned orbital launches take place from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Where is Jiuquan?
Last updated: 29 December 2015 13:46:28.
Times accessed: 33810
Search using the WorldSpaceFlight internal keyword search feature.
|How to use the search:
Enter ONLY words you expect to see on the page.
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(You will probably use lots of words that will NOT be on the page.)
Choose the Advanced Search for more options.
Check your spelling.
SpamArrest is used by WorldSpaceFlight.com and found to be 100% effective.
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<urn:uuid:ab56323f-7634-4924-ab3b-6dc54aba665b>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.worldspaceflight.com/china/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.947695
| 663
| 3.265625
| 3
|
Unhealthy eating is largely caused by bad eating habits. Eating a bag of potato chips while watching TV once in awhile or binging on food during a party will probably not cause you any harm. However, when these actions become repetitive, they develop into habits. If you wish to break your unhealthy eating habits, you need to determine what they are first. Here are some common bad eating habits that you should learn to avoid.
1. Skipping Breakfast
Breakfast is believed to be the most important meal of the day, but many people still seem to make a habit out of skipping it. When you have to rush for work in the mornings or get your kids ready for school, it's easy to neglect breakfast. Doing so not only drains you of energy, but also makes it more likely that you will snack throughout the day. Skipping breakfast also disrupts your metabolism, causing you to burn fewer calories. So, if you are trying to lose weight, skipping breakfast is not a good idea. A bowl of oatmeal, fruit or a healthy cereal can get your day off to a good start.
2. Food Binging
Binging or eating large amounts of food in one sitting is another unhealthy eating habit that you should avoid. Do you tend to skip meals then eat a lot in the next meal to compensate? Do you gorge yourself with junk food during the weekend after a week of eating restrictively? Do you often eat beyond the point that you've reached fullness? These are signs that you are a habitual binger. You might want to train yourself to eat several small meals in a day so you can avoid binging.
3. Emotional Eating
Emotional eating, or stress eating, is another common unhealthy habit that you should avoid. This occurs when you are driven by certain emotions to eat even though you're not hungry. Perhaps you munch on candy bars when you're stressed about a deadline at work, or perhaps you indulge in a tub of ice cream when you are feeling depressed. If you're like most people who are emotional eaters, then you probably reach for unhealthy junk food in order to cope with your emotions. To solve this, try to find another channel for your stress and negative emotions. Take up a hobby or spend quality time with a friend.
4. Eating During Other Activities
If you eat while watching TV, while working, while reading or even while cooking then you are also developing an unhealthy eating behavior. When you eat while doing other activities, you become unable to measure how much you eat. As a result, you tend to overeat without knowing it. Try to have a specific schedule for eating. In the house, have a designated place exclusively for eating. For instance, you can make sure that you only eat in the kitchen and not in the other parts of the house.
5. Eating Late at Night
Having an occasional late night snack is fine, but if you can't go to bed without having a plate of cookies or a slice of pie first, then you could be setting yourself up for weight gain. Eating too close to bedtime will also give you sleeping difficulty since your body will be busy digesting food.
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<urn:uuid:ef719d05-fd45-447c-90c8-0497d21d9499>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/5-extremely-unhealthy-eating-habits-to-avoid.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.973182
| 645
| 2.984375
| 3
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You need to understand the difference between a "string list", for example, and the "string set" that you want to build.
For lists, the type is 'a list, because you need to know nothing about the content of the list to build the list. For a set, you want log(N) time access, and for that, you want to organize the set depending on the order of the elements. So, you need to be able to compare them. OCaml provides a default comparison function (Pervasives.compare), but that function is not always the best one : it is expensive to use (for integers for example), and it does not work all the time (it uses a lexicographical order on the structure of the value, that is not always the order you want).
In OCaml, when a type depends on a value, which is the case of the "set", but would also be the case of a "sorted list", you need to use a functor to define the type, and to apply the functor to get the new type.
That's what this code does for you:
module StringSet = Set.Make(String)
is equivalent to :
module StringSet = Set.Make(struct
type t = string
let compare = compare
where "let compare = compare" means that the comparison function is the default one (the second compare refers to Pervasives.compare). You can use directly "String" instead, as the String modules already contains "type t = string" and "let compare = compare".
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<urn:uuid:232e0742-6ff4-4dd9-8afa-b4aa974790a8>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9123080/containers-inside-records-in-ocaml
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00126-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.912412
| 332
| 2.796875
| 3
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What is the issue?
Water covers more than seventy percent of our planet. But only 1 percent --stored in underground aquifers; flowing in rivers and streams; teeming in fresh-water lakes-- is available to support human life. The significance of fresh water is multifaceted. As citizens we encounter it in the context of the environment as well as through our experience of legal structures, societal expectations, and current needs. To understand water as a resource, then, the series of lectures for this forum focuses on the historical, policy, and biopolitical dimensions of water. A panel of academic and policy experts will explore the following questions:
What is the Data?
At the conclusion of the forum several insights emerged from the presentations and the discussions that followed. First, patterns of water usage in the Southwest (to include Oklahoma) have usually resulted from an interaction between communities and, more recently, between communities and states or centralized governing authorities. And in the case of the indigenous peoples of Oklahoma and the surrounding region as well as the settler populations of the 19th century it was primarily communities who made decisions about water. Secondly, the water usage regimes that arise from these interactions merge both cultural expectations as to needs and technological capacity. Thirdly, while the public has become increasingly involved in the making of water policy in Oklahoma and the region as evidenced in the most recent Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan, notions of who that public is need to develop further. And finally, while the statewide and regional policy frameworks are in place in Oklahoma and the surrounding region in the form of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and the federal authorities, the role of international policy-making bodies is as yet unclear. These last two conclusions suggest where you as a member of the public will have a particularly important role and it is in that spirit that we offer the presentations from the forum for your consideration. Read through them and then, when an opportunity arises to voice your views at an upcoming election or town hall, dive in knowing that you're prepared and informed!
|The History of Water Policy in Oklahoma and the Southwestern U.S.: A Comparative Look||Making Water Policy in Oklahoma and the World|
|Sterling Evans, "Thirst of the West: Understanding Water Policy and History in Oklahoma"||Tony Wohlers, "Regulating a Limited Resource: The Policy Context of Water Management"|
|Dan Balkwill, " 'Out of a Deep Drought': Southwest Oklahoma's Significance to Post-WWII State and National Water Policies"||Justin Clardie, "Global Dimensions of Water Governance"|
|Kyle Arthur, "2012 Update of the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan and Some Policy Challenges"|
How am I involved in water politics?
Given the extreme drought conditions some of parts of the country have been experiencing for years, we are all involved. And if there was any doubt about this, the record heat here in Oklahoma and the rest of the Southwestern U.S. of the past months has dispelled it. Yet many if not most of us continue to take for granted the water we use on a daily basis. With policy-making in this area promising to be central to the future of the country and to Oklahoma, being informed can only help as you make decisions for yourself, your family, and your community about what sort of water policies should be pursued and implemented so that all communities in Oklahoma can protect and sustain this vital resource
Do I have a role in the debate
Presentations by experts in various academic fields as well as by policy practitioners in the field of water management will provide valuable insights on how to think about water. It is our hope, though, that by participating in the forum, you should be able to formulate your own questions and approaches to the issue so that when the time comes for you to help make choices on water policy, you will be in a position to do so. Never doubt that your curiosity and your engagement is an important part of the mix.
The Forum in the News
This edition of the forum reached an audience in the Greater Texoma area courtesy of KSWO and anchor David Bradley:
What and where is the forum?
Public Policy Forum VI will take place on October 7, 2011 in the Center for Emerging Technologies and Entrepreneurial Studies (CETES) Conference Center on the main campus of Cameron University in Lawton (it is Building #17 on the campus map that you can reach by clicking here). The event is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. and will conclude with a panel discussion at 12:00 p.m. A complimentary lunch will be served from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Please register for the conference by clicking here.
Who are the presenters and panelists?
Oklahoma Water Resources Board
|Planning Director, Oklahoma Water Resources Board||"The Politics of Oklahoma's Current Water Plan"|
University of Oklahoma
|Ph. D. Student||“'Out of a Deep Drought': Southwest Oklahoma's Significance to Post-WWII State and National Water Policies”|
|Assistant Professor of Political Science||“The Global Dimensions of Water Governance”|
University of Oklahoma
|Professor of History||“The Thirst of the West: Understanding Water History and Policy in Oklahoma”|
|Associate Professor of Political Science and Academic Research Director||“Regulating a Limited Resource: The Policy Context of Water Management”|
Questions and registration
For questions and registration, please contact:
Dr. Tony Wohlers, Forum Organizer
Tel: (580) 581-2496
Fax: (580) 581-2941
Dr. Douglas Catterall, Speaker Coordinator
Tel: (580) 581-2949
Fax: (580) 581-2941
Given the space available, we encourage you to register for the event in advance.
This program is funded in part by the Oklahoma Humanities Council (OHC) and the We People Initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed during Public Policy Forum VI do not necessarily represent those of OHC or NEH. We also thank the Cameron University Lectures and Concerts Program for partial funding of the event. We thank them all for their support and encouragement of the project.
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When most adults see a rock, stump or log, their imaginations don't immediately come alive.
But when a child sees the same objects from nature, the items suddenly hold creative possibility: the stump becomes a chair, the log becomes a stage, the rock becomes a castle.
That's the concept behind the new Nature Play Area at Cosley Zoo, now included in any adult or child entrance pass at the Wheaton facility, 1356 Gary Ave.
The Nature Play Area is designed with the child's imagination in mind. Tami Romejko, education supervisor at Cosley Zoo, says the area is based on Nature Play theory, a growing trend in environmental education.
"In a traditional play setting, like a playground, there are specific outcomes in mind," she said. "But Nature Play allows kids to become curious and creative, forming their own outcomes."
Romejko gleaned much of her experience in Nature Play theory from NatureStart, a training program offered by Brookfield Zoo. Natasha Fischer, another Cosley Zoo educator, attended the training as well.
Now that the educators have implemented their NatureStart findings into the Nature Play Area at Cosley Zoo, they're excited to see how children and their parents engage with the materials they find.
The materials themselves are simple objects found in nature: logs, tree stumps, sticks and rocks. The sign at the space's entrance invites parents and children to "discover and explore."
It's no accident that there aren't many instructions for participants. "We want the play to be very open-ended," Romejko said.
The area is open for free play whenever the zoo is open, but a more structured program, Zoo Investigators, is also available for children ages 5 to7.
"The program, like the space itself, is child-led," Romejko said, "but the instructor will give children a starting topic and questions: nocturnal animals, for example. Again, though, the children really guide the time and determine the outcome."
The Nature Play Area also includes a free library, provided by Girl Scout Troop 368 at St. Michael Parish School in Wheaton, so children can read books while they use the space.
"People are once again realizing the importance of unstructured play," Romejko said.
Cosley Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. For more information or to become a Cosley Zoo member, visit www.cosleyzoo.org or call (630) 665-5534.
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As holiday season approaches you will be handling more food and may become careless because you are rushed. The Food and Drug Administration advises us that being aware of safe handling and preparation practices can help to prevent foodborne infections and illnesses. Some simple precautions will help to reduce risk of illness and get you on your way to good and healthy fun with your family and friends.
- Purchase fruit or vegetables which are not damaged or bruised. It won't be worth it if you buy bruised produce because it is a few cents less, then you get become ill.
- When buying freshly cut fruit or vegetables it should be surrounded by ice. Look for fruit in container's that is is actually buried in the ice with the label showing only. If you remove it from the ice to look at it, replace it just as you found it. Never leave fresh fruit just lying around if you decide not to purchase it.
- When you get home from shopping, no matter how tired you feel, put any produce that needs refrigeration away promptly.
- Your hands should be washed with hot soapy water before and after handling fresh produce, or raw meat, poultry, or seafood. Wash your hands after any other non-food chore before you make yourself or little Timmy a peanut butter sandwich.
- Alway wash fresh fruits and vegetables with cool tap water before eating.
- Use a clean produce brush to scrub melons and cucumbers, etc.
- Keep your counter surfaces, cutting boards and utensils clean with hot soapy water and a solution of 1 teaspoon of chlorine bleach in 1 quart of water.
- After handling raw meat, poultry, or seafood handling sanitize the cutting board (non-wood surface is best) and your hands before touching any other foods or utensils, etc.
- The FDA says 'Don't cross contaminate. Use clean cutting boards and utensils when handling fresh produce. If possible, use one clean cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry, and seafood. During food preparation, wash cutting boards, utensils or dishes that have come into contact with fresh produce, raw meat, poultry, or seafood. Do not consume ice that has come in contact with fresh produce or other raw products.'
- Buy only fish that is firm, clear eyed, non-slimy and clean smelling. Wash your hands with hot soapy water each time you handle fish. Lemon juice to the hands and finger tips will help to remove the fish smell.
Remember following simple safe food handling steps will help reduce the risk of foodborne illness from fresh produce.
Adapted From the Food and Drug Administration
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Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.05.27
Ioanna Kakoulli, Greek Painting Techniques and Materials from the Fourth to the First Century BC. London: Archetype Publications, 2009. Pp. x, 157. ISBN 9781904982425. £35/$70.00.
Reviewed by Christina A. Salowey, Hollins University (email@example.com)
[Table of contents is listed at the end of the review.]
Ioanna Kakoulli's book, Greek Painting Techniques and Materials from the Fourth to the First Century BC, makes accessible a long line of technical studies on ancient painting and contributes a new investigation of eleven paintings, some previously studied, from eight different Mediterranean sites, plus pigment pellets from Delos. The core of the book derives from the author's D.Phil. research at the University of Oxford (p. ix), which clearly shows in the useful synopses of previous technical studies. But the true value of Kakoulli's work lies in her explanation of the scientific methods used to identify pigments and the techniques used to apply them. The numerous figures (144) and the accompanying captions are particularly worthwhile, clarifying the points made in the text about the results of different analyses. Given the proliferation of scholarly interest in paint and color in ancient art, both visible and not, this book provides a readable introduction to the analytical techniques used to study pigments.1 New advances in non-destructive methods of analysis coupled with microscopic and spectroscopic analytical tools requiring miniscule amounts of material have created possibilities for examining painted objects in order to clarify the chemical composition of pigments, binders, and substrates. Many studies have been completed but have been buried in the pages of journals that classicists and ancient art historians rarely browse (e.g. X-ray Spectrometry, Chemie für Labor und Betrieb, Analytic Chemistry) or the proceedings of international symposia that many libraries do not carry. Even if one should come across these technical studies, the specialized jargon and required scientific documentation and notation could be forbidding to a non-specialist. Kakoulli's book digests much of this previous material and offers a new study into a select group of painted artifacts.
Not so strong are the author's brief historical introductions, overviews of iconography, and outline of ancient painting techniques. In fact the opening chapters somewhat confuse the reader about the topic of the book. Chapter 1, "Introduction", states "this book aims to provide an overview of the materials and techniques of paintings reflecting the Hellenistic culture," (p. 1), and provides the chronological (fourth to the first century BC) and geographical (Balkans to the Levant and "as far afield as India," (p. 1)) limits. The chapter then goes on to give a brief historical and art historical overview only of Macedonia. Chapter 2, "Ancient Painting Techniques", defines fresco and secco painting techniques then summarizes what is known about wall preparation and pigments in Egypt, the Bronze Age Aegean, the Etruscan necropoleis, Rome, Pompeii, other Campanian cities, and Roman Cyprus, with a brief section about painted Classical marbles. It is not until page 21 of Chapter 3, "Scientific Methodology for the Study of Painting Techniques and Materials" that the reader learns that the materials and explanations in the book draw on research done on 110 samples from monumental paintings at the sites of Vergina and Delos in Greece, Nea Paphos on Cyprus, Marissa, Jericho, and Acre in Israel, and the Gabbari necropolis and the ex-English Consulate area in Alexandria, Egypt. The specific contexts for the paintings from these sites, i.e. location, size, time period, history, archaeological investigations, are confined to Appendix 1, "Technical Studies of Late Classical And Hellenistic Paintings", along with the experimental procedures and list of samples undertaken in each place. A more detailed list of samples is presented in Appendix 2. A reorganization of some of this material into the first two chapters would have served as a better introduction to the book and its topics, but this failing does not detract from the utility and clarity of the scientific material in the chapters that follow.
Chapter 3, "Scientific Methodology for the Study of Painting Techniques and Materials", presents and explains the results obtained from non-invasive and invasive analytical techniques. Non-invasive techniques such as diffuse, raking, and ultraviolet light are clearly defined, and excellent figures show exactly what these methods can reveal. Infrared and ultraviolet photography are also discussed and illustrated. A clear philosophy for the sampling of pigments and/or substrates of ancient paintings precedes a discussion of the preparation of samples for optical, chemical or instrumental methods of analysis. Each analytical method used and its abbreviation, e.g. PLM, FTIR, XRF, are listed but extensive definitions are not given, most likely as being beyond the scope of the book. Appendix 3 does provide some definitions of terms used in the discussion of the optical properties of crystals found in ancient pigments and is worth reading before tackling Chapter 3. The information yielded from these analyses with, again, excellent illustrative figures, provides a good introduction to Chapters 4, "Late Classical and Hellenistic painting techniques and materials", and 5, "Pigments and Colorants", in which the interpretation of the data is presented. These two chapters collect and present the evidence for Hellenistic painting comprehensively and will serve as an easily consulted compilation of pigments, their characteristics, and analysis.
In Chapter 4, Kakoulli gathers evidence from ancient authors and the technical studies completed by her and others to present a full discussion of what is known about the supports and substrates for secco and fresco painting, organic binding media, and preparatory drawings. Chapter 5 presents the methods of identification and occurrence of 29 pigments found in the paint fragments and pigment pellets and powders of Kakoulli's study. The author found and studied pigments both in a pure form and in admixtures. Again the well-chosen, annotated figures strengthen the points made in the text and demonstrate the utility of these micro-analytical techniques. Some of the points the figures illustrate are the different microstructures of dark and light Egyptian blue (Figs. 5.3-5.6), the admixture of Egyptian blue and a red organic lake colorant to create a purple color (Figs. 5.20-5.21), and the conclusion that two red pigments, haematite and jarosite, were used in a brown paint layer (Figs. 5.31-5.32). In her discussions of pigments, Kakoulli includes ancient testimonia (primarily from Theophrastus' De Lapidibus, Vitruvius' De architectura, Pliny's Naturalis Historia, and Dioscorides' De Materia Medica) on the colorants, their place of origin, or synthesis. The chapter also includes a table (pp. 58-60) of paintings studied by her and others, grouped by country of origin, with the pigments found, binder medium, and analytical methods used for the identification.
Chapter 6, "Production of Egyptian blue", provides the ancient evidence for the manufacture of the synthetic pigment Egyptian blue and a synopsis of the conclusions of modern studies on the pigment. Kakoulli conducted several laboratory trials attempting to reproduce Egyptian blue with the same color and microstructure of ancient pigment samples. Different mixtures of starting materials and firing conditions that varied in heat, duration, and oxidation condition, were tested in an attempt to reproduce an Egyptian blue containing leaded glass. Appendix 5 provides the details of each laboratory trial. These experiments illuminated the conditions that significantly altered the quality of the pigment produced but also raised new questions about the provenance of raw materials used. The scanning electron microscope-wavelength dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-WDS) results on Egyptian blue are presented in Appendix 4.
Chapter 7, "Pigment alteration and colour changes in Hellenistic paintings" outlines the climatic conditions at archaeological sites that are most likely to damage ancient paintings and examines the chemical changes that occur when those paintings are exposed to moisture, heat, and microorganisms. Previous studies on the chemical processes behind the alteration of copper-based pigments, lead-based pigments, and cinnabar are presented. Kakoulli's research has made new contributions to the understanding of the dissolution of the glass phase of Egyptian blue, the discoloration of green earth into limonite producing a color change from green to yellow, and the darkening of gum arabic in certain microbiological conditions. The understanding of these chemical and biological processes can aid in the interpretation of damaged paintings and perhaps help create methods to halt or reverse decomposition.
Chapter 8, "Discussion", explores four topics to which Kakoulli's study contributes new information. In her discussion of intercultural links and artistic transmissions, Kakoulli makes her most interesting point about the use of glaucophane for a blue pigment in Aegean paintings before "circa 1500 BC," (p. 76) and Egyptian blue afterwards, proposing that the volcanic eruption on Thera might have cut off the supply of glaucophane. On the styles of Hellenistic paintings, she highlights techniques that seem new to the period, such as polishing the plaster surface before application of pigments in secco, the use of organic lakes to create transparency, and the premixing of pigments for ready use. She stresses that choice of inorganic pigments seems to have been dependent primarily on local availability and that more valuable pigments were imported, occurring only rarely. Her fourth topic, the conservation implications of her study, summarizes her findings from Chapter 7. Some of the material in this chapter is redundant but does bring together disparate findings from her study under the four headings. Chapter 9, "Conclusion", does not go any further with the material Kakoulli has already presented but just outlines in brief the result obtained from her analyses of "numerous paintings from Late Classical and Hellenistic houses and tombs in Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and Egypt," (p. 83). This chapter might have better served as an introductory overview to the book as a whole.
Kakoulli's book brings together art historical examination and technical analyses to further our understanding of the materials and techniques used in Hellenistic painting. The real accomplishment in this study is the straightforward presentation of complex scientific procedures to the non-specialist with careful definitions and explanatory illustrations. This book is essential for anyone wishing to have a grasp on the new micro-methodologies being used to analyze the material composition of painted works of ancient art. Parts of the book, especially chapters 3-5, could be used to supplement discussions on color and ancient painting in an upper level art history or classics courses. While some of the broader conclusions about cultural interactions and the interchange of artistic methodologies must be considered speculative because of the small corpus of objects studied, the book convinces that sophisticated scientific analysis has some fascinating and important information to offer ancient historians and art historians.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Ancient Painting Techniques
Chapter 3 Scientific Methodology for the Study of Painting Techniques and Materials
Chapter 4 Late Classical and Hellenistic Painting Techniques and Materials
Chapter 5 Pigments and Colorants
Chapter 6 Production of Egyptian Blue
Chapter 7 Pigment Alteration and Colour Changes in Hellenistic Painting
Chapter 8 Discussion
Chapter 9 Conclusion
Appendix 1 Technical Studies of Late Classical and Hellenistic Paintings
Appendix 2 List of Samples
Appendix 3 Optical Properties of Crystals Considered for the Identification of Pigments
Appendix 4 Egyptian Blue: SEM-WDS Results
Appendix 5 Experimental Trials for the Production of Egyptian Blue
1. Vinzenz Brinkmann, Die Polychromie der archaischen und frühklassischen Skulptur, Studien zur antiken Malerei und Farbgebung v. 55 (München: Biering & Brinkmann, 2003); Beth Cohen, The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006); Vinzenz Brinkmann and Raimund Wünsche, eds., Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity (München: Stiftung Archäologie Glyptothek, 2007); Hariclia Brecoulaki, La Peinture funéraire de Macédoine: Emplois et Fonctions de la Couleur IVe-IIe S. av. J.-C. (Athens: Centre de recherches de l'antiquité grecque et romaine, Fondation nationale de la recherche scientifique, 2006).
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The Building Codes
Societal Impact Matrix
Return of The Village
Habitat For Humanity
Curves of Breath & Clay
Overview of Techniques
Nature, Earth & Magic
History of Cob
Cob Q & A
Compressed Earth Blocks
German Clay Building
Earthen Plaster & Aliz
Solar Water Heater
The Case for Natural Building
What is Natural Building?
Natural building is any building system which places the highest value on social and environmental sustainability. It assumes the need to minimize the environmental impact of our housing and other building needs while providing healthy, beautiful, comfortable and spiritually-uplifting homes for everyone. Natural builders emphasize simple, easy-to-learn techniques based on locally-available, renewable resources. These systems rely heavily on human labor and creativity instead of on capital, high technology and specialized skills.
Natural building is necessarily regional and idiosyncratic. There are no "right" answers, no universally appropriate materials, no standard designs. Everything depends on local ecology, geology and climate, on the character of the particular building site, and on the needs and personalities of the builders and users. This works best if the designers, the builders, the owners and the inhabitants are the same people. Natural building is personally empowering because it teaches that everyone has or can easily acquire the skills they need to build their own home.
Natural building is not a new idea. In many parts of the world, almost all building still conforms to these criteria. Until the Industrial Revolution, the advent of cheap transportation, and the professionalization of building and architecture, the same was true throughout Europe and America. Pioneer families in the United States built their own homes out of local materials, as the First Peoples here and everywhere always have. Our modern building industry with its resource-extractive, energy- and capital-intensive, toxic, and inaccessible practices must be seen as a temporary deviation from this norm. Let's look at some of natural building's many advantages over conventional modern building practices.
It's no secret that the global ecosystem is ill. The housing industry is a major contributor to the problem. Here in the Northwest we see the evidence all around us; the trail from clear-cut to sawmill to building site is easy to follow. Other major modern building components depend on destructive mining: gypsum for sheet rock; iron for hardware, rebar and roofing; lime and other minerals for cement. Every material used in a typical modern building is the product of energy-intensive processing. The mills which saw our lumber, the factories which make plywood and chipboard, the foundries which make steel, the plants which turn natural minerals into cement by subjecting them to enormous heat, all consume vast quantities of power, supplied either by the combustion of coal and oil, the damming of rivers, or the splitting of atoms.
These manufacturing processes also release toxic effluent into the water and hazardous chemicals into the air. The manufacture of Portland cement, for example, is responsible for an estimated 4% of greenhouse gasses. And even after our building materials are made, modern construction depends on an endless stream of polluting trucks to deliver them to us, usually from hundreds of miles away.
In contrast, straw and other materials favored by natural builders are biological by-products which would otherwise create a disposal problem. Enough straw was wasted each year in California alone to build tens of thousands of family homes. Until recently, nearly all the straw produced in California was burned in the fields, but clean air legislation has outlawed that practice. Faced with the problem of what to do with all the straw they can no longer burn, California rice growers have thrown their significant political clout behind legalizing straw-bale building, with the result that the state of California drafted and adopted straw-bale building guidelines.
Of course, it's impossible to build a house with no environmental impact, but it's our responsibility to minimize and localize the damage. Digging a hole in your yard for clay to make a cob house may look ugly at first, but it's a lot less ugly than strip mines, giant factories and superhighways. Nature has enormous capacity to heal small wounds; that hole in your yard would make an excellent frog pond. Many of us religiously protect the trees on our property, then go to the lumber yard to purchase the products of wholesale clear cutting. If we choose to build with wood, it seems a lot less hypocritical to take down a few select trees near our homesites and run them through a small portable mill, or thin overcrowded woodlands of small-diameter poles and build with those. Keeping our environmental footprint under our noses helps ensure that we will minimize our impact and protect the health of our local ecosystems, since we see them from our windows and walk through them every day. Building with natural, local materials also reduces our dependence on the polluting and energy-intensive manufacturing and transport industries.
Many of the most fervent supporters of natural building are people with acquired chemical sensitivities and other environmental illnesses. These people are particularly aware of how modern buildings make us sick, but we all know it. Even the mainstream press carries frequent stories of cancers and respiratory problems linked to formaldehyde-based glues, plastics, paints, asbestos, and fiberglass, to name a few favorite culprits. The toxicity of these materials impacts everyone associated with them: the workers in the factories and warehouses, the builders on the construction site, and the inhabitants of the poisonous end products. Natural materials like stone, wood, straw and earth, on the other hand, are not only non-toxic, they are life-enhancing. Clay, one of the most useful natural building materials, is also prized for its ability to absorb toxins and restore health. Natural healing traditions rely on it heavily, for both internal and external applications.
There is increasing evidence that modern buildings also compromise our psychological and emotional health. Right angles, flat surfaces that are all one color, and constant uniformity don't exist in the natural world where our ancestors evolved. They may trigger a subconscious reaction which tells us "there's something wrong here," keeping us continuously nervous and stressed. Most modern homes certainly don't stimulate our senses with the variety of patterns, shapes, textures, smells and sounds that our pre-industrial ancestors experienced. The uniformity of our environments may contribute to our addiction to sensory stimulation through drugs and electronic media.
Apart from that, there is a good feeling we get from natural buildings which is difficult to describe. Even though conditioned to prefer the new, the shiny, and the precise, we respond at a deep level to unprocessed materials, to idiosyncrasy, and to the personal thought and care expressed in craftsmanship. Nearly all the natural buildings I have seen, regardless of the level of expertise of the builders, are remarkably beautiful. Living in a hand-crafted cob house, I grew to expect the looks of mesmerized awe I saw on the faces of first-time visitors, and the difficulty they had prying themselves from the warm earthen benches when it was time to leave.
Modern building is a big-money industry, with all the problems associated with other industries. In the race to maximize immediate profit, long-term concerns like the health of the environment and its inhabitants are often overlooked. The rich and powerful are able to make their own homes and lives pleasant at the expense of those less privileged, often far away in distant countries. Furthermore, the building industry and regulations concentrate power in the hands of the government and selected corporations, by enforcing compliance with a limited set of options. If the code says we have to use concrete foundations on every building, just think how much money the cement manufacturers will make!
We grow up being told you can't build a house unless you're a professional builder. If we want a house, we have to work full-time at a job we usually dislike to make enough money to pay a builder who probably hates his job, too. Since we're convinced we need to spend $150,000 on a 2000 square foot house, we chain ourselves to a thirty-year mortgage which forces us to keep working at unsatisfying jobs for the rest of our lives.
But it doesn't have to be that way. By using local, unprocessed materials like earth and straw, building smaller than the conventional house, and providing much of the labor yourself, you can create a home that is almost unbelievably affordable. As the price tag drops from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands or even a few thousand dollars, it becomes easier to shrug off the yoke of loans and mortgages. You can also save yourself money in the long run with a smaller, more efficient house that uses simple passive solar technology for heating and cooling. As a result you may find your cash needs dropping. You can cut down the hours you work and spend more time with the kids, or grow a big vegetable garden which will save you even more money.
Techniques which rely on human labor and creativity produce a different social dynamic than those which depend on heavily processed materials, expensive machines, and specialized skills. When you build with straw bales, cob, adobe, or rammed earth, the whole family can get involved. A building site free of power tools is a safe and supportive environment for children to learn valuable skills. Or invite your friends and neighbors for an old-fashioned barn raising. Offer them food and an education in exchange for their time and energy. It's a good deal for everyone, and a lot of fun. While building your home you're also building a different kind of social structure where people depend on themselves and each other to get their basic needs met, instead of handing over their power to governments, corporations and professionals. When those of us who are relatively affluent use a smaller share of the Earth's resources, more becomes available to the less privileged and to future generations.
The Natural Building Resurgence
For all these reasons and other personal ones, some individuals have always challenged the modern building industry paradigm, preferring to build for themselves using local materials and traditional techniques. During the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and 70s, thousands of people found themselves desiring to build their own homes from available resources, without professional assistance, without much training or money. They were inspired and aided by the example and writings of contemporary pioneers like Helen and Scott Nearing (Living the Good Life, etc.) and Ken Kern (The Owner-Built Home, etc.) The energy crisis of the mid-70s focused public attention on our use of natural resources and on the energy-efficiency of our buildings. At that time a huge amount of research and writing was done on passive solar building, alternative energy systems, and sustainable resource use, much of which was subsequently swept away by government policy and public apathy during the 80s.
Although no longer receiving much popular press, the experimental work of conservation-minded builders continued throughout this period. In the late 1980s, a flurry of activity surrounded the rediscovery in the Southwestern United States of straw-bale building, a technique which had risen to brief popularity in Nebraska in the early part of this century. In Tucson, Matts Myrhman and Judy Knox started Out On Bale, an organization devoted to popularizing this elegant and inexpensive construction system. Around the same time, Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, inspired by the centuries-old earthen homes in Britain, built their first cob cottage in Western Oregon. The interest generated by this wood-free wall building technique, which had proven itself well-suited to cool rainy climates, led them to found The Cob Cottage Company.
Meanwhile, Iowa-based Robert Laporte had combined the traditional techniques of timber framing from Japan and Europe with straw-clay, an insulating infill of clay-coated straw from Germany, and was teaching his natural-house building workshops across the United States and beyond. Persian architect Nader Khalili had established Cal-Earth, a center in Southern California devoted to developing, educating about, and gaining code acceptance for earth building systems. Also in California, David Easton was building and writing about monolithic rammed earth walls, while others experimented with compressed earth blocks.
By the early 1990s, there were dozens of individuals and small organizations in the United States researching, adapting, and promoting traditional building systems. These visionaries proceeded with their work independently, largely unaware of the existence of the others. Then as the straw-bale boom in the Southwest took off, attracting the interest of national periodicals like The New York Times, National Geographic, and Fine Homebuilding, and as increasing numbers of natural building workshops were offered and people were trained, the "experts" began to hear about and meet one another.
In 1994, The Cob Cottage Company organized the first "Alternative Building Colloquium," inviting natural builders and teachers from around the country to spend a week together in Oregon. The idea was for these leaders to get to know each other, to share the building techniques they knew best, and to begin to join their various philosophies and experiences into a more cohesive system of knowledge. During that gathering, and the six Natural Building Colloquia which have followed in New Mexico, California, Maryland and Oregon, workshops were given on wall-building systems ranging from adobe to wattle-and daub, roofing techniques like sod and thatch, and foundation systems including rubble trench, dry stone, and rammed-earth bags. Lectures and slide presentations filled the heads of all those present with information on recycled materials, designing with natural forces, bamboo, greywater systems, co-housing, creating sacred space, structural testing and building codes, composting toilets, architectural education reform, steam generation, and a hundred other topics. Traditional yurts, timber-framed structures and straw-bale vaults sprang up and were decorated with multi-colored clays. Ideas and techniques collided and merged, coalescing into hybrid structures including a straw-bale-and-cob dome, and a straw-bale/cob/clay-straw/wattle-and-daub cottage on a stone and earth bag foundation.
Out of these Colloquia and the numerous other gatherings and collaborations of people interested in natural building, a few things have become clear. One, that we are all working together. Even though we may have chosen to focus on different techniques or aspects of natural building, we are all motivated by the same concerns and our personal experience makes up part of a consistent larger body of knowledge. Two, that we are not alone. As word gets out to the greater public, we find enormous interest and support from a growing community of owner-builders, professional builders and designers, activists, educators, writers, and conservationists. And three, that together we hold a great deal of power. The power in our ideas and collective action is capable of influencing the way our society thinks, talks, and acts regarding building and resource use. We are helping to create a society where some day, natural building will again be the norm in the United States as it still is in much of the world, and where a new cob house with a thatched roof in any American town will draw only an appreciative nod.
Michael Smith was a founding director of the Cob Cottage Company. He teaches natural building and permaculture throughout the western United States, Canada and Mexico. He is also a founder and organizer of the Natural Building Colloquium. firstname.lastname@example.org
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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common, complex and progressive disease that is estimated to affect more than a third of cats over 10 years of age. Affected cats often present with a variety of clinical signs and complications including inappetence, nausea, vomiting, anaemia, hypertension and urinary tract infections - as such, the disease can severely compromise quality of life if inadequately managed.
However, the diagnosis of CKD is not always straightforward. Presenting signs can vary between individual cats, and renal function tests can sometimes be problematic to interpret. Furthermore, peer-reviewed published data to support many of the potential therapeutic interventions for feline CKD are lacking. This creates challenges for veterinarians attempting to slow the progression of disease and improve quality of life for their patients.
To address these challenges and guide in the management of CKD, the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM), the veterinary division of International Cat Care, has convened an expert panel of veterinary clinicians and academics to produce a critical and practical overview of current diagnostic and treatment options. The resulting ISFM Consensus Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Management of Feline Chronic Kidney Disease are published this month in the ISFM's flagship Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.
In making their recommendations, the panelists - gathered from the UK, France, Australia and North America - have considered various management approaches and graded the quality of the available published evidence with respect to their impact on quality of life and longevity.
Dietary management is a mainstay therapy that is supported by good evidence. Notably, specific commercial renal diets have been shown to significantly prolong longevity and improve quality of life. A common problem, however, is poor acceptance of these diets, which are generally less palatable than maintenance diets, and the guidelines include a number of recommendations to assist in transitioning cats to a new diet.
Other interventions with good supportive evidence are routine assessment of blood pressure in cats with CKD, and use of antihypertensive medications (when indicated) to help protect organs at particular risk of damage, such as the eyes and heart.
Given the chronic nature of CKD, the guidelines, which are free to access and download, emphasise how vital it is for the veterinary clinic to establish a good relationship with the cat's owner. This will facilitate treatment plans to be created that take into consideration the wishes and ability of the owner, as well as the needs of the individual cat.
*Sparkes AH, Caney S, Chalhoub, et al. ISFM Consensus Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Management of Feline Chronic Kidney Disease. J Feline Med Surg 2018; 18: 219-237.
Dietary management is a key aspect of managing feline chronic kidney disease. This patient is showing muscle wasting and dehydration. Image courtesy of ISFM Panelist Jessica Quimby
The Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery is the official journal of the ISFM, and is published in partnership with SAGE and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP). All ISFM and AAFP guidelines are free to access and download from guidelines.jfms.com
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Was There a Tsunami at the Shore? [AUDIO]
Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, superstorms, and now, tsunamis?
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are trying to determine whether or not a tsunami hit the east coast of the U.S. affecting Barnegat Inlet, near Long Beach Island. It happened earlier this month.
Should this be the kind of thing we should worry about?
The wave swept three people off the south jetty on June 13th and at least two required medical treatment. The jetty rocks are about 5 to 6 feet above sea level.
Thunderstorms had rolled through earlier in the day around noon, and NOAA says that a low-end derecho moved from east to west across the Jersey Shore shortly before the tsunami occurred. A derecho is a straight-line windstorm associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.
The National Weather Service is not sure what the cause is, saying in a news release:
“The source is complex and still under review, though the coincidence at several gauges with strong atmospheric pressure fluctuations indicate it is at least partly generated by meteorological causes.”
“NOAA scientists will have their work cut out for them,” according to Alexander Gates, a professor at Rutgers University. “It’s very difficult to determine what kind of waves happened in an area nearly two weeks ago. It could be several weeks before they have a clear answer.”
Locals we spoke to tell us they aren’t concerned.
“We have dealt with so much already with Sandy and stuff, this is nothing to worry about,” one local marina owner said. “It’s Mother Nature and she’s gonna do what she wants to do.”
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MS pain can be excruciating, frequent, inconvenient or heavy unending dullness. There are many traditional treatments that help to alleviate those pains. However, they don't always work and there is always someone who can't or just doesn't want to take too much medication. Some MSers are ready to try anything -- just to make the pain stop.
Today, I am talking about alternative treatments that may be used when addressing pain.
Approximately 50% - 75% of MSers use some form of Complementary and Alternative Medication (CAM), non-traditional interventions intended to reduce pain. There are many alternative treatments targeting MS pain, some even promising a cure. Some of them are recognized and recommended by the medical community, effective in stopping or reducing pain. Others are completely useless and a few possibly even harmful.
Alternatives often lack sufficient documentation and research, and some are not taken seriously enough to justify research costs. Therefore, efficacy of most alternative therapies is largely anecdotal. MSers must be aware of risks and benefits before jumping into these treatments. There is no cure for MS, regardless of claims, but alternative therapies may relieve pains accompanied by MS. Even though a doctor's prescription is usually not required, it is highly recommended that we inform our doctors to guard against a conflict with pharmaceutical drugs or misreading symptoms because the care is not coordinated. Doctors who practice conventional care are embracing legitimate alternative treatments more than ever before.
When considering a therapy, it is important to consult with your neurologist or your pain management doctor. Here are some alternative treatments that address or claim to address MS pain:
Acupuncture has been tried by 20% of MSers. There is a lot of anecdotal information, but it tells two stories. There are some stories that say acupuncture really helps where pain is concerned. However, there are other accounts of acupuncture actually leading to, and perhaps causing, relapses. The National MS Society recommends caution.
Applied kineseology is a method of assessing the balance of the body and finding and correcting imbalances. This non-invasive holistic technique involves massage, acupressure, and nutrition, among other techniques.
Chiropractic therapy is based on the concept that the nervous system coordinates all of the body's functions. This sounds perfect for MS. The idea of chiropractic therapy is to realign vertebra to eliminate irritation to nerves. There is anecdotal evidence that this therapy helps the lower back, but not necessarily the head and neck. A few years ago, I personally had a masseuse, trained in a chiropractic office, who came to the house on a regular basis. I was quite satisfied with her work.
Cold laser therapy - Cold laser refers to the use of low-intensity or low levels of laser light. It is intended to stimulate cells so they can actively respond to stress and pain; however, it also inhibits some cell activity. Although there has been some reported success with cold laser therapy in chronic pain, there are still questions about nerve regeneration. The FDA has approved 25 cold laser devices or methods in the US. Research and evaluation of this therapy continues.
This therapy is definitely not for pregnant women. It is also suspect for children because a laser too close to the end of a bone inhibits further growth. The National MS Society suggests you may want to postpone or proceed with caution until the research has been completed.
Exercise/Yoga/Tai Chi/Qigong increases strength, flexibility and balance, helping alleviate stiffness and posture problems. According to the National MS Society, exercise improves "better bladder and bowel function, less fatigue and depression, a more positive attitude, and increased participation in social activities." Exercise can be effective for chronic neck pain and back pain.
Julie Stachowiak, Phd, reviews yoga, telling us even wheelchair users can benefit, sometimes with a caregiver's help. Yoga helps with muscle tone, balance, and spasms. She recommends we give it try long enough for it to begin to work.
Dynamic Meditation is a holistic technique of mind development to allow focusing on the pain. This is thought to help vision problems, stress, and depression in MS. Julie Stachowiak, PhD, one of my favorite sources, also addresses the use of creative visualization for MS Hugs.
Homeopathics looks at the whole person, including personality, temperament, state of mind and lifestyle, then flushes toxins from body. There is anecdotal evidence that some painful symptoms are eased. This method is popular, but it is also controversial. There is a possibility of conflicting with a conventional treatment or interfering with diagnosis.
Hippotherapy takes advantage of a horse's rhythmic gait to improved posture and balance as well as other functions. Hippotherapy is also credited with normalizing muscle tone and reducing spasticity. This one sounds great to me, but there could be some safety issues. Horses used in this therapy are generally mature, gentle, horses specially trained for unconventional mounting. The National MS Society is convinced this one works -- they are willing to pay 50% of the cost. However, some insurance companies say there is not yet sufficient scientific data.
Massage is the most common form of bodywork used to relax muscles and reduce stress. Types of massage range from stroking and kneading to shaking. There is evidence that massage benefits pain, depression, constipation, spasticity and muscle tension.
Extra caution is recommended with edema, unless it is caused by immobility. Also, massage should be gentle when osteoporosis is present to prevent damage to the brittle bones.
Medical Marijuana is perhaps the most controversial alternative therapy. Medical marijuana in one form or another - pills, cannibis, hemp, mouth spray - has been a topic of discussion for years in many medical communities and especially with MS.
I have written about medical marijuana before, talking about the medical, legal, and personal perspectives. Doctors often remind us of the risk due to illegality. Thirteen states have legalized medical marijuana use, but it is still subject to federal law. The last time a bill was presented to the Senate for a vote (2006), the bill was narrowly defeated showing that Senate support is stronger than ever before, and reflecting a growing compassion among the population. Pertinent to MSers are personal anecdotes telling us it is useful for reducing pain, spasticity and tremors.
Research has been inhibited because this drug is illegal. However, there are occasionally small trials intended to prove or disprove the benefit of medical marijuana, including a small 10-year trial funded by the National MS Society for secondary and primary progressive MS. The Society has a statement.
Until medical marijuana is legalized this alternative therapy will remain controversial.
Nutrition works with the body-weight-pain connection, especially to correct posture problems and awkward gaits. Nutrition addresses constipation, swallowing problems, and the relationship between nutrition and energy to fight fatigue. I think the importance of nutrition to an MSer's general health is greatly underestimated and I have written about this before. In my research I found: "Medicare accepts Medical Nutrition Therapy for diabetes and renal disease. Even the retail food industry has adopted the idea of a 'heart healthy' diet." What about MS?
Valerian roots are dried roots used as a mild sedative to calm restlessness and anxiety and overcome mild insomnia. These roots generally relax the nervous system. This herbal therapy is considered helpful to calm nerves, treat spasms, and reduce blood pressure.
Brain treatment theories
These brain therapies are not current alternative treatments, but clinical trials developing treatments of the future. Our brain tells us when we have pain, whether there is a true stimulus or simply a misinterpreted signal from the nervous system. Therefore, it sees logical that the brain can be used as a pain deterrent or it can be taught to react positively. Dynamic meditation is a current alternative therapy that uses creative visualization, similar to the first of two trials I am talking about in this section.
A friend who suffers from migraines once told me she could think her way out of the pain by focusing on the headache. She said it did not work all of the time, but it did work. Is that a tactic that might reduce MS pain? "My Pain, My Brain" is a NYTimes article that says it just might. This technique is actually watching brain activity during a pain episode and consciously reprogramming it to reduce the pain.
Author Melanie Thernstrom tells of a functional MRI (fMRI) being used in a Stanford study hoping to develop a technique that teaches people to control their brain's response to pain. Pain causes the nervous system to re-wire itself, and this study aims for the patient to redirect that wiring. It sounds a bit sci-fi, but in the most positive way. Wouldn't it be great if this neuroimaging study found the answer to help us reduce severe pain? If we can learn to control our reactions to pain, then we can all focus on something besides hurting.
Another current study is sponsored by the National MS Society.The goal of this trial is to develop Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to conquer pain. It is targeting neuropathic pain and using a positive attitude and self hypnosis to actually shut it down. I have always advocated the benefits of a positive attitude, but I had not thought of coupling it with self hypnosis. That sounds like a good idea to me.
These are only some of the alternative therapies used to fight pain in MS -- I'm sure there are more. There are other therapies designed to address the entire disease, but here we are focusing on pain.
There are times, especially when we are in the midst of long-term excruciating pain, that we are willing to try almost anything to get it to stop. However, the best idea at times like that is to take a deep breath and investigate the proposed therapy a little further. Is it possible there will be unpleasant side effects or even an outcome more horrible and more long-lasting than the pain itself. It would be nice if the "snake oil days" of the old West were gone, but that is not so.
At the same time, some therapies -- even some that sound fantastical -- are actually helpful, reducing the pain without side effects. We need to do our best to ensure that any time we embark on a new therapy path there is a chance, a good chance, for a positive outcome.
Good luck with all of the therapies you use to manage your pain. There is such a thing as pain-free life, even with MS, and there is also the possibility of a joyful life with MS.
Next I will conclude this series by talking about living with pain.
Notes and Links
WebMD Alternative Therapies
Taking Control of MS
Published On: August 19, 2009
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Cognitive Computing: Driving Intelligent Cross-Channel Conversations
Cognitive computing is a term that probably goes over the head of most of the general public. IBM defines it as the ability of automated systems to learn and interact naturally with people to extend what either man or machine could do on their own, thereby helping human experts drill through big data rapidly to make better decisions.
One way I like to describe cognitive computing is as the engine behind “conversational optimization.” In this context, the “cognition” that drives the “conversation” is powered by big data, advanced analytics, machine learning and agile systems of engagement. Rather than rely on programs that predetermine every answer or action needed to perform a function or set of tasks, cognitive computing leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that sense, predict, infer and, if they drive machine-to-human dialogues, converse.
Cognitive computing performance improves over time as systems build knowledge and learn a domain’s language and terminology, its processes and its preferred methods of interacting. This is why it’s such a powerful conversation optimizer. The best conversations are deep in give and take, questioning and answering, tackling topics of keenest interest to the conversants. When one or more parties has deep knowledge and can retrieve it instantaneously within the stream of the moment, the conversation quickly blossoms into a more perfect melding of minds. That’s why it has been deployed into applications in healthcare, banking, education and retail that build domain expertise and require human-friendly interaction models.
IBM Watson is one of the most famous exemplars of the power of cognitive computing driving agile human-machine conversations. In its famous “Jeopardy!” appearance, Watson illustrated how its Deep Question and Answer technology—which is cognitive computing to the core—can revolutionize the sort of highly patterned “conversation” characteristic of a TV quiz show. By having its Deep Q&A results rendered (for the sake of that broadcast) in a synthesized human voice, Watson demonstrated how it could pass (and surpass) any Turing test that tried to tell whether it was a computer rather than, say, Ken Jennings. After all, the Turing test is conversational at its very core, as this recent article on Watson’s genesis makes abundantly clearly.
What’s powering Watson’s Deep Q&A technology is an architecture that supports an intelligent system of engagement. Such an architecture is able to mimic real human conversation, in which the dialogue spans a broad, open domain of subject matter; uses natural human language; is able to process complex language with a high degree of accuracy, precision and nuance; and operates with speed-of-thought fluidity.
Where the “Jeopardy!” conversational test was concerned (and where the other participants were humans literally at the top of that game), Watson was super-optimized. However, in the real-world of natural human conversation, the notion of “conversation optimization” might seem, at first glance, like a pointy-headed pipedream par excellence. However, you don’t have to be an academic sociologist to realize that society, cultures and situational contexts impose many expectations, constraints and other rules to which our conversations and actions must conform (or face disapproval, ostracism, or worse). Optimizing our conversations is critical to surviving and thriving in human society.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a Watson-like Deep Q&A adviser to help us understand the devastating faux pas to avoid and the right bon mot to drop into any conversation while we’re in the thick of it? That’s my personal dream and I’ll bet that before long, with mobile and social coming into everything, it will be quite feasible (no, this is not a product announcement—just the dream of one IBMer). But what excites me even more (and is definitely not a personal pipedream), is IBM Watson Engagement Advisor, which we unveiled earlier this year. It is a cognitive-computing assistant that revolutionizes what’s possible in multichannel B2C conversations. The solution’s “Ask Watson” feature uses Deep Q&A to greet customers, conduct contextual conversations on diverse topics, and ensure that the overall engagement is rich with answers, guidance and assistance.
In a blog a year ago, I related cognitive/conversational computing to “next best action,” which is one of today’s hottest new focus areas in intelligent systems. At its heart, next best action refers to an intelligent infrastructure that optimizes agile engagements across many customer-facing channels, including portal, call center, point of sales, e-mail and social. Your customers (all of whom are human, I suppose) engage in a never-ending whirligig of conversations with humans and, increasingly, with automated bots, recommendation engines and other non-human components that, to varying degrees, mimic real-human conversation.
Essentially, the Turing test of multichannel engagement is whether you can continuously orchestrate conversations across all channels so that they appear to embody a single human-feeling corporate-brand persona.
No, we don’t propose that “Watson” be that persona for your company. That’s us, obviously, in service to you.
Let’s carry on this conversation. What do you think?
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Baltimore is located along the mid-Atlantic coastline of the United States, at the terminus of the Patapsco River into Chesapeake Bay. It is the largest seaport along this part of the coast, and the subject of this astronaut photograph from the International Space Station. Like many large U.S. metropolitan areas, the most brightly lit areas correspond to the highest density of buildings and typically indicates the urban core—including, in this case, the “Inner Harbor” tourist and commercial area.
Highways and large arterial streets appear as bright yellow-orange lines extending outwards into the surrounding suburbs (light violet and reddish brown regions of diffuse lighting). Dark areas beyond the suburban zone are rural or, to the southeast, indicate the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Small, dark patches are open spaces, including parks, cemeteries, and the Baltimore Zoo (within Druid Hill Park). Two large, brightly-lit areas along Chesapeake Bay are commercial/industrial regions and include the major port facilities for Baltimore.
The City of Baltimore was incorporated in 1796, after serving as the de facto capital of the nascent United States of America during the Second Continental Congress (December 20, 1776, to March 4, 1777). Today, the Baltimore metropolitan area (as defined by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council) includes more than 2.5 million people and parts of five Maryland counties—Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, and Howard. The region is also a focus of urban ecological research through the Baltimore Ecosystem Study that is part of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research network.
Astronaut photograph ISS033-E-14186 was acquired on October 16, 2012, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 400 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 33 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC.
- ISS - Digital Camera
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NASA's Earth Observatory this week released startling before-and-after photos of northeastern China, where residents in Beijing and other cities have been suffering from suffocating levels of smog and air pollution. The satellite images, embedded below, were taken from the same position in space, 11 days apart; the top photo was captured on January 14th, the bottom on January 3rd.
As the images make clear, Beijing has seen increased haze, cloud, and fog coverage over this period, though these formations are far from typical...
...Perhaps most terrifying, though, is the fact that NASA's images weren't even taken at the height of China's smog crisis. When the January 14th photo was captured, Beijing's air quality index (AQI) stood at 341 — well above the 300 AQI threshold at which air is considered to be hazardous to all humans, but far below the city's high point. Conditions reached a nadir, in fact, on January 12th, when the AQI in Beijing reached a staggering 775. According to independent air quality monitors at the US Embassy, PM2.5 particle pollution readings in Beijing over the weekend were literally "beyond index."
Red China has yet to address its catastrophic environmental problems, which dwarf those of the U.S. in every way imaginable. Despite this, the Obama EPA is completely out of control, issuing regulations, shutting down businesses, and violating sunshine laws (as evidenced by the unlawful email scam that led to the resignation of EPA chief Lisa Jackson).
Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.
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Wednesday October 23 2013
Some fat is needed in our diet to help the body absorb nutrients
"The risk from saturated fat in foods such as butter, cakes and fatty meat is being overstated and demonised, according to a cardiologist," BBC News reports.
In an opinion piece, a doctor specialising in heart disease writes that warnings over saturated fats are misguided.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr Aseem Malhotra argues that advice to avoid saturated fats over the last 40 years has paradoxically increased the risk of obesity and heart disease.
Dr Malhotra makes the case that while saturated fats have been removed from many products, they have been replaced with sugar to improve the taste. In his opinion, it is the consumption of sugars, rather than fats, that is chiefly responsible for the obesity "epidemic", as well as the increase in related diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
He also says that the "obsession" with cholesterol levels has led to the "overmedication" of millions of people who are prescribed the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins.
What's been said?
Dr Malhotra's article, which has been made available on an open access basis and is free to read, says that saturated fat – found in meat and dairy products such as butter and cheese – has been unfairly "demonised" for the last 40 years.
This was as a result of a very influential study from the 1970s, which found a link between the incidence of coronary heart disease and total cholesterol levels.
Dr Malhotra disputes the idea that this proves a direct cause and effect between cholesterol levels and heart disease: "correlation is not causation", he writes.
The article points out that saturated fat is believed to raise levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (so-called "bad" cholesterol), which in turn raises cardiovascular risk.
Yet only one type of LDL cholesterol seems to be associated with saturated fat intake, the article says. This type of cholesterol is called large buoyant (type A) LDL particles.
The second type of LDL cholesterol – the small, dense (type B) particles associated with carbohydrate intake – is linked to cardiovascular disease.
Recent studies have found no significant association between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular risk, writes Dr Malhotra. Instead, saturated fat has been found to be protective of the heart.
He points out that dairy foods provide important dietary sources of nutrients that have beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system, such as vitamin D, calcium and phosphorus.
Dr Malhotra's article states that fat has been "notorious" for its higher energy content per gram in comparison with protein and carbohydrates.
However, he cites research from the 1950s that shows that people on diets of 90% fat lost more weight than those on carbohydrate and protein diets. This may be because the body breaks down these foods in different ways (known as "the calorie is not a calorie" theory).
He also says that in the United States, over the past 30 years the proportion of energy consumed from fat has fallen from 40% to 30%, although absolute fat consumption has remained the same. In spite of this, obesity levels have rocketed.
Is fat or sugar to blame for greater risk of cardiovascular diseases?
The paper says one reason for this rise in obesity is that food tastes worse without fat, so the food industry compensated by replacing saturated fat with added sugar.
Scientific evidence is now mounting that sugar is a possible independent risk factor for a condition called metabolic syndrome, a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and high levels of "bad" fats, such as triglycerides and LDL cholesterol. Metabolic syndrome puts people at greater risk of heart disease, stroke and other conditions affecting the blood vessels.
Two-thirds of people admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of heart attack have metabolic syndrome, but 75% of these patients have completely normal total cholesterol concentrations, says the paper. "Maybe this is because total cholesterol isn't really the problem," the article suggests.
Since total cholesterol was "sanctified" as a risk factor for coronary artery disease, cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins have become a "multibillion dollar global industry", with eight million people taking them regularly in the UK alone – a figure up from five million a decade ago.
Statins, fat and death risk
Yet, says Dr Malhotra, the decline in smoking and the use of emergency treatments for heart attack patients (primary angioplasty) makes it difficult to know whether statins have had a significant additional effect on the decline in death rates from cardiovascular disease.
Despite the common belief that high cholesterol is a significant risk factor for coronary artery disease, several independent studies have shown that low total cholesterol is associated with a higher risk of death. This arguably indicates that high total cholesterol is not a risk factor in healthy people.
Moreover, says Dr Malhotra's article, "real world" research indicates that statins have "unacceptable" side effects, including muscle pain, gastrointestinal upset, sleep and memory disturbance, erectile dysfunction and loss of muscle function (myopathy) in 20% of participants.
If accurate, these findings massively contradict the figures published by the drug companies, which say that serious side effects such as myopathy only affect 1 in every 10,000 people.
The strongest evidence for the benefit of statins is in people who have already had a heart attack, where 83 people would need to take statins to prevent one cardiovascular death over five years.
But the fact that no other cholesterol-lowering drug has shown a benefit in terms of reducing risk of death suggests that the benefits of statins may be independent of their effects on cholesterol. Any benefit may actually be caused by their anti-inflammatory properties, Dr Malhotra writes.
Adopting a Mediterranean diet after a heart attack is almost three times as powerful in reducing mortality as taking a statin, says Dr Malhotra's paper, and is more effective than a low-fat diet.
"It is time to bust the myth of the role of saturated fat in heart disease and wind back the harms of dietary advice that has contributed to obesity," he concludes.
How accurate is the reporting?
Most of the coverage of this complex and controversial issue was fair, with several papers, including the Daily Express, reporting critical comments from independent experts.
However, many of the headlines were misleading. For example, the Daily Express' claim that "Doctors change their minds after 40 years" could give the impression that new dietary guidelines have been produced. This is not the case – this was an opinion article written by one doctor.
The Express' claim that a "diet packed with fat is the healthy way to prevent heart disease" does not fairly reflect the paper's arguments. Dr Malhotra says that the role of saturated fat in heart disease has been overplayed, not that we should now eat nothing but butter, cheese and cream.
Why do experts think saturated fats are bad?
As Dr Malhotra says, saturated fat intake has been found to be correlated with coronary heart disease and high cholesterol. This is because the liver turns saturated fats into cholesterol.
Most experts agree that high levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol increase the risk of diseases such as heart attack, stroke and narrowed arteries.
Saturated fat is the mostly solid type of fat found in foods such as butter and lard, pies, cakes and biscuits, fatty cuts of meat, sausages and bacon, cheese and cream, and palm and coconut oil.
What new evidence has come to light?
No new evidence has come to light to support these arguments. This article is one doctor's opinion based on his own knowledge, research and experience.
However, it is fair to say there is an ongoing debate about how far cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, especially in people who are otherwise healthy.
There is also a similar debate about the use of statins in people who have no evidence of cardiovascular disease. This is alongside ongoing research into the components of LDL and the different types of lipoproteins known to increase risk the most. None of this relevant new evidence is covered by the news reporting.
What should you eat?
There is no need to change current advice. As with many things in life, the adage of "everything in moderation" applies to your fat consumption.
The body needs small amounts of fat to help it work normally. But most of us eat too much saturated fat – about 20% more than the recommended maximum amount.
Current guidelines state that:
- The average man should eat no more than 30g of saturated fat a day.
- The average woman should eat no more than 20g of saturated fat a day.
- You should avoid trans fats where possible. These fats are mainly produced by an industrial process called hydrogenation and are thought to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease through increasing inflammation. They are found in deep fried foods and biscuits, cakes and pastries.
- Eat mono-unsaturated fats in small amounts. These fats are found in olive oil and rapeseed oil, as well as in some nuts and seeds. They are thought to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
- Eat polyunsaturated fats in small amounts. These include soya, vegetable and safflower oils, as well as the omega-3 oils found in oily fish.
It is also important to moderate your sugar consumption. Sugars are added to a wide range of foods, such as sweets, cakes, biscuits, chocolate and some fizzy and juice drinks. These are the sugary foods that we should cut down on, as they can lead to obesity.
Finally, Dr Malhotra's suggestion that we should all eat a Mediterranean diet is sound advice. Mediterranean cuisine varies by region, but is largely based on vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, olive oil and fish. The Mediterranean diet has been associated with a better quality of life and good health, including a healthier heart, a longer lifespan and good weight management.
Analysis by Bazian. Edited by NHS Choices. Follow Behind the Headlines on Twitter.
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Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Resources
A selection of resources (publications, webinars, videos, conference presentations) available from initiatives spanning national organizations and government.
Public Sphere Pedagogy
CSU Chico developed the Town Hall Meeting and Great
Debate, now adopted by other colleges and universities around the
state, as part of a broader effort to bring entering college students into
full-fledged community participation. The practices, which Chico groups under
"Public Sphere Pedagogy," result in measurable gains in engagement, persistence,
and student success. See the online toolkit or recorded webcast.
Organizations and Governmental Initiatives
- American Commonwealth Partnership
ACP is a broad alliance of higher education, P-12 schools and educational groups, philanthropies, businesses and others, part of a coordinated effort with the White House Office of Public Engagement, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Department of Education, to begin a year of activity called, “For Democracy’s Future – Reclaiming Our Civic Mission.” ACP’s role is to “deepen the civic identity” of educational institutions, moving engagement from activities to strong commitments to education as a public good.
- American Democracy Project (ADP)
The American Democracy Project (ADP) is a multi-campus initiative focused on higher education’s role in preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens for our democracy. The project began in 2003 as an initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), in partnership with The New York Times.
- Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement
This effort is part of the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U)'s ongoing commitment to help all students achieve the essential outcomes of a 21st century liberal education, including personal and social responsibility - an important cornerstone of the LEAP essential learning outcomes advanced by AAC&U. This national initiative is in partnership with the Department of Education and the Global Perspectives Institute.
- The Democracy Commitment
A national initiative providing a platform for the development and expansion of community college programs, projects and curricula aiming at engaging students in civic learning and democratic practice across the country.
Goal is to spread the word about higher education’s civic mission and to show that fixing our democracy is something that young people care deeply about, and have much to contribute to.
- Public Agenda
Public Agenda helps communities and the nation solve tough problems through research, engagement and communications.
Below is a small representation of information available on this topic. We encourage our web users to access the links in the national initiatives section above for a full breadth of available resources.
Additional resources can be found using the Corporation for National and Community Service's National Service Learning Clearninghouse.
- A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy’s Future (.pdf)
This publication from AAC&U examines the state of the field and offers a national plan of action to enhance civic learning and democratic engagement. The Appendix contains two templates, one for colleges & universities and one for organizations and groups outside of higher education to engage in an assessment and potential actions
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http://www.calstate.edu/cce/resource_center/tools/civicengagementresources.shtml
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Toxoplasmosis and Schizophrenia
As discussed earlier, the greatest danger presented by T. Gondii is the possibility of developing latent Toxoplasmosis. Latent Toxoplasmosis can lead to a series of dangerous mind-altering health effects
The startling correlation between schizophrenia and patients that tested positive for Toxoplasmosis draws a direct link between the two disorders. This correlation is particularly disturbing when connected to the very high percentage of schizophrenia patients that owned cats (Tanyuksel 2003). An initial study of patients diagnosed with the first episode of schizophrenia found that nearly 50% of subjects tested positive for both Toxoplasmosis and Schizophrenia. This study used the ELISA IgG and SFDT blood tests, finding that 68% of patients tested positive in at least one of the tests and 44% tested positive for both disorders in both tests. This study additionally found that a majority of these subjects also came in to regular contact with cats.
Additionally, a Wahn University study using the ELISA IgG to test for Toxoplasma anti-bodies in the blood of schizophrenic patients found that the presence of antibodies in schizophrenic to be “significantly higher” than those found in control groups of non schizophrenic patients (Wang 2006). Through further investigation they discovered a 2.22-5.12 ratio between patients with Toxoplasma Gondii antibodies and schizophrenia
Additional research into the cause of the Toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia connection has shown a sharp increase in dopamine levels of those with the disease (Yolken 2009). The study found a significant increase in the dopamine levels of nearly all patients that were positive for Toxoplasma anti-bodies through the ELISA test. They would have subsequently been infected with Toxoplasma Gondii and developed latent Toxoplasmosis which slowly, over a period of many years, increased dopamine levels to the point that it caused an onset of schizophrenia.
Leave a Reply
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http://toxoplasmagondii.web.unc.edu/toxoplasmosis-and-schizophrenia/
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Back Palm is any sleight that conceals an object (like a card or coin) at the back of the hand.
- See also: Coin Back Palm.
Back Palm with cards
Camille Gaultier in La Prestidigitation sans Appareils ("Magic Without Apparatus") states that that the sleight was in use in France prior to 1895 by M. Harmington (at the Theatre Robert-Houdin) and M. Emile Isola (at the Theatre des Capuchines). According to Max Dif, Harmington began performing at the Theatre Robert-Houdin in 1886, but it is not clear when he began performing this sleight there. In The Magician's Handbook by P. T. Selbit, Howard Thurston relates how Otto Maurer was teaching the Back Palm to American magicians around 1887, which he had learned from a Mexican gambler.
Dr. Elliott is said to have originated the sleight with a "reverse" by 1885, so that both sides of the hand could be shown. Elliott stated in the June, 1900 issue of Mahatma: that he would present $500 to any living person who performed the back hand card palm and reverse prior to 1885. He claims to have originated this sleight, and submits the following statement:—" I first showed the sleight to Morrelliaux Berntz Cortelli, a Mexican who is now living in the suburbs of Toledo, Ohio. A few months later he visited Otto Maurer and showed him the sleight, without the reverse".
In the Sphinx, October 1922, Clinton Burgess went on to describe the history as "During the early part of 1895, while coaching a gambler in certain card moves...Dr. James William Elliott, while making an unsupported "split" shuffle, accidentally spilled the deck, all of the cards but one falling to the ground. That one card, by some freak movement, had worked itself between the first and second fingers of Elliott's right hand, where it remained supported between the first joints of those fingers.... Elliott at once saw possibilities in rear-hand concealment, and then and there, with that single card, worked out a crude sleight which he later developed into the "Elliott back-hand palm." ... The first man to whom Elliott gave the secret of his perfected sleight was one Morrelliaux Berntz Cortelli, a Mexican gambler, who, in June, 1900, resided at Toledo, Ohio.... While in New York, getting a supply of marked cards, [Cortelli] was referred to Otto Maurer...Maurer showed Cortelli a peculiar single-handed color change, and in return, Cortelli, who had not given much time to the Elliott sleight, taught Maurer the Elliott rear-hold, without the reverse." The editor, Dr. A.M. Wilson wrote as a note that he was present at Otto Maurer's when a Mexican who gave no name showed Maurer the back-palm, but had no reverse.
Thurston would produced an entire act made up of moves utilizing the back palm.
By 1895, the back palm with cards was being performed publicly by T. Nelson Downs who applied the move to five cards, vanishing them one by one and reproducing them, with the reverse movements made after each vanish and reproduction.
Publications for card back palm
- ↑ Of Legierdemaine and Diverse Juggling Knacks By John Braun
- ↑ http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=261154#Post261154
- ↑ The Back Palm as a Secret Sleight, Hugard's Magic Monthly Vol. 01 No. 7 (December 1943)
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Creeping closer inch by inch, 900 feet above the mighty Colorado River, the two sides of
a $160 million bridge at the Hoover Dam slowly take shape. The bridge will carry a new
section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be seen twisting and
winding around and across the dam itself.
When complete, it will provide a new link between the states of Nevada and Arizona .
In an incredible feat of engineering, the road will be supported on the two massive
concrete arches which jut out of the rock face.
The arches are made up of 53 individual sections each 24 feet long which have been
cast on-site and are being lifted into place using an improvised high-wire crane strung
between temporary steel pylons.
The arches will eventually measure more than 1,000 feet across.
At the moment, the structure looks like a traditional suspension bridge.
But once the arches are complete, the suspending cables on each side will be removed.
Extra vertical columns will then be installed on the arches to carry the road.
The bridge has become known as the Hoover Dam bypass, although it is officially called
the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, after a former governor of Nevada
and an American Football player from Arizona who joined the US Army and was killed
Work on the bridge started in 2005 and should finish next year. An estimated 17,000
cars and trucks will cross it every day.
The dam was started in 1931 and used enough concrete to build a road from New York
to San Francisco . The stretch of water it created, Lake Mead , is 110 miles long and
took six years to fill. The original road was opened at the same time as the famous dam in 1936.
An extra note: The top of the white band of rock in Lake Mead is the old waterline prior
to the drought and development in the Las Vegas area. It is over 100 feet above the
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| 0.947832
| 414
| 2.78125
| 3
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Because of its geomorphology, the Acropolis has been a refuge since prehistoric times. The first, so-called 'Cyclopean' wall, was built along the top of the hill in the Mycenaean period, at approximately 1200 BC. Remains of this wall are still visible to the southeast of the Propylaia, while its course can be traced fairly accurately. A curved enclosure wall, the co-called 'Pelargic' wall mentioned by Thucydides, was also built to the northwest during this period.
This wall had several doors, hence its name 'enneapylon' (nine-doored). The main entrance to the fortress was on the west side, next to a bastion, which later supported the temple of Athena Nike.
This Mycenaean wall remained in use with minor repairs and changes until 480 BC, when it was severely damaged by the Persians.
After the departure of the Persians, both the city of Athens and the Acropolis were given new walls. The northern, or Themistoclean, wall was the first to be built using material from the monuments destroyed by the Persians. North of the Erechtheion one may notice the unfinished marble drums of the Pre-Parthenon, while further to the west are fragments from the entablature (cornices, triglyphs and metopes) from the Old temple of Athena.
The southern, or Kimonean, wall was erected under Kimon after the victory at Eurymedon in 467 BC. The wall's construction necessitated the creation of a terrace along the south edge of the hill. It, too, used building material (epistyles) from the Old temple and the Pre-Parthenon. The wall remained in use and was built up to approximately the height of the Parthenon under Perikles.
After the Herulian invasion in the third century AD, another wall was built west of the Propylaia. Of its two gates, only the west one, the so-called Beulé gate, stands to this day.
The Acropolis became a fortress once again and was used as such until the nineteenth century. Another south wall with two bastions, the so-called Koulas, demolished in the nineteenth century, and a second one located at the present Belvedere, were built in the thirteenth century. The southeast corner of the fortification wall was repaired one last time after the Second World War.
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| 0.973353
| 521
| 3.6875
| 4
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1. Editorial Board.
2. Special issue page.
3. Geobiology - a holistic scientific discipline (N. Noffke).
Research Papers .
4. Geobiology and the fossil record: eukaryotes, microbes, and their interactions (D.J. Bottjer).
5. Geobiology and paleobiogeography: tracking the coevolution of the Earth and its biota (B.S. Lieberman).
6. The contributions of biogeomorphology to the emerging field of geobiology (L.A. Naylor).
7. Temperature and salinity history of the Precambrian ocean: implications for the course of microbial evolution (L.P. Knauth).
8. Production and cycling of natural microbial exopolymers (EPS) within a marine stromatolite (A.W. Decho, P.T. Visscher, R.P. Reid).
9. Microbial mats as bioreactors: populations, processes, and products (P.T. Visscher, J.F. Stolz).
10. Geobiology of microbial carbonates: metazoan and seawater saturation state influences on secular trends during the Phanerozoic (R. Riding, L. Liang).
11. The role of microorganisms and biofilms in the breakdown and dissolution of quartz and glass (U. Brehm, A. Gorbushina, D. Mottershead).
12. Expanding frontiers in deep subsurface microbiology (J.P. Amend, A. Teske).
13. Microbial transformations of organic matter in black shales and implications for global biogeochemical cycles (S.T. Petsch, K.J. Edwards, T.I. Eglinton).
14. Geo-biological aspects of coastal oil pollution (L. Berthe-Corti, T. Höpner).
15. Biogeochemistry: now and into the future (G.A. Cutter).
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https://www.elsevier.com/books/geobiology-objectives-concepts-perspectives/noffke/978-0-444-52019-7
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An investigation of grade 9 learners educational conceptions in two secondary schools : a case study.
Makhathini, Thamsanqa Emmanuel.
MetadataShow full item record
This research considers specific strategies that would enhance teaching and learning of fractional concepts in mathematics at a secondary school. The notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) ~ Vygotskian view, is invoked as one of the fundamental frameworks for explaining fractional knowledge. This view is contested on the bases of that "human thinking is inherently social in its origin" (Goos, 2004: 259). Another theory that bears testimony to mathematics education especially abstract concepts like fractions is that of constructivism, drawn from the works of, Lave (1996), Steffe (1990) and others. Learners' informal knowledge is investigated for the purposes of highlighting what learners know and can do. Therefore, the study examined the development of learners' understanding of fractions during instruction with respect to the ways their prior knowledge of whole numbers influenced the meanings and representations they construct for fractions as they build on their informal knowledge. There were 30 participants (15 School A and 15 from School B) that were engaged in worksheets. Thereafter, 6 cases of the participants were carefully selected for clinical interview purposes. The overall methodology of this study is participatory action research (Kemmis & Mctaggart, 2000).
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http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10413/1350
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| 0.939612
| 283
| 3.28125
| 3
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During wars, many soldiers informally adopt dogs or cats, and these new relationships can be life-saving both literally and emotionally. Yet when the soldiers return home, they must say good-bye to these friends. When they leave their pets behind, soldiers have great fear for their animals’ safety.
Former British soldier Louise Hastie and the Afghans with whom she works are reuniting soldiers with the animals that befriended them during the war. Hastie is in charge of the Nowzad Animal Shelter in Kabul.
The shelter began as a result of the efforts of Royal Marine Sergeant Pen Farthing who became the friend and guardian of a dog he named Nowzad. The dog’s name comes from the town of Now Zad in Helmand Province, and he was originally a fighting dog. When Farthing broke up an organized dogfight near his compound, he met the dog and just couldn’t resist caring for him. Soon others became his friends, too, and he cared for them all. Farthing tells his story in the book One Dog at a Time: Saving the Strays of Afghanistan.
Due to the war and high poverty levels, the needs of animals in this country have understandably not been met, and Hastie hopes to change that. Sending animals to former soldiers is one option, but the costs are a challenge. Transporting a single animal to the United States costs $4000, and though the soldiers often contribute, charitable donations are also a big part of the process.
Farthing was able to bring just three of the many dogs he loved to Great Britain to be with him. So far, the shelter has transported 400 dogs and cats abroad to be with the soldiers who became their guardians, and has taken in and cared for thousands more. The shelter provides medical treatment of various kinds, including vaccinations and spay/neuter surgeries in an effort to fight the problem of animal overpopulation long term.
It’s an uphill battle to save animals in a country where financial limitations are so extreme and cultural views of dogs are not uniformly positive. Every dog saved is one who would have suffered otherwise, and every soldier who is reunited with a best friend is far better off as well.
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<urn:uuid:c199d23f-dea3-4d43-bdb1-aedf0ccc79b6>
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http://thebark.com/content/afghan-shelter-serves-animals-and-people?qt-most_popular=0
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| 0.978304
| 451
| 2.71875
| 3
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Often when people ask me about my favorite parts of homeschooling, I tell them about how I can find the curriculum that best meets my children's needs and how I can spend more time on the subjects that need more practice.
For some subjects, it's been fairly easy to find a curriculum that fits our family. Unfortunately, science has been a bit of a struggle for the past few years. The science curriculum that worked for Addison during her early elementary years was too time intensive for it to work well with Brennan. We spend a lot of our days working on reading, spelling, and composition. Sadly, science often gets pushed towards the bottom of the priority list and overlooked.
Bright Ideas Press graciously allowed me to choose which one of their products that I wished to review, and I jumped at the opportunity to try an elementary science program that I haven't seen before.
I received a copy of Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space by Stephanie Redmond ($29.95) and the corresponding Student Activity Book download ($12.95). The materials in this book are divided into 6 units that cover 24 lessons. For Earth Science, the lessons cover Creation, Rocks, Water, Weather, the Universe, and much more.
Each lesson consists of two parts -- Teaching Time and Hands-On Time. The author recommends doing each part on a different day. For the past month, twice weekly science has worked well for us. The text is clear and easy to read. The relatively short readings fit our attention span, and perhaps more importantly in our house, fit the amount of time that we have while Lauren is preoccupied with something other than Mommy. Each lesson has corresponding coloring pages and often a simple written activity. These materials can either be photocopied from the main text or printed from the Activity Book download.
I was pleasantly surprised when I read through the Hands-On activity suggestions. My science struggles with other curriculums did not end when it came to finding time to do the daily readings. I also struggled every week with the idea of gathering materials and setting up a hands-on activity. Even when the materials were fairly easy to find, many many science projects have gone undone in this house. For some reason, the activities in the Christian Kids Explore book are not nearly as intimidating. They are actually getting done, and Brennan is really enjoying a science curriculum with hands-on activities that help him learn the materials. Just this past weekend, we explored plate tectonics with the shells of boiled eggs. I haven't shown him yet, but one of the activities further along in the book is making a dessert that models the layers of sedimentary rocks. I think that activity will be a favorite in everyone's book. The text also includes very, very simple activities that can make the science lesson both interesting and appropriate for a younger sibling's introduction to earth science.
I know that many other homeschool families devote more time to science, and they might be afraid that this curriculum will be too simple to fit their needs. For our family, I'm doing far less than the author recommends. In addition to reading from the text and completing the hands-on activities, she suggests to spend time reviewing recent lessons, reviewing flash cards that you've made with vocabulary words and lesson facts. Time should also be spent everyday doing outside reading and researching related topics of interest. There are Daily Reading Sheets to copy or print so that you can keep track of what your child learns during this time. Busy homeschool parents will appreciate the 18 pages of supplemental reading suggestions that are included. In my opinion, this curriculum can be tweaked to fit families with a big interest in science and families (like mine) that just want to make sure science isn't completely overlooked in the elementary years.
The Christian Kids Explore Science materials are perhaps the favorite science curriculum that I've used with my children. There's not too much reading for our busy days and not too much tinkering involved with the hands-on activities. I'm excited that Brennan and I get to continuing studying Earth Science this year using this book.
It might be a bit too early to be thinking about next year's curriculum choices, but I firmly believe that I'll be choosing another Christian Kids Explore product. Perhaps the hard part will be trying to decide if we'll do physics, chemistry, or biology.
You can see other reviews of homeschool materials from Bright Ideas Press on The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew blog. I know that several homeschool parents also chose to receive books from the Christian Kids Explore Science series for this review.
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The Geometer's Sketchpad Spirograph Lab
Library Home || Full Table of Contents || Suggest a Link || Library Help
|Spirograph Machine, or Tea Cusps and Saucers. This lab studies the effects (both mathematical and artistic) of circular motion as points rotate around circles. Interesting things occur when a point moves around a circle as the circle rotates around another circle. A guided exploration with instructions and questions about the mathematical explanations of the effects you see when you make your sketches.|
|Levels:||High School (9-12)|
|Resource Types:||Lesson Plans and Activities, Tutorials, Manuals/How-To's, Geometer's Sketchpad|
|Math Topics:||Conic Sections and Circles|
© 1994- The Math Forum at NCTM. All rights reserved.
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A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance
Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance can account for the psychological consequences of disconfirmed expectations. One of the first published cases of dissonance was reported in the book, When Prophecy Fails (Festinger et al. 1956). Festinger and his associates read an interesting item in their local newspaper headlined 'Prophecy from planet clarion call to city: flee that flood.' Festinger and his colleagues saw this as a case that would lead to the arousal of dissonance when the prophecy failed. They infiltrated the group and reported the results, confirming their expectations. Cognitive dissonance is a motivational state caused because of a conflict between competing goals, beliefs, values, ideas, or desires. The tension can vary due to the importance of the issue in the person's life, and the change in inconsistency between competing beliefs/ideas, and desires/needs. The tension generates a 'drive state' in which the individual feels a need to settle the dissonance. In order to diminish the tension, the person must make a decision to either change their behavior or their beliefs in order to create consistency between the variables. According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior. Two factors affect the strength of the dissonance: the number of dissonant beliefs, and the importance attached to each belief. There are three ways to eliminate dissonance: (1) reduce the importance of the dissonant beliefs, (2) add more consonant beliefs that outweigh the dissonant beliefs, or (3) change the dissonant beliefs so that they are no longer inconsistent. Dissonance occurs most often in situations where an individual must choose between two incompatible beliefs or actions. The greatest dissonance is created when the two alternatives are equally attractive. Furthermore, attitude change is more likely in the direction of less incentive since this results in lower dissonance. In this respect, dissonance theory is contradictory to most behavioral theories which would predict greater attitude change with increased incentive (i.e., reinforcement).
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Literature and History of the Holocaust
Through an inquiry-based unit, students explore World War II and the Holocaust, learning about the human spirit and how it helps people to overcome diversity and conflict.
- Grades: 3–5
There is much to be learned about human nature, both good and bad, through a unit of study on the Holocaust.
- Access prior knowledge of the Holocaust
- Examine quotes and text passages related to the Holocaust
- Generate a list of questions about the Holocaust
- Analyze a piece of writing based on the authorship of the work
- Utilize the Internet to learn about an author
- Infer the meaning of a poem
- Determine an author's purpose
Lesson Plans for this Unit
Lesson 1: Introduction to a Study of the Holocaust
Throughout this unit students will read a variety of literature. Have students prepare a poster about one of the books they read with a paragraph explaining how the book relates to the unit. Hang these posters in a hallway and invite other classes to do a "gallery walk" of the posters.
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Electrician & Energy Trades
Most electricians will concentrate on either construction or repair, although they usually can do both. Those who specialize in construction often work in buildings, factories or homes installing wiring systems. Those who concentrate on maintenance and repair, fix and upgrade electrical systems.
In order to become an electrician, the student must gain entrance into a two-year study program, either in a vocational school or community college. Students will learn the components of the electrical system, including installation, maintenance, and repair. There are two options a student may choose from in order to receive an electrician degree. One is to earn an associate degree, then enter an apprenticeship. The other option is to find a degree program in which the apprenticeship is built into the program. Students must also pass the electrician licensing program.
Information you gain at electrician school and energy trade schools may include:
- Blueprint reading
- Electrical theory
- Electrical code requirements
- Safety and first aid practices
- Renewable energy training
- Clean energy training
- And more!
Most Popular Electrician & Energy Trades Technical Schools
Electrician & Energy Trades Training and Employment Information
There are many career paths in which recipients of an electrician degree can take.
- Elevator installer and repairer- This career consists of installing and repairing, elevators, escalators, and other lifts. The work involves moving heavy equipment with overtime often necessary. The median salary for this job is $70,910. This career path is expected to grow 11% by 2020.
- Line installer and repairer- This line of work consists of installing and repairing power lines, as well as fiber optic lines. This job requires irregular hours, including nights, weekends, and holidays. The median salary for this job is $54,290. This career is growing at an average rate at 13% by 2020.
- Electrician- An electrician installs and maintains electrical systems in homes and businesses. Electricians are required to read blueprints, install conduit and wiring, installing outlets, and must have knowledge of the National Electric Code. The median salary is $48,250. This career is growing rapidly at a rate of 23%.
- Electronics installer and repairer- This career installs and repairs electrical equipment in telecommunications, transportation, security, and other industries. The median salary is $49,170. This path is growing at a rate of 3%.
With the ever increasing need for technology and electricity, the field of work is becoming even more demanding. The need for electricians is growing rapidly, particularly with the increased popularity of solar power. The job possibilities are endless.
Featured Electrician & Energy Trades Technical Schools
Additional Electrician & Energy Trades Technical Schools
Technical Schools Guide makes finding the right Electrician & Energy Trades Technical Schools simple. We list both large and small Technical Colleges throughout the United States. Whether you are planning on attending a 2-year college, 4-year college, vocational college, purely technical college, or just single college courses, the listings above should contain each type of trade school, college, or university. Financial aid is available for many of these colleges but visitors will need to contact each school directly to get assistance. Technical Schools Guide does not maintain specific course, tuition, application, accredation or records of information on specific schools. All inquiries should be made directly with such schools. All information contained above is believed to be accurate and reputable. If a discrepancy is found, please contact the Technical Schools Guide staff by clicking on the "contact us" link below. We are also able to update college information and locations through this contact address. Featured listings on Technical Schools Guide are generally for-profit school listings. These listings help pay for bandwidth and maintenance of the Technical Schools Guide site. Thanks for visiting Technical Schools Guide and good luck in your Electrician & Energy Trades Technical school experience!
-The Technical Schools Guide staff. To contact us, click here.
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
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- New York
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- North Dakota
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Washington Dc
- West Virginia
Call a Career Advisor now:
Available M-Th 10am-10pm and
Fri 10am-8pm CST
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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2006 November 7
Explanation: Janus is one of the stranger moons of Saturn. First, Janus travels in an unusual orbit around Saturn where it periodically trades places with its sister moon Epimetheus, which typically orbits about 50 kilometers away. Janus, although slightly larger than Epimetheus, is potato-shaped and has a largest diameter of about 190 kilometers. Next, Janus is covered with large craters but strangely appears to lack small craters. One possible reason for this is a fine dust that might cover the small moon, a surface also hypothesized for Pandora and Telesto. Pictured above, Janus was captured in front of the cloud tops of Saturn in late September.
Authors & editors:
Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Phil Newman Specific rights apply.
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
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A Patient's Guide to Lung Surgery
Lung Cancer Treatment Options
If a diagnosis of lung cancer is suspected or confirmed, your doctor can outline your treatment. These options depend mainly upon the location of the cancer in your lung and the extent, or stage, of the cancer. The stage of a cancerous lung mass is based on the size of the cancer and how far it has spread. In early stages, cancer may be confined to one small area of the lung. In later stages, it may spread within the lungs or through the lymph nodes to other parts of the body.
Once the stage has been determined, the best treatment method can be chosen. You and your doctor can decide on a treatment plan that best fits your needs. Three methods are available to treat lung cancer. One method or a combination of methods may be used.
- Surgery removes part or all of a lung to eliminate the cancer.
- Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells.
- Chemotherapy uses a combination of drugs to destroy cancer cells.
Do I Have Other Options?
Your doctor will give you as much information as possible to help you understand why surgery is the best option for you. You’ll be told what’s involved, how long your recovery will be, and what kind of results you might expect. Your doctor will also outline any other treatment options you may have. If you have questions, worries, or concerns, discuss them with your doctor or another health care provider. And remember that your family and friends can be good sources of support to help you through the process.
> Next: Support Group Information
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When faced with poverty and “ethnoracial discriminiation,” such kids feel alienated and are unable to launch themselves on an upward trajectory. The second generation children do not assimilate well to the host society because of the constant fear of having their parents’ immigration status found out. Lacking ties to the host country because of fear of deportation, second-generation children are thus unable to acculturate as well as their peers because of their parents’ legal status.
The future earnings of these second generation children also diminishes with the schooling gap because without a high school diploma, they would “earn about half a million dollars less over their lifetimes.”
The study shows that the effects of an educational disadvantage are preventable: legalization would help to raise the overall education level of these second-generation Americans. The effects of educational achievement positively changed when undocumented mothers became legalized. The co-author noted, “Legislation providing the possibility of entry into full societal membership helps not only the immigrants themselves but also their children and their children’s children.”
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We often talk (and post) about the upcoming food trends, but usually aren’t looking much farther than the next year. An exciting new project from National Geographic is taking the future of food to a whole new level. They’re taking a look at what the world’s food needs will be nearly 40 years in the future, and what we can do today to maybe ease any future burdens.
We’re just over halfway through American Heart Month, and while the holiday of the heart has passed, we’re still focused on keeping that important organ healthy.
With that in mind, we came across an interesting new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Stanford University. Their research indicates a causal link between pollution and heart problems in both fish and humans.
The study was started with the intent of showing the impact of the BP oil spill in 2010. Since it began, the study has shown many detrimental effects of the spill on the regions’ animal and human life.
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Solid drawings are made up partly of construction. Perspective and foreshortening help make the drawings even more convincing - and harder to do. They also afford you more creative choices to tell your stories with.
Note how Bugs' feet are in the same perspective (the same angle) as the grave pit.
Many characters in today's cartoons will be drawn in 3/4 angle, yet their feet are placed on a horizontal line that completely ignores the perspective or angle of the rest of the characters. It hurts my eyes to see that so much. It makes it look like the leg that is farther away from is is longer than the one that is close to us.
We are also looking down on Bugs so his head is much bigger than his feet and his body is foreshortened.
I love the hills and valleys in Bugs' ears. Very subtle and adds even more form.
The way Bugs drags Elmer floating through the air and into the grave is cheated. Even McKimson couldn't figure out how to make that look natural. I bet he was cursing Clampett for this scene. It's full of technical problems to solve - yet the result makes the cartoon even funnier. It's amazingly directed - as someone pointed out in the comments the other day, Elmer is crying to the music. As always, Clampett's actions and gags flow along melodic music like a cartoon ballet.
I can't imagine how they choreographed all these ideas and made them work together so smoothly - and funny. They must have been supermen in the 1940s.
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More than two decades have passed since the Exxon Valdez spilled 38,000 tons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, but despite cleanup efforts and time, thousands of gallons of oil remain stuck in the region’s beaches. A new Nature Geoscience study offers an explanation for why the oil has been so slow to disperse: it’s the composition of the beaches themselves.
According to study leader Michel C. Boufadel, natural forces have created beaches in Prince William Sound with two distinct layers, and water moves 1,000 times slower through the bottom layer than the top. Once the oil entered the lower level, conditions were right to keep it there, he said. Tidal forces worked to compact the finer-grained gravel even more, creating a nearly oxygen-free environment with low nutrient levels that slowed the ability of the oil to biodegrade [AP].
Boufadel began his study to explain why the oil from Valdez spill, which happened in March 1989, was lingering longer than most scientists expected. Most clean-up operations in the area ended in 1992 because the remaining oil was expected to disperse within a few years. A later study discovered that the oil was disappearing at a rate of just 4% each year, and that an estimated 20,000 gallons remained in the beaches [BBC News]. The researchers dug pits several feet deep all around Eleanor Island to investigate, and found that the two-tiered beaches has allowed plenty of crude to sink down and get stuck. In their field studies, Dr. Boufadel said, when they would dig into deeper sediments, “the whole place would smell of oil” [The New York Times]. If environmental agencies want to finish the cleanup, Boufadel suggests that chemicals could be injected into the lower sediment layer to speed up the oil’s biodegradation.
This study of a 21-year-old oil shipping disaster coincides with a current scare in the same locale; an Exxon ship briefly lost power in Alaskan waters Sunday, but two tugs towed it to safety. This tanker has quickly become a poster child for pending federal legislation to beef up protection for Prince William Sound oil shipments [Anchorage Daily News].
80beats: 20 Years After Valdez Spill, Eagles Are Healthy; 7 Other Species Still Hurting
80beats: “Nanosponge” Could Soak Up Oil Spills
Discoblog: Whither the Valdez? ExxonMobil Cuts Cash for Global Warming Deniers
DISCOVER: Whatever Happened To… The Exxon Valdez?
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Statistical work has always involved collecting, analysing and presenting data. What has changed is how this is done – and the types of data collected. In New Zealand’s early colonial years, officials such as magistrates and policemen collected information about people and economic activities as they went about their duties. A handful of male clerks in the Colonial Secretary’s office collated this data and summarised the results on standardised forms which were bound together in volumes known throughout the British Empire as ‘Blue Books’. Annual statistical reports were published by the Government Printer from the 1850s.
For a century from the 1890s, the New Zealand Official Yearbook was the main means of communicating statistical information to the public. Many staff co-ordinated, updated and checked the material contributed by other government departments. In recent years much of this information has been made available online.
Counting people (and animals – the last census question about poultry was asked in 1971) required much effort. Initially, men with close knowledge of their communities, such as police and post office workers, collected data on the ground. Pre-motorised travel was hazardous, and at least one sub-enumerator suffered ‘the New Zealand death’, drowning while crossing a river on horseback. In the early 20th century, agents such as grocers distributed family budget surveys. Later, information was increasingly collected by post as comprehensive coverage gave way to sample surveys. Census forms are still delivered to every household in the country by a wide variety of methods. Gaining access to inner-city apartment buildings has been a recent challenge.
As both New Zealand’s population and the complexity of the information sought grew, so did the size of the army of temporary clerks that was employed every five years by the Census and Statistics Office to process it. Sitting at long tables in draughty or cramped rooms, they laboriously added, subtracted and calculated percentages. From the 1890s census data was written on cards which were sorted by hand. The drudgery of statistical work was gradually eased as adding and calculating machines and typewriters came into use, operated mostly by women. In the 1920s tabulating machines were imported from the United States to process punched cards; this too was women’s work.
The introduction of computers
The Census and Statistics Office employed a few economists, including the well-known J.B. Condliffe, after the First World War, but no fully qualified mathematicians until after the Second, when in-house training in statistical methods also began. By the 1960s the population census was barely being processed by the time the next one was taken. A second-generation IBM mainframe computer acquired by the Statistics Department was soon obsolete, and the Government Computer Centre was unable to process the data for series such as the Consumers Price Index quickly enough. Since the early 1980s computing has been done in-house, and in the 1990s personal computers and the Internet revolutionised the day-to-day experience of work at Statistics New Zealand.
New Zealand’s statistical workers have enjoyed or endured a wide variety of working conditions in central Wellington over the years. Early ‘highlights’ included the former parliamentary boilerhouse; the ‘dirty, dank and unsanitary hole’ of the Wairarapa Farmers’ Co-operative Association building, in which they coexisted with a thriving rat population; and the attic of the Public Trust building. Newer accommodation wasn’t always much better: the concrete Hood’s building between Lambton Quay and The Terrace was state-of-the-art for 1925, but staff either shivered in the ‘Dungeon’ or sweltered on the ‘Sunnyside’; the window frames soon leaked and let through draughts; the plumbing ‘went on the blink’. After decades spread across a growing number of rented offices of varying quality, head office at last became ‘comfortably housed’ in 1974, when it moved into Aorangi House in Molesworth St. Since 2005 Statistics New Zealand has occupied Statistics House, a ‘green glass box’ on the waterfront with a facade that apparently ‘alludes to both the magic of numbers and the colour of the sea in the harbour nearby’. Inside, a wide stairway and ‘social areas’ on each floor encourage staff to interact.
Statistics staff have sometimes taken on additional duties. During the First World War, for example, several hundred temporary staff, mostly women, compiled information on every male of military service age and carried out the periodic birthdate ballots for conscription. In the Second World War these duties were undertaken by a separate National Service Department.
Staff having fun
There has always been play as well as work. A table tennis craze in the 1920s was short-lived, but sport, picnics and office parties have endured. In 1956, the newly created Department of Statistics had 92 male and 72 female employees. In 2010 there were approximately 850 full-time staff, more than half of them based outside Wellington and 55% of them female.
Content based on material from David Green, Statistics Count: An Illustrated History of Statistics New Zealand, Statistics New Zealand, 2002. ISBN 0-478-20797-2
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Asked by: crysp-ga
List Price: $2.00
18 Feb 2004 17:46 PST
Expires: 19 Mar 2004 17:46 PST
Question ID: 308167
Where are volcanoes found?
Answered By: knowledge_seeker-ga on 19 Feb 2004 05:31 PST
Hi crysp ? On earth, most continental volcanoes (those on continents) are found along fault-lines ? that is, where two of earth?s tektonic plates come together. GEOSPHERE ? PLATES http://www.hrw.com/science/si-science/physical/geology/geosphere/platelg.html As the plates collide, one pushes under the other (subduction) causing magma to be released. This forms the volcano. SUBDUCTION http://www.germantown.k12.il.us/gifs/subduc.gif The Pacific Plate's Ring of Fire is the most active and famous of these regions. VOLCANO MAP ? CONTINENTAL PLATES - RING OF FIRE http://www.volcanogallery.com/volcano_rofire.htm RING OF FIRE http://www.graphicmaps.com/aatlas/infopage/ringfire.htm Oceanic volcanoes (most of which are not mapped and described) occur in the deep trenches of the ocean where the plates are pulling apart and the magma seeps up through the crack. DIVERGING PLATES http://ase.tufts.edu/geology/sem/images/zd_diverging_plates.jpg Sometimes enough builds up that after many eons it crests the surface of the ocean. This is how Hawaii was formed. OCEANIC VOLCANOES http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Gif/PlateTectonics/Graphics/oceanic_environment.gif Here is a Smithsonian map of all of the active volcanoes of the world. You can click the map to take a closer look at a specific region. Then click the next map to read about the individual volcanoes. http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/world/location.cfm Smithsonian Volcanoes Homepage http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/ ====================================== MORE ABOUT VOLCANOES AND CONTINENTAL PLATES ====================================== EXPLORING THE ENVIRONMENT ? VOLCANOES http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/vlocation1.html ENCHANTED LEARNING - CONTINENTS http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents.shtml That should answer your question about where volcanoes are located. Thanks for asking! -K~ search terms ? volcanoes maps volcanoes ring of fire continental plates GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH: geology plates
From: squid001-ga on 18 Feb 2004 22:22 PST
HEY CRYSP IM SQUID001 WELL VOLCANOS ARE MOSTLY FOUND IN COLD PLACES EG IN NEW ZEALAND MT RUAPEHU IS LOCATED IN THE SNOW AND THEY ARE ALSO ALL LOCATED IN A LINE WHICH IS ALL IN THE SOUTHEN HEMISPHER
Re: Bad Answer
From: katesmith-ga on 29 Mar 2004 16:23 PST
This is NOT correct: "Oceanic volcanoes (most of which are not mapped and described) occur in the deep trenches of the ocean where the plates are pulling apart and the magma seeps up through the crack." Trenches occur at subduction zones, not midoceanic rift zones. The two are not the same thing. You do not find oceanic volcanoes at "the deep trenches of the ocean" because this is NOT where "plates are pulling apart" but rather where they are coming together in subduction zones. The trenches form where one plate is subducting under another, and continental volcanoes form inland of these trenches. Rifting and subduction are NOT the same processes. This is also NOT correct: "Sometimes enough builds up that after many eons it crests the surface of the ocean. This is how Hawaii was formed." Hawaii is a hot spot volcano, NOT a subduction and trench coninental volcano (the Cascade Ranges), nor an oceanic rift zone volcano (Iceland). Hot spots are NOT where "enough builds up that after many eos it crests the surface of the ocean." Where you have midoceanic ridge systems, such as the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, you do get this happening. But ridges are NOT treches. It's not necessarily about eons, though! There's lots more to it than this. However, your is NOT a good answer because it is just plain wrong.
Cold Places and Volcanoes
From: katesmith-ga on 29 Mar 2004 18:03 PST
Volcanoes are also not mostly found in cold places--this has nothing to do with volcanoes. See the Galápagos and Hawaiin volcanoes for examples. The Ring of Fire probably has more volcanoes in hot or warm places than in cold places.
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This post is one of ten in the serialization of my paper on human rights, which is introduced here.
Ownership rights or use rights?
Most people forget that water is often owned by the People, and that the State distributes the right to use water — the usufruct rights — such that (in theory) its social value is maximized. For most of history, we owners have not paid attention to how our water was used, but increasing scarcity has piqued our interest and passion. In the developed world, we want to know that our water goes to important environmental protection or food production; in the developing world, we want our water to slake our thirst. When those goals are left high and dry (as in Haiti), we turn our attention to how our water is used, to exercise our ownership rights.
Now the first objection is that most of us cannot use “our share" of water, because we are not farmers or fish. That objection goes away if we are allowed to sell our water to those who will use it. But selling water raises a second objection, that we should not sell water when we need it to live.
We can address this concern by dividing ownership rights in two — reflecting lifeline need and lifestyle demand. The first set of “need rights" would be inalienable, fixed and equal for every person, at approximately 135 liters/capita/day. The second set of “want rights" would be alienable, vary with supply, and subject to changes in population. These “trade water" rights could be rented but not sold. The ban on sales would protect owners from sharp dealing and communities from drying out. This temporal safety could be augmented by a volumetric ceiling on exports that could be relaxed as the community learned of export impacts.
So, how much water would fall into each category? Using the definition and data for renewable water supplied by the United Nations Environmental Programme, we find that Canadians would get 135 lcd as an inalienable lifeline right and still have 239,265 lcd to allocate as they please. Although that number seems preposterously large, the numbers in water-scarce Israel (with 611 lcd of renewable water) would be 135 lcd for lifeline water and 476 lcd for trade water. Total renewable supplies are 64,100 lcd in Australia, 4,300 lcd in Haiti, 4,200 lcd in Somalia and 27,500 lcd in the US.
Astute readers will already have noted that rights to water are not the same as delivery of water, especially when the owner/user is distant from his property. That separation is not a problem. It would be easy to establish a system of accounting and fiduciary managers — similar to the system in the mutual fund/unit trust industry — who would oversee, for a small fee, the physical water that individuals own (but may never see).
In tomorrow's episode, I show how property rights render the public vs private debate meaningless
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North Carolina Library History
Government & Heritage Library
North Carolina has a long and rich history in public library service and in support of education and lifelong learning. Most libraries in the state trace their official beginnings to the early 20th century, with a few notable exceptions. Bath had a circulating library in the 1700s and claims the honor of being the only pre-revolutionary lending library in the state. Statesville had a circulating collection in the 1840s (Statesville Landmark, Mar. 31, 1882). Buncombe County, too, can claim with pride that their first subscription library was established in 1879. The Durham Public Library, established in 1897, holds the distinction of being the first free tax-supported library in the State. The success of Durham's public library led to a library boom, with institutions being established in the counties of Wake (1901), Anson (1902), Wayne (1902), Guilford (1902), Mecklenburg (1903), Craven (1906), Cumberland (1907), and Gransville (1908).
Libraries were often the product of public service groups within the community. The Thornton Library in Granville County was the outgrowth of the Women’s Service Association, while others grew out of local school boards, home demonstration clubs, and church groups.
In the early 1900s, millionaire and business tycoon Andrew Carnegie began supplying Library Building Grants to communities throughout the country. Many North Carolina communities used these Carnegie grants to construct library buildings including: Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Andrews, Asheville, Durham, Hickory, Murphy, and Greensboro (which received grants to build two libraries—one for whites, and one for African Americans). Rather uniquely, because Henderson County’s population fell below the minimum threshold to receive a Carnegie Foundation grant, Carnegie personally donated $10,000 to build their library.
North Carolina libraries, like most in the South, were segregated through much of their history, though efforts were made to offer some services to minority populations. Davidson County received a Julius Rosenwald grant in the 1920’s to offer library services to all citizens of the county, and library systems throughout the state offered either separate African American branches (such as Asheville, Raleigh, Durham, and Greensboro), or offered specific bookmobile service to African American schools, towns, and businesses. Even so, library service to African Americans was woefully inadequate. In 1948, over 80% of North Carolina's white population had access to library services compared to only 50% of the African American population. During the Civil Rights Era, public libraries throughout North Carolina became truly public for the first time, offering services to all North Carolinians regardless of race.
In the 1930s, the Federal Government was responsible for the founding and maintenance of many North Carolina libraries through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The aid supported building new libraries, paying library salaries, repairing old library buildings, running bookmobile service (paying for the bookmobile, driver, and collections), and funding special library programs such as the statewide book mending program which trained women to repair damaged library books.
At one point, two-thirds of the public libraries in North Carolina were completely staffed by WPA workers. With the advent of World War II, the federal government had to terminate the WPA library project. Even so, it left a profound impact on the state. In 1926 prior to the WPA, only 32% of North Carolinians had access to a library. By 1942, over 80% of the state's population had access to library materials.
Because so much of North Carolina is rural, bookmobiles have always been a vital part of library services. In 1923, Durham Public Library became the owners of the state's first bookmobile. Named “Miss Kiwanis”, the blue Ford half-ton truck was a donation from the Durham chapter of the Kiwanis Club. The Durham Public Library bookmobile program was so successful that several other libraries acquired bookmobiles in the years that followed, often using retired school buses and donated pickup trucks to transport the library materials. Some libraries existed solely to run these mobile services, and didn’t have permanent homes until fairly recently (Jackson County, 1970; Rutherford County, 1983). By the mid-1950s, North Carolina led the country in bookmobile service, with 101 bookmobiles serving 94 counties.
Housing a collection has always been a challenge, and several communities found novel means by which to provide collections to their populations. Gaston County’s library was officially established in 1937, but a collection was available in a local dentist’s office as early as 1902 (after which it moved to the YMCA), and a library in New Bern operated out of what had been the New Bern Yacht Club (and it also rented out row boats). One persistent librarian in the 1930s was able to persuade Pender County officials to house the collection in the Grand Jury Room of the courthouse, with the understanding that it would only be used when court was not in session.
With 77 regional, county, and municipal libraries -- nearly 400 central and branch libraries in all -- plus more than 90 mobile units still covering the state, libraries remain a vibrant and vital part of North Carolina. And in 2010, the State Library of North Carolina's launched a 21st century library program to create a shared state-wide public library consortium that provides a common online library catalog. Appropriately named after the State Bird, NC Cardinal provides membership to independent local, county, and regional libraries to add their holdings to the shared catolg. Member libraries and their patrons can search the holdings of the consortium libraries and request items beyond those of their local library. Start-up for the consortium is supported by the State Library of North Carolina with grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The project went live in February 2013 and uses an open-source and customizable integrated library system called Evergreen developed by the Georgia Public Library Sysytem in 2006.
In the summer of 2008, the State Library began a project to collect and document the state's public library history and put out a call to North Carolina's public libraries for participation. Called Transforming the Tar Heel State, the project sought to collect and digitize photographs and other historic items and make them available online through NC Digital Collections. More than thirty libraries responded with postcards, reports, dedications, and other unique materials that are now available online. The core of this collection comes from items at the State Library of North Carolina that are known informally as the Public Library History Files. This "collection" was a compilation of photographs, reports, newspaper clippings, and other materials that had been sent over the years from the state’s public libraries to the North Carolina Library Commission and date from the 1880s into the 1970s. Photographs from the Public Library History Files were included in a display at the North Carolina Library Association's Centennial Conference in 2004. Today what became known as Transforming the Tar Heel State can be found online at the Library History collection in NC Digital Collections.
References and additional resources:
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. The History of Public Library Service in Durham, North Carolina 1897-1997. Durham : Durham County Public Library, 1998.
Historical Facts submitted by North Carolina Public Libraries. Online in the NC Digital Collections.
Jones, Theodore. Carnegie Libraries Across America. New York : Preservation Press, 1997.
Mitchell, Thornton W. The State Library and Library Development in North Carolina. Raleigh : North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Division of State Library, 1983.
Moore, Bertha. “The Development of County Libraries in North Carolina”. Essay. George Peabody College, 1948.
von Oesen, Elaine. “Public Library Service in North Carolina and the W.P.A.” Thesis. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1951.
"NC Cardinal: sharing library resources and expanding opportunities." August 16, 2013. Library Development, State Library of North Carolina Blog. http://statelibrarync.org/ldblog/2013/08/16/nc-cardinal-sharing-resources-and-expanding-opportunities/ (accessed December 3, 2014).
Library History, North Carolina Digital Collections, http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/home/collections/library-history.
Tranforming the Tar Heel State (North Carolina Library History), http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/search/searchterm/transforming%20the%20tar%...?.
"Haywood County Public Library, eastern entrance to the Great Smoky [Mountains] National Park." Postcard. ca. 1955. Transforming the Tar Heel State Collection, North Carolina Digital Collections. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p249901coll36/id/1769 (accessed December 3, 2014).
"Goldsboro Public Library [Weill Home]." Photograph. 1930. North Carolina Public Libraries by the State Library of North Carolina on historypin. https://www.historypin.org/attach/uid11288/collections/view/487/title/North%2520Carolina%2520Public%2520Libraries/ (accessed December 3, 2014).
1 January 2008 | Agan, Kelly; Allen, Christy E.; Case, Steven
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Common Core testing problems seem inevitable
The tests developed by the Smarter Balanced testing group are adaptive. An algorithm determines whether to ask a student questions that ratchet up in difficulty or are less challenging depending on how he or she answers the first few exam questions. Smarter Balanced’s Chief Technology Officer Brandt Redd said that adaptive function will help determine if a student is making progress or sliding behind. It also prevents cheating, because students are looking at different questions.
Tests created by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers will feature fixed questions, but the questions will incorporate interactive video and graphics designed to engage students while pinpointing what they know. Some elements of PARCC tests meant to assist students won’t be ready for the spring pilots, including word-prediction software, a notepad tool for students and a feature that will allow students to mask part of the test if it’s distracting them.Continue Reading
Even if they were available, not everyone is equipped to capitalize on the bells and whistles. One survey conducted by the Consortium for School Networking and Market Data Retrieval found 99 percent of districts need additional Internet bandwidth and connectivity in the next 36 months.
Jacqueline King, director of higher education collaboration for Smarter Balanced, said the consortium has been careful about building test items that won’t tax schools’ bandwidth. The pilot tests “will really be a full dress rehearsal,” she said. Redd said the exams don’t require any fancy or even somewhat new equipment, just “minimal” desktop computers. Even 10-year-old equipment works pretty well, he said.
And to keep from taxing schools’ Internet and equipment capacity, PARCC is giving its schools a span of about four weeks to test students so schools can cycle them in, said Susan Van Gundy, associate director of PARCC assessment technology.
Vermont Education Agency Secretary Armando Vilaseca said his state is piloting the Smarter Balanced tests in 27 schools, which involves about 12,000 students this spring. He said his agency has found that 75 percent of schools believe they are ready to take the digital tests, but many rural schools lack the broadband capability for the digital tests. He said the paper and pencil tests may deliver comparable results, but he’s worried because those versions don’t offer the adaptive feature of computer-based exams.
Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he is also concerned about how results from tests on paper will compare to results from the digital tests.
“How can you have valid results when the testing conditions aren’t equitable?” he said. How can paper and pencil tests replicate an adaptive test or an interactive video?
It’s critical that the test data are reliable because many states with waivers from No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top grants must tie student performance determined by the tests to teacher evaluations and eventually, personnel decisions. Many states have asked to delay part of that requirement.
King said the paper and pencil tests aren’t exactly the same, but they will be comparable. The testing group will study the results to make sure of that, she said.
Proceedings are underway to reform the federal Internet subsidy program for schools and libraries. But the Obama administration’s ConnectED proposal, which aims to connect almost all students to high-speed bandwidth, will take time to clear the regulatory process and actually begin having an effect on schools.
It’s a given that the initial administration of the tests will prove challenging, Livingston said. But the Common Core standards and their related assessments will prepare students for college and careers like never before, he said.
“Ultimately we’re just going to have to bite the bullet,” he said. “But it will be well worth it.”
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risk-taking behaviour in young people
Health service providers are regularly confronted with the aftermath of risk-taking behaviour by Irish youth, including drug and alcohol misuse, unprotected sexual intercourse and dangerous driving. They are also aware that such advice, while often effective in modifying behaviour, can go unheeded and be manifest in repeated presentation with the same problem.
Social scientists have explored the psychological and socio-demographic factors that are believed to predict how young people respond to health-related advice. In recent years attention has focused, in particular, on the efficacy of fear-messages (that you may suffer injury or death) on behaviour and this has been articulated within the theoretical paradigm, Terror Management Theory (TMT).
TMT proponents ask the question: how can we continue to function in life, knowing that death is inevitable and can occur at any time? Terror of death is managed, they argue, by minimising vulnerability. So when told by a clinician that risky sexual behaviour can lead to acquiring a serious sexually transmitted disease (mortality salient information), the young male is confronted with death and should cope through minimising vulnerability (behaviour avoidance).
However, behaviour avoidance clearly does not always occur and TMT postulates that this arises from two possible reasons. First, the youth may deny vulnerability to the threat through cognitive distortions that may, for instance, take the form of ‘it won’t happen to me because I’m young’ or ‘it won’t happen to me because I’m a great driver’ cognitions.
Second, and at an unconscious level, where the risk-taking behaviour is part of the individual’s self-esteem, he may react defensively to the message and actually engage in the behaviour more reverently as a defence mechanism. So in responding to mortality salient advice, and where the behaviour is part of the self-esteem of the youth, he may defend against the terror-emotion by bolstering self-esteem and continue to engage in the risky behaviour, potentially on a more extreme level.
‘Where self-esteem is linked to the risky behaviour, fear messages are less effective and can be counter-productive’
Self-esteem is a latent concept that is difficult to expose to academic enquiry. But experimental research is strongly suggestive that it explains why some youth respond to fear messages with increasingly risky behaviour.
Behaviours such as dangerous driving, tanning, binge drinking or having unsafe sex, while presenting a serious threat to one’s health, may facilitate feelings of self-worth. For example, risky driving involves the possibility of serious injury or death, but may be central to the personal identity of the youth (e.g. a ‘boy racer’) and a core part of his self-esteem.
An Israeli study reported that drivers with high driving-related self-esteem respond to fear messages (that dangerous driving can kill) with a greater intention to take driving risks than those with lower driving-related self-esteem.
The same effect has been shown by researchers in the UK and most recently by the authors of this article in an experiment conducted at the National University of Ireland, Galway, with young male drivers.
A wide range of other risk-taking behaviours have also been examined, including binge drinking, intentions to buy a high-factor sunscreen product, risky sexual behaviour and drug abuse and studies have consistently suggested that where self-esteem is linked to the risky behaviour, fear messages are less effective and can be counter-productive.
In the main these studies have been laboratory-based, and it is unclear to what extent the measures of behaviour are valid barometers of actual behaviour in the wake of appeals. Intention to take driving risks is, in reality, a poor measure of risky driving.
Not withstanding the limitations of the growing body of literature in this area, concern is growing that fear-based health promotion advertisements and one-on-one advice may be largely ineffective with some risk-takers, and may actually promote such behaviours. This was the conclusion reached by a group of experts reviewing road safety messages in Australia, where unlike Ireland, messages were unimodal and heavily fear-based.
In Ireland, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) already runs multi-modal media campaigns and is working with adolescents and teenagers to undermine the experiential, group dynamic and dispositional factors that may lead to risky-driving behaviour in the future.
Self-esteem is just one part of a bigger picture, and research is needed that links self-esteem with other personality variables such as impulsiveness and sensation seeking. In fact, the literature is suggestive of a biopsychosocial model of resilience to fear appeal messages.
The implication of TMT is that self-esteem is one pertinent factor and that advice needs to be targeted to fit the psychological profile of the recipient or audience. This is something that experienced health service providers do instinctively.
What TMT does is attempt to articulate why fear-appeals fail and what the psychological profile of those resilient to fear appeals may look like. In doing so it allows us to think more systematically about advice-content (message-content), the utility of multi-modal messages and targeted messages in more sophisticated and informed ways.
It may also be of some utility in the training of healthcare staff who work at the coal face in responding to the consequences of high-risk behaviours.
- Rachel Carey and Kiran Sarma, School of Psychology, NUI Galway.
Please address correspondence to firstname.lastname@example.org
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Kettle Valley Railway Trails
British Columbia, Canada
Myra Canyon Trestle Resortation Society reports that "All trestles
destroyed by the Mountain Park forest fires of 2003 have been rebuilt
to historical specifications using British Columbia wood and labour."
and that it is now possible to travel over the 12km route between Myra
and Ruth trailheads.
The ribbons of steel that made up the Kettle Valley Railway
are gone. All that is left are 16 km (9.9 mi.) of track, the
odd station house and out buildings, a few relics and the history.
The Kettle Valley Railway was the tie that bound the Kootenays
to the rest of British Columbia. The Kettle Valley Railway started
at Hope and went
all the way to Midway, zigzagging
throughout the south western sections of B.C. From Hope, the
KVR made its way through the Coquihalla River gorge. It continued
onward to Princeton, West
Penticton, along the south
side of Okanagan Lake and finally south to Midway, for a total
of 525 km (325 mi.). They constructed branch lines to Merritt
and to Osoyoos, making the
Information & Services
If you would like to have your business listed, please Click Here.
In the year 1887, silver ore was discovered in the Kootenays.
Soon American miners were taking over this corner of British
Columbia and the money flowed south of the border. This became
a political issue, which would elect or defeat future provincial
governments. The two remaining railway giants, the Canadian
Pacific Railway, and the Great Northern Railway, an American
railway would be vying for the control of the rail transport
from the Kootenays. Starting in the year 1893 and continuing
for many years, these two feuding railways constructed short
railways connecting towns that were springing up in this region
of B.C. In 1896 the surveying of the Crowsnest Pass started
and the CPR line into the Kootenays was finished in the year
1898. By 1900 the first CPR rolled into Midway. The CPR now
had a railway into the Kootenays from the east, but still no
connection to the west coast.
In 1910 the construction of the Kettle Valley Railway started.
The hardships were many, and construction costs were high. Andrew
McCullogh was the chief engineer and nothing would stand in
his way of completing this railway. Against all the hardships,
the Kettle Valley Railway was finished on July 31, 1916. For
the first time there was daily passenger and freight service
from Vancouver to Nelson. The KVR started its downward slide
in 1949 when Highway # 3 (the Hope Princeton) opened. During
the next few years, obviously to keep the KVR running was no
longer feasible. In 1962 they removed the Coquihalla section
of tracks. In January of 1964 the last passenger train ran from
Merritt to Penticton and onto Midway and finally Nelson.
The Kettle Valley Railway was closed.
Stations along the KVR:
Andrew McCulloch, was not only a brilliant engineer but he had
a real passion for Shakespeare, and the stations along the Coquihalla
section were named after characters from his plays. Station
names such as Juliet, Romeo, Lear and Othello are found between
Hope and Brodie. From Brookmere to Princeton stations and interesting
hiking came be found at Spearing, Thalia, Manning, Tulameen,
and Coalmont. The next section of the KVR is from Princeton
to Penticton with sites such as Belfort, Erris, Osprey Lake,
Thirsk, West Summerland and Winslow. Penticton to Midway, the
last section includes stops like Chute Lake, Ruth, Myra, McCulloch,
Lakevale, Breaverdell, Westbridge, Rock Creek and finally the
end of the line.
the Kettle Valley Railway:
The only remaining track is a section 16 km (9.9 mi.) long found
west of Penticton, but people are returning to the KVR. People
hike, mountain bike, four by four and horseback along the rail
bed and the Kettle Valley Railway is making a comeback.
Othello and the Quintette Tunnels:
Just a few miles east of Hope is Othello where the Quintette
tunnels are part of an official park with entrances from both
the north and south. To reach the tunnels from the north end,
take the Kawkawa Lake Road from Hope and go east about four
miles, watch for the Quintette Tunnels sign. Park and walk the
rest of the way to the tunnels. To reach the south entrance,
walk the old KVR right of way. Take the Kawkawa Lake Road to
the cemetery, turn right and make your way to the intersection
of gravel roads. Park your vehicle and hike to the tunnels.
The hike into the Quintette is an easy trek that the whole family
Hope to Brodie Station:
From Hope to Brodie the Coquihalla Highway makes its way along
much of the same route as the KVR. In some spots one can see
the old rail bed and sometimes even hike into these sites. The
information sign at Coquihalla Lakes offers a short history
about the Coquihalla pass that ranchers used for cattle drives
as early as 1875. At the Coldwater River crossing is a picnic
site, and near the iron bridge the information sign tells about
the work that Chief Engineer, Andrew McCulloch, accomplished.
Brookmere to Penticton:
Brookmere was once a divisional point for both the KVR and the
VV & E ( part of the American Great Northern). Both railroads
build a round house and a turntable. Both shared the water tower
and the station house. The water tower still stands. Some KVR
rail remains and the GN station house is a private home.
Coal from the Tulameen Valley was used to run locomotives on
both railways. The once thriving and booming coal town of Tulameen
is now a ghost town and the KVR station house is now a private
home. Coalmont, south of Tulameen, is still another town from
the past. The Coalmont Hotel and a few false front buildings
are all that are left. Next is Princeton, where a loop of track
that served as a train turnaround and a tunnel are all that
remain of the KVR. An old CPR caboose serves as a tourist information
centre in Princeton, giving us a glimpse into the past.
Trout Creek Bridge:
The section of the KVR that once ran from Princeton to Penticton,
also made its way into the Okanagan Valley. The most interesting
site along this section of railway is the Trout Creek Bridge,
the highest bridge on the KVR. Located west of Summerland the
span is 188 meters (616.6 ft.) long and 73 meters (235.4 ft.)
high. View this bridge is from the Agricultural Research Station
at Summerland, just off Highway 97 near Sunoka Beach. For your
protection there is a chain-link fence that guards the edge
of this awesome canyon.
Penticton was the KVR Headquarters where they built repair and
service facilities. In October 1912, the first locomotive arrived
in town and everyone celebrated. In 1915, when the line was
finished from Merritt through to Midway, they held another celebration
when the first passenger trains came in from both the east and
west. The Penticton station is no longer in use, and the KVR
right-of-way are now footpaths across the city squares.
From Penticton to Midway:
The Kettle Valley Railway from Penticton made its way to Naramata,
and onto Arawana. A couple of roads offer good access to the
railway line for the many people who like to walk this section.
Next stop was the Glenfir station, which is approximately nine
km (5.5 mi.) north of Penticton. Not far from Glenfir is Rockovens
Park and an old growth stand of pine trees. A marked trail leads
to the site of the one and only surviving oven that they make
from stones. This is a steep climb. At Adra, walk through the
long tunnel or bypass it by climbing up through Rockovens Park,
where there are magnificent views of Okanagan Lake. A good place
for a base camp is Chute Lake, from here your can hike both
directions and enjoy the few relics that remain of the Kettle
Myra Canyon is spectacular. Sixteen trestle bridges cross along
this13 km ( 8 mi.) stretch of railroad. This is an ideal hike,
especially in the spring or fall. This section of the KVR is
the best example of railway construction of the early twentieth
century. The trestles have been rebuilt to historical specifications
using British Columbia wood and labour after a wildfire destroyed
the original structures in 2003.
access Myra Canyon by vehicle, take KLO Road to McCulloch Road,
follow McCulloch Road past Gallaghers Canyon Golf Course, until
you reach Myra Forest Service Road. It is marked with signs.
Follow that road 8 ½ kms to the rail bed and the Myra parking
area. Avid cyclists may wish to access from the June Springs
entrance on the west side of the Canyon.
more information and maps
of Myra Canyon visit the excellent website of the Myra Canyon
Tretle Restoration Society at www.myratrestles.com
station the KVR curves south, this section is good hiking, but be careful
of the many washouts. Cookson, is marked by a red freight shed. The Lakevale
station site is now a Forestry camp site. Between the stations of Lakevale
and Lois is a hiking or 4 by 4 trail. The only thing surviving at Lois
is a red freight shed. Carmi was once a booming town with a gold mine,
a jail, a hospital, two hotels, two stores and gas stations. It is now
a ghost town. In Beaverdell is an old hotel (the oldest in B.C. is the
claim) where outside stands a KVR railway signal. At Rock Creek, the KVR,
now a road, runs through the centre of the village.
is the half way point across British Columbia and where the Kettle Valley
Railway joined the Canadian Pacific Railway that continued to Alberta
and onto eastern Canada. The museum at Midway has a CPR caboose and a
section of track. KVR right of way is found under the highway bridge and
follows the Kettle Valley River as it makes its way to the U.S.
The Kettle Valley Railway is now just part of history. With more people
finding time for outdoor fun and enjoyment, it seems only natural that
the old KVR railbed is becoming very popular with hikers, mountain bikers,
and horseback riders. Now only parts of the KVR are open to the public,
but interested parties are working on making the full railway available
for recreational use. No matter where hiking in British Columbia be safe,
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National Public Radio science reporter Richard Harris interviewed Eugene Domack, the Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences, for a segment on All Things Considered on Aug. 22 titled “Humans’ Role In Antarctic Ice Melt Is Unclear.” The broadcast reported on an article published in the journal Nature focused on the research of Robert Mulvaney and colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey that demonstrated that the current sharp warming trend is not entirely unique.
Domack’s research, published in the journal Nature in 2005, provided evidence that the break-up of Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf was caused by a combination of long-term thinning over thousands of years and short term cumulative increases in surface air temperature that have exceeded the natural variation of regional climate during the Holocene period.
During the interview, Domack said that it is hard to distinguish natural cycles from human-caused trends in something as dynamic as ice. These changes in Antarctica are mirrored with similar changes now in ice-sheet disintegration in the Canadian arctic, according to Domack. "That tells you something is up that's more widespread than a local phenomenon," Domack said, adding that global changes are more likely due to human activity.
The Larsen B ice shelf, a large floating ice mass on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, shattered and separated from the continent 10 years ago. The 650 foot-thick, 1,250-square-mile ice shelf had existed since the last ice age.
Domack was awarded a National Science Foundation grant that funds an international, multi-year, collaborative research project, "Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System, a Multidisciplinary Approach - Marine and Quaternary Geosciences" to address the changes occurring in the Antarctic Peninsula region as a consequence of the abrupt collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf System. The project, called LARISSA or LARsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica, began in 2008 and was most recently reported on by Scientific American in an article titled “Witness to an Antarctic Meltdown.”
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The Afro. The zoot suit. Hip Hop. Ma Rainey. Boondocks. Aretha Franklin. James Brown. Each of these cultural items is tied not only to personal taste or entertainment value but also to larger political and social issues around race. In this course, we will analyze Black expressive culture (such as in music, art, literature, and television) and Black everyday culture (such as through hair, fashion, and language), and seek answers to two broad questions:
- What is the relationship between Black culture and the Black freedom struggle?
- What is the relationship between “Black” culture and “American” culture?
No data submitted
Enrollment restricted to first-year students
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What is acid reflux disease?
At the entrance to your stomach is a valve, which is a ring of muscle called the lower oesophageal sphincter (LOS). Normally the LOS closes as soon as food passes through it. If the LOS doesn't close all the way or if it opens too often, acid produced by your stomach can move up into your oesophagus. This can cause symptoms such as a burning chest pain called heartburn. If acid reflux symptoms happen more than twice a week, you have acid reflux disease, also known as gastro-oesophageal reflux disease ( GORD).
What causes acid reflux disease?
One common cause of acid reflux disease is a stomach abnormality called a hiatus hernia. This occurs when the upper part of the stomach and LOS move above the diaphragm, a muscle that separates your stomach from your chest. Normally the diaphragm helps keep acid in our stomach. But if you have a hiatus hernia, acid can move up into your oesophagus and cause symptoms of acid reflux disease.
These are other common risk factors for acid reflux disease:
- Eating large meals or lying down right after a meal
- Being overweight or obese
- Eating a heavy meal and lying on your back or bending over at the waist
- Snacking close to bedtime
- Eating certain foods such as citrus, tomato, chocolate, mint, garlic, onions, or spicy or fatty foods
- Drinking certain beverages such as alcohol, fizzy drinks, coffee or tea
- Being pregnant
- Taking aspirin, ibuprofen, certain muscle relaxants or certain blood pressure medications.
What are the symptoms of acid reflux disease?
Common symptoms of acid reflux are:
- Heartburn - a burning pain or discomfort felt behind your breastbone that may move up into your throat
- Regurgitation - a sour or bitter-tasting acid backing up into your throat or mouth
Other possible symptoms of acid reflux disease include:
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<urn:uuid:3a08b9cc-e1e5-40aa-a128-d60b4566648c>
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(also odontoid process)
A projection from the second cervical vertebra (axis) on which the first (atlas) can pivot: [as modifier]: the anterior odontoid joint
More example sentences
- The axis possesses an ovate odontoid process for articulation with the preceding atlas.
- One of the serious complications of RA result from involvement of the synovium around the odontoid process.
- Some months ago a less than dramatic surfing accident left me with an odontoid fracture and an abrupt suspension of my life as a research paediatrician in the Gambia.
Early 19th century: from Greek odontoeidēs, from odous, odont- 'tooth' + eidos 'form'.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: odont|oid
Definition of odontoid in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/odontoid
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| 0.806848
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Douglas N. Harris
Daniel F. McCaffrey
Stephen W. Raudenbush
A synthesis of the key takeaways from the Carnegie Knowledge Network and recommendations from the Carnegie Panelists.
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 15
by Stephen Raudenbush
Student scores on standardized tests are used as measures for teacher accountability, but, arguably, helping children score well on an achievement test is of little value in itself. The question is whether a test score gain in a given year of schooling represents growth in skills that matter over the long term. In this brief, Raudenbush reviews the research on the relevance of a teacher’s value-added to lasting cognitive and non-cognitive skills that help prepare students for success later in life.
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 14
by Daniel M. McCaffrey
Students with disabilities account for about 14 percent of all students in the U.S. These students contribute to the value-added of both special education teachers and many general education teachers, but we know little about how accommodations in instruction and assessment for them affect their teachers’ value-added scores. This brief discusses the factors that may influence value-added for teachers of students with disabilities, and explores the implications of controlling for student disability status when estimating value-added.
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 13
by Susanna Loeb
In an effort to improve educational outcomes, states and districts across the country are collecting value-added measures to assess the quality of their teachers. The usefulness of value-added measures can only be assessed by how they are used in practice. This brief explores the research on how these measures can best be used to enhance teacher improvement.
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 12
by Dan Goldhaber
Teacher training programs are increasingly being held under the microscope. Policymakers are beginning to adopt the use of student growth measures to measure the performance of teacher preparation programs. In this brief, Goldhaber discusses what research can tell us about the usefulness of value-added for assessing the quality of teacher preparation programs.
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 11
by Douglas N. Harris
States and districts across the country are using multiple measures to make personnel decisions about teachers based on a weighted average of the separate measures. This method has strengths and weaknesses. Most discussions of measures of teacher performance measures focus on validity and reliability; but fairness, simplicity, and cost should also be considered.
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 10
by Stephen Raudenbush
Statistically, comparisons of teachers across different schools make less sense in districts with high levels of between-school segregation.
Much of the research on the validity of value-added for teacher evaluation has been based on studies of its use to rank teachers within the same school. However, most districts are using value-added to rank teachers across the district, and in districts that reflect neighborhood residential segregation, value-added rankings will compare teachers who teach very different types of students. To try to correct this by statistically controlling for school context variables will produce bias so long as the effectiveness of the teacher is associated with attributes associated with the effectiveness of the school.
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 9
by Susanna Loeb and Jason A. Grissom
As policymakers begin to consider how to use test scores to assess principals, they should be guided by an understanding of how principals influence student outcomes. Value added measures provide information about how schools are doing, but they may not be convincing measures of the causal effect of the principal of student learning.read more »
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 8
by Daniel McCaffrey
A teacher’s value-added can depend on the test used to assess his or her students’ achievement. Questions about the effect of a test on a teacher’s value-added are particularly salient today because most states will soon be adopting new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Research and past experience suggests that teachers should be prepared for greater year-to-year variability in their value-added ranking for a few years after the change when districts use both old and new tests for value-added calculations.read more »
KNOWLEDGE BRIEF 7
by Douglas N. Harris
Value-added methodology is being applied to the evaluation of teachers in tested grades and subjects, but the vast majority of the research on value-added measures focuses on elementary schools only. Secondary grades differ from elementary grades in ways that are meaningful for the validity and reliability of value-added measures for secondary teachers. Middle and high school teachers have more students, which increase reliability of value-added scores, but this advantage is offset by tracking, which reduces reliability at those grade levels.read more »
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http://www.carnegieknowledgenetwork.org/
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| 0.938471
| 970
| 3.078125
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Eating Peanuts While Pregnant May Up Allergy Risk
Study Shows Higher Peanut Sensitivity in Babies Whose Moms Ate Peanuts in Pregnancy
Nov. 1, 2010 -- Babies with evidence of food allergies whose mothers ate peanuts during pregnancy may have an increased risk for potentially life-threatening peanut allergies, a new study suggests.
The more peanuts the new mothers in the study ate during their third trimester, the higher their babies’ risk for sensitivity to peanuts, researchers reported.
The findings do not prove that eating peanuts during pregnancy is a risk factor for peanut allergies in the first year or so of life. But they do highlight the need for more studies to answer the question, study researcher Scott H. Sicherer, MD, of New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine tells WebMD.
“Our study looked at sensitization, not peanut allergy,” he says. “It is going to be a few years before we know whether these children really do develop true peanut allergies.”
Pregnancy, Peanuts, and Allergies
About one in 100 children has peanut allergies, and there is evidence that the prevalence has grown over the last decade, researchers say.
In an effort to prevent peanut allergies in children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) briefly recommended that high-risk women avoid peanuts during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
But this recommendation was based on very limited clinical research and the group rescinded it in 2008, replacing it with a statement noting that the impact of eating or avoiding peanuts during pregnancy remains uncertain.
In the newly published study, researchers assessed peanut allergy risk in 503 babies presumed to be allergic to eggs and/or milk, based on skin-prick test results or the presence of food allergy-related skin rashes.
The children were 3- to 15-months old, and none had been diagnosed with peanut allergies. Blood testing revealed that 140 had a strong sensitivity to peanuts.
Specifically, the blood test measured levels of a protein known as IgE, which are elevated in people with peanut allergies. But not everyone with high IgE levels is allergic, Sicherer says.
Maternal consumption of peanuts during pregnancy was strongly predictive for this sensitivity, the researchers reported.
The study appears in the November issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
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Every year around April 25, millions of penguins will begin their annual northward migration away from the tenebrous Antarctic winter in search of better-illuminated icebergs. Unlike most migrating bird species, the average penguin will choose not to fly, but rather waddle and swim its way to its new habitat.
World Penguin Day recognises this significant event in the penguins’ annual cycle, celebrating and providing a voice for these beautiful birds. Even the all-knowing internet seemed uncertain about the origins of this international festivity, though the practitioners of the event are clearly passionate about it; from creating penguin colonies by getting a group of friends to wear black and white tuxes to enthusiastically blogging about the birds, this day is widely celebrated. It’s easy to get involved – anything penguin-themed goes.
Like many species, the penguin population is currently under threat. Not only has global warming affected the snowy habitats of these creatures, but it has also impacted the life cycles of the animals they eat. Centres such as Volunteer Point are working to maintain this species, preventing it from becoming extinct. This centre currently offering a home to approximately 1,200 adult King penguins and 345 chicks and is one of the most popular tourist locations in the Falklands. Moreover, the Falklands Conservation group supports research programmes to monitor the penguins in order to establish and eradicate potential threats to their survival and prevents undue disturbance to their habitat.
So, why not do something penguinish…p-p-p-pick up a penguin!
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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en
| 0.938321
| 321
| 3.328125
| 3
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verb[with object] (usually as adjective bureaucratized)
Endue (someone or something) with the characteristics of a bureaucracy: impersonal and bureaucratized welfare systems
More example sentences
- This corrupt and bureaucratized organization, which by its own account formally represents barely 12 percent of Venezuelan workers, is among the closest allies of the US AFL-CIO.
- Entirely new organizations of industrial and political struggle must be built that are independent of and opposed to this degenerate and bureaucratized apparatus.
- India benefits from democratic politics, but suffers from overly bureaucratized government.
- Example sentences
- The trade unions, despite their reactionary leadership and growing bureaucratization, still retained a large and active base, and some connection to the militant traditions of the past.
- It was he who first identified the growing danger posed to the October Revolution by the bureaucratisation of the Soviet party and state apparatus.
- With respect to the production of innovations, the gains from experience with the innovation process should outweigh any negative consequences of bureaucratization.
For editors and proofreaders
Definition of bureaucratize in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.
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<urn:uuid:5d429471-1d14-488b-a6be-b802ad3379dc>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/bureaucratize
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en
| 0.91659
| 265
| 3.25
| 3
|
The World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have termed Pakistan as one of the most “water stressed” countries in the world, which is likely to face an acute water shortage over the next five years due to lack of water availability for irrigation, industry and human consumption.
Water supply in Pakistan fell from 5,000 cubic meters per capita to 1,000 cubic meters in 2010, and is likely to further reduce to 800 cubic meters per capita by 2020, WB’s reports states.
According to Falkenmark Water Stress Indicator, a country or region is said to experience “water stress” when annual water supplies drop below 1,700 cubic meters per person per year. When water supplies drop below 1,000 cubic meters per person per year, the country faces “water scarcity”.
Being wary of the exigent situation, experts have stressed for inculcating a sense of civic responsibility among the masses to sensibly utilise water as the country has been declared one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. Importance of water - a lifeline for the existence of every specie on earth - is yet to be taken seriously in Pakistan given the unscrupulous use of this essential commodity everywhere.
In Pakistan, water is excessively wasted at houses, offices, markets, factories. Fresh and drinking water is used for washing, gardening and other non-drinkable purposes. Besides wastage, burgeoning population, climate change, lack of water reservoirs, and manipulation of Jhelum and Chenab rivers by India are other key factors squeezing water availability in Pakistan. In Islamabad alone, upto 30 million gallons of water are wasted daily owing to shabby pipelines. This quantity is equivalent to the water stored in Simla Dam.
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<urn:uuid:430e8338-29e3-41ac-86c3-a9ee557843e8>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://waterinfo.net.pk/?q=node/115
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en
| 0.932549
| 366
| 3.1875
| 3
|
This weekend, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report, which amounts to the starkest warning yet that the world is on unsustainable path toward accelerated climate change. But in a survey filled with dour news, there was evidence that governments have hit on win-win solutions that can overcome the shortsighted political self-interest that has dogged the issue for decades.
The IPCC's Synthesis Report aims to summarize and contextualize a wide body of scientific work in language that policymakers can understand, in an effort to compel them to act in a way commensurate with the totality of the risk before them. It details the radical changes necessary to stave off a calamitous future of resource deprivation and extreme weather risk. If the world does not put itself on a path to zero-carbon by 2100, the probability is extremely high that we will not avoid the worst effects of global warming.
The topline findings underscore both the unprecedented nature of the warming we have experienced so far, as well as the conclusion, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that humans are responsible for it. "The period from 1983 to 2012 was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years in the Northern Hemisphere," according to the IPCC. The blame is laid squarely on the energy source that served as a foundation for economic growth in the modern era: "Emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes contributed about 78 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions increase from 1970 to 2010."
There is no conceivable way, in the estimation of the scientific community, that we would be seeing such warming patterns without the actions of human beings.
The report also highlights climate change's profound geopolitical risk. While animal and plant species will suffer irreversible, lethal effects from radical changes in habitat, it is the effect on people that is ultimately most important — and no less dangerous. For the developing world in particular, the effects will be difficult to adapt to, and threaten to undermine the impressive record of economic growth and poverty alleviation experienced over the past 30 years.
The effect of such setbacks could be quite dire in the eyes of the IPCC: "Climate change can indirectly increase risks of violent conflicts by amplifying well-documented drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks." For those who would doubt that climate change is a national security concern, this report should be a wake-up call.
Will another report from the United Nations actually change anything? The international community will have an opportunity to demonstrate that in Paris in 2015, when world leaders will meet to craft a follow-on agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. While countries have made impressive strides in goal-setting for emissions reductions, the pace of those reductions will not likely align with the low- to zero-carbon path the IPCC concludes is necessary to minimize risk. For example, the aggressive emissions reduction target announced by the European Union last week, while among the strongest plans yet proposed, may still not be ambitious enough.
The report's authors blame "inertia" for a lack of ambition when it comes to combating climate change, which is a polite and diplomatic way of pointing out a variety of obstacles: the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry and their political allies, as well as developing world countries that argue, not without merit, that their economic growth should be prioritized over emissions reductions.
This report does acknowledge that, in the short term, mitigation of climate change will pass down costs to consumers, even if they are balanced by avoiding the worst effects of future warming. Importantly, there are also some immediate benefits: energy security derived from reducing usage of imported fuel sources, as well as public health benefits from reducing particulate pollution.
The latter argument has been aggressively used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to justify the cost-effectiveness of its new rules regarding existing power plants. It also should be an attractive rationale for the smog-choked cities of India and China, two of the developing world's biggest carbon emitters, and other countries that have resisted calls for reducing pollution in the name of poverty alleviation.
Perhaps the key obstacle to greater international cooperation has been money. The developing world has long argued that the developed world needs to pony up some financial aid, due to their historical responsibility in emitting carbon into the atmosphere. To date, pledged contributions to the Green Climate Fund have lagged behind what was promised in previous years. A concrete pledge by the United States to contribute to the fund, even a token amount, would go a long way to assuring the developing world that the developed world is committed to following through on their pledges.
One of the goals for Paris, then, will be to follow through on these promises and identify methodologies for creating more of these win-win situations, where climate change mitigation is paired with other immediate benefits, in a way which can be embraced by the widest possible range of participating nations. If even that attempt fails, then this planet and the people living on it will be on the path toward an unimaginably dire and dangerous future.
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<urn:uuid:60ec165c-37b5-4a9c-a7f2-8732bb612340>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://theweek.com/articles/442546/why-fight-against-climate-change-needs-more-winwin-solutions
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en
| 0.951097
| 1,024
| 3.125
| 3
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The leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) is a crepuscular ground-dwelling
lizard naturally found in the deserts of Asia and throughout Pakistan, to parts of ...
Care sheet for the leopard gecko lizard (Eublepharis macularius).
LEOPARD GECKO CARE - Expanded - Smartphone App. Quick Care Guide -
offering step-by-step information for the beginner to intermediate level keeper ...
Leopard Geckos are available in a variety of colors including luecistic, high
yellow, and albino. Unlike other Geckos, Leopard Geckos have moveable eyelids
Find complete information on leopard geckos at PetSmart. We'll walk you through
terrarium set-up, tell you about gecko nutrition and provide plenty of tips.
How to Care for a Leopard Gecko. If you've decided to purchase a leopard gecko
as a new pet, there are a few things you need to know before buying and ...
Discover information and facts about leopard geckos and keeping them as pets.
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Leopard geckos are undoubtedly one of the best reptile pets available today.
They are easy to care for, extremely docile, do not require a large cage, easy to ...
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This piece builds on the "Profiles in Resilience" series started on Environmental Defense Fund's Restoration and Resilience blog. Please check back here for future installments.
By Audrey Payne, Environmental Defense Fund
“Restoring the earth, one community at a time.…” This tagline appears on the website of Biohabitats, Inc., an ecologically-driven company based in Baltimore, Md. Biohabitats specializes in conservation planning, ecological restoration and regenerative design and does restoration work in the Everglades, Big Cypress and Tampa Bay, Fla.; Texas and Louisiana; and has several office locations across the country, including Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, New Mexico and New Jersey.
Company president and founder Keith Bowers has been a strong supporter of the RESTORE Act — legislation currently making its way through Congress that would bring 80 percent of the $5 to $21 billion in expected Clean Water Act penalties from the gulf oil spill back to the five gulf states for ecological restoration and economic development. Passage of the RESTORE Act would help companies like Biohabitats increase work along the Gulf Coast.
Economic Benefits of Coastal Restoration
“The Mississippi River Delta is home to millions of acres of coastal wetlands, providing habitat for commercial fisheries, recreation, natural filtering and storm surge protection,” said Mr. Bowers. “The ecological and economic value of these wetlands is undeniable, yet we are losing thousands of acres each year to overdevelopment, poor management and neglect. Restoring these wetlands will not only begin to reverse this decline, it will also add thousands of jobs in the process.”
“Coastal habitat restoration typically creates at least 3-4 times as many jobs as road infrastructure or oil and gas projects for every $1 million invested,” continued Bowers, who readily acknowledges that ecological restoration can be a real catalyst for job creation, economic vitality and ecosystem resiliency throughout the Mississippi River Delta. “Passing the RESTORE Act would help revitalize local communities while simultaneously increasing the natural capital that we all depend on for clean air, fresh water, healthy soils and wholesome food. It’s a win-win for everyone!”
Introducing Biohabitats, Inc.
The Biohabitats mission is twofold: To “restore the earth and inspire ecological stewardship” and to “inspire communities to rediscover a sense of place through preserving indigenous ecosystems, restoring biodiversity and inspiring ecological stewardship.” Biohabitats believes it has an ethical responsibility to protect nature and to restore it for future generations, and it does so with practices that are defined by blending sound science, place-based design and ecological democracy. Biohabitats stays true to its mission through a multifaceted approach to its work that revolves around ensuring that its actions respect and celebrate life, by engaging people and communities and by constantly evolving and improving its practices.
Some examples of Biohabitats’ work include performing ecological baseline studies, using geographic information systems, conducting focus groups, ecological modeling, ecological restoration, landscape management, invasive species management and stormwater management. The company has won several awards for its exemplary work, including three this year: The Texas ASLA Honor Award for Planning & Analysis, the Texas ASLA Merit Award for Residential Design Constructed and the Texas ACEC Engineering Excellence Silver Award for Water Resources.
Biohabitats and the Mississippi River Delta
Years of building canals through Louisiana’s wetlands for fossil fuel extraction have contributed to major ecological problems throughout the Mississippi River Delta. During canal construction, soil was piled up in mounds on the sides of waterways, creating opportunities for invasive species, such as the Chinese tallow tree (Sapium sebiferum), to move in and disrupt the surface flow of fresh water. Kevin Heatley, a senior scientist at Biohabitats, works on restoring the wetlands of Louisiana. In a recent OnEarth Magazine article, Mr. Heatley described the Chinese tallow trees as “biological pollution.” In order to fix the environmental damage caused by these canals, they must be filled in with dirt and the invasive trees extracted, thus creating habitat for native species and restoring the natural flow of water and sediment in the wetlands.
The Barataria Preserve is one of the wetland areas that were disrupted by canal construction. It is a 20,000-acre forest and marsh that is part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve. Located south of New Orleans, it is part of the greater Mississippi River Delta region. Biohabitats is working with the National Park Service to repair damage to the landscape and restore healthy marsh ecology by removing invasive tree cover, placing excavated soil back in the canals, preserving native trees, restoring native soil levels to where they were before the canals and allowing the free flow of water and recolonization of native marsh species in the area.
“The backfilling of canals is one of those rare restoration initiatives where the results and gratification are almost instantaneous,” said Heatley. To date, Biohabitats has restored over five linear miles of marsh within the preserve, eradicated the invasive Chinese tallow trees, allowed the natural free flow of water and created habitat for native vegetation.
“I work across the United States on restoration projects and our work in the Barataria Preserve is something that I am particularly proud of,” said Heatley.
There are over 10,000 miles of exploratory canals in coastal Louisiana, so these five restored miles are just a start. Hopefully, the passage of the RESTORE Act will lead to many more successful restoration opportunities like this one.
- Building a Restoration Economy: Environmental Restoration = Economic Restoration
- Duke University report: Restoring the Gulf Coast: New Markets for Established Firms [PDF]
- Duke University report: Restoring Gulf Oyster Reefs: Opportunities for Innovation [PDF]
- Walton Foundation report: Job Creation from Gulf Coast Wetlands Restoration [PDF]
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Lessons Learned from Thomas Edison's Life
by Ron Kurtus (revised 22 January 2012)
Thomas Edison is considered one of the greatest inventors of all times. Much of his fame was a result of being an astute businessman and technical manager. He established a company and hired talented engineers and scientists to develop various products that he thought would be viable in the marketplace.
In his first 39 years, Thomas Edison established his reputation. Then after he turned 40 years old, he had a few other major inventions, but also suffered a loss in the area of electric power.
Questions you may have include:
- What were the influences around him that shaped his career?
- What personality traits did he have that helped make him successful?
- What lessons can I learn from Edison's life?
The lesson will answer those questions.
A most important factor that influenced Edison was the times in which he lived. The late 1800s and early 1900s was an era of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and the world. Numerous scientific discoveries were being made and becoming more important in people's lives.
Someone with mechanical abilities and scientific disciplinesuch as those Edison possessedhad the opportunity to invent or improve on many needed devices. There were many great inventors at this timeespecially in the area of electricity applicationssuch as Tesla and Westinghouse.
(Note: Interestingly, the present-day opportunities in computer software development parallels the days of Edison and Tesla and the inventions they made.)
Although Edison would have been successful in whatever era he lived, he was fortunate to be born in a time where the opportunities for electrical inventions were so rich. He also was born in good family circumstances and was well-trained by his parents in scientific method and work habits.
Personality and work habits
Various biographies of Thomas Edison provide hints at the personality traits and work habits that made him a great inventor. But they also show a dark side to his personality, as a result of his drive to succeed. Both can be lessons to many readers.
Edison was curious, meticulous, competitive and hard working.
Curious about technical matters
Edison was intensely curious about technical matters. He wanted to master technical skills and the new technologies of his age. He felt the challenge to invent devices or improve upon them.
His insatiable curiosity led him to branch out into fields ranging from metallurgy to plastics to, eventually, the triumphs of the electric light, sound recording, and literally hundreds of other inventions.
Meticulous in his work
Edison was meticulous in his planning. He would make careful drawings of his ideas and inventions. He also kept detailed records of his business ventures. Starting when he was 20 years old, Edison recorded in notebooks his growing body of experimentation. Edison was considered a very diligent man.
Edison was highly competitive and wanted to win and beat others. Many of his projects were competitions with other scientists and laboratories. Not only were potential profits at stake, but also his reputation as the world's greatest inventor.
This sense of competition took a dark side when he cheated Nikola Tesla out of a promised commission when Tesla was working for him. He also did much to discredit Tesla, whom he considered an opponent in a race for the title as greatest electrical inventor. Of course, there were also financial reasons for the competition, since Tesla's concepts could cost Edison's companies countless dollars.
Ambitious and hard working
Edison was highly ambitions and obsessive. He was able to concentrate intensely and for long hours on achieving a goal or solving a problem. He put in 16-hour days fulfilling new contracts. Even at age 65 Edison, still worked a 112-hour week.
Edison would often take "cat naps" throughout the day, allowing him to spend long hours in the laboratory.
Fiercely competitive, Edison was a workaholic long before the term was invented. His first wife rarely saw him. He would work 60 hours straight on a project that caught his fancy and frequently juggled four or five ongoing projects at once.
Edison's slogan was:
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Edison recognized business opportunities, was an entrepreneur, a promoter, and an organizer.
He had the entrepreneurial spirit to continually start businesses or create new projects. He felt these were new worlds to conquer. With his good business-sense, he saw what was needed and went about to provide it.
Visionary and saw needs
Edison was daring and a visionary. He saw the future in the new technologies of the day. He also saw what companies needed in technical improvements, and he sought to provide those things with his inventions.
Able to organize
An important trait of Edison was that he was able to organize and get people to work for him. He had a genius for assembling a team of men totally dedicated to his goals. He was able to convince others to back his projects or to join his team, before the invention of the phonograph made him world-famous.
His main method for developing an idea was to hire the best engineers and scientists in the field to do the work for him. He was very well organized in these methods.
Promoted to get funding
He was a great promoter of his ideas. He sought publicity, which both fed his ego and helped him get more funding for his projects. For example, he used his breakthrough in making a usable incandescent light to promote using his system of providing electrical power.
Edison also knew that in order to develop his ideas he had to raise money or get financial backing. One strategy he had was to make the front pages in the newspapers concerning his inventions.
When he had a new invention, he would present it to the public in a way that attracted the maximum attention and publicity. Edison would put together dazzling presentations and experiments to display his inventions.
Although he came up with the ideas for his many projects, he also took credit for the work of his employees on those projects.
Family life suffered
Because of Edison's intense focus on his work, he had a strained family life. His first wife seldom saw him, because of the long hours he spent in his laboratory.
His son, Thomas Jr. became so estranged from his celebrated father that he dropped the Edison surname and went around under various aliases. Also, Edison cut off relations with one of his daughters because she married an officer in the German army.
There are lessons to be learned from Edison's life. Although Thomas Edison obviously had a gift of mechanical abilities, he had learned skills that others can apply to their lives. He was:
- Curious about the world around him
- Knowledgeable about scientific method
- Meticulous in his planning and record keeping
- Ambitious and hard working
- An organizer of others to assist him
- A promoter of new technologies
- A good businessperson
On the negative side, there are characteristics of Edison to avoid. He:
- Was overly competitive
- Worked too hard, thus neglecting his family
- Took advantage of his workers
- Did not give credit to others
Can you think of anything else?
Resources and references
Questions and comments
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Lessons Learned from Thomas Edison's Life
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The Three R’s, Reading Writing and ’Rithmetic, have formed the basis of formal education for centuries, at least since they were mentioned by Sir William Curtis in 1795, even if he probably used Reckoning instead of ‘Rithmetic. Most of the time though the three R’s can be simplified down even further to the two Glyphs, Letters and Numbers.
For most people ‘Rithmetic or reckoning or mathematics or what ever you want to call it, falls directly under the umbrella of numbers. That is not incorrect. Numbers are very much mathematics brand. Numbers are how mathematics is represented to children from a young age and when you show an aptitude for the subject you are often branded a numbers person. There is even a youtube channel featuring videos about cool mathematics called Numberphile.
But mathematics is more than numbers, and before you go making a joke about how of course it is otherwise we could never solve for x, mathematics is more than individual letters too. Letters, and that thing you get when you put a bunch of letters together and make them into words and then you take those words and you put them together according to some set of rules called language, plays a very important role in mathematics. This episode of Relatively Prime, The Lexicon, explores this role.
The Trans-Atlantic Battle
Lynne Murphy is an American born, University of Sussex employed linguist. This made her the perfect person to talk to about the linguistic fight which destroys more Anglo-American mathematical friendships than which type of breakfast pastry to serve at a conference: Is it Math or is it Maths? (Ed. Note: It is math, I do not care at all what the story actually concludes)
Digging Down to the Roots
One of the things about the language of mathematics is a lot of it comes from language, like from the languages that we speak. To be fair not the actual languages we speak, at least not that we speak anymore. Unless you just happen to be a scholar of Greek, Latin, or Arabic.
This is where Anthony Lo Bello’s Origins of Mathematical Words: A Comprehensive Dictionary of Latin, Greek, and Arabic Roots comes in. Samuel was joined by Anthony for a conversation about the dictionary and some of the origins therein.
Words’ Younger Sibling
A discussion of mathematical language which only touched on mathematical words would be really unsatisfying. It would probably feel like only one half of a dialogue. This is of course because it would be skipping over half of what constitutes mathematical language, it would be skipping over symbols.
Today symbols are just as much part of the language of mathematics as words. This is a surprisingly recent development. For example, when Algebra was first being developed it was entirely in prose. Joseph Mazur wrote about how symbols were developed and integrated into mathematics in his book Enlightening Symbols and he spoke to Samuel about the evolution of symbols and how they have changed mathematics.
A Train Left Station U Traveling 40 mph…
There are two words which can elicit a groan in almost any mathematics classroom, word problem. Thankfully this does not have to be the case. Tharanga Wijetunge and Kirthi Premadasa are here with the solution. Their research has shown that using different language to frame the problems can help students not only enjoy the problems more, but also better recall the mathematics.
No Words at All
Tim Chartier is a person who spends half of his life trying to find stories within mathematics and the other half telling those stories in as many ways as possible. While this would be a hard enough task if Tim just wrote books, made videos, and gave podcast interviews. All of which he does, but Tim, along with his wife, have gone one step farther and now tour the world tell mathematical stories without any words at all. That is right, they do mathematical mime.
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Straw flower cactus plants make a beautiful addition to any house. Upon first glance, they appear to be normal cacti with bright, vibrant flowers growing out of the top. However, the flowers are glued to the cacti and not an actual natural part of them. While the flowers are technically dead, they are still capable of opening and closing with moisture and temperature changes, which gives them the appearance of being alive. When properly cared for, a straw flower cactus can last several years.
Provide a pot filled with equal parts peat moss, loam and sand to best replicate the natural conditions of the cactus.
Place the cactus near a window that gets sun throughout most of the day. If you put the plant on a patio or outdoors, make sure it gets partial shade as cacti can burn from too much sun.
Water the soil so it is thoroughly moist. Do not water it again until the soil is completely dried out. Follow this watering regimen for the entire time you have the cactus.
Fertilize the cactus once per month during the spring and summer months. Use a balanced fertilizer, such as a 10-10-10, and dilute it with water to 50 percent . There is no need to fertilize it during the cold months as cacti are dormant during this time.
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Imagine a future in which the energy of people's footsteps is transformed into electricity to power urban infrastructure.
Every day, millions of people walk the busy sidewalks and streets of cities. Now, imagine a future in which the energy of their footsteps is transformed into electricity to power urban infrastructure like streetlights or stop lights.
The future for this type of technology is now, as London-based startup Pavegen has already developed tiling thatís made from 95 percent recycled tires, and can harvest energy from peopleís footsteps, turning it into electricity.
Click to read the rest of this story on Design News.
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Yellow starthistle already causes millions of dollars in damage to pastures in western states each year, and as climate changes, land managers can expect the problem with that weed and others to escalate.
When exposed to increased carbon dioxide, precipitation, nitrogen and temperature ╨ all expected results of climate change ╨ yellow starthistle in some cases grew to six times its normal size while the other grassland species remained relatively unchanged, according to a Purdue University study published in the early online edition of the journal Ecological Applications. The plants were compared with those grown under ambient conditions.
"The rest of the grassland didn't respond much to changes in conditions except nitrogen," said Jeff Dukes, a Purdue associate professor of forestry and natural resources and the study's lead author. "We're likely to see these carbon dioxide concentrations in the second half of this century. Our results suggest that yellow starthistle will be a very happy camper in the coming decades."
The study is one of the first comparing the growth of invasive species versus their local competitors under future climate scenarios. Dukes believes the results indicate problems land managers and crop growers could see in the coming decades, and not just with yellow starthistle.
"Plants are going to respond in a number of ways to climate change. Sometimes, the species we depend on will benefit, but other times, it will be the weedy, problematic species that benefit most, and there can be economic and ecological damages associated that people should be aware of," Dukes said. "These problems with yellow starthistle aren't going to go away on their own. If anything it's going to become more of a problem than it is now."
Yellow starthistle is a significant weed in the West, especially in California, where it has a longer growing season than native plants and depletes ground moisture, affecting water supplies.
"It reduces the quality of the area for animal forage, is toxic to horses and when it forms spines, cattle don't want to eat it," Dukes said. "Many consider yellow starthistle to be the worst grassland weed in the West."
The decreased pasture production, lost water, and control costs associated with yellow starthistle cause economic impacts in many western states. Experts suggest that in Idaho alone, the weed may cause more than $12 million a year in economic damage and that yellow starthistle reduces pasture values by 6 percent to 7 percent across the state of California.
Dukes said all plants increased in size as expected when exposed to more nitrogen. But yellow starthistle was especially responsive to increased carbon dioxide.
That might be in part because the weed can gain access to more soil resources, Dukes said. Grassland plants' stomata, small porelike openings on the leaves, don't have to be open as wide to take in carbon dioxide when there is a larger concentration in the air. Those smaller stomata allow less water to escape, and the extra water in the soil could favor yellow starthistle. The added carbon dioxide also changed the mix of species competing with the weed and may have allowed it to grow a more effective root system.
"It was an impressive increase in growth," Dukes said. "It was one of the largest responses to elevated carbon dioxide ever observed."
Biological control species introduced to control yellow starthistle have not been effective enough, and Dukes said it is becoming urgent that better controls be developed to address invasive species that could cause significant damage to pasture, cropland and wildlands.
|Contact: Brian Wallheimer|
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Google has been hard at work creating an artificial intelligence system that could revolutionize the way we think about AI...just as soon as it's done cataloging all the cat related posts on the interwebs.
Here's what happened when it was released on the interwebs to start learning on its own:
The neural network taught itself to recognize cats, which, John Markoff of The New York Times reports, is actually no frivolous activity. This week the researchers will present the results of their work at a conference in Edinburgh. The Google scientists and programmers will note that while it is hardly news that the Internet is full of cat videos, the simulation nevertheless surprised them. It performed far better than any previous effort by roughly doubling its accuracy in recognizing objects in a challenging list of 20,000 distinct items.
Now that's one hi-tech way to catalog kitteh videos!
Link --via Geekologie
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In the second of spiked’s series of essays on the First World War, Frank Furedi says the battle of ideas that both fuelled and followed the war remains unresolved.
The cause of the First World War has long been a source of controversy. Often the finger of blame for the war is pointed at a particular party, such as the Prussian military caste or French generals seeking revenge for the humiliation suffered in the war of 1870 and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Bismarck. Others locate the origins of the war in factors such as the arms race, nationalism, imperialism, or various nations’ domestic social pressures.
Current debates about whether or not Britain fought a just war and about the role of the Kaiser reveal more about the preoccupations of our times than they do about the patterns of the past. This anachronistic tendency has achieved its most caricatured form in the attempt to assign blame for the war to Serbia, which is now said to have inadvertently set in motion the forces that led to the slaughter of millions between 1914 and 1918. Reading history backwards, some historians have discovered that the ancestors of Slobodan Milošević were already busy back in 1914. The Serb nationalists who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand have been recast in the role of members of an international terrorist network, and in this recycled position as a state sponsor of international terrorism, Serbia circa 1914 is deemed a legitimate target for Austrian wrath.
For all the controversy surrounding the outbreak of the Great War, the fact is that this conflict is not reducible to a singular cause. The precarious balance of power that prevailed in the early twentieth century was clearly not up to the job of containing underlying conflicts of geopolitical and economic interests. The intensification of imperialist conflict from the late nineteenth century onwards always threatened to transform local disputes into global ones. One ominous consequence of imperial rivalries was the militarisation of international relations. The arms race did not simply mean expanded expenditure on weapons; it also encouraged a situation in which a militaristic and nationalistic culture could flourish and could have an influence on a significant minority of society. Chauvinistic attitudes were further consolidated by the emergence of the modern mass media, which thrived on promoting sensationalist nationalist propaganda.
This unstable international situation fostered a climate in which governments felt that the real question was not if but when a conflict would erupt that affected their national interests. However, governments’ behaviour was not simply a reaction to external pressures. It just so happened that the destabilisation of the global balance of power coincided with new threats within the domestic political sphere. By 1914, the rulers of most European societies found themselves confronted by a very new problem: the question of how to reconcile the prevailing political order with the aspirations of a new force – the public opinion of the masses.
The quest for legitimacy
The First World War coincided with a moment in history when, for the first time, governments were directly exposed to the scrutiny of public opinion and, in many cases, were subject to the pressures of a mass electorate. Wars could no longer be declared, fought or won without public support. Governments understood that they could no longer simply issue diktats. Policies needed to be publicly justified; they required the support, or at least acquiescence, of the people. So just as governments had to attend to a massive challenge thrown up by an increasingly unstable geopolitical environment, they were also hit with the realisation that the consent of the public had become essential to the maintenance of order.
In his influential essay on the domestic causes of the First World War, the historian Arno Mayer argued that it is precisely during periods of heightened social tension that calculations about the maintenance of order come to be intertwined with foreign affairs. Pointing to the high levels of internal strife faced by many nations in the period leading up to the Great War, Mayer says this was an important historical example of geopolitical tensions coinciding with domestic conflict. He argued that this ‘symbiotic growth of domestic and international tensions’ occurred at a time when, in the West, ‘government policies, including foreign policies, were shaped in the crucible of organised party pressure, and interest politics’. In other words, foreign policy and diplomacy, which had hitherto been mostly insulated from domestic pressure, now became increasingly exposed to the influences and forces that emanated from mass politics and public opinion. Consequently, political conflicts and debates about the future course of society influenced foreign policy and even military affairs. And when domestic issues become entangled with foreign ones, wars can become a medium through which political objectives and domestic concerns are played out.
‘War is merely the continuation of politics by other means’, said the German military theorist Carl von Clausewitz. In Clausewitz’s sociology of war, domestic pressures are seen as being meshed with foreign concerns. From this viewpoint, war is as much about domestic politics as it is a response to interstate relations. Mayer points out that Clausewitz ‘invariably opts for the comprehensive concept of politics which subsumes diplomacy, thus leaving open the possibility that recourse to war can be not only influenced but, in some instances, even determined by internal political considerations’. The emergence of so called ‘war parties’ in European societies during the early years of the twentieth century shows that domestic political rivalries were increasingly being refracted through conflicting attitudes to military affairs.
With the ascendancy of public opinion, modern media and a mass electorate, relations between states ‘ceased to be the private preserve of an encapsulated elite’, says Mayer. Pointing to the arms race in the run-up to the First World War, Mayer says that the 50 per cent increase in military spending in the five years before the war ‘may not have been exclusively a function of mounting international distrust, insecurity, and hostility’. No, the expansion of military spending was most likely also influenced by nationalist politicians who were playing the patriotic card to ‘maintain the domestic status quo’, he says. The immediate pre-war era was one in which ‘European nations experienced more than routine political and social disturbance’.
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http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-great-war-its-key-battle-isnt-over-yet
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University of Adelaide news release
In a major breakthrough, an international team of scientists from the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado Boulder has proven that addiction to morphine and heroin can be blocked, while at the same time increasing pain relief.
The team has discovered the key mechanism in the body’s immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs. Laboratory studies involving rats have shown that the drug (+)-naloxone will selectively block the immune-addiction response.
“Our studies have shown conclusively that we can block addiction via the immune system of the brain, without targeting the brain’s wiring,” said lead author Dr. Mark Hutchinson, ARC Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide’s School of Medical Sciences.
“Both the central nervous system and the immune system play important roles in creating addiction, but our studies have shown we only need to block the immune response in the brain to prevent cravings for opioid drugs.”
The results – which could eventually lead to new co-formulated drugs that assist patients with severe pain, as well as helping heroin users to kick the habit – will be published in the Aug. 15 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
The team has focused its research efforts on the immune receptor known as Toll-Like receptor 4, or TLR4.
“Opioid drugs such as morphine and heroin bind to TLR4 in a similar way to the normal immune response to bacteria. The problem is that TLR4 then acts as an amplifier for addiction,” Hutchinson said.
“The drug (+)-naloxone automatically shuts down the addiction,” he said. “It shuts down the need to take opioids, it cuts out behaviors associated with addiction, and the neurochemistry in the brain changes – dopamine, which is the chemical important for providing that sense of ‘reward’ from the drug, is no longer produced.”
Senior author Professor Linda Watkins, from the Center for Neuroscience at CU-Boulder, said: “This work fundamentally changes what we understand about opioids, reward and addiction. We’ve suspected for some years that TLR4 may be the key to blocking opioid addiction, but now we have the proof.
“The drug that we’ve used to block addiction, (+)-naloxone, is a non-opioid mirror-image drug that was created by Dr. Kenner Rice in the 1970s,” she said. “We believe this will prove extremely useful as a co-formulated drug with morphine, so that patients who require relief for severe pain will not become addicted but still receive pain relief. This has the potential to lead to major advances in patient and palliative care,” Watkins said.
The researchers say clinical trials may be possible within the next 18 months.
The study has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the United States and the Australian Research Council, or ARC.
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Compare book prices
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The Thirteen Petalled Rose, written by the world-renowned scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, is based on the structures and assumptions of kabbalah, the largely esoteric theological system that deals with the relationships between man, Torah, the Commandments, and God. As Rabbi Steinsaltz teaches, "kabbalah is the official theology of the Jewish people."
While The Thirteen Petalled Rose can be viewed as an introduction to the essence of Jewish existence and belief, its author does not attempt to justify Judaism according to external criteria. It is not meant to be a book about its subject, but rather a book that grows out of its own world, the world of kabbalah. While most primers deal with practical matters, this volume touches largely upon issues of the soul.
The Thirteen Petalled Rose is named after the symbolic image used to represent the People of Israel in the opening lines of the mystical Jewish text, the Zohar. In addition to the English edition, The Thirteen Petalled Rose has been translated into Russian and circulated underground in the Soviet Union for many years. It has also been translated into French and Dutch. A book of extraordinary power, The Thirteen Petalled Rose has become a modern classic.
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| 0.789379
| 1,784
| 2.515625
| 3
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Google Fiber is a project whose goal is to build a fiber optic communications infrastructure.
Google Fiber connections will come into metropolitan areas through multiple aggregators. From these points, fiber optic cables will branch out and run into neighborhoods and individual residences, providing FTTH (fiber to the home) service. Much of the cable will be strung on new and existing utility poles; some of it will be buried. The system is expected to provide Internet connection speeds of up to 1 Gbps (one billion or 109 bits per second) to end users, both downstream (downloading) and upstream (uploading).
In the summer of 2011, Google launched a free trial of the service near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Subsequently, two communities -- Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas -- were over selected from over 1,000 applicants to receive FTTH at no cost. Google has not announced whether there are plans to deploy networks in additional communities.
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<urn:uuid:09cc40e4-4aa8-4116-a07f-1d34b3ef342a>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Google-Fiber
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| 0.937223
| 194
| 2.625
| 3
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Hydro-economic models: Concepts, design, applications, and future prospects.
627 - 643.
Future water management will shift from building new water supply systems to better operating existing ones. The variation of water values in time and space will increasingly motivate efforts to address water scarcity and reduce water conflicts. Hydro-economic models represent spatially distributed water resource systems, infrastructure, management options and economic values in an integrated manner. In these tools water allocations and management are either driven by the economic value of water or economically evaluated to provide policy insights and reveal opportunities for better management. A central concept is that water demands are not fixed requirements but rather functions where quantities of water use at different times have varying total and marginal economic values. This paper reviews techniques to characterize the economic value of water use and include such values in mathematical models. We identify the key steps in model design and diverse problems, formulations, levels of integration, spatial and temporal scales, and solution techniques addressed and used by over 80 hydro-economic modeling efforts dating back 45-years from 23 countries. We list current limitations of the approach, suggest directions for future work, and recommend ways to improve policy relevance. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
|Title:||Hydro-economic models: Concepts, design, applications, and future prospects|
|Keywords:||Hydro-economic models, Integrated water resource management (IWRM), Systems analysis, Water value, Water demand, RESIDENTIAL WATER DEMAND, RIVER-BASIN MANAGEMENT, OF-THE-ART, STREAM-AQUIFER SYSTEM, WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY, RIO-GRANDE BASIN, OPTIMIZATION MODEL, GROUNDWATER-MANAGEMENT, IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE, CONJUNCTIVE USE|
|UCL classification:||UCL > School of BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > School of BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Archive Staff Only
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<urn:uuid:860a5c51-d6df-41aa-9436-75956c240dbb>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/118426/
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| 0.801261
| 428
| 2.6875
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HMS Tullichewan was a holding base for Combined Operations personnel, based at Tullichewan Castle Camp, Balloch, Loch Lomond, Scotland. Commissioned March 10, 1945 and paid off June 10, 1946.
An interesting observation has arisen from reading a number of wartime reminiscences, it seems that many WRENs from Tullichewan appear to have gone to Bletchley Park, the wartime decoding centre known as Station X.
The first use of the castle during WWII after its requisition by the Navy was as accomodation for US personnel who were building the oil ppipeline from Old Kilpatrick to Finnart Oil Terminal on Loch Fyne. They also constructed huts in the grounds as additional accomodation.
Designed by architect Robert Lugar in 1792, the castle is said to be the first asymmetrical Gothic house to have been built in Scotland. First occupied by the Horrocks family from 1817 until 1843, it was then sold to William Campbell (Glasgow merchants J & W Campbell). The last owner was J Scott Anderson who acquired the house around 1930, living there until it was requisitioned for use by the WRNS during World War II, after which it was used as accommodation for workers at the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. It then lay abandoned until it was finally demolished in 1954.
Although modern development has consumed most of the former estate, and little remains, a number of remnants are reported to have survived. The A82 dual carriageway and the A811 road were built through the grounds, with a housing development and parts of the Vale of Leven Hospital also having been built there. The former stables and a piece of the original tower can still be seen from the A82. The north lodge, or gatehouse, has been lost in the area of Tullichewan Caravan Park, where the estate also had a walled orchard. The south lodge can still be found on Main Street, Alexandria, north of the entrance to Christie Park.
- Tullichewan Castle
- Tullichewan Castle, North Lodge
- Tullichewan Castle, Stable Cottage
- Tullichewan Castle, South Lodge
You may add a comment or offer further details which may be included in the page above.
Commenting has been disabled thanks to the attention of scum known as spam commenters
Recent Page Trail:
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Rules to Prevent
1. Keep your plant clean. See that beams, spouting, machines and floors
are free from dust. A dust-free mill or elevator is explosion-proof.
2. Inspect the plant frequently for hot bearings.
3. Keep constantly on the watch for elevator choke-ups. If the drive belt
does not jump off, or break, the friction and heat can set the roof afire.
4. Keep any slight rubbing, slipping, or other trouble with belts or machines.
5. Keep all foreign materials from entering the grinding machinery, by installing
a magnetic separator. Add screens to prevent people from tossing material,
coins, metal, etc., into the system.
6. Do not smoke while or near the mill or elevator.
7 Do not carry matches in or near the buildings.
8. Do not allow an open flame, lantern, or torch in the mill or elevator.
9. Do not lower artificial lights into bins to determine the amount of grain,
flour, or feed stuffs that they contain. A weighted rope or measurement
rope will give better results and eliminate the fire hazard.
10. Prevent the accumulation of static electricity on machines and belts
by proper grounding methods.
11. Use only spark free motors in machines, dust exhausts, and vacuum cleaning
systems. The motors used in the mill or keeping it clean can sometimes do
the most damage, if they are not properly maintained or thought put into
12. See that all electrical equipment is properly insulated, light bulbs
well protected, and switch and fuse boxes kept closed. Light bulbs should
be covered with glass and a crush proof enclosure and hanging lights should
13. Never install or place shafting, spouting (chutes), or other equipment
or machinery in the moving path of a belt. This means the moving belt plan
from the path of travel that the belt makes between and over the two pulleys.
14. Remove all dust, dirt, and waste products daily. Do not store them in,
around or near the mill or elevator.
15. Store all solvents, grease, grease guns, and chemicals that emit a flammable
vapor in fire-proof containers or a cabinet, and if at all possible outside
of the mill or elevator.
16. Use common sense.
Source: "Rules to Prevent Dust Explosions," no author, The Consolidated
Grain Milling Catalogs, Edition Number 2, 1929-30, "Machinery, Equipment,
Supplies, Construction, Etc., for Flour, Feed and Cereal Mills, Flour Warehouses
and Grain Elevators," National Miller, Chicago, Illinois, 1929, page
Return to Home Page
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| 0.854073
| 572
| 2.875
| 3
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Short for alternative text. It is represented in HTML by the alt attribute.
alt text (countable and uncountable, plural alt texts)
- (Internet) A text caption, associated with an image or other element, that is rendered if the usual content cannot be rendered.
- Screenreaders for the blind read out the alt text when they encounter an image on a Web page.
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https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alt_text
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In the course of arguing that a giant cross erected in the Mojave Desert in 1934 cannot be regarded as a specifically Christian symbol, Scalia told the court that, "The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead."
Actually, that's not all he said:
JUSTICE SCALIA: It's erected as a war memorial. I assume it is erected in honor of all of the war dead. It's the -- the cross is the -- is the most common symbol of -- of -- of the resting place of the dead, and it doesn't seem to me -- what would you have them erect? A cross -- some conglomerate of a cross, a Star of David, and you know, a Moslem half moon and star?I'm no legal scholar, but I know a thing or two about gravestones. And Scalia is talking out of his ass on this one.
Scalia is arguing that the people who erected the giant cross as a war memorial in 1934 intended it to "honor all of the war dead." They could assume that a cross would stand for all the dead, regardless of religion, because they understood the cross as "the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead" in general and war dead in particular.
This might seem obvious to Scalia, but it shows very little understanding of the history of memorials and grave markers in America.
Mid-Atlantic and Southern states as well as in New England.
There are plenty of Christian symbols on 17th- and 18th-century American gravestones (peacocks, trumpets, Bible boobs, etc.), but crosses are rarely among them.
When Scalia envisons cross-marked graves, he may be thinking of WWII-era cemeteries like the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where acres of crosses honor the American dead. Yet, the practice of erecting government-issued marble crosses would have been unknown to veterans in 1934. Before WWII, government-issue stones were simple tablets with slightly rounded tops (pointy tops for CSA). Union soldiers' government-issue gravestones were either undecorated or embellished with a shield-shaped indentation. Confederate soldiers' government-issue stones sometimes have fat little Southern Crosses of Honor, but I've never seen one with a Christian cross.
Spanish-American War were still being buried under plain or shield-decorated stones. Some WWI veterans received the new style of stone — a marble tablet with a tiny cross inscribed in a circle above the vital information. Since WWII, American soldiers' families have been able to choose from an ever-expanding catalogue of religious symbols for government gravestones.
My point is that the people who erected the cross in 1934 did not build it because it was a generic symbol that had been used to honor American dead since the days of William Bradford. They would have understood it as a specifically Christian icon. Justice Scalia's contention that the cross is "the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead" has nothing to do with history and everything to do with his biases as a Catholic who came of age after WWII. I guess I should not be surprised — Justice Scalia has long been a member of the "my nostalgia is an accurate representation of historical experience" school of history.
The ACLU's lawyer, Peter Eliasberg, had a nice little comeback for Scalia's stupidity.
Well, Justice Scalia, if I may go to your first point. The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of Christians. I have been in Jewish cemeteries. There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew.While Mr. Eliasberg scored some points and is mostly correct, I have seen Christian imagery on Jewish gravestones in Newport.
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http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2009/10/scalia-on-grave-markers.html?showComment=1255100754518
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| 0.967007
| 767
| 3.109375
| 3
|
Looking For A
Piano Notes Diagram?
On this page, you’ll find a piano notes diagram of:
~ the notes on the piano keyboard
~ the notes of the staff (the lines and spaces)
~ the notes on the piano keyboard going to the notes on the
The Keys (This pattern is repeated throughout the entire piano keyboard.)
The Keys and The Notes
Notice that the "C" in the treble clef and the "C" in the bass clef are the same note. This is the point where the cross and meet on the Grand Staff.
Still looking for more information? Find out how to read and remember the notes on the
read piano notes
page. Find information on notes and their beats and some advanced note reading information at
piano music notes.
If you're looking for more than a diagram, there's lot's to learn here. If you are a beginner piano player and you are an adult, I would suggest learning chords. You can find out more about chords on the
what are piano chords
page. It's the quickest way to learn to play and experiment on the piano.
Piano Notes Diagram
Piano Lessons Homepage.
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http://www.piano-lessons-info.com/piano-notes-diagram.html
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| 0.91988
| 251
| 3.265625
| 3
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// Version with a colormap to retrieve the bipartition template <typename Graph, typename IndexMap, typename PartitionMap, typename OutputIterator> OutputIterator find_odd_cycle (const Graph& graph, const IndexMap index_map, PartitionMap partition_map, OutputIterator result) template <typename Graph, typename IndexMap, typename OutputIterator> OutputIterator find_odd_cycle (const Graph& graph, const IndexMap index_map, OutputIterator result) // Version which uses the internal index map template <typename Graph, typename OutputIterator> OutputIterator find_odd_cycle (const Graph& graph, OutputIterator result)
The find_odd_cycle function tests a given graph for bipartiteness using a DFS-based coloring approach.
An undirected graph is bipartite if one can partition its set of vertices into two sets "left" and "right", such that each edge goes from either side to the other. Obviously, a two-coloring of the graph is exactly the same as a two-partition. is_bipartite() tests whether such a two-coloring is possible and can return it in a given property map.
Another equivalent characterization is the non-existance of odd-length cycles, meaning that a graph is bipartite if and only if it does not contain a cycle with an odd number of vertices as a subgraph. find_odd_cycle() does nearly the same as is_bipartite(), but additionally constructs an odd-length cycle if the graph is found to be not bipartite.
The bipartition is recorded in the color map partition_map, which will contain a two-coloring of the graph, i.e. an assignment of black and white to the vertices such that no edge is monochromatic. The odd-length cycle is written into the Output Iterator result if one exists. The final final iterator is returned by the function.
IN: const Graph& graph
An undirected graph. The graph type must be a model of Vertex List Graph and Incidence Graph.
IN: const IndexMap index_map
This maps each vertex to an integer in the range [0, num_vertices(graph)). The type VertexIndexMap must be a model of Readable Property Map. The value type of the map must be an integer type. The vertex descriptor type of the graph needs to be usable as the key type of the map.
OUT: PartitionMap partition_map
The algorithm tests whether the graph is bipartite and assigns each vertex either a white or a black color, according to the partition. The PartitionMap type must be a model of Readable Property Map and Writable Property Map. The value type must model ColorValue.
OUT: OutputIterator result
The find_odd_cycle function finds an odd-length cycle if the graph is not bipartite. The sequence of vertices producing such a cycle is written into this iterator. The OutputIterator type must be a model of OutputIterator. The graph's vertex descriptor type must be in the set of value types of the iterator. The final value is returned by the function. If the graph is bipartite (i.e. no odd-length cycle exists), nothing is written, thus the given iterator matches the return value.
The time complexity for the algorithm is O(V + E).
The file example/bipartite_example.cpp
contains an example of testing an undirected graph for bipartiteness.
Copyright © 2010 Matthias Walter (firstname.lastname@example.org)
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<urn:uuid:0d2cd65b-3641-44b6-8f9e-bcd3ef5a65f8>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_48_0/libs/graph/doc/find_odd_cycle.html
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| 0.77888
| 775
| 2.546875
| 3
|
Assistant Professor, Physics
EducationPh.D., University of Michigan
ResearchThere are two ways to measure the mass of a typical galaxy: 1) count the number of stars and multiply by the mass of a typical star, and 2) measure the orbital positions and speeds of those same stars, plug the numbers into the law of gravity (which relates mass to position and speed), and solve for mass. The problem is that the two answers don't agree. For nearly every galaxy that has been observed, the 'luminous mass' obtained by counting visible objects is smaller than the 'dynamical mass' inferred by applying (Newtonian) gravity to the motions of visible objects. The discrepancy between luminous and dynamical mass is called 'dark matter'---mass that is detected only via gravitation---and seems to represent ~85% of the mass in the Universe.
I study the astrophysical properties of dark matter, thus far via optical imaging, spectroscopy and dynamical modelling of the 'dwarf' galaxies that surround the Milky Way and neighboring Andromeda. The dwarf galaxies include the oldest, smallest and 'darkest' (i.e., composed almost entirely of dark matter) galaxies known, and currently represent the smallest physical scales (sizes of ~ 100 light years, speeds of a few kilometers per second, masses of ~100,000 Suns) that are associated empirically with dark matter. If dark matter is made from some kind of new fundamental particle, then the manner in which dark matter can form 'clumps' at such small scales can help to decide among various ideas about the properties of that particle. By measuring the spatial distribution of dark matter in dwarf galaxies, I aim to help figure out what the dark matter actually is. Thus my research has wandered into the intersection of dynamics, cosmology and particle physics.
For this work I use some of the world's largest optical telescopes, including the 6.5-meter Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the 6.5-meter MMT at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the 8.2-meter Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in Chile. I am also a member of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV collaboration.
- Alex Geringer-Sameth, Matthew G. Walker, Savvas M. Koushiappas, Sergey E. Koposov, Vasily Belokurov, Gabriel Torrealba, N. Wyn Evans, Indication of Gamma-Ray Emission from the Newly Discovered Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II, Physical Review Letters 115, 81101 (2015)
- M. G. Walker, E. W. Olszewski, M. Mateo, Bayesian analysis of resolved stellar spectra: application to MMT/Hectochelle observations of the Draco dwarf spheroidal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 448, 2717 (2015)
- Matthew G. Walker, Abraham Loeb, Is the universe simpler than ΛCDM?, Contemporary Physics 55, 198 (2014)
- C. F. P. Laporte, M. G. Walker, J. Penarrubia, Measuring the slopes of mass profiles for dwarf spheroidals in triaxial cold dark matter potentials, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 433, L54 (2013)
- J. Zavala, M. Vogelsberger, M. G. Walker, Constraining self-interacting dark matter with the Milky Way's dwarf spheroidals, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 431, L20 (2013)
- Jorge Peñarrubia, Sergey E. Koposov, Matthew G. Walker, A statistical method for measuring the galactic potential and testing gravity with cold tidal streams, The Astrophysical Journal 760, 2 (2012)
- Jorge Peñarrubia, Andrew Pontzen, Matthew G. Walker, Sergey E. Koposov, The coupling between the core/cusp and missing satellite problems, The Astrophysical Journal 759, L42 (2012)
- Matthew G. Walker, Jorge Peñarrubia, A method for measuring (slopes of) the mass profiles of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, The Astrophysical Journal 742, 20 (2011)
- Matthew Walker, Dark Matter in the Galactic Dwarf Spheroidal Satellites, Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, Volume 5: Galactic Structure and Stellar Populations , Springer-Verlag, p. 1039 (2013)
- M. G. Walker, C. Combet, J. A. Hinton, D. Maurin, M. I. Wilkinson, Dark matter in the classical dwarf spheroidal galaxies: a robust constraint on the astrophysical factor for γ-ray flux calculations, The Astrophysical Journal 733, L46 (2011)
- Matthew G. Walker, Stacy S. McGaugh, Mario Mateo, Edward W. Olszewski, Rachel Kuzio de Naray, Comparing the dark matter halos of spiral, low surface brightness, and dwarf spheroidal galaxies, The Astrophysical Journal 717, L87 (2010)
- Matthew G. Walker, Mario Mateo, Edward W. Olszewski, Jorge Peñarrubia, N. Wyn Evans, Gerard Gilmore, A universal mass profile for dwarf spheroidal galaxies?, The Astrophysical Journal 704, 1274 (2009)
- Matthew G. Walker, Mario Mateo, Edward W. Olszewski, Stellar velocities in the Carina, Fornax, Sculptor, and Sextans DSPH galaxies: Data from the Magellan/MMFS survey, The Astronomical Journal 137, 3100 (2009)
- Matthew G. Walker, Mario Mateo, Edward W. Olszewski, Systemic Proper Motions of Milky Way Satellites from Stellar Redshifts: The Carina, Fornax, Sculptor, and Sextans Dwarf Spheroidals, The Astrophysical Journal 688, L75 (2008)
- Matthew G. Walker, Mario Mateo, Edward W. Olszewski, Oleg Y. Gnedin, Xiao Wang, Bodhisattva Sen, Michael Woodroofe, Velocity Dispersion Profiles of Seven Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies, The Astrophysical Journal 667, L53 (2007)
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The following is some advice to make your child’s life and your life more enjoyable while working with someone as unique as one with autism.
1. Be an advocate
Try to control bullying as much as possible. This may come in a variety of forms and it is important that the autistic person in question not only understands when and how they are being bullied but what to do to prevent it and escape from it. It may be an option to consider homeschooling if it is not possible to downplay this bullying.
2. Validate the differences: Different is GOOD
Tell your child that being different is not bad. Many children hear about their diagnosis and are told that their behavior and way of being is bad and undesirable. If a child knows or thinks this it can be very hard for the child to have high self esteem making it even more difficult for the child to function in an already hostile world.
Frank Klein states, “I began to realize I was different in about the third grade, but it never bothered me. I was never given the impression that unusual was bad, or that I had a problem.” Because of his mother and the support of others like her, Klein was given the tremendous ability to grown up knowing and understanding why he was different, without being made to feel as a lesser individual for those differences. By creating a nurturing and accepting environment that focuses and emphasizes the positivity of differences, instead of just noting them as differences, one can build the child’s confidence in their abilities creating a sense of pride in themselves which is crucial in helping them endure and withstand the harshness of the surrounding world.
Educate your child
Teach that behaviors, emotions and desires can have particular facial and bodily expressions and teach what these are and what they mean. Many children do not realize what behaviors are recognized as intolerable and which are not. They also may not see or recognize facial expressions or know what facial expressions they should put with their thoughts and emotions making it difficult for them to interact socially with a good degree of understanding.
Being autistic certainly doesn’t mean that the person is incapable of learning. Actually, it is more so that they are hyper-learners that are constantly observing patterns and relationships whether it be in regards to their special interests, studying ‘alien’ social interactions, or tuning into sensory experiences most of us fail to recognize. Giving the autistic individual the opportunity to fuel their energies into their interests is not only an outlet from the confusion and stress of this world, but it also provides them a special skill that can lead to a career.
Not only is it important to educate autistic individuals in reference to ‘general knowledge’ , but to also help teach them the unwritten rules, expectations, expressions, emotions, and behaviors. Having social rules and stories that lay out the expectations and alternatives of social situations are extremely helpful in preparing and ‘predicting’ the social dance that comes more easily to us NTs.
Educate friends, family, teachers, students, the world
Many individuals have learned what they know about autism from the media, which means that their education is substandard to say the least. Being an advocate means being strong enough to stand up and correct misconceptions when you hear or see them. Being able to provide a supportive and nurturing environment for an autistic individual, whether they are a child or an adult, means that it is of great importance to correct the misconceptions of others that can negatively affect how the world views autistics. Correcting the misconceptions is the first step in opening up a world full of opportunities.
4. Don’t eliminate choice
Don’t view the child as incapable of making their own choices. Sure there are some choices that are important to make together, but by not including the child or individual in the decisions, you are demeaning their opinions. Letting them make decisions about what they are ready for or what they want to do is important in allowing them to build confidence in their capabilities to decide for themselves while also demonstrating that you DO care about their thoughts and feelings. Being able to feel important and like you matter is a huge contributor to self-esteem especially when faced with a world that may not be of the same opinions.
Do not force your child to be social if they do not want to be and encourage them to engage in behaviors that satisfy their intellectual capacity. Many children eventually want to be social and will attempt to do so on their own. If and when they reach this point, you should help them, but never force them to do something they don’t want to. If you force them they will resent the activity and become even more opposed to it.
5. Be clear
There is so much gray area in what we say and do in social situations that it is not only important to clarify with the person we are speaking to, but it is also important to be clear when we are communicating in the first place. When talking to an autistic individual who interprets the literal meanings of words or who you may know has difficulty with certain social situations, it is easy to adjust your own interactions to make communication easier. This does not entail speaking slowly or raising your voice, both of these things are extremely demeaning and disrespectful. Being able to modify your own actions also entails knowing what adjustments need to be made with the autistic person in your life.
Be clear and explicit in directions. Many autistic children take words and sentences at face value. They recognize things as black and white and do not understand underlying meanings. If a child does not know explicit meanings or directions, it is very easy for the task they have to take a path of its own.
6. Find ways to communicate
Allow alternative forms of communication. Many autistics are non-verbal and even those who are verbal often will feel more comfortable using electronics or writing in order to express important or anxiety filled things. Other forms of communication make some things easier and allow for consistent understanding.
7. Accommodate sensitivities
Avoid crowded places when possible. Many autistics have sensory hyperactivities and may get overwhelmed by a lot of sounds, colors, shapes, and lights. It can make it even more stressful if there are a lot of people around that the child may be trying to pay attention to. This makes the entire situation very stressful and traumatic for many autistics.
8. Don’t assume- ASK!
Ask a person with autism their preferences. All autistics are different just as each neurotypical is different. It is important not to assume that they are all the same and that one experience in the past means that all the rest of the autistics you encounter will act in a similar way. It may be true that they might, but it is extremely likely that they have a different perspective or expectation.
Because a key point of autism are the differences in thought processes, it is only logical to note that the large gray area that exists within ‘normal’ social interactions may not be translated as effectively as we would assume. Instead of taking for granted that we know what an autistic individual is thinking, feeling, or comprehending, we can take a lesson from their directness and ask. It is one of the most obvious, but still somehow forgotten, social decencies that should be readily invoked.
9. Don’t try to change them
Never stop a child from doing harmless, stress relieving activities such as rocking, flapping, or tapping. These are coping mechanisms that allow them to deal with stress. They may be socially different, but they should not be considered unacceptable. You may have your own coping mechanisms just like they do.
Autism is not a condition or a disease that can be removed or modified to be more ‘socially acceptable’. When treatments seek to change what is as intricately linked to the person as their DNA, they can only succeed in creating a mask to hide who the individual really is. As we have learned, while it may be possible to mimic ‘normality’ in certain situations, it is exhausting and self-harming having to pretend to be someone you’re not.
10. Find new ways to learn
Use child specific learning mechanisms with autistics. There are many different ways to learn and many different children with autism take a different path depending on how they function best or how their brain “sees” things. It would allow for a the most intellectual success and enjoyment if the child is able to find a mechanism of learning that fits them specifically.
11. Be Supportive, accepting, understanding
Relating support back to not seeking to change the people that you care about, means being whole-heartedly accepting. This does not mean accepting only the positive aspects of autism, but also the quirks that we might not understand. While we may become sad at the thought of spending time alone at recess, the autistic child embraces their alone time to expand their own personal world in a way that we simply cannot understand. Instead of doing what we feel is right in the particular situation, we must think about what is right for the autistic individual, what they want, what they feel.
12. Don’t underestimate
Unfortunately because of the consideration of autism as a DISability, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘can’t’ . I believe that Frank Klein describes it best when he says, “Can’t is a horrible word, perhaps one of the most disabling words in the English language. Don’t concentrate on what your child cannot do; concentrate on what he can do, and build on that every chance you get. As you do, “can’t” will get smaller and smaller with the passing of each day.” Empower the child by helping them develop and perfect their special skills instead of focusing or changing what they are unable to do.
13. Get involved
Being supportive is not only a job for the sidelines, it most definitely a team sport. Being a bystander in your friend, family member, or child’s life is still a way of being unaccepting. When John Klein’s mother noticed his rocking behavior, she didn’t try to modify it, nor did she simply ignore it, but she even went so far as to buy him a rocking chair. A well fueled team needs every type of player from the ones on the fields to the dancing, spinning cheerleaders.
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Breakfast Important for Teens
Jim LiebeltJim Liebelt's Blog
- 2011 Jul 06
Both Moms and scientists agree: breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. A recent study in teens showed that eating breakfast, particularly one high in protein, reduced hunger later in the day. Teens who skipped breakfast showed increased activity in regions of the brain associated with reward-driven eating behaviors.
Ten teenagers were asked to skip breakfast, eat a typical breakfast of cereal with milk or consume a high-protein meal of Belgian waffles and yogurt. Researchers then compared functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) among the groups and found that those who skipped breakfast showed increased brain activity associated with hunger and food cravings prior to lunchtime. Those who ate the high protein breakfast verses the low protein meal showed the least amount of food driven brain activity. When participants were asked about feelings of hunger, those who skipped breakfast reported a greater urge to overeat at lunchtime. Don’t feel like you have to cook a huge breakfast for your teen every morning though, cereal (particularly high protein) is fine. In a USDA study of over 9,000 adolescents, cereal was found to be a healthy breakfast choice for adequate nutrition and weight management.
Source: FYI Living
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See also the
Dr. Math FAQ:
Browse High School Higher-Dimensional Geometry
Stars indicate particularly interesting answers or
good places to begin browsing.
Selected answers to common questions:
Do cones or cylinders have edges?
Latitude and longitude.
MaximizIng the volume of a cylinder.
- Nearest Point on a Great Circle [05/27/2002]
Given points A, B, and C on the surface of a unit sphere, find the
point P on the great circle defined by A and B that is nearest to C.
- Number of Equations Needed in a Simultaneous Linear System [10/29/2003]
Could you tell me why we need the same number of equations as
variables in order to get a unique solution to a system of
simultaneous linear equations?
- Number of Faces of a Cylinder and a Cone [1/29/1995]
If you have a cylinder, how many faces does it have? What about a cone?
- Numerically Equal Volumes and Surface Areas [06/04/2001]
Find all rectangular solids with integral dimensions, the volumes and
surface areas of which are numerically equal.
- Obtaining Bearing from a Velocity Vector [08/01/2001]
I have the x, y, and z components of a velocity vector of an airplane,
and must use this vector to calculate the bearing of the plane.
- Oil Can Dimensions [12/11/2001]
What are the dimensions of an oil can with a one-liter capacity that uses
the least amount of tin?
- One Degree Latitude, Longitude: How Many Miles? [04/02/2002]
Approximately how many miles are there in one degree of longitude and one
degree of latitude in the states of Kansas and Oklahoma?
- Optimization [11/26/1996]
To make a funnel, we take a circular piece of metal, cut out a sector,
and connect the two radial edges together to make an open cone. What
should the angle of the sector be to maximize the volume of the cone?
- Order of a 3D Triangle [08/29/2001]
If I visit the vertices of a 3D triangle in order going from a to b to c,
am I going clockwise or anticlockwise?
- Packing 4 Spheres Into a Tetrahedron [09/03/99]
How can I find the dimensions of the smallest tetrahedron that can serve
as a container for 4 spheres packed as snugly as possible?
- Packing Pennies in a Jar [06/08/1999]
If a jar has a height of 11" and a radius of 7" and is full of pennies
evenly to the top, how many pennies can fit in it?
- Packing Spheres [08/16/1999]
How many 1.68-inch-diameter spheres fit into a 96.3-cubic-foot space? How
many 1.68-inch-diameter spheres would fit into a 96.3-foot- diameter
- Painting a Column [07/13/1997]
If I have a column 9.5' long and 8'' in diameter, how do I figure out how
much paint I need to cover the outside area?
- Painting Bell Towers [6/3/1996]
I need to know the total surface area of three domes with assorted radii.
- Paper Patterns for Building Cones [11/03/2003]
How do you create a paper pattern which can be rolled up into a cone
that is 72 inches long and 26 inches in diameter at the open end?
- Pappus' Centroid Theorem [06/05/2003]
What is the formula for the volume of a circular torus?
- Parallel Lines [12/31/1998]
What are some ways of proving lines parallel - geometrically and
- Parallel Lines, Concentric Circles [04/24/2003]
If parallel means that two lines never intersect, would the lines
that form a circle drawn inside another circle be considered parallel?
- Parametrics [12/18/1996]
You're in 3-D space at point A, you want to get to point B, and you know
the coordinates to point B from point C (but B is moving). What heading
do you need to set in order to meet point B?
- Parts of a Cone [04/18/2001]
Does a solid cone have any edges?
- Passing a Larger Cube Through a Smaller One [09/25/2003]
How is it possible to cut a hole through a solid cube so that a cube,
larger than the original, can be passed in one end and out the other?
- Pattern for Lampshade [02/17/2001]
I would like to know the formula for computing the surface area of a lamp
shade so that I can make a pattern from it.
- Planar Approximation: Latitude and Longitude [04/18/2003]
I am trying to calculate the midpoint between cases of legionella and
their nearest neighbor. How can I calculate the distance between two
points below which they can be treated as if they were in a plane
rather than on a sphere?
- Planes between Planes [04/02/2001]
How can I find if a plane lies between two other planes?
- Planes Intersecting Space [11/24/2001]
Can we say that n planes divide space into at most 2^n regions?
- Polyhedron inside Sphere [5/24/1996]
How long do the sides of a dodecahedron have to be to fit into a sphere
of diameter 2.9 m?
- Proof for Volume of a Segment of a Sphere [11/19/2001]
I am in need of assistance in proving the volume of a truncated spherical
cap (or a segment of a sphere I think it is also called).
- Proportions of Exact Enlargements [03/18/1998]
How are two objects related if one is an "exact enlargement of the
- Pyramid Construction [05/24/1997]
How do you figure out the angles necessary to construct a pyramid out of
- A 'Pyramiddle' Tent Problem [07/12/1999]
Figure out an equation that yields d when values for h and r are
- A Pyramid of Layered Marbles [06/02/1999]
How can I find the number of layers, the number of marbles, and the size
of a container containing a pyramid of layered marbles?
- Pyramids and Triangular Prisms [05/09/2000]
What's the difference between a pyramid and a triangular prism?
- Radius of a Sphere [01/29/1998]
What is the ratio of the areas and volumes of two spheres, one with
radius 3 times the other? What possible theorems are suggested?
- Radius of a Tennis Ball [04/03/2001]
How can we find the radius of a tennis ball without cutting it open?
- Radius of the Earth as an Ellipsoid [06/26/2000]
I have been given two equations to determine the radius of the earth for
a given latitude, based on ellipsoid model WGS84. I get different
- Ratio of Volume to Surface Area in Humans [12/09/1999]
What is the healthy ratio of volume to surface area for humans?
- Ratios and Geometry [10/29/1998]
An airplane flying at 33,000 feet has a visibility of 100 miles. What
percent of the total land area to the horizon is visible?
- Rectangle Needed To Make Cone [9/5/1996]
I want to make a lampshade by rolling a piece of paper into a non-closed
- Rectangles Inscribed in a Dodecahedron [06/19/1999]
What is the equation for determining the size of the rectangles inscribed
within a regular dodecahedron?
- A Rectangular Prism [11/26/1995]
Is it possible to have a rectangular prism that has a volume greater than
its surface area?
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A college age woman recently stopped at the entrance to a local fast food restaurant, reached down and picked up a penny. I was so surprised by her action that I almost bumped into her.
“Why did you do that?” her companion asked. “It’s money,” she replied. It was time for me to shift into my reporter mode and eavesdrop.
The young woman who picked up the penny explained that she has a large glass jar at her residence and places spare change and money she finds, including coins from washers in the college dormitory, in the container. From experience she knew once the jar was full, she had roughly $100.
Too often coins dropped on a sidewalk or floor will remain there. Many of our younger residents would not bend over to pick up a penny or nickel.
Firemen, who are often astute observers of human nature, will use a “dropped” coin for amusement. They will glue a coin to the sidewalk in front of a fire station and watch the reaction of passersby.
Few individuals under the age of 40 will stop and attempt to pick up a penny, nickel or dime held fast to the sidewalk with industrial strength adhesive. However, as the value of the coin rises, the age of interested passersby falls.
Veteran firemen note that few individuals who apparently lived through the Great Depression will pass up any coin. Glue a quarter or a $1 coin to concrete and even some teens can’t pass up the opportunity.
The development of monofilament fishing line, which is difficult to discern in sunlight, plays a role in another favorite trick of firemen.
They will tear off a corner of a $20 bill and glue or tape it to an empty envelope, with the corner clearly visible. Attach a long piece of that almost invisible fishing line and the trap is baited.
That line is jerked away when someone bends over to pick up the envelope containing what they hope at least $20. Victims of the prank have been known to follow the still moving envelope inside the station, prepared to claim the wind blew the envelope out of their hand.
If the old adage that history repeats is true, then copper pennies the college student picks up will be pulled out of circulation, with legislation before Congress calling for making the coin out of steel. Thieves are stealing copper because of the metal’s high price, which helped raise the cost of minting, transporting and storing the one-cent coin to 2.41 cents as of Sept. 30. The unit cost for the nickel was 11.18 cents.
For the sixth consecutive year, the cost to produce and distribute the cent and nickel has exceeded their face values. During the 2011 fiscal year, the two denominations were produced at a loss of $116.7 million, or nearly triple the loss of $42.6 million recorded during the preceding year.
If our math is correct, the penny and nickel resulted in losses of $359.8 million to the U.S. Treasury from 2006 to 2011.
Seigniorage — the difference between the cost of the metal or bullion plus minting expenses and the value as money of the pieces coined — constitutes a source of revenue. For the 2011 fiscal year, production of the dime, quarter and $1 coin for circulation generated seigniorage of $488.8 million, offsetting the losses from the penny and nickel.
Government seldom profits from experience. Perhaps it should try learning the way businesses do. • • •
Larry Fugate is a veteran journalist and former editor of The Pine Bluff Commercial. He can be reached by e-mail at email@example.com or at (870) 329-7010.
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More than 40 public and private entities, including the Loxahatchee River District, share a vigorous desire not only to understand more about the history of the Loxahatchee River, but also to carry forth effective environmental management programs to protect it. Plans such as the Northern Palm Beach County Comprehensive Water Management Plan, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the Loxahatchee River Preservation Initiative are working to address issues like stormwater runoff, habitat restoration and freshwater flow - and to ensure the beauty and environmental significance of this river are forever preserved.
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan provides a framework and guide to restore, protect and preserve the water resources of central and southern Florida, including the Everglades. It covers 16 counties over an 18,000-square-mile area and centers on an update of the Central & Southern Florida (C&SF) Project. Its core mission is to fine tune the existing plumbing system to reduce undesirable environmental impacts.
During the period from 1995 - 2001, the South Florida Water Management District and the City of West Palm Beach led a cooperative effort to develop this plan which is a collective vision that addresses areas of improvement in order to meet present and future water resource needs, such as establishing regional reservoirs and water retrieval facilities and developing a reclaimed water program.
Comprehensive Water Management Plan (Link) »
Loxahatchee River Minimum Flows & Levels
This project is being coordinated by the South Florida Water Management District and involves establishing freshwater flows to the Wild & Scenic portions of the Loxahatchee River. The correct amount of freshwater, during the right time and, of the right quality is essential to restoration of the Loxahatchee River. This project will establish a minimum flow of freshwater that is necessary to keep the salt water down stream and allow for the cypress habitat to flourish.
Loxahatchee River Wild & Scenic River Management Plan
A portion of the Loxahatchee River was nationally designated a Wild & Scenic River in 1985. As part of the designation, a management plan and committee were formed. Co-authored by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and South Florida Water Management District, this management presents a comprehensive plan for the Wild & Scenic Corridor. It documents progress to date and lays out a list of future endeavors to protect and enhance this portion of the river.
For more information, contact
Watershed Management Plan
Started in 1996, the Department of Environmental Protection established a placed-based management strategy for the Loxahatchee River Watershed. The plan included descriptions of the various sections of the watershed and different restoration and enhancement projects. This is a tool used by managers to evaluate the watershed and to help prioritize various projects within the watershed. For more information, contact Dianne Hughes of the Department of Environmental Protection, (561) 681-6703.
This project is the outgrowth of the watershed management effort that was spearheaded by the Department of Environmental Protection in 1996. Annually, the initiative identifies several key projects that are critical in preserving the long-term health of the Loxahatchee River. Projects include urban stormwater improvements and the restoration of other tributaries and the estuarine potions of the river.
To request more information see http://www.lrpi.us »
Cypress, Pal-Mar and the Groves Basin Study
This project is being coordinated by the South Florida Water Management District and involves determining hydrologic factors needed to maintain and/or enhance the current ecological functions within the Pal-Mar, Cypress Creek and Groves. Hydrologic factors, surrounding land uses, verification of identified wetlands, soils and water quality data, and current GIS data are being evaluated.
To request more information contact
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It was not what they’d expected. They had thought the chemical would disperse much earlier, and lower down in the cloud. We had this conceptual model, Boe explains, and what it said basically was that if we release this stuff in the updraft it will rise--logically--and spread, so that by the time it reaches the cloud top it will be pretty well dispersed over a large area. It’s so turbulent in the cloud, and everybody knows that mixes things up, right? Well, wrong. It didn’t do that. When we found the tracer it wasn’t in concentrations of twenty parts per trillion, it was in two hundred or two thousand parts per trillion. It was a whole lot more concentrated, and there was a whole lot less mixing going on in the lower levels of the cloud.
This was a major revelation. Mixing, of course, is what brings the silver iodide into contact with supercooled water in the cloud to get the ice crystal process started. Finding that the mixing was delayed meant that seeds were delayed in forming ice crystals as well, and that gave Boe and company new insights into why some clouds they had tried to seed produced huge hailstorms anyway. It also told them something about the right kind of clouds to seed if they wanted to prevent this.
The centerpiece of nearly all big thunderstorms is a main, monster-size thundercloud, perhaps 40,000 or 50,000 feet from base to top. This main cloud is surrounded by several smaller feeder clouds that will eventually merge into the main cloud, becoming part of a giant hailstorm or rainstorm. The updrafts in the feeder clouds are relatively gentle, but the updraft in the main storm cloud is a fierce gale, often blowing faster than 100 miles per hour. If you place artificial seeds in it, Boe says, they shoot right to the top before they begin to grow, and that doesn’t do any good. The strong updraft will simply keep bouncing them around in the cloud top; they’ll never grow big enough to drop out of the cloud and take some of the cloud’s water content with them.
If you try to attack the main updraft where the hail actually grows, Boe says, that’s too late, because there’s just so much energy being released there. If you look at the thermal dynamics of it, it’s on about the same scale as a small atomic bomb. It’s hard to win an argument with an energy release of that scale, so you’ve got to go downscale, where the microphysics first get started. And that happens in the feeder clouds.
The name of the game, Boe says, is to use seeding to drain off energy from the feeder clouds before it’s funneled into the main cloud. What we try to do is convert the supercooled water to ice sooner, in the younger clouds, Boe continues. There are four reasons why we want to do that. One is that when water vapor condenses to form water, or when liquid water freezes to form ice, heat is given off. That heat, if the release occurs in the main updraft, will simply add buoyancy to the main updraft and make it stronger. If we release it instead in the smaller clouds that are full of supercooled liquid water, it will strengthen their milder updrafts. That deprives the main updraft of some of the energy it might otherwise obtain. The second reason is that if we start the ice forming sooner, the particles won’t be hail. They may be what I call popcorn snow: little, lightweight snow particles, pellets that are still big enough to fall out of a cloud with a gentle updraft. And that causes a premature rainout of the cloud, a cloud that would otherwise not precipitate at all.
The third reason is that if we create a whole bunch of these moderately sized ice particles that are big enough to fall out of a cloud but that don’t quite get there, and instead they do merge with the main updraft, there are tens of thousands of millions more of them than there would have been naturally. That’s a lot of additional precipitation mass the updraft must support. The physical loading on the updraft, the additional mass, has got to slow it down. And the slower the main updraft is, the smaller the maximum size of the particles it can produce. A hundred-mile-per-hour updraft can grow a hellacious hailstone. A fifty- mile-per-hour updraft will produce one that is way smaller. And so you’re limiting the maximum size on your hail particle. The fourth reason is that rain you basically force on the clouds earlier falls over a broader area and is gentler. So you’re less likely to have an area under the main updraft where you have torrential rain--or so we hope.
The next step, of course, is to demonstrate how much of the water a seeded cloud finally drops can be credited to seeding, and that work is being carried out in the mountains of Nevada by researchers using a different sort of tracer technology. Led by Joseph Warburton of the University of Nevada’s Desert Research Institute in Reno, these investigators are looking at winter snow clouds. They are trying to find an alternative to old-fashioned cup methods of measuring seeding’s effect-- that is, with ground-based gauges that compare how much rain or snow fell during a seeded period versus a nonseeded period.
As you can imagine, there’s lots of natural variability among clouds and storms irrespective of whether you’re seeding them or not, says Warburton. In addition, he says, gauges are notoriously unreliable for measuring precipitation because they don’t take into account how shifts in wind can affect a rain or snow level reading at a specific site.
Warburton began exploring alternative measuring methods in the mid-1980s. He selected a tracer, indium oxide, that does not nucleate ice but can, like so many other stray particles in the atmosphere, be washed out of clouds through rainfall or snowfall. He released equal parts of this tracer and silver iodide into snow clouds. After snow fell, his crew rushed to remote sites by ski and helicopter, collected samples of the fresh snow, and carried them back to a clean lab for analysis with atomic absorption spectrophotometers. These instruments can measure how much of a chemical exists in a sample right down to parts per trillion, Warburton says.
In 1985 Warburton found ten times more silver iodide than indium oxide in the snow samples. That meant that more silver iodide than indium oxide took part in snow creation. It wasn’t a surprising result, but nevertheless it was the first time it was shown, Warburton says. So now we have evidence that silver iodide is in fact taking part in the process the way we thought it did.
While Warburton was studying snow clouds in Nevada, several hundred miles away in Texas cloud physicist William Woodley was using a sophisticated computer program for analyzing radar images of clouds to provide firm evidence that seeding with silver iodide does indeed make clouds rain. And this January he reported to a meteorological meeting that he had done just that.
The clouds Woodley seeded weren’t connect-ed to big storm systems; they were simply halfhearted collections of water vapor scudding across the Texas sky. By dumping silver iodide seeds into these clouds, Woodley caused ice crystals to form, and the heat given off in the process strengthened the clouds’ updraft. Warm air rises higher, and that makes clouds bigger. Unlike human beings, Woodley says, the fatter a cloud is, the longer it lives. Bigger clouds hold more water, and that means there is more water to freeze into crystals. The stronger updraft keeps those crystals aloft for a longer time, so they grow bigger and are more likely to fall out of the cloud as rain (the clouds are too small to start with to create hail).
Woodley used ground-based radar to track both seeded and unseeded clouds. Denser objects give off stronger radar echoes, and so Woodley was able to sweep the clouds with radar every five minutes and determine which ones were growing fatter. The software, developed in 1987 by Daniel Rosenfeld of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, allowed him to zero in on a particular cloud in a clump of clouds and follow its progress. What he found was that seeded clouds merged twice as often as did unseeded clouds. Not only that, but the radar indicated that seeded clouds produced more than twice as much rain as did their unseeded counterparts. It’s sort of like the old cliché: United we stand, divided we fall, says Woodley. The more clouds merge, the more rain they’re going to produce.
With renewed confidence that seeding works, researchers are now concentrating on figuring out the most cost-effective ways of doing it and, armed with a sharper knowledge of seeding’s physics, narrowing down the range of candidate clouds. Boe would dearly like to know exactly how much seeding agent he needs to use in a cloud to get it to turn its water loose. For seeding to work, it has to be timely, it has to be spatially correct-- on the correct cloud, the correct location--and it has to be with enough seeding agent to alter the microphysics of the cloud, Boe says. To get all three of those right at once is not easy.
Even though all the answers aren’t in, the results so far have begun to redeem weather modification’s spotty reputation. In 1989 the World Meteorological Organization counted 118 weather modification projects operating in 32 countries, compared with 80 such projects in 1983. The science as a whole hurt itself in the early days, Boe says. I guess when you have something that works as dramatically as Vince Schaefer’s experiment did, you think, ‘Wow, this is really neat, and it’s just a matter of time till we figure out how to do this with all clouds.’ And clouds turned out to be a whole lot more complicated than anybody thought, and so a lot of false hopes were raised. When somebody promises you something and doesn’t deliver, you become skeptical, and that’s what happened to weather modification.
Today people better appreciate what we can do, and you almost never--at least not from any of my friends--hear broad claims of ending droughts and so on. Now when somebody inquires about whether they should start a program, we say, ‘Well, let’s look at your area, do a feasibility study, and then see if it’s worthwhile.’
The first features seeders look for are clouds with good updrafts and long-enough lives. Then they have to determine whether or not the water in these clouds is supercooled, which can be ascertained by a plane on a fly-through. If there is supercooled water in the clouds, then it’s worth considering a program, but it’s clearly not going to be cure-all.
In North Dakota, says Boe, we’re seeing an increase in precipitation as well as a decrease in hail fall, but it’s not huge. It’s maybe ten percent. So the technology has limited applications. But it’s still beneficial to get an additional inch of rainfall that’s worth tens of millions of dollars in crops.
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Water covers 71% of the surface of the earth, and yet only about 2.5% of the total water of the earth is freshwater. Though it is a very important resource for our planet, according to the United Nations, by 2025, 1.8 billion human beings will be living in areas of water scarcity. Drinkable water has been, and will continue to be, a major issue for many people on the planet, and so being able to use water purification methods is a very important skill. As humanity's population steadily increases towards about 10 billion, water purification technology may be one of the most important industries of this and possibly the next century.
Waterborne disease like giardiasis (commonly known as "beaver feaver"), hepatitis, typhoid fever, pontiac fever, legionnaire's disease, cholera, amebiasis or viral gastroenteritis can leak into water supplies. Small bugs and larvae also can exist in freshwater, as well as other microorganisms. Besides biological contaminants, there are also a variety of chemicals that are carried away by water. Water can carry acidity, sediments, lead, iron, sodium, pesticides, or sometimes even radiation. H2O's chemical qualities, which helped enable life to form in the first place, now enables it to carry a variety of unneeded items into the home.
Water purification basically involves removing these biological, chemical and solid contaminants from drinking water. Water purification methods can involve chlorination, filtration, pasteurization, ultraviolet radiation (UV), distillation, or, in emergencies, even simply boiling. Usually a combination of procedures is used in bringing water to the home. Billions of dollars are spent creating America's safe water. However, some states report a great deal of problems with drinking water, so a secondary system is sometimes required. The Safe Water Drinking Act (1974) enforces health standards for the United States, and requires public notifications of potential contaminants. All homeowners should pay attention to community notifications and follow instructions regarding how to treat contaminated water.
For more effective home water purification for the tap, filtration systems are often used, which usually involve either Point of Use (POU) or Point of Entry (POE) filters. Filters range in pore size and efficiency. Pores are usually between .001 of a milometer (a micron), or .001 of a micron (a nanometer). They can also range in material (carbon, iron, or a mechanical filter). They handle a great deal of issues; however distillation systems, UV treatment systems, and water softeners are also often used for home water purification. Each type of system involves targeting specific types of contaminants. For instance, if your issue is water hardness, you may want to employ a water softener, and if your water has an odd odor, you may want to remove it using a carbon filter.
In emergency situations, water purification and conservation is essential. Generally it is recommended to collect and store one gallon of water per person per day. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) insists on using safe sources of water first, but if you have no other sources of stored or reliably clean water, treat water by boiling (allowing for five minutes of rolling bubbles), chlorinating (using 8 drops of unscented household bleach per gallon of water), distilling (by collecting water vapors after boiling), or using a combination of methods. Don't drink cloudy, dirty water, otherwise an emergency situation can get incredibly worse very quickly.
In a survival situation, largely the same rules apply, however, sometimes individuals are on the run, don't have a pot for boiling, or have difficulty in making a fire. Often tablets, iodine drops, or bleach is used to chemically clean freshwater (it is usually recommended to pack these items before hiking or camping trips). Water should be taken from a moving or fast-moving source like a stream. If water continues to be muddy or foul-smelling, make-shift water filtration can be used, or the water can be left alone to stand so that silt drifts to the bottom.
Drinking water needs to be purified in order to avoid ingesting bacteria, viruses, bugs, sediment, or a variety of metals and chemicals. Use water purification techniques to remove these sickness-causing contaminants from tap water in the home, in emergency situations, or in survival mode. Use the following links as resources:
- Water on Tap – What You Need to Know
- Food & Water – Water Contaminants and Purification Guide
- The Story of Drinking Water
- Survival Guide – Water Purification
- The Backpacker's Field Manual – Guide to Water Purification
- Home Water Treatment Systems
- Understanding Home Water Treatment Systems
- A Guide To Drinking Water Treatment Technologies for Household Use
- Emergency Water Purification
- Emergency Preparedness – Managing Water
- Desalination and Water Purification Technology Roadmap Report
Written By: Lynn Taylor
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The decision to help Afghanistan began with the premise that no nation should topple another, without engaging in the reconstruction that follows. Destruction without reconstruction is simply wrong.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 marked the beginning of the United States’ first significant commitment in Afghanistan. Anyone interested in the history of Afghanistan should read “Charlie Wilson’s War”, written by George Crile. The book chronicles what the author describes as the Central Intelligence Agency’s largest, most expensive and successful clandestine operation in history. The objectives of the operation were simple. Supply training and weapons to the mujahideen (“freedom fighters”) in support of their “jihad” (holy war) against the Soviet “infidels” and thereby “turn Afghanistan into the Soviet Union’s Vietnam”.
The United States along with other nations supplied billions of dollars of weapons to the warlords and mujahideen through Pakistan. Afghanistan became a checkerboard in the “cold war” upon which men chosen and trained by Pakistan waged war against the Soviets. By the time the Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan in January, 1989, the mujahideen were well trained, seasoned fighters, “armed to the hilt” with modern weaponry, and beholden to no external control. As many as 30,000 “holy warriors” traveled from other countries to join in the war.
Nine months after the Soviet Union was driven out of Kabul, the Berlin Wall “came down”. By December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. While historians may disagree on the extent, all recognize the impact the war in Afghanistan had on the outcome of the “cold war” and central Europe. The cost to Afghanistan included 1,500,000 lives and the creation of 5,000,000 Afghan refugees.
The United States “washed its hands of any responsibility” in Afghanistan as of 1993, when all humanitarian aid was withdrawn. “There were no roads, no schools, just a destroyed country”. Warlords, Islamic extremists, drug lords, and defenseless Afghans fought over what little remained.
On October 21, 2001 the United States invaded Afghanistan, following the tragic events of September 11, to search for Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda. Osama Bin Laden has been killed and the “exit strategy” is underway. The Afghan people have suffered the consequences of 35 years of war, over 23 of which we either financed or waged ourselves.
Our troops are being withdrawn. We must not abandon theAfghan people again, as was done in 1993. History has favored Americans with an opportunity to join with Afghans in remedying the consequences of wars waged in the country for over 35 years. We cannot reverse history. But, we can certainly embrace the role we have been invited to play. Under the circumstances, the least we should do is try.
For more information Afghanistan – Why Should Anyone Care
Recommended Reading: Charlie Wilson’s War, by George Crile
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A tiny space camera has snapped amazing photos of the world's first solar sail spacecraft to voyage into deep space on an interplanetary mission for Japan.
The solar sail vehicle, named Ikaros, took the opportunity for a self-portrait by deploying a free-floating cylindrical camera just 2.4 inches (6 cm) in both width and height. In the photos, the Ikaros sail shines like a gleaming silver ship in a sea of black space.
The spring-launched camera snapped the new photos of the solar sail as the mission departs for Venus and beyond.
Ikaros, short for Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun, launched in late May and deployed its solar sail in early June to become the first space mission ever propelled only by sunlight. The mission was designed and built by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
JAXA engineers will monitor the power generated by thin film solar cells embedded within the kite-like sail, in hopes that future missions could combine solar sailing with electricity to power ion propulsion engines.
Like the tale of Icarus, which tells the story of a boy who flew too close to the sun, the Ikaros solar sail is also expected to explore our nearest star. It is headed to the other side of the sun after a detour to Venus, JAXA officials said.
"Through these activities, we will ultimately aim at acquiring navigation technology through the solar sail," JAXA officials said in a statement last Friday.
The solar sail mission piggybacked aboard the main launch of Japan's Venus climate orbiter, called Akatsuki ("Dawn" in Japanese).
Both spacecraft launched alongside four small satellites on May 20 (early morning local Japan time on May 21) from the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima island in Japan.
- How Do Solar Sails Work?
- Gallery - Beneath the Clouds of Venus
- Top 10 Extreme Planet Facts
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.space.com/8624-world-solar-sail-photographed-deep-space.html
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We all know the regular multiplication that we learn in school. To multiply a number by 3, you can multiply a number by two and add it with itself. Programmers write:
a * 3 = a + (a<<1)
where a<<1 means "shift the bit values by one to the left, filling in with a zero". That's a multiplication by two. So a multiplication can be described as a succession of shifts and additions.
But there is another type of multiplication that you are only ever going to learn if you study advanced algebra or cryptography: carry-less multiplication (also called "polynomial multiplication). When multiplying by powers of two, it works the same as regular multiplication. However, when you multiply numbers that are not powers of two, you combine the results with a bitwise exclusive OR (XOR). Programmers like to write "XOR" as "^", so multiplying by 3 in carry-less mode becomes:
a "*" 3 = a ^ (a<<1)
where I put the multiplication symbol (*) used by programmers in quotes ("*") to indicate that I use the carry-less multiplication.
Why should you care about carry-less multiplications? It is actually handier than you might expect.
When you multiply two numbers by 3, you would assume that
a * 3 == b * 3
is only true if a has the same value as b. And this works because in an actual computer using 64-bit or 32-bit arithmetic because 3 is coprime with any power of two (meaning that their greatest common factor is 1).
The cool thing about this is that there is an inverse for each odd integer. For example, we have that
0xAAAAAAAB * 3 == 1.
Sadly, troubles start if you multiply two numbers by an even number. In a computer, it is entirely possible to have
a * 4 == b * 4
without a being equal to b. And, of course, the number 4 has no inverse.
Recall that a good hash function is a function where different inputs are unlikely to produce the same value. So multiplying by an even number is troublesome.
We can "fix" this up by using the regular arithmetic modulo a prime number. For example, Euler found out that 231 -1 (or 0x7FFFFFFF) is a prime number. This is called a Mersenne prime because its value is just one off from being a power of two. We can then define a new multiplication modulo a prime:
a '*' b = (a * b) % 0x7FFFFFFF.
With this modular arithmetic, everything is almost fine again. If you have
a '*' 4 == b '*' 4
then you know that a must be equal to b.
So problem solved, right? Well... You carry this messy prime number everywhere. It makes everything more complicated. For example, you cannot work with all 32-bit numbers. Both 0x7FFFFFFF and 0 are zero. We have 0x80000000 == 1 and so forth.
What if there were prime numbers that are powers of two? There is no such thing... when using regular arithmetic... But there are "prime numbers" (called "irreducible polynomials" by mathematicians) that act a bit like they are powers of two when using carry-less multiplications.
With carry-less multiplications, it is possible to define a modulo operation such that
modulo(a "*" c) == modulo(b "*" c)
implies a == b. And it works with all 32-bit or 64-bit integers.
That's very nice, isn't it?
Up until recently, however, this was mostly useful for cryptographers because computing the carry-less multiplications was slow and difficult.
However, something happened in the last few years. All major CPU vendors have introduced fast carry-less multiplications in their hardware (Intel, AMD, ARM, POWER). What is more, the latest Intel processors (Haswell and better) have a carry-less multiplication that is basically as fast as a regular multiplication, except maybe for a higher latency.
Cryptographers are happy: their fancy 128-bit hash functions are now much faster. But could this idea have applications outside cryptography?
To test the idea out, we created a non-cryptographic 64-bit hash function (CLHash). For good measure, we made it XOR universal: a strong property that ensures your algorithms will behave probabilistically speaking. Most of our functions is a series of carry-less multiplications and bitwise XOR.
It is fast. How fast is it? Let us look at the next table...
CPU cycles per input byte:
|64B input||4kB input|
That's right: CLHash is much faster that competing alternatives as soon as your strings are a bit large. It can hash 8 input bytes per CPU cycles. You are more likely to run out of memory bandwidth than to wait for this hash function to complete. As far as we can tell, it might be the fastest 64-bit universal hash family on recent Intel processors, by quite a margin.
- Faster 64-bit universal hashing using carry-less multiplications, Journal of Cryptographic Engineering, accepted in 2015, to appear.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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