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The R-Value, or resistance value, of a soil is measured in a stabilometer test, and is usually estimated for pavement design.
The R-value is the ability of a soil medium to resist lateral spreading due to an applied vertical load, such as tire loads. A range
of values are established from 0 to 100, where 0 is the resistance of water and 100 is the resistance of steel. Typical
R-values are presented below (from Lindeburg):
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On Saturday, May 10, ignoring the rain, more than 1000 African Descendant Venezuelans flooded the streets in a march from the Venezuelan Central Bank to Miraflores Presidential Palace in downtown Caracas. Members of drumming groups from each of the nation’s states, some in traditional costumes and some wearing t-shirts claiming membership in the Frente Afrodescendientes (Afro descendent Front) had gathered to mark the official Day of Afrovenezolanidad (Afro-Venezuelaness). Although the marchers paralyzed the already-snarled traffic, the drumbeats seemed to pacify the usually-angry blare of car horns.
As they entered the Presidential Palace grounds, the loudspeaker blasted over the drums, “Cimarrones, AfroVenezuelans, welcome to Miraflores, the peoples’ palace,” and “All of Venezuela is Liberated Slave Territory”. A huge billboard with portraits of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro framed the slogan “Día de Afrovenezolanidad/ Todo la Patria un Cumbe.”
The commemoration at Miraflores, part cultural celebration and part political rally, was the culmination of two days of activities that began Friday in the Rómulo Gallegos Center of Latin American Studies (CELARG). The educational/cultural conference called “Merienda de Negras” at CELARG opened with a film paying homage to Argelia Laya, also known as Comandanta Jacinta. Laya, born in 1926, on a cocoa plantation in Rio Chico, became a teacher in the 1940s and militantly defended the rights of women to education and political participation. She was a Black woman who led struggles for reproductive rights long before most feminist activists. Eventually she became a communist and joined the guerrilla struggle against the dictatorship of the time, and was a founder of the National Organization of Women. Today the university in Barlovento, whose student body is mostly African Descendant, is named after her. Her portrait adorns the entrance of the National Institute for Women in downtown Caracas and many of the speakers at the Miraflores rally cited her heroism.
After the film at CELARG, Reinaldo Jose Bolivar, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs for Africa, formally opened the conference by noting the leadership of Black people in struggles for liberation beginning with the 1553 rebellion of “El Negro Miguel”. Hugo Chavez first declared the Día de AfroVenezolanidad be celebrated each year on May 10, the anniversary of the insurrection of enslaved people led by Jose Leonardo Chirino in 1795. Two of Argelia Laya’s sons also addressed the group. Coordinated by the Bolivarian University of Venezuela’s Center of African Studies’ Flor Márquez, panels on Saturday focused on the theme, “Women, Struggle, Study and Creativity.”
Racism of the Anti-Government Right Repeatedly Denounced
While celebration of the culture of African Descendant Venezuelans set the rhythm to and permeated the programs at CELARG and Miraflores, a particular political urgency marked this year’s Día de la Afrovenezolanidad. Nirva Camacho, a spokesperson for the National Afro-Venezuelan Front, reiterated a theme of many of the speakers who denounced the racism and violence of the Venezuelan right – the Venezuelan allies of the United States who aim to recolonize Venezuela. She read from a manifesto that affirmed the Front’s commitment to the struggle against colonialism, capitalism and imperialism, in full support of President Maduro’s executive actions and the Bolivarian process. She drew attention to the fact that “there had not been, nor are there any, nor will there be any guarimbas (rightist street barricades) in AfroVenezuelan communities.”
In a sort of call and response between speakers and drums representing the African Descendants and President Maduro, the president noted that “today’s fascist ideas that attack society and attempt to impose a racist model of society are the same that have always denied the liberation of the peoples.” He added that the reasoning of the Venezuelan right today is the same as those who opposed the liberation of enslaved people. He also reminded the audience that in much the same way that communists are denounced today, 19th century Venezuelan radical general Ezequiel Zamorra was accused of being a communist for advocating the abolition of slavery.
Modesto Ruiz, United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) deputy to the National Assembly from Barlovento and one of the lead authors of the Organic Law against Discrimination, received a standing ovation when he declared, “We’re not only drummers, we’re revolutionary political actors.” (In an interview he gave during last year’s May 10 Observance he explained that the image of AfroVenezuelans as simply drummers and forced laborers is a Eurocentric, colonizers’ image. The indigenous people of Venezuela and the Africans who resisted slavery, like José Leonardo Chirino, the leader of an insurrection of enslaved people on May 10, 1795, were the first anti-colonial and anti-imperial Venezuelans.)
General Jesus Rafael Suarez Chourio, who identifies himself as a descendant of the famous African warrior Shaka Zulu, also focused on African Descendants’ tradition of resistance. General Chourio, who had been the Chief of Chavez’s Personal Guard and is now the Commander of the Infantry Brigade of Paratroopers based in Maracay, reminded the crowd, “We must know our history and where we come from.” Then he proceeded to list the names and insurrectionary achievements of a host of AfroVenezuelans, including Argelia Laya and several other women. With the mention of each name, and especially the women, the audience applauded their approval.
The Manifesto of the Frente Afrodescendientes
But it was Nirva Camacho, reading the manifesto of the AfroDescendent National Front who reminded Maduro, the other officials present and the audience that the specific struggles of African Descendants in Venezuela call for a program of action. She declared, “Considering that the AfroVenezuelan and AfroDescendant population in general still confronts the lashes of racism and racial discrimination, which are incompatible with socialism and the revolution, we propose that together the state and social organizations undertake to:
- Incorporate racism as an element of analysis in the different forums dedicated to the construction of peace, since as an ideology it is present in part of Venezuelan society, especially in the ultra right’s close relation to fascism.
- Revise communication policies in public and private media to eliminate racist bias, which would contribute to respect for our ethnic diversity…
- Apply the organic Law against Racial Discrimination to persons and/or groups who incite hatred and violence through racist demonstrations, like those expressed in the terrorism that recently has plagued Venezuelan society.
- Design and execute a plan to identify and articulate the variable of Afrodescendant, considered in the Organic Law on Education as a necessary step towards the eradication of racial discrimination in the Venezuelan educational system in order to achieve equality for future generations.
- Encourage a cross-section of ethnic perspectives as state policy, in all public and private institutions that give attention to the people.
- Direct all levels of government and popular power from the Presidency of the Republic to those who administer government in the streets inside AfroVenezuelan communities, at regional, municipal and grassroots levels to evaluate and respond to specific needs (housing, health, education and roads) which historically are a product of structural racism.
- Implement an ambitious plan of constructing Camps for Peace and Life in AfroVenezuelan communities, especially in the communities where narcotraffickers have manipulated our youth.
President Maduro, Blanca Eekhout, the Second Vice President of the National Assembly and Coordinator of the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), and all the other officials on stage joined the audience in applauding the Manifesto of the Afro Descendent Front. In his closing speech, Maduro enthusiastically praised the Haitian Revolution and the various Venezuelan insurrections led by enslaved people as decisive turning points in Venezuela’s anti-colonial, anti-imperial struggles. He declared the whole nation a “cumbe of equality, peace and love” and expressed admiration for culture of resistance and happiness bred in the struggles of Afrodescendants in the Caribbean, Latin America and North America, even citing the Blues. He announced that the government would invest an additional 550 million bolivars to strengthen systems of popular culture, especially in Afro and Indigenous communities. The commemoration ended with Maduro’s speech, which contained approval for the principles embodied in the manifesto but few specifics about how the manifesto’s proposed program might be implemented.
AfroVenezolanidad can only be loosely translated as African-Venezuelaness. Cimarron was the Spanish name for an enslaved person who had escaped. Communities of Cimarrones were called “cumbes” and today many African Descended cultural and political organizations call themselves cumbes.
Historically a derogatory expression of contempt for a gathering of Black people, some activists have appropriated the term to assert pride in their culture and survival.
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Vaccines Cut Diseases to Record Lows
CDC Researchers Report New Low in Cases of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
Nov. 13, 2007 -- Most vaccine-preventable diseases are rarer than ever in the U.S., CDC researchers reported today.
They tracked reported cases, deaths, and hospitalizations for 13 diseases that have vaccines recommended by the CDC since before 2005.
Consider these findings from 2006:
Measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome also show a drop of at least 99% in the number of reported U.S. cases in last year.
Newer vaccines are also making a dent in diseases. Here's a quick look at how cases have declined since the CDC recommended vaccines against these diseases:
- Invasive Haemophius influenzae type b (Hib): cases down nearly 100%
Hepatitis A: cases down 87%
Hepatitis B: cases down 80%
- Invasive pneumococcal disease: cases down 34%
- Varicella (chickenpox): cases down 85%
The researchers -- who included Sandra Roush, MT, MPH -- don't want anyone taking that progress for granted.
It's important to keep your vaccinations up to date -- and remember, vaccines aren't just for kids.
In fact, Roush's team suggests that teens and adults, in particular, have room for improvement in their immunization record.
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Doesn’t the Tree of Life make for a beautiful infographic? Shown is bird evolution according to the Hackett backbone tree – one of two studied by the researchers. Using the world’s first family tree linking every known bird species, scientists … Continue reading →
How have humans influenced Earth? Can geoscientists measure when human impacts began overtaking those of Earth’s other inhabitants and that of the natural Earth system? Responding to increasing scientific recognition that humans have become the foremost agent of change at … Continue reading →
Sea levels are rising faster than expected from global warming, and University of Colorado geologist Bill Hay has a good idea why. The last official IPCC report in 2007 projected a global sea level rise between 0.2 and 0.5 meters … Continue reading →
Until now, we knew that ticks primarily transmit two pathogens to humans in Switzerland: the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi – which causes borreliosis – and the early-summer-meningoencephalitis virus, which can cause cerebral inflammation.
Now, microbiologists from the University of Zurich confirm the existence of another tick disease in Switzerland – neoehrlichiosis.
Now a group including renowned climatologists and leading geoengineering thinkers Ken Caldeira and David Keith tries to investigate ways to alleviate some of the (likely) unwanted side effects of Arctic solar geoengineering.
The last ice age is known for periods of high climate variability like the period between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Younger Dryas, towards its end. Also about halfway through the ice age temperatures spiked and dipped rapidly. And then about 41,000 years ago suddenly Earth’s magnetic field weakened by some 95%, allowing a bombardment of cosmic rays, and a couple of centuries during which your compass would direct you towards Antarctica. Following this Earth´s northern hemisphere experienced the biggest volcanic eruption of the last 100,000 years, which occured in Italy.
The identified critical threshold for dangerous climate change saying that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius seems not to have helped the climate negotiations so far. New research from the University of Gothenburg and Columbia … Continue reading →
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A Guide to Help You Learn about Fasting
Welcome! We are glad you have arrived at our website. This guide is here to help you decide if you want to fast or - if you have already made that decision - to learn more about how to go about it. When people talk about fasting they may be talking about different things: water fasting, juice fasting, or abstaining from certain types of food. There are individual pages here about different fasting methods, how they are practiced, motivations for fasting, and tips for helping you succeed in your fasting goals.
To get started, you may want to check out individual pages about water fasting, juice fasting, or a page that explains the reasons people fast. If you continue to scroll down here you will find some general background information about fasting, along with tips and advice that can help you regardless of what method of fasting you are considering.
What is Fasting
Fasting in its most general sense is some form of depriving yourself of certain foods for set periods of time. Not eating meat for a week, only drinking water from sunrises to sunset for forty days, or not eating or drinking anything for a portion of a day are all considered fasting. Most of the examples just given are rooted in spiritual and religious practices.
A variation on the selective deprivation theme is to abstain from solid foods and only drink juices. This can be done for a single day or for many days. Juice fasting is primarily done to detoxify the body rather than for spiritual reasons. There are though some spiritual fasting guides that advocate a juice fast if a person is considering a long fast.
Only drinking water for a day or many days is one of the most restrictive types of voluntary fasting (some religious fasting traditions call for total abstinence but this is only done from sunrise to sunset). Water fasts may be done for part of the day, a single day, or many days. The motivation may be spiritual, for health reasons or a combination of the two.
The type of fast that most Americans are probably familiar with is a medically prescribed fast. This is typically a water only fast and is at least 12 hour hours in duration. It is usually a prerequisite for a medical test or procedure that your doctor has ordered. If you have been prescribed a fast you may want to skip down to the sections that detail some general advice about preparing or carrying out your fast.
Check with your Doctor before Fasting
If you are thinking about fasting the first thing you need to consider is your health. Talk to your physician before you fast to be sure the dietary change the fast imposes is something your body will be able to handle. This is the very, very important!
Individual Differences and your Fasting Experiences
We are all unique. Two people can be subjected to the same conditions and their reactions can be quite different. Keep this in mind as you read through the suggestions, advice, and ideas that are presented here and in other information you find. Some techniques, tips, and advice will turn out to be quite helpful to you. Others will simply will not work for you or perhaps will not make much sense. Trial and error is the key if you are just starting out. Fasting requires discipline but also involves getting to know yourself. One of the reasons it is part of numerous religious traditions is that fasting is a great way to discover things about yourself and what you believe. Fasting is a journey of discovery. Some elements of your experience will be similar to other peoples' experiences but the combination of reactions, insights, challenges, and success you have will be unique to your fasting practice.
If you have become motivated to fast and have never done so before you will need to begin to learn how your respond mentally and physically to not eating. As you gain experience you will discover your own set of internal challenges. These will be physical and mental. There will also be external challenges. As you move through your day you go from place to place you will inevitably come across food. This is true whether you stay at home, go to work or are on vacation. You will also find yourself in different social situations. These may be interactions with your family, co-workers, and people that are part of the social communities that you have in your life. Interactions that you have with others can be a challenge because many social interactions involve food. There are also many social norms that influence how we think and feel about eating. All of these internal and external forces come into play when you carry out a fast.
Depending on the length of your planned fast it can be helpful to prepare yourself for the change and the challenges you are about to face.
Here are a few things you may want to consider:
If you have never fasted before begin by doing things on a smaller scale first. Fast for a few hours or for just part of a day. If you start in the evening and go to sleep without eating, you can spend part or all of your morning fasting. You could also try to have a day where the only food you eat is taken during a single meal. The small scale preparation approach could also include trying to be more selective in what you eat. Try to abstain from something you like or normally eat. Perhaps try to cut out one of the following out of your diet for a few days: alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, sugar, red meat, or poultry. If you’re a little bolder try to eat nothing but fruits and vegetables for a set amount of time. Whatever kind of test you can set up for yourself will give you an idea of what you will face once you jump fully into a more complete fast.
Fasting detoxifies your body. By eating less or nothing at all your body has an opportunity to clean itself in a way it normally cannot. If your diet consists of a lot of meat, processed foods, and you drink coffee and smoke it may be quite a shock to cut any or all of these things out of your diet. Not drinking coffee, for example, can induce headaches if you are used to having caffeine every day. Cutting back or altering your diet days before you fast can help your body's detoxification process be less of a shock once you get into your fast.
If you have never fasted you are in for a treat. Many of us like to think we control ourselves and our thoughts pretty well. Be prepared to be humbled. There have been times when I have been fasting when I could think of nothing but eating. At other times I have been going about my day, have a completely empty stomach, and completely forgot I was trying to fast. I got to a place where it was the time and situation where I normally eat and I simply proceeded to so without thinking about fasting. As you fast more and more you will begin to have your own interesting experiences. Fasting provides many benefits and learning about ourselves is just one of the many rewards it can offer.
Here are some tips for dealing with some of the challenges you may experience:
Decide who you will tell and talk to about your fasting.
Besides a few people you trust and find supportive, you should consider limiting who you tell. The first few times you fast, and talk to people about what you are doing, you will learn more about why this is important. People will ask or tell you all kinds of things about food, nutrition and religion when you mention you are fasting. This can be interesting but it can also be a bit draining too have to deal with potentially emotional reactions from other people. With this in mind, a group of colleagues you sometimes eat lunch with might not be the people tell about your fasting. Your close friend at work is probably a safer confidant. If your fast is spiritual in nature you may have people in your spiritual community that you can talk about this with, which can be really nice. It is also good to have some idea of what you might want to say if you are get into a situation where others are eating while you, conspicuously, are not. It is not always easy on you to have to get into a discussion about fasting with folks that may have strong opinions and little knowledge about fasting. Realize too that there is nothing wrong with saying you do not feel like eating, rather than feeling like you need to tell everyong you are fasting.
Consider how Fasting fits with your other plans.
It can be easier to fast if you have more control over your time and surroundings. If you are going on a one day water fast you should probably not plan to do it on a day when you have a scheduled social event that includes eating a meal. Some people find it easier to fast if they are busy. This allows them to be distracted from thinking about food. Other people find it easier to fast when they have less demands on their time. A Saturday or Sunday, for example, might work better than than a work day.
Try to remove or eliminate temptations.
Hide the food you normally have out in your kitchen. Don't go out to eat with a group of people or visit someone that will have a spread of food out at some event. Or maybe you don't need to worry about any of this. Some people have a hard time being around food when they are fasting while others are not bothered at all. You could also try to have fun with things (maybe you could tape the refrigerator shut if you live alone!), if you can, and take any steps you can that will help you succeed. Your food environment can make a big difference in how you feel about not eating.
Limit your physical exertion.
You do need to consider that you are likely to be limiting or entirely stopping your intake of calories and nutrients. Think about how the proper mix of fasting and (potentially limited) physical activity will make the most sense for your situation.
Be prepared for mental, physical, and spiritual challenges.
Feeling hungry and not eating does a lot to you mind, body, and spirit. It may be physically uncomfortable. Headaches, dizziness, and other ailments may arise as a result of detoxification. Hunger pangs can also manifest themselves in a physical way (if you develop any strong physical symptoms or problems you may need to break your fast and possibly go see a doctor). You will also discover a lot about how you feel about food and eating through denying yourself food. You can use this as an opportunity to think about how and why you eat. This knowledge can teach you to how to eat better during times that you are not fasting. From a spiritual perspective many people use fasting to focus on their beliefs, to enter into periods of prayer, and grow their faith. As with the mental side of things, fasting can serve as a wonderful way to help you to explore, learn and expand your spiritual life.
Breaking your fast
Once your fast is completed you can potentially realize more benefits and avoid some discomfort by being aware of a few things.
You have just put your body through a period of heightened detoxification. If you have been on an extended fast, you should have sought medical guidance that includes plans for how you will deal with some potentially serious issues once your fast ends. Your body has adjusted to a different state and you should not severely shock it by eating and drinking things that will cause discomfort and physical problems.
Even if you are not coming off a long restrictive fast (and are following the medically provided plan you have in place to break it!), you should carefully consider your first meal. The health effects of shorter fasts, for instance, can be extended by eating a simple but nutritious meal. If your fast has gone longer than a day, there is also a chance that you may experience discomfort that can include diarrhea or other sickness if you eat too heavy or too dense a meal when you break your fast.
That's it for the general advice and overview. Enjoy your fasting!
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Kosmos 186/188 docking. Soyuz-R and OIS would have had a similar appearance.
Credit: © Mark Wade
Comparison of military variants of Soyuz. From left to right: Soyuz P, Soyuz PPK, Soyuz R, Soyuz VI (Kozlov), Soyuz VI/OIS (Mishin)
Credit: © Mark Wade
Soyuz R military research laboratory (conceptual drawing based on description).
Credit: © Mark Wade
Russian manned spacecraft. Cancelled 1966. A military reconnaissance version of Soyuz, developed by Kozlov at Samara from 1963-1966. It was to consist of an the 11F71 small orbital station and the 11F72 Soyuz 7K-TK manned ferry.
The 11F71 was cancelled in 1966, with Chelomei's Almaz being developed instead.
In December 1962 Sergei Korolev released his draft project for a versatile manned spacecraft to follow Vostok. Among the designs was the Soyuz P interceptor and Soyuz R (Razvedki, intelligence) command-reconnaissance spacecraft. The VVS and the Strategic Rocket Forces supported these variants of the Soyuz. They were fully aware that the US Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory was in the advance concept stage (it would be approved for development on December 10, 1963). But Korolev had no time to work on Soyuz 'side-lines'. Therefore he decided to 'subcontract' the military projects Soyuz-P and Soyuz-R to OKB-1 filial number 3, based in Samara (then Kuibishev), headed by Chief Designer Dmitri Ilyich Kozlov.
The Soyuz-R system consisted of two separately launched spacecraft, with the docked complex having a total mass of 13 metric tons. The small orbital station 11F71 would be equipped with photo-reconnaissance and ELINT equipment. This station was based on the Soyuz 7K, but the descent apparatus and living module were replaced with a storage section for modular equipment (this would later be developed further as a free-flyer spacecraft for the giant MOK orbital complex 19K, finally resulting in the 1990 (!) autonomous spacecraft 19KA30 Gamma). It was interesting to note that the external appearance of the Soyuz-R was very similar to pictures published on 1 November 1967 of the docking of Kosmos 186 and 188. These spacecraft were actually 11F615 7K-OK Soyuzes, but at that time the configuration was still secret. Therefore the configuration of the by-then cancelled 7K-R was used for the public release.
To dock with the Soyuz R 11F71 station Samara developed the transport spacecraft 11F72 Soyuz 7K-TK. This version of the Soyuz was equipped with rendezvous and docking equipment, including a hatch in the docking collar that allowed the cosmonauts to enter the station without donning space suits.
For Kozlov development of military spacecraft was nothing new. In 1961 he completed the technical documentation for the serial production of the photo reconnaissance satellite 11F61 Zenit-2, and from 1964, filial 3 undertook development of the 11F69 Zenit-4 reconnaissance satellite from draft project to production. Samara was also responsible for future development and production support of derivatives of the R-7 family of launch vehicles.
Soyuz-R was included by the Defense Ministry in the 1964-1969 five-year space reconnaissance plan. The decree on this subject was issued by Marshal Malinovksiy on 18 June 1964. By 1965 the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the military organs, and Ministry of General Machine Building had approved the advanced design project. Kamanin, the head of the cosmonaut corps, noted problems in training cosmonauts for the complex planned missions.
Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomei headed a competing space design bureau OKB-52 and was Korolev's arch-rival. He had prospered in the early 1960's when he was backed by Khrushchev. On 12 October 1964, only two days before the overthrow of his patron, Chelomei obtained permission to begin development of a larger military space station, the Almaz. This 20 metric ton station would take three cosmonauts to orbit in a single launch of his UR-500K Proton rocket. Therefore in 1965 there were two competing projects in development for the same mission - Almaz and Soyuz-R.
In January 1966 Korolev died unexpectedly and OKB-1 was leaderless. Chelomei obtained a decision that the 11F71 Soyuz-R space station would be cancelled and the Almaz would be developed in its place. Almaz was assigned the 11F71 index number previously allocated to the Soyuz-R station, and Kozlov was ordered to hand over to Chelomei all of the work completed to that date. However at the same time the leadership directed that Kozlov's Soyuz-R 7K-TK ferry was to continue in development to transport crews to the Almaz.
Crew Size: 2. Habitable Volume: 18.00 m3.
More... - Chronology...
Gross mass: 13,000 kg (28,000 lb).
Height: 15.00 m (49.00 ft).
Soyuz The Russian Soyuz spacecraft has been the longest-lived, most adaptable, and most successful manned spacecraft design. In production for fifty years, more than 240 have been built and flown on a wide range of missions. The design will remain in use with the international space station well into the 21st century, providing the only manned access to the station after the retirement of the shuttle in 2011. More...
Associated Launch Vehicles
Soyuz Russian orbital launch vehicle. The world's first ICBM became the most often used and most reliable launch vehicle in history. The original core+four strap-on booster missile had a small third stage added to produce the Vostok launch vehicle, with a payload of 5 metric tons. Addition of a larger third stage produced the Voskhod/Soyuz vehicle, with a payload over 6 metric tons. Using this with a fourth stage, the resulting Molniya booster placed communications satellites and early lunar and planetary probes in higher energy trajectories. By the year 2000 over 1,628 had been launched with an unmatched success rate of 97.5% for production models. Improved models providing commercial launch services for international customers entered service in the new millenium, and a new launch pad at Kourou was to be inaugurated in 2009. It appeared that the R-7 could easily still be in service 70 years after its first launch. More...
Associated Manufacturers and Agencies
Kozlov Russian manufacturer of rockets and spacecraft. Kozlov Central Specialized Design Bureau, Samara, Russia. More...
Voevodin, Sergey A, "Sergey A. Voevodin's Reports", VSA072 - Space Apparatus, Web Address when accessed: here.
Lantratov, K., "'Zvezda' Dmitriya Kozlova", Novosti Kosmonavtiki, 1997, Issues 3 to 6 (four part article).
Kamanin, N P, Skritiy kosmos, Infortext, Moscow, 1995.
Siddiqi, Asif A, The Soviet Space Race With Apollo, University Press of Florida, 2003.
Soyuz R Chronology
1962 December -
- Soyuz draft project completed. - .
Nation: USSR. Program: Soyuz. Spacecraft: Soyuz A; Soyuz B; Soyuz V; Soyuz P; Soyuz R. Summary: The draft project for a versatile manned spacecraft included the Soyuz-A circumlunar spacecraft, the military Soyuz-P fighter and Soyuz-R reconn bird..
1963 January 21 -
- VVS Review of Soyuz - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Korolev. Program: Soyuz. Flight: Soyuz 11. Spacecraft: Soyuz A; Soyuz B; Soyuz V; Soyuz P; Soyuz R. The primary objective of the design is to achieve docking to two spacecraft in earth orbit. Secondary objectives are the operation of scientific and military equipment from the spacecraft. Three different spacecraft, all launched by an R-7 derived booster, are required to achieve this:
- 7K spacecraft, capable of carrying three men into space and returning them to earth. The 5.5 tonne spacecraft has three modules, including the BO living module and the SA re-entry capsule
- 9K booster stage, with a fuelled mass of 18 tonnes. After docking with the 7K this is capable of boosting the combined spacecraft to earth escape velocity. The 9K is equipped with a 450 kgf main engine and orientation engines of 1 to 10 kgf. It will have 14 tonnes propellant when full loaded. Four sequential docking with a tanker spacecraft will be required to fill the tanks before the final docking with the 7K.
- 11K tanker, with a mass of 5 tonnes.
The system will conduct fuellings and dockings in a 250 km altitude parking orbit, and be boosted up to 400,000 km altitude on lunar flyby missions. The system will be ready in three years. Military variants proposed are the Soyuz-P and Soyuz-R. Each spacecraft will have 400 kg of automatic rendezvous and docking equipment. Manual docking will be possible once the spacecraft are within 300 m of each other.
Korolev still insists on an unguided landing and categorically rejects the use of wings. A parachute will deploy and slow the capsule to 10 m/s. Then a retrorocket will fire just before impact with the earth to provide a zero-velocity soft landing. Korolev still insists that spacesuits will not be carried for the crew. First test flight of the 7K, without docking, could not occur until the second half of 1964.
1963 March 20 -
- Soyuz draft project was submitted to the expert commission - .
Nation: USSR. Spacecraft: Soyuz A; Soyuz B; Soyuz V; Soyuz P; Soyuz R. Aside from the baseline Soyuz-B circumlunar mission, the draft project also proposed the Soyuz-P space interceptor and the Soyuz-R command-reconnaissance spacecraft. The military projects Soyuz-P and Soyuz-R were ‘subcontracted’ to OKB-1 Filial Number 3, based in Samara. The Soyuz B circumlunar version did not receive the same level of financial support.
1964 Duing the year -
. Launch Vehicle
- Development of Soyuz-R and Soyuz-P begun. - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Kozlov. Program: Almaz. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spacecraft. Spacecraft: Soyuz R; Soyuz P; Soyuz PPK; Soyuz 7K-TK. KB Kozlov began active development of the military applied versions of the Soyuz. A new version of the R-7 launch vehicle, the 11A514, was put into development to support launch of the Soyuz-P, now designated the 7K-PPK (pilotiruemovo korablya-perekhvatchika, manned interceptor spacecraft). The Soyuz-R would include the small orbital station 11F71 with photo-reconnaissance and ELINT equipment. To dock with the 11F71 station Kuibishev developed the transport spacecraft 11F72 7K-TK. This version of the Soyuz was equipped with rendezvous, docking, and transition equipment, including an airlock, that allowed the two cosmonauts to enter the station without using EVA. The launch vehicle for the 7K-TK would be the 11A511, known today as the Soyuz.
1964 January 3 -
- Military Soviet of the VVS Staff - .
Nation: USSR. Program: Lunar L1. Flight: Soyuz A-1; Soyuz A-2; Soyuz A-3; Soyuz A-4. Spacecraft: Soyuz A; Soyuz R; Soyuz P; Soyuz PPK. No significant decisions are made. Discussion of the 3 December 1963 resolution to start development of the 7K Soyuz spacecraft. Although the resolution foresees completion of the first spacecraft during 1964, and first flights in 1965-1966, there is not one word on training of cosmonauts for such missions. Scientific versions, for manned flight to the moon and planets, as well as military variants, are foreseen.
1964 February 15 -
- American space plans - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Bykovsky; Gagarin. Spacecraft: Soyuz R; Soyuz PPK; MOL; Almaz APOS. Following an overview of the planned trip of Bykovsky and Gagarin to Sweden and Norway on 1-15 March, American military space plans are reviewed. There are many fantastic projects, over a wide and well-financed front. Currently reconnaissance satellites are flying, to be followed by inspection, and then anti-satellite satellites in 3 to 5 years. After that manned military space stations are planned, manoeuvrable manned spacecraft, and the establishment of scientific and military bases on the moon. Despite this big US program, the Soviet military leadership shows no interest in Russian exploitation of space for military purposes.
1964 February 27 -
- Military space plans - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Malinovskiy. Spacecraft: Soyuz R; Soyuz PPK. A meeting of the VVS General Staff with Marshal Malinovskiy reviews military roles in space. The VVS are tasked with developing environmental control systems for manned spacecraft, abort and recovery systems, training cosmonauts, and recovery of returned space capsules. The RVSN are responsible for final check-out and launch of spacecraft; the PVO are responsible for tracking and control of manned spaceflights. Kamanin pushes for VVS to take a role in development of manned military spacecraft as an extension of its responsibility for combat aircraft. Some of the generals agree in principle, but have no understanding of the new technology and how it might be appropriately applied. Others are opposed. Meanwhile the cosmonauts are taking their examinations in avionics technology, and Kamanin continues to argue for reorganisation of the TsPK cosmonaut training centre to include new specialities and training facilities (e.g. to support specialist engineer, navigator, and scientist cosmonauts).
1964 June 18 -
- USSR five-year military space plan issued. - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Chelomei; Malinovskiy. Spacecraft: Raketoplan; Soyuz R; Zenit-2M; Zenit-4M; US-A; US-P; Spiral OS; MiG 105-11. Ministry of Defence Decree 'On military space programs for 1964-69, including the R spaceplane' was issued. The decree was issued by Defence Ministry Marshal Rodiono Yakovlevich Malinovksiy. Included in this plan were new versions of the automatic Zenit, Morya-1 (US series) spacecraft, the Spiral spaceplane, the Soyuz-R manned combat spacecraft, and others. Chelomei's Raketoplan spaceplane was cancelled.
1964 October 12 -
. Launch Vehicle
- Almaz project starts - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Chelomei. Spacecraft: Almaz APOS; Soyuz R. The day before the overthrow of his patron, Chelomei obtained permission to begin development of a larger military space station, the Almaz. This 20 tonne station would take three cosmonauts to orbit in a single launch of his UR-500K Proton rocket. Therefore there were now two competing projects for the same mission - Almaz and Soyuz-R. First flight of the Almaz, with a one year operational period, was set for 1968.
1965 February 2 -
- Cosmonaut organisation - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Nikolayev; Beregovoi; Malinovskiy. Program: Lunar L1; Lunar L3. Spacecraft: Soyuz A; Soyuz B; Soyuz V; LK-1; Soyuz PPK; Soyuz R. Kamanin will organise the cosmonauts into two groups: the first group will be commanded by Nikolayev, and the latest group by Beregovoi. They will be assigned to support and train seven missions: military space (reconnaissance, interceptor, and combat spacecraft); space navigation; life support and rescue systems; communications and telemetry systems; scientific orbital stations; lunar fly-by; and lunar landing expeditions. All of this may be for nought, since Marshall Malinovskiy has said that heavy launch vehicles and lunar flights have no military utility and should be funded and handled by the Academy of Science.
1966 March 30 -
- Soyuz R Cancelled; Soyuz 7K-TK to be ferry to Almaz station - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Chelomei; Kozlov. Spacecraft: Almaz OPS; Soyuz 7K-TK; Soyuz R. Ministry of General Machine Building (MOM) Decree 145ss 'On approval of the 7K-TK as transport for the Almaz station' was issued. It was decided that the 11F71 Soyuz-R space station would be cancelled and the Almaz would be developed in its place. Almaz was assigned the index number previously allocated to the Soyuz-R station, and Kozlov was ordered to hand over to Chelomei all of the work completed in relation to the station. However Kozlov's Soyuz 7K-TK ferry was to continue in development to transport crew to the Almaz.
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Should President Barack Obama succeed in pressing Congress to lift the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, individuals with disabilities currently working at “subminimum wages” would see their pay rise, too.
But they might also see their job opportunities shrink.
If the Senate’s 54-42 vote against the Fair Minimum Wage Act this past Wednesday is any indication, Congress seems unlikely to move on the issue in the near future.
Yet the discussion over wages at the lowest levels of the economy has brought renewed attention to the sometimes controversial practice of paying less than the minimum wage; 5.4 percent of Pennsylvania workers — including teenage trainees, home care aides, tipped employees and individuals with disabilities — receive subminimum wages.
“The evidence suggests that the least skilled and most disadvantaged will have to accept most of the employment losses of raising the minimum wage,” said labor economist Gary Burtless for the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., noting that employers might offer fewer work hours if required to pay higher wages.
This might be most true for workers with disabilities whose earnings — unlike those of other “subminimum wagers” — would uniformly rise with the federal minimum wage.
Under a 1938 provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the wages of workers with disabilities can be reduced if a timed test conducted by the Department of Labor and Industry shows them to have a lower productivity level than a employee without disabilities. If the employee with disabilities requires more time to generate the same amount of output, proportional wages are set.
For example, a worker who needs two hours to complete a task typically done in one hour would be paid $3.63 an hour. Under the federal contract proposed by the Obama administration, that worker’s annual income, based on 40 hours a week, would rise from $7,540 to $10,504.
The practice allows franchises such as Applebee’s restaurants or Goodwill Industries to hire individuals with physical and mental disabilities to perform a wide variety of jobs at wages as low as 28 cents an hour in the state of Pennsylvania. These tasks might include janitorial work or sorting hangers by colors for independent retailers.
Supporters of the 1938 provision argue that present-level subminimum wages compensate for the added cost of providing workers with disabilities with workplace accommodations or special training.
“Intellectual and developmental disabilities especially require specific skills training,” explained Ella Holsinger of Goodwill Southwestern Pennsylvania in Lawrenceville. The nonprofit currently pays subminimum wages to workers with disabilities in 64 of its 165 affiliates.
Opponents of the practice view subminimum wages as opportunities for exploitation.
“Workshops across the country take advantage of individuals with disabilities through these wages,” said Stephen Christian-Michaels, president and CEO of Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, a nonprofit offering behavioral health, rehabilitation and residential services to those in need.
“The whole thing is surrounded by a tremendous amount of controversy,” said Mr. Christian-Michaels. He believes the system helps individuals with intellectual disabilities to gain employment, but that some individuals with physical disabilities could work in competitive employment and are given no choice.
As the debate plays out, the population of people with disabilities continues to struggle to find employment in the recovering job market.
A census published in June 2014 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 12.9 percent of the population with disabilities is unemployed — a figure well above the overall 6.1 percent rate.
The employment picture has improved. The 12.9 percent jobless rate represents a 1.3 percent improvement over the 818,000 Americans with disabilities who were unemployed in June 2013, a reflection of the broader decrease in unemployment across the population.
Correction (Posted July 18, 2014) An earlier of this version incorrectly characterized Stephen Christian-Michaels‘ position on the role of subminimum wages for vocational workers.
Rocio Labrador: firstname.lastname@example.org or 412-263-1370.
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Other than slaughtering their citizens for political reasons, are there many government offenses more serious than deliberately lying to the people?
Doublespeak, according to Wikipedia, is “language that deliberately disguises, distorts or reverses the meaning of words.” Politicians also use doublespeak to outright lie, intentionally cloud their statements with ambiguity and make truths less unpleasant.
Doublespeak comes from the writings of George Orwell (remember “1984”?): “Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
In America, we have too many politicians who seek to hide the truth. Their deceit spawns convoluted phrasing and distorted language to disguise their true intentions.
Dictatorial politicians secretly laugh at the notion that governments shouldn’t conspire against the truth and lie to the people, because totalitarian ambitions are usually achieved by lies. Extreme partisans and demagogues also find doublespeak useful.
The Oscar winners for Best Doublespeak are Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Obama has become the master of the poisoned word, saying one thing and doing another. His language is drenched in doublespeak.
Here’s the evidence:
- When Obama decided to create a new immigration law by bypassing Congress, he announced – presto — a new class of illegal aliens. Adding to the frightening reality of a president who decides to create his own laws, Obama described this new law as merely an administrative “reallocation” of “resources.”
- When Reid’s Democratic-controlled Senate failed to propose a budget, the Democratic Congress failed to pass a budget and Obama failed to demand they do so. Two years later, Republicans passed a budget in the House, yet Obama accused Republicans of “delaying on economic policies.”
- Obama’s Affordable Care Act will be unaffordable in coming years. It created seven separate tax hikes and new taxes, and health-care costs will be driven sky-high.
- In Obama’s mind, decline and diminishment become “moving in the right direction.”
- Extending Bush’s tax cuts for people making less than $250,000 morphed into Obama claiming it was his “middle-class tax cut.”
- The federal government’s “deficit-reduction plan” actually increased the federal debt.
- Bombing became “servicing the target” in government-speak, and war became “national confrontation.”
- “Equality” now requires putting men at a disadvantage, and “affirmative action” becomes a way to favor minorities or women.
- Obama’s spending to benefit political allies is called “investments” in welfare programs and education.
- Under Obama, “enemy combatants” have become “captured people held at GuantanamoBay.”
- Progressives and Obama do not consider upper-middle-class and wealthy working people to be among America’s “working families.”
- “Streamlining Medicare” is a new term for gutting Medicare.
- Obama announced that his stimulus spending would “create or save” a certain number of new jobs, but he knew as he spoke that there is no way to measure how to save jobs. He considers a saved job to be the same as a “created job not realized.” Doublespeak.
- Taxing and spending are now known as “investing in the economy.”
- Those wanting restraints on government are “extremists,” while people who want more government are “compassionate” and “mainstream.”
- Deficit spending has become “stimulating the economy.”
- Irresponsible people who lied on their mortgage applications are “victims of greedy bankers.”
- Obama says that “tax cuts benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.” But keeping your own money in your pocket benefits both the middle class and the wealthy.
- “Free choice” is the new name for forced membership in unions.
- “Sensitivity training” is really mandatory sessions to “re-educate” people who possess politically incorrect, “wrong” beliefs about social issues.
When government uses language to increase and safeguard its power, when it uses doublespeak to justify tyrannies great and small, this is not only totalitarianism; it causes lies to transform into accepted truths. But the left considers its corrupt actions and unethical doublespeak helpful to the have-nots, so it’s justified. This is like trying to put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.
Latest posts by John R. Smith (see all)
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- Obama at the helm: His 12 economic disasters - June 5, 2016
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Last week marked the 50th anniversary on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s (LBJ) war on poverty, sparking a public discussion of the efficacy of these efforts. LBJ’s state of the union speech in 1964 outlined the intent of these reforms:
“… and this year's legislative program, are designed to help each and every American citizen fulfill his basic hopes -- his hopes for a fair chance to make good; his hopes for fair play from the law; his hopes for a full-time job on full-time pay; his hopes for a decent home for his family in a decent community; his hopes for a good school for his children with good teachers; and his hopes for security when faced with sickness or unemployment or old age.”
50 years later, has LBJ vision been achieved? Even those who support the “war on poverty” efforts seem conflicted about its success, or lack thereof. Michael Gerson, for example, wrote in his January 10th column in The Washington Post that while “… The federal government has met some human needs on a vast scale; it does not know how to conquer poverty.”
Even with this admission, that the government is unable to conquer poverty, Gerson’s print version of this piece was still titled “Renew the War on Poverty.”
Well no wonder. In 1982, 15 percent of the population was below the poverty line and by 2010 those numbers had not budged at all. Gerson even admits that certain programs are kept around because they are “promising.” He writes that “Some of LBJ’s ideas, such as Head Start, still seem so promising that we keep trying to get them right, even when social science finds modest results.”
In contrast, Economist Robert Samuelson also writing for The Washington Post notes that “the largest ‘means-tested’ programs (eligibility set by low income) increased from $55 billion in 1972 to $588 billion in 2012.” The budgets for these services have increased 10-fold in 40 years, even with only “modest results.” Those modest results explained by Gerson are noted by Samuelson, who writes that “Although Head Start produces some gains for 3- and 4-year-olds, improvements dissipate quickly; one study found most disappeared by third grade”
That raises another series of questions. What do these results mean? What does it mean to be poor? What would victory look like? We all know what poverty is, but everyone defines it in a different way. Richard Thaler, Behavioral Economist at Yale, has a take on poverty in America:
“They’re poor because they don’t have enough money. But why is that they don’t have enough money? So do they lack education, do they lack will power, do they lack resources. I mean, it does sound like a dumb question, or course we know what poverty is, but actually we don’t. And it’s going to vary. So somebody on the south side of Chicago being poor may be very different than a peasant in some African village”
Just like LBJ was unable to define what a victory in Vietnam would look like, scholars are unable to know what a victory on this “war” would look like. Robert Samuelson references a study done by Bruce Meyers and James Sullivan of the University of Chicago: “Among the official poor, half have computers, 43 percent have central air conditioning and 36 percent have dishwashers.” This vague definition of “poor” paints not only a conflicting picture of what that word means in America, but makes people questions the reform set in place 50 years ago.
Barbara Ehrenreich author of the book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America recently wrote in an article in The Atlantic commenting on LBJ’s war on poverty, she states that “...... there was never enough money for the fight against poverty, and Johnson found himself increasingly distracted by another and deadlier war—the one in Vietnam.”
America turned against the war in Vietnam when they became convinced, rightly or wrongly, that it was unwinnable. Maybe LBJ’s solutions were not the best way to fix poverty in America. We have spent $588 billion dollars in 2012 but have higher unemployment than we did when Johnson launched his war, and the same percentage of people still living in poverty as we did thirty years ago.
The question is: When will Americans turn against Johnson’s other war?
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Species Information Sheets - Alewife
Michigan State University. Midwest Invasive Species Information
Invasive Species Compendium - Alosa pseudoharengus
Global Invasive Species Database - Alosa pseudoharengus (fish)
IUCN. Species Survival Commission. Invasive Species Specialist Group.
Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database: Fact Sheet - Alewife
DOI. USGS. Wetland and Aquatic Research Center.
Provides distribution maps and collection information (State
Aquatic Invasive Species: Alewife (Apr 2009; PDF | 298 KB)
Department of Natural Resources.
See also: Aquatic Invasive Species - Fish and Vertebrates
Species Guide Index - Fish: Alewife
Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Division of Wildlife.
Aquatic Invasive Species in Vermont - Alewife
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. Environmental Conservation. Watershed Management Division.
Introduced Species Summary Project - Alewife
Columbia University. Center for Environmental Research and Conservation.
Invasive Species Fact Sheets - Alewife
University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.
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Thermal Management Design and Analysis Services Information
Thermal management design and analysis services perform tests and redesigns around thermal analysis, heat analysis, heat management, and heat dissipation issues. Thermal analysis refers to a group of techniques in which a physical property of a substance is measured as a function of temperature, at the same time that the substance is subjected to a controlled series of temperature changes. Most thermal management design and analysis services use several basic methods: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential thermal analysis. In differential thermal analysis, the temperature difference that develops between a sample and an inert reference material is measured, when both are subjected to identical heat treatments.
Thermal management design and analysis services measure the thermal decomposition of solids and liquids, chemical reactions between solids and between solids and gases, phase transitions, materials specifications, and inorganic solid material adsorption. Thermal management design and analysis services can also characterize polymers, organic or inorganic chemicals, metals, semiconductors and other common classes of materials. One of the most common techniques of thermal analysis is differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). DSC measures the temperatures and heat flow associated with transitions in materials as a function of time and temperature. DSC also determines transition temperatures, melting and crystallization, and heat capacity.
Thermal management design and analysis services may perform thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). TGA is based on the measurement of the weight loss of the material as a function of temperature. DTA involves heating or cooling a test sample and an inert reference under identical conditions, while recording any temperature difference between the sample and reference. This differential temperature is then plotted against time, or against temperature. Changes in the sample in which heat is stored or released can be detected relative to the inert reference. In two inert samples, differential temperatures can arise when their responses to the applied heat treatment are not identical.
Thermal management design and analysis services use DTA to study thermal properties and phase changes which do not produce a change in enthalpy. The baseline of the DTA curve should then exhibit discontinuities at the transition temperatures and the slope of the curve at any point will depend on the microstructural constitution at that temperature.
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Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl, Giovanni Domenico Cerrini, (1609-1681) after 1666, 102 x 135 cm
The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. There were many Sibyls in the ancient world, but because of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl in the legends of early Rome, she became one of the most noted and famous, and was often simply referred to as The Sibyl.
In the art of Michelangelo shown to the right, and other painters her powerful presence overshadows every other Sibyl, even her younger and more beautiful sisters, such as the Delphic Sibyl.
There are various names for the Cumaean Sibyl: Amaltheia, Demophile, Deiphobe, Herophile, Taraxandra (in Vergil's Aeneid she is called Deiphobe--daughter of Glacus.
Entrance of the Sibyl grotto of Cumae [Source]
The cave at Cumae
The Sibyl was said to inhabit a cave with one hundred mouths, each of which had a voice (http://www.thaliatook.com/sibyl.html) accessible by a still existing dromos. The Cave is a trapezoidal dromos or passage over 131 meters long running parallel to the side of the hill and cut out of the volcanic stone. The Cave of the Sibyl was rediscovered in May 1932 by Amedeo Maiuri.
It was said in some of the ancient poems that the whispers of the Sibyl would be heard for a thousand years, and some have said that they will resound and echo for all eternity.
Ancient Roman prophecies
The story of the acquisition of the Sibylline Books by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the semi-legendary last king of the Roman Kingdom, is one of the famous mythic elements of Roman history. Centuries ago, concurrent with the Fiftieth Olympiad and the Founding of the City of Rome, an old woman arrived incognita in Rome. She came to see King Tarquin. The Cumaean Sibyl offered nine books of prophecies to King Tarquin; and as the king declined to purchase them, owing to the exorbitant price she demanded, she burned three and offered the remaining six to Tarquin at the same stiff price, which he again refused, whereupon she burned three more and repeated her offer. Tarquin then relented and purchased the last three at the full original price (Dion. Halic. 4.62), (another version has the price doubling each time.) The books were thereafter kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, Rome, to be consulted only on emergencies. The Sibylline Books were finally completely destroyed in 83 CE when the temple of Jove Capitolinus burned.
In the Middle Ages both the Cumaean Sibyl and Vergil were considered prophets of the birth of Christ because the fourth of Vergil's Eclogues appears to contain a Messianic prophecy by the Sibyl, and this was seized on by early Christians as such - one reason why Dante later chose Vergil as his guide through the underworld and Michelangelo chose to feature the Cumaean Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel as prominently as the Old Testament prophets.
Constantine, the Christian emperor, in his first address to the assembly of Saints, interpreted the whole of the eclogue as a reference to the coming of Christ and quoted a long passage of the Sybilline Book (Book 8) containing an acrostic in which the initials from a series of verses read: Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour Cross.
The Cumaean Sibyl is featured in the works of, among others, Vergil (The Eclogues, Æneid), Ovid (Metamorphoses) and Petronius (Satyricon). The epigraph to T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" is a quote from the Satyricon where Trimalchio states that he saw the withered Sibyl in a hanging jar and that she wanted to die.
Stories recounted in Vergil's Æneid
The Cumaean Sibyl prophesized by “singing the fates” and writing on oak leaves. These would be arranged inside the entrance of her cave but, if the wind blew and scattered them, she would not help to reassemble the le aves to form the original prophesy again.
The Sibyl was a guide to the underworld (Hades,) the entry being at the nearby crater of Avernus. Aeneas employed her services before his descent to the lower world to visit his dead father Anchises, but she warned him the it was no light undertaking:
Trojan, Anchises' son, the descent of Avernus is easy.
Stories recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses
Although she was a mortal, the Sibyl lived about a thousand years. This came about when Apollo granted her a wish; she took up a handful of sand and asked to live for as many years as the grains of sand she held. But she didn't ask for enduring youth and Apollo allowed her body to wither away because the Sibyl did not consent to have sex. Her body grew smaller with age and eventually was kept in a jar (ampulla). Eventually only her voice was left. (Metamorphoses 14)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumaean_Sibyl"
THE CUMAEAN SIBYL, Estelle M. Hurll
Michelangelo's rendering of the Cumaean Sibyl
Of all the sibyls, the one we hear most about is the Cumæan. The legend runs that, having asked a boon of Apollo, she gathered a handful of sand and said, "Grant me to see as many birthdays as there are sand grains in my hand." The wish was gratified, but unluckily she forgot to ask for enduring youth, so she was doomed to live a thousand years in a withered old age. Thus we always think of her as an old woman, as Michelangelo has represented her.
She is called the Cumæan sibyl because she is supposed to have lived in Cumæ, which was the oldest and one of the most important of the Greek colonies in Italy. Her real name, we are told, was Demos. She lived in a great cavern, where the people came to consult her, and her answers to their questions were regarded as oracles, or answers from the deities. She used to write on the leaves of trees the names and fates of different persons, arranging them in her cave to be read by her votaries. Sometimes the wind sweeping through the cavern scattered the leaves broadcast through the world.
The manner of consulting her is fully described by the Latin poet Virgil in the sixth book of the Æneid. He tells how Æneas, arriving with his fellow voyagers at the town of Cumæ, immediately goes to the temple of Apollo,
"And seeks the cave of wondrous size,
"Within the mountain's hollow side,
Æneas now begs a favor of the sibyl. He has heard that here the path leads downward to the dead, and he desires to go thither to visit his father, Anchises. There are certain conditions to fulfil before setting forth, but when these are done the sibyl guides him on his way, and the journey is safely made.
Another legend of the Cumæan sibyl has to do with the Roman emperor Tarquin. The sibyl came to him one day with nine books of oracles, which she wished him to buy. The price was exorbitant, and the emperor refused her demand. She then went away, burned three of the books, and, returning with the remaining six, made the same demand. Again her offer was refused, and again she burned three books and returned, still requiring the original price for the three that were left. Tarquin now consulted the soothsayers, and, acting upon their advice, bought the books, which were found to contain directions concerning the religion and policy of Rome.
For many years they were held sacred, and were carefully preserved in the temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, under the care of official guardians. At length the temple was destroyed by fire, and the original sibylline books perished. In the following centuries they were replaced by scattered papers, collected from time to time in various parts of the empire, purporting to be the writings of the sibyl. These sibylline leaves, as they were called, contained passages supposed to be prophetic of the coming of Christ, and this is why the Cumæan sibyl is placed by Michelangelo among the prophets.
The sibyl is reading aloud from one of her books of oracles. The two little genii standing behind her shoulder, and listening with absorbed attention, hold another book, not yet unclasped, ready for her. She reads her prophecy with keen, searching eyes, and a manner that is almost stern. We can see in the large, strong features the determination of her character.
It is not a gentle face, and not pleasing, but it is full of meaning. We read there the record of the centuries which have passed over her head, bringing her the deep secrets of life. Yet the prophecies are still unfulfilled, and there is a look of unsatisfied longing in her wrinkled old face.
You will notice that the outlines of the Cumæan sibyl are drawn in an oval figure similar to that inclosing the Delphic sibyl. Here, however, the oval is of a more elongated form, and the left side is broken midway by the introduction of the book.
The old writer Pausanias, writing his "Description of Greece," in the second century, says that the people of Cumæ showed a small stone urn in the temple of Apollo containing the ashes of the sibyl. For many centuries her cavern was pointed out to travellers in a rock under the citadel of Cumæ. Finally the fortifications of the city were undermined, but to this day a subterranean passage in the rock on which they were built is still shown as the entrance to the sibyl's cave.
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Proper lightning protection is an important aspect of designing a safe amateur radio station. Recently, many amateurs have become concerned about possible damage from EMP, or Electromagnetic Pulse. Fortunately, EMP protection has been studied by Dennis Bodson, W4PWF, and effective mitigation strategies published in QST.
- Lightning Protection for the Amateur Radio Station -- Part 1
QST June 2002, pp. 56-59
A three part series that develops a plan for protection the amateur station.
- Lightning Protection for the Amateur Radio Station -- Part 2
QST July 2002, pp. 48-52
- Lightning Protection for the Amateur Radio Station -- Part 3
QST August 2002, pp. 53-55
- Lab Notes - Lightning Protection - Part 1
QST October 1994, pp. 81-82
- Lab Notes - Lightning Protection - Part 2
QST December 1994. pp. 45-46
- Electromagnetic Pulse and the Radio Amateur - Part 1
QST August 1986, pp. 15-20, 36
Will your station survive the effects of lightning strikes ........
- Electromagnetic Pulse and the Radio Amateur - Part 2
QST September 1986, pp. 22-26
...testing EMP/transient-protection devices
- Electromagnetic Pulse and the Radio Amateur - Part 3
QST October 1986, pp. 38-41
...protectors are connected to Amateur Radio equipment and retested.
- Electromagnetic Pulse and the Radio Amateur - Part 4
QST November 1986, pp. 30-34
What can be done to protect an Amateur radio station from lightning......
Feedback: QST February 1987, p. 43
Feedback: QST April 1987, p. 59
The model number of the Siemans spark gap is B1-A350, not BI-A350.
- How to Protect Your House and Its Contents from Lightning
IEEE Guide for Surge Protection of Equipment Connected to AC Power and Communication Circuits, Published by Standards Information Network, IEEE Press
- Welcome To PolyPhaser On-Line
Leading the communications industry in RF lightning protection and grounding solutions.
Ham Radio Station Protection
A thorough discussion of Ham Radio Station Techniques.
- Why You Need Lightning Protection
- Lightning Protection Specifications
- Lightning Protection Institute
The Lightning Protection Institute (LPI) presents the following information designed to provide you with a basic understanding of lightning, the severity of lightning strikes, lightning protection systems, and the educational efforts of the LPI.
- National Lightning Safety Institute
- Mike Holt has a free tutorial on NEC Article 810 – Radio and Television Equipment.
- Industrial Communication Engineers, Ltd. Special Publications
Free easy-to-understand technical publications written by I.C.E. engineers and staff technicians. Publications cover a variety of subjects, including lightning protection.
- Companies that supply Products for Lightning Protection
Surge Protectors are available from Alpha Delta
Surge Arrestors are available from Array Solutions.
Grounding and Lightning Protection Products are available from DX Engineering.
Georgia Copper sells copper products for lightning protection.
KF7P Metalwerks makes custom tower and grounding accessories for amateur radio.
Lightning Protectors are available from MFJ Enterprises.
Morgan Manufacturing makes lightning protection products.
Storm Copper makes products of interest to ham radio operators.
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Today’s tip of the week is a quick introduction to ChromoHub. ChromoHub is an annotated phylogeny of chromatin-mediated signaling genes. As the ChromoHub site says these are “genes involved in writing, reading and erasing the histone code.” These are epigenetic modifications that emerging as target classes for future drug therapies.
ChromoHub maps annotated information about these genes onto a phylogeny of the genes where the researcher can find a wealth of information. The information one can find ranges from cancer data, SNPS, protein structure, protein-protein interactions to PubMed and funding information. There is a lot of information to view.
Today’s tip introduces you to the tool and how to add and view the annotations. There is a lot more at ChromoHub. You can suggest data that the developers have missed and download the information, alignment files and images and more.
ChromoHub was developed by SGC, the Structural Genomics Consortium. This is a private-public partnership that supports discovery of new medicines through open access research. ChromoHub is just one of the tools and resources developed by the consortium.
To find out more about the resource, check out the links and reference below.
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Legal regulations in Germany prescribe that all children smaller than 150 cm must be restrained by a child car seat appropriate to their weight (for the bigger children normally booster seats), to make sure that the safety belt of the car is correctly routed over the child’s body, as it would be in the case of an adult. Seat belts are engineered for adults, and thus too big for small children. It is very important that booster seats have pronounced strap anchors to prevent a slipping out of the lap belt which could cause severe abdominal injuries. Booster seats with integrated back and head rest are very recommendable, and much safer, even for the bigger children providing a better routing of the shoulder strap, head support, and head protection. When the child has reached a size of more than 150 cm and is big enough to properly use a seat belt, there is no need for a child restraint system any longer, even if the child is younger than 12 years.
There is no exemption to the general protection obligation if the child is transported by grandparents or neighbours occasionally, e.g. to the school or to the kindergarden from time to time. The legislative body considers it reasonable that appropriate child restraint systems can be provided by simple organizational measures. This also applies to car pooling arrangements, e.g. parents taking turns in transporting children to the kindergarden, or taking the young players of a football team to an away-game, etc.
The person driving the car is responsible for the proper occupation of the car, and has to take care that an appropriate and approved child restrained system is used. In Germany, if a child is secured not according to regulations, e.g. only by the safety belt, without using a child car seat, the person responsible is punished by a fine of 30 €.
Child restraint requirements differ for the various states in the United States, for example. In some states, children who are four years or older can use an adult seat belt without a child car seat and in some states a booster seat is required up to age nine. The Department of Transportation advises to use a child restraint system or a booster seat for all children who are shorter than 145 cm, regardless of age and weight, or even longer if the belts hit the child at the wrong place.
By way of exception, if it is not possible to install a third child restraint system on the back seat of the car, a child older than 3 years can be secured without car seat by seat belt only. However, this is only permitted sitting in the back seat.
All child car seats require an official approval by the authorities. Many criteria being part of the current ECE Standard have to be met in order to obtain the approval for the child car seat. In case the seat has passed the tests, it will get an approval number being composed of a combination of letters and numbers for European manufacturers which is shown on the orange approval label (ECE label) usually placed underneath the base of the car seat.
Meeting the highest technical safety standards are child restraint systems having been approved to the ECE Standard R 44/04. This is the most recent test standard having been valid since July 2005. The requirements are stipulated in the directive 2003/20/EC of the European Parliament and Council. As from April 2008, all child car seats that were manufactured before 1995 and approved to the ECE Standard Regulations 44/01 and 44/02 are no longer legal and must not be used in Europe. They no longer meet the current safety standards. Only car seats having been tested and approved to the Safety Standards ECE R 44/04 and 44/03 can be used. Since July 1st, 2009, the retailers are supposed to sell only car seats with the ECE Safety Standard R 44/04. A prohibition of sale of products approved to the ECE R 44/03 standard, however, was not issued in Germany.
ECE approval Label
All child car seats must display an ECE label visibly, preferably the latest ECE R 44/04 certification label, to indicate they comply with the minimum European safety standard requirements.
All CYBEX child car seats comply with and exceed the highest safety standards. They are tested and approved to the current Child Safety Standard ECE R 44/04, shown on all ECE labels of the car seat collection.
What the ECE-Label tells about the Product
- Shows the safety standard of the car seat.
Shows for which category the child car seat has been approved
The child car seat has been approved for all passenger cars which are equipped with a safety belt according to ECE 16 standard or equivalent standard (e.g. Pallas, Pallas 2, Solution X2)
The child car seat has been approved for particular passenger cars only (vehicle-specific approval, e.g. Sirona)
Both categories on the label:
If the child car seat is installed by means of the ISOFIX Connect System and secured by the seat belt (e.g. Juno-fix, Pallas 2-fix, Solution X2-fix), it is approved for particular passenger cars only (compatibility check). These car seats, however, can also be installed on all vehicle seats being equipped with a seat belt without using the ISOFIX Connect System.
- Body weight, for which the car seat is approved = ECE Group (in this case Group I)
- European Approval Indicator = Indication for country in which the approval was obtained (1 = Germany, 2 = France, 3 = Italy, 9 = Spain, 11 = United Kingdom, 43 = Japan, e.g.)
- Approval Number = The first two numbers show to which ECE R 44 version the child car seat has been approved (as is the case for all CYBEX child seats ECE R 44/04)
For additional information please visit our CYBEX Child Safety Center: http://cybex-online.com/uk/carseats/childsafety0/shoppingguide.html
Friday next week, we will pick another interesting topic all about child safety. Please stay tuned and visit us again.
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Sewing machines, along with firearms, clocks, and agricultural machinery, played a major role in developing nineteenth-century American industry. When history museums focus on the evolution of American technology, sewing machines serve as primary evidence in this study. Sewing machines were originally collected by Smithsonian Institution curators because of this importance to the early history of technology. Increasing interest in design, material culture, social and cultural history, economic history, labor history, technical communication, and advertising closely relates to the sewing machine industry and ensures that sewing machines will continue to be researched and explored.
During the nineteenth century, the United States Patent Office Museum of Models exhibited models of patents that had been granted. Ultimately, the number of models on display reached 150,000 and in 1926 Congress decided that the models should be dispersed. The Smithsonian was given the first chance to select models for the national collection, a responsibility shared by Museum curators Frederick Lewton and Carl Mitman. Fortunately for the Textile Collection, Lewton collected heavily in textile manufacturing, particularly sewing machines.
A major acquisition from the Singer Company in 1960 included many important patent models of sewing machines and attachments. Some recent accessions include Mrs. Tom Thumb's sewing machine; Watson's Family Sewing Machine, about 1850; an 1855 American Eagle Sewing Machine (cast in the shape of an eagle); and a collection of Singer Industrial Design Prototypes from the 1940s to the 1970s. The National Museum of American History sewing machine collection currently numbers approximately 750 sewing machine patent models, 750 sewing machine attachment models (tuckers, guides, buttonholers, etc.), and about 250 commercial, family, treadle, cabinet, electric, and toy sewing machines. The dates range from 1842 through 1976.
Early research based on the Textile Collection of sewing machines and models began with The Servant in the House, written by Frederick Lewton in 1929. This Smithsonian Publication, reprinted in 1930 from the Smithsonian Annual Report, 1929, pages 559-83, featured significant sewing machines and their inventors. Grace Rogers Cooper succeeded Lewton as curator and continued to collect sewing machines. Cooper's book, The Sewing Machine: Its Invention and Development, published in 1968, was revised and expanded in 1976. It is considered a classic in the field. Along with the written history of the sewing machine are photographs of many of the machines in the Collection and illustrations from various pieces of sewing machine trade literature. In 1990 the exhibition catalog, Icons of Invention: American Patent Models, edited by Barbara Suit Janssen, featured a chapter highlighting sewing machines in the Collection.
The Textile Collection of sewing machines has served other purposes as well. Over the years objects from the sewing machine collection have been exhibited in Smithsonian museums and in traveling exhibitions. Researchers - from high school participants in National History Day to academics working on their dissertations to sewing machine collectors - have published works based on the sewing machine collection.
One area of collecting that has grown greatly is that of trade literature. Cooper's 1976 book listed the holdings of the Textile Collection as consisting of thirty-two advertising leaflets, instruction booklets, flyers, and illustrated directions for threading and operating sewing machines. Currently the Textile Collection of sewing machine literature numbers more than 950. Researchers use the collection to enrich their knowledge of commercial sewing machine manufacturing. Collectors use trade literature to learn how to thread machines, to know what parts are missing from machines, and to understand operating instructions. Writers use illustrations from trade literature to picture a machine for which there may be no known surviving example. Finally, finding trade literature for a sewing machine about which little or nothing is known often provides leads to the commercial history of the machine, its inventor, or its manufacturer.
Barbara Suit Janssen
Museum Specialist, Textile Collection
Natural Museum of American History
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Mind is a concept developed by self-conscious humans trying to understand what is the self that is conscious and how does that self relate to its perceived world. Most broadly, mind is the organized totality of the mental processes of an organism and the structural and functional components on which they depend. Taken more narrowly, as it often is in scientific studies, mind denotes only cognitive activities and functions, such as perceiving, attending, thinking, problem solving, language, learning, and memory. Aspects of mind are also attributed to complex animals, which are commonly considered to be conscious. Studies in recent decades suggest strongly that the great apes have a level of self-consciousness as well.
Philosophers have long sought to understand what is mind and its relationship to matter and the body. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle between them defined the poles (monism and dualism) of much of the later discussion in the Western world on the question of mind—and much of the ambiguity as well. Based on his world model that the perceived world is only a shadow of the real world of ideal Forms, Plato, a dualist, conceived of mind (or reason) as the facet of the tripartite soul that can know the Forms. The soul existed independent of the body, and its highest aspect, mind, was immortal. Aristotle, apparently both a monist and a dualist, insisted in The Soul that soul was unitary, that soul and body are aspects of one living thing, and that soul extends into all living things. Yet in other writings from another period of his life, Aristotle expressed the dualistic view that the knowing function of the human soul, the mind, is distinctively immaterial and eternal.
Saint Augustine adapted from the Neoplatonism of his time the dualist view of soul as being immaterial but acting through the body. He linked mind and soul closely in meaning. Some 900 years later, in an era of recovering the wisdom of Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas identified the species, man, as being the composite substance of body and soul (or mind), with soul giving form to body, a monistic position somewhat similar to Aristotle's. Yet Aquinas also adopted a dualism regarding the rational soul, which he considered to be immortal. Christian views after Aquinas have diverged to cover a wide spectrum, but generally they tend to focus on soul instead of mind, with soul referring to an immaterial essence and core of human identity and to the seat of reason, will, conscience, and higher emotions.
Rene Descartes established the clear mind-body dualism that has dominated the thought of the modern West. He introduced two assertions: First, that mind and soul are the same and that henceforth he would use the term mind and dispense with the term soul; Second, that mind and body were two distinct substances, one immaterial and one material, and the two existed independent of each other except for one point of interaction in the human brain.
As psychology became a science starting in the late nineteenth century and blossomed into a major scientific discipline in the twentieth century, the prevailing view in the scientific community came to be variants of physicalism with the assumption that all the functions attributed to mind are in one way or another derivative from activities of the brain. Countering this mainstream view, a small group of neuroscientists has persisted in searching for evidence suggesting the possibility of a human mind existing and operating apart from the brain.
In the late twentieth century as diverse technologies related to studying the mind and body have been steadily improved, evidence has emerged suggesting such radical concepts as: the mind should be associated not only with the brain but with the whole body; and the heart may be a center of consciousness complementing the brain.
Philosophy of mind is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body. The mind-body problem, i.e., the relationship of the mind to the body, is commonly seen as the central issue in philosophy of mind, although there are other issues concerning the nature of the mind that do not involve its relation to the physical body.
Stated briefly, the mind-body problem is as follows: we believe ourselves to exist as both a physical body and a mind, and that these stand in some intimate relation. Our mind is involved in mental decisions giving rise to physical actions, and physical events (such as a finger being cut) give rise to mental events (such as a feeling of pain). One possible explanation for this correlation of mental functions and physical body experience is that the mind, which includes my sense of self, is simply a product of the physical brain. On the other hand, the mind appears to possess features that no physical body does, including consciousness and simplicity (or unitary identity). Indeed, further reflection might lead us to conclude that the mind is entirely different from the body. Yet if that's right, it is hard to see how mind and body could also have the intimate relation that they do have.
Dualism and monism are the two major schools of thought that attempt to resolve the mind-body problem. Dualism is the position that mind and body are separate from each other in some fundamental way. It can be traced back to Plato, Aristotle and the Sankhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy, but it was most precisely formulated by René Descartes in the seventeenth century. Substance dualists argue that the mind is an independently existing substance, whereas Property dualists maintain that the mind is or constitutively involves a group of independent properties that emerge from and cannot be reduced to physical properties of the brain, but that it is not a distinct substance.
Monism is the position that mind and body are not ontologically distinct kinds of entities. This view appears to have first been advocated in Western Philosophy by Parmenides in the fifth century B.C.E. and was later espoused by the great seventeenth Century rationalist Baruch Spinoza. One type of monist, physicalists, argue that only the entities postulated by physical theory exist, and that the mind can in principle be explained in terms of these entities. On the other hand, idealists maintain that the mind (along with its perceptions, thoughts, etc.) is all that exists and that the external world is either mental itself, or an illusion created by the mind. Finally, neutral monists adhere to the position that there is some other, neutral substance, and that both matter and mind are properties of this substance. The most common monisms in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have all been variations of physicalism; these positions include behaviorism, the type identity theory, anomalous monism and functionalism.
Many modern philosophers of mind can be sorted into reductive vs. non-reductive varieties of physicalism, maintaining in their different ways that the mind is not something separate from the body. Reductive physicalists assert that all mental states and properties will eventually be explained by scientific accounts of physiological processes and states. Non-reductive physicalists argue that although the brain is all there is to the mind, the predicates and vocabulary used in mental descriptions and explanations are indispensable, and cannot be reduced to the language and lower-level explanations of physical science. These approaches have been especially influential in the sciences, particularly in the fields of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology and the various neurosciences. Other philosophers, however, adopt a non-physicalist position which challenges the notion that the mind is a purely physical construct.
Continued neuroscientific progress has helped to clarify some of these issues. However, they are far from having been resolved, and modern philosophers of mind continue to ask how the subjective qualities and the intentionality (aboutness) of mental states and properties can be explained using the terms of the natural sciences.
Plato in his various writings proposed different views of the mind, but he consistently held the view that mind is only one aspect of the soul. While he emphasized that the soul is unitary, he also argued that the soul has different aspects, one rational and the other irrational and comprising desires and appetites. The mind was the rational or reasoning aspect of soul. Since then, concepts and definitions of soul and of mind have varied widely as philosophers (and, more recently, psychologists) have worked to delineate the various functions, faculties, and aspects of the mind.
One useful pair of categories is rationalism and empiricism, which in general represent two broad streams of philosophy looking at the phenomena of the sense of self that engages in thinking, sensing, feeling, deciding, and acting. Rationalists, represented by Plato, Descartes, and Leibniz, tend to start with a system of metaphysical assumptions and then develop within that context their model of the human mind in which the ability to engage in abstract reasoning and mathematics is considered indicative of the mind's faculty of 'reason' by which truth can be recognized. By contrast, the tradition known as empiricism (perhaps most famously exemplified by John Locke and David Hume) aims to start with no metaphysical assumptions and build a model of the world and of the mind based on experiences of external and internal sensations.
Consideration of the mental faculties representing how the world is (such as belief and knowledge) and those representing how the world in some sense should be (such as desire) receive differing priority and value according to the thinker considering them. Plato, for instance, saw the desire for knowledge as emanating from reason, the highest of faculties, while Kant explicitly assigned pure moral motivation to the faculty of reason.
Psychology is the study of human behavior and the mind. Originating as an area of philosophy, psychology emerged as a distinct scientific discipline with the establishment of the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Germany in 1879. As both an academic and applied discipline, psychology involves the scientific study of mental processes such as perception, cognition, emotion, and personality, as well as environmental influences from the society and culture, and interpersonal relationships. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of mental health problems.
Psychology differs from the other social sciences (e.g., anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology) due to its focus on experimentation at the scale of the individual, as opposed to groups or institutions. Historically, psychology, beginning from a dualistic position, differed from biology and neuroscience in that it was primarily concerned with mind rather than brain. Modern psychological science, in contrast, incorporates physiological and neurological processes into its conceptions of perception, cognition, behavior, and mental disorders.
The field of psychology can be viewed as comprising three aspects of mind—cognition, affect, and conation—in which cognition concerns coming to know and understand, affect concerns emotional aspects of interpreting and responding to knowledge or information, and conation concerns choice and intention in motivation. In comparison with cognition and affect, whose implications for education have been well developed and implemented into education in the US, conation, important for self-direction and self-regulation, is the least well developed and implemented of the three.
The "mind-body problem" concerning the explanation of the relationship, if any, between minds, or mental processes, and bodily states or processes is important not only to philosophy but also to the sciences, including psychology, robotics, and artificial intelligence. The question of how mind and brain are related remains unanswered after more than a century of investing ever larger amounts of resources in the development and use of ever more sophisticated technologies for studying the brain.
The brain is defined as the physical and biological matter contained within the skull, responsible for all electrochemical neuronal processes. The mind, however, is seen in terms of mental attributes, such as beliefs, desires, attention, visual cognition, awareness, language, free choice, mental imagery, and sense of self and unitary identity. Concepts of mind remain greatly varied into the twenty-first century as the different mind concepts are tied to persistent differing views of the nature of the world. Outside the research laboratories and academic institutions, an implicit dualism—assuming that "mental" phenomena are, in some respects, "non-physical" (distinct from the body)—prevails.
Far from uniform, these dualistic views range across a wide spectrum. Some adhere to metaphysically dualistic approaches in which the mind exists independently of the brain in some way, such as a soul, epiphenomenon, or emergent phenomenon. Other dualistic views maintain that the mind is a distinct physical phenomenon, such as an electromagnetic field or a quantum effect. Some envision a physical mind mirroring the physical body and guiding its instinctual activities and development, while adding the concept for humans of a spiritual mind that mirrors a spiritual body and including aspects like philosophical and religious thought.
Some materialists believe that mentality is equivalent to behavior or function or, in the case of computationalists and strong AI theorists, computer software (with the brain playing the role of hardware). Idealism, the belief that all is mind, still has some adherents. At the other extreme, eliminative materialists believe that minds do not exist at all, and that mentalistic language will be replaced by neurological terminology.
One Nobel prize winning neuroscientist, Sir John Eccles (1903-1997) was a dualist interactionist believing that the human mind and brain are separate entities. In searching for a mechanism by which mind and brain could reasonably interact, that is without violating the law of conservation of energy, he formulated the hypothesis that the interaction must occur through some kind of quantum level mechanism and a corresponding quantum level structure in the brain. His last book, published in 1994, discloses that he was finally able to propose, together with a quantum physicist, just such an hypothesis. It involves a quantum level effect on the probability that neurotransmitters will be released across some of the brain's trillions of synapses.
The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines". It can also refer to intelligence as exhibited by an artificial (man-made, non-natural, manufactured) entity. AI is studied in overlapping fields of computer science, psychology, neuroscience and engineering, dealing with intelligent behavior, learning, and adaptation, and usually developed using customized machines or computers. One of the biggest difficulties with AI is that of comprehension. Many devices have been created that can do amazing things, but critics of AI claim that no actual comprehension by the AI machine has taken place.
The debate about the nature of the mind is relevant to the development of artificial intelligence. If the mind is a thing separate from the brain or higher than the functioning of the brain, then it would seem to be impossible to recreate mind within a machine. If, on the other hand, the mind is no more than the aggregated functions of the brain, then, in theory, it would be possible to create a machine with a recognizable mind (though possibly only with computers much different from today's), by simple virtue of the fact that such a machine already exists in the form of the human brain.
Various religious traditions have contributed unique perspectives on the nature of mind. In many traditions, especially mystical traditions, overcoming the ego is considered a worthy spiritual goal.
Judaism sees the human mind as one of the great wonders of Yahweh's creation. Christianity has tended to see the mind as distinct from the soul (Greek nous) and sometimes further distinguished from the spirit. Western esoteric traditions sometimes refer to a mental body that exists on a plane other than the physical.
Hinduism's various philosophical schools have debated whether the human soul (Sanskrit atman) is distinct from, or identical to, Brahman, the divine reality. Buddhism attempted to break with such metaphysical speculation, and posited that there is actually no distinct thing as a human being, who merely consists of five aggregates, or skandas. The Indian philosopher-sage Sri Aurobindo attempted to unite the Eastern and Western psychological traditions with his integral psychology, as have many philosophers and New religious movements.
By analogy with the health of the body, one can speak metaphorically of a state of health of the mind, or mental health. Mental health has typically been defined in terms of the emotional and psychological well-being needed to function in society and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no one "official" definition of mental health. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined. In general, most experts agree that "mental health" and "mental illness" are not opposites. In other words, the absence of a recognized mental disorder is not necessarily an indicator of mental health.
One way to think about mental health is by looking at how effectively and successfully a person functions. Feeling capable and competent; being able to handle normal levels of stress, maintaining satisfying relationships, and leading an independent life; and being able to "bounce back," or recover from difficult situations, are all signs of mental health.
Psychotherapy is an interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living. This usually includes increasing the individual sense of well-being and reducing subjective discomforting experience. Psychotherapists employ a range of techniques, such as dialogue, communication, and behavior change, that support experiential relationship building in order to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships (such as in a family). Most forms of psychotherapy use only spoken conversation, though some also use various other forms of communication such as the written word, art, drama, narrative story, or therapeutic touch. Psychotherapy occurs within a structured encounter between a trained therapist and client(s). Purposeful, theoretically based psychotherapy began in the 19th century with psychoanalysis; since then, scores of other approaches have been developed and continue to be created.
Mind is one of a cluster of related concepts—including self, identity, soul, spirit, consciousness, reason, emotion, heart, appetites (desires), will, and body—whose definitions and boundaries are highly interdependent amongst themselves and at the same time highly culture dependent. A culture that prioritizes reason and intellect as foundations of knowledge, for example, will have a fundamentally different concept of mind from that of a culture that prioritizes silent meditation and the stilling of all rational thought as a foundation for knowing truth. As convergence of world cultures and scientific studies of the brain both continue, the question of what is the mind seems likely to remain unanswered and disputed. Any view of the mind that aims to be universal will need to account for: the persistent and widespread accounts of perception beyond the physical senses; increasingly strong evidence that mind is intimately at one with the body through the integrated nervous, immune, and endocrine systems; and that the physical heart is a seat of consciousness with the capacity to influence the functioning of the brain.
Some views of the mind are grounded in anomalous experiences—reported persistently through history and throughout the world—of perceptions attained without use of the physical senses. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, parapsychology is the systematic study of alleged psychological phenomena involving the transfer of information or energy that cannot be explained in terms of presently known scientific data or laws. The types of phenomena studied—usually one of the various forms of clairvoyance or telepathy—are capacities of extrasensory perception whose proven existence would likely add strong support to the dualistic views of mind and require a radical reconfiguration of the scientific models of the mind and mental function.
The scientific reality of parapsychological phenomena and the validity of scientific parapsychological research is a matter of frequent dispute and criticism. The field is regarded by critics as a pseudoscience. Parapsychologists, in turn, say that parapsychological research is scientifically rigorous. Despite criticisms, two academic institutions in the U.S. and several in Britain now conduct research on the topic, employing laboratory methodologies and statistical techniques. The Parapsychological Association is the leading association for parapsychologists and has been a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1969.
Models of the relation between mind and body depend significantly on the best understanding of the body, which, has progressed from observation of the gross structures—such as the brain, organs, muscles, bones, and the large blood vessels—revealed through dissection, to finer and finer details of structure down to the cellular and subcellular levels. In parallel, studies of the dynamic processes operating in the body at those different levels have also advanced. Through these complementary studies, clear models of different systems of the body have been developed. These systems include, the brain and nervous system, the endocrine system, the immune system, the digestive system, the blood system, and the skeletal. And through all of these discoveries the deliberations about the mind and body relationship have continued, often with the assumption that the mind, whatever it may be, is in some way correlated with the brain.
Research in the last two decades brings into question that presumed exclusive association of mind and brain, based on the discovery that molecules called neuroeptides affect emotion, mood, health, and memory. The neuropeptides are secreted by such different body components as the brain, gut, and gonads. Then the neuropeptides circulate in the blood until they bond to a receptor on a cell that may be in any of a multitude of locations, including the brain, gut, gonads, immune cells, or ganglia where nerves and clusters of cells converge at strategic locations throughout the body. Emotions may be felt throughout the body as the molecules of emotion are secreted and then captured by particular cells. Memories associated with emotions seem also to be coded in the body at the ganglia.
Even the narrow definition of mind includes cognitive activities and functions, such as perceiving, attending, thinking, problem solving, language, learning, and memory. The growing evidence from neuropeptides circulating in the blood suggests a distribution of aspects of these functions into the body rather than their exclusive association with the brain. Such discoveries call into question the traditional images of both the brain as the singular control center of the body and of the mind as being exclusively associated with the brain, and point toward a new model of an integrated bodymind.
The heart is by far the most powerful organ in the body, emitting electromagnetic signals five thousand times more powerful than those of the brain. Unlike cells in the rest of the body, the billions of cells in the heart each pulsate individually and also in concert collectively. "Wisdom of the heart" and "knowing in my heart" are expressions found in many cultures.
A new field of cardio-energetics operates from the basic premise that instead of the brain, the heart is the site of a human being's most basic feelings, thoughts, dreams, and fears. One might say that heart and brain in some way share the locus that is mind. While the perspective of heart would be one of a mind partnership with the brain, the brain perspective would be more likely to dominate any relationship with the heart. Like the brain, gut, and gonads, the heart also is also the site of receptors for and secretion of key neurotransmitters. The heart has its own center of neurons.
Such factors as these and others are coming under close scrutiny because of the strong evidence that in some cases of heart transplant the heart recipient undergoes significant changes in personality, habits, and preferences, taking on characteristics of the heart donor. One example of many is of a young Hispanic man who received a heart transplant. The wife of the heart donor used the word "copacetic" when she met the heart recipient and placed her hand on his chest inside which her husband's heart was beating. The young man's mother then recounted that her son had started using "copacetic" regularly after the transplant, even though it is not a Spanish word and her son had not previously known it.
All links retrieved November 3, 2014.
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Founded during the immense investment in scientific research in the period preceding World War II, the National Laboratories have served as the leading institutions for scientific innovation in the United States for more than sixty years.
The Energy Department's National Labs tackle the critical scientific challenges of our time -- from combating climate change to discovering the origins of our universe -- and possess unique instruments and facilities, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. They address large scale, complex research and development challenges with a multidisciplinary approach that places an emphasis on translating basic science to innovation. Specifically, the National Laboratories:
- conduct research of the highest caliber in physical, chemical, biological, and computational and information sciences that advances our understanding of the world around us;
- advance U.S. energy independence and leadership in clean energy technologies to ensure the ready availability of clean, reliable, and affordable energy;
- enhance global, national, and homeland security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, helping to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and securing the nation’s borders; and
- design, build, and operate distinctive scientific instrumentation and facilities, and make these resources available to the research community.
Science is not linear, nor is it uniform, but the Lab system makes the pursuit of discovery -- and the many solutions that result -- both a collaborative enterprise and a shared national resource. Bottom line: From invention to prosperity, the return on public investment is huge.
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Breakthrough Tool used in California to Measure Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Developed by ICLEI, this breakthrough new Online Inventory Tool was created for California's Statewide Energy Efficiency Collaborative (SEEC) to help meet the increasing demands of combatting climate change by saving communities both energy and money.
The free online application will help cities and counties throughout the Golden State accurately accurately measure the level of greenhouse gas emissions in their respective areas. The SEEC is a new initiative organized by three California non-profit organizations and four investor-owned utilities.
In a recent statement to the press discussing the value of the SEEC and the resources it provides, California director of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA Michael Schmitz said, ''This tool is a breakthrough resource that finally meets long-identified needs among California's local governments. Municipal staff are eager for climate action tools and trainings, but their budget situations often don't allow them to pursue these resources.''
The Online Inventory Tool, along with a wide variety of other SEEC tools and trainiing programs like informative ''Quick-Start Guides,'' and detailed instruction manuals, are all available online at www.californiaseec.org. These important free resources will help cities and counties throughout the state to make measurable progress and reach necessary goals related to local climate change actions and energy conservation issues, even though budgets are very tight and additional funding cutbacks could be on the horizon.
With easy-to-use features that allow local governments to create in-depth reports of local greenhouse gas emission levels, which is one of the most essential steps in reaching predetermined goals surrounding climate change and pollution issues, the SEEC tool is tailored to the needs of California cities and counties. It will also help local governments throughout California successfully enact long-term plans to implement energy-saving strategies.
''We're setting the national standards for how local governments measure their greenhouse gas emissions and even their overall sustainability performance,'' said Martin J. Chavez, ICLEI USA executive director.
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Russian submarine-launched ballistic missile. First flight 1967. Correct NATO code may be Serb; Sawfly was competitor. Development completed 1968.
Success Rate: 100.00%. Launch data is: incomplete. Standard warhead: 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). Maximum range: 2,000 km (1,200 mi). Number Standard Warheads: 1. Warhead yield: 1,000 KT. CEP: 1.61 km (1.00 mi). Boost Propulsion: Storable liquid rocket. Initial Operational Capability: 1968.
AKA: RSM-25; R-27; SS-N-6 Mod 1; 4K10; Serb; D-5.
More... - Chronology...
Status: Retired 1993.
Gross mass: 14,394 kg (31,733 lb).
Payload: 1,000 kg (2,200 lb).
Height: 9.00 m (29.50 ft).
Diameter: 1.50 m (4.90 ft).
Span: 1.50 m (4.90 ft).
First Launch: 1965.01.01.
Last Launch: 1993.12.01.
Number: 19 .
4D10 Isayev N2O4/UDMH rocket engine. 255 kN. R-27 / RSM-25 (SS-N-6). Out of Production. First engine system to be submerged in propellant tank. One main engine chamber plus unknown number (probably 4) of steering thrusters. Thrust 226 + 29 kN. More...
R-27 First flight 1967. Correct NATO code may be Serb; Sawfly was competitor. Development completed 1968. More...
missile Guided self-propelled military weapon (as opposed to rocket, an unguided self-propelled weapon). More...
Associated Manufacturers and Agencies
Makeyev Russian manufacturer of rockets, spacecraft, and rocket engines. Makeyev Design Bureau, Kolomna, Russia. More...
McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page (launch records), Harvard University, 1997-present. Web Address when accessed: here.
Home - Browse - Contact
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A frog found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time yesterday when a Nasa spacecraft was launched - that sent the frog rocketing skywards too. The whole thing was captured by Nasa cameras set up to film the launch of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee).
The picture, that has since made headlines around the world, was not altered in any way, said a spokesman for Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in the US state of Virginia.
It's believed the frog was attracted by a pool of water that sits on the launchpad to protect the pad from damage and also suppresses noise.
The Ladee is on its way to the moon and will gather information about the lunar atmosphere.
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Each Time Genomic "Junk" Turns Out to Be Functional, the Case for Intelligent Design Gets Stronger
William Dembski argued in No Free Lunch that intelligent design theory yields no false positives: the Design Filter he modeled doesn't allow them. False negatives might slip through -- things that look random but are in fact designed, like some recent works of art one can think of. But the filter is robust with respect to things that look designed but can be explained by natural law or chance, like snowflakes and tornados.
In this context, ID gains confidence by not finding false positives in the genome, but on the contrary, watching false negatives turn into true positives.
The intelligent-design community might, indeed, be troubled by now if what we thought was genomic design turned out to be junk. On the contrary, this news from Washington University in St. Louis is becoming a familiar refrain:
So-called junk DNA was long thought to have no important role in heredity or disease because it doesn't code for proteins. But emerging research in recent years has revealed that many of these sections of the genome produce RNA molecules that, despite not being proteins, still have important functions in the body. (Emphasis added.)
Here are some recent findings that say as much.
Long non-coding RNA. "Non-coding" bits of genetic information were assumed to be junk in the past. Not any more: scientists at Case Western Reserve University have found that lncRNAs can, despite their name, code for proteins.
Case Western Reserve School of Medicine scientists have made an extraordinary double discovery. First, they have identified thousands of novel long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) transcripts. Second, they have learned that some of them defy conventional wisdom regarding lncRNA transcripts, because they actually do direct the synthesis of proteins in cells.
This suggests that even more function awaits discovery. The findings were made in yeast, but probably hold for higher animals and humans: "Discovery of more transcripts equates to the discovery of new and novel genes:"
Information in the geometry. There's information in the "wobble" of a machine that grafts amino acids onto transfer RNAs, as news from Japan's RIKEN says. Note all the intelligent-design language:
When proteins are produced in cells based on the "genetic code" of codons, there is a precise process under which molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA) bind to specific amino acids and then transport them to cellular factories called ribosomes where the amino acids are placed together, step by step, to form a protein. Mistakes in this process, which is mediated by enzymes called synthetases, can be disastrous, as they can lead to improperly formed proteins. Thankfully, the tRNA molecules are matched to the proper amino acids with great precision, but we still lack a fundamental understanding of how this selection takes place.
By studying one of the synthetases that matches alanine to its proper tRNA, they found that its amazing specificity is partly due to the way it "wobbles" to ensure that alanine, and not a look-alike, gets fastened (see the news report in Nature). A single base-pair mutation, they found, reduces binding by a hundredfold. This implies that there is "a specific recognition signal" in the wobble itself.
Still, one of the researchers found a way to insert the word "evolution" into a discovery that has design all over it like white on rice:
According to Yokoyama, "this is a fascinating finding that may give us new insights into how living systems can so accurately translate their genetic code through processes that are at their core stochastic or random, using even small structural changes. Our work is interesting in terms of the evolution of the genetic code, since acceptor stem recognition is important for the concept of the 'second genetic code'. The findings in this paper may show a previously unknown mechanism of tRNA recognition inherited from a distant ancestor."
No such "distant ancestor" is, however, identified.
Rise of the epigenome. Early geneticists following Watson and Crick did not expect to find information beyond the A, T, C, and G letters they identified as the genetic code. Now, hidden storehouses of additional information are opening up to view, becoming more vital, in some cases, than the genes themselves.
Puzzled by the lower-than-expected count of actual protein-coding genes in the human genome, researchers at CNIO (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas) in Spain started thinking that they needed to look outside the genome for the extra information -- especially after Alfonso Valencia's team revised downward the number of human genes to 19,000.
"The shrinking human genome," that's how Valencia describes the continuous corrections to the numbers of the protein-coding genes in the human genome over the years that has culminated in the approximately 19,000 human genes described in the present work. "The coding part of the genome [which produces proteins] is constantly moving," he adds: "No one could have imagined a few years ago that such a small number of genes could make something so complex."
Even more puzzled that so few genes separate humans from other primates, or from mice, or even from the one-millimeter sized lab roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, they figured that the genome cannot be the whole story. There must be a way that the genome is "doing more with less." The article explains, "The physiological and developmental differences between primates are likely to be caused by gene regulation rather than by differences in the basic functions of the proteins in question." But where would the regulatory information be stored?
The sources of human complexity lie more in how genes are used rather than on the number of genes, in the thousands of chemical changes that occur in proteins or in the control of the production of these proteins by non-coding regions of the genome, which comprise 90% of the entire genome and which have been described in the latest findings of the international ENCODE project, a Project in which the Valencia team participates.
In short, there is more information in the genomes of organisms than first appears by counting genes. Attachment of methylation tags (the "histone code") is one such mechanism that has been studied for years now. A recent paper in PNAS identified an "evolutionarily conserved" epigenetic marker in rice that, if mutated, causes death of the plant. Genome stability in both animals and plants depends on the molecular machine that attaches this tag correctly, the paper says.
Ribosomal frameshifting: Shifting the triplet code by a single letter might seem like a recipe for disaster, but scientists at the University of Maryland found a method in the madness. "Frameshifting," in which codons in the ribosome are read from the second letter instead of the first, provides an "alternate operating manual," they say. Cells use the shift to good advantage in certain situations.
Working with a gene that plays a critical role in HIV infection, University of Maryland researchers have discovered that some human genes have an alternate set of operating instructions written into their protein-making machinery. The alternate instructions can quickly alter the proteins' contents, functions and ability to survive.
Their term "programmed ribosomal frameshifting" is suggestive of function. The UM scientists' paper in Nature "is the first to show that a human gene uses programmed ribosomal frameshifting to change how it assembles proteins." During a disease attack, for instance, a gene might want to frameshift its code so that a nonsense RNA transcript results, yielding a polypeptide that would be destroyed after exiting the ribosome. Why would that be good? Maryland's Jonathan Dinman thinks it could act like "a dimmer switch, lowering the immune response to a safe level," thus avoiding excessive inflammation.
"Dinman has long suspected that human cells also have frameshift signals, and that they are useful," we learn. That's science looking for design, not junk.
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Information On Groud Sharks
What do ground sharks look like? How do they behave? Everything you need to know about ground sharks?
What do they look like?
Ground sharks comprise some of the most familiar-looking sharks known to man. This family includes the whale sharks, which are the some of the largest, fiercest sharks, and the leopard sharks, which are among the most colorful sharks. Ground sharks can take on quite a few different forms, including variances in shapes, weight, and color. However, the general characteristics of ground sharks are that they are rather aerodynamic looking, have two dorsal fins that are without spines, an anal fin, and five slits for gills near their heads.
How do they behave?
Ground sharks prefer warmer water in which to reside, and they like to live within a few hundred miles of land. You won't find many of them in the deep ends of the sea, but that's not to say there aren't a few exceptions.
What else should you know about ground sharks?
These sharks are mostly carnivorous. What they like eating most varies from species to species, but in general, they'll eat anything from small fish, large fish, squid, turtles, snakes, and even other sharks. So, you can see they don't generally discriminate in their diets. Different types of ground sharks have different abilities to catch food. For example, the hammerhead shark has a long hammer-like snout that enables it to have a better opportunity to catch much quicker prey. The hammerhead likes eating squid. And while squid are generally known as quick animals, the hammerhead is at a great advantage, when it can use its snout to get what it wants.
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[Contribution to the Reimagining Society Project hosted by ZCommunications / originally published in For Reasons of State (1973)]
A French writer, sympathetic to anarchism, wrote in the 1890s that "anarchism has a broad back, like paper it endures anything" — including, he noted those whose acts are such that "a mortal enemy of anarchism could not have done better."1 There have been many styles of thought and action that have been referred to as "anarchist." It would be hopeless to try to encompass all of these conflicting tendencies in some general theory or ideology. And even if we proceed to extract from the history of libertarian thought a living, evolving tradition, as Daniel Guérin does in Anarchism, it remains difficult to formulate its doctrines as a specific and determinate theory of society and social change. The anarchist historian Rudolph Rocker, who presents a systematic conception of the development of anarchist thought towards anarchosyndicalism, along lines that bear comparison to Guérins work, puts the matter well when he writes that anarchism is not a fixed, self-enclosed social system but rather a definite trend in the historic development of mankind, which, in contrast with the intellectual guardianship of all clerical and governmental institutions, strives for the free unhindered unfolding of all the individual and social forces in life. Even freedom is only a relative, not an absolute concept, since it tends constantly to become broader and to affect wider circles in more manifold ways. For the anarchist, freedom is not an abstract philosophical concept, but the vital concrete possibility for every human being to bring to full development all the powers, capacities, and talents with which nature has endowed him, and turn them to social account. The less this natural development of man is influenced by ecclesiastical or political guardianship, the more efficient and harmonious will human personality become, the more will it become the measure of the intellectual culture of the society in which it has grown.2
One might ask what value there is in studying a "definite trend in the historic development of mankind" that does not articulate a specific and detailed social theory. Indeed, many commentators dismiss anarchism as utopian, formless, primitive, or otherwise incompatible with the realities of a complex society. One might, however, argue rather differently: that at every stage of history our concern must be to dismantle those forms of authority and oppression that survive from an era when they might have been justified in terms of the need for security or survival or economic development, but that now contribute to — rather than alleviate — material and cultural deficit. If so, there will be no doctrine of social change fixed for the present and future, nor even, necessarily, a specific and unchanging concept of the goals towards which social change should tend. Surely our understanding of the nature of man or of the range of viable social forms is so rudimentary that any far-reaching doctrine must be treated with great skepticism, just as skepticism is in order when we hear that "human nature" or "the demands of efficiency" or "the complexity of modern life" requires this or that form of oppression and autocratic rule.
Nevertheless, at a particular time there is every reason to develop, insofar as our understanding permits, a specific realization of this definite trend in the historic development of mankind, appropriate to the tasks of the moment. For Rocker, "the problem that is set for our time is that of freeing man from the curse of economic exploitation and political and social enslavement"; and the method is not the conquest and exercise of state power, nor stultifying parliamentarianism, but rather "to reconstruct the economic life of the peoples from the ground up and build it up in the spirit of Socialism."
But only the producers themselves are fitted for this task, since they are the only value-creating element in society out of which a new future can arise. Theirs must be the task of freeing labor from all the fetters which economic exploitation has fastened on it, of freeing society from all the institutions and procedure of political power, and of opening the way to an alliance of free groups of men and women based on co-operative labor and a planned administration of things in the interest of the community. To prepare the toiling masses in the city and country for this great goal and to bind them together as a militant force is the objective of modern Anarcho-syndicalism, and in this its whole purpose is exhausted. [P. 108]
As a socialist, Rocker would take for granted "that the serious, final, complete liberation of the workers is possible only upon one condition: that of the appropriation of capital, that is, of raw material and all the tools of labor, including land, by the whole body of the workers."3 As an anarchosyndicalist, he insists, further, that the workers’ organizations create "not only the ideas, but also the facts of the future itself" in the prerevolutionary period, that they embody in themselves the structure of the future society — and he looks forward to a social revolution that will dismantle the state apparatus as well as expropriate the expropriators. "What we put in place of the government is industrial organization."
Anarcho-syndicalists are convinced that a Socialist economic order cannot be created by the decrees and statutes of a government, but only by the solidaric collaboration of the workers with hand and brain in each special branch of production; that is, through the taking over of the management of all plants by the producers themselves under such form that the separate groups, plants, and branches of industry are independent members of the general economic organism and systematically carry on production and the distribution of the products in the interest of the community on the basis of free mutual agreements. [p. 94]
Rocker was writing at a moment when such ideas had been put into practice in a dramatic way in the Spanish Revolution. Just prior to the outbreak of the revolution, the anarchosyndicalist economist Diego Abad de Santillan had written:
…in facing the problem of social transformation, the Revolution cannot consider the state as a medium, but must depend on the organization of producers.
We have followed this norm and we find no need for the hypothesis of a superior power to organized labor, in order to establish a new order of things. We would thank anyone to point out to us what function, if any, the State can have in an economic organization, where private property has been abolished and in which parasitism and special privilege have no place. The suppression of the State cannot be a languid affair; it must be the task of the Revolution to finish with the State. Either the Revolution gives social wealth to the producers in which case the producers organize themselves for due collective distribution and the State has nothing to do; or the Revolution does not give social wealth to the producers, in which case the Revolution has been a lie and the State would continue.
Our federal council of economy is not a political power but an economic and administrative regulating power. It receives its orientation from below and operates in accordance with the resolutions of the regional and national assemblies. It is a liaison corps and nothing else.4
Engels, in a letter of 1883, expressed his disagreement with this conception as follows:
The anarchists put the thing upside down. They declare that the proletarian revolution must begin by doing away with the political organization of the state….But to destroy it at such a moment would be to destroy the only organism by means of which the victorious proletariat can assert its newly-conquered power, hold down its capitalist adversaries, and carry out that economic revolution of society without which the whole victory must end in a new defeat and a mass slaughter of the workers similar to those after the Paris commune.5
In contrast, the anarchists — most eloquently Bakunin — warned of the dangers of the "red bureaucracy," which would prove to be "the most vile and terrible lie that our century has created."6 The anarchosyndicalist Fernand Pelloutier asked: "Must even the transitory state to which we have to submit necessarily and fatally be a collectivist jail? Can’t it consist in a free organization limited exclusively by the needs of production and consumption, all political institutions having disappeared?"7
I do not pretend to know the answers to this question. But it seems clear that unless there is, in some form, a positive answer, the chances for a truly democratic revolution that will achieve the humanistic ideals of the left are not great. Martin Buber put the problem succinctly when he wrote: "One cannot in the nature of things expect a little tree that has been turned into a club to put forth leaves."8 The question of conquest or destruction of state power is what Bakunin regarded as the primary issue dividing him from Marx.9 In one form or another, the problem has arisen repeatedly in the century since, dividing "libertarian" from "authoritarian" socialists.
Despite Bakunin’s warnings about the red bureaucracy, and their fulfillment under Stalin’s dictatorship, it would obviously be a gross error in interpreting the debates of a century ago to rely on the claims of contemporary social movements as to their historical origins. In particular, it is perverse to regard Bolshevism as "Marxism in practice." Rather, the left-wing critique of Bolshevism, taking account of the historical circumstances surrounding the Russian Revolution, is far more to the point.10
The anti-Bolshevik, left-wing labor movement opposed the Leninists because they did not go far enough in exploiting the Russian upheavals for strictly proletarian ends. They became prisoners of their environment and used the international radical movement to satisfy specifically Russian needs, which soon became synonymous with the needs of the Bolshevik Party-State. The "bourgeois" aspects of the Russian Revolution were now discovered in Bolshevism i
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http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/notes-on-anarchism-by-noam-chomsky/
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While most of the processes are similar, there are some notable differences between the actions of skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle.
Cardiac-muscle cells are striated, and are a lot like skeletal-muscle cells except that in cardiac muscle, the fibers are interconnected. The sarcoplasmic reticulum of cardiac-muscle cells is not as well-developed as that of skeletal-muscle cells. Cardiac-muscle contraction is actin-regulated, meaning that the calcium ions come both from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (as in skeletal muscle) and from outside the cell (as in smooth muscle). Otherwise, the chain of events that occurs in cardiac-muscle contraction is similar to that of skeletal muscle.
Compared to skeletal muscle, smooth-muscle cells are small. They are spindle-shaped, about 50 to 200 microns long and only 2 to 10 microns in diameter. They have no striations or sarcomeres. Instead, they have bundles of thin and thick filaments (as opposed to well-developed bands) that correspond to myofibrils. In smooth-muscle cells, intermediate filaments are interlaced through the cell much like the threads in a pair of "fish-net" stockings. The intermediate filaments anchor the thin filaments and correspond to the Z-disks of skeletal muscle. Unlike skeletal-muscle cells, smooth-muscle cells have no troponin, tropomyosin or organized sarcoplasmic reticulum.
As in skeletal-muscle cells, contraction in a smooth-muscle cell involves the forming of crossbridges and thin filaments sliding past thick filaments. However, because smooth muscle is not as organized as skeletal muscle, shortening occurs in all directions. During contraction, the smooth-muscle cell's intermediate filaments help to draw the cell up, like closing a drawstring purse.
Calcium ions regulate contraction in smooth muscle, but they do it in a slightly different way than in skeletal muscle:
- Calcium ions come from outside of the cell.
- Calcium ions bind to an enzyme complex on myosin, called calmodulin-myosin light chain kinase.
- The enzyme complex breaks up ATP into ADP and transfers the Pi directly to myosin.
- This Pi transfer activates myosin.
- Myosin forms crossbridges with actin (as occurs in skeletal muscle).
- When calcium is pumped out of the cell, the Pi gets removed from myosin by another enzyme.
- The myosin becomes inactive, and the muscle relaxes.
This process is called myosin-regulated contraction.
For more information on muscles and related topics, check out the links on the next page.
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http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/musculoskeletal/muscle4.htm
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Character Role Analysis
Unferth to Beowulf
While at King Hrothgar's court, Beowulf is challenged by a Dane warrior, Unferth, who suggests that Beowulf isn't nearly as brave or heroic as he claims. Unferth is an example of everything not to be as a medieval Scandinavian warrior: instead of describing his own heroic deeds, he downplays those of others, and he doesn't actually perform any great deeds himself. In other words, he's just sitting around criticizing people without doing anything productive.
In contrast, Beowulf is only too ready to rush off into combat, and never insults other people. It's interesting that, even though Unferth is a negative example, there don't seem to be any hard feelings between him and Beowulf. In fact, when Beowulf goes off to fight Grendel's mother, Unferth lends him a sword.
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http://www.shmoop.com/beowulf/foil.html
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Every year I end up talking at some point about soggetto cavato, the practice of making themes from the letters of people’s names, the way Schumann used “S – C – H – A,” better known as “E-flat – C – B – A,” to stand for himself in Carnaval (S being German for E-flat, and H for B natural). I commented on the limited possibilities of my own name in this regard, but my student Ezekiel Virant came up with a possibility I hadn’t considered: a G and A followed by two Neapolitan chords, the Roman numeral analysis symbol for the Neapolitan being an N:
By this logic, I guess the first letter of Virant’s last name could be expressed by a V chord, or the submediant could cover the first two letters by itself.
While we’re talking about student takes on my name, for years I’ve been teaching the movements of the mass:
according to a mnemonic that a student named Jason came up with back when I was at Bucknell:
It’s also helpful in that I can use the movements of the mass to help me remember what it is that I can’t do.
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http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2006/05/a_theory_prof_by_any_other_nam.html
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Research Shows Hearing Loss Can Affect the Brain
Hearing loss" 30 to 40 percent of people 65 years of age and older suffer from this debilitating sensory disability, and approximately 85 percent of these go untreated.
The loss of hearing can be frustrating as it worsens, which can sometimes lead to depression. In fact, the chances of experiencing psychological problems in an individual with hearing loss is four times more likely than in someone with normal hearing.
A recent study by Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Aging suggests that over time older Americans affected with hearing loss are more likely to develop dementia than individuals with no loss of hearing.
Researchers looked at data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging (BLSA) begun in 1958 to track the health of men and women. The new study concentrated on a group of 639 people who experienced testing for hearing and cognition between 1990 and 1994. While roughly 25% of the individuals were affected with hearing loss during this period, none of them had developed dementia.
The subjects were given examinations every one or two years. When tested in 2008, it was found that dementia had developed in 58 of the participants. Even after examining other risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, age and sex, a strong correlation remained between hearing loss and dementia.
While it was concluded that subjects with hearing loss were more likely to develop dementia, the chances were exponentially greater as the level of hearing loss increased from mild to moderate to severe.
Frank Lin, M. D., Ph. D, who is an assistant professor in the Division of Otology at Johns Hopkins served as the study leader. "Researchers have looked at what affects hearing loss, but few have looked at how hearing loss affects cognitive brain function," he stated. "There hasn't been much crosstalk between otologists and geriatricians, so it's been unclear whether hearing loss and dementia [were] related."??
Lin and his team suspect two possibilities for the link between hearing loss and dementia. Either a common disease pattern triggers both problems, or the strain of having to decipher sounds over time might overwhelm the brain. They also suspect that social isolation - sometimes a result of hearing loss - might lead to dementia, as it is a known risk factor.
It is hopeful that the findings of Dr. Lin and his team may shed light on the importance of intervention when it comes to hearing loss and that more individuals will seek treatment. In addition to hearing aids as a valuable resource, a new product has recently been developed that can boost the performance of a hearing aid.
A hearing loop is a thin copper wire that sends electromagnetic signals and is mounted around the periphery of a room. The signals are received by a small telecoil that can be installed into hearing aids and with the press of a button, a hearing-impaired person can hear as well (or better) than a person who is not impaired. These loops have been installed in a growing number of public buildings.
While the development of the hearing loop is beneficial to people with hearing loss, more research is needed to investigate even better ways to improve hearing and possibly prevent or slow the development of dementia.
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http://www.ivlproducts.com/Health-Library/Health-Concerns/Brain-Health/Research-Shows-Hearing-Loss-Can-Affect-the-Brain/
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Here is your research paper on human genetics, chromosomes and genes!
We inherit some physical and biochemical characters from our parents and ancestors. Transmission of inherited characters or traits through generations is known as the heredity. Genetics is that branch of bioscience which deals with the study of the underlying principles of heredity.
It has been established that the hereditary characters or traits are transmitted by the genes of the chromosomes. The expression of inherited characters is, however, modified by the environments in which an individual grows and develops.
A basic knowledge of human chromosomes and genes is, therefore, essential to understand the principles of genetics.
Chromosomes are deeply stained thread-like structures within the nucleus of each animal cell. Genes are borne by the chromosomes in linear series as parts of specific DNA molecule. Individual chromosomes are visible under the microscope only during cell division.
During interphase of the cell, the nucleus contains a network of chromatin threads or granules but not individual chromosome, because each chromosome becomes uncoiled into long thin thread which is beyond the resolution of the light microscope. But some chromosomes remain coiled at places and these are identified as chromatin granules in the interphase (Fig. 11-1).
The uncoiled portion of the chromosome is known as euchromatin which is genetically active; the coiled portion is called heterochromatin which is genetically inert. During cell division, each chromosome is tightly coiled along its entire length and becomes shorter and thicker. Eventually individual chromosomes are readily visible under the microscope (Fig. 11-2).
Therefore, the chromosomes are genetically inactive during cell division. All biochemical activities of chromosomes in the form of DNA replication, mRNA formation and protein synthesis take place during interphase which consists of three stages of the cell cycle—G1 (Gap 1), S (Synthesis), G2 (Gap 2) stages. DNA replication takes place in S stage and covers a period of about 7 hours.
Each chromosome presents a primary constriction known as centromere or kinetocore which is attached to the achromatic spindle during cell division and organises the formation of the chromosomal microtubule (Fig. 11- 3a).
In prophase of cell division, each chromo-some splits longitudinally into two chromatids except at the centromere (Fig. 1 l-3b). The free ends of the chromatids are known as the telomeres, which when intact, do not permit fusion with the chromatids of adjacent chromosomes. The chromatids of some chromosomes present secondary contsrictions near one end, and the segment of chromatids distal to constrictions form satellite bodies (Fig. 11- 3c, d). The secondary constrictions are believed to organise the formation of nucleoli.
Types of Chromosomes (Fig. 11 -4):
The centromeres occupy variable positions in relation to their pair of chromatids. Accordingly, the chromosomes may be called metacentric when centromere is in the middle, sub-metacentric when the centromere is slightly shifted from the middle, acrocentric when it is situated close to the end, and telocentric if the centromere occupies the end of the chromosome. The telocentric chromosomes are not present in human being, unless pathological. Most of the acrocentric chromosomes exhibit satellite bodies on their shorter arms separated by the secondary constrictions. The shorter arms of chromatids are symbolised by p and longer arms by q.
Number of Chromosomes:
The number of chromosomes is constant in a species. In human, the number is 46 (diploid) in all somatic cells and immature germ cells, but 23 (haploid) in number in mature germ cells or gametes. The exact number of 46 chromosomes in each somatic cell of normal human being was first detected by Tjio and Levan (1956) with the advent of tissue culture.
Some hereditary disorders are associated with the alteration of chromosomal number. When the number is increased by multiple of haploid (23) chromosomes (other than diploid number), the condition is known as polyploidy. If polyploidy, say triploidy or tetraploidy, affects all somatic cells, survival rate is poor. Polyploidy at zygote stage may be due to fertilization of an ovum by more than one spermatozoa.
Under normal conditions, polyploidy may be found in some liver cells and in the mucosa of the urinary bladder. This may occur in telophase of mitosis, when after the formation of two nuclear membranes enveloping diploid number of chromosomes, the cytoplasm fails to divide and the two nuclear membranes fuse enveloping double number of diploid chromosomes.
Aneuploidy is a condition where the chromosome number is altered by one or more, but not by multiples of haploid. Most of the hazards of chromosomal number take place at anaphase. After splitting of the centromeres, one or more chromosomes fail to migrate properly due to abnormal function of achromatic spindle. The phenomenon is known as the nondisjunction.
As a result, both members of a particular pair go to one daughter cell which receives extra chromosome (trisomy), and the other daughter cell is deficient in that chromosome (monosomy). Sometimes after splitting of the centromere one member of the newly formed chromosome separates as usual forming normal chromosome complement in one daughter cell, whereas the other member fails to reach the opposite pole of the spindle resulting in deficiency of that chromosome (monosomy) in the other daughter cell. This is known as anaphase lag.
Non-disjunction may take place in mitosis or meiosis and it may involve sex chromosomes as well as autosomes. Autosomal non-disjunction is less viable, particularly when is affects large chromosomes. Our body is more tolerent to the trisomic cells than the monosomic one. The monosomic cells degenerate early. Turner’s syndrome of female with 45, XO chromosomal constitution is possibly the only example of viable monosomic individual. If non- disjuncion takes place in first cleavage division of the zygote, then all cells are aneuploid and the individual shows mosaicism with half of the total cells being trisomic and other half monosomic.
When non-disjunction occurs in meiosis I, all four gametes are abnormal (two with 24 chromosomes, and two with 22 chromosomes). If it takes place in meiosis II, two gametes are normal and two abnormal. When fertilization takes place between normal and abnormal gametes, all cells of the organism derived from that zygote are aneuploid. Nondisjunction in gametogenesis is sometimes observed in elderly females (35 years and above). Possibly the primary oocyte which starts first meiotic division in prenatal life, completes the process just before ovulation after a prolonged interval of about 40 years more. Delayed completion of first meiosis of oocyte might favour non-disjunction.
Arrangements of Chromosomes:
Fortysix chromosomes in each somatic cell of normal human being are arranged in 23 pairs. Twenty two pairs are known as the autosomes, the genes of which regulate the body characters; the remaining pair is known as the sex chromosomes which regulate primarily the sex characters. One member of each pair is paternal, and the other member maternal in origin.
The pairing takes place between the identical chromosomes which are identical in length, position of the centromere, banding pattern, and distribution of genes. The paired chromosomes are known as the homologous chromosomes (Fig. 11-5).
In female the two sex chromosomes are identical in length and are symbolised by XX. In male, paired sex chromosomes are unequal in length and are symbolised by XY. The longer one is represented by X, and the shorter one by Y. During pairing of the male sex chromosomes, both have homologous and non-ho-mologous parts (Fig. 11-6).
The genes or cistrons, which are parts of specific DNA molecule, are contained within the chromosomes in a linear series. They form the functional units of hereditary characters. The position of a gene in the chromosome is called its locus which is mentioned with reference to the centromere.
The genes do not change the loci, except in alternation of chromosomal morphology or in recombination due to cross-over in meiosis. The genes occupying the identical loci in a pair of homologous chromosomes are known as allelomorphs or alleles (See Fig. 11-5). The allelic genes regulate different specific physical and biochemical characters, through the formation of RNA and biosythesis of proteins.
In chromosome preparation from mitotic cell culture (after arresting cell division at metaphase), the homologous pairs of chromosomes are not visualised. The homologous pairs are only matched during karyotyping from the enlarged photomicrographs. In zygotene stage of the prophase of first meiotic division, however, the homologous chromosomes are found in pairs establishing point to point relationship; this phenomenon is known as synapsis.
Sex Chromatin or Barr bodies:
During interphase, somatic cell of normal female presents a heterochromatin plano-convex body beneath the nuclear membrane. This is known as sex chromatin or Barr body. It was first detected by Barr and Bertram in 1949 in the nuclei of the phrenic nerve cells of female cat. Out of two X chromosomes in normal female, one of them is highly coiled and the other member highly uncoiled. The highly coiled genetically inactive X chromosome forms the Barr body, which is plastered beneath the nuclear membrane (Fig. 11-7).
These bodies help in the nuclear sexing of the tissues. Barr bodies are easily found in those cells, which possess open-faced nuclei. Usually Barr bodies are studied from the cells of buccal smear, or by observing ‘drum stick’ bodies attached to the nuclei of polymorph nuclear leucocytes.
The number of Barr bodies in a cell is equal to the total number of X chromosomes minus one. In a normal female with two X chromosomes the number of body is one. In triple X sydrome (XXX) the number is increased to two; in a female with Turner’s syndrome having only one X chromosome (XO), Barr body is absent. In male with Klinefelter’s syndrome having XXY chromosomes (trisomy), Barr body is present.
The presence of Y chromosome in male is detected as intensely fluorescent body (F- body) within the nucleus, when a buccal smear is stained with flurochrome dye and examined under fluorescence microscope. Since this technique is costly and the slide quickly deteriorates, it is usually not employed to study the sex chromatin status.
Chemical structure of Chromosomes:
On chemical analysis each chromosome is found to contain DNA, small amount of RNA, histone and non-histone proteins, and metallic ions. DNA is the most essential and stable molecular constituent of chromosomes.
Recent studies have revealed that each eukaryote chromosome contains a single continuous double stranded DNA molecule. Most of the DNA molecule exists in the chromosome as a highly coiled or folded structure. DNA in active state of transcription is most extended and becomes euchromatic; inactive DNA region remains highly coiled and becomes heterochromatic. The degree of coiling of DNA varies with the rate of protein synthesis in the different phase of cell cycle.
Two types of permanent hetero-chromatic regions are observed in human chromosomes;
(a) Facultative heterochromatin ’affects inactive X chromosome of normal female. In early embryogenesis of female, both X chromosomes are actively involved in the development of ovaries; thereafter one of X chromosomes becomes permanently inactive and forms a heterochromatic Barr body.
(b) Constitutive heterochromatin is observed in the primary and secondary constrictions of chromosomes. Repetitive sequence of DNA bases, rich in guanine and cytosine, are said to be present in constitutive heterochromatin and in satellite bodies. Repetitive DNA in some parts of chromosomes possibly codes for intrinsic molecules in the form of ribosomal RNAs, transfer RNAs and regulatory proteins.
Histones are basic proteins rich in arginine and lysine. These proteins are aggregated as spheroidal particles along the DNA strand which is coiled around each particle and forms a complex body known as nucleosome or v- body (Fig. 11-8). Each nucleosome is made up of four pairs of histones which are arranged in two symmetrical groups. Experimental evidence suggests that the association of DNA with histone represses gene activity.
Non-histone proteins are acidic and form many enzymes, e.g. DNA polymerase and RNA polymerase. Some of non-histone proteins disengage the histones from nucleosome and derepress gene activity.
Procedure of Chromosomal analysis:
For cytogenetic study of chromosomes, cells are chosen which grow and divide rapidly in culture. The most commonly used tissues are skin, bone marrow and peripheral blood.
The principles of chromosome preparation from peripheral blood are as follows:
(a) About 1-2 ml. of blood is withdrawn from a vein, heparinised and treated with phyto- hemagglutinin, extracted from red kidney bean.
The phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulates the lymphocytes (particularly T-cells) to proliferate by mitosis and selectively allows agglutination and sedimentation of mature erythrocytes.
(b) Aliquot of the plasma with suspended lymphocytes is now transferred to culture bottles under sterile condition containing TC199 (Difco) as the culture medium. Incubation in culture bottle continues for about 3 days at 37°C with the addition of streptomycin and penicillin as preservatives.
(c) Colchicine is now added to the culture and kept for about 2 hours. Colchicine arrests the cell division at metaphase, by preventing the formation of microtubules of achromatic spindle. At metaphase, the chromatids united by centromeres are maximally contracted.
(d) Cells are collected by centrifugation of the contents of culture bottle. Hypotonic solution of sodium citrate is added to the cells and incubated for about 20 minutes. The hypotonic solution allows the cells to swell and to disperse the chromosomes.
(e) The hypotonic medium is discarded by centrifugation. Now fixatives of mixture of ethanol and acetic acid are added to the pellet of cells, and are gently shaken to form a cell suspension.
(f) Small drops of cell suspension are placed across one end of chemically cleaned slides. The slides are allowed to dry at room temperature.
(g) Staining—For conventional study of chromosomal pattern, Giemsa stain is widely used with good results (Fig. 11-9).
Precise identification of individual chromosomes is now made possible by noting pattern of bands on chromosomes after applying any of the four different staining techniques:
When fixed metaphase chromosomes are stained with quinacrine hydrochloride or quinacrine mustard, certain chromosome bands appear as fluorescent regions under fluorescent microscopy. These Q- banding patterns (fluorescent) are unique for each chromosome. Presumably the regions of Q-bands are more rich in adenine (A) and thymine (T) bases of DNA than the interband regions. A particularly large Q-band is evident in the distal part of the long arm of Y chromosome, even during interphase.
The fixed chromosomes are subjected to mild treatment with proteolytic enzymes (trypsin) before staining. The enzymes are capable of denaturing the protein in the chromosomes. When stained with Giemsa after such treatment, a pattern of dark staining G-bands may be seen on the chromosomes under a light microscope.
The G-banding and Q-banding regions of chromosomes closely correspond. Comings (1974) has suggested that proteins remaining after denaturation might prevent the staining material from getting into certain regions of DNA. It is possible that less protein might be associated with A-T rich DNA; this explains the concordance of G and Q-bands.
The G bands and Q-band regions are rich A-T base pairs; they correspond with the heterochromatin regions of chromosomes where DNA replication takes place slightly later. The interband regions are rich in G-C base pairs.
This is the reverse of G- binding, where inter band regions are demonstrated by Giemsa stain after heating to 87°C. The R-binding is complementary to G-binding.
After harsh treatment of fixed chromosomes with alkali, acid or salt, the Giemsa stain reveals a stained region, the С-band, close to the centromere. The C-banding is, however, not evident in Y chromosome.
Chromosome banding helps to locate certain abnormalities of chromosome structure, such as deletion and translocation of specific regions of chromosomes.
It is a process of arranging the chromosomes in order. Enlarged photomicrograph of a chromosome ‘spread’ is taken from the stained slide. Individual chromosomes are cut out from the photograph, matched with homologous pairs, and are arranged in a sequence, the longest chromosomes being placed at the beginning and the shortest at the end.
Individual chromosomes are identified according to their length, position of centromere, length-ratio between their arms and presence of satellite bodies on their arms. (Fig. 11-10) Banding pattern adds further to the identification of individual chromosomes. (Fig. 11-11).
Classification of human chromosomes:
According to ‘Denver System’ of classification (1960), human chromosomes including sex chromosomes are arranged into seven groups from A to G, in order of decreasing length.
(1) Group A:
It includes pairs of 1, 2, 3 chromosomes. Each of them is long and metacentric. However, chromosome 2 placed in Group A is the longest sub-metacentric chromosome.
(2) Group В:
It consists of pairs of 4 and 5 chromosomes, which are fairly long with sub- metacentric centromeres.
(3) Group С:
It is a large group and includes pairs of 6 to 12 chromosomes; X chromosomes also belongs to this group. Most of them are of medium size and sub-metacentric. Banding patterns help identification of individual chromosomes.
(4) Group D:
13 to 15 chromosome pairs belong to this group. All of them are medium sized and acrocentric. A satellite body is attached to the free end of the short arm of each chromosome.
(5) Group E:
It includes chromosome numbers 16 to 18. They are fairly short sub- metacentric chromosomes.
(6) Group F:
19 and 20 chromosomes in pairs belong to this group. Each of them is short and metacentric.
(7) Group G:
It includes 21 and 22 pairs of chromosomes; Y chromosome belongs to this group. Each of them is very short and acrocentric, 21 and 22 chromosomes present satellite bodies on their short arms. The distal ends of long arms of Y chromosome present fluorescent bodies after staining with a flurochrome dye.
Points of Observation:
(a) 1 to 3 chromosomes of group A, and 19, 20 chromosomes of group F are metacentric.
(b) 13 to 15 chromosomes of group D, and 21, 22 and Y chromosomes of group G are acrocentric. Five chromosome pairs comprising 13, 14, 15, 21, 22 possess satellite bodies; hence called sat-ch.ro- mosomes. Sat-chromosomes are concerned with orgainsation of the nucleoli.
(c) Rest of the chromosomes are sub- metacentric.
Gene Localisation on Chromosomes:
Gene localisation on particular human chromosomes, although difficult to determine, may be assessed by pedigree analysis, by studying patients with a chromosome deletion and by studying segregation of ‘marker’ genes in families with a particular hereditary disorder. Marker genes are frequent in the general population. The autosomal marker traits include the blood groups and certain serum proteins.
The X-linked marker traits include colour-blindness, the Xg blood group and in some cases glucose- 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Pedigree studies have demonstrated close linkage between the gene loci of ABO blood group and nail-patella syndrome, and between the Duffy blood group and one form of congenital cataract.
Gene mapping on individual chromosomes is further improved by using restriction enzymes (endonuclease) which are synthesized by many bacteria. Restriction enzymes divide the DNA into fragments of variable length by cutting between the specific sequence of bases, the sites of which are different for different enzymes. Such restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) acts as DNA finger print, and is detected by adopting Recombinant DNA Technology.
Analysis of DNA structure by RFLP, makes it possible to determine which parent is the source of a defective chromosome. This helps in genetic counselling, in investigation of crimes and determining paternity. About 50,000-100,000 genes are estimated to be present in the total human genome with 3 billion base pairs. As of early 1993, over 2500 loci have been assigned to specific positions on the human genetic map.
Abnormalities of about 450 of these genes have been linked to human diseases. Some of the important gene localisation on autosomes are placed herewith.
1 – Dufy blood group, Rh factor, histone proteins, congenital catract, retinitis pigmentosa.
2 – Red cell acid phosphatase. Kappa light chain of immunoglobulin.
5 – Hexosaminidase-B
6 – Major histocompatibility complex (HLA), spino-cerebeller ataxia, adrenogenital syndrome.
7 – Collagen structural gene.
9 – ABO blood group, nail-patella syndrome.
14 – Heavy chain of immunoglobulin
15 – Hexosaminidase-A 17- Thymidine Kinase
19- Polio and echo virus sensitivity
20 – Adenosine deaminase
21 – Down syndrome gene; a gene for Alzheimer’s disease;
22 – Genes for lambda light chain of immunoglobulin
The X chromosome appears to contain the loci for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, haemophilia A, colour vision and Becker muscular dystrophy on the long arm, and the Xg blood group, ichthyosis vulgaris, ocular albinism and X-linked mental retardation loci on the short arm.
The Y chromosome contains male determining ‘SRY’ genes, a component of TDF (testis determining factor). Presence of a single Y chromosome induces the development of testes; the foetal testes liberate testosterone and mullerian regression factor, which by local action allow the differentiation of the mesonephric tubules and ducts to develop into the duct system of testes and at the same time help regression of the paramesonephric ducts (mullerian system). Thus Y chromosome by train of events induces the development of male gonads, the sex ducts and external genitalia expressing the male phenotype.
But in ‘testicular feminisation’ syndrome with XY chromosomes, the individual appears to be perfect female with breasts and female external genitalia, but with intra-abdominal testes. Due to genetic defect of Y chromosome, the mullerian system becomes unresponsive to the effects of male hormones liberated by the foetal testes.
A normal male presents XY chromosomes constitution; but when an individual possesses more than one X chromosomes with single Y chromosome (47, XXY; 48 XXXY), the subject is phenotypically male with dysgenesis of seminiferous tubules (Klinefelter’s syndrome). Therefore, Y chromosome presents potent male determining genes, irrespective of number of X chromosomes. But the presence of extra X chromosomes in Klinefelter’s syndrome imparts reduced fertility and makes the individual somewhat mentally retarded.
In addition to male determining genes, Y chromosome contains genes for hairy pinna and H-Y (histocompatibility) antigen. The length of Y chromosome varies from person to person and follows the principle of Mendelism. Due to the presence of H-Y antigen, male grafts are occasionally rejected by females of the same strain.
A normal female possesses XX chromosome constitution. In early embryogenesis both X chromosomes are genetically active and induce the development of ovaries. Thereafter, one X chromosome becomes heterochromatic and genetically inert, and persists as sex chromatin or Barr body (Faculative heterochromatin). Foetal ovaries do not secrete any hormone. Therefore in absence of testes (with or without ovaries) Wolffian system (mesonephric) regresses and Mullerian system (paramesonephric) differentiates into female sex organs and female external genitalia.
On rare occasions an individual with XX chromosome constitution appears male in phenotype; this suggests the presence of testis-determining genes in one of the two X chromosomes which are of Y origin. This rare inheritance is possible in an individual due to cross-over in gametogenesis on the paternal side. It is curiously observed that persons with 45, XO chromosome constitution may remain alive, but 45, YO combination is non-viable.
Structural Alteration of Chromosomes (Fig. 11-12):
It means loss of a segment of chromosome, which may be terminal or interstitial. Interstital deletion resulting from two breaks is followed by a union of the broken ends. In ‘cri du chat’ syndrome, terminal part of the short arm of chromosome 5 is deleted.
Exchange of segments between non-homologus chromosomes is known as translocation. The process of translocation requires breaks of both non-homologous chromosomes, followed by repair leading to an abnormal arrangement. A translocation may not always produce abnormal phenotype, but it can lead to formation of unbalanced gametes and carries a high risk of abnormal progeny.
Reciprocal translocation between two pairs of non-homologous chromosomes may be heterozygous when only one of the chromosomes in a pair is involved, or homozygous when both members of a chromosome pair have exchanged segments with one another. Sometimes translocation involves three breaks and a broken part of a chromosome is inserted into a non-homologous chromosome, whereas other non-homologous chromosome presents interstitial deletion.
Robertsonian translocation or centric fusion is a special type of translocation in which the breaks occur at the centromeres of the two chromosomes and whole chromosome arms are exchanged. In a man, it usually involves two acrocentric chromosomes, e.g., between groups D and G, 21/22 or 21/21. In D/G translocation long arm of G chromosome is fused with long arm of D chromosome, and the fragment formed by the fusion of the short arms of the two chromosomes is lost.
Mother of a translocated Down’s syndrome is usually a carrier of D/G translocation with only 45 chromosomes. She produces four types of gametes—one with normal D chromosome, one with normal G chromosome, one with translocated D/G chromosome like carrier mother, and one with D/G chromosome and a normal G chromosome.
The offspring derived from the last variety of gamete will have 46 chromosomes but will be trisomic for chromosome 21 with manifestation of Down’s syndrome. Therefore, a carrier mother with D/G translocation will have a risk of getting a child with Down’s syndrome. When a mother carries a translocation involving both chromosomes 21, all her children will have Down’s syndrome.
A part of a chromosome is detached and later unites with the same chromosome in inverted position. The genes are not lost but placed in altered loci.
The centromere of a chromosome, due to abnormal anaphase (mitosis or meiosis), splits transversely instead of longitudinal splitting. This culminates in the formation of two chromosomes of unequal length, each presenting metacentric chromosomes with duplication of genes. The resulting chromosomes derived from transverse splitting of the centromere are known as iso-chromo- somes.
It is a process of addition of a portion of chromosome from another homologous chromosome with duplication of genes. Duplication effects of genes due to isosplitting of one X chromosomes are sometimes observed in Turner’s syndrome.
Ring chromosome is observed when a chromosome is deleted at both ends, and then the deleted ‘sticky’ ends are adhered to each other in the form of a ring. The manifestation of ring chromosome depends on the deletion of specific genes.
Symbols Used in the Cytogenetic:
p—Short arm of chromosome
q—Long arm of chromosome
+or -Sign: When placed before an appropriate symbol, it means addition or missing of the whole chromosome. For example, trisomy 21 Down’s syndrome may be represented as 47, XY+21.
When + or – singns are placed after a symbol, these indicate increase or decrease of the length of chromosome. For example, cri du chat syndrome affecting a male child with deletion of short arm of chromosome 5 is represented as 46, XY, 5p-
In philadelphia or Ph’ chromosome, reciprocal translocation occurs between long arm of chromosome 9 band 34 and long arm of chromosome 22 band 11. Therefore, karyotype of this disease is-t (9; 22) (q34; ql 1).
The notation is further refined to indicte particular bands on any specific chromosome.
Diagonal line across the chromosomes or their number indicates mosaicism, eg. XY/XX; XO/XX; XY/XXX; 45/46/47.
Genes are the units of heredity and are composed of part of specific DNA molecules. As mentioned before, genes are arranged in linear series within the chromosomes with precise sequence and number of DNA bases, different for different genes, and having a defined beginning and a defined termination. Since a single chromosomes contains one double helix of DNA molecule in a tightly coiled form, numerous genes or cistrons are borne by a single DNA molecule.
The position of a gene in the chromosome is called locus, which is measured with reference to the centromere. Usually the genes do not change the loci, except in recombination during crossing over or in alteration of chromosomal morphology.
The genes occupying identical loci in a pair of homologous chromosomes are called the allelomorphs or alleles. Broadly speaking, allelic genes regulate different physical and biochemical characters of an individual. Considered from molecular level, one pair of allelic genes regulates synthesis of one polypeptide chain.
When allelic genes regulating a particular character or trait, say height, work in the same direction (both tall or both short), they are called homozygous; when working in opposite direction (one tall and the other short), the alleles are heterozygous. Most of the hereditary traits are polygenic and produced by the complex interaction of numerous genes and influenced by environment. Sometimes, a pair of allelic genes may influence more than one character; this is known as pleiotropy.
Chemical structure of DNA (Fig. 11-13):
It has been established in 1953 by Wilkins, Watson, and Crick on X-Ray diffraction that the DNA molecule is composed of two strands of polynucleotides arranged in a double helix. Each strands consists of a backbone of altenate pentose sugar (D-2-deoxyribose) and phosphate molecule, and the two strands are held together by hydrogen bonds between the nitrogenous bases, which are attached to the sugars as side group and point towards the centre of the helix.
The bases are of two kinds, purine and pyrimidine. A purine in one strand always pairs with a pyrimidine in the other strand. Purine bases include adenine (A) and guanine (G); pyrimidine bases include thymine (T) and cytosine (C). Base pairing is specific under normal condition (when in keto form)—adenine pairs with thymine having two hydrogen bonds and is represented by A =T; guanine pairs with cytosine by three hydrogen bonds and represented by G=C.
This shows that during de- naturation of DNA, separation of the two strands at A=T level is quicker than that of G=C level. However, when the bases are in enol form, adenine may pair with cytosine and guanine with thymine. This is the basis of mutation of genes.
The two strands of DNA molecule are complementary to each other. If the base sequence of one strand is known, the base composition of the other strand can be formulated. Sequence of bases and number of nucleotides of DNA are specific, and are different in different genes. Thus innumerable forms of DNA exist in the genes and store diverse genetic information.
Functions of DNA molecule:
DNA molecules possess the following potentialities:
(1) Self Replication
(2) Biosynthesis of RNA and proteins
Self Replication (Fig. 11-14):
During nuclear division the two strands of DNA molecule separate, and each strand acts as a template and organises the formation of a new complementary strand from a pool of nucleotides as a result of specific base pairing. In this way when the cells divide, the genetic information’s are transmitted unchanged to each daughter cell. Both strands participate in the process of DNA replication, which takes places in S-phase (synthesis) of cell cycle. Replication involves several enzymes, such as DNA polymerase, DNA ligase and specific endonuclease.
Biosynthesis of RNA and Proteins:
DNA molecule also acts as a template for the synthesis of RNA, and the latter conveys the genetic message and deciphers the synthesis of specific polypeptide chain of proteins by linear linkage of amino acids. Therefore, the central dogma of molecular genetics includes DNA→RNA by a process of transcription, and RNA→ proteins by translation.
RNA (Ribose nucleic acid) differs from DNA basically in three ways: it possesses usually a single stranded polynucleotide chain; pentose sugar is D-ribose; out of four organic bases three are similar to DNA (Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine), and the fourth one is uracyl instead of thyamine. Therefore, during transcription from DNA to RNA adenine pairs with uracyl (A=U). RNA exists in three forms—messenger RNA (mRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), and transfer RNA (tRNA). Polygenic DNA molecule acts as a template for all three varieties of RNA. Unlike DNA replication, only one of the two strands of DNA molecule acts as a template for RNA.
Polynucleotide chain of mRNA is formed within the nucleus by the side of any one strand of DNA molecule with the help of RNA polymerase. During synthesis of RNA, the two strands of DNA separate (Fig. 11-15). Strand selection of DNA, for RNA synthesis, takes place with the help of RNA polymerase I for rRNA, polymerase II for mRNA and polymerase III for tRNA. Messenger RNA thus formed conveys genetic message with complementary base sequence, and moves into the cytoplasm through the nuclear pores.
A number of cytoplasmic ribosomes (containing ribosomal RNA and proteins) are attached to the polynucleotide chain of mRNA. The ribosomes are the sites where polypeptide chains of proteins are formed by the linear linkage of different amino acids.
The amino acid sequence and number are specific for different proteins; these are determined by precise reading of the base sequence of mRNA in 5′ end to 3′ end direction. Twenty (20) amino acids are involved in the biosynthesis of proteins. Before the formation of peptide linkage, the amino acids are activated and attached to one end of specific transfer RNA molecule (tRNA). Base sequence of tRNA carrying activated amino acids identifies complementary base sequence of mRNA and is attached to the latter by hydrogen bonds until a polypeptide chain of protein is formed.
Therefore mRNA, rRNA, tRNA and a number of enzymes are actively involved at different steps of biosynthesis of protein. The complicated process of biosynthesis from the polynucleotide chain of mRNA to the polypeptide chain of protein is known as translation (Fig. 11-16). The polynucleotide chain of mRNA may be monocistronic or polycistronic.
Since bases of DNA or RNA and amino acids of proteins are arranged in linear sequence, there must be some co-relation between nitrogenous bases and amino acids. DNA or RNA presents four (4) bases, and primary structure of proteins is composed of twenty (20) amino acids. After laborious experiments Nirenberg and Matthaei in 1961 established that a sequence of three (3) bases of mRNA (and therefore of complementary DNA) codes for one amino acid.
Since three consecutive bases are specific for one amino acid, the possible number of combinations of four bases taken three at a time would be 43 or 64. Such triplet of nucleotide based is called a codon. Finally, all 64 codons are discovered specifying different amino acid. However, three codons such as UAG, UGA, and UAA do not code for any amino acid; hence these three are called nonsense or terminal codons and signal the termination of polypeptide chain.
Three unpaired bases attached to one loop of tRNA are known
as anti-codons which fit with the complementary codons of mRNA. Whereas codons are read from 5′ end to 3’ end direction, anticodons are read from 3’ to 5′ direction; as stated earlier, tRNA carries activated amino acid at one end of the chain.
The Genetic Code on mRNA, and the amino acids for which they code.
Codon obey some principles:
(a) Codons are non-overlapping and follow a strict sequence along the polynucleotide strand of mRNA.
(b) They are universal and applicable to all organisms.
(c) Degenerative codons — When two or more codons stand for the same amino acid, they are said to be in degenerative form. GUU, GUC, GUA, GUG code for Valine; UUU, UUC code for phenyl alanine; UUA and UUG stand for leucine. In most cases, the first two bases remain unaffected and alteration of third base produces degeneration.
(d) Ambiguous or mis-sence codon specify different amino acids. Under normal condition UUU stands for phenyl alanine, but in presence of streptomycin it may code for leucine or isoleucine.
(e) Initiation or starting codon—AUG codes for methionine and acts as a start signal in the synthesis of polypeptide chain. The sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide chain is known as the primary structure of protein.
The free amino group at one end of the chain is known as the N-terminal end, and the free carboxyl group at the other end of the chain is called the С terminal end. Each amino acid in the chain is called a residue. The N terminal residue is considered as the first number, and the C- terminal residue as the last number of the amino acid sequence.
Methionine in the initiation complex is formylated by specific enzymes so that the peptide bond does not take place at the N-terminal end. Two codons, AUG and UGG stand only for a single amino acid; AUG for methionine and UGG for tryptophan.
(f) Terminal or non-sence codon. Three codons such as UAG, UGA and UAA do not code for any amino acids. The terminal codons signify the termination of polypeptide chain.
Current concept of gene organization:
1. As mentioned earlier, a gene is a part of specific DNA molecule which regulates the synthesis of one polypeptide chain. A typical gene is composed of a strand of DNA that includes a transcription unit and a promoter region.
The transcription unit consists of several segments of exons that dictate the formation of proteins, separated by segments of introns that are not translated into proteins. A pre- mRNA is formed from the DNA, and then the introns are eliminated in the nucleus by a process of post-transcriptional splicing, so that the final mRNA which enters the cytoplasm is made up of exons only.
The promoter region lies on the 5′ end side of the transcription unit of the gene. It contains various DNA segments which precede the transcription unit from 3′ end to 5′ end side in the form of Specifier, Quantifier and Regulator segments. The base sequence of specified segment includes TATA (popularly called TATA Box), which ensures that the transcription starts a proper point. Z-DNA is a segment of promoter region, that may determine tissue-specific expression.
2. Post-translational modification. After polypeptide chain is translated through mRNA, rRNA and tRNA, the final protein product is modified by a combination of reactions that include hydroxylation, carboxylation, glycosylation or phosphorylation of amino acid residues. A larger polypeptide is converted to a smaller form by cleavage of peptide bonds; thereafter the protein is folded into its complex configuration.
A typical eukaryotic cell synthesizes about 10,000 different proteins during its life time. Proteins synthesized by the genes may be one of three types—enzymes, structural proteins and regulatory proteins.
3. The cytogenetic analyses in hydatidiform mole, a tumour or trophoblastic, suggest that the abnormal ovum loses its own nucleus and is fertilised by two sperms. Thus the zygote contains two male pronuclei, possessing between them at least one X chromosome, In complete molar pregnancy trophoblastic membranes develop, but embryos do not appear, Genomic imprinting suggests that the maternal chromosomes regulate embryoblast development, and the paternal chromosomes regulate trophoblastic development.
During crossing over in meiosis, there is exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes. This leads to recombination or shuffling of genes. One of the two events might be observed in crossing over. The two different genes that were originally located on the same chromosome of a particular chromosome pair, might be separated from each other and thereafter are distributed to both homolgous chromosomes; or one of the two genes originally located in each homologous chromosome might be brought together on the same chromosome.
When two different genes are located on the same chromosome pair, they are said to be linked. Crossing over is more likely to occur between the genes on a particular chromosome which are far apart than the genes which are close together. One can assess the relatives distances between genes on any chromosome by determining the frequency with which crossing over takes place between these genes. Genetic distance between two loci on a particular chromosome is expressed in centimorgan (cM). Two loci are 1cM apart, if there is a 1% probability of cross over between them in meiosis. On an average 30 to 35 cross over per cell are estimated to occur during meiosis in males, and perhaps twice as many during meiosis in females.
By determining the frequency of recombination due to cross-over among the progeny, it is possible to frame a linkage map in human with the grouping of genes on particular chromosomes. (Vide supra, in gene localisation on chromosomes)
Recombination of DNA fragments can be studied experimentally by allowing fusion of cells from two different species and then placing in culture. The fused cell-hybrids contain chromosomal constitution from both species and exchange segments of DNA as they regenerate and divide. All these regeneration processes involve random exchange of DNA sequences, and eventually protein synthesis is significantly changed from the pre-fused ancestor cells.
In 1972, Jackson et al. described the biochemical methods for cutting DNA molecules from two different organisms, using restriction enzymes, and recombining the fragments to produce biologically functional hybrid DNA molecules.
Subsequently, scientists successfully inserted the genes for both chains of insulin into some strain of Escherichia Coli, and after isolation and purification, the A and В chains were joined by disulphide bonds to produce human insulin. With the discovery of ‘Recombinant DNA’ technology, a number of essential substances such as, human insulin, interferon, human growth hormone, calcitonin and many others are produced commercially.
A change of a base pair of the DNA molecule is known as the gene mutation (point mutation). Since genes are responsible for the synthesis of protein through transcription from DNA to RNA and translation from RNA to protein, the mutation may have the following diverse effects on the corresponding protein:
(a) The changed triplet codon may code for the same amino acid without any alteration of the resulting protein. About 20 to 25% of all possible single base changes belong to this type.
(b) In about 70 to 75% cases a single base mutation may code for a different amino acid and result in the synthesis of an altered protein which produces reduced or complete loss of biological activity.
(c) In about 2 to 4% cases of single base mutation, the triplet may signal the termination of a peptide chain which is unable to retain normal biological activity.
(d) On rare occasions, more than a single base in the DNA sequence may be involved in a gene mutation. As a result the level of a particular enzyme may be reduced because it is not synthesized or synthesized with reduced activity. Sometimes, a gene mutation may lead to increased synthesis of enzymes with increased activity.
(e) In some cases of genetic disorders a specific protein may be synthesized, but the protein remains functionally inactive. This happens in most cases of haemophillia.
Normally base pairing in replication or transcription takes place in keto form, where the combinations are A=T (in DNA), A=U (in RNA), G=C. But in a gene mutation base pairing occurs in enolfrom, in which combinations are A=C, G=T (in DNA), G=U (in RNA). Such unusual bair pairing is known as tautomerisation.
Mutation may be spontaneous or induced by various chemical or physical agents, e.g. mustard gas, radiation from X-rays, gamma rays from radium and other radio-active atoms. Mutant genes may be inherited or appear at random. One of the typical examples of a gene mutation is observed in sickle-cell anaemia, where the beta chain of adult haemoglobin containing 146 amino acids possesses Valine, instead of glutamic acid, in the 6th position.
RNA directed DNA synthesis:
It has been suggested by Temin in 1972, from the study of RNA viruses that the flow of genetic information occasionally occurs in reverse direction from RNA to DNA with the help of reverse transcriptase. Such viruses are known as retroviruses, which when introduced into the host animal cell incorporate with the specific region of strand of nuclear DNA by a process of recombination.
This forms the basis of the study of oncogenes. Certain regions of DNA in normal cells serve as templates for the synthesis of RNA and the latter in turn acts as template for the synthesis of DNA, which is subsequently incorporated with the nuclear DNA. The resultant amplification of certain regions of DNA helps in embryonic differentiation and possibly in the pathogenesis of cancer.
Types of Genes:
1. Dominant gene expresses its physical or biochemical trait, when the allelic genes are either homozygous or heterozygous for the trait. This follows Men- delian patterns of inheritance and can be observed from the pedigree record of the family. Tallness is caused by dominant gene. The genetic constitution of a tall individual may be T:T or T:t (T for tallness, t for shortness). Most of the dominant traits are expressed in heterozygote state (Fig. 11-17).
Genetic disorders caused by mutation of autosomal dominant genes possess the following characteristics:
(a) The trait is passed on from one generation to another. It has a vertical transmission. Each affected person usually has an affected parent. Sometimes the disorder may appear suddenly in one generation. This may result from a fresh mutation; or if the parent with abnormal gene died in early life before the disease could manifest, the history of parent’s affection may be lacking. This is so in Huntington’s chorea, where the disease is expressed in mid-adult life.
(b) When one of the parents is affected, the risk of having an affected child is 50%.
(c) Since the trait is autosomal, both sexes may be equally affected. Some autosomal genes are expressed preferentially in one sex. These are called sex- limited genes. Gout and pre-senile baldness predominantly affect the males.
(d) If the affected individual marries a normal person, half of their children will be affected.
(e) The degree of expression of abnormal trait may vary in different members of the same family. For example, in poly- dactyly some member shows a small wart-like appendage on the side of the hand, whereas other member exhibits a complete extra-finger. Sometimes a gene, when non-penetrant, may not express it at all. If a child and a grandparent have the same disease and the middle generation does not show any manifestation, the condition is said to have skipped a generation.
(f) The unaffected mambers of a family do not transmit the trait further.
2. Co-dominant genes:
When both the allelic genes are dominant but of two different types, both traits may have concurrent expression. In ABO blood groups, A gene and В gene are both dominant; when they occupy identical loci in homologus chromosomes, AB blood group is expressed (Fig. 11-18).
3. Recessive genes:
Expresses the trait only in homozygote state that means when both alleles are recessive for that trait (Fig. 11- 19). Therefore following the Mendelian principles the genetic constitution of a short individual is t:t (t for shortness).
Diseases caused by mutation of autosomal recessive genes present the following characteristics:
(a) The disease is transmitted by a couple both of whom are carriers of one abnormal gene, but are themselves healthy because the other allele is normal.
(b) The pattern of transmission appears horizontal in pedigree analysis because often siblings are affected, whereas the parents are normal.
(c) The risk of having an affected child (with the double dose of the abnormal gene) to a carrier couple is 25%. Therefore, most carrier couples, if advised properly, would not take the risk of having another affected baby unless prenatal diagnostic facilities are available for the trait.
(d) Most of the metabolic abnormalities are inherited as autosomal recessive traits. The heterozygote status of a carrier couple (having one affected child) may be detected biochemically in several inborn errors of metabolism. The enzyme levels in the heterozygotes are about 50% less than the control.
(e) Since the condition is autosomal, both sexes are likely to be affected equally.
(f) The parents of individuals affected with autosomal recessive traits are often related, since the marriages between close blood relatives (cousin marriages) are more likely to carry the same genes from a common ancestor. The rarer a recessive disease, greater is the frequency of consanguinity among the parents of affected individuals.
(g) If two persons homozygous for a recessive condition were to marry and have children, all their children would be affected. But this is not so in every case. In one family both parents were albinos (recessive disorder), but their children were normal; careful examination of the father revealed that he had a different type of albinism from his wife.
4. Carrier Gene:
Heterozygous recessive gene acts as a carrier which may be expressed in subsequent generations. When both parents are heterozygous tall (T:t), the possibilities of the height of the offspring may be such that out of four children three are tall and one short, in the proportion of 3:1. One tall child is homozygous, and the other two are heterozygous.
5. Sex-linked Genes:
The genes located on the X chromosome or Y chromosome are known as the sex- linked genes. Mutation of X-linked genes is more common, and is mostly expressed as recessive traits.
Х-linked recessive traits (Fig. 11-20):
Haemophilia, partial colour blindness, glucose- 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy are examples of X-linked mutant recessive genes. These traits exhibit the following characteristics:
(a) The female (XX) becomes carrier of the disease when one X chromosome contains an abnormal gene, whereas the allelic gene of other X chromosome is normal. So the females do not express the disease in heterozygous state. On the other hand, when the abnormal gene involves the non-homologous part of single X chromosome of a male (XY), the disease is expressed in that individual because the defective gene has no corresponding allele in Y chromosome to counter-act. Hence, the affected male is called hemizygous. Broadly speaking, in X linked recessive traits the females are the carriers and the males are the victims of the disease.
(b) When mother is a carrier and father is healthy, 50% of the sons are affected by the disease and the remaining 50% are normal; 50% of the daughters are carrier of the disease and the rest are free. Therefore, when a boy is haemophilic, his mother should be a carrier and 50% of his sisters are carriers of the disease. However, the healthy brother or carrier-free sister of a haemophilic individual does not transmit the disease to the next generation.
(c) When mother is a carrier and father is haemophilic, half of the sons are affected and half are healthy; half of the daughters are affected and half are carriers. This shows that females may be affected in such parental combination, but the possibility is remote because the haemophilic male usually dies early before attaining parenthood. The above combination further shows that there is no male to male transmission.
(d) If the affected males do not reproduce, the pedigree pattern of an X-linked recessive trait tends to be oblique because the trait is transmitted to the sons of carrier sisters of affected males.
(e) On rare occasions, a female may exhibit X-linked recessive trait. This can be explained as follows:
(i) She might be a Turner female (XO);
(ii) Physically female appearance is due to testicular feminisation with XY chromosomes;
(iii) Affected female may have carrier mother and affected father; or a carrier mother and a normal father with fresh mutation affecting X chromosome.
X-linked Dominant Traits:
These are observed in Vitamin D resistant rickets and Xg blood group. The characteristics of dominant traits are as follows:-
(a) An affected male transmits the disease to all his daughters, but to none of his sons.
(b) Both males and females are affected, but the disease is less severe in females.
This is also known as the holandric inheritance, where only males are affected. The affected male transmits the trait to all his sons, and to none of his daughters. Male to male transmission is suggestive of Y-linked inheritance.
Hairy pinna and H-Y histocompatibility antigen manifest holandric inheritance.
Symbols used in Pedigree Chart (Fig. 11-21):
Autosomal Dominant Inheritance (Fig. 11- 22)
Some examples of autosomal dominant traits—
ii. Osteogenesis imperfecta;
iii. Brachydactyly, polydactyly, syndactyly;
iv. True pophyria with port-wine urine due to porphyrins;
v. Sex limited, gout and baldness affecting predominantly pre-senile males;
vi. Huntington’s chorea, appearing at about 50 years or after;
vii. Angioneurotic oedema;
viii. Familial hypercholesterolaemia;
ix. Diabetes insipidus;
x. Marfan’s syndrome, manifested by elongated extremities, dislocation of lens of eyes and cardio-vascular abnormalities;
xi. Nail patella syndrome, manifested by dystrophy of nails, absence of patella and nephropathy;
xii. Multiple neurofibromatosis;
xiii. Polyposis coil.
Some examples of X-linked recessive traits-
i. Haemophilita-This is due to functionally defective antihaemophilic globulin.
ii. Partial colour blindness-It is expressed as inability to distinguish between red and green.
iii. Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy.
iv. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency-It is manifested by haemo- lytic anaemia when treated with primaquin, phenacetin, nitrofurantoin, some sulphonamides and acetyl salicylic acid.
v. Testicular feminisation.
vi. Hunter’s syndrome-It is due to deficient enzyme induronosulphate sulphatase, and is manifested by feature of Hurler’s syndrome except corneal clouding.
Autosomal Recessive Inheritance (Fig. 11- 22) 23):
Some Examples of autosomal recessive traits—
(1) Inborn errors of metabolism;
i. Acatalasia, due to deficient enzyme catalase; it leads to oral sepsis;
ii. Albinism, a complete depigmentation of ‘ skin due to deficiency of tyrosinase;
iii. Alkaptonuria, in which affected persons excrete dark coloured urine due to the presence of homogentisic acid. It is caused by the lack of enzyme homogentisic acid oxidase;
iv. Galactosaemia, due to deficiency of Galactose-I-phosphate uridyl transferase, and is manifested by vomiting and diarrhoea as a result of intolerance to galactose; this is followed by mental retardation, cataracts and cirrhosis of liver;
v. Hurler’s syndrome, caused by deficient enzyme iduronidase, and manifested by mental retardation, skeletal abnormalities, hepatosplenomegaly and corneal clouding.
vi. Phenylketonuria, due to lack of phenylalanine hydroxylase and manifested by mental retardation, fairy skin and epilepsy;
vii. Tay-sachs disease, due to lack of hexosaminidase, and manifested by mental retardation, blindness and neurological abnormalities.
i. In sickle-cell anemia, beta chain contains valine in the 6th position, instead of glutamic acid. Heterozygous sickle cell-traits are more resistant to the attacks of malaria.
ii. Thalassemia major is expressed in homozygotes, and thalassemia minor in heterozygotes.
i. Some of the immunological disorders may be due to autosomal recessive traits.
X-linked Recessive Inheritance (Fig. 11-24):
Genetic Factors in Some Common Diseases:
Early onset diabetes (juvenile-I.D.D.M) is more genetically predisposed than late onset diabetes. Some investigators suggest that is possesses autosomal recessive inheritance, while others believe that is has multifactorial inheritance. In genetically predisposed individuals, prediabetics are recognised by raised serum level of islet-cell antibodies.
There are two schools on the modes of inheritance; one school suggests that it possesses multifactorial inheritance, whereas other school believes that it is due to mutation of single dominant gene.
Ischaemic heart diseases:
Early onset ischaemic heart disease is due to familial hyper- cholesterolaemia which is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. In the majority of the affected individuals the condition is multifactorial with a heritability of about 65%.
Duodenal ulcer is more frequent in individuals with О group of blood and in non-secretors of ABO substance. Forty per cent of the peptic ulcers possesses hereditary predisposition.
It is inherited on a multifatorial basis with a heritability of about 85%. Some believes that it is inherited as autosomal dominant traits.
Some Terminology used in Genetics
The genome indicates the full set of genes, haploid in the gametes and diploid in the somatic cells of an individual.
It means the genetic constitution of an individual which is fixed at the time of fertilization. The genotype of a tall individual may be T:T (homozygous) or T:t (heterozygous) which may be assessed by pedigree analysis.
It means physical or biochemical expression of the genotype. Phenotype is potentially variable and is the result of interaction between the genotype and the environment in which the individual develops and grows. It may so happen that an individual with T:T genotype is short in height. This is presumably due to some endocrinal or nutritional disorders which suppress the action of genotype.
Sometimes a change in the environment produces a new phenotype, which closely resembles the appearance causes by a specific genotype. Such form of phenotype is known as phenocopy.
Jumping Genes or Transposons:
These are groups of genetic elements that really can move from place to place and by doing so modify or suppress the function of target genetic region. The jumping genes include pseudogenes, the retroviruses and oncogenes, and possess DNA sequences that jump. Each jumping gene has a short, similar, terminal repeat of bases at either end.
Each has the property of recognition of a specific sequence on the target DNA and generates a direct repeat of the same. Coming to the target sequence, the movable genes produce asymmetrical breaks on the opposite strands of the DNA duplex and then are integrated in the target site.
The transposons control mutation and recombination, and may be responsible for amplification of genes. The functional status of the jumping genes is still inconclusive.
Whenever an individual or a couple with genetic disorder seeks advice, the genetic counsellor is confronted with three problems;
(a) To establish the precise diagnosis (genetical or environmental) by clinical examination and laboratory investigations;
(b) To discuss the prognosis and value of any possible treatments;
(c) To determine the risk of recurrence of the disease in a family and to investigate the carrier detection, if any.
Chromosomal studies and karyotypes are indicated in the following conditions;
(i) In infants with congenital anomalies involving more than one system;
(ii) In abnormal sexual development;
(iii) Infertility, recurrent abortions etc.
When chromosomal defects (numerical or structural) are detected with abnormal phenotypes, treatment, if any, is symtomatic and not curative.
Discussion about the Risk of Recurrence in a Family:
(1) If both parents have normal chromosomes, although the child is affected by chromosomal abnormality (say, Trisomy 21-Mongol), the parents may be assured that the chances of recurrence of the same condition affecting future children are less, because the cause of this abnormality is non-disjunction in gametogenesis particularly involving elderly mother, and the phenomenon is mostly accidental.
If, however, the karyotype of Mongol baby shows translocation between G and D chromosomes (46) and the karyotype of the healthy mother shows balanced translocated chromosomes, the parents should be informed that similar Mongol baby might develop more frequently in subsequent pregnancies.
(2) In affected person with heterozygous autosomal dominant gene (say, Achondroplasia), the risk of recurrence among the offspring is 1 in 2 (50%), provided the dominant gene is fully penetrant.
(3) In autosomal recessive disorders, when both parents are healthy with heterozygous recessive gene for the same trait, chance of recurrence (say, phenylketonuria) among the offspring is 1 to 4. All of us are carrying about 3 to 8 detrimental recessive genes, but chance of expression of autosomal recessive disorder is rare, except in consanguinous marriages. When a phenylketonuric father gets married to his first cousin, the chance of the affected child is about 1 in 12, whereas in marriage with unrelated person the chance is about 1 in 10,000.
(4) In sex-linked recessive disorder (say, haemophilia) when a boy is affected, his healthy mother should be a carrier and 50% of his sister are carrier of the disease. The carrier detection is a important task of the genetic counsellor. When an X-linked affected male (say, partial colour blindness) begets children, all daughters are carriers and all sons are normal.
(5) Sometimes individual seeks advice whether he will be affected by diabetes mellitus, since both of his parents are suffering from diabetes (autosomal recessive disorder.)
In such event, apart from blood glucose analysis of the individual, the anti-islet cells antibody titre of his serum will provide information whether he is pre-diabetic. He is then advised to follow dietary restriction.
Detection of Carriers:
The carriers may be detected by the following methods:-
(1) Low level of catalase in acatalasia;
(2) Elevated serum level of creatin kinase in Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy;
(3) Reduces factor VIII in haemophilia A;
(4) Reduced factor IX in haemophilia B;
(5) Reduced erythrocyte glucose-6- phospate in G-6-PD deficiency.
(1) Prenatal determination of foetal sex by sex-chromatin study;
(2) Lecithin-sphingomyelin ratio of amniotic fluid for detection of foetal lung maturity;
(3) Alpha-fetoprotein level of amniotic fluid for detection of anencephaly and open spina bifida.
Use of foetoscope for collecting foetal blood from umbilical vessels helps prenatal diagnosis of sickle-cell anaemia and beta thalassaemia.
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DETERMINING RESERVE PLACEMENT
After taking note of high-diversity areas and species at greatest risk of extinction, park planners must consider
other factors before designating a protected area. It is always important to monitor human use of forest lands
before the designation of a national park. The presence of trails, the location of current and predicted human
settlement, and land and resource use are all consequential in determining whether the forest land is suitable
for protection. If local people are unhappy with restricted access to parklands, chances are they will not respect
park boundaries. Along these same lines, planners generally attempt to measure the economic potential of natural
forest management of the area as an alternative to deforestation. Also of great importance is the spatial distribution
and quality of habitat, Clearly, when given a choice between degraded and natural habitat, it is better to protect
the higher-quality area. Researchers also look at species distributions when determining what areas to declare
TYPES OF PROTECTED AREA
Studies of isolated forest reserves have shown (Lovejoy experiment, Barro Colorado Island, and others) that it will
not be possible to conserve all or even some of their species diversity, genetic resources, and ecological processes.
Therefore approaches to that link protected areas to surrounding lands (buffer zones) are necessary. Land management
must not be only planned for the reserve, but also the land surrounding it. If the land around a reserve is stripped or sanctioned for exclusive use by a corporation, locals will have no choice but to seek out game, fuelwood, and more fertile soils in the reserve. Therefore it
is essential that protected areas to accommodate the local populations. The best approach for accommodation
is to design and manage a range of protected areas, known as a multiple-use reserve.
A multiple-use reserve
consists of several zones with varying degree of human occupation. The outermost zones,
known as buffer zones, are areas to be used sustainably by the inhabitants. Here they can harvest (ideally in a sustainable manner) fuelwood, animals, and native plants and practice a degree of small-scale agriculture. The outermost zone could be the site of commercial activities like low-impact logging. The area beyond the buffer zone can serve as the site of reforestation projects with seeds and seedlings provided from the reserve. Eventually the
outer regions could again support forest and the expanded area could be used for further sustainable practices.
The inner zones could be set aside for indigenous peoples, who could continue their traditional way of life, without
interference from outsiders, should they so choose. Also in this zone could be an area for forest-friendly eco-tourism with indigenous
peoples and members of local communities serving as guides. Access to the core area could be restricted to all but research
scientists. The core area would only make up a small portion of the
total protected area, but be placed so as to protect the forest's "hot-spots."
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has devised eight
categories of protected area
, in order to protect biodiversity,
yet contribute to sustainable development. These follow a structure like the one mentioned above with buffer zones
around the park slated for partial development and two small, strictly protected categories (I and II) set aside
for research only. Such a core area is exemplified by Manu National Park in the Manu Biosphere Reserve which serves as a reserve base for scientists and as a storehouse for information on the rich biodiversity
of the Amazon Basin. In the surrounding buffer zones are areas for tourist activities and local use.
Lowland rainforest in Borneo. Click image for more rainforest photos. (Photo by R. Butler)
- What is a multiple-use reserve and how does it help save rainforests while providing economic benefits to local people?
Other versions of this page
Continued / Next: Reserve Size
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William Morris (American, b. 1957)
Canopic Jar: Javan Muntjac, 1995
Blown glass with hot applications
William Morris’ canopic jar sculptures were inspired by ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The four human organs that could not be preserved as part of a mummy were embalmed in a set of jars. The ancient jars were small (usually less than ten inches high) and the heads on their lids represented the Egyptian deity who was guardian of the particular organ that the jar contained. Morris, however, worked in a far grander scale and portrayed animals of his choice including those native to North America, such as the coyote, panther, and elk, as well as the more exotic creatures of Africa, Asia, and the East Indies. This sculpture depicts a small deer native to the island of Java.
© William Morris, 1995
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I recently asked Dan Kramer of KloakIt if I could interview him about some common cloaking questions I get asked, and he said sure.
How does cloaking work?
It is easiest to explain if you first understand exactly what cloaking is. Web page cloaking is the act of showing different content to different visitors based on some criterion, such as whether they are a search engine spider, or whether they are located in a particular country.
A cloaking program/script will look at a number of available pieces of information to determine the identity of a visitor: the IP address, the User-Agent string of the browser, the referring URL, all of which are contained in the HTTP headers of the request for the web page. The script will make a decision based on this information and serve the appropriate content to the visitor.
For SEO purposes, cloaking is done to serve optimized versions of web pages to search engine spiders and hide that optimized version from human visitors.
What are the risks associated with cloaking? What types of sites should consider cloaking?
Many search engines discourage the practice of cloaking. They threaten to penalize or ban those caught using cloaking techniques, so it is wise to plan a cloaking campaign carefully. I tell webmasters that if they are going to cloak, they should set up separate domains from their primary website and host the cloaked pages on those domains. That way, if their cloaked pages are penalized or banned, it will not affect their primary website.
The types of sites that successfully cloak fall into a couple of categories. First, you have those who are targeting a broad range of "long tail" keywords, typically affiliate marketers and so on. They can use various cloaking software packages to easily create thousands of optimized pages which can rank well. Here, quantity is the key.
Next, you have those with websites that are difficult for search engines to index. Some people with Flash-based websites want to present search engine spiders with text versions of their sites that can be indexed, while still delivering the Flash version to human visitors to the same URL.
What is the difference between IP delivery and cloaking?
IP delivery is a type of cloaking. I mentioned above that there are several criteria by which a cloaking script judges the identity of a visitor. One of the most important is the IP address of the visitor.
Every computer on the internet is identified by its IP address. Lists are kept of the IP addresses of the various search engine spiders. When a cloaking script has a visitor, it looks at their IP address and compares it against its list of search engine spider IP addresses. If a match is found, it delivers up the optimized version of the web page. If no match is found, it delivers up the "landing page", which is meant for human eyes. Because the IP address is used to make the decision, it's called "IP delivery".
IP delivery is considered the best method of cloaking because of the difficulty involved in faking an IP address. There are other methods of cloaking, such as by User-Agent, which are not as secure. With User-Agent cloaking, the User-Agent string in the HTTP headers is compared against a list of search engine spider User-Agents. An example of a search engine spider User-Agent is
The problem with User-Agent cloaking is that it is very easy to fake a User-Agent, so your competitor could easily decloak one of your pages by "spoofing" the User-Agent of his browser to make it match that of a search engine spider.
How hard is it to keep up with new IP addresses? Where can people look to find new IP addresses?
It's a chore the average webmaster probably wouldn't relish. There are always new IP addresses to add (the best cloaking software will do this automatically), and it is a never-ending task. First, you have to set up a network of bot-traps that notify you whenever a search engine spider visits one of your web pages. You can have a CGI script that does this for you, and possibly check the IP address against already known search engine spiders. Then, you can take the list of suspected spiders generated that way and do some manual checks to make sure the IP addresses are actually registered to search engine companies. Also, you have to keep an eye out for new search engines... you would not believe how many new startup search engines there are every month.
Instead of doing it all yourself, you can get IP addresses from some resources that can be found on the web. I manage a free public list of search engine spider IP addresses. There
are also some commercial resources available (no affiliation with me). In addition to those lists, you can find breaking info at the Search Engine Spider Identification Forum at WebmasterWorld.
Is cloaking ethical? Or as it relates to SEO is ethics typically a self serving word?
Some would say that cloaking is completely ethical, others disagree. Personally, my opinion is that if you own your website, you have the right to put whatever you like on it, as long as it is legal. You have the right to choose which content you display to any visitor. Cloaking for SEO purposes is done to increase the relevancy of search engine queries... who wants visitors that aren't interested in your site?
On the other hand, as you point out, the ethics of some SEOs are self serving. I do not approve of those who "page-jack" by stealing others content and cloaking it. Also, if you are trying to get rankings for one topic, and sending people to a completely unrelated web page, that is wrong in my book. Don't send kids looking for Disney characters to your porn site.
I have seen many garbage subdomains owning top 10 rankings for 10s to 100s of thousands of phrases in Google recently. Do you think this will last very long?
No, I don't. I believe this is due to an easily exploitable hole in Google's algorithm that really isn't related to cloaking, although I think some of these guys are using cloaking techniques as a traffic management tool. Google is already cleaning up a lot of those SERPs and will soon have it under control. The subdomain loophole will be closed soon.
How long does it usually take each of the engines to detect a site that is cloaking?
That's a question that isn't easily answered. The best answer is "it depends". I've had sites that have never been detected and are still going strong after five or six years. Others are banned after a few weeks. I think you will be banned quickly if you have a competitor who believes you might be cloaking and submits a spam report. Also, if you are creating a massive number of cloaked pages in a short period of time, I think this is a flag for search engines to investigate. Same goes for incoming links... try to get them in a "natural" looking progression.
What are the best ways to get a cloaked site deeply indexed quickly?
My first tip would be to have the pages located on a domain that is already indexed -- the older the better. Second, make sure the internal linking structure is adequate to the task of spidering all of the pages. Third, make sure incoming links from outside the domain link to both the index (home) cloaked page and to other "deep" cloaked pages.
As algorithms move more toward links and then perhaps more toward the social elements of the web do you see any social techniques replacing the effect of cloaking?
Cloaking is all about "on-page" optimizing. As links become more important to cracking the algorithms, the on-page factors decline in importance. The "new web" is focused on the social aspects of the web, with people critiquing others content, linking out, posting their comments, blogging, etc. The social web is all about links, and as links become more of a factor in rankings, the social aspects of the web become more important.
However, while what people say about your website will always be important, what your website actually says (the text indexed from your site) cannot be ignored. The on-page factors in rankings will never go away. I cannot envision "social techniques" (I guess we are talking about spamming Slashdot or Digg?) replacing on-page optimization, but it makes a hell of a supplement... the truly sophisticated spammer will make use of all the tools in his toolbox.
How does cloaking relate to poker? And can you cheat at online poker, or are you just head and shoulders above the rest of the SEO field?
Well, poker is a game of deception. As a pioneer in the cloaking field, I suppose I have picked up a knack for the art of lying through my teeth. In the first SEO Poker Tournament, everybody kept folding to my bluffs. While it is quite tempting to run poker bots and cheat, I find there is no need with my excellent poker skills. Having said all that, I quietly await the next tournament, where I'm sure I'll be soundly thrashed in the first few minutes ;)
How long do you think it will be before search engines can tell the difference between real page content and garbled markov chain driven content? Do you think it will be computationally worthwhile for them to look at that? Or can they leverage link authority and usage data to negate needing to look directly at readability as a datapoint?
I think they can tell now, if they want to devote the resources to it.
However, this type of processing is time/CPU intensive and I'm not sure they want to do it on a massive scale. I'm not going to blueprint the techniques they should use to pick which pages to analyze, but they will have to make some choices. Using link data to weed out pages they don't need to analyze would be nice, but in this age of rampant link selling, link authority may not be as reliable an indicator as they would like. Usage data may not be effective because in order to get it, the page has to be indexed so they can track the clicks, defeating the purpose of spam elimination. There best bet would be to look at creation patterns... look to see which domains are creating content and gaining links at an unreasonable rate.
What is the most amount of money you have ever made from ranking for a misspelled word? And if you are bolder than I am, what word did you spell wrong so profitably?
I made a lot of money from ranking for the word "incorparating". This was waaay back in the day. I probably made (gross) in the high five figures a year for several years from that word. Unfortunately, either people became better spellers or search engines got smarter, because the traffic began declining for the word about four or five years ago.
If I wanted to start cloaking where is the best place to go, and what all should I know before I start? Can you offer SEO Book readers a coupon to get them started with KloakIt?
KloakIt is a great cloaking program for both beginners and advanced users, because it is easy to get running and extremely flexible and powerful. There is a forum for cloakers there where you can go for information and tips. I am also the moderator of the Cloaking Forum over at WebmasterWorld, and I welcome questions and comments there.
SEO Book readers can get a $15.00 discount of a single domain license of KloakIt by entering the coupon code "seobook" into the form on the KloakIt download page. I offer a satisfaction guarantee, and, should you decide to upgrade your license to an unlimited domains license, you can get credit for your original purchase towards the upgrade fee.
Please note that I am not being paid an affiliate commission for KloakIt downloads, and I have not deeply dug in to try out the software yet. I just get lots of cloaking questions and wanted to interview an expert on the topic, and since Dan is a cool guy I asked him.
Thanks for the interview Dan. If you have any other questions for Dan ask them below and I will see if I can ask Dan if he would be willing to answer them.
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How experience may lead to misperception
How long is the way from the city hall to the train station? When we estimate distances, something curious happens: short distances seem longer, and long distances shorter than they really are. Similar biases occur during judgments of volume, brightness or time. Psychologists call this phenomenon Vierordt’s law. Its independence of the involved sensory systems suggests that our brain possesses universal principles for the assessment of physical quantities. However, where do the characteristic estimation biases stem from? In collaboration with colleagues from Zurich, neuroscientists at the Bernstein Center Munich and the LMU Munich provide a new explanatory model, in which previous experience holds an important role.
“Our approach is based on probability theory and allows to reinterpret and combine two seemingly contradictory classic theories,” explains Stefan Glasauer, one of the authors of the study. The first theory of magnitude estimation is the Weber-Fechner law proposed in 1860. Some 100 years later, Stanley Smith Stevens introduced a power law and asserted that it was incompatible with the Weber-Fechner law. This opinion is now disproved: “Using Bayes’ theorem from classical probability theory, both theories can be integrated into a new model,” Glasauer says.
In contrast to the previous approaches, the new model of the brain researchers also takes into account how prior knowledge affects the judgment of physical quantities. “We automatically gain experience with each magnitude estimation. This knowledge certainly affects subsequent estimates and is one of the causes leading to systematic estimation biases,” Glasauer explains. In the process, learning occurs unconsciously and requires no feedback on the success of the assessment. “We hope that our approach will serve to better understand the neurobiological mechanisms of magnitude judgments,” Glasauer concludes. The study has been published in the current edition of the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Glasauer
Tel: +49 (0)89 4400-74839
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The non-profit arts industry, with $36.8 billion in annual revenue, is a potent force in economic development nationwide States and communities have integrated the arts into their economic development arsenal to achieve a wide range of direct and indirect economic goals. Arts programs have served as components of high-impact economic development programs by assisting state and local government in:
- Leveraging human capital and cultural resources to generate economic vitality in under-performing regions through tourism, crafts, and cultural attractions;
- Restoring and revitalizing communities by serving as a centerpiece for downtown redevelopment and cultural renewal;
- Creating vibrant public spaces integrated with natural amenities, resulting in improved urban quality of life, expanded business and tax revenue base, and positive regional and community image; and
- Contributing to a region's "innovation habitat" by simultaneously improving regional quality of life -- making communities more attractive to highly desirable, knowledge-based employees -- and permitting new forms of knowledge-intensive production to flourish.
Governors can position their states to use the arts effectively by promoting new partnerships among state agencies, communities, and the business sector and by harnessing the power of the arts and culture as tools that unite communities, create economic opportunity, and improve the quality of life.
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A new system for shocking a heart back into normal rhythm is designed to both expand a doctor’s options for routing electric current through the heart and to improve the application of pressure to the patient’s body to help treatment succeed.
“Our system is simple,” says team member Sandya Subramanian of Grand Rapids, Mich. “That means clinicians are more likely to use it.”
Subramanian was one of eight Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering undergraduates who worked on the “PrestoPatch” project beginning in the spring of 2012.
Arrhythmia is an erratic heartbeat that, in serious cases, can be fatal. About 14 million people in the United States alone have been diagnosed with some form of arrhythmia, which can include a heartbeat that is too fast, too slow, too early, or out of synch.
When the condition becomes life-threatening, medical teams may have only three to five minutes to jolt the heart back to normal rhythm. The doctor first must choose two of three locations for electrode patches: on the front, side, or back of the patient. Electric current is then shot between the two electrodes, passing through the heart.
If the first shock doesn’t work, present-day patches can’t be moved to a new position that might yield better results.
“When a shock fails, a physician’s options for what to do next are very limited,” says team leader Piyush Poddar. “The usual next step is to increase the energy of the shock, that is, if it’s not already maxed out. But this increases the patient’s risk for burns and death of heart tissue.”
But the PrestoPatch system could be used at the onset of treatment. The team devised an electric switch that would allow a doctor to attach patches to a patient in all three locations, choosing two for the first shock. If that fails, the doctor can quickly flip a switch and change the current’s path through the body without necessarily increasing the energy of the next shock.
The system’s second component addresses excessive transthoracic impedance, a problem that occurs during defibrillation when the patient’s body resists the life-saving current. Doctors now mitigate this crudely, pressing down on a patient’s patch with their fists.
To improve upon this, the students devised a manual compression tool to apply pressure in a safe, standardized way. Lights and an embedded speaker on the tool alert the doctor when the proper pressure is applied and warns if there is too much pressure.
The PrestoPatch system won first place in the undergraduate division of the 2013 national Collegiate Inventors Competition. Team members will use their $12,500 prize money to launch a company and move their invention closer to clinical use.
Source: Johns Hopkins University
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Previously, this large marae was called Tu-Matamata-Hia. Formerly, a terrible battle took place between the heroes of Kings Tu-Mata-ira and Tutu-Ai-Aro. The battle was fierce and lasted until sunset. During this confrontation, Tu-Mata-ira was defeated and his spear cut into four pieces.
Tu-Mata-ira, confused and disturbed by the death of his champion, ordered to prepare a large pit and set on fire. Then the king took a very hard stone and put in center of oven. He ordered his warriors to spread the stone oven with a lance broken. The body of the killed warrior was laid in the center of the oven.
Placed on a portion of the lance broken in his head, another under his ankles. The last two were arranged on both sides of his body. King Tu-Mata-ira said it should not cover the oven with common materials, but to use the ti leaves yellow and wait for two days and two nights, as the spear of the warrior was been broken into four pieces.
At the end of this period, the kiln was discovered. The warriors shouted:
- O our king, the oven is heated, and II are only coal!
So, King Tu-Mata-Ira said:
- From that day, marae is not called the marae Tu Matamata-Hia, but will! Name marae e Arahurahu until the end of time ..
Folkloric events are organized and consist of re-enactments during the traditional celebrations of July (Heiva).
Google Soop Translated From Tahiti Heritage
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Deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule that carries most of the genetic instructions
used in the ... The unique material properties of DNA have made it an attractive
molecule for .... Biosynthesis of J...
It is called the helix. ... A DNA molecule has a unique design that resembles a
spiral staircaseScientists call this design a? b. double helix (just took the ... The
spiral staircase structure characteristic of the DNA molecule? Double helix. 2
The DNA molecule's structure resembles a spiral staircase, and its ... Scientists
have established the special sequence in which the atoms making up DNA give
.... is just another indication that there is no room for chance in DNA's unique
creation. .... This fact strengthens the argument that it was a case of purposeful
Watson and Crick describe structure of DNA 1953. Photo: Model of DNA
molecule ... Scientists still needed to figure out this molecule's structure to be sure
, and to ... DNA's discovery has been called the most important biological work of
Feb 20, 2013 ... The famous Fibonacci sequence has captivated mathematicians, artists,
designers, and scientists for centuries. Also known as ... The unique properties of
the Golden Rectangle provides another example. This shape, a ... It's call the
logarithmic spiral, and it abounds in nature. ... DNA molecules. Even the ...
Mar 4, 2016 ... Chapter 2: RNA and DNA Revealed: New Roles, New Rules ... Genetics in the
Garden; Beautiful DNA; DNA Structure; Copycat; Let's Call It Even; Meiosis;
Getting ... The spiral staircase-shaped double helix has attained global status as
.... Block and his team performed this work by designing a specialized ...
Dr. Gillaspy has taught health science at University of Phoenix and Ashford ...
DNA is a double-stranded molecule that contains your unique genetic code. ... of
a DNA molecule make it resemble a ladder that's wound up like a spiral staircase
. ... In fact, A will only bond with T, and C will only bond with G. We call A-T and
But mostly, the designs in DNA are for the class of chemicals called proteins. ...
Each nucleotide in DNA has a sugar component joined to a phosphate group at
..... The resulting DNA model resembled a spiral staircase—the famous double
helix. ... Once scientists understood the structure of DNA molecules, they focused
Each cell has a DNA code consisting of some 1.5 billion base pairs. ...
Recombinant DNA techniques enable scientists to produce plants that are
resistant to ..... that form the "rungs" on a DNA molecule, which has the shape of a
spiral staircase. ..... fears of eugenics programs and genetically engineered "
biological information contained in an individual DNA molecule by DNA
sequencing, one of ... The name 2'-deoxyribose indicates that the standard ribose
structure has .... linkage. To be precise we should call this a 3'-5' phosphodiester
bond so ... a spiral staircase then the banister (that is, the sugar–phosphate
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A summer vegetable garden is just not complete without summer squash growing in the mix of tomatoes, peppers, okra, and cucumber. However, harvest time may prove disappointing for some squash and cucumber growers.
There are insects that have a special affinity for all members of the cucurbit family, including squash, cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins.
This week, there have been many questions about squash plants that have seemingly died overnight. Many of these plants have fallen victim to the squash vine borer. The vine borer is an insect that can destroy the squash plant quickly and with very little warning.
The squash vine borer overwinter as a larva or pupa enclosed in cocoons in the soil where squash has been previously planted.
The adult emerges as a moth in early summer and lay eggs on the stems of the plants. The adult moths are half-an-inch across at the wings and black in color. They are day fliers and are often mistaken for wasps. After a week, the pale grubs hatch and eat their way into the stems near the soil level.
As it feeds, larvae tunneling up the stems of the squash plant causing damage and restricting flow of water. Both of these actions cause the plant to wilt. Symptoms of squash vine borers are a sudden wilting of a vine and sawdust-like insect waste coming from holes in the stem called “frass”.
The squash vine borer is difficult to control because the problem is not identified until after severe damage has been done to the plant.
For example, it’s difficult to know if they are present until the plant starts to wilt and damage has already begun. Unfortunately, once they are inside the stem of the squash not much can be done.
Various measures can be taken to control this pest. Tilling the soil in late winter can expose overwintering insects. Also, rotating squash placement in the garden can decrease the vine borer population in different areas of the garden. Plant as early as the weather allows because borers do not emerge until early spring.
Once the garden is planted, yellow sticky traps or yellow bowls of soapy water can be placed in the garden to attract the adult borers.
They will be more inclined to go to the traps than the yellow flowers of the squash. Some Organic growers plant radish around their squash to repel the adults.
If there appears to be borer activity in the garden such as bits of “frass” along the base of the plants, then cut a vertical slit along the vine and remove the larvae.
Removing borers or killing them with a long pin or needle can reduce their numbers. When the vine is split, mound soil around the base of the squash plant at the stem.
With good growing conditions, the plant should put down more roots ahead of the borer damage, and the infested part of the plant can be removed.
Insecticides will control squash vine borers, but they should be used late in the day to prevent harm to bees.
Bifenthrin, sevin, esfenvalerate, and permethrin are effective on these insects, but each has a waiting period before the fruit can be harvested.
The best advice is to stay ahead of the borer. Planting squash as early as possible is the best option for a good harvest.
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(also Shah Ghaly
or Shah Ali
, pronounced , or Şäyex Ğäli
, ) (1505–1567) was khan
in 1516-1519, 1535–1546, 1546–1551, 1552–1567 and Kazan
in 1518-1521, 1546, 1551-1552.
Shahgali was the grandson of Keche Moxammad
khan, son of Shayex Allahiar
(Şäyex Allahiär) khan, and older brother of Cangali
. After his father's death, he became khan of Qasim Khanate
in 1516 at the age of 11. In 1519 he was invited to Kazan throne by Bulat Shirin
's (Bulat Şirin) group of Qarachi
. This transfer was supported by Vasili III of Russia
, because Qasim khans were usually allied with Muscovy
. In 1521, he was banished from Kazan by noblemen for his pro-Muscovy policies. He was replaced with Sahib Giray
who was generally hostile towards Muscovy, and had ties with Crimean Khanate
and Ottoman Empire
. In later years, Shahgali gained and lost the throne of Kazan several time, as Muscovy and Kazan Qarachi struggled for control of Khanate. In the periods when Kazan throne was occupied by other people, he returned to Qasim.
Shahgali participated in Russian sieges of Kazan in 1537, 1540, 1541, 1548, 1552. In 1559 he participated in Livonian War
as commander of Russian avant-garde, sieged Narva
. In 1562 he defended Polock
, in 1564-1565 defended Velikie Luki
on Russian border.
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Commemorations for Hator 8
On this day is the commemoration of the four Incorporeal Beasts who carry the throne of God. As it is mentioned by St. John who witnessed this in his Revelation saying, "Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardine stone in appearance: and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald: ... and in the midst of the throne and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying, 'Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.'" (Revelation 4:2-8)
Isaiah the Prophet said: "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.'" (Isaiah 6:1-3) Ezekiel the Prophet said: "Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the North, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself, and brightness was all around it, and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man... and each one had four wings. Their legs were straight; and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calve's feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze..." (Ezekiel 1:4-7)
St. John the Evangelist said: "After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, 'Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, belong to the Lord our God,' ... and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne, saying, 'Amen, Alleluia... for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give Him glory......'" (Revelation 19:1-7)
The Lord set them near His throne in order for them to make supplications on behalf of all the creation. The beast with the man's face makes supplications on behalf of the human race, the one with the lion's face makes supplications on behalf of the beasts, the one with the bull's face makes supplications on behalf of the cattle, and the one with the eagle's face makes supplications on behalf of the birds. The teachers of the church built churches in their names and commemorated them on this day.
Their intercession be for us and Glory be to our God, forever. Amen.
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This site is no longer maintained and has been left for archival purposes
Text and links may be out of date
The growth of all organisms depends on the availability of mineral nutrients, and none is more important than nitrogen, which is required in large amounts as an essential component of proteins, nucleic acids and other cellular constituents. There is an abundant supply of nitrogen in the earth's atmosphere - nearly 79% in the form of N2 gas. However, N2 is unavailable for use by most organisms because there is a triple bond between the two nitrogen atoms, making the molecule almost inert. In order for nitrogen to be used for growth it must be "fixed" (combined) in the form of ammonium (NH4) or nitrate (NO3) ions. The weathering of rocks releases these ions so slowly that it has a neglible effect on the availability of fixed nitrogen. So, nitrogen is often the limiting factor for growth and biomass production in all environments where there is suitable climate and availability of water to support life.
Microorganisms have a central role in almost all aspects of nitrogen availability and thus for life support on earth:
All these processes contribute to the nitrogen cycle.
We shall deal first with the process of nitrogen fixation and the nitrogen-fixing organisms, then consider the microbial processes involved in the cycling of nitrogen in the biosphere.
A relatively small amount of ammonia is produced by lightning. Some ammonia also is produced industrially by the Haber-Bosch process, using an iron-based catalyst, very high pressures and fairly high temperature. But the major conversion of N2 into ammonia, and thence into proteins, is achieved by microorganisms in the process called nitrogen fixation (or dinitrogen fixation).
The table below shows some estimates of the amount of nitrogen fixed on a global scale. The total biological nitrogen fixation is estimated to be twice as much as the total nitrogen fixation by non-biological processes.
|To illustrate the
importance of biological nitrogen fixation, the image
below shows part of the Lower Sonoran desert in Arizona.
Every plant that we see in this scene depends ultimately
on biological nitrogen fixation. Both free-living cyanobacteria and
the cyanobacterial associates of lichens initially contributed nitrogen to the soil
by forming a cryptobiotic crust. Now numerous leguminous
plants occur in this desert, with nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium
in their root nodules. Examples are the green-stemmed brush-like trees at
the right and left of the image (Parkinsonia
species, common name "paloverde"), and several
acacias and mesquites (not seen in this image).
Mechanism of biological nitrogen fixation
Biological nitrogen fixation can be represented by the following equation, in which two moles of ammonia are produced from one mole of nitrogen gas, at the expense of 16 moles of ATP and a supply of electrons and protons (hydrogen ions):
N2 + 8H+ + 8e- + 16 ATP = 2NH3 + H2 + 16ADP + 16 Pi
This reaction is performed exclusively by prokaryotes (the bacteria and related organisms), using an enzyme complex termed nitrogenase. This enzyme consists of two proteins - an iron protein and a molybdenum-iron protein, as shown below.
The reactions occur while N2 is bound to the nitrogenase enzyme complex. The Fe protein is first reduced by electrons donated by ferredoxin. Then the reduced Fe protein binds ATP and reduces the molybdenum-iron protein, which donates electrons to N2, producing HN=NH. In two further cycles of this process (each requiring electrons donated by ferredoxin) HN=NH is reduced to H2N-NH2, and this in turn is reduced to 2NH3.
Depending on the type of microorganism, the reduced ferredoxin which supplies electrons for this process is generated by photosynthesis, respiration or fermentation.
There is a remarkable degree of functional conservation between the nitrogenase proteins of all nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The Fe protein and the Mo-Fe protein have been isolated from many of these bacteria, and nitrogen fixation can be shown to occur in cell-free systems in a laboratory when the Fe protein of one species is mixed with the Mo-Fe protein of another bacterium, even if the species are very distantly related.
|The nitrogen-fixing organisms
All the nitrogen-fixing organisms are
prokaryotes (bacteria). Some of them live independently
of other organisms - the so-called free-living
nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Others live in intimate
symbiotic associations with plants or with other
organisms (e.g. protozoa). Examples are shown in the
|A point of special interest is that the nitrogenase enzyme complex is highly sensitive to oxygen. It is inactivated when exposed to oxygen, because this reacts with the iron component of the proteins. Although this is not a problem for anaerobic bacteria, it could be a major problem for the aerobic species such as cyanobacteria (which generate oxygen during photosynthesis) and the free-living aerobic bacteria of soils, such as Azotobacter and Beijerinckia. These organisms have various methods to overcome the problem. For example, Azotobacter species have the highest known rate of respiratory metabolism of any organism, so they might protect the enzyme by maintaining a very low level of oxygen in their cells. Azotobacter species also produce copious amounts of extracellular polysaccharide (as do Rhizobium species in culture - see Exopolysaccharides). By maintaining water within the polysaccharide slime layer, these bacteria can limit the diffusion rate of oxygen to the cells. In the symbiotic nitrogen-fixing organisms such as Rhizobium, the root nodules can contain oxygen-scavenging molecules such as leghaemoglobin, which shows as a pink colour when the active nitrogen-fixing nodules of legume roots are cut open. Leghaemoglobin may regulate the supply of oxygen to the nodule tissues in the same way as haemoglobin regulates the supply of oxygen to mammalian tissues. Some of the cyanobacteria have yet another mechanism for protecting nitrogenase: nitrogen fixation occurs in special cells (heterocysts) which possess only photosystem I (used to generate ATP by light-mediated reactions) whereas the other cells have both photosystem I and photosystem II (which generates oxygen when light energy is used to split water to supply H2 for synthesis of organic compounds). Extensive references to these points can be found at: http://chemweb.urich.edu/~sjanson/index.htm (not on this server)|
|Symbiotic nitrogen fixation
1. Legume symbioses
The most familiar examples of nitrogen-fixing symbioses are the root nodules of legumes (peas, beans, clover, etc.).
In these leguminous associations the bacteria usually are Rhizobium species, but the root nodules of soybeans, chickpea and some other legumes are formed by small-celled rhizobia termed Bradyrhizobium. Nodules on some tropical leguminous plants are formed by yet other genera. In all cases the bacteria "invade" the plant and cause the formation of a nodule by inducing localised proliferation of the plant host cells. Yet the bacteria always remain separated from the host cytoplasm by being enclosed in a membrane - a necessary feature in symbioses (see the image below).
Part of a crushed root nodule of a pea plant, showing four root cells containing colonies of Rhizobium. The nuclei (n) of two root cells are shown; cw indicates the cell wall that separates two plant cells. Although it cannot be seen clearly in this image, the bacteria occur in clusters which are enclosed in membranes, separating them from the cytoplasm of the plant cells.
In nodules where nitrogen-fixation is occurring, the plant tissues contain the oxygen-scavenging molecule, leghaemoglobin (serving the same function as the oxygen-carrying haemoglobin in blood). The function of this molecule in nodules is to reduce the amount of free oxygen, and thereby to protect the nitrogen-fixing enzyme nitrogenase, which is irreversibly inactivated by oxygen.
Some excellent images and discussion of these leguminous associations can be found at:
CIFN/UNAM Brochure - Research (not on this server)
2. Associations with Frankia
Frankia is a genus of the bacterial group termed actinomycetes - filamentous bacteria that are noted for their production of air-borne spores. Included in this group are the common soil-dwelling Streptomyces species which produce many of the antibiotics used in medicine (see Streptomyces). Frankia species are slow-growing in culture, and require specialised media, suggesting that they are specialised symbionts. They form nitrogen-fixing root nodules (sometimes called actinorhizae) with several woody plants of different families, such as alder (Alnus species), sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides, which is common in sand-dune environments) and Casuarina (a Mediterranean tree genus). Figure A (below) shows a young alder tree (Alnus glutinosa) growing in a plant pot, and Figure B shows part of the root system of this tree, bearing the orange-yellow coloured nodules (arrowheads) containing Frankia.
Alder and the other woody hosts of Frankia are typical pioneer species that invade nutrient-poor soils. These plants probably benefit from the nitrogen-fixing association, while supplying the bacterial symbiont with photosynthetic products.
|3. Cyanobacterial associations
The photosynthetic cyanobacteria often live as free-living organisms in pioneer habitats such as desert soils (see cyanobacteria) or as symbionts with lichens in other pioneer habitats. They also form symbiotic associations with other organisms such as the water fern Azolla, and cycads.The association with Azolla, where cyanobacteria (Anabaena azollae) are harboured in the leaves, has sometimes been shown to be important for nitrogen inputs in rice paddies, especially if the fern is allowed to grow and then ploughed into the soil to release nitrogen before the rice crop is sown. A symbiotic association of cyanobacteria with cycads is shown below. The first image shows a pot-grown plant. The second image shows a close-up of the soil surface in this pot. Short, club-shaped, branching roots have grown into the aerial environment. These aerial roots contain a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial symbiont.
|In addition to these
intimate and specialised symbiotic associations, there
are several free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria that
grow in close association with plants. For example, Azospirillum
species have been shown to fix nitrogen when growing in
the root zone (rhizosphere) or tropical grasses, and even
of maize plants in field conditions. Similarly, Azotobacter
species can fix nitrogen in the rhizosphere of several
plants. In both cases the bacteria grow at the expense of
sugars and other nutrients that leak from the roots.
However, these bacteria can make only a small
contribution to the nitrogen nutrition of the plant,
because nitrogen-fixation is an energy-expensive process,
and large amounts of organic nutrients are not
continuously available to microbes in the rhizosphere.
This limitation may not apply to the bacteria that live in root nodules or other intimate symbiotic associations with plants. It has been estimated that nitrogen fixation in the nodules of clover roots or other leguminous plants may consume as much as 20% of the total photosynthate.
|The nitrogen cycle
The diagram below shows an overview of the nitrogen cycle in soil or aquatic environments. At any one time a large proportion of the total fixed nitrogen will be locked up in the biomass or in the dead remains of organisms (shown collectively as "organic matter"). So, the only nitrogen available to support new growth will be that which is supplied by nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere (pathway 6 in the diagram) or by the release of ammonium or simple organic nitrogen compounds through the decomposition of organic matter (pathway 2). Some of other stages in this cycle are mediated by specialised groups of microorganisms and are explained below.
The term nitrification refers to the conversion of ammonium to nitrate (pathway 3-4). This is brought about by the nitrifying bacteria, which are specialised to gain their energy by oxidising ammonium, while using CO2 as their source of carbon to synthesise organic compounds. Organisms of this sort are termed chemoautotrophs - they gain their energy by chemical oxidations (chemo-) and they are autotrophs (self-feeders) because they do not depend on pre-formed organic matter. In principle the oxidation of ammonium by these bacteria is no different from the way in which humans gain energy by oxidising sugars. Their use of CO2 to produce organic matter is no different in principle from the behaviour of plants.
The nitrifying bacteria are found in most soils and waters of moderate pH, but are not active in highly acidic soils. They almost always are found as mixed-species communities (termed consortia) because some of them - e.g. Nitrosomonas species - are specialised to convert ammonium to nitrite (NO2-) while others - e.g. Nitrobacter species - convert nitrite to nitrate (NO3-). In fact, the accumulation of nitrite inhibits Nitrosomonas, so it depends on Nitrobacter to convert this to nitrate, whereas Nitrobacter depends on Nitrosomonas to generate nitrite.
The nitrifying bacteria have some important environmental consequences, because they are so common that most of the ammonium in oxygenated soil or natural waters is readily converted to nitrate. Most plants and microorganisms can take up either nitrate or ammonium (arrows marked "1" in the diagram). However, process of nitrification has some undesirable consequences. The ammonium ion (NH4+) has a positive charge and so is readily adsorbed onto the negatively charged clay colloids and soil organic matter, preventing it from being washed out of the soil by rainfall. In contrast, the negatively charged nitrate ion is not held on soil particles and so can be washed down the soil profile - the process termed leaching (arrow marked 7 in the diagram). In this way, valuable nitrogen can be lost from the soil, reducing the soil fertility. The nitrates can then accumulate in groundwater, and ultimately in drinking water. There are strict regulations governing the amount of nitrate that can be present in drinking water, because nitrates can be reduced to highly reactive nitrites by microorganisms in the anaerobic conditions of the gut. Nitrites are absorbed from the gut and bind to haemoglobin, reducing its oxygen-carrying capacity. In young babies this can lead to respiratory distress - the condition known as "blue baby syndrome". Nitrite in the gut also can react with amino compounds, forming highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Denitrification refers to the process in which nitrate is converted to gaseous compounds (nitric oxide, nitrous oxide and N2) by microorganisms. The sequence usually involves the production of nitrite (NO2-) as an intermediate step is shown as "5" in the diagram above. Several types of bacteria perform this conversion when growing on organic matter in anaerobic conditions. Because of the lack of oxygen for normal aerobic respiration, they use nitrate in place of oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor. This is termed anaerobic respiration and can be illustrated as follows:
In aerobic respiration (as in humans), organic molecules are oxidised to obtain energy, while oxygen is reduced to water:
C6H12O6 + 6 O2 = 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + energy
In the absence of oxygen, any reducible substance such as nitrate (NO3-) could serve the same role and be reduced to nitrite, nitric oxide, nitrous oxide or N2.
Thus, the conditions in which we find denitrifying organisms are characterised by (1) a supply of oxidisable organic matter, and (2) absence of oxygen but availability of reducible nitrogen sources. A mixture of gaseous nitrogen products is often produced because of the stepwise use of nitrate, nitrite, nitric oxide and nitrous oxide as electron acceptors in anaerobic respiration. The common denitrifying bacteria include several species of Pseudomonas, Alkaligenes and Bacillus. Their activities result in substantial losses of nitrogen into the atmosphere, roughly balancing the amount of nitrogen fixation that occurs each year.
|Further information: websites
International Symbiosis Society (not on this server)
A valuable site that deals with the ecology and physiology of N fixation: http://web.reed.edu/academic/departments/biology/nitrogen/ (not on this server)
A research-related site on Molecular genetics of plant-microbe interactions: http://www.lifesci.ucla.edu/mcdbio/html/ri4.htm (not on this server)
This site is no longer maintained and has been left for archival purposes
Text and links may be out of date
|
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"Monks, I will teach you the All. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."
"As you say, lord," the monks responded.
The Blessed One said, "What is the All? Simply the eye & forms, ear & sounds, nose & aromas, tongue & flavors, body & tactile sensations, intellect & ideas. This, monks, is called the All. Anyone who would say, 'Repudiating this All, I will describe another,' if questioned on what exactly might be the grounds for his statement, would be unable to explain, and furthermore, would be put to grief. Why? Because it lies beyond range."
Secondly, the Commentary includes nibbana (unbinding) within the scope of the All described here — as a dhamma, or object of the intellect — even though there are many other discourses in the Canon specifically stating that nibbana lies beyond the range of the six senses and their objects. Sn 5.6, for instance, indicates that a person who has attained nibbana has gone beyond all phenomena (sabbe dhamma), and therefore cannot be described. MN 49 discusses a "consciousness without feature" (viññanam anidassanam) that does not partake of the "Allness of the All." Furthermore, the following discourse (SN 35.24) says that the "All" is to be abandoned. At no point does the Canon say that nibbana is to be abandoned. Nibbana follows on cessation (nirodha), which is to be realized. Once nibbana is realized, there are no further tasks to be done.
Thus it seems more this discourse's discussion of "All" is meant to limit the use of the word "all" throughout the Buddha's teachings to the six sense spheres and their objects. As the following discourse shows, this would also include the consciousness, contact, and feelings connected with the sense spheres and their objects. Nibbana would lie outside of the word, "all." This would fit in with another point made several times in the Canon: that dispassion is the highest of all dhammas (Iti 90), while the arahant has gone beyond even dispassion (Sn 4.6; Sn 4.10).
This raises the question, if the word "all" does not include nibbana, does that mean that one may infer from the statement, "all phenomena are not-self" that nibbana is self? The answer is no. As AN 4.174 states, to even ask if there is anything remaining or not remaining (or both, or neither) after the cessation of the six sense spheres is to differentiate what is by nature undifferentiated (or to objectify the unobjectified — see the Introduction to MN 18). The range of differentiation goes only as far as the "All." Perceptions of self or not-self, which would count as differentiation, would not apply beyond the "All." When the cessation of the "All" is experienced, all differentiation is allayed.
See also: SN 35.24
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Education is experiencing a seismic change. The chalkboard and print-based textbook classroom of yesterday is fast becoming the digital-whiteboard and e-book classroom of tomorrow. But as students across the country head back to school this month, the companies charged with helping to implement these changes cannot forget the golden rule: the motherboard and the memory chip will never replace the passion and inspiration of a real-life teacher.
Technology doesn't teach. Teachers teach.
All of us involved in education received the same mandate this past winter from President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: to replace traditional, static textbooks with dynamic, interactive digital textbooks within the next five years. Several organizations have accepted this challenge enthusiastically and are partnering with districts every day to help transform classrooms into the digital learning environments our leaders envision. But the process is complicated.
Our every move affects tomorrow. No matter how far we evolve from the little red schoolhouse, we cannot afford to sacrifice the foundation of education that is built upon the unique relationship between teacher and student. At the same time, we know that new classroom technology, when used effectively, can produce amazing results across socioeconomic lines. So we are constantly studying models to strike the right balance.
We have seen the power of new technology in practice, especially when used by effectively trained teachers. In an initiative to replace traditional social studies textbooks, those students using digital tools in the Indianapolis Public Schools system, in which 85 percent of students are enrolled in subsidized lunch programs, had a 27 percent higher passing rate on statewide progress tests than students in classrooms that were not plugged in. Students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools who used digital resources achieved a 7 percent increase in their science FCAT (Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test) exams. And students of the Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina increased their performance on state exams by 13 percent over three short years, thanks to digital content and passionate, technology literate teachers.
These dramatic improvements would have been compromised if the teachers themselves had not been brought into the process responsibly. That is why our investment in upgrading classrooms needs to focus equally on making sure teachers know how to use digital tools effectively. No rational parent would put a child into a car operated by someone who could not drive, so why put our children into digital classrooms operated by teachers who are unprepared to teach in the digital age?
North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) perfectly illustrates both the power of effective teacher training and technology. Since 2008, CMS has provided digital science resources to Title I schools -- schools with a high concentration of students living in poverty. Along with digital content, the district provided teachers with ongoing professional development designed to show them how to build engaging lessons, enhance their current curriculum and inspire students by integrating digital media, hardware and software. The professional development, however, was not mandatory.
The results could not have been clearer: The students of teachers who opted into the professional development not only closed the achievement gap between themselves and students from Title I schools that did not have the same technology, they also outperformed the non-Title I schools, amassing a 57 percent passing rate on the state's end-of-year standardized science tests, compared to the 43 percent passing rate of those from wealthier schools. These are some of the most disadvantaged students in the state, remember, and yet they caught up to -- and surpassed -- students from more affluent schools.
Given this evidence, we urge our colleagues in the education community to increase their efforts to provide not only the resources to our teachers, but also the necessary professional development. We must recognize that the teacher-student relationship comes first. Only then will we continue to see improved results in the wired classrooms of tomorrow.
Technology doesn't teach. Teachers teach.
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Provincial Voice Care Resource Program, Linda Rammage, PhD, Director
4th Floor, Gordon & Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre,
2775 Laurel St, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9
Tel: 604-875-4204; Fax: 604-875-5382;
VOICE AMPLIFIERS: WHERE? WHEN? WHY? HOW?
If a room is large, the background noise level is high, the room has a lot of echo, or you are outdoors, you will have to talk louder than your normal, comfortable speech level to be heard and to hear yourself. Speech under these conditions often results in throat tension and vocal strain. The longer you talk, the more strained your voice will feel and the more hoarse you may become. When your brain hears competing noise, or receives poor feedback from your ears about the clarity of your voice, it tells the voice box and breathing system to work harder to make a louder sound. Why?: because we rely on the feedback to our own ears as we speak to confirm that our speech is clear and audible; and because sub-consciously humans understand it is impossible to communicate effectively under poor acoustic conditions. Voice training can increase your awareness of the signs of improper voice use, but you cannot completely over-ride the powerful sub-conscious "strain to be heard" command ("The Lombard Effect").
It is important to evaluate the room acoustics before deciding the best approach to reducing your speech level and vocal strain:
please refer to the brochure "Classroom Noise: Tips for a quieter learning environment".
- If room noise is created by external or internal sources such as machinery, ventilation, or traffic, it is best to look for a solution to controlling that environmental noise source.
- If people are creating noise that competes with a speaker, the best solution is to find non-vocal ways to get the audience's attention and to modify the speaker's agenda so it is not necessary to communicate while the people noise is present.
- Sometimes noise sources cannot be fully controlled. As long as a room is not too acoustically reverberant (echoic) a high-quality voice amplification system may allow a speaker to be heard above ambient noise without raising the voice.
- If the physical characteristics of a room make it very reverberant, amplifying the vocal sound will also amplify the echo and create another competing noise source. In this situation, modifications to the room may be possible.
- A room with high or hard-surface ceilings, hard-surface flooring, many windows, concrete or other hard-surface walls will be more likely to cause delayed reverberation of your voice that actually interferes with your ability to hear yourself speak. In this case, providing more sound-absorbing materials in the room may help, for example: carpeting, curtains, ceiling sound-tiles, or formal sound baffles.
- If the room reverberation is too fast or the room is too sound-absorbent, you may not get the added benefit of your voice bouncing back to your ears confirming what you have said. In this case, reducing the amount of absorbent materials may help.
- There is a fine balance between too much and too little reverberation! When in doubt, have an Audiologist or sound engineer make measures of the noise and reverberation characteristics of your usual speaking environments, and make recommendations for improving the acoustic conditions.
If you determine that a voice amplification device would be beneficial to reduce vocal strain, make certain you obtain the best system to meet your needs:
- Select a system that has low distortion and feedback, a wide dynamic range (volume level), is comfortable to wear, and portable, if necessary. Some systems will allow you to adjust the "treble/bass" component to over-ride ambient noises with specific frequency ranges.
- If you always use the same speaking environment, you should mount 4 or more speakers in a room the size of an average classroom. The speakers should allow your voice to be heard equally well in all parts of the room. The feedback that you receive from the speakers is particularly important in allowing you to talk at a normal, comfortable level without straining to hear yourself.
- Make sure the system is powerful enough so you can use it at 50-70% gain (volume control) for the noisiest condition. If it is not powerful enough and you have to turn the gain all the way up, the speech signal may become distorted.
- Choose a high-quality, unidirectional head-mounted microphone that sits in front of your lips to amplify only your voice, not a lapel-microphone that will amplify all the sounds around it.
- If you have an "FM system" installed in your room already, you may be able to "plug in" to it with a high-quality head-set microphone and transmitter.
- If possible, try using the system you intend to purchase in the specific environment(s) where you will be talking to ensure it meets your needs. Don't settle for a less-expensive system that will not meet your demands.
A number of companies specialize in voice amplification systems for a variety of speaker/singer needs. Examples are listed below. Check their websites for more information on their systems, or visit a local professional electronic system or music merchant. Examples: Phonic Ear; Sennheiser; Shure.
Potential Funding Sources for Voice Amplification Systems:
Capital Budgets for Employers or Self-Employment
Employers, where occupational voice use is required
Extended Health Plans; Union Benefits
Worksafe BC (with accepted claim)
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Contact tracing can stop Ebola in its tracks
Contact tracing is finding everyone who comes in direct contact with a sick Ebola patient. Contacts are watched for signs of illness for 21 days from the last day they came in contact with the Ebola patient. If the contact develops a fever or other Ebola symptoms, they are immediately isolated, tested, provided care, and the cycle starts again – all of the new patient’s contacts are found and watched for 21 days. Contact tracing finds new cases quickly so they can be isolated, stopping further spread of Ebola.
CDC and partners use contact tracing to identify new Ebola cases quickly and isolate patients as soon as they show symptoms, preventing spread to others. One missed contact can keep Ebola spreading but careful tracing of contacts and isolating new cases can stop the outbreak.
Ebola and Contact Tracing
- Page last reviewed: September 25, 2015
- Page last updated: September 25, 2015
- Content source:
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FIFO stands for first-in, first-out. It has a couple of uses:
- One method to determine the cost basis of the mutual fund or stock shares you sell.
- An accounting method by corporations for inventory tracking and cost of goods sold (COGS) calculation.
Under FIFO, the first shares purchased are considered the first shares sold. This is the IRS's default method. That is, unless you direct your broker to sell certain shares, the IRS assumes that the first shares purchased are the ones sold if you sell only a portion of your holding. Of course, those shares tend to be the lowest-priced shares, so this method usually results in a higher gain. A higher gain means higher taxes. Yay, IRS.
Inventory and COGS
FIFO is one of the two primary ways of tracking inventory on the balance sheet. (The other is the LIFO method, and some companies use the average cost method.) The first inventory purchased is considered the the first sold, regardless if the items sold were physically the first ones purchased or not. In other words, this is an accounting method, not a physical tracking method. So, it doesn't necessarily reflect reality.
FIFO paints a more up-to-date picture of inventory costs. Most foreign companies use FIFO, while most U.S. companies use a different method called LIFO (last-in, first-out). It is considered the more conservative method and usually results in higher taxes than LIFO.
A corporation that uses FIFO must use it consistently (i.e. it can't use FIFO on it's annual statements but tell the taxman the LIFO number).
An example of how it works
Suppose XYZ company sells Gizmos. It tracks actual inventory as follows, during one quarter:
|Day 0||Beginning balance||1,000||$10,000|
| First 1000 are from beginning balance and had cost of $10,000.|
Next 200 are from those purchased on day 10 and had cost of $2,200.
|From those purchased on day 10 and had a cost of $2,200|
|Day 90||Ending balance||1300||$13,400|
Under FIFO, you can see that the ones "sold" start at the earliest and work their way forward.
The COGS for this quarter can be calculated two ways.
First, take the sum of the costs of the "sold" items from the above tracking table: $10,000 + $2,200 + $2,200 = $14,400. Unless, however, you have access to a table like the above (which you won't), you can't do it this way.
Second, take the total amount spent on new purchases, add beginning inventory, and subtract ending inventory: ($5,500 + $8,400 + $3,900) + $10,000 - $13,400 = $14,400. The individual items purchased won't be available, but the total amount is available from the operating section of the company's statement of cash flow. The beginning and ending inventory balances are available on the balance sheets.
Retailers, especially those who sell perishable goods such as grocers, try to make FIFO a reality as much as possible through the practice of facing. Facing is merely the practice of placing oldest items to the front of shelves (or closest to the customer) and newer items to the back. The object is to get consumers to pick up the oldest items first.
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Results from the analysis of the remains from the Institute of Forensic Research in Krakow and the Museum and institute of zoology in Warsaw and the Uppsala laboratory were identical.
What does MIZ stand for?
MIZ stands for Museum and Institute of Zoology (Poland)
This definition appears somewhat frequently and is found in the following Acronym Finder categories:
- Science, medicine, engineering, etc.
- Organizations, NGOs, schools, universities, etc.
See other definitions of MIZ
- Marketing In Your Organisation (UK)
- Maximum Internal Yield Pressure (oil exploration)
- Money in Your Pocket
- Multiple Intelligential Yggdrasil Unit (anime)
- Make It Yourself With Wool (American Sheep Industry Association)
- Manoel Island Yacht Yard (Philippines)
- Marginal Ice Zone
- Metropolitan Influenced Zone (statistical classification; Canada)
- Mobile-Immobile-Zone (physical partitioning model)
- Multipoint Indicate Zero-Communication
- Musikinformationszentrum (German: German Music Information Center)
- Marginal Ice Zone Experiment
- MBD2 (methyl-CpG binding domain protein 2)-Interacting Zinc Finger
- Marginal Ice Zone, Atlantic
- Moscow Izdatel Znanie Novoe Zhizni (journal)
- Marginal Ice Zone, Pacific
- Myongdong Info Zone of Youth (Korea)
- Mizzou (University of Missouri)
- University of Missouri-Columbia
- Madame Josephine (Australia)
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The following post is from Charlotte Brody, Vice President of Health Initiatives for the BlueGreen Alliance.
Three months ago, a six-year study found that women employed in the automotive plastics and food-packaging industries in Canada were five times as likely to develop breast cancer — prior to menopause — as women in the control group. An accompanying analysis shows that these women’s work environments are heavily contaminated with dust and fumes that contain vinyl chloride, acrylonitrile and styrene and other mammary carcinogens and endocrine disrupting chemicals including bisphenol-a (BPA), phthalates and brominated flame retardants.
Then last week, a Congressionally mandated committee of breast cancer experts released “Breast Cancer and the Environment: Prioritizing Prevention,” that concludes that preventing environmental exposures — including exposures to endocrine disruptors and other chemicals linked to breast cancer — is the most promising path to decreasing the incidence of the disease.
Yesterday, a panel of international experts for the United National Environmental Programme and the World Health Organization reported that evidence linking hormone-mimicking chemicals to human health problems has grown stronger over the past decade, becoming a "global threat" that must be resolved. The 16 scientists reviewed the State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals-2013 and found that the rates of endocrine related cancers (breast, ovarian, prostrate, testicular and thyroid) and other hormone-related diseases are increasing globally and that reducing chemical exposures needs to become an important focus.
What’s the right response to this trend? At the personal level, you can do what you can do to limit your own and your family’s exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. Microwaving in glass instead of plastic, choosing fragrance or phthalate-free personal care products and doing most of your grocery shopping in the outside aisles of the store — where healthier, less pre-packaged food is usually found — can all help some.
But as these three reports show, we can’t shop our way out of cancer and chemicals. We need new laws, new research and safer production practices and products. Here’s how you or your organization can help to move these three responses.
Congress can help reduce the global threat of endocrine disrupting chemicals by reforming the 1976 Toxics Substances Control Act. Safer Chemicals Healthy Families is the national coalition that includes the BlueGreen Alliance and many of its partners that is focused on convincing Congress to modernize this broken and out of date law.
To implement the recommendations of the Prioritizing Prevention report, the Breast Cancer Fund is calling on U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to create an action plan for a national prevention strategy. You can write to Secretary Sebelius today to urge her to take this critical step.
Safer production practices and products can create tens of thousands of green jobs in a revitalized American manufacturing sector. Breast cancer free cars and trucks. Food that keeps us nourished and healthy without packaging that makes food packing workers and consumers sick. We need a national Blue-Green effort to transition and expand American manufacturing to making products that are healthier for the workers who make them and the families that use them. Watch this space for more information on how you can help.
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The Canadian Federal Government prohibits and restricts the use of certain ingredients in cosmetics and body care products. Many of these ingredients are found in products sold in the U.S. Canada Health has put together the Cosmetics Ingredient Hotlist that is based on the latest scientific studies. Ingredients on the Hotlist are prohibited or may used in regulated concentrations with mandatory warning labels.
These are some of the ingredients on the Hotlist and in U.S. consumer products:
Triclosan: regulated concentration, Warning label for oral care products: “not intended for children under 12.”
Salicylic acid: regulated concentration, Warning label: “Do not use on broken or abraded skin, not to be used by children under three years of age.”
Lead: prohibited (allowed in U.S. products and candy at low levels)
Mecury: prohibited (allowed in U.S. products at low levels)
To view the “Hotlist” of prohibited and restricted chemicals click here: Hotlist
Bisphenol A (BPA)
Canada has banned the sale of baby bottles containing BPA and has dedicated $1.7 million to research the health effects of BPA. The Health Minister Tony Clement stated that, “We have concluded that early development is sensitive to the effects of bisphenol A,” Canada has decided to use precautionary principle when it comes to the use of chemicals in consumer products.
To read the whole story at the Canadian Broadcasting Company click here:
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Battle Of Flodden Field Background
A selection of articles related to battle of flodden field background.
Original articles from our library related to the Battle Of Flodden Field Background. See Table of Contents for further available material (downloadable resources) on Battle Of Flodden Field Background.
- Gwydion and the Battle of the Trees
- One of the common themes in Welsh mythology involves raids into the Underworld. This nether land realm is called by different sources Annwn, Achren, Caer Sidi, or by modern English references: Hades or the Otherworld. The images of the Welsh Underworld were...
Deities & Heros >> Celtic, Welsh, Irish & Brittish
- King James Bible: Leviticus, Chapter 27
- Chapter 27 27:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 27:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation. 27:3 And thy estimation shall be of the male from...
Old Testament >> Leviticus
- Suggested "Field Trips" for Runic Study
- I began this article after discussing with my colleagues just what the Runes mean and how one goes about studying them. I also remembered that my Rune teacher, Thorr Sheil, told me that he and HIS teacher went to a dairy farm while they were studying the Rune...
Divination >> Rune Stones
- King Arthur and the Cymry Heroes
- The Celtic Britons called themselves the Cymry, which meant "fellow countrymen" in their Celtic tongue. Once Roman rule ended in Britain in about 410 A.D., a power vacuum developed, leading to the onslaught of Germanic invasions by Angles and Saxons,...
Saga of Times Past >> Legend and Prehistory
- Hyperspace Reality
- Despite the fact that the 'new' physics, a godchild of the Einsteinian revolution has taught us that the Universe we perceive is a mere shadow of a vastly more unpredictable one, most of us still view the world in a distinctly materialistic way. A world where...
Modern Science >> New Physics
- King James Bible: Exodus, Chapter 9
- Chapter 9 9:1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 9:2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 9:3 Behold, the hand of the LORD...
Old Testament >> Exodus
Battle Of Flodden Field Background is described in multiple online sources, as addition to our editors' articles, see section below for printable documents, Battle Of Flodden Field Background books and related discussion.
Suggested Pdf Resources
- to download file - The Battlefields Trust
- Appendix 7: Enhancing the Fields of Conflict Database ........................................... 33 ..... Includes some English battles such as Otterburn and Flodden.
- 4. INVESTIGATING FIELDS OF CONFLICT - The Battlefields Trust
- unable to exploit the potential of battle archaeology or much of the physical and .... Shrewsbury, Flodden and Pinkie suggests that aside from archaeologically- visible ...... A battlefield which does not have such a substantial ferrous background.
- to download file - The Battlefields Trust
- Scotland's Historic Fields of Conflict. Gazetteer: page 1 ..... useful background to the war and the campaign, and describes the character of Civil.
- Print this article
- King James IV began and ended his reign (1488-1513) on the field of battle. His death at Flodden ... wider context of Flodden from a Scottish perspective, how prepared the ......
- god for harry! - CAP Members
- blue background for the fleur de lis — and was kept in a special sanctuary at Tours. ... sacred flags borne onto the field of battle, a practice paralleled today in the ...
Suggested News Resources
- The SNP's neo-authoritarian machinations
- The ban on tuition fees has led to fewer, not more, students from poor backgrounds, who are half as likely to go to university as the English equivalents. To help pay for the abolition of fees, grants to students have been cut.
- Scots mum who drove family to Calais to feed refugees: 'There has to be
- Opaque, Semi-Opaque. Background. ---, White, Black, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Magenta, Cyan.
- 10 things you (probably) didn't know about Scottish history
- The battle of Bannockburn, 24 June 1314. A print from Cassell's Illustrated ...
Suggested Web Resources
- Battle of Flodden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field, or occasionally Battle of Branxton ( Brainston Moor), was ... 1 Background; 2 Invasion; 3 Battle; 4 Tactics and aftermath.
- Flodden - Battle of Flodden Field - Military History - About.com
- May 15, 2015 The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field was fought on September 9, 1513, between England and Scotland. Allied with the French, ... War of the League of Cambrai: Battle of Flodden ...
- Battle of Flodden Field 1513. - England's North East
- An account of the Battle of Flodden Field fought between the English and the Scots at Branxton, Northumberland in 1513.
- The Battle of Flodden, 9th September 1513 - British Battles
- The Battle of Flodden, 9th September 1513 the battle that crushed Scotland in the Anglo Scottish Wars. ... Background: .....
Great care has been taken to prepare the information on this page. Elements of the content come from factual and lexical knowledge databases, realmagick.com library and third-party sources. We appreciate your suggestions and comments on further improvements of the site.
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Evolution is the process that allows one to make sense of the wondrous diversity of species, physiologies, behaviors, and everything else biological around us. The course explores both historical and current work that uses an evolutionary lens to look at all kinds of biological questions and focuses on issues near and dear to humans, such as food, sex, violence, and religion. Following the examination of a series of instructor-led case studies, students pursue their own independent research into the historical and/or current evolutionary analysis of a particular trait or characteristic. Affiliate program: Science, Technology, and Society.
Prerequisites: SSI2 enrollment requires completion of SSI1 seminar
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Recall that a great deal of simplification of the kinematics of classical non-relativistic mechanics occurs when one considers the group structure of transformations with respect to the underlying coordinates. Specifically, the group of inversions, translations and rotations of a given coordinate system leave the norm (length) of a given vector invariant. These transformations form the Euclidean group in three dimensions, E.
For those of you who led deprived childhoods, a group is a set of mathematical objects with a rule of composition, or group product, such that:
If the group product commutes ( ) the group is said to be Abelian16.1 otherwise the group is said to be non-Abelian, which is sensible enough. A Lie group is a continuous group16.2 such as the group of infinitesimal transformations. It necessarily has an uncountable infinity of elements. There are also discrete (but countably infinite) groups, finite groups, and everything in between. There are also ``semi-groups'' (which do not, for example, contain an inverse). Finally, one can construct ``non-associative'' structures like groups from non-associative algebras like the octonions. Multiplication over the reals forms a continuous Abelian group. Rotations form a non-Abelian Lie group. Multiplication over rational numbers forms a countably infinite group. The set of rotations and inversions that leave a square invariant form a finite (point) group. The ``renormalization group'' you will hear much about over the years is not a group but a semi-group -- it lacks an inverse.
However, our purpose here is not, however, to study group theory per se. One could study group theory for four years straight and still only scratch the surface. It is somewhat surprising that, given the importance of group theory in physics, we don't offer a single course in it, but then again, it's not that surprising...
With that in mind, we can decide what we are looking for. We seek initially
the set of transformations in four dimensions that will leave
The set of transformations that leave the quantity
We will define to be the norm of relativistic space-time. This quantity may be considered to be the invariant ``distance'' (squared) between two events, and , and of course is one of the fundamental objects associated with the construction of differentials. Since quantities that are unchanged by a geometric transformation are called scalars it is evident that is a 4-scalar. Since the first postulate states that the laws of physics must be invariant under homogeneous (at least) Lorentz transformations, they must ultimately be based on Lorentz scalars. Indeed, the Lagrangian densities upon which field theories are based are generally constructed to be Lorentz scalars. This is a strong constraint on allowed theories.
These scalars are, however, formed out of 4-vectors (as we see above) or, more generally, the contraction of 4-tensors. We must, therefore, determine the general transformation properties of a tensor of arbitrary rank to completely determine a theory. In the part of this book devoted to mathematical physics is an entire chapter that discusses tensors, in particular the definitions of covariant and contravariant tensors, how to contract (Einstein sum) pairs of tensors to form tensors of lower rank, and the role of the metric tensor in defining tensor coordinate frames and transformations thereupon. We will not repeat this review or introduction (depending on the student) and urge students to at this time spend an hour or so working through this chapter before continuing (even if you've seen it before).
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How important is preschool reading? When should a child start reading? Where do I start?
These are all very important questions. Before a child can walk, he usually crawl, bumb shuffle or any other mobile way of getting around. Before a child learn to read, he needs to have the fundamentals of reading in place, otherwise he can learn to read incorrectly and have a disadvantage for life.
Most children are not ready to read until the age of 5 - 7, but there are cases where some preschoolers learn those reading skills a lot earlier. In the same breath, please do not think that something is wrong with your child if he is not reading at 7. There are so many children that are labeled with a reading disability when there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. Reading takes time and with the correct methods anybody can learn to read.
In preschool reading there are building blocks to follow:
Building Block 1:
The first step is to expose your child to a wide variety of books with pictures,rhymes and story books. Read to your preschooler all the time. Show them preschool books and teach thempreshool songs and poems. That way you will increase their vocabulary and make them ready to understand written words. They need to become aware of the word when you read it. Example. A picture of a dog. You've exposed your child to a dog before. Now you show them the picture of the dog and the word that is written underneath the picture. He experience all of this through his senses. His senses helps him to learn and understand the written word.
Preschool reading also mean that you teach your child all aboutcolors (Here is an example of a preschool lesson plan I have written). He needs to know the different colors before he canattempt reading. Why? Visual discrimination takes place while you are reading and you need to differentiate between colors to enable you to read words. A good way of practicing this is to put a black circle on a white paper and then ask your child to tell you what each color is?
Children must also be able to tell you where is left and right. Most children can do this by the age of 4. Depending on how they were taught about direction. This is important because we read from left toright. This is one of the most basic skills needed for reading.
Another preschool reading skill that needs to be practiced is where an object is. In front, behind, under, on top etc. This can be done with building blocks and picture books. You can even use yourself as the object sitting on the chair, standing behind the chair etc.
Building Block 2:
Allow your child to tell you stories. Even things that has happen. Maybe something he/she experienced like a day at the zoo. Ask them to tell you all about it. Do it all the time. You can also read a story and ask them to tell their dad in their own words about the story! (I've included some of my favorite children's stories.)
Before your child can start reading, they need to know that letters are different from each other and that they mean different things. A is for Apple, B is for Bear etc.
The Alphabet Adventure is a wonderful preschool reading curriculum that teaches just that. It is proven and works perfectly.
So, when is my child ready for reading?
This is a very difficult question and you might get different answers, but specialist in this field said that children develop in their own way. Most children start to show interest when they ask how theirnames are written. Rather play-learn with your children, do not force reading on them and most of all - do not compare them to others that starts to read early!
What you can do is:
Start your own preschool library at home with some great books. A well illustrated preschool book is an absolute treasure. Young children just adore the pictures and they will sit for hours with them. Just make sure you have lots, in every room if you can.
Choosing the right preschool reading book is also very important but very difficult. Choose books that are not too long as it can become boring. You should also take in consideration the plot of the story. Will they understand it? Is it bright and colorfull. Does it teach a good character. Do not choose books that changes the way something really looks like in life. An elephant needs to look like an elephant, not something close by. Their are various teaching strategies in choosing the correct book. You will just need to look at the age before choosing the books.
Create a peaceful "book corner" and arrange the books attractively. Put down a few cushions and ensure that it is comfortable. A preschooler's experiences of reading in general will play an important part in how the child will view books later.
The most important task is to readto them all the time. They love to hear the voice of their mother especially if she makes different noises!
Preschool reading is not just an important skill, it also develops the preschoolers intellectual skills such as: Concept formation, problem solving, critical thinking, thinking process and logical reasoning.
- Preschool Education
- Preschool Reading
- Preschool Teaching Strategies
- Preschool Curriculum
- Preschool Themes
- Preschool Homeschool
- Preschool Books
- Free Preschool Lesson Plans
- Preschool Bible Lessons
- Preschool Alphabet Activities
- Preschool Toys
- Cooking With Kids
- Preschool Music
- Preschool Games
- Preschool Crafts
- Preschool Ideas
- Preschool Graduation
- Free Preschool Printables
- Free Preschool Worksheets
- Free Preschool Alphabet Activities
- Free Preschool coloring Pages
- Free Preschool Lesson Plans
- Preschool Articles
- Preschool Blog
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ARV Given To HIV-Positive Children Boosts Preventive Power Of Key Malaria Drug, Study Shows
An antiretroviral (ARV) drug given to HIV-positive children “can boost the preventive power of a key malaria drug,” according to a study conducted in Uganda and presented last week at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, ScienceNow reports. The researchers, led by clinicians Diane Havlir of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Moses Kamya of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, “compare[d] two different cocktails of anti-HIV drugs, only one of which contained protease inhibitors, in HIV-infected children who live in a malarial area of [Uganda]” and found “that one protease inhibitor indeed helped stave off malaria.”
According to the news service, “the trial in Tororo, Uganda, involved 170 children under five who were randomized to receive one of the two combinations of antiretroviral drugs” and “[t]he group that received a drug cocktail containing the co-formulated protease inhibitors lopinavir and ritonavir had a 41 percent drop in malaria cases over two years compared with the group that received the other antiretroviral cocktail.” The news service writes, “‘We always think of drug-drug interactions as something to be avoided, but HIV has taught us the opposite,’ says Paul Volberding, an HIV/AIDS clinician at UCSF, who did not participate in this study but saw its presentation at the conference. ‘This is an intriguing first glimpse at one of these interactions'” (Cohen, 3/14).
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The Healthy Camp Study has been completed. As a result, the camp community now has an initial understanding of camp injury/illness events founded on evidence. This understanding is already making an important difference in the quest to make camp an even healthier experience. The good news is that, based on data, camp is as safe as or safer than many other youth activities (see Table 1). Attention to risk management, thorough staff training coupled with effective supervision, and rigorous incident analysis all contribute to improving a given camp's risk profile.
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Palaeolithic hand axes were one of the first tools used by mankind. Simple modern mechanisms would be rope pulleys or levers. The internal combustion engine is a machine for turning oil into motion. A complicated example would be computers and the web.
The term is used by extension as a metaphor. Thus the celestial mechanics of Kepler and Newton is a way of predicting and explaining planetary motions in the Solar System. Darwin's natural selection is his proposed mechanism as to how evolution took place.
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Big bad four-wheel drive! It won’t help you on a sheet of ice.
For some, the only confidence booster they need is to see the flashing lights of a salt truck passing down the road.
Some states do it better than others, but once that salt hits the ground, the magic begins.
Like a Seventh Grade Science Project
Who has made homemade ice cream?
The combination of table salt and ice, in order to freeze milk, cream, and sugar will blow the minds of most 7th graders stuck in Chemistry class.
So what’s the trick?
Yes, when salt contacts the ice, it will begin to melt. But, the salt also lowers the freezing point of the ice, so the colder temperature can freeze the surrounding milk and cream below 32°F.
A lower freezing point! That’s the key to salting roads.
How Road Salt Really Works
When salt hits the road it will begin to melt any ice and snow, leaving a salty mixture layer on the road’s surface.
Since the salt lowers the freezing point, ice will not form at the typical freezing temperature (32°F, 0°C).
Instead, the new freezing point of this salty road mixture will be around 15° – 20°F.
One flaw: If the road temperature is below that 15° – 20°F level, the salt can’t do its job. Then it basically just provides some traction.
How Road Salt Is Made
Here’s a quick look at how road salt (rock salt) is made from the hit Discovery Channel show “How It’s Made.”
The Salt vs. Sand Controversy
Other than making slippery roads safer, road salt is a corrosive compound. Its corrosive effects on vehicles, road surfaces, and bridges are most often seen in the Northeast where more snow means more salt. Salt can also drain into nearby water supplies.
The alternative, sand, provides helpful traction in slick spots, but doesn’t always get the job done in harsher weather conditions. So those salt stock piles probably aren’t disappearing anytime soon.
Either way, the road crews are kept busy every year spreading over 15 million tons and
$2 billion (EPA, 2010) of salt to keep all four of your wheels on the pavement.
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President Barack Obama created the task force in December. Its chairman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, said in a statement that the group focused on finding ways to cut red tape in the delivery of disaster aid and “piloting innovative strategies that can serve as a model for communities across the nation as they prepare for the impacts of climate change.”
In its report, the task force didn’t delve deeply into what types of infrastructure might be best suited to protect the shoreline. It endorsed a greater use of natural barriers like wetlands and sand dunes, but said better tools were needed to help planners evaluate what works and quantify the long-term cost benefits of those types of green projects. It also said those projects should be planned regionally if they are to have their greatest effect.
A large section of the report dealt with how federal authorities should respond once a storm has struck.
Among the recommendations:
-- Federal agencies should streamline their review processes for reconstruction projects related to Sandy. It said that if standard government permitting timelines are applied, some rebuilding projects might have to undergo redundant reviews by multiple agencies and could be held up as long as four years. Some of those reviews will be consolidated to save time and money, the task force said.
-- The Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program, which gave $3.8 billion in low-interest loans to storm victims, performed better than it did during Hurricane Katrina but should be tweaked further. Training programs for loan officers should be improved. Eligibility for some loans should be loosened slightly. Approvals should happen faster for people who meet credit requirements. A separate application track should be established for small businesses, which often need money fast to survive but wind up languishing in long queues behind huge numbers of homeowners.
-- Federal mortgage policies should be revised so homeowners can get insurance checks faster. After Sandy, many homeowners complained that mortgage banks delayed delivering their insurance payments because of bureaucratic issues.
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SUNDAY, Sept. 9 (HealthDay News) -- As schools open for another year, students, parents and drivers are urged to keep traffic safety in mind.
In 2010, more than 2,800 school-aged children were killed in traffic-related crashes, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Most of those deaths occurred in the afternoon, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
A nationwide traffic safety campaign called "Think Safe, Ride Safe, Be Safe!" encourages students to take the following safety precautions when traveling to school by foot, bike, bus or car.
When traveling by school bus:
- Keep away from the curb. Take five giant steps from the road and wait until the school bus driver says to board before approaching the vehicle.
- Once on the bus, go straight to your seat, sit facing forward and follow the instructions of the bus driver.
- Look both ways for cars as you exit the bus. Once you are off the bus, take five giant steps from the vehicle.
- If it is necessary to cross the street, look left-right-left to make sure no cars are coming and wait for the driver to signal it's safe to cross.
When walking to school:
- Walk on the sidewalk when possible. If there is no sidewalk, keep off the road as much as possible and walk facing traffic.
- Don't engage in horseplay. Never push or shove others when you're walking near a road.
- If you need to cross the street, use a crosswalk if you can. Look left-right-left for cars and do not cross if a car is coming. Wait for traffic to come to a full stop.
When cycling to school:
- Always wear a helmet and don't forget to buckle the chin strap.
- Ride on bike paths or on the sidewalk, not in the street.
Parents who drive their children to school or daycare should secure each child in the proper child safety seat, booster seat or seat belt, depending on the child's age and size. Before locking the doors and leaving the car, adults are reminded to make sure that no child has been accidentally left in the vehicle, the NHTSA experts stress in an agency news release.
And, of course, all vehicle occupants -- including adults and teen drivers -- are urged to buckle up. The NHTSA says that the best way to avoid serious injury or death in a crash is to always keep your seat belt fastened.
The Nemours Foundation has more about travel safety for kids.
SOURCE: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, news release, Sept. 5, 2012
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
|Previous: Water or Sports Drink?||Next: Health Tip: Straining a Hamstring|
Reader comments on this article are listed below. Review our comments policy.
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<urn:uuid:3721eebc-5fe1-4fd7-9ecf-1ccccf2118a1>
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http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/hd/31906
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National Geographic News
An expanse of bedrock along Hudson Bay, Canada, may be a chunk of crust that formed not long after the solar system was born nearly five billion years ago, according to a new study.
The finding could push back the age of the most ancient remnant of stable crust on Earth by about 300 million years.
Previous research had dated rocks in northwestern Canada to 4.03 billion years ago, and tiny crystals of the mineral zircon in Western Australia are known to be upward of 4.38 billion years old.
It's not known whether the bedrock itself is also as old as the crust, a question that awaits further analysis, said study co-author Richard Carlson, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.
Regardless, the ancient date supports the once-controversial idea that Earth was cool enough to produce crust early in its history.
"Even though we expect the Earth formed [at] very hot [temperatures], at least Earth's surface had cooled down to temperatures not dramatically hotter than today," Carlson said.
The finding disputes the idea that the first crust didn't form until a period of intense asteroid and comet bombardment ended about 3.8 billion years ago.
(Related: "World's Oldest Rocks Suggest Early Earth Was Habitable" [November 28, 2005].)
In 2007 Nicole Cates and Stephen Mojzsis of the University of Colorado at Boulder dated the Hudson Bay bedrock to about 3.8 billion years ago.
(See a prehistoric time line.)
Their team based their estimate on the decay of radioactive uranium found in tiny shards of zircon taken from the bedrock. The technique is widely used to date ancient rocks around the world.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080925-oldest-rocks.html
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| 0.944576
| 366
| 4.3125
| 4
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Video: Understanding Color for Web Developers
This is “the lecture I've always wanted to give, but couldn't because there wasn't any good way to illustrate it.” The 12-minute video is available in Quicktime format to download or view in your browser. Contents:
- Part 1: Introduction. Covers basic RGB and HSB concepts.
- Part 2: RGB. In-depth demonstration of how to control color with this model.
- Part 3: HSB. Likewise for this model.
- Part 4: How to control contrast for readability and accessibility.
Background music for the video: Daris Milhaud Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano, recorded April 19, 1961 in concert at the Illini Union Wedgewood Lounge, Urbana, Illinois. Amaryllis Fletcher, Violin; Tom Jewett, Clarinet; Carolyn Powell, Piano.
Copyright 2009–2013, Tom Jewett,
tom [at] tomjewett [dot] com
Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Emeritus
California State University, Long Beach
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<urn:uuid:76c572a4-1adb-46b3-9c3b-955046cd5632>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.tomjewett.com/colors/video.html
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| 0.836732
| 228
| 2.703125
| 3
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Putri, Yohana Desy Eka (2012) PENGELOLAAN KECEMASAN DAN KETIDAKPASTIAN DALAM LONG DISTANCE COMMUNICATION ANTARA ORANGTUA DENGAN ANAK YANG MENEMPUH PENDIDIKAN DI BOARDING SCHOOL. Undergraduate thesis, Ilmu Komunikasi FISIP UNDIP.
Abstract Giving a good education to the children is a hope for every parents today. The boarding school education system comes as one of new alternative for education that give a holistic learning program not only in academic sides, but also in life education sides. All of the students must be stayed in dormitory and this condition makes them live separately from their parents so they have to do a long distance communication. This situation is risky when the children could feel the anxiety and uncertainty, because there are some regulations that bound the use of communication media. So that, the uncertainty and anxiety managements are needed the most in this case. The aim of this research is to describe the experiences how parents and child could manage the anxiety and uncertainty while they have to do a long distance communication. Using Uncertainty Reduction Theory, Self Disclosure Theory, and Dialouge Theory by Martin Buber, this qualitative descriptive research that uses constructivism paradigm with phenomenological approach research three pairs of parent and child that lived outside Java Island. The outcomes of this research show that long distance communication is risky to have uncertainty and anxiety, and felt more by the parents. But, in this case, parent-child that have a special intimacy has a way to help the proccess of anxiety uncertainty management, beside that, the case when a child has a self willing to enter the boarding school, the anxiety uncertainty is more effective. There are other unique outcomes, where children could feel more intimate with their parents when they are apart in long distance, then there are others factor that have contribution in managing the anxiety uncertainty management those are adaptation, self disclosure, and trustworthiness. Uncertainty Reduction Theory explains that the condition of long distance communication with minimum face to face conversations is risky to have more uncertainty and anxiety, but the outcomes of this research improve with the fact that the anxiety uncertainty couldn’t be relevant if there are good and effective management in it. Key words : anxiety and uncertainty, parent-child, long distance communication, boarding school.
|Item Type:||Thesis (Undergraduate)|
|Subjects:||H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)|
|Divisions:||Faculty of Social and Political Sciences > Department of Communication|
|Deposited By:||Jurusan Ilmu Komunikasi Fisip Undip|
|Deposited On:||26 Nov 2012 15:34|
|Last Modified:||26 Nov 2012 15:34|
Repository Staff Only: item control page
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The Late Pleistocene Interglacial, Late Glacial landforms and Holocene neotectonics of the Kola Peninsula
Field guide (PDF 5.89 Mb)
Leaders: Dr. Vasili V. Kolka (chief organizer: email@example.com) Dr. Olga P. Korsakova & Dr. Vladimir Ya. Yevzerov; Geological Institute, Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences (Apatity, Russia).
Purpose: The Kola Peninsula is a key area for understanding glacial evolution, especially at the final stages, of the development of glacioisostatic, eustatic and tectonic events during the Late Glacial and Interglacial time, and of the character of interaction between the Ice Sheet and local mountain glaciations in high latitudes.
During the field trip we will examine: well preserved push and damp marginal moraines, subglacial interlobate ridge, and their geological structures (western part of the Kola Peninsula); landforms resulted from the glacial activity and displaying long-term glacial-erosion features and smaller scale landforms which in great detail record the deglaciation of the area, as the glacial cirques, marginal moraines, end moraines, hummocky moraines, De Geer moraines, lateral meltwater channels, spillways, troughs, delta formations, ice-dammed lake shoreline, tor-formations (Khibiny and Lovosero mountains); features of the glaciotectonic rising of the Kola Peninsula in the form of isostatically raised beach ridges (coast of the White sea) and the seismidislocations caused by the neotectonic activity of the Baltic Shield (area of Lake Imandra); regionally well known interglacial section of marine sediments which bear the evidences of glacio-eustatic marine transgression (valley of the Varzuga River).
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The Bot River protea is restricted to the botanically rich habitat of the Cape Floristic Region, where conservation is a high priority. Conservation measures currently being undertaken in the region include the restoration of the landscape to its natural state, through the burning and cutting of invasive alien plants, the purchasing of land to protect against the threats of encroaching urban development and agriculture, and the establishment of new protected areas (4) (8) (9). In addition, the conservation organisation Fauna and Flora International are coordinating projects that promote ecologically and financially sustainable cultivation of fynbos plants, to provide long-term, community directed protection of this fragile ecosystem (9).
At present only a small proportion of the Cape Floristic Region lies within reserves, with the majority of these protected areas in mountainous areas, and very few in coastal regions, where the Bot River protea resides. Some Bot River protea populations are protected by privately owned reserves, but these tend to be very small, and the level of protection provided varies. In order to ensure the preservation of coastal fynbos habitat, and Bot River protea populations, a larger network of protected areas should be established with greater connectivity between reserves (8).
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Policy makers find CCS too expensive, climate activists call it an excuse for coal and none of us want it applied in our own backyards. But fortunately science also has a way of silently progressing, as we will be needing carbon capture technology anyway.
Yesterday the American Chemical Society issued a press release in which it referred to a publication in its own journal – JACS – from November 11 2011, by a research group from Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Department of Chemistry at the University of Southern California.
These researchers think with their ‘polyamine-based regenerable solid adsorbent’ they have developed a better CO2-binding material to capture the carbon gas from concentrated smoke (as would be the case with conventional CCS) – and perhaps, as the researchers state the adsorbent works at very low concentrations, also from the air – which could make it suited for high-tech [and therefore probably very cost-ineffective] ways of CDR geoengineering, like David Keith’s ‘carbon scrubbers.’
Let’s hope they’re right. CCS health concerns [from leaks] are exaggerated and not intrinsic to the technique. And as for instance the IEA 450 Scenario shows there is no way we can get even close to achieving agreed international climate targets without large-scale implementation.
Last July another research group reported on a CO2 adsorbent breakthrough. They managed to convince the editors of a journal with a somewhat higher general impact factor that they had hit on something significant. [But don't tell us you had never heard of the Journal of the American Chemical Society - we'd be disappointed.]
© Rolf Schuttenhelm | www.bitsofscience.org
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|Cammalleri, Carmelo -|
|Ciraolo, Giuseppe -|
|D'Urso, Guido -|
|La Loggia, Goffredo -|
|Minacapilli, Mario -|
Submitted to: Remote Sensing of Environment
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: June 7, 2012
Publication Date: September 1, 2012
Repository URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/59972
Citation: Cammalleri, C., Anderson, M.C., Ciraolo, G., D'Urso, G., Kustas, W.P., La Loggia, G., Minacapilli, M. 2012. Practical applications of the remote sensing-based two-source algorithm for mapping surface energy fluxes without in-situ air temperature observations. Remote Sensing of Environment. 124:502-515. Interpretive Summary: Remote sensing techniques for mapping evapotranspiration often use satellite-derived maps of land-surface temperature as the key boundary condition. The difference between the surface and near-surface air temperature controls the heat energy flux convected from the surface to the atmosphere, while the remainder of the energy available at the land-surface is presumed to be used in evaporating water. Therefore, evapotranspiration estimates from such models can be very sensitive to errors in the assumed surface-to-air temperature gradient. It is beneficial to build remote sensing models that minimize this sensitivity, because often accurate air temperature data are unavailable. In this paper, three variants of a surface energy balance algorithm are compared to ascertain which might be most useful for applications where meteorological observations are sparse or unavailable. The study determined that a simple method requiring no air temperature data performed reasonably over an agricultural landscape in Sicily (Italy). In this method, it was assumed that the coldest areas in the land-surface temperature map were evaporating at the potential rate. A representative air temperature over the modeling regions was back-calculated based on this assumption and used as an upper boundary for flux computations at all other pixels in the scene. This simple approach may be a useful means for estimating evapotranspiration in data-sparse areas where well-watered fields exist somewhere in the satellite imaging scene.
Technical Abstract: The two-source energy balance (TSEB) model uses remotely sensed maps of land-surface temperature (LST) along with local air temperature estimates at a nominal blending height to model heat and water fluxes across a landscape, partitioned between dual sources of canopy and soil. For operational implementation of the TSEB, however, it is often difficult to obtain representative air temperature data that are consistent with the LST retrievals, which may themselves have residual errors due to atmospheric and emissivity corrections. To address this issue, two different strategies in applying the TSEB model without requiring local air temperature data were tested over a typical Mediterranean agricultural area using a set of resolution multi-spectral airborne remote sensing images. Alleviating the need for accurate local air temperature data as input, these two approaches internally estimate the surface-to-air temperature gradient that drives the sensible heat flux. The two approaches include: 1) a scene-based internal calibration (TSEB-IC) procedure that estimates air temperature over a well-watered and fully vegetated pixel in the LST image, and 2) a disaggregation scheme (DisALEXI) that uses air temperature estimates from a coupled TSEB-atmospheric boundary layer model of atmosphere-land exchange (ALEXI). A comparison of the air temperatures modeled by TSEB-IC and DisALEXI with in-situ weather station observations shows good agreement, with average differences on the order of 1 K, comparable with the uncertainties in the remotely sensed surface temperature maps. Surface fluxes estimated by each method agree well with micro-meteorological measurements acquired over an olive orchard within the aircraft imaging domain. In comparison with fluxes generated with TSEB using local measurements of air temperature, instantaneous fluxes from these alternative methods show good spatial agreement, with differences of less than 10 W/m2 across the domain. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the three models, performed by introducing artificial errors into the model inputs, demonstrates that the DisALEXI and TSEB-IC approaches are relatively insensitive to errors in absolute surface temperature calibration, while turbulent fluxes from TSEB applications using local air temperature measurements show sensitivity of approximately 30 W/m2 per degree temperature perturbation. This highlights the value of internal estimation of the surface-to-air temperature gradient within a surface energy balance framework.
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It is well known that exposure to lead has numerous adverse effects on behavior and development, but little work to date has examined the cumulative lifetime effect of such exposure on aspects of behavior. In this paper, I use data on two cohorts of children from the NLSY to investigate the effect of early childhood lead exposure on behavior problems from childhood through early adulthood. I find large negative consequences of early childhood lead exposure, in the form of an unfolding series of adverse behavioral outcomes ranging from behavior problems as a child, to pregnancy and aggression as a teen, and to criminal behavior as a young adult. Estimated elasticities of these behaviors with respect to lead range between 0.1 and 1.0. This evidence suggests that, by increasing impulsivity and aggression, even moderate exposure to lead in early childhood can have substantial and persistent adverse effects on individual behavior. Moreover, such moderate exposure was the norm for residents of the United States born between the 1950s and the early 1980s.
It is now widely accepted that childhood exposure to even low levels of lead can adversely affect neurodevelopment, behavior, and cognitive performance. Using individual-level data on childhood lead levels and test scores in Massachusetts, this paper investigates the link between lead levels in early childhood in the 1990s and student test scores in elementary school in the 2000s. Massachusetts is well-suited for this analysis both because it has been a leader in the reduction of childhood lead levels for four decades, and also because it has mandated standardized achievement tests in public elementary schools for almost two decades. Panel data analysis is conducted at the school-cohort level for children born between 1991 and 2000 and attending 3rd and 4th grades between 2000 and 2009 at more than 1,000 public elementary schools in Massachusetts. Elevated levels of blood lead in early childhood are shown to adversely impact standardized test performance, even when controlling for community and school characteristics. Accordingly, public health policy that reduced childhood lead levels in the 1990s was responsible for modest but statistically significant improvements in test performance in the 2000s, with particular benefits for children in low-income communities.
Childhood lead exposure can lead to psychological traits that are strongly associated with aggressive and criminal behavior. In the late 1970s in the United States, lead was removed from gasoline under the Clean Air Act. I use the state-specific reductions in lead exposure that resulted from this removal to identify the effect of childhood lead exposure on crime rates. The elasticity of violent crime with respect to childhood lead exposure is estimated to be 0.8, and this result is robust to numerous sensitivity tests. Mixed evidence supports an effect of lead exposure on murder rates, and little evidence indicates an effect of lead on property crime. Overall, I find that the reduction in childhood lead exposure in the late 1970s and early 1980s was responsible for significant declines in violent crime in the 1990s and may cause further declines in the future. Moreover, the social value of the reductions in violent crime far exceeds the cost of the removal of lead from gasoline.
This Article investigates the effects of malpractice liability on the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology. The authors combine rich data from a survey of 1,476 physicians with detailed measures of liability pressure to assess the effects of the liability environment on physician behavior. The analysis reveals important inconsistencies between alleged effects and actual effects. On the one hand, physicians report having made substantial changes to their practice in response to the general malpractice environment and to liability pressures. But on the other hand, regression analysis finds that the direct effects on actual physician income and productivity are less clear. The evidence suggests that rising malpractice premiums may lead to practice reductions in the short run, but that in the long run they lead to a specialization effect by which some physicians focus more on obstetrics and others focus more on gynecological surgery. Thus, the analysis suggests that while the liability environment has had modest effects on the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology, these effects appear to fall short of a malpractice-induced “crisis.”
This paper analyzes how the imperfectly competitive market for Obstetricians and Gynecologists (OB/GYNs) clears in the face of an excess demand for female OB/GYNs. This excess demand results from the convergence of three factors: i) all OB/GYN patients are women, ii) many women prefer to be treated by a female OB/GYN, iii) only a small portion of OB/GYNs are female. The paper finds that both money and non-money prices adjust: female OB/GYNs charge higher fees and also have longer waiting times. Furthermore, these effects are mediated by institutional structure: in contract settings in which money prices are rigid (i.e. managed care), waiting times are more likely to adjust, and in settings in which money prices are more flexible, the reverse occurs.
The financial aid system imposes an implicit asset tax that is prevalent and substantial. Facing this tax, rational families should reduce their total assets and shelter assets in protected categories. I find that the tax induces a 7% reduction in total assets, a result in line with the literature. Furthermore, I find evidence that families reallocate assets into sheltered retirement accounts. The paper provides further evidence that the financial aid tax reduces asset accumulation and prompts a reconsideration of the simple “higher tax, lower assets” story. It provides the first evidence that families may be engaging in a rational reallocation of their asset portfolio.
In many academic settings, undergraduate economics majors are asked to do an independent project or thesis in their final year. Because doing research is very different from learning economics in a classroom, students are frequently unprepared for this endeavor. This article describes a seminar course intended to ease this transition by preparing students to embark on such a project. The first goal of the course is to assist students in developing a sound economic research project. The second goal is to help them develop the research skills to execute their project. In essence, the course is an abbreviated and accelerated version of some of the learning that takes place alongside the standard curriculum in graduate school. The article describes a course that has been designed for a liberal arts setting, and also discusses other possible variations.
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Five Lessons for Boosting Career Skills in a Clean Energy Economy
1. Community College Instructors are Influential in Determining Whether the U.S. will Lead in the World Clean Economy by Preparing Students with the Necessary Knowledge and Skills:
A national Greenforce survey of a small sample of community college educators found that instructors are having a far-reaching impact on US workforce readiness for a greener economy. Over fewer than four years, 300 career and technical instructors at a small sample of 51 community colleges had modified 500 or more training and skill development courses serving more than 10,000 students. Examples include courses on advanced energy storage, clean fuel vehicle technology, architecture, agriculture, forestry, pre-engineering and wastewater.
2. Professional Development for Community College Instructors Goes Hand in Hand with Educating Students and is a Top U.S. Priority:
The Greenforce survey found that faculty are obtaining new sustainability credentials such as BPI, NABCEP or LEED to assess these career development opportunities for their students. For example, Dan Smith, an instructor at Clover Park Technical College (CPTC) in Washington obtained the BPI credential which, in turn, assisted him in developing an indoor air quality module that has now been incorporated into several courses. However, an earlier survey indicates that only a minority (36%) of two and four-year colleges and universities have programs to support faculty professional development on environment or sustainability topics. Greenforce survey respondents cited additional continued professional development as important to their continued ability to prepare their students with sustainability skills.
3. Enhancing Existing Community College Courses is More Important than Developing New Courses When it Comes to Preparing the U.S. Workforce for Productive Roles in a Clean Economy:
Faculty more frequently cited the need to adapt existing courses than to develop new specialty courses on sustainability. Instead of creating a new class on sustainability at South Texas College, for example, instructors developed new material around environmental impacts of business decisions and more cost-effective approaches for the existing introductory course of business decisions required of all students in the business school (Business Principles, BUSI-1301). Faculty cite similar adaptations across dozens of disciplines from engineering and finance to transportation.
4. College Leaders Need Employers to Partner In Re-Tooling Courses and this Will Require More Support and Incentives for Employers:
Community college faculty also report they are working concertedly to build relationships with employers, assess employers’ needs and introduce students to employers. Together with the Greenforce Initiative, instructors engaged employers in myriad ways. For example, they coordinated on-line meetings with energy efficiency employers in Texas; identified HVAC contractors in Virginia that are shifting to more efficient motors and ground source heat pumps; researched businesses around the Detroit area willing to help develop course segments on solar photovoltaic and solar thermal; built out a green economy website at College of Lake County in Illinois featuring employers and products; hosted sustainability career fairs and recruited employers for advisory boards.
More than 200 employers engaged in the national Greenforce Initiative over its initial four years ranged from Franktronics in Virginia to Northwest Hospital in Washington and Tecta America in Illinois to GM in Michigan. Frequently, employers emphasized the need for students with sustainability systems skills and, yet, it was often noted that, in order for employers to be able to afford to co-teach courses, articulate and share more precise sustainability skills needs and jobs opportunities, consult on hands-on projects, provide apprenticeships, etc. employers would need supportive incentives and other programming. The campus and clean economy partnerships hold great promise. Dan Guinn, of Dan Guinn Homes and GCI Energy Consultants, VA, for example, explained:
“We have had good response to our participation in programs like the green vendor fair and summit at Rappahannock Community College. Mainly our focus has been on greater awareness in the community. I believe that we have been able to help people to understand what products and services are available to them through our local businesses. We have had some interest as well in course studies for the community college relating to Energy Efficiency.”
5. Hands-On Projects Help Bring it all Together: Instructors, Employers, Students and Skills:
One of the approaches faculty commonly used, according to surveys and case studies, was to provide a hands-on or experiential component to adapted courses. From a mobile solar thermal demonstration project for the HVAC classes at Nash Community College in North Carolina, to a photovoltaic motorcycle container project involving multiple disciplines at Thomas Nelson Community College in Virginia and a large-scale community weatherization project at Lansing Community College in Michigan, faculty organized dozens of hands-on projects with support from the Greenforce Initiative to advance skills and career connections for students. The projects connected the classroom with the business and operational practices of the campuses and wider communities and lead to greater student awareness. For example: Brittany Sparks, a student in Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, VA, took classes in the wind turbine technician program as part of her degree coursework through the Forestry Department, explaining:
“I saw that as a wonderful opportunity to get hands-on experience and see the different ways this knowledge can be used. Having a certificate or degree from the wind program doesn’t mean that is what you have to specifically do. There are so many skills that you learn, that you can branch out, do many different things with the knowledge and see the different applications.”
Evan Foster, earned his degree in energy management system and a certificate in energy auditing from Lansing Community College in 2012, where he says that the hands on experience he gained set him apart when applying for later job as the student assistant to the Director of Utilities and Energy Management Systems at Wayne State University. As a student, Evan conducted three residential energy audits and two commercial energy audits as part of his course requirements. He also gained experience with lighting retrofits, which was one of the first projects he took on at his new job. A video illustrates his experience. Karla Pirko, a second year student in the Environmental Science Technology Program at Southeastern Community College, enhanced her Major in Agricultural Biotechnology with an internship focused on developing a native plant rain garden at the college which, she explained,
“Provided us a way to filter runoff, to conserve water, improve our water quality, and created a habitat for the birds and butterflies since we are using native plants; plus it has given us a hands on experience to learn more about our watershed and how we can improve it in our daily tasks.”
Looking Ahead in 2014 and Beyond: Four initiatives will help seize the opportunities community college instructors identified in the Greenforce survey, ranging from new on-line professional development opportunities to a global initiative to spotlight the importance of sustainability skills education. For example, the Greenforce Initiative and partners will launch over the next two years, four new initiatives, including:
- Sustainability Skills and Demand Courses: The Greenforce Initiative (along with association partners such as the American Association of Community College and U.S. Green Building Council and foundation partners such as the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and others) is working with leading community college instructors to develop a suite of faculty professional development opportunities, including regional and national webinars, toolkits and on-line courses.
- Broader Survey on Climate Change Science and Solutions and Instructors Response: As part of the release of the IPCC’s fifth assessment report and the next round of UN Climate Talks, NWF is working with partners to disseminate a nine-question national survey to leading faculty across disciplines at both two and four-year colleges and universities on trends in current or planned shifts in educational strategies for students. The findings will be rolled up and shared nationally to help spotlight the importance of education in US and global climate action planning, to identify models that can be highlighted as well as areas of opportunity.
- NASA Climate Change Solutions Education: A partnership with NASA and three flagship community colleges (Edgecomb Community College, NC; Wilbur Wright Community College, Chicago, Illinois; and Wayne County Community College in Detroit, Michigan) will enhance the new on-line clean economy professional development courses for community college instructors. More than a dozen faculty across disciplines ranging from chemistry to geographical and biological sciences have spent nearly three academic years tapping NASA earth observing satellite data and resources such as David Blockstein’s textbook, Climate Solutions, to help make their courses relevant in an era of land and energy use patterns that are increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and altering the earth’s climate. Faculty have created modules on symptoms such as ocean acidification and rising sea levels in specific local coastal communities, while engaging their students in researching local trends and solutions and investigating how careers are changing in everything from the insurance to energy. The current effort is to wrap-up and share lessons learned as part of a the various national professional development initiatives with faculty described here.
- A National Policy and Systems Change Agenda: Ultimately, to prepare a workforce with the sustainability skills increasingly in demand by employers and their consumers, professional development for community college instructors and related efforts to advance sustainability skills education will need to become a much higher priority on the US and global policy agenda. Accordingly, the Greenforce Initiative convened national thought leaders in spring 2013 and hosted a series of subsequent working groups to create a policy and systems agenda for advancing sustainability skills nationally, including recommendations for key stakeholders, including the President, Congress, State and city leaders, employers, NGOs and students. The policy guidelines will be released and disseminated in fall of 2014 and beyond. Contact the Greenforce Initiative for more information.
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This chapter has been published in the book MEDIEVAL EUROPE 610-1250. For ordering information, please click here.
After the Byzantine empire suffered a major defeat in 1071, fear of continuing Seljuk conquests stimulated Byzantine emperors to write to the West for military help. Pope Gregory VII considered leading a crusade himself but his reforms brought him into serious conflict with Germany's Heinrich IV, whom he had wanted to protect the Church while he was gone. Normans led by Robert Guiscard had tried to overcome the Byzantine empire militarily and had failed. After defeating the Norman threat, Emperor Alexius Comnenus again asked the West for assistance.
At the Council of Clermont in November 1095 Pope Urban II met with about 300 clerics and described the plight of the Byzantines facing the Seljuk Turks and the suffering of pilgrims going to Jerusalem. He proposed that the rich and poor go to save the East, and he promised remission of the penance for sins, absolution, and protection of their property by the Church while they are gone. Shouts of "God wills it!" erupted, and the Bishop of Le Puy was the first to kneel down and volunteer. Each crusader should wear the sign of the cross and vow to go to Jerusalem. Any taking the vow who failed to set out or turned back were to be excommunicated. Clerics and monks must get permission of their bishop or abbot. The elderly and weak were discouraged from attempting the challenging adventure. This crusade was not intended to be a war of conquest, as all Eastern churches recovered were to have their rights restored. The plan was to leave following the harvest the next summer and to assemble at Constantinople. The crusade was intended to supplement the Truce of God, which the Clermont council endorsed, by removing warriors from Europe. Floods and pestilence had ravaged Europe in 1094, followed by drought and famine in 1095. Urban had argued at Clermont that they were fighting among themselves, because they could not feed people. Prophets argued that the Christ would not come again until the Holy Land had been recovered.
Adhémar de Monteil, Bishop of Le Puy, was elected the leader, and Count Raymond of Toulouse soon joined. In his travels Pope Urban preached the crusade at Limoges, Tours, Toulouse, and Nimes. Urban wrote to Flanders, and Genoa offered twelve galleys for transport. Adhémar and Raymond were joined by Hugh of Vermandois, Robert II of Flanders, Duke Robert of Normandy, Count Stephen of Blois, Duke Godfrey of Lower Lorraine, Count Eustace III of Boulogne, and his brother Baldwin. Normans from Italy were led by Guiscard's son Bohemond. Pope Urban commissioned Robert Arbrissel to preach the crusade in the Loire valley; but the greatest inspirer was a monk called Peter the Hermit, who wandered around barefoot and on a donkey. Peter already had a following of those devoted to helping the poor as he had traveled around the Ile de France, Normandy, Champagne, and Picardy for years. Peter also converted nobles and the wealthy, who contributed some or even all of their possessions so that his ascetic community had its own resources for its charitable work. Peter had provided many dowries to prostitutes so that they could reform their lives. Peter began preaching the crusade, and his following quickly grew as he moved through the French provinces. He obtained a letter from the chief rabbi at Rouen to the Jews of Mainz, urging them to contribute.
Byzantines had expected a few mercenary soldiers to cross the Adriatic Sea and travel through Thessalonica when suddenly they learned that massive armies had come by way of Hungary and had arrived in their empire at Belgrade. The Byzantine empire had just suffered a plague of locusts, which ate the vines but left the grain. Some interpreted this to mean the crusaders would kill the Saracens and protect the Christians; but the Byzantines were not so sure. According to the history of his daughter Anna Comnena, Emperor Alexius believed that the Franks' greed for money caused them to break their agreements.
Proud Franks composed the first group led by Walter Sans-Avoir. They were ridiculed by Germans at first but had money to buy food as they passed through Hungary. Sixteen stragglers crossing a river at Semlin had been robbed of their weapons and clothes, which were displayed on the wall as a warning to other crusaders. Unable to buy food, Walter's crusaders foraged, and sixty were burned to death in a church. Walter quickly moved his band on to Nish, where they could buy provisions. Byzantine officials came there to escort them to Constantinople, where they arrived in mid-July 1096.
Peter's preaching in Germany increased this largest group of crusaders to at least 20,000 and maybe 40,000. He promised Hungary king Coloman his people would not pillage or fight in the markets. At Semlin a quarrel over a sale of shoes escalated into a riot and a battle, as Geoffrey Burel led an attack on the town that killed 4,000 Hungarians. Belgrade was not expecting them, and the Byzantine governor of the Bulgarian province, Nicetas, evacuated the city. Pechenegs keeping imperial order tried to restrict crossing the Save River to one place and were attacked by Peter's crusaders, who captured and put some Pechenegs to death. Crusaders pillaged Belgrade and set it on fire. At Nish Peter asked Nicetas for food; but he required Peter to give him Walter of Breteuil and Geoffrey Burel as hostages for their good behavior. Some incidents did occur, and the baggage train in the rear was attacked, capturing some crusaders and pilgrims, who may have spent the rest of their lives as slaves. When Peter gathered his band, one witness estimated a quarter had been lost. At Sofia Byzantine officials promised them free markets the rest of the way through Philippopolis and Adrianople, and Peter's band arrived safely at Constantinople on August 1, 1096.
Some of the popular armies that formed in Germany were not as well led. The need for money exacerbated the resentment that had built up against Jewish money-lenders, who were not inhibited by the Christian condemnation of usury. Jews in Mainz and Cologne offered five hundred silver coins to Godfrey, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and King Heinrich IV urged the protection of Jews. However, an ambitious robber baron named Emich of Leisingen led a gang that murdered twelve Jews in Spier before the bishop stopped them by cutting off the hands of several murderers. At Worms Emich's men overcame the bishop and slaughtered about 500 Jews in his palace. Mainz closed its gates; but Emich took seven pounds of gold from a Jew and then attacked the archbishop's palace. Only a few Jews, who renounced their faith, were saved from the massacre of about a thousand, and some of the apostates later committed suicide. Anti-Jewish riots had already occurred in Cologne, and the Jews hid except two who died when the synagogue was burned. Most Jews in Trier were protected in the palace of the archbishop, but in Metz and other cities the persecutors killed more in June 1096.
Volkmar's soldiers attacked and massacred the Jewish community in Prague, as religious hatred became an excuse for plundering. A small group with German priest Gottschalk killed Jews at Ratisbon; after foraging and robbing Christians in Hungary, they were eventually surrounded by Hungarian troops and massacred. Hungary's king Coloman refused to let Emich and his men cross the river to Wiesselburg. After six weeks of skirmishing by the bridge, the Germans built another bridge; but in a battle the crusaders were defeated, though Emich and other knights escaped on horses. A group led by Godfrey of Bouillon also took the northern route, and he had to give his brother Baldwin and his family as hostages to pass safely through Coloman's Hungary. Godfrey announced that any violence would be punished with death.
Peter's crusaders were conveyed across the Bosphorus to Asia, where the Germans and Italians quarreled with the French and elected Rainald as their leader. Both groups stayed near the coast as they traveled and raided the countryside, where Christians lived. From Civetot the Franks led by Geoffrey Burel headed south and approached Nicomedia, the capital of Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan, son of Suleiman. Anna Comnena reported that they sacked villages and massacred Christians, even their babies. A Turkish force was driven off, and they returned to Civetot with their booty. This aroused 6,000 Germans, and Rainulf led them to capture the castle Xerigordon though they avoided killing Christians. A Turkish army survived an ambush and withheld their water supply for eight days until Rainulf surrendered. Only those who renounced Christianity were spared, while the others were enslaved. Peter had gone back to Constantinople to get aid from the Emperor. In October 1096 the entire army of 20,000 crusaders marched toward Nicaea and was ambushed by the Turks. Most of the crusaders' leaders were killed or seriously wounded, as the army panicked and fled. About 3,000 managed to take refuge in an old castle and held out; but all the rest were slaughtered by the Turks. Emperor Alexius sent warships, and the Turks lifted the siege of the castle.
Hugh of Vermandois was the brother of Frank king Philip, and his band was so small after sailing across the Adriatic that they were escorted by imperial officials to Constantinople. When Godfrey heard that Hugh of Vermandois was being held by Emperor Alexius, he allowed his men to forage in Byzantine territory. Normans led by Bohemond knew the route from Dyrrhachium, and in January 1097 they destroyed a village because it was inhabited by heretic Paulicians. Bohemond won the gratitude of local citizens after he restrained young Tancred from looting, though after Bohemond went ahead, Tancred's men resumed foraging. Alexius feared most the ambition of the Norman Bohemond, whom he had previously defeated, and he refused to appoint him the crusaders' commander. Count Raymond of Toulouse and Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy led the largest real army and marched by land through northern Italy. Adhémar was wounded by Pecheneg mercenaries. After an ambush these crusaders attacked Byzantine troops; but a letter from Emperor Alexius calmed things down. The refined Raymond was the crusader most admired by Alexius and his daughter Anna, and he was allowed to make a modified oath that he would serve under the Emperor if he chose to lead the Christian forces.
Hugh of Vermandois swore allegiance to Emperor Alexius and persuaded most other crusaders to do so; but Godfrey held back. When Alexius shut off his supplies, Baldwin raided the suburbs until Alexius ended the blockade. Alexius wanted these crusaders to move on, because more were coming; so in March 1097 he began reducing supplies of horse fodder, fish, and then bread. Crusaders raided the villages and fought with the Pecheneg police. Baldwin's men captured and put to death sixty Pechenegs. During holy week Godfrey attacked Constantinople, and according to Anna, Emperor Alexius ordered his forces to shoot arrows but not kill their fellow Christians. Finally he sent in his imperial guards, and the crusaders fled. Godfrey acknowledged the Emperor as overlord of any Byzantine territory they might reconquer, and his army was transported across to Asia. The fourth great crusading army was led by Duke Robert of Normandy and did not arrive in Constantinople until May 1097. The total number of crusaders was estimated by the chroniclers at 600,000 by Fulcher of Chartres, 300,000 by Ekkehard, and 100,000 by Raymond of Aguilers; but modern scholars believe there were probably about 7,000 knights and about 60,000 infantry.
Greek engineers led by Manuel Butumites joined the crusaders, who made decisions by a council of their leaders. The armies of the crusaders surrounded the walls of Nicaea before a relieving Turkish force arrived. The Sultan's army attacked Raymond's forces on the south side and after a day's battle retreated, wounding almost all the crusaders they encountered. Nicaea still gained supplies by the lake until Emperor Alexius sent Byzantine ships that enabled Manuel Butumites to win their surrender before the crusaders attacked. Alexius ordered a gift of food to every crusader, and shared the ample treasure taken with the leaders, though Tancred demanded a larger portion and delayed giving the homage all the other crusading leaders pledged. The crusaders were surprised that the Emperor allowed the Turkish captives to buy their freedom, and Alexius even returned the Sultan's daughter without ransom. A small detachment of Byzantine troops led by Taticius joined the crusaders as they marched to Dorylaeum. The crusaders marched in two armies a day apart, and the first army led by the Normans was attacked by Turks and surrounded; but the second army arrived at mid-day, causing the Turks to flee to the east and leave their camp and treasure behind as they ravaged the country to make it hard for the crusaders.
A Turkish army led by two governors (emirs) in Cappadocia also fled when they were attacked at Heraclea. The crusaders found Caesarea deserted, but they kept their agreement by establishing Byzantine governors there and in Placentia, Marash, Artah, and other places. Meanwhile Emperor Alexius sent a force led by his brother-in-law Caesar John Ducas to fortify Nicaea and to reconquer Ionia and Phrygia. The emir of Smyrna surrendered and was allowed to withdraw to the east. After taking Ephesus the army of John Ducas captured the Lydian cities of Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea in the fall of 1097.
Both Godfrey's younger brother Baldwin and Bohemond's nephew Tancred were younger sons without property and wanted to find a place to rule. Tancred led about 300 soldiers and besieged Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia. Tancred sent for help, but Christians opened the gates before Baldwin's army arrived. Tancred reluctantly transferred authority to Baldwin and departed. When 300 Normans arrived to relieve Tancred, Baldwin would not let them in the gates, and they were massacred at night by the former Turkish garrison. Other crusaders blamed Baldwin for this. Turks fled as Tancred took Adana and Mamistra. When Baldwin's forces arrived, Norman prince Richard persuaded Tancred to punish Baldwin with a surprise attack; but they had to retreat, and Baldwin and Tancred were reconciled.
Baldwin learned that his wife and children had died of illness. Advised by Bagrat, Baldwin gained the support of the Armenian Christians as Turkish garrisons either fled or were massacred. Baldwin conquered as far as the Euphrates by taking Ravendel and Turbessel. The Armenian Bagrat was suspected, tortured, and escaped to the hills. At Edessa Baldwin was adopted as the son of Thoros. Edessene militia helped Baldwin's forces discourage Turkish raids in the area. The Orthodox Christian Thoros was so unpopular with the Armenians for his high taxes and poor protection that a mob broke in and murdered him. Baldwin became Count of Edessa and used its treasure to buy the emirate of Samosata for 10,000 bezants. Other crusaders joined Baldwin, were given fiefs, and were encouraged to marry Armenian heiresses as he had. Baldwin allowed the Muslims freedom of worship, but he did not trust their leaders and beheaded Balduk for not cooperating. Others plotting against him were blinded or mutilated, and complicit Armenians had to buy their freedom for as much as 60,000 bezants apiece.
The main army of crusaders arrived at the important city of Antioch in October 1097; but Bohemond, who wanted the city for himself, persuaded the leaders to reject Raymond's proposal to attack immediately. In November Bohemond's forces destroyed the garrison of Harenc, and thirteen Genoese ships arrived at St. Symeon. Turkish sorties made foraging dangerous, and by Christmas food was scarce. Bohemond and Robert of Flanders led 20,000 men into the Orontes valley. After they left, Antioch governor Yaghi-Siyan attacked Raymond's Franks, and losses were heavy on both sides. Dukak of Damascus and Yaghi-Siyan's son Shams led forces that attacked Robert's army. Bohemond's troops helped defeat them; but they returned to the camp by Antioch with little. The winter was cold and wet, and one out of seven crusaders died of hunger. Most of the horses died. Bishop Adhémar got a message to Jerusalem patriarch Symeon on Cyprus, and he sent some food. Many deserted and were brought back by Tancred, including Peter the Hermit. The Byzantine Taticius left and told Emperor Alexius that Bohemond had told him he was in danger, though Bohemond called Taticius a coward, hoping that Antioch would not be restored to the empire.
In February 1098 the Frank cavalry attacked the approaching army of Aleppo's Ridvan, forcing them to flee. In March a fleet sailed into St. Symeon with the English prince Edgar Atheling and siege equipment sent by Alexius. Raymond and Bohemond went to get the equipment and were attacked; but Godfrey came to their aid, and together their armies defeated the raiders, who had 1500 men killed and drowned, including nine emirs. Now the crusaders could blockade Antioch, and castles were built and ruled by Raymond and Tancred. Fatimids from Egypt brought a proposal to recognize the crusaders in northern Syria if the Fatimids could have Palestine; but this was rejected. Alexius was campaigning in Asia Minor; but Bohemond got the leaders to agree to let him have Antioch if the Byzantine emperor did not arrive. The army of Mosul atabeg (regent) Kerbogha was delayed for three weeks trying and failing to take Edessa from Baldwin. Stephen of Blois deserted, but the next day on June 3, 1098 Antioch was secretly betrayed by a Christian named Firouz to Bohemond, and all the Turks in the city were massacred. The Patriarch John was released, and the cathedral of St. Peter was restored.
Shams ad-Daula remained in the citadel, and within four days Kerbogha's army was camped around Antioch in a blockade. The crusaders hoped that Emperor Alexius would relieve them, but he was told by Stephen of Blois that the crusaders at Antioch were probably destroyed. So the Byzantine army retreated to the north, devastating the land to protect their recently increased empire from the Turks. A peasant named Peter Bartholomew claimed that he had a series of visions in which Saint Andrew revealed to him that the lance which wounded Jesus could be found beneath the floor of the cathedral. Bishop Adhémar was skeptical; but Raymond ordered a search that dug up an iron weapon. A priest named Stephen said he had a vision in which the Christ warned the Bishop about the fornication of the crusaders.
Then Peter Bartholomew had another vision in which the crusaders were advised not to pillage the enemy's tents in a coming battle. Many Turks were deserting, and Peter the Hermit was sent to negotiate their withdrawal; but Kerbogha demanded surrender. On June 28, 1098 six armies of crusaders marched out of Antioch to fight the Turks. Dukak of Damascus was the first to retreat, and gradually more Turks left until the rest fled in panic. The crusaders did not stop to plunder the camp but instead slaughtered the Turks. Raymond was ill and commanded those left in Antioch; but by pre-arrangement the Turks surrendered the citadel only to Bohemond, who welcomed the converted Turks into his army.
While Bohemond and Raymond argued over who should govern Antioch, Bishop Adhémar sent Hugh of Vermandois to explain the situation to Emperor Alexius. While Raymond and Adhémar were ill, Bohemond gave the Genoese a charter for a market and a church. When Bishop Adhémar died during an epidemic, the crusaders lost their top spiritual leader. Peter Bartholomew's next vision included a message from Adhémar and Andrew that Bohemond should be given Antioch, and the crusaders should repent and march to Jerusalem; but Raymond still believed that Antioch should be given to the Emperor. Meanwhile Bohemond took in Cilicia by getting Tancred's homage, while Godfrey was given Turbessel and Ravendel by his younger brother Baldwin. Robert of Normandy took over Latakia (Laodicea) from Edgar Atheling; but he governed so badly that he was forced out after a few weeks and was replaced by a Byzantine governor from Cyprus. The crusaders sent a letter to Pope Urban. While gathering supplies in the Orontes valley, Raymond captured Albara; even though they had capitulated, all the Muslims were either killed or sold as slaves. Peter of Narbonne was made the first Latin bishop in the East.
Raymond's and Bohemond's forces besieged Maarat an-Numan. Bohemond promised the defenders refuge; but the men were slaughtered, and the women and children were enslaved. Bohemond tried to spread terror by killing prisoners and roasting their heads. Raymond tried to buy the other leaders with offers of money. Meanwhile the troops of crusaders resented the bickering of their leaders and demanded that they march on Jerusalem, or they would destroy the coveted walls and towns. Finally on January 13, 1099 the army of crusaders was led out of Maarat an-Numan by the barefoot Count Raymond as the town was burned behind them. Godfrey and Robert of Flanders followed them a month later, while Baldwin governed his county of Edessa, and Bohemond ruled at Antioch.
After learning the Turks had been defeated at Antioch, the Cairo vizier al-Afdal for the Fatimids in Egypt invaded Palestine and took Jerusalem from Emir Sokman, who surrendered after a 40-day siege and was allowed to leave. By autumn 1098 the Egyptians had occupied all of Palestine as far north as Beirut. Raymond's crusaders were guided through the Sarout valley, where herds had been driven. The local commander paid for immunity, and knights used that to buy a thousand horses. Wanting to extort money from wealthy Tripoli, Raymond attacked Arqa, while he sent Raymond Pilet and Raymond of Turenne to capture the port of Tortosa. Toulouse count Raymond of Saint-Gilles summoned Godfrey and Robert of Flanders to help with the siege.
Emperor Alexius wrote to the crusaders, whose numbers had greatly dwindled, that he would bring an army if they would wait until the end of June. Yet the Emperor secretly told the Egyptians he was not supporting the crusaders. The Fatimids offered the crusaders free access of pilgrims to holy places; but they rejected that offer too. When Peter Bartholomew urged an assault on Arqa, Arnulf Malecorne of Rohes challenged him to undergo a fire ordeal while carrying the holy lance which resulted in Peter dying twelve days later. In May Raymond abandoned the siege of Arqa, and the Emir of Tripoli got immunity by releasing 300 Christian captives with 15,000 bezants and 15 horses. The crusaders found Ramleh abandoned and left the priest Robert of Rouen in charge of the new see with a garrison.
On June 7, 1099 the crusaders camped by the walls of Jerusalem. The Fatimid governor Iftikar ad-Daula had rebuilt the walls. Before the Franks arrived, he filled in or poisoned the wells outside the city, expelled all the Christians, and sent to Egypt for military help. An old hermit urged the crusaders to attack immediately; but lacking ladders and siege engines, they were repulsed. Six ships brought supplies to Jaffa, which had been abandoned by the Muslims. After learning that a large army was coming from Egypt, the priest Peter Desiderius claimed that the spirit of Adhémar had told him that if they proceeded barefoot around the walls of Jerusalem in repentance they would capture Jerusalem within nine days. As they did so, the Muslims on the walls offended them by desecrating crosses. Preaching by Peter the Hermit and Arnulf of Rohes excited the crusaders.
On July 14, 1099 about 1300 knights and 12,000 soldiers attacked Jerusalem. Tancred pillaged the Dome of the Rock, and some surrendered to him, promising ransoms. Iftikhar surrendered to Raymond in the Tower of David, and his men were escorted out of the city. However, other crusaders were slaughtering everyone, including those in the al-Aqsa mosque under Tancred's banner. Jews gathered in the chief synagogue, which was then burned. Nearly 40,000 people in Jerusalem were massacred, including all the unarmed women and children. Accounts of this barbaric fanaticism by the crusading Christians awakened the zeal of Muslim fanatics.
The exiled Jerusalem patriarch Symeon had died a few days earlier at Cyprus, and Pope Urban II would die in Rome before news arrived that Jerusalem had been taken. Knowing that his leadership was no longer generally accepted, Raymond of Toulouse declined the crown. Since Robert of Flanders and Robert of Normandy were planning to return to their homes, Godfrey of Lorraine was elected to rule Jerusalem. He declined to be king in the city where Jesus had worn a crown of thorns and was called Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. Raymond balked at turning over the Tower of David to Godfrey but was persuaded to relinquish it to the Bishop of Albara. Arnulf of Rohes was elected patriarch, and he banished the eastern priests. All the main leaders of the crusaders mounted a surprise attack on the Egyptian army led by vizier al-Afdal near Ascalon. Their victory assured the security of Jerusalem as af-Afdal escaped to Cairo, and much booty was captured. Muslims in Ascalon would only surrender to Raymond because of what happened at Jerusalem; but Godfrey resented this, causing the Roberts of Normandy and Flanders to depart in disgust with the result that Ascalon was not taken, and the same thing happened at Arsuf.
Before he died, Pope Urban had appointed Pisa archbishop Daimbert as his legate to replace Adhémar. Daimbert had been legate to King Alfonso VI of Castile and had been accused of enriching himself with the treasure sent to the Pope. On his way to the East the Pisa fleet raided the islands of Heptannese, Corfu, Leucas, Cephalonia, and Zante. Emperor Alexius sent a fleet led by Taticius that could not catch up with them. Bohemond left Antioch to besiege the port of Latakia and there gained the assistance of the Pisan fleet. Raymond and the two Roberts persuaded Daimbert to withdraw the Pisan fleets' blockade, causing Bohemond to abandon his siege. The Cyprus governor provided transport for Robert of Normandy and Robert of Flanders to Constantinople, where they refused to stay on and serve Alexius but headed home.
While Raymond was at Latakia, Daimbert joined Bohemond in Antioch, and they planned a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Christmas. Baldwin joined them, and Fulcher of Chartres reported that their numbers amounted to 25,000. Godfrey welcomed them and distributed estates in Palestine to the knights. Tancred with only 24 knights had conquered Galilee and fortified Tiberias. Arnulf was deposed, and Bohemond got Daimbert elected patriarch of Jerusalem. Daimbert then showed his feudal authority by investing Godfrey with Jerusalem and Bohemond with Antioch. Tancred was called the Prince of Galilee. Baldwin of Edessa did not pay homage to the Patriarch. Bohemond and Baldwin marched north together and drove off an attack by Dukak of Damascus. The Pisan ships helped Godfrey blockade the Palestinian coast, and Italian shipping began trading. Envoys from Ascalon, Caesarea, and Acre brought gifts to Godfrey and agreed to pay 5,000 bezants per month tribute for peace.
Tancred with Godfrey's help attacked an emir east of Galilee called the Fat Peasant. While they were returning with booty, Tancred in the rear was attacked by Dukak. In revenge Tancred raided the territory of Damascus and sent six knights, who demanded that Dukak become a Christian or leave Damascus. Dukak replied that they must become Muslims or die; one renounced his faith, and the other five envoys were murdered. Godfrey reluctantly turned over two cities to the demanding Daimbert. When Godfrey became ill, he let his cousin Warner of Gray act for him. Venetians were given trading rights and a church and market in every town they helped capture, plus Tripoli for which they would pay tribute to Godfrey. While the Venetians were there to help, Warner of Gray led Godfrey's troops with Tancred in a campaign against Acre; Daimbert chose to join them. One year after Jerusalem was taken, Godfrey died. Warner of Gray was also dying, and he sent word to Godfrey's brother Baldwin. Jews in Haifa held out; some Jews and Muslims escaped, but most were massacred. Tancred agreed with Daimbert's plan to offer the government of Jerusalem to Bohemond.
Byzantine emperor Alexius sent his admiral Eustathius to recapture the Cilician ports of Seleucia and Corycus, and Cilicia was soon brought back into the Byzantine empire. Raymond accepted an invitation to visit Constantinople. At Latakia Raymond's men captured Daimbert's letter to Bohemond and arrested Daimbert's secretary Morellus. Before going on a campaign against the Danishmend emir, Bohemond increased the schism in the Christian church by replacing Antioch's eastern patriarch John IV with the Latin Bernard of Valence. Bohemond's forces were ambushed, and his army was annihilated. Armenian bishops were killed; Bohemond and Richard of Salerno were captured by Malik-Ghazi and taken to the mountains of Pontus. Baldwin aided Gabriel of Melitene and received news of his brother Godfrey's death. Baldwin marched south and was welcomed in Jerusalem. Tancred returned the fief of Galilee and was given Antioch, and Baldwin of Le Bourg gained the fief of Edessa. On Christmas day 1100 Baldwin paid homage to Daimbert and was crowned king of Jerusalem.
The brothers of Seljuk sultan Berkyaruk, son of Malik Shah, had revolted against him. The youngest brother Sanjar was given Khurasan, and in 1099 Berkyaruk went to war with his brother Muhammad, who gained rule of Iraq in 1104. In Anatolia Kilij Arslan had already lost his capital at Nicaea to the crusaders; but his rival emir Malik-Ghazi Gumushtekin of Danishmend held the captured Bohemond. In 1102 Mosul atabeg Kerbogha provoked a civil war in the Jazira. The crusaders had enabled the Byzantine empire to regain much of Asia Minor.
Pope Paschal II (1099-1118) encouraged more crusaders to launch new campaigns to the East. In autumn 1100 a Lombard army led by Milan archbishop Anselm of Buis and Count Albert of Biandrate traveled through Hungary. After pillaging some villages in the western Byzantine empire they arrived at Constantinople in March 1101. Once again Emperor Alexius did not want them to be joined by the next group of crusaders and cut off their supplies. Raymond of Toulouse made peace though, and they crossed over to Asia. Stephen of Blois, urged by his wife to redeem himself from the disgrace of deserting Antioch, led a group of Frank knights that crossed the Adriatic and then were joined by Germans under Conrad, Constable of Henrich IV. All these crusaders with some Byzantines led by General Tsitas accepted the command of Raymond; but many pilgrims had come, and Raymond had to yield to the pressure to go rescue Bohemond. Their army took Ankara, as Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan retreated; but the crusaders could not take the fortress at Gangra. The crusaders had a large army of perhaps 100,000; but the Danishmends joined forces with Kilij Arslan's Seljuks. Suffering from hunger and thirst, the crusaders were badly beaten at Mersivan, losing about four-fifths of the army; Raymond by ship and the remainder on land returned to Constantinople.
More crusaders led by Count William II of Nevers had crossed the Adriatic but failed to catch up with the others at Ankara. They attacked Konya (Iconium) but failed. As they approached Heraclea they were ambushed by a large Turkish army, and only William and a few knights escaped. A third army of crusaders led by the Frank troubadour, Duke William IX of Aquitane, was joined by Duke Welf of Bavaria as they passed through Germany and Hungary; after some unruly behavior they were escorted by Pechenegs to Constantinople. They too were surrounded by a Turkish army and slaughtered, and only Welf and a few knights made it to Antioch. Hugh of Vermandois had returned and died of his wounds. Tancred welcomed the straggling knights at Antioch, but he had Raymond arrested for fleeing the battle of Mersivan. Tancred's forces once again invaded Cilicia and recaptured Mamistra, Adana, and Tarsus from the Byzantines. Antioch's Latin patriarch Bernard persuaded Tancred to release Raymond, who had to promise not to interfere in northern Syria. After Raymond withdrew his troops from Latakia, Tancred besieged the port for nearly a year until it capitulated. Edessa count Baldwin of Le Bourg married an Armenian princess and got 30,000 bezants from her father by threatening to shave off his beard, an important symbol of masculinity to Armenians.
Byzantine emperor Alexius offered 260,000 bezants for Bohemond; but Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan demanded half of it from the Danishmend emir holding the renowned prisoner. Instead Edessa count Baldwin II and Patriarch Bernard got Bohemond released for 100,000 bezants. Bohemond returned to Antioch and with Joscelin of Courtenay raided the region around Aleppo. In 1104 Sokman of Mardin and Chokurmish of Mosul put aside their quarrel to join in an attack on Edessa. Baldwin II appealed to Bohemond and Joscelin; but a dispute whether Baldwin's flag or Bohemond's should be raised first resulted in the crusaders failing to take Harran when a Turkish army arrived. In the ensuing battle on the banks of the Balikh, the army of Antioch escaped while most Edessa troops were killed or captured. Baldwin and Joscelin tried to flee but were captured by Sokman's men. Once again Tancred took over for a captive and ruled Edessa. When the Turks quarreled over the booty, the troops of Chokurmish stole Baldwin from Sokman's tent. Bohemond's forces helped Tancred's Armenians turn back Chokurmish's attack on Edessa. Tancred captured a Seljuk princess; but instead of trading her for Baldwin, he ransomed her for 15,000 bezants.
King Baldwin of Jerusalem gained 50,000 bezants ransoming captives to Dukak of Damascus. An alliance with the Genoese enabled Baldwin to take Arsuf and Caesarea, where another massacre occurred. Baldwin banished Patriarch Daimbert. An Egyptian army led by emir Sa'ad ed-Daula al-Qawasi was defeated by Baldwin's 260 knights and 900 infantry at Ramleh in September 1101, though nearly half the knights were killed. The next year his 200 knights took on an army of 20,000 led by the Egyptian vizier's son Sharaf al-Ma'ali, and in the defeat among the dead was Stephen of Blois. Baldwin himself escaped alone; but two weeks later new crusaders reinforced his army, and they defeated Fatimid forces from Egypt. In asking help from Tancred, Baldwin had to reinstate Daimbert; but a synod of bishops condemned Daimbert's crimes of taking money, attacking Christians, and provoking a civil war between Bohemond and Baldwin; so he was exiled again. Daimbert went to Rome with Bohemond and got Pope Paschal to cancel his deposition; but Daimbert died at Messina in 1107. Emperor Alexius pleased King Baldwin by paying the ransom to release Frank knights from Egypt. The Byzantine army in 1104 took back the Cilician cities of Tarsus, Adana, and Mamistra, while their navy pursuing Genoese raiders regained Latakia. Bohemond sailed west to get reinforcements, as Tancred governed Antioch, leaving Richard of Salerno as his deputy in Edessa. Tancred expanded his territory around Antioch by defeating Aleppo's Ridvan in 1105. Cilicians must have tired of war's changing fortunes as Tancred yet again recaptured Adana and Tarsus and got Latakia by promising the Pisan fleets trading privileges. Bohemond recruited Normans in Apulia, and at Rome he persuaded Pope Paschal II to send his legate Bruno into France to preach a holy war against the Byzantines. In France Bohemond married King Philip's daughter Constance in 1106. Revisiting the Normans' pre-crusade war with the Byzantines, Bohemond's 34,000 crusaders besieged Dyrrhachium in 1107; but they were blockaded by the Byzantine navy and had to surrender a year later. In the treaty Bohemond was allowed to be Prince of Antioch but only as a vassal of the Byzantine emperor, and the Latin patriarch was to be replaced by a Greek. Instead Bohemond chose to retire on his land in Apulia, where he died in 1111.
In 1107 Joscelin was released by Il-Ghazi for 20,000 dinars and his military help in taking Mardin. Joscelin then got Baldwin of Le Bourg ransomed for 60,000 dinars, getting half the money from those in Edessa who disliked the rule of the Norman prince Richard. Tancred joined with Ridvan's Turks of Aleppo to attack Count Baldwin of Edessa, who was supported by his former captor Jawali and got 300 Pecheneg mercenaries from the Armenian Oshin, the Byzantine governor of Cilicia. In the battle 2,000 Christians were killed. Tancred besieged Baldwin and Joscelin in the Dulak castle while the Armenians revolted against Richard of Salerno. Jawali's army helped Baldwin escape, and at Edessa Baldwin arrested many Armenians and had some blinded.
According to Arab historian Ibn al-Athir, Count Raymond with an army of only 300 knights killed about 7,000 Muslims in a battle near Tripoli but could not gain the important port. Raymond died in 1105, and a struggle over his wealthy estates ensued. In Toulouse his eldest son Bertram was considered illegitimate and so was challenged by the infant son Alfonso-Jordan, whose cousin William Jordan was in Lebanon. Dukak of Damascus died in 1104 and was succeeded by Tughtigin, who battled the forces of William Jordan. Tripoli's governor Abu'l Manaqib Ibn Ammar traveled to Baghdad to ask Seljuk sultan Muhammad for help but got none. So besieged Tripoli asked Egypt's al-Afdal to send a governor, and he sent Sharaf ad-Daulah with a fleet of supplies in 1108. That summer Bertram departed with an army on forty galleys aided by a Genoese squadron, and they were well received by Emperor Alexius. Bertram wanted Tancred's help but refused to fight the Byzantines in Cilicia. William Jordan would not relinquish his authority to Bertram and agreed to be the vassal of Tancred for his help. Bertram then appealed to King Baldwin. In 1109 the crusading princes assembled near Tripoli. Tancred was reconciled with Baldwin II of Edessa, and the Toulouse inheritance was divided as Bertram pledged fealty to King Baldwin. William Jordan kept Tortosa and Arqa, which he had conquered. When Tripoli surrendered after a five-year siege, Genoese sacked the city, burning the finest library in the Muslim world. Bertram became count of Tripoli. When William Jordan was mysteriously shot by an arrow, Bertram inherited his lands.
King Baldwin captured Acre in 1104 and the next year again defeated an Egyptian army at Ramleh. The governor of Sidon bought peace from Baldwin in 1106; but two years later marched against the city. Sidon's governor hired Turks from Damascus for 30,000 bezants but refused to let the victorious Turks enter the city and paid them only 9,000 to leave. A Venetian squadron commanded by Doge Ordelafo Falieri rescued Norwegian ships led by King Sigurd from an attack by a Fatimid flotilla. The Venetians also helped Baldwin take Sidon and were given property at Acre. Baldwin then immediately taxed Sidon 20,000 gold bezants. After Baldwin helped Bertram gain Tripoli, Bertram's forces helped Baldwin take Beirut in 1110. Baldwin made a ten-year truce with Tughtigin of Damascus in 1108 though it lasted only five years.
Muhammad succeeded his older brother Berkyaruk as Sultan of Persia in 1110. He organized a holy war against the crusaders with an army led by Mosul atabeg Sharaf ad-Din Maudud that included troops of Khilat emir Sokman and the Artukid emir Il-Ghazi. When they besieged Edessa, King Baldwin and Bertram of Tripoli supported Count Baldwin; but after Tancred's Normans withdrew from the effort, King Baldwin also left to fight the Egyptians attacking Palestine. The Frank forces attempted to evacuate Edessa but crossed the Euphrates River first and watched as the Turks massacred the civilians, sparing only the young women and children for slavery. Edessa had been depopulated and would never fully recover. Maudud's forces attacked Antioch in 1111; but it was defended by Baldwin of Le Bourg and King Baldwin's army as well as by Tancred, who died the next year. Richard of Salerno acted as regent of Antioch until the arrival of Tancred's nephew Roger, who accepted the sovereignty of King Baldwin. Bertram died a few months later; his son Pons married Tancred's widow and also accepted King Baldwin's guardianship, unifying the crusader domains. Also in 1111 Emperor Alexius made a treaty with the Pisans, giving them trading privileges in Constantinople.
Jerusalem king Baldwin broke his truce with Damascus when he invaded that territory in 1113; but he was defeated when Tughtigin got help from Maudad and the Artukid Ayaz. Maudad was murdered in a mosque, and Tughtigin was suspected even though he immediately killed the assassin. Ridvan of Aleppo also died that year and was succeeded by his son Alp Arslan, though the eunuch Lulu governed. Alp Arslan issued a warrant for Abu Tahir and other leaders of the Shi'i Assassins, whom Ridvan had protected, and many were killed. Malik Shah captured and pillaged Pergamum; but Byzantine forces led by Emperor Alexius during a campaign against the Turks caught up with them at Cotyaeum and after a victory recovered the loot and prisoners. After two plots to turn over Edessa to the Turks, Count Baldwin Le Bourg expelled the Armenians to Samosata in 1113, though he allowed them to return the next year. Count Baldwin conquered the Armenian princes in eastern Cilicia by 1115. That year Seljuk sultan Muhammad sent a large army led by Hamadan governor Bursuk; but they were defeated at Danith by the Frank forces led by Roger of Antioch. Count Baldwin had helped, and in the next few years he annexed territories and replaced several Armenian leaders in the Euphrates valley.
King Baldwin had no children by his Armenian queen. Although he did not divorce her, in 1113 he wed the wealthy Adelaide, who wanted her son Roger in Sicily to inherit Baldwin's kingdom. Baldwin spent her money fighting wars for Jerusalem, but after being ill he sent her back to Sicily in 1117, causing resentment in the Sicilian court. She died the next year just before Jerusalem patriarch Arnulf, who had presided over the bigamous wedding. A comet in 1118 was believed to portend the death of kings. King Baldwin died in April while invading Egypt, and Seljuk sultan Muhammad died the same month. Byzantine emperor Alexius and Caliph Mustazhir at Baghdad both died in August. Jerusalem patriarch Arnulf and Pope Paschal II also died in 1118. Barons in Jerusalem elected Baldwin's cousin Baldwin of Le Bourg to succeed him as king, as he had as count of Edessa; Joscelin of Courtenay had nominated Baldwin II and became count of Edessa. In his last year Emperor Alexius had persecuted the Manichaean Bogomils by imprisoning many of them and burning to death in the Hippodrome their leader Basil. Alexius had also adopted feudal ways by granting military vassals estates called pronoia that allowed them to tax the peasants living on those lands, and he had greatly debased the imperial coins.
A military order to protect and help pilgrims in the holy land known as the Hospitallers of St. John had started at Jerusalem in 1070, and in 1119 they were recognized by Pope Calixtus II. Baldwin I always needed dedicated soldiers and in his last year had urged Hugh of Payens to recruit knights for a new order of the Temple that was authorized as the Templars by Pope Honorius II in 1128. These orders combined the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with the chivalry of knights and rapidly gained wealth as their numbers increased. Though the Hospitallers also helped the poor, the Templars had only military duties.
Muhammad's son Mahmud chose to pursue hunting and allowed his uncle, Khurasan king Sanjar (r. 1097-1156), to take over as sultan in 1119. That year bold Count Roger of Antioch did not wait for the forces of King Baldwin II and Pons of Tripoli, and his army was trapped by Il Ghazi's Turks and massacred on what was remembered as the Field of Blood. Roger was killed, and many captured Normans and their allies were tortured to death in the streets of Aleppo. Numerous battles were fought over this city and others in the region. In the north Christian Georgians almost destroyed the army of Il Ghazi. King Baldwin II took this opportunity to challenge Aleppo and made a treaty with Il Ghazi's son Sulaiman. In 1122 Edessa count Joscelin and sixty men were captured by Belek, one of the successors to the realms of the dying Il Ghazi. Belek also massacred an army of Baldwin and captured the king. Georgia king David (r. 1089-1125) defeated the armies of Azerbaijan and the Artukids, making the reconquered Tiflis his capital in 1122.
John Comnenus (r. 1118-1143) had succeeded his father Alexius as Emperor in Constantinople; he continued his father's war against the Turks in Asia Minor, and he alienated the Venetians by reducing their trading privileges. In 1122 a Venetian fleet of more than a hundred ships attacked Byzantine Corfu before defeating the Egyptian navy off Ascalon and capturing ten loaded merchant vessels. Jerusalem patriarch Gormond gave the Venetians trading privileges in exchange for their help in taking Tyre, which was starved into submission by July 1124. Emperor John Comnenus made a treaty with the Pisans in 1125 and ended the war with Venice by restoring their trading privileges the next year. Hungarian king Stephen (r. 1114-1131) sent his troops to take Branicevo and invade the Greek empire in 1128; but they were defeated by the Byzantine army, which the next year subdued the Serbians.
After Belek died, Il Ghazi's son Timurtash ransomed Baldwin II for a payment of 20,000 dinars and promises for more while he retained a few hostages. However, Baldwin broke the agreement by helping the Bedouin leader Dubais he was supposed to suppress, and Antioch patriarch Bernard would not let him give away territory he had promised. The Franks won a bloody battle at Azaz in 1125 and gained enough booty to pay the remaining 60,000 dinars Baldwin owed for his ransom so that his daughter was released. In 1126 eighteen-year-old Bohemond II arrived from Sicily to inherit his father's Antioch, and the next year he married Baldwin's second daughter Alice. A quarrel developed between Bohemond II and Joscelin of Edessa; but King Baldwin came north to reconcile them. King Baldwin sent to France's Louis VI to choose a wife for his oldest daughter Melisend, and Count Fulk of Anjou was sent with newly recruited Templars.
Zengi became ruler of Mosul in 1127 and quickly defeated his rivals and occupied Aleppo the next year. After Tughtigin of Damascus died, Zengi allied himself with his succeeding son Taj-al-Muluk Bori in a holy war against the Franks but betrayed him by imprisoning his son in Aleppo. Bori tried to suppress the Assassins. Their protector, vizier al-Mazdaghani, had plotted with the Franks to surrender Damascus for Tyre; but he was discovered and executed along with all the Assassins found at Damascus. To save himself from this, Isma'il surrendered Banyas to the Franks, who were nevertheless defeated near Damascus in 1129. The next year Bohemond II invaded Cilicia and was killed when his army was massacred. Ambitious Alice tried to gain rule of Antioch by plotting with Zengi; but her father Baldwin came with his son-in-law Fulk, intercepted her messenger to Zengi, and forced her to accept Latakia and Jabala, which she had gained as dowry. Zengi, who controlled Syria as far south as Homs, defeated the Franks at al-Atharib, and they concluded a treaty that would last several years while Zengi was busy fighting caliphate rivals and the Kurds. Joscelin was entrusted with Antioch, but he died soon after Baldwin II died in August 1131.
Three weeks later Patriarch William of Messines crowned Fulk and Melisend king and queen of Jerusalem. Despite the continuing ambition of Melisend's sister Alice, Fulk retained the regency of Antioch by appearing there with his army. Melisend was not attracted to Fulk, and her intrigues with Hugh of Le Puiset led to his being tried for treason and resulted in Hugh's banishment and murder. The Queen became so angry that Hugh's enemies were afraid to walk the streets unarmed.
A succession struggle followed the death of Sultan Mahmud in 1131 in which Tughrul was supported by Sanjar at Baghdad; but they withdrew from the contest. Mas'ud, Seljuk sultan of Rum (r. 1116-1155), and his ally Zengi were defeated by forces of Seljuk-Shah and Caliph al-Mustarshid. Then Sanjar and the Arab Dubais supported Zengi; but for a while al-Mustarshid re-asserted Abbasid rule. Eventually attacks by Zengi forced the Caliph to retire from political power, and Mas'ud became the next sultan of Iraq. In 1135 his army defeated and captured Caliph al-Mustarshid, who was banished to Azerbaijan and murdered by Assassins. The Caliph's son and successor ar-Rashid failed to gain support and was deposed by qadis (judges) in Baghdad. In Egypt the Fatimid caliph al-Hafiz appointed his son Hasan vizier in 1135; but Hasan beheaded forty emirs and after a revolt was poisoned by his father. The next vizier was an Armenian named Vahram who appointed so many Armenians that violent riots broke out in Cairo. To the west in the Maghrib of North Africa the Berber preacher 'Abd Allah Ibn Tumart was accepted as the prophetic Mahdi but died shortly after an attack on Almoravid rule at Marrakesh in 1130. However, his successor 'Abd al-Mu'min led a long war that established Almohad rule in the central Maghrib by 1152 and in Ifriqiya by 1160.
The Byzantines campaigned annually against the Danishmends for five years, reconquering all their lost territory by 1135. Mistrusting the Normans, Emperor John Comnenus sent an envoy to get Germany's emperor Lothair to attack Roger in Sicily, which he did in 1137. That year Emperor John led his army into Cilicia, reconquering Mersin, Tarsus, Adana, Mamistra, Anazarbus, and threatening Antioch. Raymond rushed back from Montferrand and promised to give Antioch back to the empire if together they conquered Aleppo, Shaizar, Hamah, and Homs, which he would rule. In 1138 the Christian alliance failed to take Aleppo and besieged Shaizar. Zengi lifted his siege of Damascene Hamah and sent for help from Baghdad, where riots persuaded Sultan Mas'ud to dispatch forces. Meanwhile Raymond of Antioch and Joscelin of Edessa were doing little to aid John's military efforts. When John demanded the citadel of Antioch, Joscelin started a rumor that caused a riot against the Greeks; John decided to take his army back to Constantinople. In 1139 John's army drove the Danishmends out of Bithynia and Paphlagonia.
When Antioch patriarch Bernard died in 1135, the people made the Latin Ralph of Domfront his successor without a canonical election. To forestall the regency of Alice, Raymond came secretly from Poitiers and took power in Antioch by marrying Alice's nine-year-old daughter Constance while Ralph led Alice to believe she would marry Raymond. Atabeg Mahmud of Damascus accepted as his chief minister Beza-uch, the murderer of his mother's lover, and they invaded Tripoli in 1137. The army of Count Pons was ambushed, and Pons was killed by the Muslims after he was betrayed by a Christian peasant. Mahmud did not attack Tripoli itself but returned to Damascus with much booty. Raymond II, the son of Pons, had married Melisend's sister Hodierna, and he took revenge by massacring men and enslaving women and children from the villages of Lebanon. Mosul's Zengi was besieging Homs when he noticed the Tripoli army of Raymond II and besieged them at Montferrand in 1137. Raymond sent word to Fulk; but his army from Jerusalem was so weary that they were slaughtered, and Raymond was captured. King Fulk escaped and appealed to Edessa and Antioch. In a treaty Zengi was satisfied with the castle at Montferrand and let the Franks go. In 1139 the cantankerous Patriarch Ralph was deposed, imprisoned, and escaped to Rome; but he died in 1142.
Zengi besieged Homs in 1137 but gained it as dowry when he married the mother of the atabeg of Damascus the next year. She complained that Baalbek's former governor Muhammad replaced the murdered Mahmud, and so in 1139 Zengi captured Baalbek and crucified the garrison after swearing to spare them; the women were sold as slaves. Zengi offered Baalbek or Homs for Damascus; but Unur would not agree. After Muhammad died, Unur offered King Fulk 20,000 bezants a month and Banyas if the Franks would help him protect Damascus from Zengi. When the Jerusalem army arrived, Zengi withdrew; then Fulk installed Rainier of Brus as governor of Banyas. Meanwhile Fulk had strengthened his southern defenses by building three major castles. In 1141 the Kara-Kitai Mongols, who traded with China and adopted their culture, defeated Seljuk sultan Sanjar and conquered the Oxus basin. The Kara-Kitai chief Gur-Khan was believed by some in the West to be the legendary Christian Prester John. In 1143 Queen Melisend bought the village of Bethany and founded a convent that elected her sister Joveta abbess.
Byzantine emperor John attacked the Seljuks as far as Attalia in 1142; but the next year while preparing to attack Antioch he died after a hunting accident. He chose as heir his youngest son Manuel (r. 1143-1180), who led the imperial army back to Constantinople. In November 1143 King Fulk also died after falling from his horse while hunting near Acre. Queen Melisend acted as regent for her 13-year-old son Baldwin III (r. 1143-1163). Manuel refused to give back Cilicia, and so Raymond of Antioch invaded the province. However, in 1144 the Byzantine army drove him out of Cilicia and once again threatened Antioch.
In autumn 1144 Zengi attacked Joscelin II's Artukid ally Kara Arslan. When Joscelin marched his forces to help, Zengi sent a force to besiege Edessa. Raymond of Antioch refused to assist his rival Joscelin. Joined by Kurds and Turkomans, Zengi's army stormed Edessa. Zengi tried to stop the massacre of native Christians; but all the Frankish men were slaughtered, and their women were sold as slaves. Zengi then took Saruj, the other strong fortress the Franks had east of the Euphrates. Raymond went to Constantinople for aid but was rebuffed by Manuel. In 1146 Zengi had an Armenian revolt at Edessa suppressed and replaced those banished with 300 Jewish families. On September 15, 1146 Zengi was murdered in his sleep by a servant he had threatened to punish. Zengi's oldest son Saif-ad-Din Ghazi inherited Mosul while his second son Nur-ad-Din ruled Aleppo. Unur's Damascus army took control of Baalbek, Homs, and Hamah. While Raymond of Antioch threatened Aleppo, Joscelin regained Edessa; but after a siege by Nur-ad-Din's army, the Frankish army fled, leaving the native Christian men to be massacred while the women and children were enslaved. Michael the Syrian estimated that in both sieges of Edessa 30,000 were killed, and 16,000 were sold into slavery.
After learning that Edessa had fallen, Jerusalem queen Melisend and Antioch barons sent Jabala bishop Hugh to Pope Eugenius III to ask for another crusade. On December 1, 1145 Eugenius sent a papal bull to King Louis VII of France urging his kingdom to rescue the Christians in the East. Louis decided to take up the cross but was not able to persuade many people to join him until Clairvaux abbot Bernard spoke to a mass meeting during Easter at Vézélay. Bernard then preached the crusade in Burgundy, Lorraine, and Flanders. Cluny abbot Peter the Venerable complained that Jews were not contributing enough, and the Cistercian monk Radulf aroused anti-Semitic feelings in northern France until Bernard arrived to stop the persecution. Then Radulf incited massacres of Jews at Cologne, Mainz, Worms, Speyer, and Strasburg. Bernard ordered this fanatical monk back into his monastery and went to Germany to preach the crusade himself. Germany's Conrad III had been crowned Emperor by the Pope and had promised to protect him from Roger's Normans; yet Bernard persuaded the reluctant German king in his Christmas sermon of 1146. The following March at Frankfurt Bernard also encouraged a crusade to convert Slavs east of Oldenburg.
Conrad's vassals, King Vladislav of Bohemia and King Boleslav IV of Poland, also made the expedition with an impressive array of nobility that included Duke Friedrich of Swabia (later known as Barbarossa). Poor soldiers and pilgrims joined in great numbers that swelled the army to 20,000 or more. In June 1147 the German crusaders traveled through Hungary as Emperor Conrad promised the Byzantine emperor they would do them no harm. Fights over food began at Sofia and were worse at Philippopolis, where Archbishop Michael Italicus persuaded Conrad to punish the leaders of the riots. Manuel sent his imperial troops to keep the crusaders on the roads; but at Adrianople Friedrich burned down a monastery and slaughtered its residents in revenge for the murder of a sick German noble. A slightly smaller army of French led by Louis followed about a month later, and he assured Manuel he was coming as a friend; but already conflicts were erupting between the Germans and the French as well as between the Westerners and the Byzantines, who were resented because Emperor Manuel made a treaty in spring 1147 to stop the expanding hegemony of the Seljuk sultan Mas'ud. Conflicts might have become worse had not Conrad's sister, who was married to Manuel, made peace between the two emperors.
Manuel advised Conrad to send home the pilgrims and march along the coast; but Conrad disregarded his advice and went east into Anatolia, although he divided his forces at Nicaea by sending many of the pilgrims with Otto of Freisingen. Near Dorylaeum on October 25, 1147 Conrad's forces were attacked by a large Seljuk army and massacred, losing nine-tenths of their soldiers and their entire camp. The rich booty rapidly lowered the value of precious metals in the Muslim world. Meanwhile King Louis VII promised Emperor Manuel that he would restore the parts of his empire they would recapture; his barons paid homage and received imperial gifts. At Nicaea Louis consulted with the fleeing Conrad, and together they headed south to the coast. At Ephesus Conrad was too ill to go on and returned to Constantinople, where he was nursed back to health by Manuel. After much suffering and many losses the crusaders were welcomed at Antioch by Raymond, uncle of Queen Eleanor of Aquitane. That fall Roger's Normans captured Corfu from the Byzantine empire and plundered the Greek cities of Thebes and Corinth, removing expert silk weavers to Palermo. Raymond wanted the crusaders to attack Aleppo; but Louis had his heart set on Jerusalem and became jealous of Eleanor pleading for her uncle.
Conrad joined the large crusader army at Jerusalem. Without the barons from Antioch, Edessa, and Tripoli, they decided to attack Damascus even though that city had been the Franks' ally against other Turks; this stimulated Unur to appeal to his enemies Saif-ad-Din of Mosul and his brother Nur-ad-Din. After a five-day siege in late July 1148 Conrad persuaded the crusaders to withdraw so that the armies of the Turkish brothers would not take Damascus, and the crusaders retreated in a humiliating defeat. Conrad returned to Constantinople, where his alliance with the empire was confirmed by the wedding of his brother Heinrich of Austria to Manuel's niece Theodora. Louis returned to Europe with a Sicilian squadron that was attacked by the Byzantine navy. Louis blamed Manuel for their disastrous crusade and persuaded Bernard and other prelates to preach a crusade against the Byzantines; but this scheme faded after Conrad refused to help. Young Bertram of Toulouse suspected that Raymond II of Tripoli had murdered his father Alfonso of Toulouse and tried to win his inheritance at Tripoli; but Raymond got aid from Unur and Nur-ad-Din, whose forces destroyed the castle of Araima; Bertram and his sister remained the prisoners of Nur-ad-Din at Aleppo for twelve years.
After Nur-ad-Din's forces invaded, Raymond of Antioch went to meet them; but his army was massacred in 1149, the courageous Raymond fighting until he was killed. The next year Joscelin II was captured; when he refused to abjure his religion, Nur-ad-Din had him blinded and imprisoned at Aleppo, where Joscelin died nine years later. Baldwin III with Templar knights rode north to protect Antioch. He approved of Joscelin's widow Beatrice selling the remaining towns of the Edessa county to Manuel and escorted her and the refugees back to Antioch. The Byzantines lost this territory to the alliance of Nur-ad-Din and the Seljuk Mas'ad in 1151. Further east in 1153 Oghuz tribes captured Seljuk sultan Sanjar, destroyed his army, and looted Khurasan.
After Count Raymond of Tripoli was killed by Assassins, his widow Hodierna assumed the regency for their twelve-year-old Raymond III. She allowed Baldwin to give Tortosa to the Knights Templar. In Jerusalem Queen Melisend did not want to relinquish the power of her regency, but Baldwin III had himself crowned alone. They divided the territory and quarreled until the citizens turned against her, and she yielded. In 1149 Baldwin made a two-year truce with Unur of Damascus. Unur soon died, but in 1151 Baldwin helped defend Damascus from Nur-ad-Din's army. Baldwin tried to find a husband for Antioch regent Constance; but she rejected his choices and one of Manuel's, marrying instead an undistinguished but bold young knight named Reginald in 1153. Baldwin agreed to recognize Reginald as prince of Antioch if he would help fight against the Armenian Toros II. Reginald did so and turned conquered land over to the Templars, who got him to take Toros as an ally. Reginald tortured Patriarch Aimery to get money to invade wealthy Cyprus. Baldwin got the Patriarch released, and the prelate took refuge in Jerusalem. Reginald and Toros led a brutal attack on Cyprus of murder, pillaging, and rape that lasted three weeks.
In Fatamid Egypt al-Hafiz died in 1149 and was succeeded by his son al-Zafir during a civil war that made vizier the winning general Amir Ibn Sallah, who was murdered three years later; but Caliph al-Zafir was assassinated in 1154. In 1153 King Baldwin III besieged the Fatimid fortress at Ascalon; but an Egyptian fleet of seventy ships relieved the blockade. Forty Templars decided to penetrate a breach in the wall alone, and all were killed. After eight months Ascalon capitulated, and Baldwin allowed the residents to depart. Baldwin's brother Amalric became governor of Ascalon. Mujir of Damascus agreed to pay the revitalized Franks an annual tribute; but the following year Mujir had to surrender Damascus to Nur-ad-Din, who continued the truce with Jerusalem and even paid the tribute. The religious Nur-ad-Din promoted orthodox Sunni Islam by founding colleges, convents, and an impressive hospital. Nur-ad-Din was also known for dispensing justice by hearing complaints twice a week concerning his army and administration whenever he was at Aleppo or Damascus. After Sultan Mas'ad died in 1155, a succession struggle enabled Nur-ad-Din to gain more Euphrates territory. In 1157 Baldwin broke his treaty with Nur-ad-Din when the king was tempted to steal large herds of sheep and horses which Turkomans had brought near Banyas.
Also in 1155 Emperor Manuel sent the Byzantine navy to Ancona to invade Italy; but Venice turned against them, and the next year Norman king William II led forces that defeated the Greeks at Brindisi, driving them out of Italy. In 1158 Patriarch Aimery married King Baldwin III to Theodora, niece of Emperor Manuel, who marched his army into Cilicia. The infamous Reginald had to humiliate himself in penance in front of Manuel, who forgave his Cyprus war crimes in order to place a Greek patriarch in Antioch and control its citadel. At Antioch Manuel treated Baldwin's broken arm, and their alliance forced Nur-ad-Din to release 6,000 captives, including many Germans who went home after a decade in prison. Reginald was captured while raiding in 1160 and was left in prison for 16 years. Baldwin declared young Bohemond III the prince of Antioch and appointed Patriarch Aimery as regent. The Byzantine army led by John Contostephanus defeated the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II (r. 1155-1192), who did homage to Manuel at Constantinople in 1161. Raymond II of Tripoli offered his daughter Melisend in marriage to Manuel, and both were crushed when the Emperor rejected her to marry Princess Maria of Antioch.
King Baldwin became ill at Tripoli and died at Beirut in February 1163. Since Baldwin III had no children, his younger brother Amalric became king of Jerusalem. When Constance appealed to the Byzantine general Coloman against her 18-year-old son Bohemond III, a riot resulted in her being banished. Egypt continued to be unstable as vizier Tala'i ibn Ruzzik was murdered in 1161 as was his son and successor Ruzzik two years later. King Amalric invaded Egypt in September 1163 and besieged Bilbais but had to withdraw. Shavar went to Nur-ad-Din, who opened the Qur'an at random for advice and sent his army led by Shirkuh. Dirgam was defeated and killed as Shavar was restored to power. When Shirkuh refused to leave and seized Bilbais, Shavar appealed to Amalric by offering gold and gifts to the Knights of the Hospital. While Amalric traveled from Antioch to Egypt, Nur-ad-Din besieged Harim. Forces from Tripoli and Antioch with Armenians and Greeks from Cilicia marched against Nur-ad-Din's army but were defeated on the plain of Artah in 1164. Bohemond III, Raymond III of Tripoli, Coloman, Hugh of Lusignan, and Joscelin III were captured. Bohemond was soon ransomed, because Nur-ad-Din did not want the Byzantines taking over Antioch.
Nur-ad-Din raided Lebanon, and in 1167 Shirkuh invaded Egypt again with his nephew Saladin (Salah-ad-Din). Shavar offered King Amalric 400,000 bezants if the Franks would drive Shirkuh out of Egypt. After an inconclusive battle with losses on both sides, the Franks joined the Cairo garrison while the Syrian Turks blockaded Alexandria. Shirkuh proposed that they and the Franks could both leave if Shavar would not punish those supporting the invaders. Amalric agreed and entered Alexandria as Saladin's army left; but Shavar's officials began arresting collaborators. Saladin complained, and Amalric got the prisoners released. Shirkuh and Saladin led their army back to Damascus, and Amalric made Shavar promise to pay an annual tribute of 100,000 gold coins.
Also in 1167 King Amalric married Emperor Manuel's grand-niece Maria Comnena. Amalric gave Andronicus Comnenus the fief of Beirut; but the adventurer fell in love with the widow Theodora living on her dowry at Acre. They could not marry because they were related; yet they ran off to the East and were excommunicated. Historian William of Tyre negotiated a treaty with Emperor Manuel to divide conquests in Egypt; but before he returned, Amalric with avaricious knights left to invade Egypt again. Bilbais was plundered, and Copts as well as Muslims were slaughtered, uniting the Egyptians in hatred against the Franks. Shavar's son Kamil sent a message offering Nur-ad-Din a third of Egypt. Shirkuh and Saladin with 8,000 cavalry from Damascus marched past the Franks, who departed at the beginning of 1169. When Shirkuh died in March, Saladin became the master of Egypt by arresting his opponents and burning antagonistic Nubian guards in their barracks. Saladin was much influenced by his friendship with Nur-ad-Din and later married his widow. He followed Nur-ad-Din's policies by abolishing in Egypt all taxes not in accord with Islamic law, and he also founded colleges. Saladin made lucrative trade agreements with Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians. Genoa made an alliance with the Byzantines in 1169, and Pisa also did so the next year.
King Amalric sent church leaders to Europe asking for another crusade, but conflicts in Italy, Germany, France, and England had their leaders occupied. Amalric and Manuel agreed on a joint campaign. Saladin appealed to the Muslim champion of holy war, Nur-ad-Din, so that Egypt could defeat the crusaders and become Sunni. Delays resulted in the Byzantine navy running out of food, and the Frank army withdrew from Egypt before the end of 1169. Amalric visited Constantinople and signed a treaty with Manuel. In June 1170 earthquakes in Syria devastated castles and churches, killing many. Saladin's army massacred people at Gaza but could not take the citadel. On March 12, 1171 Manuel had every Venetian in the Byzantine empire arrested, and their wares were confiscated. Venice reacted by sacking the islands of Chios and Lesbos, and the Byzantines and the Venetians did not have relations for a decade.
In 1173 Amalric's army campaigned for the Byzantines in Cilicia. The new Assassin leader Sinan, whom the Franks called the Old Man of the Mountains, promised the Assassins would become Christians if the knights stopped taxing their villages. Amalric agreed, but Templar knight Walter of Mesnil ambushed and murdered the returning Assassin envoys, and Grand Master Odo refused Amalric's order to turn over the murderer; so Amalric used troops to arrest Walter at Sidon. The powerful and pious Nur-ad-Din had united and expanded Muslim Syria and become a sultan before he died in 1174. During the succession struggle Amalric marched on Banyas and accepted a payment from the Damascus emir; but Amalric became ill and died in July 1174.
Two weeks after King Amalric died, a Sicilian fleet of 284 ships threatened Alexandria but fled when Saladin's army approached. Amalric's successor as king of Jerusalem was his 13-year-old son Baldwin IV, who had already been diagnosed as a leper. Seneschal Miles of Plancy took control of the government; but he was resented, replaced as regent by Count Raymond of Tripoli, and was murdered a few weeks later. Raymond was supported by the Hospitallers and Syrians but was opposed by the militant Templars and crusaders from Europe. At the end of 1174 Saladin besieged Homs and Aleppo, whose atabeg Gumushtigin asked for help from the Assassins and the Franks. A band of Assassins was killed in Saladin's camp. Raymond led the Frank army to Homs, causing Saladin to raise the siege of Aleppo and head south. In gratitude Gumushtigin released Reginald, Joscelin III, and other Christians from Aleppo's dungeons. Saladin's army defeated an alliance of Aleppo and Mosul, and they declared a truce. Saladin proclaimed himself sultan of Egypt and Syria and was honored by the Baghdad Caliph. After finding threatening signs, Saladin asked for forgiveness from the Assassins, and he and their leader Sinan agreed not to attack each other.
In 1176 Manuel led his imperial army against the Turks at Konya; but when he panicked and fled, the result was disastrous for the army. The Byzantines no longer governed Anatolia except the coasts. Under Manuel the military had become the ruling class, living off heavy taxes on the people; many had to barter their freedom to become serfs in order to survive.
William Longsword came from France and married King Baldwin's sister Sibyl; but he died of malaria in 1177, the year the determined Baldwin canceled the regency. Baldwin recovered from malaria; but crusading Flanders count Philip refused to join Reginald or cooperate with the Byzantine navy and admitted he came mainly to marry off his two cousins. Philip did join Raymond of Tripoli on an attack against Hamah. Baldwin mustered 500 knights to defend Ascalon from an attack by Saladin's army. Saladin trapped them and led most of his forces toward Jerusalem, allowing them to pillage the countryside; but Frank knights surprised them near the castle of Montisgard, and the Muslim army fled. Only the sacrifice of the Mamluk guard saved Saladin, and his army fled all the way to Egypt, leaving behind their booty and prisoners. Baldwin's army was rustling sheep near Damascus in 1179 when they were ambushed by Saladin's nephew Farrukh-Shah. The courageous constable Humphrey II of Toron gave up his life to protect the royal army's retreat. The next year King Baldwin and Saladin agreed on a two-year truce, and Saladin also made a treaty with Raymond of Tripoli.
When Emperor Manuel died at Constantinople in 1180, his son Alexius II was only eleven. Empress Maria from Antioch was the first Latin to rule the Byzantine empire and was resented along with Venetian, Pisan, and Genoese merchants, who seemed to be robbing the empire of its wealth. Andronicus Comnenus was called back from Pontus in 1182 and led an insurrection of the army that forced out Maria and slaughtered many Italian merchants. Rivals, including young Alexius, were murdered, and the 62-year-old Andronicus married his 12-year-old widow Agnes of France. However, after the revolution Andronicus cleaned up corruption, disciplined the system of justice, made the wealthy pay taxes, and helped the peasants. Andronicus gave officials "the choice between ceasing to cheat and ceasing to live;" but his ruthless executions and suppression of the landed aristocracy weakened the military. Hungarian king Bela III (r. 1173-1196) had regained in 1181 the territories Manuel had conquered, and two years later the allied Hungarians and Serbians sacked Belgrade, Branicevo, Nis, and Sofia. After news arrived in 1185 that a Sicilian army had ravaged Thessalonica, a riot resulted. When Andronicus ordered Isaac Angelus arrested, he took refuge in St. Sophia; a crowd gathered and proclaimed him emperor. Andronicus fled, was captured, tortured, and killed by a mob.
Corruption returned as Emperor Isaac Angelus sold offices and allowed tax collectors to extort money. He made a deferential treaty with the King of Sicily. In Bulgaria when the brothers Peter and Asen claimed lands as grants of pronoiai, Isaac led his army against them in 1186; but they were supported by Serbian Grand Zupan Stephen Nemanja, and a rebellion in Anatolia caused Isaac to make a treaty that recognized a revived Bulgarian empire.
Guy of Lusignan married Sibyl at Easter 1180 and was given Jaffa and Ascalon as fiefs. The new Jerusalem patriarch Heraclius was corrupt and excommunicated his rival, the historian William of Tyre, who fled to Rome and died, perhaps of poisoning. In 1181 Reginald could not resist raiding a Muslim caravan despite the truce and would not return the goods after Saladin and Baldwin insisted he do so. So Saladin captured 1500 pilgrims, but still Reginald would not trade for them. After the deaths of the rulers in Mosul and Aleppo, Saladin waited until the truce ended and then attacked; but the fortifications of Mosul were too strong. While Saladin was camped near Aleppo, Bohemond III made a four-year truce with him. After much maneuvering Saladin finally captured Aleppo in 1183 and then returned to his capital at Damascus. The powerful Saladin used diplomacy to gain friendly relations with the Seljuk sultan of Anatolia; he had made a treaty with Constantinople in 1181, and he maintained good relations with Isaac Angelus and Isaac Comnenus, who had declared Cyprus independent.
After King Baldwin IV lost the use of his arms and legs because of leprosy, he was persuaded to let Sibyl's husband Guy be regent except for Jerusalem. In 1182 Reginald began attacking caravans to Mecca and took Aila; his naval forces sacked the Nubian port of Aidib, burned shipping near Medina, and sank a ship of pilgrims. Saladin's brother Malik al-Adil, Governor of Egypt, sent a fleet that recaptured Aila and sent Franks from Reginald's fleet to be sacrificed at Mecca or beheaded at Cairo. In 1183 Saladin crossed the Jordan and invaded Palestine; but he could not lure the Franks out for a fight and withdrew. Quarreling with Guy, Baldwin deposed him and made a will leaving the regency to Raymond of Tripoli for his heir, Sibyl's child Baldwin V. Raymond declined guardianship of the sickly boy lest he die, and that job was given to Joscelin III. Baldwin IV died in March 1185, and Raymond tried to make a four-year truce with Saladin because the Christians were in danger of starving. Baldwin V died the following year. While Raymond was out of the way, Sibyl was crowned queen by Patriarch Heraclius, and then she crowned her husband Guy king. Baldwin of Ibelin refused his fealty and went to Bohemond at Antioch.
Late in 1186 Reginald raided a lucrative caravan, killing its soldiers and imprisoning the merchants and their families in his castle at Kerak. Saladin complained, but Guy could not get Reginald to give them back. Bohemond of Antioch renewed his truce with Saladin, and Raymond of Tripoli made a truce too. Guy had taken Beirut from Raymond, who would not join Guy unless it was returned. Raymond even allowed a Muslim army to pass through his territory. Gerard of Ridfort led his Knights Templar against the army of thousands. Sixty knights were killed, and forty men from Nazareth were captured; only Gerard and two other knights escaped. This massacre caused Raymond to renounce his truce with Saladin and submit to King Guy.
Count Raymond persuaded Guy not to attack Tiberias, even though it was Raymond's city, and his wife was trapped there; but later Gerard incited Guy to attack. On July 4, 1187 the Frank army was encircled by Saladin's massive army and deprived of water near Lake Tiberias at Hattin, where the parched soldiers were badly defeated. Many prisoners were taken. Saladin gave King Guy cool water to drink but executed the insolent Reginald with his own sword. He allowed fanatical Muslims (including Sufis) to behead the captured Templars and Hospitallers. The barons were sent to Damascus, and the poor were sold as slaves. The price of prisoners fell to three dinars. Saladin moved his army to Acre, which was surrendered by Joscelin. Other garrisons held out briefly before capitulating. Saladin's brother al-Adil brought an army from Egypt and besieged resisting Jaffa; when it was stormed, all the inhabitants were sold. The Muslims passed by strong Tyre, but Sidon surrendered. Ascalon was besieged and capitulated. Gerard commanded the Templar garrison at Gaza to surrender, and they obeyed.
Jerusalem now had only two knights; but Balian of Ibelin was given safe conduct there to get his wife, Queen Maria, and he was persuaded to stay and command their defense. Balian asked Saladin for terms; but he threatened a massacre like the crusaders had done in 1099 until Balian threatened to kill all the Muslim inhabitants and destroy the entire city. Saladin offered to ransom each man for ten dinars, each woman for five, and each child for one. In addition he would release all 20,000 poor people, who could not afford that, for 100,000 dinars; but only 30,000 dinars was raised for 7,000. Thus many captives were sold. Some money came from England Henry II's donation for a future crusade; but the avaricious Patriarch Heraclius actually left with church gold that could have purchased others' freedom, and the Templars and Hospitallers were reluctant to part with their treasure. Eventually the generous Saladin paid to release captive husbands, widows, and orphans. Tyre only accepted refugees who could fight; Tripoli had to close its gates; and most refugees ended up at Antioch. When Italian merchants refused to transport them for free, the Egyptian authorities would not let them sail until they did. Saladin encouraged Muslims and Jews to settle in Jerusalem, and at the request of Isaac Angelus he granted Christian holy places to the Orthodox Church.
By the end of 1187 more than fifty major cities and castles had been captured by Saladin's Muslims. Raymond of Tripoli died of pleurisy. The Egyptian army besieged Kerak, which held out for a year. Jabalah and Latakia surrendered in July 1188. Bohemond of Antioch gained a truce by recognizing all the Muslim conquests. Conrad arrived in a ship at Tyre, and Saladin threatened to kill his father, the Marquis of Montferrat; but the merciful Saladin did not do so and gave up the siege of Tyre, as most of his soldiers wanted to go home. King William II of Sicily (r. 1166-1189) sent a fleet led by Margarit and 200 knights to Tyre, and Conrad of Montferrat assigned them to defend Tripoli in the summer of 1188.
Pope Urban III died soon after hearing the news that Jerusalem had been captured. His successor Gregory VIII sent out a circular letter calling for a crusade and urging a truce for seven years between Christian princes, but he died too after two months. Pope Clement III contacted Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa and sent Archbishop Joscius of Tyre on to France and England. There King Henry had received a letter from Antioch patriarch Aimery, and his son Richard took up the cross. Henry and King Philip of France were at war; but they made a truce, raised special taxes, and committed themselves to the crusade. When Henry died, Richard was crowned king of England. In 1189 several hundred Danish and Flemish ships arrived in Syria. A fleet from London stopped to help Portuguese king Sancho take the fortress of Silves from invading Muslims from Morocco.
Having experienced the crusade forty-two years earlier, German Emperor Friedrich knew his way from Ratisbon through Hungary. From Vienna about 500 prostitutes, thieves, and wastrels were sent back to Germany. This time Serbs and Bulgarians were rebelling against excessive Byzantine taxes, and Friedrich had to negotiate to keep the rebels from attacking his stragglers. When Emperor Isaac imprisoned Friedrich's envoys, the latter's son Friedrich of Swabia captured Didymotichum and asked the Pope to bless a crusade against the Greeks. Isaac released the envoys, gave Friedrich hostages, and promised him ships to cross the Dardanelles. The Germans tried diplomacy with Kilij Arslan II in Anatolia; but they still encountered resistance. Near Seleucia the elderly Friedrich died in a river, probably of heart failure. Many German knights returned to Europe; some went on to Tyre; and Friedrich of Swabia led others to Antioch, where Prince Bohemond welcomed them. After Friedrich left, the Byzantines defeated Stephen Nemanja's Serbians in 1190, regaining lost territory; but the Byzantine army failed to take the Bulgarian capital at Turnovo, and four years later in 1194 they were defeated at Arcadiopolis.
Sicily king William II had married Joan, daughter of English king Henry II; but William died in November 1189 and named Henry as his heir. Tancred was elected to replace him and recalled his forces from Palestine. As Henry had also died, King Richard stopped in Sicily to collect the legacy and protect the dowry of his sister Joan. Richard freed his sister and attacked an island off Messina, where his soldiers rudely drove the monks out of a Greek convent. Mistreatment of women by English soldiers caused a riot. France's King Philip was in Messina and tried to pacify Richard with the local archbishop; but Richard attacked and let his men pillage the city; the Sicilian fleet in the harbor was burned. Tancred offered Richard 20,000 ounces of gold for the legacy and the same for Joan as her dowry; Richard accepted and returned confiscated goods. Philip and Richard agreed on rules for the crusade that controlled food prices, devoted half of every deceased knight's money to the crusade, limited gambling, and ordered debts contracted to be honored; offenders were to be excommunicated.
Richard also stopped at Cyprus, which Isaac Comnenus had been ruling independently for five years, calling himself an emperor and enriching himself with exorbitant taxes. Joan's ship had wrecked there, and Isaac had arrested Richard's men. In May 1191 Richard was joined by some crusaders led by Guy who opposed Conrad and Philip. Richard married Berengaria, princess of Navarre, and she was crowned queen of England. Poisoned arrows may have been used as Richard's soldiers defeated Isaac, who fled and surrendered as the island was taken. Richard gained Isaac's exploited treasure and levied half the capital of every Greek. Two Englishmen were put in charge, and the Greeks not only had no say in government but were forced to shave off their beards.
Richard arrived at Acre with 25 ships on June 8, 1191. For nearly two years the besieging army of about 100,000 crusaders that included Genoese, Venetians, Pisans, Danes, Frisians, Italians, Germans, Franks, and English had been trapped there by Saladin's army, which in the next few weeks was reinforced by the army of Sinjar, Egyptian troops, and soldiers from Mosul, Shaizar, and Hamah. Famines and disease had killed many, especially during the two winters. In July 1190 10,000 mutineering soldiers had attacked Saladin's camp; but the cavalry did not support them, and most were killed. Now Richard and Philip quarreled over the legacy of Flanders count Philip, who had just died without heirs, and Philip demanded half of Cyprus. On July 12, 1191 besieged Acre capitulated, promising to pay 200,000 gold dinars and release about 1500 Christian prisoners. Saladin had not approved this treaty but said he would honor it. As the crusaders occupied Acre, Leopold of Austria was insulted when Richard had his flag taken down. Philip decided to go home and promised Richard he would not attack his French territories while Richard was on the crusade.
Richard now took command of the army and complained that Saladin was not making full installment payments nor releasing all the prisoners. Richard ordered the captured Acre garrison of 2700 men executed, and their wives and children were also slaughtered; only a few nobles were kept to ransom. Fighting continued sporadically as Richard marched his army south down the coast. Saladin's brother al-Adid tried to negotiate, but Richard demanded all of Palestine. Saladin had Jaffa and Ascalon destroyed and fortified Jerusalem by poisoning the wells around it and cutting down the fruit trees. Richard gained more money when he sold Cyprus to the Templars. The crusaders approached Jerusalem but realized they would not be able to hold it after most crusaders went home. So Richard took his army and rebuilt Ascalon; but Conrad refused to join him, and the Franks led by Hugh of Burgundy left and went to Acre, where conflict between the Pisans and Genoese erupted into war. Richard tried to settle the dispute and then returned to Ascalon.
Al-Adil offered Richard access by Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem with Latin priests and the annexation of Beirut. Richard learned that John was usurping his authority in England and at a council allowed Conrad to be elected king over Guy. Conrad prayed to be crowned only if he was worthy, and a few days later he was murdered in the street by two Assassins sent by Sinan, probably because Conrad had refused to return goods of theirs he had raided. Conrad's widow Isabella was only 21, and she married Henri of Champagne, making him king at Acre. The deposed Guy was sold Cyprus, which the Templars no longer wanted. Richard's army attacked Darum, killing and enslaving the garrison. Once again the crusaders approached Jerusalem and plundered a rich caravan near Hebron; but at Jaffa Richard asked for a truce. While Richard went to seize Beirut before departing, Saladin's army attacked Jaffa; Saladin could not control the angry Muslims and told the garrison to stay in the citadel. Richard arrived by ship and courageously recaptured Jaffa as Saladin retreated.
Finally on September 2, 1192 Richard and Saladin signed a truce for three years, giving the Christians the coastal cities as far south as Jaffa and access to the holy places. Muslims and Christians were to be allowed access through each other's territories in Palestine, and Ascalon was to be demolished. Richard's ship was forced to stop at Corfu, but he escaped. Shipwrecked at Aquileia, Richard was captured crossing Austria and was taken to Leopold, who imprisoned him for the murder of Conrad for three months before handing him over to Emperor Heinrich VI, who kept Richard imprisoned a year, ransoming him in March 1194.
Six months after the 1192 truce was signed, Saladin died at Damascus and was survived by two brothers and seventeen sons, who divided and struggled for his power. The oldest son al-Afdal claimed Damascus but had to cede Judea to his brother al-Aziz, who already ruled Egypt; another son az-Zahr, who governed Aleppo, was given Latakia and Jabala for his recognition of al-Afdal as sultan. Saladin's brother al-Adil negotiated the settlement and intervened in the civil war, first for al-Afdal and then for al-Aziz, who then became sultan in 1196. Al-Aziz fell from his horse and died in late 1198. Al-Afdal tried to regain control, but by the end of 1201 al-Adil was sultan of Saladin's entire empire. The truce and these struggles between Muslims gave the Franks in Palestine and Syria a respite from the Muslim war. In the east Khorezm-Shah Tokush (r. 1172-1200) invaded Khurasan about 1190 and killed the last Seljuk sultan Tughrul III in 1194; but Caliph an-Nasir (r. 1180-1225) refused to recognize Khorezm-Shah as sultan at Baghdad, and for eight years war devastated the Fars economy. An-Nasir turned the brotherhood societies (futuwah) into obedient orders of chivalry. He also controlled education by issuing teaching licenses and persuaded the philosopher Suhrawardi to found a religious order. Khorezmians, led by the son of Tokush, Muhammad (r. 1200-1220), drove the Kara-Kitai out of the Oxus basin and invaded Persia.
In 1193 Henri of Champagne arrested plotting Pisans at Tyre. When Pisans reacted by raiding villages between Tyre and Acre, Henri expelled them from Acre, though this was resolved after King Guy died at Cyprus the next year. Amalric of Lusignan became king of Cyprus by doing homage to German emperor Heinrich VI and was crowned there in 1197. Antioch prince Bohemond III had been invited to Baghras in 1193 and then arrested by Armenian prince Leon II (r. 1187-1219). Antioch set up a commune and appealed to Bohemond's sons Raymond and Bohemond of Tripoli and to Henri of Champagne. German Chancellor Conrad had attended Amalric's coronation and was also present when the Roupenid prince Leon II was crowned king of Cilician Armenia by the Mainz archbishop in January 1198. Conrad was leading a new German crusade that invaded Galilee and besieged Toron until they learned that Heinrich VI had died, resulting in civil war in Germany. Then the Germans fled as an Egyptian army approached, and most returned to Europe. Once again a German crusade had accomplished little, although they did establish an order of Teutonic Knights.
Al-Adil led Muslim forces in an attack on Jaffa, which Henri of Champagne offered to King Amalric of Cyprus. After Henri died falling from a window, Amalric came to Acre, married Isabella, and in 1198 he was crowned King of Jerusalem (even though the Muslims held Jerusalem). In July of that year King Amalric II signed a treaty with al-Adil recognizing Frank control of Jaffa, Jebail, and Beirut while Sidon was divided. In late 1198 Bohemond of Tripoli persuaded the Antioch commune to accept him in place of his father Bohemond III, who died in 1201. In 1204 the peace treaty between Amalric and al-Adil was renewed for six more years, and Sidon was ceded to Amalric, who died in 1205. Queen Isabella soon died, and John of Ibelin acted as regent for her daughter Maria of Montferrat.
In 1195 Byzantine emperor Isaac II was blinded and put in prison by his brother Alexius III. Isaac's son Alexius was also imprisoned, but he escaped in 1201 to the German court of his sister Irene Angelina, wife of Philip of Swabia. Philip and Boniface discussed with Alexius how they might help him become Byzantine emperor. While Emperor Alexius tried to negotiate with the Bulgarians, Greek intrigues resulted in the murders of the brothers Asen and Peter, but their youngest brother John Kalojan (r. 1197-1207) annexed much of Macedonia into the Bulgarian empire.
Innocent III became Pope in 1198 and encouraged a new crusade by sending out popular preacher Fulk of Neuilly and asking the clergy to contribute a fortieth of their annual revenue. At a tournament Theobald of Champagne took the cross and led the movement until he died in 1201 and was replaced by Boniface of Montferrat. Theobald had negotiated with Venice for transport of the crusaders, and they offered to do that and supply them for six months for five marks per horse and two marks per man with an expected total of 85,000 marks for 4,500 knights, 9,000 squires, and 20,000 infantry; also half of all conquests were to go to Venice. Although the goal was to regain Jerusalem, the strategy was to attack Cairo first. Since the Franks were 34,000 silver marks short, aged Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo suggested that the crusading army help Venice regain Zara, which in 1186 had gone over to Hungary's King Bela III. Pope Innocent sent a complaint; but in November 1202 the Venetian navy with crusaders assaulted Zara, which capitulated and was pillaged; Venetians and crusaders even fought each other over the spoils. Pope Innocent absolved the crusaders who restored what they took illegally and promised not to commit a similar offense; but the Venetians were excommunicated.
Philip of Swabia sent word to Boniface that Alexius would pay Venice what the crusaders owe if they would put him on the Byzantine throne. Thus the crusade was diverted from an attack on Muslims to regain holy places to an attack on the Byzantine empire to gain money. Alexius was accepted as Emperor at Dyrrachium (Durazzo) and at Corfu. Frank crusaders, who wanted to leave, were promised that ships would be made available to take them to Syria later if they remained. Constantinople was conquered in July 1203 as Alexius III fled to Mosynopolis in Thrace. The blind Isaac was put on the throne to stop the fighting, and Alexius IV was crowned as his father's co-emperor. Alexius had promised to unite the church with Latin usage, but these were very unpopular. The Byzantine treasury was not sufficient to pay the Venetian debt; more taxes and melting down of church treasures were also resented. Venetians agreed to hold their fleet in readiness for another year. After a quarter of the city burned when a mosque for visiting Muslims was torched, the Latins left Constantinople and joined the crusaders' camp. Nationalists led by Alexius Mourtzouphlus revolted in January 1204. A month later the people deposed Alexius IV, who was strangled in prison, followed a few days later by his father's death. Mourtzouphlus was proclaimed Alexius V.
Crusading Franks and Venetians agreed to divide the wealth of the city, which they stormed in April 1204. Mourtzouphlus fled to Thrace while the Patriarch and others went to Anatolia. The soldiers were given three days to pillage, murder, and rape; even nuns in convents were not safe from these "Christians." Immense Byzantine treasures were looted, and many relics ended up in western Europe. Six Franks and six Venetians elected Count Baldwin IX of Flanders and Hainault Latin emperor. For their three-eighths the Venetians took the district that included St. Sophia and installed Thomas Morosini as the new patriarch; Venice also got much of Greece. The crusaders were to get as fiefs an equal share of the empire with Venice, while Emperor Baldwin was given the quarter around Constantinople. Baldwin sold Crete to Venice, and so many knights were given fiefs that Palestine lost much of its lure. Pope Innocent III realized the difficulty of getting the Greeks to accept the Latin church when he asked, "How can the church of the Greeks be expected to return to devotion to the apostolic see, when it has seen the Latins setting an example of evil?"1
With the help of his aunt, Queen Thamar of Georgia, David Comnenus established a dynasty at Trebizond along the Black Sea. The main legacy of the Byzantine empire was headed by Theodore Lascaris, whose wife Anna was the daughter of Alexius III; they established a court at Nicaea. Mourtzouphlus joined his father-in-law at Mosynopolis. After Mourtzouphlus married the daughter of Alexius III, his eyes were torn out by Alexius. Boniface for consolation was given Thessalonica, because he had recently married the King of Hungary's sister. He and Emperor Baldwin quarreled over Thessalonica and Demotika; but the historian Geoffrey of Villehardouin mediated a peace between them.
Bulgarian czar Kalojan, who was also called Ioannitsa (r. 1197-1207), with Kuman allies invaded Thrace, and in 1205 they defeated the Latin forces as Baldwin was captured. His brother Henry as regent made a treaty with Venice in which the Venetians promised to fight for the new Latin empire. When Paulicians offered to give Philippopolis to Kalojan, Renier of Trit burned down the Paulician quarter. Greeks helped Latins defend the city against the Bulgarians; but after a siege Kalojan's forces burned Philippopolis and massacred the Greeks. While Kalojan besieged Adrianople, Henry became Emperor of Romania in 1206 since his brother Baldwin was presumed dead. The war with the Bulgarians caused Henry in 1207 to make a two-year truce with Theodore Lascaris, who was crowned Greek emperor at Nicaea in 1208 by newly appointed Patriarch Michael Autoreianus. After Bulgarian czar Boril was defeated at Philippopolis in 1208, he made peace. Geoffrey of Villehardouin and William of Champlitte led the conquest of the Peloponnese called Morea, and the latter became prince of Achaea. In southern Epirus Greeks were led by Michael Ducas Angelus Comnenus, who had deserted Boniface. Supported by Armenians from the Troad, the Latins captured the blind Mourtzouphlus and made him jump to his death from a pillar in the forum.
Geoffrey of Villehardouin founded a dynasty when he became prince of Achaea in 1209. That year Venice mediated a secret alliance between the Latin empire and Seljuk sultan of Rum, Kai-Khusrau, while Theodore Lascaris turned to King Leon II of Cilician Armenia. Former emperor Alexius III joined the Seljuks, who fought for his claim; but they were defeated by Theodore's Greeks and 800 Latin mercenaries in 1211; Kai-Khusrau was killed, and Alexius III spent the rest of his life in a monastery. After more battles Henry made a treaty with Theodore in 1214. Henry reopened the Greek churches but died in 1216. His successor Peter was crowned Emperor outside the walls of Rome by Pope Honorius III in 1217; but after besieging Dyrrachium he was captured by Theodore of Epirus and died in prison. His wife Yolanda ruled as Empress in Constantinople until she died in 1219. Her daughter Mary married Theodore Lascaris, who in 1219 made a five-year treaty with Venice granting them free trade in the Nicaean empire. The future doge Jacob Teipolo also made a trade treaty for Venice with the Seljuks of Rum the following year. Meanwhile in the Balkans John Asen had captured Turnovo in 1218 after a seven-year siege; he blinded Boril and became king of the Vlachs and Bulgarians until 1241, marrying a Hungarian relative of Robert. Robert of Courtenay was crowned Emperor at Constantinople by Patriarch Matthew in 1221.
In Palestine the kingdom of Jerusalem had truces with Aiyubid sultan al-Adil from 1194 to 1210. John of Brienne married Queen Maria in 1210, and two years later he renewed a truce with al-Adil for five more years. In Antioch Bohemond IV (r. 1187-1233) struggled against revolts led by Armenian king Leon II. Rumors of a crusade against Egypt in 1212 caused 3,000 European merchants in Alexandria to be arrested. In Europe 1212 was the year popular movements of children tried to go on crusades from France and Germany. Several thousand children led by a 12-year-old to Marseilles were disillusioned when the sea did not part for them. Some who took ships either died at sea or were sold as slaves in Africa. Children from Germany walked from Cologne to Genoa, but Pope Innocent III told them to go home. Pope Innocent III still wanted to launch another crusade and announced it at the Lateran Council of 1215. The next year preachers were sent throughout Europe as far as Scandinavia and Ireland. After Innocent died, Pope Honorius III continued the effort and demanded a tax of one-twentieth to support the crusade. Hungarian king Andrew II and Duke Leopold VI of Austria led substantial armies, but transport was delayed until late in 1217. At Acre the eager crusaders joined with King John and sacked Beisan; Andrew captured relics east of the Jordan but then returned home.
In 1218 crusaders embarked in Frisian ships from Acre to invade Egypt, where al-Adil's son al-Kamil had a trade treaty with Venice since 1208. While the crusaders besieged Damietta on the delta of the Nile, Pope Honorius spent 20,000 silver marks to equip a fleet headed by his legate Cardinal Pelagius. Fear of an internal conspiracy caused al-Kamil to retreat, and the crusaders took the tower of the chain controlling the channel. Al-Kamil's brother, Sultan al-Mu'azzam, who had demolished the walls of Jerusalem so that it could be given to the crusaders in a peace treaty, came to help defend Egypt. The offer to give crusaders Jerusalem and access to their holy places in exchange for evacuating Egypt was favored by King John and the Frank leaders from Syria; but Pelagius, supported by Italians, Templars, and Hospitallers, refused this Muslim offer of a thirty-year truce. Francis of Assisi tried to make peace by meeting with al-Kamil, but Pelagius continued to resist a truce. In November 1219 the crusaders conquered starving Damietta, though John and Pelagius quarreled and compromised that John should rule it until Friedrich of Germany joined the crusade.
The next year King John returned to Palestine to counter an attack on Caesarea by Damascus governor al-Mu'azzam. Also in 1220 al-Kamil's revived navy devastated the crusader fleet off Cyprus, capturing thousands of prisoners. John returned to Egypt in 1221; but an advance led by Pelagius resulted in his army being surrounded by the Egyptian forces and devastated by floods. Pelagius now had to beg for peace and accepted an eight-year truce and remained a hostage with King John and others until the crusaders evacuated Damietta. This crusade aroused renewed fanaticism among Muslims for holy war. Although al-Kamil himself favored tolerance, Christians in Egypt were punished with persecution by angry Muslims and heavy taxes.
In 1221 Azerbaijan escaped a Mongol attack by paying tribute, but the Georgian army led by King George IV was badly defeated at Khumani by the invading Mongols. Under Genghis Khan the Mongols conquered most of Persia; but when he went back to Mongolia, Jalal-ad-Din came back from India to lead the Khorezmian army. By 1225 he had taken Persia and Azerbaijan from the Mongols and invaded Georgia; the next year Jalal-ad-Din ruled from Baghdad. A large Mongol army returned to Persia in 1231; Jalal-ad-Din fled and died in Kurdistan. Mongol general Chormakan annexed northern Persia and Azerbaijan, governing them for ten years and invading Georgia in 1236. The Trebizond kingdom was defeated by the Mongols and paid tribute. The Mongol general Baiju served Prince Batu Khan, and in 1243 his army defeated Seljuk sultan Kai-Khusrau, who fled to Armenia; but he and Armenian king Hetoum both had to submit to the Mongols.
In 1224 the Greek despot Theodore of Epirus invaded and took over the Latin kingdom of Thessalonica from King Demetrius, who fled to Italy. After Latin emperor Robert secretly married a humble Frank woman, Frank knights mutilated her, causing Robert to flee and complain to the Pope in Rome; but while returning, Robert died in Greece in 1228. His eleven-year-old brother Baldwin II succeeded but was under a regency and then was co-emperor with John of Brienne until 1237 as the Latin empire shrunk. In 1222 John Vatatzes succeeded his father-in-law Theodore Lascaris as Greek emperor at Nicaea. In 1225 his army won a victory, and in the treaty Latin territory in Asia Minor was reduced to that surrounding Nicomedia and Constantinople. Theodore of Epirus attacked the Bulgarian empire of John Asen II (r. 1218-1241) but was defeated at Klokotinitsa in 1230; Theodore was captured and blinded.
German emperor Friedrich II had been promising to go on a crusade since 1215 but kept delaying because of conflicts in Italy. Bohemond IV got the Antioch citadel away from the Hospitallers and was excommunicated by Pelagius. The crusader's king John of Brienne went to Rome and visited his friend, France's King Philip, who died while John was there in 1223 and left him 50,000 marks for the kingdom of Jerusalem. In Castile John married King Fernando III's sister Berengaria. In 1225 John's daughter Yolanda (Isabel) married Emperor Friedrich and was crowned Queen of Jerusalem by Patriarch Ralph at Tyre. Friedrich's soldiers believed that John was no longer king and took some of the money Philip had given. Yolanda gave birth to Conrad but died before Friedrich reached Palestine. Friedrich was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for delaying so long but then left before being absolved. After al-Mu'azzam died in late 1227, al-Kamil invaded Palestine and took Jerusalem and Nablus; but when challenged by his brother al-Ashraf, Aiyubid ruler of the Jazira, al-Kamil divided the lands left to al-Mu'azzam's son an-Nasir with al-Ashraf. An-Nasir fled to Damascus, where he was besieged by his uncles' armies.
After visiting Cyprus, Friedrich arrived in Palestine and in 1229 made a treaty with al-Kamil, getting Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a narrow corridor to the coast; but Friedrich, who was brought up with Muslims in Sicily and knew Arabic, agreed to let Muslims keep their holy places in Jerusalem's temple area. The treaty was to last ten years, and all prisoners on both sides were to be released. Friedrich entered Jerusalem, but his treaty was very unpopular with many who doubted Jerusalem could be defended and for religious reasons; the Patriarch placed the city under interdict, and Friedrich had to place the crown on his head himself. Few besides the Teutonic knights supported his autocratic ways. His visit to Acre was spoiled by riots and fighting. Friedrich appointed Balian of Sidon and Warner the German as baillis and departed to Italy. At San Germano Friedrich was reconciled with Pope Gregory IX, and the interdict was lifted.
The result of Friedrich's crusade was civil war in Cyprus and Palestine. In 1231 Friedrich sent an army under Marshal Richard Filangieri as his imperial legate, and they attacked Beirut. These were opposed in the on-going war by forces of John of Ibelin, recently elected mayor of Acre and regent for young Henry of Cyprus. Barons were victorious and declared Henry I king of Cyprus in 1233. Struggles over Damascus and the death of al-Kamil in 1238 led to a civil war among the Muslims. Before the treaty expired in 1239, Pope Gregory IX sent out preachers for another crusade. Navarre king Theobald of Champagne responded, and his crusaders left Acre and encountered an Egyptian army led by Mamluk Rukn ad-Din Baybars in November 1239. Henry of Bar was lured into a trap and was killed along with a thousand crusaders as 600 were captured. An-Nasir of Kerak then captured Jerusalem and destroyed its fortifications before withdrawing. The next year Theobald returned to Europe; but Richard Plantagenet arrived from England and went to Ascalon, where he confirmed a treaty made by the Hospitallers with the Egyptians, recovering most of the land west of the Jordan. Richard also left in 1241, and the next year Templars, defying his treaty, raided Hebron. When an-Nasir reacted by levying tolls on the road to Jerusalem, the Templars sacked Nablus and massacred the inhabitants, including Christians.
Nicaean emperor John Vatatzes (r. 1222-1254) made an alliance with the Bulgarians in 1235, and together they besieged Constantinople until John Asen changed sides to join the Latins in attacking the Greeks, though he made peace with Nicaea in 1237. That year Michael II Angelus (r. 1237-1271) founded the kingdom of Epirus in Albania. In Anatolia Turkomans led by Baba Ishaq revolted against the Seljuks in 1239 and resisted their army for two years. In 1240 Theodore Angelus overthrew his brother Manuel and took over Thessalonica, proclaiming his son John emperor; but two years later John Vatatzes attacked Thessalonica and made John his vassal. The Mongol threat caused Vatatzes to withdraw though his Nicaean empire later conquered Thrace and part of Macedonia. In 1244 John Vatatzes married Friedrich II's daughter Constance, and he expanded his empire to the east while the Turks were invading Mongols. Demetrius was the last ruler of Thessalonica for two years but was imprisoned in 1246; Andronicus Paleologus was appointed governor of the Nicaean empire in Europe, and his son Michael became governor of Seres and Melnik, which had been taken from Bulgaria.
John Vatatzes fell in love with an Italian marchioness, a maid of honor to his queen, and did not give her up until after Blemmydes was acquitted of treason after insulting her in church. The Emperor could not punish an honest man who was so popular with both the religious puritans and the chauvinists. Emperor John Vatatzes was later declared a saint for his beneficent rule that relieved the poor, founded hospitals, provided homes for the aged, built churches, and fortified the frontiers. Soldiers, including Kumans, were settled on small holdings of land, and the imperial estates were models of agriculture, viticulture, and stock breeding. Foreign articles of luxury were prohibited to stimulate the domestic economy.
Strife between the imperialists supporting Friedrich and the crusaders loyal to the Pope continued, and barons meeting at Acre in 1243 announced they would not recognize the authority of Friedrich's son Conrad unless he ruled in person; they gave allegiance to Cyprus dowager queen Alice and her young husband Ralph, Count of Soissons, until she died in 1246. Also in 1243 the Templars had gained a diplomatic victory by getting the Muslims to withdraw from their holy places in Jerusalem. The next year the Templars got the barons to intervene on behalf of Isma'il of Damascus in his war with As-Salih Aiyub, who ruled Egypt (1240-1249). Aiyub purchased a thousand slaves that Genoese brought from the Black Sea port of Caffa. These Mamluks (slaves) were trained to fight at Bahr on the Nile and became the nucleus of the coming Mamluk power. Homs prince al-Mansur Ibrahim offered Franks in Acre part of Egypt; but Aiyub hired a Khorezmian army of 10,000. The Khorezmians sacked Tiberias, Nablus, and Jerusalem, massacring Armenian monks and nuns. Six thousand surrendered; but 2,000 were killed trying to return to Jerusalem, and of the rest only 300 survived the attacks by bandits on the way to Jaffa. The priests remaining in Jerusalem were slain, and churches were burned as the city was pillaged.
In 1244 as most of their Muslim allies fled, the army of the Franks was caught near Gaza between the armies of the Khorezmians and the Egyptians led by the outstanding Mamluk general Rukn ad-Din Baybars. The crusaders attacked the Egyptian army, but the Frank army was annihilated as about 5,000 were killed, and 800 were taken as prisoners to Egypt. When the Khorezmians were kept out of Egypt, they raided Palestine before joining the Egyptian siege of Damascus in 1245. Isma'il surrendered Damascus; but the unrewarded Khorezmians turned against Aiyub and besieged him at Damascus; then Isma'il joined the Egyptians in wiping out most of the Khorezmian army. Next the Egyptian army besieged Ascalon and stormed the city in 1247, killing and capturing the inhabitants. In 1245 Pope Innocent IV sent the Franciscan Lorenzo of Orta to give Greeks equal rights if they accepted Papal authority, and efforts by Franciscan and Dominican preachers to unite the Latin and Greek churches were encouraged by Patriarch Albert of Antioch.
King Louis IX of France was still a young man of 30 when he nearly died of malaria in 1244 and vowed to go on crusade. Champagne seneschal Joinville described the crusades King Louis led from personal observation. Once the king asked Joinville if he wanted to be honored in the world, and then Louis said,
If so, you should deliberately avoid saying or doing anything
which, if it became generally known,
you would be ashamed to acknowledge
by saying "I did this," or "I said that.'2
Louis prided himself on virtue and raised money for the crusade with extra taxes that included the clergy. Venetians opposed the crusade, and in 1249 they began attacking Genoese and Pisans ships along the Syrian coast. King Louis led a squadron to Egypt, and in June 1249 the Franks captured Damietta. Though they suffered hunger and disease during the summer, Louis refused to trade Damietta for Jerusalem. The next year 290 Templars that included English knights tried to take Mansurah; but only five survived. Turan-shah succeeded his father Aiyub as sultan of Egypt and arrived from Damascus. After the crusaders lost 112 ships, famine led to dysentery and typhoid. Louis tried to negotiate a retreat for Damietta; but a rumor they had surrendered resulted in the capture of the large crusading army. Damietta became the ransom for King Louis, and after the murder of Turan-shah by Baybars, the crusaders ended up paying 800,000 bezants. Louis and the barons sailed to Acre, but the wounded left at Damietta were massacred by the Egyptians.
To the west as the Almohad empire was declining in the Maghrib, their caliph al-Sa'id tried to reconquer territory but was killed in an ambush in 1248. His successor al-Murtada reigned over a small kingdom until 1266; but the Marinids conquered Marrakesh in 1269 and destroyed the remaining Almohads at Tinmal in 1275.
Louis still believed in the crusade and asked for reinforcements; but the Italian Salimbene reported that Franciscans and Dominicans who still preached the crusade were publicly insulted. An-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo took over Damascus, and their army invaded Egypt; but they were defeated by the army of Aybak and fled. An-Nasir Yusuf offered Louis Jerusalem for an alliance against Egypt; but Louis used that leverage to get Aibek to release all his prisoners from Egypt by 1252. An-Nasir Yusuf kept his foes apart by taking Jaffa, and the Mamluks stayed in Egypt. Louis also used diplomacy to arrange an alliance with the Assassins. In 1253 Caliph al-Musta'sim from Baghdad was able to reconcile an-Nasir Yusuf and the Mamluks. Troubles at home caused Louis to sail from Acre in 1254; but before he left, he made a truce with Damascus that would last two and a half years.
1. Quoted in The Later Crusades 1189-1311 ed. Robert
Lee Wolff, p. 197.
2. Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis tr. Margaret R. B. Shaw, p. 168.
This chapter has been published in the book MEDIEVAL EUROPE 610-1250. For ordering information, please click here.
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Science on the Road targets students in grades K-8, combining high-energy, participatory assembly programs that feature videos of real scientists with inquiry-based activities that reinforce and expand the concepts presented in the assembly. Other aspects of the program include teacher training, pre- and post-visit activities, and in-depth classroom workshops. All programs anchor state academic standards and introduce students to career options in science and technology fields.
Carnegie Science Center launched STEMisphere as a community service. This online central hub guides educators, parents, and young people pre-K through 12th grade to STEM education resources in the southwestern Pennsylvania region.
Mentor a student, offer tours at your site, stamp passports or judge at a competition... these are a few of the opportunities available through our STEM programs. Visit the Volunteer Opportunities page for more information on our programs or a complete list of our volunteer opportunities.
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- Fleas infest the animal (rats, but other rodents as well), and these fleas move freely over to human hosts.
- His McGill ghetto apartment is infested with mice and, try as he might, he can't seem to get rid of them.
- The species was believed to have been wiped out in 1918 when rats infested their home island.
Late Middle English (in the sense 'torment, harass'): from French infester or Latin infestare 'assail', from infestus 'hostile'. The current sense dates from the mid 16th century.
This has the sense ‘torment, harass’ in early examples. It goes back to Latin infestare ‘assail’, from infestus ‘hostile’. The current sense ‘trouble in large numbers’ dates from the mid 16th century.
Palabras que riman con infestabreast, arrest, attest, beau geste, behest, bequest, best, blessed, blest, breast, Brest, Bucharest, Budapest, celeste, chest, contest, crest, digest, divest, guest, hest, ingest, jest, lest, Midwest, molest, nest, northwest, pest, prestressed, protest, quest, rest, self-addressed, self-confessed, self-possessed, southwest, suggest, test, Trieste, unaddressed, unexpressed, unimpressed, unpressed, unstressed, vest, west, wrest, zest
For editors and proofreaders
Saltos de línea: in¦fest
¿Qué te llama la atención de esta palabra o frase?
Los comentarios que no respeten nuestras Normas comunitarias podrían ser moderados o eliminados.
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Elizabeth Jones was Small's ward. Married to her older sister Matilda, Small assumed guardianship of Elizabeth and two of her brothers after the death of their father Thomas Jones, in 1822. To that household Elizabeth brought the slave she had inherited, Lydia. By 1829, Elizabeth was still a minor (barely, at 17), and Lydia was 23.
What's most interesting to me about the Small household is that Josiah Small was from an old Quaker family. He was a descendant of John Small (c.1639-1700), a Virginia Quaker whose family was among the waves of Quakers who scurried down to North Carolina to escape the wrath of Virginia's governor William Berkeley. A faithful servant of Charles I, "a King's man to his autocratic fingertips" as one historian writes, Berkeley suppressed all dissent from the Church of England, even after Cromwell came to power. By 1660, he'd succeeded in getting the Virginia legislature to pass a law requiring the imprisonment of all Quakers until they left the colony. He stayed in office until his death in 1677.
This was happening during the same period when the boundary line between North Carolina and Virginia was up for grabs. The North Carolina charter of 1663 was at apparent odds with the one of 1665; in conflict was a swath of territory about 30 miles deep from where the line currently is to the middle of the Albemarle Sound. The dispute wasn't settled until William Byrd's survey of 1728--which means that for some 60 years, it was an open question.
The dispute had to do with differences of opinion on the location of Weyanoke Creek, which was supposed to be the boundary. The creek couldn't be found any more. Virginia claimed it was the same as Wiccon Creek, a tributary of the Chowan. North Carolina said it was the Nottoway River. But as William Boyd points out in an introduction to William Byrd's work, major questions of tobacco and trade routes were involved.
As early as 1679 Virginia had prohibited the importation of North Carolina tobacco, a condition which greatly retarded the economic development of the northeastern part of the province, where the soil was well adapted to tobacco culture. If the boundary ran through Nottoway River, North Carolina tobacco could be shipped down that and other streams to Albemarle Sound and thence to points without the colony.
As the debate lingered on, in 1714, Governor Spotswood of Virginia, "claiming that North Carolina continued to grant lands in the disputed region and that 'loose and disorderly people daily flock there,' proposed that Virginia survey a line through the Nottoway River and North Carolina one through Wiccon Creek, and that all settlers between those lines be removed." !! That didn't happen. When Charles Eden became governor of North Carolina, he managed to reach a compromise on the boundary. The line he proposed is the one that eventually, in 1728, was surveyed by a company including William Byrd II.
It's a more complicated story than that, but let me return to the Quaker Smalls. Because of this confusion, it appears that some of Josiah Small's ancestors may have "moved" to North Carolina simply by staying put. At any rate, by the late 1700s his father Benjamin was well established in Chowan County. On his death he left an estate of more than 500 acres and some 18 slaves. Josiah inherited about half of this, plus he had other holdings. By the time of the 1830 census, Josiah had 17 slaves.
Quakers were certainly better off in North Carolina. Under the Carolina Charter of 1663 (written largely by John Locke), "No person . . . shall be in any ways molested, punished, disquieted, or called into question for any differences in opinion or practice in matters of religious concernment, but every person shall have and enjoy his conscience in matters of religion throughout the province."
Quakers had many inconvenient practices and beliefs. They would not swear an oath in court. They considered everybody equal, rich or poor; all were brothers and sisters. Whether you were a lord or a servant, to them you were "thee." They would not fight. And of course, they thought slavery was wrong.
When did the Small family decide to become slaveholders, and why? We know that certain Quakers in Chowan County were considered dangerously abolitionist at least through 1795, when Josiah's father Benjamin, who did own slaves, would have been around 50. In December 1795, some Quakers in Chowan County were accused of actively promoting emancipation. Responding to a perceived "situation of great peril and danger" brought on by "the society of people called Quakers,"--by their "insatiated enthusiasm . . . as to partial and general emancipation"--a grand jury resolved that "speedy and resolute measures ought to be adopted by the good sense & spirit of the people" to combat their pernicious influence." This document links the Quaker agitation to "the miserable havoc & malfeasance which have lately taken place in the West Indies," which must have been a reference to the 1791 revolution in Haiti. Historians have finally understood how terrifying that event was to slaveowners throughout the South--an event too explosive to even talk about. But in my research into the first three decades of the 1800s in Chowan County, I haven't yet found any evidence of Quakers standing on principle against slavery. Perhaps it was there, but the Smalls and many of their relatives by then were well assimilated into the slaveowner class.
A reasonable explanation for this phenomenon of slaveholding Quakers comes from Seth B. Hinshaw's history of Quakers in North Carolina: "The religious conviction that slavery was morally wrong developed quite slowly," he writes. By the time it took hold, Quakers in eastern North Carolina had been owning slaves for many years, handing them down (as we see in the Small family) from generation to generation. It's not a great answer, but it's the best I can do.
Some of this information will turn up in the law review essay I'm writing as a follow-up to my talk on State v. Mann at the Ruffin symposium last fall. I want to acknowledge how helpful the web is for a project like this--rather, how handy the web is for connecting historical researchers with genealogists. A lot of what I know about the Small family comes from genealogical sources, especially Janice Eileen Wallace, with whom I had a fascinating email correspondence. The same is true for Elizabeth Jones and her descendants, for which Sally's Family Place and Sally herself have been very helpful.
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Ginzburg, Natalia Levi (nətälˈyə lēˈvē gĭnˈsbûrg) [key], 1916–91, Italian novelist. Because she and her husband Leone Ginzburg were Jewish, they were confined to a small village from 1940 to 1943; her husband later died in prison. Strongly affected by the pain and disruptions of World War II, she wrote about the war's effects on families. Her understated, yet elegant, style reflects an impatience with artifice and hypocrisy. Her best-known novels are The Road to the City (tr. 1949), The Dry Heart (tr. 1949), and Voices in the Evening (tr. 1963). A number of her translated essays were included in the collection A Place to Live (2001).
See also the autobiographical The Things We Used to Say (tr. 1999); biography by L. M. Picchione (1978).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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B. Geerts and E. Linacre
Ice cores have been drilled in Antarctica and Greenland to examine the variation of the composition of air trapped in bubbles in the ice, representing global atmospheric conditions as much as 160,000 years BP (1). The first and deepest ice core was drilled at Vostok in central Antarctica, originally by a French-Russian team (Fig 1). Drilling of the core still continues, and it is expected that, when drilling is completed in a few years time, an age of up to 500,000 years will have been reached. Starting on the right-hand side of the graph at about 140,000 years ago, the climate was about 6°C colder than it is today. This was an ice age. Then at about 130,000 years ago, there was a quite rapid warming period until about 125,000 years ago, when the climate was, perhaps, 1°C or 2°C warmer than today. These short warmer periods are called interglacials.
Fig 1. Dust concentration, mean temperature (as estimated from the oxygen isotope ratio), CO2 and CH4 concentrations plotted against time, estimated from the analysis of an ice core drilled at the Russian station, Vostok, on the Antarctica plateau (1).
From 120,000 to about 20,000 years ago, there was a long period of cooling temperatures, but with some ups and downs of a degree or two. This was the last Great Ice Age. From about 18,000 or 19,000 years ago to about 15,000 years ago, the climate went through another warming period to the next interglacial, - the current one.
Fig 1 and Greenland ice cores indicate climate oscillations lasting 7,000 - 15,000 years during the Last Great Ice Age (110-16 kBP). These are known as ‘Heinrich events’ and are also evidenced by ocean sediments. A more detailed ice core analysis shows an occasional abrupt change of climate during the last interglacial (the Eemian, at 120 kBP), changing by as much as 10K during only 10 -30 years. Such changes may be due to switchings of flows in the northern Atlantic. Similar changes have been observed at the end of the last glaciation.
Fig 1 also shows that carbon dioxide and methane (main greenhouse gases) occur in higher concentrations during warm periods; the two variables, temperature and greenhouse gas concentration, are clearly consistent, yet it is not clear what drives what. The correlation coefficient is 0.81 between CO2 content and apparent temperature, on the whole. During deglaciation the two varied simultaneously, but during times of cooling the CO2 changed after the temperature change, by up to 1000 years. This order of events is not what one would expect from the enhanced greenhouse effect.
Finally, Fig 1 shows that high concentrations of dust occur at the same times as the colder periods. The most likely reason is that the ice sheets were more extensive during colder periods, and therefore the sea level lower, thus there would have been more exposed, bare land.
Fig 2. Average air bubble CO2 concentration versus age in three ice cores taken close to the summit of Law Dome at 67°S, 113°E, around 1390 m elevation. Law Dome is near the Australian Antarctic station Casey.
Another study of three much smaller Antarctic ice cores (2) shows the CO2 concentration for individual years over the last millennium (Fig 2). The core depths were 234 m, 243 m and 1200 m. The layers of the core were dated by counting the annual layers of oxygen ratio, ice electro-conductivity and hydrogen-peroxide concentration, and then the chronology was verified by detecting the acidic layers due to known volcanic eruptions in 1963, 1815, 1450 and 1255 AD.
It appears that the air bubbles trapped in the ice represent the atmospheric composition at the time of snow deposition, in other words gas diffusion through the ice is negligible. For instance, the CO2 concentration in air bubbles dated to be from 1958 or later agrees very well with direct free-atmospheric CO2 measurements, which have been made since then. Note the slightly lower CO2 concentration between 1550 - 1800 AD, i.e. during the Little Ice Age. The considerable increase since 1830 was interrupted by a brief stabilisation during 1935 - 1945, probably as a consequence of some natural variation of the carbon cycle. The concentration had risen to 335 ppm by 1980.
Another ice core, taken near MCMurdo Sound (on Taylor Dome) has confirmed the Law Dome temperature estimates.
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Guest post by Jaimi Erickson at The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide
Playing outdoors is one way for my children to explore God in their lives. Children in concrete stages of development love to explore by doing and outdoor time allows for so much exploration and learning. My children are ‘outdoor kids’, large motor machines. They need to get outside in order to keep their spirits in balance-I need that too. Thankfully summer provides a multitude of outdoor time for fun-and learning.
Having a 4-year old and a 15-month old allows me to bridge activities for two different skill levels, but two always-eager participants in any homemade ‘game’! Some summer climates limit how many hours can be spent outside in a day. When we experience temps reaching 100+degrees, or afternoon downpours, we need to adapt our outdoor plan to work inside. This list of activities can be taken outdoors, but will work inside as well. These are quick to create, low-to-no-cost (my mantra), and although are written with a preschooler in mind, I have noted how they can be adapted for younger ones.
1. Homemade Hopscotch Fun
On a rainy day, I used duct tape to create a hopscotch pattern on the back of a yoga mat. In about 10 minutes we had a new game to play that allowed us to burn some energy! We used homemade bean bags to toss. This game reinforced number recognition, exercised eye-hand coordination, and allowed for some gross motor movement to burn energy and work on balance.
[Adaptation: I encouraged my toddler to step on the numbers and then I named them, or she tossed a beanbag and I identified on which number the bag landed.]
2. Homemade Bean Bags and Games
I made bean bags with scrap fabric, dry beans, and some quick stitches on the sewing machine. They provided so much indoor (or outdoor) fun. We played “Simon Says”. (i.e. “Simon Says” put the bean bag on your head.”) We sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and placed the bean bag on each part. We tossed them into a laundry basket from different distances (marked by masking tape on the floor). We each took turns hiding one bag in order to let each other seek it out. We worked on teamwork, large motor movement and vocabulary.
[Adaptation: I made bean bags in primary colors, so they could be used for color recognition. My young toddler LOVES learning to identify new body parts, so I placed the bean bag on her head, shoulder, arm, etc. while I said the name of each part to help reinforce this learning.]
3. Drop Cloth Painting Canvas
My children love art and creating artwork to send to the grandparents, so I am always looking for new materials to explore within our budget. I found an inexpensive drop cloth and cut it in quarters. This can be pinned to a wall, lightly nailed or clamped to a fence outdoors, or taped to a window inside to allow for a large painting surface. (I wanted to do this outside, but it rained so we improvised indoors!) Increasing the surface area where they could paint, and pinning the canvas up, involved more gross motor movement and added interest.
[Adaptation: My toddler painted on the lower half while my preschooler painted near the top so they were separate by working together.]
4. Packing Peanut Snow
We live in a hot climate in the southeast. Recently our electricity was out for 48 hours during high temperatures. We needed to do anything to feel cooler. Foam packing peanuts as pretend snow were a hit in our home! My daughter and son enjoyed scooping them, piling them up, and making snow angels while laying in them on the dining room rug. What a great pretend play scenario on a hot day-play like it is cold! Just ‘thinking cold’ and ‘playing in the snow’ of the packing peanuts helped ease our cabin fever. We dropped them from above our heads and tried to catch the ‘snow flakes’ as they fell. They can even be thrown and caught allowing for more muscle movement and exercise.
All of the activities I create are based on observations of my children combined with what they need to learn as they grow to be godly individuals. There are so many ways we can add interest to our time in God’s creation outdoors-or spend our time together while playing inside depending on what the weather will allow. My first ministry mission is to my family. My children want my attention more than anything. When I combine teaching skills with activities that feed their interests in an intentional way, we have fun whether during a rainy ‘indoor day’ or an outside day in the sun.
Jaimi Erickson is a woman living in service to God’s mission. She ministers daily to her husband and two children as a stay-at-home mom and homemaker. She formerly served as a teacher in the Early Childhood field. Jaimi shares motivation for stay-at-home-moms, household tips, and developmentally appropriate make-at-home activities for infants and up on her blog The Stay-At-Home-Mom Survival Guide.
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May Day brought a climate blindside of sorts this year, and it didn’t come in the form of a freak snowstorm in the tropics.
On that day, a peer-reviewed study in the esteemed journal Nature predicted a temporary cooling of global temperatures for the next decade or so.
The alleged cause? Little-understood ocean currents cycling into a cool phase. They were factors, apparently, that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had not adequately considered. Might that raise questions about the panel’s predictions of future temperature increases in the coming ten years?
From beleaguered skeptics’ corners of the globe came boisterous I-told-you-so’s. A researcher with the libertarian Cato Institute argued in the Washington Times that global warming science now looked more flawed than pre-Iraq War intelligence. Headlines were lathered up with bravado: “So much for settled science” …
From the bastions of scientific consensus, though, there was befuddlement, and eventually pushback. In fact, almost a duel, as the RealClimate.org scientist bloggers literally challenged the Nature article’s authors to a 2500-Euro wager that they were wrong.
Lead author of the provocative cooling study Noel Keenlyside, Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Kiel, Germany, in a flash reignited a debate that had long ago been labeled “over.” Or had he?
For one thing, the cooling article was limited in focus: the study addressed just the North Atlantic and tropical Pacific currents, and their impact on European and North American temperatures. And it only related to the next decade or so – after that, Keenlyside’s projections swing back in synch roughly with those of IPCC.
Nevertheless, there was that show-stopping phrase just eight sentences into the Nature piece: “Our results suggest that global surface temperature may not increase over the next decade …”
Author Amused At Confusion
In a Yale Forum interview, Keenlyside commented on the media battle over his assertions about lower average global temperatures.
“If you have read the paper, you will know this was not the focus of our study,” he wrote in an email. “Nevertheless, although the media coverage was a little sensational, overall, I feel that the main point – global mean temperature need not increase monotonically in the short term under anthropogenic global warming – was conveyed.”
Note his words: the “focus” of the research and the “main point” of the overall article are not perfectly in line. Keenlyside set out to prove only that the IPCC’s calculations for shorter-term temperatures in some regions of Earth are incomplete. But his critique undercuts IPCC’s model.
The story was ripe for spin and hype from all sides.
|Climate change journalist, now activist Bill McKibben.|
Longtime climate change journalist and now activist Bill McKibben said in response to e-mail questions that he could only shake his head with “amusement” at the general confusion caused by the “cooling” article.
“We don’t watch climate change over a season, or over a continent; its effects are felt, already, on a global scale, and will be felt on a timescale longer than human history to date,” McKibben told the Yale Forum. “But our media – even our scientific journals – are tuned to shorter frequencies, and hence this static can jam the important message quite easily.”
Keenlyside wrote that he considers the scientific community’s skepticism of his findings “healthy” (read 2500-Euro wager), and he conceded that the cutting-edge modeling he used is still new.
Without a doubt, part of the challenge for climate change observers involved cutting through the glitzy packaging.
Keenlyside et al’s news release essentially yelled fire in a crowded theater: “Will Global Warming Take a Short Break?” By contrast, the article’s title in wonky Nature was a library whisper: “Advancing decadal-scale climate prediction in the North Atlantic sector.”
BBC environment correspondent Richard Black was one of the big mainstream press voices to tackle the “cooling” study’s import. In a Yale Forum e-mail interview, Black said alarm bells immediately went off in his head when he read it.
“The main issue with covering something like the Keenlyside paper is that you may be thinking about the reaction you’re likely to get more than the research itself,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Are you going to get slugged a ‘skeptic’? Or will you find your article be taken and used by skeptical organizations to back their case?”
Black said his online article on May 1, which took pains to put the study into full context, elicited far less of an emotional response from readers than he expected – to his relief.
But climate change skeptics also breathed a sigh of relief … sort of.
Lorrie Goldstein’s May 4 editorial in the Toronto Sun stated flatly: “Prior to this study, anyone impertinent enough to point out, contrary to the Al Gore Nation, there hasn’t been any global warming for a decade was apt to have their head shot off by climate hysterics.”
However, Keenlyside’s study made no such claims about erasing the previous decade’s temperature increases as asserted by IPCC. (Unclear, then, if Goldstein should stop ducking shots?)
In a Yale Forum interview, widely-quoted skeptic Patrick Michaels, a climatologist at Cato, proclaimed by e-mail that the over-hyping of all models is the big problem. “Can Keenlyside be over-hyped? Absolutely,” he said. “Were the IPCC models overhyped? Absolutely.”
In the wake of the Keenlyside bombshell, the question remains whether the story – which got spotty coverage, according to the Knight Science Journalism Tracker and a Lexis-Nexis/Google News search – will have any lasting impact, particularly in this political moment in the U.S. presidential campaign. Presumed presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama say they stand ready to act on climate change; the new Congress taking office in January 2009 will again take on the issue, most likely with increased prospects for actually passing legislation.
The Washington Post‘s Juliet Eilperin, who covers environmental issues and national politics, told the Yale Forum that she hasn’t “seen the cooling paper get much attention on the campaign trail …. It seems like the climate consensus is fairly settled at this point, though I still get regular e-mails from skeptics when I’m working on global warming stories.”
The Post, like other big outlets such as the major television networks, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, didn’t touch the Keenlyside thesis. Knight Science Journalism Tracker’s take?
“This little report in Nature looks like two things: interesting, and a can of worms,” stated Tracker writer and long-time science journalist Charles Petit in the May 5 blog post. “Maybe the latter shooed most reporters away from it. Maybe they figured one analysis, even if it offers a dramatic scenario of stable temperatures for ten years or so in much of the world, isn’t worth the headaches of explaining the nuances.”
However, The New York Times‘ Andy Revkin, who examined the Keenlyside paper in both print and at his DotEarth blog, wrote that temporary cooling periods may present a robust long-term challenge to advocates who want to address climate change.
“It’s much harder to build a movement around limiting losses for generations unborn than for ourselves,” Revkin blogged on May 1, “but if honesty counts, that may be the only way to make climate action stick.”
He has also acknowledged other recent “cooling” anecdotes, including freak snow in Baghdad and South Africa, Antarctic ice returning – even the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab’s announcement on April 21 that the Pacific Ocean was shifting into a cool phase.
Some observers, though, remain unmoved despite variations in climate – of opinion or science models.
“The only important fact,” McKibben told the Yale Forum, “and the one that has been growing steadily more robust with each passing year, is that the world is warming disastrously.”
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Researchers from Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany, have developed a new method for better diagnostic of diarrhea causing bacteria. Iit now possible to characterize and distinguish hundreds of bacteria strains in a short time. The method is based on the existence of short, repetitive DNA segments in the genome of all living species. As in a tandem bike, those segments are lined up on the DNA strand, called “tandem repeats”. They are characteristic for every bacterial strain. To identify a certain strain, the HZI researchers use short DNA fragments, marked with certain dyes. Each dyed DNA fragment recognizes a single tandem repeat, binding at it. As a result, the researchers receive, for example, six red fragments binding a tandem of six repetitions. Then, the researchers analyzed the tandem repeats marked with dyed fragments: Every bacteria strain differs in pattern and size of the measured tandem repeats.
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Last week, when I was writing about the poignant story of Yoco Unkenchie’s final journey from Shelter Island to his Montauk burying ground, and the spot between Sag Harbor and East Hampton where his funeral bier was briefly laid, I thought how sad it was that knowledge of where his body was finally placed had been long lost.
It is said that Gravesend Avenue in Montauk is so called because of the number of Native American burials encountered there by workmen in the 1920s. That may well be apocryphal; when the Montauk Development Company laid out roads in the hamlet, they grouped them by letter of the alphabet without much ado about local references. Then there also is a question of whether the burial ground of the time is really on the east side of Lake Montauk in the place known as Indian Field.
The poet Walt Whitman, writing in an 1861 edition of the Brooklyn Standard, had this to say about Montauk: “It was the sacred burial place of the east Long Island Indians — their Mecca . . . Wyandance lived there. The remains of the rude citadel occupied by this chieftain are yet to be seen, surrounded by the innumerable Indian grave hollows. It was called Duan-no-to-wouk.”
Wyandance, or Wyandanch, was a younger brother of Yoco Unkenchie, also known as Poggatacut, whom he succeeded as leader of the eastern Long Island tribes in 1653. Wyandanch was allied with Lion Gardiner, of the island that bears his name, and he granted Gardiner what is today Smithtown at a time of conflict between the Montauketts and Naragansetts. Wyandanch’s dealings with the settlers and other native tribes is described in detail by John A. Strong in the collection “Northeastern Indian Lives.”
My grandmother Jeannette Edwards Rattray in her book “Montauk: Three Centuries of Romance, Sport, and Adventure” wrote: “Most graves in Indian Field cemetery are marked only by rough field stones, set in circles deep in the tangled grass. . . .”
Between Fort Hill, where the Montauketts built a palisade redoubt 180 feet square, and Signal Hill, the site of the Montauk Manor, is Council Rock, where, the story goes, the tribe met for meetings. Wyandanch died in 1659, the victim of poison, Gardiner said.
Wyandanch had lived his last years in North Neck, on the high ground on the west side of the lake, overlooking Fort Pond, according to a 1651 reference. This observation from the time leads me to imagine that both he and his brother were buried there, and not in Indian Field.
The precise location of Wyandanch’s “citadel,” as Whitman put it, and his resting place are gone to time, as is his brother’s. Little remains to remember these men, who tried to navigate two worlds: their own and the Europeans’.
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The other day I took about a 4-mile hike through the Dow Wetlands Preserve in Antioch, and I still didn’t see all of it.
The site is about 470 acres, from Kirker Creek to the Antioch Marina, the boundary of 10th Street on the south and the Delta on the north. At the invitation of preserve volunteer Krist Jensen, I walked along with some other volunteers to discover this jewel that originally was purchased in 1989 for $11 million by nearby Dow Chemical to create a buffer zone alongside the plant.
Some environmentally minded folks, however, decided that just being a buffer wasn’t good enough, and the marsh and wetlands that once supported a hay growing farm, were restored to a more natural state. The preserve has more than 170 acres of freshwater/brackish tidal marsh plus a 30-acre beaver pond, freshwater ponds, open water, mudflats, riparian zones, uplands and grasslands. The pond is now home to beaver, river otters, mink and a variety of water birds. The otters and beavers have carved water pathways through the marsh, allowing them easy movement to food and building material, and migratory birds stop by on their journeys to visit the permanent residents.
The wetlands, profuse in pickle weed, also are home to the endangered salt harvest marsh mouse, and to two California native plants considered rare and endangered, the Lilaeopsis masonii, a species of flowering plant in the carrot family and known commonly as mudflat quillplant or Mason’s lilaeopsis; and Aster lentus, a dicot perennial herb also known as Suisun aster.
Walking along the trails cut through cat tails and reeds, or strolling along a winding, shady path in an area affectionately known as the jungle, you can lose yourself in nature. The quiet is broken only by the sound of birds or the splash of geese, turtles and otters, or the whistle of a train that rumbles through the property. The volunteers — about 40 of them — maintain the preserve with care and love. They scavenge scraps of wood to build observation towers and platforms; one enterprising man found three stadium chairs listed for free on Craigslist and has now planted them solidly in a meadow overlooking the Delta. They also maintain the trails, building bridges across the swampier areas. The lucky ones find themselves spending hours at the preserve, working hard but hardly noticing. They are entranced by nature.
It’s a magical place, open to all for free, in the hours between dusk and dawn. A weekly hike, I imagine, would reveal a changing environment as plants grow and the marsh shifts in its muddy bed.
The main entrance is located on 10th Street, near the Dow main gate. You also can access it from the Antioch Marina parking lot. If you’d like to be more than just a visitor, the volunteers can always use a helping hand. If you’re interested, call Dow at 925-432-5576.
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How many different journeys could you make if you were going to visit four stations in this network? How about if there were five stations? Can you predict the number of journeys for seven stations?
Have a look at what happens when you pull a reef knot and a granny
knot tight. Which do you think is best for securing things
A brief video looking at how you can sometimes use symmetry to
distinguish knots. Can you use this idea to investigate the
differences between the granny knot and the reef knot?
Take a look at the video and try to find a sequence of moves that will take you back to zero.
It would be nice to have a strategy for disentangling any tangled
Look carefully at the video of a tangle and explain what's
Can you tangle yourself up and reach any fraction?
This problem caught many people out!
Go to last month's problems to see more solutions.
This article for students introduces the idea of naming knots using numbers. You'll need some paper and something to write with handy!
This article for pupils gives an introduction to Celtic knotwork
patterns and a feel for how you can draw them.
Help the bee to build a stack of blocks far enough to save his
friend trapped in the tower.
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|Values are valid only on day of printing.|
Infectious diseases are spread and caused by a variety of macroscopic vectors. A wide array of macroscopic parasites (worms and ectoparasites) and parasite mimics or artifacts may be submitted for examination and identification. It is important to promptly and accurately identify these specimens so that the ordering physician can appropriately treat and counsel the patient.
Gross identification of parasites (eg, worms) and arthropods (eg, ticks, bed bugs, lice, mites)
Detecting or eliminating the suspicion of parasitic infection by identifying suspect material passed in stool or found on the body
Diagnosing delusional parasitosis
Identifying ticks, including Ixodes (carrier of Lyme disease)
A descriptive report is provided identifying the worm or arthropod. Worms and hard ticks are identified to the species level when possible, while other parasitic arthropods are identified to the genus level. Arthropods that do not cause human disease and parasite mimics resembling worms are reported as nonhuman parasites.
This test identifies a tick’s species, age, sex, and level of engorgement. It does not include analysis of ticks for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease.
A descriptive report is provided.
1. Mathison BA, Pritt BS: Laboratory Identification of Arthropod Ectoparasites. Clin Microbiol Rev 2014;27(1):48-67
2. Garcia LS: Diagnostic Medical Parasitology. Fifth Edition. Washington, DC, ASM Press, 2007
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This is a map of Venus.
Click on image for full size
Tessera is a unique feature of Venus, and is also known as "complex ridged terrain". These features are found on some of the Venus Plateau Highlands.
Tessera is created is by a shortening of the lithosphere. That is, when the crust is pushed together, the surface folds, buckles, and breaks, and the crust itself becomes thicker. This process
may be related to the process of mountain-building on Earth. But,
because Venus lacks plate tectonics the process must occur somewhat
Most plateau highlands are
thought to be regions where the crust is
relatively thick. Because crustal material is less dense ("lighter") than
the mantle rocks below, regions of thick crust rise higher than surrounding
areas where the crust is thinner. This is illustrated in the above sketch.
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Ishtar Terra is one of the Plateau Highlands of Venus, is found near the north pole, and is about the size of the continental United States. Ishtar Terra contains the four main mountain ranges of Venus...more
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Beta Regio and Atla Regio are examples of what is known as a volcanic rise. Volcanic rises are broad, sloping highlands over 1000 km across. They are cut by deep troughs 100-200 km across. These troughs...more
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This page was produced by an automated import process, and may have formatting errors; feel free to fix.
In the abstract, a checkpoint is a point in the execution history of the program, which the user may wish to return to at some later time.
Internally, a checkpoint is a saved copy of the program state, including whatever information is required in order to restore the program to that state at a later time. This can be expected to include the state of registers and memory, and may include external state such as the state of open files and devices.
There are a number of ways in which checkpoints may be implemented in gdb, e.g. as corefiles, as forked processes, and as some opaque method implemented on the target side.
A corefile can be used to save an image of target memory and register state, which can in principle be restored later — but corefiles do not typically include information about external entities such as open files. Currently this method is not implemented in gdb.
A forked process can save the state of user memory and registers, as well as some subset of external (kernel) state. This method is used to implement checkpoints on Linux, and in principle might be used on other systems.
Some targets, e.g. simulators, might have their own built-in method for saving checkpoints, and gdb might be able to take advantage of that capability without necessarily knowing any details of how it is done.
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Ornamental orange trees are not just pretty, fragrant trees. They also produce fruit, just like standard orange trees. Instead of being planted in the ground, however, ornamental orange trees are usually grown in containers as patio specimens or even grown indoors. Many ornamental orange trees are dwarf varieties, making them easier to contain in a pot. Care of ornamental orange trees is very similar to that of orange trees planted in the ground, except that you need to monitor your watering practices carefully. Fruit trees grown in containers suffer most from faulty watering practices, according to information published by the University of Florida.
Choose a container that has drainage holes. A good size is 15 gallons, which will hold a 5-foot-tall tree, according to the National Gardening Association. Cover the drainage holes with mesh to prevent soil from spilling out, and lay down a fine layer of gravel at the bottom of the pot.
Plant the tree in any commercial potting soil that is well-draining. The University of Florida recommends a soil that contains a mixture of peat moss, bark and perlite or sand.
Place the tree where it will receive full sunlight. Avoid moving the tree around once it is placed, because orange trees cannot tolerate sudden changes of light and temperature very well.
Water when the first inch or two of soil is dry to the touch. Do not overwater, because that is a common problem with potted fruit trees, according to the University of Florida. Too much water in the soil can lead to root rot, a deadly fungal disease. Reduce watering during cooler weather.
Protect the ornamental orange tree from the cold by covering the pot with a blanket or even moving it indoors when cold weather threatens. Keep the tree away from cold or hot drafts if growing it indoors.
Fertilize once a month during the growing season with a balanced fertilizer (10-10-10). Adjust the frequency and quantity of the feedings as needed. In general, deep, green leaves mean the ornamental orange tree is getting enough nutrients.
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The first sequenced tiger genome shows that big cats evolved to kill.
Scientists mapped the genes of the endangered Siberian tiger (or Amur tiger), both to understand the genes that make big cat species distinct from one another and to aid efforts to preserve genetic diversity in wild tiger populations. (Also see "Isolated Tigers Travel Surprising Lands to Find Mates.")
The largest tiger subspecies, Siberian tigers weigh as much as 660 pounds (300 kilograms) and grow to some ten feet (three meters) in length. Only about 450 Siberian tigers exist in the wild, and around 4,000 tigers total are thought to remain in their natural habitats. (See a National Geographic magazine interactive of big cats in danger.)
"We looked at this very large tiger first to see what made it distinctive from other cats," said genome expert Jong Bhak of South Korea's Personal Genomics Institute in Suwon, a co-author of the Nature Communications study reporting the mapping of the Siberian tiger genome.
Bhak and colleagues sampled genes from a nine-year-old male tiger at the Everland Zoo in Korea, and compared them with gene map information from the Bengal tiger, lion, and snow leopard. (See tiger pictures.)
Natural Born Killers
"Genetically all the cats are very close, so we need close genetic mapping to find the small differences that make them distinct," Bhak said.
Some gene differences are apparent in the mapping, such as two genes likely involved in adaptation to high altitudes and thin air in snow leopards and white fur in white African lions.
But overall, the cat family seems to rely on a narrow set of 1,376 genes linked to strong muscle fibers and digestion of protein, the study shows, seen widely across the study species. The genes likely originated in large part with the earliest common ancestor of big felines some 11 million years ago, the study authors suggest.
"I take this to indicate that [big cats] have evolved to fill a very particular carnivorous niche in the environment that is predicated on the advantages in hunting these genes provide," said Bhak.
Domestic cats also have many of these same genes, he said. "All the cats are unparalleled hunters, and here we are seeing some of the genetic reasons."
Simply mapping the tiger genome represents a significant advance for researchers, said forensic geneticist Thitika Kitpipit of Thailand's Prince of Songkla University, who led a team that recently completed a map of the maternal genes, or mitochondrial DNA, of tigers.
With more wildlife officials debating the introduction of some big cats to preserves in a bid to diversify wild populations, a gene map is a first step in understanding the genetic landscape of big cats, Bhak said.
Wildlife officials from 13 nations agreed in 2010 at a Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, to work toward saving the tiger in the wild amid increasing reports of poaching and declining wild populations in Asia.
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Note: This series of articles is a condensed version of the chapter "A Biblical Approach to Objectionable Elements".
Mention reading or literature in Christian education circles, and a hot topic is bound to arise: censorship. For the Christian, the questions is not whether literature should be censored; concerned educators and parents know well their responsibility to filter out printed material unfit for Christian consumption. The questions, rather, is how to determine what is and what is not appropriate for Christians to read.
On this point well-meaning Christians err on both sides. Some, guided by the mistaken principle that literature is life, are extremely permissive. They take the view that because the believe encounters all forms of sin in the course of living, he should not be protected from it in his reading. The logical problem is, of course, that literature is not life; it is a selective form of entertainment and not a series of often unavoidable experiences (though some students may see their English assignments that way). Therefore, literature falls under the Scripture's rigorous guidelines for Christian thought (Philippians 4:8).
Others, perhaps the majority, err on the other side of the issue. Meaning to avoid the pitfalls of permissiveness, they eschew any literature containing offensive material, regardless of academic considerations. Such a stance requires adding restrictions to the Christian life beyond Scriptural guidelines, which, taken to its logical extension, would rule out not only most literature but also the Bible itself.
A quick and easy "solution"--one which finds favor with many home educators--is to follow the dictates of an approved reading list, in which books containing no objectionable elements appear. Certainly book lists can be helpful, but in dealing with objectionable elements, book lists take the guidance process out of the hands of the parents, without regard to individual student maturity or sometimes literary merit. A far more satisfying solution for achieving a balance in censorship is to discover and apply Biblical criteria for a literary analysis that both honors God and edifies the believer.
The first step to establishing these criteria is defining what is objectionable. Dr. Stewart Custer, chairman of the division of Bible at Bob Jones University, has classified objectionable elements in literature into the following seven categories:
Certainly no Christian should take pleasure in reading material that draws him away from personal holiness; but neither ought any Christian to seclude himself or his students unnecessarily from worthy literature simply because it contains offensive material. Scripture itself includes notable examples of each type of objectionable element.
For example, John 8:48, II Samuel 16:5-8, and I Samuel 20:30 all demonstrate the use of profane language (although these examples seem mild to twentieth-century readers). Isaiah 36:12, II Kings 18:27, Ezekiel 4:12-15, and Malachi 2:3 contain examples of scatological realism. The Bible frankly discusses sexual perversion (see Judges 19:22-25; II Samuel 11, 13; Proverbs 6:25-35; 7:10-21). An entire book--the Song of Solomon--is a love song from a man to his wife, full of explicit language (4:12-5:1; 5:9-16; 7:1-9; compare Proverbs 5:18-19).
Scripture also portrays scenes of lurid violence; the dismemberment of the Levite's concubine (Judges 19:28-30) and the disembowelment of Amasa (II Samuel 20:10-13) are but two examples. There are several examples of occult activity, the most well known of them being Saul's consultation with the witch of Endor (I Samuel 28; compare Acts 8:9-11; Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7, 18). Scripture even presents subtly false religious and philosophical assumptions. The entire book of Job pits the main character against friends who offer seemingly sound reasons for Job's sufferings.
The fact that God includes objectionable passages in Scripture is not grounds, of course, for indiscriminate reading of objectionable literature. But neither should the Christian think he must never read those passages. All Scripture--even that which a critic may consider offensive--is inspired by God and is therefore profitable (II Timothy 3:16). If the Christian parent, therefore, adopts the Holy Spirit's criteria and guidelines for the inclusion of objectionable elements in God's Word, he will have a good basis for determining the worthiness of other literature.
Of course, the Holy Spirit perfectly chose and correctly handled all the objectionable elements in Scripture; unfortunately, human authors rarely do. Thus, even after having selected the literature appropriate for his child and necessary to the course, the Christian parent has fought only half the battle; he must still deal with the unavoidable objectionable elements in the otherwise good literature he has chosen. The next issue of the Helper will present a method for teaching this literature in a way that honors God and edifies His child.
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THE 456th FIGHTER INTERCEPTOR SQUADRON
T PROTECTORS OF S. A. C.
The History Of Ejection Seats
+ Larger Font | - Smaller Font
Ejection Seats Development
Click on Picture to enlarge
Sgt. Lawrence Lambert (wearing parachute) lowers himself into the cockpit of of a P-61 prior to a test flight in which he was ejected from the aircraft. The purpose of the project was to develop a satisfactory means to escape from high speed aircraft in an emergency. (17 Aug. 1947)
Sgt. Lambert seconds after being literally blasted from the aircraft in an ejection seat. During WWII, Germany had pioneered in the development of ejection seats, but Lambert's ejection was the first such test in the United States.
Sgt. Lambert (right) following his successful ejection at Patterson Field, Dayton, Ohio.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF WESTERN AIRCRAFT EJECTION SEAT SYSTEMS
by Christopher T. Carey
Click on Picture to enlarge
The destructive power of a modern military aircraft is an awesome concept to reflect upon. When one considers the weaponry, performance and powerplant parameters of just about any contemporary military fighter aircraft in use today, it quickly becomes apparent that by comparison, the performance envelope of the body of the human being flying the machine is a considerable number of magnitudes lower than that of his aircraft. One only has to take note of the grim aircraft accident investigation findings regarding disposition of aircrew and/or passengers involved in a catastrophic air crash to be all too aware of just how fragile the human body is when subjected to G-force stresses beyond even a modest level.
The science of aviation technology has progressed far, far beyond the state of development which in December of 1903 saw what is generally recognized as the first (fully documented) successful powered, manned flight--the Wright Flyers brief but historic launch from the sands of Kitty, Hawk, North Carolina. However, even in that earliest phase of mans pursuit of powered flight thoughts relating to human safety in this new and potentially dangerous environment were not unknown. Obscure references exist from that period (1910) regarding attempts to provide aircrew with escape from crippled flying machines (although of necessity, quite primitive).
The introduction of the new technology of air warfare into the hoary traditions of warfare etiquette resulted in no small amount of reactionary resistance to the phenomenon of aerial battle, let alone the startling concept of providing a safe operating environment for pilots of the early wood and fabric craft. Aviation was at that time an inherently hazardous undertaking, just as it still is today, but to a far greater extent due to the newness of the technology and operating environment. To a certain degree, resistance to early aviation safety concerns centered upon the ancient traditions of military honor and protocol. One did not wish to suffer the dishonor of retreat from battle, according to honorable custom, and therefore many felt that attempts to provide a safe exit from a crippled aircraft were somehow demeaning to the assumed bravery of aircrewmen.
Parachutes, the first practical aircrew safety device, were at first subjected to disdain by the higher echelons of English aviation command in World War One, who felt that their introduction would encourage a lack of firm resolve to 'stay the course' in aerial combat. This was apparently not the case in the the Imperial German High Command, for the Germans soon recognized the value of the new device and started equipping their balloon crews with this escape device; according to reports, some German pilots also adopted the parachute shortly before the war ended.
Although the development of parachute technology developed marginally in the years immediately following the First World War, the same cannot be said for the concept of ejecting an aircrew-man from a disabled aircraft. Perhaps this was due to the relatively low performance of the aircraft in use by the end of the war. To some degree, it must have been due to the general feeling that the successful resolution of the First World War had put the need for continued defense development on sustained hold. In any event, most defense technology activities experienced a significant slump immediately after the war, and it was not until Germanys military resurgence of the 30s renewed international anxieties that defense concerns (including aircrew safety) again became reestablished.
In most cases, if a pilot found himself in trouble in the 20s, it was relatively easy to simply disengage the seat harness and jump over the side of the machine so that the parachute could be deployed for a safe descent. However, as the power and performance of aircraft continued to increase, it quickly became apparent that the risks involved in simply jumping over the side of an aircraft were significant. Especially so if the aircraft were in any manner aerodynamically disabled or damaged in a way that created unusual airframe gyrations or G forces for the aircrew who were trying to exit. Furthermore, as the designs of aircraft became more sophisticated, especially as found in aircraft designs with placement of the propeller driven engine in the rear of the aircraft (behind the crew compartment), the need for a device to successfully extract the aircrew safely beyond the tail assembly (and/or rear-positioned power plant) became more fully focused in the minds of a few astute and enterprising individuals.
German Developments Through World War Two
As is the case with many innovations in technology, it was the Germans who were among the first to explore this area of aviation safety in a serious and innovative manner. Owing to the development of Germanys covert military capability in the 1930s, much work was being done in aeronautical engineering research for military aviation applications. As Germany explored and researched a new generation of higher performance military aircraft as part of Hitlers overall build-up of war materiel, the individuals concerned with aviation medicine in the new Luftwaffe recognized a coexistent, renewed need for aircrew safety. This was especially true, since much aeronautical flight testing of new designs was being undertaken, with all the implicit hazards pertaining to that area of technological investigation.
Many ideas occurred to German aeronautical engineers in the process of attempting to address this need for safe egress from crippled aircraft. One of the first was the "boom" concept, in which a pivoted fulcrum, attached to the pilots harness and powered by a compressed spring, pulls the pilot free of the cockpit in an emergency. Another of the early ideas was very simple--a compressed spring situated under the pilots seat which when released would eject the occupant (assuming that the canopy had been freed and cleared first, not always an easy thing to do using a manual technique and especially in a seriously disabled aircraft).
Interestingly, both these early ideas were also conceived and evaluated by counterparts in England, at the end of the Second World War and without knowledge of the original pre-war German research. In fact, back in 1930 an enterprising RAF Flight Officer, concerned with the increased performance of a new aircraft his squadron was transitioning into, formulated a design for an "escape seat." Consisting of a pilots seat mounted on two telescoping tubes, each containing a highly compressed spring, the seat would be pushed with its occupant up into the slipstream of the aircraft when the seats catch was released. While the seat was not actually ejected from the aircraft, the idea was that in this position it would be easier for the pilot to roll out of his seat and free himself of the stricken plane. The idea was submitted to the English Air Ministry, along with blueprints and a working model, but no further development was ever undertaken, and thus English innovations in aircrew escape would languish until immediately after the Second World War, when the captured German research and development would stimulate new interest in Allied aircrew escape technology.
In Germany, developments in aeronautical technology were accelerating with the introduction of the jet engine, while by 1939, the Luftwaffes Aviation Medicine branch was actively experimenting with ejection systems, using physiological testing devices that included instruments for measuring the forces of gravity and acceleration on the human body. Their tests has determined rough physiological parameters of human ability to withstand G force onset of about +20G for a duration of about 0.1 second. The German preference was at this time for a compressed gas system of ejecting the aircrew seat, although explosive cartridge propelled seats were also under development. The need for adequate aircrew escape from dive-bombing aircraft such as the Ju-87 Stuka, with its sustained high positive G loading during pull-out, significantly motivated investigations into use of high-pressure systems to eject aircrew. The German manufacturer Heinkel maintained chief engineering responsibility for development of all aircraft escape systems, throughout the war, and by late 1942 all German experimental aircraft being flight tested were equipped with some form of Heinkel ejection seat.
With aircraft development feverishly continuing in wartime Germany, Heinkel developed ejection seats finally started being installed in production aircraft, as radical new designs came into use. Although the singular Messerschmidt 262, twin-engined production jet fighter-bomber (Schwalb) did not feature such a schleudersitzaparat (the German term for 'ejection seat', which translates roughly to "seat catapult device"), reports suggest that at least a few versions (Sturmvogel) had what has been described as a catapult-seat (although it is not clear whether the seat was driven by an explosive charge or by a spring mechanism). Other aircraft, such as the Heinkel He-162 Volksj�ger, were provided with a compressed air propelled ejection seat. Other aircraft to feature similar systems included the Dornier Do-335 Pfeil, the Arado Ar-234B Nachtigal, the Heinkel He-177, the Heinkel He-219 Uhu, the Dornier DFS-228, and the rocket-powered Messerschmidt Me-163 Komet (this last system was spring powered). Additionally, earlier research begun in the late 30s by Heinkel had resulted in the first recorded example of a completely ejectable crew compartment being developed. The rocket-powered Heinkel He-176 (the worlds first rocket propelled aircraft) featured a nose section which could be jettisoned in the event of an emergency. Development problems involving successful deployment of the main parachute designed to slow descent of the ejected crew compartment resulted in several innovative engineering designs, and subsequent testing demonstrated that in the event of the crew being disabled, the He-176s crew compartment would enable its occupant to survive a landing within the escape pod with only minor injuries.
The Heinkel explosively ejected seat consisted of a seat bucket assembly mounted on 4 rollers which moved in two parallel channels 42 inches long. The charge used in the two tube catapult consisted of 30 grams of powder, firing much like a conventional projectile cartridge, with the two part catapult tube fixed to the upper end of the seat and at the lower end to the aircraft frame. Ejection velocity achieved was 35 fps, with a stroke of 28 inches and an acceleration of about 12 Gs. Although an experimental compressed gas system achieved a ejection velocity of 57 fps and an acceleration of 27 Gs, the system was massively heavy and presented considerable field maintenance problems with over 1700 psig pressures required for successful operation.
On 13 January 1942, the first known emergency use of an ejection seat occurred during a test flight of the Heinkel He-280 jet fighter. The pilot, a man named Schenck, ejected from his iced-up aircraft after jettisoning his canopy, successfully achieving safe egress from the machine. Although Schencks was the first known use of an ejection seat for emergency egress, the Heinkel compressed air driven seat used by Schenck was purportedly tested in an experimental ejection from a test aircraft by a Heinkel employee named Busch, prior to Schencks 1942 ejection. (These facts was unknown outside of Germany until after the end of the Second World War, and for a while it was thought that the first successful emergency ejection was made by a Swedish pilot from his crippled SAAB J21-A1 aircraft--with "pusher" type propeller power-plant--on 29 July 1946).
By the end of the Second World War, more than 60 emergency ejections had been made by Luftwaffe personnel, and German Aviation Medicine branch research in aircrew egress technology had progressed substantially into areas of high-performance aircraft escape systems at proportionately high physiological limits of human endurance. Among the important facts that had became clear to German researchers, however, was that compressed gas driven systems were prohibitively heavy, requiring installation of heavy system components to contain the gas under high enough pressure to perform as required; they were furthermore quite difficult to maintain and keep operational under actual battlefield conditions. Ballistic (explosive) systems were lighter, but the requisite technology, while promising, was still in its infancy. These facts were not lost on American or British scientists going over the German research at war's end.
Sweden: Co-Pioneer In Evolving Egress Technology
While Americas interest in emergency aircrew egress languished for the most part until after the end of the war, Germany was not alone in recognizing the need for increased air crew safety during the 1940s. In Sweden, SAAB Aircraft was developing a pusher-type aircraft to be designated the SAAB J21, and with the attendant work came understandable concerns about how to effectively provide J21 aircrew with an effective emergency escape system. 1939 saw initiation of studies in ejection systems, and by 1941 primary design studies had been finished, with actual flight testing of the explosively deployed seat being carried out in 1942. Bryan Philpott, in his excellent book Eject! Eject!, remarks that Swedens egress program developed in the early 1940s, "...when war, so often the mother of invention, did not provide the spur to the Swedes that it did to the combatant nations..." In fact, Sweden was very much spurred on by the immense threat of being drawn into war against its will, and has long maintained a tradition, its political neutrality notwithstanding, of providing itself with innovative and advanced defense technology--a tradition it shares with Switzerland, and for similar reasons. Regardless of their motivations, with its excellent reputation for scientific and industrial excellence, Sweden enthusiastically went ahead with its initial research into aircrew egress systems. By the end of the war, Swedens technical and scientific database on emergency escape systems for aircraft was well advanced, although ostensibly entirely independent of any research undertaken by Germany in the same war-years period (this has not been verified, as Sweden, although technically neutral, had strong sympathies with Germany and maintained continuing diplomatic relations throughout the war--thus the possibility of exchange of technical or research information may not be entirely ruled out).
The Type 1/Type 21 seat ultimately evolved into their later Type 2 (Type 29) ejection seat. The Type 2 seat was intended for use in the SAAB J29 (known informally as the Flying Barrel), a post-war, swept-wing, barrel shaped aircraft of single engine design. Although substantially similar to the earlier Type 1 (or Type 21) seat, anticipating the highly touted modern McDonnell-Douglas ACES II seat concept as used three decades later in the F16 Viper, SAAB canted the seat back at a 30 degree angle to both reduce frontal area as well as improve pilot G-tolerance. At the onset of Swedish investigations into ejection seat design, a decision was made, as remarked earlier, to utilise an explosive cartridge type ejection gun. In the seat used on the SAAB J29, this took the form of 60 gm of explosive fired in a three-stage charge. A further preference of the SAAB designers was for a pilot worn back-type parachute configuration (not attached to the seat as on the Martin-Baker system), employing a seat-contained survival kit. Although seat ejection was originally to have been initiated through use of two strap-devices located at shoulder level, the design was changed to employ a face-curtain actuator similar to that used by the Martin-Baker system (English). A back-up, or secondary, seat actuating device was situated between the pilots knees, where it was conveniently at hand in the event unfavorable G forces made grasping the face blind actuator difficult (it is interesting to note that this innovation is now used almost uniformly by all current ejection seat systems). Further enhancements to the Type 29 seat were spring footrests intended to protect the pilots lower extremities and reduce flail injuries. On the whole, the philosophical approach of the SAAB seat was to eject the seat and occupant, thereafter immediately separating them. Successful man-seat separation was further provided for by the introduction of an apron device which was actuated by a separate power gun, actuated after the central harness unlocked after ejection. When man and seat had cleared each other, the idea was then for the pilot to either manually deploy his back-type parachute or rely on the automatic barometric chute deployment device.
Early American Efforts: The US Air Force and Navy Diverge
By the end of the war, captured German research came into the possession of the Allies. Although emergency egress concerns were not significant in the United States until later in the war, the US had made a few insubstantial efforts in this direction in the late 30s and 40s. Among them in 1937 was the establishment by a Dr. J.W. Heim of an impact facility in a hanger at Wright Field (later to become Wright-Patterson Air Force Base / Air Development Center) to investigate the forces of abrupt accelerations on human beings. A simple swing-device suspended on cables, the system could achieve parameters of about 16 Gs with a pulse of 0.15 seconds. There are further unsubstantiated reports of a late 1930s Army Air Corps experiment using a spring-driven, pivoted fulcrum arm to snatch the pilot out of a rear-engined aircraft under development to fling him to safety beyond the propeller arc. Beyond these examples, there is little to indicate a strong interest in emergency egress technology by American aviation medicine proponents until the later stages of the war, when German research and developments in this area came to light. With the acquisition of both German databases in egress research and actual examples of the German Heinkel explosive cartridge ejection seat by the US, immediately the war had ended, the US began to vigorously attempt to gain greater knowledge in this overlooked area of aviation technology.
The new American developmental research spurred on by acquisition of German wartime data branched off into two distinctly different approaches towards the same end, one taken by the US Air Force and one by the US Navy. With the political rivalry between these two services to attain ascendant aviation technology acting as a further goad, two schools of thought on military egress systems formed. The US Air Force researchers greatly favored many of the German findings, among which was the belief that the best manner of obtaining a favorable pilot posture that would minimize spinal injuries was having firing actuation controls built into armrests on the seat. The US Navy, on the other hand, tended to credit the British approach toward establishing correct spinal alignment to best absorb the punishing catapult forces; this school of thought advocated the use of a face-blind pull-handle firing actuator, the theory being that the act of reaching up to pull a blind down over the face automatically positioned the pilot for the most favorable spinal alignment. Neither of the two techniques were ultimately found to be completely perfect, but this resulted in initial US Air Force reliance upon arm-rest triggers and early US Navy adoption of the English Martin-Baker face-blind actuator system. This variance in developmental approach would remain a primary distinction between early US Air Force and US Navy ejection seat designs well into the 70s.
As regards the catapult itself, suffice it to say that, as in nearly every instance in which captured German research and technological innovations had been acquired, the cartridge-actuated Heinkel seat figured prominently in early US investigations into emergency egress systems; clearly, compressed gas systems (although functionally adequate) required far too great a compromise in terms of added airframe weight and loading. Along with actual examples of the German seats, associated equipment and physiological testing instrumentation (including a vertical seat-firing tower) were obtained and studied at Wright Field at war's end. With the first American jet fighter already in the air (Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star), some sort of ejection system was needed that would extract crew from these fast new machines under emergency conditions. Although the term 'bail-out' remained in use after the first ejection systems were installed in American fighters, the ballistically fired ejection seat provided far more positive results than a simple 'bail' over the side of the aircraft!
American concern with rapid development of ejection systems for US aircraft resulted in a formal policy of sharing the extant database on ejection systems technology among many different (US) aircraft manufacturers, once knowledge of the captured German developments in the field had been made available for analysis. The opinion has been offered and formally stated in Bryan Philpotts excellent book on the subject that this initially had the effect of creating more problems than it solved for the US Air Force. Whereas in Sweden, Germany and England, responsibility for ejection seat development had been given over to a single industrial concern, the proliferation of US corporate approaches to the problem ironically acted against the easy solution of common design obstacles. At least 6 or 7 aircraft manufacturers in the US designed and developed their own ejection seat systems, installing them in their own aircraft; thus design uniformity was largely absent, and attendant system and logistical complexities resulted which would later present technical and materiel problems for field maintenance. The obvious advantage obtained would be a proliferation of widely different researches that would provide a broader database upon which to draw in future egress R&D work.
As early as 1946, the US Navy had determined that England's Martin-Baker Company had satisfactorily pioneered the basic functional principles of pilot egress technology well enough that duplicate or redundant studies by Navy researchers would be both expensive and needless. Thus, the US Navy arranged with Martin-Baker to provide a seat somewhat tailored to US Navy requirements as well as technical support from that company to develop it. Photographs of this first M-B provided US Navy seat show it to be quite similar to that company's 'pre-Mk.I' seat. Along with the actual seat, a 105 foot tall test firing tower was also acquired and a converted Martin B-26 Invader (US Navy JD-1) was specially fitted for planned aerial test firings.
With at least 4 different companies working on US Navy jet aircraft designs in 1946, it was decided to issue an ejection seat specification and allow the individual Navy contractors to develop their own systems, as long as each stayed within specific general parameters. These parameters were based largely on the Martin-Baker seat and the standard features that characterized the English egress philosophy founded by Martin-Baker (face-curtain actuator, drogue gun, etc.) and mandated use of standard US Navy parachutes, survival kits, life-rafts, and other equipment. It is worth noting here that both the first US Navy and US Air Force seats were designed to use seat-type personal parachutes (this is evident in the use of characteristic rounded seat pans in all early US Navy seats), which followed the German example (Heinkel).
Initial US Air Force research showed that the Heinkel ballistic system was not powerful enough to use on anticipated Air Force jet aircraft, as the catapult velocity was insufficient for safe ejection at the new Lockheed P-80's maximum operating speed. However, a fairly simple redesign of the basic Heinkel seat by Wright Field resulted in a prototype US seat, which was tested by a live volunteer from a specially modified P-61B Black Widow on 17 August of 1946. A visual side-by-side comparison of the Heinkel seat and the American seat reveals distinct and clearly identifiable design concept sharing. Progress was made quickly in developing the concept, however, and the straight-winged Republic F-84 Thunderjet became the first production American jet fighter to be equipped with an ejection seat. As mentioned earlier, the USAF approach to ejection seat design called for armrest-actuating triggers (following the German example) which were first raised and then squeezed. Although a conventional seat-type chute was at first used in the original American seat (used in the P-80), a back-type parachute was later incorporated; these were not, of course, attached to the seat (similar to the Swedish approach, but contrary to the English design), but were worn by the pilot. Further, all early American seats were not automatic in that man-seat separation had to be achieved manually, and the pilot freed himself from the ejected seat first, then manually deployed his personal back-type chute after physically pushing himself away from the ejected seat. Only later did refinements come to be incorporated into the system, which included leg restraint provisions, correct separation sequencing, fully automatic seat-separations--all or most of these having been addressed or at least recognized as desirable early on by Englands Martin-Baker Company and quite soon thereafter by the US investigators.
Regardless of the rapid pace of American development in design and production of ejection seats for military aircraft, after the war, there was some small amount of resistance to the use of ejection seats on the part of American aircrew, who were somewhat reluctant to fly aircraft equipped with them. More than a few pilots likened the prospect of being seated directly upon a seat's live explosive charge akin to sitting on a powder keg with a short fuse. Purportedly, these anxieties were largely put to rest in 1949 by a series of demonstration ejections carried out by Air Force Captain Mazza from the aft cockpit of a specially modified TF-80C Shooting Star (later standardized as the T-33 jet trainer). The first US Navy emergency use of the new seat occurred later in the same year when the pilot of a McDonnell F2H-1 Banshee was forced to eject at 597 mph over South Carolina. After these events took place, acceptance of the new device was more readily forthcoming among US air crews. In August of 1949 the pilot of an Air Force F-86 Sabre also made a successful emergency escape using the new type seat (North American model T-4E-1 catapult seat), again demonstrating functional performance under adverse conditions.
Again, partly due to the broad approach taken towards development of ejection seat systems among US manufacturers, a number of unusual designs were produced. One in particular, developed for use on the pusher-engined XP-54 Swoose Goose featured a downward-accessed pilot seat, which would lower the aircrewman below the belly of the aircraft so as to clear the arc of the prop. While not strictly an ejection seat, the XP-54 design anticipated several future developments of a downward firing type seat on the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, and the Lockheed F104A Starfighter, as well as the downward firing cockpit system for the experimental XF108 supersonic interceptor (development discontinued after mockups were completed), and the Douglas X-3 Stiletto twin jet research aircraft. At the time, the official emphasis on development of a successful US system was on functional adequacy at high altitude and sustained high speed, as this was the envisioned performance area within which safe aircrew egress would be most critical; the obvious need for safe ejection at lower, slower speeds took a markedly subordinate priority in this overall Air Force conceptual view. Given the notable rate of engine failures and marginal reliability that characterized the early turbojet engines, this misplaced priority would subsequently have substantial consequences as well demonstrated in US Air Force aircrew survival statistics of the period.
Principal among the influences governing the US Air Force decision to continue developing downward ejecting systems was the fact that early catapult inertial acceleration velocities were not completely adequate to ensure clearance of jet aircraft vertical stabilizer assemblies. This, in combination with emergent awareness of the future importance of high altitude interception mission requirements, resulted in a failure to adequately address safety concerns related to 'low & slow' modes of flight performance. Unfortunately, the 'downward egress' concept was somewhat less than favorable for a number of reasons, not the least of them being its unsuitability for the critical low-altitude or zero/zero mode ejection. This fact was later sadly and graphically demonstrated when emergency use of a downward firing Stanley model C-1 seat on a test flight of the Lockheed F104A Starfighter resulted in the death of Captain Ivan Kincheloe in 1958.
As technical advances continued in seat design, it was quite clear that the problem of providing adequate clearance of fast moving aircraft tail structures presented collateral concerns in terms of increased rates of spinal compression injuries related to catapult inertial acceleration forces. Problems associated with having the catapult thrust force located behind the seat center of gravity included high multidirectional G loading due to aerodynamic tumbling forces, wind-flail injuries, wind-blast effects, man-seat separation problems, and parachute entanglements due to aerodynamic instability of the seats after ejection. The problems attending higher inertial acceleration rates to clear the aircraft were obviously not going to be easily solved with continued use of simple explosive pyrotechnic devices. Despite the statistical evidence of only marginal success in achieving safe ejections in the outermost corners of the flight performance envelope, explosively fired catapults of necessity remained in service until roughly 1958, at which time the first rocket catapults were introduced to American ejection seat design (the Convair F102 Delta Dart was the first aircraft fitted with a rocket catapult fired seat, designed by Weber Aircraft Company). [Of interest is the fact that the proof of concept design for the F102--the Convair XF-92A research aircraft--was fitted with an early explosively fired catapult ejection seat originally designed for the Convair XP-81. When the two examples of this combined prop and jet propelled prototype were retired from testing in 1947, this seat was fitted to the XF-92A. Perhaps fortunately, it was never put to 'test' use throughout the duration of that aircraft's flight test program.] Other innovations that were prompted by high rates of spinal injury associated with G-onset forces imposed upon the spine during ejection included the use of variable-density compressible foam in seat cushions, to help reduce or offset accelerative effects on the spinal column. (This same principle is employed today in crash helmet design, for the same end.)
Dr. Robert E. van Patten, former Chief of the Acceleration Effects Branch, Biodynamics and Bioengineering Division of Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (Dayton, Ohio), cites the rapid progress made by the United States in adopting emergency egress systems for its Air Force after the slow initial start at wars end with reference to the fact that in 1955 the first successful supersonic ejection was made by a pilot from his stricken North American F100A Super Sabre after the aircraft went into an uncontrollable dive. The ejection occurred at Mach 1.05 during a test flight, and while he was injured in the process, pilot George Smith survived the accident and fully recovered. This incident took place less than a decade after the first real investigations into egress systems had begun in America at wars end. Although the technology was improving rapidly, most US ejection systems were engineered to perform best under 'ideal' emergency situations. However, success in achieving a substantial safety record (and vindication of the new rocket powered catapult systems) is demonstrated by the fact that during the Vietnam conflict (1963 through 1975), more than 25% of the US Navys RA-5 (A3J) Vigilante combat ejections took place at speeds greater than Mach 1.0 (the system in use in that aircraft was the North American Aviation produced HS-1 rocket powered seat, with zero/zero to 700 knot IAS capability).
Certainly the Korean War provided much valuable information to the US Air Force and American aerospace manufacturers regarding egress design assessment. Philpott in his book cites the fact that in almost 2000 combat ejections experienced by the US Air Forces during the Korean conflict, 60% of the aircrew ejecting experienced no problems during egress. The other 31% experienced difficulties ranging from seat actuation, canopy release, maintenance failures, incorrect ejection posture, slipstream, through-canopy-ejection, premature seat actuation, and so forth. Similar difficulties, as well as ones unique to carrier operations, were reported by US Navy pilots. Although most of the problems were addressed, Philpott suggests that again the vast number of dissimilar ejection seat designs in use in various aircraft compounded quick resolution. A look at the official US Air Force statistics themselves shows a slightly different picture, with an overall (USAF) aircrew survival rate of 77% during the first 5 years of ejection seat operational experience (1949-1953) . In a recorded 4626 emergency ejections incurred under non-combat conditions, from 1949 through 1980, fatal injuries occurred in 838 (or 18%) of those ejections. With the refinements of automatic release restraint systems, automatic man-seat separators, variably-staged parachute deployment systems, and aerodynamic deployment stabilization devices such as the DART system, survival rates went up in the 1954-1958 period to 81%. Throughout the period of the mid 50s through mid 60s, most USAF aircraft egress systems received continual updating as operational experience provided new engineering understanding of optimal design features. The overall survival rate thereafter remained roughly at a plateau of about 80% until the 1975-1980 period, in which these values fell somewhat for USAF crews (introduction of the ACES II system, with enhanced ejection safety features).
England's Martin-Baker: Dedicated Commitment
With revelation of the early and substantial foundations in emergency aircraft egress technology developed by Germany and Sweden at the wars end, awareness was acute in England that the logarithmic increase in aeronautical performance parameters required a corresponding capability in aircrew protection and escape. The English Air Ministry sought assistance from Sir James Martin, founder of the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company. Baker was a brilliant self-made engineer and designer who had originally set up his company (in 1929) to manufacture machines and specialized vehicles. Development of his firm into the aircraft business in co-partnership with Capt. Valentine Baker (ex-RAF) had met with marginal success, although it was generally agreed that his abilities were quite substantial and his designs for three successive prototype aircraft had been innovative and progressive. In 1942, the third aircraft (designated the MB3) was lost on a test flight which also killed Capt. Baker. Profoundly affected by the loss of his flight testing partner, it is said that James Martin developed a keen interest in aircraft safety and aircrew survival from this experience.
During the war the company manufactured a variety of products ranging from ammunition feeder belt mechanisms to wing-mounted cable cutters and canopy quick-jettison equipment. During the Battle of Britain Martins canopy emergency release device quickly gained him recognition, and in 1944 the RAF Air Staff approached the Martin-Baker Company to develop a system whereby the pilot of a disabled aircraft could be safely ejected for a normal parachute recovery. An incident involving a pilot having been killed by colliding with the tail assembly of his aircraft (a jet powered Meteor prototype) on bailing out was the instigating cause.
The problem, considered from its medical and physiological standpoints, is a thorny one, and although the German studies of the 30s and 40s had produced a baseline database on the practical limits of human G tolerance, the critical principles of "jolt" and pulse pressure--in other words the rate at which accelerative force is applied--were not fully or completely fathomed. It was not until 1944 in studies carried out in Germany by one Dr. Weisehofer that this last factor became more adequately understood. In England, the concept was grasped more quickly and efforts began to determine how to devise a system which would achieve the required pilot extraction without exceeding the ability of the human body to withstand severe rates of accelerative force. One very early idea was the previously mentioned pivoted fulcrum principle, in which a beam attached to the pilots harness is actuated by a strongly compressed spring mechanism to pull him free of the cockpit and toss him away from the aircrafts tail assembly. The idea had a certain appeal in that it could conceivably be retrofitted to existing aircraft fuselages with a minimum of difficulty.
For various reasons, this idea was discarded and exploration into an ejectable seat system began in earnest. To develop a keen understanding of the limits of G force sustainable without injury by the human spine (which was the critical structure susceptible to damage) in vertical acceleration, it was necessary to develop a vertically inclined tower, up which a test seat could be shot at various rates of G. Both Sweden and Germany had constructed similar test equipment in their ejection seat programs. In the course of tests, it soon became apparent that it was not the peak gravity (or G) sustained which was the limiting factor in human tolerance, but the rate at which the acceleration occurred. Furthermore, onset of G ought not to exceed 300 G/sec, and proper body alignment during the application of force was critical to avoid spinal injury.
These insights led the English to the development of a two-cartridge gun, which met the physiological limitations while still providing peak G needed, and to various refinements in a seat which would assure proper posture (these included a face-blind actuation device and foot rests, both of which helped the ejectee to assume the desired anatomical alignment for a safe ejection). Still another consideration was revealed, after further study of the physiological function of the human spine while subjected to vertical compression forces. This was what is termed "acceleration overshoot," and is the amount of acceleration experienced by the seated person in excess to that of the seat, due to the construction of the bodys structure. It was found that spongy tissues of the bodys nether side tended to increase acceleration overshoot forces, just as did excessively soft seat cushions.
The earliest prototype Martin-Baker seats were configured with the parachute pack in the seat pan and the water-survival pack & inflatable raft fitted behind the back. This was also the configuration for the earliest production model, the Martin Baker Mk.I seat. This design allowed for increased possibility of acceleration overshoot injuries, as was discovered, and in subsequent Marks, the parachute was moved to a position behind the back, with the water-survival kit stowed in the seat-pan. In subsequent Mark developments, the parachute pack remained in the back stowed position, although with the present generation M-B seats (Mark IX and later), the chute has been moved to the seats head-support area.
In September of 1945, development of the prototype Martin-Baker ejection seat had proceeded far enough that a contract was placed for two experimental units which would be flight tested in a high-speed aircraft. The latter turned out to be a Meteor F3, and after a number of dummy ejections and corresponding modifications of such components as the drogue chute and its deployment device (a gun was incorporated in place of a spring deployment mechanism), the first English live ejection test was made by test subject Bernard Lynch on 24 July 1946.
It is interesting to note that only 5 days after Bernard Lynch conducted the first successful live test of the Martin-Baker prototype ejection seat in England, a Swedish pilot used the SAAB Type 1 (Type 21) ejection seat in his SAAB J21-A1 pusher-engine aircraft in an actual emergency. Furthermore, over 60 German Luftwaffe aircrew had previously used their Heinkel ejection seats for successful emergency wartime (WWII) ejections. Also at this time, the United States Army Air Force was still weighing the merits of ejection seat systems, investigating German wartime developments, and had not even a prototype of its own designed for possible American military aircraft use.
Egress Matures: Ejection Systems Develop Further
In June of 1947 the decision was made in England to fit the new Martin-Baker ejection seat (Mark I) to all British tactical military aircraft. A number of versions of the original Mk.I seat were produced for a variety of jet fighters and bombers. Various small changes in the Mark I application for each aircraft type reflected the unique requirements or constraints of that particular plane. The Meteor fighter was initially fitted with the M-B Mk.I, and later with the Mk.IE seat. The Attacker was fitted with the Mk.IA (it was later upgraded to the M-B Mk.IIA model). The Wyvern was fitted with the Mk.IB model (later upgraded to Mk.IIB). The Canberra bomber received the M-B Mk.IC seat, and the Seahawk aircraft was fitted with the M-B Mk.ID seat (later upgraded to M-B Mk.IID seat). The M-B Mk.IF seat went to the new Venom fighter (later upgraded to the M-B Mk.IIF seat).
Prior to full-scale production of the Martin-Baker Mk.I series, the Saunders-Roe Aviation Company placed an order for an ejection seat for use on its Saro A-1 jet flying boat/fighter. This seat lacked some of the more sophisticated features and detailing of the standard Mk.I production model, and was officially designated the Pre-Mark.I Seat. Altogether the Mk.I production seat weighed some 172 pounds (143 pounds of which was ejectable). A list of its innovations includes: 1) a two cartridge ejection gun; 2) gas-pressure release mechanism unlocking the ejection piston from the firing cylinder immediately upon firing of the first cartridge; 3) an adjustable seat pan; 4) spring-loaded footrests to facilitate foot placement for ejection; 5) a face-curtain seat actuation system, which assured proper ejection posture and which protected the pilots face from blast injury; 6) an explosive drogue gun method of deploying the seats stabilising drogue chute; 7) retractable seat-pan raising handle; 8) the Martin-Baker back-type water survival/dingy pack, and seat-cushion type personal parachute; 9) integral thigh restraining seat-pan extrusions. By 1950, the Mark I series seat was standard on all first line RAF and RN fighters.
It ought to be noted that there was considerable difference in the physical appearance of the various Mk.I models, and that not all of the dash variations featured a seat type chute. For example, the M-B Mk.IA variant (for Attacker aircraft) used a Mk.3A back-type parachute rather than a seat chute, and used a seat sea survival kit/inflatable raft--very much as later seats would. The Mk.IB, ID, IE, and IF seats all featured Type 3A M-B back-style parachute configurations. Only the Pre-Mk.I, Mk.I, and Mk.IC featured seat-mounted chute assemblies. In some cases, the seat style chute was used due to the constraints of the aircrafts cockpit, despite established awareness that acceleration overshoot problems were more of a concern with the seat-style chute design. All subsequent Mk.II series seats featured the back-style chute design.
As experienced in the US, there were initially some reservations about use of the new ejection systems on the part of both aircrew and aircraft manufacturers, who felt that the structural modifications required to fit the seats were costly and technically complex. Again, time and effort was needed to address the reluctance of aircrew to feel comfortable with the new safety devices, but it was not long before several actual in-flight emergency ejections proved the value of the Mk.I type system and these examples of its safe operational value put further hesitance to rest.
Within the first few years the results of about 70 successful ejections (50 of them successful) provided valuable information on much needed modifications to the original Martin-Baker design. The Mk.I system was, after all, a manual seat which did nothing more than successfully get the aircrewman out of his disabled aircraft safely. It was clear that further progress was needed in development, specifically in automating the man-seat separation process and in deploying the personal parachute. In instances where disorientation, confusion and/or disablement were factors in emergency ejections (as they frequently are, especially in aerial combat situations), automated systems would make the difference between saving a pilot or not.
The Mk.II seat addressed these problems. Among the modifications featured on the Mk.II series seats were 1) modification to the drogue shackle, and addition of a Time Release Unit (TRU) for deploying the drogue; 2) a mechanism for releasing the seat harness; 3) addition of an "apron" which would link the drogue chute to the pilots personal parachute and withdraw it after man-seat separation occurred; 4) a barostatic unit, which was fitted to the TRU so as to prevent deployment above 10,000 feet (oxygen deficit and hypothermia hazards); and 5) further modification of the drogue gun. By 1953 a retroactive modification program was carried out on all RAF and RN aircraft fitted with the original Mk.I series seats to bring them up to Mk.II standards. The effectiveness of the new design resulted in a reduction of ejection fatalities from the earlier, higher figure applicable to the Mk.I seats to about 10% of the Mk.II series ejections in 1954 14
Attention soon focused, however, on the parameters of emergency egress wherein the Mk.II series seats still fell short. Two of these were in high-speed and low altitude situations. Changes in the ejection gun ensued which increased ejection trajectory without significantly increasing peak acceleration. Additionally, the adoption of a two-stage drogue chute design resulted in faster, quicker and safer deployment of the pilots personal parachute at higher speeds. Finally, in order to prevent lower extremity flail injury, which frequently were a consequence of high-speed ejections, a system was devised using nylon strap restraints to secure the legs to the seat on actuation where they were secured until the man-seat separation occurred. These modifications resulted in a system which allowed successful ejection from altitudes of 50 feet altitude and 130 knots IAS. The new system was designated the Mk.III series seat.
Further modifications were carried out on the Mk.III series seat over the next few years to achieve a further refinement in the parachute deployment process (primarily a reduction in the drogue/main chute deployment sequence timing), which resulted in successful ejections from zero altitude and 90 knots IAS. The seat was also tested in ejections above 40,000 feet which proved that the seat was usable in both extreme polar limits of the possible performance parameters.
In the same time period (1954 through 1955), a system was devised whereby automatic explosive canopy jettison was incorporated as part of the seat actuation protocol, so that no time was wasted in clearing the canopy before egress was initiated. Owing to possible complications, however, the Martin-Baker seats were capable of ejecting through the canopy of aircraft if necessary, and in some RAF aircraft the egress drill was standardized to blast through the canopy routinely (an example in point was the Canberra B Mk.II aircraft).
By the time the mid-1950s had arrived, the continuing evolution of the standard British Martin-Baker emergency egress system had enabled the Martin-Baker seats to prove their sound and carefully considered design handsomely, and this fact was not overlooked by many of the other nations around the world who were growing increasingly interested in providing adequate emergency escape for their air force personnel flying high-performance machines.
Further Refinements And Improvements Outside The UK
Although Germanys involvement in aircraft egress systems had come to an end with the conclusion of the Second World War, the other early pioneering nation in ejection seat design--Sweden--continued to evolve their indigenous egress system engineering.
With development of the SAAB J32 Lanson interceptor/strike aircraft, a two-seat machine which flew for the first time in 1952, a new requirement arose for an ejectable seat system. This resulted in the 101 pound SAAB Type 3 (Type 32) ejection seat, powered by a two-stage explosive cartridge gun, and featuring the standard pilot-worn back-style personal parachute and seat-stowed survival kit as the in the previous seat (Type 29). Whereas the Type 29 seat had weighed about 66 pounds and was capable of being used at an altitude of 300 feet in level flight, minimum altitude for safe ejection using the SAAB Type 32 seat was reported to be about 150 feet in level flight. The Type 32 seat also featured separate guide rails (as in the Martin-Baker seat design) and a specially shaped parachute canopy; the seat survival kit incorporated a hard-shell container for the first time, instead of a soft-pack, thereby helping reduce acceleration overshoot potential. An inertia reel restraint system was also added, as was a modification from guide rail rollers to slide bars, an innovation that enhanced smoothness of operation. Seat actuation was again initiated by either use of the a face blind or a secondary "grab-loop" situated on the seat between the occupants knees.
In 1949 SAAB began studies which would result in the development of an entirely new design for a supersonic, delta-winged interceptor aircraft, capable of speeds in the vicinity of Mach 1.5 to Mach 2, to be designated the SAAB J35 Draken. In view of the rather small cross section selected for the new design so as to insure sufficiently favorable drag characteristics favorable for supersonic flight, the cockpits dimensions would have to be carefully considered in development of a suitable ejection seat system. [Interestingly, while the Swedish aeronautical engineers quickly focused on this critical concern--supersonic drag coefficients as related to cross section--their Convair colleagues in the United States who were developing the new delta-winged American interceptors (XF102) initially did not, and it was only after incorporation of Whitcombs "Area Rule" formula that the American delta design achieved a modicum of its anticipated performance capabilities. ]
In order to comply with the requirement for a low profile cross-section, it was decided that an entirely new seat would have to be developed. This new seat was again explosive cartridge driven and was installed on the first of the new SAAB J35 Draken delta-winged aircraft, which flew initially in October of 1955. The Type 35 seat featured a back-style parachute, again not integrated to the seat but worn by the pilot, and a seat-pan survival kit of rigid design. The seat was actuated either by the conventional head-blind device or a secondary actuator located on the lower seat, and had a dampening feature built in to help absorb crash-landing forces as well as an adjustable seat pan. Harness and deployment mechanisms were virtually the same as those used on the preceding Type 32 seat, and installation of the seat was made on a slight rearward cant (similar to the 30 degree rearward angle found on the SAAB J29 aircraft).
Sometime later, the SAAB J35 Draken F model was fitted with the new SAAB 35 Draken Rocket Seat Escape System. This new generation egress design replaced the conventional explosive catapult gun with a 5-nozzle cylindrical rocket motor fitted under the seat pan, as in the later Martin-Baker rocket seats. Firing of the 4.4 pound rocket charge was accomplished by generation of pressure in the catapult gun, and total burn time was about 0.2 seconds. While the original (non-rocket) Draken seat weighed about 176 pounds, the new rocket powered version totaled about 222 pounds (this included all components, chutes, kits, etc.), and substantial revisions of the rocket-equipped J35 seat included doing away with the face-blind actuation device in favor of a lower, pan-mounted ejection handle, and installation of automatic leg restraining straps. Additionally, the new rocket powered seat required installation of a new type of drogue for stabilisation control.
Fully automatic in egress sequencing from initial actuation, the rocket system allowed true zero/zero ejection capability for Draken fighter aircrewmen, and the new rocket seat was retrofitted to all earlier J35 Draken models. In 1967 the next generation SAAB J37 Viggen interceptor first flew, and a slightly improved version of the SAAB rocket seat was fitted to it. Understandably, use of the SAAB rocket seat in operational employment has provided much valuable data on the system, which has been constantly improved and evolved by SAAB.
Although the SAAB seat system was not selected for installation on the latest Swedish aircraft design, the JAS39 Gripen (The Martin-Baker Mk.XL system was chosen), there is no question concerning the excellence of Swedens past and present contributions to aircrew egress systems development, from its earliest products through the latest (and last). So well engineered and maintained are the now more than 40 year old Drakens, and their internal systems (including the egress system), that in Finland, one nation which uses the Draken, the Finnish Satakunta Air Wings Drakens have never had to use the SAAB egress system in an emergency. Unfortunately, the pioneering research accomplished by SAAB in the field of egress systems from the late 1930s onwards is many times not fully acknowledged or recognized as todays advances in system technology continue to overshadow previous standards of excellence. For those specialists in this critical area of aviation design, however, the facts peak loudly and eloquently for the engineering capabilities of the SAAB-Scania Aircraft Company, as they shall continue to in the years ahead.
Development Continues: In The United States
Work in the field of military aircraft emergency egress systems in the United States had begun in earnest, as previously referenced, with the revelation of captured German egress documentation painstakingly gathered by the Heinkel Company and the Luftwaffes Aviation Medicine branch since before the war. However, a complication in the process which was largely absent in the United Kingdom was the intensely political rivalry which existed between the US Air Force and the US Naval Aviation. Ever since the growing importance of US air power in the war had propelled the US Army Air Force further along on its avowed quest to become a fully separate and equal military service within the War Department, there had been corresponding exacerbation of the existing contest between the Army Air Force and the Navy to gain the upper hand in military aeronautical ascendancy. This intense inter-service struggle to surpass the efforts of the other was strongly in evidence in almost every aspect of operational development as well as in research and experimental areas of investigation. In brief, each service argued that it ought to be given the overall supreme authority to develop the nations potentially awesome aeronautical strength.
Nowhere was this rivalry more in evidence than in the field of aeronautical research and development, and both services maintained distinctly separate research and development commands (in 1947 the US Navys worst fears were realized when the US Armys Air Force was granted separate and autonomous peerage within the Defense Department as the US Air Force). The political battles which were continually being waged in the US Congress for funding of military projects were clearly polarized between Air Force and Naval Air Arm proponents in just about every category. This included ancillary but no less important areas such as air crew life support and egress. Fueled to a significant degree by this antagonistic atmosphere, it is not much of a mystery that egress research and development schools in both services inherently tended to diverge even more sharply from each other. Of further, and undoubtedly greater importance were the diverging performance criteria maintained by each service regarding ejection seat operational parameters. The US Navy insisted that naval aircraft needed a fully developed low-level ejection performance, reflecting safety concerns for the intrinsically hazardous nature of carrier operations. The US Air Force, by contrast, felt that safe ejection capability below 500 feet was unrealistic (not survivable, statistically speaking) and therefore unimportant as a procurement objective. Adding further impetus to this Air Force view was its awareness of the coming importance of the high-altitude interception role, which would increase with escalation of a Cold War hostile penetration treat posed by high and fast flying Soviet intercontinental bombers.
Immediately after the war had ended, the US Navy had shown a great interest in the work being carried out by the Martin-Baker Company on aircraft ejection systems. The US Army Air Force, in contrast, maintained the opinion that the development of ejection seat systems ought properly to be undertaken by American aviation companies in cooperation with the US Army Air Forces Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) at Wright Field (soon to become the Wright-Patterson AFB Air Development Center). The consequence of this veering away from each others inflexible contention was that US Air Force airplanes ultimately were developed with a range of different and proprietary US designed ejection systems, while the US Navys aircraft for the most part, initially used systems at least heavily influenced by the English designs and ultimately incorporating specially modified and uniformly adopted Martin-Baker systems after experience with US systems proved not fully suited to low-level ejection requirements (i.e. carrier operations) .
As previously mentioned, In October of 1945, US Naval officers J.J. Ide and R.B. Barnes had visited the Martin-Baker works at Denham to investigate the M-B test program and witness ejection seat trials. Subsequent to the visit, and after completing an assessment of suitable types of research equipment intended for ejection seat testing, the US Navy ordered a 105 foot seat testing tower to be installed at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia and for an actual example of the Martin-Baker Mk.I seat for purposes of testing it in a naval aircraft. Less than a year after the installation an initial test shot was undertaken, followed shortly thereafter by the first live seat test (August 1946). From that time forward, over the ensuing few years, a great deal of intensive physiological investigation was accomplished by the US Navy on ejection seat operational parameters and this was further advanced by numerous studies undertaken on Martin-Baker ejection seats installed in a modified Grumman F9F Cougar in 1957. Despite reluctance of the Grumman Company to participate in the tests, the results were quite satisfactory and the US Navy/Martin-Baker bond was further strengthened. The Navy approached the Martin-Baker Company in this matter of fitting a special Martin-Baker seat to replace the Grumman seat in the Cougar with a mind to adopting the English seat for all its carrier-based aircraft. The tests were quite successful and this resulted in the development of the Martin-Baker Mk.V seat specifically for US Navy use, which was widely used in variant applications in the F9F-6, the F-4, the A-6, and several other Navy aircraft. The Mk.V was produced alongside the Mk.IV, but differed in that it (the Mk.V) had been specially strengthened to decellerative G limits well beyond that engineered into the Mk.IV seat (40 Gs vs. 25 Gs). The Navy Mk. IV seat also incorporated a crotch loop pull handle actuator for the first time, as it had been found that in certain instances involving sustained high-G force, a pilot sometimes could not reach his arms above his head to grab the face-blind actuator to eject. The crotch level pull-loop provided ejection actuation capability for both possible scenarios.
Meanwhile, the US Air Forces Wright Air Development Center was developing a concern, in the mid-1950s, over how to best configure a suitable high-performance ejection system for the latest supersonic members of its new "Century Series" aircraft. American developed ejection seats had been produced by the North American, Douglas, Republic, Lockheed, Grumman, Weber, Stanley, and Stencil companies, and US Air Force aircraft had come into production in the early 50s with these seats. Most were actuated by arm-rest type triggers and were intended to work with the standard US Air Force back-type personal parachute, but none provided even a vestige of zero/zero capability and few indeed assured a safe ejection below the 500 foot altitude selected by the Air Force originally as the minimum safe low-level performance parameter. Of the many designs in use on Air Force aircraft, the Douglas ESCAPAC seat purportedly had the best reputation and would later almost match Martin-Baker performance standards, statistically speaking (the Douglas ESCAPAC 1A system was originally developed for use in the US Navy's A4 Skyhawk; it proved so effective that the Escapac 1A system served as the developmental basis for a whole collection of successive evolutions of this basic design that ultimately culminated in today's McD/D ACES II system).
One of the reasons the Air Force apparently initially abandoned study of low-level ejection systems was the opinion that extant seat catapult forces generated by systems in use on its planes could not generate the high forces needed to lift the aircrew high enough above the ground to allow full parachute deployment in low level egress situations.. The Air Force maintained that a limit of 22 Gs of vertical acceleration were the human physiological ceiling for safe ejection. Curiously, this figure seems to coincide with the final criteria developed by Germany in its early (WWII) studies of allowable vertical ejection acceleration forces, but it contrasted strongly to the vertical G limits of the Martin-Baker seats being tested at that time (about 32 Gs). Further, with Mach 2+ aircraft such as the Convair F106 Delta Dart under development, another concern expressed itself in how to engineer a high-performance seat that would allow routinely safe supersonic ejection. The development of a whole new generation of post-war, high performance jet aircraft (soon to be known as 'The Century Series'), would spur interest in the swift development of a functionally adequate USAF ejection seat with capability for safe ejection well in excess of the speed of sound.
These problems were soon to be investigated at Edwards Flight Test Center in California, Holloman AFB in New Mexico, and on Hurricane Mesa in Utah, using high speed rocket-powered sleds in a series of ongoing investigations which were ultimately intended to produce what the Air Force termed perhaps too simply the "Supersonic Seat".
It was recognized that one likely way of providing the necessary power to successfully meet the demanding parameters of human physiological limits, while simultaneously satisfying the ejection systems physics requirements, was through the use of staged rocket motors incorporated into the seats. In October of 1957 a requirement was specified by the US Air Force for a satisfactory supersonic-rated ejection seat system which would provide high-speed egress as well as adequate and reasonably safe low-level ejection (although this was still suborned to the high speed/high altitude capability requirement). This was termed the USAF / ICESC (Industry Crew Escape System Committee) program, and a committee of major US aviation firms was jointly established with the Air Force Systems Command to develop the system. Two proposals for a system meeting all requirements were considered, an "A" proposal and a "B" proposal. The Convair Company (formerly Consolidated Vultee) was finally given the go-ahead under the aegis of the ICESC to undertake primary project development of its "B Seat" design proposal, with the Stanley Aviation Company as a partner. The ICESC studies involved over 6 years of intensive testing (1 January 1956 through 30 June 1961) of the Convair / ICESC "B" Seat System on the high-speed rocket sled tracks at Edwards and Holloman. These rigorous and extensive tests ultimately culminated in the live ejection of volunteer TSgt. James A. Howell from the specially modified Convair F106B (two seater) aircraft at an altitude of 7113 meters and an IAS of 800 kph. The Convair / ICESC "B" Seat featured a unique, tilt-articulated design which upon actuation would first elevate the seat into a backwards-tilted horizontal plane (with pilot in supine position) above the aircrafts cockpit, before firing the seats rocket motor to blast the occupant clear of the plane. The seats appearance was distinctive in that, when deployed, the seat pans convex bottom extended beyond the feet of the aircrewman, which were first drawn up tightly towards his chest in a fetal position, so as to protect him from supersonic wind-blast effects.
The B Seat (other slang terms for the seat included the 'Tilt Seat', the 'Rotation Seat', and 'Supersonic Seat') was a strangely appearing design, with twin survival kit components sited bilaterally along the sides of the seat's occupant, and ejection actuator D-ring situated at crotch level. Featuring an integrated shoulder/lap harness, upward rotating 'sugar scoop' foot pans, powered foot retraction spurs, bilateral thigh guards that pulled the knees up towards the chest, aneroid controlled drag and recovery chutes, and two gas operated telescoping stabilization booms that projected aft on actuation, the seat not only looked strange but certainly must have presented the rider with a unique (possibly) terrifying prospect as he was first shot upwards into the wind at supersonic speed, then slammed back into a supine position before being fired away from his stricken aircraft with a powerful rocket blast. The seat was secured to the rotation frame with 4 explosive bolts that blew just before the rocket fired.
The B Seat ejection sequence was essentially as follows: A pull on the D-ring jettisoned the canopy, tripped the AFCWS (automatic flight control system) disconnect switch, retracted and locked the shoulder harness, retracted the occupant's feet via cable connected power reel spurs, raised the foot pans and elevated the occupant's knees and thigh guards. Feet retraction and canopy jettison safety locks release, allowing further pull on the D-ring, which disconnected the seat actuator and fired the seat's vertical thruster, moving the seat up the rails and out into the slip-stream. At this point the hose disconnect and personal-leads disconnect separated and at the end of the vertical thrust stroke, two rotational thrusters fired, slamming the pilot into a supine (horizontal) position above the aircraft's fuselage. During this rotation, the gas operated stabilization booms were extended and the four break-away bolts were fired. At this moment the primary escape rocket would fire the seat and occupant away from the aircraft. Two modes of chute deployment provided full deployment in low speed/low altitude mode at three and a half seconds, and full deployment at high speed in four and three quarters seconds. At extremely high altitudes, the pilot would stay with the seat until a safe lower altitude had been regained. The total weight of the seat and occupant, fitted with all normal personal equipment, was a substantial 607 pounds!
Although tested extensively in at least 15 rocket sled tests and 11 test flights (using an F106B two-seater), the single high altitude human 'live-fire' test was accomplished at 22,580 feet and only Mach .77 (at that altitude); flight performance parameters at the time of the test were far in excess of more realistic suboptimal conditions and did not come anywhere near the 'hard corners' of the seat's anticipated performance envelope. Rocket sled tests were exhaustively run on the test track with instrumented dummies at speeds simulating Mach 2.5 at a simulated altitude of 9,700 meters, with satisfactory results. Additionally, 35 human test subject rocket sled runs were reportedly concluded, verifying that ejections up to 900 knots IAS were within the range of human endurance.
As a result of the successful tests, the Convair / ICESC "B" Seat, or "Tilt-seat" as it became more commonly known by life support and human factors specialists, was installed in all production block Mach 2+ rated F106A & B aircraft--the most formidable and most high performance of the US Air Forces vaunted "Century Series" aircraft of the late 50s and 60s--from 1957 through 1959.
Unfortunately, and in spite of the years of exhaustive testing carried out in its development, the Convair / ICESC Tilt-seat did not prove satisfactory in actual Air Force operational use; this was especially true in the less favorable corners of the projected envelope. As might be predicted, the marginally assured low-level, low speed performance of the controversial seat simply did not meet minimal requirements...especially under anything less than optimal conditions. After several fatalities occurred during F-106 emergency ejections involving use of the Tilt-seat, a decision was made to remove the seat and replace it with a conventional, rocket-powered seat design made by the Weber Corporation. This retrofitting of the Delta Dart with the Weber seat was accomplished in 1963; thereafter, the Weber seat egress system remained in the delta-winged F106 for the rest of its 30 year service life and provided satisfactory high-speed ejection as well as adequate zero/zero capability.
Possibly as a consequence of the ultimate failure of the Air Forces ICESC supersonic seat program, the decision to use Martin-Baker designed seats in the Air Force version of the McDonnell-Douglas F4 Phantom II was a bit less objectionable in the years to come, and especially owing to its already proven performance. In any event, it is fascinating to speculate on this.
To return to the US Navys growing post-war association with the Martin-Baker Company, formerly alluded to, the Navy was by now also investigating the use of rocket engines as a satisfactory means of propelling a seat clear of a stricken naval aircraft without incurring unacceptable ejection injuries in its personnel. Studies conducted with the catapult gun then in use indicated that even significantly enhancing the conventional guns charge would not produce the desired Naval requirement for "dirty" low-level escape. Consequent to this, the Navy authorized the development of a rocket motor capable of being used on existing American egress system seats. A lengthy series of tests were conducted at the China Lake Naval Ordinance Test Station (NOTS, as it was then designated) on its high speed rocket sled track, and this eventually resulted in the production of the RAPEC (Rocket Assisted Personnel Ejection Catapult) system. Tests continued, concurrently, with the Martin-Baker ejection system at the US Naval Flight Test Facility in Patuxent River, Ohio.
By this time, the Douglas and Vought aircraft companies had devised rocket powered seats which were in the research and development phase. Both appeared to be capable of meeting Naval emergency ejection requirements at a lower limit of 150 feet altitude and 150 knots IAS--still not satisfactory parameters for the stringent zero/zero emergency requirements desired by the Navy. At this point, the political nuances of the competing systems manufacturers battles to secure Naval procurement contracts intensified considerably, and the result was a compromise in which the Douglas Escapac RAPEC system was selected for use in the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, while Martin-Baker was selected to provide a uniform system for use in the remainder of US Navy aircraft. This final decision was still complicated further by an exception to the agreement which allowed North American Aviation to provide its own seat for use in the RA-5 (A3J) Vigilante and one other aircraft. Furthermore, a concurrent program authorized use of the Stanley built RAPEC seat in the Martin P6M jet-powered seaplane patrol bomber, due to inadequacies existing in the aircrafts original seat system. Subsequent emergency ejections involving an unmodified P6M and a later, RAPEC configured version, confirmed the effectiveness of the new RAPEC system.
In operational use, the Douglas Escapac HS-1 and LS-1 RAPEC seats used in the RA-5 (A3J) and T-2 aircraft proved their effectiveness in several incidents involving successful non-combat egress in the RA-5 (A3J) Vigilante at and above the speed of sound, and during the Vietnam conflict, Douglas HS-1 Escapac RAPEC type seats in the A-5 routinely allowed aircrew to successfully eject above the speed of sound in emergency combat ejections involving that type (25% of the combat RA-5/A3J ejections were undertaken above Mach I).
With the withdrawal of the RA-5 Vigilante from active operational use in the late 1970s, the only American rocket powered open (non-encapsulated) escape system proven in use for successful Mach 1+ recovery, and capable of zero/zero to 700 knots IAS performance, was also retired (this was a North American Aviation design), excluding the special X-15 seat system (also a North American design) and the Stanley/Lockheed S/R-1 system used in the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird aircraft.
Meanwhile, development in both the US Air Force and the US Navy continued apace as new aircraft with different performance parameters came into service. One type of advanced concept ejection system which found its way into at least two supersonic, multi-engine designs was the fully encapsulated aircrew escape system. A version built by the Stanley company was installed on the Mach 2 Convair B-58 Hustler, a strategic nuclear bomber of amazingly high performance for its time (originally flown in the early 1960s). The 558 pound capsule, which unfortunately had a relatively high failure rate, was designed to provide flotation in the event of a water landing, and upon ejection streamed the half-open recovery parachute for 2 seconds to slow forward speed before reef cutting devices automatically allowed the 41 foot ring-sail type chute to fully open. The B-58 capsule featured upper and lower frontal clam-shell doors, which would close and seal in an emergency. The capsules featured self-contained individual oxygen and pressurization systems, much like another, later design, engineered by the North American Aviation company and installed in its Mach 3, advanced strategic bomber prototype, the XB-70 Valkyrie. The Valkyries encapsulated system was the only one of its general design to have been fully flight tested and approved prior to completion of the XB-70 aircraft itself. Another system, based upon the ejectable crew cockpit design (which harked back to the original ejectable crew-section concept used in both the WWII era Bachem Ba 349 Natter and Heinkel He-176), was developed for the controversial American TFX swing-wing aircraft. The TFX aircraft, after a prolonged and difficulty-laden initial development which called for its being adopted by both the US Air Force and the US Navy in slightly differing versions, would ultimately outgrow its teething problems and evolve into the excellent US Air Force F-111 Aardvark fighter-bomber.
Returning, for a moment to the early part of the 1950s, it is interesting to reflect for a moment on the concept of the American downward-firing ejection seat system. In particular, the Lockheed Company, in developing its powerful but lightweight F104 Starfighter in response to requirements provoked by experiences derived from aerial combat in the Korean War, elected to incorporate a downward firing pilots ejection system in the ultra-compact crew section of that post early 1950s design. As the inherent hazards of downward ejecting seat configuration are readily apparent, Lockheeds decision provokes speculation that the official US Air Forces consensus that ejections below 500 feet were not essentially survivable may have had inordinate impact on this aspect of the Starfighters development. There were Lockheed engineers who believed that, owing to the great speeds which the aircraft was designed to fly at, an upward firing system using the existing seat catapult technology would not be able to clear the F104s tail assembly in supersonic flight. There were certainly also numerous critics of the downward ejection scheme at that time, but the preponderant opinion that successful upward ejection was not absolutely attainable with existing technology managed to sweep these objections aside and work continued using the downward ejecting seat design.
Lockheed, in partly addressing critics of the system, suggested emergency procedures which would partly offset the hazards of egress situations occurring below 500 feet. Among these were the recommendation that in the event of a low-level emergency requiring ejection, the pilot of the Starfighter was to roll the aircraft 90 to 180 degrees or more to either side before ejecting. This would then yield, at least in theory, a horizontal or inverted vertical upwards ejection trajectory for pilot and seat, rather than a vertical descent. The suggestion was more euphemistic than practical, for in situations involving sudden loss of power, hydraulics or flight controls, such a maneuver would be near impossible to achieve. Further, the small cross section of the Starfighter allowed very little room for the crew compartment, and it was determined that there simply was not enough room in the by-then frozen design configuration to re-engineer a cockpit which would allow for installation of a conventional upward firing system without a major (and costly) redesign. Pilots, who could relate to such possibilities as low-level emergency bailout far more readily than could engineers, viewed the downwards firing system with obvious disapprobation.
The Starfighter prototype, as well as all developmental pre-production and initial production models, had the Lockheed downward firing seat installed. Egress was achieved through a large rectangular hatch located directly below the cockpit. In the event of an emergency requiring ejection, the between the knees actuator handle was pulled first, which set off the following sequential events: 1) the cabin was depressurized, and the control stick stowed forward, clear of the seat; 2) the pilots parachute harness tightened automatically, just as did the arm restraint net which secured his arms; 3) the pilots feet where drawn back into the seats footrests through use of cable attached spurs on his boots; 4) the hatch was blown off automatically, and the seat was ejected straight down with a conventional explosive catapult charge. For clear-thinking individuals, unencumbered by the policy constraints of a manufacturers cost projections, this system was purely and simply an accident waiting to happen; especially so, in view of the problems that early 1950s high-performance aircraft frequently had with power failure, compressor stalls and flame-outs, and the particular hazards normally implicit in landing and take-off portions of the flight envelope. Although adjudged satisfactory for medium to high altitude use, the original downward firing system was completely useless for low-level emergencies.
Unfortunately, it took the death of a high-profile and very popular flight test pilot to spur a major revision of the Starfighters egress design. Capt. Ivan C. Kincheloe, blonde, handsome and personable, as well as a highly regarded and high-profile flight test pilot, experienced an in-flight emergency in his production F104A Starfighter in 1958 shortly after takeoff at Edwards AFB in California. His ejection in the Stanley B-1 downward firing seat fitted to his aircraft successfully removed him from the stricken aircraft in a sideways, horizontal plane, as recommended by Lockheed; ironically, however, the aircraft banked and came down shortly after he ejected, exploding in a fireball on the ground which Captain Kincheloe was carried directly into by the ejection trajectory. Kincheloes death accomplished what a previous ground-swell of earlier protests had failed to do: shortly afterwards the F104 fleet was grounded, the old B, C, and C-1 seats removed, and quickly retrofitted with a Lockheed designed upward firing seat designated the C-2 Seat. Incorporation of the new C-2 seat increased aircrew confidence in the new fighter. At a later date (after 1966) the initial Lockheed designed upward firing seat was replaced by an improved upward firing version of the C-2 seat, designated the S/R-2 seat. This seat was reported to offer near zero/zero ejection capability. All European, export, and later generation Starfighter variants had their American upward-firing seat replaced with a Martin Baker Mk.VII series seat specially engineered for the Starfighter, designated the M-B Mk.DQ-7 model. The new Martin-Baker Starfighter seat unexpectedly experienced some initial problems, however, and several German Luftwaffe pilots were killed in Starfighter ejections using M-B Mk.DQ-7 seat. An investigation team was quickly brought into determine the source of the seat failure and found that frequently the pilots knees would not clear the forward canopy edge due to the fact that the parachute placement positioned the pilot too far forward. The seat was subsequently modified to address this problem and from then on the Martin-Baker Mk. GQ-7F seat performed quite well in Starfighter emergencies experienced by the German Luftwaffe. The same GQ-7F seat was installed in all export Starfighter seats the Danish Air Force and other NATO countries were taking delivery of and there were no further difficulties. It is indeed well that that was the case, since the F104 remained a demanding machine to fly throughout its long NATO service life owing to the peculiarities of its high wing-loading, high-performance design, and the training dissimilarities between the American west, where European pilots were trained to use the aircraft under typically excellent conditions and the European region with its usually marginal weather.
Among the refinements added to American-made seats of the mid-50s were inertial-locking harnesses and seat-pilot separation mechanisms (the seat-man separator on US Air Force seats consisted of a strap arrangement fitted between the seat and the pilots rear seat cushion, or parachute pack, which was sequenced to actuate after ejection had occurred and simultaneous with seat restraint release), after studies indicated that a more positive man-seat separation action was required to get the aircrewman away from the ejected seat. Thigh restraining guards were usually fitted and folded away in the down position until the seat was fired, being raised for use along with the armrest ejection triggers which were a standard American feature. In some cases, leg restraining mechanisms were also fitted, as in the original F-104 Starfighter seats.
In the early 1960s, North American Aviation experimented with a series of lightweight seat systems termed the "LW" series. This resulted in an LW-1, an LW-2 (developed for the XV-19 experimental aircraft), and a final LW-3 seat that was produced for use in its twin prop driven OV-10A Bronco forward air control / armed reconnaissance plane. The seat was designated the LW-3B model and two were fitted, fore and aft, in the Broncos cockpit. Uncharacteristic of the trend at that time, the LW-3B seat featured a seat-mounted pilot personal chute in an unusual configuration. The aircrewmans parachute was fitted to the side of the seat, housed in an elongated rectangular pack, and the system was capable of near zero/zero performance. In view of the fore and after seating arrangement of the OV-10A, the seats were angled to fire slightly to the side and away from each other, with the rear seat sequenced to eject first in the accustomed manner. The LW-3B type seat was later installed in the experimental prototype VTOL XV-15 tilt-rotor aircraft for flight testing of that machine in a tandem arrangement, and has also been installed more recently in civilian turbo-Mustang (F-51) conversions such as the Cavalier II, where it provides emergency ejection capability in a confined cockpit structure. The LW-3B seat featured a standard hard-shell seat type survival kit (RSSK 9) under the seat cushion. This was the first American seat to presage the future trend of installing the pilots personal parachute on the seat itself (although modern seats feature the chute assembly in the seats headrest area, not fitted to the side of the seat as was the case with the LW-3B). Reports of the Bronco system in use indicate it had a satisfactory success rate in combat situations (Vietnam), both for low level and medium level ejection.
It must be noted in passing that although American systems had originated from studies based upon the German escape technology of World War Two, there were several features incorporated in them which were thoughtfully conceived and engineered. One of these was the locking inertia-reel harness, which is to be found on nearly all American manufactured seats produced in the early 1950s (each of the 1950s Century Series fighters featured this device). Another is the life-support quick disconnect block, again incorporated in virtually every system produced by the US in this period. This latter device featured a module, frequently affixed securely to the seat, into which the aircraft and pilot connections were inserted for G-suit, breathing oxygen and communications use. Upon ejection, the aircraft connectors would pull free, leaving the seat-portion attached, from which the pilots connections would be released at the time of man-seat separation. Similar systems were not incorporated into Martin-Baker seats until the advent of later M-B Mk.IV models.
Several other systems were investigated that involved a pseudo-podded escape concept. One of these proposals was a design that featured inclusion of the aircraft's canopy as a sort of protective enclosure, with the pilot being drawn upwards into a supine position under it before actuation (this was researched for initial use on the Convair F102 Delta Dagger, but discarded in favor of a conventional Weber rocket seat). The canopy, with the pilot enclosed under it, would then be fired away from the aircraft. This concept was discarded after some initial exploration into its suitability.
Of passing interest is the fact that while the idea of the crew 'escape pod' was not entirely new, having been first actively explored in German designs of the early 40s (notably in the He-176 rocket powered aircraft), its possibilities were being closely studied in the late 40s and early 50s by US aeronautical and egress scientists. While US aircraft engineers subsequently designed several systems that would be incorporated into high performance aircraft of the 50s and 60s, in a curious footnote to this innovation, a little known Humphrey Bogart film titled 'CHAIN LIGHTNING' that came out in 1950 featured the escape pod idea with a central role in the plot (along with a primitive high altitude pressure suit). Although the technology represented was rude and almost laughable, by today's standards and in terms of what we now know about such highly sophisticated systems, the basic concept was amazingly all there. This old Bogy film is worth seeing for this and Hollywood's 1950s pressure suit representation, although the story line itself is considerably dated.
In the early to mid-1950s, a considerably advanced Mach 3.7 high altitude, point/area defense air interceptor aircraft design was proposed by Republic Aviation. This was what came to be known as the XF-103 (USAF Secret Project MX-1787), which never saw production (it was cancelled in 1957), but which took form in a completed full-scale engineering mock-up. This futuristic appearing interceptor featured an unusual 'boot-shaped' crew pod, in which the pilot of the XF-103 could encapsulate and eject downward. Preliminary studies showed the pod to be unusually aerodynamically stable, despite its odd appearance, but the system was never actually tested. The XF-103 pod promised to allow aircrew escape at the upper limits of the aircraft's performance envelope, although data was never released concerning its low altitude, low speed characteristics (presumable very poor, given experience with other downward firing systems in use at the time in similar operating conditions). This concept did, however, pioneer certain parameters shared with later upward firing podded escape systems that would be used successfully in the B-58 Hustler and XB-70 Valkyrie .
One instance of a very satisfactory American escape system having been developed is found in the ejectable crew compartment concept employed in the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark. Although a controversial design from its very onset, the F-111 (ne� TFX), with its swept-wing features and technical innovations, featured an egress system which was one of the most reliable component systems found on the plane. Borrowing from pioneering studies conducted by the Heinkel company and use of the concept in its He-176 rocket-powered airplane of WWII vintage, the General Dynamics Corporation (formerly Convair) incorporated an ejectable crew compartment egress system in the final pre-production TFX prototypes. Although the original prototype had flown using two conventional ejection seats, the ejectable crew compartment became a standard feature of the F-111, and throughout its service life provided Aardvark crews with reliable, safe egress--both in non-combat emergencies as well as in wartime combat situations (Vietnam). As might be imagine, the ejection sequence involved actuation of an explosive disconnect system which separated the crew compartment from the nose section and fired a rocket system which shot the crew section away from the crippled aircraft. A high-speed drogue system then deployed, which in turn actuated a recovery parachute attached to the compartment. Crew members had the choice of either staying in the capsule until it came down to earth or opening the canopy and manually parachuting from the compartment while it was still descending. Statistically, the success rate of F-111 ejections was remarkably high, testifying to the engineering concept and development underlying the design.
It is worth noting, in passing, that the Bell X-2 rocket research aircraft that was being flight tested in the mid 1950s at the Edwards Flight Test Center in California featured a jettisonable crew compartment. The plane was designed to exceed Mach 2 at a time when such extreme speeds by manned aircraft were still challenging, and as yet un-reached, aeronautical objectives beckoning to aviation engineers. Interestingly, on September 27, 1956, Captain Milburn Apt was flying the 13th test flight of the Bell X-2 when he encountered a particularly severe roll-coupling situation in flight testing at a speed of Mach 3, after beginning a descent from 72,000 feet. So unusual was the situation, and so severe the buffeting which resulted that the decision was made by Apt to eject, and he did do, actuating separation of the entire nose section of the research aircraft which contained the small cockpit. The capsule was designed to be separated, then stabilized by a drogue chute after adequate deceleration had occurred. Once the capsules recovery chute had been deployed, the plan was for the occupant to release the canopy, un-strap his harness and manually bail out using the capsules seat-type personal parachute.
Documentation of the accident shows that the capsule separation was achieved as planned for and that the drogue system worked as anticipated. Unfortunately, Apt appears to have been disabled through some sort of injury sustained, either in the violent buffeting before ejection occurred or after the capsule separation took place, and was unable to leave the capsule before it plummeted into the desert floor at about 120 mph. The G forces sustained in the impact, estimated to be about 90 G (plus or minus 40 G), resulted in Apts death. The Bell X-2s recovery capsule was not intended to land with the pilot in it, unlike other systems (such as the F-111) in which emergency descents might be survived while still contained within the capsules crew compartment. Evidence was found at the site which indicated that Apt had succeeded in jettisoning the capsules canopy, and also had been able to release his restraint harness prior to impact, but had not been able to leave the capsule to bail out of it for reasons which are still uncertain.
Although the North American XB-70 supersonic advanced strategic bomber program never progressed beyond the production of two prototypes, the crew escape system that consisted of fully encapsulating individual crew modules was inadvertently put to the test in an unfortunate mid-air accident which destroyed the number two XB-70 prototype (XB-70A-2) on 8 June 1966. As designed, the individual capsule-type crew ejection system allowed for safe ejection from near zero/zero conditions (90 knots IAS, zero altitude) through Mach 3 and its 80,000 feet operating ceiling. Each module consisted of a central seat unit which employed upper and lower clam-shell type doors to cocoon the crew member when the escape system was actuated. Each contained its own environmental support system and allowed for pressurization and crew oxygen so that in addition to serving as a rocket powered escape vehicle, the capsules could also protect against emergency high-altitude decompression in flight.
A window in the upper clamshell door allowed observation of instruments while the crewman was encapsulated, and provision was made for minimal encapsulated control of the aircraft thusly configured. Ejection sequencing consisted of manual actuation of the arm-rest triggers, immediately whereupon the capsule tilted 20 degrees to the rear before encapsulation by the clam-shell doors was accomplished. Further, the crewmans heels had to be properly emplaced before the process would begin. After the capsule had closed and sealed, the crewman had to activate a further actuator to jettison the upper and lower fuselage before firing the capsule out and away with its integral rocket motor. Main recovery chute was automatically deployed by a complex biostatic system and capsule descent rate was reported to be about 28 feet per second. Twin, rear projecting booms served to stabilize the capsule during ejection and an inflatable cushion automatically deployed (with a manual inflation option) under the capsule to help the occupant withstand landing forces. The crewman remained within the capsule throughout the entire recovery process, from ejection to landing, and included in the capsule were survival equipment, life-raft and other items. On a water entry, the capsule would remain afloat in an upright position automatically.
The prototype XB-70A-1 and A-2 aircraft undergoing flight testing from 1964 through 1969 were configured with two such crew capsules (pilot & copilot), although the intended production B-70 bomber was to have two additional crew positions in routine operational use.
On 8 June of 1966, during a media fly-by flight of several types of aircraft using GE engines (the XB-70 included), an inadvertent mid-air collision occurred involving a Lockheed F104 Starfighter and the number two XB-70 prototype. The cause of the F104s veering into the starboard outer wing section of the XB-70 was never to be learned, although the consequence of the collision was the immediate destruction of the Starfighter and the smashing of the two vertical fins of the XB-70, which the F104 slashed through after hitting the bombers wingtip.
The XB-70A-2, traveling at about 300 knots IAS, remained in a state of stable horizontal flight for about 16 seconds after the collision before suddenly going into a nose-down roll, with subsequent violent yawing that ended up with the aircraft entering a final, unrecoverable flat-spin before impacting in the desert, 25,000 feet below. The two crew, test pilots White and Cross, immediately upon experiencing the roll over, began to realize that ejection was mandated. Pilot White was successful in ejecting himself by pulling the ring to begin encapsulation, which he estimates he accomplished about 60 seconds after the XB-70A-2 became violently unstable. His copilot, Cross, was apparently unable to do so. It is speculated that possibly G-forces or a head-injury may have prevented him from taking the initial step to initiate ejection. White, meanwhile, caught his arm between the clam-shell closure seals and suffered a dislocated shoulder attempting to free the arm, but managed to get free and was safely lowered to earth in his capsule. Despite the fact that the impact cushion beneath his seat failed to inflate, he survived the 43 G impact, albeit with severe internal injuries that were partly lessened by collapse of the capsules internal seat structure.
Crosss capsule was never ejected, and its remains were recovered in situ at the site where the XB-70A-2 hit the earth in a flat spinning attitude and burned. The incident was thoroughly investigated from all angles, including performance of the life support/escape system, and Whites survival contributed greatly to knowledge of how such an encapsulated escape system could be further engineered to deliver an even higher level of protection. The mere fact of his survival vindicated, at least in part, the integrity of the encapsulation escape system concept.
In still other areas of US military flight operations--particularly in the area of flight test--various escape seat systems were developed for special applications. One of these was the North American Aviation escape seat designed for their X-15 high-altitude, Mach 6 rocket research vehicle. The seat employed was designed and extensively tested--again on the Air Forces rocket sled track at Edwards in California--to allow for escape at extremely high altitude and extreme speed. Considering the performance parameters of the X-15--maximum altitude of more than 50 miles and maximum speeds exceeding 6 times the speed of sound--the challenge was formidable. Once more, a rocket powered, open-seat design was employed, which would allow recoverable egress up to a speed of Mach 4 in any attitude and any altitude up to 120,000 feet. During ground testing on rocket sleds at Edwards Air Force Base, the seat was demonstrated to give good ground-level escape at speeds as low as 90 knots IAS. A ballistic rocket-type catapult system provided the basic propulsion force, and the seat featured side-mounted folding stabilizing fins and extendible booms that would deploy upon ejection to maintain proper escape attitude during initial boost phase of about 0.5 seconds and subsequent recovery deceleration, until the seat drogue system and main recovery chute could release satisfactorily.
Amazingly, despite many years of often quite dangerous flight testing at the very limits of known aerospace performance parameters for manned vehicles, the X-15 ejection seat system was never needed, and hence no documentation exists as to its actual performance in the event of a genuine flight emergency requiring ejection, as none occurred.
Among the more unusual egress systems developed in the US was the Stanley "Yankee" System, in which a tractor rocket was integrated to the pilots harness which would be fired off to literally haul him out of the aircrafts cockpit. This system, which was fitted to some aircraft in which it would have been impossible install conventional ejection seats, was in use in the mid 1960s and was fitted to the Douglas A-1D Skyraider, among others. The system provided for aircrew extraction by rocket first, after which a second rocket deployed and spread the pilots personal back-style parachute; the Yankee System was successfully employed in a real emergency situation in Vietnam in 1967, when a Skyraider piloted by Maj. J.E. Holler sustained engine failure at low level in combat. It is interesting to note that this system provided true zero/zero capability at a time when no other conventional systems did.
Still other innovative egress systems under investigation during the Vietnam conflict were the Karmen Aircraft SAVER System, and the Goodyear Aerospace PARD System. The first design consisted of an ejection seat which after deployment functioned like an autogyro. The Karmen Stowable Aircrew Vehicle Escape Rotoseat (SAVER) contained a small turbojet and folding rotors and tailplane, which would allow the pilot to remain airborne and travel about 50 miles at speeds of about 100 knots. Its development was incomplete when the war ended, thereby ending investigation into its possible use in combat aircraft.
The second egress system mentioned above was the Goodyear Pilot Airborne Recovery Device (PARD), and this system featured an unusual balloon-parachute hybrid design (called a BALUTE) which would fill with heated air provided by a small LPG burner above the pilots conventional parachute, after ejection in a standard ejection system seat. The heated air would allow the pilot to remain airborne for about 30 minutes, during which time a mid-air recovery attempt could be effected with an aircraft equipped with appropriate snaring apparatus. The system was tested and demonstrated to work successfully in tests performed in Southern California, but again the project was discontinued when Americas Vietnam involvement ended in 1975.
Refining The Original Concept: The United Kingdom
As research and development of seat technology gained momentum in the decade following the end of the Second World War, there were at least two other companies involved in production of ejection seat systems for high performance aircraft, in addition to the well established Martin-Baker Aircraft Company. These were the ML Aviation Company and the Folland Aircraft Company, Ltd.
ML Aviation, under the direction of Belgian engineer Marcel Lobelle, produced a series of seats from the ML Mk.I through the ML Mk.IV. The first two seats were fitted into production aircraft in use by the RAF and were manual (not automatic) systems very much like the M-B Mk.I. The Mk.III and Mk.IV were automatic seat designs (fully automated sequencing, with man-seat separation and deployment of personal parachute), but according to B. Philpott were not installed in active service airplanes. The earlier two seats were used experimentally in several aircraft types (including Meteor and Wyvern types) but in 1951 an experimental Hawker fitted with an ML seat crashed, and there was speculation that the pilots seat had somehow failed. Shortly thereafter the company ceased production of egress systems and focused on other aircraft sub-component manufacturing.
The Folland Aircraft Company of the UK acquired licensing rights to produce the Swedish SAAB Type 29 seat (as fitted to the SAAB J29 aircraft), but modified the system to provide for automatic release before incorporating it into their Folland Gnat, a lightweight, swept wing fighter/trainer used by India, Finland and a few other nations with some success. Folland was not interested in continuing the production of egress systems, beyond that of the Gnat, and it wasnt long before the only UK egress system manufacturer was the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company.
The Folland Gnat egress seat was a lightweight, simplified system, which suited the perceived need at that time for use of lighter ejection systems for aircraft which were becoming increasingly more complex and much heavier. Englands Martin-Baker also felt the need to reduce the weight and bulk of its seat design (the Mk.III) in keeping with this philosophy, and consequently this led to the development of the M-B Mk.IV seat. Naturally, it was important to achieve this weight reduction without significantly altering the level of egress effectiveness which the Martin-Baker systems provided. This was achieved by incorporating a redesign of several key components in the guide-rail/track system and seat framework support structure. The seat pan and parachute pan units were retained with slight modifications, as were the twin-drogue system and the 80 ft/sec ejection gun. The Mk.IV seat incorporated for the first time a between the legs ejection handle as a secondary means of actuation ejection, since it had been determined that in certain situations the effects of adverse inertia and G loading made it difficult to use the conventional face-curtain actuator. (This began subsequent engineering conjecture over the question of whether or not to focus on use of one actuator only, for a number of years, which seems to have ultimately led to final selection of the between-the-legs actuator design as found in the most recent M-B systems).
The parachute and sea-survival/inflatable raft kits were redesigned for use on the new Mk.IV seat, and this was prompted in part by the need to improve pilot comfort as well as fit the overall seat modification requirements. Further improvements consisted of an integrated seat and parachute harness system, eliminating two separate harness systems; the system was controlled by the M-B Timed Release Unit (TRU) and was so effective that it was retrofitted in some cases to older Mk.III seats. The new inverted U-shaped personal chute assembly was placed higher up in the seat back, just under the drogue/head-box container, which positioned it more efficiently for simplified deployment. Sea-survival /inflatable raft--usually made to order by Martin-Baker for the specific requirement of the contracting nation--was stowed in the seat pan, under the pilot, and a specially designed, high-density, slow-acting foam rubber material was used in the seat cushion over the kit to reduce the possibility of spinal injury due to effects of acceleration overshoot. One final refinement was the addition of a G sensing switching unit in the TRU which permitted either standard drogue deployment delay of 1� seconds (at low speed, low altitude), or delayed drogue deployment appropriate to the negative G force loading imposed by deceleration. The M-B "guillotine" device for cutting the drogue withdrawal line to the seat was also used for the first time in the Mk.IV seat, a feature which has remained an important component of M-B automatic seat systems. Modification was also made to the leg restraint strap system. The idea of incorporating built-in rigid foot rests had been long since discarded on M-B seats (most American seats built in the early 1950s also used the rigid footrest feature, although this was also discarded by US seat manufacturers in the mid 1950s, in favor of the leg restraint strap concept).
The next step in M-B seat development, the production of the Mk.V seat, was substantially influenced by the M-B/US Navy ties referenced in the previous chapter. Largely due to the requirements of the Navy, the basic Mk.IV seat was structurally modified to withstand greater deceleration loads (40 negative G, instead of 25), as was the seat harness system. Featuring the 80 foot per second ejection catapult and most of the features of the Mk.IV seat, the new US Navy specification Mk.V family seat began service in the late 50s and early 60s, and was eventually installed in over 20 different American aircraft types (this includes the later Mk.VII rocket powered version, which was markedly similar to the Mk.V but featured the installation of a rocket unit under the seat-pan). Most of the US Navy Mark.V seats were upgraded to the later, rocket-powered Mk.VII version at a later date. The Mk.VII seat featured a prominent change in the personal parachute container component, which was manufactured in an inverted U-shape of fiberglass (in contrast to the shaped metal parachute fitment shroud and U-shaped fabric parachute pack in use on the Mk.V), and had two compressed springs situated between the seat structure and the container to help fling the container somewhat out and clear of the seat on chute deployment (it remained tethered to the seat, however). There were also minor changes in the thigh portion of the seat pan. Suffice it to say that the addition of a rocket power unit to the Mk.IV and Mk.V seats resulted in the Mk.VI and Mk.VII seats, although that is considerably oversimplifying the process.
In the early 60s, many American aircraft purchased by NATO nations began to be fitted with Martin-Baker Mk.V seats. Norway was the first nation to have the American manufactured ejection seats in its F-86 and F-84 type aircraft replaced by Mk.V units, and Germany and others shortly followed suit; Denmark had much earlier (in 1950) placed an order for a number of UK Meteor fighters fitted with the Mk.I seats, demonstrating the design effectively to the rest of Europes allies.
Several other specially designed seats produced by Martin-Baker were their rear-facing ejection seat design (first live-fired in 1960, proving the concept) for UK "V-bombers," and a Mark.V based egress system configured to fire underwater, eject the pilot from his ditched aircraft, inflate his life-vest and bring him to the surface automatically, even if he is unconscious.
As mentioned earlier, the purpose of the rocket-seat development program at Martin-Baker was principally to provide enhanced low-level escape. The original Martin-Baker rocket unit was a twin-tube design with an adjoining nozzle chamber, fitted under the seat and firing downwards. This system was first successfully tested with a "live ejection" in April of 1961. M-B rocket seat systems strive to ensure a near vertical trajectory away from the disabled aircraft. This is allowed owing to the fact that the M-B seat uses a conventional ejection gun and separate rocket propulsion system which are sequentially actuated by the egress systems automation. This stands in marked contrast to other systems, such as that routinely employed by most US manufactured ejection seats of the 1960s, which combined the ejection catapult and rocket charge in a single gun. The combined gun system functions as a standard explosive charge ejection catapult until the automatic sequencing device allows it to discharge the rocket charge rearwards at a 45 degree downward angle, thereby achieving a slightly less vertical, 45 degree upwards and forwards trajectory.
The combined gun concept is less desirable for low level and "unfavorable aircraft attitude" situations (nose down, low level, low speed), while the separate rocket pack approach allows, in theory, more altitude to be gained in a vertical plane for safe chute deployment and recovery. Martin-Baker was a pioneer in developing this system at a time (1960s) when most other seat manufacturers retained and used the less ideal, although somewhat simpler, combined gun system.
Mentioned earlier, one important modification of the UK's Mk. VII series was specifically designed and fitted to the Lockheed F104G Starfighter (export version for NATO, particularly used by West Germany in extensive numbers). This seat was the M-B Mk. DQ-7 seat. After a series of severe pilot injuries were experienced by aircrew upon emergency ejection using this seat, an investigation showed the cause to be due to the pilot's knees fouling on the forward instrument panel of the Starfighter cockpit. Resulting modification of the seat's main chute containment system, which allowed placing the pilot further aft in the seat, resolved the difficulty. This and subsequent seat modifications led to adoption of the M-B Mk. GQ-7F in Starfighters, with the final modification designated the Mk. GQ-7W. This seat is still in service with the Italian Air Force's Starfighters, as Italy acquired the remainder of former German F104Gs when that nation replaced its Starfighters with newer aircraft. The photograph to the right shows a Luftwaffe F104G egress display at the Munich Museum of Science's Aviation Section, in which a pilot is shown in mid-ejection from a stricken Starfighter.
Another very important seat used extensively by the USN in The F14 Tomcat , and also a derivative of the Mk. VII series seats, was the M-B Mk GRU-7A seat. This seat featured enhanced features, updated system components, and weighed slightly less than the earlier Mk H7AF type seat. This seat has seen extensive service with the US Navy's Tomcat squadrons and has an exemplary survival rate in emergency egress situations--many of which have taken place on or just off of carrier decks.
From the US inspired Mk.VII seat, the next step up for Martin-Baker was development of the Mk.VIII seat; this unit was specifically produced to meet the requirements of the high-performance, experimental TSR-2 aircraft. Although the TSR-2 never flew, the developmental work accomplished by Martin-Baker on the seat formed the basis for a whole new generation of ejection seats that would shortly result in the Mk.IX, Mk.X series, and the latest, high technology Mk.XIV seat.
The entirely redesigned Mk.VIII seat was the first major departure taken from the previous generation of M-B seats and set the style for the current Mk.X and Mk.XIV seats. Among the refinements of the Mk.VIII seat was the elimination of the face-blind ejection actuation feature, a between the legs grab-handle being used exclusively. Also featured was a multi-tube rocket powered unit with twin chamber nozzles and use of the head-rest/drogue containment area for placement of the personal parachute. A special power retraction system was installed which acted to pull the pilot into a favorable ejection position, very much as an earlier unit mounted on the US Navy Mk.VII seats did. Additionally, a remotely actuated rocket firing system was fitted which was a considerable improvement over the previously used rocket actuation device.
The new Mk.IX seat of the mid-to-late 70s benefited from the Mk.VIII development, and with this unit Martin-Baker seats underwent a major reconfiguring. One result, aside from significantly enhanced function, was considerable aesthetic improvement in appearance. Most components of the Mk.IX seat were reworked and advanced features found on the experimental TSR-2 seat were incorporated in the new Mk.IX series seats. These included an entirely new gas actuated seat firing system replacing the previous cable linkages. The face-blind actuator system was discarded in favor a between-the-knees grab handle since studies indicated that such a system was faster to use than a face-blind design (additionally, modern crash helmets provide considerably improved wind-blast protection, making that former function largely redundant). The power retraction system was further improved, and the personal parachute containment area was placed lower in the seat-back, behind a contoured back-rest. Additionally, the seat and back pan assembly was fitted so that it could be quickly removed from the central seat structural members for ease of cockpit maintenance. The Mark IX series seats were installed in Harrier and Jaguar aircraft, for the most part, and their design trends were reflected in the development of the even more improved Mk.X series seats which followed.
Perhaps the most significant improvement found in the M-B Mk.X seat is the incorporation of the pilots personal parachute into the head-rest structure containing the drogue system. This is a concept which now appears to be adopted almost universally by egress seat manufacturers; it is now used successfully by the American Stencil Aero Engineering Corporation in their AV-8A (US spec Harrier) Stencil SIIIS seat, as well as by McDonnell-Douglas in the ACESII system. The head-rest container appears to be advantageously sited for optimal deployment of the main (pilots) recovery chute and permits simplified, efficient automatic deployment operation. Other improvements found on the Mk.X seats are an extended gas-actuation system, a simplified two-point aircrew harness system, an arm restraint system (in use on the SAAB Gripen and the UKs Tornado aircraft), and complete design of the drogue gun and barostatic time-release mechanism. The pilots personal chute uses a GQ Aeroconical canopy design which permits rapid deployment with reduced susceptibility to severe deceleration forces, and the combined drogue and main chute placement concept allows greater ease in servicing by ground personnel in that the entire combined chute system is removable as a unit. The Mk.X series seats are specified to permit zero/zero operation and safe ejection at speeds up to 630 knots IAS.
Mk.X type seats are used in a variety of aircraft, including the MiG-19 (Pakistan), the Hawk, Tornado, Macchi MB339, CSA 101, Sea Harrier, Northrop F5, SAAB JAS 39, Nanchang A5, K8/L8, the Lavi, and a number of other types in use around the world. Variations belonging to the Mk.X family are the Mk.X-L Lightweight ejection seat and the Mk.X-LF (Northrop F5 upgrade seat); all feature similar systems and specifications / performance capabilities.
The Mk.X-LF is a special retrofit for the Northrop F5 Freedom Fighter which is in use my many nations using that aircraft. The original Northrop seat proved ineffective for low level safe pilot recovery, and therefore selection was made of the Mk.X-L lightweight version of the Mk.X for use in it. (By example, the original Northrop seat provided safe recovery at 1720 feet AGL, at an IAS of 400 knots and a dive angle of 45 degrees. The figure for the M-B seat in identical speed and dive is only 625 feet AGL).
Another more recent Martin-Baker seat is the Mk.XI seat, based upon the successful lightweight seat used on the T-27 Tucano turboprop trainer. The Mk.XI is designed for use in medium performance propeller-driven aircraft and does away with the rocket pack while still providing ground level/60-400 KIAS performance. It features all the advancements of the Mk.XIII (TSR-2) seat, but with substantially less weight.
The Martin-Baker Mk.XII seat is a development of the Mk.X, and very similar to it, but employs pitot-type air and motion sensors to actuate the appropriate safe egress sequencing. Two extendible pitot sensors (one mechanical and the other electrical) on the side of upper seat structure are part of a three component system which determines a variety of parameters to facilitate egress actuation in any of three modes: low level/low speed, low level/high speed, and high level (speed is not factored in in this mode). Furthermore, the seat sensors permit control of parachute deployment in such a manner as to minimize damage which may occur due to severe high-speed ejection forces. The Mk.XII also features a much reduced maintenance requirements which permits a one minute daily inspection for functional readiness, and a three-year servicing schedule.
In 1985 M-B received a contract to produce the Mk.XIV seat for use in the US Navys F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, and T-45 Hawk aircraft. This was designated the high-technology NACES, or Naval Aircrew Common Ejection Seat. Utilising the latest in micro processing technology, the Mk.XIV seat features enhanced operational sensors which permit much greater levels of safe operation in a wide variety of speeds, combat attitudes and altitudes.
Yet another M-B seat is the Mk.XV seat, which was originally developed for use in the Pilatus PC-7 aircraft. An ultra light seat design with a rocket power pack, the very compact Mk.XV seat permits ground-level and 60 KIAS, to 350 KIAS operation in medium performance propeller-driven aircraft. Through canopy ejection is provided as a contingency. Total weight of the seat is only 80 pounds.
The latest and most advanced Martin-Baker ejection seat available at this writing is the lightweight, high-technology Mk.XVI seat. This seat, designed specifically for the latest generation, high-performance lightweight aircraft such as the European Eurofighter and Rafael, features advanced 2nd generation state-of-the-art electronic & microprocessor controlled systems to assure the highest optimal survival margin for aircrew operating the most recently developed aircraft. Offering zero/zero operation and up to 600 KIAS and 50,000 feet operation, the Mk.XVI seat features a weight/mass reduction of 30% over previous seats by combining the twin-catapult gun tubes with the seat structure itself as structural members. Developed as a variant, the Mk.US-XVI-L seat is a special model designed to meet the US JPAT (Joint Primary Aircraft Trainer System) requirement for a lightweight, advanced egress system. Featuring similar specifications to the Mk.XVI, the variant weighs only 125 pounds with full kit and components, and performs safely from zero/zero to 450 KIAS and 40,000 feet altitude. Important also is the seats reduced maintenance requirement, which improves on previous late-generation M-B seat standards.
Modern American Advancements : ACES and ACES II
The development of American Air Force ejection seat research continued in the late 60s period with refinements of the Douglas Escapac IC system that led to a new phase of work, conducted under the aegis of the Douglas Aircraft Division of the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation, and based on enhancements to the proven & successful Douglas Escapac system. With Air force use of aircraft originally developed for use by the US Navy (F-4 Phantom II and the A-7, most notably), the merits of the excellent Escapac family of seats became clear and McDonnell-Douglas was charged with principal responsibility for a new, substantially improved system Air Force egress system termed the ACES, or Advanced Concept Ejection Seat.
While work continued on the McDonnell-Douglas ACES program, Stencil Aero Engineering Corporation (Formerly a division of Talley Industries that is now owned by Universal Propulsion Co., Inc.), which had been actively designing and testing aircraft escape systems for military use at both China Lake NOTS and its privately owned Utah rocket sled facility at Hurricane Mesa for years, fielded the other major American seat system recognized as being in the forefront of US seat technology. Stencil innovations included the DART seat stabilization package that was retrofitted to most older USAF ejection seats, a line of highly engineered and reliable seat initiation and actuation components, and several well conceived and innovative ejection seats that were noted for their structural integrity, light weight, and reliability.
The Stencil SIIIS-3 series of seats was designed to meet the US Navy's requirement for the American AV-8A Harrier and ended up being used in the German Luftwaffe's Alpha Jet aircraft. It was also used at some time in the early F-117 Stealth production aircraft, the Navy F-18 prototype, and the early F-16 FSD aircraft. The Stencil seats departed from prior American designs in incorporating a fiberglass seat pan that covered a soft nylon seat survival package (much like the early USAD MD-1 survival seat kit concept), replacing the entirely "hard" seat kit that was used extensively in the Century Series era aircraft (this return to a previously explored concept was also a feature of the McDonnell-Douglas ACES technology). Stencil was acutely aware of the tendency of ejection seats, both American and foreign, to become excessively ponderous and heavily constructed and favored early development of so-called "lightweight" designs (such as the NAA LW series seats). Stencil seats incorporated a rotating seat kit feature that aided in man-seat separation and used leg restraints and used a series of fail-safed ballistic chute deployment devices. Original SIIIS-3 seats featured a US Navy type face-blind actuation system as well as a between the thigh grab handle actuator, but this was later deleted in favor of the grab handle system. A version of the seat also was produced using standard USAF arm rest grip actuators, which was flown in the early F-117 stealth aircraft. Another Stencil innovation was the RANGER rocket extraction system that was similar in concept to the Stanley YANKEE system (used in the A-1D "Spad") and employed a rocket boosted device that pulled a crew member from a stricken aircraft (this concept was further explored in the aftermath of the NASA Challenger disaster, as a possible egress system usable on the space shuttle).
Other seats designed and produced by Stencil included the SIIIS-3RW "reduced weight" seat, featuring all of the original SIIIS-3 performance, but with a 20% further reduction in overall weight, and the S4S system for use in advanced, high performance jet aircraft. Stencil seats have been used in the US AV-8A & AV-8B Harrier aircraft, several nation's ALPHA jets, the Argentine AF's IA-63, the Japanese Self Defense Air Force's T-4 trainer, and several other types of aircraft, both jet and propeller driven. Although somewhat eclipsed by the USAF's choice of the McDonnell-Douglas ACES system, the Stencil seats remain examples of the finest American egress technology in recent decades.
Meanwhile, the US Air Force adopted the Escape system, but made basic improvements to the US Navy system to enhance low-level, low speed performance characteristics. This included replacing the Navy's RAPEC I rocket catapult with a higher rated rocket impulse unit (RPI-2174-16) and adding a zero-delay parachute lanyard to increase escape capabilities. The higher energy rocket increased trajectory height and the zero-delay lanyard improved early chute deployment performance to give true zero-zero operation. The high speed capabilities of the Escapac IC system remained unchanged, allowing excellent survival margins at the upper reaches of the operational envelope. Thus modified, the IC-2 seat (used in the USAF A-7D), permitted escape from ground level and zero knots through 600 (or more) knots at altitude. However, despite additional refinements that led to development of the IC-7 seat (used in the early F15A and F-16), it was clear that much work remained to ensure the greatest level of safety for emergency escape by aircrewmen from all corners of the envelope--not just in the specific zero-zero and high performance modes.
A study of emergency Air Force crew ejections over the previous years indicated certain inadequacies of design concepts that were established standards in existing systems. Chief among these problem areas were recovery parachute deployment timing, rocket-burn stability problems, and man-seat separation issues.
The ACES attempted to address all of these areas of concern and it was well noted by US designers that attempts had already been made to correct similar problems in several European seat systems by that date (1970). In an effort to improve system ejection timing sequences, the ACES adopted a refined three stage approach that attempted to reduce the inherent tolerances in the timing sequences through use of more sophisticated electro-explosive actuators (previous actuator components had been largely explosively driven and mechanically timed). Low level/low speed considerations were given higher priorities than had been previously accorded. The matter of rocket burn stability, which had previously been adjusted via aerodynamic devices such as projecting booms, vanes, and parachutes, was corrected to a great degree through use of a gyro-controlled vernier rocket unit (STAPAC). Man seat separation concerns, which in past American seats had been addressed through such devices as rotary actuated straps (Weber and others), inflatable bladders (Escapac), and snubber systems (Stencil DART system--Directional Automatic Realignment of Trajectory), were broached through adoption of a European system in which the deployment of the main recovery chute pulled the occupant from the seat. It was determined that this last approach satisfied concerns over man-seat collisions, additionally. Automatic ejection responses conformed to one of the following three general conditions, to assure the best response consistent with physiological limitations: 1) Low-speed mode (below 275 KEAS, Below 15,000 ft altitude); 2) High-speed mode (Above 275 KEAS, Below 15,000 ft altitude); 3) High-altitude mode (above 15,000 ft altitude).
The ACES seat's physical structure followed lines established by the NAA LW-3B design and the M-B Mk. 15 concept, which optimized lightweight design characteristics, and upper structures were somewhat lessened so as to increase rearward/lateral visibility. The ACES seat fired through actuation of conventional hand-grip control handles, located at the forward bilateral edges of the lower front seat pan (much in the manner of the Weber seats). Catapult values of 18 Gs and 250 gps rate of onset were established as a practical upper limit across the whole range of temperatures and ejected weights. High sink-rate and unfavorable attitude situations were factored into the staging of the catapult main thrust rocket. A pitch control subsystem, linked to the STAPAC components, was configured that offset to a great degree previous thrust centerline sensitivities peculiar to rocket powered systems. Finally, a mortar deployed main recovery chute system was adopted that would most adequately address all points along the anticipated deployment curve (zero/zero to high speed/high altitude); this ejected the 28 foot flat circular main canopy, the inflation of which was also adjusted to ejection parameters by a controlled reefing system.
Additional refinements involved a new configuration for survival kit construction, as the previous all-rigid seat kit design had certain inertial characteristics that were less than desirable in many weapons delivery and ACM profiles. In the ACES system the walls and bottom of the seat's bucket provided the rigid containment needed for the kit contents, allowing a soft (non-rigid) kit configuration to be employed. The non-rigid kit contained two subsection containers, one of which contained items needed quickly (termed the "hit & run" kit) that could be scooped up and carried quickly off to a position of cover. Emergency oxygen capability came from a seat mounted bottle/regulator assembly.
Additional work with the ACES system led to a further improved McDonnell-Douglas ACES II rocket propelled ejection seat system, which has since been installed on most modern American combat aircraft. The Advanced Concept Escape System II (ACES II) followed the years of research and investigation spanning the 1968 through 1975 period that produced the original ACES system just referred to. Chief advances on the ACES II Seat are a gyro-stabilized vernier pitch-control rocket, a sustainer rocket, and a controlled force catapult, which together ensure a much greater range of safe ejection attitudes and situations. The system actively monitors (or senses) environmental conditions such as airspeed, temperature, and altitude, and uses a microprocessor controlled electro-explosive system to properly sequence ejection events so as to safely slow, stabilize and recover the crewman from any point within its performance envelope (which is from zero/zero to over 600 knots IAS). The system is claimed to be so effective that it permits escape from an inverted position 155 feet off the ground and from ground level up to 50,000 feet altitude. As might be imagined, much of the earlier Douglas Escapac RAPEC work helped in laying the groundwork for the ACES I and II systems. The ACES II system utilizes an upper seat mounted main parachute configuration, similar to but significantly different from the latest Martin-Baker seats, and is specifically designed to minimize adverse ejection forces such as tumbling and excessive parachute opening shocks. An under-seat non-rigid survival kit is employed in the conventional manner, similarly as was the ACES I counterpart. In 1977 McDonnell-Douglas was awarded a contract to produce the ACES II High Technology Ejection Seat for use in A-10 Thunderbolt, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, following what the company terms a "fly before buy" competition. This culminates the production of more than 6800 ejection seats by the company, according to their statistics. The ACES II system was also installed in the Lockheed F-117 stealth fighter, as well as the Rockwell B-1B and Northrop B-2 stealth bomber. Each application has a slightly customized configuration (for instance, the F16 seat is actuated with a between the legs D-ring, while the B-1B seat has the original bilateral front seat pan control grip actuators first employed by the ACES I seat.
While the ACES II system was until recently arguably the best system American had to provide aircrew escape (the Stencil systems providing much the same capability), the latest American egress technology program is currently underway at this time, being conducted by Boeing in cooperation with the US Air Force. Designated the CREST program (CRew EScape Technology), the purpose of the research is to produce a new generation egress system for the next wave of advanced combat aircraft. Performance criteria for the new open-seat system are reputed to be zero/zero to 70,000 feet and up to Mach 3 speeds, with an "adverse flight configuration" low of 100 feet altitude. The CREST rocket propulsion system will feature 6 to 8 propellant chambers, containing about 60 pounds of propellant, with twin-omni directional thrust nozzles under the control of a microprocessor command unit which has been programmed to recover the pilot from all possible attitudes.
Additionally, the three-part seat program will result in a seat which also provides aircrew protection against high G forces and unusual physical effects while in the aircraft. This is partly required by emerging technologies that include use of what are termed "inherently unstable aerodynamic aircraft" (or aircraft which must be flown with the assistance of computers to maintain aerodynamic stability in flight), and thrust vectoring systems that allow for a far broader range of maneuvering capability with resultant new and unconventional G forces.
It is interesting to note that most recently, a program was also underway in the United States to study the effectiveness of Russian egress systems, the exceptional capabilities of which were most dramatically demonstrated to the whole world by an almost miraculous pilot recovery at the Paris Air Show several years ago, when the Russian pilot's MiG-29 aircraft was literally within a few dozen feet of impacting the ground in a semi-inverted, extremely disadvantageous attitude. Of note are the many advanced features of the Russian seats, and their exceptionally favorable recovery rates, which have been until recently all but ignored by Western egress systems researchers. Much work remains to be done on this but there was at least one cooperative study has been completed investigating the possibility of integrating Russian seats (and/or their technology) into modern high-performance American aircraft--something that would have been inconceivable prior to 1989.
At this time (3/2002) , the decision has been made to continue developing and using US egress technology in the latest US combat aircraft (F-22 Raptor and XF-35 Strke Fighter) programs.
(Permission to use this copyrighted article is granted, provided it is presented as written here and with full author's credit to: Christopher T Carey).
COURTESY OF AEOLUS AEROSPACE
Bailout For The Other Guy
by Phil Rowe
Much has been written over the years about ejection seats and escape systems for pilots. But what about the other guys? How did the navigators, radio operators, flight engineers, crew chiefs, gunners and others get out? That's what we'll look at here in this historical perspective.
The problem of bailing out of airplanes hasn't gotten easier over the years. As planes flew faster and higher, the complications increased as well. Things were much simpler back in the early days.
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In the combat airplanes of World War II, getting out for all crew members was a matter of jumping out of the nearest hatch, window or even the open bomb bay doors. If you had a parachute and could struggle to an opening, you had a chance. Airspeeds were relatively slow, few multi-place planes went faster than 350 knots.
Then came the high speed jet airplanes of the post-WWII period. Speeds increased markedly and altitudes reached 40,000 feet and higher. Getting out of planes in trouble became a real problem. If you could get to an open hatch and manage to jump, you ran the risk of being slammed against the fuselage or other part of the plane by the wind blast. It was difficult.
Jet fighter pilots were getting ejection seats to help them survive. Even bomber pilots found themselves sitting on similar upward firing seats that could clear the aircraft and then parachute them safely to ground. The story was different for the other crew members.
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Among the early airplanes with ejection capabilities for navigators were the B-45 and B-47 medium bombers. The former, a straight-wing 450 mile-per-hour jet, featured a sideways ejection seat for the navigator sitting in the nose. When it was time to bail out, the B-45 navigator left via the port-side hatch as his seat threw him clear of the craft. Of course there was some danger of hitting the engine pod, but when it's time to leave, it's time to leave.
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The B-47, Strategic Air Command's proud swept-wing wonder, offered the navigator a downward ejection seat as the primary escape. Of course that was of concern at low altitudes, but otherwise it gave him a chance of surviving. Spare crew members, like an Instructor Pilot or Instructor Navigator, didn't fare quite as well. Their options included dropping down the entry hatchway or jumping out of the navigator's hatch after he ejected clear.
The enormous B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers came along and didn't offer a whole lot of improvement. The upper ejection seats for pilots and the electronic warfare officer were pretty good, but still the two navigators faced the prospect of ejecting downward. The low altitude bailout problems persisted. And spare crew members were no better off. The tail gunner had his own unique escape option. He merely severed the tail gun and jumped aft out the resulting hole in the rear. Actually, tail gunners had a good survival record.
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Speed kept increasing. The hazards of getting clear of the airplane and surviving the wind blasts, which could break flailing arms and legs, grew worse. Improvements were needed.
Interim measures were taken. Some ejection seats featured pull-down curtains to protect the head and face against the terrific wind blasts. Restraints were added to keep arms and legs from flailing wildly. But those measures only helped the primary crew members who sat in ejection seats. The spare crew or other passengers were still on their own, hoping they could reach an open hatchway and jump to safety.
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Bailing out at ever higher altitudes posed the additional problem of enduring the extreme cold aloft and the thin air which would not support breathing. Oxygen bottles solved the latter problem, while delaying parachute opening until lower altitudes were reached by free-fall helped the former. Automatic, aneroid-operated parachute opening mechanisms were a significant development.
Before we talk about supersonic bombers and the most advanced aircraft, we need to consider the crew members in large tanker and transport airplanes. Neither pilots nor other members of those crews were provided with ejection seats, up or down. Bailing out of many of these planes just wasn't a high priority matter, for being comparable to jet airliners and not as likely to suffer battle damage as bomber as fighters, they were deemed safer. Hence, no ejection systems were added. And besides, commercial airline passengers don't have any bailout options. Do they?
They, the designers and decision-makers, did make minimal provision for bailing crew members out, after a fashion. They adopted the tried and true approaches of telling people to jump from open hatches, doors and open aft cargo ramps. Some planes, like the KC-135 were still considered dangerous. Those flying gas stations, loaded with jet fuel, for themselves and planes they were to refuel in flight, were dangerous. And getting out was not easy.
Jet and turboprop cargo planes like C-130's, C-141's and C-5's relied on the bailout techniques of their earlier prop-driven ancestors. Crew members were expected to get to an available door or hatch and simply jump clear. Not a whole lot of progress has been made for these aviators. But then there was no discrimination between pilots and non-pilots either.
The greatest advances in crew escape systems for both pilots and others came with the B-58, F/FB-111 and the B-1. Supersonic craft, all, they incorporated escape and bailout systems that greatly improved survivability, all that is save for the B-1. The first two craft featured fully enclosed capsules or modules for single or grouped crew members.
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The Mach 2 supersonic B-58 bomber originally came with upward ejection seats for each of the three tandem seated crewmen. There was no room for carrying spare crew members or passengers. The navigator and Defensive System Operator both had the same chance of surviving as did their pilot. But at the extreme speeds of 1400 miles per hour at Mach 2, something was needed. That came in the form of the Stanley Aviation capsule, a clamshell-like enclosed ejection system. All B-58's ( though not the two-pilot trainer versions ) were upgraded with escape capsules.
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Supersonic F\FB-111 fighter-bombers featured an escape module to protect both of the crew members. Like the B-58, F\FB-111's had no room for spare crew members. On ejection, the entire cockpit unit or module separated from the fuselage and rocketed to safety. A parachute system gently lowered the module to earth.
The B-1 developers originally considered an escape module. It failed qualification tests and was dropped in favor of proven upward ejection seats, for both pilots and the two others of the primary crew. Spare crew members were left to their own devices in finding open hatches or doorways.
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It's fair to say that many modern airplanes do provide bailout and escape systems for non-pilots, those on the primary crew. Spare crew and passengers are still left to fend for themselves. On cargo and tanker aircraft, all crew members must rely on decades-old bailout and escape methods. They must find an opening and jump.
Of course fighter pilots and members of one and two-man crew high performance craft are pretty well off, by comparison.
It's all a matter of trade-offs. Don't you think?
Ejection Seat Development
Introduction and Early History
As many of you have read, initially it was considered very "un-manly" to even consider wearing a parachute in an airplane. Several countries made a concerted effort to warn their pilots not to even think about anything other than their assigned mission to think about getting out of the airplane was out of the question. In this country pilot safety was always of some concern, following the first fatality in a military aircraft accident. Through most of WW II it was considered an even bet that should something happen to the aircraft you could use your parachute. Most aircrew members wore them all of the time, usually sitting on the chute that doubled as a seat cushion and merely jumped from the airplane, time and altitude permitting. With the arrival of modern, jet and other types of high performance aircraft, the pilots sought more of an advantage in getting away from the aircraft, often when the pilot was incapacitated or unconscious and the plane crippled. Both the British and American aerospace worked toward enhancing pilot survivability leading to what we have known as the modern ejection seat and its related equipment. Most of the modern seats are known simply as "0-0" (zero-zero) seats, meaning that they are fully capable of ejection of the aircrewmen from "0" feet altitude and without any forward airspeed (as opposed to earlier seats which required a predetermined altitude and speed for safe deployment of the seat and its parachute). As an added note, since I began these notes, Bill Johnson was kind enough to lend me a copy of a book published by the Martin-Baker company in England, in which they very clearly illustrate their early efforts to design and build ejection seats. From all that I have seen, the Martin-Baker company is clearly one of, if not the world's leader in these efforts over the last 45+ years.
Basic Ejection Seat Design and Features:
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|Early U.S. Ejection Seat|
1. Initiating Cable
2. Shoulder Strap (riser)(with inertial reel system)
3. Arm Rest
4. Oxygen & Radio Connections
6. Vertical Seat Adjustment
7. Right Hand Grip
8. Safety Belt
|It appears to me that the greatest interest in modern ejection seats was the direct result of the Navy's interest in their carrier based pilots. For the most part, the other services felt the need was largely one of getting the pilot or crew member out of an aircraft that was at least at altitude. The Navy was confronted with a need to insure the survival of a pilot who was often sitting still or best in the early throws of preflight and may be only a few feet above the deck surface.|
Martin B-57 Ejection Seat (about 1955)
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Key Seat Features
1. Face Curtain Ejection Handle
2. Canopy Breaker
3. Ejection Controls Safety Handle
4. Emergency Release Handle
5. Lower Ejection Handle
6. Shoulder Harness Lock Lever
7. Shoulder Harness Straps
8. Koch Fittings
9. Lap Belts/Harness Straps
10. Personal Services Connector
11. Survival Kit (RSSK-8)
12. Parachute Rip Cord Handle
13. "Remove Before Flight" Safety Pin
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ESCAPAC 1G-2 Seat (with pilot)
The ejection seat is quite an engineering feat in itself. It is usually light weight, yet very strong material, able to withstand the high g-load of the rocket's ejection (from the aircraft), contains the parachute for the crewman, the survival kit (usually in a rigid seat kit, containing the material I mentioned in an earlier article), a separate booster rocket to "right" the seat, some type of stabilizing equipment, separate oxygen supplies for a the crewman (though some of the newer seats like the Martin-Baker SJU series actually contain their own self-contained oxygen generation systems) and the pilot's attachments for the seat, the parachute, survival kit, and communications connectors. These modern seats are really marvels of aerospace engineering.
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Martin-Baker MK H7 Ejection Seat from F-4 Phantom
Large scale models of such a seat would be a very interesting modeling subject in itself. The seat is usually mounted onto or into to the aircraft using a "rail" type of system and often attached to the back of the bulkhead itself, rather than the floor of the aircraft (which appears to be the way most model kits depict them). One should also note that there are still a few "pod" types of ejection systems in operation, such as in the EF-111 and B-1 aircraft, where the entire area around the aircrew is ejected from the aircraft and leaves with the aircrew inside for it's ascent. For the most part however, the basic ejection seats are similar to those described in this article.
Another facet of this story is that until the U.S. started using the Martin-Baker and ESCAPAC style of seats (about the early 60's), most of the early ejection seats were largely "in house" products of the aircraft companies themselves. When one bought a B-52, an F-106 or an F-11, one acquired whatever type of seat the manufacturer provided. These were usually the very basic types of seats. A look at the basic B-57 seat (see page 3) built by the Martin Company in 1955 illustrates this point well I believe.
Ejection Seat Parts and Features:
- High strength, lightweight seat structure of monocoque-type aluminum sheet construction
- An integral ground safety device for ejection controls (this allows for the seat to be "safed" whenever the aircraft is not in service)
- A two-stage rocket catapult (allowing for both the actual "ejection" of the seat and pilot from the aircraft and the "righting" of the seat)
- Flip-up or fixed canopy breakers to allow safe ejection through the canopy (hence the height restrictions on some pilots today)
- Two ejection controls: a face curtain ejection handle and a lower ejection handle located on the forward or side edge of the seat bucket
- An MA-2 integrated torso harness which provides positive torso restraint during the flight, crash, and parachute opening loads
- A rigid seat survival kit contains the emergency oxygen supply and survival equipment. Two hooks on the front of the survival kit cause the survival kit to rotate straight forward out of the seat during pilot/seat separation. A survival kit release handle is located on the right side of the seat which will release the life raft and survival equipment (attached by a 25-foot lanyard)
- An actuator cable is attached to radio beacon in the survival kit so that automatic actuation of the beacon occurs upon seat separation from the aircraft.
- A seat stabilization consisting of two braking devices attached to the bottom of the seat
- Pilot's services (anti-g, exposure suit ventilation, and oxygen/communication) which plug into the aft portion of the left console. These lines pull free at their disconnects upon ejection.
Modern ejection seats are highly developed technological wonders! One could imagine what would happen if a modern techno-thriller author like Tom Clancy were to learn about these seats and include this type of knowledge into a book of his fiction!
These parts are the major components only. Believe me, I am skimming the surface. When you look into the individual seats, one will quickly find many added subsystems and functional parts. In the case of the ESCAPAC 1G-2 seat illustrated throughout this article, the seat manual alone runs over 400 pages of parts and instructions. The rigid seat survival kit, without its contents, is over 40 pages of diagrams and instructions. It is very easy to understand why the current generation of ejection seats are no longer a simple aluminum frame, but rather a million dollar plus engineering facet of the aircraft itself.
Another limiting factor which demonstrates the cost of these seats is that the government has apparently stopped the practice of providing an ejection seat to each pilot who has survived their ejection from a modern jet. The cost of a modern ejection seat prohibits it from being removed from inventory unless damaged beyond repair.
Pilot Chute Canopy Suspension Lines Harness Pack
It is also appropriate that we concern ourselves briefly with the parachute itself and its basic nomenclature. This will permit you to have a better understanding of the complexity of the ejection seat, the firing sequence and the pilots eventual ascent. The basic parachute is comprised of several major parts, as illustrated in the drawing below.
It is important to understand the pilot is attached to the seat, which is turn attached to the aircraft. The pilot's attachment is intended to be a strong one and designed to carry him with the seat should it or he become separated from the aircraft. Much of this attachment system is intended to act and or perform independent of the pilot himself (I'll use the old fashioned "him" but should point out that there are both men and women flying in military aircraft today). The way this is done is through the basic torso harness (which is usually separate from the pilots "G-suit" and survival vest or equipment, but not always, some pilots chose to have their survival vest or "suit" sewn onto the torso harness. In modern U.S. equipment this is usually the MA-2 lightweight harness (which is lightweight only when considered next to the aircraft itself). It is very constricting and if worn properly may not allow the pilot to walk fully erect while on the ground. Such a harness is shown below, both with the harness' nylon covering cut away (the way most pilots choose to use it), with the nylon "body" in place and as it might appear on a pilot (with the balance of the survival vest and oxygen mask attached).
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Pilot's Attachment to the seat:
MA-2 Harness (without nylon enclosure) MA-2 Harness on aviator (with nylon enclosure)
Typical Koch Fittings
Attaching oneself to the seat isn't always as easy as you might think. The actual attachment of the pilot (already safely buckled into his harness) is usually a matter of attaching only four location points (two at the waist or lap belt and two on the shoulder harnesses) and usually done using Koch release fittings. These are spring loaded devices which contain two openings and are designed to prevent accidental openings (as one moves about in or out of the cockpit). The shoulder strap Koch fittings also now commonly contain a small cylinder device called SEAWARS release fittings (automatic sea water actuated release system). These automatically release the parachute risers from these Koch fittings whenever submerged in sea water.
There are also usually leg garters worn by the crewman to prevent his legs from moving away from the seat during the ejection sequence (and often employ a device to pull the legs back and down against the seat front). Keeping ones hands, arms and legs close to the seat is of great importance as the pilot and seat are ejected from the aircraft. It is also the reason that the preferred method of ejection initiation is for the crewmen to use both hands and pull the face curtain down over their helmet. When done properly, this keeps the pilots' arms and hands in a safe position and greatly reduces the traumatic effects which usually accompany automatic or involuntary departures from the aircraft. As you can see from the M-B MK 7 drawing, there are often two sets of garters, an upper and lower, which provide even greater support for the pilot's legs.
The pilot is also "plugged into" the aircraft, normally at their left side using a simple (and uniform) connector, which supplies him with oxygen, air for his g-suit and communications connections for his helmet and mask (to the aircraft). After these connections are made, normally the pilot's seat safety pins are removed and the seat is ready for full operation. This final step is normally not taken until the final moments before the aircraft is about to be started, for the simple reasons that the operation of the seat may result in ejection when not necessary. Many of you will remember the sad story of the small child who was killed during his ejection from an S-3 about 15 years ago during an airshow demonstration. The crew had left a seat in the "unsafe" configuration and the seat was fired while the child was sitting in it. For these reasons, the "insertion" of the air crewman is usually done (like almost every aspect of aviation) using two critical tools: a crew chief and a checklist.
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Attachment points to shoulder straps
MA-2 Harness with survival vest and seat attachments
(without nylon enclosure)
MA-2 Harness on dashing
Ejection Initiation, Sequence and Timing:
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Two-handed grip on lower handle Both hands grip face curtain Both hands pull face curtain down and over helmet
One would think it might be easy to "just get out of the airplane" and "hit the silk." You've seen it the Flying Tigers and many other Hollywood epics. The pilots pull back the canopy, stand up (often not even taking the time to undo their seat belts...I'm telling you, those were when men were real men....), stand out on the wing and jump into the mattresses carefully laid out for them. I've spoken with two members of the Caterpillar Club (both Navy pilots) who, during WW II, jumped and survived. Neither thought it was such a neat deal at the time and both thanked their stars and God to be alive after the experience. Two other acquaintances related their experiences in "leaving" an F-4 and F-8; both said they never really wanted to go through it again, their ejection seats both "worked as advertised" and they say "it was the most thrilling ride they did not want to take." They each sustained some minor physical damage. One lost his rear seat RIO. As a direct result of the all to numerous ejections encountered in our Viet Nam efforts, the current seats are much more highly automated than earlier seats and have built-in features which will hopefully greatly increase the pilots survival, even when unaware of the ejection. Current U.S. military studies point to about a 90% survival rate when the ejection suit is properly deployed.
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|Step 1: Ejection initiated by pilot using face curtain||Step 2: Canopy blown||
Step 3: Ejection seat departs a/c
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Step 4: Seat leaves a/c, pilot is separated from seat, pilot and main chute deploy with survival kit and raft deployed beneath pilot
Beginning the initiation process (assuming the pilot is capable of doing so under his own power) is normally handled in one of two methods: (1) using the lower handle (between the legs and in front of the seat) or (2) using the face curtain. Both methods are best illustrated above.
For the best understanding, I have "borrowed" several drawings, which I hope will better illustrate the ejection sequence itself. The first of these shows the sequence in the order of ejection (from an A-7), the second set, to give a bit more detail to the major steps as the pilot is ejected (again from an A-7) and the third, the actual times involved in the full ejection sequence. As you will see from the time-line graph, the entire time, from initiation of the pilot's ejection sequence in only about 5 seconds! The timing is quite precise and very quick as you will notice. In an aircraft such as the F-14, F/A-18 or EA-6B (which has four ejection seats and aircrew positions) the timing is even more critical and there are built-in time lapse sequences between the various seats as they are fired and ejected from the aircraft
In an EA-6B, for example the timing sequence is even more critical, when you realize there are often a full crew of 3 or 4 pilots and NFOs (or ECMO: electronic counter measures officer) in the aircraft, each of which has to have his precise departure from the aircraft in a very exact position and apart from the others.
Their sequence is (following the ejection initiation):
ECMO 3 (left rear position) 0 sec's
ECMO 2 (right rear position) 0.40 sec's
ECMO 1 (right front position) 0.80 sec's
Pilot (left front position) 1.20 sec's
There are a few other small details incorporated into modern seats. One is the ability for the seat to work effectively underwater (should the aircraft be submerged), with full oxygen supply to the pilot (assuming his oxygen mask is in place) and the ability of the pilot's parachute and harness to separate while in the water. One was mentioned earlier in these notes. The Navy (and subsequently all services) have incorporated this unique device in the parachute harnesses called "SEAWARS" releases. It automatically releases the chute from the pilot's harness as it senses salt water, thereby relieving them of the often fatal drag of water into the parachute. While it may seem like fun to be in the water, apparently drowning in the sea is one of the most common problems encountered by pilots downed at sea.
History Of Aircraft Escape System Propulsion
This information is provided by the courtesy of R. F. Sadler, of B. F. Goodrich Areospace.
R. F., Sadler
Universal Propulsion Company, Inc.
E. B. Skinner
Talley Industries of Arizona, Inc.
A brief history of the use of propulsive elements in aircrew escape systems is presented. For the purposes of this history, both closed propulsion elements (catapults), as well as rocket motors are considered since early ejector seats depended solely on catapults for their motive source. Applications of rocket motors other than for providing the main impetus to the escape system are also considered in more recent systems. Information contained in this history was obtained from all types of literature both published and unpublished, as well as from discussions with individuals who have been involved in the escape system arena from its infancy.
Almost since the first days of flight man has been concerned with the safe escape from an aircraft which was no longer flyable. Early escape equipment consisted of a recovery parachute only. As aircraft performance rapidly increased during World War II, it became necessary to assist the crewmen in gaining clear safe separation from the aircraft. This was accomplished with an ejector seat which was powered by a propellant driven catapult - the first use of a propulsive element in aircrew escape. Since then, this collection of component has evolved through several generations into today's relatively complex systems which are highly dependent upon propulsive elements. Today, propulsive elements (rocket motors, specifically) are used to stabilize the ejected mass, provide trajectory steering, jettison aircraft canopies, provide positive separation of the ejected seat from the crew member, generate the force necessary to rapidly extract a parachute from its container, all in addition to the basic function of providing clear safe separation from the aircraft. Since the first operational ejections from aircraft, nearly 6,800 successful non-combat ejections have taken place from US Navy and US Air Force aircraft alone. In savings to the taxpayer, that amounts to over 8 billion dollars, based on the current average training cost of 1.2 million dollars per aircrew member,
THE EARLY DAYS
The first operational use of a propulsive element to assist an aircrew to escape from an aircraft apparently occurred during World War II. It appears that the country to receive credit for the first operational system was Germany, as it is known that approximately 60 successful ejections were made from German aircraft during World War II. It is interesting to note, however, that the first aircraft ejection seat was designed and tested (successfully) with a dummy in 1910 by J. S. Zerbe in Los Angeles, California, apparently using bungee cords for propulsion. This was one year before the first parachutist successfully, jumped from an aircraft.
German tests of escape systems started as early as 1938. Initial designs used compressed air for propulsion, but this approach was abandoned due to high weight, low performance, and maintenance problems. Their next step was apparently to investigate propellant powered seats. A parachutist by the name of Busse made the first live ejection from a propellant powered seat. Propellant powered seats were operational in German aircraft by 1944.
As an example of the degree of development of escape system propulsion in Germany during World War II, the Dornier DO335 presented both a unique aircraft from an aerodynamic view, as well as from the escape system propulsion point of view. The aircraft having both a tractor and pusher airscrew, as well as dorsal and ventral centerline fins, presented a unique challenge to the aircrew who needed to escape in flight. To that end, this aircraft utilized explosive bolts and other propellant driven devices to jettison the dorsal tail and the pusher airscrew, as well as the ejector seat. It is not known if this system was ever used. Other German aircraft fitted with the propellant driven ejector seats included the ME-163B, ME-262, Heinkel HE-162, HE-219 (with the two seats), and HE-280.
Another country involved in early ejection seat work was Sweden. Initial experiments were made by SAAB in 1942 using propellant powered seats. The first successful dummy in-flight ejection was on 8 January 1942. A successful live ejection was made on 29 July 1946.
In the US, the Army Air Corps picked up in 1936 where Mr. Zerbe left off when they began considering experimentation with high performance pusher prop aircraft. A funded study was conducted in 1940 to investigate escape from such aircraft. In June of 1944 a contract was let to Vultee for the XP-54 aircraft which had a pusher propeller behind the cockpit. This aircraft (only two of which were built) became the first US aircraft to have a positive ejection device. In this ease, the seat was pivoted downwards through a hatch in the belly of the aircraft. A spring was used as the propulsive mechanism.
In England Martin-Baker had begun evaluating methods of positive escape from an aircraft in the early summer of 1944 for the Ministry of Aircraft Production. In order to provide a system that could be retrofitted to existing aircraft which had insufficient clearance in their cockpits to allow ejection of the seat, Martin-Baker proposed a spring powered swinging arm concept. The aft end of the arm pivoted at a point near the base of the vertical tail and the forward end attached to the aircrew's parachute harness. At actuation, the arm effectively extracted the crewmember from the cockpit. This approach was dropped when it became obvious that retrofit was not practical. The next approach presented was that of ejecting the seat using a propellant powered catapult. The first live Martin-Baker ejection took place on 24 January 1945, on a 16 foot vertical ejection test tower using a propellant powered seat.
At the end of World War II both the British and Americans acquired German and Swedish ejection seats and data. This information and equipment added impetus to their efforts. The first live flight test in England occurred on 24 July 1946 when Mr. Bernard Lynch ejected from a Meteor III aircraft at 320 mph IAS at 8,000 feet, using a prototype propellant powered Martin-Baker MK I seat. On 17 August 1946 First Sergeant Larry Lambert ejected from a P61B at 300 mph IAS at 7,800 feet to become the first live in-flight US ejection test.
All of these early seats were a collection of component including a parachute, a seat structure to which the aircrew and parachute were firmly attached, and a propulsive element which forcibly separated the seat and its contents from the aircraft. This early propulsive element has been called a gun or catapult and, is in essence, a closed telescoping tube arrangement containing a propellant charge to forcibly extend the tubes, thereby imparting the necessary separation velocity to the "ejector seat" and its contents.
All of this effort culminated in ejection seats being fitted to early operational jet aircraft in both the US and Britain. The first British emergency ejection occurred from an out-of-control flying wing on 30 May 1949. The first operational British aircraft with a propellant driven ejector seat was the Meteor. The first operational ejection from it occurred on 11 November 1951 over Korea. Meanwhile, in the US the first US Navy operational ejection occurred on 9 August 1949, while the first operational USAF ejection occurred from an F-86 fighter on 29 August 1949.
To this point in time, then the development of escape propulsion consisted of refining the propellant driven catapult or gun. While many different catapults were designed, developed, qualified, and produced, they all basically fell into two design categories: the short-stroke catapult, and telescoping tube catapult. The former is a two-tube device, one of which is attached to the aircraft, and the other attached to the seat. The two tubes are nested one inside the other and are attached to each other by some type of locking device. A propellant charge is contained in one of the tubes which when fired, unlocks the two tubes from each other and then provides the necessary gas pressure to accelerate and separate the two tubes, thereby ejecting the seat from the aircraft. Typical stroke to separation of the tubes was about 30 inches, and separation velocity was as high as 50 feet per second. The factor limiting separation velocity was acceleration and rate of acceleration change or onset rate as seen by the aircrew's spinal column.
The second category of catapults utilized three tubes nested one inside the other to achieve separation velocities as high as 83 feet per second from a total of 72 inches of stroke Typically, the US catapults of this type used a single propellant cartridge and provided separation velocities closer to 60 feet per second, while the British catapults (Martin-Baker) utilized a primary and two subsequently staged cartridges to achieve the higher velocity.
APPLICATION OF ROCKET MOTORS
The jet engine continued to increase the performance of post World War II aircraft, and it was not long before the limitations of the simple ejector seat become apparent. Two such areas of limitations were: (1) Inability of the ejected seat to clear the aircraft's vertical tail at high speed, and (2) The potential for windblast injury to the aircrew forced to eject under high "Q" conditions. Propulsive elements were involved in the solutions to these problem areas.
The problem of achieving tail clearance was approached in several ways. As indicated earlier, the German approach was to jettison the vertical or dorsal surface. One approach taken in the US was to eject the seat downwards, rather than upwards. This approach had serious shortcomings when the ejection occurred at low altitudes. Another approach was to increase the catapult output sufficiently to provide adequate tail clearance. While successful in clearing the tail, this approach was also very successful in inducing spinal injury to the aircrew.
The problem was finally addressed successfully by combining a rocket motor with the catapult to form a two-stage propulsion system for the seat. The catapult remained as the initial booster to get the seat/man mass clear of the cockpit, while the rocket motor came on line, once clear of the cockpit, to act in a sustainer mode. When combined into a single unit, this propulsive element was termed the rocket catapult. The first USAF rocket catapult, the TALCO Engineering Co. 1057, was installed in the F-102 in 1958. Shortly after this, the first USN rocket catapults, the RAPEC I for the A-4 and the TALCO Engineering Co. 1192 for the T-2, became operational. Propellants used in the RAPEC were double base, as were most previous escape propulsion units. The 1057 and 1192 units were unique in that they used a composite propellant. This basic rocket catapult configured seat is illustrated in Figure 1.
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A slightly different approach was taken by Martin-Baker in England. The catapult was maintained as separate component, and the rocket motor was located separately under the seat bottom. This configuration is illustrated in figure 2, and is, if not unique, certainly rare in its use of multiple propellant tubes feeding into a single nozzled manifold. Propellant is double base. This propulsion concept was extensively tested, culminating in a live static (zero airspeed and zero altitude) test on 1 April 1961. The test was repeated at the Paris Air Show of the same year.
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The Stencel Aero Engineering Company of Asheville, North Carolina, likewise utilizes separate catapult and rocket motors. However, their system consists of twin catapult tubes which also do duty as the main seat structural beams. Rocket motors are located on both sides of the seat at the aft extremity, and they are termed "SBR's" for "Seat Back Rockets." Figure 3 illustrates this variation. Composite propellant is used.
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In summary, then, the next major step in escape propulsion evolution was the addition of the rocket motor to the ejection seat to compliment the catapult. In general, the first rocket catapults were categorized as "low impulse" units, indicating that the rocket motor delivered from 800-1,000 pound-seconds of impulse, in addition to that provided by the catapult. This additional impulse was sufficient to provide tail clearance at high speed and to provide recovery from ground level at speed, when used in conjunction with other ejection seat improvements.
Emphasis was initially placed, however, on high speed recovery. As time progressed it became obvious that many ejection fatalities were occurring at low speed close to the ground. Hence, in the mid-1960's, the "high impulse" rocket/catapult system was put into service to provide static (zero airspeed, zero altitude) recovery capability in conjunction with the current seats. High impulse generally designated that the rocket motor portion of the system provided approximately 2,000 pound-seconds of impulse. function time of the rocket was .5-.6 seconds, and the increase in impulse compared to the low impulse unit generally provided additional trajectory height which translated into additional time available for all of the automatic ejection seat functions to occur.
Today the advent of high performance aircraft operating at very high speed and very close to the ground have necessitated that the escape system designer reduce the total time from ejection initiation to full parachute to the absolute minimum consistent with human physiological tolerances. This has necessitated shortening rocket function time and hence impulse. Current generation rocket propulsion units are again sized to deliver 1,000-1,100 pound-seconds of impulse. When combined with much faster parachute systems, the low impulse units can still provide zero-zero recovery capability while at the same time provide greatly improved adverse attitude recovery capability.
Another interesting escape system propulsion concept Is that of the Stanley Aviation Yankee (now produced by Stencel Aero engineering and called the Ranger extraction System. This system utilizes a tractor rocket which Is ejected or catapulted away from the aircraft above the cockpit. It is attached to the crewmember by a pendant. When the rocket motor reaches pendant line stretch, It Is fired and tows or extracts the crewmember clear of the aircraft. This concept is illustrated in Figure 4.
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High speed windblast protection was originally addressed by providing some type of encapsulation for the aircrew. This approach was heavier than the open seat, necessitating larger propulsion systems. The first such capsule was developed by Douglas Aircraft Company under contract to the US Navy for the F-4D Skyray. While this capsule never was installed in the aircraft, it was tested at China Lake. The propulsion system was developed by AeroJet Engineering and provided approximately 9,000 pounds of thrust for .3 seconds. It also provided bleed gas for drogue parachute deployment and fin extension. Testing was accomplished in 1951 - 1952. Other capsules, encapsulated seats, etc., were designed and tested, including a separable nose section for the F-104. Rocket motor impulses ranged from under 1,000 pound-seconds, all the way to 40,800 pound-seconds for the proposed Boeing ADO-12 airplane nose capsule.
Other propellant powered devices evolved during post World War II to assist the aircrew in achieving safe escape. Their functions included limb positioning and restraint, torso positioning and restraint, seat positioning, canopy jettison, seat/man release and separation, and aerodynamic stabilization.
RECENT APPLICATION OF ROCKETS TO ESCAPE SYSTEMS
The open ejection seat, as well as the escape capsule have gone through a continuous evolution to the point where today they have become "systems" by providing all or nearly all of the functions necessary for the aircrew to complete a safe escape end recovery. A typical ejection sequence includes the following functions which occur generally in the order listed, following initiation by the crewmember .
1. Canopy or hatch jettison
2. Crewmember torso positioning and restraint
3. Clearance of work station equipment from ejection path
4. Seat ejection/crewmember extraction .
5. Seat stabilization
6. Seat trajectory control
7. Drogue parachute deployment
8. Seat man separation
9. Recovery parachute deployment and inflation
10. Survival gear deployment
11. Parachute release upon water entry.
Many of these functions are provided by rocket motors, as shown in Table 1.
Click on Picture to enlarge
Many powered escape capsule configurations have been conceptualized, designed, and even fabricated and tested since the early days of escape systems. However, of the many, only four made it into flying aircraft, and of these four, only two made It into production aircraft. The four are: 1) B-58 Encapsulated Seat, 2) B-70 Encapsulated Seat, 3) F-111 Escape Capsule, and 4) B-1 Escape Capsule. Other capsules of note include the Mercury and Apollo Command Modules, which could be towed away in total from the launch vehicle by large solid propellant motors.
Both the B-58 and B-70 Encapsulated Seats used rocket catapults for their main propulsive elements. The B-58 system utilized twin rocket catapults, each delivering approximately 1,475 pound-seconds of impulse from the rocket portion. The B-70 system utilized a single rocket catapult delivering, approximately 3,500 pound-seconds of impulse from the rocket portion.
The B-1 and F-111 Capsule departed from the catapult boost/rocket motor sustainer approach and evolved around the rocket motor only.
Click on Picture to enlarge
The B-1 capsule which is fitted to the first three prototype aircraft uses two identical spherical rocket motors for propulsion. One motor is mounted so that it can be gimbaled In the pitch plane of the capsule and the second In the roll plane. Both motors are, therefore, used for propulsion, as well as for capsule stabilization and trajectory control, in accordance with an inboard control system. Figure 5 illustrates the B-1 configuration.
Click on Picture to enlarge
The basic motor configuration is a 20 inch sphere. Nominal delivered impulse Is 34,000 pound-seconds which is delivered in two phases: an initial boost phase followed immediately by a sustain phase. Nominal thrust for the boost and sustain phases are 44,270 pounds and 15,260 pounds respectively. Boost burn time nominal is .369 seconds and sustain burn time nominal is 1.075 seconds.
The F-111 motor is a cylindrical unit with three separate nozzles, one at the lower end (as mounted In the capsule) called the primary nozzle and secondary and auxiliary nozzles located at the opposite or upper end. In ejection below 300 knots, the motor thrusts through the primary nozzle and through the auxiliary nozzle. Above 300 knots the secondary nozzle replaces the auxiliary nozzle after about .15 seconds of motor burn. The purpose of the secondary and auxiliary nozzles is to produce a nose-down moment to counteract an aerodynamic pitch-up moment Inherent in the capsule. Total impulse for the motor varies between 21,400 and 23,600 pound-seconds ambient. Figure 6 illustrates the F-111 configuration.
CURRENT ESCAPE SYSTEM PROPULSION APPLICATIONS
With very few exceptions, the escape systems in use today all use at least one rocket motor. Several use more than one motor and two operational systems use four different motors. Table II lists the aircraft, the ejection seat, and the specific rocket motor applications of some typical systems.
Click on Picture to enlarge
Other specific/representative current state-of-the-art open escape systems (ejector seats) using rocket motors include the USN/Stencel Aero Engineering SIIIS seat system, the USAF/Lockheed SR-71 seat system (which was also used in the Space Shuttle Test Orbiters), the Stencel Aero Engineering Ranger Extraction System, and the USN/McDonnell Douglas ESCAPAC IG seat system series. Other open escape systems included those used in the X-15 and the Gemini space vehicles.
The ESCAPAC IE-1 seat holds the current record for the number of separate rocket motors per seat (four) each performing a different function. These functions are: seat ejection by MK 16 Mod 1 rocket catapult (1,100 pound-second rocket phase), trajectory divergence by MK 83/MK 85 yaw motors (11 and 22 pound-seconds respectively), seat stabilization by MK 84 vernier motor (250 pound-seconds), and seat-man-separation by MK 82 motor (100 pound-seconds).
Click on Picture to enlarge
The ESCAPAC IE-1 is used in the Lockheed/US Navy S-3A aircraft, which is equipped with four seats per aircraft. In a normal escape system sequence, the rear side-by-side pair of seats are ejected simultaneously followed by the front pair of seats approximately .75 seconds later. A typical function sequence of a single IE-1 seat system is presented to illustrate the rapidity of a typical escape sequence, as well as the short function time of the rocket motors:
T=0 Catapult portion of MK 16 rocket catapult fires and begins to move seat up the rails.
T= + 150 ms. Seat clears the ejection rails at approximately 50 feet per second and is essentially clear of surrounding cockpit structure.
Rocket portion of MK 16 rocket catapult ignites. MK 84 vernier motor fires, and commences to gimbals in response to gyro inputs to counteract any adverse pitch changes.
MK 83/MK 85 yaw motor fires to induce slight yaw moment into seat to assure separation from adjacent ejection seat. Burn time is approximately 100 milliseconds. (Rear seats are equipped with MK 85 motors, while front seats use MK 83 motors . This assures that the rear seats yaw more than the front seats to provide four separate trajectories.)
T= + 500 ms. MK 16, MK 83/MK 85, and MK 84 rocket motors, all have burned out. Seat is between 100 and 200 feet above ejection altitude. depending upon conditions.
T= + 520 ms. MK 82 seat-man-separator motor fires at the same time the cartridge fires to release crewmember and his equipment from seat. Seat is positively separated from crewmember. Parachute pack is opened by cartridge-actuated opener and parachute deployment commences.
T= + 2.5 - 4.0 sec. Parachute fully inflated.
The rocket motor has proven to be the only stored energy source which can provide the needed force versus time output consistent with both the human physiological limitations and the necessity to decrease escape system total functioning time to the absolute minimum.
Since the human physiological limits are not likely to change as rapidly as the performance envelope of the next generation of combat aircraft, it seems likely that the rocket motor will continue to be a key part of future escape systems.
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<urn:uuid:d895cf05-307d-4beb-8390-5ac13d590bac>
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http://www.456fis.org/EJECTION_SEAT_HISTORY.htm
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| 0.963947
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for National Geographic News
When Mount St. Helens erupted 25 years ago, the north face of the volcano collapsed in a massive rock-debris avalanche. The landslide and the accompanying flow of searing gases instantly obliterated the surrounding landscape in southwestern Washington State on May 18, 1980.
(Recent eruptions have been markedly less cataclysmicsee recent photo.)
In 1980, after flying in by helicopter, Virginia Dale was among the first ecologists to see the devastation up front.
"It appeared to be totally lifeless," said Dale, who works at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. "Everything was gray. There was nothing there."
Or so it seemed.
On closer inspection Dale found pockets of survival, often something as small as a piece of root close to the surface. When she came back in summer, she saw that a few herbs known as lupines had begun to spring to life. "The fact that anything could do that was just phenomenal," she said.
In fact, scientists are stunned at the area's recovery. In the 25 years since the eruption, Dale has counted more than 150 species of wildflowers, shrubs, and trees that have returned to the debris deposit she has been studying.
To Dale and other scientists, Mount St. Helens has been a unique natural laboratory in which to test models of ecological recovery after a natural disaster.
The ecological recovery turned out to be different than the models had predicted. "The patterns of impact and destruction were not as anticipated, and survival and establishment [of new plants and animals in affected areas] have also been different than theory would have predicted," Dale said.
Dale, who received National Geographic Society funding for her research, is the co-editor of a new book, Ecological Responses to the 1980 Eruptions of Mount St. Helens. The book documents the research of dozens of scientists studying Mount St. Helen's comeback. She is also the co-author of an article on the St. Helens that appears this week in the academic journal Science.
Breaking the Rules
Mount St. Helens erupted with 500 times the force of the Hiroshima atomic blast. The accompanying landslide was the largest in recorded history. Forests, meadows, streams, and lakes were turned into ash-gray wastelands.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0513_050513_mountsthelens.html
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| 0.980053
| 486
| 4.09375
| 4
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1) Lightning does strike more than once.
2) Schwartz's Law: The observed snowfall exponentially decreases according to the amount of time spent discussing the expected snowfall and the general excitement of the group conducting the discussion.
3) Consensus (the average of all independent forecasts) is tough to beat.
4) The laws of thermodynamics: (i) you can't win, you can only break even; (ii) you can only break even at absolute zero; (iii) you can never reach absolute zero.
5) Forecasting thermodynamics: (i) you can't win, you can only break even; (ii) you can only break even if no weather is happening; (iii) weather is always happening.
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<urn:uuid:1cb62dca-7910-42fc-bf3f-e155903679d9>
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https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/roebber/www/laws.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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| 0.909868
| 152
| 2.515625
| 3
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Scramjet engine for X-30 SSTO. 1372.9 kN. Development ended 1992. Thrust is maximum sea level thrust; specific impulse is average during ascent. Isp=1550s. Propellant Slush LH2.
Thrust (sl): 1,372.900 kN (308,640 lbf). Thrust (sl): 140,000 kgf.
Status: Development ended 1992.
More... - Chronology...
Diameter: 16.00 m (52.00 ft).
Thrust: 1,372.90 kN (308,640 lbf).
Specific impulse: 1,550 s.
Burn time: 886 s.
Associated Launch Vehicles
Tu-2000 Russian winged orbital launch vehicle. This Soviet equivalent to the US X-30 single-stage-to-orbit scramjet aerospaceplane began development in1986. Three versions were planned: a Mach 6 test vehicle, under construction at cancellation of the program in 1992; a Mach 6 intercontinental bomber; and a single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. More...
X-30 American SSTO winged orbital launch vehicle. Air-breathing scramjet single stage to orbit. Second attempt after study of similar proposal in early 1960's. Cancelled due to cost, technical challenges. More...
Air/Slush LH2 Ambient air (78 % nitrogen, 21% oxygen, etc.) is scooped up by air intakes and used in turbojet, turbofan, ramjet, scramjet, or other airbreathing engines as an oxidiser. Slush hydrogen is formed by taking liquid hydrogen down to nearly the melting point. This produces a partly-solidified but still mobile version of the fuel with 20% greater density than liquid hydrogen itself. Proposed for use from the 1980's in air-breathing and rocket-powered single-stage-to-orbit vehicles where maximization of fuel weight to empty weight is absolutely essential. More...
Tu-2000 Airbreathing Slush LH2 propellant rocket stage. Loaded/empty mass 90,000/40,000 kg. Thrust 882.00 kN. Specific impulse 1550 seconds. Aerospaceplane to compete with American X-30. Single stage to orbit, scramjet air breather. Tupolev assigned to start work in 1993. Mockup built, and some subscale flights to Mach 6 on tactical missiles of scramjet model, but project now dormant due to lack of funds. Wing area 160 square meters, wing sweep 70 degrees. Two crew. More...
X-30 Scramjet/Slush LH2 propellant rocket stage. Loaded/empty mass 140,000/60,000 kg. Thrust 1,370.00 kN. Specific impulse 1550 seconds. More...
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<urn:uuid:cb79f1c1-36a5-4d7d-b362-a39719338c53>
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http://www.astronautix.com/engines/scramjet.htm
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Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have found that genetic characteristics seen in about half the population leave allergy-sufferers particularly susceptible to the effects of diesel particles. Results appear in the Jan. 10 issue of Lancet.
"We've known that diesel exhaust particles worsen symptoms in individuals who respond to allergens, such as pollen, but this study suggests a direct way that pollution could be triggering allergies and asthma in a large number of susceptible individuals, and perhaps a new route of intervention," says Frank D. Gilliland, M.D., Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School and the study's lead author.
Exposure to air pollution is related to numerous health effects, including respiratory allergies. In this study, researchers sought to understand how pollutants from diesel exhaust might cause inflammation in the lungs.
Diesel exhaust particles are thought to act by causing the production of molecules called reactive oxygen radicals (hydrogen peroxide, for example) in the lungs' airways. In response, the immune system pumps out substances that cause allergy symptoms.
But compounds called antioxidants can detoxify these particles and temper the body's allergic inflammatory response. Researchers suspect that the better the body can use antioxidants to defend itself, the better it can protect itself from airborne pollutants.
With that in mind, researchers investigated a family of antioxidant-related enzymes found in the lungs. Two of these enzymes are called glutathione S-transferase M1, or GSTM1, and glutathione S-transferase P1, or GSTP1. The GSTM1 and GSTP1 genes are responsible for creating each of the enzymes, which help the lungs detoxify pollutant products and defuse oxidants before they can cause damage.
GSTM1 occurs in two common forms in the population-either "present" or "null." Differences between present and null forms are small, but they may mean a lot. People born with two of the null form of the gene cannot produce the GSTM1 protective enzyme at all. About 50 percent of the population falls into this category.
Meanwhile, the GSTP1 gene can occur with a common variation called ile105. People born with two of the ile105 form of the gene produce a less-effective form of the GSTP1 enzyme. This less-effective form occurs in about 40 percent of the population.
In this clinical trial, the research team enrolled 19 people with known allergies to ragweed. They sampled participants' DNA to discern which forms of the GSTM1, GSTP1 and other similar genes they had.
Over the next few months, researchers twice gave each participant two treatments: nose spray containing either a dose of ragweed allergen and diesel exhaust particles or spray containing ragweed allergen and a placebo. The amount of diesel particles given was about what someone would experience during 40 hours spent in Southern California.
After administering the spray, researchers measured participants' nasal allergic episodes. They found that participants who lacked the GSTM1 enzyme had a larger allergic response than others. Also, those participants who lacked GSTM1 and had at least one GSTP1 ile105 genetic variant had an even larger allergic response to diesel exhaust particles than did the participants with the other versions of the genes. Researchers estimate that 15 to 20 percent of the population has both genetic variations. This represents a large group especially susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution.
Further studies are needed to find other genetic variations that may put some at risk for pollution-related lung health problems, and possibly even to cardiovascular events such as heart attacks. Such research may suggest targets for drug interventions.
The work was supported by the Children's Environmental Health Center, which is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency and is based at the Keck School of Medicine. The UCLA Asthma, Allergy and Immunologic Disease Center, which is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also supported the research. Additional support came from the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center, funded by the NIEHS, and the Hastings Foundation.
Frank D. Gilliland, Yu-Fen Li, Andrew Saxon and David Diaz-Sanchez, "Effect of glutathione-transferase m1 and p1 genotypes on xenobiotic enhancement of allergic responses," Lancet. Vol. 363, No. 9403.
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Like Corvettes, the sloop was a slow escort (16 knots) vessel, small and somewhat lightly armed. The main design element of this type of ship was long voyages so they could outperform the corvette in this regard.
They were intended for the Mediterranean and South Pacific service which made them cold and miserable ships in the more hostile North Atlantic. One class, Black Swan, that was designed just before the war, was faster (19 knots) and carried more anti-aircraft armament. Sloops generally carried a large number of depth charges and were very well equipped with sensors making then effective U-boat hunters.
The Royal Navy's escort sloop emphasized range and anti- aircraft protection on a destroyer size hull. Destroyers, by contrast, emphasized high speed, low angle guns, and torpedoes for their fleet screen duties. A sloop achieved half a destroyer's speed on 1/10 the horsepower; but ASDIC was useless at higher speeds, and more economical engines offered greater endurance. Destroyer construction took precedence between the wars because destroyers could undertake convoy escort, but sloops could never effectively screen the battle fleet.
The sloop was favored by perhaps the most famous of all Allied ASW commander was Captain Johnnie Walker, RN. Under his command the sloop HMS Starling became the most successful U-boat killer of all.
All Sloop classes (in service with the Italian Navy).
|Eritrea (1)||1937 - 1937|
Please note that we list the classes by navies that initiated/owned the class. Often vessels of certain classes were then built for other nations (or lent), those ships are not visible here but only through the navies pages or by looking into each class.
War losses: Sloops
|30 Apr 1940||HMS Bittern (L 07)||Bittern|
|14 May 1940||HNMS Johan Maurits van Nassau (i)||Johan Maurits van Nassau|
|24 Aug 1940||HMS Penzance (L 28)||Folkestone|
|15 Sep 1940||HMS Dundee (L 84)||Falmouth|
|25 May 1941||HMS Grimsby (L 16 / U 16)||Grimsby|
|24 Jun 1941||HMS Auckland (L 61 / U 61)||Egret|
|27 Nov 1941||HMAS Parramatta (L 44 / U 44)||Grimsby|
|31 Jan 1942||HMS Culver (Y 87)||Banff|
|4 Mar 1942||HMAS Yarra (L 77 / U 77)||Grimsby|
|6 Apr 1942||HMIS Indus (L 67 / U 67)||Grimsby|
|8 Nov 1942||HMS Hartland (Y 00)||Banff|
|8 Nov 1942||HMS Walney (Y 04)||Banff|
|10 Nov 1942||HMS Ibis (U 99)||Black Swan|
|27 Aug 1943||HMS Egret (L 75 / U 75)||Egret|
|27 Feb 1944||HMS Woodpecker (U 08)||Modified Black Swan|
|21 Aug 1944||HMS Kite (U 87)||Modified Black Swan|
|17 Feb 1945||HMS Lark (U 11)||Modified Black Swan|
|20 Mar 1945||HMS Lapwing (U 62)||Modified Black Swan|
18 Sloops lost. See all Allied Warship losses.
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http://uboat.net/allies/warships/types.html?navy=IT&type=Sloop
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| 0.894963
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Yesterday, Representative Michele Bachmann released the membership list of the Tea Party Caucus, an officially registered organization of the U.S. House of Representatives. Although Tea Party leaders claim that their work is not partisan in nature, the Tea Party Caucus is home only to Republicans.
Another fact about the membership of the Tea Party Caucus stands out immediately, given the recent controversy over accusations that Tea Party organizations contain a significant racist element. The Tea Party Caucus contains no African-Americans, even though there are many African-Americans in the House of Representatives. As revealed by a quick glance at the Tea Party Caucus members, pictured here to the left, only light skin tones are present in the congressional organization.
Michael Steele, Chair of the Republican National Committee, argues against accusations of Tea Party racism, saying, “Recent statements claiming the Tea Party movement is racist are not only destructive, they are not true. Tea Party activists are your mom or dad, your local grocer, banker, hairdresser or doctor. They are a diverse group of passionate Americans.” If they are to be believed, however, such assertions need to supported by facts. The statistics of Tea Party Caucus membership don’t fit with Steele’s description of a “diverse group”. If the Tea Party alliance of organizations is not racist, why is the membership of the Tea Party Caucus so racially skewed?
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<urn:uuid:1a9595be-ac72-4974-99ed-0a2032c5a3e8>
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http://thatsmycongress.com/index.php/2010/07/22/tea-party-caucus-includes-no-african-americans/
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Suitability of common drugs for patients who avoid animal productsBMJ 2014; 348 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g401 (Published 04 February 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g401
- Kate C Tatham, research fellow1,
- Kinesh P Patel, research fellow2
- 1Section of Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care, Imperial College, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK
- 2Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy, St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow HA1 3UJ, UK
- Correspondence to: K P Patel
- Accepted 15 January 2014
Specific dietary preferences regarding animal products in food are common in the general population.1 Influences such as religion, culture, economic status, environmental concern, food intolerances, and personal preferences all play a part in the foods that people choose to consume. In the United Kingdom, Food Standards Agency data indicate that 5% of population are vegan or vegetarian, increasing to 12% in non-white people.2 Vegetarians are defined as individuals that do not consume foods either directly obtained or using products from the slaughter of an animal, whereas vegans do not consume any foods originating from animals.3 4 Some religious groups also avoid certain animal products.
Many patients and doctors are unaware that commonly prescribed drugs contain animal products—for example, low molecular weight heparin (pigs), Gelofusine (cows), and conjugated oestrogen (Premarin, horses). Furthermore, with some commonly used ingredients, simply reading the list of ingredients will not make it clear whether the product meets the patient’s dietary preferences.
Lactose, which is derived from cows’ milk, is traditionally extracted using bovine rennet. It is used as a filler and diluent powder and as an aid in the manufacturing of medications. Some manufacturers now use vegetarian processes to extract lactose from milk, leading to potential confusion about its suitability for vegetarians.
Similarly, gelatine is widely used to encapsulate medications and is sourced from bovine or porcine skin, hide, or bone and occasionally fish. If derived from pigs it can be a problem for some Muslims and Jews. The largest kosher certification body, the Orthodox Union’s Kosher division, does not accept porcine …
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The Dalai Lama, since 1950, has inspired worldwide devotion as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and as a political ruler of uncompromising integrity. Dan Reed and Bob Guccione, Jr., journey to India to talk to the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Photo Editor: Shana Sobel
When Tibet's 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933, the Buddhist High Priests, the lamas, went into seclusion to meditate for guidance to find his reincarnated successor. Alongside a great lake outside of Lhasa, Tibet's capital, a vision came to them of a farmhouse with a blue awning. The lamas scoured the countryside for 18 months and finally, in the eastern village of Amdo, found the place they were looking for. A woman holding a two-year-old child greeted the monk who came to the door, and the child suddenly reached for a string of beads hidden inside the monk's robes, saying "mine." The beads had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama.
To confirm they had found the authentic reincarnation of their spiritual and governmental leader, the head lamas subjected the child to a barrage of tests. The child was shown artifacts that were the Dalai Lama's along with exact replicas. An adult would have found it impossible to choose the correct one; the child never once failed to. At four, Tenzin Gyatso, son of peasants, became Tibet's absolute, and absolutely worshiped, spiritual ruler.
Tibet is a country as large as Europe, a vast, high plateaued, virtually unspoiled land that sits in the clouds of the Himalayas like a way station to heaven. Historically it has bordered China, Mongolia (when that was a separate empire), Russia, India, and Nepal; and over the centuries, Tibet kept the Chinese at bay, often only tentatively. But China has always wanted Tibet and in 1950 they took it for good, occupying it by force, suppressing resistance and renaming it as some faceless, meaningless district of China. The rest of the world couldn't have cared less. The absorption of not only an entire self-governing nation but one of the oldest, intactly preserved traditional cultures was accomplished without a meaningful murmur of protest internationally.
At first, the Tibetans tried to at least cause the Chinese some indigestion, but rebellion was repeatedly put down bloodily. In 1959, a massive popular uprising was quelled and at least 87,000 Tibetans were killed in Lhasa alone. Realizing that the Chinese were interested in not only keeping the land but completely dissolving the Tibetan culture and religion, the Dalai Lama, then 24, and 100,000 Tibetan fled. They eventually settled about 1,900 miles from Lhasa in Dharamsala, India where the Indian government has allowed them to establish a government in exile.
That's where, 35 years later, your intrepid reporters come in. Dan Reed, rock musician and student of Buddhism, and I made the torturous journey to Dharamsala from Delhi, a 15-hour drive which breaks down to 14 hours 30 minutes of pure, unrelieved, and constantly inventive terror on the Indian roads and 30 minutes of unabashed groveling and toe-kissing of our Indian driver Rattan for getting us there safely-to interview His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. We wanted to talk to him about the ongoing resistance to the Chinese occupation and his hopes to return to a liberated Tibet, and about the role of spirituality and compassion in an increasingly spiritualless and compassionless world. We also wanted to ask him what he thought of Nirvana but respectfully never posed the trick question.
We met him on the morning of January 7, a brilliantly sunlit but cold winter day. We had been promised 45 minutes but were granted two hours, as he spoke, in English, in a patient, measured, deep voice. Constantly referring to his interpreter for a key word, he spoke in simple language.
I've never spent so little time with a human being and felt the experience deeply. I know the effect he has gently had on me will stick with me for the rest of my life. Dan said he felt the same way. I think the reason is not just his wisdom, or the uniqueness of who he is and what he represents, mystically and traditionally, but his goodness. He is simply a very good person, unpolluted by hatred or ambition, except to see his country and people free again, and Tibet established as a zone of peace, as he puts it, with that zone spread across Asia and the world.
There is the very strong likelihood that he will be the last Dalai Lama, that the institution of a theocratic ruler will die with him, either in exile or if he's returned. He is not daunted by that, in fact postulates the view that that might be for the best, a necessary evolution, a sign of progress. A completion of his, and maybe all of his predecessors lives' mission.
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During the years 1585–1604, two mighty world empires, Spain and England, engaged in a conflict which was never formally declared as war. During this conflict, England gained the upper hand and went on to defeat the great Spanish Armada. England then strengthened her navy and sought to secure the safety of the Atlantic passage to the Americas. In 1604, England and Spain negotiated a treaty. England renounced it’s high seas piracy, and both empires agreed to cease military campaigns in France, Spanish Netherlands, and Ireland. The price of war was heavy as the treasuries of both countries were severely weakened.
With the threat of Spain conquering England; the Sephardic Jews, Conversos and Crypto-Jews in the Netherlands and England panicked. Taking a similar path of those who were trapped in Spain and Portugal then fleeing to South America; some English and Dutch Sephardic Jews sought to evade possible Spanish rule, by escaping to North America and a small number to then Dutch controlled Brazil. Over the next 400 years thousands of openly practicing Sepharidic Jews, Converso/ Crypto Jews, and Moriscoes (Moors) migrated to Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica, Mexico and what would later become the US and Canada.
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San Diego, California (NAPSI) - More than 300,000 men die each year from heart disease in the United States, making it the leading cause of death for men. Unfortunately, half of the men who die suddenly from this disease have no previous symptoms.
High blood pressure is the top contributor to heart disease and death. Research shows 25 percent of men have high blood pressure—many without knowing it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men’s risk for heart disease increases with age and typically begins at 45, although it can occur at a younger age. In fact, African American men develop the condition more often and at an earlier age, compared to their white and Hispanic peers.
The good news is that you can take charge of your health by knowing your risk and taking steps to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The CDC recommends the following tips to help decrease the risk of heart disease:
• Check your blood pressure regularly. Your doctor can measure your blood pressure or you can check it yourself at home and many pharmacies. If you already have high blood pressure, your doctor may prescribe medications in addition to recommending lifestyle changes. Take the medications as directed by your doctor.
• Eat more heart-healthy foods. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, which provide heart-protecting nutrients such as potassium and fiber.
• Reduce your sodium intake. More than 75% of the sodium we eat is from restaurant and processed foods. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend people aged 2 and up reduce sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day. People 51 and older and those of any age who are African Americans or who have high blood pressure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease should further reduce intake to 1,500 mg per day.
• Maintain a healthy weight. If you are overweight, losing weight can help lower your blood pressure. Your doctor can help you determine your target weight and the best way to achieve it.
• Exercise regularly. Physical activity can also help lower your blood pressure. CDC recommends you engage in moderate-intensity exercise, like brisk walking or a muscle strengthening activity, for at least 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) every week.
• Limit alcohol use. Drinking too much alcohol is associated with high blood pressure. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation—no more than two drinks per day for men or one drink per day for women.
• Don’t smoke. Smoking damages blood vessels and speeds up the hardening of arteries. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, quitting will lower your risk for heart disease and stroke. Call a tobacco quit line (1-800-QUITNOW) or visit www.smokefree.gov.
Keeping your heart in good condition does require work, but the lasting health impact is worth the effort. Learn your risk for heart disease and adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle. More information on cardiovascular disease and heart health is available on CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention website: www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/.
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There are many, many other things we have learned about our solar system and the earth in particular that make it clear we are on a very special planet that orbits a very special star. If you are interested in learning more about how special our place in the universe is, I strongly recommend the book The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Wesley Richards. It details many discoveries in earth and space science that clearly show how special the earth and its solar system are. If even one of the many, many special factors that make life possible in our little corner of the universe were not present, you wouldn’t be around to be reading this blog post.
Even though we have known for a long time that the earth, the star we orbit, and our placement in the Milky Way galaxy are all quite special, we are just now beginning to find out that even the galaxy itself is special.
Thomas Dame and Patrick Thaddeus of the Harvard-Smithsonian center for Astrophysics have discovered what they think is an extension of the Scutum-Centaurus arm of the galaxy (see image above). Now as you might imagine, it is difficult to identify the different parts of a galaxy when you are observing it from the inside. Nevertheless, astronomers can develop models of what our galaxy might look like, and then they can compare those models to the observations that have been made. If you make enough observations, you can eventually winnow away most models until you have only one that is consistent with all observations. That model is pictured above.
Does this mean that the picture above is an accurate representation of the Milky Way? Not necessarily. However, it is the best we can do by making observations from the inside. Assuming the model is correct, there are two main arms in the Milky Way’s spiral – the Perseus arm and the Scutum-Centaurus arm. Until Dame and Thaddeus announced their discovery, it was thought that the Perseus arm was longer than the Scutum-Centaurus arm. However, if Dame and Thaddeus are correct, the two arms are essentially mirror images of one another.
What does this mean? Well, I think the Science News story that I read sums it up best:2
New finding suggests Milky Way has rare symmetry…A new study suggests the Milky Way doesn’t need a makeover: It’s already just about perfect.
So not only is our planet, the star it orbits, and its place in the galaxy special, the very galaxy of which it is a part is also special. It has a rare symmetry that makes it just about perfect.
Now, of course, if you want to force yourself to believe that our special planet that orbits a special star in a special part of a special galaxy is all a result of a bunch of happy coincidences, you are free to do so. However, I just don’t have that kind of faith. I prefer to follow the evidence, which tells me quite clearly that all this “specialness” is the result of careful planning and design.
1. DMishurov, Y.N. and L. A. Zenina, “Yes, the Sun is Located Near the Corotation Circle,” Astronomy & Astrophysics 341:81-85, 1999.
Return to Text
2. Ron Cowen, “Galaxy Gets an Arm Extension,” Science News June 18, 2011, p. 14.
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For nearly 10 years, Professor Gastaldo collaborated with the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) in Alexandria, Virginia, as a project leader, curriculum developer, module author, and consultant in the development of their national Earth Science curricula. AGI is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists, and other Earth scientists. Founded in 1948, it provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society’s use of resources, resilience to natural hazards, and the health of the environment.
AGI currently offers several curricula at the national level in the Elementary, Middle, and High schools. Each is designed using current educational practices involving problem-solving, with community-based models that are hands-on and inquiry-driven.
Constructing Understandings of Earth Systems was developed by the American Geosciences Institute to serve as a student’s first introduction to planet Earth in Middle School. CUES is a standards-based textbook that emphasizes a systems approach to Earth science teaching.
Professor Gastaldo served as a developer, writer, and consultant for the exercises that appear in the Biosphere chapter—Change Through Time. Here, students study changes in the biosphere from the earliest traces of the life on Earth and explore the record of once living things now preserved in rock. Fossil groups serve as clues about life and its development on a planet that has seen large-scale changes over both long and, sometimes, short time scales. Both internal factors and external factors that have caused the biosphere to change are explored.
Investigating Earth Systems (IES) is a standards-based, Earth science curriculum for Middle School grades developed by the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) in association with It’s About Time Publishing. IES is designed to engage students using the same set of inquiry processes scientists use to ensure them that the research they perform is valid and reliable. The curriculum is focused on teaching students to think like scientists.
Five key scientific concepts underpin Earth Science and are stressed in all nine Investigating Earth Systems modules. These are:
- Earth is a set of closely linked systems.
- Earth’s processes are powered by two sources: the Sun and Earth’s own inner heat.
- The geology of Earth is dynamic, and has evolved over 4.5 billion years.
- The geological evolution of Earth has left a record of its history that geoscientists interpret.
- We depend upon Earth’s resources.
Professor Gastaldo developed the Fossils module for IES. Here, students undertake inquiry-based exercises, using problem solving pedagogies, to learn about why there is a fossil record, how living organisms become part of the fossil record, how these records are used to understand past conditions on Earth, and what application such insight may have for our current and future planet.
The Introducing Fossils module is available as a .pdf download from the publisher.
EarthComm is the first High School Earth Science program developed by AGI that addresses the National Science Education Standards. The curriculum emphasizes important concepts, understandings, and abilities that all students can use to make wise decisions, think critically, and understand and appreciate the Earth systems: the atmosphere, the biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere. The curriculum is adopted across the country and produced in association with It’s About Time Publishing.
EarthComm is a modules-based curriculum including Earth’s Dynamic Geosphere, Understanding Your Environment, Earth’s Fluid Spheres, Earth’s Natural Resources, and Earth System Evolution. Each chapter begins with a community-based problem or issue that can only be solved by developing key ideas and understandings in the chapter activities. Professor Gastaldo was the project manager, director, and contributor for the Earth System Evolution module.
The approach taken in EarthComm can be viewed in a sample chapter on Astronomy and Your Community available as a .pdf download from It’s About Time.
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CSV and JSON are two of the most common kinds of files for open data you'll find on the web today. CSVs are just spreadsheets and are a common way to let people download data in bulk. Tables of data are simple, and a great many people are used to working with them in Excel or Google Docs.
JSON has become the format of choice for APIs on the web today, but JSON data is trickier to work with for many people. Partly, this is because tables are just simpler for people to understand, and JSON data is rarely organized like a table. But maybe more importantly, there are great visual tools for working with CSVs, and few such tools for JSON.
In other words, if you send someone a link to a CSV, their browser downloads a file for them and they open it in Excel. If you send someone a link to JSON, their browser displays them a bunch of gobbledygook.
No good: This gives JSON a bad name.
Making JSON more approachable
A few weeks ago, I gave a workshop at Open Data Day here in D.C. the goal of which was to demystify JSON and make it feel as approachable as a spreadsheet.
I searched, but couldn't find any good tools to do this that worked inside the browser. The only solution was to make a new one!
So now, if you go to konklone.io/json, you'll see a box to paste JSON into:
It'll then quickly reformat and re-color your JSON...
...and transform it into a table of data below, showing you the first few rows.
You can then click a link above the excerpt to download the full table as a CSV. At any time, you can click "Create a permalink" to save the data and change the URL to a unique link. Anyone visiting this permalink will see that same highlighted JSON and table.
And that's all you need to know to use it. If you're interested in the technical underpinnings, read on.
How it works
The whole thing is mostly just other people's work glued together.
When you paste in JSON, the converter parses it and then guesses at what the "rows" are by rifling through the JSON for an array. Each row is recursively flattened using an adapted algorithm from csvkit, a terrific command line tool by Chris Grozkopf et al for messing with CSV (and the inspiration for this project).
Flattened rows are fed into jquery-csv, at Ben Balter's suggestion, and that produces the raw CSV string. The converter then makes a
data: URI out of the CSV, and updates the download link. The download link takes advantage of a relatively recent feature in HTML5, the
download attribute for
<a> tags, to tell the browser to download the linked content rather than display it.
All of this makes it possible to run the whole converter without a server, inside the browser, as a static site.
Github as infrastructure
Github's public services make this easy.
The website is hosted for free, via Github Pages. To make permalinks work, the converter stores raw JSON in an anonymous Gist using the Github API. (There's a rate limit of 60 anonymous API requests per-hour per-visitor, but in practice that's been fine.)
It's not perfect — it can't handle every possible JSON structure you can throw at it, it could be better at telling you about errors and there are surely other bugs. Please describe any issues or suggestions on the issue tracker, which is once again over on Github.
It's not so bad
If you want to get more comfortable with JSON and APIs, do as the developers do and make it easier on your eyes by installing a browser extension:
They both do a terrific job of automatically reformatting and highlighting JSON so you can understand what's going on, and both of them let you easily copy/paste JSON. Give it a shot on the JSON pictured at the top of this page, at the Sunlight Foundation's description on Facebook's Graph API (graph.facebook.com/sunlight-foundation).
Either way, the big thing I tried to communicate at Open Data Day this year is that using JSON (and URLs, APIs and most things on the web!) doesn't require a computer science degree. It's all just patterns, meant for both humans and computers to understand.
So the next time someone tells you about an API that uses JSON, go ahead and open it in your browser and look it over. Maybe read through the API's documentation and try to figure out how to get the JSON you want. You've always got a CSV converter around if you want to download it as a spreadsheet. You've got nothing to lose.
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