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For up to six months after giving birth, and if the menstrual cycle has not resumed, breast-feeding can be an effective and natural form of birth control. This is known as the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM).
In order for breast-feeding to reduce your risk of pregnancy, you must:
- start breast-feeding shortly after birth
- breastfeed exclusively
- breast-feed as your baby demands, not on a schedule
- not have had a menstrual period since you gave birth
Prolactin is the hormone that makes breast milk. It also prevents the release of the hormones that cause ovulation.
Under the right circumstances, breast-feeding can delay ovulation and the return of normal menstrual periods. Without ovulation, there is no egg for the sperm to fertilize and pregnancy cannot occur.
Using breastfeeding as a birth control option is easy. However, it is only effective under the following conditions. You must:
- start breast-feeding shortly after your baby’s birth
- exclusively use breast-feeding to feed your baby
- not use formula or supplemental bottles
- feed the baby when hungry, not on a schedule
- feed at least every four hours during the day and every six hours at night
LAM is only effective if your menstrual period has not returned since giving birth. It only remains effective for about six months after delivery. If you get a menstrual period, it is no longer effective.
According to Planned Parenthood, the failure rate of LAM is less than one percent for women who always breast-feed as required by LAM. The failure rate is two percent for women who don’t always breast feed as required by LAM.:
Breast-feeding provides many health benefits for the mother and the baby. As a birth control method, it is convenient and easy. Breast-feeding requires no supplies or prescription, and it’s free.
Unfortunately, breast-feeding as a method for birth control is only effective for the first six months after delivery. This method also relies on a dedication to breast-feeding as the only source of food for the baby. If you feed your baby any formula, you have a chance of getting pregnant. In addition, if your regular menstrual periods return, this method is no longer effective.
It is possible to get pregnant before you have your first period after pregnancy. This is more likely after six months. | <urn:uuid:98ec91f7-da39-46f4-8fed-5bb124bd9c76> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.healthline.com/health/birth-control-breast-feeding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953669 | 495 | 2.75 | 3 |
Back to Home Page or
Contents Page or Divination
is an ancient form of divination. The
practice was performed in ancient Rome by priests called augurs.
It entailed the interpretation of auspices, that is the movement of birds
and/or the movement of animals. Also included in this form of divination
was the interpretation of the significance of thunder and lightening. Those
signs on the augur's left or east side denoted a favorable outcome, while
those on the right pointed to an ill-omen. This method of divination was
practically unknown in ancient Mesopotamia and Palestine. A.G.H.
Riland, George, The New Steinerbooks Dictionary of Paranormal,
New York, Warner Books, Inc., 1980, p. 19
Buttrick, George Arthur, Gen. Ed..The Interreter's Dictionary of the
Bible: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Nashville: Abingdon, 1962 | <urn:uuid:a69e7ee8-a16a-4866-8510-9cd16f167dc6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/a/augury.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.837263 | 201 | 2.921875 | 3 |
How old are these fish? Regional cooperation on fishery science training at SPC and IRD
NOURMEA, New Caledonia — Six Pacific Island fisheries officers now have new skills in techniques for determining reef fish age and growth parameters after attending a training course last week at the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD) and Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Noumea, New Caledonia.
The course is one component of a project to monitor the vulnerability and adaptation of coastal fisheries to climate change on a Pacific-wide scale. After completing the theoretical part of the course at SPC, the six participants from Nauru, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Federated States of Micronesia continued their training in IRD's laboratories.
The project's main goal is to detect possible changes in coastal fishery productivity and to determine the extent to which these changes are connected to climate rather than to other pressures on the resource, in particular overfishing and habitat degradation due to poor watershed management. Pilot observation stations have been set up at five sites for this purpose: Manus (Papua New Guinea), Pohnpei (FSM), Majuro (Marshall Islands), Abemama (Kiribati), and Funafuti (Tuvalu). Each pilot site is equipped with seawater temperature recorders and covered by baseline marine resource and habitat assessments.
As part of this project, the activities conducted in close cooperation between SPC and IRD Research Unit 227 COREUS (Biocomplexity of Indo-Pacific Coral Ecosystems) include training and capacity building to enable Pacific Island fisheries officers to understand age determination techniques and determine reef fish growth parameters. More specifically, the officers are learning about the back-calculation of fish growth and age determination using otoliths (organs in the inner ear of fish).
This collaboration is a major component of the 'Monitoring the vulnerability and adaptation of coastal fisheries to climate change'project because there is uncertainty about the possible effects of climate change on the growth of various reef fish species. In addition, there are currently no reference data for various Pacific Island countries and territories.
Fish growth depends a great deal on temperature and is also by definition linked to the productivity of reef fish populations. The initial two-week workshop was part one of a two-part course. The workshop revolved around the extraction of otoliths, preparing them for _determining age, and initial interpretation using otoliths collected by trainees in their country or from IRD's collections.
Part two, which involves examining otoliths collected in-country, will take place over four to eight weeks at the Noumea IRD Centre in 2013.
'Monitoring the vulnerability and adaptation of coastal fisheries to climate change' is funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), under the International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative (ICCAI).
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) | <urn:uuid:a6eb1539-2ec8-42ef-afaf-9f26b0778053> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.samoanews.com/?q=node/8593 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917857 | 618 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Part One of Bertrand Russell's "The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism" comprises eight chapters under the heading 'The Present Condition of Russia' . Briefly the main points of each chapter:
2. 'General Characteristics'
In this chapter Russell relates some of the impressions he got while traveling about in Russia with the British Labour Delegation. These impressions tell us a lot more about Russell than they do about Russia.
He thinks the "Russian character " is attracted to certain doctrines of Marx due to its "Oriental traits." The only "traits" he mentions are those of "crushing" foes "without mercy" and maintaining a mind set "not unlike the early successors of Mohammed." Although I am at a loss trying to figure out what the Bolshevik leadership would have to share, by way of comparing mind sets, with the early followers of the Prophet.
The position of Marx, which led to this observation, is his teaching that "communism is fatally predestined to come about." A position that Marx never, in fact, held. He surely thought that capitalism would collapse, but the class struggle could result in the mutual destruction of the contending classes-- which may still be on the agenda.
Russell reminds us of the "kindliness and tolerance" of the English since 1688, which he contrasts to Bolshevik fanaticism and mercilessness. But of course, he says, this kindliness and tolerance "we do not apply to other nations or to subject races." This may explain why so many of the "subject races" saw a greater affinity with the Bolsheviks in the years that followed than with the British.
He compares the "baser side" of the Russian government with the Directoire in France and its good side to that of the rule of Cromwell. Cromwell's Puritans are analogous to the "old Bolsheviks" led by Lenin. That is, they started out idealistic and democratic but the force of circumstance led them to become dictators over a recalcitrant population (the Russian peasants in the case of the Bolsheviks).
Should the Bolsheviks fall, Russell says, it will be for the same reasons the Puritans did: because people will want "amusement and ease" rather than anything else. Well, the history of Russia has never seen a time when "amusement and ease" were on the agenda, including today, so I think Russell missed the boat with these historical comparisons.
Russell actually thinks there is a philosophical model, or parallel, that is more accurate than any historical one, and that is Plato's REPUBLIC. It's true that the Communist Party, the leadership at least, corresponds to the guardians and you can make a case for the CP cadre and Red Army being the auxiliaries, but Russell is completely off his rocker when he says "there is an attempt to deal with family life more or less as Plato suggested."
There was no eugenics movement in Russia, the communists did not have a rigged lottery system to distribute sexual partners, handicapped and illegitimate children were not put to death ("exposed"), marriage was not outlawed until retirement. At most you have an effort to bring about equality between the sexes and provide universal education. The demands of the Communist Manifesto as well as Plato. So the assertion that there is an "extraordinary exact" parallel between Plato and what Lenin and the Bolsheviks like him envisioned is wide of the mark.
Russell doesn't think war and revolution (violence) will bring forth the best models of socialism, and for this reason he rejects the Third International which he perceives as an instrument to promote a violent international class war.
The 1920 Congress of the Third International did pass resolutions based on the mistaken theory that world wide civil war was about to break out between the exploited masses and their rulers (even in the US) and that communists had to be ready for the test of arms. Needless to say, nothing of the sort happened (at least on the scale imagined) as the post W.W. I revolutionary wave petered out. So Russell had a more realistic position than the Bolsheviks on this issue.
He also objected to the theory of "democratic centralism" (referred to by him as "concentration of power." This theory was developed to provide effective leadership for worker's parties in conditions of illegality an/ or war. Many socialists do not think it is suited for times of peace and legality. Russell didn't approve of it, although he does not mention it by name he is dealing with the concept, because, he says, "from concentration of power the very same evils flow as from the capitalist concentration of wealth."
Russell talked with Lenin and remarks, in this chapter, that Lenin was a true internationalist, as are all communists, and would have sacrificed power in Russia to help the international revolution. With the failure of the world revolution Russell imagined that nationalism would begin to take root in Russia.
He also met Trotsky, at that time the leader of the Red Army, and remarks on the enthusiasm he aroused in public. Russell thinks that when the Asiatic parts Russia are retaken (as the Civil War comes to an end along with foreign occupation: the USSR was not founded until 1922) the communists will act like typical imperialists (they didn't) and behave like other Asiatic governments "for example, our own government in India."
Coming up: Chapter Three-- "Lenin, Trotsky and Gorky"
Click here for part four of this series | <urn:uuid:4dd2bbf0-6ec8-440a-b61c-a16d1a2f6f5a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://paeditorsblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/bertrand-russell-on-bolshevism-3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96795 | 1,128 | 2.796875 | 3 |
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There are many different types of respiratory equipment at use in hospitals, patient homes, and in the community, and dividing them is usually a matter of determining their main purpose. In emergency medicine and long-term critical care, ventilators tend to be some of the most common tools. Ventilators help patients breathe by physically pumping air into the lungs. The simplest models are little more than bags that are manually inflated by doctors and other first responders, but more advanced machines are digitally controlled and can respond in real time to patients’ recovery and lung strength signals. Another category of equipment is designed to treat sleep apnea, a condition where the brain periodically forgets to tell the lungs to breath while asleep, and these same tools are often used for premature babies who may not yet have fully developed lungs. A separate set of tools is intended specifically for lung disorders, whether because of defect or trauma, and some of the more minor equipment is designed to provide a temporary solution for problems like asthma and mucus buildup. Inhalers are a good example in this category. In general, the type of equipment and how it is used varies based on the needs of the individual patient and the nature of the underlying condition.
Ventilators are a type of respiratory equipment that breathes for a person when he or she is unable to pull air into the lungs independently. In the most basic sense, a ventilator is a device that blows air into the lungs and creates positive air pressure within the alveoli. These sorts of tools come in a range of styles and sophistication levels, from bag ventilators to highly specialized monitors. They are used in emergency medicine, at home, with anesthesia, and in intensive care units.
There is some concern that patients who are on ventilators for a long time could grow dependent on them, and as a result most medical practitioners try to limit use during recovery, usually with a mind to weaning patients off as they grow stronger. High frequency percussive ventilators are sometimes used when patients need high respiratory rates, and these can help reduce lung injury that may occur from being on a ventilator long-term.
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machines are examples of respiratory equipment used by adults who have sleep apnea, and in many instances they’re also recommended for premature infants. Through a mask, the CPAP provides continuous airflow that stops apnea episodes – namely, the closing of airway passages during sleep. BiPAP machines also work through a mask and provide bi-level airflow. The main difference is that a BiPAP provides one level of air pressure when a patient breathes in and one level of airflow when the patient breathes out, in contrast to the constant flow provided by the CPAP.
Many premature infants are sent home from the hospital with apnea monitors. In premature babies, the nervous system hasn’t often developed enough to allow them to have non-stop breathing. In these cases, the machine often has a small belt containing sensory wires that are connected to a monitor. The belt is worn around the infant’s chest and is connected to the monitor that sounds an alarm when he or she stops breathing.
Nebulizers are devices that delivers various types of pulmonary medications into the lungs of a patient. There are many different types of nebulizers. Some are portable and some are stationary.
Oxygen concentrators and liquid oxygen are also good examples in this category. Some patients with lung disorders need supplemental oxygen. An oxygen concentrator is plugged into a wall outlet and provides supplemental oxygen through tubing that is attached to the machine. A tank of liquid oxygen will also provide the patient with supplemental oxygen and it does not require electricity, therefore facilitating the mobility of the patient.
Chest percussion equipment is used to help clear lung secretions. A percussor is a hand-held device that is used on a patient’s lungs to break up the mucus so he or she can cough it out. There is also a vest system that clears lung secretions: a patient puts on an inflatable vest and connects it to an air compressor which then vibrates against the chest and loosens pulmonary secretions. People who suffer from asthma often carry portable inhalers that can help open airways in the case that they become swollen or inflamed, usually as a reaction to environmental triggers or stress. | <urn:uuid:2e4eaa45-c142-42b3-8fef-7b5569abfea3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-respiratory-equipment.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952743 | 922 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Accreditation – Recognition by an organization or agency that a college meets certain established standards of educational quality. May be national and/or regional.
Achievement Tests – College Board tests in specific secondary school subjects. Results are often used in helping with decisions about admission and course placement and exemption of enrolled freshman.
American College Test (ACT) – One of two major college entrance exams used to determine admission eligibility.
Application Fee Waiver – Freedom from payment of the admission application fee for those students with demonstrated financial hardship.
Articulation Agreement – A written agreement that lists courses at one college that are equivalent (or acceptable in lieu of) closures at another college.
ASSIST – A web-based student transfer information system which contains information about how courses taken at a California Community College can be applied when transferred to a University of California or California State University campus. www.assist.org
Associate Degree – A degree usually awarded by a community college upon completion of 60 units of college course work including general education, major requirements, and electives.
Bachelor’s or Baccalaureate Degree – A Bachelor of Arts, Sciences, or related degree, awarded upon completion of a program of study usually done in four years (full-time).
Certification – The indication of the completion of the entire pattern of general education for the California State University and University of California campuses. (Either the CSU General Education Breadth requirements or the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum “IGETC”). Students must request that the Admission Office at their community college indicated completion on their transcripts.
Concentration – An option or special emphasis within a degree program.
Concurrent Enrollment – Enrollment in two or more classes during the same semester.
Credential Program – Prescribed professional education requirements that must be met in order to teach at the K-12 levels. Usually fulfilled after completion of a bachelor’s degree.
Credit/No Credit** – A form of grading whereby a student receives a grade of CR or NC, instead of an A, B, C, D, or F. A CR is assigned for the equivalent of C or better grades. **GWC uses the term “Pass/No Pass” (P/NP) to designate this form of grading.
CSU General Education – Breadth – Completion of the CSU General Education-Breadth pattern will permit a student to transfer from a community college to a campus in the California State University system without the need after transfer to take additional lower-division general education courses to satisfy GE requirements.
CSU Mentor – A web-based student information resource for planning, exploring, comparing, and applying to the California State University Campuses. www.csumentor.edu
Elective – Courses which are not required for the major or general education, but which are acceptable for credit toward a degree.
Filing Periods – The period of time during which campuses will accept applications for students wishing to enroll in a particular semester or quarter.
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) - Application that determines eligibility for financial aid at an institution. The U.S. Department of Education that offers a variety of student financial aid programs for assistance with paying for the costs of college attendance. Aid is from both federal and state programs, and can be a combination of grant and loan options.
General Education Requirements – A group of courses in varied areas of the arts and sciences, designed by a college as one of the requirements of the degree.
Grade Point Average (GPA) – The indication of the overall level of academic achievement. It is an important measure in making decisions about probation and disqualification, eligibility for graduation, and transfer to the four year institutions.
IGETC – Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum. Completion of the IGETC will permit a student to transfer from a community college to a campus in the California State University or University of California system without the need after transfer to take additional lower-division general education courses to satisfy GE requirements.
Impacted Major / Campus – When the number of applications received is expected to be larger than the number of spaces available. Additional criteria are then considered in making an admission decision and students must apply during a specified time period.
Independent College/University – In California, there are more than 70 accredited colleges and universities which are free from direct financial control by the states. Thousands of others exist throughout the nation.
Liberal Arts – Programs/courses in the humanities, natural scenes, and social sciences.
Lower Division – Courses at the freshman or sophomore level of college. Community colleges offer lower division courses.
Major – Planned series of courses in one particular field designed to develop special skills or expertise.
Master’s Degree – Awarded upon completion of one or two years of study beyond the bachelor’s level.
Minor – A secondary field of study outside the major, often requiring substantially less course work.
Postsecondary – Educational instruction beyond high school.
Pre-Professional – Undergraduate coursework either recommended or required for enrollment in professional schools.
Prerequisite – Requirement that must be met before enrolling in a particular course.
Professional Schools – Law, business, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and other health sciences schools which require or recommend specific undergraduate preparation.
Quarter System – Approximately 10 weeks of instruction offered three times a year during the fall, winter, and spring. Some institutions also offer a summer quarter.
Residence Requirements – States that a certain number of units must be taken on the campus from which the student expects to receive a degree.
Resident / Non-Resident Status – Students status based on place of legal residence. Non-residents (out of state) often have to pay higher fees and meet higher admission requirements at state financed colleges and universities.
Semester System – Approximately 16 weeks of instruction offered two times a year, during the fall and spring.
Teaching Credential – A basic multiple or single subjects teaching certification required to each in K-12 schools.
Transcript – A list of all courses taken at a college or university showing the final grade received for each course. Official transcripts bear the seal of the college and/or the signature of a designed college official and are sent from one institution to another.
Transfer – Changing from one college to another after meeting the requirements for admission to the second institution.
Transfer Student – A student who has attended another college for any period. May be defined differently by different colleges.
Undergraduate – A student at a college or university who has not yet earned a bachelor's or equivalent degree.
Units – the measure of college credit given a course, usually on the basis of one unit for each lecture hour per week, or for every two to three laboratory hours per week.
Upper Division – The junior and senior years of study at a college or university. | <urn:uuid:d77b0149-4727-494d-9dfc-5f46baecd183> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://goldenwestcollege.edu/transfercenter/terminology.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931012 | 1,433 | 2.75 | 3 |
Today, how did people measure sound in the nineteenth
century? The University of Houston's College of
Engineering presents this series about the machines that
make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity
A nineteenth-century American
professor named Le Conte went to an evening gathering. It
was a typical lamplit musical party -- a regular kind of
social event in the Victorian age. He wrote about it in
the 1858 Philosophical Magazine:
Soon after the music began, I observed that the flame
exhibited pulsations that were exactly synchronous with
the audible beats. This ... phenomenon was very striking,
[especially] when the strong notes of the 'cello came in.
It was exceedingly interesting ... how perfectly even the
trills ... were reflected on the sheet of flame.
Today our fancy systems for recording and replaying sound
are so woven into the fabric of our times that we can
hardly picture a world without them. When Le Conte went
to that party, we had only the barest means for analyzing
or capturing sound. It was with his mind divided between
music and physics that Le Conte recognized a new way we
might get at the structure of sound.
Soon after, the Irish physicist John Tyndall showed us
all a special genius for that kind of observation. He
seized upon Le Conte's idea. Tyndall, born in 1820, had
started out as an engineer designing railway equipment.
He'd eventually gone to Berlin to earn a doctorate in
natural philosophy. He came back to London to teach at
the Royal Institute. And there he did important formative
work in sound, light, heat, electricity, bacteriology,
glaciology -- what am I forgetting? His ability was
But Tyndall's book on sound reveals his genius as clearly
as anything he wrote. It shimmers with highly-honed
mechanical means for displaying sound. He develops Le
Conte's observation into an eighteen-page section called
"Sensitive Naked Flames." He uses flames to measure pitch
and tone quality. At one point he stands across the room
from a flame and reads to it from a poem by Spenser:
Sweet words like dropping honey she did shed,
And through the pearls and rubies softly brake
A silver sound, which heavenly music seemed to make.
As the words touch the flame, it dances to all the
different vowel sounds.
He goes on to reflect light from tuning forks onto moving
paper. He gazes at effects of sound on water jets and
shallow sand. There is no end to his means. And they're
all so direct and palpable. I finally close Tyndall's
book -- this wild intermingling of music, phenomena, and
poetry -- and I come back to the hi-tech microphone now
just four inches beyond my nose.
Suddenly I'm back amid the twentieth-century spawn of Le
Conte's and Tyndall's work. Yet it would be a mistake to
come all the way back. We cannot afford to forget that
this world was built upon Tyndall's intimate interweaving
of our minds and our senses.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where
we're interested in the way inventive minds work. | <urn:uuid:2d95ae0a-02d7-48d1-95bc-ac5ac7aa75fd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://uh.edu/engines/epi1670.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953162 | 703 | 3.796875 | 4 |
Potato bread is similar to other common bread types, except that potatoes are added to replace some of the flour. In the United States, grocery stores generally sell leavened, sliced potato bread, along with white, wheat and other varieties. Wheat bread, often touted as healthier, is lower in sugar and higher in some vitamins than potato bread, but the type of bread you should choose depends on your individual health goals.
If you are trying to lose weight or maintain your current weight, potato bread may be more beneficial than wheat bread. Each slice of potato bread has 85 calories, 4 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber. A slice of wheat bread has 78 calories, 3 grams of protein and 1 gram of fiber. Although potato bread is more energy-dense, it has twice as much protein and fiber, which can help keep you feeling full for longer, tempering your urge to snack between meals.
Each type of bread supplies a small amount of B-complex vitamins, which help your body convert protein, carbohydrates and fat into energy. A slice of wheat bread provides 12 percent of the niacin you need each day, while a slice of potato bread provides less than 3 percent of that B vitamin. Conversely, a slice of potato bread provides 11 percent of your recommended daily intake for folate, a B vitamin that helps prevent birth defects in unborn infants, while a slice of wheat bread contains about 7 percent of the folate you need daily.
A slice of potato bread gives you about 17 percent of the phosphorus you need daily, while a slice of wheat bread provides 6 percent of your daily requirement for that mineral. Phosphorus benefits your bones and teeth. It also works with B-complex vitamins to help your body metabolize food. Both types of bread offer small, supplemental doses of other essential minerals. Wheat bread provides more iron and magnesium, benefiting your blood and nerve function, but potato bread is richer in calcium and potassium, which help strengthen your bones and keep your blood pressure low.
Sugar and Sodium
If you are on a low-sugar diet, wheat bread is preferable to potato bread. Each slice of potato bread has 4 grams of sugar, compared to wheat bread's 1.75 grams per slice. A sandwich made with two slices of potato bread has 8 grams of sugar, more than the sugar content of two medium chocolate chip cookies. If you are watching your sodium intake, however, potato bread is preferable. A sandwich made with wheat bread has 300 grams of sodium, compared to a potato bread sandwich's 24 grams of sodium.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture - National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Bread, Potato
- U.S. Department of Agriculture - National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Bread, Wheat
- Medline Plus: Phosphorus
- Institute of Medicine: Dietary Reference Intakes - Vitamins and minerals
- U.S. Department of Agriculture - National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Cookies, Chocolate Chip
- bread image by worklady from Fotolia.com | <urn:uuid:80bc597a-ad69-4ba6-b9ee-1d2fa34099c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/potato-bread-vs-wheat-bread-6033.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924995 | 622 | 2.625 | 3 |
Book Discussion on "I Am a Man"
Joe Starita talked about his book "I Am a Man": Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice. In 1879, Ponca Chief Standing Bear challenged decades of Indian policy when he stood in a federal courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, and demanded to be recognized as a person by the U.S. government.?The eventual results were that all Native American peoples were given the full rights of American citizenship.?Topics included how the government was making decisions based upon faulty information and how to treat indigenous people and tribal-based societies.?Professor Starita was interviewed by Professor Arneson and responded to questions from members of the audience.
Watch video at BookTV | <urn:uuid:48419bd9-32d3-4788-ae24-d31fa7a11e30> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lisnews.org/book_discussion_on_i_am_a_man | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978493 | 143 | 2.90625 | 3 |
The world's first autonomous robotic fish are the latest attraction at the London Aquarium.
The fish move in a very realistic way
Biologically inspired by the common carp, the new designs can avoid objects and swim around a specially designed tank entirely of their own accord.
This new kind of cyber-fish took three years to develop, by a team of scientists from Essex University.
Future generations may be used for seabed explorations, detection of leaks in oil pipelines, or even as spies.
Although robotic fish have been investigated for the last 10 years or so, the creators of the new models claim theirs are the smartest yet.
"We have embedded sensors on board - so, unlike the previous fishes that have remote controls, these are fully autonomous and artificial-intelligence based," lead researcher Professor Huosheng Hu, told the BBC News website.
Their undulating movements are also said to be more realistic.
"This one is more life-like - it mimics normal swimming and sharp turning," he explained. "People get confused and think it's a real fish."
The fish are about 50cm long, 15cm high and 12cm wide (20in by 6in by 5in), and covered with bright scales that reflect light.
The maximum swim speed is about 50cm (20in) per second but the fish have been slowed down to less than half that, to help prolong battery life - up to five hours.
In the future, the Essex team would like to increase the robots' intelligence - so that an individual machine could recharge itself as required.
"We want the fish to have the ability to look for its own charging station, just like a real fish looking for food," said Professor Hu.
It is hoped that bringing the public into direct contact with robots will increase their understanding of science and technology.
"It should be entertaining and fun for the visitors. Our main thing is obviously live fish, but the robotic side is really fascinating," said Michael Michaels, general manager of the London Aquarium.
The three robots will live alongside real fish in a tank in the aquarium, and will be named by children in a competition. | <urn:uuid:43b38445-5596-4250-a7c0-7c333b83aac0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4313266.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00013-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965533 | 442 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The federal government has done little to dissuade people from the belief that this year’s federal budget will follow the path set out in last year’s budget. On the expenditure side ( Table 5.9), the plan for 2012-13 was to allow transfer payments to persons and to other levels of government to increase by about $5-billion and to reduce direct program spending by $2.6-billion. After taking into account one-time expenditures such as GST compensation payments, total spending was to fall by about $1-billion in 2012-13. Other numbers have been floated, such as the possibility that direct program spending may be cut by as much as $4-billion.
What would 2012-13 look like if the government brought down a budget in which total spending was held constant, in which transfer payments grew modestly, and in which direct program spending was cut by $4-billion or so?
A proper response to this question requires a certain amount of econometric modeling, but I think we can get a rough-and-ready answer by asking ourselves what would have happened if this recipe had been applied last year. This is a much easier question to answer, because that’s exactly what has been happening.
I noted a few weeks ago that data from the Department of Finance’s Fiscal Monitor suggested that total federal spending had remained relatively constant since the latter part of 2010. When that spending is broken down into its components, it turns out that the recipe for 2012-13 appears to have been put in place a year early. Direct program spending in the 12 months up to November 2011 – the most recent month for which data are available – was $6-billion less than it had been in the preceding 12 months. (Transfers were up by $2-billion.)
Some of this reduction may simply be a winding down of the stimulus package. But it should also be remembered that much of the infrastructure program took the form of the transfer of funds to the provinces and local governments that actually carried out the projects.
It won’t really be much of a shock if the 2012-13 budget keeps total spending constant, increases transfers and cuts direct program spending. It will just be more of the same.
For more of Stephen Gordon's recent posts, click here.
Follow Economy Lab on twitterReport Typo/Error | <urn:uuid:0bc41b6f-26d6-41e7-b283-5976f977ce4b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/dont-expect-budget-shock-austerity-is-already-upon-us/article548722/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979657 | 484 | 2.53125 | 3 |
WITHOUT A TRACE – A FLASH IN JUPITER'S SKY
September 9, 2010
Gemini Observatory Press Release
For Immediate Release – September 9, 2010 3:00 pm EDT
- Peter Michaud
Gemini Observatory, Hilo, HI
Desk: (808) 974-2510
Cell: (808) 936-6643
- Glenn Orton
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Desk: (818) 354-2460
Observing a fireball streaking through the atmosphere of another planet is a rare occurrence. However, two amateur astronomers did just that on June 3, 2010. Their images prompted the twin Gemini Observatory telescopes in Hawai‘i and Chile to join other telescopes around (and above) the world to see if the object left any trace of its passage into Jupiter’s cloudtops.
Amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley in Australia and Christopher Go in the Philippines used high-speed, video-monitoring equipment to capture the fleeting event concurrently. Shortly thereafter, the world’s largest telescopes examined Jupiter for debris left behind. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Glenn Orton from the team studying the data, "We made the case to Gemini and other observatories that even if we saw nothing, it was important to bound the lower-size limits of objects that could influence Jupiter's atmosphere."
Both Gemini telescopes looked for evidence of the event by observing in different parts of the infrared spectrum. Images from Gemini North’s Near-Infrared Imager (NIRI) are sensitive to debris in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, and mid-infrared images from Gemini South’s Thermal-Region Camera and Spectrograph (T-ReCS) could show heating and chemical reactions in the atmosphere. However, like all of the follow-up observations, neither Gemini instrument detected any trace of the impact.
Unlike previous collisions with Jupiter, where large, dark scars appeared in its clouds for weeks (e.g. Shoemaker-Levy 9 (D/1993 F2), which hit in 1994), this event apparently vaporized entirely in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere without marring the planet. Nonetheless, as the analysis published in a paper today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters shows, the absence of any persistent signatures sets limits on the size and mass of the object.
The object that made the flash, called a superbolide, likely measured between 8-13 meters across, with a mass between 500-2000 metric tons (10 meters is the approximate height of a 3-story building, 1000 metric tons is approximately the mass of 150 school buses). Lead author of the paper, Ricardo Hueso of the Universidad del Pais Vasco, Bilbao, Spain, adds, “Bolides [striking] Jupiter are very difficult to find, since they emit an optical flash that last only a few seconds. One important aspect of the work is that now we have a door to investigate the number of small, 10-meter-sized objects in the outer Solar System.”
Several objects of this size probably impact Jupiter each year. “It is interesting to note that whereas Earth gets smacked by a 10-meter-sized object about every 10 years on average, it looks as though Jupiter gets hit with the same-sized object a few times each month,” said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who was not involved in the paper. “The Jupiter impact rate is still being refined, and studies like this one help to do just that.”
The discoverers Wesley and Go are part of a community of amateur astronomers who diligently monitor planets in the Solar System for transient events like this one. According to Wesley, "More and more amateur astronomers are becoming involved in high-resolution imaging of Jupiter and Saturn, taking advantage of new technology to produce stunning images that are of great value to planetary researchers and enthusiasts everywhere. This last year has seen Jupiter monitored and imaged by amateurs more often than ever before, a trend that is certain to continue into the future." Wesley was also the first to spot a collision with Jupiter in 2009 that was observed by Gemini, see: http://www.gemini.edu/node/11300. Christopher Go is credited with discovering the temporary appearance of Jupiter’s “Red Spot Junior” in February 2006, which Gemini also observed, see: http://www.gemini.edu/node/196. | <urn:uuid:b70f0aca-9127-482a-ac77-a428d28b6fce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gemini.edu/node/11527 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00075-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921895 | 940 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Communication is the act of conveying intended meaning from one entity or
group to another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules
the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or
exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to
Want to communicate better? These tips will help you avoid misunderstandings
and improve your relationships.
Definition of communication: Two-way process of reaching mutual understanding
, in which participants not only exchange (encode-decode) information, news, ...
Communication definition, the act or process of communicating; fact of being
communicated. See more.
Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to
another. Although this is a simple definition, when we think about how we may ...
The National Communication Association advances communication as the
discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of
The Department of Communication at Stanford University engages in research in
communication and offers curricula leading to the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.
Department of Communication The Department's programs and courses provide
education about the most basic of human social processes: the creation...
Define communication. communication synonyms, communication pronunciation,
communication translation, English dictionary definition of communication. n. | <urn:uuid:9bda751a-e2eb-46a0-8059-b721beaab71a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ask.com/web?q=Communication&oo=2603&o=0&l=dir&qsrc=3139&gc=1&qo=popularsearches | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00168-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.836088 | 277 | 3.4375 | 3 |
lid off kids’ true identity as children God loves and
You’ll need a box with a removable lid, a small mirror, paper, and
markers. Before kids arrive, place the mirror in the bottom of the
box and put the lid on.
Give kids paper and markers, and have them sit apart from each
other. Ask kids to pass the box around in silence, taking off the
lid and looking inside before passing it on to the next person.
After kids look inside the box, ask them to draw what they
When everyone has drawn a self-portrait, have kids talk about how
recognizable their drawings are. Ask: What could someone see
about you from your drawing of yourself? What things couldn’t
others see about you from your drawing that you’d like them to
know?Read aloud 1 John 3:1-2. Ask: What does this verse tell
us about the way we look at ourselves and others?
Close in prayer, thanking God for the unique gift of each
Excerpted from Children’s Ministry Magazine. Subscribe | <urn:uuid:9d30b973-e75c-4459-912b-37c75457f548> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://childrensministry.com/articles/the-surprise-box/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928097 | 235 | 2.59375 | 3 |
What is Epidemiology?
Epidemiology is the study of patterns of disease and injury in a population and the factors that affect health. Epidemiologists rely on biology, biostatistics, GIS and social science to study diseases in populations in their environments. Because epidemiology focuses on populations, it is the basic science of public health, community medicine, and preventive medicine.
Our epidemiologists design and implement observational studies (e.g. patterns of disease) or interventional studies of medical and behavioral treatments in defined populations to examine:
- Efficacy (can it work?)
- Effectiveness (does it work in routine circumstances?)
- Cost-Effectiveness (is it worth the cost?)
Teresa M. Waters, PhD
66 N. Pauline Street, Suite 633
Memphis, TN 38163
Phone: (901) 448-5900 | <urn:uuid:061df55c-ca65-46e7-8e3e-9185026fe6bd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.uthsc.edu/prevmed/epidem.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.882274 | 182 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Some people build houses and attend college classes in Second Life, an online virtual world. Others go dancing, fly planes and shop. Penn Law Professor David Abrams conducts law and economics experiments. It is an ideal laboratory for conducting experiments that economists can only dream about doing in the real world, he says.
Empirical research on macroeconomic and experimental legal systems is currently difficult because as Abrams noted, researchers can’t take drastic actions like manipulating a country’s money supply or tweaking its tax policies. “You can’t ask Ben Bernanke to raise the interest rate by two percent,” he said. This is possible in Second Life, however, which has a population of over 200,000 active users, according to a CNET article.
For Abrams, virtual worlds “are an important new venue for learning about law and economics” because individuals who inhabit these worlds behave in an economically similar way to the real world.
Other benefits include the ability to build experimental laboratories that offer greater control and more observation opportunities than real life labs. They are also easier to set up, cheaper to operate and more accessible to participants. One of the greatest benefits of virtual laboratories is that participants behave much more naturally than they would in a real life lab because they are used to spending a lot of time in a virtual world, said Abrams.
While there are several popular virtual worlds online, Abrams chose Second Life because it most resembles real economies. To test the extent to which individual behavior in Second Life corresponds to real world behavior, he performed the ultimatum game, a classic economics experiment that has been conducted extensively in countries around the world.
In the ultimatum game, a researcher asks two players to divide a sum of money. The first player decides how to split the money and the second player can either accept or reject the offer. If the second player accepts, both players keep the money and if the second player rejects it, then neither player gets the money. Real life experiments have yielded results that contradict the theory that individuals will always act to maximize economic gain even if that means accepting an offer as low as 1 percent of the total. Instead, players tend to make relatively fair offers and usually reject offers that go below 20 percent.
Abrams’ Second Life experiment yielded results similar to those observed in real world labs: the median split was 47-53 and players accepted 94 percent of the offers.
While Abrams concedes that virtual worlds have major differences that could impact behavior— players lack access to well-developed financial systems, can exit the world at any time and engage in a limited range of economic activities - they also resemble the real world in important ways. Individuals form communities, engage in transactions, produce goods and perform services. Perhaps most important of all is that Abrams has access to information on buyers, sellers, prices and locations for every transaction that has occurred in Second Life.
Some of the areas Abrams plans to research in the future include contracts, public goods games, discrimination tests, and labor economics. For Abrams, “the virtual sky’s the limit.” | <urn:uuid:ad053518-92ca-4e0b-9a5a-14292f5b65ca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/news/1804-conducting-law-and-economics-experiments-in-a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952244 | 631 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Windows: AVR microcontroller programming in C
The avr-gcc chain of tools to program AVR microcontrollers was originally written
for Linux but there are actually more people who use this environment under Windows.
_________________ _________________ _________________
Windows is a very bare-bone system when it comes to programming. Everything, even
a decent text editor, has to be installed on top.
There are however a
lot of good and free applications available for Windows.
Some of the essentials are
available in the download section of this article. The software suggested here
was tested on Windows XP and Windows 7 and will probably work on many other windows flavors.
The avr toolchain
In the past the avr-gcc environment to use for windows used to be available at
Winavr is however no longer maintained because Atmel them self distribute
the software now under the name "Atmel AVR Toolchain for Windows" at:
Atmel wants you to fill out a registration form and after that they allow you to download it.
The software is however free open source software. A link to copies of those images is available at the end of this article. This is to ensure that the article remains valid even if Atmel should change the software in future. The software is packed into a windows
installer and it will normally install itself somewhere under
"C:\Program Files\Atmel\AVR Tools\AVR Toolchain" with the actual tools and the compiler
being in "C:\Program Files\Atmel\AVR Tools\AVR Toolchain\bin". Besides the compiler there
is a "make" command, the "avrdude" programmer software and a number of other commands normally part of Linux to ensure
compatibility with the same environment under Linux. This way one can write software and makefiles
that can be used "as is" under both Linux/Mac and Windows.
The windows installer for the Toolchain updates the search PATH environment such that
any of the commands are available by just using the command name (like e.g avrdude).
You can verify that by opening a dos shell (cmd) and printing the PATH:
The PATH is under windows a semicolon separated list and "C:\Program Files\Atmel\AVR Tools\AVR Toolchain\bin" (or
wherever it was installed) should be somewhere in that list.
Installing Atmel AVR Toolchain for Windows
A decent text editor
To write software you will need a good text editor.
The standard windows notepad editor can not be used if the code was written on other systems such
as Linux and Mac. You want as well an editor that supports syntax highlighting
for C-code as it makes it a lot easier to read and write C-code.
A good editor is http://notepad-plus-plus.org/. It's free and
does a good job. A minimal installation of notepad++ is available in the download section of this article.
Just extract the zip file somewhere and create a shortcut from notepad++.exe to your desktop.
After that you can drag-and-drop c-code files from your file-manager onto the notepad++ icon and edit them.
Using notepad++ to edit code
Unpacking tar.gz files
Here at tuxgraphics we distribute all software as tar.gz archives. Plain windows has an archive
extraction function in its file manager but it can not unpack tar.gz.
There are however a number of archivers that can handle tar.gz such
as 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) and you find a free tar.gz extractor called unTarGz (based on the free software tartool) in the
in the download section of this article. Just follow the installation instructions of unTarGz in the included Readme file.
Avrusb500 and avrdude under windows
The tuxgraphics Avrusb500 is a stk500v2 compatible programmer and it will work with almost any
programmer software. Not just avrdude but we use here avrdude because it is very good and part
of the avr toolchain.
The Avrusb500 programmer requires under windows the installation of a driver and you can download it at
After that the Avrusb500 will show up as a COM-port.
COM port number for Avrusb500
Note down the com-port number. You will need it later when installing the win-avrdude
The programmer software avrdude is very powerful however it is meant to be used on the command line or from within
The command line, aka. dos shell (cmd), is not very developed under windows. It is however possible
to write some batch scripts to do programming with a simple drag-and-drop. Just drag-and-drop
the compiled code (.hex file) onto a desktop icon and it will be loaded into the microcontroller.
the win-avrdude zip-file from the download section and follow the instructions
included in the readme file (you will need the COM port number of your avrusb500).
Using it is really easy. Just drag and drop the .hex file onto the icon:
Drag the file on to the m328p_dragdrop.bat short-cut on the desktop
This will start programming the microcontroller using avrdude and all diagnostic
output will appear in a black window that pops-up.
The black dos-shell diagnostic window shows the progress during programming.
Included in the win-avrdude zip-file from the download section is as well
a script called m328p_rdfuses.bat. It reads the so called fuse settings
of the microcontroller. You just double click it:
Fuses are a bit like the bios on a PC they determine hardware related
Reading the fuses of an atmega328p microcontroller
We have an own article about Makefiles and I recommend reading
it later. To just get started it is enough to know that we use
at tuxgraphics makefiles for every project and you can use them
to compile the code no matter whether you are using Windows, Linux
or a Mac.
Makefiles define a set of rules for something called a "make target".
By convention there is normally a make target called "all" and it
just compiles all the code. We define normally the following make targets:
- all -- compile all code
- fuses -- write the fuse settings as recommended for this particular project.
- rdfuses -- read current fuse settings (alternatively you can use the
m328p_rdfuses.bat explained above)
- load or load_something -- to program a given hex file into the
microcontroller (alternatively you can use the drag-and-drop programming shown
- clean -- delete all generated object files (must be run after you changed settings in the Makefile itself).
- help -- print an explanation about the available make target
The most important thing here is the "all"-target that compiles all code. Make is supposed to be used
on the command line (aka dos shell, cmd).
You would "cd" into the directory where the "Makefile" is (next to the code)
and then run:
make -f Makefile targetName
It is possible to abbreviate that command and just type:
The "make all" can be abbreviated to just:
With the limitations on
windows I have observed that people are more looking for a way to do things
with the mouse. Therefore we include with every microcontroller software a batch script
called winmake.bat and that will just run "make all" (aka compile the whole
thing). As the tool chain for windows has changed over time from
winavr to "Atmel AVR Toolchain for Windows" there might be some adaptations
needed. Here is how such a winmake.bat script should look like:
@REM *** you need to edit this file and adapt it to your AVR
@REM *** installation. Change the PATH
@echo -------- begin --------
@set PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\Atmel\AVR Tools\AVR Toolchain\bin;%PATH%
make -f Makefile
@echo -------- end --------
Now you can compile the code just by double-clicking on the winmake.bat
A black window will pop-up and any errors are shown in that window:
Compiling all code by double-clicking on winmake.bat
If you would like to use any of the other make targets then just make
a copy of that winmake.bat file (e.g clean.bat) and change the make line
make -f Makefile
make -f Makefile clean
... or whatever other make-target you would like to run.
In a number of projects (e.g when there is a choice of microcontrollers
that can be used) you will have to change and adapt some variables
at the top of the Makefile:
# Please select according to the type of board you are using:
In this case you can e.g use as well a board that has
a atmega644 chip. In that case you would comment out (put a "#")
in front of the atmega328p/m328p lines and remove the comments from
the lines with atmega644/m644.
There is as well a section in the Makefile to adapt programmer related settings.
This needs to be changed if you would like to load the code using the
makefile (instead of the drag-and-drop programming described earlier) or
you would like to set the fuses using the makefile.
# === Edit this and enter the correct device/com-port:
# linux (plug in the avrusb500 and type dmesg to see which device it is):
#LOADCMD=avrdude -P /dev/ttyUSB0
# mac (plug in the programmer and use ls /dev/tty.usbserial*
# to get the name):
#LOADCMD=avrdude -P /dev/tty.usbserial-A9006MOb
# windows (check which com-port you get when you plugin the avrusb500):
LOADCMD=avrdude -P COM4
That's it! You are good to go
This is really all you need for avr-microcontroller programming.
If you feel that you would rather like to work with a C-programming
IDE (integrated development environment) or avrstudio then
just install them.
I personally find that all the IDEs are really a bit of overkill.
Microcontroller code is generally small because the chip is small and
it it more important to have a good knowledge about writing efficient
code in C.
Functions that are not just plain C but specific to the
avr-microcontroller are documented in the
Modules index of the avr-libc user manual
The documentation that comes with the library is very good it
is worth while to look at it if you want to do some serious programming.
The full avr-libc manual is as well available in the download section of this article.
This document was written with tuxgraphics applications and code in mind.
© Guido Socher, tuxgraphics.org
2014-07-26, generated by tuxgrparser version 2.57 | <urn:uuid:de8c02a0-61ba-498e-8325-1c2bc20a1c58> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://linuxfocus.org/~katja/electronics/201205/windows-avr-microcontroller-programming.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.868705 | 2,452 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Focusing on the Reading Standards in Grades K-5
K-5 classroom teachers will engage in an in-depth exploration of the Reading Standards with an emphasis on the foundational skills needed to develop proficient beginning readers. They will discuss, interpret and analyze the Reading Standards using narrative and informational texts and engage in activities to assist in determining text complexity and selecting appropriately leveled texts. They will also identify instructional strategies that deepen comprehension of complex vocabulary/text and develop increased fluency, and determine how these strategies may be applied in their grade level classroom.
Deirdre Spollen-Laraia is a former K-12 ELA, ESL and Gifted and Talented supervisor who is currently serving as principal of the Hawthorne Elementary School in Teaneck, NJ. She recently received an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the College of St. Elizabeth. Her dissertation topic was: Literacy Coaching: Is it a Link to Transforming Teacher Collaboration, School Culture and Student Achievement? Deirdre is an experienced staff developer with expertise in ELA curriculum development, instruction and assessment.
When & Where
School for Global Education & Innovation
The SGEI provides ongoing professional learning opportunities for teachers and administrators that support physical, online, virtual and remote 21st century learning environments and enable practitioners to engage in collaborative work, collegial inquiry, reflective practice and constant innovation in both local and global contexts. | <urn:uuid:af312778-de0b-4b46-885e-56449ac26138> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eventbrite.com/e/focusing-on-the-reading-standards-in-grades-k-5-tickets-5469619780?aff=eorg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919584 | 285 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Don't confuse henna with henna root (Alkanna tinctoria), also referred to as alkanna root.
Historically, henna has been used for severe diarrhea caused by a parasite (amoebic dysentery), cancer, enlarged spleen, headache, jaundice, and skin conditions. These days, people take henna for stomach and intestinal ulcers.
Henna is sometimes applied directly to the affected area for dandruff, eczema, scabies, fungal infections, and wounds.
In manufacturing, henna is used in cosmetics, hair dyes, and hair care products; and as a dye for nails, hands, and clothing.
People also use henna on the skin as temporary "tattoos."
Insufficient Evidence to Rate Effectiveness for...
Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database rates effectiveness based on scientific evidence according to the following scale: Effective, Likely Effective, Possibly Effective, Possibly Ineffective, Likely Ineffective, and Insufficient Evidence to Rate (detailed description of each of the ratings).
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088. | <urn:uuid:7c3f2690-d2d0-4b61-80b3-ab3beac1a5db> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medicinenet.com/henna/supplements-vitamins.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00125-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906179 | 260 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Barrett mentions that, though the Meteorologica is a controverse work, much of which was probably not written by Aristotle himself, this first book is quite probably authentic; this view is augmented by the fact that it describes a comet of 341-340 BC which is also mentioned by other sources.
The relevant extract of Aristotle's work follows (see also the online version of the translation):
(II) Objections which apply to both those who hold this theory [that comets - or their tails - are reflections of some kind] and also to those who suppose comets are due to conjunction of two planets are (i) that some of the fixed stars have tails. And for this we need not rely only on the evidence of the Egyptians who say they have observed it; we have observed it also ourselves. For one of the stars in the thigh of the Dog had a tail, though a dim one: if you looked hard at it the light used to become dim, but to less intent glance it was brighter. (ii) Further, all the comets seen in our time disappeared without setting, gradually fading away in the sky above the horizon and leaving behind neither one star nor more than one. [..]
The first reference identifying Aristotle's "star with a faint tail" with M41 is from John Ellard Gore (1845-1910). While there is some probability for this identification, it is far from being safe; Barrett mentions that another candidate might be a train of stars near Delta Canis Majoris.
Last Modification: December 20, 2011 | <urn:uuid:463b4817-cdce-44da-af8f-09a85f12c8d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://messier.seds.org/more/m041_ari.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973184 | 320 | 3.5 | 4 |
In a piping system, water is intended to flow in one direction: from the supply to the point of delivery. Danger lurks when the pressure in a system exceeds the pressure of the supply. Anytime pressure in a system drops, even momentarily, the system is subject to backflow, back pressure, or back siphonage, opening the door to contamination. This can happen all too easily when a water main is shut off, a water main is broken, or water demand surges in a specific area. Ultimately, rigorous ...
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- Gain valuable media content and more! | <urn:uuid:0a680d03-8173-4eb5-93c1-b24b39b471ff> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hpac.com/print/plumbing-piping-pumping/backflow-prevention-plumging-0812 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909152 | 201 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Thrombosis (blood clot) is the formation of potentially deadly blood clots in the artery (arterial thrombosis) or vein (venous thrombosis). Once formed, a clot can slow or block normal blood flow, and even break loose and travel to an organ. A clot that travels to the circulation is called an embolism. Thrombosis is the often preventable underlying pathology of heart attack, thromboembolic stroke, and venous thromboembolism (VTE), the top three cardiovascular killers.
VTE is a condition in which blood clots form (most often) in the deep veins of the leg, pelvis and arms (known as deep vein thrombosis, DVT) and can travel in the circulation and lodge in the lungs (known as pulmonary embolism, PE). VTE is often fatal, but the good news is that many, if not most cases are preventable. DVT + PE = VTE
Know Thrombosis: It's A Global Priority
In 2012, the World Health Assembly (WHA) set a global target to reduce premature deaths from non-infectious disease - including cardiovascular disease - by 25 percent by 2025. To meet this goal, WTD and our partners believe that the WHA must directly address thrombosis, specifically VTE and AFib.
In May 2015, the ISTH and WTD steering committee called for increased attention to thrombosis in a statement to the World Health Organization's (WHO) 68th World Health Assembly. Key to this effort is the inclusion of VTE as a specific cause of death in the WHO's next Global Burden of Disease study. | <urn:uuid:fd096653-6891-4275-91a1-378b7076f6f4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.worldthrombosisday.org/issue/thrombosis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929322 | 354 | 3.828125 | 4 |
Millions of litres of water will be released into the Thomson and Macalister rivers from next week.
The West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (CMA) says environmental water releases are planned for the Thomson River from April 26 and May 11.
Water releases into the Macalister River downstream of Lake Glenmaggie are scheduled to begin on April 27.
Frank Donohue from the West Gippsland CMA says the increased flows will improve breeding conditions for native fish such as the endangered Australian grayling.
"Australian grayling is a migratory fish. It moves between the ocean and freshwater systems like the Thomson and Macalister," he said.
"So it needs flows at the right time and the right volume to trigger breeding events such as spawning and migration.
"During the drought period there was a decline in numbers and over recent years we've seen an increase in populations.
"So we can attribute some of that to delivery of environmental flows." | <urn:uuid:d10cf221-b9b6-420b-a061-c9afdd2ddd6a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-19/rivers-to-get-increased-flows/3959624?pfm=sm&source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956981 | 203 | 2.546875 | 3 |
All government budgets of the two decades preceding 1975 were marked by an excess of expenditures over domestic revenues; foreign aid and treasury reserves made up the difference. There probably was no domestic public finance system during 1975–78; any public funds in that period came from China. During the 1980s, public expenditures were financed by the former USSR, either directly or through Vietnam.
From 1989–91, the public deficit nearly tripled as a result of falling revenue collection. As assistance from the Soviet bloc ceased after 1990, monetary expansion soared to cover the deficit. By the middle of 1992, with hyperinflation imminent, the government began a series of stabilization efforts to halt the fiscal deterioration. With only limited international aid, however, public expenditures for the necessary reconstruction and development of Cambodia have been restricted.
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates that in 2000 Cambodia's central government took in revenues of approximately $363 million and had expenditures of $532 million including capital expenditures of $225 million. Overall, the government registered a deficit of approximately $169 million. External debt totaled $829 million. | <urn:uuid:59f37bea-f927-4476-a2c4-9201bdc72821> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Cambodia-PUBLIC-FINANCE.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970174 | 220 | 3.046875 | 3 |
After much research four separate scientific teams have found that there are more genes that are linked to type2 diabetes//. This discovery has made us inch closer to finding out the real genetic cause of diabetes.
The discovery of Human Genome some years ago had paved the way for many researches into genes being the cause of many common diseases. “This represents sort of a landmark moment in type II diabetes research” said Michael Boehnke, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who led the so-called FUSION study, which included investigators from several American sites, the National Human Genome Research Institute, and the Finnish National Public Health Institute.
The results show the power of the genome wide association in finding genetic variation in the disease. The three group had different groups of participants with or with out the type 2 diabetes. They were checked using microchip array technique to scan and evaluate their genome.
With the different results the teams collaborated together to study the result in a larger cohort. Thus they have created a large data base of information involving different types of population.
At the moment there are more than 20 million Americans with diabetes and many more at the risk of acquiring it. With this discovery preventive medicine can be tailor made according to an individual genetic make up. Some genetic areas that are in no way connected to diabetes have been discovered but which harms the body’s ability to control the blood sugar and cause heart disease paving the way to early death.
Genetic defects accounts for half the risk of a person getting diabetes. The other factors are the external factors like obesity and lack of exercise.
The three variations they found are near genes that appear to be related to regulation of insulin, which controls blood sugar, and to growth of the cells in the pancreas that produce insu
lin. In diabetes, the body becomes resistant to insulin or fails to make enough insulin, causing a problematic build-up of sugar in the blood stream. The actual effect of the genetic defects has yet to be determined.
Professor Andrew Hattersley of the Peninsula Medical School, said: "We now have significantly more pieces to the jigsaw that will help us understand the mechanisms behind type 2 diabetes."Related medicine news :1
. Genetic Dentistry: Your Dentist may be able to grow you a new set
. Genetic influence in menopause 3
. Genetics and cholesterol levels4
. Genetics helps in attacking cancer5
. Genetic disorder related with sleep patterns6
. Genetic innovation7
. Genetic tests for cancer8
. Genetic indicates memory 9
. Genetic mutation to the fountain of youth discovered10
. Genetic differences found between Male and Female brains11
. Alcoholism Influenced By Both Genetics & Family Environment | <urn:uuid:242879ee-7db7-440d-befb-e87bd4555598> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Genetic-Flaws-Leads-to-Diabetes-20307-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935162 | 560 | 3.34375 | 3 |
JRE vs JDK
I've just installed java JDK in my computer, and I've seen their two folders, one is JDK, and other is JRE. I just wanna know if we are setting the path to JDK folder, and calling javac, and java tool in it, then what's the need of this JRE folder? What's its use here?
Thanks in advance.
just setting java with JDK..
dont use JRE
JRE is the Java Runtime Environment.
JDK is the Java Developer Kit
You can't run java apps without the JRE and you cant compile Java classes without the JDK
For your everyday computer user, JDK would be a worthless bunch of junk, but the JRE could become quite useful... the JRE can run any Java applet or application, but it cannot use something that you just wrote, as the code must be compiled. The JDK does the compiling and creates the .class files, which are then used by the JRE to run the program. A Java programmer needs both, but for someone who only uses Java programs, all that is needed is the JRE | <urn:uuid:aaeacbbc-3a64-43d7-a020-4e729cc4f3b6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.java-forums.org/new-java/18655-jre-vs-jdk-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00046-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953035 | 241 | 2.578125 | 3 |
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A More Perfect Union: American Independence and the Constitution
In A More Perfect Union: American Independence and the Constitution students revisit the events and controversies of 1763-88 to gain a deeper understanding of the political climate of the era and the values that contributed to the political foundation of the United States. In exploring the parallels between the debates of 1776 and 1788 and our country's current political discourse, students will gain an insight into many of the issues that define our own age.
The readings place students in the context of the late 1700s as they prepare to consider the policy debate surrounding the American struggle for independence. Students examine Britain's colonialization of North America and the factors shaping colonial society as well as the points of contention that drew the colonies away from the mother country after the French and Indian War. The text also explores the principles and shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation, considers the economic divisions emerging in the young American republic, probes the most controversial sections of the constitution proposed in 1787 and reviews the evolution of the U.S. Constitution's scope and meaning over the past two centuries.
The Choices Role Play
A More Perfect Union: American Independence and the Constitution contains two sets of options. The first set focuses on the debate surrounding the American rebellion from the mother country at the early stages of the War for Independence. The second set of options revolves around the ratification of the proposed constitution in 1787. Each option is grounded in a clearly defined philosophy about the nature of government and the threats and opportunities facing an independent American republic. By exploring a broad spectrum of alternatives, students gain a deeper understanding of the competing values and assumptions that framed the debates of the late 1700s. Ultimately, the intent is to help students clarify their thoughts about the origins of the American experiment, articulate their own views on the role of government, and apply the lessons of history to the challenges facing Americans today.
Rethinking the Purpose of Government
In small groups students develop the foundations of a new society. In so doing they analyze the sources of political conflict in the late colonial period.
Balancing Competing Values
Students distinguish between values and interests while considering responses to case studies that reflect controversies from the 1763-75 period.
February 1776: Role-Playing Four Options
Working cooperatively to advocate for one of the four options the public considered in 1776, students draw upon primary sources and take into consideration the views of fictional colonists.
Democratization in the United States
Using data and evidence, students analyze trends toward democratization and evaluate the underpinnings of U.S. democracy.
The Articles of Confederation
Students identify the weaknesses in the Articles by reading case studies in small groups.
Revisiting the Constitutional Convention
As delegates, students grapple with the critical issues raised in Philadelphia and draw upon historical evidence to develop coherent arguments.
February 1788: Role-Playing Three Options
As fictional characters at an inn, students debate the competing options for the Constitution.
Judging the Past
By developing criteria for portraying the past, students begin to assess the perspectives and standards that shape historiography.
Reassessing the Constitution
Students brainstorm modern challenges facing the United States, and articulate their own views on individual rights and the purpose of government. | <urn:uuid:d3605874-1c03-4042-b445-39dcd66fd099> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.choices.edu/resources/detail.php?id=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00083-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909274 | 694 | 4.40625 | 4 |
One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges trying force ‹into› every kind of adapted structure into the gaps ‹of› in the œconomy of Nature, or rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones
Notebook D 135e, 28 September 1838
The Charles Darwin Papers in the Manuscripts Department of Cambridge University Library hold nearly the entire extant collection of Darwin’s working scientific papers. Paramount among these documents are Charles Darwin’s Evolution Manuscripts, which are being published online at the Cambridge Digital Library and simultaneously at the Darwin Manuscripts Project in collaboration with the Darwin Correspondence Project. This is a conceptually coherent set of over 30,000 digitised and edited manuscript pages, spanning 1835-1882. None of these documents have hitherto been digitised to the present high standard of full-colour and high-resolution. While several documents are classics of the Darwin manuscripts corpus, many have never been transcribed and edited before and many that have been published previously are presented here in new and radically improved editions. These documents are organised into two parts, which will be released in two instalments: Creation of the Origin (November 2014) and Darwin’s Evidence (June 2015).
Part I Creation of the Origin of Species includes the first traces of Darwin’s interest during the Beagle voyage in the species question—broadly defined. It also includes, for contextual purposes, his treatment of those specimens in his own collections and those subjects, such as extinction and biogeography, which he would later revisit in the light of evolution. Beyond these scattered, early theoretical reflections, the bulk of the Creation collection comprises the complete set of theoretical notes and the multiple draft essays that Darwin wrote over a period of two decades (1837-1859). These documents truly constitute the surviving seedbed of the Origin. For in them, Darwin hammered out natural selection and the structure of concepts he used to support natural selection. It was here also that he developed his evolutionary narrative and where he experimented privately with arguments and strategies of presentation that he either rejected or that eventually saw the light of day with the Origin’s publication in 1859.
In the collection, there are several repositories of notes namely: the Transmutation Notebooks and Metaphysical Notebooks of the 1830s. It was in Notebook B, the first Transmutation Notebook, that Darwin first attempted to formulate a full theory of evolution and it was in Notebooks D and E that natural selection began to take form in late 1838 and early 1839. The further maturation of Darwin’s theory is found in the three experiment notebooks he began in the late 1830s and mid 1850s, and above all in the Origin Portfolios. The latter are a large mass of previously unpublished loose notes, primarily from the 1830s-1850s, which Darwin organised into topics that generally parallel the chapters of the Origin. The Origin Portfolios contain several hundred letters and former enclosures in letters, which Darwin commonly annotated and which he treated as an integral part of the material he gathered for what became the Origin.
Lastly, the Creation collection holds the surviving documentary evidence for the drafting of the Origin, which was a process that scholars have long recognised began not in the 1850s, but in 1842 when Darwin wrote the first in a long chain of draft essays and draft chapters. The first of these was the 35-page document known as the 1842 Pencil Sketch or the 1842 Essay. Darwin was right to refer to the 1842 document as a ‘sketch’ for it was very rough. But this often crudely schematic document does represent a very first draft of the Origin. Darwin managed to cover much of the over-arching structure, many of the themes, and even some of the most memorable language of the book that he was to publish much expanded, many drafts and many years later. For example, it was in this sketch that Darwin for the first time coined the term Natural Selection, where it appeared as the section head for the two crucial pages of the 1842 Essay that he devoted to the explanatory essence of his theory (Ms pp. 5 & 6). Darwin began page 5, but quickly crossed-through the short passage he had written. He turned over the page and replaced it with a new page 5. However, that new start occasioned a historic change and crystallisation of Darwin's scientific language. For, in the first p. 5 he used the circumlocution 'Means of selection', which he then extended to the fairly long phrase '<<Natural>> Means of selection'. But on the new page 5, he began a new section with a new heading, and as far as is known, it was at this moment that Darwin coined a new scientific term: 'Natural Selection'.
The 1844 Essay, a 189-page draft, was to follow next. Possibly before he launched into writing the 1844 Essay, and definitely during 1844 Essay’s writing, he used the backs of many pages of the 1842 Pencil Sketch to write ink chapter summaries and notes, some with page references to the draft of the 1844 Essay. Darwin also rewrote the opening dozen or so pages of the 1844 draft, but retained the rejected version—published here as 1844 Essay, Part I, Draft A. After he completed writing the 1844 Essay, he had it copied by an amanuensis to produce a 230 page fair copy, which he may well have intended to publish. If so, Darwin thought better of the idea, but he did revise and annotate the fair copy, which was also critically annotated—with significant impact—by Emma Darwin and Joseph Dalton Hooker, among others.
One set of Darwin’s annotations on the 1844 Essay, namely dark pencil notes on the verso of blank sheets interleaved among the pages of the fair copy, appear to relate to the next phase of Darwin’s writing up the species theory. That is the nine surviving chapters of the very large manuscript (comprising nine thick volumes of the Charles Darwin Papers, DAR 8-16) published posthumously by R. C. Stauffer in 1975 as Charles Darwin’s Natural Selection, Being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. While it is true—as we learn from Darwin’s pocket diary (DAR 158)—that he first took pen to foolscap to begin writing Natural Selection in May 1856, we also know from the diary that it was earlier, that is in September 1854, that Darwin actually reengaged with the writing project he had dropped in 1844. He did so not by embarking on a new version of the theory, rather he ‘began sorting notes for species Theory’. This correlates well with the establishment of the Origin Portfolios for his old notes and with a sudden influx of new notes, many datable to November 1854.
The Natural Selection manuscript is the immediate, yet partial, precursor of the Origin. Stauffer refers to it as the ‘second part of his big species book’. The first part, dealing with variation and selection under domestication, was apparently cannibalised either when Darwin wrote Chapters 1 and 2 of the Origin and/or when he wrote Variation under domestication (1868). We know from the Diary that there were two lost, presumably reused, Chapters I and II. So the Natural Selection manuscript begins with Chapter III and is complete through Chapter X, while Chapter XI is incomplete. The eight surviving full chapters comprising Natural Selection clearly show that the big book was conceived on a larger scale than the Origin. It is characterized by its richness of detail and the fact that it has footnotes and a presumptive bibliography. Darwin hoped that it would be published in 1860. In fact, when he stopped writing in June 1858, he had not that much further to do to complete the book to the draft stage. Judging by the Origin, he had but four topics left to cover. He had to complete geographic distribution, write de novo chapters on palaeontology and on the related topics he grouped together under classification, morphology, embryology, and rudimentary organs, and he had to write the concluding chapter. In other words, 70% of the topics were already done, and while distribution and palaeontology could well have become double chapters, as they are in the Origin, the remaining topics contained no conceptual difficulties to compare with those, such as divergence and instinct that he had already resolved, at least to his own satisfaction. Given the rate that Darwin was working, publication sometime in 1859-1861 was definitely in sight.
But in June 1858, as he noted in his diary, his writing was ‘interrupted’, as is well known, by the arrival of Alfred Russel Wallace’s paper espousing not only evolution, but evolution by an agency that Darwin in his shock saw—accurately or not—as closely akin to natural selection. By July Darwin had regrouped and began writing what he called an abstract of the big book. This new version of the species book would have no footnotes or bibliography, have far less detail, and would be far more readable than Natural Selection. Some nine months later, in March 1859, the abstract was completed and was published on 24 November 1859 as On the Origin of Species, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. While Darwin carefully preserved many thousands of manuscript pages leading up to the draft of the Origin, and continued to add notes to the Origin portfolios into the 1870s, he seems to have placed little value on preserving the draft itself, and all that survive seem to be mainly those few sheets whose blank sides were used by his children, particularly his son Francis, for drawing paper and those retrieved from the trash basket by others of Darwin’s children, particularly his daughter Henrietta. In total, 45 manuscript pages of the draft, 7 slips with lettered inserts to various pages and 1 fair copy page have been found. Of the 45 full sheets, 26 sheets are part of the Charles Darwin Papers in Cambridge. Most of the latter were distributed as souvenirs by Leonard Darwin acting in consort with his sister Henrietta either to other members of the family or to various scientists and scientific institutions. Leonard in particular gave sheets to fellow supporters of the eugenics movement in Britain and the United States. Ultimately many of the distributed sheets were sold on the open market to collectors and major libraries. Thus the small surviving trove of Origin sheets is the one and only element of the Creation of the Origin collection that isn’t wholly held by Cambridge University Library and Down House.
Part II Darwin’s Evidence — the second half and final instalment of Charles Darwin’s Evolution Manuscripts, will be released in June 2015 and constitutes the full, extant documentary record of notes and drafts for the extensive empirical research programme that Darwin undertook in preparing his eight post-Origin books on plants and humans. Darwin used the many experiments and observations he conducted, and the mass of information he compiled from his reading, to establish a well-worked evidentiary framework to support the central theoretical claim of the Origin, namely: that selection has worked in nature to produce evolutionary adaptations. For humans his most focussed empirical study led to Expression of Emotions, which appeared in 1872 and was a compliment to the Descent of Man (1871), which is based on a large compilation of information extracted from the scientific literature. For plants Darwin observed, dissected, and experimented on a wide variety of adaptive phenomena, namely: orchid fertilisation strategies (Orchids 1862, 1877), complex outbreeding mechanisms such as heterostyly and dichogamy (Cross and Self Fertilisation, 1876 and Forms of Flowers 1877), and a series of physiological books (Insectivorous Plants, 1875) and various forms of movement, such as climbing and phototropism (Climbing Plants, 1865, 1875 and Power of Movement 1880). | <urn:uuid:45d40a90-fbc9-4cc9-a155-414ccecaa1d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/darwin_mss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97032 | 2,494 | 3.125 | 3 |
The Jewish Federations of North America functions today as the main
representative body for North American Jewish groups. But in the 1940s, American
Jewry was splintered into many organizations and parties, each making a bold
attempt to save its brothers and sisters from the Nazis overseas.
JFNA ’s General Assembly convenes in Jerusalem this week, it is worth recalling
that 70 years ago, shortly after news of the Nazi genocide became public in the
US, a critical General Assembly of the CJF (the Council of Jewish Federations
and Welfare Funds, as the JFNA was known then) was gathering in Cleveland,
The American Jewish Yearbook in 1943 noted that there were 80,000
Jews in Cleveland – the same location as the founding GA in 1932 – and five
million Jews in the USA . Of those, 300,000 women and men were serving in the
Completing his first year as president of the council,
Sidney Hollander of Baltimore – a forceful leader working diligently to protect
and maintain the strength of the American Jewish community – knew that this GA
had to activate the members of the 185 communities who were
Noted leaders like rabbis Abba Hillel Silver and Stephen Wise
were calling on American Jews to use their influence to persuade president
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Congress to attempt to save the Jews of Europe
whom Hitler and the Nazis were murdering unmercifully. Silver was also the major
American advocate for establishing a Jewish state in Mandatory
As the Cleveland GA of 1943, with its 465 delegates, got under
way in the second week of January, Atlanta Jewish newspaper The Southern
Israelite carried a bold headline reading “Europe Jewry faces darkest
“Leaders of the United Nations...
in reviewing the past
year emphasized the fact that one half of [the four million] civilians killed
were 2 million Jews,” the paper reported.
“The number of persons
massacred by the Nazis in occupied countries is larger than the number of men
killed on the battlefields.”
Only a month earlier, in December 1942, the
American government had permitted the first public announcement of the
systematic destruction of two million Jews.
Although Roosevelt had
received the information in August 1942, he wanted it confirmed before allowing
Wise to make it public. Starting in early December, the rabbi moved heaven and
earth to awaken American Jewry in particular, and Americans in general, to this
ongoing slaughter. He held a public news conference that month that the The New
York Times covered but put on Page 10. Meanwhile, details of the murder of
European Jews could be found in every Anglo-Jewish newspaper in December 1942
and January 1943.
In his opening address at the GA, Hollander postulated
the requirements for stable communities where social agencies thrived with
efficient budgeting. He was overwhelmed by his personal anxiety, fully aware
that Jews were being slaughtered.
“We gather in Cleveland at a time which
is much more problematic for us as a people than was the Depression when the GA
of 1932, born here in Cleveland, took its pioneering steps toward becoming a
major body in American Jewish life,” he said. “Friends, we have to be strong at
home, able to assist our nation and all the Jews in the service to win this war.
Moreover, there is a growing awareness on the part of our community that the
rescue of the Jews in Europe will be our task. The demonic Hitler knows nothing
but to kill the innocent. He and his forces must be stopped by [the] Allies, or
else the tragedy will grow in proportions even outside of
Hollander declared that one of the most important problems
American Jewish life was facing at that time was organization. “This was not
always the case, because America is noted for its rugged individualism, and each
new Jewish group followed suit, proclaiming, ‘We are the one.’” However, he
continued, “as the Jewish community in USA became more homogeneous and as common
needs became more pressing, the tendency toward some sort of communal
cooperation began to grow. This is true in our general communities, but it is
even more significant for our Jewish community.
That is why the CJF was
founded just over a decade ago and has grown exponentially since
He then stressed his major point, the theme of the gathering:
“Without unity among all the Jewish groups operating in America today, we will
not be able to provide services for those who need it the most, be they
civilians or in the military.”
For many months, the CJF had been working
with the Jewish Welfare Board, the American Association for Jewish Education and
the Synagogue Council of America to establish a unified core of action in the
field of civic education and enlightenment. Additionally Hollander and his
negotiating team had spent many hours with leaders of the Anti-Defamation
League, the American Jewish Committee and Congress to fashion a unified plan of
As has been the case many times in Jewish history,
there were naysayers, so the desperately needed unity could not be finalized at
the 1943 GA. However, pressures were so strong after the Cleveland meeting that
by March unification did exist.
As the leading American Zionist figure
calling for the immediate establishment of a Jewish state following the war,
Silver – who was co-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, the major American
fund-raising arm that for many years now has been a part of the JFNA –
recognized that he dare not push that agenda at the GA. Instead, he noted that
the UJA was “eager to enter a united front with all agencies working diligently
in the field of humanitarian efforts.”
Later that year, he became
co-chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council with Wise.
important group led the battle in the US and UN for the creation of
Practically every day of 1943 made a major impact on world Jewry.
UJA campaigns 70 years ago led with the statement “We cannot let the two million
European Jews die in vain.”
Sadly, as is well known, the final number of
dead was six million.
As the participants in this year’s GA gather in
Jerusalem, delegates should keep in mind that there is an Israel, and there are
Jewish communities the world over. And together, they can insure our
future.The writer, who lives in Jerusalem, is the author of the American | <urn:uuid:2c70f820-c0fc-4800-9ce4-46a28d62f708> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Extermination-of-two-million-European-Jews-confirmed-just-prior-to-GA-70-years-ago-331108 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00131-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965257 | 1,384 | 2.890625 | 3 |
For March 1, 2013: This week we continue to focus on reference apps that teachers and middle to upper grade students will find useful in the classroom. Math Terms is an illustrated glossary of over 1,000 mathematical concepts. It may be viewed in either English or Spanish with the click of a button. Navigating is easy, but if you do need assistance, the help screen explains the search options. This free app for the iPad was developed by Andy Felong and the Charles A. Dana Center research unit at The University of Texas at Austin. Their mission is to provide programs and tools that transform student engagement.
Fly over to CyberBee at www.cyberbee.com for more great websites, lessons, and activities to use with students. | <urn:uuid:ebffeac4-1caf-4d6a-972d-d28fe062e0af> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.internetatschools.com/Articles/Cyberbee-Web-Pick/Cyberbees-Web-Picks/Math-Terms-88127.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932654 | 151 | 3.984375 | 4 |
Depression is very common and everyone feels fed up, sad, unhappy,
miserable at times. Sometimes we know that there is a cause for our
depression - maybe we have just broken up from a relationship, maybe
someone we were close to has died, we may have failed exams, we may
be ill - but other times there doesn't seem to be one cause - it may
be a build up of problems, feeling unable to cope with life and we
are not really sure why.
When depression is very severe some people can feel that life isn't
worth living, they want to die. When depression doesn't go away it
is important to ask for help. It is not a sign of weakness
to ask for help but a sign of strength to recognise that you have these
feelings and are unable to cope. Many people find at some
stage in their life that it is hard to cope as well as they used to.
You don't have to be strong all the time - recognise when you are finding
it difficult to cope and need support.
People can get a variety of symptoms when they feel very depressed.
General feelings of unhappiness which don't go away.
Having no interest in life.
Finding it difficult to concentrate and make even easy decisions.
Having no feeling of enjoyment in life.
Not wanting to go out or mix with people but spending a lot of
time on your own.
Feeling very tired and having no energy.
Finding it difficult to sleep and waking up frequently during
Having no appetite and eating very little
Losing self confidence and feeling worthless.
Being very irritable, anxious, impatient.
Feeling very negative about life.
Having suicidal thoughts.
If you are depressed don't bottle it up - it is important you talk
to someone - family, friend, teacher, youth leader, GP, organisation,
helpline etc. - anyone you feel you can trust If you don't share how
you are feeling you may find yourself using unhealthy coping strategies
which will in the long run only add to your problems and make you feel
worse - some people may start drinking alcohol more, may take drugs,
may start self harming and cutting themselves, may stop eating or binge
eating and making themselves sick.
You may find that counselling will help you as this
will give you a safe space to talk to someone who is especially trained.
This will help you to say how you really feel inside and the counsellor
will work with you to help you find solutions and healthy coping strategies
and to look at the reasons behind your depression. This will give you
a better understanding of your feelings and some support in working
through anything which is troubling you. If you find that counselling
doesn't work for you then it would be an idea to see your GP and discuss
with him other ways of helping you with your depression.
Talking to others and counselling and therapy can help but to pull
yourself out of a depression you need to do a lot of work yourself.
When you are depressed you may feel you have no control over your life
but you do still have choices. You can choose to stay depressed
and not eat properly, not exercise, stay in bed all day, etc. or you
can choose to try and help yourself to get out of the depression
. If you take care of yourself physically it will help you to feel
stronger emotionally and to cope more easily with life. Just as a car
needs petrol to work properly so does your body need nutrients from
food so although you may not feel like eating please try and eat healthily
and drink plenty of water.
Sometimes when we are depressed life can seem very negative and black
- it can be easy to forget that there are beautiful things in the world
surrounding us. Try and get out each day into an open space, park,
forest, lake etc. and just take in the beauty of your surroundings,
and try and be at one with nature. This can help keep things in perspective
and lift your mood.
Set yourself small goals - maybe each day try and write down something
you want to do the following day and try and follow this through. The
more active you are the less time you will have to focus on your depression.
Try and interact with other people when you can as if you totally isolate
yourself and cut yourself off from the outside world you could find
your depression gets more severe.
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What Can I do To Help Myself
- Don't bottle things up - find someone to talk to about how you
- Make sure you get plenty of exercise and plenty of fresh air. You
will find that even if you do a quick walk every day and a short
period of other exercise each day you will start to feel physically
and emotionally stronger and more able to cope.
- Make sure you eat a healthy balanced diet - eat little and often
and don't skip meals. If you are not eating properly you will feel
more depressed and listless.
- Try and keep busy - to keep your mind occupied.
- Do things you enjoy to relax, treat yourself and take care of yourself.
- Try and get to bed at a regular time. If you find it difficult
to sleep listen to the radio/TV/read and you may find you drop off
to sleep more easily.
- Don't resort to unhealthy ways of dealing with your problems like
drinking, taking drugs, cutting, eating disorders.
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Try to stop thinking in a negative way - when you think a negative
thought try and replace it with a positive one.
- If you need a hug ask someone you trust - this can make you feel
that someone really does care how you are feeling.
Remember depression is very common - you will
not always feel like this - you will come out of it and be able to
If your depression is severe and you are having thoughts about harming
yourself or ending your life it is important you talk to someone immediately
about how you are feeling. If you are a child or young person speak
to your parents about how you are feeling. They would want to know
how you feel and to support you and look at ways of helping. Talk to
your GP and make him aware of what is going on for you. It is very
difficult to deal with severe depression on your own - you need help
and support and in some cases your GP may advise medication.
ENDING YOUR LIFE AND HARMING YOURSELF
IS NEVER THE ANSWER. YOU HAVE YOUR WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF YOU AND WILL
NOT ALWAYS FEEL LIKE THIS.
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Agencies which offer support and information
SupportLine Telephone Helpline: 01708 765200 (Helpline)
Confidential emotional support to Children Young People and Adults.
Also keeps details of agencies, support groups and counsellors
Action on Depression (Scotland):
Telephone information and other support for people affected by
depression. Information about symptoms and treatment, listening
support and signposting to other agencies.
Association for Post Natal Illness: 020 7386 0868
To advise and support women suffering from post natal illness.
Running a network of volunteers to support sufferers throughout
Aware Defeat Depression: 08451 202961 (area served N.Ireland)
Support, information or a listening ear for all those affected by depressive illnesses.
0333 323 3880
Advice and information for people with manic depression and their
families, carers and mental health professionals. Supply a range
of information leaflets, books and tapes. Network of self help
groups for people with manic depression, relatives and friends.
Self management training programme.
Breathing Space: 0800 83 85 87 (Area served SCOTLAND)
Breathing Space is a free, confidential phone line for people in Scotland who are experiencing low mood or depression. Breathing Space is available to the public every day of the year, 24 hours at weekends (6pm Friday–6am Monday) and 6pm-2am (Monday-Thursday).
CALL Community Advice and Listening Line (Wales): 0800 132737
Mental health helpline for Wales providing confidential listening support service.
National 0800 585858
London: 0808 802 5858
Campaign Against Living Miserably. Help and support for young men aged 15-35 on issues which include depression and suicide.
Childline: 0800 1111
Directory and Book Services:
Wide range of books including those on depression, self esteem
assertiveness, self harm, child abuse.
Also offer a range
of information on depression and treatment options. National network
of self help groups for people experiencing depression. National
pen friend scheme offering support and fellowship to people with
depression and their carers. Quarterly newsletter, booklets and
leaflets on depression.
Self Help Nottingham, Ormiston House, 32-36 Pelham
Street, Nottingham NG1 2EG UK
Wide self help organisation made
up of individual members and groups which meet locally on a regular
basis for mutual support. £10 yearly membership (reductions
for those who cannot afford that amount).
Health in Mind (Scotland)
0131 225 8508
Promotes positive mental health and well being in Scotland. Provides a wide range of services including support, respite, befriending, day services, counselling/talking therapies, face to face and on telephone.
0808 808 8000
For anyone in N.Ireland who is in distress or despair. Immediate help on phone 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Face to face counselling can be arranged, also befriending, mentoring. Issues dealt with include suicide prevention, self harm, abuse, trauma, depression, anxiety.
Run by Contact N.Ireland www.contactni.com independent counselling service employing professional qualified counselors who have extensive experience of working with people facing a wide range of problems, free to all users.
The Maytree: 020 7263 7070
Sanctuary for the
suicidal offering befriending and support (based in N.London).
The Mental Health Foundation:
Publish a booklet 'Understanding Depression'.
Mind (National Association for Mental Health): 0300 123 3393
Publish booklets relating to Depression.
The Mix (formerly Get Connected)
0808 808 4994
Essential support for under 25s. Phone, Email, Web support and Counselling.
Helpline: 0161 832 3736
National Helpline and online support providing free and confidential information, advice and support to people with mood disorders, family, friends and health and social care professionals. Also one to one, support groups, workshops at Centre in Manchester.
Muslim Youth Helpline:
0808 808 2008 (Area
Helpline providing culturally sensitive support
to Muslim youth under the age of 25. Outreach services including
family mediation, face to face counselling and befriending.
National Youth Advocacy Service:
0808 808 1001
information, advice, advocacy and legal representation to young
people up to the age of 25 through a network of advocates throughout
England and Wales.
To inform the public about seasonal affective disorder. To support
and advise sufferers of the illness. Limited light box hire scheme.
Supply contacts list for members.
Helpline: 116 123 (free of charge from a landline or mobile)
0808 800 5792
Telephone advice, information and advocacy services for children
in care. Helpline for care leavers - 0808 100 3224. Visiting advocacy
service for children in secure units and other residential homes.
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www.cwmt.org – the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust - Awareness of the signs of depression, information and resources
www.depressioninteenagers.co.uk – An interactive site with resources for young people with depression, using self help ideas and relaxation techniques
Free resource for mental health and addiction issues created and run by the Tasha Foundation.
Trained student volunteers provide emotional support to students. Operating in the night when many other university services are closed.
A website for all men who suffer from depression or anxiety from all round the world. Support group for men with mental health issues in Abergavenny Monmouthshire, Wales. The organisation is also interested in creating dialog with women who know a man who has suffered or currently suffers from a mental health issue.
www.mind.org.uk/foodandmood - A site which explores the relationship of what you eat and how you feel
Information and support for those suffering from depression (American
Information relating to mental health, depression, stress and anxiety
www.moodgym.anu.edu.au – Online training programme using cognitive behavioural therapy for preventing depression
Lots of useful information
Day to day support service and crisis support to help reduce suicide, depression and other stress related illnesses to service users who are in need of emotional support and encouragement. Instant online support for any person who may be experiencing something in their life which they may be finding difficult to cope with. Also peer to peer support facilitated and monitored through facebook by trained admins where service users support each other through discussion, topics and open forums https://www.facebook.com/olagola
www.overcomedepression.co.uk - Depression help and advice
Self help guides under mental health leaflets on depression
site) - Online support group for people with manic depression (bipolar
www.pni.org.uk - Website set up by women who are suffering or have suffered with post natal illness, information, email support partner, chatroom
- www.studentsagainstdepression.org- Site contains excellent information and help for anyone feeling depressed
Click on 'medical conditions', click on 'mental health', then 'depression'
Overcoming Depression by
Paul Gilbert - Publishers Constable & Robinson: ISBN 1841191256
Click here to read more or buy this book
Caring for someone with depression
It can be very difficult watching a loved one going through depression, seeing someone you care about suffering and often feeling helpless as to how to offer support. It may well bring up many different emotions in yourself such as frustration, anger, sadness.
Find out as much as you can about depression for yourself, which will give you a greater understanding of what your loved one is going through, which in turn will help you to support them. A depressed person can't simply just snap out of it, often it can be a slow process taking one step at a time working towards recovery. As part of their recovery they may from time to time have relapses, if they do don't get down about it as some people do have them before they make a full recovery.
A depressed person will often feel very alone and isolated with their feelings and may even feel ashamed of speaking about their depression. It is important for them to know that many of us at some time in our lives struggle with life and need support from others. It is a sign of strength, not weakness to reach out to others for help. Sometimes they might need to be alone as life is getting too much for them at that time of their recovery. If they do want some time out give them that time but try and not let them take too much time away on their own and withdraw from people if possible.
Never underestimate the importance of letting the person know you care what they are going through, you are there for them if they want to talk about anything.
Sometimes when a person is depressed they lack the enthusiasm and motivation to do anything and searching for information therefore can feel difficult to do. They may also feel that there is no help out there and that the way they feel now will be the way they will always feel, which can often lead to feelings of despair. Give them time to recover.
You can help by looking for information for them such as helplines, counselling services and information about depression and give it to them to read in their own time if they choose to. If someone is severely depressed try not to overwhelm them with too much information at once. It may be helpful to offer to go through the information with them.
Encourage the person to seek help. You can offer to go with them and give them support if they choose to go to a GP or counsellor as it may seem very daunting for them to go on their own especially if their mind is ill. However, in your concern for them to get help try to avoid putting pressure on them by telling them too often what to do.
Exercise is beneficial to anyone who is depressed, try and encourage this, ask if they would like to go out for walks with you. If they are severely depressed it may not be wise for them to go out on their own as their mind may not be functioning enough to pick up the dangers they would need to avoid to keep themselves safe.
Ask them in what ways you can support them. Sometimes asking that question may get a reply from the person you are trying to support that you personally don't agree would help them but sometimes people know themselves best and what may be right for them at that particular time.
It is important to remember it is not your responsibility to sort out their depression and you are not responsible for their happiness. Each individual has to take responsibility for their own lives, choices, decisions, happiness and fulfilment in life. Sometimes people are not ready or able to face up to their illness and not ready to get help. Sometimes sadly people will get worse before they are ready to get help for themselves. In these situations all you can do is be there to support them in whatever way you can. You cannot force another person to get help.
It is important not to allow the situation to take over your own life. Caring for someone with depression can often become all consuming to the extent that people neglect themselves and often become ill with stress because of the situation. It is important to have time for yourself, for your family, friends, leisure activities, relaxation and to have support for yourself perhaps from a friend or a local Carers Group otherwise you may feel you are becoming overwhelmed and drained by the situation.
You may have to set boundaries, you can be there to listen to them but that does not mean to the extent of everything else in your life. You are not responsible for fixing their depression, they are, and they are responsible for getting the help they need. You can support them with this and give encouragement and help where you can.
Some organisations who provide support for people with depression may also provide support for those caring for them. If you are caring for someone with severe depression it may help to seek support for yourself from a local Carers support group. (see sections on Carers, Depression and Mental Health)
back to top | <urn:uuid:b2dd5523-6304-494f-a654-2bf7fc42f987> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.supportline.org.uk/problems/depression.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946056 | 3,942 | 2.84375 | 3 |
DDGS particle separation behind shipping cost troubles
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University study solves a mystery that has long plagued ethanol producers and driven up shipping costs of a byproduct sold as cattle feed.
Distillers dried grains with solubles, or DDGS, is the grain product left after production of ethanol. However, when filled with DDGS, railcars register different weights – sometimes many tons different from each other – lowering shipping efficiency and raising costs.
The reason, according to Klein Ileleji, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, is that the cars aren't all holding the same-sized particles.
Previous studies show that when poured, like-sized DDGS particles congregate, with the smallest, called fines, accumulating in the center of the pile and the larger particles moving to the outside. Ileleji and doctoral student Clairmont Clementson hypothesized that this is what happens when DDGS is poured into railcar hoppers for transport.
To test the theory, Ileleji and Clementson created a scaled-down mechanism that mimicked the loading of railcar hoppers. When simulated, the first containers had mostly fines, with proceeding containers getting more of the larger particles. The containers with fines weighed more because they can be packed more densely.
"When we analyzed our data with what we would expect in theory, the weight pattern of our containers can be explained by particle segregation during filling of the hoppers, which is amplified during discharge, causing bulk density variation," said Ileleji, whose results were published in the early online edition of the journal Bioresource Technology.
The problem is exacerbated by the tendency of DDGS to discharge from hoppers in a funnel-like flow pattern in which the fines that have accumulated at the hopper's core are released first. Outside contents, which are primarily larger in size, are released last. Even mass-flow hoppers with steep sidewall angles designed to release their contents in layers caused weight irregularities because the DDGS continued to exhibit funnel-flow tendencies.
Ileleji suggests either finding a way to mix the contents better during loading or using a process he patented to create uniform-sized particles.
"The granules are larger, so they would not pack as well as fines. But granules are denser than the same amount of fines, so you get more in the same amount of space," Ileleji said. "This would ensure that railcars would weigh about the same amount and help control the cost of shipping DDGS."
Ileleji said the next step is to verify lab studies with field data and test loading methods in the field to reduce variability in DDGS bulk density during loading. An Anderson's Research Grant from Multistate Project NC-213 for Marketing and Delivery of Quality Grains and BioProcess Co-products and a Purdue Research Foundation fellowship funded the research as part of Clementson's doctoral work.
Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, firstname.lastname@example.org
Source: Klein Ileleji, 765-494-1198, email@example.com | <urn:uuid:a4c0c769-a355-41ce-b9f6-40fadb4b00ee> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2010/100330IlelejiFlow.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00187-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948212 | 658 | 2.921875 | 3 |
I’ll start by answering your question about EFL and ESL. ESL stands for English as a second language. This refers to, for example, people living in India who use English regularly but English is not their mother tongue. It’s similar to the use of French in countries such as Lebanon and Morocco. In these countries Arabic is the mother tongue and French is the second language. EFL stands for English as a foreign language and refers to situations such as Spanish people in Spain learning English. Here, English really is a foreign language. I don’t know which country you live in so I’m not sure whether you should teach EFL or ESL. In any case, with young children, I don’t think there would be a major difference between the two approaches.
As for skills work, I think you should focus on listening and speaking as much as possible with the younger children (6-8 years old). They are probably learning to write in their mother tongue and it can be very confusing to write in a foreign language and can affect their abilities in their mother tongue. At this age, keep writing to a minimum, e.g. copying vocabulary. The older children should be able to write more extensively; they should be able to produce a paragraph of writing, unless they are absolute beginners. Nevertheless, you should try to do as much listening and speaking as possible and keep writing exercises for homework.
When teaching children, you need to introduce a lot of variety. You will need to change activities often. Smaller children are happy to repeat activities, for example a favourite game or song can be repeated. Older children will appreciate something new and can concentrate for longer periods of time.
The above are very general comments about teaching children. Please feel free to write in again if you would like to know about specific situations. | <urn:uuid:018d354c-935c-4448-92ae-7897fad965dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4002 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00050-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970799 | 376 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The Pew report “Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population,” concluded that the world wide Muslim population was 1.6 billion and that the majority of Muslims today reside beyond the birth place of Islam. It is estimated that over 30% of Muslims – the largest – reside in Hind, which comprised of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Contact between the Muslims from Baghdad – the Abbasid Khilafah [800-1300 CE] – took place before the expedition of Muhammed bin Qasim, which has come to be seen as a seminary period in the regions history books. The Arabs used to visit the coast of Southern India, which then provided the link between the ports of South and South East Asia. After the Arab traders became Muslim, they brought Islam to South Asia. A number of local Indians living in the coastal areas embraced Islam through contact with the Muslim traders.
Over a period of 500 years Islam expanded across the Indus plains. By the 12th century Islam had reached Delhi. The Islamic conquests were different compared to the previous invasions into the region, as many conquerers did nothing regarding the prevailing customs and in many cases assimilated into the existing architecture. Hind had an abhorrent caste system which differentiated between people on ethnic lines which led to the supremacy of princely rulers who enslaved many to work in their fields in return for basic wages. As Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms came under the fold of Islam, the Khilafah became a highly centralising force that facilitated the creation of a common legal system that gradually replaced the caste system.
Letters of credit issued in Egypt or Tunisia were honoured in India and in order to create and sustain such an internationally consistent legal system, local and traditional systems of governance were uprooted.
In an analysis of the Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent, one researcher highlighted: “Unlike earlier conquerors who assimilated into prevalent social systems, Muslim conquerors retained their Islamic identity and created legal and administrative systems that challenged and destroyed existing systems of social conduct, culture, religious practices, lifestyle and ethics.”[i]
The Muslims when they came to the region introduced a new culture, which was very different from the existing cultures. Muhammad bin Qasim set up an administrative structure that incorporated a newly conquered land, inhabited by non-Muslims. He adopted a conciliatory policy, asking for acceptance of Muslim rule by the natives in return for non-interference in their religious practices, so long as the natives paid Jizya, without forced conversion. Shari’ah law was applied over the people of the region; however, Hindus were allowed to settle their marital disputes according to their own laws. Hindus and Buddhists were inducted into the administration as trusted advisors and governors.[ii] A Hindu, was at one point the second most important member of Muhammed bin Qasim’s administration.[iii]
Islam created a system where political power, law and worship became fused in a manner so as to safeguard the interests of all people. This stability led to the subcontinent to become the hub between the Far East and the Mediterranean. The Khilafah has also been credited for creating the Karkhanas – small factories in the subcontinent. New towns were created that specialised in a particular category of manufactured goods, which led to development and prosperity that had not been seen for centuries.
While the spread of Islam in the Sub-continent is the story of untiring efforts of numerous saints and Sufis who dedicated their lives to the cause of Islam, by the time the Muslims conquered Delhi and established what came to be known as the Delhi Sultanate, Sufi fraternities had come into being and the Sufi influence was far more powerful than it was in earlier days under the Arabs in Sindh.
One Hindu historian described this period as follows: “Throughout its existence the Delhi Sultanate (1205-1526), remained a legal part of the worldwide Muslim empire functioning under the de jure suzerainty of the Abbasid caliphs. Sultans considered themselves the deputies of the caliph and derived their validity of their administrative and legal authority only on the basis of delegation. Since the supreme authority of the community legally remained with the caliph, every king and potentate claimed to exercise governmental power for, and on behalf of the Imam of Islam.”[iv]
In this way many people who were discriminated against due to the caste system embraced Islam.
It was only the weakness that overcame Muslims in understanding Islam that became the cause of their decline as under Islam the people of the region only saw progress.
Today, Hind is widely, though incorrectly, recognised as encompassing India alone. In spite of the apparent economic growth of India today, the region is the most poverty stricken in the world after Africa. The resources of the region have not been marshalled for the people and corruption runs rampant as it was before Islam came to the region.
We also unfortunately see the ancient caste system return to the region which has turned the region into hereditary groups creating huge fault-lines which has led to the ugly head of sectarianism returning to the region when the early Muslims dedicated their lives to removing it.
The Hind region today is a far cry from the heights it achieved in the past.
[i] M. S. Asimov and C. E. Bosworth, ‘History of Civilizations of Central Asia,’ Vol IV: The Rise of Islam and Nomadic
and Military Empires in Central Asia, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1998
[ii] Nicholas F. Gier, FROM MONGOLS TO MUGHALS: RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IN INDIA 9TH-18TH CENTURIES, Presented at the Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting American Academy of Religion, Gonzaga University, May, 2006 http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/mm.htm
[iii] H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, (London, 1867-1877), vol. 1, p. 203.
[iv] Shashi S. Sharma, Caliphs and Sultans – Religious ideology and political praxis, pg. 247 | <urn:uuid:dc023069-33e4-4dc7-a926-24cf70baec7c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hizb.org.uk/islamic-culture/al-hind-and-islam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964767 | 1,305 | 3.90625 | 4 |
Studies consistently show that kids are not getting the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables. But, red, sweet, juicy strawberries are one healthy fruit that you won't have any trouble getting your child to eat.
Strawberries are one of America's most loved fruits, with the average American consuming 8 pounds per year.
A cup of naturally sweet strawberries (about 8 medium) has only 50 calories, making them the perfect treat to satisfy your child's sweet tooth. Strawberries for dessert pack a powerful nutrient punch that many traditional desserts lack.
Strawberries are rich in vitamin C, folate, fiber and potassium. Just 1 cup contains 160 percent of the recommended Daily Value of vitamin C, which is necessary for growth and body tissue repair, and for maintaining a healthy immune system. Fiber aids in digestive health and 1 cup of sliced strawberries provides 3.3 grams of fiber. Strawberries are rich in antioxidants including anthocyanins, which give them their bright red color. These compounds may help prevent some chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Not only are strawberries delicious and nutritious, but as Rachel Begun, MS, RDN, points out, "What makes them particularly great for kids is that they are the perfect size for little hands and fingers."
Fresh strawberries are extremely versatile and can be served whole, packed to go or used in a variety of recipes, including salads, sandwiches with cheese or nut butter, salsa, smoothies, fruit kabobs or served with low-fat yogurt or ice cream.
When fresh strawberries aren't in season, choose frozen, but check the label to make sure there is no added sugar. Sheila Campbell, RD, suggests making instant "ice cream" by blending frozen strawberries with Greek yogurt and avocado. "The avocado doesn't change the flavor but makes a fun green color and extra rich consistency," Campbell says.
Marilyn Yon, MS, RD, LD, recommends pick-your-own strawberry farms. "It's fun to see the kids eating strawberries as they pick, red-stained faces and all," she says. What could be better than watching your child enjoy a healthy food such as strawberries? Just be sure to wash fresh berries before eating.
Try this easy Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade for a bubbly summer refresher bursting with vitamin C. | <urn:uuid:76f51970-66a5-476e-b2b0-07325d644530> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eatright.org/resource/food/vitamins-and-supplements/nutrient-rich-foods/the-season-for-strawberries | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946347 | 473 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Some of the biggest names in American agriculture, ranging from farmers' organizations to private companies like Monsanto and DuPont, have agreed on principles governing the use of data collected from farms.
That data increasingly drives farm operations. Tractors and combines carry sensors that record — and upload to the data "cloud" — what happens on each spot of a farmer's field, from how much fertilizer and seed it received to how much grain it produced to what type of soil is found there. That data, once analyzed, guides decisions about what seeds a farmer will plant.
Top agribusiness companies, including Monsanto, DuPont, John Deere and Dow, have moved into the information business, offering to help farmers collect that data and analyze it — for a price.
But some farmers are starting to worry about how that data will be used; whether, for instance, details of their operations will be open for all to see. Others wonder how the data companies will exploit their new-found ability to monitor what's happening on vast tracts of farmland. | <urn:uuid:c4a80a29-d5f1-4cdf-a4ad-a05a73fb3370> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lisnews.org/taxonomy/term/18?page=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937704 | 212 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Public radio interviews Kane about her book ‘The Gender Trap’
In recent interviews with public radio, Professor of Sociology Emily Kane talks about her new book, The Gender Trap: Parents and the Pitfalls of Raising Boys and Girls, and why customs like pink for girls and blue for boys are not necessarily benign choices.
Asked about the impact of gender-specific toys, colors and activities, Kane tells the North Texas Public Media program Think that these choices “are not just about whether we train boys and girls to be different. It’s about whether we might be reproducing structures that systematically disadvantage girls and women.”
What’s more, Kane says, while we often believe that all gender differences in children are natural, many are actually the result of specific parental and societal choices and reinforcement.
In her interview with Southern California Public Radio’s Take Two, she says that by choosing gender-specific opportunities and surroundings for our children, “we’re constructing these categories of boys and girls and kind of convincing ourselves that it’s inevitable.”
But it’s not inevitable, she says.
Referring to the fact that many of the parents she interviewed in the study wanted to offer their children a wider range of possibilities but feared social judgments, Kane notes, “One of my hopes with this book is that…we may realize there are more of us who want to see some kind of relaxing of those constraints than we might otherwise realize, so in that sense it wouldn’t be so hard to swim upstream.”
That might mean choosing neutral colors and toys that “would be interesting to any small human being.” | <urn:uuid:9cb82c5c-4711-46ac-8b54-095cd855d881> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bates.edu/news/2012/12/06/take-two-interviews-kane/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934438 | 349 | 2.515625 | 3 |
South Asia's annual monsoon often seems like a calamity of Old Testament proportions -- people are drowned in raging flood waters, crushed by collapsing buildings, wasted by plagues and struck down by snakes.
The monsoon rains that flood wide stretches of the subcontinent each year force creatures large and small, harmless and deadly, onto whatever dry land can be found, and the result is scores, if not hundreds, of fatal snake bites, say officials and experts.
"Everything, everyone, is restricted to tiny, tiny islands with very little space," said Romulus Whitaker, a snake expert. "Everyone is crammed in together and the chances of running into snakes, stepping on them, grabbing them and sleeping on them is much, much more."
So tight is the association of snakes with the annual rains -- which are needed to water farms that provide a livelihood for two-thirds of India's 1.1 billion residents -- that the serpents have for millennia been revered as well as feared across much of the subcontinent.
With this year's monsoon particularly calamitous -- at least 2,090 people have been killed across South Asia and 19 million forced from their homes -- tales of snake bites abound, from the farming villages along the banks of Ganges River to the valleys of India's remote northeast.
"These serpents even climb up the trees. They are as nervous and scared as human beings and they bite only if they are disturbed," said Vinod Chaudhry, a government wildlife expert.
That's how Paltu Ram, a farmer in his 20s, died.
Stranded with a few hundred villagers on a sliver of land encircled by flood waters in the Bara Banki district of northern India, about 600km east of New Delhi, he decided to climb a tree to see if he could spot a rescue boat.
On his way up, he reached for what looked like a brown rope. It wasn't -- and when he grabbed it, the snake recoiled and then struck, sinking its fangs into his arm.
"Paltu jumped into water saying he was bitten by snake. Before he could be taken to a doctor he died," said his father, Rameshwar, who couldn't say what kind of snake got his son.
Officials in India don't keep exact figures for the number of snake bites during the monsoon, and experts say even annual totals are considered unreliable.
But in one indication of how many monsoon deaths are caused by snakes, Bangladesh's government said on Thursday at least 35 of the 226 people killed in this year's monsoon died from being bitten by the creatures, the second-highest cause of death after drowning.
There are hundreds of different snakes on the subcontinent, many of which are venomous. But only four are responsible for the vast majority of deaths -- kraits, russell's vipers, saw-scaled vipers and cobras.
All are extremely dangerous and all are venerated.
The appearance of those snakes, especially cobras, has long been viewed as a harbinger of coming floods and the renewed fertility that follows. Their disappearance as an omen of a coming drought.
In some parts of India, it is also believed snakes can cause plagues by blowing their breath across the land, and malaria is known as snake-wind disease.
Hindu gods are often depicted with cobras.
Shiva is seen wearing a girdle of serpents and cobras for earrings; Vishu is pictured resting on the coils of a multi-headed cobra. | <urn:uuid:54570a0e-3050-4822-aa28-8022829fdad5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/08/12/2003373795 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979202 | 742 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Black Forest was timberland when Colorado Springs founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer bought 43,000 acres in 1870.
It was the primary source of wood - a blanket of ponderosa pines - that helped build early Denver and Colorado Springs.
Overcutting was clear by 1935, but the industry slowed. With help from the federal government, the trees recovered.
On Tuesday afternoon, many of those 70-year-old trees were fuel for a raging fire that by midday Wednesday had destroyed at least 100 homes, scorched more than 8,000 acres and sent thousands of residents to evacuation centers and friends' homes.
At 4 a.m. Wednesday, authorities began the arduous task of assessing properties street by street to determine the damage and look for residents who chose to stay with their homes.
Black Forest today
Once called the Pineries because of the preponderance of ponderosa pine, Black Forest evolved from a source of lumber sprinkled with sawmills that erased almost all of the trees to a mix of longtime residents and newer, younger families escaping the urban environment.
It takes up about 200,000 acres, according to a community website, and is made up mostly of 5-acre and larger lots.
It was named by a German immigrant who was reminded of the Black Forest in Germany by the hue of the ponderosa bark.
In 2011, the U.S. Census estimated that 13,595 residents lived in the rolling hills 1,700 feet above and north of Colorado Springs.
"It's a diverse group - county folks, ranchers, farmers who have lived their lives there and people who have moved in from the city, who prefer the life that tends to be a little more isolated in the sense of having more space and enjoying the trees," said Jeff Ader, who has lived in Black Forest for 13 years and is the scheduling manager for the Black Forest Community Center.
Overall, this is an educated, high-income group, commuters who are mostly professionals, according to the Census bureau.
Almost half of the area's residents hold at least a bachelor's degree, with 18 percent holding graduate degrees.
The median household income in 2011 was pegged at $104,747. In Colorado Springs that year, the median household income was $57,685.
Homes are expensive in this part of El Paso County.
The median home value in Black Forest is $423,800. But 31 percent of the homes top $500,000 in value and almost 4 percent were valued at more than $1 million, the Census says.
The Community Center
As of about 9 a.m. Wednesday, the Black Forest Community Center, a social and historical centerpiece, was standing, according to Eddie Bracken, president of the Black Forest Community Club. The center on Black Forest Road just north of Shoup Road is home for the club, which has 134 families as members.
"The club and the old log school didn't get burned," Bracken said.
The fact that it was standing, said the retired Air Force major general, was one of the few positives of a disastrous fire that continued its dance among the trees Wednesday night.
The center is a place for families, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, yoga classes, choirs and Black Rose Acoustic Society concerts.
At a recent meeting, the club held a spaghetti dinner. Members created their own sauces.
The club "cooked the noodles and garlic bread and made the salad," Bracken said. "We shared the sauce.
"It attracts people of all ages, children and even old gophers like myself."
Losing the club, which faced renewed danger Wednesday afternoon as the fire flared up, "would be a huge loss," Ader said.
"I think obviously more than the physical structure itself, would be the loss of a community meeting ground and a community focus where people could get together, no matter what their politics are or whatever tends to divide us as human beings. It's a place that brings us together."
The center was built in the 1920s "by community members, like an old-fashioned barn raising, and built from locally cut trees and timber," Ader said. "It's been an icon in the community ever since."
Black Forest then
Early on, these rolling hills were Ute and Comanche territory, according to the Black Forest Preservation Plan.
In the early 1800s, it was taken over by the Kiowa, who were later forced out by the Arapahoe and Cheyenne, the last Native Americans to live in the area.
The first white settlers trickled into Black Forest in the 1850s and lumber became king, driven by the growth of the fledgling cow towns of Denver and Colorado Springs and the growing demand for railroad ties.
By the 1880s, lumber depleted, farming and ranching took over, with potatoes the prime product.
Farming was killed by drought in the 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s, according to the plan, and the area was taken over by large ranch spreads. Some are still there.
Towns came and went.
Eastonville was created in the early 1880s as a stop on the C&S Railroad. Population climaxed in 1910 at 400. The railroad died in 1935, taking the town with it.
Today, it's remembered by Eastonville Road.
Also in the 1920s, Brentwood Country Club was built. Too upscale for the time, it didn't flourish. But it started a trend of summer homes in the area.
In the 1950s, though, people looked at moving to Black Forest and around 1965, zoning for the 5-acre lots was established.
The preservation plan in 1974 designated the area for mostly rural-residential development with a little mixed use including retail and commercial.
The plan also helped the area hang onto its history.
Even as the smoke covers Black Forest like a shroud, thoughts of the future live.
The Black Rose Acoustic Society, which has 90 percent of its equipment sitting inside a closet in the community center, likely will do a fundraiser for the community.
The group has moved one show that was set for the center to Ivywild School, canceled another, and a third show set for June 28 featuring Steve Smith & Hard Road Trio is still up in the air, said Jeff Smith, society vice president.
But they're thinking ahead about the Black Forest area and what it will need. "We've talked about it," he said. "Most of our discussion has evolved around what are we going to do about this Friday's show and next Friday, but I have thought about the fact of doing a fundraiser. We will probably do something and it might have something to do with the BFCC. I have a strong feeling that everything is going to be OK with the BFCC."
Bracken is also looking past the haze. He was one of the lucky ones, spared from early evacuation. His car and fifth wheel are packed just in case.
Bracken said he expects the club will hold its annual Black Forest Festival in August, but it won't be the same.
The festival, sponsored each year by the club, is set for Aug. 17.
"I hope so," he said. "We ought to start thinking about what we can do, maybe make a theme for the people who were affected by the fire."
Contact Garrison Wells: 636-0198 | <urn:uuid:df61105c-4426-4c52-97a5-3a28141ee9d3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gazette.com/roots-of-black-forest-community-undaunted-by-ravaging-fire/article/1502253 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00160-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978862 | 1,530 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The first medical article about the dangers of asbestos was published in the British Medical Journal in 1924. It led to regulations that controlled dust emissions from U.K. factories. Four decades passed before scientists confirmed just how inadequate those restrictions were.
Asbestos is actually a name for six mined substances used in manufacturing for their durability and heat resistance. Asbestos particles break away and are easily inhaled into the lungs, where they can lead to fatal diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma. Studies in the 1960s confirmed that the risk extended from the factory floor to suburban homes, where asbestos construction materials and brake pads were ubiquitous.
Lawsuits in the 1970s revealed that corporations knew about the risks for decades and concealed them from the public. Most of the companies that mined or used asbestos have since gone bankrupt, after billions of dollars in litigation losses. Even with strict regulations now in place across much of the world, researchers say deaths from past exposures will continue well into the 21st century.
Read more energy & sustainability news. | <urn:uuid:0957c7d5-95fa-4d6c-a814-29e3d5858393> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/7/2012-09-18/world-s-top-environmental-success-stories.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955512 | 208 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Standard ML is a popular functional programming language designed by researchers in the LFCS in the 1980's. In 1987, Robin Milner and the LFCS won the BCS Award for Technical Excellence for work on Standard ML.
Originally ML was conceived as a Meta Language for the theorem-proving system Edinburgh LCF, but it evolved into a successful general-purpose programming language. The language was standardised in 1990, and revised in 1997 as Standard ML '97.
Standard ML is one of a very few programming languages with a fully formal definition, giving it significant appeal for both research purposes, and industrial-strength applications. One of the most appealing aspects of the language is that it is safe: all errors that could de-rail an ML program are detected at compile-time or handled neatly at run-time. This property makes program development and debugging much easier than in other unsafe languages (e.g. C++).
Here are some useful documents which help with learning Standard ML. Beware that some of these documents only cover the older 1990 definition of Standard ML.
For those who wish to progress beyond these guides, the following book is certainly worth purchasing:
The Standard ML Language is designed to be compiled. Those who wish to experiment with the ML language will be pleased to know that a number of excellent ML compilers are available freely on the Internet, complete with source code:
Programmers who have has some experience with Standard ML and would like a more complete development environment may want to consider the ML-Works compiler by Harlequin Ltd. The compiler includes a large number of useful facilities (e.g. an interface to the Motif and Windows systems, a debugger, etc).
Hopefully the above compilers and documents should be more than enough to get started with ML programming. For those who would like to know more about the Standard ML language from a formal perspective, or who would like to implement their own ML compiler, the complete language definition can be obtained:
A detailed description of the implementation of the SML-NJ compiler is described in the book:
For other internet links, you can check Yahoo's ML area.
You might also want to examine an alternative version of the ML language, CAML. It has a different syntax but broadly similar features to Standard ML.
Logo supplied by Chris Walton. | <urn:uuid:2fd7a652-febc-4ade-9692-61089895f112> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.lfcs.inf.ed.ac.uk/software/ML/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944719 | 475 | 2.96875 | 3 |
World War II: Home Front Timeline
How It All Went Down
Hitler Becomes Chancellor
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany and launches a campaign to "reunify" the German people.
Italy Invades Ethiopia
Italy, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, invades Ethiopia.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the 1937 Neutrality Act, which bans travel on belligerent ships, forbids the arming of American merchant ships trading with belligerents, and issues an arms embargo with warring nations.
Roosevelt Urges War Quarantine
In response to Japanese aggression against China, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers a speech in which he calls for peace-loving nations to act together to "quarantine" aggressors to protect the world from the "disease" of war.
March of Time
Time Inc. releases an anti-Nazi propaganda newsreel entitled March of Time in Nazi Germany.
Anti-Japanese Sentiment Grows
In the United States, popular support for American action against Japan far exceeds support for action against Nazi Germany.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler declares Austria part of the Third Reich.
US Recognizes Austria
The United States grants recognition to the new Austrian government.
Italy Supports Germany
In a speech in Rome, Benito Mussolini, fascist leader of Italy, promises to fight alongside Adolf Hitler's armies against the democracies, should war break out.
Naval Expansion Act
The U.S. Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act, giving President Franklin D. Roosevelt one billion dollars to enlarge the Navy.
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling
African-American boxer Joe Louis knocks out German fighter Max Schmeling in Yankee Stadium before 70,000 people.
War of the Worlds Broadcast
In the United States, Orson Welles's radio broadcast of War of the Worlds causes national panic.
Conservatives Regain Congress
In the mid-term Congressional elections, conservative Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans regain control of the House and the Senate
Hitler as Time Man of the Year
Time magazine prints its 1938 Man of the Year edition. It chooses Adolf Hitler for the title, but does not show the Nazi leader's face on the cover of the publication.
U.S. Returns Jews
Passenger ship St. Louis, containing 907 Jewish refugees, begins its journey back to Europe after the United States refuses to grant it permission to dock.
Britain and France Declare War
Responding to Hitler's invasion of Poland, Britain and France declare war on Germany. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invokes the Neutrality Act but notes, "Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or his conscience."
For Whom the Bell Tolls Published
Mexican-Americans Construct Naval Armory
The Naval Reserve Armory is built in Chavez Ravine, a California region populated primarily by poor and working-class Mexican Americans.
Mexican Immigration Rises
Mexican immigration in California rises dramatically in the 1940s; the Mexican and Mexican-American population in Los Angeles reaches a quarter of a million.
Hitler Conquers Low Countries
Allied Support Grows
A group of political figures and businessmen form the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies (CDAAA). The group supports economic intervention in the conflict abroad and seeks to repeal the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s.
Fleet Moves to Pearl Harbor
In response to tense U.S.-Japanese relations, President Franklin D. Roosevelt strategically repositions the United States Pacific Fleet base, moving it from San Diego, California to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Roosevelt Requests Defense Spending
In a speech to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requests new defense spending, an enlarged army, and an expanded air fleet. Public opinion favors the new defense program.
Britain Stands Alone
RANGEEND_HITLERMOVES Great Britain stands alone against the Axis powers.
US Withholds Gas from Japan
In response to continued Japanese aggression in China, the United States orders gasoline withheld from Japan, sparking protest from the Japanese government.
Congress Enacts Draft
Congress appropriates $16 billion for defense spending and enacts the first peacetime draft in American history.
Philiip Randolph and Bayard Rustin Advocate March
Black union leader A. Philip Randolph and political activist Bayard Rustin propose a massive march on the nation's capital to protest racial discrimination in the expanding war industries and in the military.
Neutrality Pressure on Roosevelt
Several college students, including future president Gerald Ford and future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, form the America First Committee (AFC). They seek to pressure President Franklin D. Roosevelt to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act and keep the United States out of war.
US Expands Japanese Embargo
The United States extends the Japan embargo to include iron and steel.
The first military draft numbers are drawn, sending thousands of draftees to drill camps all over the country.
Roosevelt Reelected to Third Term
In the presidential election, Democrats break with the two-term tradition and renominate Franklin D. Roosevelt for a third term. Republicans nominate Wendell L. Willkie, a public-utilities executive who shares FDR's views on the war in Europe. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Wendell L. Willkie by nearly 5 million popular votes.7
Navy Cracks Japanese Code
United States Naval Intelligence cryptographers crack Japan's secret communications code and learn that Japan intends to conquer China.
Arsenal of Democracy
President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers a fireside chat to the American people announcing, "We must be the great arsenal of democracy."
Unemployment in 1940 at 15%
The unemployment rate in the United States stands at 15%.
War Industries Segregation Battle
President Franklin D. Roosevelt learns of A. Philip Randolph's demands for desegregation in the war industries but, under pressure from southerners in Congress, he refuses to negotiate. A. Philip Randolph raises the stakes of the proposed March on Washington, promising 100,000 protestors.
In his State of the Union Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims the nation's commitment to the "Four Freedoms": freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. He also proposes a "lend- lease" program to deliver arms to Great Britain to be paid for following the war's end. Congress approves the bill.
Coast Guard Seizes Axis Ships
President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Coast Guard to seize German ships that sail into American ports; 65 Axis ships are held in "protective custody."
Robin Moor Sunk
In the South Atlantic, the American merchant ship Robin Moor is sunk by a German torpedo. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responds to the German attack on the Robin Moor by declaring a national emergency.
Roosevelt Closes Axis Consulates
President Franklin D. Roosevelt demands Germany and Italy close their United States consulates.
Germany Attacks Soviets
US Aids Soviet Union
The United States extends lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union.
Roosevelt Desegregates War Industries
Concerned about the effects of the threatened March on Washington on national unity and hoping to thwart the march altogether by cutting a bargain with black leader A. Phillip Randolph, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, which states that there shall be "no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or Government because of race, creed, color, or national origin."
Fair Employment Practices Commission Created
March on Washington
A. Philip Randolph announces in a radio broadcast that the March on Washington, originally scheduled to take place on July 1, will be "postponed."
The United States War Department opens the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, a segregated military base and the first U.S. Air Force facility to train black servicemen to be fighter pilots.
Roosevelt Warns Japanese
President Franklin D. Roosevelt warns the Japanese government to cease all aggression toward neighboring countries or else face United States forces.
The Office of Price Administration (OPA) is established to ration scarce consumer goods and to set maximum prices on other products during wartime.
Fight for Freedom Rally
A coalition of university officials, ministers, businessmen, and labor leaders sponsor a "Fight For Freedom" rally at New York's Madison Square Garden to pressure the federal government to declare war against Germany.
Japanese Plan to Attack
The Japanese government decides to attack Pearl Harbor if negotiations with the United States fail.
US Learn Japanese Plan
U.S. Naval cryptographers learn from secret code that Japan plans aggressive action if an agreement with the United States is not met.
Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor
Responding to the United States' refusal to lift trade embargoes, Japan attacks the American base at Pearl Harbor, destroying U.S. aircraft and naval vessels, and killing 2,355 U.S. servicemen and 68 civilians. Following the attack, Japan declares war on the United States.
“America First” Dissolves
The America First Committee begins to dissolve.
War on Japan
The United States declares war on Japan.
Axis Declares War on US
Germany and Italy, Japan's Axis partners, declare war on the United States. The United States declares war on Germany and Italy.
War Production Board Created
President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the War Production Board (WPB) to mobilize American businesses for the war effort.
National War Labor Board Established
The National War Labor Board is established to administer wages and work hours and to monitor working conditions in national industries.
Largest Government Budget Proposed
President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his State of the Union address in which he proposes a massive government spending budget, the largest in American history.
Roosevelt Reiterates Four Freedoms
In his nationally broadcast radio address, President Roosevelt reiterates the "Four Freedoms," and declares that these rights define "the crucial difference between ourselves and the enemies we face today."
Japanese Internment Approved
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, which gives the military the authority to evacuate Japanese nationals and Japanese-American citizens from the West Coast. The Order sets the stage for Japanese internment.
The U.S. Navy instructs Japanese-American residents of Terminal Island near Los Angeles to evacuate the region, marking the first major act of removal during the war.
Idaho Allows Concentration Camps
Governor Chase Clark of Idaho agrees to allow Japanese Americans exiled from California to settle in his state under the condition that they be placed in "concentration camps under military guard."
Japanese Internment on the West Coast
General John L. DeWitt issues orders to create Military Areas Number 1 and Number 2 in portions of California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona for the internment of Japanese Americans.
War Relocation Authority Established
President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the War Relocation Authority (WRA).
Civilian Exclusion Order
Under the first Civilian Exclusion Order, forty-five Japanese-American families are instructed to leave Bainbridge Island near Seattle.
Twentieth Century Fox releases Little Tokyo, U.S.A., a film in which Japanese Americans are portrayed as a "vast army of volunteer spies."
Office of War Information and Domestic Propaganda
Gang Violence in Los Angeles
Following a track meet at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 19-year old Frank Torres is shot to death. Newspapers will blame Mexican gangs for the violence.
Police Clash in L.A.
Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department clash with a crowd of Mexican Americans in Boyle Heights, arousing public concern that the police, reduced by the wartime draft, will be unable to maintain order.
Sleepy Lagoon Death
José Diaz, a young man attending a party near the "Sleepy Lagoon" reservoir in Los Angeles, is killed when a fight breaks out between the 38th Street boys and the Downey neighborhood gang. His body is discovered at the reservoir that night.
The "Sleepy Lagoon" murder is featured on the cover of the Evening Herald & Express along with coverage of Mexican street gangs.
L.A. Media Frenzy
The extensive investigation into the "Sleepy Lagoon" murder is featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. The storm of media attention helps to prompt the arrest of some 300 Mexican Americans.
In People v. Zammora, the largest criminal trial in California history, seventeen boys, all of Mexican descent, face charges related to the "Sleepy Lagoon" murder.
RANGEEND_ZAMTRIAL In People v. Zammora, five of the seventeen defendants are found guilty of assault and sentenced to several months in jail, nine are found guilty of second-degree murder and are sentenced to five years to life, and three are sentenced to life imprisonment for first degree murder.
Roosevelt Describes US Concentration Camps
At a press conference, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, perhaps inadvertently, refers to the internment camps as "concentration camps."
Tabloids Cover Gangs
Murder at North Main
A policeman claims "a drunken pachuco" has killed an officer at a North Main Street restaurant.
In 1943, race riots break out in cities throughout the country, including Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Mobile, Alabama, and Beaumont, Texas.
Following a protest in Detroit over a public housing development, fights between whites and blacks escalate into a city-wide riot leaving 25 blacks and 9 whites dead, and $2 million worth of property, largely in black neighborhoods, destroyed.
Resignation Over Segregation
Norman Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech
Norman Rockwell’s Freedom to Worship
Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want
Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Fear
John DeWitt Snubs Japanese
Before the House Naval Affairs Subcommittee, General John L. DeWitt states, "A Jap's a Jap. There is no way to determine their loyalty."
Throughout the spring, incidents in which United States servicemen clash with Mexican-American youth occur several times per day.
Responding to a rumor that "Zoots" have stabbed a sailor, a crowd of over 500 sailors and civilians attack Mexican-American youths leaving a dance in a Venice Beach ballroom.
Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter
Norman Rockwell’s painting entitled "Rosie the Riveter" is featured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, a magazine that encouraged women to join the wartime work force.
Sailors and Solders Clash in LA
A group of sailors and soldiers clash with Mexican-American youths near downtown Los Angeles. One sailor, Joe Coleman, is badly wounded.
A group of sailors from the Naval Reserve Armory, intent on avenging the attack on Joe Coleman, take weapons into the nearby neighborhoods and target all those wearing zoot suits, an oversized suit first popularized by African-American jazz musicians and later adopted by Mexican-American youths.
Zoot Suit Riot
Riots ensue as servicemen raid downtown Los Angeles targeting Mexican Americans.
Rioting servicemen continue to attack "pachuco"-looking males. The California Attorney General is called in to deal with the crisis.
Zoot Suit Riots Expand
Rioting spills into East Los Angeles. An investigatory committee created by the California Attorney General concludes that the press and the LAPD fueled the rioting in Los Angeles.
LA Rioting Spreads to Watts
Soldiers, sailors, and marines from all over southern California travel to Los Angeles to join in the rioting. Nearly 5,000 civilians and servicemen begin downtown and spread into Watts, a predominantly African-American neighborhood.
Military Evacuates Soldiers from LA
Military officials order all servicemen to evacuate Los Angeles or be arrested, thereby quelling much of the rioting.
LA Bans Zoot Suits
The Los Angeles City Council agrees to ban the wearing of zoot suits in public, resolving to institute a 50-day jail term for those who violate the new rule.
Court Upholds Japanese Curfew
The United States Supreme Court upholds wartime curfew and exclusion orders affecting Japanese Americans.
Italy officially surrenders to the Allied powers.
What The Negro Wants Published
The University of North Carolina publishes What The Negro Wants, a collection of essays written by black leaders calling for an end to segregation, for voting rights in the South, unionism, and for a solution to the problems of poverty, lynching, and imperialism.
An American Dilemma published
Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish social scientist, writes An American Dilemma, a book citing the problems with American racial polices and suggesting that World War II may very well be the catalyst for change.
Japanese Americans Eligible for Draft
The federal government deems first-generation Japanese Americans eligible for the military draft.
Japanese American Resistance to Internment
In Heart Mountain, Wyoming, a group of Japanese internment camp inmates form the Fair Play Committee to advocate resistance to the draft, arguing that conscription violated their constitutional rights. At least 60 members of the FPC will be tried for draft evasion and sentenced to several years in federal prison.
Japanese Protesters Imprisoned
A court in Cheyenne, Wyoming finds 63 Japanese-American men guilty of resisting the draft and sentences each of them to three years in a federal prison.
Port Chicago Protest
An explosion at the Port Chicago, California naval base kills 320 munitions workers and injures 400 more, most of whom are black. 50 black seamen refuse to continue loading munitions under unsafe conditions and are subsequently court- martialed for mutiny, dishonorably discharged, and imprisoned.
Sleepy Lagoon Verdicts Overturned
The Second District Court of Appeals overturns the "Sleepy Lagoon" murder verdicts. All defendants are released and their criminal records cleared.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia. With the death of President Roosevelt, Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President of the United States.
Germany surrenders, ending war on the European front.
Demobilization of the American army begins.
Truman Honors Japanese Americans
In Washington D.C., the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, comprised entirely of Japanese Americans, is honored by President Truman.
Atomic Bomb Test
An atomic bomb is successfully detonated in the New Mexican desert.
A second atomic bomb is dropped in Nagasaki, Japan. | <urn:uuid:0164a5f4-35c3-4f79-8423-7319e644e18d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/wwii-home-front/timeline.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896168 | 3,857 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The Kepler launch is coming up on March 5, marking the first time we will have the ability to find a true Earth analogue around another star; i.e., a planet of about Earth’s mass in the habitable zone where water can exist in liquid form on the surface. Which is not to say that COROT may not come close, though Kepler’s enormous star-field (100,000 targets in the Cygnus-Lyra region) and incredibly sensitive camera — a 95-megapixel array of charged coupled devices (CCDs) — is optimized for planets down to Earth size rather than larger ‘super-Earths.’
Image (click to enlarge): Kepler’s target region, the Milky Way ni the Cygnus region, with the instrument’s field of view superimposed. Each rectangle indicates the specific region of the sky covered by each CCD element of the Kepler photometer. There are a total of 42 CCD elements in pairs, each pair comprising a square. Credit: NASA/Carter Roberts (1946-2008).
We just looked at Alan Boss’ remarkable statement that there could be 100 billion trillion Earth-like planets in the visible universe. It’s startling to think that a mission to be launched within weeks could so quickly give us a chance to size up the idea. The thinking is that dozens of planets like ours in the habitable zone should be visible to Kepler if such worlds are common, but if it comes up short, with few or none, we’re going to quickly re-evaluate how unusual a world we live on. A null result would be striking indeed.
William Borucki, who is science principal investigator on the mission, has this to say:
“Finding that most stars have Earths implies that the conditions that support the development of life could be common throughout our galaxy. Finding few or no Earths indicates that we might be alone.”
But let’s get more specific about terrestrial, as opposed to gas giant planets. The Kepler site posts its own numbers, assuming only orbits with four transits in 3.5 years (the mission duration), and assuming that such planets are common around other stars. Kepler should find fifty terrestrial planets in one-year orbits if most are roughly the size of the Earth, and about 185 planets if most are roughly 1.3 the size of Earth’s radius. The number goes up to 640 if most such planets have a size of 2.2 Earth radii, and goes substantially higher still if orbits ranging from a few days to more than a year are considered.
Kepler is looking for transits in those systems where planets cross in front of their stars as seen from Earth, using an instrument that can detect brightness changes of twenty parts per million. After launch, the spacecraft will undergo a two-month checkout as it achieves its Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun. Eventually, Kepler’s science data will be sent to NASA’s Deep Space Network on a monthly basis, with data analysis performed at Ames Research Center in California. We’re obviously going to have much to say about Kepler in coming months. | <urn:uuid:b9f8c8da-286d-4f9f-9c8b-5c66d7c7bbab> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=6245 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926503 | 652 | 3.5 | 4 |
Talion Law was born in the ancient civiization (considered first civilization) of the Sumerians of Mesopotamia. Not quite 'modern'.
Talion Law forms the basis of 'justice' in all three religions -- Hebrew, Christianity, and Islam. They all embraced aspects of this eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth view of justice. And for those religious converts who aren't educated in any further theological fine points, this boils down to the cultural expression of VENGEANCE.
The three Talion-based religions make the world miserable with their endless rounds of revenge.
The Old Testament Christians -- that is, today's Dominionists -- are now dominating our politics and trying to thoroughly take over the public arena and our private lives too.
New Testament Christianity -- particularly the Born Again Christianists -- also fail to make a positive contribution. They seem to be over-challenged by the message of pursuing the feeling of Christ-inspired, non-stop LOVE; and so, psychologically they end-up feeling inadequate, conflicted, and full of dissatisfaction and fear. I think their myth makes them sick.
Now when Buddha taught "do no harm" and when the Dalai Lama says be "kind" -- these were valuable messages for getting along. But this avenue of human behavior improvement was the first to be quashed by colonialism -- and the invaders from the west made Buddhism a minor religion in China, challenged it in Indo-China, the Phillipines, Indonesia, and Tibet, and attempted the same in India, but there are just too many Indians (even after the British starved millions without a blink of their British eyes). Kindness might have been the most promising avenue before it got taken out by the colonial economic machinery of Imperialism.
My point being, the other religions -- those eye-for-an-eye religions -- are preserved so well into the present era because they do such a good job of serving the Imperialist goals of destabilization and theft. | <urn:uuid:9c9ffc30-0b83-4121-a71e-f21efd4cd36c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/nora/blog/2012/09/eye-eye-antique-religious-style-vengeance-overshadows-modern-diplomacy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93647 | 410 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A theory that links memory encoding to expectations of future relevance may better explain how human memory works, according to a team of Penn State psychologists.
Modern psychology posits two major theories to explain the mechanisms of how memories are formed. The first is object-based encoding, storing all information about an object in working memory. The second is feature-based encoding, selectively remembering aspects of an object. For example, if you watch a group of people playing basketball, under object-based encoding theory, the brain remembers all aspects of the ball. In feature-based encoding, the brain remembers that it saw a ball, but may have no recollection of the color if the color of the ball is an unnecessary feature according to the task at hand.
The proposed theory, expectancy-based binding, suggests that subjects can remember features presented in a visual scene or movie without necessarily remembering which object went with which feature when it is not necessary to do so.
"The key discovery was that attending an object for an extended period of time does not ensure that all of the features of that object will be correctly associated with it in memory," said Brad Wyble, assistant professor of psychology.
The researchers tested 60 participants and asked them to watch videos in which two balls were thrown between multiple people. The first ball thrown was the target ball. Participants counted the number of times the ball was passed. The second ball was the distractor ball. Each participant watched 36 trials, recording their counts of the target ball after each. The balls in each video were red, green, blue or purple. The researchers reported their results in a recent issue of Cognition.
For the first 31 trials, participants chose only the number of passes made with the target ball. After the thirty-second trial, a message popped up on the participant's screen that read, "This is a surprise memory test! Here we test the 'Color' of the target ball. Press a corresponding number to indicate the 'Color' of the target ball."
To this question, 37 percent of participants -- 22 of 60 -- responded with the incorrect color of the ball, and 16 of these 22 incorrect responses selected the color of the distractor ball.
"Participants have memories of the color of both balls, but those memories aren't attached specifically to the target ball or the distractor ball," said Hui Chen, post-doctoral fellow in psychology and first author.
It is statistically significant that 73 percent of participants responded with the color of the distractor ball. If participants had no memory of the color of the balls seen in the video, as feature-based encoding might suggest, then participants would have chosen the distractor ball only 33 percent of the time when they could not remember the target ball's color.
Four control trials, in which participants reported the color of the target ball and number of times the target ball was passed, followed the trial containing the surprise question. For these trials, the response error was once again lower. Only 14 percent of participants responded incorrectly in the control trials, as compared to 37 percent in the surprise trial.
"What we're showing is that attention is not enough to ensure accurate memory," said Wyble. "You need some kind of expectation that attributing certain features to the object is important."
This indicates that much of what a person can remember is based on their expectation of the information they will need to recall. Once participants realized they would need to report the color of the ball, they were able to do so with high accuracy.
To ensure the results were robust, the entire experiment was repeated a second time with a new group of participants. The new experiment replicated the results of the previous experiment, which provides additional confidence that these surprising memory failures are a genuine effect.
Also working on this project was Garrett Swan, graduate student in psychology.
The National Science Foundation supported this work. | <urn:uuid:28fe98fc-0277-407d-9cd0-6c4fd2e979c9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/ps-emb032816.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00196-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954697 | 784 | 4.09375 | 4 |
|part of speech:
||the same as or similar to.
He is just like his father.
||in the character of someone or something; in the same manner.
She talks like her mother.
- similar words:
like or as?
is a preposition that means similar to. As
is a preposition and a conjunction. When a preposition, it means in the position or function of.
When a conjunction, it means in the same way that
and is used to introduce a subject and verb.
- He wants a car like the one in the advertisement.
- She works as an automobile mechanic.
- He bought a new car, as he said he would. | <urn:uuid:62f26226-6cfe-4322-ab3f-8e6febe98785> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wordsmyth.net/?level=2&rid=23895&dict=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911087 | 147 | 3.375 | 3 |
Parts of the Sentence - Clauses Review
Instructions: Using all the knowledge learned in the previous lessons, find the verb (v), subjects (subj), predicate nominatives (pn), direct objects (do), appositives (app), nouns of address (na), adjectives (adj), predicate adjectives (pa), adverbs (adv), prepositions (prep), objects of the preposition (op), prepositional phrases (p ph), indirect objects (io), and objective complements (oc) in the following sentences.
If the word is verbal, tell whether it is a gerund, participle, noun infinitive, adjective infinitive, or adverb infinitive. Tell which word the adjective, adverb, prepositional phrase, verbal, or verbal phrase modify.
If the sentence has a dependent clause, tell whether it is a noun clause, adverb clause, or adjective clause. Tell which word the adverb and adjective clause modify. Tell how the noun clause is used.
1. Becky is my daughter whom I have not seen for a year.
2. I will make a playhouse for the kids from whatever material is not used in the house.
3. Then I learned a good lesson, that you should always be kind.
4. If the price is right, we will own the car.
5. Whoever returned my wallet is an honest person.
--For answers scroll down.
1. is =verb, Becky = subject, daughter = predicate nominative, my = adjective modifying daughter; (whom I have not seen for a year) = adjective clause modifying daughter, have seen = verb, I = subject, whom = noun clause introductory word used as a direct object, not = adverb modifying have seen, for a year = adverb prepositional phrase modifying have seen, for = preposition, year = object of the preposition, a = adjective modifying year
2. will make = verb, I = subject, playhouse = direct object, a = adjective modifying playhouse, for the kids = adverb prepositional phrase modifying will make, from whatever material is not used in the house = adverb prepositional phrase modifying will make, from = preposition; (whatever material is not used in the house) = noun clause used as the object of the preposition, is used = verb, material = subject, whatever = noun clause introductory word used as an adjective modifying material, not = adverb modifying is used, in the house = adverb prepositional phrase modifying is used, in = preposition, house = object of the preposition, the = adjective modifying house
3. learned = verb, I = subject, lesson = direct object, a, good = adjectives modifying lesson, then = adverb modifying learned; (that you should always be kind) = noun clause used as an appositive, should be = verb, you = subject, kind = predicate adjective modifying you, always = adverb modifying should be, that = clause introductory word that does not fit grammatically with the rest of the sentence. (That is the only introductory word used to introduce noun clauses that will not fit grammatically with the rest of the sentence.)
4. will own = verb, we = subject, car = direct object, the = adjective modifying car; (if the price is right) = adverb clause modifying will own, is = verb, price = subject, right = predicate adjective modifying price, the = adjective modifying price, if = subordinate conjunction introducing the adverb clause
5. is = verb, (whoever returned my wallet) = noun clause used as the subject, returned = verb, whoever = noun clause introductory word used as a subject, wallet = direct object, my = adjective modifying wallet, person = predicate nominative, an/honest = adjectives modifying person
DAILY GRAMMAR - - - - by Mr. Johanson
Copyright 2014 Word Place, Inc - - All Rights Reserved.
For your convenience, all of our lessons are available on our website in our
lesson archive at http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html. Our lessons are
Daily Grammar Lessons Search | <urn:uuid:0054165e-2011-4020-b824-a2c87e630d87> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dailygrammar.com/Lesson-281-Clause-Review.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904362 | 874 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Introduction to pneumonia:
The word “pneumonia” sounds alarm bells in many parents. It is understandably disturbing because some pneumonias are quite serious, particularly in those whose immune systems are vulnerable (newborns, the elderly, and people with HIV). The good news is that the great majority of pneumonias in children and adolescents are mild or easily treatable at home.
What is pneumonia?
Bronchiolitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia are all words that denote the location in the body of a problem. Bronchiolitis refers to inflammation in the bronchioles, the smaller airways that branch off from the main bronchi or breathing tubes. Bronchitis is inflammation in these larger, main breathing tubes. Pneumonia refers to inflammation of the lungs themselves.
A variety of viruses, bacteria, and other organisms can cause pneumonia. Not all pneumonias, however, are infections. GE reflux, foreign bodies, smoke inhalation, or harsh fumes can all cause pneumonias as well.
Who gets pneumonia?
Children who are exposed to inhaled irritants, such as tobacco smoke or toxic fumes, are at a higher risk of developing pneumonia.
Most kids who get pneumonia have a cold or other viral upper respiratory infection first. For this reason, most pneumonia occurs during cold and flu season. The respiratory viruses interfere with the lungs’ normal defense mechanisms. The same viruses (adenovirus, RSV, influenza, parainfluenza [croup]) can spread into the chest. Alternatively, pneumonia-causing bacteria can invade the lungs (pneumococcus, streptococcus, staphylococcus, Haemophilus influenzae).
Viral pneumonias are fairly common. They peak during the toddler years, and become a bit less common each year.
Bacterial pneumonias are less common. Most occur in children with cystic fibrosis or an underlying immune problem.
All children who get two or more pneumonias within one year should have their immune system and lung anatomy evaluated by their doctor, to ensure they have no underlying illness putting them at greater risk for pneumonias.
What are the symptoms of pneumonia?
Viral pneumonias usually begin with several days of cold symptoms, especially a runny nose and a cough. The cough deepens, the breathing speeds up, and the child acts sicker. There may be signs of respiratory distress, including flaring of the nostrils or retractions (pulling in on the muscles between the ribs) with breathing. There is often wheezing and a fever.
Bacterial pneumonias often start suddenly with shaking chills, a high fever, a cough, and signs of respiratory distress. Sometimes they begin more gradually or mildly.
Is pneumonia contagious?
Most pneumonias are contagious.
How long does pneumonia last?
The length of the pneumonia depends on the specific organism causing it. Some pneumonias last as little as several days, although two to three weeks is more common. The cough can last even longer.
How is pneumonia diagnosed?
The diagnosis is usually based on history, physical examination, and chest x-ray. If a bacterial pneumonia is suspected, appropriate cultures of the sputum and blood are also important.
How is pneumonia treated?
All those with breathing difficulties should have the level of oxygen in their blood measured and should receive breathing support, which might include oxygen or nebulized bronchodilator medications (such as albuterol).
Generally, cough suppressants are not wise during pneumonia. The body needs the cough to protect the lungs. We all know how difficult it is to have a child blow his nose to clear mucus from his body. A child’s cough is a powerful tool for moving mucus and clearing an infection from the lungs.
How can pneumonia be prevented?
Breastfeeding and avoiding exposure to unhealthy smokes and fumes help prevent pneumonias.
Vaccines are available against some common pneumonias, including pneumococcal, Haemophilus influenza (HIB), measles, and the flu.
Beyond this, the same measures proven to help prevent colds and other upper respiratory infections can also prevent many pneumonias. | <urn:uuid:80c17e74-955e-4290-842a-eb1153f90f60> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.drgreene.com/articles/pneumonia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00183-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944754 | 879 | 4 | 4 |
| ||Introducton | Chronology of events that affected food prices globally | What are the factors behind this recent rise in the relative food prices? | Implications of higher food prices | What is the Canadian situation? | Sources
Many of us are feeling the same frustrations. In order to gain some insights to the food price inflation and its impact of Canadian consumers, in this short article, an attempt was made to analyze the situation in the global and local food markets.
Global food prices have increased significantly since early 2000s, reversing the long-term trend of declining relative food prices over previous decade.
Chronology of Events that Affected Food Prices Globally
What are the Factors Behind this Recent Rise in the Relative Food Prices?
- 2000 - US Congress exempts most over-the-counter derivatives contracts from government oversight; commodities trading soars.
- 2006 -US pass Brazil as world’s leading producer of ethanol
- 2007 -US Congress mandates a tripling in production of renewable biofuels by 2022.
- 2007-2008 - World food prices hit record high due- to rising energy costs, falling grain stocks. Food riots break out in 60 countries.
- 2010 - Arab Spring revolutions follow spikes in food prices. After worst drought in the century, Russia bans wheat exports……. Bread prices surge in Egypt, Russia’s largest wheat customer.
President Obama signs Dodd-Frank bill curbing speculation in commodities market.
- January 4, 2011 -Street vendor dies after setting himself on fire in protest, spurring revolution in Tunisia.
- January 25, 2011 -Street demonstrations spread to Egypt, partly in response to high food prices. Protests and demonstrations broke out throughout the Middle East.
- February, 2011 -World food prices hit all-time high and then decline slightly
- November 3-4, 2011 - G-20 nations met in Cannes, France; commodity speculations was on Agenda
Unfavorable weather conditions in number of key food producing countries.
Crop yield in the short-run can be significantly affected by temporary weather events such as droughts, floods or cyclones. Weather-related disturbances in a number of key food-producing countries have contributed to large price increases for a broad range of agricultural commodities over the past couple of years, most notably wheat, sugar, corn and oilseeds. However, it is important to note that these commodities are not homogeneous and price movements observed in local markets may vary because of differences in quality or barriers to trade such as tariffs as well.
Strong demand for agricultural commodities.
High population growth and rising living standards in developing economies are leading to an increase in protein consumption. This situation is contributing to broad-based pressure on food prices through demand on land use and demand for feed grains.
Strong demand for agricultural inputs into biofuel production
This has been identified as a factor behind the rise in the food prices. Record high oil prices increase the economic viability of this alternative energy source and encouraging farmers to shift planning towards biofuel feed stocks.
Implications of Higher Food Prices
Economic and Market analysis show that in the medium to long run, it is likely that food prices will remain at a relatively high level given on-going strong demand.
- The rise in agricultural commodity prices has contributed to higher consumer price inflation in number of countries. Notably, higher food prices have placed upward pressure on inflation in several East Asian economies including China, South Korea and Indonesia.
- If food prices continue to rise, one concern is that consumers may come to expect higher inflation on an ongoing basis and adjust their behavior accordingly.
- The above is more likely to be an issue in developing countries where foods make up a larger share of households’ consumption basket.
- However, under unfavorable weather developments, a sharp, temporary rise in food prices should have no long term effect on inflationary expectations.
- At the end of year 2011 food price inflation is remaining relatively constrained.
OECD and FAO (2010) projects that most crop and livestock prices over the next ten years (in real and nominal terms) will exceed the average level of the decade prior to the 2007/08 peaks.
Underpinning reasons are:
What is the Canadian Situation?
- An increasing high cost structure of agricultural production
- Strong demand from developing countries
- Continued expansion of biofuel production
- Slower growth in agricultural production
- According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s annual inflation rate remained stubbornly high during year 2011.
- Canadians continued to pay considerably more for food and gasoline. According to Statistics Canada, Consumers paid 4.8 per cent more for food in November, 2011 compared to a year earlier. This is the fastest increase since July 2009. Grocery prices were up 5.7 per cent and consumers saw double-digit increases for such basis as fresh vegetables and bread.
- Economists explain that this increases in prices stems from a lag effect. Increases in raw material prices typically take six to nine months to show up at the consumer price levels. Thus, high commodity prices from the spring may be playing a role in November’s price increases. However, studies have shown that the prices of raw agricultural commodities account for less than 10 in the final food products.
- Increasing food prices is also attributed to the increasing costs in long supply chain of food. A wide variety of inputs go into making finish food product such as transportation, packaging, advertising and the wages of workers as a product moves from farmers, to manufacturers, to wholesalers, and finally to retailers and restaurants.
- Economists are warning that after years of buying cheap food, Canadians have to pay higher prices for groceries. Now groceries are eating up greater share of their budgets amid price hikes for staples such as milk, bread and eggs. Normally consumers could simply substitute a cheaper food item for another. However, when staples are rising quickly cheaper substitutes may not be available.
- Some food producers are also dealing with higher prices. General Mills and some other leading food producers are reporting lower-than-expected quarterly profits in 2011.
- However, compared to the rest of the world, the high Canadian dollar, competitive pressure of retailer and adaptive behavior of consumer have helped to control the level of price inflation in Canada.
- Retail competition is a key reason for expected food price moderation in Canada. Wal-Mart Canada is opening new super centers in 2012, while Target is planning on entering the Canadian market in 2013. Both moves are expected to help slow food inflation and to put pressure on existing grocers: Loblaw, Sobeys and Metro to trim prices and maintain their market share.
- On the consumer side, Canadians are also responding to higher food prices. Price consciousness, value orientation and bargain –hunting will be common among consumers for years to come.
“ The bottom line is the food distribution landscape across the country in 2012
will likely change. It will probably become more competitive and put some pressure on food prices downwards”
Report in pdf version
- Various News Websites/Articles: The Globe and Mail, The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Euro monitor
- Rayner et al, Developments in Global Food Prices. Reserve Bank of Australia. Bulletin, March Quarter 2011. | <urn:uuid:36fec72d-77ab-49ca-80cc-4445ab9d34f7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sis13868 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932341 | 1,484 | 2.875 | 3 |
When a person with mild cognitive impairment is agitated or restless, caregivers can expect to find they are more edgy as well. According to research conducted at Virginia Tech, the more a caregiver's day is disrupted by the unsettled behaviors of their loved one, the more they find themselves unable to meet or balance their own home and family work loads. This heightens the effect of elevated stress levels on their own bodies, placing caregivers at risk for current and future health problems.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a transitional stage between normal age-related cognitive changes and early stages of Alzheimer's disease, is characterized by changes in memory that may not interfere with everyday activities but can cause frustration and anxiety among persons with the impairment and their family members.
Results of the team's research, reported in the November Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, particularly note the involvement of rising cortisol levels in caregiver samples. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the body as the outside stress it is subjected to increases.
"Providing support for a relative encountering cognitive difficulties often requires significant changes in everyday roles and responsibilities," said lead author Tina Savla (http://www.humandevelopment.vt.edu/savla.html), assistant professor of human development in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. "These changes take a toll on family relationships and psychological health, and carry consequences for the care partner's physical health."
According to Savla, "Dealing with the day-to-day issues of living with a person with MCI can allow little time for recovery and may tax one's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system. The dysregulation in this system likely contributes to illnesses by further distressing the cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune functions."
In order to compile study data, Savla's team made phone calls to 30 spouse care partners on seven consecutive days to find out how their time had been spent that day, interactions with their spouse and other family members, and their mood as well as their spouse's mood and behavior throughout the day. Saliva samples were also collected from the caregivers on four study days to measure cortisol levels.
The team discovered that when behavioral problems escalated, typically during the late afternoon and early evening hours, caregivers found it necessary to cut back on or ignore their own scheduled chores, leaving a backlog of unfinished business and increasing caregiver frustration and distress. This effect was further multiplied when negative interactions with their partners increased as a result, and fewer positive interactions took place.
Difficulties and reactions reported during the daily inter¬views were confirmed by assaying saliva for cortisol, a stress-related hormone. Savla suggests that caregivers "are having stress reactions that may put them at greater risk for physical health problems." Her research team found elevated cortisol levels throughout the day with a slower rate of decline, typically linked with other diseases.
"The care partner-to-caregiver trajectory is po¬tentially long in duration and continuously challenging in scope," said Savla. "Helping caregivers learn effective stress management techniques early on may be particularly beneficial for their physical health and psychological well-being, thus enhanc¬ing their capacity to continue providing assistance to and care for the person with cognitive impairment over the long term."
Other researchers involved in this study are Karen A. Roberto, director of the Center for Gerontology and Institute for Society, Culture and Environment; Rosemary Blieszner, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Human Development and associate dean of the Graduate School; Matthew Cox, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology in the College of Science; and Frank Gwazdauskas, the David and Margaret Lincicome Professor Emeritus of Dairy Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, all at Virginia Tech.
The Alzheimer's Association and the Commonwealth of Virginia Alzheimer's and Related Diseases Research Award Fund supported this research. | <urn:uuid:fe4bde32-1aaf-40a0-a058-fac3eaa0616e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/vt-car112811.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00013-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955914 | 804 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Here is a new and different way of thinking about your skin and understanding in a much deeper more scientific way how it works and what truly affects it, and the reason it’s so important to take care of ourselves.
What you need to know about Free Radicals to stay looking younger longer!
Free radicals are unstable organic molecules that perform some truly useful functions in the human body, including fighting off infection and enhancing enzyme function, but they also play a negative role in the aging process – one that contributes to tissue damage, premature aging and disease.
How does this happen, and what can you do to minimize it? Oxidation is the natural by-product of breathing, a system that creates energy in the human body and keeps us alive. Ironically, this same system also produces free radicals – molecules that start out fairly disciplined and well-defined in their function, but tend to go rogue as we get older. They are created in response to a variety of factors including environmental pollution, excessive alcohol consumption, toxic cleaning products, and cigarette smoke. Free radicals are always looking for an extra electron they can steal away from another molecule and tack on to their own structure for stability. The result of this behavior is like a pileup of bumper cars at an amusement park. Imagine the chain reaction set off when one of these molecules manages to pry an electron away from a healthy skin cell. The free radical not only leaves behind a ravaged, defective skin cell which is now missing an electron, but turns it into a vampire-like free radical that is now on the prowl for a means toward its own stabilization. When this scenario is played out over and over again, it creates a snowball effect that weakens healthy skin and subjects it to oxidative stress that can be seen and measured in terms of sagging skin and deteriorating health.
Antioxidants are molecules that help prevent free radicals from destroying healthy tissue. Found in vibrant, colorful fruits and vegetables, they accomplish this by neutralizing free radicals and interrupting the domino effect. Your body’s ability to produce antioxidants is partially dictated by heredity, but it is also significantly affected by your exposure to environmental oxidative stress. Supplementation in the form of vitamins can be helpful in slowing down the damage, but you must be careful to monitor your consumption because mega-doses can be harmful or even toxic to the body over time. The safest and most comprehensive way to cover your bases is to eat a variety of nutritious fruits and vegetables every day. It is the synergy of the components in these naturally occurring foods that delivers the most bang for your buck. Using natural, organic and preservative free skincare products that contain anti-oxidants for topical application can also be extremely helpful in reducing your exposure to toxins and minimizing the free-radical damage they cause. This two-pronged approach of internal and external support will help stave off the aging process and allow you to look younger and feel better longer.
About The Author: Sharon Gnatt Epel is the CEO/Founder of La Ishá Natural Skincare, the 1st all-natural skincare company dedicated to safe and effective anti-aging beauty solutions for women 35+. | <urn:uuid:44d16c05-ab98-41eb-937b-df39050eb6df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.alwaysnewyou.com/beautiful_you/beauty_care/free-radicals-keeping-up-your-youth.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951325 | 649 | 2.625 | 3 |
Facts Up Front Front-of-Pack Labeling Initiative
In 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama asked industry to develop a front-of-pack labeling system that could be widely adopted on food packages and that would help busy consumers - especially parents - make informed decisions when they shop. In response, America’s food and beverage manufacturers and retailers have joined forces to develop and implement Facts Up Front (formerly called Nutrition Keys), an unprecedented voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labeling system that will provide nutrition information on the front of food and beverage packages, including calories and three “nutrients to limit.”
Facts Up Front is a fact-based approach that summarizes important nutrition information from the Nutrition Facts Panel in a clear, simple and easy-to-use format on the front of food and beverage packages. The new icon and label changes adhere to current U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines and regulations, ensuring that consumers receive consistent and reliable information. The icon will inform consumers about how the key nutrients in each product fit in a balanced and healthy diet as part of the federal government’s daily dietary advice.
The four basic icons, for calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugars, represent key nutrients for which dietary guidance recommend limiting consumption in the diet. The four basic icons are always presented together as a consistent set:
On small food packages, one icon may be used, representing calories in a serving of the food. This is an option for food manufacturers, recognizing that small food packages may not have enough space to accommodate the four Basic Icons. This labeling system will complement the Clear on Calories labeling system developed by the American Beverage Association.
As an option, certain labels could include “nutrients to encourage” – nutrients needed to build a “nutrient-dense” diet. In addition to the basic four icons, packages may include up to two “nutrients to encourage”: potassium, fiber, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium and iron. All of these are either shortfall nutrients or are required to be on the nutrition facts panel. These “nutrients to encourage” can only be placed on a package if the product has more than 10 percent of the daily value per serving of the nutrient and meets the FDA requirements for a “good source” nutrient content claim.
The GMA-FMI front-of-package labeling system will make the FOP icons graphically distinct from other nutrition-related claims on front-of-pack.
In March 2014, GMA and FMI launched a national education campaign to bolster awareness and understanding of Facts Up Front among consumers, and moms in particular, as they are the primary grocery shopping decision makers in most households.
The campaign concluded in October 2014 and left us with strong results. A few highlights include:
- 1.3 billion impressions from print advertising, including 510 million impressions among moms with children under 18
- 714 million impressions and 3.25 million clicks as a result of digital and search campaign
- Significant traffic driven to the Facts Up Front website, which averaged 219,000 visits and 472,000 page views per month.
The consumer tracking surveys show that consumers, especially moms, found Facts Up Front to be credible and useful. The surveys found statistically significant increases in overall consumer awareness of Facts Up Front, doubling to 42 percent from the 21 percent in the benchmark survey. Use of Facts Up Front has risen since the benchmark survey, with moms now significantly more likely to look at the label, compare products and choose ingredients for a recipe.
In fact, the research showed that most moms who are aware of Facts Up Front rate it higher in believability that the Nutrition Facts Panel.
Facts Up Front, the innovative front-of-pack nutrition labeling initiative of the food industry, was showcased on Lifetime’s The Balancing Act, featuring registered dietitian, Kimberly Kirchherr. The 5-minute segment provided an overview of Facts Up Front and explained how it can become a part of any shopper’s food-buying routine. The segment gives viewers a simple, easy to follow explanation of what Facts Up Front is, why it is beneficial and how it can become a part of their shopping and cooking efforts.
- Facts Up Front Web Site
- Facts Up Front Fact Sheet
- Facts Up Front FAQ's
- Facts Up Front in Action (images of the icon on real products)
- GMA/IFIC Consumer Research on Front-of-Pack Labeling
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans: The Foundation for Facts Up Front (formerly called Nutrition Keys)
- Members of Congress on Facts Up Front (formerly called Nutrition Keys)
- Facts Up Front Resources (style guide and design files/members only) | <urn:uuid:7ca40ae6-eb90-4e72-9100-97198a19fe08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gmaonline.org/issues-policy/health-nutrition/facts-up-front-front-of-pack-labeling-initiative/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912704 | 981 | 2.765625 | 3 |
( Sumeòn ’o metaphrástes ).
The principal compiler of the legends of saints in the Menologia of the Byzantine Church. Through the importance of this collection his name has become one of the most famous among those of medieval Greek writers. The epithet Metaphrastes may be rendered Compiler ; it is given to him from the usual name for such arrangements of saints' lives ( metáphrasis , compilation).
Little is known for certain about his life. His period is the latter half of the tenth century. In one of his legends (the Life of St. Samson ) he tells of the saint's miracles continued down to his own time ; that time is the reign of Romanus II (959-63) and of John I Tzimiskes (969-76). Michael Psellus (1018-78), who wrote the life of Symeon, afterwards added to those of the other saints in the collection, says he was a Logothete. In this case it means one of the Secretaries of State with the title Magister. Psellus also tells us that Symeon was a favourite of the emperor, at whose command he made his collection of legends. Ehrhard says that this emperor was Constantine VII (Porphyrogenetos, 912-59) who organized a compilation of all kinds of learning to form a kind of universal encyclopædia by the scholars of his Court (Krumbacher, "Byz. Lit.", 200). Ehrhard (loc. cit.) and most authorities now identify the Metaphrast with Symeon Magister the Logothete who wrote a chronicle under Nicephorus Phocas (963-9). Besides the identity of name and period there is internal evidence from the two works (Chronicle and Legends) for this. A certain Arab chronicler, Yahya ibn Said of Antioch, in the eleventh century refers to "Simon, Secretary and Logothete, who composed the stories of the saints and their feasts ) (Delehaye in "Revue des questions hist.", X, 84). Another point that fixes his time as the latter half of the tenth century is that, as Ehrhard has proved, the speech made by Constantine VII at the translation of the portrait of Christ from Edessa on 16 August, 944, is contained in Symeon's part of the Menology ("Die Legendsammlung", etc., pp. 48, 73). Formerly his period was generally thought to be earlier. In his life of St. Theoctistus of Lesbos he gives what seems to be a passage about himself, in which he says that he took part in the expedition of Admiral Himerios to Crete in 902. It is now proved that Symeon simply copied all this life, including the autobiographical note, from an earlier writer, Niketas (Ehrhard, "Byz. Lit.", p. 200).
Symeon's chief work, the one to which he owes his great reputation in the Byzantine Church, is the collection of Legends. But it is not easy to say how much of the Menology was really composed by him. On the one hand, in many cases he simply copied existing lives of saints ; on the other, the collection has grown considerably since his time and all of it without discrimination goes by his name. Leo Allatius (op. cit.) ascribes 122 legends only to Symeon, Delehaye ("Les ménologes grecs" in the "Analecta Bollandiana", XVI, 311-29) thinks that 148 or 150 are authentic and original. It may be noticed that the authentic ones are chiefly those in the early months of the year, from September (the Byzantine Calendar begins in September; the saints in the Menology are arranged as their feasts occur). It is certain, that a number of these legends were written by Symeon from such sources as he found (partly oral tradition). The sifting of these from the rest still needs to be done (Ehrhard, l. c., 201-2). His reputation as an author has been restored by the latest students. At one time his name was a byword for absurd fabrications. Ehrhard, Dobschütz and others have now shown him to be a conscientious compiler who made the best use of his material that he could. The often absurd stories in his lives were already contained in the sources from which he wrote them; he is not responsible for these, since his object was simply to collect and arrange the legends of the saints as they existed in his time. He has often been compared to the great Western compiler of legends, Jacobus de Voragine (d. 1298). Some (Kondakoff, "Histoire de l'art byzantin," Paris, 1886, I, 46) prefer Symeon of the two. His legends were translated into Latin by Lippomanus, "Vita ss. priscorum patrum" (Venice, vols. V-VII, 1556-1558). Supposing the identity of the Metaphrast and Symeon Magister, we have other works by him, a Chronicle not extant in its original form, but altered and supplemented in the Chronicle that goes by his name, in the Corpus of Bonn (Theophanes continuatus, Bonn, 1828, 603-760), reprinted in P. G., CIX, 663-822; also an Epitome of Canons (P. G., CXIV, 236-292), collections of maxims from St. Basil (P. G., XXXII, 1116-1381) and Macarius of Egypt (P. G., XXXIV, 841-965), some prayers and poems (P. G., CXIV, 209-225) and nine letters (P. G., CXIV, 282-236). Symeon Metaphrastes is a saint in the Orthodox Church. His feast is 28 November.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed between 1907 and 1912 in fifteen hard copy volumes.
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Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | <urn:uuid:053b39b2-ec96-4cf5-a646-338c047a5d6d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=7924 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961149 | 1,643 | 2.75 | 3 |
07/11/97 - 05:05 PM ET - Click reload often for latest version
Source: USA TODAY research by Chad Palmer
Often, you hear weather forecasters refer to a storm or low-pressure area moving toward your region. As you can see in the graphic above, air rises near low-pressure areas. As air rises, it cools and often condenses into clouds and precipitation. Usually, when forecasters say a low-pressure area is moving toward your region, cloudy weather and precipitation often result as the low-pressure area approaches. A steady rain or snow can fall to the north of the warm front as warm moist air from the south rises up and over the cold air ahead of the warm front. Showers and thunderstorms often fire up ahead of the cold front in the warm, unstable air. Usually, showers and thunderstorms ahead of the cold front are much shorter in duration than the precipitation ahead of the warm front. Due to the counterclockwise circulation around low-pressure areas in the northern hemisphere, cold air will likely be found to the north and west of low-pressure areas while warm air is most often found to the south and east of low-pressure areas. | <urn:uuid:b66bf11e-19d2-4b50-8e13-1560de375ac0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/wlowpres.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942242 | 243 | 3.609375 | 4 |
|Michele M. Klingbeil
Assistant Professor of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts
Ph.D.: University of Toledo
Parasitology, the replication and repair of mitochondrial DNA (kinetoplast DNA network) in African trypanosomes
Trypanosomatid parasites (Trypanosoma and Leishmania species) cause deadly diseases in humans and livestock. Current treatments are often toxic and difficult to administer in endemic regions (mainly Third World countries). The need for new anti-trypanosomatid drugs has never been greater. As one of the earliest branching eukaryotic lineages,trypanosomes display a number of unusual biological properties. One property without counterpart in nature is their amazing mitochondrial DNA known as kinetoplast DNA (kDNA). The kDNA is a network containing thousands of catenated DNA molecules (minicircles and maxicircles, figure at left). We are interested in studying proteins involved in replicating this novel structure. Our primary focus is on a family of 4 DNA polymerases (Pol) from Trypanosoma brucei (Klingbeil et al., Mol. Cell 10, p. 175-186, figure at right) that are related to bacterial Pol I, all of which localize to the mitochondrion.This Pol I-like family is present in all the major trypanosomatid parasites, but not in mammals.
How is the kDNA network replicated?
Key to the mechanism of network replication is the release of minicircles from the kDNA network into the specialized kinetoflagellar zone to replicate as free circular molecules, and their subsequent reattachment at the network periphery. Several proteins localize to specific regions surrounding the condensed kDNA disk including 2 of the Pol I-like proteins (figure at right). Genetic studies using RNA interference (RNAi) indicate that Pol IB and Pol IC are involved in minicircle replication and essential for parasite survival. The other 2 polymerases could be involved in kDNA repair. In mammals, Pol gamma is the only DNA polymerase involved in mitochondrial DNA replication. Trypanosomatid parasites lack Pol gamma, but the Pol I-like family represents another intriguing property of trypanosomes different from the mammalian host, that serve as an attractive new drug target with broad applications to potentially treat several trypanosomatid parasitic diseases.
Using a combination of reverse genetics (RNAi), cell biology and biochemistry, we would like to answer several questions. What specific roles do the Pol I-like proteins play in replication and repair? What enzymatic properties distinguish between replication and repair functions? What other interacting proteins are required for kDNA replication and repair? Most importantly, are there inhibitors specific to these Pol I-like proteins?
El-Sayed, NMA, Myler PJ, Bartholomeu DC, Klingbeil, MM, Fraser, C, Stuart, KD and Andersson, B (2005) The genome sequence of Trypansoma cruzi, etiological agent of Chagas disease. Science 309 , 409-415. (Part of Special Science section)
Klingbeil, MM and Englund PT (2004) Closing the gaps in kinetoplast DNA replication. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 10 , 4333-4334.
Saxowsky, TM, Choudhary, G, Klingbeil, MM and Englund PT (2003) “Trypanosoma brucei has two distinct mitochondrial DNA polymerase beta enzymes.” J. Biol. Chem. 278 (49), 49095-49101.
Klingbeil, MM, Motyka,SA, and Englund PT (2002) “Multiple mitochondrial DNA polymerases from Trypanosoma brucei.” Mol. Cell 10 (1), 175-186 (July, Cover image).
Klingbeil, MM, Drew, ME, Liu, Y, Morris, JC, Motyka, SA, Saxowsky, TT, Wang, Z, and Englund PT (2001) “Unlocking the secrets of trypanosome kinetoplast DNA network replication.” Protist 152 (4), 255-262.
Morris, JC, Drew, ME, Klingbeil, MM, Motyka, SA, Saxowsky, TT, Wang, Z, and Englund, PT (2001) Replication of kinetoplast DNA: an update for the new millennium. Intl. J. Parasitol. 31 , 453-458. | <urn:uuid:bc5842c9-347b-4fd2-ad54-0ef428942340> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.umass.edu/creativeservices/jobs/MCB/faculty/Klingbeil.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.860006 | 960 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The Constitution of India has laid down certain guidelines for the preparation of technical terms, language use in administration, and the spread of education through the Indian languages. The Constitution suggests the source from which the new terms are to be derived. Thus, it enjoins upon the Central Government certain responsibilities for the development and spread of the Hindi language 'to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the composite cultures of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule (of the Constitution), and by drawing wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.'
We all know that there are both social and political trends that militate against the dream of the founding fathers of the Constitution. The founding fathers themselves had developed their vision for India based on the practices and decisions that had been tried out by the officials of the British Raj. The British Raj took several steps to bring order to the linguistic diversity in India to ensure better administration and participation of their subjects in the developmental activities undertaken by the government. In this process, sometimes they took steps that denied the legitimate demands of some of the Indian languages.
In this monograph, we present some of the correspondences that relate to the recognition of Indian languages for the purposes of administration and education. The British Raj initiated several programs for the development of the Indian languages as fit vehicles of administration and courts. However, the trend was generally in favor of English. While the government wanted that the native languages should be developed to become fit vehicles of administration and education, the convenience of the rulers from a far off land mattered most and the Indian communities that took advantage of the British rule readily supported such decisions of the government. The correspondences presented here show an excellent insight into the the developing language policy of the British Raj and the Indian educated classes.
We acknowledge with admiration the excellent work done by the Directorate of the Archives of the Government of the Punjab in Pakistan. The correspondences presented here were taken from Development of Urdu as Official Language in the Punjab (1849-1974), published by the Director of Archives (Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry), Government of the Punjab, Pakistan, 1977. This is an excellent collection of the government correspondences on the language of administration, education and courts of law. We believe that such correspondences from the states in India, if compiled and published, will help us understand better the evolution of the language policy in India.
Ranjit Singh Rangila
*** *** ***
The Mughal Rule and Urdu
The Mughal empire that preceded the rule of the East India Company in India was a multilingual empire. People of different ethnic backgrounds with diverse dialects and languages comprised the Mughal empire. The Mughals and the sultans who ruled various parts of India employed Persian and Arabic as the language of courts and administration, but the last few centuries of the Mughal rule saw the progressive emergence of Urdu, an idiom and speech that was an admixture of Persian, Arabic, and Hindi, with Hindi syntax and lexicon providing the base. Urdu was being established as a language of communication during the rule of Akbar. However, it was during the rule of Shah Jehan that Urdu attained the status and recognition of a court language.
The East India Company's Cautious Approach
There were at least fourteen to sixteen major languages spoken in the various kingdoms and princely states when East India Company became the paramount ruler of India. Nearly twenty-five percent of the population followed Islam. There were other significant religious minorities, such as the Sikhs, who followed a language and script that was decidedly different from the language of the court and administration. However, apart from the Muslim population, there were other communities, Hindus and non-Hindus, who also were well acquainted with the use of Urdu. Religious loyalties and linguistic loyalties sometimes went together, especially in the case of the Hindus and the Muslims in north India.
Internal dissensions and lack of any central authority that embraced the entire country marked the beginning of the rule of the East India Company in India. Internal dissensions and lack of any central political power helped the Company acquire Indian territories very easily. The British Raj became bigger and bigger and more powerful with the addition of territories from all over India. These territories were added to the existing provinces. The provinces were only administrative units, never thought of as having any homogeneous culture and language. As pointed out by Hay and Qureshi (1958:3), "India in eighteenth century was a land of rife with internal dissensions and devoid of any central political power. Muslim governors and Hindu chieftains vied with each other for the remnants of the Mughal empire, while most of the population pursued their traditional occupations in relative indifference to the religious or regional origins of their rulers."
Unsure of their own position vis-à-vis the native cultures and languages of India, the directors of the East India Company took a very cautious approach to matters of religion and culture. As far as language is concerned, they followed the tradition of using the Persian and Arabic languages for communication with the natives wherever such languages had been used in the Mughal empire.
Admiration for the Persian and Arabic Languages
Sir William Jones wrote in 1771: "The Persian language is rich, melodious, and elegant; it has been spoken for many ages by the greatest princes in the politest courts of Asia; and a number of admirable works have been written in it by historians, philosophers, and poets, who found it capable of expressing with equal advantage the most beautiful and the most elevated sentiments interest was the charm which gave the languages of the East a real and solid importance. By one of those revolutions, which no human prudence could have foreseen, the Persian language found its way into India; that rich and celebrated empire, which, by the flourishing state of our commerce, has been the source of incredible wealth to the merchants of Europe. A variety of causes, which need not be mentioned here, gave the English nation a most extensive power in that kingdom; our India Company began to take under their protection the princes of the country, by whose protection they gained their first settlement; a number of important affairs were to be transacted in peace and war between nations equally jealous of one another, who had not the common instruments of conveying their sentiments; the servants of the company received letters which they could not read, and were ambitious of gaining titles of which they could not comprehend the meaning; it was found highly dangerous to employ the natives as interpreters, upon whose fidelity they could not depend; and it was at last discovered, that they must apply themselves to the study of the Persian language, in which all the letters from the Indian princes were written. A few men of parts and taste, who resided in Bengal, have since amused themselves with the literature of the East, and have spent their leisure in reading the poems and histories of Persia; but they found a reason in every page to regret their ignorance of the Arabick language, without which their knowledge must be very circumscribed and imperfect. The languages of Asia will now, perhaps, be studied with uncommon ardor; they are known to be useful and will soon be found instructive and entertaining; the valuable manuscripts that enrich our publick libraries will be in a few years elegantly printed; the manners and sentiments of the Eastern nations will be perfectly known; and the limits of our knowledge will be no less extended than the bounds of our empire" (Sir William Jones, 1771, taken from Hay and Qureshi 1958:38-40).
Pro-English Demands from the Natives
"The East India Company, in its initial caution to leave undamaged the traditional bases of Indian society and culture, had decided to sponsor Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit studies as early as the 1770s. Later on when the Company became the paramount power in India, many Indians realized that to get jobs with the new government they would have to learn English, even though Persian continued to be used for official purposes well into the nineteenth century. The more enlightened among them, men like Rammohun Roy, saw that tremendous advantages could be gained by direct contact with the whole corpus of Western learning which English education would make possible, and they therefore raised their voices against the antiquarian policy" (Hay and Quereshi 1958:36).
The British have been using English within the East India Company for all purposes. However, for communication with the Indian people, they tried to use the local languages or a language that had been in use in the past for such purposes within India. However, soon a body of people learned English and, when job opportunities were open with the government, these people who had learned and demonstrated their skill in English got jobs in the government. This created a demand among the Indians that they be given opportunities to learn English in the schools. Slowly demands were made in favor of the teaching and learning of English rather than Persian, Arabic, or Sanskrit. Soon the government began to curtail spending funds on the learning of Persian, Arabic, or Sanskrit.
The Tilt in Favor of English
A momentous decision was taken in the year 1835 by a young officer of the government (he was only thirty-four years), Thomas Babington Macaulay (later Lord Macaulay), that tilted the balance in favor of teaching English and European sciences and technology in the public schools supported by the government funds.
After declaring that "I am quite ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of the Orientalists themselves, I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia," Thomas Babington Macaulay, in his famous Minute supporting the cause of education in English for all in India, argued: "We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language." And he advanced numerous arguments in favor of instructing the natives in the English language. "In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East." "The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our power to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which, by universal confession, there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own. All the declamations in the world about the love and reverence of the natives for their sacred dialects will never, in the mind of any impartial person, outweigh the undisputed fact that we cannot fine, in all our vast expire, a single student who will let us teach him those dialects unless we will pay him .Why then is it necessary to pay people to learn Sanscrit and Arabic? Evidently because it is universally felt that the Sanscrit and Arabic are languages, the knowledge of which does not compensate for the trouble of acquiring them. On all such subjects the state of the market is the decisive test." (from Hay and Quereshi 1958:46-48).
"To sum up what I have said, I think it is clear that we are not fettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813' that we are not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied; that we are free to employ our funds as we choose; that we ought to employ them in teaching what is best worth knowing; that English is better worth knowing than Sanscrit or Arabic; that the natives are desirous to the taught English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic; that neither as the languages of law, nor as the languages or religion, have the Sanscrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our engagement; that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars; and that to this end our efforts ought to be directed. In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them, that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population" (from Hay and Quereshi 1958:49).
The correspondences we present and discuss here in this short monograph reveal the struggles that Indian languages had to undergo for recognition from the government for their use in public domains of administration. These correspondences were all written after Macaulay's decision in favor of teaching English in government-supported schools. The people themselves opposed the introduction and/or recognition of certain Indian languages. The administrators, however, took a perceptive view of the demands of administration and argued their cases in favor of various Indian languages ably. Their ideas in most cases were very much ahead of their time, and they laid down the parameters of language planning in India.
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Punjabi, a Modern Vibrant Language
Punjabi is a modern Indo-Aryan language spoken in the states of Punjab in Pakistan and India. Generally speaking, the Punjabi speakers in the state of Punjab in Pakistan are Muslims, but the speakers of Punjabi in the Indian state of Punjab may be Sikhs or Hindus or Muslims. The dominant majority professes the Sikh religion. At present, most people in the state of Punjab in India write the language using the Gurumukhi script. In the past, the Perso-Arabic script was used to write this language. It has been claimed that even the Sikh rulers in the early part of Sikh history used the Perso-Arabic script to write this language.
Punjabi is a vibrant modern language. It is included in the list of the major Indian languages in the Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. However, in the past, because of religion and such other factors, the status of Punjabi as an independent language and its fitness to function as the language of administration and education has been questioned. Also in the Punjab of the British Raj, seeking recognition for Punjabi meant downgrading the recognition and status already enjoyed by the languages such as Persian, Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu. It was argued that Punjabi was just a dialect, one among the many dialects spoken in the Punjab and adjacent territories, and that the 'dialect' lacked any literature of its own. Scholars, however, lists three stages of development of the language: Old Punjabi (10th-16th century), Medieval Punjabi (16th-19th century), and Modern Punjabi (19th century to the present) (Bhatia 1992).
The recognition of Punjabi as an independent language was hampered also by the lack of scientific and detailed linguistic information on the language. Grierson, writing for the 1901 Census of India, declared that "Panjabi is not a pure Central language. As we go westwards it becomes more and more infected with features characteristic of the Outer Circle, and merges so gradually into Lahnda that it is impossible to say where one begins and the other ends. The line between Western Hindi and Panjabi is more distinct, and may be taken as the meridian passing through Sirhind (Sahrind)" (Census of India, 1961, Appendix III Census of India 1901).
There had been always some ambivalent positions taken in the writings of several scholars. While recognizing the Punjabi language as a language functioning by itself, they also never failed to mention that it is a mixed language. For example, Grierson in the census report cited above stated that "Punjabi, as spoken in the plains of the Punjab, may be divided into two well-marked dialects-the Standard, spoken around Amritsar, and known as the Punjabi of the Manjh or Central part of the Bari Doab, and Malwai, of the ancient Cis-Sutlej Malawa country." And yet all through the report the focus was more on "the mixed character of the languages of Central and Western Punjab (Panjabi and Lahnda)."
The problem was accentuated by the fact that Punjab was the last of the provinces to be annexed to the British Raj, and the conventions that identified the languages and cultures of various parts of India have already been well set, and these conventions always looked at Punjabi as a mixed language.
Grierson on Persian, Urdu, and Hindi
During this period, the government officials and others interested in the study of Indian languages focused on the stylistic differences between Hindi and Urdu. Persian had already lost its place of importance, and Urdu and Hindi were vying with each other to fill the vacuum created by the exit of Persian. Most people in the government thought that Hindustani is the right medium that should be encouraged. They distinguished Hindustani from Urdu and Hindi. Grierson's report on the languages of India for the Census of India 1901 gives us the thinking current widely at that time. In order to understand the correspondences we present in this monograph, it is important for us to first read the comments of Grierson on issues relating to language use in the various parts of India.
Grierson Against Sanskritising Hindi
Grierson wrote in his report:
"During the last century, the introduction of printing and the spread of education has, in the case of some languages, introduced a fashion of using Tatsamas to which the wildest Johnsonese may almost be compared as a specimen of pure English. It has been proved by actual counting that in a modern Bengali work 88 per cent of the words used were pure Sanskrit, every one of which was unnecessary and could have been represented by a vocable of true home growth. In such cases the result has been most lamentable. The vernacular has been split into two sections - the tongue which is understandably of the people, and the literary dialect, known only through the press and not intelligible to those who do not know Sanskrit. Literature has thus been divorced from the great mass of the population, and to the literary classes this is a matter of small moment, for "this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed." As Mr. Baines says in the last census report, this Sanskritised form of Bengali is the product of what may be called the revival of learning in Eastern India consequent on the settlement of the British on the Hooghly. The vernacular was then found rude and meagre, or rather was wrongly considered to be such, owing to the absence of scholarship and the general neglect of the country during Mughal rule. Instead of strengthening the existing web from the same material every effort was made in Calcutta, then the only seat of instruction, to embroider upon the feeble frame a grotesque and elaborate pattern in Sanskrit, and to pilfer from that tongue whatever in the way of vocabulary and construction the learned considered necessary to satisfy the increasing demands of modern intercourse. He who trusts to the charity of others, says Swift, will always be poor; so Bengali, as a vernacular, has been stunted in its growth by this process of cramming with a class of food it is unable to assimilate. The simile used by Mr. Beames is a good one. He likens Bengali to an overgrown child tied to its mother's apron-string, and always looking to hear for help, when it ought to be supporting itself. Although Bengali displays the greatest weakness in this respect, and has lost all power of ever developing a vigorous literature, racy of the soil, until, some great genius rises and sweeps away the enchantment under which it labours, other Indian vernaculars, especially Hindi, show signs of falling under the same malignant spell. The center of Hindi literature is naturally Benares, and Benares is in the hands of the Sanskritists. There is no necessity as may have existed in the case of Bengali for Hindi to have recourse to the classical tongue. In themselves, without any extraneous help whatever the dialects from which it is sprung are, and for five hundred years have been, capable of expressing with crystal clearness any idea which the mind of man can conceive. It has the enormous native vocabulary, and a complete apparatus for the expression of abstract terms. Its old literature contains some of the highest flights of poetry and some of the most eloquent expressions of religious devotion which have found their birth in Asia. Treatises on philosophy and on rhetoric are found in it, in which the subject is handled with all the subtilty of the great Sanskrit writers, and this with hardly the use of a Sanskrit word. Yet in spite of Hindi possessing such a vocabulary and a power of expression not inferior to that of English, it has become the fashion of late years to write books, not to be read by the millions of Upper India, but to display the author's learning to a comparatively small circle of Sanskrit-knowing scholars. Unfortunately, the most powerful English influence has during this period been on the side of the Sanskritists. This Sanskritised Hindi has been largely used by missionaries, and the translations of the Bible have been made into it. The few native writers who have stood up for the use of Hindi undefiled have had a small success in the face of so potent an example of misguided efforts. Arguments may be brought forward in favour of using Classical Sanskrit words for expressing technical terms in science and art, and I am willing to admit their force. I am not one of those who (to quote a well-known example) prefer "the unthrough forcesomeness of stuff" to the "impenetrability of matter," but there the borrowing from the parent language should stop. There is still time to save Hindi from the fate of Bengali, if only a led is taken by writers of acknowledged repute, and much can be done in this direction by the use of a wise discretion on the part of the educational authorities of the provinces immediately concerned." (Census of India 1901, given as an appendix in the Census of India 1961, pp. 407-408).
Grierson on the Impact of Foreign Tongues on Indian Languages
"The Indo-Aryan vernaculars have also been influenced by languages altogether strange to India. Contact with the tongues of foreign nations has affected their vocabularies to varying extents. The one which has had most influence is Persian, not the old Eranian language of Pre-Musalman times (though that has also contributed a small quota), but the Arabicised Persian of the Mughul conquerors. Thus, through Persian, the Indo-Aryan vernaculars have also received an important contribution of Arabic, and even some Turki words. The influence of the Musalman religion has opened another door for the entry of Arabic, and few have words have also been imported on the west coast from Arab traders. In the main, however, the Arabic element in all the Indian vernaculars, whether Aryan or not, came in with Persian, and as a part of that language. The pronunciation of the Persian words so imported is that of the Mughul times, and not the effeminate articulation of the land of the Lion and the Sun at the present day. The extent to which Persian has been assimilated varies greatly according to locality and to the religion of the speakers. Everywhere there are some few Persian words which have achieved full citizenship and are used by the most ignorant rustic, and we find every variation between this and the Urdu of a highly educated Muhammadan writer of Lucknow, who uses scarcely a single Indo-Aryan word except the verb at the end of his sentence. Under all circumstances, however, it is the vocabulary, and but rarely the syntax which is affected. Only in the Urdu of the Musalmans do we find the Persian order of words in a sentence. There has been no other introduction of Persian construction, nor are the Arabic words inflected (except by purists) according to their own rules, but they have to conform to the grammatical system of their host. So strong is the native instinct against the use of foreign constructions that Hindu writers class a dialect as Urdu, not on the basis of its vocabulary, but on the order of words which it employs. A well-known work was issued in the last century entitled "Tales in pure Hindi". It does not contain a single Persian word from cover to cover and yet Hindi writers class it as Urdu, because the writer orders his sentences in the Persian fashion. He was a Musalman, and could not release himself from the habit of using idioms which had been taught him by Maulvis in his school days." (p.409)
Grierson on the Characteristics of Hindustani
"As a vernacular, Hindostani is the dialect of Western Hindi which exhibits that language in the act of shading off into Panjabi. It has the Western Hindi grammar, but the terminations are those which we find in Panjabi. Thus, the true Western Hindi postposition of the genitive is kau, and the form used in Panjabi is da. The Hindostani dialect of Western Hindi takes the k of kau, but the termination a: of the Panjabi, and has ka:. So also in all adjectives and participles. Hindostani must be considered under two aspects (1) as a vernacular dialect of Western Hindi and (2) as the well-known literary language of Hindostan and the lingua franca current over nearly the whole of India. As a vernacular, it may be taken as the dialect of Western Hindi spoken in the Upper Gangetic Doab, in Rohilkhand, and in the east of the Umbala district of the Punjab. It is spoken in its greatest purity round Meerut and to the north. In Rohilkhand it gradually shades off into Kanauji, and in Umbala into Panjabi. In the rest of the Eastern Punjab the language is Bangaru except in Gurgaon where vernacular Hindostani merges into Braj Bhasha, which may be considered to be established in the east of that district. In the neighbourhood of Meerut, save in a few minor particulars, the language is practically the same as that taught I the usual Hindostani grammars. It is not, however, as the vernacular of the Upper Doab that Hindostani is generally known. To Europeans it is the polite speech of India generally, and more especially of Hindostan. The name itself is of European coinage, and indicates the idea which is thus connoted, it being rarely used by natives except under European influence. As a lingua franca Hindostani grew up in the bazaar attached to the Delhi Court, and was carried everywhere in India by the lieutenants of the Moghul Empire. Since then its seat has been secure. It has several recognized varieties, amongst which may be mentioned Urdu, Rekhta, Dakhini, and Hindi. Urdu is that form of Hindostani which is written in the Persian character, and which makes a free use of Persian (including Arabic) words in its vocabulary. The name is said to be derived from the Urdu-e mu'lla or royal military bazaar outside the Delhi palace. It is spoken chiefly in the towns of Western Hindostan and by Musalmans and Hindus who have fallen under the influence of Persian culture. Persian vocables are, it is true, employed in every form of Hindostani. Such have been admitted to full citizenship even in the rustic dialects, or I the elegant Hindi of modern writers like Harishchandra of Benares. To object to their use would be affected purism, just as would be the avoidance of the use of all words of Latin derivation in English. But in what is known as high Urdu, the use of Persian words is carried to almost incredible extremes. In writings of this class we find whole sentences in which the only Indian thing is the grammar, and with nothing but Persian words from beginning to end. It is curious, however, that this extreme Persianisation of Hindostani is not, as Sir Charles Lyall rightly points out, the work of conquerors ignorant of the tongue of the people. On the contrary, the Urdu language took its rise in the efforts of the ever pliable Hindu to assimilate the language of his rulers. Its authors were Kayasths and Khatris employed in the administration and acquainted with Persian, not Persians or Persianised Turks, who for many centuries used only their own language for literary purpose. To these is due the idea of employing the Persian character for their vernacular speech, and the consequent preference for words to which that character is native. "Persian is now no foreign idiom in India, and though its excessive use is repugnant to good taste, it would be a foolish purism and a political mistake to attempt (as some have attempted) to eliminate it from the Hindu literature of the day." I have made this quotation from Sir Charles Lyall's work, in order to show what an accomplished scholar has to say on one side of a much debated question. That the general principle which he has enunciated is the correct one I think no one will dispute. Once a word has become domesticated in Hindostani no one has any right to object to its use whatever its origin may be, and opinions will only differ as to what words have received the right of citizenship and what have not. This, after all, is a question of style, and in Hindostani as in English, there are styles and styles." (p. 420-421).
Grierson on the Use of the Term Hindi
" Europeans use the word (Hindi) in two mutually contradictory senses, viz., sometimes to indicate the Sanskritised, or at least the non-persianised, form of Hindostani which is used as a literary form of speech by Hindus, and which is usually written in the Devanagari character, and sometimes, loosely, to indicate all the rural dialects spoken between Bengal Proper and the Punjab. It is in the latter sense that the word was employed at the last Census, but, in the present pages, I use it only in the former. This Hindi, therefore, or, as it is sometimes called, "High Hindi," is the prose literary language of those Hindus who do not employ Urdu. It is of modern origin, having been introduced under English influence at the commencement of the last century. Up till then, when Hindu wrote prose and did not use Urdu, he write in his own local dialect, Awadhi, Bundeli, Braj Bhasha, or what not. Lallu Lal, under the inspiration of Dr. Gilchrist, changed all this by writing the well-known Prem Sagar, a work which was, so far as the prose portions went, practically written in Urdu, with Indo-Aryan words substituted wherever a writer in that form of speech would use Persian ones. It was thus an automatic reversion to the actual vernacular of the Upper Doab. The course of this novel experiment was successful from the start. The subject of the first book written init attracted the attention of all good Hindus, and the author's style, musical and rhythmical as the Arabic saj` pleased their ears. Then, the language fulfilled a want. It gave a lingua franca to the Hindus. It enabled men of widely different provinces to converse with each other without having recourse to the, to them, unclean words of the Musalmans. It was intelligible everywhere, for its grammar was that of the language which every Hindu had to use in his business relations with Government officials, and its vocabulary was the common property of all the Sanskrit languages of Northern India. Moreover, very little prose, excepting commentaries and the like, had been written in any modern Indian vernacular before. Literature had almost entirely confined itself to verse. Hence the language of the Prem Sagar became, naturally enough, the standard of Hindu prose all over Hindostan, from Bengal to the Punjab, and has held its place as such to the present day. Now-a-days no Hindu of Upper India dreams of writing in any language but Urdu or Hindi when he is writing prose; but when he takes to verse, he at once adopts one of the old national dialects as the Awadhi or Tulsi Das or the Braj Bhasha of the blind bard of Agra. Some adventurous spirits have tried to write poems in Hindi, but the attempts have been disastrous, and have earned nothing but derision. Since Lallu Lal's time Hindi has developed for itself certain rules of style which differentiate it from Urdu, the principal ones relating to the orders of words, which is much less free than in that form of Hindostani. It has also, of late years, fallen under the fatal spell of Sanskrit, and is showing signs of becoming, in the hands of Pandits, and under the encouragement of some European writers who have learned Hindi though Sanskrit, as debased as literary Bengali, without the same excuse. Hindi has so copious a vocabulary of its own, a vocabulary rooted in the very beings of the study peasantry upon whose language it is based, that nine-tenths of the Sanskrit words which one meets in most modern Hindi books are useless and unintelligible excrescences. The employment of Sanskrit words is supposed to add dignity to the style. One might as well say that a graceful girl of eighteen gained in dignity by masquerading in the furbelows of her great grandmother. Some enlightened native scholars are struggling hard without displaying any affected purism, against this too-easily acquired infection, and we may hope that their efforts will meet with the encouragement which they deserve.
Varieties of Hindustani
"We may now define the three main varieties of Hindostani as follows: Hindostani is primarily the language of the Norther Doab, and is also the lingua franca of India, capable of being written in both Persian and Devanagari characters, and, without purism, avoiding alike the excessive use of either Persian or Sanskrit words when employed for literature. The name "Urdu" can then be confined to that special variety of Hindostani in which Persian words are of frequent occurrence, and which hence can only be written in the a Persian character; and, similarly, "Hindi" can be confined to the form of Hindostani in which Sanskrit words abound, and which hence can only be written in the Devanagari character. (pp. 420-422).
"The great difference between the poetry of Urdu and that written in the various dialects of Eastern or Western Hindi lies in the system of prosody. In the former the prosody is that of the Persian language, while in the latter it is the altogether opposed indigenous system of India. Moreover, the former is entirely based on Persian models of composition, which are quite different from the older works from which the native literature took its origin. Urdu prose came into existence, as a literary medium, at the beginning of the last century in Calcutta. Like Hindi prose, it was due to English influence, and to the need of text-books in both forms of Hindostani for the College of Fort William. The Bagh-o-Bahar of Mir Amman, and the Khirad Afroz of Hafizuddin Ahmed are familiar examples of the earlier of these works in Urdu, as the already mentioned Prem Sagar written by Lallu Lal is an example of those in Hindi. Since then both Urdu and Hindi prose have had a prosperous course " (p. 422).
It is important for us to remember that the observations of Grierson were written at a time when the British consolidation of their power in India was more or less complete. The British officials were looking towards managing the the country as best as they could, based on their appreciation of the religious, cultural and linguistic diversity of the country. Punjab had now been annexed, and it came to the British with the legal and other administrative arrangements that were followed by the powers that preceded the British annexation. The British wanted to continue the existing structure as best as they could, but were not unwilling to depart from the past conventions and practices.
Focus of the Correspondences
The correspondences we reproduce below were written by the government officials and those connected with the government decision-making process. These were written mostly in the last decade of the nineteenth century, a few years before the 1901 census. Grierson who wrote the chapter on language classification and language use for this census focused more on the controversy and competing claims of Urdu and Hindi versus Hindustani. His focus was on the similarities and dissimilarities between these styles or speech varieties. On the other hand, the correspondences reproduced below focus more on the administrative steps that needed to be taken in relation to language recognition and language use in the government offices and in the courts of law. These correspondences focused also on the medium of instruction that should be adopted in the schools run with government funds. A greater focus was on what languages should be taught in the schools. Some of the points that need to be emphasized are as follows:
In an important sense these documents form a response to the socio-political activity that started after the British introduced Urdu as the language of their administration in the Punjab and elsewhere. A demand for education in the Panjabi language written in Gurmukhi script was first made in 1871 in a resolution by some of the prominent people of the Punjab. Such a demand turned itself into a language controversy by the year 1882, when, contrary to the past practices, the people started rallying around Urdu, Panjabi and Hindi as their identity markers as well as expressions of their political will. The year 1882, incidentally, is a landmark year in the field of education in the Punjab. It was in 1882 that the first printing press was set up in Lahore, and in the same year the Punjab University in Lahore was also established. With such swift changes, it is very natural that by 1894, the year of the documents, the British rulers are seen discussing the issues of education and administration, and the language or languages that should be recognized and encouraged for the purpose.
The arguments for and against Urdu or Panjabi in the discussion presented in the correspondences are not just simple discussions on issues relating to education in the Punjab or the use of Punjabi or Urdu language. Rather, the points reaised in the discussion reveal the dynamics of the comparative power positions of various parties and their assertion within the state. The decision that followed the discussion was not simply a decision for or against a given language; it had certain far-reaching socio-political consequences. However, the consequences could not be foreseen at that time. (Or was it already known and hence the push towards a particular direction?) The British officials were seen to be sorting out the issues of administation and education, as a matter of political expediency, but the socio-political consequences would emerge only later on. In this sense, these documents form an important chapter in the political history of the Punjab.
There is a very interesting argument in these documents. Call it a lost argument for Panjabi. The fact that most of the people of the Punjab, except the rulers themselves, spoke one form of Panjabi or the other was of no relevance for the discussants in these correspondences. The language which every body spoke in the Punjab was just dismissed as no language! It is thought to have no literature. One must say that this was gross ignorance bordering on arrogance, because some of the best literature, i.e., the medieval literature, of Panjabi till date was composed much before the inauguration of the British rule in Punjab.
Further, that the agricultural masses did not understand Urdu was also of no consequence. The expressed assumption is that these masses neither sent their children to school, nor did they find the education offered in the schools relevant. Ideally, this should not have been a ground for winning the argument for Urdu, especially if it was considered that the target group of the original proposal was the children of the agricultural masses. If these people did not understand, and did not find the education offered to them interesting or relevant, forget about them; why change - was the attitude and not the argument that won.
But, alas, the creation of the educational opportunities in the Panjabi was proposed keeping this group of people in mind. If one went by a rough estimate that 90 to 95 percent of the people of the Punjab were either directly or indirectly dependant on agriculture, then the intention of the whole exercise in the discussion was altogether different.
That is, seen from the bottom, there wass never any argument either for this or that. And there was indeed no concern for the masses either. One could argue that it was the 5 percent and odd section of the total population of the state whose education was being discussed and bothered about. This was nothing more than sheer political expediency; a simple case of a polity where rulers were just interested in educating a tiny section of the society to create help in governance, on the one hand, and for the convenience of the ruling elite on the other.
This conclusion may be reached even when we look at the arguments that listed the difficulties in implementing the proposal for recognizing Punjabi as the language of administration, etc. In one of the opinions, the official files (records) were cited as the area of difficulty in shifting from Urdu to Panjabi. There is considerable scope to question this assumption as to whether the so called files were really maintained in Urdu, including the ones that the rulers created. The records were known to have been maintained, right from the days of the Mughals in Persia,n written in Perso-Arabic script. But, even if it was really the case that the existing files were to be translated into a different language, there was no reason why this should not have happened, especially if the education of the masses was really at stake. Moreover, if Urdu was not very difficult to learn for the village lads, then the task must have been easy to accomplish this task.
At a different level of consideration, the documents present a grand scheme of privilege creation and privilege gaining: first you learn an unknown language, then you get education in the language, and only then all the benefits that accrue the learning are yours. It is understandable as to why the level of literacy was low during the British rule in the Punjab. By the same token it also becomes clear as to why Panjabi, notwithstanding the script in which it is written, had to wait till 1950 to officially walk into public educational system (see Zaman 2000 for information on Pakistan).
This issue of recognizing or not recognizing Panjabi relates to the contemporary political reality in a very direct way, because the documents may help raising a central question: should the choice of the language of the masses be left to political expediency only? If yes, then how do polities democratize themselves? By denying the right to get educated in their own language, could societies sustain themselves for long? Given the technological advancement it is possible to educate the people though their own mother tongues even if these people are small in number. Will societies be willing to do that?
Many current issues that are being debated in the language planning circles are present in the documents in one form or another. The officials were aware of these problems, and tried to solve these problems in their own way, as they understood the situation before them and as they were consciously or unconscioulsy guided by their interests. Some of these issues are: A language could be created out of some formal diversity. Only that language that has good body of literature may serve as the medium of education. Education should be such that it relates the educated people to the demands of the socio-political reality, on the one hand, and to the advancements of scientific knowledge, on the other. The State has its responsibility towards the education of its masses. In this sense, the documents form a chapter in the history of the field of knowledge called language planning as well, except for the fact that the idiom in which the statements were made is from an earlier period.
The main question from the point of view of language planning is this: Should language planning be geared up towards what may be called the maximization of the opportunity for all to develop, or should it plan for the perpetuation of a few? How sensible could language planners be if they recommend this kind of extreme and intentional syllabus to the contemporary world? Further, even if such policies are made to justify, would such policies last the test of time? Where from should the test of a language planning package come if it is not linked to the societal consequences?
Finally, language planning is also a matter of conscience keeping (see also Nazm Hussain Sayed 2000), both for the ruler and the ruled. If the rules framed by the ruler do not invite the subjects of the ruler to participate in the game of illuminated life-making, the ruler is bound to perish. The power of the ruler does not last long. Every society, howsoever insignificant in number, has its in-built mechanisms to learn and create. If governance proves to be an impetus to learning, the impact is just astronomical.
The correspondences presented here were taken from Development of Urdu as Official Language in the Punjab (1849-1974), published by the Director of Archives (Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry), Government of the Punjab Government of the Punjab, Pakistan, 1977. This is an excellent collection of the government correspondences on the language of administration, education and courts.
Here are the correspondences.
Lieutenant Colonel J. A. L. Montgomery
Officiating Commissioner and Superintendent, Rawalpindi Division
The Under-Secretary to Government, Punjab,
Home (Education) Department.
Dated 1st September 1894.
I have the honor to forward in original some papers connected with a scheme proposed by Mr. Wilson, Deputy Commissioner of Shahpur (now on leave), for popularising education among the masses of the Punjab. Mr. Wilson's paper is written with his usual ability, and is deserving of consideration. I circulated it for opinion among the Deputy Commissioners of the Division, and enclose in original the replies received from Gujranwala, Jhelum, Sialkot and Rawalpindi. The opinion from the last-named district is that of Lala Sagar Chand, B. A., Inspector of Schools of the Circle, and has been forwarded by Mr. Beckett with the remark that he agrees in its conclusions. The note written by Mr. Watson, Assistant Commissioner of Gujranwala, is a scholarly essay on the general question, and specially creditable to an officer who has only been a few months in India. The opinions of Mr. 0' Dwyer and Lala Sagar Chand are also well considered and valuable.
2. Mr. Wilson recommends that
(1) In all Government schools and colleges and in all Government offices only the Roman character should be used.
(2) In all primary schools education should be carried on only in the Punjabi language written in the Roman character.
(3) A committee of scholars should assemble to draw up in Punjab and in the Roman character a grammar and dictionary of the authorised Punjabi language and school-books composed in that language and that character.
3. I agree generally in Lala Sagar Chand's opinion. The same conclusions are expressed, though more briefly, by Lieutenant Douglas, Officiating Deputy Commissioner of Sialkot. The advantages of the Roman character are enumerated by Mr. Wilson and Lala Sagar Chand, and I entirely agree that we should do our best to introduce this character into the schools. In order to make this more popular, we must, as Lala Sagar Chand says, bring it into use also in our courts and offices.
4. Mr. Wilson's most radical proposals are for the formation of a common Punjabi language and its general introduction as the language of the primary schools and of the courts. I think that Mr. Wilson is here aiming at an impossibility. Urdu itself is no doubt a mixed language which was introduced in a manner by order. But it is a language with a large vocabulary and a wide literature. It is also now generally spoken in a large part of India, including the Punjab. There are few p1aces even in remote parts of the Punjab where it is not understood. To attempt to suppress such a language and to introduce in its place a practically unwritten language, with such poor vocabulary would in my opinion be a retrograde step.
5. I join issue with Mr. Wilson in his opening argument. He says that education is not popular among the agricultural classes because it is given in Urdu. The true reason appears to me to be that there is at present no desire for education for its own sake; it is regarded generally only as a means to Government employment. The fact that Urdu is taught in the schools does not, I believe, in any way retard the spread of education. I would go further and say that I believe the change proposed by Mr. Wilson would not be popular even among Punjabi villagers In any case, Mr. Wilson's paper deserves discussion by all officers who are interested in education, and for this reason I forward these papers to Government.
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Note by J. Wilson, Esquire, Deputy Commissioner of Shahpur on Primary Education in the Punjab and the teaching of Punjabi, in the Roman character.
Dated 21st April 1894.
I wish to draw attention to what I consider to be serious faults in our system of primary education in the Punjab, and to suggest improvements.
(1) It fails to attract more than a small proportion of the boys, we wish to educate, and especially of those belonging to the agricultural classes, in which I include not only land-owners and tenants, but also artisans and village menials. According to the Census Report of 1891 only 4 per cent of the boys in the Punjab between the ages of five and fourteen inclusive were learning to write, the proportion among Hindus being 12 percent, and among Mussalmans 3 per cent; of the whole male population only 5.89 per cent were able to read and write, the proportion among the commercial classes being 17.8 per cent, among the agricultural classes only 1.44 percent and among the artisan class only .88 per cent.
(2) It is conducted for the most part in a language foreign to the people. To the ordinary Punjabi village boy Urdu is almost as foreign as French would be to an English rustic. The Punjabi boy is not taught to read the language he speaks, but a language many of the words in which he does not understand until they are translated for him into his own Punjabi.
(3) Although much has been done of late years to simplify the language of the text-books, it still too often makes use of unfamiliar, pedantic words drawn from Persian, Arabic or Sanskrit, which require to be translated into Punjabi before they are understood by the school-boy.
(4) In so far as education is conducted in the Arabic character, it is conducted in a character totally foreign to the genius of the language employed. The Arabic character is suited only to the writing of Arabic words, and is as unsuited to represent the sounds employed by a Punjabi or Urdu speaker in words derived from Hindi of Persian, as the Hebrew character would be to represent English or French words.
(5) Although considerable improvement has been effected of late years in the subjects studied, there is still far too much prominence given to mere literary instruction, and too little to technical and scientific instruction.
In short, we get out Punjabi village boys to learn Urdu in the Arabic character and then teach them Saadi's Gulistan in Persian, which is much the same as if the system of education for English village boys were to begin by teaching them French in the Hebrew character and go on to teach them Virgil's Aeneid in Latin.
The history of education in England affords an instructive parallel. In the dark ages education was given only in Latin, and was confined to a very small proportion of the population. Later on French became the official language, and education in that tongue spread among the upper classes. But it was not until the native English tongue was adopted as the means of instruction that education became general among the masses of the people. Similarly, in the Punjab, fifty years ago, Persian was the official language and the chief means of education. We have now made Urdu the official language and teach it in our schools, and thus attract a considerably larger proportion of the total population, but chiefly those who aim at obtaining employment I our offices. And it will not be until we offer education to the people in their own familiar Punjabi that we shall succeed in inducing the masses to take advantage of it. There are in the Punjab nearly sixteen millions of people whose mother-tongue is Punjabi. Is it to be imagined that we can in the course of several generations, teach any large proportion of this vast number to read and write a language so foreign to them as Urdu?
It may be objected that there is no one Punjabi language, but several distinct dialects. This is true, but it was also true of all written languages before the particular dialect ultimately adopted became specially favoured by the literate. Modern standard English was originally only one of many dialects; so were modern French and modern German. Similarly, there can be little difficulty in adopting some one dialect of Punjabi and developing it into a language which will be readily understood by all Punjabi speakers, and at the same time capable of expressing all their ideas with as little admixture of foreign words as possible.
As regards the character to be used, there can be little doubt that in the circumstances the Roman character is the most suitable. Being a character developed by speakers of Aryan languages, it suits the genius of the Punjabi tongue much better than the Arabic character, which is fitted to express only words of Semitic origin; it does not require so many dots and diacritical marks as the Arabic character; it is easier to write it clearly; it can be printed very much more clearly and satisfactorily; it is the character used in English, which is rapidly becoming the official language and the language of the educated classes. No doubt the Gurmukhi or Nagri character is much better suited to express indigenous Punjabi words than the roman character, but it is less able to express words of Persian, Arabic or English origin, of which there are now a considerable number adopted into ordinary Punjabi speech; it is much more difficult to write and print clearly; and it would never be adopted by the Mussalman portion of the population, while all will readily accept the Roman character.
The adoption of the roman character has been artificially and unnecessarily rendered more difficult by the introduction of diacritical marks and dots intended to make it represent distinctly every sound in the language, and event he derivation of foreign words. For instance, what does it matter to a Punjabi speaker whether Sawar, Sabit, Sadar are spelled with a sin, a se, or swad? To him in all three cases the sound is a simple s. Or again, why should he be required to distinguish between the Arabic letters te and toe, as in tan and talab? To him the sound is the same. Moreover, even where the sound of a letter differs to his ear, there is no more necessity for his having different marks to represent the different sounds than there is for an Englishman's having different marks for the different sounds of the th in thin and in this, or for the different sounds of the u in under and in unit. Thus, although it may be necessary for an Englishman, learning Punjabi to represent the different sounds of the two ts or two ds or two rs by putting a dot below the letter for one of them, no Punjabi requires such help in reading his own language. He does not even require marks to show when the vowel is long or nasalized as an Englishman learning the language would. For instance, if the sentence tittar te bater a turda phar lenda hai, what native Punjabi, who knew the Roman character and was accustomed to this mode of writing could fail to read it correctly and understand it, although it might at first sight puzzle an Englishman? It might possibly be found advisable at all events in printed books, to distinguish the long vowels by an accent over them, and to mark the nasal sound by a circumflex over the nasalized letter (it ought never to be represented by the letter n), but it can never be necessary in books printed in Punjabi for Punjabi-speakers to dot the different letters so as to mark slight differences of sound which come naturally to their lips. If the attempt, in some cases pedantic, in others unnecessary, to distinguish by marks and dots letters which have the same or nearly the same sound be abandoned, the writing and printing of Punjabi in the Roman character becomes a much more simple matter than is generally considered necessary in books printed in that character under the guidance of English scholars.
Again in grammars and dictionaries of Punjabi drawn up under the guidance of European scholars, the object being to represent the different dialects as they really are, many different forms of the same word or inflection are necessarily shown, and the subject thus rendered confusing and complicated. But if one particular dialect wee adopted as the authorized Punjabi language, just as has been done in the case of English. French, German, and indeed all standard literary languages, and only those words and inflections shown which were approved as belonging to that authorized language, a grammar and dictionary of Punjabi would be very much simpler than such books ordinarily are, just as a grammar and dictionary of the "Queen's English" is much simpler than one that takes account of dialectical peculiarities and obsolete words and inflections.
I would suggest that a committee of competent scholars, European and Native, be appointed to determine what words and inflections should be accepted as belonging to the standard Punjabi language, and what should be discarded as merely dialectical peculiarities. In deciding any doubtful point regard should be paid to the extent to which the word or inflection is current throughout the Province, and favour should be shown to the simple forms as compared with the more complex. For instance, the ne or nai of the agent case might be dropped with advantage, as it is in Western Punjab and Mooltani, and wherever a nasal or an aspirate is found to be dispensed with in some of the current dialects of Punjabi, it should be dropped out of the authorized language; and no word should find a place in the authorized dictionary which is not current at least over a large portion of the Punjab.
The language having been thus fixed, a grammar and dictionary should be drawn up, entirely in Punjabi and in the Roman character, without any diacritical marks except those necessary to mark the long vowels and nasalized letters. School-book should be printed in the same language and character, and by degrees a literature would spring up written in a language readily understood by all the people of the Punjab and printed distinctly in the roman character. All instruction in Primary Schools controlled by Government should, without exception, be given in the Punjabi language and the Roman character.
Similarly, all advanced instruction in schools and colleges controlled by Government should be given either in the Punjabi language and Roman character or in English, which is already the language of the educated classes throughout India, and is rapidly supplanting Urdu for purposes of higher instruction and communication between natives of different Provinces. If a Punjabi boy wishes to learn another language besides his own, he will find English a much more useful acquisition than Urdu, and if he has from the first been made familiar with the Roman character he will not find English so difficult to learn as he does at present; and his mind not being burdened and confused as it now is by a smattering of Urdu or Persian besides his native Punjabi his progress in real education and knowledge will be more rapid. Youths who wish to study foreign or ancient languages such as Urdu, Sanskrit, Persian or Arabic should be left to obtain an education in those language in private schools and colleges supported by their fees or by private liberality, and the public monies, which are largely subscribed by the agricultural classes, should be expended only on education given in a form which will commend itself to those classes and be directly useful to them.
There can, I think, be little doubt that if all education in primary schools were given in the Punjabi language and the Roman character, and the school-books were drawn up in clear, simple words ordinarily understood by the peasant, and dealt with agriculture elementary science, geography, history and kindred subjects, in short, if they aimed more at explaining to the mind of the village boy the common objects of his daily life, education would rapidly become more popular, and the numbers of scholars in village schools would rapidly increase.
In this country, where so large a proportion of school boys look forward to employment under Government, it is no doubt essential to the success of the proposed change that the conditions of Government service should altered to suit it. All work in Government offices should be conducted in the Roman character and either in English or Punjabi, the Urdu language and the Arabic character being entirely banished. But if it be admitted that the change would be a beneficial one, neither the Government nor the Education Department should wait for the other to commence it. Both should take it up at once and work for it together.
The change would of course have to be gradual and would take years to carry out. But it must come some day and the sooner the better. If the system of education in the Punjab had been started on these lines forty years ago, who can doubt that education would by this time have been much more general and much more sound than it is? My suggestion may be summed up as follows:
1. In all Government schools and colleges and in all government offices only the Roman character should be used.
2. In all primary schools education should be carried on only in the Punjabi language written in the Roman character.
3. A committee of scholars should be at once formed to draw up in Punjabi and in the Roman character a grammar and dictionary of the authorized Punjabi language and school-books composed in that language and that character.
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The Commissioner and Superintendent
Dated 9th June 1894.
In reply to your Circular No. 48/1293 dated 2nd May 1894, forwarding for opinion copy of Mr. Wilson's letter No. C-29 dated 21st April 1894, regarding the education of the agricultural classes, I have the honor to forward a note on the subject by Mr. Watson, Assistant Commissioner, with whose opinion, as expressed in paragraphs 6, 7 and 8, I generally agree, and to make the following remarks seriatim with reference to the suggestions made by Mr. Wilson regarding the present system of primary education in the Punjab and the teaching of Punjabi in the roman character:
1. Mr. Wilson says that "the present system of education fails to attract more than a small proportion of the boys we wish to educate and especially of those belonging to the agricultural classes." I am not sure that this is so much the fault of the medium of instruction as the result of backward state of civilization. Is it a fact that where instruction is given through the medium of the popular language, e.g. Urdu in most of the North-Western Provinces, Marhatti in the Deccan, that primary education is much more popular than in the Punjab?
2. I think the foreignness of Urdu to a Punjabi school-boy is rather exaggerated. No doubt many of the words are unfamiliar to him at first, in the same way as polysyllable English words are unfamiliar to an English school-boy learning his a primer; but just as the English boy improves his vocabulary as he goes on, so does the Punjabi boy. The Urdu words he learns-where they are not pedantic terms which have useful and simple Punjabi equivalents-are so much gained, even admitting Mr. Wilson's parallel, an English boy's study of French increases his vocabulary and his mastery of his own language.
3. The argument that the language of the text-books too often makes the use of unfamiliar pedantic words drawn from Persian, Arabic or Sanskrit, which require to be translated into Punjabi before they are understood by the school-boy, is rather one against setting up a bad standard of Urdu than one for the elimination of Urdu altogether. The difficult is one that can be overcome-
4. I admit the disadvantage of the Arabic characters. It is a stumbling-block to every English official who has to transact work in vernacular. The substitution of the Roman character would be open to similar objections as regards representation of Punjabi sounds, but would have many administrative advantages from the point of view of the English official. The transition from the use of one to the other in records, files, & c., would be attended with many difficulties and inconvenience.
5. The fact that too much prominence is given to mere literary instruction and too little to technical and scientific instruction is a matter concerning the substance of the education rather than the medium of form through which it is conveyed. The unpractical nature of the education is perhaps the main reason why it has caught on with the agricultural classes. If you ask a zamindar why he does not send his son to school, his reply is that it unfits the boy for the plough. Even some of the most intelligent zamindars, who are most anxious to give their sons a good start in life, think it a wise precaution not to give even the rudiments of education to the boy who is destined to carry on his father's work of agriculture.
Surely there can be no more conclusive proof than this of the unsuitability of the present system of instruction.
As regards Mr. Wilson's three suggestions in his last paragraph I would remark-
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H.D. Watson, Esquire,
The Deputy Commissioner,
Dated 30th May 1894
I herewith submit some remarks on Mr. Wilson's suggestions as to the alteration in the system of education in the Punjab contained in his letter to the Rawalpindi Division. I know little as yet both of the working of this system and of the Punjabi language which Mr. Wilson wishes to substitute for Urdu in its curriculum, but I will put down some of the ideas that have occurred to me in the perusal of his note.
2. In the first place, does he not rather exaggerate the difference between Urdu and Punjabi? The difference appears to me to be mainly one of words; the construction of the sentences and the syntax in general is pretty nearly the same. In learning French one has to accustom one self to new modes of expression and construction, not, it is true, so numerous or so difficult as would be found in earning Greek or Latin, but still enough to puzzle the beginner very considerably. In Punjabi, on the other hand, so far as my studies have gone, you can generally turn an Urdu sentence into Punjabi simply by substituting Punjabi words and inflections for the corresponding Urdu ones, and leaving the construction of the sentence as it was before. This is due of course to the fact that Punjabi is simply a dialectical variation of Hindi (the syntax of which is the same as that of Urdu) and is not a separate language. A priori therefore I cannot speak a posteriori I should say that a Punjabi boy ought not to find it so very difficult to learn to speak Urdu as Mr. Wilson would make out.
3. I would venture also to disagree with Mr. Wilson's remarks as to the Arabic character. The Arabic alphabet with a few Hindi and Persian letters added has for long been the character adopted in written Urdu, and it seems to me to be admirably adapted for expressing the sounds of the various consonants and vowels. The fact that this character has so long been employed with success in Persian also is additional evidence to its suitability for a language in which there are so many Persian words.
It is certainly suited for Punjabi in which there are several sounds which cannot adequately be represented by Arabic letters, but to say that you might as well represent English words in Hebrew characters as Hindi or Persian words in Arabic is surely an exaggeration. There are numerous words common to Urdu and Punjabi which can as well be represented by Arabic as by Gurmukhi letters.
If Punjabi be substituted for Urdu in the Government schools, Mr. Wilson urges the adoption of the Roman character in the place of the Gurmukhi or Nagri. I should have thought the Roman character was very ill adapted to express indigenous Punjabi words, more so even than the Arabic character, which in its 'Aryanized' form adequately expresses the sounds of some of the Hindi letters.
4. But granting that the Roman character is so far superior to the Gurmukhi or Nagri, would the change be so readily accepted as Mr. Wilson contends? I should have thought that Sikhs at any rate would strongly object if, as I understand, the Gurmukhi alphabet was invented, or rather adapted from the Nagri character, by their Chief Guru, and is the character in which the Granth is written. Mr. Wilson thinks that a committee of European and Native scholars might set up a standard Punjabi language which would come to be universally accepted throughout the Province. He says that just as what is now modern English was originally one of many dialects, so a single Punjabi dialect could be easily adopted and developed till it became intelligible to all Punjabi speakers. But I am not sure that the analogy is correct. Modern English can hardly be said to have been originally a dialect. It is, I suppose, a conglomeration of words of Saxon of Latin origin, and it was not developed from one particular dialect, but was the langue of the towns and centers of civilization, the original pure Saxon being considerably modified by an admixture of new words and phrases which intercourse with other nations brought into use. You do not call the language of Chaucer a dialect; his is a well of pure English undefiled and modern Queen's English is its direct descendant. It represents the original stock and modern English dialects are its off shoots that branched off most of them long ago and still retain words and expressions formerly in use in another language, but now obsolete. Since the separation each has gone through many modifications, but he fact still remains that the one was originally contained in the other and was not, as Mr. Wilson seems to hold, a joint offshoot of a higher stock.
5. In Punjabi the case is different. Here we have nothing but dialects, derived, mainly from Hindi, which is little spoken in the Province; there is no one parent language which can be set up as a standard; it must be left to the committee of experts either to select one particular dialect and say "this shall be the universal standard," or to make a selection from all the dialects and insist on that as the true and pure Punjabi language, -- a task of very considerable difficulty. It is as if one were to try and establish a standard English language by taking the dialects of Northumberland, Norfolk, Cornwall, Somerset shire and the London coster, and either saying, 'The coster's is the language of the future; any one who fails to drop his h's or calls a donkey a moke is committing a solicism', or else insisting on every one speaking and writing a language arbitrarily formed by a selection from all these dialects, and so neither fish, flesh, fowl nor good red herring. I know nothing of the various Punjabi dialects, but I imagine that a native of the extreme west of the Punjab would hardly be intelligible to a native of the extreme east, and to provide a language which would be acceptable as a standard to both would be no easy matter.
6. But granted such a language could be established would it be a satisfactory one and capable of fulfilling all the demands made upon it? A dialect has never very extensive vocabulary; it has not many words for expressing abstract or complex ideas. It requires a long course of elaboration and development before it becomes a literary language. Urdu, with the help of Arabic and Persian, has far more capacities in it. If you have a standard language, it ought to be a good one and a suitable vehicle for all kinds of expression. In this case Mr. Wilson wishes to substitute a language which is still in a comparatively rudimentary state and is spoken little by the educated classes for one which ahs reached a high stage of development, and is far better suited for expressing the technicalities of legal phraseology and abstract or complex ideas in general. It would be a very long time before Punjabi could attain to the elegance of Urdu, and it could only be done if at all, by a large importation of Arabic and Persian words which Mr. Wilson desires as much as possible to exclude.
7. And lastly, even assuming that the teaching of Punjabi in Government Schools and the adoption of it in place of Urdu as the official language have all the advantages Mr. Wilson claims, would the change be worth the trouble? The transition would inevitably be extremely difficult. At present all the vernacular files are in Urdu; in future Mr. Wilson would have them written in Punjabi and the Roman character. But, unless Mr. Wilson would recommend having the old files rewritten in Punjabi-an immense labour-for many years to come native officials would have to know both Urdu and Punjabi, and in the schools there must be means of teaching both languages; else how could the administration be worked? When once an official language for records has been fixed on and in use for a long period, it is surely a doubtful policy to throw everything into confusion by the arbitrary substitution of a new language and character unless you can show overwhelming reasons for the adoption of the latter.
8. The chief advantage to be gained by such a course as Mr. Wilson suggests would be that more children would be attracted to the Government schools. On the other hand, I would urge that a child can find no very great difficulty in learning Urdu, that it will not be easy to set up any particular Punjabi dialect as a standard and get every one to conform thereto; that if you do succeed in setting up such a standard you will be substituting for a language that is comparatively highly developed and a suitable vehicle for expressing the technicalities of legal and other phraseologies a dialect that as such cannot be well adapted for use as an official language, and can only be made so by borrowing largely from foreign sources; that by adopting the Roman instead of the Arabic or Gurmukhi character you will not be making a change that will be any great improvement or very acceptable to any one except the English themselves; and finally, that the difficulties of the transition would be so numerous, the unnecessary expenditure of labour so great, and the period of confusion resulting therefrom so prolonged that even if there were no other objections to Mr. Wilson's proposals it would seem hardly worth while to carry them out at such a cost.
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W.S. Talbot, Esquire,
The Commissioner and Superintendent,
Dated 26th June 1894
I have the honor to reply to your Circular No. 48-1293, dated 2nd May 1894, regarding Mr. Wilson's suggestions for the improvement of our system of primary education in the Punjab.
2. It cannot be doubted that, if it were possible to Punjabi the medium of education, our system would be more attractive than at present to the agricultural classes, and would in all probability bring to the schools a considerably large proportion of boys of those classes. Whether the increase would be as great as Mr. Wilson believes is a matter as to which there is room for doubt. It will be along time before education for its own sake becomes popular with the agricultural classes. Meanwhile the change proposed would be a step in the right direction.
3. There would be no serious difficulty in evolving a standard Punjabi for the purpose, though the task would be no light one; and if Punjabi is to be introduced at all, it will be well to make the change through one, and introduce the Roman character as well. Its only serious is the Arabic character, and Mr. Wilson has given good reasons for preferring it to that character.
4. But the change, it is said, would involve the supersession of Urdu by English or Romanized Punjabi in all the Government offices. The difficulties here would be great; the bulk of officials, especially those in the subordinate grades, have been educated in Urdu only, and a coming generation of officials is being educated for the most part in the same way. It is true that Urdu-educated Punjabis would only have to learn the Roman character, and the slight variations of the standard Punjabi from that to which he was accustomed; and for English-educated Punjabis the fresh knowledge to be acquired would be even smaller; but it would be impossible to send all our subordinate officials to school again even for the acquisition of this slight knowledge, and the only other way of preserving their usefulness, while providing for a new generation of Punjabi-educated men, would be a partial introduction of the new language, which could never be effected even after years of preparation without dislocating the whole system, and at least causing very serious inconvenience for many years.
5. Very strong reasons would have to be shown before such a sweeping change as this could be effected; and I venture to think that the disadvantages of the present system have been a little overstated. For instance, Mr. Wilson's argument that Urdu is as foreign to the Punjabi village as French to the English rustic. It is of course indisputable that Urdu does not come naturally to the Punjabi rustic, but he can as a rule catch the drift of what is said to him in Urdu if he chooses to try.
6. One disadvantage of the change, if thoroughly carried out, would be the isolation of the Province, or rather of the Punjabi districts. Mr. Wilson meets this objection by saying that English is rapidly becoming the medium of intercourse between different parts of India, which is doubtless true; but it is surely the case that Urdu is still (and will be for a long tome to come) far more used than English for this purpose.
7. I do not feel competent to give an opinion as to the practicability of Mr. Wilson's suggestions. The difficulties which would be met with are formidable, but should not be insurmountable. At any rate his proposal is worthy of full discussion in the way suggested by him.
8. I regret the delay in replying to this reference, which is due chiefly to the papers having been mislaid by me.
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The Inspector of Schools
The Director of Public Instruction
Dated 23rd June 1894
I beg to reply to your demi-official asking for my opinion on the points raised by Mr. Wilson in his memorandum on education in the Punjab.
2. Before being sent to me the paper was given to Babu Hari Singh and Lala Amlok Ram to criticize, and when it came to my hands I gave it to Lala Sheo Lal, so that the most important points for or against Mr. Wilson's proposal have already been noticed by one of other of these gentlemen. Lala Sheo Lal has also contributed a history, herewith submitted, of the attempts made from time to time to extend the use of the Roman character both in this and elsewhere, which is interesting.
It is hardly necessary for me after this to make any lengthened remarks on the memorandum, and I shall accordingly try to be as brief as possible.
3. The reform in our educational system advocated by Mr. Wilson is three-fold, first, that Urdu should be replaced in our schools by Punjabi, second that the Roman character should be substituted for the Persian character; and third, that more prominence should be given to scientific and technical than to literary instruction in the scheme of studies.
4. The ground on which the first change is desired is that Urdu is foreign language to a Punjabi as foreign in fact as French to an English rustic. Now, with all respect for Mr. Wilson, it is, I think, scarcely correct to say that the relation between Urdu and Punjabi is similar to that between French and English. The former appear to be dialects of the same language; the latter are fundamentally different. An Englishman travelling through France and knowing no French would not be able to make himself understood. A Hindustani making a tour of the Punjab would find few place (leaving out the Pashto-speaking districts on the frontier and some of the hill tracts in the north) where he would not be able to make his meaning known, the vocabulary and the grammar of the two languages being fundamentally the same. And not only do these languages agree in all essentials, the knowledge of Urdu is widely diffused in the Province through social and commercial intercourse, and through it's being the language of the courts. No doubt the last census report shows that only 17 percent of the people speak Urdu, while 62 percent speak Punjabi; but the report does not show what proportion of the Punjabi-speaking population can converse in Urdu also. If such statistics were available they would show that Urdu is widely known in the Punjab; and so great is its influence on the sister language in towns at least, it is changing the character of the latter by modifying its pronunciation and idiom.
While, therefore, it cannot be said that Urdu is as different from Punjabi as French from English, it may be admitted that to a Punjabi lad books written in his own dialect would be more familiar.
5. The question, however, whether Urdu should be replaced by Punjabi in our schools does not depend for its solution upon this consideration only. We have to see whether the change is on the whole desirable, and on this point the weight of argument seems to be in favour of preserving the status quo. In the first place, as I have endeavoured to show, Urdu is not so very foreign to the Punjabi as is alleged, whether we consider its grammar and vocabulary or its wide diffusion in the country. In the second place, the people are reconciled to it. There is, therefore, no urgent necessity for the change, and a step involving consequences of such magnitude as this should not be taken without an imperative call for it. Moreover, Urdu has now become literate; and it would take many years before any dialect of the Punjabi could arrive at the same stage of development. Is the progress of the country to be put back for a generation while a new instrument of thought is being perfected?
6. Mr. Wilson draws a parallel between the history of education in England and that in India. He says: "In the dark ages (in England) education was given in Latin, and was confined to a few. Later on French became the official language, and education in that tongue spread among the upper classes. But it was not until the native English was adopted as the means of instruction that education became general among the masses." From this it is argued that if Punjabi were taught in our schools, the masses would flock to them too.
With regard to these remarks I would respectfully observe that while no doubt the fact of Latin being the language taught in the schools was one of the causes of the backwardness of England educationally during the middle ages, there still more potent causes at work tending to the same result. In the first place, the mass of the nations was at that period quite indifferent education, as the bulk of the people of India are still. They prized only the profession of arms, and did not think much of book-learning. In the second place, printing not having been invented, mass education, or even a large extension of it, was an impossibility then. The same cause prevented the spread of French among the masses later on. And, moreover, mass education was not thought of in the dark ages. Even after English became the official language, the masses remained for a long time sunk in ignorance, and it was only in the last century that people began to turn their attention to the mental improvement of the great body of the nation. Therefore the history of education in England does not seem to lead to the conclusion that Urdu repels boys from our schools. If when Norman French was introduced into England a State department of education had been in existence there, to look after the advancement of the people in reading and writing, and if cheap books had been available French might have made great progress in England.
Similarly, in India the knowledge of Persian was limited to a small number of the people under the Muhammadan Kings, not chiefly because Persian was repellent, but for want of cheap books and for want of an organized attempt to spread it among the people.
I may here observe, to guard against being misunderstood, that trying to extend the knowledge of a language among a people up to a certain standard is not the same as trying to change their language. In India it would be quite possible, for example, to widely spread a knowledge of English up to the Upper Primary Standard, say; that would not be changing the language of the people, but the attempt would be so expensive, and so utterly useless, that it is wise that nothing of the kind is done. (Note: Teaching Urdu in our schools, however, is, in my opinion, not teaching a foreign language.)
7. Holding these views, I repeat it does not seem desirable to make any change in the language taught in our vernacular schools, but the adoption of the Roman character is dictated by every consideration of policy.
As remarked by Mr. Wilson, "it is easier to write it clearly; it can be printed much more clearly and satisfactorily; it is the character used in English, which is rapidly becoming the official language and the language of the educated classes; "and last, but not least, it would enable people to write their petitions in a character known to the authorities, who would be less liable to be deceived by their Munshis. There is also hope that if adopted in the Punjab it might become general in the whole country, removing one difficulty in the way of a stranger acquiring the numerous languages spoken in India. Mr. Wilson's remarks regarding the transliteration of Indian words into the Roman character seem very just. The spelling would perhaps at first vary, but would gradually become fixed, and I see no inherent difficulties in the way of carrying out this change, but it must be introduced into the Vernacular Government offices first. This could be easily done, as it has already been ruled that from 1896 forward all ministerial offices in districts such as those of Sarishtadar, Naib-Sarishtadar, Kanungo, Naib-Kanungo, & c., shall be filled by men knowing English. All new hands would thus be transliterate. And as for the old hands they could learn it in a short time. All that is necessary is that it should be ruled that from such and such a date all writing in the Persian offices must be in the roman character.
The charge need not be necessarily more expensive. You can write very well with reed pens on country paper, with country ink, sitting down on the ground, with the paper you are writing on placed on your knee for a table. There would be no difficulty in teaching this character in the schools either. Transliteration was formerly a subject in Normal Schools, and could be easily introduced in them again; so that our schools would gradually be furnished with teachers knowing this character. And if introduced into the Government offices, it would acquire an importance which would guard its being neglected. Gradually it would be possible to give all instruction through the medium of this character. (Note: Some think that because past attempts to introduce the Roman character into India have failed, therefore, it is proved that the people of India will have none of it. This I do not admit, for it was never adopted in the Government Offices. Its introduction is now advocated on the express understanding that it is so adopted.)
8. The third point in Mr. Wilson's proposal is that the present scheme of studies gives too much prominence to literary and too little to scientific and technical instruction; and he proposes that "the school books should be drawn up in simple words ordinarily understood by the peasant," and that they should deal with Agriculture, elementary Science, Geography, History and kindred subjects. Now, what Mr. Wilson says regarding the subjects that should find a place in the vernacular Readers is very just, but the Department has already anticipated him in this, and the new Readers for vernacular primary schools are written very much on the lines suggested by him. As regards the remark that undue prominence is give in the curriculum to literary at the expense of scientific and technical instruction, it should be noted that for the last 15 years natural Science has formed an optional and sanitation compulsory subject for the Middle School Examination; that more recently Object Lessons have been prescribed for all the classes of the Primary Department so as to accustom the boys to observation from the very beginning, and that especial schools have been established for the children of zamindars (whose education is particularly desired by Mr. Wilson), for which a special course of study with agricultural Readers has been prescribed. Beyond this it is hardly possible to go at present.
The language of the Readers has also been greatly simplified, as Mr. Wilson admits.
9. In conclusion, I would remark that in condemning the present scheme of studies as not sufficiently attractive to the people, especially the agricultural classes, we should bear in mind the following fact:
First, although it is true that compared with the mass of agricultural children of a school-going age in the country the numbers of this class actually under instruction are small, they yet constitute the majority in our public primary schools, and also I believe in the private schools open to inspection, where the education is one the same lines as in public schools: at least such is the case in these schools in this circle. The percentage of agriculturists in secondary schools is low, but this is owing to the latter being mostly in towns and to the fact that secondary education, especially Anglo Vernacular is expensive. The low percentage is no way attributable to the vernacular taught in our schools.
Second, the reason that large numbers are not attracted to our schools is not that our scheme of studies repels boys, but there is yet no general desire for education in the country. Education is sought for by persons from one of two motives, either because to be illiterate is regarded as a disgrace, or because it helps a man to get on in the world. Now, the state of society in the country is not such as to render a certain amount of mental cultivation a necessity for every one, and the bulk of the people follows occupations in which the ability to read and write is not much needed. The classes which live by the pen, e.g., the Kayasths, will be found to be almost wholly literate. The trading classes also contain a large proportion of men who can read, write and cipher, but chiefly in the Mahajani character, though numbers of them having taken to Government service can read and write in the Persian character, too and know English. But the non-literary classes (as I may call the agriculturists and artisans) are, as a body, indifferent to education.
But lastly, suppose for a moment that our schools are unpopular. In asking for reforms so as largely to extend education, we should remember that even as it is, even with the present very limited demand for education, we are unable to provide adequately for the wants of the country. Local Bodies are constantly complaining of the drain upon their resources made by education, and are unwilling to contribute money to provide more class accommodation, furniture and teaching, power and if the desire for education became general, it would be impossible to provide for it. Even if the numbers were doubled, it would be difficult to make both ends meet. All that is possible with the limited means at the disposal of the Government is being done for the country, and we must not be in a hurry.
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Lieutenant M.W. Douglas
The Commissioner and Superintendent
Dated 6th August 1894
In reply to your No. 48-1293 dated 2nd May 1894, I have the honor to state as follows.
Mr. Wilson's scheme resolves itself into two propositions.
I am in favour of the first proposal. But I think it would be very unpopular, and in order to introduce it at all we should have to instruct both in the Arabic and in the Roman character.
I am not in favour of the second proposal.
1. There is no such language as Punjabi, and it would I think be a difficult matter to construct one which would be comprehensible to all classes. There is no doubt a skeleton of a language talked throughout the Punjab in various forms differing according to race and tract. Muhammadans as a rule enjoy the Arabic character in writing this language; Sikhs, only numbering about two millions, the Gurmukhi character. The nearest approach to literature is the Adi Granth of the Sikhs, which is so interspersed with Hindi, Sanskrit, and Mahratti words as to be unintelligible to the ordinary Punjabi I doubt there being sufficient data for the formation of a general Punjabi language.
2. It is objected that to the Punjabi rustic Urdu is a foreign language. Not more so, I think, than English was a century ago to the Gaelic-speaking Scoth rustic. Similar analogies exist no doubt in the cases of Ireland and Wales. I imagine that in due course of time Punjabi will go the way of the original languages of Britain, though the illiterate condition of the women of this country will no doubt retard its disappearance.
3. Given a Punjabi equipped with ability to read and write in one language, it would be better that the language should be Urdu than Punjabi. The former is the language of our courts, and proficiency in it would at least place the rustic on more level terms with the village money-lender. A knowledge of Urdu would, moreover, be of avail to him anywhere in Northern India, whereas the value of Punjabi would, only extend to this own province. I am in favour of the extension of Urdu instruction as much as possible, but am averse to any additional impetus being given to the study of Punjabi.
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Establishing a Connection Between the Government and the Subjects
In the following correspondences we observe that although the British officials were interested in the use of English as the official language of India and the provinces, they were no less keen to develop an Indian language or Indian languages to function as the languages of administration and courts. They felt that the Indian languages were not really adequate enough to carry this load, but they recognized that it was in the British interest to establish a connection between them and their subjects through the use of Indian languages. They saw the need for the civil servants to learn the languages of the people. Towards this end, they wanted to develop suitable textbooks, dictionaries, and systems of testing and evaluation. They realized that the language or the style used in these textbooks and tested in the examinations was rather pedantic with no relevance to the needs of interpersonal communication. They also realized that the officials, both high and low, would not come forward to learn these languages unless there was some support given to these people in the form of monetary inducements. Then they began to rank the languages in terms of their importance for a province and the functions these were expected perform in various departments. It is amazing to see that most of the correspondents had some firm opinion about the linguistic demands that the administration needed to meet, and the resources already available in the market. It is also amazing to note that the "language experts" among these officials were very critical of the officialese, and wanted that the writings in the Indian languages be more natural, and that the Indian languages develop their styles according to their genius. They were very much against the extremes. Some like Sir Trevelyan indeed feared that if the Indian languages failed to come up to the standards they should have, when used as the language of administration, they would soon be replaced by English.
Most of the correspondences presented here were written around 1864, just seven years after the First War of Independence or Sepoy Mutiny. The correspondents wanted to establish better contacts and communication with the natives. They would love to learn and use the Indian languages, but at the same time they recognized that the Indian themselves were quite willing to learn English, and use English words in their native language sentences. Borrowing from English to the Indian languages was already well set. They hoped that learning English by the natives "would lead to a more complete remoulding of the popular language." While such a remoulding took place, it was all the more important for the British and Indian officials to learn the local languages, they conceded. But the officers who knew the local languages were very few, they acknowledged. Some of them argued that "we ought to renew our endeavours to install the popular language in the courts and offices of Government." Several applied linguistics principles were enunciated and encouraged to be adopted in the preparation of textbooks, etc. For example, consider the following quotation:
"Whenever an English word is better understood by the natives than an Arabic synonym, the English word should, of course, be preferred; and, as between two technical words, one English and the other Arabic, both of which are equally unknown to the vulgar tongue, the English word should be chosen. Every new English word imported into the language establishes an additional link of connection with ourselves and our literature; and it will, at least, be known to us and to the large number of natives who learn English, whereas new Arabic words are known to nobody except to a few persons who have had a complete education in Muhammadan literature."
Similar objections to the excessive use of Sanskrit words were made. Officials declared that it was their policy to develop a common medium that would be understood by the vast majority in the country. We see the roots of the language provisions incorporated in the Constitution of India in these declarations.
Minute by the Hon'ble Sir C. E. Trevelyan, K.C. B., on the tests to be passed in the Native language by Junior Civil Servants in Northern India.
Dated Calcutta, the 25th July 1864.
Thirty years ago I took an active part with others in obtaining the exclusion of the Persian language from the courts and offices of Government. On my return to Northern India, at the commencement of last year, I made particular enquiries as to the course which the matter had taken during this long interval, and I found that, under the name of Hindustani, an official language had grown up which was more Persian and Arabic than ever. At first this seemed incredible, but, on a slight examination, it was easily accounted for. Hindustani is a purely popular language which has few scientific or abstract terms of its own; and as legal improvement and codification advanced, it became necessary to borrow various new words from other quarters. According to the prevailing practice, these were taken from Persian and Arabic and the result is that, with the exception of a few Hindustani verbs and post-positions, we have a language which is totally unintelligible to the people at large. The barrier between them and ourselves is more impenetrable than ever, and the time both of Europeans and Natives is wasted in acquiring an imperfect acquaintance with a medium which has nothing to recommend it, except that, for the present, it is entrenched in the strongholds of our judicial and administrative systems. We are revolving in a vicious circle. The official language cannot be fully under stood without learning Persian and Arabic, and, by compelling our administrators to learn Persian and Arabic, this type of official language is perpetuated. The translations of the code and other textbooks are written in it, and the class books used in the examinations at Calcutta are as near an approximation to it as can be found.
This state of things cannot continue. If some effectual steps are not taken, English will be substituted for this Persianized, Arabicized jargon. The pressure for this change on the part of the increasing class of. independent Europeans is already strong; and since the mutiny, the English language has been studied by the upper and middle classes of the natives on a scale beyond all former precedent. The change from Arabic and Persian to English would be a decided improvement, because the official language would then at least be understood by those who have to administer justice; the natives, would have a stronger motive than ever to learn our language and literature and it would lead to a more complete remoulding of the popular language, which it may be desirable that the country should go through. But, whether desirable or not, I repeat that this revolution is inevitable if the matter is allowed to drift on in its present course.
The state of the official language also exercises an injurious influence on the general intercourse of our civil officers with the natives. Mr. Carnac, Officiating Commissioner of the Agra Division, remarks on this point as follows:
"The official language of your courts, which 25 years ago was entirely Persian, may now be said to be Persian with the exception of the Grammar, which is Hindi; and it is, I think, much to be lamented that the tendency of officials should be to exclude all Hindi words in the transaction of the business of our courts, and in practice to ignore that language altogether. The result is, that officials, in their intercourse with the People, not uncommonly converse in a language which is almost as foreign to the peasant of the country; as the official mother tongue would be; and the number of officers throughout the presidency, who can converse freely either in Bengalee, in pure Hindi, or in the Punjabee corruption of Hindi, form, I believe, but a comparatively small proportion of the whole civil service."
According to every view we ought to renew our endeavours to install the popular language in the courts and offices of Government. For this purpose the study of Persian should no longer be obligatory, which is the view taken by the Secretary of State, the Calcutta Board of Examiners, Mr. Harrington, Mr. Maine, and myself; the codes and other text books should be retranslated on the principle of arriving at the nearest possible approximation to the popular language; and the selection of class books for students in the languages should be similarly revised.
Up to the present time, whenever a legal term was wanted which the ordinary language could not supply, it was taken, as a matter of course, from Arabic, even if there were familiar English terms in general use. This pedantic practice ought to cease. The great merit, of the Hindustani language is that it affords a medium which admits of the easy and unlimited assimilation of foreign words, from whatever source they may be derived. It is in this respect, like our own composite English, when it began to be powerfully acted upon by Norman French. So far from being opposed to the introduction of English words, the natives are decidedly favourable to it. It is natural that they should be so. It is of the utmost importance to them to be understood by those who have the determination of their interests. When they particularly wish to be intelligible, they constantly use English terms; and it is interesting to observe that a class of words which have a peculiar significance in connection with Christian morality, such as "character, "Conscience," "duty," "honour," & c., has come into use.
Whenever an English word is better understood by the natives than an Arabic synonym, the English word should, of course, be preferred; and, as between two technical words, one English and the other Arabic, both of which are equally unknown to the vulgar tongue, the English word should be chosen. Every new English word imported into the language establishes an additional link of connection with ourselves and our literature; and it will, at least, be known to us and to the large number of natives who learn English, whereas new Arabic words are known to nobody except to a few persons who have had a complete education in Muhammadan literature. When the existing official obstructions are removed, Hindustani will absorb English words faster than it ever did Arabic and Persian, because we have the advantage of a popular system of English education. The Bengalee language is rapidly undergoing this process.
As regards class books for students in the language, there has been a great deal of unnecessary difficulty made in reference to the diversity of dialects. If a person approaches the subject with a Persian or Arabic standard fixed in his mind, he accepts the Bagh-o-Bahar and Ikhwan-us-Safa as works of authority; while others, who take the Sanscrit line, exclude every Arabic and Persian word, as has been done in the Prem Sagar. None of these books, however, arc written in the language of the People, and they are intelligible only to very limited classes. But there is a common language of daily life which is understood by every body, both high and low. Hitherto the Missionaries have been almost alone in the cultivation of this popular common medium; and the Hindustani translation of the New Testament, which was originally written by Henry Martin in high-flown Persianized Hindustani, and has since been tone down by successive revisions, till it has been conformed to the language actually spoken by the People, is, perhaps, the best model of this standard Hindustani. As observed by Mr. Cust, the familiar parts of the New Testament are, owing to the beauty and simplicity of the style, the best text book for a person who is beginning to learn a new language, especially if he has a previous acquaintance with the sacred scriptures. Our endeavour should be to provide class books on this principle which will approximate, as closely as possible, to the language which will be most generally intelligible.
It is one of the advantages of our position in India that one simple, flexible language is more or less understood in every part of the continent, with no greater differences of dialect than prevail in different parts of the United Kingdom. It is obviously our policy to favour the development of this common medium. No language was ever successfully cultivated by learning it in its component parts. It is only when a language begins to be studied for its own sake, and when a demand has been created for good books in the form in which it is most commonly spoken, that real improvement commences.
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One Army, One Language
The correspondences presented below deal with the policy of British Raj regarding the need for and recognition of a common language for the British Indian Army. These correspondences took place around 1864. Hindustani was accepted as the common medium in military life for all India. However, the phrase used was Hindustani, or Urdu (camp) language. We saw earlier that a distinction between Hindustani and Urdu had been made in some of the correspondences. The recommendation given by Sir Trevelyan stoutly rejects the proposal that Hindi and Urdu are distinct languages. It made a concession to the southern India that "In reference to the South of India, the objections to Hindi have increased force, because the basis for such an innovation is entirely wanting there." However, this observation seemed to have been made on the assumption that the officials serving in south India might not be required to serve in north India: "The waste of time which would be caused by every officer having to learn a new language and character, would not be compensated by any advantage that might be gained in the few cases in which Madras officers might be employed in Northern India." The common medium would be taught using the Roman character.
Minute by the Hon'ble Sir C. E. Trevelyan, K.C.B., on the tests to be passed by Military Officers in the Native language.
Several important principles have been established by the valuable labours of this Committee.
1st-That the Hindustani, or Urdu, (camp) language shall be finally adopted as the common medium in military life for all India.
2nd - That there shall be only two standards, one in which all military officers will have to pass, and another higher one in which those will have to pass who aspire to special employment; and
3rd-These standards shall apply to every part of India.
But, even in reference to Northern India, a mistake has, in my opinion, been made in proposing to establish a distinction between Urdu and Hindi. There is one common language which is spoken in our camps and bazaars, and is understood, more or less, by everybody, high and low, in town and country. This popular dialect is as far removed from the high-flown Persian diction of the Bagh-o-Bahar, as it is from the pedantic Sanscritized idiom of the Prem Sagar, from which even the Persian and Arabic words in most ordinary daily use have been carefully eliminated. These books were written in languages manufactured by the Moonshees and Pundits of Fort William, according to certain ideal standards of former days. They are unintelligible to the body of the People; and, after passing the examination, a student is still unable to communicate freely with them. I have already recommended, in reference to the Civil Department, that class books should be selected or composed approximating, as nearly as possible, to that common Hindustani or Urdu language, which is understood and spoken in every part of India; and as I have no new reasons to give, I will merely annex a copy of my Minute on the subject.
In reference to the South of India, the objections to Hindi have increased force, because the basis for such an innovation is entirely wanting there. The languages spoken by the People are Tamil, Telegu, Canarese, Malayalim, which, although cognate among themselves, belong to an entirely different class from Hindi. Urdu has been extensively introduced through the Muhammadan soldiery of Hyderabad and Mysore, and latterly through our own military; but Hindi has no existence south of the Nerbudda. The objections of the Madras officers are, therefore, quite sound. The waste of time which would be caused by every officer having to learn a new language and character, would not be compensated by any advantage that might be gained in the few cases in which Madras officers might be employed in Northern India.
According to my view, therefore, although there would be two standards for all India, there should be only one language, and that language should be the one which is understood by our native soldiers in every part of India, and which is more generally intelligible to the rest of the population than any other. If we wish to encourage our officers to become good practical linguists, we ought to make it as easy as possible to them, and to give them the same facilities as we have at home in learning French, Italian, or any other language in which there are many dialects but only one standard. The roundabout, pedantic, elaborate manner in which the native languages are taught, even for the commonest colloquial purposes, is one of the remaining weak points of the old system, and after all, this circumlocutory process is not so effective as the direct and positive instruction given in every other similar case.
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Notes by the Benares and Mirzapore Missionaries, on the revision of the Hindustani class books.
Mr. M. A. Sherring
Messrs. Smyth, Leupolt and Fuchs.
Dated Nil, April and May 1864.
The accompanying papers have been sent by Sir C. Trevelyan to Mather, together with a letter which I send on to you, having erased Mather's letter to me, written upon it. Please read the papers, and return them, and Sir C. Trevelyan's letter to me, and kindly write your views upon the query at the close of the letter.
Note by Mr. Fuchs.
I am glad to see the language of the Urdu New Testament recognized in high quarters as the language of the people of the North-West Provinces, and am of opinion, that for the improvement of class books, its simple easy language should be as closely adhered to as the subject matter would allow; but I am afraid, that for many years yet to come, great difficulties will be met with in writing scientific works, on account of the deficiency or almost absence of a fixed and well understood terminology, for which either the Sanscrit or Arabic and Persian must be had recourse to. In the course of time all the terms will be fixed and clearly understood, and the present difficulty disappear.
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Note by Mr. M. A. Sherring.
I cannot agree with Mr. Smyth that the books he mentions would be suitable for the object intended, inasmuch as they are not on general subjects, but are theological books, full of theological terms, and destitute of a vast number of terms and phrases in common use.
For colloquial Hindi couched in good language, I would suggest Pandit Badri Lal's translation of Robinson Crusoe into Hindi. The style of this book is excellent.
I am unable to suggest a good Urdu book.
But would it not be better to regard the colloquial language of the people as a mixture of the Hindi and Urdu, as in fact it really is, and to substitute, except Honours, an examination in Hindi and Urdu, as found blended together in books now being issued from the press in more places than one, for an examination in these languages separately? All Baboo Shiva Prashad's own books are, I believe without exception, in this mixed dialect; and no one can say that they are not idiomatic. He is just bringing out a brief history of India in the same mixed language. The 'Mammalia' now being printed in the Mirzapore Press and translated under the Superintendence of Pandit Badri Lal before alluded to, who is one of the Hindi Pandits of the Benares College, is neither in Hindi nor Urdu, but is in this mixed dialect, the Hindi preponderating Pure Hindi I rarely or never hear, even in Benares. The educated Muhammadans affect a pure Urdu, and according to their learning or vanity, or both, introduce Persian and Arabic words into their conversation; but this is the language of only a fraction of the People. Missionaries speak and preach in the mixed dialect; and I believe all persons who hold much inter-course with the people are obliged to do the same. If this dialect were enforced among the officers of the Courts of Law, and the high Persianized mode of pleading and speaking and writing there, were utterly discountenanced, it would be greatly to the advantage of the natives generally.
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Note by R. C. Mather.
It stands to reason that in towns and cities where Hindoos and Muhammadans live together, hold civil appointments involving the exercise of authority one over the other; or pursue professions requiring habitual trust, or buy and sell to each other, or stand in the relation. of master and servants to each other, there must be a language common to both classes, or their transactions could not be carried out with any comfort or success. That language created by necessity is what was originally meant by the Urdu. The enquiry arises, what language it is, and how may it be known by those at a distance from the people themselves? It is not the Hindi or most of our School Books and modern publications. For all who have had much to do with Vernacular Schools, know that the Hindi of our School Manuals is not well understood, and requires to be explained by Urdu words. Even our Hindi Scriptures, although religious terms are more widely diffused, and the difficulty of their being generally comprehended is less, still carry this disadvantage with them, that much has to be explained in Urdu.
Still the common language referred to, is not Persianized Hindustani. Some high Persian words, but in a corrupt form, have become current amongst the Hindoos, and they are used by them even when words of the same meaning exist in their own language. Yet were any book written in Persianized Urdu, which would suit the taste of the Muhammadans to be addressed especially to the Hindoos, it would create little interest amongst them, just as any work, written in modern Hindi and intended for Muhammadans, would utterly fail of commanding their sympathies.
If these remarks be correct, it will appear that, although necessity united the two classes to that degree, that a common language was produced, yet since then the work of amalgamation has not progressed, but actually receded; so that at present, although Hindoos and Muhammadans in their daily inter-course still speak a common language, yet they rarely, if ever, write it. It was however at first not only a spoken, but a written language. The Baital Pachisi in prose is written in the language common to Hindoos and Muhammadans. The Qisssa Kamrup-Kala, of which an edition in Urdu-Roman has lately been published in Paris by Mons. Leabbe Bertrand, is in verse and written in the same language; and one has only to look up in Shakespeare's Dictionary the quotations made by him from the native poets Mir Soz and others, most of whom wee Muhammadans, to see how many Hindi terms and phrases they used which would be repudiated now. The fact is that almost from the beginning of our power in these provinces, through various causes, the amalgamating process has been checked, and the tendency to Persianize the language has been largely developed. The Bag-o-Bahar by Gilchrist's Mir Anuman was in reality a departure from the previously existing standard. Since then, the tendency to widen the gulf of separation created by separate languages has been more clearly displayed. During the existence of the Lucknow monarchy, a standard or Urdu was originated by the Munshees and Maulavies of that city and patronized by the king himself, so different from that of Mir Anuman's works, that the Munshees generally refused to admit it to be Urdu. The dethronement of the king, and the dispersion of the learned men who had been attracted to the Oude Capital, was a heavy blow and a sore discouragement to all who had taken part in this Persianizing scheme. The Discontinuance of Persian studies in all government Colleges was another and very damaging move I the same direction.
This excessive zeal in favour of the Persianizing process tended, naturally, to create a revulsion of feeling on the part of the Philo-Hindoos, and especially the Teachers of Sanscrit Colleges, and the result was an unmistakable determination to Sanscritize the Urdu. Hence within the last ten years, the cause of Hindi purism has gained many adherents.
On the other hand, the discouraging action of Government in respect to Persian studies has tended to unite the Muhammadans, and to some degree the Kayasthis as originally taught by Muhammadans, into a determination to do for themselves what the Government will not do for them. Hence the late proceedings in Ghazeepore originated by Kayasthis and Muhammadans to found a College for all languages, English with the rest, but Arabic and Persian necessarily. The curious circumstance is that the Sadr Amin Saiyad Ahmad, who called on me on his way to Allygurh, does not know a word of English himself, though professedly so zealous to have it taught.
Similar endeavours are being made here from various motives to get up a School or College for Persian and Arabic and English, but all originate with those who do not know English, but all originate with those who do not know English, which renders the movement rather suspicious. (And here I would say, by the way, that, if left to themselves, little harm would be done, but when a Judge-English and Christian-presides, and a Muhammadan acts as Chaplain, and prays a prayer in the presence of all and for all, the proceeding becomes very questionable if not dangerous).
To return to the subject under notice, it is, in the circumstances detailed, very desirable that Government should complete the work begun, by reviving Urdu as it was at first, a common language written as well as spoken. Were the Quissa Kamrup-o-Kala, which has been very incorrectly Romanized, reproduced in a correct form, good would result. The Baital Pachisi and Singhasan Baitisi might also be re-produced:
Pandit Badri Lal's translation of Robinson Crusoe is pure (thenth) Hindi. In a second edition he might Urduize it. I agree with Sherring that Munshi Shiva Prasad's Urdu is very much what we want; and as he is well educated and a very intelligent man, were the idea given him, and he approved it, he would be the man to edit or even originate (by translation) a series of Classics.
The general question as affecting the language of ordinary life seems to me easy of solution, but difficulties arise when we have to do with abstract ideas and generalizations of science. The modern Urdu, having been more cultivated, is more available and useful when writing on scientific subjects. But were a Terminology established, giving to each word or phrase both a Hindi and Urdu form, the difficulty would be overcome. Dr. Ballantyne essayed a Sanscrit Terminology, but his health failed before he had made much progress. Were this work kept steadily in view, something effective would be done. To produce the original Urdu, the Kayasthis are the persons most likely to be useful. Had Munshi Shiva Prasad been employed to translate the Penal Code instead of Abdul Latif, and had he been told that what the Government wishes is the language common to both Hindoos and Muhammadans, a usable translation would surely have been the light. Common Law Terms should at once be adopted, and the language of the Wakeels and Mukhtars be purified. Much of what is now current is not even grammatical; and from the retention of the Persianized law terms it has the appearance of such a horrible hash, that even the rural Hindi ganwari is to be preferred.
*** *** ***
Some Basic Principles Adopted
One of the correspondents state a basic principle: "There can be no doubt that when a technical or professional subject is under treatment, a special terminology must be employed, and that, that terminology must come mainly from Sanscrit, or some foreign language. But the question of technical terminology is distinct from that of the style of ordinary language, and it is easy to treat even an abstruse - subject with simplicity of grammatical construction, although the terms used, would certainly be ordinarily above the comprehension of the mass of the people. Indeed, it is a fact that the more difficult the subject, the greater the ease of the language which is written."
Another statement was made: "to provide a set of class books, not only free from the puerilities and indecencies which disfigure the existing set, but composed in an idiom representing as nearly as possible the languages actually spoken in our Civil and Military Stations and by the population at large in town and country "
Some of the other important statements that have a direct bearing on the principles of materials production and language teaching are as follows:
" the work should be entrusted to persons who were practically conversant with the language of every-day life"
"This of itself presents a state of society far different from what is usually now met with in India, hence the vocabulary used is also limited and particular. It would be simply impossible now to write an essay on the ordinary business of the court, the camp, the market, or the railway "
"They abound in the following peculiarities which are all borrowed from the Persian, and are not natural to Hindustani, (1) the free use of the Persian form of the genitive case, the words being transposed or constructed with the "izafat," (2) the use of Persian prepositions, (3) the too frequent introduction of dependent clauses in a sentence, and of phrases directly taken from Arabic or Persian languages."
"This is a far more important examination than that by the first standard. It will probably be submitted to by every one who may wish to acquire a practical acquaintance with India and its people in any official relation. The candidate is now required to read and write in two languages; to read MSS in two characters, and to converse freely on ordinary subjects with any educated or uneducated native of India who can speak Hindustani in short to be practically conversant not only with the language of the people of India, but with their habits, wishes, and feelings so far as may be possible. The changes, which we would propose in this examination, are considerable, some tending to simplify it, and others to render it more difficult."
"A junior civil or military servant must not for an instant suppose, that having scraped through a pass examination at college, he is fully qualified as regards scholastic knowledge of the native languages, for any duties that he may be called on to perform. The great exigencies of the public service requiring that young men should be placed at the disposal of the Government at the earliest possible opportunity, alone necessitates the pass standards being kept low; but every officer who desires to be an efficient servant of the State, must remember that in many respects he is amenable to the opinion of the native, rather than to the European public, and that however early he may be permitted to enter on his official career, it is nevertheless a portion of his duty to acquire such a knowledge of the language of the people he has to aid in governing, as will place him in their estimation in the position of an educated gentleman."
"Such a language cannot be created by an edict. But authors in Behar and in the North Western Provinces are even now grappling with the question, and Government, can, by readily encouragement of such authors, and more especially by the organization of its schools, so control the tendencies of current literature, and so help to fix the standard of educated speech, as to hasten this desirable consummation. In an illiterate age, and with no efforts of Government tending to promote the union, it took two centuries to weld the English and the French elements of the language into the national speech of England. It should not take so long now."
Minute by the Hon'ble the Sir C. E. TREVELYAN,
K.C. B., concurred in by the other Members of
the Governor General's Council.
In connection with the discussion on the tests to be passed by Civil and Military Officers in the native languages, I was authorized to submit to the Council a plan for effecting a revision of the Hindustani and Bengali Class Books.
As the object was to provide a set of class books, not only free from the puerilities and indecencies which disfigure the existing set, but composed in an idiom representing as nearly as possible the languages actually spoken in our Civil and Military Stations and by the population at large in town and country, it seemed advisable that the work should be entrusted to persons who were practically conversant with the language of every-day life in each of the two regions concerned; and with the sanction of the Governor General, I applied to Mr. McLeod, the Financial Commissioner in the Punjab, to assist me with his advice upon the subject, and, if the Government should approve, to undertake the Chairmanship of a Committee to be appointed for the revision of the Hindustani Class Books.
Mr. McLeod kindly consented, and the result is that we recommend the appointment of a Committee to assemble at Lahore in November; and to be composed as follows:
Mr. D. F. McLeod, C.B.C.S., Financial Commissioner, Punjab.
Rev. R.C. MATHER, M. A., London Missionary, Society, Mirzapore.
Capt. W.R.M. HOLROYD, Inspr., of Schools, Umballa.
H.E. PERKINS, Esq., C.S., Offg. Depy. Comsr., Sealkote.
BABOO SHIVA PRASHAD, Educational Dept.,
N.W.P., well known as the author of several successful popular books in Hindustani.
The only expense that will have to be incurred, as far as I am aware, is the traveling expenses of such of the Members of the Committee as are not already in the Punjab.
I recommend that the Committee should be instructed to make a preliminary, report upon the scheme of class books they would propose in the Hindustani language, and the arrangements they would suggest for the composition of such portions of them as may not already be available.
After I have returned to Calcutta and conferred with the Lieutenant-Governor and others, I hope to be able to submit a plan for the revision of the Bengali Class Books.
*** *** ***
The Commissioner for revising Test Books.
The Government of India, Military Department No.1
Dated Lahore, the 28th December, 1864.
We beg leave to submit our report on the proceedings of the Commission appointed by His Excellency the Governor General of India in Council in the Military Department, by General Order No. 175, dated 10th September last, for the revision of books for the examination of military officers in the vernacular language of North-West India.
2. We met at Lahore on the 19th December, and have remained together during the course of our deliberations. We had the assistance of Syad Hadi Husain Khan. Extra Assistant Commissioner, and of Moonshis Pyare Lal and Hukm Chand of the Delhi College. We have carefully considered the subjects on which we were instructed by the above named resolution to submit our views as well as some cognate matters, in regard to which we were led by demi-official communications to think that an expression of our opinions would be acceptable. These will be reported on in a separate letter of this date.
3. The grounds on which this commission was constituted were (1) the unsuitability of the existing test books, and (2) the necessity for advice as to how their defects should be remedied, or more suitable books should be substituted.
4. The objections to the existing books are (1) their puerile or immoral tendency, (2) the pedantry of the style in which they are composed. It appears to be needless for us to dilate on the former of these objections, since it is universally admitted that the Prem Sagar, the Bagh-o-Bahar and the Baital Pachisi are wholly uninstructive, useless, and in many places highly immoral in their subjects; but as regards the style we wish to offer few brief remarks. In the first place the language of the Prem Sagar and Bagh-o-Bahar is not (to use the words of the Government resolution No. 734, dated 9th September) "such as is usually spoken in civil and military stations, and which is understood by the population at large, in town and country." The Bagh-o-Bahar is less open to this objection than the Prem Sagar, but in both there may be found unusual or high flown words used in places where simpler vacables would be equally appropriate and more generally understood. Both books would, in very many passages, be quite unintelligible to an uneducated native, and many words and phrases that have now become obsolete may be found in both.
5. The boast of the writer of the Prem Sagar was that every word of Arabic or Persian origin had been banished from his work. This drove him to the necessity of choosing in the first place, a mythological subject, abounding in Sanscrit terminology, and carefully removed from all traces of Mogul civilization. This of itself presents a state of society far different from what is usually now met with in India, hence the vocabulary used is also limited and particular. It would be simply impossible now to write an essay on the ordinary business of the court, the camp, the market, or the railway, which should be couched in language similar to that of the Prem Sagar.
6. Next; to consider in what manner the Hindustani books, now chiefly ready by natives, differ from the correct standard of a pure, simple, and classical style. They abound in the following peculiarities which are all borrowed from the Persian, and are not natural to Hindustani, (1) the free use of the Persian form of the genitive case, the words being transposed or constructed with the "izafat," (2) the use of Persian prepositions, (3) the too frequent introduction of dependent clauses in a sentence, and of phrases directly taken from Arabic or Persian languages. In a word our objections to the Prem Sagar chiefly on the ground of its vocabulary and subject matter; and to the generality of Hindustani books both on this ground, and also on the ground of their corrupt syntax. To us it seems to be a matter of very great importance to preserve in Hindustani the syntactic peculiarities of the Hindi language. However much the preponderance of Arabic and Persian vocable may vary in Hindustani, as spoken or written in different parts of India, the correct and idiomatic arrangement of those words in a sentence is the same everywhere, and hence it follows that any one thoroughly conversant with Hindi syntax, and knowing a fair number of words derived from various sources, will, for the most part, he easily understood by any educated or uneducated Hindustani speaking native of India.
7. If it be admitted that these observations are just, it follows that some other book or books must be substituted for those now in use. We proceed to state the result of our considerations on this matter by taking in order the different standards of examinations as at present prescribed.
8. As regards military officers, this standard of examination, will to a considerable extent, be a professional one; but it will be also needful for them, and still more so for the general student, that they should be taught to express themselves correctly on ordinary subjects, and, as was pointed out by the late Special Committee for fixing these standards, that they should have a good knowledge of the general structure of the language. For imparting these varieties of knowledge we think that a work, in two parts, should be prepared, one containing a well-selected set of dialogues on military subjects and also another set on ordinary matters. The other; consisting of a chapter of an easy work, entitled the Rusum-I-Hind, which will be presently described, and a series of translations in simple language of dispatches and general orders. In the preparation of the book of dialogues, we would avail ourselves, as far as possible, of the extant works issued by Gilchrist and others. This book would be the test book; while, to enable the student to acquire easily and quickly a general knowledge of the Hindustani language, it has occurred to us that a treatise should be composed, somewhat on the plan of Professor Ollendorff's well known works, but avoiding his principle of repetition, which has given rise to a well-founded objection of tediousness being raised against his books. Our reason for proposing entirely new works, as test books for this examination, is, that we have after most diligent search, failed to find any book which is written in entirely suitable language, and of unobjectionable matter. All these books can be compiled by a Sub-Committee under the instructions of this Commission, as will be presently explained. In other respects we would leave the standard for this examination as it is.
9. This is a far more important examination than that by the first standard. It will probably be submitted to by every one who may wish to acquire a practical acquaintance with India and its people in any official relation. The candidate is now required to read and write in two languages; to read MSS in two characters, and to converse freely on ordinary subjects with any educated or uneducated native of India who can speak Hindustani in short to be practically conversant not only with the language of the people of India, but with their habits, wishes, and feelings so far as may be possible. The changes, which we would propose in this examination, are considerable, some tending to simplify it, and others to render it more difficult. First, we would simplify it by not requiring the knowledge of Hindi as a separate language; by excusing the candidate from learning to compose in the style of the Prem Sagar; and by lessening the circle of his acquaintance with MSS. Secondly, we would make it more difficult by requiring him to be acquainted with a larger field of Hindustani literature, properly so called, and with a greater variety of style than can possibly be found in the two test books now used.
10. We have carefully considered the possibility of retaining the whole Bagh-o-Bahar as a text book, and have come to the conclusion to reject it for reasons which have been already detailed. A work seems to be called for, which shall shew the natives of India in their everyday life, introducing scenes of rural simplicity, and domestic occasions of joy or grief, with some interspersed proverbs, a few ballads trite sayings of common use, and conversations between people of different ages, sexes and positions in life; in fact a work, which, while giving the student a knowledge of words and phrases in most frequent use, shall avoid the forced and foolish descriptions of places, supernatural wonders, and other blemishes in the Bagh-o-Bahar. This work is now under preparation by one of the Members of this Commission, aided by native scholars of Delhi, and some specimen sheets of it in the Roman character accompany this report as Appendix A. We thoroughly approve its style, and trust that its completion and adoption may be sanctioned by the Government of India. It will be entitled "Rusum-I-Hind," or Manners and Customs of India. We consider that it is calculated to throw over the whole course of study a homeliness reality and interest which it has never yet possessed. It will contain so large a proportion of Hindi words in the conversations, ballads, and proverbs that will be introduced as to obviate in our judgment the necessity which has heretofore existed for the study of a purely Hindi book like the Prem Sagar.
11. But in order to give the variety of style, which is the next object that we have proposed, another volume will be required consisting of selections (probably annotated) from extant books of good repute, and interesting matter, which in style approach most nearly to the standard style which we suggest for adoption. It is to be regretted that we are not in a position to submit a complete list of the works from which we would propose to make extracts. But a list will be drawn out and submitted at an early date.
12. Again it is proposed to widen still further the field of view for the student by requiring his study of a volume of letters in the ordinary style of correspondence, written partly in the Persian and partly in the Devanagri characters. Such a book forms a part of every course of study in the native academies, and we think it to be very valuable adjunct to other studies. These letters will also of necessity tend to illustrate the national character and customs. We are of opinion that if a sufficient variety of hand-writings were introduced, and the book were lithographed, the candidate would, by the study of it, acquire a greater insight into the distinctive peculiarities of the written characters of the country than he can possibly obtain by the present haphazard mode of selecting MSS. Some of us also have personal experience of the fact that the present mode of examination on chance documents is practically inoperative. Either are such plainly written letters presented to the examinee that reading them is no merit, or else the examiners strain a point in the candidate's favour, and a very stumbling reader will obtain a mark of sufficient merit to pass him.
13. In our judgment the style in which the translations from English into Hindustani should be written should be that of the narrative portions of the Rusum-I-Hind, that IS TO SY SIMPLIFIED FROM THAT OF the Bagh-o-Bahar. This modification will be mainly in the banishment of words and phrases taken from Arabic and Persian, not in common use.
14. We have also given our attention to the subject of the examination for high proficiency in Urdu and Hindi, and have come to the conclusion that the books now used for these examinations in the College of Fort William are inferior to those which might be selected, partly on account of their subject matter, and also as presenting a comparatively narrow field of style. We would propose to substitute for the Ikhwanussafa, a volume of letters of a nature similar to that proposed for the second standard, but approximating more nearly to the style adopted by learned native gentlemen in their correspondence, and thus containing a greater number of Arabic and Persian words, idioms, and phrases. We shall also hereafter submit lists of works from which we would propose to make copious extracts that a volume or two of good selections may be thus formed to supersede the existing test books, both in Urdu and Hindi.
15. We think that all the books used in the first two standards should be printed in the Roman, as well as in the Persian character and that an acquaintance with the Roman character on Sir W. Jones' system and power to read fluently in it should be required of every candidate for the first standard, while for the second standard candidates should also be able to write it from dictation. We also conceive that, with the exception of the Urdu letters proposed for the second standard, all these works should be printed in the Devanagri character also. We would not extend the Roman character to the examinations for high proficiency in either Urdu or Hindi.
16. We observe that in the Government Order No. 734, the Persian character is everywhere named, while in nearly all the books now used as test books and in all the examination papers sent from the College of Fort William, the Arabic type is alone used. This type is foreign to Hindustani, it is never used amongst the natives, and even well educated men find trouble in reading it. The reasons for its adoption heretofore have been connected with the great typographical facilities which it presents, while it has been found very expensive and comparatively unsuccessful to print the Persian letters from types. We have carefully weighed this advantage, which is no doubt a very cogent argument in favour of the Arabic type, and another, is the fact that Grammars and Dictionaries exist only in that type; but we think that both these advantages are counterbalanced by the consideration that the Arabic type is not the one natural to Hindustani scholars, is very distasteful to the native community, and is very much further removed than the Persian from the written hand of the country. As it is very properly required of candidates for the second standard that they should be able to read MSS., the examination is not at all simplified by excusing them from learning to read plainly-lithographed or printed "Nastaliq" character. Moreover, we understand that successful efforts have been lately made to print Persian from types. If this be the case, the main argument against it is for ever removed; and even if it be not so, we think that good lithography cold be made to supply the place of types. Specimens of good printed Persian will be submitted hereafter.
17. It is proper that we should indicate, in conclusion, the manner in which propose to arrange for the preparation of the new works which we have suggested. The city of Delhi is the most convenient place to us for obtaining good native assistants for the preparation of Hindustani books. Two of our members, Lieutenant Holroyd and Mr. Perkins will probably reside there during the cold season, and occupy themselves as a Sub-Committee of this Commission in this work. Lieutenant Holroyd has undertaken the authorship of the Rusum-I-Hind, and the books of dispatches and dialogues, as also the introductory work on the plan of Professor Ollendorff. Mr. Perkins (with some assistance from Baboo Shiva Prasad) will prepare the high proficiency examination in Urdu. These gentlemen will mutually confer with each other, and pass in review each other's work. Arrangements will be also made for placing at their disposal two highly-educated and skilful natives of Delhi as assistants. In like manner the Reverend Dr. Mather, and Baboo Shiva Prasad will form a Sub-Committee at Benares, the seat of Hindoo learning, where the aid of excellent Pundits can be procured, for the preparation of the Hindi letters proposed for the second standard, and of selections for the high proficiency examination in Hindi. It is proposed finally, that the Members of the Commission, or as many of them as can possibly attend, should meet at Delhi in about three months' time to review and finally.. (coordinate) .. the work of each Sub-Committee. It may be necessary that Baboo Shiva Prasad should, in the interim, pay a short visit of a few days to Delhi, and we hope that the Government of the North-Western Provinces may be moved to allow him to do so. He will continue to be responsible for the due conduct of his own official duties during his absence.
*** *** ***
The Commission for revising Military Test Books.
The Secretary to the Government of India,
Dated Lahore, the 28th December 1864.
It has been noticed in our report of this date, that with reference to demi-official communications received by us, we have had under review several subjects, which not specified in the Government Resolution appointing the Commission; but which it appears nevertheless desirable that we should consider.
Details of subjects
2. These subjects are the following:
1. How to establish a good standard for pure, simple, and idiomatic Hindustani in our Government Orders, Schools, and Courts of Law.
2. How to extend a knowledge of the Roman character, and of the English numerals to all Government servants, and to the mass of the People.
3. How far it would be expedient to extend to barristers, members of the Educational Department, and junior civil servants, the prizes now offer3d to military officers, and inducements to study the languages of India.
We proceed to discuss these matters separately.
It has been ascertained by inquiry from learned natives, that Hindustani is still considered to be in a very unfixed condition. There may have been a good standard at the time when Mr. John Gilchrist published his volumes, but that has been to a great extent lost by the modern school of Persian loving Moulvies and pedants, and now the book most admired by this school, is a mixture of Arabic and Persian terms in Persianized syntax, and as utterly unlike the natural language spoken or written by ordinary natives, as can well be imagined. We think that it is of the last importance, to endeavour to attain to a style which shall be acknowledged by scholars as chaste and simple. We append a memorandum (Appendix A) by the native member of this Commission, on the History of Hindustani, which he believes to exhibit the stages of the change that has taken place in the language. We believe that any books which may receive the sanction of Government as its model for style, its test of knowledge, will be universally looked up to; and consider that the same should be adopted as the model on which all public documents should be cast.
4. We cannot but deplore the viciousness of the style which regulates the language of our Courts of Law. The object of the change from Persian to Hindustani was, that justice might become more accessible. This humane and liberal purpose has been almost entirely defeated by the style of the language which has crept in. The deposition of a peasant when it is read over to him, is little better understood by him if it were in Greek, and the very decree which conveys to him his rights, must be interpreted to him sentence by sentence by some one whom he must pay for the duty. This crying evil should be at once remedied. It is not our desire that the language of our Courts of Law should degenerate into slang, or vary with the local peculiarities of each district of Her Majesty's wide dominions. But we do think it to be a duty and an attainable object, to introduce into our Courts of Justice, a language which shall be understood by ordinarily intelligent persons of all ranks. We hold that this language should be understood by ordinarily intelligent persons of all ranks. We hold that this language should be used wherever a Government impress is on the work in hand, that it should be taught in our schools, adopted by our native officials of every grade, it and in every official proceeding or order, and that it should be the medium through which public proclamations, orders, and the acts of the Supreme or Local Councils, are presented to the People.
5. As an instance of our meaning, we append to this letter (Appendix B), a translation in the style which we propose, of Lord Elgin's address to the Hill Chiefs, published as notification No. 302, dated Simla, 30th May 1863. A comparison of this, with the translation published in the Allahabad Gazette of July 7th, 1863 will shew the difference. This order was selected at random. It was the first which came to view in turning over the opening leaves of a file of old gazettes. It is a fair specimen of its class, and would certainly require a great deal of explanation before it could be made intelligible, even to the native gentlemen for whom it was designed, much more to a shop-keeper, and this although it is signed as the work of a Hindoo scholar of great repute and learning.
6. We think that the books which may now be prescribed by Government, as the test for examinations of military officers by the second standard, should be ordered to be the standard of Hindustani for use in the Court, the Gazette, and the school exercise. The principal native officials, heads of the Educational Department, Government translators, and heads of vernacular law officers, viz. Sarishtadars, should be required to see that this style and none other be adopted. There can be no doubt that when a technical or professional subject is under treatment, a special terminology must be employed, and that, that terminology must come mainly from Sanscrit, or some foreign language. But the question of technical terminology is distinct from that of the style of ordinary language, and it is easy to treat even an abstruse - subject with simplicity of grammatical construction, although the terms used, would certainly be ordinarily above the comprehension of the mass of the people. Indeed, it is a fact that the more difficult the subject, the greater the ease of the language which is written. There are extant many works on Muhammadan polemics, which are very nearly in the style which we wish to see, because their authors desired that they should be generally understood. It is the romance and the official proceeding which is thrown into the corrupt style we condemn. As heretofore, the Government as represented by its subordinates, has been the chief offender, so now we take it that it should be the principal reformer.
7. To this end we think it very important that Government should, at once issue a short manua1 of 15 Manual of instruction in style, or 20 pages, containing models of the style which we have been advocating. It should contain reports, petitions, depositions, notifications of Government, translations of short acts of the legislature, or portions of acts, and official proceedings in imaginary cases of a judicial nature. Such a manual is now under- preparation, and may be printed with advantage in the Persian, Devnagri, and Roman characters.
8. All Government officials employed in posts that involve writing, should be required to pass an examination in the manual within six months of its promulgation, and every candidate for such offices should prove his acquaintance, with it before admission to employment.
9. The next subject before us is the general introduction of the Roman character. It is not expedient, and it would probably be impossible to cause the English alphabet to supersede vernacular characters; but we are of opinion that the advantages of the Roman character are so many and great, that a vast boon would be conferred upon the country at large, if Government were to shew its willingness to encourage a knowledge of it. We observe that in the Madras Presidency, a successful attempt has been made to introduce English numerals into Village and Talook accounts; we find that in the Punjab, it is very common for petitions to be presented to civil officers in the Roman character, particularly in cases, where the petitioner is desirous of approaching the officer, without the intervention of native ministerial officers. The experience of many years has proved that the Roman character, can convey the sounds of the Indian vernaculars with the most faithful exactness; it is unrivalled for cheapness of printing, neatness of appearance, and accuracy in delineating words, which in the Persian character at least are 1iable to be often misread, and as the leanings of the people in many parts seem to be towards it, and there are languages in the wilder parts of India, which from having no written character of their own, may at lest adopt it as well as any other, there would seem to be no objection to permit, though we would not enjoin, its use in any official documents.
10. To this end a manual will be required, adapted for instructing natives in the system introduced by Sir W. Jones, with some slight modifications, which have been recently introduced by the principal modern Romanizers. We believe the system adopted by the British and Foreign Bible Society to be the best, but before pronouncing a decided opinion, we should be glad to be favoured with an expression of the views of the Government of India, after communicating with the Asiatic Society. We forward as Appendix C. of this letter, a manual of instruction which was prepared in 1861, by Baboo Shiva Prasad for a similar purpose. That is in the Devanagri character, while the book which we propose would be in the Persian character, but something of that nature is needed, and we wish to know whether the system of transliteration adopted in this treatise or the slightly different one for which we have above indicated a preference, meets with the approval of government. Some authorities are for making the system a purely phonetic one, while others would distinguish between the nearly similar letters which occur in the Persian and Devanagri alphabets by a variety of diacritical marks. Before proceeding further in this matter, we await instructions. The manual should also contain lessons in English numerals, with a view to the adoption of our next proposal. It should be taught for the present in all schools above the grade of village schools, an indeed one member of this Commission who has charge of a large and most important circle of education in the North-Western Provinces, is prepared to introduce it experimentally into every school under his Superintendence, if Government should so desire. He has already introduced it with great success into some normal schools. We believe that these measures would very quickly spread abroad a very general acquaintance with the character.
11. The next proposal which we beg leave to make is this, that the mode of writing figures called "Raqm" should be as soon as possible discontinued in all public offices. It is one of the most inconvenient methods of writing figures that was ever invented. It has all the disadvantages of the Roman system of numbering by letters of the alphabet, and has this additional defect, that it depends entirely on the form given to the termination of the symbol, whether it represents rupees, seers, or bighas, and a very slight turn of the pen at the end of a numerical sign will entirely alter the whole meaning of a sentence. It is not possible to make calculation in this character. Every arithmetical operation is worked out by the system called "Hindisa," or Arabic numerals, which are very similar in form and nearly identical in system, with those used by the Hindoos and by all Western nations. The Hindisa, however, offers singular facilities for being tampered with, and we therefore recommend that Government should use every effort to introduce the English numerals alone into all vernacular accounts.
12. We have been desired to state our views on a proposal to extend to barristers, and we would add to members of the Educational Deptt., and to junior civil servants, the privilege of submitting to the examination for prizes for high proficiency and degrees of honor, as explained in Rules XII, XIII, XIV, of Government Resolution 734, dated 9th September. Although the principle of admitting gentlemen not in the service of Government, to pecuniary rewards for a knowledge of Indian languages is a novel one, still we think that it is of such great importance that these languages should be known to those who are to practise in our Courts of Justice, that we recommend that the proposal be adopted as regards English gentlemen practicing at the Indian bar.
13. As regards the examinations for civil servants, we consider that it would be highly beneficial to the public service, if the liberal rules for military officers were extended to civilians. It can be no object to Government to encourage the slow standard of scholarship, which the pass examinations for civilians in the College of Fort William now require. On this subject, we beg leave to quote the words of the Secretary to the Board of Examiners, as given in the introduction to his book "A Guide to the Examination in the College of Fort William": He says:
"A junior civil or military servant must not for an instant suppose, that having scraped through a pass examination at college, he is fully qualified as regards scholastic knowledge of the native languages, for any duties that he may be called on to perform. The great exigencies of the public service requiring that young men should be placed at the disposal of the Government at the earliest possible opportunity, alone necessitates the pass standards being kept low; but every officer who desires to be an efficient servant of the State, must remember that in many respects he is amenable to the opinion of the native, rather than to the European public, and that however early he may be permitted to enter on his official career, it is nevertheless a portion of his duty to acquire such a knowledge of the language of the people he has to aid in governing, as will place him in their estimation in the position of an educated gentleman."
We fully agree in the views herein expressed, and think that while on the one hand, it is detrimental to the young officer to be kept so long in Calcutta, as he is by the present rules while studying for honors, it is no less injurious to the state to be deprived of his services during the same period. Moreover, some of us have in our own experience, known of a case where residence in Calcutta was so distasteful to a young civilian, that after passing the compulsory examinations, and also attaining to some honorable distinctions, he voluntarily gave up the idea of any further study even for the prizes, which were open to him, in order to enter on active life, whereas, if rules similar to those now published for military officers had been in force, he would have prosecuted his studies after joining his station, to a much higher and more useful degree of knowledge. An additional argument for the extension which we advocate, is to be found in the fact, that owing to a young civilian's inexperience I his work, it is commonly impossible to find for him at first, sufficient official duty to employ him for more than a small part of his time. He has consequently much leisure, which would probably in many cases be usefully employed in study of the languages, if these prizes were open to him. We recommend then, that as soon as a junior civil servant shall have passed the tests prescribed for qualification for the public service, he be required to join his station, and that he should be afterwards allowed to present himself for examinations for certificates of high proficiency, and for degrees of honor, under the same rules and with a prospect of the same rewards, as are now available for officers in the Army.
14. It is also of such great importance, that English officers of the Department of Public Instruction, should have a thorough and scientific knowledge of oriental languages and literature, that we cannot but think that Government would be a gainer, were the same privileges extended to them also. It needs no argument to prove the value of this sort of knowledge in this department. If it be thought worth while to hold out such inducements to military officers, it seems to follow that the same inducements might well be offered to educational officers also.
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E.C. Bayley, Esquire
Secretary to the government of India
Captain W.N. Lees, L.L.D.
Secretary to the Board of Examiners.
Dated Fort William, the 16th March 1866.
I am directed to forward to you the accompanying copy of a Despatch from the Secretary of State, and of its enclosures on the subject of the preparation of a selection of Urzees and other Vernacular documents as filed in the Courts of Justice in the several Divisions of the Bengal Presidency, for the purpose of familiarizing candidates for the Civil Service, previous to their appointment, with the style of these documents; and to request that you will be good enough to undertake the duty in communication with the Governments of Bengal, the North-Western provinces, and the Punjab, who have been addressed upon this subject.
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His Excellency the Right Hon'ble
The Governor-General of India in Council
London, 25th January 1866.
I forward for your information a copy of a memorandum by Mr. E.B. Cowell, lately Principal of the Sanscrit College, Calcutta, and now one of the Examiners for the Indian Civil Service under her majesty's Civil Service Commission, on the subject of providing a collection of Urzees in the different vernaculars of India, for the purpose of familiarizing candidates, previous to their appointment to the Indian Civil Service, with the style of such documents.
2. I am of opinion that the plan suggested by Mr. Cowell is likely to prove very useful; and I have to request that your Government will cause a Selection of Urzees and other documents filed in the Courts of Justice to be prepared in the Vernacular Languages current in the several Divisions of the Bengal Presidency in which candidates are examined in this country, and will have the same lithographed, and copies forwarded to this office.
3. The Volumes should be accompanied, as suggested by Mr. Cowell, with an English Translation and it might be expedient that, in each Volume, a small number of the Urzees should be fac-similes of the originals.
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Memorandum by Mr. Cowell on a Selection of Urzees, dated 9th November, 1865.
The vernacular languages of India can never be studied for their literature, for they have none worth reading; they are useful simply as a means of communicating with the people. Our chief object in these examinations must be the practical one how best to fit the candidates for being efficient officers in their country districts. The language, whatever it be, must, of course, be first learned grammatically and this can only be done by studying the best books which are written in it, but after a time there comes a point where the scholar's and the practical man's knowledge diverge. All these languages have high written style, and also one less grammatical and more colloquial; the former used by the learned natives in written composition, the latter by all in daily life. The high dialect cannot be ignored, some knowledge of it is indispensable, for the colloquial is based on it and high phrases borrowed from it are elsewhere current, but it is of no practical use to study this artificial dialect beyond a certain point.
An officer of government in India finds two main uses of the Vernacular; viz., talking with the people, and reading the written documents presented to him. With regard to the Bombay languages, it appears that the main test of the examinations in Bombay has always related to the candidates proficiency in these two points, and to certain extent it was attempted in the examinations of Madras. But in England we can only expect a very limited proficiency in either. The accurate pronunciation of these oriental languages can never be learned except from a native; and the power to converse comes slowly to most men, as the ear is gradually accustomed to the sounds which everybody is using around; and in the same way the power to read the written character (unless it be very clear and easy) is only given by a great familiarity with the language. The difficulty in reading these current hands arises mainly from the long flourishes, the omission of diacritical dots, etc., and the irregular forms and contractions, which disguise the words even to a practiced eye, unless they can be guessed from the context. If the student has mastered the language, it will be an easy matter for him to master the ordinary handwriting, but not otherwise.
But it seems to me highly desirable, and at the same time perfectly practicable, to accustom the candidate, while in England, to the style of the urzees and other court documents which he will have so much to do with in India, and this very familiarity with their ordinary style and phrases will in itself be a great step towards his reading these documents for himself thereafter in the current hand as they are actually written.
I would recommend that a Volume should be compiled in India by some officer of Government, selected in each Presidency consisting of about one hundred urzees and other similar documents, in each of the seven vernacular languages in which the candidates are respectively examined. This volume should be studied in the fourth half-year, and form one of the text books for the last examination. It should be lithographed in a plain handwriting, corresponding to our copper-plate writing in English, for I do not think that it would be wise, especially at present, to embarrass the student with difficulties in the handwriting. The style of these papers will be in itself difficult to him, coming as he will to them from the classical style of the printed books. I also think that it would be well to accompany each selection with an English translation, to be printed in a separate volume, as the student might thus exercise himself in re-translation, as well as acquire practice in reading the originals by himself.
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Extract from the proceedings of the Government of India in the Home Department (Punjab), No. 134, under date Fort William, the 15th January 1873.
RESOLUTION: The great importance to the administration of a knowledge on the part of Public officers of the languages spoken by the people with whom they have to deal has lately been prominently brought to the notice of the Government of India.
2. There is reason to fear that, especially in the wilder districts peopled by aboriginal tribes, sufficient attention has not been paid to the subject, although it is admitted that constant and easy intercourse between Government officials and the people is essentially necessary to the good government of half-civilized races. An instance has been brought to the notice of the Government of India in which, out of a body of fourteen officers employed in the administration of an outlying district, one only was acquainted with the vernacular, although some of the officers had been employed in the district for considerable periods ranging as high as 16 years, while the character of the district and the condition of the aboriginal tribes inhabiting it were so peculiar as to demand that it should be exempted from the judicial procedure in force elsewhere and subjected to special regulations. From another province a representation has been received, which shows that difficulty is experienced in providing for the administration of hill tracts by officers acquainted with the language of the aborigines.
3. The Government of India now desires that the attention of the Local Governments and Administrations may be directed to this important subject, and that each Government will report how the case stands in the territories under its administration, and by what measures it would propose to further the desired object.
4. The local languages for the acquisition of which inducements have been held out by the Government are:
I. Languages spoken locally within British territory.
II. Languages of bordering frontier tribes.
The rewards which have at times been sanctioned for proficiency in such languages are as follows:
In the Lower Provinces of Bengal.
To any Officer passing in Sonthali, Rupees 1,000.
To any officer in the Assam Commission for passing an examination in Cossyah, Mikir, Naga, Garo, Abor, Bootea, Kamptee Mishmee, Munipooree, Kookee, Cachari or Mugh, Rupees 500.
In the Madras Presidency, to Covenanted Officers serving in the Ganjam and Vizagapatam Districts for passing in Ooriya, rupees 1,000.
These rewards have, however, failed in inducing any considerable number of officers to study the languages.
5. With regard to each local language which is spoken in British territory over so limited an area that it has not been brought within the scheme of compulsory Examinations the Government of India desires to have before it reports from all the Local Governments embodying the following particulars:
I. The approximate area over which each language is spoken, and the approximate number of the population of whom it is the vernacular;
II. By what officers, and in what language the local administration is carried on in the tract in which the language prevails;
III. Whether it can be said generally that, in addition to their own vernacular, the people in question also use and are familiar with any other language, especially that in which the administration is carried on, and with which the Government officers with whom they are brought in contact are conversant;
IV. Whether any difficulty has been experienced in the administration in consequence of a paucity of officers who know the language of the people, and if so, in what districts;
V. The measures which the Government would propose to adopt;
VI. As the proficiency of the officers must necessarily be tested by examinations, an opinion should be expressed as to the degree and nature of qualification to be required and of the examinations by which they should be tested.
6. In addition to the offer of money-rewards in one payment, suggestions have at different times been made that as an inducement to officers to qualify for service in the tracts in which special languages are spoken (which are often, from their circumstances, unpopular) a local allowance should be given, in addition to the ordinary pay of his grade, to an officer who has passed the requisite examinations in the language, for a certain number of years or during the time which he may serve in such a tract. Suggestions have also been made that some of the languages now referred to might be brought into the scheme of compulsory departmental examinations by including them among the languages in which an officer may elect to pass. It has also been suggested that the object might be attained by absolutely debarring an officer whose services are required in one of these special tracts from ordinary promotion until he shall have qualified in the special language.
7. It will be understood that the Government of India does not wish by the proposed measures to foster and encourage mere provincial dialectic variations of recognized languages spoken by people who belong to one race. The object is only to recognize and encourage officers to give their attention to languages of which the individuality is distinct, and which are peculiar to particular races and tribes.
8. In addition to the above information and opinions as to languages spoken by races in British territory, the Government of India wished that the Local Governments and administrations will similarly consider and make recommendations with regard to those languages which it is desirable that officers employed on the frontier should acquire for the purpose of communicating with the tribes with whom they are brought in contact.
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The phenomenon of Urdu as a linguistic process is not new to India. Code mixing has been going on for centuries. Through this process new languages had emerged from the old ones. There are also instances of failed attempts at code mixing not emerging as independent languages. Sometimes, code mixing is frowned upon, but always resorted to. However, in the case of Urdu, unfortunately, attitudes and loyalties to religion and language got mixed and this made the situation more complex and volatile.
The British officials were always perplexed by the ongoing processes of code mixing in India. They knew that such a situation might have prevailed even in their own country and in English. But by the time they were settled in India code mixing was not prominent in English. Their language had somewhat assimilated the borrowed words and phrases from French and other languages, and had established the conventions for the process. They were not expecting that they would contribute to an admixture of English and the Indian languages. Some of the officials were really at loss to understand the English written by the natives and the British officials who had been living in India for a number of years. The recent arrivals had great difficulty in learning this lingo of the mixture of Indian languages and English. At one time the Secretary to the Board of Administration in the Punjab was forced to write a letter on the 11th April, 1849 to all commissioners under the Board of Administration that they "will point to all the officers under you how greatly public business may be facilitated by the habitual use of English, instead of Vernacular and often Provincial, terms in their correspondence. The Board are aware that many native terms are untranslatable, but in that case they should be explained in a marginal note. At present, cases referred for Government decision are often unintelligible for want of a glossary."
Grierson's 1901 census report on the mothertongues spoken in India also cited a situation in which how the natives mixed the English words and phrases in their own language: "English is being introduced into Indian languages inthe same way. Once in Monghyr I overheard one Bengali say to another 'e: de:se:r climate constitutione:r janya ati healthy.' A native horse-doctor once said to me about a dog licking his wound, 'Kutta:-ka: saliva bahut antiseptic hai,' and Mr. Grahame Bayley has heaard one Panja:bi dentist say to another 'continually excavate na karo:.'"
A.P. Howell, Esquire.,
Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department
The Secretary to Government
Dated Fort William, the 17th November 1875.
I am directed to forward the accompanying papers, including a minute by Mr. A.W. Croft, inspector of Schools in Bengal, on the adoption of Hindi as the court language of Behar.
2. The Government of India re not aware how far Mr. Croft's remarks are applicable to the circumstances of the Punjab, but desire to express general concurrence in the view that it is an object to diminish the antagonism between Hindi and Urdu, and that it is inexpedient to foster in Government or aided schools under the name of Hindi an artificial, Sanskritized language, which is in most cases as far removed from the common rustic vernacular as it is from the ordinary language of the towns. The Government of India are further of opinion that the Educational Departments can give efficient help in this matter in connection with preparation of text books.
3. I am to request that the final orders which His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor may pass on this question maybe communicated to the Government of India.
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From S.C. Bayley, Esquire.,
Commissioner of the Patna Division.
The Secretary to Government, Bengal,
Dated Bankipur, the 20th May 1875.
In returning herewith the Nagri pamphlet received with your memorandum No: 101 T, of the 25th ultimo, I have the honor to submit as follows.
2. The pamphlet purports to be a petition from some of the residents of Patna and Bhagalpur, addressed to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, showing the superiority of the Nagri character to the Persian, and of the Hindi language to the Hindustani, and praying, that the orders of the late Lieutenant-Governor, directing the introduction of the Nagri character into the courts and Government Offices in Behar, may be carried out and maintained in force.
3. The following considerations are urged in support of the above petition and prayer:
1st. The anti-Nagri party calls Hindi a rude language, having neither a literature nor grammar. This cannot be true, as Hindi is a branch of the Sanskrit, which is, according to the principal English and German scholars, such as Professor Max Muller, Haug, Goldstucker, Wilson, Colebrooke, and C., the best language in the world all the other languages, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, being derived from it. How can then, such a language be unfit for the transaction of court business?
2nd. It is objected to Nagri that it cannot be written quickly. This is merely a question of practice.
3rd. Nagri can be mastered in three or four months, while Hindustani cannot be learnt so easily. Even the best Persian scholars cannot read an official paper without one or two years' practice in reading Persian manuscripts.
4th. Nagri is better adapted for transliteration than Persian, e.g. "Revenue Board," "First Arts Course," &, C.
5th. The Persian characters can be altered with much greater facility than Nagri and hence it affords greater temptation to fraudulent tampering with documents.
6th. Nagri is used in the transaction of all kinds of business in Nepal, Nagpur, and Commissioner's Office at Almoraa, fact which proves that there is no defect in it.
7th. True, the Nagri takes a little more space in writing than Hindustani, but this defect cannot weight against the many considerations in favour of the use of Nagri, which is the vernacular of Behar throughout the Province.
4. I fully agree in the petitioners' view that Nagri can be and should be gradually introduced into the courts and offices of Behar. On this subject I submitted a report to Government in October 1873, from which it will be seen that Nagri has been pretty extensively introduced into the districts of this division, and that all processes, notifications, proclamations, & C., and all police reports, diaries, and registers are written in that character. The court amlah also were made to pass examinations in the Nagri character and language, and they are now conducting their duties with tolerable facility in it. The change, however, is steadily opposed by this class of people, who as Kyests or Mussalmans, have almost a monopoly of the court language, and consequently of the court places.
5. This opposition is not without its effects on their superiors at the head offices, who unconsciously imbibe their prejudices, and it requires persevering and steady pressure from above to get the reform carried out. There is to my mind no more reason for having one other than Hindi, than there is in Bengal for having one other than Bengali. The introduction of Bengali as the court language in Bengal was, I have been told strongly opposed at the time. Now no one ventures to suggest that it was not an improvement.
6. The law papers of the present day written in so-called Hindustani differ very little from those of the time when Persian was the avowed language of the courts. Inflexions and auxiliary verbs are Hindustani, but the body of the document consists still of the largest Arabic words that eh mookhtear who compiles it can retain, and it is absolutely unintelligible to any but the specially educated classes. Hindi is the language of the People - the language in which accounts, zemindari business, private business, and, as a rule, private communications by letter are conducted; and why the courts should continue to use an absolutely artificial language, which has, to counterbalance all its disadvantages, only the one advantage of being more rapidly written, and amore easily miswritten and misread, I cannot understand.
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C.E. Buckland, Esquire.,
Officiating Junior Secretary to the Government of Bengal
The Commissioner of the Patna Division
Dated on board Yacht Rhotas the 9th July, 1875
With reference to your letter No. 182J, dated 20th May last, reporting on a Nagri pamphlet entitled "Why should Nagri be introduced in the Courts and other Offices of Behar," I am directed to forward, for your information, a copy of a Note by Mr. A.W. Croft, Inspector of Schools, on "Hindi as the Court Language of Behar," and to state that the Lieutenant Governor concurs generally in the views therein expressed.
2. His Honor has no desire to pass any orders that may countenance the idea that Hindi and Urdu are two distinct languages; but he recognizes the tendency of some writers of the former to reject every word which is not Sanskrit in origin, while some writers of Urdu confine themselves strictly to words of Persian origin. He would wish to encourage the growth of a full, harmonious language uniting these two elements, now separate and discordant; and for this purpose he would require that all candidates for employment above the lowest should be equally familiar with both the Nagri and Persian characters.
3. The Lieutenant-Governor is of opinion that the orders of Government, terminating with Mr. Dampier's letter No. 1210, dated 2nd April 1874, should be steadily carried out. Those orders enjoined that all processes, notifications, and proclamations should be made in Hindi; that official records should be kept in Hindi; that petitions should be received in either Hindi or Hindustani; and that a knowledge of the Hindi character should be insisted on in the case of police officers and amlahs. The late Lieutenant Governor was strongly opposed to making Hindi the exclusive court language at present, and to this policy Sir Richard Temple desires to adhere. It is apparent that there is some amount of passive obstructiveness to be overcome, although progress is being made in the introduction of the reform instituted by Government. His Honor trusts to you persevere steadily in the policy already indicated.
4. For these reasons the Lieutenant-Governor is unable to accede to the request preferred by the subscribers to the pamphlet above mentioned, and I am to ask you to communicate to the petitioners this decision.
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Note by A.W. Croft, Esquire, Inspector of Schools, on "Hindi as the Court Language of Behar," dated the 16th June 1875.
THE petition mixes up two things - the character and the language - which should be kept distinct. To call Hindi and Urdu two languages is to perpetuate a vicious error, originally due to the antagonism of Pandits and Maulavis. They have the same accidence and syntax, and the same stock of words for most simple objects and conceptions; they only diverge when it is necessary to express the language f compliment of science, or of complex ideas in general. This is not to have two languages, but to have a language capable of being enriched from two different sources; and I conceive that it is the object of Government to destroy or to diminish this antagonism.
It can do so in two ways, - its ordinary civil administration, and by means of its educational machinery. In the first place, it can, I believe do much more than it has yet done in discountenancing the Persian-Urdu of the public offices and courts - a language unintelligible to any native of this country who has not received a special education. I do not refer to technical terms of law or of civil business; these are in possession; they are as convenient as any, and they could not, in fact, be replaced by others. They are parts of the Hindi language, just as the legal terms of French origin are parts of the English language. I refer to the jargon in which the body of court documents is couched - a language altogether Persian, except for Hindustani inflexions, and not always with that exception; a language known only to the initiated, who cling to it as the source of their livelihood. Government has repeatedly fulminated against this court language, and I am told much has been done towards simplifying it. But the effort requires constant vigilance, the amlah have every interest in quietly opposing the change, and there still remain in constant use numbers of words and phrases that have not the smallest justification. This is to perpetuate the delusion of two languages; and still more, it is to give the largest section of the people a substantial grievance, by excluding them from the most lucrative forms of civil employ. So long as a document read out in court is not intelligible to any person, Hindu or Mohammedan, of fair education, much remains to be done. As it is, our middle schools are deserted, because the education they give is valueless as an avenue to civil employment. I cannot but believe that the constant and clear expression of the will of Government, the steady discouragement by all officers of exaggeration in language, and the occasional rejection of a petition on this ground, would gradually, if not speedily - in the next generation of amlah, if not in this - produce marked results.
The Education Department can, in a different fashion, give efficient help towards the same end, namely, the unification of Hindi and Urdu. The books used in the schools of Behar ought to be books of such a style that they might be written indifferently, and with equal propriety, in either character. No one will say, for example, that a sentence like "Suraj nikalta hai" is distinctively Hindi or distinctively Urdu; and it is the business of the Education Department to extend the bounds of this common language. The test of a good school book for Behar, is that it can be printed without violence in either character. Individual authors, on the other hand (with a few noticeable exceptions), generally strive to intensify the difference by rejecting every word which is not either Sanskrit in origin, or for it is not to be supposed that pedantry is confined to writers of Urdu. On the contrary, the pedantry that I have chiefly to complain of in may own work is that of writers of Hindi. The purism of men who carry their repugnance to Urdu so far as to say, not admi but manush, not sirf but kebal, not chiz but vestu, not magar but parantu, is a thing not to be tolerated in a region where some kind of compromise is a necessity. In looking about for books for the Behar schools, I have had to reject numbers for this very fault; one in particular, an elementary book of Natural History, which I sorely needed, but whose pages bristled with Sanskrit expressions for the commonest conceptions, e.g., Utpatti, bishay, manushoa, brittanta, parantu, bahuddha, nirog, karan; all occurring on a page taken at random.
This sort of pedantry reaches its culminating point in the very pamphlet sent for report transcribes the opening sentence;
"Siddha Sriman maharaja dhiraj Bharatvarshiya purvadesh adhikari yashasvi tejasvi sriyukta Laftanent Gavarnar maha prapike nikat ham sab Patna nagur kepraphan nivasi, jamidar, sahukar, ade prjayonka tan manasekoti koti dhanyabaid pahunche. Apaise baddhiman prajopakari, desh hitakari raj niyamak ki reaisha sada sarvada sarva shatiman jagadishvar karta rahe."
This, coming in a prayer for the restoration of the language of the people, represents, I suppose, that language. It represents, I have no doubt, the language of the people, represents, I suppose, that language. It represents, I have no doubt, the language which its author would rejoice to introduce into the courts in place of Urdu. Nothing could be more intolerant or more ludicrous. It is like a man, in his zeal for pure English, rejecting the impenetrability of matter," and substituting the "unthorough foresomeness of stuff."
I repeat my opinion that it is desirable for Government to guard most carefully against passing any orders which countenance the idea that Hindi and Urdu are two distinct languages, and more particularly, having this object in view, to guard against encouraging eccentricities of style, whether having a Persian bias such as I have described above. I regard it as well worth the attention of Government to try, by every means at its command (the educational means being not the least efficacious), to untie these two elements, now separate and discordant, into one full and harmonious language. If civil officers will repress Persian exaggerations the Education Department can wage vigorous war against Sanskrit aggressions. The result will be a joint language abounding in synonyms of different origin, in this respect resembling English and the wealthier group of living languages. The varieties of such a language will differ no more than the style of Rasselas differs from that of the Lord's Prayer. It is equally English whether you speak of "an unlikely thing to happen" or "an improbably event to occur," and it is only usage that determines which is the best style.
Such a language cannot be created by an edict. But authors in Behar and in the North Western Provinces are even now grappling with the question, and Government, can, by readily encouragement of such authors, and more especially by the organization of its schools, so control the tendencies of current literature, and so help to fix the standard of educated speech, as to hasten this desirable consummation. In an illiterate age, and with no efforts of Government tending to promote the union, it took two centuries to weld the English and the French elements of the language into the national speech of England. It should not take so long now.
Only on condition that efforts are made so to settle the language question do I see any chance of satisfactorily meeting the second difficulty, that of character. Government has already done much. All processes and notifications - all documents, in fact, destined for service outside cities - are in Nagri, and all petitions may be presented in that character. If, further, the order of the Magistrate were always transliterated, when required, from Urdu into Nagri, probably every need of suitors would be satisfied. But it is not the needs of suitors that have prompted the present petition. It is the need of that large body of Hindus whose education does not fit them for the public service; and they are too numerous for their claims to be lightly set aside.
I should think it a very hazardous experiment definitely to substitute Hindi for Urdu as the language of the courts. The temporary block to public business would be a small matter compared with the political danger involved in the disaffection of a class of men about whom the complaint already is that their means of living are too scanty. The Muhammadans in fact would be ousted from public employ. But the same principle of fairness to them suggests a course which might possibly be pursued in the interests of the large body of Hindus. Mr. Bayley says that all the Persian-writing amlahs have been required to pass an examination in Hindi; is it too much to require that Brahman and other Nagri-writing candidates for employment should pass an examination in Urdu? It is, no doubt, too much as matters stand; for we see that, with the exception of the facile Kayasth, no Hindi will now submit to learn a new character in which to write his own language - a very different and much more simple matter.
If all candidates for employment above the lowest were required to be equally familiar with two characters (and to such an end ought our school education to be directed), and it consequently both were used indiscriminately in official writing, it might not happen that one would drive out the other. Nagri undoubtedly takes more time and more room, but the same objection might be urged against English; and if for other reasons it is convenient to write it, it will be written. It might be conjectured, indeed, that the force of numbers would gradually make itself felt, and that Nagri would prevail; but even if not, is there any serious objection to the use in courts of two characters side by side? They exist in fact already for Kaithi accounts are filed with Urdu plaints and have to be interpreted by irresponsible experts. But whatever the objection, it could not weight against the advantages on the other side; for it is evident that the friction produced by the contract of two characters would rub down the harsh points peculiar to each, whether Persian or Sanskrit. By the ordinary reaction of character upon language, the conflict of Nagri with Urdu would go far to produce the kind of compromise that we desire. A document that has to be written indiscriminately in one of two characters will not often bear marks of special alliance with either.
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T.H. Thornton, Esquire.,
Secretary to Government, Punjab
The Officiating Secretary to the Government of India
Dated Lahore, 30th November 1875.
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter No: 2-207 of 17th instant, and accompaniments, on the subject of diminishing the antagonism between Hindi and Urdu.
2. In reply, I am directed by the Honorable the Lieutenant Governor to state that the question discussed therein may be said not to exist in the Punjab. In the Punjab it has long been decided that the recognized language of the courts and of education is to be Urdu of a simple, character, neither highly Sanskritized, nor greatly intermixed with Arabic. There are still a few Hindi primary schools in the Delhi Division, but they are rapidly dying out, and almost the only advocates of Hindi remaining are a few Bengali clerks.
3. Under these circumstances, the Lieutenant Governor considers that no action is called for in reference to your letter so far as this Province is concerned, and he would deprecate the question being raised, as any initiation of the subject will only give rise to profitless discussion by a clique of purists.
4. I append copy, not printed, of correspondence which took place in 1863 on the subject of the language to be used in court proceedings which may be of interest.
The court vernacular should be fixed, as proposed by the Judicial Commissioner, according to the language in ordinary use as distinctly marked in various portions of the province. For the Hissar division, notwithstanding that Punjabi is in ordinary use in Sirsa and the confines of the Patiala state in Sirsa, and Hissar, the Urdu should be the court vernacular.
*** *** ***
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Astronomers have photographed the youngest exoplanet ever found, spotting the alien world as it is still forming out of the dusty disk around its parent star, a new study reports.
Researchers used Hawaii's Keck Observatory to capture the first direct images of a planet in the process of forming around its star. The newly born object, which astronomers are calling LkCa 15 b, appears to be a hot "protoplanet" that is sucking up a surrounding swath of cooler dust and gas.
The new images from Keck reveal that the alien planet sits in a wide gap between its host star and an outer disk of dust, the researchers said.
"LkCa 15 b is the youngest planet ever found, about five times younger than the previous record holder," study lead author Adam Kraus, of the University of Hawaii, said in a statement. "For the first time, we’ve been able to directly measure the planet itself as well as the dusty matter around it." [See photos of dusty disk for planet LkCa 15]
Finding a newly forming planet
The newly forming planet is a relatively close neighbor to Earth; it's located only about 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus (the Bull). But spotting it wasn't easy.
Astronomers relied on Keck's adaptive optics capability, which incorporates a deformable mirror to correct for distorted starlight caused by our atmosphere. They then canceled out bright starlight using a technique called aperture mask interferometry, which involved placing a mask with several holes in the path of the light collected by Keck.
These methods allowed the team to resolve the protoplanetary disk around the star LkCa 15, and to see the gap in the disk where the baby planet was lurking.
"Interferometry has actually been around since the 1800s, but through the use of adaptive optics has only been able to reach nearby young suns for about the last seven years," said study co-author Michael Ireland of Macquarie University and the Australian Astronomical Observatory. "Since then, we’ve been trying to push the technique to its limits using the biggest telescopes in the world, especially Keck."
The researchers discovered LkCa 15 b after initiating a survey of 150 young dusty stars, which led to a more concentrated study of a dozen stars. They hit the jackpot early.
"LkCa 15 was only our second target, and we immediately knew we were seeing something new," Kraus said. "We could see a faint point source near the star, so, thinking it might be a Jupiter-like planet, we went back a year later to get more data." [The Strangest Alien Planets]
Kraus presented the results today (Oct. 19) at a meeting at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The discovery will also be published in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
A big baby
As far as infants go, LkCa15 b looks like a whopper, perhaps harboring as much mass as six Jupiters. But since the planet is still forming, it could end up being considerably smaller, Kraus explained.
"A lot of the light that we’re seeing from this object could be released by this material falling on it," he said. "So, six Jupiter masses should really be regarded as an upper limit. It may be that very little of the light is coming from the planet, and it could be much less massive."
However big it is, the alien world is definitely young. Its parent star, which is about as massive as the sun, is only about 2 million years old, Kraus said.
Astronomers have long surmised that baby planets carved out the gaps they've observed in young stars' dusty disks. Now that they've demonstrated the ability to spot one such infant world, scientists could soon start detecting many more.
"This is exciting because we look at them [the gaps] and know there’s a planet there," Kraus said. "We know from the location of the gap where the planet is likely to be sitting, and it’s just a matter of looking at them and finding a way to detect these planets."
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Definition of DiGeorge syndrome
DiGeorge syndrome: A genetic disorder characterized by hypocalcemia, immunodeficiency, and congenital heart disease:
- Hypocalcemia (low calcium levels in the blood) due to hypoplasia (underdevelopment) of the parathyroid glands that are needed to control calcium;
- Immunodeficiency due to hypoplasia (underdevelopment) of the thymus (an organ behind the breastbone needed for the maturation of lymphocytes into T cells); and
- Congenital heart disease with defects of the outflow tracts (the pulmonary artery and aorta) from the heart. Next to Down syndrome, DiGeorge syndrome is the most common genetic cause of congenital heart disease.
DiGeorge syndrome is caused by a microdeletion in chromosome band 22q11.2. The key gene that is lost is Tbx-1, a master control gene that regulates other genes required for the connection of the heart with the blood circulation. Tbx-1 also controls genes involved in the development of the parathyroid and thymus glands and the shape of the face.
Babies with DiGeorge syndrome are highly susceptible to infections and, in the past, usually died by age 2. Transplantation of thymus tissue can restore normal immune function to infants with DiGeorge syndrome.
However, bone marrow cells babies with DiGeorge syndrome can spontaneously transform into rogue T cells that attack and reject the thymus transplant. An immunosuppressant drug called Thymoglobulin (antithymocyte globulin), which selectively targets T cells, given prior to the transplant has been found to quash the rogue T cells and permit a successful thymus transplant.
The syndrome is named for the American pediatric endocrinologist Angelo DiGeorge who worked at St. Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia. Also known as hypoplasia of the thymus and parathyroids and as third and fourth pharyngeal pouch syndrome.Source: MedTerms™ Medical Dictionary
Last Editorial Review: 6/9/2016
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The City of London is a city and ceremonial county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the conurbation has since grown far beyond the City's borders. The City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. It is one of two districts of London to hold city status; the other is the adjacent City of Westminster.
The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City (often written as just "City" and differentiated from the phrase "the city of London" by capitalising "City") and is also colloquially known as the Square Mile, as it is in area. Both of these terms are also often used as metonyms for the United Kingdom's trading and financial services industries, which continue a notable history of being largely based in the City.
The name "London" is now ordinarily used for a far wider area than just the City. "London" often denotes the Greater London administrative area (which covers the whole of the London region of England), comprising 32 boroughs (including the City of Westminster), in addition to the City of London itself. This wider usage of "London" is documented as far back as the 16th century.
The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council, such as being the police authority. It is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, an office separate from (and much older than) the Mayor of London. The Lord Mayor of the City of London is elected annually and is seldom held for more than one year.
The City is a major business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was perhaps the world's primary business centre, and it continues to be a major meeting point for businesses. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008. The insurance industry is focused around the eastern side of the City. A secondary financial district exists outside of the City, at Canary Wharf, to the east.
The City has a resident population of about 7,000 (2011) but over 300,000 people commute to and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. The legal profession forms a major component of the northern and western sides of the City, especially in the Temple and Chancery Lane areas where the Inns of Court are located, of which two—Inner Temple and Middle Temple—fall within the City of London boundary.
It used to be widely held that Londinium was first established by merchants as a trading port on the tidal Thames in around 47 AD, during the early years of the Roman occupation of Britain. However, this date is only supposition. The Romans have left no record of when or how the city was founded and the very first time they mention the city is in the annals of Tacitus (in 61 AD) when he relates how Londinium was among a group of important cities sacked by the Iceni, led by their queen, Boudica.
Many historians now believe London was founded some time before the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. They base this notion on evidence provided by both archaeology and Welsh literary legend. Archaeologists have claimed that as much as half of the best British Iron Age art and metalwork discovered in Britain has been found in the London area. One of the most prominent examples is the famously horned "Waterloo Helmet" dredged from the Thames in the early 1860s and now exhibited at the British Museum.
Also, according to an ancient Welsh legend, a king named Lud son of Heli substantially enlarged and improved a pre-existing settlement at London which afterwards came to be renamed after him. The same tradition relates how this Lud son of Heli was later buried at Ludgate (Welsh: Porthlud).
"Llydd was the eldest son. And after his father (Beli Mawr) was dead he took the government of the island. And he strengthened the walls of Llvndain, surrounded the city with many farmsteads, and lived in it the greater part of the year. And he had built within the city walls splendid buildings the like of which were not seen in all countries. And he called it Kaer Lvdd; and in the end it was called Kaer Lvndain. And, after the coming of the alien nation into it, it was called Kaer Lwndwn." Ystorya Brenhined y Brytanyeit, Jesus MS. LXI.
Nevertheless, after the conquest the Romans certainly developed the settlement and port, with its centre roughly where the shallow stream the Walbrook met the Thames. After the city had been destroyed by Boudica in 60 AD it was entirely rebuilt as a planned settlement (a civitas), and the new walled town was prosperous and grew to become the largest settlement in Roman Britain by the end of the 1st century. By the beginning of the 2nd century, Londinium had replaced Camulodunum (Colchester) as the capital of Roman Britain ("Britannia").
At its height, the Roman city had a population of approximately 45,000–60,000 inhabitants. The Romans built the London Wall some time between 190 and 225 AD. The boundaries of the Roman city were similar to those of the City of London today, though Londinium did not extend further west than Ludgate or the Fleet, and the mid-estuary Thames was undredged and wider than it is today thus, the City's shoreline was north of its present position. The Romans built a bridge across the river, as early as 50 AD, near to today's London Bridge.
A number of Roman sites and artefacts can be seen in the City, including the Temple of Mithras, sections of the London Wall (at the Barbican and near Tower Hill), the London Stone and remains of the amphitheatre beneath the Guildhall. The Museum of London holds many of the Roman finds has permanent Roman exhibitions and holds research collections.
By the time the London Wall was constructed, the City's fortunes were in decline, and it faced problems of plague and fire. The Roman Empire entered a long period of instability and decline, including the Carausian Revolt in Britain. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the city was under attack from Picts, Scots, and Saxon raiders. The decline continued, both for Londinium and the Empire, and in 410 AD the Romans withdrew entirely from Britain. Many of the Roman public buildings in Londinium by this time had fallen into decay and disuse, and gradually after the formal withdrawal the city became almost (if not, at times, entirely) uninhabited. The centre of trade and population moved away from the walled Londinium to Lundenwic ("London market"), a settlement to the west, roughly in the modern day Strand/Aldwych/Covent Garden area.
During the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, the London area came in turn under the Kingdoms of Essex, Mercia, and later Wessex, though from the mid 8th century it was frequently under the control or threat of the Vikings.
Bede records that in 604 AD St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberht's uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a church dedicated to St Paul in London, as the seat of the new bishop. It is assumed, although unproven, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the same site as the later medieval and the present cathedrals.
Alfred the Great, King of Wessex and arguably the first king of the "English", occupied and began the resettlement of the old Roman walled area, in 886, and appointed his son-in-law Earl Æthelred of Mercia over it as part of their reconquest of the Viking occupied parts of England. The refortified Anglo-Saxon settlement was known as Lundenburh ("London Fort", a borough). The historian Asser said that "Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly ... and made it habitable once more." Alfred's "restoration" entailed reoccupying and refurbishing the nearly deserted Roman walled city, building quays along the Thames, and laying a new city street plan.
Alfred's taking of London and the rebuilding of the old Roman city was a turning point in history, not only as the permanent establishment of the City of London, but also as part of a unifying moment in early England, with Wessex becoming the dominant English kingdom and the repelling (to some degree) of the Viking occupation and raids. While London, and indeed England, were afterwards subjected to further periods of Viking and Danish raids and occupation, the establishment of the City of London and the Kingdom of England prevailed.
In the 10th century, Athelstan permitted eight mints to be established, compared with six in his capital, Winchester, indicating the wealth of the city. London Bridge, which had fallen into ruin following the Roman evacuation and abandonment of Londinium, was rebuilt by the Saxons, but was periodically destroyed by Viking raids and storms.
As the focus of trade and population was moved back to within the old Roman walls, the older Saxon settlement of Lundenwic was largely abandoned and gained the name of Ealdwic (the "old settlement"). The name survives today as Aldwych (the "old market-place"), a name of a street and an area of the City of Westminster between Westminster and the City of London.
Following the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror marched on London (reaching as far as Southwark), but failed to get across London Bridge or to defeat the Londoners. He eventually crossed the River Thames at Wallingford, pillaging the land as he went. Rather than continuing the war, Edgar the Ætheling, Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria surrendered at Berkhamsted. William granted the citizens of London a charter in 1075; the City was one of a few examples of the English retaining some authority. The City was not covered by the Domesday Book.
William built three castles nearby, to keep Londoners subdued:
About 1130, Henry I granted a sheriff to the people of London, along with control of the county of Middlesex: this meant that the two entities were regarded as one administratively (not that the county was a dependency of the City) until the Local Government Act 1888. By 1141 the whole body of the citizenry was considered to constitute a single community. This 'commune' was the origin of the City of London Corporation and the citizens gained the right to appoint, with the king's consent, a Mayor in 1189—and to directly elect the Mayor from 1215.
The City is composed of 25 ancient wards, each headed by an Alderman, who chairs Wardmotes, which still take place at least annually. A Folkmoot, for the whole of the City held at the outdoor cross of St Paul's Cathedral, was formerly also held. Many of the medieval offices and traditions continue to the present day, demonstrating the unique nature of the City and its Corporation.
The City was burned severely on a number of occasions, the worst being in 1123 and (more famously) in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Both of these fires were referred to as the Great Fire. After the fire of 1666, a number of plans were drawn up to remodel the City and its street pattern into a renaissance-style city with planned urban blocks, squares and boulevards. These plans were almost entirely not taken up, and the medieval street pattern re-emerged almost intact.
Early modern period
By the late 16th century, London increasingly became a major centre for banking, international trade and commerce. The Royal Exchange was founded in 1565 by Sir Thomas Gresham as a centre of commerce for London's merchants, and gained Royal patronage in 1571. Although no longer used for its original purpose, its location at the corner of Cornhill and Threadneedle Street continues to be the geographical centre of the City's core of banking and financial services, with the Bank of England moving to its present site in 1734, opposite the Royal Exchange on Threadneedle Street. Immediately to the south of Cornhill, Lombard Street was the location from 1691 of Lloyd's Coffee House, which became the world-leading insurance market. London's insurance sector continues to be based in the area, particularly in Lime Street.
In 1708, Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral, was completed on his birthday. The first service had been held on 2 December 1697, more than 10 years earlier. It replaced the original St Paul's, which had been completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and is considered to be one of the finest cathedrals in Britain and a fine example of Baroque architecture.
Growth of London
The 18th century was a period of rapid growth for London, reflecting an increasing national population, the early stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, and London's role at the centre of the evolving British Empire. The urban area expanded beyond the borders of the City of London, most notably during this period towards the West End and Westminster.
Expansion continued and became more rapid by the beginning of the 19th century, with London growing in all directions. To the East the Port of London grew rapidly during the century, with the construction of many docks, needed as the Thames at the City could not cope with the volume of trade. The arrival of the railways and the Tube meant that London could expand over a much greater area. By the mid-19th century, with London still rapidly expanding in population and area, the City had already become only a small part of the wider metropolis.
19th and 20th centuries
An attempt was made in 1894 with the Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London to end the distinction between the City and the surrounding County of London, but a change of government at Westminster meant the option was not taken up. The City as a distinct polity survived despite its position within the London conurbation and numerous local government reforms. Supporting this status, the City was a special parliamentary borough that elected four members to the unreformed House of Commons, who were retained after the Reform Act 1832; reduced to two under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885; and ceased to be a separate constituency under the Representation of the People Act 1948. Since then the City is a minority (in terms of population and area) of the Cities of London and Westminster.
The City's population fell rapidly in the 19th century and through most of the 20th century, as people moved outwards in all directions to London's vast suburbs, and many residential buildings were demolished to make way for office blocks. Like many areas of London and other British cities, the City fell victim to large scale and highly destructive aerial bombing during World War II, especially in the Blitz. Whilst St Paul's Cathedral survived the onslaught, large swathes of the area did not and the particularly heavy raids of late December 1940 led to a firestorm called the Second Great Fire of London.
There was a major rebuilding programme in the decades following the war, in some parts (such as at the Barbican) dramatically altering the urban landscape. But the destruction of the older historic fabric allowed the construction of modern and larger-scale developments, whereas in those parts not so badly affected by bomb damage the City retains its older character of smaller buildings. The street pattern, which is still largely medieval, was altered slightly in places, although there is a more recent trend of reversing some of the post-war modernist changes made, such as at Paternoster Square.
The 1970s saw the construction of tall office buildings including the 600 foot (183 m), 47-storey Natwest Tower, the first skyscraper in the UK. Office space development has intensified especially in the central, northern and eastern parts, with skyscrapers including 30 St. Mary Axe ("the Gherkin"'), the Broadgate Tower and the Heron Tower, the tallest in the City. Another, the Pinnacle, is set to begin rising once a redesign has been completed, and 20 Fenchurch Street and the Leadenhall Building are other skyscrapers currently under construction in the area and expected to be completed in 2014.
The main residential section of the City today is the Barbican Estate, constructed between 1965 and 1976. The Museum of London is based there, as are a number of other services provided by the Corporation.
Arms, motto and flag
The Corporation of the City of London has a full achievement of armorial bearings consisting of a shield on which the arms are displayed, a crest displayed on a helm above the shield, supporters on either side and a motto displayed on a scroll beneath the arms.
Arms: Argent a cross gules, in the first quarter a sword in pale point upwards of the last.
The coat of arms is "anciently recorded" at the College of Arms. It was in use in 1381, forming part of the design of a new mayoralty seal taken into use on 17 April of that year. The arms consist of a silver shield bearing a red cross with a red upright sword in the first quarter. They combine the emblems of the patron saints of England and London: the Cross of St George with the symbol of the martyrdom of Saint Paul. The 1381 arms replaced an earlier shield, found on a charter of 1319, that depicted St Paul holding a sword. The sword is often erroneously supposed to commemorate the killing of Peasants' Revolt leader Wat Tyler by Lord Mayor of London William Walworth. However the arms were in use some months before Tyler's death, and the tradition that Walworth's dagger is depicted may date from the late 17th century.
The crest and supporters came into use in the 17th century, but were used without authority until 30 April 1957, when they were confirmed and granted by letters patent from the College of Arms.
The crest is a dragon's wing bearing the cross of St George, borne upon a peer's helm. A primitive form of the crest first appeared in 1539 on the reverse of a new common seal. This showed a fan-like object bearing a cross. Over time this evolved into a dragon's wing, and was shown as such in 1633 when it appeared above the city's coat of arms in the frontispiece to the fourth edition of John Stow's Survey of London. It has been speculated that the use of a peer's helmet (rather than that of a gentleman, in other civic arms) relates to the use of the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" by the Lord Mayor. The helm was confirmed in 1957. However, there are various representations of the arms being surmounted by a 'Muscovy Hat' as worn by the City Swordbearer over the Stuart and Georgian period most notably as carved on the George Dance Porch of the Guildhall.
On the seal of 1381 two lions were shown supporting the arms. However, by 1609 the present supporters, two silver dragons bearing red crosses upon their wings, had been adopted. The dragons were probably suggested by the legend of St George and the Dragon.
The Latin motto of the City is "Domine dirige nos", which translates as "Lord, direct (guide) us". It appears to have been adopted in the 17th century, as the earliest record of it is in 1633.
The City of London, prior to 1889 was an (independent) city with its own police force and and with poor law acting within its own jurisdiction. According to the topographer, John Marius Wilson, who in 1869 in his Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, implied it was a county. It was not, however, until 1889 when Parliament passed the Local Government Act that it indeed officially became a county. At least 96 parishes lay within the city walls . Another 10 parishes resided just outside the city walls, yet were considered as part of the City of London proper, with 8 precincts and inns of courts under its jurisdiction as well.
The following 106 parishes comprised the City of London, together with their respective population in 1861, are:
St. Alban, Woodstreet
The parishes, considered as part of the City but lying without the walls, together with their respective populations in 1861, are--
Precincts, extra-parochial places, and Inns of Courts, together with their respective populations in 1861, are--:
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For “loyalist Blacks” who settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolution war, leaving their former homes was a traumatic experience.
The extreme difficulties in establishing themselves in Nova Scotia was only the first of such problems.
In the following years the blacks throughout Nova Scotia were to be plagued by the combined disappointments of poverty, crop failure, ignorance and prejudice in their areas.
Upper Big Tracadie,located in Guysborough county N.S. .Is one of the many self-supporting black communities within the province the result that now exists is proof of black emergency and survival in Guysborough county.
After the American revolution a group of loyalist Negroes consisting of 71 men ,50 women and some 51 children were settled at Tracadie. There Thomas Brownspriggs and 74 others were given a grant of 3,000 acres of land at “Tracadie 1787. For a time the S.P.G. (society for the propagation of the gospel)maintained a Negro school at Tracadie. Thomas Brownspriggs acted as schoolmaster there from about 1788 to 1790.”
“The Rev Charles Weeks,Anglican missionary,reported that they were twenty three Negro families at Tracadie in 1808. Mr. Dempsey Jordan who was appointed as S.P.G. schoolmaster there in 1818 willfully gave religious instructions to the children, read prayers and printed sermons to the inhabitants.
The Roman Catholic bishop Plessis who visited the Tracadie region in 1813 noted in his diary “Another reason why he, the local priest is not suited to this place, Tracadie is that there are twenty five families of Protestant Negroes there, who have been abandoned by the ministers of their Belief, and who, to become Catholics, are awaiting only the presence of a priest able to preach to them in English. It would be difficult to express the sorrow of the Bishop of Quebec when he saw so fine a priest separated from his flock, with so little needed to procure for them a knowledge of the true religion. The Negroes refrained from appearing in the neighborhood for the two days of the visitation, thinking that they were not in the good graces of the Catholic clergy, because they had been mistakenly told they would be sent away if they showed themselves there.
In 1890 Captain W. Morrison, a British traveler, visited Guysborough County. He noted that the condition of the Blacks in that area was far superior to those existing in any other area of Nova Scotia. He said that though the condition of these detached families of Negroes, was still miserably poor, the Blacks of Guysborough living conditions were far superior to their brethren near Halifax. The nearest approach to comfort he had observed among the Black race was a few families who occupied the back lands of Great Tracadie. They were descendants of some slaves who came with refugee loyalists, and consequently had only experienced the demoralizing effect of slavery by inheritance. Morrison also stated that the only livery stable in the Guysborough area was managed by a Negro , whose fame was widespread and according to some “county jockeys” could breed cattle far better than those owned by the governor Under the circumstances this first step in black initiative was amazing. However, it should be noted that this was restricted to only a few blacks, such as Mr. Campbell, Thomas Brownspriggs and Demsey Jordan. Brownspriggs and Jordan both played a very important role in the religious and educational life in the Tracadie Black community as well as providing a link between the white and Negro worlds. Brownspriggs, being quite educated, acted as leader of this community in Guysborough from the very start. By early 1787, he became fully dissatisfied with the condition of the Chedabucto Bay community, presently called Guysborough County. He demanded from Lieutenant Governor Parr a grant of land for Negroes who wanted to become independent farmers. On Sept. 1787, Governor ordered the surveyor-General to lay out a parcel of land, 3,000 acres under Thomas Brownspriggs and seventy-three others at Tracadie.
In 1788 Bishop Charles Inglis appointed Brownsspriggs a teacher for the society for the propagation of the gospel S.P.G. at Tracadie. In 1790 it was reported that “the Negro school at Tracadie goes on well, the master teaches 23 black children.” However, it was later reported that he had abandoned the school.
Dempsy Jordan tended to be specially active in the Tracadie area during the first two decades of the 19th century. In 1808 Reverend Weeks, the S.P.G. Missionary at Guysborough,reported that Jordan was giving religious instructions to the children and reading prayers and printing sermons to the inhabitants on Sundays, in 1818, Jordan was appointed S.P.G. schoolmaster Jordan like Brownspriggs earlier, had become employed to do all kinds of work in the Negro communities made contact in Tracadie.
Despite Jordan’s missionary work, many blacks wanted to worship in the nearby Roman Catholic Church. They were greeted with hostility and unchristian charity. On October 15,1815 Father Marceau requested to Bishop Pessis that a gallery be constructed where the blacks could hold service-refused by the Roman Catholic and forgotten by the churches of England, the Tracadie Negroes in 1801 turned to the Baptist Church.
In 1821 Rev. Elder Davis Nutter,a Baptist Evangelist, visited Tracadie and began preaching to the Negroes. A year later,1822, Rev Nutter constituted the United Baptist Church that happens to be the oldest African Baptist Church in Nova Scotia. Nutter originally from Kidderminister, England, found the Tracadie Negroes in comfortable homes and was very pleased with the eagerness of the Blacks to follow him in his mission Nutter once said “The spirit came upon them like rain upon the mowed grass, and showers that water the earth.”
Interest arose concerning the question of Negro education. One concern outsider was Inspector Samuel Russell. In 1867 he observed in Tracadie: “A section of colored people with seventy(70) schoolable children-very poor and for want of good men for trustees nothing has been done. The colored people adjoining Tracadie are not only poor, but careless-will not keep the school supplied with fuel-even when everything else is done for them. This is the only log school house in the county
In 1872 a striking change took place in Tracadie and at Manchester schools were built. In 1874 the new inspector William Hartshorne reported
“In the colored section No.34 Tracadie, School had been in operation during the summer term for the first time. there were sixty-seven registered pupils, average attendance 39. The progress made in their school had been satisfactory and the pupils were very well supplied with books, etc.
It has been further recorded that up until 1930 few Negroes were educated at even an elementary level.. In 1932 a new school for the Negro children of Guysborough road was opened with an enrollment of seventeen (17) pupils. Funds for the support of the school were raised by suppers church picnics, etc. and grants from the department. By 1936 children from Upper Big Tracadie Guysborough Road, Prospect and Birchtown were being educated. Most of the teachers had “permissive Licenses” and were poorly qualified. They were usually Negroes since it was felt that no respectable white teacher would teach under such primitive conditions. The schools in the 1930 and 40s were usually in a destructive state.
In the early 1900 s Rear Monastery was known as the Back Settlement of Tracadie, and became known as the Avonside School district. This was soon made a border section with Guysborough County. Many of the pupils were Negroes from the old Tracadie Road district. It was consolidated with Tracadie in 1959. By the 1940 s the quality of Negro education left much to be desired. At that time most Negro parents were not interested in obtaining educational facilities for their children. At the middle of the 20th century Guysborough Negroes found themselves in extremely depressed conditions. Religion provided some escape from the hard realities of life. Many escaped by going to Cape Breton, New Glascow, Halifax and Ontario. Those who stayed were forced to struggle with the problems of survival. Today, the Upper Big Tracadie Black settlement is progressing moderately. The area is fortunate to have a church and community center. It is to be hoped that, over the years the progress of this small but slowly advancing community will produce and offer more for its people.
Names and places of Nova Scotia
The P.A.N.S. Halifax 1967
By Charles Bruce Ferguson
Historical: The Guysborough Negroes
A Study In Isolation
Ibid Pg. 14,15,16,17,18,19.
Names and Places of Nova Scotia The )P.A.N.S. Halifax, 1967
By Charles Bruce Ferguson
Also read The History of the Black Community at Tracadie, N. S. by the Nova Scotia Museum.
X HP African Heritage Agnes Calliste Top | <urn:uuid:19c7e96c-6b5a-4df5-88f0-b3efebe2c7d6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://people.stfx.ca/acallist/tracadie.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981009 | 1,952 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Emerald ash borer moves north, infested tree found in Superior
SUPERIOR, Wis. -- A Chinese insect that has killed millions of trees in the eastern United States and Canada has been confirmed in Superior.
City of Superior crews found what they thought was a suspect ash tree on Aug. 7, and after investigating further, found what appeared to be ash borer larvae in the tree. They sent samples to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Michigan, which confirmed emerald ash borer this week.
Superior city officials made the announcement today.
"This infestation is really going to change the landscape," Superior Mayor Bruce Hagen said in the announcement.
Until now, the closest the insect had been found to the Duluth-Superior area was the Twin Cities and southwestern Wisconsin near LaCrosse. Now the half-inch, metallic green bug appears to have jumped more than 100 miles quickly, leaving thousands of urban and suburban ash trees in peril and threatening huge swaths of forest comprised of black ash.
Experts said the insect can't move far on its own each year but probably has expanded its range so fast thanks to people unknowingly carrying the bug in firewood or live trees.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has immediately placed all of Douglas County under quarantine to prevent infected trees and wood from moving into other areas.
The insect was first confirmed in Wisconsin in 2008 and now 20 counties are under quarantine.
Superior City officials note they have surveyed some 3,000 ash trees within the city. Those that have been hit by the insects will start dying within one to three years, officials noted.
The emerald ash borer -- a Chinese import that has killed millions of trees in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois -- has no natural enemies here. And it seems North American ash trees have no natural resistance.
Adult flying beetles fly to ash trees and mate. They lay eggs on the tree and the larvae burrow into the tree, where they eat into the parts of the tree that carry water and nutrients into the canopy, eventually killing the tree. The larvae then burrow out and emerge as a flying beetle to spread the cycle to other trees.
Emerald ash borers have killed all sizes and all 17 varieties of ash found in the United States.
For more information on emerald ash borer, go to www.emeraldash borer.wi.gov.
Ash trees with a dying crown or with major woodpecker damage are suspect. The bugs leave a distinctive, small D-shaped exit hole when they leave the tree. If you suspect emerald ash borer, make sure the tree is an ash tree and then use information on the Web to eliminate other tree problems. If you still suspect ash borers, contact the Minnesota Department of Agriculture at Arrest.The.Pest@state.mn.us or call (888) 545-6684. In Wisconsin call (800) 462-2803. | <urn:uuid:79ef3a7e-c837-4359-bb93-d78e7366345f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pinejournal.com/content/emerald-ash-borer-moves-north-infested-tree-found-superior | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955546 | 612 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The most recent worry of human society is the growing food crisis. Rising food prices have ignited riots in some countries. Some think that this is the first real economic crisis of globalization. About 850 million of people go to bed in hunger every night. About 1.1 billion people are still living below the one dollar poverty line. According to reports the new food crisis pushed 100 million more people back below the poverty line.
It was told that world has adequate food but the issue is that there is no proper distribution. However, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) “the era of cheap food for Asia is over as surging demand, supply problems and the growing production of bio-fuels will keep food prices high.” The Bank refers to the growing demand for food in Asia. However, as reported by the Guardian in early July 2008, the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."
The US government claims that plant- derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. Meanwhile, as the Guardian reported, an unpublished report of the World Bank state that Bio-fuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated. The other factors, such as high energy prizes, and fertilizer prices, have contributed only 15% according to the report.
Bio-fuel is the controversial alternative fuel to reduce emission of greenhouse gases and reduce dependence on imported fuel. Bio-fuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass i.e. present living organisms or their metabolic byproducts. Therefore, it is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, gas and nuclear energy. Since so-called bio-fuel is mostly based on agricultural plants, activists consider bio-fuel as agro-fuel.
The plants whose oils are popularly considered for bio-fuel are soybeans, rapeseed, sunflower, safflower and palm, which are mostly food sources. Agricultural products specifically grown for use as bio-fuels include corn and soybeans, mostly in the United States, and flaxseed and rapeseed, mostly in Europe. The recent G8 summit however called for promotion of bio-fuel derived from non food sources.
The most famous agro-fuel is ethanol derived from molasses a byproduct of the sugar industry. Brazil’s transport sector uses ethanol upto 30%. The World Bank report points out that agro-fuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact. However, cultivation of sugar cane has increased tremendously which has resulted in loosing fertile land for food production and increased water pollution. The most controversial agro-fuel is ethanol derived from corn in the United States which is only about 2% of the transport energy requirement.
Bio-diesel refers to any diesel equivalent bio-fuel made from renewable biological materials such as vegetable oils, castor oil or animal fats etc. Bio-diesel can be used in diesel engines either as a standalone in modified diesel engines or blended with petro diesel for unmodified diesel engines. Fuel containing 20 % bio-diesel is labeled B20 and pure bio-diesel is referred to as B100.
Bio-diesel is mostly produced in Europe. It needs large amounts of land. Millions of hectares of agricultural and forest lands have been converted to oil palm, sugar cane, and other cultivations that produce bio-fuel in India, Colombia, Indonesia, Brazil etc, which creates many other social and environmental issues. Other than land, water is a limiting factor for cultivation of such plants.
Political leaders of the developed countries seem to be ignoring the strong evidence that agro-fuels are a major factor in recent food price increase. They concentrate more in keeping industry going and learning poor people live in hunger. Yet, there is no clear policy on the use of agro-fuel. Some countries have mandatory agro-fuel in addition to petrol and diesel. Since April 2008 Britain has had to include 2.5% from agro-fuels. The EU has been considering raising that target to 10% by 2020. Philippines also use 10% addition to fossil fuel.
Both bio-fuel and bio-diesel prices are higher than the conventional petrol and diesel, unless subsidized by the governments. According to sources it can replace only about 15% of the world fuel requirements, while it will be responsible for releasing 17- 450 times green house gas emission due to conversion of Forest for cultivation of such plants as Conservation International forecasts.
It is too early for Sri Lanka to learn from other countries the pros and cons of using agro-fuel. While it can be a solution to the use of fossil fuel in the transport sector, the transport sector is only responsible for 20% of the total fossil fuel consumption. 80% of the fossil fuel is used for electricity generation. Sri Lanka is fast advancing towards high carbon economy. Sri Lanka will generate 3300 MW electricity using coal by 2015. However coal is not a cheap fossil fuel source anymore. It is highly polluted compared to other thermal options. Converting few train engines to run with bio-fuel is not a big relief then.
It is a shame that converting food to bio-fuel when 850 million people suffer and 25,000 people die each day from hunger. Although the situation in Sri Lanka is not bad as India, Bangladesh or Pakistan, Bio-fuel is not a green option for Sri Lanka too. As an island, Sri Lanka has limited land. It will perhaps destroy our remaining forests, and fertile agricultural land and water. Making ethanol will pollute the remaining water sources. This will worsen the food crisis. We already have enough social and environmental problems due to Pelwatta and other sugar cane cultivations. Perhaps Sri Lanka needs a scientific debate over this issue before politicians make another ad-hoc decision.
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Cement and Concrete
Gene Corley and Larry A. Haskin
The most commonly used construction material on Earth is concrete made with Portland cement. Three quarters or more of the mass of concrete is aggregate, usually sand and gravel. Portland cement, made by sintering limestone, iron ore, and clay, has as its principal constituents anhydrous calcium silicates and aluminates whose typical compositions are 3CaO*' SiO2, 2CaO*SiO2, 3CaO*Al203, and 4CaO*Al203* Fe203. The first three are essential to good concrete strength. In addition, cured concrete contains about 5 percent (by weight) water, a result of the hydration reactions that bind the Portland cement component around the aggregate.
The principal constituent of concrete-aggregate-is abundant on the lunar surface. Lunar mare basalt is similar to terrestrial basalt, which has been used to make concrete with high compressive strength.
To produce lunar cement, high- temperature processing will be required (see fig. 11). It may be possible to make calcium-rich silicate and aluminate for cement by solar heating of lunar pyroxene and feldspar, or chemical treatment may be required to enrich the calcium and aluminum in lunar soil. The effects of magnesium and ferrous iron present in the starting materials and products would need to be evaluated. So would the problems of grinding to produce cement, mixing, forming in vacuo and low gravity. and minimizing water loss.
The need for water, a substance not known to exist on the Moon [but oxygen is an element in most lunar compounds and see Carter (1985) for the abundance of hydrogen in the lunar soil], appears to be the most serious deterrent to extensive use of concrete in space. Nevertheless, the convenience of using concrete in space construction has great potential and such use merits close attention. Water may not always be as scarce a commodity as it is now (see fig. 12), and, for some applicatios, concrete might prove cost-effective even if water had to be furnished. This possibility becomes more realistic if lunar oxygen is made available so that only hydrogen has to be imported. The hydrogen content of cured concrete can be as low as 0.5 percent (by weight).
A possible product of interest might be concrete beams reinforced with glass fibers. If imported hydrogen could be used with perfect efficiency, each metric ton could yield 6 kilometers of beams with a cross section of 10 by 10 centimeters. The same amount of hydrogen could yield a wall 10 centimeters thick, 3 meters high, and 24 meters long. Thus, where bulk plus reasonable strength is required or where complex shapes are needed, concrete may be a plausible material to use. See figure 13.
A more complete discussion of concrete's properties and potential uses is found in the second appendix to this part.
Table of Contents
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People are being urged to give an extra gift this Christmas – to fund life-saving research for children affected by deadly brain tumours.
The Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre at The University of Nottingham is launching a Christmas appeal aimed at raising £50,000 in charitable donations by the end of December.
The money would fund vital research into a pioneering treatment that targets cancer cells but without some of the unwanted side effects that can lead to life-changing disabilities for some children who survive brain tumours.
A brighter future
Co-Director of the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre Professor David Walker said: “Brain tumours are woefully underfunded and receive just 1.5 per cent of the £498 million of the national spend on cancer. We rely largely on charitable donations to fund the work that we do – research that can quite literally change the life of a child who is affected by this devastating disease.
“The good news is that more children than ever are surviving brain tumours. However, the treatment itself can be so aggressive it can lead to permanent brain damage that affects the patient for the rest of their lives. We are developing more targeted approaches which if successful could offer them the chance of a brighter future.”
Every year in the UK, brain tumours kill more children than any other type of cancer, accounting for more than one-third of all childhood cancer deaths.
Conventional chemotherapy drugs are given to children orally or through the blood stream in an attempt to slow down or kill cancer cells. However, the treatment also kills healthy cells leading to these damaging side effects.
Established in 1997, the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre brings together a multi-disciplinary team of leading healthcare professionals and researchers ─ all experts in their fields, and all committed to improving our understanding of childhood brain tumours.
Led by Professor Walker, the centre is pioneering the use of a new intrathecal drug delivery system that injects chemotherapy drugs directly into the spinal fluid or brain. Administering the drugs in this way targets tumours more effectively at a fraction of the toxicity, reducing the chance of nasty side effects for the patient.
By supporting the appeal this festive season, donors can help to fund the next year of the drug delivery programme and help make these targeted treatments a reality.
While significant work has been done pre-clinically, the research is at a critical stage and needs vital funds to allow it to move forward to begin recruiting patients for phase 1 clinical trials.
The appeal will help to cover a £50,000 shortfall needed to appoint a clinical researcher to work on the study and the materials required for the next phase of the project.
Verity Oliver is mum to Connor who has been treated at the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre since being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008 when he was just 11 years old.
She said: “I’ve watched my son deal with the effects of the chemo – the pain, the sickness, the stunted growth. I’m sure you will agree that’s more than any child should have to go through.
“This research gives me hope that one day my son could be able to live without the constant fear of having another tumour discovered. For me – and so many other mothers in my position – that would be the greatest Christmas gift of all.
The Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre Christmas Appeal is being run through the wider University of Nottingham’s Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, which aims to raise £200 million to change lives in Nottingham and around the world.
Donations to the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre’s Christmas Appeal can be made by online at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/impactcampaign/projects/cbtrc.aspx or by calling +44 (0)115 951 3627.
— Ends —
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and the winner of ‘Research Project of the Year’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2014. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK by research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for three years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Write in the ADVENTURE genre (05/24/07)
TITLE: Heretic II
By David Butler
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“Caritas et Veritas!” It echoed through the valley.
Delaware swore. He knew that cry. “Heretics! Brigands!”
He pushed though his mounted troopers to face the oncoming threat.
“Form ye rank!”
His men lined up to block the road, confident their superior numbers would easily account for these bold mounted outlaws. They had a score to settle from their last encounter.
“Hold thou the prisoner!” Delaware barked over his shoulder to the dismounted soldiers who guarded the kneeling cleric. “A hostage shall he be should these outlaws prove obdurate.”
The troopers began to look nervously at each other. Latimer’s approaching company appeared to be still riding at a ferocious pace, as though they hadn’t seen them.
Fifty yards….. twenty yards. They were still at full gallop with no sign of slowing down.
Would they smash into them like a storm-driven ship against the cliffs? Madness!
With a yell, the foremost troopers pulled their mounts aside, jostling their fellows. Panic reigned and all semblance of discipline was momentarily lost.
John Latimer smashed through the gap in the line with a cry of “Veritas!” His sword clove this way and that, sending swords and helmets scattering. His followers broke on the disorganized troopers like a crashing wave.
Delaware was no coward. Flashing out his sword, he shouted “Saint George and the Blessed Virgin!” and spurred toward the leader of the supposed brigands.
He did not doubt the outcome. The bold heretics were outnumbered two to one, despite their brief advantage. Meanwhile, he had his own private humiliation to avenge. If this marauder did not hang, he would burn as a heretic.
“Yield thou, Lollard outlaw! Yield, and beg for mercy!”
Latimer turned his visor toward him.
“Mercy?” he laughed bitterly. “Thou knowest not mercy, Delaware! Dost thou think thou shalt find it in me?”
Their swords clashed together, but the press of battle drew them apart. This was fortunate for Delaware. He could tell he had met a master swordsman.
He shouted and rallied his men. At last he could make use of his superiority in numbers as they recovered their composure. The muffled and visored interlopers had foolishly worked their way into the middle of his troopers, and were surrounded.
“Put up thy swords! Yield, ye vagabonds!” roared Delaware, as the knot of bold fighters became packed together for a desperate stand. None had yet fallen, but they could not hope to fight on against so many.
Suddenly, another cry rang out from the surrounding woods. More shouting hooded and helmeted riders charged out from nowhere and everywhere. The trap was sprung.
At the same time, the defenders gave a cheer and pressed out against their supposed captors with a disciplined and simultaneous charge.
In no time at all, Delaware’s men, thoroughly demoralized, were throwing down their weapons and asking for quarter. But where was their captain?
Instinctively, Latimer whipped out his bow and aimed his arrow in the direction of the challenge. To his dismay, he saw Delaware backed up against a tree with his knife poised at his hostage’s throat.
“Send thine horde hence, outlaw! Surrender thou to justice’s name or this thine holy friend is shent!”
Whizz .. Thunk! Before he knew it, an arrow pinned his knife arm to the tree by his sleeve. Father Lawrence broke free and rolled to safety.
Thunk! Thunk! Two more pinioned the other arm and one leg to the tree. He roared with fury. Latimer’s men roared with laughter.
But all fell silent as Delaware stared death in the face – in the form of a shaft aimed at his heart. The colour drained from his face.
Yet only for a moment. A humble cloaked form stood between him and certain death.
“My lord …. Spare him, I pray thee. He is not yet prepared to face his Maker.”
The arrow point was lowered.
“So be it.” Latimer released his hate with a sigh.
“Was I not worthy of death when Christ had mercy upon my soul? Remember thou this, Delaware, and be schooled of one that showeth thee mercy, when thou showed naught!”
He leapt down and bound his speechless adversary to the tree.
Turning to the good priest, he said “Come, Father. Thou’st a message of mercy to proclaim to thy flock. The worthy captain shall meditate upon these things until thy task is done.”
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Palatial riverboat was caught in a storm
Paddlewheel riverboats are, of course, not designed to be used on the open sea. Their scant freeboard, so convenient for passengers clambering aboard for a trip down the river or across Puget Sound, becomes a major liability in a storm at sea; their ornate deck covers and big-windowed deckhouses, so nice for watching the scenery gliding by, take the full force of boarding seas when things get rough.
And yet riverboats did, in the late 1800s, have to venture out into the open sea from time to time, either for an overhaul or for a transfer to a different inland route. When they did, everyone tried to move them at calm times of year, and hoped for good weather. But once in a while, the plan didn’t work out.
Case in point: Railroad mogul Henry Villard’s sidewheel steamboat Alaskan, in late spring of 1889.
The “White Elephants”
The Alaskan was one of two massive 260-foot-long sidewheel steamboats commissioned by railroad mogul Henry Villard in the early 1880s. The big riverboat, along with its sister ship, the Olympian, came “around the horn” in 1884 and got right to work losing money for Villard on the Portland-Astoria run.
Villard, at the time, was a newcomer to the steamboat trade. He’d acquired a big, sleepy riverboat monopoly – the Oregon Steam Navigation Company – that was in the process of having its markets disrupted by a smart, scrappy upstart named Uriah B. Scott. Scott, who was one of the best naval architects in the history of steamboating, had virtually taken over the Portland-Astoria service with his fast, luxurious riverboat, the Fleetwood. Naturally, Villard had cast his eye around for something that would one-up the upstart, and these two enormous floating palaces were it.
The problem was, the two vessels had been built to the specifications of successful Chesapeake Bay steamboats. In Northwest waters, they were a terrible fit. Most obviously, they were sidewheelers; sidewheels, as the greenest rookie riverboat man in the company would have told Villard if asked, did not work well on the Columbia. The boats were also huge, with hulls that drew 8 to 10 feet – so they could only make runs in which they could stay in deep water. On those runs, their coal-fired power plants, built for speed rather than efficiency, gobbled coal at a rate that ticket prices just wouldn’t support.
Soon the two of them became known as “Villard’s White Elephants.”
Still, Villard stuck it out, and when Scott put the legendary steamboat Telephone into service in 1884, there was no alternative. Coal-guzzler though the Alaskan might have been, Villard’s only alternative would be to hand over the Portand-Astoria run to his competitor. And so, as the 1880s wore on, the Alaskan and the Telephone developed one of the Northwest’s most well-known riverboat rivalries. Races between the two became common events, much relished by the passengers. The Alaskan occasionally won those races, although it’s not entirely clear how. Maybe, knowing what a draw the spectacle was, the Telephone was throwing a race or two here and there.
By 1889, though, all that hard use was taking a toll on the Alaskan, and the big vessel was too large to fit in any of the local dry docks. To perform the needed maintenance, it would have to be sailed to San Francisco.
Which is how the big steamboat came to be 18 miles off Cape Blanco on that fateful day in May, thrashing its way south in seas that were starting to look ominous.
Caught in the open sea
On the morning of the Alaskan’s last day, the Alaskan was pounced upon by an unexpected late-spring gale. Captain R.E. Howes ordered a small sail rigged to keep the bow pointing south and rang for the engine room to cut the power to “dead slow.” On a sidewheel steamer taking seas on a beam, the danger was that the ship would roll far enough to one side to lift the opposite wheel free of the water, and if that happened under full power, the wheel could be destroyed when it contacted the water again.
The Alaskan struggled on all day, making almost no headway. The seas got worse and worse. By midnight that night, ominous signs were beginning to appear. The aft deckhouse had started to rip free, which meant each time a wall of “green water” poured onto the deck, it was going straight down into the bilge. And the Alaskan, built for calm and protected rivers rather than the open sea, had only a few feet of freeboard; it was shipping a lot of green water.
Desperate to keep the boat afloat, crew members stuffed blankets into the gaps – $2,000 worth, according to the Daily Morning Astorian’s report afterward, or $50,300 in today’s dollars. But then, shortly after midnight, came the coup de grace: A massive comber swept across the Alaskan’s decks and tore the portside paddle box off the ship. The box took numerous strakes and planks away with it, leaving gaping holes through which thousands of gallons of seawater poured with every wave. The Alaskan was doomed. Captain Howes gave the order to abandon ship.
Somehow, in the pitch-dark storm, the crew managed to get three lifeboats launched and tethered in the lee of the ship. Crew members climbed down the ropes into the boats and cast off. Captain Howes stayed aboard, as per maritime custom; the aged steward refused to get in a boat, and so did the chief engineer. Perhaps they were hoping for a miracle.
Broken in two
The boats were barely away when the Alaskan’s iron hull, teetering in the crest of a huge wave, broke in half and sank out from under the feet of Captain Howe and the other men still standing on deck.
But unlike a regular oceangoing ship, the poor hard-used riverboat had left plenty of flotsam behind on the waves – bits of planking torn away by the waves, chunks of superstructure, bits of deckhouse.
Struggling against time in the icy waters, Howes found the chief engineer and together they managed to cobble together enough wreckage to make a makeshift raft, big enough to get most of the way out of the water and let their wool clothing warm them a little. Nearby, three seamen were clinging to the top of the pilothouse.
The engineer didn’t make it – he tried to swim to the drier pilothouse roof and didn’t make it. The remaining four of them, shivering in the weather as dawn turned to day, waited 13 hours and were finally rescued by a tugboat that had seen their distress flares the night before.
Of the three lifeboats, two made it and the other vanished. According to news reports at the time, a total of 21 people – plus any un-accounted-for stowaways – died in the wreck.
(Sources: Daily Morning Astorian, 17 May and 19 May 1889; Marshall, Don. Oregon Shipwrecks. Portland: Binford, 1984)
Finn J.D. John teaches New Media at Oregon State University and is the author of “Wicked Portland,” a book about the dark side of Oregon’s metropolis in the 1890s. He produces a daily podcast at ofor.us/p . To contact him or suggest a topic: email@example.com or 541-357-2222.
McKenzie River Reflections | <urn:uuid:812c6239-a3c6-4250-a402-732772fa77e4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mckenzieriverreflectionsnewspaper.com/News/palatial-riverboat-was-caught-storm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975268 | 1,700 | 2.71875 | 3 |
General Eisenhower arrived in London on 14 January 1944 to take up his new duties as Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. With his arrival, the whole character and tempo of planning and preparing for OVERLORD changed. Gone was the basic uncertainty-the sense of planning for a more or less probable contingency in a more or less indefinite future. OVERLORD was now a definite commitment. A commander at last was charged with responsibility for its success and authority to make his arrangements to insure that success. The twenty weeks that remained before the troops were loaded in ships for the fateful thrust across the Channel were weeks of decision when the plans, studies, suggestions, and acquired experience of the past three years were transformed into the working blueprints of action.
It was a task of complexity and disturbing size which at times made commanders despair that it could be accomplished in time. But for the most part the groundwork had been solidly laid. By January there could be no concern over the availability of troops to do the job. Already about half of the required U.S. combat divisions were in the United Kingdom and the arrival in time of the remainder was assured. The flow of combat divisions, which had been delayed to permit an intensive build-up of the air forces and service troops, began in the fall of 1943 and continued from then until D Day at the average rate of about two divisions a month.1
U.S. corps and army headquarters for the control of the initial phases of the invasion were already established in the United Kingdom and the chain of command was settled. On 23 October 1943, First U.S. Army under Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley took over operational command of American ground forces in the United Kingdom.2 At the same time VII Corps, which arrived during the month, was assigned to First Army. Over-all ground command for the assault phase had been given to 21 Army Group. Early in January General Paget was replaced as commanding general by Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery.3 General Montgomery ar-
GENERAL EISENHOWER, Supreme Allied Commander.
rived in England on 2 January 1944. He had stopped off at Algiers to receive General Eisenhower's instructions and then at Marrakesh to see the Prime Minister, who was convalescing there from an attack of influenza. His chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Sir Francis de Guingand, went ahead and on his arrival at once tackled the problem of reorganizing the army group staff and replacing most of its key personnel with officers from the British Eighth Army. In addition he undertook to establish parallel U.S. staffs to convert the British army group into a temporary combined headquarters which would function as such as long as U.S. troops were under its command.4
U. S. naval organization had also become pretty well set by the first of the year, after passing through many complicated command patterns from the time the first U.S. naval officers arrived in England as observers in 1940.5 The end product-the command for combat-reflected some of these past complications. In January Admiral Harold R. Stark was still the senior U.S. naval commander in Europe, with the title of Commander of Naval Forces in Europe (ComNavEu). Until the fall of 1943 he exercised administrative command over various task forces sent by the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet to operate in European waters. In addition, he commanded certain naval administrative units in the United Kingdom. On 9 September 1943 Admiral King ordered consolidation of all U.S. naval forces in Europe under a new command, the Twelfth Fleet, to be headed by Admiral Stark. But, although this simplified the appearance of the command, the fact remained complicated. At the same time, Admiral King directed that a task force be formed to control operations and training for the cross-Channel assault. This became Task Force 122 under command of Rear Adm. Alan G. Kirk.6 Operational and administrative command thus remained divided. Two other important subordinate commands were formed under Twelfth Fleet: the Eleventh Amphibious Force under Rear Adm. John L. Hall, and Landing Craft and Bases, Europe, which was created in the summer of 1943 to receive and control the buildup of landing craft for the invasion. The commander was Rear Adm. John Wilkes.7
Admiral Stark, as ComNavEu, was responsible for co-ordinating with ETOUSA and COSSAC all U.S. naval preparations for the invasion; as commander of Twelfth Fleet he was the administrative chief responsible for providing the task forces under him with facilities for training and operations. Admiral Kirk's Task Force 122 controlled the training, preparation, and operations of all U.S. naval forces. Under him, Admiral Hall's Eleventh Amphibious Force commanded U.S. amphibious forces afloat. Command of bases and responsibility for support and maintenance of forces afloat rested with Admiral Wilkes.
The Allied naval command had been established for planning purposes on 5 May 1943. On 25 October Admiral Little was replaced as Commander-in-Chief Al-
INVASION TRAINING IN ENGLAND. Amphibious exercise off beach (above), and troops coming ashore from a beached LCI (L) (below).
lied Naval Expeditionary Force (ANCXF) by Admiral Sir Bertram H. Ramsay.8 It was not until 1 April, however, that Admiral Ramsay assumed operational control of U.S. naval forces and even then his command remained formal until the eve of the invasion.9 The principal duty of ANCXF in January was still the preparation of an Allied naval plan.
Air force organization was settled in January except for the control of strategic air. Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory's AEAF headquarters, in addition to directing preliminary operations against the enemy, was working on an over-all air plan for the assault.
The training of troops for the assault was never a primary responsibility of the theater. It was assumed that divisions would arrive in the United Kingdom fully schooled in their tasks. The cross-Channel attack, however, posed many special technical problems for which solutions could not be worked out at a distance. The British had been experimenting with assault tactics and equipment since 1940 through the Combined Operations Headquarters. After April 1942 American officers shared in this work and an attempt was made to work out a combined amphibious doctrine specially adapted to the conditions of the Channel assault.10 As doctrine and planning developed and the American Army grew in the United Kingdom, it became imperative to set up an American training center that would both test the new tactical ideas and techniques and apply them in the training of troops. Negotiations to establish such a center had begun in late 1942, but the problems in the way were considerable. During the first six months of 1943 there were few trainees and fewer facilities, as the bulk of U.S. ground troops and landing craft continued to be absorbed by the Mediterranean theater. Moreover, it took time to locate suitable training grounds in the crowded island of England and to iron out the legal difficulties of taking over hundreds of pieces of private property, including farmlands and villages. (The area finally selected, in fact, was so small that firing exercises were narrowly limited.) In April 1943 the Assault Training Center was activated with Lt. Col. Paul W. Thompson in command. But it was September before it opened its first training courses at Woolacombe.11
Nearly all the U.S. troops earmarked for the OVERLORD assault underwent some training at Colonel Thompson's center, although the amount and intensity varied. The 29th and 4th Divisions sent all their regiments through the course. One regiment of the 29th, the 116th Infantry, returned for a refresher course. Out of the 1st Division only the 16th Infantry took the training. But the 1st Division arrived
ASSAULT TRAINING. Hitting the beach (above), and training with live ammunition (below).
in England fully battle-tested through participation in both the North African and Sicilian assaults. The 82d Airborne Division, similarly experienced in combat in Sicily and Italy, did not attend the center. The 101st Airborne Division, however, despite intensive training in the United States did send two groups (two thousand men in all) for special short courses in the technique of assaulting fortified positions.12
Besides carrying out its primary mission of preparing troops for the assaults, the Assault Training Center made a vital contribution to amphibious doctrine. Through experimentation with new equipment, combined exercises, close liaison with the British, and conferences on tactics, Colonel Thompson's staff learned as well as taught, and their new wisdom not only improved tactical methods but in many important ways modified tactical concepts.13 In January 1944, when Eisenhower took command, the specialized program of the Assault Training Center was in full swing; one division was already graduated, another was in training. Tactical methods, though still not firm in all respects, had at least been extensively reviewed and tested.
All the major problems attendant on the assembling, grouping, and training of invasion forces had thus been settled. It required only time and a few minor rearrangements to ready the troops for the attack. The status of planning, however, was much less satisfactory. Despite nearly three years of study and ten months of more or less intensive and specific planning for OVERLORD, many of the basic problems still remained to be settled-the strength of the assault, for instance, and whether it should take place by day or by night.
It was recognized at least as early as Casablanca that the only plan worth working on was one drawn by the people who would ultimately execute it. Hence the decision to constitute COSSAC as an embryo of a supreme headquarters. Various attempts were then made to confer on General Morgan a kind of substitute commander's authority. But the device did not work. After the publication of the OVERLORD outline plan in July 1943, COSSAC found it impossible to make any further substantial contribution to OVERLORD tactical planning for reasons that have been described. General Eisenhower, General Montgomery, and their staffs, as well as the Allied naval and air commanders, found in January that as far as plans were concerned they had to go back and pick up where COSSAC left off in July. They had, however, an accumulated mass of special studies which greatly facilitated the problems of revising the master plan and preparing detailed unit field orders.
It was clear to planners after the Quebec Conference that the OVERLORD plan, as written by COSSAC in July 1943, would have to be revised to strengthen the assault. Although COSSAC examined some of the implications both of adding to the weight of the attack and of broadening the front, the planners came to no conclusion. General Morgan could not have rewritten the plan in any case, since he still functioned under the May directive of the Combined Chiefs of Staff which
limited his resources in men and shipping. He could not secure additional resources primarily because he could not exercise the necessary command authority.
When COSSAC received the Supreme Commander and emerged from its planning staff chrysalis to become the Supreme Allied Headquarters, its formal written plan for the invasion was still the July outline plan. But informally the staff had long been thinking in terms of a larger assault. If landing craft were available, planners hoped to be able to attack with four divisions and have one more division in floating reserve. Still this was only a hope-not a plan. The process of producing a new plan to realize the hope for a strong assault began with the arrival in London of General Montgomery and General Eisenhower's chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith.14
On 3 January 1944 Generals Montgomery and Smith were formally briefed on the COSSAC OVERLORD plan by Brig. Kenneth McLean, the chief COSSAC Army planner. After the presentation, General Montgomery criticized the narrow front of the assault and spoke of carrying out simultaneous assaults in Brittany, around Dieppe, and on the west coast of the Cotentin. He also criticized planning figures on the capacity of available landing craft. The meeting broke up without decision. In the days following General Montgomery's first sweeping protest against the narrow restrictions placed on the original plan, discussion settled down to suggestions that the planned invasion front be extended from twenty-five miles to about forty miles and that five division be used in the assault.15 The extended front was to run from les Dunes de Varreville on the east coast of the Cotentin to Cabourg (east of the Orne River). Two armies should be employed: the First U.S. Army on the right and the Second British Army on the left with an inter-army boundary approximately at Bayeux.16
General Montgomery insisted that it was essential in order to avoid confusion of administration and supply that armies and corps go in on their own fronts and not through bridgeheads established by other units.17 Other reasons for broadening the front were that it would be harder for the enemy to define and locate the limits of the attack and conversely easier
for the Allies to break out of the initial bridgehead. A wider frontage would give the Allies a larger number of vehicle exits from the beachhead and so facilitate the penetration inland and subsequent buildup. Finally a landing west of the Vire estuary would facilitate the early capture of Cherbourg, on which General Montgomery placed even greater stress than COSSAC, principally because he was suspicious of the value of the untried artificial ports.18
Details of tactical dispositions and objectives were not examined at this point. Even the question of whether to assault the beaches of the east Cotentin was apparently unsettled. What General Montgomery did achieve-and what was most important at that time to achieve-was to press, as a commander, for a decision that the assault be strengthened. He said in effect, "Give me five divisions or get someone else to command."19 Of the COSSAC principal staff officers none agreed entirely with Montgomery's proposals. General Morgan, General McLean, and General Barker had always wanted the greater weight in the assault, but still questioned the soundness of expanding the front. Maj. Gen. Charles A. West, G-3, opposed any expansion, because he believed it would only spread thin the available forces.20 The naval and air staffs had evident technical objections since the effectiveness of their support and preparation was directly proportionate to the concentration of the ground attack. Most of the COSSAC staff, whether or not they agreed with General Montgomery, felt immense relief that the matter was at last being brought to a head.21 Planning was on solid ground again and now could move forward. Planners were ordered to go ahead with the revised plan to employ one airborne and five seaborne divisions in the assault on the assumption that the necessary additional resources in shipping and air transport would be forthcoming.
Montgomery and Smith then tackled the problem of getting the required landing craft. The most obvious source was the Mediterranean theater. But withdrawal from the Mediterranean would necessitate the cancellation of the ANVIL assault on southern France. One of General Eisenhower's last jobs as Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean theater had been the drafting of a plan for a two- or three-division ANVIL to coincide with OVERLORD and so constitute a concentric offensive against the enemy forces in France.22 That plan, it will be remembered, was developed during December in compliance with the directive of the Combined Chiefs of Staff issued at Cairo after the meeting with the Russians.
On 5 January General Smith cabled General Eisenhower in Washington to report Montgomery's argument for a
stronger and broader OVERLORD assault.23 "Additional lift," he said, "can only be obtained at the expense of ANVIL Montgomery is insistent on the immediate recommendation to abandon ANVIL except as a threat previously agreed upon by the COSSAC and AFHQ staffs before the reinforcement in landing craft was decided upon at the Cairo Conference." Smith added that, although he had refused to make such a recommendation without General Eisenhower's "personal approval," he nevertheless agreed with it. He felt that ANVIL as a one-division threat would be just as effective as the contemplated three-division assault. In this General Morgan and the bulk of the planners in England concurred.24 Morgan, like most of the planners, believed the ANVIL assault, as planned, was so remote from the OVERLORD area and from any military objectives vital to the Germans that the enemy would not find it worth while to divert more than two or three divisions from the main battle in the north in order to cope with it. The same diversion, he thought, could be achieved by a threat requiring amphibious lift for only one division. Eisenhower agreed that "OVERLORD must be more broadly based" but he did not think ANVIL as a threat would be as effective as the operation itself.25
Pending the outcome of the debate thus initiated, planners proceeded with an examination of the additional resources needed for the "Montgomery plan" and the implications of finding them.26 To get the landing craft they estimated it would be necessary to return half of the two-division ANVIL lift to the United Kingdom. In addition the OVERLORD target date would have to be postponed from 1 May to 1 June in order to secure an additional month's production, and the number of vehicles per assault division would need to be cut to 2,500.27 The broadened assault front would also increase the fighter plane commitment by eight squadrons. To lift a complete airborne division instead of the two-thirds originally planned would necessitate finding 200 more transport aircraft.28
The bill for the principal types of landing craft-as always the critical commodity-included an additional 72 LCI (L) 's, 47 LST's, and 144 LCT's.29 The bill was submitted to the Combined Chiefs o Staff by General Eisenhower a week after he arrived in London. He was anxious that it be met, if possible, without interfering with ANVIL and indicated his willingness to postpone OVERLORD until after 1 June even though that meant the loss
of a month of good campaigning weather. The postponement was seconded by the British Chiefs of Staff, and agreed to by the U. S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on 31 January. Besides insuring extra landing craft, the later date would increase the chances of favorable weather on the Russian front and thus make it possible for more closely co-ordinated action between the Allies.30
The ANVIL question was not to be resolved so easily. On the contrary the issue sharpened and the differences of opinion intensified. In early January 1944 when the British Chiefs of Staff first debated the cancellation of ANVIL, both Air Marshal Portal, Chief of Air Staff, and Admiral Sir Andrew B. Cunningham, First Sea Lord, recommended the mounting of a two-division ANVIL as a useful diversion to OVERLORD.31 On 4 February, the Prime Minister bluntly stated that ANVIL and OVERLORD were not strategically interwoven because of the great distance (500 miles) of rugged country between them and the defensive power of modern weapons. He therefore doubted the value of a diversionary landing in southern France, regardless of the available resources. The Chiefs of Staff had then come to share his doubts.32 Less than two weeks later a War Department representative in London could say, in reference to the ANVIL-OVERLORD debate, that he had met the "customary attitude on the part of British planners." He found them maintaining that OVERLORD was the only operation "that will pay us dividends," and that "ANVIL might be an operation in the Marshalls" for all the connection it had with OVERLORD.33
As the British thus developed increasing hostility to the southern France invasion, the U.S. Chiefs of Staff reaffirmed an uncompromising stand that ANVIL was required "to make effective use" of the French and U.S. divisions in the Mediterranean and to draw German divisions away from northern France.34 The most a threat could do, they thought, would be to contain the enemy divisions already deployed in the ANVIL area. Furthermore, they recalled that they were committed to the southern France assault by agreement with Marshal Stalin at Tehran. In brief, the U.S. point of view (shared by General Eisenhower) was that ANVIL and OVERLORD were parts of a single operation, and that it was unsound to cancel one part for the ostensible purpose of strengthening the other.
"Judging from the discussion and differences of opinion at the present time," General Marshall wrote to Eisenhower in February, "the British and American Chiefs of Staff seemed to have completely reversed themselves and we have become Mediterraneanites and they heavily pro-
OVERLORD."35 As Marshall was well aware, no reversal in opinion had in fact occurred. What had happened was that Allied plans for the battle in Italy had once again bogged down before unexpectedly heavy enemy opposition. The British, in asking the cancellation of ANVIL, were thinking at least as much of the need for additional resources with which to prosecute the Italian campaign as they were of diverting landing craft to strengthen OVERLORD. On 22 January, U.S. VI Corps units had landed at Anzio. The landing behind the enemy lines facing the Fifth Army was designed to force the Germans to pull out and leave the road to Rome open. Instead of pulling out, the Germans held the Fifth Army attack at the Gustav Line and counterattacked the beachhead. The beachhead was successfully defended but it soon became apparent that no quick link-up with the main armies was going to be possible.36 The British had concluded'; early in February that the Germans meant to fight it out in central Italy and they saw this development as altering the Allied strategic decisions made at Tehran. They thought General Alexander, commander of 15 Army Group, controlling the ground forces in Italy, would need a least some of the troops earmarked for ANVIL and that the amphibious lift for one division should be reserved for his use for possible new operations similar to the Anzio "end run." The British Chiefs of Staff declared: "Germany . . . is now apparently playing our game [of tying up German forces in the Mediterranean] and we must do all we can to pin down her forces and commit them still further.... We have no choice but to prosecute the Italian Campaign with vigor...."37
The U.S. Joint Chiefs had no quarrel with the determination to prosecute the Italian campaign. Again the issue was to what extent strategic decisions and planning should be suspended to await battle developments. General Marshall's view was that planning and preparations should proceed for ANVIL but that, if by April the Allies had still not been able to establish themselves north of Rome, then ANVIL should be abandoned. If, on the other hand, ANVIL were called off at once, then there would be no possibility of mounting it in the spring.38
Early in February it became apparent to the Combined Chiefs of Staff that their differences could not be resolved by exchange of cables. The U.S. Chiefs of Staff therefore delegated their authority to General Eisenhower to carry on discussions with the British and sent to London Maj. Gen. John E. Hull and Rear Adm. Charles M. Cooke, Jr., with planners from the War Department to act as advisers. Eisenhower found himself actually on a middle ground between the War Department and British staff views. He agreed with the War Department's estimate of the importance of the southern France diversion, but he was closer to the planning difficulties of OVERLORD and therefore more dubious as to the feasibility of ANVIL.39
During February the SHAEF staff struggled to devise an acceptable compromise. The possibility of compromise hinged, in the first instance, on finding enough landing craft for a five-division OVERLORD assault. Lift for four seaborne divisions and one airborne was promised by the War Department. The problem was to get additional lift not only for the fifth assault division but also for four armored brigades (or the equivalent), five regiments of self-propelled field artillery, shore groups, air force units, naval personnel, and two-thirds of a follow-up division which planners figured had to be carried in landing craft, tactically loaded, for immediate employment on landing. The rest of the follow-up (one and one-third divisions) would be carried in shipping and would therefore not be operationally available until D plus 2. Assault forces requiring simultaneous loading consisted of a total of 174,320 men and 20,018 vehicles. These figures included a large number of non-divisional troops equivalent in personnel and vehicular strength to between two and three divisions.40
As the result of conferences at Norfolk House (SHEAF headquarters) during the week of 13 February, a compromise shipping plan was worked out. SHAEF first proposed to reduce the current planning allocation by one LSI(H), 48 LST's, and 51 LCI(L)'s with a resulting loss of lift for 21,560 men and 2,520 vehicles. This loss would then be made up by overloading transports (APA's), carrying vehicles in the APA's, using AKA's (cargo ships) in the initial lift, and finding (presumably from new production) an additional 27 LCT's. This plan was subsequently revised to exchange the 6 AKA's with the Mediterranean theater for 20 LST's and 21 LCI (L)'s, on the grounds that the large cargo vessels could more easily be used in the calmer southern waters. The exchange would still leave an estimated two-division lift for ANVIL although it was doubtful whether Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson (Commander-in- Chief Mediterranean) would accept the loss of tactical flexibility which use of the AKA's involved.41 The SHAEF compromise still left a shortage of about fifteen LST's. General Eisenhower requested allocation of at least seven more LST's from U.S. production. The remainder of the deficit would have to be made up by increased loading of LST's on the third tide (morning of D plus 1) and increased serviceability.
The serviceability rate of landing craft-or, in other words, the percentage of craft on hand which at any given date would be operationally available-was always a planning figure to conjure with. So narrow were the planning margins that a difference of 5 percent in the estimates of serviceability might mean the difference between adequate and inadequate lift for the assault. The serviceability rate was contingent chiefly on repair facilities and the stock of spare parts-both of which were critically limited in the United Kingdom.42 COSSAC in Outline OVER-
LORD had planned on an average serviceability rate of 85 percent for all craft and 90 percent for ships.43 These figures were substantially approved at the Quebec Conference. On advice of U.S. naval planners, however, the rate for U.S. craft was raised in January to 9 percent for LST's and 90 percent for LCT's. The British insisted on retention of the lower COSSAC figures. SHAEF accepted both estimates and distinguished in planning between U.S. and British craft, allowing the serviceability rate set by each country.44
The SHAEF shipping compromise was severely criticized by planners of 21 Army Group, mainly on the grounds that SHAEF considered the problem of providing lift only from a logistical and not from a tactical point of view. For example, they pointed out that SHAEF had not shown separately the Commando-Ranger lift for special assault missions against fortified positions. This separation was important, the army group planners argued, because there could be no question of loading to full capacity the LSI's carrying Commandos, and of course the excess capacity could not be used for lift of other assault troops. The SHAEF proposals, by pushing the loading of shipping toward the full theoretical capacity of the vessels, sacrificed flexibility, particularly in that they prevented the preloading in craft of adequate reserves. Army group thought it extremely important that reserve units for the assault waves be tactically loaded in craft so that their employment would not be affected by losses or time delays of the LCA (ship-to-shore) craft used in the initial assault. By increasing the personnel lift on the first tide of the assault without any corresponding vehicle increase, the SHAEF proposal either would land men who could not proceed with their task until their vehicles arrived, thus causing congestion on the beaches, or would compel half-loaded personnel ships to wait offshore, thus exposing both ships and men to unjustifiable risks.45
The validity of these objections was fully conceded by General Eisenhower, but he considered the sacrifices and risks worth accepting in order to permit the simultaneous diversionary attack on southern France. Although at first strongly opposed, General Montgomery at last agreed and the proposals were submitted to the British Chiefs of Staff.46 The Chiefs of Staff disapproved the compromise on the grounds, first, that it skimped both ANVIL and OVERLORD and, second, that the slow progress of the Italian campaign made the possibility of providing the necessary build-up forces for ANVIL "So remote as to be negligible."47 Employment, as planned, of ten divisions in southern France, General Brooke pointed out, would leave only twenty divisions to
fight the critical battle of Italy and to meet "other commitments which might arise in the Mediterranean."48
Eisenhower left the meeting at which this discussion took place, feeling that the chances of carrying out ANVIL were slim.49 Nevertheless he continued to argue for a compromise that would save the southern France assault as long as there was any reasonable prospect that it might be feasible. On 22 February he reached agreement with the British that Italy must have overriding priority over all present and future operations in the Mediterranean, but, subject to that priority, alternative plans would be prepared for amphibious operations to assist OVERLORD, the first alternative being ANVIL on the approximate scale and date originally planned. The Commander in Chief Mediterranean was to release 20 LST's and 21 LCI(L) s to OVERLORD in exchange for 6 AKA's, the craft to sail for the United Kingdom in April. All these arrangements, finally, would be reviewed on 20 March. If at that time it was decided that ANVIL could not be mounted, the lift in the Mediterranean in excess of that needed for one division would be withdrawn for use in OVERLORD.50 This compromise was agreed to by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President, and the Prime Minister.51
The decision held only about long enough to be written down. Eisenhower, more and more convinced that ANVIL would not take place, became equally convinced that it would be dangerous to allow planning for OVERLORD to continue unsettled because of the uncertainty of getting enough landing craft. On 26 February, he considered cabling General Marshall his view that ANVIL was impossible" in order to force a decision to release ANVIL landing craft for OVERLORD.52
Two days later, Generals Wilson and Alexander in the Mediterranean cabled their concern over the difficulties at Anzio, stressed the general shortage of LST's in the theater, and specifically asked that certain proposed transfers of craft to the United Kingdom be held up.53 The British Chiefs of Staff reacted to the appeal with a blanket recommendation that all LST's then in the Mediterranean be retained there and that 26 LST's (with 26 LCT's as deck loads) scheduled for shipment to the Mediterranean be diverted to the United Kingdom.54 This proposal was rejected both by General Wilson and by the U.S. Chiefs of Staff.
The debate continued; the uncertainty continued; and the danger of stinting the OVERLORD allocation of landing craft became daily more threatening. General Eisenhower pressed for a decision. Landing craft for OVERLORD were so closely figured that the Supreme Commander
viewed with deep concern the loss of four or five LST's in the United Kingdom and Mediterranean during the first few days of March. He pointed out to General Marshall that SHAEF had not only established minimum landing craft requirements but "went short 15 LST's in the interest of keeping ANVIL alive." Now it had even less than its minimum requirements. "The uncertainty," he added, "is having a marked effect on everyone responsible for planning and executing operation OVERLORD."55
To the Joint Chiefs of Staff it became increasingly apparent during March that there would be no break in the battle for Italy that would permit an advance on Rome before the end of the month. ANVIL was dying. Still there seemed sound strategic reasons for trying to keep it alive. General Marshall did not agree with the British that involvement in Italy would necessarily serve the purpose of holding enemy divisions away from the OVERLORD battle. He quoted General Alexander's opinion that the Germans, using only six to eight divisions in the peninsula, could materially delay him. The enemy would still have some ten to fifteen divisions in Italy which he could shift to meet the Allied attack in northern France, "not to mention those [divisions] from Southern France and elsewhere."56
On 21 March General Eisenhower recommended the cancellation of ANVIL as an attack timed to coincide with OVERLORD.57 This recommendation was accepted and the reallocation of landing craft from the Mediterranean was ordered. The Gordian knot, as far as OVERLORD planning was concerned, was cut. OVERLORD was at last assured landing craft in numbers at least adequate for the job to be done, although there would still be few to spare.58
The firm decision to expand the assault resulted in the drafting of a new outline plan: the NEPTUNE Initial Joint Plan, published on 1 February 1944 by General Montgomery, Admiral Ramsay, and Air Marshall Leigh-Mallory. The Initial
Joint Plan called itself an "executive instrument" directing "subordinate planning and its implementation." Extremely detailed at some points and sketchy at others, it reflected its dependence on the original Outline OVERLORD as well as on subsequent planning by lower tactical headquarters for armies and their associated naval task forces and tactical air forces. It threw the whole burden of detailed ground planning to the armies, which were directed to submit outline assault plans before 1 February. These plans were to show regimental frontage with objectives, Ranger (Commando) and airborne tasks, provisional lists of beach defense targets with timing for fire support, and the approximate number of men and vehicles to be landed in each regiment (or brigade) on the first four tides, with the number and types of landing craft required. They were also to furnish lists, by types of units, of the number of men and vehicles to be carried in the initial lift, a forecast of operations and tentative build-up priorities from D plus 1 to D plus 14, and proposals for achieving the airfield construction program.59
The First U.S. Army plan, issued on 25 February, and the Second British Army plan, issued on 20 March, together constituted the over-all ground forces plan for OVERLORD, inasmuch as 21 Army Group never drew up an army group plan.60 Both the naval and air commanders in chief published over-all plans. The naval plan in particular was in exhaustive detail and was subject, of course, to continual amendment as changes occurred at lower levels and as allocations of landing craft and naval vessels were shifted.
Planning proceeded almost simultaneously on all levels. Outline plans for armies, corps, and naval task forces were prepared early and used as a framework for the planning of lower echelons. The lower echelon plans in turn filled in and modified the army, corps, and task force plans, which were generally (though not always) issued in final form as field or operation orders.
In the sections following, no one plan is described. The attempt rather has been to distill out of the scores of relevant documents-plans, memoranda, minutes of meetings, amendments, and similar sources-the salient points of the tactical plan at about army level and to discuss the principal problems that arose in the course of the planning from the time of General Eisenhower's assumption of command. Detailed plans of divisions and lower units will be found in appropriate places in the narrative of operations.
Planning during the winter and early spring proceeded on the assumption that enemy strength and dispositions would remain substantially unchanged before the target date. The assumption was necessary in order to have a firm basis for planning, but actually it was already clear in February that the enemy was busy
strengthening his defenses in the west. It was noted that the rotation of offensive divisions from rest areas in France to the Eastern Front, which had been normal German practice throughout 1943, had now stopped, although the flow of battle-worn divisions into the west from Russia continued. The total German strength in France and the Low Countries was estimated to have climbed from forty to fifty-three divisions by February, and indications were that it might reach sixty by spring. Estimates in May seemed to confirm this prediction.62 But despite the enemy build-up of divisional units he still had only about twelve reserve divisions, and this was precisely the figure set by COSSAC in July 1943 as the maximum number of offensive divisions that the Allies could safely take on. Thus the estimated addition to Rundstedt's troop list of some twenty divisions between the summer of 1943 and spring of 1944 did not in itself force any revision of Allied plans or cause any grave Allied concern. The May estimates of German capacity to build up against the Allied bridgehead did not greatly exceed COSSAC's maximum figures. COSSAC had set as a condition for the attack that the enemy should not be able to withdraw more than fifteen divisions from Russia. In May it seemed unlikely that any more divisions would be moved from the Eastern Front, at least in the first few months of OVERLORD or that more than thirteen divisions could be diverted from other fronts. COSSAC's conditions further included a maximum enemy build-up in the invasion area of three divisions on D Day, five by D plus 2, and nine by D plus 8, in addition to the coastal divisions. Allied intelligence in May reckoned the enemy capable of the same maximum build-up on D Day, of six to seven divisions by D plus 2, and eleven to fourteen divisions by D plus 8. The latter calculations were in equivalent first-class divisions as it was estimated that the majority of the enemy's mobile reserves were neither fully mobile nor up to authorized strength.63
More than half the German divisions were known to be static or limited employment-that is, either immobile defense divisions or divisions capable only of limited offensive action.64 It was considered likely that troops of the static divisions would resist only so long as they could fire from protected positions with minimum risk to themselves.65 Although in May all divisions were believed in the process of being strengthened for offensive use, it was felt that this upgrading could not be completed in time.66 Furthermore it was believed that any improvement of the static divisions would be at the expense of at least an equal number of nominal attack divisions which were understrength and underequipped.67 The conclusion, in short, was that the enemy, suffering from materiel shortages and transportation difficulties, could not
greatly increase the total offensive striking power of his troops in France although he might choose either to concentrate it or to spread it thin.
The German tactics of all-out defense of the coast line were well known. It was assumed, however, that this did not mean literally a main line of resistance at the water's edge but rather a short stubborn stand in the fortified coastal zone of long enough duration to permit attack divisions in immediate tactical reserve to launch holding counterattacks. These in turn would give time for the massing of armored reserves for a full-scale counterattack designed to drive the Allies back into the sea. If this were the German defense plan, then the location and quality of reserves were the critical factors in any estimate of enemy capabilities.
Reserves available to Rundstedt were estimated at ten panzer and panzer grenadier divisions and fourteen to seventeen attack infantry or parachute divisions.68 But of these only about three to four panzer and two infantry divisions were considered first quality. It was expected that the enemy would be able to move one panzer and two infantry divisions into the invasion area on D Day to reinforce the defense and mount local counterattacks. Further reinforcements would trickle in during the next two days and would probably be committed piecemeal. By D plus 3 the enemy might have a total of three panzer, two parachute, and four attack infantry divisions in addition to his coastal defense troops. These reinforcements could be organized for large-scale counterattack by D plus 7. Estimates did not agree, however, as to either the likelihood of such an attack or the probable timing.69 What was clear was that at any time after D plus 3 considerable enemy pressure in the form either of a large co-ordinated counterattack or of a multiplication of piecemeal attacks could be expected. The Navy was therefore directed to land the maximum number of operational troops before that date.
The German Army in the west awaited attack behind the much-advertised "Atlantic Wall" into which the enemy since 1943 had been pouring a new rumor of impregnability with each bucket of concrete. But despite both rumors and concrete it was clear to Allied planners that the Atlantic Wall had few of the characteristics of a wall and was probably not impregnable, provided a sufficient weight of fire could be directed against it.70 Of prime concern to the Allies were the coastal batteries. Four batteries of 155-mm. guns were identified in First U.S. Army zone (a total of twenty-two guns), the most formidable of which was the six-gun battery at Pointe du Hoe. The Germans had two heavy (240-mm.) coastal batteries within range of Allied sea lanes and assault areas, one at Le Havre and one (batterie Hamburg)71 at Fermanville east of Cherbourg. The latter, however, was little cause for concern. In May Allied reconnaissance ascertained that the enemy was busy casemating the Fermanville guns in such a way as to prohibit their being brought to bear against the OVERLORD assault. Last-minute intelli-
gence reports cheered the enemy on, noting that "construction activity [was] continuing at good pace."72
In fixed emplacements it was estimated that the enemy had a maximum total of seventy-three guns that could fire on the American attack. It was believed, however, that he also had mobile artillery behind the coast. Allied intelligence especially warned of the enemy's highly mobile 170-mm. gun, which had a range of 32,370 yards.73 The gun could be so easily handled that German practice was to fire not more than two rounds from the same position. Frequent displacement would, of course, make effective counterbattery fire almost impossible. All eight of the 170-mm. guns known to be in the U.S. invasion zone were bombed out of positions on the Cotentin during air raids in the middle of May and were thereafter unlocated.74
In the early months of 1944, the Germans were observed to be working hard at strengthening their defenses along the invasion coast. On 20 February air photographs for the first time revealed antilanding obstacles below the high-water mark on certain French beaches. The discovery was no surprise but it was a cause for concern. German experimentation with beach obstacles had been reported in the early months of 1943. At about that time the British Combined Operations Headquarters had begun counterexperimentation in clearing such obstacles, chiefly in the expectation that they might be faced in Mediterranean operations. Allied naval planning for OVERLORD in late 1943 gave prominent, if necessarily vague, consideration to the problem. But detailed provisions and training for coping with the obstacles had to wait until their full nature and extent became apparent. Allied reconnaissance watched with special interest the growth of the enemy's works in the tidal flats during the late winter and early spring.75 The growth was rapid. For example, at Quinéville (east coast of the Cotentin) a double row of tetrahedra or hedgehogs 2,300 yards long, with twenty-six feet between obstacles, was laid in four days.76
The enemy began placing his obstacles near the high-water mark and then thickened the bands seaward. There was then some talk among Allied planners of shifting H Hour to coincide with low tide so as to allow engineers as much time as possible to clear the obstacles before the tide covered them.77 By the middle of May, however, the obstacles on the invasion beaches still did not extend below the eight-foot mark above low water. Planners calculated that, if in the remaining days before D Day they were not set any lower, the planned touchdown time three hours before high water would still permit Allied engineers to deal with the obstacles dry shod. Breaching the obstacles under these conditions was considered feasible, although V Corps had
VAUVILLE BEACH, SPRING 1944, Cotentin Peninsula west coast.
soberly commented in March that it might be "expensive."78
The enemy on the ground, though less formidable than his own propaganda reported, seemed formidable enough. On the sea and in the air there was little question of the Allies' overwhelming superiority. The relatively insignificant German Navy was not expected to risk any of its large surface warships in attacks on Allied convoys in the Channel, though they might attempt diversionary sorties in the Atlantic against Allied shipping there. The enemy's fifty to sixty E-boats (German S-Boote) carrying both mines and torpedoes were expected to be the greatest surface menace to the invasion fleet.79 But even these boats would probably attack only at night. The estimated 130 ocean-going submarines (over 300 tons) based in the Bay of Biscay and the 25 short-range boats in the Baltic had never been used in the Channel. It seemed unlikely that they would take that risk even during the invasion, although they might be concentrated against assemblies of Allied shipping, especially in the western Channel approaches.80 The enemy was known to be experimenting with midget submarines and human torpedoes. These might be used close to shore against ships carrying the assault troops, but no one could even guess how many of these craft might be available by D Day. On the whole, the Allies predicted that their chief concern at sea would be enemy mines. In any case, they did not anticipate a determined enemy naval attack in the early stages of the assault.
Estimates of the enemy's air strength varied so widely that they might have been drawn from a hat. Certain judgments, however, seem to have been generally accepted. The German Air Force had increased slightly in numbers since the summer of 1943, but the increase, compared to the Allied build-up, was negligible. It was generally believed that the Luftwaffe would be capable of between 1,000 and 1,800 sorties on D Day against OVERLORD but it was considered unlikely that the enemy would make anything like the maximum air effort in the early stages. Instead, he would probably try to conserve his aircraft for use in close support of the expected large-scale counterattacks at the end of the first week after D Day.81
Although Goering was credited with having more than 5,000 aircraft, the effort which that force could exert and sustain would certainly be considerably less than its size alone suggested. The superiority of the Allies would probably prevent the enemy from daylight bombing or would make such bombing ineffective and costly if it were attempted. The difficulties which the Germans were known to be experiencing with replacements in machines and crews would mean that the front-line air forces, however impressive, would have little depth. Allied bombing of airfields, furthermore, was likely to cause drastic curtailment of
Luftwaffe efficiency. It was deemed unlikely that the enemy would be able to get into the air more than 60 percent of his nominal front-line force.
The German Air Force had been defeated by the Combined Bomber Offensive in the early months of 1944. This victory the Allies were sure of. The knowledge was the most important ingredient in the final decision to go ahead with OVERLORD. It was not certain, however, just how dangerous a death agony the Luftwaffe might still be capable of. Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory said afterward that he was always "confident that the German Air Force would constitute no serious threat to our operations on land, sea or in the air." He did admit, however, the possibility of a major air battle on D Day.82
The basic assumption behind all Allied estimates of German military power in the west was that the enemy would make his supreme effort to defeat the invasion, hoping thus to achieve a compromise peace despite his hopeless situation on the Russian front. The principal weakness of the enemy was believed to be the depreciation of his reserves in men and materiel which would prohibit him from a sustained defense. The Allies were of the opinion that the Germans would stake everything on the initial battle of the beach. The decision to go ahead with OVERLORD therefore implied an estimate that the enemy's maximum strength was probably insufficient to win the battle for the beachheads.
Objectives and Terrain
The February revision of the OVERLORD plan did not affect the final objective of the operation in its later phases. The analysis of COSSAC and earlier planners which had led them to select the lodgment area in northwest France bounded by the Seine, Eure, and Loire Rivers was accepted, as well as the general timing and phasing of operations after the capture of Cherbourg. It was the assault phase plan that underwent drastic revision.
The three beaches selected by COSSAC83 had capacity only for three assault divisions. New beaches were required for the expanded attack. Extension of the front eastward to include the beach between Lion-sur-Mer and Ouistreham was readily accepted. (Map II) But the revived proposal to land a fifth division northwest of the Vire estuary met renewed opposition. The debate turned largely on the tactical implications of the topography of the NEPTUNE area.
In the area were five regions with distinguishable topographical characteristics-the north Cotentin (rolling uplands north of Valognes), the south Cotentin (generally flat and well watered), the Bessin (the coastal strip lying between Isigny and Bayeux), the Bocage (hilly wooded country extending south of the Bessin and Cotentin nearly to the base of the Brittany Peninsula), and the relatively open Caen country from Bayeux east and southeast.84 The three British
beaches all lay in the east portion of the Bessin and in the Caen country. There was no clear demarcation between the Caen country and the Bessin. But whereas the Bessin merged to the south with the Bocage, the Caen country spread southeastward into open arable land suitable for tank maneuver and, more important, for the development of airfields. In both the original COSSAC plan and the "Montgomery" plan, the securing of the Caen country for airfield development was a critical early objective for the assaulting forces. British troops were to take Bayeux and Caen on D Day, and push the bridgehead gradually south and southeast. They would then secure airfield sites and protect the east flank of U.S. forces whose primary mission, in both plans, was the capture of Cherbourg. COSSAC allotted only two British divisions to the initial tasks of taking Bayeux and Caen. For the same tasks the Montgomery plan would land three divisions by sea and in addition put an airborne division (less one brigade) east of the beachheads to secure crossings of the Orne River. In all the planning the vital importance of the "capture and retention" of Caen and neighboring open country was underlined.85 On the other land no pre-D-Day plans called for exploiting the favorable tank terrain at any phase of the operation for a direct thrust southeast toward Paris. Instead, the British army would push gradually south and east of Caen until its left rested approximately on the Touques River and its right, pivoting on Falaise, swung toward Argentan-Alençon.86
In both the COSSAC and Montgomery plans the task of securing the Bessin fell to one U.S. corps, with one division in the assault. Critical topographical feature of the Bessin was the Aure River, which flows out of the Bocage to Bayeux and then turns west to parallel the coast line to Isigny where it joins the Vire near its mouth and empties into the Channel. The Aure in its lower reaches between Trevieres and Isigny runs through a broad, flat, marshy valley which can be flooded by damming the river. When flooded, the Aure in effect makes a peninsula of the coastal sector between Port-en-Bessin and Isigny. The "peninsula," varying in width from about a mile and a half at the eastern end to about five miles at the western, is a very gently rolling tableland. Most of it is cut up in the typical Norman pattern of orchards, hedgerow-enclosed meadows, and patches of trees. Only along the coast between Vierville-sur-Mer and St. Laurent is the country relatively open. Through the "peninsula" runs the main lateral road in the invasion area: a section of the principal highway from Paris to Cherbourg. This was the rope which alone could tie the five beachheads into one. Early control of it was essential for the security of the initial lodgment area.
In the COSSAC plan the Bessin-Caen bridgehead would have been expanded south and southwest deep into the Bocage during the first week of the operation. A force would then have broken out northwest to sweep up the Cotentin and capture Cherbourg. Although this was deemed a feasible operation, the low marshy bottom lands of the Douve River
and its tributaries, which stretched nearly across the base of the peninsula, would have made it difficult. Subject to inundation, these almost continuous swamplands, traversed by only three main roads, draw an easily defended moat across about five-sixths of the peninsula. The only dry corridor is on the west coast-a strip 5,000 to 6,000 yards wide between St. Lô-d'Ourville and St. Sauveur de Pierre-Pont, which could easily be held by a small enemy force.
The overriding importance of Cherbourg had therefore led to early consideration of a simultaneous assault in the peninsula itself to establish Allied forces north of the Douve line. Such an attack became practicable only with the decision to employ five divisions in the assault. But even then it had serious disadvantages, chiefly because, in addition to the inundations at the base of the peninsula, there was a flooded coastal strip behind the best landing beach on the east coast. Across this flooded area, which was about two miles wide and extended from the Bancs du Grand Vey to Quinéville, narrow causeways provided the only exits from the beach. Four such exits led from the beach proposed for assault by one U.S. division. Again the terrain favored the defense. Relatively small German forces could hold these causeways, block Allied egress from the beaches, and quite possibly defeat the landing at the coast. The proposed solution was to employ an airborne division to be dropped before H Hour in the vicinity of Ste. Mère-Eglise with primary mission of seizing and holding the causeways in order to permit the seaborne infantry to cross unopposed. Even this solution involved risks which some planners felt were not justified. The only previous Allied experience with large-scale airborne operations, in Sicily, had not proved a notable success, and these had been launched against an enemy relatively weak and unprepared. More important, it was pointed out that the same water barrier which barred the Cotentin from attack from the south could also~be used by the enemy to maintain a wedge between the Apied bridgeheads on either side of the Vire. It was conceivable then that the enemy might defeat the landings in detail. Finally it was argued that the Bessin-Caen attack must be the main Allied effort. If it failed, success on the Cotentin could never be exploited. The fifth division, therefore, should be left in floating reserve to insure the success of the main landing and not committed in the longshot Cotentin gamble.
This argument was presented in a SHAEF planning paper as late as 23 January 1944.87 A week later, with the publication of the Initial Joint Plan, the decision was made that the risks of the Cotentin assault were worth taking in view of the need to secure the port of Cherbourg as early as possible. First U.S. Army was to assault on both sides of the Vire estuary with one regiment of VII Corps to the north on the beach later called UTAH and two regiments of V Corps between Vierville and Colleville on the beach later called OMAHA.88 First
Army's main task would be "to capture Cherbourg as quickly as possible."89
For the task of seizing and holding the causeways across the flooded strip behind UTAH Beach, the Initial Joint Plan allotted to First Army one airborne division. Further planning revealed that the force was inadequate and raised the larger problem of how airborne operations could best contribute to the success of OVERLORD.
General Morgan, it will be recalled, had been allotted two airborne divisions to be used in the assault but was given only 632 transport aircraft. His plan was to use two-thirds of one division plus seven to nine battalions in the initial drop on D Day to seize Caen and certain river crossings and coastal defenses. But even this force, he calculated, required 372 more planes than he had.90 The Quebec Conference, considering Outline OVERLORD, increased the allotment of air transport but found that, even counting the problematical availability of four U.S. groups, the total would still fall short of COSSAC's requirements. It appears, however, that the real difficulty as the time for OVERLORD approached was not in finding the necessary aircraft but rather in arriving at a conviction that they were needed. In the last weeks before the launching of OVERLORD high-level discussions of the use of airborne troops in the operation turned not so much on the availability of resources as on how, tactically, the forces should be employed.
There was some early skepticism about the capabilities of airborne operations in conjunction with amphibious assault. The Dieppe raid commanders recommended against dependence on parachutists because they felt it would be almost impossible to secure a coincidence of weather and light conditions suitable both for air drops and for landing by sea.91 The development of navigation aids, however, greatly reduced this objection after 1942. On the other hand, the difficulties encountered in executing the airborne drop in Sicily gave some observers new reason for skepticism. In a report circulated among commanders planning the OVERLORD assault, Combined Operations observers wrote that airborne operations were risky and "undue dependence on airborne effort must only too often lead to disappointment or even disastrous consequences for land forces."92
This conclusion was fortunately not shared by either General Eisenhower or General Marshall. In their view the difficulties of the airborne operations in Sicily proved only the error of dispersing the effort. Both wanted greater mass in future drops. Eisenhower recommended that all troops should be landed at once, rather than in successive waves, and that larger forces should be employed. Gen-
eral Marshall agreed and added his opinion: "The value of airborne forces in OVERLORD would be immense, and would enable us to seize quickly and control ports which could not otherwise be used."93
Airborne commanders were thinking along much the same lines. The organization of the airborne division under the Army Ground Forces' concept of a light infantry division was ill adapted to its tactical employment in Europe. Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway (commander of the 82d Airborne Division), from his experience in Sicily, proposed in December 1943 a new Table of Organization which would have added some eight to nine thousand men, roughly doubling the current size of the division.94 The purpose was to make it capable of sustained ground effort. Although the new organization fitted the developing concept of using airborne forces in mass, it was rejected first by Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, Chief of the Army Ground Forces, and later, on re-examination, by the Joint Staff Planners.95 These actions postponed formal reorganization, but for European operations they made little practical difference. The two airborne divisions scheduled for use in OVERLORD were in fact swelled to something like the size recommended by General Ridgway, by the attachment to each of two separate parachute regiments.
The February revision of the OVERLORD plan struck out COSSAC's use of airborne forces in dispersed packets for a variety of commando objectives. COSSAC's plan to take Caen with airborne troops was also eliminated as unnecessary in view of the additional British division to be landed by sea. On the other hand, expansion of the front to the east raised a new tactical requirement-the need to secure crossings over the Orne River to cover the British left flank. This mission could best be accomplished, it was thought, by dropping parachutists on the east bank of the river. On 7 February General Eisenhower proposed that two divisions be dropped simultaneously in the U.S. and British zones "with such depth of means including trained crews behind the simultaneous lift to enable a third airborne division to be dropped complete 24 hours later."96 To this the British air staff replied flatly that it was impossible because of the lack of trained crews.97 Eisenhower for the moment ac-
cepted this verdict because he did not want to risk interference with the intensity of the bomber offensive. During February, however, it became apparent that there would be lift and crews enough for a simultaneous landing of one and two-thirds divisions. It was decided to land the 101st Airborne Division behind UTAH Beach and two British airborne brigades (regiments) of the 6th Airborne Division east of the Orne River.98 First Army in the meantime had asked for a second airborne division to block the St. Lô-d'Ourville corridor and prevent enemy reinforcement of the Cotentin. This requirement was to be met by dropping the 82d Airborne Division in the vicinity of St. Sauveur-le Vicomte on the night of D Day, using the aircraft returned from the initial operations.
General Marshall, informed of the airborne plans in February, questioned the planners' apparent conservatism. He felt that they still contemplated piecemeal employment, which he regarded just as unsound tactically for airborne as for armor. As an alternative he recommended a bold plan outlined by General Arnold. Arnold's plan briefly called for the establishment on D Day of an airhead in the Evreux-Dreux area which would directly threaten the Seine River crossings and Paris. In recommending this scheme, General Marshall called it a true vertical envelopment involving a major strategic threat which the enemy would have to meet by a major revision in his defense. In effect it would open a new front. He admitted that such an operation had never been done before but added: "Frankly that reaction makes me tired."99 He was anxious that full advantage be taken of the Allied airborne potential. He therefore sent the plan along to Eisenhower and dispatched a little War Department mission of "young men" to defend its merits in the theater.
Eisenhower studied the plan and rejected it. He agreed to the conception but not to the timing. "Mass in vertical envelopments is sound," he wrote, "but since this kind of an enveloping force is immobile on the ground, the collaborating force must be strategically and tactically mobile. So the time for the mass vertical envelopment is after the beachhead has been gained and a striking force built up." He went on to draw an analogy between the proposed airhead and the Anzio beachhead. The German, he reflected, had repeatedly shown that he did not fear what used to be called "strategic threat of envelopment." At Anzio "the situation was almost a model for the classical picture of initiating a battle of destruction. But the German decided that the thrust could not be immediately translated into mobile tactical action, and himself began attacking."100 If the Anzio
beachhead could not succeed, though nourished from the sea and opposed by "inconsequential air resistance and only a total of some 19 enemy divisions in the whole of Italy," how much less chance would the isolated Dreux airhead have in the midst of some sixty enemy divisions and dependent on precarious air routes for supply and reinforcement!101
The fact is that even the decision to land two U.S. airborne divisions in the Cotentin was under severe criticism as unduly risky. The "Air people" anticipated heavy losses which they felt might result in negligible tactical achievement. Toward the end of April, Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory objected so strongly to the risks involved that a substantial revision of plans was made. There was now transport enough for the simultaneous dropping of the parachutists of both U.S. divisions. Leigh-Mallory agreed to this but insisted that most of the glider landings be made at dusk on D Day rather than earlier as first planned. He believed that they would suffer heavy losses by daylight and that large-scale landings early on D Day would force dispersion of the parachutists for defense of the landing zones. His objections were sustained and the changes made.102
But this was not the end. Late in May, when Allied intelligence reported that the Germans had moved the 91st Division into the Cotentin the risks of the airborne drops soared. Planners suggested moving the 82d Division drop zones to the Merderet River, and shifting the 101st zones slightly southward so that both divisions would be committed in the relatively small and easily defensible area between the beaches and the Douve and Merderet Rivers. This proposal had to be modified, however, because the area seemed too small for landings by two divisions. The compromise was to drop the 82d Airborne Division astride the Merderet, two regiments landing west of the river with the mission of securing a bridgehead for exploitation to the west at least as far as the Douve.103
Even so, the plan did not look promising. The Sicilian experience had convinced the British air staff that airborne troops should not be routed over heavily defended areas (either enemy or friendly) and that they should not be landed where they would be immediately faced with opposition.104 The proposed Cotentin drops violated both of these precautions. Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory took an increasingly pessimistic view of what he called "this very speculative operation." On 29 May he told General Eisenhower that it was unwise to risk his carrier force, that casualties were likely to run over 50 percent, and that the results would be so small that the airborne landings could not be depended on to insure the success of the UTAH Beach assault. General Eisenhower replied that he agreed the risks were great but that the airborne landings were essential to the whole operation and that therefore, if the invasion was to go in, the airborne risks must be accepted.105
Development of the Lodgment
After VII and V Corps secured foot-holds on either side of the Vire, they were to join up in the ground between the Vire and Taute Rivers. Originally both Carentan and Isigny were listed as D-Day objectives for VII and V Corps respectively.106 Detailed planning showed this project to be unduly optimistic. Carentan was eliminated, and instead the 101st Airborne Division was ordered simply to seize crossings of the river and canal north and northeast of the city and be prepared to take it "as soon as the tactical situation permits.107 Plans for the capture of Isigny were ambiguous. Although the city was clearly excluded from the D-Day objectives listed in the 1st Division Field Order of 16 April and from subordinate unit orders issued later, the 29th Division on 29 May published a change to its field order which redrew the D-Day phase line to include Isigny.108 V Corps always viewed the capture of Isigny as belonging to the first phase of the operations but apparently issued no order that it should be taken on D Day. On 3 June, however, in a command conference on board the Force O headquarters ship, the V Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow, told his subordinate commanders that the 115th Infantry should get to Isigny the first day if possible.109
Whether or not Isigny was taken, the principal concern of V Corps initially was to secure the tableland north of the Aure and be prepared to repel enemy counterattacks. It was believed that junction of the two First Army beachheads would actually not require either corps to make a lateral movement in force. Southward advance especially by V Corps, it was thought, would probably force the enemy to pull out of the intercorps zone.110
At the same time that the two corps were joining forces between Carentan and Isigny, VII Corps would clear the low rolling country of the south Cotentin as far west as the Douve.111 The VII Corps line would then be pushed up against the high ground of the north Cotentin, in some places within ten miles of Cherbourg. This line, running just north and northwest of the arc St. Vaast-la Hougue-Valognes-St. Sauveur-le Vicomte, would be reached, it was hoped, by D plus 2. The 4th Division, joined by the 90th and later, if necessary, by the 9th, would then make the final push to the port. This final phase through rugged country and the fortified hills that completely fenced the landward approaches to Cherbourg was first expected to take about a week. But after the Germans had reinforced the Cotentin the
date on which the port was expected to fall was set back to D plus 15.112
While VII Corps took Cherbourg, V Corps, assisted after D plus 6 by XIX Corps, would push deep into the Bocage country to establish a line roughly including the Lessay-Périers-St. Lô road, the principal lateral communication south of the Carentan-Caen highway. VII Corps would then regroup to attack south and First U.S. Army would advance with three corps abreast to the line Avranches-Domfront, at the base of the Brittany peninsula. (Map III) The date set for the completion of this advance was D plus 20. At that point it was expected that the Third U.S. Army would become operational and First U.S. Army Group would take command over it and First Army. The new army group would then clear the Brittany peninsula, using First Army and such forces from Third Army as necessary. Thereafter both armies would face east, Third Army on the right. The Allied forces together would push to the Seine, securing the final lodgment area by about D plus 90 and completing the initial phase of Operation OVERLORD.
The final stages of the operation were conceived and stated in these broad terms. The outlined scheme of maneuver and the timetables were not designed as tactical plans; they were frames of reference for future planning, set forth primarily so that the men of the beginning should have some idea of the shape of the end, so that their thinking might be large and their preparation adequate.
The Selection of D Day
The general timing of the assault was determined, as noted, by the Combined Chiefs of Staff, in accordance with considerations of weather, availability of resources, and co-ordination with the Russians. The designation of 1 June as the target date meant that the actual assault would take place as soon as possible after that date. Selection of the day would be determined by the conditions required for H Hour. H Hour, in turn, would be chosen to secure an advantageous coincidence of light and tidal conditions. But just what those conditions should be was not easily formulated.
The whole experience of the Mediterranean theater had been with night assaults. A considerable body of Army opinion favored continuing the pattern of surprise landings under cover of darkness in the attack against the Continent. OVERLORD, however, introduced new complications in its unprecedented size and the fact that it would go in against a heavily defended coast. The possibility of achieving tactical surprise seemed slight. Enemy radar would certainly pick up the approach of the Allied armada by day or night. A night assault would impose uncertainty on the enemy as to Allied strength and intentions, but in order to attack at night the convoys would have to make the turn toward the invasion beaches in daylight. Darkness would interfere with the enemy's
shooting, reducing risks to the invasion fleet and in particular covering the assaulting troops from observed small arms fire. It was noted, however, that if the enemy chose to use flares extensively this cover might evaporate. Furthermore the obscurity of night was a double-edged weapon-or, better, a twofold shield. It would be quite as effective in preventing the Allies from laying down artillery fires or carrying out aerial bombardment in preparation for the landings. This was, of course, the crux of the decision on daylight or night landing: could the Allies engage successfully in a fire fight with enemy coastal defenders? Should they attempt a landing by a power plan or by stealth?
COSSAC did not decide the question. Although noting that the requirements of the Navy for light in which to maneuver and to deliver observed fire support were likely to be decisive, the July OVERLORD plan did not outline a naval bombardment scheme. There was some doubt whether the ships for adequate fire support would be available. There was still more doubt whether naval fire could neutralize enemy defenses to an extent that would "reasonably assure the success of an assault without the cover of darkness."113
Resolution of the problem was to assault soon after first light so that, while maximum use could be made of darkness in covering the approach, the preparatory bombing and naval fire could be delivered in daylight. The argument ultimately accepted in the determination of H Hour in the Initial Joint Plan was admirably set out in an analysis by Lt. Gen. John T. Crocker, Commanding General of the British 1 Corps.114 The first essential, he said, was the development of "overwhelming fire support from all sources, air, naval and support craft . . . to cover the final stages of the approach and to enable us to close the beaches. This requires daylight." Mediterranean experience, in his view, had shown that the effectiveness of naval fire depended on observation and that it had been much greater than was previously supposed. At least forty-five minutes of daylight, he estimated, would be necessary for full use of fire support, and he concluded that H Hour should be within one hour of first light. This was, in general, accepted. Certain adjustments had to be made, however, to allow for the other more rigid requirements for H Hour: suitable tidal conditions.
The spring tide range on the Normandy Channel coast was about twenty-one feet, the neap tide range about twelve feet. Low tide uncovered at OMAHA Beach a tidal flat of an average width of 300 yards. Assaulting troops attempting to cross this flat would be entirely exposed to enemy small arms, mortar, and artillery fire. The higher the tide, the smaller the tidal flat and the less risk to the assaulting troops. The landings, however, had to take place on a rising tide to permit the vehicle landing craft to ground, unload, and withdraw without having to dry out. The questions then to be answered were: how many vehicles
should be landed on the first tide and how much time would that require? There was another difficulty. Outcroppings of rock off the beaches in the British zone would not permit a landing at low tide. But landings on all beaches had to be roughly simultaneous to avoid alerting the enemy before the entire mass of the attack could be applied. The happy mean seemed to be an H Hour three hours before high water. Since there was a two-hour stand of high water, the time thus decided was also only one hour after low tide.115
To fix rigid conditions of both light and tide for D Day would have placed the whole invasion unduly at the mercy of the weather. The possibility of a day-to-day postponement in case of bad weather was provided by allowing a certain flexibility in the interval between first light and H Hour. The minimum daylight period was to be thirty minutes; the maximum, an hour and a half. The required conditions of light and tide prevailed during three days each fortnight. An additional requirement of moonlight for the airborne drops further narrowed the choice to three days a month. The first possible D Days after the OVERLORD target date were 5, 6, and 7 June. H Hour on all those dates was to be staggered, varying by about an hour from east to west because of slightly varying tidal and beach conditions.
Organization and Tactics of the
Each of the five assault divisions was to be put ashore by a naval task force organized not only for the transport of the troops but for their protection in the crossing and their support by naval gun-fire before and after the landings. In the U.S. zone Force U would land the 4th Division on UTAH Beach, and Force O, the 1st Division on OMAHA. These, together with Force B carrying the 29th Division, the follow-up for OMAHA Beach, were all under the Western Naval Task Force, commanded by Admiral Kirk. The three British assault divisions, similarly organized, came under the Eastern Naval Task Force commanded by Rear Adm. Philip Vian.
The assaulting infantry were to be carried in transports specially modified for the purpose. The transports would proceed to lowering positions, eleven miles offshore in the U.S. zone and seven miles offshore in the British zone. There the troops would be unloaded into LCVP's or LCA's, each of which carried about thirty men. The small craft were to go in abreast in waves to touch down at regular intervals along the whole length of the beaches to be assaulted.116
The basic tactical problem of the assault was to smash through the hard shell of enemy shore defenses. Partial solution could be found in the normal techniques for attack against a fortified position. But amphibious attack introduced a significant and complicating difference. The assaulting infantry would have no room to maneuver. They could not fall back; they could not, except to a very limited degree, outflank enemy strong points. As the Dieppe commanders pointed out, even though "an assault
may take place on a flank of the main objective, it is in itself a frontal attack. Thus, once the assault is discovered, there is little room for subtlety. The main necessity is to batter a way through in the shortest possible time."117 The essential lack of "subtlety" in the first phase might be mitigated by flexibility in the organization of the assault forces. To achieve that, the Dieppe commanders suggested using a minimum assault force on the widest practicable front while holding out a large floating reserve in readiness to exploit soft spots. The reserve, it was suggested, might well constitute half the total force. Instead of staking everything on a power drive, in short, it might be possible to "feel your way in."118 General Morgan and some of his staff were attracted by this concept, as has been pointed out, but their efforts to apply it were frustrated chiefly by the shortage of landing craft.
In the end, little reliance was placed on probing for weakness and exploiting it through decisive commitment of reserves. The assault was considered as a frontal attack which was unlikely even to have the advantage of tactical surprise. The use of smoke to cover the final run-in to the shore was seriously considered in July 1943,119 but later experimentation led to its rejection. Trials at the Assault Training Center and in various Allied exercises showed that smoke tended to confuse assault troops as much as the defenders.120
The final conclusions were that smoking of the hostile shore could not be sufficiently controlled, that it offered too many opportunities for fatal mistakes, and that by interfering with observed fire it would handicap Allied fire superiority.121
An amphibious assault without cover of darkness or smoke, and without the flexibility of a large floating reserve, depended for success on developing a weight behind the initial attack that would not only crumble enemy defenses but would carry the assaulting troops far enough inland so that follow-up troops could be put ashore behind them to consolidate and then exploit the beachhead. The double requirement that the assaulting troops be able to knock out enemy fortifications and push rapidly inland required a careful balancing of striking power and mobility. The first proposal was to organize special assault divisions with one or two Ranger-type battalions, small and lightly equipped for the special task of reducing fortifications. The "Ranger" battalions would land first, followed by normal battalions. The assault division would go in on a broad front and move fast. It would be strong enough, when reinforced by cannon companies and antitank weapons, to hold a beachhead maintenance line. Its task then would be finished and exploitation would be undertaken by normal infantry divisions of the follow-up.122
The notion of a specially organized assault division was retained, but planners wished to minimize the structural changes and so facilitate the reconstruction of as-
sault units for normal infantry tasks once they were through the enemy's fortifications. The assault divisions were formed therefore simply by reducing the overhead of a normal infantry division both in men and vehicles and increasing the normal infantry fire power. While the basic divisional structure remained unchanged, the rifle companies were organized in assault teams with special equipment to deal with fortified positions. The platoons of the assault companies were split into two assault sections apiece, each with twenty-nine men and one officer, the size being determined by the capacity of the LCVP. The two assault platoons in each company included rifle teams, a wire-cutting team, a bazooka team, a flame-throwing team, a BAR team, a 60-mm. mortar team, and a demolition team. The third platoon was similarly organized except that it had an 81-mm. instead of a 60-mm. mortar and a heavy machine gun instead of a BAR. After the assault, each platoon was to be reorganized into a normal rifle platoon with two rifle squads and a weapons squad.
The infantry assault troops were to be stripped to the barest combat essentials, but their fist was to be mailed. A tank battalion attached to each of the assault regiments would lead the attack. A portion of the tanks were to be carried in on LCT's to touch down approximately with the first infantry wave. Another portion were modified for amphibious operation and were to be launched about five or six thousand yards off shore and swim in ahead of the assault waves.123
The use of tanks in the assault was a subject of prolonged discussion and experimentation. In the end, the decision was to use them not as an armored force but as close-support artillery. Armor's characteristics of shock and mobility were to be disregarded, and no plans were to be made to use the tanks in exploitation from the beaches. Tanks were not the ideal assault artillery but they seemed the best available. Only armored guns had a chance of survival on the beaches. Tests indicated, moreover, that the tank 75-mm. or 76.2-mm. gun could be used effectively in neutralizing or destroying concrete pillboxes by firing into the embrasures. Tank fire so directed would enable the infantry to cut their way through the wire entanglements of the fortification, approach the pillbox with flame throwers and demolition, and destroy it. It was expected that the majority of the tanks would fire from hull down in the water and would not leave the beach at all during the assault phase.124
Following closely the beaching of the first tank companies, the leading infantry wave would touch down, clear the beaches, and cover the landing of engineer demolition teams. The task of the engineers-to cut and mark gaps through the belts of shore obstacles before these were covered by the rising tide-was one of the most critical in the operation, and its successful accomplishment demanded meticulous adherence to the time schedule. The engineers were to work with
special naval demolition units and would have the assistance of tankdozers landed at this time.
The succeeding assault waves would consist mostly of infantry and additional engineers to clear the beaches and mine fields inland. The first artillery units would come in about an hour and a half after the first landings. The heavy debarkation of vehicles across the beaches would start about three hours after H Hour. By that time the assaulting infantry was expected to have the beach exits cleared and to have fought their way well inland.125
The task of smashing through enemy beach defenses was to be facilitated as far as possible by naval fire support and air bombardment. The early pessimism about what fire support could accomplish was never entirely dissipated. A theoretical study made early in January 1944 concluded that effective neutralization of enemy coastal and beach defenses would require a naval force of a size that was obviously far beyond the range of possibility. The silencing of fifteen enemy coastal batteries, for instance, was estimated to require a force of twenty to twenty-three battleships or cruisers. The drenching of the assault beaches and neutralizing fire on known strong points would take about twenty cruisers and one hundred destroyers, on the basis of three-tenths of a pound of high explosive per square yard of target area, or a total of 3,375 tons of shells.126 Not only were the ships allotted completely inadequate for the task, but there was considerable doubt whether even the optimum number of bombarding vessels could achieve what was demanded of them. COSSAC's naval staff estimated in the summer of 1943 that it would probably be possible to neutralize (though not destroy) medium and heavy coastal batteries, if they were not too numerous, but that naval fire support could not be relied on to deal with beach defenses or unlocated field batteries or provide effective close support for the assaulting troops.127 American experience in the landings at Tarawa seemed to confirm this pessimism. A full report of the Tarawa operation was studied in February by Admiral Ramsay, who observed that naval bombardment had apparently been effective against open emplacements but not against concrete. "The heaviest casualties," he noted further, "were caused by the failure to neutralize strong points and dug-outs during the period immediately before and after the touch-down of the assault."128
On the other hand, the experience of Dieppe had shown the imperative need for overwhelming fire support in an attack against a fortified coast.129 One step toward solution of the problem was to increase substantially the naval bombardment forces. Originally these were all to be British according to an agreement made at Cairo. In February Admiral Ramsay assigned one battleship, one monitor, seven cruisers, and sixteen de-
stroyers to the Western Naval Task Force to provide escort and fire support for First U.S. Army.130 It was realized, in the light of the tentative fire plan prepared by First Army, that this allocation was insufficient, but the British Admiralty reported that no additional ships could be found from British resources. Admiral Ramsay in March therefore requested that U.S. warships be assigned to OVERLORD.131 During April and May, three U.S. battleships, two cruisers, and thirty-four destroyers arrived in the theater and were assigned to Admiral Kirk's command. Certain British ships were detached, but the net result was a substantial increase in the naval forces available to support First Army.132 Force O was allotted two battleships, three light cruisers, nine destroyers, and three Hunt destroyers (British); Force U was assigned one battleship, one monitor, three heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, eight destroyers, and one gunboat (Dutch). In addition Admiral Kirk was able to set up a reserve fire-support group consisting of one heavy cruiser, one light cruiser, and seventeen destroyers. The reserve group would relieve ships of the other two forces which either were badly damaged or had depleted their ammunition supply.133
The fire support plan, in general, emphasized neutralization rather than destruction. It was hoped that, by bringing a continuous heavy volume of fire to bear on enemy defenses, they would be rendered ineffective during the critical stages of the assault. Attacks by air and sea were thus planned in a crescendo up to H Hour. The first targets were the enemy coastal batteries capable of interfering with the sea approach. Second were the beach defenses, the series of enemy resistance nests, which housed infantry weapons designed to check the assaulting troops on the beaches. Finally, naval guns were to furnish heavy artillery support for the infantry advance inland, pending the landing of army long-range artillery.134
The project of neutralizing enemy coastal batteries began long before D Day. Allied air forces were assigned missions against them during the preparatory period. At that time only those batteries were to be attacked which had casemates under construction, for the object was not so much to destroy the guns as to arrest or delay work on the protective covering.135 Actually in the spring nearly all the important batteries in the invasion area were still in the process of being encased in concrete. Attacks against them, however, were severely limited on the one hand by the necessity for concealing from the Germans the selected assault areas and on the other hand by the tactical air forces' heavy prior commitments.136 Security considerations led to the policy of bombing two coastal batteries outside the assault area for each one bombed inside. Only about 10 percent of the total bomb tonnage dropped during the preparatory phase (from the middle of April to D Day) was
PREINVASION BOMBING of Pointe du Hoc by Ninth Air Force bombers.
directed against coastal batteries, and only a third of that was expended in the invasion area.137
First U.S. Army in a series of plans through May spelled out the details of the counterbattery plan as it affected the U.S. zone. The battery at Pointe du Hoe, consisting of six 155-mm. guns with an estimated range of 25,000 yards, remained top priority in each phase of the counterbattery program. It was capable of firing on lowering positions138 for both U.S. assault forces and against landings all along the coast from Port-en-Bessin in the British zone to Taret de Ravenoville north of UTAH Beach. In addition to receiving a considerable percentage of Allied bombing and shelling, Pointe du Hoe was singled out for early capture after H Hour by the 2d Ranger Battalion operating under V Corps. Besides Pointe du Hoe, First Army asked for bombardment of four other batteries before the night of D minus 3. They were to be attacked during daylight by medium bombers and at night by heavies of the RAF.139
These earliest attacks were naturally enough concentrated against the heaviest-caliber guns in the assault area. Intensification of the attacks on enemy defenses as the hour of assault approached brought in numerous smaller batteries and increased the weight of the effort. If by D minus 1 it was estimated that the enemy was no longer in doubt as to the selected assault area, then 50 percent of the available heavy day bombers would be put on six batteries in the First U.S. Army sector. If it seemed likely that surprise was not lost, then only half as many bombers would attack.140 Not until the night of D minus 1 would bombardment be concentrated in the OVERLORD area without regard for deception. Then RAF bombers would attack "with maximum operable strength" ten coastal batteries, including six in the First Army zone.141 Medium bombers would take up the attack against some of these batteries beginning thirty minutes before H Hour, joined by heavy day bombers from H minus 15 to H minus 5. Four other inland batteries would be attacked by fighter bombers from H Hour to H plus 10. In the meantime naval bombardment forces would have come within range. At first light, battleships and heavy cruisers would open main battery fire on enemy coastal guns.142
Coincident with the final phases of the counterbattery fire beach drenching would begin with simultaneous bombardment from sea and air. While heavy bombers of the Eighth Air Force attacked thirteen beach defense targets in the OMAHA area, medium bombers, beginning thirty minutes before H Hour, would attack defenses at UTAH.143 But the burden of the task of saturating enemy shore defenses to cover the final run-in of the assault forces was assigned to the lighter ships of the naval bombardment forces
- especially the destroyers and support craft.144 Specific beach targets were mostly machine gun positions, many having concrete personnel shelters with some light artillery pieces. It was not expected, however, that specific targets would be destroyed. Ground commanders asked for the destruction of only three targets in the Port-en-Bessin area; all others were to be neutralized.145 Much reliance was placed on the support craft which could continue to fire up to H Hour after heavy-caliber naval gunfire had to be lifted to targets inland in order to avoid endangering the first waves of troops. Particularly important were the rocket craft, LCT(R)'s, which had performed well in the Mediterranean.146
The availability of support craft, however, was always uncertain, and in the end only twenty-three could be assigned to support U.S. landings. U.S. commanders therefore early considered firing divisional artillery from landing craft. Extensive experiments were conducted by the British Combined Operations Headquarters in early 1943. In general those proved that self-propelled 105-mm. howitzers could achieve an acceptable accuracy in direct fire while afloat at ranges from 10,000 yards.147 There developed a certain disposition then to think of artillery in the assault as moving landward from successive firing positions as it would displace forward in normal land combat.148 Doctrine of Combined Operations was that self-propelled guns should be capable of direct fire while afloat, and of direct and indirect fire both from beached craft and from hull down in the water. Accepting these theories, U.S. commanders planned to supplement their close-support craft with LCT's modified to take two or three medium tanks apiece in position to fire during the approach to shore, and with normal LCT(5)'s carrying 105-mm. self-propelled howitzers, also in position to fire while afloat.149
Final phase of the fire support plan was the arrangement for naval firing in support of the Army's advance inland. To direct this fire, each of the three assault divisions (4th, 9th, and 1st) had nine naval fire support control parties; nine naval gunfire spotting teams were to drop with the 101st Airborne Division.150 Air observation was to be furnished by forty aircraft of the British Fleet Air Arm, augmented by one RAF squadron and three reconnaissance squadrons, the latter to be relieved not later than noon on D Day for return to normal reconnaissance duties.151 | <urn:uuid:a1e92e92-186f-4652-9158-2232b02f75c0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-4/7-4_5.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00043-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975913 | 19,663 | 2.921875 | 3 |
NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of articles covering basic constitutional principles
So far in the Constitution 101 series, we’ve established that the Constitution created a limited federal government meant to exercise only specific, enumerated powers. All other authority remains with the states and the people. We also discussed the fact that the people stand as the sovereign in the system, and the Constitution wasratified by the people, through preexisting political societies – the states.
This construction of the federal government was implicit in the original Constitution. The Tenth Amendment made it explicit.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Understanding these concepts raises an important question: what keeps the federal government limited to its enumerated powers?
Words on parchment mean nothing without some mechanism to enforce them, and the founders intended the states to serve as that necessary check on federal power.
Before the Constitution was even ratified, James Madison laid out a blueprint for addressing federal overreach in Federalist 46. The “Father of the Constitution” said that if the federal government imposes “unwarrantable measures” (or even warrantable measures) the “means of opposition is powerful and at hand.” He mentioned a number of steps states could take including “refusal to cooperate with officers of the union” and other “legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions.” Madison said that even a single state implementing these measures would impose “very serious impediments,” and when several states take action together, he said it would “present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.”
Federalist 46 laid the foundation for nullification.
Broadly speaking, nullification includes any act or set of acts that serve to render a federal action null, void or simply unenforceable within the borders of a state.
Madison and Thomas Jefferson first formalized the principles of nullification in the Kentucky and Virgina Resolutions of 1798 in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. These four laws granted judicial powers to the president and limited due process for resident aliens deemed “enemies,” and outlawed criticism of the federal government, a clear violation of the First Amendment.
In the original draft of the Kentucky Resolutions, Jefferson rested his case for nullification on the Tenth Amendment, calling federal assumption of undelgated power “unauthoritative, void, and of no force.” He declared nullification the “rightful remedy” to deal with federal violations of the Constitution.
Where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus non fœderis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.
The Virginia legislature passed similar resolutions drafted by Madison a month later.
That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.
Some call nullification illegitimate, arguing the Constitution makes no provision for it. But notice that Jefferson called it a “natural right.” Nullification rests upon a constitutional foundation and logically flows from the constitutional system, but it is not “constitutional” per se. It exists as a right reserved to the states and the people as a process to protect them from federal overreach and hold the government they created in check.
For a deeper discussion of nullification, check out my book, Our Last Hope: Rediscovering the Lost Path to Liberty. It lays out the historical, constitutional and moral case for nullification.
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Black poplar tree
CASE STUDY: Saving the black poplar
25th February, 2010
The native black poplar tree is now rarer than the giant panda with only 2,500 specimens remaining in Britain. The Crown Estate's conservation program aims to reinstate them
How many countryside walkers would recognise a native black poplar if they were lucky enough to stroll past one? Not many, is probably the answer. Even fewer would know that these trees have been fading from the British landscape for nearly two hundred years.
Black poplars are large, deep, round trees with smokey grey bark, and generally grow to around thirty metres.
Female trees are currently more endangered due to their particularly fluffy seeds, which in the past have been considered annoying and resulted in prejudiced planting; there remain just 2500 black poplars in the UK, of which only 400 are female.
The tree also has an interesting history. Prior to 1850 (when they were still being planted) the trees were heavily involved in British industry.
Naturally fire resistant and generally resilient, the timber has been found in buildings, carts and wagons, scaffolding, farm equipment and matches.
Black poplar wood has also been identified in floorboards and arrows on the Mary Rose and in First World War rifle butts. The tree appears in John Constable's famous 1821 painting, The Hay Wain.
The question is, with so many uses, why have the black poplars become as rare a sight in Britain as the Giant Panda in China?
First, endangered native plants in Britain are symptomatic of the fact that we have very little ancient woodland left (dating before 1600 AD), because 94 per cent of it was felled for military reasons during the Second World War.
Failing germination conditions are another problem. Given that its natural habitat is in wet woodland, the tree has struggled to survive through land drainage and woodland clearance.
It also hasn't helped that faster growing hybrid Poplars with better timber were imported in the 18th and 19th centuries, rendering indigenous black poplars increasingly obsolete.
The good news is that the Crown Estate, the country's biggest landowner, wants to remedy this problem. Focusing on the small population of these trees in West Somerset, it is commissioning a team of horticultural students to work on a conservation program.
The idea (which it successfully put into action last year) is straightforward and simply involves taking cuttings from remaining trees for new growth.
Members of staff at the Triscombe Nurseries are supervising the West Somerset Community College students in the new rural skills centre, where the Dunster Estate cuttings are being potted and cultivated, and ultimately planted back into the countryside.
By raising awareness of this endangered tree and working to protect those still taking up residence in the Dunster Forest, the aim is to inspire public concern for the future of black poplars and to fully restore them to the estate landscape.
So what kick-started this conservation work? Dunster Estate countryside ranger, Andy Player, says he noticed the decline of black poplars while working at Exmoor National Park. Regarding their preservation he said: ‘There was a flurry of activity in the early nineties but from what I can see there aren't many other people doing it now.'
So why is the Crown Estate so eager to proactively protect these trees and ensure their future population? Andy Player says it's about the protection and enhancement of woodland biodiversity.
'Until quite recently virtually no native black poplars had been planted since the mid 1800s. As a result most mature trees are old and in poor condition. If nothing is done we will lose them altogether,' he says.
Other conservation work at The Dunster Estate involves the clearance of invasive, foreign plant forms (such as western hemlock and rhododendron) so that native plants (Bluebells, Dog's Mercury and ferns) can flourish in their absence.
The Crown Estate's land includes some of Britain's original, lasting woodland, and Andy Player thinks careful management - not just protection - of the UK's forests that will save its indigenous landscape.
Player wants to carry on collaborating with local volunteers and professionals, and thinks the project could be successful even outside the Estate's land.
He hopes they might be able to supply black poplar trees to woodland estates further afield through the nursery. So the work at the Dunster Estate might just be the seed of what's needed to reinstate the native black poplar in the British landscape on a larger scale.
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Food Price Shocks Imminent – UN
United Nations (UN) food agencies are warning of food price shocks and have called on world leaders to take 'swift' and 'coordinated' action to stem the tide.
A joint statement issued in Rome, Italy yesterday and signed by José Graziano da Silva of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Kanayo F. Nwanze of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Ertharin Cousin of the World Food Programme (WFP), said that swift international action could prevent a renewed food crisis.
According to the agencies, global alarm over the potential for a food crisis of the kind seen in 2007/08 had escalated as drought in the United States Midwest has sent grain prices to record highs.
'The current situation in world food markets, characterized by sharp increases in maize, wheat and soybean prices, has raised fears of a repeat of the 2007-2008 world food crisis. But swift, coordinated international action can stop that from happening. We need to act urgently to make sure that these price shocks do not turn into a catastrophe hurting tens of millions over the coming months.'
The release said the situation had fuelled a six percent surge in the U.N. FAO's July food price index and added that 'two interconnected problems must be tackled.'
'The immediate issue of some high food prices, which can impact heavily on food import-dependent countries and on the poorest people; and the long-term issue of how we produce, trade and consume food in an age of increasing population, demand and climate change,' they said.
'We are better placed today than five years ago. We have developed new policies and new instruments, like the United Nations High-Level Task Force on Global Food Security and AMIS, the G20′s Agricultural Markets Information System, which improves transparency in global markets.
'We also have the AMIS-related Rapid Response Forum, set up to facilitate coordinated policy responses by major world producers and traders of key cereals and soybeans in the event of market upheavals.
'We have learned that not all are affected in the same way – the urban and rural poor and people in food import-dependent countries are most vulnerable to international commodity price increases when these are transmitted to local markets because they spend the largest proportions of their incomes on food.
'We have also learned that smallholder farmers, many of whom are also poor and food insecure can be enabled to benefit from higher food prices and become part of the solution by reducing price spikes and improving overall food security.'
The release urged countries to avoid panic buying and refrain from imposing export restrictions which, while temporarily helping some consumers at home, are generally inefficient and make life difficult for everyone else.
'We must understand that high food prices are a symptom, and not the disease. So while the international community must take early action to prevent excessive price increases, it should also move to act on the root causes behind such surges.
'In moving to prevent a possible deterioration of the situation, we need to remain vigilant and prepare for the worst in the short run, while working on sustainable solutions for the long haul. Not to do so would inevitably mean that the world's poorest and most vulnerable pay the highest price. Getting this right will help us respond to the 'Zero Hunger' challenge set by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of eradicating hunger from the globe.'
Senior G20 officials held a conference call last week on rising food prices, but leaders will wait for September's crop report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture before deciding whether to take join action on the issue, Reuters quoted France's farm minister as saying recently.
By William Yaw Owusu | <urn:uuid:3263b681-3106-434e-936d-b88f9027fed4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.modernghana.com/news/415794/1/food-price-shocks-imminent-8211-un.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938957 | 766 | 2.609375 | 3 |
See what questions
a doctor would ask.
Losing hair: Losing hair is listed as an alternate name or description for symptom:
Causes of Hair loss (Losing hair): See detailed list of causes below.
Hair loss (medical symptom): Loss or thinning of head or body hair
Hair loss (medical symptom): Some amount of hair loss is normal every day. However, excessive hair loss or unusual hair thinning can be a symptom of a disease, and needs prompt professional medical diagnosis.
The list of medical condition causes of Hair loss (Losing hair) includes:
Review the causes of the following types of more specific symptoms for Losing hair:
Research the causes of these related symptoms that are similar to, or related to, the symptom Losing hair:
Research the causes of these symptoms that are more broader types of symptom than Losing hair:
For a medical symptom description of 'Losing hair', the following symptom information may be relevant to the symptoms: Hair loss (symptom). However, note that other causes of the symptom 'Losing hair' may be possible.
More information on symptom: Hair loss:
Research related medical symptoms or conditions such as:
Search Specialists by State and City | <urn:uuid:5ba6b58a-8ab0-4910-bfe8-5d3c4b041bbc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/symptom/losing-hair.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917859 | 257 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Glycemic Index and Diabetes
What Is Connection Between Diabetes & Glycemic Index?
The glycemic index was developed between 1980-1991 at the University of Toronto by Dr David Jenkins and colleagues. They were researching different foods to determine which foods could benefit people with diabetes.
Diabetes (formerly known as diabetes mellitus) is a condition in which the body is not able to use blood sugar as energy, due either to having too little insulin or being unable to use available insulin.
It was found that low GI foods could be of benefit to diabetics (diabetics are people who suffer from diabetes).
The slow digestion and absorption of low GI foods and subsequent gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin levels helped improve the lipid* and blood glucose levels in people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
*lipids are fatty substances which can be found in the blood.
Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which the pancreas does not make enough insulin or is unable to effectively use the insulin it makes to convert blood glucose to energy. Less severe than type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes can be controlled through weight loss, medications (which may include insulin injections), exercise and diet.
Low GI foods in a diabetics diet are generally encouraged as they help control blood glucose levels. However, high GI foods can also be of benefit to diabetics (and others) with hypoglycemia.
High GI Foods and Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia refers to a state in which there is an abnormally low level of glucose in the blood. By consuming high GI foods, people with hypoglycemia can quickly restore their blood glucose levels.
High GI foods can also be of benefit to people who have undertaken endurance exercise and wish to restore energy levels.
Whilst initial research focused on helping diabetics, low GI foods can be of benefit to everybody. | <urn:uuid:f09927ca-22f0-4d7e-8562-071891d4970a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.whathealth.com/glycemicindex/diabetes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956826 | 406 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Radiolab | Talking to machines
March 26, 2012
Radiolab | We begin with a love story — from a man who unwittingly fell in love with a chatbot on an online dating site. Then, we encounter a robot therapist whose inventor became so unnerved by its success that he pulled the plug.
And we talk to the man who coded Cleverbot, a software program that learns from every new line of conversation it receives… and that’s chatting with more than 3 million humans each month. Then, five intrepid kids help us test a hypothesis about a toy designed to push our buttons, and play on our human empathy.
And we meet a robot built to be so sentient that its creators hope it will one day have a consciousness, and a life, all its own.
Wikipedia | Radiolab is a radio program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, and broadcast on public radio stations in the United States. The show is nationally syndicated and is available as a podcast.
Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show focuses on topics of a scientific and philosophical nature. The show attempts to approach broad, difficult topics such as “time” and “morality” in an accessible and light-hearted manner and with a distinctive audio production style.
Radiolab received a 2007 National Academies Communication Award “for their imaginative use of radio to make science accessible to broad audiences.” Nine seasons of five episodes each have been produced; the tenth season is currently airing.
Video Source: Radiolab | <urn:uuid:0b8e0dde-cba9-4195-a1c0-99fdd73786cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kurzweilai.net/radiolab-talking-to-machines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950721 | 333 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Have you ever been in a group of people where you felt you were completely different from everyone else in the room? Did those around you have different politics or religious beliefs or skin color? Did it cross your mind that they might feel justified putting you to death for your differences?
Wednesday, January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day (http://tinyurl.com/yfdgykv). It was on this day in 1945 that Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in southern
Polish citizens, mostly Christians, were killed for their land. Black youth were sterilized and Romanian Gypsies were slain because of their racial inferiority. Jehovah Witnesses were forced to wear purple armbands and imprisoned because they refused to take a pledge of loyalty to the Third Reich. Gay men were forced to wear pink triangles and sent to concentration camps for their sexual orientation. The list goes on and on-- trade unionists, resistance fighters, Social Democrats, Communists, Soviet POWs.
Could you have been slated for imprisonment, torture or death because of an undesirable difference? Could you today?
Undesirable differences are usually defined by the majority, or those who are desirably the same. One’s status as a member of that majority can change quite rapidly for any number of reasons. What if it becomes your politics or religious beliefs or skin color that becomes suspect? It’s happened in
Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference (http://www.msrlc.org)
Raindrop Turkish House-Jackson, MS Branch (http://tinyurl.com/yk4eqjd)
Habitat for Humanity-Metro Jackson (http://tinyurl.com/yzrxpdd)
If you would like to be notified the next time one of Duann’s articles is published, just click on the rectangular "subscribe" button below her headline. | <urn:uuid:7ecaea9d-21da-4aad-8307-40b6365cdc74> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.examiner.com/article/putting-to-death-the-disparity-of-our-differences | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965605 | 388 | 2.59375 | 3 |
References / Resources » Science Mnemonic Devices|
||Science Mnemonic Devices
Mnemonics are memory devices that help learners recall larger pieces of information, especially in the form of lists like characteristics, steps, stages, parts, phases, etc.
In a Name Mnemonic, the 1st letter of each word in a list of items is used to make a name of a person or thing. Sometimes, the items can be rearranged to form a more recollectable name mnemonic. Examples:
ROY G. BIV = colors of the spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.)
Pvt. Tim Hall = Essential amino acids (Phenylanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isolucine, Histidine, Arginine, Leucine, Lysine.
MRS GREN = Explanation - The 7 things all living animals do/have: movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, respiration, excretion, nutrition
PMAT - Explanation = Helps to remember the four stages of mitosis: Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase.
LAWN - Needs of Plants (Light, Air, Water, Nutrients)
Expression or Word Mnemonic
This is by far the most popularly used mnemonic. To make an Expression or Word mnemonic, the first letter of each item in a list is arranged to form a phrase or word. Examples:
For physical laws dealing with gasses, try these:
Charles' Law: For a constant volume, pressure is directly proportional to temperature.
The simple way to remember Chuck is - If the tank's too hot, you're blown into muck.
Henry's Law: The solubility of a gas increases with pressure.
To remember good old Hank, remember the bubbles in the shaken Coke you drank.
Boyles' Law: At constant temperature, pressure is inversely proportional to volume.
Boyle's law is best of all because it presses gasses awfully small.
Create an Expression Mnemonic for remembering the order of the planets from the sun outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
This chemistry mnemonic is a phrase, consisting of words made using the symbols of the first ten elements in the periodic table - Happy Henry Likes Beer But Could Not Obtain Four Nuts
The next 8 elements in the periodic table: Sodium (NA), Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorous, Sulfur, Chlorine, Argon - Naughty Magpies Always Sing Perfect Songs Clawing Ants
Here is a phrase to help you remember the order of the earth’s atmospheres - The Strong Man’s Triceps Explode. This stands for: Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Exosphere.
The brightest stars in the sky (excluding the Sun) can be remembered with this simple mnemonic: Sir Can Rig A VCR, Pa! They stand for: Sirius in Canis Major, Canopus in Carina, Rigil Kent in Centaurus, Acrturus in Bootes, Vega in Lyra, Capella in Auriga, Rigel in Orion, Procyon in Canic Minor, Achernar in Eridanus
Here is a mnemonic to help you remember the bones of the skull: Old People From Texas Eat spiders. This stands for: Occipital, Parietal, Frontal, Temporal, Ethnoid, Sphenoid
King Henry died bloated drinking chocolate milk. Explanation: These stand for the Metric prefixes and base unit. Kilo, Hecto, Deca, base, Deci, Centi, Milli
PORHERC. Explanation: These stand for the seven steps in the scientific method. Problem, Observation, Research, Hypothese, Experiment, Results, Conclusion
DRY MIX Remember variables and how to graph. Explanation: DRY- dependent or responding variables are graphed on the Y-axis.Note: The letter "Y" reaches up vertically and the letter "X" goes across itself.MIX -independent or manipulated variables are graphed on the X-axis.
"TAILS" - Explanation: Remember how to graph. T = Title, A= X and Y Axis, I = Interval,
L= Labels (Remember Units and DRY MIX), S = Scale (Appropriate for highest and lowest data values). Utilize the entire "Canvas," like an artist painting a picture.
Raging martians invaded Roy G. Biv using x-ray guns. Explanation - The device used for remembering the waves from longest to shortest. Radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma ray.
Tommy Gave Caroline Four Apples On Fine Quick Tummy Clutching Dishes Explanation:
Mnemonic device for Mohs Hardness Scale. Talc, Gypsum, Calcite, Flourite, Apatite, Orthoclese Fledspar, Quartz, Topaz, Corundum, and Diamond.
Kittens Hate Dogs But Do Chase Mice. Explanation: Kilo- Hecto- Deca-Base(unit)-Deci- Centi- Milli
Dromedary vs. Bactrian camel. Which has how many humps? Dromedary starts with a capital D, and the letter D has one hump. Therefore the Dromedary has one hump. Bactrian starts with a capital B, which has two humps. The Bactrian camel has two humps. Explanation: Look at the first letter, B or D, and use that many humps.
I Picked My Apple's Today
Explanation: The Cell Cycle: Interphase,Prophase,Metaphase,Anaphase,Telophase
The cat peed on a mat. Explanation - To remember PMAT for cell division
I eat grandma's cookies
Izzy, Please Carry Everyones Biology Book Explanation
ECOLOGY: SMALLEST TO BIGGEST
1) Individual > Izzy
2) Population > Please
3) Community > Carry
4) Ecosystem > Everyones
5) Biome > Biology
6) Biosphere > Books
Explanation - Four largest moons of Jupiter in order by their distance from Jupiter; Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
Sally Loves Gum Explanation - Three Phases of Matter (Solid, liquid, gas)
Science is Magnificient. Explanation: Three types of rocks: Sedimentary, Igneous, Metamorphic
Oh, Can Venus Flies Make Pretty Webs! Mnemonic device for remembering the basic needs of the human body:oxygen, carbohydrates, vitamins, fats, minerals, protein, water
Weather Temperature: High to Low, Look Out Below; Low to High, Clear Blue Sky!
Flow of Electrons: OIL RIG (Oxidation = It Loses, Reduction = It Gains) process of oxidation and reduction: LEO the lion says GER (or simply, LEO says GER).
LEO - Losing Electrons is Oxidation
GER - Gaining Electrons is Reduction
Stalactites hang from the top of a cave so they have to hang on "tight". Stalagmites rest on the cave floor and "might" reach the top if they grow large enough.
Three things your circulatory system has to HAVe? H (heart) A (arteries) V (veins)
States of Matter (School Analogy) - Molecular Movement
- Solid (Students taking a Test)
- Liquid (Students in a Lab)
- Gas (Students leaving Class) | <urn:uuid:ef998d54-097f-4c91-9241-ac27411f127f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/mri/resources.cfm?subpage=1539660 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.816339 | 1,654 | 3.546875 | 4 |
The Three Domains
The 3 Domains
Page 23 is a sidebar showing "Biological Classification." The page correctly points out that the most fundamental taxonomic split of organisms is into the three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryota. Of these domains, Explore Evolution says, "Each of these has a fundamentally different cell structure."
While true, this is only half the story--the most important differences are genetic, not morphological. In fact, bacteria and archaea have such a close superficial resemblance that for a long time they were not distinguished into different domains.
The 3 Domains model is relatively new; it was proposed by Carl Woese in 1990. (Woese C, Kandler O, Wheelis M (1990). "Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya.". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87 (12): 4576–9.) | <urn:uuid:6ea00195-c7a9-4d58-aa4d-8d95a4e5fb4a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ncse.com/creationism/analysis/three-domains | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.870639 | 195 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Power Dressing in Ancient Greece and Rome
Jeri DeBrohun looks at the meanings expressed in the style of clothes and personal adornment adopted by men and women in the ancient world.
Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have a sense of fashion? Historians of dress have traditionally claimed that fashion in the modern sense did not exist in Greece and Rome, but this assertion rests upon a misconception of rather sophisticated Greco-Roman attitudes toward physical appearance, as well as upon definitions of ‘dress’ and ‘fashion’ that are too limited.
As is abundantly clear from their art and literature, the ancients attached great importance to ideals of bodily perfection and to outward appearance in general. Both the Greeks and the Romans demonstrated, from their earliest history, an extraordinary awareness of the potential of the body (and various modifications that could be made to it) as a means of marking social, political, religious, and even moral distinctions, aside from the opportunities dress and body decoration represent for self-expression or the pursuit of beauty. The ancients manipulated the expressive potential of clothing and adornments in a myriad of contexts: in their rituals, in theatre, and in the political arena, as well as in literature. There is also considerable evidence of innovation, experimentation, and the determined expression of personal style, even in Republican Rome where societal norms or expectations were ostensibly rigid in regard to clothing, correct grooming, or the use of adornments such as jewellery, perfume or cosmetics. | <urn:uuid:29365455-22ac-4042-a0d9-b805ded752af> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.historytoday.com/jeri-debrohun/power-dressing-ancient-greece-and-rome | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961446 | 303 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Kit Carson (1809-1868)
Kit Carson (December 24, 1809 - May 23, 1868), born Christopher Houston Carson, was an American frontiersman.
He was born in Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky. At the age of two his family moved to Franklin, Missouri. During his career throughout the desert Southwest, he was a trapper, guide, military scout, Indian agent, soldier (rising to the rank of Brigadier General), and rancher. His renown initially came from guiding John C. Frémont on an expedition to map the western trails to the Pacific Ocean. Descriptions in Frémont's popular report of his expeditions made Kit Carson famous. After his trapping days were over, Carson settled in Taos, New Mexico and married 14-year-old Josefa Jaramillo, his third wife, on February 6, 1843.
He fought against the Mexicans in California in the 1840s, and played a part in the Civil War.
When the Civil War erupted in April of 1861, Kit Carson resigned his post as federal Indian agent for northern New Mexico and offered to help organize the New Mexico volunteer infantry. Although New Mexico Territory officially allowed slavery, geography and economics made the institution so impractical that there were only a handful of slaves within its boundaries. The territorial government and the leaders of opinion all threw their support to the Union.
Overall command of Union forces in the Department of New Mexico fell to Colonel Edward R. S. Canby of the Regular Army's 19th Infantry, headquartered at Fort Defiance. Carson, with the rank of Colonel of Volunteers, commanded the third of five columns in Canby's force. Carson's command was divided into two battalions each made up of four companies of the First New Mexico Volunteers, in all some 500 men.
Early in 1862, Confederate forces in Texas under General H.H. Sibley undertook an invasion of New Mexico Territory. The goal of this expedition was to conquer the rich Colorado gold fields and thus deprive the Northern war machine of a valuable resource and direct it instead to Southern coffers.
Advancing up the Rio Grande River, Sibley's command clashed with Canby's Union force at Valverde on February 21, 1862. The day-long Battle of Valverde ended when the Confederates captured a Union battery of six guns and forced the rest of Canby's troops back across the river with losses of 68 killed and 160 wounded. Colonel Carson's column spent the morning on the west side of the river out of the action, but at one o'clock, Canby ordered them to cross, and Carson's battalions fought until ordered to retreat. Carson lost one man killed and one wounded.
Colonel Canby had little or no confidence in the hastily recruited, untrained New Mexico volunteers, "who would not obey orders or obeyed them too late to be of any service." However, in his battle report he did commend Carson, among other volunteer officers, for his "zeal and energy."
After the battle at Valverde Colonel Canby and most of the regular troops were ordered to the eastern front, but Carson and his New Mexico Volunteers were fully occupied by "Indian troubles."
The new commander of the District of New Mexico, Brigadier-General James H. Carleton, ordered Carson to lead an expedition against the Navajo Indians, who continued to resist the white invasion of their land. The Navajos should be told, Carleton instructed Carson, "You have deceived us too often, and robbed and murdered our people too long, to trust you again at large in your own country. This war shall be pursued against you if it takes years, now that we have begun, until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject."
Colonel Carson pursued the Navajo across much of New Mexico. There were no pitched battles and only a few skirmishes, for Carson's principal tactic was to destroy or capture the Navajos' crops and animals. In this effort he was aided by other Indian tribes, long-standing enemies of the Navajos, chiefly the Utes. Carson was pleased with the work the Utes did for him, but felt some irritation when they went home in the middle of the campaign, having collected what they thought was sufficient booty.
Carson also had difficulty with his New Mexico volunteers. Troopers deserted and officers resigned. Carson urged Carleton to accept two resignations he was forwarding, "as I do not wish to have any officer in my command who is not contented or willing to put up with as much inconvenience and privations for the success of the expedition as I undergo myself."
In 1864, the Navajos surrendered and were marched off to a reservation‹the Long Walk of the Navajo. In November Carson fought a combined force of Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne to a draw at the First Battle of Adobe Walls, but managed to destroy the Indian village and winter supplies. General Carleton in October 1865 recommended that Carson be awarded the brevet rank of brigadier-general, "for gallantry in the battle of Valverde, and for distinguished conduct and gallantry in the wars against the Mescalero Apaches and against the Navajo Indians of New Mexico."
When the Civil War ended, and with the Navajo campaign successfully concluded, Carson left the army and took up ranching in Colorado. He died there in 1868, but the legend of Kit Carson continued to grow through the years as dime-novels, comic books, movies and television recounted (and invented) the frontiersman's many exciting adventures.
Carson died in Boggsville, Colorado. He is buried in Taos, New Mexico alongside his wife, Josephine. His headstone inscription reads: "Kit Carson / Died May 23rd 1868 / Aged 59 Years."
Carson City, the capital of Nevada, is named in his honor as is Kit Carson Peak in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of southern Colorado and Carson National Forest, in northern New Mexico. | <urn:uuid:c466565c-2f62-4511-9e52-e68aa943cb66> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/chron/civilwarnotes/carson.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978034 | 1,245 | 3.328125 | 3 |
About 75 workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have been accidentally exposed to dangerous anthrax bacteria this month because of a safety problem at some of its labs in Atlanta, the federal agency revealed Thursday.
Independent experts say it appears to be the largest incident involving anthrax, a potential bioterrorism agent, in a U.S. lab in at least a decade. CDC officials say the risk of infection seems very low, but the employees were being monitored or given antibiotics as a precaution.
"Based on the investigation to date, CDC believes that other CDC staff, family members, and the general public are not at risk of exposure and do not need to take any protective action," a statement from the agency says.
The problem was discovered last Friday, and some of the anthrax may have become airborne in two labs the previous week, the statement says.
The safety lapse occurred when a high level biosecurity lab was preparing anthrax samples. The samples were to be used at lower security labs researching new ways to detect the germs in environmental samples. The higher security lab used a procedure that did not completely inactivate the bacteria.
Workers in three labs who later came into contact with these potentially infectious samples were not wearing adequate protective gear because they believed the samples had been inactivated. Procedures in two of the labs may have spread anthrax spores in the air.
Live bacteria were discovered last Friday on materials gathered for disposal. Labs and halls have been tested and decontaminated and will reopen "when safe to operate," the CDC statement says. Because proper procedures were not followed, the agency said workers will be disciplined "as necessary."
"It's really unfortunate that this happened. It's unacceptable and we're going to do everything we can to understand why it happened and what we need to do differently to make sure it doesn't happen again," said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.
He said the incident was revealed on Thursday, nearly a week after it was discovered, because the first priority was investigating the extent of the problem and notifying workers.
"When we learned what had happened we moved as swiftly as possible to contact anyone who was possibly exposed," he said.
Skinner said he did not know how many employees were taking antibiotics or how they were exposed.
Anthrax infections can occur through skin contact but "if you inhale it and you get it in the lungs, that's a lot more dangerous," said Paul Roepe, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University Medical Center. The ability of antibiotics to prevent infection depends on how quickly they are started, he said.
Anthrax created fear in 2001, when five people died and 17 others were sickened from letters containing anthrax spores sent through the mail. The FBI blames the attacks on a lone government scientist, Bruce Ivins, who committed suicide.
Scott J. Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, said this appears to be the largest potential anthrax exposure in a lab since then, and he urged the CDC to fully disclose the results of its investigation.
"It's important to learn what happened there so we can ensure it doesn't happen again," he said. Labs "work on anthrax all the time," and the CDC's statement seems to suggest human error, "not a system failure."
"They're taking all the necessary steps" for potentially exposed workers, he added.
CDC anthrax: http://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/ | <urn:uuid:a1bf5365-c395-42e1-bcc5-0cf5ea05519f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.parkrecord.com/ci_25995861/cdc-probes-lab-workers-possible-anthrax-exposure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979941 | 711 | 2.625 | 3 |
Sub-Saharan African Art:
Sowo Mask Sierra Leone, Mende. Late 19th - early 20th centuries A.D. Wood, raffia, copper alloy. 25 x 7 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (63.5 x 19 x 22 cm). 1994.4.797 This black polished helmet mask combined with black raffia and adorned with a British West African coin is a particularly fine example of the Sowo initiation mask used by the women's fellowship known as Sande in Sierra Leone. Worn on the head by the highest members of Sande, the masks are paraded during a young girl's initiation period in which she is isolated and instructed in responsible womanhood. The sowei, who is the leader of Sande, is spiritually present in the Sowo mask. During the coming-of-age ceremony, young Sande women are often referred to as the brides of a male water spirit possessing the mask.
Sowo's beauty and grace are the idealized Mende woman realized. Typical of the Sowo carving tradition, a ringed neck supports a large domed head with an elaborate coiffure in the shape of a British monarch's crown, and small facial features are reserved for the lower third of the mask. In this example, strands of cowries are carved into the coiffure. Cowrie shells, used among the Mende as secular and sacred decoration and strung around the headdresses of the Sande dancers, have been used throughout Africa as a form of currency. Here the shell motif echoes the coin below as adornments that denote the high status of the wearer. Appropriation of these commercial items for the production of this art object demonstrates the creativity and ingenuity of the Mende.
© Emory University
For more information please see our frequently asked questions. | <urn:uuid:b5ad6cf8-8382-4644-a09e-17470b296938> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://carlos.emory.edu/COLLECTION/AFRICA/africa04.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00137-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94283 | 381 | 2.890625 | 3 |
This book is about the specific use of DVD discs to hold DVD-Video content. Information on the lower-level structure of a DVD disc can be found elsewhere; here we will concentrate only on the directory- and file-level structures necessary for DVD-Video.
The titles (content) on a DVD-Video disc are stored in MPEG format. In addition to this, a disc will typically have one or more menu screens with buttons marked on them, linked to each other and to the titles. You can navigate around the buttons in a menu by using the up, down, left and right arrow buttons on your player remote, and select a menu button by pressing the button marked “OK” or “Enter” on the remote, normally located in the middle of the arrow buttons.
There will usually be a “main menu” which automatically comes up when you put the disc in the player (after initial company logos, copyright warnings and other guff that the distributors insist on inflicting on us), and that you can return to with the “Top Menu” button on the remote. Other remote buttons labelled “Menu”, “Subtitle”, “Audio”, “Angle” or “Chapter” may bring up other special menus, depending on the disc.
Disc Structure Versus Title Structure
One thing that will strike you about the DVD-Video data structures is that they tend to offer a variety of ways of doing what amounts to the same thing. For example, how menus and titles are grouped on disc is one thing, whereas how they appear to the user (linked to each other by the buttons in the menus) can be very different.
DVD-Video also allows for subtitles. These are called subpictures, because they are represented, not as text, but as bitmaps overlaid on the video. They can thus represent arbitrary fonts, languages, writing systems etc. And they don’t even have to be text. However they are stored as two bits per pixel, thus allowing for only four different colours (transparent areas where the video shows through also count as a colour).
Subpictures are also used to implement highlighting of buttons in menus. In this situation, their display is normally “forced” (i.e. unconditional), so the user doesn’t have to turn them on. In fact it doesn’t make sense for the user not to see the buttons on the menus.
Menu buttons can do more than just bring up a title or another menu; there is a whole virtual machine language that is understood by an interpreter built into the DVD player, that can implement quite complicated interactive behaviours.
Commercial DVD-Video discs are commonly region-coded, while the consumer players are region-locked to only play discs coded with the same region. For example, North America is Region 1, Europe is Region 2, etc. This was to allow the distributors to release discs first into their most important markets, while taking their time over making them available elsewhere, without the worry that somebody might ship the discs to the latter markets and bypass the “official” distributors in the process.
Nevertheless, region-unlocked players are commonly available in many parts of the world, and in some places it is actually illegal to prevent customers from unlocking their players.
Commercial DVD-Video discs are commonly encrypted with the Content-Scrambling System (CSS). The idea was that makers of player hardware and software would only be given access to the encryption keys if they signed an agreement to ensure that the decrypted video could not be easily recorded or copied by other devices or software.
Unfortunately, the CSS encryption was badly designed, and many people who did not sign such agreements were soon able to break it. Regretfully there are still legal restrictions in some jurisdictions on the distribution of CSS-decryption software, but all the good Free Software DVD-Video players are able to use the decryption library once you find it and install it (wink, wink).
CSS-encrypted discs have a special area containing decryption keys, which is only accessible via a special handshake between the DVD drive and the player software, details of which are not publicly known. Writable DVD blanks that ordinary consumers can buy do not have provision for this special area (and in any case off-the-shelf DVD writers cannot write it). So at this time Free Software cannot create such discs.
Prohibited User Operations
Remember I mentioned above the stuff that commonly starts playing on commercial discs as soon as you put them in the player? What makes them doubly annoying is that you often cannot skip or fast-forward over them.
This is done by specifying that certain “user operations” (skip, fast-forward, pause/still etc) are prohibited over certain areas of the disc. | <urn:uuid:ac5c939d-f061-48ad-8fed-e847f407324b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inside_DVD-Video/Overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93784 | 997 | 2.703125 | 3 |
This month, I look at 10 essential Windows NT command-script techniques. Command scripts are ASCII text files that contain a group of NT commands. Command scripts can help you automate administrative tasks, such as creating users or shares or running a backup.
10. Adding comments to a script lets you help others understand what your script does and helps you remember the purpose of older scripts. Use double colons (::) or a Rem statement to add comments to a script.
:: Filename: myfile.bat rem This batch was created on 03/12/99
9. The Echo command lets you control NT's default echo functionality. By default, NT displays all commands onscreen unless you explicitly turn off the capability. Echo Off turns off all echoing, except those commands that start with Echo. @Echo Off turns off echoing for the command that follows.
@echo off echo Command file processing is starting
8. The Goto command and tags let you add structure to your command files. Goto branches to the tag that the Goto statement specifies.
goto error :error
7. Command-line parameters let you give command files flexibility and reusability. For instance, a command file that adds users might accept a username as a parameter so that different users can use the same script. Command-line parameters start with the percent sign (%), followed by the ordinal number of the parameter.
net user %1 /add
6. Environment variables let you retrieve settings from the system's environment and substitute values when the script runs. You use the Set command to create a new environment variable. You use the variable name between % symbols to retrieve the contents of an environment variable.
set user=tempuser net user %user% /add
5. Subroutines let you organize your scripts. You use subroutines with the Call command, which directs your script's execution to the tag you specify after Call. When the subroutine completes, execution returns to the line following Call.
call :init_files :init_files del C:\temp\tempfile.txt goto :eof
4. Redirection lets you change the input source and output destination for your scripts. For instance, combining re direction and Echo lets you write text files. Using one redirection symbol (>) creates a new file; using two redirection symbols (>>) appends text to an existing file.
echo text line 1 > C:\temp\sample.txt echo text line 2 >> C:\temp\sample.txt
3. The If command lets you add programmatical control to your scripts' execution. You can use If to test the contents of an environment variable and to check whether a file exists.
if not %os%
2. The Choice command lets you prompt users to input a character. You can override Choice's default Y or N prompts with the /c switch. Choice sets the %errorlevel% environment variable to the ordinal number that corresponds to the user's choice.
choice /cABC if %errorlevel%1 echo You choose A
1. The For statement lets you repeat a command, each time using a different value from a set of values. For also has advanced capabilities, including the ability to read and parse the contents of files, directories, and the system environment. Two % symbols must precede For's replaceable variable.
for %%i in (file1, file2, file3) do if exist %%i del %%i | <urn:uuid:69e05ef1-1742-4075-97a1-37879e4cd1d6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://windowsitpro.com/print/systems-management/nt-command-script-techniques | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.781968 | 714 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Balancing Blood Sugar and Diabetes | InVite Health
Balancing Blood Sugar
by Jerry Hickey, R.Ph.
Diabetes is a vicious and life-threatening disease. It is a condition where your blood sugar is continuously and seriously elevated (and your triglycerides are also). The excess circulating blood sugar is very destructive inflaming tissues in the heart and circulation, in the eyes, brain, kidneys, and nerve tissue leading to all manner of serious and life threatening diseases.
Diabetes occurs because for various reasons your cells become resistant to the effects of the hormone insulin; insulin normally stores sugar in your cells. However, long before full blown diabetes occurs, at a stage referred to as pre-diabetes, your blood sugar is already modestly increased and the beginnings of damage to your kidneys, your blood vessel walls, and to your eyes is already occurring (perhaps it should be renamed early stage diabetes); even a modest elevation in blood sugar should always be looked at seriously.
Diabetes type 2 is the more common version that occurs when the body’s cells become resistant to the effects of insulin. This results in elevated levels of sugar and triglycerides in the blood. The most common cause of type 2 diabetes is truncal obesity or having an apple shaped body instead of a pear shaped one. New evidence indicates that an increase in the circulating levels of CRP (C-reactive protein), an enzyme tied into inflammation and heart disease, is a major indicator of impending diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes refers to an autoimmune disease that attacks and destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas; it is much less common. People with type 1 diabetes always require insulin.
Know your test scores:
Impaired Fasting Blood Glucose
To determine your risk of developing diabetes your doctor will perform a test on your blood after you fast for 12 hours. If your blood sugar after fasting is lower than 99 you are likely ok. However, if the blood sugar is between 100 to 125 mg/dL you have impaired fasting blood glucose and your risk of developing diabetes is increased. You are also at risk for developing cardiovascular disease. For many individuals diet, exercise, and particular nutrients are very beneficial at this point and can help restore blood sugar levels down towards normal. Some drugs are also prescribed for this effect. If your fasting blood sugar is above 125mg/dL you are considered to have full blown diabetes and diabetes is a vicious disease that must be treated aggressively.
A blood test that measures average blood glucose over the past 2 to 3 months and is the best way to measure overall glucose control. It should be measured 2 to 4 times a year and the goal is less than 7 percent.
Symptoms may include feeling tired or ill, excessive thirst, frequent urination, sudden weight loss, blurred vision, slow healing of infections, and genital itching.
A combination of herbs, nutrients, and minerals that have the ability to improve blood glucose management. The formula includes the minerals chromium and vanadium, the nutrient Alpha-Lipoic Acid, and the herbs bitter melon, Gymnema sylvestre, and Fenugreek seed extract. The ingredients in Gluco Hx have been used in clinical studies and are the favorite of thousands of InVite clients.
The first nutritional ingredient proven scientifically and through human clinical studies to neutralize the starch found in your favorite foods.
Phase 2 is a unique nutrient derived from the white kidney bean. The beans are not genetically modified and the highest quality manufacturing practices are used to extract the important nutrient through a water distraction process. The result is an absolutely pure and safe nutrient. Phase 2 works with the body’s metabolism to neutralize excess starches and carbs. Instead of allowing the body to absorb the extra carbs where they can be stored as fat, they pass directly through the system.
Taking two Phase 2 capsules before meals allows the ingredient to modestly bind to the starch digesting enzyme alpha-amylase. The result is improved weight loss if needed and improved blood sugar control.
Provides three herbs clinically used for blood sugar issues; Corosolic Acid from the Philippine herb Banaba, Cinnulin rich in type A water soluble polymers extracted from Cinnamon, and Green Coffee Berry Extract.
A B-complex vitamin clinically proven to support healthy blood sugar levels. Biotin also supports the health of the nails and hair follicle. | <urn:uuid:4be091fe-16f7-4a52-bfce-ff9059c22d02> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.invitehealth.com/blood-sugar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00035-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9219 | 901 | 2.859375 | 3 |
OAKLAND, CALIF. — THE spectacle of residents here returning to homes where nothing is left but a chimney is sending a five-alarm warning across the United States.In a nation where cities are expanding into suburbs and suburbs into "exurbs," experts say Oakland typifies "the fire of the future," a place where housing developments meet wildlands and the results are too often combustible. The risks are probably the most pronounced in California, but they extend way beyond this rapidly growing state. The development of what were once wild areas on the outskirts of cities, the building of homes on the edge of national parks and pristine forests, dense development in urban hills and canyons lands - all pose new challenges to firefighters. Experts say preventing such debacles as occurred here, where 2,700 dwellings were destroyed in the worst fire in US history, requires new firefighting techniques, changes in urban planning, and sacrifices by home owners. "As the population grows, as we take over more wildland areas, there are no buffer zones between ground cover and homes," says James Covington, an instructor at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. "Whenever you have small brush fires, they can run right up to buildings." No longer, say experts, can city fire departments be content knowing just how to put out structure fires, nor can state and federal agencies be schooled only in wildland techniques. Departments today need off-road vehicles as well as traditional "pumpers," and ground crews that can create fire breaks. "I think this is the fire of the future," says Charlie Johnson of the Santa Barbara Fire Department, which last year fought the "painted cave" blaze that destroyed 600 structures. The Oakland fire also highlights the need for new command structures to handle large-scale emergencies. At the peak, more than 1,400 firefighters and several hundred pieces of equipment - including planes and helicopters - were enlisted to battle the 1,800-acre blaze. Traditionally, departments have used top-down command structures, with one person directing the operation. Now, says Mr. Covington, departments need to use "incident command systems" that decentralize tasks, allowing greater flexibility. Although the Oakland fire department was using this management approach, some firefighters have complained of confusion and lack of direction that left them idle during phases of the operation. Much of the responsibility for reducing the fire danger in urban-rural areas will fall to governments and homeowners. Fire authorities emphasize the need for adequate water supplies in new developments. This means not only the systems that emergency crews would tap - several reservoirs went dry in the early stages of the Oakland fire after pumping plants failed - but also reserve supplies at homes. The state Department of Forestry recommends that each homeowner have at least 2,500 gallons of emergency water on hand. To allow easy access to dwellings in rugged areas, fire officials stress the need for adequate roads. Homeowners, officials believe, must adopt an new fire-safety ethic. This means new fire-retardant building materials and new approaches to landscaping. Some residents that rebuilt after the Santa Barbara have moved homes away from ledges and created vegetation-free buffer zones around their dwellings. "This is not just a fire department problem," says Mr. Johnson. "It is a community problem." Oakland officials are being criticized for their handling of a small brush fire last Saturday that precipitated the inferno. Fire officials thought the small blaze - the origin of which has been "classified as suspicious in nature was under control and they left it unmonitored at times. Gusting winds whipped it into the conflagration it became the next day. Local officials reacted angrily this week to all the post-tragedy finger pointing. "I don't think anything could have been done differently," said one fire official. "This was a true freak of nature." | <urn:uuid:20877f0f-e05f-42a4-8a59-4bc36ffb0d17> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1025/25071.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00008-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967904 | 782 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Combating HIV and AIDS: Protecting the Health of Latino Communities
"HIV prevention in Latino communities will take the combined efforts of public health agencies, community organizations, churches, schools, leaders, neighbors, and friends."
Latino communities face a health crisis that threatens to imperil their future health, prosperity and human potential. That threat is HIV/AIDS.
The U.S. HIV epidemic has expanded from one which primarily impacted white gay men in the late 1980's, to an epidemic which, in 2000, affects a more diverse population than ever before. HIV prevention efforts must aggressively target a wide range of communities, from new populations of white gay men, who remain at high risk, to gay men of color, African-American and Latino women at risk, injection drug users of all races, and adolescents as they come of age.
While African Americans face the greatest HIV and AIDS burden in the United States -- accounting for an estimated 55% of new infections -- the toll of the epidemic among Latinos cannot be ignored. Latinos in some areas of the country, primarily the Northeast, Puerto Rico, and Florida, are among the populations now at greatest risk of infection. Overall, Latinos represent an estimated 20% of new HIV infections.
The breadth of the health crisis has prompted Latinos to respond to HIV/AIDS with a growing sense of urgency. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 50% of Latinos surveyed in late 1997 said AIDS was the country's most serious health problem, and two-thirds of Latinos believe AIDS is more urgent now than it was few years ago.
The same survey found that Latinos are twice as likely as other Americans to agree that AIDS a problem for people they know. Ninety-four percent support government-sponsored HIV education and prevention, and three out of Latino adults say they need help in learning to discuss AIDS with young people.
There are important issues that make addressing HIV/AIDS among Latinos particularly challenging, most importantly the tremendous diversity within Latino communities. The many countries that Latinos emigrate from reflect a variety of cultures, attitudes and HIV risk factors. Because attitudes, knowledge, and risk behaviors vary significantly depending on country of origin, HIV prevention services need to be finely tailored to each culture to be most effective.
CDC, the nation's disease prevention agency, undertakes a broad array of programs to help communities fight HIV and AIDS. Through community funding for HIV prevention, research, and the transfer of vital information and know-how, CDC forms partnerships with communities affected by the epidemic to produce the most effective response possible. In its public health partnership with Latino communities, as with other groups, CDC operates in three distinct areas:
This three-pronged approach focuses on the communities hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. As Latinos have been increasingly impacted by the HIV epidemic, a growing proportion of CDC's prevention efforts in all three areas have focused on reaching Latinos at risk. At the same time, more Latino communities throughout the U.S. are mobilizing to respond to HIV and AIDS.
Yet, much more must be done. HIV prevention resources must be expanded to help Latino and other communities at risk mount proven prevention initiatives; additional sectors of Latino communities must join in the fight against HIV and AIDS; and the partnership between Latino communities and public health officials must be strengthened and sustained.
This report outlines CDC's efforts to work in partnership with Latino communities to prevent further HIV transmission. These important programs should be regarded as the building blocks for the long-term response that will be needed to turn the tide against the epidemic in Latino communities across the U.S.
On a local level, data on the status of HIV and AIDS are even more critical to ensuring that resources are directed where they are most urgently needed. The importance of accurate local data is underscored by the diversity of the HIV epidemic among Latino communities.
Early in the epidemic, CDC researchers identified distinct differences in the scope and makeup of the AIDS epidemic among Latinos of different ethnic origins. A CDC study of AIDS cases reported between June 1981 and December 1988 demonstrated that while Mexican-born Latinos living in the Southern and Western United States were at similar risk of developing AIDS as the white, non-Hispanic, population, Latinos of Puerto Rican descent were at several times greater risk than whites and other Latin-born individuals in each region of the country.1 As shown in the accompanying tables, AIDS rates among Latinos continue to vary by state, and prevention needs vary dramatically depending on the country of birth. Additional CDC studies have confirmed that risk behaviors and influences on behavior differ for each culture, and so must prevention efforts.2,3,4 While HIV-infected Latinos born in the U.S. or in Puerto Rico are most likely to have contracted the virus through injection drug use, those from Mexico, Cuba, and Central and South America most often become infected as a result of sex between men.5
In addition to analyses of data by place of birth, studies have demonstrated important differences in risk behaviors by ancestry. Because information on ancestry and social, economic, and cultural influences on risk is not routinely available, CDC conducts multi-state studies to supplement national HIV and AIDS surveillance and recommends that states with large Latino populations routinely collect data on ancestry. These data have proven invaluable in identifying and addressing unique prevention challenges:
Other ongoing CDC studies to monitor the course of HIV and AIDS among Latinos and others at high risk include multi-state studies of perinatal HIV transmission, the factors influencing the progression of HIV disease, and the level of HIV infection among young gay men and clients of inner-city STD clinics.
To monitor the actual course of the epidemic in the treatment era, it is necessary to track HIV infection itself, rather than cases of full-blown AIDS. Although CDC has called for one, there is currently no national system that tracks new HIV infections the same way that AIDS cases are monitored. Although roughly one half of states have historically maintained HIV reporting systems, they include few of the states with especially large Hispanic populations, such as New York, Florida, Texas, California, or Illinois (although New York, Florida, and Texas have recently begun to implement such a reporting system). As additional states begin to collect data on HIV cases, a clearer picture of the epidemic among Latinos will emerge.
Behavioral research focuses on identifying the factors that influence risky behavior and transmission in different communities and evaluating approaches to reducing risk.
Biomedical research focuses on evaluating medical approaches (testing and treatment) to preventing HIV transmission. Effective risk reduction strategies, combined with new treatments for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, offer more hope than ever for reducing the spread of HIV.
Behavioral ResearchBehavioral research to date in Latino communities has led to a number of findings important to the design of effective prevention programs, including:
CDC's ongoing research seeks to build upon this knowledge base, design effective programs based on this knowledge, and evaluate the impact on risk behaviors. Current projects include:
Biomedical ResearchThe CDC also conducts research to evaluate biomedical tools to reduce the risk of HIV transmission and ensure proven medical approaches to prevention are widely implemented. Examples of past and present research include the evaluation of therapies to reduce the risk of HIV transmission from a mother to her unborn child, the evaluation of microbicides and other female-controlled prevention methods, the evalution of HIV vaccine candidates, and the effect of antiretroviral therapy on viral load and HIV transmission.
Several CDC biomedical research initiatives have special importance for Latinos:
Although Latinos make up only 13% of the population, they account for just over 20% of perinatally acquired AIDS cases. In 1994, research demonstrated that AZT, given to an HIV-infected woman early in pregnancy, during labor and delivery, and to her baby, could reduce the risk of transmission to her baby by two-thirds. For HIV-infected women and their infants to benefit optimally from AZT and other medical treatment, it is best for women to know if they are infected early in pregnancy. CDC guidelines therefore promote early HIV counseling and voluntary testing in the context of prenatal care. Swift integration of these recommendations in prenatal care settings led to a dramatic reduction in mother-to-child transmission -- a 73% decline in such cases between 1992 and 1998. Despite these successes, challenges remain for further reducing HIV transmission to Latino and other children at risk in the United States. Perhaps the greatest barriers in the U.S. are the continuing spread of HIV infection among African-American and Latina women and the lack of early prenatal care for many of these women. CDC perinatal research efforts are therefore currently focused on assessing strategies to increase access to prenatal care and treatment.
Further, for women not reached during prenatal care, a particularly high risk group, CDC is conducting research on the most effective approaches to counseling and testing using rapid testing technologies for determining HIV status at the time of labor and delivery. The research will also determine the best approaches to deliver therapy once HIV status is determined.
STD Prevention and Treatment
While STDs are widespread across all racial groups, STD rates have traditionally been somewhat higher among Latinos than among whites. Rates of STDs such as gonorrhea and syphilis are 2-3 times higher among Latinos, when compared to whites, largely because of disparities in access to care. Previous research has clearly documented the relationship between STDs and the spread of HIV. Because other STDs increase the likelihood of both spreading and acquiring STDs, CDC conducts research on the impact of STD treatment on HIV transmission and works to increase screening, treatment, and prevention services in Latino and other communities at risk.
It is estimated that 110,000-170,000 Latinos are living with HIV in the U.S., and this number continues to grow. A significant number of these individuals do not know they are infected. Increasing the number of Latinos at risk who are tested and offered treatment is critical for their own health and for preventing the spread of HIV to others. Studies have shown that knowledge of HIV status reduces risk behaviors. Additionally, because new HIV therapies reduce the amount of virus circulating in the body, it is possible that HIV treatments may prove to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV. CDC is designing studies to evaluate the impact of treatment on infectiousness to determine if, and to what extent, treatment will be effective as a prevention strategy. Further, CDC researchers are evaluating strategies for ensuring that any benefits of new therapies are not offset by increases in risk behavior. Even if treatment proves to reduce transmission, it will be critical to maintain safer behaviors.
CDC funding enables local community organizations to mount targeted prevention programs that are based on sound science. CDC's efforts (described below) to ensure that prevention programs are effectively directed toward those in greatest need have resulted in a substantial increase in HIV prevention funding targeted to Latinos. Between 1988 and 1999, CDC funding specifically earmarked for Latino prevention programs increased by 715% -- from approximately $7 million to more than $58 million.
Additionally, a significant proportion of CDC's research and surveillance programs serve Latinos at risk, as do prevention programs not targeted by race. Of the nearly $615 million CDC currently spends on HIV prevention efforts for high-risk or emerging populations, roughly 19%, or an estimated $115 million, benefits Latinos.
"What is successful with gay white male communities cannot be just translated into Spanish. Outreach efforts must be adapted to reach our men and their beliefs about themselves."
Community PlanningPerhaps the single most important effort to ensure that HIV prevention services reach Latino and other populations at greatest risk is CDC's prevention community planning.
The largest share of CDC's support for local prevention programs -- over $250 million in 1999 -- is channeled through state and local health departments through a process known as community planning. With these resources, health departments fund thousands of community-based organizations to deliver HIV prevention programs to individuals at greatest risk in their community. The process brings representatives from all affected communities together with public health officials and other experts to make decisions about funding based on the profile of the local epidemic.
Community planning effectively moved the nation away from federal directives and placed the decisions about prevention in the hands of those closest to the problem. CDC requires that the membership of state and local planning councils reflect the epidemic in these jurisdictions and that funding decisions be based on sound science.
Implementation of community planning has dramatically increased funds targeted to Latino communities, resulting in a seven-fold increase, from approximately $5 million in 1993 to more than $37.5 million in 1999.
CDC funds more than 200 Latino community-based organizations through the community planning process. Prevention programs supported by CDC address a wide range of behaviors that place Latinos at risk for HIV infection:
In an effort to evaluate the success of community planning, CDC analyzed state and local prevention spending patterns in three key areas, comparing funding to each racial/ethnic group's proportion of the AIDS epidemic:
Direct Funding for Community-based OrganizationsCDC also directly funds community-based organizations serving Latinos to implement HIV prevention programs. While community planning is the ultimate answer to building long-term community capacity to fight AIDS, direct funding of community organizations has helped fill critical interim gaps. Nearly 35% of direct CDC funding of community-based HIV prevention programs reaches Latinos at greatest risk, including gay and bisexual men. Examples of organizations and activities include:
Strengthening Local OrganizationsRecognizing that lack of infrastructure in many communities impedes effective delivery of HIV prevention services to people of color, in 1988 CDC began funding national and regional minority organizations to provide consultation, training and other forms of technical assistance to local community groups. These capacity building efforts have been steadily built over time and have evolved to address complex HIV prevention needs. In 1999, CDC's capacity building program totaled $14.5 million, over 20% of which is directed toward Latino communities. Organizations funded work to strengthen the hundreds of CDC-funded community-based organizations working to prevent HIV among Latinos. For example:
"Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the U. S. . . . To ensure a healthy and productive nation, it is critical that we meet the health needs of the Hispanic population."
Several other initiatives enhance HIV prevention services for Latinos at risk:
HIV Prevention in Correctional FacilitiesData released in 1999 at the first National HIV Prevention Conference documented levels of HIV and AIDS among inmates five times higher than the total U.S. population. These data also suggest that nearly one-fifth of all people with HIV and AIDS in 1996 had been released from a correctional facility during that year.
While inmates are not typically infected while incarcerated, these facilities provide a unique, but frequently missed, opportunity to reach some of the highest risk populations with HIV prevention and care. In 1999, CDC provided $7 million to state and city health departments to develop HIV prevention programs in correctional facilities to reach high-risk minority populations, including Latinos, who represent 25% of the U.S. prison population.
Targeted HIV Testing CampaignIn 1999, CDC began developing a national campaign to increase HIV testing among individuals at greatest risk for HIV infection. HIV counseling and testing provides an important pathway to prevention and treatment for both infected and at risk populations. The campaign, "X AIDS", will use highly targeted strategies and sophisticated marketing techniques to reach Latino and other communities with messages about the value of knowing your HIV status. The campaign is part of a broader CDC effort -- the Serostatus Approach to Fighting the Epidemic (SAFE). SAFE focuses on identifying and reaching the growing population of HIV-infected people with quality prevention and other needed services.
Faith ProgramsRecognizing the critical role of the faith community in mobilizing community leaders and reaching and serving those at risk, CDC established a collaboration with the faith community in 1987. By partnering with a small group of national faith organizations and schools of public health, CDC leverages relatively modest resources into remarkable programs for HIV prevention with communities of faith nationally.
Expanding Efforts to Prevent Mother-to-Child TransmissionWhile the number of HIV-infected infants has declined dramatically over the last several years, nearly one-quarter of infants who develop AIDS in the U.S. through mother-to-child transmission are Latino. In 1999, CDC dedicated an additional $2 million to reach high-risk Latina women with early testing and preventive therapy.
Through years of working together, CDC and Latino communities have forged an important partnership to respond to HIV/AIDS. Yet, more -- much more -- must be done if we are to turn the tide against the disease in diverse Latino communities.
Additional resources must be devoted to HIV prevention research and services, and surveillance systems must improve to permit the timely deployment of prevention programs in response to changing circumstances.
As important as the public health response, though, is the mobilization of diverse Latino communities, organizations, and institutions throughout the country. More Latino organizations must become involved in the response to AIDS, and sectors of the Latino population that have remained on the sidelines must join in this fight.
There are important signs that this essential community mobilization is beginning to occur. CDC is committed to working in partnership with Latino communities to ensure that all people in the United States have the hope of enjoying a future without HIV and AIDS.
"Effective communication can definitively increase knowledge, promote behavior modification, and open new channels of communication on sexuality within Hispanic communities."
This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Visit the CDC's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services. | <urn:uuid:6fca706a-bf8d-49c4-a7aa-a1717dfdccb5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thebody.com/content/art17106.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949583 | 3,551 | 2.890625 | 3 |
One Witness to the Lincoln Assassination Might Have Been Alive During Your Lifetime
On April 12, 1956, Samuel J. Seymour died in his daughter’s home in Arlington, Virginia. This isn’t really noteworthy on its own. People die every day. Mr. Seymour was 96 years old on the day he died, though, which means he was born in 1860, the year before the American Civil War began, and was the longest-surviving witness to one of the nation’s great tragedies.
In the spring of 1865, when Seymour was 5 years old, he joined his father on a business trip to Washington, D.C. While the elder Seymour attended to business at his client's estate, Samuel and his nurse were entertained by the client’s wife, Mrs. Goldsboro.
“Sammy, you and I and Sarah are going to a play—a real play,” Seymour recalled Goldsboro telling him. The play was called Our American Cousin, and they went to the evening performance on April 14 at Ford’s Theater.
As they took their seats in one of the balconies, Goldsboro pointed across the theater to a draped balcony box.
“See those flags, Sammy? That’s where President Lincoln will sit.”
When the president and his party arrived and took their seats, Goldsboro lifted Seymour up so he could have a clear view.
“He was a tall, stern-looking man,” Seymour said of Lincoln. “I guess I just thought he looked stern because of his whiskers, because he was smiling and waving to the crowd.”
During the play’s third act, Seymour wrote, “all of a sudden a shot rang out—a shot that will always be remembered—and someone in the president’s box screamed.”
Seymour didn’t actually see anyone shoot Lincoln, but he watched as the president slumped over in his chair and a man jumped from the balcony to the stage. He landed awkwardly, and appeared to have hurt himself.
“Hurry, hurry,” Seymour begged Goldsboro. “Let’s go help the poor man who fell down.”
Not knowing who the man was or what he had just done, Seymour was concerned for his well-being, but John Wilkes Booth's landing was smooth enough that he escaped the theater and evaded pursuit for almost two weeks.
Samuel Seymour did not sleep easy when he finally escaped the commotion of the theater and returned home.
“That night I was shot 50 times, at least, in my dreams,” Seymour later said. “And I sometimes still relive the horror of Lincoln’s assassination, dozing in my rocker as an old codger like me is bound to do.”
In February 1956, Seymour appeared on the TV game show I’ve Got a Secret, where the panelists were able to guess his secret in just a few minutes. He died just a few months later, survived by five children, 13 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren. | <urn:uuid:4029c466-a140-4447-8d66-07e17b71dbb0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49050/one-witness-lincoln-assassination-might-have-been-alive-during-your-lifetime | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986909 | 660 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Tilia cordata Tiliaceae
Littleleaf Linden TIL-i-a kor-DA-ta
- Deciduous tree, 60-70 ft (18-21 m), pyramidal when young, then upright-oval to pyramidal-rounded. Bark gray-brown. Leaves alternate, simple, somewhat circular in outline, 4-10 cm long, cordate, finely serrated, somewhat glossy above, paler and glabrous beneath except for axillary tufts of brown hairs, fall color is yellow green. Flowers produced in late June or early July, 5-7 per pendulous cluster, floral bract is 4-9 cm long. Globose fruit, slightly or not ridged, covered with gray pubescence, finally glabrous.
- Sun. Tolerates pollution. Used as a street tree for centuries. Can be pruned into a hedge. A number of cultivars.
- Hardy to USDA Zone (3) 4 Native to Europe.
- Oregon State Univ. campus: southeast corner USDA Forage Seed Lab on Campus Way (near 30th St.). | <urn:uuid:45045769-a5b0-428d-bc70-c07205325d2f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/tico.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.813055 | 231 | 2.625 | 3 |
Little Songs in Language
Did you ever notice the rather sing-song compounds like, well, sing-song? Words like flip-flop, bigwig, okey-dokey, razzle-dazzle, fiddle-faddle, and teeter-totter? (Click here for more.)
Did you ever wonder where they come from, why we make and use them, or why we don't stick to more "normal" sounding words? Most of these words are slangy, to say the least, but they don't go away and we add to their number daily.
Linguists call these words "rhyming compounds" but, as we will see, "sing-song" compounds might be a better term. Some of these compounds are simple repetitions while others have added syllables. Some do, in fact, rhyme but others are alliterative, which is to say, only the consonants are the same, not the vowels. Let me show you what I mean.
1. Rhyming Compounds. Actual rhyming compounds, unsurprisingly, rhyme in the traditional sense of this word. Fuzzy-wuzzy, handy-dandy, and hanky-panky rhyme. The initial word is repeated identically except for the first letter, which changes unpredictably. If a line of poetry ended on the first component of these words, the second component could complete the next line (assuming the poem rhymes, of course).
2. Alliterative Compounds. Chit-chat, ding-dong, and tick-tock, on the other hand, seem to be rhyming compounds but they do not rhyme in the usual way. They are alliterative in that the consonants in the two components are the same but not the vowels. Unlike real rhyming compounds, the consonants are predictably identical but the vowel is unpredictable.
3. Duplicative Compounds. A third type of sing-song compound is a simple repetition of the initial word, as we see in words like bling-bling,bon-bon, and go-go. These words are not composed of rhyming constituents but of identical constituents, repeated. This type of compound is particularly popular in France, where it is often used for nicknames: Corinne might be called Coco, Laurence, Lolo, and Michelle, perhaps, Mimi. They are as rhythmical as rhyming as alliterative compounds, so we must classify them similarly.
4. Complex Rhyming Compounds. There is one more type of sing-song compound that does not fit any of the three categories above: they have an additional syllable or two. I'm thinking now of words like likety-split, cock-a-doodle-doo, and razzmatazz (which is often pronounced razzmatazz with an extra A). These are not rhyming compounds but they do share the rhythmical character of rhyming compounds. We will just call them 'complex rhyming compounds' and use this category as a convenient rug under which to sweep rhythmical compounds that do not quite fit in the other categories.
5. A Yiddish Rhyming Compound Rule. English has also inherited an active rhyming compound rule from Yiddish. This rule is used to create a rhyming compound whose job it is to cast doubt on the first consituent in some way. The rule is this: reduplicate the word, changing the first consonant to SHM in the second consituent: fancy-shmancy, money-shmoney, chilly-shmilly. A fancy restaurant is just fancy but a fancy-shmancy restaurant is one that flaunts its fanciness in ways too obvious. If someone has money, he has money but to say, "Money-Shmoney!" is to bring into question the use of the word: either the person in question has no money or he has so much that money is hardly the word to use.
Now, grammar doesn't like repetition. It has a multitude of means of avoiding it. For example, you don't have to say "John went to town and Mary went to town" or the equivalent in any language. All languages provide a means of conjunction that eliminates the repetition: "John and Mary went to town". Pronouns also serve to eliminate repetition. Languages don't even allow expressions like "John visited John's mother". Instead, a pronoun replaces the second occurrence of John: "John visited his mother." Grammar eschews repetition with a passion (except as a means of intensification). So why does it tolerate rhyming compounds?
The terms we have been using, terms like rhyme, repetition, and rhythm, are all terms of music, not grammar. No two aspects of human being distinguishes it from that of other earthly species than language and music but we usually think of these forms of expression as discrete. Both have rhythms; both have rising and falling pitch. However, songs are music and songs have words. If we find language in music, shouldn't we find music in language?
Sing-song rhyming compounds follow the rules of music more than the grammar of the language, where new words are created by adding prefixes and suffixes. However, some languages actually integrate repetition into the grammar in a process called "reduplication". Look at the following verbs from the Tagalog language of the Philippines and see if you can tell what the future tense prefix is.
|bili 'buy'||bi-bili 'will buy'|
|kuha 'get'||ku-kuha 'will get'|
|punta 'go'||pu-punta 'will go'|
|sulat 'write'||su-sulat 'will write'|
|tawa 'laugh'||ta-tawa 'will laugh'|
The prefix here is a sing-song repetition of the first consonant and vowel of each word.
Music, as I have mentioned, thrives on repetition. Songs rhyme, themes repeat themselves, verses are repeated. The structure of music is based on repetitions and variation on repetitions. Sing-song rhyming compounds behave much more like music than grammatical creations. The reason for the existence of these formations, then, may very well be the result of an invasion of music into language or a region of word use where the rules of music and those of grammar overlap.
I would suggest that sing-song or rhyming compounds are be bits and pieces of music that we add to our language to make it more interesting. Human beings are distinguished from other species most obviously by their language and music. Music is certainly an important part of our lives and we certainly find language in music. We should not be surprised to find music popping up in language. | <urn:uuid:7c726ca4-0572-4ec3-9047-487512affd63> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/rhyming_compounds00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00030-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956427 | 1,422 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Website helps track emerging zoonotic diseases
PREDICT is a project of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemics Threats program, which focuses on building early warning systems for emerging global diseases.
The University of California, Davis (UC-Davis) helped implement PREDICT, along with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Harvard Medical School, Children’s Hospital Boston, EcoHealth and others.
PREDICT utilizes a SMART surveillance method (Strategic, Measurable, Adaptive, Responsive, and Targeted) designed to detect potentially pandemic diseases early and at their source. The system delivers real-time data from a number of sources for an overall view of infectious diseases worldwide. PREDICT uses the HealthMap platform’s automated process to monitor more than 50,000 sources on the Internet, including officials reports from agencies like the World Health Organization.
“HealthMap.org helps us monitor outbreaks wherever they occur so that we can target more intensive surveillance to detect emerging pathogens before they spread widely among people and animals, giving us the best chance to prevent new pandemics,” said Jonna Mazet, Director of the PREDICT project and UC Davis’ One Health Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine.
See PREDICT at work here. | <urn:uuid:d106708b-4d47-40e0-aa77-4573372291ba> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/website-helps-track-emerging-zoonotic-diseases | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918914 | 275 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The larva feeds on a broad variety of grasses such as Arrhenaterum elatius or Calamagrostis sp.
Aphantopus hyperantus colonizes grasslands of all kinds, as long as they are mowed only once (rarely also twice) or are totally uncut. In limestone grasslands, Aphantopus hyperantus usually occurs only in low abundances. In wet meadows or forest clearings, however, very high abundances are possible. Thus Aphantopus hyperantus prefers wet to mesophilic habitats and avoids dry ones somewhat. This species quickly colonizes new habitats, e.g. also natural gardens.
The caterpillar overwinters quite small. I found it often during the day on the ground at the base of the grasses in the spring, or even under moss. The moths usually appear in late June and fly to August. Interestingly, they are flying earlier in the northern Alps at 1200 meters above sea level than at about 600m above sea level in the foreland, so that the larvae should presumably hibernate in more advanced larval stages in these higher elevations.
Aphantopus hyperantus has low habitat requirements and is not endangered in Central Europe. But it is not able to survive in intensive, agricultural grassland as well as in dense forests. Thus even Aphantopus hyperantus is in decline. For example, populations in Memmingen town area (Germany), which previously were common on railway embankments and similar places, are now extinct due to excessive mowing, tree plantings and installation of pathways. In the forest the darkening processes (eutrophication, dense afforestation) reduces the populations.
The distribution ranges from Northern Spain especially across Central Europe and temperate Asia to Korea. Aphantopus hyperantus lacks in Northern Scandinavia (occurs to central Sweden), central and Southern Italy, Southern Greece and as mentioned in the major part of the Iberian Peninsula. | <urn:uuid:94d616f8-5224-4f86-a22d-d9c68cb05d9b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pyrgus.de/Aphantopus_hyperantus_en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933379 | 410 | 3.125 | 3 |
A continuous influx of sea water is threatening agriculture and food security in vast coastal areas of Bangladesh, but farmers are finding ways to adapt, like cultivating fish and crops at the same time.
Lack of water management and limited access to data risk hindering Myanmar’s economic growth, making water security a top priority of the new government.
Abdul Aziz, 35, arrived in the capital Dhaka in 2006 after losing all his belongings to the mighty Meghna River. Once, he and his family had lived happily in the village of Dokkhin Rajapur in Bhola, a coastal district of Bangladesh. Aziz had a beautiful house and large amount of arable land.
Residents of Rocky Point, a sleepy fishing village on Jamaica’s south coast, woke up one July morning this year to flooded streets and yards. The sea had washed some 200 metres inland, flooding drains and leaving knee-deep water on the streets and inside people’s home, a result of high tides and windy conditions.
Nigeria seems in no haste to unveil its climate pledge with just four months to go before the U.N. Climate Conference scheduled for December in Paris.
Guyana's new president, David Granger, sits down with IPS correspondent Desmond Brown to talk about how his country is preparing for climate change – and hoping to avert the worst before it happens.
Starting in 1999, the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) of Trinidad and Tobago began a 10-year effort to map the country’s water quality. They started to notice a worrying trend.
Despite its highly variable climate, Guyana is the only Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country that enjoys food security. But rapid climate change could pose a challenge not only for Guyana, but for its Caribbean neigbours who depend on the South American country for much of their produce.
For 32 years, Joel Poyer, a forest technician, has been tending to the forest of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The flooding of the Zambezi River has had devastating consequences for three countries in Southern Africa. The three worst affected countries are Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
It was early on a Saturday morning and there was no sign of life in the community. The shacks erected on both sides of the old, narrow road that winds through the area are all surrounded by zinc sheets which rise so high, it’s impossible to see what lies on the other side.
Glenda Williams has lived in the Pastures community in eastern St. Vincent all her life. She's seen the area flooded by storms on multiple occasions.
In the last three years, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been forced to spend more than 600 million dollars to rebuild its battered infrastructure. Landslides in April 2011, followed by December 2013 floods that also affected Dominica and St. Lucia and left 13 people dead, may be just the beginning, as climate change brings more extreme weather events to the Caribbean.
Ruth Spencer is a pioneer in the field of solar energy. She promotes renewable technologies to communities throughout her homeland of Antigua and Barbuda, playing a small but important part in helping the country achieve its goal of a 20-percent reduction in the use of fossil fuels by 2020.
When it comes to climate change, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves doesn’t mince words: he will tell you that it is a matter of life and death for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). | <urn:uuid:ebab657d-7eec-483f-b012-74bbadbc7336> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ipsnews.net/topics/flooding/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961628 | 730 | 2.625 | 3 |
S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.
Bishop John Jebb
Christianity did not come from heaven to be the amusement of an idle hour, to be the food of mere imagination; to be as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and playeth well upon an instrument. No: it is intended to be the guide, the guardian, the companion of all hours; it is intended to be the food of our immortal spirits; it is intended to be the serious occupation of our whole existence.
There is a branch of useful training which cannot be too heedfully regarded: I mean the education that children give themselves. Their observation is ever alive and awake to the circumstances which pass around them; and from the circumstances thus observed they are continually drawing their own conclusions. These observations and conclusions have a powerful influence in forming the character of youth. What is imparted in the way of direct instruction they are apt to consider as official; they receive it often with downright suspicion; generally, perhaps, with a sort of undefined qualification and reserve. It is otherwise with what children discover for themselves. As matter of self-acquisition, this is treasured up, and reasoned upon; it penetrates the mind, and influences the conduct, beyond all the formal lectures that ever were delivered. Whether it be for good, or whether it be for evil, the education of the child is principally derived from its own observation of the actions, the words, the voice, the looks, of those with whom it lives. The fact is unquestionably so; and since the fact is so, it is impossible, surely, that the friends of youth can be too circumspect in the youthful presence to avoid every (and the least appearance of) evil. This great moral truth was keenly felt, and powerfully inculcated, even in the heathen world. But the reverence for youth of Christian parents ought to reach immeasurably further. It is not enough that they set no bad example: it is indispensable that they show forth a good one. It is not enough that they seem virtuous: it is indispensable that they be so. | <urn:uuid:f2c8c1c4-8e09-4e8c-9a3d-50d1330f9f8d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bartleby.com/349/authors/112.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964727 | 449 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Protect yourself from glaucoma
and Dr. Daniel Desrivieres
What are you going to do differently this year? Take better care of yourself? Will you exercise more, eat healthier, or make an effort to see the doctor as often as you should?
Finding time in your busy schedule to implement those well-intentioned resolutions often proves challenging. But don't underestimate the importance of those doctor visits - and more specifically, visits to your eye doctor.
A quick trip to your optometrist may not only be sight-saving but potentially life-saving. Optometrists can evaluate the health of your eyes and clarity of vision and they can also detect chronic and systemic diseases such as glaucoma, diabetes and even hypertension.
You've probably heard of glaucoma, but many people don't know how it can affect - and how quickly it can take - your eyesight. Glaucoma affects more than three million Americans, but over half of them don't even know that they have it, according to Prevent Blindness America.
Glaucoma begins by attacking peripheral vision, typically causing objects to appear less clearly. At first, it is possible to compensate by squinting or turning the head to focus better. But be careful. These changes may seem minor, but glaucoma can accelerate quickly; causing eyesight to rapidly and irreversibly deteriorate.
Like many diseases, some factors can increase the risk of developing glaucoma, such as age, race or genetics. Glaucoma usually affects one in 200 people by age 50, but as many as one in 10 people by age 80. The risk of developing glaucoma is much higher among African Americans: four to five times higher. In fact, glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in African Americans. Not only do African Americans usually develop glaucoma 10 years earlier than Caucasians, they are also six to 15 times more likely to be blinded by the disease.
What's really alarming is that nearly 20 percent of adults have never been to an eye doctor, and more than 60 percent of respondents thought that glaucoma was preventable, according to the American Optometric Association's American Eye-Q survey. Glaucoma cannot be prevented, but if diagnosed and treated early, it can be controlled. This reinforces what the National Optometric Association and the AOA already recommend: adults need regular, comprehensive eye exams. Fortunately, Medicare covers annual glaucoma screenings for people considered at heightened risk of developing glaucoma, such as individuals with diabetes, those with a family history of glaucoma, African Americans age 50 and older and Hispanic Americans age 65 and older.
So start off the new year right: set up an appointment with your eye doctor - and maybe hit the gym and grab a salad on your way home.
Dr. David McBride is a member of the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association and a Beaverton-area optometrist. Dr. Daniel Desrivieres is president of the National Optometric Association.
The OOPA/AOA provides a Glaucoma/Diabetes Hotline program that matches Medicare patients with participating optometrists in their area: 800- 262-3947.
The NOA has a patient/doctor partnership that addresses Glaucoma, Diabetes, and High Blood Pressure program called the 'Three Silent Killer Program.' Call 1-877-394-2020 or visit the Web site at www.nationaloptometricassociation.com for more information. | <urn:uuid:e2c9be6b-3ffc-47a0-a7d9-dd98fa09ddc4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=107526 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947411 | 731 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Land-atmosphere interactions are an important element in the energy and water budget in permafrost regions. We present long-term measurements of sensible and latent heat fluxes at a high-arctic continuous permafrost site in Svalbard, Norway, using the eddy covariance method. The site is situated in hilly tundra at the foot of two major glaciers, and is characterized by sparse vegetation altering with exposed soil and rock fields. The study was performed from April to September 2007, thus covering a period from late winter until the end of the summer season.During April, temperatures ranged from 20°C to +5°C, with an average of 11°C. Sensible heat fluxes were mostly negative, corresponding to an energy transfer from the atmosphere to the snow pack. Highest values were associated with increasing air temperature in combination with high wind speed, which can be interpreted as a cooling effect of the near surface air due to a much colder snow surface. The latent heat flux was generally positive, but remained low most of the time. With a temperature remaining rather constant between 5°C and +5°C and predominantly neutral atmospheric exchange conditions during most of May and June, both measured fluxes were comparatively insignificant. The appearance of large snow free patches around June, 26th, triggered a strong increase of sensible and latent heat fluxes. Hereby, the latent heat flux was approx. twice as large as the sensible heat flux, most likely due to very wet soil conditions directly after snow melt. This situation reversed during July, when the tundra increasingly dried up in most of the potential fetch area of the eddy system. The immediate surrounding of the measurement site could then be characterized as moderately moist tundra. Both sensible and latent heat fluxes remained largely positive, but displayed a strong diurnal course, with peak fluxes associated with maxima of solar radiation. During periods with moderately high wind speeds (5m s-1 to 10 m s-1), the maximum sensible heat fluxes were up to a factor of two higher than during periods with low wind speeds (0 m s1 to 2 m s1).In relation with recordings of the radiative parts of the energy budget, eddy covariance measurements have proven to be a valuable tool to capture a more complete picture of energy fluxes at this maritime permafrost site.
AWI Organizations > Geosciences > Junior Research Group: Permafrost
Helmholtz Research Programs > MARCOPOLI (2004-2008) > POL7-From permafrost to deep sea in the Arctic
Helmholtz Research Programs > MARCOPOLI (2004-2008) > MARCOPOLI
Helmholtz Research Programs > MARCOPOLI (2004-2008) > I-MARCOPOLI | <urn:uuid:2bd7c0ca-0cdd-42ec-8a3a-9ed7f102b30f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://epic.awi.de/19792/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942854 | 595 | 2.734375 | 3 |
RULE 801. DEFINITIONS THAT APPLY TO THIS ARTICLE; EXCLUSIONS FROM HEARSAY
The following definitions apply under this Article:
(a) Statement. A "statement" is (1) an oral or written assertion or (2) nonverbal
a person, if it is intended by the person as an assertion.
(a) Statement. "Statement" means a person's oral assertion, written assertion, or nonverbal conduct, if the person intended it as an assertion.
(b) Declarant. A "declarant" is a person who makes a statement.
(b) Declarant. "Declarant" means the person who made the statement.
(c) Hearsay. "Hearsay" is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while
at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.
(c) Hearsay. "Hearsay" means a statement that:
(1) the declarant does not make while testifying at the current trial or hearing; and
(2) a party offers in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted in the statement.
(d) Statements which are not hearsay. A statement is not hearsay if:
(d) Statements That Are Not Hearsay. A statement that meets the following conditions is not hearsay:
(1) Prior statement by witness. The declarant testifies at the trial or hearing and is
to cross-examination concerning the statement, and the statement is (i) inconsistent with the
declarant's testimony but, if offered in a criminal proceeding, was given under oath and
subject to the penalty of perjury at a trial, hearing, or other proceeding, or in a deposition,
or (ii) consistent with the declarant's testimony and is offered to rebut an express or implied
charge against the declarant of recent fabrication or improper influence or motive, or (iii) one
of identification of a person made after perceiving the person; or
(1) A Declarant-Witness's Prior Statement. The declarant testifies and is subject to cross-examination about a prior statement, and the statement:
(A) is inconsistent with the declarant's testimony and, if offered in a criminal proceeding, was given under penalty of perjury at a trial, hearing, or other proceeding or in a deposition;
(B) is consistent with the declarant's testimony and is offered to rebut an express or implied charge that the declarant recently fabricated it or acted from a recent improper influence or motive in so testifying; or
(C) identifies a person as someone the declarant perceived earlier.
(2) Admission by party-opponent. The statement is offered against a party and is (i)
party's own statement, in either an individual or a representative capacity, (ii) a statement of
which the party has manifested an adoption or belief in its truth, (iii) a statement by a person
authorized by the party to make a statement concerning the subject, (iv) a statement by the
party's agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of the agency or employment,
made during the existence of the relationship, or (v) a statement by a co-conspirator of a
party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy.
(2) An Opposing Party's Statement. The statement is offered against an opposing party and:
(A) was made by the party in an individual or representative capacity;
(B) is one the party manifested that it adopted or believed to be true;
(C) was made by a person whom the party authorized to make a statement on the subject;
(D) was made by the party's agent or employee on a matter within the scope of that relationship and while it existed; or
(E) was made by the party's coconspirator during and in furtherance of the conspiracy.
The statement must be considered but does not by itself establish the declarant's authority under (C); the existence or scope of the relationship under (D); or the existence of the conspiracy or participation in it under (E).
Rule 801 was amended, effective July 1, 1981; March 1, 1990; ________________.
The definition of hearsay contained in this rule is dependent, in part, upon the definition of a statement contained in subdivision (a). In this regard, it should be noted that nonverbal conduct, to be a statement, and thus hearsay, must be intended by the party to be an assertion. Nonassertive conduct is not a statement and therefore not objectionable as hearsay. Thus, pointing out a suspect in response to the question, "Who did it?" is assertive conduct and, if it otherwise falls within the definition, hearsay. Conversely, the act of opening an umbrella is not intended to be assertive, is not hearsay, and may be offered as substantive evidence that rain was falling at a certain place and time.
Hearsay is defined in subdivision (c) as a statement made by a declarant, other than one
made at the trial or hearing offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. This definition
is of two distinct parts. The first is that the statement is one not made at the trial in which it
is offered. The second is that the statement must be offered to prove the truth of its content,
i.e., the matter asserted in the statement. If offered for other purposes, e.g., to show that the
declarant in fact made a statement any statement and, thus, was conscious at a
time, the statement is not objectionable as hearsay.
See e.g., Chester v. Einarson, 76
205, 34 N.W.2d 418 (1948). The reason for this requirement is that it is only when a
statement is offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted that there is a lack of the
safeguards used to insure credibility of the declarant. It is this lack of an oath and
cross-examination of the declarant that warrants the exclusion of evidence as hearsay.
It should be noted that subdivision (c) does not define as hearsay statements made
the presence of a party against whom offered. The presence or absence of a party is not, nor
has it ever been, a criterion by which hearsay is defined. It should be discarded as a
"remarkably persistent bit of courthouse folklore." McCormick on Evidence, § 246 at
586 (2d ed. 1972).
Subdivision (d) exempts from the hearsay definition, and allows as substantive evidence,
two types of statements which are technically hearsay. The reason for the exemptions are
that the dangers normally attendant to receiving hearsay statements are at least partially
removed in the exempted situations. In
subdivision paragraph (d)(1),
the opportunity to
cross-examine the declarant is present. In subdivision paragraph
(d)(2), the nature of the
adversary system strengthens the reliability of an admission by a
party-opponent a statement
by an opposing party.
Subdivision Paragraph (d)(1) (i) follows Rule
801, Uniform Rules of Evidence, allowing
prior inconsistent statements always to be used as substantive evidence in civil cases and,
if the prior statement was made under oath in criminal cases. This varies from Rule 801 of
the Federal Rules of Evidence, which requires that the prior statement be made under oath
in all cases. See the discussion of Rule 801, Federal Rules of Evidence, in State v. Igoe, 206
N.W.2d 291 (N.D. 1973).
Subdivision (d)(1)(iii) Subparagraph (d)(1)(C) was
added, [effective July 1, 1981 ], to
comply with the federal rule. This provision was omitted from the original promulgation of
the Federal Rules of Evidence but was added soon thereafter.
Subdivision (d)(2), for the reasons stated above, exempts from the hearsay
admissions of a party-opponent. This comports, generally, with the philosophy expressed by
the North Dakota Supreme Court. See the discussion of the comparable federal rules in Starr
v. Morsette, 236 N.W.2d 183 (N.D. 1975).
Rule 801 was amended, effective March 1, 1990. The amendment is technical in nature and no substantive change is intended.
Rule 801 was amended, effective ______________, in response to the December 1, 2011, revision of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The language and organization of the rule were changed to make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. There is no intent to change any result in any ruling on evidence admissibility.
Sources: Joint Procedure Committee Minutes
: of _______________;
March 24-25, 1988,
pages 15-16; December 3, 1987, pages 6-7 and 15; May 21-22, 1987, pages 6-7; February
19-20, 1987, pages 10-17; September 18-19, 1980, pages 18-20; March 27-28, 1980, pages
11-12; January 29, 1976, page 18; October 1, 1975, page 6; Rule
Fed.R.Ev. 801, Federal
Rules of Evidence; Rule 801, SBAND proposal. | <urn:uuid:2175a119-cd59-4277-a11c-7491947824f6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ndcourts.gov/court/JP/Agendas/April2013/Rule801.ev.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9371 | 1,993 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Mobile Computing Security
Security is an even greater problem for wireless networks, since radio signals travel
through the open atmosphere where they can be intercepted by individuals who are
constantly on the move and therefore difficult to track down.
Secondly, wireless solutions are, almost universally, dependent on
public-shared infrastructure where you have much less control of, and
knowledge about, the security discipline employed. Horror stories of
hackers scanning airwaves and siphoning off cellular ID numbers for fraudulent use have
become commonplace. Even pager messages are no longer safe.
Here are some examples of common security breaches:
Interception of law enforcement data on SMR, private radio or CDPD networks by criminal
Interception of credit card authorizations over wireless networks
Physical breach of security at unmanned base stations or other communications centers.
Interception of e-mail messages on wireless internet connections
Stealing of cellular airtime
While it may not be possible to make any system completely secure, there are certain
steps that can be and must be taken to ensure that the risk of security breaches is
Sources of Security Leaks
Many local exchange carriers use microwave communications for their inter-LATA calls.
Since the frequencies used by carriers is public information, it is not at all difficult
for an intruder to intercept both voice and data transmissions.
Even with inter-exchange circuits increasingly being converted to fiber, radio and
satellite transmissions are still used by many carriers. Network providers should be asked
specifically what type of circuits are used for traffic back-haul from base stations, and
in particular what circuits will be used in any proposed networking solution.
Tampering with Cellular NAMs as a Security Leak
A common problem in the cellular industry is the theft of air time by individuals who
make cellular calls without paying for them. These people have found a relatively easy way
of pirating the numeric assignment numbers (NAMs) of valid users. Even combinations of NAM
plus MAN1 or MAN2 sequences are no longer secure. PCS digital networks are somewhat more
secure than analog cellular networks.
It is not uncommon for individuals intent on industrial espionage to scoop up vast
quantities of information by placing small scanners at appropriate locations and searching
with very powerful algorithms. Credit card numbers and bank account numbers are among the
most common types of information stolen. While such an effort does require determination
and planning on the part of thieves, it should be remembered that often the law breaker is
far more motivated than is the person in charge of security. Security system designers
need to keep this in mind and to make their security arrangement as tight as the
technology and the budget will allow.
Handheld (PalmOS) Security &
Because of small footprint and relatively
slow processor, encryption of data on client device has been a problem
in the past. Two announcements In May/June 2001 address this
- F-Secure announced Security@Hand
(to ship in august 2001) will include FileCrypto software with
support for Pocket PC, Symbian and Palm Os platforms. FileCrypto
uses 128-bit encryption and requires a password to decrypt. Password
may be administered by IT managers giving them some degree of
control in large corporations.
- In June 2001, Certicom announced
movianCrypt, an enterprise-grade and efficient data encryption
software for PalmTM Handhelds. Go
here for more. | <urn:uuid:4d983015-4e6d-42a2-9fdf-5cdac237a59d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mobileinfo.com/Security/problems.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907256 | 711 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Basic Math | Basic-2 Math | Prealgebra | Workbooks | Glossary | Standards | Site Map | Help
Double-Digit MultiplicationWe cheated a bit by introducing some two- and three-digit multiplication in our carrying section. We were working with easy numbers, though. Rules are easy if you are multiplying a two-digit number by a one-digit number. Multiply the ones value and then multiply the tens value.
32 x 3 = ?
Multiply the ones: 3 x 2 = 6
Multiply the tens: 3 x 3 = 9
32 x 3 = 96
That example didn't have any carrying/regrouping. If you have some carrying, you will need to do the "Multiply—Carry—Multiply—Add" pattern.
96 x 8 = ?
MULTIPLY ONES: 6 x 8 = 48
WRITE AND CARRY: Write the "8" and carry the "4"
MULTIPLY TENS: 8 x 9 = 72
ADD: Add the carried amount. 72 + 4 = 76
WRITE: Write down the "76"
Answer: 96 x 8 = 768
Two Multiplication Problems in OneSo what happens if you have two two-digit numbers for your factors? Although it will take a little longer, it's an easy process to solve the problem. You just need to do two multiplication problems and then add up the answers. What? How could it be so simple? Let's watch.
96 x 28 = ?
Part 1: Multiply 8 x 96.
Answer: From the example above we know that the answer is 768.
Part 2: Multiply 2 x 96.
(1) 6 x 2 = 12
(2) Write "2" and carry "1"
(3) 2 x 9 = 18
(4) Add. 18 + 1 = 19
(5) Write "19"
Answer: 96 x 2 = 192
Part 3: Add your two answers.
Do you think you can just add the two values now? No! There is one trick. When you multiply the second part, add a "0" to that answer, because you are multiplying the value from the tens column (the 2). If it's from the tens, add a zero. If it's from the hundreds, you would add two zeros.
768 + 1920 = 2,688 (See how we added a "0" to the "192" value?)
Let's write it out in a vertical (up and down) format. It will be easier for you to see the setup.
Sum It UpIt might be hard to understand when this idea is written out in words, but the concept is a simple one. If your second factor (or the bottom one) has two-digits, you do two multiplication problems. You will quickly see in the next section that if your second factor has three digits, you will complete three multiplication problems.
The second idea to know is that before you add the answers, you need to add some zeros. When you multiply the first value, don't add any zeros. When you multiply the tens value, add one zero to the end of the answer. Add two zeros if there is a hundreds value and three zeros for a value from the thousands place. Do you see a pattern with the zeros? See how quickly numbers can get really big when you multiply?
Sorry about using such big numbers. We need to show you a pattern. All of the multiplication was very easy. The most difficult multiplication problem we did was 5x3. When you have big problems, just be patient and follow all of the steps.
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Current Page: NumberNut.com | Basic Math | Multiplication of Two-Digit Numbers
** Andrew Rader Studios does not monitor or review the content available at these web sites. They are paid advertisements and neither partners nor recommended web sites. | <urn:uuid:a3531275-b832-4f81-8877-3b89a6e4a626> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.numbernut.com/basic/mult_2digit.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00145-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893833 | 874 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Did you know that during the course of this year, the number of Wi-Fi connected devices will exceed the world’s population? This incredible statistic highlights the ubiquitous nature of Wi-Fi. However, the convenience of having public Wi-Fi available practically everywhere comes at the cost of greater risk to users. This infographic delves into the anatomy of a Wi-Fi hack and simple precautions Wi-Fi users should take to ensure that they are surfing safely.
Infographic by Veracode Application Security
Wi-Fi connected devices are no longer for the tech-savvy; they are now the norm. This year, the number of Wi-Fi connected devices will exceed the world’s population. With these increases comes an increase in the usage of Wi-Fi, especially on public networks. Public Wi-Fi is now available everywhere from airports to the metro station. With the convenience, however, comes greater risk. It is easier than ever for hackers to gain access to personal information through these unsecure networks.
Not only is the number of devices increasing, the amount of traffic on those devices is also increasing rapidly.
|Device||Percentage who use Mobile and Wi-Fi Networks||Percentage who use only a Mobile Network|
The number of public Wi-Fi hotspots is estimated to increase by 350 percent over the next 4 years.
This involves a malicious actor using readily available software to intercept data being sent from, or to, your device.
Example Scenario: You’re at a local coffee shop using the free Wi-Fi login to an email account that doesn’t encrypt your login credentials. A malicious actor is sitting in his car outside, using free software to capture the information you submit. He is able to access your account information and potentially use the same login credentials to access other accounts you use, such as online banking or online shopping.
This attack involves sniffing data packets to steal session cookies and hijack a user’s session. These cookies can contain unencrypted login information, even if the site was secure.
Example Scenario: You’re on your favorite social networking site and suddenly your status is updated without you doing so. When you started that browsing session, a hacker was eavesdropping and hijacked your browsing session. While she does not necessarily have your password information, she can impersonate you during that open session to access your messages and send information to your contacts.
This is a rogue Wi-Fi network that appears to be a legitimate network. When users unknowingly join the rogue network, the attacker can launch a man-in-the-middle attack, intercepting all data between you and the network.
Example Scenario: You are at the airport, waiting for your flight. You take advantage of the free Wi-Fi, but there are multiple networks to join. You choose the one with the best connection, unaware that it is a rogue Wi-Fi network created by a hacker. Once you are connected, the hacker steals your sensitive data.
Here are some simple precautions to take to ensure a safer browsing experience: | <urn:uuid:5e11c9b4-02a1-4d86-af0d-afe7ef1d3acd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.veracode.com/blog/2012/05/free-wi-fi-friend-or-foe-infographic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00061-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906393 | 631 | 2.84375 | 3 |
|Brien M. Posey|
While hard disk compression removes redundancy from files as they are written to disk, which helps conserve disk space, there is tradeoff: When files are read from disk, they must be decompressed on the fly. The decompression process consumes CPU resources that would not otherwise be used if the file is not compressed. Because of this, I always assumed that a machine would perform better if disk space was left decompressed.
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So when I learned that my friend uses disk compression to improve system performance, I was a bit taken back. I know my friend is no idiot, so there had to be a reason for him to suggest that compressing a hard disk could improve performance.
When I asked him about the decompression process, he explained that it was necessary, but that it occurs after the file has already been read from the disk. Since memory is a faster medium than the hard disk, the decompression process happens very quickly.
So the question remains: Should you compress your hard drive or not?
There's no right answer because no two people use their computers exactly the same way. In my opinion, determining whether it's prudent to compress the drive will depend on the types of data reside on a hard drive and the way the data is used.
For example, suppose you have a drive that contains .jpg images. It wouldn't make sense to compress the hard drive, because .jpgs are already compressed, which means disk compression won't save you much space. And in some cases, compressing a file that's already in a compressed format can actually cause the file to take up more space.
On the other hand, you might want to consider compressing a hard drive if it is used to store a lot of old files that are seldom accessed. In that scenario, compressing the drive could save space, and the performance impact would not be a factor because the files are rarely accessed.
When it comes to compressing files and whether doing so provides a quicker read, I believe it would work, but only under certain circumstances. For instance, if you have large files that require a read fairly often, then compression might actually improve performance. In the case of smaller files, though, I think that compression may actually hurt performance.
Even in the case of large files, however, admins first need to consider whether the machine has the CPU resources available that would allow efficient decompression. If a machine is already low on memory and CPU resources, then compression will hurt performance. In most cases, though, I think that you are probably better off not compressing a volume.
|Brien M. Posey, MCSE, has received Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional Award four times for his work with Windows Server, IIS and Exchange Server. He has served as CIO for a nationwide chain of hospitals and healthcare facilities and was once a network administrator for Fort Knox. You can visit his website at www.brienposey.com.| | <urn:uuid:3b1f693e-23ea-40d4-8914-a8d150392dfe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/tip/Should-administrators-use-hard-disk-compression | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00178-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964529 | 651 | 2.875 | 3 |
Days observed and celebrated by secular society can connect to important faith-related concepts for children and families. In excerpts from Celebrating Saints and Seasons, author Jeanne Hunt suggests ways parents and teachers can make Halloween and All Saints Day come alive for children in faith-filled and fun experiences.
When you think of Halloween, what comes to mind? For a lot of people, Halloween has become synonymous with candy, costumes, scary stuff, witches, ghosts and pumpkins. But do you know the Christian connection to the holiday?
Catholics and Halloween
How can Catholics celebrate Halloween in the context of their Christian faith? Listen to American Catholic Radio to find out.
Why do we carve pumpkins for Halloween? Read a story from Catholic Update that explains the origin of this yearly tradition.
What are Catholics to think about the devil, exorcism, psychic hotlines, fortune tellers, ESP, ghosts and magic in the light of current Church teaching? Curiosity about the supernatural is normal especially for teenagers during Halloween but is it “of the devil” as some Christians claim?
How can Catholics keep All Hallows Eve from becoming “hollow”? Celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day while remembering both the Christian connection to Halloween and the positive messages that stem from the holiday.
What is the basis for the Catholic Church’s teaching about purgatory and praying for the dead? Why do Catholics pray for the dead?
Post an online prayer request. All prayer requests are displayed at StAnthony.org and on a large, scrolling screen next to St. Anthony’s relic at the National Shrine of St. Anthony of Padua in Cincinnati, Ohio. View current prayers.
Who are the saints? Who decides who is and is not a saint? How many are there? Are saints’ names required for Baptism? Find the answers to these questions on Catholic saints and more.
Celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day with a Catholic e-card. Also, choose and send an e-greeting with your favorite Catholic saint. | <urn:uuid:d47714d9-a046-4487-b4b0-462bf57ccdb4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/default.aspx?id=23 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927926 | 421 | 2.546875 | 3 |
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