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A mobile phone user outside a mobile payment facility in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
our goal: to alleviate poverty by expanding access to digitally-based financial tools and services.
At A Glance
Increasing poor people’s access to financial services can help them weather personal financial crises and increase their chances of climbing out of poverty.
About 80 percent of the world’s poor adults do not have a bank account or use other formal financial services—not only because of poverty but also due to costs, travel distance, and other barriers.
Our strategy aims to capitalize on rapid advances in mobile communications and digital payment systems to connect poor households to affordable and reliable financial tools.
Our Financial Services for the Poor strategy, updated in 2012, is led by Rodger Voorhies, director, and is part of the foundation’s Global Development Division.
Poor people do not live in a static state of poverty. Every year, many millions of people transition out of poverty by successfully adopting new farming technologies, investing in new business opportunities, or finding new jobs. At the same time, large numbers of people fall back into poverty due to health problems, financial setbacks, and other shocks. If available at critical moments, effective tools for savings, payment, credit, and insurance can help households capture an opportunity to climb out of poverty or weather a crisis or emergency without falling deeper into poverty.
Worldwide, approximately 2.5 billion people do not have a formal account at a financial institution, according to the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion Database. As a result, most poor households operate almost entirely in the cash economy, particularly in the developing world. This means they use cash, physical assets (such as jewelry and livestock), or informal providers (such as money lenders and payment couriers) to meet their financial needs—from receiving wages to saving money for fertilizer. However, these informal mechanisms tend to be insecure, expensive, and complicated to use. And they offer limited recourse when major problems arise, such as a serious illness in the family.
A growing body of evidence suggests that increasing poor people’s access to better financial tools can help accelerate the rate at which they move out of poverty and help them hold on to economic gains. However, it is costly to serve poor people with financial services, in part because most of their transactions are conducted in cash. Storing, transporting, and processing cash is expensive for banks, insurance companies, utility companies, and other institutions, and they pass on those costs to customers.
A foundation-supported initiative allows Rwandan farmers to access markets for their beans and maize using mobile phones.
In wealthier countries, people conduct most of their financial activities in digital form, and value is stored virtually and transferred instantaneously. The global revolution in mobile communications, along with rapid advances in digital payment systems, is creating opportunities to connect poor households to affordable and reliable financial tools through mobile phones and other digital interfaces.
In fact, research has shown that the most effective way to significantly expand poor people’s access to formal financial services is through digital means. In addition to cost savings, digital financial services offer a wide array of benefits:
- They connect poor people to the formal financial sector and enable them to become customers and suppliers within the wider economy.
- Financial flows can be accurately tracked, resulting in safer and speedier transactions and less corruption and theft.
- Providers can use financial histories to develop products that are better suited to customers’ needs, cash flow, and risk profiles, including fee-for-service offerings and smaller-unit transactions.
- Direct deposits (including wages and government assistance) allow money to “bypass” the home, helping users save rather than spend and often giving women more financial authority within the family.
- Automatic reminders, positive default options, and other choices offered via mobile phone menus offer convenience and save time.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Financial Services for the Poor program aims to play a catalytic role in broadening the reach of digital payment systems, particularly in poor and rural areas, and expanding the range of services available on these platforms. Until the infrastructure and customer base are well established, this might involve a combination of mobile banking services that are accessible via cell phones and brick-and-mortar stores where subscribers can convert cash they earn into digital money (and vice-versa).
Our approach has three mutually reinforcing objectives:
- Reducing the amount of time and money that poor people must spend to conduct financial transactions
- Increasing poor people’s capacity to weather financial shocks and capture income-generating opportunities
- Generating economy-wide efficiencies by digitally connecting large numbers of poor people to one another, financial services providers, government services, and businesses
A tea vendor in Uttar Pradesh, India, checks her bank balance on her mobile phone.
We are not focused on a particular product or distribution channel, but rather on innovative ways to expand access and encourage markets. At the same time, we are aware that interventions in this and other areas too often involve technologies that are made available to the intended users but are not adopted. To address this demand-side challenge, we are supporting research and product design experiments to identify design features, price incentives, and marketing messages that will encourage poor people to adopt and actively use digital financial services. We are also supporting policymakers as they work to develop policies and regulations that facilitate these developments.
We believe that the combined effect of these interventions will accelerate the rate at which poor people transition out of poverty and decrease the rate at which they fall back into poverty. Our strategy also recognizes that countries are at different stages in developing an inclusive digital financial system and that we must tailor our interventions accordingly.
Areas of Focus
Our work falls into four areas:
Digital payment systems
In countries with a minimum level of connectivity in poor and rural areas, we work with in-country providers to extend the reach of digital payment systems into those communities and encourage poor people to adopt these systems through a mobile phone or other digital interface. Payment systems are crucial because they enable people to collect payments from customers, buy goods, pay for water and electricity, and send money to friends, family, and business partners. They also enable governments to collect taxes and disburse social payments. When these transactions are costly and inconvenient, economic activity is impeded.
Digital financial services
In countries where digital payment systems have taken hold in poor and rural communities, we work with banks, insurance companies, and other providers to increase the range of financial services that people can access in digital form. Many of these services are designed to meet the specific household management needs of low-income people, particularly smallholder farmers and women.
We work at the global level with governments, donors, financial standards-setting bodies, and the private sector to maximize our collective impact on poor people’s access to financial services.
Research and innovation
We collect data to measure the impact of our grants and interventions and to help key stakeholders make better decisions. We also conduct research and nurture innovations that could lead to longer-term improvements in delivering digital financial services on a broad scale.
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Discovered in 1988, the Roman Hippodrome in Beirut is situated in Wadi Abou Jmil, next to the newly renovated Jewish Synagogue in Downtown Beirut. This monument, dating back for thousands of years, now risks to be destroyed.
The hippodrome is considered, along with the Roman Road and Baths, as one of the most important remaining relics of the Byzantine and Roman era. It spreads over a total area of 3500 m2.
Requests for construction projects in the hippodrome’s location have been ongoing since the monument’s discovery but were constantly refused by former ministers of culture of which we name Tarek Metri, Tamam Salam and Salim Warde. In fact, Tamam Salam had even issued a decree banning any work on the hippodrome’s site, effectively protecting it by law. Salim Warde did not contest the decree. Current minister of culture Gabriel Layoun authorized constructions to commence.
When it comes to ancient sites in cities that have lots of them, such as Beirut, the current adopted approach towards these sites is called a “mitigation approach” which requires that the incorporation of the monuments in modern plans does not affect those monuments in any way whatsoever. The current approval by minister Layoun does not demand such an approach to be adopted. The monument will have one of its main walls dismantled and taken out of location. Why? to build a fancy new high-rise instead. Minister Layoun sees nothing wrong with this. In fact, displacing ruins is never done unless due to some extreme circumstances. I highly believe whatever Solidere has in store for the land is considered an “extreme circumstance.”
The Roman Hippodrome in downtown Beirut is considered as one of the best preserved not only in Lebanon, but in the world. It is also the fifth to be discovered in the Middle East. In fact, a report (Arabic) by the General Director of Ruins in Lebanon, Frederick Al Husseini, spoke about the importance of the monument as one that has been talked about in various ancient books. It has also been correlated with Beirut’s infamous ancient Law School. He speaks about the various structures that are still preserved and only needing some restoration to be fully exposed. He called the monument as a highly important site for Lebanon and the world and is one of Beirut’s main facilities from the Byzantine and Roman eras, suggesting to work on preserving and making this site one of Beirut’s important cultural and touristic locations. His report dates back from 2008.
MP Michel Aoun, the head of the party of which Gabriel Layoun is part, defended his minsiter’s position by saying that: “there are a lot of discrepancies between Solidere and us. Therefore, a minister from our party cannot be subjected to Solidere. Minister Layoun found a way, which is adopted internationally, to incorporate ancient sites with newer ones… So I hope that media outlets do not discuss this issue in a way that would raise suspicion.”
With all due respect to Mr. Aoun and his minister but endangering Beirut’s culture to strip away even more of the identity that makes it Beirut is not something that should concern him or Solidere. What’s happening is a cultural crime to the entirety of the Lebanese population, one where the interests of meaningless politicians becomes irrelevant. Besides, for a party that has been anti-Solidere for years, I find it highly hypocritical that they are allowing Solidere to dismantle the Roman Hippodrome.
The conclusion is: never has a hippodrome been dismantled and displaced in any parts of the world. Beirut’s hippodrome will effectively become part of the parking of the high-rise to be built in its place. No mitigation approach will be adopted here. It is only but a diversion until people forget and plans go well underway in secrecy. But the time for us to be silent about this blatant persecution of our history cannot continue.
If there’s anything that we can do is let the issue propagate as much as we can. There shouldn’t be a Lebanese person in the 10452 km2 that remains clueless about any endangered monument for that matter. Sadly enough, this goes beyond the hippodrome. We have become so accustomed to the reality of it that we’ve become very submissive: the ancient Phoenician port is well behind us, there are constructions around the ancient Phoenician port of Tyre and the city itself risks of being removed off UNESCO’s list for Cultural Heritage Sites.
The land on which ancient monuments are built doesn’t belong to Solidere, to the Ministry of Culture or to any other contractor – no matter how much they’ve paid to buy it. It belongs to the Lebanese people in their entirety. When you realize that of the 200 sites uncovered at Solidere, those that have remained intact can be counted with the fingers of one hand, the reality becomes haunting. It’s about time we rise to our rights. Beirut’s hippodrome will not be destroyed.
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- Join The Movement
- Media & More
- About Us
Types of Builds
Millard Fuller used to say that a home is the foundation on which human development occurs. It is also an important, positive step in working on a safer, healthier and more responsible future. Many people struggling to put food on the table, pay bills, purchase school supplies and clothing and maintain transportation to work are not thinking about repairing their homes, even though those homes might be dangerous, literally crumbling around them and their children.
The Fuller Center is an organization devoted to partnership, renewed opportunity and providing a hand up instead of a hand out. The construction and rehabilitation of simple, decent houses are the two basic ways we do this.
The work of The Fuller Center allows the elderly to live out their rest of their days comfortably in their own homes, gives families a fresh start, enables the handicapped to maintain a level of independence in accessible homes and, in some cases, transforms entire neighborhoods.
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Write a program that uses a loop to display the characters for each ASCII code 32 through 127. Display 16 characters on each line with one space between characters.
We are using the Starting out with C++ Early Objects 6th edition. I really don't know how to start this program, I'm not sure if it wants me to display ever character, or if I have to do get the user to input numbers and give me the characters that it should be or the other way around. If you can please help me that would be great.
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Biochemical Conversion Processes
The diagram below depicts a high-level view of the primary units of operation in the biochemical conversion process. Specific process operation conditions, and inputs and outputs within and between each unit, vary in practice. These process variations can impact the key performance outcomes (titer, rate, and yield), which determine economic viability when the process is scaled up. The following descriptions highlight issues in each key process step.
During pretreatment, biomass feedstock undergoes a process to mechanically or chemically fractionate the lignocellulosic complex into soluble and insoluble components. Soluble components include mixtures of five- and six-carbon sugars (mainly xylose, arabinose, mannose, galactose, and glucose) and some sugars oligomers. Insoluble components include cellulosic polymers and oligomers and lignin (and any other components that may be linked to the constituents). Depending on the exact chemistry chosen for this step, variable amounts of the biomass may be solubilized. The main purpose of this step is to open up the physical structure of the plant cell walls to permit further deconstruction during the hydrolysis stepyea. The more open structure of the resulting material makes the remaining carbohydrate polymers more accessible for hydrolytic conversion to soluble sugars by enzymes or chemicals. The specific mix of sugars and oligomers released depends on the feedstock used and the pretreatment technology employed.
In some process configurations, the pretreated material goes through a hydrolysate conditioning and/or neutralization process to adjust the pH of the biomass slurry and remove undesirable by-product from pretreatment that are toxic to the downstream fermenting microorganism. In some cases, this step and hydrolysis, the next step, are combined into a single process.
In hydrolysis, the pretreated material, with the remaining solid carbohydrate fraction, primarily cellulose, is guided through a chemical reaction that releases the readily fermentable sugar, glucose. This can be accomplished with enzymes, such as cellulases, or with strong acids. Addition of other enzymes in this step, such as xylanases, may allow for less severe pretreatment conditions, potentially resulting in a reduced overall pretreatment and hydrolysis cost. Depending on the process design, enzymatic hydrolysis requires several hours to several days, after which the mixture of sugars and any unreacted cellulose is transferred to the fermenter. Current processes use purchased enzymes or enzymes manufactured on site, based on the economics of the specific process. For technologies using strong acids, acid recovery is important for the economics to be viable.
Currently, the most common approach to biological processing is to employ a fermentation step, wherein an inoculum of a fermenting microorganism is added to the biomass hydrolysates. Fermentation of all sugars is then carried out, and after a few days of continued saccharification and fermentation, nearly all of the sugars are converted to biofuels or other chemicals of interest. The resulting aqueous mixture or two-phase broth is sent to product recovery. Some processes combine the hydrolysis and fermentation steps (i.e., simultaneous saccharification and fermentation [SSF]).
Chemical or catalytic conversion can be used in place of, or in addition to, fermentation to convert the hydrolysis products, such as sugars, alcohols, or a variety of other stable oxygenates, to desired end products. The addition of a catalyst makes the reaction less energy intensive, thus making the entire process more efficient. Different reactions achieve different yields and intermediates while targeting different end fuels and chemicals, so current research is aimed at identifying optimal process combinations with respect to efficiency, feedstock utilization, cost, sustainability, finished product characteristics, and anticipated market demands.
Product Upgrading and Recovery
Product upgrading and recovery varies based on the type of conversion used and the type of product generated, but in general, involves any biological and chemical transformations, distillation or any other separation and recovery method, and some cleanup processes to separate the fuel from the water and residual solids. Residual solids are composed primarily of lignin, which can be burned for combined heat and power generation or chemically converted to intermediate chemicals or intermediates for other uses.
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European Painting before 1900, Johnson Collection
Triptych showing scenes from the Martyrdom of Saint Barbara and scenes from the Life of Christ
Master of the Laufen High Altarpiece, Austrian (active Salzburg), dated work 1467
Oil and gold on panels
EW1993-127-2a--cPurchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, the George W. Elkins Fund, and Museum funds, 1993
As described in The Golden Legend, written in about 1267 by Jacopo da Voragine, Saint Barbara converted to Christianity against the wishes of her pagan father. Locked in a tower by him, she ordered workmen to construct a third window inthe building to symbolize the Christian trinity. Enraged, her father turned her over to the Roman authorities for torture, and when her execution was ordered,he himself beheaded her. The left and right panels on the front of this triptychillustrate episodes from Barbara’s gruesome martyrdom.
These graphic depictions are intended to help the viewer equate Barbara’s physical torments with those of Christ, whose crucifixion is depicted in the top center composition. The figures at the top left and right, probably the apostles John and Luke, hold sayings taken from the last words of Christ on the cross, which here apply also to Barbara’s death. The bottom center panel shows Barbara enthroned in heaven, wearing a crown and holding a palm frond as symbols of victory over death. A tower and chalice, her identifying attributes, appear nearby.
Barbara’s martyrdom is paralleled on the reverse by the resurrected Christ standing in the tomb. The left and right panels of the back, which are movable and can be folded shut to appear on the front, show the angel Gabriel announcing the incarnation of Christ to the Virgin Mary.
Social Tags [?]austrian [x] gabriel [x] gold [x] martyr [x] three [x] trinity [x] triptych [x] [Add Your Own Tags]
* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.
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International Women’s Day (IWD) was founded in 1910 in order to confront the great inequalities women faced in the labor force and society as a whole. Unfortunately, one hundred years later, women still make up a majority of the world’s poor.
Women’s wages in the U.S. are only 76% of men’s, but the disparity of long-term earnings between men and women is far worse. A study comparing total earnings between 1983 and 1998 showed women averaging just 38% of men’s wages (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2004).
In large part, this is because 80% of American women under 40 are mothers, according to the U.S. census. Without adequate paid maternity leave, mothers are frequently forced to quit stable jobs and disrupt career plans. Add to that $611 in average monthly childcare costs (U.S. Department of Labor), which is more than two weeks pay at the federal minimum wage.
Eighty-seven percent of single parent households are headed by women and of those 37% are in poverty (Association for Women’s Rights and Development). Once a family falls into poverty it is astoundingly hard for them to escape. Sixty percent of families that are in the bottom fifth of income remain there a decade later (Association for Women’s Rights and Development).
The impact of the financial crisis, however, is worldwide. Of the 1.5 million people living on a dollar or less per day, 70% are women (UN.org). Forced into the factories with the worst working conditions, women make up 90% of the world’s sweatshop labor (Women Thrive Worldwide). Often being laid off, these women are accustomed to making 13 cents to one dollar per hour (Powell and Skarbek 2004). Forced to work, women are less likely to attend school or leave the home before marriage. Seventy-seven million girls of primary school age worldwide are out of school, compared to only 55 million boys (The World Bank).
Women around the world are bound together by discrimination and economic servitude created by capitalism. Their work is devalued down to pennies, and often the largest use of their time - household labor - goes unpaid. IWD is a chance to remember and celebrate the struggles of women, which have won huge improvements in our lives. If women united internationally and with the wider struggles of working people to fight for equal rights, better working conditions, wages and stronger social services such as health care, child care and food support, we could collectively improve conditions for all.
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BSA Supply No. 35940
If you have ever wanted to go back in time or wished you could visit the future, if you are curious about the world, or if you are interested in how things work or like to learn new things, these are all reasons why you should want to read. Reading is fascinating. It's full of surprises. And it will take you places you can't get to in any other way.
- Do EACH of the following:
- Learn how to search your library's card catalog or computerized catalog by author,
title, and subject.
- With the assistance of your merit badge counselor or a librarian, select six books
of four different types (such as poetry, drama/plays, fiction, nonfiction, biographies,
etc.). Ask your librarian or counselor about award-winning books that are recommended
for readers your age and include at least one of those titles.
- Find the books in the library catalog. With your counselor's or a librarian's assistance,
locate the books on the shelves.
- Read each book. Keep a log of your reading that includes the title of the book,
the pages or chapters read, the date you completed them, and your thoughts about
what you have read so far. Discuss your reading with your counselor. Using your
log as a reference, explain why you chose each book and tell whether you enjoyed
it and what it meant to you.
- Read about the world around you from any two sources--books, magazines, newspapers,
the Internet (with your parent's permission), field manuals, etc. Topics may include
sports, environmental problems, politics, social issues, current events, nature,
religion, etc. Discuss what you have learned with your counselor.
- Do ONE of the following:
- From a catalog of your choice, fill out an order form for merchandise as if you
intended to place an order. Share the completed form with your counselor and discuss
- With your parent's permission, locate at least five Web sites that are helpful for
your Scouting or other activities. Write the Internet addresses of these sites in
your log. Talk with your counselor or a librarian about safety rules for using the
- With your counselor's and your parent's permission, choose ONE of the following
activities and devote at least four hours of service to that activity. Discuss your
participation with your counselor.
- Read to a sick, blind, or homebound person in a hospital or in an extended-care
- Perform volunteer work at your school library or a public library.
- Read stories to younger children, in a group or individually.
- Best Books for Young Adults - http://www.ala.org/ yalsa/booklists/bbya
- BookSpot: Young Adult Books - http://www.bookspot.com/ youngadult.htm
- Choices Booklists - http://www.reading.org/ choices
- National Book Awards for Young People's Literature - http://www.literature-awards. com/national_book_awards.html
- Newbery Medal Winners and Honor Books - http://www.ala.org/alsc/ newbpast.html
- 100 Best Books for Children - http://www.teachersfirst.com/ 100books.htm
- Summer Reading Lists - http://www.educationworld. com/summer_reading
- Teenreads.com - http://www.teenreads.com
- U.S. Children's Book Awards - http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/ usawards.html
- The Online Books Page - http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books
- Project Gutenberg - http://gutenberg.net
P.O. Box 152350
Irving, TX 75015-2350
Web site: http://www.boyslife.org
30 Grove St., Suite C
Peterborough, NH 03458
Toll-free telephone: 800-821-0115
Web site: http://www.cobblestonepub. com/pages/callmain.htm
Cicada and Cricket
P.O. Box 7434
Red Oak, IA 51591-0433
Toll-free telephone: 800-821-0115
Web site: http://www.cricketmag.com
149 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10010
Web site: http://www.kidsdiscover.com
SAS Campus Drive
Cary, NC 27513
Web site: http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink
National Geographic Kids
P.O. Box 63002
Tampa, FL 33663-3002
Toll-free telephone: 800-647-5463
Web site: http://www.nationalgeographic. com/ngkids
P.O. Box 3939
Eugene, OR 97403
Web site: http://www.skippingstones.org
Sports Illustrated for Kids
P.O. Box 60001
Tampa, FL 33660-0001
Toll-free telephone: 800-992-0196
Web site: http://www.sikids.com
P.O. Box 83
Santa Cruz, CA 95063
Toll-free telephone: 800-447-4569
Web site: http://www.stonesoup.com
- Internet Public Library - http://www.ipl.org/div/news
- Refdesk.com - http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html
- Barron's Profiles of American Colleges. Barron's Educational Series, annual.
- Books in Print. Bowker, annual.
- Contemporary Authors. Gale, annual.
- Current Biography. H. W. Wilson, annual.
- Guinness World Records. Bantam Books, annual.
- Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. H. W. Wilson, annual.
- Subject Guide to Books in Print. Bowker, annual.
- Subject Guide to Children's Books in Print. Bowker, annual.
Web Directories, Search Engines, and Web Guides
- The Alphabet Superhighway - http://www.ash.udel.edu/ash
- Cool Sites for Kids - http://www.ala.org/alsc/children_links.html
- Internet Search Engines for Kids - http://www.ivyjoy.com/rayne/kidssearch.html
- Kids and Teens: Directories - http://dmoz.org/Kids_and_ Teens/Directories
- Kids Pick - http://www.ala.org/kidspick
- KidSpace - http://www.ipl.org/div/ kidspace
- Great Web Sites for Kids - http://www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/amazing.html
- Teen Hoopla- http://www.ala.org/ teenhoopla/sitemap.html
- TeenSpace - http://www.ipl.org/div/teen
America's Literacy Directory
Web site: http://www.literacydirectory.org
American Federation for the Blind
11 Penn Plaza, Suite 300
New York, NY 10001
Toll-free telephone: 800-232-5463
Web site: http://www.afb.org
The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
1201 15th St. NW, Suite 420
Washington, DC 20005
Web site: http://www.barbarabushfoundation.com
National Literacy Hotline
Toll-free telephone: 800-228-8813
Read Across America
National Education Association
1201 16th St., NW
Washington, DC 20036
Web site: http://www.nea.org/readacross
Reading Is Fundamental Inc.
1825 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
Toll-free telephone: 877-RIF-READ
Web site: http://www.rif.org
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A Soyuz rocket launched two Galileo satellites into orbit on Friday, marking a crucial step for Europe’s planned navigation system, operator Arianespace announced.
The launch took place at the Kourou space base in French Guiana, at 3:15pm (6:15pm GMT).
Three and three-quarter hours later, the 700kg satellites were placed into orbit.
The new satellites add to the first two in the Galileo navigation system, which were launched on Oct. 21, last year.
Together they create a “mini-constellation.” Four is the minimum number of satellites needed to gain a navigational fix on the ground, using signals from the satellite to get a position for latitude, longitude, altitude and a time reference.
Galileo will ultimately consist of 30 satellites, six more than the US Global Positioning System.
By 2015, 18 satellites should be in place, which is sufficient for launching services to the public, followed by the rest in 2020, according to the European Space Agency.
It is claimed that the system will be accurate to within one meter. The US Global Positioning System, which became operational in 1995 and is currently being upgraded, is currently accurate to between three and eight meters.
In May, the European Commission said the cost by 2015 would be 5 billion euros (US$6.45 billion).
As a medium-sized launcher, Soyuz complements Europe’s heavyweight Ariane 5 and lightweight Vega rockets.
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Forget the batteries for a second, thats just one of a thousand analogies you could use to describe voltage/current and the reason that no current flows has nothing to do with the electro-chemical properties of batteries, its far simpler.
The easiest way to think of it is this: Current will only ever flow in a loop, even in very complex circuits you can always break it down into loops of current, if there is no path for current to return to its source, there will be no current flow.
In your battery example, there is no return current path so no current will flow. There is obviously a more deep physics reason for why this works but as the question asked for a simple answer I'll skip the math, google Maxwell's Equations and how they are used in the derivation of Kirchhoff's voltage law.
Batteries do make a good example for this simply because they are current sources with completely isolated grounds. This example would be equally true of any other power source with a completely isolated "ground".
However, this is not an easy thing to find, for instance doing this with 2 bench supplies would likely make one of the bench supplies very unhappy, but thats not because the effect is different, the difference is that the bench supplies are likely both grounded to the electrical wiring in the building and as such there is a return path for current to flow through.
The water analogy for this also effective. Think of your battery example this way:
You have a water pump (battery A) connected to a pipe (the wire), and you have another water pump (battery B) connected to the same pipe (the wire) . Now in your example the there is no return path in the system so imagine that the pipe is full of water but capped off on both ends.
You hit the power switch on the pumps, what happens?
The answer is nothing, there is no where to move the water to, the pumps don't even spin. (ignore water turbulence like effects for this analogy).
Now if you were to connect the pipe in a loop and hit the switch the pumps would spin up (voltage) and water would flow (current).
If you used 2 difference speed pumps (different voltage batteries) and faced them toward each other one will over power and cause the other to spin in the wrong direction (burn out just like connecting a 9V and 6V battery in parallel).
If you connected both pumps pointing in the same direction you would get more water pressure (voltage) because the pumps are helping each other out (2 batteries in series).
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Problem 367Published on Saturday, 14th January 2012, 10:00 pm; Solved by 247
Bozo sort, not to be confused with the slightly less efficient bogo sort, consists out of checking if the input sequence is sorted and if not swapping randomly two elements. This is repeated until eventually the sequence is sorted.
If we consider all permutations of the first 4 natural numbers as input the expectation value of the number of swaps, averaged over all 4! input sequences is 24.75.
The already sorted sequence takes 0 steps.
In this problem we consider the following variant on bozo sort.
If the sequence is not in order we pick three elements at random and shuffle these three elements randomly.
All 3!=6 permutations of those three elements are equally likely.
The already sorted sequence will take 0 steps.
If we consider all permutations of the first 4 natural numbers as input the expectation value of the number of shuffles, averaged over all 4! input sequences is 27.5.
Consider as input sequences the permutations of the first 11 natural numbers.
Averaged over all 11! input sequences, what is the expected number of shuffles this sorting algorithm will perform?
Give your answer rounded to the nearest integer.
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Rabbi Victor Caro
J.D. Levy Home
J.D. Levy Clothing Store
Rabbi Issac Moses
Some history of Quincy’s Jewish Community
Quincy’s first permanent Jewish resident was Abraham Jonas, an English-born Jew, who prior to his arrival in 1838 had lived in Cincinnati with other members of the Jonas family, had moved to Williamstown, KY where he was merchant and representative in the Kentucky state legislature, and where he had been the Grand Master of Kentucky Lodge of Masons in 1832. Why Jonas uprooted his family and came to the wilds of Illinois remains unclear. Beginning as a carriage, chair, window, and paint merchant, Jonas quickly plunged into local Masonic and political affairs. In 1840 he was elected the first Grand Master of the Illinois Masonic Lodge and in 1841 he was elected to his only term in the Illinois legislature as a member of the Whig Party. Jonas has characterized as quick in perception, a brilliant debater, and a formidable opponent. It was during this one term that he met Abraham Lincoln and their political friendship was solidified. Historians have said that Jonas was Lincoln’s closest Jewish friend, and it was Jonas who helped propel Lincoln’s candidacy for President.
Two of Jonas’s brothers, Samuel and Edward, followed him to Quincy at the end of 1840 or early 1841. These three English Jews quickly blended into the small town, with Samuel becoming one of the founders of the Quincy Public Library. Abraham studied law and was admitted to the bar. His activities on behalf of the Whig Party resulted in his appointment as Postmaster of Quincy in 1849.
At about the same time the first wave of German born Jews began to settle in Quincy. Several had been peddlers and decided to settle down in Quincy. Men like David Hermann who arrived in 1846 and Moses Jacobs in 1847 became successful merchants. When recalling those early years, Moses Jacobs noted that by 1849 there were enough Jews to conduct high holiday services on an annual basis, usually in someone’s home. By 1851 the little community had collected enough funds to allow Edward Jonas to purchase a parcel of land overlooking the Mississippi River for a cemetery. By 1852 it was reported that “the Israelites of Quincy had commenced a congregational organization, by electing a Schochet…” When Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise made a one day stop in Quincy on July 16, 1856, he noted that “there are about 40 souls of the Jewish persuasion hailing from Germany, Poland and England. They do a flourishing business.” He also wrote that they would have a nice little congregation if they could overcome their business jealousy.
By the end of that year, those jealousies had been set aside as 26 families founded K. K. B’nai Abraham, and one year later Reverend Israel Worenski became their spiritual leader as Chazzan and Schochet. The congregation met in the third floor of the Jonas building at the southeast corner of Fifth and Hampshire, across from the town square. This “traditional” congregation grew as more Jews settled in Quincy because of its economic prospects. By 1859 Moses Jacobs reported that there were thirty members, or about 100 residents of all ages. Regular Sabbath services were led by the Chazzan, and the congregation supported the services of a Schochet.
Until this point there is nothing to show that Jews faced any kind of discrimination, and the onset of the Civil War acted to further integrate Jews into the life of the community. Lincoln appointed Jonas to the position of Postmaster, Jewish men enlisted in the military, and several of Quincy’s Jewish women helped to found and to activate the Needle Pickets to assist families of Union soldiers. However, there were stirrings of secession within the Jewish community. When the congregation met in 1861 to elect a Chazzan and lecturer, and a Schochet, Mohel, and Shamus, eight members, mostly Bavarians, threatened to leave. Differences were set aside and Nathan Hainsfurther, a resident of Winchester, Illinois, who attended high holiday services in 1861, said, “None of the greater congregations of the country could offer any more to the devout mind than is the case here. The place of worship is a nice hall supplied with everything necessary to a synagogue, and was very well attended.”
One year later the members of B’nai Abraham had collected enough funds to begin the process of building their own house of worship. Such a place was found across from Jefferson Square. Edward Jonas solicited more funds through the newspaper The Occident in which he noted 45 paying members comprising two hundred persons, a Chazzan and teacher, and “a location in a beautiful city of 20,000 on the banks of the Mississippi which offers a peaceful and prosperous home.”
The rift in the congregation had not healed and on October 18, 1864, seventeen members held a meeting in their place of worship to elect officers and establish a new congregation. These “reformers” wanted to break from the old ways and establish a congregation that reflected the American way. This congregation called itself K.K. B’nai Sholom, and by 1866 it was renting an old Baptist Church as its home.
Meanwhile, just prior to the high holidays in 1866, B’nai Abraham dedicated its synagogue. Designed to hold 200 persons, the sanctuary was 18 feet high, with seats on both sides of a central aisle, one for men and the other for women. The building was lit with gas and handsomely carpeted. The dedication was service was attended by both Jews and Gentiles, but noticeably absent were members of B’nai Sholom.
Perhaps in an attempt to placate the secessionists, B’nai Abraham in 1868 introduced an organ and choir into its services. But B’nai Sholom was already planning its own synagogue on Ninth Street between Broadway and Spring. None other than Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise dedicated the cornerstone on July 18, 1869. Just prior to this, in May 1869, B’nai Abraham suffered a mortal blow, when fire damaged its wooden synagogue. When Temple B’nai Sholom was dedicated on September 8, 1870, it literally towered over B’nai Abraham. Costing $25,000, this red brick structure followed a neo-Byzantine style of architecture, dominated by six story high Moorish towers. At nine stories in height, this building was easily recognizable in the Quincy skyline. Some traditionalists had left B’nai Abraham to become charter members of B’nai Sholom.
Reasonable individuals began to conduct behind the scenes negotiations, but it took Rabbi Adolph Ollendorf of B’nai Abraham to effect a merger. He gradually introduced reforms in B’nai Abraham and his eloquent speeches probably spurred the members to bring about a merger of the two congregations. On July 29, 1872, the two congregations passed resolutions of merger. The following Friday evening the first joint Shabbat service was held at B’nai Sholom, with the final Shabbat day service at B’nai Abraham the next day. Herman Hirsch wrote that "Peace, harmony and good will now exists among the members of the united congregations…for in union lies strength….”
This moment was the apex of Jewish life in Quincy. Social and economic forces in the wider country were having an effect. Quincy’s river traffic gave way to the railroad, Quincy’s was no longer a frontier community, and Quincy’s younger generation of Jews sought to make their fortunes and find their spouses elsewhere. Orthodox Judaism as a mode of worship for Quincy’s Jews had been cast aside in favor of Reform. The size of the Jewish community inexorably declined, and Rabbi Elias Eppstein, Quincy’s rabbi in the 1890s thought that the community was on the verge of death. But Congregation B’nai Sholom has survived, now numbering approximately 65 members, and its building, although changed in appearance, remain the second oldest continuously used synagogue west of the Allegheny Mountains and the oldest in Illinois.
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Nausea and vomiting - adults
Nausea is the feeling of having an urge to vomit. It is often called being sick to your stomach.
Vomiting or throwing up is forcing the contents of the stomach up through the esophagus and out of the mouth.
Emesis; Vomiting; Stomach upset; Upset stomach
Many common problems may cause nausea and vomiting:
Nausea and vomiting may also be early warning signs of more serious medical problems, such as:
Once you and your doctor find the cause, you will want to know how to treat your nausea or vomiting
. You may be asked to take medicine, change your diet, or try other things to make you feel better.
It is very important to keep enough fluids in your body. Try drinking frequent, small amounts of clear liquids
If you have morning sickness during pregnancy, ask your doctor about the many possible treatments.
The following may help treat motion sickness:
- Lying down
- Over-the-counter antihistamines (such as Dramamine)
- Scopolamine prescription skin patches (such as Transderm Scop) are useful for extended trips, such as an ocean voyage. Place the patch 4 - 12 hours before setting sail. Scopolamine is effective but may produce dry mouth, blurred vision, and some drowsiness. Scopolamine is for adults only. It should NOT be given to children.
Call your health care provider if
Call 911 or go to an emergency room if:
- You think vomiting is from poisoning
- You notice blood or dark, coffee-colored material in the vomit
Call a health care provider right away or seek medical care if you or another person has:
Been vomiting for longer than 24 hours
Been unable to keep any fluids down for 12 hours or more
Headache or stiff neck
Not urinated for 8 or more hours
Severe stomach or belly pain
Vomited three or more times in 1 day
Signs of dehydration include:
- Crying without tears
- Dry mouth
- Increased thirst
- Eyes that appear sunken
- Skin changes -- for example, if you touch or squeeze the skin, it doesn't bounce back the way it usually does
- Urinating less often or having dark yellow urine
What to expect at your health care provider's office
Your health care provider will perform a physical examination, and will look for signs of dehydration.
Your health care provider will ask questions about your symptoms, such as:
- When did the vomiting begin? How long has it lasted? How often does it occur?
- Does it occur after you eat, or on an empty stomach?
- What other symptoms are present -- abdominal pain, fever, diarrhea, or headaches?
- Are you vomiting blood
- Are you vomiting anything that looks like coffee grounds?
- Are you vomiting undigested food?
- When was the last time you urinated?
Other questions you may be asked include:
- Have you been losing weight?
- Have you been traveling? Where?
- What medications do you take?
- Did other people who ate at the same place as you have the same symptoms?
- Are you pregnant or could you be pregnant?
The diagnostic tests may be performed:
Depending on the cause and how much extra fluids you need, you may have to stay in the hospital or clinic for a period of time. You may need fluids given through your veins (intravenous or IV).
Malagelada J-R, Malagelada C. Nausea and vomiting. In: Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ, eds. Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2010:chap 14.
Mcquaid K. Approach to the patient with gastrointestinal disease. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 134.
This article uses information by permission from Alan Greene, M.D., © Greene Ink, Inc.
George F. Longstreth, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, San Diego, California. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
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10 Tips for Parents of Prospective College Students
1. Choosing a Career/Choosing a Major
Ultimately, your son or daughter should make the choice. Of course, you may want to mention factors to consider, such as job market demand, salary ranges, long-range opportunities, skills required, etc. Just because an occupation is "hot" now does not mean it will be equally in demand in 10 years or that your child has the aptitude or motivation for it.
2. Choosing to Double Major/Choosing a Major and Minor
Most employers do not place a premium on a double major. It usually requires an extra one or two semesters to obtain a second major and does not particularly enhance a student's marketability. Exceptions would be a second major or a major and minor chosen for a specific career, such as English and chemistry for technical writing, or a health policy major and business minor for hospital administration.
3. Grade Point Average (GPA)
Some students who get off to a rocky start eventually pull up their grades; however, this can be very difficult to do. Many employers stress the student's overall background: work experience, number of hours worked during the school year to finance college, leadership activities, etc. Encourage your son or daughter to make academics a high priority beginning with his or her freshman year. It is important to remember that it may take him or her a while to adjust to the rigorous academic demands of college.
4. Obtaining Marketable Skills
Most employers today put more emphasis on graduates' skills than on their academic majors. Encourage your son or daughter to develop strengths in at least two or three of the following areas:
- Computer skills (e.g., programming, word processing, spreadsheets, data base management, e-mail, Internet);
- Quantitative skills (e.g., accounting, statistics, economics);
- Communication skills (e.g., written and oral);
- Marketing/selling skills (e.g., sales, publicity, fundraising);
- Scientific skills (e.g., lab skills, scientific research);
- Foreign language skills (e.g., especially Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, or Russian);
- Leadership skills (e.g., supervisory, extracurricular leadership roles, teamwork/team leader).
5. Leadership Activities
Many employers rate leadership activities even more highly than GPA. Students who were very active in high school activities may be less involved in college extracurricular activities. However, employers regard high school as "ancient history" for a college senior. It is more valuable for a student to be involved in a few meaningful leadership roles on campus than to be in a "laundry list" of many campus clubs.
You may want your son or daughter to work in his or her hometown every summer. However, the experience gained as a lifeguard or ice cream shop counter clerk does not compare to that which comes from an internship (paid or unpaid) in the career field that he or she aspires to enter. Future employers will seek graduates with relevant, real-world work experience. Some students have little to write about on a resume if their summers were spent in school, traveling, or working at low-level jobs. We strongly suggest that students seek career-related experience for their sophomore and junior summers even if they must live away from home or accept an unpaid internship. Students needing financial support can combine an unpaid internship with a paid job such as waiter/waitress, etc.
7. Graduating Early, Graduating Late
Some students graduate early through advanced placement credits, heavy course loads, and summer school courses. The advantages are lower educational expenses and the ability to start employment or graduate school earlier. The disadvantages may include the sacrifice of academic honors, work experience, and extracurricular and volunteer activities that may contribute to a student's maturity level and qualifications. Other students graduate late due to light course loads, academic difficulties, changing majors, poor academic advising, lack of direction, or reluctance to leave the cocoon of the college environment. Advantages to late graduation include the ability to improve grades with light class loads, extra time to change majors, the ability to take additional electives to improve marketability, and extra time to gain more career-related or leadership experience. Disadvantages to late graduation are increased college costs and possible disapproval of employers and graduate schools.
8. Planning for Graduate/Professional School
About 88 percent of the nation's college freshmen indicated in a recent survey that they plan to go to graduate or professional school, yet only about 24 percent do so within a year of completing their bachelor's degree. Students aspiring to graduate or professional school should: Be clear about the reasons they want to go on for further education; research the qualifications required for admission and be realistic about their chances of acceptance; and always have a "Plan B" or back-up plan in case they are not accepted. Students should discuss their interest in graduate or professional school well before their senior year with their academic adviser; the college's graduate or professional school adviser (e.g., the pre-law or pre-med adviser); and a college career adviser to obtain advice and guidance from three different perspectives.
9. Taking Time Off
Many students want to take time off after college graduation from college before attending graduate school or taking a career-related job. Future employers will want to know how the student has spent the intervening time. Do activities during this period demonstrate relevance to future career goals and/or a good work ethic? While short-term travel may be personally broadening, it does not increase a student's marketability to employers unless it is seen as career related. Therefore, the time off may result in a longer job search. For example, management trainee programs, which often begin shortly after graduation and hire large numbers of new graduates, may be filled by the time your child is ready to begin a job search.
10. Using the College Career Services Office
Students should begin using their campus career office in their freshman year. Virtually all career offices provide individual career counseling/advising, career planning workshops, internship assistance, and career fairs and programs. Your son or daughter should seek help early with choosing a career and preparing for it. Competition for good jobs, particularly in certain fields, is stiff. The career office can advise students about how to become a strong candidate for their field of interest.
Source: Article by Marcia B. Harris and Sharon L. Jones
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Press Release: First Comprehensive National Study Finds Centers Safest Form of Childcare
Child care centers are much safer than all other forms of child care, according to a new national study.
Sociologists Julia Wrigley and Joanna Dreby of the City University of New York Graduate Center created a comprehensive database of child care failures, including fatalities, between 1985 and 2003. They found that child care is quite safe overall, and child care fatalities are rarer than outside of paid care. But the fatality rate for children who receive child care in private homes is sixteen times higher than the fatality rate for children in child care centers.
The study appears in the October issue of the American Sociological Review . It was funded by the Foundation for Child Development.
While more than 8 million children are in paid child care every day, until now little has been known about their safety. Wrigley and Dreby analyzed reports of 1,362 fatalities (among 4,356 caregiving failures) from 1985 to 2003. The fatality data was gathered from media reports, legal cases, and state records. Three forms of child care were investigated: child care centers, nannies working in children's homes, and family day care providers working in their own homes.
"While accidents can happen anywhere, child care centers are almost 100% protective against children's deaths by violence. They are much safer than arrangements in private homes," explains Wrigley.
Infants are by far the most vulnerable children in care. Their fatality rate from both accidents and violence is nearly seven times higher than that of children from one to four. Equally striking are differences in infant fatality rates across types of care. The infant fatality rate in the care of nannies or family day care providers is more than seven times higher than that in centers.
Why are centers the safest form of child care?
Wrigley and Dreby conclude that centers are the safest form of child care because they afford children multiple forms of protection. Most importantly, staff members do not work alone. They have others watching them and helping them cope with fussy infants or whining toddlers. This helps them maintain their emotional control. It also helps identify and remove unstable or volatile workers. Center teachers also have more training than most caregivers in private homes and they are supervised by professionally-trained directors. Finally, centers control access by outsiders more effectively to keep out people who might pose risks.
These protections help reduce risks of accidental deaths, such as suffocation and drowning. But they are especially important in preventing violent deaths. Not a single shaken baby fatality was found in a child care center, while 203 were reported in arrangements in private homes. The stress of infant crying, in particular, can drive caregivers to impulsive acts of violence. With little professional training, without supervisors or coworkers, and often paid very little for long hours of work, even some experienced caregivers can lose emotional control. Once children are past the toddler years, safety differences between centers and other forms of child care diminish.
Wrigley says, "Child care is quite safe overall, but it could be made safer. We need to recognize what a stressful and demanding job it is to look after young children. Improved safety will only come with more resources and closer regulation of care."
How can we improve child care safety?
A complete copy of the article, titled: "Fatalities and the Organization of Childcare," can be found beginning November 1 on the website of the American Sociological Association www.asanet.org which will also be linked from The Graduate Center's website www.gc.cuny.edu . Hard copies may be obtained from by contacting Johanna Ebner at the American Sociological Association, 1307 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20005.
While working on this research, Julia Wrigley was a Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she was recently appointed Acting Associate Provost. Her work focuses on social class and inequality. She is the author of Class Politics and Public Schools , on conflicts over the control and funding of Chicago's schools, and Other People's Children , on relations between middle-class parents and their children's caregivers. She edited Sociology of Education and chaired the ASA section on Children and Youth.
Joanna Dreby is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests include child care, the sociology of children, gender and families and immigration/transnational communities. She recently spent a year in Mexico on a Fulbright doing research for her dissertation on parent-child separation in Mexican transnational families.
The Foundation for Child Development is a national, private philanthropy dedicated to the principle that all families should have the social and material resources to raise their children to be healthy, educated, and productive members of society. PK-3, the Foundation's signature focus, seeks to create a new beginning for public education from prekindergarten through third grade. For more information, visit the Foundation's website, http://www.fcd-us.org.
The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, the school draws its faculty of more than 1,700 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges. Established in 1961, The Graduate Center has grown to an enrollment of about 4,000 students in 32 doctoral programs and six master's degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Graduate Center also houses 28 research centers and institutes, administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program as well as a number of other university-wide academic programs, and offers a wide range of continuing education and cultural programs of interest to the general public. Further information on The Graduate Center's programs and activities can be found on its website at: www.gc.cuny.edu.
Submitted on: NOV 1, 2005
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Daily Planet's Ingram discusses prion disease 0
Discovery Channel's Daily Planet co-host Jay Ingram visits Grande Prairie today to offer behind-the-scenes details of a mysterious and contagious series of diseases.
The lecture takes place at the Grande Prairie Regional College at 7 p.m., where Ingram discusses fatal prion diseases.
"Here at this very microscopic level, strange things are happening and just now we are beginning to figure out what they are," he said.
The most well-known form of a prion disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), widely known as the mad cow disease.
Prion diseases spread when malformed proteins attach themselves to healthy tissue. Unlike other infectious ailments, they are incurable.
"It is a protein that has gone wrong," said Stefanie Czub, a scientist with the University of Calgary and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency who will be present at the lecture.
"For other infectious diseases we have a cure or the body heals itself quite efficiently.prion diseases, once infected, they are invariably fatal."
A prion disease of current concern to Western Canadians is chronic wasting disease (CWD), affecting deer and elk in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta. Unlike mad cow disease, which infects the animal's brain, spinal cord and central nervous system, chronic wasting disease spreads to several parts of the animal, and is even present in urine and saliva.
Animals infected become very thin, and can carry the disease for two years before these signs become evident.
Prion diseases can only be formally diagnosed by sampling infected tissue.
"With all these diseases, it takes quite a long time for the symptoms to show," Ingram said. "You could hunt and kill a deer and eat it, and it might have the chronic wasting disease prions in it."
"The ultimate diagnosis can only be done on a piece of tissue, not in blood," Czub said.
Twenty deer have been identified in Alberta with CWD since monitoring of the disease began in 2005. While the cause of mad cow disease is generally believed to be the use of recycled beef and bone meal material in livestock feed, which became a common practice in the 1980s, CWD's cause remains unknown.
"Nobody really knows," Ingram said. "It could be that an infected deer goes to a salt lick, licks it, and the prions are in the saliva."
Ingram said that the disease is currently not an issue for the Peace Country, but infected deer and elk are bringing it into southern Alberta as they travel along the valleys of the South Saskatchewan and Red Deer Rivers.
"If chronic wasting disease spreads far enough north, especially in Saskatchewan, that it intersects with the caribou migration routes, and if caribou are susceptible, then you've got a huge problem on your hands," Ingram said.
The medical community is taking a close look at CWD due to the similarities prion diseases have with the degenerative Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's diseases.
"The way that they spread is somewhat similar," Ingram said. "In Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's disease, you get an accumulation in the brain of junk basically; they're called plaques, these sort of dark deposits if you look at brain tissue after autopsy."
"They are all part of the so-called protein-misfolding diseases," Czub said. "One might be a very good model for the other, so we need to keep that in mind. Especially with this enormous increase in Alzheimer's in the future to be expected. One in three over the age of 65 is going to develop Alzheimer's disease in the next 10 years."
Hosted by the Alberta Prion Research Institute, Ingram's lecture is open to the public free of charge in the Collins Recital Hall, room L106 today at 7 p.m.
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Intellectual knowledge appears to be innate and privy to the few, but in fact, access to information, development of intellectual work skills, time investment, and the maintenance of intellectual appearances are key to being perceived as an intellectual.
To make education more equitable, professors must go beyond knowledge transmission and instruct students in the concrete skills of knowledge acquisition and knowledge presentation. Instruction in intellectual skills-acquisition implies the breakdown of the traditional professor-student relationship and of the academic intellectual hierarchy and professors must learn to cope with the consequences of adopting new pedagogies. If we wish to share the secrets of our professions, how do we prepare our students for such a democratic approach and at the same time maintain our professional status?
The author, a professor of Spanish language and literature, presents strategies for democratizing education and demystifying intellectual work through the application of skills-based pedagogical methodologies to the teaching of literature. The implications that these strategies have for a new type of learning and the impact that they have on social stratification will also be discussed.
|Keywords:||Democratizing Education, Demystifying Intellectual Work, Knowledge Acquisition Skills, Interpretative Skills, Teaching Literature, Skills Based Teaching|
Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of Literature and Languages, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
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eso0842 — Science Release
Beta Pictoris planet finally imaged?
21 November 2008
A team of French astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered an object located very close to the star Beta Pictoris, and which apparently lies inside its disc. With a projected distance from the star of only 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, this object is most likely the giant planet suspected from the peculiar shape of the disc and the previously observed infall of comets onto the star. It would then be the first image of a planet that is as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun.
The hot star Beta Pictoris is one of the best-known examples of stars surrounded by a dusty 'debris' disc. Debris discs are composed of dust resulting from collisions among larger bodies like planetary embryos or asteroids. They are a bigger version of the zodiacal dust in our Solar System. Its disc was the first to be imaged — as early as 1984 — and remains the best-studied system. Earlier observations showed a warp of the disc, a secondary inclined disc and infalling comets onto the star. "These are indirect, but tell-tale signs that strongly suggest the presence of a massive planet lying between 5 and 10 times the mean Earth-Sun distance from its host star," says team leader Anne-Marie Lagrange. "However, probing the very inner region of the disc, so close to the glowing star, is a most challenging task."
In 2003, the French team used the NAOS-CONICA instrument (or NACO ), mounted on one of the 8.2 m Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), to benefit from both the high image quality provided by the Adaptive Optics system at infrared wavelengths and the good dynamics offered by the detector, in order to study the immediate surroundings of Beta Pictoris.
Recently, a member of the team re-analysed the data in a different way to seek the trace of a companion to the star. Infrared wavelengths are indeed very well suited for such searches. "For this, the real challenge is to identify and subtract as accurately as possible the bright stellar halo," explains Lagrange. "We were able to achieve this after a precise and drastic selection of the best images recorded during our observations."
The strategy proved very rewarding, as the astronomers were able to discern a feeble, point-like glow well inside the star's halo. To eliminate the possibility that this was an artefact and not a real object, a battery of tests was conducted and several members of the team, using three different methods, did the analysis independently, always with the same success. Moreover, the companion was also discovered in other data sets, further strengthening the team's conclusion: the companion is real.
"Our observations point to the presence of a giant planet, about 8 times as massive as Jupiter and with a projected distance from its star of about 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, which is about the distance of Saturn in our Solar System ," says Lagrange.
"We cannot yet rule out definitively, however, that the candidate companion could be a foreground or background object," cautions co-worker Gael Chauvin. "To eliminate this very small possibility, we will need to make new observations that confirm the nature of the discovery."
The team also dug into the archives of the Hubble Space Telescope but couldn't see anything, "while most possible foreground or background objects would have been detected", remarks another team member, David Ehrenreich.
The fact that the candidate companion lies in the plane of the disc also strongly implies that it is bound to the star and its proto-planetary disc.
"Moreover, the candidate companion has exactly the mass and distance from its host star needed to explain all the disc's properties. This is clearly another nail in the coffin of the false alarm hypothesis," adds Lagrange.
When confirmed, this candidate companion will be the closest planet from its star ever imaged. In particular, it will be located well inside the orbits of the outer planets of the Solar System. Several other planetary candidates have indeed been imaged, but they are all located further away from their host star: if located in the Solar System, they would lie close or beyond the orbit of the farthest planet, Neptune. The formation processes of these distant planets are likely to be quite different from those in our Solar System and in Beta Pictoris.
"Direct imaging of extrasolar planets is necessary to test the various models of formation and evolution of planetary systems. But such observations are only beginning. Limited today to giant planets around young stars, they will in the future extend to the detection of cooler and older planets, with the forthcoming instruments on the VLT and on the next generation of optical telescopes," concludes team member Daniel Rouan.
Only 12 million years old, the 'baby star' Beta Pictoris is located about 70 light-years away towards the constellation Pictor (the Painter).
NACO is one of the instruments on ESO's VLT that make use of Adaptive Optics (AO). Such systems work by means of a computer-controlled deformable mirror that counteracts the image distortion induced by atmospheric turbulence (see e.g. ESO Press Release 25/01).
The astronomers can only see the projected separation between the star and the planet (that is, the separation projected on the plane of the sky).
"A probable giant planet imaged in the β Pictoris disk. VLT/NACO Deep L-band imaging", by A.-M. Lagrange et al., 2008, Letter to the Editor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press. (a PDF file can be downloaded here)
The team is composed of A.-M. Lagrange, G. Chauvin, D. Ehrenreich, and D. Mouillet (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire de Grenoble, France), D. Gratadour, G. Rousset, D. Rouan and E. Gendron (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, France), T. Fusco, and L. Mugnier (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales, Chatillon, France), F. Allard (Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon, France), and the NAOS Consortium.
Tel: +33 4 7651 4203
Tel: +33 4 7663 5803
Tel: +33 1 4507 7715
Tel: +49 89 3200 6222
Tel: +56 2 463 3123
About the Release
|Legacy ID:||PR 42/08|
|Facility:||Very Large Telescope|
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Pricing in the sky
Many policy problems (from road congestion to water and electricity shortages) can be greatly improved through the proper application of a simple concept–pricing. In this USA Today article, Reason's Bob Poole explains how to apply pricing to air traffic control: By charging planes to use the most congested airports and airways, the system would give its customers economic incentives to reschedule flight times or choose less-congested airports without such charges. That easing of demand would provide breathing room to address the looming shortfalls in air-traffic-control capacity. All sorts of new technology can increase this capacity, both cross-country and on the approaches to airport runways. "Synthetic vision" systems can permit pilots to land at socked-in airports at nearly the same rate as in clear weather. So the air-traffic system need not break down just because Chicago has a bad-weather day. Other advanced technologies can reduce the size of the protective bubble needed around planes en route to keep them safely separated.
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How many times did you hear that today? Probably a lot. But why are adults so hung up on hand washing? Why are they so in love with lather?
Washing your hands is the best way to stop germs from spreading. Think about all of the things that you touched today — from the telephone to the toilet. Maybe you blew your nose in a tissue and then went outside to dig around the dirt.
Whatever you did today, you came into contact with germs. It's easy for a germ on your hand to end up in your mouth. Think about how many foods you eat with your hands.
You can't wear rubber gloves all day long, but you can wash your hands so those germs don't get a chance to make you or someone else sick. When germs go down the drain, they can't make anyone sick.
So when are the best times to wash your hands?
when your hands are dirty
before eating or touching food (like if you're helping cook or bake, for example)
before and after visiting a sick relative or friend
Now you have the when and the why of hand washing. But did you know that a lot of people don't know how to get their paws perfectly clean? The next time you're told to step up to the sink and scrub up, remember these handy hints:
Use warm water (not cold or hot) when you wash your hands.
Use whatever soap you like. Some soaps come in cool shapes and colors or smell nice, but whatever kind gets you scrubbing is the kind you should use. Antibacterial soaps are OK to use, but regular soap works fine.
Work up some lather on both sides of your hands, your wrists, and between your fingers. Don't forget to wash around your nails. This is one place germs like to hide. Wash for about 10 to 15 seconds — about how long it takes to sing "Happy Birthday." (Sing it quickly two times or just once if you go nice and slow.)
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Includes bibliographical references (p. -491) and indexes.
PART ONE: FRAMEWORK Guide to This Book Qualitative Research: Why and How To Do It Qualitative and Quantitative Research Ethics of Qualitative Research PART TWO: FROM THEORY TO TEXT Making Use of the Literature in Qualitative Research Theoretical Positions Underlying Qualitative Research Epistemological Background: Construction and Understanding of Texts PART THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN The Qualitative Research Process Research Questions Entering the Field Sampling How to Design Qualitative Research: An Overview PART FOUR: VERBAL DATA Interviews Narratives Focus Groups Verbal Data: An Overview PART FIVE: OBSERVATION AND MEDIATED DATA Observation and Ethnography Visual Data: Photography, Film, and Video Using Documents as Data Qualitative Online Research: Using the Internet Observation and Mediated Data: An Overview PART SIX: FROM TEXT TO THEORY Documentation of Data Coding and Categorizing Analyzing Conversation, Discourse, and Genres Narrative and Hermeneutic Analysis Using Computers in Qualitative Analysis Text Interpretation: An Overview PART SEVEN: GROUNDING AND WRITING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH Quality Criteria in Qualitative Research The Quality of Qualitative Research: Beyond Criteria Writing Qualitative Research PART EIGHT: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: INTEGRATION AND OUTLOOK Qualitative Research At Work I: Grounded Theory Qualitative Research At Work II: Triangulation Qualitative Research: State of the Art and the Future Glossary References Author index Subject index About the Author.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
'The fourth edition of Uwe Flick's "Introduction to Qualitative Research" remains the most comprehensive and thorough text in qualitative research. It is student - and user-friendly, thoroughly up-to-date in terms of the latest developments in the field, imminently practical. It is the single most important introductory book on qualitative inquiry in the social sciences today' - Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois. The new edition of Uwe Flick's bestselling textbook has been fully revised, expanded and updated. "An Introduction to Qualitative Research" guides the student step-by-step through the research process of qualitative research. This classic text covers all of the main theoretical approaches to qualitative research, and provides unmatched coverage of the full range of different qualitative methods and approaches now available to researchers. A range of new features have been added to the new edition including: new structure to better meet the needs of teaching qualitative research; a new chapter on Grounded Theory plus updated coverage on the full range of other qualitative methods; a summary section discussing the state-of-the-art in qualitative research; a glossary; and, updated cases studies, exercises and guided questions. This new edition will continue to ensure that. "An Introduction to Qualitative Research" remains an essential introductory text for all students of qualitative research. (source: Nielsen Book Data)
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A Box of Universe
Watch the cosmos evolve in a cube one billion light-years wide
Isaac Newton’s universe was a cozy, tidy place. Gathered around the sun were six planets, a handful of moons and the occasional comet, all moving against a backdrop of stationary stars. Newton provided us with the mathematical tools needed to compute the motions of these bodies. Given initial positions and velocities, we can calculate the forces acting on each object, using Newton’s law of universal gravitation. From the forces we can determine accelerations, and then update the positions and velocities for the next round of calculations. This scheme of computation is known as the n-body method. Perhaps Newton himself could have put it to work if he had had suitable computing machinery.
Today we have the computers. On the other hand, our universe is far larger and more intricate than Newton’s. Now the solar system is merely a speck in a spiral galaxy of several hundred billion stars. Our galaxy drifts among billions of others, which form clusters and superclusters and a whole hierarchy of structures extending as far as the eye (and the telescope) can see. Those objects are getting farther away all the time because the universe is expanding, and moreover the expansion is accelerating. Strangest of all, the luminous matter of the galaxies—everything we see shining in the night sky—makes up less than one-half of 1 percent of what’s out there. Most of the universe is unseen and unidentified stuff known only as “dark matter” and “dark energy.”
Given this profound change in the nature and the scale of the known universe, I find it remarkable that computer simulations of cosmic evolution can still rely on n-body algorithms rooted in the principles of Newtonian mechanics. The same techniques that predict planetary motions here at home in the solar system also describe the gravitational process that assembles thousands of galaxies into filaments a hundred million light-years long.
A major new series of cosmological simulations is now beginning to release its findings. The project, known as Bolshoi, is led by Anatoly Klypin of New Mexico State University and Joel Primack of the University of California, Santa Cruz. “Bolshoi” is Russian for “big” or “grand,” and the name is apt: This is a large-scale computational project, consuming six million CPU hours and producing a hundred terabytes of data. And yet, when you ponder the vast sweep of space and time being modeled, it seems a marvel that so much universe can be squeezed into such a small box.
» Post Comment
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This is an old revision of ArchaeologicalFindsandtheClassroom from 2008-03-13 15:48:05.
West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service
Archaeological Finds and the Classroom
As its name suggests this web-based presentation is intended primarily for use with schools. However, the ideas it contains will also be useful for those of you working with young people in a less formal setting, perhaps through a youth group or a Young Archaeologists Club. Archaeological Finds and the Classroom outlines activities which you can use to get children thinking and talking about archaeological artefacts. It also offers guidance on carrying out fieldwork (fieldwalking, garden pottery surveys and molehill surveys) and offers advice on how to make the best use of the results.
To find out more, visit the website (www.arch.wyjs.org.uk/AdvSrv/Classroom/introduction.htm∞).
| CBA, St Mary's House, 66 Bootham, York YO30 7BZ.
tel: +(44) (0)1904 671417 | fax: +(44) (0)1904 671384 | email:
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Kidney Disease of Diabetes
On this page:
- The Burden of Kidney Failure
- The Course of Kidney Disease
- Diagnosis of CKD
- Effects of High Blood Pressure
- Preventing and Slowing Kidney Disease
- Dialysis and Transplantation
- Good Care Makes a Difference
- Points to Remember
- Hope through Research
- For More Information
The Burden of Kidney Failure
Each year in the United States, more than 100,000 people are diagnosed with kidney failure, a serious condition in which the kidneys fail to rid the body of wastes.1 Kidney failure is the final stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure, accounting for nearly 44 percent of new cases.1 Even when diabetes is controlled, the disease can lead to CKD and kidney failure. Most people with diabetes do not develop CKD that is severe enough to progress to kidney failure. Nearly 24 million people in the United States have diabetes, 2 and nearly 180,000 people are living with kidney failure as a result of diabetes.1
People with kidney failure undergo either dialysis, an artificial blood-cleaning process, or transplantation to receive a healthy kidney from a donor. Most U.S. citizens who develop kidney failure are eligible for federally funded care. In 2005, care for patients with kidney failure cost the United States nearly $32 billion.1
African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics/Latinos develop diabetes, CKD, and kidney failure at rates higher than Caucasians. Scientists have not been able to explain these higher rates. Nor can they explain fully the interplay of factors leading to kidney disease of diabetes—factors including heredity, diet, and other medical conditions, such as high blood pressure. They have found that high blood pressure and high levels of blood glucose increase the risk that a person with diabetes will progress to kidney failure.
1United States Renal Data System. USRDS 2007 Annual Data Report. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2007.
2National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. National Diabetes Statistics, 2007. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008.
The Course of Kidney Disease
Diabetic kidney disease takes many years to develop. In some people, the filtering function of the kidneys is actually higher than normal in the first few years of their diabetes.
Over several years, people who are developing kidney disease will have small amounts of the blood protein albumin begin to leak into their urine. This first stage of CKD is called microalbuminuria. The kidney's filtration function usually remains normal during this period.
As the disease progresses, more albumin leaks into the urine. This stage may be called macroalbuminuria or proteinuria. As the amount of albumin in the urine increases, the kidneys' filtering function usually begins to drop. The body retains various wastes as filtration falls. As kidney damage develops, blood pressure often rises as well.
Overall, kidney damage rarely occurs in the first 10 years of diabetes, and usually 15 to 25 years will pass before kidney failure occurs. For people who live with diabetes for more than 25 years without any signs of kidney failure, the risk of ever developing it decreases.
Diagnosis of CKD
People with diabetes should be screened regularly for kidney disease. The two key markers for kidney disease are eGFR and urine albumin.
eGFR. eGFR stands for estimated glomerular filtration rate. Each kidney contains about 1 million tiny filters made up of blood vessels. These filters are called glomeruli. Kidney function can be checked by estimating how much blood the glomeruli filter in a minute. The calculation of eGFR is based on the amount of creatinine, a waste product, found in a blood sample. As the level of creatinine goes up, the eGFR goes down.
Kidney disease is present when eGFR is less than 60 milliliters per minute.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend that eGFR be calculated from serum creatinine at least once a year in all people with diabetes.
Urine albumin. Urine albumin is measured by comparing the amount of albumin to the amount of creatinine in a single urine sample. When the kidneys are healthy, the urine will contain large amounts of creatinine but almost no albumin. Even a small increase in the ratio of albumin to creatinine is a sign of kidney damage.
Kidney disease is present when urine contains more than 30 milligrams of albumin per gram of creatinine, with or without decreased eGFR.
The ADA and the NIH recommend annual assessment of urine albumin excretion to assess kidney damage in all people with type 2 diabetes and people who have had type 1 diabetes for 5 years or more.
If kidney disease is detected, it should be addressed as part of a comprehensive approach to the treatment of diabetes.
Effects of High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a major factor in the development of kidney problems in people with diabetes. Both a family history of hypertension and the presence of hypertension appear to increase chances of developing kidney disease. Hypertension also accelerates the progress of kidney disease when it already exists.
Blood pressure is recorded using two numbers. The first number is called the systolic pressure, and it represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart beats. The second number is called the diastolic pressure, and it represents the pressure between heartbeats. In the past, hypertension was defined as blood pressure higher than 140/90, said as "140 over 90."
The ADA and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommend that people with diabetes keep their blood pressure below 130/80.
Hypertension can be seen not only as a cause of kidney disease but also as a result of damage created by the disease. As kidney disease progresses, physical changes in the kidneys lead to increased blood pressure. Therefore, a dangerous spiral, involving rising blood pressure and factors that raise blood pressure, occurs. Early detection and treatment of even mild hypertension are essential for people with diabetes.
Preventing and Slowing Kidney Disease
Blood Pressure Medicines
Scientists have made great progress in developing methods that slow the onset and progression of kidney disease in people with diabetes. Drugs used to lower blood pressure can slow the progression of kidney disease significantly. Two types of drugs, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), have proven effective in slowing the progression of kidney disease. Many people require two or more drugs to control their blood pressure. In addition to an ACE inhibitor or an ARB, a diuretic can also be useful. Beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, and other blood pressure drugs may also be needed.
An example of an effective ACE inhibitor is lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril), which doctors commonly prescribe for treating kidney disease of diabetes. The benefits of lisinopril extend beyond its ability to lower blood pressure: it may directly protect the kidneys' glomeruli. ACE inhibitors have lowered proteinuria and slowed deterioration even in people with diabetes who did not have high blood pressure.
An example of an effective ARB is losartan (Cozaar), which has also been shown to protect kidney function and lower the risk of cardiovascular events.
Any medicine that helps patients achieve a blood pressure target of 130/80 or lower provides benefits. Patients with even mild hypertension or persistent microalbuminuria should consult a health care provider about the use of antihypertensive medicines.
In people with diabetes, excessive consumption of protein may be harmful. Experts recommend that people with kidney disease of diabetes consume the recommended dietary allowance for protein, but avoid high-protein diets. For people with greatly reduced kidney function, a diet containing reduced amounts of protein may help delay the onset of kidney failure. Anyone following a reduced-protein diet should work with a dietitian to ensure adequate nutrition.
Intensive Management of Blood Glucose
Antihypertensive drugs and low-protein diets can slow CKD. A third treatment, known as intensive management of blood glucose or glycemic control, has shown great promise for people with diabetes, especially for those in the early stages of CKD.
The human body normally converts food to glucose, the simple sugar that is the main source of energy for the body's cells. To enter cells, glucose needs the help of insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas. When a person does not make enough insulin, or the body does not respond to the insulin that is present, the body cannot process glucose, and it builds up in the bloodstream. High levels of glucose in the blood lead to a diagnosis of diabetes.
Intensive management of blood glucose is a treatment regimen that aims to keep blood glucose levels close to normal. The regimen includes testing blood glucose frequently, administering insulin throughout the day on the basis of food intake and physical activity, following a diet and activity plan, and consulting a health care team regularly. Some people use an insulin pump to supply insulin throughout the day.
A number of studies have pointed to the beneficial effects of intensive management of blood glucose. In the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), researchers found a 50 percent decrease in both development and progression of early diabetic kidney disease in participants who followed an intensive regimen for controlling blood glucose levels. The intensively managed patients had average blood glucose levels of 150 milligrams per deciliter-about 80 milligrams per deciliter lower than the levels observed in the conventionally managed patients. The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study, conducted from 1976 to 1997, showed conclusively that, in people with improved blood glucose control, the risk of early kidney disease was reduced by a third. Additional studies conducted over the past decades have clearly established that any program resulting in sustained lowering of blood glucose levels will be beneficial to patients in the early stages of CKD.
Dialysis and Transplantation
When people with diabetes experience kidney failure, they must undergo either dialysis or a kidney transplant. As recently as the 1970s, medical experts commonly excluded people with diabetes from dialysis and transplantation, in part because the experts felt damage caused by diabetes would offset benefits of the treatments. Today, because of better control of diabetes and improved rates of survival following treatment, doctors do not hesitate to offer dialysis and kidney transplantation to people with diabetes.
Currently, the survival of kidneys transplanted into people with diabetes is about the same as the survival of transplants in people without diabetes. Dialysis for people with diabetes also works well in the short run. Even so, people with diabetes who receive transplants or dialysis experience higher morbidity and mortality because of coexisting complications of diabetes-such as damage to the heart, eyes, and nerves.
Good Care Makes a Difference
People with diabetes should
- have their health care provider measure their A1C level at least twice a year. The test provides a weighted average of their blood glucose level for the previous 3 months. They should aim to keep it at less than 7 percent.
- work with their health care provider regarding insulin injections, medicines, meal planning, physical activity, and blood glucose monitoring.
- have their blood pressure checked several times a year. If blood pressure is high, they should follow their health care provider's plan for keeping it near normal levels. They should aim to keep it at less than 130/80.
- ask their health care provider whether they might benefit from taking an ACE inhibitor or ARB.
- ask their health care provider to measure their eGFR at least once a year to learn how well their kidneys are working.
- ask their health care provider to measure the amount of protein in their urine at least once a year to check for kidney damage.
- ask their health care provider whether they should reduce the amount of protein in their diet and ask for a referral to see a registered dietitian to help with meal planning.
Points to Remember
- Diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and kidney failure in the United States.
- People with diabetes should be screened regularly for kidney disease. The two key markers for kidney disease are estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urine albumin.
- Drugs used to lower blood pressure can slow the progression of kidney disease significantly. Two types of drugs, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), have proven effective in slowing the progression of kidney disease.
- In people with diabetes, excessive consumption of protein may be harmful.
- Intensive management of blood glucose has shown great promise for people with diabetes, especially for those in the early stages of CKD.
Hope through Research
The number of people with diabetes is growing. As a result, the number of people with kidney failure caused by diabetes is also growing. Some experts predict that diabetes soon might account for half the cases of kidney failure. In light of the increasing illness and death related to diabetes and kidney failure, patients, researchers, and health care professionals will continue to benefit by addressing the relationship between the two diseases. The NIDDK is a leader in supporting research in this area.
Several areas of research supported by the NIDDK hold great potential. Discovery of ways to predict who will develop kidney disease may lead to greater prevention, as people with diabetes who learn they are at risk institute strategies such as intensive management of blood glucose and blood pressure control.
Participants in clinical trials can play a more active role in their own health care, gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available, and help others by contributing to medical research. For information about current studies, visit www.ClinicalTrials.gov.
For More Information
National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse
1 Information Way
Bethesda, MD 20892-3560
National Kidney Foundation
30 East 33rd Street
New York, NY 10016
Phone: 1-800-622-9010 or 212-889-2210
National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse
The National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC) is a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The NIDDK is part of the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Established in 1987, the Clearinghouse provides information about diseases of the kidneys and urologic system to people with kidney and urologic disorders and to their families, health care professionals, and the public. The NKUDIC answers inquiries, develops and distributes publications, and works closely with professional and patient organizations and Government agencies to coordinate resources about kidney and urologic diseases.
Publications produced by the Clearinghouse are carefully reviewed by both NIDDK scientists and outside experts.
This publication is not copyrighted. The Clearinghouse encourages users of this publication to duplicate and distribute as many copies as desired.
NIH Publication No. 08-3925
Page last updated: September 2, 2010
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Understanding SQL's underlying theory is the best way to guarantee that your SQL code is correct and your database schema is robust and maintainable. On the other hand, if you're not well versed in the theory, you can fall into several traps. In SQL and Relational Theory, author C.J. Date demonstrates how you can apply relational theory directly to your use of SQL. With numerous examples and clear explanations of the reasoning behind them, you'll learn how to deal with common SQL dilemmas, such as:
- Should database access granted be through views instead of base tables?
- Nulls in your database are causing you to get wrong answers. Why? What can you do about it?
- Could you write an SQL query to find employees who have never been in the same department for more than six months at a time?
- SQL supports "quantified comparisons," but they're better avoided. Why? How do you avoid them?
- Constraints are crucially important, but most SQL products don't support them properly. What can you do to resolve this situation?
Database theory and practice have evolved since Edgar Codd originally defined the relational model back in 1969. Independent of any SQL products, SQL and Relational Theory draws on decades of research to present the most up-to-date treatment of the material available anywhere. Anyone with a modest to advanced background in SQL will benefit from the many insights in this book.
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Fun Learning with Printable Flash Cards
Here you will find our selection of free printable flash cards for preschool learning (and beyond!). Flash cards are a great way for kids to learn the basic elements and memorize them through short repeat sessions. You’ll find helping them learn their first abc, animal names and numbers incredibly rewarding.
A few minutes here, a few minutes there, whether at home, traveling, in the park or at Auntie’s it’s learning on the go. These lovely cards turn learning into playing (… but we also love decorating kids’ rooms by sticking them on the wall or putting them in picture frames.)
We’ve made all our printable flash cards here free for everybody and of course you can print them as many times as you like!
Alphabet Flash Cards
Helping the little one’s first learning fun and sweet!
Vocabulary Flash Cards
Learning new words and concepts is great fun!
Number & Math Flash Cards
Various flash cards for all your math activities.
Shapes & Colors Flash Cards
Try combining abstract shapes and pretty colors with various colorful activities.
We have a growing selection of children’s resources for preschool, homeschool & classroom learning activities. Please check back soon to see what’s new. Thank you!
We’d also love to hear from parents and teachers with suggestions.
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Please visit this url for more educational videos:
World War I (abbreviated as WW-I, WWI, or WW1), also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict that embroiled most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. Over 70 million military personnel were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. The main combatants descended into a state of total war, pumping their entire scientific and industrial capabilities into the war effort. Over 15 million people were killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in history.
The immediate or proximate cause of war was the assassination on 28 June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. Austria-Hungary's resulting demands against the Kingdom of Serbia activated a sequence of alliances. Within weeks the major European powers were at war; their global empires meant that the conflict soon spread worldwide.
By the war's end, four major imperial powers—Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire—had been militarily and politically defeated, with the latter two ceasing to exist as autonomous entities. The revolutionized Soviet Union emerged from the Russian Empire, while the map of central Europe was completely redrawn into numerous smaller states. The League of Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The European nationalism spawned by the war, the repercussions of Germany's defeat, and the Treaty of Versailles would eventually lead to the beginning of World War II in 1939.
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This section provides primary sources that document how Indian and European men and one English and one Indian woman have described the practice of sati, or the self-immolation of Hindu widows.
Although they are all critical of self-immolation, Francois Bernier, Fanny Parks, Lord William Bentinck, and Rev. England present four different European perspectives on the practice of sati and what it represents about Indian culture in general, and the Hindu religion and Hindu women in particular. They also indicate increasing negativism in European attitudes toward India and the Hindu religion in general. It would be useful to compare the attitudes of Bentinck and England as representing the secular and sacred aspects of British criticism of sati. A comparison of Bentinck’s minute with the subsequent legislation also reveals differences in tone between private and public documents of colonial officials. Finally, a comparison between the Fanny Parks and the three men should raise discussion on whether or not the gender and social status of the writer made any difference in his or her appraisal of the practice of self-immolation.
The three sources by Indian men and one by an Indian woman illustrate the diversity of their attitudes toward sati. The Marathi source illuminates the material concerns of relatives of the Hindu widow who is urged to adopt a son, so as to keep a potentially lucrative office within the extended family. These men are willing to undertake intense and delicate negotiations to secure a suitably related male child who could be adopted. This letter also documents that adoption was a legitimate practice among Hindus, and that Hindu women as well as men could adopt an heir. Ram Mohan Roy’s argument illustrates a rationalist effort to reform Hindu customs with the assistance of British legislation. Roy illustrates one of the many ways in which Indians collaborate with British political power in order to secure change within Indian society. He also enabled the British to counter the arguments of orthodox Hindus about the scriptural basis for the legitimacy of self-immolation of Hindu widows. The petition of the orthodox Hindu community in Calcutta, the capital of the Company’s territories in India, documents an early effort of Indians to keep the British colonial power from legislating on matters pertaining to the private sphere of Indian family life. Finally, Pandita Ramabai reflects the ways in which ancient Hindu scriptures and their interpretation continued to dominate debate. Students should consider how Ramabai’s effort to raise funds for her future work among child widows in India might have influenced her discussion of sati.
Two key issues should be emphasized. First, both Indian supporters and European and Indian opponents of the practice of self-immolation argue their positions on the bodies of Hindu women, and all the men involved appeal to Hindu scriptures to legitimate their support or opposition. Second, the voices of Indian women were filtered through the sieve of Indian and European men and a very few British women until the late 19th century.
- How do the written and visual sources portray the Hindu women who commit self-immolation? Possible aspects range from physical appearance and age, motivation, evidence of physical pain (that even the most devoted woman must suffer while burning to death), to any evidence of the agency or autonomy of the Hindu widow in deciding to commit sati. Are any differences discernible, and if so, do they seem related to gender or nationality of the observer or time period in which they were observed?
- How are the brahman priests who preside at the self-immolation portrayed in Indian and European sources? What might account for any similarities and differences?
- What reasons are used to deter Hindu widows from committing sati? What do these reasons reveal about the nature of family life in India and the relationships between men and women?
- What do the reasons that orthodox Hindus provide to European observers and to Indian reformers reveal about the significance of sati for the practice of the Hindu religion? What do their arguments reveal about orthodox Hindu attitudes toward women and the family?
- How are Hindu scriptures used in various ways in the debates before and after the prohibition of sati?
- What is the tone of the petition from 800 Hindus to their British governor? Whom do they claim to represent? What is their justification for the ritual of self-immolation? What is their attitude toward the Mughal empire whose Muslim rulers had preceded the British? What is their characterization of the petitioners toward those Hindus who support the prohibition on sati? How do the petitioners envision the proper relationship between the state and the practice of religion among its subjects?
- Who or what factors do European observers, British officials, and Indian opponents of sati hold to be responsible for the continuance of the practice of sati?
- What were the reasons that widows gave for committing sati? Were they religious, social or material motives? What is the evidence that the widows were voluntarily committing sati before 1829? What reasons did the opponents of sati give for the decisions of widows to commit self-immolation? What reasons did opponents give for widows who tried to escape from their husbands’ pyres?
- What are the reasons that Lord Bentinck and his Executive Council cite for their decision to declare the practice of sati illegal? Are the arguments similar to or different from his arguments in his minute a month earlier? What do these reasons reveal about British attitudes toward their role or mission in India? Do they use any of the arguments cited by Ram Mohan Roy or Pandita Ramabai?
- What do these sources, both those who oppose sati and those who advocate it, reveal about their attitudes to the Hindu religion in particular and Indian culture in general?
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Inflammation Key to the Asthma-Sinus Connection
People with asthma frequently experience problems with their sinuses. And more than half of those who have chronic sinusitis also suffer from asthma.
Is there a connection? Each condition is marked by inflammation, which is to blame for both the symptoms of asthma—cough, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and wheezing—and sinusitis. Researchers speculate inflammation in the lungs or sinuses affects both. As a result, people with lung symptoms likely will eventually get symptoms in the nose, and vice versa. Plus, sinusitis can trigger asthma attacks.
What is sinusitis?
Sinusitis occurs when air-filled spaces behind the nose, forehead, cheeks, and eyes become inflamed and blocked with mucus. Often, infection results.
Symptoms usually occur after a cold that fails to improve or gets worse after five to seven days. They include:
People with asthma who experience sinus problems should talk with their doctor about treatment. Studies show that resolving sinusitis often improves asthma and decreases the need for asthma medication.
How you can protect yourself
Those with asthma need to be vigilant about colds and the flu. Viral respiratory infections often worsen asthma. Some prevention tips:
Avoid smoke and pollution.
Drink plenty of fluids.
Take decongestants for upper respiratory infections.
Get help for allergies.
Use a humidifier to increase moisture in nose and sinuses.
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Vol. 17 Issue 6
One-Legged (Single Limb) Stance Test
The One-Legged Stance Test (OLST)1,2 is a simple, easy and effective method to screen for balance impairments in the older adult population.
You may be asking yourself, "how can standing on one leg provide you with any information about balance, after all, we do not go around for extended periods of time standing on one leg?"
True, as a rule we are a dynamic people, always moving, our world always in motion, but there are instances were we do need to maintain single limb support. The most obvious times are when we are performing our everyday functional activities.
Stepping into a bath tub or up onto a curb would be difficult, if not impossible to do without the ability to maintain single limb support for a given amount of time. The ability to switch from two- to one-leg standing is required to perform turns, climb stairs and dress.
As we know, the gait cycle requires a certain amount of single limb support in order to be able to progress ourselves along in a normal pattern. When the dynamics of the cycle are disrupted, loss of balance leading to falls may occur.
This is especially true in older individuals whose gait cycle is altered due to normal and potentially abnormal changes that occur as a result of aging.
The One-Legged Stance Test measures postural stability (i.e., balance) and is more difficult to perform due to the narrow base of support required to do the test. Along with five other tests of balance and mobility, reliability of the One-Legged Stance Test was examined for 45 healthy females 55 to 71 years old and found to have "good" intraclass correlations coefficients (ICC range = .95 to .099). Within raters ICC ranged from 0.73 to 0.93.3
To perform the test, the patient is instructed to stand on one leg without support of the upper extremities or bracing of the unweighted leg against the stance leg. The patient begins the test with the eyes open, practicing once or twice on each side with his gaze fixed straight ahead.
The patient is then instructed to close his eyes and maintain balance for up to 30 seconds.1
The number of seconds that the patient/client is able to maintain this position is recorded. Termination or a fail test is recorded if 1) the foot touches the support leg; 2) hopping occurs; 3) the foot touches the floor, or 4) the arms touch something for support.
Normal ranges with eyes open are: 60-69 yrs/22.5 ± 8.6s, 70-79 yrs/14.2 ± 9.3s. Normal ranges for eyes closed are: 60-69 yrs/10.2 ± 8.6s, 70-79 yrs/4.3 ± 3.0s.4 Briggs and colleagues reported balance times on the One-Legged Stance Test in females age 60 to 86 years for dominant and nondominant legs.
Given the results of this data, there appears to be some difference in whether individuals use their dominant versus their nondominant leg in the youngest and oldest age groups.
When using this test, having patients choose what leg they would like to stand on would be appropriate as you want to record their "best" performance.
It has been reported in the literature that individuals increase their chances of sustaining an injury due to a fall by two times if they are unable to perform a One-Legged Stance Test for five seconds.5 Other studies utilizing the One-Legged Stance Test have been conducted in older adults to assess static balance after strength training,6 performance of activities of daily living and platform sway tests.7
Interestingly, subscales of other balance measures such as the Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment8 and Berg Balance Scale9 utilize unsupported single limb stance times of 10 seconds and 5 seconds respectively, for older individuals to be considered to have "normal" balance.
Thirty percent to 60 percent of community-dwelling elderly individuals fall each year, with many experiencing multiple falls.10 Because falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths in older adults and a significant cause of disability in this population, prevention of falls and subsequent injuries is a worthwhile endeavor.11
The One-Legged Stance Test can be used as a quick, reliable and easy way for clinicians to screen their patients/clients for fall risks and is easily incorporated into a comprehensive functional evaluation for older adults.
1. Briggs, R., Gossman, M., Birch, R., Drews, J., & Shaddeau, S. (1989). Balance performance among noninstitutionalized elderly women. Physical Therapy, 69(9), 748-756.
2. Anemaet, W., & Moffa-Trotter, M. (1999). Functional tools for assessing balance and gait impairments. Topics in Geriatric Rehab, 15(1), 66-83.
3. Franchignoni, F., Tesio, L., Martino, M., & Ricupero, C. (1998). Reliability of four simple, quantitative tests of balance and mobility in healthy elderly females. Aging (Milan), 10(1), 26-31.
4. Bohannon, R., Larkin, P., Cook, A., & Singer, J. (1984). Decrease in timed balance test scores with aging. Physical Therapy, 64, 1067-1070.
5. Vellas, B., Wayne, S., Romero, L., Baumgartner, R., et al. (1997). One-leg balance is an important predictor of injurious falls in older persons. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 45, 735-738.
6. Schlicht, J., Camaione, D., & Owen, S. (2001). Effect of intense strength training on standing balance, walking speed, and sit-to-stand performance in older adults. Journal of Gerontological Medicine and Science, 56A(5), M281-M286.
7. Frandin, K., Sonn, U., Svantesson, U., & Grimby, G. (1996). Functional balance tests in 76-year-olds in relation to performance, activities of daily living and platform tests. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitative Medicine, 27(4), 231-241.
8. Tinetti, M., Williams, T., & Mayewski, R. (1986). Fall risk index for elderly patients based on number of chronic disabilities. American Journal of Medicine, 80, 429-434.
9. Berg, K., et al. (1989). Measuring balance in the elderly: Preliminary development of an instrument. Physio Therapy Canada, 41(6), 304-311.
10. Rubenstein, L., & Josephson, K. (2002). The epidemiology of falls and syncope. Clinical Geriatric Medicine, 18, 141-158.
11. National Safety Council. (2004). Injury Facts. Itasca, IL: Author.
Dr. Lewis is a physical therapist in private practice and president of Premier Physical Therapy of Washington, DC. She lectures exclusively for GREAT Seminars and Books, Inc. Dr. Lewis is also the author of numerous textbooks. Her Website address is www.greatseminarsandbooks.com. Dr. Shaw is an assistant professor in the physical therapy program at the University of South Florida dedicated to the area of geriatric rehabilitation. She lectures exclusively for GREAT Seminars and Books in the area of geriatric function.
APTA Encouraged by Cap Exceptions
New process grants automatic exceptions to beneficiaries needing care the most
Calling it "a good first step toward ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries continue to have coverage for the physical therapy they need," Ben F Massey, Jr, PT, MA, president of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), expressed optimism that the new exceptions process will allow a significant number of Medicare patients to receive services exceeding the $1,740 annual financial cap on Medicare therapy coverage. The new procedure, authorized by Congress in the recently enacted Deficit Reduction Act (PL 109-171), will be available to Medicare beneficiaries on March 13 under rules released this week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
"APTA is encouraged by the new therapy cap exceptions process," Massey said. "CMS has made a good effort to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries who need the most care are not harmed by an arbitrary cap."
As APTA recommended, the process includes automatic exceptions and also grants exceptions to beneficiaries who are receiving both physical therapy and speech language pathology (the services are currently combined under one $1,740 cap).
"We have yet to see how well Medicare contractors will be able to implement and apply this process. Even if it works well, Congress only authorized this new process through 2006. Congress must address this issue again this year, and we are confident that this experience will demonstrate to legislators that they must completely repeal the caps and provide a more permanent solution for Medicare beneficiaries needing physical therapy," Massey continued.
The therapy caps went into effect on Jan. 1, 2006, limiting Medicare coverage on outpatient rehabilitation services to $1,740 for physical therapy and speech therapy combined and $1,740 for occupational therapy.
The American Physical Therapy Association is a national professional organization representing more than 65,000 members. Its goal is to foster advancements in physical therapy practice, research and education.
New Mouthwash Helps With Pain
Doctors in Italy are studying whether a new type of mouthwash will help alleviate pain for patients suffering from head and neck cancer who were treated with radiation therapy, according to a new study (International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, Feb. 1, 2006).
Fifty patients, suffering from various forms of head and neck cancer and who received radiation therapy, were observed during the course of their radiation treatment. Mucositis, or inflammation of the mucous membrane in the mouth, is the most common side effect yet no additional therapy has been identified that successfully reduces the pain.
This study sought to discover if a mouthwash made from the local anesthetic tetracaine was able to alleviate the discomfort associated with head and neck cancer and if there would be any negative side effects of the mouthwash. The doctors chose to concoct a tetracaine-based mouthwash instead of a lidocaine-based version because it was found to be four times more effective, worked faster and produced a prolonged relief.
The tetracaine was administered by a mouthwash approximately 30 minutes before and after meals, or roughly six times a day. Relief of oral pain was reported in 48 of the 50 patients. Sixteen patients reported that the mouthwash had an unpleasant taste or altered the taste of their food.
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A view can become a page or a block. There is no difference in work between a page and a block. A page needs a path to display the page. A block is assigned to a region to display the page. There might be a few seconds different to set them up. After that, you can blocks in far more ways than usually shown in tutorials.
Blocks have their uses including constructing complex pages. The content of a page is usually the content of a node in the content region. A view replaces the node to display a list or some other small variation of content.
Next you are asked to make the view more complicated. You scratch your head. What you really need is a collection of views displaying different content. You could use panels and a bunch of other complex approaches. Think about the format again.
If you want a list of different views. You can make each one a block then place them one after the other down the page. Consider a shop.
A shop might list the top selling product in each category with a view sorted by category. The marketing manager then asks for the categories in a different order. The CEO wants some categories to list the top three. The product manager wants one category to list only one product but all the colours for the product.
You could make each category a separate view with each view in a block. Each view can have different criteria. You can give your CEO, sales manager, and marketing manager access to the block admin page and let them fight over the sequence of the blocks.
What method do you use to determine when to use multiple views?
Use the one view when you list data one set of data. Use multiple views when people want different data selection. For example, some product categories have colours but not all product categories. Some product categories have multiple packs but not all product categories.
If the one list has to be by category then colour or pack size and all the products use the same content type, you could use one view to sort by category then colour then pack size. There will be no overlap or conflict or missing data.
The same list becomes more complicated when each product category has a different content type and each content type has a different set of attributes. You might be able to product one list in one view but it will be sensitive to change and management will want change. Start with two views or more views stacked as blocks to form one list.
Another example is a book shop where novels have different descriptions and content types compared to other books. Cook books may have a special content type to allow listing by food type, country, major ingredients, and the reality television show paying for the cook book.
If the data is exactly the same for each view but the display is different, consider multiple displays on one view. The technique is described in another page. you make the first view a page to list the data and validate your data selection. You then add some displays to create the blocks. Each display might vary by as little as selecting a different content type.
Top ten lists are popular and soon take up too much space. People start talking about variations. Perhaps the top three items, including teasers, followed by the next seven without teasers.
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The government's human rights record remained poor. Although there were no reports that the government or its agents committed politically motivated killings, security forces committed extrajudicial killings and acted with impunity. There was little political will to address the failure by government authorities to adhere to the rule of law. Detainees were abused, often to extract confessions, and prison conditions were harsh. Human rights monitors reported arbitrary arrests and prolonged pretrial detention, underscoring a weak judiciary and denial of the right to a fair trial. Land disputes and forced evictions, often accompanied by violence, were a continuing problem. The government restricted freedom of speech and the press through the use of defamation and disinformation suits, controlled or influenced the content of television and radio broadcasts, and at times interfered with freedom of assembly. Corruption was endemic and extended throughout all segments of society, including the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Domestic violence and child abuse occurred, education of children was inadequate, and trafficking in women and children persisted. The government offered little assistance to persons with disabilities. Antiunion activity by employers and weak enforcement of labor laws continued, and child labor remained a problem. In a positive turn, on June 12, the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts in Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea adopted its internal rules to begin prosecuting senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime and those most responsible for committing serious crimes. On July 31, the ECCC charged Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, with crimes against humanity and subsequently charged four other senior officials; at year's end all were in detention awaiting trial. In addition, on December 10, the government permitted a Human Rights Day march of 500 human rights activists, monks, and other persons and rally of an estimated 2,500 persons in Phnom Penh. RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From: a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life There were no reports that the government or its agents committed politically motivated killings. However, human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported that extrajudicial killings continued to occur. The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) recorded 53 cases of extrajudicial killings, 14 of which were committed by police, nine by soldiers, six by fishery officials, and the remaining 24 by unidentified government forces. Police arrested perpetrators in four cases. Political activists continued to be the victims of killings. On February 27, Eang Sok Thoeurn, a Khmer Kampuchea Krom monk, was found dead with his throat cut in the Tronum Chhroeung Monastery in Kandal Province. The deceased monk was discovered the morning after he participated in a demonstration in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh for the rights of Khmer Kampuchea Krom persons living in Vietnam. Police quickly declared the death a suicide and disposed of the body without further investigation. NGOs and Khmer Kampuchea Krom groups suspected the killing was politically motivated. Active members of political parties were killed during the year, but NGOs and police could not confirm their deaths were politically motivated. On February 14, three unidentified persons killed Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) activist Chea Sovin, spouse of an SRP candidate for the April commune council elections in Battambang Province. On July 27, three unidentified persons shot and killed Kleb Un, SRP commune‑level vice party chairperson in Banteay Meanchey Province. A local police chief reported that the perpetrators fled without robbing the victim or taking anything from the scene. Police arrested one suspect in the case but released him after questioning. In both killings, police stated that investigations continued. On April 4, police officer Siv Soeun allegedly shot and killed a person he claimed was illegally fishing on private property in the Kompong Siem District of Kampong Cham Province. The victim's family filed a complaint against the police officer but later withdrew the complaint after Siv Soeun allegedly paid the family $3,000 (12 million riel) in compensation. At year's end Siv Soeun had not been charged or arrested. On November 15, during the eviction of squatters from state land in Choam Ksan commune, Preah Vihear Province, unidentified government forces killed two villagers who protested the eviction. Approximately 150 police, military police, and soldiers evicted 317 families. There was no official investigation into the killings. Police arrested 18 of the squatters, including a deputy governor, on charges of encroachment on state land. The 18 villagers were imprisoned and awaited trial at year's end. In June the Prey Veng Provincial Court sentenced one suspect in the November 2006 killing of SRP activist Man Meth to 10 years in prison and two others to six months in prison for conspiring in the killing. On July 18, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Heng Pov, former Phnom Penh police commissioner and under secretary of state of the Ministry of Interior (MOI), to an additional 22.5 years in prison for the 2005 illegal detention of a person, use of illegal weapons, and possession of counterfeit currency. Heng Pov was already serving an 18‑year sentence for the 2003 murder of Judge Sok Sethamony, multiple counts of premeditated killings, and involvement in illegal arrests and detentions. During his July trial, Heng Pov stated that Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, the two suspects he ordered arrested in 2005 and who later were convicted for the killing of union activist Chea Vichea, were innocent of the crime. On April 12, the appeals court had upheld 20‑year sentences each for Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun. Their lawyers submitted grievances to the Supreme Court, and at year's end they awaited Supreme Court action. There were no developments in the 2006 cases of SRP activists Koent Chhuon and Thoeung Thear, killed in Preah Vihear and Kampong Cham provinces, respectively. Likewise, there were no developments in the cases of Pao Rum and Khat Thoeun, who died in police custody in Kandal Province in 2006, or the 2006 cases of attempted prison breaks in Kampong Thom and Battambang that left 10 inmates dead. In the case of Nong Sam, who reportedly died June 2006 in a Siem Reap hospital from head injuries received during a beating by police officers, a provincial court prosecutor closed the case, declaring Nong Sam's death a suicide. There were no developments in the 2005 killings of five SRP activists or in the 2005 case of an attempted escape from Trapoeung Phlong Prison in which 19 prisoners and the prison director were killed. The appeals court took no action in the 2005 deaths of five villagers and injuries to others by government security forces during a mass eviction from disputed land in the village of Kbal Spean in Banteay Meanchey Province. On February 8, in Prey Veng Province, district‑ and commune‑level deputy police chiefs Bun Samphea, Suos Bunthat, and Hay Chivon, charged in a 2000 killing, failed to appear for their provincial court trial, reportedly stating they were too busy. The court rescheduled the trial to June but postponed it again after the officers said they were too busy to come to the June trial. A new trial date was not set. Mines dating from the Indochina conflict and Khmer Rouge period continued to cause casualties. According to the Cambodia Mine/UXO Victim Information System, during the year mines and unexploded ordnance caused 63 deaths, 56 amputations, and 222 other injuries. Vigilante justice and mob killings persisted. ADHOC reported that mobs killed five persons during the year. Few suspects were arrested. In some instances authorities could not protect suspects from angry mobs. NGOs noted that a majority of mob killings were related to thefts, robberies, or suspected witchcraft. On June 9, Yos Chor villagers in Kampong Speu Province killed a person for stealing a neighbor's chickens. On June 21, a mob killed a traditional healer in the Boribo District of Kampong Chhnang Province because they suspected him of witchcraft. Police made no arrests in either case. On June 27, the Kratie Provincial Court sentenced six persons to sentences ranging from seven to 10 months in prison for the 2006 vigilante justice killing of Sam Roeun. The court convicted them on charges of causing injury, reduced from investigation findings of murder. There were no developments in the February 2006 case of a person beaten and killed for allegedly practicing witchcraft. On June 30, Khmer Kampuchea Krom monk Tim Sakhorn, head of a pagoda in the Kirivong District of Takeo Province for more than 10 years, disappeared. Previously, on orders of the country's top Buddhist leader, Great Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, monks from Phnom Penh had defrocked Tim Sakhorn, after which unidentified persons believed to be attached to the MOI pushed him into a vehicle and drove away. The defrocking order stated Tim Sakhorn "broke the solidarity" between Cambodia and Vietnam by using pagodas to spread propaganda that affects the dignity of Buddhism. The monk was known locally for providing food and shelter to Khmer Kampuchea Krom coming from Vietnam. The MOI stated that Tim Sakhorn volunteered to go to Vietnam after he was defrocked, and ministry officials produced a document stating this intent. While signed by Tim Sakhorn, the handwritten document appeared not to be in his writing. On August 2, Tim Sakhorn reappeared in court custody in Vietnam, held on charges of destroying political solidarity. In September the Information Ministry stated that the Cambodian consulate in Ho Chi Minh City was investigating Tim Sakhorn's condition in detention. On November 8, a Vietnamese newspaper reported that a court in Vietnam convicted Tim Sakhorn of undermining solidarity between Cambodia and Vietnam and sentenced him to one year in prison. On August 10, Land Border Protection Unit 504 soldier Im Bun Ny disappeared in Pailin. According to witnesses, that night four soldiers from his unit invited him to a rubber plantation owned by their unit commander, Brigadier General Pol Sinuon. After Im Bun Ny arrived, the four soldiers beat him and accused him of stealing a gun. Unconfirmed witness reports said Im Bun Ny died from the beating and the soldiers buried his body. At year's end Im Bun Ny was still missing. According to a human rights NGO, local police completed an investigation and submitted findings to the court. The court took no action, and the four soldiers remained at large. c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment The constitution such practices; however, beatings and other forms of physical mistreatment of police detainees and prison inmates continued to be a serious problem. There were credible reports that military and civilian police officials used physical and psychological torture and severely beat criminal detainees, particularly during interrogation. Based on interviews with 1,293 detainees from 18 of the country's 26 prisons, the Cambodian League for the Prevention and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) reported that during the year authorities tortured 155 prisoners, of whom 125 were tortured in police custody and 30 in prisons. Kicking, punching, and pistol whipping were the most common methods of physical abuse, but techniques also included electric shocks, suffocation, caning, and whipping with wire. NGOs reported that it was not uncommon for police to torture detained suspects until they confessed to a crime. Courts used forced confessions as legal evidence during trial despite admissibility prohibitions under the law. NGOs noted that during the year there were 180 cases of physical assaults by local authorities, government agents, or private bodyguards, compared with 164 cases in 2006 and 154 cases in 2005. On May 27, military police officer Prak Vutha of Phnom Sruoch District, Kampong Speu Province, reportedly arrested Sok Soeun after a small scuffle at a restaurant, kept him in military detention overnight without a warrant, and beat him unconscious. According to ADHOC, Sok Soeun's family gave Prak Vutha two cases of beer in return for Sok Soeun's release. Sok Soeun later filed a complaint with local police that the police did not accept. There was no investigation into the case or legal action against Prak Vutha. No legal action was taken against two policemen from Border Protection Unit 701 implicated in a February 2006 beating of a 13‑year‑old boy. Likewise, there was no action against officials and no progress in the police investigation of an April 2006 case involving Police Commissioner Team Sangkriem in Preah Vihear Province and three other police agents who detained Kong Salath without a warrant and beat him. No disciplinary or legal action was taken against abusive officers in the April 2006 beating of a motorist by Battambang military police. Regarding the December 2006 case of Tous Sdoeung, whom two military police officers allegedly tortured to death while in detention, early in the year a provincial court prosecutor completed an investigation and forwarded it to an investigating judge. The court investigation continued. The two alleged perpetrators continued to work in their positions as military police officers. Prison and Detention Center Conditions Prison conditions did not meet international standards. Conditions remained harsh and at times were life threatening. Government efforts to improve them continued to be hampered by a lack of funds and weak enforcement. Human rights organizations cited a number of serious problems, including overcrowding, medical and sanitation problems, food and water shortages, malnutrition, and poor security. According to LICADHO, the 18 prisons they monitored had a designed capacity of approximately 6,440 inmates but held a total 9,582 inmates. There were reports at some prisons that cells of 40 by 20 feet held up to 110 prisoners. At CC1 prison, cells of 26 by 26 feet held an average of 50 prisoners. In some prisons authorities used shackles and held prisoners in small, dark cells as a form of harsher punishment. LICADHO reported that 56 prisoners in 18 of the country's prisons died during the year. Government ration allowances for purchasing prisoners' food routinely were misappropriated and remained inadequate, exacerbating malnutrition and disease. One NGO claimed that in some cases prison authorities sold the NGO's donations of supplemental food intended for prisoners. According to rights organizations, families had to bribe prison officials in order to visit prisoners or provide them food and other necessities. NGOs reported that prisoners whose families bribed prison authorities received preferential treatment including access to visitors, transfer to better cells, and the opportunity to leave cells during the day. There were reports that officials demanded bribes before allowing prisoners to attend trials or appeal hearings and before releasing inmates who had served full jail terms. In most prisons there was no separation of adult and juvenile prisoners, of male and female prisoners, or of persons convicted of serious crimes and persons detained for minor offenses. Pretrial detainees were routinely held together with convicted prisoners. LICADHO reported that there were 622 incarcerated minors ages 13 to 17, many of whom were held in prisons that did not have facilities to separate minors from adult prisoners. The government generally continued to allow international and domestic human rights groups, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to visit prisons and provide human rights training to prison guards. However, NGOs reported that at times cooperation from local authorities was limited. Authorities curtailed access to pretrial detainees, in particular. The MOI continued to require that lawyers, human rights monitors, and other visitors obtain permission prior to visiting prisoners. The MOI withheld such permission in some politically sensitive cases. NGOs were not allowed to interview prisoners in private. d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention; however, at times the government did not respect these prohibitions. On June 7, the National Assembly passed a criminal procedures code, and in August the king signed the law into effect. The new code went allows for pretrial detention of up to six months for misdemeanors and 18 months for felonies. Prior to enactment of this code, the maximum length of pretrial detention for an adult person was six months under the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) code, although the government sometimes held pretrial detainees for longer periods. ADHOC reported that at least 100 persons were illegally arrested and detained during the year. ADHOC stated that 32 of those illegally detained were subsequently freed following detainee complaints, interventions by human rights NGOs, or payment of bribes. ADHOC believed that the actual number of arbitrary arrests and detentions was somewhat higher, because some victims in rural areas did not file complaints due to difficulty in traveling to the NGO's offices or out of fear for their family's security. According to ADHOC, no legal or disciplinary actions were taken against the persons responsible for the illegal actions. Role of the Police and Security Apparatus The General Commissariat of the National Police, which is under the supervision of the MOI, manages all civilian police units. The police forces are divided into those who have the authority to make arrests, those without such authority, and the judicial police. Military police are permitted to arrest civilians on military property or when authorized by local governments. Police officers acted with impunity, and in most cases the government took little or no action. There were reports that police, prosecutors, investigating judges, and presiding judges received bribes from owners of illegal businesses. The law requires police, prosecutors, and judges to investigate all complaints, including those of police abuses; however, in practice judges and prosecutors rarely conducted an independent investigation prior to a public trial. Presiding judges passed down verdicts based only on written reports from police and witness testimonies. In general police received little professional training. Police who failed to prevent or respond to societal violence were rarely disciplined. There were no developments in the April 2006 case of an antidrug department and military police officer who shot and injured a well‑known singer, Sovansocheata. No legal action was taken in the April 2006 case of two Brigade 70 military unit officers who shot and injured a person in Phnom Penh. There were no developments in the June 2006 case in which a military officer shot and injured a garment factory worker. In February an investigating judge in Siem Reap Province issued a warrant for the arrest of three police officers who allegedly raped a 12‑year‑old girl in November 2006; however, the suspects remained at large. There were no developments in the pending appeal of the April 2006 acquittal of three judges, two deputy prosecutors, and two court clerks originally convicted, then retried after appeal on finding of a mistrial, on charges of corruption and corruption‑related conspiracy. Arrest and Detention The law requires police to obtain a warrant from an investigating judge prior to making an arrest, but police may arrest without a warrant anyone caught in the act of committing a crime. The law allows police to take a person into custody and conduct an investigation for 48 hours, excluding weekends and government holidays, before charges must be filed. In felony cases of exceptional circumstances prescribed by law, police may detain a suspect for an additional 24 hours with the approval of a prosecutor. However, authorities routinely held persons for extended periods before charging them. Many prisoners, particularly those without legal representation, had no opportunity to seek release on bail. Under the new criminal procedures code, accused persons may be arrested and detained for up to 24 hours before meeting with a lawyer, but prisoners routinely were held for several days before gaining access to a lawyer or family members. According to government officials, such prolonged detention largely was a result of the limited capacity of the court system. LICADHO reported that as of midyear at least 101 pretrial detainees had been detained longer than the six‑month limit. Under the allowable pretrial detainee periods stipulated by the new code, at year's end there were at least 34 such prisoners. On May 19, two military police officers in Banteay Meanchey Province detained Kim Heang for three days after Kim Heang had a dispute with his neighbor, a regional military official. The two officers made the arrest without a warrant. After an NGO intervened, the officers' commander ordered Kim Heang released. No administrative or legal action was taken against the officers. On May 25, the Ratanakiri Provincial Court sentenced a 13‑year‑old Jarai ethnic minority youth to eight months and 10 days in prison for stealing brass gongs. The youth was 12 years old when arrested, under the minimum age for imprisonment, but spent more than eight months in pretrial detention. According to ADHOC, on May 25, a prosecutor filed a suit with the appeals court, but at year's end the youth remained in jail. On August 9, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted six persons and acquitted two charged with planning bombings at the November 2006 Water Festival. Two of the convicted were sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison. The remaining four received six‑year sentences. Lawyers and NGOs maintained the police did not serve arrest warrants or tell the suspects the charges against them. e. Denial of Fair Public Trial The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but the government did not respect judicial independence. The courts were subject to influence and interference by the executive branch, and there was widespread corruption among judges, prosecutors, and court officials. The court system consists of lower courts, an appeals court, and the Supreme Court. The constitution also mandates a constitutional council, which is empowered to review the constitutionality of laws, and a supreme council of the magistracy, which appoints, oversees, and disciplines judges. The composition of both councils heavily favored the CPP. There is a separate military court system, which suffered from deficiencies similar to those of the civilian court system. While civilians may fall under military court jurisdiction in some cases, the legal distinction between the military and civil courts sometimes was ignored in practice. Civilians have been called for interrogation by military courts with no apparent jurisdiction in their cases. On June 12, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) adopted its internal rules to begin prosecuting egregious crimes of the 1975‑79 Khmer Rouge regime. On July 31, the ECCC coinvestigating judges charged Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), former Khmer Rouge director of the S‑21 torture prison, or Tuol Sleng, for crimes against humanity and placed him in an ECCC provisional detention center. The ECCC later arrested and detained four more Khmer Rouge leaders and charged them with crimes against humanity and war crimes: Nuon Chea (also known as "Brother Number 2"), Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Ieng Thirith, who was charged only with crimes against humanity. In August Duch's lawyers filed an appeal against his provisional detention. On December 3, the ECCC pretrial chamber decided unanimously to affirm the detention order and dismiss the appeal. Trials are public. Juries are not used; the presiding judge possesses the authority to pass a verdict. Defendants have the right to be present and consult with an attorney, confront and question witnesses against them, and present witnesses and evidence on their own behalf. If a defendant cannot afford an attorney, the court is required to provide the defendant with free legal representation; however, the judiciary lacked the resources to provide legal counsel, and most defendants sought assistance from NGOs or went without legal representation. Trials typically were perfunctory, and extensive cross‑examination usually did not take place. Defendants and their attorneys have the right to examine government‑held evidence relevant to their cases; however, at times it was difficult for them to obtain such access, especially if the case was political or involved a high‑ranking government official or well‑connected member of the elite. Defendants are entitled by law to the presumption of innocence and the right of appeal, but due to pervasive corruption, defendants often were expected to bribe judges to secure a verdict. A citizen's right to appeal sometimes was limited by difficulty in transferring prisoners from provincial prisons to the appeals court in Phnom Penh. Many appeals thus were heard in the absence of the defendant. A lack of resources, low salaries, and poor training contributed to a high level of corruption and inefficiency in the judicial branch, and the government did not ensure due process. From January through September, the Center for Social Development monitored 1,420 felony and misdemeanor hearings with 2,437 defendants and found trial procedure abuses in the Supreme Court, appeals court, and four lower courts. In a report of trials observed from January to March, the center stated that courts tried 34 percent of 740 defendants in absentia. At the appeals level, defendants were not present during trial in 69 percent of cases. Of defendants charged with felonies, 37 percent had legal representation, compared with 7 percent
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web page http://www.amperefitz.com
Ampere's 1824 Laws
Theserelative motion laws greatly simply all of science:
These laws are essentially Ampere's simple 1824 long wire laws with a frequency modification. .These are universal laws that unify all the forces by seeing all forces as space-time creations similar to the way it's done in general relativity. . These laws, though, visualize different space-time intervals (different gauges) being created at various different spin/orbit frequencies.
Despite the fact that quantum theory does not see our type of spin causing angular momentum in the microcosm, these laws show it is there nevertheless but at a different space-time interval (different gauge - - different spin/orbit frequency level).
The "A" Laws
[The reason these "A" Laws work relates to the superposition principle that there is no repulsive force with in phase waves but a repulsive force (space) is always generated by out of phase waves].
You must also understand Dr. Milo Wolff's concept that particles (andtime) are manufactured by Spinning, Scalar, Standing Wave, Resonances with an immense, finite number of similar surrounding SSSWRs (Mach's principle).
Force (space) exists not DIRECTLY via scalar resonances but because of individual vector spin and orbital resonances between two similar Spinning, Scalar Standing Wave Resonances.
Remember, these"A" Laws (Ampere or Aufbau) have unified ALL the forces so these are now the NEW laws for everything, from the smallest spinning particle to the largest spinning super cluster of galaxies even where high relativistic speeds and mass are encountered. For simplicity, we must return to the Bohr concept of the electron. I have shown why in numerous other papers.
*The 1st. "A" Law shows us where all SSSWRs in relative motion produce the least space-time between themselves:
The space time interval is created theleast between any two SSSWRs, the closest sides of which "see" themselves spinning or moving on parallel paths in the same direction at the same frequency (like gears meshing) or a close harmonic thereof. You can also say these two objects will attract each other.
*The 2nd. "A" Law shows us where all SSSWRs in relative motion produce the most space-time between themselves:
Both space and time are created themost between any two SSSWRs, the closest sides of which "see" themselves spinning or moving on parallel paths in opposite directions at the same frequency (like gears clashing) or a close harmonic thereof. You can also say these two objects will repel each other.
I use the quoted word "see" to emphasize the particular spacetime realm in which these entities actually find themselves although this will NOT be the way it is seen from our particular spacetime reference frame realm.
Of great importance, in the two preceding laws, is that these laws arefrequency laws and they work separately for each separate spin/orbit frequency level which means these individual wave-particles must "see" themselves doing these things from their viewpoint in their local gauge environment. It does not matter how some other spin/orbit frequency level views these things because space and time and indeed the average space time interval is entirely different for each different spin/orbit frequency level (gauge).
These two laws look equal and opposite but they are not: The 1st"A" law "locks on" while its opposite 2nd sister law never does. This is because the total force is generally centralized and you can feel this 1st "A" law "lock on" when two magnets come together. These two laws result in limits of aggregation being established all throughout this universe: This is why there are limits to the size of atoms and limits to the size of stars as well.
*The Aufbau or Ampere Corollary
The aforementioned forces, or space-time intervals, between two SSSWRs will vary proportionally with the cosine of the angle of their paths. And they will have a torque that will tend to make the paths parallel and to become oriented so that SSSWRs on both paths will be traveling in the same direction.
All SSSWRs that "see" themselves traveling in the same direction on parallel paths at the same frequency will attract and/or space and time, at that frequency, between them is created the least.
All SSSWRs that "see" themselves traveling in opposite directions on parallel paths at the same frequency will repel and/or space and time between them, at that frequency, increases or is created the most.
And please don't forget this:
Why electrons, stars & galaxies repel each other
Remember, we have completely chucked out all those invisible forces you are familiar with and all we have now are these two"A" Laws.
Please remember, in thisnew "big picture" of everything, ALL FORCES ARE NOW UNIFIED so there are no such things as gravity, magnetic lines of force or plus and minus charges or for that matter even the strong force.
Pleasepay particular attention to the following.
Electrons can exhibit either an attraction or repulsion when they are "locked" spin up or spin down on orbitals such as like or unlike charges; like or unlike poles OR they may even display a gyroscopic type repulsive behavior when they are "free". Our"A" Laws show us why this is so and in the next 6 paragraphs you have the best explanation of why electrons and even stars & galaxies repel each other.
Lets look at these free electrons first: They spin and hence they have inertial qualities and this includes gyroscopic inertia which always provides this force 90 degrees to any external force acting on such a spinning item.
Completely forget about charge now and only look at our new"A" Laws and what they say.
The 1st "A" Law tells us that there is a possibility that two free electrons can attract each other providing that any portion of their closest sides are spinning in the same direction at the same frequency. This means either their sides can be spinning in the same directions or they can be lined up so that both of their poles can be spinning in the same directions: Any such two electrons will attract each other (magnetism also sigma and pi bonding).
Then we see that there is something else: This torque twisting force - on BOTH free items - depends on the cosine of the angle of their respective spin planes.
As this force begins to act, it in turn causes this 90-degree gyroscopic torque to twist both of those totally free electrons away from this initial attracting position, doesn't it?
So because of this gyro torque, two free electrons can never remain in a full attracting position and they will therefore be forced to stay more in arepelling position. Therefore free electrons will always end up repelling each other and this repelling is not explained by using this thing called charge: it is explained only by simply using global inertial qualities and our new global "A" Laws.
The above6 paragraphs explain not only why electrons repel each other but they also explain why any two perfectly free similar spinning SSSWRs of the same size must repel each other. So now you know why both electrons and galaxies stay well away from each other.
Thisis Einstein's cosmological constant.
Something somewhere has to be"locked" in place and synchronized in frequency (such as the electron's spin with another electron's spin) or a close subharmonic to get any kind of attracting force:
Yes, the proton attracts an electron but instead of charge please see it this way:
When two up quarks combine with one down quark to form a proton then the two up quarks are able to synchronize in with the electron's spin frequency and
This is why aggregations come together(gravity) and larger aggregations come together and accumulate because as these things grow in size there are more things "locked" in place strengthening the attractive force of the 1st "A" Law.
Once we knew about quarks then we should have realized how those two 'up quarks' in the proton are set up spin up-spin down (The 'up quark' does not signify orientation). Those two spin up--spin down 'up quarks' are spinning - in the same equatorial plane - at a higher frequency but all 'up quarks' spin at a harmonic of the electron's spin frequency allowing a spin up and spin down electron to be attracted to them in the same equatorial plane. We will soon know even more about theattractive quark strong force binding functions. Attraction is always a synchronized frequency attraction and it is not simply the old idea of plus and minus charges.
Allattractions in this theory must be synchronized frequency attractions.
Both light and inertial mass are caused by these synchronized frequency attractions.
As quantum theory shows us, the orbital of an electron on a distant star goes down a certain amount while the orbital of the electron receiving this quantum of energy---in your eye---goes up the exact same amount. But what quantum mechanics does not tell you is that these two energy-exchanging orbitals must be in the same exact plane. Not only that but each orbital must be a mirror image of the other with the electrons in each rotating and revolving in the exact opposite directions so that at the time the energy exchange takes place the closest sides of both electrons are going in the same direction. You can see from this that this energy change is merely a MOMENTARY DIRECT PULL from the electron, on the star, to the electron in your eye. These electrons will make many revolutions, rotations and wobbling oscillations during each change of those orbitals giving you the light that you see.
If two distant quarks are lined up so that their closest sides are in the same directions as the two aforementioned electrons then they too will momentarily bind with each other---even from a vast distance---and cause what we see as inertial mass. But since the quarks in the proton and neutron tri-quark entities do not oscillate and wobble quite like the electron then this pull of the two quarks is a steady momentary binding pull where BOTH quarks are pulled away from the other two quarks but NO PERMANENTEnergy CHANGE is made in either tri-quark entity (neutron or proton).
When you spin a flywheel and notice the gyroscopic inertia, you should also notice that the gyroscopic torque that is always 90 degrees to the axis of rotationcan also be seen as a linkage with the rim of the rapidly spinning flywheel to a path projected in the sky (macrocosm surroundings). The rim tries to stay in this path. This is showing you that you do have an absolute reference frame, which is Mach's principle. Billions of quarks in BOTH the flywheel and in the macrocosm are both being momentarily extended more than normal thus giving you this added gyroscopic inertia.
You might have to read the long TOE athttp://www.rbduncan.com/TOEbyFitzpatrick.htm to get the full picture of what happens when you crank up a gyroscope or a flywheel or ride a bicycle and produce gyroscopic inertia. It's similar to the reason you need cyclic pitch on a helicopter. When a helicopter moves forward then the blades on one side travel through the air faster than the blades on the other side and this tries to tip the helicopter over. (Igor Sikorsky had to invent cyclic pitch to prevent this).
The same thing happens to certain quarks whose rims line up with the rim of the gyroscope, flywheel or bicycle wheels. The speed that these items are turning---in respect to the macrocosm---now adds to portions of the quark rim speed which before was close to the speed of light and now gets even closer to the speed of light (becoming more massive hence at a higher frequency). So you are moving up an asymptotic curve close to that unsurpassable speed of c. And this---even with a miniscule number of quarks involved---gives us this gyroscopic inertia. It does this because the mass of these few quarks increase tremendously as portions of their rim speed approach the speed of light. As Einstein has shown us, mass increases with speed and especially increases when on that asymptotic portion of the curve.
Of available electrons, only the smallest fraction link with others a distance away to transfer light and heat. The same with the spinning quark that causes gyroscopic inertia. All spinning quarks link to cause inertial mass. All these binding linkages are momentary with the electron's oscillations causing a permanent transfer of energy and the various momentary quark bindings causing inertial mass. This could be seen---in gyroscopic inertia---as only a temporary transfer of inertial mass. But if you could increase our surroundings---as will be the case when our Milky Way galaxy finally collides with the Andromeda galaxy---then anyone here on earth will find both inertial mass, gyroscopic inertia and centrifugal force have all become stronger with the more crowded surroundings.
Now let's go to the stars and you will see the same"A" Laws apply there as well and, as you can see, these too will always have to remain in a repelling position with each other.
Recently Perlmutter discovered this acceleration and showed we must have Einstein'scosmological constant---a repulsive force---between all the stars and galaxies.
Scientists have been recently wracking their brains to figure out why we have Perlmutter's acceleration because nothing in our present science has even predicted such a thing.
But read those preceding blue sentences again! Now I hope you can finally see that our "A" Laws tell you exactly why we have Einstein's "cosmological constant" not only in the sky but in the microcosm as well. And they tell you why we have gravity too. Your present science doesn't even do this.
The reason these "A" Laws work is that this universe is built on an extraordinarily simple principle via an endless supply of vector wave resonances producing lower frequency spherical standing wave, scalar wave resonances that, in turn, produce space-time by spinning, orbiting and precessing.
Aminimum of space (at that particular frequency) is produced between the closest sides of spinning entities that are in the same scalar phase.
Scalar phaseis more like a movie frame than voltage phase, which pertains to a waveform.
These "A" Laws show us the production of the most important vector forces between the closest sides of such spinning spherical resonances and in the direction of the axis of each spin. There are also vector forces via orbits and spin and orbital and spin precessions.
This universe equalizes the energy vector force input to vector force output of these scalar wave resonances by balancing them on specific spin and orbital geodesics.
These vector forces, in turn, combine to produce lower frequency, hence lower energy, scalar resonances, which in turn, spin, precess and orbit producing still lower frequency space-time and its related vector forces and this goes on and on: Thus is our universe built from the microcosm to the macrocosm and may continue indefinitely because higher frequency waves would always be producing lower frequency, lower energy scalar wave resonances and they, in turn, would be producing even lower energy, lower frequency resonances.
This seems to be an infinite frequency universe with each spin/orbit frequency having inertial and gyroscopic qualities but yet with each spin/orbit frequency having its own distinct symmetry laws.
Daniel P. Fitzpatrick Jr.
Over 4 Decades of Fitzpatrick's Books, Papers & Thoughts:
And here's this page duplicated in Adobe.pdf:
Over 4 Decades of Fitzpatrick's Books, Papers & Thoughts:http://www.amperefitz.com/4.decades.htm
Fitzpatrick's website is athttp://www.amperefitz.com
Another older website carrying Fitzpatrick's works FREE is:http://www.rbduncan.com
Thank you, World Scientist Database - - Daniel P. Fitzpatrick Jr.
Have a good day & visit my site at goodreads:
Click ANY of these links to get what you want
Read my latest book FREE:(these two links below)
http://www.amperefitz.com/ua_20071020_ck_ds_jm_ds.pdf (This is the book in Adobe)
http://www.amperefitz.com/unvasleep.htm (This book link opens faster if you have dial up.)
While all the links on this page are OK and presently working, unfortunately only about two thirds(2/3) of the links I gave, years ago, as proof (click & see: http://www.amperefitz.com/presskit.html) for statements in this latest book, published in the year MMVl, are now still working BUT your search engine will probably take you to a similar area where you should be able to read similar proof material.
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- science (n.)
- c.1300, "knowledge (of something) acquired by study," also "a particular branch of knowledge," from Old French science, from Latin scientia "knowledge," from sciens (genitive scientis), present participle of scire "to know," probably originally "to separate one thing from another, to distinguish," related to scindere "to cut, divide," from PIE root *skei- (cf. Greek skhizein "to split, rend, cleave," Gothic skaidan, Old English sceadan "to divide, separate;" see shed (v.)).
Science, since people must do it, is a socially embedded activity. It progresses by hunch, vision, and intuition. Much of its change through time does not record a closer approach to absolute truth, but the alteration of cultural contexts that influence it so strongly. Facts are not pure and unsullied bits of information; culture also influences what we see and how we see it. Theories, moreover, are not inexorable inductions from facts. The most creative theories are often imaginative visions imposed upon facts; the source of imagination is also strongly cultural. [Stephen Jay Gould, introduction to "The Mismeasure of Man," 1981]
Modern sense of "non-arts studies" is attested from 1670s. The distinction is commonly understood as between theoretical truth (Greek episteme) and methods for effecting practical results (tekhne), but science sometimes is used for practical applications and art for applications of skill. Main modern (restricted) sense of "body of regular or methodical observations or propositions ... concerning any subject or speculation" is attested from 1725; in 17c.-18c. this concept commonly was called philosophy. To blind (someone) with science "confuse by the use of big words or complex explanations" is attested from 1937, originally noted as a phrase from Australia and New Zealand.
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“A remote Indian village is responding to global warming-induced water shortages by creating large masses of ice, or “artificial glaciers,” to get through the dry spring months. (See a map of the region.)
Located on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau, the village of Skara in the Ladakh region of India is not a common tourist destination.
“It’s beautiful, but really remote and difficult to get to,” said Amy Higgins, a graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies who worked on the artificial glacier project.
“A lot of people, when I met them in Delhi and I said I was going to Ladakh, they looked at me like I was going to the moon,” said Higgins, who is also a National Geographic grantee.
People in Skara and surrounding villages survive by growing crops such as barley for their own consumption and for sale in neighboring towns. In the past, water for the crops came from meltwater originating in glaciers high in the Himalaya.”
Read more: National Geographic
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Mount Hope Cemetery: Restoring history
If you visit the Chinese Immigrant Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan, Mass, you will notice that a lot of the headstones are in poor condition. This is due to aging, but it is also because of vandalism and lack of care for many years. Many of these headstones belong to the Chinese immigrants that created the Chinatown that we are able to enjoy today.
The first Chinese settlers of Boston Chinatown came from San Francisco, Ca, to North Adams, MA around the 1870s. These settlers consisted of about 75 workers who started working at the Sampson Shoe Factory in North Adams and later traveled to Boston. Chinese laundries and Chinese restaurants were soon established along Harrison Avenue. Overtime, Chinatown slowly began to evolve to include many other infamous streets such as Kneeland Street and Hudson Street.
Like many immigrants, the Chinese Settlers came to the United States for a better life for themselves and their family. Unfortunately, many of the early settlers were bachelors who did not have families in the United States nor were they able to have a family before they deceased. Many of these settlers that passed away were buried in Mount Hope.
Without family members, these headstones remained in Mount Hope Cemetery for decades without proper care. As any item with age, the heads stone deteriorated and some were even vandalized. Perhaps, it was fate for us to keep our history when the cemetery experienced financial burden which led the city to contact the Chinatown community. This attention was brought to two active members of the Chinatown community, Davis Woo and David S.Y. Wong, in 1989. And in 1992, when The Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) was established, they began the project to restore history. CHSNE and along with many efforts of volunteers had started a project in hopes to restore these burial grounds, build a memorial alter, and find a way to restore the damaged tombstones. With ambition and hard work, CHSNE and volunteers alike were able to raise an amazing amount of money.
On March 2007, the Chinese Immigrant Memorial was complete.
Although the Chinese Immigrant Memorial is complete, many efforts are still involved in this project. Every year, a group of students from UMASS Boston (UMB), led by Peter Kiang, Director of the Asian American Studies Program at UMB and co-president of CHSNE, try to maintain and clean the Chinese Immigrant Memorial. In addition, since the tombstones are privately owned by the descendants of the Chinese setters, it is considered private property. Currently, efforts are being made to contact these descendants. However, if efforts has been made but failed, these tombstones could be replaced.
For more information or if you would like to volunteer, please contact CHSNE: (617)338-4339 or email@example.com.
This post is also available in: Chinese
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WebMD Medical News
Brenda Goodman, MA
Laura J. Martin, MD
Oct. 3, 2011 -- Children who are overweight compared to their peers are nearly three times more likely to have high blood pressure, a new study shows.
The study, published in the journal Hypertension, followed 1,111 school-aged children in Indiana for an average of four years.
Twice each year, researchers visited schools to take blood pressure measurements and record the kids’ heights and weights.
About 40% of the children in the study were above the 85th percentile on growth charts for their height and weight. When children are above the 85th percentile, doctors consider them to be overweight.
Among the overweight kids, 14% had blood pressure that was higher than normal, while only 5% of normal-weight kids had elevated blood pressure.
The study also found that extra pounds are especially dangerous for kids who are already big.
"For an overweight and obese child, if you increase your BMI [body mass index] percentile a little bit, that would increase your blood pressure strongly,"says researcher Wanzhu Tu, PhD. Tu is a research scientist at Regenstrief Institute and professor of biostatistics at Indiana University School of Medicine, both in Indianapolis.
"In the same way," Tu says, for just a little bit of weight loss "you could benefit greatly in terms of blood pressure."
The risks of overweight were the same, regardless of the child’s sex or race. About 42% of the kids in the study were black.
Pediatricians say the study is wake-up call.
"We’ve tended to look at the overweight category as a lower-risk category," says Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD, chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. He was not involved in the research.
"This suggests to me that we really need to worry about kids who are in that overweight category," says Daniels, who is also pediatrician-in-chief at Colorado Children’s Hospital.
Other experts say the findings are concerning because having high blood pressure has been shown to set kids up for health complications.
Not only are children with high blood pressure much more likely to turn into adults who have high blood pressure, but newer studies have shown that kids can get the same kinds of organ damage -- to the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys -- that doctors once thought was only a problem for adults with the condition.
One study even found that kids with high blood pressure have subtle changes in the brain area that controls attention, problem solving, and working memory.
"For physicians, we have to take much more seriously this concept of the childhood origins of adult diseases and look beyond the weight and beyond the blood pressure level because we’re finding more evidence, subtle evidence, of injury," says Bonita Falkner, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
"So it’s not going to be a risk that’s going to be in the future. It’s a risk that’s now," says Falkner, who wrote an editorial on the study, but was not involved in the research.
"It jacks up the concern about preventing childhood obesity and also not waiting until they are obese," she tells WebMD. "Even overweight can be problematic for children."
SOURCES:Tu, W. Hypertension, November 2011.Falkner, B. Hypertension, November 2011.Wanzhu Tu, PhD, research scientist, Regenstrief Institute; professor of biostatistics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD, chairman, department of pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine; pediatrician-in-chief, Colorado Children’s Hospital, Denver.Bonita Falkner, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia.
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Blocking production of a pyruvate kinase splice-variant shows therapeutic promise
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
– Cancer cells grow fast. That’s an essential characteristic of what makes them cancer cells. They’ve crashed through all the cell-cycle checkpoints and are continuously growing and dividing, far outstripping our normal cells. To do this they need to speed up their metabolism.
CSHL Professor Adrian Krainer and his team have found a way to target the cancer cell metabolic process and in the process specifically kill cancer cells.
Nearly 90 years ago the German chemist and Nobel laureate Otto Warburg proposed that cancer’s prime cause was a change in cell metabolism – i.e., in cells’ production and consumption of energy. In particular cancer cells have a stubborn propensity to eschew using glucose as a source to generate energy. This is known as the Warburg Effect.
While metabolic changes are an important feature in the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells they are not now thought to be cancer’s primary cause. Despite this, metabolic changes remain an attractive target for cancer therapy, as Krainer and colleagues show in a paper published online today in Open Biology
, the open-access journal of Great Britain’s Royal Society.This image compares glioblastoma cells untreated or treated with antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) that modulate splicing for PK-M. The cells are visible under light microscopy in the left column, and the DNA in their nuclei shows up when using the blue dye DAPI in the second column. PK-M2 is visualized using a red stain in the third column, with the merge of the images in each row in the forth column. The 2nd and 3rd rows show cells that have been treated with ASOs. The red dye is nearly all gone indicating that there is less PK-M2 and that the ASOs have worked. Image courtesy of Zhenxun Wang and Adrian Krainer. (click to enlarge)
One difference between metabolism in cancer and normal cells is the switch in cancer to the production of a different version, or isoform, of a protein produced from the pyruvate kinase-M (PK-M) gene. The protein version produced in normal cells is known as PK-M1, while the one produced by cancer cells is known as PK-M2.
PK-M2 is highly expressed in a broad range of cancer cells. It enables the cancer cell to consume far more glucose than normal, while using little of it for energy. Instead, the rest is used to make more material with which to build more cancer cells.
PK-M1 and PK-M2 are produced in a mutually exclusive manner -- one-at-a-time, from the same gene, by a mechanism known as alternative splicing. When a gene’s DNA is being copied into the messenger molecule known as mRNA, the intermediate template for making proteins, a cellular machine called the spliceosome cuts and pastes different pieces out of and into that mRNA molecule.
The non-essential parts that are edited out are known as introns, while the final protein-coding mRNA consists of a string of parts pasted together known as exons. The bit that fits into the PK-M1 gene-coding sequence is known as exon 9, while it is replaced in PK-M2 by exon 10. In this way alternative splicing provides the cell with the ability to make multiple proteins from a single gene.
Krainer, an authority on alternative splicing, previously published research
on the protein regulators that facilitate the splicing mechanism for PK-M. His team showed that expression of PK-M2 is favored in cancer cells by these proteins, which act to repress splicing for the PK-M1 isoform. In the study published today the team explains that it decided to target the splicing of PK-M using a technology called antisense, rather than target the proteins that regulate the splicing mechanism.
Using a panel of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), small bits of modified DNA designed to bind to mRNA targets, they screened for new splicing regulatory elements in the PK-M gene. The idea was that one or more ASOs would bind to a region of the RNA essential for splicing in exon 10 and reveal that site by preventing splicing of exon 10 from occurring.
Indeed, this is what happened. “We found we can force cancer cells to make the normal isoform, PK-M1,” sums up Krainer. In fact, a group of potent ASOs were found that bound to a previously unknown enhancer element in exon 10, i.e., an element that predisposes for expression of the PK-M2 isoform, thus preventing its recognition by splicing-regulatory proteins. This initiated a switch that favored the PK-M1 isoform.
When they then deliberately targeted the PK-M2 isoform for repression in cells derived from a glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer, all the cells died. They succumbed through what is known as programmed cell death or apoptosis -- a process whereby the cell shuts down its own machinery and chops up its own DNA in committing a form of cellular suicide.
As to why the cells die when PK-M2 is repressed: the team found it was not due to the concomitant increase in PK-M1 (the cells survived even when extra PK-M1 was introduced). Rather, it was the loss of the PK-M2 isoform that was associated with the death of the cancer cells. How this works is still unclear but a subject of investigation in the Krainer laboratory.
The next step will be to take their ASO reagents into mouse models of cancer to see if they behave the same way there. While there are some technical and methodological obstacles to overcome, Krainer is optimistic.
“PK-M2 is preferentially expressed in cancer cells, a general feature of all types of cancer -- it’s a key switch in their metabolism,” he says. Thus targeting the alternative splicing mechanism of PK-M2 using ASOs has the potential to be a cancer therapeutic with many applications.
The paper can be obtained online at the following link: Zhenxun Wang, Hyun Yong Jeon, Frank Rigo, C. Frank Bennett and Adrian R. Krainer. 2012 Manipulation of PK-M mutually exclusive alternative splicing by antisense oligonucleotides. Open Biology 2: 120133. http://rsob.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/10/120133.full
The research described in this release was supported by the National Cancer Institute grant CA13106, the St. Giles Foundation, and a National Science Scholarship from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore. About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. CSHL is ranked number one in the world by Thomson Reuters for impact of its research in molecular biology and genetics. The Laboratory has been home to eight Nobel Prize winners. Today, CSHL's multidisciplinary scientific community is more than 360 scientists strong and its Meetings & Courses program hosts more than 12,500 scientists from around the world each year to its Long Island campus and its China center. Tens of thousands more benefit from the research, reviews, and ideas published in journals and books distributed internationally by CSHL Press. The Laboratory's education arm also includes a graduate school and programs for undergraduates as well as middle and high school students and teachers. CSHL is a private, not-for-profit institution on the north shore of Long Island. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu.
Written by: Edward Brydo
n, Science Writer
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Cyber Bullying Leaflet Launch
Sue Ball Consultant for BRAG and Parents from Nechells Parents Forum launched a leaflet of advice for parents and carers about how to prevent and tackle cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullies use the internet, mobile phones or any other form of digital technology to threaten, tease or abuse someone.
This useful resource, produced by Birmingham City Council’s Young People and Families Directorate, in association with Nechells Parents Forum and the POD, helps parents understand how to be cyber-safe, how to spot the signs if their child is a victim of or an instigator of cyber-bullying and what steps to take to stop it. The leaflet provides useful, practical advice with local and national contacts for further support and guidance.
The launch took place at Nechells Zone Olympics at the Alexander Stadium on June 15th Noran Flynn, Director of the POD, and organiser of the Olympics Event said “Nechells parents are keen to support their children at our Olympics, and promote the values of respect, excellence and friendship. They are also very concerned about the rise in cyber-bullying and have worked hard, with Birmingham’s Bullying Reduction Action Group (BRAG) to produce this leaflet to help parents across Birmingham deal with cyber-bullying and keep their children safe”
How to tackle cyber-bullying:
New technologies are amazing. Mobile phones, smart phones, the internet and social networking slites like facebook allow us to keep in touch with our friends and family more easily and to have access to a wide range of information on the world-wide web. They can help children with their learning, prepare them for life in a technological world and improve their communication skills.
But as well as the positives, we all know that there are some negatives and that cyber-bullying is on the increase. Because many children and parents are worried about cyber-bullying Nechells Parents Forum have worked with Birmingham City Council’s Bullying Reduction Action Group (BRAG) to produce an advice leaflet for parents called How to Tackle Cyber-bullying.
This leaflet helps parents understand what cyber-bullying is, how to spot the signs if their child is a victim of or an instigator of cyber-bullying and what steps to take to stop it. It also gives useful, practical advice with local and national contacts for further support and guidance.
Sue Ball said “The Olympic values of respect, excellence and friendship are important to us all. Thank you to the POD and all the members of Nechells Parents Forum, who helped to create this leaflet. It gives great advice to parents and carers across Birmingham about how they can best help their children to lead happy and bully-free lives, build respectful friendships and stay safe from cyber-bullying.”
For more information about Anti-bullying work in Birmingham
Events This Month
Latest Blog Posts
Tue, 14th May 13 at 4:00pm
Some pupils from year 5 in our Nechells EAZ schools: Cromwell, Nechells, St Clement's, St Joseph's and St Vincent's all went to Aston University today for a day of fun, experiments, experiences and inspiration for their future careers. The young people learnt all about team work, had a tour of the campus and then became mini scientists extracting DNA from kiwi fruits. The Nechells Schools and their pupils would all like to say a big thank you to Bal and her team of student volunteers at Aston University for the opportunity they give every year to some our most Gifted and Talents pupils, they really enjoy this fantastic experience, we hope that our pupils will all continue to study hard and in time become the graduates of the future.
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Information for Students
Welcome to the Flint Regional Science Fair! We look forward to seeing you at the Fair in March.
Taking part in a science fair is fun, educational, and rewarding. This part of our web site provides information and links that can help you get started, conduct your research and enter the Flint Regional Science Fair.
The FASF is held every Spring. This means you should begin planning in the Fall and Winter prior to the Fair to ensure you pick a good research topic, and have plenty of time to do a good job and present a quality project.
Parents, teachers, and mentors are important helpers to identify projects, collect the resources required for your project, and track your progress. Ask your parents and your teachers for assistance. They are your best bet for one-on-one direction and support in your Science Fair experience.
Elementary Division and Junior Division projects follow simpler rules than Senior Division projects.
More Web Student Science Resources
Questions? Email firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Dermatology is the a branch of medical science dealing with the skin, its structure, functions, and diseases.
Dermatologists specialize in diagnosing and treating conditions related to the skin, hair, and nails, including concerns related to cosmetic issues, such as sun damage and aging, as well as skin cancer, and other medical skin conditions.
Dermatologists who have additional interest and skill in performing surgical procedures are referred to as dermatologic surgeons or dermasurgeons.
Specialty terms like "dermatologist" and "dermatologic surgeon" are often unregulated and may be used in some states by any doctor, regardless of their training and credentials.
So, for instance, a doctor who has an active medical license and is board certified in Internal Medicine but who has not undergone any specialty training in dermatology may refer to him or herself as a dermatologist or dermasurgeon, despite the fact that their training and credentials may not reflect specialization in this area of medical practice.
The skin is the largest organ of the human body, and as a result, dermatologists typically offer a wide variety of treatments for it.
Whether you wish to correct wrinkles, crepey skin, or razor bumps, a board certified dermatologist or dermasurgeon may help you by offering a single treatment or any combination of the following:
Cosmetic dermatology - Non-surgical procedures
- Laser treatments
- Chemical peel
- Injectable fillers
- Botox and Dysport
- Lip augmentation
- Non-surgical nose job
- Non-surgical facelift
- Acne treatment
- Acne scar removal
- Vein treatment
- Scar removal
- Skin tightening
Cosmetic dermatology - Surgical procedures
Most dermatologists and dermasurgeons also offer treatments for a variety of medical skin conditions, in addition to cosmetic treatments. Although most skin problems can create aesthetic concerns, the following conditions are usually considered medical issues, and treatment may be covered by insurance.
Medical dermatology - Conditions treated
- Skin cancer
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Other Dairy Products
( Originally Published 1939 )
It has been known for a long time that babies fed with boiled milk thrived better than those fed with regular milk. It was supposed that this improved quality lay in the destruction of pathogenic organisms. Gradually a wealth of data has been accumulating which shows that boiling or other treatment of milk increases its digestibility. After Buckley had showed that the physical nature of the curd of milk is important in determining the food value of milk,' and Ladd had published some chemical data that showed that homogenized milk produced a soft curd in the infant's stomach and was similar to breast milk in this respect,' Washburn and Jones showed that homogenization of milk produced curds which were much more flocculent and friable than those of regular milk, although this property was not reflected in any improved nutrition of his experimental animals, young pigs. The recent work of Hill is credited with giving this subject of the digestive quality of milk an emphasis which has found important application in the commercial production of soft curd milk. Interest has been further stimulated competitively by reason of the inroads that the evaporated milk industry has made into the bottled trade, largely by reason of the superior properties of the canned product in infant feeding. This has led to laboratory activity directed toward devising processes for imparting soft curd properties and for measuring curd hardness rather than toward ascertaining to what extent, if any, these treatments actually improve the digestibility of the milk. The scientific literature leaves the subject in a very con-fused state. Whatever improved digestibility there is seems to result entirely from the speeding of the passage of the milk from the stomach and not from any increased food value or degree of assimilation.' The whole subject is excellently reviewed by Doan in the Journal of Dairy Science, 21, 739-756 (1938).
NATURAL SOFT-CURD MILK
Hill found that the milk of different cows possessed unequal digestibility, and that many infants could tolerate milk from certain cows but not that from others. In general, this improved tolerance was associated with milk of relatively low total solids content, al-though this relationship did not seem to be exclusively specific. Soft-curd milk was produced by cows of different breeds and was fairly uniform over the lactation period of a given cow. This property enabled herdsmen to select cows for the regular production of this kind of milk.
Soft-curd milk is more rapidly digested by humans, calves, and rats, and leaves the stomach more quickly than regular milks At the same time, soft-curd milk has a lower content of total solids and a smaller calorific value.
It has been observed that cows suffering with mastitis produce a soft-curd milk. This has led many persons to think that all soft-curd milk is pathologic. Such a belief is erroneous. Soft-curd milk is actually under more stringent control than regular milk because its production is mostly, if not entirely, limited to Grade A and certified herds. However, on account of the widespread prevalence of sub-clinical mastitis, it is recommended that the presence of udder infections be tested for when the curd tension is determined.
Elias- showed 10 that soft-curd milk gave curds in the stomach similar to those of boiled milk. Espe and Dye reported that doubling the curd tension increased the length of the digestive period from 30 to 65 percent, and that boiling markedly lowered the curd tension. Welch and Doan showed that curd tension was greater in milk of high casein content, and that equalization of casein content by dilution with water caused both the curd tension and differences in rates of digestion largely to disappear, although the casein content might exercise only a minor role in the rate of digestion if the curd is artificially softened by heating, homogenization, and other means.
ARTIFICIAL SOFT-CURD MILK
Soft-curd by homogenization. Softness of curd can be imparted to a milk by homogenizing it. This procedure consists in pumping milk under very great pressure through a special valve with small clearance so that the, butterfat globules are broken up and uniformly distributed. The homogenization of skimmed milk does not impart soft-curd properties; at least about 1 percent of butterfat or other oil must be present. Chocolate milk is a soft-curd milk. Therefore, it seems that the imparting of soft-curd properties by mechanical means is a function of the degree of dispersion of discrete particles whereby the curd is mechanically prevented from setting into a solid homogeneous mass. Feeding experiments on rats showed that this homogenized soft-curd milk was digested just about as quickly as boiled milk or natural soft-curd milk. Letters patent 12 have been issued to cover the production of soft-curd milk by homogenization, although the process seems to have been practiced by milk companies for many years previously to the granting of the patent.
The difficulty of controlling exactly the effectiveness of the homogenizing machine, together with the variability in the composition or physical nature of the milk, particularly the butterfat, precludes the determination of the most efficient temperatures and pressures. Experience has taught that the curd of a given milk cannot be softened beyond a certain point, regardless of the pressure used, and on the other hand, too light a pressure does not insure permanency to the imparted curd softness. In industrial practice, consistent results can be obtained when milk is homogenized at pressures of about 2500 to 3000 pounds per square inch at a temperature of about 145° F. This softens the curd to a tension of about 30 grams, or reduces the curd tension of average market milk about 50 percent.
The homogenization of milk must be carefully conducted if a satisfactory product is to be obtained. Trout and his associates found 13 that some milk upon homogenization developed rancidity within 15 minutes after treatment. This effect seemed to be caused by a lipolytic enzyme which could be inactivated at temperatures of pasteurization. Accordingly, this off-flavor can be prevented by pasteurizing the milk before or immediately after homogenization. The flavor of the finished product is generally considered to be slightly better if pasteurization precedes homogenization, but health officers are inclined to require pasteurization to come last.
Homogenized milk, unless the milk was initially of high quality, may exhibit a smudgy yellow or gray sediment in the bottom of the bottle. It is too finely divided to be revealed on a sediment disc. Babcock 14 reported that it consists largely of leucocytes, epithelial cells, and some finely divided dirt. Charles and Sommer 15 state that sediment may occur in milk of the highest sanitary quality and may come from a healthy udder. It is not seen in unhomogenized milk because the rising of the fat globules into the cream layer sweeps this light material upward. Clarification by centrifugal clarifying ma-chines will remove it.
Soft-curd properties, artificially imparted to milk by homogenization, were studied by Anthony on two adult males who possessed the unusual ability to regurgitate at will without distress. This enabled them to drink the milk, hold it in their stomachs for 30 minutes, and then return it without the aid of a stomach pump or an emetic. These experiments showed that the tests on curd strength made in vitro and determined with the curd knife reasonably evaluated the nature of the curd in the human stomach (except in the case of mineral modified milk). The curd particles of breast milk were minute and soft, and were so finely divided that they could not be separated from the accompanying juices with a 20-mesh screen. On cows' milk, when the curd tension (by laboratory curd-knife technic) was high, the regurgitation specimens of curd in every case were large and leathery. When the readings were low, the curd particles were small and soft. Breast milk registered 0 curd tension, natural cows' milk 50-100 grams, and homogenized milk (processed at 3500 pounds) 15 grams. The patients reported that the milk tasted better (because of the minute division of the milkfat globules) and gave less distress.
However, no digestive advantage is reported by some other investigators who worked on samples in vitro and on experimental animals. The latter work is not so impressive as clinical studies but may be better controlled. Much more fundamental and clinical re-search is necessary before the value of this processing is substantiated.
Soft curd by sonic vibration. A modification of the homogenizing process for the production of soft-curd milk has been developed by subjecting milk to intense sonic vibration. Electromagnetic oscillators, somewhat similar to those used in submarine communications, are constructed to allow the passage of milk in a thin film between the "anvil" and the vibrating diaphragm. Sonic vibration acts directly on the butterfat of the milk to cause a more complete dispersion. The reduction of curd tension is a function of the number of fat particles, and not of the actual fat concentration. A direct relationship seems to exist between the degree of fat dispersion-and the degree of curd-tension reduction. Inasmuch as only a small proportion of the total fat in milk need be finely subdivided to reduce the curd tension, it is possible to produce soft curd by vibration without destroying the cream volume (cream line).
Commercial homogenization. The practice of homogenizing market milk is gradually extending. It is quite general in parts of Canada, and is increasing irregularly in the United States. Fifteen states have no regulations for the control of homogenized milk, 19 states and the District of Columbia permit its sale if properly labeled, 2 states have taken no action but look upon it with disfavor, and 4 states prohibit its sale. It is a useful practice for the treatment of milk which is to be consumed in restaurants, institutions, or wherever the sale of bulk milk introduces the likelihood that the consumer may be served a portion from which a substantial part of the butterfat has separated. Tracy states that the unpopularity of homogenized milk in the past has been due largely to the emphasis placed on the cream line as a measure of the value of a milk, and to the unfriendly attitude of some regulatory officials who felt that homogenization might encourage fraudulent practices. About one-third of the milk-route customers of the University of Illinois changed to this milk for the following reasons: it looked and tasted better; no cream adhered to the bottle cap; no mixing was required; it tasted better for breakfast foods; it removed the temptation to abstract cream; it was easier to prepare for infant feeding; it did not allow rising of cream to top of glass in refrigerator; it made better milk drinks; it tasted better to children; it was more easily digested by infants; and it did not churn out on freezing.
Soft curd by base exchange. Hard waters are softened by the zeolite or base-exchange method, whereby the percolation of water through a bed of zeolite (a sodium-aluminum silicate) effects an ex-change of sodium and calcium. As applied to milk, sodium from the zeolite replaces soluble calcium from the milk. The milk is first acidified to about 0.3 percent as lactic acid (with a dilute nitric acid solution) and then percolated at 64° F. over a granular column of zeolite. During the process, the pH is adjusted to that of ordinary cows' milk (about 6.50), and the acidity is reduced to about 0.15 per-cent as lactic acid. This process is reported 22 to change the taste, appearance, and other qualities very little from those of regular milk. The cream line is practically the same as in pasteurized milk. Bacteria counts are said to be lowered by the filtering effect of the pass-age of the milk through the zeolite bed.
The Hill method cannot be used to measure the curd tension by this process because the Hill technic introduces about ten times as much soluble calcium into 100 milliliters of milk as is removed by the base-exchange treatment. Moreover, it is considered more desirable to use a method which more closely simulates gastric digestion. Such a method has been developed by Miller.
Hess, Poncher, and Woodward 24 studied the nutritional effects of such a milk on an infant on a metabolism frame. They report that, in spite of the decrease of the percentage content of total calcium and phosphorus, 100 milliliters of such milk per kilogram of body weight kept a normal growing infant in a positive calcium and phosphorus balance during the entire time of feeding.
Soft curd by enzymic action. Milk can be given soft-curd properties within a range of 20 to 30 grams by the addition of pancreatic extract, concentrated in the proportion of 1 part of the powder to 10,000 parts of milk. The milk containing the enzyme is heated at a temperature of 42° C. (108° F.) for 15 minutes, and then is pasteurized in the regular way. The preliminary heating brings about a partial digestion of the curd, and the pasteurization inactivates most of the enzyme. The mineral content, the protein, and the formol titration values remain substantially unchanged.
Standards of quality. The quality of curd is usually determined by the Hill test, or some modification of it. Although natural milks may give a range of reading on the scale from 15 to 200 grams of tension, the average of numerous milk supplies has been found to be about 60-70. The American Association of Medical Milk Commissions 27 specifies that a soft-curd milk must show a curd tension be-low 30 grams, determined at least twice at an interval of 1 to 5 days before it can be claimed to be a soft-curd milk, and that the test must be repeated at monthly intervals thereafter.
Determination of curd tension. Hill's method for determining the characteristics of milk curd is based on the measurement of the degree of toughness of the curd which is coagulated by pepsin in calcium chloride solution. The measurement is the indicated pull in grams necessary for a special knife to cut through the coagulated curd. The knife consists of several radial horizontal blades soldered at right angles to an upright slender rod. This knife is placed in a jar containing 100 milliliters of the milk to be tested. A coagulating solution of scale pepsin and calcium chloride is then added. This sets the curd around the knife. The knife is then hooked to a spring balance, and its pull as it cuts upward through the curd is read directly from the dial.
Caulfield and Riddell have shown that it is expedient to make each determination in triplicate, and that temperature of reaction and time interval between the addition of coagulant and cutting of the curd must be kept constant. Miller 23 has modified this method by substituting an acid pepsin solution for the pepsin-calcium chloride solution. The measurement of toughness of curd by this method substantially parallels the digestibility of the milk by animals. See also the method of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and that of the American Dairy Science Association reported supra by Doan.
Determination of butterfat. Authorities are not in agreement as to the effect of homogenization on the accuracy of the butterfat de-termination by the Babcock method. Babcock found that in every case the homogenized milk averaged in fat about 0.1 percent lower than the same milk before it was homogenized. On the other hand, Tracy' states that homogenized milk can be tested satisfactorily by the Babcock method if both the acid and milk are at about 70° F., if the acid is added in small portions, if slightly less acid (1.5 milli-liters) is used, and if the solution is shaken well after each addition of acid.
Microbiological examination. Inasmuch as natural soft curd has been associated with mastitis, it is advisable in the interest of sanitation and wholesomeness to examine samples of natural soft-curd milk for the presence of mastitis organisms.
1. S. S. BucKLEY, Maryland Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 184, 1914.
2. M. LADD, Boston Med. and Surg. J., 173, 13 (1915).
3. R. M. WASHBURN and C. H. JONES, Vermont Agr. Exp. Bul. 195, 1916.
4. R. L. HILL, Utah Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 207, 1928; Circular 101, 1933.
5. Council on Foods, J. Am. Med. Assoc., 108, 2040, 2122 (1937).
6. F. J. DoAN and R. C. WELCH, Pennsylvania State College Agr. Exp. Sta. But. 312, 1934. See also F. J. DoAN and C. C. FLORA, ibid., 380, 1939.
7. H. C. HANSEN, D. R. THEOPHILUS, F. W. ATKESON, and E. M. GILDow,
J. Dairy Sci., 17, 257 (1934).
8. R. C. WELCH and F. J. DoAN, Milk Plant Monthly, 22 (11) 30 (1933).
9. W. V. HALVERSEN, V. A. CHERRINGTON, and H. C. HANSEN, J. Dairy Sci., 17, 281 (1934).
10. H. L. ELIAS, Am. J. Diseases Children, 44, 296 (1932).
11. D. L. EsPE and J. A. DYE, ibid., 43, 62 (1932).
12. R. FLUCKIOER, U. S. Patent 1,973,145, Sept. 11, 1934.
13. G. M. Tamil, C. P. HALLORAN, and I. GouLD, Mich. Agr. Exp. Sta. Tech. Bul. 145, 1935.
14. C. J. BARCOCK, U. S. Dept. Agr. Tech. Bul. 438, 1934.
15. D. A. CHARLES and H. H. SOMMER, Milk Plant Monthly, 24, 26, 32 (1935).
16. G. E. ANTHONY, The Bulletin (official publication of the Genesee County Medical Society), 9, March 4 (1936).
17. L. A. CHAMBERS, J. Dairy Sci., 19, 29 (1936).
18. Milk Dealer, 25, 36 (1936).
19. R. H. TRACY, Milk Plant Monthly, 24, 28 (1935).
20. U. S. Patent 1,954,769, assigned to M. & R. Dietetic Laboratories, Inc.
21. J. F. LYMAN, E. H. BROWNE, and H. E. OTTING, Ind. Eng. Chem., 25, 1297 (1933). Also see Milk Plant Monthly, January, 1934, p. 37.
22. H. E. OTTING and J. J. QuILLIGAN, Milk Dealer, 23, 36 (1934).
23. D. MILLER, J. Dairy Sci., 18, 259 (1935).
24. J. H. HESS, H. G. PONCHER, and H. WOODWARD, Am. J. Diseases Children, 48, 1058 (1934).
25. V. CONQUEST, A. W. TURNER, and H. J. REYNOLDS, J. Dairy Sci., 21, 361 (1938).
26. R. L. HILL, ibid., 6, 509 (1923).
27. Methods and Standards for the Production of Certified Milk, Am. Assoc. Med. Milk Commissions, New York, 1936.
28. W. J. CAULFIELD and W. H. RIDDELL, J. Dairy Sci., 17, 791 (1934).
29. Chief of Bureau of Dairy Industry, 1938, J. Milk Technol., 2, 48 (1939).
30. Curd Tension Committee. Rept. Annual Meeting Amer. Dairy Sci. Assoc.,
31. P. H. TRACY, Milk Dealer, 25, 30, 60 (1936).
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Object-oriented editing means the ability to edit and/or process individual objects, such as a MIDI or audio clip — whether they last the entire length of a song or only a few milliseconds. This is a different way of thinking than linear-style track editing, where you (for example) insert a plug-in into a virtual mixer that processes a track, or apply an automation curve to control a parameter for the duration of a track.
The word 'object' is essentially interchangeable with 'clip', but for clarity when working with Sonar, we'll define an object as a 'sub-set' of a clip with its own characteristics. Amongst other advantages, object-oriented editing can simplify the automation process compared to drawing track envelopes, and make it easier to do 'microsurgery'-type editing.
At first glance it might seem that this adds another level of tedium to the editing process, as working with little pieces of audio seems more involved than working with tracks. But that's not always the case; for some applications, object-oriented editing can be far more efficient. As one example, consider plug-ins. If you load a plug-in into a track insert, it's active for the entire length of the song — and drawing CPU power. But if the effect is needed in only a few places, you can create individual objects that are processed with that effect. The effect only draws power from the CPU when these particular objects are being processed.
Of all current DAW programs, I feel that Samplitude has taken object-oriented editing the furthest, as the program allows you to open up a clip and access a huge number of clip-related parameters. Sonar, on the other hand, was not designed with object-oriented editing in mind, and takes a bit more of an ad hoc approach, so you'll find different object-editing options in different places. This is a bit less convenient, but you can still get the benefits of object-oriented editing.
This is perhaps the most important use of object-oriented editing. Sonar can apply MIDI effects (MFX) to MIDI objects, and audio processing plug-ins to audio objects. For example, suppose you want to add delay to the last word of a vocal, so that the word trails off into silence. Here's how you'd do it:
1. Do a track split at the beginning and end of the word, to isolate it as a separate object. The easiest way to do this is to click at the beginning of the word and type 'S', then click at the end of the word and type 'S'.
2. Right-click on this object and select Open Clip Effects Bin (keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+B).
3. An effects bin opens up that's a miniature version of the track effects bin you'll see in the Track view of the Console window.
4. Right-click on a blank part of the effects bin and select the desired audio effect from the pop-up menu.
5. The effect will now appear in the bin. As in the standard effects bin, there's a small tick-box to the left of the effect name; when this is green, the effect is enabled. When it's grey, the effect is disabled.
6. You can insert more effects, if desired. As soon as you click anywhere other than the effects bin, the object's effects bin shrinks to a small box marked 'FX'. This lets you know that there's an effects bin in the object. To open an effects bin again, just click on that box.
One very significant aspect of inserting an effect into an object is that any effect comes to a complete halt at the end of the object. In other words, if there's a reverb tail or delay decay caused by feedback, it will not extend past the object. Fortunately, there's a workaround.
1. Place the Now time just past the end of the object.
2. Put the track containing the object into record mode, but turn down the level of any signal feeding into the track, so you can record silence.
3. Click on the transport Record button.
4. To make sure this clip is truly silent, click on it and go Process / Audio / Gain. Set all Gain levels to minimum, then click on OK.
5. Click on the object you're processing, then Control-click on the clip containing silence, so that they're both selected.
6. Go Edit / Bounce to Clip(s).
7. The object will now be extended by the amount of silence you added, and any delay or reverb can spill over into it.
Note that the process of bouncing clips removes any effects bins inserted in those clips. So in this example you would need to re-insert delay, reverb or whatever into the new, longer clip.
Now that we know how to add effects to objects, here are some ideas on how to use this editing option.
Emphasise a guitar solo. In a guitar track, split the guitar solo into a separate object, and add slight EQ boost around 2-3.5kHz. This will make the guitar more prominent.
Avoid 'stepping on' vocals with a background instrument part. Suppose you have piano as a prominent track behind a singer. Split the piano track wherever the vocal occurs and scoop out some of the mid-range (whatever falls in the same range as the vocalist). If used subtly, this can give a better effect than simply lowering the volume. What's more, you could automate just that section, as we'll describe shortly.
Compress particular sections of a track. Bearing in mind the growing backlash against excessive use of compression, one good application of object-oriented editing is to compress the lead vocalist when singing solo, but if background vocalists are present, remove compression from the lead to allow more dynamics and interplay with the background singers.
Distort individual drum hits. Do you ever find you want the snare drum to really crack when it hits on the fourth beat of a measure just before the transition to a new chorus or verse? Raising level might not be enough, so separate that hit into a separate object and add a hint of distortion!
If you've been using Sonar for a while, you probably know that you can right-click on a clip, select Envelopes, choose Create Clip Envelope and add either a Gain or Pan envelope to the clip. However, if there's an effect inserted in the object effects bin, you can also create envelopes within the object itself for the effects. To do this, proceed as you normally would to select a Gain or Pan envelope and you'll see automatable effect(s) listed below the Pan Envelope option.
This allows an exceptional amount of control within very short audio events, if desired. Furthermore, you can insert track effects that kind of act as 'master' effects. One example would be to add a fairly standard delay (such as a quarter-note or half-note) to a track, then add delay with a dotted value (for example, a dotted half-note) within individual objects.
You can't drag the effects bin itself from one object to another. However, you can drag an effect, whether from another object's effects bin or from the track effects bin, into an object's effects bin. Here are the rules for dragging effects:
Control-drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into an object: this creates an object effects bin and inserts a copy of the effect you dragged. The effect that was copied remains in its original location as well.
Drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into an object: this creates an effects bin, inserts the effect you dragged, and removes the effect from the track effects bin.
Control-Drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into a closed object effects bin: this inserts a copy of the effect you dragged. If there's already an effect in the bin, the effect you dragged in will be added at the end of the list of effects. The effect you copied remains in its original location.
Drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into a closed object effects bin. The effect you dragged is removed from its original location and placed in the object effects bin.
Note that the same rules apply when going in the other direction — ie. dragging from an object effects bin into a track effects bin or another object effects bin.
Here's a shortcut you can use if you need the same effect (or a variation on a particular effect) in several small, sequential objects. For example, suppose you want to apply a rhythmic 'sample and hold' filter effect to a sustained guitar power chord, where the filter's cutoff frequency changes every eighth note:
1. Split the power chord off as a separate object.
2. Open an object effects bin in this object, then insert a filter.
3. Adjust the filter as desired for the first step. Typically, you'd set a relatively high resonance.
4. Split the power chord at every eighth note. The filter will appear in each split of the object.
5. Set the filter in each split to the desired cutoff frequency.
You can open an object's effects bin when it's just a small square marked 'FX' by right-clicking on it and choosing Open Clip Effects Bin (for which the keyboard shortcut is Control + B).
Once it's open, you can bypass the bin and all its effects by clicking anywhere within the bin and selecting Bypass Bin; rearrange the order of effects within the bin by clicking and dragging, just as you would with the standard tracks effects bin; and delete an effect by either clicking on it and hitting the Delete key, or right-clicking on the effect or its enable box and selecting Delete from the pop-up menu.
MIDI Effects & Groove Clips
The instructions regarding applying effects to audio objects also apply to MIDI effects and MIDI tracks: they're inserted in the same way, and they follow the same rules when copying and moving. Groove clips follow the same rules as well. If you roll out a groove clip (MIDI or audio), the effects bin will remain in the original part of the object. If you then split the object, the effects bin will be copied to the split(s).
One other object-oriented editing window continues to evolve (if Cakewalk ever decide to consolidate everything in Sonar that's related to clips/objects in one window, this would be the one): the window that appears when you right-click on an object and select Clip Properties.
The General tab shows the name of the clip, its start time and its length (in Measures:Beats:Ticks; Samples; Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames; and Seconds). You can edit all of these parameters. Time base lets you select musical or absolute time for the clip, which affects where the clip starts if you change tempo. With a musical time base, the Measures:Beats:Ticks position remains the same, but the absolute (SMPTE) time changes. With SMPTE as a time base, the reverse occurs.
However, you can also mute the clip, and 'lock' it from this window (both options are also available if you right-click on the object). Lock is crucial for audio-for-video work, as it lets you tie samples to a specific SMPTE time. For example, suppose you build a sound effect that coincides with a particular visual cue into a soundtrack, but the producer decides you need to speed up the music just a bit. Locking the clip to SMPTE ensures it will always hit on the visual cue that happens at a specific SMPTE time, regardless of how the tempo changes.
Note that locking can involve the position only, the data only, or both; when locked, a small padlock appears on the clip (yellow for position only, blue for data only, and white for both).
While it may seem that the option to set a 'snap offset' (in samples) for audio clips is useful, the function can only shift the clip late compared to a snap point. So if you have something like a pad sound with a long attack time that needs to start early in order to build over the right amount of time, using snap offset can't help you. However, if you find just the right amount of delay for a snare-drum hit, for example, you can copy or change the object's position while being sure that the amount of offset will be preserved.
Finally, there's also a Clip Effects display. Although you can't drag effects into or out of this display, you can delete effects, change their order, instantiate new effects and bypass the clip's effects bin. We'll ignore the Audio Stretching tab for now, as that opens up a whole other world of options.
Object-based editing may not be a particularly sexy topic, but anything that saves time or makes your life easier is worth investigating. Although I still use track processors a lot, being able to create effects in different bits of audio can simplify the process of making complex edits, as well as opening up a lot of creative possibilities.
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Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States
GEORGIA, one of the thirteen original United States. Its territory was originally included in the charter of 1662-3 to the lords proprietors of the Carolinas, but was set apart by a royal charter of June 9, 1732, to a company organized by James Oglethorpe to provide homes in America for indigent persons. The boundaries of the new colony were laid down in the charger as follows: "All those lands, countrys and territories situate, lying and being in that part of South Carolina, in America, which lies from the most northern part of a stream or river there, commonly called the Savannah, all along the sea coast, to the southward, unto the most southern stream of a certain other great water or river called the Alatamaha, and westerly from the heads of the said rivers respectively in direct lines to the south seas." this boundary was more precisely defined by the state constitution of 1798 as beginning at the mouth of the Savannah, running up that river and the Tugalo to the headwaters of the latter, thence straight west to the Mississippi, down that river to parallel 31° north latitude, thence east on that parallel to the Appalachicola or Chattahoochee, along that river to the Flint, thence straight to the head of the St. Mary's river, along that river to the Atlantic, and thence along the coast to the place of beginning. June 20, 1752, the charter was surrendered, and the colony be came a royal province.
—The first state constitution was adopted by a state convention, Feb. 5, 1777. It changed the name of parish to that of county, gave the choice of the governor to the legislature, fixed the governor's term at one year, and forbade the election of any person as governor for more than one year in three. A new constitution was formed by a state convention which met at Augusta, Nov. 4, 1788, and was ratified by another convention at the same place, May 6, 1789. Among other changes, it prolonged the governor's term to two years, and directed the senate to elect the governor from three names to be selected by the house. By an amendment adopted by a new state convention at Louisville, May 16, 1795, Louisville was made the permanent seat of government. Another constitution was adopted in state convention at Louisville, May 30, 1798. It abolished the African slave trade, but forbade the legislature to emancipate slaves without the consent of their owners, or to prevent immigrants from other states from bringing their slaves with them. Various amendments to this constitution were made up to and including the secession convention of 1861, the only one necessary to specify here being that of Nov. 17, 1824, which transferred the election of governor to the people. The changes produced by the rebellion will be given hereafter.
—The territory originally claimed by Georgia, extending from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi, was diminished in 1798 by the formation of Mississippi territory, from which the states of Mississippi and Alabama were afterward formed. (See
—In presidential elections the electoral votes of Georgia have always been cast for democratic candidates, except in 1840 and 1848, when they were cast for Harrison and Taylor respectively, the whig candidates. In 1789 and 1792 the Georgia electors voted for Washington for the presidency and for various democrats for the vice-presidency. (See
—The state elections until 1830 were undisputedly democratic, and all political struggles were entirely personal between different members of the same party. From 1796 until 1810 the claim of land companies to the Mississippi lands claimed by Georgia was the controlling issue in state politics, as was the case from 1825 until 1835 with the removal of the Creek and Cherokee Indians from the state. (See
—After 1830 the state elections resulted almost as steadily in democratic success, but with much greater difficulty. Although but one governor, Crawford, was an avowed whig, the whig party in the state disputed every election vigorously, aided in electing at least one governor, Gilmer, in opposition to the national or regular democratic candidate, and frequently controlled the legislature, generally in years not affected by a presidential election. As a general rule the whig vote in the state may be reckoned at from 47 to 49 per cent. of the total, occasionally rising to a majority.
—The formation of the so-called American party in the state reduced the opposition vote to about 40 per cent., and this proportion represents the opposition in 1860-61 both to the election of Breckinridge and to secession. The opposition to the latter measure, as elsewhere-mentioned, was to the advisability, not to the principle, of secession, and ceased when the majority and pronounced the decision. Indeed, the leader of the so-called union party of the state, A. H. Stephens, was almost immediately elected vice-president of the new southern confederacy. (See
—In November, 1860, an act of the legislature provided for a special election for delegates to a state convention, which met at Milledgeville, Jan. 16, 1861. Jan. 16, by a vote of 208 to 89, an ordinance of secession was passed. It repealed the ordinance ratifying the constitution, and the acts ratifying the amendments to the constitution, dissolved the union between Georgia and the other states, and declared "that the state of Georgia is in the full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent state." The minority, however, signed the ordinance, as a pledge that they would sustain their state, with the exception of six; and these yielded so far as to place on the minutes a pledge of "their lives, fortunes and honor" to the defense of the state. Ten delegates were chosen by the convention to represent the state at the organization of the provisional government in Montgomery, and Georgia thus became one of the confederate states. The progress of the war developed a considerable opposition in Georgia to the confederate government. In the leaders it took the form of a sublimated state sovereignty, in opposition to the despotic acts of the executive; but in the mass of voters there seems to have been a strong undercurrent in favor of reconstruction in its first form, that is, re-entrance to the Union on terms. April 30, 1865, the Sherman-Johnson agreement ended the rebellion in Georgia. (See
—June 17, 1865, James Johnson was appointed provisional governor of the state. Under his directions a convention met at Milledgeville, Oct. 25, repealed the ordinance of secession, voided the war debt, and adopted a new state constitution, Nov. 7, which was ratified by popular vote. It recognized the abolition of slavery by the federal government as a war measure, but reserved the right of its citizens to appeal to "the justice and magnanimity of that government" for compensation for slaves; it made the governor ineligible for re-election; it confined the right of suffrage to free white male citizens; and it enjoined upon the legislature the duty of providing by law for "the government of free persons of color." State officers were elected Nov. 15, 1865, the legislature met in December, and the state remained under the new form of government until March, 1867. (See
—The election at which the constitution had been ratified had resulted in the choice of republican state officers, a republican senate, and a democratic house of representatives. In July the new state officers entered on their duties and the legislature ratified the congressional changes in the constitution, but during this and the next month the legislature proceeded to declare negroes ineligible to membership in it, and to admit to membership several persons who, it was alleged, were disqualified to hold office by the 14th amendment. During the year the state supreme court decided in favor of the eligibility of negroes to office, but the action of the legislature provoked an unfavorable feeling to Georgia in congress, and was construed as an effort to avoid the terms of reconstruction. In December, therefore, the Georgia senators were not admitted, and did not obtain their seats until January and February, 1871; the representatives had been admitted July 25, 1868. The Georgia electors, in obedience to a state law passed under the confederacy and not repealed in 1880, voted Dec. 9, 1868, the second Wednesday of December, instead of the first, as required by the federal statute. On this nominal ground a vigorous effort was made in February, 1869, to reject the vote of Georgia, but it was counted "in the alternative." (See
—Nothing, however, could save Georgia from re-reconstruction. The act of Dec. 23, 1869, authorized the governor to reconvene the legislature, with only such members as the reconstruction acts allowed, prohibited the exclusion of qualified members, authorized the use of the army and navy to support the governor, and imposed upon the legislature the ratification of the proposed 15th amendment as a condition precedent to the admission of senators and representatives from Georgia. The seats of the representatives also were thus vacated until January and February, 1871. The organization of the legislature in January and February, 1870, was only effected with great difficulty by the governor, and his irregular course of action was condemned by the senate investigating committee; but the organization was finally accomplished, the conditions fulfilled by the legislature, and the state admitted by act of July 15, 1870. The first election under the new regime took place Dec. 20—22, 1870, and resulted in the choice of democratic state officers, and of five democratic and two republican representatives in congress. At the next election for congressmen, 1872, the state having been re-districted, the republicans lost one congressman and gained one. At the next election, 1872, the democrats elected all the nine congressmen: in two districts the republican vote entirely disappeared, and in all the others it was much reduced. Since that time the state has been democratic in all elections, state and national, and the political contest has been confined to factions of the dominant party. The peculiar state law, requiring electors to vote on thesecondWednesday of December, excited some comment in 1881, but the undisputed republican majority in the presidential election of 1880 allowed the state's electoral votes to be admitted without objection.
—A new constitution was formed by a convention which met at Atlanta, July 11, 1877, and was ratified by popular vote, Dec. 5. Its only noteworthy changes were its location of the state capital at Atlanta, and its limitation of the right of suffrage by prohibiting any one convicted of a penitentiary offense, and not pardoned, from registering, voting or holding office.
—The most prominent citizens of the state in national politics have been William H. Crawford, Herschel V. Johnson, and Alexander H. Stephens. (See those names.) Reference should also be made (see also list of governors) to John M. Berrien, democratic United States senator 1825-9, attorney general under Jackson (see
—The name of Georgia was given to the colony in 1732 in honor of King George II. The prosperity of the state and its vast possibilities of future growth have encouraged its citizens to give it the popular name of the empire state of the south.
—GOVERNORS George Walton (1789-90); Edward Telfair(1790-3); Geo. Matthews (1793-6); Jared Irwin (1796-8); James Jackson (1798-1801); Josiah Tatnall (1801-2); John Milledge (1802-6); Jared Irwin (1808-9); David B. Mitchell (1809-130; Peter Early (1813-15); David B. Mitchell (1815-17); William Rabun (1817-19); John Clark (1819-23); George M. Troup (1823-7); John Forsyth (1827-9); George R. Gilmer (1829-31); Wilson Lumpkin (1831-5); William Schley (1835-7); George R. Gilmer (1837-9); Charles J. McDonald (1839-43); George W. Crawford (1843-7); G. W. B. Towns (1847-15); Howell Cobb (185103); Herschel V. Johnson (1853-7); Joseph E. Brown (1857-65); James Johnson (provisional, 1865); Chaekwa J. Jenkins (1863-7); John Pope and G.G. Meade (military governors, March, 1867-June, 1868); Rufus B. Bullock (June, 1868-October, 1871); Benjamin Coley (acting, October 1871-January, 1872); James M. Smith (chosen by special election, January, 1872-January, 1877); Alfred H. Colquitt (1877-83).
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Choose Privacy Week
Privacy is a particularly slippery and amorphous issue, about which people hold a wide variety of opinions and beliefs, particularly in the post-9-11 world in which we live.
Libraries and library workers think about privacy issues a lot - and want our customers to think critically about privacy issues, too. Personal privacy issues touch everyone at virtually every stage of life, and even into death (e.g., access to the Social Security Death Index online), raising a universe of hard questions to be answered.
Sponsored by the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), Choose Privacy Week is an annual initiative inviting library users of all ages and backgrounds into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age. The theme for this year's Choose Privacy Week is "Freedom from Surveillance."
Libraries have been interested in maintaining the privacy of individuals. Beaufort County Library Board of Trustees adopted the American Library Association Core of Ethics years ago. It's part of our core values as library workers. Why? Because freedom of speech is meaningless without the freedom to read.
Click here [http://www.privacyrevolution.org/images/uploads/Trina_UserHandout.pdf] for handout explaining why librarians and libraries insist upon empowering our customers to explore, research, and make choices based upon their individual needs.
Q: Where are the lines drawn between "right of privacy" and "right to know" today ?
The major source used in the preparation of this entry was http://www.privacyrevolution.org/. Please explore the website - and think hard about where you stand on the issue of individual privacy rights.
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The atlas of climate change: mapping the world's greatest challenge
University of California Press
, 2007 - Science
- 112 pages
Today's headlines and recent events reflect the gravity of climate change. Heat waves, droughts, and floods are bringing death to vulnerable populations, destroying livelihoods, and driving people from their homes.
Rigorous in its science and insightful in its message, this atlas examines the causes of climate change and considers its possible impact on subsistence, water resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, health, coastal megacities, and cultural treasures. It reviews historical contributions to greenhouse gas levels, progress in meeting international commitments, and local efforts to meet the challenge of climate change.
With more than 50 full-color maps and graphics, this is an essential resource for policy makers, environmentalists, students, and everyone concerned with this pressing subject.
The Atlas covers a wide range of topics, including:
* Warning signs
* Future scenarios
* Vulnerable populations
* Renewable energy
* Emissions reduction
* Personal and public action
Copub: Myriad Editions
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NINE BANDED ARMADILLO
Photo Credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Dasypus novemcinctus
OTHER NAMES: Armadillo, Common Long-Nosed Armadillo
DESCRIPTION: The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) cannot easily be confused with any other North American wild mammal. The armadillo’s body is covered with an armored carapace or shell. The carapace is a double layer of horn and bone, segmented into three main divisions: an anterior scapular shield covering the shoulder; a posterior pelvic shield covering the hip region; and a middle section comprised of a series of bands connected by soft, infolded skin between the bands. The head and legs are covered with thick scales, and the tail is encased in a series of bony rings. Coloration of nine-banded armadillos is generally grayish brown, with yellowish-white scales along the side of the carapace. The armadillo has a long, pointed snout, small eyes, and large, cylindrical ears. The armadillo’s pointed snout, short, stout legs, and heavy claws are well suited for digging and burrowing. Armadillos have a limited number of vocalizations: a low, wheezy grunt associated with digging and rooting; a wheezy grunt uttered by recently captured individuals; an audible buzzing noise given when highly alarmed or fleeing, a pig-like squeal given by frightened individuals; and a weak purring given by young attempting to nurse from an unrelated female. Total length ranges from 24 to 31 inches and weights vary from 8 to 15 pounds. There are six subspecies of Dasypus novemcinctus in Central and South America, but only one subspecies, D. n. mexicanus occurs in North America.
DISTRIBUTION: Dasypus novemcinctus mexicanus’ original distribution was from the lower Rio Grande Valley between Mexico and Texas, southward through Mexico and Central America to northwestern Peru on the west side of the Andes, and all of South America to northern Argentina east of the Andes, including the islands of Grenada, Trinidad, Tobago, and Margarita. The range of the nine-banded armadillo has undergone rapid expansion into the southern United States since the late 1800s. The recent rapid expansion of the armadillo’s range was facilitated by a number of factors: reduction in the number of large carnivores; climatic and biotic changes; and accidental and deliberate relocations of animals to unoccupied areas. Armadillos now occur throughout the southern and southeastern U.S., as far north as Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. These animals are common throughout most of Alabama, but less common in several northeastern counties.
HABITAT: The armadillo is very adaptable and does well in most habitat types found in Alabama. They generally avoid or are scarce in very wet or very dry habitats. Habitat suitability likely depends more on the characteristics of the substrate or soils, rather than vegetation type due to the armadillo’s feeding and burrowing behavior.
FEEDING HABITS: A major portion of the armadillo’s time spent outside its burrow is devoted to feeding. They typically start foraging as they emerge from their burrow and move at a slow pace following an often erratic course. Prey is apparently detected by smell, although sound also may play a role. Typical foraging behavior involves quickly probing with the nose and occasionally pausing to dig for prey. Armadillos are opportunistic feeders and consume a wide variety of food items. Invertebrates, primarily insects, make up roughly 90 percent of their diet. Small vertebrates and plant material make up the remainder of their diet. Researchers also have seen evidence of armadillos feeding on small reptiles and amphibians, the eggs of ground-nesting birds, and carrion.
LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY: Armadillos seem to exhibit a polygynous mating system, with most females paired with a single male and most males paired with more than one female. Den burrows have an enlarged nest chamber and are more complicated than a burrow dug for other purposes. The nest is a bulky mass of dried plant debris crammed into the nest chamber without any obvious structure. Armadillos in areas with poorly drained soils will construct above ground nests of dry plant material. Most breeding among armadillos occurs during the summer (June-August). The normal gestation period is 8 to 9 months, with most young born between February and May. The armadillo exhibits monozygotic polyembryony in which a single fertilized egg normally gives rise to four separate embryos at the blastula stage of development. This results in a litter of four genetically identical haploid clone offspring. Dasypus is the only genus of vertebrates in which this reproductive phenomenon occurs. The offspring are precocial and begin accompanying the female outside of the burrow at about 2 to 3 months of age. By 3 to 4 months, the young are self-sufficient. Most males reach sexual maturity between 6 to 12 months of age, but females do not become sexually mature until they are 1 to 2 years old.
REFERENCES: Author: Chris Cook, Wildlife Biologist, June 2005
Armstrong, J. Controlling Armadillo Ddamage in Alabama. ANR-773. Alabama Cooperative Extension System. 2pp.
Layne, J. N. 2003. Armadillo. Pages 75-97 in G. A. Feldhamer, B. C. Thompson, and J. A. Chapman, eds. Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation. Second edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD and London, U.K.
Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker’s Mammals of the World, sixth edition, volume one. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD and London, U.K. 903 pp.
Outdoor Alabama Magazine Article, Nine-banded Armadillo
Watchable Wildlife Article
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|ARM Technical Support Knowledge Articles|
Applies to: ARM7TDMI
MAS[1:0] is used to indicate whether a word/half-word or byte access is to be performed, and is described in the ARM7TDMI Technical Reference Manual (1.8MB PDF).
The signal has the following states:
|Bit 1||Bit 0||Data Size|
The memory system must be able to handle word, half word and byte writes.
Memory systems supporting only word writes will have severe difficulties supporting C code because the compilers assume that the underlying access types of the ARM architecture are always available. Furthermore, it will not be possible to set software breakpoints in Thumb code using the EmbeddedICE Interface.
When in Thumb state, A is not driven, and will be held at whatever level it was last driven to, by a 'sticky latch'. Usually, this will be set following a BX instruction (with bit 0 of the register set), or a data transfer to/from an odd address. It would normally be cleared again following a data transfer to/from an even address.
The memory controller should ignore A for Thumb instruction fetches (nOPC=0 and MAS[1:0]=01), and A[1:0] for ARM instruction fetches (nOPC=0 and MAS[1:0]=10).
Article last edited on: 2008-09-09 15:47:35
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Fuel cells and the electric motor are examples of highly-efficient, electric drive trains. Electric vehicles are expected to one day outstrip sales of combustion engines vehicles. Innovative technologies such as fuel cells, electric motors and electric vehicles will influence our future mobility. The market for electric vehicles boasts the most potential.
Fuel cells, electric motors and electric vehicles are currently experiencing a breakthrough. Fuel cells are being used in new applications such as automobiles or laptop computers. Like electric vehicles, fuel cells are still in the development phase however. The potential is far from being exploited. Because a genuine fuel cell boom is anticipated, mass production is already underway. Like fuel cells, the application potential for electric motors and electric vehicles is still in its infancy stage. The discovery of the relationship between magnetic fields and electricity laid the foundation for the electric motor, and thus the electric vehicle. The electric motor that eventually resulted from this discovery is driven by the Lorentz force, which is the force on an electric charge as it moves through a magnetic field. The development of traditional technologies such as fuel cells and the electric motor has led to a rise in environmentally-friendly electric vehicles. Hybrid vehicles are still dominating the market in the segment for environmentally-friendly automobiles however. Utilizing a combination of combustion and electric motors, hybrid vehicles are slimmed-down versions of the electric vehicle.
Fuel cells are based on the principle of a galvanic process. The composition of a fuel cell is influenced by both electrodes. The fuel cell energy stems from the electrode potential, which is created by the charging of the anode and cathode. The charging results in a potential difference in the fuel cell, which is eventually transformed into electric energy. From its discovery, to today's high-technology status, the fuel cell has experienced an astounding development. Fuel cells are already being used in a variety of applications today. But its impressive career is far from over. Because of their simple operation, the use of fuel cells in electric vehicles represents the market of the future.
Theelectric motor began as an electromechanical transformer. As the description implies, the electric motor is capable of transforming electricity into mechanical energy. The electric motor functions by transforming its mechanical force into motion. Like fuel cell technology, the electric motor is a popular drive train alternative in electric vehicles. The development of the electric motor as a drive train for electric vehicles is still a work in progress however. The first genuine electric motor was produced as early as 1834. Today, state-of-the-art, innovative technologies are still based on discoveries made by researchers nearly 200 years ago, as illustrated by the examples of the fuel cell, electric motor and electric vehicle.
While electric motors and fuel cells were originally used in industrial machine applications, electric vehicles are the technology of the future. At the beginning of their development, electric motors were initially used in locomotives . At this point, the focus is on the development of roadworthy electric vehicles. The key drivers of modern research into the electric vehicle are the electric motor's high degree of efficiency and low CO2 output, two factors that are behind current efforts to combat energy resource and climate change issues. The major issue is energy storage , which is the why researches are focused primarily on this aspect. For this reason, hybrid model electric vehicles - the combination of electric and combustion motors - are still in their infancy stage.
Automotive Engineering highlights issues related to automobile manufacturing - including vehicle parts and accessories - and the environmental impact and safety of automotive products, production facilities and manufacturing processes.
innovations-report offers stimulating reports and articles on a variety of topics ranging from automobile fuel cells, hybrid technologies, energy saving vehicles and carbon particle filters to engine and brake technologies, driving safety and assistance systems.
Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoffmechanik IWM13.08.2008 | Read more
The National Academies21.07.2008 | Read more
Fraunhofer Institute for Information and Data Processing IITB11.07.2008 | Read more
Du Pont de Nemours (Deutschland) GmbH11.07.2008 | Read more
University of Portsmouth02.07.2008 | Read more
DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory06.06.2008 | Read more
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS04.06.2008 | Read more
Fraunhofer-Institut für Betriebsfestigkeit und Systemzuverlässigkeit LBF09.05.2008 | Read more
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication System02.05.2008 | Read more
Du Pont de Nemours (Deutschland) GmbH09.04.2008 | Read more
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)04.04.2008 | Read more
University of Stuttgart17.03.2008 | Read more
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory26.02.2008 | Read more
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Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)14.02.2008 | Read more
A fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, mathematics and materials.
The doughnut-shaped droplets, a shape known as toroidal, are formed from two dissimilar liquids using a simple rotating stage and an injection needle. About a millimeter in overall size, the droplets are produced individually, their shapes maintained by a surrounding springy material made of polymers.
Droplets in this toroidal shape made ...
Frauhofer FEP will present a novel roll-to-roll manufacturing process for high-barriers and functional films for flexible displays at the SID DisplayWeek 2013 in Vancouver – the International showcase for the Display Industry.
Displays that are flexible and paper thin at the same time?! What might still seem like science fiction will be a major topic at the SID Display Week 2013 that currently takes place in Vancouver in Canada.
High manufacturing cost and a short lifetime are still a major obstacle on ...
University of Würzburg physicists have succeeded in creating a new type of laser.
Its operation principle is completely different from conventional devices, which opens up the possibility of a significantly reduced energy input requirement. The researchers report their work in the current issue of Nature.
It also emits light the waves of which are in phase with one another: the polariton laser, developed ...
Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller experimentally gained a deep insight into the nature of quantum mechanical phase transitions.
They are the first scientists that simulated the competition between two rival dynamical processes at a novel type of transition between two quantum mechanical orders. They have published the results of their work in the journal Nature Physics.
“When water boils, its molecules are released as vapor. We call this ...
Researchers have shown that, by using global positioning systems (GPS) to measure ground deformation caused by a large underwater earthquake, they can provide accurate warning of the resulting tsunami in just a few minutes after the earthquake onset.
For the devastating Japan 2011 event, the team reveals that the analysis of the GPS data and issue of a detailed tsunami alert would have taken no more than three minutes. The results are published on 17 May in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, an open access journal of ...
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NOLAN, MATTHEW (1834–1864). Matthew Nolan, Mexican War veteran, Texas Ranger, Nueces County sheriff, and Confederate cavalry officer, was born in 1834 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the son of Irish immigrants. Some sources claim he was born in New York. His parents died when he and his older sister Mary and younger brother Tom were children, leaving them on their own. Mary married a soldier and enlisted her brothers as buglers in Zachary Taylor's Second Dragoons. She became a laundress so that she could travel with her husband and brothers to Texas on the eve of the Mexican War. They settled in Corpus Christi until Taylor moved his army to the Rio Grande valley at the beginning of the war. By this time Mary was working as a hospital matron. Matthew and Tom Nolan were at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma and traveled with the army until the end of the war in 1848 and then returned to Corpus Christi.
In 1850 Nolan joined John S. "Rip" Ford's Texas Ranger unit as a bugler where he distinguished himself in a May 26, 1850, skirmish with Comanche Indians near Fort Merrill. In Ford's memoirs he wrote that Nolan "rushed barefoot through prickly pear to get a shot at the retreating foe." Nolan stayed with Rip Ford and the Texas Rangers during the 1850s and fought minor territorial battles throughout Texas. In 1858 Nolan was elected sheriff of Nueces County, and he named his brother Tom a deputy sheriff.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Nolan raised a company of volunteers from Corpus Christi and joined the Second Texas Cavalry. He fought along the Mexican border with his former commander Ford. He returned to Corpus Christi to marry Margaret J. McMahon on May 22, 1862. Nolan rejoined his regiment to take part in the January 1, 1863, recapture of Galveston Island. His actions in the battle of Galveston led to his promotion to major.
Later in 1863 Nolan was sent back to a volatile Corpus Christi to help keep the peace in South Texas and monitor the coast. Corpus Christi was equally divided between Northern and Southerner sympathizers. Ford employed Nolan to keep watch on Cecilio Balerio, Union sympathizer and rancher. With Ford's blessing, Nolan was reelected to county sheriff on August 1, 1864. His job was to arrest, "perfidious renegades." One of these "renegades," former sheriff H. W. Barry, was a Mexican War veteran who was providing cotton to Union ships in the Gulf of Mexico. Nolan reported to Ford that he had seen Barry in action. By December 1864 Corpus Christi was suffering the effects of war, and tensions ran high. On the night of December 22, 1864, Nolan and horse trader J. C. McDonald met outside of the Nolan home, and while they talked, two of Barry's stepsons, Frank and Charles Gravis, appeared and started an argument with Nolan. In the commotion that ensued, one of the Gravis brothers shot and fatally wounded Nolan. Other sources claim that Nolan was in the process of arresting McDonald, and the two brothers, intending to kill McDonald for seducing their sister, accidentally shot Nolan instead.
Matthew Nolan is buried next to his brother Tom in the Old Bayview Cemetery in Corpus Christi.
Murphy Givens, "Corpus Christi History: The Nolans arrive in Corpus Christi," Corpus Christi Caller–Times, August 23, 2000 (http://www.caller2.com/2000/august/23/today/murphy_g/2672.html), accessed March 23, 2011.
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Stephanie P. Niemeyer, "NOLAN, MATTHEW," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fno33), accessed May 22, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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The talk, made available by the Center for Design Innovation (via The Next Web), was from 1983's International Design Conference at Aspen, at which a 20-something Steve Jobs spoke to how personal computers would change the world forever. His insight was eerily prescient as he described a day when email would dominate the communications landscape, people would use portable network-connected computing devices and users would be able to interact with machines in new and innovative ways.
In about 20 minutes, Jobs summarized the then-current state of personal computing, noting that the market was about to see a significant boom. He also said that computers would likely be poorly designed, a theory that became reality with the early beige boxes of the 80s and early 90s, including Apple's own Apple II.
Jobs' vision of "good design" meant not only building aesthetically pleasing machines, but devices that had a utility of function like user-friendly GUIs akin to those seen on early Macs.
Near the end of his talk, Jobs looked even further into the future, hinting that technology like artificial intelligence and predictive computing could one day be a possibility.
He recalls how books helped him learn straight from the source instead of being filtered through interpretation when he was in school, citing Plato and Aristotle as two examples. The problem, Jobs said, was that the great minds couldn't be tapped once they were dead. To this, he proposed a machine that can collect data, compiling it into a type of artificial intelligence.
"I think as we look toward the next 50 to 100 years, if we really can come up with these machines that can capture an underlying spirit, or an underlying set of principles, or an underlying way of looking at the world so that then when the next Aristotle comes around?" Jobs said. "Maybe if he carries around one these machines with him his whole life and types in all this stuff, then maybe someday after the person's dead and gone we can ask this machine, 'Hey, what would Aristotle have said?what about this?' And maybe we won't get the right answer?but maybe we will. And that's really exciting to me."
A video of the speech as well as an accompanying audio file can be found at the Center for Design Innovation's blog.
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Acer griseum (Paperbark Maple) is a species of maple native to central China, in the provinces of Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Sichuan, at altitudes of 1,500–2,000 m. It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree, reaching 6-9 m (20-30 ft) tall, 5-6 m (15-25 ft) wide, with a trunk up to 70 cm (2 ft) in diameter. The bark is smooth, shiny orange-red, peeling in thin, papery layers; it may become fissured in old trees. The shoots are densely downy at first, this wearing off by the second or third year and the bark exfoliating by the third or fourth year. The leaves are compound, with a 2–4 cm petiole with three leaflets, each 3-10 cm long and 2-6 cm broad, dark green above, bright glaucous blue-green beneath, with several blunt teeth on the margins. Paperbark Maple is widely grown as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It is admired for its decorative exfoliating bark, translucent pieces of which often stay attached to the branches until worn away. It also has spectacular autumn foliage which can include red, orange and pink tones. In the world of trees, Acer griseum is a small species, generally growing to around 12m in height. But what it lacks in stature, it more than makes up for in beauty. Its copper-red bark ensures that it is easy to identify, even in winter, as does its technique of bark renewal. As the old sheaves of bark die, they peel themselves off revealing the young, smooth bark beneath. This self-exfoliation, although unusual, is not unique and also occurs in several species of birch.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew sent a young botanist by the name of Ernest Henry Wilson to China. As well as looking into the effect the charcoal industry was having on the forests, Wilson was also asked by his financier, the Veitch Nursery, to find interesting plants. The plan was to find the handkerchief tree Davidia involucrata which had been described, but never collected. Eventually, Wilson found the location where the tree was last seen only to find a tree stump and a newly-erected hut built from its timber! Over the next decade or so, 'Chinese' Wilson, as he was to become known, brought back more than 1,000 garden plants - more than any other collector. This eventually included the handkerchief tree, the regal lily Lilium regale and also the Paperbark Maple Acer griseum.
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A nocturnal bird of prey.
(AM2: dp. 1,009 (f.); l. 18710; 1 b. 356; dr. 104; s. 14 k.; cpl. 78; a. 2 3; cl. Lapwing)
The first Owl (AM2) was laid down 25 October 1917 by the Todd Shipbuilding Corp., Brooklyn, N.Y.; launched 4 March 1918; sponsored by Miss Ruth R. Dodd; and commissioned 11 July 1918, Lt. (j.g.) Charles B. Babson in command.
Following a New York to Charleston towing assignment, Owl reported to the 5th Naval District at Norfolk, 22 August 1918. Employed as a minesweeper for the remaining months of World War I, she then served as a light ship in the inner approach to Chesapeake Bay until 10 July 1919. From that time until 1936, she was primarily engaged in providing towing services along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. Between June 1936 and January 1941, she operated with units of the Aircraft Division, Base Force, providing planeguard, seaplane tender, and target and mooring buoy planting services from New England to the Caribbean. Then, temporarily attached to Train, Patrol Force at Culebra, P.R., she steamed to Bermuda in May for towing and servicing duties with MinDiv 14. Redesignated AT137, 1 June 1942, she was based at Bermuda until June 1943. During that time, towing and escort duties frequently took her to the east coast, while numerous salvage and rescue missions, including aid to the submarine R1 and torpedoed Argentine tanker Victoria, kept her busy at Bermuda and in nearby convoy lanes.
Detached from Bermudan duty in June, Owl spent the last six months of 1943 with DesRon 30 operating out of Guantanamo Bay. She then steamed back to Norfolk for overhaul, and sailed for Europe. She arrived at Falmouth, U.K., 14 March 1944 to join the Allied forces gathering for the invasion of France. Redesignated ATO137 on 15 May 1944, she arrived off the Normandy coast two days after D-Day. As ground forces pushed inland, she towed port and road construction materials to the French coast, thus aiding the all important flow of men and equipment to the front.
Availability at Falmouth early in the new year, 1945, preceded her return to the United States, 27 February, and midAtlantic coast towing assignments. Transferred to the Pacific Fleet, she sailed from Newport, 5 May, with YNG11 in tow, and arrived at San Diego 23 June, to join ServRon 2. In August she continued on to Pearl Harbor for four months of target towing duty, returning to the west coast 2 January 1946. Owl then provided towing services for the 19th (Reserve) Fleet until beginning inactivation in April. She decommissioned in the 13th Naval District 26 July 1946 and on 27 June 1947 was sold for scrapping to the Pacific Metal and Salvage Co. at Port of Nordland, Wash.
Owl received 1 battle star for World War II service.
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An EV’s speed controller is the equivalent of the carburetor or fuel-injection system in an ICE vehicle. To control the vehicle’s speed, the controller takes the energy from the battery pack and feeds it to the motor in a regulated manner. Modern controllers do this by pulse-width modulation, taking the full voltage from the battery pack and feeding it to the motor in thousands of tiny on–off pulses per second. The longer the duration, or “width” of the “on” pulses, the more electricity the motor receives and the faster the vehicle moves. Because the pulses are so tiny, the process feels completely smooth to the driver.
EVs can have AC motors or DC motors, and each needs its own kind of controller. In EVs with AC motors, an AC controller must first convert the DC from the batteries into AC before feeding it to the motor.
How does the controller know how much energy to give the motor? The potbox tells it. This linear potentiometer is a sensor that produces a resistance output proportional to its displacement or position. It responds to the driver’s foot pressure on the throttle pedal and sends a corresponding signal to the controller. The throttle pedal in an EV works just as it does in an ICE vehicle—the more you depress it, the faster you go.
The motor is the brawn of the EV, converting electrical energy from the batteries into mechanical energy to propel the vehicle. Instead of invisible electrons flowing through wires, we now have rotating components.
It’s the relationship between electricity and magnetism that enables the motor to do work. Passing electricity through a wire creates a magnetic field around the wire. By winding wire in a motor and running electricity through it, magnetic poles that repel each other are created, causing the shaft of the motor to spin.
If the EV has regenerative braking, the motor can also act as a generator. When the vehicle is coasting or braking, the momentum of the car drives the motor—rather than the motor driving the car. The magnetic fields induce current in the wires, the flip side of the process described above. The electricity flows backward through the controller (which rectifies it from AC back into DC) and into the battery pack. This process also creates drag on the motor—the “braking” part of regenerative braking, which is very similar to what happens in an ICE car when you lift your foot off the throttle in a low gear. Though it’s an intrinsic part of AC drive systems, regenerative braking is more rare in DC systems, where a special controller and extra wiring are required to allow the motor to serve as a generator.
The energy output from the spinning shaft of the motor now needs to reach the drive wheels. On a very small EV, the motor might drive the wheels directly, but with full-size vehicles, at least one level of gear reduction is necessary to reduce the revolutions per minute (rpm) of the motor to a usable speed at the wheels. A “direct-drive” vehicle will have a single gear reduction, which might be a gearbox or a belt-and-pulley arrangement. No shifting is necessary. This is common with AC motors that have upper limits of 8,000 to 13,000 rpm. DC motors with limits of about 5,000 to 6,000 rpm usually use the same kind of multiple-gear manual transmissions found in ICE cars. In EVs with manual transmissions, the clutch is usually retained and works the same as in an ICE vehicle.
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Mount Desert Rock
About 20 miles southeast of Mount Desert Island, this is one of the most remote and lonely lights. Even mild storms scour the island, denuding it of anything not firmly secured, and frequently submerge it entirely. Yet each spring keepers transported soil from the mainland, tucking it into crevices on this otherwise barren rock in hopes of cultivating flowers and vegetables. For a few months in summer and early fall, the rock became a colorful garden in the middle of the sea. But late fall and winter storms always washed it all away. It's a challenge to see this lighthouse, even from a boat, but whale-watching cruises from Bar Harbor sometimes pass by.
Mount Desert Rock Lighthouse was built in 1830.
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INTEGRATED THEME UNIT: CRUISING THE CARIBBEAN - PART 4 - HONDURAS (ELEM/MIDDLE)
This fun unit features the adventures of Melvin and Morris as they visit Honduras while cruising the Caribbean includes a realistic fiction reading selection, comprehension questions and map reading skills. 6 pages including answer key
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Major depression and other mood disorders account for a substantial proportion of medical disabilities in the United States. They can also worsen the outcome of other medical disorders, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
This has led Washington University physicians to practice and develop new and more effective treatments for this devastating disorder, focusing on the use of brain stimulation methods.
These include electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a core treatment for severe and refractory mood disorders.
Researchers are developing new methods for use of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), two novel approaches that have received FDA approval in recent years. Several physicians also have expertise in deep brain stimulation (DBS), a form of treatment that is in its infancy as a tool for treating highly refractory psychiatric disorders.
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS): Brain activity is triggered through weak electric currents, changing the excitability of corticospinal and corticocortial pathways.
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From the time of Aristotle (384-322 BC) until the late 1500’s, gravity was believed to act differently on different objects.
- Drop a metal bar and a feather at the same time… which one hits the ground first?
- Obviously, common sense will tell you that the bar will hit first, while the feather slowly flutters to the ground.
- In Aristotle’s view, this was because the bar was being pulled harder (and faster) by gravity because of its physical properties.
- Because everyone sees this when they drop different objects, it wasn’t questioned for almost 2000 years.
Galileo Galilei was the first major scientist to refute (prove wrong) Aristotle’s theories.
- In his famous (at least to Physicists!) experiment, Galileo went to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa and dropped a wooden ball and a lead ball, both the same size, but different masses.
- They both hit the ground at the same time, even though Aristotle would say that the heavier metal ball should hit first.
- Galileo had shown that the different rates at which some objects fall is due to air resistance, a type of friction.
- Get rid of friction (air resistance) and all objects will fall at the same rate.
- Galileo said that the acceleration of any object (in the absence of air resistance) is the same.
- To this day we follow the model that Galileo created.
ag = g = 9.81m/s2
ag = g = acceleration due to gravity
Since gravity is just an acceleration like any other, it can be used in any of the formulas that we have used so far.
- Just be careful about using the correct sign (positive or negative) depending on the problem.
Examples of Calculations with Gravity
Example 1: A ball is thrown up into the air at an initial velocity of 56.3m/s. Determine its velocity after 4.52s have passed.
In the question the velocity upwards is positive, and I’ll keep it that way. That just means that I have to make sure that I use gravity as a negative number, since gravity always acts down.
vf = vi + at
= 56.3m/s + (-9.81m/s2)(4.52s)
vf = 12.0 m/s
This value is still positive, but smaller. The ball is slowing down as it rises into the air.
Example 2: I throw a ball down off the top of a cliff so that it leaves my hand at 12m/s. Determine how fast is it going 3.47 seconds later.
In this question I gave a downward velocity as positive. I might as well stick with this, but that means I have defined down as positive. That means gravity will be positive as well.vf = vi + at
= 12m/s + (9.81m/s2)(3.47s)
vf = 46 m/s
Here the number is getting bigger. It’s positive, but in this question I’ve defined down as positive, so it’s speeding up in the positive direction.
Example 3: I throw up a ball at 56.3 m/s again. Determine how fast is it going after 8.0s.
We’re defining up as positive again.
vf = vi + at
= 56.3m/s + (-9.81m/s2)(8.0s)
vf = -22 m/s
Why did I get a negative answer?
- The ball reached its maximum height, where it stopped, and then started to fall down.
- Falling down means a negative velocity.
There’s a few rules that you have to keep track of. Let’s look at the way an object thrown up into the air moves.
As the ball is going up…
- It starts at the bottom at the maximum speed.
- As it rises, it slows down.
- It finally reaches it’s maximum height, where for a moment its velocity is zero.
- This is exactly half ways through the flight time.
As the ball is coming down…
- The ball begins to speed up, but downwards.
- When it reaches the same height that it started from, it will be going at the same speed as it was originally moving at.
- It takes just as long to go up as it takes to come down.
Example 4: I throw my ball up into the (again) at a velocity of 56.3 m/s.
a) Determine how much time does it take to reach its maximum height.
- It reaches its maximum height when its velocity is zero. We’ll use that as the final velocity.
- Also, if we define up as positive, we need to remember to define down (like gravity) as negative.
a = (vf - vi) / t
t = (vf - vi) / a
= (0 - 56.3m/s) / -9.81m/s2
t = 5.74s
b) Determine how high it goes.
- It’s best to try to avoid using the number you calculated in part (a), since if you made a mistake, this answer will be wrong also.
- If you can’t avoid it, then go ahead and use it.
vf2 = vi2 + 2ad
d = (vf2 = vi2) / 2a
= (0 - 56.32) / 2(-9.81m/s2)
d = 1.62e2 m
c) Determine how fast is it going when it reaches my hand again.
- Ignoring air resistance, it will be going as fast coming down as it was going up.
You might have heard people in movies say how many "gee’s" they were feeling.
- All this means is that they are comparing the acceleration they are feeling to regular gravity.
- So, right now, you are experiencing 1g… regular gravity.
- During lift-off the astronauts in the space shuttle experience about 4g’s.
- That works out to about 39m/s2.
- Gravity on the moon is about 1.7m/s2 = 0.17g
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Safety in the gym begins with the design and equipping of the gym. In order to do everything possible to ensure the safety of gymnasts, certain design concepts must be incorporated into the building and layout or redesign of any gymnastics facility.
Emergency Response Equipment and System
While we plan to make sure the safety of all gymnasts is so aggressively protected that no serious injury will ever occur, it is a prime responsibility of a gym designer to design and provide an emergency response system. A proper emergency response system will include both emergency response equipment and hardware and safety plans and safety training for all staff.
Emergency Situations to Plan for and Provide Emergency Response Equipment for
- Emergencies when the coach is alone in the gym (no other coaches or office staff)
- Emergencies when no other staff person notices the problem.
- Emergencies when the coach cannot leave the accident area at all
- Emergencies in the waiting areas or other parts of the facility other than the gym
The concept of clear pathways to emergency exits is a commonly ignored gym design problem. In any emergency, especially in case of fire, clear, quick access to exits is necessary. Clear pathways are also needed to provide easy access to all gym areas for emergency personnel. When gym areas are not separated for age groups, walkways provide safe passage for preschoolers and other young gymnasts through areas where larger, older gymnasts are working out.
Separate Cordoned-Off Preschool Areas
Mixing small inexperienced preschoolers with older larger gymnasts in the same areas can be a prescription for accident and injury. Separate areas can still be a problem when preschoolers must travel from preschool area to preschool area but must travel through areas with older larger gymnasts. It is also probably a very good idea to provide separate areas for younger beginner gymnasts as well as preschoolers.
Pits are one of the biggest safety feature innovations in the history of gymnastics and sports training. As a minimum there should be pits available for training bar dismounts and release moves and also vault and tumbling pits. Pits for beam dismounts, p-bar dismounts, ring dismounts should also be available for maximum safety.
Training pits should logically be longer and wider than competition matting requirements. Since gymnasts have not yet mastered the skills they are performing, like they would be in competitions, they need a larger margin of safety in the size of the safe landing areas. Gymnasts landing in pits may fall backwards or sideways striking the edge of the pit if the pit is not wide or ling enough.
8″ Pit Side Mats
For the same reasons as above, falls backwards or sideways, the sides of the pit should be fully padded with mats soft enough to really cushion a fall against them. The commonly used inch and a ¼ mats over concrete are not really enough protection.
Type of Pits Must Match Training Style and Systems
There are loose foam bungee pits, loose foam pits, bungee resi-pits and resi-pits. It is extremely common for coaches to place 8″ foam or competition mats over loose foam pits for more stable landings as gymnasts progress. Ideally all of those pits would be available for training progressions providing the full range of landing and release move safety progression. If only one pit type is available, it should likely be the softest landing, the loose foam bungee pit. The style of training progressions normally used by the coaches should match the type of pit being used. More gymnast skill and experience is required for safe landings on the harder pit surfaces as opposed to the softer ones.
Unless gymnasts are training for competitive trampoline competition, it is much safer for all trampolines in the gym to be sunk in the ground with the bed level with the rest of the floor. Then, in case an athlete should fly off of the trampoline, the fall is to a level floor (suitably matted) and not down and additional four and a half feet fall from an above ground trampoline.
Open View of Whole Gym for General Supervision Visibility
All gyms should have at least one person or more designated with responsibility for general supervision of the gym at all times. General supervision means that someone should be watching the entire gym, not just one class to look for possible dangerous situations, like wandering preschoolers or non-class members, accidents, etc. In order for this to happen the gym must be completely open so that one person can see the whole gym.
View into Gym from all Offices and other Rooms
For the same general supervision reasons as above, ideally all offices and other rooms in the gym should have a view into the gym so as much supervision as possible occurs, including from staff members not in the gym itself. Windows or other openings into the gym from all, or as many as possible, rooms in the building make general supervision of the gym easier and more effective.
Available Hydration and Air Conditioning for Safe Summer Workouts
In certain climates or during certain seasons of the year, heat stroke or heat exhaustion are things all coaches should be aware of and taking precautions to prevent. From a design perspective, this means that where applicable, air conditioning should be available in the gym to lessen the possibilities. Equipment or a system should be in place to allow proper hydration for gymnasts. This would show up in gym design by having a sufficient number of water fountains or water sources, spread throughout the gym.
Complete Matting and Safety Margins
One of the most important safety measures for gym design, in terms of gym equipment layout is allowing sufficient space for safe matting and allowing for a sufficient matting margin of error. To us, that means that matting should extend to any and all places that might even possibly need to be padded against a fall from the equipment. Sufficient space for and sufficient matting should always be designed into any gym design.
Fire Control Detection and Suppression System
Considering the dangers from the smoke from burning foam and smoke inhalation in general, smoke detectors or a smoke detector system should be a requirement for gymnastics facilities. In addition, because of the flammability of foam, it would be good policy to have a fire detection and suppression system throughout the entire gym.
You can learn much more about designing a safer gym in our Secrets to Gymnastics Gym Design e-book.
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Discover the words hidden in the grid, written through one another in eight horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions. Select words by clicking on the first and last letters, in any order. If the selected letters match an item in the list, the letters are highlighted and the item is crossed out. Spaces, capitalization and diàçritîcš are ignored. Once the list is cleared you win. The letters remaining at the end, if any, may or may not spell a little Aesopean or other proverbial gem of wisdom. Recognizing those words in the gaps left between the stroked terms can help spot that last few stubborn hidden letters.
The grid can be resized, flipped and rotated in all directions. This may help to make some furtive words more readable. Also the spacing, boldness and capital case can be switched to make the letters stand out from their context. Optionally a handy hover-cross is shown, highlighting those letters that are in line with the letter that is currently under the mouse pointer. Especially the longer and diagonal words may benefit from this.
Click a word in the list for some hints about its whereabouts in the grid. Doubleclicking an item in the list will reveal its location in the soup of letters. This is known as cheating.
The available word search grids cover subjects ranging from animals and timbers via countries and capitals to Shakespeare and mythology.
All that is needed for your own word search game is a list of words, or short word groups as spaces and other non-alphabetic features are ignored. A mixture of a few longer items and some terms of 3 to 6 characters usually gives good results. Avoid words that overlap each other, with one being contained in the other, like ‘raw’ in ‘straw’ or ‘if’ in ‘life’, as they are bound to appear double in the playing field. The same applies to reverse contained words, like ‘art’ in ‘straw’ or ‘raw’ and ‘war’. Use the update function to automatically scan for overlaps, the numbers should update every time you click outside the word list.
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Certain lifestyle factors greatly increase your risk of contracting HIV infection and developing AIDS. By avoiding behaviors that are associated with increasing your risk, you can greatly reduce your risk.
Risk factors include:
Having Unprotected Sex
Most people become infected with HIV through sexual activity. You can contract AIDS by not using a condom when having sexual relations with a person infected with HIV. Not using condoms properly can also put you at increased risk for acquiring HIV infection. During sex, the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, and mouth can provide entry points for the virus.
Other risky behaviors include having:
- Sex with someone without knowing his or her HIV status
- More than one sex partner
- Sex with someone who has more than one sexual partner
- Anal intercourse
Men who have sex with other men may be at a higher risk of being infected with HIV. Having unprotected sex and using drugs (eg, methamphetamines) during sex can increase this risk. Women who engage in risky behaviors and have both male and female partners may also be at a greater risk.
If you inject illegal drugs, this increases your risk of becoming infected with HIV. Using a needle or syringe that contains even a small amount of infected blood can transmit HIV infection.
Having Certain Medical Conditions
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and vaginal infections caused by bacteria tend to increase the risk of HIV transmission during sex with an HIV-infected partner. Examples of STDs include:
For men, not being circumcised can also increase the risk of getting HIV infection.
Having Certain Medical Procedures
Having a blood transfusion or receiving blood products before 1985 increases your risk of HIV infection and AIDS. Before blood banks began testing donated blood for HIV in 1985, there was no way of knowing if the blood was contaminated with HIV, and recipients could become infected through transfusions.
Receiving blood products, tissue or organ transplantation, or artificial insemination increases your risk of HIV infection and AIDS. Even though blood products are now screened for HIV, there is still some degree of risk because tests cannot detect HIV immediately after transmission.
Being a Healthcare Worker
Exposure to contaminated blood and needles puts healthcare workers at risk for HIV.
- Reviewer: Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD
- Review Date: 12/2011 -
- Update Date: 12/30/2011 -
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Cruisin' Comet (December 21, 2004)
Hi-res TIF (3.0M)
Casually arcing above the Sun (from right to left in these SOHO LASCO views) this
week, comet SOHO-884 was first
seen by SOHO on Dec. 16, 2004. For the first couple of days in the video clip the
comet's tail is clearly
discernible, but then due to our viewing angle it seems to fade.|
The comet was first spotted in four images taken by SOHO's ultraviolet, interstellar medium-viewing SWAN instrument by Michael Mattiazzo, but he was not certain about it. On Dec. 16th, a bright comet entered C3 and was first reported by John Sachs. Shortly after, Sebastian Hoenig pointed out that this comet had the very real possibility of being Michael's SWAN comet, a connection that was soon confirmed. So many hands were involved in making the discovery. The comet is not a member of any known group of comets, but instead one that does not appear on a regular schedule as some do. SOHO has now discovered over 160 comets this year alone and as can be seen in the name "SOHO-884", this is the 884th comet discovered by SOHO since its launch in December, 1995.
Comets are frozen balls of ice and dust that are believed to have been created when the universe was very young. In fact, scheduled for July 2005, NASA's Deep Impact's spacecraft will arrive at Comet Tempel 1 and become the first mission to impact the surface of a comet. You can learn about this mission at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/.
SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.
If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to email@example.com.
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Growing Political Turmoil
After the conservatives came to power in Spain in November 1933, the CNT planned a national uprising for December 8. Despite a spectacular Barcelona jail break by CNT prisoners, the insurrection was a failure; indeed, it was used to legitimate government censorship, union repression, and the arrest of labor leaders. When, in October 1934, the Catholic conservative party won three cabinet positions, Socialists and anarcho-syndicalists were galvanized to take action against what they feared would be a right-wing coup, whether in fact or
in name. Within a few days, the CNT and the Socialist General Confederation of Workers (UGT), which since December 1933 had been discussing some kind of working-class alliance, planned a national general strike. It began on October 4, with coal miners in Asturias in northern Spain leading the struggle. If there had been any doubts about the ruthlessness of the new republican government, they were laid to rest by its treatment of the workers. Utterly unsympathetic to the gruesome conditions under which the coal miners worked and without concern for their fears, it called in Colonel Francisco Franco. As commander of the crack Moroccan troops and Foreign Legion mercenaries, Franco showed no mercy as his soldiers quashed the miners and their supporters. From October 10 to October 18, Moroccan troops and Legionnaires were permitted to rape and pillage in the mining towns of Asturias. The maneuver resulted in about one thousand dead and thirty to forty thousand jailed throughout Spain.
The day after the nationwide general strike was called on October 4, 1934, Lluís Companys, now president of the Generalitat, proclaimed the "Republic of Catalunya within the Federal Republic of Spain"—an act that was regarded as treason, since there was no federalist state at the time. Companys was arrested and held for sixteen months, and the Statute of Autonomy was abrogated.
After the strike, forces from among Spain's landowners, its army, and its fascist Falange political party had begun to negotiate with Mussolini and Hitler, from whom they obtained financial commitments and promises of military support for a rebellion to overthrow the legally elected Second Republic. The republicans and the left, increasingly aware of the growing fascist menace throughout Europe and mindful that in 1933 divisions among republicans, Socialists, and leftists had permitted conservatives to come to power in Spain, decided to run a unified slate for the parliamentary elections of February 16, 1936. Their coalition, like other such slates elsewhere in Europe, was known as the Popular Front.
Meanwhile, during the summer of 1935, Jaume Sabartés, a poet turned journalist who had been a close friend of Picasso's some three decades earlier in Barcelona, received a summons from the painter. Now that Picasso had left his wife Olga Koklova, with whom he had been fighting for years, he needed a secretary. He hoped that Sabartés, who had recently returned to the city after twenty years as a journalist in Latin America, would accept this position. Although Sabartés had been
the butt of Picasso's jokes in their youth, he was happy to serve. Persuading his own wife to join him, Sabartés headed for Paris, where, from November 1935 to the winter of 1937, he practically lived with Picasso as his secretary and companion. Presumably, he filled Picasso in on recent events in Barcelona.
In the midst of the Popular Front election campaign, Picasso was contacted by the Catalan Friends of the New Arts (Amics de l'Art Nou, or ADLAN), who wanted to open an exhibit of his work on February 18, 1936, two days after the election was scheduled to take place. Even though Picasso was a celebrity, few in Barcelona were familiar with his art, which had not been seen since he and Ramón Casas exhibited jointly in Barcelona in 1932. Picasso agreed to the retrospective but refused to attend. His mother, María Picasso, Joan Miró, and Salvador Dalí talked on the radio in his place to publicize the show. Picasso's friend, the surrealist poet Paul Éluard, traveled down to Barcelona from Paris for the exhibit and delivered a lecture at the opening. Éluard, standing in for Picasso, received the hearty support of students who chanted, "Picasso, the Marxist," confirming that they saw Picasso as a radical. (In fact, although Picasso did later, in 1944, join the Communist party of France, Éluard, like most of the other surrealists, had become a member in 1926.)
When the Popular Front won the elections in February, the left was jubilant, and the right intensified their plotting. With the support of Catholic landowners and fascists, five generals, including Francisco Franco, organized a barracks uprising for July 18, 1936, that was designed to overthrow the freely elected government and impose one more congenial to themselves. The plotters, however, had not counted on the loyalty of certain officers who supported the Popular Front. Nor did they count on the quick action of the people in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville, where civilians—many of them acting through their unions—rose up to defend the Republic. Only about half of Spain went over to the rebels. And thus the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 began.
On the day of the attempted coup in Barcelona, the CNT marched on the army barracks, disarmed the soldiers, and seized their weapons to arm themselves. Having chafed at the bit under nearly five years of republican rule, the CNT now attempted to carry out a social revolution by collectivizing all local economic and social resources. George Orwell, who was in Barcelona shortly afterward, talked about how it felt to be in a city in which the people ruled:
It was the first time I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; . . . almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Every shop and café had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-workers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said "Señor" or "Don" or even "Usted"; everyone called everyone else "Comrade" and "Thou. " . . . The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. . . . Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls, or some variant of the militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in it that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for.
The Spanish Republican government continued to carry on its work while it attempted to defend itself against its enemies. The right-wing rebels, among whom General Francisco Franco had become preeminent by November 1936, were willing to empower Hitler and Mussolini to test new military strategies on Spain in their behalf. On October 23, 1936, three months after the Civil War had begun, the Luftwaffe began to bomb Madrid. Over five thousand people were killed in a single night, in the first time systematic bombing was used specifically to terrorize and crush the will of a civilian population. Like later similar attempts, however, this first instance only enhanced the resolve of the people, both in Madrid and in the Spanish nation as a whole. It was at this time that Dolores Ibarruri, a Communist leader known as "La Pasionaria," coined the slogan "No pasarán" (They shall not pass), which became a watchword for democratic forces throughout the world.
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The unity between a man and a woman in marriage is an expression of the spiritual relationship that God desires His creation to realize with Him. The first marriage occurred nearly 6,000 years ago in the Garden of Eden, in the area of the world that we now know as the Middle East. The first couple was Adam and Eve, and the Lord Jesus specified that it was male and female that God joined together in marriage for life. (Matthew 19:4-6)
Marriage has been practised as such in most cultures across geography and time. Marriage is a life-long commitment, and typically this involves a public ceremony (a wedding) in which vows are exchanged by the parties and before God. Approximately half of all traditional marriages in America end in divorce, many due to Facebook and other liberal activities.
Dinesh D'Souza wrote:
- Marriage requires a) two people who are b) of legal age and c) not closely related to each other who are d) one male and one female. Note that this definition excludes people who want to marry children, or guys who want to marry their sisters, or Muslims who want to take four wives, or that strange guy who wants to marry his dog.
Bill Bennett wrote:
- Based as it is on the principle of complementarity, marriage is also about a great deal more than love. That "great deal" encompasses, above all, procreation. The timeless function of marriage is childbearing and child-rearing, and the best arrangement ever developed to that end is the marital union between one man and one woman ...
What Bennett's words ultimately imply is that, in terms of the value of marriage to anything which stands outside of it, marriage is most principally for the production of additional marriages, and, thus, is a progressive type of scale-invariance such as the Mandelbrot fractal.
So, marriage is the most glorious kind of relation between human individuals because it alone is what most essentially defines humanity. The good of humanity is defined as an integration of all naturally enduring mutual benefits between all free individuals. But, all those benefits are created-and-sustained by the existence of marriage as that one relation for the preservation of which is invoked the most special legal recognition, because...
...Marriage not only historically is the very first form of human society, it is logically the most beautiful, perfect, simple, and potentially productive human institution possible.
Biblical marriage advice
1 Corinthians 7:1-16:
|“||Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But this I say by way of concession, not of command. Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?||”|
Modern marriage licenses
In the present-day United States, "getting married" typically involves a marriage license issued by the state government or a subdivision thereof (e.g., a county). However, marriage licenses are nowhere mentioned in Scripture; in fact, they are a relatively recent innovation and originally applied only to marriages that were otherwise forbidden.
Definition of marriage
For Christians, marriage has traditionally been seen as "a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life." As such, marriage is the one and only form of companionship from which all other forms spring: it is the single irreducible core of society.
Modern history of marriage law
- 1724 - blacks, with permission of their slave owner, given the right to marry (formerly, under British law, only whites could legally marry)
- 1769 - women no longer considered property of their husbands
- 1899 - polygamy outlawed in the US
- 1967 - interracial marriage legalized in all states
- 1981 - rise of community property laws as men no longer seen as the sole owner of all marital assets
Attacks on the institution of marriage
Any society which has lessened the sanctity of marriage has perished, whereas those that have upheld the sanctity of marriage have endured. It has been argued that Ancient Rome's decline and its eventual fall in A.D. 476 were due in no small part to a growing tolerance of extramarital sex, particularly of homosexual acts, beginning in the Late Republic period ending in 27 B.C.
Since the middle of the 20th century, Liberalism has sought to dismantle the societal pressures that dissuade people from engaging in extramarital and premarital sex. Removing the stigma from these behaviors, creating no-fault divorce laws, exalting adultery as liberating, rejuvenating, and "stimulating", and especially the de-stigmatizing of homosexuality all weaken the institution of marriage.
A recent Newsweek article complained that Biblical figures have not provided good historical examples of marriage, noting that Abraham begat Ishmael by a maidservant and Jacob had two wives and had sons with both of their servants. The article also criticizes Jesus and St. Paul for remaining single.
- ↑ Marriage between the sexes is a covenant, not a contract. Since time immemorial, some men disposed of a wife (woman) after her childbearing years to pursue a younger female consort. God, being a defender of women, ordained marriage by his perfect will to protect women's rights and not allow a man (male) to abandon them to homelessness and poverty with no marketable job skills other than homemaking or child rearing. This however, is not the only reason the covenant of marriage evolved between the sexes.
- ↑ See also Perfect will of God vs Permissive will of God.
- ↑ Article 7, "The sacrament of matrimony"
- ↑ "Basic Beliefs," Southern Baptist Convention
- ↑ "Marriage"
- ↑ Albert Barnes, Matthew 19
- ↑ Matthew Henry, Matthew 19
- ↑ "Because there is a natural complementarity between men and women - sexual, emotional, temperamental, spiritual - marriage allows for a wholeness and a completeness that cannot be won in any other way. (Bill Bennett, The Broken Hearth, Page 197)
- ↑ Divorce is within the permissive will of God, Deut. 22:13; divorce however, is due to sin entering the world, which God is willing to redeem. God himself in fact is divorced from Israel (Jer. 3:8-14; see also Is. 54:5), or for that matter, all unredeemed sinners.
- ↑ Gay Rights vs. Democracy
- ↑ The Broken Hearth, Page 197)
- ↑ Scale-invariance as a unifying psychological principle; 1999
- ↑ Information on marriage licenses from Mercy Seat Christian Church
- ↑ Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts
- ↑ Is there anyone left to defend traditional marriage?
- ↑ http://www.newsweek.com/id/172653/page/1
- Form of Solemnization of Matrimony, an example of a traditional marriage service
- Civil marriage
- Marriage in the Unification Church
- Essay: The Irreducible Core of Politics
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Aswan High Dam on the Nile River
Aswan-- On 15 January 1971, Egypt celebrated the completion of the High Dam, whose funding was the center of a Cold War dispute that led to the 1956 Suez War. Located on the Upper Nile, around 1000km downstream from Cairo, the gigantic mountain of concrete and steel is among the 20th century's most elaborate engineering work. Aswan High Dam on the Nile River is located at the north end of Lake Nasser.
The construction of the High Dam began in 1960, and it was officially inaugurated ten years later, at a cost of US$1 billion, much of which was provided by the former Soviet Union. The dam stores 160 billion cubic meters of water, and the reservoir behind it, named Lake Nasser, stretches some 350km into Egypt and 150km into Sudan. It is a symbol for Egyptians patience and challenge.
The Suez Crisis began on 26 July 1956 when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. The move was in response to a decision by the United States and Britain to withdraw finance for the Aswan High Dam - a massive project to bring water to the Nile valley and electricity to develop Egypt's industry - because of Egypt's political and military ties to the Soviet Union.
The world-famous High Dam was an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. Today it provides irrigation and electricity for the whole of Egypt and, together with the old Aswan Dam, 6km downriver, wonderful views for visitors. From the top of the two mile-long High Dam you can gaze across Lake Nasser, the huge reservoir created when it was built to Kalabsha temple in the south and the huge power station to the north.
The story of the High Dam was a tale of a nation, hikayit sha‘b, as Abdel Halim Hafiz chanted in an iconic song from the Nasserist period.
This nation lived under the yoke of British colonialism for over 70 years. After gaining independence, Egypt's revolutionary president, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, approached the World Bank to finance the construction of a dam on the Nile, a vital step towards economic development. The World Bank refused. In an audacious challenge to old and new imperialism, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 to acquire funding for the project. The struggling nation heroically endured subsequent military assaults and a trade embargo. The dam was eventually built.
The story of the High Dam at Aswan is indeed the tale of this nation. The stages of its history chronicle critical transformations in Egyptian history at large. During the last half century, the dam moved from being a celebrated monument to Egyptian independence to a forgotten barrage deep in the country's south. It was a state-engineered tool of anti-imperialist propaganda, whose splendor faded away with the downfall and fundamental reversion of the anti-imperial project.
In other words Egypt had monopoly of the waters. On behalf of its colonial possessions - Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda - Britain, which was primarily concerned with the Suez Canal and the passage to India, signed away their most precious resource.
Egypt had the right to veto any project along the Nile and full rights of inspection.
In 1959, this deal was overtaken by a new agreement between Egypt and Sudan splitting the waters 75 per cent to 25 per cent and guaranteeing Cairo "full control of the river".
The results of this control are nowhere more clearly seen than at Lake Nasser, a man-made reservoir 550km-long, created when Egypt completed the Aswan high dam. The country's largest engineering project took six years to build and another five years to fill.
Some 55.5 billion cu m of water gush from the Aswan dam into Egypt annually. It has enabled Cairo to regulate the life-giving annual flood, to irrigate its otherwise parched landscape, and at the point it was finished supplied half the country's electricity needs.
Nasser was in need of a success, a success to rival that of the Suez Canal, which is a 190 km-long man-made waterway linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. The French dug the Suez Canal 97 years before Nasser took the decision to nationalize it. Nasser took the decision to nationalize the Suez Canal just two years before it was supposed to revert back to Egyptian control. This was used as justification by three countries [Britain, France and Israel] to launch a tripartite strike against Egypt. The President's decision to cancel the contract just two years before its expiry date made it seem like Nasser was seeking a popular confrontation.
The difference is that the Aswan High Dam is a success story, whereas the Suez Canal was a story of conflict. The High Dam is a witness of the history of Egypt's relationship with the Soviet Union, which continued throughout Nasser's rule. The Aswan High Dam is considered to be the most important construction of the Nasser regime.
Abu Simbel, Egypt — In the 1960s, rising waters from a new dam threatened to submerge the temples and monuments of Nubia, the ancient home of black pharaohs in Egypt's far south. To preserve them, the antiquities were dismantled, moved and reconstructed. Today, most of the surviving monuments can be seen only from the lake created by the waters that nearly destroyed them.
A short flight from Aswan is Abu Simbel and the Great Temple of Ramses II, and the gods of creation and light, Ptah, Amen and Heru-khuti is the most iconic Ancient Egyptian sight after the Pyramids. The temple has four massive statues of Ramses II and the gods Ra-Horakhty, Amun and Ptah at its entrance. Beyond lie two pillared halls and the sacred sanctuary. Every wall and ceiling is a storybook art gallery of this extraordinary pharaoh's life. (He lived to 90 and is said to have fathered more than 200 children).
Know more details about Visiting Temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, Aswan
Construction of the high dam was an enormous national project that every Egyptian contributed to. Nubians in particular sacrificed their possessions, including 45 Nubian villages lying on 300 square kilometers of land and one million palm trees. They were moved from a paradise on the banks of the Nile. These treasures are all submerged under water now. Along with the loss of the land, there was also the loss of heritage, values, memories and lifestyle, and, above all proximity to the water, the primary source of life.
For More Information Visit: Aswan Tourism and Tourist Information
Cruise ships on Egypt's Lake Nasser visit the ancient temples of Nubia's black pharaohs:
The Aswan High Dam: A Political Witness: http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=19640
Memories of a high dam: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/memories-dam-high-dam%E2%80%A6
Suez Crisis: Key players: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5195582.stm
Nile deal brings countries to boiling point over water: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10648772
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EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — David Ciresi, M.D., describes himself as a “safety fanatic.” The trauma surgeon at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, a Level II Trauma Center, also is an avid bow hunter.
Because of his job, Dr. Ciresi and his colleagues will see about 10 patients a year with major injuries related to tree stands — head or spinal cord injury, broken bones or hypothermia.
“All these things are 100 percent preventable,” Dr. Ciresi said.
So, Dr. Ciresi filmed a tree stand safety video, posted on YouTube, to offer tips to hunters, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhg58pMNxLM.
The video follows Dr. Ciresi in the woods to show how to use a five-point harness, which holds hunters from below as well as from above, as opposed to using a strap across the chest.
“Don’t think it won’t happen to you,” Dr. Ciresi said of potential tree stand falls. “The only way to protect yourself is to prepare ahead of time.”
Besides using a harness, other hunter safety tips include:
• Tell someone where you’re going: Draw a map if you’re hunting somewhere unfamiliar to them.
• Carry global positioning system (GPS) navigation and a cell phone: Technology can be helpful to lost or injured hunters but may not always work in the woods. Injuries can limit hunters’ ability to use their arms or legs, so relying solely on a cell phone to call for help is not sufficient.
• Keep alert: Staying up late or drinking to excess the night before a hunt can lead to injury.
• Watch the weather: Be aware of conditions. A snow-covered tree stand, for example, can lead to a fall.
• Know your limitations: If you’re too heavy or too weak, a tree stand may not be appropriate for you. A ground blind can be as effective for hunting as a treestand.
With planning and precaution, hunters can enjoy their time outdoors, Dr. Ciresi said. “Have fun, be safe and good luck hunting.”
# # #
Mayo Clinic Health System consists of Mayo-owned clinics, hospitals and other health care facilities that serve the health care needs of people in 70 communities in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The community-based providers, paired with the resources and expertise of Mayo Clinic, enable patients in the region to receive the highest-quality health care close to home.
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The American Meteorological Society
) promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric
Atmospheric sciences is an umbrella term for the study of the atmosphere, its processes, the effects other systems have on the atmosphere, and the effects of the atmosphere on these other systems. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather...
and related oceanic
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
and hydrologic sciences
Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability...
and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership of more than 14,000 professionals, professors, students, and weather enthusiasts. Some members have attained the designation "Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM)", many of whom have expertise in the applied meteorology discipline of atmospheric dispersion modeling
Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with computer programs that solve the mathematical equations and algorithms which simulate the pollutant dispersion...
. To the general public, however, the AMS is best known for its "Seal of Approval" to television and radio meteorologists.
The AMS publishes nine atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic journals (in print and online), issues position statements on scientific topics that fall within the scope of their expertise, sponsors more than 12 conferences annually, and offers numerous programs and services. There is also an extensive network of local chapters.
The AMS headquarters are located at Boston, Massachusetts. It was built by the famous Boston architect Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession....
, as the third Harrison Gray Otis House
There are three houses named the Harrison Gray Otis House in Boston, Massachusetts. All were built by noted American architect Charles Bulfinch for the same man, Harrison Gray Otis.-First Harrison Gray Otis House:...
in 1806 and was purchased and renovated by the AMS in 1958, with staff moving into the building in 1960. The AMS also maintains an office in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, at 1120 G Street NW.
Seal of Approval
The AMS Seal of Approval program was established in 1957 as a means of recognizing television and radio weather forecasters who display informative, well-communicated, and scientifically-sound weather broadcast presentations. The awarding of a Seal of Approval is based on a demonstration tape submitted by the applicant to six members of a review panel after paying an application fee. Although a formal degree in meteorology is not a requirement to obtain the original Seal of Approval, the minimal requirements of meteorological courses including hydrology, basic meteorology & thermodynamic meteorology including at least 20 core college credits must have been taken first before applying (ensuring that the forecaster has at least a minimal required education in the field). There is no minimum amount of experience required, but previous experience in weather forecasting and broadcasting is suggested before applying. It is worthy to note that many broadcasters who have obtained the Seal of Approval do in fact have formal degrees in Meteorology or related sciences and/or certifications from accredited University programs. Upon meeting the core requirements, having the seal, and working in the field for 3 years that broadcaster may then be referred to as a Meteorologist in the broadcast community.
As of February 2007, more than 1,600 Seals of Approval have been granted, of which more than 700 are considered "active." Seals become inactive when a sealholder's membership renewal and annual seal fees are not paid.
The original Seal of Approval program will be phased out at the end of 2008. Current applicants may either apply for the original Seal of Approval or the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) Seal until December 31, 2008. After that date, only the CBM Seal will be offered. Current sealholders retain the right to use their seal in 2009 and onward, but new applications for the original Seal of Approval will not be accepted after December 31, 2008.
Note: The NWA Seal of Approval is issued by the National Weather Association
The National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
and is independent of the AMS.
Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) Seal
The original Seal of Approval program was revamped in January 2005 with the introduction of the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, or CBM, Seal. This seal introduced a 100-question multiple choice closed-book examination as part of the evaluation process. The questions on the exam cover many aspects of the science of meteorology, forecasting, and related principles. Applicants must answer at least 75 of the questions correctly before being awarded the CBM Seal.
Persons who obtained or applied for the original Seal of Approval before December 31, 2004 and were not rejected are eligible for an upgrade of their Seal of Approval to the CBM Seal upon the successful completion of the CBM exam and payment of applicable fees. Upgrading from the original Seal of Approval is not required. New applicants for the CBM Seal must pay the application fee, pass the exam, and then submit demonstration tapes to the review board before being considered for the CBM Seal. While original sealholders do not have to have a degree in meteorology or a related field of study to be upgraded, brand new applicants for the CBM seal must have a degree in meteorology or a related field of study to be considered.
In order to keep either the CBM Seal or the original Seal of Approval, sealholders must pay all annual dues and show proof of completing certain professional development programs every five years (such as educational presentations at schools, involvement in local AMS chapter events, attendance at weather conferences, and other activities of the like).
As of February 2007, nearly 200 CBM seals have been awarded to broadcast weather forecasters, either upgraded from the original Seal of Approval or granted to new applicants.
American Meteorological Society offers several awards in the fields of meteorology and oceanography.
Atmospheric Research Awards Committee
- The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal
The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is the highest award for atmospheric science of the American Meteorological Society. It is presented to individual scientists, who receive a medal...
- The Jule G. Charney Award
- The Verner E. Suomi Award
- The Remote Sensing Prize
- The Clarence Leroy Meisinger
- The Henry G. Houghton
Oceanographic Research Awards Committee
- The Sverdrup Gold Medal
Sverdrup Gold Medal Award - is the American Meteorological Society's award granted to researchers who make outstanding contributions to the scientific knowledge of interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere.-Recipients:...
- The Henry Stommel Research Award
The Henry Stommel Research Award is awarded by the American Meteorological Society to researchers in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of the understanding of the dynamics and physics of the ocean. The award is in the form of a medallion and was named for Henry...
- The Verner E. Suomi
- The Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award
The American Meteorological Society publishes the following scientific journals:
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.The official organ of the society, it is devoted to editorials, topical reports to members, articles, professional and membership news, conference announcements, programs and...
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
The Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society...
- Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
The Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society....
- Journal of Physical Oceanography
Journal of Physical Oceanography is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society . It was established in January 1971 and is available on the web since 1996...
- Monthly Weather Review
The Monthly Weather Review is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.Topics covered by the journal include research related to analysis and prediction of observed and modeled circulations of the atmosphere, including technique development, data assimilation, model...
- Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology
The Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology is a scientific publication by the American Meteorological Society.The journal includes papers describing the instrumentation and methodology used in atmospheric and oceanic research including computational techniques, methods for data acquisition,...
- Weather and Forecasting
Weather and Forecasting is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.Articles on forecasting and analysis techniques, forecast verification studies, and case studies useful to forecasters...
- Journal of Climate
The Journal of Climate is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.The journal publishes articles on climate research, in particular those concerned with large-scale atmospheric and oceanic variability, changes in the climate system , and climate simulation and...
- Journal of Hydrometeorology
The Journal of Hydrometeorology is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. It covers the modeling, observing, and forecasting of processes related to water and energy fluxes and storage terms, including interactions with the boundary layer and lower atmosphere, and...
- Weather, Climate, and Society (new journal, to start 2009)
- Earth Interactions
Earth Interactions is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, and Association of American Geographers....
- Meteorological Monographs
Meteorological Monographs is a publication of the American Meteorological Society.The AMS Monograph Series has two parts, historical and meteorological...
The American Meteorological Society produces the following scientific databases:
- Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts
As a means of promoting "the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications", the AMS periodically publishes policy statements on issues related to its competence on subjects such as drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere , and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon...
and acid deposition
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
In 2003, the AMS issued the position statement Climate Change Research: Issues for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences
- Human activities have become a major source of environmental change. Of great urgency are the climate consequences of the increasing atmospheric abundance of greenhouse gases... Because greenhouse gases continue to increase, we are, in effect, conducting a global climate experiment, neither planned nor controlled, the results of which may present unprecedented challenges to our wisdom and foresight as well as have significant impacts on our natural and societal systems.
- The Maury Project (a comprehensive national program of teacher enhancement based on studies of the physical foundations of oceanography)
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The OED “is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from those of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find these in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to films scripts and cookery books.” For more information about this resource, visit their site.
To access this database, please visit the Databases A-Z page or visit the English Literatures LibGuide. Contact Sue Samson, firstname.lastname@example.org, with questions or for more information on how this database can help you with your research or teaching.
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Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas
A Spanish historian; born at Cuellar, in the province of Segovia, in 1559; died at Madrid, 27 March, 1625. He was a great-grandson of the Tordesillas who was put to death by the Comuneros at Seville. He studied in Spain and Italy, and became secretary to Vespasiano Gonzaga, a brother of the Duke of Mantua, who was afterwards Viceroy of Navarre and Valencia, and who recommended him to Philip II in the last year of that monarch's reign. Philip appointed him grand historiographer ( cronista mayor ) of America and Castile, and he filled that office during part of his royal patron's reign, the whole reign of Philip III, and the beginning of that of Philip IV. At his death his body was conveyed to Cuellar, and interred in the church of Santa Marina, where his tomb is still to be seen.
His most famous work is the "Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano" (General History of the deeds of the Castilians on the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea), divided into eight periods of ten years each, and comprising all the years from 1472 to 1554. This work was printed at Madrid in 1601; reprinted by Juan de la Cuesta in 1615; revised and augmented by Andrés González and published at Madrid by Nicolas Rodríguez in 1726, and at Antwerp, by Juan Bautista Verdussen, in 1728. Worthy of note is the "Description of the West Indies", in the first volume of his work, which was translated into Latin and published at Amsterdam, by Gaspar Barleo, in 1622, a French version being published at Paris in the same year. In 1660 there appeared a French translation of the first three decades of his "Historia" by Nicolás de la Corte. In writing his great work Tordesillas made use of all the public archives, having access to documents of every kind. It is evident in his writings that he had to deal with a large number of historical manuscripts, and contented himself with relating events as he found them recorded. A great part of his work is more or less a transcript of the History of the Indies left by the famous Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas , though expurgated of wellnigh everything unfavourable to the settlers. A painstaking and conscientious investigator for the most part, his style does not correspond to his other admirable qualifications. He was a learned and judicious man, though, particularly in the later decades, somewhat prone to overpraise the conquerors and their exploits.
In addition to that already mentioned, his most important works are: "A General History of the World during the time of Philip II from the year 1559 to the King's death"; "Events in Scotland and England during the forty-four years of the lifetime of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland" (Historia de lo sucedido en Escocia é Inglaterra en los cuarenta y cuatro años que vivió Maria Estuardo Reina de Escocia); Five books of the history of Portugal and the conquests of the Azores in the years 1582, 1583; "History of events in France from 1585 to 1594" (a work published in Madrid in 1598, but suppressed by command of the king); "A Treatise, Relation, and Historical Discourse on the Disturbances in Aragon in the years 1591 and 1592" (Tratado, relación y discurso histórico de los movimientos en Aragon en los años de 1591 y 1592); "Commentary on the deeds of the Spaniards, French, and Venetians in Italy, and of other Republics, Potentates, famous Italian Princes and Captains, from 1281 to 1559"; "Chronicle of the Turks, following chiefly that written by Juan Maria Vicentino, chronicler to Mahomet, Bajazet, and Suleiman, their lords" (unpublished); various works translated from the French and Italian, preserved in the National Library at Madrid.
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By Vendor > AgBio Communications > grassland plants of south dakota and the northern great plains
grassland plants of south dakota and the northern great plains
"Learning to identify and understand the plants that produce the forage, provide the cover, protect the soil, and enrich our lives in many ways is an essential first step to conserving our native grassland, whether they are the grasslands we own and manage, or the grasslands we hunt and hike over, or simply the grasslands we view from our vehicles. This photographic guide can help you discover and learn about the plants inhabitating our northern prairies and plains." David J. Ode, Botanist/Ecologist, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department Authors are James R. Johnson and Gary E. Larson
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This patient support community is for discussions relating to general health issues, adolescents, babies, child health, eating disorders, fitness, immunizations and vaccines, infectious diseases, and senior health.
In October, 2010 I was told by my doctor that I had a vitamin d deficiency. My level was 13. My hair was falling out, I was having a lot of back pain, trouble sleeping at night, and I was experiencing memory and concentration problems among other things. Since then I have been taking prescription strength vitamin d at 100,000 IU's per week. I've been on this high dosage for nine months. At one point my level vitamin d level went up to 32. However, they just tested me again (July 26, 2011) and my level has dropped to 26. My doctor now wants me to double my dose to 200,000 UI's for the next three months. Can you tell me why my levels are not going up, and if I should be asking for more blood work? If I need more blood work, what should I request? Any information that you can provide me with will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Did your doctor administer a 25-hydroxyvitamin test to determine if you have optimal levels of Vitamin D in your blood? In order to get the proper amount of Vitamin D your body requires, you need to be able to find a healthy balance of sunlight, but still reduce your risk of skin cancer, particularly Melanoma. Wear sunscreen every time you are in the sun and keep your sun exposure to 20 minutes at a time.
Low vitamin D levels occur because of less intake of vitamin D, less exposure to sunlight or as side effects of some diseases. Toxic substances, harmful chemicals, side effects of certain medicines can also give rise to such condition that the level of vitamin D goes down the normal level. It is a rare occurrence that the vitamin D levels is low because of some hereditary diseases. Following are some of the causes for low levels of vitamin D.
Lack of Exposure to Sunlight
The layer under the skin produces vitamin D using sunlight. People of certain geographical locations like those in the northern hemisphere have living conditions such that their exposure to sunlight is minimum. Aged people and small babies often do not get enough exposure to sunlight. Aging skin of elderly people needs more time to prepare vitamin D. People with the condition of lupus are sensitive towards sunlight. So, they are advised not to stay out under direct sunlight for a long time. Under all these conditions, the factors responsible for low vitamin D, is absence of sunlight.
There are very few food substances that contain naturally occurring vitamin D. Some of the food items that provide us vitamin D are beef liver, fleshy part of the fish, egg yolk, fish oils and cheese. Therefore, vegetarians are more prone to low vitamin D levels.
Another very important element that is usually overlooked by conventional doctors is that you need to take magnesium to get the vitamin D to work properly. Usually, just a normal amount of magnesium is all that is required to get the vitamin D to synthesize properly.
I strongly recommend going to the Vitamin D Council's website to find more information about the magnesium and other supplement connection to vitamin D absorption. Yes, there were other minerals mentioned, but magnesium seems to be the most important one. I urge you to also sign up for their newsletters. Vitamin D deficiency is not funny, because it can kill. It almost killed me. Mine was only 8 when I started out.
In addition to that last post. The amount your are stating you are taking is it really that high or did you mean 1,000 or 2,000 IU? That is an incredibly high amount and seems out fo the ball park. Our experience is that we were low but not as low as you are we were around 20 to 30. The recommended daily intake is about 2,000 I.U. but you have to test your blood a few times to get it right and it takes some months for the level to go up. So I tend to absorb it well and only need 1,000 I.U. to get the Vit D to be normal but I was tested every 3 months until the level was at the right amount. My husband has to take 4,000 I.U. in order to be normal. Yes sunlight does help but you need to get out there (with sunscreen on) and it didn't go up for me after walking an hour a day in the sun. So, it depend on your diet and ability to absorb. As the last post said you need magnesium to help.
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Doing u-substitution twice (second time with w) Example where we do substitution twice to get the integral into a reasonable form
Doing u-substitution twice (second time with w)
⇐ Use this menu to view and help create subtitles for this video in many different languages. You'll probably want to hide YouTube's captions if using these subtitles.
- Let's see if we can take the integral of cosine of 5x over e to the sine of 5x dx.
- And there's a crow squawking outside of my window so I'll try to stay focused.
- So let's think about whether u-substitution might be appropriate. Your first temptation might to said,
- "Hey, maybe we let u equal sine of 5x, and if u is equal to sine of 5x,
- we have something that is pretty close to du up here." Let's verify that.
- So du could be equal to -- so du/dx (derivative of u with respect to x),
- well we just use the chain rule. Derivative of 5x is 5,
- times the derivative of sine of 5x with respect to 5x, that's just going to be cosine of 5x.
- If we want to write this in differential form, which is useful when we do our u-substitution,
- we could say that du is equal to 5 cosine 5x.
- Now when you look over here, we don't have quite du there. We have just cosine of 5x dx--
- sorry, I need cosine of 5x dx, just like that. So when you look over here,
- you have a cosine of 5x dx, but we don't have a 5 cosine of 5x dx,
- but we know how to solve that. We can multiply by 5 and divide by 5.
- 1/5 times 5 is just going to be 1. So we haven't changed the value of the expression.
- But when we do it this way, we see pretty clearly, we have our u and we have our du.
- Our du is 5 -- let me circle that and let me do that in that blue color --
- is 5 cosine of 5x dx. So we can rewrite this entire expression as --
- I'll do that 1/5 in purple -- this is going to be equal to 1/5 --
- I hope you don't hear that crow outside; he's getting quite obnoxious --
- 1/5 times the integral of, well all this stuff in blue is my du,
- and then that is over e to the u. So how do we take the anti-derivative of this?
- Well, you might be tempted to -- well, what would you do here?
- Well, we're still not quite ready to simply take the anti-derivative here.
- If I were to rewrite this, I could rewrite this as (this is equal to)
- 1/5 times the integral of e to the negative u du.
- And so, what might jump out of you is maybe we do another substitution,
- and we already use the letter u, so maybe we might use w. We'll do some "w-substitution."
- And you might be able to do this in your head, but we'll do w-substitution just to make it a little bit clearer.
- So let's -- this would've been really useful if this was just e to the u,
- because we know the anti-derivative of e to the u. It's just e to the u.
- So let's just try to get it in terms of the form of e to the negative something.
- So let's set -- and I'm running out of colors here -- w equal to negative u.
- And in that case, then dw (derivative of w with respect to u) is negative 1,
- or if we were to write that statement in differential form,
- dw is equal to du times negative 1 is negative du.
- So this right over here would be our w, and do we have a dw here?
- Well we just have du; we don't have a negative du there.
- But we can create a negative du by multiplying this inside by negative 1,
- but then also multiplying the outside by negative 1.
- Negative 1 times negative 1 is positive 1; we haven't changed the value.
- We have to do both of these in order for it to make sense.
- Or I could do it like this. So negative 1 over here, and a negative 1 right over there.
- And if we do it in that form, then this negative 1 times du --
- that's the same thing as negative du -- this is this right over here.
- And so we can rewrite our integral -- it's going to be equal to --
- now it's going to be negative 1/5 -- trying to use the colors as best as I can --
- times the indefinite integral of e to the -- well instead of negative u, we could right w.
- E to the w. And instead of du times negative 1 or negative du, we can write "dw."
- Now this simplifies things a good bit. We know what the anti-derivative of this in terms of w.
- This is going to be equal to negative 1/5 e to the w, and then we might have some constant there,
- so I just do a plus C. And now we just have to all of our un-substituting.
- So we know that w is equal to negative u, so we could write that --
- so this is equal to negative 1/5 -- I want to stay true to my colors -- e to the negative u,
- that's what w is equal to, plus C. But we're still not done un-substituting.
- We know that u is equal to sine of 5x. So we can write this as being equal to
- negative 1/5 times e to the negative u, which is negative u is sine of 5x,
- and then finally, we have our plus C. Now, there was a simpler way that we could've done this
- by just doing one substitution. But then you kind of have to look ahead a little bit
- and realize that it was not trivial to take -- not to bad to take your anti-derivative of e to the negative u.
- The inside that you might of have although you shouldn't really hold yourself
- when you feel too bad when you didn't see that inside.
- We could've rewritten that original integral -- let me rewrite it --
- it's cosine of 5x over e to the sine of 5x dx. We could've written this entire integral as being equal to
- cosine of 5x times e to the negative sine of 5x dx. And in this situation, we could've said
- u to be equal to negative of 5x, and say well, if u is equal to --
- or negative sine of 5x, then du is going to be equal to negative 5 cosine of 5x,
- and we don't have a negative 5 -- oh, dx, we don't have a negative 5 here,
- but we can construct one by putting negative 5 there, then multiplying by negative 1/5,
- and then that would've immediately simplified this integral right over here to be equal to
- negative 1/5 times the integral of -- well, we have our du -- let me do this in a different color --
- that's the negative 5 -- let me do it this way -- negative 5 cosine of 5x dx.
- So that is our du -- I'm just changing the order of multiplication -- times e to the u.
- This whole thing now is u this second time around. So if we did it this way, with just one substitution,
- we could've immediately gotten to the result that we wanted. You take the anti-derivative of this --
- I'll do it in one color now, just 'cause I think you get the idea -- this is equal to
- negative 1/5 e to the u plus C. u is equal to negative sine of 5x,
- so this is equal to negative 1/5 e to the negative sine of 5x plus C. And we're done.
- So this one is faster; it's simpler, and over time, you might even start being able to do this in your head.
- This top one, you still didn't mess up by just setting u equal to sine of 5x;
- we just have to do an extra substitution in order to work it through all the way.
- And I was able to do this video despite the crowing crow outside -- or squawking crow.
Be specific, and indicate a time in the video:
At 5:31, how is the moon large enough to block the sun? Isn't the sun way larger?
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There's No Such Thing as Ethical Oil (or Nuclear Power)
Canada is digging itself a dirty energy destiny in the Athabasca oil sands.
By Evan O'Neil | March 22, 2011
After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and now the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima reactors in Japan, it should be clear that oil and nuclear power are not benign forces in our world. Both are toxic, dirty, and insecure forms of energy. It is thus astonishing that the Canadian energy industry proposes combining the two.
The boreal forest of northern Alberta sits atop one of the largest fossil fuel deposits in the world: the Athabasca bituminous sands. Energy insiders call it oil sands, while environmentalists prefer tar sands—each side seeing what it wants. At room temperature, raw bitumen has the consistency of asphalt and won't flow through a pipeline without being diluted or upgraded into synthetic crude oil.
Underground, the bitumen exists in a mixture with sand and clay, and there are two techniques for extracting it. Surface mines have been the predominant method since commercial production began in the 1960s. At the Suncor Energy mine, for example, the native forests, topsoil, and muskeg bog were cleared, and 50 meters of "overburden" earth was removed to expose a tar sand deposit itself about 50 meters thick. The bitumen is mined 24 hours per day with massive electric shovels that fill dump trucks three stories tall.
The dump trucks haul the tar sands out of the mine to a separation unit where it is mixed with hot water. The bitumen floats to the top and is skimmed off, while the wastewater slurry—containing sand, clay, salts, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, naphthenic acid, and other substances—is pumped into large, open-air tailings ponds where it is left to evaporate. The problem with tailings ponds has been that the finest clay particles take decades to settle into sediment. To accelerate reclamation of the land, some companies are now experimenting with adding polyacrylamide flocculant, in a process similar to municipal waste treatment, to help separate the solids from the water.
Mining for deeper deposits is uneconomical, so the industry also employs in situ drilling. In a typical setup, two horizontal wells are drilled, one above the other. The top well injects steam into the sands, melting out the bitumen, which is then pumped out through the lower well in a process called Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage, or SAGD. The well pads of these SAGD installations dot the remote boreal landscape in a network of roads, pipelines, and seismic cutlines.
Mining and in situ operations both consume a lot of energy. The advantage of in situ is that the land is much less disturbed, making it easier to return it to a natural state. SAGD also separates the sand and bitumen below the surface, requiring significantly less infrastructure. Of the total Athabasca deposit, 80 percent is thought to be recoverable through in situ and 20 percent through mining.
SAGD requires a lot of natural gas to make steam. The ratio of steam injected to oil extracted is what determines a project's carbon emissions as well as its profitability. Mining and SAGD together consume hundreds of billions of cubic feet of natural gas per year, a substantial fraction of Canada's entire demand.
That's where nuclear power enters the picture. As bitumen production in Alberta is slated to expand over the next several decades, gas production will be in decline. This means that eventually producers will have to either burn part of their bitumen, thus eating into their profits, or find new power sources to generate heat and electricity.
Nuclear power has been mooted to fill this gap. Japan, of course, turned to nuclear power during the 1970s oil shocks to offset its dependence on foreign oil. Now, in an ironic twist, Canada is considering nuclear power so that it can expand its oil exports. Most of the tar sands oil is sold south of the border through a pipeline network to meet American demand, while Canada still imports foreign oil to its eastern provinces.
One has to wonder why Canada would burn so much of its natural gas, a relatively clean fossil fuel, to extract an even dirtier energy. The answer is, of course, to make money. Most of the world's oil is controlled by national oil companies, making Canada one of the only remaining patches where the energy industry can really play in the sandbox.
And the Athabasca deposit is a big sandbox. The area is roughly the size of New York State. It contains an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels of bitumen, of which about 170 billion barrels are extractable with current technologies. Multiply by $100 per barrel and pretty soon we're talking real money.
But it is capital intensive to slurp these heavy, unconventional dregs of the global oil barrel. Hundreds of billions of dollars have already been invested in the Alberta tar sands, where it takes an oil price of $65 to 85 per barrel to recuperate costs. As recently as 2009, oil was back down in the $40 range, slowing or canceling many projects.
So is tar sands oil dirty oil? Of course it is. All oil is dirty. But is it dirtier than other sources? On average, yes. According to Cambridge Energy Research Associates, oil from Alberta tends to be about 5 to 15 percent more polluting than the average oil consumed in the United States when compared on a well-to-wheels basis. Twenty-five percent of oil's emissions occur during the production phase, while 75 percent comes from combustion in a vehicle.
Industry insiders often repeat the following argument: It's the consumer's fault, whether they mean car owners or America in general. "If you would stop driving so much, we would stop digging up all this oil and pumping it in your direction," goes the typical line. Then whenever the United States wavers in its affection for Canadian energy, the argument becomes a threat: "We'll just sell it to the Chinese instead."
This argument is nonsense on the individual level. American consumers aren't presented with a significant choice at the pump. They get to decide between three octane ratings with maybe a dash of dubiously efficient ethanol in the blend. The only real power a person has to reduce oil consumption is in deciding where to live. Ditching the car and moving to a dense, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly community with access to mass transit is the most effective solution. For those who cannot or do not wish to move, the alternative is to work through the local political process to redesign your community.
Most families haven't made the carless choice yet. Instead the typical response is to buy a bigger car when gasoline is cheap and a more efficient one when the price goes back up. Without a price floor of some sort, America will never break its addiction to oil, foreign or domestic. A strong gasoline tax could serve as a de facto price floor if it were set high enough. Unfortunately the United States has chosen to set the bar very low: Gas tax is a pittance relative to the price of gasoline, and it isn't indexed to inflation, meaning the value has actually declined over the last several decades.
It is an abdication of political responsibility to argue that an unorganized and reactionary collective such as consumers is at fault for oil consumption. The essence of ethics is whether our political institutions can make choices that are in the interest of all affected stakeholders, local and global, regardless of the political cost.
Seen in this light, can the Canadian and Albertan governments be trusted not to morph into petrostates?
It is an abdication of political responsibility to argue that an unorganized and reactionary collective such as consumers is at fault for oil consumption.Sadly the outlook is bleak. The federal environment minister recently declared that Canadian oil is "ethical oil." This concept is drawn straight from the title of a book by conservative political activist Ezra Levant, in which he argues that Canada's oil is morally superior to oil from countries with poor human rights records. Even if Canada and the United States were to boycott imports from all countries they consider problematic, an option neither is willing to consider, oil would still remain a globally priced and traded commodity and the benefits of its consumption would continue to flow to unsavory dictators.
On the provincial level, the Alberta government is of the opinion that the tar sands "should" be developed further, despite the fact that a panel recently found that water and environmental monitoring program has been inadequate. Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board, its regulatory agency for energy development, has one of the more Orwellian names one can imagine.
Bullish development of the oil sands has also contributed to Canada's violation of its Kyoto Protocol commitments. The goal was to decrease emissions 6 percent below 1990 levels. Instead, Canadian emissions have increased by a whopping 24 percent, in great measure due to tar sands expansion. Tar sands emissions now account for about 5 percent of Canada's total.
Alberta did manage to enact one innovative policy that few other jurisdictions will even consider: a carbon tax of $15 per ton. This move should be applauded, but it is unfortunately accompanied by billion-dollar investments in the unproven technologies of carbon capture and sequestration—an expensive crutch to help the fossil fuel industry limp into the future—with minimal focus on renewable energy research, development, and deployment.
Another concern for Canada's energy future is that the royalty regime [PDF] for tar sands leases is too weak. The rate is set at 1 percent until a project becomes profitable, and then it jumps to 25 percent, which is still low compared to some countries. Alberta risks squandering an opportunity to build its Heritage sovereign wealth fund while the people's resources disappear into private pockets, leaving the province without financial means to transition to a cleaner economy.
Is America being a good neighbor in this transaction, or merely abetting a fellow oil junkie? The proposed Keystone XL extension of the pipeline network that carries Albertan oil to the United States is currently under consideration, and final approval falls to the U.S. Department of State because of the international border crossing. It was announced on March 15 that a supplemental environmental impact statement will be issued, followed by a new public comment period, to determine whether the project is "in the U.S. national interest."
Buying more energy from a friendly neighbor appears like a good idea on the surface. But while energy security has the ring of a robust and consistent concept, it is actually a relative one. It wears a false halo of military necessity even during peacetime. Supplier countries want security of demand, and consumer countries want security of supply. What the oil industry really worries about is running out of business. "Producers who seek to maximize long-term revenue will want to maintain oil prices stable at the highest price that does not induce substantial investment in substitutes," writes technology and innovation expert Philip Auerswald.
Should we be worried about today's high prices? Auerswald doesn't think so. High prices merely hasten the inevitable transition to a post-oil economy. Estimations vary on the timing of peak oil, but the finitude of the resource is undisputed and so is its eventual depletion to a level where the cost of extraction will equal the value of the product.
Saying that America should be open to more tar sands oil is basically just another version of the "drill here, drill now" argument for tapping the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska. The Obama administration, it should be noted, has been a booster of domestic production, and production has gone up in the last five years. Canadian production has also increased significantly in the last decade, mostly from growth in the tar sands. But after two major oil price spikes during the same period, in 2008 and again now, it should be crystal clear that domestic and Canadian production growth doesn't control the global price, and that a much better strategy lies in finding replacement technologies and actively reducing demand.
But this is a tough sell when you think of things like how many Caterpillar 797B dump trucks are needed to mine the tar sands, and how the parts are manufactured all over the United States, by quite a few workers in quite a few Congressional districts. Add to that the public's resistance to raising gasoline taxes, and it becomes quite easy to see why it's politically difficult to enact bold and necessary energy policy. The hundreds of millions of lobbying dollars the oil industry spends certainly don't help our Senators see things clearly.
American politicians have been saying we need to get off foreign oil for half a century. Canadian energy executives and politicians bristle when they hear things like that. They feel that somehow Canadian oil shouldn't be considered foreign because it comes from North America. But the ethical thing is for both countries to pursue energy independence based on clean, renewable sources that don't pollute the environment, harm human health, and risk massive destabilization of the global climate.
As it stands, Canada has become a climate change ostrich with its head in the oil sands.
A version of this article first appeared in the Carnegie Ethics Online column.
Read More: Business, Conservation, Democracy, Development, Diplomacy, Economy, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Jobs, Security, Sustainability, Technology, Trade, Transportation, Canada, United States, Americas, Global, Middle Eastblog comments powered by Disqus
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There are times when I want to create an ad hoc network to share files or a network connection. Here are the steps to create an ad hoc network in Windows 7.
- Click on Start (Windows icon) and type wireless. Click on Manage wireless networks.
- Click on Add to add a network.
- Click on Create an ad hoc network.
- Click on Next.
- Enter a name for your network and configure the security options. Click on Next when you are done.
[Update: 3/21/2009] If you are interested in setting up an ad hoc network with encryption, please see this post.
[Update: 8/17/2010] Please see my latest post about setting an ad hoc network to share an internet connection.
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The issue of Nubian rights is an often neglected and poorly understood issue for public opinion. This is not a big surprise since Egyptians did not get any education on that part of their country and it hardly ever surfaces as part of the political discussion. Despite the active participation of Nubians in and before the revolution; their efforts to highlight their cause and their history of discrimination, little attention is given to them. Nubians have more recently become a part of the political discussion, more evident in the presidential race. However, as usual Nubians were excluded from participating in shaping their country’s future as none of them was selected to be in the constitution drafting committee.
Nubians are the inhabitants of a historical part in the South of Egypt and Northern Sudan. Their suffering started long before the building of the High Dam in 1964; it was in 1902 when Aswan Dam was built. The end result was about 44 villages that drowned along with the historic area that witnessed one of the humanity’s earliest civilizations. Some of the villages even drowned without prior notice; village inhabitants would wake up one day to find their property, their land and their cattle drowned. They were moved away to the desert land of Kom Ombo despite their heavy reliance on the Nile for agriculture all their life. They never received their rightful compensation for their displacement despite many promises made by successive regimes. They postponed the call for their rights several times for considerations of war and national crises. In addition, Nubians suffered from political, economic and cultural marginalization. School curricula exclude their cultural heritage and their language is not taught in schools (even in areas where they live) and it may become extinct if efforts are not made to preserve it.
Despite the marginalization, Nubian always asserted their “Egyptianness”. They have taken numerous patriotic stances and sacrificed several times for the sake of their country. They deserve respect not only for their struggle, but because they’re Egyptian and deserve full citizenship. They are fighting for their rights and their place in the new scene after the revolution. However their struggle exemplifies the many of the issues that Egypt suffers from:
Firstly, the “Nubian issue” reflects our crisis with growing racism and intolerance. Clearly, discrimination against different groups in Egypt is not uncommon whether it was based on gender, religious beliefs, class, etc. Activist Fatma Emam recently wrote an article of her experience as a black Egyptian and the racism she encounters on a daily basis. Her article served as a wakeup call for so many who were unaware of such experiences to “black Egyptians”. Moreover, a common issue often cited by Nubians is that most Egyptians assume they’re Sudanese or African as if Egypt doesn’t have that southern part where darker-skinned people live. The problem highlighted here is not only that we are being racist, but we are also in deep denial about it.
However, it’s not hard to find reasons why the situation has become so deteriorated. We lived under a centuries of authoritarianism and colonialism. Both systems usually play the cards of racism and divide-and-conquer very well; and they deprive societies from progressing towards pluralism. I am not justifying the racism or discrimination. However, I believe that’s a major lesson to be learnt. The more marginalized people are, the more likely people would want to rebel. And we can take South Sudan as an example. When people do not enjoy full participation and self-determination, they no longer want to be part of a country that denies them those rights.
Secondly, the “Nubian issue” also reflects a crisis with our “elite”, and by elite here I mean our opinion leaders, intellectuals, and media people. We may also add the emerging younger elite that started to gain more visibility after the revolution. A few of the elite come out to speak up about discrimination, racism, and Nubian rights. This can be seen a part of bigger elite crisis reflected in their detachment from the public and their failure to truly engage the public. Even when the revolution began, it was hardly credited for the efforts of the elite. It is sad that the people who should lead the change get trapped by infighting and at many cases follow their own personal interests.
One explanation that could be given as to why “the elite” shy away from the Nubian cause is considerations of populism. It seems like the Nubian issue is not “sexy” or “doesn’t sell” for intellectuals, so more favorable topics are preferred. For example, we will not find a lack of “elite” who spoke out against Palestinian displacement, but a handful who spoke against Nubian displacements.
We know that activism is more effective when there is more solidarity from different groups. That’s why women issues would be further promoted if more men stand by them, and Christians’ rights would be easier to attain if more Muslims speak up against their violations. It is true that more people now calling for inclusion and representation than ever before, but a strong stance against racism, sectarianism and discrimination is still much needed.
Thirdly, history tells us that many peoples were exploited under many guises. Arab nationalism was one of those ideologies under which lots of abuses and violations against minorities in different Arab countries were justified. The attack on other languages and cultures within Arab nations carried the banner of Arab nationalism. I would personally be happy with Arab union and with breaking geographical and economic barriers between us one day. However, all I can see that from now are big shiny words about Arab brotherhood and solidarity, while none of it is materializing.
Until now, Nubians are accused of separationism when they speak up for their rights. And more often than not they’re told it’s not the right time to bring it up. It’s time for us to realize that values of democracy and diversity must be respected and should never be taken away under any ideological guise or notion. Discrimination cannot be condoned or downplayed anymore; we can’t even afford it anymore.
Thanks Fatma Emam for the advice given for producing this piece.
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PROVIDENCE, RI -- Shifting glaciers and exploding volcanoes aren't confined to Mars' distant past, according two new reports in the journal Nature.
Glaciers moved from the poles to the tropics 350,000 to 4 million years ago, depositing massive amounts of ice at the base of mountains and volcanoes in the eastern Hellas region near the planet's equator, based on a report by a team of scientists analyzing images from the Mars Express mission. Scientists also studied images of glacial remnants on the western side of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system. They found additional evidence of recent ice formation and movement on these tropical mountain glaciers, similar to ones on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.
In a second report, the international team reveals previously unknown traces of a major eruption of Hecates Tholus less than 350,000 million years ago. In a depression on the volcano, researchers found glacial deposits estimated to be 5 to 24 million years old.
James Head, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and an author on the Nature papers, said the glacial data suggests recent climate change in Mars' 4.6-billion-year history. The team also concludes that Mars is in an "interglacial" period. As the planet tilts closer to the sun, ice deposited in lower latitudes will vaporize, changing the face of the Red Planet yet again.
Discovery of the explosive eruption of Hecates Tholus provides more evidence of recent Mars rumblings. In December, members of the same research team revealed that calderas on five major Mars volcanoes were repeatedly active as little as 2 million years ago. The volcanoes, scientists speculated, may even be active today.
"Mars is very dynamic," said Head, lead author of one of the Nature reports. "We see that the climate change and geological forces that drive evolution on Earth are happening there."
Head is part of a 33-institution team analyzing images from Mars Express, launched in June 2003 by the European Space Agency. The High Resolution Stereo Camera, or HRSC, on board the orbiter is producing 3-D images of the planet's surface.
These sharp, panoramic, full-color pictures provided fodder for a third Nature report. In it, the team offers evidence of a frozen body of water, about the size and depth of the North Sea, in southern Elysium.
A plethora of ice and active volcanoes could provide the water and heat needed to sustain basic life forms on Mars. Fresh data from Mars Express – and the announcement that live bacteria were found in a 30,000-year-old chunk of Alaskan ice – is fueling discussion about the possibility of past, even present, life on Mars. In a poll taken at a European Space Agency conference last month, 75 percent of scientists believe bacteria once existed on Mars and 25 percent believe it might still survive there.
Head recently traveled to Antarctica to study glaciers, including bacteria that can withstand the continent's dry, cold conditions. The average temperature on Mars is estimated to be 67 degrees below freezing. Similar temperatures are clocked in Antarctica's frigid interior.
"We're now seeing geological characteristics on Mars that could be related to life," Head said. "But we're a long way from knowing that life does indeed exist. The glacial deposits we studied would be accessible for sampling in future space missions. If we had ice to study, we would know a lot more about climate change on Mars and whether life is a possibility there."
The European Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center and the Freie Universitaet in Berlin built and flew the HRSC and processed data from the camera. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supported Head's work.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
rothbard on the utility of quantitative easing
Economist Murray Rothbard ("America‟s Great Depression", Ludwig von Mises Institute 2000) made extensive analysis of why the inflationary policies of the US Federal Reserve failed during the Great Depression. Those policies proved to be counterproductive:“American citizens lost confidence in the banks and demanded cash.. for their deposits.. while foreigners lost confidence in the dollar and demanded gold.. The more that.. the Fed tried to inflate, the more worried the.. public became about the dollar, the more gold flowed out of the banks, and the more deposits were redeemed for cash.. The Fed purchase of government securities was a purely artificial attempt to dope the inflation horse..”
this has to be a core concern of every briton at the moment, with the bank of england having entered the gilt market to monetize government debt. the grand experiment intends to goose economic activity at the expense of the real value of the already-slashed pound, with some sincerely icelandic tail risk.
in normal conditions, a devalued currency could be expected to assist exporters as well. as mentioned by the financial times, there is considerable doubt as to the efficacy of that pathway amid a global demand collapse. so the primary intention is to increase the currency in circulation in the hopes that more on hand will mean more spending and (critically) more borrowing.
this clearly did not work well in the 1930s to the extent it was undertaken as banks chose to hoard cash (much as today). of course, the united states also experienced a series of devastating bank runs which reinforced that tendency. today, with the FDIC, bank runs are a much smaller problem. aren't they?
the hard answer is that "it depends". much of the catastrophe of 2008 can be seen as a run on the shadow banking system -- that is, the uninsured and off-balance-sheet extensions of the financial system. the contraction of that massive credit generator is analogous in its effect to a systemic bank run that has resulted in failed "banks", boggling capital losses and widespread (and justifiable) paranoia.
that run has at times extended to more visible elements of the banking system, forcing insurance to be put into place on an ad hoc basis -- such as the commercial paper and money market fund backstops put in place following the collapse of lehman brothers, which were hoped to be able to forstall a systemic run on those markets which was actually underway.
beyond that there is the question of the fate of crossborder deposits -- international depositors in american banks have heretofore been well treated by the FDIC, but their accounts are not legally protected. these accounts are a massive part of the deposits in money-center banks such as C or JPM. crossborder runs have already become a reality in some parts of the world during this crisis.
and there is finally the question of the FDIC itself. michael panzner forecast in his sometimes-eerily-prescient "financial armageddon" (and has repeated elsewhere) that eventually deposit insurance (along with many overpromised government-backed obligations) will likely have to be diluted or perhaps even eliminated in the crisis now underway as the fiscal position of government may not allow it to backstop all failed banks as the debt unwind progresses and the losses being assumed by the government through the FDIC and other pathways become overwhelming. the mere anticipation of that development could reintroduce the bank run to american society after a long absence, which is probably why sheila bair recently approached congress for a $500bn line to the treasury, a move many see as preparatory of the resolution of a money-center bank. this comes on top of a draconian assessment levied across all banks, leaving many smaller community bankers incensed at what some term "confiscating the capital of the industry" on the part of the government in service of the majors.
and this is not to mention hoarding in anticipation of runs on other elements of the financial system -- most notably of late the insurance sector, which rolfe winkler delves into today.
beyond simply engendering some healthy skepticism of the value of government insurance in a real crisis, the two-pronged point here is
- that quantitative easing may not work to promote economic activity through increased lending in part because the value of assurances against losses are, even and perpahs particularly where comprehensive, questionable;
- that quantitative easing, or rather monetization, may be the only resort to which government could really appeal in the case of multiple large-scale bank resolutions.
it is impossible to know how this would work out in detail -- but should we witness a real spate of dollar weakness in forex markets as things go along, government may be faced with some very stark choices about what it can really afford to backstop.
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No flood, no money. What a trade!
When asked about his future, Nguyen Van Nghe, a fisherman in Dong Thap Province answered: “No flood, no money. What a trade!” He was referring to the fact that over the last 10 years the construction of high dykes in Dong Thap and the Long Xuyen Quadrangle has blocked the annual replenishment of freshwater, nutrients, and sediment on which fish depend. In turn, this has destroyed the wild fisheries on which the landless, including Nghe, who make up 20% of the Mekong Delta’s population, depend. Wild fish production has declined by 40% over the last 10 years and species that were once used as fertilizer now sell for VND180,000/kg. The predatory snakehead, which once occupied the top of the aquatic food chain, has disappeared. The high dykes have also greatly reduced the annual flushing. This has resulted in the accumulation of pathogens and toxins in the surface water and growing public health problems.
High dykes were built to allow a third, or autumn-winter, rice crop to be grown because of the high prices this off-season crop can fetch on the international market. In 2011, 560,000 hectares of autumn-winter rice were planted, up from 520,000 hectares in 2010. But because of the loss of sediment, rice productivity can only be maintained through the heavy use of fertilizer. Nguyen Huu Thien, a wetland specialist based in Can Tho, questions whether the third rice crop is profitable once you take into account the increased use of fertilizer and pesticide, the cost of dyke maintenance, the loss of wild fish, and, inevitably, the cost of dyke failure: when dykes failed in 2011, 50 people were killed and tens of millions of dollars of houses, roads, and other infrastructure was destroyed. The intensification of rice production has also resulted in the virtual extinction of the traditional long-stem floating rice varieties, which in Brazil sell for $3,500/ton, almost ten times the price of autumn-winter rice.
Dr. Ngo Van Be of the Dong Thap Muoi Institute of Research and Development says that the floods that used to be “mild” are now “fierce” and unpredictable. In hydrological terms, what the high dykes have done is to separate the Mekong River from its 1.5 million-hectare floodplain. According to Dr. Le Anh Tuan of Can Tho University, these dykes have narrowed the floodplain during the peak October-November flood from 150 kilometers to a few tens of kilometers. This has accelerated the water flow and displaced flooding to residential areas downstream. Reduction of the flooded area has also reduced groundwater recharge, reduced river base flows, and increased dry season saline intrusion, which increases the cost of drinking water supplies. The violent floods of 2011 call into question the value of the third rice crop and instead argue for a more natural hydrology that provides multiple benefits, including greater resilience to climate change, which is likely to result in more intense rainfalls and flash flooding.
To learn more about these issues, watch this 30-minute file produced by the Center for Water Resources Conservation and Development (WARECOD) and VTC16.
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January 11, 2012
Imagine this scenario. You have a great career and you are a star employee. You are talented, a problem solver and go out of your way to help co-workers. You do your job and make it all look easy. Despite your dedication, one day a new person is hired. They have the same education, experience, and skills that you have. There is only one difference: he gets paid more. In spite of all the progress our nation has made in civil rights over the past fifty years, men still get paid more than women for no other reason than gender. Now is the time to change that.
The Paycheck Fairness Act, a long overdue amendment to the Equal Pay Act of 1963, (S. 182) was introduced by Congress in 2011 with the support of President Obama, who in a statement called the legislation “ a common-sense bill that will help ensure that men and women who do equal work receive the equal pay that they and their families deserve.” Nearly fifty years ago, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 passed, promising that men and women would receive equal pay for equal work. However, the wage gap continues despite women’s increased education, greater level of experience, and less time spent raising children. When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, women earned, on average, 60 cents for every dollar earned by men. In the forty-eight years that have passed, the pay gap has closed by less than 20 cents. In 2010, women earned 77 cents on every dollar earned by men. Women of color fared even worse--African American women earned only 67 cents, and Latinas just 58. Seventy-seven cents on the dollar is not fair. Now is the time to take action to close the pay gap.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would close loopholes, strengthen business incentives to end pay discrimination, prohibit retaliation against workers who share wage information, and bring the Equal Pay Act in line with other civil rights laws. Passing this act does not just affect women, it affects everyone. More families are depending on women as breadwinners. The share of couples that both work rose to 66 percent in 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The number of women who were the only working spouse also rose, with an estimated 4 million families depending on mom to bring home the bacon. The number of dads who were the only working spouse dropped, and the number of stay-at-home dads rose higher.
The wage gap has long-term effects on the economic security of women and families. In 2009 a typical college educated woman earned $36,278/year for fulltime work, while a comparable educated man earned $47,127- a difference of $10,849. This amount of money can be a great help to a family struggling during a recession. With $10,849, you could buy a year's worth of groceries ($3,210), pay for a semester of college tuition ($6,548), pay three months of rent and utilities ($2,265) six months of health insurance ($1,697), or cover six months on a student loan ($1,602).
The current economic crisis is heavily affecting families, and the latest data shows that gender roles are becoming more flexible and egalitarian. Shouldn’t pay reflect this shift? The answer is a resounding yes. We can’t afford to wait another fifty years for paycheck equality. The future of our economy and the well-being of our families depend on it. When women are paid fairly, whole families win. It is our civic duty to take action by writing or calling our Senators and Representatives and urging them to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act now.
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Tamoxifen use 'should double' to stop breast cancer returning
A decade's treatment with tamoxifen could stop the return of breast cancer for many more women than the current recommendation for five years, say researchers.
University of Oxford scientists say the doubling cuts both the risk of the cancer returning and deaths from the disease.
Writing in The Lancet, they say this outweighs the risk of side effects.
Cancer Research UK said the study added important clarity.
Tamoxifen tablets have long been part of the daily routine for women in the years after remission from 'ER-positive' breast cancer.
ER-positive tumour growth is accelerated by the female sex hormone oestrogen, and tamoxifen blocks the hormone.
An international group of scientists, led by Dr Christina Davies from the University of Oxford, looked at the effect of sustained tamoxifen on the likelihood that cancer would return.
They looked at 6,847 women with the ER-positive version of the disease, half of whom were given tamoxifen for the standard five year period, and half who continued with the drug until the 10 year mark.
The results found that cancer returned in a quarter of the women given five years of tamoxifen. That fell to 21.4% in those given ten years of the drug.
Deaths from breast cancer was also significantly reduced, from 15% of those on the five-year programme, to just over 12% of those given 10 years.
End Quote Dr Caitlin Palframan Breakthrough Breast Cancer
This trial is great news for women with this type of breast cancer as it suggests that taking the commonly used drug, tamoxifen, for longer could save more lives with minimal additional side effects”
While the changes are only a few percent, with more than 40,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK alone every year, a large proportion of whom have 'ER-positive' cancer, it could mean a significant decrease in the number whose cancer returns.
The report authors said: "Good evidence now exists that 10 years of tamoxifen in ER-positive breast cancer produces substantial reductions in rates of recurrence and in breast cancer mortality not only during the first decade, while treatment continues, but also during the second decade, long after it has ended."
The drug does cause side-effects in some patients, including, rarely, cancer of the lining of the womb, but the scientists said that the increased chance of preventing breast cancer returning far outweighed the risk.
Dr Caitlin Palframan, head of policy at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "ER-positive breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer and so improving treatment and getting the most out of the effective treatments we already have is key.
"This trial is great news for women with this type of breast cancer as it suggests that taking the commonly used drug, tamoxifen, for longer could save more lives with minimal additional side effects."
Other scientists say that 10 years could now become the standard for treatment.
Prof Trevor Powles, from Cancer Centre London, said that this, and other studies due to report next year, "should herald a change in practice".
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said: "We do not generally make recommendations relating to how long a patient should receive tamoxifen; that decision should be made by a doctor according to their professional judgement and in discussion with their patient, not least because there are continuing trials in this area.
"We review our guidance regularly to ensure it remains based on the best, most up-to-date evidence available and, when we come to update our guidelines on the diagnosis and management of breast cancer, we will take all new evidence into consideration."
Martin Ledwick, from Cancer Research UK which funded the study, said: "This important study adds further clarity to the question about the length of time women should take tamoxifen.
"Although treatment for hormone receptor positive breast cancer has become more complex in recent years with some women receiving aromatese inhibitors, these results will help in deciding the length of treatment for women who are prescribed tamoxifen alone."
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U.S. Virgin Islands are often referred as 'America's Paradise'. Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix - the three main islands that constitute U.S. Virgin Islands - are surrounded by North Atlantic Ocean on the north and Caribbean Sea on the south. They form Virgin Islands archipelago together with British Virgin Islands, which lie on their west.
The islands are popular for their sea, surf, sand and sun and are important tourist attractions of America. Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the islands in 1493. They were held by European colonial powers such as Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France and Denmark-Norway one after the other. The Islands were purchased by the United States from Denmark in 1917.
Saint Thomas is the busiest and the most cosmopolitan of U.S. Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie in Saint Thomas is the Caribbeans' most popular cruise ship hub. Saint Thomas pampers its visitors with a wide choice of beaches, each having its own specialty. Magens Bay, St. Thomas' most visited beach, has calm waters and is ideal for swimming and children. Water sports opportunities include boating and kayaking.
Palm tree-lined beach of Lindberg Bay is picturesque and is perfect for relaxing. There are facilities for a range of water sports. Coki Point is an excellent beach for snorkeling. Saint Thomas is also a shoppers' paradise. One can have bird's eye view of the U.S. Virgin Island from St. Thomas Skyride, a cable car system.
Saint John is the smallest of U.S. Virgin Islands, but has the best beaches. Trunk Bay is a picturesque beach famous for its white sand and beautiful water. The beach is a popular snorkeling spot. Honeymoon Bay, featuring white sand and crystal clear water, is a quieter beach compared to Trunk Bay.
Hawknest Beach, Great Cruz Bay, Maho Bay and Salomon Beach are just some of the other beaches that Saint John offers. The island, of which a large part is covered by Virgin Islands National Park, has spectacular landscape with lush mountains and beautiful beaches. One can get a peek into Saint John's history and heritage by visiting ruins of sugar plantation sites and rock carvings.
Saint Croix is the largest of three main U.S. Virgin islands. This island is known for its historical sites, rainforest, beaches and hills. There are plantation villages of yesteryears and other sites related with with the plantation agriculture, which made Saint Croix a major sugar producing island. Colonial architecture coexists with modern buildings across towns of the islands. Palm-lined sunny beaches of Saint Croix present unmatched beauty. Protestant Cay, Mermaid Beach and Shoy's are some of the popular beaches of this island.
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On April 30, 1803, the United States government made one of the greatest land transactions of all time when it purchased from the French Republic for $15 million dollars, a piece of real estate extending from the Gulf of Mexico north to Canada, and from the Mississippi River Basin west to the Rocky Mountains. Called the Louisiana Purchase, this transaction added 830,000 square miles of uncharted wilderness to the territory of the United States.
The Louisiana Purchase opened the west for settlement by Europeans and Americans and had grave implications for American Indians, who would soon find their ancestral homelands taken from them. It allowed for the extension of slavery, brought an end to French and Spanish domination in Arkansas and allowed a diversity of settlers to develop and perpetuate their own cultures in the six distinct geographic regions of the state.
Play the games below or download the lesson plans and activity sheets to learn more about the Louisiana Purchase.
Download these lesson plans and activity sheets for use in your classroom. All documents are in PDF Format.
Play the Games
Click on the following images to play the game! You'll need Shockwave Flash to play.
©2013 Department of Arkansas Heritage. All Rights Reserved Aristotle Web Design ®
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Recent medical reports suggest that ingested aluminum has a direct link to Alzheimer's, attention deficit disorder, bone degeneration, kidney dysfunction, and even Parkinson's disease. Studies have also shown that aluminum salts can be absorbed from the intestines and concentrated in various human tissues. Most baking powder products, a staple in some households, contain toxic levels of aluminum.
With all this known, you probably would wonder why aluminum is allowed in baking powder and why anyone would use it. The baking powders that contain aluminum are ‘double-acting’ indicating that although some of the leavening power is released when the mix is prepared, the greater leavening takes place when the item is baked. This produces a very fine, light texture, and is appreciated particularly in commercial baking, where mixes often sit for long periods before they go into the oven. But it isn’t necessary for your baking. For a lighter texture, just bake the mix immediately.
Also, if you've ever experienced a bitter, "tinny" flavor when biting into a muffin, that's because of the baking powder used—and often the overuse of it. Using aluminum free baking powder not only will keep you from ingesting aluminum, but will also take away that bitter flavor.
April 10, 2011 at 9:41 pm
My son is allergic to corn. There is only one brand of baking powder (that I know of) that does not have cornstarch in it. Does this have cornstarch?
January 24, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Try the Arrowroot powder. xx
April 1, 2012 at 2:33 pm
RE: Baking Powder - Make your own. It's easier to find aluminum-free baking soda than baking powder:
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon corn starch (optional - can use arrowroot instead of corn starch)
Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar together until well combined. Use immediately.
Yield: One tablespoon of baking powder.
To store baking powder: Add a teaspoon of corn starch to the mixture, and stir. This will absorb any moisture from the air, and prevent the baking powder from reacting before you need it. Store in an air-tight container.
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Invalid Forensic Science Testimony and Wrongful Convictions
Flawed testimony by forensic experts contributed to the conviction of innocent defendants, according to a new study co-written by University of Virginia Law School professor Brandon Garrett.
The findings are featured in an article, "Invalid Forensic Science Testimony and Wrongful Convictions," published in the March, 2009 issue of the Virginia Law Review. Read the article in
Garrett and Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, studied the transcripts of 137 trials in which prosecution forensic analysts testified, and the defendants were exonerated years later by post-conviction DNA testing.
The pair found that in 60 percent of those wrongful conviction cases, forensic analysts gave "invalid testimony that overstated the evidence," Garrett said.
"What we mean by 'invalid' is simply that the testimony was unscientific or contrary to empirical data," he said. "Just because a wrong statistic was offered, does not mean that the testimony necessarily caused the wrongful conviction. However, these powerful examples support efforts to adopt and enforce scientific standards governing forensic reporting and testimony."
The flawed testimony uncovered by Garrett and Neufeld included erroneous or unsupported testimony about the accuracy and results of forensic techniques, including hair comparison, bite-mark comparison, fingerprint comparison and even DNA testing.
The study originated with a request to Garrett — who conducted previous research on wrongful convictions — from a National Academy of Sciences committee examining the needs of the forensic science community, asking him to present at one of the committee's public hearings.
Garrett and Neufeld then spent more than a year compiling and analyzing trial transcripts from the cases of people later exonerated by DNA evidence. Several scientists and forensic scientists also reviewed the categories used for analysis and examined transcripts in particular cases.
The majority of the cases were rape cases from the 1980s, and many included testimony about forensic techniques that are still used today, said Neufeld, co-founder of Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization that uses DNA testing to exonerate wrongfully convicted people and seeks to reform the criminal justice system to prevent injustice.
The National Academy of Sciences report, "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward," was released in February, and recommends the establishment of a national institute of forensic science, an independent scientific entity to adopt and enforce standards for forensic report writing and testimony.
"With the exception of nuclear DNA analysis ... no forensic method has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source," the National Academy of Sciences report says.
In their study, Garrett and Neufeld found that forensic analysts often testified that a particular piece of evidence — such as a hair or a fingerprint — was closely connected to the innocent defendant, despite the fact that no scientific data permitted analysts to reach such conclusions.
For example, in one case an analyst told a jury that only 5 percent of the population had a certain type of hair pigment discovered at a crime scene, and that the defendant was among them. But there is no empirical data about the frequency of particular hair pigments, Garrett said.
"These trial transcripts were fascinating to read, because in retrospect we know that all of the defendants were innocent," he said. "Yet few have looked at these records. Even after these wrongful convictions came to light, crime laboratories rarely conducted audits or investigations to review the forensic evidence presented at the trial."
The study doesn't speak to the state of mind of analysts; it's impossible to tell from trial materials whether they were simply inexperienced or poorly supervised or acting in bad faith, Garrett said.
"Nor do we know how many cases involved concealment of forensic evidence," he said. "In 13 exonerees' cases it has since come to light that forensic evidence was concealed that would have helped to prove innocence. Similarly, we do not know from reading trial transcripts in how many cases errors were made in the laboratory, although in a few exonerees' cases in which the underlying evidence was re-examined, gross errors have come to light."
The study also notes that the criminal justice system is not well-suited to prevent unscientific testimony. Reasons include that the presentation of forensic evidence is almost entirely one-sided, Garrett said.
"Defense counsel rarely cross-examined analysts concerning invalid testimony and rarely retained experts, since courts routinely deny funding for defense experts." Only 19 of the eventual exonerees whose cases were examined had defense experts. "Prosecutors, moreover, presented erroneous accounts of the forensic evidence during closing arguments," Garrett said.
The study's authors agree with the National Academy of Sciences report's assessment that a set of national scientific standards should be established to ensure the valid presentation of forensic analysis. Neufeld called the report "a major breakthrough toward ensuring that so-called scientific evidence in criminal cases is solid, validated and reliable.""
||Truth in Justice
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Crab, King – US (kani)
In the U.S., there are three commercial King Crab species – Red, Blue and Golden King Crab – all caught in Alaskan waters.
King Crabs typically mature around 5-7 years of age and can have a leg span of 6 feet. Most King Crab populations are at healthy levels of abundance and not considered overfished. Some populations are closed for fishing, however, to rebuild numbers.
King Crabs are caught using crab pots, which are typically 700 lb steel pots covered with nylon webbing. Although large, they do relatively little damage to the muddy sea floor. New management policies and regional closures have helped mold this ‘derby’ fishery into a well-regulated, efficient and economically stable program.
Bycatch in King Crab fisheries is low, typically consisting of female and undersized male crabs.
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Researchers in Britain have developed a drug they say could revolutionize the effectiveness of radiation on cancer. Radiotherapy is used to destroy cancer cells by zapping their DNA, thus disrupting their ability to function and reproduce. But like other cells in the body, cancer cells have a sort of DNA repair kit that can minimize these effects. The new drug disables the DNA repair process and allows radiotherapy to target tumors with “deadly accuracy.”
From Newcastle University:
New drug could help target cancer cells with deadly accuracy
A new drug that could revolutionise the impact of radiotherapy on cancer and make treatment much more effective, has been developed by Cancer Research UK scientists at Newcastle University.
The drug, developed by the charity’s clinical unit at the University, has been designed to destroy the protection enjoyed by cancer cells.
Radiotherapy kills cancer cells by causing damage to DNA. But the DNA damage repair kit ? the body’s Sir Lancelot which is present in all cells ? rides to the rescue of the beleaguered cells and can get in the way of effective treatment.
The new drug will, in turn, disable the DNA repair process and allow radiotherapy to target tumours with deadly accuracy, according to research leader Professor Hilary Calvert, speaking at Cancer Research UK’s first annual conference in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.
Professor Calvert explains: ‘Our DNA is damaged all the time during life’s daily routine. One cell sustains about 30,000 incidents of DNA damage every day through the oxygen and chemicals circulating in the body. Therefore the DNA damage repair process is invaluable and keeps us from dissolving into a blob of jelly.’
But the downside of this is that the DNA repair kit also comes to the rescue of cancer cells when they are under attack. This has led scientists to search for a weapon to prevent the repair kit from working on tumours.
The most promising prospect in the armoury is a class of drugs known as PARP inhibitors which block the action of DNA repair enzymes called PARPs*. In pre-clinical studies researchers have found that these drugs are highly effective at sensitising cancer cells to radiotherapy.
Professor Calvert says that one of the problems with radiotherapy ? which is the most common way of treating cancer apart from surgery ? is that the dose needed to kill large tumours is often too toxic to be sustained by the body.
‘We have been trying to find something to make tumours more sensitive to radiotherapy. And we hope the PARP inhibitor will prove an effective radiosensitizer which would be a huge benefit to cancer patients.
‘Clinical trials of radiosensitizers have always posed a particularly difficult problem of design because we have to ensure that they are not increasing any side effects to normal tissue,’ he says. ‘Many of the side-effects of radiotherapy are very late and can occur many months or years after the original treatment.’
Professor Robert Souhami, Director of Clinical Research for Cancer Research UK, says: ‘The development and production of the PARP inhibitors mean we have a potentially very exciting new approach to cancer treatment.
‘But there is still much work to be done. We hope clinical trials will start soon but these would take several years to complete before any drug could be licensed for general use.’
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Recent acts of violence alongside pending legislation and international pressure have brought to light the pressing need for lawmaking in support of LGBT rights in Chile. Together with protests for reforms in the education system, the public seems to be increasingly impatient about what the government is doing to protect LGBT rights. These demands are important beyond the scope of gay rights, because they have brought attention to the need for Chile to recognize, accept and protect the human rights of an evolving, heterogeneous culture as a fundamental prerequisite for continued prosperity.
The passage of an antidiscrimination law, which remained unresolved for over seven years, by a close 58-56 vote in the Chamber of Deputies this month was a basic necessity for the country. The Chilean Movement for Sexual Minorities (MOVILH) notes that in 2011 gay, lesbian and transgender Chileans were increasingly outspoken in reporting abuse and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. However, this recently passed antidiscrimination law does not deal with hate crimes per se, but rather defines illegal discrimination. Furthermore, certain passages have yet to be finalized in a mixed commission of Senators and Deputies on May 2. The recent death of gay youth Daniel Zamudio points to precisely why legislating solely on discrimination does not suffice in this case, serving as an exceptionally violent example as to why hate crimes require specific punishment under the law.
Zamudio received not only the public’s sympathy, but also worldwide attention including a briefing note from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ spokesman, Rupert Colville, urging Chile to enact hate crime legislation. In this regard, the MOVILH also argues that Chilean society is not opposed to legislating on issues of gay rights and antidiscrimination in its entirety, but there is a lack of bravery and willingness within Congress to approach these pending issues. The recent Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ overturning of a Chilean court ruling against lesbian Judge Karen Atala, who lost custody of her children because of her same-sex relationship, is further international pressure for Chile to meet requirements stipulated by international agreements it has signed onto.
Chile’s gay rights deficit is worrying as the country continues to be viewed as an example for continued economic growth despite global market volatility. President Sebastian Piñera’s administration is cautious about giving into all public demands, as Chile’s Minister of Finance Felipe Larraín recently said: “If we surrender to the temptation of appeasing demands by giving in to all of them, we will never get to our final goal [development].” However, most gay rights issues rely merely on political willingness rather than investment for social welfare. Furthermore, acting on gay rights is not the investment equivalent of reforming a public education system.
On the contrary, the lack of legislative initiative to protect gay Chileans is hindering the business community’s business opportunities. Private initiatives have been taken to reach out to gay customers, like for example the granting of access to mortgages and family insurance plans to Banco de Chile customers in same-sex relationships, proving how it is not only the public that is restless, but also the private sector that recognizes the positive effects of social inclusion in business. What could potentially prove threatening to Chile’s continued economic success might just be the lack of recognition given to the longstanding need for social inclusion of minorities in the country’s legal framework. In contrast, Chile’s neighbor Argentina has clearly reaped the benefits of gay tourism and investment since legislating on gay marriage, while Chile continues to turn a blind eye to opportunity.
This is not to say that Piñera’s administration has not taken basic steps to promote the rights of gay couples, like for example Piñera’s public presentation of a civil unions bill in August 2011. However, this legislative project was not only perceived as a political tool in the midst of cabinet discussions with student protest leaders, but is also minimal when considering the prominent use of gay couples in campaign ads for Sebastian Piñera during his presidential campaign. For this reason, the inclusion of a question in the 2012 census that allows gay couples to state whether they live with a same-sex partner may become an important, confidential and unbiased figure that current and future administrations could use to advocate for legislation on gay unions.
This paradox persists despite the heightened quality of life of Chileans. Economic growth is creating an increasingly obvious deficit in basic human rights the country has yet to attain. In spite of continued development and well-regarded fiscal policy through the recession and into today’s administration, Chile continues to be in debt to not only its citizens and the country’s business community, but also to international human rights agreements on sexual orientation and gender identity. These international standards continue to be well above those demonstrated by the current state of gay rights legislation in Chile.
Eduardo Ayala is a guest blogger to AQ Online. He is Chilean-American and works at the Council of the Americas in New York. He graduated from The George Washington University, during which time he also completed coursework at The University of Chile and The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago.
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Three-dimensional printing is being used to make metal parts for aircraft and space vehicles, as well as industrial uses. Now NASA is building engine parts with this technique for its next-generation heavy-lift rocket.
The agency says that its Space Launch System (SLS) will deliver new abilities for science and human exploration outside Earth's orbit by carrying the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew vehicle, plus cargo, equipment, and instruments for science experiments. It will also supply backup transportation to the International Space Station, and it will even go to Mars.
NASA is using 3D printing to build engine parts for its next-generation Space Launch System. Shown here is the first test piece produced on the M2 Cusing Machine at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
(Source: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center/Andy Hardin)
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is using a selective laser melting (SLM) process to produce intricate metal parts for the SLS rocket engines with powdered metals and the M2 Cusing machine, built by Concept Laser of Germany. NASA expects to save millions in manufacturing costs and reduce manufacturing time. SLM, a version of selective laser sintering, is known for its ability to create metal parts with complex geometries and precise mechanical properties.
The SLS will weigh 5.5 million pounds, stand 321 feet tall, and provide 8.4 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Its propulsion system will include liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Its mission will launch Orion without a crew in 2017; the second will launch Orion with up to four astronauts in 2021. NASA's goal is to use SLM to manufacture parts that will be used on the first mission.
The rocket's development and operations costs will be reduced using tooling and manufacturing technology from programs such as the space shuttle. For example, the J-2X engine, an advanced version of J-2 Saturn engines, will be used as the SLS upper stage engine. Some SLM-produced engine parts will be structurally tested this year and used in J-2X hot-fire tests.
In a NASA video, Andy Hardin, engine integration hardware lead for the Marshall Space Flight Center SLS engines office, discusses the initial testing and building stages:
We do a lot of engineering builds first to make sure we have the process [worked] out. There's always weld problems that you have to deal with, and there's going to be problems with this that we will have to work out, too. But this has the potential to eliminate a lot of those problems, and it will have the potential to reduce the cost by as much as half in some cases on a lot of parts.
Since final parts won't be welded, they are structurally stronger and more reliable, which also makes for a safer vehicle.
Ken Cooper, advanced manufacturing team lead at the Marshall Space Flight Center, says in the video that the technique is especially useful for making very complex shapes that can't be built in other ways, or for simplifying the building of complex shapes. But geometry is not the deciding factor; whether the machine can do it or not is decided by the size of the part.
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Chile's economy is based on the export of minerals, which account for about half of the total value of exports. Copper is the nation's most valuable resource, and Chile is the world's largest producer. Agriculture is the main occupation of about 15% of the population; it accounts for about 6% of the national wealth, and produces less than half of the domestic needs. The Vale of Chile is the country's primary agricultural area; its vineyards are the basis of Chile's wine industry. Grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus, and beans are the chief crops. Livestock production includes beef and poultry. Sheep raising is the chief pastoral occupation, providing wool and meat for domestic use and for export. Fishing and lumbering are also important economic activities. Chile's industries largely process its raw materials and manufacture various consumer goods. The major products are copper and other minerals, processed food, fish meal, iron and steel, wood and wood products, transportation equipment, and textiles.
The dependence of the economy on copper prices and the production of an adequate food supply are two of Chile's major economic problems. Chile's main imports are petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, electrical and telecommunications equipment, industrial machinery, vehicles, and natural gas. In addition to minerals, it also exports fruit, fish and fish products, paper and pulp, chemicals, and wine. The chief trading partners are the United States, China, Brazil, Argentina, and South Korea.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on Chile Economy from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: South American Political Geography
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This section provides a short description of all the major characters in the book. This can be printed out as a study guide for students, used as a "key" for leading a class discussion, or you can jump to the quiz/homework section to find worksheets that incorporate these descriptions into a variety of question formats.
Muhammad Bilal - This character is the son of a farmer who is stolen from Africa and sold as a slave.
Lizzy - This character is a slave on the Live Oaks plantation in South Carolina who never has a freedom dream.
Elijah Lewis - This character is intelligent and forward thinking and dreams of making enough money to help his family hold onto the Glory Field.
Luvenia Lewis - This character is tall and dark-skinned. He/she has ideas of his/her own and does not want to move to Curry Island with his/her...
This section contains 570 words|
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
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- Historic Sites
The Winter Soldiers,
December 1973 | Volume 25, Issue 1
That was the end of the campaigning in 1776. Washington went into winter quarters and waited for a spring that would bring new hardships. Most of his soldiers went home, to be replaced by unpromising recruits. But now, for the rest of the war, there would be among these green men a leavening of veterans who had seen Hessians surrender and British regulars run from a pitched battle and who would not forget the sight. As Ketchum writes, “The Americans’ revolution survived—survived in some mysterious way that no one could quite fathom—in no small part because of what George Washington and his soldiers achieved against all the odds that nature and a vastly superior military force could pit against them. … Because of their accomplishments, the waning days of 1776 were not the end of everything, but a new beginning.”
The Winter Soldiers is the story of the men who brought about that new beginning; it is a story that cannot be told too often and has rarely been told so well.
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Dengue Fever in India
04 March 2013
Dengue fever is a growing concern in India. In 2012, 247 deaths were recorded as a result of dengue fever nationwide.
Latest data on disease prevalence released by the Health Ministry shows a significant rise in the incidence of dengue fever from 18 860 cases in 2011, to 49 606 in year 2012.
Around 1700 dengue cases were reported from Delhi in 2012.
Advice for Travellers
India is a popular tourist destination and travellers should be aware of the risk of dengue fever. Avoidance of mosquito bites, particularly during daylight hours, by covering up with clothing, the use of bite avoidance measures such as repellent and bed nets is advised. Elimination of breeding sites around hotel rooms/houses is advised for longer term stays.
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KDL Recommends For Kids > PLAY-GROW-READ! - Books for Early Literacy > Katie L. Talks: Books that Invite Participation
Shout! Shout It Out!
Title: Shout! Shout It Out!
Author: Denise Fleming
CONCEPT E FLEMING
Mouse invites the reader to shout out what he or she knows as they review numbers, letters, and easy words.
Kids are often told to sit still and be quiet. But Denise Fleming encourages them to shout, shout it out! By taking basic learning concepts like numbers, letters, and colors and putting them on display, she asks kids to shout out what they know—and her readers will be happy to oblige.
With bold colors and her unique handmade paper art, Denise Fleming makes learning into a game. Long-time fans and sharp-eyed newcomers will be happy to see that Mouse returns on every page, shouting along with the crowd!
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UK hydrogen cars are coming - if you can fill up
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's hydrogen fuel cell car fleet may hit top gear within five years, but only if there is enough investment in filling stations, the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Association (UK HFCA) told Reuters on Friday.
Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity, with heat and water being the only by-products, with a number of car makers including Toyota, Ford, and Hyundai, pushing to commercialize the low-carbon hybrid fuel cell vehicle by 2015.
"Somewhere around 2015 to 2017 we'll be over threshold and I think we'll see a larger and growing fleet," HFC chairman Dennis Hayter said.
"It's all aligned with the rollout of the infrastructure. In order to get to a semi-ubiquitous availability of hydrogen, then yes, you're talking may billions of pounds, but it doesn't have to come at once."
Hayter said fuel cell cars only take minutes to refill with a range of around 250 miles range. Plug-in electric vehicles take hours to recharge with a range of around 100 miles.
Existing petrol filling stations could be converted, with hydrogen companies possibly leasing some of the pumps, while current hydrogen production capacity is seen as adequate for the next decade.
"You may find there's a deal to be made between the hydrogen gas and petroleum companies. Things are happening in the background and gradually a network is starting to appear," Hayter said.
"At present, the majority of hydrogen is derived from reforming of natural gas for industrial purposes such as refining and in chemicals.
"The quantities currently used and likely to be needed for transport in the next five to 10 years would still be minimal alongside hydrogen consumed for industrial use."
For the long term estimates of hydrogen costs, Hayter believes it will be competitive with petrol, or cheaper. Using U.S. hydrogen prices of $8 a kilogram, it would cost around $32 to fill up fuel cell car with a 250 mile range, he said.
"It's not comparing apples with apples, but if they're the long term costs, then it could be significantly cheaper but it depends on the fuel duty," Hayter added.
The UK HFCA is calling for hydrogen not to be taxed as a transport fuel, as petrol is, to help incentivize uptake.
Britain has around 30 hydrogen fuel vehicles, mostly buses and taxi in London, with two filling stations in the city and another four expected by 2012, the UK HFCA said.
Seen as a way to decarbonise the transport sector, Britain's former Labour government planned to subsidise low-carbon vehicle purchases from 2011, with a grant worth up to 5,000 pounds ($7,584).
(Editing by William Hardy)
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New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
In current practice, usage of the term case most likely refers to the use of uppercase (capital) or lowercase letters. See some examples below. In letterpress practice, case refers to the physical box (case), usually wooden, that a given set of letters is stored. Capital letters were stored in the upper (top) case and lowercase letters were stored in the lower (bottom) case.
ALL CAPS -- All letters are capitalized.
Title Case -- The first letter of each word is capitalized.
Sentence case -- where the first character is capital and the remaining words are lowercase.
Camel Case -- Also called internal caps where one or more characters in a given word (or string) has a capitalized letter. This is often used in programming languages and increasingly seen for naming or branding companies or products.
Greek OpenType Features
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SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY
Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263) was proclaimed Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolite Macarius in 1547
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Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263)
The life of a saint is always a mystery both for contemporaries and for descendants. Only our Lord and Savoir Jesus Christ can evaluate in full measure all the troubles and accomplishments of his hermit. The life of a saint, although it belongs to the church on our sinful earth, serves as an expression of the will of the Church in Heaven. We recall the saints in the most difficult minutes of our life, when it seemed there is no way out. And that is when God sends us his hermit. This happened to our Russian land more than once.
“In the year 1237,” runs the chronicle, “Batu Khan, cruel and godless, came to the Russian land and there were many Tartars with him. Batu Khan’s army was so big that one Russian had to fight against a thousand Tartars, and two – against a legion. There had never been a battle like that and there were no survivors.
Almost all Russia, except its Northern areas, languished under the Tartar-Mongol yoke for nearly 300 years.
Having conquered the Russian land, the Tartars went down the Volga River where they founded their kingdom – the “Golden Horde”. The town of Sarai was its capital.
Fortunately, the Tartars, though they imposed a heavy tax on Russia, left untouched the Russian Orthodox Church – the guarantee of the future liberation of Russia.
Alexander’s father, Grand Prince Yaroslav, undertook to take care of the devastated Russian land.
The Tartars and Mongols were not the only enemies Russia had to face at the time. Germans and Swedes threatened it from the West. Prince Alexander was 20 years old when he clashed with them for the first time.
Be that time Grand Prince Yaroslav, Alexander’s father, made him Prince of Novgorod. Taught martial arts since early childhood, Alexander was a skilled warrior. He was a man of military bearing and rare beauty. A contemporary wrote about him:
“I traveled about many countries and saw many celebrities, but never did I meet a prince or king equal to Prince Alexander.”
Prince Alexander was a wise and just ruler, and had good manners which made him very popular and highly respected. A contemporary of his wrote:
“He treated priests and monks with love and respect; he was considerate to the poor. And as for metropolitans and bishops, Prince Alexander honored them as he honored Jesus Christ.”
Prince Alexander’s subjects used to say: “Our Prince is sinless.”
In 1240 Prince Birger of Sweden sent his messengers to Prince Alexander with the following address.
“Hey, Prince Alexander! You may resist if you can. But remember that I am already here ready to conquer your land.”
For a long time Prince Alexander prayed in the St. Sofia Cathedral of Novgorod. He recalled the words of Jesus Christ: “No love is greater than the love of a man who gives life for his friends”. When he left the church, he addressed the army in these words:
“God is not force, God is truth.”
Prince Alexander entrusted his hopes to the Holy Trinity and made up his mind to fight.
The two armies met on the banks of the Neva River. One was the army of the proud invader, the other – of the Russian combatants. Our Lord helped his hermit — Prince Alexander. The legend has it that a soldier named Philip had a miraculous vision on the eve of the battle. He was on patrol on the Neva River. At dawn he saw a boat with martyr princes Boris and Gleb, ancestors of Prince Alexander, in full combat gear. Suddenly Philip heard a voice from the boat:
“Gleb, brother of mine! Hurry up, we must help our relative, Grand Prince Alexander.”
And the vision disappeared…
Encouraged by the miraculous vision, Alexander rushed his men to the scene and gave the battle on the banks of the Neva.
The battle was great, says the chronicle, and many people were killed, both Russians and Latins, and Prince Alexander left a scar on the face of their leader with a lance.
At this point I must explain that in medieval Russia all intruders from the West were called Latins.
After the glorious victory in the battle of the Neva Prince Alexander was awarded the honorary title Alexander Nevsky or Alexander of the Neva.
Birger and his warriors were defeated. But another threat to Russia already loomed in the West. The German crusaders (or Teutonic knights) conquered the ancient Russian fortress of Koporye. In 1241 Alexander Nevsky regained it, but in a year the Teutonic knights were back. They also seized the ancient Russian towns Pskov and Izborsk.
By the winter of 1242 Prince Alexander had gathered an army to defend Russia from the German crusaders. And on April 5th Russian warriors and Teutonic knights met in a merciless battle on the ice of Lake Chudskoye, also known as Lake Peipus.
Prince Alexander was praying: God and our Savior Jesus Christ! Help us defend our country, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, as many years ago you helped Moses.
Here’s how one chronicler described the battle on Lake Chudskoye:
“Prince Alexander arranged his men in battle formation and moved towards the enemy. Alexander had many brave men, like King David in ancient times. It was a Saturday. The troops clashed when the sun rose. It was a fierce battle. The crackle of breaking spears and the clanging swords sounded as though the ice began to move. The ice couldn’t be seen for blood…
With God’s help the courageous Russian warriors defeated the Teutonic knights. Many knights drowned, others were taken prisoner, and only few of them escaped.
The contemporaries rejoiced over the victory in what would later be called “The Battle on the Ice”.
Entrance of Alexander Nevsky at Pskov after the Battle on the Ice. Artist: Valentin Serov
Having preserved Russian land in the West, the Grand Prince Alexander clearly realized he ought to maintain peace with the Tartars, the “Golden Horde”. Weak and devastated, Russia was in no position to fight again.
The Tartar yoke was a heavy burden on the Russian people. Before he could become a real ruler of his domain any Russian prince had to go to the “Golden Horde” where, after a long and humiliating procedure he might (or might not) get the so called “Yarlyk” – a license to rule. For many Russian princes, landlords and warriors the way to the “Golden Horde” was the last.
Alexander Nevsky too, went to see Batu Khan, the king of the Tartars. Batu Khan was amazed to see him; he told his nobles: “It’s true what they said, that there’s no one like him.” He paid the prince all due honors and let him go safely.
Alexander Nevsky had to go to Sarai, the capital of the “Golden Horde” on three occasions. And every time he was not sure he would return. But he never lost heart, for he was sure that God would not leave him.
In the “Golden Horde” Prince Alexander always remembered he was not only a prince but also a Christian. He told pagans and Muslims about the Christian faith, about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and about the Holy Trinity. That was the beginning of Christianization of oriental peoples. Thousands of them turned their souls to Jesus Christ. Owing to the efforts of Alexander Nevsky the Russian Orthodox episcopate was established in Sarai in 1261.
In 1252 Alexander Nevsky became the absolute ruler of the Russian land. His responsibilities were enormous. He managed to protect southern, eastern and western boundaries of Russia firmly enough. His wise rule breathed a new life into Russia after the Tartar invasion. Churches, monasteries and towns were built all over the country.
Unfortunately, Prince Alexander’s farsighted policy was sometimes disapproved of by his fellow countrymen. In 1261 many Russian towns rose in revolt. The Tartar envoys who had come to collect tribute were killed. People waited for revenge with horror. Prince Alexander had to go to the Tartar capital again in order to ward off devastating raids against Russia. An excellent diplomat, the prince saved Russia and coped with his duty to God and the country.
However years of wars and the affairs of the state undermined Alexander Nevsky’s health. Upon his return from Sarai the Grand Prince fell ill and died in a small monastery of St. Feodor in the town of Gorodets, not far from the ancient city of Vladimir, on November 14, 1263. Just before his death Alexander, in keeping with the ancient Russian tradition, took monastic vows and was named Alexi.
The death of Alexander Nevsky in 1263. Artist: M. V. Nesterov
“Brethren! The sun has set over Russian land! Our Grand Prince Alexander has passes away. No one like him will be found in Russian land.”
And there was so much weeping and groaning as had never been heard before; the land trembled.
Nine days people carried Grand Prince Alexander’s body to the city of Vladimir where the burial service took place in the St. Vladimir Cathedral on November 23. During that service a miracle happened. When a priest about to pull a scroll with the last prayer in the late prince’s hand approached the body, the dead prince stretched out his hand, took the prayer and crossed his hands on his chest again. This episode caused awe and terror in the crowd present…
In 120 years, shortly before a great battle with the Tartars, a monk at the church where the Grand Prince Alexander’s body was buried saw a vision during the night praying.
The candles in front of Prince Alexander’s tomb suddenly lit up and two elders came up to the tomb and said: “Arise, our prince! Hurry to help your relative, Prince Dmitry!” And the saint prince arose and became invisible. After that vision the saint’s tomb was opened and the relics found undecayed. Many sick people who came close to them are said to have been healed.
The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Grand Prince Alexander.
1724 was the time of sweeping and rapid reforms of the Russian emperor Peter the Great. Those were the times of great changes in all spheres of life: spiritual, political, economic. The Emperor and the Holy Synod began to play the leading role in the Russian Church, whereas before the Patriarch was the most important figure. The Emperor and the Holy Synod decided that the relics of Alexander Nevsky be transferred to St. Petersburg, to the monastery built in his honor. On August 30 the capital of the Russian Empire welcomed the boat carrying the holy relics. Peter the Great piloted the boat himself; senior officials assisted him as sailors. A festive religious service for the Grand Prince took place at the monastery of his name. The commemoration of St. Alexander took place shortly after Russia’s victory in the Northern war of 1700-1721 against Sweden.
Almost for 200 years the relics of St. Alexander were kept in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 the relics were taken away and put on display at a museum of atheism. As for the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, it was closed down. Alexander Nevsky remained a saint most revered by the Russian people. People named in his honor are too numerous to count.
In 1990 the relics of Saint Alexander Nevsky were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church to take their place in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg to the joy of all Russian believers. And we know that owing to St. Alexander’s prayers, our Russian land will be revived and stand firm forever…
Watercolour of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg
7 December, 2012
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Butter Flavoring Linked To Alzheimer's
If you've been looking for one more thing to worry about, here it is.
If you're a fan of butter-flavored microwave popcorn, a new study finds a flavoring used in the product may trigger Alzheimer's disease. University of Minnesota drug-design expert Robert Vince, PhD, and colleagues found that diacetyl causes brain proteins to misfold into the Alzheimer's-linked form called beta amyloid. Vince's team also found that diacetyl has an architecture similar to a substance that makes beta-amyloid proteins clump together in the brain -- clumping being a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Even more, the popcorn butter flavorant can pass through the blood-brain barrier and can inhibit the brain's natural amyloid-clearing mechanisms. Diacetyl, already linked to lung damage in people who work in microwave popcorn factories, is also used to produce the distinctive buttery flavor and aroma of margarines, snack foods, candy, baked goods, pet foods, and even some chardonnays.(Tipped by JMG reader SIdan)
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In the summer of 2007, shoppers at some food co-ops in the upper Midwest encountered a new label on their produce: “Local Fair Trade.” Seasonal staples such as cucumbers, squash, and broccoli were the first to don the label, a large, hard-to-miss sticker symbolizing the union of two approaches to sustainable food: eating food grown locally, and purchasing food traded fairly.
We’ve gotten used to a variety of labels on our food. There’s “organic,” which used to connote ideas like “pure” and “natural” but these days technically means food certified as organic by the USDA (if domestically produced) or by the food’s country of origin. “Local” usually means food grown or produced within a few hundred miles of its selling location. And “fair trade” is seen most commonly on popular imports such as coffee and chocolate; the label means that the food’s growers or producers were paid a decent wage.
So what does “local fair trade” mean? According to Erik Esse, the director of the Minneapolis-based Local Fair Trade Network, the label is an attempt to answer a question: “How can the principles of fair trade, which have effectively moved many farmers and workers in the developing world out of poverty and towards self-sufficiency, work here in the U.S., where our farmworkers are having some of the same problems?”
At the heart of the local or “domestic fair trade” label is the idea of fair and equitable relationships. The label can be applied to food grown in the U.S. under a set of guidelines, including a living wage and an emphasis on fair and healthy living conditions. The product of nearly a decade of careful planning, the domestic fair-trade label is an effort to incorporate social-justice awareness into our burgeoning efforts to eat foods that have been cleanly and sustainably produced.
As the fair-trade movement (both international and domestic) wants everyone to understand, the local people behind the food we eat deserve sustainability, too. The USDA’s national organic standards guarantee that organically certified food is not genetically modified and is grown without petroleum-based fertilizers or synthetic chemicals. But the standards have nothing to say about the people who produce the food. This fact appalls those who work closely with farmworkers, including Richard Mandelbaum of El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA), a migrant-farmworker organization based in New Jersey.
“Organic standards include all sorts of rules about how livestock needs to be treated, but absolutely none for the human beings that are on the farm,” says Mandelbaum.
The Local Fair Trade Network’s Esse isn’t sure that enough consumers are paying attention to those human beings, either. “The way stores like to put up pictures of happy farmers these days — that’s in some ways great, in that it’s identifying that there’s a person growing their food,” he says. “But in some ways, those smiles mask the fact of how little money they get paid and how hard their lives are.”
Although some organic farms in the U.S. opt to pay their workers a living wage, as well as provide vacation days and access to health care, many do none of those things. Small-scale organic farmers, who often live hand-to-mouth themselves, rarely have the budget to do so. And most large, industrial-sized organic farms rely on hundreds if not thousands of underpaid migrant workers, in much the same way that conventional farms and food processors do.
According to a 2005 survey report from the University of California, Davis, the majority of the 188 California organic farms surveyed did not pay a living wage or provide medical or retirement plans. And despite the nationwide boom in organic food — the industry was worth more than $17 billion by the end of 2006 — the wealth has not trickled down. While the absence of synthetic pesticides (and the health impacts that accompany them) can be a draw to some workers, most employees on organic farms earn no more than those on conventional ones.
Across the country, three to five million people labor every year on farms and in factories, planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing fresh produce and other agricultural products. Their lives are anything but easy. According to the National Agricultural Workers Survey, 61 percent of farmworkers live in poverty. In recent years, their median income has not kept up with inflation: for individual farmworkers, the median annual income is now $7,500, while for farmworker households, the median annual income is less than $10,000. (The overall U.S. median household income, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is more than $48,000.) It is also estimated that between 72 and 78 percent of farmworker households have no health insurance.
Today’s domestic fair-trade movement dates back as far as 1999, when CATA, along with Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA) and several other partners, argued for an inclusion of labor issues in the federal organic standards.
“When it became clear that the issues of social justice and fairness would not be incorporated into the federal [organic standards],” says RAFI’s Michael Sligh, “that really triggered our work to look at opportunities to make that additional claim to the marketplace.”
The result was something called the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP), a group that set to work devising a separate set of standards that would cover both equity for the small-scale farmer as well as fair working conditions for farmworker. But not everyone was convinced.
“When we first started out, it wasn’t uncommon to get a shrug from those in the organic/sustainable community, with responses like, ‘I’m not sure why you’re focused on this,’” says CATA’s Mandelbaum. “But in the last two years, we’ve seen that consumers are increasingly dissatisfied with anonymous products, and really want to know how their food is made — environmentally of course, but also increasingly socially.”
In 2005, the Agricultural Justice Project, along with the international fair-trade organization Equal Exchange and several domestic farmer cooperatives, held the first meeting of the Domestic Fair Trade Working Group (now renamed the Domestic Fair Trade Association). By 2006, it became clear that the best place to pilot a domestic fair-trade label was the Minnesota/Wisconsin area.
According to Erik Esse, whose Local Fair Trade Network is the Minneapolis-based arm of the movement, there are around 40 food co-ops in Minnesota and more than 25 in Wisconsin. “The fact that consumer cooperatives are so key to the area,” he says, “as opposed to the corporate natural-food-store model, means we have a background that lends to embracing fair trade. [The customers] already believe in democracy and in consumer activism.”
By early 2007, four small farms in the upper Midwest had been chosen to participate in the Domestic Fair Trade Working Group’s pilot project, along with two food co-ops in the Minneapolis area. All the farms involved were closely audited, including their business practices and employee policies. And they pledged to, among other things, “1) Respect workers’ freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, 2) Provide adequate health and safety protections, including access to adequate medical care, information on potential hazards, and using the least toxic methods available, and 3) Pay a living wage.”
Esse points out that although small-scale farmers and farmworkers are often in similar financial situations, there is still some tension between the two groups. “Farmers don’t always want to stir the pot,” he says. “We often hear, ‘Things are going fine; why would I want to bring this up?’”
Rufus Hauke, of Keewaydin Farms in Viola, Wisconsin, does want to stir the pot. He’s a produce farmer participating in the pilot project who, along with his brother, decided to remake the family farm according to a vision for what he calls “the next evolution of food.” Although he has only a few employees, Hauke was excited to offer them the paperwork and training necessary to help get the first Keewaydin Fair Trade growing season off the ground.
Culinate’s features address the practical challenges and joys of food.
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Ismaili Community: History
The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, generally known as the Ismailis, belong to the Shia branch of Islam. The Shia form one of the two major branches of Islam, the Sunni being the other. The Ismailis live in over 25 different countries, mainly in Central and South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as in Europe, North America and Australia.
As Muslims, the Ismailis affirm the fundamental Islamic testimony of truth, the Shahada, that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) is His Messenger. They believe that Muhammad was the last and final Prophet of Allah, and that the Holy Quran, Allah's final message to mankind, was revealed through him. Muslims hold this revelation to be the culmination of the message that had been revealed through other Prophets of the Abrahamic tradition before Muhammad, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus, all of whom Muslims revere as Prophets of Allah.
In common with other Shia Muslims, the Ismailis affirm that after the Prophet's death, Hazrat Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, became the first Imam - the spiritual leader - of the Muslim community and that this spiritual leadership (known as Imamat) continues thereafter by hereditary succession through Ali and his wife Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. Succession to Imamat, according to Shia doctrine and tradition, is by way of Nass (Designation), it being the absolute prerogative of the Imam of the Time to appoint his successor from amongst any of his male descendants.
His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. He was born on 13 December 1936 in Geneva, son of Prince Aly Khan and Princess Tajuddawlah Aly Khan and spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya. He attended Le Rosey School in Switzerland for nine years and graduated from Harvard in 1959 with a BA (Honours) in Islamic History. He succeeded his grandfather Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan on 11 July 1957 at the age of 20.
Spiritual allegiance to the Imam and adherence to the Shia Imami Ismaili tariqah (persuasion) of Islam according to the guidance of the Imam of the Time, have engendered in the Ismaili Community an ethos of self-reliance, unity, and a common identity. In a number of the countries where they live, the Ismailis have evolved a well-defined institutional framework through which they have, under the leadership and guidance of the Imam, established schools, hospitals, health centres, housing societies and a variety of social and economic development institutions for the common good of all citizens regardless of their race or religion.
During the course of history, the Ismailis have, under the guidance of their Imams, made significant contributions to Islamic civilisations, the cultural, intellectual and religious life of Muslims. The University of al-Azhar and the Academy of Science, Dar al-Ilm, in Egypt and indeed the city of Cairo itself, are testimony to this contribution. Among the renowned philosophers, jurists, physicians, mathematicians, astronomers and scientists of the past who flourished under the patronage of Ismaili Imams are Qadi al-Numan, al-Kirmani, Ibn al-Haytham (al-Hazen), Nasir e-Khusraw and Nasir al-Din Tusi.
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Many of us are inclined not to talk about things that upset us. We try to put a lid on our feelings and hope that saying nothing will be for the best. But not talking about something doesnt mean we arent communicating. Children are great observers. They read messages on our faces and in the way we walk or hold our hands. We express ourselves by what we do, by what we say, and by what we do not say.
When we avoid talking about something that is obviously upsetting, children often hesitate to bring up the subject or ask questions about it. To a child, avoidance can be a message - If Mummy and Daddy cant talk about it, it really must be bad, so I better not talk about it either. In effect, instead of protecting our children by avoiding talk, we sometimes cause them more worry and also keep them from telling us how they feel.
On the other hand, it also isnt wise to confront children with information that they may not yet understand or want to know. As with any sensitive subject, we must seek a delicate balance that encourages children to communicate - a balance that lies somewhere between avoidance and confrontation, a balance that isnt easy to achieve. It involves:
- trying to be sensitive to their desire to communicate when theyre ready
- trying not to put up barriers that may inhibit their attempts to communicate
- offering them honest explanations when we are obviously upset
- listening to and accepting their feelings
- not putting off their questions by telling them they are too young
- trying to find brief and simple answers that are appropriate to their questions; answers that they can understand and that do not overwhelm them with too many words.
Perhaps most difficult of all, it involves examining our own feelings and beliefs so that we can talk to them as naturally as possible when the opportunities arise.
Not Having All the Answers
When talking with children, many of us feel uncomfortable if we dont have all the answers. Young children, in particular, seem to expect parents to be all knowing - even about death. But death, the one certainty in all life, if lifes greatest uncertainty. Coming to terms with death can be a lifelong process. We may find different answers at different stages of our lives, or we may always feel a sense of uncertainty and fear. If we have unresolved fears and questions, we may wonder how to provide comforting answers for our children.
While not all our answers may be comforting, we can share what we truly believe. Where we have doubts, an honest, I just dont know the answer to that one, may be more comforting than an explanation which we dont quite believe. Children usually sense our doubts. White lies, no matter how well intended, can create uneasiness and distrust. Besides, sooner, or later, our children will learn that we are not all knowing, and maybe we can make that discovery easier for them if we calmly and matter-of-factly tell them we dont have all the answers. Our non-defensive and accepting attitude may help them feel better about not knowing everything also.
It may help to tell our children that different people believe different things and that not everyone believes as we do, e.g., some people believe in an afterlife; some do not. By indicating our acceptance and respect for others beliefs, we may make it easier for our children to choose beliefs different from our own but more comforting to them.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Aug 2010
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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