text stringlengths 1 13.4k | path stringlengths 107 114 |
|---|---|
Gulliver leaves Lagado and sets out planning to go to Luggnagg, an island in between western American and Japan. However, when there are no ships for Luggnagg he goes to the island of Glubbdubdrib instead, which is governed by magicians who practice necromancy. The Glubbdubdribbian governor’s servants are all ghosts, which startles Gulliver at first, though he soon gets used to it. The governor offers to summon up any dead person Gulliver wants to meet and so Gulliver sees Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, Pompey, the Roman senate, Caesar and Brutus. Gulliver is very impressed by Brutus’ intelligent benevolent appearance, and Caesar’s ghost affirms this impression by telling Gulliver none of his own life’s actions were as great as Brutus’ murder.
As a magician able to summon ghosts of the dead, the governor possesses extraordinary physical power. By encountering the historical European dead, Gulliver gets a chance to learn about his own society’s past. In doing so, he discovers the flaws in his own knowledge and sees that his perspective on European history does not match up with the perspectives of the historical figures themselves. Indeed, history lessons teach that Brutus is a villain and Caesar a hero, but the ghosts themselves reverse this dynamic.
Gulliver summarizes the innumerable other ghosts he had summoned by saying they were “chiefly…destroyers of tyrants and usurpers, and the restorers of liberty to oppressed and injured nations.”
Gulliver is interested in meeting heroes of the people: individuals who fight power’s abusers and virtuously defend the rights of a country’s people. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_0.txt |
Conflict between the government macroeconomic objectives
1. This essay must include and answer the following questions:
a? A clear introduction to the essay
a? A clear outline of the essay structure
a? A clear explanation of the government macroeconomic objectives !
a? A clear explanation of different policies use by governments to achieve its macroeconomic objectives !
a? A clear explanation of the conflict between macroeconomic objectives !
a? A clear explanation of how the conflict between macroeconomics objectives can be minimised !
a? A conclusion based on your analysis in the essay and recommendations
a? A complete list of reference and/or bibliography
2. You must use clear examples and diagrams to explain and illustrate your points and arguments.
Clear sections and paragraphs must be used and each paragraph must start with a clear topic sentence. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1.txt |
This is a resource to help supplement your mathematics instruction. As you know, spiraling of math concepts is essential for students to succeed in math and this resource can be used to review math concepts in class or as a homework assignment.
Weekly Essentials 1 is a collection of 20 weeks worth of spiral reviews.
Each day of the week students have a set of problems to solve to help them review, spiral, and retain math concepts based on an agenda that remains the same.
Students practice place value skills:
-writing whole numbers and decimals in words and in expanded notation
-identifying the value of a given digit
-comparing whole numbers and decimals
-ordering a set of whole numbers and decimals
-operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division)
-factors and common factors
-prime and composite numbers
Wednesday: All about fractions
-improper fractions to mixed numbers and mixed numbers to improper fractions
-ordering a set of fractions
-using models to add and subtract fractions
-converting a decimal to a fraction/ converting a fraction to a decimal
-coordinate geometry (quadrant 1)
-changes in temperature
-perimeter, area, or volume
-geometry (attributes of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes)
-median, mode and range
-reading a ruler to measure
-rotation, reflection, or translations
**please see the preview- it includes the Weekly Essentials agenda and week 1 of weekly essentials
Thank you and happy math teaching! | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10.txt |
Louis Burns was one of the 246th’s “winter recruits.” Unfortunately, response to the unit’s appeals fell short of expectations. Officials therefore decided to send the battalion’s soldiers overseas in two “reinforcement drafts.” Louis never departed for England. While his medical examination failed to detect any health concerns, he was admitted to Rockhead Military Hospital, Halifax, on February 27, 1917 for treatment of “acute nephritis” (inflammation of the kidneys).
On March 1, 1917, Private Louis John Burns died of kidney failure and pulmonary oedema (fluid on the lungs). Military authorities transported his remains to Guysborough County, where Louis was laid to rest in St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Wine Harbour. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_100.txt |
Installing Rails can be one of the trickiest things to overcome for a newbie to Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Being an open source project with lots of dependencies is a great strength for Rails and allows it to innovate quickly, but it has the unfortunate side effect of making a prospective developer jump through a lot of hoops, particularly for someone new to programming or new to the Unix/Linux world.
Windows users are in luck as there is a great, no hassle installer available at RubbyInstaller.org. This is about as easy as it gets for installing Rails; unfortunately, my experience on a Windows laptop (even one with an SSD) is that Rails development can be painfully slow due the large amount of file I/O that Rails development entails.
This is bound to change, and I had to rewrite some of these instructions over the course of installing Ruby on Rails on a couple of different Macs with different versions of OS X and XCode. But here is what worked for me on Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) and XCode 4.5.2. There are a couple of terms and concepts to be familiar with.
- XCode is Apple’s development environment, primarily used for creating iOS and Mac apps, but it includes some system libraries that you need for our Rails development.
- Homebrew is a package environment for OS X that can install most other missing system packages you’ll need for Rails
- RVM (Ruby Version Manager) is highly recommended as it lets you manage different versions of Ruby, Rails and Gems so you can try out new versions or mimic different production environments without having to install/reinstall everything.
- Click and install XCode from the Mac Store
- Once installed, go to Preferences -> Downloads -> Install Command Line Tools
Please note that the next several installation commands should be run in the Terminal application.
Install Homebrew and apple-gcc42
This installs the Homebrew package manager and a GCC compiler
$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)" $ brew tap homebrew/dupes $ brew install apple-gcc42 $ sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/gcc-4.2 /usr/bin/gcc-4.2
In the OS X Terminal, issue the following commands:
$ curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby
Note: run the source command outputted from the above command
$ rvm install 1.9.3 $ rvm use 1.9.3 $ rvm --default 1.9.3
The above commands install RVM, install ruby version 1.9.3, tell RVM to use the 1.9.3 version for the rest of the stuff you’ll install and set 1.9.3 to be default going forward.
NOTE: This step is optional and is only necessary if you plan to do image manipulation using ImageMagick.
Apple no longer ships an X Windowing system starting with Mountain Lion, so you’ll probably need to install the open sourced version of this available at http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/
$ gem install rails
Rails should now be installed. To create a test app, run
$ rails new my_app_name
If you get an error about OpenSSL support, you may need to update RVM. See the instructions at https://rvm.io/packages/openssl
MySQL is a popular open source database that you may want to install locally to make sure that it behaves the same as your production instance of MySQL (if that’s what you’re running). Rails abstracts a lot of the different database differences to your app, but you still may want to actually run MySQL just to have the added confidence that there aren’t any subtle quirks/differences.
$ brew install mysql $ unset TMPDIR $ mysql_install_db --verbose --user=`whoami` --basedir="$(brew --prefix mysql)" --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --tmpdir=/tmp $ mysql.server start $ /usr/local/opt/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root password '[[[YOUR_ROOT_PASSWORD_HERE]]'
If you want to have MySQL start automatically when your Mac logs in, you can set it up like this:
$ mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents $ cp /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.5.27/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ $ launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
- I had to do some basic image manipulation in my app (resizing photos, etc) and I had to install the ImageMagick package through homebrew to get it working.
$ brew uninstall imagemagick $ brew install --fresh imagemagick
Done! I had to try a lot of combinations to get it working on my laptop and my app; hopefully this helps as most of the online resources I found were out of date for Mountain Lion or the newest version of XCode.
There are also more detailed instructions for the Mac, as well as Linux installation instructions available at http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book#sec-rubygems | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1000.txt |
The Importance of Folic Acid During Pregnancy
All nutrients are essential in preparing for pregnancy, but one — folic acid — merits special consideration.
Folic acid (folate, folacin or B9) reduces the risk of spina bifida in offspring (a leading cause of childhood paralysis) when consumed by pregnant women. It may also reduce the chance of other birth defects as well as childhood leukemia in offspring.
The most common neural tube birth defects from folic acid deficiency are:
- Spina bifida, an incomplete closure of the spinal cord and spinal column
- Anencephaly, severe underdevelopment of the brain
- Encephalocele, when brain tissue protrudes out to the skin from an abnormal opening in the skull
In a new study from Norway, women who took folic acid supplements in the first two months of pregnancy were less likely to have kids with severe language delays.
When’s the last time you ate your Brussels sprouts? With the fast pace of modern living, it’s easy to slack on your folic acid consumption. Many Americans, deficient in this important B vitamin, suffer from depression, fatigue and insomnia. You don’t want to be one of them! Folic acid is crucial for bones, births and bedtime! | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10000.txt |
This interactive map from the Washington Post is one part of a long-form piece that looks at NASA and the improbable tasks facing the agency. Specifically the piece looks at how NASA wants to get to Mars, but how difficult that is and how an also difficult asteroid mission is as a backup plan.
Really fantastic is about all I can say.
Credit for the piece goes to Joel Achenbach, Alberto Cuadra, Kennedy Elliott, Rebecca Rolfe, and Ricky Carioti.
Last week NASA announced that last year, Voyager 1 left the Solar System about 25 August 2012. A lot of the graphics that were published to support that story chronicled the distance travelled by that probe. However, this excellent graphic by the Los Angeles Times instead looks at how NASA determined through the data returned that Voyager had left the Solar System.
The piece does a really good job of setting up the story in illustrating the instrument packaged used to collect the data. Moving down the piece, it shows locations and the different environments and then how those environments differ in electron density. Lastly it looks at how NASA interpolated the date from the data collected. A really solid piece.
Credit for the piece goes to Monte Morin, Doug Stevens, and Anthony Pesce.
We already got to Mars. At the end of a week of maps and map-related things. Here’s a map of Mars. Well, sort of. It’s more of a map of Mars as explored by Curiosity. (Remember that guy?)
It’s an interactive piece from the New York Times that charts out just where the rover has driven and photographs of the stops along the way. There’s also a nice little chart that shows just how much of the trip has consisted of driving.
Credit for the piece goes to Jonathan Corum and Jeremy White.
A few weeks ago the Washington Post published a graphic that explained how space weather can have significant impacts on Earth. This is more of an illustrated diagram and less of a data visualisation piece, but it still worth a read. Why? Because, if scientists are correct, the sun’s magnetic poles should soon finish a polarity reversal. And that creates the potential for some stormy space weather.
Credit for the piece goes to Bonnie Berkowitz and Alberto Cuadra.
Someday humanity will find a planet amongst the stars similar in temperament to Earth. One of the best star systems to explore is Gliese 581, a small and faint star some 20 light years away. Calculations show that there are a few planets that could exist in or near what is often called the Goldilocks Zone. The Goldilocks Zone describes the distance from the systems’ star where planets could exist with liquid water. But generally, one needs to take that with a grain of salt. Here in the Sol System, for example, Earth is joined by Venus and Mars. But neither of those planets appear capable of sustaining life at least at present.
The problem with Gliese 581 is that we are not yet certain as to exactly how many exoplanets form the planetary system. It might be four; it might be five. The different schools of thought lead to different conclusions about the possibility of there being liquid water. And life as we know it requires water. The New York Times looked at Gliese 581 earlier this summer and compared the two different orbital models.
Today’s post comes via one of my co-workers. I don’t have any information on it other than it being an infographic looking at our exploration of the solar system (and in the near future beyond, thanks Voyager). My guess is that it isn’t particularly new, as I would imagine that the designer would have liked to have called out the Curiosity mission that just landed on Mars. But so far as I can tell, that mission is absent from the infographic.
Curiosity shall soon be exploring the surface of Mars seeking to understand the geological history of the planet. But in this infographic, see the cropping below, from the National Post we can see previous missions to Mars. We have not always been successful in operations in and around Mars, but our recent track record is much improved.
So my prediction of the health care law being thrown out did not come to pass. But what will pass is the space probe Voyager 1 out of the solar system in the very near future. (Don’t worry unlike Voyager, I will return—albeit to the original subject matter next week.) So from the National Post we have an infographic that details just what is Voyager 1. (And no, it is not V’ger, that was the fictional Voyager 6.)
Credit for the piece goes to Joshua Rapp Learn, Andrew Barr, and Richard Johnson.
Sometimes an infographic needs to put us in our place. Humanity is but one of many species on one of many planets in one solar system. Over at xkcd, we can see how only now are we beginning to expand our knowledge of how many other solar systems and planets there are (and that are just waiting to be discovered).
This is a post that goes back a little bit in time, but that I stumbled upon and found worth a post. Last summer the United States ended the Space Shuttle programme by retiring all of our orbiters. And of course this prompted many to attempt infographics about the history of bringing liberty and freedom to space.
Amidst the fond farewells, I missed this interactive piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer about the history and the future of Americans in space.
The interactive piece contains three separate sections. The first looks at the individual Americans who made it into space. The second compares the Space Shuttle to the Russian Soyuz craft that we now must use to get into space. The third looks at the future, and what we might use.
But, the Inquirer also had a print edition to worry about, and published a static version of the piece. Is it perhaps a bit cluttered, yes, but the addition of the photographs and the annotations (even though the annotations are available as rollover conditions in the interactive piece) makes the print version more welcoming to explore and read at leisure. Additionally, the difference in scale of the three segments of the piece give a clear importance to the individuals rather than to the technology. This distinction is lost in the interactive piece because each segment is the same size and receives the same scale of treatment.
Credit for the interactive piece goes to Kevin Burkett and Rob Kandel. Credit for the print piece goes to Kevin Burkett. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10001.txt |
PFIC is a rare genetic disorder that is estimated to affect between one in every 50,000 to 100,000 children born worldwide and causes progressive, life-threatening liver disease.
The most prominent and problematic ongoing manifestation of PFIC is pruritus, which often results in a severely diminished quality of life. In many cases, PFIC leads to cirrhosis and liver failure within the first 10 years of life, and nearly all children with PFIC will require treatment before age 30. There are no medicines currently approved for PFIC, only surgical options – including a procedure known as Partial External Biliary Diversion (PEBD) or liver transplantation. These options carry substantial risk of post-surgical complications, as well as psychological and social issues.
Three alternative gene defects have been identified that correlate to three separate PFIC subtypes known as types 1, 2 and 3.
Recently, TJP2 gene, NR1H4 gene or Myo5b gene mutations have been proposed to be causes of PFIC. In addition, some patients with PFIC do not have a mutation in any of the ATP8B1, ABCB11, ABCB4, TJP2, NR1H4 or Myo5b genes. In these cases, the cause of the condition is unknown. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10002.txt |
It is better to harvest your own veggies than buying them in a store. In Florida, home gardeners can grow different kinds of vegetables all year long. Having your own garden is very convenient, and it is the best way to encourage your family to eat more fresh veggies. The options are endless, with vegetables of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Creating a plan is the first step. Choose the vegetables that you want to plant, and where your garden will be located. It is essential that your plants get lots of sun and are near the water source. One important thing that you should consider is the weather.
Veggies to Plant During Spring
Spring is the best time to prepare your beds for vegetables. Here are the best vegetables to plant during springtime in Florida.
One of the fastest growing veggies is the arugula. It grows within a few weeks time. But, it needs more water to maintain its growth rate. You can start planting the seeds early in spring. Cover your garden at the start of the process to help the ground to warm up.
Beets are referred to as a superfood by some nutritionist since they are known to improve health. They are easy to grow, beginning in late March or in early April. It is best to plant them with a few weeks of cool air, as this improves their taste. Gather beets before the temperature rises to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. If the cold weather continues, they will become bigger but If it becomes too warm pick them, or else they will be wasted.
This cooler season crop is full of vitamins and a certain sweetness. A root crop, carrots can be picked early with the right amount of water and sun.Baby carrots are as crunchy as the mature ones and are great for snacking.
This type of vegetable is available in different flavors and colors and is easy to grow. Sow these seeds indoor while the temperatures are still low because lettuce will not germinate in soil that is 80F or higher. The perfect time to plant lettuce is during springtime, and it will be ready to be picked after two months.
Radishes grow fast from seed to bulb so after a few weeks make sure to check them once in a while to see if they are ready to harvest. Radishes left too long will become tough and very bitter. They are a good choice for beginning gardeners as planting is easy with a high degree for success.
You can either plant seeds in the soil or begin your transplants 6 to 8 weeks before sowing time. For Central and North Florida, March is the recommended planting time for spring gardens. If you want to start earlier, make sure you cover your crops and keep them protected from late frosts.
You can plant frost hardy veggies earlier. If you are in South Florida, you can plant spring vegetables in the winter and summer vegetables in fall, actually two crops a year. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10003.txt |
Definition of Nipah virus
Nipah virus: A member of the paramyxovirus family isolated from samples from an outbreak of encephalitis and respiratory illness among adult men in Malaysia and Singapore in 1999 that causes a sometimes fatal form of viral encephalitis. The humans were infected by close contact with infected pigs. Symptoms include high fever and aches, coma, and sometimes death.
Last Editorial Review: 3/19/2012
Back to MedTerms online medical dictionary A-Z List
Need help identifying pills and medications? | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10004.txt |
Gardens are a colorful and fascinating study for painting. Enter the miniature world of garden plants and animals as the subject and setting for this fun and rewarding class!
Explore all sorts of unique and interesting birds and animals who live in the garden and discover how you can portray them with paint. Learn painting skills such as blending, texturizing, brush techniques, layering, and color mixing, all of which will enable you to capture the flora and fauna that live in the fascinating and beautiful world of the garden.
- Watercolor pad (120 lb. or pound or higher) 9x12” or 11x14”
- Canvases: 9x12”, 11x14”, 12x16”, 14x18”, or 16x20”, whichever sizes you prefer
- Filbert brushes: ¼”, ?”, ½”
- Angle brush: ¼”
- Round brush: #1
- Acrylic paints: Titanium White, Light Yellow, Medium Yellow, Medium Orange, Medium Red, Magenta, Purple, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Phthalo Green, Black
- Disposable paper palette pad: 9x12” or 12x16” – (12x16” is preferable because it has more room) (i.e., Strathmore, Canson, etc.)
- Optional: if you’d like a palette that keeps the paints wet between session, you can get a 12x16” “stay wet palette” or a Hipiwe a4 file box (recommended because it’s cheaper) (find it online); you still need a disposable paper palette (above)
- Optional: paper plates for additional paint mixing
- Optional: acrylic matte medium
- Optional: spray bottle for keeping paints wet
- Optional: small table easel (if you would like painting upright (recommended for larger paintings)
- Water jars
- Paper towels
- Hb, 2b, 4b pencils
- Large white vinyl eraser
- Pencil sharpener (preferably one that can catch the shavings)
- Learn to paint animals and plants
- Develop painting skills such as blending, details, texturing, light source, shadows, layering, etc.
- Become familiar with color mixing and color theory such as complementary colors, and color harmony
- Gain a variety of brush handling techniques that will allow you to blend, texturize, and detail your painting, such as wet in wet blending, stippling, dabbing, scumbling, dry brush, and glazing
- Learn the basics of drawing such as proportions
Who Might Enjoy This Class
- Anyone who would like to learn how to paint garden birds, animals and plants
- People interested in learning the basic fundamentals of painting, paint brush handling skills, and color mixing
- Anyone seeking a creative outlet and is interested in expressing themselves through painting
- Painters who would like to study a new subject matter and develop their skills
- No experience needed; everyone is welcome! | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10005.txt |
Over the summer, flooding in Pakistan has become international news. Though heavy rainfall in the summer is common, this year, the rain has been on a level the country has never seen before.
The flooding reached crisis levels in July and continued through August. A state of emergency has been declared, and around a third of the country is underwater, said Pakistan’s Climate Minister Sherry Rehman.
According to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, about one in seven Pakistani people —33 million people—are directly affected by the floods. The damage is an estimated $10 billion US. And the waters are still rising.
Scientists say that that climate change is responsible for the increase in flooding. But how exactly does climate change create floods? And why is Pakistan being hit so badly?
How does climate change cause flooding?
The world’s climate is very complex. Many different systems interact with one another to create the weather that we see every day. But there are four main factors of a warming climate that can lead to increased flooding.
- Warming oceans: As oceans warm, there is greater evaporation, which sends more moisture into the air. This leads to more rainfall.
- Rising waters: Melting glaciers and polar ice caps release water that is usually frozen into oceans, lakes, and rivers. This raises water levels across the world.
- Heat waves: Intense heat can create something called a thermal low. This is a part of the atmosphere that is much hotter and lower pressure (less dense) than surrounding areas. Near a large body of water, it can act like a magnet for rain clouds.
- Drought: A drought, or lack of rainfall, doesn’t immediately lead to flooding. But as the ground becomes dried out, it loses its density. (That’s why you can’t build a sand castle with dry sand—you need water to help it all stick together!) If heavy rains come right after a drought, the loose land cannot hold back the water and is washed away.
How is Pakistan vulnerable?
Because of where it is in the world, Pakistan is vulnerable to flooding. The Indus River, which runs down the centre of the country, floods every summer during monsoon season.
Heat waves in early summer create thermal lows, which pull in heavy rain clouds from over the Indian Ocean and dump rain across the country.
Pakistan is used to this. But climate change has taken the normal and made it worse. The Indian Ocean is warming faster than any ocean in the world, and Pakistan experienced extreme heat waves in May and June. This made the monsoon rainfall during July and August heavier and longer-lasting.
And there’s another surprising factor in Pakistan’s flooding. For a country so close to the equator, it is full of glaciers. In fact, Pakistan has more glaciers—7,000—than any country outside of the polar region.
The Himalayan Mountains run across the northern part of Pakistan, including K2, the second-tallest mountain in the world. But now, many of the glaciers are melting, creating thousands of lakes and sending huge amounts of water rushing into rivers.
The combined effects of extreme heat waves, melting glaciers, record rainfall is what has led to flooding that exceeds anything Pakistan has ever seen.
As a country, Pakistan creates less than 1% of the world’s total carbon emissions. But no matter what country carbon emissions are released from, they quickly circulate throughout the world’s atmosphere.
This means that even though it is not a big contributor to the problem of climate change, Pakistan is still feeling its effects.
This situation has led to a feeling of injustice for many Pakistanis. Why are they shouldering the burden of something they contributed so little to?
Pakistan is currently receiving billions of dollars in aid from around the world. But it will take a long time to rebuild the country, and millions of people have lost their homes. Also, much of the country’s farmland has been flooded, ruining crops vital to Pakistan’s economy and food supply.
United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres has urged people to see what is happening in Pakistan as something that affects all of us. “Today, it's Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country,” he pleaded.
In an interview with BBC news, leading climate scientist Fahad Saeed said that he hopes that the floods in Pakistan serve as a “wake-up call” about the effects of climate change. “The scale of the floods is so high and the rain is so extreme,” he said, “that even very robust defences would struggle.”
This situation is why so many people are pressuring governments to do more to reduce carbon emissions. To read about the recent landmark climate bill that was passed in the US, go here. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10006.txt |
The Maine Coon is fierce-looking and you might expect an aggressive temperament from this New England native. But nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s find out what else you need to know about this beautiful domestic cat.
The origins of the Maine Coon are shrouded in mystery. As the name suggests, it’s thought that they have their roots in Maine, New England. It seems that they were very popular farm cats favored by the early settlers due to their excellent hunting skills. One story goes that they are the descendants of Marie Antoinette’s Turkish Angora cats that made it all the way to Wiscasset, Maine on Captain Samuel Clough’s ship after an ill-fated rescue attempt.
There’s also a theory that they’re the descendants of the long-haired cats that resided aboard the vessel of Captain Charles Coon, an English sea captain. This is probably as close to the truth as we’re going to get. It’s generally accepted that the breed developed as a result of interbreeding between local short-haired varieties and long-haired breeds brought to North America from Europe. It’s closest relative is the Norwegian Forest Cat and there are even suggestions that some of the breeds from which the Maine Coon evolved were brought over in the 11th century by the vikings.
One story we can definitely discount is that the distinctive appearance is a result of an interbreeding between a local cat and a raccoon. While that’s obviously untrue, this hoary old tale is how the breed came by its name. While we refer to all examples by the name Maine Coon today, it wasn’t always the case. If the cat didn’t have the brown tabby coat it was referred to as a Maine Shag.
The Maine Coon is among the largest of all domestic breeds. They can weigh anything up to 18lbs with some specimens growing even larger. It’s generally a long-haired breed although some examples could be considered to have a medium length coat. They are broad-chested and large limbed with a muscular physique. The paws are large with fluffy toes that make it easier for the cat to walk on snow. The Maine Coon’s coat is perfectly adapted for survival in the harsh climate of Maine. The coat is long and water-resistant on top with a dense, fluffy layer underneath. The shaggy underside acts as perfect insulation against ice and snow and the thick, bushy tail can be wrapped around the face to give added protection against the wind.
The Maine Coon is very much a people cat. They have a very sweet nature that makes them ideal pets. Always happy to receive your attention, the Maine Coon isn’t necessarily a needy breed. Of course they won’t refuse a stroke or a cuddle, but they’re not really the sort of cat to insert themselves in the middle of whatever you’re doing. They’re usually happy to observe with only the occasional bit of interaction.
As we mentioned above, the Maine Coon is a terrific mouser and even in a modern urban setting this characteristic still shines through. Mice will quake in fear when there’s a Maine Coon in the area. If your Maine Coon is more of a house cat you’ll need to keep him occupied with a selection of cat toys. Feather toys that allow them to practice stalking are a good choice but, as with most cats, you’ll find that they play with just about anything. They’re also fond of playing fetch and will chase after a ball when thrown.
Play is important to the Maine Coon. Like their Siberian cousins they retain a kittenish sense of fun well into adulthood. This leads to some hilarious antics during playtime. Just don’t let them get too boisterous. You don’t want to be on the end of one of those huge paws.
Maine Coons are excellent climbers and incredibly agile. This is even more remarkable when you consider the breed’s large build and thick coat. They can scale fences and trees as gracefully as any smaller breed and they’re surprisingly fleet-footed.
This breed has a very distinctive voice which it uses to manipulate its human companion. They deliver requests for attention, whether it’s for food or a cuddle, in a soft chirrup which belies the size and impressiveness of the cat. Certainly not the ferocious noise you might expect from this large feline.
What are the Exercise Needs of a Maine Coon?
The Maine Coon is a very athletic and playful breed with bags of energy. They’re naturally active and need plenty of regular exercise. If your Maine Coon has access to the outdoors this will take care of itself as the Maine Coon is a an instinctive and accomplished hunter. As a house cat, however, you’ll need to take a more active role in your pet’s exercise regimen. This can take a variety of forms.
We can’t say it enough: Maine Coons absolutely love to play. You’re going to need a good supply of toys to keep him occupied. I say “a good supply” because those big paws will make short work of most feather toys. So buy good quality. They are excellent climbers and absolutely love cat trees. The kind that has places to hide and multiple surfaces will be best, giving your cat a variety of options.
Maine Coons have a lot of dog-like attributes. Strange as it may seem, they can adapt very well to walking on a leash just as a dog would. It may be a little difficult at first, but once your Maine Coone housecat starts associating the leash and harness with the outdoors they’ll get excited in the same way a dog does.
A gentle warning: neglect your Maine Coon’s exercise needs at your peril. Should you fail to offer your cat enough stimulation they may take it out on your property. Perhaps a favorite shoe or slipper.
Is Training a Maine Coon Easy?
The Maine Coon is a naturally smart and alert breed and it has a fantastic capacity for learning. If you try to teach your Maine Coon some tricks or behaviors they’ll pick them up fast. Contrary to the traditional view of cats as being stubborn and free-willed, Maine Coons will turn your attempts to train them into a game.
They’re incredibly able hunters, so if you’re trying to teach a new behavior try incorporating it into some of those pre-existing hunting instincts. For example, they will happily play fetch so you can try to teach them to drop and sit by offering a treat. Modulate your tone to emphasize the desired behavior.
Although Maine Coons can be dog-like, bear in mind that they’re still cats and therefore still possessed of that same willful temperament that all cats have. You may find your cat unwilling to cooperate. So when they eventually comply make sure you have that reward on hand. This will help your cat to associate the command with the behavior and the behavior with the reward.
Lastly, make it fun. Your cat will only do something if they feel like it and no amount of cajoling and coaxing will convince them otherwise. Refrain from shouting or making sudden movements that might distress or alienate your cat. Underneath that cool exterior they have feelings too.
A Look At The Maine Coon In Action
Do Maine Coons Need Grooming?
Their coats are similar Siberian cats’ so the same advice applies. The amount of grooming your cat requires depends on whether they’re spending lots of times outdoors in harsh weather. Maine Coons have a long outer layer to their coat and a thicker softer layer underneath. The outer layer is naturally oily and waterproof and this helps to prevent matting from occurring.
For indoor cats I would recommend some light brushing once or twice a week with a soft brush. This is partly to keep the coat in tip top condition but it’s also something that most cats enjoy and will help you to bond with your furry friend. For outdoor cats you may need to up the level of grooming and use a stiffer brush to ensure matting doesn’t occur.
I wouldn’t recommend bathing your Maine Coon unless they somehow get particularly filthy. Bathing, especially if you use any sort of soap, will strip the coat of its natural oils and may result in feline dandruff and irritation.
The Cost of a Maine Coon
Maine Coon kittens can cost anywhere from $400 to $1000. The exact amount will depend on the quality of the cat and the color and patternation. A more classic Maine Coon appearance will command a higher price. Older cats may cost less and you may even find one at a rescue center. If you’re buying your cat you must always make sure that you buy from a reputable breeder. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10007.txt |
Apocalyptic Hope: the Literature of the American Renaissance
T-F 1:30 - 2:50 (D38)
Teacher: John Sheehy
Signup for Office Hours
This course will center on the "American Renaissance" -- the period of intense intellectual and artistic energy between 1830 and 1870 that produced some of the most memorable and enduring American literature. We will examine as much of that literature as we can, in a range of genres: slave narratives from Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, essays from Emerson and Thoreau, novels from Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others, poetry from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Our goal in examining these works will always be double: on the simplest level, we will be interested in how these writers interpreted and responded to the places and times in which they lived; on a deeper level, though, we will consider how each of these works--and all of them together--attempts to create something we might call now an "American consciousness" -- to invent, or re-invent, America.
The point of the course is to read as much as we can, to develop a firm understanding of both canonical and non-canonical 19th century American literature, and to consider how that literature has helped to shape not just the way we think about our literature, but the way we think about ourselves as Americans. This will NOT be a writing seminar: it will involve far too much reading for that. Students, though, will be expected to write about what they read on a regular basis, to lead discussions, and to write a midterm paper and seminar paper at the end. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10008.txt |
As a general rule, archaeologists try to avoid excavation on the principle that preservation without disturbance is the best option for an archaeological site. Whether responding to a threat (e.g. from coastal erosion) or pursuing a research theme, the principle of minimum intervention should govern how the site is treated. The process of excavation has four stages: excavation, post-excavation, reporting, disposal. Where the site is not fully excavated, then a phase of site re-instatement and consolidation follows excavation.
After survey and other research have identified the key objectives of excavation a process of careful, monitored and recorded destruction takes place. The techniques of using a mechanical excavator, a pick-axe or a trowel are simple and, under supervision by an experienced archaeologist, are quickly learnt. The aim of excavation is to enhance our understanding of the site, the process is to acquire evidence to allow archaeologists to reconstruct how and when the site accumulated. The usual outcome of excavation is a large volume of partial, sometimes connected strands of evidence.
Post excavation studies
The investigation of a site is never completed at the end of fieldwork: interpretations in the field need to be challenged, tested and enhanced by analysis of the observations made in the field and of materials excavated from the site. A typical suite of analyses will include:
- Analysis of the artefacts (tools, pots etc) to inform us about the people who once occupied the site lived their lives;
- Analysis of the ecofacts (e.g. the plant and animal fragments recovered through excavation or sampling) to inform us how the occupants ate, how they exploited and affected their contemporary landscape. Ecofact studies also offer materials for radiocarbon dating (see below).
- Analysis of the records from excavation to allow us to challenge or confirm the field interpretation of when and how the site was built and modified, and how surviving deposits accumulated. This may also include a re-assessment of the evidence from survey and other background research to give fresh insights into the field evidence.
All archaeologists adhere to the general principle that of letting colleagues and the general public know what knowledge has been gained from excavation. The aim is therefore to publish a report on the work in a journal or a book. You can find examples of such reports in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland which are available in most libraries and on the web. You should also look at Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports
. Excavation without reporting is simply the destruction of a site for no benefit.
The published report will not cover every strand of evidence. Sometimes this is because not all strands are relevant to the main thrust of the investigation. At other times the archaeologist may fail to understand the value of the evidence. It is therefore important to preserve the evidence that supports the published interpretation. To this end the paper or digital records of the excavation should be deposited with a recognised archive institution: in Scotland this is the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
, while artefacts and ecofacts are packaged up safely and disposed of via the Treasure Trove Unit
to the appropriate museum for display or storage. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10009.txt |
What did roman kids do for fun without tv, computers and the internet 2000 years ago. Roman entertainment is a byword for the decadence of the late empire, leading to its downfall when it spent more time on amusement than reforming the military or rooting out corruption but few did mass entertainment better then the romans their coliseums still inspire modern-day sporting arenas other forms of roman. Overview of roman entertainment, including 'theatres and plays', 'circuses and races' and 'amphitheatres and gladiators. From theatre to athletic competitions and chariot racing to gladiatorial fights, romans had a thirst for entertainment like no other ancient civilisation as the capital, rome was home to the largest entertainment venues anywhere in the empire with the most famous being the flavian amphitheatre (colosseum) and the circus. Arena, baths, circus, theater: this model of central rome in the fourth century ce highlights the major sites for public leisure and entertainment activities, each with its own monumental buildings specially designed to facilitate the activity separate pages are devoted to the first three, which had much greater prominence in. Although the ancient romans weren't well known for their artistic abilities, they borrowed many artistic ideas from the ancient greeks for example, they enjoyed going to the theater and making vases in much the same way as the greeks what else did romans do for entertainment for entertainment, romans traveled to. Entertainment in rome was varied and everywhere there were plays in open air theaters there were festivals, both religious festivals and festivals put on by rich romans there were chariot races and gladiatorial contests there were sports contests and they were all free romans were also very social they visited. The romans, particularly the rich, enjoyed lots of leisure time, and they spent this time in a variety of different ways here are some facts about some of the forms of roman entertainment roman baths most romans visited the public bath house on a daily basis bath houses were set up like the spas or.
This page is all about roman entertainment curious come check it out. Colosseum vr - explore the roman colosseum through virtual reality (ancient roma in vr) - duration: 2:15 unimersiv - learn through virtual reality 24,248 views 2:15 history of the roman colosseum - duration: 9:46 educari unlimited 505,249 views 9:46 25 reasons the ancient romans were. Entertainment in every single society will always play a vital role, not only in the community but also through the expansion of knowledge and culture however, enter- tainment arguably played a much more vigorous role in roman society, as lives were literally revolved around the sole aspect of enjoyment this is also.
Chariot racing, gladiatorial contests and the public baths. Children learn about the roman empire and its impact on britain at the time and the legacy it left us other than history, children acquire and practise skills in art, making roman busts and mosaics, in d&t, building a chariot and an aqueduct, in dance and music, creating a dance/drama of an invasion and of a battle,.
Children explore the ways in which the romans entertained themselves and others in the empire by holding gladiator fights and chariot racing in order to get to grips with what this involved, children design and build their own chariot and then race it. Roman entertainment the emergence of permanent entertainment buildings and its use as propaganda david van alten (3374912) [email protected] studentsuunl bachelor thesis (research seminar iii 'urbs roma') 13-04-2012 supervisor: dr slm stevens. Since the acquisition of exotic creatures was very expensive, they would often be sent to menageries or zoological gardens around rome to be tamed and trained for public entertainment before they reached the games, where death was inevitable.
The romans liked to go out and enjoy themselves public entertainment roman amphitheatre the roman amphitheatre was the centre of public entertainment in rome, and all over the roman empire people would go to the amphitheatre to see men fighting wild beasts or each other these men were called gladiators. Losing gladiator has put up a good fight, the crowd might choose to spare his life — and the vanquished gladiator will live to fight another day but if the crowd is dissatisfied with the losing fighter — as was usually the case — its dissatisfaction meant slaughter in ancient rome, death had become a form of entertainment. Explore classics department's board roman entertainment and leisure on pinterest | see more ideas about romances, romans and ancient art. Roman entertainment there were many things the romans did for entertainment even though this entertainment was cruel and brutal it satisfied the roman's need for excitment and relaxation in rome most people loved to watch others suffer and fight to their death while others loved to go and get a good laugh at the.
Did the romans have free time most people in roman times did not have much spare time they were too busy working they liked games though soldiers often played board games with counters and dice counters and boards for their games have been found archaeologists aren't always sure of the rules hunting was. Originally the gladiator games were probably carried out as a tribute to the recently dead person gradually that connection must have been lost and it became a standard part of the culture's entertainment we know that at least this last part was true, from the countless ancient roman paintings and sculptures of gladiator. Although much of ancient roman life revolved around negotium (work and business), there was also time available for otium (leisure) ranging from swimming to playing board games to attending theatre performances, athletics and forms of entertainment enjoyed by romans in ancient times were not much different from.
Discover the best entertainment in rome including auditorium parco della musica, nuovo cinema palazzo, caffè letterario. The people of ancient rome went to school and worked, but they also enjoyed many different forms of entertainment this lesson explores some of the. Roman entertainment, like roman roads, roman baths, roman villas etc, is etched in people's minds today as a result of recent films many people will know of the roman gladiators, chariot racing, the colosseum in rome as we have a great deal of writing and other evidence about these things from the times of the.
Kids learn about the arena and entertainment of the ancient romans they watched gladiators fight, animals, and theatre in the colosseum of rome. Roman entertainment 1 roman entertainment by asma mohammad 2 chariot racing1 chariot racing is a very popular entertainment2 the charioteers wore leather helmets, knee pads and shin pads3 their coloured tunics with sleeves were called vests quadrigaria”4 these men were usually slaves. Rome entertainment from food to opera - those most italian specialities - rome can offer all manner of delights to tempt a traveller's appetite entertainment options in rome are dominated by gastronomic pleasures even if you are exhausted after a long day's sightseeing, you will undoubtedly enjoy a leisurely meal at one. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1001.txt |
Behets, Frieda M. PhD*†; Turner, Abigail Norris PhD*; Van Damme, Kathleen MD*†‡; Rabenja, Ny Lovaniaina MD‡; Ravelomanana, Noro MD‡; Swezey, Teresa A. PhD*; Bell, April J. MPH§; Newman, Daniel R. MA§; Williams, D’Nyce L. MD∥; Jamieson, Denise J. MD, MPH§; The Mad STI Prevention Group
WOMEN IN RESOURCE-POOR settings suffer disproportionately from sexually transmitted infections (STIs).1,2 Madagascar is a low-income country where STIs constitute a major public health concern, and rates are particularly high among women who exchange sex for money or goods. In 2001, among asymptomatic sex workers, 74% to 78% were infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), trichomoniasis, or syphilis.3 In a separate 2001 trial of male and female condom promotion among 1000 female sex workers, 6 months after receiving presumptive treatment, the combined prevalence of GC/CT infection was 26%.4 The high STI prevalence indicates that better control efforts are needed, especially given that STIs are likely to increase risk of HIV acquisition.5–7 HIV rates in Madagascar are currently low: the estimated prevalence in 2006 was <2% in vulnerable groups and 0.95% in the general population.8
Although male condoms, when used correctly and consistently, are the most effective method currently available for prevention of most STIs,9 many women lack the social and economic power to insist that their sex partners use them.2 Therefore, additional prevention methods are needed that are appropriate for and accessible to women.10,11 The diaphragm, used worldwide for prevention of pregnancy, has received attention as a possible infection-prevention method.12–14 Because GC, CT, and probably HIV preferentially infect the cervix and upper genital tract in women,15 physical barriers, such as diaphragms, may prevent sexually transmitted pathogens from reaching the cervix and thereby reduce infection risk. Several observational studies report protective effects for diaphragms against STIs and their long-term sequelae,16–21 though a recent large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) of women in Zimbabwe and South Africa [Methods for Improving Reproductive Health in Africa (MIRA)] found no added protective benefit of a diaphragm with commercial lubricant (compared with male condoms only) for HIV or STI prevention.22,23 Topical vaginal microbicides have also been promoted as female-initiated methods to prevent STI/HIV acquisition, although no effective product is yet available.24 Several studies have reported high acceptability of microbicides and diaphragms for STI prevention among both women and men.25–31
We plan to conduct an RCT evaluating the STI-prevention effectiveness of 2 women-initiated methods—candidate vaginal microbicide and latex diaphragm—individually and in combination. In anticipation of the RCT, we carried out this 4-arm, partially masked, randomized, prospective pilot trial to assess the acceptability of assigned study products (diaphragm, candidate microbicide and placebo gels, gel applicators, and male condoms) and the feasibility of conducting a large clinical trial measuring their effectiveness for GC and CT prevention. Over 4 weeks, we measured participants’ use of and comfort with study products.
Materials and Methods
Study Sites and Population
Participants were recruited through community outreach in 4 cities in Madagascar: Antananarivo, Antsiranana, Mahajanga, and Toamasina. Eligible women were 15 to 55 years old (though the youngest participant was 16 years old), had at least 4 sex partners in the past month, reported less than 100% condom use in the past 2 weeks, intended to stay in the area for the next month, were not pregnant or planning pregnancy in the next 2 months, had no allergy to latex and no physical abnormality that precluded diaphragm use, and were able to give informed consent.
Participants used various combinations (see below) of 6 study products: candidate topical microbicide Acidform™ (Instead, LA Jolla, CA); placebo gel, hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) (ReProtect LLC, Baltimore, MD); latex diaphragm (All-Flex Arcing Spring Diaphragm, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Titusville, NJ); disposable, paper gel applicator (TekPak, Marion, AL); reusable, plastic gel applicator (Nik Thread Applicator, HTI Plastics, Lincoln, NE); and nonlubricated male condoms (Alatech Health Care, Dothan, AL and Protector Plus, Surtex Limited, Thailand; distributed by Population Services International in Madagascar).
Acidform gel has acidifying, bioadhesive, and viscosity-retaining properties intended to serve 2 purposes: to provide effective acidification of male ejaculate in the vagina, and to form a long-lasting layer of gel over the vaginal and cervical surfaces. Acidform is buffered at pH 3.5, thus maintaining an acidic pH in the vagina after semen deposition. In addition, the gel bioadheres to form a protective layer with prolonged retention in the vagina.32,33 Acidform shows antimicrobial activity against herpes simplex virus type 2, CT, GC, Trichomonas vaginalis and microbes leading to bacterial vaginosis.33–35 Phase I human safety trials and small-scale pilot studies indicate that Acidform is safe, well tolerated, and generally acceptable to women and men.36–42
HEC (Placebo Gel)
HEC is a safe, water-based gel formulation designed to be an inert control gel for masked trials of vaginal microbicides.43–45 The pH of HEC gel is 4.4.
All-Flex Arcing Spring Diaphragm
The All-Flex Arcing Spring Diaphragm is a molded, natural rubber vaginal diaphragm, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for contraception when used with spermicide.
At screening, women underwent testing for pregnancy and urinary tract infection (UTI) (Clearview HCG Combo, Wampole Laboratories, Cranbury, NJ and Multistix 10SG; Bayer, Tarrytown, NY) and face-to face eligibility evaluation using a brief questionnaire. Eligible women were randomized to 4 groups: Acidform with diaphragm; HEC with diaphragm; HEC alone; and Acidform alone. Each woman was also randomly assigned a disposable paper or reusable plastic applicator; after 2 weeks, women switched applicator type for the second half of the study. Randomization was stratified by site. Treatment assignments were partially masked. Because of the nature of the intervention, assignment of diaphragms was not masked. However, neither participants, the on-site research staff, nor data analysts were aware of gel assignments.
At enrollment, 1 week after screening, participants received clinician-administered face-to-face interviews to collect demographic, reproductive, and sexual behavior data. Clinicians also performed pregnancy testing for all women and diaphragm fitting for women randomized to the gel-diaphragm arms. All participants received counseling on use of their assigned study products, including male condoms, as well as sufficient supplies to last until the next study visit. All women received presumptive treatment for gonococcal, chlamydial, and trichomonal infections according to Madagascar’s national guidelines.3
Participants were instructed to use male condoms with every sex act. Women in the gel-diaphragm arms were asked to use the diaphragm continuously, removing it once per 24-hour period for cleaning. After cleaning, we requested that they fill the diaphragm dome with their assigned gel, using an applicator to ensure consistency in dose, and then reinsert the diaphragm. Participants in gel-only arms were instructed to insert their assigned gel intravaginally, again using an applicator, before each sex act. All women were instructed not to practice internal vaginal cleaning while participating in the study.
Participants returned once weekly for 4 weeks. At each visit, they again received face-to-face interviews about their use of and problems with study products. Participants also underwent pelvic examination and received resupplies of study products. At the final follow-up visit, women returned their diaphragms, applicators, and any unused gel.
All women gave written informed consent for screening and again for enrollment. The study was approved by institutional review boards at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the Comité d’Ethique auprès du Ministère de la Santé in Madagascar.
Young women aged 16 and 17 participated in this pilot trial. As with our other research in this population, we petitioned each of the 3 ethical review boards and were approved to classify adolescents as young as 15 years old as adults for the purposes of this study. The rationale for this classification was 2-fold. First, the highest STI morbidity among attendees of our clinics in Madagascar is seen among the youngest women,46 making these participants the very group most likely to benefit from the proposed research. Second, parental permission for participation was not feasible. Many adolescents receiving care in study clinics have run away from home and are living on their own or residing with a boyfriend. Most have no contact with a parent or guardian.
Data from questionnaires and clinical examination were double entered in EpiInfo (Version 6, CDC, Atlanta, GA) by staff at the data management unit LARTIC at the Université d’Antananarivo in Antananarivo, Madagascar and were verified at CDC. All analyses were conducted using SAS (SAS Institute, Version 9.1.3, Cary, NC).
Outcome measures—acceptability and feasibility—are summaries of several constructs. We evaluated participants’ comfort with products and recommended protocols for using them, including their patterns of use of gel with diaphragm and gel alone, and their reported ease of insertion, removal and cleaning of diaphragms and applicators; we assessed these behaviors by study | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10010_1.txt |
arm and visit. We also examined the occurrence of self-reported genitourinary symptoms (itching, discharge, bleeding, pain, or problems urinating), clinician-identified abnormalities on pelvic examination, and adverse events (AEs) in each randomization group.
We assessed self-reported use of (a) condoms and (b) assigned experimental products by computing the proportion of sex acts with casual partners during which products were used. Using the total number of acts with casual partners as the offset variable, we fit separate unadjusted negative binomial regression models with robust variance estimators to generate the proportion and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of sex acts with casual partners where condoms and experimental study products were used over the last week, by randomization group and follow-up visit. We used negative binomial regression rather than Poisson regression because of substantial extra-Poisson variability in some models. Because of the small number of women reporting primary partners and the low reported frequency of sex with those partners, and because sexual behavior is expected to differ depending on partner type, we restricted our measures of condom use and experimental product use to sex acts with casual partners.
We used intent-to-treat analysis guidelines47 and included all person-time contributed by all participants in the presented analyses. Because of the small sample size and the exploratory, descriptive purpose of this pilot study, we did not conduct formal statistical significance testing.
The study was conducted between September and November 2005 and enrolled a total of 192 women from the 4 clinical sites: 48 women per site and 48 women per randomization group.
Of 314 screened women, 192 (61%) were enrolled. The most common reasons for ineligibility were using condoms consistently in the past 2 weeks (37%), having fewer than 4 partners in the past month (25%), planned or existing pregnancy (15%), and self-reported allergy to latex (11%).
We saw few differences in baseline participant characteristics between randomization groups (Table 1). Few participants (11%) were married or cohabitating. In response to the question, “what kind of work do you do to earn money?” 81% reported sex work; when directly asked, 100% reported that they had ever had sex to earn money. Age (median: 29 years), age at coital debut (median: 17 years), and completed years of education (median: 5.5 years) were similar across groups. More than half of participants (59%) had electricity in their homes, but running water was less common (18%). A majority (55%) had ever used highly effective contraception (hormonal methods, IUD, or sterilization), but use of these methods at the last sex act was lower (24%). Women frequently engaged in extensive vaginal hygiene practices (88% reported cleaning internally more than once daily).
Reported condom use was much higher with casual partners than with primary partners (husbands or boyfriends). Despite the exclusion at screening of women reporting consistent condom use with all partners, 48% of enrolled women reported always or almost always using condoms with casual partners compared with 11% with primary partners. More than half (55%) self-reported a previous STI or genital ulcer. The number of casual partners in a typical week [median: 6 partners, interquartile range (IQR): 4–9 partners], total sex acts in a typical week (median: 10 acts, IQR: 6–15 acts), and sex acts with the primary partner in the last week [among the subgroup of participants reporting a husband or boyfriend (n = 79, median: 2 acts, IQR: 1–3 acts)] were also similar across randomization groups (Table 1).
Retention over the 4-week study period was 98% (188 participants attended the week 4 visit). One participant voluntarily withdrew from the study, 1 woman was lost to follow-up, and 2 women were discontinued by study staff during follow-up because they were unable to insert the diaphragm. (All 4 participants had been randomized to the Acidform-diaphragm arm.)
Our analyses include 753 person-weeks (PW) of follow-up time: 178, 192, 192, and 191 PWs from the Acidform-diaphragm, HEC-diaphragm, HEC-alone, and Acidform-alone arms, respectively.
The median number of weekly sex acts with all partners, as well as the median number of casual partners, was higher during follow-up than at baseline for all randomization groups, though these figures are not strictly comparable because the baseline questionnaire asked about behavior during a typical week and the follow-up questionnaire asked about behavior in the past week. At enrollment, women’s median number of sex acts with all partners in a typical week was 10, 9, 8.5, and 10 acts for women in the Acidform-diaphragm, HEC-diaphragm, HEC-alone, and Acidform-alone arms, respectively. Over follow-up, the median sex acts with all partners in the past week were 15, 14, 14, and 12 acts, respectively. Women’s reported numbers of casual partners were similarly higher at follow-up than baseline; 7, 5, 6, and 5 casual partners in a typical week were reported at baseline by women in the Acidform-diaphragm, HEC-diaphragm, HEC-alone, and Acidform-alone arms, respectively, compared with 15, 12, 12, and 11 casual partners in the last week on average over follow-up.
Over the full follow-up period, participants used condoms in 66% of sex acts with casual partners (95% CI: 63%–68%) (Fig. 1). On average, Acidform-diaphragm users used condoms in 62% of acts with casual partners (95% CI: 57%–67%), HEC-diaphragm users in 67% of acts (95% CI: 62%–73%), HEC-alone users in 66% of acts (95% CI: 60%–73%), and Acidform-alone users in 67% of acts (95% CI: 61%–73%). Generally, condom use increased throughout the study period, with the exception of the Acidform-diaphragm arm, in which condom use declined somewhat between weeks 3 and 4 (Fig. 1).
The proportion of sex acts with casual partners in which neither male condoms nor experimental products were used was low for all study groups (4% of sex acts overall, 95% CI: 3%–5%).
Diaphragm and Gel Use During Sex
The proportion of sex acts with casual partners in which experimental study products were used (regardless of condom use) ranged over follow-up and by arm, from a minimum of 66% (HEC-alone arm, week 2) to a maximum of 94% of sex acts (HEC-diaphragm arm, week 4) (Fig. 2). In general, women in the 2 gel-diaphragm arms used products with casual partners more consistently (in 88% of acts, 95% CI: 84%–92%) than women in the 2 gel-only arms (in 78% of acts, 95% CI: 74%–81%).
A comparison of the 2 gel-diaphragm groups indicates that women assigned to the HEC-diaphragm arm used their study products with casual partners more consistently at every time point than women in the Acidform-diaphragm arm. This difference is most extreme at the final visit, with women in the Acidform-diaphragm arm using products in 81% of sex acts with casual partners and women in the HEC-diaphragm arm at 94% of acts. Comparing the gel-only arms, those in the Acidform-alone arm used their products more consistently than those in the HEC-alone arm at every time point. Again, the most extreme difference occurred at the week 4 visit, where women in the HEC-alone arm used gel in 78% of sex acts with casual partners and women in the Acidform-alone arm in 86% of acts.
The number of participants in each study group who reported using experimental study products in 100% of sex acts with casual partners over the full 4 weeks of follow-up was low: 28% of women randomized to the Acidform-diaphragm arm, 29% of HEC-diaphragm users, 6% HEC-alone users, and 10% of Acidform-alone users.
Participant Experiences With Diaphragm
Women in the 2 gel-diaphragm arms reported at 92% of follow-up visits that they were somewhat comfortable or comfortable wearing their diaphragms continuously, and the proportion expressing comfort with continuous use increased over time from 88% at the first follow-up visit to 95% at the final visit (Table 2). However, at approximately 20% of these visits, women also reported inserting the diaphragm more than once daily during the previous week (an indication that they had not followed the continuous use protocol). Women reported at few visits that they ever left their devices in longer than 24 hours in the past week (reported at 4% of visits by 11 participants). Removal of the diaphragm after every sex act, regardless of partner type, was also rarely reported (at 4% of visits by 13 participants). Most women (at 91% of visits in the Acidform-diaphragm arm and 96% of visits in the HEC-diaphragm arm) also said they did not reinsert gel intravaginally after the diaphragm was in place (reinsertion was not recommended under the protocol). Nearly all participants found inserting and removing the diaphragm easy (at 97% and 96% of visits, respectively).
Participant Experiences With Gel
At approximately half | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10010_2.txt |
of visits, gel-only users reported that they inserted gel before each sex act as instructed (Table 3). The protocol did not recommend removing gel, but at roughly one-third of visits, women in both gel-only groups reported that they removed the gel after every sex act (regardless of partner type). Most reported that partners did not ask about the amount of lubrication or discharge (64% of visits in the HEC-alone arm and 73% in the Acidform-alone arm). Almost all women were somewhat or very comfortable using the gel applicator, with no differences by applicator type (paper or plastic); the proportion expressing comfort with the applicator also increased with time from 90% at the first follow-up visit to 97% at the final visit. We did not directly ask participants which applicator they preferred.
Problems With Study Products
Women reported problems with study products at 76 visits (10%) over the study period. Gel-diaphragm users were most likely to report trouble keeping the diaphragm in continuously or to have problems with partners’ reactions to study product use (for example, partner discovery of products or insistence on product removal before sex) (Tables 2 and 3). In gel-only arms, most problems related to finding the time, opportunity or privacy to insert gel; trouble using the applicator; or problems with partners (such as a partner discovering the gel or applicator, or requesting that the participant wash before sex due to excess wetness). Problems declined somewhat by the end of follow-up: 19 women (10%) reported problems with study products at the first follow-up visit, 24 women (13%) at the second visit, 19 women (10%) at the third visit, and 14 women (7%) at the final visit (Tables 2 and 3).
Genitourinary Signs and Symptoms
Women using Acidform (with the diaphragm or alone) reported more gynecological symptoms, including itching, discharge, bleeding, pain, or problems urinating, compared with those using placebo gel. During examination of the external and internal genitalia, clinicians noted more abnormalities (such as ulcers, mucopurulent cervicitis, inflammation, or discharge) among women in the Acidform-alone arm (Tables 2 and 3).
A total of 131 AEs were reported in 88 women over the follow-up period. Fifty-six women (29% of all participants) had 1 AE, 25 participants (13%) had 2 AEs, and 7 (4%) had 3 or more AEs (Table 4). AEs were more common in women using Acidform (62% of all AEs) than in participants using HEC. Most events (84%) required no action regarding product use, although investigators recommended stopping product use in 15 women (who reported 21 events). Of those 15, 9 restarted product use within 1 week of the AE diagnosis; the other 6 never reinitiated product use (2 of these experienced AEs at the final visit, so reinitiation was not an option). Most AEs (n = 103, 79%) resolved without sequellae, but a substantial minority (n = 23, 18%) remained unresolved at study exit. Information on resolution was missing for 5 AEs.
For all groups, the highest number of AEs was reported at the first follow-up visit. Most AEs (79%) were genitourinary (including cervical or vaginal discharge, irritation, frequent urination, reports of burning sensations or “local heat,” pelvic pain, or inflammation). Nongenitourinary AEs (21%) included headache, asthma, fever, influenza, and other respiratory and digestive infections. Three-quarters of AEs (n = 97, 74%) were possibly, probably or definitely related to use of study products; of these, the 3 events that were definitely related to product use occurred in women in the Acidform-diaphragm arm (2 reports of temporary vaginal irritation and 1 report of pelvic pain). No serious AEs occurred.
No UTIs were detected during follow-up. A total of 3 pregnancies (1 in each of the Acidform-diaphragm, HEC-diaphragm, and HEC-alone arms) occurred. For the 1 pregnancy confirmed at the week 3 visit, product use was discontinued. The 2 other pregnancies were diagnosed at the last study visit, when products were removed from all participants.
Our findings show that an intervention trial to assess the effectiveness of 2 woman-initiated methods of STI prevention will be both feasible and acceptable among high-risk women of low socioeconomic status whose main source of income is sex work. Women’s self-reported use of products during sex was high, and we saw no evidence of declining condom use (in fact, condom use increased between the first and final follow-up visits). Few women reported problems with their assigned products.
We enrolled 61% of screened women for this study, compared with 94% previously with this population using similar screening criteria.26 Recruitment took place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when some women (particularly in Toamasina) in our target population abstained from sex and consequently failed to meet the inclusion criteria. Retention was very high.
Noncompliance with the recommended protocol was most pronounced among women in the 2 gel-only arms, in which gel use was coitally-dependent: only half inserted gel before each sex act, and one-third removed the gel after each sex act. We hypothesize that an underlying issue affecting compliant vaginal gel use, particularly among the group that reported removing the gel after each act, is that many women engage in extensive internal vaginal hygiene practices.48 Exploration of participants’ genital hygiene practices and ramifications for adherent study product use, in particular gel use, was a secondary aim of this pilot trial, and a separate analysis on this topic is forthcoming. Following this pilot study, we convened a workgroup including peer counselors, potential participants and clinicians to discuss new counseling strategies and modified vaginal hygiene practices that aim to optimize compliance with recommended protocols for product use for the RCT.
This pilot study was not powered to detect statistical differences between study groups for any outcome. However, we note that women in the 2 arms using active microbicide (with and without the diaphragm) had more self-reported gynecological symptoms and genitourinary AEs than women using placebo gel; women using the microbicide alone also had more clinician-noted abnormalities. Participants’ complaints (irritation, burning and itching) were similar to those described in previous safety studies of Acidform.38,39 As a result of these findings, we will replace Acidform in the upcoming RCT with another candidate microbicide that has a similar acidifying mechanism of action, but with a superior safety profile. In addition, we will closely monitor safety related to product use among all participants. Sixty-four women will also be followed in an intensive safety substudy using colposcopy. This subset will be recruited for the coloscopy safety study at the start of the trial by inviting each newly enrolled participant to join, until 64 women have agreed to take part.
Two important findings from this formative work warrant additional attention. First, participants’ self-reported male condom use generally increased over the follow-up period. Free condom supplies and frequent counseling likely contributed to this increase, and it represents a positive health outcome. However, improved use of male condoms will likely also lower the expected STI incidence in the planned trial, potentially affecting power and precision. Lower-than-expected incidence, due in part to increased condom use, has been described in some HIV prevention studies.49,50 Second, self-reported weekly median number of sex partners and sex acts were higher during follow-up for every randomization group than had been reported at the baseline visit (although the enrollment questionnaire asked about the number of acts and partners in a typical week and follow-up questionnaires asked about the last week). Whether this finding represents true behavioral differences over time or simply reporting differences (for example, if participants intentionally underreported the number of partners or acts at enrollment because of social desirability concerns) is not known. Women completed a coital diary during follow-up; although diary data were not used for these analyses, perhaps making notes about their weekly behavior led to improved recall of sexual activity.
This study was designed to pilot-test several aspects of our proposed protocol to provide information about the best way to implement a large-scale RCT. It is limited by the small sample size and short follow-up time. In addition, a common limitation of research involving sexual behavior—assessing self-reported sensitive behavior through face-to-face interviews—exists in this study, making these data subject to misreporting because of recall and social desirability biases. Also, because of the low number of women reporting a primary partner, and the low sexual frequency with primary partners among participants who had them, we were unable to examine product use with primary partners and therefore limited our modeling analyses to reported behavior during sex with casual partners. Finally, because of the study product characteristics, complete masking of randomization assignment was not possible.
The recently published results of the MIRA trial showed no difference in HIV or STI risk between women assigned to use a diaphragm with a lubricant and male condoms, compared with women using condoms only.22,23 Of note, self-reported condom use was similar for both arms at baseline, but during follow-up, significantly more women in the diaphragm arm than in the control arm reported condom use during the last sex act.22 For the upcoming RCT, we are developing strategies to minimize possible product substitution by ensuring that participants understand the lack of evidence regarding the study products’ effectiveness.
In the MIRA trial, women were asked to insert the diaphragm before sex, whereas we instructed women to wear the diaphragm continuously. Throughout follow-up, 73% of the women in the MIRA diaphragm arm reported diaphragm use at last sex act. Noncoitally dependent diaphragm use could improve adherence. A second possible effect of continuous diaphragm use is that the device may remain in place longer after sex | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10010_3.txt |
, providing more extended protection of vulnerable cervical tissue and possibly improving the effectiveness of the method against infection acquisition.
Unlike MIRA, our trial will evaluate the protective effect of the diaphragm plus candidate microbicide. Even if diaphragms alone do not provide protection against HIV, they may serve as effective vehicles for microbicide distribution,16 and our trial will answer this question with regard to STI outcomes.
1. Mabey D, Mayaud P. Approaches to the control of sexually transmitted infections in developing countries: Old problems and modern challenges. Sex Transm Infect 2004; 80:174–182.
2. Glasier A, Gulmezoglu AM, Schmid GP, et al. Sexual and reproductive health: A matter of life and death. Lancet 2006; 368:1595–1607.
3. Behets FM, Rasolofomanana JR, Van Damme K, et al. Evidence-based treatment guidelines for sexually transmitted infections developed with and for female sex workers. Trop Med Int Health 2003; 8:251–258.
4. Feldblum PJ, Hatzell T, Van Damme K, et al. Results of a randomised trial of male condom promotion among Madagascar sex workers. Sex Transm Infect 2005; 81:166–173.
5. Fleming DT, Wasserheit JN. From epidemiological synergy to public health policy and practice: The contribution of other sexually transmitted diseases to sexual transmission of HIV infection. Sex Transm Infect 1999; 75:3–17.
6. Cohen MS. Sexually transmitted diseases enhance HIV transmission: No longer a hypothesis. Lancet 1998; 351:5–7.
7. Corbett EL, Steketee RW, ter Kuile FO, et al. HIV-1/AIDS and the control of other infectious diseases in Africa. Lancet 2002; 359:2177–2187.
9. Holmes KK, Levine R, Weaver M. Effectiveness of condoms in preventing sexually transmitted infections. Bull World Health Organ 2004; 82:454–461.
10. D’Cruz OJ, Uckun FM. Clinical development of microbicides for the prevention of HIV infection. Curr Pharm Des 2004; 10:315–336.
11. Stein ZA. HIV prevention: The need for methods women can use. Am J Public Health 1990; 80:460–462.
12. Maher JE, Harvey SM, Bird ST, et al. Acceptability of the vaginal diaphragm among current users. Perspect Sex Reprod Health 2004; 36:64–71.
13. Bird ST, Harvey SM, Maher JE, et al. Acceptability of an existing, female-controlled contraceptive method that could potentially protect against HIV: A comparison of diaphragm users and other method users. Womens Health Issues 2004; 14:85–93.
14. Minnis AM, Padian NS. Effectiveness of female controlled barrier methods in preventing sexually transmitted infections and HIV: Current evidence and future research directions. Sex Transm Infect 2005; 81:193–200.
15. Moench TR, Chipato T, Padian NS. Preventing disease by protecting the cervix: The unexplored promise of internal vaginal barrier devices. AIDS 2001; 15:1–8.
16. Rosenberg MJ, Davidson AJ, Chen JH, et al. Barrier contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases in women: A comparison of female-dependent methods and condoms. Am J Public Health 1992; 82:669–674.
17. Austin H, Louv WC, Alexander WJ. A case-control study of spermicides and gonorrhea. JAMA 1984; 251:2822–2824.
18. Magder LS, Harrison HR, Ehret JM, et al. Factors related to genital Chlamydia trachomatis
and its diagnosis by culture in a sexually transmitted disease clinic. Am J Epidemiol 1988; 128:298–308.
19. Becker TM, Wheeler CM, McGough NS, et al. Contraceptive and reproductive risks for cervical dysplasia in southwestern Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women. Int J Epidemiol 1994; 23:913–922.
20. Wolner-Hanssen P, Eschenbach DA, Paavonen J, et al. Decreased risk of symptomatic chlamydial pelvic inflammatory disease associated with oral contraceptive use. JAMA 1990; 263:54–59.
21. Kelaghan J, Rubin GL, Ory HW, et al. Barrier-method contraceptives and pelvic inflammatory disease. JAMA 1982; 248:184–187.
22. Padian NS, van der Straten A, Ramjee G, et al. Diaphragm and lubricant gel for prevention of HIV acquisition in southern African women: A randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2007; 370:251–261.
23. De Bruyn G, Shiboski S, Ramjee G, et al. The diaphragm and lubricant gel for prevention of cervical sexually transmitted infections: Results of a randomized controlled trial. Abstract O-5, International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) Annual Meeting; July 29–August 1, 2007; Seattle.
24. McGowan I. Microbicides: A new frontier in HIV prevention. Biologicals 2006; 34:241–255.
25. Luchters S, Chersich MF, Jao I, et al. Acceptability of the diaphragm in Mombasa Kenya: A 6-month prospective study. Eur J Contracept Reprod Health Care 2007; 12:345–353.
26. Behets F, Norris Turner A, Van Damme K, et al. Acceptability and feasibility of continuous diaphragm use among sex workers in Madagascar. Sex Trans Inf 2005; 81:472–476.
27. van der Straten A, Kang MS, Posner SF, et al. Predictors of diaphragm use as a potential sexually transmitted disease/HIV prevention method in Zimbabwe. Sex Transm Dis 2005; 32:64–71.
28. Coggins C, Blanchard K, Alvarez F, et al. Preliminary safety and acceptability of a Carrageenan gel for possible use as a vaginal microbicide. Sex Transm Infect 2000; 76:480–483.
29. Mauck CK, Weiner DH, Ballagh SA, et al. Single and multiple exposure tolerance study of polystyrene sulfonate gel: A phase I safety and colposcopy study. Contraception 2004; 70:77–83.
30. Mantell JE, Myer L, Carballo-Dieguez A, et al. Microbicide acceptability research: Current approaches and future directions. Soc Sci Med 2005; 60:319–330.
31. Moon MW, Khumalo-Sakutukwa GN, Heiman JE, et al. Vaginal microbicides for HIV/STI prevention in Zimbabwe: What key informants say. J Transcult Nurs 2002; 13:19–23.
32. Garg S, Anderson R, Chany C, et al. Properties of a new acid-buffering bioadhesive vaginal formulation (Acidform). Contraception 2001; 64:67–75.
33. AcidForm Investigator’s Brochure, 2005.
34. Tuyama AC, Cheshenko N, Carlucci MJ, et al. ACIDFORM inactivates herpes simplex virus and prevents genital herpes in a mouse model: Optimal candidate for microbicide combinations. J Infect Dis 2006; 194:795–803.
35. Spencer SE, Valentin-Bon IE, Whaley K, et al. Inhibition of Neisseria gonorrhoeae
genital tract infection by leading-candidate topical microbicides in a mouse model. J Infect Dis 2004; 189:410–419.
36. Tabet SR, Callahan MM, Mauck CK, et al. Safety and acceptability of penile application of 2 candidate topical microbicides: BufferGel and PRO 2000 Gel: 3 randomized trials in healthy low-risk men and HIV-positive men. J Acquir Immun Defic Syndr 2003; 33:476–483.
37. Schwartz JL, Poindexter A, Schmitz SW, et al. Male tolerance of ACIDFORM gel. Contraception 2005; 71:443–446.
38. Amaral E, Perdigao A, Souza MH, et al. Vaginal safety after use of a bioadhesive, acid-buffering, microbicidal contraceptive gel (ACIDFORM) and a 2% nonoxynol-9 product. Contraception 2006; 73: 542–547.
39. Amaral E, Faundes A, Zaneveld L, et al. Study of the vaginal tolerance to acidform, an acid-buffering, bioadhesive gel. Contraception 1999; 60:361–366.
40. Williams DL, Creinin MD, Barnhart K, et al. Safety Analysis of the diaphragm in combination with vaginal microbicide gels (ACIDFORM and BufferGel): Results of a 14 Day Trial. Abstract # OB21, Microbicides 2006, Cape Town, South Africa, April 24–26, 2006.
41. Schwartz J, Lai J, Creinin M, et al. Fourteen day safety and acceptability study of ACIDFORM Gel: A randomized phase I | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10010_4.txt |
safety study. Abstract # OB4, Microbicides 2006, Cape Town, South Africa, April 24–26, 2006.
42. Williams DL, Newman DR, Ballagh SA, et al. Phase I safety trial of two vaginal microbicide gels (Acidform or BufferGel) used with a diaphragm compared to KY jelly used with a diaphragm. Sex Transm Dis 2007; 34:977–984.
43. Trifonova RT, Pasicznyk JM, Fichorova RN. Biocompatibility of solid-dosage forms of anti-HIV-1 microbicides with the human cervico-vaginal mucosa modeled ex vivo. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2006; 50:4005–4010.
44. Tien D, Schnaare RL, Kang F, et al. In vitro and in vivo characterization of a potential universal placebo designed for use in vaginal microbicide clinical trials. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses 2005; 21:845–853.
45. Schwartz J, Ballagh S, Kwok C, et al. Fourteen-day safety and acceptability study of the HEC-based universal placebo gel. Abstract # PB68, Microbicides 2006, Cape Town, South Africa, April 24–26, 2006.
46. Pettifor AE, Turner AN, Van Damme K, et al. Increased risk of chlamydial and gonococcal infection in adolescent sex workers in Madagascar. Sex Transm Dis 2007; 34:475–478.
47. Lachin JM. Statistical considerations in the intent-to-treat principle. Control Clin Trials 2000; 21:167–89.
48. Legardy-Williams J, Bell A, Jamieson D, et al. Attitudes and beliefs about vaginal cleansing among women, men, and healthcare providers in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Abstract # OC19, Microbicides 2006, Cape Town, South Africa, April 24–26, 2006.
50. Kaul R, Kimani J, Nagelkerke NJ, et al. Reduced HIV risk-taking and low HIV incidence after enrollment and risk-reduction counseling in a sexually transmitted disease prevention trial in Nairobi, Kenya. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2002;30:69–72. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10010_5.txt |
If the presence of bugs and insects make your skin crawl, then prepare yourself for some news that won’t be easy to read. The United States is currently experiencing a major bedbug infestation. What do you need to know?
There was a time when the discovery of bed bugs in a specific location was a sign that it wasn’t properly cleaned or cared for, allowing the bugs to move in and take hold. After all, they are unable to fly, requiring them to travel as hitchhikers on the clothing, bedding, and furniture of others. Only after they find a suitable ‘home’ do they settle in, laying up to 500 eggs each year. In this way, a couple lonely hitchhikers can quickly lead to a full-blown infestation.
The current infestation in the United States first showed its comeback in a few secluded areas in 2004, leading scientists to start tracking the spread of the bugs. Since that time, they have traveled across the country with current reports including every state across the country, and the problem continues to grow. No longer just found in beds couches in our personal homes, we are now experiencing infestations in daycare centers, libraries, movie theatres, airports, and other very public locations. This makes it harder than ever to take the necessary precautions to avoid bringing these nasty little critters home.
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite’? Experts reveal that this is rooted in actual fact. While bed bugs aren’t known to carry or transmit disease, they do feed off human blood. Their bites often cause great irritation to their hosts, leading to excessive itching, possibly even a secondary infection. This, understandably, can have an incredibly negative impact on one’s ability to get a good night’s sleep. Furthermore, some people may develop serious allergic reactions to the bites.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report on their website outlining all of the necessary information for Americans to be well informed on how to detect, prevent and treat a bed bug infestation in their own home. They explain: “Bed bug infestations usually occur around or near the areas where people sleep. These areas include apartments, shelters, rooming houses, hotels, cruise ships, buses, trains, and dorm rooms. They hide during the day in places such as seems of mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards, dresser tables, inside cracks or crevices, behind wallpaper, or any other clutter or objects around a bed. Bed bugs have been shown to be able to travel over 100 feet in a night but tend to live within 8 feet of where people sleep.”
It can be incredibly hard to identify bed bug bites, but there are signs that you can watch for that would indicate you are currently experiencing an infestation at home. These include:
– The presence of blood stains on your bedding including sheets, pillowcases, and blankets.
– An offensive or musty smell originating in or around your sleeping area.
– Bedbug excrement in your bedding, on your pajamas or on the walls near your bed. These will appear as dark or rusty colored spots.
– The appearance of excrement, egg shells or shed skins from the bugs in or around any of the above-listed areas where bed bugs like to hide.
If you do expect that you have bed bugs in your home, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that while there are treatment options that you can carry out yourself, the problem may be more complex and require the assistance of a professional. Treatment would require thorough and repeated cleaning of the area in question, emptying the vacuum after each use and sealing all items that can be used in plastic bags. After this preparation has been completed, there are non-chemical treatment options including heat or cold treatment, or in extreme cases, a professional can be called in to administer EPA-registered pesticides.
It’s important to remember that, regardless of the treatment option you choose, it may not be effective on the first try. Continue to watch for any evidence of bed bugs in the days that follow. If you do see anything that causes you to suspect they are not yet gone, repeat the process again or contact a professional for their opinion. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10011.txt |
If the Senate does not approve the continuing budget resolution, the federal government will shut down at midnight on Friday, January 19. As we noted in a recent blog, federal government shutdowns are nothing new. The government has been shut down 13 times since modern Congressional budgeting began in 1976, with shutdowns lasting an average 5.08 days. The most recent shutdown lasted 16 days (October 1-16, 2013).
What to Expect in a Government Shutdown
- Seniors will continue to receive Social Security payments and Medicare coverage.
- Veteran benefits, unemployment benefits, and food stamps will still be paid.
- All government workers will not be paid, but will receive their missed pay retroactively when Congress passes a bill to fund the government.
However, roughly 800,000 federal government employees who are deemed non-essential will be furloughed. An estimated 1.3 million workers who are considered “essential” will remain on the job and receive IOUs to be cashed in when any shutdown ends.
With non-essential workers off the job, non-essential government activities will cease. To name a few select examples:
- The Justice Department will suspend civil cases.
- NASA will furlough most of its employees but continue to provide support to the International Space Station.
- The National Institutes of Health will continue clinical trials but no new trials will be started.
- The National Zoos and National Parks will be closed.
The longer the shutdown persists, the bigger the hit to economic activity. Regardless, as in past shutdowns, the overall impact to U.S. economic activity will ultimately be modest.
How Government Shutdowns Affect Investors
For investors, the good news is that government shutdowns historically have had limited impact on the stock market. In fact, in every instance, market returns have been positive in the 12 months following the beginning of the shutdown, including a 19.72% gain in the year after the 2013 shutdown. The broad market has posted an average return of 17.99% in the one-year period following the government’s 13 shutdowns.
Whether we like it or not, a government shutdown may soon be upon us. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail, and if a shutdown does occur, that it will be resolved quickly.
The S&P 500 Index is a broad-based measure of domestic stock market performance. The index is unmanaged and cannot be purchased directly by investors. Index performance is shown for illustrative purposes only and does not predict or depict the performance of any investment. Past performance does not guarantee future results. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10012.txt |
Finding out the cause of the allergy is the first step in effective allergy treatment. This resource will explain why is it important to get an allergy test if you have allergy symptoms and common types of allergy testing.
The retina is the layer of cells at the back of the eye that let us see light and color. The blockage usually comes from a clot or fatty deposit in your blood vessel. If the blood clot breaks free and moves to the brain, it can cause a stroke. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10013.txt |
With the holiday season almost upon us, it’s important to know which foods to keep out of your kitty’s reach.
Patti’s young daughter knows chocolate is toxic to dogs. But she figured it would be all right to try a bit on the family cat, just to see how he liked it. The result was vomiting, diarrhea and a trip to the vet. Luckily, their kitty didn’t consume enough of the sweet treat to cause any lasting damage, but it was an important wake-up call for both Patti and her daughter. We hear a lot about foods that are harmful to dogs, but not so much about those that may also bad for cats. In many cases, they’re one and the same. With the holiday season almost upon us, it’s important to know what foods to keep well out of your kitty’s reach.
It’s doubtful any cat would eat onions by choice, but if you feed your feline friend table scraps, make sure there are no onions in them. If ingested, onions can cause anemia, which destroys a cat’s red blood cells. Symptoms are loss of appetite, fever and pale gums and lips.
This popular holiday treat contains theobromine, a type of methylxanthine. Methlyxanthines are highly toxic to cats. Theobromine is found in cocoa beans, the fruit of the cocoa tree from which chocolate is made. Caffeine, another methlyxanthine, is also present in chocolate, but in smaller amounts than theobromine. White chocolate has the lowest levels of theobromine, while cocoa powder has the highest. Dark chocolate has higher levels than milk chocolate. When ingested, chocolate can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and more serious complications such as seizures and abnormal heart rhythms. In some cases, even death can occur.
3. Uncooked fish
Most cats love fish, but when uncooked it contains high levels of thiaminese, the enzyme that breaks down thiamine. Uncooked fish can lead to thiamine deficiency in cats, and may also contain harmful bacteria. Cooked fish does not contain these high levels of thiaminase because heat neutralizes the enzyme. Symptoms of thiamine deficiency are poor appetite, unkempt coat, a hunched body position, aggression, and in some cases even seizures.
It’s unlikely you would ever give your cat a glass of wine or a shot of rum, but what if someone spills their drink and your kitty laps it up? As with humans, alcohol depresses a cat’s central nervous system. It also affects his brain and liver. The blood chemistry changes and may lead to metabolic acidosis, a condition in which the blood becomes too acidic. This condition can lead to death. The higher the alcoholic content of the drink, the more toxic it is, so caution your guests to watch their glasses! | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10014.txt |
DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have two daughters at home from college for the summer. Both are excellent swimmers and have been swimming since they were 7 years old. They have jobs as lifeguards. This is their second summer lifeguarding. I wonder what kind of danger they put themselves in from all this sun exposure. What do you say? - C.F.
We can't live without the sun. One of its benefits is the generation of vitamin D in the skin. However, it takes a relatively brief exposure to summer sun to accomplish the production of this vitamin. Some say 15 minutes in the noonday sun three times a week is enough. Others claim daily exposure of two to eight minutes is sufficient.
The downside of sun exposure is the damage to the DNA of skin cells by the sun's ultraviolet rays, a prelude to cancer changes. Ultraviolet B rays are the rays responsible for sunburns and are the more dangerous in promoting cancer changes. Ultraviolet A rays promote tanning. These rays are the ones that age skin, causing it to wrinkle. People need to protect the skin from both.
Outdoor lifeguards should sit under an umbrella. They need to generously apply sunscreen to their skin. The best sunscreen affords protection against both UV-A and UV-B rays. They have to reapply the sunscreen every two hours, more frequently if they're sweating. They also need to reapply it after being in the water. The sunscreen should have an SPF (sun protection factor) of 15 to 30.
Even on cloudy days, they have to cover their skin with sunscreen. Up to 80 percent of the sun's ultraviolet rays penetrate through the clouds.
If your daughters are serious about skin protection, they can hold down their lifeguard jobs this and next summer, too.
DR. PAUL DONOHUE is a syndicated columnist with North America Syndicate Inc., P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10015.txt |
Why do we choose to cooperate and how can we promote greater cooperation in world affairs? These are the questions that Robert Axelrod has pursued for more than 40 years. His career has been an interdisciplinary exploration that has encompassed mathematics, political science, and evolutionary biology. Now, his signature achievements in the areas of economic game theory and complex systems have earned him the highest scientific honor that the United States can bestow: the National Medal of Science.
I first encountered Axelrod’s work during my graduate studies working with great apes. His suggestion that cooperation could evolve as an adaptive strategy was an inspiration for me in a field still dominated by the view that selfish interests were the primary driver of evolution. After several years of watching bonobos – one of our closest evolutionary relatives – as they peacefully shared their resources with groupmates and avoided violence at all costs, I was eager for an alternative explanation. Axelrod’s publications with the celebrated evolutionary biologist William Hamilton had put the study of cooperation on a new foundation. What’s more, his application of this work to economics and political science offered the potential for an evolutionary framework that could help reduce violence and encourage mutual aid between nations and peoples.
Axelrod first pursued a degree in mathematics before receiving his PhD in Political Science from Yale University in 1969. After brief stints working in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and on Senator Eugene McCarthy’s failed presidential campaign that pledged to end the Vietnam War, Axelrod taught at UC Berkeley before becoming a professor of Political Science and Public Policy at The University of Michigan.
Get Evonomics in your inbox
It was Axelrod’s work with computer simulations involving the Prisoner’s Dilemma game that launched his scientific career. In the game, two people who committed a crime are arrested and each is placed in solitary confinement for interrogation. If one betrays the other, the first goes free while the second is sentenced to three years in prison. If they both betray one another, they each receive two years. But if they both keep silent, they receive the minimum penalty of one year each. Under this scenario, the best individual strategy would be to betray the other. However, in actual trials, people were much more likely to cooperate than would be expected under the assumption of rational self-interest. Cooperation and altruism seem to be innate characteristics of the human species.
Axelrod has been able to extend his model of cooperation from animals in nature, down to cancer cells, and up to conflicts involving rival superpowers. His books include The Evolution of Cooperation, The Complexity of Cooperation, and Harnessing Complexity. He has been published inScience, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,World Politics, and the Journal of Peace Research. During his extensive career, his work on cooperation has been cited more than 9,000 times by researchers across academic disciplines.
It was my distinct honor to talk with Professor Axelrod from his current position in the U.S. State Department. In our discussion, he reflected on his work with evolutionary biologist William Hamilton, how cooperation can be promoted within groups, and what this ultimately means for a planet caught in the thrall of competing national powers.
Founding members of the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, 1980s.
From left to right: Michael D. Cohen, Robert Axelrod, William Hamilton,
Arthur Burks, John Holland, Rick Riolo, Michael Savageau, and Carl Simon.
Courtesy of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.
Eric Michael Johnson: To begin with, I would like to talk with you about your work with the evolutionary biologist William Hamilton. In my opinion, this was a model of interdisciplinary collaboration that enriched both fields. How did you end up working with him?
Robert Axelrod: I approached him because I thought that my work on the Prisoner’s Dilemma would have applications to biology. First I got in touch with Richard Dawkins and it was he who suggested Bill Hamilton who, at the time, was visiting The University of Michigan where I was. I didn’t even know he was there. When I looked him up and told him about my basic idea, he thought it was quite interesting. As you know, before he died of course, he was a world-class evolutionary biologist most noted for showing that animals often cooperate when they are closely related to each other. But my suggestion was a different idea: that cooperation could also be based on reciprocity.
To my delight, Bill immediately saw the value of this approach and he thought we could develop some useful applications for biology. He had already used game theory in some of his work, although he didn’t regard himself as a game theorist. We decided to write an article for Science, which is probably the world’s leading scientific journal. Bill was able to bring the relevance to biology and speak directly to evolutionary biologists in a way that I could not and I brought the original theory. Then we worked out some of the elaborations together. We were really fortunate in that, not only was the article accepted, it was chosen as the best article of the year in Science magazine. It certainly gave my later work a mark of scientific credibility.
Johnson: What is one of your fondest memories of working with Hamilton? Can you paint a scene of how one of your collaboration sessions played out?
Axelrod: One of the characteristics I remember about him is that when we were talking about an idea he might suddenly stop and think very deeply about it. I learned to keep quiet and let him ponder. Many times he would come up with a really interesting next step. Of course, sometimes he would come up with something completely different because he had given up pondering the topic at hand and his mind had gone off in some other direction. I could never tell which it would be. It was a lot of fun.
Johnson: You were both so generous with one another in how you described your work together. For example, Hamilton wrote in his autobiography that your collaboration added to his own biological insights. Would you say that it also added to your own perspective on political science?
Axelrod: It certainly gave me a deeper sense of the fundamentals that we were studying. It wasn’t something specific like trench warfare, which was one of my examples. I saw that this model could be applied in many different places. For example, as you may know, I later developed another application related to this work as it had to do with cooperation among cancer cells. The same thing happened for him and, several years later, he came up with another idea that he wanted to try out on me related to parasites.
Johnson: This would have been your joint paper on the origin of sex.
Axelrod: Yes, his idea was quite amazing. You see, at the time we did not have a good explanation for the fact that almost all large animals and plants reproduce sexually. This was a serious puzzle because it meant that only half of adults – the females – could reproduce. This is a huge cost in evolutionary terms, so there must be something very valuable about it. The fact that sex is so universal means it must be something that large animals and plants have in common. Bill’s idea for what they have in common was the need to resist parasites. Parasites evolved to mimic our cells so that our immune system wouldn’t attack them. As a result, they can evolve around thirty times faster than we can since their generation time is so short. If you were to reproduce asexually it would mean you’d have an offspring that was almost identical to you, so the parasites that are adapted to you would also be adapted to your offspring. However, by reproducing sexually our offspring are quite different from us. Therefore, the parasites have to start all over. Bill’s idea was that sexual reproduction is an adaptation to resist parasites. It is just a brilliant idea.
Johnson: How did you end up coauthoring the paper with him?
Axelrod: He said to me that he didn’t have a way of modeling this concept because it inherently involved many genes and, in the formal model, you could only add two or three different genes before the whole thing got too complicated with all of the interaction effects. I used a technique that John Holland at University of Michigan had developed called the genetic algorithm. This was a computer simulation of the genetics and allowed us to handle dozens of genes in one simulation. This was just what we needed and we developed a simulation to demonstrate that this idea, at least in principle, was viable. It was a lot of fun to first have one idea of mine that I took to Bill only to have him come back with an idea of his own that I helped do simulations on.
Johnson: So it was a meeting of complementary minds. You would build on one another’s ideas and inspiration.
Axelrod: Right. I remember he said in his memoirs that we were both quite serious about aesthetics. We like simple theories and want to get to the fundamentals of things. We both had a background in mathematical modeling and game theory so, even though we came from different disciplines, we had some important things in common. In addition, I had been fascinated with evolution ever since high school and had taken it quite seriously. I thought a lot about evolutionary biology although I certainly was not a professional. But it meant that he and I could communicate well together because I knew many of the basics in a way that political scientists wouldn’t normally be expected to. Another thing that he mentioned in his memoirs is that neither one of us had any need to one up the other or establish who had made the biggest contribution. There was never any need to be overly modest just out of the sake of politeness, which I think is common in Britain and something Bill was used to from his time at Oxford. He was simply a delight to work with.
Johnson: You have also taken on other evolutionary questions over the years. One of the debates I have always been interested in is that you have been critical of some evolutionary psychologists, such as Joseph Henrich at University of British Columbia where I am based, who argue that there | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10016_1.txt |
are specific genes for prosocial traits. Instead you advocate for more general-purpose capabilities such as language and foresight. Do you think there is an overreliance among some evolutionary researchers on genetic mechanisms for understanding the nature of cooperation and altruism?
Axelrod: I think that genetics certainly plays a role. But I am kind of agnostic about just how big the role of genetics is in human behavior. For example, there is no doubt that an important genetic basis exists in both human and nonhuman animals for cooperation with kin. What I was addressing was how specific those genetic components have to be. Henrich was moving towards the side where they are highly specific and identifiable. My collaborator and I were saying that it could be explained by much more general capacities that were evoked for this purpose. It wasn’t a major difference. Genes are important but I’m not a purist who believes they drive everything. Obviously culture is important too.
Johnson: When Darwin was trying to understand the origin of morality in The Descent of Man he adopted a group selection model where those individuals that displayed selfish tendencies would be punished whereas those that displayed traits benefitting the group would be rewarded. Christopher Boehm followed up on this idea in his book Moral Origins that came out a few years ago. Do you find that the evolution of cooperation has come full circle back to where Darwin originally was?
Axelrod: I think that Darwin’s speculation is quite plausible. At the time he couldn’t really establish it by studying large numbers of societies and identifying those that thrived and those that didn’t. The idea of group selection, until recently, has had a pretty bad reputation in biology because some non-scientists wildly misused it, saying that if the British were so successful it must be because they were genetically better. But in the last ten years or so biologists have come to agree that, under certain conditions, one can get group selection. If one small band of humans are better at cooperating than some other band whom they are competing with, the first may well be able to outperform the second either through getting more food or maybe even by fighting and killing them. I think it is a common principle that cooperation is invoked in the service of competition. Cooperation with insiders serves competition with outsiders.
Johnson: You modeled this very process in the journal Nature with what you refer to as tags. You show that cooperation could increase even without reciprocity or high levels of relatedness. If enough individuals with the same tag were in a group they might cooperate simply because they shared these tags. Could you expand on that?
Axelrod: The idea of tags was actually developed by John Holland. Tags are completely arbitrary pieces of information that other people can observe, such as your accent or your skin color or the color shirt you wear. These are signals as to what group a person is a member of and this can lead to ethnocentrism or cooperating with others that are similar to you. Even if those things are completely arbitrary initially, they can come to take on meaning. They become correlated with traits that include reciprocity. Of course, the question gets tricky and interesting in that somebody else can have this trait or be part of the in-group but then abuse that and not cooperate. I remember Groucho Marx once said that, “The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those, you’ve got it made.” One of the purposes of our simulation is to study the conditions under which defectors are not able to take over a population even though, in the short run, they can do well.
Johnson: Do these models suggest that there is room for cultural and institutional change in order to promote cooperation in world affairs? For example, you wrote an article for The New York Times along with Scott Atran about how we should talk to terrorists.
Axelrod: That’s right. As an interesting side note, you may know that this year I am working in the State Department on a fellowship. I was a little worried that I might not get a security clearance because I actually have talked to terrorists. But I have been up front about this so it turned out not to be a problem. I was still able to get my clearance.
Johnson: So is this the kind of thing that could be utilized? By employing various tags and emphasizing shared cultural traits we might enter into closer dialogue that would promote cooperation.
Axelrod: That is the aspiration. But there are some groups, and perhaps ISIL is one of them, where there is not a lot to talk to them about.
Johnson: You noted in one of your autobiographical papers that your father was a painter and that he represented what was important on a given day by what he left out. In your early work you emphasized the Prisoner’s Dilemma because, at the time, the world was in a conflict between rival superpowers. How has the changing world situation altered what you find important and how has that influenced what you include, or don’t include, in your models?
Axelrod: Obviously we’re not in a strict bipolar situation today like the United States and the Soviet Union were in the dominant confrontation during the Cold War. Now there are a number of power centers and, you might say, a two-sided game is only part of the issue. However, there are still lots of bilateral issues such as between Russia and its neighbor Ukraine. The United States and China also have a complex relationship that has elements of both cooperation and competition. In terms of the U.S.-Chinese relationship, a particularly important feature is that it represents an established power relating to a rising power. Those situations have often led to war in the past. That has been a difficult relationship to manage. I think it is important that we recognize and promote the cooperative aspects and possibilities, just as President Obama did with the President of China on their agreement over climate change. We should build a cooperative relationship where we both have a common interest in the outcome.
Johnson: So this would still fall into the Prisoner’s Dilemma model. But it seems that there would be a high potential for noise, something that you wrote you wish you had considered more in your earlier work.
Axelrod: That’s right. For our purposes, instead of using the term noise it’s misunderstanding. One side may think it is perfectly reasonable and the other side might think it is breaking the norms that they should be following. An example of this is cyberspace where the United States gets quite angry that the Chinese are stealing industrial secrets and the Chinese don’t regard that as necessarily any different from normal espionage which everybody accepts that other countries do.
Johnson: This would tie in with Elinor Ostrom’s work as it relates to the digital commons and how to manage that.
Axelrod: Right. You have clearly done a thorough job of looking at my vitae. (Laughs)
Johnson: I’ve been reading your work for quite a while.
Axelrod: But you’re right. I think it is important that we sustain the tremendous value of the Internet as a common resource that helps all economies to thrive and helps individuals, businesses, and countries. It is under challenge now because some countries, for example Germany, are promoting the idea that the data generated in their country should stay in their country. This sounds reasonable but it also risks the Balkanization of the Internet and undermining the collective good.
Johnson: You are the first political scientist to be awarded the National Science Medal in United States history. While this award may represent the pinnacle of your career, it certainly is not the end. Where do you plan to go next?
Axelrod: (Laughs) Two things, I have a serious interest in cyber conflict and what we can do to avoid or manage conflict in cyberspace. This could get very serious if one country causes blackouts in another or interferes with the financial system as a way to pressure the other instead of bombing them. Because we don’t have established norms of what counts as armed conflict there could be a good deal of misunderstanding. One side could think they didn’t escalate very much and the other side could take action that is very serious. We understand the escalation ladder for conventional warfare, for example, but we really don’t have a common understanding for the various types of cyber conflict. I think it has a serious potential for misunderstanding so I’m interested in those issues and have an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about the timing of cyber conflict.
The other thing I have been interested in is learning about the State Department, about how organizations make decisions, and how policies develop using this opportunity to see policy formation from the inside.
Johnson: Looking inside the sausage factory.
Johnson: One final question I have for you is that, despite all of the crises in the world today and a seemingly gridlocked political system at home, what continues to give you hope?
Axelrod: One important fact is that we have not had great power wars for a long time. I suppose the last time would have been the United States and China fighting in the Korean War from 1950-53. That was sixty years ago. We have not had a great power confrontation in all that time and even the Korean War was quite limited. I think it is possible, and it’s certainly hopeful, that major powers can find non-violent ways of dealing with each other and making their interests known to the other side. But it is not guaranteed. The proliferation of nuclear weapons is a serious danger and major differences exist between the United States and Russia in this area. And, of course, jihadism is a serious threat to the world. But none of these are as serious as World War I or World War II or as dangerous as the Cold War. We could have had hundreds of millions of people dead in a single day if the Cuban Missile Crisis didn’t go well, for example, or if some of the Berlin confrontations had escalated. So I am hopeful that the world is not as dangerous as it was then and that great powers can continue to deal with each other without periodic wars that seemed to be so common in the past.
Johnson: Thank you for taking this time | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10016_2.txt |
to talk with me. I personally have gained a lot from reading your work over the years and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that you have received this honor.
Axelrod: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. I enjoyed talking with you as well.
2016 April 11 | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10016_3.txt |
4 Reasons Young Adults Save for Retirement/ February 6th, 2020
If you’re in your twenties, you’re either graduating college, starting your career, or building a life of your own. In theory, you’re likely making the least amount of money you will ever make in your career. This comes with both challenges and opportunities.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that among those who earned bachelor's degrees in 2018, the average salary is between $74,000 (computer and information science) and $42,000 (physical sciences), depending on the discipline.
Assuming an average starting salary of about $50,000, after taxes and other deductions this number gets low. Yet this still is the best time to save for retirement.
Whether it’s $25 per month or $17,500 per year, it’s important to save while you’re young to maximize your future net worth. Yes, now is the time to enjoy yourself but saving money should always be a priority. Here's why:
1. You have fewer financial obligations
Even with student debt, unless you have a mortgage, spouse, and children, you probably can afford to pay at least a little bit into your retirement account. Even 1% of a $45,000 salary ($450 per year), is worth it:
- If you’re investing in an employer-sponsored 401(K), that $450 is deducted before taxes.
- You can take advantage of your employer’s match, which means free money if you’re fully vested.
2. Time is on your side
The retirement age for millennials is 67. That means if you graduate college at 22 and start working right away, you have 45 years in the workforce which means you have 45 years to save for retirement.
How much do you want to have saved for retirement? Let’s say $2 million. That means that without compounding interest, employer match, or investment gains, you would need to save $44,000 per year. Not possible.
Fortunately, you have the advantage of compounding interest, and hopefully employer matches and investment gains. Starting in your twenties means more in interest and matches earned over time than starting in your thirties—in fact, a person who saves for only 10 years starting in her twenties can earn more than someone who saves for 30 years but starts later in life.
3. You already know how to live like a poor college student
You know how to make a whole meal out of a few random ingredients and get by on pennies. Don’t give up that poor college student lifestyle in your early twenties, even if it seems like a good idea to splurge on new clothes and restaurants.
Instead—invest in yourself. It’s better (and easier) to live like you’re poor now than in retirement. You might even join the FIRE movement and retire in your 40s!
4. You build solid money habits while you're young
Develop good money habits and get stuck in your ways as you grow older. Otherwise, by blowing money on things you don’t need, you'll get yourself into the habit of spending more as you earn more. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10017.txt |
THE BOLIVIAN NAVY
______Most countries without shorelines have given up the idea of having a navy. Bolivia is the exception, having lost its access to the ocean in 1884 but not the idea of keeping a navy.
______In 1879 Chile declared war against Peru and its ally Bolivia. Thus began the War of the Pacific, which ended with Peru and Bolivia on the losing end.
______The War of the Pacific was over nitrate mines, which also happened to be the territory Bolivia's port of Arica was located. When Chile annexed this territory it took control of the narrow strip of land connecting Bolivia to the Pacific.
______Bolivia stubbornly clung on to their navy, even though by now it was confined to a few patrol boats on Lake Titicaca, which it shares with Peru. Lake Titicaca, the highest navigatable lake in the world (at over 12,000 feet), seems an unlikely place to reestablish a navy.
______Nevertheless, the Bolivians created five naval districts (one at Lake Titicaca and four others associated with rivers). Each district has at least one flotilla. Navy headquarters is at Lake Titicaca. The Bolivians still have a naval ensign for their patrol boats and some lucky patrol boat sailors reach the rank of admiral. Bolivia even has a holiday called the Day of the Sea.
______Other countries have lost annex to the sea thanks to territorial changes brought on by war (Austria comes to mind) but none have been as stubborn as Bolivia. The unfortunate country renewed its claims to Arica (or as they call it, the Atacama Department) and the lost coastline in 1918, using the argument that their country has a navy and now it needs somewhere to put it. The Chileans told them where they could put it but did not give back Arica.
______The Bolivians still did not give up (they still had their navy, remember) and pressed the issue in 1962, leading to Chile breaking off diplomatic relations. In 1975 and 1991 new talks were opened between Bolivia and Chile regarding a possible swap of territory that would give Bolivia sea access (although what Bolivia could have possibly exchanged for it is unclear) and in 1976 talks were opened with Peru about the possibility of giving up some of its territory so that Bolivia could once again rule the waves, all to no avail.
______In 1932 Bolivia picked a fight with Paraguay over the Chaco region, at least partially out of a desire to get access to the Atlantic. If this was indeed the intention it must have been part of a long-range plan because the Chaco (indeed, NONE of Paraguay) has access to the sea either. In any case, the Chaco War also ended disasterously for Bolivia.
______The Bolivian Navy has about 3,800 personnel, which includes 2,000 Marines. It is not known how many lyrics there are in the Bolivian Marine Hymn are but I doubt there are many. The "fleet" includes dozens of boats, including some river patrol boats bought from the U.S. Indeed, river patrols seem to be an important mission of the Bolivian Navy. Bolivia has also got a couple of light patrol aircraft. The Bolivian Navy resembles a coast guard without a coast, and being prone to seasickness obviously isn't a problem if you want to join.
______The intrepid Bolivians do have a single sea-going vessel, the Libertador Bolivar, but it is kept docked in Argentina. The ship goes up and down the Plate River between Argentina and Uruguay and has apparently never been NEAR Bolivia. But that makes about as much sense as anything else in the Bolivian Navy.
HOW LONG WAS THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR? | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10018.txt |
The day of the customs of the Russian Federation
Twenty-fifth day of October in the Russian Federation celebrated the day Mytnik Customs – important government body that protects the economic interests of the state.
History of customs in Russia more than a thousand years. In ancient Russia, when there is trade, there was something similar at the customs gate. For the transport of goods through these posts, because rented retail space, and promoting the merchants gathered trading fee, which was called ‘Myto». And the people who collect the taxes were called, of course, "publicans» and «mutikani.
The roots of the word "customs" occur from the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, its origin has its origin from the Turkic word "signs" print. When issued Khan labels with seal, then took the duty, which was also referred to as "signs". And the place in which collected such tax was called the customs, working – the customs.
The widespread system of revenue collection in Russia did not yet exist, and in a separate principalities asserted their prices on the export of goods. Only in the sixteenth century customs fees have become centralized, and the laws and customs have been improved.
In 1653 25 October came in the light of the Common customs Statute, which regulated the collection of customs duties in Russia. And this event has become a guiding star for current employees celebrated this date, as a modern Day Russian customs officer.
Note that in the USSR the Day of the customs officers was celebrated on may 29. This date was associated with the release in 1918 legislative decree that regulated the activities of customs. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was decided by the decree of the President, to approve for this holiday another day, and the twenty-ninth of may, it is customary to honor veterans who worked in the customs service.
Currently customs service of the Russian Federation is an effective mechanism of regulation of trade of the state with other countries, keeping the best traditions that developed centuries. Because the current theory Mytnaya things should develop in the future given the historical experience of the past. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10019.txt |
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas influencing global warming. To determine its major source and sink regions, precise and worldwide measurements of the CO2 mixing ratio (xCO2) are required.1 To obtain xCO2 values that are averaged for the whole atmospheric column (the total volume of air over a certain area), the solar spectrum needs to be measured in the near-IR region both on the earth's surface at a monitoring site and from space, with a satellite such as the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT).
Earth surface monitoring points are concentrated in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere (i.e., where most developed countries are situated). Few are found in tropical regions of developing countries where CO2 emissions are growing most rapidly. We have developed a portable, compact instrument that is capable of measuring the CO2 of atmospheric columns, and therefore could help to mitigate this problem.2
Figure 1. The latent flux method for estimating total carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from a targeting area. Vertical bars indicate CO2mixing ratios measured by an observation network that surrounds the targeting area where forest or peatland fires occur. By factoring the difference in CO2 mixing ratios at out- and in-flow points, along with fluxes of air mass, the total CO2emitted from the area can be determined.
Our new spectrometer uses commercially available fiber optics and a fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI), that controls and measures light wavelengths. We based our instrument on a similar CO2 column spectrometer that uses a conventional solid glass FPI and glass optics.3 In our fiber FPI instrument, incident sunlight rays are made parallel (collimated) through an optical filter by a fiber collimator that is installed on a small sun tracker. The light is split and passes through two separate optical components: a fiber FPI for CO2 spectrum analysis and a reference detector for correcting the spectrum intensity due to solar intensity fluctuation.
We can control the wavelengths of the solar spectrum that are transmitted through the fiber FPI by changing its temperature. The transmitted light can thus be aligned, or unaligned, with the CO2 rotational lines that are centered at 1572nm. By modulating the fiber FPI temperature 40s/cycle, we deduce the intensity of both the incident and transmitted light waves through use of the Beer-Lambert law, which relates the absorption of light to the properties of the material through which it is traveling. This allows xCO2 to be measured with a precision of 1.3ppm under clear sky conditions.4
Figure 2. Average CO2 mixing ratios (ppm) measured at Parangka Raya (blue) and Banjar Baru (red), which are situated 95km apart at 1.12°S; 113.54°E and 3.26°S; 114.50°E, respectively, in Kalimantan, Indonesia, when forest and peatland fires occurred between 20 August and 5 September 2011.
We previously reported measurements of atmospheric CO2 columns made with a similar, precursor instrument at surface monitoring sites. This instrument consists of a solar telescope attached to a sun tracker and a commercial desktop optical spectrum analyser (Yokogawa Meters and Instruments model AQ6370) that resolves the rotational lines of CO2 in 30s scans and effectively provides automatic self-calibration and self-alignment.2, 5 We examined the practicality of using this instrument at a surface monitoring site in parallel with a high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Average column densities measured by the OSA and FTS between July and October 2010 were (8.369±0.087)×1021 and (8.413±0.056)×1021 molecules/cm2, respectively, and were thus in good agreement.
Due to its portability, our fiber FPI instrument can be used to measure CO2 emissions from widely spread and unpredictable local sources, e.g., forest or peatland fires. Figure 1 shows that the local flux of CO2 can be measured if a CO2 observation network is constructed to surround the target emission area and if air transfer data is obtained. We used the fiber FPI instruments in central Kalimantan, Indonesia, as a part of measurement reporting validation (MRV) activities for CO2 emission reduction. In this campaign, two sets of the fiber FPI instruments were deployed parallel to the predominant wind direction at Banjar Baru and Palangka Raya in Kalimantan, respectively. Two months of column data were automatically obtained (some of which is shown in Figure 2). Between 24 and 26 August 2011, large fires were detected by the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite, and we found large differences in the xCO2data between our two observation sites. The difference in CO2 emissions between the observation sites can be evaluated after factoring in the xCO2 difference due to wind flux.
During the dry season of El Niño years, large-scale forest and peatland fires have a high occurrence in Indonesia. It has been estimated that 0.81–2.57Gt of carbon was emitted from wildfires over the entire Indonesian archipelago between 1997 and 1998 (making up 13–40% of the world's total fossil fuel emissions).6 The wide range of this estimate reflects the uncertainty of conventional estimation methods. We are now reviewing and continuing to implement CO2 emission MRV activities. We are working to establish an operating structure that allows effective monitoring, especially in situations and regions where there has not yet been sufficient data collection to quantitatively assess the CO2 emissions.
This work is sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology and Green Network of Excellence programs of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN)
Masahiro Kawasaki received his PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1975. He has been a professor emeritus of Kyoto University and a visiting professor at RIHN since 2010.
Department of Information Science and Biomedical Engineering
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute
University of Tokyo
2. N. Kobayashi, G. Inoue, M. Kawasaki, H. Yoshioka, M. Minomura, I. Murata, T. Nagahama, Y. Matsumi, T. Tanaka, I. Morino, T. Ibuki, Remotely operable compact instruments for measuring atmospheric CO2 column densities at surface monitoring sites, Atmos. Meas. Tech. 3, p. 1103, 2010.
3. E. L. Wilson, E. M. Georgieva, W. S. Heaps, Development of a Fabry-Perot interferometer for ultra-precise measurements of column CO2, Meas. Sci. Technol. 18, p. 1495, 2007.
4. The FFPI instrument is commercially available as model FES-C (fiber etalon spectrometer for atmospheric carbon dioxide column measurement) from Meisei Electric Co. Ltd., Isesaki 372-8585, Japan.
5. M. Kawasaki, H. Yoshioka, N. B. Jones, R. Macatangay, D. W. T. Griffith, S. Kawakami, H. Ohyama, T. Tanaka, I. Morino, O. Uchino, T. Ibuki, Usability of optical spectrum analyzer in measuring atmospheric CO2
column densities: substantiation with FTS and aircraft profiles in situ, Atmos. Meas. Tech.
5, p. 2593, 2012. doi:10.5194/amt-5-2593-2012
6. S. E. Page, F. Siegert, J. O. Rieley, H.-D. V. Boehm, A. Jaya, S. Limin, The amount of carbon released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997, Nature 420, p. 61-65, 2002. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1002.txt |
Without water people cannot survive, but without good sanitation and hygiene practices the water available could become contaminated and lead to disease and death. Every year 1.5 million people, most of them children, die from complications associated with diarrhea that they picked up from dirty water. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 88% of diarrhea cases worldwide are linked to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene. Diarrhea is caused by bacteria that get into the water system, and one way that this happens is from open defecation.
Some of you may have never heard of open defecation, but it is a reality for a lot of people in developing countries due to the lack of improved sanitation facilities. In India open defecation is practiced by around 638 million people; the most of any country. In Indonesia it is practiced by 63 million people. In Sudan the number rests at 19 million people. And in Afghanistan 89% of the rural population practices open defecation (because of conflict and war no census has been done in Afghanistan since 1979, but from estimates the number of open defecators is around 20 million). From these numbers you can see that open defecation is a big problem, and is one of the contributors to millions of deaths from diarrhea every year.
With that in mind I wanted to talk about a methodology called community-led total sanitation, or CLTS, which aims to eliminate open defecation. With CLTS communities are not just handed a latrine or a hand washing facility to use because it has been found that providing these facilities does not guarantee that people will use them. CLTS recognizes that for any real behavioral change to happen you need to get the community involved and educated. So instead the communities are taught about the facilities. They are told why it is important to use them, and how lack of using them and open defecation can cause disease and death. It also focuses on “open defecation-free” (ODF) communities instead of providing toilets for individual households.
CLTS was originally thought up by Dr. Kamal Kar in 2000 while he was working with Village Education Resource Center (VERC), a partner of WaterAid Bangladesh. Dr. Kar, who had in the past worked on urban poverty, slum improvement, and local governance in India, Mongolia, Bangladesh and
Cambodia was at the time studying the traditional subsidized model for providing sanitation facilities. In realizing that this model was flawed he convinced local NGOs to stop the practice of providing toilets through subsidies, and to instead start implementing the community based approach of CLTS. He worked with these NGOs to start mobilizing and facilitating the villagers to think about their sanitation habits and to come up with solutions to the problem of open defecation on their own.
His first experience with CLTS was in the village of Mosmoil in Bangladesh. Mosmoil had in the past received subsidized toilets from aid agencies but still lived with the problem of open defecation. While there he couldn’t help but notice the piles of human waste throughout the village, often close to water sources, as well as the heavy stench that hung in the air. Once he sat down with the people from the village conversation between them erupted; people wanted a change, but often blamed each other for the problem and asked Dr. Kar to provide more free toilets. However, once he explained to them that he wasn’t there provide toilets the villagers started talking about how they could deal with the problem and after some time came up with real solutions to the problem on their own. By the end of the day children had even begun digging a hole to be used as a latrine in the village.
By engaging a whole community through CLTS a couple of things are accomplished. First, when you explain to a community that they’re getting sick because of open defecation, and even if it’s only a minority of the people practicing it, they are going to hold each other responsible for using good sanitation practices. This education also leads to people wanting to make a change. Imagine if someone came into your village where people had been getting sick and told you the reason they were getting sick and what you could do to stop it. That is a huge motivator.
However, you need to be mindful of how you get this message across. People will often use shame and disgust to compel people to change their ways and stop open defecation. There is debate among those implementing CLTS regarding if shaming people is appropriate or not. While evoking shame does works sometimes it only does if you go about it correctly. There is good shame and bad shame, and whether it turns into good or bad depends on how the message is delivered. If the message is received in a good way then it will lead to people starting to think about how they can make things better, it will expand their value system, and will make them want to elevate their community.
If it’s received in a bad way it can lead to people abandoning the program, low self-esteem, can make people angry, and feeling helpless. You can’t just walk up to someone and tell them they’re disgusting because they practice open defecation. You should explain to them why it’s unsanitary and unhygienic and lead them to realize themselves that a change needs to be made. I’ve seen this point made by placing feces on the ground next to food and having the people watch flies jump from the feces to the food, and then back and forth over and over again. When people see this it’s very easy for them to make the connection between open defecation and sickness without the person who is facilitating saying something offensive like “you’re eating your own feces”.
Also, when working with certain communities you need to realize that for some people this is how they’ve lived their whole life and this is a normal part of their day. Therefore if you tell them they’re disgusting and try and shame them they will be offended and resist any message you’re trying to get across. But if you talk to them and tell them why open defecation is bad they’ll start to realize that open defecation is obnoxious and unhealthy and this will lead to change.
Further, when you get the community involved and let them come up with the solutions it leads to them feeling a sense of ownership over what they’re doing for themselves. Ownership leads to pride, and pride leads to lasting success. Having them come up with their own plan also leads to innovation, and appropriate solutions that they can build, maintain, and repair themselves. This also leads to lasting success because when something breaks or needs to be replaced the community has the means to do it themselves.
Since CLTS was first introduced back in 2000 it has had a lot of success. One of these success stories is from Afghanistan where they started implementing the methodology in 2009. Originally this program only involved people from USAID’s Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Project (SWSS). However, because of the past few decades Afghans aren’t particularly trustworthy of new people coming into their country. To gain their trust and speed up the process the SWSS team partnered with one of USAID’s health program partners, Management Sciences for Health, which had already been in the country for a decade working with the people.
After gaining the trust of the Afghans SWSS made sure they were involved in every step of the process in order to ensure that CLTS appealed to local customs, attitudes and values of the Afghans. In order to bring this message to the communities 682 Afghan facilitators were trained, and 3,960 community leaders were trained to promote hygiene within their community. Soon thereafter Family Health Action Groups were formed by women in the communities to help train more woman on how to educate others. Once these women were trained they went out and taught other woman, who in turn taught their families about the importance of health and hygiene, which led to entire communities becoming aware. More or less a snowball effect of education, and it was successful. As of my writing this 394 communities in Afghanistan have been certified ODF, and this number will just continue to grow!
In Malakal, South Sudan 200 latrines have been built in a community of 2,000 households, and while there is still work to be done they are well on their way to becoming ODF. In Kyalugondo Parish, Uganda a community of 3,000 households celebrated their ODF status just this month. In Madhya Pradesh, India they aim to transform all 138 villages to ODF. As of February 2012 sixty three of the villages had accomplished ODF status. In southern Guinea Bissau, in Quinara Region, twenty eight communities were declared ODF in March 2012.
I can go on listing success stories but you get the point; CLTS has been and is working around the world. One thing that I think is important to note is that it has been working in very different cultures. It’s one thing to find a methodology that works for a specific group, but it’s completely different when you find something that can work universally. I’ve also read that after CLTS has been successful in improving sanitation it has led to communities using the basic model to solve other problems such as off season food scarcity in Bangladesh. I think that’s a true sign of a successful methodology.
To date CLTS has spread to 43 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America benefitting roughly 20 million people. In seven countries CLTS has become the national sanitation strategy. It has also influenced UNICEF to make the decision to not provide household hardware subsidies, which in itself has led to CLTS being implemented in more cases.
Many organizations have picked up the CLTS model and base their sanitation program on it but with some changes. UNICEF calls their program Community Approaches to Total Sanitation, or CATS. UNICEF’s program differs in that they look at both the supply and demand side of the problem. Once people are educated and make decisions as to how they want to implement the program (the demand) CATS starts to look at the supply side. This usually includes things like training local masons to build latrines or setting up sanitation shops that, often with some monetary help from UNICEF, provide low cost materials for building | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10020_1.txt |
latrines. UNICEF will not give money directly to communities, but instead will provide subsidies to facilitate plans that people in the communities have already come up with on their own.
The World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program calls it Total Sanitation and Sanitation Marketing, or TSSM. TSSM is a combination of CLTS and what the World Bank calls Sanitation Marketing (SM). SM is basically the same idea as UNICEF’s supply and demand model, create demand and then follow by facilitating the supply.
Up to this point I have been talking about CLTS and its use in rural areas, however in the past several years organizations have been bringing CLTS into urban areas also. There has been some success, but they quickly learned that while the same basic principles remain there are a new set of challenges to overcome when using CLTS in urban areas. One of the biggest challenges is forming partnerships with the politicians in the area so that they will listen to the communities and help facilitate getting what the people need. This is often not at the top of the list of things politicians want to do, especially because the poor are often living in illegal slums that politicians don’t want to support.
Implementing CLTS in a slum area has its own particular set of challenges. Because these people know that at any time they could be evicted from where they’re living they’re less motivated to do something to help the situation. Also, because slums are often densely populated and lack a sense of community it is more challenging to get everyone involved than in a small rural community. The fact that slums don’t have a lot of space also makes it hard for toilets and wash facilities to be constructed there.
Although challenging there has been a few success stories of urban CLTS. Urban CLTS was pioneered in the Kalyani Municipality in India. The town has about 100,000 people of which about half live in its 52 slums that surround the town. Most of these slums do not have any toilet facilities. The history of sanitation in these slums is not a new story. Some of the residents had been given toilets free of charge in the past, and as is usually the case they were not used because there was no education given with the toilets. The rest of the residents that didn’t get toilets yet figured they would at some point so they didn’t take the initiative to solve the sanitation problem themselves.
In 2006 the councilors of Kalyani were persuaded to try CLTS in five of the slums. After having overwhelming success in these five slums they decided to introduce CLTS to the other slums, and by 2008-2009 all 52 slums were declared ODF leading to Kalyani being the first ODF city in India. After seeing how successful CLTS was in dealing with sanitation community leaders from the slums continued to follow its model and improved roads, cleared bush, and made many other improvements in the area. An evaluation of this project by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program identified good and cooperative governance as a key element in the success of CLTS in Kalyani, however the motivation within the community also played a huge role.
In Nanded, Maharashtra, India a CLTS program is ongoing and has been successful up to this point. Currently there is a new initiative in Nairobi to implement CLTS in another urban area. They have just started this past May so it’s still in the planning and training stages but they are getting a lot of support from the local government and people in the communities are very excited to get things going. With all of this support it looks like this will be another successful implementation of urban CLTS.
With all of its success there are still challenges in implementing CLTS in rural and urban areas. Dr. Kar says that the biggest challenge is changing the view by many professionals (engineers, planners, policy makers, etc.) that believe the only way to help the sanitation situation of the poor is by providing them with free toilets. To change their thinking that you need to provide the infrastructure for sanitation and then changes in behavior will follow. CLTS turns this thinking around completely. You have to start with changes in behavior and educating people about sanitation and hygiene before you start constructing anything. Once you educate the people and they understand the problem better they gain the confidence to start implementing their own ideas of how to deal with the problem and create ODF communities.
I read a lot about water and sanitation issues throughout the world, and time and time again I see one thing that is common to most success stories: community involvement. I think it’s so important to educate the communities and get them involved in fixing the problem if there’s going to be any hope of it lasting long term, and that’s why I really like CLTS and expect it to be successful time and time again in the future. I hate to use this old proverb, but it seems so fitting to this situation; “If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime.”
As always, thanks for reading, and please leave a comment and let me know what you thought.
World Health Organization. Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health. Available at https://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596435_eng.pdf
Copenhagen Consensus 2012 Challenge Paper: Water and Sanitation: Frank Rijsberman and Alix Peterson Zwane
USAID – Global Waters – Volume III, Issue II, June 2012 | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10020_2.txt |
StoryWalk® connects kids to nature
The final bell rings, signaling the end of the last day of school. It’s summer vacation! While the kids in this classroom learned much of the same material over the last school year, they will go off to have drastically different summer experiences. That’s where the StoryWalk® comes in!
StoryWalk® is a children’s picture book, deconstructed and displayed along the wide path of the Lower Loop. Children move through meadow and forest, reading each page and interacting with their natural surroundings.
SUMMER LEARNING IS CRUCIAL
Summer is a crucial time for kids to continue learning. Unfortunately, studies show that more than 80% of kids from economically disadvantaged families lose reading skills over the summer because they lack access to books, learning resources, and enrichment opportunities.
In Gunnison County, 15% of families are in need of assistance to ensure their kids continue learning over the summer.
By providing a free opportunity to read a book, you can work to make sure that no child in Gunnison County is falling behind on reading over the summer months.
For the last two years, your support has allowed us to partner with the Crested Butte Library to offer StoryWalk® to the community. In 2017, we installed durable display cases that will ensure we can provide a StoryWalk® for many years to come!
NOTHING BEATS NATURE
All parents know that hiking with young children can be quite a challenge. But the long-term rewards are worth it. Spending time in nature has been shown to increase attention span, reduce stress, and help kids stay active and fit. When kids connect to nature at a young age, they are much more likely to develop a conservation ethic and love for the land. They are more likely to grow up to protect these places that you love.
Adriana Bombard is a busy mother of two. She and her family were visiting Crested Butte last summer when they stumbled upon the StoryWalk®. “It was great for our kids, who are between the ages of three and five,” she said. “They ran from page to page, and it made hiking with them really easy.”
By providing a free opportunity to read a book and connect with the natural landscape, you ensure that kids like Adriana’s grow up to be the next generation of conservationists.
We’d like to thank our funding partners, the Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Rotary Club, and the Crested Butte Creative District. Thanks to their support, the project is under way. However, we need you to ensure that we can complete StoryWalk® and provide more projects like this in the future. Can you help right now?
The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration the Kellogg Hubbard Library. Storywalk® is a registered service mark owned by Ms. Ferguson. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10021.txt |
Archaeologists on February 9 unearthed the grave of Filipino World War II guerilla and scientist Maria Orosa at the Malate Catholic School compound, nearly 75 years since her martyrdom.
Orosa who was born in Taal, Batangas, passed away on February 13, 1945, after a bombing during the Battle for Manila. The unearthed epitaph said Orosa “died in line of duty.” She “used science to save thousands of Filipinos and Americans in Manila from malnutrition and hunger by smuggling food beyond Japanese lines.”
“Orosa [was] an outstanding student, winning a partial government scholarship in 1916 to attend the University of Seattle. [She] completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry, as well as an additional degree in food chemistry,” Google said.
Orosa is credited for more than 700 recipes and preservation techniques, including the country’s favorite condiment, banana ketchup, and food like powdered calamansi juice. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10022.txt |
Too often, adults in many societies tend to view ‘children’ as ‘immature’, naïve’ or ‘child-like’.
The Carrolup children’s drawings demonstrate an entirely different side to what it is to be a ‘child’. For not only were they part of the Stolen Generation, taken away from their parents, and their brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles, and their friends, but they had to temporarily ‘replace’ their families with an entirely new kind of ‘family’, each other.
The children were traumatised, fearful and isolated from each other. Parnie Dempster told me that the older children, both girls and boys, looked after and comforted the younger children, who were otherwise crying themselves to sleep in their respective dormitories.
Life at Carrolup was tough under the Department of Native Affairs (as it was named at that time), and it was the arrival of Mr and Mrs White at the behest of the existing teacher Mrs Elliot, which dramatically changed the scene.
When Mrs Rutter visited some three years later, she commented specifically on how the older boys at the school appeared to take pleasure in showing the younger ones to draw. She wrote, ‘These Aboriginal children have the real spirit of community life.’ [Emphasis in original] Florence Rutter, Little Black Fingers, 1950, p. 5
Now, the children were performing their art practice with an expectant audience in mind, e.g at the annual Katanning Show.
And it was through the emergence and development of the child art at Carrolup that presented the artists with an opportunity to address the world on their own terms.
‘I think it [the Carrolup art] is vitally important because it captures a historic instant where Aboriginal children, not adults but Aboriginal children, could assert themselves and their position in society within their landscape of the South West.
‘They did it unequivocally, they did it seriously, they did it thoughtfully, and they were fully understanding of what they were doing at the time… It was a unique thing.
‘There has never been a case anywhere else, I believe, in the world where children have actually taken responsibility for asserting themselves and their place in society, and their place in their country in a colonial environment.’ John Stanton interview | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10023.txt |
“If you were born poor, it’s not your fault. But if you die poor, it is your fault. ”
Everyone knows whose statement this is. This statement was made by Bill Gates, the richest man
in the world. People all over the world are talking about this statement somewhere. Bill Gates is
a man who has enough property to buy the whole country, not just one house. Even if his wealth
is distributed to people all over the world, it seems that each person will get thousands of rupees.
In today’s series we are going to give some information about Bill Gates.
Bill Gates is a man who was very interested in studies from an early age. He was reading a book
all the time. Other kids enjoyed playing, but Bill Gates enjoyed reading. Her mother was upset
by her reading habits. One day his mother turned off the electricity in his room. He thought Bill
Gates would go to sleep when there was no light. But in the middle of the night, when his mother
saw Bill Gates in his room, he was reading with a torch. Then his mother felt bad about what she
had done. After that, his mother kept encouraging him to read.
He loved to read maths. Bill Gates was the first to answer Math every time. At the age of 13, Bill
Gates created a computer toy game. Which is a game played by cutting zero. He said he would
not go to school at the age of 14. When his mother asked him why, the teachers replied that they
did not know how to teach. After his father abused him, he started going to school. Even after
going to school, he lived in a computer lab. Later, the computer teacher kicked him out saying he
would not let him come to the lab. One day a virus appeared on the school computer. There was
no one to remove the virus. Bill Gates made it a point to remove the virus if he allowed himself
to go to a computer lab. Then he removed the virus from the computer.
He made the whole school schedule at the age of 15. Not only that, he had created Traff O Data
to easily open the extreme traffic jams. He left Harvard University at the age of 21 to start
Microsoft. At the age of 31, he became the youngest billionaire. Also, after 13 years of hard
work, he was included in the list of richest people in the world. Forbes has published 23 times
about the richest man in the world. In which Bill Gates fell 17 times. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10024.txt |
“Sometimes the most scientifically interesting things are also the most beautiful things.” So said Space Telescope Science Institute’s Alyssa Pagan, who is one of the two people who processed the early Webb photos. The word processed is deliberate, for it would be wrong to think that Webb sent finished color images to Earth. Rather, light from the distant universe reached the Webb telescope and was recorded by its cameras and accompanying instruments. Although the images first appear in black and white, the cameras use different filters to capture various aspects of a scene. It is these filters that allowed science visual developers like Pagan and her colleague Joe DePasquale to produce the stunning color images released this month.
We can think of this filtering as akin to the process of creating images out of stained glass – a fitting comparison given that it was French-American artist John LaFarge who pioneered a technique for stained glass at a time when the art form was not yet common in the U.S. When LaFarge designed his windows at Trinity Church, Boston, he created individual panes of glass each with their own color. Take a piece of blue glass for instance: white light, which is just the composite of every color, would hit the window, but only blue light would be allowed to pass through the pane. The stained glass has filtered out all unwanted light to produce the desired color, which will then form part of a created image. When Webb filters light from the universe, the process is the same. Each image captures only the parts of space that are the desired color, whether from a nearby star or a far-off galaxy.
A detailed walk-through of how Webb works can be found at the Reuters link below, but, essentially, Webb’s photographic data was sent from the telescope to instrument scientists, who, over the course of three days, refined the data so that it was fit for subsequent image processors. Pagan and DePasquale then took each black and white image and began “stretching” it to reveal all of the universe that lay hidden in the darkest parts of the photo. This process allows the scientists to brighten the dark without altering the light portions of the image. Pagan and DePasquale repeated this process for each filtered version of the image, stretching the dark to reveal the red, green, and blue parts of the scene. Next, the versions are combined to form a colored photo that reveals the whole picture. Pagan and DePasquale thus begin an exercise that is, according to NASA, “equal parts art and science.” They adjust the specific colors and tones, balancing scientific accuracy with aesthetics to craft images where colors draw our attention to specific features of the celestial scene in question. As such, these images are not perfect recreations of what we would see, were we to travel millions of lightyears from home.
But to those disquieted by the fabrication, humans could never see the universe as it exists. In fact, we can only see 0.0035 percent of the universe – in other words a black, unprocessed image. Through Webb, we can “see” ultraviolet and infrared light; as DePasquale explains, “[The galaxies in these images] are appearing the way they would to our eyes if we could see them, if we had the sensitivity of a telescope.”
Webb’s color images have been processed, yes, but this processing is neither abstract nor impersonal. The images could not exist without this process of our own design – one which requires equal parts art and science.
Our picture of the universe will always be our own, but this idiosyncrasy is a strength, not a weakness. Webb’s created images, much like the Washington National Cathedral’s “space” window featuring a piece of moon rock among the stained glass, present us with what we have been able to imagine from an otherwise impenetrable darkness.
General Questions about Webb — NASA
Visible Light: Eye-opening Research at NNSA — National Nuclear Security Administration
Webb’s First Images Gallery — Webb Space Telescope
Webb Telescope: Looking back in time — Reuters | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10025.txt |
|Feast: November 27
was a scientist before his time, and in his monastery of Aghaboe in Ireland he
was known as "the Geometer" because of his knowledge of geography. In
743, he left Ireland for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but got no farther than
the court of Pepin, the father of Charlemagne. In 745, Pepin defeated Odilo,
duke of Bavaria, and sent St. Virgilius to be abbot of the monastery of Sankt
Peter and in charge of the diocese of Salzburg.
In accordance with the Irish custom, the bishop was subject to the abbot, who was the real head of the diocese. This was contrary to continental custom, and so Virgilius consented to be consecrated bishop. His most notable accomplishment was the conversion of the Alpine Slavs; moreover, he sent missionaries into Hungary.
In his first days at Salzburg, he was involved in controversies with St. Boniface, one over the form of baptism, which the pope decided in Virgilius's favor. Virgilius also expressed a number of opinions on astronomy, geography, and anthropology, which to Boniface smacked of novelty, if not heresy. He reported these views to Rome, and the pope demanded an investigation of the bishop of Salzburg. Nothing came of this and apparently Virgilius was able to defend his views.
Virgilius built a grand cathedral at Salzburg, baptized the Slavic dukes of Carinthia, and sent missionaries into lands where no missionary had yet gone. Returning from a preaching mission to a distant part of his diocese, he fell sick and died on November 27, 784. When the Salzburg cathedral was destroyed by a fire in 1181, the grave of Virgilius was discovered and this led to his canonization by Pope Gregory IX in 1233.
His feast is kept throughout Ireland and in the diocese of Salzburg.
Thought for the Day: St. Virgilius was not content to keep his faith to himself, but like many Irish monks at the time he wanted to share it with others. He looked for a ripe harvest and found it in Germany, where he labored for over forty years. If we look around, we can always find some way to share our faith with others.
From 'The Catholic One Year Bible': . . . We have not been telling you fairy tales when we explained to you the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. My own eyes have seen his splendor and his glory: I was there on the holy mountain when he shone out with honor given him by God his Father, . . . - 2 Peter 1:16-18
Taken from "The One Year Book of Saints" by Rev. Clifford Stevens published by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, IN 46750.
Provided Courtesy of: | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10026.txt |
Two lifeless machines are pushed in on the cart. In my office laboratory I replace dead parts with used components to make the computer usable once again. Can I fix these new ones?
I start my analysis of the first computer. Nope, this one is not going to make it – the motherboard has failed.
The dissection begins. Video, network, and sound cards are removed. I look over the RAM stick. Yes, that can be reused. I dig it out.
I look around my computer graveyard. There are skeletons of old towers. Stacks of useless monitors block the floor. Soon I will need to properly to dispose of this mess. But I have more important things to do.
My attention returns to the problem at hand. I begin troubleshooting the second machine. This one has a failed hard drive. I rummage through the tidy plastic drawers that hold vital computer parts. I grab a gently used hard drive and pop it into the machine.
I plug in the computer. No lightening is required (although that would be cool). It’s alive!
It is time to reformat this computer and get it student-ready. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10027.txt |
Building a secure and sustainable supply chain not only makes good business sense; it also helps to demonstrate a commitment to wider stakeholder and societal interests, enhance the resiliency of the supply chain, and stimulate innovation as well as productivity.
Food and beverage manufacturers are building sustainable practices in many different ways. These may include streamlining logistics to minimize emissions in transport, reverting to packaging materials that are made of recycled or recyclable materials, auditing the utility usage at their facilities and investing in energy-efficient machinery.
To further enhance their sustainability, manufacturers are looking to the suppliers of materials, machinery and equipment. It is critical to work with suppliers that aim to improve the sustainability of their operations and the sustainability of their technologies down to each and every component.
Take tubing, for example. Flexible tubing can come into contact with beverage and food products at several points along the supply chain, beginning with transfer applications at the processing stage and ending with applications in beverage or condiment dispensers found at many restaurants and fast-food chains. Just like CPGs, these institutions are aware of their environmental footprint and continuously strive to meet sustainability goals.
The sustainability of a brand can be measured in many ways, including the reduction of greenhouse gases, minimizing material waste or harmful by-products, or higher efficiency equipment and operations. Disposal at the end of a product’s lifecycle is one measurable aspect of a tubing solution’s sustainability. For one thing, typical disposal can require incineration, which has far-reaching negative effects on the environment, releasing hazardous and corrosive hydrogen chloride gas that can produce acid rain. However, tubing made from environmentally sound materials can be safely disposed of without releasing unsafe byproducts. It is important that tubing solutions for food processing operations help brands reach their sustainability goals to minimize their carbon footprint and inspire confidence from consumers, partners and investors.
Many tubing products are comprised of a fossil fuel-based phthalate called DEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate), which is a plasticizer used to give tubing its flexibility. Recent studies suggest DEHP may be responsible for negative environmental and human health impacts. Already on the EU’s REACH candidate list of substances of very high concern (SVHC) and California’s OEHHA Proposition 65 List of chemicals of concern, many industries, consumers and governments are putting limitations on the use of this chemical in certain applications. Adopting a non-DEHP, bio-based material solutions throughout the food and beverage production line will not only anticipate impending regulations on the chemical, but will also demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and foods safety to consumers and industry players.
As part of the company’s commitment to sustainability, Saint-Gobain recently launched Tygon S3™, a bio-based, non-phthalate tubing for food and beverage dispensing and transfer applications. This safe, smart and sustainable solution provides high-level performance in delivering clarity, product consistency and taste/odor-free properties associated with the Tygon® brand of tubing, but with a forward-looking formulation to address the needs of evolving regulatory requirements. By using a bio-based plasticizer instead of DEHP-based plasticizer, the potential human health and environmental impacts during the tubing’s use are reduced. Companies that use Tygon S3™will have reduced exposure to risk or liability for their business and brands with the anticipated regulations on products containing phthalates like DEHP in food or beverage dispensing, processing, and transfer applications.
# # #
Iuliana Nita is the Global Marketing Manager, Food and Beverage, Saint-Gobain Fluid Systems, one of the top 100 industrial companies in the world. She has over twelve years of experience in marketing and business development, primarily in the polymer industry. As a Global Marketing Manager, she helps to connect processes, operations, and products with what matters most to the industry: safety, performance and brand assurance. Iuliana holds a PhD – Polymer Science from Manchester Metropolitan University, an MBA – Marketing from the University of Akron and a Bachelor of Science – Chemistry from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. She can be contacted at Iuliana.Nita@saint-gobain.com.
About Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics (SGPPL) is a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain Corporation, one of the top 100 industrial companies in the world and a leading producer of construction products, flat glass, high-performance materials and packaging. The Process Systems division of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics produces critical connections through a broad range of customized material solutions and capabilities to help customers achieve safety, performance and brand assurance in the aerospace, chemical and food & beverage industries. For more information, visit http://www.plastics.saint-gobain.com.
NIH, Hazardous Substances Data Bank, Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/r?dbs+hsdb:@term+@rn+117-81-7
ECHA, Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern for Authorisation, Accessed June 19, 2012.
State of California EPA OEHHA, Chemicals Known to the State to Cause Cancer or Reproductive Toxicity, March 16, 2012 http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/prop65_list/files/P65single031612.pdf | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10028.txt |
Solar Energy System Design
Solar Energy System Design builds upon the introduction to PV systems from Solar Energy Basics course, which included basic system components and functions, as well as some basic system sizing using simplifying assumptions. You should at this point have a basic understanding of electrical power and energy, be able to calculate the energy needs of a site as well as energy production potential for a PV system at a given location under optimal conditions. Much of this course will focus on incorporating on the ground conditions into energy production considerations, and how to account for these conditions in system design and equipment selection. By the end of this course you should be able to incorporate losses in irradiance due to array setups with less than optimal positioning and/or shading, and account for variations in module output due to temperature variations in your system design.
- Following solar energy from source to panel
- PV module and array circuits
- PV sizing and output under different conditions
- Grid-tie PV System design under real world conditions
- Course Capstone | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10029.txt |
Welcome to Year 6!
We are currently preparing for our SATS. Please ensure your child is in school and on time during this revision period as much as possible, as they will miss vital learning and revision if they are not here.
We are currently learning about Crime and Punishment throughout history. This week: the Romans!
Reading is such a wonderful and vital part of a child's life, so please ensure that children are reading regularly at home and that your child's reading record is written in weekly. It will be checked and signed in school each Friday.
Homework is set on a Friday and is due back in the following Wednesday.
Weekly spellings are set each Friday and tested the following Friday. Please ensure children learn the meaning of their spelling words as well as how to spell them. This will ensure that they are able to use them in their writing.
Please ensure your child's full PE kit is in school every day. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1003.txt |
Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) was a poet and pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death became an important source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland.
- Beauty's of a fading nature
Has a season and is gone!
- Will Ye Go and Marry Katie? (1764)
- Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
- To a Mouse, st. 1 (1785)
- I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union.
- To a Mouse, st. 2 (1785)
- The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.
- To a Mouse, st. 7 (1785)
- Nature's law,
That man was made to mourn.
- Man Was Made to Mourn, st. 4 (1786)
- Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
Man was made to Mourn.
- Man was Made to Mourn (1786)
- Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire,
That's a' the learning I desire.
- First Epistle to J. Lapraik, st. 13 (1786)
- The social, friendly, honest man,
Whate'er he be,
'Tis he fulfills great Nature's plan,
And none but he!
- Second Epistle to J. Lapraik, st. 15 (1786).
- On ev'ry hand it will allowed be,
He's just—nae better than he should be.
- A Dedication to Gavin Hamilton (1786)
- It's hardly in a body's pow'r,
To keep, at times, frae being sour.
- Epistle to Davie, st. 2 (1786)
- Misled by fancy's meteor ray,
By passion driven;
But yet the light that led astray
Was light from heaven.
- The Vision, II, st. 18 (1786)
- His lockèd, lettered, braw brass collar
Showed him the gentleman an' scholar.
- The Twa Dogs, st. 3 (1786)
- An' there began a lang digression
About the lords o' the creation.
- The Twa Dogs, st. 6 (1786)
- O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us
An' ev'n Devotion
- Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonie gem.
- To a Mountain Daisy, st. 1 (1786)
- Stern Ruin's plowshare drives elate,
Full on thy bloom.
- To a Mountain Daisy, st. 9 (1786)
- There's nought but care on ev'ry han',
In every hour that passes, O:
What signifies the life o' man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.
- Green Grow the Rashes, O, st. 1 (1787)
- Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O:
Her prentice han' she tried on man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.
- Green Grow the Rashes, O, st. 5 (1787)
- Green grow the rashes, O;
Green grow the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend
Are spent among the lasses, O.
- Green Grow the Rashes, O, chorus (1787)
- Some books are lies frae end to end.
- Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 1 (1787)
- I was na fou, but just had plenty.
- Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 3 (1787)
- John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surprised them all.
- John Barleycorn, st. 3 (1787)
- The heart benevolent and kind
The most resembles God.
- A Winter Night (1787)
- Ye're aiblins nae temptation.
- Address to the Unco Guid, st. 6 (1787)
- Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human.
- Address to the Unco Guid, st. 7 (1787)
- If naebody care for me,
I'll care for naebody.
- I Hae a Wife o' my Ain (1788)
- Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min'?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' auld lang syne?
- Auld Lang Syne, st. 1 (1788)
- For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!
- Auld Lang Syne, chorus (1788)
- Flow gently, sweet Afton! amang thy green braes,
Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise.
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
- Sweet Afton, st. 1 (1789)
- This day, Time winds th' exhausted chain,
To run the twelvemonth's length again.
- New Year's Day, st. 1 (1790)
- The voice of Nature loudly cries,
And many a message from the skies,
That something in us never dies.
- New Year's Day, st. 3 (1790)
- When Nature her great masterpiece designed,
And framed her last, best work, the human mind,
Her eye intent on all the wondrous plan,
She formed of various stuff the various Man.
- To Robert Graham, st. 1 (1791)
- Suspense is worse than disappointment.
- Letter to Thomas Sloan, (1 September 1791)
- While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,
The fate of empires and the fall of kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.
- The Rights of Woman, st. 1 (1792)
- She is a winsome wee thing,
She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a lo'esome wee thing,
This sweet wee wife o' mine.
- My Wife's a Winsome Wee Thing, chorus (1792)
- The golden Hours on angel wings
Flew o'er me and my Dearie;
For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.
- Highland Mary, st. 2 (1792)
- But, oh! fell death's untimely frost,
That nipt my flower sae early.
- Highland Mary, st. 3 (1792)
- O whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad:
Tho' father and mither and a' should gae mad.
- Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, chorus (1793)
- If there's a hole in a' your coats,
I rede you tent it;
A chield's aman you takin' notes,
And faith he'll prent it.
- On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland, st. 1 (1793)
- Some hae meat and cann eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.
- The Selkirk Grace (1793)
- O Mary, at thy window be!
It is the wished, the trysted hour.
- Mary Morison, st. 1 (1793)
- Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to Victorie!
Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour!
See approach proud Edward's power—
Chains and slaverie!
- Scots Wha Hae, st. 1, 2 (1794)
- Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow—
Let us do or die!
- Scots Wha Hae, st. 5 (1794)
- The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.
For a' that an a' that.
- A Man's A Man For A' That, st. 1 (1795)
- Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that:
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.
A prince | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10030_1.txt |
can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that;
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.
Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.
- A Man's A Man For A' That, st. 3-5 (1795)
- Drumossie moor — Drumossie day —
A waefu' day it was to me!
For there I lost my father dear,
My father dear, and brethren three.
- Lament for Culloden
The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)Edit
- Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new.
- Stanza 5
- Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.
- Stanza 9
- He wales a portion with judicious care;
And "Let us worship God" he says, with solemn air.
- Stanza 12
- Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name.
- Stanza 13
- From scenes like these, old Scotia's grandeur springs,
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
"An honest man's the noblest work of God."
- Stanza 19
Epistle to a Young Friend (1786)Edit
- Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.
- Stanza 1
- I waive the quantum o' the sin,
The hazard of concealing:
But, och! it hardens a' within,
And petrifies the feeling!
- Stanza 6
- The fear o' hell 's a hangman's whip
To haud the wretch in order;
But where ye feel your honour grip,
Let that aye be your border.
- Stanza 8
- An atheist-laugh's a poor exchange
For Deity offended.
- Stanza 9
- And may you better reck the rede,
Than ever did the adviser!
- Stanza 11.
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)Edit
- A gaudy dress and gentle air
May slightly touch the heart;
But it's innocence and modesty
that polished the dart.
- Handsome Nell (1773) (also known as "My Handsome Nell"), st. 6.
- Oh, my Luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly played in tune.
- A Red, Red Rose, st. 1
- Contented wi' little and cantie wi' mair.
- Contented wi' Little, st. 1
- Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu' o' care!
Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons thro' the flowering thorn!
Thou minds me o' departed joys,
Departed never to return.
- The Banks o' Doon, st. 1
- Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.
- Sensibility How Charming, st. 4
- Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae farewell, alas, forever!
- Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever, st. 1
- But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met—or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.
- Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever, st. 2
- It was a' for our rightfu' King
We left fair Scotland's strand.
- It Was A' for Our Rightfu' King, st. 1
- Now a' is done that men can do,
And a' is done in vain.
- It Was A' for Our Rightfu' King, st. 2
- He turn'd him right and round about
Upon the Irish shore;
And gae his bridle reins a shake,
With adieu forevermore,
And adieu forevermore!
- It Was A' for Our Rightfu' King, st. 3
- John Anderson, my jo, John,
When we were first acquent,
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bonie brow was brent;
But now your brow is beld, John,
Your locks are like the snaw,
But blessings on your frosty pow,
John Anderson, my jo!
- John Anderson, My Jo, st. 1
- My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.
- My Heart's in the Highlands, st. 1
Tam o' Shanter (1790)Edit
- Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.
- Line 10
- Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet
To think how monie counsels sweet,
How monie lengthened, sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises!
- Line 33.
- The landlady and Tam grew gracious
Wi' favours secret, sweet, and precious.
- Line 47
- The landlord's laugh was ready chorus.
- Line 50
- His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony:
Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither—
They had been fou for weeks thegither.
- Line 43
- Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.
- Line 57
- But pleasures are like poppies spread—
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river—
A moment white—then melts forever.
- Line 59
- Nae man can tether time or tide.
- Line 67
- That hour, o' night's black arch the keystane.
- Line 69
- Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
Wi' tippenny, we fear nae evil;
Wi' usquabae, we'll face the devil!
- Line 105
- As Tammie glow'red, amazed, and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious.
- Line 143
- Her cutty sark, o' Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.
- Line 171
- "Weel done, Cutty Sark!"
- Line 189
- Ah, Tam! Ah! Tam! Thou'll get thy fairin!
In hell they'll roast you like a herrin!
- Line 201
Posthumous Pieces (1799)Edit
- For a' that, and a' that
An' twice as muckle 's a' that,
I've lost but ane, I've twa behin',
I've wife eneugh for a' that.
- The Jolly Beggars, chorus
- God knows, I'm no the thing I should be,
Nor am I even the thing I could be.
- To The Reverend John M'Math, st. 8
- If there's another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.
- Epitaph on William Muir
- In durance vile here must I wake and weep,
And all my frowsy couch in sorrow steep.
- Epistle from Esopus to Maria
- It's guid to be merry and wise,
It's guid to be honest and true,
It's guid to support Caledonia's cause
And bide by the buff and the blue.
- Here's a Health to Them That's Awa', st. 1
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)Edit
- Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
- Some wee short hours ayont the twal.
- Death and Dr. Hornbook.
- When chill November's surly blast
Made fields and forests bare.
- Man was made to Mourn.
- O Life! how pleasant is thy morning,
Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning!
Cold-pausing Caution's lesson scorning,
We frisk away,
Like schoolboys at th' expected warning,
To joy and play.
- Epistle to James Smith.
- And like a passing thought, she fled
In light away.
- The Vision.
- Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve,—how exquisite the bliss!
- A Winter Night.
- What 's done we | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10030_2.txt |
partly may compute,
But know not what 's resisted.
- Address to the Unco Guid.
- O life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I!
- We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine.
- Auld Lang Syne.
- Dweller in yon dungeon dark,
Hangman of creation, mark!
Who in widow weeds appears,
Laden with unhonoured years,
Noosing with care a bursting purse,
Baited with many a deadly curse?
- Ode on Mrs. Oswald.
- To make a happy fireside clime
To weans and wife,—
That is the true pathos and sublime
Of human life.
- Epistle to Dr. Blacklock.
- To see her is to love her,
And love but her forever;
For Nature made her what she is,
And never made anither!
- Bonny Lesley.
- 'T is sweeter for thee despairing
Than aught in the world beside,—Jessy!
- There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.
- Reported as attributed to Burns but unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989) | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10030_3.txt |
Leaders gather in Guinea to celebrate Ebola vaccine successes
“The world is far better prepared for another Ebola outbreak,” said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, today at a celebratory event to recognize the Governments and people of the three most-affected countries for their contribution to the control of the Ebola outbreak in 2014-15.
Dr Chan joined the President of the Republic of Guinea, HE Professor Alpha Conde, His Excellency Minister of Health, Dr Abdourahmane Diallo, and representatives from the Governments of Liberia and Sierra Leone, in celebrating the successful development of the world’s first vaccine against Ebola. Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director of WHO’s Office of the African Region, was also present at this celebration.
“This truly remarkable achievement is thanks to collaborative efforts of the Government of Guinea, health workers, local and international scientists, public and private entities, international donors and, above all, the thousands of people who consented to be vaccinated in this vaccine trial,” she said.
In December 2016, The Lancet published results of the WHO-led Guinea ring vaccination trial, showing that the world’s first Ebola vaccine provides substantial protection. Among more than 11 000 people who were vaccinated in the trial, no cases of Ebola virus disease occurred.
Building on the work done to fast-track the development and testing of this vaccine, WHO established the R&D Blueprint to help cut the time in future for the development of new vaccines and treatments against new and emerging infectious diseases including Lassa Fever and MERS Coronavirus.
Dr Chan presented certificates to selected individuals for their remarkable contribution to the vaccine trial as well as the control of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10031.txt |
The tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam was built between 1320 and 1324, is an unmatched pre-Moghul masterpiece. The Mausoleum of Rukn-i-Alam could possibly be considered as the glory of Multan.
From whichever side the city is approached, the most prominent thing that can be seen from miles all around is a huge dome. This dome is the Shrine of the saint. The tomb is located on the southwest side of the Fort premises. This elegant building is an octagon, 51 feet 9 inches in diameter internally, with walls 41 feet 4 inches high and 13 feet 3 inches thick, supported at the angles by sloping towers. Over this is a smaller octagon 25 feet 8 inches, on the exterior side, and 26 feet 10 inches high, leaving a narrow passage all round the top of the lower storey for the Moazzan, or public caller to prayers. The whole is surmounted by a hemispherical dome of 58 feet external diameter. The total height of the building, including a plinth of 3 feet, is 100 feet. As it stands on the high ground, the total height above the road level is 150 feet.
Besides its religious importance, the mausoleum is also of considerable archaeological value as its dome is reputed to be the second largest in the world, after Gol Gumbaz of Bijapur, India, which is the largest. The mausoleum is built entirely of red brick, bounded with beams of shisham wood, which have now turned black after so many centuries. The whole of the exterior is elaborately ornamented with glazed tile panels, string-courses and battlements. Colors used are dark blue, azure, and white, contrasted with the deep red of the finely polished bricks.
The tomb was said to have been built by Ghias-ud-din Tuphlak (r. 1320-1325) for himself during the days of his governorship of Depalpur, between 1320 and 1324 AD, but was given by his son, Muhammad bin Tughluq to the descendents of Shah Rukn-e-Alam for the latter’s burial in 1330.
The mausoleum of Rukn-e-Alam has been admired by not only the travelers and chroniclers but also by the art-historians and archaeologist who wrote the architectural history of the subcontinent.In the 1970s the mausoleum was thoroughly repaired and renovated by the Auqaf Department of the Punjab Government. The entire glittering glazed interior is the result of new tiles and brickwork done by the Kashigars of Multan | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10032.txt |
The children’s labyrinth at the 1954 Milan Triennale was expressly conceived as a synthesis of architecture, painting and sculpture. The centre, designed by BBPR, was occupied by a mobile sculpture by Alexander Calder and the curved walls featured graffiti by artist and cartoonist Saul Steinberg, whose shadow can be seen in this photograph along with a detail of his work. The combination of architecture and the figurative arts was a constant preoccupation of BBPR which was very active in developing international contacts, especially in the post-war period.
Romanian by birth, Saul Steinberg had lived in Milan before the war, where he published cartoons for the humorous newspaper Bertoldo and graduated in architecture at the Politecnico. Forced to flee the country in 1941 following the introduction of anti-Jewish racial laws, he settled in the United States, where he became especially renowned for the cover images and illustrations he contributed to The New Yorker. However, Steinberg kept in touch with his fellow Italian artists and intellectuals throughout his life and returned to Italy several times to work and travel.
Architecture remained a constant presence in Steinberg’s drawings, and in 1958 he created a mural for the US Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair.
More images at ribapix.com | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10033.txt |
For the first time in Canada's history, and exactly 90 years since the first female Member of Parliament strode into the green chamber, women make up a quarter of the 308 seats in the House of Commons.
That record high is nothing to sneeze at, advocates say - but it's also nothing to be overly proud of. Canada remains 52nd in the world when it comes to female representation in political office, and it's falling further behind as other countries take more aggressive measures to even out the gender balance.
"It's not insignificant, obviously… It signifies that Canada is moving forward. That said, clearly there's some work to be done," said Nancy Peckford, executive director of advocacy group Equal Voice.
Newly elected Conservative MP Kellie Leitch said she saw that new political engagement in her riding of Simcoe-Grey.
"I was really pleasantly surprised to meet a lot of young women who became engaged in the political process for my campaign," she said. "A number of [the campaign volunteers]were young women, some moms, all actively engaged because the issues were what were important to them."
The 41st Parliament will have 76 women - up from 69 elected in 2008. Most are from the NDP, whose 40 women make up 39 per cent of its caucus.
That's the highest number of women in a Canadian federal caucus, but the percentage is lower than the NDP's figures from the 2006 election.
But that percentage drops dramatically when it comes to other parties: Seventeen per cent of the Tory caucus is female, and the same goes for the Liberals, who lost many of their female Members of Parliament in Ontario on Monday.
The Conservatives have 29 female MPs in the House now; the Liberals six.
There's one female Bloc MP, Maria Mourani, a prominent incumbent returning to the house as a quarter of her party's caucus.
And among the new female MPs is the Green Party's Elizabeth May - the first female party leader since Alexa McDonough led the NDP.
Ms. May, whose struggle for a single seat was rewarded on Monday night, said she plans to make civility in the House a priority. Many have argued the raucous nature of Question Period turns off potential political hopefuls.
The argument in favour of promoting gender parity is that it's a basic issue of fairness according to the fundamentals of democratic representation - the people governing a population should represent the people for whom they're drafting legislation.
"To get to a quarter in 2011, yeah, that's okay," Ms. Peckford said. "But is it where we need to be? I think what we would say is, 'Canada can certainly do better.'"
Irene Mathyssen, head of the NDP's women's caucus in the last Parliament, called 25 per cent "a good start.
"We want 50 per cent. And we're going to keep working towards that," she said. "It is a victory because it's an all-time high. I think the House is going to be a better place for it, because we need that talent."
Monday's results were bittersweet for Hedy Fry and the Liberal Party's greatly diminished female caucus.
"We lost some pretty strong people," she said, before adding, "But given that the women that are there do not take a backseat to anyone, I would say they'd be equivalent to two to one." | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10034.txt |
The Truth About Acid Reflux and Your Teeth From our Dental Office
In our dental office, we help patients that suffer from acid reflux disease and are dealing with tooth erosion as a result. Reflux-induced erosion is a common problem that can impact both children and adults. As acid travels up through the esophagus, it enters the mouth and can start to attack the teeth. The acid will start to wear away the teeth one layer at a time until they become thin and brittle.
According to a report by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project between twenty and thirty percent of U.S. adults, experience the symptoms of acid reflux or GERD on a weekly basis. A full sixty percent of the population has these symptoms at least yearly. This manifests as a burning sensation in the chest and throat as acid works its way backwards and up the esophagus. This proves problematic for many people, making it difficult to eat and sleep along with interfering with their concentration at work. Acid reflux also creates health problems in the stomach, esophagus and throat in addition to impacting the teeth.
In our dental office, we want to know if our patients have acid reflux so that we can help to prevent erosion in addition to treating it. By keeping teeth healthy and clean, they will remain stronger. For example, people that have cavities or gum disease will naturally be more susceptible to getting cavities and suffering other dental health issues. While cleaning teeth, we can remove bacteria from the teeth and gum lines so that they can remain healthy and cavity free. We can also provide a fluoride treatment for teeth that need strengthening and are at risk for erosion. These preventative steps aid in keeping the mouth healthy.
If the erosion does occur, it will first attack the enamel and cause it to wear away. As it does, the dentin underneath will become exposed which leads to sensitive teeth. When food touches the dentin it is simultaneously touching the nerve endings inside of it. This can lead to the pain signal being transferred to the brain, leading to an increase in sensitivity that many patients complain of. In this early stage, we can help by completing a bonding procedure to seal the dentin. This works well in the beginning stages but as erosion becomes more advanced; the teeth will become weak, thin and brittle. At this point, the best way to protect the teeth is to place a crown around them. A crown is a cap that surrounds the tooth and prevents anything from touching it. This procedure allows us to save a tooth that may have otherwise been pulled due to erosion.
In our dental office, we also recommend that patients take medication to control their acid reflux. By seeing your doctor, you can get a prescription that will help you to feel better and to protect your teeth. If an attack does occur, you should avoid brushing your teeth for an hour, but be sure to rinse your mouth in order to neutralize some of the acid. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10035.txt |
|“||We're assets, Nicholai. Expendible assets... and we've just been expended.||”|
- 1 Introduction on Assets
- 2 Cash
- 3 Accounts receivable
- 4 Prepaid expenses
- 5 Property, plant and equipment
- 6 Intangible Assets
- 7 Depreciation and amortization
- 8 Impairment
- 9 Investments
- 10 Significant influence
Introduction on Assets
Assets may be viewed as resources owned or controlled by an entity. They include such items as cash, accounts receivable (amounts owed to the company by customers), land, building and equipment, and supplies. Current assets are often defined as assets that are in cash, or can be converted to cash, in a relatively short period. In practice that is often defined as convertible within one year or operating cycle, whichever is longer.
Cash are currency and coins, balances in checking accounts, and items acceptable for deposits in these accounts, such as checks and money orders received from customers.
This is the receivables resulting from the sale of goods or services.This is treated as a current asset on the balance sheet.
Prepaid expenses result from businesses making payments for goods and services to be received in the near future.
Property, plant and equipment
Property, plant and equipment are tangible, long-lived assets used in the operations of the business. Land, natural resources, buildings, furniture, equipment, and machinery are included in this category. They are listed under the asset portion of the balance sheet. One major component that comes into play with property, plant, and equipment is depreciation. Mostly for equipment and machinery things are depreciated on either a straight line, declining, sum of the years digits, or units of production balance. For natural resources they use a method similar, but it is called depletion. Accounting for these things is pretty simple. The item, or land, is listed on the books at its value and every year the calculated depreciation is taken off and that determines its book value. Many times there is an estimated life and salvage value if the company thinks it can resell the item. If not, it is disposed of and the gain or loss of the sale is recorded on the books as well as removal of the item from the books.
Figuring the cost of an item takes into consideration more than just the purchase price. Added to that would be any taxes paid, less any discounts received, cost of transportation that a company pays to bring the item to where it needs to go, and the cost of getting it ready for use. The cost of land would include any attorney fees, real estate fees, title fees, back taxes that need to be paid, and the cost of preparation for the lands intended use. Buildings also have additional costs such as legal fees and remodeling fees to prepare it for use. The same goes for natural resources. Basically any costs that are necessary to get an item or land ready to use for business is included in the cost of the item.
- The amount reported on the balance sheet for Property, Plant and Equipment is the company's estimate of the fair market value as of the balance sheet date. True or False?
- Initial cost of land would include all of the following except:
A. Cost of Grading B. Title Search Cost C. Recording Fees D. Property Taxes for the current period
- Property, plants, and equipment are reported as current assets. True or False?
- What is the most commonly used form of depreciation?
- Would tearing down an existing building on newly purchased land qualify as a cost under property, plant, and equipment?
Intangible assets are assets that lack physical substance, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, franchises, and goodwill. This classification of assets generally represents exclusive rights that provide future economic benefit to the owner.
Goodwill is an intangible asset that represents the unique value of a company as a whole over and above its identifiable tangible and intangible assets. Because goodwill represents the fair value of a company over and above the fair value of its net assets, its costs can’t be directly associated with any specific identifiable right, subsequently making it non-separable from the company itself. Examples of a company’s goodwill would be, its clientele, good reputation within its market, well trained employees and management team, its favorable business location, and any other unique features of the company that can’t be associated with a specific asset (Spiceland, Sepe, Nelson, Tomassini, Page 486).
As previously mentioned goodwill is the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of a company’s identifiable assets. The following example illustrates how we derive the value of goodwill for a company.
Ex) The fair value of Company X’s net assets is $500,000, and can be broken down as follows; Inventory $90,000, Receivables $70,000, Property and Equipment $200,000, and Patent $140,000. Company X’s fair value of liabilities assumed is $200,000, and the purchase price of Company X is $450,000. By taking the difference of the fair value of net assets and fair value of liabilities assumed, the fair value of the company being purchased would be $300,000. Because the purchase price of the company was $450,000, and the fair value of the company was $300,000, we can conclude that the difference (excess) of $150,000 represents the value of the goodwill.
Understanding how the value of goodwill is derived; it’s important to note that there is no specific identifiable cost of goodwill separate from the company itself. That being said, one would conclude that goodwill cannot be separated from a company as a whole, and therefore cannot be purchased or exchanged separately from a company as a whole. Without being separable from the company, goodwill lacks two key components of most, if not all other assets; those being the ability of “equating costs of an asset” as well as “exchangeability” of an asset.
There has been great debate for some time regarding whether or not goodwill should be classified as an asset, with opposing views centering on, equating costs and assets, exchangeability of assets, and controllability of assets (Johnson, Petrone 1998, p.7). Although these opposing viewpoints do merit some consideration, the Financial Accounting Standards board (FASB) has determined that goodwill does in fact meet the three key elements that define an asset (probable future economic benefits, obtained or controlled by an entity, from a past transaction) and consequently is to be classified as an intangible asset (FASB, 350-20-05-3).
1) How is the value of goodwill derived?
2) Does goodwill meet FASB’s requirements for classification as an asset?
3) What are the key concerns from opposing viewpoints regarding the classification of goodwill as an asset?
4) What type of asset is goodwill classified as?
5) Would a company’s client list be an example or component of goodwill?
Depreciation and amortization
An impairment loss is accrued when a sudden decrease in the value of the asset occurs.In other words, depreciation and amortization will not be able to significantly decrease the book value of the asset in accordance with its market or fair value. The codification that deals with impairment can be found at 350-10-S35 for intangible assets and at 360-10-40 tangible assets.
Operational assets that a finite life should be tested for impairment when a situation arises that causes the asset to lose value. An extreme example of one situation is when the asset is destroyed. Another example is if the asset is severely damaged. Generally, operational assets should be tested for impairment when one of the following occurs; market price is significantly decreased, legal factors cause a negative change in the asset, the asset is going to be disposed of before the end of its useful life, or a negative change in the physical condition of the asset.
However, some operational assets, such as intangible assets with infinite lives and goodwill should be tested for impairment annually.
When measuring the impairment of an asset with a finite life, a two step process is used. The first step of the process is called the recoverability test. The recoverability test determines if an impairment loss is needed by seeing if the undiscounted future value of the cash flows from the asset is less than the book value of the asset. If the future value is lower than the current book value, an impairment loss measurement is needed. The second step is to actually measure the impairment. The impairment loss is measured by the difference between the book value and the fair value of the asset.
In the case of intangible assets with indefinite lives, the impairment loss is also the difference between the book value and the fair value of the asset. However, in order to determine whether an impairment loss is needed, future cash flows cannot be used, and the only determination is the current fair value of the asset.
Goodwill is a special category of assets and is measured in a different way than other operational assets. Impairment to goodwill is measured by the difference between book value and fair value. However, the value of goodwill is only implied, so the market value of the asset cannot be used in this determination of impairment.
The journal entries for the impairment loss have the following format.
Loss on impairment xx Accumulated depreciation xx Asset xx
Independent study questions
- A piece of machinery has a book value of $35 million and accumulated depreciation of $10 million. The fair value of this machinery is $10 million. The future, undiscounted cash flows estimated for the machinery are $15 million. Calculate the impairment loss on the machinery.
- Prepare the jounal entry needed for the calculation completed in question 1.
- How does the calculation of impairment for goodwill differ from that of other intangible assets?
- What are some possible situations that causes a company to determine if their assets are impaired?
- Where are impairment losses reported in financial statements?
- | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10036_1.txt |
Since the book value is more than the estimated undiscounted future cash flows for the asset, an impairment loss is needed. The fair value of $10 million is subtracted from the book value of $35 million, less the accumulated depreciation of $10 million. The impairment loss is calculated to be $15million.
- The journal entry should be:
Loss on impairment $15million Accumulated depreciation $10million Machinery $25million
3. Goodwill is considered to be a special asset. The market value of goodwill is implied, therefore it can never be used in the calculation of an impairment loss. Instead, the implied fair value of goodwill is subtracted from the book value to determine the impairment loss.
4. It would not be cost effective for companies to measure all of their assets for impairment every year. Some situations that are used to identify when an impairment loss may be needed is when there is a major decrease in market price, legal factors cause a negative change in the asset, the asset is going to be disposed of before the end of its useful life, or a negative change in the physical condition of the asset.
5. A disclosure note is needed to describe the impairment loss. Impairment losses are also seen on the income statements, as well as the balance sheet.
Accounting methods for investments held by a firm vary according to whether the firm has control over the investee.
Marked to market, and gains and losses are recognized immediately in income. Balance sheet shows fair value.
Recorded at amortized cost by a schedule determined at the original investment date. Gains and losses are not recognized. Balance sheet shows amortized cost.
For other debt and securities that do not meet Trading Securities or HTM requirements. Unrealized gains and losses are not recognized in regular income, but they are recognized in "other comprehensive income". Balance sheet shows fair value.
Equity method is primarily used; fair value option is also available. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10036_2.txt |
You are hereHome ›
This is an activity about magnetism and magnetic forces. Learners will explore objects to which a magnet is attracted or repelled, and investigate the attractive and repulsive forces of two like and two unlike magnetic poles. This is the first activity in the Exploring the Earth's Magnetic Field: An IMAGE Satellite Guide to the Magnetosphere educators guide.
This resource is located on page 8 of the PDF document. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10037.txt |
THIS OBJECT IS PART OF THE PROJECT 'A HISTORY OF CORNWALL IN 100 OBJECTS'.
MARAZION MUSEUM. Brass cauldrons and cooking pots were valuable and important domestic items and were traded over large distances. Such items were high status, as well as practical objects. It is exactly the sort of object that a rich Marazion merchant would have owned.
This example is rare and late in date. It comes, like so many others in Cornwall, from the Fathers Foundry near Taunton in Somerset. This foundry produced skillets, cauldrons, mortars and one bell. The mark IF with an arrow was introduced when John Fathers changed to sand-casting from loam casting. There are only three other cauldrons of this type known at Montacute, Hampton Court and Wimborne Minster in Dorset. There is also a mortar in Ludlow Museum with the same mark dated 1692. At least one Somerset-made skillet with the motto handle 'CVB Loyall to his Majestie' is in the Isles of Scilly Museum and others are in the Royal Cornwall Museum collections. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10038.txt |
Click on image for full screen view.
| Snake-eyes, Putia|
Snake-eyes is a rather rare shrub occurring on scattered sites of loamy or clayey soils in the bushy thickets of Cameron, Kenedy, Starr, Jim Wells, Willacy, Nueces and Cleberg Counties of the Rio Grande Valley area in south Texas and into Mexico. Its dense, divaricate and spiny branches hold small 1/2- to 1-inch linear, greyish-green leaves which may be smooth or fuzzy. Dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants) flowers precede the creamy, translucent, fleshy fruit holding a single black seed inside, which gives the impression of a snake eye. Deer browse its leaves, and it provides good cover for several species of birds. Phaulothamnus is of Greek origin and indicates an unattractive shrub that is unpleasant to handle.
Plant Habit or Use: medium shrub
Blooming Period: spring
Fruit Characteristics: globose drupe
Height: 10 feet
Width: 5 to 8 feet
Plant Character: deciduous
Heat Tolerance: high
Soil Requirements: alkaline | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10039.txt |
As summer beckons New England and the rest of the United States, it is always best to be prepared and safe for the upcoming season. There are numerous ways to get into trouble and so knowing some basic safety tips could mean the difference between a great and a not so great time under the sun. The American Red Cross lists several safety suggestions. Below are just a few of the things to think about this summer.
- Swim in supervised areas only.
- Obey all rules and posted signs.
- Pay attention to local weather conditions and forecasts.
Whether you’re the captain of a schooner or a passenger on a skiboat, following safety guidelines ensures your safety and that of other seafarers.
- Be weather wise:
Sudden wind shifts, lightning flashes and choppy water all can mean a storm is brewing. Bring a portable radio to check weather reports.
- Bring extra gear you may need:
A flashlight, extra batteries, matches, a map of where you are, flares, sun tan lotion, first aid kit, extra sunglasses. Put those that need to be protected in a watertight pouch or a container that floats.
- Tell someone where you’re going, who is with you, and how long you’ll be away.
Summer means fun in the sun! But be safe — don’t let a heat-related illness ruin your day.
Always drink plenty of water and take frequent breaks when working or playing in the hot weather.
Hiking and Camping Safety
Many families will head to our national parks and forests this summer to enjoy the great outdoors. But if you’re not prepared to rough it in the woods, hiking or camping can be a rough experience. The best way to help guarantee a good time for all is to plan ahead carefully and follow commonsense safety precautions.
For more summer safety tips, visit American Red Cross | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1004.txt |
LIME, noun [Latin limus; Gr. and allied to clammy. On this word is formed slime.]
1. A viscous substance, sometimes laid on twigs for catching birds.
2. Calcarious earth, oxyd of calcium, procured from chalk and certain stones and shells, by expelling from them the carbonic acid, by means of a strong heat in a furnace. The best lime for mortar or cement is obtained from limestone, or carbonate of lime of which marble is a fine species.
3. The linden tree.
4. [See Lemon.] A species of acid fruit, smaller than the lemon.
LIME, verb transitive
1. To smear with a viscous substance.
2. To entangle; to ensnare.
3. To manure with lime
Land may be improved by draining, marling and liming.
4. To cement. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10040.txt |
Due to the ever increasing gas prices, people are looking for cheaper sources of energy. Within the last decade, solar technology has evolved quite a bit and now they are not that expensive at all.
Better, low cost and efficient solar technology is now available. More and more people are turning to solar energy for saving money spent on household electricity. Whenever you think of solar energy, the first thing that comes to your mind is the initial investment and the installation charges.
In fact it is not that difficult to setup a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) solar panel, provided you have the right knowledge and required raw materials. This article will provide you all the information needed to setup a solar panel of your own.
First of all you will have to gather the materials required to build the solar panel and also a box to house everything. You can buy solar cells at cheap rates from eBay. Apart from the photovoltaic (PV) cells, you will also need wires, diodes and a jones plug to wire everything. You can buy diodes from eBay and jones from a local electronics store.
In order to construct the solar panel box you will need lumber, screws and hardware, silicone caulk, paint and plexiglass, all of which you can buy from a hardware store. Some other basic tools will also be required to assemble the PV panel.
A cordless drill might be handy during the process. A soldering iron will be required while assembling. You can also get PV cells at very cheap rates from commercial solar companies. Normally these companies find it hard to store old cells when they replace a system with new ones.
They will be happy to get rid of those older ones that use up their storage space. You can approach some of these companies; it will save you some money for sure. You can also go for used or damaged solar cells. They are hard to find but if you do, it can save you a lot of money.
When you order solar cells, make sure you order a few extra ones in case of some damage during shipping or assembling. Another important thing to look at is that the size of all photovoltaic cell should be the same. Difference in size means difference in the amount of current produced.
Mixing different sizes can affect the efficiency and energy production. Before constructing your own PV panels, you should have a clear cut idea about the amount of power you need and also about the size of your system. One solar cell can produce one half volt and a series of 40 cells will give you over 20 Volts.
Power in Watts is calculated by multiplying the Amps by the Volts. If your cell can produce 3 Amps, then your system will be able to deliver above 60 Watts of power. If you want to increase the Wattage, you can use larger cells. Large solar cells can make the entire system heavier and may use up a lot of space. It is always better to start with a smaller one and then upgrade it when the need arises. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10041.txt |
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Rodents of Bristol 2: The Giant Rat of Madagascar
Given that the number of species of lemur that have been identified in recent years, the comparative lack of study of the rodents, and the widespread habitat destruction in Madagascar, it seems likely that many more species have either recently become extinct or await discovery.
Madagascan rodents occupy every available habitat, from dry spiny forest to rainforest, and vary in size and habitat from the gerbil-like Macrotarsomys up to the 1.5kg subject of this article, the Giant Jumping Rat or Votosvotsa Hypogeomys antimena.
Giant jumping rats are found today in the dry deciduous forests of western Madagascar, especially around the town of Morondava. Although there is now only a single species of Hypogeomys, a second form, H.australis, is known as subfossil remains from the south east of the island.
Like most rodents, especially the larger ones, they are vegetarian, feeding on seeds, nuts and fallen fruit. Food is held in the front feet and nibbled like a squirrel.
It will come as no surprise that the Votsovotsa lives in burrows. These house a monogamous pair plus their offspring, and can extend many metres and be half a metre in diameter. A single family will use 7-8 acres 93-4 hectares) of forest the territory is marked by scent, although I have not found any description as to how it is defended against intruders.
Young (usually 1 or 2) are born at the start of the rainy season in late November, and young will stay with the parents for at least 1 or 2 years (more for young females). The main predators aside from human beings are the Fossa, which fills the big cat niche in Madagascar (although it is actually a mongoose) and the larger native snakes.
The current wild population is estimated at around 11,000, but with current rates of habitat loss and the restricted range it is classed as Endangered. There are some in zoos, but ISIS currently lists only 70 individuals, although they are now being bred (15 births in the last 12 months). Bristol has bred 4 of these, and our group will probably continue to produce young which can be distributed to other collections. In the US they are held at Bronx Zoo, Prospect Park, Philadelphia, and Omaha.
They seem to mix well with other species – we have one family on show with Mouse lemurs in Twilight World where they have bred, and we have mixed others with our lemurs in the Lemur Walk Through exhibit. These latter remain inside and are not seen by visitors, but it enables us to make best use of available space. I have seen them mixed with Aye Aye at Jersey, but am not sure if they are still there.
(image from Wikipedia) | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10042.txt |
Cochrane Review: Conclusions about effects of electronic cigarettes remain the same – they help people quit cigarettes!
Study concludes E Cigs help people quit smoking
“An updated Cochrane Review recently published provides an independent, rigorous assessment of the best available evidence to date about electronic cigarettes for quitting smoking.
The conclusions of this updated Review are unchanged since the last review was published two years ago: electronic cigarettes may help smokers stop their smoking, and the included studies did not find any serious side effects associated with their use for up to two years.
Many studies are now underway which may help us understand more about their effects in the future.
The first Cochrane Review, published in the Cochrane Library in December 2014, showed that electronic cigarettes may be an aid to smokers in stopping their smoking. The updated Review did not find any new randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with long-term outcomes looking at the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes in helping people to stop smoking. However, this is an active area of research, with a large number of ongoing studies that will add to the evidence in the next few years.
Smoking is a significant global health problem. Despite many smokers wanting to stop, they often find it difficult to succeed in the long-term. One of the most effective and widely used strategies to help combat the cravings associated with nicotine addiction is to deliver nicotine by patches and chewing gum.
Electronic cigarettes have been around in some form for a number of years, but over the past few years their popularity has increased significantly, and they have begun to look and feel less like conventional cigarettes. Unlike chewing gum and patches, they mimic the experience of cigarette smoking because they are hand-held and generate a smoke-like vapor when used. They help to recreate similar sensations of smoking without exposing users or others to the smoke from conventional cigarettes, and can be used to provide smokers with nicotine. Though they are used by many smokers, little is still known about how effective they are at helping people stop smoking.
This version of the updated Cochrane Review includes no new RCTs. The original Review included two RCTs involving more than 600 participants, and found that electronic cigarettes containing nicotine may increase the chances of stopping smoking within six to 12 months, compared to using an electronic cigarette without nicotine. The researchers could not determine whether using electronic cigarettes was better than a nicotine patch in helping people stop smoking, because there were not enough people taking part in the study.
This updated Review now includes observational data from an additional 11 studies. Of the studies, which measured side effects, none found any serious side effects of using electronic cigarettes for up to two years. The studies showed that throat and mouth irritation are the most commonly reported side effects in the short-to medium-term (up to two years).
The lead author of this Cochrane Review, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce from the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group, said, “The randomized evidence on smoking cessation is unchanged since the last version of the Review. We are encouraged to find many studies are now underway, particularly as electronic cigarettes are an evolving technology. Since the last version of the Review, 11 new observational and uncontrolled studies have been published. In terms of quitting, these can’t provide the same information we get from randomized controlled trials, but they contribute further information on the side effects of using electronic cigarettes to quit smoking. None detected any serious side effects, but longer term data are needed.”
The e-cig/e-liquid attorneys at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP are up to date on all the issues that affect your industry. For immediate help, call us today at 714.505.3000 or email email@example.com to set up a consult to learn more about how we can help you. For more information about the e-cigarette, e-liquid and ENDS industry, click here
With knowledge of the FDA, TPD and ENDS industry, we represent industry clients on a wide variety of areas affecting their business, including:
- FDA Deeming Rule, Regulations & Compliance
- PMTA Process & Compliance
- California Prop 65 Compliance
- US State by State Regulations
- European Union Tobacco Product Directive (TPD)
- Contract, fraud, shareholder and other business litigation
- Manufacturing & Related Contracts & Agreements
- Manufacturing requirements, including:
- Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP);
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO);
- US Dept of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); and
- Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015
- Products Liability & Related Issues
- Product Labeling & Warnings
- Human Resources Issues | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10043.txt |
Why Do Zebra’s Migrate?
Domesticated animals aside, the zebra is perhaps the most recognizable animal for any human being. Its unique stripes are a dead giveaway and their docile behavior despite being in the wild earns them affection from people. They also like to move around in groups.
This movement has been observed by scientists as similar to their domesticated cousin, the horse. This is not surprising since they both belong to the Equid family. Equids are grazers and they hardly stay in one place to feed. Zebras will travel long and harsh terrain just to forage and graze for their food.
One of their unique behaviors is migration which baffled scientists in the beginning. Zebras are not the only species known to do this and experts delved further into the mystery for this action.
Migration is defined as moving out to one place without the intention of staying or transience. The first conclusion scientists worked on was zebras were driven to move by the lure of a greener pasture to graze on. This was true except that despite having more food and water zebras still moved to other locations until they came full circle and returned to their original grazing spots.
Then they discovered that zebras were deeply attuned to their environment and the changes of seasons. In the African safari where they are most heavily concentrated, long spells of dry and wet seasons are not uncommon and animals there have an acute sense of weather patterns which are crucial to their survival. Flooding and drought often dictates where the next migration will occur as herds of zebras and other wandering animals rush to where they can find food and shelter.
Migration is a way of life for zebras and other wildlife that are dependent on their environment for survival. Even predators like lions and hyenas follow the migration trail as it is their way of life out there in the wild. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10044.txt |
IT support refers to professional services which organizations offer to end users of various IT products or services.
In simple terms, IT support provides assistance regarding certain technical issues with a particular product or technological service, rather than offering specialized training, distribution or modification of the software, hardware or service itself. In some cases, IT support may be offered as a stand-alone service to help users find answers to questions or get software updates. But in most cases, IT support is provided by computer service providers or companies who provide specialized computer services and products to business and organizations. The services they offer include fixing hardware and software, troubleshooting, upgrading and maintaining computers and their networking equipment.
Today, most businesses and organizations utilize user IT support 247. IT support team can assist in network management, data recovery, security measures, desktop support, server support, application support, software support and desktop support. The support team can also assist with training and educating the end-users on computer and networking issues and equip them with the necessary knowledge to handle IT support issues.
One of the IT support team’s functions is to resolve problems. This can be done in a number of ways. The first way in which they can resolve the problem is by sending out technical personnel to attend to the call. Technical personnel from the support team will walk up to the customer and personally discuss the problem.
In addition, they can use online chat facilities. An online chat facility allows tech support services to connect directly with the customers and their IT support departments. Through this live chat facility, an IT tech support representative can monitor a customer’s problem and answer questions pertain to it, if needed.
The other way in which an IT tech support representative can help resolve the problem is by using remote monitoring. Remote monitoring enables an IT technician to access the computers of customers via remote desktop connection. Through this method, the customer will be able to see the screen of his or her computer. This allows the representative to know whether the problem has been solved or not. If not, the customer can still connect to the service provider via remote desktop but the problem would not be noted as resolved when connected to the internet.
When the problem is not resolved, tech support professionals from the different IT service providers
can take the hardware, software and documentation for evaluation. Based on the evaluation results, the IT support company can recommend solutions, which may include the re-installation of software or hardware, upgrades of specific software components or hardware components, or a combination of these solutions. The IT support professional can also advise on the best method of repairing the system. The recommendations may include changing the hardware or software components, installing updates or patches, upgrading the applicable drivers, formatting the affected system and so on.
- IT support staff can also train customers on how to deal with the system if they do need re-installation or repair of hardware components.
- It may include training on common problems like blue screen, error message, black screen and so on.
- The training may include practical demonstrations or demonstration in the office of IT support staff.
It may also include hands-on practice sessions through remote connections, web conferences and video conferencing. The training may also include troubleshooting methods and common troubleshooting steps. Based on the recommendation of the client, it may include education on how to troubleshoot specific IT support issues such as itsm, card defragment, FAT32, NTFS errors, etc.
IT support level 2 support includes troubleshooting methodologies which are more detailed and specialized. Itsm typically refers to a situation where the particular program or hardware file contains a problem. A customer-tester would usually be able to resolve its problems on his or her own. The IT support services provided by this support level involve customized software tools to address particular needs of its clients. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10045.txt |
Michael Bennett has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2021 Australian History prize for his book Pathfinders: A History of Aboriginal Trackers in NSW.
Through his work on native title claims, historian Michael Bennett realised that the role of trackers — and how they moved between two worlds — has been largely unacknowledged. His important book reveals that their work grew out of traditional society and was sustained by the vast family networks that endure to this day. Pathfinders brings the skilled and diverse work of trackers not only to the forefront of law enforcement history but to the general shared histories of black and white Australia.
The 2021 Prime Minister's Literary Awards shortlists capture the full diversity and range of Australia’s vibrant literary sector. The Awards recognise and celebrate the exceptional literary talents of established and emerging Australian writers, and highlight the important role the arts have in connecting us to Australian society and culture.
The judges' comments: 'Michael Bennett's Pathfinders profiles Aboriginal trackers and explains the contribution they made to law enforcement in New South Wales. This is an important but neglected aspect of our history. This book draws on extensive archival research, oral history interviews, secondary sources and field work. But it is the author's flair for storytelling that brings this history vividly to life. This book explains how Indigenous customs and traditions, learned over 60,000 years, were intrinsic to their work whether it was catching bushrangers, finding lost children or missing farm animals.
This book makes a substantial contribution to better understanding our past.
These trackers were highly skilled and a rare example of Indigenous skills transferable to the colonial economy. Tracking was more than just following a trail of footprints; it was understanding human behaviour, how to navigate rivers and landscapes, knowledge of plants and animals, and being able to negotiate with communities. These skills were passed on from generation to generation and remain valuable today, including in native title recognition. This book also grapples with terrible interactions that many Indigenous Australians had with law enforcement. Some Indigenous Australians were hostile to those men and women who cooperated with police. These trackers were invariably treated as heroes and saviours, and dreaded by criminals. This book is well researched and written, and makes a substantial contribution to better understanding our past.'
Michael Bennett has worked as an historian in native title since 2002, preparing evidence and writing reports for claims throughout NSW. It was through conducting research for native title claims that he first realised the extent to which the NSW Police relied on trackers for their expert skill. He grew up in Dubbo where he first learned of the exploits of Tracker Alex Riley.
Winners of the 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards will be announced in December. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10046.txt |
Seventeen years after its framework was formed, India’s biggest tax reform – the goods and services tax – was rolled out on 1 July 2017. Some consider the ‘one nation, one tax’ system to be a game changer; some are opposed to it; almost everyone has questions around its working and how it affects them. This explainer seeks to demystify the GST.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been heralded as a game changer. But few understand why. The media is full of very diverse views on GST. Even experts seem divided. Some say that it will greatly simplify the tax structure and make life easier for businesses. Some say that it is going to be a nightmare for small businesses. The proponents claim that it will improve tax compliance and widen the tax base. The opponents doubt it. The government has touted it as a triumph for federalism while the critics have condemned it as an abrogation of the states’ rights. Most people are aware that this is a big change but are unsure about what it is meant to accomplish and how it will affect them. Hopefully, this explainer will help answer your nagging questions.
But first let me clarify the rationale for GST to set the stage for further more perplexing questions that we will keep for the experts.
There is little dispute that the present system of indirect taxes in India is messy, inefficient and wasteful. Both the central and state governments collect a large number of taxes. Most important taxes legislated by the central government are: Central Sales Tax (CST) on interstate sales of goods, Excise tax on manufactured goods, and Service tax. State governments levy: VAT (Value Added Tax) on goods produced and sold within the same state, Entertainment tax, Luxury tax, Octroi or Entry tax, and a tax on the transport of passengers and goods. Often a business has to pay multiple taxes to different government bodies. This makes tax compliance difficult. GST is meant to simplify tax payment for the payers as well as the collectors as it would replace all these taxes under a centrally coordinated tax collection system.
Octroi, as an important source of revenue for municipal corporations in Maharashtra, has been notorious as it is prone to corruption and bears major responsibility for the long line of trucks stopped at the city gates to pay this entry tax. This is extremely costly and adds to the costs of goods. GST would get rid of this wasteful tax.
In addition, GST is a value added tax. The mechanism of tax collection would establish an information trail making cheating more difficult. How would this work? Consider the following supply chain: Cotton farmer – trader – textile mill- garment factory – store – customer. The final price at which a consumer buys a garment will be the sum of all the value added and all the taxes paid by each link along the way. This means that all the tax finally comes out of the consumer’s wallet. Yet, each link plays its part in charging and passing on its own component of tax according to the value it added toward the final price of the garment paid by the consumer. Consider a link in this supply chain, say the store. Suppose a garment is sold for Rs. 1,180 to the consumer. The store bought it for Rs. 900 from the garment factory, added a value of Rs. 100, and the GST rate is 18%. The store-owner will send to the government full Rs. 180 tax but would claim from the government a credit of the tax (= 18% x 900 = Rs. 162). This way s/he will have fulfilled their responsibility of doing their part in the tax collection; s/he will have sent a net tax of Rs. 18 (=18% of Rs. 100) on the value he added along the supply chain. But now you see that built into this scheme is the incentive for each link in the supply chain to demand a computer or paper record of the previous transaction. This helps informal transactions become formal and come under the tax net and, hence the claim that GST will widen the tax base.
It would be natural to wonder that if ultimately it is the consumer who would pay the entire GST, why not just have a sales tax at the last stage of the supply chain (that is, store to the consumer)? Why bother having all these intermediate stages pay taxes and ask for credit, etc.? The problem is that many goods are both final and intermediary. Consider for instance – cloth. The final consumers can be both garment factories and households. Many goods are like this. Flour can be an intermediate good to a bakery or a final good to a household. Or, a hammer or a screwdriver, and so on.
What about a turnover- or transactions-based tax? Would it not be simple to have one tax rate on each transaction? That would have an exactly the opposite effect as a value added tax. First, that would mean cascading of taxes generating a totally irrational system. The traders at the end of the supply chain will be paying a lot more tax than those at the beginning. Also, if each transaction is taxed, it would create incentives to hide all transactions from the tax authorities and unlike in the case of GST the interests of all the links in a supply chain would be aligned. In fact, it would create incentives to have vertical integration so that all transactions are subsumed within one business firm even if it is not warranted by efficiency consideration.
Presently, every state has its own set of taxes and that makes interstate movement of goods and services very cumbersome. A big advantage of having one uniform tax across the whole country is that it would make India into one integrated market which, in turn, would make it a competitive market. That would ensure that the most efficient firms would survive and consumers would benefit.
These are the intrinsic merits of a value added tax like GST and this is why 160 countries across the world have adopted some form of it. Yet, while agreeing with these basic merits of a value added tax like GST, the specific form that the GST in India has taken has come under scathing criticism. Why?
First volley of criticism has come from those who point out that the key advantage of a value added tax of this sort was supposed to be its simplicity for the payers and for the collecting agencies, and the proposed structure for GST in India is far too complicated to claim that advantage. Singapore, for example, has one rate of 7% for all goods and services while India has five rates ranging from 0%, 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28% according to where a particular good or service fits on the spectrum from needs to luxuries. Multiple rates would lead to legal challenges and bribery. Of course, the most obvious reason for the multiplicity of tax rates is to bring in some measure of progressivity in an indirect system of taxes. However, critics are still puzzled why there had to be five rather than say three rates.
However, unlike Singapore, India is a federal State and the central government is constrained by the Constitution to take into account the varied interests of different states. The reason why it has taken so long to hammer out this Bill is precisely because it needed an agreement with 29 states, and it also needed some constitutional amendments. Several issues that have been pointed out as deficiencies in the Bill are mostly compromises that the central government had to acquiesce to. For example, certain items (example, alcohol, petroleum, real estate) are kept outside the GST coverage presumably due to the insistence of the states. Also, something like real estate is a major source of tax evasion and corruption. Gold bullion is also surprisingly marked as a low tax item. Critics think that all these compromises have made it into a flawed Bill.
GST Council has been set up to coordinate issues arising between the Centre and states. If the states have to give up on their own taxes, they need to be compensated adequately. Though it has never been made clear, there seems to be a general understanding that GST on a particular good or service will be split equally between the Centre and the destination state (where it will be consumed). This should ensure some uniformity of tax rates at least for the same good across the country. But critics fear that the GST Council is only an advisory body. Even if they start off having the same SGST (state GST), if a state wants to increase the tax rate later, it could invoke the Constitution to deviate from the previously agreed rate with the GST Council. If that happens, the idea of a uniform tax creating one integrated market would break down. As it is a firm with operations in many firms has a nightmarish job of registering and filing tax forms in each state. The task is compounded by having to file three forms every month. “Why would you call this a simplification?”, ask the critics.
The Bill has created some panic in India’s informal sector, and indeed that is where much of India’s economic activity takes place. Most business units in India are family firms that keep no formal records of their transactions leave alone digital records. How will they register or file their returns? The government’s answer is that any business with a turnover of less than Rs. 2,000,000 is exempt from having to register for GST and since most farmers and these small family businesses are likely to be operating below the line they do not have to have to worry. Is the government justified in making this claim?
Some have pointed out the so-called ‘missing trader problem’. If one trader in the supply chain opts to not file his/her taxes, the next link in the chain would get no credit for the purchased inputs and this would mean they would be bearing the burden of paying the taxes for the absconder. This possibility might induce them to stay out of the GST system and if all the links in the supply chain entertain such a possibility they would all opt out and the system could unravel.
Many believe as they did with Aadhaar1, that it is always prudent to first experiment on a small scale, iron out the bugs, and then expand. They feel | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10047_1.txt |
that the way the government has embarked on it has the potential to cause a huge mess and resentments witnessed during the demonetisation. Are we really ready for GST in 2017?
There are some unsubstantiated claims on either side about the impact of GST. For example, some proponents have claimed that the prices will go down while some opponents have claimed the opposite. The government’s avowed intent was to make a revenue neutral change. If so, there is no reason why the general price level would go up or down. Some prices will go up and some will go down. Of course, removing the inefficiencies caused by Octroi might result in some cost saving.
It is also not clear what is the basis for the claim that GST will boost the growth rate. One can only conjecture that it must be based on the assumption that the ease of tax payments would spur entrepreneurial activity.
The most contentious questions are the questions of judgment for which I don’t have ready answers. I leave them for the experts.
- Has the Bill infringed on the states’ rights or, on the contrary, has it made far too many compromises for the sake of accommodating the states’ demands and weakened the intended advantage of making the tax system simpler?
- Will the announced exemption for firms with a turnover below Rs. 2,000,000 ensure protection of the informal sector? Will it create perverse incentives to keep business units small just to avoid taxes?
- Is the claim that the tax reform under the new GST Bill will give a boost to GDP (gross domestic product) growth justified?
- What is the justification for giving a special status to gold bullion with a tax rate of only 3%?
- What is the justification for keeping real estate and alcohol out of the Bill?
- Who will gain and who will lose as a result of this tax reform?
- Should we expect the tax system to evolve gradually into a simpler system?
- Is India ready for the introduction of GST?
In the next two posts, Kavita Rao (Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy) and Arvind Datar (Senior Advocate and reputable legal scholar) will respond to these questions. These will be followed by a post by Aprajit Mahajan (Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley) and Shekhar Mittal (Ph.D. Candidate, UCLA Anderson School of Management) in which they outline some of the features of GST that attempt to address challenges faced in implementing a VAT system in India.
- Aadhaaror Unique Identification number (UID) is a 12-digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on behalf of the Government of India. It captures the biometric identity – 10 fingerprints, iris and photograph – of every resident, and serves as a proof of identity and address anywhere in India. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10047_2.txt |
Metal-mining bacteria are green chemists
Microbes could soon be used to convert metallic wastes into high-value catalysts for generating clean energy, say scientists from the University of Birmingham’s School of Biosciences, writing in the September issue of Microbiology.
Researchers have discovered the mechanisms that allow the common soil bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans to recover the precious metal palladium from industrial waste sources.
Palladium is one of the platinum group metals (PGMs) which are among the most precious resources on earth. They possess a wide variety of applications due to their exceptional chemical properties. PGMs are routinely used in many catalytic systems and are the active elements of autocatalytic converters that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr Kevin Deplanche, who led the study, explained why new ways of recovering PGMs are needed. ‘These metals are a finite resource and this is reflected in their high market value,’ he said. ‘Over the last 10 years demand has consistently outstripped supply and so research into alternative ways of recovering palladium from secondary sources is paramount to ensuring future availability of this resource.’
Previous work in the team’s lab showed that Desulfovibrio desulfuricans was able to reduce palladium in industrial wastes into metallic nanoparticles with biocatalytic activity. Now, the precise molecules involved in the reduction process have been identified. Hydrogenase enzymes located on the surface membrane of the bacterium carry out the reduction of palladium, which results in the accumulation of catalytic nanoparticles. The bacterial cells coated with palladium nanoparticles are known as ‘BioPd.’
The group believes that BioPd has great potential to be used for generating clean energy. ‘Research in our group has shown that BioPd is an excellent catalyst for the treatment of persistent pollutants, such as chromium, that is used in the paint industry. BioPd could even be used in a proton exchange fuel cell to make clean electricity from hydrogen,’ said Dr Deplanche. ‘Our ultimate aim is to develop a one-step technology that allows for the conversion of metallic wastes into high value catalysts for green chemistry and clean energy generation,’ he said. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10048.txt |
Osmosis is a selective diffusion process driven by the internal energy of the solvent molecules. It is convenient to express the available energy per unit volume in terms of "osmotic pressure". It is customary to express this tendency toward solvent transport in pressure units relative to the pure solvent.
If pure water were on both sides of the membrane, the osmotic pressure difference would be zero. But if normal human blood were on the right side of the membrane, the osmotic pressure would be about seven atmospheres!
This illustrates how potent the influence of osmotic pressure is for membrane transport in living organisms.
The decision about which side of the membrane to call "high" osmotic pressure is a troublesome one. The choice made here is the opposite of that made in many biology texts, which attribute "high" osmotic pressure to the solution and zero osmotic pressure to pure water. The rationale for the choice is that the energy which drives the fluid transfer is the thermal energy of the water molecules, and that energy density is higher in the pure solvent since there are more water molecules. The thermal energy of the solute molecules does not contribute to transport, presuming that the membrane is impermeable to them. The choice is also influenced by the observed direction of fluid movement, since under this choice the fluid transport is from high "pressure" to low, congruent with normal fluid flow through pipes from high pressure to low. The final rationale has to do with the measurement of osmotic pressure by determining how much hydrostatic pressure on the solution is required to prevent the transport of water from a pure source across a semi-permeable membrane into the soluton. A positive pressure must be exerted on the solution to prevent osmotic transport, again congruent with the concept that the osmotic pressure of the pure solvent is relatively "high".
Nevertheless, the dialog continues on this issue since the discussion of osmosis is most relevant to the biological and life sciences and perhaps the logic stated above should yield to the conventions of the field in which the phenomena are most relevant. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10049.txt |
Otto von Böhtlingk, (born June 11 [May 30, old style], 1815, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire—died April 1, 1904, Leipzig), language scholar and lexicographer whose writings and seven-volume Sanskrit–German dictionary formed a notable contribution to 19th-century linguistic study.
While completing his education at the University of Bonn (1839–42), Böhtlingk published a two-volume edition (1839–40) of the earliest known grammar, that of Pāṇini, the 5th- or 6th-century-bc Indian Sanskrit grammarian. This edition served as a vehicle for criticizing the research methods of Franz Bopp, a major German Sanskritist of the time. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1842, he joined the Imperial Academy of Sciences and published a number of works on Sanskrit, including an edition and translation of the drama Śakuntalā by Kālidāsa (1842). He also explored one of the languages of Siberia in Über die Sprache der Jakuten, 3 vol. (1851; “Concerning the Language of the Yakuts”). His great work, the Sanskrit-Wörterbuch (1853–75; “Sanskrit Dictionary”), was prepared in collaboration with the Indic scholars Rudolf von Roth, Albrecht Weber, and others and appeared in a new edition in 1879–89. Late in his life, he published, in addition to other Sanskrit research, a new edition of the Pāṇini grammar along with a translation. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1005.txt |
Many european sports have become popular in africa after the arrival of europeans on the continent football was first introduced in the 19th century by british colonists in south africa in 1862 the sport quickly was quickly spread throughout the continent by missionaries, explorers, and other europeans on the continent [165. What africa had before colonisation by philani a nyoni on march 26, 2015 — when europeans arrived in africa they found it upon themselves to bring us commerce and civilization however, africa had its own forms of commerce, science, art and other measures of civilisation long before the arrival of the colonisers. Before the europeans arrived in africa, africa had vibrant economic, social and political structures these were severely disrupted by europeans to create wealth for themselves european dominance over most of africa through the transatlantic slave trade lasted 440 years, from 1444 to 1885. Africa, the arrival of europeans and the transatlantic slave trade africa has a long history of trading with europe, including a very important commercial trade in textiles which expanded during the transatlantic slave trade. Africa before european arrival dbq this task is based on the accompanying documents some of these documents have been edited for the purpose of this task.
Before 1600, a massive regional and international trading system stretched from the coast of west africa, across the sahara to north africa and beyond it was sustained by the mining of gold in west africa, as well as the production of many other goods there. Describe life in west africa before the europeans copper working, iron smelting, artistry, commerce, and early state formation were all aspects of life in west europe prior to the europeansafrican craftsmen would use diff methods to transform copper into sculptures, accessories, etc reflecting a culture that appreciates body adornment. Make sure you type [[category:social studies essay]] on the page before you save it to make it part of the social studies essay wiki (preload can be enabled to automate this task, by clicking this link and saving that page.
Wh chapter 21 study play slaves following the model established by the portuguese, what were the principal patterns of european contact with africa serfdom describe slavery in europe before 1450 raids, traded with african rulers characterize slavery on the continent of africa before the arrival of the europeans. Historian walter rodney identified no slavery or significant domestic servitude in early european accounts on the upper guinea region and i a akinjogbin contends that european accounts reveal that the slave trade was not a major activity along the coast controlled by the yoruba people and aja people before europeans arrived. In africa, there were achievements in the empires or kingdoms and their cities before the europeans arrived and took control in the kingdom (empire) of axum they developed a trade route in the kingdom of ghana they had characteristics of powerful nations today in the city of timbuktu they had.
Document-based assessment for global history second edition theresa c noonan. Africa before european arrival dbq historical context: africans had developed advanced civilizations before the europeans arrived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries beginning with aksum (ethiopia today) in east africa in the 300’s, the kingdoms, empires, and cities arose and declined in. Africa before european arrival dbq historical context africans had developed advanced civilizations before the europeans arrived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries beginning with aksum (ethiopia today) in east africa in the 300’s, the kingdoms, empires, and cities arose and declined in west africa, three empires- ghana, mali, and. Sharmin sultana band g dbq: africa before european arrival part 1: document 1: how did aksum’s location enable it to become a trading center aksum’s location enabled aksum to become a trading center because it has a coastline that is very large and would have many ports so people can come and go from aksum. Africa before european arrival dbq essay imperialism september 30, 2018 the sea james reeves essay writing synthesis essay 4 pages duties of a good citizen short essay about life executive summary research paper apa abstract argument essay for ap lang is homework harmful or helpful argumentative essay on abortion,.
Africa before european arrival essay sample instructions: complete the chart below ensure that your thesis statement is measurably provable and that it is clear what you are setting out to prove. Pre-colonial africa, africa before european colonisation, indigenous peoples colonisation & contact: africa, history, year 8, nsw introduction africa has been home to many peoples and cultures since ancient times the african continent is thought to be the oldest inhabited continent on earth and is believed to be the place where humans first originated. Ghana table of contents early european contact and the slave trade when the first europeans arrived in the late fifteenth century, many inhabitants of the gold coast area were striving to consolidate their newly acquired territories and to settle into a secure and permanent environment. Sensotronic brake control system research paper descriptive essay introduction paragraph international drug trade essay wsus reindex unexpected argumentative essay dissertation on karl marx theory.
First of all, slave trading was not introduced to sub-saharan africa from europe arab muslims had been conducting a slave trade for hundreds of years before europeans arrived on the west coast of africa. Brigitte ascencio 4/5/09 africa before european arrival the africans had achieved a lot before the arrival of the europeans during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries aksum’s kingdoms, empires, and cities located in east africa during the 300s arose and declined. Free essays on dbq african before european arrival search the arrival of human beings the history of the united states begins with the arrival of human beings thousands of years ago the first known inhabitants of what is now the united states are believed to have arrived over a period of several thousand years beginning sometime prior to.
Africa before european arrival people of the early african kingdoms were able to create successful trade routes with europe and asia, become very wealthy from conquering and gaining land, and were able to have a strong central government all of this was done before the europeans had reached africatrade flourished on the east african coast, especially when trading was established with india. Africa before european arrival dbq in west africa, three empires- ghana, mali, and songhai- controlled the gold and salt trade between 1000 and 1500, cities on africa’s east coast also gained wealth and power through trade there were several centers of advanced civilization in africa between 300 and 1400. Southern europeans along the mediterranean coast continued to purchase slaves from various parts of eastern europe, asia, the middle east, and africa in lisbon, for example, african slaves comprised one tenth of the population in the 1460s.
Before the european invasion of africa, medicine in what is now egypt, nigeria and south africa, to name just a few places, was more advanced than medicine in europe some of these practices were the use of plants with salicylic acid for pain (as in aspirin), kaolin for diarrhea (as in kaopectate), and extracts that were confirmed in the 20th. The peoples of west africa had a rich and varied history and culture long before european slavers arrived they had a wide variety of political arrangements including kingdoms, city-states and other organisations, each with their own languages and culture the empire of songhai and the kingdoms of. Due to advances in native forge technology, smiths in some regions of sub-saharan africa were producing steels of a better grade than those of their counterparts in europe, and the highly developed west african textile workshops had produced fine cloths for export long before the arrival of european traders. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10050.txt |
Arnold Krekel’s brother Nicholas recalled the journey “In the fall of the year 1832 we sailed from Bremen. It took about three months, we landed at New York, went up the Hudson River to Albany, and from Albany to Erie by canal. Intending to go to Cleveland Ohio from there and to Missouri. On arriving at Erie, there was so much ice in the lake that we could not make the trip, so we went overland to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, a distance of 160 miles. Mother, my sister Katherine (11 years), myself (Nicholas Krekel) rode in the wagon. Father, my three oldest brothers, Godfred [sic], Arnold and Frank walked. On this overland trip my mother took cold which continued to get worse when coming down the Ohio River, so we landed at Louisville, Kentucky to get medical assistance and religious consolation. She died there on December 14, 1832 and was also buried there. Three years later Arnold went there to find his mother’s grave but the city had been built beyond it. The voyage across the Ocean took 9 weeks, the overland trip from Erie to Pittsburgh took about 3 weeks. After her burial we continued our way to St. Louis. On arriving there we put up at the William Tell house on Main Street, a two-story stone building.”
Arnold Krekel was born in the small village of Berghausen, by Langenfeld in the Rhineland “near Cologne on the Rhine” and was seventeen years old when he made the journey. Born on March 12, 1815 to Franz Leonard Krekel (1783-1862) and Maria Catherine Schumacher (1779-1832), he was their second son in a family with nine children. His family would settle in the far southwestern tip of St. Charles County near Dutzow, a small German village in Warren County, where Gottfried Duden had lived. Duden was a friend of Arnold’s father and had authored A Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America in 1829, inspiring thousands of Germans to immigrate to the U.S.
There his father purchased U.S. Congress land from the government, and purchased a house built by a previous squatter. While his oldest brother Gottfried, a farmer, purchased adjoining land, Arnold was turning eighteen and would strike out in new directions and make changes in the world. He would first attend the St. Charles College in the old city of St. Charles, fifty miles away, where he would meet the Americans. This was a school filled with the “old families” wealthy with property and slaves. There his connections with society began, as he studied law. Familiar with the process of surveying, he also grew his network of those actively involved in the growing city.
His religious views took him in another direction as well, as a member and one of the original 36 members of the Friends of Religious Enlightenment in 1838. The 29-year-old man was a member of the Association of Rational Christians, or Frei Denkers (Free Thinkers) in 1845 when Friedrich Muench performed his marriage to 28-year-old German born Ida Krug. Her father, was a wealthy physician in the Dutzow community, who had come with the huge Giessen Emigration Society back in 1834. They began married life in St. Charles where Arnold had already taken an active role. He had been elected a Justice of the Peace in 1841, and as a surveyor, and lawyer, he was involved in property deals all over the area. After his friend William Eckert died in 1845, former Secretary of State William Pettus had hired him to survey Eckart’s land. Eckert was the son-in-law of Francis Smith, whose estate Krekel would purchase 320 acres of land from ten years later.
Arnold’s law career began in St. Charles after being admitted to the Bar in 1845. As the City’s attorney and prosecuting attorney this brought him into close connection with the City’s rapidly expanding and prominent population. In 1852, Krekel is a rising star, as he wins the race for a seat in Missouri’s House of Representatives, the first German to be elected to Missouri’s House. He had run a campaign using his newly created newspaper, Der Demokrat, which was the first German newspaper in St. Charles County. While Krekel’s business associates were wide, he was still very proud of his German heritage and his closest friends, like Friedrich Muench and Emil Pretorius were examples. In 1853, he attended the North Missouri Railroad Convention in St. Charles, where St. Louis businessman and philanthropist John O’Fallon was also in attendance. On August 6, 1856, he surveyed and laid out a plat of a town on the 320 acres he had purchased from Smith, calling it “O’Fallon” hoping that the North Missouri Railroad would create a station. The need for wood and water at certain distances were necessary for the engines. And the U.S. Postal Service had announced that station stops would also be the locations for Post Offices.
Arnold established his younger brother, Nicholas, as the first resident of this new town of O’Fallon, with a house and property of his own. Nicholas served as the town’s founder, Postmaster and the Station Agent for the railroad all the while running his own mercantile. Nicholas would later oversee the Public sale of the lots in O’Fallon, on July 22, 1870. It was the intention of Nicholas and his wife Wilhemina (nee Moritz) to see the Catholic Church established in O’Fallon. Arnold was busy elsewhere as he had been nominated for the office of Missouri’s Attorney General in 1856.
As the state headed for the crisis over slavery, Krekel the abolitionist was a radical voice and leader among the Germans. The U.S. Slave Schedule shows him to have one thirty-year old male mulatto living in the household in 1860, but he was not alone in this regard, as there were several German families in St. Louis, St. Charles, Warren and Franklin Counties that also owned or rented their servants as well. Most were of the belief, that until the practice of slavery was abolished, they could provide a much better living environment for the African-Americans than they would encounter in the south. He attended the Republican National Convention in May of 1860 with his friend Muench, where Germans were the only foreign born were in attendance. This gave the nomination to Abraham Lincoln for President. Up until that time, Krekel like many other German immigrants, were Benton Democrats in their politics, but the parties had shifted with the issues of immigration and slavery. In 1861, Krekel was appointed Provost Marshall for St. Charles, Warren and Lincoln counties. Provost Marshalls were established only where the local government was either failing to or refusing to meet the needs of the local citizens. Things were in turmoil and one of the most striking acts was when members of the Board of Directors of the same college where Arnold had been a student, and studied law, the St. Charles College, refused to take an Oath of Allegiance. Krekel threw out the entire board and turned the school into a hospital – for Union Troops in December of 1862.
Krekel was serving as a Colonel in the Enrolled Military Militia. His troops’ career is storied with unfortunate events that are best explained in the annals of a war that rocked the country. His Home Guards, was where his involvement brought Germans into action at the Camp Jackson affair in April of 1861. The Union soldiers managed to secure the Arsenal and rifles that could have fallen into southern hands. His troops were next called into action as Federal troops in July 1861, and while away in maneuvers in western Missouri, Krekel’s troops were accused of marauding Confederate sympathizers’ homes. Back in St. Charles County, his troops were placed in charge of guarding the crucial Peruque Creek bridge, just west of O’Fallon, which enabled vital rail transport.
Arnold’s younger brother Nicholas, who had served in the Mexican War, was a Captain in the Home Guards, back in O’Fallon.
In 1862, Arnold served as Vice President of the State’s Radical Emancipation Convention. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 did not cover Missouri because it was a “slave state” and one of three that did not secede from the Union.
When the Civil War began, Missouri’s plans for gradual emancipation infuriated the Radical Republicans, who wanted slavery abolished immediately. They took their grievances to Lincoln, who refused to take sides in Missouri’s politics, which infuriated them even more. Provisional Governor Gamble offered to resign, but the First Constitutional Convention would not accept it. Gamble died in office on 31 January 1864. Missouri’s radicals arranged for elections and for a new Constitutional Convention in November 1864, where they elected Thomas C. Fletcher Missouri governor.
Constitutional Convention of 1864
Arnold Krekel, a Democrat, was elected President of the new Constitutional Convention that convened in the Mercantile Library in St. Louis on January 6, 1865. On January 11, 1865 the convention, by a 60 to 4 vote, abolished slavery in the state with no compensation for slave owners. A month later the convention also adopted the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution to abolish slavery throughout the U.S..
On March 31, 1865, shortly before his assassination President Lincoln appointed Arnold Krekel as Federal Judge for the Western District of Missouri. On September 17, 1866, Arnold who was long a proponent for public education, would help establish Lincoln University, Missouri’s first African-American college. For more than ten years, Krekel and his family lived in Jefferson City where he would lecture at the University for free. He was a member of the | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10051_1.txt |
Board of Directors, and elected President of the Board in 1883. From 1872 until 1887, he also taught at the newly established School of Law at the University of Missouri, in nearby Columbia. He served as a Federal Judge for 23 years, and only retire when his health began to fail.
The family would continue to live in Jefferson City for many years. There his wife Ida, mother of his six children, Laura, Alfred, Franklin, Hilma, Alma and Walter, passed away in 1870. They had lost two sons as young children, Walter when he was two, and Franklin at age 6. By 1880 he had gone to live with his oldest daughter, Laura, who had married Louis Schmidt, still in Jefferson City. In November, Arnold at age 65, remarried to Mattie Perry of Kansas City. Early in 1888 Krekel resigned his Judgeship because of illness, and he and his wife had moved to Kansas City. In July of 1888, Arnold Krekel passed away from Bright’s Disease, a kidney ailment, in Kansas City. His body was brought home to Saint Charles by his brother Nicholas and was laid to rest in the City’s Oak Grove Cemetery. A German emigrant’s amazing career was memorialized by his close friend Emil Preetorious as many mourned his loss.
Sources for this post are private and unpublished Krekel family papers, | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10051_2.txt |
2009 saw the completion of an important long-term project for the Woodbury Heritage Society. We installed and dedicated at City Hall a permanent exhibit detailing the history of one of Woodbury’s oldest trees (estimated to have first sprouted from an acorn around 1738!). After having survived for well over 200 years, the tree proved no match for progress, and was taken down when Radio Drive was widened in 2007. Thanks to the perserverance of the Woodbury Heritage Society board and the cooperation of Washington County and the City of Woodbury, a slice of the tree was saved and preserved so that future generations could learn about its role in the early days of Woodbury, when it was used by surveyors as a marker tree as early as 1847 because it was already such a noteworthy tree.
You can visit the exhibit during business hours at City Hall, on the first floor, just behind the staircase. A bench with a plaque noting the site’s significance has been placed along the walking path on Radio Drive close to where the tree stood (about 1/2 mile north of Bailey Road on the east side of the street). | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10052.txt |
Protecting and conserving biodiversity in an active farming region
In May 2015, Council adopted a Biodiversity Management Strategy (BMS) to protect and enhance biodiversity in our Local Government Area (LGA), which is an active farming region.
Learn more about our BMS with the Lismore Biodiversity Management Strategy video.
Objectives of the BMS are:
- To maintain or increase biodiversity and sustain ecological processes by developing a greater understanding of the flora and fauna, habitats and ecological processes of the Lismore LGA and improving community awareness of biodiversity through education.
- To foster partnerships with, and develop opportunity for rural landholders, industry, Indigenous and community groups to improve the management of biodiversity across the Lismore LGA.
- To promote a landscape connectivity approach as the basis for managing biodiversity and building landscape resilience to climate change.
- To contribute to the identification and mitigation of the pressures on biodiversity values.
- To provide a framework of targeted management priorities to maintain and improve biodiversity in the Lismore LGA.
- To build capacity and increase opportunities for landholders and community groups to enhance and manage biodiversity values on their land across all land tenures in the Lismore LGA.
- To provide for ecologically sustainable development.
Outcomes from this funding include:
- Assistance to manage weeds and restore natural areas on rural properties.
- Cleaner roadsides with weed management in high-conservation value areas.
- Assistance for community groups to restore natural areas.
- River bank restoration in rural and urban areas.
- More efforts to conserve biodiversity in the Lismore LGA, including restoring koala habitat.
- Better management of urban bushland reserves and more nature-based recreation in the urban setting.
- More opportunities to get involved and gain knowledge about the environment and land management through community events, workshops and field days.
- More recognition and reward for good stewardship of the land and environment.
The BMS includes a Rural Landholder Initiative that recognises rural landholders as the primary stewards of biodiversity and facilitates partnerships with them, industry and Aboriginal and community groups to manage biodiversity in the long-term.
The BMS will help Council to develop policy and will inform strategic planning and development approvals to ensure we have a consistent approach to biodiversity management. The BMS will also outline how to reduce pressures on biodiversity, promote biodiversity education and encourage landowners and the community to get involved in on-ground activities.
The greater aim is to restore native vegetation across all land in the Lismore LGA from the rainforests of the Nightcap Range through our urban and village centres right down to the Richmond River floodplain. The BMS promotes vegetation connectivity throughout the LGA as the basis for biodiversity management.
In February 2016, the NSW Government approved Council’s application for a special rate variation to fund on-ground implementation of the strategy. The determination can be found on the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) website: http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/Home/Industries/Local_Govt/Special_Variations_and_Minimum_Rates/Applications_Determinations
The rate increase commenced on 1 July 2016 and applies to three rating categories: Residential, Rural Residential and Farmland.
The rate rise is be based on the NSW Valuer General’s land values. In the first year (2016/17) the average urban resident will pay about $24 per year; the average rural resident will pay about $30 per year; and the average farmland resident will pay $48 per year. Note that the average farmland cost is higher due to higher average land values.
For more information on how the rate affects you and what is will fund, read our Special Rate Variation Information Sheet.
Below is the adopted BMS and associated documentation. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10053.txt |
Physical activity - or body movement and exercise - is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. It includes structured exercise and sport, as well as daily activities like walking or gardening.
Physical activity is classed as low, moderate or high, depending on the level of energy.
Low level activities include:
Moderate level activities include:
High level activities include:
Ways of being physically active Being physically active does not mean a person has to be involved in organised sport. There are many ways of being physically active as part of everyday life:
Regular physical activity can help to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as:
Other benefits of regular physical activity include:
When a person does not do enough physical activity, their rate of metabolism (the rate at which chemical processes occur within the body) slows down and their bodies do not require as much energy (food). If people eat more food than their body needs they are at risk of becoming overweight or obese.
Being overweight or obese is associated with a range of conditions, such as:
Overweight and obesity are also risk factors for some chronic diseases including:
There are many reasons people may not exercise enough, including:
It is recommended that children aged between 5 and 18 years participate in both moderate and high levels of activity for at least 60 minutes a day, every day.
Children aged 5-12 years are active in spurts throughout the day, and they will often get enough exercise just through active play.
Children should be encouraged to join in activities which they find fun, and are varied, so as to keep their bodies challenged.
Television, computer games and other electronic equipment should not be used for more than two hours a day.
Adults are recommended to do at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day, to improve their health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
The Physical activity guidelines for Australians is included in the Healthy Lifestyle Workers Resource Pack. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10054.txt |
In all of the recent news dealing with US President Donald Trump and the world economy, the term “trade war” is being used a lot more than would normally be the case. But what does this term actually mean? Who are the winners and who are the losers? Does a “trade” war resemble a military war in any way?
These are all important questions, and there is a lot at stake for the global economy. This is why it is essential to have a strong sense of the goals that can be achieved (and ramifications that can be incurred) when the proposition of global tariffs becomes a reality.
Imports vs. Exports
In any global trade discussion, it is important to make the distinction between imports (goods bought from foreign sources) and exports (goods sold to foreign sources). The following list shows the largest national trading partners that have a relationship with the United States:
But what exactly is traded with these countries? Here is the list of top 10 import product sectors that came into the United States in 2017. We can see that roughly 50% of the exports that came into the United States last year included items like electrical machinery, computer equipment, vehicles and fuel-related commodities:
Next, we will look at the top 10 exports made by U.S. companies and sold to consumers in other countries:
Interestingly, we can see that many of these items are similar. For example, electrical machinery and computer equipment are high on both lists. But why would any country import an item that it can already produce?
The answer is as complex as each individual consumer. It may be that U.S. consumers are not necessarily interested in all of the items produced by U.S. companies. Foreign sources are often cheaper, and this type of product will be viewed as preferable for some consumer demographics. But since not all U.S. consumers fall into this category, it is entirely plausible that some products will be bought domestically while others will need to be imported from foreign sources.
Since the nature of global trade is complex, it is important to understand the net differences between imports and exports at any given time because this is what allows us to identify trade imbalances within the global economy.
In this chart, we can see that both imports and exports have been rising steadily since the early 1990s. Perhaps more critical, however, is the difference between the import and export figures that are posted annually. This difference is referred to as a trade “deficit” because the United States imports products more than it exports.
Over time, these types of deficits can weigh on an economy because it means that fewer jobs are required domestically. More money is going out than coming in, and eventually, that can lead to sluggish performances in yearly GDP numbers.
Currency valuation is another factor that is of supreme importance whenever we are discussing the potential economic impact of a trade war. The U.S. dollar is considered to be the world’s reserve currency, which essentially means that most trade is conducted in U.S. dollars and most central banks around the world have a large store. We can track the value of the greenback against a broad basket of currencies using the U.S. dollar index (which is often associated with the market symbol DXY).
It might sound counterintuitive, but weaker currency values actually strengthen the outlook for countries with a large trade imbalance (like the U.S.) because this means that domestically produced goods will be cheaper for foreign consumers (where currency values might be rising). This is why many experts have actually argued for a weak-dollar policy as a means for correcting trade imbalances.
Will these policies be adopted by the current administration? Only time will tell. But since trade issues are a never-ending pursuit, these are lessons that must be understood — no matter which political party is in office. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10055.txt |
Vitreoretinal surgery refers to a group of surgeries which take place inside the eye's interior where the vitreous (gel-like material) and retina (photosensitive membrane) are located. Vitreoretinal procedures are either performed with traditional surgical tools or lasers, and address a range of ophthalmic issues including diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, detached retina, macular hole, CMV retinitis, epiretinal membrane, and diabetic vitreous hemorrhage.
A specific type of vitreoretinal eye surgery, a vitrectomy procedure removes the vitreous, a gel-like substance located in the middle of the eye. A vitrectomy is usually performed under general anesthesia, but depending on the patient's health, is sometimes performed with local anesthesia.
During a vitrectomy, an eye surgeon inserts small instruments into the eye. The surgeon cuts the fibers which attach the vitreous gel to the retina, and suctions out the vitreous. The surgeon then repairs any holes or tears in the retina or macula (center of the retina), flattens any areas where the retina is detached, and removes any vitreous fibers or scar tissue still attached to the retina. At this point, the eye care provider fills the vitreous cavity with either a gas, saline solution, or a silicone oil to restore normal eye pressure.
The vitrectomy procedure was developed to address several eye-related problems such as retinal detachment, macular hole, epiretinal membrane, proliferative vitreoretinopathy, endophthalmitis, and intraocular foreign body removal. Commonly, vitrectomy is used to treat diabetic vitreous hemorrhage, a condition in which the retina bleeds into the vitreous.
Vitrectomy has been shown to vastly improve the visual acuity of patients suffering from vision loss, distortion, or disruption due to vitreous hemorrhage. The procedure also reduces the risk of severe bleeding in patients who have begun to experience vitreous hemorrhage and for patients with abnormal blood vessels in the iris.
When is Vitrectomy Needed?
A vitrectomy is a complicated surgical procedure with the potential for complications like elevated intraocular pressure, retinal detachment, continued bleeding into the vitreous, corneal edema (fluid buildup in the cornea), or internal eye infection. As a result, this type of eye surgery is only used as a last resort in extreme cases of vitreous hemorrhage which do not clear up without treatment.
Every patient and every eye is different, and therefore responds differently to treatment. For this reason, diagnosis from an eye care professional specializing in retinal conditions and procedures is necessary before undergoing a vitrectomy. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10056.txt |
So, I keep hearing different things about the five-second rule. Is it OK to pick up food and eat it after it has dropped to the floor?
Um, no. It’s not OK. At least not if you’re concerned about the potential for foodborne illness.
Your confusion is understandable, though. Just a few years ago, a researcher at Aston University in the United Kingdom announced that the five-second rule was really a thing. The professor led his final-year biology students in a study examining whether bacteria would contaminate different types of foods when they were dropped onto different floor types and left for different times — from three to 30 seconds. They found that time is a significant factor in the transfer of bacteria to a piece of food, and that the type of flooring also has a significant impact. Although the research was never published in a scientific journal, a university press release quoting the professor concluded that, while it carries some risk, the five-second rule “is real.”
Today, we have evidence that’s a little more definitive. A Rutgers University study published online in September in the American Society for Microbiology’s journal, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, concluded that, depending on circumstances, bacteria can transfer onto food dropped onto the floor nearly instantaneously, in less than a second.
The researchers were incredibly methodical in this study. First, they tested four different foods: watermelon, bread, bread and butter, and gummy candy. They tested four different contact times: less than one second, five seconds, 30 seconds, and five minutes. They tested four different surfaces: stainless steel, ceramic glazed tile, maple laminate wood and indoor-outdoor carpet. And they tested two different solutions that they used to spread the bacteria.
For the study, each surface was inoculated with a non-disease-causing “cousin” of Salmonella called Enterobacter aerogenes. The researchers waited until the surface was completely dry, and then dropped food samples onto them for the different time periods. In all, they collected and tested 2,560 samples.
As in the other study, these researchers found that bacteria’s ability to transfer onto food varies depending on circumstances. Foods with higher moisture content — in this case, watermelon — were the quickest and easiest to get contaminated. The researchers said that this isn’t surprising, since bacteria tend to move with moisture.
As for surfaces, tile and stainless steel seemed to be the most susceptible in allowing foods to become contaminated. The indoor-outdoor carpet allowed the least contamination.
Also, the longer the food was in contact with the surface, the more likely it was to become contaminated. Even the solution used to spread the bacteria seemed to make a difference.
Conclusion? Don’t count on the five-second rule to protect you. This study is a reminder to keep all surfaces around meal preparation and consumption clean. And if your food falls to the floor, think twice instead of just popping it into your mouth.
Chow Line is a service of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and its outreach and research arms, Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Send questions to Chow Line, c/o Martha Filipic, 2021 Coffey Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1043, or email@example.com.
Editor: This column was reviewed by Sanja Ilic, food safety specialist for Ohio State University Extension.
For a PDF of this column, please click here.
OSU Extension, Food Safety | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10057.txt |
After-fire Warrumbungle National Park - soil erosion and water quality
The 2013 bushfires in Warrumbungle National Park had major effects on soil erosion and waterways. An intense storm immediately following the fires caused flash-flooding and massive soil erosion. Research projects in the park aim to determine the extent of the damage, and rates of recovery.
Bushfires and flooding affect soil and water quality in many ways. Scientists are assessing the impacts in Warrumbungle National Park, offering advice for effective long-term management strategies.
For soil erosion, scientists are measuring the recovery at 12 key sites throughout the park, allowing them to gain a snapshot of Warrumbungle’s soil health as a whole. At the same time, scientists are measuring recovery in sub-catchment streams that have become heavily silted and also suffered debris flows of soil, boulders and trees.
When it comes to water quality, the intention of the research is to determine the main sources of nutrients within the park. This helps scientists to determine the rate of recovery being made by the park’s waterways. This research also offers an insight into the recovery of aquatic life, which was adversely affected with a loss of habitat and food sources. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10058.txt |
Transcript for America\'s New Frontier, segment 08 of 11
The GLORIA imagery from the Gulf of Mexico gives the first complete look at the huge fan of sediment deposited by the Mississippi River. Its network of channel waves and loads of sediment extend beyond the limit of E. E. Z., covering more than sixty thousand square miles of ocean floor. This three-dimensional enhanced GLORIA image from the eastern Gulf of Mexico shows the dramatic submarine cliffs and canyons of the Florida Escarpment. And off Puerto Rico, this gigantic submarine landslide scar has a volume equivalent to more one-and-a-half million times that of the Houston Astrodome. Its presence hints of the catastrophic processes actively shaping islands in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
The Atlantic margin GLORIA survey in nineteen eighty-six revealed a complicated network of submarine channel ways resembling the tributaries of river systems seen on land. By locating these channel ways and other hazards such as submarine landslides, the images have already proven useful for laying out precise routes for transatlantic fiberoptic cables.
The GLORIA survey of the Bering Sea provides an important look at the ocean floor of America's richest fishing grounds. Several large submarine canyons occur on the margins of the Bering Sea, including Zumchug Canyon which is the world's largest by volume. A related discovery showed that several submarine channels issue from the mouths of these canyons and extend for hundreds of kilometers across the deep ocean floor of the Bering Sea.
The area I've been mainly working with on the GLORIA project has been the Gulf of Alaska area which stretches from Dixon entrance over here on the Canadian-U. S. border on around to through the Alaska Peninsula, and one of the neat things we've been able to do with the GLORIA data that we've never been able to do before is follow a fault system along southeastern Alaska called the Queen Charlotte Fairweather Fault System. This fault system is about the length of the San Andreas Fault System, and we know from the earthquakes that have occurred along it it has about the same power and the same danger as the San Andreas Fault System. Well, the major difference is that thee San Andreas Fault System is almost entirely exposed. It's on land. We can look at it. We can walk on it. We can take pictures of it. The Queen Charlotte Fairweather Fault System is entirely submerged. The fun thing about the GLORIA program, when we got over along the Queen Charlotte Fault System - all of the sudden we could see the fault clearly for the first time, and it's - we could see the active trace, and one of the fun things about that was, before we saw it on the GLORIA images, we had mapped it in the wrong place. Now we know where it is.
Well, in the Aleutian Islands, at any rate, great earthquakes occur, some of those larger than the great San Francisco earthquake. But the bad thing about the Aleutians is that they generate great tsunamis, or tidal waves some people call them, great seismic sea waves. Not many people live in the Aleutians, but this great tidal wave moves southward, runs into Alaska, runs into Washington, Oregon, and California, and especially Hawaii, and in nineteen forty-six hundreds of people were killed in Hilo, for example, from an earthquake, a great one which occurred in the Aleutians. Well, part of the GLORIA work up here was designed to determine what sort of fault structures did we have on the sea floor, some which might be related to the generation of the tsunamis? We had other geophysical data which indicated to us something about the structures, but we didn't know how to connect them. How big were they? Well, what GLORIA almost could uniquely do for us was to take this sort of sound image of the sea floor and tie in these structures, that they were, in fact, connected, and once we realized that, then we could assign great risks to these structures and start to understand how they're being developed and why the earthquakes were recurring, repeatedly sometimes, in the same area, which is where the research needs to go next. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10059.txt |
||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (February 2008)|
Gerardo Murillo Cornado (October 3, 1875 – August 15, 1964) was a Mexican painter and writer who signed his works "Dr. Atl". He was born in Pihuamo, state of Jalisco, where he began the study of painting at an early age, under Felipe Castro. At the age of 21, Murillo entered the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City to further his studies.
After showing his abilities, Murillo was granted a pension in 1897 by President Porfirio Díaz to study painting in Europe. There he broadened his scope of learning, with study of philosophy and law at the University of Rome, and many trips to Paris to listen to lectures about art given by Henri Bergson. His strong interest in politics led him to collaborate with the Socialist Party in Italy and work in the Avanti newspaper. In 1902 he was baptized "Dr. Atl" (the Nahuatl word for "water") by Leopoldo Lugones.
Dr. Atl became very active in Mexico when he returned. In 1906 he participated with Diego Rivera, Francisco de la Torre, Rafael Ponce de Leon and others in an exhibition sponsored by Alonso Cravioto and Luis Castillo Ledon, the editors of the magazine Savia Moderna.
in 1906 Dr. Atl issued a manifesto calling for the development of a monumental public art movement in Mexico linked to the lives and interests of the Mexican people, a precursor of the Mexican Mural Movement launched in 1922. He was also commissioned by the Diaz government to design a glass curtain for the Institute of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes) under construction in Mexico City, which was executed by Tiffany's of New York and featured the two volcanos overlooking the capital. Though he was commissioned to paint a mural, the mural and the movement were postponed by the eruption of the Mexican Revolution against Porfirio Díaz in 1910. (D. Anthony White, Siqueiros, Biography of a Revolutionary Artist, Book Surge, 2009, p. 19-21)
In 1911, Dr. Atl returned to Europe. In Paris, he founded a journal and wrote about the social and political issues of Mexico, and criticized Victoriano Huerta. Dr. Atl supported the constitutionalists in the Mexican Revolution, leaning towards biblical socialism and promoting the growth of art, literature, and science. When he returned from Europe, he joined the Constitutionalist forces led by Venustino Carranza, and was appointed Director of the Academy of San Carlos. During the Revolution, he persuaded two young art students, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, to join the carrancistas and illustrated La Vanguardia, the carrancista official paper. (White, Siqueiros, p. 30)
Since the Revolution rejected the euro-centric emphasis of the national government in the 19th and early 20th century, there was a revival of interest in Mexico's rich indigenous past and the popular arts, including folk dance, music, arts and crafts. Dr. Atl and other artists arranged exhibits of the folk arts and performances of popular dance and music and Dr. Atl prepared a two-volume study, Folk Arts in Mexico, p., published by the Mexican government in 1922. (White, Siqueiros, p. 59)
Dr. Atl's strong love of the outdoors and his active nature are seen in his many paintings which portray the landscapes of his era. Among his interests was the study of volcanoes, and he spent much time visiting both Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. A book he wrote in 1950, Cómo nace y crece un volcán, el Paricutín ("How a Volcano is Born and Grows – Paricutín"), told of his experience of witnessing the eruption of Paricutín in 1943. He was injured while observing the eruption of the Paricutin volcano and his leg was amputated. Besides paintings volcanic landscapes, he was considered an expert volcanologist and his papers were valuable to understanding volcanos. (White, Siqueiros)
His literary writings including Cuentos de todos los colores ("Stories of All Colors"), which focuses on the themes of the Mexican Revolution and has been hailed as one of the best narrations of that historical period. His book La Perla ("The Pearl") inspired the writing of the novella, much the same, by John Steinbeck.
He gave the Nahuatl name "Nahui Olin" (a symbol of Aztec renewal meaning "four movement," the symbol of earthquakes) to Carmen Mondragón (1893–1978), a Mexican poet and painter with whom he established a very intense love relationship.
Dr. Atl received numerous awards for his literature and art, including the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor, in 1956, and the National Arts Award in 1958.
In 1961 "Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond" aired an episode based on an experience of Dr. Atl in 1920. The plot description states: "On the run from the authorities, Atl (played by David J. Stewart) takes refuge in a convent that is allegedly haunted by the ghost of an aztec warrior. Of course, Atl is too intelligent a man to believe in such nonsense—until the Federale who is pursuing him is mysteriously strangled to death. The real Dr. Atl makes a guest appearance in the closing scene."
He died in Mexico City in 1964.
- Bordan, Iain and Jane Rendell, eds. (2000). Intersections: Architectural Histories and Critical Theories. London: Routledge.
- Calderazzo, John (2004). "Rising fire : volcanoes and our inner lives". Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p61 ff
- Cumberland, Charles (1957). "Dr. Atl and Venustiano Carranza." The Americas. 13.
- Espejo, Beatriz (1994). "Gerardo Murillo: El paisaje como pasion". Coyoacán, Mexico: Fondo Editorial de la Plastica Mexica.
- (1964). "Gerardo Murillo, Mexican Artist, 89." New York Times. August 16.
- Helm, Mckinley (1989). Modern Mexican Painters. New York: Harper Brothers.
- Patterson, Robert (1964). "An Art in Revolution: Antecedents of Mexican Mural Painting, 1900-1920." Journal of Inter-American Studies. 6.
- Pilcher, Jeffrey (2003). The Human Tradition in Mexico. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources.
White, D. Anthony, Siqueiros, Biography of a Revolutionary Artist (Book Surge, 2009)
- Rivera, Diego. 1993. Diego Rivera and the revolution: Mexico in times of ghanges [i.e. change]. [Mexico City]: Diego Rivera Studio Museum. p. 35. ISBN 9682958156
- Kristin G. Congdon; Kara Kelley Hallmark (30 October 2002). Artists from Latin American cultures: a biographical dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-313-31544-2. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
- Photo, by Nahui Olin
- One Step Beyond
- The Artist As Volcano: a profile of Dr. Atl in Cabinet Magazine, by Jesse Lerner
Esteban Baca Calderón
|Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor
Roque Estrada Reynoso | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1006.txt |
With all the new medical technologies and diagnostic tools introduced to the medical field in the last ten years, sometimes the best diagnostic tool is your own body. Usually the first indication that something is not right within your body is a pain or excess fatigue. You just don't feel yourself or you know something if off. Our bodies are like a machine and there are signs when it's not functioning at optimal levels. It is important to pay attention to these signals and seek medical attention.
Being attuned to your body can give you a heads up that something isn't right. When visiting the doctor you want to be a specific as possible. For example, if you feel a pain, state often you get the pain, exactly where the pain is and how painful it is on a scale of 1 to 10. Any sign that is different than your normal routine like excess thirst, lack of hunger or extreme fatigue would be an indication that a doctor's visit would be advisable. Don't wait, it may be nothing or it may be the start of an illness.
Unfortunately, not all diseases have such overt symptoms. Cancers are notorious for being "silent killers" only giving symptoms when it is past the point of being able to stop the spreading of the disease. It is for this reason, it is important to get annual checkups and screenings to help identify any illness in the beginning stages where one has the best chance of survival. New technology has afforded us the opportunity to identify illnesses early on when that wasn't a possibility twenty years ago.
Acknowledgment of the gut feeling may be the one thing that saves your life. When people eat something or take a medication they may feel off but not really having any major symptoms. Listen to these feeling, stop taking the medication and consult with your pharmacist or doctor before continuing with the prescription.
All in all your gut is your first line of defense and your doctor is your second. So if your gut tells you that something just doesn't seem quite right within your body then chances are good that something is wrong and it is a good idea to check in with your medical doctor about the issue. At the same point it is important to not wait for symptoms to surface before checking in with your medical doctor. An annual routine visit can also help you to unearth underlying health issues that you may not be consciously aware of. A balance of medical attention and gut instinct is usually best to help keep you moving forward through a healthier life. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10060.txt |
Groundwater Coordinating Council Overview
Wisconsin Groundwater Coordinating Council
The Groundwater Coordinating Council (GCC) is an interagency group that is directed by law to assist state agencies in the coordination and exchange of information related to groundwater programs.
Administrative support for the GCC is provided by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. However, the information contained herein does not necessarily reflect the views of the department.
When was the GCC created?
In 1984, the Legislature enacted Wisconsin Act 410 to improve the management of the state’s groundwater. This act required establishment of a Groundwater Coordinating Council (GCC) to be made up of representatives of state agencies with groundwater protection responsibilities.
What is the purpose of the GCC?
The GCC is directed by s. 160.50, Wis. Stats., to “serve as a means of increasing the efficiency and facilitating the effective functioning of state agencies in activities related to groundwater management.” The GCC “advises and assists state agencies in the coordination of non-regulatory programs and the exchange of information related to groundwater, including, but not limited to, agency budgets for groundwater programs, groundwater monitoring, data management, public information and education, laboratory analysis and facilities, research activities and the appropriation and allocation of state funds for research.”
What does the GCC do?
The GCC meets quarterly to discuss issues of interest and make decisions regarding groundwater issues of concern. The following is a sampling of groundwater related activities that the GCC facilitates:
- The GCC coordinates a joint solicitation for groundwater research and monitoring proposals among four state agencies.
- The GCC promotes efforts to enhance the utility of groundwater monitoring and research funded by the state.
- The GCC ensures consistency in groundwater education, data management and mapping efforts.
- The GCC works with representatives of federal and local agencies to promote communication and coordination with state groundwater activities.
- The GCC prepares an annual Report to the Legislature due each August.
- The GCC sponsors and participates in forums and other outreach events to promote discussion of groundwater issues.
Wisconsin's groundwater law
Wisconsin's groundwater law, Chapter 160, Wisconsin Statutes, established the framework for a comprehensive approach to protect public health and welfare and the environment. The intent of this law is to minimize the concentration of polluting substances in groundwater through the use of numerical standards in all groundwater regulatory programs. The law applies to all groundwater in the state and is used by all state agencies in their regulatory programs that may impact groundwater.
Report to the legislature
Annual report to the legislature
The Groundwater Coordinating Council is required by s. 15.347, Wis. Stats., to prepare a report which “summarizes the operations and activities of the council..., describes the state of the groundwater resource and its management and sets forth the recommendations of the council. The annual report shall include a description of the current groundwater quality of the state, an assessment of groundwater management programs, information on the implementation of ch. 160, Wis. Stats., and a list and description of current and anticipated groundwater problems.”
A report is due each August for the preceding fiscal year.
The GCC consists of high-level administrators of all state agencies with some responsibility for groundwater management plus a Governor's representative. The GCC also has two subcommittees to assist in its work. Additionally, the DNR has one permanent position with half-time responsibilities related to coordination of the GCC.
- View current GCC members.
The GCC and its subcommittees regularly bring together staff from over 15 different agencies, institutions and organizations to communicate and work together on a variety of research, monitoring and data management, educational and planning issues. A strong network among GCC and subcommittee members leads to coordination across agency lines on a variety of groundwater-related issues. These activities regularly avoid duplication, create efficiencies, and provide numerous benefits to Wisconsin's taxpayers.
Groundwater research and monitoring subcommittee
The GCC is directed to "advise the Secretary of Administration on the allocation of funds appropriated to the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin under s. 20.285(1)(a) for groundwater research." Since 1992, a joint solicitation process has facilitated selection and funding of sound scientific research and monitoring to answer state priority needs.
A comprehensive review process including the Groundwater Research Advisory Council (GRAC), the GCC's Monitoring & Research Subcommittee, and outside technical experts resulted in recommendations that were used by the University of Wisconsin System (UWS) and DNR in deciding which groundwater-related proposals to fund.
- Learn more about research and monitoring.
Outreach and partnership subcommittee
Successful groundwater management depends on dispelling myths and fostering public understanding of the resource. Through the cooperation of GCC agency partners, a new generation of students, parents and teachers are more aware of the complex relationship we have with groundwater, our valuable buried treasure. UW-Cooperative Extension - through the UW Water Resources Institute, the Environmental Resources Center and the Wisconsin Geologic and Natural History Survey (WGNHS) - takes the lead for outreach on general groundwater topics while each state agency provides information on their specific regulatory programs. Experience has shown that person-to-person outreach is the best way to engage the public in groundwater protection.
GCC meeting minutes
The GCC meets quarterly to discuss issues of interest and make decisions regarding groundwater issues of concern.
- View the meeting minutes. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10061.txt |
Prehabilitation is a Proactive/preventive approach to manual therapy, exercise, diet and lifestyle, designed to maximise health and wellness, and minimise individual risks for injury and disease. Well-studied in human medicine, prehabilitation is found to be valuable in ‘high risk’, aged, frail or obese patients, as well as younger patients who wish to maximise their athletic performance or if injured and facing surgery, to return to their chosen sports as soon as possible. It is especially valuable when an animal is requiring surgery, and as a pre-operative approach integrates biomechanical assessment and appropriate manual therapy treatment, individualised home exercises plus diet and lifestyle advice in advance of surgery. Prehabilitation has been shown to promote lower complication rates and earlier restoration of functional activities and status during the recovery from surgery. Good quality systematic reviews show a positive impact of pre-operative exercise therapy on physical function, quality of life, postoperative complications and length of hospital stay.
Most animals have been developing compensations for minor slips, trips and falls for many months or years prior to pain or lameness becoming evident. Individualised prehabilitation helps to make sure the animal is moving well and has the best possible strength prior to undergoing surgery. This is believed to help improve the outcomes of surgery by promoting healthy circulation, minimising inflammation, reducing pain related behaviour and movement limitations, reducing strain on the healing tissues and as a bonus will often reduce the animals reliance upon medication to control inflammation and pain both before and after the surgery.
Rehabilitation takes a similar approach around the inclusion of biomechanical assessment and appropriate manual therapy treatment, individualised home exercise, diet and lifestyle advice in respect to promoting the most efficient and successful recovery after orthopaedic surgery or acute injury. Rehabilitation typically follows a pattern guided by the natural healing mechanisms within the associated tissues.
Inflammation is the main factor to manage for the first 2 – 4 weeks depending on the individual situation. This typically includes medication and rest, however these can also be complimented by gentle therapeutic options such as lymphatic drainage, laser and kinesiology taping to help the tissues clear the active inflammation and bring fresh blood supply into the healing tissues. Treatment is always considered on a case by case basis in conjunction with veterinary advice, as individual factors play a large role in the suitability of therapies during the acute stage. Gentle modalities such as laser, kinesiotaping and lymphatic drainage often appropriate immediately post surgery, and specific home exercises may be able to help maintain the nervous and muscular system function in relation to the injury.
Weeks 5-8, are crucial in ensuring the affected tissues are building their passive and active function in a symmetrical and biomechanically correct manner in order to ensure that the repairing tissue is as healthy and functional as possible. Again, passive and active techniques, more advanced exercises and modalities may be applied as appropriate to promote healthy tissue repair.
Remodelling, during weeks 9-12 is when the fun really begins. This is where, if previous stages have been completed with success, we can really start to challenge the body while still being aware there is much change still happening within the healing tissues. Monitoring the dog during this period is particularly important as they often begin to feel ‘like new’ and can easily overdo it. Rehab exercises can increase in complexity as we challenge both the musculoskeletal tissues as well as the nervous system which controls healthy movement.
Months 3 – 6 are the cherry on top as far as rehabilitation goes. While it may seem as though the dog is back to normal, it is very important to continue monitoring them for any signs that their tissues aren’t strengthening symmetrically or fully. Owners are coached on how to monitor their animals for small asymmetries or movement patterns in their own animals specific case, to help pick up early signs of trouble. This helps to reduce the likelihood of long term development of osteoarthritic changes that are common when surgical procedures have occurred. Typically at this stage home exercises should be part of normal daily life, with lifestyle changes well integrated to help the animal continue well into their older years. I always aim to make these lifestyle factors and exercises as easy to integrate into daily life as possible, which makes it significantly more likely that they will be maintained through the animals lifetime. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10062.txt |
A reader would presume that these students find the materials appropriate for use in some way in the classroom, either as background information for themselves or in designing an actual curriculum, but the information provided does not reflect any such analysis. For instance, students wrote about Hearing Us Out: Voices from the Gay and Lesbian Community, "Sutton provides insights to understanding lesbian and gay communities through individuals' unique stories." This statement is so vague that it could have been written without actually looking at the book. A teacher would find this recommendation much more useful with more information: for what age level did the group think it was appropriate? Did the book provide insights that were directly applicable to school, such as stories from these people's experiences while they were in school? Does it include language some might find objectionable or excessively graphic?
The group that looked at "ability" reported on their materials more completely. Comments such as "the author shows how children with disabilities can be active participants in the mainstream classroom environment" is useful information. The issue of how to teach inclusion students well within the regular school environment is an issue of real concern to many teachers. Reading this description, the reader knows that he or she can look at that source more carefully. Another source specifically addresses how to facilitate mainstreaming at the high school level. Elementary teachers would probably pass that one by while middle school teachers would probably give it a look. This group's descriptions help the reader sort through the many resources the "ability" group found to pick out the ones most useful for him or her.
As an article this report falls short. An article should provide more than a compilation of college students' work, no matter how carefully done. The authors did not provide any critique of the final result, nor did they give any description of how the students proceeded with their project. In addition, there is no indication of how the students were led through the process of evaluating the materials examined. The reader does not know how the teams worked, whether they looked at some materials and rejected them, or whether they included everything they found. No information is provided about whether the students were led through drafts of their summaries.
Some readers might have found the process the students followed in choosing sources and writing their summaries useful because the readers could then use the same processes themselves. There might be some other topic of interest to a given teacher. In addition, with time this information will be dated.
For a teacher, this article will be somewhat useful as one place to look for information on the subjects covered. However, since the quality of the summaries vary widely, a teacher will have to go to the sources themselves. As a screening tool for materials, this article is often inadequate. As a summary of what is available on a topic, the reader cannot be certain of how thorough any one topic was researched because the article includes nothing of the students' methodology. However, it does demonstrate how broad-ranging such a search can be. The students included obvious selections such as Savage Inequalities when looking at class and poverty, but also included the movie to Sir With Love, a movie many new teachers might not be aware of. The article's most useful trait may be to demonstrate the wide variety of sources that exist when developing curriculum resource guides. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10063.txt |
Aluminum Wiring – A Blast from the Past
Traditionally, homes built between the 1960’s and early 1970’s were wired with aluminum wiring. Then, around the mid-1970’s, aluminum wiring was labelled a fire hazard and was replaced with copper wiring. Today, only copper wiring is used in building construction.
The Dangers of Aluminum Wiring
Serious fire hazards can occur when aluminum wiring is spliced, or connects with an outlet, circuit breaker, switch, or other components of an electrical system. In addition aluminum wiring shrinks and expands, and these constant changes to the aluminum wiring can easily result in overheating, causing sparks which ultimately can lead to fires.
What can we do?
Aluminum wiring can be replaced or repaired to effectively and permanently reduce the possibility of fire and injury due to failing (overheating) wire connections and splices. It is essential that you hire a qualified electrician to perform this remediation. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10064.txt |
The third edition is an 'all-in-one' combination of basic theory and practical exercises. Potential readers/users are students of Photogrammetry, Geodesy, Geography and other sciences, but also all who are interested in this topic. No prior knowledge is necessary, except the handling of standard PCs. Theory is presented true to the motto 'as little as possible, but as much as necessary'.The main part of the book contains several tutorials. In increasing complexity, accompanied by texts explaining further theory, the reader can proceed step by step through the particular working parts. All intermediate as well as the final results are discussed with reference to accuracy and error handling. Most of the standard work in Digital Photogrammetry is shown and trained for example scanning, image orientation, mono and stereo plotting, aerial triangulation measurement (manual and automatic), block adjustment, automatic creation of surface models via image matching, creation of ortho images and mosaics, and others. Not only standard situations are dealt with but also more complex ones, such as unknown camera data, extreme relief or areas with very low contrast. Examples of both aerial and close-range photogrammetry present the power of these type of measurement techniques.The software is not limited to the example data included but may be used for personal projects. Part of the book comprises a complete description of the software. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10065.txt |
It is October, and my adoring gaze this late season is fixed upon one family of plants… Asteraceae. That’s right: asters.
It may be their ability to spread—establishing large swaths of billowing flowers ranging from white to deep purple, the number of late-season pollinators that they attract, or their plucky ability to adapt to less-than-ideal conditions that makes me love them so. I am not sure, but this season I am all about asters. An up-close look will reveal a variety of bees working feverishly to collect pollen and nectar to provision their nests, and small orange skippers darting from flower to flower. Asters offer spectacle on top of spectacle.
Now we have talked about this before, but it is worth repeating. Native plants provide services beyond the pollen and nectar produced by their flowers, and along with the eye-popping color and contrast of human adoration. The foliage can provide a place to over-winter for certain butterflies, and hollow stems create a habitat for native bees. Leaves become food for specific foraging caterpillars, and then those plump caterpillars and persistent fruit become fuel for migrating birds. Native plants provide material for building nests...the list goes on and on.
So, when planning your fall flower displays that usher in the cozy season of pumpkin spice, skip the stiff statured annuals and cultivated perennials, and go all-in on native asters. A few species to add to your garden include Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (aromatic aster), Symphyotrichum shortii (Short’s aster), Eurybia macrophylla (big-leaved aster), Symphyotrichum oolentangiense (sky-blue aster), and Symphyotrichum laeve (smooth aster), among many others. If you would like help adding asters or any other native plant to your garden, reach out to us at North Branch Natives.
North Branch Natives blog posts are shared monthly with www.journal-topics.com. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10066.txt |
I've been wondering recently: For most people, mathematics is primarily the study of numbers. For most mathematicians it seems to be the study of standard axiomatic sets, but let's go with what most people think to begin with (after all, even if we began with sets we would have to explain why some of them are regarded as more important, as standard).
......Perhaps most people would think (with Mill) that the meaning of '2 + 2 = 4' is that two objects plus another two makes four objects. Now, it might be supposed that negative numbers present a problem for that view (e.g. Mark Balaguer thinks it nonsense to think of minus two pebbles being added to minus two pebbles to make minus four pebbles), but think of a tiled floor, with one tile missing, as that is a pretty good picture of minus one tile. And positive numbers of tiles could be represented by tiles placed on top of the tiled floor (cf. holes and electrons in semiconductors).
......Note that positive numbers of tiles are not quite the same as numbers of tiles, in that representation, as there are tiles within the tiled floor. That is not a problem, however, because positive numbers are different from unsigned numbers. The former exist within a mathematical space such as the integers, in which '2 - 4 = -2' makes sense (where +2 and +4 have, as usual, been written as '2' and '4' for convenience, because of the obvious isometry), whereas the latter do not, of course, allow you to take 4 away if you only have 2 to start with.
......Now, when we extend the negative numbers to include negative lengths (as we extend whole numbers to include fractions and other lengths), a better representation would have sea-level in place of the tiled floor, and consider extending positive heights of land above sea-level to include depths (negative heights) of the sea-floor. Or we might, of course, look at money, with negative money representing either a flow of money out of an account or, within the account, a debt. And we might, more generally, think of 'positive' and 'negative' as the names of two directions.
......That also fits nicely with the extension of the real number line to the complex number plane, in which there are not just two but infinitely many directions. Historically, the complex numbers (e.g. the square roots of minus one) were only taken seriously when mathematicians could picture them as extra directions. And now we find the complex numbers being as applicable in science (e.g. in quantum mechanics, the foundation of chemistry, electronics, lazers and so forth) as the negative numbers are in everyday situations, which indicates that we are here cutting nature at its joints, so to speak.
......Although Balaguer thinks we must use sets to get the negative (and similarly, the real) numbers, surely we use a concept of direction to make sense of, e.g., 2 - 4 (and similarly, of the square roots of minus one), and surely that also accounts for how useful we find such numbers, as we make our ways in the world. (And incidentally, the real numbers show how our number concepts might be judged empirically, as Mill thought.) In other words, signed numbers and complex numbers may best be thought of as elementary vectors (another fundamental mathematical concept with many applications).
......And so the question of what we mean by 'direction' arises. A very ordinary use of 'direction' is when one gives someone directions to get somewhere. When you get to the next crossroads, take the first left, for example. Note that the road to go down is picked out by a direction relative to where you will be when you have to go that way. And roads can be travelled in two directions (so I am not here thinking of Fregean directions, which are sets of parallel lines), and so I am wondering how deeply the concept of a direction is related to the concept of an option.
......Were there no choices, there would just be all those roads, where they are (much as sets are abstract objects that just sit there in the Platonic realm, so to speak), and little sense to logic. So we might expect choice to be a fundamental mathematical concept. Certainly the word 'choice' appears in the foundations of mathematics, there being an axiom of choice in standard set theory, and choice sequences replacing real numbers in constructive mathematics. But more deeply, our mathematical concepts are likely to be grounded in mathematical intuitions that we share with other intelligent animals (e.g. via the number sense), and intelligent animals make choices (of course).
(PS: This post is linked to in the Carnival of the Animals:) | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10067.txt |
have a large potential to reduce GHG emissions, the risks of nuclear power are also of significant concern and need to be successfully resolved.
Develop and demonstrate power plants equipped with carbon capture and sequestration technology. Carbon capture and sequestration could be a critically important option for our future energy system. It needs to be commercially demonstrated in a variety of full-scale power plant applications to better understand the costs involved and the technological, social, and regulatory barriers that may arise.
Advance low-GHG-emitting transportation options. Near-term opportunities exist to reduce GHGs from the transportation sector through increasing vehicle efficiency, supporting shifts to energy-efficient modes of passenger and freight transport, and advancing low-GHG fuels.
Accelerate the retirement, retrofitting, or replacement of emissions-intensive infrastructure. Transitioning to a low-carbon energy system requires clear and credible policies that enable not only the deployment of new technologies but also the retrofitting, retiring, or replacement of existing emissions-intensive infrastructure. If immediate action is not initiated, the existing emissions-intensive capital stock will rapidly consume the U.S. emissions budget.
Create new technology choices. See discussion in Chapter 5. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10068.txt |
A definition of Image Stabilisation
Image Stabilisation refers to a range of technologies designed to counter image blur. These can be divided into three categories: mechanical, sensitivity-based or electronic. Mechanical stabilisation concerns the movement of either elements within a lens or the sensor inside a camera, to offset any movement from the camera as the image is captured
Sensitivity-based system adjust the camera’s sensitivity to a point where the resulting shutter speed – which increases with sensitivity – will be fast enough to capture the image sharply
Electronic systems are less frequently used in stills cameras than the other two varieties, although where these are used they typically work by combining separate exposures to process out the blurring. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10069.txt |
The visual arts are a collective term for the visual creative arts and the term has been used since the early 19th century. Fine arts include arts such as painting, architecture, graphics, drawings, sculpture, and handicrafts. However, modern developments and new media have expanded the term so that it is sometimes not that easy to distinguish the visual arts from others.
The visual arts must, however, be distinguished from the performing arts. These include dance, theater, and film art, which are also of great relevance in Germany.
First development in the visual arts
The first works of art came from religious ideas. Over time, sculpture and painting became commissioned works for nobles and wealthy citizens, but of course also for religious institutions. With the discovery of perspective, art changed a lot, so works of art were no longer just an expression of circumstances, but also dealt with utopias, art also began to take on the role of religion.
Experience visual arts
There are a wide variety of museums and galleries in Germany where you can experience the visual arts from different eras. A well-known museum is, for example, the “Museum of Fine Arts “in Leipzig, which not only has changing exhibitions but also reveals a lot about the history of Leipzig. The museum also has a library with almost 100,000 books, which makes the library one of the largest museum libraries in Germany. If you are near Germany, prepare your best travel backpacks and consider visiting these wonderful places.
Of course, there is also a lot to see in the German capital: there are large, world-class museum buildings, including the Picture Gallery, the Pergamon Museum, and the Natural History Museum. There are also many other museums with important collections, for example, the Schwule Museum is unique in Europe and the Bauhaus Archive has collections of international importance. Not only do the orientations of the various museums in Berlin differ, but also the funding and sponsorship. For example, some museums are privately run, while others come from public institutions.
Other museums for fine arts can also be found in Stuttgart, Ulm and Dresden, among others. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_1007.txt |
We know that learning to sail can be overwhelming and there is a lot to take in. In an effort to help we’ve created a series of “Bite Sized Lessons” taken straight out of our textbooks – Sailing Made Easy and Coastal Cruising Made Easy.
In this lesson we take a look at some of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to hypothermia. Prolonged exposure to wind, spray, and cold when on deck, and any length of time spent in the water, can elevate your chances of becoming hypothermic. Recognizing the early symptoms and taking appropriate actions can prevent a life-threatening situation.
How To Sail Sailing a boat is part art and part skill but few activities offer such a variety of pleasures as sailing. Something special occurs when you cast off the lines and leave your cares at the dock.
7 Tips For The Beginning Sailor There are the obvious things you need when you go sailing, sunscreen, a hat, a windbreaker, non-skid shoes, and wind. However, what do you really need to be ready to head out on the water?
How To Learn To Sail You won’t have to buy a boat or learn a new language or buy a new wardrobe to get a taste for sailing. You can dictate how much you want to experience.
Learning To Sail Is Just The Beginning Sailing means different things to different people. At ASA we understand that learning to sail is just the beginning of a relationship with a lifestyle that is infectious. Where will sailing take you? We have a few ideas but how you view sailing is the most important.
What Is Your Role on a Boat? What type of sailor are you and what role do you take on the boat? Your ASA sailing education will prepare you to be a skipper on a sailing vessel and with that comes the responsibility of keeping your crew safe and ensuring the safety of the vessel you are sailing. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10070.txt |
Digital History>Topics>Private Life
Government, Professional Expertise, and the Reconstruction of Fatherhood and Motherhood
History TOPIC ID 88
Since the 1870s, mounting public anxiety over the family has resulted in two important responses: increasing government involvement and intervention in the family and the emergence of distinct groups of professionals offering expert advice about childcare and proper mothering and fathering. During the late nineteenth century, public concern over divorce, abortion and contraception, and an influx of immigrants ignited influential reform movements aimed at 'family preservation' and 'child protection.' These movements condemned women who failed to mother properly and lazy, dissolute working-class fathers who deserted or beat their wives and economically exploited or abused their children. In response, eleven states made desertion and non-support of destitute families a felony and three states instituted the whipping post where wife-beaters were punished with floggings (Apple & Gordon, 1997; Gordon, 1988, Griswold, 1993; E.H. Pleck, 1987).
To combat the economic exploitation of children, reformers pressed for compulsory school attendance laws; child labor restrictions; and orphanages and 'orphan trains' to place abused and neglected children (many of whom who had one or two living parents) with farm families in the Midwest. Meanwhile, there were concerted campaigns to reduce the divorce rate (which an 1880 report had revealed to be the world's highest) by reducing the grounds for divorce, extending waiting periods, and establishing family courts. There were also concerted efforts to eliminate segregated male-only forms of recreation, campaigns which achieved ultimate success with the destruction of red-light districts throughout the country during the 1910s and of saloons following adoption of Prohibition in 1918 (Cohen, 1990; Peiss, 1986; Rosenzweig, 1983).
Around the turn of the century, the way that family problems were socially and culturally constructed underwent radical redefinition. Alongside heightened efforts to promote the male family wage, to allow a man to support his family without the contribution of his wife and children, there was a growing concern about the immigrant father, who seemed to symbolize Old World values and obstruct efforts to Americanize his children. To promote assimilation, self-conscious efforts were made to use schools, settlement houses, and peer relationships to help first-generation wives and children break free from traditional cultural values, often symbolized by the bearded, unassimilated, foreign language-speaking adult man (Griswold, 1993).
During the 1920s, public concern shifted away from working-class and immigrant men to the "new" middle class of salaried employees. Between 1880 and 1920, a fundamental shift occurred in the way that urban middle-class men earned a living, as individual proprietors, professionals, or artisans rapidly gave way to wage earners with far fewer opportunities for economic autonomy and independence. As older sources of male identity in independent work, sex-segregated politics, and community leadership seemed to be disappearing, a host of educators, psychologists, sociologists, and advertisers argued that in a changing society men would find their greatest satisfaction in private life, especially in their relations with their wives and children (Griswold, 1993).
Like fatherhood, motherhood was subjected to heightened public scrutiny. During the late nineteenth century, physicians, academic experts, educators, philanthropists, reformers, and women's groups (such as the National Congress of Mothers) called for the 'reconstruction of motherhood' along 'scientific' lines. Influenced by the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, a 'child study movement' in England and the United States conducted detailed observation of children's weight, height, and activities, delineated stages of child development, and called on mothers to respond appropriately to each developmental stage. During the Progressive era, municipal health departments created special divisions of child hygiene to help reduce infant and maternal mortality, provide nutritional and health care advice, and disseminate information on child development. In 1912, the federal government established the Children's Bureau to report on children's health and welfare and to educate mothers in the principles of 'scientific motherhood' (Apple & Gordon, 1997; Rothman, 1978).
Early twentieth century childrearing advice recommended a degree of maternal detachment that we would find surprising today. Childrearing experts advised mothers to establish strict schedules for their children and avoid picking them up or caressing them. Writing in the 1920s, behaviorist psychologist John Watson warned about 'the dangers of too much mother love'; and a Children's Bureau manual expressed concern that maternal love presented mothers from adopting "the most intelligent approach to many problems of childhood." One reason for the emphasis on detachment was that authorities on the family placed a greater stress on the spousal tie than on the mother-child bond, in an effort to combat marital instability (Mintz & Kellogg, 1988).
During the 1930s, the mother-child axis began to stand at the very heart of the family relationships, as children overwhelming identified the mother as the family's source of emotional sustenance. Many observers were convinced that the Depression drastically reduced men's involvement with their families. With no wages to punctuate their authority, large numbers of men lost self-respect, became immobilized, and stopped looking for work, while others turned to alcohol and became self-destructive or abusive to their families. Still others walked out the door, never to return. A survey in 1940 revealed that more than 1.5 million married women had been deserted by their husbands. Convinced that preserving men's breadwinning role was a special national priority, government job programs focused largely on putting the male jobless to work. The goal of public policy was to restore the male breadwinner ideal (Griswold, 1993). | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10071.txt |
(CNN) -- NASA is getting ready for a close encounter of the real kind with another comet next week. The Deep Impact spacecraft, already in flight, will come within 435 miles of comet Hartley 2 on November 4 in a history-making fly-by.
NASA previewed the exploratory expedition Tuesday. The space agency hopes to learn more about the formation of the solar system through the study of comets, according to Tim Larson, the EPOXI project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
EPOXI is a loose acronym of the two science missions of which the Deep Impact craft is part: the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization and Deep Impact Extended Investigation.
"Comets are considered to have some of the most pristine remnants of the material that was around when the solar system was forming. So, as our planets were forming and coming together, this is the material that was around in the solar system then. So those have been preserved in the comet, " Larson said. "We also think a lot of the water and organics on Earth were deposited by collisions with comets early on in the Earth's formation."
This will be the fifth time humans will see one of the icy celestial bodies up close, and it's the second time for Deep Impact. But this time, the spacecraft will have the best extended view ever of a comet in terms of time. It will use two telescopes with digital color cameras and an infrared spectrometer and will begin transmitting images back to Earth within about 30 minutes of the encounter, Larson told CNN Radio.
A probe from Deep Impact collided with comet Tempel 1 in July 2005, revealing material inside a comet for the first time.
Hartley 2 is not very big by comet standards, only about a half-mile wide. But Larson says that doesn't matter because the more we know about comets, the more we can learn about the solar system and about how the Earth was formed.
"What we hope to find out are what features of the comets are primordial, from when they first formed and came together, versus what features vary from comet to comet, depending on how much time they spent in the inner solar system, how often they've come near the sun and gotten modified by that interaction with the sun," Larson said. "So understanding some of those key, fundamental features of comets is what we hope to get out of this mission." | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10072.txt |
The Agadir Crisis is seen as one of the medium terms causes of World War One. The Agadir Crisis occurred in 1911 just four years after the First Moroccan Crisis. What happened in Agadir is sometimes called the Second Moroccan Crisis. Events in North Africa were once again going to destabilise the relationships between the major European powers and while Europe was not taken to the brink of war by the Agadir Crisis, it was symptomatic of how fragile diplomatic relations had become.
Between 1905 and 1906 Morocco had been a major cause of diplomatic ructions in Europe. By the end of the Algeciras Conference of 1906, it was generally accepted that France had come out of the First Moroccan Crisis well while the opposite was true for Germany. Consequently, German politicians lost a lot of influence in Berlin while their place was taken by senior military figures. In France a more nationalistic outlook developed based upon French ‘élan vitale’. In 1911 a repeat performance took place when it became even more obvious that the ante had been upped. Consequently, Europe became a far more destabilised entity that required just one single incident to spark off war. This occurred in Sarajevo in June 1914.
Agadir was a port in Morocco in the southwest of the country. The 1906 Act of Algeciras had never really sorted out the problems of Morocco. However, Germany’s attention was diverted after the 1905-06 crisis by other issues, mainly building up her navy so that it rivalled the Royal Navy. As a result France spent five years having far more influence in Morocco than Germany. They backed the corrupt Sultan, Abdul Aziz, who was accused by some of his countrymen of selling out Morocco to the French. The half-brother of Aziz, Mulay Hafid, took a stand on behalf of the Moroccan people who proclaimed him Sultan in January 1908.
It was around this time that the German government wanted a better share of the economic potential that they believed Morocco offered. The influential Mannesmann Company wanted to get what it believed would be lucrative mining concessions in southern Morocco. In February 1909, Germany and France signed an agreement whereby Germany recognised the ‘special interests’ France had in Morocco while France agreed not to hinder Germany’s commercial and economic interests there. All seemed well between the two powers until it became clear to the Germans that France was not going to allow Germany to have any input into the building of two vital railway lines in Morocco. The German Foreign Minister, Alfred von Kiderlen-Wächter tried to work out an agreement with his French counterpart. However, the French Foreign Minister, Jean Cruppi, viewed all of Kiderlen-Wächter’s suggestions with alarm.
While there was diplomatic discord with regards to Morocco, there were also internal problems occurring that the new Sultan, Mulay Hafid, could not deal with. The general dislocation that Morocco was experiencing encouraged certain tribes to rebel against Hafid and those who were supporting him, including the French. Rebel tribesmen attacked French forces stationed near Casablanca from January 1911 onwards. Fez also came under attack. Germany believed that if France sent more troops into Morocco to restore order, they would not leave the country and would be used to assert French authority throughout the country. This, they believed, would threaten German mining interests in the south of Morocco.
As the situation in Fez became more and more threatening, a decision was taken in Paris to send in more French troops. In April 1911 a decision was made to send troops to Fez to support the foreign contingent living there. In May 1911, 20,000 French, Colonial and Moroccan soldiers arrived in the city and their presence had an impact as the rebels became less active.
Technically, this should have improved the situation as there were many foreigners living in Fez including Germans who now seemed a lot safer. However, the mere presence of 20,000 French troops in the city was too much for the German government in Berlin. However, Kiderlen-Wächter had to tread carefully. He knew that there were those in Berlin who were sabre-rattling. He did not share their enthusiasm for taking on the French as he believed it was simply a matter of time before France took over Morocco and that it was a fait accompli that Germany could do nothing about. However, Kiderlen-Wächter was well aware of the clout of the military over the Kaiser, Wilhelm II. He had to persuade the Kaiser that he knew what he was doing without appearing to support the sabre-rattlers while at the same time ensuring that the French believed that he was not going to tamely let them keep a further 20,000 troops in Morocco. His plan was to send German warships to Agadir and Mogador ostensibly to defend German citizens in Morocco. He hoped that such a move would placate the hawks who seemed to be surrounding Wilhelm. But Kiderlen-Wächter also knew that it would provoke a French response which he hoped would not be aggressive. Kiderlen-Wächter gambled that his move of sending warships to Morocco would result in a positive French reaction that would ironically allow him to curb the excesses of the hawks in Berlin. Wilhelm expressed concern about the plan but he did not refuse to support it.
Kiderlen-Wächter found an unlikely ally in Jules Cambon, the French ambassador in Berlin who wanted to take the sting out of the Agadir crisis before it got out of hand. Cambon was also aware that hawks existed in the government in Paris – men who were all too prepared to push the crisis to the limit. With hindsight, it is possible to label both Kiderlen-Wächter and Cambon as the doves in the proceedings.
Despite this a gunboat was sent to Agadir. This was the ‘Panther’ which arrived at Agadir on July 1st 1911. On July 5th, the ‘Panther’ was replaced by the larger ‘Berlin’. However, the French and the British were aware that the Germans were simply making a statement and neither was prepared to respond in an aggressive manner. On July 9th 1911, Kiderlen-Wächter and Cambon met to discuss the situation. Both clearly stated their nation’s intentions in Africa. Kiderlen-Wächter expressed Germany’s interest in the French Congo in exchange for French control in Morocco. While the French were not keen on this, they were prepared to keep the discussions going. In Britain there was no desire for war over Morocco. On July 20th 1911, Grey sent out a note that stated that a war with Germany over Morocco was not worth it.
However, on the same day “The Times” published an article about Germany’s desire for French Congo. It was an alarmist report that also stated that no British government worth its salt would allow such a move as it would threaten British interests in sub-Saharan Africa. On July 22nd the Germans complained about the ‘Times’ article, which claimed that the Germans acted like Dick Turpin. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, upped the ante when he gave a speech in which he stated that if Germany gained what she wanted in Africa “it would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure.”
Kiderlen-Wächter continued with his policy of seemingly placating the French while convincing the Kaiser that Germany was making a resolute stand against them. Franco-German talks continued with regards to Morocco and the French Congo right through to September. However, the British media presented a more hawkish front. It was reported that Churchill had completed plans for a British expeditionary force and that he had ensured the protection of the Royal Navy’s cordite supply against suspected German sabotage. It was also reported that the Royal Navy had been put on full alert. This approach by the British media forced Foreign Secretary Grey into announcing that he would not send Royal Navy warships to Morocco but that he would monitor what was happening in Africa with great care and caution so that British interests were not threatened.
On September 1st 1911 negotiations between France and Germany came to an abrupt halt. This resulted in the stock market in Berlin crashing. It showed just how sensitive the situation had become as the only reason the negotiations had halted was because of an illness to French diplomatist Cambon. Others misread the situation. By November 1911, both Germany and France had come to a conclusion over their particular stance in Africa. France handed to Germany over 107,000 square miles of land, which the French media portrayed as “a few acres of swamp”. Germany handed over to France 6,450 square miles of land in the Upper Cameroons. But neither the Congo nor Morocco turned out to be economic goldmines.
What part did the Agadir Crisis play in the outbreak of World War One? There were those in the British government who believed that the episode proved that Germany was hell-bent on trying to dominate Europe as a whole. Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George were among those who believed this. The irony is that diplomatic negotiations ended the Agadir Crisis. But it was the media that stirred it up into a ‘crisis’ and politicians had to respond to the media such was its influence. The approach of Kiderlen-Wächter was criticised in Berlin and the more aggressive approach of Tirpitz, especially with regards to naval expansion, became popular and then the norm. The French belief in ‘elan’ was reinforced and the approach of Jules Cambon rejected. But the work done by Kiderlen-Wächter and Cambon was recognised by themselves when they sent each other signed photographs after the end of the ‘Agadir Crisis’. Cambon wrote on his to Kiderlen-Wächter: “To my dear friend and terrible enemy” while Kiderlen-Wächter wrote on his to Cambon: “To my terrible | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10073_1.txt |
friend and dear enemy.”
"The Agadir Crisis of 1911". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2012. Web. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10073_2.txt |
A new analysis by the National Audubon Society reveals that populations of some of America's most familiar and beloved birds have taken a nosedive over the past forty years, with some down as much as 80 percent. The dramatic declines are attributed to the loss of grasslands, healthy forests and wetlands, and other critical habitats from multiple environmental threats such as sprawl, energy development, and the spread of industrialized agriculture. The study notes that these threats are now compounded by new and broader problems including the escalating effects of global warming. In concert, they paint a challenging picture for the future of many common species and send a serious warning about our increasing toll on local habitats and the environment itself.
"These are not rare or exotic birds we're talking about—these are the birds that visit our feeders and congregate at nearby lakes and seashores and yet they are disappearing day by day," said Audubon Chairperson and former EPA Administrator, Carol Browner. "Their decline tells us we have serious work to do, from protecting local habitats to addressing the huge threats from global warming."
Species on Audubon's list of 20 Common Birds in Decline have seen their populations plummet at least 54 percent since 1967. The following are among those hardest hit:
-- Northern Bobwhite populations are down 82 percent and have largely vanished from northern parts of their range in Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and New England mainly due to loss of suitable habitat to development, agricultural expansion and plantation-style forestry practices.
-- Evening Grosbeaks that range from mountains of the west to northern portions of the east coast show population declines of nearly 78 percent amid increasing habitat damage and loss from logging, mining, drilling and development.
-- Northern Pintail populations in the continental U.S. are down nearly 78 percent due to expanding agricultural activity in their prairie pothole breeding grounds.
-- Greater Scaup populations that breed in Alaska, but winter in the Great Lakes and along Atlantic to Pacific Coasts are being hard hit by global warming induced melting of permafrost and invasion of formerly-southern species; populations are down approximately 75 percent.
-- Eastern Meadowlarks, down 71 percent, are declining as grasslands are lost to industrialized agricultural practices. Increased demand for biofuel crops threatens increased agricultural use of lands that are currently protected, making both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks even more vulnerable.
-- Common Terns, which nest on islands and forage for fish near ocean coasts, lakes and rivers, are vulnerable to development, pollution and sea level rise from global warming. Populations in unmanaged colonies have dropped as much as 70 percent, making the species' outlook increasingly dependent on targeted conservation efforts.
-- Snow Buntings, which breed in Alaska and northern Canada, are suffering from the loss of fragile tundra habitat as global warming alters and disrupts the Arctic's delicate ecological balance; populations are down 64 percent.
-- Rufous Hummingbird populations have declined 58 percent as a result of the loss of forest habitat to logging and development, in both their breeding range in the Pacific Northwest and their wintering sites in Mexico.
-- Whip-poor-wills, down 57 percent, are vulnerable to fragmentation and alteration of their forest habitat from development and poor forest management practices.
-- Little Blue Herons now number 150,000 in the U.S. and 110,000 in Mexico, down 54 percent in the U.S. Their decline is driven by wetland loss from development and degradation of water quality, which limits their food supply.
Overall, agricultural and development pressures have driven grassland birds to some of the worst declines, followed closely by shrub, wetland and forest-dependent species. "Direct habitat loss continues to be a leading cause for concern," said Audubon Bird Conservation Director and analysis author, Greg Butcher, PhD. "But now we're seeing the added impact of large-scale environmental problems and policies." Butcher notes that global warming is damaging some key habitats and speeding the spread of invasive species that spur further declines. Mounting demand for corn-based fuels is expected to result in increased use of marginal farmland that currently serves as important habitat. The fate of species such as Eastern Meadowlarks and Loggerhead Shrikes could hinge on efforts to conserve these areas. "People who care about the birds and about human quality of life need to get involved in habitat protection at home, in pushing for better state and national protections and in making changes in their daily routines," Butcher adds.
Public response will shape the long-term outlook for the listed species. Unlike WatchList birds, these Common Birds in Decline are not in immediate danger of extinction, despite global populations as low as 500,000 for some species - the threshold for a "common bird" designation. But even birds with significantly higher overall populations are experiencing sharp declines, and with their populations down sharply, their ecological roles are going unfilled and their ultimate fate is uncertain. Audubon leaders hope the multiple threats to the birds people know will prompt individuals to take multiple actions, both locally and directed toward state and national policies.
Audubon's Common Birds in Decline list stems from the first-ever analysis combining annual sighting data from Audubon's century-old Christmas Bird Count program with results of the annual Breeding Bird Survey conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. "This is a powerful example of how tens of thousands of volunteer birders, pooling their observations, can make an enormous difference for the creatures they care the most about," said noted natural history writer Scott Weidensaul. "Thanks to their efforts, we have the information. Now all of us – from birders to policy makers – need to take action to keep these species from declining even further."
"Fortunately, people's actions can still make a difference," Audubon's Greg Butcher adds. "Average citizens can change the fate of these birds just as average citizens helped us confirm the trouble they face." Concerned individuals can visit www.audubon.org for important information on how to help keep common birds common and our shared environment healthy—suggested actions are also attached.
State-specific lists of the common birds in serious decline are available in select areas. Journalists may visit Audubon's online press room for local contact information.
Keeping Common Birds Common: What Individuals Can Do to Help
Protect Local Habitat
Join local Audubon Chapters and other groups to protect and restore habitats close to home. Audubon's Important Bird Areas program offers opportunities to save critical bird habitat, from small land parcels to broad ecosystems. Learn more at www.audubon.org/bird/iba/index.html.
Promote Sound Agricultural Policy
This has enormous impact on grassland birds and habitat, including Northern Bobwhites and Eastern Meadowlarks. Promoting strong conservation provisions in the federal Farm Bill and Conservation Reserve Program can help to protect millions of acres of vital habitat.
Support Sustainable Forests
The Boreal Forest in the Northern U.S. and Canada is essential breeding territory for many species of birds, including Evening Grosbeaks. Federal and state legislations promoting sustainable forest management will help fight habitat loss from inappropriate logging, mining, and drilling.
Support for local, state and federal wetlands conservation programs is essential to protect a wide array of species. Learn more at http://www.audubon.org/campaign/cleanWater2.html.
Fight Global Warming
The decline of common birds is just one impact of global warming's mounting threat to people and wildlife around the world. Individual energy conservation along with strong federal, state, and local legislation to cap greenhouse emissions can help to curb its worst consequences. Learn more at http://www.audubon.org/globalWarming/.
Combat Invasive Species
Invasive non-native species disrupt the delicate ecological balance that sustains birds and other wildlife. Federal, regional, state, and local regulations are needed to combat this growing environmental threat. Learn more at http://www.audubon.org/campaign/invasives/index.shtm. The Audubon At Home program offers tips for supporting birds with native plants at http://www.audubon.org/bird/at_home/index.html. | /mnt/disk_c/llm-data-filtration/dedup/en_dataset/dataset_txts_15GB_1_splitted/shard_00042/shard_00042_10074.txt |