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Literature: "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
This site provides biographical information about Laurie Halse Anderson, a “Chains” book discussion guide, and articles about lives of slaves and indentured servants. Included are eThemes resources on slavery slave trade and the Revolutionary War.
Official Laurie Halse Anderson website
This site provides complete information about Laurie Halse Anderson, her books, and links to writing and censorship issues.
"Chains" discussion guide
This link provides a complete discussion guide for "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson. NOTE: This site contains ads.
Laurie Halse Anderson biographical information
This site provides information about author Laurie Halse Anderson. NOTE: This site contains ads.
The Clues Within These Walls: Explore a Home During 1777-1789
This site provides interactive activities involving a family and home during the Revolutionary War.
Almost Chattel: Lives of Indentured Servants
This site provides a lengthy article on how indentured servants both White and African Americans were treated by their owners.
Venture Smith Frees Himself and his Family
This site provides an article about the life of a slave and his subsequent life of freedom.
Boston King: Story of a Free African American
This site provides an article about a 16 year-old African American who ran away from his master to fight with the Loyalists.
After the American Revolution: Free African Americans in the North
This site provides a lesson plan to study African Americans in the North after the Revolutionary War. Biographical information and primary source information is given to enhance student research.
The Price of Freedom: America at War
This site provides brief articles and history of American Revolutionary artifacts.
eThemes Resource: Revolutionary War: Biographies
This is a collection of biographies on the men and women involved in the Revolutionary War. Learn about George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, King George III, Samuel Adams, Benedict Arnold, Crispus Attucks, Nathan Hale, Ethan Allen, and more. Includes portraits, some videos, and letters from spies. There are links to eThemes Resources on Paul Revere and the Revolutionary War.
eThemes Resource: Slavery: Slave Trade
These sites provide information on the slave trade that involved the United States and Africa. See maps of the sailing routes and read first-hand accounts of slave life. Take part in a simulated slave auction. There are links to eThemes Resources on slavery during the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Underground Railroad.
eThemes Resource: Revolutionary War: Middle School
These sites are about the Revolutionary War and the various causes. The reading level is for middle school students. Includes paintings and examples of political cartoons from the Revolutionary period to the present. There is interactive role-playing and other games. Included are several other eThemes on the Revolutionary War, political cartoons, and the Declaration of Independence
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The marine transportation infrastructure revolves around ports ? typically found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake ? which receive ships and transport cargo. Most passenger sea travel occurs on ferries and cruise ships, although recreational marine vehicles are also increasing in popularity. Ferries can also account for a significant part of an area's public transportation system, as can be seen around Washington state and in New York City. The majority of cargo on inland routes is carried by barges, rafted together and propelled by tugboats. In the U.S., the inland commercial waterway system covers more than 12,000 miles, connecting 38 states and moving over 1.2 billion tons of cargo each year.
Marine vessels emit both nitrogen oxides and particulate matter which contributes to air pollution. Scientists estimate that within 25 years, the marine transport sector could be responsible for doubling the amount of smog-forming pollution in the United States. To address the problem, recent regulations have mandated drastic cuts in the sulfur level of marine diesel fuel and in the emissions of nitrogen oxide and fine particulate matter.
The majority of waste from marine transport is sludge-like: sewage, graywater, and bilge water, although the sector also produces its share of solid and hazardous waste. Graywater carries with it a variety of chemicals and residues, while bilge water can contain oil, cleaning agents, paint, or metal from routine ship operations. Although many believe that these wastes are greatly diluted when emptied into water, they can still have an effect on mammal and marine life, water quality, and the overall health of the marine ecosystem. Oil spills are rare - spills from marine vessels account for only a small percent of oil in the ocean ? but they can also have long-lasting effects on marine organisms, introduce toxics into the food chain, and degrade beaches and coastal areas. Finally, the release of ballast water taken in by ships in order to help stabilize the vessels can introduce new and invasive species into areas where they do not naturally occur.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, which is frequently updated, set the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants to waters of the United States. Among other pollution controls, the Act requires that vessels, including house boats and large pleasure craft, not discharge contaminated liquids while they are in the navigable waters of the United States. It also requires use of contaminated holding tanks for sewage that must either be pumped into a land-based sewage treatment system, or held until the vessel is beyond U.S. navigable waters before being discharged thereby exercising the premise of ?solution by dilution.?
Similar to automobiles, research and development on alternative fuels for watercraft, including biodiesel and hydrogen fuel cells, is a major thrust. Future advancement in these alternatives, along with more targeted Federal regulations and regional collaboration, will help assist the marine sector in reducing its environmental impact while allowing for additional expansion.
Resource Management Issues: Cruise Ships The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary details the environmental effects of cruise ships and discusses cruise line industry initiatives to reduce waste and pollution in this 2005 article.
Smog Alert: How Commercial Shipping is Polluting Our Air Environmental Defense, an advocacy organization, explains the effects of air pollution from ships, including where the largest port polluters are in the U.S. and where smog plagued cities are located in relation to shipping ports.
LAWS & TREATIES
Nonroad Engines, Equipment, and Vehicles EPA has adopted emission standards for nearly all types of nonroad engines, equipment, and vehicles. Click the different ?Engine Categories? to access background information on the standards for aircraft, marine vessels, and rail.
Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 Popularly known as the Clean Water Act, the act set standards and enforcement mechanisms in place that limit the discharge of pollutants (including sewage from vessels) into U.S. waters.
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 The passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 strengthened the EPA's ability to prevent and respond to catastrophic oil spills, and, along with other maritime regulation, resulted in the double-hull tanker becoming the industry standard.
FOR THE CLASSROOM
Tox Town The National Library of Medicine provides this interactive website introducing students to the chemicals and environmental health risks in everyday places, including ports.
Ballast & Stability The first activity in this set by the Minerals Management Service illustrates how ballasts work to minimize the effect of the up and down motion of waves on boats.
Cleaning up an Oil Spill In this NASA exercise, students learn how difficult it is to control and clean up an oil spill in the ocean.
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The finer points of mob rule.
Two heads are better than one? Not always!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science
And on the finer points of mob rule.
Many animals, like schools of fish, make instant group decisions.
To find out, researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia built a couple of realistic robotic fish--robo-fish! They mixed them into a school of fish in the wild.
When the scientists made ONE robot fish suddenly swim toward a predator, no real fish followed.
But when the scientists instructed TWO robotic fish to make the same suicidal decision? The whole school followed suit.
Fish apparently use a kind of statistical betting system. They somehow sense that if there's a one-in-ten chance a single fish is crazy, there's also a hundred-to-one chance AGAINST two having gone bonkers.
Ward's team suspects that humans respond to social cues in a similar way.
Their plan: put groups of human subjects on street corners and see if two leaders can entice the whole group to cross against red lights.
Isn't science fun? Good for the insurance industry too!
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INVENTION and DISCOVERY:
Printed Books from Fifteenth-Century Europe
An Exhibition at Bridwell Library, February 1 – May 3, 2010
|PRINTING IN ITALY||
35. [MISSAL, for Carmelite Use]. Brescia: Boninus Boninis de Ragusia, 14 August 1490.
Printed specifically for use in
Carmelite monasteries, this Missal survives in only five copies; this is the
only one preserved in America. As in two other copies, the gathering of
paper leaves containing the Canon of the Mass in Bridwell Library’s copy was
replaced with contemporary vellum leaves bearing the same text copied out in
manuscript. Since the Canon is used daily for Communion, this important
section was written on sturdier material. The leather knots attached to each
vellum leaf allowed for easy turning during the celebration of the Mass.
Exhibited is the transition from the Canon (manuscript on vellum) to the
Easter services (printing on paper). An early inscription inside the front
cover indicates that the Missal originally belonged to the Carmelite
monastery at Boppard on the Rhine. The blind-tooled calfskin binding
reflects its German provenance, as does the handwritten addition of many
German feast days in the liturgical calendar.
may not be published without the permission of Bridwell Library.
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Web edition: January 28, 2011
Print edition: February 12, 2011; Vol.179 #4 (p. 31)
Many creatures — birds, bees and butterflies, for example — use the planet's magnetic field to navigate, but humans are the only ones to do so with instruments rather than an innate sense. In her first book, Turner, a geophysicist, looks at how people came to invent the compass and what has been learned since about the magnetic field that drives it.
Chapter by chapter, the author walks readers through the history of studying Earth's magnetic field, from the ancient Greeks' fascination with natural magnets called lodestones to today's supercomputer simulations of field-generating processes in the planet's core.
The first known compasses were used in China by practitioners of feng shui to auspiciously orient homes, villages, fields and tombs, Turner notes. Only much later were the instruments used by European explorers to help them conquer the seas and expand empires.
As early as the 14th century, European navigators noticed that at many locations the compass didn't point due north. Three centuries later others detected signs that the direction of Earth's magnetic field had changed. Then in the 20th century, researchers came to realize that the field had actually reversed itself many times over the course of Earth's history — which, in turn, led to discoveries that bolstered then-controversial theories of seafloor spreading and continental drift.
By deftly combining threads from science and history, Turner weaves a fascinating geophysical tale that spans several millennia.
The Experiment, 2011, 272 p., $15.95.
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Younger Kids Likelier to Gain Weight After Tonsillectomy
WEDNESDAY Sept. 12, 2012 -- Weight gain following a tonsillectomy is linked to children's age, not the underlying diagnosis, according to a new study.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins found that weight gain following tonsillectomy occurs most often in children 6 years old and younger, especially those who are underweight or normal weight at the time of the procedure.
The study involved 115 children aged 6 months to 18 years who had had their tonsils removed between 2008 and 2011 because of recurrent tonsillitis -- sore and swollen tissues at the back of the throat -- or the sleep disorder known as obstructive sleep apnea. The researchers analyzed the children's medical records, which included detailed records of their weight.
Although it's widely believed that sudden increases in body mass index (BMI) following tonsillectomy occur mainly in children who had their tonsils removed due to sleep apnea, the researchers found the 85 children who had the surgery for sleep apnea and the 30 who had a tonsillectomy to treat tonsil inflammation had the same rate of weight gain. BMI is a calculation of body fat based on height and weight.
After taking the children's gender and height into account, the researchers found the only variable linked to weight gain was the children's age.
"Our study results show that parents' current concerns about weight gain are serious, but only underweight or normal weight children between the ages of 2 and 6 are most likely to gain even more weight, not older children," the study's senior investigator, Dr. Stacey Ishman, an otolaryngologist, sleep medicine expert and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a Hopkins news release.
The study identified an average weight gain of two to five pounds following surgery for both the children who had the surgery for sleep apnea and those with recurrent tonsillitis.
The researchers said a three-pound gain would move a normal-weight, 5-year-old boy, who is 42 inches tall and weighs 40 pounds, from the 68th percentile to the 89th percentile in his age-weight group, making him considered overweight.
The findings should ease the concerns of parents who fear the surgery will worsen or create weight problems for their teenage children, the study authors noted.
"Parents with overweight adolescent children need not fear tonsillectomy, and those with younger, normal weight and overweight children just really need to closely watch their child's diet following surgery, and make caloric adjustments," added Ishman.
The study authors said more research is needed to determine why children's age affects weight gain after a tonsillectomy.
The study findings were scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in Washington, D.C.
The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends tonsillectomy to treat obstructive sleep apnea caused by swollen tonsils that disrupt breathing during sleep. Untreated, sleep apnea is associated with long-term health problems.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about tonsillectomy.
Posted: September 2012
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Encyclopédie: The Triumph of Reason in an Unreasonable Age
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Redirected from Encyclopédie: The triumph of reason in an unreasonable age)
Encyclopédie: The Triumph of Reason in an Unreasonable Age (2004) is a book by Philipp Blom
- "Sly cross-references were used to spark off chains of thought. Under "Freedom of Thought", readers were referred to "Intolerance & Jesus Christ", and under "Cannibals", to "Eucharist, Communion". One of the most boring writers in Paris was used for the religious topics. The Abbé Mallet's epic disquisition on Noah's Ark was such a masterpiece of pedantry, calculating the size of the stables and the quantity of dung produced, that no one who read it could possibly take the Bible seriously as a work of history." -- Graham Robb
From the publisher
- The story of one of the most revolutionary books in history – the Encyclopedie and the young men who risked everything to write it.
- In 1777 a group of young men produced a book that aimed to tear the world apart and rebuild it. It filled 27 volumes and contained 72,000 articles, 16,500 pages and 17 million words. The Encyclopedie was so dangerous and subversive that it was banned by the Pope and was seen as one of the causes of the French Revolution.
- The writers included some of the greatest minds of the age: Denis Diderot, the editor, who had come to Paris to become a Jesuit but found the joys of the city too enticing; d’Alembert, one of the leading mathematicians of the 18th century; Rousseau, the father of Romanticism and Voltaire, the author of ‘Candide’.
- During the sixteen years it took to write, compile and produce all twenty seven volumes, the writers had to defy the authorities and faced exile, jail and censorship, as well as numerous internal falling outs and philosophical differences. Yet, in the end, they produced a book that would act as a bomb that exploded at the centre of civilisation and changed the world forever.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Encyclopédie: The Triumph of Reason in an Unreasonable Age" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on original research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
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Montana State Bird
Adoption of the Montana State Bird
The meadowlark was chosen as the State bird of Montana in 1930 by a vote of the school children of the state. By an act of the Montana Legislature, the western meadow lark was adopted as the official state bird on March 14, 1931. The act read, in part:
The Montana Code Annotated
The following information is excerpted from the Montana Code Annotated, Title 1, Chapter 1, Section 1-1-504.
TITLE 1. GENERAL LAWS AND DEFINITIONS
History: En. Sec. 1, Ch. 149, L. 1931; re-en. Sec. 530.1, R.C.M. 1935; R.C.M. 1947, 19-116.
Western Meadowlark: Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds.
State Bird List: List of all of the state birds.
Birds Of Montana: Field Guide: by Stan Tekiela.
The Lewis & Clark Expedition: Montana's First Bird Inventory Through the Eyes of Lewis and Clark: by Kenneth C. Walcheck.
State Birds & Flowers 1000-pc Puzzle: Created at the request of The National Wildlife Federation this design is a beautiful and informative puzzle featuring every state bird perched on the appropriate state flower.
Bird Feeders and Accessories: Backyard Birding > Bird Feeders & Accessories from Amazon.com.
State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols: A Historical Guide, Third Edition - Benjamin F. Shearer and Barbara S. Shearer, Greenwood Press, 2002
State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers and Other Symbols: A Study based on historical documents giving the origin and significance of the state names, nicknames, mottoes, seals, flowers, birds, songs, and descriptive comments on the capitol buildings and on some of the leading state histories, Revised Edition - George Earlie Shankle, Ph.D., The H.W. Wilson Company, 1938 (Reprint Services Corp. 1971)
Source: Montana Code Annotated, (http://data.opi.state.mt.us/bills/mca_toc/index.htm), April 11, 2005
|| STATE MAPS
Site designed exclusively for NETSTATE.COM by NSTATE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 13, 2011
SCHUMER INTRODUCES BILL TO AWARD FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN MARINES IN U.S. HISTORY WITH CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL; MONTFORD POINT MARINES INCLUDE NYC MAYOR DAVID DINKINS
Schumer Bill Would Honor Montford Point Marines, the First African American to Serve in the United States Marine Corps, With the Congressional Gold Medal For Their Historic Service
Hon. David Dinkins Was Among Those Who First Served with Marines; Congressional Gold Medal is One of the Highest Civilian Award in United States
Schumer: This Is a Long Overdue Honor for These Path-Breaking Heroes of the Greatest Generation
Today U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Montford Point Marines, the first African Americans to serve in the United States Marine Corps. Included among the distinguished members of the group, is former New York City Mayor David Dinkins. The Congressional Gold Medal, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is the highest civilian award in the United States. Schumer said that this award would finally recognize the historic and dedicated service of the Montford Point Marines during World War II. Senator Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) is also a lead sponsor of the legislation.
“As the first African American Marines to serve in the Marine Corps, the Montford Point Marines made history, bravely enduring prejudice while risking their lives for their country in World War II. By awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to this group, which includes Mayor David Dinkins, we can finally honor them with the recognition they deserve,” said Schumer.
The Montford Point Marines is the name given to the first African Americans who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, who were trained at Camp Montford Point, near Jacksonville, North Carolina. African Americans were brought into the Marine Corps in 1941, as a result of an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The executive order, which established the Fair Employment Practices Commission, stated that "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin." Overall, 19,168 African American Marines received training at Montford Point between 1942 and 1949, many of whom participated in the Pacific Theatre Campaign of World War II, distinguishing themselves by acts of great valor.
Mayor David Dinkins decided to enlist in the Marine Corps while in high school, but was initially rejected from numerous recruitment centers because they had limits on the number of African Americans they would accept. However, his persistence eventually paid off, and on the day he turned 18 in July of 1945, Dinkins registered for the draft. He was called up just a week later, to report for training at Montford Point, where he served until 1946.
Schumer said that as Congress’s highest national honor, the Congressional Gold Medal would provide a fitting tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of the Montford Point Marines during World War II. The Congressional Gold Medal will be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it will be displayed, as appropriate, and made available for research. Schumer and Hagan said that the service of these Marines, as warriors in the Pacific and pioneers in American society, have made America stronger in our endeavors abroad and mindful of our need for continued work against discrimination at home.
Since 1965, the Montford Point Marine Association, a charitable nonprofit veterans organization, has preserved the legacy of the first African American Marines and today the Association has 36 chapters throughout the United States. This Association has several memorials in place to perpetuate the memory of who they were and what they accomplished.
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Energy Efficient Data Centers: A Growing Trend
Data centers—the modern digital warehouses—use massive amounts of energy to both power and cool servers. As hardware costs continue to fall and energy costs continue to rise, it seems only natural that data center operators are focusing their attention on becoming more energy efficient to reduce operating expenses.
The EPA recently expanded its Energy Star rating system to include a scale specifically for data centers. NetApp’s RTP center is the first to achieve the certification. The North Carolina facility earned 99 out of a possible 100 points (only 75 are required for the Energy Star rating), aided in part by a unique overhead distribution cooling system and cooling with outside air during two-thirds of the year. These efficient approaches to cooling help the data center reduce energy costs substantially and cut carbon emissions by 95,000 tons per year.
For more information on Energy Star validation for data centers, visit the EPA’s dedicated website: Energy Star Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives.
Previous Entry: Senate to Cut Carbon Out of Bill
Next Entry: Chicago Lands a Spot on Energy-Smart Cities List
Comments are closed for this post, but if you have spotted an error or have additional info that you think should be in this post, feel free to contact me.
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run into each other/out o order/out of service/slammed the door/banged the door/
Would you be kind enough to tell me whether I am right with my interpretation of the expressions in bold in the following sentences?
I looked at the indicator above his head and the floors were racing by so fast that the numbers ran into each other.
run into each other = run together
The lift didn’t come when Freda pressed the button. She tried the other one next to it. No response. That means someone had propped the doors open, for they closed automatically. “The lifts are out of order.”
“The engineers are working on them in the basement.” Biggs said. “Didn’t you see the notice?”
He pointed, and Freda saw that a notice clear enough for anyone to see hung by the lifts: “From 6 p.m. these lifts will be out of service.”
out of order = not functioning well, not operating properly or at all, unsuitable, inappropriate
out of service = withdrawn from active service
He slammed the door shut again and they drove the Cadillac back down the hill.
slam the door = to shut with force and loud noise = bang the door = close the door with a slam
The door rammed open under McGuire’s bulk.
ram = to strike or drive against with a heavy impact; butt: rammed the door with a sledgehammer until it broke open.
I ran back to the house and banged the door.
bang = to beat or thump, or to cause (something) to hit or strike against another object, in such a way as to make a loud noise; as, to bang a drum or a piano; to bang a door (against the doorpost or casing) in shutting it.
Thank you for your efforts.
Re: run into each other/out o order/out of service/slammed the door/banged the door/
I have my douts about ran into each other, which according to me means: head on collusion as: Two trains ran into each other due to delayed schedule. Rest are fine
Originally Posted by vil
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Christmas, literally meaning, "Christ's Mass," hasn't always been celebrated at the end of the year.
In fact, no one knows for sure just when Jesus was born.
Scholars believe the confusion began in part because Christmas wasn't an early feast day in the church. And there was much disagreement over whether it should even be added to the church calendar.
But in Luke's version of the Gospel, we know that shepherds were outdoors, caring for their sheep at the time of Jesus' birth. Some have taken that to mean it must have been a warm time of year.
Early theologians celebrated the occasion on May 20. Others preferred late March or April, around the time of the Jewish Passover.
Dec. 25 falls during a time of year when pagans once celebrated winter festivals. It's believed the early church fathers picked the now-familiar date as an alternative to those ancient festivals.
Still, not everybody celebrates Christmas on the same day, even now.
Russian and Greek Orthodox churches continue to observe the old Julian calendar, celebrating Christmas on Jan. 7.
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Melasma. The forehead is a common place for melasma to appear.
Melasma (muh-LAZ-muh) is a common skin problem. It causes brown to gray-brown patches on the face. Most people get it on their cheeks, bridge of their nose, forehead, chin, and above their upper lip. It also can appear on other parts of the body that get lots of sun, such as the forearms and neck.
Sun exposure triggers melasma.
One of the most common treatments for melasma is sun protection. This means wearing sunscreen every day and reapplying the sunscreen every 2 hours. Dermatologists also recommend wearing a wide-brimmed hat when you are outside. Sunscreen alone may not give you the protection you need. Women are far more likely than men to get melasma. It is so common during pregnancy that some people call it the mask of pregnancy. Hormones seem to trigger melasma.
Learn more about melasma Image used with permission of the American Academy of Dermatology National Library of Dermatologic Teaching Slides.
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video by whitehouse
Today, December 1st, is the 24th annual World AIDS Day. Each World AIDS Day has a theme and 2010's is "Universal Access and Human Rights." For Americans, this should serve as a reminder that although AIDS related deaths have declined in the United States, AIDS is global health issue. About 33 million people, including over 2.5 million children, are living with HIV or AIDS.
The White House Office of National AIDS Policy explains the state of AIDS in the United States:
When one of our fellow citizens becomes infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) every nine-and-half minutes, the epidemic affects all Americans. It has been nearly thirty years since the first cases of HIV garnered the world’s attention. Without treatment, the virus slowly debilitates a person’s immune system until they succumb to illness. The epidemic has claimed the lives of nearly 600,000 Americans and affects many more. Our nation is at a crossroads. We have the knowledge and tools needed to slow the spread of HIV infection and improve the health of people living with HIV. Despite this potential, however, the public’s sense of urgency associated with combating the epidemic appears to be declining. In 1995, 44% of the general public indicated that HIV/AIDS was the most urgent health problem facing the Nation, compared to only 6% in March 2009. While HIV transmission rates have been reduced substantially over time and people with HIV are living longer and more productive lives, approximately 56,000 people become infected each year and more Americans are living with HIV than ever before. Unless we take bold actions, we face a new era of rising infections, greater challenges in serving people living with HIV, and higher health care costs.
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http://www.sciencefriday.com/blogs/12/01/2010/world-aids-day-2010.html?series=&interest=&audience=&author=120
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Augering and test pitting have (like the excavation trenches) concentrated on The Common and the associated hills of the Grand Monceau. The main aims of the work are to:
1) identify the depth, thickness and extent of any buried land surfaces and palaeosols beneath the sand dune system, and
2) identify the nature of preservation of old land surfaces and palaeosols associated with the Neolithic monuments, concentrating on the Kendrick tombs 6 and 15, and Roberts Cross (tomb 12);
3) establish land-use sequences related to the Neolithic use of the northern part of Herm.
The old land surface on Herm
A consistent occurrence of old land surface/palaeosol has been identified during the auger survey of The Common area. It extends between The Bear's Beach on the west and Mouissonnière Beach on the north, and on the south up to the foot of the slopes of Le Petit Monceau and Le Grand Monceau. It was not evident within c.75m of the Shell Beach on the east in boreholes up to 3.4m in depth, where the old ground surface generally lies about 2.75-3.4m beneath the modern ground surface.
The range of palaeosols investigated through auger survey and test pit excavation across the northern half of Herm are now able to provide a composite soil and landscape history throughout the Holocene period. First, there appears to have been the widespread development of a woodland brown earth with a strong wind-blown silt and very fine sand component derived from the dry and cold conditions of the late glacial period on the weathered granite geology of the island. Subsequently this soil was opened up, and was much disturbed, probably by a combination of plough disturbance and hillwash effects. Exactly when this occurred is a matter of some speculation, but soil associations with the Robert’s Cross tomb suggests that this had occurred by the time the tombs had been constructed or within the early-middle part of the 4th millennium BC. In a few places, subsequent use such as the Roman occupation in front of Fisherman’s Cottage and the associated accumulation of midden material has added a much needed organic ‘mulch’ to the soil, more or less creating a ‘dark earth’ soil which would have been a valuable localised resource for arable agriculture.
Nonetheless soil movement caused by ploughing and hillwash appears to have been widespread across the northern part of the island. These processes were often interrupted by brief accumulations of wind-blown fine-medium sand. Towards the later prehistoric period, the aggradation of wind-blown fine-medium sand deposits became widespread and of greater intensity, and these features in turn imply that changes were occurring to the coastal morphology of the island, with greater exposed areas of foreshore and possibly a greater intensity of storms. In the Roman period there was perhaps a return to a more stable local climatic and shoreline conditions with an intense period of ploughing, but with episodic but minor wind-blown sand accumulations still occurring. Subsequently there was a more major phase of wind-blown beach sand aggradation, with multiple standstill events marked by short-lived turf development. OSL dating suggests that this was certainly happening by post-AD 1000, and indeed dune accumulation and blow-outs are still occurring today. At the end of the sequence, it should be noted that most of the Common area was re-modelled to create a short-lived golf course in the 1930s.
Photographs copyright Professor Chris Scarre, and Dr Charles French
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http://www.dur.ac.uk/herm.project/geoarchaeology-2.html
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Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) > Perciformes
(Perch-likes) > Cichlidae
(Cichlids) > Pseudocrenilabrinae
Etymology: Melanochromis: Greek, melas, melanos = black + Greek, chromis = a fish, perhaps a perch (Ref. 45335).
Environment / Climate / Range
Freshwater; demersal; pH range: 7.0 - 8.5; dH range: 10 - 15. Tropical; 22°C - 26°C (Ref. 1672); 12°S - 15°S
Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ? range ? - ? cm
Max length : 11.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 5663)
Africa: Endemic to Lake Malawi. Occurs in the southern part of the lake from Jalo Reef, north of Nkhota Kota southward along the entire western coast down to Crocodile Rocks including all islands and reefs. Not known on the eastern shore (Ref. 5595).
Found in rocky habitats. Feeds from the biocover by nibbling and picking on the algae (Ref. 5595). Aquarium keeping: aggressive towards conspecifics; many females for one male; minimum aquarium size 100 cm (Ref. 51539).
Maréchal, C., 1991. Melanochromis. p. 258-265. In J. Daget, J.-P. Gosse, G.G. Teugels and D.F.E. Thys van den Audenaerde (eds.) Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa (CLOFFA). ISNB, Brussels; MRAC, Tervuren; and ORSTOM, Paris. Vol. 4.
IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 90363)
Threat to humans
Aquarium: highly commercial
CollaboratorsPicturesStamps, CoinsSoundsCiguateraSpeedSwim. typeGill areaOtolithsBrainsVision
Estimates of some properties based on empirical models
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82805
= 0.5000 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.01235 (-0.16179 - 0.18649), b=3.00 (2.91 - 3.10), based on LWR estimates for this family-BS (Ref. 93245
Trophic Level (Ref. 69278
): 2.0 ±0.0 se; Based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 69278
): High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (tm<1).
Vulnerability (Ref. 59153
): Low vulnerability (13 of 100) .
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http://www.fishbase.org/summary/2343
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kick the can
A classic children’s game, Kick the Can has elements of hide and seek, tag, and capture the flag in its game play. The rules of the game are simple and can be played outdoors in a variety of settings, including back yards, streets, or open spaces that allow for hiding places for children.
Rather than using a ball, the only piece of equipment is an object that can be kicked. The name of the game is Kick the Can, because often a discarded empty can from the trash is used that can have rocks inserted into it to make noise. The game was a popular pickup game for children during difficult economic times. The origin of the game is unknown, but during the Great Depression in the 1930s the game was a popular pastime for children because it didn’t require any designated equipment or playing field.1
There are many variations of the game, but the common elements include a person who is “it” who looks for children who are hiding. The can is set up in the middle of an open area with the “it” person nearby. He counts to a pre-determined number with his eyes closed to allow the other players time to hide. When time is up, he begins to look for the hidden children.
Once he spies a player, he calls out their name and hiding place, and then they both race to the can to see who can kick the can first. Some variations allow for just finding the person or for tagging him. If the hider kicks the can first, the game is started over with the “it” person giving the player time to hide again. However, if the “it” person kicks the can first, the other player is placed in “jail” which is a designated area for captured players to be kept until rescued.2
Any hidden player can risk being caught and attempt to rescue his jailed friends by racing to the can and kicking it before the “it” person can kick it. If he is successful, all the players in jail are released, and the “it” person must count again as players hide. Hidden players can strategically move around to other hiding places to keep out of sight and to maneuver to better positions to rescue jailed players.3
The game is over when the “it” person has successfully jailed all the players or a set designated time has expired.
- 1. Balistreri, Michael. “The History of Kick the Can.” Berkeley University of California. < http://studio.berkeley.edu/coursework/Niemeyer/courses/fs181/student/01/futurepast.html > 23 Aug. 2012.
- 2. Barnes, Bingo. “Kick the Can. This childhood favorite is fun for grownups, too.” Boise Weekly. < http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/kick-the-can/Content?oid=921828 > 23 Aug. 2012.
- 3. “Kick The Can.” Disney FamilyFun. < http://familyfun.go.com/playtime/kick-the-can-708085/ > 23 Aug. 2012.
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Economic history of the United Kingdom
Britain led the industrial revolution and dominated the European and world economy during the 19th century. It was the major innovator in machinery such as steam engines (for pumps, factories, railway locomotives and steamships), textile equipment, and tool-making. It invented the railway system and built much of the equipment used by other nations. As well it was a leader in international and domestic banking, entrepreneurship, and trade. It built a global British Empire. After 1840 it abandoned mercantilism and practised "free trade," with no tariffs or quotas or restrictions. The powerful Royal Navy protected its global holdings, while its legal system provided a system for resolving disputes inexpensively.
Between 1870 and 2000, economic output per head of population in Britain rose by 500 per cent, generating a significant rise in living standards. However, from the late 19th century onwards Britain experienced a relative economic decline as other nations such as the United States and Germany caught up. In 1870, Britain's output per head was the second highest in the world after Australia. By 1914, it was fourth highest. In 1950, British output per head was still 30 per cent ahead of the six founder members of the EEC, but within 50 years it had been overtaken by many European and several Asian countries.
18th century
The Age of Mercantilism
The basis of the British Empire was founded in the age of mercantilism, an economic theory that stressed maximizing the trade inside the empire, and trying to weaken rival empires. The modern British Empire was based upon the preceding English Empire which first took shape in the early 17th century, with the English settlement of the eastern colonies of North America, which later became the United States, as well as Canada's Maritime provinces, and the colonizations of the smaller islands of the Caribbean such as Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, the Leeward Islands, Barbados, Jamaica and Bermuda. These sugar plantation islands, where slavery became the basis of the economy, comprised Britain's most lucrative colonies. The American colonies also utilized slave labour in the farming of tobacco, indigo and rice in the south. Britain's American empire was slowly expanded by war and colonization. Victory over the French during the Seven Years' War gave Britain control over almost all of North America.
Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies. Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a superb Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. Thus the British Navy captured New Amsterdam (New York) in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country. .
The Industrial Revolution
In a period loosely dated from the 1770s to the 1820s, Britain experienced an accelerated process of economic change that transformed a largely agrarian economy into the world's first industrial economy. This phenomenon is known as the "industrial revolution", since the changes were all embracing and permanent.
Great Britain provided the legal and cultural foundations that enabled entrepreneurs to pioneer the industrial revolution. Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual labour and draft-animal–based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. Factories pulled thousands from low productivity work in agriculture to high productivity urban jobs.
The introduction of steam power fuelled primarily by coal, wider utilisation of water wheels and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialisation.
According to Max Weber, the foundations of this process of change can be traced back to the Puritan Ethic of the Puritans of the 17th century. This produced modern personalities atuned to innovation and committed to a work ethic, inspiring landed and merchant elites alive to the benefits of modernization, and a system of agriculture able to produce increasingly cheap food supplies. To this must be added the influence of religious nonconformity, which increased literacy and inculcated a "Protestant work ethic" amongst skilled artisans.
A long run of good harvests, starting in the first half of the 18th century, resulted in an increase in disposable income and a consequent rising demand for manufactured goods, particularly textiles. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay enabled wider cloth to be woven faster, but also created a demand for yarn that could not be fulfilled. Thus, the major technological advances associated with the industrial revolution were concerned with spinning. James Hargreaves created the Spinning Jenny, a device that could perform the work of a number of spinning wheels. However, while this invention could be operated by hand, the water frame, invented by Richard Arkwright, could be powered by a water wheel. Indeed, Arkwright is credited with the widespread introduction of the factory system in Britain, and is the first example of the successful mill owner and industrialist in British history. The water frame was, however, soon supplanted by the spinning mule (a cross between a water frame and a jenny) invented by Samuel Crompton. Mules were later constructed in iron by Messrs. Horrocks of Stockport.
As they were water powered, the first mills were constructed in rural locations by streams or rivers. Workers villages were created around them, such as New Lanark Mills in Scotland. These spinning mills resulted in the decline of the domestic system, in which spinning with old slow equipment was undertaken in rural cottages.
The steam engine was invented and became a power supply that soon surpassed waterfalls and horsepower. The first practicable steam engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen, and was used for pumping water out of mines. A much more powerful steam engine was invented by James Watt; it had a reciprocating engine capable of powering machinery. The first steam-driven textile mills began to appear in the last quarter of the 18th century, and this transformed the industrial revolution into an urban phenomenon, greatly contributing to the appearance and rapid growth of industrial towns.
The progress of the textile trade soon outstripped the original supplies of raw materials. By the turn of the 19th century, imported American cotton had replaced wool in the North West of England, though wool remained the chief textile in Yorkshire. Textiles have been identified as the catalyst in technological change in this period. The application of steam power stimulated the demand for coal; the demand for machinery and rails stimulated the iron industry; and the demand for transportation to move raw material ina and finished products out stimulated the growth of the canal system, and (after 1830) the railway system.
Such an unprecedented degree of economic growth was not sustained by domestic demand alone. The application of technology and the factory system created such levels of mass production and cost efficiency that enabled Britain to undercut foreign competitors. The political dominance created by the growth of an overseas empire and the strategic control of the world's seas by the Royal Navy, enabled British manufacturers to export their goods to Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Indeed, the demands of the war economy created by the French and Napoleonic Wars added to these opportunities.
Walt Rostow has posited the 1790s as the "take-off" period for the industrial revolution. This means that a process previously responding to domestic and other external stimuli began to feed upon itself, and became an unstoppable and irreversible process of sustained industrial and technological expansion.
In the late 18th century and early 19th century a series of technological advances led to the Industrial Revolution. Britain's position as the world's pre-eminent trader helped fund research and experimentation. The nation was also gifted by some of the world's greatest reserves of coal, the main fuel of the new revolution.
It was also fuelled by a rejection of mercantilism in favour of the predominance of Adam Smith's capitalism. The fight against Mercantilism was led by a number of liberal thinkers, such as Richard Cobden, Joseph Hume, Francis Place and John Roebuck.
Some have stressed the importance of natural or financial resources that Britain received from its many overseas colonies or that profits from the British slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean helped fuel industrial investment. It has been pointed out, however, that slave trade and the West Indian plantations provided less than 5% of the British national income during the years of the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution saw a rapid transformation in the British economy and society. Previously large industries had to be near forests or rivers for power. The use of coal-fuelled engines allowed them to be placed in large urban centres. These new factories proved far more efficient at producing goods than the cottage industry of a previous era. These manufactured goods were sold around the world, and raw materials and luxury goods were imported to Britain.
During the Industrial Revolution the empire became less important and less well-regarded. The British defeat in the American War of Independence (1775–1783) deprived it of its largest and most developed colonies. This loss brought a realisation that colonies were not particularly economically beneficial to the home economy. It was realised that the costs of occupation of colonies often exceeded the financial return to the taxpayer. In other words, formal empire afforded no great economic benefit when trade would continue whether the overseas political entities were nominally sovereign or not. The American Revolution helped demonstrate this by showing that Britain could still control trade with the colonies without having to pay for their defence and governance. Capitalism encouraged the British to grant their colonies self-government, starting with Canada, which became unified and largely independent in 1867, and Australia, which followed suit in 1901.
19th century
Free trade
After 1840 Britain abandoned mercantilism and committed its economy to free trade, with few barriers or tariffs. This was most evident in the repeal in 1846 of the Corn Laws, which were agricultural on domestic grain. The end of these laws opened the British market to unfettered competition, grain prices fell, and food became more plentiful.
From 1815 to 1870 Britain reaped the benefits of being the world's first modern, industrialised nation. It was the 'workshop of the world', meaning that its finished goods were produced so efficiently and cheaply that they could often undersell comparable, locally manufactured goods in almost any other market. If political conditions in particular overseas markets were stable enough, Britain could dominate its economy through free trade alone without having to resort to formal rule or mercantilism. Britain was even supplying half the needs in manufactured goods of such nations as Germany, France, Belgium, and the United States. By 1820 30% of Britain's exports went to the Empire, rising slowly to 35% by 1910. Apart from coal and iron, most raw materials had to be imported, so that in the 1830s the main imports were, in order, raw cotton (from the American South), sugar (from the West Indies), wool, silk, tea (from China), timber (from Canada), wine, flax, hides and tallow.
The British invented the modern railway system and exported it to the world. They emerged from Britain's elaborate system of canals and roadways, which both used horses to haul coal for the new steam engines installed in textile factories. Britain furthermore had the engineers and entrepreneurs needed to create and finance a railway system. In 1815, George Stephenson invented built the modern steam locomotive, launching a technological race bigger, more powerful locomotives using higher and higher steam pressures. Stephenson's key innovation came when he integrated all the components of a railways system in 1825 by opening the Stockton and Darlington line. It demonstrated it was commercially feasible to have a system of usable length. London poured money into railway building—a veritable bubble, but one with permanent value. Thomas Brassey brought British railway engineering to the world, with construction crews that in the 1840s employed 75,000 men across Europe. Every nation copied the British model. Brassey expanded throughout the British Empire and Latin America. His companies invented and improved thousands of mechanical devices, and developed the science of civil engineering to build roadways, tunnels and bridges. The telegraph, although invented and developed separately, proved essential for the internal communications of the railways because it allowed slower trains to pull over as express trains raced through. Telegraphs made it possible to use a single track for two-way traffic, and to locate where repairs were needed. Britain had a superior financial system based in London that funded both the railways in Britain and also in many other parts of the world, including the United States, up until 1914. The boom years were 1836 and 1845–47, when Parliament authorized 8,000 miles of railways with a projected future total of £200 million; that about equalled one year of Britain's GDP. Once a charter was obtained, there was little government regulation, as laissez faire and private ownership had become accepted practices.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) designed the first major railway, the Great Western, built originally in the 1830s to cover the 100 miles from London to Bristol. Even more important was the highly controversial George Hudson. He became Britain's "railway king" by merging numerous short lines. Since there was no government agency supervising the railways, Hudson set up a system that all the lines adopted called the Railway Clearing House. It made interconnections easy for people and freight by standardizing routines for transferring freight and people between companies, and loaning out freight cars. By 1849 Hudson controlled nearly 30% of Britain's trackage. Hudson did away with accountants and manipulated funds—paying large dividends out of capital because profits were quite low, but no one knew that until his system collapsed and the railway bubble of the late 1840s burst.
By 1850 Britain had a well integrated, well engineered system that provided fast, on-time, inexpensive movement of freight and people to every city and most rural districts. Freight rates had plunged to a penny a ton mile for coal. The system directly or indirectly employed tens of thousands of engineers, conductors, mechanics, repairmen, accountants, station agents and managers, bringing a new level of business sophistication that could be applied to many other industries, and helping many small and large businesses to expand their role in the industrial revolution. Thus railways had a tremendous impact on industrialization. By lowering transportation costs, they reduced costs for all industries moving supplies and finished goods, and they increased demand for the production of all the inputs needed for the railway system itself. The system kept growing; by 1880, there were 13,500 locomotives which each carried 97,800 passengers a year, or 31,500 tons of freight.
Second Industrial Revolution
During the First Industrial Revolution, the industrialist replaced the merchant as the dominant figure in the capitalist system. In the latter decades of the 19th century, when the ultimate control and direction of large industry came into the hands of financiers, industrial capitalism gave way to financial capitalism and the corporation. The establishment of behemoth industrial empires, whose assets were controlled and managed by men divorced from production, was a dominant feature of this third phase.
New products and services were also introduced which greatly increased international trade. Improvements in steam engine design and the wide availability of cheap steel meant that slow, sailing ships could be replaced with steamships, such as Brunel's SS Great Western. Electricity and chemical industries also moved to the forefront. In many of these sectors Britain had far less of an edge than other powers such as Germany and the United States, who both rose to equal and even surpass Britain in economic heft.
Amalgamation of industrial cartels into larger corporations, mergers and alliances of separate firms, and technological advancement (particularly the increased use of electric power and internal combustion engines fuelled by coal and petroleum) were mixed blessings for British business during the late Victorian era. The ensuing development of more intricate and efficient machines along with monopolistic mass production techniques greatly expanded output and lowered production costs. As a result, production often exceeded domestic demand. Among the new conditions, more markedly evident in Britain, the forerunner of Europe's industrial states, were the long-term effects of the severe Long Depression of 1873-1896, which had followed fifteen years of great economic instability. Businesses in practically every industry suffered from lengthy periods of low — and falling — profit rates and price deflation after 1873.
Long-term economic trends led Britain, and to a lesser extent, other industrialising nations such as the United States and Germany, to be more receptive to the desires of prospective overseas investment. Through their investments in industry, banks were able to exert a great deal of control over the British economy and politics. Cut-throat competition in the mid-19th century caused the creation of super corporations and conglomerates. Many companies borrowed heavily to achieve the vast sums of money required to take over their rivals, resulting in a new capitalist stage of development.
By the 1870s, financial houses in London had achieved an unprecedented level of control over industry. This contributed to increasing concerns among policymakers over the protection of British investments overseas — particularly those in the securities of foreign governments and in foreign-government-backed development activities, such as railways. Although it had been official British policy to support such investments, with the large expansion of these investments in the 1860s, and the economic and political instability of many areas of investment (such as Egypt), calls upon the government for methodical protection became increasingly pronounced in the years leading up to the Crystal Palace Speech. At the end of the Victorian era, the service sector (banking, insurance and shipping, for example) began to gain prominence at the expense of manufacturing.
Foreign trade
Foreign trade tripled in volume between 1870 and 1914; most of the activity occurred with other industrialised countries. Britain ranked as the world's largest trading nation in 1860, but by 1913 it had lost ground to both the United States and Germany: British and German exports in that year each totaled $2.3 billion, and those of the United States exceeded $2.4 billion. As foreign trade increased, so in proportion did the amount of it going outside the Continent. In 1840, £7.7 million of its export and £9.2 million of its import trade was done outside Europe; in 1880 the figures were £38.4 million and £73 million. Europe's economic contacts with the wider world were multiplying, much as Britain's had been doing for years. In many cases, colonial control followed private investment, particularly in raw materials and agriculture. Intercontinental trade between North and South constituted a higher proportion of global trade in this era than in the late 20th century period of globalisation.
Export of capital
Investment was especially heavy in the independent nations of Latin America, which were eager for infrastructure improvements such as railways built by the British, ports, and telegraph and telephone systems. British merchants dominated trade in the region. Not all the investments paid off; the mines in the Sudan, for example, lost money. By 1913 Britain's overseas assets totaled about four billion pounds.
Business practices
New business practices in the areas of management and accounting made possible the more efficient operation of large companies. For example, in steel, coal, and iron companies 19th-century accountants utilized sophisticated, fully integrated accounting systems to calculate output, yields, and costs to satisfy management information requirements. South Durham Steel and Iron, was a large horizontally integrated company that operated mines, mills, and shipyards. Its management used traditional accounting methods with the goal of minimizing production costs, and thus raising its profitability. By contrast one of its competitors, Cargo Fleet Iron introduced mass production milling techniques through the construction of modern plants. Cargo Fleet set high production goals and developed an innovative but complicated accounting system to measure and report all costs throughout the production process. However, problems in obtaining coal supplies and the failure to meet the firm's production goals forced Cargo Fleet to drop its aggressive system and return to the sort of approach South Durham Steel was using.
After the loss of the American colonies in 1776, Britain built a "Second British Empire", based in colonies in India, Asia, Australia, Canada. The crown jewel was India, where in the 1750s a private British company, with its own army, the Honourable East India Company (or "John Company"), took control of much of India. The 19th century saw Company rule extended across India after expelling the Dutch, French and Portuguese. By the 1830s the John Company was a government and had given up most of its business in India, bit it was still privately owned. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the government closed down John Company and took control of the British Raj.
Free trade (with no tariffs and few trade barriers) was introduced in the 1840s. Protected by the overwhelming power of the Royal Navy, the economic empire included very close economic ties with independent nations in Latin America. The informal economic empire has been called "The Imperialism of Free Trade."
Numerous independent entrepreneurs expanded the Empire, such as Stamford Raffles of the East India Company who founded the port of Singapore in 1819. Businessmen eager to sell Indian opium in the vast China market led to the Opium War (1839–1842) and the establishment of British colonies at Hong Kong. One adventurer, James Brooke, set himself up as the Rajah of the Kingdom of Sarawak in North Borneo in 1842; his realm joined the Empire in 1888. Cecil Rhodes set up an economic empire of diamonds in South Africa that proved highly profitable. There were great riches in gold as well but this venture led to expensive wars with the Dutch settlers known as Boers.
India—known as the British Raj—was the centerpiece of the Empire, and because of an efficient taxation system it paid its own administrative expenses as well as the cost of the large British Indian Army. In terms of trade, however, India turned only a small profit for British business.
There was pride and glory in the Empire, as the most talented young Britons vied for positions in the Indian Civil Service and similar oversees career opportunities. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 was a vital economic and military link. To protect the canal Britain expanded again and again, taking control of Egypt, the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Cyprus, Palestine, Aden, and British Somaliland. None were especially profitable until the discover of oil in the Middle East after 1920. Some military action was involved, and from time to time there was a risk of conflict with other imperial powers seeking the same territory, as in the Fashoda Incident of 1898. All the incidents were resolved peacefully.
Cain and Hopkins argue that the phases of expansion abroad were closely linked with the development of the domestic economy. Therefore the shifting balance of social and political forces under imperialism the varying intensity of Britain's economic and political rivalry with other powers need to be understood with reference to domestic policies. Gentlemen capitalists, representing Britain's landed gentry and London's service sectors and financial institutions, largely shaped and controlled Britain's imperial enterprises in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Industrial leaders played a lesser role and found themselves dependent on the gentlemen capitalists.
By 1900 the United States and Germany, had developed large-scale industries; Britain's comparative economic advantage had lessened. London did remain the financial and entrepreneurial capital of the world, until challenged by New York after 1918.
By the turn of the 20th century, Britain’s economic fortunes were in relative decline. Germany and the United States were growing faster and became the biggest competitors in terms of world markets. In 1910 Great Britain did commerce to the value of £ 1,212,806,088.
Even with the decline, in 1914 London was still the centre of international payments, and a large creditor nation, owed money by others.
First World War
The First World War saw a decline of economic production, with a major reallocation to munitions. It forced Britain to use up its financial reserves and borrow large sums from the U.S. Shipments of American raw materials and food allowed Britain to feed itself and its army while maintaining her productivity. The financing was generally successful, as the City's strong financial position minimized the damaging effects of inflation, as opposed to much worse conditions in Germany. Overall consumer consumption declined 18% from 1914 to 1919. Trade unions were encouraged as membership grew from 4.1 million in 1914 to 6.5 million in 1918, peaking at 8.3 million in 1920 before relapsing to 5.4 million in 1923. In Scotland, the shipbuilding industry expanding by a third. Women were available and many entered munitions factories and took other home front jobs vacated by men.
Postwar stagnation
The human and material losses of the World War in Britain were enormous. They included 745,000 servicemen killed and 24,000 civilians, with 1.7 million wounded. The total of lost shipping came to 7.9 million tons (much of it replaced by new construction), and £7,500 million in financial costs to the Empire. Germany owed billions in reparations, but Britain in turn owed the U.S. billions in loan repayments.
With the end of war orders a serious depression hit the economy by 1921-22. Indeed the whole decade was one of stagnation The most skilled craftsmen were especially hard hit, because there were few alternative uses for their specialised skills. In depressed areas the main social indicators such as poor health, bad housing, and long-term mass unemployment, pointed to terminal social and economic stagnation at best, or even a downward spiral. The heavy dependence on obsolescent heavy industry and mining was a central problem, and no one offered workable solutions. The despair reflected what Finlay (1994) describes as a widespread sense of hopelessness that prepared local business and political leaders to accept a new orthodoxy of centralised government economic planning when it arrived during the Second World War.
In 1919 Britain reduced the working hours in major industries to a 48-hour week for industrial workers. Historians have debated whether this move depressed labour productivity and contributed to the slump. Scott and Spadavecchia argue that productivity was in some ways enhanced, especially through higher hourly productivity, and that Britain did not suffer in its exports because most other nations also reduced working hours. Looking at coal, cotton, and iron and steel, they find that Britain did not suffer any significant relative productivity loss in these industries.
By 1921, more than 2,000,000 Britons were unemployed as a result of the postwar economic downturn. By 1926, the economy was still struggling, the general strike of that year doing it no favours. Industrial relations briefly improved, but then came the Wall Street stock market crash in October 1929, which sparked the worldwide Great Depression. See the Great Depression in the United Kingdom. Unemployment had stood at less than 1,800,000 at the end of 1930, but by the end of 1931 it had risen sharply to more than 2,600,000. By January 1933, more than 3,000,000 Britons were unemployed, accounting for more than 20% of the workforce. The rest of the 1930s saw a moderate economic recovery stimulated by private housing. Unemployment fell to 10% in 1938.
From 1800 to 1870 Britain produced more than half of the world's pig iron, and was in the lead in devising ways to make steel. In 1880 Britain produced 1.3 million tons of steel, and in 1893 3 million tons; by 1914 output was 8 million tons. Germany caught up in 1893 and produced 14 million tons in 1914. After 1900 the U.S. dominated global steel production, while the British industry languished.
Britain's steel industry brought in academic experts, such as Professor Oliver Arnold to analyze and make recommendations for improvements in productivity. The industry made significant technical advances in terms of vanadium, phospho-magnetic steels and other specialized high-strength alloys, using the electric furnace and other innovations, the devising of new techniques over the smoke issue. The industry trained a cadre of experts that made large firms scientifically self-sustaining.
Politics became a central issue for the coal miners, whose organization was facilitated by their location in remote one-industry villages. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain formed in 1888, and counted 600,000 members in 1908. Much of the 'old left' of British politics can trace its origins to coal-mining areas.
General Strike of 1926
In April 1926 the owners locked out the miners because they had rejected the owners' demands for longer hours and reduced pay in the face of falling prices caused by demand as oil started to replace coal. The general strike was led by the TUC for the benefit of coal miners, but it failed. It was a nine-day nationwide walkout of one million railwaymen, transport workers, printers, dockers, ironworkers and steelworkers supporting the 1.5 million coal miners who had been locked out. The government had provided a nine-month subsidy in 1925 but that was not enough to turn around a sick industry. The TUC hope was the government would intervene to reorganize and rationalize the industry, and raise the subsidy. The Conservative government had stockpiled supplies and essential services continued with middle class volunteers. All three major parties opposed the strike. The general strike itself was largely non-violent, but the miners' lockout continued and there was violence in Scotland. It was the only general strike in British history, for TUC leaders such as Ernest Bevin considered it a mistake . Most historians treat it as a singular event with few long-term consequences, but Pugh says it accelerated the movement of working-class voters to the Labour Party, which led to future gains. The Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 made general strikes illegal and ended the automatic payment of union members to the Labour Party. That act was largely repealed in 1946.
Coal continued as a sick industry as the best seams were used up and it became more and more difficult to mine the rest. The Labour government in 1947 nationalized coal into the National Coal Board, giving miners access to control of the mines via their control of the Labour party and the government. By then, however, the best seams had played out and coal mining was headed downward. Coal production was 50 million metric tons in 1850, 149 million in 1880, 269 million in 1910, 228 million in 1940, and 153 million in 1970. The peak year was 1913, with an output of 292 million tons. Mining employed 383,000 men in 1851, 604,000 in 1881, and 1,202,000 in 1911.
1929–1939: the Great Depression
In 1929, the Wall St Crash affected Britain resulting in leaving the Gold Standard. Whereas Britain had championed the concept of the free market when it was ascendant in the world economy, it gradually withdrew to adopting Tariff Reform as a measure of protectionism. By the early 1930s, the depression again signaled the economic problems the British economy faced. Unemployment soared during this period; from just over 10% in 1929 to more than 20% by early 1933. However, it had fallen to 13.9% by the start of 1936.
In political terms, the economic problems found expression in the rise of radical movements who promised solutions which conventional political parties were no longer able to provide. In Britain this was seen with the rise of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Fascists under Oswald Mosley. However, their political strength was limited and they never posed any real threat to the conventional political parties in the UK.
Tourism grew rapidly in the interwar years because of the rapidly rising number of motorized middle-class and lower-middle-class vacationers. However, those tourist sites that catered to the very wealthy or to American tourists, or were located in depressed areas, all experienced a decline in profits, especially during the Great Depression.
Second World War
In the Second World War, 1939–45, Britain had a highly successful record of mobilizing the home front for the war effort, in terms of mobilizing the greatest proportion of potential workers, maximizing output, assigning the right skills to the right task, and maintaining the morale and spirit of the people. Much of this success was due to the systematic planned mobilization of women, as workers, soldiers, and housewives, enforced after December 1941 by conscription. The women supported the war effort, and made the rationing of consumer goods a success.
Industrial production was reoriented toward munitions, and output soared. In steel, for example, the Materials Committee of the government tried to balance the needs of civilian departments and the War Department, but strategic considerations received precedence over any other need. Highest priority went to aircraft production as the RAF was under continuous heavy German pressure. The government decided to concentrate on only five types of aircraft in order to optimize output. They received extraordinary priority. Covering the supply of materials and equipment and even made it possible to divert from other types the necessary parts, equipment, materials and manufacturing resources. Labour was moved from other aircraft work to factories engaged on the specified types. Cost was not an object. The delivery of new fighters rose from 256 in April to 467 in September—more than enough to cover the losses—and Fighter Command emerged triumphantly from the Battle of Britain in October with more aircraft than it had possessed at the beginning. Starting in 1941 the U.S. provided munitions through Lend lease that totaled $15.5 billion
After war broke out between Britain and Germany in September, Britain imposed exchange controls. The British Government also decided to sell its gold reserves and dollar reserves to pay for munitions, raw materials and industrial equipment from American factories. By the third quarter of 1940 the volume of British exports was down 37% compared to 1935. Although the British Government had committed itself to nearly $10,000 million of orders from America, Britain's gold and dollar reserves were near exhaustion. The American Government decided to prop up Britain as it neared bankruptcy, so on 10 January 1941 they produced a Bill entitled an "Act to promote the defence of the United States" (its number, H.R. 1776, was the year of American independence) which was put before the United States Congress and which was enacted on 11 March 1941. This Act became known as Lend-Lease, whereby America would give Britain cash totalling $31.4 billion which never had to be repaid. One month later British gold and dollar reserves had dwindled to their lowest ever point, $12 million. Under this new agreement with the American Government, Britain agreed not to export any articles which contained Lend-Lease material or to export any goods—even if British-made—which were similar to Lend-Lease goods. The American Government sent officials to Britain to police these requirements. By 1944 British exports had gone down to 31% from 1938. Lend-Lease created problems in reviving Britain's exports after the war.
1945 to 1990
In the 1945 general election, just after the end of the war in Europe, the Labour Party was elected, introducing sweeping reforms of the British economy. Taxes increased, industries were nationalised, and a welfare state with national health, pensions, and social security was created.
The next years saw some of the most rapid growth Britain had ever experienced, recovering from the devastation of the Second World War and then expanding rapidly past the previous size of the economy. By 1959, tax cuts had helped boost living standards and allow for a strong economy and low unemployment.
By the end of the 1960s, this growth began to slow and unemployment was rising again. During the 1970s Britain suffered a long running period of relative economic malaise, dogged by severe inflation, strikes and union power as well as inflation, with neither the Conservative government of 1970-1974 (led by Edward Heath) nor the Labour government which succeeded it (led by Harold Wilson and from 1976 James Callaghan) being able to halt the country's economic decline.
Unemployment exceeded 1,000,000 by 1972 and had risen even higher by the time the end of the decade was in sight.
This led to the election of Margaret Thatcher, who cut back on the government's role in the economy and weakened the power of the trade unions. The latter decades of the 20th century have seen an increase in service-providers and a drop in industry, combined with privatisation of some sections of the economy. This change has led some to describe this as a 'Third Industrial Revolution', though this term is not widely used.
1945–1951: Age of Austerity
After World War II, the British economy had again lost huge amounts of absolute wealth. Its economy was driven entirely for the needs of war and took some time to be reorganised for peaceful production. Anticipating the end of the conflict, the United States had negotiated throughout the war to liberalise post-war trade and the international flow of capital in order to break into markets which had previously been closed to it, including the British Empire's Pound Sterling bloc. This was to be realised through the Atlantic Charter of 1941, through the establishment of the Bretton Woods system in 1944, and through the new economic power that the US was able to exert due to the weakened British economy.
Immediately after the war in the Pacific had ended, the U.S. halted free Lend-Lease, but did give the UK a long-term low-interest loan of USD 4.33bn. The winter of 1946–1947 proved to be very harsh curtailing production and leading to shortages of coal which again affected the economy so that by August 1947, when convertibility was due to begin, the economy was not as strong as it needed to be. When the Labour Government enacted convertibility, there was a run on Sterling, meaning that Sterling was being traded in for dollars, seen as the new, more powerful and stable currency in the world. This damaged the British economy and within weeks it was stopped. By 1949, the British pound was over valued and had to be devalued. The U.S. began Marshall Plan grants (mostly grants with a few loans) that pumped $3.3 billions into the economy and forced businessmen to modernize their approach to management.
The Labour Governments of 1945–1951 enacted a political programme rooted in collectivism including the nationalisation of industries and state direction of the economy. Both wars had demonstrated the possible benefits of greater state involvement. This underlined the future direction of the post-war economy, and was supported in the main by the Conservatives. However, the initial hopes for nationalisation were not fulfilled and more nuanced understandings of economic management emerged, such as state direction, rather than state ownership. Throughout though, the basis remained the same: applying the economic theories of Keynes and continued state involvement.
The concept of nationalizing the coal mines had been accepted in principle by owners and miners alike before the elections of 1945. The owners were paid £165,000,000. The government set up the National Coal Board to manage the coal mines; and it loaned it £150,000,000 to modernize the system. The general condition of the coal industry has been unsatisfactory for many years, with poor productivity. In 1945 there were 28% more workers in the coal mines than in 1890, but the annual output was only 8% greater. Young people avoided the pits; between 1931 and 1945 the percentage of miners more than 40 years old rose from 35% to 43%, and 24,000 over 65 years old. The number of surface workers decreased between 1938 and 1945 by only 3,200, but in that same time the number of underground workers declined by 69,600, substantially altering the balance of labour in the mines. That accidents, breakdowns, and repairs in the mines were nearly twice as costly in terms of production in 1945 as they had been in 1939 was probably a by-product of the war. Output in 1946 averaged 3,300,000 tons weekly. By summer 1946 it was clear that the country was facing a coal shortage for the upcoming winter with stock piles 5 million tons too low. Nationalization exposed both a lack of preparation for public ownership and a failure to stabilize the industry in advance of the change. Also lacking were any significant incentives to maintain or increase coal production to meet demand.
During 1955, unemployment reached a postwar low of just over 215,000 - barely 1% of the workforce.
The loss of the Empire and the material losses incurred through two world wars had affected the basis of Britain’s economy. First, its traditional markets were changing as Commonwealth countries made bilateral trade arrangements with local or regional powers. Second, the initial gains Britain made in the world economy were in relative decline as those countries whose infrastructure was seriously damaged by war repaired these and reclaimed a stake in world markets. Third, the British economy changed structure shifting towards a service sector economy from its manufacturing and industrial origins leaving some regions economically depressed. Finally, part of consensus politics meant support of the Welfare State and of a world role for Britain; both of these needed funding through taxes and needed a buoyant economy in order to provide the taxes.
1960–1979: the Sixties and Seventies
As these factors coalesced during the 1960s, the slogan used by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan "(most of) our people have never had it so good" seemed increasingly hollow. The Conservative Government presided over a ‘stop-go’ economy as it tried to prevent inflation spiralling out of control without snuffing out economic growth. Growth continued to struggle, at about only half the rate of that of Germany or France at the same time. However, industry had remained strong in nearly 20 years following the end of the war, and extensive housebuilding and construction of new commercial developments and public buildings also helped unemployment stay low throughout this time.
The Labour Party under Harold Wilson from 1964–1970 was unable to provide a solution either, and eventually was forced to devalue the Pound again in 1967. Economist Nicholas Crafts attributes Britain's relatively low growth in this period to a combination of a lack of competition in some sectors of the economy, especially in the nationalised industries; poor industrial relations and insufficient vocational training. He writes that this was a period of government failure caused by poor understanding of economic theory, short-termism and a failure to confront interest groups.
Both political parties had come to the conclusion that Britain needed to enter the European Economic Community (EEC) in order to revive its economy. This decision came after establishing a European Free Trade Association (EFTA) with other, non EEC countries since this provided little economic stimulus to Britain’s economy. Levels of trade with the Commonwealth halved in the period 1945–1965 to around 25% while trade with the EEC had doubled during the same period. Charles de Gaulle vetoed a British attempt at membership in 1963 and again in 1967.
In 1973 the Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath, led Britain into the EEC. As late as this stage, Britain still effectively had full employment, at a rate of 3% unemployed.
However, with the decline of Britain’s economy during the 1960s, the trade unions began to strike leading to a complete breakdown with both the Labour Government of Harold Wilson and later with the Conservative Government of Edward Heath (1970–1974). In the early 1970s, the British economy suffered more as strike action by trade unions, plus the effects of the 1973 oil crisis, led to a three day week in 1973-74. However, despite a brief period of calm negotiated by the recently re-elected Labour Government of 1974 known as the Social Contract, a breakdown with the unions occurred again in 1978, leading to the Winter of Discontent, and eventually leading to the end of the Labour Government, then being led by James Callaghan, who had succeeded Wilson in 1976. The extreme industrial strife along with rising inflation and unemployment led Britain to be nicknamed as the "sick man of Europe", though the term originally referred to Turkey in the 19th century.
Unemployment had also risen during this difficult period for the British economy; some 1,500,000 people were now unemployed by 1978, nearly treble the figure at the start of the decade, at a national rate of well over 5%. It had exceeded 1,000,000 since 1975.
Also in the 1970s, oil was found in the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland.
1979–1990: the Thatcher era
The election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 marked the end of the post-war consensus and a new approach to economic policy, including privatisation and deregulation, reform of industrial relations, and tax changes. Competition policy was emphasised instead of industrial policy; consequent deindustrialisation and structural unemployment was more or less accepted. Thatcher's battles with the unions culminated in the Miners' Strike of 1984.
The Government applied monetarist policies to reduce inflation, and reduced public spending. Deflationary measures were implemented against the backdrop of the early 1980s recession. As a result, unemployment began to rise sharply from early 1980, to 2,000,000 people by the end of the year and reaching 2,500,000 people during 1981. By January 1982, 3,000,000 people were unemployed in Britain for the first time in 50 years, though this time the figure accounted for a lesser percentage of the early 1930s figures, now standing at around 12.5% rather than in excess of 20%. In areas hit particularly hard by the loss of industry, unemployment was much higher; coming to close to 20% in Northern Ireland and exceeding 15% in many parts of Wales, Scotland and northern England. The peak of unemployment actually came some two years after the recession ended and growth had been re-established, when in April 1984 unemployment rose to nearly 3,300,000.
Major state-controlled firms were privatised, including British Aerospace (1981), British Telecom (1984), British Leyland (1984), Rolls-Royce (1987), and British Steel (1988). The electricity, gas and English water industries were split up and sold off. Exchange controls, in operation since the war, were abolished in 1979. British net assets abroad rose approximately ninefold from £12 billion at the end of 1979 to nearly £110 billion at the end of 1986, a record post-war level and second only to Japan. Privatisation of nationalised industries increased share ownership in Britain: the proportion of the adult population owning shares went up from 7% in 1979 to 25% in 1989. The Single European Act (SEA), signed by Margaret Thatcher, allowed for the free movement of goods within the European Union area. The ostensible benefit of this was to give the spur of competition to the British economy, and increase its ultimate efficiency.
The early 1980s recession saw unemployment rise above three million, but the subsequent recovery, which saw growth of over 4 per cent in the late 1980s, led to contemporary claims of a British 'economic miracle'. It is not clear whether Thatcherism was the only reason for the boom in Britain in the 1980s. However, many of the economic policies put in place by the Thatcher governments have been kept since, and even the Labour Party which had once been so opposed to the policies had by the late 1990s, on its return to government after nearly 20 years in opposition, dropped all opposition to them.
By the end of 1986, Britain was enjoying an economic boom, which saw unemployment go into freefall and drop to 1,600,000 by December 1989.
1990–1997: the Major years
In November 1990 Margaret Thatcher stood down from the office of Prime Minister after losing first the confidence and then the support in Parliament of the Conservative Party's MPs, which she needed in order to continue. John Major was elected her successor.
Despite several major economies showing quarterly detraction during 1989, the British economy continued to grow well into 1990, with the first quarterly detraction taking place in the third quarter of the year, by which time unemployment was starting to creep upwards again after four years of falling.
Economic growth was not re-established until early 1993, but the Conservative government which had been in power continuously since 1979 managed to achieve re-election in April 1992, fending off a strong challenge from Neil Kinnock and Labour.
The early 1990s recession was officially the longest in Britain since the Great Depression some 60 years earlier, though the fall in output was not as sharp as that of the downturn of the Great Depression or even that of the early 1980s recession. It had started during 1990 and the end of the recession was not officially declared until April 1993, by which time nearly 3,000,000 were unemployed.
The British pound was tied to EU exchange rates, using the Deutsche Mark as a basis, as part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM); however, this resulted in disaster for Britain. The restrictions imposed by the ERM put pressure on the pound, leading to a run on the currency. Black Wednesday in 1992 ended British membership of the ERM. It also damaged the credibility of the Conservatives' economic management, and contributed to the end of the 18 years of consecutive Conservative government in 1997.
Despite the downfall of the Conservative government, it had seen a strong economic recovery in which unemployment had fallen by more than 1,000,000 since the end of 1992 to 1,700,000 by the time of their election defeat.
1997 to 2001: New Labour
In 1997, Tony Blair's Labour government stuck with the Conservative's spending plans. The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, gained a reputation by some as the "prudent Chancellor" and helped to inspire renewed confidence in Labour's ability to manage the economy. One of the first acts that the new Labour government embarked on was to give the power to set interest rates to the Bank of England, effectively ending the use of interest rates as a political tool. Labour also introduced the minimum wage to the United Kingdom, which has been raised every year since its introduction. The Blair government also introduced a number of strategies to cut unemployment. Unemployment fell back to the level it was in the late 1970s, although it still remained significantly higher than it was during the post-war era and the 1960s.
21st century
In the Labour Party's second term in office, beginning in 2001, the party increased taxes and borrowing. The government wanted the money to increase spending on public services, notably the National Health Service, which they claimed was suffering from chronic under-funding. The economy shifted from manufacturing, which had been declining since the 1960s and grew on the back of the services and finance sectors. The country was also at war with first Afghanistan, invading in 2001 and then Iraq, in 2003. Spending on both reached several billion pounds a year.
Growth rates were consistently between 1.6% and 3% from 2000 to early 2008. Inflation though relativity steady at around 2%, did rise in the approach to the financial crash. The Bank of England's control of interest rates was a major factor in the stability of the British economy over that period. The pound continued to fluctuate, however, reaching a low against the dollar in 2001 (to a rate of $1.37 per £1), but rising again to a rate of approximately $2 per £1 in 2007. Against the Euro, the pound was steady at a rate of approximately €1.45 per £1. Since then, the effects of the Credit crunch have led to a slowdown of the economy. At the start of November 2008, for example, the pound was worth around €1.26; by the end of the year, it had almost approached parity, dropping at one point below €1.02 and ending the year at €1.04.
The 2008 recession and quantitative easing
The UK entered a recession in Q2 of 2008, according to the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) and exited it in Q4 of 2009. The revised ONS figures of November 2009 showed that the UK had suffered six consecutive quarters of contraction. On 23 January 2009, Government figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK was officially in recession for the first time since 1991. It entered a recession in the final quarter of 2008, accompanied by rising unemployment which increased from 5.2% in May 2008 to 7.6% in May 2009. The unemployment rate among 18 to 24-year-olds has risen from 11.9% to 17.3%. Though initially Britain lagged behind other major economies including Germany, France, Japan, and the US which all returned to growth in the second quarter of 2009, the country eventually returned to growth in the last quarter of 2009. On 26 January 2010, it was confirmed that the U.K. had left its recession, the last major economy in the world to do so. In the 3 months to February 2010 the U.K. economy grew yet again by 0.4%. In Q2 of 2010 the economy grew by 1.2% the fastest rate of growth in 9 years. In Q3 of 2010 figures released showed the UK economy grew by 0.8%; this was the fastest Q3 growth in 10 years.
On 5 March 2009, the Bank of England announced that they would pump £200 billion of new capital into the British economy, through a process known as quantitative easing. This is the first time in the United Kingdom's history that this measure has been used, although the Bank's Governor Mervyn King suggested it was not an experiment. The process will see the BoE creating new money for itself, which it will then use to purchase assets such as government bonds, bank loans, or mortgages. Despite the misconception that quantitative easing involves printing money, the BoE are unlikely to do this and instead the money will be created electronically and thus not actually enter the cash circulation system. The initial amount to be created through this method will be £75 billion, although former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling had given permission for up to £150 billion to be created if necessary. It is thought the process is likely to occur over a period of three months with results only likely in the long term.
The BoE has stated that the decision has been taken to prevent the rate of inflation falling below the two percent target rate. Mervyn King, the Governor of the BoE, also suggested there were no other monetary options left as interest rates had already been cut to their lowest level ever of 0.5% and it was unlikely they would be cut further.
As of the end of November 2009, the economy had shrunk by 4.9%, making the 2008–2009 recession the longest since records began. In December 2009, the Office for National Statistics revised figures for the third quarter of 2009 showed that the economy shrank by 0.2%, compared to a 0.6% fall the previous quarter.
It has been suggested that the UK initially lagged behind its European neighbours because the UK entered the 2008 recession later. However, German GDP fell 4.7% year on year compared to the UK's 5.1%, and Germany has now posted a second quarterly gain in GDP. Commentators suggest that the UK suffered a slightly longer recession than other large European countries, as a result of government policy dating back to the policies of the Thatcher government of 1979, in which UK governments have moved away from supporting manufacturing and focused on the financial sector. The OECD predicts that the UK will grow 1.6% in 2010. The unemployment rate recorded by the Labour Force Survey fell in the fourth quarter of 2009, the first of the big 3 economies in the EU to do so. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by a (second revision) figure of 0.2% in the third quarter of 2009, after a decrease of 0.6% in the second quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). There was a 2.4% decline in the first quarter of 2009. The economy has now contracted 5.9% from its peak before the recession began, the BBC reports.
In October 2007, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had forecast British GDP to grow by 3.1% in 2007 and 2.3% in 2008. However, GDP growth slowed to a fall of 0.1% in the April–June (second) quarter of 2008 (revised down from zero). In September 2008, the OECD forecast contraction for at least two quarters for the UK economy, possibly severe, placing its predicted performance last in the G7 of leading economies. Six quarters later the UK economy was still contracting, placing a question mark over OECD forecasting methods.
It has been argued that heavy government borrowing over the past cycle has led to a severe structural deficit, reminiscent of previous crises, which will inevitably exacerbate the situation and place the UK economy in an unfavourable position compared to its OECD partners as attempts are made to stimulate recovery, other OECD nations having allowed greater room for manoeuvre thanks to contrasting policies of relatively tighter fiscal control prior to the global downturn.
In May 2009 the European Commission (EC) stated: "The UK economy is now clearly experiencing one of its worst recessions in recent history." The EC expected GDP to decline 3.8pc in 2009 and projected that growth will remain negative for the first three quarters of 2009. It predicted two quarters of "virtual stagnation" in late 2009-early 2010, followed by a gradual return to "slight positive growth by late 2010".
The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 rose to their highest levels in a year on 9 September 2009 with the FTSE 100 breaking through 5,000 and the FTSE 250 breaking through 9,000. On 8 September the National Institute of Economic and Social Research believed that the economy had grown by 0.2% in the three months to August, but was proved wrong. In its eyes the UK recession was officially over, although it did warn that "normal economic conditions" had not returned. On the same day, figures also showed UK manufacturing output rising at its fastest rate in 18 months in July. On 15 September 2009 the EU incorrectly predicted the UK is expected to grow by 0.2% between July and September, on the same day the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King said the UK GDP is now growing. Unemployment has recently fallen in Wales.
Many commentators in the UK were certain that the UK would leave recession officially in Q3, believing that all the signs showed that growth was extremely likely, although in fact government spending had been insufficient to rescue the economy from recession at that point. Figures in fact showed no growth in retail sales in September 2009, and a 2.5% decline in industrial output in August. The revised UK figures confirmed that the economy shrank in Q3 of 2009 by 0.2%, although government spending on cash for the car scrappage scheme helped. Yet this temporary lapse was followed by a solid 0.4% growth in the Q4. UK manufacturers' body, the EEF, appealed for more cash from the government: "Without an extension of support for business investment in the pre-Budget statement next month, it will be difficult to see where the momentum for growth will come from."
Moody's gave the UK an AAA credit rating in September 2010, forecasting stable finances largely driven by governmental action. It also reported that the economy is flexible to grow in the future and that household debts and poor exports were large growth-reducing factors, as well as its financial sector.
Subsequent to that, the economy contracted in 5 of the next 7 quarters, thus ensuring zero net growth from the end of the recession at the end of 2009, through to the middle of 2012. In Q1 of 2012, the UK economy entered a double-dip recession, in the process posting four consecutive negative quarters of growth. While the first half of 2012 saw inflationary pressures subside and business confidence increase, a number of fundamental weaknesses remain, most notably a decline in the productivity of British business.
2012 Recession
Following two quarters of negative growth, Britain entered a recession in 2012. This is the first double-dip recession since 1975. The country managed to avoid a triple dip recession in April of 2013, when the economy grew by 0.3%.
See also
- Economy of the United Kingdom
- History of the United Kingdom
- Economy of England in the Middle Ages
- Economic history of Scotland
- Acts of Union 1707
- UK labour law history
- UK company law history
- Roderick Floud and Deirdre McCloskey, eds. The Economic History of Britain since 1700 (2 vol 1994) is a standard survey
- Crafts, Nicholas. Britain’s Relative Economic Performance, 1870–1999. London: Institute of Economic Affairs. ISBN 0-255-36524-1.
- Max Savelle, Seeds of Liberty: The Genesis of the American Mind (2005) pp. 204-211
- George Otto Trevelyan, The American revolution: Volume 1 (1899) p. 128 online
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- Redford, Arthur (1976), "Labour migration in England, 1800-1850", p. 6. Manchester University Press, Manchester.
- Hartmut Lehmann and Guenther Roth, eds. Weber's Protestant Ethic: Origins, Evidence, Contexts (1995)
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- Digital History, Steven Mintz. "Was slavery the engine of economic growth?". Digitalhistory.uh.edu. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
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- Peter Cain and Tony Hopkins. British Imperialism: 1688-2000 (2nd ed. 2001)
- Andrew Porter, The Nineteenth Century The Oxford History of the British Empire Volume 3 (1999) p 35
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- Robert C. Self (2006). Britain, America and the war debt controversy: the economic diplomacy of an unspecial relationship, 1917-1941. Psychology Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-415-35022-8.
- N. K. Buxton, "Economic growth in Scotland between the Wars: the role of production structure and rationalization", Economic History Review, (Nov 1980) 33#4 pp. 538-55.
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- R. J. Finlay, "National identity in crisis: politicians, intellectuals and the 'end of Scotland', 1920-1939," History, June 1994, vol. 79, (256), pp. 242-59.
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- B. R. Mitchell, European historical statistics, 1750-1970 (1975) pp 399-401
- John B. Parrish, "Iron and Steel in the Balance of World Power," Journal of Political Economy, (Oct 1956), 64#5 pp 369-388 in JSTOR
- Michael Sanderson, "The Professor as Industrial Consultant: Oliver Arnold and the British Steel Industry, 1900-14," Economic History Review, (Nov 1978) 31#4 pp 585-600
- W.N. Medlicott, Contemporary England, 1914-1964 (2nd ed. 1967) pp 223-30
- Alastair Reid, and Steven Tolliday, "The General Strike, 1926," Historical Journal (1977) 20#4 pp. 1001-1012 in JSTOR
- Martin Pugh, "The General Strike," History Today (2006) 56#5 pp 40-47
- Ben Fine, The Coal Question: Political Economy and Industrial Change from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (1990).
- B. R. Mitchell, European Historical Statistics (1975) pp 361-8, 163
- Rex Pope, "A Consumer Service in Interwar Britain: The Hotel Trade, 1924-1938," Business History Review, (Winter 2000) 74#4 pp 657-82
- Robin Havers, The Second World War: Europe, 1939-1943 (2002) Volume 4, p 75
- W.K. Hancock, W.K. and M. Gowing, British War Economy (1949)
- Peter Howlett, "Resource allocation in wartime Britain: The case of steel, 1939-45," Journal of Contemporary History, (July 1994) 29#3 pp 523-44
- Postan (1952), Chapter 4.
- Hancock, British War Economy online p 353
- "HyperWar: British War Economy [Chapter IX]". Ibiblio.org. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
- There were some exceptions and $650 million was repaid. Walter Yust, ed. Ten Eventful years (1947) 2:859
- "HyperWar: British War Economy [Statistical Summary]". Ibiblio.org. 1 September 1939. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
- "1959: Macmillan wins Tory hat trick". BBC News. 5 April 2005.
- Michael J. Hogan, The Marshall Plan: America, Britain and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952 (1989)
- Mark Tookey, "Three's a Crowd? Government, Owners, and Workers During the Nationalization of the British Coalmining Industry 1945-47," Twentieth Century British History (2001) 12#4 pp 486-510
- "Whatever happened to full employment?". BBC News. 13 October 2011.
- "1982: UK unemployment tops three million". BBC News. 26 January 1982.
- Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical (Bantam, 1992), p. 207.
- Kern, David. UK Economic Decline: ‘Myth’ or Reality?.
- "1992: Tories win again against odds". BBC News. 5 April 2005.
- "1993: Recession over - it's official". BBC News. 26 April 1993.
- Office for National Statistics. Statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2011-10-31.
- UK economy shrinks less than thought, BBC News, 25 November 2009
- "UK in recession as economy slides". BBC News. 23 January 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
- No way to start out in life The Economist, 16 July 2009
- British economic growth data revised upwards http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2009/12/22/uk-economic-growth-figures-revised-upwards-2/
- "Economic growth revised upwards". BBC News. 2010-03-30. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
- "Bank to pump £75bn into economy". BBC News. 5 March 2009. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- "ECB, Bank of England cut rates to record lows". CNN. 5 March 2009. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- "Q & A: What is 'quantitative easing?'". CNN. 5 March 2009. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- Duncan, Gary (5 March 2009). "Bank ‘prints’ £75bn and cuts interest rates in half". London: The Times. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- Daily FX, 13 November 2009 06:43, German GDP Posts 2nd Quarterly Advance; Rises to 0.7%
- "France and Germany may have been less hard hit than the UK by the global economic slowdown because their financial sectors, which were at the heart of the crisis, account for a smaller proportion of their economies." France and Germany exit recession, BBC News, Thursday, 13 August 2009,
- Prospect magazine supplement, The return of manufacturing in Britain. "The credit crunch has exposed our overdependence on the financial sector", The Return of Manufacturing, Michael Prest, UK Manufacturing Prospect magazine 2009, p. 4
- How Margaret Thatcher made Britain great again, Andrew Roberts, The First Post, 25 February 2009 How Margaret Thatcher made Britain great again, "She changed British reliance on manufacturing industry just in time"
- "Labour market statistics, January 2010". Statistical Bulletin (Office for National Statistics). 20 January 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
- Business | Record recession for UK economy. BBC News (2009-10-23). Retrieved on 2011-10-31.
- Business | IMF predicts slower global growth. BBC News (2007-10-17). Retrieved on 2011-10-31.
- "UK economy comes to a standstill". BBC News. 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
- Conway, Edmund (2008-09-02). "UK is the only major economy to face recession this year, OECD warns". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2010-05-01.
- Conway, Edmund (2008-09-07). "Gordon Brown policies 'piling up budget deficit'". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2010-05-01.
- 'EC demolishes Alistair Darling's recovery forecasts'. Telegraph, 04 May 2009
- BBC NEWS | Business | FTSE breaks through 5,000 level. Newsvote.bbc.co.uk (2009-09-09). Retrieved on 2011-10-31.
- "Economy shrinks less than thought". BBC News. 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
- "Moody's hails UK austerity effort". BBC News. 20 September 2010.
- "UK economy in double-dip recession". BBC News. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
- "The Productivity Problem". Huffington Post. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
- Duncan, Hugo (25 April 2012). "The first double dip for 37 years: But as Britain endures longest downturn for a century, PM vows not to change course". Daily Mail. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- Aldcroft, D. H.; Richardson, H. W. (1969). The British Economy, 1870–1939.
- Alford, B. W. E. (1988). British Economic Performance, 1945–1975.
- Broadberry, Stephen; Campbell, Bruce M. S.; Leeuwen, Bas van (2013). "When did Britain industrialise? The sectoral distribution of the labour force and labour productivity in Britain, 1381–1851". Explorations in Economic History 50 (1): 16–27. doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2012.08.004.
- Cain, Peter, and Tony Hopkins. British Imperialism: 1688-2000 (2nd ed. 2001)
- Clapham; J. H. An Economic History of Modern Britain (3 vol 1926-63), since 1820
- Daunton; M. J. Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1700-1850 Oxford University Press, 1995
- Ball, Ball and David Sunderland. An Economic History of London, 1800-1914 Routledge, 2001.
- Fieldhouse, D. K. Economics and Empire, 1830-1914 (1973).
- Floud, Roderick, and Paul Johnson. The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain (2004)
- Floud, Roderick, and Deirdre McCloskey, eds. The Economic History of Britain since 1700 2 vol (1994)
- Horrell, Sara (2000). "Living Standards in Britain 1900–2000: Women's Century". National Institute Economic Review 172 (1): 62–77. doi:10.1177/002795010017200107.
- Milward, A. S. The Economic Effects of the Two World Wars on Britain (1970).
- Mokyr, Joel (2010). The enlightened economy: an economic history of Britain, 1700-1850. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12455-2.
- Peden, G. C. British Economic and Social Policy: Lloyd George to Margaret Thatcher (1985).
- Pelling, Henry. A History of British Trade Unionism (1963).
- Pope; Rex. Atlas of British Social and Economic History since C.1700 Routledge, 1990
- Pollard, Sidney. Britain's Prime and Britain's Decline: The British Economy, 1870-1914 (1989).
- Pollard, Sidney. The Development of the British Economy, 1914-1967 (1967).
- Roberts, E. Women and Work, 1840-1940 (1988).
- Saul, S. B. The Myth of the Great Depression, 1873-1896 (1969).
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A concrete example will help:
Lets suppose we have a volume group called VG1, this volume group has a physical extent size of 4MB. Into this volume group we introduce 2 hard disk partitions, /dev/hda1 and /dev/hdb1. These partitions will become physical volumes PV1 and PV2 (more meaningful names can be given at the administrators discretion). The PV's are divided up into 4MB chunks, since this is the extent size for the volume group. The disks are different sizes and we get 99 extents in PV1 and 248 extents in PV2. We now can create ourselves a logical volume, this can be any size between 1 and 347 (248 + 99) extents. When the logical volume is created a mapping is defined between logical extents and physical extents, eg. logical extent 1 could map onto physical extent 51 of PV1, data written to the first 4 MB of the logical volume in fact be written to the 51st extent of PV1.
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Also known as i386 or x86, the most common ISA on desktop machines for historical reasons. Recent implementations have many sophisticated features such as deep pipelines with out of order execution and good branch prediction.
The SPARC is a reduced instruction set architecture whose origins go back to the early work on RISC at Berkeley. Its original features include register windows and support for tagged arithmetic. Recent members of the family are 64 bit. Most SPARCS now have deep pipelines, but are in order.
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As it quickly became clear that there was a certain demographic skew among the people stranded in New Orleans, journalists began intoning that Hurricane Katrina had stripped bare the continuing racial inequity in America.
The extent to which this was hidden is unclear, actually. An awareness that a tragic disproportion of black Americans are poor has been a hallmark of civic awareness among educated Americans for 40 years now.
The problem is less a lack of awareness than a lack of understanding. The publicly sanctioned take is that “white supremacy” is why 80% of New Orleans’s poor people are black. The civics lesson, we are to think, is that the civil rights revolution left a job undone in an America still hostile to black advancement.
In fact, white America does remain morally culpable — but because white leftists in the late 1960s, in the name of enlightenment and benevolence, encouraged the worst in human nature among blacks and even fostered it in legislation. The hordes of poor blacks stuck in the Superdome last week wound up there not because the White Man barred them from doing better, but because certain tragically influential White Men destroyed the fragile but lasting survival skills poor black communities had maintained since the end of slavery.
Few thinking people regret the flower children’s opposition to the Vietnam war, sexism and racial discrimination. But these advances also spelt the demise of old standards of responsibility. Taught that criminality and violence must be judged in proportion to the extent to which poverty and discrimination have coloured one’s existence, the enlightened white person saw black violence as “understandable”.
This meant a largely theatrical black separatist ideology, drastically short on constructive aims, had a public sanction that it had never had before. Hating whitey for its own sake now had an ear among the influential and quickly became the word on the street.
There was a new sense that the disadvantages of being black gave one a pass on civility — or even achievement: this was when black teens started teasing black nerds for “acting white”.
Behaviour that most of a black community would have condemned as counterproductive started to seem normal. Through the late 1960s blacks burnt down their own neighbourhoods as gestures of being “fed up”. But blacks had been “fed up” for centuries: why were these the first riots initiated by blacks rather than white thugs — when the economy was flush and employment opportunities were opening up as never before? Because the culture had changed, in ways that hindered too many blacks from taking advantage of the civil rights revolution. Meanwhile, the most grievous result of the new consensus was black American history’s most under-reported event, the expansion of welfare. Until now, welfare had been a pittance intended for widows, unavailable as long as the father of one’s children was able-bodied and accounted for, and granted for as little time as possible.
In 1966, however, a group of white academics in New York developed a plan to bring as many people onto the welfare rolls as possible. Across the country, poor blacks especially were taught to apply for living on the dole even when they had been working for a living, and by 1970 there were 169% more people on welfare nationwide than in 1960.
This was the first time that whites or blacks had taught black people not to work as a form of civil rights. Politicians and bureaucrats jumped on the new opportunity for political patronage and votes, and welfare quickly became a programme that essentially paid young women to have children.
Only in 1996 was welfare limited to five years and focused on training for work. But by then generations of poor blacks had grown up in neighbourhoods where there was no requirement that fathers support their children. Few grew up watching their primary parent work for a living. Most people paid nominal subsidies as rent and were thus less inclined to treat their living spaces well.
The multigenerational welfare family with grandmothers in their forties became typical: young women had babies in their teens because there was no reason not to with welfare waiting to pick up the tab.
This is the hell that most of the people in the Superdome either lived in or knew at close hand, and none of them could help being stamped by it. Welfare reform was only nine years ago. The women now past the five-year cap are mostly struggling in dead-end jobs. This is better than living on the dole. But these women are weighed down by too many kids created under the old regime to have the time or energy to get the education to get beyond where they are. Poor black neighbourhoods are not what they were at the height of the crack epidemic in the 1980s, but they are still a crying shame.
The poor black America that welfare expansion created in 1966 is still with us. Poor young blacks have never known anything else. People as old as 50 have only vague memories of life before it. For 30 years this was a world within a world, as is made clear from how often the Katrina refugees mention it is the first time they have ever left New Orleans.
What Katrina stripped bare, then, was not white supremacy, but that culture matters — even if what created the culture was misguided white benevolence. Social scientists neglect that before the 1960s poor blacks knew plenty of economic downturns and plenty more racism.
But before the 1960s the kinds of behaviour so common among the blacks stranded in the Superdome, possibly including multiple rapes, was a fringe phenomenon. Only after the 1960s did it become a community norm.
Wise people tell us that poor blacks in New Orleans went to rack and ruin when low-skill industrial jobs left the city centre, a common argument about cities nationwide. But in cities like Indianapolis where the factories largely stayed close, the same degradation began — starting in the late 1960s.
Wise people tell us that housing projects destroyed poor black communities by concentrating too many poor people in one place. But in city after city, these projects were peaceful places until welfare recipients were allowed to move in in large numbers.
All indications are that the reform of welfare in 1996 is bearing fruit in terms of income and the life conditions of children. Hopefully, legions of poor black people who return to New Orleans will take advantage of the job opportunities that rebuilding a city will offer. But what we should all remember from Katrina is a tragic close-up of a group of people staggering after, first, a hideous natural disaster but, ultimately, an equally hideous sociological disaster of 40 years ago.
Original Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article565148.ece
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Brain games STOP depression before it STARTS?
Totally not necessary.
[via New Scientist] Brain-training games stop depression before it starts
It may be possible to stave off depression before it even appears using brain-scanning software so simplistic in its design that even the psychologist testing it once bet it wouldn’t work.
Ian Gotlib‘s group at Stanford University, California, studies girls aged 10 to 14 years whose mothers suffer from depression. Such girls are thought to be at higher-than-normal risk of developing the condition themselves, in part because they may inherit their mothers’ tendency to “amplify” unpleasant information. Although none of the girls has yet experienced a depressive episode, Gotlib has found that their brains already overreact to negative emotional stimuli – a pattern they share with their mothers and other depressed people.
Gotlib is studying whether these young subjects can use interactive software and brain-imaging hardware to “rewire” their brains by unlearning this negative bias.
In a pilot experiment, eight girls used a neural feedback display to learn how to control activity in a network of interrelated brain regions that have been linked to depression – these include the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
The level of activity in this network was measured using an functional MRI scan and displayed to the girls in the form of a thermometer on a computer screen. The girls were shown sad or negative pictures that might ordinarily raise their “temperature”, and tried to lower that “temperature” by adopting more sanguine mental states. They were then advised to try to recreate that mindset in their daily lives.
A control group unknowingly watched someone else’s scan output instead of their own, so they didn’t actually learn how to control their brain activity.
Accentuate the positive
Another set of girls in the pilot experiment received their training through a simple computer game instead. In this game, a pair of faces appeared on a screen every few seconds: they would be either neutral and sad, or neutral and happy. Then a dot replaced one of the faces, and the “game” was to click on the dot. For the eight girls in the control group, the face replaced by the dot was selected at random, but for eight girls in the experimental group, the dot always replaced the more positive face in the pair. Over a week of playing this game daily, these girls were in effect being trained to avoid looking at the sad faces.
Gotlib himself originally found this concept, called attentional-bias training, so simplistic that he bet Colin MacLeod, a psychologist at the University of Western Australia in Perth who pioneered the technique, that it would not alter psychological symptoms. Gotlib lost his bet.
In his pilot study, both kinds of training significantly reduced stress-related responses – for example, increases in heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol levels – to negative stimuli. These stress responses are a key marker of depression, and they diminished one week after training. The girls in the experimental groups also developed fewer defensive responses to negative faces, such as startled blinking. Control groups showed no such improvement.
Jill Hooley, head of Harvard University’s clinical psychology programme, was impressed by the findings despite the small sample size: “This is highly innovative work,” she said. “Ian is breaking new ground here.”
Gotlib is adding more subjects to the training programme and plans to compare their long-term mental health with a parallel cohort of 200 girls, half of whom have depressed mothers, who aren’t participating in the study.
Not necessary “Cause, why?” You ask.
Introducing: A Glass Full of Awesome!
[via Gizmodo] You know what’s great? Really good scotch whisky. You know what’s not great? Fake scotch whisky. Worry not. Researchers at St. Andrews University have figured out how to test your whisky’s authenticity by shooting it with lasers. Mmm, whisky-lasers…
Here’s how it works. Researchers put a drop of whisky on a chip the that’s about the size of a credit card. They then use a couple of fiber optics (no thicker than human hairs), one of which lights it up, while the other analyzes it. The technique looks at the fluorescence of whisky and the scattering of light when it interacts with various molecules, which is called its Raman signature.
They claim to be able to determine the whisky’s brand, age, and cask. Pretty incredible if it’s true. I wonder how they plan on compiling this database, though. Do they expect distilleries to give them a bottle from every batch? If so, how do I join these guys?
There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that they only need a single drop of whisky in order to determine its authenticity. Waste more than a single droplet of that golden elixer and you’d have me rioting. The bad news, well, you have get a drop out, which means you need to open the bottle. That in itself means it’s not going to be much use to us consumers, directly. It’s more for distributers or stores who are buying in bulk and want to make sure they’re getting a crate of the real McCoy. Those types won’t mind sacrificing a bottle for the greater good. On the flip side of the coin, you would have to pry that bottle of Lagavulin out of my cold, dead, drunk hands. Indirectly, though, it benefits consumers who buy from distributors and stores, hopefully ensuring we get what we pay for.
Is there ANY type of depression that could stand up against this glass-bound bit of wonderful?
*shakes head, smiling*
I think not.
And although it is understandable that the girls in the first article are far too young to benefit (not to mention) Whisky+Laser?
I, however, am not…
Thank. You. Gawd!
“Bartender, I’ll take a whisky, please. I have my laser at the ready–Bring it on!” Pew, pew-pew pew. “Perfection!”
Why yes *sips*, indeed it is.
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Recommendation 7: Congress, federal agencies, and the federal climate change research program should work with other relevant partners (including universities, state and local governments, the international research community, the business community, and other nongovernmental organizations) to expand and engage the human capital needed to carry out climate change research and response programs.
We have entered a new era of climate change research. Although there are some uncertainties in the details of future climate change, it is clear that climate change is occurring, is largely due to human activities, and poses significant risks for people and the ecosystems on which we depend. Moreover, climate change is not just an environmental problem; it is a sustainability challenge that affects and interacts with other environmental changes and efforts to provide food, energy, water, shelter, and other fundamental needs of people today and in the future. In response to the risks posed by climate change, actions are now being taken both to limit the magnitude of future climate change and to adapt to its unavoidable impacts. These responses to climate change should be informed by the best possible scientific knowledge. Research is needed to improve understanding of the climate system and related human and environmental systems, to maximize the effectiveness of actions taken to respond to climate change, and to avoid unintended consequences for human well-being and the Earth system that sustains us. Acquiring the needed scientific knowledge, and making it useful to decision makers, will require an expanded climate change research enterprise. The challenge is tremendous, and so, too, should be our response, both in magnitude and in breadth.
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Today in Church History
J. Gresham Machen, Orthodox Presbyterian Church: formation
On June 11, 1936, at the meeting of the Presbyterian Constitutional Covenant Union in the New Century Club in Philadelphia, the Presbyterian Church of America was formed. (In 1939, its name was changed to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.)
Convening shortly after the 148th General Assembly denied J. Gresham
Machen's appeal and upheld the verdict of the Presbytery of New Brunswick
which suspended him from the ministry, the Covenant Union passed an Act of
Association to establish the new church. The first article read:
In order to continue what we believe to be the true spiritual succession of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., which we hold to have been abandoned by the present organization of that body, and to make clear to all the world that we have no connection with the organization bearing that name, we a company of ministers and ruling elders, having been removed from that organization in contravention (as we believe) of its constitution, or having severed our connection with it, or coming as ministers or ruling elders from other ecclesiastical bodies holding the Reformed Faith, do hereby associate ourselves together with all Christian people who do and will adhere to us, in a body to be known and styled as the Presbyterian Church of America.
Machen reported on the inaugural General Assembly in the Presbyterian Guardian: "On Thursday, June 11, 1936, the hopes of many long years were realized. We became members, at last, of a true Presbyterian Church; we recovered, at last, the blessing of true Christian fellowship. What a joyous moment it was! How the long years of struggle seemed to sink into nothingness compared with the peace and joy that filled our hearts!"
- John Muether
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From The Sun, New York, NY, Sunday, February 20, 1898, Section 2, p. 6:
THE PEDIGREE OF THE CROATANS.
Identified as Descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Roanoke Colony.
From the Philadelphia Record.
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 13. – Former United States Senator Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi has always been classed as a negro. He was a tall, well-built man, with the chocolate skin and curly hair of an African and the devout bearing of his profession – the ministerial. He served during the reconstruction period, never being known as a prominent, but always as a representative, colored man. Revels was not a negro. Dr. C. A. Peterson of St. Louis, who has made a study of the lost Roanoke (Va.) colony, says that Revels is a descndant of that mystery-shrouded band that Sir Walter Raleigh sent to Roanoke Island in 1587.
“The historian has usually contented himself with dropping his investigations when he reached the point where Gov. John White returned from England and found his colony had disappeared from Roanoke Island,” said Dr. Peterson, “and you will find in about every history you pick up the statement that the colonists were probably killed by the Indians. The Roanoke colony consisted of 115 unmarried men and twenty who had families. They were sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587, in charge of John White, who was an appointed Governor. Ananias Dare, his son-in-law, was Vice-Governor, and during 1587 his wife gave birth to a daughter, the first white child born in America, and she was called Virginia Dare.
“During the summer a tribe of Croatan Indians, who lived some fifty miles away on the east shore of what is now North Carolina – the whole country was then called Virginia – visited the colony on Roanoke Island, and proposed to the settlers that they remove to the home of the Indians, intermarry, and become members of their tribe. The 115 unmarried men were very willing to accept the proposition, and it was only with difficulty that Gov. White induced them to remain. When everything was completed White returned to England and got provisions and reinforcements. Before going he instructed the colonists to leave some testimony if for any reason they should conclude to move during his absence.
“The next year, 1588, was the year of the Spanish Armada, and White’s boat and every other seagoing vessel was impressed into service. So it was impossible for Gov. White to set sail for America again until 1589. When he arrived at Roanoke he found the stockade and the houses there, but everybody had gone. On one tree he found the word ‘Croatan’ carved, and on one stockade post merely the beginning – ‘Croat.’ He was about to proceed in search of the Croatans, when a Hatteras storm came up, and, after beating about for some time, the crew mutinied and insisted on going down to the Spanish Main and engaging in privateering. So they captured a couple of richly laden Spanish vessels and returned to England comparatively wealthy.
“The next year Gov. White took another crew and landed at Roanoke Island. This time he found the fresh track of a boat’s keel on the island, and found that a chest he had buried three years before had been dug up and the contents ransacked. Again he started down the coast, and again his crew mutinied and went pirating on the Spanish Main.
“In 1607 Capt. John Smith, who had been saved by Pocahontas, started an expedition from Jamestown to see if he couldn’t discover the whereabouts of the missing colonists. Instead of going by boat they started overland. They proceeded about 100 miles, got tired, went back, and this was the last effort to find them, and here history, as it is generally recorded, ceases.
“Now for the facts which the historians have generally so singularly overlooked. In 1710, when the Huguenots and cavaliers started to penetrate the interior of North Carolina, they found, some seventy-five miles from the coast, in what is now Robeson county, N. C., a colony of English-speaking people, many of whom had blue eyes and light hair. They inquired where they came from, and they replied, ‘From Croatan.’ ‘How does it come that you speak English?’ ‘Our fathers were English.’
“They wrote one letter back about their discovery, a letter which, by the way, is in the archives of the Board of Trade of London. It is evident that a number of the Huguenots remained in the colony and intermarried, as there are a great many names of undoubted French origin to be found among the Croatan names of the present day.
“These people have always been called Croatans. There are some 4,000 of them living in Robeson county, N. C., at the present time,. but they have scattered all over the South and West[.] I have found Croatan names among all the five civilized tribes living in the Indian Territory.
“The Croatans have distinct racial characteristics. They are as dark as Portuguese, and are different in appearance from either Indians, negroes, or Caucasians. In some instances there has evidently been a mixture with negro blood, and on this account when, in 1835, North Carolina and Tennessee disfranchised the negroes, they included the Croatans.
“When the war broke out the Croatans were between two fires. Those who did not enlist in the Southern army were liable to be impressed as negroes for work on fortifications, &c. From this custom came the cause of the depredations of the Lowry gang, which for years spread terror in North Carolina. Old man Lowry resisted impressment, declaring that there was nothing but English and Indian blood in his veins and that he was as much of an American freeman and had as good blood in him as the Harrisons, the Randolphs or any of the descendants of the proudest colonial families. For this stubborn stand he was shot dead.
“When his son, Henry Berry Lowry, reached manhood, he took his gun, organized a band of sympathizers and started out on a mission of extermination. Every man suspected of having had any connection with his father’s death was waylaid and killed. The gang was finally broken up, but not until it had collected bloody interest on old Lowry’s death.
“The most eminent of the Croatans was United States Senator Revels, who was elected from Mississippi during the reconstruction days. He was classed as a negro, but he was in reality a Croatan, one of those with a Huguenot name and ancestry.
“The family names of the Croatans are the same as those of the settlers on Roanoke Island. They were men from Devonshire, England, and, furthermore, even the broad Devonshire pronunciation is found in certain words as used by the Croatans, to-day.
“A hundred years ago a colony of Croatans settled in eastern Tennessee, on Newman’s Ridge, Hancock county. They can’t tell to-day where they came from, for tradition over fifty years old isn’t worth anything. These are the people called Melungeons. They are similar in racial characteristics to the Croatans, and Dr. Swan M. Burnett, a distinguished scholar and scientist, has traced, by family names, the connection between the Melungeons and the Croatans.
“The name Melungeons is accounted for in this wise. When the new settlers appeared among the mountaineers their unusual looks prompted inquiries as to what they were. The answer was ‘Melange’ – or a mixture – and the mountaineers dubbed them Melungeons.”
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Tectonics on Titan
May 21, 2008
A set of three parallel ridges was seen by the Cassini spacecraft's radar instrument during the latest Titan flyby on May 12, 2008. This combination is unlikely to be a coincidence -- the best explanation for these features is that they are tilted or separated blocks of broken or faulted crust, now exposed as high ridges. Their regular spacing is typical of regions that have been compressed or extended over large areas; as an example, the western United States Basin and Range Province was formed by extension. Such interactions are called tectonics, although they do not happen in the same way as plate tectonics, which is a process unique to Earth.
The ridges, which appear on the left side of the image, are rugged features and are elevated above surrounding terrain. The brightness patterns mean that the materials are fractured or blocky at the radar wavelength (2.17 centimeters, or about 1 inch). Along the south sides of the ridges are prominent cliffs, or scarps, present as thin, radar-dark lines trending west-to-east, and interpreted as faults. These features are dark due to shadowing from the radar illumination, and have heights up to a few hundred meters (several hundred feet), based on preliminary estimates of slopes.
The area shown here is located in the mountainous region called Xanadu. The ridges are similar in many ways to mountain chains seen at similar latitude but about 90 degrees to the west, just west of Shangri-La (observed during a flyby in October 2005, Dunes and more dunes). Both regions have mountain chains or ridges that are oriented west-to-east and are spaced about 50 kilometers (30 miles) apart. This indicates tectonic forces have acted in a north to south direction at Titan's equatorial region and have resulted in regular effects in Titan's crust, evidence that will help scientists better understand Titan's crust and interior.
Other linear features, probably related to the formation of the ridges, and circular features, perhaps eroded impact craters now filled with radar-dark (smooth) material, are also seen in the image. The largest circular feature, at bottom center, is about 20 km in diameter.
The image is centered at 2 degrees south, 127 degrees west and was obtained on May 12, 2008, with a resolution of about 300 meters (980 feet). The open arrow indicates the direction of radar illumination. The dashed white line in the upper portion is an artifact of the SAR processing and will be removed in later versions.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.
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Aero-Terms are designed to be a daily reminder of the terms,
names, acronyms and explanations of the unique language that
populates the aviation world. Aerospace, sport aviation, fixed
wing, helo, you name it... it's all fair game.
Aero-Terms should serve as a quick but intriguing reminder of
the terms you may use every day, or an introduction to an aspects
of the Aero-World you may not yet be familiar with. ANN also
encourages readers to go beyond the FMI link, and further research
any intriguing terms.
A propeller whose blades have been rotated so that the leading
and trailing edges are nearly parallel with the aircraft flight
path to stop or minimize drag and engine rotation. Normally used to
indicate shutdown of a reciprocating or turboprop engine due to
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The term alignment is never applied to any animal but man. This points out how artificial such a concept is when considering living form. The notion seems to have developed during the machine age – post-industrial revolution – when the tendency was to attempt to define all structures with simple mechanical concepts. Considering the body as architecture, it must have seemed evident to some that the most efficient condition of uprightness would be one in which bones were neatly stacked, such that no muscle action would be required to maintain verticality.
Actually, in order to function, the body requires constant muscle action; this is obvious: the heart beats, we breathe, etc. Our sense of ourselves in space comes from movement – movement of fluid in the canals of the inner ear results from the constant interplay of muscular forces in the body. Because the body is not aligned, gravity exerts a pull on our bodies which is resisted by muscle. In this way, signals are generated by muscle spindles which inform us of changing conditions. The brain uses these messages, along with those from other senses, to orient our bodies in space. We only know where we are because of movement – the senses cannot measure static conditions — they only measure change. If you doubt this, rest your hand on your thigh. Bring your awareness to your hand, to your fingers. Now try to identify, through touch, the fabric of your clothing. You must move your hand to do this. Nerves in your fingertips will sense texture only if there is movement. The same is true of vision. A perceived image must move on the retina so that we can judge the difference between one visual texture and another (constant small movements of the eyes, saccades, are reflexive).
If it were truly possible to align body segments, we would quickly suffer the consequences in a lack of meaningful orienting sensory input. Further, moving an aligned structure presents many difficulties – like the difficulties in moving from a stop in an automobile that is not running, but much more, because an automobile does not need to glean information about its surroundings in order to function.
In moving the human body, a structure that has parts arrayed in such a manner that constant muscular adaptation is required, a release of muscular action can initiate movement very quickly and efficiently. Let’s take the action of walking. Already, in standing, much muscular action is required to maintain upright posture against the pull of gravity. The head does not balance on the top of the spine, but, rather, is maintained in instability with its center of gravity forward of the atlantal-occipital joint by constant action of sub-occipital muscles. The neck reflexes ( vestibulo-nucal, Magnus-De Kleijn tonic) allow changing conditions to be communicated to spinal musculature through constant change in head orientation. At the level of the hips, we can see that, although the sacrum is rearward of the hip joints, the greater weight of the trunk is in the organs, heart, lungs, digestive system, and that the posterior musculature of the spine is engaged to extend the body against this forward-falling weight. So the trunk does not balance on the hips, but is prevented from falling by the constant action of posterior muscles responding to weight that is out of alignment. Further, the hip joints do not align over the knees and ankles. The weight of the body is most efficiently delivered to the ground at a point slightly behind the ball of the foot. This requires constant muscle action in the calf muscles. It is possible, of course, to rest the body’s weight on the heels, but this requires excessive effort, and will lead to bracing in the hips and knees. Deep muscles, such as those of the iliopsoas group, will work very hard in a condition of relative fixity to compensate for the lack of tone in the soleus and gastrocnemius (calf) muscles. Simply put, the postural system is one in which all muscles are constantly interacting and constantly toned. Opposing muscles are not set against each other, but are in continual adaptation. It is this lengthening and shortening which gives us a sense of where are limbs are in relation to each other (proprioception), and through this, gives us, when factored with input from visual and vestibular senses, a sense of where we are in space.
In studies of balance, it has been shown that a certain amount of sway is a requisite part of how we balance ourselves. If, for example, you sway to the left, some muscles on your left side will be stretched, some muscles on your right will be shortened. As these changing conditions are relayed to the sensory motor cortex, a correcting action is initiated, will bring you back past center and towards the right – and the cycle continues. The changing conditions of the muscles involved generates your proprioceptive sense – the sense of where your parts are in relation to each other. Muscles spindles send messages to the brain only when the muscle is moving – shortening or lengthening. Opposing muscles constantly react to each other, even outside of the force of gravity. (Recall how astronauts must exercise vigorously to avoid muscle atrophy when they are in weightless conditions.) Further, the slightest movement changes pressure on golgi receptors in the joints which also contribute to proprioception – again, like the muscle spindles, the golgi receptors only respond to change. In the canals and otoliths of the inner ear, this sway causes movement of liquid within the canals which stimulates receptors and create a sense of angular and linear acceleration and deceleration. If you could be truly still, you could have no sense of inter-corporeal or inter-spacial orientation. Contrary to what is often suggested, the only way to align the body – to stack our frames in a line with the pull of gravity — is with excessive effort and bracing – pulling the head back, tucking the pelvis forwards and standing on the heels.
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The weather in the Lake District can change very quickly, particularly on the fells where clear morning skies can rapidly give way to rain, sleet or even snow on the summits, so you'd better be prepared! Appropriate clothing can make all the difference and four items are basic essentials for a day on the fells; boots, base layer, waterproofs and rucksack.
Your walking boots should give grip, comfort and ankle support. They should also keep your feet dry in wet conditions. Take time and advice when buying boots - halfway into a walk is no time to find that they don't fit properly.
The base layer is the next-to-skin garment that should ‘wick' perspiration away from your body, leaving you feeling dry and comfortable. Traditional cotton T shirts are a bad choice for outdoor use, so invest in a good base layer and feel the difference. A mid layer fleece would be useful in cooler conditions.
Go for well-made waterproof jackets and trousers that are really designed to keep out the rain, and look for materials that are both waterproof and breathable.
Your rucksack should hold everything you need and be able to be carried comfortably. Don't carry the weight only on your shoulders - a good pack should have a waist belt that allows the load to be taken by your hips. And don't believe anyone that says a rucksack is waterproof - put everything that must stay dry in a plastic liner, just in case.
Essentials for a day on the fells include hat and gloves, a spare warm layer, enough food and drink, and a first aid kit. A compass, map and the knowledge to use them will stop you getting lost. If you want to learn more about navigation complete a course - basic navigational skills can be learned in just a few hours.
Call the National Park Authority's Weatherline Service 0844 846 2444 or visit http://www.lake-district.gov.uk/weatherline to check the forecast before you leave.
If possible leave details of your route and expected finish time with a buddy. This could be a friend, member of your family or accommodation provider. If you are delayed but it isn't an emergency please contact your buddy to let them know. This will prevent mountain rescue, a team of volunteers, being called out unnecessarily.
If there is an accident or emergency and you need assistance call 999. Ask for Cumbria Police and give as much detail about the situation and your location as possible, an accurate grid reference would be ideal. Please do not contact the emergency services unless it is a real emergency.
Walking in winter brings a whole new set of challenges and you need to be even more prepared. Additional warm clothing will be needed and if you are walking at high altitude you may need an ice axe and crampons and be able to use them! Also make sure you are aware of the number of daylight hours and plan your walking route accordingly.
For more information on climbing, safety and good practice in the outdoors, contact the British Mountaineering Council on www.thebmc.co.uk
If you are new to climbing, or a bit rusty, why not contact an activity provider to book tuition?
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The math being used to solve the electricity grid’s most complex power flow equations today is, well, kind of fuzzy.
Gridquant, a startup created by Spanish software development firm Grupo AIA, says its new math for power flow modeling can make those grid calculations far more accurate. While the company was only recently incorporated in the United States, versions of its “Holomorphic Embedding Load-Flow Method” (HELM) modeling have been put into action at grid operations centers by Spanish utility Endesa and Mexico’s Comisión Federal de Electricidad since the 1990s, as well as since 2002 at California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PDF).
Last month, Gridquant announced that research heavyweight Battelle has joined as a new partner to bring its HELM technology to a wider audience. Battelle invested an undisclosed amount in the Savannah, Ga.-based company, and will take its technology to market as exclusive provider of consulting services for utilities wanting to implement the technology via end-use licenses.
The idea is that Battelle, the Columbus, Ohio-based group that helps run $6.5 billion in annual research and development budgets for customers including Department of Energy laboratories, can help utilities wrap their heads around building an unfamiliar and extremely complex form of mathematics into their grid operations.
“This software is a game-changer,” is how Bob Stuart, the former PG&E operations engineering manager who led the deployment of the technology at the utility in 2002, put it. “It does something totally different from Newton-Raphson, which has been around for a long time, but does not solve the problems you need it to solve.”
Stuart, who now works for Gridquant, is referring to the Newton-Raphson method, named after mathematical genius Sir Isaac Newton and his less well-known contemporary Joseph Raphson. For the past 100 years or so, these mathematical techniques have been used by energy management systems (EMS) to calculate power flows in the world’s grid operations centers.
But Newton-Raphson does so using approximations, and can yield false conclusions, especially when the data coming into the system is rapidly changing, Stuart said in an interview last week. That’s a problem, because those moments of rapid change also happen to be the moments of highest grid stress and danger. That means, ironically, that the flaws of the Newton-Raphson method make it least useful when the need for it to be accurate is at its most critical, he said.
Gridquant’s math, developed by physicist and Grupo AIA co-founder Antoni Trias-Bonet, takes a completely different approach, one that Stuart described as “deterministic” in approach. Instead of approximations that get less reliable as complications increase, HELM yields a verifiable result based on incoming data that’s constantly being built into the model, he said.
As Ross Harding, Gridquant’s CEO, put it, “This software shows you exactly where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there.” The software can integrate with existing EMS systems, which means it can incorporate existing grid sensors, such as synchrophasors that take millisecond readings of transmission system power quality.
Sensors like these are seen as a critical first step toward giving grid operators the visibility to foresee the kind of unpredictable cascading fault effects that lead to system-wide outages like those that struck the U.S. Northeast and Canada in 2003, or blacked out San Diego’s grid last year, or cut power across two-thirds of India last week.
But as Jason Black, grid systems research leader at Battelle, noted, “One thing synchrophasors can’t do is tell you what will happen if a line goes down, or makes a change.” Gridquant’s system can build on the synchrophasor data to provide grid operators a list of actions they can take to help bring the synchrophasor-detected grid anomalies back into a safe range of operations, he said.
While today’s EMS systems also strive to deliver that kind of analysis and insight to grid operators, using Gridquant’s mathematical models “may find problems on the grid that may not be seen by existing EMS,” Black said. They’re even more useful in managing situations where the Newton-Raphson method yields even fuzzier and less reliable results, such as so-called “N-minus-1” contingency planning, or figuring out how a grid will operate as generation and transmission assets are added or dropped from the mix.
Stuart sees several roles for Gridquant to play in today’s power grids, based on how he saw the same math used at PG&E:
- First, it can be used to allow the grid to operate more reliably on the margins of safety, by more accurately modeling just how much power is actually flowing through transmission lines and substations.
- Second, it can be used for the daily 'what’s happening tomorrow' briefings in which grid engineers plan for a whole host of contingencies that may arise during the course of a day of operations, he said.
- Third, it can be used to restore the grid once it’s gone down, he said. So-called 'black-start' operations are complex, with grid operators trying to orchestrate the restarting of multiple generation plants and the reconnecting of loads in a balanced manner.
Beyond plugging into these existing grid operations needs, Stuart sees a growing need for technologies like Gridquant’s to solve the new problems emerging with the growth of intermittent wind and solar power on the grid, the spread of plug-in vehicles, and other grid-disrupting technologies.
“The grid today, with what’s going on with growth, with renewables, is being turned upside down,” he said. “I’ve been at control centers all over where the operators don’t have that comfort of knowing exactly where they’re at.”
Neither Gridquant nor Battelle would discuss details of the company’s funding or plans for future developments of the technology, though Harding said that the company was in the process of seeking additional funding.
The two companies will also have to overcome a certain uncertainty in the utility industry over such a novel approach to an age-old way of managing power calculations, Black said.
“There is absolutely an acceptance curve. The math is totally new,” he said. Still, Battelle did its due diligence on the existing deployments in Spain, Mexico and California, and found examples where the utilities involved described real-world benefits of using the new math to catch grid anomalies or inefficiencies that traditional EMS platforms didn’t, he said.
That’s important, because utilities will want to find a set of benefits to outweigh the costs of deploying Gridquant’s technology. Harding said that could range from $50,000 or so for a simple, off-line analysis tool that doesn’t actually link up to the grid, to several millions dollars for installation on a full operational basis.
Of course, the benefits of avoiding the massive blackouts could be included in that calculation. As Gridquant’s novel math is put into place at more utilities, it will have more chances to prove whether or not it can actually give operators the tools to prevent blackouts they otherwise wouldn’t have seen coming.
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Global temperature records are crucial to scientific assessment of climate change, so many steps are taken to ensure that the records are reliable and that any factors which could cause biases are accounted for.
One example is "urban heat islands" – the phenomenon of temperatures in cities being higher than those in rural locations. To make sure records from cities don't skew the bigger picture, estimates of global warming either omit urban stations or compensate for them by incorporating adjustments based on differences between temperatures at urban and rural sites.
Air temperatures are also screened against other air temperatures from nearby locations to detect erroneous values, false trends and jumps which are then corrected or removed.
Sea surface temperature records are also quality-checked and any issues are accounted for. For example, observations are adjusted to take into account past changes of instrumentation – such as adjusting for the evaporative cooling effect on water temperatures taken from buckets hauled onto deck.
As well as all these checks and measures on data, there are other factors which increase our confidence in the warming observed in surface temperature records. The reality of recent global warming is shown by multiple strands of evidence. The case is all the stronger because the different types of observation are made independently.
The rise in sea surface temperatures measured by ships and buoys in situ is corroborated by warming detected by satellite instruments after exhaustive quality-assurance to remove the influences of cloud and dust and to ensure consistency between successive satellites.
Yet another set of instruments monitoring the sub-surface ocean down to 2000 metres finds warming there too, not at every point but on average worldwide. Satellite and in situ observations also show widespread warming of lakes.
Temperatures measured in the lowest 10km of the air show warming comparable to that at the surface, while higher up – in the stratosphere – there has been cooling (as expected), partly as a result of greenhouse gases reducing the amount of warmth escaping from the lower atmosphere.
Indirect evidence of warming includes increasing moisture in the air – warmer air can hold more water vapour. Almost universal retreat of glaciers is another, highly visual piece of indirect evidence for global warming. Observed global sea level rise is partly a consequence of melting glaciers and partly a result of the expansion of the oceans as they warm.
So multiple strands of evidence measuring various different indicators of climate all show the expected changes associated with rising air temperatures.
This article was written by David Parker at the Met Office Hadley Centre in conjunction with the Guardian
The ultimate climate change FAQ
This editorial is free to reproduce under Creative Commons
This post by The Guardian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at guardian.co.uk
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Sending and receiving mail used to be a very public affair. Senders had to take their letters in person to a receiver at a Receiving House or to a Turnpike House where their mail waited to be picked up by the Royal Mail coach. Receiving a letter was the same procedure in reverse. Who was posting or receiving mail was public knowledge.
When the first pillar boxes were introduced in Britain from mainland Europe in the 1850s, the instinctive reaction of many was one of concern. Concern because now there was a way in which letters could be sent anonymously by slipping them into the now iconic red pillar boxes. The contemporaneous introduction of the Uniform Penny Post, complete with postman deliveries, ensured that receiving mail became a simplified and private business too.
Many worried about the consequences of such postal reforms: The public would begin to send letters anonymously and cheaply and nobody would know who was writing to whom and for what mischievous purpose. This clearly marked the beginning of the end of Victorian moral rectitude and heralded the breakdown of civilised society.
Needless to say, despite the unfounded initial concerns, the ensuing revolution in interpersonal communication heralded, not the collapse of civilisation, but the dawn of a new era of democratised transmission of information.
I cannot help but draw many parallels between this and the adoption of social communication technologies in schools.
What do you think?
Many thanks to wasabicube for his picture.
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View your list of saved words. (You can log in using Facebook.)
Reproduction by special tissues without fertilization. Examples include parthenogenesis in animals (in which a new individual develops from an unfertilized egg) and apogamy in plants (in which the generating tissue may be either the gametophyte or the sporophyte). Apomixis provides for the preservation of traits favourable to individual survival, but it eliminates the longer-term evolutionary advantage of genetic contribution from two parents.
This entry comes from Encyclopædia Britannica Concise. For the full entry on apomixis, visit Britannica.com.
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July 24, 2007 An eight-month voyage through the Arctic Ocean, without ship or travel route: the North Pole drifting station NP-35 represents an unusual project of the International Polar Year.
At the end of August the expedition, under Russian leadership, will leave for the Arctic Ocean. One of the participants is Jürgen Graeser of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, one of the research centres of the Helmholtz Association. For the first time in the history of Russian research using drifting stations, a German researcher will take part in the North Pole drifting station NP-35. With his data recordings of the atmosphere, Graeser will supplement measurements carried out by the Russian project partners, who will be focusing their investigations on sea ice, primarily performing measurements close to the ice.
Through this collaboration, the project partners intend to advance the currently patchy data situation in the Arctic and hope to gain a better understanding of these key regions for global climate change.
The planned project will be carried out in conjunction with the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St Petersburg. On August 29, 2007, a total of 36 expedition participants will board the Russian research vessel 'Akademik Fedorov' in the Siberian harbour of Tiksi. In the vicinity of Wrangel Island, i.e. between 80 and 85 degrees northern latitude and between 170 degrees eastern and 170 degrees western longitude, a stable ice floe will be chosen as the base for the drifting station 'North Pole 35' (NP-35). The selection will be based on long-term satellite observations of the ice and will be verified by helicopter from the research vessel. During the course of winter, the ice floe will drift in the Arctic Ocean and across the North Pole.
During the drift, a variety of measurements carried out at the station will provide information about current climate change. The 'Akademik Fedorov' is scheduled to evacuate the station after approximately one year. With regard to over-wintering personnel, it is planned to use 'Polar 5', the research aircraft of the Alfred Wegener Institute, to fly out Jürgen Graeser and five Russian colleagues after approximately eight months, in April 2008. For this purpose, a landing strip will be constructed on the ice.
The research programme
The Russian colleagues will be investigating the upper ocean layer and sea ice, as well as snow cover. Atmospheric measurements of meteorological parameters such as temperature, wind, humidity and air pressure, will be added through recordings of trace gases such as carbon dioxide and ozone. Jürgen Graeser will examine two topics. On the one hand, he will use a captive balloon system to measure meteorological parameters in the so-called planetary boundary layer, which is the lowest layer of the atmosphere extending to approximately 1500 metres. In addition, he will use ozone sensors to measure the ozone layer in the stratosphere up to approximately 30 kilometres altitude.
Jürgen Graeser has been a technician at the research unit Potsdam of the Alfred Wegener Institute and has many years of experience with Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. His special areas of interest are aerology and meteorology. His expertise includes balloon-based, radiation and meteorological measurements.
The Arctic represents a key region for global climate change. Measurements of sea ice and atmospheric parameters in the Arctic Ocean are still incomplete. Through the current project, researchers intend to identify key processes in the atmosphere and alterations of the sea ice cover in order to examine the coupling of sea ice and atmosphere. The project is one of many during the International Polar Year. More than 50,000 scientists and technical staff from over 60 countries are joining force to explore the polar regions. Their goal is to study the role of the Arctic and Antarctic in shaping the climate and the earth's ecosystems.
Project 'Planetary Boundary Layer'
The planetary boundary layer (PBL) identifies the lowest atmospheric layer, extending from the surface to approximately 1500 metres altitude. In the Arctic, this layer is characterised by frequent temperature inversions, i.e. by very stable atmospheric stratification which suppresses vertical movements of the air. A realistic representation of the planetary boundary layer is crucial for the construction of climate models, as it is this layer that determines the lower marginal conditions for all calculations. Particularly, the investigation of processes influenced directly by the boundary layer, requires exact knowledge of the state of the PBL.
AWI scientists in Potsdam use the regional climate model HIRHAM to construct mesoscale fields of pressure, temperature and wind in which cyclones (low pressure regions) and their trajectories are identified. Specifically, they are examining the relationship between cyclone development and various surface conditions (e.g. sea ice cover). Elucidating the connection between the Arctic planetary boundary layer and mesoscale cyclones and their trajectories is the goal of these investigations.
Project 'Ozone Layer'
Discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in 1985 triggered intensive exploration efforts of the polar ozone layer. This layer is located between 15 and 25 kilometres altitude in the stratosphere. Many chemical processes of ozone depletion in the Antarctic have since been explained, and the connection of ozone destruction with anthropogenic emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons has been proven beyond doubt.
During specific winters, severe ozone losses over the Arctic, and hence much closer to home, have already contributed to a reduction in ozone layer thickness over Europe -- leading to an increase of harmful ultraviolet radiation on the earth's surface. However, to date the ozone depletion in the Arctic is not as pronounced as over the Antarctic.
Compared to the Arctic, ozone layer thickness in the Antarctic is much more variable, with only about half of the observed inter-annual variability explained by known chemical mechanisms. Hence, dynamic processes which remain only partly understood are equally important in determining thickness of the ozone layer over the Arctic as the chemical decomposition of ozone.
At the Arctic station of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Ny Ålesund on Spitsbergen (79°N), for instance, a strong annual ozone variation of 30 percent was detected at an altitude of 25 to 30 kilometres. Apparently, it is synchronised with variability of the sun, but cannot be explained by known chemical or other dynamic processes. Investigating the cause of this variability will be the focus of ozone measurements at NP-35.
Data records from the drifting station will, for the first time, produce high resolution vertical profiles of ozone distribution in the central Arctic, north of 82 degrees latitude -- currently a blank spot on the global ozone distribution map. These unique data will be combined with existing ozone profiles from the Arctic and Sub-Arctic. Calculations of air movement in conjunction with chemical models will contribute to an understanding of seasonal and annual variability of stratospheric ozone in the Arctic.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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American culture venerates choice, but choice may not be the key to happiness and health, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"Americans live in a political, social, and historical context that advances personal freedom, choice, and self-determination above all else," write authors Hazel Rose Markus (Stanford University) and Barry Schwartz (Swarthmore College). "Contemporary psychology has proliferated this emphasis on choice and self-determination as the key to healthy psychological functioning."
The authors point out that this emphasis on choice and freedom is not universal. "The picture presented by a half-century of research may present an accurate picture of the psychological importance of choice, freedom, and autonomy among middle-class, college-educated Americans, but this is a picture that leaves about 95 percent of the world's population outside its frame," the authors write.
The authors reviewed a body of research surrounding the cultural ideas surrounding choice. They found that among non-Western cultures and among working-class Westerners, freedom and choice are less important or mean something different than they do for the university-educated people who have participated in psychological research on choice.
"And even what counts as a 'choice' may be different for non-Westerners than it is for Westerners," the authors write. "Moreover, the enormous opportunity for growth and self-advancement that flows from unlimited freedom of choice may diminish rather than enhance subjective well-being."
People can become paralyzed by unlimited choice, and find less satisfaction with their decisions. Choice can also foster a lack of empathy, the authors found, because it can focus people on their own preferences and on themselves at the expense of the preferences of others and of society as a whole.
"We cannot assume that choice, as understood by educated, affluent Westerners, is a universal aspiration, and that the provision of choice will necessarily foster freedom and well-being," the authors write. "Even in contexts where choice can foster freedom, empowerment, and independence, it is not an unalloyed good. Choice can also produce a numbing uncertainty, depression, and selfishness."
Explore further: New study offers insight into how to best manage workaholics
More information: Hazel Rose Markus and Barry Schwartz. "Does Choice Mean Freedom and Well Being?" Journal of Consumer Research: August 2010.
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Calculi - urinary
Last updated: Thursday, 08, April, 2004
MBS Online Search Page: Click here for details
Calculus obtained from spontaneous passage or surgical intervention
Commonly a series of spot tests are performed on pulverised, dissolved calculus. The mineral composition is then deduced from the relative amounts of each compound.
Calcium:spectrophotometry, atomic absorption spectrophotometry
Infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction provide more definitive identification.
Identification of risk factors for stone recurrence. May guide extracorporeal lithotripsy.
Stones containing calcium may indicate hypercalciuria.
Uric acid stones, or stones with a uric acid nidus, may indicate strongly acidic overnight urine or hyperuricosuria.
Oxalate stones may indicate hyperoxaluria. Magnesium ammonium phosphate ('triple phosphate') stones indicate bacterial infection.
Cystine stones indicate cystinuria.
Xanthine stones indicate xanthinuria or treatment with allopurinol.
Stones that do not dissolve in acid are usually factitious.
Tiselius HG et al. Eur Urol 2001; 40(4): 362-3671.
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Have you ever had surgery and wondered if the surgeon forgot any of the surgical instruments inside you? Maybe you never even thought to worry about it, but a New York Times article shared that every year, an estimated 4,000 cases of retained surgical items are reported in the United States.
These instruments can cause infections that may not even show up until years later. The article discussed that one day a woman felt a crushing pain in her abdomen. After doing a CT scan, a surgical sponge was discovered that was lodged in her abdomen. It had been left behind by the surgeon who did her hysterectomy four years prior.
The sponge had adhered to the bladder and the stomach area, and to the walls of her abdominal cavity. The festering sponge had spread an infection, requiring the removal of a large segment of her intestine.
The woman sued the hospital. She still struggles with bowel issues, and is full of anxiety and depression from the incident, and most days doesn’t even want to leave home.
The item most left behind is in fact the surgical sponge, which soaks up blood during surgery.There is new technology available to remedy the situation, such as using radio-frequency tags or barcodes to track sponges. In a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study, the radio-frequency sponge tracking system helped recover 23 forgotten sponges from almost 3,000 patients over 11 months.
Yet, many hospitals are not changing their practices. Fewer than one percent of hospitals use electronic tracking. Many still stick to old-fashioned methods of a nurse manually counting the sponges, but in a busy O.R. it is easy to lose count.
If you or a loved one were the victim of a careless error made by a nurse, doctor or surgeon, you deserve justice for your emotional and physical trauma. You should contact the Law Offices of W.T. Johnson today to set-up your free consultation.
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Should the concept of an autism "spectrum" of disorders be abandoned?
The DSM III originally included strict criteria for Kanner's infantile autism. These strict criteria were relaxed in the DSM III-R which "broadened the concept of autism to include children who, although socially impaired, are not pervasively unresponsive to others(1)". Another huge expansion took place with the DSM IV inclusion of Asperger Disorder in the Pervasive Development Disorders category: "Asperger Disorder is characterized by the same types of social impairments seen in autism plus the development of very bizarre intense interests such as bus timetables, insects, meteorology, cartography, etc. It is distinguished from autism by the presence of normal cognitive development and the absence of clinically significant language delay. In other words, children with Asperger Disorder have normal IQ and usually are speaking in phrases by three years of age.(2)"
The PDD's have in common usage become referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders and from there it has become common to refer to all forms of PDD's as "Autism". The expansion of the autism "spectrum" has been cited each time an increase in rates of autism diagnoses is reported. When my son was initially diagnosed in 1998 the figure of 1 in 500 persons having "autism" was commonly cited, then 1 in 250, 1 in 166, then 1 in 150 and soon the CDC is expected to fall in line with the UK figure of 1 in 100. Each time the estimate changes the expansion of the criteria for defining "autism" is trotted out to argue against the existence of a real increase in autism.
The expansion of the diagnostic criteria of "autism" disorders have become a useful tool for public health officials who wish to maintain the position that autism is entirely genetic, that there are no environmental causes and especially that autism can not be triggered by vaccines. It helps in justifying the enormous disparity in funding genetic autism research compared to environmental autism research. In 1999 Teresa Binstock reported the "it's gotta be genetic" paradigm of autism research funding. Ten years later Irva Hertz-Picciotto states that the discrepancy is still between 10 or 20 to 1 in favor of genetic over environmental autism research funding. The expanded definition explanation has been used, used again, and again in justifying the argument that there is no real increase in autism increase, that autism is entirely genetic.
The expanded definition of autism to include High Functioning Autism cases and Asperger Disorder creates confusion in the public mind over what constitutes autism and leads to conflict amongst persons affected by "autism". To many members of the public an autistic person is someone like Michelle Dawson, a former Canada Post postal worker who excelled in a very complex work environment, went on to become a researcher, appear before the highest court in Canada, before Human Rights Tribunals and in countless media interviews. They do not see the autistic person who can not speak OR communicate with assistive technology. The public does not see the persons with Autistic Disorder living their lives in institutional care.
Persons with Asperger and HFA often react to what they call negative depictions of autism which they no longer consider to be a medical disorder, equating autism with left handedness or homosexuality as differences not disorders. The recent anger amongst persons with HFA and Asperger Disorder over the "I Am Autism" video is directed at the depiction of some of the harsh realities that often accompany Autistic Disorder. These people do not want to be associated with intellectual deficits, serious behavioral issues or serious family or societal expense. It hurts and offends some with HFA and Aspergers to be compared to people with severe Autistic Disorder, people like my son.
The "spectrum" concept that helps create confusion also helps create some confusion in autism research. Researcher Dr. Laurent Mottron works almost exclusively with HFA/Asperger subjects and his research often been aimed at demonstrating the innate abilities of persons with HFA/Asperger Disorder. Historically Dr. Mottron was conscientious about pointing out that his subjects were persons with HFA/Asperger Disorder as opposed to persons with Low Functioning severe Autistic Disorder. Some recent studies have not made that distinction clear and his studies are also interpreted by many as applying to "autism" generally. It is difficult to compare autism studies or data over extended periods of time because of the different ways in which autism is referred to in the research literature with some making clear distinctions between low functioning Autistic Disorder and those with HFA or Aspergers while others simply refer to Autism.
One of the most bizarre consequences of the expanded definition of autism in the DSM-III R and DSM-IV is the attempt by some persons with Asperger Disorder to extinguish the right and responsibility of parents to speak on behalf of their autistic children or to seek treatment and cure for their children. The "Autism" Self Advocacy Network is led by Ari Ne'eman a very high functioning person with Asperger Disorder whose disorder would not have been included in the "autism" spectrum in the DSM-III or the DSM-III-R.
Why Mr. Ne'eman and his followers are not content to call themselves the Asperger Self Advocacy Network is not clear. Why this very high functioning person with Asperger Disorder feels that it is legitimate for him to speak on behalf of all persons with Autism Disorders of any type and declare that they do not want to be cured is not clear. Why he, and his followers, feel it necessary to lobby against any negative depiction of autism is not clear. Why he, and his followers, feel that they have the right to dictate to parents that they should not seek to treat or cure their own children of a severe neurological disorder is not clear.
What is clear is that the Pervasive Development Disorder category of the DSM has morphed into the Autism Spectrum and from there to "autism" and this has not been helpful.
Maybe it is time to abandon the Autism "Spectrum" and establish two separate categories with Autistic Disorder comprising classic autism while HFA and Aspergers Disorder are placed together in one category .... Aspergers Disorder.
Or perhaps a better solution to the Autism Spectrum confusion would be to abandon the spectrum concept altogether by removing HFA and Asperger Disorder from the DSM leaving only Autistic Disorder as a category for those with severe or low functioning autism. Many persons with HFA and Aspergers argue that they do not have a medical disorder at all. Maybe it is time to acknowledge their arguments, remove Asperger Disorder from the DSM, and go back to the DSM III criteria for Infantile Autism or Autistic Disorder.
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The Next Prime
March 26, 2010
In two previous exercises, we had to iterate through the prime numbers. In one case, we generated a large number of primes using the Sieve of Eratosthenes, but without knowing in advance how large the sieve needed to be, and in the other case we iterated through the odd integers, checking the primality of each. Both solutions were less than attractive. In consideration of the old rule that if you do something twice you ought to build it into an abstraction, we will today write a function that, given a positive integer n, returns the smallest prime number greater than n.
Our method is to pre-compute a large number of primes and store them on disk. If n is within the bounds of the pre-computed list, it is easy to find the next prime. But if n is too large, we revert to checking individual candidates for primality. For our example we will pre-compute the primes to a million, but depending on your aspirations and your memory budget, you could adjust that number as desired.
To save memory space, we will store the pre-computed primes in a compressed data structure. Every prime number can be expressed as 30k±1, 30k±7, 30k±11, or 30k±13 for some k. That means we can use eight bits per thirty numbers to store all the primes; a million primes can be compressed to 33,334 bytes, plus a small program to load the compressed primes from disk and to manipulate the compressed data structure.
Your task is to write a function that builds the compressed data structure described above, a second function that loads it from disk to memory, and a third function that uses the compressed data structure to calculate the next prime. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.
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Your 30 human rights-the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In 1948, in the wake of World War II, a short document was placed before the United Nations affirming the inalienable rights of people and attempting to document the lessons learned from decades of unimaginable violence and destruction. The document contains a preamble and thirty articles outlining human rights. It is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Did you know?
Download your copy of the UDHR
- The UDHR process was led by a woman--Eleanor Roosvelt.
- The Center offers one of the biggest celebrations of the UDHR in the world each December.
- No country voted against the UDHR.
- The writer, John Peter Humphrey, was Canadian.
- The UDHR was used as a framework for the UN to create the Millennium Development Goals.
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According to the age-old tradition of the Byzantine Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, the home is a kind of church, because it houses an assembly of believers. When people occupy a new house, the priest performs a consecration, anointing the four walls with holy oil and sanctifying the house with holy water and incense. Psalms are chanted and the Gospel story of Jesus’ visit to the house of Zacchaeus (cf. Luke 19:1-1O) is proclaimed. At the conclusion the traditional prayer for “Many Years” is sung by the priest for the family members.
When the family moves into a new dwelling, they choose an eastern wall, preferable in the living room, for the icon corner. This corner is furnished with icons of Christ, the Theotokos, the holy cross and the patron saints of the family members. Some families preserve heirloom icons, handed down for generations, or icons of special clan or family patrons. The icon corner usually includes a
lectern or small table upon which are placed a cross, a small incense burner, the Holy Scriptures and prayer books.
Since icons are considered to be sacraments of the special presence of the holy ones depicted in them, oil lamps are burned before them. At the door of the house one often finds a special icon of the Theotokos, known as the Doorkeeper, guarding the dwelling from all harm.
People entering a Byzantine home may often go directly to the icon corner and greet the holy icons with a bow or a kiss, sometimes before greeting the people, just as one does when entering church.
PRAYER TO THE EAST
In Eastern Christian tradition, all prayers, both public and private are said facing the East, “for as lightning that comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27). Thus churches are always built with the apse pointing East, towards the rising sun, symbolic of Jesus Christ, the Sun of Justice. In church the priest, deacon, and people worship standing upright, facing this direction, awaiting the One who will lead them to the heavenly promised land, the New Jerusalem. In their homes, therefore, Eastern Christians unite themselves with their
brothers and sisters throughout the world and pray standing up, facing the East.
The custom of standing at prayer can be traced both to the Old Testament and to pagan antiquity. God commanded His people to eat the Passover meal “standing, with loins girt and staves in their hands” (Exodus 12:11). The pagan Greeks always stood while praying before their idols.
Early Christians imitated the Greeks, reasoning that man, the only animal that walks erect and is created in the image and likeness of God, should pray standing to exemplify his dignity as a child of God.
Kneeling was done only as a sign of repentance for sin. In addition, early Church councils forbade kneeling on Sunday, commanding the faithful to stand as a testimony to their belief in Christ’s resurrection. Consequently Eastern Christians do not regularly kneel at prayer in their homes as Western Christians often do.
DAILY PRAYER IN THE HOME
With icons, crosses, incense and other sacred objects, all imbued with the sense of God’s presence, Byzantine Christian homes can truly be called miniature churches. Those who dwell within are reminded that God lives with and in them, and they recall the words of St. Gregory the Theologian, “It is better to remember God than even to breathe.” On rising in the morning, before and after every meal, in the evening and before going to bed the icon corner stands as an invitation for the family to pray.
The Byzantine liturgical tradition offers a limitless treasury of prayers for every day, every feast, and every season of the year. In addition to the hours of the daily offices, there are numerous akathists and canons which may be recited, as for example, when someone is preparing to receive Holy Communion.
Before Christ left His disciples, He promised that they would one day dwell with Him: “And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).
The Eastern Christian home reminds all who enter it of Christ’s promise and the heavenly home which awaits them.
FASTING, ALMSGIVING AND ASCETIISM
In prayer we rise to the throne of God who has given us access to Himself. We also attempt to take the lifestyle of heaven and bring it ‘down’ to reorient our daily activities. Fasting is one such practice. It stands out in contrast to the ways of the world around us, especially in a culture such as ours that endorses continual consumption. When we put aside food, entertainment, pleasure in the spirit of fasting we are saying to the world, “We are not from here.” When we fast we recognize that life is not simply to be found in the enjoyment of material creation, but in the relationship we have with its Creator.
Closely linked to fasting is almsgiving, another denial of the way of this world. Our society promotes consumerism. It says, “Build up for yourselves treasures on earth.” We say, with St. Paul, that material goods are given us not only to satisfy our own needs, but for the doing of good. We say, as Christ did, that our kingdom is not ultimately of this world and imitate His love for mankind by the way we use the resources He has given us.
Finally, while our place is in the heavenly realm, we do not have full possession of it yet. And, so we find ourselves each day engaged in an unseen warfare, “not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness” (Ephesians 6:12). Many of our Church’s daily prayers are invocations asking for help and protection against the powers of evil. We recognize that there is more to the world in which we live than what is visible on the physical level.
Living, then, as citizens of the heavenly realm, we surround ourselves at all times with means of access to that kingdom. Icons are found in our homes, like churches, and we gather there for prayer. We bring the values of that realm to bear in our domestic affairs as well. There we fast and we extend hospitality in Christ’s name, deepening our experience of our true homeland. We try to live every day in an atmosphere of the kingdom, to continually remind ourselves that our baptism has made us actual coheirs with Christ of all that the Father has promised.
HYMNS FROM THE BLESSING OF A NEW HOME
TROPARION (TONE 8): As salvation came to the house of Zacchaeus by Your entrance, O Christ, now by the entrance of Your sacred ministers and with them Your holy angels, grant Your peace to this house and mercifully bless it, saving and illumining all who desire to live in it.
STICHERON (TONE 5): Bless this house, O Lord, and fill it with the good things of Your earth, preserving unharmed from every evil circumstance those desiring to live in it with piety. Grant to them all heavenly abundance and Your earthly blessings, and, as You are compassionate, be merciful according to Your great mercy.
Source: Eparchy of Newton
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A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America
Of all the colorful characters to have populated the human family tree, Homo erectus was by far the most peripatetic and long-lived. Represented by the fossilized remains of some 200 individuals scattered over three continents and living from more than 1.7 million to 50,000 years ago, H. erectus was the first to harness fire, a maker of crude yet effective stone tools, and perhaps the first seafarer.
In telling their tale, the authors delve into the professional rivalries, larger-than-life egos, and institutional jockeying for excavation concessions that dominated early paleoanthropology in China--all set against the ensuing turbulence of the Sino-Japanese war. The Longgushan fossils were among the casualties of the war; their fate is unknown to this day.
Despite the absence of the original remains, finds from the cave have continued to shape our understanding of H. erectus' behavior. While many regard the species as an innovator that pioneered cooperative big-game hunting, H. erectus, it seems, was a scavenger and opportunist, and was apt to settle disputes by "going a few rounds." It is this latter trait, the authors suggest, that best explains an anatomical detail peculiar to H. erectus, and which sets it apart from others in the family tree--pachyostosis. In common language, this means that H. erectus was thick-headed, his overengineered skull reinforced about the eyes, jaw, and nape--well suited, say the authors, to withstand blows to the head inflicted by fellow hominids or other creatures.
It's clear that H. erectus--which intermittently occupied the Longgushan cave between 670,000 and 400,000 years ago--endured a brutal existence. Of the 50 men, women, and children represented by bones found at the cave, most had fallen prey to giant hyenas, their bodies ripped apart and devoured face first.
Bones from the cave also bear ample evidence for cannibalism. It is likely, the authors say, that victims of cannibalization may simply have been among the prey downed by hyenas and later scavenged by humans living at the very edge of survival. According to Boaz and Ciochon, this pattern of thriving on seconds is underscored by evidence at the cave for the controlled use of fire, which they say was not used for warmth, cooking, or communal bond-building, as previously thought, but as a means to drive predators away from their kill so it could be scavenged.
Poetically written in layman's terms, Dragon Bone Hill is a far cry from the usual bone-dry fodder offered by university presses.
Angela M.H. Schuster is the editor-in-chief of ICON, the preservation quarterly of the World Monuments Fund.
Click here for ARCHAEOLOGY's bookstore.
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Cooper, John Milton.
Adult Nonfiction 921 W69 2009
Summary: The first major biography of America’s twenty-eighth president in nearly two decades, from one of America’s foremost Woodrow Wilson scholars. A Democrat who reclaimed the White House after sixteen years of Republican administrations, Wilson was a transformative president-he helped create the regulatory bodies and legislation that prefigured FDR’s New Deal and would prove central to governance through the early twenty-first century, including the Federal Reserve system and the Clayton Antitrust Act; he guided the nation through World War I; and, although his advocacy in favor of joining the League of Nations proved unsuccessful, he nonetheless established a new way of thinking about international relations that would carry America into the United Nations era. Yet Wilson also steadfastly resisted progress for civil rights, while his attorney general launched an aggressive attack on civil liberties. Even as he reminds us of the foundational scope of Wilson’s domestic policy achievements, John Milton Cooper, Jr., reshapes our understanding of the man himself: his Wilson is warm and gracious-not at all the dour puritan of popular imagination. As the president of Princeton, his encounters with the often rancorous battles of academe prepared him for state and national politics. Just two years after he was elected governor of New Jersey, Wilson, now a leader in the progressive movement, won the Democratic presidential nomination and went on to defeat Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in one of the twentieth century’s most memorable presidential elections. Ever the professor, Wilson relied on the strength of his intellectual convictions and the power of reason to win over the American people. John Milton Cooper, Jr., gives us a vigorous, lasting record of Wilson’s life and achievements. This is a long overdue, revelatory portrait of one of our most important presidents-particularly resonant now, as another president seeks to change the way government relates to the people and regulates the economy.
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Like Machu Picchu, Petra was unknown to the Western world until it was rediscovered in 1812. The word petra means stone in Greek. Apropos is it not for a city literally carved out of the cliff face?
It was built by the Nabataeans sometime around 6 BC as a capital of their state and the center of their caravan trade route. It’s location gave the Nabataeans control over many trade routes that went west to Egypt, north to Syria, to the Red Sea, to the Dead Sea, and the Persian Gulf.
What made Petra possible at all was water. The area saw flash floods (and drought). The Nabataeans built an artificial oasis by controlling the water and it’s spread through the city. They used a combination of dams, water conduits, and cisterns to hold and distribute the water. Supplying visitors and city dwellers gave the city a source of income it wouldn’t have had otherwise in the desert.
Isn’t it amazing? I can’t wait for a chance to go see Petra!
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Modern Art from 1930: Surrealism and Neo-Romanticism - National Museum Cardiff
Surrealist art was concerned with dream imagery and the subconscious world. The artists experimented with various techniques to unleash the unknown strangeness of the mind.
Surrealism began in Paris in 1924, born in a time of cultural upheaval and scepticism, following the horrors of the First World War. The Surrealists freed themselves from the control of reason and developed new artistic techniques to illustrate their subconscious thoughts and dreams.
The movement came to public attention in Britain with The International Surrealist exhibition held in London in 1936.
This gallery displays works by some of the British artists involved in this exhibition including Eileen Agar, John Banting, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Julian Trevelyan and Paul Nash.
Surrealism took on a diverse form in Britain. It was seen as an alternative to pure abstract art and encouraged them to engage with nature in new ways, particularly the landscape.
Surrealism was linked to the emergence of a new style in Britain called Neo-Romanticism. This movement built on a long landscape tradition in British art.
Many Neo-Romantic artists, including Graham Sutherland, chose to work in Wales. They were interested in variety and uniqueness of the Welsh landscape.
National Museum Cardiff
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Image above: The International Space Station's length and width is about the size of a football field. Credit: NASA
The International Space Station marks its 10th anniversary of continuous human occupation on Nov. 2, 2010. Since Expedition 1, which launched Oct. 31, 2000, and docked Nov. 2, the space station has been visited by 196 individuals from eight different countries.
At the time of the anniversary, the station’s odometer will read more than 1.5 billion statute miles (the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun), over the course of 57,361 orbits around the Earth. Since the first module, Zarya, launched at 1:40 a.m. EST on Nov. 20, 1998, it has made a total of 68,519 orbits of our home planet, or about 1.7 billion miles on its odometer.
As of the Nov. 2 anniversary date there have been 103 launches to the space station: 67 Russian vehicles, 34 space shuttles, one European and one Japanese vehicle. A total of 150 spacewalks have been conducted in support of space station assembly totaling more than 944 hours.
The space station, including its large solar arrays, spans the area of a U.S. football field, including the end zones, and weighs 827,794 pounds. The complex now has more livable room than a conventional five-bedroom house, and has two bathrooms and a gymnasium.
Additional launches will continue to augment these facts and figures, so check back here for the latest.
International Space Station Size & Mass
40 feet long (pressurized section)
357 feet long (wing-to-wing)
291 feet long (truss)
240 feet wide (solar array pair)
45 feet high (Unity, Z1)
382 tons (827,126 pounds or 375,179 kilograms)
29,561 cubic feet of pressurized volume – 94 % complete
International Space Station at Completion
Image above: Expedition 22 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov wears a Russian Orlan spacesuit during a spacewalk. Credit: NASA
The ISS solar array surface area could cover the U.S. Senate Chamber three times over.
ISS eventually will be larger than a five-bedroom house.
ISS will have an internal pressurized volume of 33,023 cubic feet, or equal that of a Boeing 747.
The solar array wingspan (240 ft) is longer than that of a Boeing 777 200/300 model, which is 212 ft.
Fifty-two computers will control the systems on the ISS.
More than 100 space flights will have been conducted on five different types of launch vehicles over the course of the station’s construction.
More than 100 telephone-booth sized rack facilities can be in the ISS for operating the spacecraft systems and research experiments
The ISS is almost four times as large as the Russian space station Mir, and about five times as large as the U.S. Skylab.
The ISS will weigh almost one million pounds (925,627 lbs). That’s the equivalent of more than 320 automobiles.
The ISS measures 357 feet end-to-end. That’s equivalent to the length of a football field including the end zones (well, almost – a football field is 360 feet).
3.3 million lines of software code on the ground supports 1.8 million lines of flight software code.
8 miles of wire connects the electrical power system.
In the International Space Station’s U.S. segment alone, 1.5 million lines of flight software code will run on 44 computers communicating via 100 data networks transferring 400,000 signals (e.g. pressure or temperature measurements, valve positions, etc.).
The ISS will manage 20 times as many signals as the Space Shuttle.
Main U.S. control computers have 1.5 gigabytes of total main hard drive storage in U.S. segment compared to modern PCs, which have ~500 gigabyte hard drives.
The entire 55-foot robot arm assembly is capable of lifting 220,000 pounds, which is the weight of a Space Shuttle orbiter.
The 75 to 90 kilowatts of power for the ISS is supplied by an acre of solar panels.
Zarya: First ISS Module
Launch: Nov. 20, 1998
Vehicle: Russian Proton rocket
Function: Internal (cargo) and external (fuel) storage
Length 12.56 m (41.2 ft)
Diameter 4.11 m (13.5 ft)
Solar array length 10.67 m (35.0 ft)
Solar array width 3.35 m (11.0 ft)
Mass 19,323 kg (42,600 lb)
Expedition 1: First ISS Crew
Launch: Oct. 31, 2000
Vehicle: Russian Soyuz
Docking: Nov. 2, 2000
Undocking: March 18, 2001
Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery
Landing: March 21, 2001
Duration: 136 days, 17 hours, 9 minutes
See the Station in the Sky
Find out when the ISS is over your city, or track where it is right now.
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It's that time of year again: Yes, we're facing the return of the Western tent caterpillars. Their unsightly nests clutter trees and shrubs, providing them protection from predators, as they happily munch away. The creatures, also known as Malacosoma californicum, hatch in the spring when new buds are forming and spin their webs on tree branches and shrubs.
As recently noted in the local print and broadcast media, Seattle and the Puget Sound region have experienced an increase in recent years in the Western tent caterpillar population. Populations change from year to year-they can be high for several years, then become very low. The good news is that a healthy tree or shrub can generally tolerate a total defoliation without suffering permanent damage. The bad news is that in years with high populations, these critters can be a real nuisance.
The life cycle
The egg masses are visible in winter, are grayish-brown and about one inch long. As soon as the eggs hatch in April or May, the caterpillars begin eating leaves and create "tents" - white, silky shelters that cover the forks and tips of tree branches and shrubs. They feed during daylight and return to their tents at night.
The caterpillars are easy to recognize. They have a yellow checkered pattern with a blue dotted line down their backs, and can be three inches long when mature. The caterpillars molt four times over a period of five or six weeks, then stop eating. They choose a place to spin a cocoon and lay their eggs, and moths emerge about two weeks later. The adult moths mate immediately, lay eggs, and die a few days later; the eggs winter over until spring, when the whole process begins again.
What to do
Seattle Transportation and other City departments use an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach when dealing with Western Tent Caterpillars. Control measures are only considered when population levels are extremely high, and other factors such as high public use combine to make control necessary. In those cases, mechanical means such as hand pruning or picking the webs from branches are used. Selective use of biological control such as B.t. (Bacillus thuringiensis) may also be considered. The City does not use chemical controls for tent caterpillars, as they may harm beneficial insects and birds.
While the creatures are unpleasant, they are not harmful to people. Natural predators include many garden birds, which eat the caterpillars. Other predators are wasps and ground beetles.
Homeowners who see infestations on their property should watch the number of tents forming and monitor the leaf damage. Individual tents can be removed by pruning in the early morning and evening, when the temperature is cool and caterpillars are inside them (a pole pruner is useful for high branches). Put pruned nests in a bucket of soapy water or seal them in a plastic bag and crush it. Do not remove large branches or perform excessive pruning as a means of caterpillar control - you may do more damage to the tree by pruning than the caterpillars would do by eating the leaves.
Another method of control is to hand-strip egg masses, or prune them out of plants during the winter.
For more information on Western tent caterpillars, please visit these web sites:
Washington Toxics Coalition
Washington State University Extension
Washington State University
Caterpillars - News Article (Seattle Times, 4/18/04)
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Arya Samaj Marriage rituals are not as elaborate as the traditional Hindu rituals. The wedding rituals are few in number, but there significance is quite understandable. The Vedic mantras are recited during the wedding procession ceremony and are explained to both the bride and the groom so that the significance of the relationship can be explained to them. This undoubtedly helps them in knowing and understanding the meaning and purpose of marriage as a ‘relationship'. Any person from Hindu or Non-Hindu religion or from any different cultural background can opt for Arya Samaj wedding. Arya Samaj weddings are performed in Arya Samaj mandir and the rituals involve the practices of mehendi, brahmbhoj, chudha and nath, thread ceremony, yagnya, kanya daan, pratigya mantra, shilarohan, parikrama, kesh mochan, saptapadikriya, surya darshan, hriday sparsh, sindoor dan, dhruv darshan, reception and taking off the chudha.
The procedure of Arya Samaj marriage involves worshipping of the sacred fire instead of idol worship. After the marriage is performed, the Arya Samaj mandir issues the marriage certificate to the married couple. The Arya samaj marriage can also be registered before a Marriage Registrar which can issue a marriage certificate to the married couple. Since marriage certificate is a document providing social security to married women and helps in getting the visa for the wife/ husband, it all depends upon the choice of the bride, groom and their family members whether they want to get the certificate from Arya Samaj or Marriage Registrar.
The marriage certificate issued by Arya Samaj mandir is completely valid and legal. After getting marriage certificate, neither any person nor any court can challenge the authenticity of the marriage. Since ceremonial marriages are not recognized by foreign embassies in India and abroad, the marriage certificate helps in getting visa from foreign embassies.
Arya Samaj was started as a reform movement for the betterment of the society and upliftment of women. This movement emphasized on the abolishment of Sati-pratha and child marriage. In order to make India free from caste system, untouchablity and racial discrimination, Arya Samaj worked for the empowerment of women and low caste people. Inter caste and inter religion marriages were performed in order to break the perils of the rigid caste system. Arya Samaj focused on the idea of performing inter caste and inter religion marriages that serves as a beacon light for social equality, irrespective of the caste, color, religion and race. This helped people in realizing that marriage is not dependent on factors like caste, color, creed and race. Arya Samaj helped in making people realize the core aspects of mutual understanding and compatibility in marriage, irrespective of what their religion, race or caste is. It laid stress on the understanding of core principles of marriage rather than just performing the rituals. The rituals performed have their own meaning and significance in the Arya Samaj marriage. The mantras recited during the wedding procession are translated in the language that can be easily understandable to the couple and their family members.
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Starting in April, PBS will present a five-part television series that shows how Native peoples valiantly resisted expulsion from their lands and fought the extinction of their culture -- from the Wampanoags of New England in the 1600s who used their alliance with the English to weaken rival tribes, to the bold new leaders of the 1970s who harnessed the momentum of the civil rights movement to forge a pan-Indian identity. We Shall Remain represents an unprecedented collaboration between Native and non-Native filmmakers and involves Native advisors and scholars at all levels of the project.
The five episodes are:
After the Mayflower - Premiers April 13th
Tecumsehís Vision - Premiers April 20th
Trail of Tears - Premiers April 27th
Geronimo - Premiers May 4th
Wounded Knee - Premiers May 11th
An in-depth website will serve the general public, educators, and students, offering educational resources and several hours of streaming video. Part of PBS Online, the We Shall Remain site will feature Web-exclusive videos exploring contemporary topics such as language revitalization efforts, Native enterprise and tribal sovereignty. The site will also host behind-the-scenes production stories, streaming of the ReelNative films, and information about upcoming events across the nation.
The We Shall Remain Website will launch an extensive Teacherís Guide for social studies educators. The guide will incorporate video segments from the five documentaries into social studies resources, offering both viewing and comprehension aids and classroom activities. This resource will inspire and support teachers to integrate Native history and issues into their curricula and encourage them to present Native history as an integral part of American history. Teacherís Guide will be available beginning in April.
Another resource for teachers is the interactive map shows partners who have initiatives in various states to support the We Shall Remain program. Click on the link in Arizona to find out what is happening with We Shall Remain: Arizona, www.AZPBS.org
Arizona’s initiative uses broadcast, new media and community outreach to build bridges of communication between Arizona’s diverse populations and to promote Arizona regions, culture and ethnic diversity while particularly empowering Arizona Native people.
Also for teachers is the Teach and Learn feature.
Here teachers can access:
- Resources for social studies educators to integrate Native American history into curricula;
- Bibliographies for each of the five programs; and
- Related sites and resources for further learning.
Along with the website, there are a number of initiatives that will supplement the We Shall Remain program. They are:
ReelNative. This unique project offers Native Americans a venue to share their stories with a national audience. At workshops in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma, participants ranging in age from fourteen to fifty-five were taught to produce short films. Quirky, touching, funny, and profound, the films reveal the diversity of the contemporary Native experience and testify to the resilience of Native people and culture.
Community Outreach Campaign. This campaign is a nationwide effort to engage Native communities and organizations, Native radio, public television stations, universities, museums, schools, and libraries. The events, activities, and dialogue that come out of these relationships will extend We Shall Remainís crucial message to invite audiences to tune in to the broadcast.
National Library Initiative. WGBH is working closely with the American Library Association (ALA) and its 2007-2008 President Loriene Roy (White Earth Anishinabe) to build awareness of the series among librarians, Native organizations, scholars, and writers. Ms. Roy is also collaborating with WGBH to develop innovative ideas for how to use We Shall Remain materials to serve the unique needs of local communities and tribal libraries. A library event kit developed specifically for public, college, school, and tribal libraries will be distributed to 17,000 public libraries, as well as to all tribal libraries. The kit offers programming ideas and resources to help libraries organize and deliver engaging events related to We Shall Remain. Features include storytelling days, Native literature reading circles, cross-cultural art projects for youth, discussion forums, guidelines for evaluating media about Native peoples, and an extensive bibliography of book, film, and Internet resources.
to educational television, professional development opportunities
and classroom resources related to PBS Programs.
you can record programs on Eight for use in your classroom!
For scheduling information click
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Reserve your spot at the first ASSET Educator Summer Institute 2009 "Think Upstream"
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are $169 or more when you join ASSET for a donation of $60.
Conference registration is complimentary for ASSET Educators! Are you a member yet?
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(Health.com) -- Parents who believe that playing video games is less harmful to their kids' attention spans than watching TV may want to reconsider -- and unplug the Xbox. Video games can sap a child's attention just as much as the tube, a new study suggests.
Elementary school children who play video games more than two hours a day are 67 percent more likely than their peers who play less to have greater-than-average attention problems, according to the study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics.
Playing video games and watching TV appear to have roughly the same link to attention problems, even though video games are considered a less passive activity, the researchers say.
"Video games aren't less likely than television to be related to attention problems," says the lead author of the study, Edward Swing, a doctoral candidate in the department of psychology at Iowa State University, in Ames. "They were at least as strong as television at predicting attention problems."
However, the study doesn't prove that video games directly cause attention problems. It could be that kids who have short attention spans to begin with might be more likely to pick up a joystick than a book, for instance.
The relationship between video games and attention is probably a two-way street, Swing says. "It wouldn't surprise me if children who have attention problems are attracted to these media, and that these media increase the attention problems," he says.
Swing and his colleagues followed more than 1,300 children in the third, fourth, and fifth grades for a little over a year. The researchers asked both the kids and their parents to estimate how many hours per week the kids spent watching TV and playing video games, and they assessed the children's attention spans by surveying their schoolteachers.
Previous studies have examined the effect of TV or video games on attention problems, but not both. By looking at video-game use as well as TV watching, Swing and his colleagues were able to show for the first time that the two activities have a similar relationship to attention problems.
C. Shawn Green, Ph.D, a postdoctoral associate in the department of psychology at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, points out that the study doesn't distinguish between the type of attention required to excel at a video game and that required to excel in school.
"A child who is capable of playing a video game for hours on end obviously does not have a global problem with paying attention," says Green, who has researched video games but was not involved in the current study. "The question, then, is why are they able to pay attention to a game but not in school? What expectancies have the games set up that aren't being delivered in a school setting?"
Experts have suggested that modern TV shows are so exciting and fast paced that they make reading and schoolwork seem dull by comparison, and the same may be true for video games, the study notes.
It's unclear from this study whether that's the case, however, because Swing and his colleagues didn't look at the specific games the kids were playing.
"We weren't able to break [the games] down by educational versus non-educational or nonviolent versus violent," says Swing, adding that the impact different types of games may have on attention is a ripe area for future research.
The study also suggests that young kids aren't the only ones whose attention spans may be affected by video games.
In addition to surveying the elementary school kids, the researchers asked 210 college students about their TV and video-game use and how they felt it affected their attention. The students who logged more than two hours of TV and video games a day were about twice as likely to have attention problems, the researchers found.
These attention problems later in life may be the result of "something cumulative that builds up over a lifetime" or "something that happens early in life at some critical period and then stays with you," Swing says. "Either way, there are implications that would lead us to want to reduce television and video games in childhood."
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the leading professional organization for pediatricians and the publisher of Pediatrics, recommends that parents limit all "screen time" (including video and computer games) to less than two hours per day.
For his part, Green says that how much time kids spend playing video games should be a matter of common sense and parental judgment.
"A hard boundary, such as two hours, is completely arbitrary," he says. "Children are individuals, and what makes sense for one won't necessarily work for another."
Copyright Health Magazine 2011
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Assistive Technology Assessment: Are Our Assessment Strategies Providing the Needed Information?By Korsten, Jane; Closing the Gap, Vol. 26, No. 4
Closing the Gap, Inc.
Publication Date: October/November 2007
Article offers a historical perspective on assistive-technology assessment, from being an expert-conducted, product-oriented event outside the targeted environment to a strategy implemented in the customary environment by a team which includes direct service providers as active participants. Recommendations are offered for a process-oriented AT assessment that determines student abilities and needs with respect to the tasks the student is expected to perform before any equipment is considered. Strategies available to support the assessment process reviewed are Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology (QIAT), offering quality indicators, intent statements, and common errors for areas important to the development and delivery of AT services; Assistive Technology Teams: Many Ways to Do It Well by D. DeCoste, a survey of AT teams across the country; and the SETT Framework by J. Zabala, an organizational tool that helps collaborative teams gather and analyze information to create a Student-centered, Environmentally useful, and Tasks-focused system of Tools fostering the educational success of students with disabilities. A list of resources recommended for gathering specific information needed to answer assessment questions is appended.
Published by: Closing the Gap, Inc. (Website:http://www.closingthegap.com)
Closing the Gap, Inc. (Website:http://www.closingthegap.com)
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Richmond Animal League Celebrates Earth Day all Month Long | Community Spirit
Carbon footprint. Green communities. And adopting a shelter pet? With Earth Day coming up on April 22nd, Richmond Animal League wants to help raise awareness of their “100% recycled, earth-friendly” pets, and how you can help make your pets earth-friendly, too.
There is an argument to be made that in and of themselves, pets just aren’t that great for the environment—there’s the environmental cost of producing pet food and the by-product waste it generates, the trash produced by old toys and other items, and then of course there’s the waste that comes out of the pets themselves! Pet owners can try to reduce some of their pet’s environmental impact by buying responsibly-sourced and manufactured food and products, and always making sure to clean up their pet’s waste.
But perhaps one of the biggest things we as pet owners can do to help make our nation’s pets more earth-friendly is to help curb the overall pet overpopulation problem by adopting a shelter pet rather than buying from “backyard breeders” only interested in making a quick buck from a litter of puppies, or pet stores, which oftentimes source their pets from unsanitary and overcrowded puppy mills. “Mass producing” pets as commodities directly contribute to the large numbers of unwanted pets who end up in municipal animal shelters every year. But adopting a pet directly from the animal shelter means that no new animals are being added to the overall population.
Another way to help keep pets earth-friendly and to keep the number of homeless shelter pets down at the same time is to always spay and neuter your pets. Most animal shelters require adopted pets to be spayed or neutered, either before or immediately after the adoption takes place. This way, a shelter can be sure that a few years down the road, that pet isn’t replaced by the litter of five or six or even ten new pets they’ve produced!
Here at RAL we like to think of all of our shelter pets as 100% recycled, pre-owned, and earth-friendly. They’ve all been spayed and neutered, and won’t contribute to further overpopulation down the road. They’ve oftentimes been in homes before, so they know the drill already when they arrive at your home. And quite frequently the reason they’ve ended up in a shelter has little to do with a “problem” with the pets themselves, but instead relates to some unfortunate incident in the owner’s life—a move to an apartment, a new baby with bad allergies, etc.
Sometimes pets who were adopted from RAL end up back here again because of circumstances like those listed above. Lacy (pictured above) and her sister Ruffles were adopted a few years back as kittens. Their adopter finally realized that the terrible allergies her daughter was suffering were being caused by the cats, and brought them back to the shelter. That makes Lacy and Ruffles 100% recycled RAL kitties. We’re hoping that rather than buying a kitten from a breeder or a pet store, someone will have the heart to look at Lacy or Ruffles instead. These pre-owned cats have been successfully test-driven in a home once before, and would do great in another one, given the chance.
Come meet Lacy and her sister—as well as our many other earth-friendly, recycled dogs and cats—at the RAL shelter, located at 11401 International Drive, Richmond VA, 23236. For more information, call 804-379-0046, or email firstname.lastname@example.org. Visit us online at www.ral.org, and friend us on Facebook (at https://www.facebook.com/RichmondAnimalLeague), where all month long we’ll be featuring some very special pets just like Lacy. And, visitors to the RAL shelter on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22nd, will qualify for $22 off any dog or puppy adoption.
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Turning the tables on Isaac Newton
As we age, we begin to see gravity as our enemy. Always dragging us down, Isaac Newton's discovery uses our own bodies against us compressing our spines and causing pain just because we're upright. Walking, running, or any other high-impact exercise makes the compression and pain worse. Solution? Turn gravity against itself with inversion therapy.
Compression is the cause
Gravity's force never relents. We spend 16 hours a day or more upright, and gravity is pushing down on us the whole time. Just as the cheerleader at the bottom of the pyramid bears the weight of all the others, the vertebrae and discs of your lower spine carry the load of your entire upper body. Gravity compresses the discs, causing the nerves in your spine to register pain. Your muscles try valiantly to hold you up, but they begin to hurt as well. So your lower back hurts, even if you've spent the day at your desk.
Inversion is the solution
The arrow of gravity always points down. In contrast to simply lying down, inversion therapy brings the arrow of gravity into alignment with your spine but in the opposite direction with an inversion table or gravity boots. The same force that used to drag you down is now helping you stretch. Those tired muscles elongate, your vertebrae gently separate and your discs have a little more room to enjoy the body's healing circulation. Just a few minutes of inversion therapy every day can bring precious, medication-free relief from back and neck discomfort.
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The Slide Rule
The slide rule is a tool that has long since been outdated by computers. It performed simple multiplication and division problems, as well as trigonometrical equations and logarithms. The rule below is a working Java applet; to use it, simply slide the center piece or the glass to the left or right to position them, and the computer will calculate the result in relation to the cursor.
This is the Java Slide Rule
Java Slide Rule courtesy of System Source
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Highlight: In 1913, New York City’s rebuilt Grand Central Terminal officially opened to the public at one minute past midnight.
In 1536, present-day Buenos Aires, Argentina, was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.
In 1653, New Amsterdam — now New York City — was incorporated.
In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War, was signed.
In 1870, the “Cardiff Giant," supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff, N.Y., was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.
In 1882, Irish poet and novelist James Joyce was born near Dublin.
In 1887, Punxsutawney, Pa., held its first Groundhog Day festival.
In 1912, Frederick Law parachuted from the torch of the Statue of Liberty in a stunt filmed by Pathé News.
In 1922, the James Joyce novel “Ulysses" was published in Paris on Joyce’s 40th birthday.
In 1943, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered in a major victory for the Soviets in World War II.
In 1961, hijackers of a Portuguese ocean liner, the Santa Maria, allowed the passengers and crew to disembark in Brazil, a week and a half after seizing the ship.
In 1971, Idi Amin, having seized power in Uganda, proclaimed himself president.
In 1988, in a speech the broadcast television networks declined to carry live, President Ronald Reagan pressed his case for aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.
Ten years ago: The search continued for pieces of the space shuttle Columbia, a day after the spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry over Texas, killing all seven astronauts.
Five years ago: A gunman killed five women at a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Ill., in an apparent botched robbery attempt (the case remains unsolved).
One year ago: Egyptian security forces clashed with stone-throwing protesters enraged by the failure of police to prevent a soccer riot that killed 74 people.
It’s Saturday, Feb. 2, the 33rd day of 2013. There are 332 days left in the year.
Awards — Kelsey Grammer hosts the 65th annual Directors Guild Awards, where Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck battle for the title of best film director.
Holiday — It’s Groundhog Day. Will the little rodent predict six more weeks of winter?
All-Star Saturday — The NBA begins its All-Star weekend in New York with a team competition consisting of 3-point shooting, a dunk contest and a skills challenge.
Russia — Public ceremonies will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, a turning point in the war against Nazi Germany.
Actress Elaine Stritch is 88. Actor Robert Mandan is 81. Comedian Tom Smothers is 76. Rock singer-guitarist Graham Nash is 71. Actor Bo Hopkins is 71. Television executive Barry Diller is 71. TV chef Ina Garten is 65. Actor Jack McGee is 64. Actor Brent Spiner is 64. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is 61. Model Christie Brinkley is 59. Actor Michael Talbott is 58. Actress Kim Zimmer is 58. Actor Michael T. Weiss is 51. Actor-comedian Adam Ferrara is 47. Actress Jennifer Westfeldt is 43.
— From wire reports
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The British Library holds one of the most important collections of Hebrew manuscripts. The core of the Library’s collection is in the foundation collections, and the holdings gradually expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Of the approximately 3000 manuscripts around 300 have some type of decoration. All of the illuminated manuscripts and those with significant decoration (109 in total) are now included in the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. The inclusion of these manuscripts, currently illustrated by over 1100 images, with further images to be added in the autumn 2011, was made possible through grants from the American Trust for the British Library in memory of William T. Golden, the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, Roger and Julie Baskes, Chicago, USA, and an anonymous donor.
The Hebrew illuminated manuscripts included in the Catalogue are from the following collections: Additional (47), Oriental (38), and Harley (19), and one from each of Sloane, King’s, Egerton and the India Office. These manuscripts range from the tenth to the fifteenth century with two additional eighteenth-century Haggadot. Their geographical division is just as wide, including Europe, Northern Africa and the East. The majority of the codices, however, were made between the thirteenth and the fifteenth century in Italy, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Most of them contain religious works, such as biblical and different liturgical texts, but there are a number of legal, philosophical and scientific books as well. Of the 109 manuscripts, 46 have a colophon providing either the name of the scribe or the date of completion, or sometimes both. Interestingly, there are no English Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in the collection.
The type of illumination of these manuscripts varies greatly. Most of them contain penwork decoration only, executed either in ink or in colours, such as decorated initial words/ initial-word panels, embellished parashah signs, and full or partial borders. Because many of the texts are accompanied with some kind of marginal commentary, two other types of decoration became widespread in Hebrew manuscript illumination: micrography and carmina figurata, both formed from the text itself. Ashkenazi codices of the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries also often contain catchwords with various figurative illustrations. Only one-fifth of the material has miniatures depicting narrative scenes.
The Catalogue entries include a description of the codicological and palaeographical features of the manuscripts, information about their provenance and a selected bibliography focusing on literature about their illumination. In addition, eventually each entry will include a selection of images from the manuscripts, illustrating various stylistic trends or types of decoration of the codices (such as initial-word panels, marginal decoration, full-page miniatures, etc), and highlighting their iconographic characteristics.
These images derive from different sources, including digital scans of existing slides to newly commissioned digital images, thus the image quality may vary.
For the description of the manuscripts, different printed catalogues on the Hebrew collections of the British Library have been used. Among these, the most comprehensive is the three-volume Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1899-1935, repr. 1965) written by George Margoliouth and supplemented by Jacob Leveen (London, 1977). In addition to this catalogue, the following reference books/databases have been consulted:
- Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts. (Jerusalem: Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1969); and its Hebrew version, Kitvei yad ivriyim metzuyarim (Jerusalem: Keter, 1984).
- Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: A Catalogue Raisonné. The Spanish and Portuguese Manuscripts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982).
- Thérèse and Mendel Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages: Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982).
- Ilana Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (London, British Library, 2007.)
- Sacred: Books of the Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (London: British Library, 2007) [exhibition catalogue]
- the online catalogue of the Jewish National and University Library
- the online Codicological Data-Base of the Hebrew Palaeography Project, The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities(this site is under construction, the data is only partially available at the moment)
Certain features of Hebrew manuscripts differ from those of Latin or other western European language codices. Most notably, due to the nature of Hebrew script being written from right to left, the foliation of a Hebrew manuscript starts from the back of a volume, that is, the recto and the verso sides are opposite to those of a codex written in Latin characters.
In order to make the catalogue information accessible to a wide audience the catalogue records include transliterations of Hebrew characters (for the transliteration, see table below).
From an early period, the Church attempted to control the dissemination of Hebrew books. From the mid-thirteenth century, Jewish books were examined by Christian censors in order to eliminate those passages that were considered blasphemous. Although expurgation or even destruction of certain Hebrew books had started much earlier, the first official list of prohibited Hebrew book, the Index autorum et librorum prohibitorum, issued by the Pope, was published in 1559. Some decades later, in 1595 a converted Jew, Dominico Irosolomitano, composed another similar work, the Index expurgatorius (Sefer ha-ziqquq), in which he listed 420 titles of banned books. Official revisers were appointed to revise Hebrew books and implement these restrictions. These censors were usually converted Jews, who read Hebrew and were familiar with the texts.
Many of the illuminated manuscripts included in the Catalogue were present in Italy at some point and include evidence that they were examined by censors there. Approximately a dozen sixteenth-seventeenth Italian censors’ signatures are present, indicating approval of the contents. For the identification of these signatures, and a summary on the subject see, William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books (New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1969).
Barcelona Haggadah, 255 x 190, Barcelona, c. 1340, signature of the censor Luigi da Bologna
Add 14761, f. 160
Examples of different Hebrew scripts:
For the description of the different Hebrew scripts, Malachi Beit-Arie’s terminology has been used (see, Malachi Beit-Arie, The Panizzi Lectures: Hebrew Manuscripts of East and West: Towards a Comparative Codicology (London: The British Library, 1992).
Ashkenazi Haggadah, Add 14762, 375 x 275 mm, Germany, c. 1460, f. 7v, punctuated Ashkenazi square script
Tripartite Mahzor, Add 22413 volume 2, 315 x 220 mm, Southern Germany, c. 1322, f. 138, unpunctuated Ashkenazi semi-cursive script
Lisbon Bible, Or 2627, 300 x 245 mm, Lisbon, 1482, f. 136v, punctuated Sephardic square script
Guide of the Perplexed by Maimonides, Or 14061, 300 x 210 mm, Catalonia, 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 14th century, f. 89, unpunctuated Sephardic semi-cursive script
Duke of Sussex Italian Pentateuch, Add 15423, 330 x 225 mm, Florence, 2nd third of the 15th century, f. 117, punctuated Italian semi-cursive script
First Gaster Bible, Or 9879, 330 x 260 mm, Egypt, tenth century, f. 14v, punctuated Oriental square script
Pentateuch, Or 2348, 400 x 280 mm, Sana (Yemen), 1469, f. 152v, punctuated Yemenite square script
The transliteration of Hebrew characters
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PROTEINS AS ENZYMES
This page is an introduction to how proteins can work as enzymes - biological catalysts. You should realise that this is written to cover the needs of a number of UK-based chemistry syllabuses for 16 - 18 year olds. If you want detailed knowledge about enzymes for a biology or biochemistry course, you are probably in the wrong place! This is just an introduction.
Note: This page follows on from a page about protein structure. If you don't have a reasonable knowledge of the structure of proteins and the sorts of attractions that can be found in them, you may not understand bits of the present page. Read the protein structure page first and come back here later.
Enzymes as catalysts
Enzymes are mainly globular proteins - protein molecules where the tertiary structure has given the molecule a generally rounded, ball shape (although perhaps a very squashed ball in some cases). The other type of proteins (fibrous proteins) have long thin structures and are found in tissues like muscle and hair. We aren't interested in those in this topic.
These globular proteins can be amazingly active catalysts. You are probably familiar with the use of catalysts like manganese(IV) oxide in decomposing hydrogen peroxide to give oxygen and water. The enzyme catalase will also do this - but at a spectacular rate compared with inorganic catalysts.
One molecule of catalase can decompose almost a hundred thousand molecules of hydrogen peroxide every second. That's very impressive!
This is a model of catalase, showing the globular structure - a bit like a tangled mass of string:
Note: This diagram was obtained from the RCSB Protein Data Bank.
You should be able to identify the alpha-helices and beta-pleated sheets. If you can't, you obviously didn't read the page about protein structure mentioned above!
If you look very carefully, you might also spot two pink, non-protein structures hidden in the main structure. More about these in a while . . .
An important point about enzymes is that they are very specific about what they can catalyse. Even small changes in the reactant molecule can stop the enzyme from catalysing its reaction. The reason for this lies in the active site present in the enzyme . . .
Active sites are cracks or hollows on the surface of the enzyme caused by the way the protein folds itself up into its tertiary structure. Molecules of just the right shape, and with just the right arrangement of attractive groups (see later) can fit into these active sites. Other molecules won't fit or won't have the right groups to bind to the surface of the active site.
The usual analogy for this is a key fitting into a lock. For the key to work properly it has to fit exactly into the lock.
In chemistry, we would describe the molecule which is actually going to react (the purple one in the diagram) as the reactant. In biology and biochemistry, the reactant in an enzyme reaction is known instead as the substrate.
You mustn't take this picture of the way a substrate fits into its enzyme too literally. What is just as important as the physical shape of the substrate are the bonds which it can form with the enzyme.
Enzymes are protein molecules - long chains of amino acid residues. Remember that sticking out all along those chains are the side groups of the amino acids - the "R" groups that we talked about on the page about protein structure.
Active sites, of course, have these "R" groups lining them as well - typically from about 3 to 12 in an active site. The next diagram shows an imaginary active site:
Remember that these "R" groups contain the sort of features which are responsible for the tertiary structure in proteins. For example, they may contain ionic groups like -NH3+ or -COO-, or -OH groups which can hydrogen bond, or hydrocarbon chains or rings which can contribute to van der Waals forces.
Groups like these help a substrate to attach to the active site - but only if the substrate molecule has an arrangement of groups in the right places to interact with those on the enzyme.
The diagram shows a possible set of interactions involving two ionic bonds and a hydrogen bond.
The groups shown with + or - signs are obvious. The ones with the "H"s in them are groups capable of hydrogen bonding. It is possible that one or more of the unused "R" groups in the active site could also be helping with van der Waals attractions between them and the substrate.
If the arrangement of the groups on the active site or the substrate was even slightly different, the bonding almost certainly wouldn't be as good - and in that sense, a different substrate wouldn't fit the active site on the enzyme.
This process of the catalyst reacting with the substrate and eventually forming products is often summarised as:
. . . where E is the enzyme, S the substrate and P the products.
The formation of the complex is reversible - the substrate could obviously just break away again before it converted into products. The second stage is shown as one-way, but might be reversible in some cases. It would depend on the energetics of the reaction.
So why does attaching itself to an enzyme increase the rate at which the substrate converts into products?
It isn't at all obvious why that should be - and most sources providing information at this introductory level just gloss over it or talk about it in vague general terms (which is what I am going to be forced to do, because I can't find a simple example to talk about!).
Catalysts in general (and enzymes are no exception) work by providing the reaction with a route with a lower activation energy. Attaching the substrate to the active site must allow electron movements which end up in bonds breaking much more easily than if the enzyme wasn't there.
Strangely, it is much easier to see what might be happening in other cases where the situation is a bit more complicated . . .
What we have said so far is a major over-simplification for most enzymes. Most enzymes aren't in fact just pure protein molecules. Other non-protein bits and pieces are needed to make them work. These are known as cofactors.
In the absence of the right cofactor, the enzyme doesn't work. For those of you who like collecting obscure words, the inactive protein molecule is known as an apoenzyme. When the cofactor is in place so that it becomes an active enzyme, it is called a holoenzyme.
Note: If you don't collect obscure words, don't worry about these! Neither of them occurs in the syllabuses I am trying to cover with this material. I have spent a lifetime in chemistry education without having come across either of them until researching this!
There are two basically different sorts of cofactors. Some are bound tightly to the protein molecule so that they become a part of the enzyme - these are called prosthetic groups.
Some are entirely free of the enzyme and attach themselves to the active site alongside the substrate - these are called coenzymes.
Prosthetic groups can be as simple as a single metal ion bound into the enzyme's structure, or may be a more complicated organic molecule (which might also contain a metal ion). The enzymes carbonic anhydrase and catalase are simple examples of the two types.
Zinc ions in carbonic anhydrase
Carbonic anhydrase is an enzyme which catalyses the conversion of carbon dioxide into hydrogencarbonate ions (or the reverse) in the cell. (If you look this up elsewhere, you will find that biochemists tend to persist in calling hydrogencarbonate by its old name, bicarbonate!)
In fact, there are a whole family of carbonic anhydrases all based around different proteins, but all of them have a zinc ion bound up in the active site. In this case, the mechanism is well understood and simple. We'll look at this in some detail, because it is a good illustration of how enzymes work.
Important: This is just an example! If you are doing a UK-based chemistry syllabus for 16 - 18 year olds, there is almost certainly no need to learn this. If in doubt, check your syllabus. If it doesn't explicitly ask for this reaction in detail, you don't need to learn it. To repeat - I'm just using it to illustrate how enzymes carry out a simple reaction.
The zinc ion is bound to the protein chain via three links to separate histidine residues in the chain - shown in pink in the picture of one version of carbonic anhydrase. The zinc is also attached to an -OH group - shown in the picture using red for the oxygen and white for the hydrogen.
Note: This diagram comes from Wikipedia. I have no reason to doubt its accuracy, but I can't guarantee it.
As far as I have been able to find out, all the various forms of carbonic anhydrase have the zinc ion bound to three histidine residues in this way - irrespective of what is happening in the rest of the protein molecule. If I am wrong about this generalisation, could you please let me know via the address on the about this site page.
The structure of the amino acid histidine is . . .
. . . and when it is a part of a protein chain, it is joined up like this:
If you look at the model of the arrangement around the zinc ion in the picture above, you should at least be able to pick out the ring part of the three molecules.
The zinc ion is bound to these histidine rings via dative covalent (co-ordinate covalent) bonds from lone pairs on the nitrogen atoms. Simplifying the structure around the zinc . . .
The arrangement of the four groups around the zinc is approximately tetrahedral. Notice that I have distorted the usual roughly tetrahedral arrangement of electron pairs around the oxygen - that's just to keep the diagram as clear as possible.
So that's the structure around the zinc. How does this catalyse the reaction between carbon dioxide and water?
A carbon dioxide molecule is held by a nearby part of the active site so that one of the lone pairs on the oxygen is pointing straight at the carbon atom in the middle of the carbon dioxide molecule. Attaching it to the enzyme also increases the existing polarity of the carbon-oxygen bonds.
If you have done any work on organic reaction mechanisms at all, then it is pretty obvious what is going to happen. The lone pair forms a bond with the carbon atom and part of one of the carbon-oxygen bonds breaks and leaves the oxygen atom with a negative charge on it.
What you now have is a hydrogencarbonate ion attached to the zinc.
The next diagram shows this broken away and replaced with a water molecule from the cell solution.
All that now needs to happen to get the catalyst back to where it started is for the water to lose a hydrogen ion. This is transferred by another water molecule to a nearby amino acid residue with a nitrogen in the "R" group - and eventually, by a series of similar transfers, out of the active site completely.
. . . and the carbonic anhydrase enzyme can do this sequence of reactions about a million times a second. This is a wonderful piece of molecular machinery!
Let me repeat yet again: If you are doing a UK-based chemistry exam for 16 - 18 year olds, you are unlikely to need details of this reaction. I've talked it through in some detail to show that although enzymes are complicated molecules, all they do is some basic chemistry. It is just that this particular example is a lot easier to understand than most!
The haem (US: heme) group in catalase
Remember the model of catalase from further up the page . . .
At the time, I mentioned the non-protein groups which this contains, shown in pink in the picture. These are haem (US: heme) groups bound to the protein molecule, and an essential part of the working of the catalase. The haem group is a good example of a prosthetic group. If it wasn't there, the protein molecule wouldn't work as a catalyst.
The haem groups contain an iron(III) ion bound into a ring molecule - one of a number of related molecules called porphyrins. The iron is locked into the centre of the porphyrin molecule via dative covalent bonds from four nitrogen atoms in the ring structure.
There are various types of porphyrin, so there are various different haem groups. The one we are interested in is called haem B, and a model of the haem B group (with the iron(III) ion in grey at the centre) looks like this:
Note: This diagram comes from Wikipedia, and you will also find a proper structure for the group on the page you will get to by following this link if you are interested (and a lot more information that you probably won't want to know about!).
You may have come across haemoglobin in the transport of oxygen around the blood. This is the same haem group that is at the heart of that - with one small difference. In haemoglobin, the iron is present as iron(II) rather than iron(III).
The reaction that catalase carries out is the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.
A lot of work has been done on the mechanism for this reaction, but I am only going to give you a simplified version rather than describe it in full. Although it looks fairly simple on the surface, there are a lot of hidden things going on to complicate it.
Essentially the reaction happens in two stages and involves the iron changing its oxidation state. An easy change of oxidation state is one of the main characteristics of transition metals. In the lab, iron commonly has two oxidation states (as well as zero in the metal itself), +2 and +3, and changes readily from one to the other.
In catalase, the change is from +3 to the far less common +4 and back again.
In the first stage there is a reaction between a hydrogen peroxide molecule and the active site to give:
The "Enzyme" in the equation refers to everything (haem group and protein) apart from the iron ion. The "(III)" and "(IV)" are the oxidation states of the iron in both cases. This equation (and the next one) are NOT proper chemical equations. They are just summaries of the most obvious things which have happened.
The new arrangement around the iron then reacts with a second hydrogen peroxide to regenerate the original structure and produce oxygen and a second molecule of water.
What is hidden away in this simplification are the other things that are happening at the same time - for example, the rest of the haem group and some of the amino acid residues around the active site are also changed during each stage of the reaction.
And if you think about what has to happen to the hydrogen peroxide molecule in both reactions, it has to be more complicated than this suggests. Hydrogen peroxide is joined up as H-O-O-H, and yet both hydrogens end up attached to the same oxygen. That is quite a complicated thing to arrange in small steps in a mechanism, and involves hydrogen ions being transferred via amino acids residues in the active site.
So do you need to remember all this for chemistry purposes at this level? No - not unless your syllabus specifically asks you for it. It is basically just an illustration of the term "prosthetic group".
It also shows that even in a biochemical situation, transition metals behave in the same sort of way as they do in inorganic chemistry - they form complexes, and they change their oxidation state.
And if you want to follow this up to look in detail at what is happening, you will find the same sort of interactions around the active site that we looked at in the simpler case of carbonic anydrase. (But please don't waste time on this unless you have to - it is seriously complicated!)
Coenzymes are another form of cofactor. They are different from prosthetic groups in that they aren't permanently attached to the protein molecule. Instead, coenzymes attach themselves to the active site alongside the substrate, and the reaction involves both of them. Once they have reacted, they both leave the active site - both changed in some way.
A simple diagram showing a substrate and coenzyme together in the active site might look like this:
It is much easier to understand this with a (relatively) simple example.
NAD+ as coenzyme with alcohol dehydrogenase
Alcohol dehydrogenase is an enzyme which starts the process by which alcohol (ethanol) in the blood is oxidised to harmless products. The name "dehydrogenase" suggests that it is oxidising the ethanol by removing hydrogens from it.
The reaction is actually between ethanol and the coenzyme NAD+ attached side-by-side to the active site of the protein molecule. NAD+ is a commonly used coenzyme in all sorts of redox reactions in the cell.
NAD+ stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. The plus sign which is a part of its name is because it carries a positive charge on a nitrogen atom in the structure.
The "nicotinamide" part of the structure comes from the vitamin variously called vitamin B3, niacin or nicotinic acid. Several important coenzymes are derived from vitamins.
Note: I'm not going to confuse you with the structures of NAD+ or even nicotinic acid - this page is already long enough! If you are interested, they are easy to find via a Google search. In common with what I have done on the rest of this page, this is just an example to illustrate how a coenzyme works which is reasonably easy to understand. You are unlikely to need details for any chemistry exam at this level.
Ethanol is oxidised by a reaction with NAD+ helped by the active site of the enzyme. At the end of the reaction, ethanal (acetaldehyde) is formed, and the NAD+ has been converted into another compound known as NADH.
As far as the NAD+ is concerned, it has picked up a hydrogen atom together with an extra electron which has neutralised the charge.
Both major products - ethanal and NADH - leave the active site and are processed further in other cell reactions.
The very poisonous ethanal is oxidised at once to ethanoic acid using a different enzyme, but again using NAD+ as the coenzyme. And the ethanoic acid from that reacts on through a whole set of further enzyme-controlled reactions to eventually end up as carbon dioxide and water.
What about the NADH? This is a coenzyme in its own right, and takes part in reactions where something needs reducing. The hydrogen atom and the extra electron that it picked up from the ethanol are given to something else. In the process, of course, the NADH gets oxidised back to NAD+ again.
In general terms, for a substrate S which needs reducing:
Note: Because this page is getting so long, and because there is still quite a bit of enzyme chemistry to talk about, it continues on another two pages. You will find the link to the first of these below.
What follows is a page about the effect of substrate concentration, temperature and pH on enzymes, and then a further page about enzyme inhibitors.
© Jim Clark 2007
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Other Historic Sites
These sites served various purposes and are important by virtue of their historic, architectural, traditional, artistic, aesthetic, scientific or archaeological value.
- 1 King Street - formerly the Manse of the Burchell Baptist Church.
- Admiralty Houses - part of the Old Naval Dockyard in Port Royal.
- Bamboo Avenue - is located on the main South Coast Highway, in the parish of St Elizabeth.
- Barnett Street Police Station - dates back to the late 19th century, constructed of cut stone.
- Bob Marley Museum - is located along Hope Road in the former residence of the Hon. Robert Nesta Marley.
- Bog Walk Gorge - or Rio Cobre Gorge was discovered by Carey Helyar during the 1660s.
- Cast Iron Fountain - located near to the Courthouse in Savanna-La-Mar, Westmoreland.
- Claude McKay's Birthplace - internationally acclaimed writer and poet, born 1889 in James Hill, Clarendon.
- Colbeck Castle - is a massive stone and brick ruin with walls standing to their full original height.
- Craighton House - was named after its first owner, George Craighton.
- DeMontevin lodge - built in 1881, is an eclectic mix of the Victorian architectural style, with gingerbread details.
- Devon House - is a fine example of nineteenth (19th) century domestic architecture in Jamaica.
- Edinburgh Castle -was built by Lewis Hutchinson, who is Jamaica's earliest recorded serial killer.
- Falmouth Wharves - stand as a reminder of the town’s former glory.
- Firefly House - home of British Playwright Noel Coward, called "Look Out" by the famous pirate Henry Morgan.
- Golmont View House - originally consisted of a 10 bedrooms including a dungeon used in the days of slavery.
- Gordon House - became the official meeting place of the Jamaican Government on Wed, October 26, 1960.
- Grove Hill House - located in Montego Bay, the capital of St. James, was built in the early 18th century.
- Harmony Hall House - is indicative of Jamaican-Georgian architectural style with its intricate fretwork.
- Hibbert House /Headquarters House - head office of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, 79 Duke St, Kgn.
- Institute of Jamaica - was established in 1879 during the governorship of Sir Anthony Musgrave.
- Invercauld - on Black River’s seaside High Street is a fine example of late Jamaican Georgian architecture.
- Kendal Railway Tragedy - The worst railway disaster in Jamaica’s history on September 1, 1957 at 11:30.
- Lillian’s Restaurant & the Ruins of Three Concrete Silos - built around 1912, stands as a charming bungalow.
- Lovers' Leap - consists of a cliff with a drop of approximately 1,600 feet.
- Manchester Club Golf Course - built in 1865 & possibly the oldest surviving club in the western hemisphere.
- Moneague Inn - In 1860, described as “the best hotel in the island”.
- New Castle Training Depot - founded in 1841 by Major Gen. Sir William Maynard Gomm (later Field Marshall).
- Oakton House - erected around mid 19th century, displaying features informed by Georgian architecture.
- Old Police Station and Court House - location was originally the site of a Jewish Synagogue.
- Old Slave Ring - at the corner of Union & East Streets, is a semi-circular arena-like structure with brick walls.
- Orange Park - located in the hills of Yallahs, St. Thomas, was once a coffee plantation.
- Rio Bueno - small town believed to be where Christopher Columbus first landed.
- Stewart Castle - offers valuable insights into the dietary habits of the Tainos.
- The Dome - is located in St. James, erected over the source of the creek in Montego Bay.
- Town House - built in 1776, this building predates the Parish Church by ten (10) years.
- Ward Theatre - presented as a gift to the city of Kingston in 1912 by Colonel Charles Ward.
- White Marl Taino Midden and Museum - established in 1965 in memory of Dr. Randolph Howard.
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WHO Calls For Targets on Noncommunicable Diseases
WHO News Release
WHO Calls For Setting Targets And Indicators To Intensify Efforts Against Noncommunicable Diseases
HANOI, 26 September 2012—The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific today reviewed the progress so far on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and called for multisectoral action and development of targets and indicators for NCD prevention and control.
"Noncommunicable diseases have been a global and regional priority over the past year, with an especially grave crisis declared in the Pacific," said Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific. “At the request of thís Committee, we are assisting countries to develop global targets and indicators for NCD control by the end of thís year. We are helping to better monitor NCDs and their risk factors.”
The Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases called last year for a global monitoring framework and voluntary global targets focusing on four diseases—cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes—which are responsible for four out of every five deaths in the Region. Major risk factors are tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol.
NCD interventions that
are likely to have targets and indicators include the
• reducing mortality from noncommunicable diseases
• curbing smoking
• cutting alcohol and salt intake
• lowering blood pressure
• preventing heart attack and stroke
• improving rates of cervical cancer screening
• eliminating industrial produced trans fat from the food supply
In May this year, the World Health Assembly, WHO's governing body decided to adopt a global target of a 25% reduction in premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by 2025. Discussions at the Regional Committee Meeting on the development of global voluntary targets and indicators for NCDs will support the finalization of the set of targets and indicators at a global meeting, which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 2012.
A regional training for NCD surveillance is planned in December 2012 in Seoul, Republic of Korea, to support the development of national targets. Based on the global voluntary targets and indicators, Member States will be supported in the development of national targets and indicators.
The regional NCD action plan for 2014–2020 will be aligned to the updated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases being developed.
The Regional Committee, WHO's governing body in the Region, is meeting in Hanoi from 24 to 28 September, to review WHO's work in the Region and set future health directions.
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You will be forgiven if your eyes glaze over at the title of this post. (For pronunciation try 'fytoffthora'). However, potentially this disease, also called Sudden Oak Death, could be a major threat to heathland habitats. Fera ( The Food and Environment Research Agency) provides more information about the disease and a Fact sheet on its website.
A Review Paper has just been published which provides a summary of the activity in England and Wales since the disease was first identified in Cornwall in 2002. Principally, the disease outbreaks have been confined to woodlands, nurseries and ornamental gardens, such as run by the National Trust, but there have also been some worrying outbreaks in the wild (261 cases out of 904 reported), and it appears likely that Bilberry Vaccinium myrtillis can act as a host for the disease. For obvious reasons, it is this latter issue that is focusing my attention.
The other main host is Rhododendron and control has involved the eradication of Rhododendron from the disease site and the surrounding area. This in itself can have some benefits, but the large areas of wild Rhododendron, particularly on the west coast of Scotland, could prove to be a major harbour for this disease, if it cuts loose.
There is not much to be done at the moment, but this is an issue to monitor.
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| 0.968817
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| 3
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Class Precedence List:
complex, number, t
The type complex includes all mathematical complex numbers other than those included in the type rational. Complexes are expressed in Cartesian form with a real part and an imaginary part, each of which is a real. The real part and imaginary part are either both rational or both of the same float type. The imaginary part can be a float zero, but can never be a rational zero, for such a number is always represented by Common Lisp as a rational rather than a complex.
Compound Type Specifier Kind:
Compound Type Specifier Syntax:
complex [typespec | *]
Compound Type Specifier Arguments:
typespec---a type specifier that denotes a subtype of type real.
Compound Type Specifier Description:
Every element of this type is a complex whose real part and imaginary part are each of type (upgraded-complex-part-type typespec). This type encompasses those complexes that can result by giving numbers of type typespec to complex.
(complex type-specifier) refers to all complexes that can result from giving numbers of type type-specifier to the function complex, plus all other complexes of the same specialized representation.
Section 18.104.22.168 (Rule of Canonical Representation for Complex Rationals), Section 2.3.2 (Constructing Numbers from Tokens), Section 22.214.171.124.4 (Printing Complexes)
The input syntax for a complex with real part r and imaginary part i is #C(r i). For further details, see Section 2.4 (Standard Macro Characters).
For every float, n, there is a complex which represents the same mathematical number and which can be obtained by (COERCE n 'COMPLEX).
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| 0.866042
| 372
| 3.234375
| 3
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Gender and Climate Change in India
Six Villages, Andhra Pradesh, India
The focus of the study are six villages with high indicators of poverty and livelihoods reliant on rainfed agriculture in the drought-prone districts of Anantapur and Mahabubnagar.
Two hundred and one farmers (106 women and 95 men) participated in the quantitative survey, while approximately 180 farmers participated in the focus group discussions. The men and women farmers have land holdings of 2.5 – 5 acres and are above 35 years old; the large majority of land owners are men. The study participants rely primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods and food security, but increasingly seasonal migration, loans, and government-funded programmes are adopted as livelihood strategies and to ensure food security. The major crops grown include paddy, ground nut, red gram, castor, jowar, sesame and green gram.
© E. L. F. Schipper
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| 0.919446
| 192
| 2.953125
| 3
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The agricultural history of the overview area represents an interweaving of economic, technological and sociological factors within the contect of natural features such as climate, soils, topography, and water. The relative importance of crops changed in response to political forces such as wars and immigration policies, to social customs such as shifts in food preferences and habits, and to technological changes in farming practices. Above all, transportation and access to markets brought profound changes to crop choices and farm locations.
Although the bottomlands, plains, and foothills were host to different forms of agriculture through time, the entire coast valley area followed a general pattern with local variations. Following the mission-supported agricultural holdings of the Hispanic period, in which grains and selected row crops were planted in large irrigated fields, the American entrepreneur experimented with rapid producers such as potatoes to supply the gold fields. Crop selection was based on minimal labor and space requirements in the early 1850s, and ease of transport was a major consideration. This initial experimentation period was followed by acquisition of suitable lands for dry-farming grains in the 1860s and 1870s, and shifted into large-scale grain farming made possible by rail access to markets and technological advances in the 1880s. The wheat heyday was followed by a shift to intensive horticulture, made possible by the introduction of transient labor.
Wheat and GrainThe Salinas River Valley, 75 miles in length from its broad mouth at Monterey Bay to its southern closure near San Ardo, consists of sedimentary bottomland and alluvial terraces along each side. The river has been referred to as the "Upside-Down River" as it flows from south to north and is contained completely underground through much of its course during the dry months. Rainfall is seasonal, as it is over the entire overview area, and the summers are cooled by fog near the valley mouth while summers in the upper valley are intensely hot and dry.
Farming during the Hispanic Period was limited by both the size and distribution of the population and by the singular emphasis of the economic base of the period, stockraising for the hide and tallow trade. The agricultural population of 780 persons living outside Monterey City in 1850 was scattered over the county on land grants, which covered nearly all of the valley area, but had little monetary value. Stockraising required large quantities of land, imposing a pattern of sparse settlement across the new country. Cattle thrived with little or no attention. Nearly the whole unfenced expanse of the Salinas Valley, as well as the several smaller valleys, was grazed by herds that were descendants of the original stock which had been driven up from Mexico for the missions. Sheep had been brought into Alta California along with the cattle, and the herds had attained considerable size at some of the missions. However, they played a very small role in rancho economy. Cultivation of the soil was very limited. Small plots were fenced from the free-ranging cattle, and methods of tillage were primitive. Wooden plows with iron-tipped points scratched rather than turned the soil, and harrowing was accomplished by dragging large branches of trees over the ground. The ripened grain was cut with hand sickles and bound into sheaves. Threshing was usually done by piling the grain in a circular enclosure and driving a band of mustangs over it. After removing the straw, the grain and chaff were tossed in the air with a shovel to allow the wind to blow away the chaff. Most of the grinding was done with an arastra, a mill consisting of two horizontal flat stones, one stationary and the other made to rotate upon the first by power supplied by a horse or mule.
Little change in the methods of production or in the type of products had occurred since early settlement in the 1820s and 1830s. The valley areas had been gradually settled and stocked with cattle. The annual production of hides and tallow could by traded for necessities not produced on the rancho. The economy was a very stable one.
The discovery of gold in 1848 acted upon this relatively stable situation with the force of an electric shock. In less than two years the population of the state changed from a few scattered self-contained units to a predominance of males composed almost exclusively of miners. Not only were the tens of thousands of newcomers intent upon reaching the gold fields, but the vast majority of men engaged in other pursuits in the towns and settlements of the new country left jobs and crops unattended. Food and other supplies had to be imported from distant places, and there was a severe shortage of labor in every locality. The high prices prevailing at San Francisco attracted large shipments of commodities, and soon glutted the market with flour, beans, tobacco, and lumber. Goods were left to rot on deserted vessels, and perishables were thrown from warehouses into the streets. The market fluctuated dramatically from year to year until additional warehouses could be built and Atlantic shippers learned to be more cautious with consignments to the west coast.
The period from 1849 to 1858 was a prosperous one for the rancheros. With practically no change in their methods of stockraising, their incomes were multiplied by several times. Cattle raising became an industry--they were no longer slaughtered for their hides, but were driven on the hoof to market by drovers employed by San Francisco firms. These prosperous days for the rancheros were relatively shortlived, though, as the market soon became overstocked with beef, and the quality of cattle imported from Missouri was more attractive to buyers than the rangy Spanish black cattle. This condition was followed by a severe drought in 1862-1864 that effectively destroyed all stock that had not been driven to the interior valley lakes or the high Sierra. The rancheros, with their lands heavily mortgaged to compensate the losses, began to subdivide lands that were held in clear title, while the Homestead Act made adjacent lands available to incoming settlers.
Many of the incoming settlers had been involved in grain farming near San Francisco and the Sacramento Valley. In addition to this pool of experienced farmers, the disruption of markets and transportation lines by the Civil War provided a second encouragement to grain farming on the old rancho lands. Grain was grown commercially in Monterey County as early as 1852 on the Salinas plains, but in fact most lands in the overview area that would have been suitable for grains were still under the undisputed ownership of the older Hispanic families.
The necessity for fencing land against free ranging cattle was a retarding influence on the spread of grain farming. Fencing was prohibitively expensive in the early settlement period, as barbed wire had not yet been invented and labor was scarce. As settlement and neighbors increased both the capital burden and the labor could be shared. The Monterey County assessor reported in 1867 that 7,000 acres of land had been enclosed in two years, and that 11,000 acres had been put into production. He noted that the improvements had taken place on former ranchos that had been subdivided and rented out in lots of 100 acres, and that the lower Salinas Valley was the location of most of the new farming activity.
A second obstacle to the prospective grain farmer in the Salinas Valley was the lack of rail transportation for market access. The need for local consumption was very small, and after 1866 most products were shipped out of the area from Moss Landing at the mouth of the Salinas Valley via the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. An attempt was made to barge grain down the Salinas River during the same period of time, but this did not prove feasible. The extension of the Southern Pacific Railroad southward from San Francisco was an important factor in the development of the upper and middle Salinas Valley. The line reached San Jose in 1864, Gilroy in 1869, Pajaro in 1871, Salinas in 1872, and Soledad in 1873. It went no further until 1886, and farmers in the San Antonio and Jolon Valleys in southern Monterey County hauled grain by wagon to Soledad or San Miguel to reach a market. The short narrow gauge line between Monterey and Salinas (the Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad) provided access to shipping during 1874. As it had done elsewhere when competition appeared, Southern Pacific lowered its rates and bought out the foundering short line. Moss Landing continued to hold its importance as a grain shipping center even after Southern Pacific had penetrated the heart of the wheat growing country, mostly because of an independent farmer reaction to the monopolistic policies of the railroad company.
An important feature in the expansion of grain acreage was the development of machinery that made possible the cultivation of large acreages with a minimum of labor. California offered physical conditions particularly suited to the use of such machinery, and labor for traditional methods was scarce. Hand reaping was replaced by horse-drawn harvesters built by McCormick, Manny, and others by 1859. Advertisers bragged that the new harvester could enter a field of grain in the morning and by nightfall 25 acres would have been mowed, thrashed, cleaned, and sacked. The header that came into use about 1860 was especially useful in the dry California climate. While first the wire binder and later the twine binder were being perfected for use in humid regions, the header became the usual harvesting machine here. In 1880 the wheat harvest in California was accomplished chiefly with twelve-foot headers, with six horses or mules to each header, and one such header could cut 15 to 25 acres per day. Several improvements were made in threshing machines during the 1850s and 1860s, and steam power gradually replaced horse power in their operations during the following two decades. In 1880 steam threshers that burned wheat straw for fuel were in general use throughout California.
Barley had always been an important feed grain in California, to some extent taking the place filled by corn in certain other regions. It was important first for draft animals and later in meat production. Since oxen, horses, and mules furnished most of the tractive power and even much of the stationary power during the period under consideration, the demand for feed for draft animals was considerable. Since the markets for feed barley were near at hand and those for wheat at a greater distance, transportation developments increased the relative advantage of wheat production and allowed it to surpass barley in volume. The exports of barley during this period were relatively insignificant. Some barley was used within the county for brewing, but little was shipped to other potential markets, as the climate was not considered suitable for the production of brewing barley.
During the 1880s, two flouring mills were in operation in the county. One was constructed at Salinas in 1883, with a capacity of 35 barrels, later remodeled to a capacity of 500 barrels a day. The second was located at King City, and had a daily capacity of 150 barrels.
Irrigation in Monterey CountyThe use of irrigation enabled a substantial shift from grain farming to row crops in the Salinas Valley towards the turn of the century. Irrigation was far from new, as both Soledad and San Antonio mission made extensive use of irrigated fields before secularization reduced their labor supply to a few resident elders. There was little incentive for development of irrigation during the American period of stockraising, and even when agricultural societies emerged in the growing state irrigation was a hotly debated issue with few supporters. In 1890, the Monterey County assessor noted that irrigation was practiced only on a small scale, and all of the irrigated plots were on acreage adjacent to the Salinas River or natural springs and rivulets.
The history of irrigation technology in the Salinas Valley began with the gravity systems of the missions, and was followed by the construction of diversion ditches in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The first large claim was made in 1882 by M. Brandenstein, the founder of San Ardo. Brandenstein constructed the six mile San Bernardo and Salinas Valley Canal and Irrigation Company canal to irrigate alfalfa. Seventy claims to water from the Salinas River and its tributaries were filed prior to 1901. Only a fraction of them were followed by actual use of the water, and then the amount claimed was usually far beyond the capacity of headgates and ditches. In many cases more than one filing was made for the same claim in order to keep it alive until work could be done. Claims were made on the flow of the Arroyo Seco, San Lorenzo, and the San Antonio, in addition to the Salinas River. Problems of controlling the spring floods and preserving diversion dams and ditches caused considerable difficulty at first. Gravity irrigation was simply not a reliable form of water supply for the growing demands of the county, and there were experiments with other methods such as storage ponds and pumping stations.
The introduction of steam powered pumps coincided with the establishment of the Spreckels Beet Refinery near Salinas in 1897. The plant supplied irrigation waste water to its nearby beet fields, and as its technology was perfected the use of pumping plants increased elsewhere in the valley. The Soledad Land and Water Company irrigated 800 acres with a pumping plant near the Old Soledad Mission, and the Salvation Army Colony at Fort Romie was supplied with 8,000 gallons per minute. Smaller plants were in use by farmers not associated with Spreckels, such as that of Domingo Breschini, who irrigated alfalfa on a 500 acre parcel on the Las Salinas Rancho, and those operating a small plant at Buena Vista Rancho on the overview area border. Pumping directly from the river proved unsatisfactory, especially for alfalfa since it needed water in the summer. Experimentation with underground water supplies was the next step in irrigation technology.
One of the earliest wells was put down in 1898 just south of Gonzales. Spreckels also worked with developing deep well technology for its beet fields, and by 1904 had several 70 foot wells in operation replacing the river and storage pond supplies. By 1910 gravity irrigation and direct river pumping were still depended upon to a great degree, but irrigation pumps from deep wells supplied a steadily increasing acreage. By 1929, row crops then dominant over any type of grain were completely dependent upon deep wells, and concerns were expressed that the annual drain on the underground water supply was greater than the normal replacement, and would result in serious consequences to well dependent users in the future.
Row CropsThe sugar beet industry in Monterey County was the first type of intensive farming to bring changes that would profoundly affect land use, labor and settlement. Encouraged in Europe since the close of the eighteenth century, beets were not considered an alternative to cane sugar in the United States until the early 1890s. In 1890, a sugar tariff was imposed on cane sugar imports, and a bounty was granted on all domestically produced sugar. The tariff and bounty were adjusted frequently through 1913, encouraging domestic production. In 1898, the U.S. Department of Agriculture subsidized experimental sugar beet growing. Production was stymied for a time by a lack of technological expertise in the extraction process. The industry was well developed in Europe, and it was from Germany that Claus Spreckels came in 1897 to begin a sugar beet industry in Monterey County.
Spreckels had previously operated sugar beet plantations and refineries in Hawaii and Watsonville (Santa Cruz County). The success of the industry was totally dependent on contracted growers and a large body of low-wage laborers. These needs had a tremendous effect on tenancy and colonization of agricultural lands in the county, and greatly influenced the ethnic makeup of the Salinas Valley. The Spreckels operation was actively involved in share farming and massive employment of contracted Chinese labor. The operations in Monterey County did not experience gradual growth, but were put in place in the form of a fully planned town and plant, with company owned farms scattered from Salinas to King City. Spreckels did most of the pioneer work in irrigation technology in the county, paving the way for more efficient use of the seasonally scarce water supply that had hindered intensive farming efforts up to this time. Beets, however, were eventually replaced by row crops which had a higher value per acre as sugar prices dropped and farmers sought a more direct involvement with potential markets.
Dry beans had been grown in Monterey County from the beginning of American settlement, and had been a staple under mission cultivation as well. The stimulation of bean production grew out of high prices during World War I, and bean acreage doubled in the United States between 1914 and 1918. A price decline at the end of the War brought about a sharp reduction in acreage, releasing some land not particularly suited to bean growing under normal market conditions for other types of production. Beans were found to be a valuable crop to use in rotation with beets, barley, and other non-legumes. Production increased with their use in irrigated fields, and became concentrated in areas around Salinas and King City by the late 1920s.
A phenomenal expansion in lettuce production took place in the decade from 1920-1930. Production for eastern markets began in 1922, and by 1930 lettuce accounted for almost half the gross returns to the county from farm products. The resulting increase in total farm income was reflected in a substantial growth in population and various forms of activity incident to its support. The need for seasonal field labor was firmly established with the shift to intensive single crop production. Where irrigation systems were established, lettuce growing began in fields which had previously been used for beet production. By 1930, a permanent shift in agricultural production to corporate owners and large operators who packed and shipped as well as grew the crop had taken place in the county.
Other crops and livestock products grown in commercial quantities in the county prior to 1930 included commercial orchards, which began with planting in the sandy hills in the 1890s. Since 1905, commercial plantings of apricots, almonds, peaches, apples, and pears had been made in the district between Soledad and King City. Their production had reached only 5 percent of all farm products by 1932. In 1930 there were 149 poultry farms in the county, accounting for 3 percent of farm products value. Artichokes, an important field crop in Monterey County, were contained entirely north of the overview area. Guayule production, a fascinating but shortlived enterprise instigated by the War Department and the Department of Agriculture began in 1922 in the northern part of the valley, but succumbed to political and trade pressures shortly after the start of World War II.
The Dairy IndustryThe dairy industry developed from a slow start following the introduction of dairy stock by American farmers in the early 1860s. Prior to this time, the milk cows kept by the rancheros contributed very little to an available supply outside the needs of the individual ranchos. Commercial dairying was attempted during the Gold Rush to supply the growing demand for fresh milk and cheese, but with little success. Cheese production increased greatly after 1868 on family farms, and was taken over by creamery operations in 1901. The increase and success of the dairy industry in Monterey as well as other California counties was due to the industry dominance by Portugese and Swiss dairy operators in the 1880s, who rented plots from large landowners to get a start in the valley, and continuously increased their holdings and production. The introduction of alfalfa as a feed is directly related to the expansion of the dairy industry. Many early irrigation efforts were the result of a shift to alfalfa growing, with the concentration in Monterey County taking place in the mid-valley areas near Gonzales. The evaporated milk industry became established in the county at Gonzales and Cobern, near King City, in the 1920s.
A tremendous amount of additional information on agriculture will be presented in the Society's book, America's Salad Bowl: An Agricultural History of the Salinas Valley, by Burton Anderson.
- Breschini, G.S., T. Haversat, and R.P. Hampson, A Cultural Resources Overview of the Coast and Coast-Valley Study Areas [California] (Coyote Press, Salinas, CA, 1983).
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Henry H. "Hap" Arnold was one of the truly great men in American airpower. He was a pioneer Airman who was taught to fly by the Wright Brothers, and commander of Army Air Forces in victory over Germany and Japan in World War II. He was also the first and only General of the Air Force, a five-star rank bestowed by an act of Congress.
He was born in Gladwyne, Pa., June 1886. "Hap," as he was known and called, dating from his early days at West Point, was in the class of 1907 at the U.S. Military Academy. From then on his life paralleled the growth of America's air power and he personally contributed to most of the major milestones of development during the long period until he retired in 1946.
Arnold initially was assigned to the 29th Infantry, serving in the Philippine Islands for two years. He returned home until April 1911 when he was detailed to the Signal Corps and sent to Dayton, Ohio for instructions in the Wright biplane. The Wright Brothers who had made their first flight in 1903 personally instructed him for two months, after which he soloed and became one of the earliest military aviators in June 1911.
Arnold then was assigned to teach other flyers at the Signal Corps aviation school at College Park, Md. The school was moved to Augusta, Ga. in November and he served there until April 1912 when he went back to College Park for flight duty. On June 1, 1912, he established a new altitude record by piloting a Burgess-Wright airplane to a height of 6,540 feet. He also took part in air maneuvers in New York and Connecticut and set several records. On Oct. 9, 1912 he won the first MacKay Trophy ever awarded for a reconnaissance flight on a triangular course from College Park to Washington Barracks, D.C. to Fort Myer, Va., and return to College Park, flying the early type of Wright biplane with its 40 horsepower engine revolving two propellers by the chain-and-sprocket method.
In February 1917 Arnold went to Panama to organize an air service there, which he commanded until May 1917. As the U.S. entered Word War I he was called back to Washington, promoted to major June 17, 1917 and Aug. 5 was promoted to full colonel. He was in charge of Information Service in the Aviation Division of the Signal Corps. When the Office of Military Aeronautics was created, Arnold became assistant executive officer and in February 1918 was named assistant director. He went to France in November 1918 at war's end on an inspection tour of aviation activities. He returned in 1919 as supervisor of the Air Service at Coronado, Calif., and as air officer of the 9th Corps Area at the Presidio in San Francisco.
In June 1920 Arnold went back to captain's grade, but next month was promoted to major, where he remained until 1931. In October 1922 he became commanding officer of Rockwell Field, Calif., serving two years. He testified on behalf of Gen. Billy Mitchell during the court-martial in the fall of 1925 when Mitchell was found guilty of insubordination. Arnold shared Mitchell's beliefs in the strategic capability of the airplane and urged an independent air arm which Arnold lived to see authorized in 1947. He next went to Fort Riley, Kan., where he commanded Air Corps troops at Marshall Field until 1928.
In July and August 1934 he personally organized and led a flight of 10 Martin B-10 bombers in a round-trip record flight from Washington, D.C. to Fairbanks, Alaska, and next year received his second Mackay Trophy for this achievement. In February 1935 Arnold was jumped two grades to brigadier general and put in command of the 1st Wing of General Headquarters Air Force at March Field, Calif. He was gaining a reputation as a bomber man, having encouraged development of the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator four-engine planes, and the precision training of crewmembers. In January 1936 he became assistant to the chief of Air Corps in Washington and on Sept. 29, 1938 was promoted to major general and appointed chief of Air Corps.
His title was changed to chief of the Army Air Force on June 30, 1941 and that December he got a third star. When the War Department General Staff was organized in March 1942 Arnold became commanding general of Army Air Force. During World War II, he directed air activities for the nation's global war against Germany and Japan. Under him the air arm grew from 22,000 officers and men with 3,900 planes to nearly 2,500,000 men and 75,000 aircraft. Early in 1943 Arnold made a 35,000-mile tour of North Africa, Middle East, India and China, and attended the Casablanca Conferences. In March 1943 he was promoted to four-star general. He suffered a heart attack in 1945 as the war drew to a close, attributed by his doctors to overwork. By the end of the war, Arnold was already a cold warrior and concluded his memoirs with a warning to maintain an air force powerful enough to counter the Soviet Union.
He retired from the service June 30, 1946 after earning most of the honors a nation can give a world military leader of his stature, including three Distinguished Service crosses, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and decorations from Morocco, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Peru, France, Mexico and Great Britain. During his long career Arnold wrote a number of books, including early boys' books to create interest among youth in flying, and the post-World War II autobiography Global Mission (New York: Harper and Row, 1949), an accurate account of Air Force activities in the war and his own life. Three years after his retirement, by act of Congress, he received permanent five-star rank as general of the Air Force, the first such commission ever granted.
He died at his ranch home near Sonoma, Calif., Jan. 15, 1950. Arnold Engineering Development Center at Tullahoma, Tenn., is named in honor.
Sources compiled from Air University and U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary by Flint O. DuPre, Colonel, U.S. Air Force Reserve.
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Our page banner is a detail from the Surrealist painting 'Time Transfixed', (1938) by René Magritte.
Art History Timelines
Art History Timelines
- Our art history timelines are a shortcut to understanding the progress of art over many centuries.
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Western Art Timelines
- Our Western Art Timelines give you information about the artists, movements and styles in Western art from around 1150 to 1880.
- They offer a brief explanation of the most important styles from Gothic Art to Realism. They also list the major artists and illustrate a key painting from each movement.
Western Art Timeline 1 (1120-1600): Gothic Art (1150-1400), International Gothic (1375-1425), the Early Renaissance (1400-1450), the High Renaissance (1480-1520), Mannerism (1520-1580) and the Northern Renaissance (1420-1520).
- Western Art Timeline 2 (1600-1880): Baroque (1600-1700), Rococo (1700-1775), Dutch Art (1620-1670), Neo-Classicism (1765-1850), Romanticism (1765-1850), Realism (1840-1880) and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-1854).
Modern Art Timelines
- Our Modern Art Timelines give you information about the artists, movements and styles of Modernism from around 1870 to 1975.
- They help you to understand a century of modern art from Impressionism to Minimalism. They also list the major artists and illustrate a key work from each movement.
Modern Art Timeline 1 (1870-1931): Impressionism (1870-1890), Post Impressionism (1885-1905), Fauvism (1905-1910), German Expressionism (1905-1925), Cubism (1907-1915), Futurism (1909-1914), Abstract Art (1907-), Constructivism (1913-1930), Suprematism (1915-1925) and De Stijl (1917-1931).
Modern Art Timeline 2 (1916-1975): Dada (1916-1922), Surrealism (1924-1939), Abstract Expressionism (1946-1956), Pop Art (1954-1970), Op Art (1964-1970) and Minimalism (1960-1975).
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Glossary for C
A term of dating that means the Common Era. Used by scientists, scholars, and Pagans as a more appropriate alternative to the religious A.D., Latin for “Year of our Lord.”
Cabala...is a system of mysticism with its origins in Judaism, stemming in part from the "chariot" visions of first-century mystics, in part from Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, in part from the theological speculations of medieval Spanish Jews, and in part from later thinkers. For many centuries, cabala was the accepted form of mysticism and theology within Judaism, but for the most part it has now fallen out of favor in religious contexts. Nevertheless, many rabbis and Jewish scholars still take an interest in it. As a philosophy and as a way of looking at God and the universe, it survives in yet wider quarters. Especially in the form developed by Christian enthusiasts in the Italian Renaissance and by 19th-century Christian and pagan occultists, cabalism retains vast importance as the key to mystical thinking outside of the mainstream and to the practice of ceremonial magic.
Also See: Kabbalah, Qabalah, Qabala
A large enclosure with a curtain in the front. Usually, they were big enough to hold a chair and a table. During a séance, a medium would be bound and secured within the cabinet, often tied to a chair or post. Objects such as tambourines and bells would be placed on the table. With the curtain closed spirits would supposedly “come through” the medium in some way to play the instruments, move things around, cause lights to flash, etc. Some magic entertainers have been able to simulate this as part of their show.
Perhaps the most famous use of a cabinet was a variation made by Houdini in an attempt to catch the medium known as “Margery” in fraud. He put her in a box with holes for her head and arms in order to control her. Houdini claimed he proved her to be a fake, but his assistant later admitted to planting false evidence on her by Houdini’s instructions.
A fashioned talisman that usually has a convex shape on one side and which is flat on the other, although any fashioning that does not involve faceting or tumbling is often considered to be making a cabochon. They are often of oval shape, but irregular shapes are common.
A type of evil spirit, cacodemons were capable of shapeshifting. In Enochian magick there are 1,024 cacodemons who do the work that creates the universe. They are the negative counterpart of agathodemons.
Cadent houses in the birth chart (3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th) are said to be less forceful; planets placed in these houses may operate on a more mental or detached level.
(A winged wand entwined by two serpents.) Symbol of Mercury, messenger of the gods, the wand represents power, the snakes represent wisdom, and the wings represent diligence. Also, the wand represents earth, the wings represent air, and the serpents represent fire and water.
A human-made pile of rocks. They may be very simple or quite elaborate and often are made in the form of a cone. In modern times they are used to mark such things as a path or the top of a mountain. In ancient times they may have marked burial sites, astrological sites, or as aids for hunting.
Cakes and Wine
A small “feast” marking the end to many Wiccan and Pagan rituals. The food of the feats consists of “cake” (usually a form of bread) and wine or wine substitute. Sometimes, instead of wine, some groups will use ale.
A term for a summoning, sometimes used to indicate the summoning of a spirit as part of an invocation or evocation.
When testing for ESP using such things as guessing which playing card an investigator is holding, each response to a question such as “What card am I holding?” is known as a “call.”
Calling the Quarters
Usually performed near the start of a ritual, the practice of evoking protective entities, deities, or powers that correspond to the specific energies of the cardinal directions as determined by the beliefs of the tradition being followed.
Pre-Hellenic goddess who was the personification of the force of instinct. In Greece, she became associated with being an eternally virginal nymph of Artemis. When Artemis discovers that she was seduced and impregnated by Zeus, she turns Callisto into a bear and puts her in the stars as the constellation, Ursa Major.
Calypso Moon Language
I am rather at a loss to give definition to this. Culling calls it a quasi-Enochian Language. Researching, I find that Calypso is a West Indian musical style influenced by jazz; it’s also a small species of orchid (Calypso borealis), having a flower variegated with purple, pink, and yellow that grows in cold, bog-like localities in the northern part of the United States. It is also the name of a tiny moon of the planet Saturn, discovered in 1980, and in 1983 named for the goddess Calypso who detained Odysseus for seven years in Homer’s Odyssey. And, finally, it is a fashion in which women tie a knot in their shirt and exposes her waist. There is some indication that it closely resembles modern Greek.
Acronym for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This is the currently popular term to describe all non-allopathic forms of healing, ranging from the laying on of hands and acupuncture to Reiki and hypnotherapy.
An officer of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In a full temple, this officer is present on the dais when the temple is open for Neophytes. The purpose of this officer (the name is Latin for “chancellor”) is to keep records. When this office is held by a woman, she is called the Cancellaria.
The best quality of Cancer is the ability to nurture the self and others. The worst quality is holding on to things too tightly, or smothering. A key phrase is "I feel.” The Cancer personality is family- and home-oriented. The emotional well-being of the home environment is key to Cancer's emotional balance, which is even-tempered when it flows. When opposed, the Cancerian temperament can display other water characteristics, like freezing or flood stage emotions.
Never let the emotional side of Cancer fool you into thinking you are not leaders – this sign provides leadership in the feeling arena and can be influential in all areas where subjective feelings are important.
The Cancerian mind will often ask "how does this feel?" before deciding what action to take. You are true to your belief system and may be difficult to steer into any activity you cannot support on the "gut" level. This attention to inner feelings puts you in a good position in industries that appeal to the mass market, as you don't lose sight of individual preferences in the pursuit of the big picture.
Cancer is a water sign. Water takes the shape of the vessel that contains it, and water runs downhill. The Cancer temperament will go with the flow when that is convenient, and can be quite happy if the vocational, relationship, or recreational container suits the individual. Sometimes you surprise people, though, when you resist going a certain direction "on principle." Stick to those principles, as you set you apart from people who either don't seem to know what you really believe, or are not able to hold your ground in the face of opposition.
Generally you respond to others in a caring or nurturing context. You may consider what will help move a process along, or you decide what people should wear or eat, based on your needs, not yours. At the same time you can be a skillful manager, helping others to map out a clear, well-defined process for your activities. You are good at keeping projects on track – you know how to find the strongest current in the river, and then keep your craft headed into that current.
Key Phrase: I FEEL
Cancer is expressed through feeling, and can be purely emotional. It embodies the qualities of protection and tenderness, and shows a high degree of sensitivity. As the Cardinal Water sign of the zodiac, Cancer initiates emotions, both in the self and others. Like its symbol, the Crab, Cancer can be indirect and defensive, and may even show a tendency toward manipulation and passive-aggression. The most patriotic of the signs, Cancer will defend home and country, and has a soft spot for mothers. Sensitive, sympathetic, and intuitive, this is the sign associated with mothering and lunar energy. When carried to an extreme, it can be smothering, moody, and suspicious. Where Cancer is found in your chart, there is receptivity and a need to be emotionally connected.
“The use of candles in magic dates back many centuries, but the specific system of magic in which colored, anointed candles are the primary tools is a relatively recent innovation, developed in the nineteenth century out of Catholic devotional practices using candles of various kinds. The southern United States, with its rich heritage of hoodoo magic and African tradition, seems to be the homeland of candle magic, with New Orleans probably the original place of invention.
“The basic practices of candle magic involve a detailed color symbolism in which red candles represent sexual desire, green stand for money, white for spirituality and healing, black for cursing and banishing, and so forth. Candles used in magic are “dressed” or anointed with specific oils, which are typically rubbed onto the candle from the middle out to both ends. A candle magic working may simply involve lighting one or more candles and reciting a charm while it burns; it may also involve rearranging candles on an altar to represent the rearrangement in the world that the working is intended to bring about.
“Originally, candle magic was mostly practiced among Southern folk magicians of various kinds, but in recent decades it has spread far more widely. Many Witches and Pagans in the current Pagan revival movements make use of it, as do a great many occultists who simply picked up a book on the subject and found it to their liking.”
A preparatory OBE exercise helpful in developing concentration skills required to induce and guide the experience.
A Pagan festival traditionally celebrated on the second of February, also known as Imbolc, Lupercus, etc. Dedicated to the Goddess of Fertility and the Horned God, it was anciently known as a feast for the god Pan. Often seen as a celebration of change and of removing of the old to make way for the new.
Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian syncretic religion that, like Santería and Vodou, has its roots in the ancient religion of Ifá and is also influenced by European spiritualist practices and indigenous folk wisdom along with Christianity. The worship and service to the Orixás (deities) and to the Egungun (ancestors) are the core beliefs, along with the practice of rituals to enhance every aspect of life and divination to communicate with the Orixás.
A Scottish term meaning a magick spell, especially as used by Witches. It may also be a minor spell and possibly mischievous. It has been used in novels and role-playing games (RPGs) with varying definitions.
Divination through the interpretation of smoke.
Divination by smoke, also known as Libanomancy and Thurifumia, involves observation of smoke as it rises from a fire. While you can add your own complexities, generally smoke that rises straight up the answer is positive, if it instead hangs heavily over the fire, the answer is negative. Another method it to watch the smoke from extinguished candles. If smoke moves to the right, the answer is positive, if to the left it is negative.
The best quality of Capricorn is diplomacy. The worst quality is deceitfulness. A key phrase is “I utilize.” To understand Capricorn, one must understand that there is not much difference between diplomacy and deceit. Capricorns tend to be honest and conscientious in your dealings with other people, but you may learn through experience to not say everything you know. You have the capacity to take the practical path to a material goal and leave the precise truth to someone else. That said, Capricorns are responsible, self-disciplined individuals who can be very patient in the pursuit of your goals, and you generally act on a well-defined sense of moral right and wrong. You recognize and accept duty as a part of life.
Thoughtful and methodical, Capricorns are the masters of synthesis. You are methodical and organized in your thinking. Persistence is a quality that you cultivate. You find power in self-control and mental concentration.
By temperament Capricorns are cautious. You are subtle about how you gather the information you need, and you are subtle about how you apply your efforts to any task. You make good managers because of your excellent sense of organization, but you can brood or be overly exacting in what you expect. You are able to adapt situations to your own needs. You tend to be somewhat conventional in dress and demeanor.
Capricorns are able to take advantage of circumstances. You are mentally prepared to take action when the time is right, and you are efficient in your actions. You can appear unsympathetic to the needs of others, yet you faithfully fulfill what you see as your duty. While you sometimes seem rigid or selfish in your behavior, you are capable of self-sacrifice and are not unjust in your actions. Going back to the key phrase, “I utilize,” it is helpful to remember that Capricorns make skillful use of the people and situations around you, and you are generally not concerned about the popularity of your actions.
Key Phrase: I USE
The most ambitious sign of the zodiac, Capricorn is focused, cautious, and sensible. As the Cardinal Earth sign of the zodiac, Capricorn knows how to make the best use of the material, physical plane. The patience and discipline seen in Capricorn can help to provide a stable foundation for growth. But Capricorn can also resist change and become controlling, inhibited, and rigid. Symbolized by the Goat, Capricorn prefers the sure-footed path toward ascension, and will stand firm for a long time rather than back down. When hurt, Capricorn can be melancholy; when uncertain, driven by fears. Sometimes thought of as miserly, Capricorn rather prefers to be responsible and frugal, making the best use of all resources. Through its connection with the energy of Saturn, Capricorn desires to be the quintessential authoritarian. Where you see Capricorn in your chart, you find a need for structure and conscientious effort.
Captain of Your Own Ship
The personal "commandment" that each person should take full authority and responsibility of his or her being. Without question, it involves more than the modern perceptions of democratic government and capitalism for it also makes demands upon both to provide each individual with certain basics of education, the rule of law, security of person, health, public services, etc.
In geomantic divination, a figure of two dots above three vertically aligned single dots. The phrase itself is Latin for “head of the dragon.” In a divination it is positive for beginnings. It also enhances things, such as being favorable for favorable figures, and unfavorable for unfavorable ones.
In geomantic divination, a figure of one dot above two sets of two dots above one dot. The phrase itself is Latin for “tail of the dragon.” In a divination it is unlucky for most things, except when having to do with security.
A basic form of ESP testing. It uses a deck of cards (such as regular playing cards or Zener cards) and repeated rounds of testing. This technique can be used to test for precognition, by having the subject guess a card before it is revealed, telepathy, by having the subject guess a card being looked at by the tester, etc.
Assertive, ambitious, impatient. The cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn.
Also known as the “cardinal directions,” they are the North, South, East, and West. Many magickal rituals are directed toward one of the cardinal points, and some rituals have work done at each point. In mathematics, points dividing the cardinal points, such as the northeast, southwest, etc., are known as “ordinal points,” but in magickal traditions they are frequently called “cross-quarter points.”
Carnelian is a translucent orange-red stone. It is a cryptocrystalline quartz, composed of silica. It is found in India and South America.
In ancient times carnelian was thought to still the blood and soften anger. It is a gem of the Earth, a symbol of the strength and beauty of our planet. It is good for people who are absent minded, confused, or unfocused. It strengthens the voice and helps one become more eloquent and charitable. Carnelian carries the stories and records of our Earth and can be used to see into the past. This stone symbolizes good luck and contentment.
This gem does good things to the body just by wearing it, as it feeds energy molecules directly through the skin, just as one can breathe in prana by inhaling air. Carnelian is one of the few gems that harmonizes effectively with the elements of fire and earth today. It helps cleanse the liver if you hold the stone over the liver and massage the area.
A type of divination, also know as ceromancy, that uses melted wax. Traditionally, the wax would be melted in a cup or bowl, and then poured into a container of cold water, causing it to solidify. The shapes it takes, along with the movements in the water, would then be interpreted.
Divination with cards, such as the Tarot.
Divination by reading patterns on the feet; similar to palmistry.
Also known as Caryatis. In ancient Greece, a walnut tree goddess.
Case, Paul Foster
Founder of the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA), an esoteric teaching center in Los Angeles also known for mail order teachings. He was a former member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the author of The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, and a book of Tarot card meditations, The Book of Tokens. Both books were recommended by author Louis T. Culling.
Lord of Saturn and the sign of Capricorn. He is also Ruler of the Seventh Heaven. He helps people understand patience and encourages them to overcome longstanding obstacles and problems. He provides serenity and teaches temperance. Cassiel is associated with karma, and helps people understand the law of cause and effect. Because of his association with Saturn, Cassiel works slowly. As it takes Saturn four years to orbit the Sun, Cassiel can take up to years resolve a problem. Fortunately, Raphael is willing to talk with Cassiel to speed the process up.
According to ancient Greek mythology, Castalia was a nymph whom Apollo turned into a fountain at Delphi, home of the famous Oracle. Those who drank her waters would receive artistic (especially poetic) inspiration.
A form of divination where small objects such as stones, twigs, runes, I Ching stalks, coins, etc. are tossed onto the ground or onto some flat surface and the results are interpreted.
Casting the Circle
The practice of using a ritual to spiritual build a magick circle (as opposed to the physical movement of objects into the area) for use in magickal rituals and religious rites. Some say it is the activating of the spiritual aspects of a Wiccan or Pagan Temple.
The technical name is chatoyancy. This is caused by the dispersion of light due to tiny parallel “needles” within a crystal.
A state wherein the body, or parts of the body, shows rigidity, and is not effected by exterior stimuli. Often used by hypnotists to determine the level of hypnotic trance. A common example it to have a hypnotized person hold their arm out straight. They will keep it extended and resist having it pushed down until given a suggestion to move it.
Scientific theory that some of the earth’s landforms were shaped by major catastrophes, such as very large floods, in the distant past.
Divination by gazing in a mirror (such as a black scrying mirror).
Divination with mirrors. There are two basic forms: One uses mirrors made from special metals associated with planetary lore, and the other special gazing mirrors used somewhat like crystal balls.
Consulting a reflective mirror means to focus on the question or matter of concern, asking specific questions if possible, and then letting yourself slide into a light trance to find the answers.
A form of divination that uses vessels of metals, especially brass because of its supposed anti-demonic qualities. A fluid would be poured into the vessel and the diviner, perhaps in a trance, looks into the fluid and has prophetic visions.
In geomantic divination, a figure of three vertically aligned dots above two dots. The word itself is Latin for “acquiring.” In a divination it means positive endings and can help out with losses. It’s generally considered a negative sign.
The cauldron is a large metal vessel, usually made of iron. It is seen to be symbolic of the Goddess. Fires may be lit within it, or the cauldron may be filled with water and flowers. Despite popular misconceptions, brews are rarely created in the cauldron.
An ancient Tantric concept adopted by Theosophy and brought into contemporary occult thought. There are supposedly multiple bodies or sheaths that make up a person (anciently there were 5, but the Theosophists made this 7). The causal body is the highest, most ethereal body. It is a veil for the true soul.
This principle states that equal benefit comes from action towards a goal and inaction away from it. The causes of our success are both to be found in efforts to move forward and from the absence of efforts to move backwards.
Like the other five planes of the three lower levels, there is “substance” as well as “laws” relating to its specific nature. The Causal shares the third level with the Mental Plane—which likewise has its unique substance, but the two share the characteristic of five dimensions (in contrast to the familiar three of the Physical and Etheric Planes of the first and lowest level).
Divination by throwing an object in the fire and determining “yes” or “no” based on whether or not the object burned.
Divination by Fire, also known as Pyromancy. Fire is the most potent of the natural elements because it causes change, and is directly linked with the Sun, and hence with the earth and growing plants. Yet, fire can also lead to disasters. Fire Gazing involves a light and spontaneous trance during which images and symbols may be seen in the fire. Fire Reading, in contrast, is more direct. After the fire has been lit, stir it, and:
An all male occult society in Italy. Linked to the Luperci.
The Sleep-Learning program, also called Celestial Learning, is based on the premise that bodies of knowledge presently unavailable to conscious awareness exist in the astral realm and can be acquired through spontaneous out-of-body travel during sleep. The program recognizes individual differences in rates of learning and the possibility of accelerating learning through out-of-body interactions during sleep with advanced learning specialists.
Celestial Learning emphasizes two critical conditions related to out-of-body learning during sleep:
The study found that students actively engaged in a variety of learning situations experienced a rapid improvement in the rate of learning as well as retention through Celestial Learning. The program, rather than directly inducing our-of-body travel, simply established the pre-sleep conditions conducive to spontaneous travel.
Located on the surface of the cell, they receive messages or signals from the environment or field and communicate that information to the cell which in turn, triggers a corresponding response within the cell.
(pronounced Kelt) - The ethnic group ancestral to the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish (of Cornwall), Breton, and Manx, and a high percentage of the French, Belgian and Swiss people. Celtic (pronounced either Kel-tik or Sel-tik) and Celtophile are derivatives of this word.
Of or relating to the Celtic people and languages.
Also See: Celt
A ten-card Tarot spread developed in the 1890s by a member or associate of the Golden Dawn. Taught to first-level initiates of the Golden Dawn and widely used after publication by Arthur E. Waite in his Pictorial Key to the Tarot.
Card 1. The main question on your mind Card 2. A challenge within the situation Card 3. The foundation of the question, subconscious issues Card 4. The recent past Card 5. Conscious goals, what you think you can achieve Card 6. The near future Card 6. What you are bringing to the situation Card 8. How others affect the situation Card 9. Your hopes and fears Card 10. The outcome
A cross (sometimes with equal arms, sometimes where the horizontal bar is shorter and above the center of the vertical bar) with a circle around the intersection of the horizontal and vertical bars.
A divination deck that combines Celtic astrology with the Ogham (or Celtic alphabet) and tree symbolism alongside Celtic festivals.
Those Witches who either try to remake ancient Celtic Religion or claim they are a continuation of that ancient religion. Some Celtic Witchcraft traditions include Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Welsh, and Algard.
To spread the odor of incense in an area by carrying or waving the incense itself, by using a fan to disburse the smoke, or by swinging a censer that holds the smoking incense. Also, the passing of a person or object through incense smoke, usually to purify that person or object.
An incense burner. Traditionally, a censer is a metal container, filled with incense, that is swung on the end of a chain.
Censorship in Religion
All organized religions experience a program of codification in which certain practices and literature are approved by a controlling body while other practices, books, myth and lore are disapproved and sometimes officially banned. Initially, much of this had political motivation—to bring the "faithful" under a single roof and to eliminate deviancy and competition to Roman rule in the case of early Christianity.
Until the middle of the 20th century, certain books were listed as "sinful" for Catholics to read, and such banning was not limited to books with sexual themes although that was the common interpretation.
Only in recent years has there been widespread opportunity to explore alternatives in Christianity, and—to a lesser extent—in Islam and Judaism. In some cases, it has been archaeological finds that brought old ideas into new perspectives. For Christians, the primary findings have related to Gnosticism and Neoplatonism.
A term meaning to bring your focus and attention back to the center of yourself. This is useful to eliminate disturbing issues that prevent you from focusing on the purpose of what you are doing: your work, your meditation, or your magick. One method of doing this is by grounding.
In European magical traditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a method of using the eyes to prevent another magician from gaining control of one’s mind and will. To use the central gaze, the magician focuses his or her eyes intently on a point between the attacker’s eyebrows, at the location of the “third eye” center. The crucial point lies in not allowing oneself to meet the attacker’s gaze directly, even for a moment; concentration must be maintained on the chosen point.
Divination by means of a donkey’s head.
A form of divining the name of a person guilty of a crime. The head of an ass is broiled. When the guilty person’s name is called out, the ass’ jaws move.
In Greek mythology, this daughter of Nyx (the night) and sister to the fates was the goddess of violent death.
Name for a malevolent ghost.
Divination by observing weather phenomena.
A condition where the supply of oxygen to the brain is reduced. It has numerous causes, ranging from choking or smoke inhalation to shock or trauma. In mild cases, symptoms include difficulty in learning tasks and reduced short term memory. If it continues it can cause sensory distortions and hallucinations. This has been pointed to as a cause of some near-death experiences. However, it cannot explain the similarity of some of these experiences among people of all ages and cultures. Complete lack of oxygen going to the brain, known as cerebral anoxia, will cause irreversible brain damage within four to six minutes.
Ceremonial Magick is one of the most complicated systems of spiritual attainment in the world. It is a mixture of Jewish, Christian, and ancient Egyptian philosophy mixed with ancient Indian and Chaldean ideas spiced with a hint of earlier Paganism. This is mixed with the ceremonial aspects of Catholicism and Masonry. It usually heavily involves the study of the Kabbalah, the mysticism of the world put into Jewish and Judeo-Christian terms.
The object of ceremonial magick is to stimulate the senses, to power-up the emotions, and to firmly conceptualize the purpose of the operation—which is to create a transcending experience to unite Personality with the Divine Self. To this end, rituals, symbols, clothing, colors, incenses, sound, dramatic invocations and sacraments are selected in accordance with established "correspondences" of one thing to another to transport the magician towards a mystical reality.
Although Ceres is just one of thousands of known asteroids, in astrology it is often treated as a minor planet. The asteroid is named after the Roman harvest goddess and is a version of the Greek Demeter. Keywords used in astrological interpretation of Ceres include: abandonment, agriculture, anger, compassion, domesticating, ecological, fertility, foster parenting, governess, menopause, mother, nanny, nurturing, animal husbandry, and survival.
A Welsh mother goddess.
The Greek name for ancient Celtic god Uindos, son of Noudons, who is featured in a group of great epic tales and romances called the Fenian cycle. Most famous incarnation is as Finn Mac Cumhail.
Also See: Finn Mac Cumhail, Uindos
Divination by analyzing patterns in melted wax dripped on a flat surface.
Divination with melted wax. Slowly pour the wax into cold water and look for images and symbols as the wax hardens in the water.
An expression composed of two Sanskrit words: chakra, meaning circle, and puja, meaning ritual. Thus, a Chakra Puja is a ritual practiced by a group ("circle") of people. In the West, there are public Chakra Pujas that are open to the public, and more private Chakra Pujas intended for people initated into a particular Tantric tradition.
A chakra is a spinning vortex of energy created within ourselves by the interpenetration of consciousness and the physical body. Through this combination, chakras become centers of activity for the reception, assimilation, and transmission of life energies. Uniting the chakras is what we experience as the "self."
The word chakra comes from the Sanskrit word for "wheel" or "disk" and originated within the philosophy of the ancient yoga systems of India.
Also See: Chakra
Wheel of light or spinning disc. The energetic organ located at various plexuses throughout the body and work to revitalize the physical body and the energy field.
Also See: Chakra
Pronounced “Chak-rah” with a hard “ch” as in the word “chalk” or “Kahk-rah,” these are power centers in the aura related to organs or glands in the body. The chakras are not in the body per se; they are actually whirls, vorteces, circles, or lotuses that psychics can see in the aura.
Also See: Chakra
Sanskrit. "Wheel, Vortex, or Whirlpool." Psychic centers located in the aura functioning through the etheric body that exchange particular energies between the physical body and the personality, and the higher sources of energy associated with the planets, the Solar System, and the cosmos. They are interfaces between Mind and Body.
There are seven traditional "master" chakras and dozens of minor ones located in such places as the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, joints of arms and legs, and just about any place traditionally adorned with jewelry.
Chakras are "vortexes," whirling centers of energy associated with particular areas of the body. In the Hindu tradition, muladhara is located at the base of the spine and is the source of kundalini and the power used in sex magic. Svadhisthna is located at the sacrum. Muladhara and Svadhisthna are linked to the physical body. Manipura is located at the solar plexus. Muladhara, Svadhisthna, and Manipura are together associated as the Personality, and their energies can be projected through the solar plexus in such psychic phenomena as rapping, ectoplasm, and the creation of familiars. Manipura is linked to the lower astral body. Anahata is located at the heart and is associated with group consciousness. Vishuddha is located at the throat and is associated with clairvoyance.
Anahata and Ajna are linked to the higher astral body. Ajna is located at the brow and is associated with clairvoyance. Sahasrara is located at the crown and is associated with spiritual consciousness. Anahata, Vishuddha, and Sahasrara are together associated as the spiritual self.
The master, or major, chakras are as follows. While we are listing some correspondences to planets, colors, and the Kabbalistic sephiroth, there is considerable debate about these and the correlations cannot be specific because the chakras and the sephiroth involve two different systems. Likewise, although not listed, there are differences between both these systems and those of Oriental martial arts and healing systems.
The following chart is a simplification of the primary chakra system:
1 These are the most commonly assigned colors, but authorities differ.
2 These are the most commonly assigned locations, but authorities differ. Instead of the Solar Plexus, Theosophists identify it with the Spleen, others with the navel.
3 Commonly, this is given as two, but it is really two "wings" of 48 each.
4 Most commonly, it is identified as a thousand-petaled lotus. The crown chakra has 960 spokes plus another 12 in its center, which is gleaming white with gold at its core.
5 Between anus and perineum.
6 Again, there are disagreements among authorities. Remember that there is no direct physical connection between the etheric chakras and the physical body.
Wheels of Life: A User'ss Guide to the Chakra System, by Anodea Judith
Also See: Chakra
Disk or wheel. Chakras are energetic centers in the body that can be used as a kind of inner roadmap in Tantric practice. Dr. Mumford defines a chakra as, "a whirling vortex of energy, the meeting point between the body and the mind."
Also See: Chakra
A person living in the area of ancient Babylon (modern Iraq) associated with the Sumerian city of Ur, which was eventually ruled by the Chaldees (the biblical “Ur of the Chaldees”). Chaldea was associated with magic, and by the seventeenth century in Europe, any person who was an astrologer, diviner, or magician was generically known as a “Chaldean.”
A small book of ideas and philosophical concepts supposedly revealing the Chaldean mysteries. The authorship is attributed to Zoroaster, but this is questionable.
A large goblet, frequently stemmed, used to hold wine in religious rituals. Also used to represent the element of Water in magickal rites.
Chalice of Power
(or Camael, Camiel, Kemuel) (“He Who Sees God”) The head of the Choir of Dominions and is one of the seven great archangels. He can be called upon for any matters involving tolerance, understanding, forgiveness, and love. Chamuel is also one of the ten Kabbalistic archangels. He rights wrongs, soothes troubled minds, and provides justice. Chamuel is Ruler of Mars. You should call on Chamuel whenever you need additional strength, or are in conflict with someone else. Chamuel provides courage, persistence, and determination.
The occurrence and development of events without any obvious design; random, unpredictable influences on events that cannot be anticipated by normal means.
Sanskrit name of the Moon.
Literally the “point of the moon;” however, in the Tantric “twilight language,” it means “moon juice.” The moon is symbolic of the spiritualized woman. The moon juice is the lubricating fluid created by a woman in preparation for spiritual sexual intercourse with her partner (maithuna).
In Tibetan spirituality, a ritual bell.
There is always change. In Self-Empowerment, instead of letting life happen to you, you can make life happen your way. But you have "to take charge” and "state your intentions." There is recent scientific evidence showing that change in your own thoughts make changes in your brain’s circuitry.
In Celtic and Irish lore, a fairy given to a family in exchange for a human child.
A person who allows a spirit to speak through them. This involves the (usually) willing participation of the channeler who temporarily allows a spirit to “possess” their body. A spirit medium may or may not be a channeler. Also known as a “trance medium” (and incorrectly a “transmedium”).
Also See: trance medium, transmedium
A technique of communicating with a non-physical entity. The channeler or trance medium allows a non-physical entity (usual a spirit) to inhabit or take over their body to they can more easily share information, guidance, etc.
Receiving information from a discarnate entity or a higher spiritual being. It may also refer to communication with an aspect of one’s own subconscious mind. It is similar to, but not necessarily the same as, the spirit communication of mediumship. In both, however, one person serves as bridge between a spirit or spiritual intelligence and people of ordinary consciousness. In spirit communication, the medium is more often unaware of the communication; in channeling of spiritual intelligence, the channeler is more often aware and sometimes a participant.
Automatic Writing is a form of Channeling in which a person, sometimes in trance, writes or even keyboards messages generally believed to originate with spiritual beings, or with aspects of the subconscious mind.
Suggested Reading –
The process of repeating sounds, words, or phrases. This can be done melodically or simply rhythmically. The goal is to induce an altered state of consciousness that may be used for magickal purposes.
The repletion of words or short phrases in a vibrating voice that stirs psychic energy and may induce trance.
Suggested Reading: Andrews, Ted: Sacred Sounds: Magic & Healing Through Words & Music
The act of vocalizing and usually repeating a chant.
(Pronounced "kay-oh-ist) Term for a practitioner of Chaos magick. Such a person could also be referred to as a "Chaote."
Divination by things seen in the air. Also known as Aeromancy.
The disorganized, primal, state from which creation emerges. Chaos Theory is a field of mathematics with applications in various sciences, including physics and magick, concerning the level at which small changes can produce major, generally unpredictable, results—the so-called “Butterfly Effect.” In Quantum Theory and in Magickal Theory, intention applied at sub-atomic levels can create desired change.
A term coined by Peter Carroll in 1978 in his book Liber Null (published in the US in combination with another work as Liber Null and Psychonaut) to describe a system of magick that its practitioners (who usually call themselves Chaoists or Chaotes) consider to be radically different from previous forms of magick. Important concepts in this tradition include the power of belief (expressed as “fake it until you make it”), the Gnostic state (being extremely focused) as necessary for most magick, and extreme eclecticism including the use of any belief system (even ones that are known to be entirely fictional) for the working of magickal rituals. Carroll, with Ray Sherwin, founded the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT), which is an important force in the very loosely organized Chaos Magic movement.
(Pronounced “kay-oat”) A term that describes a person who practices Chaos magick.
Divination to determine a person’s character.
The process of infusing some object with magickal power for a specific purpose. For example, a ring, pendant, or belt can be charged to protect the person who wears them.
Charge of the Goddess
An inspirational and instructional recitation and instruction repeated by the High Priestess manifesting the Goddess in some Pagan rituals. It was derived from sources both ancient and modern, especially from the works of Aleister Crowley and the book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland. The earliest version was compiled by Gerald Gardner, arguable the founder of modern Wicca, but the more popular versions, both in prose and verse, were created from Gardner’s work by Doreen Valiente. Several variations have appeared over the years.
To infuse an object with magical power.
A large cup (or small bowl) that contains sanctified (or exorcised) water. Usually located on the main Altar. It is carried around an area to asperge the Circle and coven members. Also called the water bowl.
One of the trumps of the Major Arcana of the tarot. Numbered VII. In the system of Eliphas Levi, it corresponds to the Hebrew letter Zayin. In the system of the Golden Dawn, The Chariot corresponds to the Hebrew letter Cheth and the astrological sign of Cancer.
Qabalistic Description. The 7th Key, the 18th Path. Child of the Powers of the Waters, Lord of the Triumph of Light. This Path connects Binah (Understanding) to Geburah (Severity), the descent of Spirit into the lower manifest universe. The Chariot, having conquered the lower planes, is the first path to cross the Abyss from the lower Sephiroth. Cheth means a fence or enclosure, which is the Chariot itself enabling its driver, the Higher Self, to rise above limitation through the balance of opposites.
Card Description. Here we have a symbol of the spirit of man controlling the lower principles, soul and body, and thus passing triumphantly through the astral plane, rising above the clouds of illusion and penetrating to the higher spheres.
The colors amber, silver-grey, blue-grey, and the deep blue violet of the night sky elucidate this symbol. It is the sublimation of the Psyche.
Interpretation. Triumph, victory, health. Success, although sometimes not stable and enduring.
Psychological Value This Arcanum may be used to master episodes of manic delusions, and uncontrollable fantasies. It helps you find a balanced, centered path, so that you may discover a personal expression for your spirituality. Thanks to this Arcanum, you can work on every aspect of your unconscious, and bring to light those elements that have been buried deep inside. It fosters gentleness and benevolence. This Arcanum is useful for assisting the Magus who wants to make spells, and it can also be used to resolve fantasies that get out of control. (According the Divine Tarot of Aurum Solis - Divinity: Poseidon; Greek Letter: Psi.)
The young charioteer is in command of his physical and emotional drives, symbolized by the two opposing forces that pull the Chariot.
(1874–1932) Writer and novelist who achieved fame for collecting reports of paranormal phenomena in works such as The Book of the Damned.
(1850—1935) Famed French physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his work on understanding acute allergic reactions known as anaphylaxis. Richet also studied Spiritualism, investigated mediums, and became the president of the UK's famed Society for Psychical Research (in 1905). He believed that there was a physical explanation for mediumistic phenomena, rather than adhering to the idea that the phenomena were caused by spirits. He believed that some of the phenomena were caused by the medium's "sixth sense" (the ability to perceive non-physical "vibrations"), not spirits. Other phenomena, he believed, were caused by the medium projecting a material substance from their bodies. He called this substance "ectoplasm," a term that is still widely used.
An object imbued with some type of energy for magical purposes. See “talisman.”
Term that comes from the same root as charisma and chant. A magick spell, particularly one that makes you more attractive to another person as in, “She charmed me.” Also, an object that has been magickally charged. Another term for a talisman or amulet.
Divination by interpreting writing found on papers.
In ancient Greek mythology, Charybdis was a beautiful naiad, the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia. She sided with her father against Zeus who turned her into a horrible sea monster. Later she was seen not as a monster per se, but as the goddess of terrifying oceanic whirlpools.
Kabbalist (Turkish 16th–17th Century). A leading disciple of Isaac Luria, Vital experienced many fantastic visions and personal revelations. Elijah and other righteous men of the past appeared to him. He performed healings, exorcisms, dowsing for water, and at one point declared himself the Messiah. He also believed he had undergone multiple incarnations and, for example, had the soul of R[abbi] Akiba.
Check and Verify
A vital procedure in all astral training because astral consciousness includes the faculties of imagination and dreaming and untrained they lead to fantasy and even delusion. Variations of the phrase include “test and verify” and “trust, but verify.”
A Sanskrit term generally accepted to mean "student." It originally meant "servant," indicating the idea that a student is meant to serve his or her teacher in order to pay for (exchange energy for) the teacher's spiritual training.
The Greek Hera was sometimes seen as a triple goddess. Chera is her third aspect, the old wise
Singular form of “cherubim.” From the Hebrew “kerub.” A generic term for a celestial being, often shown in art as being a winged, chubby, young child.
The second-highest rank of angels in Dionysius’ hierarchy. They are God’s record keepers and reflect his wisdom and divine intelligence. They pay careful attention to all the details.
The fourth Sephirah of the cabalistic Tree of Life, the middle Sephirah on the Pillar of Mercy. The term is a Hebrew word meaning "Mercy." It represents the archetype of the number 4, the merciful aspect of the Godhead. It corresponds to the divine name El, the archangel Tzadqiel, the angelic choir called Chashmalim, and Tzedek, or heavenly Sphere of Jupiter.
In Chokmah is the Radix of blue and thence is there a blue colour pure and primitive, and glistening with a spiritual Light which is reflected unto Chesed. And the Sphere of its Operation is called Tzedek or justice and it fashioneth the images of material things, bestowing peace and mercy; and it ruleth the sphere of the action of the planet Jupiter. And Al is the title of a God strong and mighty, ruling in Glory, Magnificence and Grace. And the Archangel of Chesed is Tzadkiel, the prince of Mercy and Beneficence, and the Name of the Order of Angels is Chashmalim Brilliant Ones, who are also called the Order of Dominions or Dominations. The Sephira Chesed is also called Gedulah or Magnificence and Glory.
The eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Ch or H. Represents the number 8. The fourth of the twelve "single letters." A Hebrew word meaning "fence" or "enclosure." Corresponds to Cancer, the 18th Path (between Binah and Geburah), and Tarot trump VII The Chariot.
A Sanskrit term meaning a "copy" or "shadow," it is the astral image or astral body of a person.
This energy consists of static electricity, infrasound, infrared radiation, and magnetic fields. Chi is a complex form of energy that manifests itself in your vitality, your spirit, and your life.
Vital life force often referred to as energy. A term commonly used in acupuncture referring to the energetic flow within the meridians.
Energy or life force. Also known as Ki or Prana.
The Chinese name for vital energy, comparable to the Hindu Prana.
The Qabalistic Part of the Soul that represents the creative impulse and divine will. The Chiah is attributed to Chokmah.
Part of the soul located in Chokmah. It is Divine Will, the source of action.
Also described as Oriental or Asian Medicine, Chinese Therapies is a term used to describe a wide assortment of practices for sound body, mind, and spirit. These include herbal remedies, acupuncture, acupressure and massage, energywork such as Chi Gung, and martial arts.
The lines of the hand are what give palmists the most material for interpretation and analysis. The interpretation of the palm lines is called chiromancy.
Chiron is an asteroid traveling in orbit between Saturn and Uranus. Although research on its effect on natal charts is not yet complete, it is believed to represent a key or doorway, healing, ecology, and a bridge between traditional and modern methods.
In your birth chart, Chiron represents your deeper sense of purpose, and adds a subtle yet powerful drive to achieve a connection to higher values. Chiron may also indicate areas of vulnerability or emotional wounding which need special attention. Authorities have not yet determined Chiron’s influence is so well-established that many astrologers include it along with the Sun, Moon, and planets in their basic natal chart analyses.
A Sanskrit word referring to an energy path that is tinier than the more famous paths known as nadis. Chitrinis are said to actually be inside of the nadis.
Literally a “young green shoot,” it is a title or name of the goddess Demeter.
In Tibetan spirituality Chöd is the name for a rite of magical self-sacrifice.
The second Sephirah of the cabalistic Tree of Life, the topmost Sephirah on the Pillar of Mercy. The term is a Hebrew word meaning "Widsom." It represents the archetype of the number 2, the masculine aspect of the Godhead. It corresponds to the divine name Yah, the archangel Raziel, the angelic choir called Ophanim (Wheels) and the Mazloth, or heavenly Sphere of the Zodiac.
In Chokmah is a cloud-like grey which containeth various colours and is mixed with them, like a transparent pearl-hued mist, yet radiating withal, as if behind it there was a brilliant glory. And the Sphere of its influence is in Masloth, the Starry Heaven, wherein it disposeth the forms of things. And Yah is the Divine Ideal Wisdom, and its Archangel is Ratziel, the Prince or Princes of the knowledge of hidden and concealed things, and the name of its Order of Angels is Auphanim, the Wheels or the Whirling Forces which are also called the Order of Kerubim.
Choronzon's number is 9, also the number of Man. But Choronzon is also a "demon" within the Enochian writings of Dr. John Dee, likewise within Crowley’s system where Choronzon is "the Dweller in the Abyss," believed to be the obstacle between the adept and enlightenment. But Choronzon is also the name of the demon that guards the Abyss on the Tree of Life—separating the lower from the higher. It’s that Abyss that we must cross to fulfill our spiritual destiny. That demon is the obstacle between the adept and enlightenment. If met with proper preparation by the magician, his function is to destroy the ego, allowing the magician to cross the Abyss. We all must confront our demon.
The demon is also our Shadow, the lower self of the subconsciousness with our fears and repressions.
Also known as the C∴C∴, it appears to have been a magical group active in Chicago as early as 1931 and at least as recently as 1979. Exactly what it was, or is, is confusing and probably of no pertinence to our study here. According to the occult scholar P. R. Koenig, in 1933 a small group of homosexual men split off from C. F. Russell's original group in order to practice Crowley’s XI°. It was led in recent history by Michael P. Bertiaux teaching Haitian Voodoo and O∴T∴O∴ magic.
Unfortunately, the study of Western magical philosophy is often obscured by the number of secret orders cast on Masonic models that claim to teach true magic. At least in some instances these are successful business operations and in some other cases provide opportunities to indulge the vanities of members who adore dressing in expensive robes and addressing each other by their secret names. Most of their magical teachings of value were derived from the serious work of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Aurum Solis. These teachings were long ago made available in book form. Experience demonstrates that the study and practice of magic is as suitable to the solitary person as to group membership.
A religious tradition based on the book Science & Health with Key to Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (derived from the works of Phineas P. Quimby) and the Bible. Although it has a full theology, most people are familiar with it through their belief that illness is the result of fear, ignorance, or sin, and if you eliminate those factors through prayer, the illness will cease. Followers of Christian Science tend to prefer this healing system before the use of drugs or surgery, but unlike some religious sects, it is not required.
Greek for "Christ," meaning the anointed one. Similar to the Hebrew translated as "Messiah." Mystically, we each have a divine inner core (sometimes called "Christ Immanent") that we can manifest.
A time traveler.
A golden yellow variety of peridot. It supposedly can help prevent fever and madness.
Although having a name similar to Chrysolite, Chrysoprase is completely different. It is a form of chalcedony (considered by some to be the most valuable form of this stone), a member of the quartz family. It is generally a translucent bluish-green or apple-green. It is claimed to improve vision and bring joy.
Divination by looking into a reflective or transparent object such as a crystal or various shapes of glass. Although crystal balls are now popular for this, in the past a piece of beryl, in reddish or pale green shades, was often used.
From the Greek chthon, earth. Refers to spirits or deities of the underworld or the souls of the dead.
Deities, spirits, or anything connected or related to the Underworld. It is derived from the Greek word khthonios which means “of the earth.” Some of the oldest beliefs retained within Wicca/Witchcraft originate from the Neolithic period during which we find many chthonic elements apparent in the primitive religions of this era.
A consecrated Witch’s cord, traditionally either nine feet long or based on measurements of the Witch’s body. It can be used to lay out a circle of ritual and may be worn around the waist to represent the initiation level of the Witch. It may also have knots made in it at certain points, again representing the measure of the Witch and/or to hold magical power.
A collection of loose papers that are the original source of the Golden Dawn ritual and magical system, and which played a complex and still uncertain role in the founding of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
A code set up by a person that he or she intends to use to prove that they are actually communicating after their death.
Natural cycles of arousal and sleep.
The magic circle is drawn in the astral world about the Magus and the place where the ritual is worked. It forms a division between the magical place and the ordinary world, setting the interior space apart. This allows the region inside the circle to hold a heightened charge of magical potency, and because it is a pure space devoted to worship and magic, it permits the manifestation of spiritual Intelligences that could not be readily perceived in the ordinary environment. The circle also acts as a barrier that protects the Magus from the intrusion of discordant, chaotic forces that seek to disrupt communications with higher spiritual beings, or even to harm the Magus in emotional and physical ways.
The circle is always inscribed from the inside, ideally from the center, in a sunwise direction, and visualized as a glowing or flaming band of light that sustains itself in the air at the level of the heart. Often a corresponding physical circle of the same radius is marked on the floor of the chamber beforehand; but the magic circle does not actually exist until it is made in the astral by a deliberate act of will. For convenience, the circle is made of a size great enough to enclose the ritual place. A single ritualist, if working without an altar in a confined space, might project a circle of six feet in diameter. With an altar at the center, the circle might be nine feet in diameter to permit movement around the altar. Since the circle is drawn in the astral, it can be made larger than the actual physical chamber.
Whatever its size, the circle should always be large enough to comfortably hold all who work within it. Because the circle is magically real, even though immaterial, it must never be casually broken. It is extended from the heart center of the Magus clockwise from the point of the right index finger, or the point of the wand, sword, or knife. It should be reabsorbed at the end of the ritual in through the left index finger, or magical instrument held in the left hand, by retracing it widdershins——against the course of the Sun. It must never be stepped through, although this is a common mistake among occultists. To disregard the substantiality of the circle is to weaken it, and so render it a less useful tool.
Another name for a group of people having a séance.
A temporary boundary within which a séance or magical operation may take place. The theory is that is becomes a kind of psychic container for the energies used in the operation and a barrier to unwanted energies from outside.
The Magick Circle—whether drawn physically or in the imagination—is the "container" of magickal operations. The "Opening" and the "Closing" of the Temple—or of the Circle—is an operation that is both magickal and psychological. The rituals of Opening and Closing are various but all are simple projections of energy guided by will power with the express intent to provide a barrier against exterior forces while establishing the Circle (or Lodge) as container of the magickal energies
Circle of Bluestone
Small ring carved from Preseli Bluestone, the substance from which the Inner Ring of Stonehenge is made. It is used with Touchstones on the equinoxes and solstices to unify talismans—combining their power with all other talismans.
Circle of Protection
A magickal circle wherein magick workers are protected from unwanted entities and energies.
Circle of Protection
A circle of people, often holding hands, at a séance.
Circle of Protection
Part of the popular game Magic: The Gathering, which protects you from certain types of damage.
A concept based on the idea of an electrical circuit, which must be complete for a device on the circuit to function. That is, there must be a source of electrical energy, the device to be powered, and then a ground, usually associated with or near the source. This is translated to psychic or magickal energy, where some hold that there must also be a completed circuit to be effective. Thus, when you are sending healing energy to someone, you are the source, the person to be healed is the “device,” and then you receive energy back from that person which needs to be “grounded.” If you block the return—that is, if the circuit is incomplete and you get nothing back—the healing will not be effective. If you do not ground the energy you receive, the working may be effective, but you become the ground, resulting in the absorption, by you, of the negative charge on the energy from the person you were healing. Healers who do not know how to “ground” the energy often end up exhibiting the symptoms of the person they heal. See Also Grounding.
Circulation of the Body of Light
A ritual developed from the Middle Pillar Ritual wherein you move spiritual energy throughout and around your body.
To walk in a circle. In temples of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, this was a clockwise circling of the temple. It was said to represent the rise of Light. In the Golden Dawn’s inner order, the circumambulation of the temple by initiates would create energy in the form of a cone or vortex. This may be the source of the Pagan/Wiccan concept of a “Cone of Power,” although the influence may have gone the other way. A reverse circumambulation, going anti-clockwise, was symbolic of the fading Light.
A term most often used by ceremonial magicians describing moving within a magickal circle either as part of a ritual or as a way of raising magickal energy.
A person whose gender, as defined at birth, anatomy, and self-identification all match. Compare with transgendered.
City of Pyramids
The destination of the Adept crossing the Abyss. The City of Pyramids is located in Binah.
One of several psychic abilities, this is the description of supranormal auditory talents, allowing a person to hear beyond the normal purview of the ears. Sometimes used to hear a message from a spirit.
The psychic ability to hear things inaudible to most people, such as the voices of spirits, sometimes sounds of inanimate objects such as crystals, minerals, artifacts, etc.
One of several psychic abilities, this is a description of general supranormal feelings. That is, a person with this ability can sense or feel something beyond the normal purview of the physical senses. Sometimes described as a “knowing” of some information.
A person with the psychic ability of being able to sense, feel or know information (including knowledge, smells, tastes, etc.) without the use of the physical senses.
One of several psychic abilities, this is the description of supranormal visual talents, allowing a person to see beyond the normal purview of the eyes. Such visual ability may allow a person to see past or future events or present events which were not physically observed. Also the ability to see non-physical things such as spirits.
Sometimes called “ESP,” the psychic ability to perceive things invisible to most people, such as auras, various health indicators, spirits, as well as things at a distance in space or time. It includes skrying.
"As part of the unfoldment of the human intellect into omniscience, the development occurs at a certain stage of human evolution of fully-conscious, positive clairvoyance. This implies an extension, which can be hastened by means of self-training, of the normal range of visual response to include both physical rays beyond the violet and, beyond them again, the light of the superphysical worlds…It is important to differentiate between the passive psychism of the medium, and even the extrasensory perception (ESP of parapsychology), and the positive clairvoyance of the student of occultism. This later, completely under the control of the will and used in full waking consciousness, is the instrument of research…to enter and explore the Kingdom of the Gods."
Hodson, Geoffrey: The Kingdom of the Gods, 1953, Theosophical Pub. House, Madras, India. (Page 9)
Suggested Reading –
Slate & Weschcke: Psychic Empowerment for Everyone
Although generally used to mean any sort of psychic ability to know, see, hear things from afar, in the future or past, on the spiritual planes, etc., among Spiritualists it is specifically used to mean some form of psychic sight. It can occur to a person either as subjective clairvoyance or objective clairvoyance, and may be challenging for a person having this experience to discriminate between the two. Further, the difference between the two can be viewed as a continuum rather than as an either/or type of experience.
A person with the power of clairvoyance. A mental medium.
(“Clear-seeing”) A person who can obtain information through “seeing” things that others do not.
A person who obtains information through “seeing” things, usually via spirit communications, that others do not.
A rare phenomenon in which clairvoyant information is revealed in reverse form. Examples are reversed numbers and spellings.
An amulet made from an animal’s claw provides the wearer with protection according to the strength of the animal. A tiger’s claw amulet will be more powerful than one made from a badger’s claw, for instance. A bear-claw amulet is believed to help women during childbirth.
A term used to describe the removal of forms of negativity. This can be done spiritually (as in the performance of a banishing ritual) or physically (as in covering an area with salt and then sweeping the purifying salt away).
The process of driving evil or negativity from a person, thing, or area. Witches and magickal practitioners clear an area before performing magick. Similar to a banishing, but often does not use a formal ritual.
Clearing a Bad Psychic Atmosphere
There are many advanced magical techniques, but there are also simple folk practices. Here are a few:
Divination by observing the significance of random things people say.
Divination by observing a string-suspended key, similar to the pendulum.
Divination by means of a key suspended from a thread held between thumb and forefinger—actually a pendulum—lowered into a glass jar. After a question is asked, the key will knock against the glass—one knock for yes, two for no.
A beautiful Greecian water goddess who was the daughter of the river god, Asopos, and the river goddess Melope.
Divination by throwing runes, dice, or something similar.
Divination by the casting of lots, also called sortilege, or throwing dice. Actually the common flipping of a coin is a simple variation. An early form of dice was made from actual knucklebones of certain animals. Later forms were made of clay, ivory wood, and plastic. A single dye has six faces, and each face of the dye has from one to six dots. In dice divination, three dice of the same size are shaken between your hands or in a cup while thinking of your question or problem, and the number of dots shown on the dice landing face up is interpreted.
The term “clinical,” often seen in advertising, simply means something has been done with people rather than by other means, such as in a test tube. Clinical hypnosis (or clinical hypnotherapy) generally refers to the practice of hypnosis and suggestion to help people change or eliminate unwanted behaviors. Clinical hypnosis is usually performed in an office (a “clinic”) designed for this function.
In UFO lore, contact between human and alien beings. There is much to suggest that these may not be physical beings but perhaps projections of the Unconscious.
Others have proposed further types of close encounters:
A set of cards used in ESP testing such as Zener cards. A subject tries to determine or “guesses” the symbol on card being viewed by a tester or predicts the next card and each card appears a fixed number of times. Statistical analysis of tests run using a closed deck uses different protocols than testing using an open deck. (See “Open Deck.”)
The end of a ritual. At the beginning or opening, the magick circle was formed. During the closing, the circle is taken down, returning the space to its normal level of sacredness. If people have dedicated temple space, they may choose to close or end the ritual but allow the sacred space to remain as charged by the ritual.
Clothing for Rituals
The G∴B∴G∴ calls for simplicity. The requirement is only that the ritual clothing be different from one’s customary clothing. While fancy ceremonial robes would fulfill this requirement, they would be contradictory to the G∴B∴G∴ emphasis on the Great Work in contrast to the accessories. A simple garment cut from cloth with holes for neck and arms could be sufficient, as could an inexpensive bath robe or night shirt.
In some Wiccan circles the choice is "skyclad—nakedness—so that all are equal before the gods and nothing is in the way of the body’s natural energy. The observation can be made that nakedness does not make us equal since we are very conscious of our physical appearance—slim, fat, tall, sort, hairy, etc.—a distraction from the Magick.
During the process of divination using a crystal ball, before visions appear the interior of the crystal becomes hazy, misty, and unclear. This is known as “clouding.”
Here's the realization: we have all along been unconscious co-creators, and now we have the growing realization that we must be conscious co-creators, broadly aware of our own transgressions of natural law, or else the human experiment will end in failure.
Louis T. Culling wrote: "Let the cynic or quibbler, who would think that this is an avoidance of realism, a kidding of one's self, practice the opposite of these trances! He would then get a well-deserved dose of his own medicine." What we build in our consciousness shapes outer reality.
Culling, Louis T. & Weschcke, Carl Llewellyn: The Complete Magick Curriculum of the Secret Order G∴B∴G∴, Llewellyn, 2010.
A cluster of nerves residing at the base of the spine.
The tailbone. The coccyx is comprised of the three to five vertebrae below the sacrum, at the very base of the spine.
The name, meaning "River of Wailing," of one of the five rivers in Greek mythology that surround Hades. The other four rivers are the Acheron ("River of Woe"), the Lethe ("River of Forgetfulness"), the Pyriphlegethon ("The Fiery River"), and the Styx ("The Hateful River").
In Postmodern magick, a set of filters through which we deal with any aspect of life. We have a set of codes for money, health, sex, learning, etc. The group of codes that allows us to live in the “real world” is called a “semiotic web.” Magick allows us to change our codes.
Coffee Grounds Reading
A variation of Tasseography (also known as Tasseomancy, and sometimes Tassology), which encompasses Tea Leaf Reading. While the "technology" is somewhat different than for tea leaves, the basic principles are similar.
Cognitive Functions Perspective
Inducing physical relaxation through intervention into the mental functions related to relaxation. Common examples are the use of visualization and suggestion to induce a peaceful, relaxed state.
(CBT) Any number of processes including hypnotherapy, in which cognitive therapy (psychotherapy) and behavioral therapy are combined. The objective is that by making positive changes in the emotional state (feelings, beliefs, etc.), it will generate positive behavioral outcomes.
A seeming simultaneous happening.
A technique used primarily by fake psychics and false mediums to deceive people. The basic principle of cold reading is that people can be pumped for information and then made to believe that this data was received supernaturally. This is combined with people’s almost egocentric tendency to find serious meaning in general statements. Most people help the “miracle” along by tending to read deeper into something than is justified.
The ninth letter of the Ogham tree alphabet, representing the letter C and meaning "hazel."
Hazel is associated with salmon in Celtic lore.... Coll represents creativity, poetry, divination, and mediation.
An apparition seen by more than one person simultaneously.
The combining of clairvoyant faculties of two or more persons to gather clairvoyant information.
In the writings of psychologist Carl Jung and his followers, the deepest stratum of the unconscious that contains material relating not to the individual but to humanity as a whole. The most important presences in the collective unconscious are the archetypes. According to Jungian theory, these are reflections of primal instincts, and also the patterns on which gods and other mythic entities are based. Contacting the archetypal patterns of the collective unconscious in a conscious and balanced way is an important part of the process of individual, the goal of Jungian psychological work.
A concept from the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, the function of the Personal Consciousness that bridges to the collective racial, cultural, mythic, even planetary memories and the world of archetypes of the Universal Consciousness, making them available to the Psyche mainly through the Sub-Conscious Mind.
The memories of all of humanity, perhaps of more than human, and inclusive of the archetypes. The contents of the collective unconscious seem to progress from individual memories to universal memories as the person grows in his or her spiritual development and integration of the whole being. There is some suggestion that this progression also moves from individual memories through various groups or small collectives—family, tribe, race, and nation—so the character of each level is reflected in consciousness until the individual progresses to join in group consciousness with all humanity. This would seem to account for some of the variations of the universal archetypes each person encounters in life.
The name for the experience of several people simultaneously observing a visual image such as an apparition.
Color Ray of Influence
Every mineral reflects some portion of the natural color spectrum. These reflections connect the crystal energy and earth power of the mineral to the human mind. These are the Color Rays of Influence.
The idea that colors have certain practical or mystical meanings. This concept is often used in candle magick and stone magick. It can also be used in artistic works where the artist wishes to communicate an idea without using words.
The idea that colors can have an effect on healing. Techniques can include visualization, breathwork, colored lights, etc. Different systems have either very simple and generalized ideas of how colors have an effect (i.e., red increases energy) to certain shades of color having very specific effects on organs, organic systems, or illness.
Color Wheel of Influence
Shows the cycles of human life and the cycles of the Earth combined within the color spectrum. It matches human activities, desires, and life events to the cycles of the Earth and depicts the appropriate color ray of influence for a talisman.
Composite Strategy for Telepathy
A two-component strategy for activating telepathic sending and receiving.
A technique used in hypnosis that consists of repeating suggestions while a person is in trance. Compounding may be done by using the same words or in different ways. The goal of compounding is to encourage the acceptance of the suggestions.
A cloth or similar material soaked in some form of liquid, often infused with herbs or other medicines, and applied to the body for healing. In its simplest form it is be used to apply pressure, heat, or cold to an affected area or wound, as when stopping bleeding.
A desire to do something that is so strong most people cannot prevent themselves from doing it. Even if it is against their conscious desires, they will still do the action. Usually requires outside assistance to overcome.
Cone of Power
Expression primarily used in Pagan traditions signifying a visualized cone with the point up and the edge of the cone matching the ritual circle used for containing magickal energy that is raised in a ritual before being directed to its goal. May be used by an individual or group. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn this was described as a “vortex of energy” and was built up via circumambulation.
Cone of Power
Also known as a "silver cone." A cone is commonly visualized as an extension of the Magick Circle to function as a container of inner strength and purpose and as a barrier against external disturbance. In Witchcraft, it is used to reach to the target of the magical operation.
The natural ability of the mind to create imagined situations—false memories—to fill in gaps in the real memory that have been caused by physical trauma to the brain or psychic trauma to the mind. If a person is hypnotized and the hypnotist is not trained in procedures to help regain objective memories (known as forensic hypnosis), the subject may create false memories to fill in gaps or simply to please the hypnotist. False memories that were confabulated during hypnosis sessions led by non-professional hypnotists were one of the causes of the so-called “Satanic Panic” of the last quarter of the 20th century.
A hypnotic induction where the hypnotist tells confusing stories that are impossible to logically follow. Eventually, the person being hypnotized gives up trying to follow them and simply listens to them. This can be seen by certain physiological signs. At this point the hypnotist suggests relaxation and hypnotic trance, and the person follows the directions.
A term used by the G∴B∴G∴ to describe intercourse used in sex magick.
In geomantic divination, a figure of two dots above one dot above another single dot above two dots. The word itself is Latin for “conjunction.” In a divination it is rather neutral, amplifying other factors of the reading.
(0 degrees)–Planets that are together in the zodiac. Indicates prominence of the two energies.
Conjunction occurs when bodies are 0 degrees apart. The influence of the conjunction is variable, depending upon the nature of the two bodies or points involved. It indicates a unification and intensification of planetary energies.
Originally a practice that may have included such things as chanting and physical motions with the purpose of evoking a spirit. Now often used as a generic term for “magic.”
The exact definition of this term is “to make something appear as if by magic.” Some practitioners of natural magick refer to their practices as conjuring. Today, the term is mostly used to mean using tricks to imitate real magic. It was popularized in England where, in order to make sure performers would not be mistaken for real magicians during a time when the practice of real magic was against the law, many entertaining performers referred to themselves as jugglers or conjurors. Today it is common to use “magic” to indicate performers and “magick” to indicate the creation of willed changes through uncommon methods.
That half of human consciousness that operates during waking hours.
That part of the mind that gives us awareness of ourselves and things outside of ourselves.
Consciousness During Ritual
Within a ritual, you are in a state of light trance, and you do not want anything to startle or jar you back into full objective consciousness until the ritual is over. The Ritual must work up without interruption to an absorbed seeking of inspiration from the Holy Guardian Angel.
Acts and/or words used to make a person, place, or thing sacred. Once a consecration is complete, the person, item, or place so consecrated is ready to take part in a magical ritual.
The process of dedicating a person, place, or thing to a spiritual path or entity, usually a deity. Often follows a cleansing (or banishing or purification).
The philosophical theory that concepts of what are and are not real must be agreed upon (not by a test or statement, but by “consensus,” a general agreement) by a group or culture. That is, if enough people believe some concept is “real,” whether it is or not, the cultural view is that it is real. An example of this is the concept that at one time it was believed by most Western Europeans that the Earth was flat. Maps and expeditions were made based on this belief. In reality, the Earth is not flat. In fact, the belief that most people during the Middle Ages and before believed that the Earth was flat may, in itself, be a form of consensus reality. There is now a belief that educated and influential people knew the Earth was spherical, and the wide spread popularity of the flat Earth myth actually developed only in the 19th century due to the popularity of Washington Irving’s book, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, a novel that claimed most thought the world was flat until Columbus.
The concept that the physical world, as we perceive it, is an illusion—an illusion so powerful that it we accept it as “real” and in our endeavors to understand this reality we have given it still greater “hardness” through our accumulation of history, myth, fable, and statements of physical laws. All of this has been limited to the perceptions of physical senses and rejection of the non-physical.
Part of a religious ritual where the wafer and wine metaphorically become the body and blood of Jesus. Usually found as part of some Protestant rites. In the Roman Catholic Mass ritual, believers feel the wafer and wine become the actual body and blood of Jesus. This is known as transubstantiation.
Contact Mind Reading
A technique, traditionally used in the beginning of training for the development of telepathy, where one person reads the mind of another while lightly touching the other person (usually holding the hand or an arm). Also known as muscle reading or Hellstromism, after the performer Hellstrom who demonstrated this in public shows. To develop true mind reading, first learn contact mind reading, then, instead of touching the person, connect with the person through a hard objects such as a yardstick or broom handle. Once that is perfected, replace the hard object with a soft one such as a handkerchief. When that is perfected, eliminated the physical contact, but look at the person’s eyes. Finally, perform tests without looking at the person.
A generalized term for non-physical forces or entities with whom communication of some sort is established. Often, these contacts will be the first communication a person has when going into trance. Contacts may have information or guidance for the person communicating with them.
Focusing your attention on something. The second step in true meditation.
Continuum of Attentiveness
A phenomenon characterizing the liberated discarnate state, in which command of past experiences exists on a need-to-know basis.
Continuum of Awareness
A phenomenon characterizing the typical incarnate state of constricted memory.
A group of random people who are given a test, the results of which give a baseline range or “norms” as part of clinical experimental protocols. A subject would then be tested and the results of his or her tests would be compared to the norms.
Meditation exercise designed to shape the future by generating images of desired developments or outcomes.
After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, those Jews who remained in Spain and pretended to convert to Christianity but still practiced Judaism—and often mystical Judaism in the form of the Kabalah—in secret.
An odd suggestion given by a hypnotist to a person the hypnotist is trying to lead into trance to see if that person will follow the suggestion, thus proving to the hypnotist that the person is actually in trance. Later, if the person doubts he or she was hypnotized, the hypnotist can remind him or her of how they followed the suggestion.
A derogatory term applied to a Solitary Witch or a self-formed coven of Wiccans who base their magick not on thorough training, but on simply following any popular book of spells. They may simply collect the materials for the spell that are listed in the book and then follow the instructions, going so far as to read the book during the casting of the spell. This is similar to following a recipe from a cookbook, which is the source of this term.
Abbreviation for “Circle of Protection.”
A sweet gum excreted by certain trees used as an incense by some Pagans and ceremonial magicians.
A rope or string used as a badge of rank in some Wiccan traditions. The color of the cord indicates the Degree of the Witch within the tradition. In some systems this is also known as the “measure."
A rope used to measure or make measurements in certain magickal spells.
The use of ropes that are knotted in a certain manner in order to focus and release power.
In Europe and among some Pagans, any cereal grains such as wheat, barley, rye, etc., but excluding maize. Curiously, in the US it refers to maize and excludes other grains.
See Crop Circle.
A simple figure made by weaving wheat stalk together to form a symbolic figure that is symbolic of fertility and the harvest-oriented aspects of the Goddess. In most English-speaking countries, the term “corn” refers to any grain except maize. In the US, however, corn only refers to one grain: maize. Corn dollies are not made from the husks or cobs of maize.
A ritual popular among Western Christians that commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and the presence of the body (corpus) of Jesus in the Eucharist. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it is a yearly ritual that consecrates the Vault of the Adepti used for Inner Order rituals.
A method of assigning meaning and interdependent connections to the various aspects of the visible and invisible worlds wherein each color, sound, metal, plant, animal, organs of the human body, or anything in the material world, is said to have its origin in the invisible through specific energetic signatures. Astrology plays a significant role in assigning and deciding correspondences.
The Kabbalah, using the symbolic system of the Tree of Life and numerological associations provided through the Hebrew language, Astrology, and Natural Science, identifies a wide range of correspondences between subjects, planets, herbs, plants, metals, crystals, colors, animals, angels, deities, etc. that allow substitutions of one thing for another, or that augment understanding about one thing by knowledge of another of corresponding value.
Mostly the applications of correspondences are divided into Magical, Medical, Numerical, and Tarot usages.
Divination by sieve suspended by shears or tongs, or by threads from the fingers. People would be named and the movement of the sieve would be interpreted.
The full realization of personal growth potentials related to past-life experiences.
The comprehensive records of the cosmos, which include our personal archives.
A phrase coined by Richard Bucke to describe his own experience of unity with the universal consciousness of the cosmos. Bucke believed this to be the goal of human evolution.
Cosmic Gateway to Power
A Procedure leading to self-empowerment through astral projection facilitated by a framed sheet of clear glass.
Each individual’s unique spiritual or cosmic makeup, which remains unchanged from lifetime to lifetime. Also known as a Spiritual Genotype.
The soul’s unique spiritual identity that exists in perpetuity.
Raised awareness of the cosmic scheme of our existence, accompanied by increased knowledge of our higher self. See Cosmic Actualization.
The universal language of the spirit realm.
Cosmic Life Force
The energizing foundation of all reality, both tangible and intangible.
Used by a small group of astrologers, Cosmobiology and its principal tool, midpoints, was developed in Germany in the 1920s. Cosmobiologists do not use houses or traditional aspects. Instead, they read charts with the midpoints, or the halfway point between any two planets. The theory is that the midpoint is the place where the energies of both planets unite. The midpoint is also considered a sensitive point in predictive astrology. Cosmobiologists use midpoint “trees,” a listing of the midpoints for an individual chart, and not the contacts made by other planets, which result in what they call “planetary pictures.”
A way of explaining the universe and its processes. The word can be used in both scientific and religious contexts.
In theosophy, a term meaning the greater universe—including spiritual planes—and not just the observable physical universe.
Cosmos Wide Web
Modeled after the World Wide Web (WWW) of the Internet, the CWW recognizes existence of the Akashic Records imagined as “infinite-sized and capable data banks and servers, accurately accessed through a speed-of-light fast astral search engine using an imaginary keyboard and large monitor to call up and see those records we desire.
In 1917, in Cottingly, England, two young girls claimed that they not only played with fairies in their yard, but took photographs of them. People such as Sir Author Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, investigated the girls and the photos and proclaimed that the girls were honest and the photos were real. One of the girls, late in her life, finally admitted that the photos were fakes, and one investigator actually discovered the source of the images: double-exposed photos using cut outs from a children’s book. The movie Fairy Tale—A True Story, directed by Charles Sturridge and released in 1997, was based on these events.
Thracian goddess also known as Kotys, she was a goddess of sexuality similar to Dionysus. A riotous festival in her honor was called the Cotyttia, and her followers where known as the baptai, implying a part of what was required to follow her, a baptism. Her worship extended from Thrace to Italy and Sicily.
See Emile Coue.
Council of Ancyra
Also known as the Synod of Ancyra, this was a meeting of Christian elders held in Ancyra in the Roman province of Galatia (modern Ankara, Turkey) in 314 C.E. It’s important because it was the first meeting after the end of Roman persecution of Christianity with the overthrowing of Maximinus the previous year. Among the things they ordered were punishments for those who worshiped (freely or due to force) with Pagans, that clergy should not be vegetarians, that if you’re under 20 years old and have sex with animals you can be admitted to the church, people who commit adultery are not completely accepted in a church for seven years, and women (nothing about men) who perform abortions or make drugs for abortion must serve ten years of penance. It also states that if you perform divinations, follow Pagan traditions, or do magick you must suffer five years of penance.
A suggestion given to a hypnotized person to overcome or “counter” a current belief. Counter-suggestions may even be used to replace deep core beliefs.
A second divination performed to check the correctness of the first one; sort of like a second opinion in medical practices.
The Page, Knight, Queen, and King of each suit of the Tarot. Some decks may use other names, such as Princes and Princesses, for certain court cards.
A group of practitioners of Witchcraft. Traditionally composed of thirteen or fewer people, some covens are as small as two or three while others are much larger in number.
Covenant of the Goddess
Formed in 1975, Covenant of the Goddess is a group of covens and individuals linked to provide communication, as well as legal standing, to the members.
The area around the physical location of a coven (the covenstead). This is traditionally one league [most commonly equal to three miles, but it has been different historically and in different locales] in all directions.
In Wicca, the meeting place of a coven.
Also See: coven
Term used by Witches and Wiccans to mean someone who is an outsider; not of the Craft. Similar to the term “Muggle” used in the Harry Potter novels.
A shorter version of Witchcraft and used instead of that term or Wicca. It is also used by Freemasons to describe their fraternity without publicly naming it.
Also See: Craft, The, The Craft
A generic term for rules set up by covens. There are two basic types of such rules. The first are for behavior among coven member. These include practices within a circle (for example, how to behave) and outside a circle (for example, which member is responsible for certain activities such as calling the members to a meeting). The second type describes what members should do during times of trouble and persecution for the protection of the coven and its members.
Crazy Lace Agate
Crazy lace agate, also known as Mexican agate, is an attractive, white, opaque stone, patterned like a beautiful, multicolored paisley cloth. It is a cryptocrystalline quartz, found in Mexico.
In ancient times, this agate was worn to placate the gods, and to give courage. It will sharpen your sight, help the eyes, illuminate your mind, allow you to be more eloquent and give vitality. It keeps the wearer well-balanced and serious. Lace agate strengthens the Sun in its wearer, and improves the ego and self-esteem. It gives you a feeling of consolation despite the hardships of life. It has been considered symbolical of the third eye, and the symbol of the spiritual love of good. It helps to banish fear. It is a good general healing stone.
A mythic story used to explain the formation and existence of the phenomenal world.
Creative visualization involves the fashioning of an image in the conscious mind and the charging (and constant recharging) of that image by the enormous psychic energy of the unconscious.
A process of using visualizations to affect your unconscious. This will have an effect on the Astral Plane leading to changes on the physical plane.
The appearance and phase of the moon when it is between new and full. Often the image of a partial moon is used as the sign of the High Priestess or of a degree level among some covens.
The largest Greek island in the Mediterranean Sea. It was the center of the Minoan civilization that thrived between about 2600 b.c.e. and 1454 b.c.e. Although it has been ruled by Christians and Moslems, previously it is believed to have been one of the few European civilizations known to have had a period of primarily goddess worship. Cretan Goddess statues show the Her wearing a full skirt and a vest that is open exposing Her breasts. She is shown holding a snake in each hand. Reproductions of this image are popular among many Neo-Pagans.
An apparition seen on (or just before or after) the anniversary of their death.
Term describing types of divination by grain. One method is to observe the appearance of cakes made for ritual consumption, especially cakes made of barley. It also is a term for looking at the dough for such cakes, looking for signs indicating future events. Some also relate this to the practice of tossing grain on the carcasses of animal sacrifices and looking for divinatory patterns in the way the grain falls.
The part of the mind that under normal conditions critically analyzes all information that is received by the mind through the senses (and via self-talk). In hypnosis, the Critical Factor is bypassed, allowing the client to accept suggestions that are within the client’s moral compass.
The careful observation and remembrance of details making their later organization and analysis possible. It is an essential feature of astral and magickal training.
Baking a single symbolic object into one of many food items—cakes, pancakes, cookies, muffins, rolls, etc. The person who is served that piece containing the charm determines his or her future according to traditional meanings:
Also spelled "Crithomancy."
Name of a temple that was an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Anglican clergymen.
Also see Dolmen.
Divination in onions.
One of the three aspects of the triple goddess, the Crone has the image of an elderly woman. Also, an honored elder in some Pagan traditions. The image of a Witch found in many folk tales is actually that of the Crone. The age is necessary to show the wisdom she has acquired. Physical malformations such as the stooped stance and the infamous nose wart indicate the work she has done for the community as well as her skill as a healer.
A ritual marking a woman’s movement from representing the “mother” aspect of the triple goddess to that of the “crone,” respected for he knowledge and experience.
Sometimes associated with, but not limited to, UFO lore in which 1) often crudely formed "amateur" geometric patterns are found in agricultural fields of such crops as grass, corn, wheat, etc. 2) Finely detailed and "professional" complex geometric patterns in the midst of field crops. In both instances, these large scale "drawings" happen at night. In most of the "amateur" class examples, pranksters have admitted to dragging wood beams to break down the crops. In the case of the "professional" class examples, no human explanations have been uncovered. Theories range from alien communications to unusual natural gravitational or electromagnetic effects. Until understood, the phenomena remains classed as paranormal.
Some sort of message from non-physical entities such as spirits.
In most covens, the process leading to membership and initiation requires a period of study and practice, often a year and a day. Sometimes, to honor leaders of different covens or help establish friendly bonds between them, initiations will be given without such training. That is, a Witch of tradition 1 initiates into that tradition a Witch from tradition 2. In turn, the Witch from tradition 2 initiates into that tradition the Witch from tradition 1. Theologically, this allows covens to work with the specific deities of the other coven. It also allows a High Priest or High Priestess to officiate at another coven. This can be valuable if the person regularly working in this role becomes ill, leaves the coven, or dies.
Cross of Confusion
Supposedly an ancient Roman symbol which questioned the validity of Christianity. It consists of an equal-armed (solar) cross, however the four bars of the cross do not meet at the center. Instead, there is a dot in the middle. The decending bar is replaced by a sickle, giving the appearance of an inverted question mark. Popularized in recent times as a symbol used by the band Blue Oyster Cult.
Cross Quarter Days
The Pagan Wheel of the Year consists of eight major holidays, or Sabbats. Four of these are distinctly solar in nature: the two equinoxes, when the amount of daylight and night time are equal, and the solstices, the time of either the longest day or night. Dividing the time between a solstice and an equinox is a cross quarter day, also known as a fire Sabbat as they feature bonfires. They are commonly named Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas.
A crossing spell is the name for a folk magick rite that puts a curse or cross (in the form of an “X”) on a person
Crossing the Bridge
A Wiccan rite of passage performed at the death of a loved one. Corresponds to the concept of a funeral. Different Wiccan groups have various Crossing the Bridge rituals, ranging from focusing on a spiral dance—representing the spiral of life—to a re-enactment of the famous goddess descending to the underworld and returning. Will often include a celebratory aspect with feasting, drinking, storytelling, and dance in honor of the deceased.
The intersection of two roads, such a location is sometimes a locus of paranormal activity. This may be related to the ancient worship of the Greek goddess Hekate. Besides being the goddess of the home, of newborns, and of Witches, she was also considered the goddess of the crossing of three roads. Often, a small pile of stones at such sites would mark the location of her worship. By the end of the sixteenth century, such worship was downplayed and the location of three roads (tri via) resulted in a word, trivial, meaning ordinary, commonplace, or vulgar. In the early 1900s, Trivialities was the title of a book by L.P. Smith which popularized the term as meaning “things of little consequence.”
Also See: crossroad
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was the foremost ceremonial magician of the first half of the 20th century. He was born in Leamington, England, on October 12, 1875, the son of fanatical Plymouth Brethren. His mother called him the Beast of Revelation, whose number is 666, and Crowley embraced this identification. He attended Cambridge and began to study occultism. He was an accomplished chess player, mountain climber, and poet. In 1898, he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1903, he married Rose Kelly. In 1904, while on an extended honeymoon with Rose in Cairo, he received The Book of the Law from a "praeternatural" entity calling himself Aiwass. This book identified Crowley as the Logos of a New Aeon, and Crowley spent the rest of his life trying to spread the new religion. He died in a rooming house in Hastings on December 1, 1947.
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was one of the most controversial figures in recent Western occultism. He inherited a considerable fortune, and died a pauper. He had great intellectual genius and wasted a lot on shocking the world as he knew it with occasional bizarre antics and lifestyle. He was trained in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and later formed his own Order of the Silver Star and then took over the O∴T∴O∴ (Ordo Templi Orientis). He was a prolific and capable writer of magick technology, and is best known for his transcription of The Book of the Law received from a spirit named Aiwass proclaiming Crowley as the Beast 666 in the Book of Revelations and announcing a New Aeon of terror and advancement for the world. His magickal books and his Thoth Tarot Deck are worth study.
One of the power centers found in spiritual traditions with a source in the Indian subcontinent. The Crown Chakra (Sahasrara in Sanskrit) is physically associated with the central chest area. When this chakra is overcharged or undercharged with spiritual energy, it implies that you are dealing with issues of spirituality and direct communication with the Divine. When appropriately charged it is said to indicate that you have freed yourself from those attachments in life that lead to disappointment and unhappiness. When the Kundalini energy rises and fully excites this chakra, it releases (or triggers the release) of a substance known as “amrita,” a special fluid that is supposed to grant immortality. It is symbolized by a lotus flower that has twenty circular sets of fifty petals, each, totaling one thousand petals.
Crown Chakra (Sahasrara) Correspondences
Alchemical Planet: Mercury, Uranus
1 Inner teacher
Suggested Reading: Dale: The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy
A term used by some Spiritualists to describe all aspects of mental mediumship. This is where there are no physical phenomena produced; however, the medium is able to bring forth messages to the sitters. The term was coined by Charles Richet.
Supposed original thoughts that are actually the recall of forgotten memories. These may be mistaken as paranormal revelatons and may explain some past-life memories.
The search for and scientific study of animals whose existence is mythic or unproven, ranging from the sheep with the Golden Fleece to Bigfoot and "Nessie" (the Loch Ness Monster).
A crystal is a solid material with a regular internal arrangement of atoms. Because of this orderly composition, it may form the smooth external surfaces called faces that allow us to see into the crystal when it is clear. Most all stones are made in part of silica. The presence of this silica is what gives crystals their luminosity and crystal clearness. Crystal is brittle—as we are—and as such is a reflection of ourselves. As we shatter our being, it is seen to be rigid and crystalline in structure. Crystals are described as being clear, milky, having rainbow prisms within, or having fractures visible along their length.
A sphere made of a crystal, typically quartz. The fewer occlusions and imperfections it has increases its value. Often used as a focal point for concentration with a purpose of divination.
A round ball of quartz crystal or glass used as focal point in skrying. Gazing at the ball, one enters into a trance-like state where dream like scenes and symbols are seen and interpreted. Similar aids are the Magic Mirror, a pool of black ink, a piece of obsidian.
Also known as Crystallomancy, a technique typically using a crystal ball to engage and liberate the mind's psychic powers while promoting a state of general self-empowerment. Crystal gazing opens the channels of the mind and permits the free expression of multiple inner faculties.
Crystal Gazing Focal Shift Technique
A meditational technique generating an empowered mental state conducive not only to increased psychic awareness but personal insight as well.
Crystal Gazing Focusing Procedure
A program to stimulate psychic faculties and awareness expansion using a crystal ball.
See Crystal Ball.
A technique that uses an out-of-body session to re-experience past-life origins of traumas that have resulted in negative effects in you current life and liberating yourself from their impact.
Crystalline Sphere Technique
A psychotherapy technique designed to explore past-life influences and extinguish fears associated with unresolved past-life trauma.
Divination with a Crystal Ball.
Crystals and Gems
A crystal is a solid material with a regular internal arrangement of atoms. Because of this orderly composition, it may form the smooth external surfaces called faces that allow us to see into the crystal when it is clear. Most all stones are made in part of silica. The presence of this silica is what gives crystals their luminosity and crystal clearness. Crystal is brittle—as we are—and as such is a reflection of ourselves. As we shatter our being, it is seen to be rigid and crystalline in structure. Crystals are described as being clear, milky, having rainbow prisms within, or having fractures visible along their length.
Crystals and Gems
Types of stones given value by their beauty of color, clarity, and shape. The term is usually attributed to those stones of color that are not clear quartz by those who use such stones for mental, physical, or spiritual healing and attunement. Each gem is associated with various qualities or powers determined by historical attributions (amethyst, for example, is said to prevent drunkenness), color magic, or modern research and experimentation.
Cube of Space
A model, found in the Sepher Yetzirah, of how the invisible energies expressed by the Hebrew alphabet interact with one another to create the invisible worlds.
(koo-khullin) - The great epic hero of old Ulster stories such as the "Cattle Raid of Cooley." He was the incarnation or manifestation of the Celtic high god of Lugus (Lugh or Llew).
From the Latin cultus, meaning “care, cultivation, worship” by way of the French culte. In English it was originally used in the 17th century to mean “worship” or “a particular form of worship.” It referred to the homage paid to a deity. Thus, Christianity, Judaism, Protestantism, Islam, etc. are all cults by the original meaning of the term. It went out of use in the 18th century, but was revived in the middle of the 19th century as a descriptive term of ancient or primitive forms of worship. Thus, Shamanism, Druidism, and Paganism are cults according to the 19th century definition. In recent years the term has come to mean a group, frequently relatively small in number, that is perceived as spreading false teachings, taking advantage of members or outsiders, and/or is “evil.” In this sense it is sometimes used as an epithet by members of one group—usually larger in number and having a longer historical existence—against those of a group that the first one doesn’t like. Thus, to some sects of Christians, Pagans, Satanists, the Seventh Day Adventists, and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) are types of cults.
In the early 19th century, the term also started to be used to describe extreme devotion to a person or thing. Today this is popularized in the expression, “cult of personality.” That is, some people regard a leader or product with misplaced or excessive admiration, ignoring or denying any facts that would show this admiration to be misplaced.
The use or outright adoption of concepts, beliefs, practices, etc. taken from one culture—usually a minority culture—by another, usually dominant culture. While this is a common and natural occurance in the evolution of cultures and societies, in some instances the appropriation is partial (to fit in with preconceived notions of the dominant society) and even incorrect, leading persons in the minority society to consider it theft and a destruction of their beliefs and practices. Thus, in many instances cultural appropriation is considered a negative practice.
Named after Stuart Cumberland (born Charles Garner, 1857–1922) who astounded European audiences with the appearance of true mind reading abilities. He appears to have used Contact Mind Reading.
Derived from early pictographic writing, cuneiform consists of wedge-shaped marks that, when placed together, form words. Cuneiform was written by pressing the ends of prepared reeds into soft clay tablets and cylinders. It was in wide use in Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria.
A form of oral sex in which the clitoris and labia are stimulated with the mouth and tongue.
Common term for the container in rituals that hold consecrated water or wine. In ceremonial magick orders, this tends to be in the form of a stemmed goblet or chalice. It is also the tool or “weapon” used by magickians to represent and manifest the magickal element of Water.
The shape of upper lip, a reference to the Roman God of love, an implicit recognition of the erotic appeal of that body part.
The shape of upper lip, a reference to the Roman God of love, an implicit recognition of the erotic appeal of that body part.
One of the four suits of the Tarot, corresponding to the modern Hearts and to the clergy of medieval society. In the system of the Golden Dawn, corresponds to the element of Water and the first Heh of Tetragrammaton.
Also See: Coupes, Chalices
Pronounced “kur-ahn-dehr-rah,” it is Spanish for “female healer.”
Pronounced “kur-ahn-dehr-ro,” it is Spanish for “healer,” it differs from doctor or nurse (in Spanish, doctor or enfermera) in that it refers to a person who uses alternative healing methods, including herbal methods and magic for healing. In some ways, Curandero also means a “good Witch.”
A type of alchemical container. In sex magick, the vagina.
A spell or ritual—or the result of the spell or ritual—used to harm someone or punish the person. It may be transferable to the family of the cursed person. A curse may also cause a building, location, or object to bring “bad luck” to an owner or renter.
A dividing line between signs or houses in a chart.
The theory expressed by Fritz Leiber in his novel, Conjure Wife –
"The way nails sometimes insist on bending when you hammer, as if they were trying to. Or the way machinery refuses to work. Matter’s funny stuff. In large aggregates, it obeys natural law, but when you get down to the individual atom or electron, it’s largely a matter of chance or whine."
Leiber, Fritz: Conjure Wife, 1968, Award Books, Universal Publishing & Distribution Co., New York
See Cosmos Wide Web.
The "new" Astral Plane. The role of the Internet as a search engine duplicates the memory resources of the Akashic Records; the instant transfer of communications via e-mail duplicates Mental Telepathy; the Social Networking tools duplicates the Astral Body as a kind of magic mirror; the role-playing Avatar duplicates the projected Body of Light.
The expanding use of the Internet blends with similar functions on the Astral Plane to a degree that trains the user to function more directly, more consciously, in the subconscious mind and overcoming the barriers that previously existed.
In Theosophy, the concept (also known as the "Law of Cycles") that nature repeats everywhere. However, it is not an exact repetition, as with each new cycle there is a modification of the previous cycle.
Divination by means of letters and numbers painted on a turning wheel of fortune.
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Green Springs National Historic Landmark District is a 14,000 acre agricultural landscape. The rich soils of the Green Springs basin have sustained farming for over 270 years; human activity has been in relative harmony with the land, enhancing rather than detracting from it.
Thirty-five homes and buildings are listed on the National Regisiter of Historic Places and represent a continuum of rural Virginia vernacular architecture. Over 8,000 acres are held in conservation/ preservation easements by the National Park Service, Virginia Department of Historic Resources and Historic Green Springs, Inc.
Green Springs National Historic Landmark District is privately owned, includes no public facilities, but is visible from public highways.
A brochure on the district is available at Maddox Store, at the corner of VA 613 and VA 640.
Last Updated: 6/19/2009 11:21 AM
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Summary and Analytical Review of main themes of Douglass' Narrative
One of the most influential and well known abolitionists of the mid-nineteenth century, Frederick Douglass was always one to point out the evils of slavery. Being a former slave himself made his accounts of cruelty and malice all the more believable and persuading against the practice. Douglass’ Narrative is a book about his first hand experiences while he was a slave, and his early attempt to escape to freedom before he succeeded on his second attempt (the details of which are not stated in the book, so that the secret is not revealed). He focuses, expectantly, on the many cruelties and maltreatments of his masters, as well as the few kindnesses of his masters. His hopes in this book were to explain and prove the evils of slavery and the slave owners. From his writings, it is clear he has good intentions for the abolitionist movement, and he succeeds in aiding it to a great extent. His accounts of the barbarity and general cruelness of his masters (even those that were kind at first) and his mockery of the slaveholders’ religion did well to help the abolitionist movement.
His book begins, as do most autobiographies, with the beginning of his known and remembered life. From early on all he can remember (or at least tell us about) is the pain and suffering caused by his bondage, although in most cases, all that is known to slaves is pain and suffering. One of the first and most notable accounts he retells is the witnessing of his aunt being beaten. She was beaten and whipped for being caught in the company of a male slave with which she was forbidden to see. It was not the first time Douglass was to witness the cruelty of slavery, however. The first instance of cruelty came from the intentional separation of himself and his mother. Douglas retells of the encounters with his mother, but only to show and prove that slave owners intentionally destroyed and separated families.
The next, and inarguably the most important, event in his life occurred when he was moved to Baltimore to work as a house servant. In Douglass’ own Narrative he calls the event “one of the most interesting of his life” (Narrative 18). He notes that the city is much kinder to slaves than is the country plantations. In the country, he states that he “suffered little from anything than hunger and cold” (Narrative 16) while being whipped very seldom and was even favored by his master with rewards of cake. Later in the book, however, he dwells on the fierceness of slave drivers on field workers while under the care of Mr. Covey and others. Douglass says that under Covey, he was beaten and whipped to the point where he “was broken in body, soul, and spirit” (Narrative 38). In the city, at first, he was put into the best of care by his Master Hugh’s wife. At first Douglass’ mistress was “a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings” (Narrative 19). It is arguable that she was the most influential person in Douglass’ life, for she was the one who first taught him to read, which gave him the taste of freedom. His ability to read was both hindered and helped by his master, whom upon discovery, forbade his wife from teaching Douglass to read because it was unlawful. Hugh made the mistake of alluring that the ability to read was somehow connected to freedom, which is every slave’s dream, not just Douglass’. After the discontinuing of Douglas’ formal education, his mistress became a “demon,” but he was still better treated in the city than in the country. In the city, slave owners are more social with each other, being more condensed than in the country. Because of the density of population, the slaves are seen by peers and friends of the masters and then seen as a reflection of the master; if a slave is mistreated, the master is shamed. Also after the ending of his learning from his mistress, Douglass learns to read by tricking young white boys in the city in his free time. These ‘self taught’ lessons in reading proved to be an invaluable skill to Douglass, as he more than likely used his ability to read and write to escape, as he did in his first attempt when he forged notes to escape persecution.
After Douglass came of age, he was put to work as a field hand, the hardest and most detested job of any slave. Eventually he was rented to Mr. Covey, who, as mentioned before, was the cruelest master Douglass had ever worked under. While in Covey’s care, Douglass was subject to weekly (if not more often) beatings and was “seldom free from a sore back” (Narrative 36). The barbaric practices of Covey eventually caused Douglass to rise up and fight against Covey. This gave Douglass a sense of power not experienced prior. It also “rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom” in Douglass (Narrative 43). Had it not been for his fight and victory, over Covey, Douglass’ name would have been long forgotten shortly after his death in 1895, had he been able to live that long while in bondage.
After Covey, Douglass was put to labor in fields belonging to a man named Freeland. There he conspired with other slaves to attempt escape, but failed. His escape attempt involved forging papers that granted him and a few others safe passage, via river boat, to Baltimore, but one of the slaves originally involved in the plan backed out, and snitched. Douglass was jailed for a week and then sent back to Baltimore, once again under the care of Hugh. While in Baltimore, Douglass learned how to become a calker for boats and was able to hire himself out under the provision that he paid his master. Douglass was responsible for his clothes, board, and job materials and tools. In a sense, Douglass was completely independent. This sense of freedom was pleasurable to Douglass, but unwanted at the same time. He thought it a great injustice to forfeit much of his earnings to a man who did nothing to earn it. Douglass eventually found the means by which to escape his forced servitude and did so.
One of Douglass’ main themes throughout the book is the nourishment of slaves under various owners. “Every city slave holder is anxious to have it known of him, that he feeds his slaves well” (Narrative 21). Douglas points out, often, that there is a direct connection (obviously) between the kindness of the master and the amount of food given to the slave. Douglass would often let a horse run away to a neighboring farm (5 miles away), thereby being required to fetch it, and while away, acquiring something to eat. The direct relation of food to treatment is obvious and important. It should be noted that Covey, while almost certainly cruelest of all the slave owners described, did in fact, give his slaves enough to eat, but gave them insufficient time in which to eat the meals provided.
Another important theme throughout Douglass’ Narrative is religion. Douglass states outright, that “for all the slaveholders that I have met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others” (Narrative 46). Indeed, the cruelest master Douglas ever served under, Mr. Covey, was a “professor of religion- a pious soul- a member and class leader in the Methodist church” (Narrative 34). Two of the kindest masters Douglas labored under, Hugh and Freeland, had “no pretensions to, or professions of, religion” (Narrative 46), both of which, it should be noted, he tried (and succeeded under Hugh) to escape from. The hypocracy of religion, is seen because Douglass was fortunate enough to know how to read. Slave owners taught, out of the Bible, that servitude and obidience were key to salvation. However, when Douglass preached to other slaves (he taught many slaves to read in a sort of Sunday School he ran), he found that independance, freedom, and equality were also stressed in the Bible; two very conflicting messages that he took to hate cruel masters.
Douglass’ own, personal experiences with the slaveholders’ brutality and the hypocrisy of their religion are good arguments for the cause of abolitionists. In the Appendix, especially, Douglass details his links between religion and the cruelness of slaveholders. He details every hypocritical aspect of America’s religions, stating “we have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members” (Narrative 72). The appendix, with its religion bashing, probably did more for the abolitionist movement than his entire book did. But the violence depicted in his Narrative, as well as the intelligent arguments about religion in the appendix are a powerful and highly convincing force for the movement of which Douglass was an important part of. It cannot be determined how much aide Douglass' Narrative gave to the abolitionist movement, but the movement eventually did lead to the Fourteenth Amendment, which freed the slaves. So, in conclusion, it can be assumed that Frederick Douglass was an indisposable force to be reckoned with, and his Narritive was key to his fame and influence.
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William Hart, American. (1823-1894).
William Hart was an important painter and an influential teacher of the Hudson River School.
His family included fellow artists James, and Julie Hart Beers. Hart immigrated to America
from Scotland in 1851 and settled in Albany, NY. He was self-taught as an artist and was
painting portraits by the time he was 18.
He left Albany after 1840 and traveled widely including time spent in Virginia, and Michigan.
Hart returned to Albany in 1847 and opened a studio in 1854 where he became well known for his
idyllic landscapes. Hart later moved to Brooklyn where he became the first president of the
Brooklyn Academy of Design.
Hart's favorite subject matter was a herd of cattle drinking at a stream. According to the style
of the day, Hart blended the real and the ideal to give an atmosphere of peace and serenity.
Contemporary critics spoke of his ability to be "faithful to nature" and yet convey
"a poetic sentiment". His paintings were engraved over and over again for the gift books and
art journals of his time.
Hart's paintings are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC,
the National Museum of American Art, Wash. D.C. , the National Academy of Design, NYC,
the New York Historical Society, the Albany Institute of Art, and Vassar College, among others.
Signed lower right.
Oil on panel. 3" x 5"
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Wikipedia 10K Redux by Reagle from Starling archive. Bugs abound!!!
A form of fiction that developed in the 20th century and deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. The term is more generally used to refer to any literary fantasy that includes a scientific factor as an essential orienting component. Such literature may consist of a careful and informed extrapolation of scientific facts and principles, or it may range into far-fetched areas flatly contradictory of such facts and principles. In either case, plausibility based on science is a requisite, so that such precursors of the genre as MaryShelley's Gothic novel ''FrankensteiN'', or the ModernPrometheus (1818) and RobertLouisStevenson'''''s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) are ScienceFiction, whereas BramStoker's ''DraculA'' (1897), based as it is purely on the SupernaturaL, is not. ScienceFiction was made possible only by the rise of modern science itself, notably the revolutions in astronomy and physics. Aside from the age-old genre of fantasy literature, which does not qualify, there were notable precursors: imaginary voyages to the moon or to other planets in the 18th century and space travel in Voltaire's ''Micromégas'' (1752), alien cultures in JonathanSwift's ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1726), and SciencefictioN elements in the 19th-century stories of EdgarAllanPoe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Fitz-James O'Brien. Science fiction proper began, however, toward the end of the 19th century with the scientific romances of JulesVerne, whose science was rather on the level of invention, as well as the science-oriented novels of social criticism by HgWells. The development of ScienceFiction as a self-conscious genre dates from 1926 when Hugo Gernsback, who coined the portmanteau word scientifiction, founded ''Amazing Stories'' magazine, which was devoted exclusively to ScienceFiction stories. Published in this and other pulp magazines with great and growing success, such stories were not viewed as serious literature but as sensationalism. With the advent in 1937 of a demanding editor, John W. Campbell, Jr., of Astounding Science Fiction (founded in 1930) and with the publication of stories and novels by such writers as IsaacAsimov, ArthurCClarke, and RobertHeinlein, ScienceFiction emerged as a mode of serious fiction. Ventures into the genre by writers who were not devoted exclusively to science fiction, such as AldousHuxley, C.S. Lewis, and KurtVonnegut, also added respectability. A great boom in the popularity of ScienceFiction followed World War II. The increasing intellectual sophistication of the genre and the emphasis on wider societal and psychological issues significantly broadened the appeal of ScienceFiction to the reading public. ScienceFiction became international, extending into the SovietUnion and other eastern European nations. Serious criticism of the genre became common, and, in the UnitedStates particularly, science fiction was studied as literature in colleges and universities. Magazines arose that were dedicated to informing the ScienceFiction fan on all aspects of the genre. Some science-fiction works became paperback best-sellers. Besides such acknowledged masters of the genre as Clarke, Heinlein, and IsaacAsimov, ScienceFiction writers of notable merit in the postwar period included AEVanVogt, JGBallard, RayBradbury, Frank Herbert, HarlanEllison, PoulAnderson, SamuelRDelany, UrsulaKLeGuin, FrederikPohl, OctaviaEButler, and BrianAldiss. These writers' approaches included predictions of future societies on EartH, analyses of the consequences of interstellar travel, and imaginative explorations of forms of intelligent life and their societies in other worlds. Radio, television, and motion pictures have reinforced the popularity of the genre. Another ScienceFiction writer who had a rather profound affect on the field (and who happened to be hailed by and be friends with a number of prominent ScienceFiction authors such as RobertHeinlein) yet who recieved little recognition during his lifetime was PhilipK.Dick. Like other more famous ScienceFiction authors, several of Dick's stories have been made into movies. His novel DoAndroidsDreamofElectricSheep? was made into the movie BladeRunner. The movie TotalRecall was based on one of his short stories, as was the movie Screamers, although no mention of Dick was made in that movie's credits. * ScienceFictionFilm
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||Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. Can be erased while still on the circuit board. See EPROM.
||When referring to software, a program that performs some kind of intricate data manipulation. i.e. a search engine
||Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. A type of ROM chip that can be programmed, then erased prior to reprogramming. Usually erased by exposing the circuitry in the chip to ultraviolet light. See PROM.
||A local area network architecture.
||The pathway by which a CPU and other components of the system board communicate with cards in the computer's expansion slots. Also called the bus and the system bus.
||A printed circuit card that plugs into an expansion slot and adds functionality to the computer system.
||A connector on the system board that can hold an expansion card such as a display adaptor, disk drive controller, I/O card, memory expansion.
||An intranet that is made available to external customers or organizations to view data. Most are password protected for the security of the client.
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Dental rinses can help fight plaque, gingivitis, and bad breath when combined with daily brushing and flossing. Ask your dentist to recommend a rinse based upon your dental history. He or she will tell you when and how often it should be used, and during future visits will check for positive or negative effects on your teeth. Rinses may be either medicated or non-medicated, and may or may not contain fluoride which aids in preventing tooth decay. Although positive effects have been found, rinsing too often can harm the surface of your teeth; be sure to consult with your dentist before using on a daily basis. If ingested, it's possible to overdose on dental rinse as it may contain a form of alcohol. Also, it's easy to confuse mouthwashes with dental rinses. Some mouthwashes are rinses that help prevent bad breath and give you a fresher feeling. They may not contain the ingredients needed to fight plaque and gingivitis. If a manufacturer requests examination, the American Dental Association may put a seal of approval on items that its research has shown will help prevent plaque and the spread of tooth decay. Products that have received this seal of approval usually display it prominently on the label. While rinses are an aid in fighting bacteria, they shouldn't be used in place of brushing and flossing on a daily basis and regular visits to your dentist.
©2006 Crossroads Mobile. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Sam Low presents: Polynesian Starpaths: Ancient Polynesian Voyaging and Navigation
Thor Heyerdahl believed South American people settled Polynesia after drifting aboard primitive rafts into the Pacific with prevailing winds and currents. Writer, filmmaker, and Vineyard resident Sam Low believes the opposite is true. Polynesia was settled by a seafaring people who voyaged against the winds from southeast Asia aboard powerful sailing vessels and navigated accurately without charts, compasses, or instruments of any kind. Low has sailed aboard Hokule’a, a replica of an ancient Polynesian double-hull voyaging canoe, and will explore Hokule’a’s 35-year, 120,000 mile sailing history throughout the Pacific. He will reveal how ancient canoe navigators found their direction and determined their latitude by the stars.
For the Benefit of:
Martha's Vineyard Museum
$8 for Members/$12 for non-Members. Lecture in the MVM Library.
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Hearing Loss is one of the major illness that affect older Adults. At Present, approximately seventeen percent American Adults says that they have some degree of hearing loss. Those people with hearing loss, they get difficulty in conversation with friends and family.
Moreover, the people with hearing loss, they also get difficulty in understanding doctor advice, hearing door bells, alarms and responding to warning. In Hearing Loss, the patient become unable to hear low pitched sound and the hearing loss condition may occur by certain diseases such as trauma, certain medicine and by long term exposure of the loud noises.
There are four kinds of hearing loss, the sensorineural hearing loss that occur when a kind of damage happens in inner of ear or auditory nerve. In regarding of this hearing loss, this type of hearing loss is permanent. Another kind of hearing Loss is recognized by conductive hearing loss. This specific kind of hearing loss happens when sound waves don’t reach the inner ear. The major cause of this specific hearing loss is earwax build up, fluid and Punctured ear drum.
For the treatment, of this kind of Hearing Loss is Medical or surgical treatment that could usually restore conductive hearing loss. The next hearing loss is Presbycusis. In regarding of this hearing loss, it occurs because of changes in inner ear, middle ear or outer ear and auditory nerve. Along with, one more kind of hearing problem is Tinnitus. This is common in older people and in this hearing problem ringing, hissing or roaring sounds come and it cause by loud noise.
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- "Orc is not an English word. It occurs in one or two places [in The Hobbit] but is usually translated goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kinds)"
- —J.R.R. Tolkien, Preface to The Hobbit
Orcs were the most commonplace villains serving the Dark Powers in all of Tolkien's Mythology, a race of sentient beings bred by the evil Vala Melkor (Morgoth) during the time of the Great Darkness. The Dark Lord Sauron also bred them, and later the wizard Saruman, as they often used them as soldiers and henchmen and sent them out to do various evil deeds across Middle-earth.
No female orcs are ever mentioned by Tolkien, but in The Silmarillion he wrote that "the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of "Illuvatar"; and that Melkor had created them before the First Age by breeding Elves he had captured and corrupted, by means of torture and mutilation.
Tolkien did not regard Orcs as evil in their own right, but only as tools of Morgoth and Sauron. Orcs were dependent on the Dark Lord in various ways: after their leader was defeated, the Orcs were confused and dismayed, and easily scattered by their enemies. In the millennia after Melkor's defeat and banishment from Arda, they were without a leader, and degenerated to small, quarrelsome tribes hiding in the Misty Mountains. Only when led by a Maia like Sauron did they begin to reclaim some of their old power and become a real danger for Middle-earth.
Many Orcs (along with fallen Maiar and other evil servants of Melkor), survived in the deep caves, pits, chambers, and tunnels of Melkor's great underground fortresses of Utumno and Angband. They multiplied and later spread through northern Middle-earth. They were first seen by the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin) who reported them to King Thingol, the High King of the Sindar causing them to need weapons of war for the first time. For over a millennium, the orcs were only a minor problem but when Melkor (Morgoth) returned with the Silmarils he took full charge of them and soon unleashed them on the Beleriand. At first, the newly organized orcs were successful in killing Denethor, the King of the lightly armed Laiquendi but were eventually defeated by Thingol and his allies, but continued besieging the Havens of the Falas under Círdan which wasn't broken until the arrival of the Ñoldor. The heavy losses that the Sindar suffered to the Orcs frightened them to the point that Melian, Queen of Doriath raised a great enchanted wall to protect themselves. The Laiquendi, who suffered the most in the battle hid themselves in the Ossiriand under the cloak of secrecy or took refuge in Doriath.
In the First Age, thousands of Orcs were first bred in Angband as the core force of Morgoth and were to participate in the Battles of Beleriand which lasted a total of 587 years. They first appeared in the Battle of Lhammoth, where they were defeated by the Noldor. When the House of Fëanor returned to Middle-earth, Morgoth sent a force of orcs against them and although they outnumbered the exiles they were no match for the power and wrath of the Ñoldor, and were quickly and easily defeated. However, Fëanor could not defeat the power of Morgoth alone and he was killed leaving the orcs to continue to breed under the Dark Lord. Years later as the House of Fingolfin arrived in Middle-earth, orcs were sent against them as well but were utterly defeated in the Battle of the Lammoth.
After the crushing defeat in the Dagor Aglareb (Glorious Battle) and a minor raid on Hithlum, the orcs were never used in mass attacks while Morgoth's enemies were strong. Instead, they used more as spies and minor raids. They were nearly destroyed in the War of Wrath, and those that survived fled eastwards into the Mountains of Angmar and the Grey Mountains (Ered Mithrin).
Sometime around SA 1000, Sauron reappeared in Middle-earth and made the land of Mordor his realm, and then starting to build the foundations of Barad-Dûr. During this time, Sauron had forged the Rings of Power and didn't find much use in the orcs as the rings posed much more power than what he thought 'mere mistakes of creation'.
During the War of the Elves and Sauron in SA 1700, the orcs formed the main host of Sauron's power. Despite the immeasurable number of orcs present, the battle was won by the Elves and the Numenoreans due to their united force and numbers. After the battle, Sauron regained power and became ever stronger in the east, with many orcs living in the Misty Mountains.
In this time the orcs were under the power of both the Witch-King of Angmar and Sauron in Dol Guldur and Mordor. They then invaded Eriador from the west under the power of the Necromancer. The orcs of the Misty Mountains formed many independent Orcish societies under the mountains such as Goblin-town and Mount Gram. Azog, an orc-chieftain of the Misty Mountains, started the War of the Dwarves and Orcs but were defeated and returned under the mountains.
In TA 2941, the Battle of the Five Armies took place between the Orcs, Wargs, Men, Elves and Dwarves. Orcs, despite having greater numbers than the other three armies in total, lost and fell in battle, returning to the mountains once again.
The Orcs of Mordor fought in all the major battles of the War of the Ring including the Battle of the Morranon in which the entire force of Mordor was destroyed. The remainder of the orcs dwelled in Mirkwood until the Fall of Dol Guldur.
Fourth Age and Beyond...Edit
Although the entire force of Sauron was extinguished by the end of the War of the Ring, groups of orcs were thought to continue to dwell in the Misty Mountains, but posed no threat to the lands north, south, east and west after that point.
In Tolkien's writings, orcs were short in stature and resembled Men (or even Dwarves). They were squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, bow-legged, with wide mouths and slant eyes, long arms, dark skin, and fangs. The orcs' nature is usually filthy and dirty and despise all races of the land in which they live in. Tolkien describes that one 'huge orc cheiftain' as 'almost Man-high' and some of Hobbit height such as the smaller orcs and footsoldiers.
Orcs are miserable beings and are only able to destroy, not to create (though it is stated in The Hobbit that the Orcs/Goblins were very clever in the crafting of things, but only of weapons, engines of war, and instruments of torture). This has been so from the day they were bred by Melkor from corrupted, tortured and mutilated elves that may also have been forced to breed with other unnatural abominations in the dominion of the Dark Powers. They hate themselves and have an even deeper hatred of the Dark Lord and his successors who have brought them to this end. The result was a violent and warlike race in a perpetual state of chaos with itself and others. Despite their abominable nature, they are not dim-witted and are clever and crafty and make good tools, weapons, and machines of war but produce no beautiful things nor do they trade or share anything with others, unless ordered to by a Dark Lord for the purposes of war and conquest.
They have also perfected tunnel making and underground living away from the light. Wickedness and violence are their nature and are known to quarrel and kill each other over seemingly anything, and are known for despoiling and destroying the good things of the world. An example of this destructiveness was its effect on nature such was the case with Forests and trees which are often destroyed, to fuel their war-making see: Fangorn forest during the War of the Ring and the western part of Middle-earth after Sauron's War on the Elves in the mid-Second Age.
They generally hate Elves and Men but some were said to make alliances with wicked dwarf groups and others with Men no doubt for the purposes of pillage, plunder, and division of the spoils of it. Usually without a Dark Lord or one of his servants directing them to a goal of some kind, orcs usually lived in tribal communities in underground lairs under mountains under the rule of brutal chieftains and are usually troublesome to other races that are unfortunate to live near them. Thus, they are hated by almost every race that knows them even those allied with them.
Without firm leadership especially in wars, orcs, due to their chaotic way of life have been known to go into complete disarray and in battle are easily scattered and defeated by their enemies with heavy losses.
Portrayal and Appearance in Film AdaptationsEdit
In the Peter Jackson films orcs range greatly in appearance. Skin colour ranges from bone white (Azog and Bolg) and peachy colours (orcs like Gothmog) to shades of green (the orcs of Moria and Gorbag). Most orcs and later uruks, however, are shown as having darker shades of black or brown skin (for example, the Black uruks and Sharku). Some orcs are also much more human-like than others, Azog looks like a large and muscular but pale and hairless human whilst Gothmog looks much more deformed and less human-like. Towards the end of The Two Towers the uruk-hai were made to delibarately have more blotchy and patchy skin, this was to hint that the uruks had already been unnaturally overbred and the race had become inbred, later Isengard uruks look much less impressive and well-formed than the first batch of uruks like Lurtz. In general the orcs tend to be shorter than most men, according to official Top Trumps most orcs stand somewhere around 5', the Moria orcs are the smallest at around 4'5", later breeds shown like the Morannon Orcs at the Pelennor Fields seem to be slightly taller at closer to 5'4" (like Gothmog) and then Uruk-Hai tend to be the same size as men, closer to 5'8" or more. Early orcs shown are particularly slack with poor posture and broad with longish arms (Grishnakh is a good example of this shape) but some later orcs are a more human shape. Uruk-Hai are shown as bulkier and more muscular with much more similar posture to men. The clothing and armour they wear also ranges greatly, the first orcs seen seem to wear an assortment of different styles of armour and clothing and also commonly have various piercings and tribal scars, the clothing and armour was probably scavenged but other orcs wear specifically designed and made uniform armour for battle, the uruks tend to wear heavier, thicker armour or leather armour and headwear unless they choose not (for example Lurtz wears much less armour than the rest of his uruk scouts). Orcs are often bald or balding which indicates great age but there are also orcs who have longer matted hair, the new Uruk-Hai have longer thicker hair which they tend to wear back except the berserkers who have theirs shaved off, the orcs' hair is nearly always dark or greying in colour but in The Return of the King some orcs with blonde hair and beards can be seen marching from Minas Morgul. The favourite weapon of the orcs is an orc Scimitar, used by orcs from all areas, uruks have a different heavier sword with a hook at the end, designed to deal out more damage and pull people off their horses. Overall, the typical features that are included in all films on all species of orc and uruk-hai include fangs (sharpish teeth that are definitely not human), flared nostrils (almost ape-like on some but much more refined on others), thin patchy skin, a broad stocky shape and black gums and blood.
Goblins vs OrcsEdit
The word goblin, as used by Tolkien is merely another word for Orc, although in popular culture goblin is often used by readers of Tolkien's works to refer to the smaller breeds of Orc.
The original edition of The Hobbit and early drafts of The Lord of the Rings used 'goblin' throughout to refer to orcs and used 'Hobgoblin' to refer to larger and/or more evil orcs. In the introduction to later editions of The Hobbit, Tolkien explained that goblins is the translation he used to refer to the creatures referred to by the Hobbits as orcs.
A clear illustration that Tolkien considered goblins and orcs to be the same thing is that in The Hobbit (the only one of Tolkien's works in which he usually refers to orcs as goblins) Gandalf asks Thorin if he remembers "Azog the Goblin" who killed his grandfather Thror, while in all his other writings Tolkien describes Azog as a "great Orc." In The Lord of the Rings, "Orc" is used predominantly, with "goblin" used mostly in the Hobbits' conversation. Uruk-hai is a type of larger and stronger Orc.
- Main article: Snagae
Snaga comes from a word in the Black Speech meaning 'slave'. The plural of the word, snaga, is the term for the lesser Orc-breed used both by Saruman, as laborers in Isengard, and by Sauron, who had them first and used them as the core of his Orc-Host at the Pelennor.
- Main article: Uruk-hai
Uruk-hai were a stronger breed of Orc. The Uruks were originally only in Mordor in battle against Ithilien before Sauron returned, during the time Angmar brought war upon Arnor, and these orcs are called Black Uruks. Shagrat was a prime example of a Uruk. Those Uruks are from Barad-dûr only, and are barely seen at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields Saruman apparently improved on this kind of orc and bred his own.
- Main article: Morannon Orcs
Morannon Orcs were a breed of orc similar in size to Uruk-Hai that appeared in the late Third Age, only originating in Mordor. They were larger, standing at least 5 feet and a half tall, and more stocky. The Morannon orcs were Sauron's primary infantry in War of the Ring at the Battle of Osgiliath, Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Battle of Cair Andros and the Battle of the Morannon. These orcs also knew how to operate siege engines like catapults and battering rams. They were heavy infantry troops and wore heavy thick black armor of sharpened plate steel and were actually taught how to fight and defend, as opposed to the uncontrolled rabbles of the Second Age, or the cowardly Goblins of Moria. They used the same weapons as all of the other orcs in Sauron's army but due to their training, these orcs fought much better and could anticipate enemy attacks faster than the rest of the orcs.
Morannon orcs were the most sophisticated breed of orc aside from Uruk-hai. The troops invading Osgiliath and laying siege to Minas Tirith appear to be a mixture of many breeds, mostly Morannon orcs, some Mordor Uruk-hai (Black Uruks) and large factions of lesser orcs.
Morgul Orcs were orcs who lived/patrolled in the city of Minas Morgul, in the Morgul Vale. They are not that distinct from basic Snagae (plural of Snaga), and the two kinds are basically hard to differ.
They participated in The Battle of Osgiliath and in The Battle of the Pelennor Fields. During the War of the Ring, Morgul Orcs numbered at over 150,000 troops. They were armed with orc scimitars, bows, spears, glaves, halberds, other pikes, axes, and odd new-fangled weapons. The lingering orc-hosts in Osgiliath, combined with the host marching from Minas Morgul, made 4 legions, and that excluded the host coming out of Udun which were from Sauron.
- Main article: Azog
- Main article: Balcmeg
Balcmeg was one of the Orcs killed in the Fall of Gondolin by Tuor, according to The Book of Lost Tales. Tolkien wrote the story of the fall of the city in 1917 and never fully revised it, and Balcmeg does not appear in the published Silmarillion, although he was obviously of some importance, for only three orcs out of many that Tuor slew in Gondolin were named.
- Main article: Boldog (Character)
- Main article: Bolg
Bolg was a Goblin chieftain, the son of Azog, who came to power in Moria after Azog was killed in the war with Dwarves. Bolg ruled Moria for some 150 years and led an army of Orcs in the Battle of Five Armies. He was crushed to death by Beorn's bear form.
- Main article: Golfimbul
Golfimbul was a chieftain of the Goblins of Mount Gram, in the Ettenmoors, who led his band in an invasion of The Shire. He was defeated at the Battle of Greenfields by Bullroarer Took. His head was clubbed off by the Bullroarer and fell into a rabbit's hole. According to Hobbit folklore, the name of golf is therefore a shortening of his name. Some fans consider his name specifically constructed for this pun.
The Orc incursion in the northern Shire occurred during the reign of Arassuil as Chieftain of the Dúnedain, and the Orcs led by Golfimbul were but the most western pack of Orcs which had left the Hithaeglir. The only reason Golfimbul could make it all the way to the Shire was that the Rangers at the time were fighting many battles with Orcs, preventing them from settling all of Eriador.
- Main article: Gorbag
- Main article: Gorgol
Gorgol was an Orc chieftain, also called the Butcher, who lived in Middle-earth during the First Age. He was slain by Beren.
- Main article: Gothmog (Lieutenant of Morgul)
Gothmog was the Witch-King's second in command at the siege of Minas Tirith. His species is unknown.
The Great GoblinEdit
- Main article: Great Goblin
The Great Goblin was a Goblin leader who lived in the Misty Mountains during the Third Age, as recounted in The Hobbit. His followers captured Thorin, Bilbo and company during the quest for the Lonely Mountain, and took them to their underground stronghold, Goblin-town. He was slain by Gandalf.
- Main article: Grishnákh
Grishnákh was Orc captain from the ashen wastes of Mordor, Grishnákh was part of a group of Orc hunters under Sauron's dominion that joined Uglúk's Uruk-hai troop on the plains of Rohan. Grishnákh's plans for the troops' captives, Merry and Pippin, were in conflict with Uglúk's orders to deliver them to Saruman. Believing they might have the treasure his lord sought, he tried to steal the Hobbits away from the Uruk-hai in order to take what they had for himself; eventually leading to his death.
- Main article: Lagduf
Lagduf was an Orc of the tower of Cirith Ungol under the command of Shagrat; he and Muzgash were killed by Gorbag's Orcs in the battle over Frodo's mithril-shirt.
- Main article: Muzgash
Muzgash was an Orc of the tower of Cirith Ungol under the command of Shagrat; he and Lagduf were killed by Gorbag's Orcs in the battle over Frodo's Mithril-shirt.
- Main article: Radbug
Radbug was an Orc, probably of a patrol from the tower of Cirith Ungol, who was killed by Shagrat in the battle over Frodo's Mithril-shirt. Shagrat had squeezed his eyes out, according to the aforesaid.
- Main article: Shagrat
Shagrat was the Orc in command of the tower of Cirith Ungol, which guarded a pass into Mordor. After the discovery of the unconscious Frodo, he had Frodo put into the highest room of the tower. In a dispute over Frodo's Mithril Shirt, most of Shagrat's and Gorbag's Orcs were killed. Shagrat was one of only two Orc survivors. He took the mithril-shirt, as well as Frodo's Elven cloak and Sam's sword, to Barad-dûr. These were used by the Mouth of Sauron as evidence of Frodo's capture.
Most minor Orcs were called Snaga, but two orcs were called Snaga in the text of The Lord of the Rings:
1. Snaga was an orc that accompanied Grishnakh to make sure Lurtz and his raiding party completed the task of bringing the One Ring to Saruman in The Two Towers (Book Three, Chapter 3, "The Uruk-hai").
2. In Return of the King (Book Six, Chapter, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"), Snaga is the only surviving subordinate of Shagrat after the battle over Frodo's mithril-shirt at The Tower of Cirith Ungol. He dies after falling through the trap-door.
- Main article: Ufthak
Ufthak was in the service of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, under the command of Shagrat. He was captured, poisoned, and then forgotten by Shelob. Nonetheless, his fellow Orcs who discovered him made no attempt to rescue him, for they were humored at his hanging and they didn't want to interfere with Shelob.
- Main article: Gorkil
Gorkil the Goblin-King is a hero in the game Battle for Middle-earth II for the Goblin faction. He rides a rare giant scorpion. In the campaign he is killed by Glorfindel and Gloin during an assault on his fortress in the Ettenmoors.
- Main article: Murgash
Murgash appears only in the films as a non-canon character. He was a Morannon Orc under the command of Gothmog at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. He was ordered by Gothmog to break down the gates of Minas Tirith, but complained that they were too strong, making Gothmog order Grond to be brought up to the gates. He survived the Rohirim charge and went with Guritz to the docks. He was killed when the Army of the Dead swarmed on to the Corsair ships.
- Main article: Sharku
In Tolkien's Sindarin language, "Orc" is orch, plural yrch. In his late, post-Lord of the Rings writings (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), he preferred the spelling "Ork", evidently mainly to avoid the form Orcish, which would be naturally pronounced with the c as /s/ instead of /k/. (In Tolkien's languages the letter c was always pronounced /k/.) It is also possible that the word is a Common Tongue Version of 'orch', the Sindarin word for Orc. The original sense of the word seems to be "bogey", "bogeyman", that is, something that provokes fear, as seen in the Quenya cognate urko, pl. urqui. In the old English Orc means "demon."
|Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles.|
- The term "Ork" is an Old English term for a dirty creature which is used occasionally in the epic poem Beowulf.
Races of the Creatures of Arda
- The Silmarillion: Quenta Silmarillion
- The Hobbit
- The Lord of the Rings
- Unfinished Tales: The Disaster of the Gladden Fields
- The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
- The Atlas of Middle-earth pgs. 40-1 & 187-88
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Born at Rome about 1210; died at Rome, 3 April, 1287. He belonged to the rich and influential family of the Savelli and was a grandnephew of Honorius III. Very little is known of his life before he ascended the papal throne. He studied at the University of Paris, during which time he held a prebend and a canonry at the cathedral of Châlons-sur-Marne. Later he obtained the benefice of rector at the church of Berton, in the Diocese of Norwich. In 1261 he was created Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin by Martin IV, who also appointed him papal prefect in Tuscany and captain of the papal army. By order of Clement IV he and three other cardinals invested Charles of Anjou as King of Sicily at Rome on 28 July, 1265. He was one of the six cardinals who elected Gregory X by compromise at Viterbo on 1 Sept., 1271. In 1274 he accompanied Gregory X to the Fourteenth General Council at Lyons, and in July, 1276, he was one of the three cardinals whom Adrian V sent to Viterbo with instructions to treat with King Rudolf I of Hapsburg concerning his imperial coronation at Rome and his future relations towards Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily. The death of Adrian V in the following month rendered fruitless the negotiations with Rudolf. Nothing further is known of the cardinal's doings until, nine years later, he was elected pope.
Martin IV died 28 March, 1285, at Perugia, and three days after his death fifteen out of the eighteen cardinals who then composed the Sacred College had a preliminary consultation at the episcopal residence at Perugia, and appointed the following day, 2 April, 1285, for the election of the new pope. The election took place without the conclave, which had been prescribed by Gregory X, but suspended by John XXI. At the first vote taken, Giacomo Savelli was unanimously elected and took the name of Honorius IV. His election was one of the speediest in the history of the papacy. The reason for this great haste may be found in the Sicilian complications, which did not allow any interregnum, and especially in the fact that the cardinals wished to avoid the unjustifiable interference which occurred at the election of the preceding pope, when Charles of Anjou induced the inhabitants of Viterbo to imprison two cousins of the deceased Nicholas III, in order to effect the election of a pope of French nationality. On 19 May, 1285, the new pontiff was ordained priest by Cardinal Malabranca Orsini of Ostia, and the following day he was consecrated bishop and crowned pope in the basilica of St. Peter at Rome. Honorius IV was already advanced in age and so severely affected with the gout that he could neither stand nor walk. When saying Mass he was obliged to sit on a stool and at the Elevation his hands had to be raised by a mechanical contrivance.
Sicilian affairs required the immediate attention of the pope. By throwing off the rule of Charles of Anjou and taking Pedro III of Aragon as their king without the consent and approval of the pope, the Sicilians had practically denied his suzerainty over Sicily. The awful massacre of 31 March, 1282, known as the Sicilian Vespers, had precluded every possibility of coming to an amicable understanding with Martin IV, a Frenchman who owed the tiara to Charles of Anjou. Pope Martin demanded unconditional submission to Charles of Anjou and the Apostolic See and, when this was refused, put Sicily and Pedro III under the ban, deprived Pedro of the Kingdom of Aragon, and gave it to Charles of Valois, the son of King Philip III of France. He, moreover, assisted Charles of Anjou in his attempts to recover Sicily by force of arms. The Sicilians not only repulsed the attacks of Charles of Anjou but also captured his son Charles of Salerno. On 6 January, 1285, Charles of Anjou died, leaving his captive son Charles of Salerno as his natural successor. Such were the conditions in Sicily when Honorius IV ascended the papal throne. The Sicilians cherished the hope that the new pontiff would take a different stand from that of his predecessor in the Sicilian question, but their hopes were only partly realized. He was indeed less impulsive and more peaceably inclined than Martin IV, but he did not renounce the claims of the Church and of the House of Anjou upon the Sicilian crown. Neither did he set aside the severe ecclesiastical punishments imposed upon Sicily or restore to Pedro III the Kingdom of Aragon which Martin IV had transferred to Charles of Valois. On the other hand, he did not approve of the tyrannical government to which the Sicilians had been subject under Charles of Anjou. This is evident from his wise legislation as embodied in his constitution of 17 September, 1285 ("Constitutio super ordinatione regni Siciliae" in "Bullarium Romanum", Turin, IV, 70-80). In this constitution he inculcates that no government can prosper which is not founded on justice and peace, and he passes forty-five ordinances intended chiefly to protect the people of Sicily against their king and his officials. In case of any violation of these ordinances by the king or his officials, the people were free to appeal to the Apostolic See for redress. The king, moreover, was bound to observe the ordinances contained in this constitution under pain of excommunication. Martin IV had allowed King Philip III of France to tax the clergy in France, and in a few dioceses of Germany, one-tenth of their revenues for the space of four years. The money thus collected was to be used for waging war against Pedro III with the purpose of conquering Aragon for Charles of Valois. Honorius IV approved this action of his predecessor. When Edward I of England requested him to use his influence to put an end to the war, he answered that Pedro III deserved to be punished and that Philip III should not be kept from reaping the fruits of a war which he had undertaken in the service and at the instance of the Church. The death of Pedro III on 11 November, 1285, somewhat changed the Sicilian situation. His two sons Alfonso and James succeeded him, the former as King of Aragon, the latter as King of Sicily. Honorius IV, of course, acknowledged neither the one nor the other. On 11 April, 1286, he solemnly excommunicated King James of Sicily and the bishops who had taken part in his coronation at Palermo on 2 February, 1286; but neither the king nor the bishops concerned themselves about the excommunication. The king even sent a hostile fleet to the Roman coast and destroyed the city of Astura by fire. Charles of Salerno, the lawful King of Sicily, who was still held captive by the Sicilians, finally grew tired of his long captivity and signed a contract on 27 February, 1287, in which he renounced his claims to the Kingdom of Sicily in favour of James of Aragon and his heirs. Honorius IV, however, who was asked for his approval, refused to listen to such an unprincipled act, which surrendered the rights of the Church and of the House of Anjou to refractory rebels. He declared the contract invalid and forbade all similar agreements for the future. While Honorius IV was inexorable in the stand he had taken towards Sicily and its self-imposed king, his relations towards Alfonso of Aragon became less hostile. Through the efforts of King Edward I of England, negotiations for peace were begun by Honorius IV and King Alfonso. The pope, however, did not live long enough to complete these negotiations, which finally resulted in a peaceful settlement of the Aragonese as well as the Sicilian question.
Rome and the States of the Church enjoyed a period of tranquillity during the pontificate of Honorius IV, the like of which they had not enjoyed for many years. He had the satisfaction of reducing the most powerful and obstinate enemy of papal authority, Count Guido of Montefeltro, who for many years had successfully resisted the papal troops. The authority of the pope was now recognized throughout the papal territory, which then comprised the Exarchate of Ravenna, the March of Ancona, the Duchy of Spoleto, the County of Bertinoro, the Mathildian lands, and the Pentapolis, viz. the cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigaglia, and Ancona. The Romans were greatly elated at the election of Honorius IV, for he was a citizen of Rome and a brother of Pandulf, who had during the preceding summer been elected one of the two annual senators of Rome. The continuous disturbances in Rome during the pontificate of Martin V had not allowed that pope to reside in Rome, but now the Romans cordially invited Honorius IV to make Rome his permanent residence. During the first few months of his pontificate he lived in the Vatican, but in the autumn of 1285 he removed to the magnificent palace which he had just erected on the Aventine. With Northern Italy Honorius IV had few dealings beyond those that were of a purely ecclesiastical character. On 16 March, 1286, he removed the interdict which had been imprudently placed upon Venice by Martin IV because that city had refused to equip a fleet for the service of Charles of Anjou in his war against Pedro III of Aragon. At Florence and Bergamo he brought about the abolition of some newly-made laws that were hostile to the Church and the clergy.
The relations between Honorius IV and the German King Rudolf of Hapsburg were most cordial. The negotiations for Rudolf's imperial coronation which had been begun during the pontificate of Adrian V (1276) and continued during that of Nicholas III (1277-1280) were entirely suspended during the pontificate of Martin IV (1281-1285) who had little love for the Germans. Immediately upon the accession of Honorius IV these negotiations were resumed and the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, 2 February, 1287, was determined as the day on which Rudolf should be crowned emperor in the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome. The pope requested the German prelates to contribute a share of their revenues to cover the expenses of his journey to Rome. He even sent Cardinal John of Tusculum, the only one who received the purple during the pontificate of Honorius, as legate to Germany, Sweden, Russia, and the other countries of the north to hasten the king's Italian expedition, but Rudolf's war with Count Eberhard of Wurtemberg and other dissensions in Germany prevented his departure. The same legate presided at the national council of Würzburg, which began its sessions on 16 March, 1287. The decrees which were passed at this council are practically the same as those of the general council of Lyons in 1274.
The two great mendicant orders which at that time exerted great influence, both as pastors of the faithful and as professors at the great seats of learning in Europe, received many new privileges from Honorius IV. He also approved the privileges of the Carmelites and the Augustinian hermits and permitted the former to exchange their striped habit for a white one. He was especially devoted to the Williamites, an order founded by St. William, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1156), and added numerous privileges to those which they had already received from Alexander IV and Urban IV. Besides turning over to them some deserted Benedictine monasteries, he presented them with the monastery of St. Paul at Albano, which he himself had founded and richly endowed when he was still cardinal. On 11 March, 1286, he condemned the sect of the Apostolics or false apostles, which had been started by a certain Gerard Segarelli at Parma in 1260. At the University of Paris he advocated the erection of chairs for the Oriental languages in order to give an opportunity of studying these languages to those who intended to labour for the conversion of the Musselmans and the reunion of the schismatic churches in the East.
PROU, Les Registres d'Honorius IV, recueil des bulles de ce pape, publiees ou analysees d'apres le manuscrit original des archives du Vatican (Paris, 1887-89); PAWLICKI, Papst Honorius IV., eine Monographie (Munster, 1896); REDLICH, Regesta Imperii, Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Rudolph, Adolph, Albrecht, Heinrich VII. 1273-1313 (Innsbruck, 1898).
APA citation. (1910). Pope Honorius IV. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07459a.htm
MLA citation. "Pope Honorius IV." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07459a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Herman F. Holbrook. "Prayer was made without ceasing by the Church unto God for Peter."
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
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Boosting levels of a protein in the brain could be a way of treating diseases such as epilepsy and schizophrenia, scientists suggest.
In seizures, electrical surges cause message scrambling in the brain
Researchers at the University of Bristol say the SUMO protein acts to damp down the amount of information transmitted to cells.
Such "over-excitement" is characteristic of many conditions which affect the brain.
Experts said the findings in Nature would further understanding.
There are 100 million nerve cells in the brain, which each have 10,000 connections, called synapses, which link to other nerves cells.
These connections chemically transmit information that control brain function via proteins called receptors. These processes are believed to be the basis of learning and memory.
In a healthy brain, synapses can modify how efficiently they work, by increasing or decreasing the amount of information transmitted.
Having too much information is a problem, but so is having too little which can cause conditions including coma.
The researchers, who carried out work on rats, found that when one type of receptor, the kainate receptor, receives a chemical signal a small protein called SUMO attaches itself.
SUMO pulls the kainate receptor out of the synapse, stopping it from receiving information from other cells and making the cell less excitable.
The scientists who discovered SUMO's role say it is interesting because it means the receptor is not destroyed, but simply lies dormant, meaning the dangers of completely cutting off communication between cells should be avoided.
Professor Jeremy Henley, who led the research, said: "We have found one mechanism that regulates the flow of information between cells in the brain.
"It is important because it gives a new perspective and a deeper understanding of how that happens.
"It is possible that increasing the amount of SUMO attached to kainate receptors - which would reduce communication between the cells - could be a way to treat epilepsy by preventing over-excitation."
The researchers say that their findings could also provide insight into other brain diseases that are characterised by too much synaptic activity, like schizophrenia, which could one day lead to new drugs.
'Making a difference'
Professor Ley Sander, an epilepsy expert at the Institute of Neurology, said the work was at early stages but was interesting.
"This is an additional part of the puzzle and it is interesting to learn more about brain processes.
"But we are talking about five to 10 years if this is really going to make a big difference."
Jo Loughran, of the mental health charity Rethink, said: "We welcome this exciting new research and hope that one day it could make a difference to the thousands of people living with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia.
"We would like to see continued investment in such research that will lead to a third generation of antipsychotic medicines with fewer side effects."
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- Build a scale model of our solar system.
- Explain the forces at work when the Mercury orbits the sun. What keeps it in place? Is it moving further away?
- Study pictures.
- What are the features of this planet? Could they support some kind of life? Why or why not?
Link Resources to Complete the Science Fair Project
- Basics of The Planet Mercury
- Pictures of The Planet Mercury
- Build a Solar System
- Your Weight on Other Worlds
Related Science Fair Project Resources
- Parents, How to Help Your Teen With Their Science Fair Project
- The Five Types of Science Fair Projects
About These Science Fair Projects:The science projects located here on the Parenting of Teens site at About.com are ideas developed by its Guide, Denise D. Witmer. Some are projects completed during her years of working with high school students, researched projects and others are original ideas. Please use these science fair ideas as a guide to help your teen complete a science project to the best of their ability. In your role as a facilitator, you should feel free to share this project with them, but not to do the project for them. Please do not copy these project ideas to your website or blog, post the link if you wish to share it.
Recommended Books for Science Fair Projects:365 Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials
"The fundamentals of science are brought to life in a year's worth of fun and educational hands-on experiments that can be performed easily and inexpensively at home." People who have purchased this book have called it easy to understand and great for the student who needs a project but they aren't really interested in the sciences. The book is for both young and older students.
The Scientific American Book of Great Science Fair Projects
"From creating your own non-newtonian fluids (slime, putty, and goop!) to teaching a sow bug how to run through a maze, you'll be astounded at the number of incredible things you can do with Scientific American Great Science Fair Projects. Based on the long-standing and well-respected "Amateur Scientist" column in Scientific American, each experiment can be done with ordinary materials found around the house or that are easily available at low cost."
Strategies for Winning Science Fair Projects
"Written by a science fair judge and an international science fair winner, this must-have resource is packed with strategies and pointers for putting together a winning science fair project. Here you'll get the nitty-gritty on a wide variety of topics, from the fundamentals of the science fair process to the last-minute details of polishing your presentation."
The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science: 64 Daring Experiments for Young Scientists
"Introducing 64 valuable science experiments that snap, crackle, pop, ooze, crash, boom, and stink! From Marshmallows on Steroids to Home-Made Lightning, the Sandwich Bag Bomb to Giant Air Cannon, The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science awakens kids' curiosity while demonstrating scientific principles like osmosis, air pressure, and Newton's Third Law of Motion."
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Chukote Coastal Tundra
About the Area
Only about 50 miles (80 km) of ocean separate the Chukote Peninsula from Alaska's Seward Peninsula. Five million years ago a land bridge existed where there is currently ocean, allowing species to migrate between what are now Asia and North America.
The result of such a movement can be seen in this ecoregion that contains a healthy mix of species with Asian and American relicts and represents the westernmost limit of distribution for many North American species.
There is an abundance of common arctic mammals such as Polar bear (Thalarctos maritimus), Wolf (Canis lupis), Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens), and Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus). Seabird colonies of Crested auklet (Aethia cristatella), Least auklet (A. pusilla), and Parakeet auklet (Cyclorrhynchus psittacula), populate the coastline along with Spoon-billed sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus), Horned and Tufted puffin (Fratercula corniculata and Lunda cirrhata) on the shores.
In Chukotka alone, approximately 50 plants are considered Berengian endemics. Examples of rare endemic plants in the Russian Red Book include Artemisia senjavinensis, Cardamine sphenophylla, and Arabidopsis tschuktschorum.
Industrial development, climate change, and lack of protected areas constitute threats. Increasing exploitation of wildlife is another area of concern, for instance the growing demand for eggs of rare birds by collectors now threatens several endangered species.
306,000 sq. km (118,000 sq. miles)
Northeastern tip of Eurasia, in Russia
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If you think you know what is actually in the food you are buying, you could be wrong. You may not want to always rely on the label. Several key products are prime targets for food fraud.
"About 10 percent of the food you buy in the grocery shelf is probably adulterated," said Shaun Kennedy with the National Center for Food Protection and Defense.
Some of the biggest culprits are fish products. For example, when you buy crab, you might be getting fake crab.
Fruit juices are another target. Sometimes juice is labeled as fresh squeezed, when it is really made from concentrate.
"In some cases, pomegranate juice has been found to be nothing more than water, citric acid and red food coloring," said Kennedy.
Another product to watch out for is olive oil. Experts say 65 percent of extra virgin olive oil tested at the grocery store is actually diluted with lower grade oils.
"Consumers have almost gotten used to this flavor, these off flavors that reflect the defects you find in bad olive oil," said Dan Flynn of UC Davis Olive Center.
There is also the problem of honey laundering. That is when honey from countries with trade embargoes is shipped through approved countries then sent to the United States.
Expired infant formula and wine are also on the list of fake or mislabeled products.
Researchers say food fraud costs the U.S. $10 to 15 billion dollars a year. Counterfeiters rake in the cash.
Experts say consumers should be careful of something that looks to good to be true. If it is cheap, the quality may not be as good. And try to shop for trusted brands.
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Want to know when that baby elephant will be arriving? Join the herd.
As Asian elephant Rose-Tu heads into her 21st month of pregnancy, anticipation is building at the Oregon Zoo. Some staffers have organized informal office pools to guess the date of the calf’s arrival.
And this week the zoo launched a contest on its Facebook page: Whoever guesses closest to the actual date and time of birth gets to be first in line at the calf’s public debut.
Despite years of important scientific discoveries about elephants — many of them made right here in Portland — pinpointing a pregnant elephant’s due date remains something of a mysterious art.
With a 22-month gestation period, the longest of any mammal on the planet, giving birth “a little early” can mean several weeks. Currently, the best predictor is blood-progesterone level, which remains high throughout pregnancy and drops precipitously a few days before delivery.
“Elephant pregnancy is long and the end point is difficult to predict more than a fewdays in advance,” said zoo research associate Heather Velonis, a graduate student in biology at Portland State University. “But if we can identify specific, predictable behaviors that indicate when an elephant will give birth, we might be able to have two weeks’ notice instead of two days.”
Velonis, with the help of zoo conservation research associate Karen Lewis and zoo volunteers, is looking to turn the guessing game into a science. By carefully observing Rose-Tu in the weeks leading up to birth, researchers are seeking behavioral clues that might enable them to accurately predict the date ahead of time.
Velonis and a team of trained observers are collecting data for 30 minutes at a time, four times a day, seven days a week, based on an ethogram — a checklist of specific behaviors. For example, Rose-Tu might stay away from the other elephants in the herd, swing her tail more often, or drink less water than usual. She might throw dust at her belly, lie down, place her trunk in her mouth more frequently, or freeze in an awkward position, then release. Elephant keepers have observed all of these behaviors through the years, but until now they’ve just been part of the anecdotal record.
Lewis initiated the current study in 2008 when Rose-Tu was pregnant with Samudra. Researchers are also collaborating with the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, where three elephants have given birth since 2008. Velonis plans to write up the results of these five births for her master’s thesis and for publication in a scientific journal.
The Oregon Zoo’s string of successful elephant births — more than 25 since the early 1960s — has played a key role in establishing what is already known about elephant gestation. The zoo’s most famous elephant, Packy, was born in 1962 — the first successful elephant birth in the Western Hemisphere in nearly 44 years. At the time, the pregnancy of Packy’s mother, Belle, was a huge milestone for zoos.
“We’ve come a long way,” Lewis said. “When Packy was born, nobody knew how long an elephant pregnancy lasted or what signs to look for. The zoo’s veterinarian at the time, Matthew Maberry, spent three months sleeping in the elephant house.”
By observing Belle, Dr. Maberry and the zoo’s elephant keepers were able to calculate the length of gestation, which to that point had been an unknown. After Packy’s birth, 14 more elephants were born at the Oregon Zoo over the next dozen years — no other zoos had elephant births during this period — and “Doc Maberry,” as he was popularly known, developed an excellent eye for predicting due dates. The zoo learned a lot about new calf development and maternal care and shared this important information with other zoos, which began to see their own elephant calves from 1975 onward.
The Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its successful breeding program for Asian elephants, which has now spanned 50 years. Rose-Tu’s mother, Me-Tu, was the second elephant born at the zoo (just months after Packy in 1962), and her grandmother, Rosy, was the first elephant ever to live in Oregon.
Asian elephants are considered highly endangered in their range countries, threatened by habitat loss and conflict with humans. It is estimated that only 40,000 to 50,000 remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo.
The Oregon Zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, whose species survival plan for Asian elephants is striving to establish a self-sustaining population in North America.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currentlyworking to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and giant pandas. The zoo relies in part on community support through donations to the Oregon Zoo Foundation to undertake these and many other animal welfare, education and sustainability programs.
The zoo opens at 9 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.
General zoo admission is $10.50 (ages 12-64), $9 for seniors (65 and up), $7.50 for children (ages 3-11) and free for those 2 and younger; 25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo’s Future for Wildlife program. A parking fee of $4 per car is also required. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo.org or by calling 503-226-1561.
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Definition of de Lange syndrome
de Lange syndrome: Is a rare genetic disorder with multiple malformations and mental retardation of unknown origin.
de Lange syndrome is recognized by the presence of:
The great majority of children with de Lange syndrome have no known family history of the disorder. There are, however, some reports of familial cases. These reports suggest autosomal dominant transmission with a mildly affected parent having a more seriously affected child. The chance is from 2 to 5% that a child whose sib has de Lange syndrome will also have the syndrome.
In familial de Lange syndrome, a gene on chromosome 5 is mutated. The gene is NIPBL (Nipped B-like). It is so named for its counterpart in fruit flies (Nipped B) which look to have a small nip taken out of their wings. In both fruit flies and human beings, the gene appears to be involved in the very early stages of embryonic development. NIPBL contains the information needed to make a protein that helps to switch on a number of other genes.
The syndrome is named for a Dutch physician, de Lange (whose first name was Cornelia). She was professor of pediatrics in Amsterdam. In 1933, Dr. de Lange reported 2 infant girls with mental deficiency and other features now associated with the syndrome.
The syndrome is also called the Brachmann-de Lange syndrome, thanks to Dr. John Opitz who has recounted that: "In the fall of 1963...the former head of the...Libraries, came to ask my advice on what to do with a series of volumes of the Jahrbuch fur Kinderheilkunde, which had been damaged...by a burst water pipe. In particular, she was upset by volume 84, dated 1916, the pages of which were completely glued together except for one place, the article beginning on p. 225. I was startled to find out that here was an article on the Cornelia de Lange syndrome written 17 years before de Lange's first paper of 1933. The author, Dr. W. Brachmann, whose subsequent fate is unknown to me, was then a young physician in training, who apologized that his study of this remarkable case was interrupted by sudden orders to report for active duty (in the German Army)."
Last Editorial Review: 9/20/2012
Back to MedTerms online medical dictionary A-Z List
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This publication aims to assist anyone caring for children, in home day care situations or within child care organisations, and healthcare professionals in controlling the spread of childhood infections. It is a useful resource for Child Care Accreditation courses in Australia.
Infections with or without illness are common in children. Spending time in child care centres or other facilities and being exposed to a large number of children for some time provides an opportunity for infectious diseases to be spread. It is not possible to prevent the spread of all infections and illnesses within child care centres, however a lot of illnesses from infectious disease can be prevented. When children spend time in child care or other facilities they are exposed to a large number of other children, increasing the opportunity for the spread of infectious diseases.
Staying Healthy in Child Care provides simple and effective methods for minimising the spread of infections for many common childhood diseases encountered in child care organisations and the home.
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Feed the Future is the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative. When the global food crisis hit in 2007-2008, the government responded by investing $1.5 billion of foreign aid in food and other immediate humanitarian needs. At the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy in July 2009, leaders from around the world compacted to "act with the scale and urgency needed to achieve sustainable global food security." As part of this global commitment, the U.S. responded by reenergizing its commitment to agricultural development.
U.S. President Barack Obama created Feed the Future and pledged over $3.5 billion for agricultural development and food security in food insecure regions around the world. This U.S. commitment sparked an additional $18.5 billion from other donors. Led by the U.S. Agency for International Aid, Feed the Future partners with many U.S. government agencies and countries. Feed the Future focuses on 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (20 worldwide) based on five criteria: level of need; opportunity for partnership; potential for agricultural growth; opportunity for regional synergy; and resource availability.
Visit the Feed the Future website.
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Mesa Verde Cliff Palace (top) and The Castle at HovenweepExcept for the distant cry of a raven, there were only the soft sounds of my children, a friend and I peeling and munching on orange slices. It was noontime and we were squatting under the cottonwoods in a ravine beneath The Castle, an exquisitely constructed silo-like structure of sandstone at Hovenweep, a cluster of Anasazi ruins in the Utah desert. The trees offered the only shade for many miles around.
(PORTIONS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 2008)
Hovenweep was the northernmost advance of the Anasazi, or Ancient Puebloans to use the politically correct term.
Why these people, whose origins have been traced to Mexico in about 1,200 BC, migrated north onto the Colorado Plateau -- present day Arizona, Colorado and Utah -- is barely understood. But it is their sudden disappearance about 700 years ago, leaving Hovenweep (which means "deserted valley" in the Piute-Ute languages) and other contiguous "cities" abandoned and much as they looked when we passed the heat of the day in that ravine, that remains the most enduring mystery of the Southwestern U.S.
* * * * *I was reminded of my trip to Hovenweep and other treks to other ruins in other years by a New York Times story.
The Anasazi's distinctive salado polychrome pottery (gorgeous black and red markings on white) and sandstone architecture (subterranean kivas with central hearths and spirit holes, above ground silo-like structures, meeting halls and plazas) have been exhaustively studied. But the mystery of the Anasazi's disappearance seems no closer to being solved than when cowboys Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason became the first white men to spot the ruins of the magnificent Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde in 1888 when they became lost while looking for their cattle.
There is speculation aplenty about what happened to the Anasazi.
The old favorites are a killer drought or mini ice age, but these have pretty much fallen out of favor as the complexity of Anasazi society has become better It is obvious that these people almost certainly would have adapted to severe climate changes as they had in the past.
More contemporary explanations involve warfare and most controversially, cannibalism.
* * * * *On another trip, I spend a day with an archaeologist walking the country around Sand Canyon Pueblo near Mesa Verde. As in slowly walking because the temperature broke 100 degrees by 9 a.m. and kept climbing.
The archaeologist patiently explained to me how to adjust my eyes to see not just the jumble of rocks and other rubble, but to spot pottery shards and traces of the small kivas that once dotted the area. It took a while, but I soon was overwhelmed by all the traces of the long-disappeared Anasazi arrayed before me, including the remains of two pretty good sized kivas.
An explore of a shallow cave on the way back to my friend's ranch later in the day yielded two startling discoveries: An ancient pictograph etched into the far wall and an empty pizza box of more recent vintage.
As the Times story notes, archaeologists now believe that the residents of Sand Canyon originally farmed maize and raised domesticated turkeys, but as drought overtook the region they turned to hunting and gathering and then warfare.
Some archaeologists now say that it is apparent that these villagers were killed, dismembered and possibly eaten, although the latter is so insulting to Native Americans that I was scolded when I mentioned the possibility of cannibalism in a conversation with some Utes.
These peoples have yet to tell all of their many-faceted stories about the Ancient Ones, while it has only been in the relatively recent past that scientists have begun to look beyond the physical dimension of archaeological digs and see these people as deep thinkers and not merely ape-like primitives.
So my own solution to the mystery has gained some favor: The Anasazi were a profoundly spiritual people. They received a message that it was time to move on. And did.
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Definition of division :
1. A course of notes so running into each other as to form one series or chain, to be sung in one breath to one syllable.
2. A grade or rank in classification; a portion of a tribe or of a class; or, in some recent authorities, equivalent to a subkingdom.
3. Difference of condition; state of distinction; distinction; contrast.
4. Disunion; difference in opinion or feeling; discord; variance; alienation.
5. One of the groups into which a fleet is divided.
6. One of the larger districts into which a country is divided for administering military affairs.
7. Separation of the members of a deliberative body, esp. of the Houses of Parliament, to ascertain the vote.
8. That which divides or keeps apart; a partition.
9. The act or process of diving anything into parts, or the state of being so divided; separation.
10. The distribution of a discourse into parts; a part so distinguished.
11. The portion separated by the divining of a mass or body; a distinct segment or section.
12. The process of finding how many times one number or quantity is contained in another; the reverse of multiplication; also, the rule by which the operation is performed.
13. The separation of a genus into its constituent species.
14. Two companies of infantry maneuvering as one subdivision of a battalion.
15. Two or more brigades under the command of a general officer.
voice, disseverment, department, partitioning, fragment, year, autopsy, affiliate, boundary, fracture, variability, atom, character, instalment, column, particle, verse, form, contrasting, commune, segmentation, moiety, variant, paragraph, component part, unit, category, passage, cutting, offshoot, divergence, classification, chapter, theatrical role, line, schism, disjuncture, disunion, wedge, naval division, discussion section, role, caste, distribution, social class, divider, office, discrepancy, severance, component, lobe, breaking, scene, disagreement, phrase, bishopric, fission, family, variableness, reduction, breakdown, ramification, distinction, dispute, constituent, variation, ingredient, organ, apartment, sectionalisation, parceling, selection, constituency, demarcation, parish, sharing, divergency, clause, divorcement, distinguishing, admeasurement, grade, collect, agency, course of study, dominion, contribution, plane section, stratum, dissension, air division, class, episode, persona, arm, course, act, degree, front, village, barrier, element, township, diagnosis, ward, parting, disseverance, function, movement, subsidiary, socio-economic class, lump, surgical incision, book, sort, splitting, section, assemble, sectionalization, variance, analysis, course of instruction, race, prelacy, kind, range
bisection (part of speech: noun)
disjunction (part of speech: noun)
disengagement, split, fissure, dissection, partition, disarticulation, amputation, disunity, disassembly, bisection, divorce, cleavage, disassociation, break, part, rent, slice, cut, incision, disintegration, disconnection
separation (part of speech: noun)
crew (part of speech: noun)
coterie, herd, force, detachment, detail, troop, posse, fellowship, cell, retinue, litter, flock, fleet, bunch, collection, wing, band, complement, battalion, crowd, fraternity, group, sect, team, caucus, society, crew, union, coalition, assemblage, outfit, party, pack, junta, club, school, circle, regiment, nest, platoon, hive, phalanx, army, set, string, company, gang, tribe, covey, league, faction, body, ring, staff, host, cadre, aggregation, brigade, drove, mob, bevy, troupe, cabal, clique, clan, assembly, squad, colony
allotment (part of speech: noun)
commission, segment, allowance, measure, lot, quota, chunk, apportionment, quantum, allocation, portion, parcel, piece, allotment, stipend, share, proportion, stake, percentage, budget, assignment, ration, dispensation
alienation (part of speech: noun)
region (part of speech: noun)
nation, precinct, area, province, locality, territory, duchy, district, borough, earldom, neighborhood, dukedom, field, kingdom, Shire, region, empire, commonweal, tract, town, domain, bailiwick, state, beat, circuit, canton, riding, municipality, realm, county, country, place, city, quarter
calculation (part of speech: noun)
estimation, statistics, calculation, gauge, thought, approximation, value, conclusion, judgement, mathematics, tally, evaluation, account, supposition, presumption, consideration, rank, assessment, arithmetic, method, computation, schedule, appraisal, program, study, plot, enumeration, system, calculus, quantification, score, inference, algorithm, guess, multiplication, sum, count, plan, reckoning, valuation, deduction, triangulation, determination, algebra, scheme, measurement, total
portion (part of speech: noun)
- Whatever might be the result for others, they themselves had nothing to suffer from this division. - "Stories from Tagore", Rabindranath Tagore.
- Another division went to the east of the Katberg and the third to the west of the Didima; then the three bodies moved towards each other in open order. - "By Veldt and Kopje", William Charles Scully.
- I have no time to enter into detail, but I regard this division as a most remarkable fulfilment of the prophetic word. - "Rome, Turkey and Jerusalem", Edward Hoare.
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Children born in the United States are known as “natural born citizens.” Under the 14th Amendment, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States.” Natural born citizens of the United States receive a birth certificate upon their birth, which provides proof of citizenship. Copies of a birth certificate may be requested through the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the state in which the citizen was born.
What is Considered Part of the United States?
The term “in the United States,” in terms of geography, means all 50 states of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Island, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Those born in America Samoa or Swain Island are considered U.S. Nationals and not U.S. Citizens. For more information on U.S. National Status, please click here. Additionally, children born in the internal waters and territorial seas of the United States are considered to have been born in the United States. This includes:
Any sea within 12 nautical miles of the United States
United States airspace is also categorized as part of the United States if it is situated above the United States, its internal waters, or its territorial seas. Proving birth in U.S. internal waters or U.S. airspace requires documentation of the birth through a vessel’s medical log or the master/captain’s log which should specify the time of birth as well as the location of the vessel when the birth occurred. If the vessel is bound for the United States, the parents of the child are responsible for reporting the birth to civil authorities and presenting documentation to U.S. Customs and Border protection.
All persons born in the United States who are members of a Native American, Eskimo, or other indigenous tribe are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth.
A child of unknown parents found in the United States is presumed to be a citizen of the United States until proven otherwise.
Contrary to popular belief, persons born in U.S. registered vessels or aircraft outside of U.S. airspace or internal waters do not automatically acquire U.S. citizenship. U.S. registered vessels in Exclusive Economic Zones or on the high seas are not considered to be part of the U.S. U.S. registered aircraft outside of United States airspace is also not considered part of the U.S. Children born on U.S. military bases abroad or on the premises of a U.S. embassy or consulate also do not gain automatic citizenship as neither of these are part of the United States according to the 14th Amendment. Persons born in vessels or aircraft belonging to a foreign state are outside of the jurisdiction of the United States and do not acquire U.S. citizenship automatically. Hypothetically, if the United States were invaded, children born to enemy aliens on occupied United States soil would not gain U.S. citizenship.
Birth to United States Citizen(s) Abroad
If a child is born to a U.S. citizen parent or parents outside of the United States, the child’s birth should be reported to a United States consulate or embassy as soon as possible to avoid complications in granting U.S. citizenship to the child. Children born abroad will receive a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) which documents the child’s birth in a foreign country and also certifies the child’s U.S. citizenship. The CRBA functions much like a United States birth certificate.
The process for the acquisition of U.S. citizenship by a child born abroad depends on the immigration and civil statuses of the parent or parents of the child. A child born to two U.S. citizen parents in wedlock need only prove that one of the parents has a permanent residence in the United States prior to the birth. Registering the birth in order to attain a CRBA will require the following documents:
Form DS-2029 Application for Consular Report of Birth Abroad for a Citizen of the United States of America. Both parents must complete the entire form which is to be signed at the consular office or embassy.
A color passport photograph of the child. Must be on white background and have a frontal view of the child.
Proof of Citizenship for the U.S. citizen parent(s). A passport should suffice for documentation. If the parent is not in the foreign country, a notarized copy of his or her U.S. passport should be submitted to the consulate or embassy.
Identification. Both parents should bring a valid passport of government issued ID or a notarized copy of an ID if one of the parents is unable to attend the interview.
Birth Certificate of the Child. The parents must provide the original government issued birth certificate for the child. Birth certificates from the hospital will be rejected.
Original Marriage Documentation
Evidence of Physical Presence in the United States. This can include a passport showing entry and exit to and from the United States. Other ways to show physical presence include: pay stubs, transcripts from an educational institution, or medical records.
CRBA processing fee of $100.
It is also advisable that the child apply for a U.S. passport. This includes an additional $105 fee, completed DS-11 Application for a U.S. Passport and DS-3053 Parental Consent Form.
Birth to a U.S. Citizen and Alien Parent in Wedlock
Assuming the U.S. citizenship parent is genetically related to the child, the parent must establish that he or she was present in the United States for at least 5 years, at least two of which must be after the age of 14.
Birth to a U.S. Citizen Mother Abroad Born Out-of-Wedlock
In this case, the mother only needs to establish that she was physically present in the United States continuously for 1 year prior to giving birth abroad. Of course, the mother must be genetically related to the child in order for the child to receive U.S. Citizenship.
Birth to a U.S. Citizen Father Born Out-of-Wedlock
Under Section 301(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a child born out-of-wedlock to a U.S. citizen father may gain U.S. citizenship if:
There is clear and convincing evidence of a blood-relationship between the child and father. The most common way is to establish paternity through a DNA test;
The father establishes that he was physically present in the United States for at least 5 years, two of which must be after the age of 14;
The father had the nationality of the United States at the time of the child’s birth;
The father agrees, in writing, to provide financial support for the child until he or she reaches legal adulthood at 18 years of age; and
While the child is under 18
Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Abroad
In order for a child to acquire United States citizenship abroad, he or she must have a biological connection to the U.S. citizen parent or parents. In the case of a U.S. citizen acting as a surrogate parent abroad, the child will only be eligible to acquire U.S. citizenship at birth if a U.S. citizen donated the egg or sperm. If a U.S. citizen acts as a surrogate mother for a child with donors who are not U.S. citizens, that child will not be a U.S. citizen at birth. The best way to establish a biological connection between the child and parents to determine potential citizenship acquisition is to perform a DNA test after the child is born. Laws surrounding surrogacy vary by country; it may be helpful to consult with an immigration attorney before becoming a surrogate mother.
(Updated 10/3/2012 by AG)
For more information on citizenship, please click one of the links below:
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Bandits and Loopholes
The Bush administration credits its tax bill for spurring economic recovery, though if you include the debt these big spenders have racked up, the net cost of government to the American taxpayer has vastly increased during the Bush presidency. And like all previous cases of GOP tax reductions, the same administration is sneakily doing what it otherwise says it opposes in principle: increasing taxes—some $45 billion over ten years.
What is the rationale for this apparent departure from the main rhetoric of the Bush presidency? The usual: it is not raising taxes, they say, and they point to the tax rates to prove it. Instead, they are merely closing loopholes. The effect is the same, however. Taxes that people didn't pay in the past, they will be paying in the future. Call it what you want, but in the history of political economy, this is usually called a tax increase.
What is a loophole? For the criminal mind, the lock on your door, the combination code on your safe, and the weapon you keep for protection are all loopholes you use to escape the work he wants to do. If he had his way, all these loopholes that permit you to maintain privacy and security would be closed forthwith. The result for him would be vastly more revenue.
So it is with government and tax loopholes. No government can possibly get away with taxing you as much as it would like. No people will put up with a complete fleecing, and so people are always trying to find ways to keep more of what they earn. The customary compromise is the loophole, which is to say, provisions of law that allow people to keep a bit more of their own property than they would otherwise be paying with a tax applicable across the board. Yes, this creates complexity, just as safes and locks do, but it is better than the alternative.
Loopholes come about through the pleading of property owners who dare to suggest that there is merit to keeping private property safe from the grasping hand of power. The campaign against loopholes, meanwhile, presumes that all property belongs to the government. The attempt to repeal them is usually done in the name of cracking down on the rich, or tax simplification ("let's keep this simple," said the mugger), or imposing a flat tax.
Let us count the ways.
- Fleece citizens with foreign income. Currently, certain provisions in the law permit US citizens to claim some credits in income earned abroad, so as to avoid double taxation. The Bush administration is making that impossible for foreign withholding taxes. It also requires a longer timetable on foreign property holdings to make them eligible for credits.
- Crush the tax benefits for leasing transactions. Private owners of local infrastructure currently benefit by leasing their holdings to state and local governments. This has created a boom industry in municipal service leasing. It generates revenue for local governments but the real point is the feds are upset that they are losing out. The Bush administration wants to get rid of the tax benefit solely for the purpose of feeding more cash to the central state.
- Not all forms of contracting and leasing are being discouraged. If you run a collections agency, the government wants to use your services to nail people who owe the government money. This is the worst and most corrupt form of privatization, akin to the tax farming that led to the overthrow of governments in the ancient world and is so frequently labeled sinful in the Bible.
- Hammer in-kind charitable donations. People commonly give cars, houses, land, patents, and other kinds of gifts, to their churches or other nonprofit organizations. It is up to the donor to place a value on the property for tax purposes, and this has long been an audit flag. The Bush administration claims people are overvaluing their gifts, and wants to impose new appraisal requirements, and even limit the amount that can be claimed as a charitable contribution. This can only result in discouraging giving.
- Put the screws to casualty insurance companies. Certain kinds of small casualty insurance companies are not subject to federal income tax. The government believes some people have actually set up these companies solely to avoid taxation. Imagine that! Except that the whole reason for the exemption was precisely to encourage this. Nonetheless, the government is cracking down. You had better have a darn good reason for any involvement in the casualty insurance racket.
- Under the college savings plan, tax benefits were permitted to allow people to save for their kids. But the government believes people are abusing this through a variety of measures that permit the name of the beneficiary to change. A few dimes might be falling through the cracks, and we can't have that. The Bush administration says it only wants to make the program more "administrable and equitable" but, surprise, it also expects the new equality and efficiency to redirect some clams its way.
- In addition to the immigration problem, the US has an emigration problem, as more and more people renounce citizenship to get away from the tax state. But it's not that easy. As if to remind us that we are all slaves to the state, the Bush administration plans to slap an extra link on the chain of expatriates. To the everlasting disgrace of the
government, it taxes people for a full ten years after they cease being citizens. Some aspects of the law allow people some flexibility and those will be repealed. Also, the government will presume the right to tax you forever until you give explicit notice to the effect that you are no longer a citizen, and once you do this, you can't be in the country for more than 30 days per year, and you must file an annual report. This is especially stinging in light of the proposals to fingerprint law-abiding visitors while granting citizenship to millions of illegal aliens. US
Many provisions are way too complicated to use this space to explain in detail (and your tax attorney will enjoy charging you to explain them anyway), but they include attempts to :
- Tighten the deduction limitation for interest paid to related parties.
- Prevent avoidance of
tax on foreign earnings invested in U.S. property. U.S.
- Curb "frivolous" returns and submissions.
- Terminate installment agreements when taxpayers fail to file returns or make tax deposits.
At the same time it is eliminating some loopholes, it is creating more in an attempt to encourage more use of the Earned Income Tax Credit and boost adoptions. No doubt that at some point in the future, some administration will express shock that more people are taking advantage of these to avoid taxation, and then close these loopholes too. In this way, the government treats us all like Pavlovian dogs they can feed and starve to get us to behave a certain way, while the psychiatrist keeps changing his mind.
To add the final insult to this litany of injury, the Bush administration is proposing a huge range of new penalties for failing to comply, and giving the federal collection bureau a big 4.8% raise in one year to make sure not a single nickel is lost.
Do you see what is happening here? The Bush administration came to town impressed that they had the whole of a nation's wealth at their disposal, and went on a mad spending spree: war, welfare, yippee! Reality caught up to these bandits when the debt and deficit figures began to explode. But rather than blame themselves, they have taken aim at the taxpayers, who they claim are not forking over enough. Loopholes are the cause of the budget calamity, they say.
We'll know we have a president who cares for the public interest when loopholes are praised and expanded. As Murray Rothbard said, we would all be better off if the entire tax code were one big loophole. To close them is to do precisely what we should always expect government to do with its insatiable appetite for other people's money.
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The killer whale (Orcinus orca), commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas. Killer whales as a species have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. Some feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals such as sea lions, seals, walruses and even large whales. Killer whales are regarded as apex predators, lacking natural predators and preying on even large sharks.
Killer whales are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species. Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviors, which are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, have been described as manifestations of culture.
The IUCN currently assesses the orca's conservation status as data deficient because of the likelihood that one or more killer whale types are separate species. Some local populations are considered threatened or endangered due to prey depletion, habitat loss, pollution (by PCBs), capture for marine mammal parks, and conflicts with fisheries. In late 2005, the killer whales known as the "southern resident killer whales" were placed on the U.S. Endangered Species list.
Wild killer whales are not considered a threat to humans, although there have been cases of captives killing or injuring their handlers at marine theme parks. Killer whales feature strongly in the mythologies of indigenous cultures, with their reputation ranging from being the souls of humans to merciless killers.
Taxonomy and evolution
Orcinus orca is the only recognized extant species in the genus Orcinus, one of many animal species originally described by Linnaeus in 1758 in Systema Naturae. Konrad Gessner wrote the first scientific description of a killer whale in his "Fish book" of 1558, based on examination of a dead stranded animal in the Bay of Greifswald that had attracted a great deal of local interest.
The killer whale is one of 35 species in the oceanic dolphin family, which first appeared about 11 million years ago. The killer whale lineage probably branched off shortly thereafter. Although it has morphological similarities with the pygmy killer whale, the false killer whale and the pilot whales, a study of cytochrome b gene sequences by Richard LeDuc indicated that its closest extant relatives are the snubfin dolphins of the genus Orcaella.
English-speaking scientists most often use the term killer whale, although the term orca is increasingly used. Killer whale advocates point out that it has a long heritage. Indeed, the genus name Orcinus means "of the kingdom of the dead", or "belonging to Orcus." Ancient Romans originally applied orca (plural orcae) to these animals, possibly borrowing it from the Greek ὄρυξ, which referred (among other things) to a whale species. Since the 1960s, orca has steadily grown in popularity; both names are now used. The term orca is preferred by some to avoid the negative connotations of "killer", and because, being part of the family Delphinidae, the species is more closely related to other dolphins than to whales.
They are sometimes referred to as blackfish, a name used for some whale species as well. Grampus is a former name for the species, but is now seldom used. This meaning of grampus should not be confused with the Grampus genus, whose only member is Risso's Dolphin.
There are three to five types of killer whales that may be distinct enough to be considered different races, subspecies, or possibly even species. The IUCN reported in 2008, "The taxonomy of this genus is clearly in need of review, and it is likely that O. orca will be split into a number of different species or at least subspecies over the next few years." In the 1970s and 1980s, research off the west coast of Canada and the United States identified the following three types:
- Resident: These are the most commonly sighted of the three populations in the coastal waters of the northeast Pacific. Residents' diet consists primarily of fish and sometimes squid, and they live in complex and cohesive family groups called pods. Female residents characteristically have a rounded dorsal fin tip that terminates in a sharp corner. They visit the same areas consistently. British Columbia and Washington resident populations are amongst the most-intensively studied marine mammals. Researchers have identified and named over 300 killer whales over the past 30 years.
- Transient: The diet of these whales consists almost exclusively of marine mammals; they do not eat fish. Transients generally travel in small groups, usually of two to six animals, and have less persistent family bonds than residents. Transients vocalize in less variable and less complex dialects. Female transients are characterized by more triangular and pointed dorsal fins than those of residents. The gray or white area around the dorsal fin, known as the "saddle patch", often contains some black colouring in residents. However, the saddle patches of transients are solid and uniformly gray. Transients roam widely along the coast; some individuals have been sighted in both southern Alaska and California.
- Offshore: A third population of killer whales in the northeast Pacific was discovered in 1988, when a humpback whale researcher observed them in open water. As their name suggests, they travel far from shore and feed primarily on schooling fish. However, because of the large, scarred and nicked dorsal fins resembling those of mammal-hunting transients, they may also eat mammals and sharks. They have mostly been encountered off the west coast of Vancouver Island and near the Queen Charlotte Islands. Offshores typically congregate in groups of 20–75, with occasional sightings of larger groups of up to 200. Currently, little is known about their habits, but they are genetically distinct from residents and transients. Offshores appear to be smaller than the others, and females are characterized by dorsal fin tips that are continuously rounded.
Transients and residents live in the same areas, but avoid each other. The name "transient" originated from the belief that these killer whales were outcasts from larger resident pods. Researchers later discovered transients are not born into resident pods or vice-versa. The evolutionary split between the two groups is believed to have begun two million years ago. Genetic data indicates that the types have not interbred for up to 10,000 years.
Other populations have not been as well studied, although specialized fish-eating and mammal-eating killer whales have been distinguished elsewhere. Separate populations of fish-eating and mammal-eating killer whales have been identified around the United Kingdom. Fish-eating killer whales in Alaska and Norway have resident-like social structures, while mammal-eating killer whales in Argentina and the Crozet Islands behave more like transients.
Three types have been documented in the Antarctic. Two dwarf species, named Orcinus nanus and Orcinus glacialis, were described during the 1980s by Soviet researchers, but most cetacean researchers are skeptical about their status, and it is difficult to link these directly to the types described below.
- Type A looks like a "typical" killer whale, a large, black and white form with a medium-sized white eye patch, living in open water and feeding mostly on minke whales.
- Type B is smaller than Type A. It has a large white eye patch. Most of the dark parts of its body are medium gray instead of black, although it has a dark gray patch called a "dorsal cape" stretching back from its forehead to just behind its dorsal fin. The white areas are stained slightly yellow. It feeds mostly on seals.
- Type C is the smallest type and lives in larger groups than the others. Its eye patch is distinctively slanted forwards, rather than parallel to the body axis. Like Type B, it is primarily white and medium gray, with a dark gray dorsal cape and yellow-tinged patches. Its only observed prey is the Antarctic Cod.
- Type D was identified based on photographs of a 1955 mass stranding in New Zealand and six at-sea sightings since 2004. Immediately recognizable by its extremely small white eye patch, shorter than usual dorsal fin, and bulbous head (similar to a pilot whale). Its geographic range appears to be circumglobal in subantarctic waters between latitudes 40°S and 60°S. And although nothing is known about the Type D diet, it is suspected to include fish because groups have been photographed around longline vessels where they reportedly depredate Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides).
Types B and C live close to the ice pack, and diatoms in these waters may be responsible for the yellowish coloring of both types. Mitochondrial DNA sequences support the theory that these are separate species that have recently diverged. More recently, complete mitochondrial sequencing indicates that the two Antarctic groups that eat seals and fish should be recognized as distinct species, as should the North Pacific transients, leaving the others as subspecies pending additional data.
Research is ongoing into the genetic relationships among killer whale types, and whether the types that have been identified represent deep evolutionary trends. For example, it was long thought that mammal-eating killer whales were likely to be closely related to other mammal-eating killer whales from different regions, but genetic testing refuted this hypothesis.
Killer whales distinctively bear a black back, white chest and sides, and a white patch above and behind the eye. Calves are born with a yellowish or orange tint, which fades to white. Killer whales have a heavy and robust body (more so than other dolphins) and a large dorsal fin up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall. Behind the fin, they have a dark grey "saddle patch" across the back. Antarctic killer whales may have pale grey to nearly white backs. Adult killer whales are very distinctive and are not usually confused with any other sea creature. When seen from a distance, juveniles can be confused with other cetacean species such as the false killer whale or Risso's dolphin. The killer whale's teeth are very strong and covered in enamel. Its jaws are a powerful gripping apparatus, as the upper teeth fall into the gaps between the lower teeth when the mouth is closed. The front teeth are inclined slightly forward and outward, thus allowing the killer whale to withstand powerful jerking movements from its prey while the middle and back teeth hold it firmly in place.
Killer whales are the largest extant members of the dolphin family. Males typically range from 6 to 8 metres (20–26 ft) long and weigh in excess of 6 tonnes (5.9 long tons; 6.6 short tons). Females are smaller, generally ranging from 5 to 7 metres (16–23 ft) and weighing about 3 to 4 tonnes (3.0 to 3.9 long tons; 3.3 to 4.4 short tons). The largest male killer whale on record was 9.8 metres (32 ft), weighing over 10 tonnes (9.8 long tons; 11 short tons), while the largest female was 8.5 metres (28 ft), weighing 7.5 tonnes (7.4 long tons; 8.3 short tons). Calves at birth weigh about 180 kilograms (400 lb) and are about 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) long. The killer whale's large size and strength make it among the fastest marine mammals, able to reach speeds in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h). The killer whale's integument, unlike that of most other dolphin species, is characterised by a well-developed dermal layer with a dense network of fascicles of collagen fibers.
Killer whale pectoral fins are large and rounded, resembling paddles. Males have significantly larger pectoral fins than females. At about 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) the male's dorsal fin is more than twice the size of the female's and is more of a triangular shape—a tall, elongated isosceles triangle—whereas hers is shorter and more curved. Males and females also have different patterns of black and white skin in the genital area. Sexual dimorphism is also apparent in the skull; adult males have a longer lower jaw than females, and have a larger occipital crest.
Individual killer whales can often be identified from the dorsal fin and saddle patch. Variations such as nicks, scratches, and tears on the dorsal fin and the pattern of white or grey in the saddle patch are unique. Published directories contain identifying photographs and names for hundreds of North Pacific animals. Photo identification has enabled the local population of killer whales to be counted each year rather than estimated and has enabled great insight into lifecycles and social structures.
White killer whales occur sporadically among normal killer whales, but are rare. They have been spotted in the northern Bering Sea and around St. Lawrence Island, and near the Russian coast. In February 2008, a white killer whale was photographed 2 miles (3.2 km) off Kanaga Volcano.
Killer whales have good eyesight above and below the water, excellent hearing, and a good sense of touch. They have exceptionally sophisticated echolocation abilities, detecting the location and characteristics of prey and other objects in their environment by emitting clicks and listening for echoes.
Female killer whales mature at around age 15. They then have periods of polyestrous cycling with non-cycling periods of between 3 and 16 months. Gestation varies from 15 to 18 months. Mothers calve, with usually a single offspring, about once every 5 years. In resident pods, birth occurs at any time of year, although winter is the most popular. Mortality is extremely high during the first six to seven months of life, when 37–50% of all calves die. Weaning begins at about 12 months and completes by the age of two. According to observations in several regions, all male and female killer whale pod members participate in the care of the young. Killer Whales and Pilot whales are the only species in which the females go through menopause and live for decades after they have finished breeding. Killer whales are unique among cetaceans, as their heads become shorter as they age.
Females breed until age 40, meaning that on average they raise five offspring. The lifespan of wild females averages 50 years, with a maximum of 80–90 years. Males sexually mature at the age of 15 but do not typically reproduce until age 21. Wild males live around 29 years on average, with a maximum of 50–60 years. One male, known as Old Tom, was reportedly spotted every winter between the 1840s and 1930 off New South Wales, Australia. This would have made him up to 90 years old. Examination of his teeth indicated he died around age 35, but this method of age determination is now believed to be inaccurate for older animals. One male well known to researchers in the Pacific Northwest called Ruffles (J1) is estimated to have been born in 1951, making him 58 years old in 2009. Captive killer whale lifespans are typically significantly shorter, usually less than 25 years; however, numerous individuals are alive in their thirties, and a few have reached their 40s. In many instances, the lifespans of killer whales depend on the will of the animal.
Range and habitat
Killer whales are found in all oceans and most seas. Due to their enormous range, numbers and density, distributional estimates are difficult to compare, but they clearly prefer higher latitudes and coastal areas over pelagic environments.
Systematic surveys indicate the highest densities of killer whales (>0.40 individuals per 100 km²) in the northeast Atlantic around the Norwegian coast, in the north Pacific along the Aleutian Islands, the Gulf of Alaska and in the Southern Ocean off much of the coast of Antarctica. They are considered "common" (0.20–0.40 individuals per 100 km²) in the eastern Pacific along the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, in the North Atlantic Ocean around Iceland and the Faroe Islands. High densities have also been reported but not quantified in the western North Pacific around the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, Kuril Islands, Kamchatka and the Commander Islands and in the southern hemisphere off the coasts of South Australia, Patagonia, off the coast of southern Brazil and the tip of southern Africa. They are reported as seasonally common in the Canadian Arctic, including Baffin Bay between Greenland and Nunavut, and around Tasmania and Macquarie Island. Information for offshore regions and tropical waters is more scarce, but widespread, if not frequent, sightings indicate that the killer whale can survive in most water temperatures. There have been sightings, for example, in the Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean around the Seychelles.
Probably the largest population lives in Antarctic waters, where they range up to the edge of the pack ice and are believed to venture into the denser pack ice, finding open leads much like beluga whales in the Arctic. In contrast, killer whales are seasonal summer visitors to Arctic waters, where they do not approach the ice pack. With the rapid Arctic sea ice decline in the Hudson Strait, their range now extends deep into the northwest Atlantic.
Migration patterns are poorly understood. Each summer, the same individuals appear off the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State. Despite decades of research, where these animals go for the rest of the year remains unknown. Transient pods have been sighted from southern Alaska to central California. Resident killer whales sometimes travel as much as 160 kilometres (100 mi) in a day, but may be seen in a general area for a month or more. Resident killer whale pod ranges vary from 320 to 1,300 kilometres (200 to 810 mi).
Occasionally, killer whales swim into freshwater rivers. They have been documented 100 miles (160 km) up the Columbia River in the United States. They have also been found in the Fraser River in Canada and the Horikawa River in Japan.
Worldwide population estimates are uncertain, but recent consensus suggest an absolute minimum of 50,000. Local estimates include roughly 25,000 in the Antarctic, 8,500 in the tropical Pacific, 2,250–2,700 off the cooler northeast Pacific and 500–1,500 off Norway. Japan's Fisheries Agency estimated there were 2,321 killer whales in the seas around Japan.
Killer whales hunt varied prey; however, different populations/species tend to specialize and some can have a dramatic impact on certain preyed species. For example, some populations in the Norwegian and Greenland sea specialize in herring and follow that fish's autumnal migration to the Norwegian coast. Other populations prey on seals. Salmon account for 96% of northeast Pacific residents' diet. 65% of them are large, fatty Chinook. Chum salmon are also eaten, but smaller sockeye and pink salmon are not a significant food item. Depletion of specific prey species in an area is therefore cause for concern for local populations, despite the high diversity of prey. On average, a killer whale eats 227 kilograms (500 lb) each day.
Fish and other cold-blooded prey
Fish-eating killer whales prey on around 30 species of fish, particularly Chinook, salmon, herring, and tuna. In New Zealand, rays are killer whales' most frequent prey, and they have also been observed hunting sharks (particularly makos, threshers and smooth hammerheads). Squid and sea turtles are also taken.
Killer whales can induce tonic immobility in sharks and rays by holding them upside down, rendering them helpless and incapable of injuring the whale. Some sharks suffocate within about 15 minutes while the whale holds them still, because these sharks need to move to breathe. In one incident filmed near the Farallon Islands, a female killed a 3–4-metre (9.8–13 ft) long great white shark, apparently after swimming with it upside-down in her mouth and inducing tonic immobility in it. She and another pod member ate the shark's liver and allowed the rest of the carcass to sink.
While salmon are usually hunted by an individual or a small group of individuals, herring are often caught using carousel feeding: the killer whales force the herring into a tight ball by releasing bursts of bubbles or flashing their white undersides. They then slap the ball with their tail flukes, either stunning or killing up to 10–15 at a time. The herring are then eaten one at a time. Carousel feeding has only been documented in the Norwegian killer whale population and with some oceanic dolphin species.
Killer whales are very sophisticated and effective predators. Twenty-two cetacean species have been recorded as killer whale prey, from examining either stomach contents, scarring on the prey's body, or feeding activity. Groups even attack larger cetaceans such as minke whales, gray whales, and rarely sperm whales or blue whales.
Hunting large whales usually takes several hours. Killer whales generally choose to attack young or weak animals instead. However, a group of five or more may attack a healthy adult. When hunting a young whale, a group chases it and its mother until they wear out. Eventually they separate the pair and surround the calf, preventing it from surfacing to breathe, drowning it. Pods of female sperm whales sometimes protect themselves by forming a protective circle around their calves with their flukes facing outwards, using them to repel the attackers. Rarely, large killer whale pods can overwhelm even adult female sperm whales. Adult bull sperm whales, which are large, powerful and aggressive when threatened, and fully-grown adult blue whales, who are possibly too large to overwhelm, are not believed to be predated by killer whales.
Other marine mammal prey species include most species of seal, sea lion and fur seal. Walruses and sea otters are less frequently taken. Often, to avoid injury, killer whales disable their prey before killing and eating it. This may involve throwing it in the air, slapping it with their tails, ramming it, or breaching and landing on it. Sea lions are killed by head-butting or after a stunning blow from a tail fluke. In the Aleutian Islands, a decline in sea otter populations in the 1990s was controversially attributed by some scientists to killer whale predation, although there is no direct evidence of this. The decline of sea otters followed a decline in harbour seal and Steller sea lion populations, the killer whale's preferred prey,[Note 1] which in turn may be substitutes for their original prey, now decimated by industrial whaling.
In steeply banked beaches off Península Valdés, Argentina, and the Crozet Islands, killer whales feed on South American sea lions and Southern elephant seals in shallow water, even beaching temporarily to grab prey before wriggling back to the sea. Beaching, usually fatal to cetaceans, is not an instinctive behavior, and can require years of practice for the young.
"Wave-hunting" killer whales spy-hop to locate Weddell seals, Ross seals, crabeater seals and leopard seals resting on ice floes and then swim in groups to create waves that wash over the floe. This washes the seal into the water where another killer whale waits to kill it.
Killer whales have also been observed preying on terrestrial mammals, such as deer and moose swimming between islands off the northwest coast of North America. Killer whale cannibalism has also been reported based on analysis of stomach contents, but this is likely to be the result of scavenging remains dumped by whalers. One killer whale was also attacked by its companions after being shot. Although resident killer whales have never been observed to eat other marine mammals, they occasionally harass and kill porpoises and seals for no apparent reason.
Killer whales in many areas prey on several bird species, including penguins, cormorants and gulls. A captive killer whale at Marineland discovered that it could regurgitate fish onto the surface, attracting sea gulls, and then eat the birds. Four other killer whales then learned to copy the behavior.
Day-to-day killer whale behavior generally consists of foraging, travelling, resting and socializing. Killer whales are frequently active at the surface, engaging in acrobatic behaviors such as breaching, spyhopping, and tail-slapping. These activities may have a variety of purposes, such as courtship, communication, dislodging parasites, or play. Spyhopping, a behaviour in which a whale holds its head above water, helps the animal view its surroundings.
Killer whales are notable for their complex societies. Only elephants and higher primates, such as humans, live in comparably complex social structures. Due to orcas' complex social bonds and society, many marine experts have concerns about how humane it is to keep these animals in captive situations. Resident killer whales in the eastern North Pacific have a particularly complex and stable social grouping system. Unlike any other mammal species whose social structure is known, residents live with their mothers for their entire lives. These societies are based on matrilines consisting of the matriarch and her descendants who form part of the line, as do their descendants. The average size of a matriline is 5.5 animals.
Because females can reach age 90, as many as four generations travel together. These matrilineal groups are highly stable. Individuals separate for only a few hours at a time, to mate or forage. With one exception, the killer whale named Luna, no permanent separation of an individual from a resident matriline has been recorded.
Closely related matrilines form loose aggregations called pods, usually consisting of one to four matrilines. Unlike matrilines, pods may separate for weeks or months at a time. DNA testing indicates that resident males nearly always mate with females from other pods.
Clans are the next level of resident social structure, and are composed of pods with similar dialects and common but older maternal heritage. Clan ranges overlap, mingling pods from different clans.
The final association layer, perhaps more arbitrarily defined than the familial groupings, is called the community and is defined as a set of clans that regularly commingle. Clans within a community do not share vocal patterns.[Note 2]
Transient pods are smaller than resident pods, typically consisting of an adult female and one or two of her offspring. Males typically maintain stronger relationships with their mothers than females. These bonds can extend well into adulthood. Unlike residents, extended or permanent separation of transient offspring from natal matrilines is common, with juveniles and adults of both sexes participating. Some males become “rovers” and do not form long-term associations, occasionally joining groups that contain reproductive females. As in resident clans, transient community members share an acoustic repertoire, although regional differences in vocalizations have been noted.
|Multimedia relating to the Orca|
Like all cetaceans, killer whales depend heavily on underwater sound for orientation, feeding, and communication. Killer whales produce three categories of sounds: clicks, whistles, and pulsed calls. Clicks are believed to be used primarily for navigation and discriminating prey and other objects in the surrounding environment, but are also commonly heard during social interactions.
Northeast Pacific resident groups tend to be much more vocal than transient groups in the same waters. Residents feed primarily on salmon, whose hearing is too poor to detect killer whale calls at any relevant distance. Residents make sounds to identify themselves when they approach another marine mammal.
Transient are typically silent probably to avoid alerting their mammalian prey, all of whom have excellent underwater hearing. They sometimes use a single click (called a cryptic click) rather than the long train of clicks observed in other populations.
All members of a resident pod use similar calls, known collectively as a dialect. Dialects are composed of specific numbers and types of discrete, repetitive calls. They are complex and stable over time. Call patterns and structure are distinctive within matrilines. Newborns produce calls similar to their mothers, but have a more limited repertoire. Individuals likely learn their dialect through contact with their mother and other pod members. For instance, family-specific calls have been observed more frequently in the days following a calf's birth, which may help the calf learn them. Dialects are probably an important means of maintaining group identity and cohesiveness. Similarity in dialects likely reflects the degree of relatedness between pods, with variation building over time.
Researchers have not determined whether calls have particular meanings or are associated with specific types of activity. Resident dialects contain 7–17 (mean = 11) distinctive call types. Transient dialects are much different, having only 4–6 discrete calls, none of which they share with residents. All members of the North American west coast transient community express the same basic dialect, although minor regional variation in call types is evident. Preliminary research indicates that offshore killer whales have group-specific dialects that are unlike those of residents and transients.
Killer whales have the second-heaviest brains among marine mammals. They can be trained in captivity and are often described as intelligent, although defining and measuring "intelligence" is difficult in a species whose environment and behavioral strategies are very different from those of humans.
Killer whales imitate others, and seem to deliberately teach skills to their kin. This is most strikingly seen when killer whales deliberately beach themselves to catch seals. Off Península Valdés, adults sometimes pull seals off the shoreline and then release them again near juvenile whales, allowing the younger whales to practice the difficult capture technique on the now-weakened prey. Off the Crozet Islands, mothers push their calves onto the beach, waiting to pull the youngster back if needed.
People who have interacted closely with killer whales offer numerous anecdotes demonstrating the whales' curiosity, playfulness, and ability to solve problems. For example, Alaskan killer whales have not only learned how to steal fish from longlines, but have overcome a variety of techniques designed to stop them, such as the use of unbaited lines as decoys. Once, fishermen placed their boats several miles apart, taking turns retrieving small amounts of their catch, in the hope that the whales would not have enough time to move between boats to steal fish as it was being retrieved. A researcher described what happened next:
"It worked really well for a while. Then the whales split into two groups. It didn't even take them an hour to figure it out. They were so thrilled when they figured out what was going on, that we were playing games. They were breaching by the boats."—Craig Matkin
In other anecdotes, researchers describe incidents in which wild killer whales playfully tease humans by repeatedly moving objects that the humans are trying to reach, or suddenly start to toss around a chunk of ice after a human throws a snowball.
The complex and stable vocal and behavioural cultures of sympatric groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) appear to have no parallel outside humans and represent an independent evolution of cultural faculties.
In 2008, the IUCN changed its assessment of the killer whale's conservation status from conservation dependent to data deficient, recognizing that one or more killer whale types may actually be separate, endangered species. Depletion of prey species, pollution, large-scale oil spills, and habitat disturbance caused by noise and conflicts with boats are currently the most significant worldwide threats.
Like other animals at the highest trophic levels, the killer whale is particularly at risk of poisoning from accumulation of toxins, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). European Harbour seals have problems in reproductive and immune functions associated with high levels of PCBs and related contaminants, and a survey off the Washington coast found that PCB levels in killer whales were higher than levels that had caused health problems in harbour seals. Blubber samples in the Norwegian Arctic show higher levels of PCBs, pesticides and brominated flame-retardants than in polar bears. When food is scarce, killer whales metabolize blubber for energy, which increases pollutant concentrations.
In the Pacific Northwest, wild salmon stocks, a main resident food source, have declined dramatically in recent years. On the west coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, seal and sea lion populations have also substantially declined.
In 2005, the United States government listed the southern resident community as an endangered population under the Endangered Species Act. The southern resident community comprises three pods which live mostly in the Georgia and Haro Straits and Puget Sound in British Columbia and Washington. They do not breed outside of their community, which was once estimated at around 200 animals and later shrank to around 90. In October 2008, the annual survey revealed that seven were missing and presumed dead, reducing the count to 83. This is potentially the largest decline in the population in the past ten years. These deaths can be attributed to declines in chinook salmon.
Noise from shipping, drilling, and other human activities is a significant concern in some key killer whale habitats, including Johnstone Strait and Haro Strait. In the mid-1990s, loud underwater noises from salmon farms were used to deter seals. Killer whales also avoided the surrounding waters. High-intensity sonar used by the Navy disturbs killer whales along with other marine mammals. Killer whales are popular with whale watchers, which may stress the whales and alter their behavior, particularly if boats approach too closely or block their line of travel.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill adversely affected killer whales in Prince William Sound and Alaska's Kenai Fjords region. Eleven members (about half) of one resident pod disappeared in the following year. The spill damaged salmon and other prey populations, which in turn damaged local killer whales. By 2009, scientists estimated the AT1 transient population (considered part of a larger population of 346 transients), numbered only 7 individuals and had not reproduced since the spill. This population is expected to die out.
Relationship with humans
The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast feature killer whales throughout their history, art, spirituality and religion. The Haida regarded killer whales as the most powerful animals in the ocean, and their mythology tells of killer whales living in houses and towns under the sea. According to these myths, killer whales took on human form when submerged, and humans who drowned went to live with them. For the Kwakwaka'wakw, the killer whale was regarded as the ruler of the undersea world, with sea lions for slaves and dolphins for warriors. In Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth mythology, killer whales may embody the souls of deceased chiefs. The Tlingit of southeastern Alaska regarded the killer whale as custodian of the sea and a benefactor of humans.
The Maritime Archaic people of Newfoundland also had great respect for killer whales, as evidenced by stone carvings found in a 4,000-year-old burial site at the Port au Choix National Historic Site.
In the tales and beliefs of the Siberian Yupik people, killer whales are said to appear as wolves in winter, and wolves as killer whales in summer. Killer whales are believed to assist their hunters in driving walrus. Reverence is expressed in several forms: the boat represents the animal, and a wooden carving hung from the hunter's belt. Small sacrifices such as tobacco are strewn into the sea for them. Killer whales were believed to have helped the hunters even when in wolf guise, by forcing reindeer to allow themselves to be killed.
In Western cultures, killer whales were historically feared as dangerous, savage predators. The first written description of a killer whale was given by Pliny the Elder in circa AD 70, who wrote, "Orcas (the appearance of which no image can express, other than an enormous mass of savage flesh with teeth) are the enemy of [other whales]... they charge and pierce them like warships ramming."
There have been very few confirmed attacks on humans by wild killer whales, none of which has been fatal. In one instance, killer whales tried to tip ice floes on which a dog team and photographer of the Terra Nova Expedition was standing. There is speculation that the sled dogs' barking may have sounded enough like seal calls to trigger the killer whale's hunting curiosity. In the 1970s, a surfer in California was bitten, and in 2005 a boy in Alaska who was splashing in a region frequented by harbor seals was bumped by a killer whale that apparently misidentified him as prey. Unlike wild killer whales, captive killer whales are reported to have made nearly two dozen attacks on humans since the 1970s, some of which have been fatal.
Competition with fishermen also led to killer whales being regarded as pests. In the waters of the Pacific Northwest and Iceland, the shooting of killer whales was accepted and even encouraged by governments. As an indication of the intensity of shooting that occurred until fairly recently, about 25% of the killer whales captured in Puget Sound for aquaria through 1970 bore bullet scars. The U.S. Navy claimed to have deliberately killed hundreds of killer whales in Icelandic waters in 1956.
Modern Western attitudes
Western attitudes towards killer whales have changed dramatically in recent decades. In the mid 1960s and early 1970s, killer whales came to much greater public and scientific awareness, starting with the first live-capture and display of a killer whale known as Moby Doll, a resident that had been harpooned off Saturna Island in 1964. So little was known at the time that it was nearly two months before the whale's keepers discovered what food (fish) it was willing to eat. To the surprise of those who saw him, Moby Doll was a docile, non-aggressive whale that made no attempts to attack humans.
Between 1964 and 1976, 50 killer whales from the Pacific Northwest were captured for display in aquaria, and public interest in the animals grew. Millions of people became interested in killer whales after viewing them in captivity. In the 1970s, research pioneered by Michael Bigg led to the discovery of the species' complex social structure, its use of vocal communication, and its extraordinarily stable mother-offspring bonds. Through photo-identification techniques, individuals were named and tracked over decades.
Bigg's techniques also revealed that the Pacific Northwest population was small—in the low hundreds rather than the thousands that had been previously assumed. The Southern Resident community alone had lost 48 of its members to captivity; by 1976, only 80 remained. In the Pacific Northwest, the species that had unthinkingly been targeted became a cultural icon within a few decades.
The public's growing appreciation also led to growing opposition to whale–keeping in aquaria. Only one whale has been taken in North American waters since 1976. In recent years, the extent of the public's interest in killer whales has manifested itself in several high-profile efforts surrounding individuals. Following the success of the 1993 film Free Willy, the movie's captive star Keiko was returned to the coast of his native Iceland. In 2002, the orphan Springer was discovered in Puget Sound, Washington. She became the first whale to be successfully reintegrated into a wild pod after human intervention, crystallizing decades of research into the vocal behavior and social structure of the region's killer whales. The saving of Springer raised hopes that another young killer whale named Luna who had become separated from his pod could be returned to it. However, his case was marked by controversy about whether and how to intervene, and in 2006 Luna was killed by a boat propeller.
The first records of commercial hunting of killer whales date to the 18th century in Japan. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the global whaling industry caught immense numbers of baleen and sperm whales, but largely ignored killer whales because of their limited amounts of recoverable oil, their smaller populations, and the difficulty of taking them. Once the stocks of larger species were depleted, killer whales were targeted by commercial whalers in the mid-20th century. Between 1954 and 1997, Japan took 1,178 killer whales and Norway took 987. Over 3,000 killer whales were taken by Soviet whalers, including an Antarctic catch of 916 in 1979-80 alone, prompting the International Whaling Commission to recommend a ban on commercial hunting of the species pending further research. Today, no country carries out a substantial hunt, although Indonesia and Greenland permit small subsistence hunts.
Killer whales have helped humans hunting other whales. One well-known example was in Eden, Australia, including the male known as Old Tom. Whalers more often considered them a nuisance, however, as they would gather to scavenge meat from the whalers' catch. Some populations, such as in Alaska's Prince William Sound, may have been reduced significantly by whalers shooting them in retaliation.
The killer whale's intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness in captivity and sheer size have made it a popular exhibit at aquariums and aquatic theme parks. From 1976 to 1997, 55 whales were taken from the wild in Iceland, 19 from Japan, and three from Argentina. These figures exclude animals that died during capture. Live captures fell dramatically in the 1990s, and by 1999, about 40% of the 48 animals on display in the world were captive–born.
Organizations such as the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society campaign against the practice of keeping them in captivity. In captivity they often develop pathologies, such as the dorsal fin collapse seen in 60–90% of captive males. Captives have vastly reduced life expectancies, on average only living into their 20s.[Note 3] In the wild, females who survive infancy live 50 years on average, and up to 70–80 years in rare cases. Wild males who survive infancy live 30 years on average, and up to 50–60 years. Captivity usually bears little resemblance to wild habitat, and captive whales' social groups are foreign to those found in the wild. Critics claim that captive life is stressful due to these factors and the requirement to perform circus tricks that are not part of wild killer whale behavior. Wild killer whales travel up to 160 kilometres (100 mi) each day, and critics say that the animals are too big and intelligent to be suitable for captivity.
Captives occasionally act aggressively towards themselves, their tankmates, or humans, which critics say is a result of stress. Tilikum, a captive killer whale born in the wild, has been involved in three fatalities including one in which he grabbed a trainer and pulled her underwater, eventually drowning her. Experts are divided as to whether the injuries and deaths caused by captive killer whales have been accidents or deliberate attempts to cause harm.
- ^ According to Baird, killer whales prefer harbour seals to sea lions and porpoises in some areas.
- ^ In the northeast Pacific, three communities of fish-eating killer whales have been identified: the southern community (1 clan, 3 pods, 90 killer whales as of 2006), the northern community (3 clans, 16 pods, 214 killer whales as of 2000), and the south Alaskan community (2 clans, 11 pods, 211 killer whales as of 2000).
- ^ Although there are examples of killer whales living longer, including several over 30 years old, and two captive orcas (Corky II and Lolita) are in their mid-40s.
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- ^ a b Heimlich & Boran 2001, p. 45
- ^ Pinell, Nadine, et al. "Transient Killer Whales – Culprits in the Decline of Sea Otters in Western Alaska?" B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network, June 1, 2004. Retrieved 2010-03-13
- ^ a b Baird 2002, p. 23
- ^ Killer Whales Develop a Taste For Sea Otters Ned Rozell, Article #1418, Alaska Science Forum, December 10, 1998. Retrieved 2010-02-26
- ^ Springer, A. M. (2003). "Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 (21): 12223. doi:10.1073/pnas.1635156100.
- ^ Demaster, D; Trites, A; Clapham, P; Mizroch, S; Wade, P; Small, R; Hoef, J (2006). "The sequential megafaunal collapse hypothesis: Testing with existing data". Progress in Oceanography. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2006.02.007.
- ^ Estes, J. A.; Doak, D. F.; Springer, A. M.; Williams, T. M. (2009). "Causes and consequences of marine mammal population declines in southwest Alaska: a food-web perspective". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364 (1524): 1647. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0231.
- ^ Carwardine 2001, p. 29
- ^ Visser, Ingrid N.; Smith, Thomas G.; Bullock, Ian D.; Green, Geoffrey D.; Carlsson, Olle G. L.; Imberti, Santiago (2008). "Antarctic peninsula killer whales (Orcinus orca) hunt seals and a penguin on floating ice". Marine Mammal Science 24: 225. doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2007.00163.x. http://www.grupofalco.com.ar/pedefes/Visser%20et%20al%202008.%20Antarctic%20killer%20whales%20on%20ice%20-%20Marine%20Mammals%20Science.pdf.
- ^ Baird 2002, p. 124
- ^ Ford, Ellis & Balcomb 2000, p. 19
- ^ Baird 2002, p. 14
- ^ "Whale uses fish as bait to catch seagulls then shares strategy with fellow orcas". Associated Press. 2005-09-07. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0907-ap.html. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
- ^ Carwardine 2001, p. 64
- ^ "Keep Whales Wild". Keep Whales Wild. 2011-01-14. http://www.keepwhaleswild.org/. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
- ^ a b c d NMFS 2005, p. 12
- ^ a b NMFS 2005, p. 39
- ^ NMFS 2005, p. 13
- ^ a b NMFS 2005, p. 14
- ^ a b NMFS 2005, p. 20
- ^ Filatova, Olga A.; Fedutin, Ivan D.; Burdin, Alexandr M. and Hoyt, Erich (2007). "The structure of the discrete call repertoire of killer whales Orcinus orca from Southeast Kamchatka". Bioacoustics 16: 261–280. http://russianorca.com/Doc/Science/structure_repert.pdf.
- ^ Weiß, Brigitte M.; Ladich, Friedrich; Spong, Paul; Symonds, Helena (2006). "Vocal behaviour of resident killer whale matrilines with newborn calves: The role of family signatures". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 119 (1): 627. doi:10.1121/1.2130934. PMID 16454316. http://www.coloradocollege.edu/dept/ev/research/faculty/OVALitems/pdf_Papers/SpongCalvesPaper.pdf.
- ^ a b NMFS 2005, pp. 15–16
- ^ Spear, Kevin. How smart are killer whales – and can they decide to kill a person? Orlando Sentinel, 2010-03-07. Retrieved 2010-03-07
- ^ a b Associated Press. Whale Attack Renews Captive Animal Debate CBS News, March 1, 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-07
- ^ a b Carwardine 2001, p. 67
- ^ Baird 2002, pp. 61–62
- ^ a b Obee & Ellis 1992, p. 42
- ^ "Killer whale games". Blackfish Sounder 13: 5. 2005. http://www.killerwhale.org/BFS/BFS_13.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
- ^ Pitman, Robert L. Scientist Has 'Snowball Fight' With a Killer Whale. Live Science, February 6, 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-07
- ^ Marino, Lori; et al. (May 5, 2007). "Cetaceans Have Complex Brains for Complex Cognition". PLoS Biology 5 (e139): e139. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050139. PMC 1868071. PMID 17503965. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0050139. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ^ a b Ford, Ellis & Balcomb 2000, p. 99
- ^ Ford, Ellis & Balcomb 2000, p. 98
- ^ a b M. L. Lyke, Granny's Struggle: When Granny is gone, will her story be the last chapter?, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 2006-10-14
- ^ a b Le Phuong. Researchers: 7 Orcas Missing from Puget Sound, Associated Press. USA Today, 2008-10-25
- ^ Ford, Ellis & Balcomb 2000, p. 100
- ^ Research on Orcas, Raincoast Research Society. Retrieved 2010-02-18
- ^ McClure, Robert (2003-10-02). "State expert urges Navy to stop sonar tests". Seattle Post Intelligencer. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/142218_sonar02.html. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
- ^ Williams, Rob (2002). "Behavioural responses of male killer whales to a ‘leapfrogging’ vessel" (PDF). Journal of Cetacean Resource Management 4 (3): 305–310. http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/cbd/marine_mammal/kwworkshops/boatpubs/leapfrogging_williamsetal.pdf.
- ^ "Unique Killer-Whale Pod Doomed by Exxon Valdez | Wired Science". Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/valdezwhales/. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ "Marine Ecology Progress Series 356:269" (PDF). http://www.whalesalaska.org/docs/m356p269.pdf. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ a b c Francis & Hewlett 2007, pp. 115–120
- ^ Ford, Ellis & Balcomb 2000, p. 11
- ^ Rollmann, Hans (1999). Religion in Newfoundland and Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Retrieved 2010-01-26
- ^ Tuck, James A. (1971). "An Archaic Cemetery at Port Au Choix, Newfoundland". American Antiquity 36 (3): 343–358. doi:10.2307/277719. JSTOR 277719.
- ^ The orphan boy with his sister, p. 156 in Rubcova, E. S. (1954). Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes, Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Original data: Е.С. Рубцова: Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект). Академия Наук СССР. Москва-Ленинград, 1954
- ^ Menovshchikov, G. A. (1962). Grammar of the language of Asian Eskimos. Vol. I., pp. 439, 441. Moscow and Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Original data: Г. А. Меновщиков: Грамматиκа языка азиатских эскимосов. Часть первая. Академия Наук СССР. Москва-Ленинград, 1962
- ^ a b Духовная культура (Spiritual culture), subsection of Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири) — see the section on Eskimos
- ^ a b Vajda, Edward J. "Siberian Yupik (Eskimo)". East Asian Studies. http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ea210/aleut.htm.
- ^ a b (Russian) Животные и отражение их прихода к человеку в самых разных текстах. Ковалева, Ирина & Богословская, Людмила. Эхо Москвы. Арсенал. 3 December 2002. Transcript. A radio interview with Russian scientists about man and animal, examples taken especially from Asian Eskimos
- ^ a b c d Obee & Ellis 1992, pp. Chapter 1
- ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus. Historia Naturalis 9.5.12 (Latin), in Bill Thayer's LacusCurtius: Into the Roman World. (See also an English translation by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley, 1855.) Retrieved 2010-02-19.[dead link]
- ^ "Orca shares the waves with local surfer". 3 News. September 12, 2008. http://www.3news.co.nz/Orca-shares-the-waves-with-local-surfer/tabid/423/articleID/71245/Default.aspx. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
- ^ Cherry-Garrard, Apsley (2004). The Worst Journey in the World:Antarctic 1910–1913. Globe Pequot. p. 92. ISBN 1-59228-212-1.
- ^ The Associated Press. "Boy survives bump from killer whale." The Seattle Times, 2005-08-18. Retrieved 2010-01-03
- ^ a b "ABC News: Killer Whale Attacks SeaWorld Trainer". ABC News. November 30, 2006. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2690153. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
- ^ SeaWorld trainer killed by killer whale, CNN, February 25, 2010, Retrieved 2010-09-09
- ^ NMFS 2005, p. 41
- ^ Killer Whales Destroyed: VP-7 Accomplishes Special Task, Naval Aviation News, December, 1956, p. 19. Reproduced at Longevity and Causes of Death, SeaWorld/Busch Gardens ANIMALS. Retrieved 2010-01-11
- ^ "Naval War Declared Against Killer Whales". The Science News-Letter 69 (24): 374. 1956. JSTOR 3936619.
- ^ Francis & Hewlett 2007, pp. 58–59
- ^ Baird 2002, pp. 73–80
- ^ Heimlich & Boran 2001, p. 11
- ^ "Orphaned orca's reunion with family celebrated". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. July 13, 2007. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/07/13/bc-springer.html. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
- ^ McClure, Robert (March 11, 2006). "Luna the orca killed by tugboat". Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington: Hearst Corporation). http://www.seattlepi.com/local/262611_luna11.html. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
- ^ a b Obee & Ellis 1992, p. 34
- ^ Killer Whale, Bergen Museum. Retrieved 2010-01-26
- ^ a b Reeves, Randall; Whitehead, Hal (2005). "Killer whales and whaling: the scavenging hypothesis". Biology Letters 1 (4): 415. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2005.0348. PMC 1626385. PMID 17148221. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1626385.
- ^ a b c NMFS 2005, pp. 43–44
- ^ "Orcas". Humane Society of the United States. http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/a_closer_look_at_marine_mammals/orcas.html. Retrieved 2010-01-09.
- ^ "Orcas in captivity". Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. http://www.wdcs.org/submissions_bin/cap-orc-glo-000016.pdf. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
- ^ Hoyt, Erich (1992). The Performing Orca: Why the Show must Stop. Bath, U.K.: Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Excerpt from Chapter 7 reprinted by PBS as background material for its Frontline report "A Whale of a Business", which originally aired on November 11, 1997. Retrieved 2010-02-19
- ^ "Whale Kills a Trainer at SeaWorld". New York Times. 2010-02-24. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/us/25whale.html?scp=1&sq=killer%20whale&st=cse. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
- ^ a b Husna Haq. Sea World tragedy: How common are 'killer whale' attacks?, Christian Science Monitor, 2010-02-25. Retrieved 2010-02-26
- Baird, Robin W. (2002). Killer Whales of the World. Stillwater, MN.: Voyageur Press. ISBN 0-7603-2654-1. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Rjksm-5-ap4C&lpg=PP1&dq=Killer%20whales&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- Carwardine, Mark (2001). Killer Whales. London: BBC Worldwide Ltd. ISBN 0-7894-8266-5.
- Ford, John K. B. 2002. "Killer Whale", pages 669–675 in the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Academic Press, ISBN 0-12-551340-2
- Ford, John K. B.; Ellis, Graeme M.; Balcomb, Kenneth C. (2000). Killer Whales, Second Edition. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. ISBN 0-7748-0800-4. http://books.google.ca/books?id=yTmbu_CFomAC&lpg=PP1&dq=Killer%20whales&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- Ford, John K. B.; Ellis, Graeme M. (2006). "Selective foraging by fish-eating killer whales Orcinus orca in British Columbia". Marine Ecology Progress Series 316: 185. doi:10.3354/meps316185. http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v316/p185-199/.
- Francis, Daniel; Hewlett, Gil (2007). Operation Orca: Springer, Luna and the Struggle to Save West Coast Killer Whales. Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing. ISBN 1-55017-426-6.
- Heimlich, Sara; Boran, James (2001). Killer Whales. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press. ISBN 0-89658-545-X. http://books.google.ca/books?id=lQ9RUAQgEiIC&lpg=PP1&dq=%3DKiller%20Whales&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true.
- Heptner, V. G.; A. A., Nasimovich; A. G., Bannikov; Robert S., Hoffmann (1996). Mammals of the Soviet Union, Volume II, part 3. Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Libraries and National Science Foundation. http://www.archive.org/details/mammalsofsov231996gept.
- NMFS (2005). "Conservation Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca)" (PDF). Seattle, U.S.A.: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northwest Regional Office. Archived from the original on June 26, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080626121719/http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Marine-Mammals/Whales-Dolphins-Porpoise/Killer-Whales/Conservation-Planning/upload/SRKW-propConsPlan.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
- Obee, Bruce; Ellis, Graeme (1992). Elaine Jones. ed. Guardians of the Whales: The Quest to Study Whales in the Wild. North Vancouver, British Columbia: Whitecap Books. ISBN 1-55110-034-7.
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CORVALLIS, Ore. – A newly published study by researchers at Oregon State University has found that farmers’ fields that are seasonally inundated with floodwaters play a role not only in creating a sanctuary for fish during high-velocity water, but in providing access to high-energy foods and even places for breeding.
Even more important, the researchers say, is that these “intermittent watercourses” are dominated by native fishes whose behavior may have evolved to take advantage of such conditions.
“Floods have always been a dynamic part of the system, much the same way that snow is for elk in Yellowstone,” said Guillermo Giannico, a freshwater fish ecologist at Oregon State University and one of the authors of the study. “Over time, animals will adapt to get the most out of their habitat. We have found that native fish have adjusted their behavior to use these floodplains, mostly in agricultural lands, to great benefit.”
Results of the study were just published in the journal, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Oregon Seed Council, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS).
In their paper, Giannico and co-authors Randall Colvin, Judith Li and William Gerth of OSU, and Kathryn Boyer from NCRS, call for the promotion of agricultural conservation practices that benefit stream species and maintain aquatic biodiversity in floodplain habitats. Although much of the complex channels of streams and rivers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley have been lost to development, Giannico says, those remaining in these agricultural lands are of benefit to native fishes.
“When looking at the situation you have to start with the observation that grass seed and other farmers are producing crops with perhaps fewer effects on fish than we formerly thought because we are finding several native fish species when we look for them, even though these areas are naturally dry for half of the year,” said Giannico, who is an associate professor in OSU’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.
“Some of the linkages between permanent water sources and agricultural fields have disappeared and we’re working with farmers to help them understand how these processes work and to identify ways to conserve what is there,” he added. “Many want to help, as long as we don’t undercut their bottom line.”
The research team studied five sub-basins in the Willamette River drainage – the Luckiamute River, Mary’s River and Long Tom River on the west side of the valley, and the Calapooia River and Muddy Creek on the east side. These sub-basins include the high-elevation Cascade Mountains, the hills of the Coast Range, and the floor of the Willamette Valley, where most of the flooding would occur.
They discovered 13 different fish species using agricultural fields from December through May, and only three of those species were exotic, or non-native. Even more surprising to researchers was the sheer number of native versus exotic individuals. Of the 1,526 fish they captured, almost 99 percent were natives.
The most common were redside shiners (534 individuals) and threespine sticklebacks (347 fish), which were found at nearly three-fourths of the sampling sites. They also found tiny Chinook salmon and cutthroat trout, as well as speckled dace, largescale suckers and northern pikeminnows, which are native to the valley.
Though the public may be unfamiliar with many of the native species, Giannico said, they all have value to the unique ecosystem.
“The fish that are caught in the Northwest for sport or commercial reasons do not thrive in isolation,” he pointed out. “All of these species are part of an interconnected food web. Some are prey for salmon and steelhead; others compete with them for resources and habitat. Most consume insects and other invertebrates that are surprisingly diverse and abundant in the waters, grasses and shrubs of the floodplain.”
The OSU researchers say understanding how natural systems operate is tremendously complex and though it may be difficult to understand the value of a sculpin or dace from a human perspective, all species fill a niche.
“As the old saying goes, you can remove a bolt from an airplane and it probably will still fly, but if you keep removing bolts, you don’t know what will happen when the next one is gone,” Giannico said.
The OSU researchers point out in their article that agricultural fields are not created equally in terms of providing ideal habitat. Those that have drainage ditches that are deep and “torpedo-like” tend to funnel water too rapidly to streams and rivers, thus shortening the “wet season.” Deep manmade ditches also are more likely to disconnect floodwaters from historic floodplains.
Shallower ditches that meander through slightly wooded areas, or have a riparian buffer of shrubs separating the channel from the fields are preferred by a much larger number of fish species, Giannico pointed out.
“When people settled into the valley, they apparently were not comfortable with the uneven network of native channels and instead crafted a symmetrical system of ditches that they moved to the edge of the fields,” he said. “This may have helped maintain the fields, but it was at the cost of ideal fish habitat.
“Now we’re working with farmers to see if we can have the best of both worlds – a system that allows farmers to maintain productive fields while at the same time encouraging optimum habitat for aquatic species.”
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The business organisation outlined a set of principles on how offsets from the land-use sector could bring down emissions and mitigation costs. Including credits in the international carbon market for emission reduction and sequestration activities in the sector could in the long-term "substantially reduce the societal costs of emission reduction," it argues.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations have been concentrating on offsets from reducing deforestation-related emissions in developing countries. The UN's so-called 'REDD' programme, designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, is expected to form part of the global agreement to be struck in Copenhagen in December.
Nevertheless, carbon-trading companies are arguing that deforestation should be treated as part of the wider land-use sector. The credits should be equivalent to other UN compliance credits, they added.
"Limiting international offset credits from the land-use sector to only deforestation reduction activities at the national level precludes many projects that could generate verifiable emission reductions and lower overall compliance cost," the organisation stated. It said emissions could be cut by at least an additional 5%, should agricultural and other land use qualify for offsets.
Forest credits alone have proven to be a controversial issue, as they might have a significant impact on carbon markets (EurActiv 20/04/09).
Greenpeace last month published a report which demonstrated that carbon prices would crash by up to 75% by 2020 if forest offset credits were included in carbon markets without limitations (EurActiv 31/03/09). They argued that this would hamper investment in clean and renewable technologies, delaying the overall infrastructural changes required to halt global warming.
An IETA representative told EurActiv that this would be a concern in the short term. In the longer term, however, it is important to use all the available options to abate emissions, and land-use offsets are part of the mix, she added.
Politically-speaking, she said that lowering the price of emissions trading could help push climate legislation through the US Congress and the Senate. "There is a great concern of the cost of a cap-and trade system in the US. These offsets could help cushion the cost," she pointed out.
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By Daniel Hubbard | October 16, 2011
By all accounts, Kurt was a strange man, insane eventually. He was paranoid and his life came to an end when he starved himself, fearing that he would be poisoned.
Kurt was also brilliant. Not many people took their evening stroll from work at The Institute of Advanced Study with Albert Einstein.
Kurt was a mathematician and produced what may be the most intriguing piece of mathematics in the last hundred years.
Self-reference, a very odd thing
There is a fascinating process of self-reference in complex research. Last week I mentioned using evidence against itself. Based on what we know, we find new information. That new information “sheds new light” on the old information, perhaps even proving some of that old information to be wrong. But wait, didn’t we use the old information that we apparently didn’t understand to find the new information that disproved the old? Yes, and that is where things can get a little strange if you stop to think about it. They become strange because of self-reference.
When doing research we need to go back over it—make sure that the old stands up to the new. Some of the old may need to be adjusted, reinterpreted or discarded. I like to ask if, with my new understanding of the old information, would I perform the search differently? If I would, then is it possible that something more might be found with that somewhat different search? Should I look at the new evidence from a different angle?
People are usually fascinated by self-reference. Children love the parallel mirrors at a barbershop. Each reflection containing a reflection of itself. I remember the first time I sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with my children as a round. There was an almost stunned look on their faces. They probably only realized that it sounded good when it really shouldn’t. They couldn’t have known that what they were hearing was a melody that contains its own harmony within itself.
Perhaps the most famous example of self-reference is the liar’s paradox. There are many ways to formulate it. Here is one “This sentence is a lie.” Clearly, if the statement is true then it says it is a lie, which means it is, by definition, false making it a lie and therefore true… and down the rabbit hole we go.
Research often needs to loop back upon itself many times, narrowing in on correct answers or reaching a contradiction that says, “time to rethink this.” The data allows us to form a hypothesis. A hypothesis helps us to understand the data and gather new data. The new data may change the hypothesis and alter our understanding of the old data. Often getting to the truth in research is a process of using new results to analyze their own origins. Genealogist don’t normally run the risk of falling down some rabbit hole of paradoxes but we do need to know how research works. It can be a simple linear process if the records are almost perfect and the digging doesn’t go too deep. If the records are poor or the digging very deep and detailed, then there is a need to go back over what we think we know. Does an old conclusion need changing? Would an old search done with new knowledge have yielded different results? Where do those results lead and what do they have to say about our old information and conclusions? I think one of the joys of complicated research is to constantly discover, reevaluate, discover more and go on, aware that there will be limits to what one can know yet having the privileged of pushing those limits.
Back to Kurt
The liar’s paradox actually brings us back to Kurt Gödel. In the early twentieth century some mathematicians thought that they were on the verge of being able to derive the theory of numbers from a few basic statements (axioms) and formal logic. The feeling had been that mathematics could do many amazing things but that its foundations were weak and contradictions and inadequacies were being found. Think of the Taj Mahal balanced on toothpicks. That is how they saw things at the time. Slowly but surely, some mathematicians began the work of establishing the formal foundations of mathematics.
Kurt Gödel proved that any mathematical system that was rich enough to be used for carrying out arithmetic could be turned back against itself using something like the liar’s paradox. He found a way to show that you could always form the mathematical equivalent of the statement “This statement is not provable.” If it is false then it is provable, and a provable statement that is false is a contradiction, a very bad thing in mathematics. So, it must be true, except that then it is, according to itself, not provable, so we have a true statement that cannot be proven—exactly the problem that people had hoped to avoid. Self-reference, at least in number theory, won the day. Mathematics didn’t fall down the rabbit hole but the hope had been that there was no rabbit hole at all.
A Migratory Aside
There is a much more concrete reason that Kurt Gödel is genealogically interesting. He was born in what was then Austria. He lived out much of his life in Princeton. He and his wife arrived in the U.S. via California, an odd place to arrive for a couple leaving Austria for New Jersey. In this case history is the key to a very odd migration route.
By 1940, Nazi Germany had annexed Austria, conquered Poland and was at war with England and France. The North Atlantic was a very dangerous place. However, Germany and the Soviet Union had cooperated on the partition of Poland and there was still peace and safety in the east. As an academic living in Vienna, Kurt naturally had many Jewish associates and that was enough for life to become very uncomfortable. He and his wife, Adele, reached Moscow, took the Transsiberian Railroad across Russia and eventually boarded a boat in Yokohama, Japan. There was still peace in the Pacific and the couple arrived safely in California. By the time they reached New Jersey, they had traveled three-fourths of the way around the world. Knowing the history makes the bizarre quite reasonable.Twitter It!
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Poorva Karma (Preparatory Techniques)
After doing a detailed examination of the patient through the different diagnostic methods, a physician decides whether patient should undergo a samana (pacifying) therapy of sodhana (purificatory) therapy. Before starting Panchakarma one has to undergo two types of preparatory treatments called Poorvakarma (preparatory techniques). This consists of snehana (Oleation) and svedana (sudation). Oleation helps in making the blocks (created by the metabolic waste materials in the body channels) slimy and non-cohesive. After making them unctuous, svedana (fomentation) is done to bring all these waste materials into the Koshta i.e. the open spaces in the body and expelled through Panchakarma.
a. Snehana (oleation)
The word "sneha" in this context donates unctuousness or oily nature. The technique of snehana involves making the body oily or unctuous by giving materials that are oily in nature in high quantity either internally or externally. According to the classical taxts, there are four types of sources for these unctuous materials.
"sarpirmajja vasataila sneheshu pravaram matam" [Ashtanga hridayam]
Sarpi (ghee), majja (bone marrow), vasa (adipose/fat tissue), taila (oil) are four unctous materials. These four are used for treating different conditions. E.g. Oil is used in conditions such as tumours, sinus ulcers, or diseases of kapha and vata and those who have hard bowels. Similarly fat is used for pain in joints or bones, vital organs etc. At times combination of two (yamaka), three (trivrit) or four (mahan) of the above are also used in treatment.
The method of administering high doses of unctuous material internally is known as snehapana. According to the dose in which this is administered, there are four categories. Hrasiyasimatra (smallest dose), hrasva (small), madhyama (medium), uttama (maximum) are these four. These categories are decided according to severity of the condition, its stage, age, digestive capacity of the patient etc. The mathra (dose) is named small, medium or maximum based on the time taken for the medicine to digest when taken internally.
The time and method of administration are also very important. For instance, the method of administration could either be applying outside, enemas, nasal drops, applying on the head, ears or eyes or taking internally. It is also used along with food based on the different diagnosis. There are 64 recipes mentioned based on the different permutations and combinations of adjuvant. But usually before purification therapy sneha (unctuous material) is given alone. For pacifying it is given when the patient is hungry. For brimhana (nourishment), it is given with other materials like meat soup etc. Specifications are mentioned on how to prepare the medicine for different type of applications.
"Tailam pravrishi varshante sarpiranya to madhave
mase sadharane sneha sastohni vimale ravou" [Astanga hrdayam]
Oil is used in rainy season, ghee in autumn; fat and bone marrow are used in spring; and usually snehapana has to be done on days when there is bright sun.
Snehana course is decided based on severity of the condition as well as the nature of the patient. Maximum oleation is given for seven days. There are also details of the symptoms of the person who has undergone a good snehana or effects of an improper oleation and their management mentioned in the classical literature.
While taking snehana the patient has to follow strict pathya (dietary and activity restrictions), which is also prescribed for every treatment in Panchakarma.
Sneha yogya (suitable for sneha)
Usually oleation is done for people who are to undergo sudation (svedana) and purification (sodhana), those who indulge in alcohol, excessive sexual intercourse, physical strain such as exercise, those who think too much, the aged, children, the emaciated, those who have dryness (rookshata), people with depleted blood and reproductive tissue, who are suffering from vata types of disorders, having specific eye diseases (syanda, timira) and those who have difficulty in waking up early.
Ayogya (unsuitable for sneha)
Oleation should not be done for those who have a weak or strong digestive activity, who are obese, who are suffering from stiffness of thighs, diarrhoea, metabolic dysfunction (ama), diseases of throat, affected by some kinds of poisons like gara (artificial poison), enlargement of abdomen due to fluid accumulation, who are in the state of unconsciousness, who are suffering from vomiting, anorexia, increased kapha, thirst, alcoholic intoxication, who had abnormal delivery and who are on nasal medication, enema and purgation.
Guggulutiktakam, mahatiktakam, indukantam, panchagavyam, kalyanakam, Dadimadighritam, tiktakam, brahmi ghritam are some of the commonly used ghee preparations also available in the market. Tuvaraka (Hydnocarpus laurifolia), sarshapa (Brassica juncea), arista (Azadirachta indica), nikumbha (Baliospermum montanum), aksha (Terminalia bellerica) and karanja (Pongamia glabra) oil are a few types of oil mentioned in the literature.
Sneha pana is effective in conditions like amlapitta (acid gastritis), tamakasvasa (bronchial asthma), antravriddhi (hernia), kushtam & visarpa (skin diseases), vatarakta (arthritic conditions)
b. Svedana (sudation)
As mentioned earlier, after oleation, the waste materials blocked in the body channels become unctuous, and the channels become lubricated. Through svedana these waste materials are brought into the main body channel (mahakoshtha) before it is expelled through the main techniques of Panchakarma. According to Astanga hridaya, one of the major classical texts (600 AD), there are four different methods by which one can administer sudation. They are taapa (fomentation by applying heat), upanaaha (warm poultice of different medicinal materials) usma (steam) and drava (pouring warm liquid). According to Caraka samhita, there are two types of sveda called agnisveda (with fire) and anagnisveda (without fire). Agni sveda is divided into 13 types where as anagni into 10 types.
These different techniques are used according to the condition and strength of the patient. Many of these techniques are not used in present day practice. Contemporary practices involve mainly steam method, pouring of hot liquid to the body or massages. Sudation can also be mild, moderate and maximum according to the disease, patient, habitat and season. It is also prescribed that sudation should be mild in groins and it should not be done in eyes, scrotum and in the area of heart. It is also to be noted that detailed prescriptions are given in case of complications of sudation.
Persons having breathing disorders, cough, running nose, hiccup, constipation, hoarseness of voice, diseases of vata, kapha, metabolic dysfunction (ama), stiffness, feeling of heaviness, aches, sprains, catch in different parts of the body, enlargement of scrotum, sprains, dysuria, tumours, reproductive conditions etc.
Persons who are very obese, dry, weak, unconscious, weak due to chest injury, emaciation, who have disease related to excessive alcohol intake, specific eye disorders, enlargement of abdomen due to fluid collection, specific skin diseases, consumption, those who have gout, those who have had some types of food like milk, curds etc, who have undergone purgation, those who are suffering from prolapse or burns of rectum, exhaustion, anger, grief, fear, excess hunger and thirst, jaundice, anaemia, various types of diabetes, and diseases of pitta origin, women who are menstruating or pregnant or delivered recently. In case of emergency in these conditions, it can be done mildly.
Apart from being the preparatory techniques for Panchakarma these two methods (sneha, sveda) are often used as part of samana treatment as well. Present day Ayurvedic massages or steam baths without purification techniques can be grouped under this category.
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For Release: June 25, 2012
The National Zoo's senior male gray seal, Gunnar, died June 22. Keeper and veterinary staff had been managing his declining health for several months. A final pathology report will provide more information. He was 38 years old. The lifespan of a wild gray seal is usually 25 or 30 years. Typically, male gray seals in human care live no more than 30 years; female zoo seals can live close to 40 years.
Gunnar arrived at the National Zoo in January 1979 from the Naval Oceans Systems Center in San Diego. When he was 6 months old, Navy researchers trained Gunnar to perform underwater tasks during the Cold War. Gray seals can dive down to 475 feet deep and remain underwater for 20 minutes, so they were considered an efficient and effective means to retrieve items from the ocean floor. In his career as a Navy seal, Gunnar learned how to insert and remove equipment, use a screwdriver and turn a large wheel valve.
Most Zoo animals participate in a breeding program called the Species Survival Plan. The SSP scientists determine which animals to breed by considering their genetic makeup, nutritional and social needs, temperament and overall health. Born in Iceland in November 1973, Gunnar's genes were not represented in U.S. zoos, making him a valuable breeder. Gunnar sired two female pups named Kara and Kjia in 1983 and 1990, respectively, who were born at the National Zoo. They currently live at Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey but will return to the Zoo's new American Trail exhibit after it opens Sept. 1.
Gray seals are native to the North Atlantic. North American gray seals typically live on the rocky outcroppings of Canada's east coast, though scientists have spotted them as far south as New Jersey. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the gray seal as least concern. Efforts to stop hunting and reduce the number of seals trapped in fishing nets have greatly contributed to the stability of their population.
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Planting large trees near power lines can cause years of conflict between homeowners and Utility Service providers over issues such as maintaining power supply, aesthetics, safety and tree health. For safety reasons and to minimize power supply disruptions, Utility providers are obligated to keep power lines clear of growth within 10' of the line, both below the line and side to side.
When planting trees under a power line, the ultimate height at maturity should be 16' or less; trees planted near power lines should have a mature height of 25' or less.
The following is an outline of a variety of options, but is by no means an exhaustive list. In selecting the option that is right for your location, be sure to consider its cultural needs in addition to its mature height, such as hardiness, sun/shade preference, water needs, soil preference and tolerances.
In addition to small deciduous trees, you can also consider small conifers, large shrubs and pendulous or weeping cultivars that do not have a strong dominant leader, as they can be staked up to the appropriate height and left to ramble. If desired, some large shrubs can be trained to resemble small trees.
One final tip, be careful of the word 'dwarf' as it can be meaningless. ‘Dwarf’ is applied to any cultivar that is shorter in height than the parent it was derived from; it is not a determination that assures it will remain small.
Thanks to Michael A. Dirr's, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants for technical information.
Rocky Mountain Power has a booklet titled Small Trees for Small Places, by Randall Miller. It includes input from some great Utah Tree people, including Dick Hildreth and Dr. Mike Kuhns. It was created for use in multiple states, so be careful to look at hardiness zones for your area. To request your copy or to view on-line, go to http://www.rockymountainpower.net/ed.html and click on ‘tree planting and pruning’.
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GSA's Rocky Mountain Region's Historic Preservation Office is committed to providing customers with excellent service relating to all aspects of preservation. This includes changes to historic properties, that due to federal historic preservation laws, mandate federal consultation with Native American tribal government. The laws include:
- The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
- The Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA)
- The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA)
- Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Archeological Documentation
- National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
- The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)
Executive orders regarding the federal government’s unique policies and relationship with Native American tribal governments include:
- Executive Order 13175 Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments
- Executive Order 13007 Protection and Accommodation of Access to "Indian Sacred Sites"
Those interested in learning more can browse GSA's Detailed Information on Tribal Consultation.
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To the Teacher:
This activity engages the students with the T.I.P.S. service of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, first over the telephone and then on-line. You might choose to do one or both.
The Tax Information Phone Service (T.I.P.S) provided by CCRA gives information on a wide variety of tax related topics. However, many of the messages are very long and contain a great deal of information. Before assigning a message number to students and asking them to report on the information they receive, you should listen to the message for yourself in order to judge whether students would be able to extract the information they need.
Three fairly straightforward messages are contained in 147 (non-taxable income), 400 (GST/HST credit), and 500 (Canada Child Tax Benefit - CCTB). These are the ones we have used in the exercises that follow.
In addition, for those who have access to the Internet, we have provided a similar activity for students to find information on the CCRA web site.
We suggest that you check this activity out for yourself before assigning it to students. Web sites do change from time to time, and it can be very frustrating for students to find the instructions don't go with what is on the screen.
Although we have provided a copy of the T.I.P.S. page of the Guide, it doesn't photocopy very well. We have provided it only so that you or your students can see which page it is. If students are going to work with this page, they should use the actual one in the Guide.
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Canvey Island (area 18.45 km²; pop. 37,479) is a reclaimed island in the Thames estuary separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks. Lying below sea level it is prone to flooding at exceptional tides, but has nevertheless been inhabited since the Roman invasion of Britain. The island was mainly agricultural land until the 20th century when it became the fastest growing seaside resort in Britain between 1911-1951. The North Sea flood of 1953 devastated the island costing the lives of 58 islanders, and led to the temporary evacuation of the 13,000 residents. Canvey is consequently protected by modern sea defences comprising of concrete seawall. Canvey is also notable for its relationship to the petrochemical industry. The island was the site of the first delivery in the world of liquiefied natural gas by container ship, and later became the subject of an influential assessment on the risks to a population living within the vicinity of petrochemical shipping and storage facilities. Notable residents of the island have included Roland and Francis Prout; 20th century pioneers of catamaran design, the pub rock band Dr. Feelgood, and the Olympic decathlete Dean Macey.
Along with neighbouring Two Tree Island, Lower Horse, and Upper Horse, Canvey is an alluvial island formed in the holocene period from the silt in the River Thames and material entering the estuary on the tides of the North Sea from the coast of Norfolk. An unsuccessful search for coal beneath the island in 1953 revealed that the alluvium rests upon layers of London Clay, Lower London Tertiaries, Chalk, Lower Greensand and Gault Clay, with the basement rocks at a depth of 400m consisting of hard Old Red Sandstone of Devonian age.
The island is extremely flat, lies 3m below the mean high water level and subsequently has a propensity for flooding. Flood defenses have been constructed since the Middle Ages, and the first seawall to completely surround the land was built as part of the island's reclamation in 1622. The island suffered extensive flooding in 1731, 1736, 1791, 1881, 1897, and substantial loss of life in the North Sea Flood of 1953. As of 2008, the flood defences consist of a concrete seawall, flood sirens and an internal surface storm water drainage system. The seawall was completed in 1982 and is long and surrounds 75% of the island's perimeter terminating with flood barriers spanning Benfleet Creek to the north and East Haven Creek in the west. The drainage system consists of sewers, culverts, natural and artificial dykes and lakes which feed seven pumping stations and gravity sluices that discharge the water into the Thames and creeks. Four of the discharge sites are "high flow" stations capable of discharging 600 litres of water per second at any tide level. The levels within the system are managed by a further five "Low flow" pumping stations. The Environment Agency's Thames Estuary 2100 flood defence plan includes Canvey Island as one site for alleviating the flood risks to London and the Thames estuary area. It is proposed that the western side of Canvey is developed as a site which is either temporarily flooded at times of risk, or is transformed into a permanent wetlands.
Developments in the 20th century have produced a marked contrast between the environments in the east and west of the island. The eastern half of the island is allocated to residential areas, the main public amenities, and a small holiday camp and seafront, while the western half of the island is mainly farmland, marshes, and industrial areas. The marshes in the west include the 30 hectares known as West Canvey marshes acquired by the RSPB in 2007, and the Canvey Wick nature reserve. "Canvey Wick" is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at the site of the abandoned and incomplete oil refinery. Because the foundations of the 100-hectare site were prepared in the 1970s by laying thousands of tonnes of silt dredged from the Thames; the abandoned and undisturbed area has flourished as a haven for around 1,300 species of wildlife, many of which are endangered or were thought to be extinct; including the shrill carder bee, the emerald damsel fly and the weevil hunting wasp. It has been said that the site may exist with one of the highest levels of biodiversity in western Europe. Other areas of natural interest include the eight hectares of Canvey Lake Local Nature Reserve owned by Castle Point Borough Council. The lake existed as a means to facilitate the salt-making process during the Roman settlement of the island, and is also thought to have functioned as an oyster bed. At the eastern point of the island is the 36-acre Canvey Heights Country Park which was reclaimed from the Newlands landfill site that operated there between 1954-89. The park is the highest land elevation on the island and subsequently provides wide views across the creeks, marshes and along the Thames. The environment supports an array of wildfowl such as skylarks, dark-bellied brent geese, and grey plover.
Mentioned on John Norden's 1594 insert above, is what is now the Eastern/Point mud flats of Canvey Island. Two Tree Island is in pretty much the same shape now as then. The third un-named Island could well be Counus or (Council Island). Certainly the Trinovantes, Cantiaci and the Catuvellauni would have counseled with the Iceni here, shortly before the rebellion against the Romans. Counus remains as the Canvey Point Sand Bank and Maplin Sands, and stretched the whole length of Southend Sea Front area. It is the main reason for Southend's Tidal flats being so shallow. Cana's People were descendant of both Cantiaci and the Catuvellauni. Counus would then be placed at the southern border of the Trinovantes on the Eastern Extent of The Tames (Thames).
Excavations on Canvey have unearthed a collection of early man-made objects comprising axes from the Neolithic era, a bracelet dating from the Bronze Age, and early Celtic gritted ware pottery. However, the remains of Roman structures and objects suggests the first settlement of Canvey occurred between 50–250 AD. The remains point to a community existing with a farmstead, a garrison, a burial ground, and the operation of a large salt-making industry (revealed by the existence of several Red hills). The discovery of a Roman road found to terminate 100 metres across the creek in neighbouring Benfleet suggests a means may have existed to facilitate the salt's distribution to Chelmsford and Colchester, and the recovery of rich items of pottery and glassware of a variety only matched elsewhere by excavations of port facilities suggests the Romans may also have exploited Canvey's location in the Thames for shipping.
During Edward II's reign (1307-1327) the land was under the possession of John de Apeton and the first attempts were made at managing the effects of the sea with rudimentary defences, but periodical flooding continued to blight the small population of mostly shepherds and their fat-tailed variety of sheep for a further 300 years. William Camden wrote of the island in 1607 that it was so low that it was often quite flooded, except the hills, upon which the sheep have a place of safe refuge. The uniform flatness of Canvey suggests that these hills are likely to be the red hills of the Roman salt making industry, or the early makeshift sea defences constructed by some of the landowners around their farms.
In 1622, Sir Henry Appleton (a descendant of John de Apeton), and Canvey's other landowners instigated a project to reclaim the land and wall the island from the Thames. The scheme was managed by an acquaintance of Appleton's - Joas Croppenburg, a Dutch Haberdasher of Cheapside in London. An agreement was reached in 1623 which stipulated that in return for inning and recovering the island, the landowners would grant a third of the land as payment for the work. A relation of Croppenburg's; the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden present in England at the time of the project on a commission to drain the Fens and involved in repairing the seawall at Dagenham has led to speculation that Vermuyden oversaw the project, but proof appears to be vague, nevertheless the work was completed by around 300 Hollanders skilled in the construction of dykes and other sea defences. The engineers successfully reclaimed by walling the island with local chalk, limestone and the heavy clay of the marshes, with the main length along the Thames faced with kentish ragstone. A broad drainage ditch was dug inland off the area facing the river while smaller inlets were filled in. Excess water would have collected in the broad ditch and then been discharged into the river by the means of seven sluices (later known as Commissioners Dykes). The completion of the work saw a considerable number of the Dutch engineers take land as payment for their work, and consequently settle on the island.
Along with the Coalhouse Fort at nearby East Tilbury, Thorney bay on the southern coast of the island was the site of a degaussing station built to monitor the effectiveness of the degaussing equipment functioning on board the allied ships passing along the Thames. The structure is the last intact degaussing station on the north side of the river, and was still operating in 1974. Known as the Canvey loop, the building was occupied by the Women's Royal Naval Service and used for monitoring merchant ships.
On 31 January 1953, the North Sea Flood hit the island during the night and caused the deaths of 58 people. Many of the victims were in the holiday bungalows of the eastern Newlands estate and perished as the water reached ceiling level. The small village area of the island is approximately two feet above sea level and consequently escaped the effects of the flood. This included the local Red Cow pub which was later renamed the King Canute in reference to the legend of the 11th century Danish king of England commanding the tide to halt with the sea lapping at his feet.
After the flood of 1953, a new seawall was built, which was then replaced with a significantly larger construction in the 1980s.
The southern area of the Canvey Island West ward has predominantly existed as petrochemical site since the first construction of an oil terminal there in 1936. In 1959, as part of a pioneering Anglo-American project designed to asses the viability of transporting liquefied natural gas overseas, a gas terminal with two one thousand tonne capacity storage tanks was constructed at the site alongside the oil terminal. The gas terminal built by the British Gas Council was designed to store and distribute imported gas to the whole of Britain via the facilities at Thames Haven and the local refinery at Shellhaven in Coryton. The first delivery of 2020 tonnes arrived on 20 February 1959 from Lake Charles, Louisiana by a specially modified liberty ship Normarti renamed The Methane Pioneer. The success of seven further deliveries over the following 14 months established the international industry for transporting liquefied natural gas by sea, but the discovery of oil and gas in North sea ended the development in Britain. Planning permission was granted in the following years for Occidental Petroleum and the Italian oil company, United Refineries Ltd to develop the site and construct an oil refinery, but a report in 1975 by the Health and safety executive concluded that the residents of the island faced an unacceptable risk, which led to the permission being revoked. The issue of risk was again highlighted in an attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in January 1979 on a storage tank at the island's Texaco oil terminal. A bomb was detonated at a tank containing aviation fuel, but failed to ignite with the fuel escaping into a safety moat. The Occidental site was abandoned in 1975 leaving a half-built oil refinery, storage tanks, and an unused mile long jetty which cost around £10 million of the approximate total of £60 million spent on the project. However, in the following years the disused and undisturbed site flourished as a haven for wildlife, and in 2003, the final storage tanks were removed in a clean-up operation, and the site was renamed as Canvey Wick and opened as a nature reserve.
|Canvey Island Independent Party (CIIP)||15|
Canvey is represented within Castle Point Borough Council by 17 councillors elected from six wards: Canvey Island Central, East, North, South, West, and Winter Gardens. The political affiliation of Canvey councillors within the council is almost exclusively led by the Canvey Island Independent Party (CIIP) formed in 2003 by local resident Dave Blackwell. 15 of the available 17 seats are taken by the CIIP with two held by members of the Conservative Party.
The Canvey Island town council was formed in 2007 after a petition containing the signatures of 3,000 islanders was accepted by the government. As of 2008, the council is represented by 11 councillors, and functions with Councillor surgeries, and through four committees - Community Relations, Environment and Open Spaces, Planning and Policy, and Finance. The surgeries are held at the town council offices, while the committees meet at various venues every fortnight.
|Canvey Island Compared|
|2001 UK census||Canvey Island||Castle Point||England|
|Over 65 years old||15%||17%||16%|
As of the 2001 UK census, the population of Canvey was 37,479 of which 87.9% of people were living within the five wards of the eastern area of the island at a population density of 38 persons per hectare, while the population density within the west ward - covering a larger area of the island - was 4.6 persons per hectare.
There were 15,312 dwellings on Canvey of which 98.7% were households. 42.4% were occupied by married couples, 13.9% of households contained three or more adults and no children, 26% were one person households, and 8.1% were occupied by co-habiting couples. Canvey had a higher proportion at 35.2% of households owning their properties outright compared with the average of 29.2% for England, but had a lower proportion when compared to the average for Castle Point at 39.9%.
There was a higher proportion of female residents than male by 0.03%. The median age of the population was 40 years, and 23% were under 18, while 15% of residents were over 65.
The island has a high proportion of white people compared to national figures; the ethnicity recorded was 98.2% white compared with 91% for England. 0.6% of the population of Canvey were of a mixed ethnic group, while 0.6% were Asian, 0.2% Black, and 0.2% Chinese.
4.2% of the population were foreign born, with 1.7% of residents born in another constituent country of the UK. 2.5% of the population were born outside the UK; and 1.2% of residents born outside Europe.
Religion was recorded as 74% Christian, 0.2% Muslim, 0.1% Jewish, 0.1% Hindu, while 16% of islanders had no religion.
The proportion of unemployed persons on Canvey was lower at 2.2% than for Castle Point at 2.4%, and England at 3.3%.
The Lobster Smack Public House at the south west corner of the island is a grade II listed building dated to the 17th century. The pub was known to Charles Dickens who mentioned it in Great Expectations. Alongside the pub is a row of wooden Coast guard cottages that date from the late 19th century which are also of grade II listed status.
Landmarks from the era of Canvey's development as a seaside resort in the 20th century include the International style Labworth Café built 1932-33 and designed by Ove Arup. The building fell into a state of disrepair in the 1970s and 80s but was renovated in 1996 and now functions as both a beach bistro and restaurant. The local bus depot within the island's Leigh Beck area was reopened as the Castle point transport museum in 1979. The depot had served the island between 1934-1978 and now houses a collection of buses, commercial, military and emergency vehicles, and general items related to public road transport.
Opened in 1979, the Heritage Centre along Canvey Road is housed in the former St. Katherine’s Church, which was built in 1874. Originally timber-framed, the church was rendered over in the 1930’s to give it its present appearance; it closed as a place of worship in 1962. It now contains an art and craft centre with a small folk museum.
There are two bus companies that operate services onto Canvey Island. These two companies are First Essex and Regal Busways. First Essex is the main bus operator and operates eight services onto Canvey, these services are: 3, 16, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 822. These all run through the town centre and connect all of the different parts of the island to the town centre. From Canvey, passengers can travel to places such as Southend, Basildon, Bournes Green and Benfleet. Regal Busways is a new operator on the island and started services in May 2006 and operate the No.1 service to Chelmsford. The service operates via Benfleet, South Benfleet, Battlesbridge, Howe Green and Sandon and occasionally beyond Chelmsford to Writtle. Regal Busways use Optare Tempo vehicles that have luxury leather seats and state-of-the-art public information systems.
Peter Taylor the temporary manager of the England football team in 2000 was born on Canvey. Other footballers from the island include Frank Saul: FA Cup winner in 1967 with Tottenham Hotspur F.C.; Ty Gooden: who played between 1992-2005 for teams such as Arsenal and Swindon Town F.C.; and Dean Marney: an England U21 currently playing at Hull City.
Seagulls and Magpies in welcome to visit Rooks as Lewes FC's kick off time is brought forward to avoid clash with Brighton and Newcastle's big FA Cup clash.
Jan 23, 2012; Lewes FC's home game this Saturday has been brought forward an hour to avoid a clash with Brighton and Hove Albion's big FA Cup...
Year Our Team Became the Essex Barcel-Ongar ; League Champions and Three-Time Cup Finalists in 2011-12PLAYERS and Supporters of Ongar Football Club Have Been Celebrating One of the Most Successful Seasons in Its 46-Year History. Here in His Own Words, Former Manager Clive Merrick Reflects on Last Season - His Last before Stepping Down. [Edition 2]
Jan 09, 2013; THE 2011-12 football season proved to be one of the most successful in Ongar United's 46-year history.The team played in Division...
Football: FA CUP - Canvey Look to Dicks to Inspire Another Upset ; Ryman League Club Aim to Add Northampton to Their List of Giant- Killing Exploits
Dec 08, 2001; THE FA CUP was supposed to arrive at Canvey Island FC on Thursday night for the benefit of the BBC cameras, which will be at the...
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Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are essential to summarize evidence relating to efficacy and safety of health care interventions accurately and reliably. The clarity and transparency of these reports, however, is not optimal. Poor reporting of systematic reviews diminishes their value to clinicians, policy makers, and other users.
Since the development of the QUOROM (QUality Of Reporting Of Meta-analysis) Statement—a reporting guideline published in 1999—there have been several conceptual, methodological, and practical advances regarding the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Also, reviews of published systematic reviews have found that key information about these studies is often poorly reported. Realizing these issues, an international group that included experienced authors and methodologists developed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) as an evolution of the original QUOROM guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of evaluations of health care interventions.
The PRISMA Statement consists of a 27-item checklist and a four-phase flow diagram. The checklist includes items deemed essential for transparent reporting of a systematic review. In this Explanation and Elaboration document, we explain the meaning and rationale for each checklist item. For each item, we include an example of good reporting and, where possible, references to relevant empirical studies and methodological literature. The PRISMA Statement, this document, and the associated Web site (www.prisma-statement.org) should be helpful resources to improve reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
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Fifty-four years ago this week, the famed Bell X-1E rocket-powered flight research aircraft flew for the twenty-sixth and final time. The flight marked the close of the highly productive twelve-year flight test history of the first series of X-aircraft.
In the years immediately following World War II, the United States began a relentless pursuit of increasing the speed and altitude capability of manned aircraft. Indeed, the effectual motto of that historic period was “Faster, Higher, and Farther”. The primary flight research tool for accomplishing this daunting objective was the now-famous X-aircraft series.
It all began with the USAF/Bell XS-1 rocket-powered flight research aircraft. With Bell Aircraft test pilot Jack Wollams at the controls, the XS-1 made its first glide flight at Pinecastle Army Airfield, Florida in January of 1946. Twenty-one months later (Tuesday, 14 October 1947), Captain Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager broke the sound barrier when he flew the XS-1 (Ship 1, S/N 46-062) to Mach 1.06 (700 mph).
Less than two years after the XS-1 first achieved supersonic flight, the type established performance records for both speed and altitude. Yeager hit Mach 1.45 (957 mph) in the XS-1 on Friday, 26 March 1948. Then, on Monday, 08 August 1949, USAF Major Frank K. “Pete” Everest soared to 71,902 feet at the controls of the same aircraft.
The USAF/Bell X-1A (S/N 48-1384) took aircraft performance to the next level in 1953 and 1954. In a flight in which he almost lost his life, USAF Major Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager flew the airplane to Mach 2.44 (1,620 mph) on Friday, 12 December 1953. This feat was followed by USAF Major Arthur “Kit” Murray when he flew the craft to an unofficial world altitude record of 90,440 feet on Thursday, 26 August 1954.
Meanwhile, the USAF/Bell X-1B (S/N 48-1385) first flew in September of 1954 with USAF Lt Col Jack Ridley doing the piloting honors. The X-1B was flown to Mach 2.3 (1,541 mph) by Pete Everest in December of 1954. NACA test pilot John B. “Jack” McKay hit an altitude of 62,952 feet in January of 1957. Although neither of these marks exceeded the X-1A’s performance records, the X-1B contributed significantly to the flight research database.
Neither the USAF/Bell X-1C nor USAF/Bell X-1D (S/N 48-1386) fulfilled the measure of their creation. In fact, the X-1C was never constructed. The X-1D made its initial glide flight on Tuesday, 24 July 1951 with Bell Aircraft test pilot Jean “Skip” Ziegler in the cockpit. However, the X-1D crashed to destruction on Wednesday, 22 August 1951 when it had to be jettisoned from its EB-50A launch aircraft due to unresolvable fuel system issues.
The USAF/Bell X-1E was actually a rebuild of the No. 3 XS-1 (S/N 46-063). The airplane’s XLR-11 propulsion system was upgraded via installation of a low-pressure turbopump system. Doing so eliminated the heavy and dangerous high-pressure fuel system utilized in previous X-1 aircraft. Other changes included the use of a new thin wing (4 percent thickness ratio) design and a streamlined, upward-opening canopy. The later feature permitted the first-time installation of an ejection seat in an X-1 vehicle.
The X-1E was flown 26 times between December of 1955 and November of 1958. NACA test pilot Joseph A. Walker flew the first 21 of these missions while fellow NACA test pilot John B. “Jack” McKay piloted the final 5 test sorties. Walker flew the maximum speed and altitude missions. He reached an altitude of 73,458 feet on Wednesday, 15 May 1957 and a speed of Mach 2.22 (1,487 mph) on Tuesday, 08 October 1957.
The final X-1E flight took place on Thursday, 06 November 1958 with Jack McKay at the controls. Although nondescript in terms of performance, the flight was historic in that it was the last of 239 flight tests in the pioneering X-1 series. From 1946 to 1958, a total of seven (7) X-1 aircraft and twenty-eight (28) Bell Aircraft, NACA and USAF pilots flew these missions.
The X-1E was retired after its twenty-sixth flight when structural cracks were discovered in its fuel tanks. Interstingly, this airframe flew 100 of the X-1 series flights (74 as the No. 2 XS-1 and 26 as the X-1E). Today, it is on public display in front of Building 4801 at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
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