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Alternating-current (AC) and direct-current (DC) motors have traditionally served distinctly different applications due to their construction and inherent operating characteristics. In general, AC motors were smaller, less expensive, lighter and more rugged than DC motors. DC motors, on the other hand, operated better in variable-speed applications, particularly those requiring wide speed ranges, and provided more precise speed control.
DC motors have been the workhorse of industry in many applications where variable-speed operation is needed. In these applications, DC motors are reliable and provide precise speed control under variable operating conditions. However, DC motors are expensive to purchase and to maintain. In addition, over the past 10 years, AC drives have improved to the point where their speed control is far more precise, rivaling that of servo drives. What's more, the AC motor and drive together often cost about the same price as the DC motor alone.
The development of modern AC motors and drives is blurring the distinctions that once governed the choice between AC and DC drives. The result is that lower-cost, more-reliable AC drives are moving into applications once reserved for DC drives.
Phot0 1. A typical AC motor and drive package.THE RISE OF AC DRIVES
AC drives are preferred when the motor environment is corrosive, potentially explosive, hazardous or wet, and demands special enclosures (explosion-proof, washdown, etc.). AC drives are also a good choice when the motors will receive little maintenance, either because they are inaccessible or because plant maintenance practices are poor.
AC drives generally are smaller and lighter than DC drives for a given torque and speed output, and they are capable of speeds approaching 10,000 rpm. In addition, a single AC drive can control multiple motors.
Modern AC motors and drives provide a number of additional operating benefits that rival those traditionally available only from DC drives. For example, today's drives can now produce full torque at start-up, something that once was impossible. They also are capable of speed ranges of 1,000:1 vs. only around 10:1 with previous AC drives.
Variable-speed AC drives also can adjust to fast-changing loads and provide tight speed regulation. When operated in closed-loop systems, AC drives can regulate speeds to within 0.01 percent and less. This makes them suitable for applications requiring high dynamic response, such as web processes, material handling sorter conveyors, metering pumps, extruders and test stands. The table on the next page compares the capabilities of standard DC motor drives and modern variable-speed AC drives.
Improved control technology is the reason for the vast improvement in AC drive performance. Today's inverters are smaller, less expensive, and they provide more capabilities than a few years ago.
Although AC motors have been capable of operating over huge speed ranges for some time, the drives available could not match their performance. Now, AC drives can produce near-servo-drive performance in a compact, reasonably priced package.
Photo 2. AC motors can provide you with a considerable cost savings when compared to DC motors.SPEED CONTROL EFFECTS
In most insulation systems, a 10-degree Celsius increase in operating temperature will reduce expected life by 50 percent. This is one reason why energy-efficient or premium-efficient motors, which operate at cooler temperatures under the same conditions of service, are often recommended for operation with adjustable-frequency drives. Another reason that adjustable-frequency, drive-controlled, fixed-frequency motors operate at higher temperatures is that the cooling fan operates directly off the motor shaft. Thus, as motor speed varies, so does fan speed, resulting in lower cooling at slower speeds.
When operated as adjustable-speed devices, motor cooling will be reduced at slower speeds. In such applications, the motor should be specifically designed for variable-speed operation. AC variable-speed motors usually state their speed range. If you apply the motor within the specified speed range, overheating should not be an issue.
This chart compares the capabilities of standard DC motor drives with those of modern variable-speed AC drives.OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
While the definition of high-performance is indefinite, one or more of the following factors usually characterizes such applications:
Continuous, constant torque required below 50 percent of the base speed.
Continuous, constant horsepower required above 150 percent of the base speed.
High starting loads or overloads.
High dynamic performance.
A process that cannot be started or run without variable-speed control.
Some AC motors are designed specifically to run on AF power and can provide continuous constant torque down to zero speed (1,000:1 turn-down). These designs are available in traditional totally enclosed, fan-cooled (TEFC) National Electrical Manufacturer's Association (NEMA) frame ratings or in very power-dense designs that look similar to the traditional square-frame DC. These power-dense designs are cooled with an auxiliary blower (force ventilated or blower cooled) or totally enclosed, fan-cooled construction, which eliminates the blower.
In higher horsepower ratings, these power-dense, blower-cooled designs represent a considerable cost saving vs. traditional fixed-speed motors. In addition, motors designed specifically for inverter-duty, high-performance applications have greater speed range, offer higher overload capability, and include thermal protection and mounting provision for speed-regulation devices.
Ted Stearns is a product manager at Applied Industrial Technologies, a North American distributor of parts critical to the operations of MRO and OEM customers. In his current position, Stearns focuses on speed reducer, gearmotor, conveyor component and conveying equipment product strategies. For more information on industrial motors, visit www.applied.com or call 877-279-2799.
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Another national trend has been the use of taxes and user fees to finance state and local government programs that either purchase land outright or purchase the future development rights for that land. Eleven states have such purchase of development rights (PDR) programs in place, and they have acquired the development rights for almost 350,000 acres of land. New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman recently announced an initiative to raise public funds to purchase the development rights of open space and farmland in New Jersey. Michigan initiated its own PDR program in 1996 as a modification to the tax credit program started in 1974.
While Michigan is in the process of purchasing the rights to several pieces of property, there are significant risks with these programs (see box, below).
First, PDR programs are permanent. Once the development rights are sold to the government or a private land trust, future development value is virtually eliminated because the land will be off-limits for development. This hamstrings communities as well as the state. As communities evolve over time, their needs and preferences change as well. Land that was considered ideal for one use may become more suitable for another use in the future.
The Risks of Program Inflexibility
Suppose local government officials determined that 20% of local land should be reserved for open space and they use the state’s property development rights (PDR) program to purchase future development rights for undeveloped farmland and open space in a concentrated area of the city. Ten years later, citizens decide that the emergence of other smaller parks scattered among residential neighborhoods has more than adequately addressed the open space needs of the community. Working with urban planners, local elected officials determine that 5 to 10% of the community’s land devoted to parks is more than enough. Freeing up this land would increase the quantity and quality of housing in the city, making housing more affordable. But the PDR program has eliminated any flexibility the community or private developers would have over the use of land. Parkland could not be redeveloped as affordable housing regardless of its potential benefit to the community.
PDR programs compound inefficiencies because they eliminate the most effective mechanism for ensuring that land uses are put to their highest and best social use: the real estate market. PDR programs place land off-limits to consumers seeking to purchase and use land to fulfill their own housing and family preferences. This means that a political process rather than an economic process will determine future land uses: Bureaucratic rules and political whims will rule over the preferences of individual households and families.
A superior alternative to PDR programs already exists in Michigan. The Farmland and Open Space Program (Public Act 116) allows farmers to voluntarily withdraw their land from the real estate market in exchange for tax credits for periods between 10 and 90 years. This program is flexible since it does not permanently withdraw land and does not require a direct outlay of tax money to purchase future development rights. Real estate markets will continue to allocate land for the highest and best economic use as land is gradually removed from the program. As mentioned previously, 41% of Michigan farmland is already enrolled in this program.
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The Gulf of Tonkin is a body of water that lies on the East Coast of North Vietnam and the West Coast of the island Hainan. This was the waters for the staging area of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, which included the American destroyers the Maddox and C. Turner Joy and the American aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ticonderoga. This was the site that would eventually lead the escalation and official documentation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Back to "The Cold War Era" Chronology
On August 2, 1964, the Maddox was conducting a "DeSoto patrol", referring to an espionage mission. The purpose of this mission was to collect intelligence on radar and coastal defenses of North Vietnam. It was this day that the North Vietnamese torpedo patrol boats attacked the Maddox. The U.S.S. Ticonderoga sent aircraft to repel the North Vietnamese attackers and sunk one boat while damaging other enemy vessels.
In an attempt to possibly lure the North Vietnamese into an engagement, both the Maddox and the C. Turner Joy were in the gulf on August 4. The captain of the Maddox had read his ships instruments as saying that the ship was under attack or had been attacked and began an immediate retaliatory strike into the night. The two ships began firing into the night rapidly with American warplanes supporting the showcasing of the American firepower. However, the odd thing was that the captain had concluded hours later that there might not have been an actual attack. James B. Stockdale, who was a pilot of a Crusader jet, undertook a reconnaissance flight over the waters that evening and when asked if he witnessed any North Vietnamese attack vessels, Stockdale replied: "Not a one. No boats, no wakes, no ricochets [sic] off boats, no boat impacts, no torpedo wakes-nothing but black sea and American firepower."
The entire event was purposely misconstrued when presented to Congress and the public by President Johnson and his administration, and on August 7, the "Tonkin Gulf Resolution" passed, 416 to 0 by the House and 88 to 2 by the Senate. The resolution stipulated that the President of the United States could "take all necessary measures to repel armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."
This was what led to the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and became the point where the U.S. made a large commitment. By July of 1965, the U.S. would have 80,000 troops mobilized and operating in South Vietnam. This opened the door to the eventual peak of some 543,000 troops by early 1969, including the dropping of 400 tons of bombs and ordnance per day. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a significant event in the fact that it opened the door to one of the most vivid and memorable wars in modern day history.
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8th Graders Propose Animal Abuser RegistryPosted by Pamela Hart, Director of ALDF's Animal Law Program on June 4th, 2012
In early 2010, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) launched a campaign aimed at promoting animal abuser registry legislation across the country. One component of ALDF’s model abuser registry legislation requires mandatory registration and community notification for convicted animal abusers. Why is this important? Because animal abusers are not only a threat to non-human animals, they also pose a risk to humans and communities at large. In fact, studies show, that when compared to their next-door neighbors, people who abused animals were five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people, four times more likely to commit property crimes, and three times more likely to have a record for drug or disorderly conduct offenses.
The good news is the need for animal abuser registries has resonated with citizens and legislators nationwide. In 2010, the first animal abuser registry was formed in Suffolk County, New York. Since then, animal abuser registries have been introduced in several states and jurisdictions across the country.
While it is certainly encouraging that animal abuser registries have started to form, there is still so much work that needs to be done at the grass roots level. Enter eighth-grade students from Rio Rancho’s Cyber Academy in New Mexico. As part of a school project, these inspirational Cyber Academy students recently made a presentation to the Rio Rancho Governing Body urging legislators to consider animal abuser registry legislation in their January session. During the presentation, these motivated students argued that animal protection laws are vague and highlighted the need for tougher statewide laws, especially penalties for animal abusers. While we won’t know the effect this presentation had on legislators until January, these young advocates have already made a tremendous impact by sharing their vision of a safer community for all.
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The key to understanding this difference in aspect (not tense) lies in knowing what kind of verb we're dealing with. For verbs that describe actions (食【た】べる, 走【はし】る, etc) and events (降【ふ】る, 吹【ふ】く, etc), ～ている shows the continuation of an action. For verbs that describe changes in state (死【し】ぬ, 割【わ】れる, 溶【と】ける, etc), ～ている shows the continuation of a state.
Another way to conceptualize this is the idea that action/event verbs can take place over a length of time, while change-in-state verbs often happen instantaneously.
There are some diagrams on page 54 of this book that help a little. I will redraw two of them here (with some modifications) for the sake of convenience:
Type 1: action/event verbs
Type 2: change-in-state verbs
So where does 送【おく】る fit in? We might be tempted to think that 送【おく】る is an action verb, and in a sense it is, as it is transitive and takes a direct object. But 送【おく】る shows an instantaneous change in state: a change from not-sent to sent. This is why 送【おく】っている means "I have sent [it]."
"Ah," you say, "but there are change-in-state verbs that happen over a length of time. How do we deal with those?" Let's look at 溶【と】ける:
アイスが溶【と】けているよ。はやく食【た】べなさい。 Your ice cream is melting. Hurry up and eat it.
アイスが溶【と】けちゃうよ。はやく食【た】べなさい。 Your ice cream will melt away. Hurry up and eat it.
うわぁ、アイスがぜんぶ溶【と】けている。どうしよう？ Woah, the ice cream has all melted. What should we do?
友【とも】だちとしゃべっている間【あいだ】、アイスが溶【と】けちゃった。 My ice cream melted away while I was chatting with a friend.
溶【と】ける is one of those pesky verbs that doesn't fit into just one of our categories above. It could be taken as either an event verb or a change-in-state verb. So 溶【と】けている could be taken as "is melting" or "has melted", depending on the context. Verbs such as 死【し】ぬ, however, show only an instantaneous change in state. 死【し】んでいる always means "has died", and not "is dying".
"But!" you say, not wishing to be denied any chance for objection, "What about using ～ている with expressions of frequency?" This is where ～ている doesn't line up with any of our nice English translations:
古【ふる】くなった細胞【さいぼう】は毎日【まいにち】死【し】んでいる。 Old cells die every day. (not are dying or have died)
毎週【まいしゅう】大阪【おおさか】に行【い】っている。 I go to Osaka every week. (not am going or have gone)
This could be interpreted as a use of progressive aspect, but translating it into English with an -ing verb form doesn't work grammatically.
Verbs like 行【い】く, 来【く】る, and 帰【かえ】る, which deal with movement from one point to another, look like action verbs on the surface, but in their ～ている forms, they work more like change-in-state verbs:
彼【かれ】は日本【にほん】に行【い】っている。 He has gone to Japan. (He went to Japan, and is still there.)
お父【とう】さんはまだ帰【かえ】っていない。 Dad hasn't come home yet. (He may be on the way home, but the change in state from not-home to home hasn't happened yet.)
There are times when you want to take a change-in-state verb and "zoom in" on the point when the change takes place to treat it like a continuous-action verb. This is what ～ところ is for:
送【おく】るところだ。 I am just about to send it.
送【おく】っているところだ。 I am sending it right now. (implies that the speaker has her finger on the button for "Send")
送【おく】ったところだ。 I just sent it.
Naturally, ところ can also mean "place", so you might have to do some contextual sleuthing to figure out which is meant:
ビルが崩壊【ほうかい】しているところを見【み】た。 I saw the building as it was collapsing. (note ～ている in Japanese, was in English!)
道路【どうろ】の崩壊【ほうかい】しているところを直【なお】す。 We will repair the places where the road has collapsed.
～つつある, attaching to the ～ます stem (壊【こわ】れつつある), can be used like ～ところ, but is more common in writing than in speech.
The main difference between ～ている and ～てある (aside from the fact that ～てある requires a transitive verb, which I'm sure you already know), is that ～てある implies the existence of an actor who performs the action for some purpose. ～ている, on the other hand, has no such implication, and reads as though the action occurred with no particular purpose. Thus we can draw the following contrast:
○ 寒【さむ】いので、窓【まど】が閉【し】めてあります。 It's cold, so the window has been closed.
It's cold, so the window is closed. (incorrect)
Suppose, however, you walk into a room with an open window, and you have no idea whether the window was opened for some purpose. In this case, ～てある is incorrect:
○ あ、窓【まど】が開【あ】いている。 Ah, the window is open.
Ah, the window has been opened. (incorrect)
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's National Library is unveiling a trove of Hebrew manuscripts giving the first physical evidence of an ancient Jewish community in Afghanistan.
Library officials said Thursday the documents came from caves in an area of northern Afghanistan that is now a Taliban stronghold.
The documents, some 1,000 years old, survived because Jews do not throw out papers that include the name of God, and the dry conditions in the caves where they were stored preserved them.
Researchers say the "Afghan Genizah" marks the greatest such archive found since the "Cairo Genizah" was discovered in an Egyptian synagogue more than 100 years ago, a vast depository of medieval manuscripts considered to be among the most valuable collections of historical documents ever found.
"Genizah" is the Hebrew word for storage for documents.
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Sign Language Made Simple will include five Parts:
Part One: an introduction, how to use this book, a brief history of signing and an explanation of how signing is different from other languages, including its use of non-manual markers (the use of brow, mouth, etc in signing.)
Part Two: Fingerspelling: the signing alphabet illustrated, the relationship between signing alphabet and ASL signs
Part Three: Dictionary of ASL signs: concrete nouns, abstractions, verbs, describers, other parts of speech-approx. 1,000 illustrations. Will also include instructions for non-manual markers, where appropriate.
Part Four: Putting it all together: sentences and transitions, includes rudimentary sentences and lines from poems, bible verses, famous quotes-all illustrated. Also, grammatical aspects, word endings, tenses.
Part Five: The Humor of Signing: puns, word plays and jokes.
Sign Language Made Simple will have over 1,200 illustrations, be easy to use, fun to read and more competitively priced than the competition. It's a knockout addition to the Made Simple list.
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The Yungang Grottoes are located 16 km west of Datong and comprise about 53 caves and 51,000 statues. The site stretches about 1 kilometer from east to west and was hollowed from the sandstone cliffs of the Wuzhou Mountains during the 5th century CE under the patronage of the Northern Wei dynasty. Founded by the Tuoba or Toba people, who ruled northern China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period (310-589 CE), the Wei dynasty adopted Buddhism as its state religion. Work was begun at Yungang by the emperor Wenchengdi (reigned 452-465). The caves range in width from 23 m to a few metres. In 494, the Wei moved their capital from Datong to Luoyang and the Yungang Grottoes slowly fell into decay. The Grottoes have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2001. Cave 1 dates from the last phase of carving, under private patronage, lasting until 525, when the construction came to a final halt due to uprisings in the area.
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Posted: May 1, 2012
Improving the health of people living in food deserts is much more than making sure there are veggies on the shelves. As activists have learned, it takes education and some old-fashioned innovation, too.
There's a battle for better health going on in poor neighborhoods across the country, and part of that battle involves getting people living in so-called food deserts access to healthy food.
But as many activists have learned, it takes a combination of access, innovation, and education to change peoples' habits for the better.
Duane Perry stepped into the struggle by accident twenty years ago. He founded an organization called The Food Trust that set up farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods of Philadelphia. At the time, he wasn't thinking about what makes people healthy or sick. The lack of grocery stores in these neighborhoods just seemed like an issue of basic fairness.
"We'd go out and hear stories from little kids who'd say, 'My grandmother has to go out to the suburbs; she has to borrow a car from a friend to go once a month to get fresh fruits and vegetable; why is that?'" says Perry.
Once Perry and his fellow food campaigners started working in some of these neighborhoods, though, they came to see a connection between food markets and public health. They realized that the parts of the city without good supermarkets also were home to people who suffered from high rates of illnesses related to poor diet, such as obesity and diabetes.
"We heard stories of nurses who would actually buy food, bring it into the health center, and distribute it to their clients, because that was the only way for them to get food," Perry says.
Activists and researchers in other American cities, such as Chicago, and in the United Kingdom, noticed the same thing. Some started calling such areas "food deserts" - although Yael Lehmann, executive director of The Food Trust, doesn't really like that term. "It gives this idea that there's no food at all. But the truth is that they're bombarded with soda and chips and unhealthy products," she says.
The Food Trust started a campaign to bring more and better supermarkets into areas that lacked them. The US Department of Agriculture has taken up the fight against food deserts (it even has a handy Food Desert Locator), as has Michelle Obama, with her "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity.
There have been successes. In Pennsylvania, a government-backed lending program has persuaded dozen of supermarkets to move into neighborhoods that didn't have any.
But along with those successes, have come disappointments.
"We've learned that access alone doesn't do it," says Barry Popkin, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina. A few years ago, Popkin chaired a meeting of experts on the health effects of food deserts. The farmers markets didn't seem to have a measurable effect on the health of people in that neighborhood. Nor did bringing in a supermarket.
"Out of that, we've now come up with additional efforts that are starting to work," he says. Those additional efforts include making good food more affordable, consumer education, and some good old-fashioned sales promotion.
So the Food Trust is shifting gears a bit. Instead of just trying to bring in supermarkets, it's working with the owners of hundreds of little corner stores - the kind that are common throughout low-income areas of the city, but have a reputation for selling mostly junk food.
The Polo Food Market at the corner of 10th and Brown Streets has a new, colorful refrigerator. It's on loan from The Food Trust, and it's stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Store owner Salinette Rodriquez says she always wanted to sell this kind of thing. "So when they came with the idea, I said 'Great! This is what we need!"
She says dozens of kids come in here every morning and leave with fruit: Apples, oranges, and lots of bananas. "Once they see something, they'll take it. If they don't see it, they won't take it."
We've reported before that simply moving fresh foods up to the front of the corner store or improving grocery store lighting attracts more buyers.
But making this food available is only the start of this new campaign. On several store racks, there are signs that rate products green, yellow, or red, based on how nutritious they are. And there are flashy little cards with recipes for how to use some of the most nutritious ingredients. Each of these meals should feed a family of four and cost about five dollars.
On this day, the tray of recipe cards is full. "We re-stocked today," says Rodriguez. "But they just take them. They say, 'Oh, I did this. This is good!' And they come and grab another one every morning. I'm like, 'Good!"
Barry Popkin, from the University of North Carolina, says this is the sort of effort that really can work. But changing food habits won't happen quickly, he says. Powerful economic incentives got us into this situation over the course of the past half-century.
"In 1950, low-income Americans ate the most healthy diets in our country," he says. "In 2010, they ate the least healthy diets. And that's because the least healthy foods are the cheapest."
When I got to the Polo Food Shop, in fact, I got a reminder of what the reformers are up against. The Frito-Lay man was already there, re-stocking the shelves.
Please follow our community discussion rules when composing your comments.
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The Class of IntentionalPsychologicalProcesses
which involve concluding, on the basis of either deductive or inductive
evidence, that a particular Proposition or Sentence is true.
SUMO / PROCESSES
Related WordNet synsets
See more related synsets on a separate page.
- reasoning, logical thinking, abstract thought
- thinking that is coherent and logical
- think logically
- reason, reason out, conclude
- decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion; "We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house"
- deduce, infer, deduct, derive
- reason by deduction; establish by deduction
- inferential, illative
- relating to or having the nature of illation or inference; "the illative faculty of the mind"
If agent is an instance of cognitive agent, then agent is capable to do reasoning in role agent.
(instance ?AGENT CognitiveAgent)
(capability Reasoning agent ?AGENT))
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California Land and PropertyEdit This Page
From FamilySearch Wiki
Spanish and Mexican Records
Until 1822 Spain granted land to settlers. From 1822 to 1846 Mexico granted land and processed claims for the earlier Spanish grants. Many of these early records are at the California State Archives and the Bancroft Library. One set of surviving records, dating from 1833 to 1845, is the Spanish Archives Record Group available at the California State Archives and the Family History Library (Family History Library films 978888-901; indexes are on Family History Library films 978888-890).
The National Archives also has some early claim records, such as the "Mexican Expedientes, 1822-1846." The following give names of early landowners:
- Avina, Rose Hollenbaugh. Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in California. 1932. Reprint. New York, NY: Arno Press, 1976. (Family History Library book 979.4 R2m.) This publication gives a history of land distribution and a list of pre-1847 ranchos.
- Cowan, Robert G. Ranchos of California, A List of Spanish Concessions, 1775-1822, and Mexican Grants, 1822-1846. Fresno, California: Academy Library Guild, 1956. (Family History Library book 979.4 R2cr.)
Names of early California residents are indexed in the California State Archives collection titled Spanish and Mexican Land Grant Maps, 1855-1875. This index may be accessed at no charge and provides the identification number, grant name, name of confirmee, acres and patent date.
When the United States acquired California in 1848, it agreed to recognize earlier claims. A commission was established in 1852 to process the claims. The National Archives has these commission records, including petitions and translations of Spanish documents. These are indexed in:
- J.N. Bowman, Index to the Spanish-Mexican Private Land Grant Records and Cases of California, 1958, Reprint (Berkeley, California: Bancroft Library, University of California, 1970; Family History Library film 833343).
The Family History Library and the National Archives have records of private land grant cases from U.S. circuit and district courts from 1852 to 1910. There are no records of gold rush claims except those that were contested in the courts.
Federal and State Records
Unclaimed land became the public domain. Portions were surveyed and sold by the federal government through land offices. The first general land offices were established in Los Angeles and Benicia in 1853. Some land office records are at the National Archives—Pacific Region (San Bruno) and the National Archives—Pacific Region (Laguna Niguel).
The Bureau of Land Management and General Land Office (BLM-GLO) has an on line Land Patent Search which is an index to millions of ancestors in federal land patents from 1788 to the 1960s at the National Archives. Start with this index to get the information needed to obtain the applications for land patents which may be a rich source of genealogical information about a family.
- California State Office
- 2800 Cottage Way, Suite W-1834
- Sacramento, CA 95825-1886
- Telephone: (916) 978-4400
- Fax: (916) 978-4416
- TDD (916) 978-4419
- Contact us by Email
The National Archives has the original tract books, plat maps, and land-entry case files. These include cash entries and homestead entries.
Records of state land grants are located at the:
- State Lands Commission
- 100 Howe Ave.
- Suite E 100 S.
- Sacramento, California 95825
- Telephone: 916-574-1900
- Internet: http://www.slc.ca.gov/
After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions have been filed with the county recorder. The Family History Library has microfilm copies of deeds and mortgages for some counties and is presently acquiring records of other counties.
FamilySearch Historical Records Collections
An online collection containing this record is located in FamiySearch.org
A wiki article describing this collection is found at:
California Research Outline. Salt Lake City, Utah: Intellectual Reserve, Inc., Family History Department, 1998, 2003.
- NOTE: All of the information from the original research outline has been imported into this Wiki site and is being updated as time permits.
New to the Research Wiki?
In the FamilySearch Research Wiki, you can learn how to do genealogical research or share your knowledge with others.Learn More
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Bonanza Farming in the Red River Valley
by Hiram Drache
MHS Transactions, Series 3, Number 24, 1967-68 season
The geological formation of Lake Agassiz provided a fertile, treeless, stoneless, prairie in the central part of North America. Despite the fertility of the soil, there was little early interest in this area because pioneers did not have the necessary trees and water to attract them to the region.
In 1812 Pembina became the first settlement south of what was to become the international boundary. Members from the settlement at Fort Garry in Canada came down annually to hunt buffalo in this region. These hunters killed 20,000 buffalo each year until about the 1850s. In 1842 the Red River Carts started their periodic journeys to St. Paul. These Red River carts were a dramatic part of history. Sometimes as many as 800 of them made up a single train. In 1857, the United States government provided for the erection of Fort Abercrombie north of what is now Breckenridge, Minnesota which served as the head of navigation until the railroad came to Moorhead in the early 1870s. In 1859, the Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post at what is now Georgetown, Minnesota. Hudson's Bay had three other trading posts south of the international boundary.
In 1864, the Congress of the United States chartered the Northern Pacific Railway Company. This charter provided for a land grant of nearly 11 million acres in what is now the state of North Dakota alone. The total land grant, the largest given by the Congress to any single railroad company, amounted to 44 million acres. Eventually 5 million acres were returned to public domain. Thirty-nine million acres in all were secured by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The land grant entitled the Northern Pacific to twenty sections of land per mile of railroad built from Thompson, near Duluth, Minnesota, to the Red River. West of the Red River it secured forty sections of land per mile through the territories to the Pacific Ocean. The Northern Pacific was granted the odd numbered sections, 1, 3, 5, 7, up to 35. This meant that the Northern Pacific received an area of about forty miles in width across Minnesota, retaining every other section in that area. After it crossed the Red River and secured the forty sections, it had half of the land in a swath eighty miles wide across the state of North Dakota. This continued through Montana and the other states to the Pacific Ocean. Incidentally, the 11 million acres that were received in North Dakota was approximately one-fourth of the entire area of the state. The Northern Pacific did not receive all of the odd numbered sections within this original grant because some pre-empters had come through the region before the railroad could officially claim it. The United States government compensated the railroad for the loss of some of this pre-empted land by giving them an additional section beyond the original eighty mile plot through the Territories. To secure this land grant, the Northern Pacific was informed that it would have to give the government of the United States half fare on all freight and passengers that the government sent over the railroad. In addition the United States government increased the price of public domain on the even numbered sections within the grant from $1.25 an acre to $2.50 an acre. By this method the United States government was in a position to secure just as much money from the area where the railroad traveled as it would have if it had sold the entire region for $1.25 an acre. The United States government did not release the Northern Pacific from its obligation of half fare on freight and passengers until after World War II had ended in 1946.
The next major incident in the history of the Northern Pacific came in 1873. The Dakotas were not particularly attractive to many of the European settlers and eastern American farmers who were looking for new land. For a period of a century, everything west of west central Minnesota had been called the Great American Desert. Geography and history books had this carefully marked as such. However, some settlers who had left Russia at this period of time because of the changing attitude of their government were attracted to the regions of the Dakotas. A large number of Mennonites from the Ukraine decided to settle west of the Red River around Fargo, North Dakota. In June of 1873, the Northern Pacific offered to reserve for them all of their land grant west of the Red River for the first fifty miles. In each mile west of the river, the Northern Pacific had forty sections of land. In total, the Northern Pacific offered to reserve 2,000 sections in an area fifty miles by eighty miles. The Northern Pacific set the price at $3.00 per acre and agreed to give this land to the Mennonites at a 10 per cent down payment and the balance in seven years. It also promised to re-purchase any land that the Mennonites did not care to buy after they had made their settlement. The road also guaranteed a rate reduction for freight and passengers for a three year period commencing in 1873. The Northern Pacific gave an additional discount on land that would be broken within the first, second, and third years of purchase by the Mennonites. The reason for this, of course, was to stimulate farming activity and give the road income.
The Mennonites were attracted to the Dakota area, but before they would agree to purchase from the Northern Pacific, they wanted two privileges granted to them by the government of the United States. They wanted exemption from military service and they wanted to secure all the even numbered sections within the land grant which was still public domain. This would have given the Mennonites a solid block of 4,000 sections in an area 50 by 80 miles west of the Red River in North Dakota. Congress seriously considered granting military exemption because the mood in the United States at that time pretty well reflected the idea that there would be no major war for that country for the foreseeable future. However, Congress was not happy about the suggestion that it give contiguous sections of public domain within the land grant. It did not want to violate the popular Homestead Act that had been passed in 1862. There was pressure on Congress from two sources not to allow the Mennonites to secure the two privileges they were asking for. This pressure came from railroads in other areas of the United States and from other states that were not securing their potential quota of immigrants. The combined pressure was too much for Congress and neither of the requests was granted. At the same time the Mennonites had been negotiating with the Canadian government and when their requests for special privileges were denied by the American government, the Mennonites went to Manitoba where they secured twenty-five townships in the Morris and Altona area. They immediately dropped their demands upon the Northern Pacific for the 2,000 sections of land grant.
The twenty-five townships reserved for the Mennonites in Manitoba were divided between some very poor and some very good land. The land east of Morris was very wet and very low and was not particularly conducive to successful settlement, but the townships granted to the Mennonites around Altona were better drained and proved to be a choice bit of land for these people. The Canadian government twisted the arm of the Mennonites a bit by demanding that they take all of the land in these townships rather than letting them have their choice as was the case with the individual homesteaders when they came to any given area. It was in the Altona area where they became permanently established and to this day are some of the most successful farmers in Canada. It was in this region also that one of the large farms, the Lowe farm, west of Morris, was established. This farm, which closely resembles a typical bonanza, operated by three men, including Mr. Lowe. It employed some of the first mechanized plowing and threshing to take place within the area of western Canada.
The second major event affecting the Northern Pacific progress and the eventual development of the bonanza, came with the Panic of 1873. The Northern Pacific had spent money rather recklessly in the construction of the road and abused some of its land grant privileges. This was in keeping with the typical railroad construction company which sought to milk the railroad of all profits possible in the process of construction and hoped that some how or other the railroad at a later date would stand the burden of the excessive construction cost.
The original intent of the land grant as given by Congress was that this land should be sold to homesteaders and the money should go for building the railroad, but as previously stated, few Americans were interested in settling on land from Central Minnesota and west. No one really wanted to settle in the Great American Desert. This forced the railroad to change its tactics. If it could not sell the land, then it would have to try to secure money by some other means. The Northern Pacific decided that the best thing to do was to mortgage this land.
In their efforts to secure a broker, Jay Cooke and Company were hired. Jay Cooke had just finished underwriting the bond sales of the American government during the Civil War. He had been very successful in that respect and had now become the biggest banker in America. Jay Cooke was quite reluctant to assume the sale of mortgage bonds for the Northern Pacific railroad, but he did send his surveyor, Milnor Roberts, out here. Mr. Roberts determined that some day the land west of the Red River would be worth $5 per acre. On the basis of the $5 value, Jay Cooke and Company decided that they would underwrite the construction or the sale of Northern Pacific bonds.
Cooke had several difficulties. These bonds were 7.3 per cent gold bearing. Cooke turned to the American public in his first efforts to sell them. The American public was reluctant to buy because they could secure bonds that paid equal interest in many of the already successful railroads of America. In desperation, Cooke sent some of his chief brokers to Europe where they found that the nations were involved in reconstructing France after the Franco-Prussian War and were more interested in investing in colonial areas where imperialistic ventures were absorbing all of their available cash. Thus the Europeans were not a good market for Northern Pacific bonds. When the brokers returned from Europe, Cooke decided that he would have to put pressure on American buyers. Because of his position as the biggest banker in the nation, he was able to convince many large purchasers to secure Northern Pacific bonds. Cooke was not particularly happy about having to do this. Suddenly everything seemed to tumble in on him at once. He had been involved in the struggle within the Baptist church over the issue of the race problem. Cooke also had some personal family problems that were disturbing him at this time, but more importantly, his conscience was bothering him because he was selling bonds to reluctant purchasers. Because of this he went to the Northern Pacific executives and told them that they would have to slow down construction. They paid no attention to his warnings. Finally he went to them and told them they would have to stop building because he had no more funds. Jay Cooke had advanced 5 million dollars out of his own bank but was unable to sell the bonds to cover that advance. Construction came to a standstill in the summer of 1873 at the Missouri River and was not continued for several years. Government examiners determined that even though Cooke had 16 million dollars in assets and only 8 million dollars in liability his bank should be closed. The major reason was that most of the 16 million dollars in assets was tied up in relatively non-liquid railroad bonds.
With the closing of the largest bank in America, the Panic of 1873 set in on the nation. The Northern Pacific bonds tumbled from their original cost of about $80 to $15, and eventually to a low of $7. Many people in the East had literally been taken for a ride by the recklessness of the Northern Pacific. Many of them were desperate to get rid of these bonds before the bottom dropped out entirely. At this time J. B. Power, who was to become the most significant early resident of the Red River Valley, entered the scene. J. B. Power was active in the educational circles of North Dakota as an early president of North Dakota Agricultural College. He was also active in political circles of the Territory and later of what was to be the state of North Dakota. He was a large-scale farmer and eventually secured 6,000 acres south-west of Fargo where he was a progressive farmer, particularly in the area of livestock and swine breeding and feeding.
J. B. Power, who I have dubbed the Father of North Dakota agriculture, was responsible for the bonanza scheme for he was also land agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Power believed that the only way to overcome the tradition that Dakota was the Great American Desert was to actively promote the region in the farm periodicals of America and Europe of that day. The Northern Pacific eventually had about 1,500 agents in the European area to promote the land of mid-America. These agents had to have a story to tell. James B. Power developed the bonanza scheme to sell bonds of the Northern Pacific in exchange for land. The bondholders of the railroad were informed that if they would take their bonds, which were valued at from $7 to $15, and exchange them for Northern Pacific land, they would be able to recover most of their losses. Although the railroad was desperate to secure homesteaders, it was more desperate to get rid of the 7.3 per cent interest loan on these bonds. In many cases the interest was more than the market value of the bonds. Power believed that large-scale commercial farms would be the quickest way to promote the area, settle the land, and bring business to the railroad. These large-scale commercial farms received much publicity in the magazines and proved to the nation the value of the region.
The railroad was at a virtual standstill through 1873 and 1874. Near the end of 1874, Power introduced his bonanza scheme to the board of directors. The bonds, worth only $7 to $14, were honored at $110 if traded for land. The railroad agreed not to charge more than $5 per acre maximum, and at the outer extremity of the grant, it charged only $1.23 per acre, list price. This was actually two cents per acre less than the price of public domain beyond the grant. Under this option, land was secured for as little as sixteen cents per acre.
This should have attracted large numbers of investors but the people were still reluctant to come to the Great American Desert. Finally a break for the Northern Pacific came with an exceptional crop by James Holes, a farmer and a front man for the railroad in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Holes had purchased some of the even numbered sections where the railroad wanted to cross the Red River. In an area about seven miles west of this crossing, he produced a forty bushel per acre crop of wheat on forty acres of land along the Sheyenne River. This wheat sold for $1.25 per bushel which meant an income of $50 per acre on land that had cost him less than 50¢. Surely this should have started a mass movement to the Valley. Some people had visions of spending $320 for a section of land which would bring them a $32,000 crop in one year, still no one came to the Dakotas.
Finally, James B. Power convinced two directors of the Northern Pacific that they should leave Wall Street and invest some of their money in Northern Pacific Land. Benjamin Cheney and General George W. Cass were persuaded to purchase 13,440 acres in an area about 18 miles west of Fargo or two miles east of what is now Casselton, North Dakota. The face value of the bonds that were used to purchase this 13,440 acre tract of land was $35,000. The sale price on this land had been established at $4.50 per acre. This meant that the actual cost of the treeless, stoneless, fertile prairie was 55 cents per acre. Once Cass and Cheney had established themselves, the railroad began to sell land quite rapidly. Within the next three years up to 1878, it sold 1.2 million acres of land, half of it to 40 individuals for an average sale of 13,000 acres. In December of 1878 other activity was taking place farther north in the Red River Valley when the St. Paul and Pacific and the Canadian Pacific railroads were joined at the international border. The dream of many St. Paul merchants was now realized for Winnipeg was now connected directly to that city by railroad.
History has proven that it was the price of the land to the initial purchaser and not to the profits of farming which proved to be the real bonanza. Cass and Cheney had paid about 55 cents an acre for their land. As settlers located farther away from the railroad, the market price of the land dropped. Land within the first six miles of the railroad was priced at $4.50 per acre. In the next six miles it was $3.50 per acre, and then in another six miles it dropped again. Six to eight miles reflected the practical driving distance for a farmer using horses. In the extreme northern region of the Northern Pacific grant in the area around Mayville, North Dakota the Northern Pacific had set the list price at $1.23 per acre. By trading in stock that had a market value of $15 per acre, it meant that the actual cash cost of this treeless, fertile, stoneless prairie was 16 cents.
Many of the people who came to invest in Northern Pacific land were not necessarily enthused about farming in this part of America. Many of them came here because they wanted to save their investment. One such purchase of the land grant was by a family of Pennsylvania bankers, oilmen, and lumberjacks - the Grandin Brothers. The Grand-ins had loaned $88,000 to Jay Cooke and Company. Now that he was unable to pay his debt, Mr. Cooke informed the Grandins that he would settle with them at the rate of 10 cents on a dollar if they wanted cash, or he would give them $60,000 of his Northern Pacific stock. Mr. Cooke had received Northern Pacific stock as part of his commission for selling stocks and bonds of the railroad. The cash value of the 660,000 worth of stock was possibly not more than $4,200, but the Grandins came to Dakota to determine whether they should take the stock or settle for the 10 cents on a dollar cash offer. On his visit here, J. L. Grandin determined that the land was valuable and decided to trade Jay Cooke's note of $88,000 for the $60,000 of railroad securities.
The Grandins encountered difficulty for they were unable to determine exactly which land was theirs. Some of the survey stakes had been removed but they were able to find the original base piles of rock that the surveyors had put in the region and by using the base point they were given permission by the Fargo land office to measure off thirty-six alternate sections of land in two townships. By using a compass and a handkerchief tied to a spoke of a buggy wheel, they were able to determine direction and distance for measuring land. In this manner they measured their own land - 19,800 acres in all in return for a worthless note of $88,000.
The Grandins were so enthused about the future of the Valley that they decided to purchase more Northern Pacific stock in order to trade for more of the Valley land. J. L. Grandin returned to Pennsylvania and purchased stock for $7 to $15 from investors who were reluctant to move to this region. He wired back to Oliver Dalrymple who he had met on his trip to Fargo, and instructed him to go farther north and secure any of the unpurchased land on the northern edge of the land grant. At that time Dalrymple was able to purchase another 22,580 acres for the Grandins which cost them $2,700 in cash. Most of this land was in the area of Mayville, North Dakota. When the Grandins had completed their purchases they owned 75,535.26 acres which was divided into several farms around Mayville, Hillsboro, Blanchard, Portland, and Grandin, North Dakota, and Halstad, and Georgetown, Minnesota.
Other prominent individuals purchased land in this region during the years 1877-78-79. Charlemagne Tower, who was known as the iron millionaire of Pennsylvania, secured 28,240 acres near what is now Tower City, North Dakota. Frederick Billings, one of the directors of the Northern Pacific and a perpetual speculator, had 28,672 acres in the region. George W. Christian secured 28,060 acres. The Carrington Brothers and Casey, from Toledo, Ohio, secured 35,782 acres in the area around Carrington, North Dakota. Mr. Steele and Mr. Small secured 48,000 acres farther west in Dakota. Two gentlemen, Mr. Griggs and Mr. Foster had 35,756 acres in the area of Griggs and Foster Counties in east central Dakota. Some lumberjacks from Michigan and south-eastern Minnesota who had hit it lucky in a minor gold mining adventure in southwestern United States, decided to try their luck in Northern Pacific land. The Cooper Brothers secured 34,080 acres in the area that is now Cooperstown. H. D. Clark, a brewer from Pennsylvania, was looking for a better place to grow barley for his brewery. He secured 25,500 acres a short distance east of Bismarck. Major Buttz, a lawyer from South Carolina, went out on the southwestern branch of the North-ern Pacific toward LaMoure and secured 36,000 acres near what is now Buttzville and built a 45,000 bushel elevator. An ardent Presbyterian, B. S. Russell, who is possibly best known for his religious activities in the state, was the trustee for a corporate farm called Spiritwood. Spiritwood, which is east of Jamestown, had about 20,000 acres and specialized in sheep raising. Knowledge about this farm is quite limited although it is known to have had a 102-bed dormitory on the headquarters farm. Congressman Dwight from New York secured 27,000 acres in the area of Dwight and Mooretown, North Dakota, west of Wahpeton. Francis Downing, a manufacturer from Massachusetts, secured 27,000 acres in the area west of Wahpeton. He did not come out here himself but sent his nephew, F. A. Bagg who became one of the better known bonanza managers. Lord Francis Sykes from England sent his son over to form what might be called a settlement company. They had 10,000 acres near Warren, Minnesota, and developed another 45,000 acres in the area of Sykeston, North Dakota.
One of the most unique of all the bonanza settlements originated with forty individuals from Amenia, New York and Sharon, Connecticut. These forty people had invested about $92,000 in Northern Pacific stock that were now worth about $7,000. Rather than sell their stocks at market price, they decided to incorporate and trade their stock for Dakota land and hope that the rise in land values would enable them to recover their investment. The newly incorporated Amenia and Sharon Land Company sent E. W. Chaffee to the Dakotas to open up the land and sell it. Once Mr. Chaffee set foot on Dakota soil he became so enthused about the area that he decided that rather than sell it, he would develop a large bonanza farm. This farm grew to its greatest height under Mr. Chaffee's son, H. F. Chaffee who purchased the holdings of the eastern stockholders. In 1912, prior to H. F. Chaffee's death, the farm contained more than 42,000 acres. In addition, at one time or another, this farm had thirty-three subsidiary corporations involved in some type of agri-business. This was one of the last of the bonanzas to be liquidated. It was not until the high tax structure of World War I was imposed upon them that the Chaffees were forced to liquidate the bonanza by subdividing into individual holdings.
The most dramatic and best known of all of bonanza farm operations were those under the management of Oliver Dalrymple. Oliver Dalrymple was a graduate lawyer who had secured a large fee for settling the white man's claim against the government of the United States after the Sioux outbreak of 1862. Dalrymple invested his money in a large wheat farm south of St. Paul, Minnesota, and became the wheat king of Minnesota. Dalrymple was an immediate success at farming. He was also a very successful lawyer, but his love for land eventually determined his future. He speculated on the grain futures markets in Minneapolis and St. Paul and eventually lost his entire farm fortune. Mr. Cass, Cheney, Power were looking for a manager for their 13,440 acre farm at Casselton. Although they had some doubts about Dalrymple, they decided that he had the imagination, managerial abilities, and determination to fill this position. Dalrymple was anxious to come to Dakota, the land that he had dreamed of for many years. He secured a very fine management contract which provided for a salary plus the option to purchase into the original bonanza at the initial price at any time. Dalrymple did not exercise this purchase option immediately for he preferred to use his funds for purchasing other land. His contract eventually provided for 1/3 of the net income of the bonanza.
In the early years Dalrymple purchased land in the area as rapidly as he could, much of it on a shoe string. He was wise in this respect. Dalrymple realized that land value would rise rapidly in the Dakotas once the area was opened. He also realized that a successful operation on the bonanza for which he was manager would draw great attention. This would invite other people to come in to secure the profits of agriculture. Dalrymple made most of his money on the rise of land values. This, of course, was typical of most of the profits of bonanza operations. There were a few years when farming the bonanzas was extremely profitable, but in the long run it was simply the. inflationary trend that made these worth-while financial ventures. Once the price of land and the price of labor started to rise in the Dakotas and wheat prices fell because of overproduction both here and abroad, bonanzas lost their profit margin. Dalrymple eventually had 65,000 acres under his signature and at the height of his operation was managing well over 100,000 acres. In addition to managing for Cass and Cheney, Dalrymple also had a contract with the Grandin Brothers. The Grandins had informed him that if he would open up 44,000 acres of their land in southern Traill and northern Cass counties, they would give him an undivided half interest in those 44,000 acres. Much of the land that Dalrymple secured in this manner is still held by that family today.
Dalrymple was interested in promoting the idea of the bonanza for he knew it would benefit him as well as the area. He let the papers and the farm magazines know his every move and he did not hesitate to imply that there were great profits in bonanza farming. Unfortunately, many of the records of his bonanza are no longer in existence. Dalrymple did such a fine job of dramatizing the Dakota prairies that the Canadian Pacific Railroad offered him a similar management contract if he would come to Canada. Dalrymple declined because he was discouraged by the prospect of earlier frost in the Canadian region. However, frost was also a threat to Dakota bonanzas and provided one of the first serious setbacks to these large farms. On August 16, 1888, frost hit the entire eastern Dakotas and destroyed most of the wheat crop. Following that frost there were a series of dry years with declining wheat prices - a combination that most bonanzas could not withstand.
Many of the bonanzas had to sell out. Those that were able to survive the dry '80s and the low prices of the early '90s managed to stay in operation until World War I. The special taxes to finance World War I by both state and federal governments caused the remaining bonanzas to liquidate them. Another fascinating feature which tended to encourage liquidation was rising land values to a high of $151.50 an acre in the bonanza region. The Dalrymple farm liquidated its entire holdings by 1919. All of their farms were sold on contract for deed. Farmers from Iowa, Illinois, and southern Minnesota and many other states sold their land in those regions and came to Dakota with the idea of buying four acres for everyone they sold elsewhere. In their optimism they over-extended themselves. Then came the farm crash of 1921. Within three or four years most of the farms reverted back to the original owners. By 1925, the Dalrymple family, were again in control of fifty-four out of the original sixty farms it sold. Half of three other farms were tossed back into their hands and only three farms out of sixty did not revert to them. The three who managed to retain their farms were all in the immediate Casselton area. Albert Sinner, one of these three, credited his success to his cattle operations instead of relying exclusively on wheat to pull him through. Declining wheat yields and prices could not pay for land that had been purchased at the high prices of World War I. Mr. Sinner commented that he made almost no principal payment from the early '20s until 1940 when American farmers were favorably influenced by the high prices of World War II. He said he was proud he could be one of those who hung on.
What made these farms unique? (1) There were never more than 100 of them. I initially established that a farm could not be considered a bonanza unless it had at least five sections. I think this should be redefined so that no farm of less than 7,000 acres be classified as a bonanza. (2) In almost every case they had professional management. Men who were county agents or who had worked for agricultural colleges were hired to run these farms like a business. (3) Bonanzas were known for the good records they kept. Nearly all of the farms had at least one full time bookkeeper. One farm had five full time office personnel. The great volume of material on hand is evidence that they kept records of their farming operation to such a detail that plots of thistles and other weeds on the entire holdings were known in the office. Rotation, profits per acre, profits by various crops per acre, and everything else necessary to maximize profits were determined by the office force. (4) Bonanzas had to rely on large-scale machinery. To a great extent the machinery manufacturers had a hey day co-operating with the large farmers of the Red River Valley. The demand for large machinery to minimize labor costs encouraged the bonanza farmers to put great pressure on the machinery manufacturers. (5) Bonanzas were very progressive farms. Most of the bonanzas had their own experimental plots because they could not wait for agricultural colleges to determine what should be done next. In this respect, they made a positive contribution to the entire North American agricultural scene. (6) Bonanzas were demonstration farms. No one ever envisioned that these farms would become permanent. Once the good prices of the 1870s and early '80s disappeared, the pinch on their financial resources be-came obvious. But by then they served their purpose. The Northern Pacific wanted settlers. They wanted the land broken quickly and this was the way to get it done. Bonanzas generally had their goal set on opening 5,000 acres each year. One of the bonanzas actually succeeded in breaking 5,800 acres per year until the entire farm was opened. The bonanzas were show places - maybe we could call them "show-off" places because they liked to plow and harvest with large parades of horses and machinery. Generally ten or twelve plows were used to plow a single section of land, and when harvest came to the bonanzas, larger numbers of horses, men, and machinery were gathered in a single field. The Northern Pacific ran many excursion trains and sold stereoscopic views to people in the eastern part of the United States and Europe simply to prove that such large farms did exist. At least two presidents were known to have visited the bonanzas - President Taft and President Hayes. President Hayes spent a couple of days in the Valley in 1878. Oliver Dalrymple had 100 binders in one field for the president to view. A couple of years later a trainload of European tourists came to visit the farm and Dalrymple had 130 binders in the same field, proof enough that they liked to show off to the important visitors from the outside. In 1893 the Elk Valley Farm at Larimore, North Dakota, was visited by 300 prominent agriculturalists from all parts of the world. This was in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair.
These large farms drew attention worldwide. It should be stated that there were as many critics of these farms as there were promoters of the operations. People in those days seemed to have no more sympathy with the large commercial farmer than we have in the agrarian sections of the world today.
Page revised: 22 May 2010Back to top of page
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(NaturalNews) Outbreaks of asthma and allergies have increased considerably since the early 1980s. Asthma statistics outline a jump of 74% for children between the ages of 5-14 years and 160% for children under four years old, according to the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, one of every four children in the U.S. also suffers from some type of allergy. With annual costs in the billions, researchers offer a glimpse of hope for a natural cure.
Earlier this month, published findings in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology from a seven-year study of 460 Spanish children concluded that a definitive link exists between symptom-free children and a diet rich in "fruity vegetables" and fish. Fruity vegetables are those that grow from a blossom in the plant that comes from seed; such veggies include tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, green beans, cucumbers and butternut squash, among others.
Scientists explain that the protective effects of this type of diet were irrefutable, and were very specific to this kind of vegetables. Researchers tested different types of foods such as diary, meats and vegetables, but only fruity vegetables and fish were beneficial to these conditions.
Although this is not the first study that links a benefit of a diet rich in fish and vegetables to health improvement, the findings here are quite powerful as the researchers followed the children from the womb until age six, taking the mother's dietary habits into consideration among other factors. Incidents of asthma and allergies were reduced significantly in children consuming more than 2 oz of fish and 1½ oz of fruity vegetables a day.
Anita Khalek resides in North Carolina. As a total wellness advocate, she is a passionate believer in the healing power of Nature and is inspired by local, organic and fresh foods to nurture her family and friends. Anita is currently working on several projects including a cookbook. Visit her blog for fresh, healthy recipes at myFreshLevant.com. Questions and suggestions can be directed to email@example.com
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USA Today did a report on how lead factories that have been gone for years have left a dangerous poison in cities nationwide.
In order to do the story, the reporter had to go into public records to determine when the EPA and government had tested the soil from the old factory and found out that it was contaminated. However, the government failed to tell citizens about the danger.
USA Today did a 14-month investigation that found the EPA had put thousands of families and children in harm's way.
The investigative report showed widespread evidence of government failures when it came to lead factories.
USA Today looked at old insurance maps, city directories, and telephone books to discover that certain smelters did exist even though governments in Minnesota, Indiana and Washington denied they ever did.
This is just a small example of the large record digging and analysis that the USA Today reporter did.
The report also need some computer skills because there are a couple of graphics next to the story that shows how lead can pollute soil, and a graphic about lead in soil.
The reporter needed to know how to make that graphic on a computer in order to better tell his story.
The graphic on how lead gets into the soil is a step by step process where the reporter uses pictures to help demonstrate how it happens.
Without knowing how to create such a visual graphic, the reporter probably would have had a hard time describing how it happens, and it would also take up a large amount of space and confuse the reader.
The graphic helps a lot by visually showing how the process works.
The reporter did a lot of work for this story that included a lot of digging through old documents, and determining what those documents mean for the safety of citizens near old lead factories.
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Environmentally Relevant Atrazine Concentrations in Western Iowa and Potential HepG2 Cell Cycle Effects
by Robin Jackson
Faculty advisor: Dr. Melinda Coogan
Atrazine, one of the major herbicides found in the United States, has been used in the agricultural industries since 1958. It is water soluble and found in high concentrations within agricultural regions, such as Storm Lake, Iowa. Atrazine has started to become a health concern for animals, including humans. Since atrazine is soluble in water, its relative mobility causes contamination of both ground and surface water, which are the source of drinking water for numerous Midwest communities. Dr. Kavita Dhanwada, Associate Professor of Biology with University of Northern Iowa, has found that certain atrazine concentrations affect the division of hepatocytes, specifically HepG2 cells. HepG2 cells are a genetically modified hepatocarcinoma, or cancer cell from the liver. Dr. Dhanwada used atrazine concentrations of 0, 3, 10, 50, 100, and 200 µg/L to dose her HepG2 cells. My study was two-fold: to investigate methods of HepG2 cell culturing at Buena Vista University, and to determine environmentally-relevant concentrations of atrazine found within specific NW regions of Iowa. The sample sites for atrazine concentration testing came from three wetlands or ponds surrounded by agriculture. Using an Abraxis ELISA Atrazine Test Kit, this study determined the following concentration levels for my test sites: <0.05, <0.05, and <1 (approximately 0.39) parts per billion.
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Fight on against breast cancer
As the United States marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, it is reassuring to think that modern medicine is making major strides forward in the fight against the disease.
And, indeed, that is the case.
From the 1940s until the 1980s, the number of new cases of breast cancer rose by about 1 percent per year — most likely due to a big increase in the amount of mammography screening.
But as better screening and detection came on to the scene, the level of new cases fell away in the 1990s and continued to do so in the early years of this century.
Researchers believe that is because of reduced use of post-menopausal hormones in women, which were found to bring an increased risk of breast cancer.
And, as Metro reports constantly, America’s medical community is at the forefront of the search for new treatments and, hopefully, a cure for the disease.
Yet there is a sobering figure to consider.
In 2011, despite all the advances, it is estimated that there will be more than 230,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer among American women — and more than 2,100 in American men.
An estimated 39,000 American women will die this year from the disease in addition to 450 men, according to U.S. Department of Health figures.
So, the fight goes on.
The month of October will see dozens of events across the country — including many right here in New York City — aimed at raising awareness of, and raising money for research into, breast cancer.
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From Ohio History Central
Alanson Pomeroy was a politician, a businessman, and a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
Pomeroy was born on February 20, 1805, in Massachusetts. He eventually relocated to Strongsville, in Cuyahoga County. In January 1831, Pomeroy married Kezia Pope. The couple remained in Strongsville, completing construction on a prominent home, named "The Homestead," in 1848. Pomeroy supported his family by owning at least two stores in northeastern Ohio, including one in Strongsville. He also was involved in the banking industry in nearby Cleveland, Ohio and also in Berea, Ohio. A prominent member of the community, Pomeroy won election to several government positions, including justice of the peace and Strongsville trustee. He also assumed a leadership position in the local Congregational Church.
Besides his political and economic pursuits, Pomeroy and his wife served as conductors on the Underground Railroad. They secreted fugitive slaves in the cellar of their home. Pomeroy commonly brought the runaways from Oberlin, Ohio in the back of a wagon. He concealed the fugitives under hay while transporting them. He would then take the African Americans to Rocky River, where he placed them on board boats that took the runaway slaves to freedom in Canada.
Pomeroy died on January 4, 1877. In 1980, Pomeroy's home became a restaurant known as Don's Pomeroy House Restaurant, Pub & Patio.
Pomeroy represents the growing tensions over slavery between Northerners and Southerners during the early nineteenth century. While many Northern states had provisions outlawing slavery, runaway slaves did not necessarily gain their freedom upon arriving in a free state. Federal law permitted slaveowners to reclaim their runaway slaves. Some slaves managed to escape their owners on their own, while others sometimes received assistance from sympathetic Northerners, such as Pomeroy.
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The Bulletin—November 15, 2012
The Bulletin compiles news from in and around the U.S. South. We hope these posts will provide space for lively discussion and debate regarding issues of importance to those living in and intellectually engaging with the U.S. South.
- The 2012 United States presidential election results have led mapmakers and illustrators over the past week to search for new ways to visualize the geography of political power. Mark Newman, Paul Dirac Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, released a series of maps and cartograms depicting the state- and county-level results of the presidential election between Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Barack Obama scaled by population density. Illustrator Chris Howard designed another map which overlays county-by-county election results with population density data as recorded in the 2010 census. This image, which depicts the electoral power of densely populated areas without distorting the shapes of the counties, provoked analysis, as in this piece by Sommer Mathis writing in The Atlantic Cities, about the importance of cities in deciding the election. Metropolitan areas in the U.S. South and elsewhere in the interior appear on the map as dense blue dots surrounded by rings of pink. The map illustrates how elections are decided on an urban/suburban basis, as Lydia DePillis argued in The New Republic. This distribution of political power is a consequence of the demographic shifts in cities like Atlanta since the Second World War, a topic discussed by Kevin Kruse in his 2005 Southern Spaces presentation "White Flight: The Strategies, Ideology, and Legacy of Segregationists in Atlanta."
- Post-election conversation has also focused on the continued dominance of the Republican Party in the U.S. South. In The New York Times, Campbell Robertson argued that the Republican coalition that has been characterized as a shrinking proportion of the population across much of the country remains dominant in a number of southern states. Remarking on the similar results of the 2008 presidential election in his Southern Spaces piece "The U.S. South and the 2008 Election," Joseph Crespino tied rhetoric about Republican political dominance in the U.S. South to the rise of the Sun Belt and noted that populations in several southern states voted in favor of Obama. Crespino's analysis remains a useful reminder that the U.S. South is a heterogenous section of the country.
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|Personalized, Affordable Irish Family
Document Retrieval Services
“Connecting the Present With The Past”™
The English translations of Irish village and town names have taken different spellings over the years. In the early 1800’s, engineering and map surveyors traveled throughout Ireland, translating Irish place names into English, with varying results (see previous posting about Translations: The Play). The Irish word for “head” is “cean”. Irish village names starting with “cean” translated to “cane” or “keane” in the English versions. In the 1901 Irish census, the grandfather of one recent client lived in Canearagh in County Kerry. The same man’s 1878 birth certificate spelled his birthplace as Keaneiragh. Both of these spellings are correct spellings for the same place. Discovering and knowing these spelling differences make Irish family document searches that much more satisfying and interesting to do.
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Led by materials science and engineering graduate student Michelle Roberts, the team reports in the April 9 issue of Nature Materials that the freed membranes, just tens of nanometers thick, retain all the properties of silicon in wafer form. Yet, the nanomembranes are flexible, and by varying the thicknesses of the silicon and silicon-germanium layers composing them, scientists can make membrane shapes ranging from flat to curved to tubular.
Most importantly, the technique stretches the nanomembranes in a predictable and easily controlled manner, says materials science and engineering professor Max Lagally, who is Roberts' advisor. In silicon that is stretched, or under tensile strain, current flows faster-a fact engineers already exploit to help control silicon's conductivity and produce speedier electronics. Strain also becomes important whenever different materials are integrated.
The new technique makes tuning the strain of materials simpler, while avoiding the defects that normally result. In addition, Lagally says: "We're no longer held to a rigid rock of material. We now have the ability to transfer the membranes to anything we want. So, there are some really novel things we can do."
Potential applications, he says, include flexible electronic devices, faster transistors, nano-size photonic crystals that steer light, and lightweight sensors for detecting toxins in the environment or biological events in cells.
Although it could make controlling strain easier, the technique is not manufacturing-ready, cautions physics professor Mark Eriksson, because it requires the release of nanomembranes into solution before bonding to other materials.
"What we've done is a first demonstration," says Eriksson. "But now that we've shown the underlying principles are sound, we can begin taking the next steps."
In building electronic devices, engineers routinely layer materials with different crystal structures on top of one another, creating strain. Larger germanium atoms, for example, want to sit farther apart in a crystalline lattice than do smaller atoms of silicon. Thus, when a thin layer of silicon-germanium alloy is bonded to a thicker silicon substrate, the silicon's lattice structure dominates, forcing the germanium atoms into unnaturally close proximity and compressing the silicon-germanium.
Scientists can then use the compressive strain in the silicon-germanium to strain a thin silicon layer grown on top, but only if the alloy's strain is controlled. To do so, they typically deposit many layers of silicon-germanium. As layers are added and strain builds, "dislocations," or breaks in the crystal lattice, naturally develop, which give germanium atoms the extra room they need and relax some of the strain. But the technique is time-consuming and expensive, and the defects can scatter current-carrying electrons and otherwise degrade device performance.
The Wisconsin team's goal was to integrate silicon and silicon-germanium and manage strain without having to introduce defects. The scientists made a three-layer nanomembrane composed of a thin silicon-germanium layer sandwiched between two silicon layers of similar thinness. The membrane, in turn, sat atop a silicon dioxide layer in a silicon-on-insulator substrate. To release the nanomembrane, the researchers etched away the oxide layer with hydrofluoric acid.
"When we remove the membrane, the silicon-germanium is no longer trying to fight the substrate, which is like a big rock holding it from below. Instead, it's just fighting the two very thin silicon layers," says Lagally. "So the silicon-germanium expands and takes the silicon with it."
Pulled by the silicon-germanium, the silicon now exhibits tensile strain, which the researchers can readily adjust by varying the thicknesses of the layers. They call the technique "elastic strain sharing" because in the freed membrane, strain is balanced, or shared, between the three layers.
Levente Klein, a postdoctoral researcher working with Eriksson, also showed that the strain produced by the technique traps electrons in the top silicon layer, which is the end goal for many devices that integrate silicon and silicon-germanium, says Eriksson.
"In this research, there's a nice synergy between the structural characteristics of the material and the consequences for electronics," he says.
Although the Wisconsin team grew their nanomembranes on silicon-on-insulator substrates, the method should apply to many substances beyond semiconductors, says Lagally, such as ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials. All that's needed is a layer, like an oxide, that can be removed to free the nanomembranes.
"In any application where crystallinity and strain are important, the idea of making membranes should be of value," says Lagally.
--Madeline Fisher; (608) 265-8592; email@example.com
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
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Risk and Safety Preparation
The safety of our students is of the utmost importance to us. It is our chief concern. Unfortunately, there are no guaranties when it comes to safety - not at home, as 9/11 so tragically demonstrated, and not abroad. Nonetheless, risk can be limited. To that end, we strongly encourage our students to read thoroughly and to take seriously the risk and safety information provided below and to stay aware of current events in the countries in which they will be studying.
Four Principles of Personal Risk Preparedness While Studying Abroad
Students should be aware of local hotspots and events. Read local newspapers and magazines, also keep up with international newspapers (e.g. Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Economist, Financial Times, etc.) Learn from local residents which areas of town are safe or dangerous and when to avoid certain locations. For example, normally safe areas may become more risky late at night, during soccer games, or political rallies. Determine which means of transportation are safe and secure, and at what time of day. Which is safer late at night: public transportation (buses, subways, etc.) or taxis? This varies from country to country. When traveling from a familiar city to an unfamiliar area, ask for advice and research safe areas before departing. We would like to add however, that participating in a demonstration is not a good way to raise awareness!
Uncertainty causes a great deal of anxiety. Students are asked to check in regularly with their family, by phone or e-mail. Cell phones are quite inexpensive in many countries; many plans do not charge to receive calls. Students should inquire with their program provider which cell phone plans are best. For many parents, simply knowing that they can reach their student at anytime day or night, reduces anxiety considerably. The Study Abroad Office also asks that you check in with us regularly by e-mail or phone. Notify us if you have a concern about your safety, or just to say that things are fine. We appreciate hearing from students.
Cultural Common Sense:
Gaining cross-cultural understanding is one of the most important and profound learning experiences students have while abroad. Students can apply their newfound cross-cultural understanding to help preserve their safety. The first point is to recognize that cultures are different, even if they appear similar. While all cultures value safety and stability, the ways they achieve it may vary considerably. Students can enhance their experience and personal safety by learning the answers to the following cultural questions:
- What do people in this culture value most?
- How are reputations made or ruined?
- What behaviors, manners or clothing blend-in and which demand attention?
- How do people respond to uncertainty or difference? Are they open or do they feel threatened?
- What are the cultural norms for alcohol in the host country?
- What reputation do U.S. students have? Do my actions, behavior and dress reinforce the negative or the positive?
Many people are concerned about study abroad students' safety and security – including parents and friends, the BBA International Programs staff and the University, the hosting institution and people responsible for accommodation abroad. However, no one will be as involved or concerned as you, the student. Personal safety and security begins with the multitude of decisions each student makes on a daily basis; which includes the transportation methods you choose, whom you associate with, when and where you go out, etc. By being aware, employing cultural common sense and making responsible, intelligent choices, students can greatly narrow the risks to their own safety. By far, the greatest threat to student safety involves alcohol. That alcohol impairs one's judgment is well known, but too often ignored. Although drinking across cultures is not necessarily as dangerous as drinking and driving, overindulgence, especially in an unfamiliar country, can result in equally negative consequences.
Additional Tips on Reducing Student Risk:
- Stay Informed, by local news and people.
- Have Documents and Cash Available, including passport and air tickets.
- Don't Dress Like an American, e.g. leave the Texas cap at home.
- Don't Discuss Politics, and certainly don't feel compelled to defend any US policy in a bar.
- Avoid American hangouts.
For the majority of students, study abroad is an amazing and sometimes life-changing experience. But just like life at your home school, you may encounter some discrimination on your travels. Diverse students face discrimination. People might judge you based on your ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, or gender. Remember, there is nowhere in the world 100-percent free of ignorant people. Whatever happens, don’t let the possibility of discrimination prevent you from experiencing the many benefits of study abroad.
International experiences have had a tremendous effect on the personal and professional lives of individuals from all kinds of diverse backgrounds. While no place is completely free from discrimination, some students actually discover less discrimination abroad than at their home universities. You will learn a lot about your host country’s culture and your own by living in another country.
Curiosity or discrimination?
You may discover that what first seems like discrimination is actually curiosity. Your challenge is to figure out the difference. People may stare at you or ask questions that you find insensitive. Another thing to keep in mind is that people outside of the U.S. tend to be less concerned about “political correctness.” At times you may find someone to be saying something that you find offensive. However, they may not realize that it is offensive to you; in fact, what they say may be perfectly acceptable in their society. In other words, the two of you are not attuned to each other’s cultural norms.
An opportunity to change minds
In many parts of the world, a person’s only connection with Americans and certain cultural groups comes from what they see on TV or in movies. Sometimes the media doesn’t portray these groups, such as minorities, in a favorable light. As such, you have the opportunity to be a representative for minorities, people with disabilities, GLBT students, adult students, people of your religion, and/or women abroad. Show who you are and be an ambassador for your culture abroad. In this way, you can help change the perceptions of diverse groups for the positive.
Nevertheless, you may face some sort of discrimination while abroad. Don’t let this possibility rob you of the many benefits that you will gain. Inform yourself beforehand about diverse groups so you have an idea of what to expect during your trip.
BBA study abroad students will be provided with an International SOS membership card during their Pre-Departure Workshop. As member of the SOS network, students can use SOS in the event of a health or safety emergency abroad. However, whatever services you call on SOS to provide must be paid for by you personally. SOS is a special emergency service; it is not insurance. Detailed instructions on how to utilize the International SOS services are in the BBA International Programs Blackboard community.
Students can also register their trip abroad with International SOS, for expedited help in case of emergency. Students can also upload copies of your passport and other documents, sign up for medical and security reports, find English speaking doctors abroad, get help finding if medications are legal in certain countries, look up detailed information about countries, and call them collect 24/7. This is an invaluable resource! Students will be provided with their International SOS membership number at the Pre-Departure Workshop.
To learn more about the services and resources offered, visit at http://www.internationalsos.com.
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By Allison Kerr
So, you're interested in going organic in your garden. If so, you're probably wondering where to start. You've come to the right place.
Here you’ll find a quick guide to going organic in your garden. Gardening organically is really about working with nature, rather than against it - it isn’t hard, but, as with most new things, it takes a little time and effort to make the switch.
Start small - pick one area of your garden to go organic with. Here I'm using vegetable gardening to explain the principles of organic gardening; the steps are similar whichever part of your garden you choose.
Let's say you love grapes, you might think they'd be great to grow in
your garden. Stop! You can waste a lot of money, water, fertilizers and
chemicals trying to grow the wrong kinds of plants in your garden.
Impulse buying at WalMart or Costco is not the way to go - do some research before deciding what to plant.
Good places to research the best vegetables for your area include: local, professional garden centers; regional seed catalogs; county extension offices; and gardeners and gardening organizations in your area.
One great way to learn about which fruits and vegetables to grow is to talk to farmers at your local farmers' market.
Soil is what makes your vegetables grow, but not just any soil.
You might be dealing with compaction, mineral imbalances, acidity, or
alkalinity. What you want is aerated and balanced soil for good
County extension offices usually offer soil testing and they'll give you a plan for any amendments you need to add - ask them to recommend organic amendments. Existing soil can be successfully aerated by hand with a spade and fork, or by machine using a roto-tiller.
You can plant into the soil as is, or build a new bed on top – a raised bed – bringing in quality topsoil. Raised beds are a popular way to go.
Going organic doesn't have to be hard work: for less back-breaking work you might be interested in no-dig gardening (a way to garden without the need for tilling).
When it comes to vegetable growing, going organic means you'll need an almost unending supply of compost and mulch.
Compost brings you healthy soil - worms, which feed on compost, have been shown to have amazing impacts on crop success.
Mulch, a protective covering spread on the soil surface, reduces the need for water and buffers plants from heat.
Compost and straw are the most common mulches to use on vegetable beds. Straw needs some know-how though if you don't want a lot of weeds.
The above 3 steps will make pest and disease problems a lot less likely.
When problems do arise, biological controls
are the best place to look for treatment. Simple methods work too -
some bugs, such as caterpillars on cabbage plants, can be simply removed
Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Going organic won't be perfect - gardening is science and requires some experimentation as part of the learning process.
Organic gardening is also an art and takes time to learn. Each year you'll learn something new. There's no better way to connect with nature than in the garden.
Welcome to organic gardening. Enjoy the adventure!
Alison Kerr used to publish a blog about organic gardening full of inspiration, advice, encouragement, information and reviews.
|"LIKE" THIS SITE!|
clicked to your site and found a great wealth of information. I'm about
the least tool oriented person there is around, but I'm passionate
about many of the topics you write about. And I find the writing to be
very well done and informative even for a non-handy person like me. Well
Prague, Czech Republic
I would just like to thank you for maintaining this resource. It's essential that information about environmental issues are easily and broadly accessible.
Thank you so much for sharing your exquisitely well-told stories! I have spent the last 2 hours reading the whole saga, and I appreciate all of the detail that went into your decision making. I hope you are enjoying your green home with cozy surroundings and energy efficiency.
Thank you for taking the time to write down your experiences. It is truly a valuable service.
Thanks for all the info on this site, it is very thorough.
Very well documented and I appreciate the work and the effort you have put into this.
Hey! Just wanted to compliment you on
your site! I'm a new, first time homeowner, with a dirt crawlspace and
have searched for hours on how to set it up.
Living here in Montreal, and the conditions aren't easy on a house and this site sure helped to answer some questions.
Thank you for displaying your work and experience!
Have to say I absolutely love your site. Really complete, well thought out, and has me clicking from page to page...
I just wanted to say I love your site! Well done!
Love your web site. You are an inspiration to me. I am 66 and I want to build a small green home on my land. [...] Your green home looks beautiful. I wish you luck in all your endeavors!
A few years ago, I bought this fixer-upper for $10,000.
It had been vacant for six years, had no water supply, needed a new roof, and was likely to conceal an unsuspected number of nasty flaws.
Don't believe me? See these "Before" pictures.
My intention was to turn it into as "green" as home as I could, within my physical, financial, and geographical limits – and to share this adventure with you, step-by-step and dollar-by-dollar.
I'm not quite finished, but I do have a few "After" pictures to show.
If you want to follow me on this exciting adventure, you can subscribe to this site by RSS feed -- see the box below the navigation bar on the left.
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Husbands don't often write letters to judges telling them they are leaving their new wife and her children behind and taking off for greener pastures. However, that is exactly what George Fennan did in the late spring of 1856 in Warsaw, Illinois. Why George wrote the letter begins approximately six months earlier in the late fall of 1855—all of which is documented in records of the local county court.
German emigrant Peter Bieger died in Warsaw, Illinois, in November of 1855, leaving behind a wife and two infant children. The tavern owner was not wealthy and did not leave a large estate, but it was fortunate for me that he did own the village lot on which his tavern and home were located. Because of this, his estate warranted a probate settlement and a guardianship case for his two daughters. Even though his wife survived, a guardianship for his children was necessary. Given the laws of the time, his widow, Barbara, could not “automatically” manage her children's inheritance. Someone would have to be appointed as the children's guardian to handle their inheritance. A mother could be appointed her children's guardian, but usually the guardian would be a male family member or relative.
The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition subscribers only.
If you have a Plus Edition user ID and password, you can read the article right now at no additional charge in this web site's Plus Edition at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=5023. This article will remain online for several weeks.
If you do not remember your Plus Edition user ID or password, you can retrieve them at http://www.eogn.com/wp/ and click on "Forgot password?"
If you decide to subscribe to the Plus Edition right now, you will be able to immediately read this article online.
For more information about subscribing to the Plus Edition of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, visit http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/plusedition.html.
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Animals seem to use migration to escape the spread of deadly pathogens...so it's bad news that many animals have stopped migrating.
Billions of animals migrate across the world every year, with some taking months to get to their destination. Along the way, animals expose themselves to potentially deadly pathogens, encountering lots of different environments and making a few key stopover points that are shared by lots of different species. These areas can become hotbeds for disease. This mirrors how diseases spread in our modern civilization, as highly concentrated population centers can see massive outbreaks, and then a handful of people traveling elsewhere can take the disease with them.
But researchers at the University of Georgia have figured out the other side of migration, and why it actually can keep pathogens in check. Many parasites have transmission stages that require the host to stay in the same habitat. Speedy migration takes the infected host outside that habitat, effectively killing off the parasite before it has a chance to take hold. As a bonus, any parasites left behind in the now host-free habitat die off, cleaning up the entire area in time for the hosts' return from their travels.
There's also survival of the fittest at work here. It's pretty brutal stuff - migration forces the infected to take part in a long, strenuous activity that will either kill them or cure them. If, say, a sick bird can't make it through the day's long flight, it will peel off from the rest of the birds and die, sparing the rest of the flock from infection when they land for the night. And, again, there's a secondary effect at work here, as the dying hosts take the most serious strains of disease with them, leaving the surviving flock with the relatively mild pathogens. The migrating animals are essentially forcing evolution to work for them by promoting less virulent strains of disease.
Researcher Sonia Altizer focused on monarch butterflies from eastern North America, which can migrate all the way from Canada to central Mexico. These butterflies migrate much farther distances than their monarch relatives elsewhere, and some populations in always pleasant areas like Florida and Hawaii don't bother with migration at all.
Altizer and her colleagues found that infectious disease is lowest in the butterflies that travel the greatest distances, while the non-migratory monarchs are the most at risk of deadly pathogens. The parasite strains that did exist in the long-travelling butterflies were consistently weaker than their counterparts, all of which supports migration as a way of weeding out disease.
But monarch butterflies are just one of many species for which migration has become an endangered activity. Human activity has destroyed a lot of potential stopover sites and put up barriers like dams and fences that can block the way. This means once migratory animals are trapped in one habitat year-round, which places them at much greater risk of disease. Climate change is also a factor - the warmer it gets, the less likely animals are to bother to migrate to escape wintry conditions.
Altizer's colleague Barbara Han sums up the danger:
"Migration is a strategy that has evolved over millions of years in response to selection pressures driven by resources, predators and lethal parasitic infections-any changes to this strategy could translate to changes in disease dynamics."
These findings speak to how complex and innovative evolution can be, as an incredibly energy-intensive activity like migration, something that requires sophisticated navigational skills, has risen as a way to protect species from disease. Now it's just a question of whether migration is a good enough strategy to survive this changing world - a lot of species are depending on it.
[Read the full scientific article via Science]
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Allow Tennessee Teachers to Embrace Scientific Controversies
Tennesseans have been subject to scads of misleading rhetoric about the state’s new academic freedom law for science teachers, largely from outside organizations hoping to construct a national warning sign so other states will beware. Detractors have continually compared the new law to the infamous 1925 Scopes “monkey trial,” hoping to convict the law of guilt by association in the court of public opinion. Much of the rhetoric has been hysterical and simply false.
A Time magazine article called the law an “attack on science.” The New York Times editorialized the law allows “pseudoscience” to enter the classroom and represents “pandering to a vocal, conservative fringe.” It “seems designed to encourage teachers who would introduce pseudo-scientific criticisms inspired by religion or ideology,” wrote The Washington Post.
That’s a hefty amount of verbal battering. But history shows it is entirely false.
Call to mind a few moments in science history. Galileo Galilei’s name evokes an entire story: In his day, the scientific establishment believed the Earth was the center of the universe. His investigations gave evidence to the contrary, and for them he was forced to live the rest of his life under house arrest. But he was right.
Ignaz Semmelweis’s most important scientific contribution is better known under the name of the man who proved Semmelweis correct, Louis Pasteur. This is because Semmelweis’s observation that washing hands in the hospital cut mortality dramatically was highly controversial among the scientific establishment, who roundly criticized and ignored him. It took Pasteur’s experiments to prove Semmelweis correct and lead to a whole series of lifesaving discoveries about germs.
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, immortalized in the famous E=MC2 equation, was for years madly controversial. Scientists still quibble about it. Even the exalted Einstein had to face repeated and vigorous scientific debate.
That’s the point. Scientific progress depends on free and open inquiry, because what we think is true or logically follows from what we know at the moment is often turned topsy-turvy by our great, mysterious, intricate world. That is the history of science.
Openly discussing our messy reality is what Tennessee’s new academic freedom law actually encourages. Read the bill. It’s two pages. Its kernel says, “Teachers shall be permitted to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught.” Shortly thereafter, it states the law “only protects the teaching of scientific information” and does not promote or legally protect religion or religious discrimination.
Just over a hundred years ago, few people believed humans could fly. Now, we casually discuss commercial flights into space. This happened only because some individuals dared to question, and to keep questioning under barrages from the gilded establishment.
In peer-reviewed research, scientists are now discussing evidence for weaknesses in accepted theories such as evolution and global warming. This should not be hidden from budding scientists because the truth could call some people’s political or ideological assumptions into question.
This law does the opposite of what its detractors charge, and it condemns them for hypocrisy. The law’s opponents are the gilded establishment blazing cannons at today’s Galileos, Semmelweises, and Einsteins, those who have the courage and eccentricity to question accepted scientific theories and thus offer civilization its best hope at further scientific discovery.
If we want to cultivate students of real, living science, we must teach them how to postulate and test the cutting-edge theories (like those now electrifying quantum physics) that may lead to surprising discoveries that benefit humankind. That’s what the Tennessee law is all about.
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Around 74,000 years ago, a massive volcano on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island erupted, spewing thousands of cubic kilometers of material into the atmosphere and plunging the Earth into a "volcanic winter," a period of prolonged cooling. The Lake Toba event, which is thought to have been the largest eruption in the past 25 million years, extinguished a significant share of the planet's early inhabitants, including almost 60 percent of all humans, and thoroughly disrupted the climate system, reducing global temperatures by 3 to 5�C.
Though geologists have been studying calderas—or supervolcanoes as they are more commonly known—for years, their understanding of the basic geophysical processes underlying eruptions and magma dynamics has been limited. Considered among the most violent geologic events, supervolcanic eruptions have occurred every few hundred thousand years and are believed to have triggered mini-ice ages at several points in Earth's history.
The recent discovery of an area of crustal uplift in the Italian Alps' Sesia Valley has, for the first time, allowed researchers to peer deep below the surface at a fossil supervolcano's "plumbing"—the networks of tracks and trails that magma follows as it pushes upwards through the crust. The study, led by James Quick of Southern Methodist University, was detailed in the July issue of Geology.
The crustal uplift, which exposed rocks as deep as 25 km underground, was formed when the continents of Africa and Europe began colliding around 30 million years ago; the enormous friction this generated pushed Italy’s crust up. It granted the authors an unprecedented insight into magmatic underplating, the process by which erupted magma is driven by the intrusion of mantle-derived magma in the deep crust.
Quick and his colleagues collected five different depth samples and determined their ages using a sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP), a mass spectrometer that blasts rocks with an ion beam to measure the isotopic and elemental abundances of minerals. Their analysis revealed that several magmatic events—the movement of mantle-derived melt into the deep crust—took place during the Permian period between roughly 289 and 284 million years ago.
The intrusion of mantle-derived magma at depths below 15 km induced anatexis, the partial melting of rocks, in the continental crust. This produced silica-rich melts that slowly made their way towards the surface, triggering intermittent eruptions between 289 and 280 million years ago. These repeated events were interspersed with periods of slow cooling and deformation in the crust. Crustal melting proceeded apace for several million more years until the rocks eventually crystallized during the early Permian.
These results agree with other studies that have shown that volcanic activity involving large silicic complexes elsewhere in the Alps was common at the time. Similar analyses of other supervolcanoes, including active ones in Long Valley and Yellowstone, could help geologists better interpret geophysical profiles and, more importantly, predict future eruptions.
Geology, 2009. DOI: 10.1130/G30003A.1
Listing image by NASA
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|—n , pl -cia|
|any freshwater protozoan of the genus Paramecium, having an oval body covered with cilia and a ventral ciliated groove for feeding: phylum Ciliophora (ciliates)|
|[C18: New Latin, from Greek paramēkēs elongated, from |
|the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.|
|a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.|
Paramecium Par·a·me·ci·um (pār'ə-mē'shē-əm, -sē-əm)
A genus of freshwater ciliate protozoans, characteristically slipper-shaped and covered with cilia, and commonly used for genetic research and other studies.
|paramecium (pār'ə-mē'sē-əm) Pronunciation Key
Plural paramecia or parameciums
Any of various freshwater protozoans of the genus Paramecium that are usually oval in shape and that move by means of cilia. Although they consist of a single cell, paramecia are large enough to be visible to the naked eye. Like other ciliates, paramecia contain two nuclei, a macronucleus and a micronucleus. On the cellular surface is a groove that opens into a gullet, into which food particles are absorbed.
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Certain algebras possess an important classifying property known as a grading. This essentially amounts to being able to express these algebras as a special kind of direct sum that respects multiplication.
Definition[Graded Algebra]: An algebra over a field is said to be graded if, as a vector space over , can be written as the direct sum of a family of subspaces – i.e.
and such that multiplication behaves according to
, for all
In classical mechanics, one deals with smooth manifolds. To understand what these are we need some definitions.
Definition[Chart]: Let be a manifold of dimension . Then a chart is a pair , where is open and is a homeomorphism to some open .
The collection of all charts such that each belongs to some chart is called an atlas. An atlas characterizes a manifold. More formally,
Definition[Atlas]: An atlas on a topological space is a collection of charts where the are open sets that cover , and for each index
is a homeomorphism of onto an open subset of -dimensional Euclidean space.
Definition[Smooth Atlas]: An atlas is called smooth if for all we have that
is a diffeomorphism.
Definition[Diffeomorphism]: Given two manifolds and , a differentiable map is called a diffeomorphism if it is a bijection, and its inverse is also differentiable.
Now, a manifold may not be generated by a unique atlas. To account for this, we seek a preferred atlas known as a maximal atlas. In defining such a thing, we need to know what it means for atlases to be compatible.
Definition[Compatibility]: Let and be two smooth atlases. Then and are called compatible if and only if is again a smooth atlas.
This notion of compatibility is actually an equivalence relation. The union over an equivalence class of atlases gives us our maximal atlas. If we denote an equivalence class by , then we have
Definition[Maximal Atlas]: A maximal atlas for a manifold is the union of all smooth atlases in an equivalence class – i.e.
This maximal atlas is said to be the differentiable structure of the manifold. We are now ready to understand the idea of a smooth manifold.
Definition[Smooth Manifold]: A smooth manifold is a pair where is a manifold and is a differentiable structure of .
Smooth manifolds are important in classical mechanics because they allow us to do calculus on them. Now, to return to the original topic, we are also interested in the graded algebra of smooth differentiable forms on a smooth manifold with respect to the wedge product, which is denoted by
– Differential Forms –
For now, let’s restrict our focus to what are called differential -forms, or just -forms. According to one source, “Informally, a differential form is what can be integrated along a path.”
Starting in , let be some open subset of and let be two real-valued functions defined on . Then an expression of the form
is called a differential -form on . A particularly important example of a differential -form is the total differential of a real-valued function defined on some open subset .
Definition[Total Differential]: Let by a real-valued function defined on an open subset of . Then its total differential is defined by
This can also be expressed as a kind of dot product of vectors, namely , where is the gradient of . Note that in this case we have and .
-forms can be defined similarly for higher dimensions. For instance, a differential -form on an open subset of is an expression of the form
where and are real-valued functions on . Again, if is a function defined on , then the total differential
is an example.
In general, a -form on an open subset of is an expression of the form
or simply . If we let , then we can write a -form even more succinctly as
So, if is a real-valued function defined on , the the general total differential is
Note that each is a -form. These are defined by the property that for each vector
Clearly, these form a basis for the -forms on .
Definition[Smooth -Form]: A smooth -form on is a real-valued function on the set of all tangent vectors to , i.e. –
with the properties that
- is linear on the tangent space for each – i.e. if and ,then .
- For any smooth vector field , the function is smooth.
A smooth -form on an -dimensional manifold is defined similarly.
Note: Another source simply says that a smooth -form on an open subset of is given by an expression
To better understand the graded algebra of smooth differential forms on with respect to the wedge product we need to understand that the -forms on are part of an algebra called the algebra of differential forms on . Multiplication in this algebra is known as the wedge product and is denoted by the symbol ““. It has the property of being skew-symmetric or anti-commutative:
From this it follows that , which implies that (provided we are not working over a field with characteristic 2). This means that the wedge product is alternating.
From here we can build up -forms on . If each summand of a differential form contains ‘s, then is called a -form.
Note: Functions are considered to be -forms.
is a basis for the -forms on . Thus, every -form can be expressed in the form
where ranges over all multi-indecies of length .
The Exterior Derivative
The exterior derivative is an operation that sends a -form to a -form.
Definition[Exterior Derivative (-Form)]: Let be a -form (function). Then its exterior derivative is the -form
Note that this corresponds to the total differential of .
Definition[Exterior Derivative (-form)]: Let be a -form. Then its exterior derivative is the -form obtained from by applying $lated d$ to each of the functions involved in .
Definition[Directional Derivative]: Let be a differentiable function defined on a region in . Let be a vector based at the point . Then the derivative of along , denoted , is defined as follows. Let . Then
Theorem: Let be a differentiable function defined on a region of . Let be defined on tangent vectors to points of by
Let be a vector based at a point of with coordinates . Let have coordinates . Let be the th unit vector. Then
Next, let’s evaluate where we recall that . So, really, we should write . Now, is actually a composition of two functions, , where . If we now apply the chain rule, then we get
But , so . Therefore,
This finishes the proof.
The exterior derivative obeys both the Leibniz rule and the chain rule:
- Leibniz Rule
- Chain Rule
If is a -form and is a -form, then the Leibniz rule takes the form
Theorem: For any differential form ,
(Or more succinctly, ).
First, let be a function (i.e. -form). Then
since mixed partials commute. Now, since actually means , where is the -th coordinate function, we have that . Let
[By the Leibniz Rule]
Per the reasoning above with functions, this is clearly .
Much of the above has been described in terms of differential forms on . Most of it transfers fairly seamlessly to general manifolds (i.e. the concepts are defined similarly). So, to tie this all back to the graded algebra given above, we should understand to be (i.e. the -forms on ) and to be the algebra of smooth differential -forms on . We’ll look more at graded algebras in the next post.
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The Indian Ocean is their ball room floor, the wind and the waves the music to which they have been dancing since as early as 600 BC. They are the numerous dugout canoes and dhows seen plying the waters of the ocean near Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
Watching the dhows from the shore sailing slowly and elegantly past with lateen sails billowing in the wind, I could almost hear the sound of a slow beautiful waltz as they seemed to dance with the wind and the sea in perfect harmony.
On another day when the wind and the waves were stronger I imagined a fast tango with the wind hugging the sail tightly and the Dhow bending and dipping in harmony with the rhythm of the sea and the wind.
The smaller dhows rigged with outboard engines and used to ferry passengers and tourists to and from the surrounding islands and sandbanks, reminded me of teenagers dancing a fast jig, excited about life and all it still holds in store for them.
Then there were the small dugout canoes which we saw lying forlornly and alone on the shore below the jetty at Slipway in Dar es Salaam. They were waiting with their nets drying in the sun like wall flowers sitting at the side of the ballroom floor. Waiting for a new day to dawn, heralding a fishing trip at sea where they could dance their unique slow dance in tune with waves, the wind and the fisherman.
Dug out canoes are usually made out of one tree such as a mango tree and are mostly used to fish in shallow sheltered waters by a single fisherman.
Dhow is the name for a number of sailing vessels using one or more lateen sails. Dhows usually have long thin hulls and are mainly used as trading vessels, carrying heavier merchandise such as fruit and fresh water along the East African coast. The local trading dhows use an outboard engine mainly for maneuvring, while the main means of propulsion still is the sail. Fishing boats also use their engine when actually engaged in fishing with nets.
These canoes as well as traditional dhows are still manufactured in the Nungwi region of Zanzibar and north of Stone Town at the edge of a mangrove rimmed inlet.
I salute these age old seagoing vessels and their crew. May this tradition live long as it adds a certain romance and magic to a visit to these regions.
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What is a Holter Monitor?
A Holter monitor is a small, wearable device that records your heart rhythm. You usually wear a Holter monitor for 12 hours to 24 hours. During that time, the device will record the rhythm of your heart.
A Holter monitor test is usually performed after a traditional test to check your heart rhythm (electrocardiogram) isn't able to give your doctor enough information about your heart's condition, or you experience incidence symptoms infrequently or irregularly. Your doctor may also order a Holter monitor if you have a heart condition that increases your risk of an abnormal heart rhythm, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Your doctor may suggest you wear a Holter monitor for a day, even if you haven't had any symptoms of an abnormal heartbeat.
While wearing a Holter monitor may be a little inconvenient, it's an important test that may help your doctor diagnose your condition.
How to Prepare
Make an appointment to have your Holter monitor fitted by contacting your nearest participating patient collection centre, click here for details.
You should bathe before this appointment because once your monitoring begins, you can't get the monitor wet or remove the monitor to bathe.
Please make sure you wear loose fitting clothes on the day of your appointment and during the testing period. This is required because electrodes will be attached to your chest.
What to Expect
Holter monitoring is painless and noninvasive.
Our technician will place some electrodes that sense your heartbeat on your chest. The electrodes are attached to your chest through tape-like adhesive and gel. For men, a small amount of hair may be shaved to make sure the electrodes stick. The technician will then connect the electrodes to a recording device with several wires, and will instruct you on how to properly wear the recording device.
You can hide the electrodes and wires under your clothes, and you can wear the recording device on your belt or attached to a strap around your neck.
You'll be asked to keep a diary and log of all the activities you do while wearing the monitor. In addition to all activities, you be asked to record in the diary the timing of any events - symptoms of palpitations, skipped heartbeats, shortness of breath, chest pain or lightheadedness. You'll usually be given a form to help you record your activities and any symptoms.
In addition if symptoms are experienced while wearing the monitor there is a button on the monitor which can be pressed to inform the analyst of the time of the symptoms. Our technician fitting the monitor will show you this.
Once your monitor is fitted and you've received instructions on how to wear it, you leave our centre and resume your normal everyday activities.
Once your monitoring begins, don't take the Holter monitor off — you must wear it at all times, even while you sleep.
While you wear a Holter monitor, you can carry out your usual daily activities. The length of time you are required to wear the Holter monitor will vary from 12 hours to 24 hours, depending on what condition your doctor suspects you have. Your doctor will advise you of how long the monitoring is to occur for.
After the Procedure
Once your monitoring period is over, you'll need to come back to our patient centre to return the Holter monitor
- Our technician will then remove the electrodes from your chest, (similar to a bandage being pulled off your skin)
- You hand to the technician the diary you kept while you wore the Holter monitor
- You are then free to resume your normal everyday activities. Our cardiologists will review the holter monitor trace and will report the results back to your treating doctor directly.
These results are normally available to your doctor within 24 to 48 hours.
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Here’s why emotional stress can have adverse impact on your body movement
The response to anxiety includes not only the parts of the brain which deal with emotions but also brain’s movement control centres, say researchers.health and fitness Updated: Sep 20, 2016 12:01 IST
Have you ever wondered why we sometimes ‘freeze’ when frightened or emotionally stressed? It may be because the response to anxiety includes not only the parts of the brain which deal with emotions, as has been long understood, but also movement control centres in the brain, say researchers.
“This is the first hard proof that strong emotions produce a response in brain areas concerned with movement,” said lead researcher Laura Muzzarelli from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy.
The findings give us “a possible explanation for some motor inhibition associated with emotional stress”, she added.
For the study, a group of Italian and Canadian researchers followed a selection of socially anxious and control group children from childhood to adolescence.
The researchers tested 150 children who were between ages of eight to nine, for signs of social inhibition.
Some of these were shown to have early signs of social anxiety, and showed an increased tendency to withdraw from social situations.
They also had more difficulty in recognising emotions, and particularly angry faces.
The anxious children, plus controls, were then followed into adolescence. At the ages of 14-15 they were tested again to see if signs of social anxiety had developed.
The researchers also used functional MRI brain scans to test how the teenage brains responded to angry facial expressions.
“We found that when presented with an angry face the brain of socially anxious adolescents showed increased activity in the amygdala, which is the brain area concerned with emotions, memory and how we respond to threats,” Muzzarelli said.
“Surprisingly, we also found this produced inhibition of some motor areas of the brain, the premotor cortex. This is an area which ‘prepares the body for action’, and for specific movements,” she noted.
The findings were presented at the ongoing European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) conference in Vienna, Austria.
Follow @htlifeandstyle for more.
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2001-Thu Jun 22 16:49:01 EDT 2017
Vetstreet. All rights reserved. Powered by Brightspot.
Vetstreet does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. See Additional Information ›
The microscopic organism called coccidia lives in the intestines of a dog or cat and causes a disease referred to as coccidiosis. Signs include diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and lethargy. Puppies and kittens can become dehydrated and even die from an infection, though some pets never show any signs at all. A pet can pick up the infection from the soil, an infected animal’s feces or by eating an infected rodent. Fortunately, there are medications to treat coccidiosis in both dogs and cats.
Coccidiosis is a common parasitic intestinal condition caused by a microscopic, single-celled organism known commonly as coccidia. Though there are several types of coccidia, dogs with this condition are usually infected with Isospora canis, while cats are infected with Isospora felis.
Infected dogs and cats shed cysts containing the parasite in their stool. These cysts can survive in the environment for as long as a year. Other pets can become infected by swallowing the cysts from a contaminated environment, usually during grooming. Dogs and cats can also contract the parasite by eating an infected rodent.
Once inside the pet’s digestive tract, the cysts break open and the parasite enters an intestinal cell, where it reproduces. The cell eventually ruptures, releasing the parasites and damaging the intestinal lining.
The coccidia species that infect dogs don’t infect cats, and vice versa. However, the cysts in the feces from one dog can infect another dog, and the cysts in the feces from one cat may be infective to another cat. It’s very unlikely that a human will become infected with the species of coccidia that affect dogs and cats.
A high incidence of coccidiosis is seen in kenneled dogs, especially when they are housed under intensive conditions for a long time. Puppy mills and other busy breeding kennels are most often plagued by coccidiosis, so buyers are cautioned to investigate these facilities for signs of diarrhea.
Signs of coccidiosis include watery diarrhea that will often be tinged with blood or mucus. Pets with this condition may also experience vomiting, a loss of appetite and lethargy. Puppies and kittens can be severely affected, exhibiting dehydration, weight loss, and, in some cases, even death.
Older pets usually have milder signs. Some pets can show no signs at all while still shedding the parasite cysts in their feces.
A diagnosis of coccidiosis is made by identifying parasite cysts on a fecal exam. Any new pet being introduced into the home should have a fecal sample tested as soon as possible to diagnose coccidiosis or other intestinal parasite infections. Because some pets never show any signs, fecal tests during annual physical examinations are considered standard practice for all pets.
All breeds of dogs and cats are considered equally susceptible.
Several oral medications may be used to treat coccidiosis. Most pets will require daily treatment for 5 to 10 days, but some pets will have to be retreated if the infection isn’t resolved after the first or even second go-round. In multi-dog or multi-cat households, it’s a good idea to treat the other dogs and cats, respectively, to prevent reinfection from other pets that may carry the parasite but show no signs.
Pets (particularly puppies and kittens) with severe dehydration may need fluid therapy and hospitalization.
Since the cysts are often difficult to find on a fecal exam, veterinarians will sometimes treat pets if there’s a high suspicion of coccidiosis, even if no cysts are found in their stool.
Preventing pets from being infected by coccidia cysts in the environment, washing his or her bedding and cleaning any kennel/heavily populated areas with an ammonia product should be a basic practice, especially if multiple dogs/cats share the area. Picking up and disposing of feces as soon as possible, and keeping pets from hunting rodents, if possible, are also considered fundamental preventive measures.
This article was reviewed by a Veterinarian.
Like this article? Have a point of view to share? Let us know!
Bartonella is a type bacteria that can be transmitted to cats, dogs and humans from exposure to infected fleas and…
Want to give your pup yummy, low-calorie treats? We’ve got the skinny on which foods are OK to feed him.
Not sure about food puzzles? Our veterinarian reveals why the payoff for your pet is well worth any extra work.
With these simple dental care tips, you can help keep your canine’s adorable smile shiny and healthy for life.
The friendly and inquisitive LaPerm has an easy-care coat that comes in a variety of colors and patterns.
Check out our collection of more than 250 videos about pet training, animal behavior, dog and cat breeds and more.
Wonder which dog or cat best fits your lifestyle? Our new tool will narrow down more than 300 breeds for you.
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OBLIGATION OF CONTRACTS. By this expression, which is used in the constitution of the United States, is meant a legal and not merely a moral duty. 4 Wheat. 107. The obligation of contracts consists in the necessity under which a man finds himself to, do, or to refrain from doing something. This obligation consists generally both in foro legis and in foro conscientice, though it does at times exist in one of these only. It is certainly of the first, that in foro legis, which the framers of the constitution spoke, when they prohibited the passage of any law impairing the obligation of contract. 1 Harr. Lond. Rep. Lo. 161. See Impairing the obligation of contracts.
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Monday, August 10, 2015
The Summer of Hummers and Other Bird News
Last summer, Mxyl got a hummingbird feeder and we saw a few hummingbirds- maybe 2 or 3 that summer.
This year we moved the feeder to the front porch and we started seeing 2 hummers every morning and evening.
We added another feeder and now have seen seven of them at once! Obviously we need more feeders.
Not only that, we can sit on the front porch and watch them feed about 3 feet from our faces!!
If you look carefully, you can see two hummingbirds fight over the top feeder in the video. Watch for the sparrow and the squirrel photobombs, and you will see how fast the hummers are moving! I had filmed this in "slo-mo" mode on my phone, but I can't figure out how to post it except at full speed.
I will also admit that I didn't see the second hummer while I was taking the video!
In other bird news, Choclo, Oob, and I dissected a pigeon!
What we found most interesting was the bird digestive arrangement: crop (undigested food), then stomach (chemical digestion), then gizzard (mechanical digestion, grinding the seeds with small stones), and then the intestines. I had always thought the gizzard was before the stomach, since we do our mechanical digestion (chewing) first, in order to give more surface area for the chemical digestion to work. I have no idea why the birds have the reverse arrangement!
I was also interested in the respiratory system and the large (for it's size) heart, all of which allow it to get enough energy to fly. Choclo and Oob were quite fascinated by the bird's scaly feet. We talked about feathers being specialized scales (like a flower's petals are specialized leaves), and about the dinosaur-bird connection.
Did you know that many large dinosaurs also had gizzards? They found the smoothly worn stones (gastroliths) the animals had swallowed in the right part of the skeleton. And, of course, many of them had feathers (including the velociraptors!).
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Do You Know Nutrition: Where did those crazy names come from?
By Phylis Canion
Jan. 31, 2012 at midnight
Updated Jan. 30, 2012 at 7:31 p.m.
I wonder how food derived its name. Like 7UP, Hershey's Kisses, Heinz 57? Just wondering if you ever wonder that?
As you may know, I am a huge food trivia buff, so this is right down my ally.
7Up, the citrus soda was so named because the original container was seven ounces and the direction of the bubbles were "up."
Hershey's Kisses are so named because the machine that produces the kisses looks like it is kissing the conveyor belt.
The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
Did you know that Coca-Cola was originally green?
The can opener was invented 28 years after cans were introduced.
The first bar code was used on Wrigley's gum.
Most of those dust bunnies in your house are from dead skin.
It takes a plastic container 50,000 years to start decomposing.
About 70 percent of your body weight is water (which is why I keep telling you to drink water. Your body really does need it).
Your nose smells the best at about 10 years old.
You would have to walk approximately 50 miles for your legs to equal the amount of exercise your eyes get daily.
I have been counting carbohydrates since the first of the year. Can you share some carbohydrate facts?
Here are several things to remember about carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are important nutrients that supply energy for your body. Except for carbohydrates like fiber (that are not broken down into glucose before they enter the colon), all carbohydrates end up as sugar.
Your body uses sugar for energy for your cells, tissues and organs and stores extra sugar in your liver and muscles for when the body needs it.
Most carbohydrates, found in grocery markets, are rapidly digested because the manufacturers have already begun the digestive process for us by refining, grinding and puffing grains. Non-starch vegetables, (for example sprouts, greens and herbs), are the best source of carbohydrates.
Whole grains make better carbohydrates choices, such a quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), since it is a grain that remains intact.
Fiber is a complex carbohydrate that cannot be broken down and passes through the body undigested. Consuming fiber also helps keep the digestive system work properly by regularly pushing food through the intestines and preventing a sluggish system.
Thought for the week: Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
The next free nutrition class is Feb. 13. Call today, 361-576-2100, to reserve your seat.
Phylis B. Canion is a doctor of naturopathic medicine and is a certified nutritional consultant, email her at email@example.com. This column is for nutritional information only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or cure.
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The art of foretelling one's future based on one's date of birth
began with the Egyptians.
Dated around 3,000 B.C., the Egyptians divided the sky into 36
sections. (This was the basis for what modern day astrologers
Each star god was assigned three sections of the sky. Their
gods were as follows: the sheep, bull, two men clasping hands,
scarab, lion, maiden, horizon, scorpion, he who draws a bow,
goat, water man and the fishes.
Egyptian astrology is extremely intertwined with their religion, as it
is believed the priests knew the secrets of the heavens.
Each constellation had its own boat with which to cross the sky
river (the goddess Nut's river). The Sun controlled the Nile river,
which provided irrigation to the crops of the residents of Egypt.
If you are interested in learning more on this style of astrology, we
would recommend reading "Egyptian Mythology" by Veronica
Ions. This book is no longer in print and we can only suggest
trying a used book store to purchase this book. Though we often
obtain rare and out-of-print books, we do not carry this one at this
time. Please check our merchandise section randomly though,
as books become available, we will post them on the site for
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He needs to to be prompt if he doesn't want to miss his flight.
- Prompt is defined as something that is done on time or right away or someone who does things on time or immediately.
An example of prompt is someone who is told to arrive at 7:00 and who gets there at 7:00.
- The definition of a prompt is a cue given to someone to help him remember what to say, or is something that causes another event or action to occur.
- An example of prompt is when you whisper a line to an actor who forgot what to say next.
- An example of prompt is an event that starts an argument.
- quick to act or to do what is required; ready, punctual, etc.
- done, spoken, etc. at once or without delay
Origin of promptMiddle English prompte from Middle French from Classical Latin promptus, brought forth, at hand, ready, quick from past participle of promere, to bring forth from pro-, forth + emere, to take: see pro- and redeem
- the time limit specified for the payment of an account
- the contract in which the due date is specified
- an act of prompting; reminder
- Comput. a message on a video screen that requests the user to enter information or a command
- to urge into action; provoke
- to remind (a person) of something he or she has forgotten; specif., to help (an actor, etc. who has forgotten a line) with a cue
- to move or inspire by suggestion
- Comput. to request a response from (a user) with a prompt (noun): said of a program, etc.
- Being on time; punctual.
- Carried out or performed without delay: a prompt reply.
transitive verbprompt·ed, prompt·ing, prompts
- To move to act; spur; incite: A noise prompted the guard to go back and investigate.
- To give rise to; inspire: The accident prompted a review of school safety policy.
- To assist with a reminder; remind.
- To assist (an actor or reciter) by providing the next words of a forgotten passage; cue.
- a. The act of prompting or giving a cue.b. A reminder or cue.
- Computers A symbol that appears on a monitor to indicate that the computer is ready to receive input.
- Something which inspires a response, especially a statement or series of questions designed to provoke creative or critical thought from a student: In English class today, the teacher gave us the prompt for our final essay.
Origin of promptMiddle English ready from Old French from Latin prōmptus from past participle of prōmere to bring forth prō- forth ; see pro- 1. emere to take, obtain ; see em- in Indo-European roots.
- promp′ti·tude′ prompt′ness
(comparative more prompt, superlative most prompt)
- A reminder or cue.
- (business, dated) A time limit given for payment of an account for produce purchased, this limit varying with different goods.
- (computing) A symbol that appears on a monitor to indicate that the computer is ready to receive input.
- I filled in my name where the prompt appeared on the computer screen but my account wasn't recognized.
- (writing) A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.
(third-person singular simple present prompts, present participle prompting, simple past and past participle prompted)
- To lead someone toward what they should say or do.
- I prompted him to get a new job.
- (theater and television) - to show or tell an actor/person the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing.
- If he forgets his words I will prompt him.
From Middle French prompt, from Latin promptus (“visible, apparent, evident, at hand, prepated, ready, quick, prompt, inclined, disposed"), past participle of promere (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light"), from pro (“forth, forward") + emere (“to take, acquire, buy").
prompt - Computer Definition
A message displayed on screen that requests action from the user, such as "Enter Employee Name" or "Press 1 to Continue." Command Prompts Are Brief Command-driven systems do not offer a menu and require that users know the commands beforehand and type them in correctly spelled. When ready to accept the next command, they display a simple prompt such as the dollar sign ($) in Unix and Linux. In the DOS command line, the prompt is the drive letter, folder name and right arrow (>); for example: c:\backup>. The command line prompt in dBASE is nothing more than a single dot (.).
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There are many reasons for man to be grateful for fire. The two biggest are that is provides us with a source for cooking and heat.
Via the source of gas, fire still continues to provide us with heat and a source of cooking. The fire is under much greater control than it was when Neanderthals discovered fire tens of thousands of years ago.
Fire is something us to be grateful for in many ways, but it can also be a scary thing that causes tremendous damage each year. We can still have a sense of gratefulness towards those that work to fight fires.
As technology advances the fight against putting unwanted fires out seems to continue to get better. Accidental fires can happen for many reasons. Some happen through nature from lightning and other sources, while others occur from man-made sources or arson.
Most of us take much of what we have in our daily lives for granted. Having fire is something that we don’t usually think about consciously think about. It’s always prevalent in our lives. We use fire to heat our homes and with a gas stove cook our food.
When we roll our garbage cans out to the curb once or twice per week do we think about how the garbage is disposed of? It’s picked up by a garbage truck and eventually brought to a landfill where the waste is slowly burned off.
Fire can also be used in many other ways. Other sources can be to provide light, energy, blacksmithing and glass making all require fire. Without fire, most of the things we take for granted would come to a halt.
Although most of us don’t use it directly, on a daily basis Fire provides us with most of the things we now consider necessities to live, thrive and survive.
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What is a Medical Device Recall? A recall is an action taken to address a problem with a medical device that violates FDA law. Recalls occur when a medical device is defective, when it could be a risk to health, or when it is both defective and a risk to health. A medical device recall does not always mean that you must stop using the product or return it to the company. A recall sometimes means that the medical device needs to be checked, adjusted, or fixed. If an implanted device (for example, a pacemaker or an artificial hip) is recalled, it does not always have to be removed. The FDA classifies recalls in three categories depending on the health hazard presented by the product being recalled:
- Class I – a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.
- Class II – a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.
- Class III – a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences.
According to FDA data, there are typically between 13 and 75 devices each day. The manufacturer of the medical device has the primary responsibility of orchestrating the recall of the product. The majority of FDA recalls are voluntary, although the FDA has the authority to impose mandatory medical device recalls.
The recall of cardiac, vascular, ocular or orthopedic implant devices and any subsequent action is a serious matter that requires the collaborative efforts of manufacturers, insurers, regulatory bodies, hospitals, and surgeons in order to ensure effective remedies. Patient safety must be the highest priority in cases of recalled implant devices, and care should be taken to confirm the device’s failure when considering revision surgery as a treatment option. Depending on the patient’s health and age, risks of re-operation could be significant and must be carefully assessed and discussed with the patient before additional treatment is administered.
Hospitals, as end users, are charged with the mission of reaching the patient and putting a plan of action in place in a timely manner. Recordkeeping requirements such as manufacturer, product description, expiration date, lot and serial number are important to record as the can impact the response rate to a medical device recall. The current initiative for manufacturers to incorporate a Unique Device Identifier (UDI) for all medical devices will add another data element that must be tracked. Retrieval of all this information is time sensitive.
By embracing available tracking technology, hospitals will have the ability to search by vendor, catalogue number, lot or serial number, then remove recalled product from inventory in a timely manner and notify impacted patients sooner. The timeliness of communication of the recall to the patient, along with the professional course of action will not only significant impact patient safety, but could be a tipping point for patient satisfaction.
More information on FDA recalls can be obtained on the sites below:
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PRINCIPLES GASOLINE/DIESEL FUEL SYSTEMS - OD1620 - LESSON 1/TASK 2
piston pushes the piston down, which in turn pushes the power valve open.
The power jet is sometimes referred to as the economizer and the vacuum
piston as the step-up or power piston.
(b) Vacuum-Operated Metering Rod (figure 18). The vacuum-operated
metering rod uses a rod with a diameter that gets progressively larger in
steps from its end. The vacuum piston operates the metering rod. When the
engine load is light and manifold vacuum is high, the piston pushes the
metering rod into the jet against spring pressure, restricting the flow to
the discharge tube.
When the load demand increases, the manifold vacuum
decreases, causing the piston spring to lift the metering rod out of the
jet, progressively increasing the fuel flow to the discharge tube.
VACUUM-OPERATED OPERATED METERING ROD.
(c) Mechanically-Operated Metering Rod (figure 19 on the following
page). The mechanically operated metering rod works by the same principles
as the vacuum-operated metering rod, except that it is operated by linkage
from the throttle valve. The linkage is calibrated so that the metering rod
regulates the fuel perfectly for each throttle position.
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Salivary Gland Adenocarcinoma in Dogs
The salivary glands produce and secrete saliva to help in lubrication and improve the solubility of food, an essential component of the digestive process. There are four major salivary glands, including the mandibular, sublingual, parotid, and zygomatic gland. Adenocarcinoma can affect any of these salivary glands, but the most commonly affected gland in dogs is the mandibular gland.
Adenocarcinoma is characterized as originating in the glandular tissue, and like other carcinomas, can be especially malignant, spreading quickly throughout the body. This is generally a locally invasive tumor, but it can also metastasize and invade other distant parts and organs of the body. Like other adenocarcinomas, salivary gland adenocarcinoma is usually found in older animals, around 10-12 years of age.
Symptoms and Types
Symptoms of adenocarcinoma of the salivary glands depends upon the type of salivary gland that is affected. Following are a few of the common symptoms related to salivary gland adenocarcinoma:
- Painless swelling of upper neck, ear base, or upper lip
- Halitosis (foul breath)
- Weight loss
- Poor appetite
- Dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing)
- Exophthalmos (bulging of eye)
- Dysphonia (hoarseness)
The exact cause is still unknown.
Your veterinarian will perform a thorough physical exam on your pet, taking into account the background history of symptoms. Blood tests, biochemical profiles and urinalysis will be performed, though results will often return as normal with this disease. Radiographs of affected areas and bones can reveal important information about the nature and extent of the problem. X-rays of other regions may also be performed to see if the tumor has metastasized into these regions of the body, and more refined procedures, like tissue biopsy, will help in establishing a confirmatory diagnosis.
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White Axolotl Closeup
|Range||Lake Xochimilco, Mexico|
The Axolotl is a specie from the Ambystoma genus. The species originates from Lake Xochimilco underlying Mexico City.
Axolotls have feather-like external gills, and lidless eyes. They are closely related to Tiger salamanders, and many mistaken axolotls for Tiger Salamander larva
Axolotls of various colours occur in captivity, including grey, shades of brown, leucistic (white with black eyes), golden albino, white albino, as well as other varieties, such as the melanoid (a near-black animal). The normally coloured axolotl, the "wild type", can be near-black, or even creamy in colour, and anywhere in between. There are even "piebald" axolotls in various colours, and a variety that is piebald in more than one colour, known as the "harlequin".
Axolotls are more active at night than during the day. In bright light, they tend to rest under cover of vegetation or under overhangs. Axolotls are cannibalistic when different size ranges are kept together or if they are underfed.
Earthworms, insects, small crustaceans; narrow strips of raw lean beef, fish or chicken, fed by hand and wiggled; many will learn to take pellet food for carnivorous fish, e.g. salmon pellets with a preference for softer pellets. Hatchlings take brine shrimp, tubifex worms, water fleas and small insects.
Feed adults three times a week, with as much as they will consume within about one hour. Feed juveniles more often. Remove uneaten food and excreta promptly.
Essential dietary needsEdit
Axolotls require a variety of food items, as monotonous diets may cause nutritional deficiencies.
Lifespan: Needs InformationEdit
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A wild axolotl lives up to 12–15 years.
- Axolotls can regrow lost body parts.
- Axolotls have external gills.
- Scientists do not know the population of axolotls, but know they are still decreasing.
- Axolotls used to live in two lakes in Mexico until one of them was drained to prevent flooding.
- Axolotls and Tiger Salamander Larvae are closely alike, and many mistaken axolotls for Tiger Salamander Larvae.
- Axolotls are amphibians (salamanders) and are also known as the Mexican Walking Fish.
- Axolotls remain in their larval state as an adult and can't live on land.
- Axolotls are carnivorous and have small stump like teeth.
- Axolotls can be grey,white,gold,and brown.
- Axolotls are related to Tiger Salamanders and lay eggs.
- Axolotls are native to Mexico.
- Axolotl comes from the Aztec language (Nahuatal) and names are close to Xolotl their god of death and deformations and the translation is (water dog.)
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What to do with this activity?
"Mahna mahna" is a nonsense song that appeared on the TV puppet show "Sesame Street" and became a real favourite with kids. Have a look at the video of the song together - your toddler might really enjoy it. When they get to know it, maybe they could copy the "mahna mahna" bit of the song and then you could reply with "do doo be-do-do". It should make you both laugh. Surprise them by popping up at funny angles when you say your line like the character in the video.
Have fun together.
Talking is one of the most important skills your child will learn. It seems to happen naturally, but in fact you have a very important role to play. Your baby will learn to talk by hearing other people talk. The more you talk with your baby and respond to their noises and babbles, the more you help them learn to communicate. This will help them in every aspect of their life.
Songs and rhymes are especially good for children as the rhythms and repetitive language make it easier for babies to learn language skills. Babies love songs and rhymes, especially hearing the sound of your voice. This is a great way to help your child to talk and listen. Rhymes with actions explain what words mean - "pour me out" in "I'm a little teapot". You can also create sound effects when you are singing songs and saying rhymes. Use your hands to clap, your fingers to click and your mouth to make playful sounds and whistles.
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Fraction Game Day
Lesson 10 of 22
Objective: SWBAT practice fraction skills by playing various games.
Whole Class Discussion
In today's lesson, the students practice what they have learned about fractions. They use visual models to help them compare fractions problems, find equivalent fractions, and change improper fractions to mixed numbers and mixed numbers to improper fractions. This relates to 4.NF.A1 AND 4.NF.A2 because the students must determine equivalency and compare fractions by drawing visual models.
Because the students have been working on fractions for a couple of weeks now, I feel that using games to practice the skills will energize the students and keep them focused on learning. From teaching over the past 14 years, I have found that students enjoy activities that are fun. As teachers, we enjoy the fact that even though the students are having fun, they are still learning.
Before I send the students to their center activity, I review all that has been learned to this point. I ask a few questions of the students. First, "Describe a fraction?" Student responses: It has a numerator and a denominator, it can be an improper fraction if the top number is bigger than the bottom number, the top number tells you how many to get, and the bottom number tells you how many pieces there are. "When may you need to use a fraction in the real-world?" (It is very important to let the students know that the skill is relevant to their lives. If they feel that it is relevant, then they tend to work a little harder.) Student responses: When I share something with my friends, when we eat cake that has been cut into pieces, and when we eat pizza.
I let the students know that fractions are important in our everyday lives. For instance, I always like to treat all students fairly. What if we were having a party. If two parents bought pizza. One parent cut the pizza into eighths, and the other parent cut the pizza into sixteenths. I give out the pizza cut into eighths until all the slices are gone. When I give the other students the pizza that is cut into sixteenths, then I will give them 2/16 because I want you all to have the same amount.
I tell the students, "Today, you will practice your skills in centers. Even though you will be playing games, you must stay focused on the skills. We've already discovered that fractions are important to all of our lives."
I have the students count off by 6. I send the groups to centers based upon their numbers. The students will practice the activities listed below at the centers. The students use the tools strategically (MP5), as well as model (MP4) the fractions to help compare the fractions.
Change Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers and Mixed Numbers to Improper Fractions
The students practice the skill on the computer at the following websites:
Equivalent Fractions – Go Fish
The students practice finding equivalent fractions by playing Go Fish. Each student has 4 fraction cards in their hands. The first person asks their partner for a fraction. For example, if they have ½ in their hand, they may ask, “Do you have an equivalent fraction for 1/2? If the partner does not have the fraction, they tell the person to Go Fish. The student pulls a card from cards that have been laid face down. If they find an equivalent fraction, they can take the two cards out of their hands. If they do not, they must keep the two cards along with the other cards in their hands. Take turns until one person has gotten rid of all of his/her cards. (The Go Fish Math Cards.docx can be found in the resource section.)
The students practice comparing fractions with different denominators. The first student rolls two number cubes. The student forms the first fraction by writing the smallest number as the numerator and the largest number as the denominator. The student rolls the number cubes again to form the second fraction. The student has 2 minutes to compare the fraction using strategies learned in class. If they get the answer correct, they get a point. The student with the most points wins the game. (Materials needed per pair of students: 2 game cubes and timer)
To close the lesson, I bring the class back as a whole. I allow the students to share their experiences with the activities. I feel that it is always important to come back together as a whole before closing out the class. This gives me the opportunity to address any misconceptions that I saw or heard while the students were participating in the activities.
Some students are still working on perfecting their models. It takes them a while to get it right, but they do. This is evident in the Student Work sample. The student had to erase quite a bit, but both fractions are represented with the same whole, and the pieces are divided as accurately as possible.
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After years of searching high and low for a culprit in the collapse of Delta fish populations, scientists are learning the problem may lie right under their noses.
The likely fish killer is ammonia, a common byproduct of human urine and feces.
Sacramento's regional sewage treatment plant is the largest single source of ammonia in the Delta. It discharges treated wastewater from nearly 1.4 million people into the Sacramento River near Freeport – without removing ammonia.
Two recent studies by Richard Dugdale, an oceanographer at San Francisco State University, show that ammonia disrupts the food chain in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The discovery, if it holds up to further scientific review, reveals how just one factor can tilt the Delta's complex ecological balance. It also illustrates how fixing the Delta will be a costly task for many California residents who mistakenly assume their lives are not connected to the estuary.
Read the full story at sacbee.com.
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Leonardo and the Last Supperby Ross King
- LendMe LendMe™ Learn More
Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art--The Last Supper. After a dozen years at the court of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, Leonardo was at a low point personally and professionally: at 43, in an era when he had almost reached the average life expectancy, he had failed, despite a number of prestigious commissions, to complete anything that truly fulfilled his astonishing promise. His latest failure was a giant bronze horse to honor Sforza's father: his 75 tons of bronze had been expropriated to be turned into cannon to help repel a French invasion of Italy. The commission to paint The Last Supper in the refectory of a Dominican convent was a small compensation, and his odds of completing it were not promising: Not only had he never worked on a painting of such a large size--15' high x 30' wide--but he had no experience in the extremely difficult medium of fresco.
In his compelling new book, Ross King explores how--amidst war and the political and religious turmoil around him, and beset by his own insecurities and frustrations--Leonardo created the masterpiece that would forever define him. King unveils dozens of stories that are embedded in the painting. Examining who served as the models for the Apostles, he makes a unique claim: that Leonardo modeled two of them on himself. Reviewing Leonardo's religious beliefs, King paints a much more complex picture than the received wisdom that he was a heretic. The food that Leonardo, a famous vegetarian, placed on the table reveals as much as do the numerous hand gestures of those at Christ's banquet.
As King explains, many of the myths that have grown up around The Last Supper are wrong, but its true story is ever more interesting. Bringing to life a fascinating period in European history, Ross King presents an original portrait of one of history's greatest geniuses through the lens of his most famous work.
“King gives us a gripping account of how that painting was created...[and] deftly situates the painting in a historical context… [a] fascinating volume.” Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“[A] lively history.” The New Yorker
“The story of Leonardo's creation of the work has now found an ideal chronicler in Ross King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, which have won plaudits for their concise, close-focus study of great renaissance achievements. King has the gift of clear, unpretentious exposition, and an instinctive narrative flair” Charles Nicholl, Guardian
“Leonardo and the Last Supper is meticulously researched, gracefully written and fascinating to read.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Ross King, an English novelist and historian, tells the story, in Leonardo and the Last Supper, of the improbable creation of one of art's greatest masterpieces. With a fiction writer's feel for character, King depicts a supremely ingenious, enigmatic, stubbornly independent, and underachieving Leonardo, and, with a nonfiction writer's skill, he sets the sketch against a richly described background of a society in creative and often violent ferment.” Philadelphia Inquirer
“King brings to precise life a fully dimensional, irresistibly audacious, and wizardly Leonardo and his powerfully affecting, miraculously surviving mural. Readers will love the dramatic, vivid, and brainy mix of biography and art history King cooks up” Booklist, starred review
“King provides a fascinating look at the artist’s life, including his reputation among his patrons as unreliable, and his relationships with those he worked with and forincluding a young boy named Giacomo, who ‘held a great physical attraction for Leonardo.’ However, King’s speculations are never salacious; rather, they help place Leonardo’s life into the context of Florence’s history of sexual tolerance and subsequent religious crackdowns…the book proves most lively when tackling common misconceptions about the painting, with The Da Vinci Code coming in for special criticism.” Publishers Weekly
“An absorbing study of a disappearing masterpiece…King places the painting in its political, social and artistic context, describing both the meaning of da Vinci’s work and the violent 15th-century Italian world that spawned it…King plumbs the painting’s religious, secular, psychological and political meanings, registered in the facial expressions and hand positions, the significance of the food on the table and, most fascinatingly, the salt spilled by the betraying Judas…King’s book is an impressive work of restorationthe author helps readers see this painting for the first time.” Kirkus Reviews, starred
“A fascinating and in-depth story of one of the world's most famous works of art that will appeal to general readers as well as academics. Highly recommended.” Library Journal, starred review
“The colorful back story is restored and revealed in Leonardo and The Last Supper, a new book by British author Ross King that quickly dispenses with the outlandish myths spread by The Da Vinci Code novel while showing that history is in many ways more surprising than Dan Brown’s popular fiction.” New York Post
“The story of Leonardo's creation has now found an ideal chronicler in Ross King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, which have won plaudits for their concise, close-focus study of great renaissance achievements. Clear, unpretentious exposition.” The Guardian
- Bloomsbury USA
- Publication date:
- Sold by:
- Barnes & Noble
- NOOK Book
- Sales rank:
- File size:
- 8 MB
Read an Excerpt
Leonardo and The Last Supper
By ROSS KING
WALKER & COMPANYCopyright © 2012 Ross King
All right reserved.
Chapter OneThe Bronze Horse
The astrologers and fortune-tellers were agreed: signs of the coming disasters were plain to see. In Puglia, down in the heel of Italy, three fiery suns rose into the sky. Farther north, in Tuscany, ghost riders on giant horses galloped through the air to the sound of drums and trumpets. In Florence, a Dominican friar named Girolamo Savonarola received visions of swords emerging from clouds and a black cross rising above Rome. All over Italy, statues sweated blood and women gave birth to monsters.
These strange and troubling events in the summer of 1494 foretold great changes. That year, as a chronicler later recounted, the Italian people suffered "innumerable horrible calamities." Savonarola predicted the arrival of a fierce conqueror from across the Alps who would lay waste to Italy. His dire prophecy was fulfilled soon enough. That September, King Charles VIII of France entered an Alpine pass with an army of more than thirty thousand men, bent on marching through Italy and seizing the throne of Naples. The scourge of God made an unprepossessing sight: the twenty-four-year-old king was short, myopic, and so ill proportioned that in the words of the chronicler Francesco Guicciardini, "he seemed more like a monster than a man." His ungainly appearance and agreeable nickname, Charles the Affable, belied the fact that he was equipped with the most formidable array of weapons ever seen in Europe.
Charles VIII's first stop was the Lombard town of Asti, where, after pawning jewels to pay his troops, he was greeted by his powerful Italian ally, Lodovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan. Savonarola may have prophesied Charles's expedition, but it was Lodovico who had summoned him across the Alps. The forty-two-year-old Lodovico, known because of his dark complexion as Il Moro (the Moor), was as handsome, vigorous, and cunning as the French king was feeble and ugly. He had turned Milan—the duchy over which he had become the de facto ruler in 1481 after usurping his young nephew Giangaleazzo—into what the Holy Roman emperor, Maximilian, called "the most flourishing realm in Italy." But Lodovico's head lay uneasy. The father-in-law of the feckless Giangaleazzo was Alfonso II, the new king of Naples, whose daughter Isabella deplored the usurpation and did not scruple to tell her father of her sufferings. Alfonso had an unsavory reputation. "Never was any prince more bloody, wicked, inhuman, lascivious, or gluttonous than he," declared a French ambassador. Lodovico was told to beware assassins: Neapolitans of bad repute, an adviser warned, had been dispatched to Milan "on some evil errand."
Yet if Alfonso could be removed from Naples—if Charles VIII could be convinced to press his tenuous claim to its throne (his great-grandfather had been king of Naples a century earlier)—then Lodovico could rest easy in Milan. According to an observer at the French court, he had therefore begun "to tickle King Charles ... with the vanities and glories of Italy."
The Duchy of Milan ran seventy miles from north to south—from the foothills of the Alps to the Po—and sixty miles from west to east. At its heart, encircled by a deep moat, crisscrossed by canals, and protected by a circuit of stone walls, lay the city of Milan itself. Lodovico's wealth and determination had turned the city, with a population of one hundred thousand people, into Italy's greatest. A huge fortress with cylindrical towers loomed on its northeast edge, while at the center of the city rose the walls of a new cathedral, started in 1386 but still, after a century, barely half-finished. Palaces lined the paved streets, their facades decorated with frescoes. A poet exulted that in Milan the golden age had returned, and that Lodovico's city was full of talented artists who flocked to his court "like bees to honey."
The poet was not merely flattering to deceive. Lodovico had been an enthusiastic patron of the arts ever since, at the age of thirteen, he commissioned a portrait of his favorite horse. Under his rule, intellectual and artistic luminaries flocked to Milan: poets, painters, musicians, and architects, as well as scholars of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. The universities in Milan and neighboring Pavia were revived. Law and medicine flourished. New buildings were commissioned; elegant cupolas bloomed on the skyline. With his own hands Lodovico laid the first stone of the beautiful church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso.
And yet the verdict of the chroniclers would be harsh. Italy had enjoyed forty years of relative peace. The odd skirmish still broke out, such as when Pope Sixtus IV went to war against Florence in 1478. Yet for the most part Italy's princes vied to surpass one another not on the field of battle but in the taste and splendor of their accomplishments. Now, however, the blood-dimmed tide was loosed. By enticing Charles VIII and his thunderous weapons across the Alps, Lodovico Sforza had unwittingly unleashed—as all the stars foretold—innumerable horrible calamities.
Among the brilliant courtiers in Lodovico Sforza's Milan was an artist celebrated above all others. "Rejoice, Milan," wrote a poet in 1493, "that inside your walls are men with excellent honours, such as Vinci, whose skills in both drawing and painting are unrivalled by masters both ancient and modern."
This virtuoso was Leonardo da Vinci who, at forty-two, was exactly the same age as Lodovico. A Tuscan who came north to Milan a dozen years earlier to seek his reputation, he must have cut a conspicuous and alluring figure at Il Moro's court. By the accounts of his earliest biographers, he was strikingly handsome and elegant. "Outstanding physical beauty," enthused one writer. "Beautiful in person and aspect," observed another. "Long hair, long eyelashes, a very long beard, and a true nobility," declared a third. He possessed brawn and vigor too. He was said to be able to straighten a horse shoe with his bare hands, and during his absences from court he climbed the barren peaks north of Lake Como, crawling on all fours past huge rocks and contending with "terrible bears."
This epitome of masculine pulchritude bore the grand title pictor et ingeniarius ducalis: the duke's painter and engineer. He had come to Milan, aged thirty, in hopes of inventing and constructing fearsome war machines such as chariots, cannons, and catapults that would, he promised Il Moro, give "great terror to the enemy." His hopes were no doubt boosted by the fact that Milan was at war with Venice, with Lodovico spending almost 75 percent of his vast annual revenues on warfare. Although visions of battle danced in his head, he actually found himself at work on more modest and peaceable tasks, such as designing costumes for weddings and pageants, fashioning elaborate stage sets for plays, and painting a portrait of Il Moro's mistress. He amused courtiers by performing tricks such as turning white wine into red, and by inventing an alarm clock that woke up the sleeper by jerking his feet into the air. Occasionally the tasks were mundane: "To heat the water for the stove of the Duchess," one of his notes recorded, "take four parts of cold water to three parts of hot water."
Despite his diverse assignments, over much of the previous decade Leonardo had devoted himself to one commission in particular, a work of art that should truly have sealed his reputation as an artist unrivaled by ancients and moderns alike. In about 1482, shortly before moving to Milan, he composed a letter of introduction to Lodovico, a kind of curriculum vitae that somewhat exaggerated his abilities. In the letter, he promised to apprise Il Moro of his secrets, casually assuring him that "the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honour of the prince your father of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza."
This bronze horse was the larger-than-life equestrian monument by which Lodovico hoped to celebrate the exploits of his late father, Francesco Sforza. A wily soldier of fortune (Niccolò Machiavelli praised his "great prowess" and "honourable wickedness"), Francesco became duke of Milan in 1450 after overthrowing a short-lived republican government. He was the son of a man named Muzio Attendolo who, as a youngster, had been chopping wood when a troop of soldiers rode by and, eyeing his brawny frame, invited him to join them. Muzio threw his axe at a tree trunk, vowing to himself: "If it sticks, I will go." The axe stuck, and Muzio became a mercenary hired at various times by all of the major Italian princes. His strapping physique and fierce nature brought him the nickname "Sforza" (sforzare means to force), which, like the axe, stuck.
Francesco Sforza had been an equally brilliant soldier. He rose from soldier to duke nine years after marrying the illegitimate daughter of one of his clients, the duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti. The Visconti family had ruled Milan since 1277, and as dukes since 1395. However, in 1447, after Filippo Maria died without a male heir, the citizens of Milan did away with the dukedom and proclaimed a republic. Two years later, staking his claim to rule the city, Francesco blockaded and besieged Milan, whose starving citizens eventually gave up on their republic and, in March 1450, welcomed their former mercenary as duke of Milan. Francesco did not suffer the succession problems of Filippo Maria, fathering as many as thirty children, eleven of them illegitimate. No fewer than eight sons were born on the right side of the blanket, with the eldest, Galeazzo Maria—Il Moro's older brother—becoming duke upon Francesco's death in 1466.
The Visconti family had a gaudy history of heresy, insanity, and murder. One of the more intriguing members, a nun named Maifreda, was burned at the stake in the year 1300 for claiming she was going to be the next pope. Giovanni Maria Visconti, Filippo Maria's older brother, trained his hounds to hunt people and eat their flesh. Filippo Maria, fat and insane, cut off his wife's head. Even in such company, the cruel and lecherous Galeazzo Maria stood out. Machiavelli later blanched at his monstrous behavior, noting how he was not content to dispatch his enemies "unless he killed them in some cruel mode," while chroniclers could not bring themselves to describe various of his deeds. He was suspected of murdering not only his fiancée but also his mother. In 1476 he was felled by knife-wielding assassins, leaving behind an eight-year-old son and heir, Giangaleazzo—the child duke elbowed out of the way, five years later, by Lodovico il Moro, who solved the problem of authority in Milan by decapitating the boy's regent.
Lodovico's claim to sovereignty was tenuous. Technically speaking, he was only the guardian and representative of his nephew, who had inherited the title of duke of Milan from his father. This dubious prerogative meant Lodovico was anxious to keep alive in everyone's mind the memory of his own father. He had therefore commissioned from a scholar named Giovanni Simonetta a history of Francesco's illustrious career. He was further planning to have heroic scenes from his father's life frescoed in the ballroom of Milan's castle. An equestrian monument of Francesco had been mooted as early as 1473, when Galeazzo Maria planned to have one installed before Milan's castle. The project ended with his assassination but was revived by Lodovico, who envisaged the bronze monument as the most conspicuous and spectacular of the tributes to his father.
Mercenary captains were often flattered after their deaths in paint, print, and bronze. The sculptor Donatello cast a bronze equestrian monument of the Venetian commander Erasmo da Narni, better known as Gattamelata (Honey Cat), to stand in the Piazza del Santo in Padua. In 1480 another Florentine sculptor, Andrea del Verrocchio—Leonardo's former teacher—began working for the Venetians on a statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni on horse back. Lodovico envisaged something even more grandiose for his father. As an ambassador reported, "His Excellency desires something of superlative size, the like of which has never been seen."
* * *
Leonardo da Vinci once wrote that his first memory was of a bird, and that studying and writing about birds therefore "seems to be my destiny." Yet horses were truly the rudder of Leonardo's fortune, and a horse was, in a manner of speaking, what had brought him to Milan in the first place. According to one source, in about 1482 Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of Florence, had dispatched him to Milan with a special diplomatic gift for Lodovico Sforza: a silver lyre that Leonardo had invented, and on which he could play, an early biographer claimed, "with rare execution." This unique musical instrument was in the shape of a horse's head. A hasty sketch in one of Leonardo's manuscripts shows what the instrument may have looked like, with the horse's teeth serving as pegs for the strings and ridges in the roof of the mouth doubling as frets.
Given Lorenzo de' Medici's habit of conducting diplomatic relations through his artists, the story of the lyre has a ring of truth. But lyre or no lyre, Leonardo almost certainly would have made his way north to Milan in order to build weapons or design the equestrian monument, opportunities he must have decided did not readily present themselves in Florence.
Leonardo received the commission for the bronze statue within a few years of his arrival in Milan. Lodovico revived the project in earnest in 1484, though Leonardo was not his first choice as sculptor. Despite Leonardo's presence in Milan, in the spring of 1484 Lodovico wrote to Lorenzo de' Medici asking if he knew of any sculptors capable of casting the monument. But Florence's two greatest sculptors, Verrocchio and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, were both busy on other projects. "Here I do not find any artist who satisfies me," Lorenzo regretfully replied. He did not endorse Leonardo, merely adding, "I am sure that His Excellency will not lack someone."
For want of another candidate, then, Leonardo was given the commission, possibly quite soon after Lorenzo's response. He attacked the project with relish, albeit evidently inspired much more by the figure of the horse than by that of its rider. He made a close study of equine anatomy, and even composed and illustrated a (now-lost) treatise on the subject. He spent hours in the ducal stables, scrutinizing and drawing Sicilian and Spanish stallions owned by Lodovico and his favorite courtiers. One of his memoranda reads, "The Florentine Morello of Mr. Mariolo, large horse, has a nice neck and a very beautiful head. The white stallion belonging to the falconer has fine hind quarters; it is behind the Porta Comasina."
Leonardo's statue would not simply be anatomically correct; it would also strike an energetically rampant pose. Donatello's statue of Gattamelata portrayed the mercenary leader sitting upright on a placidly pacing horse, while Verrocchio's—on which Leonardo probably worked for a year or two before leaving Florence—placed Colleoni astride a muscular beast whose left foreleg was held prancingly aloft. Leonardo planned something more astonishing, a horse rearing on its hind legs with its front hooves pawing the air above a prostrate foe. Furthermore, his statue would be enormous. Donatello's monument was twelve feet high, Verrocchio's thirteen—but Leonardo envisaged a statue whose horse alone would be more than twenty-three feet in height, three times larger than life. It would testify to the glory of Francesco Sforza but, even more, to the tremendous and unrivaled abilities of the artist himself. Designing and casting a bronze statue of such magnitude was unpre cedented. One of his contemporaries wrote that the feat was "universally judged impossible." Leonardo, however, was never one to be daunted by colossal tasks. He once reminded himself in a note: "We ought not to desire the impossible." Elsewhere he wrote, "I wish to work miracles."
The gigantic horse did appear to be, if not impossible, then at the very least complex and extremely challenging: something that would indeed take a miracle to perform. The project taxed even Leonardo's ingenuity. Records do not show how far he advanced in these early years, but work certainly proceeded neither swiftly nor auspiciously. By 1489, Lodovico Sforza had begun to doubt the wisdom of giving him the commission. As the Florentine ambassador to Milan wrote home to Lorenzo de' Medici, "It appears to me that, while he has given the commission to Leonardo, he is not confident of his success."
Excerpted from Leonardo and The Last Supper by ROSS KING Copyright © 2012 by Ross King. Excerpted by permission of WALKER & COMPANY. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Meet the Author
Born and raised in Canada, Ross King has lived in England since 1992. In 2002-03, two books of his were published in the United States, Domino, about the world of masquerades and opera in 18th century London and the New York Times bestselling Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling.
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The Last Supper is one of the world’s most infamous paintings, and, as Ross King indicates, the masterpiece that defines Leonardo da Vinci. Ross King provides a well-researched, historical synopsis of the events in the life of Leonardo da Vinci, focusing on the creation of one of the foremost artistic masterpieces ever painted. In Leonardo and The Last Supper, Ross King brings us into the creative, political and religious world of Leonardo da Vinci. King discusses every decision da Vinci made regarding the content, expressions, schematics, models, and color choices, and they are explained in detail, based upon da Vinci’s original notes, sketches, and drawings. For example, da Vinci based the mural’s composition upon the accounts of the actual event, taken from the Bible’s four gospels. King provides his own masterpiece in this comprehensive account of da Vinci’s Italy and its history of the time period, and should be read by all, not just art historians.
As a general rule, I enjoy reading about history. That being said, I must say that this book is a very dry read. I was hoping there would be a little bit of "story" mixed in with all the facts, dates, places and people. I'm sure everything was accurate, as evidenced by all of the footnotes in the back which were meticulously enumerated, but this book did not do what I thought it would do for me, which was give me a better understanding of Leonardo, the man. I felt like I was slogging through a textbook. Unless you are writing your own book about Leonardo or the Last Supper and need a footnote for your own book, I would skip this one.
Very interesting and informative book. It was a selection for the El Paso Museum of Art Book Club, "Reading the Easel". Thoroughly enjoyed Ross King's writing and well researched book, contains a wealth of information.
learned alot, good and interesting read.
I love the story of the last supper although Jesus was betrayed it was wonderful when he broke the bread. The only reason why am not buying this book is because im pretty sure i have the book and i have have the movie.
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By Jonathan Marshall
Or will the traditional model of centralized generation, brought to customers over long transmission and distribution lines, get even bigger?
Answer: probably both.
With tens of thousands of Californians just in PG&E’s service area putting solar panels on their rooftops, it’s clear that distributed generation is here to stay and growing fast. But contrary to some “small is beautiful” advocates, supergrids might have their place as well.
Long-distance transmission grids are costly and challenging to site but can bring great economic and environmental benefits, as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory concluded in major studies. Most obviously, they can carry renewable energy from areas of abundant generation but little population, like solar in the desert or wind in the Midwest and offshore, to major demand centers.
Second, and of great importance as utilities struggle to cope with increased quantities of highly variable renewable energy, transmission grids can draw power from dispersed regions to “blend and smooth” the local fluctuations of wind and solar energy, minimizing the need for investment in costlier remedies like battery storage.
Denmark, for example, is able to support its leadership in wind power by drawing on abundant and inexpensive hydropower from Norway and Sweden, through a regional interconnection, when the wind dies down. It exports excess wind power over the same grid to Germany and Scandinavia.
Even bigger grids are now in the planning stages, including Western Europe’s so-called “supergrid.”
Slated to cost as much as 30 billion Euros, this nine-country grid “would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany’s vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing onto the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydroelectric dams nestled in Norway’s fjords,” according to The Guardian.
Spanning thousands of miles, it “would solve one of the biggest criticisms faced by renewable power—that unpredictable weather means it is unreliable.”
Last month, Iceland’s electric utility announced plans to lay the world’s longest undersea power cable to tap into this supergrid, in order to sell abundant and clean geothermal power into the vast European market.
The supergrid will also interconnect with a giant renewable energy scheme called Desertec, a $400 billion project to turn North Africa into a solar powerhouse big enough to supply 15 percent of Europe’s electricity by 2050, via power lines crossing the Mediterranean (MedGrid). Desertec plans to launch this year with a 500 megawatt solar installation in Morocco.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Hawaii is studying a proposed undersea power cable to connect Oahu with wind farms in Molokai and Lanai, reducing the need for oil-burning generators.
Last month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said reviews are progressing on a proposed $5 billion undersea transmission grid to carry thousands of megawatts of offshore wind power between Virginia and New Jersey. Google is a major backer of the project.
And the Midwest Independent System Operator has been studying the viability of an $80 billion transmission project to supply as much as 20 percent of the East Coast’s electricity needs with Midwestern wind energy.
Email Jonathan Marshall at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Two forms are taught at the student level ( Grades 1 to 12 ) Sui-Nim-Tau and Chum-Kiu, which consist of the basic movements and reactions used in the system.
The application of these movements are practised with a partner, using exercises and pre-arranged fighting drills, to begin to instil the reflex actions, and to learn attacking principles.
This leads on to Chi-Sau or 'sticky hands' as it is sometimes known, the next step towards liberating the mind and body to cope with a free fighting situation ( Lat-Sau ).
These traditional methods are complimented with specific self defence techniques, that quickly provide the student with an effective means against a street encounter.
Defence is learnt against all possible phases of a fight; kicks, punches, knees and elbows, holding or throwing and anti-ground fighting.
There will also be seminars conducted by Sifu Mik Lane and Wing Tyun Masters from abroad. These will usually be 'themed' seminars to teach you about a specific part of Wing Tyun, which will help you to improve your fighting techniques and your use of Wing Tyun.
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- Whence is defined as from what time or place.
An example of whence is asking a person where they are from by saying "From whence do you come?"
- Whence means from or to where.
An example of whence is saying you'll send a person back to where they came from; from when they came.
Origin of whenceMiddle English whennes ( from whenne, when + adv. genitive -s), replacing Old English hwanan
- from what place, source, or cause: I know whence he comes
- from which place, source, or cause: we went home, whence we departed soon after
- to the place from which: return whence you came
- from which fact: there was no reply, whence he inferred that all had gone
- From where; from what place: Whence came this traveler?
- From what origin or source: Whence comes this splendid feast?
- Out of which place; from or out of which.
- By reason of which; from which: The dog was coal black from nose to tail, whence the name Shadow.
Origin of whenceMiddle English whennes whenne whence ( from Old English hwanon ; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.) -es genitive sing. suff. ; see -s 3.
Usage Note: The construction from whence has been criticized as redundant since the 1700s. It is true that whence incorporates the sense of from: a remote village, whence little news reached the wider world. But from whence has been used steadily by reputable writers since the 1300s, among them Shakespeare, John Milton, Jane Austen, and the translators of the King James Bible: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” Psalms Such a respectable precedent makes it difficult to label the construction, which is fairly rare and very formal in any case, as incorrect.
- This word is uncommon in modern usage; from where is now usually substituted (as in the example sentence: Where did I come from? or From where did I come?). It is now chiefly encountered in older works, or in poetic or literary writing.
- From whence has a strong literary precedent, appearing in Shakespeare and the King James Bible as well as in the writings of numerous Victorian-era writers. In recent times, however, it has been criticized as redundant by usage commentators.
- From where.
- (literary, poetic) From which.
- From French, whence we get most of our modern cooking terms.
- I scored more than you in the exam, whence we can conclude that I am better at the subject than you are.
From Middle English whennes, from Old English hwanone (with adverbial genitive -s), related to hwænne.
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Blurry Pluto will become clear with NASA flyby
The best picture we have of Pluto is a blurry, pixelated blob, but that is about to change when a NASA spacecraft makes the first-ever flyby of the dwarf planet.
The US space agency’s unmanned New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to pass by Pluto on July 14, and will send back unprecedented high-resolution images, allowing people to glimpse the surface of the distant celestial body in rich detail.
Pluto was long considered the ninth planet in the solar system, and the furthest from the sun. It was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Rocky on the inside and icy on the outside, Pluto has five moons and resides in the Kuiper Belt, a zone of the solar system that is a relic of the era of planetary formation more than 4.5 billion years ago, and contains comets and the building blocks of small planets.
“It sounds like science fiction but it is not,” said Alan Stern, principal investigator on the New Horizons mission.
“Three months from today, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will make the first exploration of the Pluto system, the Kuiper Belt and the farthest shore of exploration ever reached by humankind,” Stern told reporters Tuesday.
– Size of a piano –
New Horizons, about the size of a baby grand piano, is the fastest moving spacecraft ever launched, and is traveling about a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) a day on its way to this unexplored frontier.
The 1,000-pound (465-kilogram) vehicle launched in 2006, on a journey of some three billion miles to get to Pluto.
It is powered by plutonium since the sunlight is so weak at that distance that solar arrays — often used in other kinds of spacecraft — would not work.
Stern described the spacecraft as being “in perfect health” and carrying a “scientific arsenal” of the most powerful suite of seven scientific instruments ever brought to bear on the first reconnaissance of a new celestial body.
“Nothing like this has been done in a quarter century and nothing like this is planned by any space agency ever again,” Stern said.
New Horizons aims to map the geology of Pluto and its moons. The largest, Charon, is the size of Texas.
Scientists hope to learn more about the atmosphere of Pluto, which is mainly nitrogen like Earth’s, and find out if Pluto and Charon have interior oceans.
– Fast flyby –
In mid-July, the spacecraft will pass by Pluto at a speed of 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) per hour.
The New Horizons spacecraft management team on Earth is aiming for a target point 7,750 miles from Pluto’s surface, but it will not be easy to get into the right position.
“We are flying three billion miles. We have to hit a target that is 60 by 90 miles, and we have to hit it within 100 seconds after nine and a half years. That’s the kind of precision we have to navigate to,” said Glen Fountain, New Horizons project manager at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Starting in May, high resolution images of Pluto and Charon should start arriving on Earth, said Cathy Olkin, New Horizons deputy project scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
The spacecraft will continue sending bits of data and photos from the flyby until October 2016.
“We are going to have surprises and discoveries over the next year and a half,” Olkin told reporters.
Already, some images have begun to arrive, and atmospheric studies of the surface ices will begin in May and June, followed by plasma data, geologic and color data in August and more science in September.
But on the day of the closest approach, July 14, there will be no images, she said.
“We need to keep our sights on Pluto, we need to train our instruments on Pluto,” Olkin said.
“We are all going to have to be patient while New Horizons is exploring Pluto.”
After the flyby of Pluto, New Horizons will carry on into the Kuiper Belt to study more about the history of planetary formation.
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AACE introduces its new eLearning series. The first module, Pricing and Costing, was released in February 2017.
This module explains the difference between pricing and costing. It is important to distinguish between the terms "price" and "cost". There is a very fine line separating them which is why people often use the terms interchangeably. This module highlights the concepts of pricing and costing of a project, illustrates the variances, and helps the learner identify the inputs, transforming mechanisms (tools and techniques), and outputs related to the cost and pricing process.
The module can be utilized as a study aid for the CCP Certification Exam. It is interactive with questions posed intermittently to assess knowledge gained by the viewer. There is also a test at the end requiring a 70% score to earn 0.1 CEUs.
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Author: Ron Graham
In this lesson, I want you to consider the lives of three persons. The first is Adam or Eve, the second is Jesus, and the third is yourself.
The three human beings mentiuoned above have three things in common...
Lowly beginning: Adam and Eve, the first two human beings, began their lives in a lowly manner. The man was created from the dust of the ground, and the woman from a bone. "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground... He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man" (Genesis 2:7,21-22).
Tragic ending: Adam lived a long life, more than ten times as long as humans live today. But he still died. His life was tragically cut off. "You are dust, and to dust you shall return... And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died" (Genesis 3:19, 5:5). Eve’s story would be similar.
Glorious purpose: If Adam and Eve had not sinned, if they had continued to walk with God in faith, they would not have seen death and returned to dust. Instead, they would have been taken up to glory.
God demonstrated this in Enoch the seventh patriarch from Adam. "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him... By faith Enoch was taken up that he should not see death, and he was not found because God took him up" (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5).
Lowly beginning: Jesus Christ the Son of God, the greatest human being ever to live on earth, began his life in a lowly manner. We all love the story of his birth, and so do our children. It was at once both lowly and lovely. "And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths, and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:1-7).
Tragic ending: The story of Christ's death is quite the opposite. It was a terrible and tragic death, the darkest day in the history of the world. "And when they led him away... many women were mourning and lamenting him... And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified him..." (Luke 23:26-33).
Glorious purpose: God demonstrated his purpose in Christ by raising him from the dead and taking him up into glory. "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:31-36).
Lowly beginning: When we think about human life, and our own lives in particular, we are struck by the lowliness of human life. Even those who appear to be rich and powerful are still just flesh and blood, and their glory is an illusion. "What is your life? It is but a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes away" (James 4:13-17).
Tragic ending: Most of us go through life ignoring the obvious. Sooner or later, life ends in death. "It is appointed for man once to die, and after this comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
Glorious purpose: The most important thing for you to realise is that despite appearances, God has a glorious purpose for your life. Beyond this lowly life on earth, this little while, you have an eternal inheritance in heaven awaiting you. It is glorious, not lowly, and it shall never end.
The most important thing you need to do in your life on earth, is to take hold of this gift and hold on to it, never let it go. All this you can do through Jesus. "In him we have redemption through his blood... we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:3-14).
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Strategic Environmental Assessment
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a tool that contributes to informed decisions in support of sustainable development by incorporating environmental considerations into the development of public policies and strategic decisions.
The Cabinet Directive
The Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals sets out the expectations of ministers and Cabinet on when a SEA should be conducted and what it should consider. It requires that the environmental analysis be fully integrated into the proposal development process. It specifies that ministers expect a SEA when the following two conditions are met:
- The proposal is submitted to an individual minister or Cabinet for approval.
- The implementation of the proposal may result in important environmental effects, either positive or negative.
The Guidelines for the Implementation of the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals (the Guidelines) describe the overall process and guiding principles for SEA. The Guidelines were updated in October 2010 and include new public and parliamentary reporting requirements and consideration of the impacts of the proposal on the goals and targets of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy.
When a detailed assessment of environmental effects has been conducted through a SEA, departments and agencies are required to issue a public statement on the environmental effects of the proposal.
Strategic Environmental Assessment Guidance and Training
SEA is a self-assessment process whereby federal departments and agencies are responsible for implementing the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals. To assist this effort, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has developed guidance material.
Report a problem or mistake on this page
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Deep in the Bolivian Amazon live the Tsimane, a group of around 20 Amerindian hunter-forager communities. The tributaries and forests along the Maniqui and Quiquibey rivers provide the Tsimane with fertile lands for growing rice, yucca, plantains and maize; hunting peccaries, tapirs, monkeys and coatis; and fishing yatoramas, surubis, pirapitingas and doradas. The Tsimane produce almost all of their subsistence consumption, which also means that they are heavily exposed to extensive sources of risk and uncertainty: rain can fall out of season, crops can burn, rivers can flood, and sickness can arise.
To cope with these fluctuations in income, the Tsimane’ cannot turn to formal institutions, nor can they procure legal insurance contracts to hedge against bad times. Instead, they organize into extensive social arrangements that allow them to smooth consumption in the event of unexpected losses. These arrangements involve the transfers of goods and services across households over time. The Tsimane, as many other village communities around the world, rely heavily on informal risk sharing mechanisms, and these arrangements make up an integral part of the social fabric of these communities.
From an economic perspective, such behavior can both be rational and efficient. If the community were able to develop perfect social arrangements (contracts) to minimize risk, the consumption would vary smoothly, independently of the individual income shocks. In other words, the consumption each family would not depend on its own production but on the aggregate production of the community. However, starting in the early 90’s mounting empirical evidence suggests that risk sharing in these communities is not efficient and, even after controlling for aggregate shocks, fluctuations in individual income remains relevant to explain movements in consumption.
Several explanations have been put forth to explain inefficiencies in informal insurance arrangements such as these. For instance, the lack of commitment and enforceability, or the presence of information asymmetries, have often been suggested as principal reasons why efficiency is ruled out. However, most work has ignored the fact that risk sharing occurs bilaterally across pairs of households, and therefore that the social structure of interactions should be studied in detail as a potential impediment to full insurance.
In Barcelona GSE Working Paper (No. 912), “Network-Constrained Risk Sharing in Village Economies,” Pau Milán analyzes a model of informal insurance where risk sharing occurs bilaterally along a given network of connections.
As an example, think about the community described in Figure 1. Alfredo and Rosaura have two sons, Juan and Pablo. Juan is Married to Luisa, and Pablo is married to Carmen. Carmen’s sister, Maria, also lives in town and is married to Pedro. But Pedro and Maria are not related to Juan and Luisa, nor to Alfredo and Rosaura.
Households can only share their production with the other households they are connected to. For instance, Alfredo and Maria share with their sons, and Maria share with her sister, Carmen. However, households cannot share resources with other families that they are not connected to. So, for instance, Pedro and Maria cannot share with Alfredo and Rosaura. Moreover, the model assumes that resources cannot be relayed to them through a common neighbor (in this case Pablo and Carmen). Therefore, because resources are limited in their movement along the network, the existing social structure will matter for the type of sharing that is possible.
Pau Milán characterizes constraint-efficient risk sharing in networks, and provides a number of significant implications to the empirical analysis of informal insurance. The main theoretical result fully describes the complete set of transfers across any pair of connected households, strictly as a function of their relative position in the social network. What is interesting is that the position of each family depends not only on direct, but also on all the indirect connections that it sustains.
To see this, let’s go back to the community described in Figure 1. Juan and Luisa share risk with Pablo and Carmen directly. Yet they also share their income with their parents. The larger the share of the production they give to their parents, the lower the part of the production it is available to share among them. Thereby, Juan and Luisa interact indirectly with Pablo and Carmen through Alfredo and Rosaura. Moreover, even if Alfredo and Rosaura and Juan and Luisa are not related to Pedro and Maria, they are affected by their presence because Maria receives part of Carmen’s income.
So who will get what?
It turns out that the transfers that a household receives depends on the particular identity of the families that household is connected to. This is so because, by the above argument, transfers depend not only on a family’s neighbors, but also on the neighbors of one’s neighbors, and so on and so forth along the entire network. In fact, it turns out that the appropriate way to predict transfers across families for any given network is by compiling all possible “social paths” that connect these two households with everyone else – think of “degrees of separation” as in John Guare’s famous play.
Having found the full set of efficient transfers across households, Pau Milán then draws implications for recent attempts to make sense of empirical risk-sharing results. In particular, the development literature has often modified the definition of risk-sharing groups when performing statistical tests of efficiency – for instance, by testing risk sharing along caste lines in rural India, rather than at the village level. The problem with this approach is, first, that often times it may not be obvious how to partition a particular community into sub-groups, and, secondly, that these approaches assume sub-groups (such as castes) are perfectly insured amongst themselves, but have no interaction across them. Pau Milán’s approach allows us to consider a much more general setting where local sharing groups may overlap in complicated ways along any given social structure. In fact, the partition models discussed above can be readily accommodated within the general network model defined by the author.
Moreover, Pau Milán’s model provides an economic interpretation to the existing results of empirical tests of risk-sharing. In particular, the author shows that the average response of household consumption to income can actually be decomposed into an underlying heterogeneity in responses that have to do with the varying insurance possibilities of households across the network. Moreover, he shows that these measures can be mapped into meaningful economic measures, such as consumption volatility.
Can this framework explain the food-sharing patterns in real Tsimane’ communities?
Figure 2 shows the interaction structure of one Tsimane’ village. It is orders of magnitude more complicated than the network in Figure 1, and it is therefore important to know if this behavior can be predicted from the simple theoretical predictions in the model.
To test the model, Pau Milán uses the data from the Tsimane Health and Life Story Project. From 2004 to 2009, a group of anthropologist surveyed 243 Tsimane families to gather information about the composition of the family or kinship, the time they spent in farming, and who consumed the production. This final information was transformed into a panel of production and caloric exchanges for 8 different Tsimane’ villages.
Using this unique data set, the author performs a number of empirical tests of the theory, and evaluates the implications for standard empirical results. Network structures are generated from data, for each of the 8 villages in the sample, using kinship, distance, and interaction data. The author then runs the following regression of the observed bilateral caloric exchanges that household j gives to household i (aijobs) as a function of the centrality of household j (Mj) and the centrality of the neighbors of household i (MNi):
According to the theory, if risk sharing is constrained by the network structure of the community, the share that household i receives from household j’s income depends positively on how central is j (β1 = 1) and negatively on the how central are the entire set of neighbors of i (β2 = −1). The results presented in following table are in line with such predictions.
Among other tests of the theory, Pau Milán also shows that the underlying heterogeneity in consumption opportunities of households, as predicted by the theory, can be seen in the Tsimane’ data. To do this, he orders households according to the theory’s prediction on consumption response to income, splits the ordered sample into even-sized groups and then regresses consumption on income within each group – controlling for village-level shocks. The following figure shows that indeed the data exhibits the same upward trend that is predicted by the theory.
What can we learn from the Tsimane?
Overall, the evidence from Tsimane suggest that accounting for incomplete social structures explains the type of partial insurance mechanisms operating in village economies. Moreover, this theory goes beyond the mere rejection of full insurance and provides a more detailed variation on the exchanges generating consumption streams. From a policy perspective, this patterns could be used for identifying vulnerable households and determining social arrangements that would improve the welfare of the community.
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Filtration - Pure and Clear Solutions
In one of the most dynamic sectors for nonwovens, their infinitely adaptable characteristics as filter media see them employed in critical filtration functions. Whether it is removing viruses and bacteria to provide potable water or performing a valuable role in blood dialysis, nonwovens are often an indispensable part of the solution.
Increased concern for well-being, as well as sustainability and responsibility, are driving filtration suppliers to develop even more sophisticated and lighter media at competitive prices.
Recent developments mean that nonwoven filter media can help provide clean drinking water by filtering viruses, bacteria and other harmful matter at high flow rates and very low pressure drops, thus enabling nonwovens to compete effectively with other media.
Click below to see a short video showing the role of nonwovens in providing potable water.
Nonwoven materials form part of everyday life where a combination of functionalities such as high particle retention and moderate cost see these materials regularly used to filter both gases and liquids.
EDANA has produced two interesting infographics containing some facts and figures about the role of nonwovens in Water and Automotive Filtration applications (click for .pdf file).:
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Research Matters - to the Science Teacher
No. 9702 Jan. 14,
Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Teachers' Integration of Subject
Matter, Pedagogy, Students, and Learning Environments
by Kathryn F. Cochran, University of Northern Colorado
"Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach."
(Shulman, 1986, p. 14)
Recently, there has been a renewed recognition of the importance
of teachers' science subject matter knowledge, both as a function of
research evidence (e.g., Ball & McDiarmid, 1990; Carlsen, 1987;
Hashweh, 1987), and as a function of literature from reform
initiatives such as the Holmes Group (1986) and the Renaissance Group
(1989). Not surprisingly, it has become clear that both
teachers' pedagogical knowledge and teachers' subject matter
knowledge are crucial to good science teaching and student
understanding (Buchmann, 1982, 1983; Tobin & Garnett, 1988).
The recent development of the National Science Education Standards
(NRC, 1996) and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 1993) as
well as a multitude of state, district, and school level content area
standards, have further renewed emphasis on the importance of subject
matter. Moreover, these documents contain not only key subject matter
concepts for student learning, but they also inform pedagogical
issues related to science subject matter content.
The Nature of Pedagogical Content
In addition to teachers' subject matter (content) knowledge and
their general knowledge of instructional methods (pedagogical
knowledge), pedagogical content knowledge was originally
suggested as a third major component of teaching expertise, by Lee
Shulman (1986; 1987) and his colleagues and students (e.g. Carlsen,
1987; Grossman, Wilson, & Shulman, 1989; Gudmundsdottir, 1987a,
1987b; Gudmundsdottir & Shulman, 1987; Marks, 1990). This idea
represents a new, broader perspective in our understanding of
teaching and learning, and a special issue of the Journal of
Teacher Education (Ashton, 1990) was devoted to this topic.
Pedagogical content knowledge is a type of knowledge that is
unique to teachers, and is based on the manner in which teachers
relate their pedagogical knowledge (what they know about teaching) to
their subject matter knowledge (what they know about what they
teach). It is the integration or the synthesis of teachers'
pedagogical knowledge and their subject matter knowledge that
comprises pedagogical content knowledge. According to Shulman (1986)
pedagogical content knowledge
. . . embodies the aspects of content most germane to
its teachability. Within the category of pedagogical content
knowledge I include, for the most regularly taught topics in one's
subject area, the most useful forms of representation of those
ideas, the most powerful analogies, illustrations, examples,
explanations, and demonstrations - in a word, the ways of
representing and formulating the subject that make it
comprehensible to others . . . [It] also includes an
understanding of what makes the learning of specific concepts easy
or difficult: the conceptions and preconceptions that students of
different ages and backgrounds bring with them to the learning
Pedagogical content knowledge is a form of knowledge that makes
science teachers teachers rather than scientists (Gudmundsdottir,
1987a, b). Teachers differ from scientists, not necessarily in the
quality or quantity of their subject matter knowledge, but in how
that knowledge is organized and used. In other words, an experienced
science teacher's knowledge of science is organized from a
teaching perspective and is used as a basis for helping
students to understand specific concepts. A scientist's knowledge, on
the other hand, is organized from a research perspective and
is used as a basis for developing new knowledge in the field. This
idea has been documented in Biology by Hauslein, Good, & Cummins
(1992), in a comparison of the organization of subject matter
knowledge among groups of experienced science teachers, experienced
research scientists, novice science teachers, subject area science
majors, and preservice science teachers. Hauslein et al. found that
science majors and preservice teachers both showed similar, loosely
organized subject matter knowledge; and that the subject matter
knowledge of the novice and experienced teachers and the research
scientists was much deeper and more complex. However, compared to the
researchers (who showed a flexible subject matter structure), the
teachers showed a more fixed structure, hypothesized to result from
Cochran, DeRuiter, & King (1993) revised Shulman's original
model to be more consistent with a constructivist perspective on
teaching and learning. They described a model of pedagogical content
knowledge that results from an integration of four major
components, two of which are subject matter knowledge and pedagogical
knowledge. The other two other components of teacher knowledge also
differentiate teachers from subject matter experts. One component is
teachers' knowledge of students' abilities and learning strategies,
ages and developmental levels, attitudes, motivations, and prior
knowledge of the concepts to be taught. Students' prior knowledge has
been especially visible in the last decade due to literally hundreds
of studies on student misconceptions in science and mathematics. The
other component of teacher knowledge that contributes to pedagogical
content knowledge is teachers' understanding of the social,
political, cultural and physical environments in which students are
asked to learn. The model in Figure 1 shows that these four
components of teachers' knowledge all contribute to the integrated
understanding that we call pedagogical content knowledge; and the
arrows indicate that pedagogical content knowledge continues to grow
with teaching experience. The integrated nature of pedagogical
content knowledge is also described by Kennedy (1990).
Figure 1. Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Experienced
Hashweh (1985, 1987) conducted an extensive study of three physics
teachers' and three biology teachers' knowledge of science and the
impact of that knowledge on their teaching. All six teachers were
asked about their subject matter knowledge in both biology and
physics, and they were asked to evaluate a textbook chapter and to
plan an instructional unit on the basis of that material. Given a
concept like photosynthesis for example, the biology teachers knew
those specific misconceptions that students were likely to bring to
the classroom (such as the idea that plants get their food from the
soil) or which chemistry concepts the students would need to review
before learning photosynthesis. The biology teachers also understood
which ideas were likely to be most difficult (e.g. how ATP-ADP
transformations occur) and how best to deal with those difficult
concepts using a variety of analogies, examples, demonstrations and
models. The biology teachers could describe multiple instructional
"tools" for these situations; but, although they were experienced
teachers, they had only very general ideas about how to teach
difficult physics concepts. The physics teachers, on the other hand,
could list many methods and ideas for teaching difficult physics
concepts, but had few specific ideas for teaching difficult biology
When the teachers in Hashweh's study were asked about their
subject matter knowledge in the field that was not their specific
field, they showed more misconceptions, more misunderstandings, and a
less organized understanding of the information. Within their own
fields, they were more sensitive to subtle themes presented in
textbooks, and could and did modify the text material based on their
teaching experiences. Moreover, they were more likely to discover and
act on student misconceptions. The teachers used about the same
number of examples and analogies when planning instruction in both
fields, but those analogies and examples were more accurate and more
relevant in the teachers' field of expertise.
Other studies have shown that new teachers have incomplete or
superficial levels of pedagogical content knowledge (Carpenter,
Fennema, Petersen, & Carey, 1988; Feiman-Nemser & Parker,
1990; Gudmundsdottir & Shulman, 1987; Shulman, 1987). A novice
teacher tends to rely on unmodified subject matter knowledge (most
often directly extracted from the curriculum) and may not have a
coherent framework or perspective from which to present the
information. The novice also tends to make broad pedagogical
decisions without assessing students' prior knowledge, ability
levels, or learning strategies (Carpenter, et al., 1988). In
addition, preservice teachers have been shown to find it difficult to
articulate the relationships between pedagogical ideas and subject
matter concepts (Gess-Newsome & Lederman, 1993); and low levels
of pedagogical content knowledge have been found to be related to
frequent use of factual and simple recall questions (Carlsen, 1987).
These studies also indicate that new teachers have major concerns
about pedagogical content knowledge, and they struggle with how to
transform and represent the concepts and ideas in ways that make
sense to the specific students they are teaching (Wilson, Shulman,
& Richert, 1987). Grossman (1985, cited in Shulman, 1987) shows
that this concern is present even in new teachers who possess the
substantial subject matter knowledge gained through a master's degree
in a specific subject matter area, and Wilson (1992) documents that
more experienced teachers have a better "overarching" view of the
content field and on which to base teaching decisions.
These and other studies show that pedagogical content knowledge is
highly specific to the concepts being taught, is much more than just
subject matter knowledge alone, and develops over time as a result of
teaching experience. What is unique about the teaching process is
that it requires teachers to "transform" their subject matter
knowledge for the purpose of teaching (Shulman, 1986). This
transformation occurs as the teacher critically reflects on
and interprets the subject matter; finds multiple ways to
represent the information as analogies, metaphors, examples,
problems, demonstrations, and/or classroom activities; adapts the
material to students' developmental levels and abilities, gender,
prior knowledge, and misconceptions; and finally tailors the
material to those specific individual or groups of students to whom
the information will be taught. Gudmundsdottir (1987a, b) describes
this transformation process as a continual restructuring of subject
matter knowledge for the purpose of teaching; and Buchmann (1984)
discusses the importance of science teachers maintaining a fluid
control or "flexible understanding" (p. 21) of their subject
knowledge, i.e. be able to see a specific set of concepts from a
variety of viewpoints and at a variety of levels, depending on the
needs and abilities of the students.
Recommendations for Teachers
Where Should We Go From Here?
- The first recommendation that can be made for teachers is for
them to begin to more often reflect on or think about why
they teach specific ideas the way they do. Teachers know much more
about teaching subject matter concepts to students than they are
aware. This is pedagogical content knowledge; and many teachers
don't think about this knowledge as important. It is important,
though, because it determines what a teacher does from minute to
minute in the classroom, as well as influencing long term
To become more aware of this knowledge and to be able to more
clearly think about it, teachers can find ways to keep track of
this information, just as they ask students to do with the data
collected in lab assignments. One way is to keep a personal
notebook describing their teaching, even just once a week or so
for a few difficult concepts. Another strategy is to videotape or
audiotape a few class periods just to help see what's happening in
the classroom. (It's not necessary to have anyone but the teacher
see or listen to the tape.) Then teachers can start to think about
the following types of questions. Which ideas need the most
explanation? Why are those ideas more difficult for the students?
What examples, demonstrations, and analogies seemed to work the
best? Why did they work or not work? Which students did
they work best for?
- Teachers can try new ways of exploring how the students are
thinking about the concepts being taught. Ask students about how
and what they understand (not in the sense of a test, but in the
sense of an interview). Ask students what "real life" personal
situations they think science relates to. Try to get inside their
heads and see the ideas from their point of view.
- Start discussions with other teachers about teaching. Take the
time to find someone you can share ideas with and take the time to
learn to trust each other. Exchange strategies for teaching
difficult concepts or dealing with specific types of students. Get
involved in a peer coaching project in your school or district.
District faculty development staff or people at a local university
can help you get one started and may be able to provide substitute
support. Ask about telephone hot-lines and computer networks for
teachers, and explore the world wide web.
- Get involved in action research projects. Much of the newestM and most important research is being conducted by teachers. Take a
class at your nearest university and find out what is going on.
Get involved with a mentor teacher program or a teacher on special
assignment program. Join organizations and go to conferences such
as the national or regional National Science Teachers Association
or the National Association for Research in Science Teaching
meetings. There are also often summer workshops and institutes in
specific fields in science at many universities and colleges.
Contemporary research has focused on how to describe teachers'
pedagogical content knowledge and how it influences the teaching
process. We have yet, however, to fully understand the four
components of this model, and we have yet to clearly understand how
they really develop. We also know very little about how to enhance
pedagogical content knowledge in preservice and inservice programs.
Teacher involvement in research and university preparation programs
is crucial for the development of this important idea and its
usefulness for the improvement of science teaching.
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993).
Benchmarks for Science Literacy. New York: Oxford University
Ashton, P. T. (Ed.). (1990). Theme: Pedagogical Content Knowledge
[Special issue]. Journal of Teacher Education,
Ball, D. L., & McDiarmid, G. W. (1990). The subject matter
preparation of teachers. In W. R. Houston, M. Haberman, & J.
Sikula (Eds.). Handbook of research on teacher education (pp.
437-449). New York: Macmillan.
Buchmann, M. (1982). The flight away from content in teacher
education and teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 14,
Buchmann, M. (1984). The flight away from content in teacher
education and teaching. In J. Raths & L. Katz (Eds.). Advances
in teacher education (Vol. 1, pp. 29-48). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Carlsen, W. S. (1987). Why do you ask? The effects of science teacher
subject-matter knowledge on teacher questioning and classroom
discourse. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
NO. ED 293 181).
Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., Petersen, P., & Carey, D. (1988).
Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge of students' problem solving
in elementary arithmetic. Journal for Research in Mathematics
Education, 19, 385-401.
Cochran, K. F., DeRuiter, J. A., & King, R. A. (1993).
Pedagogical content knowing: An integrative model for teacher
preparation. Journal of Teacher Education, 44, 263-272.
Feiman-Nemser, S., & Parker, M. B. (1990). Making subject matter
part of the conversation in learning to teach. Journal of Teacher
Education, 41, 32-43.
Gess-Newsome, J., & Lederman, N. (1993). Preservice biology
teachers' knowledge structures as a function of professional teacher
education: A year-long assessment. Science Education, 77,
Grossman, P. L., Wilson, S. M., & Shulman, L. (1989). Teachers of
substance: Subject matter knowledge for teaching. In M. C. Reynolds
(Ed.). Knowledge base for the beginning teacher (pp. 23-36).
Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Gudmundsdottir, S. (1987a). Learning to teach social studies: Case
studies of Chris and Cathy. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of
the American Educational Research Association. Washington, D.C. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service NO. ED 290 700)
Gudmundsdottir, S. (1987b). Pedagogical content knowledge: teachers'
ways of knowing. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Educational Research Association. Washington, D.C. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service NO. ED 290 701)
Gudmundsdottir, S. & Shulman, L. (1987). Pedagogical content
knowledge in social studies. Scandinavian Journal of Educational
Research, 31, 59-70.
Hashweh, M. Z. (1987). Effects of subject matter knowledge in the
teaching of biology and physics. Teaching and Teacher Education,
Holmes Group. (1986). Tomorrow's teachers: A report of the Holmes
Group. East Lansing, MI: The Holmes Group.
Kennedy, M. (1990). Trends and Issues in: Teachers' Subject Matter
Knowledge. Trends and Issues Paper No. 1. ERIC Clearinghouse on
Teacher Education, Washington, DC. (ED#322 100)
Marks, R. (1990). Pedagogical content knowledge: From a mathematical
case to a modified conception. Journal of teacher education,
National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education
Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Renaissance Group. (1989). Teachers for the new world: A statement
of principles. Cedar Falls, IA: The Renaissance Group.
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in
teaching. Educational Researcher, 15, 4-14.
Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new
reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.
Tobin, K., & Garnett, P. (1988). Exemplary practice in science
classrooms. Science Education, 72, 197-208.
Wilson, J. M. (1992, December). Secondary teachers' pedagogical
content knowledge about chemical equilibrium. Paper presented at the
International Chemical Education Conference, Bangkok, Thailand.
Wilson, S. M., Shulman, L. S., & Richert, A. E. (1987). '150
different ways' of knowing: Representation of knowledge in teaching.
In J. Calderhead (Ed.). Exploring teachers' thinking (pp.
104-124). London: Cassell.
Research Matters - to the Science
is a publication of the National Association
for Research in Science Teaching
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Habits are extremely important to St. Thomas' moral theology. I do not pretend to be proficient in either aspect of his thought, but what follows is what I have managed to put together about them.
His definition is somewhat difficult to follow, but as best I understand things he defines a habit as a quality by which one is disposed to action - whether good or bad (ST I-II Q49 A2). The Catholic Encyclopedia definition might be more clear:
[A] quality difficult to change, whereby an agent whose nature it is to work one way or another indeterminately, is disposed easily and readily at will to follow this or that particular line of action.The virtues and vices are habits whereby we are disposed to do what is right, or to do what is evil. I don't have a reference for this ready to hand, but St. Thomas has said someplace that we could think of habits as a sort of "second nature" - indeed, that notion has found its way into our everyday language when we say of someone that it is "second nature" for him to do a certain thing, because he does it so well and so readily. Of course, to do right (or wrong) in some particular way isn't really a part of our nature: as humans we all share the same nature, and others may or may not share our dispositions to act in particular ways. But when we have nurtured or otherwise developed habits, they seem to become so much a part of who we are that we commonly think of them as "second nature". It becomes part of who I am, and characterizes me to such an extent, that folks often say things like, "That's just his nature."
One aspect of the definition from the Catholic Encyclopedia that's worth highlighting is that habits are "difficult to change." If we can give them up at the drop of a hat, they aren't really habits. If we give them up "readily" but return to them again, maybe they really are habits: we are accustomed to that behavior, so that it's difficult to change them.
I've talked about this before, and I really think it's critically important and a brilliant insight of Catholic moral theology. We sometimes say of older folks that they are "set in their ways". This is habit at work. I have also heard it said that most conversions to Christ occur among the young (sorry, no link; I heard this back in the mid-80s). This makes perfect sense within the context of habits: the young are not yet so set in their ways, and their patterns of thought and action are not so set in stone as they someday will be. This is also the point of Ecclesiastes 12:
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years approach of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them; before the sun is darkened, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, while the clouds return after the rain; when the guardians of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders are idle because they are few, and they who look through the windows grow blind; when the doors to the street are shut, and the sound of the mill is low; when one waits for the chirp of a bird, but all the daughters of song are suppressed; and one fears heights, and perils in the street; when the almond tree blooms, and the locust grows sluggish and the caper berry is destroyed, because man goes to his lasting home, and mourners go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the broken pulley falls into the well, and the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the life-breath returns to God who gave it.I observe in myself how difficult it is to break habits now, and how difficult to build new ones. Far better to do so when young (and I'm not really all that old), when these things are easier. Habits can be a wonderful blessing, but they can also become a curse that we bring upon ourselves.
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In this product how-to article Radomir Kozub describes how to use Freescale’s 8-bit MC9S08LH64 to build an intelligent and accurate single-phase power metering design, while keeping a low cost bill of materials.
Electro-mechanical power meters have now been replaced by electronic versions. Electronic meters have a number of advantages over their electro-mechanical predecessors. Namely, the mechanical construction is more cost-effective and is simpler due to the fact that there are no moving parts.
Electronic PMs also have better accuracy coupled with wider dynamic range. Electro-mechanical PMs have a standard dynamic range of 1:80 at two percent accuracy; whereas today’s static PMs have a dynamic range of power measurement of approximately 1:1000 with one percent accuracy.
This article focuses on the construction and features of a static single phase power meter with direct measurement. Static means that Power Meters (PMs) do not contain any mechanical parts; rather, static meters are microcontroller based.
Direct measurement is the current flowing to the load - it is sensed on the shunt resistor. Voltage and current is measured using a high-precision AD converter; power is then calculated using the measured values and finally the power is summed in time so that total active energy [Wh] can be determined. Considering that voltage is stable in the mains, dynamic range of the PM is given by the dynamic range of the current measurement.
In addition, electro-mechanical PMs register and display only active energy value; while electronic PMs can measure and show additional information like active power, voltage, current RMS, peak values, line frequency, power factor or temperature. These values may then be read via an electronic interface, such as RS232, RS485, MBUS or IRDA.
A static PM provides enhanced security as well. As today’s electricity rates continue to climb, tampering has become an increasingly common phenomenon. An electronic-based power meter has the capability to sense direction change in current flow, partial earth, missing neutral condition or lid removal.
Power consumption is an important component in meter design as well. Millions of the PMs currently installed consume a significant amount of power. Thus, the power budget for the meters themselves must be strictly limited. Total losses in current sensor and meter electronics are limited to 2W and 10VA.
Static single phase power meters should be compliant with EN62056 and EN50470 regulation. Particular requirements for static electricity meters for active energy (class indexes A, B and C) are stated in EN50470-3.
This regulation describes the requirements for voltage, current circuits, self power consumption and various tests for accuracy, the influence of noise, temperature, over and under voltage, over current or harmonics.
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Postsecondary Sustainability Education
Postsecondary sustainability education can start in every lecture theatre and every lab, with every professor and every instructor — and every student. It's not only elementary and secondary schools that must make the switch to transformative education for sustainability ... it is just as important at colleges and universities if we want to give our young people a chance at a viable future.
Our students are hopeful and creative, innovative and thoughtful, but most are bored with their lectures and seminars, writing papers and competing for top grades. As educators, we have few answers to their questions about what this university education is for. They see the things they are learning as disconnected from the increasingly urgent and dire warnings they hear and talk about everyday.
— Duane Elverum and Janet Moore
Universities and colleges around the world are hiring campus sustainability coordinators, which is a very good thing. It seems, however, that their first task is to "green" campus facilities. Curriculum is likely to be the last thing on their list, especially as it's seen as the territory of educational professionals: instructors and professors, deans and department heads.
Here, then, are some suggestions for greening the heart of higher education through postsecondary sustainability education.
- Sustainable development is the biggest and most important paradigm shift to come our way in a long time. Yet most of the public, at least in North America, still cannot describe it or put it into practice. Postsecondary institutions can ensure that all students graduate as practitioners of sustainable development by making a course about sustainable development and sustainability mandatory for students in all disciplines. What could this look like?
- Students learn the history, "story," definition, goals, principles, processes and promise of sustainable development.
- The course is taught in a way that respects and models the principles and processes of sustainable development: integrating environmental, social equity, and economic considerations and concerns; putting the needs of future generations and today's less fortunate at the centre of discussions, planning and decision making; using a multi-stakeholder roundtable approach. (See the Three Hats Strategy for ideas.)
- Every student works with students from other disciplines (for example, a history student with a biology student with a commerce student) on a sustainable development project (that relates to their campus, community or country). This is an excellent way to put sustainability theory — and critical and collaborative thinking — into practice.
The concept of sustainability could provide a new foundation for the liberal arts and sciences.... [I]n fact, it would be different in the new focus, added coherence, and stark immediacy that it would provide. Sustainability, after all, is the ultimate liberal art (and science).... By "sustainability" I mean the effort to frame social and economic policy so as to preserve with minimum disturbance earth's bounty — its resources, inhabitants, and environments — for the benefit of both present and future generations.
— Frank H. T. Rhodes, President Emeritus of Cornell University,
in Sustainability: the Ultimate Liberal Art
- No matter what the discipline, every professor and instructor can and should teach in service to the Earth and the future. What does this mean for postsecondary sustainability education?
- Everyone involved must step back to examine the end purpose, the true goal, of what they are teaching — or learning.
- We must accept that by default these days, if we're not consciously and deliberately teaching for sustainability, then we're teaching for UNsustainability.
- We can and should be teaching in ways that reinforce our connection with the rest of Nature, rather than in ways that disconnect us even further.
- Also, postsecondary sustainability education can and should be integrated into every course. The reductionism and "silos" of college- and university-level education no longer serve life on Earth; the environmental crises facing students are all interconnected, and therefore their education should be holistic, integrated and interconnected.
What could this look like for postsecondary sustainability education? Both faculty and students can seek or facilitate opportunities for integration:
- through cross-disciplinary projects (as assignments for more than one course)
- through questions that help students integrate what they've learned in a lecture or a reading with other coursework and the rest of life
- by "ecologicalizing" what is presented in courses
- by giving (or taking) time at the end of every class and course for integrative reflection.
- Students have the right to become fully engaged in integrating sustainability education into their postsecondary studies, by
- inviting (and, if necessary, pressuring) professors to make the links
- respectfully questioning the relevance of seemingly irrelevant learning (there could be some surprises!)
- becoming models of integration — looking for and discussing in class the analogies, metaphors, and relationships that connect different disciplines, different courses, and different topics within courses
- always asking connecting questions, internally and aloud:
- How does this new learning connect me with or disconnect me from the rest of Nature?
- In light of what's happening in the world today, why am I learning this?
- How does this relate to my other coursework?
- How does this relate to my future?
- What could be the impact of what I'm learning on others in the world today and future generations?
Perhaps the most important legacy of the [campus sustainability] movement to date is the discovery that universities (and most large organizations) operate with a substantial degree of unconscious habit and irrationality and that very few people, at even the most senior levels, actually know how they truly function.
This is in part the result of the compartmentalization inherent to large hierarchical organizations. The separation of different disciplines, arenas of responsibility, and tiers of management generally prevent people from understanding the broader context or the overall systems that operate across the institution.
The fact that few individuals understand the broader institutional context, its systems and behaviors, has dire consequences for our efforts to navigate toward sustainability. This is because the demands of sustainability are system-wide and involve changing organizational culture, behaviors and the entire institutional context.
— Leith Sharp, Harvard Green
Greening the Heart of Postsecondary Education
It's not just college or university level curriculum that needs greening. The campus itself and what takes place on campus also need to be greened. Borrowed from the integration principle of sustainable development, this triple Venn diagram shows that postsecondary sustainability education must include all three aspects. (See School Greening for more information.)
For example, AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) has an evaluative framework called STARS — Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System, which includes the categories Education and Research (curriculum); Operations (facilities); Planning, Administration and Engagement (institutional community behaviour); plus Innovation.
Universities (and colleges) must start posing some very tough questions — to all their stakeholders:
- What's the purpose of a higher education in the 21st century? Especially in light of the climate change emergency and now inevitable climate catastrophes that huge human populations are facing? What will (or should) postsecondary sustainability education change?
- Are universities educating in service to the Earth and all future generations? Or are they merely self-serving? Are they acknowledging the game-changing urgency of the climate change emergency? Do they recognize that the future of life on the planet is at stake?
- Assuming that universities and their faculty and administration want their mission to be in service to the Earth and all future generations ... HOW MANY ARE ACTUALLY THINKING IN THESE TERMS AND PUTTING THEM INTO PRACTICE?
- Are universities teaching in ways that will safeguard the future of life on Earth? I sometimes say, "If we're not teaching FOR sustainable development, then by default we're teaching for UNsustainable development." But it's also "If we’re not consciously teaching to ensure a future, then we’re likely teaching in a way that will make the future a thing of the past."
- What is the role of the university in a post-peak oil world with an unstable climate? Must traditional roles of research, community outreach, technological innovation, and knowledge creation shift? Should postsecondary education instead be resurfacing the old knowledge and traditional skills (food growing, for example?) while moving at war-time speed on transformative zero-carbon technologies – and ensuring that students are involved in their development?
- Why, when we're considering 21st century educational challenges, do so many educators only think about fancy social media and new technologies? These are a how (to teach) in a world demanding a transformative new what (to teach). They are one tool, not the job at hand (which is postsecondary sustainability education and, frankly, safeguarding life on Earth).
For example, Wikipedia (!!) explains that social media have "substantially changed the way organizations, communities, and individuals communicate" and have "turned communication into interactive dialogue." But this still begs the question: Are we communicating and interactively dialoguing about the things, and in the ways, that will safeguard the future? Or have we — as individuals and as institutions — become enthralled to a giant distraction, a boondoggle that diverts our attention from what's happening to the planet's life support systems?
- And then there are those who are still educating for a world that no longer exists. What must a 21st century university education accomplish? Should postsecondary institutions start teaching people, communities and other collectives how to create the best possible future out of the carbon-constrained and climate-racked chaos we are bequeathing them — in short, how to survive?
At all levels of education, we must be teaching the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and habits of mind and heart that will help our students create the best possible future for themselves. We must bring life and survival back to become the central purpose of education. Both educators and students can start asking the all-important question: Is what I'm teaching / learning serving the Earth, the future, and the children of all species? This is a vital first step in postsecondary sustainability education.
Go from Postsecondary Sustainability Education to the Integration Page
Return from Postsecondary Sustainability Education
to GreenHeart Education Homepage
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The olive and the tree on which it grows have been revered since ancient times. Archaeological digs have unearthed evidence that olive trees existed on the island of Crete in 3500 B.C. The Semitic peoples were cultivating the tree's fruit by 3000 B.C. They particularly liked to use the oil of the olive to anoint the body during religious ceremonies, and to light their lamps. An ancient Hebrew law prohibiting the destruction of any olive tree is still obeyed.
By the time of the Roman Empire, olives were a mainstay of the agricultural economy. The Romans also used the oil to grease the axles of wagons and chariots. The Greeks traded it for wheat; the elaborately decorated clay pots that they used to transport the oil became part of the civilization's burgeoning art industry.
The olive tree is mentioned frequently in the Koran and in the Bible. Noah receives the message that land is near when a dove arrives at the ark with an olive branch in its mouth. Greek mythology associates the goddess Athena with the olive tree and credits Acropos, the founder of Athens, with teaching the Greeks to extract oil from the tree's fruit.
A member of the evergreen family, the olive tree features a gnarled trunk and leaves with a silvery underside. Its strong root system is perfect for penetrating sand, limestone, or heavy, poorly aerated soil. The trees thrive best in regions with rainy winters and hot, dry summers. Although it may take up to eight years before a tree produces its first harvest, a single tree can live for centuries.
Early oil producers pressed the olives by crushing them between huge cone-shaped stones as they turned slowly on a base of granite. Today, most factories employ hydraulic presses, exerting hundreds of tons of pressure, to separate the oil from the olive paste. Spain and Italy are the primary commercial producers of olives and olive oil. Greece is close behind them. However, California, Australia, and South Africa are emerging as leaders in the industry. Some wineries are planting olives to offset poor wine harvests. Ironically, olive trees were planted in California by missionaries in the 1800s, which by the turn of the century were producing an excellent grade of olive oil. However, the market demand was weak so the trees were uprooted and grape vines were planted in their place.
In the late twentieth century, emphasis on good nutrition and a fascination with the so-called Mediterranean diet has resulted in a resurgence in the olive oil trade. Olive oil is touted as a monounsaturate that is healthier for human consumption than corn and vegetable oils. The oil is also promoted as a dandruff reliever and, when mixed with beeswax, a homemade lip balm. In the late 1990s, the United States and Canada consumed olive oil at a yearly rate of 147,600 tons (150,000 metric tons). The demand often exceeds the supply, and during the 1990s prices rose significantly.
The primary ingredient of olive oil is the oil that is expressed from ripe olives. In the late spring, small flowers appear on the olive trees. Wind pollination results in the blossoming of the olives, which reach their
Since ancient times, workers have knocked the fruit from the trees with long-handled poles. The process has not changed significantly over the centuries. Modern poles resemble rakes. Originally, nets were spread under the tree to catch the falling olives. Many producers are now using plastic covers to cushion the fall and to allow for cleaner, faster gathering.
One quart (0.95 L) of extra virgin olive oil, the highest level of quality, requires 2,000 olives. The only added ingredient in extra virgin olive oil is the warm water used to flush away the bittemess of the olives, caused by the presence of oleuropein. Extra virgin olive oil contains not more than 1% oleic acid. Pure olive oil, that which results from the second pressing, is often mixed with extra virgin olive oil. The commercial, or non-edible, grades are put through a refining process that may leave traces of soda solutions and bleaching carbons.
The olive oil industry is regulated by government food agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States. By regulation, olive is classified into five grades. Virgin olive oil is that which is obtained from the first pressing. Pure is a mixture of refined and virgin oil. Refined, or commercial, consists of the lower grade lampante oil from which the acid, color, and odor have been removed through processing. Lampante is a highly acidic grade; its name is derived from its use as lamp oil. Sulfide olive oil is chemically extracted from the olives through the use of solvents and is refined many times.
The popularity of olive oil in the late twentieth century has spawned many bottlers who are combining various grades of olive oil and labeling them illegally as virgin or pure. A 1995 FDA report charged that only 4% of the 73 domestically produced or distributed olive oils it tested were pure. The North American Olive Oil Association disputed the findings, stating that of the 300 oils the association tests each year, only a handful are found to be impure. In any event, the situation has become one of "buyer beware."
Finding workers who are willing to perform the laborious task of picking olives is becoming more difficult. Therefore, the olive oil industry is pursuing methods for mechanizing the collecting process. Among the larger olive oil companies, centrifugation methods are becoming more popular for the pressing process as well as for separating the oil from the vegetable water. Although centrifugation requires more energy and water, the method takes up less space in the factory and requires a shorter set-up time. Centrifugation also eliminates the need for pressing bags, which must be washed after each pressing.
Benavides, Lisa. "For Olive Importers, It's All Greek to Them." Boston Business Journal, October, 25, 1996, p. 3.
Burros, Marian. "Eating Well." The New York Times, October 23, 1996, p. C3.
"From the Olive Tree to Olive Oil." Pompeian, Inc.
"Green, With Envy." Prevention, August 1996, p. 106.
Muto, Sheila. "Impurity of Olive Oil Is Raising Concerns." The New York Times, January 3, 1996, p. C2.
— Mary F. McNulty
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As modern medicine continually finds ways to extend the length and quality of life, the number of older adults in the United States has increased significantly. Unfortunately, aging often brings difficulties in speech, language and communication. One of the most common communication issues for senior citizens is dementia.
People typically associate dementia with difficulty remembering things. But dementia doesn’t just affect a person’s memory—it can also create significant problems in understanding and producing language. A speech-language pathologist can work with the individual and their family to provide strategies to maintain meaningful communication for as long as possible, and increase language use. Here are just a few tips for helping increase and improve communication with a person with dementia:
Repeat Important Information: Hearing information more than one time can help a person with dementia maintain focus and better understand what is being said. Repeat key points of your message more than once in a conversation.
Slow Down: Speaking slowly and pausing between each sentence allows the person with dementia to process your speech. Allow for pauses and silence after you finish speaking as well—a person with dementia may need extra time to formulate a response.
Keep It Simple: Provide information in the simplest way possible and avoid long complicated sentences. If the person you’re speaking to seems confused, pause, and try to rephrase in a simpler way. When asking questions, try to provide choices or use questions that require only a yes-no response; open-ended questions can be difficult for a person with dementia.
Want to learn more? If you have any questions or would like to know more about speech-language therapy, give me a call at (212) 308-7725 or send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org. I’d be happy to chat and answer any questions you may have.
© 2015, Speech Associates of New York – All Rights Reserved
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Who: Arthur B Mc Donald and Takaaki Kajita
What: Jointly won 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics
When: 6 October 2015
Japan’s Takaaki Kajita and American Arthur B. McDonald on 6 October 2015 jointly won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass. Takaaki Kajita belongs to the University of Tokyo while McDonald is from Queen’s University, Canada.
Both the winners will share the 8 million Swedish kronor prize money with one half going to McDonand and the other half to Kajita. Each winner will also get a diploma and a gold medal at the annual award ceremony on 10 December 2015, the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel.
The Discovery of Neutrino Oscillations
Takaaki Kajita presented the discovery that neutrinos from the atmosphere switch between two identities on their way to the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan.
While, the research group in Canada led by Arthur B. McDonald demonstrated that the neutrinos from the Sun were not disappearing on their way to Earth. Instead they were captured with a different identity when arriving to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.
Their experiments demonstrated that neutrinos change identities. This metamorphosis requires that neutrinos have mass. The discovery has changed understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to view of the universe.
With this, a neutrino puzzle that physicists had wrestled with for decades, had been resolved. Compared to theoretical calculations of the number of neutrinos, up to two thirds of the neutrinos were missing in measurements performed on Earth. Now, these two experiments discovered that the neutrinos had changed identities.
The discovery led to the far-reaching conclusion that neutrinos, which for a long time were considered mass-less, must have some mass, however small.
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Sunday, December 26, 2010
Our classic commentators were fully aware of the place of Egyption beliefs and the Egyptian pantheon of gods at the epicentre of the plague drama. Rashi, for example refers to the Nile as the god of Egypt (see comments to 7:17) or the god Ra - the sun god (comments to 10:10). Lesser known is the fact that the god of the midwives took the form of a frog (link). Not only does the plague of frogs now reverberate with deep irony (echoing Pharaoh's evil abuse of the midwives), but when God proclaims, "I will execute judgement over all the gods of Egypt," (12:12) his retribution via frogs or the eclipse of the sun in the plague of darkness were a sign of God's mastery over the gods of Egypt. An in depth knowledge of Egyptology would, I imagine, reveal yet more points of contact.
In a current exhibition at the British Musum, a papyrus from the "Book of the Dead" is exhibited (link). It shows a ceremony of the "weighing of the heart," from Thebes, and dated at around 1275 BC, not distant from the period of the Exodus from Egypt.
The Book of the Dead is full of spells and rules to help a person travel safely on his journey through the Afterlife. Above, you see the king facing his last and most important test – the weighing of the heart. On the left, he and his wife enter the area where he is to be judged. The Egyptians thought that a person’s heart showed all their good and bad deeds. Any’s heart is placed on some scales and weighed by the god Anubis (with the black jackal head) against the feather of truth. If it is lighter than the feather he will survive and continue into the next world. If it is heavier then he will be eaten by the Devourer, the monster on the right who is part-lion, part-hippopotamus and part-crocodile. Next to the Devourer stands Thoth, the god of truth (with an ibis head). He is checking that the weighing is fair.
Now we understand the Torah in an entirely new context. When the Torah tells us that "I will make Pharaoh's heart heavy" (7:14, 9:7,) and similar meptaphors, it speaks to the Egyptian psyche and tells us unequivocally, in their language and belief system, that Pharaoh is evil and unworthy of entering the Afterlife. He will be fed to the Devourer.
Amazing what Egyptology can teach us about our Torah!
Friday, November 26, 2010
This poster caught my eye as I walked through Jerusalem this week.
It is an event on Sunday evening , a "learning party," run by "The Secular Yeshiva in Jerusalem." The big יז at the top of the poster represents the number 17, because the evening will take place at Jerusalem's leading nightclub and party venue, HaOman 17!
What is on the bill for the evening?
- A "session limmud" on Channuka: Judaism and foreign culture
- A talk by Dr. Ariel Hirschfeld "The Tanakh in the eyes of the secular reader"
- and then DJ Barry Saharoff will lead the rave into the night.
One should note how the poster (uncharacteristically for a secular crowd,) has the Hebrew date prominently displayed. Oh ... and all proceeds are "kodesh" to the Secular Yeshiva of Jerusalem.
The secular Yeshiva first opened in Tel Aviv (link) and apparently there is now one in Jerusalem. It represents a wider reconnection between elements who define themselves as ideological, zionist and secular to rediscover and reconnect with their Judaism (see here and here.)
I LOVE this type of engagement between Judaism and the young "secular" crowd. It is vibrant, contemporary, and shows a genuine thirst on the part of young Israelis to revitalise the relationship with their Jewish heritage.
כן ירבו! Let it grow!
"Which one would you like to study?"
To which he replied:
"I would really like to study about Tefilla."
I was unsure that I had heard him correctly, so I asked him what he had said.
"Tefilla, y'know - like the Tefillot of Shabbat. I'd love to understand them better."
He then told me that he'd love to get to a shiur but he also has an evening job, and he gets home too exhausted in the evenings.
Well, this encounter just put a big smile of my face. It's amazing how the security guard who you see every day is just such a special soul. We must never forget to value every person. And I was just filled with the feeling of how wonderful it is to live amongst our people, and just what incredible people we have.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
We all know the story. Yaakov prepares for his encounter with Esav by means of "prayer, war preparations, and gifts." (see Rashi 32:9)
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: 'We came to thy brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.' 8 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. And he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps. 9 And he said: 'If Esau come to the one camp, and smite it, then the camp which is left shall escape.' (32:7-9)
· How does this "splitting" or "halving" the people help Yaakov? He says that if one camp is killed, then the other will escape. But, how does Yaakov know in which camp to place himself? How is he sure that he will be in the camp that will get away? And what is to say that Esav will not hunt down the second camp?
· Interestingly, the Rashbam suggests (see 32:23) that when Yaakov gets up in the middle of the night and crosses his family over the river, he is escaping to avoid a confrontation with Esav. Is this the "two camp" thing? Yaakov leaves everyone else in the camp, and runs off with his family!
· And then the mysterious angel fights with him all night. He emerges bruised and limping in the morning and is immediately confronted unawares by Esav:
"And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. (33:1)"
This seems like an attempt to follow the original plan of "splitting the camp." But what effect does it have here? Is it merely a feeble attempt to follow the planned choreography? Why use the same word - ויחץ?
· One further point here regarding the splitting into "two camps." Halving the camps would appear top be a bad thing… due to Esav's impending attack and bloodbath ("women and children" - 32:10) Yaakov divides his camp into two as an act of defense. And yet, in his prayer (32:11) Yaakov expresses God's extensive kindness –chesed – in that "now I have become two camps," as if it were a good thing! (And see the end of last week's parasha - מחניים) So... two camps – good or bad?
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
וישכב במקום ההוא - לשון מיעוט באותו מקום שכב, אבל ארבע עשרה שנים ששמש בבית עבר לא שכב בלילה, שהיה עוסק בתורה: רש"י בראשית פרק כח
In other words, Yaakov had spent 14 years in the "House of Ever" learning Torah. Rashi is drawing upon a Midrashic tradition that there was a Yeshivat שם ועבר, an institution in which the Avot (and, it would seem, their contemporaries) would study "Torah."
And this is fascinating. What did they study in Yeshivat Shem V'Ever? Why does Yaakov need to spend 14 years there? - After all, did he not have the best education at home? He would have studied with Avraham and Yitzchak!
Let us articulate a few reflections upon this Midrashic tradition:
1. Even if a person has a solid religious tradition from home, as a young person seeks to build his own independent life (Yaakov is leaving home and setting up his own family) he needs to develop an independent, personal religious direction. And that involves seeking other teachers, alternative spiritual models. We can build upon our parents' Judaism but it isn't sufficient. We need to move away, to reexamine and to reconstruct our own personal Judaism on our terms. This needs to be done by studying and experiencing fresh and different religious environments.
2. It is fascinating that there seems to be a Torah of the Avot, and then a Torah of Shem V'Ever which quite evidently represents a non-Jewish, universal monotheistic moral tradition. It is challenging to contemplate the thought that Yitzchak would need to study at this institute of universal wisdom. Does this mean that our parochial Judaism does not suffice as a preparation for the outside world? Or maybe along with our Judaism, we need to study other wisdom? Or was Yaakov – on the way to Mesopotamia – seeking to ally himself with local monotheists? Or possibly, in seeking a better preparation to confront the local challenges of Haran, he needed to study with people who had already contemplated and grappled with the local philosophies, and Yaakov needed their guidance.
Rashi's source is the Midrash in BR 68:11, (a tradition also mentioned by Seder Olam). For other references to Yeshivat Shem VaEver, see BR 52:11, 56:11 that Yitzchak studied there after the Akeida, 63:6 that Rivka consulted with Shem about her pregnancy, 63:10 that Yaakov studied there, 84:8, Shir Hashirim Rabba 6/6.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Rav Alex Israel
Our Parsha opens with the image of Avraham Avinu sitting at the entrance to his tent. Almost immediately, a small group of wayfarers enter the scene and we witness an account of Avraham’s overwhelming hospitality to them. Avraham Avinu, recovering from surgery runs to draw guests into his home. The words “run”, “quick” are repeated over and over as Avraham hurries to attend to the strangers' every need. He personally supervises the kitchens; he acts as a waiter serving their food. He also accompanies them on their way, not letting them leave without an escort.
The Halakha sees Avraham as a paradigm of Chessed. It uses Avraham as a Halakhic role model:
"Charity and Giving are traits of the Tzaddik, of the offspring of Avraham Avinu" (Mishna Torah, Laws of Gifts to Poor 10:1)
“The reward of escorting a visitor from one’s home is the greatest of all rewards for hospitality. This is a law set in place by Avraham Avinu and the charitable ways that he made his lifestyle. He would give wayfarers food and drink and would escort them on their way. “ (Mishne Torah. Hilchot Evel . 14:2)
These values are seen to override even the concerns of God Himself! The Halacha continues (based on Gemara Shabbat 127a):
“Hospitality is of greater worth than receiving the Divine Presence itself. This we learn from Genesis 18:2: ‘And he looked up and saw three men (and ran towards them)’.” (ibid – and see Rashi's reading of the opening passuk)
THE HOSPITALITY OF LOT
In another scene of the Parsha, we witness Lot's hospitality.
"1 And the two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them; and bowed low with his face to the ground. 2 He said: 'Please, my lords, turn, I pray you, to your servant's house, and spend the night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early, and go on your way.' And they said: 'No; we shall spend the night in the square.' 3 And he urged them strongly; and they turned his way, and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, baking unleavened bread, and they ate." (19:1-3)
This account of Lot's hospitality mirrors that of Avraham. He sees them, greets them, bows down to them imploring them to join him at his home, and he offers them a place to sleep the night. Like Avraham, he prepares a meal especially for them. Clearly Lot has learnt a considerable amount from Avraham.
But there is one striking difference. Avraham involves his entire family:
"6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said: 'Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.' 7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto the boy (Rashi – Yishmael) …" (18:6-7)
Avraham involves his wife, his son. This is not his own personal project; it is a family agenda. This family agenda becomes our NATIONAL legacy:
“... for I have singled him (Avraham) out that he may instruct his children ... to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just (Tzedaka) and right (Mishpat) ...” (18:16-20)
Avraham is not simply a man of personal ethical standards. He teaches his children to do that which is “just and right.” He establishes a family TRADITION of Chesed that needs instruction, teaching, cultivation. It doesn't just come naturally, it must be taught, inculcated not merely by example, but rather by practice and training.
And what of Lot's family? We do not hear of his daughters waiting upon the visitors at the table. Even his wife is absent as he entertains the two angelic messengers in his home. Lot has to bake the bread himself, it was Lot who personally prepared the food. His family was uninvolved.
Maybe it is not surprising then, that sons-in-law desire to remain in Sedom, his wife, so distressed at the destruction of her hometown, looks back and is turned into lifeless unproductive salt. And what of Lot's two daughters? They end up in an act of incest with their father. Lot's family do not join the community of Chessed, of that which is Just and Right, Tzedek and Mishpat. They live for themselves. Despite the example of their father, the value of Chessed failed to pass over the generational divide.
LESSONS FOR OURSELVES
And for us, who are part of the legacy of Avraham Avinu, we should appreciate the central role of Chessed. And that the only way to pass on this vital tradition is by transforming our entire home into a welcoming place, a tent of Abraham, involving our entire family in the project of Hachnassat Orchim.
In Pirkei Avot (1:5), Rabbi Yose ben Yochanan talks about our "home" being open. Chessed is not simply a trait adopted by individuals; it must permeate families, homes and communities. Then we can ensure that our children too will cherish their legacy and continue it always.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
We, the readers (and products of elementary Jewish day school education) all know that these are angels, divine messengers, but Avraham thinks they are merely three strangers. Avraham's hospitality is astounding in its energy, its sincerity and depth. Would we ever beg three homeless individuals to have a huge meal at our home?
I found myself using Avraham as a paradigm of openeness and acceptance in a recent conversation when I remarked how we in the Orthodox Jewish community are frequently inward looking, leaving outsiders - visitors and newly-religious people - feeling unwelcome, whether inadvertantly, or deliberately. The Orthodox world can often be wary and judgmental to Jews from other denominations, as with those whose actions, dress, or body language communicate the fact that they are non-observant. We have subtle codes that help us identify the members of our sub-group, and we frequently do not realise the degree to which our uniformity is off-putting and unwelcoming. When one encounters the rare Orthodox environment which is genuinely welcoming to ALL Jews, one realises how much effort and thoughtfulness needs to be invested to ensure that visitors feel fully comfortable in our communities.
(For an interesting piece about the Orthodox world in this regard, see Allan Nadler's article here.)
So as I said, I was talking about how Avraham just welcomes strangers to his home without any entrance requirements - no kippa, no Shabbat, no dress code - just a warm welcome.
and then I recalled this Rashi:
רש"י בראשית פרק יח
ורחצו רגליכם - כסבור שהם ערביים שמשתחוים לאבק רגליהם והקפיד שלא להכניס עבודה זרה לביתו.
"Wash your feet: He thought that they were arabs who worshipped the dust on their feet. Since he was particular not to admit idolatry to his house ( he asked them to wash off the dust."
In other words, the Midrash inserts that Avraham DOES have entry restrictions and particular standards of conduct for one to be admitted. Idolaters are not welcome unless they divest themselves of their idolatry!
It is amazing that a simple Rashi like this makes a huge difference in perspective. Do we welcome outsiders warmly, without question, or do we insist that in some manner or form, they conform to our modes of behaviour and belief, that they not interupt and obstruct our world, our value system?
15 years on, I want to share two thoughts that I had this year.
First, is the fact that even though the radio and TV have dedicated some time to Rabin today, it is not the first item on any of the news channels or websites. In contrast to the initial years following Rabin's murder when the awareness of Rabin's memory and the violence of the assassination was a palpable presence that could be sensed on the streets, in the air, on this day, this year I feel it is in the background. Yes, it is on the calendar, there will be a state ceremony, but the routine continues, life moves on, and everyone is functioning normally.
Is that bad? Is Rabin being forgotten? No! I actually think that it is a sign of the maturity and resilience of Israeli society that we have managed to emerge from those dark days and to move beyond the mourning and the pain. It is evidence of a healthy society that this has moved from the foreground to a quieter place, where it is noted but it doesn't dominate.
Don't get me wrong. I think we need to teach the lessons of Rabin's murder, about the need for care in our public discourse, of red lines that may never be crossed even in passionate public conflicts, and of the importance of tolerance, and an understanding that one must coexist with people with whom you passionately disagree. Nonetheless, the fact that this is less intense, is I believe a healthy sign.
My second point relates to the commemoration and grappling with the assassination within Religious-Zionist (Right-Wing) circles.
With Yigal Amir coming from Religious Zionist institutions, and with the Right wing the most vocal denouncers of Rabin, the Religious Zionist community was under harsh attack in the days, months and years following the assassination. By the Left-wing and media, the entire Right-Wing were labeled as pariahs and murderers in a harsh and unfair stereotyping. This lead to a situation in which the Religious Zionist communities had no way to mark or talk about Rabin's murder. After all, they disagreed with and fought his Peace process. And as for talk about tolerance and the danger of violent rhetoric, the Right Wing was too bruised to express themselves. (see for example, this article - link) For years, I was distressed that Rabin's assassination was barely mentioned in my kids' school.
And to my surprise, this year in Efrat, my daughter's school did organise an extensive program about tolerance to mark Rabin's assassination.
Maybe this also takes 15 years. For the Right wing community to feel that they are not under such harsh accusation, they too can now begin to grapple with aspects of this terrible crime.
One last thought. Yuli Tamir (a former Labour education minister) was quoted today (link) as saying that we need to educate more about the dangers of incitement within the Israeli public discourse. Well, I have one thing to say to Yuli Tamir. The public, just like kids, learn by example. If we wish to lower the excessive, harmful, levels of incitement within the Israeli political discourse, then the MK's should be the first group to tone down their harsh rhetoric, their labeling and their acrimonious speech. Then possibly we will have role models of tolerance and mutual respect in our midst.
Monday, October 04, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
And in preparation for Yom Kippur - for those with a gory sense of humour - here is the "Avoda" T-shirt:
FRONT and BACK
Hat tip - Ynet
Monday, August 16, 2010
So my 6 year-old and I went to pay the Shalits a visit. It is quite startling to walk up to the tent and to be greeted by Noam Shalit, his face so familiar that you cannot quite believe that it is really him. And we chatted with him about the campaign, and how he is managing with their arduous vigil, and then we wished him well, and a Shabbat Shalom.
I asked Noam Shalit how we might be able to help, and he didn't really have much to say, other than "support us."
The sense of helplessness is palpable. I left asking myself the question; What have I done for Gilad Shalit? And, can I do more?
On the one hand, I am not a supporter of releasing one thousand terrorists for Gilad shalit, and despite the question, "If it were your son..." I do believe that a mass release of Hamas men would be a mistake.
And so, what then? What can I do?
My sister and brother-in-law say a tefilla for Gilad Shalit at Havdalla every week, bringing the prayers for his release into their home. I have had Gilad Shalit regularly in my tefillot, but maybe I can do more in that direction.
And I was just wondering whether we could get 1 million Shanna Tovah cards to Gilad Shalit delivered the the Director-General of the U.N. demanding that they be delivered to Gilad for Rosh Hahanna. Maybe some would be passed along? Who knows whether that might make some impression? Could we get something like that off the ground in the next 3 weeks? What do you think?
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Well, in the scary days of the second intifada (2000-2001), there was daily shooting from Beit Jala (on the outskirts of Bethelehem) towards the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo. Snipers fired into apartments of regular citizen, and made life unbearable for the people living in the southern edge of the city. And so, to give some level of protection at street level, Tzahal put up some ugly concrete blocks to give at least some degree of protection. That was a period in which I travelled the roads to Gush Etzion daily wearing a bullet-proof vest. It was a time when you felt that driving along the "tunnel road" from Jerusalem to Gush Etzion had a certain dimension of gambling with your life.
Of course, artists came along to paint on the wall, each with their own idea of the relief that their art might provide for the people of Gilo (see this video)
And now, a return to normalcy has been declared. The army feel that the wall is unecessary, the immediacy of the threat is absent, and the wall can be dismantled.
This should make us wonder as to how much can be done on the national level, and how much can be achieved at the grass-roots level.
2. Second, it is interesting to hear the statements by residents of Gilo as to their fear of exposure now that wall has been dismantled. We set up barriers and protections when we are in crisis, and then when life returns to normal, we feel exposed and unprotected without them. We forget about the ugliness of the wall, the price we pay for the loss of the beautiful scenery, the artificial scar upon the landscape.
I think this is true in many areas of life (including politics, religion.) We build mechanisms that respond to a problem. But we forget that when the problem is less acute, that we can dispose of those protections. Sometimes they give us a sense of security. At times, it is simply a fear of exposure that prevents a respone to normalcy. I am glad that the Jerusalem Municipality and Tzahal had the courage to engage in this positive change.
Monday, July 05, 2010
This evening, Gush Etzion hosted a joint concert of Yonatan Razel (of Vehi She'amda fame) together with Arkadi Duchin. A dati and chiloni musician in concert together. This is not the first time that we have seen one of the central figures of the Israeli (secular) music scene demonstrate an interest in Judaism. In recent years there has been a huge revival of interest in Jewish themes. For example, Ehud Banai and his album of zemirot, the much hailed move to religious observance by Etti Ankri and her recording of a beautiful album of Rabbi Yehudah Halevi's songs. Barry Sakharof with an album of piyutim by Ibn Gvirol and Kobi Oz with his Psalms for the Perplexed. Kobi Oz is the lead singer of Tippex (Teapacks) and a prominer figure in the Israeli music scene. Here is a quote from him:
"In recent years I have steeped my soul in a warm marinade of Judaism, and the result is "Psalms for the Perplexed," an evening of brand-new songs that fall somewhere in the hazy area between "religious" and "secular." It is not something naïve, spiritual, or kabbalistic-just Hebrew songs that send a smile in the direction of our brilliant Sages"
There is no doubt that Israelis are seekers in many ways. Many search for spirituality in the Far East. But as Israel matures and grows-up, many Israeli's are asking themselves basic questions. Many young Israelis are far from the antagonism towards Judaism and rejection of religion that once held sway in secular circles. They are curious and intrigued as to what their heritage beholds. Sometimes they are trying to understand why we, as a Jewish country and nation, have such a unique fate, with such inordinate world attention and frequently inexplicable hatred directed towards Israel. Sometimes, it is a search for the spiritual, or a return to ancestral roots. Secular Batei Midrash like Alma or the secular yeshiva, and cultural centres such as Beit Avi Chai all examine Jewish themes. There was such a wide range of Tisha B'av programs for the average Israeli this week - demonstrating a clear revival of interest in Judaism (as long as it isn't coercive!) This isn't Aish Hatorah but rather an exciting dialogue with Judaism and Jewish tradition through music.
Some years ago, I was listening to a live concert by Avishai Cohen. Avishai Cohen is a world famous (Israeli) jazz player who "made it" on the NY scene, playing at all the top venues. And yet, once he had conquered the summit of the Jazz circuit, he came home to Israel. at this concert, he was talking about his new album, and he mentioned that he had always played instrumental jazz but had never sung lyrics. He decided that he wanted to sing, but which words, which text to sing? And then he said: "So I thought about this song that my grandfather used to sing. The words are shalom aleichem malachei hashalom." - Amazing! It isn't the version that you might recognise, but the fact that Israeli artists are enaging in a dialogue with Judaism is heart-warming.
Maybe we are moving forward after all!
Tribute to Marc Weinberg z"l.
Comments at the end of my shiur. Erev iyun at Ramban shul – 18 July 2010 / 8 Av 5770
This evening, chaverim, we have discussed tragedy, death, destruction, pain, suffering, collapse, disintegration. We have discussed it on the national scale.
However all these words seen apt at describing the terrible afflictions of cancer that gripped the body of my dear friend and talmid, Marc Weinberg, in these recent years, until his tragic death, at the start of this "3 weeks" period.
I do not want to talk of the pain. In truth I prefer not to reflect on the broken twisted body that was forced to withstand all the torture and suffering of Iyov – and Marc held forth so gallantly and heroically. I prefer to recall the Marc Weinberg full of vitality - with his immaculate sense of fashion, his beloved suntan and his Sunday morning football game.
For many of you who did not know him, let me say a few words. On the one hand, this shiur is highly appropriate for Marc's memory. In a way, it is at variance with him.
It is matched to him because Marc loved Tanakh, limmud Torah, and particularly, giving Tanakh a structure, a pattern. Whenever I spoke to Marc, even in the latter months of his illness when he was seriously sick, he would ask me: "any new books that I should know about?" He loved getting to the core of the methodology of things. Marc was an educator to the core. He worked as a highly successful banker and financier. And yet, he spent evenings and Sunday afternoons teaching young people. He loved nothing more than taking really intelligent (but Judaically unlearned) kids and teaching them how to learn. Not just teaching them but giving them learning tools and a thirst for knowledge. A good shiur was one which had a clear methodology, order, system, and this is what he wished to impart to his students.
In one of our final conversations Marc related to me so excitedly how he had begun to teachTanakh and Judaism to the Hiloni son of a neighbour in Modiin , excited at how bright and well-read he was, and devastated at his dearth of Judaic education.
But in other ways this shiur is mismatched to Marc. I don't know which aspect of God Marc would have identified with: God as Judge, enemy or source of faith. That חשבון Marc can take up with the Ribbono shel Olam. God knows that Marc would have a long list of legitimate complaints to take up with Him.
But Marc was not a philosopher or a theologian. Marc was a do-er. He was a magnetic personality. People warmed up to him. But how did he use his charisma? Once again, we can talk about Marc and methodology. Marc believed living life according to principles, and he was proud of these principles and ethics – his Modern Orthodoxy, his commitment to intelligent Talmud Torah, Religious Zionism, Derekh Eretz, community, personal integrity. He spent time figuring out how things worked, and then he set to work. He took these foundational principles, and as he developed his confidence over the years, he applied them in the world of finance, community building, Zionism and Aliyah etc.
He acted. He built a shul. He had a Hashkafa that he was passionate about and knew that he could put it into place, and did. He was determined to establish a vibrant young Modern Orthodox, Religious Zionist congregation in London. He did it. He was devastated to see Jews' College become a right-wing institution and yearned to see it as a hub of real education and inclusiveness, a forum for Modern Orthodox speakers and text-study. He built that. People who came to the shiva saw his daily lists which outlined his aims and objectives, his achievements and accomplishments, but most simply, his daily tasks, his list of people to be in touch with. This was a man on a mission. He developed a phenomenal network of contacts through his intelligence, hard work and integrity and most importantly his care and sensitivity, And he leveraged this network to help people - finding jobs for people, and when he had a new project to put into place, he knew precisely who could play every role. His confidence gave people an assurance that the project would work.
There are two types of response to tragedy. One is in the theological realm, but Marc would have said that the response to destruction is to build, and better not to let it be destroyed in the first place. To build our world.
May his family: Natalie, Yona and Maayan; Syma and Henry, Debra and Aviad, have much nechama from the realization that he did so much for so many people. May this be the end of any suffering for their family and may the passage of time ease their grief and allow them to move onwards and to smile at life (and may life smile at them!) And may we learn from the figure of Marc Weinberg z"l that we should not underestimate our power, our ability to shape and build the world around us.
p.s I found an email that Marc sent me which exemplifies exactly what I said above. It was sent on the day his eldest daughter Yona, started school:
01/9/09 Education Question
Today was Yona's first day of Kita Aleph.
This made me think how I can contribute to supplement her Limudei Kodesh. I love
structures and things I can follow. She cannot yet read hebrew fluently but she
says Tefilla and I could help with her general knowledge but have been doing so
without any structure .... I sort of want to know a program for the next few
years of goals I should be achieving with her..."
May his memory be a blessing.
That email echoes much of what I said here.
Rav Yehuda Amital passed away last week at age 86. He was my Rosh Yeshiva, my teacher, to whom I am indebted for much of my value system and my spiritual path in life. He was a Holocaust survivor, an ideologue, an institution builder, a master teacher, a Talmid Chacham, a humble Jew who cared about every other Jew, a proud Israeli who fought in the war of Independence, and founded Hesder, sending his own students to fight in the army, who began as a leading settler, and ended up as a supporter of Peace. He stepped into Israeli politics when he felt that his unique contribution could make a difference. Much has been written about him (see 1,2,3,4,5) however, in some manner of tribute I would like to add a few personal reflections. One caveat - a short blog entry could not do any justice to the depth of his learning, his extensive achievements, the magnetism and warmth of his personality, nor his personal charisma.
No Shortcuts – "אין פטנטים"
I believe that no student could pass through the Yeshiva without hearing Rav Amital's trademark saying – אין פטנטים. By this he meant that there are no shortcuts to spirituality, to mastery of Torah, to God. Rav Amital sought authenticity. He would sing over and over: וטהר לבנו לעבדך באמת – In other words, 'God purify us that we serve you authentically, in truth, in depth" and Rav Amital believed that this was hard work. He insisted that the Yeshiva be a place of learning without distraction, of depth and devoted study. He spoke about prayer and how religious connection is an "Avoda sheba-lev (service of the heart)" meaning that it was an Avoda – hard work. Spiritual highs cannot come instantaneously.
Rav Amital expressed his disdain for religious fads, superficial expressions of piety, and what he saw as shallow spiritual thrills. Furthermore, he was uninterested in religious practices that took a person out of the cycle of the "normal." Once, a friend of mine – a ba'al teshuva – was pedantically cleaning his hands PRIOR to Netilat Yadayim. He had studied the directive of the Mishna Berura that required that one ensure that no substance become a barrier to the waters and interfere with the ritual washing of the hands. Rav Amital saw him and gently said to him: "Danny. Be normal!" He believed that strict and full accordance with the Halakha was a way of life that demanded effort and work, but that it should not take a person away from the orbit of normal people, or regular living.
In this vein, he voiced his wariness with the increasing practice within the Religious-Zionist community to grow peyot (sidelocks) and don huge kippot (yarmulkas). He spoke against it saying that these outer trappings were an expression of fear and insecurity, that people were frightened that they could not withstand the pressures of secularism and modernity. He encouraged people to have confidence in the religious traditions of their families, in the depth and power of shemirat mitzvoth, and not to resort strange dress, and anti-establishment acts.
Truth, ideological shifting, courage.
Rav Amital's sense of truth expressed itself in other ways. After the Six-Day War Rav Amital saw the euphoria of Israel's successes as a sign of divine Redemption and encouraged that ideology as a practical roadmap for settlement of the land. However with the traumas of the Yom Kippur War (in which he lost 8 students – a tenth of his Yeshiva) and the moral questions of the Lebanon war, Rav Amital questioned his ideological priorities.
He felt that Religious Zionism had become morally compromised. When he set up Meimad, his political party, it was not designed to be left wing. It was designed to make the statement that the Land of Israel was not the sole challenge of Religious Zionists, not Judaism's prime emphasis. Rather Religious Zionism had to adopt other priorities such as social justice and reconnect with the mainstream of Israeli body-politic. He was ostracized for his views, but twenty years later, more and more people talk in that vein.
He had the courage to change his opinions even when his students and the entire Religious-Zionist world ridiculed and vilified him. He was the first major religious leader to suggest that territorial compromise might be a the best policy (under the circumstances) for the State of Israel. He was the first person to raise a self-critical voice calling for introspection after the Rabin assassination.
He always called for full allegiance and respect for the Israeli government, understanding that if we uproot our adherence to the source of our sovereignty, we risk everything.
In all these policies he spoke against the Religious-Zionist mainstream, but believed that the truth must be voiced, whatever the personal cost.
Empowerment and Truth
Rav Amital believed in empowering his students. On the inaugural evening of the Yeshiva, he stayed at home. People did not understand why he wasn't there at the inception of his institution. He replied to the boys: 'It is YOUR Yeshiva. I will help you, but YOU will make this place succeed or make it fail."
He invited a talmid chacham who was ten years his junior and a new Oleh – Rav Aharon Lichtenstein shlit"a - to take over the Yeshiva because he felt (his words) that he wanted a superior scholar to lead the institution. In a move of mind-boggling proportions, Rav Amital extended Rav Lichtenstein the position of leading the institution single-handedly as Rosh Yeshiva, and that he (Rav Amital) would merely teach on the faculty! In Rav Lichtenstein's words: "He left the keys on the table." Needless to say, Rav Lichtenstein accepted on condition that he partner with Rav Amital. Let me simply say that it is rare to see such an amazing partnership of mutual respect and love. But Rav Amital's humility allowed that to happen.
When he once gave a political speech in Yeshiva, he allowed his student (Hanan Porat), a leading Right Winger, to get up and take the podium immediately afterwards , to give a different perspective.
He believed that each person needed to find their truth. When asked by Shimon Peres what the political stance of Yeshivat Har Etzion was, he said the following:
Our stance has 3 principles.
First, that every problem of the nation must deeply bother every student.
Second, that the students must think about the problem carefully, long and hard, evaluating the arguments and implications to the full.
Third, we have no political stance – each student must make up their own mind.
The Crying Baby
No one can talk about Rav Amital without mentioning his famous story of the crying baby. It goes like this: That Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was studying Torah, heard the crying of his infant grandson. The elder rebbe rose from his studying and soothed the baby to sleep. Meanwhile, his son, the boy’s father, was too involved in his study to hear the baby cry. When R. Zalman noticed his son’s lack of involvement, he proclaimed, “If someone is studying Torah and fails to hear the cry of a Jewish baby, there is something very wrong with his learning.”
Rav Amital believed that everyone had a sense of mission to the Jewish people. That when the baby cried, one had to engage, to alleviate the pain. When they built the unconventional architectural structure of the Har Etzion Beit Midrash, the architect had planned the modern design without windows. He insisted that the Yeshiva have big windows. Why? Because the Beit Midrash must be connected to the people, to Am Yisrael.
There was so much more to Rav Amital. His attachment to all of Am Yisrael. His beautiful, elevating tear-stained davening on the Yamim Noraim.
As was said at the funeral, Rav Amital was a wonderful fusion of idealism and pragmatism, of conservatism and change, of misnagdic intellectualism and hassidic-mysticism, of the Beit-Midrash and the needs of the nation. However, unlike the Brisker dialectic weighing and balancing the two perspectives and reaching some manner of resolution, Rav Amital's moderation was visceral, seamless and spontaneous, rather than dialectical or intellectual. In this regard, I always saw his expertise and mastery of שו"תים - the Responsa literature – as a reflection of his connection to life, pragmatism, real people and their problems, rather than an inclination to theoretical scholarly ponderings.
There is so much that I owe him that it is difficult to describe. His ideas and students will live on. I am privileged to have studied with such a giant of the spirit, such a loving, God-fearing Rav, a true guide to the perplexing times in which we live.
So, here is today's story:
I flew to London last week. Sitting next to me on the plane was a man, probably a few years my junior. I decided to make some polite conversation seeing that we would be quite literally rubbing shoulders for the next five hours. It transpired that the man was a businessman, a senior sales executive for a large UK printing machinery business and had spent 2 days visiting clients in Israel. I asked him how he had found his experience here, wondering whether he would tell me about rude Israelis and sub-standard service. But he told a different story. It went something like this.
"Well, I got to my hotel in Tel Aviv at night and couldn't quite get a feel for the place, but when i woke up in the morning, well - what a beautiful beach; just stunning! And then up to Haifa and the Jezreel Valley. Very hot, but you have a beautiful country."
Well I couldn't agree more! Good so far, but it gets better. He then continued:
"My client drove all the way down from Haifa to pick me up from my hotel. They took me out to eat and were wonderful company. They even drove me to my meeting with one of their competitors, and waited for me patiently in the car until I had completed my meeting. at the end of the day they drove me back to my hotel. Their warmth and hospitality was quite overwhelming."
His closing comment put a big smile on my face:
"This trip has set new standards of hospitality for me. It has really made me think about how we treat our business partners when they visit us in the UK. We don't drive them around or accompany them home after a meeting. We certainly have a great deal to learn from the generosity and hospitality of you Israelis."
That company in Haifa should get an Israel Business award! What a Kiddush Hashem! Nice to hear about the positive aspects of our people and our country.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
I am excited to say that all 29 shiurim are archived are available here.
Oh! Maybe I should add that the writing of a high level weekly shiur (over and above all my other work) has proved so overwhelming that it absolutely sapped any energy that I had for writing/blogging this year. (I hope that a few readers noticed that my blogging has basically lapsed this year!) I hope that over the summer, I will have some more time and head-space to devote to thinking and commenting on Torah, contemporary Israel, and the Jewish world.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Here are some posts from previous years that might give you pause for though during these special days:
Standing for the siren - a poem
Who should bring the redemption? A Devar Torah for parashat Metzora
Hallel on Yom Haatzmaut
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Tonight, I refer to something even more basic. I am talking about educating children about the values connected to our identity and heritage, teaching children to know our people’s history, educating young people and adults to deepen our ties to one another and to this place.
I believe that this education starts, first and foremost, in the Book of Books – in the Bible – a subject that is close to my heart these days. It starts there. It moves through the history of our people: the Second Temple, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, leaving the ghettos, the rise of Zionism, the modern era, the wars fought for Israel’s existence – the history of Zionism and of Israel. A people must know its past in order to ensure its future.
There is a well-known story about Napoleon. One day, he passed by a synagogue on Tisha B’Av and he heard the weeping of the worshippers. He asked what they were crying about, and the Jews told him: “We are weeping because our Temple was destroyed.” He asked: “How can it be that I heard nothing about this?” He liked knowing what was going on. He wasn’t really interested, but he would have received a report. So the worshippers told him: “Sir, it happened more than 1,700 years ago.” And he told them: “A people capable of remembering its past so clearly has a guaranteed future.”
But the opposite is also true. Yigal Alon said so. He said that a people that doesn’t remember its past, its present is uncertain and its future is unclear. In other words, our existence depends not only on a weapons system, our military strength, the strength of our economy, our innovation, our exports,or on all these forces that are indeed essential. It depends, first and foremost, on the knowledge and national sentiment we as parents bestow on our children, and as a state to its education system. It depends on our culture; it depends on our cultural heroes; it depends on our ability to explain the justness of our path and demonstrate our affinity for our land – first to ourselves and then to others.
We must remind ourselves that if our feeling of serving a higher purpose dissipates, if our sources of spiritual strength grow weak, then – as Yigal Alon said – our future will also be unclear. It will happen if our young generation is not committed to our people and our country; if they do not love the pioneering spirit, if they do not travel our country, if they do not want to mobilize and sacrifice – then our future is truly unclear.
I am far from a Netanyahu fan, and I frequently feel a sense of depair that our country fails to address these fundamental issues. Now that Netanyahu has made this his pet project, including funding of 500 million NIS for a new "heritage trail" (see below) and today's cabinet meeting at Tel Chai, I am delighted to see education, Zionism and Jewish heritage on the national agenda. This represents an understanding that:
לא בחיל ולא בכח כי ברוחי - that it is not military might, but spritual fortitude that is the key to our success. (paraphrasing Zecharia ch.3)
In an era of "Big Brother" and "Survivor", how desperately we need this initiative. Ihope it is just the beginning.
And lest you think that Netanyahu is cooking up the entire thing as a right-wing political move, we should congratulate his son for winning the Jerusalem region Tanakh contest. These competitions are fiercely difficult, and his son's determination demonstrates how deeply the value of Tanakh has been instilled within him. I imagine that his father must have some share in that.
(p.s. The fact that the trail includes Gush Etzion: the sound and light show at Kfar Etzion, the Biyar aquaduct which lead to the Temple, and Herodian, is all the more exciting!)
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When researchers use percent of body fat data to assess obesity rather than body mass index (BMI), the huge gap in obesity rates between African-American and white women, for example, is cut in half, and white men are found to have a much higher risk of obesity than African-American men.
While the medical literature has long showed that percent of body fat is a more accurate measure of fatness than BMI, most social science researchers still use BMI because that is what is available in most social science-based data sets. But because BMI ignores the difference between fat and fat-free mass like bone and muscle, such studies, for example, overstate the obesity of African-Americans relative to whites. That's because on average, African-Americans have more nonfat mass, says John Cawley and Richard Burkhauser, professors of policy analysis and management who have conducted an analysis comparing measures of obesity. Their report offers a conversion tool to enable researchers using social science data sets to calculate body fat percentages and other more accurate measures of obesity in data sets that only contain information on height and weight.
Using more accurate measures of obesity makes a difference.
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Naseby Field is the location of the Battle of Naseby, a cardinal battle of the English Civil War which resulted in a disastrous royalist defeat. It is located roughly twenty miles north of Northampton or roughly seven miles southwest of the town of Market Harborough, and is just north of the A14 main road.
A commemorative plaque and obelisk (grid reference ) marks the site of the battle.
|This Northamptonshire location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|
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a : a feeling of repugnance toward something with a desire to avoid or turn from it
b : a settled dislike : antipathy
aversion to parties>
c : a tendency to extinguish a behavior or to avoid a thing or situation and especially a usually pleasurable one because it is or has been associated with a noxious stimulus
Yuck! But is this aversion a form of disgust? dis·gust noun \di-ˈskəst, dis-ˈgəst also diz-\
: a strong feeling of dislike for something that has a very unpleasant appearance, taste, smell, etc.
: marked aversion aroused by something highly distasteful : repugnance
I find lima beans distasteful, noxious. I avoid eating them. Apparently, I am not the only one. Years ago as a child, I felt the same way toward other food items, but today only lima beans remains associated with a noxious stimulus of some kind that I cannot define. I know well that others like lima beans and are not harmed by them, but something triggers certain neurons firing in my brain that creates this reaction to the lima bean. Are lima beans disgusting, by which I intend to describe lima beans an elicitor of disgust? By definition, lima beans are disgusting . . . at least to me. dis·gust·ing, adjective
: so unpleasant to see, smell, taste, consider, etc., that you feel slightly sick
You see in these definitions of disgust and disgusting two distinctive feelings. One centers on an aversion, dislike or repugnance toward something that is distasteful, or suffers from a bad smell or appearance; although the definitions do not elaborate on what is distasteful or smells bad, it is easy to think of something associated with the mouth and ingestion such as rotten food or a poison. The second feeling centers on a dislike for another group or behavior considered annoying or unfair by some standard. In both cases, the consequence of the feeling is likely rejection: rejection of the noxious substance; rejection of the other person or group.
Paul Rozin at the University of Pennsylvania and Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia and now NYU have devoted more attention and research to the subject of disgust than anyone else at this moment in time. In their contribution to the 1999 edition of the Handbook of Cognition and Emotion entitled Disgust: The Body and Soul Emotion, they made several key points and arguments:
- Distaste and disgust are different. Other animals, particularly other mammals, show they react to ingesting a substance because it is distasteful by rejecting it. Disgust, on the other hand, is uniquely human because, in addition to some biological rejection of distasteful or foul smelling substance, the feeling has a cognitive content that is not elicited by sensory properties. Like other emotions, disgust links together cognitive and bodily responses, which can be analyzed as an affect program, in which outputs (behaviors, expressions, physiological responses) are triggered by inputs (cognitive appraisals or environmental events). While the biological outputs that represent disgust have been reasonably stable among human populations over time, there has been an enormous expansion on the cognitive appraisal side, which expansion varies with history and culture and takes disgust far beyond its animal precursors and well beyond an aversion to lima beans.
- For humans, the elicitors of core disgust are generally of animal origin, although there is research that plants and vegetables can elicit core disgust.
- The rejection response is now harnessed to the offensive idea that humans are animals, and thus disgust is part of affirming our unique humanity by suppressing every characteristic that we feel to be 'animal'. They call this animal nature disgust and distinguish it from core disgust. The cognitive notion here includes associating something deemed disgusting with something labeled impure.
- There is also another form of disgust they call interpersonal disgust, which is rejection of persons outside one's social or cultural group. Hindu caste behavior is a prime example, but there are hundreds of other examples, racial, religious, and the like, that are readily recognized.
- Finally, thee is social-moral disgust where violations of social norms trigger a feeling of disgust. Not all violations of social norms trigger disgust. Bank robbery they point out, while viewed as "wrong," does not trigger necessarily disgust or rejection.
There has been much written in recent years about disgust as a moral emotion or the potential nexus between disgust and moral judgments/ethical norms. The example of incest avoidance is one example of "moral" behavior that is at the heart of this discussion. Avoiding consumption of lima beans is not, and I am reasonably certain that the avoidance of lima beans is not considered a "moral behavior" across any culture or society. Marc Hauser described disgust as "the most powerful emotion against sin, especially in the domains of food and sex. . . . In the absence of a disgust response, we might well convince ourselves that it is okay to have sex with a younger sibling or eat vomit, act with deleterious consequences for our reproductive success and survival respectively." Incest avoidance is worthy of study -- in contrast to my aversion for lima beans -- because it is virtually universal across cultures, and is therefore almost unique among things humans generally avoid. Aversion to eating pork, for example, is not universal, and like lima beans there is a substantial part of the human population that likes eating pork and is not harmed by eating pork. In some cultures, the avoidance of eating pork is considered a "moral behavior."
Disgust did not begin as a moral or even a social emotion. There is common agreement, among those who have studied disgust that the emotion's evolutionary origins lie in response to the ingestion of something: spoiled food, toxins; it later evolved as a response to the presence of disease and parasites, which is referred to as core disgust. Daniel Kelly documents this body of research in Yuck! And a common feature of this emotion is the automatic facial feature called face gape. As one article explains, "At its root, disgust is a revulsion response -- "a basic biological motivational system" -- that Darwin associated with the sense of taste. Its function is to reject or discharge offensive-tasting food from the mouth (and/or the stomach), and its fundamental indicator, the "gape" or tongue extension, has been observed in a number of animals, including birds and mammals. In humans, the characteristic facial expressions of disgust that coincide with gaping include nose wrinkling and raising the upper lip, behaviors usually accompanied by a feeling of nausea and a general sense of revulsion. Together these behaviors and sensations facilitate the rejection of food that has been put into the mouth." Evolutionarily, disgust began with distaste, but at some point it adapted in humans to protect against infection by pathogens and parasites. Daniel Kelly explains his thesis that the two responses became "entangled." "Other previously puzzling features of disgust also fall into place once its role in parasite avoidance becomes clear. Together, eating and sex constitute two of the most basic evolutionary imperatives. Both behaviors are unavoidable ingredients of evolutionary success, but both involve the crossing of bodily perimeters at various points. By virtue of this, both activities leave those engaging in them highly vulnerable to infection. The upshot is that disgust's role in monitoring the boundaries of the entire body (rather than just the mouth) makes much more sense in light of its connection to infectious disease. Moreover, both feeding and procreating are activities that require those boundaries to be breached. They are highly salient to disgust both because they are universal and unavoidable and because they are two of the most potent vectors of disease transmission." It is this entanglement of distaste and core disgust that is unique to humans. There is evidence that each is independently found in other species.
Importantly, disgust appears to be activated in the cortex. Kelly identifies the insula, which is not part of that ancient subcortical system of the forebrain or midbrain that Jaak Panksepp documents is associated with basic emotional systems. (See May 19, 2013 post). The word disgust never appears in Panksepp's book and is not even found in his description of the fear system involving in the amygdala and the hypothalamus which, because fear stimulates flight, sounds like it might be related to an emotion like disgust that stimulates avoidance. On the other hand, Kelly identifies an area of the forebrain, the putamen, as an area of the brain associated with processing disgust, but the putamen is involved in emotional facial recognition, so it may not be something disgusting that activates the putamen, but the recognition of face gape that activates the putamen. The putamen is primarily associated with the motor cortex, so the connection to the putamen as an emotional processor is not at all that clear. I suspect that the putamen, if it is implicated in disgust, it is not part of what Rozin and Haidt refer to as inputs (cognitive appraisals or environmental events), but our biological output that results in virtually automatic, nearly uniform facial expressions. Research on patients with Huntington's Disease would seem to confirm this observation. But the insular cortex is involved in maintaining the homeostatic condition of the body; it maintains an awareness of various parameters of the body; the insula is also believed to process convergent information to produce an emotionally relevant context for sensory experience. More specifically, the anterior insula is related more to olfactory, gustatory, vicero-autonomic, and limbic function, while the posterior insula is related more to auditory-somesthetic-skeletomotor function. The insula has an important role in pain experience and the experience of a number of basic emotions, including anger, fear, disgust, happiness and sadness. If disgust is seated in the insular cortex, this would confirm the significance of cognitive appraisal in producing disgust. The insular cortex is a mammalian development, so it evolved later than those ancient emotional systems that Panksepp discusses.
Morality varies across cultures and even within cultures and smaller social groups. Edward Westermark advanced the thesis that there was an innate aversion to sexual intercourse between persons living very closely together from early youth, and as applied to persons who are closely related this generates a feeling of horror of intercourse with close kin. But is this aversion really innate? Or is it learned? Or is something innate triggered because, in this case, one must first experience living closely with someone at an early age? Because there is survival value associated with avoiding inbreeding, there is arguably an evolutionary imperative associated with incest avoidance and should explain in substantial part why incest avoidance is universal across cultures. Inbreeding reduces the fitness of a given population. Incest avoidance seems to have nothing to do with morals. If it is considered moral behavior, it is only because humans have put that label on a form of behavior that likely predates social norms and morals. If it is considered disgusting, it is only because humans have put that label on it.
Outside the example of the inversion to inbreeding, interpersonal and social-moral disgust is something that is learned. It is not innate. Rozin observes that up to about two years of age, children show no aversion to primary disgust elicitors such as feces. Toilet training may be the learning event that leads to core disgust. Later in childhood development, an event or object that was "previously morally neutral becomes morally loaded." At this point in the learning process, disgust becomes recruited. Disgust "becomes a major, if not the major force for negative socialization in children; a very effective way to internalize culturally prescribed rejections (perhaps starting with feces) is to make them disgusting."
Kelly theorizes that disgust migrated from being an emotional response to toxins, parasites and disease to a socially shared emotion because face gape is automatic and the emotion as revealed in the facial gesture was communicated in a way that was empathetically received. Like other facial communications (see July 16, 2010 post), there is a reliable causal link between the production of an emotion and its expression here that acts as a signal to avoid. And to the extent that group selection (or more narrowly kin selection) is engaged, shared disgust becomes a survival mechanism for the group to avoid toxins, parasites and disease, Kelly posits that the genetic underpinnings of the neural correlates of the emotion and gape face were recruited by human culture to perform several novel functions. And what the emotion qua emotion of disgust has in common with the socially shared emotion is that the object of the emotion's attention is distasteful and/or impure. As a cultural phenomenon, the socially shared emotion becomes connected to social, moral or ethical norms, group identity and avoidance of others. Culture then labels something to be avoided or averted as disgusting.
Social or ethical norms are not necessarily social or ethical norms because of a common emotional stimulus like disgust, although they could be and common aversion to foods and attitudes toward sexual behaviors within a culture are a few examples that coms to mind. Because most social norms are learned and not instinctual, interpersonal and social-moral disgust is little more than a social label for one's attitude toward behavioral transgressions of group rules. Interestingly, the label may not be shared by all within the group. Consider, for examples, how societal attitudes toward homosexuality --- a behavior that large segments of many societies consider "disgusting" --- are rapidly changing.
Kelly concludes, disgust is "far from being a reliable source of special, supra-rational information about morality" and we should be extremely skeptical of claims that disgust deserves any "epistemic credit" as a trustworthy guide to justifiable moral judgments or deep ethical wisdom in repugnance. Justifying a moral or ethical rule on disgust can easily slide in dehumanization and demonization itself, which in itself is problematic. There is a ready and recent example that highlights Kelly's concern in today's news that the youthful leader of North Korea had his elder uncle, also in the leadership of North Korea's government, executed for treason. In language that recalls Rozin and Haidt's discussion of animal-nature disgust, the uncle was labeled as "despicable human scum" and "worse than a dog," and said he had betrayed his party and leader." In other words --- particularly with the association to animals and scum (certainly there are parasites and disease in scum) --- the uncle was disgusting. His purported "disgustingness" became a post hoc justification for his execution.
This entire discussion implicates the relationship between genes and culture, and Kelly devotes an entire chapter to "gene culture coevolution," sometimes referred to as the dual inheritance theory. (See September 12, 2012 and June 17, 2010 posts) and its application to the evolution of disgust. Rozin and Haidt concur: "The interaction between biology and culture is clear, because the output side of disgust remains largely ruled by biological forces that originally shaped it, while the input/appraisal/meaning part has been greatly elaborated, and perhaps transformed in some cases."
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Issue 25 / January - March 1999
Social Impacts of the Theory of Evolution
Social Darwinism refers to the attempts to utilize the evolutionary theory of Darwin to give descriptions of society or prescriptions for its best constitution. According to that theory, there is a struggle for existence among animals and plants which results in evolutionary change. This change is not neutral, it entails ‘development’, which may be regarded as ‘progress’. The implied value in ‘progress’ was the cue for some thinkers to argue that evolutionary change should be deliberately nurtured by the more intense prosecution of the struggle for existence which would encourage the ‘best’ out of individuals and societies.
Darwin himself agreed on better adaptation, and increasing complexification, but wholly rejected the idea that the evolutionary progress of organisms had any kind of moral implication. He understood the ‘improvement’ implied in ‘progress through evolution’ in a functional rather than an ethical, moral, or social sense.
Darwinism - Spencerism
By some analogy to its biological counterpart, Social Darwinism argues that the struggle for existence among humans may be expected to yield social progress, just as struggle among human communities does produce evolutionary adaptive results. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), English sociologist and philosopher, was the pioneer of this approach, so much so that Social Darwinism might, in many respects, be better called ‘Social Spencerism’. Spencer was raised in the competitive atmosphere of the Industrial Revolution and remained one of the great champions of laissez-faire economics. It was he who coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’ to describe natural selection, although he was never a convinced Darwinist. He had already accepted a progressive view of human society, and the idea of biological evolution, during the 1850s, before Darwin’s theory became public. For Spencer, Malthus’s ‘law’ of demographic change was the dynamic agent of social development, constantly forcing societies to progress economically in order to escape the pressure of limited resources. At the same time, he was convinced by Lamarck’s arguments for evolution and began to see the possibility of constructing a synthesis that would unite all aspects of natural and human evolution under the same laws.
Social Darwinism and the American Way
Social Darwinism received some of its widest support in the U.S where the laissez-faire economics developed in England and France in the late 18th century was vigorously espoused, and where, after the successful War of Independence, rights of the individual (especially in the form of freedom from government interference) were enthusiastically promoted. The leading Social Darwinist in American academic circles was William Graham Sumner (1840-1910), Professor of political economy and social science at Yale which, under his influence, became a kind of pulpit for Social Darwinism. His ideas were derived chiefly from Spencer. He viewed the capitalist system with great favour because it allowed the free play of the ‘competition of life’. Unlike Spencer, he was very pessimistic and didn’t look forward to a future state of equilibrium. The well-known industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1 835-191 4), held the view that individualism, private property, the law of accumulation of wealth and the law of competition promoted the highest and best in human achievements. Other businessman liked to see (and present) themselves as successful survivors in the struggle for existence. For example Rockefeller said: ‘The growth of a large business is merely survival of the fittest...’. Interestingly, many rich American industrialists and businessmen found no difficulty in accommodating Christianity to the Darwinian idea of a competitive struggle which ‘necessarily’ eliminated the weaker parties in the struggle.
War of nations and races
It is not surprising that Social Darwinist arguments were readily extended to the conclusion that evolutionary progress of mankind is furthered by inter-racial or inter-national struggles. The theory of evolution could be and was used in justifications of wars for national or racial supremacy. The best known writer in this vein was the German historian Heinrich von Treitschke (1834-1896). In his ‘Politics’, he argued that the weak must perish, and that they perish ‘justly’: ‘The grandeur of history lies in the perpetual conflict of nations, and it is simply foolish to desire the suppression of their rivalry.’
Though Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) never stated explicitly that he was drawing on Darwin’s theory of evolution, we can easily see the Hitlerian doctrine of racial superiority a kind of Darwinism carried to logical extreme of madness. (Darwin himself might have had some racist tendencies. For example, he wrote: ‘The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.’)
Influence on political ideology
Spencerian Social Darwinism reached its peak of influence in 1882, when Spencer visited U.S. for an extensive lecture tour. But that tour also coincided with the beginning of questioning and reaction. Leading the reaction was Lester Frank Ward (1841-1913), a geologist and a professor of sociology. Ward took his stand on the side of nurture in the growing controversy of nature vs. nurture. His thoughts can be described as reformed or liberal Social Darwinism, repudiating the struggle doctrines of the laissez-faire school in favour of emphasis on social improvement through attention to the conditions of the social environment.
Australia, in the period from 1860 to 1885, saw the most frequent advocacy of Spencerian evolutionary ideas. Many Spencerian, Darwinian and Malthusian ideas and slogans were repeated by politicians, businessmen, academics, and journalists, just as in the U.S. But the succeeding period of economic depression dampened the enthusiasm, again as in the U.S., and criticisms began to develop and made themselves felt in the 1880s.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, various political and intellectual ideologies were clearly inspired to some degree by Social Darwinism-militarism, colonialism, racism, Nazism. Even socialism and anarchism were influenced by this doctrine. Marx and Engels were much interested in Darwin’s work, and used his theory to underpin their notion of the historical evolution of class struggle.
Essentialism and relativism
The influence of Darwinism on philosophical ideas was considerable and many-sided, but the precise way this influence worked is by no means easy to state in simple terms. Generally, Darwinian theory promoted or assisted the decline of Essentialism and the concomitant rise of relativism in many branches of philosophy. The doctrine of essences, all allegedly ‘ultimate explanations’, was driven out of philosophy. The American school of philosophy called ‘Pragmatism’, developed in the 1870s, was self-consciously influenced by Darwinism, some of its proponents being firm believers. Notably, Chauncy Wright (1830-1875), who, to Darwin’s considerable pleasure, defended the Darwinian theory against the perceptive attacks of some Catholic scholars. Charles Pierce (1839-1914), after his careful study of Darwin’s work, envisaged a kind natural selection process acting on ideas.
Darwin himself was one of the first to consider the relationship between ethical theory and evolutionary doctrines, as when he argued that altruism might have had an evolutionary origin. He tried to show how ethical behaviour would have survival value, and thus might become established in human societies. But Darwin didn’t take the further step and say that one might distinguish between right and wrong by considering what had happened during the course of evolution, or where it was going in future. Evolution in itself did not provide an ethical code. Herbert Spencer, however, went beyond Darwin and hinted that this would be a possibility, as he wrote, ‘The conduct to which we apply the name good, is the relatively more evolved conduct, and ... bad is the name we apply to conduct which is relatively less evolved.’
Such opinions were countered by T. H. Huxley in his 1893 essay, ‘Evolution and ethics’, saying that one cannot possibly draw any moral or ethical conclusions from a consideration of the course of evolution, evolution and ethics are quite distinct. Although his arguments were quite persuasive, others went on attempting to derive ethical norms from the evolutionary process.
Exclusion of the supernatural
Darwinian theory was purely naturalistic; it made no appeal to entities such as God, divine spirits, hypothetical intellects, final causes, souls or Platonic ideas. By providing an alternative naturalistic explanation of design, Darwin made it seem less necessary to construct a view of the world that invoked some kind of supernatural being. Darwin’s theories therefore gave considerable support to materialist interpretations of the world. The old mind/body dualism of Descartes and his followers would be replaced by a monistic materialism. This attitude proved particularly attractive in Germany, in the writings of the members of so-called ‘Monist League’, the work of the philosopher/biologist, Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) being particularly prominent. Haeckel, once regarded as a progressive liberal opposed to the excesses of arbitrary state power, has (in the light of more recent studies) come to be considered as one of formative influences on German Nazism. The three main strands in his thought were German Romantic Idealism, scientific positivism and materialism, and Darwinism. But Haeckel’s materialism was interestingly different; for him, atoms were endowed with souls.
Also drawing on biological evolution, although less directly, was the philologist and nihilist professor, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), particularly in his poetic-philosophic discourse work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He believed that by a proper exercise of will, certain men might evolve into a world-elite of ‘Ubermenschen’ or Supermen. Superman would be his own master and might succeed to the rank and authority traditionally associated with God.
Henri Bergson, a French philosopher, (1859-1941), accorded primacy to spirit and intuition, rather than matter and analysis. Metaphysics was concerned with spirit and intuition, and he sided with the metaphysicians. Bergson’s evolutionism, though all-pervasive in his system, was very different from Darwin’s naturalistic, mechanistic or materialistic doctrine of evolution by natural selection. It is clear that Bergson far transcended the hard ground of Darwinian science and moved on to the lusher fields of speculative metaphysics. In its time, his work Creative Evolution aroused considerable excitement and enthusiasm.
On the subject of metaphysics Darwin himself was somewhat sceptical: ‘To study metaphysics as it has always been studied appears to me to be like puzzling at astronomy without mechanics.’ He felt that one who had explained the (biological) origin of man, who knew what a baboon was, had done more to explain man than Locke.
Darwinism’s impact on religion can be summarized by saying that it undermined religious beliefs, and was one of the major influences in encouraging agnosticism. Its naturalistic structure opposed the teleological basis of Christianity and other religions. Between 1830 and 1875, we observe an evolution in British society and particularly British scientific society. In 1830s, science as a profession was just beginning, and because of the peculiarities of British higher education there were strong links between science and organized religion. The next forty to fifty years saw those links weaken and break; and evolutionism, particularly Darwinian evolutionism gained the opportunity to be used. Darwin succeeded where Chambers (who proposed a designed evolution) failed, because Darwin had earned respect as a scientist. So for this change in Victorian Britain, the Darwinian Revolution was part cause and part effect.
Evolution, one of the fundamental discoveries and concepts in modern thought, is central to modem biology and to the use of biology in modern society. Without it, genetics, physiology, ecology, and every other aspect of biology would lack coherence. Evolution has also added new perspectives to the discussions on scientific methodology. More dramatic (and famous) has been the theory’s extra-scientific impacts. Evolution has been and probably will remain a doctrine that has consequences for our understanding of the nature of man, and the purpose (or lack of purpose) in his existence. Also, because of its social implications, as in human genetics, evolution is a subject highly charged with emotion, and much of the literature on it suffers from unspoken and often untested assumptions. It is very difficult to discuss the theory with objectivity. Discussion of it tends to spill over to virtually every area of discourse in the humanities and social sciences: Sociology, Economics, Politics, Theology, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, Literature, and Music.
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Site Selection for Thornless Blackberries Based on Past Kentucky
Low Temperature Weather Data
John Strang, April Satanek, Chris Smigell, and Tom Shearin
Department of Horticulture,
Department of Landscape Architecture,
Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering,
University of Kentucky
Thornless blackberries are less able to survive cold winters than thorny blackberries. Consequently this map has been developed to show areas of Kentucky that tend to be historically warmer and more suitable to thornless blackberry production, as well as areas that are much colder and less profitable for production.
In order to understand winter injury, a brief explanation of terms may be helpful. Blackberries produce canes the first season and these are called primocanes. These do not normally produce fruit. (The exception to this rule are the new primocane fruiting varieties.) Once the primocanes winter over they become floricanes, which fruit and die after fruit production.
It is generally accepted that when the winter temperature reaches -10° F or lower, thornless erect and thornless semi-erect blackberries sustain serious floricane injury, and as a result there is little or no fruit production in the coming season. Temperatures this low do not injure the root system, so the plants survive and primocanes are still produced in the spring.
Once the chilling requirement for blackberries has been satisfied, they begin dehardening upon exposure to warm temperatures. Then, as spring approaches the floricanes may be injured at temperatures considerably warmer than -10° F . Blackberries may also sustain late spring frost injury that reduces the current season’s crop. Thorny varieties generally break bud earlier in the spring and are consequently more prone to late spring frost injury than thornless varieties.
The following map was developed using National Weather Service records from many weather stations in Kentucky and surrounding states.
For each weather station, the average number of years that -10° F or lower was reached over a 10 year period was calculated, using the temperature data for as many years as was available. Temperature records used to calculate these averages ranged from as little as 12 years at some stations to106 years at others.
If -10° F or lower was reached more than once in a winter, this was still recorded as one incident. In other words, if there were multiple -10° F events during a winter this did not add to our average. A site that received multiple injurious events in a winter would be considered colder and less desirable than a site where -10° F was reached only once. Thus, the numbers on this map are conservative in this respect.
Please keep in mind that we do not know the elevation at which these temperatures were recorded. There can be substantial temperature differences based on the elevation of a certain weather station relative to your location. Lower sites tend to be colder and higher sites tend to be warmer. Rivers and large bodies of water can substantially warm sites. Consequently, where temperature measurements were taken very close to large bodies of water, these data were removed from this analysis.
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Obesity among children has become a big concern not only in the US, but all over the world. Out of the overall population of children in the US, one third is obese and the number is still rising. Obesity is not at all a healthy sign. Obese children are prone to heart diseases, cholesterol, diabetes etc. It also gives rise to low self-esteem, stress and sadness.
How Preschoolers Are Affected by Obesity
Obesity leads to several negative psychological and health consequences for children.
Negative Psychological Symptoms
- Poor Body Image
- Risk of Eating Disorders
- Learning Disability
- Behavior Problems
- Low Self Esteem
Negative Health Consequences
- Insulin Resistance
- Early Puberty
- Sleep Apnea
- Orthopedic problems like slipped capital femoral epiphysis and Blount’s disease
- Low HDL cholesterol levels in the blood
- High Total and LDL Cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood
- Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
- Type 2 Diabetes
Apart from the above mentioned problems, children are more likely to remain obese as adults. Hence, they are prone to strokes, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some forms of cancer and hypertension.
What Contributes to Obesity Among Children?
Below are the major reasons that contribute to obesity among children:
- Unhealthy diet practices such as sugary and fatty foods as part of daily diet.
- Lack of fruit and vegetables from the diet is also a reason.
- Lack of physical activities among children is a major reason for weight gain. Children should get involved in outdoor physical activities such as games and exercises.
- Some parents overfeed their children which does not go well with their metabolism and results in weight gain
Tips for Parents and Preschools to Prevent Obesity
Prevention of obesity is not an easy task but these tips will definitely help:
- The diet of the child should be discussed between the parents and a dietitian. As a result, the child will eat healthy food and maintain good health.
- Preschools or day care centers should pay more attention to outdoor games and physical exercises to make a child strong and confident.
- If the preschool or day care center provides lunch, make sure that the diet has been approved by a dietitian.
- Encourage children to take part in sports and games. Apart from this, preschools can arrange yoga classes for preschoolers. It will help them maintain good health and will also make them mentally stronger.
A child’s health is very important. Parents and preschools must take care of it. The tips mentioned above will definitely do wonders for your child.
At First School, we try to educate parents about the importance of a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle. If we notice any child bringing unhealthy food to the school, we talk to their parents and advise them to give healthy food to their child. We also ask parents to cut down daily screen time for their child.
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a Eurasian plant, Medicago lupulina, of the pea family, having black pods, cultivated for forage.
a small European leguminous plant, Medicago lupulina, with trifoliate leaves, small yellow flowers, and black pods Also called nonesuch
See under mercuric sulfide. a crystalline, water-insoluble, poisonous compound, HgS, occurring as a coarse, black powder (black mercuric sulfide) or as a fine, bright-scarlet powder (red mercuric sulfide) used chiefly as a pigment and as a source of the free metal.
noun Usage Note Contemporary Examples My $295 Skype Exorcism Scott Bixby February 5, 2014 Historical Examples Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930 Various The Man Who Saw the Future Edmond Hamilton Wandl the Invader Raymond King Cummings Islands of Space John W Campbell Two Thousand Miles Below Charles Willard Diffin The Ethical Engineer Henry Maxwell […]
bread mold. any fungus of the family Mucoraceae, especially Rhizopus nigricans, that forms a black, furry coating on foodstuffs.
a jet-black molly, a color form especially of Poecilia latipinna or P. sphenops, popular as an aquarium fish.
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A plane crashes on a deserted island, leaving a class of boys to fend for themselves. No adults. No bedtimes. No rules. How will they survive?
Discuss the following Questions in a Comment:
1. Of all the characters, it is Piggy who most often has useful ideas and sees the correct way for the boys to organize themselves. Yet the other boys rarely listen to him and frequently abuse him. Why do you think this is the case? In what ways does Golding use Piggy to advance the novel's themes?
2. What, if anything, might the dead parachutist symbolize? Does he symbolize something other than what the beast and the Lord of the Flies symbolize?
3. The sow's head and the conch shell each wield a certain kind of power over the boys. In what ways do these objects' powers differ? In what way is Lord of the Flies a novel about power? About the power of symbols? About the power of a person to use symbols to control a group?
4. What role do the littluns play in the novel? In one respect, they serve as gauges of the older boys' moral positions, for we see whether an older boy is kind or cruel based on how he treats the littluns. But are the littluns important in and of themselves? What might they represent?
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This project is like magic. The first year I did it, I was absolutely astonished at how well it turned out. It is still my favorite printmaking project that I teach. I usually post 4-8 examples of each project and every year I find myself posting WAY more than that for this lesson. It's just that good.
I have visual instructions for this project on my original post of this project. The concept here is that students start with a large piece of foam and press in details to print one step at a time. The inks are layered and students eventually wind up with a three color print.
Andy Warhol is the major inspiration for the lesson. We take a look at various example and talk about how screen printing was Warhol's primary method of art making. It gives the students a good jumping-off point for the lesson.
Also, before you ask, we use photo reference for the animal drawings. I get a huge stack of animal books from the library and students choose a specific photo or two to draw from. I get way more detailed and realistic work from students this way.
Enjoy the examples from this year!
Click here to download my lesson plan.
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Christianity emerged from a Roman world that absorbed cultures stretching from the British Isles to the Iberian Peninsula, and all the way to Near East. It comes to no surprise that Christianity in its rapid growth had speakers from a gamut of Indo-European and Semitic languages. The one language, however, it began to embrace over time was Latin.
To be fair, Greek was the principle language of communication in the Mediterranean (which is why the New Testament was written in Greek), but Latin was the language of choice for the Roman government—and eventually the Western Church. Tertullian, Augustine in North Africa, eventually Patrick in Britannia, and later, Aquinas in the middle-ages were all writing in Latin.
The point being that if you’re aspiring to study Ancient History, Patristics, New Testament, Medieval, Reformation, or anything in between, you need to learn Latin. Learning a language can be challenging—learning a dead language can be daunting. So for motivation, here are five quick reasons you should learn Latin:
1) Latin is the gateway-language for law, science, medicine, theology, and history. It holds foundational terminology for law, and science, but clearly applicable in history and theology. Most of the hallmark works in history and theology were written in Latin. Those seeking higher education in these related fields will have an upper hand already knowing Latin, or even dabbling in its vocabulary.
2) Latin improves you as a communicator in both writing and speaking. It is a highly systematized language. The careful reading and thorough analysis of the text carries over when using your own language—in public speaking and formal writing. Latin attunes the awareness of linguistic methods and gives you command of your own language.
3) Latin develops scholastic rigor. It fosters habits you wouldn’t normally focus on in daily life. It requires repetition, methodology, and memorization. Learning a language like Latin will develop a pedagogy that will aid you in the study of others and help you to think how you learn individually. The study of Latin cultivates self-discipline.
4) Latin puts you in conversation with great thinkers. Dovetailing with the aforementioned reasons, learning Latin is non-negotiable for those who study in the fields of Ancient history, Early Christianity, Patristics, Medieval, or Reformation. Translations are helpful, but “the only way to understand the thinking of person in ancient times is inductively through their language.”
5) Latin is the language of the West. It’s the parent language for over one billion speakers in the world and has given loan words to several other languages. To know Latin is to know your own linguistic heritage. It has cultural prestige matched by no other language in the West. Its history runs deep and influence wide. English might be the lingua franca of the world, but its heartbeat is still Latin.
How to get going
Once you begin searching for resources, you’ll quickly realize there are stacks of reading grammars, lexicons, and the like. It can easily seem overwhelming. Here I’d like to offer a few recommendations to get started.
- John F. Collins. A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin, (CUA, 1988). This grammar is well-suited for those who have little or no background in Latin. It’s condense, concise, and organized in a way that helps students grasp a firm hold of reading Latin texts.
- H. Allen and J. B. Greenough. Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar, (Focus, 2001). For an in depth reading of Latin, this grammar is it. Drawing upon primary texts, it walks students through the ins-and-outs helping them master the language.
- G. W. Glare (Editor). Oxford Latin Dictionary, (OUP, 1983). Nearly any dictionary or lexicon will jumpstart your vocabulary. This comprehensive dictionary, however, brings clarity to the rarest of words. Such an aid will guide you through the labyrinth of Latin vocabulary.
- Tore Janson. A Natural History of Latin, (OUP, 2007). Aside from syntax, it’s also vital to know the where, why, and how of Latin. This work offers a thorough history of Latin’s origins and influence to help students understand the context of what they’re reading.
- Renato Oniga. Latin: A Linguistics Introduction (OUP, 2014). With the advances of discourse analysis and other linguistic theory, this work assesses Latin from the perspective of contemporary linguistics.
Learning Latin isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, discipline, and critical thinking. Hopefully you’ll find the study of Latin profitable. The reward of studying Latin is twofold; it allows you to reflect back on your own language as it improves, and it pushes you forward into different arenas of scholarship—which not only makes Latin profitable, but invaluable.
About the Author:John T. Lowe
John T. Lowe (M.Div., Southern Seminary) is a Th.M. student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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The German silent movie METROPOLIS was released in 1927. Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang, it has become a classic film and it can be viewed at the METROPOLIS website. METROPOLIS is a science fiction vision of the social effects of Capitalism. One of the protagonists in the story is Hel, a female robot who is shown wearing a helmet, surrounded by pulsating rings, and is given a human face. This pair of bookends apparently represents Hel. It is unmarked, 6.25 inches tall, bronze and marble, with a celluloid face. Celluloid hands are missing from this pair. Because of the marble base and celluloid parts, it is attributed to the Hirsch foundry, circa 1931.
The male protagonist in METROPOLIS is named Freder. He deals with long clock hands and immense levers and switches in parts of the film. This pair of bookends apparently represents Freder, wearing futuristic clothing and enmeshed in abstract levers and switches. The pair is unmarked, six inches tall, gray metal and marble, and attributed to the Hirsch Foundry, circa 1931.
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Symptoms of Dog Congestive Heart Failure
Dogs Symptoms and Canine Health - Dog Congestive Heart Failure - General Canine Observations
When you are worried about your pet dogs or puppies it is wise to make general observations and a note of your dog's general well-being before considering a health issue and problem such as Dog Congestive Heart Failure. Overall physical condition? Mental attitude? Appetite? Condition of bowels and urinary apparatus? The nose of healthy dogs or puppies is moist and cool but in sick dogs it is usually hot and dry. Hair loss? Dry skin? Discharges? These general observations are useful to consider whilst checking out the symptoms of Dog Congestive Heart Failure.
The heart of has four chambers. The upper left and right chambers are called the atria (atrium) and the lower left and right chambers are called the ventricles. Blood flows from the body's veins into the right atrium. The blood is stored there for a short time before being pumped into the right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps blood into the lungs, where it receives oxygen. Blood then flows from the lungs into the left atrium where it is stored briefly before moving into the left ventricle. The left ventricle contains the largest muscle of the heart and is responsible for supplying the body's arteries with oxygenated blood.
Congestive heart failure (CHF) commonly results from a condition called Dilated Cardiomyopathy where the chambers of the heart increase in size and the muscles that form the walls of the heart stretch thinner. To remain healthy, the heart must provide blood to the tissues of the body, if it fails to do this task then fluid can develop in the lungs as well as other body cavities which can lead to congestive heart failure. Larger dogs are more prone to this condition (particularly heart muscle disease) but dogs of any size and age can develop heart failure.
There are many causes of heart failure in dogs, including:
- Congenital heart defects (Birth defects)
- Degeneration of the heart valves
- Cardiomyopathy (Heart muscle disease)
- Pericardium diseases (lining around the heart)
- Arrhythmia (Electrical rhythms of the heart are irregular)
Dogs Symptoms and Canine Health - Symptoms of Dog Congestive Heart Failure
Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms may include the following:
- Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms - Fatigue
- Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms - Weight Loss
- Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms - Coughing
- Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms - Breathing Problems
- Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms - Loss of Appetite
- Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms - Reluctance to exercise
- Dog Congestive Heart Failure symptoms - Shortness of breath
Treatment and Remedies - Canine Treatment of Dog Congestive Heart Failure
The remedies and treatment of Dog Congestive Heart Failure may include the treatment of dogs as follows. To diagnose congestive heart failure it is vital that you consult a veterinary surgeon as soon as symptoms appear, early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent any further damage and ensure the dog has a good quality of life for as long as possible.
Diagnostic testing will usually begin with a full physical examination. Often a veterinary surgeon will detect a problem with the heart rhythm and blood flow while 'listening' to a dogs breathing with a stethoscope. Blood tests and urine tests will also be taken, these will not detect a heart problem but may help to rule out another condition which may be causing similar symptoms. An Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) test is also effective in confirming a diagnosis. This type of test measures the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time and will display any abnormalities. A Chest X-ray and Ultrasound test can confirm diagnosis, the X-ray displaying an abnormally shaped heart. The lungs can appear dense on an X-ray due to a build up of fluid. An ultrasound will confirm how efficient the heart is pumping blood and will also help confirm a diagnosis.
There is no cure to repair heart damage but medication can help control the symptoms and help the heart to function more effectively. The treatment for canine congestive heart failure depends on the severity of each individual case and the medication prescribed will be different in each case. It is vital that you consult your veterinary surgeon to confirm diagnosis and begin a treatment plan as soon as possible.
Dog Symptoms and Canine Health - Canine Insurance / Pet Health Insurance for Dog Congestive Heart Failure
Pet Insurance for Dog Congestive Heart Failure. Remember canine insurance / pet dogs health insurance for treatment of health and medical problems such as Dog Congestive Heart Failure. Unexpected visits to the vet and veterinary treatments for your dogs and puppies due to illnesses such as Dog Congestive Heart Failure can quickly add up so get quotes for canine health / pet insurance coverage for treatment due to accidents, treatment of illnesses, prescriptions, surgeries and possible hospitalization treatment for your dogs or puppy. Get the best deals for pet insurance from pet insurance comparison websites - make sure you get the best rates for canine health insurance to cover visits to the Vet for the diagnosis and treatment of unexpected ailments such as Dog Congestive Heart Failure.
Disclaimer - Dog Congestive Heart Failure Section of Dogs Symptoms and Canine Health Website
The sole purpose of the Dog Congestive Heart Failure section on the Dog Symptoms and Canine Health website is to act as a reference guide to provide useful information to the owners of dogs and puppies. This article on Dog Congestive Heart Failure is not intended to be used to diagnose or treat sick dogs or as a substitute for obtaining professional veterinary advice. Please remember that if you are in any doubt about your Dog's Health, or problems associated with Dog Congestive Heart Failure, please consult your Canine Veterinary Specialist immediately for professional treatment. Your vet will diagnose whether Dog Congestive Heart Failure is the problem and prescribe appropriate medication and treatment.
Treatment and Symptoms of Dog Congestive Heart Failure
Dog Symptoms and Canine Health
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Water of Leith Conservation Trust to help look after Colinton Dell, a beautiful area of ancient woodland along the river. (The photo above shows the orchid meadow surrounded by trees.)
Ancient woodland is defined as woodland that has been continuously wooded since 1600 (1750 in Scotland). Before those dates, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in those years was likely to have developed naturally. The ancient woodlands of the UK are our oldest native woods and contain our oldest and most impressive trees.
They are our richest land-based wildlife habitats but have, in their own right, no legal protection against inappropriate development or poor management.
The Woodland Trust works to protect the UK's forests and woodlands and has launched a new campaign to ensure that our ancient woodlands are given more protection so that they can flourish into the future and continue to offer homes for wildlife and enjoyment for people.
You can find out about this new campaign here.
One specific area of ancient woodland that is threatened with inappropriate development is Smithy Wood, near Sheffield. Local developers want to destroy this wildlife rich area of ancient woodland to build a motorway service station. You can find out more here.
Ancient woodlands are too valuable to let them be destroyed. These special places need proper protection - now.
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The National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education (NRCSE) is a national charity supporting the vital work of supplementary schools. It is the only dedicated support body for supplementary schools and the organisations that work with them.
What are supplementary schools?
Supplementary schools are a readymade network of volunteers and activists in many of the hardest to reach communities. They can be run by community voluntary organisations, by individual community volunteers or by individuals as limited companies on a social enterprise model. The vast majority of supplementary schools are volunteer led and identify with a particular ethnic, faith or national identity.
Supplementary schools seek to raise children and young people’s achievement in mainstream education. They provide mother-tongue and cultural classes, sports and arts activities such as music and dance, and some supplementary schools also provide faith instruction.
How does the NRCSE help supplementary schools?
The UK has over 3000 supplementary schools supporting tens of thousands of children, yet currently there is no statutory body monitoring standards in these schools and making sure children are safe.The NRC has developed their Quality Framework to address this. This Framework sets high standards by giving supplementary schools the tools and training they need to develop robust safeguarding, management and teaching practises.
If a supplementary school has a Quality Framework award, parents can feel confident that their child is learning in a well-run, well-resourced and, most importantly, a safe environment.
The NRCSE also provides a range of training to support supplementary schools including accredited Open College Network (OCN) courses.
We core fund the NRCSE and have a long relationship with the organisation. Any organisation that runs, or wants to run, a supplementary school in the JLC beneficial area should get in touch with NRCSE to access a variety of support and training.
For more information about the NRCSE and supplementary education watch the video below, which was made as part of the JLC Volunteer Films initiative in parnership with Media Trust.
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The wrong levels of a protein linked with Alzheimer’s disease can lead to dangerous blockages in brain cells, new research shows.
Scientists have known for some time that the protein—called presenilin—plays a role in Alzheimer’s disease. A new study shows one way that happens has to do with how materials travel up and down neurons.
Presenilin works with an enzyme called GSK-3ß to control how fast materials—like proteins needed for cell survival—move through the cells.
“If you have too much presenilin or too little, it disrupts the activity of GSK-3ß, and the transport of cargo along neurons becomes uncoordinated,” says lead researcher Shermali Gunawardena, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo. “This can lead to dangerous blockages.”
More than 150 mutations of presenilin have been found in Alzheimer’s patients, and scientists have previously shown that the protein, when defective, can cause neuronal blockages by snipping another protein into pieces that accumulate in brain cells.
But this well-known mechanism isn’t the only way presenilin fuels disease, as the study, published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, shows.
“Our work elucidates how problems with presenilin could contribute to early problems observed in Alzheimer’s disease,” she says. “It highlights a potential pathway for early intervention through drugs—prior to neuronal loss and clinical manifestations of disease.”
Cargo moving bubbles
The study suggests that presenilin activates GSK-3ß—an important finding because the enzyme helps control the speed at which tiny, organic bubbles called vesicles ferry cargo along neuronal highways. Think of vesicles as trucks, each powered by little molecular motors called dyneins and kinesins.
When researchers lowered the amount of presenilin in the neurons of fruit fly larvae, less GSK-3ß became activated and vesicles began speeding along cells in an uncontrolled manner.
Decreasing levels of both presenilin and GSK-3ß at once made things worse, resulting in “traffic jams” as the bubbles got stuck in neurons.
“Both GSK-3ß and presenilin have been shown to be involved in Alzheimer’s disease, but how they are involved has not always been clear,” Gunawardena says. “Our research provides new insight into this question.”
Gunawardena proposes that GSK-3ß—short for glycogen synthase kinase-3beta—acts as an “on switch” for dynein and kynesin motors, telling them when to latch onto vesicles.
Smooth traffic flow
Dyneins carry vesicles toward the cell nucleus, while kinesins move in the other direction, toward the periphery of the cell. When all is well and GSK-3ß levels are normal, both types of motors bind to vesicles in carefully calibrated numbers, resulting in smooth traffic flow along neurons.
That’s why it’s so dangerous when GSK-3ß levels are off-kilter, she says.
When GSK-3ß levels are high, too many motors attach to the vesicles, leading to slow movement as motor activity loses coordination. Low GSK-3ß levels appear to have the opposite effect, causing fast, uncontrolled movement as too few motors latch onto vesicles.
Both scenarios—too much GSK-3ß or too little—can result in neuronal blockages.
The John R. Oishei Foundation, a Fulbright Scholarship, and fellowships from the University at Buffalo Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities helped fund the research.
Source: University at Buffalo
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It is believed that Easter actually gets its name from an Old English word, Ēastre, that was given to the month of April in honor of a pagan goddess, Ēastermōnaþ.
This goddess is believed to have been the deity associated with spring and fertility and some Easter symbols that we would recognize today – eggs and rabbits, or hares – were used during this celebration.
In addition, feasts were held in her honor, but by the 8th century, these had given way to the Christian festival of Easter, which celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Most of the information on this theory of how Easter got its name comes from Bede, a monk in what is today England.
Jacob Grimm, one of the two brothers famous for their collection of old stories and myths, supported Bede’s claims on the origin of the name Easter although scholars dispute this theory.
However – and wherever – Easter got its name, it is celebrated by more than one in three people in the world.
My five year old nephew asked the other day, “Why is there an Easter bunny that brings eggs if only birds can lay eggs?”
It’s a great question – and one countless other children have asked.
Here are five reasons why the Easter Bunny – and not the Easter Birdie – brings those eggs around on Easter Sunday morning.
- Rabbits are a traditional symbol of spring because they are known for their fertility.
- Rabbits – and their ability to have so many offspring – encourage hope in a better, brighter future that is abundantly fruitful.
- An egg-laying rabbit speaks to people’s desire for something mystical and magical in their spring celebrations. It’s a little like magic when flowers break through the frozen ground and free people from the long, hard winter.
- Rabbits symbolize innocence and wonder, childlike qualities that correspond with the rebirth and rejuvenation people feel when spring returns.
- Like the lamb, rabbits are associated with religious sacrifice; Easter is a time when Christians celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus.
I’m not sure if any of these reasons will satisfy my inquisitive nephew, but it may satisfy the curiosity of some adults who have often pondered the same question.
The origins of the Easter Bunny – that long-eared rabbit who generously leaves candy in the baskets of good boys and girls and hides brilliantly colored eggs for them to find – can be traced to Alsace, a region that is now located in France but which was for many years part of Germany.
The first written mention of the Easter Bunny came in a book by Germany’s Georg Franck von Frankenau called De Ovis Paschalibus (About Easter Eggs).
The Easter Bunny came to America in the 1700s when German immigrants came to Pennsylvania and brought with them the legend of the Osterhase, an egg-laying hare. Children made nests for the rabbit to lay colored eggs.
Eventually, the Osterhase, or Easter Bunny, began to deliver chocolate, jelly beans, and other candy and gifts.
To thank the Easter Bunny, children left out carrots to help him keep his energy up!
Well, the truth is you can; but ask yourself: should you?
If you’re an inquiring eater (like myself), there are a few mythical (or near-mythical) foods that just sound interesting but somehow out of reach. For a long time I thought caviar was one of those foods that you only saw at fancy parties on television.
It turns out you can find it next to the tuna fish at your local grocery store!
But what does the average person who doesn’t eat like Thurston Howell do with it?
The answer is as easy as Easter/Passover leftovers!
Traditionally, caviar can be eaten with both deviled eggs and latkes. Having recently made both of these foods, I decided to do a food experiment.
First, I tried the caviar on a white potato and onion latke with a dollop of sour cream.
This was good.
Then I tried the caviar on a deviled egg. The egg yolks had been smashed with mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, and salt.
This was also good.
However, it quickly became apparent that I lacked the “hunger” to continue to compare the two. After the second round, I was slightly over my fascination with caviar and regretting that I hadn’t invited over an eating crew! So you’ll have to try both ideas and tell me what you think.
For the record, I couldn’t get my kid to eat caviar. And I’m OK with that.
Filed under Uncategorized
I read a great piece by Robin Givhan in the Washington Post about the dying tradition of Easter fashion, “Easter fashion has a rich history but its glory is eroding”.
It reminded me of Easters when I was a child. After my three siblings and I woke my parents up at the crack of dawn to hunt eggs and eat chocolate, we were helped into our Easter outfits and went to church.
I still can remember some of those dresses – the one my grandmother sewed for me, in particular (see above photo – author is second from left).
I even wore a little while hat and finished off the look with white tights and patent leather shoes.
Never mind that my brothers and sisters and I had been tearing the house apart just hours before; by the time we arrived at church we looked like perfect angels.
Unfortunately, it’s not a tradition I’ve carried on with my son; at least, not in the last couple of years.
With everything else on my mind, a new outfit for either of us – or even a “freshened up” outfit for either of us, just seems beyond my logistical abilities.
As much as I would love to present that put-together, polished, and reverent face to the world, I’m lucky if I make it to church on time (most of the time).
It’s a good goal for me to set for next Easter’s service. Until then I’ll just try to remember to leave the flip-flops at home!
Filed under Uncategorized
Peeps are one of those foods I would rather see – and use to decorate – than actually eat. They’re just colored, molded marshmallows, but there’s something so festive about them.
And until I read this article about them in Salon.com, I had no idea that they were not available year-round. Although they make a Halloween version, most of their sales take place during the Easter season.
Made in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the peeps are produced by the Just Born company, which was founded in 1921 by Russian immigrant Sam Born. Peeps were introduced in 1953 and have become a staple of Easter baskets ever since.
Here are some other fascinating facts about peeps:
- The albino peep is the rarest, but also one of the most popular peeps.
- The company can produce 2 million peeps per day.
- Annual peep consumption is 600 million per year.
- Peeps were recently introduced to Canada – they’ve just begun their march to world domination.
- Peeps are the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy.
- Peeps have inspired a crazy following, not all of it rated “G”.
Even the Washington Post has gotten in on the mania. For the past few years they have sponsored a contest encouraging people to get creative and photograph tableaux involving peeps. You’ve got to see it to believe it.
I’ve already bought mine, but here are some sneak peaks at peeps to tide you over until you get yours.
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Question: To what extent does trait-dependent emigration bias selection estimates in a natural system? Organisms: Two freshwater cohorts of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) juveniles. Field site: A 1 km stretch of a small stream (West Brook) in western Massachusetts. USA from which emigration could be detected continuously. Methods: Estimated viability selection differentials for body size either including or ignoring emigration (include = emigrants survived interval, ignore = emigrants did not survive interval) for 12 intervals. Results: Seasonally variable size-related emigration from our study site generated variable levels of bias in selection estimates for body size. The magnitude of this bias was closely related with the extent of size-dependent emigration during each interval. Including or ignoring the effects of emigration changed the significance of selection estimates in 5 of the 12 intervals, and changed the estimated direction of selection in 4 of the 12 intervals. These results indicate the extent to which inferences about selection in a natural system can be biased by failing to account for trait-dependent emigration. ?? 2005 Benjamin H. Letcher.
Additional publication details
A field test of the extent of bias in selection estimates after accounting for emigration
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Describing the role of the interpreter or biblical reader, Lawrence quotes Jerome saying,
The office of a commentator is to set forth not what he himself would prefer, but what his author says (41, Jerome’s letter “to Pammachius, 17).
Then discussing the task of exegesis, Lawrence cites John Owen,
There is no other sense in it than what is contained in the words whereof materially it doth consist . . . In the interpretation of the mind of anyone, it is necessary that the words he speaks or writes be rightly understood, and this we cannot do immediately unless we understand the language wherein he speaks . . . the [idiom] of that language, with the common use of and intention of its expressions (41, John Owen, Works, IV: 215, quoted in J. I. Packer, Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life, 101)
Finally, Lawrence supplies his own helpful axioms that the parts of Scripture (words and phrases) must be related to the whole.
So the basic unit of meaning is not the word, but the sentence. And the unit that determines what sentences mean, and therefore the words in them, is the paragraph (42).
Interpretation actually begins with the whole, not the part. Then, in the context of the whole, we work backwards through the parts, back to sentences, back all the way down to individual words. What we learn and discover there then takes us back to the whole with a more accurate and perhaps nuanced understanding of meaning (42).
Today, ponder these thoughts and put them into practice. Much interpretive error stems from microscopic reading of Scripture and trying to interpret the Bible in light of our personal opinions and experiences. Rightly, Lawrence’s observations, if taken to heart and applied, will help correct much improper Bible reading.
Soli Deo Gloria, dss
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Tim Maudlin reformulates topology using open lines as the basis rather than open sets.
He thinks this sheds some light on the “arrow of time” question (why does time only move forward, when physical equations can be used to postdict [forensically a bullet, for instance] motion just as easily as to predict [planning a rocket, for instance] motion?).
- If you don’t like some mathematics, just go make your own.
- It’s nice to pay homage to the accepted standards, if’n you’re trying to impress people.
- Yet another use of directed arrows (see noncommutativity and quasimetrics).
- A “topological line” is just a total (linear) order. If you want to join two topological-lines and get another line, you have to make sure you don’t form a circle (two endpoints equate) or a loop-dee-loop. But segments can overlap if they share the same linear order.
- A nifty slide on standard topology (as well as Maudlin’s new idea):
- His “open lines” basis leads to an interesting conception of neighbourhood on a discrete lattice (shown on a square lattice):
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Pages: pp. 14-16
European academic researchers have developed a constellation of robust, lightweight flying robots using wireless communications that could be employed in mapping, remote sensing, ground searches, and other similar operations.
The scientists are developing technology for a Swarming Micro Air Vehicle Network, said Jean-Christophe Zufferey, group leader for flying robotics research at Ecole Polytechnic Federale de Lausanne's Laboratory of Intelligent Systems. A SMAVNET will consist of a set of robots that can fly at low altitudes, communicate wirelessly with one another, and coordinate their activities. They then form a communications network that could be used by, for example, rescuers in a remote area.
The robots consist of a flying-wing airframe, with neither fuselage nor tail. They are propelled by a single electric motor running on a battery capable of 30 minutes' life. The aircraft have an 80-centimeter wingspan, weigh about 500 grams, and are built with inexpensive, lightweight yet strong polypropylene foam. This lets them land on virtually any terrain without damage, according to Zufferey.
Their airspeeds can range between 8 and 20 meters per second (between 18 and 45 miles per hour), and they can fly as high as several kilometers, although a swarm generally stays below 150 meters to avoid conflicts with general aviation.
Severin Leven, a doctoral student working on the project, said experimental flights with swarms of drones pose a challenge because so many individual aircraft are involved. The robots must be able to fly with minimal or no external human input, but must also coordinate their activities as part of a group.
Once hand launched, Zufferey explained, a robot relies on autopilot to control airspeed, altitude, turn rate, and stabilization. The drones use actuators to control steering.
A small circuit board, running Linux and powered by an Intel XScale PXA270 processor, is programmed with algorithms to provide commands to the autopilot for controlling drones acting as part of a swarm. The robots also have a microcontroller that reads sensor data and computes outputs sent to the actuators.
Swarming algorithms enable the robots to form themselves into an effective flight group, which then functions as a communications network. The drones use the IEEE 802.11n version of Wi-Fi, implemented via dongles, for line-of-sight transmissions to one another over distances of up to 500 meters, explained Zufferey. Users could then communicate with the drones via smartphones or computers.
The drones can use GPS to fly to specified locations to, for example, return to a take-off location, safely land if the battery is drained, or gather with other drones to operate as part of a swarm.
Figure Researchers at Ecole Polytechnic Federale de Lausanne's Laboratory of Intelligent Systems are developing flying robots using wireless communications that could fly as a swarm and help with mapping, remote sensing, ground searches, and other similar operations.
Part of the researchers' work was inspired by the way army ants communicate, specifically their practice of laying and maintaining pheromone paths between nests and food sources. To imitate this behavior, the robots can act as either ants or nodes.
Initially, they spread out and fly as far as their communication range allows, remaining in contact with neighboring drones. At that point, they become nodes, circling fixed positions and acting as communication highways for ant drones, which use information the nodes provide to determine the best flight paths.
As ant drones fly farther from the grid, they can sometimes become nodes and expand the network, if it strengthens communications. The swarm's purpose is to establish an optimal communications network to, for example, enable first responders to stay in touch with one another in a remote area where communication has been disrupted.
So far, the researchers have built and flown 10 robots at a time. The scientists are commercializing their work via a company they formed, senseFly ( www.sensefly.com), which is currently offering small drones for autonomous-mapping and remote-sensing applications.
Each year since cell phone use became popular, security experts have said malware that affects mobile devices was on the verge of becoming a problem. But each year, that didn't happen. Now, though, it appears that mobile malware has arrived.
Devices such as smartphones can contain valuable information like credit card numbers, usernames, and passwords. According to Vikram Thakur, principle security response manager for security vendor Symantec, such data is a valuable black-market commodity. This makes smartphones potentially desirable targets for cybercriminals.
Another factor driving mobile malware is that wireless devices are becoming more popular than traditional PCs, even for confidential purposes such as banking and other financial transactions. For example, smartphone sales exceeded PC sales for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Luis Corrons, director of Panda Security's PandaLabs.
As occurred with PC malware, hackers eventually will figure out how to make money from information collected via mobile malware, encouraging expansion of the practice, predicted Thakur. With this in mind, he noted, hackers have increased proof-of-concept attacks on mobile devices, including spyware-installation and phishing attempts, as well as efforts to circumvent authentication.
There have also been malicious fake wireless-security products, and financially motivated social-engineering-based Trojans have been embedded in mobile games.
Noted Don DeBolt, director of threat research for CA Technologies' Internet Security Business Unit, hackers can use botnets to distribute mobile ransomware, malware that makes data on a system unavailable in an attempt to force a user to pay a ransom for its restoration.
Symantec recently discovered an attempt to create a botnet consisting of devices that run Google's Android operating system, the world's most widely used smartphone OS.
The platforms with the greatest market share are most attractive to hackers and thus face the greatest risk, said CA Technologies senior malware researcher Dinesh Venkatesan.
Recent Android-related incidents highlight mobile devices' vulnerabilities. Several programs available via Google's Android Market for applications early this year appeared to be legitimate software, but hackers had actually added Trojans to them. Google removed the altered programs from the Android Market, but not before they had been downloaded thousands of times. The company subsequently distributed software to eliminate rogue applications from users' devices.
Mobile platforms other than Android have also experienced problems. For example, Trojans have affected devices running the Symbian OS, noted Venkatesan. The SymbOS.Merogo short-message-service worm also targets Symbian, PhoneSnoop spyware affects BlackBerry devices, and the iPhoneOS.Ikee worm was designed for Apple's iOS mobile platform.
Most security vendors are using the same approaches to combat mobile malware that they've used on the PC, such as endpoint scanning, explained Venkatesan. Some infrastructure companies, such as Cisco Systems, are trying to extend security beyond the corporate network's physical perimeter by, for example, enforcing company policies at the router closest to a managed mobile device, he added.
Despite the rise of mobile malicious software, Corrons said, security researchers still see much more new PC malware.
An increasing number of people are now using smartphones as mobile computers, prompting an ongoing drive to improve the devices' performance.
With this in mind, several companies are now providing dual-core chips for smartphones and tablets. Adding more cores, says Nathan Brookwood, Insight 64 analyst, is the most power-efficient way to increase mobile processors' performance. Dual-core processors achieve high performance speeds because they divide up tasks and perform them in parallel—a technique known as symmetric multiprocessing.
Running multithreaded applications in parallel on dual cores can provide a performance boost. Brian Carlson, OMAP 5 product line manager for Texas Instruments' Wireless Business Unit, says his company has measured a 1.6× performance increase using dual-core processors to run Web browsers. Brookwood adds that software developers, led by game developers, have begun redesigning their software to run in parallel.
Dual-core chips also provide scalability for both power and performance, factors that are critical for smartphones' high on-demand performance requirements. They can, for example, either provide additional performance when needed or shut down one of the cores to conserve power.
Smartphones won't use the same types of dual-core processors currently found in PCs and laptops, primarily because mobile chips are significantly smaller. The TI chips, for example, are 12 mm × 12 mm, not the 37 mm × 37 mm or larger chips found in a desktop system. They also run at milliwatts rather than watts.
These devices need ARM-compatible chips to cope with their completely different operational requirements, which include an inability to cool chips and the need for low power. Vendors including Nvidia, Qualcomm, TI, and Motorola are now supplying dual-core ARM chips precisely for this market. The LG Optimus 2X runs Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor, and TI's OMAP 4 dual-core processors can be found in the LG Optimus 3D as well as in tablets, including the RIM PlayBook. Motorola is using dual-core chips in its ATRIX 4G phone and XOOM tablet. According to Brookwood, Intel anticipates that its Medfield Atom processor, scheduled to ship later this year, will make inroads into the smartphone and tablet markets.
ARM has traditionally emphasized performance per watt at the low-power levels needed for long battery life, Brookwood says, which has allowed the technology to lead in this market segment. Unlike Intel and AMD, ARM licenses its designs to third-party system-on-chip designers, who then combine ARM's intellectual property with other system elements to create custom-tailored SoCs with the size, power, and performance characteristics that smartphone designs require.
Carlson says the prime issue with using dual-core processors in smartphones is achieving a performance-power balance. These constraints are already familiar to chipmakers and phone designers.
The market opportunities are huge, analysts say. According to a March 2011 report by ABI Research, mobile data plan revenues alone are expected to exceed $102 billion worldwide by 2016, fueled by mobile enterprise customers' smartphone adoption. Brookwood says that while analysts may differ about how smartphone adoption will affect the computer market, they do agree there will be a change.
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Chat with the Rasmussen Library
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Submit a Question
Answered By: Cassie Sampson, Education & General Education Librarian Last Updated: May 27, 2016 Views: 290
When you revise or edit a paper, focus on the ideas and organization as well as grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
For checking your ideas and organization, ask the following:
- Is my thesis statement concise and clear?
- Did I follow my outline?
- Are my arguments presented in a logical sequence?
- Are all sources properly cited to ensure that I am not plagiarizing?
- Are all of the items in my reference page cited in my text?
- Are all of the items cited in my text in my reference page?
- Did I use proper APA style?
- Have I proved my thesis with strong supporting arguments?
- Have I made my intentions and points clear in the essay? Are my arguments well supported and well reasoned? Did I have another reader review my paper?
For grammar, spelling, and punctuation, check the following:
- Are there ideas I could express more concisely and in less words?
- Do subjects and verbs agree?
- Do pronouns and their antecedents agree in number and gender?
- Words such as there, they're, and their are commonly misused. Did I use the correct forms?
- Did I avoid writing with I and you for an academic paper?
- To avoid repetition, I should vary my sentence beginnings. Did I avoid starting two sentences in the same paragraph with the same word?
- Did I use transition words when moving from one concept to the next? These are words like: first, second, then, however, therefore, in addition...
- Did I check for spelling?
Use Grammarly to check your paper for grammar, punctuation and plagiarism.
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Climbing or trailing annual, biennial or perennial vines.
Alternate, pinnately compound with several pairs of opposite, narrowly oblong leaflets. The terminal leaflet is modified into a branched, twining tendril used to climb.
Ascending, climbing or trailing stems are herbaceous but may become woody with age.
Flowers and fruit
Blue, purple or reddish pea-like flowers are borne on short stalks in the upper leaf axils or found crowded along one side of long, bare stalks. Fruit are variously sized pea-like pods.
Seeds or rhizomes.
Print a PDF of this page: Vetches
The MSU IPM Program maintains this site as an access point to pest management information at MSU. The IPM Program is administered within the Department of Entomology, fueled by research from the AgBioResearch, delivered to citizens through MSU Extension, and proud to be a part of Project GREEEN.
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The favorite meal of the starfish is a juicy oyster. But the starfish’s mouth, which is located under its body, present a problem, it is smaller than an oyster.
And the oyster presents another problem, it is protected by a hard shell. So when a starfish finds an oyster, it climbs on top of it and locks its many arms around the oyster’s shell, then tugs on the shell until the oyster is too tired to hold it closed anymore.
When the shell opens, the starfish turns its stomach inside out, drops it over the oyster’s body, then draws it in again when the oyster is nearly digested.
Because of the starfish’s fondness for oysters, fishermen who search for oysters have always considered starfish as pests. Years ago, fishermen tried to wipe out starfish by cutting them into pieces and throwing them back into the water. What these fishermen didn’t know was that every piece of a starfish can grow into a new starfish!
Although most starfish have five arms, some kinds have as many as 50!
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Perhaps no single musician has ever achieved such high accomplishment across such a broad span of repertory as Nikolaus Harnoncourt. His first professional job was as cellist for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Almost immediately, however, Harnoncourt sought to specialize in performing music of the past upon historically correct instruments; he was one of the first professional musicians to do so. Over the course of a stunningly influentialRead more career, Harnoncourt gradually worked forward into more modern repertories. His many awards include repeated top recording medals from at least six European countries, and a Grammophone Award for Special Achievement in 1990. His decades of recordings on the Teldec label fully encompass seven centuries of music history.
Harnoncourt considered his own life strongly influenced by an adolescence under the shadow of Nazism. He was born Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt in Berlin; his aristocratic family moved south to its ancestral mansion in Graz, Austria. After years of hardship under the Nazi regime, the Harnoncourt family fled to Salzburg in 1945. There he found his calling, and began studying the cello under Paul Grummer. No less a figure than Herbert von Karajan accepted Harnoncourt into the Vienna Symphony in 1952. However, his path was destined elsewhere. While in college, Harnoncourt became fascinated by the original Baroque instruments languishing in antique shops, and wondered why professional musicians didn't use these brilliant artifacts to produce the music of their time.
In 1953, Harnoncourt and his wife Alice founded the Concentus Musicus Wien, the first professional Baroque orchestra. They took players from the symphony, trained collaboratively for four years on early instruments, and exploded onto the European scene in 1957. Their first recording project was the Purcell Viol Fantasias, followed by a series of highly acclaimed recordings of the major works of Bach. In the 1970s, Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt collaborated on a massive recording project of all Bach's cantatas. Meanwhile, Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus romped through much of the Baroque literature, including Monteverdi's operas, Telemann, Rameau, and Fux. Later, he broadened his repertory to include Haydn and Mozart with Concentus Musicus, as well as masterworks from the nineteenth century operatic and symphonic repertory (including a million-selling cycle of Beethoven symphonies) with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. He taught as professor of performance practice at the Salzburg Mozarteum (1972-1993), and wrote three full-length books on the subject closest to his heart. Read less
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Good global governance (GGG) is transparent, trustworthy and just. It is based on four pillars:
- Global Legislative Powers
- Global Judicial Powers
- Global Executive Powers
- Effective Public Administration.
The United Nations System does not have all these elements yet; it is in need of substantial overhaul or regeneration before it can supply Good Global Governance. We believe that in today’s world Good Global Governance is not only meaningful and technically feasible, it has even become necessary.
Historically the size of governed entities has increased from tribes to nations to regional unions. Today, communication and transportation technology make good governance on a global scale feasible. In fact, Good Global Governance has become a necessity since a war with nuclear weapons can lead to mutual assured destruction. Therefore, we need a World Authority that can bring terrorists and war criminals to justice. Furthermore, Good Global Governance is needed for the protection of the global commons and for the solution of numerous related sustainability issues of global scope: climate change, resource scarcity, world population growth, poverty and hunger, terrorism, corruption of the banking system, to name a few.
The complexity of global issues requires a multi-level government system. Governance is needed for households, municipalities, sub-national units, nations, supra-national regions and for the whole World. According to the principle of subsidiarity each level solves its own problems with little interference from above. Nations should be internally sovereign. When well governed, they enjoy internal peace. While Good Global Governance is not a centralized ‘Big Brother’ control system, it offers world peace by limiting the external sovereignty of nations through enforcing world law.
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Universal XSS (UXSS) is a particular type of Cross-Site Scripting that has the ability to be triggered by exploiting flaws inside browsers, instead of leveraging the vulnerabilities against insecure web sites.
One of these UXSS flaws was disclosed earlier today on russian forum rdot, the flaw takes advantage of the Data URI Scheme to execute script using the MIME Type ‘text/html’, which makes the browser render it as a webpage.
So, how would an attacker exploit this fancy new bug?
The first trick here is to use the Data URI Scheme in combination with another (less dangerous) flaw called “Open Redirection” which happens when an attacker can use the webpage to redirect the user to any URI of his choice.
So if you don’t have one of these “Open Redirection” bugs on your website, you’re safe, right? Not so fast. There’s websites that are made exclusively for this purpose to shorten URI’s like bit.ly andtinyurl.com.
Here’s a proof-of-concept link on tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/operauxss. If you open this link in Opera, you will find yourself looking at an alert box saying “tinyurl.com”.
Hang on, there’s more! The original author of the forum post, M_script, pointed out that you could take this one step further.
This is where the clever part of this vulnerability comes in play. If you embed a script in the payload that calls the method location.reload() in Opera, it will update the current domain to the original domain where the link was clicked.
This means that an attacker may execute script not only from the domain containing the open redirect, but also All domains allowing links to other domains. Yes, you read that right.
Here’s a proof-of-concept link with the second stage of this vulnerability: http://tinyurl.com/operauxssstep2.
Other browsers block redirects to the Data URI Scheme or changes the domain where the script is executed from, avoiding the XSS issue.
What can you do to protect yourself against this bug?
If you don’t want to change browser, you can head over to Tools->Preferences->Advanced->Network and uncheck the checkbox labeled “Enable automatic redirection”.
Update: Opera has now released a patch for this problem. Update your Opera browser to version 12.10.
By: Mathias Karlsson
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Biological Warfare (cont.)
IN THIS ARTICLE
Tularemia is an infection that can strike humans and animals. It is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. The disease causes fever, localized skin or mucous membrane ulcerations, regional swelling of lymph glands, and occasionally pneumonia.
G.W. McCay discovered the disease in Tulare County, Calif., in 1911. The first confirmed case of human disease was reported in 1914. Edward Francis, who described transmission by deer flies via infected blood, coined the term tularemia in 1921. It has been considered an important biological warfare agent because it can infect many people if dispersed by the aerosol route.
Rabbits and ticks most commonly spread tularemia in North America. In other areas of the world, tularemia is transmitted by water rats and other aquatic animals.
The bacteria are usually introduced into the victim through breaks in the skin or through the mucous membranes of the eye, respiratory tract, or GI tract. Ten virulent organisms injected under the skin from a bite or 10-50 organisms breathed into the lungs can cause infection in humans. Hunters may contract this disease by trapping and skinning rabbits in some parts of the country.
Signs and Symptoms
Tularemia has six major forms:
Victims with the most common form, ulceroglandular type, typically have a single papulo-ulcerative lesion with a central scar (often at the site of a tick bite) and associated tender regional lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes). A sore up to 1 inch across may appear on the skin in a majority of people and is the most common sign of tularemia. If the bite associated with infection was from an animal carrying the disease, the sore is usually on the upper part of a person's body, such as on the arm. If the infection came from an insect bite, the sore might appear on the lower part of the body, such as on the leg.
Enlarged lymph nodes are seen in a majority of victims and may be the initial or the only sign of infection. Although enlarged lymph nodes usually occur as single lesions, they may appear in groups. Enlarged lymph nodes may come and go and last for as long as three years. When swollen, they may be confused with buboes of bubonic plague.
The glandular form of the disease has tender regional lymphadenopathy but no identifiable skin lesion.
Oculoglandular tularemia presents as conjunctivitis (white of the eyes are red and inflamed), increased tearing, photophobia, and tender enlarged lymph nodes in the head and neck region. Pharyngeal tularemia presents with a sore throat, fever, and swelling in the neck.
The most serious forms of tularemia are typhoidal and pneumonic disease. Patients with typhoidal disease can have fever, chills, anorexia, abdominal pain, diarrhea, headache, myalgias, sore throat, and cough. Patients with pneumonic tularemia have mostly pulmonary findings. Many patients with pulmonary findings have underlying typhoidal tularemia.
Tularemia can be diagnosed by growing the bacteria in the laboratory from samples taken of blood, ulcers, sputum, and other body fluids. Serological tests (done to detect antibodies against tularemia), direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) staining of clinical specimens, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on clinical specimens are available from specialized labs.
Victims with tularemia who do not receive appropriate antibiotics may have a prolonged illness with weakness and weight loss. Treated properly, very few people with tularemia die. If a patient has severe disease, it is recommended to give them a 14-day course of streptomycin or gentamicin. For patients with mild to moderate disease, oral ciprofloxacin or doxycycline is recommended. In children with mild to moderate disease, gentamycin is often recommended. However, despite the concerns over side effects in children, some clinicians may recommend oral treatment with ciprofloxacin or doxycycline.
Although laboratory-related infections with this organism are common, human-to-human spread is unusual. Victims do not need to be isolated from others.
There is no recommendation for prophylactic treatment of people going into areas where tularemia is more common. In fact, in the case of low-risk exposure, observation without antibiotics is recommended.
There no longer exists a vaccine against tularemia. New vaccines are under development.
In the event of a biological attack using Francisella tularensis, the recommendation is to treat exposed people who are not yet ill with 14 days of oral doxycycline or ciprofloxacin.
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 6/30/2016
Must Read Articles Related to Biological Warfare
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More muscle strength is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, according to a study published in the Archives of Neurology (2009; 66 , 1139–44). Researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, studied more than 900 residents of retirement communities in the Chicago area who had no dementia at the beginning of the study. The scientists measured strength in nine muscle groups and then compared results with strength measurements and cognitive function approximately 31/2 years later.
Investigators found that increased muscle strength was associated with a slower rate of decline in global cognitive function. “These findings support the link between physical health and cognition in aging and the importance of maintaining good physical function and strength,” lead study author, Patricia A. Boyle, PhD, told Reuters Health. “The most likely explanation for the mental function–muscle strength link is that there is something going on in the body that causes both muscle weakness and loss of mental ability.”
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The First Wristwatches From Breguet, Hermès and Patek Philippe Were Made . . . For Women
Early American historian and Harvard professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich titled her 2008 book Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.
Ulrich, of course, was mainly referring to American women found in literature. But she would probably be very interested to know about three famous Swiss and French brands whose very first wristwatches were made for – and in a way by – women.
And not all of these women would have necessarily been deemed “well-behaved” in their day.
Caroline Murat and Breguet
Caroline Murat was the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte and the queen of Naples. The Bonapartes were relatively ambitious as well as proud of displaying their status and wealth.
Thus, Caroline often engaged in royal intrigue. According to a document reprinted by the Napoleonic Historical Society of America, she also possessed a pure, pale complexion and felt that wearing jewels was disadvantageous to her skin.
I conclude that perhaps this is why she became so enamored of the products created by the most prominent watchmaker of the time, Abraham-Louis Breguet, who lived in Paris. Breguet was the preferred horologist of Europe’s rich, famous and royal.
At the time, he generally made pocket watches and carriage clocks, sumptuously complicated and lavishly finished. Though these objects were as a rule almost always sold to men, there are always exceptions to every rule.
The world’s first wristwatch
According to Emmanuel Breguet, historian and descendant of the man considered watchmaking’s greatest personality, Caroline Murat bought her first Breguet in 1805, when she was just 23 years old. By 1814 Murat had bought 34 timepieces from Breguet, including one in 1812 that would become Breguet’s – and the world’s – first wristwatch.
Co-designed by the exacting queen, Breguet’s timepiece number 2639 was an “oblong repeater for bracelet.” The watch was delivered two-and-a-half years after it was commissioned, and sold for the princely sum of 4,800 French francs (as an aside, this was 200 francs less than his original estimate to her when she ordered it).
In addition to the unusual case shape, one jewelry element aided in distinguishing it from every other timepiece of the era: a wristlet made of hair woven with gold thread.
While the key-wound quarter-repeating movement, which also contained a mechanical thermometer, was typical of Breguet’s style, the oval case was decidedly not. Pocket watches were almost always round, and it was only a decade later that manufacturers frequently made “shaped” cases for wristwatches to signify that they were purpose-built for the wrist rather than being pocket watches with soldered lugs.
A modern interpretation
In 2002, the modern Breguet brand introduced the Reine de Naples line in tribute to this exceptional historical piece, which was last seen in 1855 when it returned to Breguet’s workshop for repair.
The modern line is characterized by an elegant oval case that is still unusually shaped even by today’s standards. It also displays technical movement prowess and playful bracelets like that of the queen’s original timepiece, descriptions of which have been handed down by watchmakers.
Breguet CEO Marc A. Hayek’s “authentic ode to femininity” became even more luxurious in October 2012 in Naples’ Reggia di Capodimonte (Caroline Murat’s palazzo, now a world-class museum) as he celebrated both ten years of the modern Queen of Naples line and 200 years since the completion of the queen’s original oeuvre by creating a unique anniversary timepiece, along with a platinum jewelry suite comprising a ring, a pair of earrings, a necklace, a tiara, and, of course, the very special repeating wristwatch.
The unique piece white gold wristwatch measures 38.45 x 30.4 mm and is adorned with 330 blue sapphires. Time is displayed on a silver-plated gold dial (luxuriously set with diamonds and sapphires like the case) that showcases the hammers of the repeating movement at 11 and 1 o’clock.
The diamond heart of a gold, engraved rose between the hammers indicates whether the hour will be sounded or the mechanism is set to “silent.” The petite automatic movement displays true pioneering spirit: it incorporates Breguet’s fundamental research into the acoustics of repeating movements in addition to the brand’s own silicon hairspring, ensuring that this unique piece is also cutting edge in terms of modern technology.
Hermès, an inadvertent trendsetter
In 1912, precisely 100 years after Breguet’s first Reine de Naples, a bold young girl was responsible for Hermès inadvertently creating the French icon’s first wristwatch.
The story goes that Jacqueline Hermès, a third-generation member of the Hermès family (founder Thierry Hermès’ granddaughter), disliked the way she had to carry her small pocket watch, considering that it was not “handy” enough for her active leisure activities. She thus asked her father to encase it in a leather “pocket” that would allow her to strap it to her wrist.
Her father called it the “porte-oignon.”
The result is visible in a famous photograph (above), and in late 2012 (precisely a century later) La Montre Hermès honored its creation with a new “pocket” watch simply and playfully called – as Hermès is wont to do – In The Pocket.
In The Pocket allows the owner to decide whether it should be worn in the pocket, on the wrist, or around the neck, thus making a delicate link to Hermès’ illustrious past.
Patek Philippe’s first wristwatch
In 1868, Patek Philippe manufactured a very lovely and dainty timepiece on a yellow gold bracelet. Its rectangular yellow gold case was embellished with enamel and diamonds as well as decoration belonging to the highest jeweler’s art.
This beauty hides a tiny 6-line (13.5 mm) key-wound movement with a cylinder escapement.
Sold to Hungarian Countess Koscowicz on November 13, 1876, Patek Philippe’s first wristwatch was specifically conceived to be a wristwatch rather than a transformed pocket or pendant watch.
Forty-eight years later, Patek Philippe created its first repeater for the wrist. Naturally, this was also made for a woman. A five-minute repeater with two gongs built upon a Victorin Piguet ébauche, this complicated platinum specimen with a richly hand-engraved 33.8 mm case and integrated bracelet was sold to a certain D.O. Wickham in New York.
Unfortunately, there is just about no historical information on either Countess Koscowicz or Ms. D.O. Wickham, so it’s impossible to say if they were “well behaved” or not. However, they were without a doubt trendsetters.
But I’m sure they would agree that technology never sounded – or looked – so appealing.
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How much water do you need?
So, how much water do you need to stay hydrated? The Food and Nutrition Board recommends general guidelines by age and gender as follows:
Women: between the ages of 19-70 need 2.7 L per day (avg)
(slightly higher during pregnancy and significantly higher during nursing)
Men: between the ages of 19-90 need 3.7 L per day (avg)
These amounts include “all beverages, including moisture in foods (high moisture foods include watermelon, meats, soups, etc)” (National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine Food and Nutrition Board). Which means you don’t necessarily need to drink 2.7 or 3.7 L of water daily, as some of your fluid needs will be met in the food you eat.
Because we’re all made up a little differently, our water needs may vary. Factors in your recommended daily intake include age, activity level and where you live (climate and altitude have an effect on how your body uses water).
For example, 2 L of water is roughly 9 (8 oz) glasses of water. And 3 L of water is about 13 (8oz) glasses of water a day. So if you’re trying to meet your water needs and you’re aiming for 2 L of water a day, that’s refilling a 600 mL water bottle 3 and a half times. That’s refilling a 32 oz water bottle a little more than twice.
A slightly different approach is to divide your ideal body weight by 2, and drink that amount in ounces of water. For example, if you weigh 120 lbs, drink 60 oz of water a day. This amount does not include the fluids you absorb from other foods and liquids.
Carry your water bottle with you, and fill it up regularly. Remember, the goal is to help the body maintain equilibrium of temperature, and support the many cellular activities going on at all times.
Are you dehydrated?
Many of us are dehydrated and we don’t even know it. Water is necessary to the function of all our internal organs, and we have to replenish daily. One of the most common causes of digestive problems, lymph congestion (your immune system), and the inability to naturally detoxify is dehydration.
If you exercise regularly, it is essential that you stay hydrated. Dehydration causes muscle fatigue and cramping, and the body’s ability to thermoregulate (maintain body temperature) is decreased.
Scientific evidence shows that moderate caffeine intake does not affect athletic performance (and can in fact slightly improve it) or hydration status, but alcohol consumption can interfere with muscle recovery from exercise, and negatively impact a number of other performance variables. If you’re consuming alcohol regularly or drinking more than a cup of coffee daily, you need to be aware of the dehydrating effect they can have.
Factors that influence fluid intake
If you exercise, or do anything that makes you sweat, drink extra water. 1.5-2 extra cups is good for short rounds, but for longer more endurance style exercise, drink more.
Pregnancy or breastfeeding requires more fluid intake.
Hot and humid weather, or hot indoor conditions that make you sweat also requires that you drink more water. Altitude higher than 8,200 feet can stimulate urination and increased respiration (breathing), which also require more fluid replenishment.
If you’re sick, or develop an infection focus on staying hydrated, and rehydrating (with the exception of some types of kidney, liver and adrenal disease which can impair the body’s ability to excrete water). Remember what I said earlier about natural detoxification? Water helps transport and filter waste from our body. Staying hydrated will help protect you from getting sick, as your lymph drainage pathways will stay open and be able to do their natural filtering.
An ancient Ayurvedic rehydration remedy that will help flush the lymph on the outside of the intestinal wall and improve your body’s natural ability to filter waste and digest is to sip plain, hot boiled water every 10-15 minutes (in addition to your regular water intake). The hot water stimulates circulation and vaso dilation (where pores and tissues open up) which increases hydration.
How do you know if you’re hydrated?
Probably the easiest and most common way to know if you’re hydrated is to monitor your urine. It should be pale yellow to clear, and you should be urinating on average 3-4 times a day.
The first sign of dehydration is thirst, followed by headache and fatigue. Many people who suffer from erratic energy are dehydrated. Severe dehydration symptoms include nausea, chills, increased heart rate, light headedness, and the inability to sweat. Medical attention is in order in those cases.
Benefits of hydration to your Body
- Your brain: Being well-hydrated ensures that your brain can get enough oxygen-rich blood, and keep you alert. Even mild dehydration (1-2% of bodyweight) can cause a lack of focus and inability to concentrate.
- Cells: water transports carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and oxygen to the cells, which produce energy so we can function. Water also transports waste products and supports detoxification of our body.
- Digestion: water dissolves nutrients in our digestive tract, ensuring they can be absorbed into the bloodstream and reach the cells. Insufficient hydration slows digestion, and can lead to constipation.
- Heart: water ensures your blood pressure maintains a normal range. Dehydration causes your heart to work harder than it should to pump blood through your body, and can lead to a rise in heart rate, and fall in blood pressure.
- Kidneys: water is absolutely essential to the filtration of waste and excess nutrients through the kidneys, mostly via the urine. The kidneys regulate your body’s water level by increasing or decreasing the amount of urine you excrete, as well as controlling your sodium and electrolyte balance.
- Muscles and Joints: water lubricates and cushions joints, and keeps muscles working properly. 70-75% of muscle is made up of water. Hydration is essential to proper muscle function.
- Temperature: water is an important thermoregulator – maintaining the body’s temperature. When we are too hot, the body releases water in the form of sweat.
Remember to stay hydrated, today and every day to ensure your body is in an optimum state.
Before I talk about our water requirements, I just want to say that I know how challenging no-added sugar can be.
Natural sugar that’s in the food we eat is plenty of sugar for our body to process on a regular basis. And one of the most important resources your body has to process sugar is water. Water is one of the most essential components in the human body, making up 75% of all muscle tissue, and 10% of fatty tissue. It also transports nutrients (like sugar) through cells, and filters wastes.
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You know the feeling. You’re tired, nauseous, and having difficulty concentrating. Yup, that’s jet lag – and it’s not just in your imagination.
If you’re a frequent traveller you’ll know all too well that the symptoms of jet lag are very real. So real in fact, that scientists have estimated that it usually takes one full day to recover for every hour of time difference. So, if you travel from London to New York the consensus is that it will be around a week until you feel yourself again.
If you were to fly the opposite direction, however, the severity of your symptoms may get even worse. Traveling east is more difficult on the body than traveling west. It seems to be easier for our bodies to delay our internal clocks than to speed them up.
And yes, jet lag affects even the most experienced travellers.
In 1994 a New Zealand-based survey of flight attendants found that while they were used to long-haul travel:
- 94% experienced a lack of energy and motivation
- 93% reported broken sleep
- 90% suffered from tiredness over the first five days of arrival
- 70% had ear, nose or throat problems
It might not be possible to completely avoid the symptoms of jet lag, but luckily, taking a few simple precautions before, during and after your flight can make an enormous difference and help you recover much more quickly.
What Causes Jet Lag?
Answer: a mismatch between our internal and external clocks. Our internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, is a biological cycle of various processes that take place over a time span of about 24 hours.
The times in the figure above are not supposed to be exact – they’re there to show the general pattern of the circadian rhythm. The exact timings of your personal circadian rhythm will vary depending on your exposure to daylight, your habits, and other factors.
The three factors which have the biggest impact on your circadian rhythm are:
- Light. Exposure to daylight has the most significant impact on the circadian rhythm. The rising of the sun and light hitting your eyes triggers the transition to a new cycle. Staring into a bright light for 30 minutes or so can often reset your circadian rhythm regardless of what time of day it is.
- Time. The time of day, your daily schedule, and the order in which you perform tasks can all impact your sleep-wake cycle.
- Melatonin. This is the hormone that causes drowsiness and controls body temperature. Melatonin is produced in a predictable daily rhythm, increasing after dark and decreasing before dawn. Researchers believe that the melatonin production cycle help keep the sleep-wake cycle on track.
Jet lag originates in the nerve cells of the hypothalamus, the region of our brain that regulates temperature, sleep, appetite, hunger, and other processes in your circadian rhythm. This part of the brain evolved long before air travel and it responds slowly to changes in external time and light levels.
What’s The Secret To Beating Jet Lag?
To beat jet lag we have to synchronize our circadian rhythm with our destination’s timezone as quickly as possible.
Of course, knowing that and making it happen are too very different matters. The three hacks listed below are going to help you do it in the healthiest way possible.
Hack #1: Carefully Time Your Food Intake
Intermittent fasting is something that I haven’t really talked about on the blog yet (I hope to get an article up soon – Eat Stop Eat is a great starting point if you want to learn more), but in addition to it’s many health benefits it can also drastically reduce the symptoms of jet lag.
In 2002, researchers put fasting to the test with 186 National Guard personnel deployed across nine time zones. 95 participants used the protocol in preparation for their deployment, and 39 used it in preparation for their return. The rest just followed their regular routine.
Incredibly, those who followed the fasting protocol were 7.5 times less likely to experience jet lag upon arrival. Of the 39 who followed the protocol upon their return, they were 16.2 times less likely to experience symptoms of jet lag!
The protocol used in the study was a little extreme, especially for beginners, but the doctor behind it created a simplified version, which looks like this:
- On your day of travel, eat a normal breakfast and normal lunch.
- Avoid food altogether (or calories of any other sort) immediately before and especially during the flight, while drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated.
- The fast should last at least 14 hours but can last as long as 24 hours.
- Upon arrival, eat soon after landing, as close to local meal time as possible.
- Initiate a normal meal schedule based on local time.
Now, given that I haven’t covered fasting in detail I feel it’s important to mention that this isn’t an excuse to go even further into a calorific deficit if you’re already in one.
One of the main benefits of fasting when you fly is that you are able to avoid crappy airline meals and the junk food you find in airports. That’s why I don’t write much about healthy snacks to take with you when you travel, because I simply don’t eat!
When you land, you should aim to make up for the lost calories with healthy food like vegetables, protein and good fats. Put another way, eat the same amount of calories you usually would in a day, but in a shorter time period.
You should also avoid two of the substances most commonly associated with air travel: caffeine and alcohol. Alcohol makes you dehydrated and caffeine will affect your circadian rhythm.
Hack #2: Exercise At The Same Time
I was recently asked by Men’s Fitness what the best workout to beat jet lag is, and the short version of my answer was, “the one you’re already doing!”
Let me explain.
Along with a carefully timed food intake, exercise can also affect our circadian rhythms. And when used appropriately, exercise can help to alleviate jet lag.
Back in 1987, University of Toronto researcher Dr. Nicholas Mrosovsky put a group of hamsters through an eight-hour time change, and then made half of them run on an exercise wheel in the new time zone while the others slept. The exercised hamsters adjusted to the new time zone in 1.5 days on average, while the sleepers took 8.5 days.
Obviously, humans aren’t hamsters, but we know that exercise affects our circadian rhythms too. In a thorough (and science-heavy) look at the effect exercise has on our circadian rhythms, Menno Henselmans from Bayesian Bodybuilding, explains that:
Your body will adapt its circadian rhythm to the […] training stress and reduce the performance decrement at that time
Interestingly, training at the same time every day seems to have little effect on the brain’s biological clock. The main benefit seems to be that it helps our muscles and peripheral tissues synchronize with the new time zone.
Subsequent studies have looked at when might be the best time to exercise to reduce the effects of jet lag.
It seems that one helpful trick is to train at the same time you’d train at home. In other words, if you normally train at 8am in LA and you have traveled to London, do your best to train at 8am London time.
So far, there’s not much research on the best type of exercise to reduce jet lag. I’d suggest that you avoid high intensity cardio when you’re exhausted and every limb seems to weigh twice as much as it normally does. If that’s the case, try a light bodyweight workout, a walk, or some stretching exercises.
Doing this kind of exercise outdoors during daylight hours will be more beneficial still. Light is the most powerful regulator of our internal biological clocks, so we can use light cues to help synchroize our circadian rhythms with the local timezone. Bright light tells the body it’s time to be awake, especially when combined with movement.
Do what you can, at approximately the same time as your usual routine, and preferably outside.
Hack #3: Use Supplements
If you’ve been reading Travel Strong for a while you’ll know that I’m not a huge fan of supplements. Most of their benefits can be obtained naturally – without supplementation – and all too often people turn to them for a quick fix.
That said, there are some that are useful, particularly if you’re exercising consistently and your diet is on point.
So if you’re still struggling after using the first two hacks you might want to consider using these supplements which have been extensively studied for their ability to decrease the symptoms of jet lag.
As with any supplement, you should consult your doctor before trying these.
Melatonin is a hormone secreted in the brain. One of melatonin’s functions is to control the body’s cycle of sleeping and waking.
The brain’s receptors for melatonin are signaled by light that enters through the eyes. When it gets dark at night and we turn out the lights, melatonin is released.
Crossing time zones, we may suddenly find ourselves exposed to excessive light when ordinarily, it would be our bedtime. When this happens, our melatonin cycles become disrupted and we experience jet lag until our circadian rhythms adjust to the new environment.
Supplementing melatonin may help ‘reset’ your sleep and wake cycle.
But dose timing is critical. Research suggests that taking melatonin before leaving for a trip makes jet lag symptoms even worse. So wait until you land in the new time zone to supplement; this will significantly reduce jet lag symptoms, improve sleep quality, and increase alertness and recovery.
That study and others suggest that if you want to supplement with melatonin to combat jet lag:
- take from 0.5 mg up to 5 mg of melatonin for three nights (or until adjusted);
- one hour before a normal bedtime; and
- only after you’ve reached your travel destination.
The long-term side effects of melatonin have not been well studied. If you have epilepsy or are taking blood thinners, it’s extremely important that you talk to your doctor before using melatonin.
Pycnogenol – an extract of the bark of French pine trees – is another supplement that has been studied for its ability to decrease jet lag symptoms.
In a small study conducted in Italy, researchers had participants take 50 mg of pycnogenol three times per day for seven days, starting two days prior to travel.
A control group suffered for 39.8 hours, while those who supplemented with pycnogenol endured their symptoms for only 18.2 hours.
Not only that, but those who used pycnogenol had fewer symptoms within that time frame. They had fewer short- term memory problems, fewer problems with cardiac function and blood pressure, and also reported far less fatigue.
Interestingly, pycnogenol supplementation has also been shown to decrease deep vein thrombosis and superficial vein thrombosis – common side effects of long flights. In fact, in one study of people who were at moderate to high risk for such events, pycnogenol decreased the incidence of thrombosis from 5.15% to 0%.
Consider supplementing with 50 mg of pycnogenol three times a day, starting two days before your trip.
What Are Your Top Tips?
The three hacks above seem to have the biggest overall effect on jet lag, but really it comes down to what works for you as an individual.
Everybody has their own strategies and I’d love to hear about them! Please share them below in the comments below.
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Fetal Heart Monitoring
What is fetal heart monitoring?
Fetal heart rate monitoring measures the heart rate and rhythm of your baby (fetus). This lets your healthcare provider see how your baby is doing.
Your healthcare provider may do fetal heart monitoring during late pregnancy and labor. The average fetal heart rate is between 110 and 160 beats per minute. It can vary by 5 to 25 beats per minute. The fetal heart rate may change as your baby responds to conditions in your uterus. An abnormal fetal heart rate may mean that your baby is not getting enough oxygen or that there are other problems.
There are 2 ways to do fetal heart monitoring, external and internal:
External fetal heart monitoring
This method uses a device to listen to and record your baby’s heartbeat through your belly (abdomen). One type of monitor is a Doppler ultrasound device. It’s often used during prenatal visits to count the baby’s heart rate. It may also be used to check the fetal heart rate during labor. The healthcare provider may also check your baby’s heart rate continuously during labor and birth. To do this, the ultrasound probe (transducer) is fastened to your belly. It sends the sounds of your baby’s heart to a computer. The rate and pattern of your baby’s heart rate are shown on a screen and printed on paper.
Internal fetal heart monitoring
This method uses a thin wire (electrode) put on your baby’s scalp. The wire runs from the baby through your cervix. It is connected to the monitor. This method gives better readings because things like movement don’t affect it. But it can only be done if the fluid-filled sac that surrounds the baby during pregnancy (amniotic sac) has broken and the cervix is opened. Your provider may use internal monitoring when external monitoring is not giving a good reading. Or your provider may use this method to watch your baby more closely during labor.
During labor, your healthcare provider will watch your uterine contractions and your baby’s heart rate. Your provider will note how often you are having contractions and how long each lasts. Because the fetal heart rate and contractions are recorded at the same time, these results can be looked at together and compared.
Your provider may check the pressure inside your uterus while doing internal fetal heart monitoring. To do this, he or she will put a thin tube (catheter) through your cervix and into your uterus. The catheter will send uterine pressure readings to a monitor.
Why might I need fetal heart monitoring?
Fetal heart rate monitoring is especially helpful if you have a high-risk pregnancy. Your pregnancy is high risk if you have diabetes or high blood pressure. It is also high risk if your baby is not developing or growing as it should.
Fetal heart rate monitoring may be used to check how preterm labor medicines are affecting your baby. These are medicines are used to help keep labor from starting too early.
Fetal heart rate monitoring may be used in other tests, including:
- Nonstress test. This measures the fetal heart rate as your baby moves.
- Contraction stress test. This measures fetal heart rate along with uterine contractions. Contractions are started with medicine or other methods.
- A biophysical profile(BPP). This test combines a nonstress test with ultrasound.
Things that may affect the fetal heart rate during labor:
- Uterine contractions
- Pain medicines or anesthesia given to you during labor
- Tests done during labor
- Pushing during the second stage of labor
Your healthcare provider may have other reasons to use fetal heart rate monitoring.
What are the risks of fetal heart monitoring?
Radiation is not used for this test. The transducer usually causes no discomfort.
You may find the elastic belts that hold the transducers in place slightly uncomfortable. These can be readjusted as needed.
You must lie still during some types of fetal heart rate monitoring. You may need to stay in bed during labor.
With internal monitoring, you may have some slight discomfort when the electrode is put in your uterus.
Risks of internal monitoring include infection and bruising of your baby’s scalp or other body part.
Note: You should not have internal fetal heart rate monitoring if you are HIV positive. This is because you may pass the infection on to your baby.
You may have other risks depending on your specific health condition. Be sure to talk with your provider about any concerns you have before the procedure.
Certain things may make the results of fetal heart rate monitoring less accurate. These include:
- Obesity of the mother
- Position of the baby or mother
- Too much amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios)
- Cervix is not dilated or the amniotic sac is not broken. Both of these need to happen to do internal monitoring
How do I get ready for fetal heart monitoring?
- Your healthcare provider will explain the procedure to you. Ask him or her any questions you have about the procedure.
- You may be asked to sign a consent form that gives permission to do the procedure. Read the form carefully and ask questions if anything is not clear.
- The consent form for fetal heart monitoring may be included as part of the general consent for labor and birth.
- Tell your healthcare provider if you are sensitive to or are allergic to any medicines, latex, tape, or anesthesia.
- If fetal heart rate monitoring is done along with another monitoring test, you may be asked to eat a meal before the test. This can help make your baby more active.
- The amniotic sac must be broken and your cervix must be dilated several centimeters before the internal device can be put in place.
- Follow any other instructions your provider gives you to get ready.
What happens during fetal heart monitoring?
You may have fetal heart rate monitoring in your healthcare provider's office or as part of a hospital stay. The way the test is done may vary depending on your condition and your healthcare provider's practices.
Generally, fetal heart rate monitoring follows this process:
External fetal heart monitoring
- Depending on the type of procedure, you may be asked to undress from the waist down. Or you may need to remove all of your clothes and wear a hospital gown.
- You will lie on your back on an exam table.
- The healthcare provider will put a clear gel on your abdomen.
- The provider will press the transducer against your skin. The provider will move it around until he or she finds the fetal heartbeat. You will be able to hear the sound of the fetal heart rate with Doppler or an electronic monitor.
- During labor, the provider may check the fetal heart rate at intervals or nonstop, based on your condition and the condition of your baby.
- For continuous electronic monitoring, the provider will connect the transducer to the monitor with a cable. A wide elastic belt will be put around you to hold the transducer in place.
- The provider will record the fetal heart rate. With continuous monitoring, the fetal heart pattern will be displayed on a computer screen and printed on paper.
- You may not be able to get out of bed with nonstop external fetal heart rate monitoring.
- Once the procedure is done, the provider will wipe off the gel.
Internal fetal heart monitoring
- You will be asked to remove your clothes and put on a hospital gown.
- You will lie on a labor bed. Your feet and legs will be supported as for a pelvic exam.
- Your healthcare provider will do a vaginal exam with a gloved hand to see how far you are dilated. This may be slightly uncomfortable.
- If the amniotic sac is still intact, your healthcare provider may break open the membranes with a tool. You will feel warm fluid coming out of your vagina.
- Your healthcare provider will feel the part of the baby at the cervical opening with gloved fingers. This is usually the baby’s head.
- The provider will put a thin tube (catheter) into your vagina. He or she will put a small wire at the end of the catheter on the baby’s scalp. He or she will gently turn it on the baby’s skin.
- The provider will remove the catheter and leave the wire in place on the baby’s scalp.
- The provider will connect the wire to a monitor cable. He or she will keep it in place with a band around your thigh.
- You may not be able to get out of bed with nonstop internal fetal heart rate monitoring.
- Once the baby is born, the provider will remove the wire.
What happens after fetal heart rate monitoring?
You do not need any special care after external fetal heart monitoring. You may go back to your normal diet and activity unless your healthcare provider tells you otherwise.
After internal fetal heart rate monitoring, your healthcare provider will check your baby’s scalp for infection, bruising, or a cut. The provider will clean the site with an antiseptic.
Your healthcare provider may give you other instructions, based on your situation.
Before you agree to the test or the procedure make sure you know:
- The name of the test or procedure
- The reason you are having the test or procedure
- What results to expect and what they mean
- The risks and benefits of the test or procedure
- What the possible side effects or complications are
- When and where you are to have the test or procedure
- Who will do the test or procedure and what that person’s qualifications are
- What would happen if you did not have the test or procedure
- Any alternative tests or procedures to think about
- When and how will you get the results
- Who to call after the test or procedure if you have questions or problems
- How much will you have to pay for the test or procedure
Online Medical Reviewer:
Fetterman, Anne, RN, BSN
Online Medical Reviewer:
Stump-Sutliff, Kim, RN, MSN, AOCNS
Date Last Reviewed:
© 2000-2017 The StayWell Company, LLC. 780 Township Line Road, Yardley, PA 19067. All rights reserved. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Always follow your healthcare professional's instructions.
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Number of Malaria Deaths Much Higher Than Previously Believed, Study Says
The WHO disputes the findings
Results show that donors must re-commit to the Global Fund, say the editors of The Lancet
According to researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which is based in the United States, malaria kills twice as many people every year as formerly believed. In a study published in The Lancet on 3 February 2012, the researchers said that malaria takes 1.2 million lives each year, and that the deaths occur not only among babies but also among older children and adults.
Writing about the findings in The Guardian, Sarah Boseley said that the research "overturns decades of assumptions about one of the world's most lethal diseases." The conventional wisdom had been that almost all malaria deaths occur among babies and children under five. The figure of 1.2 million deaths per year is nearly double the 655,000 estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in the World Malaria Report 2010.
The IHME researchers said that malaria deaths were on a downward trend as a result of efforts by donors, aid organisations and governments to tackle the disease, but that the decline comes from a much higher peak than had previously been estimated. "That means the interventions such as better treatment and bed nets are working, but there is much further to go than everybody had assumed," Ms Boseley said.
The researchers said that malaria needs a higher priority if the millennium development goal of cutting child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 is to be achieved. They also said that there is a need to pay more attention to the risks malaria poses to adults. The researchers said that they support the recently adopted strategy to hand out insecticide-treated bed nets to protect all members of a household against mosquitoes carrying malaria parasites, instead of insisting that the nets are only for babies and pregnant women, as was the norm previously.
More than two-thirds of global funding for efforts to fight malaria comes from the Global Fund. "The announcement by the Fund that Round 11 would be cancelled raises enormous doubts as to whether the gains in malaria mortality reduction can be built on or even sustained," the researchers said.
Professor Rifat Atun, then Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation at the Global Fund, told The Guardian more than $2.5 billion had been disbursed for malaria control between 2009 and 2011 and that, by the end of 2011, 235 million bed nets had been distributed. Money that had been pledged was still coming in, Dr Atun said, which means that the Fund will be able to invest substantially in malaria programmes in 2012 and 2013. However, Dr Atun said, recent reductions in the Global Fund's estimates of future revenues mean that the Fund will not be able to maintain the rate of increase in investment that it was able to achieve over the last few years.
As with any research study, the methodology, the findings and the implications of the findings will be debated among researchers and others. Already, the WHO has issued a statement disputing the researchers' claims that the number of malaria deaths are double current estimates. The WHO said that its estimates and those reported in The Lancet study are statistically the same except with respect to children over five and adults in Africa. The WHO said that the IHME researchers and the WHO used different methodologies and different sources of data in arriving at their estimates, and that more scrutiny of the quality of the IHME data was required before reaching any conclusions.
In the same issue of The Lancet that reported on the results of the study, the editors of The Lancet said that the study findings have substantial implications for child survival programmes, and that malaria control and elimination programmes should be paying far greater attention to adults than is currently the case. The editors added that "Although we can be grateful for these new estimates of malaria mortality, one important lesson from the science of estimation is that the urgency to revitalise health information systems has never been greater. We need reliable primary cause of death data to ensure that trends in malaria mortality are readily and reliably monitored - and acted upon."
The editors said that one aspect of the findings that is unlikely to raise objections is the implication that interventions scaled up since 2004 have been phenomenally successful in reducing the number of malaria deaths. "Much of this success can be attributed to the work of the Global Fund. With the recent and untimely resignation of its Executive Director, Michel Kazatchkine, the Global Fund is facing an unprecedented emergency. The results we report today show how essential it is for donors to recommit to the Global Fund, as they did last summer for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation."
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Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, is giving $50 million in grants to nonprofits focused on improving education in developing countries using tech-based learning tools, the company said Tuesday.
Even after being in school for several years, 130 million students around the world haven’t learned basic math or reading, according to UNESCO. Google.org wants to cut down that number and intends to give grants to nonprofits in 20 countries by the end of the year.
These grants are aimed at three main areas: getting to students in combat zones, providing quality learning materials and aiding in teacher development.
“Technology can bypass the geographic and financial boundaries that block educational resources from reaching students, while also making those resources more engaging, interactive and effective,” Brigitte Hoyer-Gosselink, the education lead for Google.org, said in a blog post.
Google.org has also invested in nonprofits supporting a variety of causes, including racial justice, refugees and migrants, and diseases like Zika and Ebola. It gives out about $100 million in grants every year, and in the past five years, $110 million has been aimed at closing the education gap.
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They say time heals all wounds but perhaps for dogs, not enough time has passed just yet… Because of cats, nearly 40 species of canines went extinct.
That’s right. Almost FORTY SPECIES OF CANINES are extinct because of cats. Think about that for a moment.
So what happened?
Ancient Cats Outhunted Dogs
According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the felid family’s arrival in North America millions of years ago spelled doom for nearly 40 canine species.
About 22 million years ago, the dog family in North America reached its peak, with more than 30 different species. Some canine species grew as large as 66 pounds and ranked among the largest carnivores in all of North America.
Until cats arrived.
Ancient cats outhunted ancient dogs, leading to the extinction of almost 40 species of canines. Today, we only have nine species of canines. Interestingly, the article states that dogs did not have a similar impact on the cat family.
Why did cats outhunt dogs? One of the reasons, according to the study, was that they have retractable claws. Unlike dogs, cats have claws that stay sharp for ambushing and catching prey.
The Results Were Worse Than Climate Change
For ancient dogs, competition with other predators had a bigger effect on the diversity of their species than climate change. When scientists started the study, analyzing over 2,000 fossils, they expected to see evidence that climate change was the big driver for species extinction. Instead, when it came to ancient dogs, the big driver was the arrival of ancient cats.
So is this part of the reason why today’s dogs often want to hunt down cats? Maybe they’re just on guard from an old wound that’s millions of years old.
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- By Vaman Kidambi, Esq.
America is a country of immigrants; yet today, the subject of immigration is quite controversial. The issue divides communities and politicians alike due to the many misconceptions that abound surrounding this matter.
The United States currently houses a larger population of undocumented migrants than at any point in its history. In the 1990s, more than 9 million legal immigrants were admitted to the U.S. In 2005, 11 million foreign-born individuals were living in the country in an undocumented status.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, these migrants are typically alienated from the rest of American society, economically vulnerable, and fearful of contact with social institutions that provide health care and education.
"America's immigration system is broken and needs to be reformed so that immigration is legal, safe, orderly and reflective of the needs of American families, businesses and national security," said Deborah Notkin, president of AILA.
While the large numbers of immigrants have led some to conclude that the country has lost control of its borders, officials at AILA say that the true causes and dynamics of immigration cannot be so easily compartmentalized.
Developing effective immigration policies requires overcoming the prevalent myths about immigration, she said.
One misperception, Notkin said, is that migration occurs because there is a lack of economic development in migrants' home countries. In actuality, international migrants do not originate in the world's poorest nations, but in those that are developing and growing dynamically. Mexico, for example, the largest single source of U.S. immigrants, is not a poor nation by global standards. It has an industrialized, $1 trillion economy and a per capita income of almost $9,000.
Another myth is that migrants are attracted to the United States by generous public benefits. In reality, immigrants are less likely than natives to use public services, and 5 percent or less report using food stamps or welfare.
There also is the misunderstanding that most immigrants intend to settle permanently in the United States, Notkin said.
Mexico-U.S migration has been historically circular, with 80 percent of Mexican immigrants reporting that they made no more than three trips to the United States and three-quarters staying less than two years.
To learn more about immigration law and policy, visit www.aila.org.
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Several new constitutions have been written in Muslim countries in the past decade; Afghanistan and Iraq wrote new constitutions after American-led invasions; Egypt wrote a new constitution after the ouster of Mubarak (and again after the military coup against Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Morsi) and Tunisia enacted a new constitution recently; several countries – such as Yemen and Libya have attempted to write permanent constitutions but ensuing chaos did not allow this to happen. Each of these constitution-making situations was very different and each country is a product of very different histories, cultures and socio-economic and societal foundations. Yet, one issue has been consistently highlighted: the status of Islam. To what degree will Islam be privileged in the constitution? Will new popularly elected governments be constrained by Islamic law? Will courts be able to set aside laws if incompatible with Sharia?
Many constitutions in the Muslim world contain clauses that recognize the Islamic character of the state. Yet, to date, there was little data on the landscape of Islam in constitutions. Separate research projects I collaborated on with Tom Ginsburg, Professor and Deputy Dean at the University of Chicago Law School and Moamen Gouda, Assistant Professor of Middle East Economics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies sought to fill this gap. Our analysis showed that roughly half of all Muslim majority countries have some Islamic feature in their constitution. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan make the most references to Islam in their constitution while the Central Asian countries and some countries in Africa (e.g. Burkina Faso) declare themselves to be secular. Clauses that reference Islam could range from the preamble symbolically stating that God is sovereign to a clause stating that only Muslims can be citizens (Maldives); 23 countries declare Islam as state religion; 18 countries make Islam a source of law and 6 countries’ constitutions’ state that no law can be repugnant to Islam/Sharia/Islamic law.
We also found that while Muslim countries’ constitutions generally promise a number of important human rights and none explicitly incorporate corporal punishments, constitutions that privilege secularism tend to, on average, promise more rights than constitutions that do not. Indeed, of the top 10 countries in the Muslim world measured in terms of de jure constitutional promise of rights, all but one — Maldives, claim to be secular.
In terms of the democratic demand for incorporating Islam, it appeared that there seemed to be a high demand in many, but not all, Muslim majority countries to incorporate Islam within political life and that this impulse was driven very much by the same reasons as to why citizens want to incorporate human rights in the constitution; because large segments of society in some Muslim countries associate the incorporation of Islam with efficient and accountable government, reduced corruption, women’s rights, post-colonial assertion of identity/sovereignty and the prevalence of a particularly negative view of what “secular” government means. It is unsurprising then to observe then, as Professor Noah Feldman noted:
… where the country is majority Muslim, many citizens will often want Islam to have some official role in state governance, beyond mere symbolism” and that Islamic democrats believe that “a majority of Muslim citizens would choose government with an Islamic cast if they were free to do so.
And this can be observed in several instances of constitution-making; for example, Iraq’s most “Islamic” constitution was also the one written in the most democratic setting; after the U.S. invasion toppled the Saddam regime and political parties were relatively free to operate (2004/2006); when Iran wrote its first constitution in 1905/1906 (after a popular upheaval known as the “Constitutional Revolution” weakened the Qajar monarchy) the document contained many progressive features but also privileged the clerical establishment and Islam; under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey underwent one of the most comprehensive programs of “secularization” ever seen in the Muslim world. Yet, its 1924 Constitution initially declared Islam as the state religion.
Of course, this does not mean that the political desire to incorporate Islam in constitutions will always go hand in hand with democratization or that modernization will always be reinforced through a call to “Islam”; indeed, dictatorial regimes have often exploited this populist desire to “Islamize” the system to brutally reinforce their own authority and shut out dissent – examples being General Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan and Omar Bashir in Sudan. Aside from political abuse, questions of minority and women’s rights may also need to be resolved.
Nevertheless, it seems that, often, calls for the political incorporation of Islam in constitutions is as “modern” a demand in some cases as is the desire for more representative democracy and economic welfare. Not only does this mean that democratization and “Islamization” of constitutional life may go hand in hand but also that modernization in nations may indeed necessitate paying fidelity to Islamic rhetoric if it is to be considered legitimate and representative.
In conclusion, although preliminary, these findings could have considerable normative implications; not only does it show that democratization and political Islamization may reinforce rather than work in opposition (as is sometimes assumed by foreign commentators); it also implies that the Muslim world may in fact chart its own version of constitutional democracy that may not imitate Western, or specifically, European notion of “secular” democracy. Thus, going forward, much more thought needs to be focused on how to design such a model of constitutionalism.
Editorial Note: Please click on country links to be directed to the relevant text of their respective constitutions, for example, if you click “Afghanistan” you shall be directed to the constitution of that country on the comprehensive document on https://www.constituteproject.org/
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https://pakistanhorizon.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/designing-constitutions-in-muslim-countries-what-role-for-islam/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128321961.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627235941-20170628015941-00639.warc.gz
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en
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