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Share the joy of watching birds and spending time outdoors with people who aren’t familiar with these activities or can’t easily access them. We need more people to be passionate about birds and the natural places where they thrive!
- Go birding and take someone with you! The first step in conserving birds is to learn who they are, what they look like, where they live, and how they’re threatened. Every person is at a different spot on the ladder of knowledge. Take a step up, and take someone with you. There are many tools to help. Check out All About Birds. And find some of the best places to bird at the ABA’s Birding Trails.
- Support or initiate an International Migratory Bird Day event to celebrate the amazing spectacle of bird migration and to educate others about issues impacting birds.
- One of the fastest growing aspects of birding is bird photography. Find out where to share your photos and share the joy! For example, the Idaho Birding Facebook page.
- While you are out birding, tell restaurants, hotels, and any interested person what you’re doing and why you care. You might be surprised at how curious people are.
- Birding is not just good for birds, it’s good for you!
- Everyone who enjoys and cares about birds can play a role in extending their knowledge to others of all ages. Bird education resources that are fun to use are available from many sources. For example: http://birdday.org/educate/resource-index and Flying Wild.
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Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata), sometimes known in Australia and New Zealand as butternut pumpkin or gramma, and in Canada as butterscotch squash, is a type of winter squash that grows on a vine. It has a sweet, nutty taste similar to that of a pumpkin. It has tan-yellow skin and orange fleshy pulp with a compartment of seeds in the bottom. When ripe, it turns increasingly deep orange, and becomes sweeter and richer. It is a good source of fiber, vitamin C, manganese, magnesium, and potassium; and it is an excellent source of vitamin A and vitamin E.
Although technically a fruit, butternut squash is used as a vegetable that can be roasted, sautéed, toasted, puréed for soups, or mashed and used in casseroles, breads, and muffins.
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Causes of Pertussis (Whooping Cough)Causes Pertussis is bordetella portusis or Hemophilus pertussis, can be found in the respiratory tract, tract and the tract genitou gastrointesttimalis rinorius. Bordetella portusis is a small germ, not moving, gram negative and obtained by nasopharyngeal swab on the area of the patient. Bordetella Pertussis many attacking American States, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia.
Signs and symptoms of Pertussis (Whooping Cough)The incubation period is about 7-14 days. The disease can last up to 6 weeks or more and is divided into three stages, namely:
- Cataralis Stage
- Spasmodic Stage
- Convalesensi Stage
Pathophysiology of Pertussis (Whooping Cough)Lesions found in the bronchi, but there may be changes in the mucous membranes of the trachea and nasopharynx. Mucus is formed to the small bronchi can lead to emphysema and atelektosis exudation can also get to the alveoli and cause secondary infections.
Some of the herbs that can be used to treat Pertussis (Whooping Cough), among others:
- 1 stalk of leucas lavandulifolia Smith (with roots) boiled in 3 cups water until the remaining 1 1/2 cups. After chilling filtered, plus sugar to taste. Drink a day 3 x 1/2 cup.
- 40-50 grams of Aloe Vera Linn, cut small, boiled with 2 cups water to a 1 1/2 cups. Drink 1 cup 3 times a day. Sugar can be added to taste.
- 5-7 leaves of Green chirayta - Andrographis paniculata Nees, brewed with 1/2 cup hot water. Add honey to taste, stirring frequently. After a cold drink as well. Do it 3 times a day.
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Get Your Calcium Without All The Fat
Calcium enriched foods without the fats
The following recommendations are not intended for growing children who benefit from milk for growing teeth and bones. This article applies to adults who are trying to follow a heart-healthy diet by getting the necessary calcium withouy all the fat. As you may not know, whole-milk dairy products have a high amount of calcium and they also have a good amount of fat which is mostly saturated. The following tips will give you calcium but in a much healthier way.
1. Always try to substitute skim or low-fat milk for water. Examples would be when making soups, oatmeal, or making muffins.
2. Eat collard, kale, turnip or mustard greens, and broccoli several times a week. I did not mention spinach because it contains substances called oxalates that interferes with calcium absorption. Spinach although is still good, but better as a source of iron.
3. Keep nonfat dry milk on hand and add it to anything you can think of, such as soups, meat loaf, casseroles, and beverages. Adding nonfat dry milk into coffee, tastes just like half-and-half does.
4. Increase your indulgence into low-fat yogurt and frozen yogurts in place of foods such as pies, cheesecakes, ice cream and the list just goes on. One thing to keep in mind though is that on an ounce-for-ounce basis, yogurt has at least as much calcium as milk, but generally not fortified with Vitamin D as milk.
5. When eating a salad or soup, use low-fat grated cheese. If a baked food dish calls for cottage cheese (not a good source of calcium), or cream cheese(high fat content), also use low-fat grated cheese.
6. Cook tofu instead of meat or chicken in stir-fry dishes. Tofu added to salads and soups are also excellent. When you are purchasing tofu, remember to check the label to make sure it has calcium salt. Just four ounces of tofu can have about 300 milligrams of calcium.
7. Make low-fat milk shakes at home by adding milk, ice cubes, flavoring like vanilla extract , or any type of berry, and low calorie sweetener. Mix in a blender and you will have a delicious shake.
8. Keep broccoli handy as a snack because it is a high calcium vegetable. Enhance this snack with a part-skim ricotta cheese or just plain yogurt.
Links To More Hubs About Calcium
- Calcium And The Vegetarian
One nutritional issue that some vegetarians may face if they are choosing not to include any dairy based products in their diet is a lack of calcium. While you can get your calcium through food...
- Importance Of Calcium
Calcium is a major mineral found in our body. It constitutes 1.5 - 2 per cent of the body weight of an adult person. Our body contains almost 1,200 gm of calcium, of which 98 per cent is found in bones, and...
- Calcium, Health and People
What do we know about Calcium? Honestly I am telling you that I am still trying to learn about this nutrition. During I was a small boy, I know that Calcium is good for my bone. Milk is the source of Calcium....
- Calcium Facts
Are You Getting Enough Calcium? Calcium is an important element, responsible for healthy growth in general and for the strength of bones and teeth in particular. This makes it vital to include calcium in one's...
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English Lesson Plans
Better untaught than ill taughtProverb
Here are some great ideas for activities that will brighten up any English language class. Here you'll find ready-made lesson plans, as well as tips and ideas that you can include in lesson plans.
What is a Lesson Plan?
A basic look at what a lesson plan for English teachers is and is not
Practical and printer-friendly worksheets and printables for use in the English classroom
Ideas for classroom activities and games at different levels and ages
Copyright-free printables that you can distribute in class
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The golden section and planetary distances. Are the distances of the planets from the Sun arbitrary? could there be hidden geometry in the structure of the solar system, the golden section for example? I am not the first to speculate on this but I might be the first to have discoverd two intriguing facts about the Astronomical Unit values of Venus and Mars. The first is, that successive Fibonacci powers of the A.U. values behave thus and result in Phi or golden section powers. Phi= 1.618033989.
It is a property of Fibonacci numbers, that when used as powers, a sequence higher or lower than that above will also work approximately. The second intriguing fact is this equation
The square root of which is this
it was of course, the great German astronomer and mathematition Johannes Kepler who used a music interval, the natural fifth of 1.5. as a power, in his third law of planetary motion.It was also he that in his five platonic solids model of the solar system placed the icosahedron between Venus and the Earth and the dodecahedron between the Earth and Mars. It was beutiful but completely wrong, although the golden section is inherently part of the structure of both the dodecahedron and the icosahedron. Inspired by Kepler I have come up with the following model of four planets.
Here, using the process of iteration are the A.U. values that fit all the equations above.Higher or lower sequences of the fibonacci powers also work approximately as does the Lucas sequence.
NASA defines the Astronomical Unit values of the solar system for two different time periods. Unless otherwise stated it is the 3000 years B.C. to 3000 yers A.D. values that I will be using in my search for Phi or the golden section.
It was quite by accident that I came across the following equation.
Oh! thats nice I thought, three Fibonacci numbers in a row. It was only years later that I realised that a fibonocci sequence higher or lower than that above would also work approximately, this one is even better.
and the Lucas sequence works as well.
The discrepancy in the equations can best be corrected in the following manner, By adding the Fibonacci powers together, as in the second equation, 55+21=76 and finding the 76th root of the discrepancy 1.00000117%, then it is this factor that Mars and Venus must be altered by, in this case devided by, to get the correct result, Mars 1.523710684 and Venus .723320173. Of course this discrepancy could be loaded to just one planet or spread between them in many differnt ways. The obvious question at this point, of course, is does this work with any other of the twenty possible planetary pairs (between Mercury and Neptune) and the short answer is no! Execpt with Mercury and Jupiter, whereby although it is a multiplication between an outer planet and a inner planet (as seen from the Earth) it is not exactly the same as the Mars Venus relationship.
This was most disappointing, only two such connections out of a possible twenty one pairs! and why when it works does it work so well? Just as disapointing was the fact that I could not find a relationship between Jupiter and Mars or Venus, or Mercury and Mars or Venus. I could of course have devided or multiplied both pairs with one another but eventually i gave up and in taking some inspiration from Kepler I got lucky.
I had orignally been experimenting with music intervals as powers and I came across the following, (phi written with a small p rather than a capitol P is the reciprical of Phi)
The music interval 1.33333 or the natural 4th is the product of 60 devided by 45 and I had another equation also the product of harmonious numbers
Now to cut a long story short, by use of iteration, that is to continually correct the values so that both equations would be correct, I arrived at the following.The inverse of the fifty second root of Phi power 35.
and here an even more obscure approximation for Mars
Well I thought this has not turned out well, how could two so harmonious equations turn out so ugly. Eventually I found this
and the square root of which is this
Regardless of how the discrepancy is distributed, it is this equation,
that results in this one
and there is a convoluted reason why this also works.
but taking inspiration from my original Fibonacci power sequences, this works as well,
and that equation squared is
So it is clear to see that by multiplying or deviding the music interval powers by other music intervals, in the case above by 2, the octave, then the results can change while sticking to the same values. Here is one more example just for fun.
I have another 7 or 8 of these equations and there must be many more but my point is that by using the 52nd root of Phi power 35 (inverse) as an approximation for the A.U. value for Venus and the 585th root of Phi power 512 for that of Mars then I have found two sharp tools that may prove usefull in searching for Phi in the solar system. I am certainly not suggesting that these values are somehow magical, or that Venus and Mars ever had, or ever will have such values, and I will abandon these artificial values in favour of iterated values as soon as I have built a model. Astronomic Unit values are not constants and over millions of years as the Sun looses mass and the planets gain a little, they all drift further away from the Sun.I initially feared that this fact would automatically undermine any patterns I may come up with but then this would only affect the absolute distances and not necessarily the proportional relationships between the planets. On the other hand I can not assume that proportions would be maintained in such a manner that would suit patterns that I have come up with.It is perhaps worth mensioning at this point that my manipulated Venus and Mars values can also be expressed as the 13th root of Phi power 7 to the power 1.25 (recprical) for Venus and the 13th root 0f Phi power 8 to the power 1.42222 for Mars. The interval 1.25 is the 3rd most important music interval of all, after 2 the octave and 1,5 the natural 5th.The interval 1.42222 is the product of 1.3333 times 1.06666, the natural 4th times the diatonic half tone.
Well I now have two ideas concerning Venus Mars and Phi.The first of which is the sequence of Fibonacci powers the best of which is this,
and the other idea is this
Luckily they are not contradictory and by way of iteration, I have made a list of equations which are all good for the equation stated and also Mars power 1.875 devided by the 1.875 root of Venus equaling Phi squared.
The most obvious music interval to go along with 1.875 would be its counterpart, that is what is left over from the octave two, i.e. 2/1.875= 1.0666666, and again I got lucky.
It must be rememberd that will it will be the 144th root of the discrpancy that will correct the first equation 1.000022687% and since the answer was too high Jupiter must be devided by this factor and Mars mulipied by it. Jupiter = 5.202369543 = 1.000021269% and Mars = 1,523730866 = 1.000012099%, At this point I am going to introduce my manipulated values of Venus and Mars because they are in a sort of lock step relationship with one another.
My manipulated values for Venus and Mars can also be expressed in the following manner. The 39th root of Phi power 14 (inverse) will get me the 1.875 root of Venus =.841354062 and the 39th root of Phi power 64 will get me Mars power 1.875. = 2.202693506. By using these values as constants I can calculate a value for Jupiter dependant on which Fibonacci power sequence I am using. The value for Jupiter in the Jupiter power 89 equation above is then 5.201602391 which is 1,000168755% away from the NASA value. Take the sequence down a step for Jupiter power 55 and the value for Jupiter will be 5,202389147 = 1.0000175%. Using the Lucas number of power 76 for Jupiter and its value is 5.203310632 = 1.000159624%.
Now it is hardly suprising that those equations work fairly well since I have manipulated Mars and Venus to make them work but what about Saturn? I got lucky again in that the i.0666666 root of the Saturn A.U. value fits in well enough. So here is a list of six planetary pairs that I will call Model A.
Here I will abandon my manipulated Mars and Venus values and by using iteration, the values below will fit all of the equations above.
As a next step i will try iteration at the lower step of Jupiter power 55 etc. This model would then be called Model A -1.
Here are the iterated values for a step higher in the sequence Jupiter power 144 etc which I will call Model A +1
Turning to Uranus and Neptune I thought I had it with the following
But this time my luck has run out because the lock step relationship between Mars and Venus counts against me. By substituting Mars power 1.875 for the 1.875 root of Venus, as in the Jupiter and Saturn equations, this time with Uranus and Mars, I arrive at Phi power 432! This can be solved by finding the 3rd root of the equation because 432/3 = 144.
Now the best part of the patterns I have are not so much in the Phi powers but in the music interval powers which are perfect for Venus through to Saturn and here is a multiplication instead of a division. Worse still substituting Mars instead of Venus in The Neptune equation results in Phi power 1309! and so I fear this is a dead end if I want a pattern along the lines of those for Jupiter and Saturn.
There is though, another approach, in that although Jupiter and Saturn work well with a Phi squared from Mars and Venus perhaps Phi itself may work with Uranus and Neptune.
and this works reasonably well,
Using the real Venus value, it results in a Neptune value of 29.91427128 which is 1.005190039% away from the NASA value. The 1.875 root of Neptune is the square root of Neptune power 1.066666 so there is still a connection with Jupiter and Saturn and Mars is still in lockstep with Venus as shown below
As for Uranus the 1.0666666 root of it works, sort of but 2 octaves down and so it is the 4.2666666 root of Uranus that fits with Mars and Venus thus.
and of course the folowing is also true
The above equation power 4 is
So leaving aside Mars and Venus I can extend Model A using just the outer planets
The number 322 is not a Fibonacci but a Lucas number, which is sort of inevitable. The table below shows the A.U. values by iteraration that fit the equations above.
The rather weak value for Neptune drags the others down somewhat, Using Model A+3 just for Jupiter Saturn and Uranus comes out a lot better.
1364 is a Lucas number!
By iteration the values below fit the equations above
Given that Mars Venus and Phi worked with Uranus and Neptune and that Mars Venus and Phi squared worked with Jupiter and Saturn could Phi cubed work with Mercury?
these equations result in inverse Phi values or phi.
The lock step relationship between Mars and Venus still works but it will be the square root of the Mars and Mercury equation to get phi 89 (the inverse value of Phi 89)
Mercury fits in well with the overall pattern with its 1.06666 root and that squared is power 1.875 and squared again is 3.75 but all the other planets have ended up with a dogs dinner of music intervals. Most pocket calculaters will need the fibonacci powers to be devided by 10 to stay within the range. Note the Phi values with the small p, phi are x to the minus one values.
Venus looks alright with either the 1.875 root, or 3,75 the square root of 1.875 but the 4,26666 root for Uranus seems to spoil the picture althoght 4.26666 divided by two octaves is 1.06666.
Mars power 1.875 and Neptune power 1.06666 would look a lot better it being similiar to the Jupiter Mars equation but the result would be Phi power 178 ( 178/2)=89
The 1.0666666 root of Uranus together with Jupiter power 2.133333 may look better but again the result would be Phi power 178
Here are the iterated values for Model A
Again it is the weak Neptune value that somewhat weakens the whole thing, here are the iteration values for all the planets without Neptune
It starts like this 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 and goes on forever but two succesive numbers added together determine the next one.
and so It is clear to see that the higher the pair of Fibonacci numbers the closer the answer is to Phi. 987/610 = 1.618032787 = 1.000000743%. The Lucas sequence is the same in prinicple it just starts a bit later 1 3 7 11 18 29 47 76 123 199 322 521 843 843/521 = 1.618042225 = 1.000005091%.
Keplers third law of planetary motion is still valid today. The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of the semi major axis of its orbit. When I first heard this it went in one ear and out the other but it realy is easy to understand from the following. The average distance of the Earth from the Sun is defined as the number one, that is then 1 Astronomical Unit and NASA defines the A.U. value for Venus as .72332102. This to the power 1.5 is .615172097 and this multipleid by the number of days in the Earth year 365.25 = 224.692 or 225 days approximately, The same is of course true for all the other planets and so by knowing the mean distance of a planet from the Sun (or any other object that circles the Sun) then by using the music inteval of 1.5, the natural fifth as a power then the orbital period of the object can be calculated. (and of course vice versa).
Keplers third law is also called his harmonic law but this is strickly speaking not true, because music intervals work as factors not as powers! A guitar or fiddle string whose length is multiplied or divided by 1.5 would indeed be in tune but that string length to the power 1,5 would be musically meaningless. The only way that using music intervals as powers makes any sense is in the follwing example. Successive octaves or powers of two can be generated by using music intervals as powers in the followig manner.
This is true for all numbers including Phi but note that 2 power 7 11 13 and 14 are not acheivable by using music intervals as powers.
Music intervals wrong foot the best musicians and the best mathematitions. There is though, the simple and undisputed law of the octave that states by doubling the length of a string the frequency of the note will be halved and that by halving the length, the frequency will double. Our ears recognize these sounds as being the same note, much as our eyes recognize different shades of the same colour. All music intervals are the products of three numbers 2, 1.5, and 1.25, which is not the same as all products of the three numbers are music intervals.These three numbers can best best be seen, heard and understood by playing the so called harmonics on a guitar string, the 6h or lowest bass string works best.
We guitar players often use the harmonics, played by just touching the string at the exact place and not pushing the string down to the fretboard as in normally played notes. Playing the open sixth string would normally produce a frequency of 82.5 Herz (given that the fifth string is tuned to 110 Herz, 2 octaves down from the industry standard of 440 Herz) By playing the harmonic halfway along the string the note would be exactly an octave higher at 165 Herz. Some what counter intuitively, playing the harmonic at point 4 would give a frequency doubled again to 330 Herz. Dividing the string by 8 gives an octave higher again at 660 Herz but it is barely audible and is never used by guitar players because it is so extremely weak. Apparently these harmonics occur along the string at so called node points and it is at these points that the sound waves cross from above to below the string. The point 2 on the guitar string is exactly above the 12th fret, the point 4 is above the 5th fret but the point 8 is between the 1st and 2nd frets and is difficult to find,
The octave is not the only indisputable music interval, by dividing the string by three, an harmonic 1.5, or the natural fifth is generated above the seventh fret and also on the other side of the string more or less above the sound hole, not used by guitar players because there is no fret to guide the fingers.(dividing the string by 6 should also work but I found this to be truly inaudible) There is also a series of harmonics, all exacctly the same when the string is divided by five.
Starting from the left the first occurs above the 4th fret, the second above the 9th fret, the third above the 16th fret but there is no fret to guide the finger for the fourth one.
If one looks very closely at the 4th fret it is clear to see that the harmonic occurs slightly before it and this illustrates the difference between 1.25 the natural 3rd and the modern chromatic 3rd which is sharp. The value for the chromatic 3rd is 1.25992105, divided by the natural 3rd of 1.25 results in a discrepancy of 1.00793684% which is extremely annoying for anyone with good ears. The gradual introduction of the chromatic division of the octave more or less coincides with the industrial revolution and it is as if someone had had enough of all the confusion surrounding music intervals and had issued a decree that from now on all music intervals would be equal and mathematically perfect. The new interval, the twelth root of two, would devide the octave into twelve perfectly proportional steps such that my 4th fret would be the 12th root of two to the power 4 and my 5th fret the power 5 etc. It seems to be Johann Sebastian Bach who we have to thank for this but when playing so many notes so fast this dichotomy is not so noticeable.When playing long slow notes it most definitely is. It could be worse of course, at least we get his well tempered piano and not his bad tempered piano and it sure beats carrying twelve guitars around everywhere since the guitar frets would be in slightly different positions for each of the twelve keys.
All of this is not a matter of taste or of culural preference, or historical development it is a matter of physics and has been known of, if not entirely understood for thousands of years.
Here is a breakdown of all the music intervals that I have been using up untill now.
Here is a mathematical breakdown of the major scale in western music, also known as the do ray me sequence. For those mathematitions who get constantly confused by terms such as the natural fifth only to find that this is the seventh fret on the guitar here is why. It is the the fifth note in the do ray me scale!
The second row of numbers fills in the gaps, that is to say the intervals between the intervals. To sum up then it is the string divided by 2,3 and 5 that is the basis for music harmony and all music intrevals are products of these three numbers (given that it is the division of the octave the numbers are 2, 3/2 and 5/4, or 2 , 1.5 and 1.25). It is somewhat of an accident that all the numbers between 1 and 10 are musical apart from 7 but 4 is 2 x 2, 6 is 2 x 3, 8 is 2 power 3 9 is 3 squared and 10 is 2 x 5.dividing the string by 7 11 and 13 etc makes some sort of noise but it is not harmonic or musical.
There is no getting away from the fact that although Phi is geometrically beauiful it is not musicaly beautiful, The Fibonacci sequence starts so well with 1,5, 1.666666, 1,6, and the Lucas sequence gets us 4/3 1.333333 but it is 13/8 that spoils everthing. There is no mathematical definition of "out of tuneness" but if there were then this 13/8 would be near the top of the list. The continuation of the sequence 21/13, 34/21, etc, alternatively sharpens or flattens the interval somewhat but does not improve upon it.
The closest I could get to Phi by using music intervals is in the following, 2 power 4 divided by 1.5 power 4, devided by 1.25 power 3 = 1.61817284 = 1.000085814%. Good as this result is it is just as dreadfully unmusical as 13/8. The best relationship to music intervals is in the square root of 1.25, = 1.118033989, whereby the number is exactly .5 short of Phi. This is also exactly equidistant between the the natural or diatonic intervals for the small and large whole tones of 1.11111111 and 1.125 = 1.00623059%.
Another connection could be Phi power 24, which is very close to 2 power 14 times 1.5 power 4, times 1.25. The problem here is that i do not have a music keyboard that goes beyond 14 octaves and it is way beyond the human hearing range anyway!
Finally just to show how "magical" Phi realy is, try the following experiment. Enter your telephone number into a pocket calculater, find the reciprical and add 1, repeat the process 20 or 30 times and guess which number you end up with? The question remains, however, as to whose telephone number you get if you do it backwards! I learnd this trick from Dr Ron Knott who runs the best web site on the net for all things Golden and Sectional www.ronknottcom/
Site still under construction.
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“In 2011, U.S. fire departments responded to 370,000 home structure fires. These fires caused 13,910 civilian injuries, 2,520 civilian deaths, $6.9 billion in direct damage.” National Fire Protection Association
Due to the large number of fires in the United States, both residential and industrial, fire extinguishers should be available in any building in case of a fire. There are many types of fire extinguishers, each meant for specific fires. Using the wrong extinguisher has caused fires to get bigger, explosions to happen, and other things as well. Knowing which extinguisher to use for different situations can prevent a disaster from becoming a catastrophe.
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American Indian languages
American Indian tribes
What's new on our site today!
Mariate Indian Language (Muriate)
Mariate is an extinct Arawakan language of South America.
Mariate was once spoken in Brazil.
Thanks for your interest in Native American languages!
Our list of vocabulary words in the Mariate language, with comparison to words in other Arawakan languages.
Another small Mariate wordlist (page is in Portuguese).
Information on the Wainuma and Mariate languages including a linguistic map of Brazil. Page in Spanish.
Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia:
Anthropology book on the Mariate and other Arawakan tribes of the Amazon.
Native American Indian Books:
Evolving list of books about Native Americans in general.
Native Languages of the Americas website © 1998-2016 Contacts and FAQ page
Back to American Indian Culture
Back to Indians of Brazil
Back to Native Americans for kids
Fort Sill museum
Would you like to sponsor our work on the Mariate Indian language?
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Have you ever thought of ways you could grow your own pomegranate? It's possible!
There are of course some basic guidelines, but if you follow them carefully, you could be enjoying your own fresh pomegranate fruit right from your own tree in a just a few short years.
What Steps to Take to Get Your Pomegranate Tree Started
The most important task is to find a suitable place to plant your seedling. Pomegranates can grow in pretty much any soil, but make sure it's clear of weeds and that it will receive plenty of direct sunlight.
It's critical to remove any dead or dried up plants from the area as well.
The best way to get a pomegranate tree growing is to plant a seedling that has about one year of growth. You can grow the seedling from a seed yourself or purchase one from a reputable grower or nursery.
Once you've decided on planting area, here is what you do next.
Watering Your Pomegranate Seedling
During the hotter months of the year, you should water it a bit once a day for the first 30 days.
During the second month, you can water once per week and it will still do very well.
Tips on How to Grow Your Own Pomegranate
Once your tree has a good trunk, you'll want to destroy any small branches that grow around the trunk of the tree.
After your tree is very healthy and has several branches, you'll need to do some pruning.
Small orchards – you can prune all the branches except for 4 or 5 larger, healthier branches. The middle of the tree should be kept completely free of small branches.
Larger orchards – keep the center of the tree open and clear of small branches and make sure the tree doesn't grow taller than 2.5 meters in height.
Caring for the Fruit
Protect your pomegranate fruit by removing any harmful insects or bugs from your tree and fruit. Take time to visit your local gardening expert and get advice on how to best protect your tree from insects that could destroy or eat all of your fruit.
Some pomegranate growers take the time to wrap each fruit in specially made white paper bags in order to keep bugs and insects away from the fruit while allowing plenty of sunshine through to nourish the fruit.
When the fruit begins to grow, you need to pick the fruit once it reaches the right size, which is when it's reached the size of a grapefruit or softball. Don't pick all of the fruit from the tree at once. Instead, allow around 100 fruits to remain on the tree at any given time.
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Lady of the Moon
Possible Symbols: Moon, night, ocean tides, calendar, menstrual blood, agriculture
Colors: Blue, black, silver, gray, red (in relation to menstrual cycles)
The only information that I have of this being in an Old Magyar context is the name. Hold means moon, Anya means lady. Even then, it’s questionable whether this is just a name (like how contemporary English speakers say “Man in the Moon” while just considering the moon a rock in space), or if this was an actual deity with a personality and a story.
Contemporary Hungarian culture has more beliefs and ideas fleshing out the moon, but the modern agrarian society is rather different than the primarily steppe riding society of 1000 years ago (and who knows what the Hungarians were before that, the scholars who devoted their entire career to this still haven’t figured it out since there’s several theories at the moment). Therefore the values and social needs are different, and we see that many folk beliefs center on the moon cycle being a calender that was most often used to time crop and herding practices. Interestingly enough, “hold” also referred to an area of land (whether it was a unit of land measurement, or was a parcel of land, I cannot tell). There’s also folk beliefs that recognize the cyclical nature of the moon being similar to menstrual cycles, like many other societies have.
Folktales that describe the world tree upon which the taltos climb show the sun and moon being cosmological entities residing in the upper branches of the tree, with no personalities or sense of being attributed to them. There are several depictions of the Sun riding around (i.e. Napkirály in a chariot or on a horse), or being driven around (i.e. a Hungarian Christmas ballad with the Sun being in Csodaszarvas’s antlers) in folktales, but none for the moon that I’ve found thus far.
There’s several possibilities that we can take away from this. For one, maybe the moon just wasn’t an important entity in the deep past, but became important more once the Hungarians became an agrarian society (Other agrarian societies have also used the moon cycles as a calendar for crop activities; in Hungary it is the new moon that marks a new month, in some Germanic cultures it is similar with the first visible waxing crescent marking the new month). The other is that I simply haven’t found the information yet, or that the information is lost to time. Either way, considering Hold Anya as a distinct deity rather than a force of nature is, as far as I can currently tell, not historically attested and is therefore UPG.
My personal view is that Hold Anya could be a deity, but an impersonal one. To be honest the only “deity” attribute I regard her with is to list her as a moon deity (in terms of gendering the moon, while I feel that it’s mostly unnecessary I also feel that the moon shifts between male and female, story-wise). Otherwise my perspective is more along the line of modern Hungarian folk culture. I refer to the literal moon that is seen in the sky, and consider it a force of nature that creates a useful calender and affects the earth’s waters. The Germanic perspective that I also include in my “religion” is similar, where Manu (in this case, a male name) is impersonal and doesn’t have a whole lot to him other than existing and being listed as a deity. I usually just call the moon “Moon” and don’t engage in devotional rituals or create dedicated holy days. The Moon is just there, always watching and always with us.
Images that remind me of them:
Artwork: Selene by kaelycea.deviantart.com
Hold by Akadémiai Kiadó (1982). Magyar néprajzi lexikon. http://mek.oszk.hu/02100/02115/html/2-1344.html (paste link into google translate)
Moon Goddess (*KUNKE > KUL >HOD/HOLD) by Fred Hamori (2002). Sumerian and Finn-Ugor god names compared to Sumerian. http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/FUgods.htm
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Silanes are widely used to improve the adhesion of a broad range of
adhesives and sealants to inorganic substrates such as metals, glass and stone.
Sealants are based on filled, curable elastomers and have the dual
purpose of preventing passage of water, air and chemicals through the zone
where applied, plus serving as an adhesive in some cases. Their usefulness in
aircraft, automotive, and construction industries depends upon forming durable
bonds to metal, glass, ceramic, and other surfaces that will withstand exposure
to heat, ultraviolet radiation, humidity and water.
Silanes have the following four primary applications:
When added to adhesives or used as primers on substrates, Dow Corning® brand
silanes often provide dramatic improvement in adhesion by reducing moisture
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Contact us for more information on silanes in sealants and adhesives.
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Thirty-three compositions by Henry VIII alongside a wide selection of other music from the first years of the sixteenth century are all collected together in a manuscript that probably contains the repertory of Henry’s own music-making sessions.
He was not quite eighteen years old when he became king in 1509. But in the next decade, before the difficulties began, his court was one of the most brilliant in Europe. And he himself was always eager to show off his abilities as a musician.
The book was almost certainly not made for him: its decorations are too modest. But it is easy to imagine that it was for one of the favoured subjects who made music with him. It is clearly written and easy to read, a perfect size for three instrumentalists or singers. Some of the pieces are textless and evidently intended for instrumental performance; others do have text but were probably also for instruments alone; and some are three-voice songs with all three voices clearly texted.
The accompanying Introduction by David Fallows includes individual comments on every piece – explaining any notational difficulties, summarizing the available literature, sometimes offering new and unusual views on them. The Introduction also includes discussions of Henry as a composer and what we know of his musical activities.
273 pp full colour + 85 pp introduction, indexes etc. Format 213 x 310 mm (98% of full size)
Full colour facsimile on heavy matt art paper, hard bound in blue buckram with gold-coloured blocking
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A feline with an upper respiratory infection can present symptoms such as sneezing, congested nose, nasal discharge, eye discharge and conjunctivitis, states VCA Hospital. Depending on the specific cause for the infection, some other possible symptoms can manifest, including coughing, oral lesions and drooling. These symptoms develop because a feline upper respiratory infection typically can involve the nasal passages, throat, mouth and eyes.Continue Reading
In felines, the cause of an upper respiratory infection can be due to either bacteria or certain viruses. However, approximately 80 to 90 percent of infections are caused by the viruses called feline viral rhinotracheitis (FVR) and feline calicivirus (FCV), states Pet Education. The bacterial infections known as Bordetella bronchiseptica and Chlamydophila felis also cause these types of infections, states VCA Hospital, although there can be different symptoms associated with the different types of viral infections.
The symptoms most often seen in felines with FVR are drooling, runny nose, conjunctivitis, sneezing, appetite loss and lesions that affect the cornea. The illness can last between 2 and 4 weeks, notes Pet Education. Some symptoms of FCV are mouth ulcers, sneezing, eye discharge and limping due to the formation of ulcers on the paws. The FCV illness can last up to 2 weeks. When a feline upper respiratory infection is not treated, it can lead to problems such as pneumonia and possible blindness.
Similarly, a bacterial infections such as Bordetella can present symptoms that include a wet cough, sneezing, fever and lymph node inflammation, notes PetMD. Bordetella is a very contagious disease often seen in kennels.Learn more about Veterinary Health
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Old Cathedral of CoimbraEdit profile
The Old Cathedral of Coimbra (Portuguese: Sé Velha de Coimbra) is one of the most important Romanesque Roman Catholic buildings in Portugal. Construction of the Sé Velha began some time after the Battle of Ourique (1139), when Count Afonso Henriques declared himself King of Portugal and chose Coimbra as capital. The first Count of Coimbra, the mozarab Sisnando Davides, is buried in the cathedral.History
Coimbra (the Roman Aeminium) is the seat of a bishopric since the 5th century, after neighbouring Conimbriga was invaded and partially destroyed by the invading Sueves in 468. Almost nothing is known of the cathedrals that preceded the Sé Velha in Coimbra. In 1139, after the Battle of Ourique, King Afonso Henriques decided to finance the building of a new cathedral, given the bad shape of its predecessor. The definitive impulse to the project was given by Bishop Miguel Salomão, who helped pay for the works. In 1185, King Sancho I, second King of Portugal, was crowned in the new cathedral, indicating that the building work was in an advanced state. The basic building was finished in the first decades of the 13th century, even though the cloisters were begun only in 1218, during the reign of King Afonso II.
The project of the Romanesque cathedral is attributed to Master Robert, a - possibly – French architect who was directing the building of Lisbon Cathedral at that time and visited Coimbra regularly. The works were supervised by Master Bernard, possibly also French, who was succeeded by Master Soeiro, an architect active in other churches around the Oporto Diocese.
In the 16th century there were many additions to the cathedral. The chapels, walls and pillars of the nave were covered with tiles, the monumental Porta Especiosa was built in the north side of the façade, and the southern chapel of the apse was rebuilt in Renaissance style. The basic architecture and structure of the Romanesque building was, nevertheless, left intact. In 1772, several years after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal by the Marquis of Pombal, the seat of the bishopric was transferred from the old medieval cathedral to the Mannerist Jesuit church, thereafter called the New Cathedral of Coimbra (Sé Nova de Coimbra).Architecture
Coimbra Cathedral is the only one of the Portuguese Romanesque cathedrals from the Reconquista times to have survived relatively intact up to the present. The cathedrals of Oporto, Braga, Lisbon and others have been extensively remodelled later.Exterior
From the outside, Coimbra's old cathedral looks like a small fortress, with its high, crenellated walls harbouring few, narrow windows. This menacing appearance is explained by the belligerent times in which it was built. There is a tower-like structure in the middle of the western façade with a portal and a similar-looking upper window. Both portal and window are heavily decorated with Romanesque motifs of Arabic and Pre-romanesque influences. The façade is reinforced by thick buttresses at the corners that compensate for the angle of the terrain (the cathedral was built on the slope of a hill).
The north façade has a remarkable, although eroded, Renaissance-style portal called the Porta Especiosa. The three-storey portal was built in the 1530’s by French sculptor João de Ruão (Jean of Rouen). From the east side one can see the semicircular apse with its three radiating chapels, the main and the northern chapels are still Romanesque while the southern one has been rebuilt in Renaissance times. Over the transept there is a Romanesque lantern-tower with some Baroque details.Interior
The interior of the cathedral has a nave with two aisles, a small transept, and an eastern apse with three chapels. The nave is covered by barrel vaulting and the lateral aisles by groin vaults. The nave has an upper storey, a spacious triforium (arched gallery), that could accommodate more mass attendants in the tribunes if needed. All columns of the interior have decorated capitals, mainly with vegetable motifs, but also with animals and geometric patterns. The windows of the lantern-tower and the big window in the west facade are the main sources of natural light of the cathedral.
The cloister, built during the reign of Afonso II (early 13th century), is a work of the transition between Romanesque and Gothic. Each of the Gothic pointed arches that face the courtyard encompass two twin round arches in Romanesque style.Art
The most remarkable aspect of the Romanesque decoration of the Old Coimbra Cathedral is the large number of sculptured capitals (around 380), which turns it into one of the most important ensembles of Romanesque sculpture in Portugal. The main motifs are vegetal and geometric and reveal Arab and pre-romanesque influences, but there are also pairs of quadrupeds (including centaurs) or birds facing each other. There are virtually no human representations, and no Biblical scenes. The absence of sculptured human figures may be because many of the artists that worked in the Cathedral were mozarabic, i.e. Christians who lived in Arab territories and that had settled in Coimbra in the 12th century. These artists were perhaps not used to human representations, which are forbidden in Islam.Tombs
From the Gothic era (13th-14th centuries) there are several tombs with laying statues along the lateral aisles, some very much eroded. The most remarkable is that of Lady Vataça Lascaris (or Betaça), a Byzantine that came to Portugal in the beginning of the 14th century together with Elizabeth of Aragon, who was to marry King Dinis I. Her tomb carries the symbol of the Byzantine Empire: a two-headed eagle.16th century
At the turn of the 15th to the 16th century, bishop Jorge de Almeida sponsored a major decorative campaign. The columns and walls of the aisles were covered with tiles from Seville, which bear multi-coloured geometric motifs reminiscent of Arab art. Most have been removed but many remain, specially in the wall to the left of the entrance of the Cathedral, as well as in many chapels and funerary monuments. Another important addition was the huge wooden retable of the main chapel, carved between 1498 and 1502 by Flemish artists Olivier de Gand and Jean d’Ypres. The retable, in Flamboyant Gothic style, illustrates the history of Mary and Christ and occupies the whole space of the Romanesque main chapel. It is the best of its kind in the country. The altar is supported by an altar table in Romanesque style.
The northern chapel (chapel of Saint Peter) has a Renaissance altar by French sculptor Nicolau Chanterene (early 16th century). The southern chapel of the apse was totally rebuilt in high Renaissance style and contains a magnificent retable featuring Jesus and the Apostles. The altar was finished around 1566 and is the work of João de Ruão (Jean of Rouen). In the 1530’s, the same artist had built the Porta Especiosa in the North façade.
The transept has a nice baptismal font in Gothic-Renaissance style (1520-1540), from the church of Saint John of Almedina (São João de Almedina). The original Manueline baptismal font from Coimbra Cathedral is now in the New Cathedral of Coimbra (the former Jesuit church of the city).
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Jon G. Allen, PhD - Senior staff psychologist at The Menninger Clinic
Despite mental health professionals’ massive efforts to educate the public about depression, misconceptions and lack of knowledge prevail. To obtain sound treatment and to make the best use of it, you must educate yourself. Given the complexity of the topic and the vastness of the literature, educating yourself is no easy matter—especially when you’re depressed.
At The Menninger Clinic, we have put a great deal of energy and thought into educating patients and their family members about psychiatric disorders and their treatment. This manuscript is a précis of my book, Coping with Depression, published by American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. Earlier versions of this material have been published in chapters on depression in my recent book, Coping with Trauma: Hope through Understanding, 2nd Ed. (also published by American Psychiatric Publishing in 2005) and in my previous book, Traumatic Relationships and Serious Mental Disorders (published by John Wiley & Sons in 2001) as well as in my article, "Coping with the catch-22s of depression: A guide for educating patients" (published in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, Volume 66, pages 103-144).
This material has been developed from psychoeducational programs I have conducted on trauma throughout The Menninger Clinic over the past decade, and it forms the basis for the current educational course on depression in the Professionals in Crisis program. Much of the credit for my understanding of depression goes to the patients who have participated in these educational programs; they are the true experts, and they have taught me graciously.
In teaching depressed patients about depression, I quickly learned that merely talking about all the things they needed to do to recover was futile; after explaining why these things don’t work easily, they tuned me out. I realized that we need to start with the obstacles to recovery. I started using the concept of catch-22 (from Joseph Heller’s book): all the things you must do to recover from depression are made difficult by the symptoms of depression. For example, you should eat well, sleep well, be active, and think realistically. Yet the typical symptoms of depression include poor appetite, insomnia, lethargy, and negative thinking. Above all, you should maintain hope, but depression can bring hopelessness. Paradoxically, acknowledging the seriousness of the illness and the difficulty in recovering provides a sound platform for hope.
On the basis of extensive work with hospitalized patients, I came to view depression as a consequence of stress pileup. I believe that most of us have the capacity to become depressed in the face of sufficient stress, although we have different levels of stress tolerance. The stress pileup concept fits a developmental view of depression, which I view as a response to the accumulation of stress over the lifetime. And we must consider stress pileup on multiple levels: biological, psychological, and social.
The sections to follow mirror the chapters in Coping with Depression, which is divided into five parts: Groundwork (Depression, A Rock and a Hard Place, Agency and Elbowroom), Development (Constitution, Attachment, Childhood Adversity), Precipitants (Stressful Events, Internal Stress), Illness (Brain and Body, Related Disorders), and Coping with Catch-22 (Health, Flexible Thinking, Supportive Relationships, Integrating Treatment, Hope). Keep in mind that the literature on depression goes far beyond what any individual could master; any single book, no matter how substantial, will be a short summary. Thus the manuscript you’re now reading is a short summary of a short summary. My intent is to give you the lay of the land and to inspire you to read and learn more. I’ve included selected readings and the end of this manuscript to provide you with a window to the wider literature.
In his masterful autobiographical memoir, Darkness Visible, author William Styron characterized “depression” as “a true wimp of a word for such a major illness,” a word that “has slithered innocuously through the language like a slug, leaving little trace of its intrinsic malevolence and preventing, by its very insipidity, a general awareness of the horrible intensity of the disease when out of control.” Most of us know what it’s like to feel depressed; being ill with depression is another matter altogether, and we must not generalize from one to the other.
We can begin defining by depression by distinguishing it from anxiety, although the two are thoroughly entangled with one another. We can understand anxiety as a high level of negative emotion, on a spectrum that ranges from being calm and relaxed at one end to feeling anxious, fearful, panicky, and terrified at the other. We need negative emotion as a motivating signal to steer us away from danger and adversity. Depression, on the other hand, can be understood as a low level of positive emotion. Decades ago, psychologist Paul Meehl aptly characterized depression as stemming from a lack of “cerebral joy juice,” neatly anticipating our current neurobiological understanding. Thus we can envision depression at the low end of spectrum of positive emotionality, which gradually increases from interest to excitement to joy, elation, and euphoria. Mania represents an excess of positive emotionality. Just as negative emotions steer us away from harm, positive emotions, anchored in a neurobiological reward system, steer us toward what is good for us. Thus both anxiety and depression promote disengagement: anxiety promotes withdrawal, and depression robs us of the incentive to engage. Typically, the depressed person faces the dual challenge of increasing positive emotion and decreasing negative emotion.
There are several diagnostic categories of depression, depending on the severity and duration of the symptoms. Major depression is the prototype; this diagnosis requires at least two weeks of five or more symptoms from the following list: depressed mood, diminished interest or pleasure in activities, significant decrease or increase in weight or appetite, insomnia or hypersomnia, motor agitation or retardation, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, diminished ability to think or concentrate, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal thinking or behavior. Dysthymic disorder entails less severe symptoms but a longer duration (at least two years), and double depression includes major depressive episodes superimposed on dysthymia. Seasonal affective disorder is diagnosed when the onset and remission of depression occurs consistently at a particular time of year (most commonly taking the form of winter depression); diagnosing a seasonal pattern is important because of the potential helpfulness of light therapy.
2. Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Wrongly, we tend to think of depression as an acute illness from which you should recover quickly—especially now that we have antidepressant medication. Here’s the rock: depression isn’t that serious; if you’d just [do x], you’d snap out of it. The hard place: depression is a serious, persistent, mental-physical illness. It’s tempting to stay on the rock, believing that you’re not really that ill, but it’s demoralizing and crazy-making: if you’re not that ill, why are you having such a hard time recovering? You conclude that you’re lazy or defective in some mysterious way, which is even more depressing. I think the hard place is better—facing the seriousness of the illness and having some compassion for yourself regarding how difficult it is to recover. Hope lies in a realistic view.
If you believe the popular stereotype, you might b e surprised about the sheer commonness and seriousness of depression. Statistics vary, but one major study found that 17% of the U.S. population suffers from an episode of major depression sometime in their lifetime, and women are twice as likely as men to experience depression. A World Health Organization study found the depression is currently the fourth most disabling disease worldwide, and it is anticipated to become the second most disabling disease by 2020 (only surpassed by heart disease). One reason for the level of disability is the sheer duration of depressive episodes. A major study of patients who required hospitalization for depression found that the median time to recovery was five months (i.e., 50% had recovered by 5 months). Moreover, we know that that there is a high likelihood of recurrence of depressive episodes, especially for persons who have experienced many such episodes or who continue to experience some residual symptoms of depression. But we must keep in mind that a major reason for these grim findings is that fact that the vast majority of persons with depression are not properly treated, and that proper treatment hastens recovery and decreases the likelihood of recurrence.
Plainly, depression is a major health problem worldwide. To summarize the problem: depressed persons may not realize that they’re ill; if they do recognize it, they may not seek treatment; if they do seek treatment, they may not be diagnosed; if they are diagnosed, they may be under-treated; if they are adequately treated, they may not fully respond; and if they do respond, they may experience a recurrence. Keep this in mind: you are not a statistic. I think the bottom line is this: if you’re depressed, you can do something about it. This brings us to the topic of agency.
3. Agency and Elbowroom
Richard Munich, MD, former chief of staff of The Menninger Clinic, proposed that a foundation of successful treatment is the patient’s capacity to take agency for the illness. This is a tricky idea. Agency is the capacity to initiate action for a purpose. To recover from depression, you must take action. Yet depression is an illness that constrains your capacity to take action. Nonetheless, despite some level of illness, you have some remaining agency, some elbowroom. For example, although you have low energy, you still have some energy, and you must use this energy as leverage to get more. In addition, you have some elbowroom in your ability to seek help from others.
Taking agency for the illness is most obvious in relation to recovery: you can learn that you can do something—many things, in fact—to become less depressed. Yet agency also can play a role in the development of the illness. I’ve stated that depression is a result of stress pileup. We can divide stress into two broad categories: fateful and self-generated. Fateful stress is unavoidable—accidents, job loss, deaths. But we also suffer from partly self-generated stress, for example, being perfectionistic, working too hard, or contributing to conflicts in our intimate relationships. Being mindful of self-generated stress is extremely important. If depression stems from stress pileup, minimizing stress and learning to cope with stress are crucial in recovering and staying well. We have no leverage over fateful stress, but we have some leverage over self-generated stress.
To repeat, the illness of depression constrains your agency, but it doesn’t eliminate it entirely. Sociologist Talcott Parsons construed illness as a social role, and he articulated what I consider to be the single most important point about illness: being ill, you cannot recover by a mere act of will. You cannot change your mind and no longer be depressed; you’re ill. Recovery takes many acts of will over a long period of time. Hence illness frees you from social and occupational obligations. Yet illness imposes other obligations: you must seek and cooperate with treatment in order to legitimate the freedom from usual responsibilities. This isn’t so easy to do when you’re depressed, but it’s absolutely essential if you wish others to give you some slack.
Emphasizing agency for illness is essential but it poses a difficult problem. A free agent makes choices and thus bears responsibility. It’s a slippery slope from responsibility to blame, condemnation, and punishment—all of which will only make matters worse. The challenge is to accept responsibility for the sake of empowerment, not self-blame. If you can understand how you got into depression—unwittingly contributing to piling up stress—you are in a stronger position to get out of it and stay out of it. Part of recovery will involve constructive self-criticism, and for that you’ll need a compassionate understanding of the reasons for your depression and the seriousness of the illness. You walk a tightrope in taking agency for your illness, putting yourself at risk for one of two mistakes: taking responsibility for things you can’t control, and failing to take responsibility for things you can control. The venerable serenity prayer captures the challenge: grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change things I can, and the wisdom to tell the difference. You’ll need knowledge as well as wisdom, and this manuscript is intended to provide some glimpses of that knowledge.
With the help of biological psychiatry and neuroscience, we are learning a great deal about constitutional vulnerability to depression. I will mention some key findings, but you must keep this in mind: biology is not destiny. Biological factors might place you at higher risk for depression, but you are an agent; you can do something about your level of risk.
We know that depression runs in families, and this is due not only to environmental factors but also to genetic factors. Depression is multifaceted, and there is no single gene for depression; many genes contribute, and some are being identified. But we must avoid the fallacy of genetic determinism, the idea that certain genes inevitably and directly cause psychiatric disorders. Genetic makeup is not destiny. And genetic vulnerability takes the form of rendering you more susceptible to depression in the face of environmental stress. Thus, being genetically predisposed to depression, a lesser degree of stress pileup could precipitate an episode of illness.
We are also learning that prenatal stress can be an early source of stress vulnerability. Maternal stress has an impact on the developing fetus, such that heightened stress reactivity can be evident even in newborns. Again, biology is not destiny: these effects are relatively mild in degree, and many other developmental factors will determine whether there are lasting effects. I note these findings merely to draw your attention to the fact that depression can have a long developmental history and that it is fundamentally based in responsiveness to stress.
Temperament—biologically based personality characteristics—also can play a role in stress susceptibility. Best studied is anxious temperament, a form of distress proneness that is evident early in infancy. The hallmark of the temperamentally anxious child is shyness and cautiousness in novel situations, as evident in the preschooler who sits on the sidelines observing, rather than diving into play. Some clinicians also believe in depressive temperament, evident in the contrast between persons who are more prone to gloominess and pessimism versus those who are characteristically more buoyant and optimistic (i.e., at opposite ends of the spectrum of positive emotionality).
Gender also plays a significant role in vulnerability to depression; beginning at adolescence—but not before—females are twice as likely as males to suffer from depression. This sex difference is partly constitutional but substantially social. The role of hormonal differences in vulnerability to depression is a matter of active research and the findings are complex. Hormonal changes (e.g., postpartum, menopause) are likely interact with genetic vulnerability and environmental stress to contribute to depression. A multitude of psychological and social factors also contribute to sex differences: negative body image, exposure to trauma, social inequalities, and coping strategies conducive to depression, such as proneness to rumination. None of these factors is unique to women, but they are more prominent among women.
To reiterate: biology is not destiny. If you have children and are concerned about their vulnerability, you might keep this in mind. These biological factors affect risk for depression; being aware of heightened risk, you can be alert to early signs of illness as well as treatment options that can help you intervene more promptly and effectively; prevention and early intervention is the best medicine.
Freud wrote that “We are never so defenceless against suffering as when we love, never so helplessly unhappy as when we have lost our loved object or its love.” John Bowlby developed attachment theory in the context of studying parent-infant separation and depression. Bowlby proposed that we all need secure attachment relationships throughout our lifetime. Secure attachment entails confidence that, when you’re distressed or ill, your attachment figure will be available and emotionally responsive, which boils down to having your mind in mind. A secure attachment relationship provides a safe haven and a feeling of security as well as a secure base, a platform for exploration. A secure base enables us to explore not only the outer world but also the inner world, our own mind and the minds of others. I often remark that the mind can be a scary place; as a patient rightly responded, “Yes, and you wouldn’t want to go in there alone!”
Insecure attachments are a significant developmental contributor to depression. In this context, psychologist Sidney Blatt identified two basic forms of depression: dependent and self-critical. These two types of depression relate to two broad themes: loss and failure. Individuals who suffer from dependent depression are highly sensitive to separation and loss, whereas those who suffer from self-critical depression tend to be perfectionistic, driven, and highly responsive to failure. Sadly, these two forms of depression are not mutually exclusive; themes of both loss and failure are commonly intertwined. As Freud appreciated, we can lose our love object (loss) or its love (failure).
I consider attachment theory to be a hopeful theory, because attachment is flexible throughout the lifetime, from infancy onwards. Infants can be securely attached with one caregiver and insecurely attached with another, depending on the nature of their interactions. Attachment is a biological need, like the need for food and water. Most persons don’t give up on seeking attachments. And attachments are the cornerstone of healing. Many persons who are depressed feel profoundly alone and isolated—often in conjunction with shame about the stressful events in their life as well as their depression. When they can make contact with others who understand what they are going through and show compassion, they heal. Attachment is the basis of the power of therapy ranging from individual to group therapy, hospitalization, and support groups. Ultimately, establishing or rebuilding secure attachments in friendships, family relationships, and intimate relationships is the best route to recovery and the best protection against recurrence.
6. Childhood Adversity
As I’ve already indicated, stress pileup can begin early in life, exemplified, for example, by mother-infant depression. Postpartum depression affects from 10-15% of women and, at worst, can last a matter of months. Depending on the severity of maternal depression, the mother-infant relationship can be more or less affected. It’s not the mother’s depression per se but rather the mother-infant interaction that’s crucial. Not uncommonly, depressed mothers are relatively inactive and unresponsive to their infants, as well as showing negative emotions. Their infants show depressed behavior in turn (although the infant will not show depression with a non-depressed caregiver). Fortunately, given the commonness and potential seriousness of mother-infant depression, clinicians have developed a range of interventions that promote more positive interactions. Keep in mind that history is not destiny: many developmental factors come into play to determine the long-range impact of mother-infant depression. Yet the potential seriousness of the consequences underscores the importance of seeking treatment for postpartum depression (or maternal depression on any other basis).
I have already noted in conjunction with attachment theory that early childhood loss is a risk factor for depression in childhood as well as later in life. Yet Bowlby and others have emphasized that the impact of loss of a primary caregiver in childhood will depend greatly on attachments in the wake of the loss. If the child develops other secure attachments, subsequent depression is less likely. When the loss is followed by neglect or other forms of trauma, however, subsequent depression is more likely.
As Bowlby’s work highlighted, childhood trauma is a prominent risk factor for depression in childhood and adulthood. Sadly, trauma takes many forms; childhood maltreatment is especially problematic. Childhood maltreatment includes not only physical, sexual, and psychological abuse but also physical and emotional neglect. All forms of maltreatment are risk factors for depression. In addition, childhood and adolescent depression are risk factors for adult depression, in part because they are stressful in themselves and in part because they are likely to create stress by hampering development.
Fortunately, development doesn’t consist of merely piling up risk factors. As we develop vulnerability, we also develop resilience: the capacity to cope with challenge and adversity. We pile up stress and also garner resources for coping. Factors that promote children’s effective functioning include ability to regulate emotional distress; high intelligence and academic competence; positive self-esteem and self-efficacy; easygoing temperament and ability to elicit positive regard and warmth form caregivers; and social competence. Primarily, however, resilience rests on good relationships—secure attachments in particular. Hence the flexibility of attachment over the lifetime is a major saving grace.
7. Stressful Events
A large majority of depressed persons experience a severe adverse life event—or many—prior to the onset of depression. Such life events include losses, such the death of a loved one, and failures, such as an unsuccessful business venture. Depression also can be brought on by chronic difficulties, such as severe marital conflicts or serious problems with children. Feeling let down by someone you count on can be a depressing stressor. Because of its extreme nature, traumatic stress is a common precipitant of depression. The subjective experience of stressful events— their meaning—also plays a significant role in depression. When you feel humiliated or trapped, you’re especially vulnerable to depression.
The majority of persons who suffer an episode of major depression have experienced one or more major stressors in the period prior to depression; yet only a minority of persons exposed to stress respond with major depression. Hence we must understand the nature of vulnerability to depression in the face of stress. Biological factors contribute to this vulnerability; these factors include not only genetic makeup but a history of prior stress, potentially beginning prenatally. Personality factors, such as feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem also contribute to vulnerability. A history of childhood maltreatment is a significant risk factor for adult depression, because it contributes to biological and personality vulnerability as well as a greater likelihood of entering into subsequent stressful relationships. Thus we can view depressive episodes in adulthood as a culmination of a developmental cascade.
Not only do stressful life events and difficulties contribute to the onset of depression but also ongoing stress can prolong the duration of the episode and interfere with response to treatment. Stress also plays a significant role in recurrences of depression. Accordingly, to reiterate an earlier point, minimizing stress to the extent humanly possible and learning to cope with stress more effectively are essential in the process of recovering and remaining well. Taking agency for illness, you’ll benefit from identifying anything you’re doing that contributes to the stress you experience; examples include taking on too many responsibilities, abusing drugs or alcohol, neglecting your health, entering into unsupportive relationships, behaving in ways that contribute to conflict in relationships, and failing to seek support from others when you need it.
8. Internal Stress
In addition to experiencing stressful events in your life, you can create stress in your own mind; thus it’s important to take account of the role of the internal world as well as the outer world. Of course, your internal world has the most pervasive influence. We can consider internal stress in the category of self-generated stress. Although I wouldn’t want to convey that internal stress is easy to control, you can exert some influence over it; you have some leverage.
Perfectionism is a glaring example of internal stress and a notorious contributor to depression—especially evoking a feeling of failure. Perfectionism is not all bad; holding high standards often is essential and fulfilling. Yet perfectionism is conscientiousness taken to an extreme, often as a way of compensating for self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. At worst, no matter how well you do, you can continue to raise the bar, making success impossible; that’s depressing. Moreover, you not only can hold high standards for yourself but also can believe unrealistically that others hold the same unrealistic standards for you; and you also can hold others to unreasonable standards. Thus perfectionism can create stress in relationships— stress in the external world as well as the internal world. Perfectionism is not easily changed, and you may well need help from psychotherapy to do so.
Guilt feelings and shame are additional internal stressors that contribute to depression. Although guilt and shame overlap, guilt feelings stem from harm you believe you have done to others whereas shame reflects a pervasive feeling of defectiveness, a sense that your core self is bad. Shame plays a major role in self-critical depression, and perfectionism contributes powerfully to shame. Unfortunately, guilt and shame tend to promote withdrawal and isolation, which also contribute to depression. To overcome guilt and shame, you will need to go against the grain, talking about these feelings with someone you trust who can help you see yourself in a more objective and compassionate way.
Frustration and anger also play a significant role in depression. You might have heard that depression is anger turned inward, and there is a lot of truth in this idea. Many depressed persons have difficulty expressing anger outwardly but uninhibitedly criticize, berate, and attack themselves. I believe that resentment plays a particularly powerful role in depression. Resentment is a chronic stressor, an enduring source of strain. I think of resentment as stifled anger; both the resentment and the stifling generate wear and tear on the mind and body. Resentment also entails a one-down, subordinate position in relationships; it’s associated with feeling trapped and oppressed, and oppression is depressing. To make matters worse, you might feel ashamed of your anger and resentment. I think of resentment as akin to being tied in an emotional knot; untying this knot requires resolving problems in attachment relationships. Although much resentment stems from past relationships, it’s often fueled by similar conflicts in current relationships; both can be addressed in psychotherapy.
We know that low self-esteem plays a central role in depression, but I think the concept of “self-esteem” is too passive. A fan of agency, I prefer to think in terms of the way you relate to yourself: you might esteem yourself or devalue yourself. Thinking in this active way, you can exert some influence over your relationship with yourself: ideally, you can learn to develop a compassionate, benevolent, and empathic relationship with yourself—after the model of a secure attachment relationship with others. Developing more secure attachments with others—feeling known and accepted—is a main route to secure attachment with yourself, and vice versa.
9. Brain and Body
With the advent of antidepressant medication, the public is becoming accustomed to thinking of depression as reflecting a “chemical imbalance.” On the positive side, this concept has popularized the idea that depression is a real illness—it’s physical. But I have some complaints about the chemical imbalance idea. It’s misleading if you believe that there is a distinct kind of depression—a “chemical imbalance depression.” On the contrary, the chemical imbalance stems from all the factors discussed in this manuscript. You might also think that a chemical imbalance can be influenced only by medication; on the contrary, your brain chemistry is influenced by psychotherapy and, more generally, how you live your life. In short, your brain chemistry is influenced by stress. Finally, believing that you have a chemical imbalance doesn’t tell you much about the nature of your depression.
Earlier in this manuscript I noted the fact that depression is associated with considerable disability. When you’re depressed you’re ill: you’re in a state of ill health. Much of this state relates to elevated stress hormones (including cortisol) that contribute to problems with energy, appetite, sleep, and sex drive.
In addition, depression is associated with changes in patterns of brain activity (which, in turn, are associated with the activity of neurotransmitters like serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, some of the chemicals in the “chemical imbalance”). William Styron presciently likened depression to a howling tempest in the brain. We now know, thanks to neuroimaging studies, that depression is associated with heightened activity of the amygdala, a structure deep in the brain that instantly senses danger and orchestrates the fear response. This heightened amygdala activity, along with elevated stress hormones, attests to the fact that depression is a high-stress state. Darwin wisely stated that fear is the most depressing of the emotions, and we have seen that depression is intertwined with anxiety—a high level of negative emotionality.
Depression is also associated with impaired functioning of the prefrontal cortex, an area that has been called the brain’s executive. Your prefrontal cortex is active when you concentrate and exert mental effort to hold a goal in mind, prioritize your actions, and solve complex problems. Your prefrontal cortex also automatically helps you keep a rein on the intensity of your emotional distress. As you know from experience, all this is difficult to do when you’re depressed; your brain power is compromised. You’re likely to need help from others to think objectively and solve problems: two prefrontal cortexes are better than one.
Fortunately, the neurobiological changes associated with depression are reversible; otherwise no one would recover. We now know that the brain is highly plastic; growth-promoting factors facilitate the healing of brain cells, and we even grow new brain cells. Antidepressant medication, various forms of psychotherapy, and managing the stress in your life can facilitate this healing process.
10. Related Disorders
Having a broken leg doesn’t prevent you from getting the flu. So it is with psychiatric disorders; if you’re suffering from depression, you’re also likely to have other disorders. I’ve mentioned anxiety repeatedly. Here I will make note of other disorders commonly associated with depression: bipolar disorder, substance abuse, personality disorders, and general medical conditions. I will also include some comments about suicidal states.
Bipolar disorder is associated with alternating manic and depressive episodes, although depressed mood is generally more pervasive than manic periods. Manic episodes are associated with abnormally elevated mood, heightened activity, inflated self-esteem, and decreased need for sleep. Not just euphoric feelings but also frustration and irritability can be associated with mania, especially in the face of obstacles to goal-directed activity. Mania comes in degrees; less severe degrees are diagnosed as hypomania (and bipolar II disorder). Like depressive episodes, manic episodes can be triggered by stress, most commonly by schedule disruption (especially not getting enough sleep). Manic episodes also can be triggered by success, which can rev up the reward system and lead to an escalating pattern of goal-directed activity. Confusingly, both manic and depressive symptoms can be intermingled in mixed episodes, alternating from day to day or hour to hour. Medication can facilitate recovery from manic episodes and is crucial to prevention; psychotherapy also can be helpful in prevention.
Substance abuse is often thoroughly intertwined with depression; I view it as a catalyst, because it can speed up your slide into depression. Intoxication and withdrawal can be a straight path to depression (and mania), as evidenced in substance-induced mood disorders. In addition, substance abuse contributes to stress in a multitude of ways: substance abuse can contribute to stressful life events such as job loss or arrests; it can contribute to internal stress, such as guilt feelings; and—most important—it plays a major role in relationship conflicts. Substance abuse not only plays a role in precipitating depression but also interferes with recovery. Both substance abuse and mood disorders tend to be recurrent, and the recurrence of either one raises the risk of recurrence of the other. Hence ongoing treatment for both disorders is essential.
Personality disorders revolve largely around persistent problems in close relationships. Many of these disorders involve exaggerations of normal personality traits; for example, you might be excessively dependent, avoidant, or compulsive. Borderline personality disorder is more complex, reflecting a pattern of emotional and interpersonal instability centered around attachment disturbance, namely, a fear of abandonment and aloneness frequently connected with childhood trauma. Personality functioning plays a major role in depression inasmuch as personality influences key relationships; personality problems are an important contributor to partly self-generated stress in relationships, and this domain of stress is most prominent in depression. Ironically, focusing on personality disturbance is a hopeful view: here you have some leverage over stress. Of course, personality change requires considerable effort over an extended period of time, and you’re likely to need help in working on personality disturbance. Fortunately, psychotherapy can be an effective source of help.
Innumerable general medical conditions can contribute to depression, including endocrine disorders, infections, degenerative diseases, cardiovascular problems, and some forms of cancer. Thus I believe you should obtain a thorough medical evaluation to investigate such possible causes of depression, even if the depression seems to have been brought on by a major psychological stressor. Such conditions can make you more vulnerable to becoming depressed in the face of stress. Moreover, depression can complicate the course and treatment of a wide range of general medical conditions. In short, mental and physical health are thoroughly intertwined, both being linked to stress. One point cannot be overemphasized: your physical health plays a central role in improving your resilience to stress and depression.
Depression is the psychiatric condition most frequently associated with suicide, and the diagnostic criteria for depression include recurrent thoughts of death and suicide. Suicidal behavior should be distinguished from deliberate self-harm (e.g., self-cutting or impulsive overdosing), which is intended to provide temporary relief from unbearable emotional states. Suicide typically reflects a feeling of hopelessness coupled with a wish for permanent escape from emotional pain through death. One of the most pernicious forms of distorted thinking in suicidal states is the idea that loved ones would be better off without you—a glaringly unrealistic belief given the traumatic impact of loss through suicide. Suicidal states often stem from a kind of “perfect storm” in which many factors come together: emotional pain, a feeling of humiliation or entrapment, anxiety or panic, and alcohol intoxication. But no one commits suicide without a method, and decreasing ready access to potential methods is a cornerstone of prevention. I know from having worked with chronically suicidal patients that suicide can seem like the only reasonable thing to do; from these same patients, I also know that even prolonged suicidal states can change, because years later they have been glad to be alive. In struggling with suicidal feelings, it’s important to keep in mind that the vast majority of suicides are associated with active psychiatric disorders and that psychiatric disorders are treatable.
In coping with depression, you might need to work on many fronts, contending with problems in sleeping, eating, activity, positive emotions, thinking, and relationships. Above all, you’ll need to cultivate hope. You can’t work on all fronts at once. If you’re severely depressed, I think your first priority should be physical health.
Depression is a high stress state; thus, if you’re depressed you need rest. Sleep is the most important source of rest, and insomnia plays a major role in precipitating and prolonging depression (although some depressed persons retreat by sleeping too much). Insomnia is a hard problem. Proper sleeping medication can be a great help, but it’s generally best employed on a temporary basis, because it can become addicting and then compound your problems. Fortunately, given the seriousness and prevalence of sleep disturbance, clincians such as William Dement and Peter Hauri have provided expert guidance on sleep hygiene. Furthermore, because sleep disturbance is a symptom of depression (and anxiety), effective treatment for depression is likely to help.
Like sleeping and eating, activity is basic to physical health. Catch-22: you don’t have the energy and motivation to be active. Yet, constrained as you might be by the illness, you’re likely to have some energy. I think activity is one area where you have some leverage. You can’t force yourself to sleep, and you can’t force yourself to feel pleasure, but you can force yourself to be more active: sit up in bed, get out of bed, walk out of your bedroom, and on from there. Recovery entails small steps—the only way around catch-22. Eventually you can work your way up to exercise, which has been demonstrated to be a good antidepressant and a cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle that can become a foundation of wellness.
Depressed mood reflects the limited capacity for interest and pleasure, and positive emotion is an antidepressant. You can’t force pleasure, but you can make an effort to engage in activities that might provide an opportunity for pleasure. Behavioral treatment for depression involves making a project of scheduling potentially pleasant, satisfying, and fulfilling events. You might also make a project of paying attention to positive experiences, being mindful of them rather than letting them slip by without notice. As you recover, your capacity for pleasure will increase; then you can make a point of enhancing positive experiences further.
If I’d started this manuscript by advising you that you need to recover from depression by sleeping and eating well, being active, and enjoying yourself, you’d have probably quit reading. Intuitively, you’ve been aware of catch-22 all along. True, you’ll need to do these things—in small steps. But all this advice that’s difficult to follow when you’re in the depth of depression is easier to follow when you’ve recovered: then you’re not in the throes of catch-22, and you can employ it to maximize your chances of remaining well. In addition, you can become alert to warning signs that you’re slipping back into depression and then make an added effort to use these antidepressant strategies.
12. Flexible Thinking
Emotion and reason are thoroughly entangled in depression: negative thoughts evoke depression, and depressed mood evokes negative thoughts. A pertinent saying: when you’re in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging! Depression is typically a response to negative events, but the way you think about these events—and yourself—plays a significant role in the severity and course of depression. And you might not even be aware of your negative thoughts; they can flit through your mind automatically when anything goes wrong (e.g., “I can’t do anything right!). These thoughts might be so common and reflexive that you hardly notice them, but they nevertheless fuel your depression. Noticing and questioning such thoughts is the key to cognitive therapy, one of the best researched treatments for depression.
Negative thinking of various sorts is notoriously common in depression; you’re likely to think negatively about yourself, the world, and the future. At worst, negative thinking can fuel hopelessness, especially if you engage in global negative thinking: “I’m worthless, a complete failure!” “Things will never change!” “My whole life is ruined!” You’re more likely to feel hopeful if you view your situation as temporary— “This will pass!”—and specific—“This project may be doomed, but I can do others.” Such global negative thinking, and the hopelessness that goes with it, are unfortunate responses to childhood maltreatment, which can fuel feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. This learning may be a natural evolution of the child’s experience: painful events did happen continually, the child was blamed for them, and the child was helpless to prevent them. Becoming aware that such thinking comes from the past and does not fit the present can help you be more objective and realistic. In sum, negative thinking is appropriate to negative events; over-generalizing is the problem.
Not only what you think but also how you think plays a role in depression. Ruminating about problems and failings—going over and over the same thoughts—is a good example of digging yourself deeper into the hole. Persons who ruminate have the illusion of gaining insight into their problems but, in reality, they’re making themselves more depressed. Ruminating also wears out others who become tired of listening when you’re merely spinning your wheels. Your challenge is to go from global ruminating (how much of a failure you are) to focusing on specific problems that you can solve. Becoming aware that you’re ruminating is the first step; the next step is distracting yourself, and the last step is practical problem solving.
Psychiatrist Aaron Beck and his colleagues developed cognitive therapy to foster more productive thinking. Cognitive therapy doesn’t promote the power of positive thinking but rather the power of realistic thinking. The four basic steps in cognitive therapy are (1) identifying automatic negative thoughts, (2) questioning their accuracy, (3) considering more reasonable alternatives, and (4) altering core negative beliefs (e.g., “No one will ever love me”). Skills learned in cognitive therapy can help you cope with stressful situations without sinking into depression. It’s natural to feel bummed out when things go wrong. Cognitive therapy can help you interrupt the spiral from feeling bummed out to becoming ill with depression by blocking the thought processes that can put you deeper into the hole. In my view, cognitive therapy is a fine way to improve your relationship with yourself; instead of criticizing, discouraging, berating, and tormenting yourself, you can empathize with yourself, encouraging, reassuring, and supporting yourself. Catch-22: not easy when you’re depressed, or even when you’re not. Cognitive therapy is a lot of work and something you must incorporate into your daily life to obtain lasting benefit.
13. Supportive Relationships
Catch-22: when you’re depressed, you most need support from others, but depression is likely to undermine potentially supportive relationships. When you’re depressed, you’re likely to withdraw, and when you engage, you’re likely to be relatively unanimated and unresponsive, such that others do not find it rewarding to interact with you. Furthermore, depressed persons commonly seek reassurance but reject it; then they encounter rejection in return. Thus depression tends to be contagious, and perceptions of rejection are not entirely unwarranted, although depressed persons tend to overestimate the extent of the negative reactions they evoke. When you’re depressed, it’s important to remain mindful of the fact that, although your depression is distressing to others, those who care about you are strongly motivated by compassion and a wish to help. When you withdraw, they feel helpless, frustrated, and rejected.
Some ways of coping with these interpersonal problems include being aware of your behavior and its impact on others; acknowledging and discussing relationship problems related to your depression; widening your sources of support such that your intimate relationships are not unduly burdened; interacting with persons who have a relatively high tolerance for depression; and engaging in low-key activities such as going to a movie that do not require a lot of animation, energy, and conversation.
Another version of catch-22: the single most important buffer against depression is an intimate, confiding relationship; yet the single most potent perpetuator of depression is a stable bad relationship—one in which conflict and a sense of alienation prevails. There are no prescriptions for the dilemma of whether to stay or leave; couples therapy can be a significant help, but it requires the willing collaboration of both partners.
Like cognitive therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy is a well researched and effective treatment for depression. Interpersonal psychotherapy focuses on one or two of four interpersonal problem areas: unresolved grief, role disputes (e.g., different expectations about who should do what in a marriage), role transitions (e.g., leaving home, marrying, having children, divorce), and difficulty developing and maintaining relationships. Although it is less well researched, psychodynamic psychotherapy also has been shown to be effective in the treatment of depression; psychodynamic psychotherapy focuses on conflicts and personality problems that not only cause internal stress but also undermine secure attachments.
A significant part of coping with relationship problems stemming from depression is being aware of the tightrope that those who support you must walk. Ideally, those who provide support would offer steadfast encouragement. But they’re not likely to be saints. Inevitably, they will fall off the tightrope in one of two ways: first, when their encouragement fails to relieve your depression, they might become more frustrated and critical, which exacerbates your depression; second, when that fails, they are likely to feel helpless and give up, which further exacerbates your depression. You can help those who support you to feel less helpless by coaching them, letting them know that they don’t need to do anything to fix you; listening and thereby assuring you that you’re not alone might be the most helpful thing that they can do. You can also let them know that you have other sources of support, so they will not feel so burdened. And you can seek couples therapy, marital therapy, or family therapy which will provide help to both of you.
14. Integrating Treatment
As the previous sections indicate, when you’re recovering from depression, you’ll work on many fronts, endeavoring to sleep well, eat properly, stay active, cultivate pleasurable experience, think flexibly, and maintain supportive relationships. Clinicians have developed specific therapies to help you on all these fronts: behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as marital and family therapy. Antidepressant medication also can help you on all these fronts: anything that decreases your anxiety and improves your mood will do so. But you cannot work on all fronts at once, nor can you participate in several forms of therapy. I’ve covered all these domains of problems and the therapies that go with them to help you prioritize. No one form of treatment is generally more effective than any other; you need to find a type of therapy and a therapist who will address the problems that trouble you most. You should also be aware that the “brand names” of therapies are misleading; in practice, many therapists are eclectic, drawing techniques from various effective therapies. In any event, you’ll need a therapist who is flexible.
More important than the type of therapy is a solid therapeutic alliance, which involves a feeling of acceptance, a sense that your therapist trying to help, and an understanding that you are working actively toward shared goals. You should be aware that the most important determinant of the effectiveness of therapy is you: you’ll benefit to the extent that you can be open and honest and collaborate with your therapist. By collaboration, I mean actively using the therapy as a resource for constructive change. Being in therapy is like going to college: what you get out of it will depend on the work you put into it. But, like college, you’re faced with many choices.
One of the basic choices you’ll make in seeking treatment for depression is deciding between some form of therapy or medication—or both. You’ll need to make this decision in consultation with professionals; you cannot decide on the basis of reading. The current trend is away from psychotherapy and toward medication. Although the research findings defy simple summary, extensive evidence indicates that medication and psychotherapy can be equally effective when groups of patients are compared, although one or the other may be more effective for you as an individual. Also, there is some solid evidence that combining medication and psychotherapy is best for relatively severe depression. Psychotherapy can enhance the benefits of medication and vice versa. I believe that, short of overloading yourself, you should make use of everything that helps.
If you’re so depressed that you’re unable to function or if you are in a suicidal state, you should consider hospitalization. When he became depressed, William Styron sought outpatient treatment, took medication, went to psychotherapy, yet didn’t improve. As he reflected on this experience, he wrote: “Why wasn’t I in the hospital?” His psychiatrist didn’t want him to be stigmatized, and he was only admitted after he became acutely suicidal. To recover, he needed several weeks of hospital treatment.
You might need several weeks or even months of treatment to help you recover from an episode. And you should know that we do not have a cure for depression: an episode of treatment will not prevent you from a recurrence. Maintenance medication is commonly employed to prevent recurrence, and maintenance psychotherapy can be employed in the same way. But I believe you must think beyond treatment: what matters most is how you live your life. You’re most likely to remain well if you learn something from treatment that leads to durable change in your lifestyle, pattern of thinking, and relationships. Here’s an analogy: you use exercise to lose weight; when you’ve lost the weight, you quit exercising. What happens then? Many depressed patients quit taking their medication when they feel better; this is a notorious precipitant of relapse.
In his masterful book, The Noonday Demon, writer Andrew Solomon offered succinct advice for relapse prevention: “act fast; have a good doctor prepared to hear from you; know your own patterns really clearly; regulate sleep and eating no matter how odious the task may be; lift stresses at once; exercise; mobilize love.”
Hope is the foundation of recovery from depression. Aristotle rightly said that we’re more likely to achieve our aim if we have a target. Thinking clearly about hope might help you cultivate it.
We can sharpen the concept of hope by distinguishing it from wishful thinking and optimism. All three involve positive expectations about the future, but hope applies to tragedy and serious suffering. You only need hope when you also struggle with fear and doubt. Wishful thinking is easy; hope is sufficiently difficult to count as a virtue. Optimism is too lighthearted a concept for circumstances that call for hope.
Hope requires a combination of agency (oomph or motive force) and pathways (a sense of direction—what your next steps might be). Hope also requires imagination, the ability to imagine alternative futures. When asked what gave her hope, one patient put it beautifully: “I can be surprised.”
Sadly, depression undermines all you need for hope: it erodes your agency, makes it difficult for you to find pathways through problem solving, and undercuts your capacity to imagine. When you feel hopeless, you’re likely to need the support of others who can encourage you and help you see solutions that might not occur to you. You might need to rely on borrowed hope—hope that others who are not seeing the world through the lens of depression are able to hold out for you.
I believe that our increasing knowledge about depression provides some basis for hope. Monumental effort, intelligence, and creativity is going into understanding the development of depression from the womb to senescence as well as into creating and researching treatments. It’s realistic to hope for more effective treatments, and it’s essential to stay informed about new developments as you care for yourself. Don’t give up; imagine the unimaginable.
My mentor, psychologist Paul Pruyser, provided what I find to be the most compelling perspective on hope: “hoping is based on a belief that there is some benevolent disposition toward oneself somewhere in the universe, conveyed by a caring person.” This wonderfully open-ended view is grounded in attachment, and it is consistent with psychoanalyst Erik Erikson’s belief that hope is the virtue associated with the first stage of development, basic trust. I would add that the benevolent disposition toward yourself also can come from inside, in a secure attachment relationship with yourself.
I’ve offered some general thoughts about hope, but I’ve learned that hope is an individual matter. Hope comes and goes. What gives you hope might change from one time to another. Hope is likely to be intermingled with fear and doubt. You might be afraid to hope for fear of being disillusioned; thus hoping takes courage. Perhaps there’s no firmer ground for hope than the possibility that some good ultimately might come from your painful experience. Writing about his own depression, Andrew Solomon concluded, “I have found that there are things to be made of this lot I have in life, that there are values to be found in it, at least when one is not in its most acute grip.”
For Further Reading
Allen, J. G. (2006). Coping with depression. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Allen, J. G. (2005). Coping with trauma: Hope through understanding (2nd Ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Allen, J. G. (2003). Substance abuse is a catalyst for depression. Menninger Perspective, 33(1), 17-20.
Allen, J. G. (2005). Coping with trauma: Hope through understanding (Second Edition). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Antony, M. M., & Swinson, R. P. (1998). When perfect isn't good enough: Strategies for coping with perfectionism. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.
Aristotle. (1976). Ethics (J. A. K. Thompson, Trans.). London: Penguin.
Bifulco, A., & Moran, P. (1998). Wednesday's Child: Research into women's experience of neglect and abuse in childhood, and adult depression. London: Routledge.
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic Books.
Burns, D. D. (1980). Feeling good. New York: Avon.
Cronkite, K. (1994). On the edge of darkness: America’s most celebrated actors, journalists and politicians chronicle their most arduous journey. New York: Dell.
Darwin, C. (1872/1965). The expression of emotion in man and animals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dement, W. C. (1999). The promise of sleep. New York: Random House.
Groopman, J. (2004). The anatomy of hope: How people prevail in the face of illness. New York: Random House.
Hammen, C. (1997). Depression. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.
Jamison, K. R. (1995). An unquiet mind. New York: Random House.
Jamison, K. R. (1999). Night falls fast: Understanding suicide. New York: Random House.
Lewinsohn, P. M., Munoz, R. F., Youngren, M. A., & Zeiss, A. (1986). Control your depression. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Lewis, L., Kelly, K. A., & Allen, J. G. (2004). Restoring hope and trust: An illustrated guide to mastering trauma. Baltimore, MD: Sidran Press.
McEwen, B. (2002). The end of stress as we know it. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.
Martin, P. (1999). The Zen path through depression. New York: HarperCollins.
Solomon, A. (2001). The noonday demon: An atlas of depression. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Styron, W. (1990). Darkness visible. New York: Random House.
Whybrow, P. (1997). A mood apart: Depression, mania, and other afflictions of the self. New York: BasicBooks.
Williams, M. (1997). Cry of pain: Understanding suicide and self-harm. London: Penguin Books.
Yudofsky, S. C. (2005). Fatal flaws: Navigating destructive relationships with people with disorders of personality and character. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Allen, J. G. (2001). Traumatic relationships and serious mental disorders. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Allen, J. G., Newsom, G. E., Gabbard, G. O., & Coyne, L. (1984). Scales to assess the therapeutic alliance form a psychoanalytic perspective. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 48, 383-400.
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford.
Beutler, L. E., Clarkin, J. F., & Bongar, B. (2000). Guidelines for the systematic treatment of the depressed patient. New York: Oxford University Press.
Blatt, S. J. (2004). Experiences of depression: Theoretical, clinical, and research perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss, Volume III: Loss, sadness and depression. New York: Basic Books.
Brown, G. W., & Harris, T. O. (1978). Social origins of depression: A study of psychiatric disorder in women. New York: Free Press.
Busch, F. N., Rudden, M., & Shapiro, T. (2004). Psychodynamic treatment of depression. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (Eds.). (2002). Perfectionism: Theory, research, and treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E. L., & Target, M. (2002). Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self. New York: Other Press.
Freud, S. (1929/1961). Civilization and its discontents (J. Strachey, Trans.). New York: Norton.
Gabbard, G. O. (Ed.). (2001). Treatments of psychiatric disorders (Third edition.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Gilbert, P. (1992). Depression: The evolution of powerlessness. New York: Guilford.
Goodman, S. H., & Gotlib, I. H. (Eds.). (2002). Children of depressed parents: Mechanisms of risk and implications for treatment. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Gotlib, I. H., & Hammen, C. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of depression. New York: Guilford.
Hirschfeld, R. M., Keller, M. B., Panico, S., et al. (1997). The National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association consensus statement on the undertreatment of depression. Journal of the American Medical Association, 277, 333-340.
Kagan, J. (2003). Behavioral inhibition as a temperamental category. In R. J. Davidson & K. R. Scherer & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 320-331). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kandel, E. R. (2005). Psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and the new biology of mind. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
McCullough, J. P. (2000). Treatment for chronic depression: Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy. New York: Guilford.
Meehl, P. E. (1975). Hedonic capacity: Some conjectures. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 39, 295-307.
Menninger, K. A. (1987). Hope. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 51, 447-462.
Munich, R. L. (2003). Efforts to preserve the mind in contemporary hospital treatment. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 76, 167-186.
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Parsons, T. (1951). Illness and the role of the physician: A sociological perspective. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 21, 452-460.
Pruyser, P. W. (1987). Maintaining hope in adversity. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 51, 463-474.
Roth, A., & Fonagy, P. (2005). What works for whom? A critical review of psychotherapy research (Second edition). New York: Guilford.
Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: A new approach to preventing relapse. New York: Guilford.
Snyder, C. R., Cheavens, J., & Michael, S. T. (1999). Hoping. In C. R. Snyder (Ed.), Coping: The psychology of what works (pp. 205-231). New York: Oxford University Press.
Watson, D. (2000). Mood and temperament. New York: Guilford.
Weissman, M. M., Markowitz, J. C., & Klerman, G. L. (2000). Comprehensive guide to interpersonal psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.
Wells, K. B., Sturm, R., Sherbourne, C. D., & Meredith, L. S. (1996). Caring for depression. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Copyright © 2005 The Menninger Clinic.
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Detroit Day School for the Deaf
|Detroit Day School for the Deaf|
|4555 John C. Lodge Freeway
Detroit, Michigan 48201
|School district||Detroit Public Schools|
|Enrollment||36 (2011–12 school year)|
At the school, the main mode of communication was American Sign Language. When it operated, the school had an early intervention program for children who were hard of hearing and deaf; the program served 300 children.
The school was established in 1893. At the time, the common practice in American education was to send deaf children to boarding schools; Detroit Day School was intended to serve as a day school so that deaf students could live in their houses while attending school. The school was organized around 1900. In 1905 the school had seven teachers and 45 students. That year the Detroit Free Press stated that the presence of the school was saving the state of Michigan $15,000 each year. Around that period state Senator Jenks was proposing a bill that would have hindered the school. Elizabeth Van Adestine, the principal, said that she did not believe that Jenks's bill would pass.
The final school building opened in 1970. In 2008 the school considered adding a high school component in order to make itself viable. In 2010 parents started a letter writing campaign, contacted politicians, and organized rallies to prevent the school's closure.
In 2009 the State of Michigan took control of the school district. Attempts to close the school began after the takeover. The district had considered closing the school in 2010, but Robert Bobb, the Emergency Financial Manager, cancelled the closing. Bobb had also considered closing the school in 2010 and on one other occasion. Parents of students at DDSD said that they persuaded him to keep the school open both times.
The school ultimately was scheduled to close in June 2012. By its final year the school had 36 students. Steven Wasko, the DPS chief communications officer, said that the building was too large for the program, the majority of parents of deaf children prefer that their children be introduced to a hearing environment early, there were too few children at the school, and that the other facilities for deaf at other DPS schools are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The DPS administration planned to "mainstream" the former students by placing them in regular schools. At the time, the district had 102 deaf students in regular schools. John Carlisle (DetroitBlogger John) of the Metro Times said that some parents were opposed to the closure because their children liked the social environment and feared that they would not be socially accepted at other schools. In September 2012 former students and parents of former students appeared at the school building to protest the closure.
The final school building, located near Midtown, opened in 1970, replacing the previous school building located at 6045 Stanton Street. It was designed specifically for deaf students, and as of 2012 is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is located on the southbound John C. Lodge Freeway service drive at Forest. The school building has over 50 classrooms. As of 2012 DPS uses the school building as office space.
- "Detroit Day School For The Deaf." Detroit Public Schools. November 22, 2010. Retrieved on November 1, 2012.
- "Dilemma for deaf students." The Detroit News. November 24, 2008. Retrieved on November 1, 2012.
- Foley, Aaron. "Parents of deaf students unsure of future as Detroit school prepares to close." Mlive.com. Wednesday March 14, 2012. Retrieved on November 2, 2012.
- Carlisle, John (DetroitBlogger John). "Curtain call." Metro Times. April 25, 2012. Retrieved on November 1, 2012.
- "PRINCIPAL VAN ADESTINE SHOWS WHAT SHE IS DOING FLINT INSTITUTION CANNOT TAKE ITS PLACE Day Schools Saving the State $15,000 Annually." Detroit Free Press. March 29, 1905. Start Page 5. Retrieved on November 1, 2012. "[...]some of the facts in the matter The Detroit day school for the deaf was organized about five years ago and today has forty-five pupils and seven teachers From[...]"
- "Home." (Archive) Detroit Day School for the Deaf. Retrieved on November 1, 2012.
- Walsh-Sarnecki, Peggy. "Appeals and efforts to increase enrollments help save schools." Detroit Free Press. June 8, 2010. Metro A6. Retrieved on November 1, 2012. "Parents at the Detroit Day School for the Deaf spent much of the last few months organizing rallies, talking to politicians and launching a letter-writing campaign"
- "DPS closing 32 buildings in June." The Detroit News. June 8, 2010. Retrieved on November 1, 2012. "In releasing the long-awaited final closure list Monday, Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb saved 18 schools that were headed for closure under his original plan released in March while adding[...]" "[...]Kettering High School, Detroit Day School for the Deaf, Detroit City Alternative High School, Catherine Ferguson Academy for Young Women, Hally Magnet,[...]"
- Briscoe, Tony. "Students, parents protest closure of Detroit school for deaf." The Detroit News. September 4, 2012. Retrieved on November 2, 2012.
- Midtown location from the University Cultural Center Association, retrieved 6/9/09
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The importance of kindergartens in a student’s life cannot be over-emphasized. Sadly, the world is moving towards altering the tried and tested ‘play-based’ mode to the ‘learning-based’ mode which undermines the importance of play and interactivity in these vital initiation stages of a child’s life. Children today, are increasingly being forced to go the beaten path of literacy where the basics of phonetics, math and reading are taking up much of the time. The general word that is going around is that ‘there is plenty of time to play at home’. What administrators and policy-makers at many occasions are failing to grasp is the importance of inventive and make-believe play techniques in the early stages of a student’s life. As the child’s first interaction with the educational environment, kindergartens have a responsibility to carefully review their methods and steer clear of academic pressure or judgement based on standardized tests which follows a ‘one-size-fits-all’ mantra and ignores the individuality and uniqueness of each child. China and Finland are among the countries that believe in a playful kindergarten and a late entry into former classrooms. Quite unsurprisingly, students from these countries go on to be some of the brightest minds of the global generation. In Singapore, the Canadian International School (CIS) has always been a stickler to the play model and encourages long hours of teacher-student engagement in make-believe and role playing situations that have proven to boost intellectual, cognitive and social skills among the pupils.
So, how can a kindergarten be the perfect learning space for children and a kickstarter for their academic futures? Here are some pointers:
Child initiated play and experiential learning: Make time for play every school day, both indoors, outdoors and during recess. Ensure you have variety, inventiveness and interactivity in how play subjects are chosen. Items like make-believe, sensory, language, construction, large and small-motor, and mastery play have been known to be highly beneficial to overall intellectual development of the child. Also be open and discuss about the role and importance of play in kindergartens with the parents so that you have a support base for policymakers and administrators.
Developmentally appropriate practices: Switch from the on-size-fits-all module and treat each child individually with tailor made curriculum suiting his/her intellectual, cognitive and social needs. Recognize the difference between a fast reader and a fast painter and steer clear of standardized tests that may designate their deviations as abnormalities and disorders. Be flexible with teaching methods and work towards appropriate practices.
Research long term impact: Research current kindergarten practices and their long term impact on the psychological and cognitive growth of students. Done on a larger scale, this comparative study will be a key in understanding which developmental practices are failing and which are flourishing. Stick to the tested formula.
Teacher’s training: Invest in professional training and mentoring teachers on how to encourage the spirit of play and spontaneous ideating. Prepare coursework that supports mandatory play time every day. Teachers should be educated on how to encourage and support play especially in children who do not have too many opportunities at creative play or have poor self regulation skills.
Combat the crisis: Work across boundaries and geographies to combat the shift to learning-based kindergarten models. Build up awareness regarding the obstacles to play such as unsafe neighbourhoods, overscheduling of children’s lives, excessive screen time, toys linked to entertainment media, and education that emphasizes skills, drills, and homework and undermines creativity, imagination, and overall well-being.
Kindergartens are the platforms to brilliant academic futures and deserve policies and methodologies that make them effective and healthy as learning spaces. A coordinated effort from schools, teachers, parents and administrators can make this happen.
For more information kindly visit kindergarten in singapore
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New scientific studies show that the North Pole is gradually shifting towards the UK, as global warming is changing the way the Earth turns on its axis. Experts and scientists now believe the North Pole's movement is being caused by a shift in the distribution of water across the planet and the continued melting of polar ice.
Scientists and navigators have been measuring the location of the true poles and polar motion of the Earth since 1899. Throughout entire 20th century, scientists followed the poles as they moved fractionally towards Canada.
Speaking to the New Scientist, Surenda Adhikari of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab said: "This is the first time we have solid evidence that changes in land water distribution on a global scale also shift which direction the axis moves to. The recent shift from the 20th-century direction is very dramatic."
Melting ice contributing to a shift in weight
The study, which was published on Friday, 8 April in the Science Advances Journal, explains how the North Pole is now moving towards the Greenwich meridian. Melting ice sheets – particularly those around Greenland – are being blamed for the Earth's change in weight distribution.
This latest finding is not anything to be alarmed about, according to Jianli Chen, senior research scientist at the University of Texas' Center for Space Research. Chen, who first attributed pole shift to climate change in 2013, said the movement is "just another interesting effect of climate change."
A predicted rise in sea levels
However, Nasa scientist Erik Ivins claims that since 2003, Greenland has lost around 600 trillion pounds of ice a year, which has affected the balance of the Earth's axis. West Antarctica loses 275 trillion pounds of ice, while East Antarctica has gained around 165 trillion pounds of ice annually.
On 30 March, it was reported that the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet could cause sea levels to rise dramatically. Nature – who published the report – said that melt from the Antarctic Ice Sheet could contribute more than a one metre rise in sea level by 2,100, and a 15m rise by 2500.
The recent findings follow the release of the Arctic Report Card in December 2015, which was the 10th annual report of its kind. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported increasing air and sea surface temperatures, decreasing sea ice totals and the changing behaviour in sea life. The report also showed that maximum sea ice coverage was the lowest since records began in 1979.
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In 'Completing The Analogous Pair', two words are given. These words are related to each other in some way. Another word is also given. The candidate is required to find out the relationship between the first two words and choose the word from the given alternatives, which bears the same relationship to the third word, as the first two bear.
House : Garbage : : Ore : ?
The waste of the house is called garbage.
Similarly, the impurities in the ore are called gangue.
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What is Chlamydia?
Chlamydia is a common STI caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis. It can cause permanent and lasting damage to a woman's reproductive organs (uterus, Fallopian tubes, and ovaries) if left untreated. It is the most frequently reported bacterial STI in the United States.
Often Chlamydia shows no signs or symptoms, yet can cause irreversible damage.
Chlamydia can affect both men and women at any time regardless of age. It is spread through body fluids during vaginal, oral, or anal sex. Condoms offer about 50% protection against Chlamydia, but even with 100% condom use you can still contract the disease.
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Some years ago scientists started research of single-molecule magnets and magnetism of nanoparticles. For a long time molecules were considered as a non-magnetic materials, but this may be have been based on wrong assumption. The latest research shows that molecules can carry a relatively large magnetic moment. These are the Single-molecule magnets or SMM. SMM are a class of metalorganic compounds, that show superparamagnetic behavior below a certain blocking temperature at the molecular scale. In this temperature range, SMMs exhibit magnetic hysteresis of purely molecular origin.
These molecules does not only have the properties of magnets, they also have quantum properties which can be important for molecular data storage or for the purpose of the quantum computing. The nanometer-sized molecules consist of a fixed number of atoms, usually built for the specific function and therefore its production can be relatively inexpensive. In addition to the electric charge of the electrons and the magnetic moment or spin SMMs can be used for non-volatile memory or even a quantum computer.
Read more at our MDRL blog.
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In my recent podcast with Russ ("DJ Yiddisher Kop" is his rap name) Roberts, we discussed the problems caused by minimum wage. In particular, economic theory would clearly imply that forcing a higher than equilibrium wage would allow, in fact encourage, employers to take it out on employees on other margins. Abuse, discrimination in hiring, overwork, bad scheduling, etc.
And...well, what do you know?
Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market: A Field Experiment
Devah Pager, Bart Bonikowski & Bruce Western
American Sociological Review, October 2009, Pages 777-799
Decades of racial progress have led some researchers and policymakers to doubt that discrimination remains an important cause of economic inequality. To study contemporary discrimination, we conducted a field experiment in the low-wage labor market of New York City, recruiting white, black, and Latino job applicants who were matched on demographic characteristics and interpersonal skills. These applicants were given equivalent résumés and sent to apply in tandem for hundreds of entry-level jobs. Our results show that black applicants were half as likely as equally qualified whites to receive a callback or job offer. In fact, black and Latino applicants with clean backgrounds fared no better than white applicants just released from prison. Additional qualitative evidence from our applicants' experiences further illustrates the multiple points at which employment trajectories can be deflected by various forms of racial bias. These results point to the subtle yet systematic forms of discrimination that continue to shape employment opportunities for low-wage workers.
Now, it's the ASR, so they would never make the connection. But discrimination and abuse is caused by the minimum wage. At the competitive wage, there would be NO economic space for discrimination. But the minimum wage creates a space for discretion.
The usual story is this: sure, MW may cause some unemployment, but the people who have jobs, they are better off, right?
Um, no. Back to school. Back to Econ 101.
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|Bits and Pieces
Monday, December 20, 2004 Left-handedness
...or for that matter, 'postural origins' is a fascinating subject. Mind hacks points to a source that says, "The mental ability for spatial reasoning was found to be related to the degree of the left-hand preference in conjunction with familial sinistrality". [in simpler terms non-verbial intelligence has something to do with the postural choice]
Alright, let's leave those complex explanations to the researchers. Interesting stuff that I culled from Mind hacks:
* Chimpanzee brains are asymmetrical just like ours and their handedness reflects it.
* Handedness must have arisen much before language centers developed in our brain, that is, about 5 million years ago.
* "...hand preferences come from our tree-dwelling past. One hand is mainly used for hanging on to branches, and the other hand used for finer, manipulative tasks like picking fruit." [ add to that, our brains are shaped like the canopy of the forest ]
[ the last blogger seems to have chosen the other left-hand to hang from branches ;) ]
In cricketing world, traditionally left-handed batsmen have held the highest Test Score record over years. Is it just their talent or simply that the right-handed opponent captain fails to read the batsman and set field accordingly? Talking about cricket, Ganguly played right-handed before the switch. There are other curious phenoms like Sachin, who writes left-handed but bats right-handed or Shastri who used to bowl left-handed and bat right-handed!
What explains ambidextrous nature of Gandhi and Da Vinci? Curious questions, really. Stop by Mind Hacks. Read your mind.
"Left-handers better in fights", that theorizes "societies which are more violent would have a higher frequency of left-handers".
This topic reminds me of something that I read long back on how right-handedness dominated armies used to march on the left side of their path, facilitating easy draw of the sword (which is usually tucked away on the left side) when needed. Hence the left-side driving pattern followed in Britain and other countries. posted by pradeep | Permalink | (4)
This is dicey territory. One half of the article talks about the "greatness" of the south paw. The other talks about the potential evil and violence attached to them. I shall just state that left handers are not necassarily violent.:)
wish I were ambidextrous :-)
Thanks Paran, and yes I have always wanted to be ambidextrous too! Guess, it's a many a people's wish.
Handedness has nothing to do with intelligence, that just doesn't make any sense. First you need to ask what is intelligence, we know it when we see, but do we know what it is? Spatial reasoning, acuity of some kind, speed of mental adaptation. All these things are possibilities. Intelligence has to do with physiology, and skills developed though socialisation. Can it be measured ? Nope. Can we take a guest, well we'd like to believe that people who remember things, and can use their short-term memory to mentally manipulate objects are more intelligent. However, all these behaviours can be learnt. So that's not it. Handedness is genetic, but can be overcome....so your theory seems doubtful.
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How to Make a balloon Wall-E
You need 5 balloons-2 gray, yellow, black and white and a pump. Inflate yellow balloon leaving 4 inch tail. Knot the end. Alternate sausage bubbles and pinch twists 8 times. This will create two squares. Inflate the black balloon leaving a 2 inch tail. Make 4 small bubbles and 2 flower petals to make wheels. Inflate gray balloon. Leave 5 inch tail. Make 3 small bubbles for hands-twice. Pinch twist. Make small bubbles for the shoulder. Inflate second gray balloon leaving a 5 inch tail. Make 2 pinch twists, sausage, and 2 flower petals. Twist together to form the head. Pinch twist small white balloon for eyes. Attach eyes. Pinch twist and attach head to body. Remove excess gray balloon. Clean up and adjust.
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¿Qué puedo hacer?
Acerca de este recurso...
Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson is known for his novels such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Because of he was often ill, Stevenson traveled around the world in search of a location that would improve his health. He wrote about his travels. He wrote about his 1879 train trip across the United States in his book Across the Plains. Print out this free worksheet for your students to learn how authors use words to convey a specific meaning.
It is an educational content by K12 Reader.
Fecha publicaci?n: 12.5.2016
Se respeta la licencia original del recurso.
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Many people think that fights between toddlers and parents, and toddlers tantrums come up because of a mismatch between what a toddler can do and what he understands. I want to challenge you to consider that a small child understands much more than you ever dream he or she could. It is certainly difficult for a child just learning to talk to express his observations and understanding. This is frustrating. But it is even more frustrating to observe parents just to ignore what a child can express, and to refuse going an extra mile helping to find the right words and explanations.
I want so suggest that you look for the possible mismatch between the toddler’s expressions and your understanding. Listening is an important skill, consisting partly of observing, partly of asking for clarification and partly of the willingness to hear and to see what you can hear and see. This perspective may help to transform a toddler’s tantrum into an opportunity.
If you do not listen to your toddler, how do you expect your toddler can listen to you. If you do not explain your views and reasons, how do you expect he can learn to reason. And if you regularly impose your will by force, how can you expect your child to behave peacefully.
There is another way to live with your child than fighting permanently. And it is more enjoyable for the whole family. For a very powerful explanation, watch this video. Open your heart.
Brain Development in a child happens at a very fast pace. And it is for this reason often said and in the meantime widely known that the first few years in a child’s life have a very high importance for the complete lifetime of a human. This video is a reminder and a guide for parents.
But all this begs an answer to this question:
How can I support brain development of my child?
The answer is simple and difficult at the same time. And it is not, as you might suspect, proper teaching. The answer is learning. But learning mostly done by the parents. To support your child properly, you have to learn communicating with him or her from the beginning, to see his needs, his anxieties, his happiness, his aspirations. And to learn how to respond to them by providing a secure environment, cheering successes, fostering self esteem and confidence into the world.
Your child has to develop a sense that he is welcome in your world as the unique person he is already way before birth.
If a child is trying to do something impossible, it is always better to show him how it would be possible, or how it could be dangerous instead of yelling “Don’t try this! You are too small, stupid, weak for this!”
For a wealth of actionable tips how to support the brain development of your child, sign up to our newsletter. Our subscribers receive as a welcome gift Phil Rowland’s book
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Semiconductors are the building blocks (used to make integrated circuits/computer chips, flash memory) of most all consumer electronics, including PCs, mobile phones, MP3 players, etc. A semiconductor is a solid whose electrical conductivity is in between that of a metal and that of an insulator. Most commercial semiconductors are created using silicon. There are several different semiconductor industries: Semiconductor - Equipment & Materials, Semiconductor - Broad Line, Semiconductor - Integrated Circuits, and Semiconductor - Foundry.
While the current 20 year annual average growth of the semiconductor industry is on the order of 13%, this has been accompanied by equally above-average market volatility, which has lead to significant if not dramatic cyclical swings. The semiconductor industry has gone through 6 major cycles since the 1970’s, caused mainly from worldwide recession, overcapacity, and inventory burn.
When the semiconductor industry cyclically bottoms out, the semiconductor industry's value chain both upstream (i.e. semiconductor equipment manufacturers) and downstream (i.e. PC/consumer electronics manufacturers) are also affected. The last major semiconductor downturn occurred in 2000-2002, and was considered to be the harshest contraction the industry ever experienced. Global semiconductor sales plummeted from over $200B in 2000 to $160B in both 2001 and 2002. Semiconductor revenue was on an upswing since January 2002, however, the financial crisis has lead to a contraction in revenue as 2008 sales were 2.8% lower then 2007. Sales in December 2008 were down 22% y-o-y, reflecting the true impact of the financial crisis.
The $250B semiconductor industry generates over $1,200B in electronics systems business and $5,000 billion in services, representing close to 10% of world GDP. This correlation to the global economy and its own business cycles is a main driver for semiconductor cyclicality.
Obviously linked to the health of the economy, demand for consumer electronics including PCs, digital TVs, iPods, etc. are strongly correlated with semiconductor demand. As PCs inch ever closer to saturation among developed countries, demand for them will decrease as well as for the chips used to make them work.
The semiconductor industry's operating costs and capital expenditures are uniquely high because new manufacturing plants, or fabs, can cost them up to 25% of annual revenues, or as much as $3-4B. Running them overcapacity for too long can decimate a semiconductor company's profits. Unfortunately, large capital expenditures are a continuous pain point for this industry because advances in technology, i.e. the ability to put more functionality on a smaller chipset (see Moore's Law), often render older fabs and all of the expensive machinery in them obsolete. Thus, the frequent need for new, state-of-the-art fabs can often create overcapacity scenarios as the need for technology innovation doesn't match current market demand.
It's a well known fact that many consumer electronics have short product lifecycles. This creates inventory complications among players in the electronics value chain because of the inherent difficulty in predicting how many electrical components will be needed for a certain product before that product becomes obsolete. Given that semiconductor manufacturers need to run their fabs at high capacity to be cost-efficient, they are at risk of creating large inventories of product destined for last year's model of the iPod that no one wants anymore.
The semiconductor industry is consolidating. National Semiconductor (NSM) agreed to acquire Cyrix Corporation and Intel (INTC) said it would acquire Chips and Technologies Inc. With growing consolidation, it is easier to mitigate the volatility caused by overcapacity and inventory burn because large players can predict downturns and thus pre-emptively slow down manufacturing. Analysts are predicting further semiconductor consolidation, in part leading to a maturation of the industry that will slow growth but also volatility.
Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Samsung, Vishay Intertechnology (VSH) and Maxim are major semiconductor manufacturers that could be hit hard in a downturn, especially if their pre-existing fabs are rendered obsolete or if they've invested too heavily in new fabs in a time of low sales. A severe contraction in this market isn't always a bad thing, however. Intel (INTC), by far the largest semiconductor player, used the 2000-2002 downturn to refocus its energies by investing in new facilities that would eventually reap higher profits through greater production efficiencies as the industry swung back into its expected upturn. It also diversified into WiFi and WiMax chips, knowing that PCs were nearing a saturation point in developed countries meaning that microprocessor sales (by far Intel's most profitable business) would inevitably slow down. Recently, Intel decided to build a 300mm wafer fabrication plant in Dalian, a city in northeast China. The $2.5 billion project, dubbed Fab 68, will be the company's first wafer fab in Asia. The facility is scheduled to begin production of chipsets in the first half of 2010.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM) and United Microelectronics (UMC) are two semiconductor foundries that manufacter chips for the likes of Broadcom (BRCM) and Xilinx (XLNX), two completely "fabless" chipmakers who focus most of their attention on innovative chip design and marketing. Semiconductor foundries, who focus solely on churning out chips, in theory, can better manage the huge investments needed to keep up with the latest in manufacturing technology. These foundries of course will sink and swim with their chip-maker partners.
Applied Materials (AMAT), KLA-Tencor (KLAC), and AVX (AVX) are leading semiconductor equipment manufacturers. The link between semiconductor equipment manufacturers and chip-makers is very strong. When the chip-makers decrease capital expenditures in expectation of slower growth, these companies will feel the contraction.
Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ), and Apple (AAPL) are leading examples of electronics/computer hardware manufacturers who depend on chipset innovation to help make their devices run faster, store more information, and provide more functionality. A contraction in the semiconductor industry often necessitates lower capital expenditures, meaning that new fab with the faster chip will take longer to build, and that next generation computer with the faster chip won't be ready on time. This could hurt overall consumer electronics computer sales. On the other hand, a glut of semiconductors can drive OEM manufacturing costs down given downward pressure on chip prices, which could help OEMs expand per unit margins and potentially mititgate lower sales volume.
Given to a chicken vs. egg analogy, most semiconductor downturns are blamed for waning global demand for electronics/computer hardware.
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Uterine Fibroids are the most common non cancerous tumors in women of child bearing age. These uterine fibroids are also called Uterine Leiomyomas or even myomas. Contrary to common fears, they do not normally convert into cancer. Uterine fibroids may be single in number or multiple. Most of the women don’t come to know that they have uterine fibroids because they may not have any visible symptoms. They are discovered only during a routine check up.
What are Uterine Fibroids
Uterine fibroids are benign smooth muscle tumors present in the uterus. These are made up of muscle cells of the uterus. The size of fibroids varies a lot. They may be as small as a seedling. In some cases they may become quite large, so much so that take up almost a complete wall of the uterus. In extreme cases large uterine fibroids have been known to push the uterus up till the rib cage. Usually large fibroids push against the urinary bladder.
What are the causes of Uterine Fibroids
The exact cause of uterine fibroids is unknown. What is known is that the fibroids develop when the cells in the muscles of the uterus begin to overgrow. The growth of the uterine fibroid is influenced by the presence of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. The level of these hormones is the highest during the child bearing age. Therefore the incidence of uterine fibroids is more during this time. Once menopause occurs, the levels of estrogen and progesterone decline and therefore the fibroids start shrinking on their own. In some cases the fibroids disappear completely after menopause.
A few of the factors that have been known in the incidence of uterine fibroids are –
- Obesity- Being overweight is a major risk factor in the development of uterine fibroids.
- Heredity- If one or more of your family members like your mother or sister has or had fibroids, the chances of your having fibroids are much higher.
- Race- Black women are more likely to have fibroids and that too at a younger age.
- Diet- Having a diet high in red meat content and low in fruits and vegetables may contribute to fibroids. At the same time intake of alcohol may also increase risk of uterine fibroids.
- Vit D Deficiency- The deficiency of Vit D may also increase your risk of having uterine fibroids.
- PCOS – Presence of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome can also predispose you to uterine fibroids.
- Diabetes- It is another common predisposing factor.
- Hypertension- Presence of high blood pressure can also predispose you to fibroids.
Symptoms of Uterine Fibroids
Most of the uterine fibroids, particularly the smaller ones are asymptomatic. This means that there are not too many symptoms. One cannot often diagnose or point towards presence of fibroids from clinical observation. More often than not, small fibroids are found accidentally during routine ultrasounds.
In cases where there are symptoms, the development of symptoms varies from patient to patient. In some patients, the symptoms are very slow to develop. It takes years to develop the symptoms. In some other cases, the symptoms develop very fast in just a couple of months.
The common symptoms of uterine fibroids are-
- Abnormal bleeding during menses- The most common symptom is a change in the normal menstrual bleeding pattern. In some cases, the bleeding may be profuse and protracted. This may last for more than a week. In yet some other cases, the bleeding may be intermittent and start mid cycle.
- Pain during menses- Another common symptom is the presence of pain during menses. This pain may be felt in the lower back, lower abdomen and pelvis.
- Pain during intercourse – There may be pain during intercourse.
- Infertility – In some cases, more so when the fibroids are large, there may be infertility. In other cases, there may be miscarriages.
- Fullness in the lower abdomen – Some females may even feel fullness or bloatedness in the abdomen.
- Anaemia- Profuse bleeding may cause anaemia.
Treatment of Uterine Fibroids
The traditional or allopathic treatment of uterine fibroids is not very effective. Usually some medicines are given that interfere with normal hormonal secretion. These medicines have side effects as they disturb the hormonal balance of a female. The common advice of gynaecologists is to go in for surgery. This is more so if the female is not thinking of having children any more. A complete hysterectomy is often advised. This means that the uterus is completely removed. This causes immediate cessation of menses. Artificial and sudden onset of menopause often leads to complications.
Homeopathic treatment of uterine fibroids
Homeopathy is much more effective in treatment of uterine fibroids. Out of all possible alternatives, Homeopathy is the best non surgical treatment for fibroids. The homeopathic medicines slowly but surely retard the growth of fibroids. Over a period of time, the fibroids disappear completely. This is a far more effective and the most convenient treatment of fibroids.
Uterine Fibroids – 5 best Homeopathic medicines for fibroids
There are more than a dozen homeopathic remedies that are used in the treatment of fibroids. All of them are equally effective when they are indicated. The indications of the homeopathic medicines depend upon matching the symptoms of the patient with that of the medicines. Once there is a good matching, the indicated remedy will surely cure the patient. Having said that, I can say with a good degree of confidence that some medicines are far more commonly indicated.
These 5 best medicines for uterine fibroids are
1. Phosphorus – best medicine for fibroids with profuse and protracted bleeding
2. Sabina- best medicine for fibroids with clotted bleeding
3. Calcarea Carb- best medicine for uterine fibroids with chilliness
4. Sepia – best remedy for uterine fibroids with irritability, indifference and bearing down pains
5. Thyroidinum- best medicine for fibroids with obesity
A brief description of the 5 best medicines with their symptoms is being given below-
1. Phosphorus- best homeopathic medicine for fibroids with profuse and protracted bleeding
When there is prolonged and profuse bleeding with uterine fibroids, Phosphorus is one of the best homeopathic medicines for uterine fibroids. There may even be bleeding in between menses. The mood of the patient is pensive and even weeps before menses.
2. Sabina- best homeopathic medicine for uterine fibroids with clotted bleeding
When there is discharge of dark or black clots with blood, Sabina is one of the best homeopathic medicines for fibroids. The menses are profue and bright. The bleeding is worse from motion. There is pain from the sacral region going down to the pubis in the front. The uterine pains often extend downwards and to the thighs.
3. Calcarea Carb- best homeopathic remedy for fibroids with chilliness
When there is chilliness and cold sweating with uterine fibroids, Calcarea Carb is one of the best homeopathic medicine for fibroids. A Calcarea Carb patient is usually fat, flabby, fair and perspires a lot. There may be sour smell about the patient. The menses may be too profuse and last too long. There is burning and itching of vulva before menses. There may be cutting pain in the uterine region during menses.
4. Sepia – best homeopathic medicine for uterine fibroids with irritability, indifference and bearing down pains.
When the mental symptoms of irritability and indifference to close family members is present, Sepia is one of the best homeopathic medicines for uterine fibroids. There are bearing down pains present in the lower abdomen. The patient feels as if everything would escape through vulva. She feels as if she must cross her legs to prevent protrusion of the contents. The periods are too late and scanty. There may be pain in the vagina during coition.
5. Thyroidinum – best homeopathic medicine for uterine fibroids with obesity
When there is obesity along with uterine fibroids, Thyroidinum is one of the best homeopathic medicines for fibroids. The thyroid gland is often underactive. The tumors may also be present in the breasts.
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Computer networking has existed for many years, and as time has passed the technologies have become faster and less expensive.
Networks are made up of various devices—computers, switches, routers—connected together by cables or wireless signals.
Switches and routers, essential networking basics, enable the devices that are connected to your network to communicate with each other, as well as with other networks.Networking basics covers Definitions, Types of Networks, Topology, WiMAX, Wifi, Broadband, and Server for Dummies.
TCCI Computer Coaching teaches this very interesting subject to the BCA, MCA, PGDCA, BSC-MSC-IT, Diploma-Degree-Engineering students, school students-GSBE- ICSE- IB-CBSE etc……
TCCI has a good premise for proper education and also has a facilities like Private PC & Internet for their use during training. It has all other facilities which make you learning a better experience.
To learn networking at TCCI, Ahmedabad call us @ 98256 18292.
Visit us @ https://tccicomputercoaching.wordpress.com/
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Actions You Can Take >
Animal Rescue > Animal Welfare
Project RandR: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories
Focused on ending the use of chimpanzees in U.S. research. The U.S. is the last remaining large-scale user of chimpanzees in the world with an estimated 1,300 still held in labs.
A comprehensive website focused on ending the use of chimpanzees in U.S. research.
Includes articles chronicling the history of use of chimpanzees in air and space research, organ transplants, and fatal infections, as well as their current and most prevalent uses in research today.
Also provides extensive online advocacy tools, including a 15-minute educational video.
The U.S. is the last remaining major user of chimpanzees in research in the world. Seven countries including Great Britain and Austria have banned or severely limited chimpanzee use. An estimated 1,300 chimpanzees remain in U.S. labs.
Ratings/Review of this resource:
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We are at the dawn of a new era of certainty in art authentication, The Times has suggested in Friday’s leader.
Their optimism stems from the news that Professor Lior Shamir from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan has developed a computer software program that was able to tell, with over 90% accuracy, whether or not a painting was by the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock.
The program, a detailed description of which is soon to be published in the International Journal of Arts and Technology, uses an algorithm that recognises over 4000 types of patterns found in the artist’s work. If there are sufficient similarities in the painting being examined, then the work is likely to be authentic. The technique is not dissimilar to the face recognition technology we wrote about last week.
At the moment the accuracy is not sufficient to be of use to auction houses. However, Professor Shamir has made the software freely available to develop, and in the future such methods for authentication might be welcomed by the industry, which relies on catalogue raisonees, provenance and connoisseurship to solve questions of attribution.
Pollock forgeries are not uncommon, no doubt attracted by the high prices that his work fetch (his auction record is $58, 363, 752). In July last year, a forger was found guilty of selling nearly $1.9m worth of fake Pollocks to art collectors.
The news comes on the back of the recent discovery that Pollock used a structural plan when creating his pictures. In the process of cleaning Alchemy, a 1947 painting in the collection of the Guggenheim, conservators at Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence, in collaboration with eleven Italian science institutions, discovered delicate traces of white paint that appear to have formed a grid that Pollock used to guide the composition.
These latest developments confirm the unique nature of Pollock’s work as well as its complexity, and will hopefully act as a deterrent to potential forgers.
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While creating a presentation PBLL course, I came across this interesting infographic of presentation habits. How many of these habits are language skills? How many of these habits are states of mind? These habits are similar to a Video on the Science of Persuasion. … More Presentation Skills, Habits, and Strategies
TEDed is a great and free source to help you learn English. Here is an interactive lesson on Critical Thinking. The author offers a 5 step process to critically analyze any decision. How do you make decisions? Which decisions do you critically analyze? Access the lesson here!
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There are so many amazing things happening in nature every single day of our lives, and we’ll never even see or hear about the majority of it — unless, of course, we’ve devoted our whole lives to studying the plants and creatures around us.
Bees are some of the most incredible, tiny beings on our planet. Without them, we’d be totally lost, because they are one of the main reasons that our crops and greenery can bloom.
In recent years, more and more people have become aware of how important bees are to us, and are rightfully advocating for their protection and well-being. Yet most of us still don’t know much about what goes on inside of the hive. I’ll tell you one thing: there’s a ton of activity happening behind those walls.
These 10 facts about bees and the lives they lead will definitely give you a further appreciation for these unbelievably hardworking insects.
Have you ever been afraid of bees? Maybe you’ll finally change your tune after reading these impressive facts.
Please SHARE with your family and friends on Facebook!
Thumbnail source: Wikimedia Commons
1. The Queen Used To Be Known As The King
Until the 1660s, people thought that the big bee in the hive was a male and called him the king. Then a Dutch scientist named Jan Swammerdam took it upon himself to dissect one, finding ovaries and thus changing the name.
2. Male Drone Bees Live Only To Mate With The Queen
After they do that, they meet the end of their lives, because their lower abdomen ruptures when their endophallus is left inside the queen. These male bees are called drones, and if there is a food shortage in the hive, the worker bees kick them out first.
3. Worker Bees Are Willing To Die For Their Sisters
Bees have been known to defend their hive from dangers, like wasps, in order to protect the rest of the bees inside — even to the death.
4. There Are Specific Bees That Remove The Dead From The Hive
Each bee has a very specific job to fulfill, like building the comb or storing food, but one job is that of the undertaker. These bees respond to the scent of the dead inside the hive and remove them so that the narrow space doesn’t get jammed up.
5. New Queen Bees Must Fight To The Death
Once the reigning queen passes away, the workers raise a new queen. However, they make multiple new queens at the same time, and if two of them hatch simultaneously, they must fight to the death.
A queen that doesn’t have to fight to the death still has to kill the unborn queens. Pictured above is a newly hatched queen stinging an unhatched queen.
6. Bee Wings Move Unbelievably Fast
Scientists spent years trying to figure out how bees use their wings to fly, before finally finding that it’s due to their very rapid wingbeat. Bees flap their wings at 230 times per second with a ton of power, but they aren’t as efficient when flying conditions are less than ideal, like when carrying a heavy load.
7. Bees Can Recognize Faces
Bees have been found to be capable of recognizing and distinguishing between faces, both of humans and other bees. If you’re mean to a bee once, that bee could very well recognize you later.
8. The Queen Only Mates At One Time In Her Life
The mating process can last a couple of days, and during that time she may mate with around 70 drone bees. However, she only does this once in her life. The sperm she collects is kept in a special organ and the reserves are used for her remaining years as queen.
9. Honey Bees Aren't The Only Kind Of Bee
There are about 20,000 different species of bees out there, not just the honey bee. Additionally, not all species live in hives as social bees. In fact, many other varieties are independent insects.
10. Bees Are Not The Original Pollinators
Before bees’ bodies evolved to be specialized pollen collectors, other insects, like beetles, pollinated flowers in much smaller numbers. As time went on, both flowers and bees evolved to get better at pollination and gathering nectar.
Did you know any of these amazing facts about bees before? Please SHARE with family and friends on Facebook!
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As the old childhood rhyme goes, “April showers bring May flowers,” and luckily it’s almost time for those spring flowers to finally start blooming. Nothing makes spring feel sprung quite like a field of gorgeous wildflowers or budding tree branches. Ah, the pollen; ah, the allergies; ah, it’s spring at long last! As you’re sure to be gallivanting around the countryside now that the warm weather is here (we know we can’t be alone in this desire), keep an eye out for some of these rare flowers.
Ghost OrchidThis spidery flower can be found in Cuba as well as in Florida, as it can only be cultivated in climates that support its growth. This is part of what makes the flower so hard to come by. You’ll be sure to recognize a ghost orchid from other flowers as it doesn’t produce any leaves and has a distinct soap-like smell. Ghost orchids only bloom for three weeks between April and August, so keep your eyes peeled if you happen to visit Cuba or Florida in those months!
Corpse FlowerDiscovered in 1878 in Sumatra, this amazing flower can be found scattered around the United States, as it has been cultivated in various areas (most notably in the Huntington Botanical Garden in California). This unique flower gets its name from its startling smell, which many have described as the “scent of the dead.” Aside from being the stinkiest flower in the world, it’s also the largest, measuring up to six feet tall in blooming season. Corpse flowers tend to bloom once every 30 to 40 years, so mark your calendars way in the future so you don’t miss out on this marvel!
Jade VineNative to tropical rainforests in the Philippines, this woody vine is sure to catch your attention if you happen to come across it. The vines that hang from the hooked flowers can grow up to three meters long! Unfortunately this gorgeous plant is an endangered species as its habitat and natural pollinators continue to get destroyed.
Koki’oThere’s a dramatic story behind this flower, but luckily it ends on a pretty positive note. This Hawaiian flower is incredibly rare and was discovered in 1860 when only three specimens could be found. It was nearly impossible to cultivate in other areas, and in 1950 the last seedling died and it was rendered extinct—that is, until a surviving flower was found in 1970. Which, unfortunately, met its end in a fire in 1978. But alas! As promised, this whirlwind of a tale does have a happy ending! One of the branches on the last remaining tree eaten up in the fire was saved, and it was grafted into 23 trees, all of which exist still today. These implanted seedlings can be seen in various spots of Hawaii—you’ll be sure to recognize them for their astonishing bright red flowers.
Whether you’re intentionally seeking out one of these beauties or you have the rare honor of stumbling across (and hopefully not on) one, you’re sure to be dazzled by their excellence. Make sure you bring our Pocket Ranger® apps with you to make your journeys more enjoyable and full of more of nature’s beauty.
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“A new international study discovers it takes almost six years following symptoms of bipolar disorder and determination of diagnosis and initiation of treatment.”
“Many experts believe crucial opportunities to manage bipolar disorder early are being lost because of the delay.”
“They discovered many patients experience distressing and disruptive symptoms for several years until receiving proper treatment for bipolar disorder, previously known as manic-depressive illness.”
“According to lead researcher Dr. Matthew Large, a psychiatrist at Prince of Wales Hospital, the delay is often longer for young people because moodiness is sometimes misperceived by parents.”
“This is common as providers may attribute symptoms as the ups and downs of the teenage years rather than the emergence of bipolar disorder. The misdiagnosis is disturbing as bipolar can be effectively treated with mood stabilizing medication.”
“This is a lost opportunity because the severity and frequency of episodes can be reduced with medication and other interventions,” Large said. “While some patients, particularly those who present with psychosis, probably do receive timely treatment, the diagnosis of the early phase of bipolar disorder can be difficult.”
“This is because mental health clinicians are sometimes unable to distinguish the depressed phase of bipolar disorder from other types of depression.”
To learn more about this, please read the whole article. I have taken the best of it to show to you, but the article will tell you so much more.
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History of Pears
The pears cultivated in Europe are thought to have arisen from Pyrus communis, a species native to Europe and Northern Asia. The fruit is small, hard, gritty, sour and astringent, and there is little evidence of its use for food by prehistoric people in Europe. In Japan and China cultivated pears developed from P. pyrifolia, now called Asian pears or Nashi (Japanese word for “pear”). Greek and Roman literature includes lists of cultivated pear varieties and discussed those suitable for wine, perry, or culinary use, while noting that the fruit should not be eaten raw. Through crossing and selection, the quality of pears for fresh eating was gradually improved. In medieval times, France was known for producing the best dessert pears, and many varieties were brought to England after the Norman Conquest in 1066. In 1770 one of the most important varieties still in cultivation today was developed, ‘Williams Bon Chrétien,’ bred by an English schoolmaster. Brought to America in 1797 and planted at an estate in Massachusetts, it was propagated and sold by Enoch Bartlett under his own name, not knowing the true name. Bartlett pears became – and remain today – one of the leading varieties in the USA. As pear orchards became more widespread, new and better seedlings were found and propagated by local farmers. Development and selection of improved varieties has continued to the present day, conducted by both private and state sponsored research programs.
Trials of European pears at WSU Mount Vernon NWREC began in the mid 1960s, to look at the varieties that were commonly available in nurseries, test new introductions, and screen seedlings of local origin that might prove to be better in quality and show improved resistance to disease, especially pear scab. Two new pear introductions resulted:
‘Orcas’ – seedling discovered by Joe Long, a farmer on Orcas Island, WA and sent to the Mount Vernon station in 1972 for testing. The trees are resistant to pear scab and productive, fruit is large and uniform size, good for canning or drying as well as fresh eating. Introduced in 1986.
‘Rescue’ – found by Knox Nomura, a nursery grower near Buckley, WA. He had seen the pear at fruit shows but the exhibitor never allowed anyone to take cuttings from his tree during his lifetime, and after his death the tree was scheduled for removal to expand an adjacent cemetery. Knox Nomura “rescued” scionwood from this original tree, and sent trees to Mount Vernon in 1975 for testing. Introduced in 1987.
A trial of disease resistant pears that originated in a breeding program at Kearneysville, WV (in cooperation with Dr. Richard Bell) was conducted from 1994 to 2002. One of the selections has been introduced as ‘Blake’s Pride’.
For a summary of pear and Asian pear variety trial results, see Reports.
A trial of Bosc pear on different rootstocks, including selected pollinizer varieties, was established in 1994 using both free-standing trees and trees trained to a V-trellis system, to evaluate the commercial potential of a niche market in pears for western Washington growers. The Bosc trees were grafted on rootstocks of Old Home/Provence Quince and Old Home X Farmingdale 217. Trees in some sections were planted at twice the standard density (4′ between trees rather than standard 8′). Trees in the V-trellis training section were grafted on Quince A and Quince C. Pollinizer varieties were Concorde, Conference, Comice (all on Quince C), and Starkrimson. Yields were measured to see if there are significant differences between the various cultural treatments and between varieties. This plot produced good yields and indicates that both Bosc and Conference have potential for consideration as alternative crops for growers in the Puget Sound region.
In 1999, trees of Taylor’s Gold Comice, a russeted variety of standard Comice, were added to the trial. This variety produced high quality fruit with attractive, fully russeted appearance. Young trees showed good productivity. Given the existing promotion of this variety from New Zealand, it has excellent potential as a niche market crop.
Initiated in 1996 in cooperation with Dr. Richard Bell from the Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia. One selection, USDA 66131-021, was named Blake’s Pride and introduced in 1999. Some other selections are considered for possible introduction or for inclusion in further breeding programs for disease resistance.
Asian pears (Pyrus pyrifolia) are indigenous to China, where they have been cultivated for 4,000 years, and there are nearly 3,000 known varieties. Today pear orchards flourish throughout China, especially in the eastern and central regions. The Japanese have grown crunchy pears since the 7th century. The first known American introduction occurred when William Prince of Flushing, NY imported a “sand pear” from China about 1820 as a curiosity. Chinese workers in California after the 1849 Gold Rush planted Asian pear seeds in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and later Japanese immigrants brought cuttings of improved varieties. California remains the major commercial source of Asian pears in North America.
Some early introductions in western Washington did well, while others were not successful, so beginning in 1985 a trial was conducted including some 25 varieties, to see which were well adapted to growing conditions in a cool maritime climate. The major limitations to Asian pear culture in this area are disease susceptibility and the lack of enough summer heat to ripen some varieties to their best quality.
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Decisions made back when Oregon became a state had a long-lasting impact.
Like the relative paucity of African-Americans in the state. "Exclusion laws" forbidding black people from living in all or part of the state existed from statehood's dawn into the 20th century.
Oregon Humanities' "Conversation Project" offers an traveling presentation called "Why Aren't There More Black People In Oregon?"
It is in Cave Junction Thursday (April 7) and Cottage Grove on Friday (April 8). Scholar/poet/writer Walidah Imarisha leads the discussion.
She joins us by phone to talk about these and previous episodes in the project.
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FAO: Biotech contamination in traded food on the rise
Of 198 instances of low-level contamination of GMO-free food by GMOs between 2002-2012, 138 took place between 2009-2012.
According to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), contamination of GMO-free traded foods by GMO crops is on the rise. Of 198 instances of low-level contamination between 2002-2012, 138 occurred between 2009-2012.
“The incidents have led to trade disruptions between countries with shipments of grain, cereal and other crops being blocked by importing countries and destroyed or returned to the country of origin,” writes FAO in a report on the topic.
Flax seed, rice, corn and papaya were the most commonly contaminated foods.
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Originally published in 1939 as a counterpoint to the myopic, Eurocentric narrative of African history popular in the West at the time, Carter G. Woodson's African Heroes and Heroines delves into the rich and complex political, military, and economic history of the African continent with the objective eye of a scientific observer. Intended for upper level high-school students, Woodson presents a fair biographical treatment of African leaders through history as figures of equal - if not greater - intelligence, prowess, and strength as the heroic leaders canonized in the histories of other races. While the popular histories of Africa in America had represented Africans as disorganized, unenlightened, and docile, Woodson paints a far more realistic picture of a people who were fiercely resistant to Western imperialism and occupation. Through individual portraits of figures like the Mbundu's Queen Anna Nzinga, Shaka of the Zulu Kingdom, or King Béhanzin of Dahomey, Woodson's work, alongside that of other notable scholars, helped mainstream America move toward a deeper and more complex understanding of Africa's rich history. For academics as well as those interested in an important, if somewhat dated, historical survey of African leaders, African Heroes and Heroines represents an important piece of America's cultural past. Featuring an abundance of rich illustrations by esteemed Harlem Renaissance painter, Lois Mailou Jones, this 2015 re-issued edition is a high quality reprint of the classic text. Historian, author, journalist, and remarkable scholar of many disciplines, Carter G. Woodson is an oft-overlooked but massively important figure in American, and particularly African-American, history. The second African-American man after W.E.B. DuBoise to earn a doctorate degree and the only African-American born of former slaves to earn a PhD, Woodson devoted his life to the study of African and African-American history. Determined to obtain higher education after graduating from Kentucky's Berea College in 1903, Woodson successfully enrolled at the University of Chicago where he earned a bachelor's and master's degree in European history before moving on to defend a PhD in history at Harvard University in 1912. A staunch believer in the power of education to elevate, empower, and unify the working classes and to transform society for the better, Woodson spent many years as a teacher and professor before founding the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, the accomplishment for which he is perhaps best remembered. Often heralded as the 'father of black history', Woodson's association founded the annual 'Negro History Week' in February 1926, an occasion we continue to celebrate when we observe 'Black History Month' every February.
Paperback: 266 pages
Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media (July 7, 2015)
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
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- an artificially heated container for hatching eggs
- an apparatus in which a premature baby is kept for a period, in which temperature, etc. can be controlled
- an apparatus for growing microbial or cell cultures under controlled conditions
- An apparatus in which environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity, can be controlled, often used for growing bacterial cultures, hatching eggs artificially, or providing suitable conditions for a chemical or biological reaction.
- Medicine An apparatus for maintaining an infant, especially a premature infant, in an environment of controlled temperature, humidity, and oxygen concentration.
- a. A place or situation that permits or encourages the formation and development, as of new ideas: a university that was an incubator of new approaches to sociology.b. An organization that provides new businesses with technical and support services and usually low-cost office space or infrastructure.
- (chemistry) Any apparatus used to maintain environmental conditions suitable for a reaction.
- (medicine) An apparatus used to maintain environmental conditions suitable for a newborn baby.
- An apparatus used to maintain environmental conditions suitable for the hatching of eggs.
- A place to maintain the culturing of bacteria at a steady temperature.
- (business) A support programme for the development of entrepreneurial companies.
incubate + -ator
incubator - Computer Definition
An organization that fosters the growth of new ideas or companies. An incubator generally acquires small companies and provides them with financing, management expertise, office services and possibly office space. Incubators may adopt a think tank approach and look for synergies between the ideas, products and technologies they are developing in order to grow faster. Many Internet incubators arose in the latter 1990s with the intention of creating more dot-com success stories. See angel investor.
incubator - Investment & Finance Definition
A dynamic process of business development that helps start-up businesses grow and create a stable base for their operations. Incubators provide a variety of services, such as management assistance, financial assistance, and access to other professional and technical services. They also may provide marketing support. Incubators provide entrepreneurial firms with shared office space and equipment, support services, conference rooms, access to equipment, and flexible leases. Incubators also may focus on companies in one industry or in a niche industry. Often they are non-profit.
U.S. business incubators began in the 1970s, although the oldest one began in Batavia, New York in 1959. They were created from three concurrent events, according to the National Business Incubation Association, which was formed in 1985. Incubators came from an attempt to use old, abandoned factory buildings in distressed areas of the Midwest and Northeast by subdividing them for small firms. Incubators also received a boost from an experiment funded by the National Science Foundation to foster entrepreneurship and innovation at universities. Finally, successful entrepreneurs wanted to encourage others and provide support to emerging companies.
The U.S. Small Business Administration also was a strong promoter of incubators, especially from 1984 until 1987. During that time, the number of incubators grew from just over 20 annually to more than 70 by 1987. The agency held a series of regional conferences and published a newsletter and incubator handbooks.
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Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
McGEE, THOMAS D’ARCY (he signed both McGee and M’Gee), journalist, poet, and politician; b. 13 April 1825 in Carlingford, County Louth (Republic of Ireland), fifth child of James McGee and Dorcas Catherine Morgan; assassinated 7 April 1868 in Ottawa.
Thomas D’Arcy McGee’s formative years were spent in Ireland. His mother’s family was reputed to have been involved in the 1798 Irish rebellion. His father worked for the Coast Guard Service, and in 1833 was transferred to Wexford, the town where the memories of the bloody 1798 rebellion were the most vivid. D’Arcy’s mother died shortly after the family’s arrival in Wexford; he obtained an informal elementary education in a Catholic “hedge school.” He was influenced at an early age by Father Theobald Mathew’s temperance movement, by Daniel O’Connell’s campaign to repeal the union between Ireland and Great Britain, and by the work of Celtic scholars published in the Dublin Penny Journal.
D’Arcy McGee left for North America in 1842, one of almost 93,000 Irishmen who crossed the Atlantic that year, the greatest number in any one year before the famine. McGee’s father had married again, and the stepmother was not popular with the children. He travelled the classic route to North America, sailing on a timber ship from Wexford to Quebec, and continuing to New England, where he was welcomed to the home of his mother’s sister in Providence, R.I. He then moved to Boston to look for work. Soon after his arrival he was asked to address the Boston Friends of Ireland celebrating the Fourth of July. It was his first recorded public address in America, and it revealed a hostile attitude towards British rule in Ireland: “The sufferings which the people of that unhappy country have endured at the hands of a heartless, bigoted, despotic government, are well known to you . . . . Her people are born slaves, and bred in slavery from the cradle; they know not what freedom is.” The speech made a favourable impression, and the 17-year-old immigrant was asked to join the staff of the Boston Pilot, New England’s principal Catholic newspaper.
McGee was taken on as the Pilot’s travelling agent, and for the next two years travelled through New England collecting overdue accounts and new subscribers. He also lectured to the scattered Irish population of New England, describing the movements begun in Ireland by Daniel O’Connell and Father Mathew. During the same period he contributed 40 articles to the Pilot on the history of literature in Ireland. The response to his articles was enthusiastic, and McGee was asked to become editor of the newspaper; his first editorial appeared on 13 April 1844, on his 19th birthday.
McGee edited the Pilot for a year. In his editorials he urged the Irish in America to support Ireland’s struggle for nationality, arguing that the Irish in America would never be recognized as equals until Ireland was recognized as a nation. The young editor also defended Irish Catholic immigrants against hostile Protestant and nativist opinion and led a successful campaign for the establishment of evening schools for adult immigrants. He published two books in Boston during his first stay in the United States: Eva MacDonald, a tale of the United Irishmen (1844) and Historical sketches of O’Connell and his friends (1845).
While in Boston, McGee had the opportunity to comment on Canada, and his perspective was distinctly Irish. At first, he urged the Irish in Canada to support Robert Baldwin* and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, and wrote that “‘Repeal of the Union’ is the Irish for ‘Responsible Government.’” When a correspondent informed him that in Canada the Tories were more tolerant towards the Catholic Church, McGee answered: “The Tories! Well may the Catholics of Canada exclaim, ‘Oh, save us from our friends!’” Later, the annexation of Texas and the Oregon boundary dispute led McGee to reconsider his views on Canada and to see it in a new light. He now confessed that he could find no reason for Canada’s remaining separate from the United States: “The United States of North America must necessarily in course of time absorb the Northern British Provinces . . . . One vast Federal Union will stretch from Labrador to Panama. A river like the St. Lawrence cannot safely be left in European hands . . . . Either by purchase, conquest, or stipulation, Canada must be yielded by Great Britain to this Republic.”
McGee was offered in 1845 a position with the Freeman’s Journal in Dublin and in June returned to Ireland. He reported on the proceedings in Dublin of the Repeal Association organized by Daniel O’Connell and then moved to London where he covered the parliamentary session of 1846 which repealed the Corn Laws. While working for the Freeman, however, McGee became closely associated with Young Ireland, an enthusiastic group of Irish nationalists who believed that self-government was a fundamental principle of nationality, and who were trying to develop a sense of Irish identity by their contributions to journalism, history, and literature. McGee contributed two volumes to their “Library of Ireland,” Gallery of Irish writers in 1846 and A memoir of the life and conquests of Art MacMurrogh in 1847. He also began to contribute to the Nation, Young Ireland’s journal. Finally he was asked to resign from the Freeman. McGee transferred to the Nation just after his 21st birthday.
In July 1846, Daniel O’Connell announced his support for the new Whig government which promised Irish reform; McGee supported the leaders of Young Ireland when they resigned from the Repeal Association and established the Irish Confederation to promote what they believed were the original aims of the association, repeal of the union between Ireland and Great Britain. He was a principal speaker at all of the new association’s public meetings and was elected secretary in June 1847. On 13 July 1847 he married Mary Theresa Caffrey. The couple were to have five daughters and one son, but only two daughters survived their father.
The Irish Confederation was frustrated in the general elections of 1847, and a radical faction developed which called for armed action. When the radicals were purged from the Confederation at the beginning of 1848 McGee supported the conservative leadership. But the French revolution of February persuaded the conservatives to adopt a revolutionary course of action, and McGee now participated in the plans for an Irish rebellion. He was actually arrested for sedition on the eve of his first wedding anniversary, but the charges were dismissed the next day. The government suspended habeas corpus in Ireland towards the end of July, and the Irish Confederation appealed to the country for armed support. McGee was dispatched to Scotland where he was to collect an expedition of armed sympathizers, but the main resistance did not last two weeks and McGee’s expedition did not embark. He returned to Ireland; when he could not obtain a following in the northeast he left again for the United States.
McGee arrived in Philadelphia in October 1848, and issued a public letter describing recent events in Ireland. He blamed the Irish clergy for the rebellion’s failure and signed the letter defiantly, “Thomas D’Arcy McGee, A Traitor to the British Government.” He then moved to New York City and started his own newspaper, the Nation, in which he tried to arouse American sympathy for the liberal and nationalist revolutions in Europe and supported the annexation movement in Canada as a part of the same cause. His newspaper became a forum for Irish Canadian opinion on the subject. However, McGee antagonized the bishop of New York by supporting the Roman republic against Pope Pius IX, and by the end of 1849 he had alienated Irish republicans in New York when, following yet another shift in position, he began to support a new Irish reform movement which planned to work within the existing Irish constitution. The dispute became personal, and two Irish republicans, who were to become Fenian leaders, challenged McGee to a duel. The combination of clerical and republican opposition forced him to leave New York in the spring of 1850.
McGee returned to Boston where he started another newspaper, the American Celt and Adopted Citizen. He now emphasized Irish interests in America and supported a naturalization campaign among the Irish of New England. He also published A history of the Irish settlers in North America (1851) to demonstrate that the Irish had made a significant contribution to the history of North America. When the pope appointed an English episcopacy in 1851, anti-Catholic opinion was aroused in Britain and America, and McGee, unable to endure the charge made by Catholics that he was contributing to the nativist campaign by attacking the clergy, made his peace with the Catholic Church. He moved the American Celt to Buffalo in the summer of 1852, but it did not prosper. McGee and his newspaper returned to New York City in the summer of 1853.
For the next four years, McGee worked on behalf of the Catholic interests in the United States, condemning revolutionary liberalism as a threat to Christianity and civilization. He completed three books during this period: A history of the attempts to establish the Protestant reformation in Ireland (1853), The Catholic history of North America (1855), and A life of the Rt. Rev. Edward Maginn (1857). Gradually McGee became more critical of the United States, arguing that American society required the tempering influence of Catholicism to balance the disorderly tendencies of the New World. By 1855 he was urging the American Irish Catholics to leave the eastern cities and to found a colony in the newly opening west where they could recover their Celtic and Catholic character. He was the principal organizer of the Buffalo Emigrant Aid Convention of 1856, but the project failed when it aroused the opposition of the Catholic hierarchy in the east who insisted that the Irish had neither the skills nor the capital necessary for colonization. McGee believed, however, that the eastern hierarchy was afraid an exodus of Catholics would jeopardize the financial situation of their dioceses.
In the spring of 1857 McGee moved to Montreal. He came at the invitation of leaders of that city’s Irish community who expected him to promote their interests. His attitude toward Canada had changed from the days when he supported annexation: after his reconciliation with the Catholic Church, McGee defended Canada as a place where Catholic rights were recognized. He had visited Canada in the fall of 1852 and in the winter of 1856. After the Irish rebels of 1848 were granted amnesty, McGee lectured in Ireland in 1855 and urged emigrants to choose Canada over the United States.
In Montreal McGee’s first effort was another newspaper, the New Era, which he published for one year. The newspaper was designed to launch his career in Canadian politics, and it concentrated on attacking the influence of the Orange Order and defending the Irish right to representation in the assembly. McGee also devoted considerable space in the New Era to the future of Canada, and outlined a programme for the development of what he called “a new nationality.” This included proposals for extensive economic development by means of railway construction, the fostering of immigration, and the application of a protective tariff. McGee also urged economic cooperation between Canada and the Maritime colonies and suggested that this would lead to “a federal compact” among the provinces. A federal system, McGee argued, would solve Canada’s constitutional problems and provide for the survival of French Canada. McGee urged Canadian colonization of the Hudson’s Bay Company territory, but, at the same time, called for a policy which would allow for the integration of the native people of the western territory into the new order; his plan included the establishment of a separate province for the native people and extensive Canadian economic assistance.
McGee’s concept of the “new nationality” was based on the desirability of developing an alternate experience in North America to that of the United States. An essential characteristic of Canada’s experience was its relationship with Great Britain, and McGee’s solution to the problem of retaining the connection between them yet providing for Canadian sovereignty was a proposal that one of Queen Victoria’s younger sons establish a Canadian dynasty in a “kingdom of the St. Lawrence.” Equally important in McGee’s mind was the development of a distinctive Canadian literature. After asking, “Who reads a Canadian book?” he went on to suggest ways in which Canadian literature might be encouraged, including tariff protection for Canadian publishers. Much of McGee’s Canadian programme was derived from the nationalist theories of Young Ireland, and he applied them to the particular circumstances of Montreal and British North America during the economic depression of 1857. Later he described his programme as his “national policy,” and its tenets influenced the course of his public life in Canada.
In December 1857 D’Arcy McGee was one of three members elected to represent Montreal in the Legislative Assembly. He had been nominated by the St Patrick’s Society of Montreal and his property qualification was obtained by public subscription among the Irish community. When the Conservative government nominated Henry Starnes* to oppose him, McGee joined himself with Luther Hamilton Holton* and Antoine-Aimé Dorion* against John Rose*, George-Étienne Cartier*, and Starnes. Holton, Dorion, and McGee were all returned, and it was believed that the Irish vote had decided the contest.
In parliament McGee supported the short-lived Reform government of George Brown* and Dorion during the 1858 session, and when they left office he sat in opposition to the coalition of Cartier and John A. Macdonald*. Outside the assembly, McGee developed a political organization among the Irish Catholics of Canada West and urged them to support George Brown’s Reformers. He also tried to change the Reform party so that it would be acceptable to both sections of the province. At the very time the 1859 convention of western Reformers adopted a federal policy, McGee and three other members of the opposition from Canada East issued a manifesto endorsing a federal union of the two Canadas. It was rumoured that McGee had persuaded the western Reformers to consider the Irish national school system as a model for solving the school problems of Canada West.
McGee’s hopes of winning Irish Catholic support for a reconstructed Reform party under George Brown did not survive long after the 1861 general election when McGee’s school policy was attacked in a public letter signed by the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Canada. McGee was himself re-elected in 1861, but Brown went down to defeat and believed that his failure was due to John Joseph Lynch*, the Catholic bishop of Toronto. McGee’s alliance with Brown ended when Richard William Scott* introduced his separate school bill which the Globe categorically opposed and McGee supported. Nevertheless, McGee continued to oppose the Conservatives after the 1861 election. When the Cartier-Macdonald government was defeated on its militia bill in 1862, McGee was asked to become president of the council in the moderate Reform administration of John Sandfield Macdonald*. McGee immediately went to work on a programme to reform the civil service and tried to have all matters of immigration transferred to his office. Despite his government’s retrenchment policy, McGee urged economic expansion and chaired the Intercolonial Railway conference which met in September 1862 at Quebec. When Sandfield Macdonald’s government supported the railway, Dorion resigned; when the railway scheme fell through, Dorion returned and McGee was dropped from the cabinet. In the general election that followed, McGee announced he would run as an independent and declared: “I intend to adhere to the national policy I have always advocated and acted upon . . . .” The Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion government decided to nominate a candidate to oppose McGee, and McGee then supported Cartier and Rose against Holton and Dorion. On this occasion, McGee, Cartier, and Rose were returned.
As McGee moved from the Reformers to the Conservatives, he renewed his public efforts on behalf of the programme he had outlined in the New Era. During the summer of 1863 he wrote several public letters and contributed two articles to the British American Magazine in which he defined a destiny for British America. British America and the United States, McGee argued, both enjoyed a freedom native to their continent and unknown in Europe. Americans had developed their freedom into a republican system of government, and, although it was a magnificent experiment, it had many shortcomings. British Americans, on the other hand, had not separated from Britain and had developed their institutions along different lines. By retaining a system of constitutional monarchy, they had achieved a better balance between their natural freedom and the need for authority. Their society was more orderly and more free. “To the American citizen who boasts of greater liberty in the States, I say that a man can state his private, social, political and religious opinions with more freedom here than in New York or New England. There is, besides, far more liberty and toleration enjoyed by minorities in Canada than in the United States.” McGee was fond of citing the example of minority rights and he brought this to the attention of the Irish press, contrasting the position of the Irish in “British and Republican North America.” In the summer of 1863 McGee took his appeal for British American nationality to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He addressed audiences in Saint John and Halifax, and used the same arguments he had put forward in Canada. “I invoke the fortunate genius of a united British America, to solemnize law with the moral sanction of religion, and to crown our fair pillar of freedom with its only appropriate capital, lawful authority, so that, hand in hand, we and our descendants may advance steadily to the accomplishment of a common destiny.”
McGee became the minister of agriculture, immigration, and statistics in the Conservative government which was formed after the defeat of Sandfield Macdonald’s second administration in 1863. He retained that office in the “Great Coalition,” and was a Canadian delegate to the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences of 1864. At Quebec, McGee introduced the resolution which called for a guarantee of the educational rights of religious minorities in the two Canadas.
The years which inaugurated confederation coincided with a crisis in Ireland, and the crisis touched McGee. The Irish Republican Brotherhood, popularly known as the Fenians, had obtained wide support among the Irish in Great Britain and the United States, and appealed to the Irish in Canada. McGee openly opposed the movement, and based his opposition on two grounds: first, he objected to the republican programme for Ireland and urged the Irish to adopt the Canadian model of self-government within the British Empire; second, McGee attacked the Fenian plan to invade British America and called on the Irish in Canada to “give the highest practical proof possible that an Irishman well governed becomes one of the best subjects of the law and the Sovereign.” When he visited Ireland in 1865 as the Canadian delegate to the Dublin International Exposition McGee addressed an audience in Wexford, the town where he had spent his boyhood, and spoke on the Irish immigrant in Canada and the United States. He also described his career as an Irish rebel as “the follies of one and twenty.” This “Wexford Speech” attracted great attention in Ireland, Britain, the United States, and Canada, and McGee was accused of being a turncoat and a traitor to Ireland.
By 1866, McGee was in political trouble with his Irish constituents in Montreal. He had antagonized the Irish vote and had become a liability in Canadian politics. He was not invited to the London conference in 1866, nor was he included in the first dominion government. As the federal general election of 1867 approached, McGee was expelled from the St Patrick’s Society, and the society’s president, Bernard Devlin*, was nominated to oppose him. Although McGee was returned for Montreal West, he had lost the Irish vote and was defeated as a candidate for Prescott in the Ontario provincial election. He now expressed a desire to leave politics. John A. Macdonald promised him a civil service post for the summer of 1868, and McGee intended to turn his full attention to literature and Canadian history. He was dead before the appointment was made.
McGee was assassinated in Ottawa during the early morning hours of 7 April 1868. He was buried a week later on his 43rd birthday. It was generally believed at the time that his murder was part of a Fenian conspiracy. Patrick James Whelan, an Irish immigrant, was charged with the crime, found guilty, and hanged publicly in Ottawa on 11 Feb. 1869. The crown, however, never accused Whelan of being a Fenian, and the charges against other alleged members of the conspiracy were dismissed.
Aside from his public speeches and newspaper editorials, Thomas D’Arcy McGee left behind a significant body of literature. His first piece, Eva MacDonald, was historical fiction. The only other fiction he wrote was a drama intended for Catholic schools, Sebastian, or the Roman martyr (1861). All of his other prose work was historical, most of it propagandist and designed to justify a present position through historical argument. His best historical work was his last, A popular history of Ireland (1863). Its title was significant: although McGee did some primary research, he depended on the work of other scholars and popularized their discoveries. The work was well received, and he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy.
McGee also published a large number of poems throughout his career under the pseudonym “Amergin,” and 309 of them were collected and published after his death by his close friend, Mary Anne Sadlier [Madden*]. McGee’s poetic style was lyrical when he expressed personal emotion; he used the ballad for historical subjects, and once expressed the ambition to write a ballad history of Ireland. As a poet, he was a part of the Young Ireland school which published in the Nation, and which included Thomas Osborne Davis, James Clarence Mangan, Sir Samuel Ferguson, and “Speranza,” the future Lady Wilde and mother of Oscar Wilde. McGee’s verse, his love of the Celtic past, his interest in history, and his political ideas were all consistent with the romantic milieu in which he lived.
D’Arcy McGee’s personality and private life are difficult to evaluate, as very few of his private papers are available. He was well known for his speaking ability, being generally acknowledged as the finest public speaker in Canadian politics at the time. This ability was apparent from his earlier career, when he obtained a substantial part of his income from lectures and speaking tours. He never enjoyed an independent income, and always depended on writing, journalism, lectures, public subscriptions, and government appointments for income. He was generally in debt, and this condition contributed to the charge that he changed ideological and political positions for personal gain. The truth of this charge is difficult to determine accurately. His early flirtations with revolutionary liberalism and anti-clericalism, followed in later years by a passionate faith in Catholicism and conservatism, was a common pattern among many 19th century romantics. So too was the tendency towards personal escapism. Many prominent romantic personalities were acknowledged to be users of drugs, and McGee was known for his heavy drinking. This pattern of behaviour was most noticeable during times of stress, such as the crisis preceding his reconciliation with the church, the conflict with Sandfield Macdonald, and his confrontation with the Fenians. At the time of his death he had renewed his pledge of total abstinence, a pledge he had first taken from Father Mathew in Ireland.
T. D’A. McGee, The Catholic history of North America; five discourses, to which are added two discourses on the relations of Ireland and America (Boston, 1855); Eva MacDonald, a tale of the United Irishmen (Boston, 1844); Gallery of Irish writers; the Irish writers of the seventeenth century (Dublin, 1846); Historical sketches of O’Connell and his friends . . . (2nd ed., Boston, 1845; 4th ed., 1854); A history of the attempts to establish the Protestant reformation in Ireland, and the successful resistance of that people; (time: 1540–1830) (Boston, 1853); A history of the Irish settlers in North America, from the earliest period to the census of 1850 (Boston, 1851; 5th ed., 1852); A life of the Rt. Rev. Edward Maginn, coadjutor bishop of Derry, with selections from his correspondence (New York, 1857; 2nd ed., 1860); A memoir of the life and conquests of Art MacMurrogh, king of Leinster, from A.D. 1377 to A.D. 1417, with some notices of the Leinster wars of the 14th century (Dublin, 1847; 2nd ed., ); “A plea for British American nationality” and “A further plea for British American nationality,” British American Magazine; Devoted to Literature, Science, and Art (Toronto), I (1863), 337–45, and 561–67; The poems of Thomas D’Arcy McGee; with copious notes; also an introduction and biographical sketch, ed. Mrs. James Sadlier [M. A. Madden] (New York, 1869); ed. Brady (2nd ed., Boston, 1869), A popular history of Ireland . . . (2v., New York, 1863).
Georges P. Vanier Library (Concordia University, Montreal), G. E. Clerk diary, 18 Sept. 1856–21 Dec. 1857; T. D’A. McGee coll. PAC, MG 24, B30; C 16; MG 26, A, 46, p.18010; MG 27, I, E9; E12; III, B8; MG 29, D15; RG 1, E7. Royal Irish Academy (Dublin), Minute book of the Irish Confederation, 26 June 1847. American Celt (Boston, Buffalo, N.Y., and New York), 31 Aug. 1850; 31 May, 8 Nov. 1851; 18 May, 11 June 1853. Boston Pilot, 9 July 1842, 13 April 1844–17 May 1845, June 1845–May 1846, 7 Aug. 1847, 21 Oct. 1848. Gazette (Montreal), 3, 12 June 1863; 9 Dec. 1865; 15 April 1868. Globe, 13 Aug. 1858, 23 Aug. 1859. Montreal Herald, 26 Nov. 1856. Nation (Dublin), 19 Sept. 1846; 5 Feb., 15 July 1848; 22 June 1850; 8 March 1851; 4 Sept., 11 Dec. 1852; 2, 9 June 1855; 8 March 1856; 13, 20 May 1865. Nation (New York), 20 Jan., 31 March, 14 April, 1 Dec. 1849; 27 Jan. 1850. New Era (Montreal), 25 May 1857–1 May 1858. W. F. Adams, Ireland and Irish emigration to the New World from 1815 to the famine (New Haven, Conn., 1932). E. R. Cameron, Memoirs of Ralph Vansittart (Toronto, [ 1924]), 101–2. H. J. O’C. Clarke, A short sketch of the life of the Hon. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, M.P., for Montreal (West) . . . (Montreal, 1868). C. G. Duffy, My life in two hemispheres (London, 1898); Young Ireland; a fragment of Irish history (2v., London, 1880–83), II. M. G. Kelly, Catholic immigrant colonization projects in the United States, 1815–1860 (New York, 1939). Isabel [Murphy] Skelton, The life of Thomas D’Arcy McGee (Gardenvale, N.Y., 1925), 373. T. P. Slattery, “They got to find mee guilty yet” (Toronto and Garden City, N.Y., 1972). [J.] F. Taylor, Thos. D’Arcy McGee: sketch of his life and death (Montreal, 1868).
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It is impossible to suggest specific guidelines for people to follow when it comes to hydration quantities, however there are some general points to consider which will help you formulate your own hydration plan.
Always start exercise in a well-hydrated state. Try not to drink too much as being overhydrated is unlikely to benefit your performance and may cause bloating.
For most people, 200-300ml every 10-15 minutes works well, depending on the intensity of the activity. Repeat this process during different training sessions, at varying times of the day and in a range of seasonal temperatures, keeping a record of your sweat rate. Over time you will see a pattern emerge showing how much fluid you lose depending on the conditions, and how much you need to replace after training.
Aim to replace your final fluid loss at the rate of 1.25-1.5 litres for every 1kg body weight lost, over the next 2-6 hours.
The type of training will dictate the practicalities of drinking before, during and after sport. With team sports for example, drinks need to be easily accessible in breaks of play.
What is the best fluid to drink?
Plain water is ideal in exercise sessions that are of low to moderate intensity and last up to 1 hour in duration.
Sport waters – These are often flavoured water with a small amount of added carbohydrate and sodium. Although there is no research to suggest that they enhance performance, they are often considered more palatable than plain water, encouraging fluid consumption which reduces the risk of dehydration.
Sports drinks – These have been very precisely configured to contain the exact combination of water, electrolytes (e.g. sodium and potassium) and carbohydrate to actively increase the rate of hydration and in turn, enhance performance. These are ideal during prolonged, intensive exercise.
Low fat milk – After exercise, low fat milk makes a great recovery drink. Not only does it help with rehydration, but it also provides valuable protein and calcium.
- Aim to match sweat rate with fluid intake during exercise
- Practise your fluid plan for competition during training sessions
- Use water for low intensity, short duration sport
- Consider sports drinks for higher intensity exercise and endurance training
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During the Middle Ages, when medicine in general wasn’t very developed, folk medicine was a relatively large practice and people were experimenting with medicinal uses for plants. Of course in order to use these plants as medicine, people needed a way to determine what plants would be best used to cure various ailments. Eventually, a new theory known as the Doctrine of Signatures was born in an effort to cater to this very need.
The concept was developed by Swiss physicist, astrologer, botanist and occultist, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, later known as Paracelsus. Paracelsus, by the way, is also credited as the founder of toxicology, the one who gave zinc its name and modern psychology even recognizes him as the first to note that some illnesses are rooted in psychological conditions.
Paracelsus’s concept is actually fairly simple to understand and can actually be summed up rather well by looking at what Paracelsus once wrote; “Nature marks each growth according to its curative benefit”, which simply means that every plant found in nature is marked in some way such as by its shape or color to symbolize what it can be used for medicinally.
While this idea was certainly more than radical for its time, it nevertheless grew in popularity throughout time, later being emphasized and even expanded upon by others such as Jakob Böhme and Giambattista della Porta among many others.
If you look at a lot of the common names we have for various plants you can see that a lot of them, thanks to the Doctrine of Signatures, even describe what the plant was commonly used for. For example, Liverwort could be used to treat liver disease, Eyebright could be used to treat problems with a person’s eyes, Lungwort for lung disease, you get the picture.
While the Doctrine of Signatures may have began as a folk medicine concept it has also been traditionally used as a way to determine the magical uses of plants for about just as long. The only difference is that you are attributing magical properties to plants based on the Doctrine of Signatures instead of focusing solely on their medicinal properties.
When viewed from this perspective you can see how you could potentially use various plants in your magical work. Let me give you a few examples to further illustrate this:
- Angelica – Associated with the Archangel Michael and is used for spiritual protection and healing due to its holy namesake
- Bay Leaves – Keeps evil and negative energies at bay
- Devil’s Shoestring – Is said to have the power to “trip up” evil
- Five Finger Grass – Is said to be able to attract to you or “grab hold” of anything that your five fingers could grab
In magical practices, we often use more than just herbs however; we use waters, sticks, rocks/minerals and other various curios as well… and the Doctrine of Signatures can be applied to every single one of them. Lodestones are a good example of this.
Lodestones are chunks of magnetite which is a naturally magnetized mineral and in practices such as folk magic it is commonly used to attract or “draw” something to you because the Lodestone acts the way magnets act. They attract.
Other trinkets or curios can be used in this way as well and where it is appropriate. For instance, when I make a bottle of Lucky Hand Wash for a client of mine who likes a little extra luck with their gambling they tell me they like to add this one set of lucky dice they carry with them all the time to the bottle due to the dices connotation with luck and games of chance and also due to the fact that for whatever reason my client feels that those dice in particular are good luck for him.
In conclusion, the Doctrine of Signatures is a cornerstone of most magical theory and practice and any magical practitioner should have a working knowledge of it. When the Doctrine of Signatures is applied properly you can seriously increase the effectiveness of your magic.
Remember to thank the spirits of the land and those of the plants themselves while you’re out foraging in the woods and get to know them a little bit better through the Doctrine of Signatures and you will benefit greatly while you connect just that much more with the spirits of the land which, of course, carries its own benefit as well.
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The uniform of the corps was similar to other German jaeger units, wearing green coats with red facings. But there were significant differences in many details. First of all their turn-backs were green like the Brunswick jaegers'. Furthermore they wore buff breeches and leather gaitors. And all their leather was of natural light brown colour. Minor details were brass buttons and green cockades. Officers' rank was signified by a silver sash shot through with red and blue thread, a silver hat-band, and a silver shoulder strap on the right shoulder. NCOs had silver hat-bands with a red centre, and silver lace on the upper end of their cuffs. Privates had red hat-bands.
The jaegers were armed with short-barreled jaeger rifles of Hesse-Hanau production. These had walnut stocks and brass fittings, an eight sided barrel, and iron rammers with brass ends. The rifle slings were of red-brown leather.
|a jaeger rifle of Hesse-Hanau production (over-all length 1.11 m)|
Musicians were buglers. They wore the normal jaeger uniforms, adorned with silver/red/blue lace on the shoulders, so-called "swallows nests", and around the cuffs.
Unfortunately the Perry figures I used, do not show the right type of horn. It ought to be the "Sauerländer Halbmond" (Sauerland Half-moon), instead of a horn used in par force hunting which the illustrations of Hessen-Cassel jaegers of 1786 and 1789 show.
Another problem could easily be solved (at least to my taste): The Hessen-Hanau Jaegers wore leather gaiters which lasted throughout the war. There was no need to change legwear to overalls, which the existing Perry figures show. I just painted a dark line above the knees and added metal buttons to the gaiters.
|On picket duty|
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Nader Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire(Redirected from Sack of Delhi)
Emperor Nader Shah, the Shah of Persia (1736–47) and the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Persia, invaded the Mughal Empire, eventually attacking Delhi in March 1739. His army had easily defeated the Mughals at the battle at Karnal and would eventually capture the Mughal capital in the aftermath of the battle.
Nader Shah's victory against the weak and crumbling Mughal Empire in the far East meant that he could afford to turn back and resume war against Persia's archrival, the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, but also the further campaigns in the North Caucasus and Central Asia.
Nader Shah became the Persian ruler in 1736, his troops captured Esfahan from the Mahmud Hootaki who had overrun the Safavid dynasty and founded the Afsharid dynasty in that year. In 1738, Nader Shah conquered Kandahar, the last outpost of the Hotaki dynasty in Afghanistan, he then began to launch raids across the Hindu Kush mountains into Northern India, which, at that time, was under the rule of the Mughal Empire. As he moved into the Mughal territories, he was loyally accompanied by his Georgian subject and future king of Georgia, Erekle II, who led a Georgian contingent as a military commander as part of Nader's force.
The Mughal empire had been weakened by ruinous wars of succession in the three decades following the death of Aurangzeb, the Hindu Marathas of the Maratha Empire had captured vast swathes of territory in Central and Northern India, whilst many of the Mughal nobles had asserted their independence and founded small states. Its ruler, Muhammad Shah, proved unable to stop the disintegration of the empire. The imperial court administration was corrupt and weak whereas the country was extremely rich whilst Delhi’s prosperity and prestige was still at a high. Nader Shah, attracted by the country's wealth, sought plunder like so many other foreign invaders before him.
Nader had asked Muhammad Shah to close the Mughal frontiers around Kabul so that the Afghan rebels he was fighting against, may not seek refuge in Kabul. Even though the Emperor agreed, he practically took no action. Nader seized upon this as a pretext for war. Together with his Georgian subject Erekle II (Heraclius II), who took part in the expedition as a commander leading a contingent of Georgian troops, the long march had begun. He defeated his Afghan enemies fleeing into the Hindu Kush and also seized major cities such as Ghazni, Kabul and Peshawar before advancing onto the Punjab and capturing Lahore. Nader advanced to the river Indus before the end of year as the Mughals mustered their army against him.
At the Battle of Karnal on 24 February 1739, Nader led his army to victory over the Mughals, Muhammad Shah surrendered and both entered Delhi together. The keys to the capital of Delhi were surrendered to Nader. He entered the city on 20 March 1739 and occupied Shah Jehan’s imperial suite in the Red Fort. Coins were struck, and prayers said, in his name in the Jama Masjid and other Delhi mosques. The next day, the Shah held a great durbar in the capital.
The Afsharid occupation led to price increases in the city. The city administrator attempted to fix prices at a lower level and Afsharid troops were sent to the market at Paharganj, Delhi to enforce them. However, the local merchants refused to accept the lower prices and this resulted in violence during which some Afsharid troops were assaulted and killed.
When a rumour spread that Nadir had been assassinated by a female guard at the Red Fort, some Indians attacked and killed Afsharid troops during the riots that broke out on the night of 21 March. Nadir, furious at the killings, retaliated by ordering his soldiers to carry out the notorious qatl-e-aam (qatl = killing, aam = public, people, everyone) of Delhi.
On the morning of 22 March, the Shah rode out in full armour and took a seat at the Sunehri Masjid of Roshan-ud-dowla near the Kotwali Chabutra in the middle of Chandni Chowk. He then, to the accompaniment of the rolling of drums and the blaring of trumpets, unsheathed his great battle sword in a grand flourish to the great and loud acclaim and wild cheers of the Afsharid troops present. This was the signal to start the onslaught and carnage. Almost immediately, the fully armed Afsharid army of occupation turned their swords and guns on to the unarmed and defenceless civilians in the city. The Afsharid soldiers were given full licence to do as they pleased and promised a share of the booty as the city was plundered.
Areas of Delhi such as Chandni Chowk and Dariba Kalan, Fatehpuri, Faiz Bazar, Hauz Kazi, Johri Bazar and the Lahori, Ajmeri and Kabuli gates, all of which were densely populated by both Hindus and Muslims, were soon covered with corpses. Muslims, like Hindus, resorted to killing their women, children and themselves rather than submit to the Afsharid soldiers.
In the words of the Tazkira:
"Here and there some opposition was offered, but in most places people were butchered unresistingly. The Persians laid violent hands on everything and everybody. For a long time, streets remained strewn with corpses, as the walks of a garden with dead leaves and flowers. The town was reduced to ashes."
Muhammad Shah was forced to beg for mercy. These horrific events were recorded in contemporary chronicles such as the Tarikh-e-Hindi of Rustam Ali, the Bayan-e-Waqai of Abdul Karim and the Tazkira of Anand Ram Mukhlis.
Finally, after many hours of desperate pleading by the Mughals for mercy, Nadir Shah relented and signalled a halt to the bloodshed by sheathing his battle sword once again.
It has been estimated that during the course of six hours in one day, 22 March 1739, something like 20,000 to 30,000 Indian men, women and children were slaughtered by the Afsharid troops during the massacre in the city. Exact casualty figures are uncertain, as after the massacre, the bodies of the victims were simply buried in mass burial pits or cremated in grand funeral pyres without any proper record being made of the numbers cremated or buried.
The city was sacked for several days. An enormous fine of 20 million rupees was levied on the people of Delhi. Muhammad Shah handed over the keys to the royal treasury, and lost the Peacock Throne, to Nadir Shah, which thereafter served as a symbol of Persian imperial might. Amongst a treasure trove of other fabulous jewels, Nadir also gained the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-i-Noor ("Mountain of Light" and "Sea of Light," respectively) diamonds; they are now part of the British and Iranian Crown Jewels, respectively. Nader and his Afsharid troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739, but before they left, he ceded back all territories to the east of the Indus which he had overrun to Muhammad Shah.
The plunder seized from Delhi was so rich that Nadir stopped taxation in Persia for a period of three years following his return. Nadir Shah's victory against the crumbling Mughal Empire in the East meant that he could afford to turn to the West and face the Ottomans. The Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I initiated the Ottoman-Persian War (1743-1746), in which Muhammad Shah closely cooperated with the Ottomans until his death in 1748.
Nader's Indian campaign alerted, as a far off foreign invader, also the British East India Company to the extreme weakness of the Mughal Empire and the possibility of expanding to fill the power vacuum.
- "Nadir Shah". Britannica.com.
- The Sword of Persia:Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
- David Marshall Lang. Russia and the Armenians of Transcaucasia, 1797–1889: a documentary record Columbia University Press, 1957 (digitalised March 2009, originally from the University of Michigan) p 142
- "When the dead speak". Hindustan Times. March 7, 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
- "AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF PERSIA DURING THE LAST TWO CENTURIES (A.D. 1722–1922)". Edward G. Browne. London: Packard Humanities Institute. p. 33. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
- Axworthy p.8
- Marshman, P. 200
- Axworthy, Michael (2010). Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant. I.B. Tauris. pp. 212, 216. ISBN 978-0857733474.
- This section: Axworthy pp.1–16, 175–210
- Naimur Rahman Farooqi (1989). Mughal-Ottoman relations: a study of political & diplomatic relations between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire, 1556–1748. Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- Axworthy p.xvi
- "Muhammad Shah". The Cambridge History of India. CUP Archive. 358–364.
- Jassa Singh Ahluwalia:The Forgotten Hero of Punjab by Harish Dhillon
- Grant, RG: Battle
- (Nadir Shah) Until His Assassination In A.D. 1747. A Literary History of Persia by Edward G. Browne. Publisher T. Fisher Unwin, 1924.
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To become a strong academic writer you will need to practice academic writing and improve your skills. To compose effective Old English coursework, we recommend you take a look at our Old English coursework sample that is totally free. You do not have to pay anything in order to download any of the pages while using our site, or in order to open any of the essays.
“Look at the text provided and find three examples as to how these excerpts in Old English differ from Modern English (focus on vocabulary/morphology, word order/syntax, and/or word meaning/semantics).
Most word order in the excerpt occurs in VSO, VOS, or OSV. The subject never comes first. This contrasts the modern English that contains the SVO agreement.
Secondly, most syntactic constructions begin with a conditional object that is unfamiliar to the modern English.
Lastly, the vocabularies tend to overlap in usage, like the application of Gif and man.
Examples include, “If someone hits another on the nose with fist, three shillings.” (pg 23)
You are familiar with the grammatical category Determiner, whose members include the/a/this/that/these/those. Investigate the syntax, morphology, and semantics of one of these words in Old English. In the literature, these words may be identified as ‘articles’ or ‘demonstratives’. Would this word better fit into a grammatical or a lexical category, according to Lobeck’s criteria in Table 2.1? Justify your answer.
The syntax of the determiner category “the” in the Anglo-saxon English illustrates a certain endowment that is quite different from the modern day English. A certain trick lies in the Subject verb agreement (SVO) of modern English. The orders are varied, from VOS, OSV to VSO order. The article, determiner still retains its definite stand on the noun or subject. For instance, se cyning means the king. The morphology of this word forms emerged from the Celtic influence. Modern English and these words have similar influence based on their morphological inclinations. “Se,” the Anglo Saxon equivalence shares the vowel in the morphological environment. The semantics of these article shares in the modern day definite sense of “the.” It derives meaning from the noun/subject usage. Lobeck’s criterion denotes a grammatical class as the best classification of these articles. They share similar syntactic distribution, which dwells on the realms of semantics and morphology…”
Use Our Academic Writing Service
Writingtoserve.net has created a database of free copies of the best written papers, to offer you actual samples, for example, our Old English coursework sample. When we originally started creating our writing guides, we realized that we have to provide concrete examples of how all the rules, tips, and suggestions from our guides can be practically implemented. So, in cooperation with teachers, freelance experts, and academic staff we started our database of free samples.
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Reading in FS/KS1
Your child can access a variety of Reading resources including ebooks and activities on Oxford Owl by following this link Oxford Owl for Home
Your child's teacher will provide you with their class log-in details or children can register themselves.
Oxford Owl also has a range of useful information, articles and support videos for parents. Follow the link above.
In addition to the Read, Write Inc. books that are used in class, children in Foundation Stage/Key Stage 1, will also have three independent readers per week. These will be read with adults in school and also at home. They will be selected for children according to ability and confidence from a number of reading schemes:
Oxford - including Oxford Reading Tree Phonics, Songbirds, Oxford Reading Tree, Project X, Treetops and All Stars
Collins Big Cat
They will include a variety of fiction, poetry and non-fiction texts.
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http://br-and-h.org.uk/Reading-in-FS-KS1/
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The ExOne S-Max has held its place as the world’s largest sand-casting additive manufacturing system since its introduction in 2010.
Designed to be used in a foundries or industrial design facilities, the S-Max can use CAD files to create complex sand cores and molds for casting.
With a number of different sand materials at its disposal the S-Max can produced castable molds that will work with a wide range of metals. That flexibility allows the system to fit a range of applications from traditional to advanced manufacturing.
How the ExOne S-Max Works:
The S-Max uses an additive manufacturing method called Binder Jetting to build its models. In the binder jetting process a print head selectively deposits a liquid binding agent onto a layer of sand particulate, similar to the way an inkjet printer prints a page. Once a layer of binder has been deposited a carefully measured layer of sand is brushed across the build chamber and the process begins anew.
What sets the binder jetting technique apart from other AM methods is its lack of welding, melting or heating. Because the S-Max lacks does not use these processes its parts don’t suffer from the residual stresses that can be a byproduct of rapid heating and cooling. The fidelity of the binder jetting process allows for extremely large sand casts to be produced, including room sized architectural forms or engineering pieces with unprecedented complexity.
Once the S-Max has completed a print, a technician can remove the part from its surrounding encasement of sand, vacuum or blow-off the part and then proceed to casting. Little to no post-processing is required.
For over 80 years Standard Alloys has been in the business of making high-quality castings and machined parts. When a customer approached them with the idea of casting a 57-inch impeller in short order, Standard knew they needed a new solution to meet their lead time requirements.
The team at Standard were able to design and print the largest rapid casting core they had every created within 8 weeks. In fact, ExOne’s machines were capable of building the entire impeller’s core, complete with hydraulic balancing, in a single week.
Read more at ENGINEERING.com
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Israel Air Force [IAF] / Air Corps (Hel Avir)
By a tremendous effort, Israel assembled a motley group of combat aircraft when Arab air forces attacked it after the declaration of independence in 1948. The first airplanes came from Czechoslovakia, which furnished propeller-driven Messerschmitts and reconditioned Spitfires from World War II. Czechoslovakia also trained the first Israeli pilots, although these few were quickly supplemented by hundreds of experienced volunteers from a number of countries. The prestige of the air force was enhanced after its spectacular success during the June 1967 War, and the subsequent decade saw an unprecedented increase in its manpower and equipment resources. Since 1971 the air force has also assumed full responsibility for air defense.
The air force is not designated as a separate service. Officially known as the Air Corps (Hel Avir), the air force, however, enjoy more autonomy within the IDF structure than the official designation would suggest. The commander has the status of senior adviser to the chief of staff. Along with the ground force area commanders, the commander of the air force holds two-star rank. In 1988 the air force consisted of about 28,000 men, of whom approximately 9,000 were career professionals, and 19,000 were conscripts assigned primarily to air defense units. An additional 50,000 reserve members were available for mobilization. As of 1999 the IAF strength of 32,500 included some 22,000 conscripts who mostly serve in the air-defence brigades. Reservists numbered 54,000.
The air force commander, who was directly responsible to the chief of staff, supervised a small staff consisting of operations, training, intelligence, quartermaster, and manpower branches, at air force headquarters in Tel Aviv. Orders went directly from the air force commander to base commanders, each of whom controlled a wing of several squadrons. As of 1988, Israel had nineteen combat squadrons, including twelve fighter-interceptor squadrons, six fighter squadrons, and one reconnaissance squadron.
The mainstays of the combat element of 524 aircraft were of four types: the F-16 multirole tactical fighter, the first of which became operational in Israel in 1980; the larger and heavier F-15 fighter designed to maintain air superiority, first delivered in 1976; the F-4 Phantom, a two-seater fighter and attack aircraft, delivered to Israel between 1969 and 1977; and the Kfir, an Israeli-manufactured fighter plane first delivered to the air force in 1975, and based on the French-designed Mirage III. The air force also kept in service as a reserve older A-4 Skyhawks first acquired in 1966. All of these models were expected to be retained in the inventory into the next century, although the Skyhawks would be used primarily for training and as auxiliary aircraft.
Israel's project to design and build a second-generation indigenous jet fighter, the Lavi (lion cub), was cancelled in 1987 because of expense. Instead, Israel was to take delivery of seventy-five advanced F-16C and F-16D fighters produced in the United States. In July 1999 the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, chose to purchase the F-16I s, to modernize the IAF. In a parallel development, all the IAF long-range F-15I planes purchased in 1998, have already entered service. Israel at first ordered 21 of the F-15I aircraft, and later increased its order to 25.
The air force inventory also included a large number of electronic countermeasure and airborne early warning aircraft, cargo transports and utility aircraft, trainers, and helicopters. Attack helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache, Hughes Defender and AH-1 Cobra add a new dimension to the land battle. Sikorsky and Bell helicopters transport troops and equipment while performing assault, medevac and rescue missions in both war and peace. The IAF is interested in acquiring squadrons of 24 Apache Long-Bow combat helicopters - double the number originally planned. In the context of the deal, existing IAF Apaches will be upgraded to include the advanced Long-Bow elements including radar and missile systems. The transport fleet includes the Boeing 707 and Hercules C-130 aircraft as well as the locally produced Arava short take off and landing (STOL) transport. Boeing 707s had been converted for in-flight refueling of F-15s and F-16s.
Israeli air force commanders pointed out that the ratio of combat aircraft available to Israel and the total of all Arab air forces, including Egypt and Libya, was on the order of 1:4 in 1987. Nevertheless, Israel's superior maintenance standards and higher pilot-to-aircraft ratio meant that it could fly more sorties per aircraft per day. Israel also enjoyed an advantage in precision weapons delivery systems and in its ability to suppress Arab air defense missile systems.
With little expansion of the air force contemplated, emphasis was placed on motivating and training pilots and relying on versatile, high performance aircraft. The Israeli air force repeatedly demonstrated its superior combat performance. During the June 1967 War, waves of successive bombings of Egyptian and Syrian airfields caused tremendous damage. The Arab air forces lost 469 aircraft, nearly 400 of them on the ground. Only forty-six Israeli planes were destroyed. The October 1973 War was marked by a large number of dogfights in which the Israelis prevailed, claiming the destruction of 227 enemy airplanes at a cost of 15 Israeli aircraft. On the other hand, sixty Israeli airplanes were lost in missions in support of ground forces. In the Lebanon fighting in 1982, Israeli airplanes destroyed most of the Syrian missile sites in the Biqa Valley. The Israeli air force also dominated the air battle, bringing down ninety Syrian aircraft without a loss.
The air force had demonstrated its ability to bring Israel's military power to bear at distant points and in unconventional operations. In 1976 its transport aircraft ferried troops to the Entebbe airport in Uganda to rescue passengers on a commercial airplane hijacked by Arab terrorists. In June 1981, F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed the Osiraq (Osiris-Iraq) nuclear research reactor near Baghdad, Iraq, flying at low levels over Saudi Arabian and Iraqi territory to evade radar detection. In 1985 Israeli F-15s refueled in flight and bombed the headquarters of the PLO near Tunis, Tunisia, at a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers from their bases.
When the first Hawk missiles arrived in 1965, IAF Commander Ezer Weizmann succeeded in placing this sophisticated air defense system under Air Force control. By far the most important recent development in air defense was the acquisition of Patriot missile batteries during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Israeli crews mastered the system under the pressure of live combat. U.S. Army and IAF personnel worked side by side to protect Israeli cities from Iraqi Scud surface-to-surface missiles.
Sources and Resources
Maintained by Webmaster
Updated Wednesday, May 24, 2000 12:15:01 PM
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What can I do if I want to give students access to more than a reasonable portion of a copyright work?
The Copyright Act 1968 permits the University to reproduce (copy) and communicate a reasonable portion of a copyright work, including making that reasonable portion available online. A reasonable portion is defined as 10% of one chapter of a book, or one article from an issue of a journal unless on the same subject matter in which case more than one article can be copied.
These limits are intended to be applied to a specific set of students for a specific unit, except in the case of work communicated via an intranet/learning or content management system/eReserve, where the limits are applied across the institution as a whole.
Teaching staff should adhere to these limits at all times. There may be occasions where teaching staff wish to reproduce and communicate more than these limits. In these instances, consider these options:
- Consider if there is value in in identifying for students an alternative resource that could supplement or replace all or part of the work you intended to use more than a reasonable portion of. This could also improve student's breadth of reading.
- Is the work available online, or could the Library purchase access to the work, which could then be provided to all students?
- Can students access the material themselves? Providing them with citation details and instructing them to access the material
- If the item is only available in hard copy (i.e.: print format), the Library can place restrictions on the circulation of the item to ensure that more students have access to it.
- You could contact the copyright owner and request specific permission to reproduce and communicate more than a reasonable portion.
For further help with copyright matters, please contact the University Copyright Coordinator.
Please view the Copyright Guide on the University Library website for more information about the above topic as well as other areas of Copyright.
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http://askus.library.nd.edu.au/a.php?qid=333512
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I often wonder why adults have one set of standards for themselves and another for the children.
I recently observed a childcare worker yelling at a young fella because he was yelling at one of his playmates. It struck me as odd. If the young fella is not allowed to yell then why are you yelling at him? How did your yelling at him help him to learn how to do things differently?
A parent in one of my parenting groups years ago, said “I hit the children for hitting each other – it doesn’t make any sense”.
Dr Magda Gerber said “YOU are what you teach your children”. No truer words have been spoken.
If your kids are yelling, swearing, getting angry, where do they get the yelling/swearing/angry from? If they can’t tolerate frustration, who is role modelling that for them? And who is teaching them the alternative – how to calm and center themselves?
Parents say to me that their kids don’t listen. I rather cheekily ask how much they listen to their children.
Parents expect their children to jump up and do whatever they are asking them to do as soon as they ask it. But when you are sitting on the lounge watching your favourite TV show, or looking at Facebook, how quickly do you respond to your children’s requests?
Parents expect their children to share. They rouse on the young one who won’t share his favourite truck. But if I asked to borrow your car how willingly would you hand over the keys? Adults aren’t that good at sharing so why should children be good at it, especially as they are egocentric and they really do think that the universe revolves around them. Being egocentric is developmental, it’s something that their brain controls, they actually can’t help it. They are not being ‘selfish’ to be nasty.
If you have a house rule that food should only be eaten at the kitchen table, then are you following that rule too? The kids are looking at you, and pretty soon they learn what the word ‘hypocrite’ means. They will mutter under their breath that you don’t follow the ‘rules’ and then they will get into trouble for ‘backchatting’ or being rude or not respecting their parents.
When we make a mistake we pass it off as a mistake. When our child makes a mistake we say its “misbehaviour”, “naughty”, or “seeking attention”.
I’m not suggesting that children be given free reign. Your job as a parent is to set the rules for acceptable behaviour, to establish the limits and boundaries. It is absolutely OK for you to set limits and boundaries. Some of the most extreme child behaviour I have ever seen has come from parents who are too scared to limit their child’s behaviour.
It’s also your job to be a good role model. It’s not simply enough any more to say “do as I say, not as I do”. If you can’t role model acceptable behaviour then how are your children going to learn it? Do you have one set of standards for yourself and one for your children? Are you expecting too much of your children? Kids are smart these days and having unrealistic expectations causes resentment in your children and can lead to negative behaviour and moods.
Categories: Parenting Skills
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Gardeners everywhere love transforming a plot of soil into an expanse of colorful foliage and flowers. Wildlife attracted to the garden serve to heighten the planter’s enjoyment. But some of nature’s inhabitants, like white-tailed deer, can destroy a gardener’s hard work in short order.
The population of white-tailed deer in the United States is approximately 30 million, and their range extends well beyond woodland areas into the suburbs. Many common plants appeal to deer. Once they find a good source of food in your garden, they will likely come back again and again to forage for more. Just a few visits are enough to decimate your lovely plot. Unfortunately, fences rarely help, as deer are excellent jumpers, determined to find a good meal.
Deer must be dissuaded from consuming the plants you have so lovingly tended. Repellex is the answer to how to keep deer out of garden. Repellex deer deterrents are formulated with natural ingredients that are completely safe for animals and the environment. Whether you choose to use systemic tablets, ready-to-use sprays or spray concentrate, you will find success in protecting your plants and flowers.
Repellex tablets contain a hot pepper concentrate that is delivered to the roots of your plants and absorbed at the molecular level. The result is a bad taste distributed evenly throughout the plant. When deer take a bite, they learn your plants aren’t edible and they stay away.
The tablets are easy to use. Simply place them in the soil around your plants and water. The effects will not wash off and one treatment will last through the entire growing season.
Repellex spray contains dried blood meal that releases a predator-like scent as a natural repellent to grazing deer. In addition, the spray contains garlic and essential oils, two flavors deer find offensive. So deer are doubly-deterred through their senses of smell and of taste.
Repellex spray can be purchased ready-to-use or as a concentrate. Application is simple. Spray evenly on your plants and the natural adhesives in the product will cause it to stick to leaves and woody surfaces, forming a protective coat that lasts approximately three months.
Repellex sprays are effective when used independently. However, they also complement the tablets by providing a second barrier during times when the systemic tablets are not as effective—specifically during the up-take stage and when the plant is dormant.
The problem of how to keep deer out of garden is finally solved. Use Repellex tablets and sprays, and white-tailed deer will seek tastier morsels elsewhere.
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Honoring the History & Culture of Roatán and the Bay Islands
Combine ancient civilizations, Carib Indians, African slaves, notorious swashbuckling pirates, English and Spanish conquests, sunken treasures, and a tradition of living off the sea passed down from countless generations and you have Roatán.
In 1992, Cheryl Galindo founded the Roatán Museum to honor the island's unique culture and history.
The museum is housed in the same complex as the Education Center and possesses one of the best collections of pre-Columbian artifacts in Central America. It chronicles the cultural and archeological history of the Bay Islands through text, maps, artwork, and artifacts including clay pottery, copper beads, and jade ornaments of the Payan Indians.
The cultural legacy of the Bay Islands is as rich and colorful as the marine life offshore. At least nine cultural groups have occupied the Bay Islands. Today the islands are blessed with a distinct mixture of cultures, customs, and traditions. The cultural history of the Bay Islands dates back to the Paya Indians, a group related to the ancient and highly advanced Mayan civilization. Numerous pre-Columbian artifacts, left by the Paya, have been recovered from more than 50 sites throughout the islands. Over the years archeologists have investigated residential, ceremonial, and burial sites, and islanders are still unearthing “yaba-ding-dings”, the local name for broken clay pottery and figurines. The Roatán Museum chronicles the history of the islands in greater detail and also contains an impressive collection of these artifacts.
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| 0.90581
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But regular exercise just once a week can significantly reduce danger
If you don't exercise regularly, a sudden bout of energetic activity can trigger a heart attack, and may even kill you, according to a new study published in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.
It sounds like the scene from a movie: a flabby, out-of-shape guy has a heart attack while running to catch a train, or maybe he drops dead while having sex. Now, there's some scientific evidence to support that fictional scenario.
Researchers at Tufts University near Boston combined the results of 14 studies that looked at the link between what they call episodic physical activity and heart attack and other cardiac events.
Regular exercise may be beneficial, but co-author Jessica Paulus says that among more sedentary people, there was a short-term increase in the danger.
"There's a link between episodic physical activity and sexual activity with the risk of heart attack and death from sudden cardiac events," she says. "During a very short window of time along the order of one to two hours following physical activity and sexual activity and sexual activity."
The researchers found that the episodic physical activity roughly tripled the risk of heart attack, but because a sudden burst of activity is rather uncommon among otherwise-sedentary people, the risk of having a heart attack while running to catch a train is actually small.
And lead author Issa Dahabreh says regular physical activity can reduce the risk. "Individuals who exercise regularly while involved in these activities overall experience a much smaller increase in their risk of having a heart attack."
Even regular exercise just once a week can significantly reduce the risk. The researchers found that a person's risk of heart attack decreased by almost half, and the risk of sudden death dropped by about one-third, for every weekly exercise session.
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Often called the “poor man’s” accelerometer tilt sensors are switches that can detect basic motion/orientation. The metal tube has a little metal ball that rolls around in it, when its tilted upright, the ball rolls onto the contacts sticking out of end and shorts them together. They are small, inexpensive, low-power and easy-to-use. If used properly, they will not wear out. Their simplicity makes them popular for toys, gadgets and appliances. Sometimes they are referred to as “mercury switches”, “tilt switches” or “rolling ball sensors” for obvious reasons. These switches are environmentally safe as they replace the mercury used in older type switches with a rolling metal ball.
When the switch is in vertical position the circuit is closed when tilted 15 degrees ore more circuit is open.
Type: normaly closed
Sensitivity range: > +-15 degrees
Lifetime: 50,000+ cycles
Power supply (MAX): 24V, switching less than 5mA
5 x SW-520D ball switches
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http://socomponents.co.uk/shop/5-x-sw-520d-ball-angle-tilt-vibration-shaking-switch-arduino-pi-pic-avr/
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R4 - ConstructionOperating manual R4
The Video about R4
The central brain of R4 is a Raspberry Pi, a low cost single board computer.
The dimensions are approximately: 9 x 9 x 22cm (LxWxH) including power pole.
Four Servos, modified for continuous rotation are used as drive.
Servo number 5 controls the camera angle.
The electricity runs through a power with anti twist mechanism at the top of the rover.
A Raspberry Pi and an Atmel328P are used to control the robot through WLAN.
This is the first robot that has sensors. I am using a MPU6050 board that is connected to the Atmega 328P to detect rotational movement.
Through the infrared interface the robot can communicate with other microcontrollers.
Circuit layout. The infrared interface is not used in the simplified software package, thus you can omit TSOP4838 and LD271.
Software packageYou can download a simplified software package in the column Download. The file README.txt contains the instructions for installing and configuring the software.
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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http://www.homofaciens.de/technics-robots-R4-construction_en.htm
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If one or more of your valves is diseased or damaged, it can affect how your blood flows through your heart in two ways:
- If your valve does not open fully, it will obstruct the flow of blood. This is called valve stenosis or narrowing
- If the valve does not close properly, it will allow blood to leak backwards. This is called valve incompetence, or regurgitation, or a leaky valve.
Many people with heart valve disease need little or no treatment. However, you may be advised to have surgery on your valve, which can greatly improve your symptoms and quality of life.
What are the treatment options?
There are two options for valve surgery: valve repair and valve replacement.
- Valve repair is often used for mitral valves that become floppy and leak but are not seriously damaged.
- Valve replacement is when the diseased valve is replaced with a new valve. The most common types of replacement valves are mechanical (artificial) valves or tissue (animal) valves.
In some cases, a Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) procedure may be used if you are an adult and not well enough to have traditional heart surgery.
Whether or not you have heart valve surgery, and whether the operation is a repair or a replacement will depend on many factors, including the cause of the problem, which valve is affected, how badly the valve is affected, how many valves are affected, your symptoms, and your general health.
What will happen during a heart valve repair or replacement?
In most valve operations, your surgeon will:
- reach your heart by making an incision down the middle of your breastbone
- use a heart-lung machine to circulate blood around your body during the operation
- open up your heart to reach the affected valve, and
- perform the repair or replacement.
In a small number of cases, one or more small incisions can be made in your chest and your breastbone may not even need to be cut. Speak with your surgeon about the advantages and disadvantages of this type of surgery as it is not suitable for everyone.
How long will it take me to recover?
If all goes well, you will be helped to sit out of bed the day after the procedure. You can expect some discomfort after your operation and you will be given pain relief medication. Your pain level will be monitored to make sure you are as comfortable as possible. Many people return home within about a week. On average, it takes between 2-3 months to fully recover, but this can vary greatly as it depends on your individual condition.
What are the benefits and risks?
For most people, the operation will greatly improve symptoms and quality of life.
Like all operations, valve surgery isn't risk free. Your own risk will depend on your age, your current state of health and the degree of valve disease. Before your procedure, your surgeon will discuss with you both the benefits and risks of the operation.
Endocarditis is a rare but serious condition where the inner lining of the heart becomes infected. This most commonly takes place in one of the heart valves.
If you have a heart valve problem or have had surgery on your valve, you are at risk of developing endocarditis. You are also at risk if you have had endocarditis before.
Until recently, people at risk of endocarditis were advised to take antibiotics before having dental treatment and some other procedures. However, that is no longer recommended. You can find out more at NHS Choices. You can also check out our Endocarditis warning card.
Life after a heart valve replacement - Sam's story
Will I have to take any medication afterwards?
If you have a mechanical valve replacement, you'll need to take anticoagulant medicine, like Warfarin, for the rest of your life. This is because a mechanical valve is made of artificial material, which increases the risk of a blood clot developing on the valve’s surface.
If you have a tissue valve replacement, you may need to take anticoagulants for a shorter period. This may be from a few weeks to 2-3 months after surgery.
The most commonly prescribed anticoagulant is called Warfarin. For more information, please see our booklets on Heart Valve Disease or Medicines for your heart.
It is important that you speak to your doctor or pharmacist before you take any medicines in addition to those you have been prescribed.
A BHF-funded chemical engineer is perfecting a material to tackle heart valve disease. A heart valve needs to be strong yet flexible, capable of opening and closing 200 million times or more. It needs to be compatible with the human body and able to let blood flow easily through it.
Dr Geoff Moggridge thinks he’s found the solution. This short animation explains how this new discovery could transform replacement valves in the future.
Help us fight against heart failure
Your donations to help us fund more pioneering research into treatments that combat coronary heart disease. Find out how your support can make a difference.
Want to know more?
Order or download our publications:
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<urn:uuid:8a941bea-aad7-4384-a9dd-c47c8743f43d>
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/treatments/valve-heart-surgery
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With an essay by D. H. Lawrence.'Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, - stern and wild ones, - and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss'Fiercely romantic and hugely influential, The Scarlet Letter is the tale of Hester Prynne, imprisoned, publicly shamed, and forced to wear a scarlet 'A' for committing adultery and bearing an illegitimate child, Pearl. In their small, Puritan village, Hester and her daughter struggle to survive, but in this searing study of the tension between private and public existence, Hester Prynne's inner strength and quiet dignity means she has frequently been seen as one of the first great heroines of American fiction.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
- Publication Date:
- 28 / 06 / 2012
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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https://www.qbd.com.au/the-scarlet-letter/nathaniel-hawthorne/9780141974484/
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| 0.951578
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Overcast cushioned with a moist-fog here this Friday afternoon on California’s north coast, and precipitation-warm, with rain still expected maybe tonight and into tomorrow.
Forecasts call for just a quick rain patch, however, so small appears gone and dry-again by Sunday, predicted by the NWS to be ‘Mostly Sunny.’
Our drought continues, even though forecasts from the NOAA yesterday indicated good winter rainfall, even up here in the north, where it’s really needed.
(Illustration: NASA satellite image of California’s drought in early 2014, found here).
Yet it’s not the rain that’s the real-crucial important point, the bottom line for drought relief is snow.
From the LA Times this morning:
The new forecast is particularly significant because it shows the increased rain reaching far into Northern California to the mountain ranges and system of reservoirs that provide the state with huge amounts of its water.
Earlier forecasts showed El Niño providing rain mainly to Southern California.
If El Niño acts as it has before, “there will be a number of significant storms that will bring heavy rains. What that brings will be floods and mudslides,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
“We’re more confident we’re going to be seeing El Niño through this winter.”
This prompted officials, who had generally been reluctant to predict El Niño’s effect on the drought, to say they expect the rains will ease the drought conditions but won’t end them.
“If the wettest year were to occur, we still wouldn’t erase the deficit that’s built up in the last four years,” said hydrologist Alan Haynes for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Los Angeles and San Diego have a 60 percent likelihood of a wet winter, according to the latest forecast.
In Silicon Valley, there is more than a 50 percent likelihood of a wet winter.
In far Northern California, the forecast calls for a slightly higher chance of a wet winter over a dry winter.
The forecast for a wet winter now covers the mountains that feed California’s most important reservoirs, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville.
Ideally, precipitation would fall in Northern California’s mountains as mostly snow, so it can be kept frozen for many months and refill reservoirs at a slow, gentle pace as it melts in the spring and summer.
But in recent years, abnormally hot winters have brought precipitation that has come down there as mostly rain — a big problem because too much rain all at once, even in a drought, will force dam officials to flush out excess water to ensure dams don’t overflow and have enough capacity to keep incoming floodwaters from destroying cities downstream.
Scientists say they don’t know if the northern mountains will see more snow or more rain.
The other big problem is the intensity of this four-year drought.
It will almost certainly take years to catch up and will require years of consistent above-average rains to get there.
Where’s the percentage for us, more than ‘a slightly higher chance‘ bullshit.
Science writer Bob Henson at WunderBlog yesterday detailed the NOAA winter forecast with this note about California:
One important element will be the temperatures that accompany any big winter storms.
If they’re on the warm side — a big problem in recent years — then the snowpack accumulating over the Sierra Nevada could end up disappointingly low.
Regardless, aquifers and ecosystems stand to benefit big time if El Niño produces as expected.
An optimistic uplift, there.
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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http://bruce.maulden.us/2015/10/16/rain-snow-on-the-drought/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320763.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626133830-20170626153830-00047.warc.gz
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Scientists have noticed that the bigger explosions out come from the smaller galaxies. If star size were purely random, bigger galaxies with more stars would have larger explosions. Find out why small galaxies produce massive booms.
Plenty of people have heard of white dwarf stars (stars that burn out and never nova) and brown dwarfs (stars too small for nuclear fusion to be sustained in their core), but there are also whole dwarf galaxies. No, they're not so named because they contain a lot of dwarf stars. Astronomers are tricky that way. They're just very, very small galaxies, about a thousand times lower in mass than the Milky Way.
Before astronomers knew about these galaxies, it seemed like massive supernovae were happening out of the clear black sky. The galaxies were so small, and so relatively dark, that telescopes didn't even see them. They had to go back for a closer look to see the galaxies around these huge releases of energy. They examined them using many tools, including ultraviolet light. The amount of UV light given off by a galaxy is a good indication that star formation is happening close by. The little dribbles of ultraviolet given off by the dwarf galaxies indicated that not many stars were being formed, making the huge explosions even more curious. Clearly these places weren't making many stars.
They found out that these small galaxies supported the making of giant stars. They were younger, and hadn't had that many supernovae before the massive explosions. Since heavier atoms are almost all made by the fusion of light atoms inside stars, these low-mass galaxies didn't have many heavy atoms interspersed with the stars. Heavy atoms around a galaxy tend to bleed nearby stars of mass. Older, larger galaxies sucked the mass off their larger stars, while light, small, young galaxies let the stars keep all their fat as they aged. The results were huge, spectacular explosions when the stars finally did blow themselves apart.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI . Via Nasa.
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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http://io9.gizmodo.com/5794979/why-the-biggest-explosions-come-from-the-smallest-galaxies?tag=supernova
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Encourage older adults to drink more water by keeping full glass of ice within reach
Dehydration often found in older adult due to poor fluid intake. It is important to hydrate to prevent complications.
With dehydration, the body becomes starved for oxygen and other nutrients, and unable urinate to remove waste products. Dehydration may lead to fatal. The human body needs fluid everyday.
Older adults tend to become dehydrated due to less body water than younger adults, kidneys may not function effectively, decreased thirst sensation.
Older adults due to physical condition like unable to walk, access to fluids, cognitive impairment, not feeling thirst will lead to poor fluid intake. Some of the Signs and symptoms of dehydration are Weight loss, increased heart rate, low blood pressure, poor skin turgor, dry mouth and tongue, decreased urination, constipation, and decreased in mobility, weakness, lethargic, dizziness., light headed. may lead to fall. Everyone needs eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day.
Prevention of dehydration in older adults.
Encourage older adults to drink more water by keeping full glass of ice or water within reach
Take fluids in between meals
Provide reminders by writing or ongoing instructions to drink
Teach older adults and caregivers signs and symptoms, prevention is better than cure.
Encourage to take water bottle when go outside.
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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http://seniorcare.gallery/?p=84
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These days, the organizations are becoming a desirable target for attackers due to their network security flaws which are not properly patched and secured behind their firewall, leaving them easily vulnerable to various direct and indirect attacks. In addition to these direct and indirect attacks, the number of victims are also steadily increasing. Examples of indirect attacks include HTML exploit vulnerabilities or the attacks using malware in Peer-to-Peer networks.
Networks with a broadband connection that are always-on are also a valuable target for the attackers. Where the attackers take an advantage of an always-on connection and use several automated techniques to scan out their specific network ranges and find out vulnerable systems with known weaknesses. Once these attackers have compromised a machine, they simply install a bot (also called a zombie) on it to establish a communication medium between those machines. After successful exploitation, a bot uses FTP, TFTP, HTTP or CSend to transfer itself to the compromised host and forms a botnet. For the purpose of defining a botnet, it doesn’t matter how exactly these machines are controlled, as long as the control is performed by the same attacker.
The botnet is controlled by an attacker through a dedicated computer or group of computers running a CnC server (Command and Control server). The attacker can perform certain tasks through this CnC by instructing malware bots using commands. The CnC server typically performs a number of functions, including but not limited to:
* Instructing the installed bots to execute or schedule a certain task;
* Updating the installed bots by replacing them with a new type of malware;
* Keeping track of the number of installed bots and distribution in an organization.
A typical size of a botnet is immense, they can consist of several million compromised devices with capabilities to damage any size of the organization very easily. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is one such threat. Even a relatively smaller botnet with only 500 bots can cause a great deal of damage. These 500 bots have a combined bandwidth that is higher than an
Internet connection of the most organizations.
There are many types of bots structured in a very modular way by the attackers. Some of these widely spread and well-known bots include Agobot, Kaiten, Mirai, DSNX Bots, etc.
Uses of a botnet
A botnet can be used criminally for the many different motives. The most common uses were political motivation or just for fun. The botnets can be used for following possibilities:
1) To launch Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks
3) Sniffing the network traffic
5) Spreading new malware within the same network.
6) Data breach
Another use of botnets is to steal sensitive information or identity theft: Searching thousand home PCs for password.txt, or to sniff into their network traffic. The above list demonstrates that attackers can cause a great deal of harm with the help of botnets. Many of these attacks pose severe threats and are hard to detect and prevent, especially the DDoS attacks.
Identifying the Botnet Traffic
There are a growing number of network security technologies that are designed to detect and mitigate compromised network resources. These technologies are designed by the expert security engineers to identify the botnet traffic and restrict it effectively. Basically, there are two primary methods for identifying botnet traffic:
1) Deep Packet Inspection (DPI): It is a packet filtering technique that examines the data part of a packet and searches for viruses, spam, intrusions and decides whether the packet may pass or if it needs to be dropped or routed to the different destination. There are multiple headers for IP packets: IP header and TCP or UDP header.
2) DNS lookup: It is used to identify the DNS traffic of the communication service providers (CSP) and their network configuration. Observing the DNS traffic gives a number of distinct advantages,
including providing the specific IP address of the device making the DNS lookup, visibility of all raw and non-cached DNS requests and an ability to analyze the frequency of botnet DNS lookups.
It is undeniable that the predicted rate of organized crime is growing and the organizations are facing these challenges. With the number of botnet infections is increasing, it is important that every organization should monitor their networks periodically, in the context of defending against the bot attacks.
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<urn:uuid:de311a75-a1e5-49c4-9128-f7de655ae6fe>
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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https://blogs.haltdos.com/2017/03/28/botnet-attack-identify/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128321306.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627083142-20170627103142-00127.warc.gz
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If you have trouble sleeping, then it’s safe to say you probably have insomnia. Simply defined, insomnia is a sleep disorder in which the person suffering from it is unable to fall asleep or stay asleep at night. Insomnia may be accompanied by fatigue and mental impairment during the day. It is also usually a symptom of an underlying medical condition, including, but not necessarily, a psychiatric disorder.
What is Insomnia?
Insomnia could last for a week (transient), a month (acute) or it could last for months and even years (chronic). Transient insomnia may be a result of environmental changes of the afflicted individual and is resolved when the person experiencing it adapts to such changes. Acute insomnia is a result of stress and those who suffer from it usually have sufficient time to sleep but have a hard time initiating or maintaining it.
Chronic insomnia on the other hand has accompanying symptoms such as physical and mental fatigue caused by high stress levels or underlying conditions of medical or psychiatric origin, including hallucinations and double visions. It is directly linked to restless leg syndrome (RLS), hyperthyroidism, and rheumatoidarthritis.
Additionally, insomnia may also be caused by factors other than the three mentioned conditions. These causes include:
- Ongoing noise/s heard by the person trying to sleep.
- Withdrawal from antidepressant such as opioids and benzodiazepines.
- Engaging in psychoactive or recreational drugs.
- Taking fluoroquinolone antibiotics.
- Excessive caffeine and nicotine consumption.
- Sedative abuse that causes rebound insomnia.
- Acute and chronic pain.
- Frequent jet lags.
- Magnesium deficiency in the diet.
- Strenuous physical activities such as intensive workouts.
- Hormonal fluctuations related to menopause and menstrual cycles.
- Working on night shifts.
Different methods are available for the treatment of insomnia. One of the most effective is the use of 5-HTP supplements. 5 HTP for sleep disorders like insomnia comes from the extracted seeds of the West African indigenous plant known as griffonia simplicifolia. 5-HTP moves easily across the so-called “blood-brain barrier” or BBB to reach the central nervous system.
Once it reaches the central nervous system, 5-HTP is converted into 5HT or what is more commonly referred to as serotonin. This is, however, not the only treatment that can affect the central nervous system and treat insomnia. There are also antihistamines, opioids, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, and other similarly-purposed sedatives. But then again, long term use of these medications is not advisable.
Because all of its effects are the result of its ability to increase the body’s serotonin levels, 5-HTP can be used as a treatment for insomnia to improve sleep quality. The efficacy of 5-HTP as a sleep aid, however, has been challenged by melatonin, a neuro-hormone that the brain’s pineal gland releases.
Melatonin plays a significant role in the circadian cycle that regulates sleep.
Low levels of melatonin cause sleep-onset bouts of insomnia. Melatonin levels determine when we sleep and when we stay awake. It is released by the pineal gland – which responds to changes in dark and light conditions — only during those times when light level is low, like at night, and signals the brain to shut down its production as soon as there is presence of light.
Melatonin VS 5-HTP
Like 5-HTP, melatonin production starts with tryptophan’s conversion to 5-HTP and 5-HTP’s conversion to serotonin. Melatonin is released into the bloodstream from the brain’s pineal gland when evening sets in. Unlike 5-HTP, however, melatonin has no ability to cross the blood-brain barrier or BBB. This is 5-HTP’s primary advantage over melatonin.
5-HTP can bypass the light-regulation mechanism of the brain which controls melatonin secretion, resulting in increased production of neurotransmitters like serotonin as well as norepinephrine which stimulate the brain’s noradrenergic receptors. This stimulation is a direct trigger for melatonin production and release. Simply put, taking 5-HTP causes melatonin’s release.
This release occurs irrespective and regardless of how much of the environment’s brightness is present. The more melanin that circulates, the better your chances of falling asleep and staying asleep become. Those with low levels of melatonin should take 5-HTP to get more benefits of increased levels of serotonin since taking melatonin alone doesn’t do anything for serotonin.
And the Winner Is…
5-HTP can provide better benefits than melatonin for insomniacs, mainly because insomnia is, more often than not, a symptom of other underlying psychiatric or medical conditions that melatonin is unable to treat well. Additionally, melatonin can only regulate the onset of sleep, not its duration. On the other hand, 5-HTP promotes deep, restful sleep and blocks any sleepy disturbance or disruption.
This means 5-HTP is able to provide sleep that is more restful without necessarily prolonging the time length of sleep. It can also reproduce most of melatonin’s effects when it gets converted into serotonin. It’s a win-win situation for 5-HTP as is gains all of serotonin’s sleep-promoting effects and all of melatonin’s when it is synthesized.
Another great thing about the 5-HTP works is that the body can use it to produce melatonin without being dependent on the periodic shift of night and day for the pineal gland’s secretion of melatonin. For those who have experienced the benefits of 5 HTP for insomnia reviews have only good things to say about it. Most users have noted how 5-HTP is so much better than melatonin.
Recommended 5-HTP dosage for sleep disorders is 50mg initially, taken half an hour before bedtime on an otherwise empty stomach, to allow it passage past the BBB and be directly absorbed into your brain. If nothing happens it is a typical response to a low dose. Add 50mg every night until you reach the 300mg or you drop off to sleep 30 minutes after taking it.
The 5-HTP dosage for insomnia may be taken between 100mg and 300mg half an hour to 45 minutes before bedtime. But remember to always start with the lowest dose for three or four days before increasing the dosage. If nothing happens after you have increased the dosage, perhaps you may have other underlying conditions that have nothing to do with insomnia or other sleep disorders.
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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http://5htpmaxreviews.com/5-htp-insomnia/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128322320.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628032529-20170628052529-00207.warc.gz
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en
| 0.92438
| 1,416
| 3.296875
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Voice-over stands for a voice that is not part of the narrative, a voice spoken by someone who appears elsewhere when an event happens. We know what we hear may not be a fact, what we see may not be the truth.
This body of work creates the effect of storytelling, stories sparked by social commentary, or immediate reaction to a sudden thought. By infusing stories, we are able to understand a little more about ourselves, human nature, and how we carry heavy concept, our basic logic can at times best be understood through words. To discus/reflect upon something totally alien to us, we begin to alter the conversation and add to our stories.
Through combining the relationship between 2 dimensional renderings and 3-dimensional objects, and exploring different materials and changing its content, this relationship begin to produce different meanings. In some cases it gives a familiar feeling, in some other cases its to create conflict.
Ultimately the work conducts as a new language for the viewers to describe those stories. The viewers are asked to create their own fantasy and reality, when those qualities meet face to face and without prejudice, their fantasy becomes a reality.
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<urn:uuid:2d841c73-d9d8-403f-9b1b-af321eb04c6d>
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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http://www.bobbytso.com/voice-over
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128322320.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628032529-20170628052529-00207.warc.gz
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en
| 0.955252
| 232
| 2.765625
| 3
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I need help.Trying to explain conjunctions to my students has always been a problem. I've tried refering to a few grammar books and yet I wasn't able to get satisfying result. For example, do you say types of conjunctions or just conjunctions to identify them.How many conjunctions are there. I would be obliged if anyone would render his/her hand. Thanks.
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<urn:uuid:4a2e77d4-295f-4322-9e85-af8539ecd716>
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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https://www.englishclub.com/tefl/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1194&view=unread
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128322320.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628032529-20170628052529-00207.warc.gz
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en
| 0.975365
| 80
| 3.078125
| 3
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Poetry Books & Nursery Rhymes
Build Literacy Skills While Inspiring a Love of Language
Use this engaging collection of Poetry Books and Nursey Rhymes with students of all reading abilities. Emergent readers will enjoy the simple stories while learning multiple literacy skills, including syllables, rhythm, and rhyme. Fluent readers will enjoy exploring language and deeper meaning within the poems. For additional practice, use the worksheets provided or the Poetry writing Lessons.
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<urn:uuid:b4966f7e-f95c-4d91-bb79-887a64ea41ae>
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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https://www.raz-plus.com/books/poetry-books/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128322320.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628032529-20170628052529-00207.warc.gz
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en
| 0.859969
| 96
| 3.15625
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If you have already seen our demo on Analyzing Real-time Streaming IoT (Internet of Things) Data, you’re probably wondering how we trained our classification model to be able to predict user activity. Let’s first discuss the background of the demo, how we classify the data, and lastly choosing an appropriate model.
The objective of the IoT demo is to demonstrate Talend’s real-time streaming and machine learning capabilities. This means that Talend receives accelerometer sensor data from mobile phones in real-time, pushes the data into a message queue, and performs machine learning to classify the data for analysis. Did I mention this is all done without hand coding?
On the processing side, a REST endpoint is created using Talend to which the sensor data can be sent. The sensor data is parsed and pushed into a message queue (Kafka). Once the data is in the message queue, a Talend Big Data Streaming job reads the messages off the queue using a sliding window, passes the data through a machine learning model, and prepares the data for visualization.
Show Me the Data
The data being processed comes from an accelerometer sensor on a mobile device. More specifically, we are processing the linear acceleration of X, Y, and Z axes. Just performing a quick and dirty analysis from a graph of the sensor data, we are presented with the following:
The acceleration for each axis is being graphed in m/s2. We can visually deduce that there are three phases of activity: low, high and medium respectively. To translate this into a machine learning model, we expect that the chosen model will be able to classify the sensor data into low, medium or high. In machine learning, classification refers to identifying a category that the observations belong to. To begin the exercise of choosing a classification model from Spark MLib, we examine some popular models: Naive Bayes, Logistic Regression and Random Forest Model.
Choosing a Model
The Naive Bayes model is generally used more for text classification, and since we are dealing with decimal numbers, it wouldn’t fit well. Next, the Logistic Regression model won’t handle multi-class classification that we need for low, medium and high activity. Lastly, the Random Forest model allows us classify against each axis. The Random Forest model is also efficient on larger data sets, and can handle thousands of input variables.
The Random Forest model works by taking the training set and performing random sampling to create subsets of data or random “trees“. After many trees have been created, it creates a random “forest“. The benefit of having many trees is that we’ll get a more accurate prediction of classification for the data. For example, if 7 out of 10 trees in the forest suggest that a particular sensor event is walking, the classification is expected to be walking.
The Talend Real-Time Big Data Platform comes with pre-built components for machine learning. The first step to use the Random Forest model is to train using handmade classifications. This means that we take the data from our quick and dirty analysis, and add an activity label. This training set will be used by a model encoder to output a model to be used to classify the activity during streaming. The label in the training set will be associated with human activity, specifically Resting, Walking, and Running. The training set looks like:
The specific training set used in generating this model had about 150 events for each activity. Taking the generated model and comparing the handmade classified labels against the outputs yielded a 97% accuracy, which is to be expected.
To assess the accuracy of the machine learning model, we use a K-Fold Cross Validation technique and run 10 individual learning exercises. Each exercise takes a partition of the training set which is then used as validation data. This technique yielded a 95% accuracy with our chosen model. In a future blog, we’ll explore this validation technique and how to build it using Talend Studio.
The last step is to use the model in the streaming piece of the demo to classify our data. Before data is classified, it can also be captured and stored for an archive for future analysis. The classified data is then prepared for visualization.
The most remarkable piece of this exercise is the fact that there was no hand coding required. Everything from creating a REST service to acquire data, to the Spark Streaming job which implements a machine learning model, was all designed using a graphical user environment. If you haven’t already seen the demo, get in touch with us so you can experience how easy it is to use Talend for your next Big Data project.
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Cash Flow Statement Definition:
Cash flow statement is one of the new financial statements that the company has incorporated reform of 2007. This is a state that reports on the use of monetary assets such as cash and cash equivalents categorizing the changes by activities and indicating the net change of such magnitude in the exercise. Although this is a new legal obligation, it is a financial statement widely discussed in the accounting literature and studied in all curricula, usually within the subject of financial statement analysis. It is often called cash flow statement or statement of cash flow.
The cash flow statement replaces somehow the financial table included in the memory of PGC (Plan General Contable) 1990 while the cash flow statement is not contained within the memory but is configured as an annual account itself.
The cash flow statement establishes three classes of cash flows:
- Cash flows from operating activities (FEAE).
- Cash flows from investing activities (FEAI).
- Cash flows from financing activities (FEAF).
The increase or net decrease in cash and cash equivalents is the algebraic sum of the three types of flows:
Net Increase / Decrease in Cash and Cash Equivalents:
The shortest method is to separate the main concepts of receipts and payments in gross terms while the indirect method no receipts and payments directly detailed, but from the results a number of adjustments are made to reconcile this result with cash flow.
The cash flow statement follows the indirect method to determine the operating cash flow, against the recommendation of the NIC, without giving any justification. Moreover, unlike what they do IAS (International Accounting Standard) or IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), a standardized format, and binding set. As for the other two types of flows, investment or financing, the method used is direct.
Cash flows from operating activities are primarily caused by the transactions involved in determining the outcome of the company. The cash flow variation caused by these activities will be shown on a net basis, except for the following flows, which will be reported separately:
- Interest (receipts or payments).
- Dividends received.
- Tax benefits.
Cash Flows from Investing Activities:
In this class covers payments that originate in the acquisition of non-current assets such as intangible assets, equipment, investment property or financial investments are included, as well as cash receipts from their sale or amortization at maturity (if investment maintained to maturity).
The change in cash and cash equivalents and other liquid assets caused by the acquisition or disposal of a set of assets and liabilities that make up a business or line of activity will include, where appropriate, as a single match in investment activities under the heading investments or divestments as appropriate, creating a specific heading for this purpose.
Cash Flows from Financing Activities:
Cash flows from financing activities are defined as cash receipts from the getting hold by securities’ third parties issued by the company or resources granted by financial or third entities, in the form of loans or other financial instruments, as well as payments made by redemption or repayment of the amounts contributed by them. They also appear as cash flows from financing activities Payments for shareholders as dividends.
Regarding non-cash transactions, in memory will be informed of investment operations and significant funding for not having given rise to variations in cash, they have not been included in the cash flow statement. For example, the PGC cites the conversion of debt into capital or acquisition of an asset through a finance lease.
Where there is a hedging flow of the hedging instrument they will be incorporated in the same heading as those of the hedged item, indicating this memory effect.
Cash Flow Statement in the PGC against the Cash Flow Statement IAS 7:
Although it is two very similar financial statements there are some differences between the cash flow statement in the PGC regulated and established in international accounting standards. First IAS justifies the need for a statement of this nature from the needs of users of financial information and develops the potential uses of the information provided. The PGC is limited to establishing the content of this annual account without establishing any reason for its formulation.
The model of the PGC (Plan General Contable) is less discretionary than the NIC (National Informatics Centre), as they are removed alternatives and a closed model is established, while cash flows sets have the same structure in both cases, distinguishing the three types of flows discussed above:
- Cash flows from operating activities.
- Cash flows from investing activities.
- Cash flows from financing activities.
By including the PGC interest, both collected and paid and dividends received as operating cash flow, there is a contradiction between the profit and loss includes these expenses or income as financial results and cash flow statement that includes as operating receipts or payments. Although it is two different financial statements, we believe it would have been more consistent not include financial results in exploitation flows.
Example, Format and Template of Cash Flow Statement:
Here you can download the sample format of cash flow statement. You can see the example of cash flow statement of the company in this template. This accounting report will assist you in your fundamental analysis of the company performance. This will also guide you in making decision about buying or selling the preference shares, debentures, stocks or corporate bonds.
- Tutorial Course - Basics of Fundamental Analysis for Beginners Module -
» e-Learning Chapter 1: What is Fundamental Analysis? Definition, Types, Examples of Analysis Strategies
» e-Learning Chapter 2: Essential Key Attributes of Successful Mindset of a Great Investor
» e-Learning Chapter 3: How to Analyze and Read the Annual Report of a Company for Financial Analysis?
» e-Learning Chapter 4: What are Qualitative Factors in Decision Making on Company’s Performance?
» e-Learning Chapter 5: What is Qualitative Data Analysis? Definition and Methods to Measure Performance
» Currently Reading: What is Cash Flow Statement? Definition, Example, Format and Cash Flow Report Analysis
» e-Learning Chapter 7: Financial Ratio Definition, Examples and Ratio Analysis Interpretation
» e-Learning Chapter 8: What is Investment Due Diligence? Definition, Examples, Process and Procedure
» e-Learning Chapter 9: What is Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)? Definition, Analysis, Examples, Problems
» e-Learning Chapter 10: What is Equity Research? Definition, Examples, Analyst Report on Analysis
» e-Learning Chapter 11: Fundamental Analysis Quiz – Basics of Fundamental Analysis for Beginners.
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The Founding Fathers would revolt if they saw America’s tax burden today.
- By Grover G. NorquistGrover G. Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform and co-author, with John Lott, of Debacle: Obama's War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future.
When demonstrations erupted nationwide in March and April 2009 in opposition to the tax and spending policies of the just-inaugurated Barack Obama administration, the protesters named their movement and cause after the Boston Tea Party of Dec. 16, 1773, when Massachusetts colonists dumped British tea into Boston Harbor in the world’s most famous tax revolt. Thus was the "Tea Party" movement reborn.
The Tea Party name suggests an anti-tax protest rooted in American history and consistent with the original intent of our nation’s founding. If one is grabbing the political high ground in an American debate, this is the equivalent of placing your cannons atop Bunker Hill. (The Tea Party, it is worth noting, is assigning itself the winning team in that previous conflict.)
Is the comparison accurate or invented? How does the level and modes of taxation in modern America compare with the taxation of the British colonies, which led to an eight-year war that cost 25,000 American lives and ultimately broke apart the British Empire to create the United States of America? What parallels or paradoxes exist?
Americans often observe that our national independence was born of a tax revolt. But taxes, or the lack thereof, played a key role in the colonies long before Samuel Adams and his Sons of Liberty. The 1629 Charter of Massachusetts Bay granted settlers a seven-year exemption from customs taxes on all trade to and from Britain and a 21-year exemption from all other taxes. In 1621, the Dutch government granted the Dutch West India Company an eight-year exemption from all trade duties between New Amsterdam/New York and the mother country. Swedish settlers in Delaware were offered a 10-year tax exemption. America, in other words, was in part created as a tax haven populated with immigrants moving from high-tax nations to low-tax colonies.
By 1714, British citizens in Great Britain were paying on a per capita basis 10 times as much in taxes as the average "American" in the 13 colonies, though some colonies had higher taxes than others. Britons, for example, paid 5.4 times as much in taxes as taxpayers in Massachusetts, 18 times as much as Connecticut Yankees, 6.3 times as much as New Yorkers, 15.5 times as much as Virginians; and 35.8 times as much as Pennsylvanians.
Low-taxed Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn, the father of American religious liberty, who also notably refused the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s kind offer to establish an import and export tax for his personal benefit.
Taxation in the colonies consisted of property taxes, poll taxes on men over 18, excise taxes, and forced labor contributions of a few days a month to build roads and assume other "public functions" such as constable, assessor, or "hog reeve" ("an officer charged with the prevention or appraising of damages by stray swine," according to the Oxford English Dictionary).
Massachusetts imposed an embryonic income tax in 1634 in the form of a "faculty" tax. In 1643, Alvin Rabushka writes in Taxation in Colonial America, "assessors were appointed to rate inhabitants on their estates and their faculties, which included personal abilities." One notes with some envy that the tax came to about 1 percent of what we might call income.
Connecticut, anticipating New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s nanny-state tendencies, imposed sumptuary laws in 1676 that taxed any person who wore silk ribbons, gold or silver lace, or gold or silver buttons.
By 1775, the British government was consuming one-fifth of its citizens’ GDP, while New Englanders were only paying between 1 and 2 percent of their income in taxes. British citizens were also weighed down with a national debt piled up by years of worldwide warfare that amounted to £15 for each of the crown’s eight million subjects, while American local and colonial governments were almost debt-free. Against this backdrop, Americans watched as the British monarchy attempted to raise taxes on the colonists to pay down its war debt and pay for the 10,000 British soldiers barracked in the colonies.
The Sugar Act of 1764, a rewrite of the Plantation Duty of 1673, was designed to raise revenue rather than force the colonies to trade with England alone, and fell mostly on molasses, sugar, and Madeira wine. The colonies reacted particularly poorly to the imposition of the Stamp Act of 1765, which was an effort to impose a direct tax on the colonies rather than tax imports and exports. Benjamin Franklin and others argued to the British government that while the colonies did not object to tariffs, they did oppose direct domestic "taxation without representation."
The British parliament got the message, repealing the Stamp Act and responding with the Townshend Acts of 1767, which imposed duties on 72 items, including tea (the changes actually reduced taxes on tea originally imported from British colonies to combat the smuggling of Dutch tea to America). Although the British repealed most of these duties in 1770, they maintained the specific tax on tea to make the point that the crown could tax when it chose to do so. By then, however, the American colonists had stopped distinguishing between domestic and trade taxes and started opposing all taxation and control by Britain, setting the stage for the revolution.
The bottom line: American colonists were both paid more and taxed less than the British. American taxes, in fact, were low and going lower, but the very idea that they had been raised and could be raised again by a distant power was enough to send Americans into the streets to engage in civil disobedience. Regime change followed the tax revolt.
And 239 years later, what has changed?
Americans are still wealthier and taxed less than the citizens of other nations. By some measures, federal taxes are lower today than they were in the past: Today’s top marginal tax rate for individuals is 35 percent, which is higher than Ronald Reagan’s 28 percent but lower than Dwight Eisenhower’s 90 percent. State and local taxes, meanwhile, have undoubtedly been trending upward.
Three shocks to the system early on in Obama’s presidency in many ways mimicked the Townshend Acts in convincing Americans they have much to fear in the future.
The first shock came in 2009, when one-party rule by Democratic supermajorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, allied with a president of the same party, ensured that Washington could enact just about any tax or spending legislation it wished. The first of four stimulus bills, signed on Feb. 17, 2009, called for $878 billion in spending, and Congress added another $1 trillion in domestic discretionary spending over the next decade. Modern-day anti-tax activists felt as removed from control of their government as the colonists did in 1775. Promises that taxes would only be imposed on "the rich" were betrayed 16 days into Obama’s presidency, when legislation was enacted to increase the tax on cigarettes — a product whose consumers average $40,000 in annual income.
Second, while the economy stalled, the White House introduced a new and costly entitlement in "Obamacare," which contained 20 new taxes that cost Americans between $500 and $800 billion over a decade. Seven of these taxes directly hit the middle class, and the Congressional Budget Office’s 10-year cost estimate for Obamacare officially doubled after the legislation was enacted.
Third, a series of repeatedly renewed yet "temporary" tax reductions were set to expire in January 2011. Left unchanged, the Alternative Minimum Tax, imposed in 1969 to punish 155 rich Americans who invested in municipal bonds, would hit 31 million Americans. The tax rate on capital gains would jump from 15 percent to 23.8 percent, while the dividend tax would increase from 15 percent to 44.3 percent. All told, taxes would increase by about $500 billion in one year alone. (This Taxmageddon was ultimately postponed by two years — until Jan. 1, 2013.)
The British imposed the de minimis tax on tea to make the point they had the power to implement such measures and more when they wished. Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed a 2,600-page entitlement program — written not in front of C-SPAN cameras as promised, but in camera — and explained to the rabble that the government had to pass the legislation so that its subjects could learn what was in it.
The American people responded to this display of raw, unchecked power. During the week of April 15, 2009, an estimated 600,000 protesters attended more than 600 Tea Party rallies across the country. These were not student demonstrators, unburdened by jobs or family obligations, but employed, middle-class Americans, most of whom had never been to a political protest and never expected to join one.
These modern Tea Partiers performed surprisingly few "tar and featherings," and yet the establishment media complained about their excessive rhetoric. Still, the protesters never quite rivaled the vehemence with which John Adam denounced the Sugar Act for imposing "enormous taxes, burdensome taxes, oppressive, ruinous, intolerable taxes."
In both 2009 and 1775, opposition to taxes was eventually replaced by a demand for liberty and protection against government power. The Fourth Amendment’s protection against search and seizure and "writs of assistance" were specifically designed to protect against the tax collectors of the day searching for smuggled goods and confiscating shipping. Today, after being at the receiving end of what Republican congressmen view as unwarranted and indiscriminate IRS investigations, Tea Partiers are demanding legal changes to prevent the government from using the IRS to police opposition groups.
The 2010 election was a middle-class revolt that ended one-party rule in Washington and gave the opposition a strong majority in the House and strength in the Senate. Obama and Reid have responded to this impertinence with their own Intolerable Acts — governing through executive orders and regulations, and adding to the spending and debt explosion of the previous two years. There has been no reform, no moderation, and no compromise. Most recently, in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare, Chief Justice John Roberts made it official that no power is beyond the federal government if taxation is used as the whip to enforce compliance.
Luckily, the nation is now moving to the Nov. 6 election rather than Lexington and Concord.
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As you must know by now, some of our students are very literal. These familiar sayings may seem absurd to them when they are heard in conversation. If they do not know what these sayings mean, they will miss out on the intended message of the speaker.
This unit contains 12 familiar sayings that often don't make sense. Use it to introduce figurative language, teach pragmatic language skills, and teach ESL/ELL students the hidden meanings in language.
Prompts and discussion questions are provided as well.
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MARCONI AND THE TITANIC
Gerard J. Hannan
‘CQD CQD SOS Titanic Position 41.44 N 50.24 W. Require immediate assistance.
Come at once.We struck an iceberg. Sinking’
From the very second the first SOS signal was sent from Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912 when that high-pitched musical tone travelled for hundreds of miles across the North Atlantic in a desperate plea for help it not only marked the beginning of the greatest maritime tragedy in recorded history but also was to have a long term resonation for Irish broadcasting. The Titanic sent the signal using her 1.5 kW Marconi installation to signal her death knell. The 1.5 kW set was the absolute latest piece of modern technology, for the time, and as such optimal performance was not only an absolute demand but also a natural expectation. Titanic’s Wireless set had a nominal working range of 250 nautical miles and signalling more distant stations was also possible, especially at night when ranges of up to 2000 miles were attained using similar sets. The location of the Wireless suite on Titanic was given secondary importance to valuable windows for use by First Class passengers.
The equipment was housed in a series of interconnecting rooms; the soundproof ‘Silent Room’ in which noisy transmitting equipment was located, the Marconi Room, an office in which contained the operators’ workstations, manipulation keys, and receiving equipment; and the bedroom, which contained the operators’ berthing. The Wireless set was operators and cared for by Marconi’s employees, who were by routine assigned to Titanic for the duration of one voyage and, therefore, not considered part of the normal crew. Their time was spent within the Marconi suite except at mealtime when they were allowed to adjourn to the dining saloon (Stevenson, 2002).
The alleged last audible message from Titanic came at around 2;05 AM when, as the New York Times revealed on April 21, 1912 based on testimony given by Harold Bride, there was an exchange between Capt Smith and Jack Phillips and Harold Bride who were the operators in charge of the Marconi suite. The Captain visits the Wireless room for the last time and says “Men, you have done your full duty. You can do no more. Abandon your post. Now it’s every man for himself” the captain’s comments shock the operators. Capt Smith then told them; “You look out for yourselves. I release you” There is then another pause and Capt Smith adds “that’s the way of it at this kind of time… Every man for himself” the Captain then leaves the Wireless room. The operators then make a final call to all ships as water is flooding the room and Phillips says to Bride “come on, let’s clear out”… then Titanic’s signals end very abruptly as if power suddenly switched off (Titanic Radio, 2012).
Harold Bride survived the sinking of the ship, but Jack Phillips, died of exposure. However, The New York Herald, the New York Times biggest rival challenged the account and questioned how the newspaper got exclusive access to Harold Bride’s personal account of the events. The Herald publishes the shocking revelation that American Marconi officials sent telegrams to the Marconi operators, instructing them to withhold information about the disaster so that reports could be sold. According to later testimony by Guglielmo Marconi, the New York Times paid a negotiated $500 for the exclusive rights to Brides story.
Furthermore, it was later revealed that there were complaints that Marconi operators aboard the Patio had ignored other Navy vessels, demanding information as to the situation on board Titanic. The real question being asked by the international media was did Guglielmo Marconi see the disaster as no more than an opportunity to yield high profits and, distort the flow of information to such a point that lives were lost in the name of business practice? The following 24 hours after the first fatal message was sent the flow of information was dangerously distorted, contaminated and highly inaccurate and the primary source of this information was Marconi’s Wireless apparatus. The international media could not access accurate information without first dealing with Marconi and his officials. Consequently, international newspapers opted to fill space for their news hungry readers with speculation, convolution and misinformation. Marconi’s punishment would be severe.
On Tuesday April 16th the Central News Agency releases some information about an ‘incident’ at sea. “Wireless messages received at Halifax early this afternoon state that the condition of the Titanic is dangerous, and that the lives of those who still remain aboard are in some peril. In a maze of Wireless messages from various steamers it is difficult to get any connected story. The Government tug Lady Laurier is going from London to render assistance. The news of the disaster to the Titanic reached New York in the small hours of this morning by way of Montreal, whither it had been transmitted by Wireless Telegraphy from the Allan liner Virginian, Eastward bound.
The Virginian herself, in common with other liners, had picked up in the night the Wireless signals for assistance broadcast by the maimed liner, and at the same moment that she was passing them on to the shore was steaming her fastest to the rescue” (Central News Agency, 1912). The report states that “New York was preparing to give the Titanic a big welcome on the same lines as that extended last year to her sister ship, the Olympic, and among her passengers it was known that there were many distinguished American citizens, concerning whose fate the carrier messages said nothing. Most of these, after fulfilling business and other engagements in Europe, had waited in order to enjoy the thrill of making the homeward journey in the world’s greatest liner, the ‘millionaires’ ship, on board which they might almost be pardoned for considering themselves as safe as in their hotels on shore. Among them may be mentioned the following;-Mr Benjamin Guggenheim, a member of the famous Guggenheim family of capitalists, associates of Mr Pierpont Morgan, and world famous in connection with Alaskan development and copper production; Mr C Clarence Jones, a New York Stock Broker, who has been visiting the European capitals in connection with the purchase of American Embassy sites; Mr Washington Roebling , head of the great wire cable firm, and son of the builder of Brooklyn Bridge; Mr Washington Dodge, member of the well known banking firm of Phelps, Dodge and Company; Col. John Weir, mining engineer; Mr Henry B Harris, theatrical producer and manager, and son of the gentleman of the same name who owns many of New York’s theatres; Mr Jacques Futrelle , one of the best known of American authors; Mr Frank D. Millet, American painter, who resided a long time in London (Central News Agency, 1912). In Ireland, the Irish Independent reports on ‘update’ on the story; ‘The publication of the Montreal message sent scores of anxious folks to the White Star offices in quest of further information, but there was nothing to tell them for several long hours. The officials were emphatic in their declarations that the huge hull of the Titanic, divided into several water-tight sections, each as big as a good sized ship, was in no danger of sinking, and even when the Wireless at Cape Race announced that the liner was down by the head and that preparations were being made to take the passengers off, they repeated their assurances, which in the light of later news seem to have been well founded. The cheering announcement was forthcoming that besides the Virginian, which at midnight was 170 miles from the scene of the disaster, the White Star liners ‘Olympic’ and ‘Baltic’, the Cunard liner Mauretania, and three or four German and French liners were all hurrying in the same direction (Irish Independent, 1912).
The story of the disaster is briefly, yet graphically, told in a Wireless message received from the Cunard liner which runs in the companies Mediterranean service and picked up the Titanic’s signals when four days out on her voyage from New York to Gibraltar. The Titanic struck the iceberg at 10.25pm last night(American time). She was then running at reduced speed, presumably from the knowledge of the proximity of ice. Most of the passengers had retired to bed, and were awakened and terrified by a thunderous impact, which crushed and twisted the towering bows of the liner and broke them in like an eggshell. The behaviour of the crew is stated to have been exemplary and they were assisted by many of the male passengers, who also succeeded in calming the women and children. The Wireless was immediately set going, and, as a precaution, the majority of the passengers were placed in the liner’s boats, which were swung out and ready to be lowered. The sea was calm, and though the sea was pouring into the vessel forward, her machinery had not been disabled and when it was found that, with the pumps working and the watertight bulkheads holding well, there was a good chance of the liner making port, the captain set about proceeding cautiously in the direction of Halifax (Central News Agency, 1912).
Reuters Cablegrams had less information to offer about the disaster. All they could report is that the Titanic was sinking off Newfoundland Banks, as the result of a collision with an iceberg; that several ships were in Wireless communication with, and that the women were being taken off in lifeboats (Reuters Cablegrams, 1912). The liner Baltic sent a Wireless message to New York at 3;50 AM and was within 200 miles of the Titanic. The last signals from the Titanic came at 12;25 AM. It reports that the messages were blurred and ended abruptly. A later telegram from Cape Race says the Wireless operator on board the Titanic reported the weather calm and clear. The position of the liner being 41 46 N, 50 14 W, the Virginian liner also reported at midnight that it was 170 miles West of the Titanic, and was expected to reach her 10;00 AM. The Olympic at midnight was in 40.32 North latitude, 61.18 West longitude. She’s also in direct communication with the Titanic, and is hastening to her. The dispatch also states that all the passengers of the Titanic had left the ship by 3;30 AM this morning. Reports were coming into New York by 4;30 AM stating that most of the passengers from the Titanic had been put in lifeboats, and the sea was calm. The Montréal Star newspaper confirms that the Titanic is still afloat and making her way slowly to Halifax.
In Boston, there were reports stating that the Titanic is slowly struggling in the direction of Cape Race. In Montréal they receive an “unsigned telegram” stating that the Titanic is steaming to Halifax and she hopes to make port (Reuters Telegrams, 1912). The Freemans Journal reports that ocean voyaging still has its perils. Two thousand, two hundred and fifty three people were drawn into danger of death at the one swoop when the Titanic crashed into the ice. A few years ago, had it been possible then for such a population to be aboard one vessels, the iceberg might well have caused a great disaster, a death list terrible enough to keep land fork from sea for a long time. It was not certain at first that the Titanic would not sink, it is not even quite certain, at the moment of writing, that it will be brought the whole way into port. Should it go under yet, the village full of people aboard may thank the Wireless Telegraph for their lives. The cry of distress sent raying over the ocean by the great liner brought help that else must have passed, within helping distance, quite without knowledge of the need. At 3;30 AM, the dead hour of the night to human beings, every one of the 1350 passengers had been transferred to other vessels, leaving 903 members of the crew and service to make Halifax on the ship if it is to reach port. Of course, this second large population, of 900, will be safe, unless a last disaster should happen suddenly, a thing not to be anticipated. But for the Wireless installation, and the confidence it gives of help almost certain, there must surely have been a deadly panic on the Titanic when the great ship drove into the iceberg which crippled it. No doubt the now facts bring a new mind; passengers have already acquired what one is tempted to call the “Wireless mind” the feeling that the ocean is no longer lonely space cut off from all human life. The instinct of old was to throw oneself overboard at the first terrible moment of a collision, or of the cry of fire; people that read yesterday’s news in mid ocean and knew the price of shares in Dublin or of coal in London do not feel so utterly abandoned; the sea has become a continuation of the land life, and, no doubt at all, every passenger at the moment of the shock uttered the one word, “Wireless”; everyone thought at once that the Titanic was on a known track within easy hail of friends, who would turn on their paths within five minutes and bring help.
The same system has proved itself useful also in warnings of danger, the question will arise at once whether the Titanic might not have avoided this awful peril by the ice warning that had already been sent out by other ships. The Virginian, which has been helping the giant in distress, had already sent out word that three days out of Halifax it had encountered “ice fields 100 miles in extent, with enormous bergs” It will be asked whether this danger signal had not reached the Titanic; if not, why not? And, if it did reach the Titanic, why the Titanic could not avoid the whole bristling ground? The biggest ship afloat has had an unhappy first trip, and it will be remembered that the Olympic, also one of the giants, made and in ill-omened start. But there is no certain connection between the size of these monsters and the misfortunes which have fallen about them. The Titanic is believed to be not merely the fastest ship that man has put on the waters in all the history of the world, but to be the safest also. It was even famous for its “collision bulkhead”, and collision it has had to meet on its first going forth. It remains to be seen whether there will be any effort now to maintain that the size of these ships is, after all, a danger; whether in any way bulk increases peril when there may be need of hasty stopping, backing, or wheeling about. The enquiry into the causes of the Titanic’s mishap will certainly consider this question. And there will be an anxious desire for information as to the reason the Titanic took the course which was known to be made terrible for the moment by that vast floating country of ice, “100 miles in extent, with enormous bergs” (Freeman’s Journal, 1912).
The Irish Independent states “sailors, who are proverbially superstitious, may be pardoned if they think there is something unlucky about the two largest steamers afloat, the Olympic and Titanic, of the White Star Line. Six months ago the Olympic collided with the cruiser Hawke in an apparently unaccountable way, and on a subsequent occasion lost one of her propeller blades in mid-ocean. The sister ship, the Titanic, when starting on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic last week, narrowly avoided a collision in Southampton water. On Sunday night she appears to have collided with a huge iceberg, and sustain such damage that the first accounts received by Wireless represented the huge vessel as sinking and the passengers and crew, upwards of 2000 souls, as being in great danger. There were Irish passengers on board the Titanic, and the alarm caused in Ireland yesterday by the news of the disaster was consequently great. Fortunately, however, later Wireless messages represent the accident as not so serious; passengers are said to be safe on board other vessels summoned by Wireless to the assistance of the great liner, and the steamer, though apparently badly damaged, is making her way to Halifax, the nearest port. During the past few days many vessels have encountered huge icebergs and ice fields off the coast of Newfoundland, and this source of danger threatens alike the largest and the smallest shipping. That the collision of the Titanic with an iceberg did not result in heavy loss of life may be partly attributed to the splendid construction of the vessel and the system of collision bulkheads and electrically worked watertight doors with which the vessel is provided, but mainly to the prompt assistance which the Wireless messages summoned from all sides within a radius of 200 miles. This is a new triumph for Marconi, and if the lesson is taken to heart by ship-owners one may soon hope to see every oceangoing steamer equipped with his marvellous invention (Irish Independent, 1912).
The flow of early misinformation in relation to the sinking of the Titanic seemed to continue as April 16th’s late editions hit the newsstands. A Reuters “all classes” cablegram from New York claims the Titanic sank at 2;20 AM this morning. No lives were lost. An hour later Reuters issued another telegram stating; “the following statement has been given out by the White Star officials. Capt Haddock, of the Olympic, sends a Wireless message that the Titanic sank at 2;20 AM on Monday, after the passengers and crew had been lowered into the lifeboat and transferred to the Virginian. The steamer Carpathia, with several hundred of the passengers from the Titanic, is now on her way to New York” A late edition of the Irish Independent states “White Star have given assurances that the passengers were safe. Vice President, Mr Franklin, has expressed the belief that the vessel was also safe, however severely damaged, being practically unsinkable. All news has been coming in aggravating fragments in the form of Wireless messages from various vessels at the scene of the wreck or hastening thither, nothing has been received direct from the Titanic herself” (Irish Independent, 1912).
A later Reuters telegram seemed to contradict all previous messages in relation to the Titanic. The statement issued in New York at 8 AM declares “up to this hour the officials of the White Star line have not received a word regarding the reported accident to the Titanic. 12 hours have passed since the collision of the Titanic is reported to have taken place. We have heard nothing of an accident. It is very strange to the Titanic sister ship Olympic, which has a Wireless installation of sufficient strength has not communicated with us” (Reuters Telegram, 1912).
However, the Irish media did not believe a word of this official statement. “Disaster has marked the maiden voyage of the gigantic White Star liner Titanic, for while steaming through the night, some 270 miles South-East of Newfoundland, she struck an iceberg, and is now crawling towards Halifax in imminent danger of sinking. Happily so far as can be at present ascertained, no lives have been lost, and with plenty of help from other liners standing by the passengers should be landed safely tonight or tomorrow. The first notification of disaster came from the Wireless station at Cape Race, which picked up the Titanic’s message for help. Shortly afterwards came another Wireless message from the Virginian, stating that she also had picked up the Titanic’s message, and was hastening to the relief. The next message received by the Cape Race Wireless station was even more alarming, for the Titanic’s operator reported that the ship was sinking by the head, and that the women and children were being put into lifeboats. Then came a long pause and at 12;27 AM the Virginian operator said that the last signals received from the Titanic were blurred and indistinct, and that the message had been broken after suddenly. By this time no fewer than 11 great liners had picked up the despairing SOS signals, and were heading full speed to the rescue. The Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, which was herself in collision only a short time ago; was about 300 miles away on her way from New York to Southampton, and while passing the message on she announced that she was racing to the rescue. Another boat, comparatively near, was the White Star liner, Baltic, and some other vessels including Amerika and Cincinnati, the Parisian, the Carpathia, the North German Prinz Friedrich Willhelm and Prinz Adalbert; and a French liner, La Provence, all of which sent Wireless messages of encouragement and the news that they were hurrying to the rescue (Irish Independent, 1912).
However the flow of misinformation persisted. Another Reuters cablegram claims to have received a message from the ship Minin, off Cape Race, stating that steamers are now towing the Titanic, and endeavouring to get her into shoal waters near Cape Race, for the purpose of beaching her. A further message from Halifax states that the Government Marine Agency has received a Wireless message to the effect that the Titanic is sinking. A telegram from Montréal states that White Star has denied the report that the Titanic had sunk. He believed that with so many vessels around her it would be unnecessary for the Virginia to return to Halifax with her. Traffic officials of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, have been notified that the passengers of the Titanic will be landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia. About 600 would require transportation to New York by sleeping cars, and 800 by ordinary coaches. White Star also confirm that the Virginia, Parisian and Carpathia were now standing by the Titanic. The Company claims to have definite information that all the passengers had been transferred successfully from the Titanic; they also confirm that they had received nothing indicating the extent of the damage sustained by the Titanic” (White Star Liners, 1912).
Although the news of the disaster to the Titanic came as tremendous shock and the gravity of the position was fully recognised, the shipping community of Liverpool resolutely took a sanguine view throughout that the ship would be brought to a place of safety. The intelligence that the Titanic is in tow of the Virginia has been communicated to the owners, who finding it a confirmation of their expectations that the giant ship, damaged though she may be, has, through the medium of her collision bulkhead and watertight compartments, sufficient buoyancy to enable her to reach a port of safety. The chief feature discussed was the splendid demonstration the disaster affords of the practical utility of Wireless Telegraphy. In marine insurance circles it seems to be generally believed that the vessel is covered to the amount of £1m, half of which will be carried, not by the White Star line itself, but by the White Star and all the companies with which it works in combination. This combination is known to possess a very large insurance fund. Of the million at risk in the open in insurance market, it is believed a quarter is taken by Liverpool companies, the remaining three quarters being distributed amongst London offices, Hamburg probably coming in aid (Irish Independent, 1912).
However, it would be at lEast 24 hours more before the true facts of the disaster began to emerge to a shocked world. But interestingly, somebody somewhere had to account for the flow of misinformation that had caused so much confusion in the preceding 24 hours. The finger of blame was pointed at “airwave Pirates” who had interrupted professional transmissions using amateur Wireless apparatus; “These operators are making it difficult to communicate with legitimate sources” (Reuters Cablegram, 1912).
Numerous articles began to appear in Irish newspapers which included the names of some of the survivors of the Titanic disaster. However, the true horror of the tragedy was beginning to unfold. Headlines in most newspapers announced that Titanic had sunk long before any help arrived. White Star claim to have received positive news that the number of survivors is 868. There is reason to believe that the death toll reaches the awful number of 1490. There are many notable persons among the missing and there were no survivors of the disaster on board either the Virginian or Parisian. The King and Queen, Queen Alexandra, and the Kaiser have sent messages expressing deep sympathy with the relatives of the Titanic victims to the White Star Directors.
The messages received up to about 2;30 AM yesterday regarding the fate of the vessel were very conflicting, and it was not until that hour that a definite message was received stating that the liner had sunk. For this reason practically all the newspapers that commented on the disaster did so on the assumption that the Titanic had been merely damaged by the collision, and that no lives had been lost. Irish passengers, representing every part of this country, joined the Titanic at Queenstown. The majority travelled steerage. The latest information from Cape Race indicates that only the 675 survivors on board the Carpathia have escaped from the wreck. Heartrending scenes were witnessed at the White Star Company’s offices at New York, Liverpool, London, and Southampton when the news of the disaster was made known. At the official luncheon on board the Titanic before she sailed one of the tables collapsed, and the incident was much commented upon. Today’s news has shed an entirely new light upon the disaster which overtook the Titanic during the night of Sunday. It is now, unhappily, only too clear that the magnificent vessel, the pride of her builders, owners, and all whom gloried in Britain’s shipbuilding supremacy, is lying on the bed of the North Atlantic at some depth of some 1700 fathoms, and that her last constitutes the most appalling catastrophe in the maritime history of the world. It can only be assumed that the erroneous reports so widely circulated, which raised false hopes in the hearts of thousands, were the result of the confusion which must necessarily have arisen at a time when Wireless messages were being transmitted from dozens of vessels and relayed from as many more. It is known that the Titanic disappeared before the help summoned by her Wireless operators could reach her, and that those of her Company who were saved were picked up from her boats by the Carpathia, which was the first ship to arrive on the scene.
The most terrible news is that the number taken aboard the Carpathia is only about 800. Hopes that other survivors might be on board other ships were disappointed by Cablegrams which set forth that these liners were too late to render help, and it is, therefore, practically certain that over 1500 lives were lost when the Titanic went down. The Carpathia is likely to take a considerable time in reaching New York, in as much as she herself is forced to steam slowly owing to the presence of huge ice fields in her track.
Many persons whose names are known throughout the world are among those who are believed to have perished. It appears clear that all the survivors of the Titanic disaster, to the number of about 800, says a “Central News” New York message, are on board the Carpathia, which is on her way to New York. White Star officials in New York hoped to be in a position to give out something in the nature of a full statement later today. No word has been received direct from any of the Titanic’s passengers (Irish Independent, 1912).
In Ireland the accuracy of the information coming from America was under question. Newspapers report that American journalists are unprincipled in their methods; “As an indication of the unscrupulous methods of some American journalists several of the morning newspapers in New York yesterday published a telegram from St John’s, Newfoundland, giving a graphic account of the collision, which was credited as having come by Wireless Telegraphy from the British steamer Bruce, and is having been picked up from various steamers in the vicinity of the wreck of the Titanic. A Reuter’s cablegram of yesterday afternoon stated that these messages were now stated to be without foundation, as the only news of the wreck received by the Bruce was a bulletin from Cape Race (Irish Independent, 1912).
At the Dublin Stock Exchange Marconi Ordinary shares make a bad start but as the day goes on the shares start to recover (Irish Independent, 1912). According to the Freemans Journal, “conjecture will long be busy, and not unprofitably, on the causes of the disaster to the Titanic and on the measures that must be taken to reduce the danger of such terrible events in the future. Very soon, of course, we shall be in possession of some authentic accounts of what actually happened, and almost certainly there will prove to be among the rescued some able to give the expert account from which understanding and future prevention may come. It has already been suggested that the Titanic did not carry a lifeboat and raft service adequate to the needs of its great population in time of danger. The outsider may be wrongly impressed by this suggestion. It is not for him to say whether this thing is even possible, perhaps a vessel that was all safety could not carry passengers with any freedom of movement, with any adequate speed, possibly even a ship bristling with safety devices would be the most dangerous in time of hurry. Only a practical shipbuilder can answer fully on such points, and the amateur even when he was right in principle would generally be wrong in his method of arriving at this theory. It does not appear likely that the builders and buyers of the Titanic, the last word of the craft, would ignore the entirely obvious. The vessel that had installed a Turkish bath on board would not probably forget or neglect it’s reasonably adequate supply of life-saving apparatus. It is said that under the Titanic specification there were lifeboats enough for the accommodation of nearly 2000 people, if this were actually so, the ground of complaint is shifted. The number of lifeboats would be adequate, and the mistake would be in their placing, or possibly even in their number itself. The charge would partly be against the very bigness of the ship. An officer of wide experience remarks on this point that the difficulty is to bring the life-saving appliances into use. “In the case of the Titanic,” he said, “you have to consider the great height of the boats above the water and where the collapsible boats and the rafts are stored. The accident to the Titanic happened in the dark, and apparently when the boats were needed the ship was deep down forward. If there were a list to either side it would make matters still worse and some of the boats might be altogether useless” it is obvious that at the terrible moment of such a crash as that which destroyed the Titanic, in the dark, there cannot be the order of the school picnic entertainment. You have 32 lifeboats each good for 60 passengers, but no one can guarantee that each will be neatly ready for the water at its exact spot and its 60 passengers drawn neatly up to step with decorum into it. The article also states, “as for the Wireless apparatus, much has been expected obvious, but just at present, after the full change of tidings from the first cheerful belief to the final despair, there is a tendency to forget all that it has done. At lEast 800 people unquestionably owe their lives to the Wireless, the 800 on the Carpathian must have gone down with the others but for the signal SOS that brought them at lEast their rescue. 800 is a vast ship full saved and, although it is a lesser matter, something must be credited to the Wireless in letting the world know what happened. Two years ago we should have been waiting days and days after the Titanic was due, and collected agony of those on land watching for the missing ship would be a terrible increase to the total of the tragedy. This disaster will give an immediate impulse to the study of the ways and signs of floating ice. It is admitted that this vastly important matter has not yet been adequately studied and recorded. Old Mariners differ more strangely about the signs by which the fatal presence may be known, some speak of chill in the air, others of chill in the water, to be recognised at safe and sufficient distance by common perception; others deny that there are any such warnings, but allow that delicate instruments may give the word; there is also, it appears, an instrument, not yet largely used, which foreshows the presence of more solid mass in the water. Some commanders said that there are recognisable reflections from the ice in the sky overhead “iceberg blink”, others deride this alleged lore. Some believe in keeping the sirens blowing in suspected areas in the faith that the bergs will give back a significant echo. The danger, it may be noted, however, is more from sunken ice then from the visible berg. The ghastly suggestion is made in the case of the Titanic that it may have dashed into what is called an iceberg cave, being cut and hacked by the ice underneath until it was entirely caught in the mass, when the very impact would bring the berg smashing down like a hammer upon it” (Freemans Journal, 1912).
News also comes to light that Captain Smith had grave concerns, some weeks prior to the disaster, and spoke of the life preserving equipment of the Titanic, which was then under construction. He told his colleague, Glenne Marston, “if the ship should strike a submerged derelict or iceberg, that would cut through into several of the watertight compartments we have not enough boats or rafts aboard to take care of more than one third of the passengers. The Titanic should carry at lEast double the number of boats and rafts that she does to afford any real protection to passengers. Besides, there is the danger of some of the boats becoming damaged or being swept away before they can be manned” (Irish Independent, April).
The flow of misinformation that had occurred on April 16th could not be dismissed, at lEast by the general public, as a result of the interference of so-called “airwave Pirates”. During this 24 hour period much of the credit for saving the lives of all of the passengers of Titanic was given to Marconi and his “wonderful apparatus”. The Marconi Company clearly basked in the glory and praise showered on them by the international media. In fact, as time would tell, and new facts came to light soon after the disaster, the Marconi Company itself were major contributors to the propaganda that would ultimately have far reaching social, political and financial consequences for the Company that were perceived as exploiting a major disaster for financial gain. Marconi’s Dublin shareholders were the first to anticipate the looming disaster for the Company and at the first opportunity on April 17th 1912 to surrender their interests in the Company; “Marconi shares experienced a reaction in price and as the day progressed Marconi issues collapsed into comparative quietude. It is understood that the shares of the American Wireless Company will be introduced to the market in the next few days” (Financial Correspondent, 1912). This clearly suggests that shareholders remained interested in Wireless technologies but were beginning to lose interest in Marconi. It is arguably more than a coincidence that the loss of interest in Marconi and the sinking of the Titanic were unrelated events. Had the romance between Ireland and Marconi come to an abrupt end and if so, what would be the consequences of this for Irish radio?
Meanwhile the international media were reporting that there is little hope that the disaster would not prove to have been the most awful in the history of the sea. In view of the receipt early this morning from the Carpathia of the partial list of those saved, it is anticipated that the vessel will soon be within Wireless zone, and would be able to send details of the disaster. The list of the save is mainly composed of women, though several men’s names appear upon it, including that of Mr Bruce Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line; “throughout last night and even early this morning crowds thronged the offices of the White Star, many of the enquirers came out in tears, and some became hysterical when they were unable to hear tidings of their friends and relatives. Company officials hold out no hope that any passengers had been saved other than those on board the Carpathia (Press Association, 1912).
According to the New York Correspondent of the “Evening News” a crowd of anxious relatives and friends of the passengers on the lost Titanic was massed all night in front of The White Star Line offices in Broadway. The friends of the wealthy men unaccounted for are in a state of great anxiety. After a sleepless night, men worked thousands of pounds were rushing down at 5 and 6 o’clock to the business distract to hear the latest reports. It is a certainty that, at the time of writing, most of the notable men on board have gone down. The rule of the sea prevailed, “women and children first”. The women and children in the steerage would be taken off before the first and second class mail passengers. It is now known that the Carpathia picked up the passengers eight hours after the sinking of the Titanic. The Virginian was to give up her search after daylight and proceed with her voyage, as being a mail boat, she is forced to make the utmost haste to her destination. On learning of the disaster shortly before midnight, a well-dressed man on the arm of the friend fell fainting on the pavement outside the New York Times office” (London Evening News, 1912). The news of the probable heavy loss of life had only a limited circulation. Crowds had gathered at the White Star offices, and women in tears and men in frantic search of reassuring news were met with the frank admission that little was known of the fate of the passengers who were not travelling first or second class (Freemans Journal, 1912).
Any news now in relation to the disaster is based on second hand information and limited telegrams, some confused and contradicting previous news information. It is clearly a ‘waiting game’ to get first hand information and the hours were ticking by. Until the Carpathia reaches New York with the survivors it will be impossible to form a definite opinion of how the disaster occurred. Commanded by one of the ablest and most experienced seamen in the service of any of the great shipping companies, the mammoth liner was fitted with every device that science has invented to secure safety at sea, and yet within four hours after striking an iceberg she sank. Captain Smith had been warned several days before by a French vessel that floating ice had been encountered far South of where it is usually expected at this time of year. The presumption is, therefore, that the Titanic was being navigated with special care in order to avoid danger. How, then, did it happen that the precautions adopted proved unavailing? (Irish Independent, 1912).
Questions can not be answered, and, as captain Smith is believed to have gone down with his ship, it is possible that the truth will never be known. It is incredible that any culpable want of foresight or inexplicable loss of nerve on the part of any of the officers contributed to the fearful calamity. The gallant commander of the Titanic had been dogged by what is commonly called ill-luck since he took command of her sister ship, the Olympic, which collided with the Hawke in the Solent in 1911. In a deep and touching Editorial the Irish Independent states; “Only last week, owing to the suction caused by her enormous bulk, the Titanic came near colliding with the American liner New York. But nobody, whether seaman or landsman, could have believed that the magnificent vessel would have met with disaster practically in mid-ocean; the horror of the scene in dead of night when the Titanic met with the dread foe which nature had loosed for her destruction palsies the imagination. Now we must brace ourselves to confront one of those terrible events in the order of Providence which baffle the most careful foresight, which appals the imagination, and make us realise the inadequacy of words to do justice as to how we feel. With pride in the nobler instincts of our humanity our hearts must thrill at the story of willing sacrifice epitomised in the fact that the lifeboats were filled with women and children. The first chance of safety was given to those who were lEast able to help themselves. The deliberate and disciplined heroism which must have been displayed will be blazoned on the mariners’ book of fame, and in that record will be inscribed many an Irish name. In truth both the pity and the glory of this unprecedented disaster come right home to our minds. The Titanic was planned by Irish brains and built by Irish hands. A considerable number of her passengers were Irish. By the loss of many persons of worldwide reputation or of enormous wealth who were on board the doomed vessel, many families in England and America will be plunged into mourning. To the bereaved, both rich and poor, the sympathy of every heart which can feel a pang of sorrow at distress will go out in this time of agony. It is enough to move a stoic to tears to read of the frenzied inquiries at the White Star Offices of parents and relatives for news of their children or other loved ones who were aboard the ill-fated ship. In due course all that can ever be known of the circumstances attending the loss of the Titanic will be revealed at the Board Of Trade enquiry. But it is not of expert evidence and official findings that the civilised world is now thinking. It is of the awful death toll and what it involves of poignant sorrow to all the bereaved and of acute distress amongst those who have lost their breadwinners. The misery of the latter will not, we know full well, go unrelieved. In the confusion of Wireless messages from many vessels and stations there was at first left room for hope that there had been no loss of life. But we can now no longer doubt that, measured by the death toll, the calamity is the most terrible in the history of the world’s mercantile marine.
The loss of 1,020 lives through the burning of the excursion steamer General Slocum in Long Island in 1904 is the one recorded shipping disaster that comes near rivalling the Titanic catastrophe in the number of its victims. In the awe inspiring circumstances of her disappearance beneath the waves; however, the disaster to the White Star leviathan is without a parallel” (Irish Independent (Editorial), 1912). Hopes for more survivors are further dashed with the news reported on April 18th 1912. White Star Liners confirm that reports of 250 survivors on board Baltic were not accurate. Furthermore, Wireless messages claiming many fishing boats responded to the SOS are also untrue. The Dominion Government has ordered lighthouse keepers and patrol boats to keep a sharp look out for bodies of the victims as a number of ships were now heading to the scene of the wreck in the hopes of collecting the dead. A gruesome feature of these preparations is that these boats are carrying hundreds of coffins and many undertakers and embalmers (Irish Independent, 1912).
The task of investigating the Titanic wreck began in the American Senate on Friday, April 19th, 1912. The Commerce Committee had appointed a subcommittee of 7 to take testimony. The sub-committee left for New York to gather witnesses to give evidence. Subpoenas are issued to compel officials and members of the crew of the Titanic to give evidence regarding all that occurred in connection with the disaster. The Chairman of the subcommittee, Mr William Alden Smith, Senator for Michigan, is demanding that it is absolutely imperative that the investigation begins immediately and claims “I have been informed that the surviving officers and members of the crew of the Titanic all of whom are British subjects, plan to transfer to the Cedric upon their arrival in New York and return immediately to England. This would take them beyond the jurisdiction of the committee, if, indeed, the committee has any jurisdiction to summon British subjects in such circumstances. I propose to urge upon Mr Ismay the advisability of his cooperation as a British subject with this Government to get at the true facts of this horrible disaster, and I shall tell him that, while we have no jurisdiction over British subjects, we have jurisdiction in American ports, and to avoid any trouble the Company and its officers should help us in the enquiry”. Mr Smith added that the committee wished particularly to find out the reasons for the great loss of life. These, he believed, Mr Ismay and the Titanic surviving officers were especially competent to give (Reuters Telegram, 1912).
In Washington there is a new proposed resolution to consider uniformed laws and regulations for merchant vessels at sea. The subjects specified for discussion to include regulations in regard to the efficiency of crews, construction of vessels, equipment of lifeboats, Wireless apparatus, searchlights, submarine bells, and life-saving and fire extinguishing equipment. While the Titanic never entered an American port the investigation is expected to show the extent to which other great liners meet Americans safety regulations. However, many members of Congress are openly opposed to the idea of holding an investigation into the disaster. Meanwhile, the continued silence of Carpathia as it approaches American waters is giving cause for alarm to the American public and European citizens anxious for news about the disaster. Although there have been attempts to maintain Wireless contact with the ship there has been absolutely no information concerning the disaster. “This veil of secrecy which enshrouds the liner has naturally given rise to all sorts of wild and horrifying conjectures. The American public is quite convinced that the absolute silence which has been maintained by the Carpathia means a ghastly tale will be unfolded when the survivors are landed. Certain it is that many of these survivors must be nearly crazed with grief and weak from exhaustion and exposure, and a horrible fear is growing that insanity is rife among the survivors. The preparations that have been made for the reception tend to confirm this belief, for a large number of doctors, nurses, and ambulances are in readiness on the pier. All outsiders are barred from the dock, and no phototographer will be permitted to snap shot the arrival. Some of these precautions are, of course, necessary and wise for the protection of the distressed passengers and crew, but the opinion is general that the secrecy is being carried to too great an extreme. The correction of the number of rescued from 868 to 705 has given rise to all sorts of conjectures. A ghastly explanation put forward in some quarters is that the 163 who have been taken from the original official total were really rescued but died on board the Carpathia as a result of the exposure or injuries received in the disaster. There is, of course, no confirmation of such a suggestion, but it is characteristic of the theories which are being put forward and represents fairly accurately the state of mind to which people have been brought by the disaster and the lack of information (Irish Independent, 1912).
According to a message, which is at present unconfirmed, 200 of the Titanic’s crew were asleep in their bunks when the crash came, and our quarters being in the four-part of the vessel, there were crushed to death. However, so many of these messages have been received that they must be accepted with reservation. When the Carpathia finally slowed down on the last lap of the sad journey, preparatory to treading the path through the long and narrow channel which leads into New York harbour some hours distant in the early hours of a rainy and dismal day where it was would be met on the pier by a big crowd of “privileged people”, mostly relatives and friends. Nearby was a long line of carriages and ambulances. Out on the channel it was still dark and “very raw and cheerless”. The lights on the steerage deck showed silent, pathetic groups, chiefly of women, who had come up from their cabins to obtain a glimpse of the distant glare reflected in the sky, indicating the myriad illuminations of New York City. The steerage passengers of the Titanic in muddled and cowed groups stared out vaguely into the night towards the city of New York. They were more easily distinguishable than the first and second class passengers, partly because they occupied the lower deck and kept rather rigidly to themselves, and also because the latter were generally on the upper deck and mixed with the Carpathia’s regular passengers. “Slowly and with her speed continually decreasing as New York came near the Carpathia advanced to port. Many of the survivors were in an hysterical state from being bereft of their husbands or other loved ones, and were constantly under the care of the ships surgeons, some delirious, while others had not recovered from the rigours of eight hours in the lifeboats on a cold and foggy sea. Cases of pneumonia are mentioned, and children lying almost at deaths door” (Irish Independent, 1912).
A Reuters telegram issued at 7;30 PM confirms the arrival of the Carpathia at the Quarantine Station, New York. The first of the survivors left the vessel at 9;35 o’clock. There was an immense and anxious crowd at the pier and details of the tragedy were eagerly sought by journalists and others. Definite particulars of the appalling occurrence are coming to hand but slowly, and it will still probably take a day or two before a full and consecutive narrative of the disaster can be given to the public. Survivors relate stories of husbands and wives refusing to part-Company with each other and opted instead to go down with Titanic. One survivor tells journalists that as the Titanic went down about 2;30 AM the ships band lined up on deck and played the him, “Nearer my God to Thee”. There are also stories of many rescued people who later died and were buried at sea. A steward states that the Carpathia, only 62 miles away when the Wireless call was received, took over four hours in covering the distance, as to the Captain feared running down the lifeboats in the darkness. Harold Bride, the surviving Wireless operator on board the Titanic, states that Phillips, the chief operator, worked heroically during the last 15 minutes. Bride strapped a lifebelt around Phillips. A man tried to take off the lifebelt but Bride knocked him down and left him in the Wireless cabin. Bride afterwards, though on crutches, took over the Wireless work on the Carpathia. There were other heroic stories including that of Col Astor who died heroically refusing to go into a lifeboat. His last act was to lift a child into the last boat. Captain Smith also refused to leave, and was last seen on the bridge. Four of the crew manning the lifeboats were frozen to death. There appears to be no truce in the statement the passengers were kept back at revolver point and that two well-known men were shot. All the passengers acclaimed British seamen’s heroic conduct. The men sang sea songs while lowering the boats and many male passengers behaved most courageously, helping to get the boats out (Irish Times, 1912).
The true story of the awful catastrophe of the Titanic sinking is now coming to light as numerous survivors relate their experiences “which show that the circumstances were, perhaps, the most harrowing in the world’s history”. One of the most dramatic stories is that as told by Harold Bride, the assistant Wireless operator, who was standing by his ill-fated colleague, Mr Phillips, as he was sending out his distress signals over the ocean while the great vessel was sinking. Mr Bride said there was no panic, though the decks were full of excited men and women. The Wireless instruments were growing more and more indistinct, and as the water was close up by the boats deck the captain entered the instrument telling the men to leave immediately. Although this account was widely reported there were some people who challenged, not its authenticity nor its source but the mysterious manner in which the story surfaced. Other survivors confirmed that the lifeboats were lowered as fast as they were filled, and many passengers, in a frantic state, flung themselves into the sea. As the liner disappeared beneath the water, the survivors who were adrift in the boats heard two explosions, and in a moment the Titanic had gone down. Several survivors assert that the Titanic was steaming at 23 knots an hour when she struck the iceberg. Three Italians were shot in the struggle for the boats. Many survivors said that the behaviour of the second and third class passengers was heroic, but that some of the first class passengers fought like madmen for the boats. One of the most realistic narratives of the disaster was given by Mr Beasley, of London, who states that at about 10;30 PM on Sunday night there was a slight jar. Persons were playing cards in the smoke room at the time. None of them had any idea that the boat had been pierced by an iceberg. There was a total absence of any panic. After all the ladies had been got into the boards one of the crew said to him, “then you had better jump,” and he jumped to the bottom of boat. Many passengers of the Titanic issued a signed statement in which they paid warm tribute to the officers and crew of the Carpathia. They drew attention to the insufficiency of the lifeboat accommodation of the Titanic, and point out that the number saved was about 80% of the maximum capacity of the boats (Irish Independent, 1912).
The Donegal News are glowing in their praise for the role of Marconi’s “ wonderful instruments” and reports the story of the Titanic and it signals of distress received and answered by Wireless Telegraphy adds one more chapter to the romance of the Marconi system, which has already been the means of saving many noble vessels and thousands of lives. It was as recently as 1898 that the new arrival of Wireless transmission became generally acclaimed, when the Prince of Wales, in the Royal yacht Osborne, was kept in uninterrupted communication with Osborne house, a distance of nearly 2 miles. But by December 1901 Marconi had at St John’s, Newfoundland, received signals from Poldhu, Cornwall, a distance of 1800 miles across the Atlantic. That was a triumph of signs which begin a new era in the history of navigation. Now all the great liners of the world carry Wireless and already a fascinating book might be written recording the rescue is made possible by Wireless and adventurers at sea stranger than Annie dreamt of by writers of fiction. The story of the Republic disaster in 1909, when, Jack Binns, the Marconi operator, became a popular hero, in spite of his modesty, deserves to be recalled as a famous example. From the details of that shipwreck one may imagine more clearly and vividly the scenes that have been taking place in the Titanic and ships that have raced to her rescue (Donegal News, 1912).
The world media did not share the same sense of enthusiasm for Marconi or his officials are any of his Wireless operators whom journalists would later describe as equally as corrupt. In the days following the disaster the international media, pressurised by the Titanic Disaster Investigating Committee in New York and also by their infuriated readers, had to account for the misinformation published in the 100 or so hour period immediately after the disaster. They turned their attention to the activities of the primary source of news, Marconi and laid the blame, justifiably or not, squarely at his feet. The New York Herald on April 21st, 1912 published the headline; “Keep Your Mouth Shut; Big Money for You, Was Message to Hide News’ The article stated that Marconi operators on Titanic and other nearby Marconi operated ships, were told by Marconi telegram to hold the story “Four figures for you”.
The article contends that while the world was waiting three days for information concerning the fate of the Titanic, for part of the time at lEast, details concerning the disaster were being withheld by the Wireless operator of the steamship Carpathia under specific orders from T.W. Sammis, chief engineer of them Marconi Wireless Company of America, who had arranged the sale of the story. This was admitted by Mr Sammis, who defended his action. He said he was justified for getting for the Wireless operators the largest amount he could for the details of the sinking of the ship, the rescue of the passengers and the other information the world had waited for. The first information concerning the loss of the Titanic came Monday evening, and it was known at that time the survivors were on board the Carpathia. About midnight the first of the list of survivors begin to come by Wireless, and from that time until Thursday night, when the rescue ship arrived in port, the world waited and waited in vain for the details of how the “unsinkable ship” had gone down. Three messages were sent to the Carpathia telling the operator to send out no news concerning the disaster. Two of these were unsigned, and the last one had the signature of Mr Sammis. The article further alleges that the first message was unsigned, and it said it was sent as a list of names of survivors was being forwarded. The message read “Keep your mouth shut. Hold story. Big money for you” The messages from the Carpathia to the Marconi office concerning this matter were not available, but there was evidently some communication, for the second unsigned message followed after an interval. This message read; “If you are wise, hold story. The Marconi Company will take care of you” The third and last message was addressed to “Marconi officer, the Carpathia and the Titanic,” and signed by Sammis which read “Stop. Say nothing. Hold your story for dollars in four figures. Mr Marconi agreeing. Will meet you at dock” Sammis was questioned at a hearing before the subcommittee of the United States Senate and he was asked about the message and did he actually send it. He admitted to sending the message but also stated that the matter was nobody’s business. He was told that it was interesting to know that when the world was horror stricken over the disaster and waiting for the news, that there were persons preparing to capitalise on the suspense and had arranged for ‘four figures’. Sammis explained that he felt justified for getting the highest price and was defiant in his contention that the matter was nobody’s business but his own (New York Herald, 1912).
The article further states that it is not unlikely that the sending of these messages with the no apparent result that no details of the disaster came from the relief ship will form part of the enquiry that is being made by a subcommittee of the Senate. Part of this enquiry has been directed as to why a message from President Taft asking for information about Maj Archibald W. Butt was unanswered, and it is not likely that in view of the message from Sammis that this will be taken up again. While these messages were intercepted by more than one Wireless receiving station, there is one place where the Senate committee could undoubtedly get copies of them. The New York Navy Yard has a powerful receiving station, and has what is known as an “intercepted message” book. These messages are considered confidential and are never given out, but the book would undoubtedly be at the disposal of the investigating committee. Sen. Smith claims that the authorities in Washington knew on Thursday long before the Carpathia arrived, that the White Star line was contemplating the return of part of the Titanic crew to England by the steamship Cedric, and this information undoubtedly came from a Government station. John W Griggs, onetime Attorney General of the United States and Gov of New Jersey, is President of the Marconi Wireless Company of America claimed to be unaware that the chief engineer of the Company was marketing the information of the disaster. The following day the Marconi Company challenged the New York Herald and claimed that their article was a grave injustice to the Marconi Company that called for immediate correction. They said that false and injurious impression had been created. They claim that the messages were sent on Thursday as the Carpathia was coming up the bay, and not as intimated on any of the early days following the Titanic disaster. Furthermore, if the operators having fully discharged their duties to the public, to the Carpathia and to the Marconi Company, desired to sell to a newspaper narratives of their personal experiences, this was attained they had a complete right to do, for these narratives were the own personal property. Who will begrudge these unfortunate and hard-working men the remuneration they thus received, or because of it charge them with previous neglect of duty? While the New York Herald reported Marconi’s dissatisfaction they remained adamant that their version of events was not without substance. In an article headed “Told to Keep Out Navy Man Charges” they contend that the Carpathia had not only refused to give the United States Scout cruiser Chester information concerning the Titanic, but had told her Wireless men to “keep out”. This information came to light when Frank Gaffney, chief operator of the Chester, informed the Herald. The refusal to answer, Gaffney stated, was after the Carpathia had been informed that Pres Taft was anxious to learn the fate of Major Butt and other prominent persons. Cmdr Decker, who was in charge of the cruiser, said the statements made by Harold Bride, that the navy operators were “wretched” was absurd. The Chester, it is said, continued to flash questions to the Carpathia onto the operators aboard the latter were compelled to answer because the high power of the Navy’s apparatus made the reading of messages to other points impossible. Gaffney also declared that he and his colleagues aboard the Chester probably would be witnesses before the Senate committee. He also confirmed that the operators on board the Carpathia left him under the impression that all had been saved. He said that at one time they did answer when enquiries were made for Major Butt by saying “He is not here” One of the officers on board the Chester claims that the operators of the Carpathia ignored everything that Gaffney and Blackstock sent or asked. Gaffney has been a Wireless operator for more than six years, while Blackstock has been one for about three or four years. The former is capable of sending about 45 words a minute and to say they are slow and wretched is absurd (New York Herald, 1912).
The United States inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic would last a total of 18 days. Surviving passengers and crew, and those who had aided the rescue efforts were questioned and more than 80 witnesses gave testimony are deposited sworn affidavits. The primary subjects covered by the enquiry included the ice warnings received, the inadequate number of lifeboats, the handling of the ship and its speed, Titanic’s distress calls, and the handling of the evacuation of the ship. As the enquiry progressed more and more ‘new facts’ began to come to light; the Wireless operator on Carpathia, Mr Cottain, appeared before the committee and told them that after picking up the Titanic’s boats the Carpathia at first made for Halifax, but afterwards changed her course for New York. He denied having sent any messages stating that all passengers were safe, or that the Titanic was in tow. Owing to the constant dispatch of messages he had less than ten hours sleep in three days.
The subcommittee’s report was presented to the United States Senate on 28 May 1912. Its recommendations, along with doors of the British enquiry that concluded a few months later, led to changes in safety practices following the disaster. The report was 19 pages long and summarised 1,145 pages of testimony and affidavits and amongst its key findings were; a lack of emergency preparations had left Titanic’s passengers and crew in a state of absolute unpreparedness, and the evacuation had been chaotic. The ship safety and life-saving equipment had not been properly tested, Capt Edward Smith had shown an indifference to danger that was one of the direct and contributing causes of the disaster, the lack of lifeboats was the fault of the British Board of Trade, the SS Californian had been much nearer to the Titanic than the captain is willing to admit and the British Government should take drastic action against him for his actions, Bruce Ismay had not ordered captain Smith to put on extra speed, but Ismay’s presence on board may have contributed to the Captain’s decision to do so and finally, third class passengers had not been prevented from reaching the lifeboats, but had in many cases not realised until it was too late that the ship was sinking. The report was strongly critical of established seafaring practices and the roles that Titanic’s builders, owners, officers and crew had played in contributing to the disaster. It highlighted the arrogance and complacency that had been prevalent aboard ship but it did not find the White Star Line negligent under existing maritime laws, as they had merely followed standard practice, and the disaster could only be categorised as “an act of God” (Barczewski, 2011).
Guglielmo Marconi was one of the first people to give testimony to the United States Senate enquiry and was called upon on day one to give evidence. He described himself as an Electrical Engineer and chairman of the British Marconi Company. He also confirms that it was his Wireless operators that worked on board both Carpathia and the Titanic and that day alone are responsible for the commercial work, accounting for messages and degenerative conduction of commercial Telegraphic service and were accountable to the Captain according to the exigencies of the service. However, he also confirms that there are numerous instructions which are general rules and regulations for expediting the traffic and for preventing interference with other ships. There are, in the main, the same rules and regulations as are enacted by the International Convention on Wireless Telegraphy otherwise known as the Berlin Treaty to which Great Britain is a party but the United States was not. The regulations of the international convention are the basis of regulations and instructions to men operating Wireless apparatus. It was also established that in the case of a large ship like Titanic, Olympic, Mauritania, or the Lusitania they always carried two operators, but the smaller ships of the class size of the Carpathia carry one. Size is normally dictated by the average number of passengers carried. Marconi tells Smith that the Carpathia is provided with equipment which should call a short distance; it is an apparatus which can transmit messages under favourable circumstances, up to about 180 to 200 miles and on average would send a distance of about 100 miles depending on numerous circumstances including state of space, weather and the skill of the operator. The Titanic was also equipped by Marconi’s Company with ‘fairly powerful sets’, capable of communicating for 500 miles during the daytime and much further during the night-time. This, according to Marconi, was the latest and best Wireless apparatus for the purpose. Marconi also confirms that he is aware that one of the two operators on the Titanic was drowned and the other was picked up, got on a raft, on a collapsible boat, and he was rescued by the Carpathia, having been wounded in his ankles or his legs. Sen Smith then asks whether Marconi or his offices in New York were in communication with the Titanic on Sunday night? Marconi stated that he could not answer that but he was aware there were a great number of messages had come true from the Carpathia but “I sent no messages to the Carpathia, nor did I receive any”.
Marconi is then asked whether there was any general interference from the time of the collision on the part of experimental rival services to the detriment of this service. He states that, to the best of his knowledge, there was no interference. After a lot of technical questioning Marconi is then asked were any orders given by the Marconi Company to the operators or the operator on the Carpathia, with reference to the receipts and answer of messages? Marconi replies “None whatever, there was no disposition to censor or control the operator of the Carpathia and further, “I was very much surprised at things that were stated in the press, that replies had been refused or had not been transmitted. But I have been ensured by the operators on the Carpathia that he never dreamed of refusing any replies” (Titanic Inquiry Project., 1999).
On day six of the enquiry Marconi is recalled. He has asked by Sen Smith to elaborate with what he has to do with the equipment of Wireless apparatus on ocean vessels or shore stations, and what has he to do with the selection of operators in that work? He tells the Smith “I am consulted with regard to all technical details concerning the apparatus installed in ships generally, though I am not consulted with regard to the equipment of each particular ship” He further states that, “concerning the business arrangements made with ship owners, I am usually not in thorough touch with what is going on, for the reason that I’m usually occupied with technical work. I travel about the world a great deal in order to carry on experiments and to inspect plants in various countries. For the business details and for the general management of the Company there is a managing Director or general manager, who attends to all the work of engaging operators and of negotiating with ship owners and others for the use of Wireless Telegraphy” Marconi is then questioned as to the identity of this man to which replies Mr Godfrey C. Isaacs who resides in London and had just left New York prior to the Titanic accident.
Marconi is then questioned as to his relationship with the British Government and he tells Smith that he has no official relationship with the British Government, except that he is called upon by them to advise them on matters of Wireless Telegraphy generally, and also is responsible for the design of the long distance stations which they are erecting in various parts of the British Empire, in which his Company have an interest for a period of at lEast 18 years. Sen Smith then asks Marconi to state to the committee, in general terms, the scope of that contract and whether that contract requires him to install his apparatus and supervises operation and management, or whether he received compensation by an agreement which permits the management to fall under the control of the British officials? Marconi states that the contract provides that within a certain period of time, two years, “we shall direct these stations for the Government of England in Cyprus, Egypt, India, South Africa, Singapore, and other places where the Government may decide to erect them. We are paid a certain lump sum per station for the expense of erection, and the station, before being accepted by the Government, has to satisfy certain requirements in regard to speed of transmission, effectiveness, and reliability”
Sen Smith then wants to know if a contract of a similar character existed between Marconi and the German Government or if he had any dealings with the Government of the German Empire. Marconi confirms that he had some dealings with the Government of Germany and is fitting German ships with Wireless apparatus on a profit-sharing basis but he also had similar contracts with Italy; “in consideration of not being charged for Patent rights in regard to the use of the system they undertake to equip their shore stations and their colonies with my apparatus and use it exclusively for commercial purposes, being free for war and navy purposes to use anything they like” Marconi is then asked a series of questions in relation to what Wireless apparatus was in operation in a number of different ships from a number of different countries. He seems very knowledgeable on such questions and confirms that the Cape Race station would be the best and most likely station, given the whereabouts of the Titanic at the time of the tragedy, to pick up the communications from the ship. Mr Marconi is then questioned on the positions of certain members of his staff in America but most notably an officer named Mr Sammis who is chief engineer of the American Marconi Co., Who, says Marconi, “Is very intimately in touch with everything concerning the equipment of the ships and the operators, and the operation of the system” Marconi is then invited to give a full background as to how he became involved in Wireless Telegraphy and he avails of this opportunity and further elaborates on how he set up his own Company and brought it, under his supervision, to an international organisation.
After some hours Sen Smith enquires as to whether Marconi himself had any communication or had ordered any communication with the Carpathia on Sunday night or Monday? Marconi denies having any such communication. He is then asked did you have any communication with the Carpathia directly or through a ship coast station, on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday up to the time of the arrival of the Carpathia in New York. He confirms he had no direct communication with Carpathia. Following a series of questions in relation to whether Marconi himself had been in direct contact with the Titanic or the Carpathia he emphatically states that he had no communication whatsoever with either ship at any time immediately after the disaster or during any of the following days. Marconi does confirm that he went to the Carpathia on the evening of its arrival and went on board to meet the Wireless operator, Mr Bride, and congratulated him on what he had heard he had done and then enquired after his senior operator, Phillips. Marconi also tells of his instructions to the Wireless operator to give every account he could to reporters and to disclose and discuss anything he knew about the disaster when and if he were asked. However, Marconi does admit that it is an offence, punishable by imprisonment to disclose the contents of messages. “On an occasion like this, of course some latitude would have been given. I mean, I think that on an occasion like this it would have been a good thing if some report had been sent. But this was a matter that depended on the discretion of the operator, and he used his discretion in such a way that he did not send any messages”. Marconi further admits that Carpathia’s operator, Mr Cottam, had left the ship but later made contact to inform him that journalists wanted the story of the disaster, and that he(Cottam) was going to be paid something for the story; “he did not tell me how much. He asked if he could give the story, and I said yes. But, in regard to this question, of operators, that there is a rule in these companies that operators must not act as reporters. They must accept messages from everyone in the order in which they are presented and there are bound to transmit them. But it is not encouraged that they should send stories of their own; at lEast, they would be dismissed if they did it” Sen Smith then asks Marconi if he sent a Wireless to the operators on the Carpathia and ask them to meet him at a later date and telling them to keep their mouths shut. Marconi denies any knowledge of any such message. Sen Smith then produces a document and tells Marconi he’s going to read the document and then ask whether Marconi new and eating about any fact or circumstance connected with the document. “On the evening of the steamship Carpathia’s arrival in New York, the four following radiograms were intercepted by the chief operator, JR Simpson, chief electrician, United States Navy. They appear to me to be significant enough to be brought to the attention of the Department;
Seagate to Carpathia; “Say, old man, Marconi Company, taking good care of you. Keep your mouth shut, and hold your story. It is fixed for you so you will get big money. Now, please do your best to clear”
That was at 8.12 PM, and then follows this one;
“To Marconi officer, Carpathia and Titanic; 8;30 PM; arranged for your exclusive story for dollars in four figures, Mr Marconi agreeing. Say nothing until you see me. Where are you now?(JM Sammis).
From Seagate to Carpathia operator; go to Strand Hotel. 502 W. 14th Street to meet Mr Marconi.; 9;33 PM;
And finally this;
From Seagate to Carpathia; A personal to operator Carpathia. “Meet Mr Marconi and Sammis at Strand Hotel, 502 W. 14th Street. Keep your mouth shut; Signed Mr Marconi.
Marconi claims that he does not know anything whatever about any of these messages; “They are not in the phraseology which I would have approved of if I had passed them. I should, however said that I told Mr Sammis or Mr Bottomley, I do not remember which, that I, as an officer of the British Company, would not prohibit or prevent these operators from making anything which they reasonably could make out of selling their story of the wreck. I was anxious that, if possible, they might make some small amount of money out of the information they had” Sen Smith confirms that it is a habit of the Marconi Company that Wireless operators are allowed to make personal profit, with Marconi’s consent and approval, from their personal experiences; “Mr Marconi let me ask you this with the right to exact compensation for an exclusive story detailing the horrors of the greatest sea disaster that ever was recorded in the history of the world, do you mean that an operator under your Company’s direction shall have the right to prevent the public from knowing of that calamity? Marconi replies, “I gave no instructions in regard to withholding any information, and I gave no advice or instructions in regard to an exclusive story to anybody. The only thing I did say or did authorise was that if he was offered payment for the story of the disaster, he was permitted, so far as the English Company went, to take that money” (Took & Donnelly, 1998). Later in his questioning of Marconi Sen Smith asks “regarding this arrangement with Mr Bride, you simply expressed willingness that he should make some money out of a narration of his experiences? Marconi replies; “Yes, sir, my feeling, expressed quite frankly, is that these operators are paid a very small amount; that certainly we would have compensated them to some degree; but if it were possible for them to make some money out of the story that they had, I do not say that they had exclusive information, but through permitting themselves to be interviewed, I was very glad that they should make this small amount. That was my sole feeling in the matter”
Through a series of such questions and answers the Inquiry Committee ascertain that Marconi had no intention that any information should be withheld in any way. Furthermore, that in a time of crisis the Captain is absolute chief and head and ruler of everything concerning the Wireless, and all the commercial rules which hold in ordinary times are suspended at the discretion of the captain. But in such cases the captain would not know actually whether his orders were being followed and if messages had been sent, he must rely on the statement of the operator. Before he leaves the stand Marconi makes the point that in his organisation a copy is kept of every message received and sent on board a ship. Therefore, this register of messages may be of some use to the committee but could not guarantee access to any of the messages on Carpathia which were taken to the Mediterranean. The Captain would not land them; “we endeavour to get them, but captain would not give them out”
Later the same day Marconi is recalled to be asked one question by Sen Smith; “In my examination this morning I failed to ask you specifically whether between the date of the collision, Sunday evening, April 14, and the present time, any officer, Director, or employee of the White Star Line, or of the International Mercantile Marine Co., had requested you or anyone associated with you, to your knowledge, to delay any message, or send any silence message, or message enjoining silence on the part of the Titanic’s operator, Bride, or the Carpathia’s operator, Cottam, with reference to the time and manner in which and to which the Titanic accident was in any way related? Marconi replies that; I am absolutely certain that I have received no such request. Smith then asks, “Or any officer or employee of your Company, without our knowledge? Marconi replies, “Yes, you may add those as part of my answer” (Titanic Inquiry Project., 1999).
On day 10 of the inquiry Marconi returns to give further testimony. Sen Smith begins his questioning by asking Marconi, “When you were last on the stand, I asked you whether you had sent any messages to the Carpathia during her voyage from the scene of the catastrophe to New York, and I recall your reply. Would you like to correct it? Marconi explains that he had said that he did not send any messages to the Carpathia but “on my return to New York, after having testified, I found that I had sent one message to the Carpathia” Marconi then reads this message to the inquiry; “Wire News dispatch immediately to ‘Siasconset’ or to navy boats. If this is impossible, ask captain give reason why no news is allowed to be transmitted. Signed, Guglielmo Marconi” The Siasconset sent to my office in New York return of what it actually transmitted to the Carpathia. This is the message; “Wire news dispatches immediately to navy boats. If this impossible ask captain give reason why no news is allowed to be transmitted” Marconi says he received no reply to the message which he sent at about 1;00 AM. He is then further questioned on issues relating to difficulties in international communication codes, American systems compared to European systems and then asked did he desire the committee to understand that these two telegrams that he had just read were the only messages he communicated to the Carpathia on the day of arrival in New York? Marconi denies all knowledge of the telegrams sent on the 18th, allegedly signed by him at 9;33 PM and says that it was absolutely unauthorised; “no matter who signed it, and I stated I did not send it or authorise it to be sent” He further states that he disapproves of both the language of these Wireless messages and the unauthorised use of his name and adds, “I should also ask you to allow me to say that the message which I sent to the Carpathia, to which you have already referred, proves, I think, quite conclusively that I had no intention of preventing the United States Navy boats from receiving any information from the Carpathia. I was exceedingly surprised, as everybody else was at the time, that no news was coming through, and I was very much worried about it, and that day I did suggest this message should be sent, and it was sent” Sen Smith then asks, “I want to ask you a straight, square question; whether you infer that the failure of your operators to communicate with the Salem or the Chester or with your office, or to give this news of the trip of the Carpathia to New York to the public, was influenced in any manner by the hope of reward from the sale of exclusive information in the possession of the Wireless operators?” Marconi replies, “my opinion is that it was not influenced in any way, because I do not see that they had any reason to believe or to hope or to think that they were going to sell their story to anybody”
Sen Smith then refers back to the case of the ship Republic, also owned by a sister Company of the White Star line, which in the early morning of 23 January 1909, while sailing from New York to Gibraltar and Mediterranean ports with 742 passengers and crew and captain in command, entered a thick fog off the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Out of the fog, the Lloyd Italiano liner SS Florida appeared and hit Republic at a right angle after which the ship listed and began to flood. Republic was equipped with the new Marconi Wireless Telegraph system, and became the first ship in history to issue a CQD distress signal, sent by Jack R. Binns. Florida came about to rescue Republic’s passengers, and the US Coast Guard cutter Gershwin responded to the distress signal as well. Passengers were distributed between the two ships, with Florida taking the bulk of them, but with 900 Italian immigrants already on board, this left the ship dangerously overloaded. The white star liner Baltic, commanded by Capt Ranson, also responded to the CQD call, but due to the persistent fog, it was not until the evening that Baltic was able to locate the drifting Republic. Once on scene, the rescued passengers were transferred from the Gresham and Florida to Baltic. Because of the damage to Florida, that ships immigrant passengers were also transferred to Baltic, after which the Republic ship sank. After the tragedy, Jack R. Binns, hailed by international media as a hero was handsomely paid for his story. Sen Smith felt that it was possible that the fact that Binns received money for his story of that disaster would influence Wireless operators somewhat in their course. Marconi explains that Binns had received a great deal of notoriety, and has benefited himself by the fact of his having been on board the Republic and on duty on that occasion. “I might say that he is still implied in writing newspaper articles and magazine articles about operators, and the sea, and ships, and things of that kind, which have absolutely nothing to do with the actual facts of the loss of the Republic. It seems to me that the public interest or the newspaper interest, becomes so great when an individual finds himself placed in the position of these men, that whatever they say that has public interest is paid for by these enterprising American journalist” Marconi is then asked by Smith, “you, being the leading and most active figure in the field of Wireless Telegraphy, probably the most prominent man in the world in that work, and your offices being in every part of the world and on most of the ships of the sea, I ask you whether from the developments of this enquiry you do not feel that it is incumbent upon you to discourage that practice; indeed, to prevent it all together, so far as you are able? Marconi agrees, “I am entirely in favour of discouraging the practice, and I naturally give very great weight to Annie opinion expressed by the chairman of this committee” Marconi is then asked to read further telegrams sent by his Company, all of which are demanding news (Titanic Inquiry Project., 1999).
Following the inquiries, United States Government passed the Radio Act of 1912. This act, along with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, stated that radio communications on passenger ships would be operated 24 hours along with a secondary power supply, so as not to miss distress calls. Also, the Radio Act of 1912 required ships to maintain contact with vessels in their vicinity as well as coastal onshore radio stations (Minichiello, P.E., Ray, 2008).
The Titanic tragedy had shown the public the usefulness of Wireless communications. Although 700 passengers were saved, the press argued that more could have been saved if there was a stronger Wireless regulation in effect. The press would argue that there was a lack of standards regarding the proper use of this Wireless technology on ships in particular, but also there needed to be regulation to protect citizens in general. The Radio Act proposed that Government would be given a specific wavelength, power level and operational hours to counter the Marconi Company’s monopoly of the spectrum. The feeling at the time was that long wavelengths of 250 m and over provided the best means for communications. Amateurs were therefore given those wavelengths of 200 m and below, what we know and call today the AM band. Sen Smith felt that over time the amateurs would lose interest and funding and all the wavelengths would revert to the Government. The Radio Act of 1912 reduced the amateur stations from 10,000 to just over 1,200 by the end of 1912. The Act mandated that all radio stations be licensed by the Government, as well as mandating that seagoing vessels continuously monitor distress frequencies.
The act set a precedent for international legislation of Wireless communications. Along with the Titanic disaster another factor to be considered was to combat the issue with amateur radio operators, the act provided for a system of licensing all radio stations, including amateur radio operators. Furthermore, it prohibited those amateurs from transmitting over the main commercial and military wavelengths. Amateurs were limited to transmitting signals that were below a certain wavelength in addition to being limited by wavelengths, amateurs were also limited to location and operating hours. The act would also allow Government to close down any or all radio stations and also empowers Government to impose fines and to revoke licences of those radio operators who violated the restrictions laid down by the act. Furthermore, the Government could seize the equipment of the offending station, as well as suspending the radio licences of the operators (Keith, 2007).
The Titanic tragedy has a connection to another Wireless story that has almost been forgotten; the dawn of modern radio licence regulation. Historical narratives vary on this subject. Even without the Titanic disaster, Government would have eventually asserted entirety over Wireless frequencies. But the Titanic tragedy accelerated the process and gave it a reference point in the public mind. Within weeks of the tragedy Wireless radio operators had to be licensed. During the Titanic disaster Marconi stations across the Atlantic Rim had become scenes of chaos, and they blamed it on amateur operators. Embarrassed newspaper editors joined the blame game and furious editorials against amateurs appeared in global newspapers. The American Radio Act of 1912 functioned as a template for global Government. Does the Titanic really deserve some credit or blame for this condition? It’s a point of disagreement among historians.
The tragedy is “often cited inaccurately as the reason for drawing the Radio Act of 1912,” writes broadcast regulation scholar Marvin R. Bensman. “The subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee had actually completed its work on this bill and the bill had been reported out prior to the Titanic disaster” (Lasar, 2011). That’s exactly right, but the footnote to this assertion comes from Captain Linwood S. Howeth’s 1963 statement, “The Titanic disaster has often been given as the compelling reason behind the enactment of this legislation. This is not correct. The subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee had completed its masterful work of bringing the opposing views into proper focus and the bill had been reported out prior to the disaster. It did, however, awaken congressional eyes to its wisdom and necessity and ensured its final enactment” (Howeth, 1963)
By April 30th the Irish newspapers were publishing their last ‘detailed’ witness accounts of the Titanic disaster and their editorials reflected the mood of angry readers who had been misled by early accounts and, in the light of evidence given in New York and Washington, clearly desired to move forward; “In the midst of her rejoicing over the near approach of the realisation of her national aspirations, Ireland has been plunged with dreadful suddenness and unexpectedness into consternation and gloom. The imagination is terrified by the wreck of the Titanic, the sacrifice of human life, the human bodies, many of them those of Ireland’s sons and daughters, cut off in the flower of youth and when filled with the hope of a livelihood and a foreign country, grinding against the ice and washed about the ocean. The agonies of those hours of horror can never be figured in the human mind. Within a few square yards of sea upon that awful night there was played such a tragedy of fear and grief and pain as no human mind can even remotely conceive. The passengers on board the Titanic went to sleep after a normal day, with its petty chatter and its little pleasures and follies. The Wireless operators sent desperate messages across the ocean; but think of the tortured minds flashing messages all over the world and beyond the world. The thought of it is terrible. The hope would be that the end was swift to all that were to perish. An earthquake at lEast has that good side to it, and, it is said, those found dead in the lava of Pompeii show in the normal line of their features that they had no terror, but were caught by death before they knew that their tomorrow was not to be like their yesterday. The grim story of the Titanic is still only little-known. The half information of the moment leaves all people black in doubt. Especially there will be doubts; as to those giant vessels that have been the pride of our new century. The Olympic began badly; the Titanic will enter into a sad fame as the cause of the most awful sea tragedy of all record. It was the “unsinkable” and it is sunk; and sunk four short hours after the collision. Within a few days of its proud first taking to the high seas, it is at the bottom, its passengers are washing over the sea, and their intimates will be haunted for years by the thought of their fate” (Southern Star, 1912).
But the matter was not quite closed yet as the House of Commons announce a public enquiry into the loss of the Titanic which would open within a few days (Irish Independent, 1912). Charles Buxton informed the House of Commons that the scope of the Titanic enquiry would be wide enough to allow the courts to receive evidence bearing on the advisability of changing the present regulations of the Board of Trade as to the safety of human life on the steamers. He further stated that the Court of Inquiry would be open to the press, and the proceedings would be fully reported. In addition, he proposed to supply some copies of the official print of the proceedings, from day-to-day to the libraries of both Houses. He also confirmed that the interests of the general public would be represented by the Law Officers of the Crown; “Other persons might, by leave of the Judge, appear by counsel, and the court had full power to provide for the costs of the inquiry. The arrangements for Wireless Telegraphy under Titanic and other vessels to which she sent, or from which she received messages would be considered by the Court of Inquiry” (Buxton, 1912).
The Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, is asked if he would propose a resolution to appoint a committee of that House to investigate the circumstances connected with the loss of the Titanic and sending Wireless messages in connection therewith, instead of having the Board of Trade investigation in view of the fact that the Board of Trade must necessarily be itself on trial in any such investigation. The Prime Minister told the House that the Government were of the opinion that the court of inquiry, presided over by Lord Mersey, would afford the best means of arriving at a conclusion with regard to all the circumstances connected with the loss of the Titanic, and all questions of responsibility involved. The Court was an independent tribunal with full power to mould the inquiry according to its own discretion. He further denies that the Board of Trade had some representatives on the tribunal.
In reply to further questions Asquith says the Board of Trade had absolutely no power to direct the course of the inquiry. He is further challenged and informed that under the merchant shipping act, the court must report to the Board of Trade itself. How is that possible if they may find that the Board of Trade has been culpable? Asquith insists, there is no difficulty at all, “They send their report formally to the board of trade and are perfectly entitled to find the board of trade culpable” (Asquith, 1912).
The court of enquiry into the circumstances of the disaster to the Titanic was opened in the Scottish Hall, Buckingham Gate, West Minister, the Hall of the headquarters of the London Scottish Territorials, and there were over 1000 persons present including members of the general public. Lord Mersey, the Wreck Commissioner with five colleagues who were acting as assessors, took their places on a rostrum at the top of the room. In front of the commissioners were an unusually large number of counsel representing the numerous parties interested. Chief among these were; Board of Trade, the White Star Line and builders, underwriters, surviving passengers and officers, and other big shipping companies. Behind counsel were the numerous professional witnesses to be called including the builders, underwriters, surviving passengers and officers and representatives of other big shipping companies. Beside the platform was a big model of the Titanic that had been used by Harland & Wolff for the construction of the mammoth liner. Alongside was an enormous route chart of the North Atlantic, and to the left of the platform were other plans of the vessel. Over 300 witnesses had been subpoenaed and the inquiry is predicted to ‘necessarily’ last many weeks.
When Lord Mersey took his seat at 11;10 the seats are set apart for the public were by no means filled up. Capt Bigham, Secretary to the Commission, opened the proceedings by stating “the enquiry will now be opened into the Titanic” Sir Rufus Isaacs then said, “Before this inquiry proceeds, I desire, on behalf of his Majesty’s Government, to express our deepest sympathy with all those who mourn the loss of relatives and friends among the passengers, the officers, or the crew of this ill-fated vessel. This terrible disaster in mid ocean, both because in mere magnitude it exceeds any calamity in the history of the Mercantile Marine, and also because of the many harrowing incidents, which has in a profound and marked degree touched the hearts of the nation, and while not desiring in any way to anticipate the result of this inquiry, I cannot refrain from paying tribute of warm admiration of those whose manful devotion to duty and heroic sacrifices for the safety of others have maintained the best traditions of the sea. Before proceeding further I do not know if my learned friend has anything to add” (Isaacs, 1912). Sir Robert Finlay added “I desire to associate myself, on behalf of the owners of the Titanic, with the expressions which the Attorney General used. No words can express the sympathy which everyone must feel with those who have suffered. There is only one thing which gives some consolation, and to that the Attorney General has alluded, that the disaster has given an opportunity for a display of discipline and of heroism that is worthy of all the best traditions of the Marine of this country. I can say no more, for the sympathy which we feel on this occasion with those who have suffered is really beyond expression in words” (Finlay, 1912).
Isaacs then states that it was the earnest desire of the administration that a searching and thorough enquiry should be made with the object of ascertaining as fully and precisely as possible the circumstances surrounding the casualty, and of abducting lessons and conclusions that might help hereafter to promote the safety of vessels and life at sea; “it is the wish of the President of the Board of Trade, and the law officers of the Crown were equally desiring, that in the public interest every possible source of information and all available evidence would be placed before the inquiry”. It was proposed to call surviving members of the crew, and afterwards witnesses as to the construction and equipment of the vessel and a series of 26 questions framed by the Board of Trade would be asked. This would include questions such as the number of persons employed in any capacity on board, and the total number of passengers, discriminating between sex, adults, and children. Did the Titanic comply with the requirements of the Merchant Shipping Acts rules and regulations? Were any special provisions made in actual design and construction of the Titanic for the safety of those on board in the case of casualty? How was the Titanic officered and manned?; The number of boats, arrangements for manning and launching of them, and their capacity and had there been boat drill during the voyage?; Enquiries into Wireless installation and regulations for operators?; Were instructions as to navigation given to the master, and, if so, what were they?; Was the route taken usual and was it safe at this time of year?; Had the master discretion as to the route?; There will also be many questions related to what happened before warning was sent by Wireless to the Titanic and whether, after leaving Queenstown, information had not reached the Titanic by Wireless signals as to the existence of ice in certain latitudes, and was her course altered? (Freemans Journal, 1912).
There were a total of 36 days of official investigation. Lord Mersey and the various counsels, assessors and experts in marine law and shipping architecture, questioned White Star Line officials, Government officials, surviving passengers and crew, and those who had aided the rescue efforts. Organisations represented by legal counsels included shipping unions and Government organisations. Nearly 100 witnesses testified, answering more than 25,000 questions. The questioning resulted in a report that contained a detailed description of the ship, an account of the ship’s journey, a description of the damage caused by the iceberg, and an account of the evacuation and rescue. The final report was published on 30 July 1912. Its recommendations, along with those of the earlier United States Senate inquiry that had taken place in the month after the sinking, led to changes in safety practices following the disaster. The lines of questioning at the inquiry had resulted in a detailed description of the ship, an account of the ship’s journey, a description of the damage caused by the iceberg, an account of the evacuation and rescue. There was also a special section devoted to the circumstances of the Californian (Titanic Inquiry Project, 1912).
The report found that Titanic’s sinking was solely the result of colliding with the iceberg, not due to any inherent flaws with the ship, and that the collision had been brought about by a dangerously fast speed in icy waters; “The Court, having carefully inquired into the circumstances of the above mentioned shipping casualty, finds, for the reasons appearing in the annex hereto, that the loss of the said ship was due to collision with an iceberg, brought about by the excessive speed at which the ship was being navigated” (Titanic Inquiry Project, 1912). It also found that the lookout being kept was inadequate given the navigational hazards Titanic faced, and that the ship’s officers had been complacent. There were too few lifeboats available and they had not been properly filled or manned with trained seamen, though they had been lowered correctly. The inquiry concluded that the Californian “could have pushed through the ice to the open water without any serious risk and so have come to the assistance of the Titanic. Had she done so she might have saved many if not all of the lives that were lost” (Butler, 1998).
The Board of Trade’s representative suggested to Lord Mersey that a formal inquiry should be held into Captain Lord’s “competency to continue as Master of a British ship” but no action was taken against him due to legal technicalities. The Board of Trade was criticised for its inadequate regulations, notably the failure to ensure that enough lifeboats were provided and that crews were given proper training in their use. The Duff Gordons were cleared of wrongdoing but it was made clear that they should have acted more tactfully (Butler, 1998)
In contrast to the American inquiry, the Mersey report did not condemn the failures of the Board of Trade, the White Star Line or Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith. The report found that although Smith was at fault for not changing course or slowing down, he had not been negligent because he had followed long-standing practice which had not previously been shown to be unsafe (Lynch, 1998) The inquiry noted that British ships alone had carried 3.5 million passengers over the previous decade with the loss of just 10 lives (Eaton & Haas, 1994) it concluded that Smith had merely done “only that which other skilled men would have done in the same position” However, the practice itself was faulty and “it is to be hoped that the last has been heard of this practice. What was a mistake in the case of the Titanic would without doubt be negligence in any similar case in the future” (Lynch, 1998)
The report’s recommendations, along with those of the earlier United States Senate inquiry that had taken place in the month after the sinking, led to changes in safety practices following the disaster. The report was well received by the British press. The Daily Telegraph commented that although “technically speaking, the report is not the last word, but in practice it would probably be treated as if it were” (Eaton & Haas, 1994) The Daily Mail suggested that it was “difficult to suppose that any court which had to inquire into the responsibility of the owners of the ship would disregard the expression of opinion of Lord Mersey and those who sat with him … The report having, in effect, acquitted them of all blame, it is not likely that any attempt will be made hereafter to establish the contrary” (Barczewski, 2011).
Others were more critical. In his memoirs, Charles Lightoller pointed out the inquiry’s conflict of interest; “A washing of dirty linen would help no one. The Board of Trade had passed that ship as in all respects fit for the sea … Now the Board of Trade was holding an inquiry into the loss of that ship – hence the whitewash brush” (Barczewski, 2011) Titanic historian Donald Lynch notes the consequences; “Apart from protecting itself, the [Board of Trade] had no interest in seeing the White Star Line found negligent. Any damage to White Star’s reputation or balance sheet would be bad for British shipping – and there was considerable potential for both. Negligence on the part of the shipping Company might pave the way for millions of dollars in damage claims and lawsuits that would tie up the courts for years, possibly break the White Star Line, and result in the loss of much of Britain’s lucrative shipping traffic to the Germans and the French” (Lynch, 1998).
Stephanie Barczewski notes the contrast between the approaches taken by the American and British inquiries. The British inquiry was much more technical, “the more learned and erudite of the two”, while the American inquiry’s report was a reflection of a comparatively poorly managed inquiry that had frequently allowed itself to get sidetracked. However, the American report took a much more robust stance on the failures that had led to the disaster. As Barczewski puts it, it “bristles with criticisms of established seafaring traditions and of the conduct of the Titanic’s builders, owners, officers and crew”, and conveys “righteous indignation” and a “passion to right the wrongs” done to the victims of the disaster and to prevent any recurrence. The authors of the two reports took markedly different interpretations of how the disaster had come about. The American report castigated the arrogance and complacency that had led to the disaster and held Captain Smith, the shipping industry and the Board of Trade culpable for their failures. The British report emphasized that “the importance of this Enquiry has to do with the future. No Enquiry can repair the past” (Barczewski, 2011)
“Signor Marconi whose name is world famed as the inventor of the Wireless system, yesterday began an important extension of the Wireless. Messages by Wireless may now be sent through any Telegraph office in the United Kingdom at a cheap rate to the United States or Canada”
(Ulster Herald, 1912)
In early May 1912 the financial pages are reporting that the Wireless market, as compared with some weeks ago, has developed remarkable weakness. “At one time yesterday Marconi ordinary shares fell under the previous day’s closing price and the panicky feeling endured for the remainder of the day” (Freemans Journal, 1912). The Irish Independent reports “Business in Marconi shares fell away to very meagre proportions at the Stock Exchange. Sellers of the various Wireless Telegraph issues came prominently forward, and, in the absence of adequate support, prices dropped all round” (Irish Independent, 1912).
The time was right for an exercise in damage limitation. As Marconi’s shares began to plummet the Irish media’s immediately started on rebuilding both his reputation and the reputation of his Company and began to publish articles in praise of the man they described as an “absolute genius”. The part which Wireless played in the tragedy of the Titanic suggests a note or two on the inventor of Wireless, Guglielmo Marconi, says the Southern Star newspaper; “To begin, anyone more unlike the typical Italian as we know him, dark, olive skinned, and given to gesticulation, than the propounder of the above gigantic scheme, it would be difficult to imagine. If anything Marconi is on the fair side; his wonderful eyes are of a greyish blue, and in manner he is the essence of quietness. But, then, he is only half an Italian, for his mother was Irish and from Enniscorthy, a member of a well-known family, and although born in Italy, Marconi was educated for a time in England at a private school at Bedford. Inventors are often poor, but Marconi’s father was a wealthy landed proprietor. At school he particularly objected to be made to learn things by heart, and to the methods of teaching handwriting, and to this day he condemns the latter, schoolboys being taught to write in a way they will never use in afterlife. Anyway, both at Bedford and at other schools in Italy, Marconi refused to study except in his own way and at his pet subjects. What were his early tastes? Music held foremost place; but his scientific tastes were also strong, and in his own way he studied chemistry and electricity at an age when most boys are mainly occupied with games. He was only 13 when he installed electric light in his father’s house, an achievement which made something of a sensation locally, electricity being little understood, in those days. He went to Bologna University and quite probably he would eventually have settled down as a country gentleman, as his father wished him to do, but for the discovery of “Hertzian Waves” in 1888. Prof Hertz’s demonstration, that a disruptive electrical discharge causes electromagnetic waves to radiate through the ‘Ether’(the air) with the velocity of light set Marconi thinking. In the end he conceived the idea of Wireless Telegraphy by means of “Hertzian Waves,” and spent several years quietly experimenting at his home until in 1896, he Patented his famous system. The same year, that is, 1896, Marconi went to London and astonished it and General Post Office officials by successfully Telegraphing without wire between St Martin’-Le-Grand and the Embankment. Like every inventor, Marconi met with great opposition and disbelief at first, but to date his work is widely embraced as the work of an absolute genius” (Ulster Herald, 1912). At the same time the Irish independent gave prominent position to another praising editorial regarding the “wonderful Wireless”; the time is fast approaching when Mr Marconi’s wonderful invention will be extensively used in the everyday transactions of big commercial undertakings. Already, of course, many business messages are transmitted by Marconi, and a great extension of its use in connection with the Telegraph may soon be expected. Arrangements have been made by which telegrams handed in at any Telegraph office in the United Kingdom can be transmitted by Wireless across the Atlantic instead of by cable. With the increased popularity and efficiency of the Marconi system and comparatively cheap rates the operators at Clifden may anticipate a busy time” (Irish Independent, 1912).
The Southern Star newspaper had something to add as well; “with all its gruesome details and its conflicting accounts, the fatal day on which the sad news of the sinking of the great ship Titanic was flashed to the world by the Wireless, will still be firmly implanted in the minds of many whose dear ones are no more. Mrs Jermyn of Ballydehob, is one of those who is not likely soon to forget the disaster, even though, happily for her, she is not to be reckoned amongst the big list of the afflicted. Her daughter, Annie, it is true, was amongst the Titanic’s passengers on the dreadful April night when the White Star leviathan struck the fatal iceberg and Mrs Jermyn was for many anxious hours naturally grief-stricken at the thought that she might be amongst the lost. On the Titanic, too, were Bridget Driscoll and Mary Kelly, also of Ballydehob, whose rescue we were glad to report last week. But, unhappily, Andy Keane, also Ballydehob was lost. But to return to Mrs Jermyn, on the day after the first tidings of the loss of the Titanic were received, it having been erroneously reported that Miss Jermyn had been a victim of disaster, Mrs Jermyn became almost delirious with grief. The neighbours collected around her house to offer her words of consolation and hope. The hours went on, but not a reassuring message arrived. To their amazement, in the evening, Mrs Jermyn announced to friends that she had seen her child, that she was in the yard, and out into the yard she went in ecstasy of joy. Presently she returned and declared a voice had told her “your daughter is saved” This cam to Mrs Jermyn considerably, and early on the next day she got a telegram which put the question of her daughter’s safety beyond all doubt. The extraordinary presentiment, coupled with the mysterious voice, has been the subject of general gossip in Ballydehob ever since” (Southern Star, 1912).
The Irish Independent had even more good news to report; “Wireless Telegraphy is now at the disposal of everybody in every Telegraph office of the United Kingdom at rates considerably below the cable standard. Four Marconi operators have been added to the staff of the Dublin Telegraph Department to deal with messages for dispatch to Clifden, which is the transmitting station from Glace Bay. During commercial hours in the day it has been decided to keep a clear through wire to Clifden from Dublin, and at night there is through communication between Clifden and London. The Post Office authorities already report a large increase in the number of American and Canadian telegrams handed in for dispatch. Mr Webb, of the firm of Goodbody and Webb, stockbrokers, Dame Street, said they have been using the Marconi system since April 23 last year with great advantage. The Marconi Company had lately been able to increase to speed of transmission, with the result that they had been gradually diminishing the number of their “cables” and adopting “Wireless” almost exclusively; “On one occasion they communicated with a client at sea in the Mediterranean, and the only delay was in finding him among the rest of the passengers” (Irish Independent, 1912).
The following day the Sunday independent reports; “One outcome of the Titanic disaster must be the advancement of Wireless Telegraphy, for human progress is too often based on our misadventures – indeed, trouble appears to be the motive power of progressive action. America is the first to wake up. Uncle Sam intends to make more use than ever before of the powers of the air to safeguard the interests of his people on land and sea. At his office in Washington he will soon be able to receive instant warning information concerning anything that goes on in all sections of the Atlantic Ocean, from the North Pole to the Equator, and even beyond – all this to be accomplished through the powers of the air, or, in order words, the Wireless Telegraph and some gigantic Towers near Washington. Through his Navy Department at Washington, it is reported by Mr William L Altdorfer, to whom we are indebted for the information, he has decided to build three gigantic Towers, one of them is to be 600 feet high and the other two 450 foot each. Towers of this great height, situated on the highest point near Washington, Uncle Sam will be able to direct the movements of his Wireless war vessels anywhere on the Atlantic Ocean within 3000 miles of Washington, and perhaps further, if the possibilities of the towers come up to expectations. Not only will he be able to issue instructions direct to his watchdogs of the deep by means of this powerful station, but he also plans to have sent ships scattered all over the Atlantic – from coast-to-coast and from as far North as the icebergs will permit, to as far South as the electric waves of the Wireless may be for forced to penetrate” (Sunday Independent, 1912).
“The lecture on Wireless Telegraphy which is to be given tonight by Fr Gill, SJ., At Belvedere College, promises to be of unusual interest, both on account of the circumstances which have occasioned it and because of the interest attaching to all connected with the name of Marconi at the present time”
(Freemans Journal, 1912)
Reports are now arriving in Ireland that Mr Melville Stone, General Manager of the Associated Press, has given evidence before the Senate committee and questioned about the dispatches received by the Associated Press on Monday, April 15, the day of the Titanic disaster. He gave a full history of each dispatch received and of its source, Mr Stone testified that a dispatch was recovered from the “Montréal Star” to the effect that passengers had been transferred and were en route to Halifax. Later this same Montréal message having been cabled to London was given out there by the Exchange Telegraph Company, and the Associated Press, London, repeated it back to New York, giving credit for the message to the Exchange Company. Mr Stone further stated that the “Montréal Star” primarily and the Exchange Telegraph Company’s secondary were responsible as the sources of the dispatch in question. The London office of the Associated Press was wholly free from criticism. During the inquiry Mr Stone had been asked a number of questions. What part of the Titanic story had he handled personally and he replied he had general supervision of the entire work. He was then asked how you obtained such information as you sent out on Monday. And what was the exact source of each message? Mr Stone replied the “Montréal Star” received the message to the effect that passengers had all been transferred and were being brought to Halifax. This message we sent to Mr Franklin’s office. He issued a reassuring bulletin saying that there was no cause for alarm. At 10;10 AM(3.10 PM London time) we received a dispatch from the London repeating practically the “Montréal Star’s” story. Later from all parts the same dispatch began to be reported. We received some news automatically through our general system of newsgathering and some in response to personal enquiries. From the Marconi Wireless station at Cape Race we received two messages on Sunday evening, and early on Monday. They came from the Virginian, and stated that she was 170 miles from the Titanic and expected to come along side at 10.00am on Monday morning. Mr Stone read these messages and then stated; “From midnight Sunday we had no trustworthy telegrams until 11;23 AM(4;25 PM London time). Then a dispatch was given out from the White Star offices by Mr Franklin to the effect that the Virginian had reported the transfer of the passengers, was underway, 20 boatloads being aboard the Carpathia. Mr Franklin, who gave out the telegram declined to give the full text” He was then asked was he aware of any attempt to suppress news. He replied I have no knowledge of any such thing. Do you approve of the Wireless operator selling their news to the newspapers? He replied no. He then added at 12;07 AM on Monday afternoon the Canadian press sent out the following telegram; “Norton Davidson, one of the Titanic’s passengers, has sent to the local office of his firm here stating all passengers are safe. The Titanic is now in tow of the Virginian” That was the last of the conspicuous fakes (Reuters Telegram, 1912).
As a result of the coverage now being given in New York and Washington to the “Big Money” telegrams the Irish media continue to support Marconi with favourable editorials; “Wireless Telegraphy fell under some undeserved disgrace and the first shock of the Titanic disaster. There was some confused idea, apparently, that it was ‘maid of all work’, when the great ship went down with all those lives, people scarcely remembered that of the hundreds saved all owed their rescue from the icy sea to the Carpathia, brought on the rescue by the Marconi message. This aspect of the case was brought into vigorous relief by Fr Henry Gill’s lecture last night in Dublin at the Belvedere College. There was a true touch in the reflection that but for the Wireless mystery the fate of the Titanic, with all its population, might have been a mystery, too, for all time. A few years ago there could have been no word of explanation; all might have been drowned and the great ship need not have left a trace; a couple of days might have wiped away the last vestige of the boats that put off from the wreck, the icebergs would have shifted away on their own journey and the wonder would have remained how the vessel could have disappeared on a quiet night. The anguish of the long waiting for news, with the doubts still lingering in many minds long after hope had lost all ground; this, too, must be counted in, and very seriously to the credit of the wonderful invention of our time which all but annihilates space as far as communication is concerned, raying information, warning, alarm, and need over thousand miles. At present it is mentioned with some enthusiasm that certain Government have made the Wireless installation compulsory on passenger vessels; the time will not be long in coming when the Wireless will be installed on every ship. The age before the Wireless was seen to ourselves as strangely ill-equipped and handicapped as the age before the railroad. It may well be that the change in the world’s ways to be brought about by means of this wonder of today would be greater than those produced by the railroad itself. As the lecturer of yesterday observed, this knowledge is as yet only on the threshold of the cave in which it lay hidden; it has scarcely taken the air; a few years and will be active in ways we no more foresee than our fathers foresaw the immeasurable work in front of the steam engine, the vast novelties and materials that would come into human life from that humble beginning, mocked by the thoughtless and by the old-fashioned. We at lEast, in our age of many inventions, have learned not to be scornful of the new, scarcely even to be surprised that any promise, even though now and then we have been deceived. Often enough inventions are announced that do not appear, but often on the other hand there springs up suddenly wonder unannounced and works swift miracles over the face of the Earth. We of this age therefore take all these announcements without emotion, with a grain of salt and also with a large grain of expectation, as belonging to a generation accustomed to the new thing. At the rate at which we go now, we may feel sure that the world of our grandchildren will bear little resemblance to which we see. There will be the sky above us and the soil beneath us, and Tulips was still flower proudly in May; but in nearly everything else of the environing things, we should be at a loss in the world of our great-grandchildren. For thousands of years little altered except in the realm of ideas and in the fashion of clothes. Suddenly in one century there came the railroad train and the electric Telegraph and Telephone, monstrous and delicate machinery, great ships, the vast trade and the worldwide communication, almost instantaneous; hosts of discoveries and devices with results that have made Peking practically near and far more important to Dublin than once Paris was. To our heirs we, so well satisfied with ourselves, shall seem to have lived the strangest dull lives among quaint old makeshifts; we will amuse them when they think of us with our queer pride in childish beginnings and ways so cramped by unconquered nature. It will be well for us if our amused grandchildren can find, as an offset to all our simplicity in matters of practical science, that we had at lEast, like the ancients of our thought, some nobleness of the mind and soul to save us from appearing imbecile and ridiculous in a world full of the working of astonishing powers (Freemans Journal, 1912).
The events of the recent past would severely tarnish the reputation of Marconi and his Company and he would do all in his power to limit the damage he was interviewed by a ‘Daily News’ representative on the subject of the Titanic disaster and its relation to Wireless Telegraphy. “The system of Wireless control in America is undoubtedly currently bad, he said. At present any one can put up a station for sending or receiving, and these amateurs, I find, receive all sorts of messages, which they misconstrue owing to the fact that they have not had a proper knowledge of the Morse system, and because their systems are imperfect. That is undoubtedly what took place in the present instance, and the Press, being extremely anxious to get news, did not take sufficient pains to verify the early messages” Asked if any developments were contemplated in connection with Wireless Telegraphy which could be used in similar circumstances in future, Mr Marconi said, “the only practical thing to do at the present moment was to have two operators on every ship. After all, even a Wireless man must have some sleep. There is absolutely no reliable way at present of arousing a sleeping operator by apparatus. Nor has any recording instrument yet been discovered that will give a faithful record of a message while the operator is absent. “I am working hard upon the subject, however, and have every hope that I shall be able to perfect an apparatus that will automatically give warning on the receipt of a message, and draw attention by means of a bell or other device” Asked if he would give evidence at the British Inquiry he replied, “I have not yet been asked to do so, but I am quite prepared to go before the court and tell them all I know. Then I think the truth will come out, and that is what I want” (Marconi, 1912). Mr Marconi is full of confidence as to the outcome of his great schemes for encircling the globe with a great system of Wireless. “We are proposing to erect very soon big stations for communicating direct between England and America, or rather between the vicinity of London and the vicinity of New York. I hope this service will be in operation within 12 months” He continued, “the messages will go through within a very few minutes, practically instantaneously. Time is at present occupied in transmitting messages to Clifden and repeating them on the other side from Glace Bay to New York by our arrangement with the Western Union on the other side the messages will be delivered as quickly as any cablegram” (Marconi, 1912)
It seemed almost as if shares in Marconi could not be excited as trade was “severely depressed” although trade in general was tolerably brisk on the Dublin Stock Exchange but an unsatisfactory tone pervaded the markets. The Wireless market was not so busy with shares starting badly and continuing to slump as the day progressed. In London, the “Financial Times” publishes a report of a meeting of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, in which the authorised capital stock of the Company was increased and the value of the shares was dramatically reduced. Arrangements are also made for entering actively into the business of transatlantic Wireless service between the United States and Great Britain, and the Company is about to erect high power stations in New York City. It was also confirmed at the meeting that the Marconi Company are proceeding against a firm of members of the London Stock Exchange for libel in respect of statements contained in a recent weekly report. The Company also explains that the Boston circuit court of appeals is now preventing the sale of the United Wireless Telegraph Company’s assets, but merely requires the trustees in bankruptcy of that Company to defer for the present the actual transfer of title. This would not in the lEast affect the sale to, nor the position of, the American Marconi Company, who were not parties to this motion. The report complained of allegations that the Marconi Company did not send their messages across the Atlantic by their own system, but by cable and debited the loss created by the difference in price to ‘advertisement account’. Mr Isaacs’s, Managing Director of the Marconi Company stated to an interviewer that the Company’s business continues in every way highly satisfactory, and “nothing has happened of an unfavourable nature, but rather the reverse, since our last communication to the shareholders” (Irish Independent, 1912).
New problems are starting to develop for Wireless operators, legitimate and otherwise, in the United States of America. Giving false alarms by Wireless Telegraphy is the neWest form of the practical chalk in the USA. Government aid was dispatched to a supposed shipwreck as the consequence of the “Wireless joke” The result of these “jokes” is that a Bill has been brought before the Senate insisting upon the licensing of all Wireless installations and their operators. By this means interference is controlled and secrecy insured for the Government’s stations in time of crisis. The installation and use of a private Wireless station in Britain is not possible without its detection by the controlling authorities. The moment and new Wireless station of any power comes into operation either the Post Office are one of the Marconi stations receives the signal. Steps are immediately taken to ascertain its whereabouts (Leitrim Observer, 1912). Other Irish newspapers were more focused on the new reality of “Wireless telephone”; if the report from Rome that messages sent by Wireless telephone have been distinctly heard at a distance of 160 miles are correct, a new development in the use of “Wireless” may be expected. 160 miles is but a little short the distance between Dublin and Cork, so that one can realise what a saving in the working of the telephone system in remote districts could be affected by the use of Wireless. It was, of course, known for some years past that Wireless telephone messages could be heard at distances of 20 or 30 miles, and a couple of years ago two French battleships were able to keep up communication by this means when 70 miles apart. But that conversation can be carried on at more than double that distance is something new and very exciting” (Irish Independent, 1912).
On May 20th 1912 the Postmaster General, Herbert Samuel, in his annual statement on the work of his Department outlines new proposals for reforms for extensions in the future; but the Irish Times is not very happy of a Government profiteering at the expense of controlling communications and make no attempt to conceal this fact in their Editorial. “The answer to the question whether Mr Samuel’s statement can be regarded as satisfactory depends entirely upon the standpoint from which the work of this particular department of state is considered. We may adopt the argument of Sir George Doughty, who expressed his belief that a Department of this character should not be run with the object of making a profit. The revenue, he believed, should be applied to the purpose of promoting the efficiency of the service. We do not think that this position is tenable. The Post Office is one of the few Government departments in which the ideal of a “business Government” is capable of application, and, at the same time, desirable. To turn it into a kind of bureau of National philanthropy is to defeat its best purposes. We have no doubt that the adoption of such a system would prove a useful vote-catching measure for the Government, and on that ground, if no other, we applaud Mr Samuel’s refusal to accept it. He spends the public money upon improving the service under his control, and looks for another dramatic rise in custom which will maintain the Department as a paying concern. It is a policy which has so far been justified by its success. In the year which Mr Samuel reviewed yesterday the increase in expenditure has been very considerable. This is partly explained by the normal growth of the service, which must necessarily expand from year to year, but it is mainly due to the transfer of the telephone system to the state. It is now possible to form a fair estimate of the value of the charges levelled against the telephone service at the beginning of the year. The truth probably is that the same grievances, such as they were, existed under the old regime, but the public, apparently, looked for a miraculous change when the Post Office took over the business. Any change must, of necessity, have been temporarily for the worse, and we have to thank the Postmaster General that this vast transaction which was completed with so little discomfort to the public. Mr Samuel hints at a rate reduction as soon as the Royal Commission has fixed transfer price. We note that the “farmers’ telephones” system is gaining in popularity. This is a proposition which Irish farmers would be well advised to consider in a favourable light. Another reform which will prove welcome is the proposal that telephone subscribers should be allowed to use the numbers as telegraphic addresses. Mr Samuel is doing his best to facilitate telegraphic communication abroad as well as at home. We’re promised reduced charges to the continent when the laying of the landlines is completed, and, possibly, a further reduction of cable rates to the Colonies. To the progress of the automatic telephone experiments we have already referred, as also to the progress of the Imperial Wireless scheme. Wireless, naturally, bulks largely in Mr Samuel’s statement. The important question of continuous communication between ships at sea, a matter whose urgency has been emphasised by the evidence at the Titanic enquiry, will be considered next month by an international conference. Mr Samuel’s statement, as a whole, is a worthy record of a hard and businesslike endeavour” (Irish Times, 1912). But the Imperial Wireless Scheme, as proposed by Samuel’s, would mean greater profits for Marconi as reported in the London times on the following day. “The Imperial Wireless Scheme of Communication is continuing to make progress. Six stations have been arranged for, one in England, two between England and India, one in India, one at Singapore, and one in South Africa. The Marconi Company guarantee apparatus capable of covering intervals of 2000 miles, and even more. The cost, in round figures, is £60,000 per station without sites and buildings. These stations, to be supplemented later by others, will do something to keep the remotest parts of the Empire in close touch with the Imperial capital, though we cannot regard the Wireless system proposed as a satisfactory substitute for a much greater reduction of ordinary cable rates that has yet been achieved. The details of this great scheme will in due course come before the House of Commons, but in bare outline it makes a powerful appeal to the imagination” (London Times, 1912). In addition to all of this by the end of May 1912 the only American Marconi Company announced that they are about to equip stations at New Orleans, that’s one island in the Caribbean Sea, and at Santa marked the, Colombia, providing direct Wireless communication between the two American continents (Irish Times, 1912). It seemed as if prosperous times were ahead again for Marconi.
Adding further to Marconi’s business restoration is news from Washington in the form of an announcement by Senator Smith delivering his speech on the report of the Sub-Committee which investigated the wreck of the Titanic. Smith states, “We absolutely recommend that all ships should have a continuous equipment of Wireless telegraphy and this is a reform upon which public opinion is already agreed” (Irish Times, 1912). But what Smith gives in one hand to Marconi he takes with the other and condemns the Company as agents of prostitution of talents or offices or services for reward. As if it was not enough for Smith to simply advocate the installation of Wireless telegraphy itself but to also suggest that such work should not be done by Marconi’s Company. In a well crafted speech he states, “By the aid of the Marconi genius, a gentleman sitting in his office in the capital of the Argentina Republic Road as in an open book a Wireless message direct from the coast of Ireland. When the world weeps together over a common glass, when nature moves in the same direction in all spheres, why should not the nations clear the sea of its conflicting idioms, and wisely regulate this new servant of humanity. To that end wages must be increased in proportion to the responsibility assumed; and the service to be useful must be made continuous night and day, while this new profession must rid itself of the spirit of venality to which, in my opinion, the world is in deficit for the systematic reign of silence concerning the details of this disaster” (Irish Times, 1912). As far as the American’s were now concerned Marconi’s Company was entirely responsible for the failure of adequate news supply in the days after the sinking of the Titanic. His Company are depicted as profiteers, at all costs, even in the time of enormous tragedy. Fortunately Marconi had a some influential friends in London who were about to change the course of history for the Italian inventor. One of these, a middle aged conservative politician was infuriated by the American senator’s comments and during what became known as the ‘Marconi Scandal’ Winston Churchill used a speech to mount an impassioned defence of Marconi and two embattled ministers David Lloyd George and Rufus Isaacs, asserting that there was “no stain of any kind” upon their characters.
“The committee does not believe that the Wireless operator of the Carpathia was duly vigilant in handling messages after the accident, and declares that the practice of allowing Wireless operators to sell their stories should be stopped.”
(Titanic Disaster American Inquiry Report, 1912)
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
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The noble eightfold path of Buddha has been described as follows:
1. Right Vision:
The first means in the Buddha’s eightfold path is right vision.
Ignorance generates a wrong view of the relation between the world and self, and many mistakes a transient, painful and unspiritual object for a permanent, blissful and spiritual one.
The abandoning of this fallacious view and comprehending the real nature of objects is said to be the right vision. In this way, unflinching meditation on the four Noble. Truths is the proper view. This meditation takes one towards nirvana.
2. Right resolve:
The second means is right resolve. The determination to root out thoughts which entertain ill-will and a desire to do harm to others or contemplate attachment to sensual pleasures, is the right resolve. The Noble Truths can be profitable only if life is led according to them. Right volition should accompany right vision. Right volition includes sacrifice, benevolence and sympathy.
3. Right speech:
The third means is right speech. As a first step, man should control his speech by right resolve. Right speech means avoidance of false or unlikeable speech or criticism. Every man should avoid bad speech and adopt a good one. One word which calms the mind is better than innumerable meaningless words.
4. Right conduct:
The fourth means is proper conduct, which means refraining from activities like destruction of life, theft, sexuality, falsifying, excessive eating, visiting social recreations; the use of artificial means of beauty, jewellery, comfortable beds and gold, etc. All these laws apply to hermits.
But married people need obey only five laws. For ordinary people there are a number of other laws. Parents should protect their children from evil traits and cultivate good qualities in them, and marry them after their education is over. The children should make themselves noble by serving their aged parents. The students should study, respect their teachers, obey them, and fulfill their needs. The teachers should behave lovingly towards them and perfect them in the arts and sciences by cultivating goods habits in them.
The husband should respect his wife, be faithful to her and look after her welfare. The wife should behave lovingly towards her husband, manage the home efficiently, be hospitable to all guests and maintain marital fidelity. Continuing in the same vein, the Buddha has given a detailed description of laws regulating the mutual behaviour between various people related socially. He has preached the lesson of sacrifice, benevolence and sympathy for the multitude in its entirety. His laws aim at making both society and the individual happy. In view of these laws, no one can declare the Buddha to be an escapist.
5. Right means of livelihood:
Right livelihood means earning one’s bread and butler by right means. Without it, right activity cannot be fully practised. According to the Buddha, one should not trade in weapons, animals, meat, wine, etc. It is never good for any person to earn his money by unfair and bad means like pressure, fraud, bribe, chicanery, dacoity, etc.
6. Right effort:
Along with obedience to laws regarding vision, volition, speech, action and livelihood, it is also necessary to stop bad impressions and avoid bad feelings. Endeavoring to this end is called right effort. It includes self-control, negation of sensuality, stopping bad thoughts, awakening good thoughts and concentrating the mind upon universal welfare.
The following modes of restricting bad thoughts have been advocated:
(1) Meditate upon some good thought.
(2) Study the result of acting upon bad thoughts.
(3) Analyse the cause of bad thought and stop its results.
(4) Control the mind by physical effort.
(5) Observe dharma. The observance of dharma depends upon the mind, and upon the observance of dharma is dependent the attainment of liberation. Thus, even a person who has made some progress along the spiritual path needs proper exercise in order to eliminate the risk of any future lapse.
7. Right mindfulness:
Right mindfulness means the retention of the body, the conscience, and the real form. Bad thoughts occupy the mind only when their real form is forgotten. When actions take place according to bad thoughts, pain has to be suffered and the tendency to bad thoughts also becomes stronger. Right mindfulness includes the remembering of the impurities of the body, pleasure, nature of pain, hatred and doubtful mind, five skandhas senses, means of liberation and the four Noble Truths, Right mindfulness destroys attachment and releases one from pain.,
Gautama, the Buddha, described right mindfulness meticulously. He preached that body should be treated as constituted of earth, water, fire and air. It is filled, it must be remembered, with deplorable things like bones, skin, intestines, spleen, urine etc. One should see the burning of the body in a crematorium, its destruction, its conversion into food for vultures and dogs, and its becoming dust. The remembering of these truths, makes one forget love and attachment for one’s own or another’s body. Due to this the attachment to other evil tendencies is also destroyed. It result in complete lack of passions and elimination of pain. In this way, man avoids worldly attachment.
8. Right concentration:
By pursuing the seven laws propounded above, man’s tendencies of the chitta or mind are pacified and he becomes capable of entering right concentration. Before Nirvana is attained, right concentration has the following four stages:
(1) In the first stage, the four Noble truths arc meditated upon with a calm mind. Pure and detached thought creates unique happiness.
(2) In the second stage, efforts like meditation are suppressed and reasoning becomes unnecessary. Doubts are removed and faith in Noble Truths increases. Hence intuition replaces thought. Profound contemplation results in peace and evenness in the mind. At the same time, bliss also is experienced.
(3) The third stage is one of indifference. Here the endeavour is to remove happiness and introduce indifference in the mind. In this state, the mind is in equilibrium, but one becomes indifferent to the happiness of concentration.
(4) The condition of absolute peace is the fourth stage in which pleasure and pain are destroyed. In it, the tendencies of the mind are negated. It is a stage of perfect peace, perfect indifference, and perfect negation. In it, pain is completely destroyed and nirvana attained.
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The longest leaves of these Bobartia gladiata subsp. gladiata plants reached roughly the same height as their flowers. The photo was taken in October next to the N2 Highway below Sir Lowry’s Pass. Not very tall, they are exposed on land still bare after the last veld fire. The leaves are grey-green here. They become up to 4 mm wide.
Only three of the 14 Bobartia species have narrow, sword-shaped leaves; the other 11 all have terete or cylindrical ones. Only two of those with sword-shaped leaves have yellow flowers; B. lilacina has lilac flowers. The other species with sword-shaped leaves and yellow flowers, B. paniculata, is found on the Kammanassie Mountains in the eastern Little Karoo.
The shiny, ovoid to top-shaped green fruit capsules visible here have rings around their tips. The capsules assume a red-brown colour as they ripen (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iSpot; Wikipedia).
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Growing vegetables in containers on a patio allows homeowners with limited backyard square footage to produce their own food and enjoy gardening as a hobby. Containers come in many different styles and materials. Plastic planters are lightweight so you can move them around easily. Porcelain vessels with glazed finishes, available in many different colors and patterns, add a colorful touch to your patio garden.
Sketch out a garden plan that maximizes the use of available space. Hanging baskets allow you to take advantage of overhead space. Try wall pots, containers with one flattened side that affix to the wall, extending your available space and making the wall more attractive.
Choose containers that are wide and deep enough that the plants' roots have plenty of room to extend down. The soil in shallow containers tends to dry out too fast. Use containers of various sizes to add visual interest. Choose containers that have a drainage hole so the plant roots don't become waterlogged.
Select plants that work well in containers and have a high crop yield relative to their size. Grow vegetables with shallow roots or those that don't spread so much that they will be constricted by the pot. Try tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, lettuce or sweet peppers. Mix herbs and vegetables in pots to create more of a flower garden look.
Fill containers three-quarters full of potting soil. When planting, loosen the root balls of the plants if they look compacted. Plant deep enough that soil covers the top of the root ball. Fill in soil around the plants and press down firmly. Then water well.
Check containers frequently to see if the vegetables need watering. Dig down with your fingers to a depth of two inches to check for dryness. Add water if needed. During the summer you may need to check the pots once every two days.
Apply half-strength water-soluble fertilizer once a week.
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But are there traits that might differentiate potential for leadership? Robert House and Mary Baetz (1979) suggested it makes sense that some individual differences play a role in leadership.
Leadership is a social process. It occurs with respect to others. Therefore leaders are more likely to have:
- social skills
- speaking skills
- a predisposition to be influential
- task-related ability
1. Leadership is clearly a social process so factors affecting social interaction should be important in leading. I think of great leaders and most were superb speakers.
2. Energy is not a topic that I have read about in the academic leadership literature. But it makes sense, especially if you look at the biographies of great leaders. People have different levels of energy. I have been amazed at times in my life by people who seem to do it all, do it all well, and have time left over. You have probably known a few. You may be one. About 1% to 3% of the population need only four hours of sleep a night. These people seem to do so much they appear to have a permanently installed “on” button.
3. Research focusing on these six factors and leadership might produce interesting results. My guess is most of us can identify these factors in leaders we know. Or in ourselves.
Robert J. House and Mary L. Baetz, “Leadership: Some Empirical Generalizations and New Research Directions,” in Research in Organizational Behavior Vol.1, ed. Barry M. Staw (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1979), 341-423.
Adapted from Decoding the Workplace, Best Career Book - Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2016.
Image “Leader of the Pack” by Sudosurootdev.
Obtained from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leader123.jpg
Used with permission: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
© John Ballard, PhD, 2016. All rights reserved.
"Decoding the Workplace: 50 Keys to Understanding People in Organizations is as informed and informative a read as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking. . . Decoding the Workplace should be considered critically important reading for anyone working in a corporate environment." —Midwest Book Review
On Twitter: @johnballardphd
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The Territories of the United States are administrative divisions of the US federal government. The territories are either incorporated into the US or have an organized government through an Organic Act passed by the Congress. The US has a total of sixteen territories organized into self-governing territories with elected governors and regional legislators. Five of the territories of the US are permanently inhabited and are classified as unincorporated. The other eleven territories are small islands spread across the Pacific and Caribbean. The territories of US were created to govern the land that was newly acquired when the borders of US was still evolving.
16. Wake Island - 0
Wake Island is an atoll found in the western parts of the Pacific Ocean and is one of the most isolated islands in the world. The neighboring inhabited islands include Utiriki Atoll and Marshall Island. Wake Island is a refueling stop for the military aircraft and administered by the US Air Force. The Japanese forces used the island as a site to attack the US troops in December 1941. Wake Island has been claimed by the Republic of the Marshall Island. However, the US Congress included the island as part of the US territory in 1990.
15. Serranilla Bank - 0
Serranilla Bank is a partially submerged reef in the western part of the Caribbean Sea covering an area of 463 square miles. It was first shown on the Spanish Map in 1510 and has since been a subject of conflicting claims by several sovereign states including Nicaragua, Colombia, Jamaica, and the US. However, in 2012 the International Court of Justices declared that Colombia had sovereignty over Serranilla Bank. The US still considers Serranilla Bank as unorganized and unincorporated part of its territory.
14. Navassa Island - 0
Navassa Island is an uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea and a subject of the ongoing territorial dispute. Since 1857 the island has been considered by the US as part of its unorganized and unincorporated territory administered through the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Haiti has also held claim to Navassa Island since 1801 through its constitution. The island covers an area of 2 square miles and is located south of US naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Navassa Island was once a center of guano mining and a nature reserve for the US.
13. Bajo Nuevo Bank - 0
Bajo Nuevo Bank is uninhabited reef covered with small grass and located in the Caribbean Sea. The reef was first shown on a Dutch map in 1634 but was named Bajo Nuevo Bank or Petrel Island in 1654. It was rediscovered in 1660 by John Glover. The reef is currently controlled by Colombia although it remains a subject of a dispute involving the US, Nicaragua, and Jamaica. The US made a claim to Bajo Nuevo Bank in 1869 under the Guano Islands Act and administered the bank as its unorganized and unincorporated territory.
12. Midway Islands - 0
Midway Islands is an atoll located in the North Pacific Ocean covering an area of 2.4 square miles. It is located midway between North America and Asia and considered by the US as its unorganized and unincorporated territory. The US Navy defeated the Japanese forces at the Midway Islands in one of the most significant battles of the Pacific Campaign in the World War II known as the Battle of Pacific. About 60 people, mostly the staff of US Fish and Wildlife Service, live on the Midway Islands.
11. Kingman Reef - 0
Kingman Reef is a triangular shaped reef located in the North Pacific Ocean between Hawaiian Island and American Samoa. It encloses a lagoon up to 270 feet and covers an area of 29 square miles. Kingman Reef is US unorganized and unincorporated territory under the administration of the Washington DC. It is closed to the public, and it is designated a national monument. The US Navy assumed the jurisdiction of the reef in 1934 while the lagoon was used in 1937 as a station by the Pan American Airways flying boat
10. Johnston Atoll - 0
Johnston Atoll or Kalama Atoll is part of the unorganized and unincorporated US territory under the administration of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The entry to the atoll is by special-use permit. Johnston Atoll was under the control of the American military for 70 years and was used as a bird’s sanctuary during that period and as a refueling depot for the naval. It was also used for nuclear weapon testing which left the environment contaminated. Johnston Atoll is made up of four islands covering a total area of 1.03 square miles.
9. Jarvis Island - 0
Jarvis Island is a coral island covering an area of 1.75 square miles and located in the South Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Cook Island. It is part of the US territories under the administration of the US Fish and Wildlife Service for conservation under the National Wildlife Refuge System. The island has no ports or harbors while currents are swift and hazardous. The lagoons on the Jarvis Island are completely dry. Public entry to the island is restricted to the scientists and educators with a special-use permit.
8. Howland Island - 0
Howland Island is found on the northern part of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The island is part of the unorganized and unincorporated territory of the US. Howland Island is part of a National Refuge System together with the surrounding areas. The island has no economic activity and has no harbors. The atoll is characterized by scattered grass with a long prostrate vine. The US took possession of the island in 1856 through Guan Island Act.
7. Baker Island - 0
Baker Island is located in the central Pacific Ocean some distance between Hawaii and Australia and southwest of Honolulu. The island has been a territory of the US since 1857 although the UK considered it as part of the British Empire from 1897 to 1936. The island is part of the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge. Baker Island was discovered in 1818 by Elisha Folger who called it the New Nantucket and claimed by the US in 1857 under the Guano Island Act
6. Palmyra Atoll - 0
Palmyra Atoll is part of the Northern Line Island located south of Hawaiian Islands. It is administered as part of the US territory by the US federal government and covers an area of 4.6 square miles since 1959. Palmyra Atoll consists of reefs, lagoons, and bars covered with vegetations. Edmund Funning first sighted it in 1798. Palmyra Atoll is also claimed by a native of Hawaiian who is challenging the legality of the Newlands Resolution that removed Hawaii as rightful owners of the island in 1898.
5. Samoa - 55,519
American Samoa is a territory of the US located in the South Pacific Ocean and consists of five mainland and coral atolls. Samoa has a population of 55,500 people and covers an area of 76.8 square miles. American Samoa has the highest military enlightenment of the sixteen US territories. The main export from the island includes tuna product with the US as the main trading partner. The government of Samoa is defined by the Constitution of American Samoa. Most of the inhabitants of the island are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan.
4. U.S. Virgin Islands - 106,405
U.S. Virgin Islands are groups of islands in the Caribbean sea located in the Leeward Islands. The islands cover a total area of 133.73 square miles and have a population of 106,105 people who are mostly Afro-Caribbean. Tourism is the main economic activity on the islands with several manufacturing activities supplementing the economy. Christopher Colombus named the U.S. Virgin Islands during his voyage in 1493. The islands are part of the US territories, but the citizens of the island are not eligible to vote in the US presidential elections.
3. Northern Mariana Islands - 77,000
The Northern Mariana Island is a commonwealth of the US consisting of 15 islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The 15 islands include those of the Marianas Archipelagos and cover an area of 183.5 square miles. Northern Mariana Islands have a population of 77000 people with the vast majority living in the Saipan and Tinian. The administrative center of the islands is the Capitol Hill although most people consider Saipan as the capital of the island. The negotiation between the US and the Northern Mariana Islands for territorial status began in 1972 and was approved in 1975 through a referendum. The island formed a new government under its new constitution in 1978.
2. Guam - 159,358
Guam is a US territory with an established civil government located in the western Pacific Ocean. Guam has a population of 161,785 people who are mainly the American citizens by birth. The island covers an area of 210 square miles, the largest of the Mariana Islands. Guam is a popular tourist destination for tourists, especially from Japan. The US took charge of the island in 1898 as part of the Treaty of Paris and was transferred to the US Navy on December 1898 through an Executive Order 108-A.
1. Puerto Rico - 3,667,084
Puerto Rico is a territory of the US located in the Northeast Caribbean Sea. The territory of Puerto Rico consists of the main island and other smaller islands such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques. The population of the island is approximately 3.7 million people. The island is rich in history, climate, and traditional cuisines which make it a popular destination for tourists from around the world. The Puerto Ricans were first granted US citizenship in 1917. However, the Puerto Rican delegates have tried several times in vain for the independence of the island. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico covers an area of 5,320 square miles of which 3,420 qs ml is land, and the rest is water.
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Last month we learned how to figure out the reactions on both ends of a beam, given some loads. But we’re missing an important piece of the puzzle: how do we know what those loads will be? They keep changing, of course: when you host a party, or jump on the bed, or move your furniture, you temporarily or permanently increase the load on some beams. For what load should you design them?
Engineers have a great way to simplify this unknown-load business: they assume the worst case and design for that. OK, but what’s the worst case? The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) publishes standards for the loads to use when planning various types of rooms – the design loads. They always exceed the weight you’d expect to act most of the time, which is why they are considered worst case. For example, according to one ASCE table, the minimum design load for “habitable attics and sleeping areas” is 30 pounds per square foot. This weight is about what you’d get from a queen-size bed with four adults on it (1000 pounds over 35 square feet), which clearly is an unusually heavy case.
Did you ever hear a story about a library that sank into the ground because some engineer forgot to account for the weight of books? Well, that story is apocryphal – it never actually happened. The ASCE table gives plenty of respect to the weight of books… minimum design load for library stacks is a whopping 150 pounds per square foot.
The loads I just described are known as live loads, because they move and change over time like living organisms. Another live load is the weight of snow on a roof, which ASCE specifies depending on your location – see the contour map at the beginning of this entry. Wind and earthquakes round out the list of live loads you commonly design for. (Earthquakes don’t just happen in California. At my old company, I spent weeks designing seismic controls for a bridge located in… Rhode Island.)
What’s the opposite of live loads? Dead loads. Basically, dead loads are the weights that don’t move: the beams themselves, the subfloor and finish floor, the roofing materials. They can be a pain to add up, but at least you know them with certainty.
Many types of loads may act on a surface, but they don’t all act simultaneously. A roof for instance might sustain a heavy live load (say, a construction crew with 70-pound bags of shingles) or a heavy snow load, but not both together. For this reason, ASCE specifies load combinations. Basically you multiply each type of load by a decimal indicating its probability (with a built-in factor of safety), then add them all together. See an example below.
When you compare every load combination, the highest total is said to govern. That’s your worst case!
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Chest Wall Malformations (Pediatric)
What are chest wall malformations?
Chest wall malformations are deformities that range from mild to severe and are often present at birth. The most common types are:
Pectus carinatum: bulging of the chest caused by malformed ribs protruding outward.
Pectus excavatum: sunken chest caused by abnormal curvature of the ribs toward the spine.
What are the symptoms of chest wall malformations?
- Physical appearance of the chest
- Shortness of breath on exertion
- Chest pain
- Fast heartbeat or chest murmur
How are chest wall malformations diagnosed?
- Visual examination of the chest
- Ausculation: analysis of sounds of heart and chest to detect the condition's effect on heart and lung function
- Electrocardiogram (ECG)
- Echocardiogram: noninvasive test that uses sound waves to take a picture of the heart
- Pulmonary function testing: measures the amount of air breathed over a period of time
- Chest X-ray
- MRI scan (radiation-free)
What is the treatment for chest wall malformations?
Pectus cavernatum is often treated non-surgically with a bracing procedure that applies pressure to the chest, gradually molding it into the correct position over 12-18 months.
Pectus excavatum is usually treated by the Nuss procedure, a minimally invasive technique done using video-assisted, camera-aided thoracoscopic surgery. A convex bar steel or titanium pectus bar is specially shaped to fit the patient's body, inserted through the passage, and turned to push the sternum outward. The bars are left in place for 2-3 years, then removed.
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Putting Down Roots
Gardening Insights from Wisconsin's Early Settlers
Walk into a garden and you can find more than tomatoes heavy on the vine, trellises filled with green beans, and rows of flowers meant to please the eye and occasionally the palate. History and culture are planted there. This is the premise of Putting Down Roots by Marcia C. Carmichael, the historical gardener at Old World Wisconsin, the largest of Wisconsin’s living history museums.
In this fascinating cultural history amply complemented with 188 contemporary and historic photographs and illustrations, Carmichael examines the gardening practices and related traditional foodways that Wisconsin’s Yankee settlers and major European immigrant groups—the Germans, Norwegians, Irish, Danish, Finnish, and Polish—brought with them to their new state in the nineteenth century. The author bases the book on her research and gardening at the 576-acre Old World Wisconsin, which contains traditional immigrant homes moved from their original homesites throughout the state, as well as nineteenth-century heirloom gardens specific to each immigrant group. The color photographs of these gardens are not only educational but inspiring.
The helpful introduction presents a brief history of the first European immigration to Wisconsin and what that meant—particularly in a state known for its harsh climate—in terms of gardening. The rest of the book, set up in chapters by nationality, looks at planting trends, particular garden tools, popular plant varieties, and favorite foods and meals, including easy-to-follow recipes. Within the chapters, Carmichael uses as examples the family histories of those who owned the homes in Old World Wisconsin to give readers a true feel for the people who worked the gardens and relied on them for sustenance.
Additionally, each chapter contains interesting sidebars; advertisements for tools, seeds, and available land; and documents illustrating garden plans and gardening techniques. The appendix contains tables of the plants commonly grown by each of the groups. For further reading, Carmichael includes extensive notes by chapter and a selected bibliography.
In a time when people are increasingly concerned about organic gardening practices and the need for more variety in our plants for the health of the planet, Carmichael shows readers the value in drawing from the past for the good of the present. For avid gardeners and simple admirers of other people’s gardens alike, Putting Down Roots is an absorbing book of Wisconsin’s history and culture.
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the author will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
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Question: How do you build tiles with piezoelectric materials?
Answer: The construction of piezoelectric tiles usually uses another material for the actual surface with piezoelectric materials underneath that are flexed by the pressure placed on the surface. It’s actually quite easy to build these kinds of tiles as all you need to do is find a slightly flexible surface and mount the piezoelectric material underneath so it will be flexed with pressure. Then you hook the piezoelectric material up to a battery or whatever you want to be powered and you’re done. This is as simply as soldering or otherwise attaching the positive and negative leads to the piezoelectric material. The video below illustrates this perfectly.
Other questions related to piezoelectric energy:
- How do you build tiles with piezoelectric materials?
- Is piezoelectricity enough to power a car?
- Ways to use piezoelectric material?
- What material generates piezoelectricity?
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Cardiologist Dr. Mark Huffman of Northwestern Medicine discusses seven ways to live healthier.
The American Heart Association has something called the “Simple 7” to define cardiovascular health. You can use these seven simple metrics to evaluate your cardiovascular health.
7 Simple Metrics to Live Healthier
- Smoking: Do you smoke or not? Have you quit recently?
- Your diet: Are you eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, lean poultry and fish?
- Physical activity: Are you meeting the recommendations of the federal government’s physical activity guidelines?
- Maintain a healthy body weight
- Blood cholesterol
- Blood glucose
- Blood pressure
Do the Numbers Matter?
Your doctor may tell you that your blood pressure and numbers are fine, but after reviewing those numbers on paper, you may be in shock. Dr. Huffman says don’t take numbers in isolation. Your cardiovascular health is a package deal. Ask your health care provider to work with you to understand what your numbers mean and what they mean for your long-term health.
Check out mylifecheck.org for more information about taking care of your heart. Remember, your heart isn't something you love with, but it's something you have to live with too.
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OK, first of all, don’t panic. You probably don’t have cancer. But isn’t it always better to be safe rather than sorry?
So you may have felt a lump or two. First of all, it’s important to know what these lumps are. They are called lymph nodes and are most often found in the neck, head, armpit and groin areas. It’s also possible to feel them behind the ear if they become swollen.
What are lymph nodes?
Lymph nodes aren’t always bad. They are actually a very important part of your immune and lymphatic systems, and work to help fight off disease and infection. Most of the time your lymph nodes will just do their job and you won’t even feel them. They are very small and bean-shaped, and for the majority of your life they carry nutrients, waste, and fluids between the bloodstream and body tissues.
It is only when the lymph nodes become swollen that you will actually ever feel them – and when they might cause you problems or highlight a bigger problem. This condition is known as swollen glands, lymphadenitis, or lymphadenopathy.
Why do your lymph glands become swollen?
OK, so now let’s get to the point. When your lymph glands are swollen this can indicate a number of things. Sometimes it can mean that everything is still fine, and they are just swollen. However, if you are unsure and think yours are swollen it’s always best to get them checked out by a doctor just to be safe.
Here are some of the reasons why your lymph nodes might be swollen:
This can include things like herpes, HIV, a common cold, measles, chickenpox, and mono.
This can include issues such as staphylococcus, cat scratch disease, streptococcus, syphilis, tuberculosis, chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases.
This can include histoplasmosis and coccidiomycosis.
The main parasites linked with swollen lymph nodes include leishmaniasis and toxoplasmosis.
This can include lupus, sensitivity to medications, and rheumatoid arthritis.
It is possible to link lung cancer, lymphomas, and leukemia to swollen lymph nodes.
Swollen glands can also be a sign of transplant graft reactions, genetic lipid storage diseases and sarcoidosis.
How to spot swollen lymph nodes
If you can feel one of your lymph nodes and it is around the size of a pea (or is less than a centimeter in size) then it is probably just a normal swollen gland. However, if you feel the key areas and you notice that they have swollen to a much larger size and the following symptoms, then it’s probably best that you see professional advice:
- Lumps around the area
- The area is warm, swollen, and red
- Pain and tenderness in the area
- General infection symptoms like mouth sores, tiredness, coughing, sweating, a runny nose, chills, and a fever.
Treating swollen lymph nodes
Sometimes lymph nodes reduce back down to their normal size by themselves, but sometimes treatment is needed to help to treat whatever is causing the nodes to enlarge. However, there are also some natural remedies you can use for certain types of lymph node infections and swelling. Consult a homeopath for more information and to discuss your symptoms.
Recommended herbs, vitamins, and minerals
There are a number of supportive herbs, vitamins, and minerals that you can take to alleviate the symptoms of swollen lymph nodes, such as:
- Licorice root
- Slippery Elm
- Castor Oil
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D3
- Vitamin B12
- Fish oil
If your swollen lymph nodes are connected with other symptoms, such as fever or weight loss, then it’s time to see a doctor. If you had a previous infection it’s also a good idea to get straight to the doctor if you notice this symptom.
Be aware of your body and make sure you take action as soon as you can!
Image Credits: http://www.wikihow.com
By Charlotte H.
Copyright © 2017 Life Advancer. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint,
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It is thought to have been responsible for the deaths of emperors. In parts of California’s forests, it is everywhere.
It is the deathcap mushroom, Amanita phalloides, so filled with toxins that a single cap can kill anyone who mistakenly eats it and does not get medical treatment. Because it looks like an edible mushroom, the deathcap is among those most involved in human poisoning, such as one that occurred in Newton, Mass., last fall. Through history, it has been a convenient tool for those interested in regime change, playing a key role in the Europe-spanning War of Austrian Succession in the 1700s, which started when Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI died after eating a plate of mushrooms, thought to be deathcaps.
Though much is known about the deathcap’s toxicity — it kills by fostering liver failure — much less is understood about its general biology and its role in the environment. Anne Pringle, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, is out to change that.
Pringle has spent years in California’s forests, researching the deathcaps that in some parts of the state make up as much as 80 percent of the local biomass of mushrooms. Pringle proved first that the California population was not native, but rather an introduced population from Europe.
She’s working now to understand the mushroom’s dispersal across the landscape and its symbiotic partnership with trees. Its widespread presence begs the questions of whether it displaced native symbiotic fungi and whether it spreads more easily as a mutualist (an organism in a relationship beneficial to both partners) than it would as a pathogen, which characterizes most known invasive fungi. She recently concluded that it reproduces more readily through the spread of its spores, which are released from the fleshy gills under its cap, than asexually through fragmentation of its thready subterranean fungal body.
Like most mushroom-producing fungi, much of the deathcap’s body actually lies under the Earth’s surface, and its mushrooms are temporary, sent up from the underground filaments to release spores and then fade. Even with the mushroom gone, the fungus still operates underground, decomposing old plant matter and, in the case of the deathcap, partnering with tree roots, providing nitrogen in exchange for carbon compounds.
Pringle’s work, conducted through a combination of old-fashioned fieldwork and cutting-edge genetic analysis, has shown that the deathcap spreads slowly. It moves through either the slow creep of its underground body or the floating spread of its spores, which do not drift far from their release point.
Humans likely played a big role in the fungus’ spread. Because it lives in association with tree roots, researchers believe it was introduced here from Europe at least twice — once in California and once on the East Coast — by hitching rides on trees transplanted from Europe to America.
On the East Coast, Pringle and researchers from her lab have identified dozens of populations: in Newton, near the New Jersey Pine Barrens, near Rochester, N.Y., and in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Pringle says the populations on the East Coast are isolated, not widespread as in California. Another wrinkle of the East Coast populations is that deathcaps are associated with pine trees, not the oaks that they partner with in California and Europe. Pringle and doctoral student Ben Wolfe said that may be because of a slightly different strain being introduced on the East Coast, or it may be because of ecological constraints put on the population on the East Coast by closely related native species, also from the genus Amanita.
Though the deathcap may be the star of Pringle’s lab, her work includes other fungal species, as well as lichens, a symbiotic association of fungi and algae.
Wolfe, who expects to graduate in December, is working with the U.S. Department of Energy to decode the genome of Amanita species related to the deathcap. He hopes to understand the genetic roots of fungal symbiosis with trees. A bonus of decoding the fungi’s genome, Wolfe said, would be that, in degrading plant material, the fungi produces an enzyme called cellulase, of potential interest in biofuel processing.
In talking about her work, Pringle emphasizes the importance of fungal conservation. Fungi have not received the attention that plants and animals have, so less is known about them. With the planet undergoing an extinction crisis, we may be losing fungal species before we even know they’re here, Pringle said.
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November 8, 2010
Fat Cells Reach Their Limit And Trigger Changes Linked To Type 2 Diabetes
Scientists have found that the fat cells and tissues of morbidly obese people and animals can reach a limit in their ability to store fat appropriately. Beyond this limit several biological processes conspire to prevent further expansion of fat tissue and in the process may trigger other health problems.
Research funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the European Union Sixth Framework Programme, shows that a protein called secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (SFRP1) is produced by fat cells and may be involved in changes to our metabolism that could increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The work was carried out at the University of Cambridge and will be published in a future edition of the International Journal of Obesity Research.Professor Antonio Vidal-Puig from the Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge said "We have known for some time that many obese individuals are at greater risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease and also cancer. But this is not true for all obese people."
Dr Jaswinder Sethi, also from the Institute of Metabolic Sciences, University of Cambridge added "What we still do not fully understand, is how the expansion of fat tissue is regulated in healthy people and how this process of regulation might be different in those obese people who have health problems such as the metabolic syndrome."
One hypothesis is that storing surplus fat in itself may not lead to metabolic syndrome but there may be a maximum limit of how much fat a person can store safely before the body's natural responses lead to the debilitating chronic health problems often associated with obesity.
Dr Sethi continued "To investigate this we have been using a combination of molecular cell biology, human gene profiling and mouse genetics as tools to understand what is happening as fat cells and tissues develop and then, in some very obese people, lose their normal process of regulation."
The researchers have found that the level of SFRP1 increases as fat cells and tissues increase in volume until it peaks at about the point of mild obesity. There is evidence that SFRP1 is involved in recruiting new fat cells, thereby facilitating the expansion of fat tissue up until this point where it peaks.
"SFRP1 seems to be very closely linked to some sort of tipping point, after which the way in which our fat tissue is regulated changes significantly and there are knock-on consequences to our wider metabolism. We think that in very obese people this may be an early event that triggers metabolic syndrome and the chronic health problems associated with it, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease," said Dr Sethi.
The fat tissue of people who are obese and also have diabetes shows signs of not being regulated as it usually would be. In this tissue, the researchers also see the levels of SFRP1 begin to fall so as to prevent further expansion of the tissue. It is this fall in SFRP1 that has knock-on effects on metabolism that may in part explain the link between morbid obesity and metabolic syndrome.
The researchers believe that SFRP1 works in concert with other molecules to respond to the availability, or not, of energy. Together these molecules also determine to what extent our fat tissue can continue to expand as we consume more calories than we burn.
Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive said: "Research such as this leads to better understanding of the biochemistry that drives normal human physiology. In particular we can see how we usually respond to extremes brought on by the various onslaughts of our lifestyles and environments. Increasing our understanding of the fundamentals of metabolic signalling is an important part of working towards an increase in health span to match our increasing life spans."
On the Net:
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Inversely proportional means that one variable goes up while the other goes down.
3 workers paint a house in 12 hours. How long would it have taken for 9 equally productive workers?
If Y is inversely proportional to X, the equation is of the form:
Y•X = k (where k is a constant). Y=k/X
Ratio Relationship of distance=speed·time
Speed and time are inversely proportional because as the speed increases, the time it takes to reach the destination decreases.
David travels 120 miles at 40 mph. How long does it take him?
Problem. If you were traveling 60 miles per hour, how far would you travel in one hour? Two hours? Three hours? Make a table and a chart showing the number of hours traveled vs. the number of miles traveled. How many hours did he travel at 45 miles per hour?
Example: Ice Cream Sales
Ice cream demand rises with temperature. When it gets too cold, sales go down.
PROBLEM: You want to determine the relationship between sales and temperature.
Example: Blanket Sales
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Animal Wise by Virginia MorellPosted by Jennifer Molidor, ALDF's Staff Writer on July 10, 2013
This month, the Animal Book Club is exploring the fascinating Animal Wise by Virginia Morell–a noted author and contributing correspondent for Science, and contributor for National Geographic. She is also an award-winning author of books like Ancestral Passions and Blue Nile, as well as Wildlife Wars (which she co-authored with the world-class scientist Richard Leakey). Animal Wise is an incredible study of the ways that animals–whether dolphins, elephants, birds or wolves–think and feel about their worlds. Virginia kindly worked through some of our questions about animals–check them out below!
Leave a comment to enter our giveaway! Three winners will receive a copy of Animal Wise!
Animal Wise is an observation of the work of other scientists–what conclusions can we draw about animal sentience by comparing the relationships, memories, laughter, and feelings of different animals?
Charles Darwin said it best:
“There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties…. The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.”
The same is true for the emotions and various abilities such as memory, attention, and curiosity, which Darwin noted were found even in “the lower animals.” In other words, the mental skills and emotional feelings that we humans often like to think of as particularly unique to humankind, in fact have biological roots. They have evolved–meaning they have a biological past, and that we will find similar, if not identical, abilities and emotions in our fellow creatures.
In your book you discuss both the “educated dolphin” and the “wild mind” of dolphins. What’s the difference?
It’s really a play on the idea that the dolphin researcher, Louis Herman, developed for his study of dolphin minds. Herman began his scientific career as a human cognition psychologist with a keen interest in the “laws of learning.” He became a pioneer in dolphin cognition research–a career switch I write about in Animal Wise. Herman wasn’t an ethologist, like Jane Goodall, and so he didn’t study dolphins in the wild. Instead, he worked with them in captivity at the Dolphin Institute, which was affiliated with the University of Hawaii. Herman regarded dolphins the way that a parent might an especially bright child. He wanted to explore what a dolphin is mentally capable of achieving. In contrast, Richard Connor, a cetacean biologist at the University of Massachusetts, studies dolphins in the wild. He wants to understand the natural pressures–both environmental and social–that would cause a dolphin to evolve intelligence. He’s seeking the “wild mind” of the dolphin.
How are elephants “among the best social networkers in the animal kingdom?”
Elephant society is centered on the family–consisting of the matriarch, her daughters, and their descendants. Often, a matriarch’s sisters and their offspring are also included in a family group. But a family isn’t always together in the same place. They’re like us–as a family, we may all wake up in the same home, but we leave to do different things. Mom and dad go to work in different places; the kids may go to different schools; some members may stop to shop before coming home. Elephants do the same thing; families separate during the day to do different things or to go visit relatives in other families. They’re able to keep track of the many different elephants they know by their calls and also by smelling where they’ve urinated. They know exactly who is who, and where the various family members are, and where others are going. They also know their relatives in other family groups, and they enjoy gathering together as a clan–which can include several hundred elephants. Their social networks are broad and deep, and they remember each other the old-fashioned way: with their brain’s memory cells, not Facebook!
What compelled you to write this book?
I’ve always been drawn to animals, and loved watching them and thinking about their lives since I was a child. But as a science writer, I learned early in my career that many scientists were skeptical about animals having thoughts or emotions. When I visited Jane Goodall in 1987 at Gombe Stream National Park for the book I was then writing (a biography about the Leakey family of paleoanthropologists), I had several encounters with chimpanzees that ran completely counter to what I’d been taught. I tell about my chimpanzee experiences in Animal Wise, and also my discussions with Jane about why scientists were so reluctant to say, for instance, that chimpanzees could deceive one another, or have friends, or grieve or love. Even a casual observer, as I was, could easily see that they were thinking, emotional beings. Jane assured me that the field was going to change. As soon as she said that, I knew I would write this book one day.
What animal-focused books have you read lately?
I’m an animal lover and a book lover–so, of course, I’m always reading books about animals. Some of my recent favorites: How Animals Grieve by Barbara J. King; Gifts of the Crow by John Marzluff and Tony Angell; and The Tiger by John Vaillant.
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"Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause."
Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
Calvin Coolidge July 5, 1926
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Budget clears General Assembly — The House has voted 77-38 in favor of the proposed $23 billion state budget. The budget now heads to Gov. Roy Cooper.
Published: 2007-03-06 08:24:32
Updated: 2007-03-06 08:24:32
Posted March 6, 2007
MIKE MOSS SAYS: Mike, You're noticing two effects that combine to push the occurrence of "twelve hours of daylight" to a few days before the Vernal Equinox and likewise a few days after the Autumnal Equinox.
The first reason is how we define sunrise and sunset. On a smooth earth with no atmosphere, we would see the center of the sun's disk cross the eastern horizon heading up in the morning, and then on the way down across the western horizon in the evening very close to twelve hours later. However, in the U.S., and most other countries, we define the time of sunrise and sunset not by means of the center of the sun's disk, but by the time that the upper limb (top edge) of the sun crosses the horizon instead. Therefore, on the equinox, there will be a couple of minutes more than twelve hours of "daylight" associated with the time it takes one-half the sun's disk to cross the horizon.
The other, larger effect is that of atmospheric refraction. Around sunrise and sunset, the rays of sunlight reaching a given location are following a path that crosses horizontally through the atmosphere, almost parallel to the ground. Since atmospheric density decreases rather rapidly with height, the rays of light are refracted, or bent, toward the layers of greater density, resulting in a downward curvature of the light rays that are reaching us as observers. Since the rays arriving at our location are bending downward, and we perceive objects to be located in the direction from which their light waves arrive, the sun appears higher in the sky than it really is, and in fact we see it rise above the horizon when it is actually still two or three minutes away from doing so. In effect we are able to "see around the corner," or over the hill if you like, because of the curving light rays. This refractive effect adds to the sunrise/sunset definition effect to make the "twelve hour day" occur even farther before the spring equinox (and vice versa in the fall when days are growing shorter).
There's a nice discussion of this, along with some helpful illustrations (including the one you see above) at
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The GCBR is an incredibly special area which is of global importance.
On the 9th June 2015 UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) finally approved the designation of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR) as South Africa’s 7th biosphere reserve!
The GCBR was established in terms of Section 21 of the Companies Act, 1973 (Act 61 of 1973) as an association incorporated not for gain to manage the biosphere reserve in terms of the requirements of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme.
Furthermore, UNESCO approved the serial extension of the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas (CFRPA) World Heritage Siteon the 3rd July 2015. In 2004 eight Protected Areas (including the Cederberg Wilderness Area, Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area, Table Mountain National Park, Boland Mountain Complex, De Hoop Nature Reserve, Swartberg Complex, Baviaanskloof Complex and BoosmansbosWildernis Area) were approved by UNESCO as the CFRPA World Heritage Site. Together with the latter three sites, the GCBR now includes 18 formally protected areas as part of the CFRPA World Heritage Site.
World Heritage Sites are areas recognised as being of Outstanding Universal Value and are proclaimed in terms of the World Heritage Convention Act, 1999 (Act 49 of 1999).
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3D model (JSmol)
|Molar mass||276.24 g·mol−1|
|Melting point||141 to 142 °C (286 to 288 °F; 414 to 415 K)|
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
|what is ?)(|
Ranunculin is an unstable glucoside found in plants of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). On maceration, for example when the plant is wounded, it is enzymatically broken down into glucose and the toxin protoanemonin.
|This article about a heterocyclic compound is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|
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Today, about 55 percent of all state legislative seats in the country are held by Republicans. That’s the largest share of GOP state legislators since the 1920s. Just 11 states have an all Democratic-controlled legislature, while Republicans have a legislative majority in 30 states, including the battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Before the 2014 election, Democrats had single-party control (legislature and governor) in 15 states. Post-2014, that number is down to seven.
A continuing realignment in the South from Democratic stronghold to GOP bastion has contributed to GOP gains at the legislative level. In 1992, all 15 southern states (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida) had Democratic-controlled legislatures. Today, they are all Republican but for Kentucky which has split control. It’s not just the South however. Since 2012, notes the NCSL, Republicans have picked up seats in every region of the country.
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On this day in 1938, the entertainment trade newspaper Variety reported that the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) had bought the rights to adapt L. Frank Baum’s beloved children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for the screen, and that the studio has cast 16-year-old Judy Garland in the film’s central role, Dorothy Gale.Some industry insiders were surprised that the part of Dorothy hadn't gone to the much-better-known Shirley Temple, who was also considered by MGM for the role. Film-goers around the world, not yet having learned to be horrified by what can happen when Disney gets hold of a classic property, looked forward in anticipation if not necessarily flop-sweat relief.
The flop-sweat relief would come later, as would the generations of enjoyment from this practically perfect performance:
If your browser won't display the embedded version, click here.
Lyrics and music by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen.
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Pain Management in the Opioid Epidemic
Opioids are valuable compounds. They have been throughout history and are still critical in modern medicine to treat severe pain. Due to several reasons including ease of access, social acceptance, and neurobiological vulnerabilities, people are abusing opioids at epidemic rates in all 50 states. Prescription pain medications, heroin, and other agents have turned many people into addicts. Thousands of people die each year from overdose and opioid-related afflictions.
Opioids have been used as pain relievers for millennia and modern medicine still relies on opioids to treat acute, severe, and chronic pain. While the opioid epidemic rages, investigators and clinicians continue to refine opioid use in medicine. Studies in safety, effectiveness, and non-abusive delivery methods are ongoing.
The prioritization of pain management is one of the crowning achievements in modern medicine and first world countries. Honoring the patient’s subjective experience and delivering essential medications to treat that pain has resulted in incalculable relief from pain and suffering in recent years.
To continue those efforts and improve them, researchers are working to understand the neurobiology of opioids. They hope to provide a roadmap from analgesia to abuse; where in the neurological pathway the person veers down the road to abuse. Others are working on the implications of the social environment in opioid abuse.
Always consult your physician before making a medical treatment or medication decision.
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As everyone can see, the stock markets around the world have exploded higher. It really does not matter if you look at the London FTSE 100, German DAX, Shanghai Index, Nikkei 225 Index, Dow Jones Industrial Average, or even the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), they are all surging higher. What is the one factor that all of these economies have in common? It is money simply money printing. All of the central banks that control the currencies of these nations are printing money like never before.
The Federal Reserve made this popular many years ago, however, they took money printing to new all time levels since the credit crisis began in 2007. Since that time, the Bank of London, People’s Bank of China, Bank of Japan, Swiss National Bank, European Central Bank, and others have continued to inflate their equity markets by implementing easy money policies (essentially money printing). Can central bankers simply print money forever? The answer to this question is no, but at this time it seems that they will continue to print money into the foreseeable future.
Obviously, we all know that there is a price to pay when a currency is artificially deflated. The usual and most common effect will be inflation. Inflation will help to lift the value of asset prices, so many investors may think that is good. The downside is that it will make the price of goods that people need to survive more expensive. Food, oil, gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel, and other energy products will increase. Commodities such as copper, iron ore, and building materials will also inflate in price making products more expensive for everyone.
The other negative that will occur when there is this much monetary easing taking place around the world is another global stock bubble. Generally, the bigger the bubble is when it is being created the bigger the decline will be when the bubble pops. For example, just look at the bubble that was created in the late 1980’s in Japan. In January 1990, the Nikkei 225 Index traded as high as 39,922.00. Today, the Nikkei 225 Index trades around the 11,100.00 level. It is safe to say that the Japanese markets have faced deflationary pressures for over 20 years. Now, the Japanese are trying to inflate there stock markets on a daily basis. They are doing this to try and boost their exports as goods become cheaper outside of their own country. Almost every country on the Earth that has a central bank is trying that same method right now. In the short term, it will boost the markets, but in the long term there is always be a price to pay. Unfortunately, the price could be a long twenty plus year sluggish economy.
Another negative for all of this money printing could just be a lack of faith in a nation’s currency. Once that happens hyper inflation can occur and that is when goods and products will explode higher in price. According to Wikipedia, hyperinflation occurs when a country experiences very high, accelerating, and perceptibly “unstoppable” rates of inflation. Many countries have experienced this in the past. Some notable countries that have experienced hyper inflation are Germany, Argentina, and recently Zimbabwe. It is not fun when you need a month’s worth of wages to buy a loaf of bread.
The United States is the world’s reserve currency. This means if you are Japan, China, Russia, or any other country that does not use U.S. Dollars for trade you will need to convert that capital into U.S. Dollars in order to buy oil, gold, copper, wheat, or any other commodity. If other nations ever lose faith in the U.S. Dollar there could be serious problems around the world. Already, there are countries such as China and Brazil initiating trade deals with each other, so there could always be a problem brewing in the future.
Gold and precious metals have exploded higher over the past thirteen years . In 1999, gold was trading around the $250.00 level. Today, gold trades around the $1600.00 level after reaching a high of $1923.70 an ounce on September 6, 2011. What is gold telling us? Gold is telling us that many smart people are losing faith in fiat currencies such as the U.S. Dollar and all other printed money. You see, you cannot print gold, it must be taken from the earth and it is very difficult to get. Recently, Germany has asked for some of it’s gold deposits back from the New York Federal Reserve. Could this be a sign of things to come? Perhaps, but in the meantime the central bankers are printing a lot of money.
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Paragliding in Turkey
EQUIPMENTS OF PARAGLIDING
The paraglide is a simple instrument. However, it is the outcome of long, painstaking and complex design studies. Length differences of the ropes or, simple differences in the cutting of the fabric, may cause much better or worse conclusions. Here are the sections of 'hill parachute' for you:
CANOPY: The fabric part of the 0bject is called 'canopy' or 'wing'. Canopy is made of two layers of fabrics folded onto each other, and it is meant to collect the air inside when on air. In order for the air to be able to fill into the wing, front side, which is called 'attack side', must be open, and the back side that prisons the air inside, which is called 'escape side' must be closed. Thus, because the fabric is air-proof, the wing prisons the air inside and takes a certain shape. When the canopy is completely filled up with wind air, it takes the shape of a plane wing, which is flat bottomed and curved top side. In a typical canopy, there exist 40-60 cells. Length of these cells gives an elliptic shape to the wing when looked at from above. This shape is called a 'platform'. To the sides of the canopy, balancing pieces, which are called 'ears', are placed. 'Ears' keep the parachute in balance and by applying force outwards, they keep it strained. Wings are produced according to: the weight of the pilot, different flight conditions, length/width proportions. At the edge of the wings, the cells that called 'stabilizators' are closed. Stabilizator takes the air form the side cells, it gets filled up and enlarges.
ROPES: Separates into two as 'hanging' ropes and 'brake' ropes. In order to decrease the weight and friction, ropes are produced from strong, enduring materials such as carbon fibers and darcon. Brake ropes are produced in different colors in order to be distinguished easily.
joins fabric with harness. Usually ropes gather at the metal rings and joins
with the columns. In general they have 25mm of breadth. columns form a single
point from which pilots can control all of the ropes at once. At the back of the
columns, there are little metal rings from where brake ropes pass and little
snap fasteners onto which the wheel-cross (brake controllers) are fastened.
FLIGHT-TAKE OFF- LANDING
You can't just go do it. You'll have to take lessons for a brevet. Without a brevet you're not allowed to fly and most of all without a brevet it is very dangerous for you and other people The best thing to do is to go to a place or country where there are mountains. It is also possible to fly in countries where there are no mountains. A long running path is necessary for the pilot. Streamer and windsock must be fixed vertically next to the run path. To escape the turbulences, there must not be another hill across. A clean field is necessary to spread out the parachute.
Controls: At the beginning,
the wind must come from the front with at most 30 degrees. For the experienced
pilots it can be 90 degrees. Last controls have to be done. Control ropes must
be checked if they are at the bottom and open. After putting on the helmet
harness is entered. First the leg columns and then chest columns are fastened.
Leg columns are not fastened so tight in order to leave a space for action.
Stand right in the middle of the wing. Usually there's a sign at the wing that
points at the mid-point. Arms are opened to the sides. In side the hand must be
the controlling ropes and the front column. Other columns must be on the
shoulders. In this position running starts. Important point is: handles must be
pushed not with arm powers but with the power of the chest. When the wing is on
the top point, handles are left, so inside the hands only controlling ropes
stays. When running towards the take off, if leaned on to the sides, a run must
be made towards the inclined direction so the wing gets straight. After
straightening of the wing running continues. Be careful at this point. Even
after taking off running never stops. 'Running' is the part you will have
difficulties with at the beginning. To stop running and sitting into the harness
after the take off, is one of the frequently made mistakes. This mistake causes
injuries and harm to the Harness.
25-30 meters to the ground, the wind must be taken from the front. Harness is left and 1 or 2 meters to the ground brake ropes are pulled till the end. This act is called 'dynamic stall'. When necessary, ropes must be wrapped around the hand and pulled till the end. From the moment of touching the ground, running starts. While running continue pulling the brake ropes. When wing lies back, running stops and packing of the wings must start. First, not to tangle the brake ropes they must be affixed to the snap-fasteners on the column. Meaning of 'stall' in paragliding dictionary is 'losing altitude' and 'disordered flight'.
EMERGENCY DURING FLIGHTS
Breaking of the ropes of brake is, even though not frequently, an encountered situation. In similar situations, in order to make the turns without the brakes, different methods might be tried. To pull the back column on the side that will be turned to or better weight inclining method will help to make the return.
One of the frequently confronted situation in paragliding. The ratio of these closures changes according to the structure of the wing or the strength of the turbulence. One side of the wing is closed and the other is open. And from the closed side, with the effect of the friction, movement of turning begins. In these cases what must be done is to slow down the turning as much as it is possible, and moving to the closed side and leaving. Excessive application of brake may put the wing into (stol).
In case of decrease in the load that's on the front ropes or because of a strong turbulence, wing's front closure happens. What must be done is to pull the strings till the end, and by letting them free getting the wings to their normal position.
Getting Dragged In Strong Wind To The Back Of The Hill
As soon as you realize that the wind is changing direction, idea of 'landing' is the best. Because it is possible to get dragged to a hill-back and it may be imminent to face with a rotor turbulence. If the wind gets over our limits, all possibilities to escape must be tried. Brand new 'speed system' can reach to an over 10km/h and makes leaping forward possible for the parachute. In cases of lack of this system, in order to speed up, both of the column A's may be leaned forward a little. But, over leaning may cause front closure, so one must be careful. If none of these methods works out, by closing the ears, landing as quick as possible must be tried. While approaching to the ground, to close the parachute soon, you should prepare the necessary order when on air. Never make a brake in order to stop the parachute, it give a negative reaction.
Opening The Supplementary
Supplementary parachute is used in cases it is thought that our parachute isn't able to land us. Supplementary parachute, holding it from its handles, must be thrown away from being tangled with the wings, and it must be packed immediately.
If rain starts during the flight, direct landing must be done. Because, water will enter into the escape side, the mass will increase the weight and the parachute will have a stol. This will limit your movements.
This is the case of fabric part of the wing enters between the ropes. This happens in cases of vingoverden, spiral and not coming out of the stol. When faced with this situation, turning must be slowed down, and brake must be applied. Which is closed must be opened. If not, without panicking, the supplying parachute must be opened.
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A day in the Bush or Diena Australijos Šila, was produced for the newly arrived Lithuanian youth to Australia who would be unfamiliar with the Australian bush and animal life. Many would not have known English on arrival, and a book in Lithuanian would help them to remember their native toungue while introducing them to Australian life.It is published by Užuovėja (Shelter). Translated from English by J. Ap – nis. (full name not given) Published in Bathurst 1949.
A day in the Bush by Nan Fullarton is a charming Australian children's picture book about a rabbits search for the monster he thinks is in his burrow. All the bush animals help him find the unknown creature that gave him a fright. The drawings by the author make this an ideal story for any age.
Nan Fullarton is the author of several picture books.
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The Land of Volcanoes
El Salvador is the smallest yet most densely populated country in Central America. It has been greatly affected by a large number of natural disasters including flooding, droughts, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The disasters have created serious problems related to infrastructure, food security and water quality, which all contribute to a number of health issues. While the government has been a leader in the region for health programs targeting some of the main problems, funding is a constant issue and threatens the progress that has been made in spite of the harsh environmental factors.
The Micro Health Insurance Program
In February, 2008, we founded a clinic in the rural Las Delicias community, located 45 minutes outside of the capital city. With a population of nearly 3,000, Las Delicias sits in a beautiful valley and is divided into 6 sectors. With low employment rates in the formal sector, as well as excitement by community members to participate in health education, the world's first ever non-monetary Micro Health Insurance Program was established.
Las Delicias is located 35km outside of San Salvador in the department of La Libertad. The community is nestled among coffee plantations, corn fields and sugar cane.
The closest government clinic is located 10km from the community but can take nearly two hours to reach due to public transportation. The clinic is saturated with patients and often lacks the resources necessary to adequately treat the population.
We started with a health census. We met with the leaders and started working alongside the Ministry of Health. We sat and talked to community members. We developed programs and services based on the actual, current needs and have continued to expand them as we grow.
Learn More About Las Delicias +
Insufficient income has a serious adverse effect on the general health and vitality of the population. During the civil war in the mid-1980s, El Salvador was among the countries of the Western Hemisphere most seriously affected by malnutrition. Today, the principal causes of death remain as gastroenteritis, influenza, pneumonia, and bronchitis, caused or complicated by malnutrition, bad sanitation, and poor housing. Children are particularly vulnerable to health related issues linked to poverty including diarrhea, head lice, malnutrition, and bronchial infections.
Community members, as well as patients from twelve outlying communities, receive services at the clinic, including pediatric attention, prenatal and postpartum care. FIMRC works in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, the local development association and other partners on preventative health education. The main focus of the community outreach is to prevent common problems in the area such as malnutrition, gastrointestinal illnesses and respiratory infections. A majority of the health issues are due to a lack of education, scarce resources and poor water quality.
The innovative Micro Health Insurance Program (MHIP) was also launched in FIMRC’s El Salvador clinic in June, 2008. The MHIP is the world’s first non-monetary model of health insurance that incorporates health incentives with micro health insurance. The program is a holistic approach to meet the needs of an underserved population. Through an extensive health education program, participants earn health credits to purchase health-related products that would otherwise be unattainable due to a lack of resources.
At Project Las Delicias, we have always taken a community based approach and continue to do so. We work closely with the families in Las Delicias, Las Brisas and the surrounding areas to understand their challenges and needs and build programs around their current health situation. With the support of our volunteers, we dedicate our resources to three main areas of focus: clinical activities, health education and special initiatives. Below are a few examples of our work at Project Las Delicias.
- Treat patients of all ages (0-96)
- Support rural medical brigades in outlying communities
- Conduct community based medical visits
- Train local doctors on specialized equipment
- Conduct testing and treatment campaigns for parasitic infections
- Adolescent group workshops
- Water sanitation programs
- Prenatal programming and house visits
- Dental hygiene education
- Micro Health Insurance Program
- Water filter distribution
- Nutrition groups
- School water system improvement
At this time, we have suspended all volunteer travel to El Salvador. FIMRC is committed to the safety of our volunteers, and we do not take this commitment lightly. We evaluated all available information and decided to pause volunteer travel to El Salvador. We continuously assess the safety of the countries where we work, so we will continue to watch the safety situation and hope to send volunteers again! Stay tuned for additional updates on the volunteer program in El Salvador.
We remain committed to the community and our patients. Our clinic in Las Delicias remains open to ensure that our promise of improving health within the community continues.
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In many parts of the world, particularly the less industrialized ones, flooding is often blamed on deforestation. However, recent studies by the United Nations show that even the thickest of forests may not stand a chance against continuous heavy rainfall.
Meanwhile, in low lying urban communities in the United States, flooding occurs even with average rainfall. If deforestation only contributes minutely to the surface runoff, it means there are other factors contributing to the rising incidents of flooding in cities.
One of the most apparent factors is the increase in impervious surfaces, or land areas covered by impenetrable substances like asphalt and concrete. On your property alone, for example, you might have paved a portion of your lawn to add a walkway or to extend your driveway.
Contributions from individual households such as the example.above, have a huge impact on the amount of runoff an entire community has to deal with in during heavy downpour. Reducing flooding means reducing the amount of runoff that each household contributes to the community sewer.
An article for OECOnline.org provides helpful stormwater solutions that can reduce the amount of water flowing into a community’s drainage system.
Disconnect the downspouts on your home’s rain gutters. Leave the gutters on, but direct the downspout into your yard rather than the sewer system. Be sure to first check with your Planning Department and see if this is legal in your area.
Much of the rainwater that goes into a community drainage system is conveyed from roofs by roof gutters. These gutters have downspouts that deliver the rainwater to the community sewer system. Disconnecting your downspout will direct the rainwater from your roof to your yard. If you’re worried that all the water would flood your property, consider adopting storm water solutions, such as a storm chamber.
A storm chamber will act as storage for rainwater that goes into your property. Some chambers are big enough to clear your lot of all runoff as soon as the rain stops. Additionally, you may want to use pervious materials as pavement in your yard. This will direct the water these materials will absorb to the chamber.
A reputable stormwater solutions company, like StormChamber, can provide you with a highly effective system that will not only benefit your own household, but the entire community as well.
(Source: How to Reduce Stormwater Runoff Around Your Home, OECOnline.org)
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To cut a budget means to eliminate (cut) spending from a budget. The items being eliminated are "cut out" of the budget.
Example: Mary was spending more on food than she should have, so she cut an expensive brand of ice cream out of her budget. By reducing a luxury, she was able to bring her food expenses budget into line.
The noun forms represent the act of cutting a budget. Singular: a budget cut. Plural: budget cuts.
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By and large; the digital divide refers to inequality in access to, or ability to use, information and communication technologies. Such a divide may exist between populations and geographic areas in a given country or between countries. The global digital divide, often refers to the fact that the internet has not spread evenly throughout the world. Such is the case with Africa which is the world’s region with the lowest internet penetration rate.
While some African countries have narrowed this gap in recent years, such as Kenya that has an internet penetration rate (% of population) of 47.3%, other African countries still lag behind the rest of the world. Such is the case with the Ivory Coast (4.2% penetration), Eritrea (5.9%), Ethiopia (1.9%), Rwanda (9.0%). As a whole, Africa has a penetration rate of 26.5% as opposed to Europe’s 70.5% and 87.7% in North America.
The Digital Divide
However, there seems to be one area in which the digital divide between Africa and the world in narrowing, that of digital diplomacy. Last week I explored this narrowing digital divide by focusing on the social media activity of African MFAs. This week I explored it through network analysis.
I first analyzed the Social Network of Mission to the UN in New York. The UN is the world’s most important hub of diplomacy and as is the case with African MFAs, African mission to the UN are also very active on digital diplomacy channels.
African Missions to the UN that are Active on Social Media
Even more important is the location of African missions in the UN Social Network. Using a sample of 57 missions to the UN, and the Visone program, I mapped the UN Social Network on Twitter. The image below exhibits the location of the following African mission in the UN Social Network:Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory Coast and S. Africa.
Location of African Mission in UN Social Network on Twitter
In order to analyze this social network I calculated three parameters. The first is the in-degree parameter which measures the popularity of the missions comprising the network. The more popular a mission- the greater its ability to disseminate information to the UN diplomatic community. The second parameter was the out-degree parameter. This indicates which missions are the most avid followers of their peers and are thus able to gather important information from the network. The third parameter is the betweenness parameter that identifies which missions serve as important hubs of information as they connect UN missions that do not follow one another directly. The scores calculated of each African UN mission is presented in the table below.
How African UN Missions Fair in the UN Social Network
As can be seen, Rwanda is one of the ten most popular missions in the entire UN social network coming ahead of Western countries such as New Zealand, Spain, Poland and Russia. Rwanda’s mission also has a relatively high betweenness score (23 of out of 57) indicating that it serves as an information hub for other missions. In fact, Rwanda has a higher betweenness score than the Italian, Chilean, Mexican and Russian missions to the UN.
Uganda also scored high in the in-degree parameter (22 out of 57) and it attracts more of its UN peers than the Russian, Swiss, Irish and Israeli missions to the UN. Uganda also scores very high on the out-degree parameter (13 out of 57) indicating that it is not only popular but is also an avid follower of other missions to the UN. Finally, Uganda’s betweenness score is also high (20 out of 57) and it is a more influential information hub than Canada, Israel, Brazil and Argentina.
Other African missions aren’t as central as Uganda or Rwanda. Eritrea, the Ivory Coast and Zambia received very low scores on all three parameters. Ethiopia, on the other hand, has a relatively high out-degree score and S. Africa has an average in-degree score. In summary, the analysis of the UN Social Network suggests that African nations can use digital diplomacy in order to position themselves at the very heart of international diplomacy. They may, however, face an uphill battle.
In addition to the UN Social Network, I also evaluated the Social Network of Foreign Ministers on Twitter using a sample of ministers from 50 countries. The Social Network of Foreign Ministers on Twitter, and the location of African Ministers in this network, can be viewed in the image below.
Location of African Foriegn Ministers in the Social Network of Foreign Ministers
Analyzing the centrality of African Foreign Ministers in this network was accomplished by calculating the same three parameters mentioned above. The results of this analysis are presented in the table below.
How African Foreign Ministers Fair in Foreign Ministers’ Social Network
In this social network, Kenya’s Foreign Minister rules supreme. Ambassador Mohamed received a relatively high in-degree score (21 out of 50) demonstrating that she is more popular among her peers than the Italian, Irish or Swedish foreign minister. Her out-degree score is also high (15 out of 50) indicating that she is one of the most avid followers of her peers in this network coming ahead of ministers from Mexico, Estonia, India and Israel. But most important is the fact that she received the 10th highest betweenness score of all ministers demonstrating that she is one of the most influential information hubs in this network.
Rwanda’s foreign minister also received a relatively high in-degree score (19 out of 50) and he attract more peers than ministers from Belgium, Israel, Italy and Ireland. His betweenness score indicates that he is a more influential information hub then FMs from Estonia, Belgium, Chile, India and Iran.
Finally, Ethiopia’s foreign minister received the second highest Betweenness score of African foreign ministers and place in the top 30 on all three parameters.
As was the case with the UN Social Network, the analysis of the Foreign Minister’s Social Network also suggests that through digital diplomacy, African countries can substantially increase their visibility, influence and ability to communicate with the international diplomatic community. In this sense, it is possible that digital diplomacy is leveling the diplomatic playing field as it allows smaller states to challenge the status of larger ones. As Kosovo’s Ambassador to the US recently said in an interview to the Diplomatic Courier:
It is quite obvious that in today’s world, where the competition among the countries is growing rapidly, the tiny countries receive less attention and a sort of limited space. In light of this, for a small country with limited odds, such as Kosovo, the most effective means to mark our presence worldwide and to strengthening our nation branding is digital diplomacy. That’s one side of the coin. The other side was to use social media tools in order to get your message across; to be much more present. As a matter of fact, the online presence sometimes matters as much as the physical presence, maybe even more. Technology gives us tools available to enhance traditional diplomacy, to make it easier, make it more affordable, and be more efficient and effective.
Next week I plan to blog about the issue of plurality of digital diplomacy channels. Until then tweet me @Ilan_Manor
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