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Our youth are the future caretakers of our Earth. Through many different forms of education, we can help prepare them to respect and care for the environment we all live in.
One fun way would be using Bigfoot Willow staffs, which would be a good learning aid to use in the classroom. After receiving them and placing them in water, it turns what appears to be a lifeless staff into a tree that starts growing roots and leaves.
This brings nature into the classroom and helps school children understand when using fast growing trees, so they can directly see what trees do to help our earth.
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Written by Denise Deby.
Ottawa is rich in biodiversity–the variety of life that surrounds and sustains us. It’s not something we can take for granted; as everywhere, human activity often adversely affects species and their habitats.
The International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22 is a reminder that we humans need to honour and extend our commitments to the genetic, species and ecosystem diversity that enables us and everything else to survive.
Here are a few interesting local takes on biodiversity and the international day:
– This year, May 22 is also School Garden Day. What better way to celebrate and strengthen biodiversity than by helping kids understand what growing local, healthy food and native plants in their neighbourhoods is all about? Imagine a Garden in Every School and USC Canada are inviting school communities to hold activities in and around their gardens. (For tips on setting up school gardens, check here or here.)
– For USC Canada, protecting biodiversity means protecting seed diversity. The Ottawa-based organization explains that in the last 100 years, with industrialized and large-scale agriculture, global seed diversity has declined by 75 per cent. Ninety per cent of fruit and vegetable varieties in North America are gone, and three companies control 53 per cent of the global commercial seed market. This loss of diversity is bad news for the environment, our food system and our health.
How to increase food security through biodiversity? Buy food that’s local, fresh and sustainably produced whenever possible. Check out USC Canada’s seed diversity work and their “I am a seed saver” initiative. Support their Run for Biodiversity during Ottawa Race Weekend May 23-24.
– The Canadian Museum of Nature is marking International Biodiversity Day by lighting its tower up in green on May 21 and 22. At a special event, Science by Night, on Thursday, May 21, people can visit the museum for free, speak with scientists and take part in activities. On Friday evening, May 22, there’s a Nature Nocturne dance party at the museum celebrating all the colours of nature.
– The State of Ontario’s Biodiversity Report 2015 will be released at the first-ever Ontario Biodiversity Summit happening May 19-22 in Niagara Falls. It will outline how biodiversity has changed in the last five years, and what needs to be done.
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Though acne is common, acne scarring often results when acne is left untreated. Misconceptions about the causes of acne usually result in ineffective or damaging “treatments”.
Though many people believe acne is caused by heredity, certain foods, dirt, or stress, acne (acne vulgaris) is simply the result of naturally occurring oils (sebum) produced by the sebaceous glands at the base of hair follicles. Though acne can affect people of any age, these glands become more active when we reach puberty. Clogged pores, most often on the face, chest and back, allow a build-up of sebum which then stimulates normally occurring harmless bacteria to multiply and inflame nearby skin cells.
The oil, when just under the surface, appears white; deeper in the skin it turns darker producing a “blackhead”. Still deeper, it forms a nodule or cyst. Once inflammation sets in, these blackheads and whiteheads turn into small red papules or yellowish-white pustules which, if squeezed, allow infection to spread. The deeper cysts, when inflamed, become obvious as large red bumps.
Atrophic & Hypertrophic Scarring
When these pimples and blackheads are broken, the surface skin is torn. Repeated tears can result in loss of tissue (atrophic scarring).
To repair the torn skin, your body produces a protein called collagen, usually in excess amounts. This new skin growth quickly repairs the wound but usually results in an acne scar (hypertrophic scarring).
Because hair growth accelerates at puberty, clogged pores and the resulting acne are most often associated with our teenage years. However, a teenager’s lifestyle is not to blame unless she is using ointments and make-up that are actually encouraging the clogging of her pores.
Adult Acne-Related Problems
A facial rash called rosacea can develop in adults, mostly women, over the age of thirty, even those who never experience acne as a teenager. Red patches form, and in some cases inflammation causes pimple-like bumps. However, these bumps are not caused by blocked pores as in true acne and therefore, unlike blackheads and whiteheads, they will not pop when squeezed.
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Cytomegalovirus, a herpes viral genus, is known in humans as HCMV. It is part of the Betaherpesvirinae subfamily. Other herpesviruses fall into the subfamilies of Alphaherpesvirinae or Gammaherpesvirinae.
xHCMV infections are frequently associated with salivary glands. It can be lethal for people who are immunocompromised. Other CMV viruses are found in several mammal species, but species isolated from animals differ from HCMV in terms of genomic structure.
HCMV is found all over the world and throughout varied socioeconomic groups. It infects between 50% and 80% of adults in the US. 58.9% of those over 6 are infected with CMV while 90.8% of those over 80 test positive for HCMV. It is most commonly transmitted to a developing fetus. It is more widespread in developing countries. Most healthy people who are infected after birth have no symptoms although some people develop symptoms similar to mononucleosis or glandular fever. Sometimes they receive a sore throat. The virus remains latent after infection passes. Actual disease only occurs when immunity is suppressed by drugs, infection, or old age. The virus follows its initial infection by residing in T-cells.
CMV may be shed in bodily fluids including urine, saliva, blood, tears, semen, and breast milk. High risk groups include pre-natal and postnatal infants, immunocompromised people, and people with leukemia. Lytically replicating virus disrupts the cytoskeleton, causing massive cell enlargement, which is the source of the virus’ name. Although not highly contagious it can been spread in households and among young children in day care centers. Hand washing is an easy way to minimize the spread of CMV.
HCMV is a TORCH infection that leads to congenital abnormalities. TORCH stands for: toxoplasmosis, rubella, herpes simplex, and cytomegalovirus. Cogenital infection occurs when the mother suffers a primary infection during pregnancy. 5% develop multiple handicaps, and develop cytomegalic inclusion disease. Another 5% develop cerebral calcification. Primary CMV infection can lead to a weakened immune system or even worse a more common problem is reactivation of the latent virus.
In immuno-supressed people CMV can lead to fulminant liver failure, cytomegalovirus colitis, CMV pneumonitis, and CMV esophagitis. If a patient receives a transplant from someone infected with CMV then the patient will need prophylactic treatment with valganciclovir or ganciclovir. As long as it is treated early any life threatening infection can be prevented.
Often, CMV is not diagnosed because symptoms don’t usually manifest. Also, those infected develop lifelong anti-bodies to CMV. Generally, CMV is suspected when mononucleosis symptoms are present but that when tested return negative. Diagnostic tests are best performed by using paired serum samples. One blood test is taken upon suspicion while another should be taken 2 weeks later. Immunosorbent assay is the most commonly available serologic test for measuring antibody to CMV. The result determines if acute infection, prior infection, or passively acquired maternal antibody in an infant is present. CMV assays are part of the standard screening for non-directed blood donation. In the U.S. CMV-negative donations are earmarked for transfusion to infants or immuno-compromised patients.
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Required books and supplies Spring 2017
DE 234: Sophomore Studies: C&CS 2
We will continue with Pioneers of Modern Design for Tuesdays. This text is available here. Kindle or e-book versions are good too. Readings will start the first day of class.
Research shows that notes taken by hand are assimilated by the brain far better than notes taken on a keyboard. Please be prepared to take notes by hand (with notebook and pen) in Thursday classes.
DE 334: Junior Studies: C&CS 2
We will be using Graphic Style from Victorian to Digital, by Heller and Chwast, and dig into The History of Motion Graphics, by Betancourt. Both of these are available here. Kindle or e-book versions are good too. Readings will start the first day of class, so get your books now.
Research shows that notes taken by hand are assimilated by the brain far better than notes taken on a keyboard. Please be prepared to take notes by hand (with notebook and pen) in Friday classes.
Students are required to have the list of tools below. All the tools that are required are available on this site on the bookcase page, or you can pick most of them up in a Goodwill. Bring your tools and book to the first day of class to get checked off the roster.
Research shows that notes taken by hand are assimilated by the brain far better than notes taken on a keyboard. Please be prepared to take notes by hand (with notebook and pen) during apparel history lectures.
Materials for Apparel:
1. a good pair of fabric shears (Fiskars are good if you're just in it for this one class. Wiss or Gingher bent trimmers are best if you plan to use them for years. Make sure they are really sharp.)
2. 60" non-stretching tape measure
3. a seam ripper
4. a pack of hand needles: 7-10 assorted. Something that feels comfortable to you.
5. an awl (needed for this project!)
6. fine sewing pins, either glass-headed or flat-headed--
7. either make yourself a pincushion or buy one. If you are really serious, buy the magnetic pincushion-- it is great. You basically aim, toss and the pin snaps on. Time saver.
8. 2" x 18" clear ruler with grid
9. a sewing gauge
10. a styling design ruler (French curve +) (see my page or SewTrue.com)
11. tailor's chalk
12. curve stick, hip curve
And put it all in:
a 24" x 16" zippered portfolio case or other suitable carry-all of your own design. (This is more necessary than you might think. Keeping track of various tools is difficult, and you will have to store and carry fabric and brown paper patterns, too.)
This is really the minimum. There are some gorgeous curves and stuff you could buy if you wanted to-- I would add to your tools as your needs dictate. No need to buy stuff you may not use.
Pen and Paper: My Students' Note-taking
After deeper reading about the ways the brain processes information, it has become clear to me that students who handwrite and/or doodle notes remember and access information far better than students who type notes on a keyboard. For this reason my students will not be using screens and keyboards for note-taking during lectures, talks or "visiting designer" talks this semester. (We will, of course, be using screens for design work.) Our goal is to create a space where the student is thinking his or her own thoughts about the topic at hand without interruption or interference, so that those thoughts can be laid down in long-term memory. So please bring your analog note-taking tools to class-- that would be pen and paper.
WHY I TEACH AT CORNISH
To the design world at large, Seattle design means three things: Modern Dog, Art Chantry and 80's Grunge. Of course there's much more. But that's the quick sum-up, and there's validity in it.
Cornish College of the Arts is a regional school, very much rooted in Seattle. In Design here, hand lettering and illustration are as valid forms of communication as are The Grid or Helvetica. There's also no Church and State division between those who manipulate type and image and those who make drawings. Or those who love book design and those who love UX and UI. I like that: I wish I had had that inclusion when I was going to school.
The design tradition at Cornish is based on a radical past. It's heavily influenced by music and theater. Unlike many design students at other schools who work in silo'd buildings, students here mix daily with the musicians, dancers, actors, artists, photographers and theater production people in other Cornish programs.
I like that Cornish supports my belief in interdisciplinary study for designers. I like that the college and program are growing, headed up by a president with vision, and that the faculty is as supportive of a student's interest in the comic novel as it is of that student's interest in Josef Müller-Brockmann. I like that the librarians do everything they can to act as resources for my students and for me and that the design department staff makes sure that I am totally supported so I can do my best thinking. That's why I teach at Cornish.
WHY I TEACH AT VCFA
Since Cornish College does not yet have an MFA in Design, I teach grad students at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, a low-residency graphic design MFA program in Montpelier, Vermont. The program is very young, and it's an exciting pedagogical model for graduate education. I wouldn't fly to residencies held across the country from me if it were not.
VCFA's design program is a student-centered program. It is different from traditional MFA models in Graphic Design. Instead of signing up for grad school, then going through a set curriculum that ends in being inducted into the "longhouse" of design MFA completion, VCFA candidates are supported in finding what they themselves want and need as designers. Then the faculty helps them develop those ideas and skills. Imagine the difference! Imagine the growth.
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The liquefaction potential of sediment in Norton Sound and the northern Bering Sea was evaluated by estimating the liquefaction susceptibility of the material from in-situ and laboratory tests in terms of earthquake and wave loads required to liquefy the material, and then comparing estimated behavior with anticipated loadings caused by frequent storm waves in the relatively shallow water depths and infrequent earthquakes. In-situ cone penetration tests (CPT) were performed at 13 stations. After the CPT data were transformed into equivalent standard penetration test (SPT) blow counts, analyses were performed that determined earthquake accelerations and sustained relative storm wave heights that would cause liquefaction. Vibratory core samples, up to 6 m long, were obtained in silty sand grading to sandy silt near many of the CPT locations. Results of cyclic triaxial tests performed on those samples were used to calculate earthquake accelerations and sustained storm wave heights that would liquefy the sediment.
Additional publication details
LIQUEFACTION POTENTIAL OF SEDIMENT IN THE NORTHERN BERING SEA.
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Larger Work Title:
ASTM Special Technical Publication
Strength Testing of Marine Sediments: Laboratory and In-Situ Measurements.
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Amit Guha, Independent Art-historian
Download PDF Version
The village of Alangiri is near the town of Egra in south Medinipur. Although somewhat isolated and difficult to reach now, it must have been a prosperous village in the 19th century as evidenced by the several terracotta temples were built here then. Exceptional amongst these is the Raghunathji temple built by the Das family in 1810. Placed on a high plinth within the walled courtyard of the family’s residence, this massive navaratna temple has triple-arched porches on three sides and is nearly 40 feet high, making it one of the largest temples in Medinipur. To the north of the village is the Radha Gokulanandaji temple, an ekratna deul with an atchala attached jagamohana porch. Local tradition assigns this temple to the mid-18th century. Also in this village is the Bhairabnath Siva deul temple which can be dated to the 19th century on stylistic grounds. During my visit to Alangiri in 2013 I was only able to locate and photograph the Raghunathji temple.
The Raghunathji temple has recently been extensively renovated and painted but it retains many of its original and remarkable architectural and decorative elements. The turrets on its upper storey are fine rekha deuls and the stucco decoration on the arch panels of the upper shrine is crisp. Large terracotta figures and rampant lions, all modeled in the round, are placed on the parapets, some of which are perhaps original, but the Ashokan lion capital placed above the central facade is certainly a new addition! Subsidiary structures in the courtyard include a flat-roofed Siva temple. This dalan has a single-arched entrance surrounded by a row of very unusual Sakta panels. Just outside the compound walls is Raghunatha’s octagonal navaratna rasmanchawhich has a large terracotta frieze of the raslila below the cornice, stucco patterns on arch panels, and large terracotta figures on some faces, but its renovations and repainting are overdone.
The arch panels above the main, east entrance to the Raghunatha temple are remarkable. Each panel has upto nine registers each containing a multitude of scenes from the Ramayana (left arch), Krishnalila (centre), and Chandi Mangal (right). Such extensive narrative sculpture on the arch panels is very rare. Most terracotta temples have three registers in these panels while in larger temples the number of registers goes up to five. The nine registers here allowed the sutradhars to depict a multitude of scenes from each story, in particular the Chandi Mangal story which is perhaps not as extensively covered in any other temple.
Inside the porch the single arched entrance to the sanctum is flanked by (now brightly painted)dvarapalakas. At the apex of the entrance arch is an intricate medallion surrounded by delicate stucco vegetal and floral scrollwork. Surrounding the entrance are deep rectangular niches with large, fully modeled figures. Across the top is the Rama abhisheka scene: Hanuman holds up the seated figures of Rama and Sita while Rama’s allies and attendants pay respects. Niches along the sides contain figures of Krishna and the gopis. Unfortunately, these large finely modeled figures are also coated in thick paint, obscuring sculptural detail.
The north and south sides of the temple are also extensively decorated. On each side is a triple-arched entrance porch with engaged clustered columnettes (kalagachheya) with corinthian capitals. The arches here are doubled and ornate, their finials terminating in a large medallion filled with scrollwork. The medallion and the arches are framed by a raised floral band that also outlines the rectangular arch panel which contains fine stucco geometrical patterns. Above the arch panels is a narrow frieze with small medallions and then a cornice, above which are framed niches containing images of musicians: men and women playing cymbals, violins, and drums with an image of a bhuta amidst them. The west side is closed but also has ornate arches and medallions above the three false entrances. Above this are a series of niches with a mix of grotesque and erotic figures.
Ramayana Scenes on the Left Arch Panel
Temples to Rama as Raghunatha often have Ramayana as the main theme on all and especially on the central arch but, surprisingly, this is not the case here. The Ramayana story is depicted here above the left arch. It starts to the bottom right of the arch with Lakshman cutting off Surpanakha’s nose. The next scene to the left of the arch is Rama shooting Maricha disguised as a golden deer. The next scene (above) shows Lakshman taking leave of Sita in the forest hut to search for his brother. Then, above this, Ravan approaches the hut disguised as a yogi-mendicant with blow-horn, and Sita has come outside the hut to offer him food. And then he abducts her in his flying chariot that the valiant Jatayu tries to engulf. The figure of Hanuman is shown standing next to a tree perhaps observing the abduction. Next a despondent Rama is shown beneath a tree bewailing Sita’s loss and Lakshman stands beside. Below this, Sita sits beneath a tree in the Ashoka grove in Ravan’s palace while a rakshasa stands guard. The scenes in the next panel are ambiguous but probably show events from the Kishkinda kanda where Rama and Lakshman battle various demons like Kabandha. At the centre of the next panel is probably the scene of Rama shooting Bali while Sugriva watches from the far right. Particularly fine in this panel are the figures of the drummers on the left.
In the next panel the scene moves to the battlefield in Lanka and the episode of Lakshman wounded by Indrajit’s arrow. The vanaras extract the arrow from Lakshmana’s body while Rama holds him. The next panels shows Hanuman returning with the life-giving Sanjeevani herb from Gandhamadan mountain and, perhaps, a cured Lakshman. Next to this is a rare depiction of Hanuman emerging from the belly of a crocodile. Kalameni (a rakshasa disguised as a sage) shown here seated on a pavilion met Hanuman at the foot of the Gandhamadan mountain and asked him to bathe in the lake there before climbing the holy mountain, knowing well it was infested with crocodiles. The next register above is the climactic battle scene: Vibhishana, Rama, Lakshman and a vanara on the left, and a Rakshasa, Ravan, Indrajit, and a drummer on the right. Next is the well-known story of various methods used to wake Ravan’s brother Kumbhakarna from his slumber. Methods included trampling by an elephant, tickling him in the ear, and playing loud instruments: drums, cymbals, and horns. The register at the top is also a rarely depicted scene of Ravana slain, his ten heads severed, his lifeless body streaming blood. His wife Mandodari sits despondently next to him, holding one of his severed heads in her lap. A figure of a woman lying down next to this could be Mandodari but this is not certain.
Krishnalila on the Centre Arch Panel
The Krishnalila in the registers above the central arch start at the bottom left with Krishna killing Bakasur by tearing his beak apart.Above this seems to be the climactic scene of Krishna pulling Kamsa down from his throne. Across from this is the Sakatasura episode where the infant Krishna kills the cart-demon, shown here with heads and arms emanating from either side of a row of wheels. The register above this shows several episodes: on the right Krishna kills the demoness Putana while Yashoda tries to restrain him. Next is the Daan Lila, where a seated Krishna tries to extract a toll from the gopis while old Barai Buri scolds him. Then Krishna battles various demons: He emerges from the python Aghasura, confronts the elephant Kuvalyapida and, perhaps, the horse Keshi. The next register starts with Krishna being bathed by the women of Gokul with pots of Yamuna water and then dressed: a peacock feather is inserted into his hair. Next is a rare depiction of the child Krishna as Anantasayini lying on the coils of a serpent while a woman, perhaps Yashoda at his feet. Also unusual is the next story. Yashoda holds Krishna and Balarama by their hands, perhaps punishing or scolding them. Then a fine image of Yashoda seated on a hexagonal platform, facing the viewer and cradling Krishna’s head to look into his mouth where, the story goes, she sees the whole universe and everything in it, including herself looking into Krishna’s mouth.
The next register seems to have several unrelated scenes, starting on the right with Yashoda tying Krishna’s hands as punishment. Next, Krishna is in a shrine-like swing pulled by the women of Gokul. Then Krishna shows Yashoda his divinity through a vision of him playing the flute as Vishnu, with Siva and Brahma on either side. Next Krishna overpowers another of Kamsa’s demons in wrestling match next to a palm tree. The next register starts with the Cheer Haran leela: a turbanned Krishna sits on a tree while a row of nude gopis stand below. Next to this is the rarely depicted Krishna Kali lila. Radha’s husband has heard about her illicit rendevous with Krishna in the forest. He arrives on the right, sword in hand but finds Radha worshipping Kali which unknown to him is actually Krishna in disguise. The next register shows a seated couple, perhaps Nanda and Yashoda, flanked by guards while two gopis petition to them, perhaps complaining about Krishna. Next is the scene of Krishna and Balarama’s Mathura Gaman in a chariot driven by Akrura, while the gopis and women of Gokul wail and faint in despair. Next to this is another uncommon scene: Krishna and Radha worship Kali. The next register starts with Krishna lifting the Govardhan mountain and then possibly the scene of Radha’s manbhanjan: Krishna apologizes and pleads with a disconsolate Radha. The next scene with several women around a seated king is uncertain. The remaining two registers are well-known scenes: the first is of the raas-leela: Krishna multiplies himself on a moonlit night, so he can dance with all the gopis. And finally at the top is Krishna and Balarama with their unruly flock of cows and calves.
Chandi Mangal on the Right Arch Panel
The registers above the right arch narrate the story of Chandi Mangal, a tale that became popular in 19th century Bengal and is particularly common in temples built by merchant-zamindars. Most temples show one or two important scenes from the story, but here the entire story is depicted in considerable detail. The narrative starts at the bottom left of the arch-panel with the merchant Srimanta invoking the goddess Durga before he starts a journey in search of his father Kaliketu. Durga appears to him, shown here seated on his boat. Then in the register above Srimanta’s mother Khullara is shown giving him to the goddess, and then Sreemanta starts his journey with prayers to the goddess: he stands with folded hands on the boat, while his boatman raises his hands in worship. The next register above starts with Srimanta’s vision of Kamale Kamini in a storm: she is seated on a lotus and swallowing an elephant. Then are shown men (guards or warriors) riding an elephant while another strikes a gong. They are perhaps the king’s men who meet Srimanta when his boat arrives at Ratnamala ghat, as shown in the next register. The next two panels, one showing a bird seemingly diving into the water, and the next showing Durga with a group of men and women are uncertain.
The next register, however, is a beautifully depicted scene of King Shalibahan’s court. The raja is shown seated facing the viewer on a throne while his attendants hold a parasol, offer him a hookah, and fan him with a punkah and a fly-whisk. To the right is a queue of three people, perhaps petitioners, and finally an armed guard. One of the petitioners is Srimanta who tells King Shalibahan of his vision of Kamale Kamini. Shalibahan demands to see it and promises half his kingdom and his daughter if Srimanta’s story is true, else it is the executioner’s sword for Srimanta.
The next register is the main scene of the Kamale Kamini story. The deity is shown at the centre seated on a lotus and holding an elephant on her knee. She is flanked by two lotus roundels probably indicating that she is hidden from view. To her left King Shalibahan is seated with his attendants on his elaborate boat but seems unable to see her, while on her right Srimanta on his boat with his attendants see the goddess and try to draw attention to her. But the promise is unfulfilled, so Srimanta is led away to be executed, in the register above, his hands tied in a rope and with armed guards. So he prays to Durga, shown here knee deep in water praying, and the ten-armed Durga appears seated on a lion and grants him Shalibahan’s daughter in marriage. The next register shows the marriage with pot-bellied men perhaps Brahmins seated on elaborate chairs, and a series of men and women blessing the couple who are shown on the right, standing in front of the covered ritual fire. The last register above shows Srimanta with his wife departing in the boat to return to his home.
Pairs of wall panels are placed along the sides of the facade and arched above the entrance. They are flanked by full-height pilasters on the sides, while at the top shorter pilasters divide the panels into groups of six. Most of the higher panels along the sides and across the top are repetitive, each panel showing a pair of figures: one with matted hair and one arm raised, the other holding an astra over his shoulder, perhaps Saivite sadhus. But the lower wall panels that are at or below eye level base have varying themes. Some have dasavatara in pairs: matsya and kurma in one panel, varaha and narasimha in another, vamana and parasurama in one, and balarama and rama in another.
Other panels show more lilas of Krishna: riding on an elephant composed of nine gopis (Navanarikunjara), milking the cow, wearing an anklet, killing the bull-demon Aristasura, hand in the pot of butter that Yashoda is churning, and liberating the two sons of Kubera who were trapped in the Arjun tree to which Yashoda tied Krishna. Other panels show a goddess seated on a lotus holding an elephant (perhaps Parvati as Ganesh-janani), four-armed goddess on a lion (perhaps Jagaddhatri), and the trio of Jagannath-Balaram-Subhadra (seen increasingly in 19th century temples). Many panels have Saivite scenes: Saivite devotees preparing bhang, a Sadhu seated wearing a knee-band, and sadhus with intricately tied jatas. Also familiar is the scene of Shakuntala feeding leaves to a deer in the hermitage. Less certain are the two panels at the top of the second group below: one showing a figure perhaps Krishna seated on a tree with heads of other figures around him, and the other showing a figure seated on a galloping horse but facing the other direction.
The triangular panels at the top corners of the temple facade usually vegetal scrollwork, often with a single large figure, mostly that of a fantastic yali eating flowers. Here the corner panels are also unusual in being divided into three registers that contain rows of projecting figures. The registers on the left corner panel are of peacocks eating snakes and men who hold snakes or drums or rosaries, and dancing women (women holding peacocks were a common theme in 19th century temples). The registers on the right corner have an erotic scene of a couple seated on a projecting platform. Other figures are of men and women dancing or playing drums and cymbals in front of more peacocks.
Ramayana, Krittibas (15th century)
Sri Krishna Vijay by Maladhar Basu (15th century)
Chandi Mangal, Kabikankan Mukundaram (1544)
Medinipur Purakirti Samiksha, Tarapada Santra (1987)
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I was reminded of this today when I got into a discussion on the Texas Living History Association group site on Facebook about how important fashion might be to American frontier women working at home and in public. The initial question was about head coverings in the first decades of the 19th century and extended generally to work clothing. I'd like to offer here a few period images with comment.
The first is "The Life and Age of Woman," a popular early print that shows age-appropriate dress for various stages of life. You'll notice that the girls and women are all dressed for the same period (c. 1845) and not a span of eighty or more years as we might at first think. This is a cross-section of the dress of middle-class females in the mid-1840s. [Image from the Library of Congress].
Notice that the day cap, once a necessity for any respectable woman, is beginning to lose favor even with young married women.
Here is another example, "The Bashful Cousin," by Francis William Edmonds. The setting is rural New York State, c. 1841, but it could be almost anywhere in the United States or the "settlements." Here we see a young, unmarried girl from a family that is comfortable enough to own their home, employ a cook and wear decent clothing, but also needs to do some housework themselves. Many frontier settlers came from this class. The girl is dressed for general house work in the bodice of an old silk gown, a red flannel petticoat and sensible pumps and stockings. She has a black fichu tied loosely over her shoulders and what I take to be a blue dish cloth tucked into her waistband to serve perhaps as an apron or hand towel as needed. Compare her dress with the older woman's (her mother?) - pink gown and fine linen day cap - and the African American servant coming from the kitchen - head scarf and bib apron. As we've seen, younger women at this time were just freeing themselves of the day cap; even young mothers. But the cap as a sign of respectability was hard to let go of. [Image from the National Gallery of Art].
His wife, too, tries to maintain appearances. She wears a shapeless gown, obviously without a corset or stays, and has neither stockings nor shoes. But, though she is falling-down drunk and her hair hangs loose, she still has on a cap, proudly signifying that she is a married woman. [Image from the Library of Congress].
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The staff of the National Digital Library Program at the Library of Congress have identified ten challenges that must be met if large and effective digital libraries are to be created during the 21st century. In some cases, there may be no technology solution to the challenge, but through sharing of ideas, new thinking may emerge to help institutions such as the Library of Congress formulate policy on these important issues. The challenges may be grouped under the following broad categories building the resource, interoperability, intellectual property, providing effective access, and sustaining the resource. The Library hopes that creative and innovative minds can devise solutions to these challenges.
Building the Resource
Challenge One: Develop improved technology for digitizing analog materials.
In order to build a comprehensive resource, historical materials now in analog form (e.g., books, journals, laboratory records, sound recordings, manuscripts, photographs) must be converted. Today, the technology for digital conversion is, at best, emergent and often forces a library to choose between risking damage to precious originals or producing the highest quality reproductions. There are few established standards or best practices and a shortage of tools for the objective measurement of reproduction quality. There is a need for more automated support for capturing in explicit data structures the navigational and organizational clues implicit in printed works through page numbers, tables of contents, and indices.
Challenge Two: Design search and retrieval tools that compensate for abbreviated or incomplete cataloging or descriptive information.
Providing access to library collections is labor-intensive. In order to apply scarce resources to the digitization of significant quantities of content, it is often necessary to reduce the level of detail offered in accompanying catalogs or indexes. Can automated tools permit the incorporation of factual knowledge (e.g., France is in Europe; Leontyne Price is an opera singer.) into descriptive information, indexing, or search and retrieval systems? Could such bodies of factual knowledge be shared or assembled cooperatively and distributed?
Challenge Three: Design tools that facilitate the enhancement of cataloging or descriptive information by incorporating the contributions of users.
Can the digital library take advantage of distributed expertise? Among millions of users, there will be those who can enhance the description or cataloging of an item, thus improving the next researcher's chance of finding it. Collaborative tools could allow far-flung professional colleagues, e.g., faculty or graduate students in the nation's universities, to provide excellent enhancements to materials they employ for their own advanced research. Less expert users (schoolchildren familiar with buildings in photographs, or individuals who recognize a family member in a group picture) can also add value to the resource. What filters, methods for attributing enhancements without violating privacy, or other protections against misuse could support this enhancement of the resource?
Challenge Four: Establish protocols and standards to facilitate the assembly of distributed digital libraries.
How can a distributed resource like the National Digital Library be assembled to create a virtual unity? What types of protocols and what degree of standardization on types of digital objects will achieve a balance between feasibility of widespread implementation and coherence of access? Should unified searching use an approach like that found in the Z39.50 standard (distributed search) or the approach used by World Wide Web search engines (distributed indexing)? How can distributed digital libraries best safeguard the rights associated with content (including rights of privacy and conditions imposed by donors as well as copyright) while still providing the broadest possible access?
Challenge Five: Address legal concerns associated with access, copying, and dissemination of physical and digital materials.
A key element for digital libraries is appropriate recognition and protection of legal rights such as copyright, publicity, privacy, matters of obscenity, defamation intellectual property protection as well as less legalistic but serious concerns associated with the ethics of sharing or providing access to folk or ethnographic materials. The vision for digital libraries includes fluid, easy access to a wide variety of materials. This is often in conflict with the duties of libraries and archives entrusted with care and management of materials that may be subject to privacy rights or other needs for security.
Efforts to formulate digital libraries will be delayed or frustrated in the absence of a common, responsible framework of rights, permissions, and restrictions that acknowledges the mutual needs of rights-holders and users of materials in digital libraries. The challenge here is, in part, to develop mechanisms, perhaps social expectations independently or in combination with technical means, regarding acceptable levels of access (for example where privacy rights are at issue) and use (such as the extent or permissible copying and dissemination). Could responsible practices include acceptable use policies, codes of practice, and standard contracts that begin to establish norms of behavior by people creating and using digital library resources? How can authors, creators, researchers, publishers (who may require some control over how the information is made available or used) and digital libraries develop reasonably administrable means to maintain appropriate stewardship without focusing only on work in the public domain (or items not otherwise subject to legal protection)?
Materials currently available on the Internet from the American Memory collections range from items for which the Library is unaware of any copyright or other legal concerns to items where permission was sought from copyright or other rights' holders for inclusion in the Library's website. American Memory materials also encompass a wide range of media such as printed text, photographs, prints, sound recordings, and film. Applicants are encouraged to explore the more technical challenges in the context of the legal concerns and should carefully consider the "access statements" as well as the Copyright and Restriction Statements on the American Memory homepage and on most collection homepages. Note that the Library cannot provide legal advice to applicants regarding the contents of the collections beyond these statements.
Challenge Six: Integrate access to both digital and physical materials.
A user looking for an item in a library catalog should be able to identify it without regard to whether it is available in its original physical form or as a digital or microfilm reproduction. Intellectual descriptions of originals and reproductions should be presented in a fully integrated way. During the current experimental period, however, many digitization efforts are disconnected from traditional library services. Even when appropriate catalog records exist, digital content may fail to connect to potential users because individual items in digital collections can not be retrieved directly or are not identified appropriately to support links from traditional catalogs or bibliographic indexes.
Challenge Seven: Develop approaches that can present heterogenous resources in a coherent way.
A digital library that provides diverse content will be characterized by heterogeneity in original format, in digital format and resolution, and in the level of detail and format of descriptive information that is available to support access. This heterogeneity may be seen in the historical collections on-line at the Library of Congress, which typify the larger class of materials that are likely to form part of any digital library, however defined. The National Digital Library Program offering includes books, articles, pamphlets, personal papers, legislative documents, prints, architectural drawings, photographs, maps, sheet music, sound recordings, and movies. Some text materials have been re-keyed and marked up in Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), some have been captured as bit-mapped images, and some are available in both forms. Pictorial images have been captured at various spatial and tonal resolutions. Some collections have detailed catalogs or indexes, while others are described in brief and superficial ways. The Library of Congress is building a generic repository that can store objects in any format, and represent relationships between objects, such as a sequence of page-images forming a book, which might also have been transcribed and marked up in SGML.
In the face of great diversity of content and description, special problems attend to the development of a coherent approach to indexing and presenting retrieval results. It is important that any approach allow all the information available to be used to aid retrieval rather than force the user who wants to search across the entire resource to rely on some lowest common denominator of descriptive information.
Challenge Eight: Make the National Digital Library useful to different communities of users and for different purposes.
How many different ways can users explore and discover content? What capabilities will permit users to customize the interface and specify preferences that affect retrieval results? Will teachers benefit from tools that support group projects or collaboration with colleagues? By whom might these tools be developed? How can differences in vocabulary be resolved? For example, how might an interface translate the search terms selected by today's users into the language of older historical documents? How might the vocabulary of, say, teachers looking for material to illustrate broad topics in a prescribed curriculum be mapped to the vocabulary of the catalogers who describe individual items?
Challenge Nine: Provide more efficient and more flexible tools for transforming digital content to suit the needs of end-users.
Today, each content item in most digital libraries is represented in multiple forms or versions. The multiple forms exist to serve varieties of users, function as archival masters, and reduce download time and transmission loads on networks. A content provider may produce large and small versions of images; compressed and uncompressed versions of images, texts, audio, and video; texts formatted for browser software and also formatted for preservation or publication; and materials both in proprietary formats and in public or "open" formats. This burden of plural production and maintenance results from the fact that today many digital objects are hard to transform on the fly. What technologies can be developed to make digital objects malleable, migrate-able, and transformable? Similar capabilities are also needed to ensure the preserving of digital content for posterity.
Sustaining the Resource
Challenge Ten: Develop economic models for the support of the National Digital Library.
The creation and maintenance of digital libraries is very expensive. Costs are incurred for production, for ongoing provision of access, and for preservation of the digital information. The cost to develop and operate a distributed architecture for long-term archiving, migration, and backup of digital materials will be high. Since the resource is distributed among providers, the net cost tends to be disguised. Libraries would benefit from better estimates of costs and trends in cost for production and maintenance of a corpus of digital information.
How can the continuing costs of assembling content and providing access to the American public best be met? Is technology available that could offer better measurement of benefits and savings? To whom do the greatest benefits and savings accrue? Are there value-added services the payment for which will subsidize broad public access?
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We all know that what we eat affects our physical health, but did you know there’s growing evidence that nutrition and mental wellbeing are also closely linked?
The brain is the largest organ in the body and, like our hearts, livers and other organs, it is affected by what we eat and drink. To put it bluntly, we are what we eat!
Research shows that people who report some level of mental health problems eat fewer healthy foods (fresh fruit and vegetables, organic foods and meals made from scratch) and more unhealthy foods (chips and crisps, chocolate, ready meals and takeaways). The opposite is true too – people who eat healthier foods are more likely to have good mental health.
So what foods give the brain the nutrients it needs for good mental health and wellbeing? Fortunately, it’s the same kind of diet you need for good physical health:
- lots of different vegetables and fruit.
- a wide variety of whole grains, nuts, seeds and legumes.
- some occasional oily fish, lean meat and dairy products.
More on the food - mental health link...
University of Canterbury clinical psychologist Julia Rucklidge is leading the charge when it comes to exploring the links between nutrition and mental health.
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across grain of wood的用法和样例：
- Cleaning exposed the grain of wood.
- Slowly each grain of wood was replaced with grains of minerals.
- Apparently someone mistook the pattern of staining for the grain of wood, and a legend was born.
- And why do you take note of the grain of dust in your brother's eye, but take no note of the bit of wood which is in your eye?
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Let me be completely honest, I 100% picked the topic for today’s post on the basis of the name. Other known names for this conflict include:
- the Pig Episode
- the Pig and Potato War
- the San Juan Boundary Dispute
- the Northwestern Boundary Dispute
Essentially, this was a conflict between the United States and the British Empire over where the boundary should be located between the US and the British controlled British Columbia. More specifically, the conflict was centered around which of these nations should have control of the territory known as the San Juan Islands which are placed between Vancouver Island and the western coast of the mainland of North America.
A map of the area where the San Juan Islands sit between Vancouver Island and Mainland North America.
While the incident began (and was named) due to the shooting of a pig, there were no shots exchanged and no human casualties making this was a bloodless conflict – although I think that the pig might disagree.
The Oregon Treaty of 1846 had determined that the US and what would become B.C. were to be divided “along the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver Island, and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the Pacific Ocean.”
Great plan, teeny tiny problem. there are actually two straits which could be considered the ‘middle of said channel’; Haro Strait to the west of the San Juan Islands or Rosario Strait which runs to their east. Naturally, both sides of the agreement felt that the strait giving them the islands was the one identified in the treaty. While this dispute was simmering away, the British Hudson’s Bay Company established operations on San Juan Island (yep, one of the San Juan Islands is named San Juan) by turning the island into a sheep farm. This action was shortly after followed by 25-30 American settlers arriving on the island.
The Boundaries of the Pig War. Blue represents the U.S. preference, red that of the British, and green was a proposed compromise that didn’t end up pleasing anyone.
All of this came to a head on June 15, 1859 when an American farmer who had come to live on the San Juan island found a large pig in his garden. Frustrated by this pig eating his tubers he shot the pig, killing it instantly. Unfortunately, this pig ended up belonging to an Irishman who was employed by the HBC to run their sheep ranch. This incident between these two individuals escalated until a point where British authorities threatened to arrest the farmer and the American settlers responded by calling for military protection.
Now you might think, as I do, that this was already an over-dramatic reaction to the situation but just wait. It gets better. By August 1859 there were 461 Americans with 14 cannons facing off against 5 British warships which had a combined 70 guns and 2,140 men. Despite all of this excessive posturing, no shots were fired.
Luckily, when news of this standoff reached London and Washington officials from both nations were understandably shocked and immediately took action to calm the situation. It was determined that both sides would retain a joint military occupation of the island until a final settlement was reached. Just in case you thought this was moving towards rationality, this joint occupation lasted for 12 years while both sides lobbied for supremacy.
The dispute was finally settled through international arbitration, with Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm I acting as arbitrator, in 1872 with the favour going to the United States.
This war is commemorated to this day in San Juan National Historical Park.
And one final map. Image form sanjuanems.org
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DEN HAAG, Netherlands (PRWEB) January 06, 2015
Global warming has been an issue that had taken a significant share of the community's concerns since the second half of the 20th century. Yet, even with all the updated evidence coming out to support the claim, it is noteworthy how many people remain unaware of the real impact of global warming to the environment and humanity, as a whole. Sharing this view, author Leon Saracini pens "The Five Fingers of Global Destruction" (published by Xlibris UK). This nonfiction simplifies the nitty-gritties of global warming to any reader without a need for prior knowledge in ecology or tedious scientific jargon.
The book explains in five steps all the consequences of global warming through the conversation of two friends, Mr Donoti and Mr Noel. They meet for a drink in a bar somewhere on the northern hemisphere during the month of July. It is summer but raining heavily. While commenting on the weather, Mr. Donoti explains to Mr. Noel the reason for such weather and the global warming process. He does this by explaining and asking questions on few topics in order to also explain that the general belief of some natural processes is wrong, such as that more Oxygen is produced by phytoplankton than the Amazon.
Candid, satirical and truthful without being too scientific, "The Five Fingers of Global Destruction" aims to raise awareness among the multitude to contribute to conservation efforts that have dragged lackadaisically despite decades of advocacy that have gone unrequited. It provides an eye-opener for people from all walks of life and promotes a sense of urgency for active participation and cooperation towards a common goal.
“The Five Fingers of Global Destruction”
By Leon Saracini
Hardcover | 6x9in | 50 pages | ISBN 9781499091687
Softcover | 6x9i in | 50 pages | ISBN 9781499091670
E-Book | 50 pages | ISBN 9781499091694
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Leon Saracini is a former student of astronomy, a father, a husband, a son and a brother. He has vast experience in international peace organizations and media and journalism. Saracini has also been a part time DJ, inventor, first aid instructor, multilingual and animal rights advocate who is greatly concerned about the lack of people's willingness to learn and understand the true consequences of Global Warming and to do something about it.
Xlibris Publishing UK, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider dedicated to serving authors throughout the United Kingdom. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles. For more information, visit xlibrispublishing.co.uk or call 0800 056 3182 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisUK on Twitter for the latest news.
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Music in psychological operations is the use of music by military or police forces. The term music torture is sometimes used by critics of the practice of playing loud music incessantly to prisoners, or those being interrogated. The UN and the European Court of Human Rights have banned the use of loud music in interrogations, but it is still being widely used. Though the term "torture" is used, the playing of music to prisoners has never been judged to meet the legal definition of torture as stated within the United States Code. While the practice is viewed as causing discomfort, it has also been characterized by American experts in interrogation as causing no "long term effects." The qualification "long term effects" as requisite of the definition of torture is, contrary to what has been suggested, neither part of the U.S. penal code, nor part of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and therefore not a reason to dismiss allegations of torture.
Instances of use * It is currently being used by the United States 361st Psychological Operations Company, a unit dedicated to discovering new ways in which to interrogate effectively.
* A BBC News report claimed that music by band Metallica, and from children's TV programs Barney and Sesame Street, was being used to cause sleep deprivation and culturally offend the prisoners.
* According to Sergeant Mark Hadsell: "These people haven't heard heavy metal. They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them."
Other instances
* Bombardment with loud music has been known to have been used in other occasions Manuel Noriega "When the United States invaded Panama in December 1989, Noriega took refuge in the Holy See’s embassy which was immediately surrounded by U.S. troops. After being continually bombarded by hard rock music and “The Howard Stern Show” for several days, Noriega surrendered on Jan. 3, 1990."
According to the FBI: "W[itness] observed sleep deprivation interviews w/strobe lights and loud music. Interrogator said it would take 4 days to break someone doing an interrogation 16 hrs w/lights and music on and 4 hrs off. Handwritten note next to typed synopsis says "ok under DoD policy". "Rumors that interrogator bragged about doing lap dance on d[etainee], another about making d[etainee] listen to satanic black metal music for hours then dressing as a Priest and baptizing d[etainee] to save him - handwritten note says 'yes'." "W[itness] saw d[etainee] in interview room sitting on floor w/Israeli flag draped around him, loud music and strobe lights. W suspects this practice is used by DOD DHS based on who he saw in the hallway." The Washington Post, quoting a leaked Red Cross report, wrote:
"The physical tactics noted by the Red Cross included placing detainees in extremely cold rooms with loud music blaring, and forcing them to kneel for long periods of time, the source familiar with the report said."
According to Amnesty International: "Detainees have reported being routinely subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during arrest and detention. Many have told Amnesty International that they were tortured and ill-treated by US and UK troops during interrogation. Methods often reported include prolonged sleep deprivation; beatings; prolonged restraint in painful positions, sometimes combined with exposure to loud music; prolonged hooding; and exposure to bright lights. Virtually none of the allegations of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated by the authorities."
On January 12, 1998 the Supreme Court of Israel declined to ban the use of loud music as an interrogation technique.
“Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured,” Morello said in a statement released by the campaign, charging that some inmates had been subjected to loud music for 72 hours in a row.
“Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney’s idea of America, but it’s not mine,” he added. “The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me — we need to end torture and close Guantanamo now.”
here the lyrics are given a political meaning. it is about how george bush would like to get the people of america to stay out of any political business and to let him act like he pleases since he cannot defend or justify his actions anyway - because they are firstly simply not right and therefore unjustifiable and secondly because mr bush's ability to express himself is more than clumsy.
mr bush is the father singing to his son, the people of amrica. "step away from the window/go back to sleep" means don't look at what is going on outside. it is not your concern. mind your own business and go back to sleep. sleep is here seen as a state of unawareness.
the government declares this attitude to be right and necesarry to protect the people of their enemies, trheir demons and of the voice of reason, the voice that tells the truth about mr bush's highly questionable decisions.
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Remember Our Soldiers
Materials for experiential,active learners
Mrs. Portulaca Purpilopilis
and the Purple Adventure Goggles
Facts to Wow your Friends!
(New: Sample Iditarod Webquest!)
History For Kids
Tween Tribune-News Stories for Student
DogoNews: Fodder for Young Minds
Time for Kids-Around the World
BBC Website for Kids
GEOGRAPHIC SECRET MESSAGE1
Find the answer to the following geographic puzzlers.Then, place the first letter of the word in the proper space below to solve the geographic message.
A.The world's largest desertis 3.5 million sq. miles in size and is found in Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia , Algeria and other nations of Africa: ____________(5)
B.The world's largest waterfall is found in Venezuela and is 3212 ft. high:____________________(1)
C.The world's longest mountain range is found in South America. It is about 5000 miles long:______________(4)
D.This is a famous cave in southwestern France where wonderful cave paintings have been found: _____________ (3)
E. The world's highest navigable lake is found in the South American country of Peru. It is about 12,500 ft. above sea level:______________ (2)
Write the definition of this geographic term:_____________________
Place the word in a sentence:_________________________________
Rewrite 5 sentences to create a new question: For example: The highest mountain peak in the world can be found In Nepal and Tibet.(Mt. Everest) Rewritten: Mount Everest can be found in which two areas?(Nepal and Tibet)
IF YOU LIKE THIS RESOURCE, CHECK OUT MY TPT STORE TO PURCHASE THE COMPLETE PRODUCT. THERE ARE 5 GEOGRAPHIC MESSAGES.
I HAVE 2 RESOURCES AVAILABLE. THEY ARE $3 EACH.http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Geography-Geographic-Secret-Messages-709102andhttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Geography-Geographic-Secret-Messages-Continuepart-2-709110
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Read this tip to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Raised Garden Maintenance Tips and other Raised Garden topics.
Acid. Acid rain is bad. Folic acid is good. Acid trips...those are so 1960s. Acid soil? Forget it. Actually, most plants need acidity to some degree. Proper gardening technique will help you work with acid or alkaline soils, especially if you've used your existing topsoil for raised bed gardening.
While most soil is either 6.0 or 7.0 pH or the median between acid and alkaline, certain areas of the country, such as the South, have more alkaline soils. Most of the plants in your raised garden bed will probably need more pH--in this case, a higher number means less acid.
Here's a raised bed gardening tip, not a trip: While you're maintaining your garden, add more limestone in powdered form to lower the acidity if you grow clematis, and sulfur to increase the acidity and lower the pH if you grow heather. Raised bed gardening gives you more control over your soil. You usually need to add extra lime for alkaline soils every year, since raised beds don't percolate water.
Water percolation gives your garden a shot of lime. So to sum up, acid trips can be a good raised bed gardening technique, but if you did too much acid in the 1960s, you'll be happier if your garden goes cold turkey, man.
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This is the beginning of my series on the gender gap in earnings. It turns out that I can't write about this topic except in the academic style. My apologies for that.
The first post in this series gives you a concentrated summary of the economic explanations for why men earn more than women, on average, all over the world. The next post will look at actual evidence about the gender gap and how that evidence fits with the theories. The last part of the series explains why the right-wing's explanation for the gender gap in earnings is misleading and mostly incorrect.
The theories I describe here are just that: theories, and that they are discussed does not mean that they have proven to be true. The question of their value in explaining real world gender differences in earnings will be thoroughly investigated in the next part of the series. It's unfortunate that the theories need to be talked about before the fun stuff, but that's life for you.
A good place to start is to define the concept of an earnings gender gap. In most statistical sources this takes the average earnings of women who work full-time and compares it to the average earnings of men who work full-time. The gender gap is the ratio of women's average earnings to men's earnings, both defined for full-time workers. If men and women on average had the same earnings this ratio would equal one. The lower women's earnings are as a proportion of men's earnings, the lower the figure we arrive at. In the United States the recent gender gap, defined for full-time workers only, has hovered around 0.75 or 75% in percentage terms. (The term "gender gap" is a clumsy name for this ratio. It would have been better to find the actual gap (say, 25% in the case of the U.S.) and to talk about that directly. But what is done is done and I will apply the common clumsy concept in this series.)
Most studies don't include part-time workers' earnings in the calculation of the earnings gender gap. When these are included the gender gap increases dramatically, because most part-time workers are women and because part-time work tends to pay less well than the otherwise equivalent but full-time positions. The existing numbers on the gender gap underestimate the actual earnings differences between the sexes.
Fringe benefits, things like retirement benefits and health insurance, are usually also omitted from the gender gap calculations. These benefits tend to go up with earnings, though, so it's fairly safe to argue that if they affect the size of the gender gap it will be in the direction of making the gap bigger.
The gender gap is found all over the world but its size varies greatly from the smallest gap of 0.9 (meaning that women earn 90% of what men earn, on average) in countries such as Sweden and Australia to as large a gap as 0.4 in Russia. That the gender gap is not the same size in all countries means that it is at least partly affected by the laws and labor market customs of the countries. It is not some sort of a Biblical constant that cannot be altered, in other words. This is also reflected in the fact that the gender gap changes over time. In the United States, for example, the gap narrowed from the 1960s to the 1980s and then slightly widened during the 1990s. The gap can narrow not only when women's earnings rise but also when men's earnings fall, and at least some of the narrowing in the U.S. has been due to the worsening of men's earnings in blue-collar occupations which have been especially hit by newer production methods using less workers and the outsourcing of the labor the developing countries.
How does this read so far? Academic and technical and not fun, but I can't really write it much better. I know too much, sadly.
Before I tackle the theories themselves, a few more words on the definition of the gender gap: Note that the earnings concept that is used is the gross pay of workers. This means that it depends not only on how much the worker is paid per hour or per week or per month but also on how many hours, weeks or months the worker is toiling at the job. The reason why the gender gap is usually measured only for full-time workers is that doing this controls for differences in how much people work as a reason for income differences. The control is not complete, as some full-time workers work more hours than others. But the studies I discuss in the next part take this into account by adjusting the gender gap measure to reflect actual reported working hours. The rest of this first part assumes that we have taken into account the variation in hours worked so that the gender gap can be viewed purely as a measure of higher wages or salaries for men than for women.
Note also that the gender gap is calculated across all jobs. Men and women often work very different types of jobs. This is called labor market segregation, and it may be voluntary (chosen by the workers) or it may be involuntary (chosen by the firms through steering workers to certain jobs). What this segregation means is that we may be comparing the earnings of men and women in quite different occupations. Luckily, it turns out that the empirical methods we use can control for at least some of these differences.
Why would men on average receive higher wages (or salaries, but I will use wages for simplicity from now on)? At the risk of tremendous oversimplification, I offer three basic explanations:
1. Men are better workers than women, on average.
2. Women want to work in jobs which pay less.
3. Women are treated unfairly at work.
The first of these reflects the simple idea that more productive workers will be paid more. Are men more productive workers? How would you try to find out about this for, say, systems analysts or physicians? Productivity is really hard to measure except in the simplest of cases, especially if we want something very objective and easily countable as the measure.
Because of this lack of good productivity measures, economists usually replace them with what might make someone a better worker: education and work experience. The guess is that less educated and less experienced workers would earn less. If there was a big difference in the average education and experience levels between the sexes then we might have explained the wage gap. Too bad that this isn't what works in explaining the current gender gap in the United States, because if it did I could stop writing this post now. But women have at least as much education as men do, these days, and although the average work experience of men is a little higher than that of women the difference is too small to account for much of the gender gap in earnings.
The second theory is the absolute most favorite of the wingnuts. For them the idea that women "choose" jobs which pay less would be great, because it would mean that we need to do nothing about the gender gap. Everybody is happy! Everybody is doing their own thing!
Why would women want to have work which pays less? The answer lies in the idea that jobs offer not only income but a whole bundle of job characteristics, such as safety/riskiness, dirtiness/cleanliness, flexibility/rigidity and so on. If women, on average, value things like safe and clean working conditions and lots of flexibility they might be willing to accept a lower wage rate in exchange for all these goodies. The same would be naturally be true for men, too, which means that this theory only explains the gender gap if we assume that the sexes are, on average, different in what they want from a job.
This theory is mostly used to argue that women "choose" jobs which allow them to care for their children and to do household chores more efficiently. The idea is that it is the women who are responsible for childcare and household management, and that these extra tasks take away from the energy that women can give to their jobs. Thus, women, on average, might choose jobs which offer less stress and thinking and more flexibility in terms of telecommuting or flexible working hours. Because of all these desirable goodies the jobs are acceptable to women even when they don't pay very much. But they are not acceptable for men, on average, as men are expected to provide for the family.
To apply this theory, one doesn't have to decide whether women "choose" lower earnings because of biological differences between the sexes or because of social indoctrination that makes women feel responsible for all the nonmarket work. The conservatives tend to jump to the biological argument right away. Because they'd like that one, I guess. But in practise quite a lot of social indoctrination goes on and at least some of it is likely to have an impact over and above any biological differences.
I have noticed this explanation misused a lot recently, by combining what I have written here with the idea of women who quit working as an explanation of the gender gap. But that is nonsensical. Women who are no longer in the labor force are not affecting the gender gap as they have no earnings. Neither are the women who work part-time, because the gender gap is measured for full-time workers. Indeed, as women who feel the burden of family responsibilities strongly are quite likely not to work full-time the power of this general explanation is considerably weakened.
The way to test this theory is by finding out if the jobs that are predominantly female indeed have flexibility, and all the other things that the theory assumes that women find desirable but that men don't. Then one would also somehow test that women actually "choose" these jobs rather than being steered into them by career counselors, parents, teachers and the clergy. That is pretty hard to do.
This is a good place to say a few words about "choice". The wingnuts use "choice" as a codeword for things which require no meddling by the government. If something is "chosen" and turns out to be a mess, the chooser should suffer the consequences unaided. This trivializes choice. It makes the choices a mother makes no different from the choices I make when I decide which chocolate bonbon I will eat next. Yet the choices women make about working or not have repercussions elsewhere in the society and on themselves. A woman who takes a job that pays less in order to care for her children or her partner will also end up with less retirement benefits when she is old, and this is because of the way we have decided to determine retirement benefits.
More generally, when we make choices we make them under constraints. If I am sentenced to death and offered the choice between hanging and being shot you could argue that I'm choosing to die in a certain manner, but I'm not choosing the death part. Likewise, the choices women make about their working circumstances are not totally free choices; they are made under constraints: a husband who earns more and will not adjust his hours for this reason, in-laws that scold you for being a bad mother if you take that job with traveling and so on.
Note also that a woman might "choose" a job that pays less because at an earlier time in her life she was excluded from getting the right kind of education for better-paying jobs by her family or by the school system. This may not be common today in the United States but continues to be a severe problem in many other parts of the world.
The third and final theory has to do with the idea that women are treated unfairly by the labor market or by the wider societal institutions, and that the combined effect of these unfair treatments is to make women earn less. I'm talking discrimination here, but in a slightly different sense than the word is commonly employed, and I need to define the term in a little more detail. I'm going to start with direct wage discrimination.
Direct wage discrimination is what we usually think of as sex discrimination in employment: a man and a woman do the same job and the woman gets paid less for it. Doing this is illegal since the 1963 Equal Pay Act (which Alito might destroy), but in reality it is very difficult to find out if somebody else is getting paid more for the same job. This is because earnings are often kept secret. It is also possible to adjust one of the jobs ever so slightly and then call it a different job, though the Equal Pay Act is supposed ot ignore such fine-tuned differences.
But direct wage discrimination is not the only way in which women, on average, might end up being paid less than men. Consider hiring and promotions. If women are not hired or promoted into the best-paying occupations they cannot earn the high wages, even without any direct wage discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act therefore bans sex discrimination in hiring and promotions (and Alito might get rid of that one, too). A worker needs to at least suspect that she has been the victim of discrimination to use this Act, though, so the number of actual cases filed does not measure the whole extent of possible hiring and promotion discrimination. I talk about some alternative ways of measuring this in Part Two.
Labor market segregation, the pattern of finding certain jobs mainly male and other jobs mainly female, may also be caused by discrimination, not just by free "choices" by the workers based on what they want from a job. A famous discrimination case against the AT&T company in the 1970s showed that the company used different hiring literature for men and women, and different jobs were described in the leaflets, and once it used to be common to advertize a job for either men or women. If such steering happens, women may be steered into the female jobs in such large numbers that the wage rate in these jobs drops. Usually a dropping wage rate would make job-seekers turn to other occupations. But discrimination against women might make this unfeasible. There is lots of anecdotal evidence that men in some blue-collar occupations use sexual harassment as a way to keep female competition for the same jobs down.
Why would sex discrimination exist in the first place? Economists have three major groups of explanation for its existence, and all of these would also apply to, say, race discrimination. These groups are
1. Bigotry or hatred as held by either employers, coworkers or consumers in a society
2. The fact that discriminating can actually be income-increasing to the discriminator
3. Explanations based on lack of information or biased information, such as prejudice.
The oldest of these explanations is the first one, the idea that some people just are sexist. Remember the idea that workers might pick jobs not just on the basis of the wage rate but also on the basis of other job characteristics, such as risk or dirtiness? Well, one job characteristic that might matter to a bigot would be whether the other workers are women or men. A misogynist would refuse to work with (or under) a woman, unless he or she was paid a lot more than in alternative all-male jobs. This will not happen in a well-functioning market place, but if there were enough misogynists (so that the firms needed to hire them to get enough workers) then firms would start segregating women from men at the workplace, to keep things peaceful. This is one example of the way that sex-segregation might not be by female choice.
If employers dislike working near women they would treat female job applicants in a similar manner to the previous explanation: The woman would have to be either a lot better to be paid the same wage rate as a comparable man or she would have to agree to work for less. This so that the mental suffering being near women would cause the owner or manager gets compensated.
Consumers can also discriminate. Think of the patrons of a restaurant who refuse to be waited on by a woman, say. If such patrons are many, women might find it hard to get jobs at this restaurant, unless they are willing to work for less than otherwise comparable men. Because hiring them means losing some business. This example also shows how hard productivity might be to measure if consumers are bigots themselves.
All these types of bigotry could exist at the same time, which means that the overall effect would be to lower the wages women can get and to enforce sex-segregation at work. But this theory is almost always applied in the form where the only bigots are the owners or managers of the firm. This particular type of discrimination, it is said in Wingnuttia, can't survive in the long-run (meaning a time period long enough for new firms to enter the market and for existing firms to leave) if competition works, and therefore discrimination doesn't exist. The argument goes like this: Suppose neutral and nice people start new firms in the market. They immediately spot that the bigots are paying women a lot less, and these women are every bit as productive workers as the more expensive men. So these new firms go out and hire all women. Their total wage bill is less than that of the bigot firms and their profits higher. Over time the bigot firms will be outcompeted and must leave the industry, and both men and women end up earning the same wages. End of story.
Well, they are wrong, even within the narrow submodel they have chosen to apply. The reason is that the eradication of discrimination in the long-run would only take place in very competititive markets which are quite rare in the real world, and only if large existing firms had no specific advantages from being large (such advantages could keep the good guys entering with small new firms from ever getting established). More generally, they are wrong because both coworkers and consumers can discriminate against women, and because the models we have looked at so far ignore other reasons why discrimination might exist. Most importantly, they assume that information on workers' productivity is perfectly known to everybody.
The second group of explanations argues that discrimination may be the right thing for firms to do if they want to make as much profits as possible and if they have at least some market power in hiring. This means that there are few alternative places where the workers could find jobs. Mining towns are sometimes used as an extreme example of this situation: if you don't work in the mine you don't work, but university towns might also offer a good example of something similar.
Men and women might have different labor supply elasticities. What this rigmarole means is that women might be willing to work for less money than men for reasons that have to do with family arrangements. Think about dual career academic couples. If such a couple decides to accept a job offer for one of them in a small college town the other one is likely to be very restricted in the kinds of jobs he or she (but usually she) can find. The college knows this and may be able to get the following spouse for very little money.
This model is an example where the firm makes more money by discriminating than by not discriminating. Its application may not be very wide as the college town type examples are not too common, but it's a good one to present, just to remind the wingnuts that markets don't necessarily self-correct away from discrimination. There are other models in this group which concentrate on not how income can be increased by discriminating but on how punishments can reduce the income of a non-discriminating firm. To get a flavor of these, think about what might have happened to a firm which employed women in the Taliban-era Afghanistan.
The third group of explanations lumps together various theories which apply the idea that information often has large holes in it and that we may think we have truthful information about something when we do not. This esoteric stuff turns out to explain labor market discrimination, too.
One example of it is plain old prejudice. Prejudice here would mean holding incorrect (perhaps outdated) or no information about the true skills of some group of people, say, women. An employer with prejudice would not want to hire women, because he or she would fear that they turn out to be bad workers. It's irrelevant that this might be untrue; as long as the employer dislikes taking risks the women will not be hired, unless something forces the employer to do so. One such force is wartime. Women broke into many occupations during the World Wars because the firms had not alternative but to hire them. In the case of pure prejudice just seeing that the women could do the jobs would change the employer's attitudes and stop the discrimination against women.
Another example of the information theories is what is called statistical discrimination. This consists of using the average group characteristic as a proxy for any one individual in that group. Thus, all young men might be assumed to drive with the same care as the average young man, for insurance purposes. Because on average young men have a poor accident record the premia that all must pay are high. This discriminates against the careful drivers in the group of young men and favors the most reckless ones.
The insurers do this because they don't know how to get good information on any one individual's driving habits, but it's discrimination nevertheless.
The same principle may apply to women in the labor market. People who are hiring or promoting workers in a large firm may treat all women as if they are going to be just like the average woman. Add to this something like the belief that women are more likely to quit a job than men (which is not necessarily true, by the way), and you can see why firms would choose to train and promote men rather than women. But they would be discriminating.
This is not a thorough overview of the relevant economic theories, just a quick walk-through. The amount of words I give per theory is not an indication of the importance of that theory but dictated by how much background I believe my readers have. I stress the discrimination theories not because I would find them to be of overwhelming importance but because the recent onslaught of conservative arguments that there is no discrimination, that there can be no discrimination.
The next post will look at one study in greater detail, to see how the various theories perform and what proportion each explanation can account for out of the total gender gap in earnings in the United States.
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Diesels in the Occupational Environment: An Environmental Perspective.
Piacitelli-GM; Jones-WG; Timko-JF
NIOSH 1985 May:18 pages
Following a brief review of the history and applications of diesel power, some aspects of diesel power in the workplace were investigated. The diesel engine has become a highly developed, heavy duty power unit which is a predominant source of industrial power throughout the world, primarily since it can burn a low grade fuel more efficiently and therefore cheaper than other internal combustion or stem power engines. Levels of carbon-dioxide (124389), carbon-monoxide (630080), and nitrogen-dioxide (10102440) (NO2) in environments using diesel engines were compared. Studies of the operation of such equipment had been conducted in underground coal mines, metal and mineral ore mines, heavy equipment operations, engine repair shops for both transit buses and for railroad locomotives, ammunition warehouses using diesel forklifts, and submarines using auxiliary diesel engines. Results of an analysis of these studies indicated that the impact of diesel exhaust on air quality depends on the operations being performed, the emission controls applied and the amount of dilution provided by ventilation. NO2 and diesel particulates were considered to be the critical pollutants. Various methods of reducing the emission levels were discussed.
Equipment-operators; Construction-industry; Mining-industry; Diesel-engines; Diesel-exhausts; Airborne-particles; Mining-equipment; Transportation-industry; Underground-mining;
124-38-9; 630-08-0; 10102-44-0;
NTIS Accession No.
Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, NIOSH, Morgantown, West Virginia, 18 pages, 35 references
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Burgaw Historic District
The Burgaw Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [†] Adaptation copyright © 2012, The Gombach Group.
Incorporated in 1879, the town of Burgaw owes its existence to the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, which was completed in 1840 between the port of Wilmington and the town of Weldon on the Roanoke River near the Virginia border. The tracks were laid through what is now Pender County in 1838, and a depot and post office were established on Burgaw Creek at a place first called Cypress Grove but renamed Burgaw Depot in 1854. When Pender County was divided from New Hanover County in 1875, the railroad offered to donate surrounding land for a town if Burgaw Depot were chosen as site of the county seat. A civil engineer employed by the railroad divided the town into blocks and lots providing for streets, railroad facilities, churches, schools, cemeteries, and a centrally located courthouse. In recognition of the generous donation by the railroad, the town's streets were named after railroad officials. As the post-Civil War agricultural economy of Pender County encouraged the division of former large plantations into smaller farms, the railroad offered expanding markets for the farmers' produce.
Burgaw experienced growth as a center of transportation and commerce, as well as a county seat. The citizens of the town worked cooperatively in promoting educational opportunities, building religious edifices, and establishing social institutions. In addition to a small commercial area composed of intact brick buildings from the first third of the twentieth century, the town retains a diverse mix of modest and sophisticated domestic architecture from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The intact character of the Burgaw's commercial buildings, its well-kept and attractive residential neighborhoods, along with the picturesque courthouse square containing the handsome 1934 Pender County courthouse (National Register 1970), combine to make Burgaw one of the state's best preserved railroad towns.
Historical Background, Community Development and Planning Contexts
The history of Burgaw is intertwined with the development of railroads through southeastern North Carolina. Work on the Wilmington and Raleigh railroad line began in 1836 when the first tracks were laid. By 1840, the last spike of the track was driven, creating the longest single line of track in the world at 161-1/2 miles. By 1849, a post office had been established at Cypress Grove, New Hanover County (Reaves, p.1). On January 24, 1854, the name was officially changed from Cypress Grove to Burgaw Depot. In 1855, the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad Company became the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Serving as one of the life-lines of the Confederacy, the Wilmington and Weldon railroad carried troops as well as supplies from the port of Wilmington to the battlefields of Virginia. Burgaw Depot experienced much activity during the war (Reaves, p.2).
On February 12, 1875, Pender County, named for General William Pender of the Confederate States Army, was created from New Hanover County. When the campaign for the location of the county seat occurred, the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad took a lively interest in having it located at Burgaw. The railroad agreed to donate land for the town if the county would put the courthouse there. W.H. James, a civil engineer with the railroad, examined the land at Burgaw Depot lying between the railroad and Burgaw Creek and reported it a good location for a town and well situated for drainage. He divided a seventy-three-acre site into blocks and lots, providing for streets, railroad facilities, and a centrally located courthouse. Other sites were set aside for churches, schools, and cemeteries. On February 6, 1876, the company formally deeded the town tract to the Pender County Board of Commissioners and by June of the same year, seventy-five lots had been sold (Reaves, p.5).
The town was laid out in a systematic manner with wide streets running north and south, east and west. In recognition of the generosity of the railroad, many of the town's streets were named after railroad officials. Bridgers Street was named after Col. Robert Rufus Bridgers, then president of the railroad; Fremont Street after Col. S.L. Fremont, who had been the general superintendent of the railroad; Cowan Street after a former president of the railroad; MacRae Street for one of the railroad's directors; Dickerson Street, after a man prominent in the formation of the railroad (Reaves, p.5).
In August of 1877, Burgaw was selected for the county seat over South Washington (now known as Watha). By an act of the North Carolina General Assembly, the county seat was named Stanford. Incorporated in 1879, the town changed its name to Burgaw, after a tribe of Indians called the Burghaws, who had inhabited the eastern part of the county (Bloodworth, p.22). The name was likely favored over Stanford because of a nearby waterway known as Burgaw Creek which is included on the Collet map of 1770. Burgaw grew slowly, with early citizens building homes in town, while simultaneously maintaining their rural plantations. Lacking a place to worship or attend school, in 1879 a committee of citizens erected a two-story building called the Male and Female Academy. Used principally as a school, the building also hosted church services, Sunday School, and community dances. In addition, the academy served as the first courthouse (Bloodworth, p.24).
In May of 1880, M.M. Moore was elected mayor of Burgaw (Reaves, p.9). That same year, the railroad agreed to transport materials for the construction of county buildings at cost; while for individuals, twenty percent would be deducted for one year. A committee met to discuss plans for a two-story courthouse. A.H. Paddison manufactured the bricks on site, while contractors Messrs. Ellington, Royster, Smith and Company of Raleigh erected the building for $9,856.00. Pender County Superior Court held its first session in the new courthouse on December 17, 1883 (Library Files, courthouse).
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the area around Burgaw began to develop as a truck farming region. In addition to older staple crops including cotton, corn, ground peas, and naval stores, vast quantities of strawberries and other fruits and vegetables were produced for shipment by rail to northern markets. In response to this increased and more varied agricultural production, the original c.1850 train depot, was expanded upon in 1898 to accommodate increased passengers and additional freight. Expansion of the Burgaw depot occurred at a time when railroads were expanding and consolidating at a rapid pace in North Carolina and the nation as a whole. In 1900, the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad consolidated with other lines to form the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
Churches organized in the town as early as 1880; that year the congregation of the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church organized. In 1883, the congregation erected a frame church on the corner of North Walker and East Ashe streets on a 1/2-acre plat donated by the railroad. In 1915, under the leadership of the Rev. T.S. Marsh, the church enlarged and remodeled, adding brick veneer to the exterior. The church continues to serve its members and is one of the oldest churches in Burgaw (Library Files, AME Church Historical pamphlet).
Several Burgaw congregations employed the Academy building for their initial worship services. The Burgaw Presbyterian Church held its first service in the Male and Female Academy on Friday, June 13, 1879. Later that same year, the congregation erected a frame church on the corner of East Fremont and South Walker Streets. Renovations and additions in 1919 to the original church resulted in the handsome double tower Gothic Revival church which stands today (Library Files, Burgaw Presbyterian Church History).
Organized on September 13, 1884, the Burgaw Baptist Church also met in the Academy building until the late 1890s. On March 7, 1892, the church purchased a lot for $80.00 on the corner of East Bridgers and North Wright streets. Members of the congregation, including John Wright Bowen who cut timber off his land and hauled it into town, contributed to the building of their first church. The simple frame church served the congregation until the construction of the present brick church in 1948 (Library Files, Burgaw Baptist Church History).
The Burgaw Methodist Church dates to 1896 when camp meeting type services were held. In 1900, the newly organized Atlantic Coast Line Railroad donated a piece of land to the congregation, which they traded for another lot located on the northwest corner of Bridgers and Walker streets. While their initial services were held in the Academy building, plans were underway by 1903 to construct a sanctuary. This first frame building served the congregation until 1928 when the present brick Gothic Revival church building was constructed (Library Files, Burgaw Methodist Church History).
In 1887, the Pender County Commissioners contracted for the erection of a two-story brick jail at Burgaw. The estimated cost of construction was $2,860.00. On February 2, 1888, a ball was held in the new jail before contractors turned over the building to the county (Reaves, p.20). The building served as the county's correctional facility until replaced in 1924 with the Mission Revival-style building on East Wilmington Street. Currently vacant, the 1924 jail was replaced in 1978 by a modern facility located on North Walker Street.
As the town grew, many social clubs were organized. On June 25, 1888, a young men's "Cleveland and Fowle" Club organized. A "Tennyson Literary Club" formed in 1897, and the following year, a lodge of Odd Fellows was planned in Burgaw. The Burgaw Cycle Club built a bicycle track in 1897, which circled the courthouse square and was the scene of many exciting races (Reaves, p.30).
In October, 1896, the Burgaw Institute for blacks was organized by the executive board of the Middle District Association. The board of directors included Rev. E.J. Bell, K.M. Gavins, Rev. W.M. DeVane, R. Royal, J.L. Fennell, Rev. I.M. Powers, and G.L. Smith. The first school was held in a small one-room frame building.
The first businesses in Burgaw opened at approximately the same time the town incorporated. A commercial district developed along Fremont and Wright streets, opposite the courthouse square. As early as 1878, Mr. A.H. Williams was managing a hotel in Burgaw (Reaves, p.6). Livery stables and general merchandise stores served the town's citizens and farmers from the surrounding area. A canning factory, a grist mill, and a cotton mill, all in business by 1889, reflected the dependent nature of the local economy on agriculture (Reaves, p.22).
A destructive fire struck Burgaw on December 10, 1899. Originating in the feed room of W.N. Rivenbark's livery stable, it destroyed the W.D. Croom and Brother store and the Carter and Brice Stables and damaged a blacksmith's shop, the Burgaw Drug Company, and the Burgaw Hotel (Reaves, p.32). As the early frame buildings succumbed to the ravages of weather and fire, they were replaced with the more durable brick buildings which line the streets today.
By 1900, Burgaw's population had increased to about 600 (U.S. Census, 1900). Two years later, the newly incorporated Pender Publishing Company announced they would publish a weekly newspaper (Reaves, p.34). On March 24, 1904, the first steps were taken to install an electric generating plant at Burgaw (Reaves, p.36). While long distance phone lines reached Burgaw in 1902, actual telephone service was not established until 1906 (Reaves, p.36). By January 25, 1907, the Bank of Pender on the corner of West Fremont and South Wrights streets had been completed. Of white pressed brick, the building contained five office rooms on the second floor, with the bank, J.R. Bannerman's drug store, and the office of Dr. Bradford located on the ground floor (Reaves, p.49). The East River Lumber Company and the Red Lyon Lumber Company were chartered in 1907, while the Burgaw Brick Works, Inc., was chartered in 1908 (Reaves, p.41-42). Additional business established in the early twentieth century included the Croom Brother's; the Parry Patent Log Cart Company; Messrs. John F. Moore, J.D. Farrior, and C. Harrell and Sons, all general stores; and J.M. Myers and Company which dealt in ladies furnishings (Reaves, p.44).
The unveiling of the Confederate Monument in 1914 was cause for a big celebration in Burgaw (Reaves, p.55). The monument, originally located at the intersections of Wright and Fremont streets, was moved to the courthouse square in November, 1951.
Continued growth and prosperity in the second decade of the century resulted in the enlargement of stores and the construction of new hotels and schools. In 1917, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad completed additions to the Burgaw depot, including the office of Giles Kornegay, the railroad agent, for a cost of over $5,000.00 (NR 1986). Cars and automobile showrooms began to replace horse and buggies and blacksmith shops. Dees Drugstore, still in existence today, opened their new store on the corner of Wright Street and Courthouse Avenue in 1936 (Library Files, Dees Drug Store). Henry E. Bonitz, an architect from Wilmington, was chosen in 1917 to draw plans for the remodeling of the 1907 Burgaw School. By 1930, Burgaw's population had increased to 1,209 (U.S. Census, 1930).
Although growth slowed during the years of the Great Depression, it recovered shortly thereafter. On January 8, 1935, the demolition of the old Pender County courthouse began with labor supplied by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The Public Works Administration oversaw the construction of a new courthouse for Pender County. An elaborate ceremony accompanied the dedication of the new Georgian Revival building on November 7, 1937 (Library Files, Pender County Courthouse). Also in 1937, Roy Rowe, owner of the town's theater, announced plans for a modern air-conditioned theater with a seating capacity of 300 on the ground floor and 150 in the balcony. Westbrook's opened a new dime store in the old Pender Theater (Reaves, p.86-87).
Post-World War II prosperity inspired the opening of new businesses in Burgaw. The 1940s saw the construction of the Harrell Electric Appliance Store, Farrior's Department Store, a new commercial cannery, the opening of the Durham Drug Company, the rebuilding of a new Burgaw Baptist Church and the construction of a new brick building for the members of King Solomon Masonic Lodge No. 138 (Reaves, p.100-105). A hospital site was approved in 1948 with ground breaking for the new Pender Memorial Hospital taking place in January, 1950 (Reaves, p.112).
Civic organizations concentrated on beautifying the town, with the Woman's Club planting several hundred azaleas and dogwoods on the courthouse lawn and around town. The same club was responsible for the erection of fifty-two street signs in town (Reaves, p.112-113). Harrell's Department Store celebrated the grand opening of its newly renovated store in April of 1954, while the Humphrey Brothers, who had operated a store for forty years on the corner of Wright Street and Courthouse Avenue, moved to a new location on Courthouse Avenue (Reaves, p.125, 129). They retired five years later after operating a general merchandise business in Burgaw for fifty-five years (Reaves, p.139).
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1967 to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. As a result of the merger, services were combined and over the next twenty years a number of routes were discontinued and the tracks torn up. Among the losses were all the Atlantic Coast Line routes out of Wilmington. Passenger use of the trains had been declining steadily. On March 1, 1968, the last passenger train pulled out of Wilmington, signaling the end of an era in Burgaw and other small towns which the rail line had serviced.
Burgaw's residential district expanded during the second half of the twentieth century, as new homes were built to accommodate the growing population, which had increased to 1,744 by 1970 (U.S. Population Census, 1970). The Pender County Rescue Squad erected a building on Wilmington Street in May of 1971, while Pender County's new administration building opened in July of 1977 on the corner of East Fremont and South Cowan streets (Reaves, p.181). The announcement in October of 1978 that the new highway, Interstate-40, would pass through Pender County, brought about a new era to the town. With traffic between Raleigh and Wilmington bypassing the business district of Burgaw, the town has reclaimed some of the peacefulness of its earlier days. Burgaw's attractive commercial district along with the beauty of courthouse square has recently prompted the movie industry to use the downtown area as a backdrop setting for several major films.
The low tax rate and relatively low cost of living continues to attract industries to Pender County and the town of Burgaw. In the early 1990s, several major businesses opened, including the W.R. Rayson, Inc., a paper conversion company, and the electronics firm of Wieland North American (Library Files, Industry). While Burgaw welcomes well-planned growth, a major priority includes the retention of the town's remaining historic fabric.
The oldest building in the Burgaw Historic District and one which alludes to the town's founding is the c.1850 Burgaw Depot on South Dickerson Street (NR 1986). The depot is one of only two known pre-Civil War depots still standing in North Carolina. In 1898, as rail operations expanded, the building was enlarged with the addition of passenger waiting rooms and offices to the south, and again, in 1916-1917 with freight and warehouse space to the north. While the entire building is sheathed in a combination of lap and board-and-batten siding, each section retains its original style and integrity, serving as an excellent illustration of the growth of the railroad.
Several pre-1900 houses have survived within the Burgaw Historic District, most notable being the M.M. Moore House (107 North Cowan Street), constructed about 1885. M.M. Moore, elected mayor of Burgaw in 1880, built a two-story late Greek Revival style I-house one block north of the courthouse. During a major c.1903 renovation, the original chimneys were dismantled, rear rooms were added to the main block, and a wrap-around porch replaced the former attached porch. The house portrays the evolution of house styles from more regional/vernacular to nationally-popular styles.
Several additional one-story, turn-of-the-twentieth-century houses, built in a modest late Queen Anne cottage style with multi-gable roofs and wrap-around porches, are dispersed throughout the Burgaw Historic District. The proximity to the railroad allowed easy access to factory-produced framing lumber, weatherboard, paneled doors, turned balusters, and sawn brackets, resulting in ornately decorated cottages. Located one block south of the commercial district, the James H. Moore House at 209 South Walker Street, is a one-story variation of the Queen Anne style, complete with Eastlake decorations and other period features. Decorative gingerbread trim and board-and-batten siding in the front gable contribute to the fanciful flavor of this c.1890 cottage.
The adjoining house also reflects the popularity of the Queen Anne cottage style in Burgaw. The c.1890 Dr. W.I. Taylor House (207 S. Walker Street) retains its multi-gable roof, irregular floor plan, attached wrap-around porch supported by wood posts, and an exterior corbelled chimney. Further manifestations of the Queen Anne cottage-style include the Murphy-Sasser House located at 114 North Cowan Street, with its hipped roof and gabled projections, as well as the O.G. Ferrell House located at 206 East Bridgers Street, an attractive Queen Anne cottage with a variety of wings, roof planes, and a wrap-around porch.
The rapid growth of Burgaw's economy around the turn-of-the-twentieth century fueled a matching building boom. Railroad transportation networks encouraged establishment of new industries and made the acquisition of building materials readily available. A substantial number of houses were built, mostly of frame construction, and initially in the transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style. Like earlier houses, they were relatively modest in size and followed standard single- or double-pile plans with full-size attached porches. Two of the best examples from this period include the 1910 Dr. H.B. Thomas House (299 East Bridgers Street) and the 1910 Jack Brown House (204 E. Bridgers Street), both located on East Bridgers Street. The Dr. H.B. Thomas House is a two-story Colonial Revival with Queen Anne details including a wrap-around porch, twin bay windows, and a high hipped roof. A variation on the theme of its neighbor, the Jack Brown House substitutes a gable-front roof for the hipped roof and a one-story rear wing for the bay windows.
As the town continued to grow and prosper, traditional house forms gave way to the new design of the California or Craftsman Bungalow. Horizontal in orientation, with broad, chunky-columned porches sheltered by deep eaves supported by exposed rafters and triangular knee braces, these predominantly one-story houses promised a new more informal lifestyle. Many fine examples of the Craftsman Bungalow are scattered throughout the Burgaw Historic District. The c.1920 Southerland House, located at 307 East Wilmington Street, exhibits design characteristics generally associated with the California Bungalow including the multi-paned 24/1 sash windows and the tapered moldings around windows and doors.
Reflecting nationally popular tastes, several Colonial Revivals appeared in Burgaw prior to World War II. The c.1940 D.J. Farrior House (302 E. Bridgers Street) provides a handsome two-story brick example with a typical Colonial Revival door surround flanked by 8/8 sash windows. Built somewhat later, the 1948 Dees Tourist Home (115 N. Cowan Street) is a two-story brick Colonial Revival situated on the corner of North Cowan and East Wilmington streets. Three bays wide and five bays deep, the central door is flanked by the traditional sidelights and capped by a graceful fanlight, while paired Tuscan columns support the pedimented portico. Built originally as a tourist home or inn, the upper level features eight bedrooms.
The only Tudor Revival home within the Burgaw Historic District, the 1949 Presbyterian Manse (204 East Fremont Street) is a brick Sears and Roebuck mail order house exhibiting cross-timbering in the gable and a prominent exterior chimney on the front facade. Several Cape Cods, with their steeply pitched roofs and gabled dormers, also made an appearance in the late 1940s including the 1947 Williams House at 215 N. Walker Street and the 1949 Bordeaux House located at 104 North Wright Street.
In and adjacent to the residential areas are a number of churches, which serve as focal points for community life. Originally a simple frame building, the Burgaw Presbyterian Church (200 E. Fremont Street) was rebuilt in 1919, incorporating double towers and pointed arch stained-glass windows. The bottom half is brick veneered, while cedar shake shingles cover the upper level. Also starting out as a frame sanctuary, the 1883 Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church (300 North Walker Street) received a face-lift in 1915 when it was enlarged, faced with brick, and incorporated new pointed arch stained-glass windows. The Classical Revival 1928 brick Burgaw Methodist Church (110 E. Bridgers Street) completely replaced an earlier frame building, as did the 1949 brick Classical Revival Burgaw Baptist Church (100 E. Bridgers Street).
Burgaw's early frame stores were gradually replaced with new, one-or two-story brick buildings during the early twentieth century. For the most part, the brick buildings are embellished with corbelled string courses, corbelled cornices, and recessed panels. The 1907 Bank of Pender (100 West Fremont Street), with its stylish details, set a new standard of commercial building for downtown Burgaw. Constructed with white pressed brick, the two-story building exhibits arched windows and a chamfered corner bay. Built in 1913, Harrell's Department Store (107 South Wright Street), displays an interesting mix of orange and red bricks, creating panels of color and texture. Despite the modernization of the first-level entrance, the intact five-bay upper-story sash, stepped-end consoles, and metal crowning cornice express the building's original lively character. The (former) 1913 Humphrey Brothers Store (109 S. Wright Street), located at the northwest intersection of South Wright and West Courthouse Avenue also has preserved its early twentieth century character with its six bays of original two-over-two sash windows, pilastered bays, dog-tooth cornice, and five interior chimney stacks rising above the west parapet. The tripartite J.R. Bannerman Building, at 103/105 West Fremont Street, retains its original clustered upper level 3/1 sash windows, attic vents, stepped parapet and handsome brick work.
Gradual domination of the automobile as a mode of transportation resulted in the construction of several garages and auto showrooms in downtown Burgaw during the 1920s. Built in the Spanish Mission style, the 1924 stuccoed brick R.H. Holland Motor Company Building, at 100 S. Walker Street, displays four arched openings along the principal facade, which rises to a central stepped and peaked parapet.
Also built in the Spanish Mission style, the 1924 Pender County Jail located on the north side of East Wilmington Street is a two-story stuccoed brick building with a symmetrical facade and portico capped by mission tiles. The parapet is accentuated with a centered peak containing a diamond with the date, "1924." The intact second-level metal cells, along with the first level apartment of the jailer attest to the close living quarters of prisoners with their detainers.
In 1934, a Public Works Administration-sponsored Georgian Revival style courthouse on the east side of South Wright Street (NR 1979) replaced the original 1883 building. Designed by W.H. Deitrick of Raleigh, the courthouse is a three-story brick-veneered H-shaped building composed of a hipped-roofed main block flanked by projecting side-gable wings. The main entrance, located in the center bay of the main core is contained in an elaborate broken scroll pedimented surround. Lintels surmount the first floor windows, while those on the second floor are triple hung and set in round arched openings. The Flemish bond field is enlivened by contrasting masonry trim in the form of belt courses, a modillion cornice, and keystones capping window arches. A handsome two-stage wooden cupola surmounts the roof. The interior is defined by restrained Georgian-style trim with flat-panelled wainscotting and molded chair rails and cornices resting on pilasters.
Social clubs made an architectural impact in the 1930s and 1940s. The 1938 Freemason's Building, located at 100 E. Wilmington Street across from courthouse square is a two-story, three-bay brick building featuring paired six-over-six sash windows and a flat roof with a stepped parapet. In 1948, the King Solomon Lodge No. 138 A.F. and A.M. (209 N. Walker Street) built a brick gable-front building laid in 6:1 common bond with a recessed central entrance featuring a double-leaf six-panel door capped by a glass transom.
The Burgaw Historic District is free of industrial buildings which tended to be located on the outskirts of the town. The Burgaw Historic District is a mix of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century commercial buildings and residences, churches, and nationally popularized Bungalows and Colonial Revival-style houses. Modern municipal buildings, as well as several 1950s Ranch houses have replaced some of the town's earlier buildings, but do not detract from the Burgaw Historic District's overall integrity.
Bloodworth, Mattie. History of Pender County. Richmond, Virginia: The Dietz Printing Company, 1947.
Burgaw Depot National Register Nomination, 1986. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, Survey and Planning Branch.
Centennial Booklet Committee. Pender County Centennial 1875-1975. 1975.
Conversations between Charles Harrell and Beth Keane, August and September, 1998.
Conversation between Ann Hoover Dees and Beth Keane, August, 1998.
Pender County Courthouse National Register Nomination, 1979. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, Survey and Planning Branch.
Pender County Library. Collected papers, files, and newspaper clippings from the Local History Collection, Burgaw, North Carolina.
Pender County Survey Report created by Edward Turberg; 1998. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, Survey and Planning Branch.
Reaves, Bill. History of Burgaw, N.C., Centennial Edition, Printed in Wilmington, N.C. 1979.
Survey Files for Pender County created by Edward Turberg and Beth Keane, 1997-1998 Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, Survey and Planning Branch.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. U.S. census, population schedules, Pender County, North Carolina, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1970.
† Beth Keane, Retrospective, Burgaw Historic District, Pender County, NC, nomination document, 1999, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
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Image via Wikipedia
I tweeted this over the weekend, but it deserves a bigger mention than that. Patrick Thomson has written a wonderful description of why jQuery is a monad including a discussion of cautious computation and state transformations. No need to know monads or jQuery (although an interest in one will help you appreciate the other).
- Monads wrap themselves around other data types
- Monads have an operator that performs this wrapping
- Monads can feed the wrapped value to a function as long as that function also returns a monad
Anyone familiar with jQuery will immediately recognize that this is a good, abstract description of jQuery's operation. The beauty of this, from jQuery's perspective is a nice programming style called "chaining" where wrapped chunks of the DOM are passed from operator to operator in pipeline fashion. Using this style effectively results in compact, yet readable code with little need for intermediate variables.
You may find it ironic to think of DOM manipulation happening in a functional style, but that's just what jQuery allows. So, if you're a jQuery programmer you may be moving more and more toward a functional style of programming without even knowing it.
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“Three things tell a man: his eyes, his friends and his favorite quotes.”
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian Artist)
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci , April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. Born as the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, spending his final years in France at the home given to him by King François I.
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Emerging America’s online exhibits model engaging uses of primary and secondary sources from Western Massachusetts museums and archives. These stories serve as starting points to address major national themes and events in American history.
Each exhibit features a select set of documents, maps, artifacts, and images, placed in context through secondary sources from expert scholars. Students can dive directly into the stories, or explore dynamic maps, time lines, and multi-media. Within each exhibit, teachers can also access lesson plans, links to standards, and guidance on teaching methods.
Designed for grades 3-7 and 8-12. Focuses on an extraordinary community of utopian abolitionists and reformers of the 1840s. Enter the exhibit.
Designed for grades 8-12. Explores the 1826 voyage of the first Connecticut River steamboat into Massachusetts, opening a new era of industrial and economic expansion for this part of New England. Enter the exhibit.
Designed for grades 3-12. Demonstrates the central role of the Armory in leading the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s through innovative engineering and organization. Also examines expanded employment of women and blacks by the Federal Government in the 20th Century. Enter the exhibit.
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Map of the Cemetery
Pictures Taken by one Tomaszow's Resident during War in 1940
The photographs were given to Yaari and Birensztok during their stay at
Tomaszow in 1996.
Jews at compulsory labour at the river of Wolborka in Tomaszow - 1940
Jews taken to forced labour within the Ghetto - 1940
The great Synagogue of Tomaszow Mazowiecki being dismantled after it was
outlawed by the Germans - 1940
by Urszula Trocha
When you came to me a year ago
We spent long hours talking in the night
You wandered through the streets of the city of your birth
With a smile on your face and sorrow in your heart
You told me in deepest sadness
That you saw in the city two cemeteries
As if from two different worlds
And then you ran to buy a basket full of flowers
And you scattered them over the headstones
And in that very moment you girded your strength
You decided to come again a year from now
And in that time you never stopped working
You made plans, you wrote letters, you talked to people here and there
After a year you came back and everything was ready
And what could I , a simple woman, add to this,
That all this was designed in a very pleasant atmosphere
Inside a month we built an international family
And what had seemed impossible
Became a fact - and I am sure
That this bond will grow stronger
Over the course of years
And I wish you from all my heart
To you and to Shlomo - who is called "the Uncle"
That your efforts will be fruitful -
And you will indeed accomplish what you started
Amen and amen
This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc.
and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and
destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied,
sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be
reserved by the copyright holder.
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
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JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
Yizkor Book Project
JewishGen Home Page
Yizkor Book Project Manager, Lance Ackerfeld
This web page created by Max Heffler
Copyright © 1999-2017 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 20 Dec 2002 by LA
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DescriptionWhen G.H. Hollenberg closed his store in Marshall County and moved west to start a ranch near Cottonwood Creek, he knew what he was doing. The site he selected was near the Oregon Trail; the building he erected about 1857-58 served not only as his home but also as a store, tavern, stage station for the Overland Express and finally a station for the Pony Express.
The enterprise flourished, providing food, clothing, animal feed, supplies, repairs, blacksmith services and fresh horses and oxen for the passing wagon trains. The community that developed around the ranch was mainly settled by German immigrants, who named the town after Hollenberg's home in the fatherland.
Things to SeeHollenberg Pony Express Station State Historic Site
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“It never occurred to us,
for one thing; and, besides, it was built
to hold the ground, and that was enough. We did not wish to strain
They made their camp-fires on the borders of the lake, and one evening it got away from them, fired the forest, and destroyed their fences and habitation. In a letter home he describes this fire in a fine, vivid way. At one place he says:
“The level ranks of flame were relieved at intervals by the standard- bearers, as we called the tall dead trees, wrapped in fire, and waving their blazing banners a hundred feet in the air. Then we could turn from the scene to the lake, and see every branch and leaf and cataract of flame upon its banks perfectly reflected, as in a gleaming, fiery mirror.”
He was acquiring the literary vision and touch. The description of this same fire in “Roughing It,” written ten years later, is scarcely more vivid.
Most of his letters home at this time tell of glowing prospects—the certainty of fortune ahead. The fever of the frontier is in them. Once, to Pamela Moffett, he wrote:
“Orion and I have enough confidence
in this country to think that, if
the war lets us alone, we can make Mr. Moffett rich without its ever
costing him a cent or a particle of trouble.”
From the same letter we gather that the brothers are now somewhat interested in mining claims:
“We have about 1,650 feet
of mining-ground, and, if it proves good,
Mr. Moffett’s name will go in; and if not, I can get ‘feet’ for him
in the spring.”
This was written about the end of October. Two months later, in midwinter, the mining fever came upon him with full force.
The wonder is that Samuel Clemens, always speculative and visionary, had not fallen an earlier victim. Everywhere one heard stories of sudden fortune—of men who had gone to bed paupers and awakened millionaires. New and fabulous finds were reported daily. Cart-loads of bricks—silver and gold bricks—drove through the Carson streets.
Then suddenly from the newly opened Humboldt region came the wildest reports. The mountains there were said to be stuffed with gold. A correspondent of the “Territorial Enterprise” was unable to find words to picture the riches of the Humboldt mines.
The air for Samuel Clemens began to shimmer. Fortune was waiting to be gathered in a basket. He joined the first expedition for Humboldt—in fact, helped to organize it. In “Roughing It” he says:
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About Cocoa(Much of the material is from True History of Chocolate by Sophie and Michael Coe)
Few words need clarification
Cacaos are the beans that chocolate are made from. The trees are known as cacao trees, the fruit cacao pods. Cacao becomes cocoa after the beans have been processed, until then it is referred to as cacao.
Cocoa is the product made from processing the cacao beans.
Coco generally refers to coconut, no relation to cacao or cocoa.
Coca is the plant from which the narcotic drugs are prepared.
The botanical name for Cacao is Theobroma Cacao. Cacao trees grow between the latitudes 20 Deg north and 20 Deg South. These tropical trees produce white and pink blossoms right from the trunk or main branches. The white flowers are female and the pink are male. The blossoms are pollinated by insects called midges. Cacao trees flourish under shade trees because the shade trees help form the habitat for the midges.
Only about 1 to 3% of flowers produce fruit. The fruits look like a football in size and shape and it is called a pod.
Each pod contains 25-50 beans (seeds) surrounded by a sweet white pulp. The trees flower year around and produces fruits year round but there are two main picking seasons.
Cacao are finicky, they need humid weather with rain year round. To grow new trees the beans have to be planted within three months of harvesting them, otherwise they will not germinate. The trees are also affected by many fungi.
There are mainly three types of cacao trees: Criollo, Forastero and, Trinitario.
Criollo is the most delicate of the three and has the most flavorful beans used only in very high quality gourmet products.
Forastero is the hardiest, least expensive and has the least flavorful beans. These beans are mainly used in mass produced chocolate.
Trinitario is a hybrid of the two and is used with Criollo in high-grade gourmet products.
Cacao trees under shade - Fairtrade Foundation, UK Trees with fruit - Fairtrade Foundation, UK Flowers - Callebaut
Open pod showing pulp and beans - Transfair USA Trees with ripe fruit - Fairtrade Foundation, UK
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Coconut is one fruit on this planet that provides both nutritious food as well as drink at the same time. Coconut is a perfect storehouse of various nutrients, minerals, vitamins and dietary fibres. Coconuts are also regarded as wonder foods because of their life saving properties. Because of the various health benefits of coconut it is also called as functional food. Coconut is used in variety of cultures and in some parts of the world; it is also a staple food. Coconut has also been used as effective traditional medicine from past thousand of years. The health benefits of coconut are numerous and are discussed as follows:
- Health heart with coconut: for people suffering from various heart diseases like blood pressure, coconut serves as an excellent fruit. This is because coconut has low sodium and high potassium concentration. Other facts about coconuts that make them perfect fruits for heart health are that they have zero Trans fat, free from gluten and have very high concentration of dietary fibres. Coconuts helps in improving the ratio of cholesterol in the body as well as in preventing the damage caused to the arteries.
- Weight management with coconuts: have you been struggling to loose weight? Coconut in your diet can work wonders for your weight loosing technique. The low count of calories and high concentration of fibre in coconuts can help you to feel full easily without overeating. Also, coconuts help in speeding up the metabolic rate of the body. Thus coconuts also help in preventing obesity and other health problems related to it.
- Coconuts help to control the blood sugar: this health benefit of coconut is owing to the presence of fibres in it. The fibres present in coconut helps in slowing down the glucose release in the blood and thus regulate the blood sugar level, benefiting the people suffering from diabetes. Apart from this coconuts also help in optimum functioning of pancreas.
- Coconut serves as immunity booster: this is one of the most important health benefits of coconut. Apart from all the health benefits we have discussed till now, coconut act as a strong booster of the immune system and thus help in keeping the infections away from the body. The anti-bacterial, antifungal as anti-viral activities of coconuts allows them to fight against most of the common infections that attack the body. For this benefit, coconut can be consumed in any form be it raw coconut, coconut meat, coconut milk or coconut oil.
- Coconuts aides in digestion: coconuts are good source of medium chain triglycerides, also known as good fats. These triglycerides help in digestion. Coconuts also help in improving the bowel movements along with increasing the absorption of nutrients.
- Prevention of skin infection: coconut is very effective medicine for protecting the skin from various infections. Coconut oil and coconut milk help in protecting the skin from numerous infections like eczema, dermatitis and also psoriasis. Coconut also acts as a natural remedy for protecting the sagging of skin, reducing wrinkles and age spots along with softening the skin. Health benefits of coconuts also include maintaining the chemical balance of the skin along with the protection from the UV rays.
- Healthy hairs: raw coconut and coconut oil are best source of nutrition for healthy hairs. They not only prevent the loss of hair but also help in promoting the growth of hairs. The nutrients present in coconuts help in reducing the breakage and damage caused to the hairs and thus reducing the hair fall. Coconut also helps in controlling the dandruff.
- Improvement of energy levels through coconuts: coconuts act as instant booster of energy on tiring and stressful day. A few slices or pieces of coconut can help you to replenish your energy levels in short span of time along with improving the physical endurance of your body.
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- 100 Questions - by: Annetta Kyllingmark - Developed on:
- 7,809 takers
Think you know The Lord of the Rings? Think again. This test will not disappoint--you will be thoroughly challenged. Includes material from The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, the Appendices, and one Tolkien quote.
- 30 Questions - by: Iamarprestarsen - Developed on:
- 2,413 takers
This Tolkien-quiz deals only with the Chronology of the Third Age of the Children of Ilúvatar in Middle-Earth. Datas are taken from the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings. This quiz is presumably one of the hardest concerning Tolkien and it's only manageable if you have read the Appendices very carefully. Mark the answer with the correct year in which the depicted events happened.
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The string of suicides that prompted the It Gets Better projects in the U.S. and Canada fit a pattern documented in numerous studies.
Suicide, the third leading cause of death among adolescents, is more common for bullying victims than for the general population, and members of sexual minorities are much more frequently the victims of teenage bullying than their heterosexual peers.
So it is little surprise that research suggests sexual minority youth are more likely to attempt suicide or experience suicidal thinking.
Actual or perceived sexual orientation is the number 2 reason students are bullied, according to a 2005 U.S. survey. Appearance was the number 1 reason.
Like earlier studies, 2009 surveys in Canada and the U.S. found that sexual minority youth are much more likely to be bullied than heterosexual youth.
Those surveys use the terms "LGBT" or "LGBTQ," which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer and/or questioning. Other studies have found that during adolescence there is fluidity to sexual orientation. More young people report being unsure about their sexual orientation than self-identify as members of a sexual minority.
Among the findings of the 2009 Canadian Climate Survey on Homophobia:
- 59 per cent of LGBTQ high school students reported they were verbally harassed, compared to seven per cent of non-LGBTQ students.
- 25 per cent of LGBTQ students indicated being physically harassed due to their sexual orientation, compared to eight per cent of non-LGBTQ students.
- 31 per cent of LGBTQ students reported personal harassment on the internet or via text messaging, compared to eight per cent of non-LGBTQ students.
- 73 per cent of LGBTQ students reported they felt unsafe at school, compared to 20 per cent who did not.
- 51 per cent of LGBTQ students reported they did not feel accepted at school, compared to 19 per cent of non-LGBTQ students
A 2009 survey of U.S. students in Grades 6-12 also suggests being bullied at school is more likely for sexual minorities. Some key findings:
- 85 per cent of LGBTQ students reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
- 40 per cent reported being physically harassed.
- 19 per cent reported being physically assaulted
- Compared to Canada, fewer of the American students, 61 per cent, reported that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation.
The U.S. data, from the National School Climate Surveys, covers the period since 1999. It shows a small decrease in the frequency of homophobic remarks by students over the period, but LGBT students' experience of physical harassment and assault remained relatively constant.
The surveys in both countries found bullying of sexual minority students is less common in schools that have an anti-bullying policy and/or have a gay-straight alliance.
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Antiseptic From World War 1 Holds The Key To Treat Superbugs
(Photo : Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The World Health Organization has previously warned about the potential global crisis of an increasing number of bugs that are resistant to antibiotic or also called superbugs. However, it was recently discovered by the researchers that the antiseptic used to treat the soldiers' wounds in World War 1 could help combat the superbugs and counter the future pandemics.
A team of experts from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research discovered that pre-treating people with Acriflavine protected cell counter to the common cold by triggering an anti-viral immune response. The antiseptic is made from coal tar and can aid to avoid infections and treat bacterial ones.
Originally, the antiseptic is being used to treat wounds and "sleeping sickness" of the soldiers during the World War 1. A researcher Dr. Michael Gantier said that "It's repurposing something that has been around forever. It's not really around anymore because people didn't understand how it worked."
— Leroy (@Leroy_Lynch) November 27, 2016
Dr. Grantier added that the antiseptic is later replaced by penicillin. But, the researchers think that the new bacteria or the superbugs that are more resistant to treatment might come back. "It's very cheap to make, it's not something you would make if you were a private company trying to make money on drugs," according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The researchers found that Acriflavine basically produced a "double effect." "On one hand to have an antibacterial effect, and on the other hand, we discovered this capacity to instigate an immune response of the host, to protect the host," Dr. Grantier added.
The "double effect" of the drug means that it could combat the future pandemics. "So we think that for patients who are at risk, we could potentially provide them with this drug in a form like a puffer - a bit like you use Ventolin," he said.
However, more clinical trials needed to be conducted. Dr. Grantier said that the drug that can be used before in humans is much easier than developing a new drug. He even credits the Internet because it makes it much easier for them to search for the antiseptic dugs from the time of the World War 1, a report by ABC said.
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Adjusting a small engine carburetor is a simple job that involves adjustments to its idle speed and mixture settings. In addition, troubleshooting fuel supply problems before making adjustments to the carburetor rules out poor performance because of issues with the fuel supply.Continue Reading
Small engines depend heavily on a clean and well-adjusted carburetor for trouble-free performance. Ensuring smooth running involves troubleshooting fuel supply problems and then making adjustments to the carburetor settings.
Step 1: Troubleshoot fuel supply problems
Small engines have to deal with debris and grass, which can easily clog fuel passages and negatively affect performance. Inspecting the lines and cleaning any blockages ensures an uninterrupted supply to the carburetor.
Step 2: Adjust carburetor idle speed
Some carburetors allow adjustments to the air-fuel mixture and idle speed, indicated by the presence of an idle speed screw and an idle mixture screw.
Step 3: High speed mixture adjustments
A few early carburetors may be equipped with a high speed mixture screw that controls the flow of air under load. Follow the same steps as those for the idle settings. However, the engine should be at operating temperature and the screw should be turned counterclockwise by 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 turns.Learn more about Car Parts & Maintenance
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“Punjabi families no longer speak Punjabi with their children”. This generalisation we usually hear whenever we talk about the long-standing issue of language in Pakistan. This is, though, a generalisation and cannot be applied to the whole of Punjab; however, it is true enough for most of the urban elite suburbs of Punjab.
Since much of Pakistan’s political power and military might is exercised by an elite urban feudal class in Punjab, we very often tend to forget the larger rural Punjabi community which faces the same problems as anyone living in rural Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan. In some aspects the rural Punjabi lives an even worse life. A trip to the interior of Punjab will be enough to shatter the myth about the ‘big brother’. In rural Punjab one comes frequently across with people who can neither speak nor understand Urdu.
Urdu language historians and our textbooks tell us that the etymology of the term ‘Urdu’ is Turkish ‘lashkar’ suggesting that Urdu is actually made of various elements from different languages when the speakers of those languages came into contact with each other because of trade and military manoeuvres.
Linguists call such a language ‘contact language’ or pidgin. This is not unique to Urdu only. When two or more language communities come into contact for trade they usually need a ‘makeshift’ language, which later becomes pidgin.
Pidgins are made by social conditions in order to enable communication between different language communities. Pidgin thus becomes the ‘second language’ for the communities in contact; it is in addition to their indigenous languages, which they use for intra-communal communication. This is very true for Urdu in most of Pakistan. Urdu is now a second language for many citizens in Pakistan.
When a society is bilingual in their indigenous language and the dominant language of the ‘nation-state’ we find that each language has its own functions, and switching from one to the other underlies specific identifiable patterns. This we notiernce when a Punjabi, Sindhi, Pakhtun or a speaker of the Dardic languages of north Pakistan speaks Urdu.
A ‘nation-state’ usually needs a national language; and a national culture, too. After Independence both India and Pakistan faced the issue of how to build their ‘nations’ out of the multiple ethnicities within the new countries that would be legitimately different from each other as well.
Prior to Independence, the primary language issues in the Subcontinent were linguistic diversity, and the relative status of Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, English and other regional languages. Urdu use was (and is) mostly associated with Muslims in South Asia, but spoken Urdu is generally understood by Hindi speakers and vice versa.
In order to claim a unique identity, mostly charged by religion, the ideologues and demagogues of the two-nation theory stressed the use of Arabic and Persian lexicon instead of that of Sanskrit in Urdu. On the other end, the Hindu nationalists began to revive more and more Sanskrit words in Hindi. These people had applied ethnogenesis. The divergence was the political need of that time otherwise there is virtually no difference between Urdu and Hindi except the religious jargons in both the languages.
A ‘nation-building’ project based on a single language and culture is very often counter-productive. In reality there is no ‘nation-state’ today in the world. The nation-states are actually multiethnic and multicultural with different ethnic communities within. Europe and the United States are presented as examples of nation-states. In today’s America we see the Navajo, like many other American Indians, asserting their identity and rejuvenating their language – Navajo.
Pakistan has seen the counter-effects of imposing a single language and culture on a multiethnic society in the transformation of East Pakistan into a separate state, Bangladesh. But, as in every case, the power-wielders always learn the opposite lessons – whether it is the ethnic unrest or outcomes of using religion for geostrategic purposes.
Instead of getting the right lesson of giving the right status to multiethnic communities in Pakistan, those with power took the cultural multiplicity of Pakistan as a threat. They blamed the Bengalis and Indians for breaking the country, ignoring what they had themselves been doing since the very idea of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the United India.
The recent laudable but impracticable judgement by the Lahore-based chief justice of Pakistan to switch over to Urdu instead of English as the official language of Pakistan indicates the love our urban Punjabi brothers have for Urdu. The judgement would have been lovelier if the honourable judge had mentioned the need to protect the rich linguistic diversity of Pakistan as well.
As mentioned earlier, our urban Punjabi establishment is shy of their language and identity. They love Urdu; and regard its exclusion an incomplete agenda of their ‘nation-building’ project. They recommend Urdu for us in education and in the public sphere but ironically they educate their children in elite English medium schools in Pakistan or abroad.
The middle urban class of Punjab is shy of their language. They regard it a symbol of backwardness; too rustic and often slang as we mostly hear Punjabi from them when they are in a light mood. They don’t deem Punjabi ‘civilised’ enough to be transmitted to their children, and so avoid its use at homes. They are actually making creole of a pidgin.
When a pidgin takes the place of the first language (native language) of a people, it becomes a creole. Urdu is now being made creole in urban Punjab. The middle class tries to make it creole for their children whereas the elites give English that status. However, the question that still remains unanswered is: will such a scheme in education and public work, as – unfortunately – Pakistan’s 200 million people are not all elite?
The writer heads IBT, an independent organisation dealing with education and development in Swat.
Email: [email protected]
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Understanding the Vulnerabilities of IIoT Endpoints
Much has been written lately about IIoT endpoints and their many potential security vulnerabilities. As defined by the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), endpoints are devices that employ both computation and communications resources and expose functional capabilities. They may be simple sensors and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) or massive cloud servers with significant computing capabilities. Endpoints have many vulnerabilities susceptible to malicious or unintentional errors. These vulnerabilities can be exposed anywhere from the deployment environment to the development environment.
In its recently released Industrial Internet Security Framework (IISF) document, the IIC has identified 15 areas where endpoint vulnerabilities exist and every developer should be aware of them and plan appropriate protections accordingly. Here are excerpts from the security framework document:
Changes in hardware components and configuration (1): Hardware integrity must be assured throughout the endpoint lifecycle to deter uncontrolled changes to the hardware components. A potential vulnerability of the hardware is the usurpation of some part of the hardware resources. The endpoint must be able to protect itself against unauthorized access and the monopolizing of key resources such as memory, processing cycles and privileged processing modes.
Intercepts or overrides of the system boot process: The endpoint boot process (2) can be altered by modifying the firmware interface between the hardware platform firmware and the operating system such as the unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) or basic Input/output system (BIOS).
Changes to the bootloader (3) are another threat as changes could compromise the integrity of the endpoint by starting unauthorized or insecure versions of the operating system. Attacks at this level could also affect the normal or secure boot process of the endpoint, the recognition of all the hardware resources and the establishment of a solid root of trust for securing other components.
Compromises to the Guest OS, Hypervisors (4) and Separation Kernels (5): These software layers control allocation of hardware resources to applications. Attacks to these layers can alter the behavior of the system, allow information flows to bypass security controls and enable attackers to gain privileged access to endpoint hardware and software resources. Once access is gained to this layer, attackers will have opportunity to affect the entire software stack and further alter security controls built in to this level.
Illicit changes to Application Software or exposed Application Programming Interface (API) in bare metal applications (6), native applications (7), runtime environment (8) or containers (9): Endpoint applications are often the target for malware or an attacker seeking to infiltrate and compromise the endpoint. Execution of malicious applications or overriding of application APIs can adversely impact the trustworthiness of the endpoint. Exposed APIs should also be protected against denial of service attack where continuous access from unauthorized users could limit the responsiveness and access to the exposed functionality.
Vulnerabilities of the Deployment Process (10): Errors and potential malicious code may also infiltrate the endpoint as part of the deployment process, for example, incorrect or malicious installation scripts, intercepted communications, or unauthorized replacement of a package on the update server. Reduction of possible endpoint configurations in largescale endpoint deployments will be important in reducing complexity and vulnerabilities in the deployment process.
Unwanted changes to Endpoint Data (11): Data throughout the endpoint from low-level firmware all the way up the software stack represents a key area of vulnerability. These vulnerabilities include unauthorized access to mission-critical or private data. Attackers may adversely affect the behavior of the system by injecting false data. Denial-of-service attacks on data access may impede timely and accurate execution of the endpoint functionality resulting in costly outcomes.
Breach of the Monitoring & Analysis system (12): An attacker could gain visibility on the functions of the monitored system. For example, an attacker could modify monitoring data to make it appear as if a particular event did not occur. Modification of the security logs and monitoring data may result in undetected vulnerabilities or compromised states. As a result, attackers would benefit from a coverage gap, compromising endpoint hardware and software or destroying evidence of their activities after an attack.
Vulnerabilities in Configuration & Management (13): Vulnerability of the Configuration & Management system may result from improper access control to the configuration management system, insertion of unauthorized changes in the system or corruption of update payloads. Updates to the endpoints should be planned and managed so as to limit the number of different operational configurations and reduce fragmentation of the fleet.
Uncontrolled changes to Security Policy and Model (14): Modification of the security policy and derived security models represent a serious threat to the system and its endpoints. Equally, weakness in the security policy is an area for exploitation by potential attackers.
Vulnerabilities in the Development Environment (15): The introduction of weaknesses during the software development lifecycle can leave the IIoT systems susceptible to attack. These weaknesses may be introduced during architecting, designing, or writing of the code. Use of vulnerable or malicious libraries or untrusted development frameworks may lead to their inclusion in the resulting code running in the IIoT system.
A thorough understanding of these vulnerabilities in relation to the IIoT system is crucial in addressing the architectural considerations required to protect endpoints. If you have further interest, the IIC is hosting a webinar, IIoT Endpoint Security: The Model in Practice, on February 22, 2017 from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. PST. The webinar will take an in-depth look at the Protecting Endpoints chapter of the Industrial Internet Security Framework (IISF). The live event will be hosted by Marcellus Buchheit, CEO of WIBU-SYSTEMS USA and one of the primary authors and editors of the IISF document, and Terrence Barr, Head of Solutions Engineering at Electric Imp.
You can register here. All registrants will also have access to a recording after the Webinar.
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This is one of many versions of the Oneida Creation Story. The Iroquois people all have their own similar, yet different version of how creation started.
Long ago, before there was any land here, there was water all over, the only things were the creatures that lived in the water and the birds that flew above the waters. Now further above there was land which was called the Sky World and there were beings living there, and these beings had supernatural powers. In the middle of the land was a great tree which gave them their light. There were many different things that grew on the tree; this is where they retrieved things to sustain their lives.
Now, it was that no one could cut into the tree or a great punishment would be given to that person, whoever was caught harming the tree. There was this couple and the young woman was to have a baby. This woman started to crave things and one of the things she craved was the roots and bark from the tree, so she asked her husband to go and gather this for her. He was afraid to get these items because he would surely be punished. He waited for the people to go from the tree. As they all left he went over and started digging.
As he was digging by the tree, suddenly the ground caved in and it left a big hole. The man got very scared of what had happened, so he went back and told his wife. She asked if he got what she had wanted. He told her he did not because he had gotten so scared. She was very upset and said she would get it herself.
As she arrived at to the tree, she saw the hole and went over to get a closer look. As she was looking through, she saw all the water down below. She did not know that her husband followed her. As she was looking through the hole, she slipped and fell. As she was falling she tried to grab hold of something so she would not fall. All she could grab was some of the ground and roots of the tree, but she could not hold on and she fell through. As she fell, the birds and water animals saw the light through the hole and they could see something falling. The birds were appointed to see what was falling and they found that it was a woman from the Sky World.
They sent one of the birds back down to the water animals to see which one of them would able to support her upon their back. After they talked amongst themselves to see who would be able to support her. They turned to the great turtle and she agreed to support the woman. The birds went up to bring the woman down safely and placed her on the turtle’s back.
As the woman was falling she got very frightened and fainted. She awoke on the turtle’s back and all she saw was water, the birds and the water animals. She asked where she was and the animals told her that she fell through a hole and they put her on turtle’s back. She looked to where they had pointed and to see the light shining through the hole.
She asked the animals if they knew where there would be any mud or dirt so she could mix it with the medicines she had grabbed as she fell through the hole. Some of the animals said they were not sure but there might be some at the bottom of the water.
First, the otter said he would go down and see if there was any, then he went underwater and was gone. Everyone waited patiently for the otter. Soon he came floating to the top, but didn’t get any mud. So the loon said it would try and went underwater. Everyone waited patiently for the loon to come up and soon she came up and she too did not have any mud either. So the beaver said he would try and away he went. Soon he came up with none and felt very sad. The woman told him not to feel bad and that he had tried his best. So the muskrat said he would try and he went down. For a long time, the muskrat was gone and they became worried. Then the muskrat came floating to the top with a little bit of dirt in-between his claws. The woman took it and mixed it with the medicines. She then began to rub the mixture in a counter clockwise direction and the land began to expand out.
Then the woman began to gather things, for she was getting ready to give birth to a child. As the time came, she gave birth to a girl and she was very happy. The woman and her daughter walked about the earth and she taught her about the different things that grew and what they were used for.
As the days and years went by the young girl grew to womanhood and she was very beautiful. As she was walking far from her mother, there was a man that appeared before her. The girl became terrified at seeing this man and she fainted.
As she came to, she noticed that there were these two arrows on her stomach. One had a sharp point on it and the other was dull. She took them home with her. She told her mother of this man that she had seen and of the two arrows he had left behind. Her mother explained to her that they were from sky world and that the man that came to her was the Westwind and that she would have two children. Each arrow represented one of the two children.
As the days went by the young woman did not feel too good because there was a great commotion within her body. When it was finally time to give birth, the right handed twin came out first and the natural way. While the left handed twin had seen light coming from her mouth and wanted to go that way. As he went that way, he came out her side by her armpit and it killed their mother.
Right away the left handed twin spoke up and said it was the right handed twin that killed their mother. Then the right handed twin spoke up and explained to their grandmother what had happened. He told her that he and his brother were arguing about who was going to be born first. The right handed twin told his grandmother that he was going to be born the way all children are born and his brother said he was going any way he wanted to and he came out of their mother’s armpit and that is what killed her. But, the grandmother did not believe the right handed twin and took the side of the left handed twin. She told the right handed twin as part of his punishment he had to bury their mother and angrily he started to bury his mother. As he finished, there immediately grew corn, squash and Indian tobacco.
After the right handed twin buried his mother he tried to go back to his grandmother, but she told him not to come back anymore. He got furious and killed his grandmother with an ax. He cut off her head and threw it to the sky and it became the moon. He chopped up her body and threw it to the sky and they became the stars. The only time that the grandmother was allowed to come out was during the night, the time of the left handed twin.
The thing different about the two was that they had powers to create things and they grew rapidly themselves. As the right handed twin was walking about he was creating the grasses and different medicine plants and giving them names. The left handed twin would go around and give poison to some of the plants and also to distort some others.
Now as the right handed twin was going around he was creating different plants that could be used as food and also different kinds of trees. Some were tall and straight, some big and wide and he gave them different uses. And his brother would go around changing the edible plants by making them smell awful. He would give the tall trees rough bark and the big ones small and stout with sharp thorns. Then the right handed twin started to create different animals, small ones and big ones. These animals would eat the plants to help them grow. Then the left handed twin came around and made animals that would eat the other animals that his brother had created.
Then the right handed twin made different areas where the waters would flow. He made streams, rivers, springs, lakes and the big oceans. Some of the rivers he made, the water currents flowed in both directions and the springs with sweet tasting water. Then the left handed twin came by and made the rivers have rough and jagged rocks that caused the rivers to have very rough rapids. Some of the springs breathed poison and heat which made them smell very bad.
As the right handed twin finished with the waters he went to the different birds and gave them beautiful colored feathers and songs that they could sing. Soon the left handed twin came and saw the birds; he changed some of the birds and the songs they sang. Later, the right handed twin went back to look at all the things that he had created. He noticed the other different things in his creations and knew he didn’t create those things. He looked at everything he made and saw the changes. This made him very angry and he set out to look for his brother. Soon he found him by the ocean and the right handed twin spoke very sternly to his brother and told him that he had no right changing the things that he had created. The left handed twin replied to his brother and said that he wanted to create things too. He shouldn’t be the only one to be creating things. So the right handed twin said that it was time that they decided who would be the creator of all the things on Turtle Island.
They decided that they would challenge each other with a game of lacrosse. So the right handed twin appointed the sun, who was to be known as the elder brother. When the sun would rise in the east the game would start and when it went down in the west the game would end. So they agreed and went their own way to get ready for the game.
When the sun rose from the east they began to play lacrosse and they became very rough with each other. When the sun set in the west the game stopped, but neither one of them had won the game.
So they said they would play the peach stone game when the sun came up from the east and end when the sun set in the west. When the sun rose they began to play. It was going back and forth but when the sun set in the west, still no one had won.
Then they said that they would think of something when the sun rose from the east. When it did rise the left handed twin said the only way that anyone was going to be creator of all things was that one of them would have to die. They began to fight, but it was still even, no one was winning. They went to reach for something to kill the other with. The right handed twin reached for the deer antlers and the left handed twin reached for an old stick. As this happened, the right handed twin knocked out his brother. The right handed twin thought he had killed his brother. So, he made a raft and set him on it and put him out to sea. Then the right handed twin was considered the creator of all things. He was called the Holder of the Sky. The left handed twin was called Flint because of his rigidness. The left handed twin was not killed, he survived and established new land across the ocean and created his own things, the things he liked.
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Doxing is a technique of tracing someone or gathering information about an individual using sources on the internet. Its name is derived from “Documents” or “Docx”. Doxing method is based purely on the ability of the hacker to recognize valuable information about his target and use this information to his benefit. It is also based around the idea that, “The more you know about your target, the easier it will be to find his or her flaws” ~ Urban dictionary.
Such flaws can then be exploited. The exploitation wildly differs depending on the adversary. For example, profiling information can be used for encapsulation attempts. If those fail, and you are still enough of an annoyance to your government, expect aggressive demonisation by government paid trolls (and exceptionalism at its current flourishing best).
- General resources
- Ditching online presences
D0xing is also a part of reconnaissance, which generally focuses on its dark side.
You can use the same (or similar) spies online techniques to see yourself through the eyes of the adversaries that might d0x you. That information can then be used to protect yourself from your adversaries as best as you can. And when setting up other, anonymous or pseudonymous identities, these resources can be used for test-driven-development of the identity.
Search engines[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Search Engines”]
Looking for profile(s) of (a) person(s):[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”People Search”]
Searching for information using (an) image(s):[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Image Search”]
Posts and discussions
Searching for information using a post or discussion:[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Discussion Search”]
When you have an IP address an IP lookup will provide details such as ISP name, country, state, city, longitude and latitude. Domain names can help us to find out important information such as address, email id and phone number:[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”IP address Search”]
And then there are tools particularly created for d0xing (also known as human recon). Please follow the money, where the makers are located, and assess likelihood of the code being poisoned. I use as little automated tools as possible. Not only because of the risk of poisoning, also because I prefer to pay more attention to little-easily-overlooked-details. The more you automise, the more you overlook.[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Doxing tools”]
Such as wandering through archives, yellow pages, phone directories and other possibly useful information made publicly available.
Europe[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Archives Europe”]
Africa[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Archives Africa”]
Asia[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Archives Asia”]
Oceania[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Archives Oceania”]
South America[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Archives South America”]
North America[linkview show_cat_name=”0″ cat_name=”Archives North America”]
Bigger identity wardrobe
When you are familiar with your own shadow online, you can change the avatar to cast another shadow, or you can ditch it completely and leave digital spaces -some information can not easily be removed and/or changed and is retained- or set up multiple, fake, anonymous or pseudonymous avatars.
Got more links or suggestions for this page? Please post below as a comment or reply to tweets of this post.
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According to a new study it has been found that young people are at a greater risk to be diagnosed with a mental disorder when compared to adults.
Researchers have gathered data from 450,000 patient visits to doctors between 1995 and 2010 and found so. Between these two periods, that is 1995 to 1998 and 2007 to 2010 the visits that led to diagnoses of mental-health problems increased faster for patients younger than 21 than for adults. Youths happen to visit psychiatrists more often than adults according to the study. The number of prescriptions for medications that increased was similar for youths and adults alike.
Dr. Mark Olfson from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University said, "Over the last several years, there has been an expansion in mental health care to children and adolescents in office-based medical practice.” The researchers said that this growth gives health care providers new opportunities to help children and teens suffering from such common psychiatric issues.
Read more on Health News
Though all possible measures have been taken to ensure accuracy, reliability, timeliness and authenticity of the information; Onlymyhealth assumes no liability for the same. Using any information of this website is at the viewers’ risk. Please be informed that we are not responsible for advice/tips given by any third party in form of comments on article pages . If you have or suspect having any medical condition, kindly contact your professional health care provider.
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Iowa State University Veterinarian Records, RS 22/6/0/9, University Archives, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University, http://www.add.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/arch/rgrp/22-6-0-9.html
Bovine lymphosarcoma (BLS) is a common neoplasm found in both dairy and beef cattle. It is important for veterinarians, dairy producers and beef producers to gain a thorough understanding of BLS. The 'first step in understanding BLS is to define the disease. Bovine leukosis, bovine leukemia, bovine lymphoma, and malignant lymphoma are misnomers that add confusion and frustration in understanding the disease process of BLS. There are currently four distinct forms of BLS: calf form, thymic form, skin form, and adult or bovine leukemia virus (BLV) associated form. In understanding these forms of BLS it is important to know what clinical signs to look for, how to make the diagnosis, the treatment options and recommendations for prevention and control.
La Follette, A. F. and Davis, Ila A.
"What Practitioners Should Understand About Bovine Lymphosarcoma,"
Iowa State University Veterinarian: Vol. 56
, Article 5.
Available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iowastate_veterinarian/vol56/iss1/5
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Igneous (ĭg'nē-əs) rocks are one of three rock types in the rock cycle. Igneous rocks are devided into intrusive and extrusive types. Granite and basalt are both igneous rocks, intrusive and extrusive, or plutonic and volcanic respectively. Igneous rocks are formed from a completely molten state, as opposed to metamorphic rocks which keep some of the characteristics of their source material. Igneous rocks vary in composition from felsic to mafic.
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My Favorite Southern Trees
I’m not just an unabashed tree hugger, I’m a tree kisser. When the mood strikes me, I’ll wrap my arms around a big white oak or sassafras or tulip poplar and plant a big wet one right on the scratchy bark.
We Southern tree lovers are especially fortunate. Of 688 tree species native to the United States, one-third — 235 species — occur in the South, more than in all of Europe. And that number doesn’t include introduced and naturalized species.
Many of our native trees occur exclusively in the South or reach their greatest prominence — and grandest forms — here. Some, like the magnolia, are Southern icons. I’m sometimes asked what are my favorite Southern trees, especially those that define the South or give it a sense of place. My top 10 include:
10) Yaupon holly, or cassina, which grows profusely in the South’s coastal areas and becomes loaded with bright red berries and shiny green leaves in winter. On John’s Island, a sea island near Charleston where I grew up, we hauled yaupon boughs from the woods to decorate our homes at Christmas. I preferred gathering yaupon because its leaves weren’t as thorny as American holly’s. I still love walking through a Southern maritime forest in winter and seeing yaupon’s striking red berries and leaves amidst all the drabness.
Yaupon is known for a distinctive trait — its leaves contain copious amounts of caffeine, the only native North American plant that harbors the substance. Coastal Indians boiled yaupon leaves to make a potent brew called “black drink.” Indian men, according to early Spanish explorer accounts, gathered at morning to discuss tribal business and sip black drink. Consumed in large amounts, yaupon tea induced vomiting. Hence, the plant’s scientific name, Ilex vomitoria. Before going into battle or on a hunt, the males of some tribes drank black drink to wrench their guts out and purge their bodies of evil spirits.
We read about yaupon in our history books. An uncle once told me he made a tea from yaupon and drank it to see what would happen. He said he “puked my guts out for two days.”
9) Chickasaw plum (Prunus augustifolia), another small tree confined mostly to the South’s coastal plain and piedmont. We simply called it “wild plum.“
Dense plum thickets grow wild in old fields, hedgerows, roadsides and other sunny spots of the South. In early spring, even before their leaves come out, the diminutive trees are festooned with small white flowers that become tiny plums, either red or yellow, in summer.
The little plums are some of the sweetest, tastiest fruit I’ve ever eaten. As a boy, I crawled through plum thickets and picked the low-hanging fruits, popping them in in my mouth as I crept along. Sometimes, I picked a bucketful for my momma, who made a wonderful wild plum jelly.
I usually had the plum thickets to myself — most of my buddies dared not go in them because they were the reputed haunts of fierce rattlesnakes. The lure of the tasty little plums overcame my fear of snakes.
8) Wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera), a shrub-like tree that also grows in thickets in the South’s coastal plain and, occasionally, in the piedmont. I also crawled through myrtle thickets, but not for the fruit. In my mind, myrtle thickets were the closest thing to a dark, foreboding jungle, like the ones I saw in the movies or read about in my Daddy’s National Geographic magazines.
Where I grew up, many folks considered the wax myrtle a trash tree because it seemed always to spring up where not wanted. Others, like myself, found unique beauty in its open natural shape and shiny evergreen leaves that give off a sweet aroma. Nevertheless, I was amazed to learn later in life that nurseries actually sell the tree for landscaping purposes. The Georgia Native Plant Society even selected wax myrtle as its “Plant of the Year” in 2002.
Bird lovers covet the myrtle because its bluish berries nourish well over thirty-five bird species. Sea island Gullah folk, many of whom were my neighbors growing up, made fragrant candles from the waxy berries. We crushed the leaves and rubbed them on our arms to ward off vicious biting deer flies.
7) Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), which, despite its name, is not really a cedar. It’s a member of the juniper family. Its range is not just the South — it occurs all along the Eastern seaboard as far north as Canada. But, in my mind, it’s one of those trees that kindles fond memories for many a Southerner because, for many of us, Eastern red cedars served as our Christmas tree.
When I was a young boy, my older brothers took me with them when they poled our old family bateau across the salt marsh to a nearby hammock, or marsh island, to chop down a cedar for Christmas. Eastern red cedars covered the little island because its soil was sweetened by old limey oyster and clam shells. To this day, every time I smell an Eastern red cedar, I recall those happy holidays.
We also used the fragrant, rot-resistant cedar wood to make fence posts, chests and cabinets. It also was good for pencils. The Eagle Pencil Co. in 1908 bought Little St. Simons Island, a Georgia barrier isle, for its abundant red cedars. Shiploads of cedars were cut and dispatched to the pencil factory. The wood of many of them, however, was found to be too stressed from wind and salt spray, unsuitable for pencil-making.
6) Palmetto (Sabal palmetto), one of the South’s truly great trees, although it lives mostly along the coast. In my mind, the palmetto is the most beautiful of all the world’s palm species. Few things remind me more of home — and of our subtropical climate — than a stately palmetto with its arrow-straight trunk. One of the sounds I identified with most in childhood was palmetto fronds giving off an eerie rustle when they were gently billowed by a breeze off the river.
The palmetto is South Carolina’s state tree, as anyone who has seen the state’s flag would surmise. The tree is prominently pictured on the flag, symbolic of the Revolutionary War fort built of palmetto logs in 1776 on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston. The palmetto logs easily repulsed British cannonballs, which discouraged the attacking British fleet and caused them to call off the attack.
Florida, too, claims the palmetto as its state tree. A palmetto also graces its state flag, but you have to look hard to find the tree‘s image.
Palmetto fronds fall off the tree as it ages, leaving the trunk with a curious, crisscross pattern, like a thatched skirt or a woven basket. Many of us boys growing up on the coast spent hours building little huts from the fronds, like coastal Indians used to do.
The palmetto holds another significance for me — the yearbook of my alma mater, St. John’s High School on John’s Island, was called “The Palmetto.” When I graduated in 1962, we seniors were the first ones to get our hands on the new yearbook. A palmetto was supposed to grace its cover, but when we picked up our copies, we immediately noticed that the tree on the cover had a curved trunk and a distinct cluster of coconuts dangling from its canopy. The yearbook publisher obviously didn’t know the difference between palmetto and coconut. Outraged, we demanded that the publisher take back the yearbooks and replace the coconut tree with a palmetto. The publisher complied.
5) Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), or Southern cypress, a classic tree of the Deep South, emblematic of the vast swamps that give the region an enduring identity. Louisiana made the bald cypress its official tree, which is not surprising since the Bayou State is half swampland, prime habitat for the tree. In Florida, before the early Spanish explorers arrived, Calusa Indians carved hollow trunks of cypress to make canoes that floated them toward Cuba.
Naturalist William Bartram, who explored Florida’s St. John’s River in the late 1700s, described cypress trees as “majestic.” In his journal, he wrote admiringly of their stature. “What adds to the magnificence of their appearance,” he wrote, “Is the streamers of long moss that hang from the lofty limbs and float in the winds.”
My spirit also soars when I see 90-foot-tall bald cypresses standing ramrod straight in inky black swamp water, their massive trunk bottoms flared out in huge buttresses and their high, moss-festooned canopies shaped in conical splendor. It’s what draws me to the magnificent, cypress-filled wetlands — the Okefenokee in Georgia, Dismal in Virginia, Congaree in South Carolina and Corkscrew in Florida.
Some people regard cypress swamps as dark, shadowy and mysterious, metaphors for moral decadence, sloughs of despond. But not me. I find serenity and other-worldly beauty in the wetlands — places redolent of fertile earth, rich in bird and animal life.
Judging from their many references to cypresses in their novels and short stories, many great Southern writers — Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Robert Penn Warren and others — also found beauty, symbolism and a sense of place in the tree.
Wrote Eudora Welty in her book “Delta Wedding:” “Moss from the cypresses hung deep overhead now, and down by the water vines like pediments and arches reached from one tree to the next … the cypress trunks four feet thick in the water’s edge stood opened like doors of tents in Biblical engravings.”
4) Dogwood (Cornus florida), a beautiful and quaint reminder of the Old South — and the New South as well. With its gorgeous, bridal-white blossoms in early spring, the dogwood grows wild all over the eastern United States, but Southerners regard it as their very own. Towns and cities all over the South — Atlanta perhaps being the most prominent — celebrate the beauty of spring with their dogwood festivals. So what if the tree grows wild all the way to Canada? The dogwood is our tree.
In spring, the South’s woods and roadsides and yards are so dazzling white with dogwood blossoms that the landscapes look as if a blizzard had swept through them. When the Deep South’s dogwoods bloom amid a yardful of blooming azaleas, I can’t imagine a more glorious scene.
The dogwood is Virginia‘s official state tree. Virginians say they made it such “to foster a feeling of pride in our state and to stimulate an interest in the history and traditions of the Commonwealth.” A twelfth generation Virginian once told me that no other tree says Virginia better than the dogwood. But I’ve heard folks in South Carolina and Georgia and Alabama say the same thing about the dogwood’s significance in their states.
3) Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandflora), which would make anybody’s list of the South’s greatest trees. The magnolia literally screams Southern. Think magnolia and the romantic South springs to mind — and most likely the image of a Southern woman. The magnolia is regarded as a symbol of Southern women — soft and delicate, yet, at the same time, strong and enduring. No wonder “Steel Magnolias” was the title of the movie about a close-knit group of strong Southern women living in a Louisiana town.
The magnolia’s large, beautiful white flower also was one of the symbols of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. It is now the official state flower of Louisiana and Mississippi. The tree is Mississippi’s state tree as well. No surprise, then, that Mississippi bills itself as the Magnolia State.
Few college campuses in the South are without their Southern magnolias, whose flowers cast a delightful lemony fragrance all around. When I smell a magnolia, I recall sitting in a University of South Carolina classroom in late May, the sweet-smelling magnolias blooming just outside an open window, and knowing that the start of summer vacation was only a few days away — but that final exams must be endured before I left.
Like nearly everyone else I knew on John’s Island, we had a huge, unpruned Southern magnolia in our yard. Though I was too awkward to be an agile tree-climber, like most of my buddies, ascending to the top of the magnolia was a cinch because of its many limbs spaced close together.
2) Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), once the single most dominant tree of the South’s coastal plain and much of its piedmont. A vast longleaf pine forest, with a groundcover of lush, waving-in-the-wind wiregrass, once stretched over the coastal plain from Virginia to Texas — some 60 million to 90 million acres. Great swaths of longleaf and wiregrass looked more like city parks than old-growth forests. More than 400 species of wildflowers, grasses, ferns, trees, shrubs and other so-called vascular plants could be found on a single acre of healthy longleaf forest, making it one of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems.
By the early 1900s, however, most of the great forest was felled for timber and agriculture and to build towns and cities. Huge, clumsy rafts of longleaf pine logs were floated down Southern rivers, like the Altamaha, to seaports like Darien, Ga., where ships were loaded with the prized wood and transported to ports all over the world.
Now, where longleaf pines and wiregrass once stretched as far as the eye could see, monotonous pine plantations of faster-growing loblolly and slash pine — what some call biological deserts — cover the landscape. Only small remnants of the once-magnificent longleaf ecosystem remain.
Longleaf pine, though, is still a revered species. Alabama claims it as the state’s official tree.
Author and activist Janisse Ray, who lives in Baxley, Ga., where once stood a great longleaf forest, wrote so eloquently of the tree in her book “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” that one would be hard put to top her beautiful descriptions. “In a longleaf forest,” she wrote, “miles of open forest fade into a brilliant southern sunset and reappear the next dawn as a battalion marching out of fog. The tip of each needle carries a single drop of silver. The trees are so well spaced that their limbs seldom touch and sunlight streams between and within them.”
For me, suffice it to say that a mature, healthy longleaf/wiregrass forest is one of the most beautiful forests I’ve ever seen in the entire world. In my opinion, the most perfect example of how a longleaf forest looked to early European explorers of the South, like Ponce de Leon, is a private 200-acre sward near Thomasville, Ga. It’s called the Wade Tract, and is managed by the Tall Timbers Research Station near Tallahassee. In the tract, the wind sighing through the canopies of centuries-old longleaf is a most pleasing sound, unmistakable and unforgettable — like a “whistling kettle,” as Janisse Ray described it.
The longleaf’s balmy pine-scent, wafting on the wind, once lured well-heeled vacationers to the Thomasville area after the Civil War. Many came seeking relief from respiratory ailments like consumption, or tuberculosis. They believed that pine trees — especially longleafs — exuded a vapor that helped treat the maladies.
The vacationers noticed something else — that the splendid longleaf/wiregrass forests were prime habitat for the bobwhite quail, the South’s most highly prized game bird. Many wealthy Northern sportsmen bought longleaf forestland in the Red Hills region between Thomasville and Tallahassee and established luxurious quail hunting plantations. No one knew at the time, though, how valuable the plantations would become for longleaf preservation: By protecting their woods from mass-logging and development, the plantation owners unwittingly protected the finest examples of the South’s old-growth longleaf forests.
And my No. 1 favorite Southern tree, the live-oak (Quercus virginiana), whose girth and grace and beauty may be unmatched in the South. In my mind, nothing represents the strength of the South — and its haunting splendor — better than the live-oak. Sidney Lanier, Georgia’s most famous poet, starts out his best-known poem, “The Marshes of Glynn,” this way:
Glooms of the live-oaks,
beautiful-braided and woven
With intricate shades of the vines that
Chamber the forks of the multiform boughs, —
Emerald twilights, —
Virginal shy lights …
The whole poem, in fact, is replete with live-oaks as metaphors and symbols:
O braided dusks of the oak and woven shades of the vine,
While the riotous noon-day sun of the June-day long did shine
Ye held me fast in your heart and I held you fast in mine …
It was in the shade of a live-oak that Lanier, visiting in Brunswick, Ga., in the 1870s, pondered over the great salt marsh — “a world of marsh that borders a world of sea” — stretching before him. Lanier’s oak still stands in Brunswick in the median of U.S. Highway 17, just across from the city’s Marshes of Glynn Overlook Park. A historic marker tells visitors that “here [Lanier] received the inspiration which resulted in some of his finest poems.“
The live-oak is Georgia’s official state tree. Several Southern cities and towns are named for the species — Live Oak, Fla., and Live Oak, Texas, among them. Charleston, Savannah and Mobile no doubt would lose much of their grace and charm if they had no massive live-oaks, shrouded in Spanish moss, hanging over their streets or shading their parks and neighborhoods.
The-live oak was by far the dominant tree of the grand maritime forests that once covered coastal barrier islands — and still do in some coastal areas. A scene you’ll find nowhere else but in the Deep South is the ponderous limbs of a live-oak leaning like a green parasol over the edge of a salt marsh. “Affable live-oak, leaning low,” as Lanier described it.
Southerners are fiercely proud of their live-oaks. I have seen groups of Southerners from various states in heated arguments over whose state has the biggest, grandest and showiest live-oak. Of course, in my mind, the famed Angel Oak of John’s Island, a giant live-oak covering nearly an acre of ground, wins hands down. The Angel Oak is believed to be more than 1,600 years old. It was just down the road from my boyhood home. We would literally run barefoot over its massive limbs, several of which sunk to the ground. Generations of islanders carved their initials in the limbs, though we would dare not do such a thing now. One reason is that it is now protected within the confines of a Charleston city park, and you have to pay to see it.
After the Revolutionary War, the nation’s fleet of tall ships was built of live-oaks from the South’s coastal barrier islands. In my book, “Cumberland Island: Strong Women, Wild Horses,” I write: “Live-oak’s strength and resistance to rot and woodborers, as well as its naturally curved limbs, made it ideal for building tall ships — frigates, men-of-war, brigantines, packets, whalers, merchantmen. The dense wood doesn’t float when fresh. Some said it surpassed the teak of India as the best timber for the greatest variety of naval purposes. Cannonballs hitting live-oak planking zinged back into the water.”
In the 1700s, legions of loggers from up north — calling themselves “live-oakers” — came to the coastal islands of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida to fell live-oaks by the thousands. The timber was sent to northern shipyards to build the ships. To this day, natives of several coastal islands — including us on John’s Island — debate over which island supplied the live-oak for one of the nation’s most famous sailing vessels, “Old Ironsides.”
When Hurricane Hugo pounded South Carolina’s coast in 1989, the powerful, howling winds broke off countless massive limbs from the big live-oaks on my family‘s land on John’s Island. In some cases, centuries-old live-oaks were uprooted. Seizing the opportunity, shipwrights from Mystic Seaport, Conn., which houses one of the nation’s grandest maritime museums replete with numerous historical sailing ships, drove their flatbed trucks to John’s Island and loaded them with Hugo-leveled live-oak. The timber was hauled back to Mystic and to other East Coast seaports and used to repair — and in some cases, rebuild — numerous old sailing ships. Later, when we visited Mystic, a giant live-oak log in its maritime park displayed a sign: “Live Oak from John’s Island.”
These, then, are my favorite Southern trees. Some would argue that the white oak and the tulip poplar also should be on the list, but those species also are just as prominent up north as they are in the South. Actually, I love all trees (except perhaps when they fall on people’s houses or crush people in their cars). As oft-quoted poet Joyce Kilmer wrote: “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”
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The Gifts are progressively sequenced in a gradual shift from the concrete idea of solid forms to the abstract idea of "spatial patterns." The 10th and final Gift brings the cycle full circle by combining the point and line to create a framework of solid forms. In this way, abstract ideas of shape, form and space composed of arbitrary lines and points (imaginary three-dimensional solids) can be realized in concrete form. For this experience, all the previous Gift play has built a foundation in the child as he/she internalized this experience.
To best explain Gift 10, it is important to recap Froebel's system. Froebel divided his kindergarten activities into Gifts and Occupations. The Gifts were materials that could return to their original form while Occupations were crafts that could not be undone. Due to their limited technological means, the early kindergartens did not have a solution for a framework Gift. Actual construction of frameworks was handled in the Occupation of peas-work. This involved soaking dried peas overnight until they were soft enough for toothpicks to be used to connect them. Once the peas dried, the creations were set.
Many wonderful toys, including Tinkertoys, Erector sets, Kinex, Zometool, and other architectural toys that provide a re-usable construction experience have been developed since Froebel's time. Any of these materials could function as Gift 10 if they are introduced with a Froebelian approach. The idea for all the Froebel Gifts is not to become obsessed with the materials, but with the experiences of the children. If the idea of combining points and lines to form the framework of solids is experienced by the child, the material can rightly be called Gift 10.
As for guidelines for introducing these experiences, the basics still apply. Limit the number of materials (points and lines) initially until the child is ready to experience more complicated arrangements. Perhaps you might introduce this new Gift by returning to the solid cube of Gift 2. Allow the child to recognize the point and the line and naturally construct two-dimensional forms (triangle, square, etc.). The child will naturally tie the ideas of all the previous Gift play together as he/she becomes ready for this concept.
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* This is the Consumer Version. *
Polyps of the Colon and Rectum
A polyp is a projecting growth of tissue from the wall of a hollow space, such as the intestines.
Polyps also may grow inside the nose (nasal polyps).
Polyps that grow on the intestinal or rectal wall protrude into the intestine or rectum and may be noncancerous (benign), precancerous (adenomatous), or cancerous (malignant carcinoma). Polyps vary considerably in size, and the bigger the polyp, the greater the risk that it is cancerous or likely to become cancerous (that is, they are precancerous). Polyps may grow with or without a stalk (a thin piece of tissue that joins the polyp to the intestinal wall, similar to how the neck joins the head to the body). Polyps without a stalk are more likely to be cancerous than those with a stalk.
There are many types of polyps but doctors typically divide them into
Adenomatous polyps, which consist primarily of glandular cells that line the inside of the large intestine, are likely precancerous.
Nonadenomatous polyps can develop from many cell types, including the nonglandular cells that line the intestine, fat cells, and muscle cells. Some nonadenomatous polyps are caused by other disorders, for example the inflammatory polyps that develop in people with chronic ulcerative colitis. Nonadenomatous polyps are less likely to be precancerous.
Some polyps are the result of hereditary conditions, such as familial adenomatous polyposis and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.
In Peutz-Jeghers syndrome,people have many small polyps in the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. They also have numerous bluish black spots on their face, inside their mouth, and on their hands and feet. The spots tend to fade by puberty except for those inside the mouth. People with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome have an increased risk of developing cancer in many organs, particularly the pancreas, small intestine, colon, breast, lung, ovary, and uterus.
Most polyps do not cause symptoms. When they do, the most common symptom is bleeding from the rectum. A large polyp may cause cramps, abdominal pain, obstruction, or intussusception (one segment of the intestine slides into another, much like the parts of a telescope). Large polyps with tiny, fingerlike projections (called villous adenomas) may excrete water and salts, causing excessive watery diarrhea that may result in low levels of potassium in the blood (hypokalemia). Rarely, a rectal polyp on a long stalk drops down and dangles through the anus.
A doctor may be able to feel polyps by inserting a gloved finger into the rectum, but usually polyps are discovered when colonoscopy is done to examine the entire large intestine. This complete and reliable examination is done because more than one polyp is usually present and any may be cancerous. Colonoscopy also allows a doctor to do a biopsy (removal of a tissue sample for examination under a microscope) of any area that appears cancerous and remove polyps.
Doctors generally recommend removing all polyps from the large intestine and rectum because of their potential to become cancerous. Polyps are removed during a colonoscopy procedure using a cutting instrument or an electrified wire loop. If a polyp has no stalk or cannot be removed during colonoscopy, abdominal surgery may be needed.
If a polyp is found to be cancerous, need for additional treatment depends on whether the cancer is likely to have spread. The risk of spread is determined by microscopic examination of the polyp. If the risk is low, no further treatment is necessary. If the risk is high, particularly if the cancer has invaded the polyp’s stalk, the affected segment of the large intestine is removed surgically, and the cut ends of the intestine are rejoined (see also Treatment of Colorectal Cancer).
When a person has a polyp removed, doctors do colonoscopy to examine the entire large intestine and rectum. Colonoscopies are done once a year for 2 years and then at different intervals depending on factors such as the number, size, and type of the polyps. In some situations, doctors may recommend colonoscopy be done every 2 to 3 years, and in others every 5 years. If colonoscopy cannot be done because the person's large intestine has become narrow, a barium enema may be used to view the large intestine on x-ray.
* This is the Consumer Version. *
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The Hawaii Supreme Court on Wednesday invalidated a permit awarded for the construction of one of the world's largest telescopes on a mountain many Native Hawaiians consider sacred.
The court ruled that the state Board of Land and Natural Resources should not have issued a permit for the telescope before it held a hearing to evaluate a petition by a group challenging the project's approval.
The ruling sends the case back to the board for a new hearing.
A group of universities in California and Canada plan to build Thirty Meter Telescope with partners from China, India and Japan. TMT Observatory Corp. was constructing the telescope on land that is sacred to some Native Hawaiians. Scientists say the location is ideal for the telescope, which could allow them to see into the earliest years of the universe.
The group suspended construction at Mauna Kea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island after protesters blocked the road to the summit.
Site already plays big role
Thirteen telescopes already in place on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii's highest point, have played major roles in discoveries considered among the most significant to astronomy.
All of the highest points in the islands are considered the home of deities, Kealoha Pisciotta, a protest organizer, said during an interview in June. In the past, only high chiefs and priests were allowed at Mauna Kea's summit.
Astronomers often use many different telescopes in locations around the world to draw their conclusions. But Guenther Hasinger, director of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, said during an interview with the Associated Press in August that “there is almost no major astronomical discovery where there was not very important input from the telescopes on Mauna Kea.''
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Scientists from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, thought it would be a great idea to investigate why the hell we spill coffee every time we walk carrying cups. Don't you love science?
Here are their results and solutions.
Their experiment recorded volunteers walking with a gazillion combinations of different coffee cup types filled with different amounts of coffee. The volunteers walked looking at the cups, straight ahead or at the floor, while sensors monitored the liquid in the mugs.
Observing the videos, the scientists concluded that the coffee's natural frequency and the person's walk were the same, causing the coffee to oscillate. The oscillation would increase the more the person walked, with the spillage always ocurring between the seventh and tenth steps.
In other words: spillage is inevitable given a walking rhythm and a number of steps.
But fear not, fellow coffee spillers, because you can take steps to avoid this from happening:
1. Don't fill the cups too much. Leave a gap large enough so the spilling step is beyond your walking distance.
2. Use a larger mug.
3. Walk slower!
4. Watch the mug, not the floor.
So, while the research paper—wrote by mechanical engineer Rouslan Krechetnikov and his graduate student Hans Mayer—starts like this:
In our busy lives, almost all of us have to walk with a cup of coffee. While often we spill the drink, this familiar phenomenon has never been explored systematically. Here we report on the results of an experimental study of the conditions under which coffee spills for various walking speeds and initial liquid levels in the cup. These observations are analyzed from the dynamical systems and fluid mechanics viewpoints as well as with the help of a model developed here. Particularities of the common cup sizes, the coffee properties, and the biomechanics of walking proved to be responsible for the spilling phenomenon. The studied problem represents an example of the interplay between the complex motion of a cup, due to the biomechanics of a walking individual, and the low-viscosity-liquid dynamics in it.
After reading their observations and recommendations, the truth is that the paper should have started like this:
Let's face it: Spilling coffee is inevitable and we are just stupid for not taking the obvious measures to stop it.
The research started when Krechetnikov realized that, while they can't say for sure if "coffee spilling has been detrimental to scientific research to any significant extent, it can certainly be disruptive for a train of thought."
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Definition of Auckland
city and port on Hauraki Gulf and the Tasman Sea in northern New Zealand on the North Island population 404,658
Aucklanderplay \-klən-dər\ noun
AUCKLAND Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of Auckland for English Language Learners
: city in New Zealand
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up Auckland? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
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How to Teach Chess to Absolute Beginners: Using Piece Contacts – Nimzovich’s Way!
How to Start in Chess
Traditionally, we start with moves. However, it seems that the method is inefficient and doesn’t contribute to a fast learning curve and development of an adequate board vision.
There’s already enough evidence to suggest that we rethink how we go about it. The evidence comes from:
(a) cognitive neuroscience and psychology which tell us how our own minds work, how we acquire new knowledge and behave in general (supported by empirical findings from neuroimaging MRI techniques – here are two studies on pattern recognition in chess both stressing spatial and functional relationships between objects as the key factor differentiating chess experts from novices)
(b) theory of complex systems (and chess is one of them) which shows that a system is as much successful as its components interconnect and interact effectively in a purposeful fashion.
Both (a) and (b) explain why experts are superior over novices. They agree that novices focus on perceptually available static elements, whereas experts integrate structural, functional and behavioral components of the system.
Structural (or spatial) component in chess is represented by a network of contacts established between pieces, and pieces and squares on the board at any given time. Functional component comes from four basic roles pieces serve: attack, protection, restriction and blocking, evaluation and understanding of which determines how we act and make decisions on the board.
If this is a hard evidence that how pieces interconnect spatially and functionally is the most important aspect of understanding a complex system, then the question is: why we don’t start teaching with the contacts, not individual moves as with the traditional approach. Logically, it would ensure a faster learning curve.
To further back the contacts method (extensively advocated on this blog), here’s the first chess lesson by Aron Nimzovich from his article “How I became a grandmaster,” in Russian chess newsletter Shakhmatny Listok, 1929 , as published in November/December 2011 issue of Georgia Chess Magazine , and in The Introduction to the Contacts method, in The Chess Journalist of America, Fall 2011.
The First Chess Lesson by Aron Nimzovich
Let’s begin at the beginning, that is, by criticizing my very first lesson. I was “shown the moves”. Was that the right thing to do? “Well of course it was,” my esteemed reader will say. “You cannot do without that.” But my whole point is that, in this case, the reader is mistaken: this approach is fundamentally false. You cannot take a boy who is completely new to the game and immediately confound him by showing him that the rook moves like this and the bishop like that, and the pawn crawls forward at such a ridiculous snail’s pace, that the night leaps eccentrically all over the place, that the queen can go anywhere she pleases, that the rook moves and takes in straight lines, but the pawn moves straight forward and takes diagonally, etc.
Dreariness will be the only result from all these demonstrations. Information of this kind, which the beginner absorbs, is purely formal, without a trace of vitality and devoid of meaning, and by flooding him with all this mass of material, he may only sink into depression.
No, one should not teach first principles this wise, but quite otherwise. A bit less formal ballast and a bit more substance, that is the basic principle! But let us show concretely how we think that the first two or three lessons should be conducted.
First lesson: Familiarization with the board, understanding of the demarcation between White and Black, and the center of the board.
The Rook. Understanding about ranks and files, drills and exercises:
White rook on e1 (the student always has white pieces), black pawn on e6. In this position the rook is attacking the pawn.
Exercise: ask the student to attack the pawn. Then ask the student to attack it sideways, and, finally, from behind.
Next, form some obstacles on the board: white rook on h1, pawns on g2 and h4, king on f1, black pawn on d6. White attacks the d6-pawn by playing Rh1-h3-d3. Then a black rook is introduced to take the role of the defender of the d6-pawn.
This gives us a primitive basis to set up some basic combinations. For example: White has Ra1, Black has Rh8, Pc7, Pe5. Ask the student, “How many moves does it take for the rook to attack both pawns at the same time?” Let’s play: 1.Ra5 Re8 2.Rc5 Re7.
We move on by explaining the natural tendency for rook to reach the seventh rank. Set the white rook on g1, the enemy king on h8 and explain to the student that the king attacks one square diagonally. “Let’s go with the rook invade the seventh rank!” We play: 1.Rg7 Kxg7. The student is given a pawn on h5. “Let us defend the entry point on the seventh rank!” 1.h6 and then 2.Rg7.
In this way, the student will spend an hour or two without getting bored and will intuitively grasp the basic concepts, as well as the basics of combinatorial chess.
Notice how the entire first hour of chess actually uses a single rook as pawn while the king’s movements are mentioned just in passing. At the same time, a lively play drives out all formal approach. The rook is to attack the student’s pawn; if the student manages to save it, student wins.
The reader will, I hope, have got our basic idea: from the very start we are playing – fighting, battling – and have no intention of giving precedence to any formal approach. And we are inclined to ascribe a decisive significance to the initial impression formed by the student after the first lesson. One’s interest must be appealed to, one must feel from the onset that this is a game in which victory is both possible and gratifying.
* * *
As you can see Nimzovich’s approach here is nothing but contacts . He starts with the attacking contact. Then he explains the restricting and protecting contacts when he talks about the rook’s penetration on the seventh rank. At the same time, he clearly and strongly opposes the traditional approach with moves first.
May the contacts method possibly catch on one day? Albert Einstein understood the difficulty of paradigmatic shifts: “It’s harder to crack a prejudice than an atom.”
* * *
1. It Takes Two–Skilled Recognition of Objects Engages Lateral Areas in Both Hemispheres, PLoS ONE scientific journal
2. The Neural Basis of Intuitive Best Next-Move Generation in Board Game Experts, Science, 21 January 2011: Vol. 331 no. 6015 pp. 341-346
3. More on complex systems in: What is the first thing to teach an absolute beginner in chess? Part II post
4. GM Ray Keene included “How I became a grandmaster” in his Aron Nimtzowitsch: Reappraisal, Batsford, 1999, without the first chess lesson which, however, can be found in many Russian sources (I translated it here from Moya sistema, Fiskultura i Sport, 1984). So this might turn out, to the best of my knowledge, to be its first appearance before the reading public in the West.
5. Georgia Chess Magazine has won the Chess Journalists of America “Best State Magazine” award 7 of the past 10 years, including the past two years consecutively.
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Neutron-scattering experiments explore origins of high-temp superconductivity
HOUSTON — (Sept. 29, 2016) — New findings from researchers at Rice University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) suggest that condensed-matter physicists need to rethink how magnetic fluctuations arise in both unconventional and high-temperature superconductors.
Yu Song (left) and Pengcheng Dai (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
“Our results challenge the present understanding of magnetic fluctuations in high-temperature superconductors,” said Rice graduate student Yu Song, lead co-author of a study this week in the scientific journal Nature Communications. “Specifically, our findings suggest that magnetic fluctuations similar to those found in magnetically ordered compounds may, in fact, be common to many unconventional superconductors.
Superconductors are materials that lose electrical resistance at a critical temperature. For conventional superconductors, these critical temperatures are impractically low, but high-temperature superconductors tantalize engineers and scientists because their critical behavior comes about at temperatures that are obtainable with relatively affordable industrial processes. In the three decades since high-temperature superconductors were discovered, physicists have found dozens of them but have yet to explain their electronic workings.
All high-temperature superconductors are composite materials. Some contain copper and others have iron. A third class of layered composites called “heavy fermions,” which are made of exotic elements like cerium and ytterbium, exhibits the same sort of unconventional superconductivity as high-temperature superconductors, albeit at far colder temperatures.
Most of these unconventional superconductors convey little to no electricity at room temperature, and they continue to be poor conductors until they are cooled to their critical temperature, at which point superconductivity comes about suddenly.
Hundreds of tiny samples of unconventional superconductors known as called heavy fermions had to be aligned and glued onto aluminum plates for imaging in inelastic neutron scattering experiments. (Image courtesy of Yu Song/Rice University)
One electronic behavior that’s been observed in all classes of unconventional superconductors is neutron spin resonance, a collective magnetic excitation that arises slightly below the critical temperature.
In the new experiments, Song, Rice physicist Pengcheng Dai and colleagues worked for two years to observe resonance behavior in three unconventional superconductors, one made of cerium, cobalt and indium and two others in which ytterbium was substituted for portions of cerium. All three compounds are heavy fermions, so-named because of the tendency of their electrons to behave as if they are far more massive than normal electrons.
“Spin resonance modes are found in both copper- and iron-based high-temperature superconductors, and our results on both doped and undoped cerium-cobalt-indium — prototypical heavy fermions — provide new insights,” Song said. “Importantly, superconductivity in all these compounds is believed to be mediated in similar ways by magnetic fluctuations, including those we observe in spin resonance modes, and while it’s generally accepted that spin resonance is a signature of unconventional superconductivity, there is no consensus on what causes it to happen.”
Song, Dai and colleagues used a technique known as inelastic neutron scattering to examine the resonance behavior of cerium-cobalt-indium and “doped” compounds in which either 5 percent or 30 percent of the cerium was replaced with ytterbium. The experiments were conducted in 2014 at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum at the Technical University of Munich and in 2015 at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, Md.
All samples were created by UCSD physicist Brian Maple and colleagues, and Song spent hours painstakingly aligning hundreds of the tiny samples and gluing them onto aluminum substrates for testing. By cooling the samples to critical temperatures and examining how neutrons scattered from the samples throughout the cooling, Song, Dai and colleagues were able to show how the magnetic resonance of the materials developed and behaved at the critical point where superconductivity arose.
Yu Song preparing a sample for neutron scattering tests. (Image courtesy of Yu Song/Rice University)
“People have known for years that magnetic order — the alternating alignment of spins that is characteristic of magnetism — actually competes with and suppresses superconductivity,” said Dai, professor of physics and astronomy at Rice and the lead scientist on the project. “Intriguingly, magnetic fluctuations in magnetically disordered compounds — fluctuations that resemble what we see in magnetically ordered compounds — appear to be essential for superconductivity.”
In one key finding, the behavior of the resonance in both the doped and undoped samples appeared the same; this discovery directly conflicted with behavior that would be expected based on Landau’s classical theory governing the electronic behavior of metals. Co-author and theoretical physicist Dirk Morr of the University of Illinois at Chicago said this observation shed new light on a longstanding debate between two theoretical camps that attempts to explain the nature of resonance modes.
“One camp stands for the spin-exciton interpretation, and the other argues that the resonance is a paramagnon, a remnant of the magnetic order,” Morr said. “The spin-exciton picture seems to work better for some compounds while the paramagnon interpretation seems to work better for others. Our results fall more within the paramagnon interpretation, and though no theory can unify the two opposing views, these results hint at the possibility that they are, in fact, two ends of a continuum.”
Additional co-authors include John Van Dyke of the University of Illinois at Chicago; I.K. Lum, B.D. White, Sooyoung Jang, Duygu Yazici and Brian Maple, all of UCSD; L. Shu of Fudan University in Shanghai; A. Schneidewind and Petr Cermák of Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum in Garching, Germany; and Y. Qiu of the NIST Center for Neutron Research.
The research was supported by the Department of Energy, the Welch Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
The DOI of the Nature Communications paper is 10.1038/ncomms12774
A copy of the paper is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12774
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1 Introduction Cutting tool surface coating technology […]
Cutting tool surface coating technology in recent decades should be developed in response to market demand for surface modification of materials technology. The use of coating technology can effectively improve the life of cutting tools, cutting tools to obtain good comprehensive mechanical properties, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of machining. Therefore, the coating technology and materials, cutting technology together and known as the field of cutting tool manufacturing three key technologies. In order to meet the requirements of high efficiency, high precision and high reliability of modern machining, the development of coating technology and its application in tool manufacturing have been paid more and more attention in the world. China's tool coating technology after years of development, is currently in a critical period, that is, the original technology has been unable to meet the increasing demands of cutting, the domestic major tool factory coating equipment to the replacement period must also be. Therefore, the full understanding of the status of domestic and international tool coating technology and development trends, aimed at the international advanced level of coating technology, a planned, step by step to develop tool coating technology (especially PVD technology), to improve China's cutting tool manufacturing level Significance.
Tool coating technology can be generally divided into chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology and physical vapor deposition (PVD) technology, two categories, respectively, as described below.
2.1 The development of CVD technology abroad
Since the 1960s, CVD technology has been widely used in the surface treatment of carbide indexable tools. The preparation of TiN, TiC, TiCN, TiBN, TiB2, Al2O3 and other monolayer and multi-layer composite coatings can be realized by the relatively easy preparation of the metal source needed for the vapor deposition of CVD process. The bonding strength of coating and substrate is relatively high, The thickness of up to 7 ~ 9μm, so the late eighties, the United States has 85% of the carbide tools used in the surface coating treatment, which accounted for 99% of CVD coating; to the mid-1990s, CVD coating Carbide blade in the coating of carbide cutting tools still account for more than 80%.
Although the CVD coating has good wear resistance, but the CVD process also has its inherent shortcomings: First, high processing temperature, easy to cause a decline in bending strength of the tool material; Second, the tensile stress within the film state, easily lead to the use of tools The CVD process emissions, waste liquid will cause greater environmental pollution, and now strongly advocated the concept of green manufacturing conflict, so since the mid-nineties, the development and application of high-temperature CVD technology by a certain Constraints.
At the end of 1980s, the low temperature chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) technology developed by Krupp.Widia reached the practical level, its processing temperature has been reduced to 450 ~ 650 ℃, effectively inhibited the η phase, can be used for thread cutter, cutter , TiN, TiCN, TiC and other coatings, but so far, PCVD process in the field of tool coating is not widely used. In the mid-1990s, the advent of new technologies of intermediate temperature chemical vapor deposition (MT-CVD) revolutionized CVD technology. The MT-CVD technique is a new process for the decomposition of TiCl4, H2, N2 at 700 ~ 900 ℃ with the C / N-containing organic substance acetonitrile (CH3CN) as the main reaction gas. By MT-CVD technology can be dense fibrous crystal morphology of the coating, the coating thickness of up to 8 ~ 10μm. This coating structure has high wear resistance, thermal shock resistance and toughness, and by high temperature chemical vapor deposition (HT-CVD) process in the blade surface deposition Al2O3, TiN and other high temperature oxidation resistance, and be processed Material affinity small, self-lubricating properties of good material. MT-CVD coated blade is suitable for high speed, high temperature, heavy load, dry cutting conditions, its life can be doubled than ordinary coated blade. At present, CVD (including MT-CVD) technology is mainly used for carbide cutting tools surface coating, coating tools for medium and heavy cutting of high-speed roughing and semi-finishing. CVD technology can also achieve α-Al2O3 coating, which is difficult to achieve PVD technology, so in the dry machining, CVD coating technology still occupies a very important position.
2.2 The development of foreign PVD technology
PVD technology appeared in the late 1970s, because of its processing temperature can be controlled below 500 ℃, it can be used as the final treatment process for high-speed steel-like tool coating. As the use of PVD technology can greatly improve the cutting performance of high-speed steel cutting tools, so the technology has been rapidly since the eighties to the late eighties, the industrial developed countries, high-speed steel tool PVD coating the proportion of more than 60% .
PVD technology in the field of high-speed steel tool for the successful application of the world's manufacturing industry has attracted great attention, people competing to develop high-performance, high reliability coating equipment, but also the expansion of its applications, especially in cemented carbide, Ceramic tools in the application of a more in-depth study. The results show that the temperature of PVD process is lower than that of CVD process, and it has no effect on the bending strength of the tool material when the temperature is below 600 ℃ (the test results are shown in Table 1). The internal stress state of the film is compressive stress, Carbide cutting tool complex sophisticated coating; PVD process on the environment without adverse effects, in line with the development of modern green manufacturing. With the advent of the era of high-speed machining, the application of high-speed steel cutting tool gradually declined, carbide cutting tools and ceramic tools to increase the proportion of applications has become an inevitable trend, therefore, industrial developed countries since the early nineties began committed to carbide cutting tools PVD coating technology has made a breakthrough in the mid-nineties, PVD coating technology has been widely used in carbide end mills, drill bit, step drill, oil hole drilling, reamer, tap, indexable Milling cutter, profiled tools, welding tools, such as coating treatment.
At present, PVD technology not only improves the bonding strength between the film and tool matrix, but also from the first generation of TiN to TiC, TiCN, ZrN, CrN, MoS2, TiAlN, TiAlCN, TiN-AlN and CNx. Floor. ZX coating (ie TiN-AlN coating) and other nano-coating the emergence of the PVD coating tool performance has been a new breakthrough. This new coating and substrate bonding strength, coating hardness close to the CBN, good oxidation resistance, anti-stripping strong, and can significantly improve the tool surface roughness, effective control of precision cutting tool edge shape and accuracy of its precision Processing quality and uncoated tool compared favorably.
After several decades of research and development, all kinds of tool coating process has been widely used in high-speed steel and carbide cutting tools.
The development trend of the coating technology in the world is as follows: the coating composition will tend to be diversified and compounded because the single coating material can not meet the requirement of improving the comprehensive mechanical properties of the cutting tool; in order to meet different cutting processing requirements, Will be more complex and more targeted; in the composite coating, the coating thickness of the single component will become increasingly thinner, and gradually tend to nanocrystallization; coating process temperature will become increasingly low, the tool coating process Will be more reasonable direction, is expected PVD, MT-CVD process will become the mainstream technology.
Present Situation and Development Trend of Tool Coating Technology in China
3.1 China's CVD technology development
China since the early 1970s began to study the CVD coating technology, because of the strong technical specificity, the research unit is not much. In the mid-1980s, China's CVD tool coating technology to achieve the level of practical development, technology and the international level at the same level, but in the next 10 years, the development of more slowly (similar to foreign research); The research and development of MT-CVD technology and equipment is expected to be completed in 2001. According to the research objectives, the technology and equipment will reach the international advanced level. The research of PCVD technology in China will start at the end of this year. In the early nineties, PCVD process technology is mainly used for mold coating, cutting tools in the field of application is still very limited. Overall, the overall level of development of domestic CVD technology and the gap between the international level is not until the MT-CVD technology successfully developed, China's CVD tool coating in the field of the overall level will be able to keep pace with the international advanced level.
3.2 China PVD technology development
China's PVD coating technology research and development work began in the early eighties, to the mid-eighties successfully developed small and medium hollow cathode ion coating machine, and the development of high-speed steel cutting tool TiN coating technology.
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Collecting and analysing information on the situation on the ground helps public officials establish the need for fundamental rights action. A fundamental rights assessment assists in establishing a baseline and defining targets for future improvements.
When the city of Utrecht decided to review its track record in human rights, it commissioned a study to review how the city gave effect to human rights.The study examined ten municipal policy areas and looked at selected indicators for each. These included:
- the existence of emergency shelters for asylum seekers in distressing circumstances;
- measures to combat discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation;
- availability of help services for victims of domestic violence, including children;
- human rights education in schools (“Peaceful School Programme”);
- the quality of healthcare for elderly people.
It was the first time that Utrecht screened its existing policies and measures against international human rights standards. The study was published in 2011.
It is considered as a first step toward further mainstreaming international human rights standards into municipal policies.
A baseline study is a good starting point for fundamental rights planning. A baseline study is a description of the current fundamental rights situation in a country, region or city. It identifies shortcomings in fundamental rights protection and provides the basis for developing a strategy or action plan to remedy the situation.
Fundamental rights indicators
It is often not easy to measure the enjoyment of fundamental rights. Therefore, it is useful to break down fundamental rights into measurable indicators. For example, Roma children’s enrolment in school gives an indication of their access to education. To give a complete picture of the situation, this must be complemented with qualitative information – for example about the quality of education they receive. Indicators should be based on international human rights standards. Developing indicators helps focus fundamental rights policies, strategies and action plans on tangible goals.
Relevant and reliable data are needed to develop effective fundamental rights policies, as is the case for other policy areas. New policies, strategies or legislation should be based on evidence from the ground to assess their fundamental rights impact. Existing policies should also undergo regular fundamental rights checks.
Lancashire County Council has made a human rights checklist part of the report which civil servants must present to their superior when recommending a decision or action:
- Has the author of the report taken the Human Rights Act into account? If not, the item must be returned to the author.
- Is the proposed recommendation or action likely to have any Human Rights Act implications?
- Identify the Convention right or rights likely to be affected.
- Outline briefly any consultation with interested parties.
- Identify groups or individuals likely to be affected.
- Explain why an action or recommendation is necessary by referring to the actual Convention/Act.
- What is the legal authority for taking a decision/action?
- What is the aim of the recommendation/action and what are the potential effects?
- Does the report take into account any human rights issues highlighted above?
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Thorium – 100 years without refuelling
Things that were created to simplify our lives are gradually killing us. More than one billion vehicles existing in the world consume trillions of dollars for maintenance and produce toxic emissions that slowly destroy us – isn’t that a problem?
“The car will wear out before the engine. There is no oil, no emissions – nothing.” This is an assertion of scientists of the American company Laser Power Systems (Connecticut). How can this be possible? They claim that have found a solution to the problem of excess emissions of harmful substances from the combustion of gasoline or diesel fuel. The scientists work on developing a new engine system that uses one of the densest material in nature known as thorium.
Because of its density, thorium can produce an incredible amount of heat. According to experts, just one gram of thorium comprises more energy than 28 thousand liters of gasoline. Just imagine for a second – 8 grams of this substance can fuel an ordinary car for a century!
All of this is under development, and of course, tomorrow we won’t drive these vehicles. However, Charles Stevens, researcher of Laser Power Systems, believes that this time will come much sooner than we think. The foundation was laid in 2009, when the company Cadillac introduced the concept of such a vehicle. The car was equipped with fuel cells with thorium. The concept was called Cadillac World Thorium Fuel (Cadillac WTF).
But Stevens is working on a project with a laser of high efficiency MaxFelaser, functioning of which is based on the same radioactive substance. The studies show that small pieces of thorium are able to create the laser beam. This beam heats water, generates steam and rotates the mini-turbine. Such a system is capable to produce 250 kW of energy, which is equivalent to 355 hp. The prototype of such an engine weighing about 200 kilograms freely fit under the hood of a conventional car.
The laser MaxFelaser was constructed in 1985. Now the scientist works on its connection with a modified turbine of Tesla and a generator of his own production. The author doesn’t provide any photos and the end date of the project is unknown.
The scientists assure that thorium is a very weak radioactive element – it produces 10 to 10 thousand times less long-lived radioactive waste. And besides, thorium will cost many times less than uranium and is much more qualitative source of energy.
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Blood pressure, heart rate, height and weight. You’re probably used to getting these standard checks when you go to the doctor’s office. But there’s a relatively new vital sign on the nurse’s go-to checklist — physical activity. Why start tracking physical activity? The best answer is that 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week can save your life.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), regular exercise can:
- Reduce heart disease risk by 40 percent
- Lower stroke risk by 27 percent
- Reduce diabetes risk by almost 50 percent
- Reduce high blood pressure incidences by about 50 percent
- Reduce mortality and recurrent breast cancer risk by nearly 50 percent
- Lower colon cancer risk by more than 60 percent
- Reduce Alzheimer’s disease development risk by one-third
- Decrease depression as effectively as certain medications and behavioral therapies
Mayo Clinic Health System began screening patients for physical activity as a vital sign (PAVS) in October 2013. Kaiser Permanente and Intermountain Healthcare currently are measuring PAVS, but Mayo Clinic Health System is the first organization to incorporate strength training into the equation.
Most people think weight training is just for athletes, body builders and for muscle tone. What they aren’t aware of are the many health benefits of strength training. Meaningful strength training can help improve bone density, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and self-confidence. Having strong muscles also can reduce workload on your heart and lungs, which is helpful if you have heart or lung disease. These are the reasons why Mayo Clinic Health System includes strength training as part of PAVS.
The PAVS initiative was started through a partnership between the ACSM and the American Medical Association to promote the importance of exercise as a way of treating and preventing disease. The long-term hope is to make measuring PAVS a standard medical practice throughout the nation.
Topics in this Post
Cherie Pettitt Sunday, March 30, 2014
It is so great to see MCHS taking this essential next step in helping patients PREVENT diseases and improve their overall health. Yes, even when you have a cold whether or not you exercise matters! Congrats Chip and congrats to our community.
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240 pages, 12 illus
This book chronicles how successive generations of natural philosophers, geologists and geomorphologists have come to invent the view of the Earth over the past 250 years, using as its central viewpoint changing ideas about the significance of the action of rain and rivers on the Earth's surface. It shows how our contemporary "truths" have come to be accepted and exposes the frailty of even the most impeccably scientific visions of the Earth.
Interesting, informative, and easy to read. The Leading Edge "Barbara Kennedy chronicles evolutionary stages of generations of views of the discovery of our planet. The presentation is lucid and enjoyable. This highly readable book can be compared wih Kenneth Hsu's books on Physical Principles of Sedimentology, which was published in 1994 ... Such books are rare indeed."Journal of Sedimentary Research
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Issue Date: December 19, 2011
Long History Of U.S. Energy Subsidies
U.S. government subsidies for energy are as old as the nation, says Nancy Pfund, a managing partner at DBL Investors, a venture capital firm, and an anthropologist. In a recent study for DBL Investors, Pfund and coauthor Ben Healey, a Yale University economics graduate student and former Massachusetts legislative committee director, trace U.S. government energy incentives back to 1789, when leaders of the new nation slapped a tariff on the sale of British coal slipped into U.S. ports as ship ballast.
Using government documents, academic papers, and a mix of other data and reports, Pfund and Healey offer a historical perspective on today’s debate over energy subsidies. Their study finds a paucity of government support for renewable energy sources compared with past government investment in coal, gas, oil, or nuclear energy sources, which helped the country transition to new energy technologies and infrastructures.
The study comes as President Barack Obama continues to push for more government support for renewable, non-fossil-fuel energy sources. This push is intended to mitigate climate-change impacts of energy generation by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, as well as to create new jobs and industries. However, with the failure of solar energy manufacturer Solyndra and the loss of $535 million in taxpayer money that supported the company, Republicans and a few Democrats in the House of Representatives have attacked federal programs that support a transition to renewable energy (C&EN, Oct. 3, page 28).
Pfund and Healey favor government investments in energy, and their research supports the view that over the years new transitional energy sources have spurred U.S. economic growth and innovation. But their study, “What Would Jefferson Do? The Historical Role of Federal Subsidies in Shaping America’s Energy Future,” also finds that federal support of renewable energy falls short of the aid the federal government has given to oil, gas, coal, and nuclear energy when they were new. In fact, they say, backing for renewable energy is trivial in size.
In comparing current support for renewable energy with past aid for today’s traditional energy sources, the report focuses on two types of assistance: funding during the first 15 years of support and annualized expenditures over the life of the energy source.
The first 15 years, the report says, are critical to developing new technologies. It finds that oil and gas subsidies, including tax breaks and government spending, were about five times as much as aid to renewables during their first 15 years of development; nuclear received 10 times as much support.
Federal support during the first 15 years works out to $3.3 billion annually for nuclear energy and $1.8 billion annually for oil and gas, but an average of only $400 million a year in inflation-adjusted dollars for renewables.
For coal, which generates half the nation’s electricity, the authors were unable to quantify government support for the first 15 years, which includes federal and state aid. Coal, Pfund notes, benefits from a host of centuries-old programs that signal a rich history of aid, which is intertwined with the development of the nation. The aid runs deep and comes in many forms—state and federal tax breaks for mining and use; technological support for mining and exploration; national resource maps to encourage exploration and development; tariffs on foreign coal; and aid to steel smelters, railroads, and other industries that burn coal to encourage greater use and develop a steady market for coal.
“It has been a long heyday for coal,” she says, describing states and workers vying for jobs and business.
Pfund and Healey also found that some types of government support—particularly tax breaks—don’t go away because they are embedded in the tax code.
“These subsidies have been huge, and they are the gift that keeps on giving for many energy sources,” Pfund says. Temporary tax incentives intended to spur exploration or development of fossil fuels have become a permanent part of the country’s economic system, Pfund notes.
For example, coal companies can still take advantage of a measure passed in 1950 that originally allowed them to “temporarily” avoid a tax increase enacted to help fund the Korean War, the study says.
Similarly, several measures to aid oil companies passed in the early 1900s remain of key importance to the industry, Healey notes. These include one provision passed in 1916 to speed up depreciation of drilling costs. A second one, the oil depletion allowance, which became law in 1926, gives oil companies a tax break for depleting an oil reservoir. President Obama has sought to end these breaks but has been overwhelmed by the opposition from industry and its congressional allies.
Nuclear power plants also benefit strongly from subsidies, Healey says, particularly from the Price-Anderson Act of 1957, which requires the federal government to indemnify utilities in case of a nuclear disaster. The study quotes utility officials speaking in the 1950s who warned that without federal accident indemnification the industry could not exist.
The study does not include the nearly $40 billion in energy stimulus spending under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. The omission weakens its conclusions, but the money was not allocated when the report was being prepared. Even now, only about half of the $36 billion in stimulus money from the Department of Energy’s allocation has been spent. These funds are spread throughout old and new energy forms—renewables, coal cleanup technologies, vehicles, and nuclear projects. The largest loan guarantee in DOE’s controversial program would go to nuclear energy development, some $8 billion to back up a new nuclear power plant planned to be built in Georgia.
The biggest support for renewables comes from tax credits. Currently, investors can recover 30% of the cost of a wind or solar installation. But Congress has let these credits expire multiple times since their creation in the early 1990s, the study notes. It warns that without consistent, stable support during the initial 15-year period, a new technology will find success difficult.
Another hurdle for developers of renewable energy sources and one avoided by promoters of now-established energy technologies is strong opposition from entrenched, competitive industries, Pfund notes.
When railroads shifted from burning wood to coal for fuel, no powerful timber lobby fought this change, nor was there a well-heeled influential whale-oil lobby blocking fledgling oil producers as they developed kerosene and petroleum products, Pfund adds. Renewable energy developers face a tough battle to get a toehold in the marketplace when facing a traditional energy supplier with a fully depreciated power plant and a complete infrastructure in place to supply electricity. Without government support or a price on carbon emissions, the hurdle is even higher.
“A century’s worth of subsidies is going to put a damper on new product innovation and make it extremely costly to switch energy sources,” Pfund says. A huge driver for renewable energy development in the U.S. would be a price on carbon or the threat of one, which the coal and oil industries vehemently oppose.
When quizzed about the Solyndra failure, Pfund says it is consistent with the history of energy transitions in America.
“Today, we see a very stable and concentrated oil industry. But history tells us there used to be plenty of wildcatters and small oil and coal companies,” Pfund explains. “Many failed and went out of business or were long ago absorbed into larger companies. That is part of the innovative cycle—you make bets that don’t work and weed out the weaker participants. It is a destructive cycle. I don’t think you can make progress without accepting that there will be failures.”
Government support, Pfund adds, has resulted in cheap energy and is needed to continue meeting America’s future energy demands and continued economic growth. If anything, she argues, the study shows renewables have been undersubsidized.
“Subsidies are a proven tool. And there is money to be made out there,” Pfund says. “Subsidies are really the American way.”
- Chemical & Engineering News
- ISSN 0009-2347
- Copyright © American Chemical Society
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Take advantage of the smart phone or tablet you purchased for your teenager over the holidays. Instead of just wasting that technology on another thrilling level of Candy Crush, spend some time using the tablet or phone for some valuable study time. There are so many amazing apps available to help your high school student prepare for any subject or exam. Most of these apps are also less than five dollars, but the information and organization they provide is far more valuable. Here are a few of the best must-have apps for your high schooler.
The Princeton Review SAT
For: SAT Practice
For: Organizing schoolwork
For: Math class
Remember the days of spending lots of money on expensive graphic calculators, only to accidentally drop it, and then be forced to buy a new one? Well those days are gone, as graphic calculators are all available in app form. This app comes complete with all of the same tools from your old graphic calculator including the ability to take screen shots so you can email your graphs to yourself. It can even be displayed on a projector or television with a VGA adapter, making study sessions a lot easier since you can all see the calculator at the same time.
Forget spending hours creating flash cards to study from. Instead pick up Evernote Peek, which will work with your iPad’s Smart Cover to help create e-versions of flash cards. If you don’t have a Smart Cover, it can also work with a virtual cover just as easily. You can add study materials in just about any subject, since you create your own clues and answers, so it truly is just like making flash cards. Then you can use the iPad cover or virtual cover to study for all those big exams coming up.
The Chemical Touch
For: Science class
For less than one dollar you can get an app that provides the full periodic table of elements, along with lots of additional built-in information. This app is very helpful for that upcoming science class. The table is touch sensitive, and a simple tap opens additional information on each item, or if you need more information it will connect to the Wikipedia page for any element, nucleobase or amino acid. Forget carrying around a paper version of this table, this app is far more useful and it won’t rip in your pocket.
Deborah Flomberg is a theater professional, freelance writer and Denver native. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.
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Description of Blind and Sighted Children with Their Mothers: The Development of Discourse Skills
Abstract: This study examined the effects of blindness on the conversational patterns of families and on the development of discourse skills, assessing children's ability to respond contingently to questions and directives. The conversations of four mothers and their blind and sighted children, aged 27–36 months, were analyzed during three play sessions in their homes. During the seven-month study, conversational parameters that included the length of speakers' turns, balance between partners' contributions, and mothers' use of questions and directives were investigated. Conversational analyses revealed that the average lengths of speaking turns of the sighted children and their mothers were comparable, but those of the blind children were considerably shorter than their mothers' turns.
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- Warm up
- Make sure ALL files are saved correctly. You will create the files for all 12 pages, but you will only be fully creating 6 pages. Remember to make your background the same on all your pages and keep your font color the same…you should be able to see the color scheme and it should NOT be distracting. Do not use a gradient or picture background.
- Learn how to preview the webpage and how to edit the Word document.
- Learn how to create a table on the webpage to help organize all the information.
- Start to input all the data on your pages. You can add pictures/graphics and formatting changes AFTER you finish the text portion.
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Автор: Constantine Ziogas
Раздел: Oxford University Press
|Под заказ. Поступление на склад 19.07.2017|
This guide provides crisp revision of all syllabus topics with detailed support for constructing, analysing, labelling diagrams to assist with complete understanding. In addition, students will learn how to design, select and use diagrams to explain concepts while answering examination questions. A 'tips' section provides practical suggestions and a complete glossary provides a much needed teacher and student reference. In addition, there are guidelines on examiner recommendations and information on the extended essay and the internally assessed component of the course. Finally there will be exam practice with a selection of past questions including examiner advice.
Цена 8 755 тг. за 1 штКоличество
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Online payments are becoming more and more important every day, but that doesn’t mean the platforms we use are stepping up their security game. PayPal, one of the largest online payment processors in the world, recently fell victim to a bug in their account system, allowing users to send malicious code through confirmation emails. Luckily, the person discovering this issue has reported the exploit to PayPal through their bug bounty program, rather than using it for malicious intent.
Sending Malicious Code With PayPal Confirmation Emails
Larger online payment processing platforms have a bigger chance of becoming vulnerable to some form of exploit sooner or later. Luckily for PayPal, German security researcher Benjamin Kunz Mejri discovered a flaw which he reported to the company immediately. If someone else had made this discovery, the company would have been off far worse.
The way this exploit works is by sending emails with malicious code through an existing PayPal account. Sending an email to a different PayPal user requires users to fill in a name – usually first and last name – but it turned out that entry field could be filled with random code, including malicious scripts.
Doing so was not as straightforward as it sounds, though, as Mejri had to bypass a security filter, which can be seen in the video below this article. Once that step was completed, he used the Paypal feature to share an account with other users by adding multiple email addresses. This feature can be compared to a multisignature Bitcoin wallet, albeit with entirely different security precautions.
All of the email addresses on the list to share this particular PayPal account with would receive a confirmation email to accept this invitation. Once a user opens this email, the malicious code is executed in the background, originating from PayPal’s servers. As most people have guessed by now, this method makes it rather easy to execute phishing attacks against other users, while ensuring the email sender is PayPal, rather than spoofing the header.
Other exploits included session hijacking, and even redirecting the user to different web pages or websites. Luckily for all PayPal users, this exploit has been patched in early March 2016, and Mejri received a US$1,000 bounty for reporting this security flaw. White hat hackers are of incredible value to financial service providers, which is why companies such as PayPal have their bug bounty program.
Bitcoin is An Answer To Centralized Services
Although Paypal is one of the most popular online payment processors in the world, their entire business model is as centralized as it can get. Not only do they take a cut of every transaction – and quite a big one too – but they also hold on to customer funds when both depositing and withdrawing money. Relying on a service with a central point of failure is putting consumer’s funds at risk.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is entirely decentralized at its core, although there are centralized platforms in this ecosystem as well. Financial control is something very few consumers are accustomed to, and no longer relying on centralized services requires a major mind shift. However, for those willing to take financial matters into their own hands, Bitcoin is a viable option.
What are your thoughts on this recent PayPal vulnerability? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Tweakers (Dutch)
Images courtesy of PayPal, Shutterstock
The post Recent PayPal Exploit Shows Benefits of Decentralized Payment Solutions appeared first on Bitcoinist.net.
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Children and young people are likely to be as good as, if not better than, their parents at using the Internet. However, being good at using technology does not mean they have the life-experience and wisdom to handle all of the situations they can come across.
Children and young people are prone to the same kinds of risks (including spam and scam emails, fraud and identity theft) as everybody else. However, there are also other, more sinister threats that may result from going online, such as inappropriate contact from people who may wish to abuse, exploit or bully them, and exposure to inappropriate material.
Click the following links for more information:
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If you are in an accident and unable to explain your health history, wouldn’t you want healthcare providers to be able to quickly pull your information up? If you were in an area that was affected by a disaster, wouldn’t it be convenient if all of your health information were stored electronically? There are many instances where a Health Information Exchange (HIE) is necessary. In this blog we will discuss the importance of HIE and the types of jobs available in Health IT.
HIE has transformed the way nurses, doctors, emergency professionals, and pharmacists communicate and share private medical information. There are no longer unnecessary hoops to jump through to obtain paper charts and medical histories, especially during emergencies. In addition, the health information exchange allows for medical information to be shared faster. With access to current medical information, health professionals are able to limit the risk of prescribing potentially harmful medications or performing unnecessary tests to their patients. You may be wondering how secure this system is, as sharing personal information related to one’s health is very private information. Standardized policies have been placed to ensure all systems have top privacy and security for the exchange. Access to data and use of data is always monitored as health care safety continues to be improved.
All medical specialists are knowledgeable of the patient’s up-to-date status at all times through directed-exchange, query-based exchange, and consumer-mediated exchange. Through directed-exchange, medical professionals are able to submit patient updates securely through the Internet to one another. Of course, these professionals already know and trust each other. This is helpful for quick updates on lab results and medical tests. If a patient is sent to the emergency room, query-based exchange enables the EMT to research every detail of the patient’s previous history to ensure proper care. In consumer-mediated exchange, patients are able to access their own health information and send updates accordingly.
So, how is a HIE maintained? There are many different technology vendors that offer HIE platform systems to health institutions. The ability to provide business intelligence tools is a crucial feature of HIEs. HIEs must integrate well into a hospital system, gather, store and sort data and provide sufficient data analytics. Without the brains behind the technology, physicians would be unable to obtain necessary patient information.
In this post, the theme for health IT jobs is security. The wealth of medical information within HIE is mind-blowing. If you’re interested in starting a career path in HIE, there are many options for you as HIE becomes more and more mainstream. Employers are looking for skills such as IT implementation, lab interoperability, configuration and testing, quality reporting, IT strategy, and analysis of complex data sets (to name a few).
We’re happy to be a part of your job search within IT health! Please visit our jobs page for current opportunities.
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By inscribing a circle in a square and then a square in a circle find an approximation to pi. By using a hexagon, can you improve on the approximation?
Four circles all touch each other and a circumscribing circle. Find the ratios of the radii and prove that joining 3 centres gives a 3-4-5 triangle.
Introducing a geometrical instrument with 3 basic capabilities.
Prove that the shaded area of the semicircle is equal to the area of the inner circle.
Given any three non intersecting circles in the plane find another circle or straight line which cuts all three circles orthogonally.
Ten squares form regular rings either with adjacent or opposite vertices touching. Calculate the inner and outer radii of the rings that surround the squares.
Equal circles can be arranged so that each circle touches four or six others. What percentage of the plane is covered by circles in each packing pattern? ...
The largest square which fits into a circle is ABCD and EFGH is a square with G and H on the line CD and E and F on the circumference of the circle. Show that AB = 5EF. Similarly the largest. . . .
A small circle fits between two touching circles so that all three circles touch each other and have a common tangent? What is the exact radius of the smallest circle?
Two circles of equal size intersect and the centre of each circle is on the circumference of the other. What is the area of the intersection? Now imagine that the diagram represents two spheres of. . . .
Investigate constructible images which contain rational areas.
What is the sum of the angles of a triangle whose sides are circular arcs on a flat surface? What if the triangle is on the surface of a sphere?
This shape comprises four semi-circles. What is the relationship between the area of the shaded region and the area of the circle on AB as diameter?
This pattern of six circles contains three unit circles. Work out the radii of the other three circles and the relationship between them.
This article gives an wonderful insight into students working on the Arclets problem that first appeared in the Sept 2002 edition of the NRICH website.
If you continue the pattern, can you predict what each of the following areas will be? Try to explain your prediction.
Draw three equal line segments in a unit circle to divide the circle into four parts of equal area.
The sides of a triangle are 25, 39 and 40 units of length. Find the diameter of the circumscribed circle.
A square of area 40 square cms is inscribed in a semicircle. Find the area of the square that could be inscribed in a circle of the same radius.
Thinking of circles as polygons with an infinite number of sides - but how does this help us with our understanding of the circumference of circle as pi x d? This challenge investigates. . . .
Have a go at creating these images based on circles. What do you notice about the areas of the different sections?
Small circles nestle under touching parent circles when they sit on the axis at neighbouring points in a Farey sequence.
Where should runners start the 200m race so that they have all run the same distance by the finish?
What shapes should Elly cut out to make a witch's hat? How can she make a taller hat?
Can Jo make a gym bag for her trainers from the piece of fabric she has?
What is the same and what is different about these circle questions? What connections can you make?
How efficiently can you pack together disks?
Can you reproduce the design comprising a series of concentric circles? Test your understanding of the realtionship betwwn the circumference and diameter of a circle.
A spiropath is a sequence of connected line segments end to end taking different directions. The same spiropath is iterated. When does it cycle and when does it go on indefinitely?
A metal puzzle which led to some mathematical questions.
Construct this design using only compasses
Learn how to draw circles using Logo. Wait a minute! Are they really circles? If not what are they?
We have four rods of equal lengths hinged at their endpoints to form a rhombus ABCD. Keeping AB fixed we allow CD to take all possible positions in the plane. What is the locus (or path) of the point. . . .
A white cross is placed symmetrically in a red disc with the central square of side length sqrt 2 and the arms of the cross of length 1 unit. What is the area of the disc still showing?
For any right-angled triangle find the radii of the three escribed circles touching the sides of the triangle externally.
A security camera, taking pictures each half a second, films a cyclist going by. In the film, the cyclist appears to go forward while the wheels appear to go backwards. Why?
A circle touches the lines OA, OB and AB where OA and OB are perpendicular. Show that the diameter of the circle is equal to the perimeter of the triangle
Given a square ABCD of sides 10 cm, and using the corners as centres, construct four quadrants with radius 10 cm each inside the square. The four arcs intersect at P, Q, R and S. Find the. . . .
M is any point on the line AB. Squares of side length AM and MB are constructed and their circumcircles intersect at P (and M). Prove that the lines AD and BE produced pass through P.
Two perpendicular lines are tangential to two identical circles that touch. What is the largest circle that can be placed in between the two lines and the two circles and how would you construct it?
Three semi-circles have a common diameter, each touches the other two and two lie inside the biggest one. What is the radius of the circle that touches all three semi-circles?
If a is the radius of the axle, b the radius of each ball-bearing, and c the radius of the hub, why does the number of ball bearings n determine the ratio c/a? Find a formula for c/a in terms of n.
Triangle ABC has altitudes h1, h2 and h3. The radius of the inscribed circle is r, while the radii of the escribed circles are r1, r2 and r3 respectively. Prove: 1/r = 1/h1 + 1/h2 + 1/h3 = 1/r1 +. . . .
Two semi-circles (each of radius 1/2) touch each other, and a semi-circle of radius 1 touches both of them. Find the radius of the circle which touches all three semi-circles.
The ten arcs forming the edges of the "holly leaf" are all arcs of circles of radius 1 cm. Find the length of the perimeter of the holly leaf and the area of its surface.
Imagine a rectangular tray lying flat on a table. Suppose that a plate lies on the tray and rolls around, in contact with the sides as it rolls. What can we say about the motion?
In LOGO circles can be described in terms of polygons with an infinite (in this case large number) of sides - investigate this definition further.
A cheap and simple toy with lots of mathematics. Can you interpret the images that are produced? Can you predict the pattern that will be produced using different wheels?
A blue coin rolls round two yellow coins which touch. The coins are the same size. How many revolutions does the blue coin make when it rolls all the way round the yellow coins? Investigate for a. . . .
Explore when it is possible to construct a circle which just touches all four sides of a quadrilateral.
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People - Ancient Greece: Appian
(c. 95 – c. 165) Appian was a Roman historian from Alexandria.
Appian in Wikipedia
Appianus (Ancient Greek: Ἀππιανός) (c. 95 – c. 165), of Alexandria was a Roman historian (of Greek ethnicity) who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. He is commonly referred to by the anglicised form of his name, Appian.
He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practiced as an advocate, pleading cases before the emperors. In 147 at the earliest he was appointed to the office of procurator, probably in Egypt, on the recommendation of his friend Marcus Cornelius Fronto. The position of procurator was open only to members of the equestrian class.
His work (Ῥωμαϊκά, known in English as the Roman History) in 24 books, written in Greek before 165, is more a number of monographs than a connected history. It gives an account of various peoples and countries from the earliest times down to their incorporation into the Roman Empire, and survives in complete books and considerable fragments. The work is very valuable, especially for the period of the civil wars.
The Civil Wars, five of the later books in the corpus, concern mainly the end of the Roman Republic and take a conflict based approach to history.
Little is known of the life of Appian of Alexandria. He wrote an autobiography that has been nearly completely lost. Information about Appian is distilled from his own writings and a letter by Cornelius Fronto, a famous litterateur living in Rome in the mid-second century. However, it is certain that Appian was born in c. 95 in the capital of Roman Egypt, Alexandria. Since it is known that his parents were Roman citizens capable of paying for their son’s education it can be determined that Appian belonged to the wealthy upper class.
It is believed that Appian moved to Rome in 120 where he became a barrister. From his introduction to one of his most important surviving works entitled Roman History, he boasts “that he pleaded cases in Rome before the emperors.” The emperors he claims to have addressed must have been either Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius and definitely Antoninus Pius, for he was still in Egypt by the end of the reign of Trajan (c. 53 - c. 117) meaning he must have moved to Rome at a later date. From the primary source of Fronto’s letter (mentioned previously) it is revealed that a request on behalf of Appian to give him the rank of procurator, can be dated during coregency, i.e., between 147 and 161. Applying for that office acknowledges that Appian belonged to the equestrian class, or “second class” of Roman citizens after the Senatorial class. It is known that Appian won this office, but it is unclear whether it was a real job or an honorific title. The only other certain fact about this historian is that he published a Roman History that appeared sometime before 162 C.E. It is certain because it is one of the few primary sources historians have to work with on the period.
Appian’s work began around the middle of the 2nd century AD. Under the title of Historia Romana, the writings are divided up into 24 different books, of which only sections from half of these books survive today. The Latin names of all 24 books can be found here (Brill’s New Pauly). The most important preserved work of Appian lies in the 5 books on the ‘Civil Wars,’ also recognized as books 13-17 of his “Roman History.” These five books stand out because they are the only comprehensive, meticulous source available to historians about this incomparably significant period where Roman politics were in turmoil because of great domestic disputes.
The work’s particular characteristics lie in its ethnographic structure. Appian most likely used this structure to facilitate the reader’s orientation through the sequence of events, which occur in different places and are only united by their relationship to Rome. A literary example of this can be found from Appian’s The Civil Wars (part 5 of 17). It states, “And now civil discord broke out again worse than ever and increased enormously…..So in the course of events in the Roman empire was partitioned….by these three men: Antony, Lepidus, and the one who was first called Octavius….Shortly after this division they fell to quarrelling among themselves…Octavius …first deprived Lepidus of Africa…and afterward, as the result of the battle of Actium, took from Antony all the provinces lying between Syria and the Adriatic gulf." It would be expected that a historical work covering nine centuries and countless different people would involve the examination of a multitude of testimonials from different periods. However, it is unclear if Appian worked this way for he only mentions the source of his information under special circumstances. Usually, he is silent on his sources, which renders identification difficult. In any case, one has the impression that he primarily only relied on one author for each book, whom he did not follow uncritically since he also used additional sources for precision and correction. At our present state of knowledge questions regarding Appian’s sources cannot be solved.
If you notice a broken link or any error PLEASE report it by clicking HERE
© 1995-2017 Bible History Online
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from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Alternative spelling of abatis.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See abatis.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a line of defense consisting of a barrier of felled or live trees with branches (sharpened or with barbed wire entwined) pointed toward the enemy
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Msuwa, a village situated in a populous district, having in its vicinity no less than five other villages, each fortified by stakes and thorny abattis, with as much fierce independence as if their petty lords were so many Percys and Douglasses.
As they swarm with vermin by night and flies by day23, I frequently made strong objections to these favourite localities: the utmost conceded to me was a fresh enclosure added by a smaller hedge to the outside abattis of the more populous cow-kraals.
At intervals around and inside the outer abattis are built the
The abattis has usually four entrances which are choked up with heaps of bushes at night.
On both sides are little square plots fenced against sheep and goats by a rude abattis of stripped and dead boughs,
Washington could see that these works had stout abattis and chevaux-de-frise and that from them, probably, a good view could be had both of the plain near the town and the inner fortifications.
From the line of the abattis came the shout of a sentinel, then the ring of his musket and, in a few seconds, the sound of a general alarm.
The French had found the abattis strong and almost undamaged twenty-five yards in front of the redoubt.
The defenses consisted of two rows of trenches, lying one over the other, with strong cover, and with wire entanglements and abattis in front of them.
Gabions, fasces, abattis, and other appliances for assault or defence were quickly made, and all this practical schooling in the work of war went on, under the watchful cooperation of the very officers who afterward became conspicuous in the field, from Long Island to Yorktown.
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The icon of THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST also called THE DECENT INTO HADES is located in the south apse wall in the nave and its meaning is as follows (the numbers on the drawing of the icon correspond to the numbered tabs below the drawing which you may click to learn more):
Our Saviour tramples the gates of Hades. The dark caves on the icon signify that Hades was a place of darkness, beneath the earth; a spiritual place where the just of the Old Testament awaited the reopening of Paradise.
Saints of the Old Testament, until now held in Hades, they are led by Saint John the Baptist (on the left side of Christ) who, after he was beheaded, announced to those in Hades that the Messiah had come and they would soon be with him in Paradise.
The tombs of our first parents, Adam and Eve. “…and to those in the tombs He granted life.” Adam and Eve are thus restored to Paradise. The power of death is overthrown, the Saints of past ages are set free and we are granted salvation by the great work accomplished by our Lord through the Cross.
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Contact: Ellen Marsh
Phone: (607) 254-4680
Cornell Collection Documents World War II's Africa Campaign
Archives of George “Doc” Abraham ‘39 reveal little-known aspects of life in Liberia during the war
ITHACA, N.Y. -- An extensive photograph collection recently acquired by Cornell University Library documents little-known and occasionally controversial aspects of World War II’s Africa Campaign. Images depicting camp life in one of the U.S. Army’s first racially integrated units, customs of the indigenous people of Liberia, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s visit to the troops, and Army-sponsored brothels are just some of the collection’s highlights.
George “Doc” Abraham graduated from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1939. When the U.S. entered World War II, he enlisted in the Army and was handed a camera along with an assignment to document life in Liberia during the war. Much of Abraham’s work never came to public light until recently when his children, Leanna Landsmann and Darryl Abraham, donated his extensive collection to the Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC).
The collection sheds new light on the lives of U.S soldiers who were assigned to Liberia during World War II in part to guard the Firestone Rubber Plantations, the source of allied rubber during the war. Task Force 5889 was comprised of 2,100 African American soldiers and 76 whites in one of the Army’s first racially integrated units. White soldiers assigned to the unit had to pass a psychological test to determine their ability to get along with people, and the photos show the troops working and relaxing side-by-side.
“This collection will enhance Cornell’s holdings of Africana materials and will showcase previously unknown details on the integration of African American soldiers in the U.S. Army,” said Eric Kofi Acree, Director of Cornell’s John Henrik Clarke Africana Library. “Photos have a way of telling a story that the printed text cannot.”
The archive also contains photographs and descriptions about brothels created for the African American soldiers. These were staffed with “comfort women” who were routinely offered medical care by Army doctors to combat sexually transmitted diseases. Abraham’s photos of two brothels, Paradise and Shangri-La, were featured on the History Channel’s series, Sex in World War II, as well as in his book published in 2000 The Belles of Shangri-La and Other Stories of Sex, Snakes, and Survival from World War II. Abraham and a colleague also took explicit photos of the ritual of female circumcision that he shared long afterward with policy makers in hopes of ending the practice.
"Photo documentation of West Africa from the 1940s is scarce,” said Brenda Marston, historian and curator of RMC’s Human Sexuality Collection. “These materials will serve as a rich, new resource for researchers. We are so pleased to be able to make these fascinating and historically significant photos available to people now."
Abraham and his wife, Katherine (Katy) Mehlenbacher Abraham’43, gained renown during six decades as "The Green Thumb" duo on radio and TV and in a syndicated newspaper column. Their family recently donated more than 1,000 photos, 24 hours of film, and hundreds of negatives from Abraham’s WWII collection to Cornell, along with the couple’s Green Thumb horticultural collection. Both collections will be available in 2008.
On Veterans Day, a preview of the George “Doc” Abraham WWII Africa Campaign Liberia Collection will be available for viewing on LibeCast at www.libecast.library.cornell.edu. A brief narration by Chris Metzger from Middlesex, NY, a researcher and photography expert who is helping to assemble the collection, will take listeners through some of the highlights of this unique archive. Eventually many of the photographs will be digitized and made available online.
For more information, please contact Brenda Marston, curator, at (607) 255-3530 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
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From The Well To You
Natural gas is a fossil fuel that can be found deep in the earth, beneath layers and layers of rock and earth. There are three steps in the process of bringing natural gas from the well to your home or business.
STEP 1: Natural gas production
Scientists and engineers explore areas by studying rock samples from the earth, taking measurements, etc. If the site seems promising, drilling begins.
Natural gas does contain small amounts of pollutants (significantly less than other fossil fuels such as coal and oil) when extracted from the earth. The raw gas is cleaned, and useful byproducts, such as light oils and propane, are recovered.
STEP 2: Natural gas transmission
Long-distance pipelines span North America, carrying natural gas directly from producer to user.Construction of pipelines involves burying pipes underground. Once pipe is laid, the landscape is restored to its original appearance. Great care is taken to preserve valuable crops and trees. Compressor stations are located every 50 to 100 miles. At these stations, compressors keep gas flowing at the right speed.
STEP 3: Natural gas distribution
Your local natural gas utility, such as CenterPoint Energy, delivers natural gas to your home or business through a system of underground pipelines. Before we distribute the gas, we lower the pressure so gas can travel safely through the mains and we add a non-toxic odor (similar to rotten eggs) so it's easy for you to smell a natural gas leak.
The "city gate" station is the place where the long-distance pipeline connects with the gas utility's own delivery system. Gas "mains" are the major pipes that carry gas from the city gate station; they're usually buried about 3 feet deep. "Service pipes" are smaller pipes that carry gas from the gas main to your business.
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This is probably the most important 36 seconds in basketball. A recording of 36 seconds of a radio broadcast when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game between the Philadephia Warriors and the NY Knicks on March 2, 1962, surfaced. The game was not televised and newspaper reports cannot capture how incredible the moment was. In fact, conspiracy theorists claim that it never happened because it has never happened since. On March 23, 2016, those 36 seconds were entered into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. If it wasn't for that 36 seconds of radio, there would be no recording that it ever really happened. Amazing, huh?
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Deburring or burnishing compounds are a liquid concentrate similar to soap which is mixed with water and used in the machine during the deburring process. The water and compound solution play an important role in the deburring process. They lubricate the media and keep the surface of the media clean. Another purpose of the compound and the water is to maintain the suspension of the soils, machining oils or metal removed from the parts and media. Otherwise, the cutting oils on the parts and the material will clog the surface of the media and reduce its action. Compounds can also react chemically with the parts being worked to affect finish and influence cycle times. Some operators of vibratory machines try using water soluble oil in the machines as a rust inhibitor. This should NEVER be used. The oil will clog the pores of the media and prevent it from deburring. There is a compound with a rust inhibitor in it that should be used for this purpose and it will not leave a film on your parts.
There are general purpose compounds used on all metals like our VF 77. There are also compounds that contain rust inhibitors for steel like our VF 100. Polishing compounds are either acidic VF 150 or alkaline VF 103 depending on the alloy you are burnishing. It is sold in five gallon containers and 55 gallon drums. Mixing concentration is one to four ounces of compound to one gallon of water. The compound mixture can be circulated through the machine with a pail and submersible pump or as with tumbling barrels and small bench top bowls run as a batch to be refilled with each load. Water systems can also be run as a flow through, where the water and compound are mixed with a mixing valve.
The water is fed into the machine slowly, then allowed to drain directly to the sewer. This way the water and compound is always clean. There needs to be traps in your drain system to use this type water/compound process. The trap will segregate the solids from the water and keep it out of the sewer system. If you are circulating or running a batch type system it is very important to change the fluid often. The solution should be changed at least every 4 hours of machine operation or in a batch system every time the parts are finished. Read more information click: Mr Deburr 300DB
HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO RUN MY PARTS?
Most parts will need to have a uniform appearance as well as an edge break. Often times there are machining marks in the surface that need to be removed. To remove machine marks on the surface, it takes longer than to just break an edge. On aluminum parts run time can be 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Stainless steel and carbon steel run times can be 45 minutes to two hours or more. These are rough guidelines and actual time may vary. Polishing parts in porcelain or steel media will usually come to a nice shine in about 20 minutes to one hour.
HOW MANY PARTS CAN I RUN AT A TIME?
There is no hard and fast rules about how many parts can be placed in the machine at one time. You can usually have more steel parts in the machine than aluminum because of part on part contact. The machines can easily handle the load; it is a matter of the part on part contact damaging each other. The media likes to get between the parts and keep them separated. The exact ratio of parts to media is usually a matter of trial and error and will vary some depending on the part configuration. If you took a 5-gallon pail and filled it half way with parts, that would be a comfortable load for our 3 cubic foot machine. For the 6.5 cubic foot machine, it would hold about three times the parts. You want your parts to be surrounded by the media and not banging into each other.
TO LEARN MORE
This just a rough overview of the de-burring process. There are no hard and fast rules in this industry. Many companies will develop their own process for particular parts. It may also be that you are trying to achieve a certain look to your part that will make it unique in your industry. There are numerous types of media available for doing limitless operations in vibratory machines and tumbling barrels. If you would like to educated yourself further, the best book on the market is by LaRoux Gillespie It is called Mass Finishing Handbook ISBN-13(978-0-8311)3257-6. It has a lot of very detailed information.
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Written by Lowell H. Zuck
The evangelical roots of the United Church of Christ represent a unionistpietist liberal approach to Christianity. Among most nineteenthcentury immigrants on the Midwestern frontier, German Evangelicals stood in stark contrast to the doctrinal rigorism that was popular among Missouri Lutherans, Christian Reformed, and, to a lesser extent, Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, and Methodist revivalists.(1)
German Evangelicals in Missouri, Illinois, and other Midwestern states traced their roots unofficially to the Prussian Union Church, founded in 1817. On arrival in the United States, in 1840, they organized themselves into a church association (Evangelische Kirchenverein des Westens), making use of German confessions from both Lutheran and Reformed traditions. They also displayed a pietistic ability to pray, sing, form congregations, and train ministers, following the ecumenically open but conservative LutheranReformed tradition. They started a church journal (the Friedensbote)and reshaped a new catechism (Evangelical Catechism). But the most important institution for developing a new German Evangelical consciousness in America was a seminary, begun in 1850 at Marthasville, Missouri, and later moved to Webster Groves and renamed Eden Theological Seminary.(2)
The fourth president of this Evangelical seminary served from 1872 to 1879. His name was Karl Emil Otto (1837—1916).(3) The story of this immigrant clergyman, who was educated at the German university of Halle, illustrates how an immigrant church, loyal to German traditions, was able to maintain faith commitments in the face of rationalist intellectualism. It is a story of the struggle between the latest German critical biblical scholarship and a healthy religious pietism on the American frontier. Although Otto created a controversy involving parochial immigrant concerns, his life reveals the basically liberal characteristics of American German Evangelicals: a group that was unwilling to stay safely within narrow confessional limits, or to be restricted by fashionable theology and traditional institutionalism.
CONCERN FOR ORTHODOXY
In 1845 Philip Schaff, who had come to the German Reformed Seminary at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and who was also rooted in the same Prussian Union Church as Karl Emil Otto, had been unsuccessfully tried for heresy. He was accused of teaching a view of the Reformation that was too Catholic for his American Reformed audience.(4) The romantic German Mediating theology behind Schaff's teachings was also important to Otto. Karl Emil Otto, however, was more deeply involved with German historical critical scholarship than Schaff had been.
Karl Emil Otto was one of the first biblical scholars using German methods to be tried for heresy. Although he was unfavorably judged by the Evangelical Synod in 1880, the judgment did not permanently alienate Otto from the German Evangelical community. His story shows that German Evangelicals had a greater tolerance for German biblical scholarship than any other nonUnitarian American denomination at the time. The only groups in America that advocated more radical doctrines than Otto's were the Free Religious Association, formed out of Unitarianism in 1867, and the Society for Ethical Culture, begun in 1876 by Felix Adler as a reaction to narrow Judaism.(5)
Among liberal Protestants in the 1870s, conservatism dominated. Only the Congregationalists and Baptists, with their loose form of government, allowed liberal theology access to seminaries. Prof. Crawford H. Toy was forced to resign from the Southern Baptist Seminary at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1879 when his views seemed to impugn the plenary inspiration of scripture. The Alabama Baptist wrote: "The fortunes of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ are not dependent upon German born vagaries."(6) Toy had studied in Germany.
Andover Seminary clung to its Calvinistic creed until the 1890s. In 1891, Prof. Egbert G. Smyth, who had studied in Berlin and Halle in 1863, was able to have the Massachusetts Supreme Court overrule attempts to remove him for heresy from Andover in 1886.(7) Egbert's brother, Newman Smyth, who had also studied in Germany, was denied an Andover appointment in 1881 because of his opposition to eternal punishment.
In 1893 the celebrated Presbyterian heresy trial of Charles A. Briggs (Union Seminary) took place, resulting in his dismissal by the General Assembly.(8) A. C. McGiffert, a Marburg Ph.D. and Union colleague of Briggs, resigned from the Presbyterian ministry in 1900 to become a Congregationalist. H. Preserved Smith of Lane Seminary was dismissed from the Presbyterian ministry in 1892. All three had studied in Germany. Fundamentalism continued its hold over Presbyterians for another quarter century.
In 1904 a Methodist, Borden P Bowne, was examined and acquitted of heresy at Boston University. And in 1906 Prof. Algernon S. Crapsey was deposed by the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York for not being creedally traditional.(9)
In retrospect, it is remarkable that a heresy trial regarding biblical criticism took place in 1880 at a remote German Evangelical Seminary in Missouri. This incident shows the sensitivity of the German Evangelicals to the latest scholarship and their capacity to handle controversy.
Karl Emil Otto was born on January 7, 1837, in Mansfeld, Saxony, at the foot of the Harz Mountains.(10) His father, Karl Friedrich Otto, was headmaster of the school at Mansfeld where Martin Luther received his education. Soon after young Otto was confirmed at age fourteen, his father died. An older brother, who had already become a pastor, took charge of Otto's studies, preparing him for high school. For nearly six years Otto concentrated on ancient languages at the Saxon territorial Pforta school, where scholars spoke Latin in middle and upper classes. With the help of his brother, Otto enrolled in the University of Halle and studied there from 1857 to 1860.
At Halle, Otto studied with the notable Mediating theologians: August Tholuck in systematics, Julius "Sin" Mueller in biblical theology, and Hermann Hupfeld, in philology. Hupfeld's critical and philologically accurate method of studying Near Eastern languages was especially influential in forming young Otto's approach to biblical exegesis.(11) It is interesting to note that Prof. Heinrich Heppe, who prepared the way for the Wilhelm Herrmann—Rudolf Bultmann liberal tradition at the University of Marburg, had also studied (at Marburg) with Professors Mueller and Hupfeld.(12)
After Karl Emil Otto completed theology study and passed his first examination, he spent some years as a private tutor in a pastor's family and taught Latin to gifted students at the famous Francke Orphan's Institute at Halle. With his final examination Otto appeared to have a bright future as a theologian and pastor in Germany.
MISSIONARY TO AMERICA
In September 1864, however, Otto attended the Altenburg Kirchentag assembly. There he heard addresses by two American pastors from the Lutheran Wisconsin Synod and the Evangelical Synod in Missouri. Both spoke of the desperate need for welltrained theologians to minister to German immigrants on the American frontier. On the spot, Otto decided that he would go to America, if he could find a way. Before long he received a fiveyear appointment to the Wisconsin Synod from the Berlin Missionary Society. He was sent to the Wisconsin Synod with the assurance that he could have a permanent position in Germany, if he should decide to return. In February 1865 Otto was ordained to the Evangelical ministry at Magdeburg, Germany.
Karl Emil Otto arrived in Milwaukee on April 29, 1865, where he was kindly received by Pastor Muehlhaeuser of the Wisconsin Synod. He was assigned to two Lutheran and one Reformed rural congregations in Dodge County, Wisconsin. In spite of primitive frontier conditions, Otto endeared himself to his people. He found, however, that the Wisconsin Synod, with its increasingly strenuous Lutheran confessionalism, was in conflict with his commitment to Evangelical unionism and a critical approach to scripture.
In a short time Otto became acquainted with the milder Evangelical Synod. The notable Evangelical traveling preacher Louis von Ragué persuaded him to travel to St. Louis in late 1865 to visit Pastor Louis Nollau, founder of the Evangelical Kirchenverein.(13) Nollau appreciated Otto's abilities and viewpoint and told him of a vacancy at St. Paul's Evangelical Church in Columbia, Illinois (across the river from St. Louis). Resigning from the Wisconsin Synod in 1866, Otto spent the next four years at Columbia, Illinois. He became an Evangelical minister in 1867 and married a relative from Germany, Amelia Otto, in the same year. They had seven children.
SEMINARY PROFESSOR AND PRESIDENT
By 1870 Otto's scholarship and pastoral gifts were well known, and he was called to a professorship at the Marthasville, Missouri, Evangelical Seminary. Otto had barely arrived at Marthasville in July when he learned of the sudden death of the school's fortysevenyearold president, Andreas Irion.(14) When Irion's successor, Johann Bank, resigned in 1873, after little more than a year, because of ill health, Karl Emil Otto, at age thirtyeight, became president of the institution.
Under Otto's leadership a new educational spirit was introduced. Irion had powerfully represented the practical and old orthodox spirit of the mission houses, whereas Otto, less comfortably for the synod, taught the critical theology of the German universities. Irion had been a missioninstitute Pietist, teaching theology as a deepgoing mystic; Otto was a critical theologian. Irion represented Wuerttemberg pietism, combining childlike religious feeling with a speculative spirit; Otto, on the contrary, was a North German, a believing Christian but less pietistic. Through his schooling he had been trained in historicalcritical research, leading to positive results. Otto's strength lay in exegesis. He taught dogmatics, but it was not his main field. His greatest love was Old and, especially, New Testament exegesis.(15)
In 1873 the seminary and denomination started a new journal, the Theologische Zeitschrift. Already in March of that year Otto published the first of three installments on "The Exegesis of Romans 5:12—19." His intention was to acquaint members of the synod with what he was teaching. The articles were well received, and Otto was chosen editor in 1877.
Otto's difficulties did not come from his students. He possessed outstanding teaching abilities that aroused enthusiasm. The students had not previously heard such deepgoing exegesis. Irion had presented the deep thought contents of biblical concepts; but Otto controlled Greek as if it were his basic language. He was able to contribute not only philological enlightenment, but also what his contemporaries called "the nutritious bread of living scriptural thought."(16) Moreover, Otto led his students into developing their own abilities to think and become earnest researchers themselves, thus reaching the highest goal of a teacher.
In 1879 Otto's popularity with students resulted in a student strike against the other seminary professor, K. J. Zimmermann, who appeared inadequate by comparison. As a result, Zimmermann resigned and Otto gave up the presidency but remained as professor. Twentytwo of the twentysix strikers later returned. Louis E. Haeberle became president, showing tact and firmness until his retirement in 1902.
Meanwhile the students began telling their home pastors about the theological viewpoint of their favorite professor. Many pastors were startled. The old beliefs were no longer being taught at the seminary. The leader of the opposition was retired seminary president Johann Bank. Bank and his friends wrote a formal letter to the seminary board demanding that Otto's teachings be investigated. They referred to Otto's 187374 articles and questioned whether his views on sin as the wages of death, original sin, and atonement and justification were biblical.
The board was not convinced. Early in 1880 it passed a resolution of confidence in Otto, asking him to continue teaching. It examined his dogmatics notes regarding the meaning of Christ's death and atonement, the death of humanity, the miracles of Christ, and the sacrifice of Isaac and found no problems.
In two resolutions the board fully supported Otto:
(1) The Seminary Board has convinced itself that the doubts raised about Professor Otto's teaching have no basis in fact, and that therefore his further continuance at the seminary must be desired by the Board.
(2) That Professor Otto shall be requested to forget what has happened and on the basis of strengthened confidence to continue his work with good cheer and courage.(17)
However, when four articles on the temptation story in Genesis 3 appeared in the Theologische Zeitschrift from May to August 1880, it became necessary to consider Otto's case at the fall synodical General Conference. Otto had not hesitated to have the articles published, even while he was being examined by the seminary board. He felt no need to seek the approval of any higher authority than his conscience.
Otto's symbolical method of scripture interpretation created a sensation among Evangelicals. At the September General Conference of the synod, the committee appointed to investigate his work declared that he had deviated from the synodical doctrinal position and demanded that he promise in the future to maintain true doctrine. Otto defended himself with dignity. He affirmed the basic confessions of the church and accepted the unconditional authority of scripture, but he insisted that a teacher be allowed latitude in interpretation. He questioned the competence of the synod to decide such matters.
By a vote of 47 to 9, however, the General Conference declared its lack of confidence in Otto. It also added a "Neological Paragraph" to the synodical Constitution, stating: "We must decidedly repudiate any neological [new] method of teaching and explanation of the scriptures, and insist firmly that in our seminary the Christian doctrine is presented in the manner of the positive believing direction, as it is done in the Evangelical Church of Germany."(18)
Otto had no alternative but to resign his professorship, as well as his membership in the synod. He became pastor of a nonsynodical Evangelical Church in Darmstadt, Illinois, where he served until 1887. By 1885, however, Otto renewed his affiliation with the Evangelical Synod with no malice. Already in 1883 the St. Louis Evangelical publishing house issued Otto's 268page Bibelstudien fuer die gebildete Gemeinde (Exposition of Romans for Educated Congregational Members). It included a twentyninepage appendix exegeting the Genesis 3 temptation passage.(19) In 1887 Mennonites from Kansas invited Otto to teach in their preparatory school at Halstead, Kansas. But after only a year, Otto accepted the pastorate of an Evangelical church at Eyota, Minnesota, serving from 1888 to 1890.
In 1890 Otto accepted a call to become professor of ancient languages and history at Elmhurst College, Illinois. For fourteen years thereafter he prepared students to enter the Marthasville Seminary from Elmhurst. Samuel D. Press, later president of Eden Seminary, noted with pride that his immigrant father, Gottlob Press, had studied under Otto in 1874 and "stood by Otto after his dismissal, remaining loyal to him to the end." In turn, Sam Press studied under Otto at Elmhurst, saying of him:
The only truly academically trained member of the Elmhurst faculty at that time was Prof. Emil Otto, an outstanding scholar, a man of unimpeachable character. . The mainstay of the curriculum at Elmhurst for me were the four years of Latin and the three years of Greek with Prof. Otto. His excellent lectures were too advanced for most of his students.(20)
Otto's teaching at Elmhurst included deepgoing lectures on world history and German literature. In 1898 he published a story for young people about an American lad who was kidnapped in Connecticut during the American Revolution, an unusual theme for a German immigrant theologian!(21) He also published a fictional history from ancient times, The Bride from Damascus, set in the Greek Orthodox Church of A.D. 633.(22) In 1897 he produced a 137page
Germanlanguage history of the life of George Washington, noting both Washington's success as a military commander and leader and his willingness to give up power and go back to civilian life. This may have reflected Otto's own renunciations as a theologian.(23)
Otto retired from teaching in 1904. For the rest of his life he struggled with defective hearing and the illnesses and deaths of his wife and eldest son. He returned to Columbia, Illinois, where he died in 1916 at the age of nearly eighty. Those twelve years as emeritus professor were active years, filled with preaching chores and regular writing for the Theologische Zeitschrift. The announcement of his death in that journal was followed by one of his own articles, "The Meaning of the Old Testament for Christian Preaching," written shortly before his death. The previous issue contained two Otto articles on "American Idealism" and an exegesis of Colossians 1:24.(24)
At the funeral Eden Seminary president William Becker used the text, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things" (Rev. 21:7, King James Version). Otto had overcome what he called his "catastrophe." Carl E. Schneider, Evangelical historian, wrote later: "In calmer moments it became apparent that the action [of the synod's excommunicating Otto] had been too hasty. Otto was vindicated not only by posterity but by many of his contemporaries, and never again was the question of confessional orthodoxy made the issue of serious discussion by any General Conference.(25)
Otto's exegesis approached Paul critically. He believed that a great assignment had been given to proclaim the gospel, "to pave the way for a Christian unity of the faith between those who are influenced and those who are not influenced by the socalled modern view of the world." Paul needed to be brought nearer to the Christian church by a manner of interpretation that would "explain Paul purely out of himself, uninfluenced by the authority of doctrinal tradition."28
Otto discussed the origins of sin and its consequences by examining Paul and the dogmatic traditions. In exegeting Romans, Otto wrote with Protestant fervor:
If we now compare verse 3:22 "Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe," with 1:17, "Through faith for faith," and combine these, then we have Paul's trilogy: Out of faith (God's faith), through faith (Christ's faith), to faith (the new mankind's faith), and the doxology concerning the depths of the richness, the wisdom, and the knowledge of God (11:33), which doxology refers to the perfection of the work of redemption; then we have essentially a substantiation of our interpretation.27
But Otto's lengthy discussion of the doctrine of the atonement bordered on heresy:
Because God cannot forgive sins without a vicarious death, therefore he himself had to finally furnish the perfect offering, which was to bear vicariously the suffering of punishment for all mankind. That God did by presenting Christ as the atonement offering. . . . One can tell at once by this "orthodox" interpretation, that it is not derived from exegesis, but from dogmatics. One would hardly have found this explanation in these two verses (Rom. 3:2526), if one had not had beforehand this interpretation. And where did one get it? Not from the Bible, but from Scholasticism. . . , The theory of the atonement goes back in the first place to Anselm's attempt to construe the revealed content of the re
vealed truth about faith by the means available to human reason. This background should serve warning not to identify the outcome of this theory immediately with revealed truth itself.(28)
Even more sensational than his work on Paul were Otto's articles on the study of the Genesis temptation story (Genesis 3). He reviewed different types of exegesis (allegorical, literal, dogmatical, and theosophical), showing reasons for rejecting them all. His was a symbolic interpretation: "The tree of life is not actually a fruit tree; the tree of knowledge is not actually a tree; then too no serpent actually appeared. The appearance of the serpent symbolizes the fact that just that made itself felt which is symbolized by this picture." Otto argued that the serpent was a natural being, created by God as every other creature. It was not a creature of Satan. There was no trace that the serpent had its cunning from anywhere else except from God. "The serpent symbolizes the power that resides in nature and entices to evil. This power is not yet morally bad in itself." It is a power that dare not gain influence over humanity, if we do not want to become morally bad.(29) Otto supported a feminist interpretation of the fall: "The fact that the serpent approaches the woman first is generally associated with the greater lack of selfcontrol and the greater temptability of the woman. But actually it rather points to the connection of the sinful fall with the sex relationship only to the extent that the sex discretion occurs earlier with the woman than with the man."(30)
Otto's basic point was that the story of the fall points to sin as grave disobedience to God. The tree, the serpent, and the conversations are merely a shell. Otto was concerned with practical teaching, recognizing two ways to grasp offered truths, either in the form of abstract truth or in the form of a graphic story. He did not believe that they needed to contend against each other as if they were enemies. Those who cannot yet free themselves from the story form to grasp the moral truths should stay with this form so that they will not lose the content of the same. But those who have the duty to impart religious truth to their times and companions should get clear in their minds concerning this truth.(31)
Nor did Otto pit science and faith against each other as enemies:
The Scriptures should not be interpreted according to the demands of the natural sciences, but according to the Scriptures themselves. Exegesis must simply seek to find that which the Scripture passage intends to say. If it should happen that the passage should represent conceptions which are impossible to reconcile with scientific findings, then there will still be time to decide in favor of which side of the respective collision one might choose to stand.(32)
THE EVANGELICAL MIX
The synodical case against Otto rejected his statement that he was not asking for recognition of a "liberal interpretation," but of the "neological" (modern) method of exegeting scripture. Such an argument, however, was in keeping with the confessional stance of the Evangelical Synod. Its 1848 confessional statement affirms the Scriptures as the Word of God and as the sole and infallible rule of faith and life, and accepts the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures as given in the symbolic books of the Lutheran and the Reformed Church, the most important being the Augsburg Confession, Luther's and the Heidelberg Catechism, in so far as they agree. But where they disagree, we adhere strictly to the passages of Holy Scriptures bearing on the subject, and avail ourselves of the liberty of conscience prevailing in the Evangelical Church.(33)
The confessional statement revealed the unionist confessional spirit of the Evangelicals, which allowed choice between Lutheran and Reformed confessions, while at the same time affirming the priority of scripture and appealing to individual conscience on points of disagreement. Although it could be criticized as contradictory, the paragraph nicely combined liberal individualism with conservative scriptural authority. Highly trained scholars leaned toward autonomy of conscience, while ordinary pastors and church members, grounded in conservative pietistic views, favored traditional scriptural authority.
Although Otto followed the confessional tradition of his predecessors, William Binner, Andreas Irion, and Adolph Baltzer, he did so with greater discernment, penetrating to more daring conclusions. Building on his excellent German theological training, Otto affirmed the authority of Holy Scripture without question. However, he also considered himself better qualified than many others to distinguish between favored interpretations of texts and their actual meanings. He insisted that the meaning "which according to my best knowledge is the meaning of Scripture constitutes for me the norm for my teaching."(34)
The censure of Karl Emil Otto at the 1880 synodical conference centered on what constitutes Evangelical freedom. Maintaining that he espoused scientific, theological truth, Otto urged that the synod could accept his position without fear of drifting from doctrinal moorings. Indeed, the contrast between an orthodox and a more liberal position, which he admitted he held, was wholesome for the church. On the basis of the confessional paragraph, he demanded recognition and equal rights for both.
At the time the irenic spirit of the Evangelicals was overcome by fear of the dangers of "neology." When the vote went against Otto, he was dismissed from the synod. More orthodox Evangelicals tried to prevent any other professors with his views from becoming seminary professors. Yet Otto was not repudiated as a person, or as a teacher, although he was never invited back to teach at the seminary.
"Americanization" was a crucial issue for nonEnglishspeaking believers, and the wave of the future for Evangelicals was on the side of Americanization. As early as 1874, when Otto was president at Marthasville, he had proposed that students who completed their work with honors at "Eden" should be sent to an Englishspeaking college or theological seminary for further work.(35) Conservatives responded that it would be far better for them to attend German universities. Yet Otto's flexibility on language issues was consistent with his critical and forwardlooking theological views.
As the years went by, it was Otto's approach to scriptural authority, learning, individual conscience, and willingness to allow missionarylike accommodation to American life that prevailed in the Evangelical Synod. By the time of Otto's death in 1916, onetime student Samuel D. Press said of Otto that "not only his theology was Christocentric, but also his life."
Press expressed the prevailing Evangelical spirit when he went on to say:
Professor Otto holds a distinctive place in our Synod. Through Otto's intellectual talents, God presented our Church with one of his richest gifts. . . Otto was an untiring searcher for truth.... Completely unpartisan, Otto had the courage to present his theological positions freely and openly, without concern for personal consequences, . . . What a tragedy that our Church robbed itself of the services of such an outstanding theological servant! Nevertheless, this noble person continued to serve the Church faithfully until the end of his life.(36)
The littleknown heresy trial of Karl Emil Otto before the Evangelical Synod in 1880 presents a unique example of theological leadership and the struggle for denominational identity on the American scene. The small German Evangelical denomination made an initial mistake but went on to recover its identity and its ability to grow amid struggle. Karl Emil Otto and the Evangelical Synod show how sound biblical criticism and flexible churchly pietism learned to live together.
1. For Evangelical Synod history, see Carl E. Schneider, The German Church on the American Frontier (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1939), and David Dunn, ed., A History of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (Philadelphia: The Christian Education Press, 1961).
2. Carl E. Schneider, History of the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Church (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1925), and Walter A. Brueggemann, Ethos and Ecumenism, An Ecumenical Blend: A History of Eden Theological Seminary, 19251975 (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1975).
3. For Otto, see Schneider, German Church, p. 368, and Dunn, op. cit., pp. 22329.
4. For Schaff, James Hastings Nichols, Romanticism in American Theology: Nevin and Schaff at Mercersburg (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), and The Mercersburg Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), and John B. Payne, "Philip Schaff: Christian Scholar, Historian and Ecumenist," Historical Intelligencer 2 (1982):1723.
5. Winthrop S. Hudson, Religion in America (2d ed.; New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1981), p. 286, and William R. Hutchison, The Modernist Impulse in American Protestantism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 3140.
6. Kenneth K. Bailey, Southern White Protestantism in the Twentieth Century (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), p. 12, and Pope A. Duncan, "Crawford Howell Toy: Heresy at Louisville," American Religious Heretics: Formal and Informal Trials, ed. George H. Shriver (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1966), pp. 5688.
7. Egbert C. Smyth, Progressive Orthodoxy (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1885); Newman Smyth, Dorner on the Future State (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1883). See Daniel Day Williams, The Andover Liberals (New York: Octagon Books, 1970).
8. On Briggs, see Lefferts A. Loetscher, The Broadening Church: A Study of Theological Issues in the Presbyterian Church Since 1869 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958), ch. 4, and H. Shelton Smith, Robert C. Handy, and Lefferts A. Loetscher, American Christianity, 18201960 (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1963), pp. 27579.
9. Noted in Hudson, op. cit., p. 280. The Disciples of Christ expelled their first modernist minister, Robert C. Cave, in 1889. See Lester G. McAllister and William E. Tucker, Journey into Faith: A History of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1975), pp. 36364.
10. E. Otto obituary, Evangelical Herald (August 17, 1916), pp. 45, for a brief summary of his life.
11. For the influence of German Mediating theology on American theology and philosophy, see Bruce Kuklick, Churchmen and Philosophers: From Jonathan Edwards to John Dewey (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), pp. 12627; Ragnar Holte, Die Vermittlungstheologie (Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksells, 1965).
12. For Heppe, see Lowell H. Zuck, "Heinrich Heppe: A Melanchthonian Liberal in the NineteenthCentury German Reformed Church," Church History 51(1982):41933.
13. Sketches of Ragué and Nollau in Lowell H. Zuck, NewChurch Starts: American Backgrounds of the United Church of Christ (St. Louis: United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, 1982), pp. 1214.
14. For Andreas Irion, see John W. Flucke, Evangelical Pioneers (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1931), pp. 12740, and Schneider, German Church, pp. 31418, 41617.
15. Walter Merzdorf translated Otto's 1873 Dogmatics (1967) in 149 typewritten pages from student notes. Copy in Eden Archives, Webster Groves, MO.
16. H. Kamphausen, Ceschichte des Religioesen Lebens in der Deutschen Evangelischen Synode von NordAmerika (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1924), p. 160.
17. Quoted in ibid., p. 165.
18. Protokoll der GeneralConferenz (St. Louis, September 1880), p. 21.
19. Walter Merzdorf translated Otto's Romans in 196465. Copy available in Eden Archives, typewritten, 414 pages.
20. From Samuel D. Press, typewritten Autobiographical Reflections, in Eden Archives. See William G. Chrystal, "Samuel D. Press: Teacher of the Niebuhrs," Church History 53 (1984):50421.
21. Der Gestohlene Knabe: Eine Geschichte aus der Revolutionszeit (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1898).
22. Die Braut von Damaskus (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1895).
23. Das Leben George Washingtons (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1897).
24. Magazin fuer Evang. Theologie und Kirche 18 (1916):32129, 329 39; 25163, 28797.
25. Carl E. Schneider, The Place of the Evangelical Synod in American Protestantism (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1933), p. 25.
26. Otto, Romans, Merzdorf MSS, p. 4.
27. Ibid., pp. 100101.
28. Ibid., pp. 11415.
29. Ibid., pp. 395, 39798.
30. Ibid., p. 402.
31. Ibid., p. 414.
32. Ibid., p. 411.
33. Schneider, German Church, p. 409.
34. Quoted in Schneider, Place of the Evangelical Synod, p. 25.
36. Samuel D. Press, Otto obituary, The Keryx, October 1916, pp. 2627.
Lowell H. Zuck is Professor of Church History at Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.
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India plans a feverish schedule of satellite launches in the second half of this year, including liftoff of the country’s first robotic Mars mission and a crucial test of an indigenous rocket designed to loft large spacecraft to high-altitude orbits and deep space.
If the missions launch successfully and on schedule, 2013 could be a banner year for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which has matured at a measured pace over the last few decades, debuting environmental and communications satellites and an unmanned mission to the moon.
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), respectively tailored for light- and medium-class payloads, give ISRO independent access to space. They are also sometimes sold commercially to foreign operators to loft those nations’ satellites. [Indian Rocket Launching 7 Satellites at Once (Photos)]
“This year is going to be one of the most important milestone years for ISRO’s program,” said M. Chandradathan, director of India’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Center, in remarks following a successful launch in early July. “We plan to have five successful launches this year, and two launches have already gone.”
India’s ambitious year in space
India has never conducted more than three space launches in a single calendar year. But in 2013, including satellites and rockets, India could launch up to 12 space missions before the end of December.
The year began with the launch of seven satellites aboard India’s PSLV, including a French-Indian ocean-research craft, a Canadian asteroid detection mission and a tiny CubeSat run by a computer borrowed from a smartphone.
India completed its second launch of the year July 1, lofting the first spacecraft dedicated to the country’s satellite navigation system, which seeks to improve GPS positioning coverage over India and neighboring regions.
Three more satellites for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) are being manufactured and tested for launches next year.
While India’s workhorse PSLV has amassed 23 straight successful launches, development of the country’s more capable GSLV has hit setback after setback.
India’s big rocket: GSLV
Steeper challenges await Indian engineers in the second half of 2013, beginning with the next launch of the country’s largest rocket, the GSLV, as soon as Aug. 6.
First developed in the late 1990s to reduce India’s reliance on foreign rockets, the GSLV has a troubled track record. In seven launches since 2001, it has delivered its payload to the correct orbit only twice.
India purchased Russian engines to power the third stage on the first five GSLV missions, but India is trying to perfect its own third-stage engine to make the GSLV an all-Indian rocket. The Russian and Indian upper stages burn liquid hydrogen fuel stored at cryogenic temperatures.
The first test flight of the Indian-built upper-stage engine, a configuration known as the GSLV Mk.2, fell short of Earth orbit in April 2010, after the cryogenic engine stopped working moments after it ignited. India launched another GSLV in December 2010 with a Russian upper-stage engine, but the rocket exploded less than a minute after liftoff.
The GSLV has been grounded since then, while officials conducted a comprehensive review of the program and subjected the Indian-built upper stage to extensive testing.
“We are sure that with the adjustments we have made and the meticulous reviews we have gone through, this [GSLV upper stage] should perform precisely and we’ll have a very successful GSLV mission,” said S. Ramakrishnan, director of India’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, which oversees rocket developments. “We have a great challenge ahead, but I’m sure that one day GSLV will be operational and as reliable as PSLV.”
ISRO is putting the GSAT 14 communications satellite on the GSLV for the rocket’s upcoming test flight.
As workers at ISRO’s launch base at Sriharikota Island on India’s east coast prepare the GSLV for this next test flight, another team of Indian engineers are fueling two satellites for launch on European Ariane 5 rockets this summer.
The INSAT 3D satellite, scheduled for an Ariane 5 launch July 25, will modernize India’s weather satellite system. The next Ariane launch, set for late August, will loft the GSAT 7 communications satellite, intended to serve the Indian Navy.
India has relied on Europe’s Ariane rockets to launch its largest satellites since the 1980s, but officials hope successful test flights of the GSLV Mk.2 next month and a larger GSLV Mk.3 rocket next year will bring those satellite launches back to Indian soil.
Two more PSLV launches will round out the year.
India’s first Mars orbiter is set for launch in late October, when it will begin a journey to Mars, set to arrive in September 2014.
Reportedly costing $76 million, the robotic mission will mark India’s first launch to the Red Planet, primarily serving as a test of technologies and techniques required for deep space probes.
The Mars orbiter’s five scientific instruments will study the Martian surface and atmosphere, map mineralogy and attempt to detect the presence and concentrations of methane.
India plans another PSLV mission at the end of 2013, carrying France’s Spot 7 Earth-observation satellite, an example of inroads made by ISRO’s commercial sales division in marketing Indian rockets for the launch of foreign satellites.
“It’s going to be full of activity, and we should be able to do everything correctly,” said S.K. Shivakumar, director of ISRO’s satellite center, in a speech to Indian engineers. “With support from all of you, we should be able to really deliver the goods in the proper way and keep the country abreast with all these developments.”
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Pulses are increasingly being recognized for their role in promoting good health. Researchers have reported that regular consumption of pulses may reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. Pulses are a versatile, easy-to-prepare ingredient that can be used in entrees, salads, breads and desserts.
Because of pulses high nutrient content, consuming peas, lentils and chickpeas is recommended for everyone. Pulses can count either toward the “Vegetable Group” recommendation or toward the “Meat & Beans Group” recommendation.
Vegetable Group: Vary your veggies. The Guidelines and MyPlate use 5 vegetable subgroups to encourage variety and healthier food choices. Pulses are a part of the Legume subgroup. The guidelines recommend eating more pulses, such as, dry peas, lentils and chickpeas. Adults consuming 1,800 to 2,400 calories daily should eat 1 ½ cups, or 3 servings, ½ cup per serving, each week.
Meat and Bean Group: Vary your protein routine: eat lean or low-fat. Choose more pulses. One-half cup cooked peas, lentils and chickpeas is a two-ounce serving of protein. Adults who eat 1,600 to 2,000 calorie diets should eat 5 to 5 ½ ounces of the lean meat and pulse group daily. Pulses are naturally low-fat.
The Dietary Guidelines are depicted on the www.choosemyplate.gov website, where you can print a daily food guide.
The amount of food you need from each food group varies depending on your age, gender and physical activity.
· Healthier diets dictate a change in ingredients. But whether you’re trying to satisfy an adventurous palate or match familiar expectations of taste and texture, pulses can help meet the challenge of better nutrition.
· Children require more protein than adults because of their rapid growth. Each day, a one-year old child needs about 15 grams (two cups) of protein, such as beans, milk, cheese, tofu, fish, poultry and lean meats. Combination foods such as grains (bread, pasta, rice) with beans, lentils, avocados, cheeses or tofu will provide the balance needed for vegetarian babies.
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File::OldSlurp -- single call read & write file routines; read directories
use File::OldSlurp; $all_of_it = read_file($filename); @all_lines = read_file($filename); write_file($filename, @contents) overwrite_file($filename, @new_contnts); append_file($filename, @additional_contents); @files = read_dir($directory);
These are quickie routines that are meant to save a couple of lines of code over and over again. They do not do anything fancy.
read_file() does what you would expect. If you are using its output in array context, then it returns an array of lines. If you are calling it from scalar context, then returns the entire file in a single string.
It croaks()s if it can't open the file.
write_file() creates or overwrites files.
append_file() appends to a file.
overwrite_file() does an in-place update of an existing file or creates a new file if it didn't already exist. Write_file will also replace a file. The difference is that the first that that write_file() does is to truncate the file whereas the last thing that overwrite_file() is to truncate the file (to it's new length). Overwrite_file() should be used in situations where you have a file that always needs to have contents, even in the middle of an update.
read_dir() returns all of the entries in a directory except for "." and "..". It croaks if it cannot open the directory.
This module used to be called File::Slurp. Uri Guttman <email@example.com> wrote a version with more features and more speed. I gave the namespace to him. However, this version still has some merit: it is much smaller and thus if speed of complilation is more important that slurping speed, and you don't need the new features, then this version is still useful.
Copyright (C) 1996, 1998, 2001-2003 David Muir Sharnoff. License hereby granted for anyone to use, modify or redistribute this module at their own risk. Please feed useful changes back to firstname.lastname@example.org.
David Muir Sharnoff <email@example.com>
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Description, Habitat & Distribution
Cowtail stingrays (Pastinachus sephen) are widely distributed throughout the globe’s oceans. They are native to many countries such as Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Mozambique and South Africa (Union, Nature, and Resources, 2000). Cowtail stingrays are uniformly grey to brown in colour, medium sized, with their underside belly region being predominantly white. The tail area tends to be darker in colour.
Cowtail stingrays have a particularly thickened pectoral fin, resulting in straightened anterior margins with round apices. They have broad snouts which are blunt at the end in comparison to most other stingrays. Their small eyes are situated on top which are quite widely spaced apart. Their tail is very distinct in shape and appearance. It is long, extending into a leaf shape structure at the end of the tail. An upper fold on the tail is absent which is different when you observe the tail of a short-tail stingray or smooth stingray (Dasyatis brevicaudata). A single venomous spine is present, it is situated well behind the pelvic fins (Branch, Griffiths, and Branch, 2010). Overall the cowtail stingrays body tends to be wider than it is long.
Adults have denticles, in essence they are tooth like serrations or placoid scales on the surface of the disk which begin at the snout region continuing through to the tail. The denticles are excluded from margins of the disk plate.
Cowtail stingrays prefer to remain in shallow waters. As a result they are commonly found in intertidal lagoon areas, shallow reef systems (Michael,1993), sandy ecosystems and in certain environments river inlets (Compagno et al.1989).
Biology & Ecology
Cowtail stingrays mainly feed on bony fish species, various crustaceans and worms.
They are predominately solitary. Grouping is facultative, meaning the cowtail stingrays are able to group together as they feel, and when the benefits of grouping outweigh the benefits of remaining a solitary resting ray (Semeniuk, 2004).
Rays have shown a tendency to group together when environmental conditions are not in their favour. Generally only grouping together when resting. Resting occurs on sandy shallow ocean beds or hideaway spots where they are less prone to be found by passing predators
Cowtail stingrays have been seen resting with other ray species, such as the Whipray. This may be an indication of trying to gain better predator detection mechanisms that the cowtail stingray may not posses (Semeniuk, 2004).
While studying this scientific paper, I found it pertinent to include some of my personal findings regarding the local Short Tail stingray (Dasyatis brevicaudata) population along the South Peninsula coastline upon which I live on, and compare it to the rays which are mentioned in the scientific paper.
Resting period of Cowtail Stingrays
The priority with any animal in the wild when resting, is to try and minimise the risk of being found by predators. Cowtail stingrays are most vulnerable to many shark species, particularly those of the Sphyrnidae and Carcharhinidae family (Hammerhead and Requiem sharks) as well as Bottlenose Dolphins belonging to the Delphinidae family. In order to achieve many of these, risk management strategies are put in place (Semeniuk, 2004) to avoid being caught out by their predators.
When cowtail stingrays rest, they do not take part in any other activity such as mating or feeding. Observation has seen them just in a resting phase. They tend to rest for a minimum of four hours per day (Semeniuk, 2004).
Irrespective of what animal I looked at, the choice in which the animal chooses to rest needs to be as safe as possible, and out of eye sight from passing predators. Secondly, animals may develop defence mechanisms or tactics to decrease their probability of being preyed on. Many rays have developed cryptic methods of hiding away from the predator, as such the cowtail stingray which is able bury itself underneath the sand thus reducing their chances of being noticed. Another technique is the stingrays electro receptor senses (ampullae of Lorenzini) facing towards any gap from which a predator may attack from. If the ampullae of Lorenzini are facing towards the direction at which an approaching predator may appear (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1997), the stingray will have a greater ability in detecting the approaching predator. Lastly, grouping as seen within the cowtail stingray population may also play a role in creating a “safe place” to rest (Semeniuk, 2004).
Grouping within the cowtail stingray population is not a necessity. However, they may prefer to group if they are experiencing a limitation with regard to detecting a nearby predator (Semeniuk, 2004). The detection abilities of a cowtail stingray will vary as it is related to many oceanic factors such as visibility, incoming sunlight, tide state and condition. All of these factors are constantly changing on a regular and basis. Cowtail stingrays have only been observed in small group numbers ranging between 2-4 rays per group, of course bigger groups can occur.
Benefits of Grouping
The greatest and most obvious benefits of grouping whilst resting include the following: it creates bodily protection while resting, it increases an early warning system and create predator confusion, ideally reducing the potential of being consumed (Semeniuk, 2004).
It is advantageous for the cowtail stingray to congregate in a small group of minimal numbers to rest when water visibility conditions are low/poor. The lowered water quality can be caused by churned up sediment, low light levels, strong ground swell/ current and other variables. Grouping tended to take place during diminished water visibility when the rays senses of detecting a predator would be reduced. By grouping together, the cowtail stingrays are hoping to increase their detection skills, thereby having an early detection in place which would aid in their survival and possibly reduce the probability of being spotted.
Cowtail stingrays have created an advantageous spatial arrangement for protection against any threat. Most commonly the stingrays arrange themselves in a rosette formation when resting in a group. Rosette being with their heads facing inward of the group and their tails displayed outwards (Semeniuk,2004).Rosette design acts as a self defence mechanism against predators. It also enables the stingrays to have majority of their body protected, should they be attacked. Their tail acts as a sacrificial item versus putting their entire body at risk. As mentioned, their tails contain mechanoreceptors which contribute to an early warning system. With each stingray in the group possessing this feature, it is a combined benefit that would not necessarily been available if the cowtail stingray was resting on its own. (Semeniuk,2004).
Spatial awareness within the article (Semeniuk,2004) is seen as being equally important with regard to approaching larger rays when settling to rest in a group.
In my experience, along the coastline in Simonstown, I have found that its best done when the short tail stingray has had a clear and intended path of escape. In many situations I have encountered the possibility of getting very close to the stingray, and have even interacted with an individual without it fleeing. This is achieved because they are able to see a clear path of ‘flight’ should it be needed. Closing off this path in anyway may lead to panic and fleeing.
Grouped cowtail stingrays were measured as having a greater response distance when being encountered by a predator. This measurement was comparatively done with solitary cowtail stingrays in the same water conditions. The scientists used an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with a particular group size as the covariate. Perhaps, the greater response distance in grouped rays was due to resting in the rosette pattern, allowing their early warning system to react much quicker from all different angles compared to a solitary stingray which is just relying on itself to detect a predator from any direction. When cowtail stingrays group together there are two effects that can be observed within the group itself. Namely, the Trafalgar Effect and the Dilution Effect (Semeniuk, 2004).
Trafalgar Effect typically occurs when the stingrays group together with their pectoral fins overlapping another ray’s fins. When a predator approaches them, their communication will take place through touch (overlapping pectoral fins) which will get transmitted from one ray to another in the group. Once one cowtail stingray has been alerted to a possible threat there will be a “wave of alarm” which will travel among the group. This Trafalgar Effect can travel through individuals who are not even aware of the potential danger that may be approaching them, thus acting as an early warning system (Krause, 1993). It would therefore be beneficial to a stingray to rest in a group if they are continuously vigilant, or always being aware of their surroundings all the time.
I have noticed a constant analogy with the short tail stingrays. When stingrays are resting in a group of two or more individuals, there are distinct levels of threat awareness. When I found short tail stingrays resting in sandy open areas they portrayed a manner that was more relaxed despite the group not always resting in the typical ‘”rosette” pattern. More often they were grouped together in irregular patterns with their pectoral wings overlapping with one another. This observation along with Krause,1993 and Semeniuk, 2004 confirms the notion of cowtail stingrays communication of their surroundings can be carried out if they are in contact with one another.
When any threat is perceived (ahead of the animal/front on) while resting, a small wave-like pulse is flashed through the pectoral fins surface, thus alerting the neighbouring stingrays whose wings overlap, to make them aware of the predator. Should the threat remain within close and potential dangerous proximity, a further more vigorous pulse is sent through the whole wing’s surface. This “unglues” the ray from the sea bed, (at this stage I have actually seen sand particles being flushed through the gill plates), showing the intense inhalation and exhalation in preparation for fleeing the scene in order to escape the predator. If the threat is still present and the ray is determined to stand its ground and resist fleeing, then the tail sting will be raised and lowered in a threat display in an attempt to ward off the predator. If all else fails, with a burst the stingray will retreat and continue fleeing in order to escape to safety.
Grouped cowtail stingrays were observed to have escaped roughly 50m further away when compared to cowtail stingrays that were resting in solitude (Semeniuk,2004). I believe the reason for early escapement would be the combined effects of all the above mentioned factors enabling the stingrays to detect an approaching predator much quicker, unlike a solitary animal trying to guard all fronts in order to avoid being seen by a predator.
In conjunction with the Trafalgar Effect, the Dilution Effect take places when there is a great number of individuals resting together. The greater the number in a group will therefore reduce the probability of a particular individual being predated on, due to their being a “choice” of prey (Krause, 2002). As a result, a stingray resting in a group could potentially get away with not being preyed upon if the dilution effect is great enough (Annenberg Foundation 2016). Another benefit from grouping and dispersing upon the predator’s approach is that if the group disperses yet remains within good proximity to each other which could increase the confusion in selecting a target prey item for the predator, and as such may even result in the predator losing focus, spending too much energy on the prey without success and moving on without having preyed upon any cowtail stingray at all. Resting in a group brings down the success rate of successfully consuming prey, as capture is more difficult. This would stand the cowtail stingray population in good stead, rather than resting alone where the risks would be higher in defending oneself.
Over and above deciding to rest in a group, each individual stingray in the group needs to constantly be vigilant, use cooperative defence strategies in order to increase its probability of not being eaten. The resting group needs to remain and function as a cohesive whole, otherwise there will be a decline in the benefits of resting in a group.
Costs of Grouping
An obvious cost of grouping would be the increase in the group’s visibility to predators when resting. Due to their size, they would be able to be easily identified as opposed to resting individually and burying themselves beneath the sand (Semeniuk, 2004). Being caught off guard to any predator or threat would not be in favour to the cowtail stingray. The main objective of resting would be to know that you, as an individual, are as safe as possible, and that the resting individual is able to save a bit of energy while resting and not have to spend energy being on guard the whole time looking out for predators.
While the stingrays may remain well hidden in poor visibility conditions when solitary or grouped, this is would decrease when visibility improved. If a predator’s own visibility is not good, then grouped rays would possibly get away with grouping even in good water conditions. However, stingrays are not able to judge the visibility of a predator’s eyesight beforehand.
Secondly, the grouping may lead to an increase in competition with resources which could let to increased levels of aggression as a result of the competition, especially if the resources are particularly limited. This may prove detrimental to those stingrays that are unable to cope with resting in a group, with increased levels of stress, or if there is some sort of hierarchy that is present within the group of resting stingrays that prevent certain individuals to rest with others in the group, due to this competition or stress levels present.
Resting with other rays may increase the prospect of contracting diseases or parasites that could be passed onto one another. Whereas, if a cowtail stingray was resting on its own, it would reduce the possibility of contracting illnesses or disease. Illness or disease would be disadvantageous to a stingray that could reduce its population in generations to come.
There may also be an increased interference with commencing the initial flight within the group. However, there could possibly be a decrease in overall escape speed (Semeniuk, 2004). Despite these actions, probably aiding in confusing the predator, it could also hinder a stingray’s escape efforts by being in a group as each stingray would be hampered by fellow resting cowtail stingrays all being contained in close proximity. As a result, it seems it would be better to be solitary when resting. This could increase the probability of a stingray being caught no matter how effective the Dilution Effect of the group is. Fleeing in a group is difficult when overlapping discs of rays occur when resting. When escape is needed to take place rapidly, it is decreased due to the fact that the cowtail stingrays congregating too close together. In some cases cowtail stingrays may struggle in escaping, and eventually falling prey to the predator (Semeniuk, 2004) due to being in a group which is too crowded or too close in proximity to one another. Switching is an action that has been observed with cowtail stingrays in groups (Semeniuk, 2004). It involves changing the escape trajectory in order to avoid a collision with another ray. This behaviour is commonly witnessed during the study. When switching takes place, it means the stingray has to decrease the distance between itself and oncoming predator, and in doing so, the initial escape speed is reduced becoming disadvantageous to the cowtail stingray involved.
Grouped rays displayed a slower speed than a solitary resting ray (Semeniuk, 2004). This illustrates that when in a group, one cannot simply leave when a predator approaches, as the group displayed a planned and concurrent escape with all members of the group. Signalling and communication takes place causing stingrays to disperse at the same time or as close to the same rate. The churning of sand when dispersing contributes to an individual having a slower dispersal speed which makes it harder for rays to actually disperse away from the predator. Instead, due to the lack of visibility many end up dispersing towards the predator. Even though a group may have a slower response speed, it does not change significantly with a group containing more cowtail stingrays. As these factors were present whether the group contained two cowtail stingrays or more individuals, they still form a group. Concluding that response speed would be slower when there is a group of 3 cowtail stingrays or more, nine or more rays were rarely seen. Grouping appears to be costly. In my view, if it wasn’t costly then surely there would be greater numbers of grouping cowtail stingrays? If group numbers were to rise to greater numbers, it would mean, that by the time the predator was in close range to the group (whilst all the cowtail stingrays were dispersing) it could be quite plausible that the predator would be extremely close to the last member of the group before it was able to flee itself (Lima,1994), resulting in a possible capture.
Being a member of a group means that in certain situations your escape trajectory route may get blocked or taken by another cowtail stingray in its own escape. Hence, the stingray would have to divert and change its escape direction, hampering, and slowing down, its own escape. In addition to escaping a particular pathway, one or more stingrays may follow the same route. The outcome is a crossing over pattern which also slows down and hinders the intended escape route for any stingray in the group. Worst case scenario is it could result in a collision between two stingrays, this would be detrimental to any stingray whilst trying to escape their predator.
Benefits of being Solitary
Cowtail stingrays who choose to rest on their own have shown to have a quicker response/escape time when fleeing away from an approaching predator. Proving advantageous as it reduces their chance of becoming the prey. It is possibly due to the lateral line that runs the length of the body which enables them to detect any water movements which potentially could have been caused by nearby predators (Marushka & Tricas,1998).
Some stingrays may continue to rest in solitary if the cost of resting in a group, in conjunction with any additional factors, is too high. As yet, there is no link with determining whether grouping is more beneficial in comparison to remaining a solitary animal.
Cowtail stingrays have a heightened lateral placement of their eyes, allowing them to have a greater field of vision (Bodznick,1990). This facilitates the rays when resting in solitary to continue to be on the lookout for predator from an array of angles. This continuously allows the stingray to have an escape route mapped out should a predator arrive.
It seems as though there were a few variables that influenced whether the cowtail stingray would remain solitary or would conform to resting in a group. Confirming that if the benefits outweighed the costs of grouping then it would do so. Incident light level and cloud cover were two major contributing factors in determining in which way a cowtail stingray would conform to resting.
The FID (Flight Initiation Distance) was dramatically affected relative to the visibility condition (Semeniuk, 2004). There was a definite correlation between FID and water visibility. The FID was considerably greater when there were increased light levels. All indicating that the condition of the water and surrounding environmental factors play a crucial role in the escape of cowtail stingrays, and whether they can successfully avoid being hunted by their predator.
When I have been swimming along the coastline, I have witnessed Short Tail stingrays to be solitary while resting when the visibility is in excess of 8 metres. Whereas, when the sand is churned up due to boat activity or weather conditions, I have noticed that the stingrays will congregate together in small groups of 2 -3 stingrays. It is interesting to note that despite them being different species, and situated in different parts of the world, they are perhaps seemingly using the similar predator detection methods as the cowtail stingrays in Australia. Whether this is in fact the case, further investigation would be required to fully determine whether this is the reason.
Costs of being Solitary
Semeniuk, 2004, found that the actual escape distance was considerably shorter when a cowtail stingray was resting in poor conditions on its own as opposed to resting on its own in good conditions.
While studying the cowtail stingrays there were noticeable delays in the response of a solitary cowtail stingray when a predator came close in conjunction with water conditions being reduced. Consequently it would be beneficial to group in poor condition in order to improve response times (Semeniuk, 2004) with the other detecting mechanisms that are in place. With these mechanisms in place it would create a concerted and coordinated escape which could be initiated sooner than if a cowtail stingray were on its own, despite being well camouflaged and hidden while resting alone.
Comparing Anti Predator Benefits of Mixed Species Groups of Cowtail Stingray and Whiprays at Rest
In addition to what has been observed with resting cowtail stingrays, another scientific study has been done looking at whether grouping of mixed species are beneficial rather than remaining in a single species group or solitary
(Semeniuk & Dill, 2006). It seems that the cowtail stingray enjoys grouping with the Reticulate Whipray (Himantura uarnak)( Semeniuk & Dill, 2006).
Cowtail stingrays preferred to group with heterospecifics, particularly Whiprays. Cowtail stingrays have been seen settling next to them rather than passing by, and settling elsewhere or with other cowtail stingrays in the vicinity. This indicating that Whiprays seemed a preferred choice (Semeniuk & Dill, 2006) when deciding where to rest, the opposite effect when it was of their own species (Semeniuk, 2004).
Cowtail stingrays seemingly formed greater numbered heterospecific groups than when they remained in a monospecific group which generally were composed of smaller numbers. This is an incredible phenomenon given the lower density of Whipray population in the region.
Whiprays responded much quicker relative to cowtail stingrays when a predator, mocked by an approaching boat to a group of resting rays. Whiprays frequently were the first to respond when a predator approached the resting group. Therefore, it appears to be beneficial for the cowtail stingrays to stick with the Whiprays when resting in a group, as the Whiprays would receive an early warning due to them using secondary detector mechanisms situated in the length of their tail (Semeniuk & Dill, 2006). As a result, the cowtail settles preferably alongside a whipray when wanting to rest, assuming the whipray has a greater surrounding awareness of when a predator is near. The relationship between the two species of stingrays must be a mutual and symbiotic one to allow this type of behaviour to take place. The tail of a Whipray is negatively allometric meaning that it is disproportionate in growth size to the ray as the ray changes in size. Semeniuk & Dill, 2006, suggests that perhaps as a young whipray, the tail plays a vital role being extremely long relatively to its size and decreasing in size as it grows. This ensures that it is successful in surviving the vulnerable early stages of life. An adult Whipray still has a longer tail compared to cowtail stingrays.
In the study there was a positive relationship between log10 tail length and log10 disc width for cowtail stingrays (r2 = 0.622, F1.28 = 78.99, p = 0.0001) (Semeniuk & Dill, 2006). In this particular relationship, the slope indicated a negative allometry. Yet the opposite gave close to identical results when the whole tail was visible. Relative to their disc width whiprays had longer tails when compared to cowtail stingrays, increasing the theory of being able to detect predators sooner than a cowtail stingray. Whiprays were able to respond first out of the two species when being interrogated by a predator, and detected a predator from a further distance than cowtail stingrays in a single specie group.
Heterospecific groups may form based on two primary reasons. Firstly, to try and reduce the predation of either species but resting in a group and reducing chance encounters (Waser, 1984). Another benefit for both species of ray when resting in a mixed specie group is there would be less resource competition between both species which would reduce the cost of resting in a group.
Grouping may not always be beneficial to both species resting within one group. The protector – species hypothesis states the being in a heterospecific group will provide benefits to at least one species that would not have been achievable if grouped solely with the same species (Pius & Leberg, 1998).
The cowtail stingray and whipray are quite closely related. For this reason it would make sense for them to group together. Both species of stingrays would intrinsically be in tune to one another’s responses to predators, and recognise each ones response to an approaching predator. Aiding in effective communication taking place despite them being different species.
It’s been studied that cowtail stingrays preferred to rest with whiprays compared to resting with fellow cowtail stingrays (Semeniuk & Dill, 2006). 18% of encountered cowtail stingrays were joined by passing cowtail stingrays as opposed to 62% of encountered whiprays. This study showed cowtail stingrays passing more fellow resting cowtail stingrays be it in groups or solitary. Settling more often with whiprays.
With everything mentioned above included, cowtail stingrays en masse settled with rays of similar or larger sizes than their own (Semeniuk & Dill, 2006) . One wonders if maybe size has any influence in deterring a predator as I have always seen similar sized stingrays grouping together.
Against all benefits and costs, it is extremely interesting that grouping within the cowtail stingray population is facultative. This is an important feature as it means the stingrays continue to have a choice, but it is not necessary for survival. The observation of stingrays grouping together more frequently when the weather/water conditions were poor, contrary to when weather/water condition were good and in their favour, suggests they are continuously aware of their environment, and assessing their surrounding, using all mechanisms and techniques they posses to maximise their survival and ability to outwit and manoeuvre any predator.
Escape speeds of cowtail stingrays, both grouped and solitary, were measured by using a boat acting as a predator. The boat was considered to mimic that of an approaching predator (Semeniuk, 2004). With reference to the study using a boat to mock a predator, in my personal opinion, I found that the short tail stingray (Dasyatis brevicaudata) displays various types of behaviour towards perceived threats i.e. predators in different localised areas.
I have observed that some small groups have evolved their behaviour similar to Pavlov’s Dog Theory (Classical Conditioning). Certain small groups of these rays have changed their resting times to correlate with an irregular human activity known as fishing. Commercial vessels are always under time constraints to obtain the best price at the market, so it’s not uncommon for the crew to clean a few fish while waiting to slip their boat. The waste is thrown over the side and eaten by the rays. I have found that in these areas adults of both sexes will wait in deeper waters until the commercial fishing boats come into the slip way to retrieve their trailers to take the boats out the water, with the fish still on board the vessel, and as such, it’s an audible cue that draws them into shallower water, irrespective of the time and/or tide state. This audible cue has become so acute that if a smaller leisure boat i.e. rubber duck comes to the slipway, no perceived reaction is noticed or made by the rays within the vicinity. However, should a heavier multi-engine commercial ski-boat arrive at the slip way, up to five rays will appear out of the depths to meet the vessels in the hopes of receiving fresh off cuts of fish / afval. I have tested this theory numerous times. We have surveyed the area prior to different vessels arrival, and have noticed a definite correlation between specific boats and ray activity. While in different areas we have noticed that rays are very shy whenever they are approached by incoming vessels.
I also noticed a distinct behaviour displayed when approaching resting short tail stingrays. I found that resting solitary animals will not react when swimming overhead even whilst resting in clear waters. The animal stays dormant, calm and still. Added to this particular resting behaviour, I likewise noted that a predator, in this case a human, must not approach the stingray from the rear as the animal almost certainly would flee in a burst. The best approach for majority of resting stingrays on the sea bed was slightly higher than the ray itself, and either from just to the right, or left of centre, stopping for a few seconds, then closing the last little distance slowly. In doing this it is possible to make physical contact with the animal.
Approaching stingrays in this way, it is possible to get very close to observe, and leave without the animal being disturbed or fleeing the scene. Therefore, using a boat to represent a predator moving over the top of the stingray on the water’s surface to measure response flight time and distance in cowtail stingrays could result in very poor/inaccurate data results.
It is assumed that cowtail stingrays do not have excellent vision as they have been seen colliding with obstacles when experiencing poor visibility (Semeniuk, 2004). So it is a concern for them to always try and remain safe when visibility drops as their eyesight is compromised. On top of this they experience a decline in predator detection ability and an initial flight departure. This could explain the reason for optional grouping when poor conditions develop.
A stingray’s vision for predators will extend as far as its eye sight is able to go. So should a predator approach the stingray’s field of vision, it doesn’t immediately mean that the stingray will flee the area. The stingray will continuously evaluate the benefits of maintaining its ground relative to leaving. An animal will only leave when it is forced to do so, in order to avoid burning excess energy. So, it will wait until the last minute when it is still able to escape successfully.
The fact that solitary cowtail stingrays are able to escape at much quicker speeds than those in groups indicates that despite being alone, it is easier to be solitary, if the stingray is needing to escape a predator nearby. A slower speed is a great cost to any stingray that is needing to escape rapidly if the predator were to be successful in its capture. Therefore, unless the conditions were not in favour to the cowtail stingray, it would continue to remain solitary where it is still able to escape at a distance that is safe enough to escape the predator, as having bursts of escaping energy available at all times costs energy.
When visibility is poor, it may prove beneficial for a stingray to group with fellow cowtail stingrays in order to create greater predator detection abilities through the many tails, eyes and electroreceptors that would collectively make up a group of resting cowtail stingrays. If a cowtail stingray chooses to remain single, then it may face the fact of not detecting the predator in sufficient time, therefore becoming prey.
The fastest escaping cowtail stingray within a group was not that much faster than a solitary resting stingray, suggesting that the amount of perceived risks a grouped stingray experienced, is relatively similar to that of a solitary stingray (Semeniuk, 2004). Each stingray is still able to act accordingly. However, not all stingrays will be able to escape as the fastest grouped stingray due to their being other variables that come with being in a group.
Cowtail stingrays may travel quite a distance before finding a safe resting spot regardless of the water conditions and visibility. It was noticed that stingrays even swam past fellow resting stingrays while in search of a resting spot. It would seem that despite the water conditions, travelling does not deter cowtail stingrays from finding the safest resting spot. Evidently stingrays were seen swimming past resting stingrays and still decided to rest on their own further away in a location where they felt safer. Demonstrating that travel is not seen as a risk to cowtail stingrays, when searching for the safest spot in which to rest (Semeniuk, 2004).
Overall a solitary cowtail stingray is just as successful on its own detecting predators, and being on guard and aware of its surrounds when the water conditions are good. Therefore, it doesn’t warrant seeking a group to rest in as the benefits are reduced (Semeniuk, 2004). There has been no study in determining a predator’s success rate for capturing a prey in a group versus solitary resting stingray. Resting in a group may have severe consequences on the animal when water conditions are good. The opposite occurs when water visibility is bad and thus grouping becomes a preferred resting method of choice. Benefits must outweigh the costs of resting in a group, in order for species to continue the resting mechanism they currently take part in.
After studying this paper, it remains true for me to believe predator-species hypothesis remains constant when observing resting cowtail stingrays, whether it be in a monospecific or heterospecific group. Resting in a mixed species group means that the species who do not have a strong point for detecting predators can hitch onto the back of a species with greater sensory capabilities, taking advantage of their strengths. This, in the long run, could result in a potentially longer survival for the cowtail stingray.
Whiprays are quicker at recognising an oncoming predator relative to cowtail stingrays. Taking into account all the above, group numbers are still kept to a minimum. It may be advantageous to form bigger groups when grouping with whiprays, yet this has not been proven. Despite stingrays being in a bigger group which could be to the cowtail stingray’s detriment, given the various costs involved, it likewise could stand in good stead (Semeniuk & Dill, 2006). Social living or resting in this specific article comes with many benefits and costs (Alcock, 2009).
Predators, such as sharks, generally have quite good vision and detection senses themselves which, when all combined, aid to hunt down their prey. Thus it would be possible, regardless of group or solitary resting, to detect their prey, whether the prey are resting in low light or high light visibility conditions. The predator in question would use all its detection senses depending on weather conditions. Should water conditions be good, then it would allow the predator to easily indentify prey based on few mechanisms that it possesses. Sharks electro-receptor senses along its body have the ability to detect the bioelectric signals of any resting ray (Kajiura & Holland, 2002).
Thank you for reading my work. Fiona
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Over the last few decades, the advancement in technology has surged at a rapid rate and spread across the globe. The accessibility and affordability of technology has pointed out several benefits, including improved quality of life, better scientific research and a higher average life expectancy in several countries. Since many parts of daily life are mechanized, people can focus on their interests and careers. Currently, in many technologically progressive societies, the population is not only living longer, but is also offering fewer children. Since many people are living up to old age and not many children are born to cover up the difference, there are lesser and lesser res to take care of older groups.
The concept of the Robotic Nurse Assistant System was introduced to take care of elderly people and is running successful in countries like Japan where 30% of the population is over the age of 65. Currently, these systems are actively used in medical facilities & centers to lift patients safely without the involvement of humans.
Development of Robotic Nurse Assistants
• In 2009, healthcare research company Hstar Technologies started a research project designed to report the numerous clinical and technological challenges faced by different healthcare practitioners. It focused on developing a human-safe and heavy-lifting robotic system which can function in any clinical environment.
• The efforts of the research and development team resulted in the creation of the RoNA Robotic Patient Lifting System-a self-directed robotic nursing assistant designed to help healthcare providers operate and lift patients weighing close to 500 pounds.
Advantages of RoNA
In strong competition with ceiling-mounted lift systems, patient lift teams and mobile sling systems; RoNA provides some distinctive advantages such as:
• RoNA is an omnidirectional and mobile system with mecanum wheels to move in any direction. It can work in confined spaces, and explore areas where several portable lifting systems cannot travel. It is far better than mobility and maneuverability ceiling systems which are fixed.
• Telepresence support RoNA can function alongside a trained nurse, or can be supervised by a tenuously located nurse while operating with a less expertized attendant.
• Patient Safety RoNA is a smart, learning system, which is capable to sense center of gravity during the lifting process as well as automatically adjust its position. (This is primarily possible due to a unique stability system). It results is making the patient feel more protected during the lift as compared to a physical transfer involving human hands.
• RoNA works to reduce employee injury and premature retirements in facilities which have not yet organized lifting devices. This system will deliver the full benefit of a secure lifting program, decreasing workman’s compensation along with injury-related costs by almost 40%. In centers where safe patient handling programs are implemented, RoNA will enhance compliance, further decreasing injury-related costs.
Robotics Nurse Assistant System Market
• According to the healthcare industry report, the market for robotic nurse assistant system is quite flourishing in Japan. These robotic nurses are also utilized in the United States where they were thoughtful developed.
• It is predicted that in the near future nurse assistant robots may be fully prepared to help take care of the elderly population. In Japan more than a third of the population would be senior citizens by the year 2025, 12% higher from the statistics of 1990. According to reports, Japan required two million professionals in 2010 to offer care for the elderly, but lacked by a count of 700,000. If analytical trends continue, the deficiency will double by 2025 to reach 1.4 million.
• Presently, Japan is developing robot nurse assistants to help with mechanical tasks, empowering nurses to give their patients extra quality time. Currently, the only robot fulfilling safety standards in Japan is known to be the Cyberdyne (8C4 Frankfurt) Exoskeleton. Each of these robots cost $1,780, which is quite less as compared to the annual average salary of $25,000 for a nurse in Japan. This cost-benefit analysis is quite convincing.
• If robot helpers, like the Cyberdyne Exoskeleton, are compared to half of a nurse, then around 2.8 million robots will be needed to complete the shortage, developing a $5 billion market involving personal health care robots at current prices in Japan alone. It was revealed that, the sale of medical robots on a global scale valued $1.5 billion in 2013. Although not used for surgery, these personal care robots in the hospital environment would significantly surge the market for nursing robots. By satisfying nurse scarcities with nurse assistant robots, human nurses can grow more productive, adding fineness to the patient experience while dropping costs at the same time; making it a win-win situation for the healthcare system.
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This class has sold out. To join the Unsold Class Spaces mailing list, go here. If a spot in any class should be returned, we will email everyone on this list.
Everything you need to know to figure out all those tricky math issues you encounter in your knitting. We'll cover such problem areas as calculating and adjusting gauge, challenging instructions like "Increase 12 sts evenly distributed across the row", and how to make adjustments in patterns like adding waist shaping, or lengthening sleeves. Suitable for newer and experienced knitters - it's all about conquering your fear of the numbers and making you a more powerful knitter!
Level: Adventurous beginner and beyond
Skills needed: You should be familiar with knitting and perhaps have made a sweater or similar garment.
Materials to bring: paper, pencil, tape measure, calculator
Any “homework”?: None
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LIABILITY FOR SOLAR GEOENGINEERING: HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS, CONTEMPORARY INNOVATIONS, AND GOVERNANCE POSSIBILITIES
JOSHUA B. HORTON, ANDREW PARKER, AND DAVID KEITH*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The prospect of geoengineering, or the “deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change,” carries with it a varied set of technical challenges.1 Yet it is the governance challenges associated with geoengineering that are likely to be far more difficult to overcome if deployment, or even large-scale experimentation, is ever seriously contemplated by the international community. Questions about decision making, political legitimacy, policy objectives, risk management, and other governance dilemmas have been raised with respect to both solar radiation management (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) geoengineering methods. One particularly difficult challenge raised by commentators on geoengineering is the problem of liability; that is, how would international society deal with a climate engineering intervention gone wrong?2 In general, liability concerns are more novel and potentially more acute for SRM methods than for CDR techniques: carbon dioxide removal and storage present significant but relatively conventional liability problems related to carbon leakage and environmental impacts, whereas modifying planetary albedo introduces a range of possible side effects not previously encountered for which no direct governance precedents exist.
Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), a fast-acting SRM technique that would introduce aerosol particles to the upper atmosphere to reflect a small amount of solar radiation away from Earth and thereby decrease temperatures, has received particular attention from the geoengineering research community, and much of this attention has focused on the governance challenges posed by questions of liability. If a country were damaged by negative effects from SAI, should that country be compensated for its loss? If so, by what mechanism? Could such effects be persuasively linked to SAI? Who should pay for damages, and how much should they pay? The extraordinary difficulties presented by this issue have led some observers to conclude that building a just and effective system of liability and compensation for SAI would be virtually impossible.3 In the absence of a credible liability system available as recourse in the event of miscalculation or accident, the international community would (arguably) be unlikely to agree to any form of SAI implementation.4 Thus, future SAI geoengineering may be contingent on, among other things, solving the liability problem.
Yet liability for stratospheric aerosol geoengineering is not necessarily as intractable as some suggest. Historical antecedents and contemporary methodological and legal innovations provide a strong basis for constructing a liability regime. Certainly, designing a liability regime would be no easy task, and any regime will be limited in both the risks it covers and its enforceability. However, there are more tools at hand to address SAI liability than it might initially appear. The world may decide at some point in the future that SAI is or is not desirable, but liability itself is unlikely to pose an insuperable obstacle to its implementation. We have chosen to focus on SAI in this Article for the sake of specificity; however, most of these arguments about liability and compensation should apply to other forms of SRM as well.
Section I provides an overview of the concept of liability and its historical development at the international level. Section II examines the variety of potential harms stemming from SAI that any system of liability would need to contend with. Sections III and IV take a detailed look at how international liability and compensation have been addressed in the context of the Space Liability Convention and oil spill regime, respectively. Finally, Section V considers scientific and legal aspects of causal attribution in the global climate system, and Section VI takes up a number of additional issues related to SAI liability in a discussion Section.
Two caveats should be noted here. First, any discussion of liability threatens to reduce the multitude of real damages suffered by victims to straightforward, simple monetary terms. This is true with respect to geoengineering as it is for all other fields, and it is important that researchers and practitioners bear in mind the full range of non-monetary losses that damages may incur, including emotional, spiritual, cultural, aesthetic, artistic, historical, and religious losses. However, it is also important to acknowledge that financial compensation for liability is widely accepted as the principal means of reparation in modern settings, and no functional replacement is readily available. As such, meaningful, policyrelevant discussions of liability are unavoidably conducted on the basis of financial redress.
Second, we are aware that research on geoengineering liability may be viewed as enabling a wider sociotechnical project grounded in particular conceptions of society, nature, technology, and humanity.5 We recognize that this research may add discursive momentum to the articulation of a geoengineering “imaginary.”6 We remain agnostic about the ultimate role and value of this imaginary.
I. THE EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL LEGAL LIABILITY
The concept of legal liability originates in domestic law.7 Liability was developed to help alleviate the tension between the belief that parties should not be made to bear the costs of activities carried out by others, and a societal judgment that certain activities, while inherently risky, ought nevertheless to be encouraged for the sake of the public interest.8 Legal liability held that such activities, for example, industrial production, ought to be permitted, however, third parties incurring damages as a result should be compensated by those who conduct and/or benefit from the activities in question. A system of liability serves not only to make restitution to victims of harmful activities in cases of accident, error, or negligence, but also fulfills a “preventative” function by encouraging those who engage in dangerous activities to exercise caution and adopt safe practices, in order to avoid the potential cost of reparations.9
Initially, the normal standard for legal liability was based on fault;10 that is, liability was contingent on demonstrating both (1) a causal link between the act or omission alleged to have caused damage and the actual loss suffered, and (2) negligence or culpability on the part of the defendant. Causal linkage, and hence attribution of specific damage to a specific wrongful act or omission, was established by showing an uninterrupted chain of cause-effect relationships, none of which would have occurred but for the preceding relationship. As particularly hazardous (“ultrahazardous”) yet socially beneficial activities—such as keeping wild animals and using explosives—became more common, the competing standard of strict liability emerged, according to which only causation and not culpability was required to hold a party liable for damages.11 Strict liability effectively lightened claimants’ burden of proof relative to fault-based liability. The proliferation of hazardous activities with impacts that reached across international borders, and the concomitant risks of transboundary damage, brought the issue of liability to international law. The precedent of international legal liability was set by landmark cases such as the Trail Smelter dispute12 and the Corfu Channel case.13 As international legal liability arose in the context of hazardous activities posing disproportionately high cross-border environmental risks, subsequent development of international mechanisms for assessing and resolving liability was concentrated on environmental topics.14 Some of the more prominent issue-areas include marine oil pollution, transboundary movements of hazardous waste, nuclear accidents, Antarctic environmental protection, and biosafety related to living modified organisms.15 Strict liability, requiring no need to establish fault, emerged as the accepted standard in international law, for several important reasons: it avoided the difficult task of defining standards of care; it lessened the burden of proof for plaintiffs in complex, technical fields; and most of the activities initially covered were viewed as ultrahazardous.16 Since any system of liability rests on a means of establishing causation, in those issue-areas where demonstrating causal relationships has proven especially problematic, such as climate change, liability mechanisms have played little role.17
Table 1: Selected International Liability and Compensation Regimes
Note: For instruments in force, “Number of States” refers to number of contracting parties. For instruments not in force, “Number of States” refers to number of ratifications and accessions.
International liability regimes vary along multiple dimensions. One fundamental distinction is between civil and state liability regimes. Most transboundary hazardous activities that have been subjected to international liability rules have been commercial in nature, carried out by firms or other private entities.18 Most of these regimes, in turn, have been based on civil liability, in which private parties are held accountable for damages occurring beyond national borders. As in domestic law, international civil liability frameworks are generally premised on the polluter pays principle (although the degree to which it is achieved in practice varies greatly). For example, the regime covering maritime bunker fuel pollution, the 2001 International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage (Bunkers Convention), assigns liability for damages exclusively to shipowners.19 Similarly, the regime covering civilian nuclear accidents, based on the 1960 Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy20 and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage21, holds owners of nuclear installations legally liable for transboundary damages resulting from nuclear accidents. Assigning liability to private owners and operators under civil liability systems is referred to as “channeling.”22 Provision is typically made for joint and several liability in cases of multiple defendants.23 Under civil liability regimes, claims for compensation are adjudicated in domestic courts, with states agreeing to mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments—in this way, civil regimes ultimately rely on state action to function effectively.
By contrast, under a state liability regime, sovereign states are held liable for damages or injuries occurring outside respective areas of national jurisdiction or control. State liability has been accepted and codified only for activities that are primarily non-commercial in character. Indeed, the 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (Space Liability Convention)24 is the only instance of an international liability mechanism based entirely on state liability.25 State liability differs from the related concept of state responsibility.26 State responsibility, on the one hand, is invoked when states fail to uphold their international legal obligations.27 If a state fails to exercise due diligence as required by international law, for example, then it is considered to be in breach of its legal commitments and thus responsible for any damages that ensue. State liability, on the other hand, arises when damages occur as a result of lawful activities undertaken by states.28 If a state exercises due diligence yet injurious consequences still result, that state may be liable for damages. Again, liability applies to situations in which lawful activity gives rise to collateral damages. Under state liability, disputes are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration.29 In a world of sovereign states, settlements reached using these processes are not legally enforceable. This defining feature of international relations means that settling damage claims under a system of state liability is ultimately a political rather than a legal issue.
Parties, whether state or private, are typically excluded from liability under certain conditions. Defendants normally are exonerated in the event of armed conflict, hostilities, civil war, or insurrection.30 Exemptions are provided where damage is due to natural phenomena of “exceptional, inevitable and irresistible character” (acts of God or force majeure).31 Exclusions are also granted where injuries are traceable to acts or omissions of a third party, or of the claimant.32 In addition, regimes provide exemptions for situations specific to particular issue-areas. For example, under the 1996 International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection With the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea (HNS Convention), shipowners are excluded from liability in cases where responsible states or other parties fail in their duty to provide coastal lights and other navigational aids.33 In addition to such exonerations, international liability agreements also normally prescribe a statute of limitations to restrict claims to a defined period of time.34 Importantly, international law does not provide exclusions in cases where defendants claim to have acted to prevent pre-existing harms; likewise, affirmative defenses based on this argument are not available in domestic legal settings.35
Compensation for damages usually takes the form of monetary payments. International liability regimes award compensation for traditional harms such as loss of life, personal injury, loss of or damage to property, and economic loss.36 To prove economic loss, a claimant must make the case that future earnings would have materialized if not for the event in question.37 Compensation for economic loss is available, for instance, for damages to fishing and tourism industries under the oil spill regime, founded on the 1971 International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation of Oil Pollution Damage (1971 Fund Convention).38 Many regimes also entail compensation for preventive measures as well as reasonable steps taken to reinstate the environment.39 The 1993 Convention on Civil Liability for Damage Resulting from Activities Dangerous to the Environment (Lugano Convention) provides a rare example of compensation for damage to the environment per se, regardless of impacts on socioeconomic use.40
The predominance of strict liability in international law has been matched by widespread limits on compensation for liable parties.41 Another common feature of international liability mechanisms is compulsory insurance schemes, which are intended to ensure that those found liable have resources sufficient to meet their compensatory obligations. Typically, signatory states that license, register, or issue permits to owners or operators must require such parties to maintain adequate insurance or other financial security as a condition of operation. Under terms of the 1952 Convention on Damage Caused by Foreign Aircraft to Third Parties on the Surface (Rome Convention), for example, aircraft operators must carry insurance or provide other security adequate to cover damages resulting from liability.42
Quantitative caps on defendant liability have led to the creation of additional tiers of compensation within some liability regimes in order to ensure full redress for victims. For instance, the 1963 Supplementary Convention to the Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy established three layers of compensation for nuclear accidents in Europe: a first tier provided by operators of nuclear installations, who are protected by limited liability; a second tier provided by states on whose territory compromised installations are located, again with a specified cap; and a third tier based on contributions to a compensation fund made by all contracting parties.43
The best-known liability compensation funds are the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds, established beginning with the 1971 Fund Convention.44 The IOPC Funds are financed by mandatory levies on public and private entities that import oil.45 The purpose of such funds is to serve as a supplementary compensatory backstop in cases where liability limits have been reached, insurance was not maintained, defendants are insolvent, or no parties qualify as liable.46 Fund contributions may be mandatory or voluntary, and may derive from public or private entities.47
As this discussion makes clear, existing liability mechanisms are closely tailored to the specific needs and features of the issue-areas they are designed to help manage. Every potentially hazardous transboundary activity is distinguished by a unique risk profile, characterized by a set of variably likely, variably severe possible impacts. While SAI remains at the conceptual stage of development, researchers have already devoted considerable attention to potential hazards associated with this climate engineering technique. The following Section takes stock of current knowledge about possible losses and damages connected to SAI, and points toward some institutional elements that might be particularly suited to a future stratospheric aerosol liability regime.
II. POSSIBLE SAI DAMAGES, POSSIBLE LIABILITY SOLUTIONS
SAI, like other forms of SRM, is intended to reflect away a small fraction of the sunlight reaching the planet, thereby reducing climate changes that would otherwise occur as a result of the accumulation of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. SAI would accomplish this by introducing aerosols to the stratosphere. Most research and analysis has focused on the use of sulfuric acid aerosols created by the injection of sulfur dioxide.48
Researchers have identified a number of significant damages that could potentially result from large-scale SAI experimentation and/or deployment. These harms fall into three distinct categories.49 First, there are a handful of risks directly related to the specific technology employed to carry out SAI. These risks pertain primarily to the unintended chemical effects of aerosols introduced into the stratosphere. The use of sulfate aerosols in particular would lead to an increase in acid rain (although the small quantities and distributed delivery of sulfur typically proposed would be likely to substantially reduce the magnitude of this harm).50 And recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer might be slowed as a result of aerosol injection, as aerosols can shift chlorine from inactive reservoir species to the species that catalytically destroy ozone.51 Any ozone effects would likely be concentrated at the poles.52 In both of these cases, SAI technology carries the risk of independently intensifying existing environmental problems. Other, previously unidentified health, safety, or environmental risks might also materialize in the course of SAI operations.
Table 2: Possible Harms Associated with SAI
The second category of impacts arises from climate responses to SAI. The potential magnitude of climate response damages is typically larger than what characterizes more limited technology risks. To begin with, global climate change will produce a specific regional distribution of climate changes with largely negative impacts.53 Current modeling studies suggest that injecting an artificial layer of aerosols into the stratosphere on top of projected climate change would reduce negative impacts of climate change overall. On average, the evidence available to date indicates that local weather patterns across the planet would more closely resemble preindustrial conditions if a globally warmer world implemented SAI than if no SAI were deployed—in this sense, global net utility would be higher with SAI than without. But SAI is also expected to redistribute some negative climate effects locally. As a consequence, a minority of regions might suffer greater losses in a climate-changed, geoengineered world than they would in a climate-changed world where geoengineering was not implemented.54
At a planetary level, implementing SAI could cause exaggerated cooling in the tropics and amplified warming at high latitudes relative to preindustrial conditions.55 Modeling indicates that some regional precipitation patterns could shift.56 If stratospheric aerosols were used to completely offset the increase in global mean temperature caused by anthropogenic CO2, then global average precipitation would be reduced (relative to the projected increase from a warming world).57 (Modeling also indicates that changes in regional precipitation would be even greater in a warmer world without SRM.58) Particular concerns have been raised over possible disruptions to Asian and African monsoon systems.59 (But again, current modeling indicates that monsoon disruptions would be more severe in a warmer world without SRM.60) In addition, evidence suggests that soil moisture levels in the tropics could be reduced.61
The use of stratospheric aerosols poses other climate response risks distinct from uneven regional climate effects. Ocean acidification is already occurring as a result of excess atmospheric CO2, but could be additionally enhanced by SAI as lower sea surface temperatures promote increased oceanic uptake of CO2 (although net effects on ocean pH would likely be negligible).62 Researchers have speculated that solar power generation might be negatively affected due to changes in light quality.63 Lastly, research indicates that SAI would likely result in whiter skies and more colorful sunsets.64 As in the case of possible damages resulting directly from SAI operations, other, unanticipated climate responses to stratospheric aerosol interventions may lead to significant unforeseen losses.
A third category of potential harms includes opportunity costs stemming from climate change benefits that do not occur because of SAI deployment. Opportunity costs, in this sense, are equivalent to economic losses caused by economic opportunities foreclosed. For example, successful SAI deployment would be expected to reduce, halt, or even reverse the regional thawing currently underway in the Arctic. Yet a multiplicity of actors has already invested in expanded oil and gas exploration opportunities made possible by climate change above the Arctic Circle.65 Arresting the Arctic thaw would both diminish the value of investments made to date in regional hydrocarbon extraction, and cut off the expected future revenue streams on which such investments are based. Expanded Arctic shipping and improved agricultural productivity in boreal zones represent other potential opportunity costs of SAI, since solar geoengineering would counteract the warming on which these activities depend. The probability and magnitude of harms resulting from lost benefits of climate change would vary widely depending on the potential benefit in question.
The risks described above are characterized by different degrees of likelihood, different orders of severity, and, above all, high levels of uncertainty. The probability, magnitude, and location of potential harms are likely to vary in unpredictable ways based on the rate, size, and point of intervention. These risks could be at least partially mitigated through wise choices about, for example, temperature targets, spatial distribution, particle type, quantity, and rate of release. However, the possibility of such losses likely cannot be completely eliminated, and would need to be addressed by any prospective SAI liability mechanism. Furthermore, the threat of “unknown unknowns” would accompany any SAI implementation; since these cannot be anticipated prior to deployment, a post-factum liability system would be the only way to manage risks of this type.
From the perspective of liability and compensation, two aspects of these potential hazards stand out. First is the potentially high magnitude of damages that attend several of these known risks (regardless of the probability of their occurring). In particular, regional threats to the hydrological cycle, whether in the form of localized flooding or droughts, interference with monsoons, or reduced soil moisture, constitute a significant potential source of loss caused by SAI implementation. Large-scale disruptions to water supplies and agriculture could pose serious risks to sizeable populations. We make the working assumption that the damages from SAI—for the worst affected regions—would be of the same order of magnitude as damages expected from climate change.66 In this case, total SAI damages could amount to roughly one percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This would equate to monetary damages of approximately $10 billion for a country the size of Indonesia, or $100 billion for a country the size of China. All things being equal, larger interventions would likely cause more severe damages and hence larger liabilities. A well-structured, all-inclusive international liability mechanism designed to ascertain damage, allocate loss, and award compensation for hydrological and other possible hazards might well be a precondition for any widespread, multilateral political decision to move forward with stratospheric aerosol deployment.
Second, as is often the case in international relations, a North-South political dynamic infuses many of these hazards, particularly those that are potentially most severe, such as hydrological disruptions. Within the emerging discourse on geoengineering, one dominant strain holds that climate interventions such as SAI represent a political project of the global North. According to this view, the benefits of climate engineering would accrue disproportionately to the developed world, while the costs would fall primarily on developing countries.67 The opposing view seems more credible as climate risks are well known to be more severe in the global South because there is less adaptive capacity.68
Nevertheless, a narrative of exploitation has gained traction.69 As with climate change more broadly, SRM and its possible effects have become inextricably linked to ongoing arguments about Northern responsibility, Southern victimhood, rights to develop, and climate justice,70 and a successful liability mechanism must take these political realities into account.
With these characteristics in mind, how do possible hazards associated with SAI map onto the historical development of liability and compensation at the international level? As a starting point, it is necessary to recognize that strict liability (as opposed to fault-based) has become the standard in international law, and would almost certainly apply to any SAI liability regime.71 The reasons for this are both practical and political. Once established, norms such as strict liability in international law are very difficult to dislodge.72 Some risks from SAI and other forms of SRM, such as changes in regional precipitation patterns, are potentially very costly, for which strict, no-fault liability is regarded as appropriate. Demonstrating fault is notoriously problematic in international legal proceedings.73 And the standard of strict liability eases the burden of proof for claimants, a condition that would almost certainly be insisted upon by any major power uninvolved in the deployment of SRM.
The purpose of SAI, as discussed, would be to counteract some of the potential damages stemming from climate change. It might be argued that this preventative character makes harms caused by solar geoengineering ethically distinct from more conventional harms, and hence SAI liability claims ought to be restricted in their admissibility if not disallowed in their entirety. As noted above, however, no legal precedent exists for negating liability on this basis, and it is extremely unlikely that such a defense would be accepted in practice.74
Beyond these points, institutional and conceptual developments in the field of international legal liability lead to three distinct conclusions when viewed through the lens of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering. First, the manner in which SAI would likely be conducted suggests that state, rather than civil, liability is the appropriate basis on which to construct a liability regime. Second, the potentially enormous costs that might result from certain negative impacts (however unlikely they may be) recommend use of a compensation fund to spread the burden of compensation as well as to reassure potential victims that reparations will be paid. Third, and most challenging, the necessity of being able to establish causation in any liability regime (whether strict or fault-based), combined with the difficulty of demonstrating causality with respect to any climate intervention, warrants a fresh look at issues of legal causation in the climate context. The next Sections address these three topics in turn.
III. STATE LIABILITY AND THE SPACE LIABILITY CONVENTION
As noted earlier, a key question for the design of any liability regime is whether the activity in question is commercial or non-commercial in nature. In general, commercial transboundary hazardous activities have been subject to civil liability regimes, while state liability has been assigned to activities where markets play little role.75 SRM, including its stratospheric aerosol variant, would likely constitute an archetypal public activity, for which a regime of state liability would be appropriate. Atmospheric manipulation via stratospheric aerosol injection would act upon the quintessential global commons. There is no current market for SRM, and few incentives exist for private firms to engage in solar geoengineering without strong (inter)governmental leadership. Indeed, the very liability risks discussed in the preceding Section would serve as powerful and probably insurmountable obstacles to organizing SRM as a primarily commercial enterprise, even if there were a market for it, since adequate insurance likely would be impossible for corporations to obtain.
Even if SAI could be successfully commercialized, a privatized system of stratospheric SRM would probably be politically unacceptable. The notion of commercial or corporate control over SRM is highly controversial and subject to intense debate within the geoengineering community.76 While many potential stakeholders are open to the possibility of corporate participation in SAI, for example, as contractors or vendors,77 little (if any) support has been voiced for operational decision making by private, commercial entities. Even those interests most sympathetic toward market solutions to public policy problems, who advocate at least a partial substitution of SRM in place of emissions mitigation, view states as the essential players in any organized stratospheric aerosol effort.78 For political, practical, and principled reasons, therefore, it is necessary to approach SAI as a non-commercial endeavor best suited to a system of state liability.
The only liability regime based solely on state liability, as noted above, is the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, also known as the Space Liability Convention, which was both signed and entered into force in 1972.79 This convention was in effect an elaboration of the principle of state liability for damages in outer space as set down in the foundational 1967 Outer Space Treaty.80 Specifically, according to Article VII of the Treaty:
Each State Party to the Treaty that launches or procures the launching of an object into outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and each State Party from whose territory or facility an object is launched, is internationally liable for damage to another State Party to the Treaty or to its natural or juridical persons by such object or its component parts on the Earth, in airspace or in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies.81
The institutional machinery for actualizing state liability in outer space was spelled out five years later in the Space Liability Convention.
The Convention was intended to facilitate the launching of spacecraft, satellites, and other “space objects” into outer space for purposes of exploration and responsible use, while at the same time protecting the interests of those who might be negatively affected by accidental impacts or collisions caused by those space objects.82 Only states may present and answer claims for compensation.83 Private parties, either victims or accused, must be represented by national governments.84 Where more than one state is involved in a space launch, the Convention provides for joint and several liability.85 Exoneration is available in cases of contributory negligence on the part of victim states.86
The Space Liability Convention lays out a two-stage claims procedure for settling disputes over damage from space objects. The first step requires the claimant state(s) to present its claim to the alleged launching state(s), and for the parties to attempt to reach a settlement through “diplomatic channels.”87 In the event a mutually acceptable settlement cannot be reached, the Convention provides for the convening of a three-person “Claims Commission,” composed of one individual appointed by each side as well as a third member jointly agreed upon.88 Decisions of the Claims Commission “shall be final and binding if the parties have so agreed; otherwise the Commission shall render a final and recommendatory award, which the parties shall consider in good faith.”89 Compensation for damage should aim “to provide such reparation . . . as will restore the person, natural or juridical, State or international organization on whose behalf the claim is presented to the condition which would have existed if the damage had not occurred” (i.e., status quo ante).90 There is no limit to liability or cap on compensation.91 The entire claims process can take no more than four years to complete.92
To date, the Convention has been invoked only once.93 In 1978, Cosmos 954, a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite, malfunctioned and fell from orbit, scattering approximately one hundred kilograms of largely radioactive debris over a broad swathe of northern Canada.94 Due to the remoteness of the deposition area, the small amount of debris, and the short half-lives of radioactive materials involved, the crash was determined to pose no significant hazards to people or the environment.95 Recovery and analysis of the debris, however, cost the Canadian government approximately CAD$14 million.96
In January 1979, the Canadian government presented a surface-based strict liability claim to the Soviet Union for damages stemming from the Cosmos 954 incident, grounded in the Space Liability Convention, to which both states were party.97 Specifically, Canada requested approximately CAD$6 million in compensation for the “incremental costs” incurred in the course of search, recovery, technical analysis, and storage activities related to debris from Cosmos 954.98 (Canada did not seek the additional CAD$8 million incurred in the cleanup because the Soviets had signaled their refusal to pay for “fixed costs” such as administrative expenditures, which in their view were not properly recoverable.99) Canada’s claim was presented in accordance with the first, negotiation stage of the claims procedure laid out by the Convention. A series of bilateral negotiating sessions (notably conducted against the politically charged background of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan) ended in April 1981 with an agreement by the Soviets to pay CAD$3 million to the Canadian government for damages caused by the disintegration of Cosmos 954, a sum accepted in full and without qualification by Canada.100 Indeed, in the context of contemporary Cold War relations, many Western observers were pleasantly surprised by how much the Soviets were willing to pay.101 Many legal scholars and other observers regarded the Cosmos 954 settlement as a success for the Convention.102 However, the fact that Canada, a developed country and close ally of the United States, ultimately received less than a quarter of the amount originally spent on cleanup, even though the source of the damage was unambiguous, also supports an interpretation of the incident as a case where liability payments were insufficient.
Several modest yet important insights derive from consideration of the Space Liability Convention and its application in the case of Cosmos 954. First and most simply, the existence of an operative state-based international liability mechanism for damage caused by space objects shows that many of the structures that would be needed for a SAI liability regime, in particular a state-based standard, are possible. To be sure, the harms potentially caused by SAI could dwarf those associated with incidents such as Cosmos 954. In current U.S. dollars, the Cosmos 954 settlement was approximately $6 million, compared to the $10–$100 billion SAI damage estimate noted above. Second, the Cosmos 954 incident demonstrates that a state-based mechanism is in fact workable. After incurring cleanup costs associated with radioactive debris from a foreign satellite, the Canadian government presented a claim for damages to its Soviet counterpart, and subsequent negotiations produced a settlement acceptable to both states. Of course, this episode represents only a single case under a single convention, and it would be wholly inappropriate to extrapolate wider lessons for other areas based on the specifics of the Cosmos 954 affair. Nevertheless, its occurrence and amicable resolution underline the practical potential of liability regimes built on sovereign state claimants and defendants.
Third, legal scholars regard the Space Liability Convention as a well-designed, effective instrument with features worthy of emulation by other regimes. Hurwitz, for example, concludes that “The Liability Convention . . . provides a solid basis for the creation of new liability regimes. [T]he Convention is an effective and useful instrument for the development of international law . . . .”103 Lastly, some singular aspects of the Convention may be especially significant for issues related to SAI liability. In particular, the role of “launching states” as potentially liable parties under the Convention may serve as a helpful analog for states which in the future might deliver stratospheric aerosols or precursor gases, providing important conceptual, definitional, and legal foundations for a system of liability and compensation focused on SAI deployment.
IV. COMPENSATION AND THE OIL SPILL REGIME
Given a rough estimate of $10–$100 billion in possible damages resulting from SAI deployment, any politically acceptable SAI liability regime would need to have the capacity (if not the resources) to provide indemnification on this scale to affected parties. The most developed and highly capitalized system for international compensation is found in the liability provisions and industry funds that together make up the international oil spill regime.104 The origin and evolution of the oil spill regime offers many lessons potentially applicable to a future liability regime for stratospheric aerosols.
Accidental oil pollution at sea, or oil spills, became an urgent international issue with the advent of the supertanker in the 1960s.105 The rapidly expanding scale of potential spills, combined with the highly complex, transnational nature of shipping oil by sea (with shipowners, operators, insurers, cargo owners, charterers, and other interests based in different countries and subject to multiple jurisdictions exercised by flag states, coastal states, and port states), created powerful incentives for systematizing and rationalizing a uniform approach to settling disputes and compensating for damages.106 The need for such a regime was brought home in dramatic fashion by the 1967 wreck of the Torrey Canyon just outside British territorial waters. The tanker was owned by a Bermudan company and registered in Liberia, had been chartered by U.S. oil major Unocal then sub-chartered to British Petroleum, and the 32 million gallons of crude oil it spilled fouled coastlines in Britain as well as France.107 The ensuing legal morass (eventually settled108) convinced governments and industry that a more orderly system was required.
Diplomatic conferences quickly produced a pair of linked conventions that spread the burden of compensation between shipowners and oil companies. The first of these was the 1969 International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage.109 CLC 69, as it is known, assigned primary liability for oil spills to the shipping industry.110 The treaty was based on strict, no-fault liability, and executed through the civil courts of contracting parties.111 Liability was channeled to tanker owners, who were required to compensate governments and private parties alike for losses stemming from “pollution damage” (including preventive measures) affecting coastlines and territorial seas.112
Owner liability was limited to a maximum 210 million francs Poincare (equivalent to approximately $3 million in 2014 dollars113), although liability could be suspended under certain exculpatory circumstances such as acts of war.114 In order to ensure availability of adequate funds, shipowners were required to carry compulsory insurance certificates issued by flag states and subject to inspection by all states party to the convention.115 Claimants were entitled to take direct legal action against insurers.116 In all cases, a six-year statute of limitations applied to spill incidents.117
Governments signed CLC 69 with the explicit understanding that it would be followed by a second convention affixing an additional layer of liability to the oil industry.118 This came at the insistence of tanker owners, marine insurance providers (so-called protection and indemnity insurance or “P&I Clubs”), and maritime states, who demanded that the burden of compensation for oil spill liability be shared by those who owned and profited from the oil in question.119 The 1971 Fund Convention fulfilled this demand by setting up a new fund (“Fund 71”) to pay for pollution damages in the event CLC 69 liability limits were reached (or victims otherwise went uncompensated).120 This second tier of compensation was financed by annual contributions from major oil companies.121 For any one incident, aggregate compensation paid by CLC 69 and Fund 71 together was capped at 450 million francs Poincare ($6 million).122 Fund 71 was structured as an intergovernmental organization complete with a voting Assembly and international Secretariat.123
CLC 69 entered into force in 1975 and the 1971 Fund Convention in 1978.124 In order to fill the regulatory void during the ratification process, and to stave off more aggressive unilateral actions by coastal states, the oil majors led in the creation of two voluntary industry arrangements designed to serve as interim liability measures.125 The Tanker Owners Voluntary Agreement Concerning Liability for Oil Pollution (TOVALOP) provided for shipowner liability in much the same way as CLC 69, while the Contract Regarding an Interim Supplement to Tanker Liability for Oil Pollution (CRISTAL) assigned secondary liability to oil company cargo owners using a mechanism similar to Fund 71.126 Tanker owners that joined TOVALOP gained access to inexpensive insurance and advantageous claims settlement procedures,127 and oil companies that joined CRISTAL benefited from its affiliated fund that assumed member liabilities exceeding specified ceilings.128 TOVALOP took effect in 1969 and CRISTAL in 1971.129
Even as these industry initiatives became operative, followed by CLC 69 and Fund 71, a series of devastating incidents, notably the 1978 Amoco Cadiz130 and 1980 Tanio131 spills off France, exposed the inadequacy of existing liability limits to cover the full range of losses resulting from major spills. For this and other reasons, the United States refused to ratify either CLC 69 or the 1971 Fund Convention, leaving the world’s leading oil importer outside the emerging international regulatory framework.132 To address these problems, contracting parties drafted two protocols to the conventions in 1984.133 The first protocol revised shipowner liability upward. Ships less than 5,000 tons were liable up to 3 million International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights (SDRs) ($7 million).134 For each additional ton beyond this, ships were liable for 420 SDRs, up to a maximum 59.7 million SDRs ($140 million) per incident.135 The second protocol increased the maximum aggregate CLC 69 and Fund 71 compensation to 135 million SDRs ($310 million), thereby expanding oil industry liability.136
By the early 1990s, faced with continuing U.S. intransigence, states party to the conventions adopted two new agreements.137 The 1992 International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (CLC 92)138 effectively superseded the original CLC 69 with the higher shipowner liabilities specified in the first 1984 protocol. Similarly, the 1992 International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (1992 Fund Convention)139 established a new Fund 92 in accordance with the higher financial limits laid out in the second 1984 protocol.140 The 1992 conventions came into force in 1996, and Fund 71 began winding up in 2002.141 Such episodes exemplify the sort of institutional flexibility that a liability regime for SAI will likely require. TOVALOP and CRISTAL, having undergone multiple revisions over the years to keep pace with regulatory developments, were formally terminated in 1997.142
By the turn of the century, new accidents such as the 1999 Erika spill off France143 and the 2002 Prestige spill off Spain144 made clear that even the enhanced 1992 compensation levels were insufficient to compensate for losses from oil spills. In response, contracting parties crafted another package of liability upgrades. In 2000, governments amended CLC 92 so that ships are liable up to 89,770,000 SDRs ($165 million) per incident.145 Likewise, the maximum aggregate compensation under the 1992 Fund Convention was raised to 203 million SDRs ($375 million).146 These changes amounted to a two-thirds increase relative to 1992 liability levels. Both amendments came into force in 2003.147 That same year, yet another instrument was signed, the 2003 Supplementary Fund Convention.148 This optional protocol established a third tier Supplementary Fund for interested states, for whom the maximum aggregate compensation available from CLC 92 and Fund 92 (both as amended) together with the new Supplementary Fund (the “IOPC Funds”) would be 750 million SDRs ($1.3 billion).149 Additionally, to address concerns that liability burdens had become unbalanced to the detriment of the oil industry, the shipping industry consented to another set of voluntary agreements obliging P&I Clubs to partially indemnify the IOPC Funds.150 The Small Tanker Oil Pollution Indemnification Agreement (STOPIA) applied to Fund 92, while the Tanker Oil Pollution Indemnity Agreement (TOPIA) applied to the Supplementary Fund.151 Both shipping industry schemes took effect in 2006.152
The history of the oil spill regime has been characterized overall by continually increasing liability limits; accreting layers of additional compensation; balancing of burdens between shipowners and oil interests; and supplementing intergovernmental arrangements with industry initiatives. This evolution has been driven to a large degree by a series of major oil spills beginning with the Torrey Canyon in 1967, but in terms of number of incidents, quantity spilt, and other key measures, there has been a remarkable decline in accidental oil spills since the 1960s: “the volume of oil spilt from tankers demonstrates a significant improvement through the decades. Consistent with the reduction in the number of oil spills from tankers, the volume of oil spilt also shows a marked reduction.”153 While large spills have been the impetus for institutional changes, their frequency and resulting damages have declined markedly over time.
There are indications that compensation payments under the oil spill regime have had a “deterrent effect” by encouraging industry to take preventative safety measures.154 The regime is generally viewed as effective in providing satisfactory compensation to public and private victims of oil spills: “features such as strict liability, compulsory insurance, limitation funds, direct action against insurers and cargo-financed supplemental funds have all benefited pollution victims immensely.”155 In the vast majority of cases, claims for oil spill damages brought under the regime have been settled out of court.156 The most recent available data indicate that, since Fund 71 first became operational, the IOPC Funds collectively have distributed a total £569 million ($896 million) in compensation to the victims of 147 separate incidents.157 As noted above, a rough calculation of potential damages from SAI is in the range of $10–$100 billion. While the IOPC Funds do not approach this level, they are more comparable than the relatively small amount involved in the Cosmos 954 settlement under the Space Liability Convention.
Several aspects of the oil spill regime policy architecture are noteworthy in the context of stratospheric aerosol liability. First is the fact that compensation levels marshaled by the regime to date have been adequate to satisfy damage claims brought by public and private parties: “The strict liability systems of compensation established by the Civil Liability and Fund Conventions, and by U.S. domestic legislation, have ensured that in practice compensation has nearly always been available for payment of claims resulting from an oil pollution incident.”158 While the lack of U.S. participation in the conventions has undercut the drive for global uniformity in oil spill liability rules, this refusal to ratify has been motivated not by any interest in dodging liability, but rather by a belief that regime coverage should be even greater than it is.159
Second, the ongoing adequacy of compensation levels reflects the impressive institutional flexibility of the regime. Flexibility mechanisms such as amendment and protocol procedures are hardly unique to the oil spill regime, yet the adaptability they enable has been a key factor in the success of the Conventions and Funds. By using these mechanisms, parties to the regime have been able to enhance compensation levels over time to take account of increasing tanker tonnages; expanding categories of losses recognized by civil courts; the entry of new litigants; accelerating coastal development; intensified fishing and aquaculture; and general price inflation.160 Such flexibility has allowed the regime to accommodate unforeseen technological, economic, and legal developments. A liability regime for SAI geoengineering would almost certainly encounter similarly unanticipated occurrences, and require a comparable capacity for adaptability.
Third, the fund structure pioneered by the oil spill regime offers a number of advantages that would benefit efforts to address SAI liability. By collecting levies prior to actual incidents, the IOPC Funds reassure potential victims that a pool of liquid capital will be available for disbursement if an accident occurs. Freestanding, pre-existing bodies like the IOPC Funds can help expedite delivery of compensation to claimants, through institutionalized payment mechanisms and rights of subrogation spelled out in the Conventions.161 Since SAI would likely be based on state liability, restoring losses through a compensation fund would perform a particularly useful diplomatic function insofar as it would replace direct state-to-state legal action with a less politicized claims process in which damages would be recovered from a neutral international organization such as the IOPC Assembly. IOPC financing arrangements, based on annual contributions by oil companies, also present a unique approach to raising funds for compensation from private sources regarded (at least politically) as ultimately liable for environmental damages. In the SRM context, oil companies and other core constituents of the fossil fuel industry might conceivably be compelled to provide funds for collective liability coverage.162
Lastly, the critical role played by oil interests in financing the IOPC Funds exemplifies the key importance of industry involvement in the success of the oil spill regime. From the outset, the oil and shipping industries collaborated closely with each other, with their maritime state backers, and with coastal and port states to design and implement a liability system that would balance the immense economic benefits of shipping oil by sea against the need to provide satisfactory reparations to those who might suffer damage from the accidents such commerce would inevitably cause. While the actions of oil majors, independent tankers, and P&I Clubs were clearly motivated by a desire to shape the agenda, influence deliberations, protect commercial interests, and maintain some degree of control over the evolving regulatory framework, the net result was a liability and compensation system generally regarded as having benefited victims of oil pollution enormously.163 Insurance payments for shipowner liability and oil company contributions to the IOPC Funds, mechanisms that were influenced and consented to by these same actors, together constitute the entirety of compensation payments under the regime. And voluntary schemes wholly conceived by industry such as TOVALOP and CRISTAL served as valuable interim measures offering relief to victims during periods of ratification, accession, and revision to the primary intergovernmental instruments.164
One element of market engagement in the oil spill regime, however, would not be applicable to a liability system for stratospheric aerosol deployment. Compulsory liability insurance, a particularly innovative provision of the Conventions, is a device used in civil proceedings and designed to ensure victims receive adequate compensation for damages inflicted.165 Doctrines of sovereign and state immunity protect states from civil actions brought by non-state actors at home or abroad, so that governments are not subject to civil liability claims and cannot be sued for injuries.166 As previously discussed, where government operators are held to cause recoverable damages, liability and compensation are addressed outside civil courts in a state liability regime (such as the Space Liability Convention). In a state liability setting populated exclusively by sovereigns settling disputes through negotiation or arbitration, such as would likely characterize SAI, liability insurance has no role to play, since it is premised on rules that do not apply. Other types of insurance, however, may conceivably perform useful functions; for example, joint funds could be channeled to support sovereign disaster risk insurance for potential victims of SRM.167
V. THE PROBLEM OF ATTRIBUTION
When considering liability in the context of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering, an especially problematic issue relates to the difficulty of demonstrating causal attribution. Traditionally, establishing legal liability has required showing a direct cause-effect relationship between an action committed by an alleged wrongdoer, and damages suffered by the victim.168 In law, such deterministic causation is referred to as the “but for” test: but for factor X, would harm Y have occurred?169 If the answer is no, X is considered to have caused Y, liability is established, and compensation may be awarded. If the answer is yes, Y cannot be attributed to X, liability is not proven, and damage claims will not be satisfied.
Determining responsibility for a fallen satellite or an oil spill is relatively unproblematic. But establishing an unambiguous direct causal connection between a stratospheric aerosol intervention and damages alleged to have occurred as a result is impossible due to the highly complex nature of the climate system.170 Indeed, the very concept of “climate” itself, that is, “the average weather, or more rigorously, . . . the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time,” is fundamentally probabilistic in nature.171 Strictly speaking, climate science is incapable of producing deterministic statements describing empirical causal chains that run from initial cause to final effect; instead, climate science is limited to statements about the probability of events occurring under different conditions.172 While climate science shares this fundamental epistemological character with all other sciences, it is distinguished by a very high degree of complexity and large uncertainties that render traditional deterministic, but-for causal statements about climate effects particularly problematic. Since liability systems generally assume that damages can be traced back directly to wrongful acts, efforts to address liability in the weather and climate field have been unsuccessful to date. Early attempts at cross-border regulation of weather modification activities foundered on the apparent impossibility of awarding compensation based on nondeterministic causal statements.173 Likewise, current efforts to address issues of “loss and damage” within the UNFCCC are hampered by (among other things) controversy over attribution of specific damaging weather events to specific emissions of CO2 and other GHGs.174 Future attempts to assign causal responsibility for particular harms to particular SAI interventions might, at first sight, appear unlikely to succeed for similar reasons. Opportunistic behavior in the context of liability for SRM is conceivable; for example, a country might take advantage of liability mechanisms by making damage claims based on disputable evidence that is nevertheless impossible to disprove due to methodological limitations.
Contemporary advances in both computer modeling and legal reasoning, however, are providing possible ways around the attribution impasse. Climate scientists have been developing a number of methods to enhance the strength of claims made using probabilistic event attribution.175 The most prominent of these methods is a technique known as Fraction Attributable Risk (FAR).176 In essence, FAR allows researchers to quantify the relative probabilities of a particular weather event occurring under two different climate scenarios. Models and observations are first used to simulate the probability distribution of a particular climate variable under known climate conditions. Model runs then simulate the probability distribution of that same variable under a climate characterized by an additional driver, typically increased GHG levels. Comparing these two distributions allows researchers to calculate the probabilities that the variable will exceed a specific weather threshold under the two different scenarios, and this in turn enables calculation of the increased likelihood that this threshold will be surpassed with the additional driver present.177
Using FAR or similar methods, scientists have demonstrated probabilistic causal attribution for a growing number of discrete weather events, including flooding in the United Kingdom in 2000, the European heat wave of 2003, and drought in East Africa in 2011.178 These and other studies show statistically significant increases in the likelihood that such extreme weather events occurred as a result of anthropogenic GHG emissions.179 In practice, a liability regime for stratospheric aerosols would be concerned with precisely these sorts of extreme events and resulting damages.
At the same time as new statistical methods are increasing the power of causal explanations based on probability distributions, the use of statistical evidence is gaining wider acceptance in many national legal systems, supplementing the traditional reliance on but-for causation. English law has demonstrated a willingness to rely on probabilistic evidence to settle liability claims.180 In cases such as Novartis Grimsby v. Cookson,181 Ministry of Defence v. AB,182 and Sienciewicz v. Greif,183 English courts have accepted that, if the risk of a given event is more than doubled by a particular factor (or driver), that factor can be said to have caused the event.184 In Fairchild v. Glenhaven (a mesothelioma case), the House of Lords ruled that causation is demonstrated if a factor can be shown to have created a “material increase in risk” of an event happening;185 the court did not define “material increase in risk” in quantitative terms, but instead specified that the risk in question must be “not insignificant” and the allegedly tortious act must have “contributed substantially to the risk.”186
In Australia, statistical evidence has formed the basis of decisions on liability in cases such as Seltsam Pty Ltd v. McGuiness,187 and “material contribution” arguments have been accepted in cases such as Henville v. Walker.188 South African courts have accepted that, if there is a greater than 50 percent probability that damage resulted from a particular act, that act may be regarded as tortious and the perpetrator held liable.189 Japanese courts have, as in the Minamata disease case, pioneered the practice of awarding compensation in proportion to the degree of probability that an act caused harm.190 In the United States, probabilistic evidence derived from statistical models has long served as the basis for findings of liability and damage awards in fields such as tobacco litigation, “toxic torts” (including pharmaceuticals), and radiation exposure.191
While not always presented as such, the standard of proof for civil cases in most courts is a greater than 50 percent likelihood.192 This general rule of thumb derives from the widely held principle that a “preponderance of evidence” is necessary to prove damage in a civil case, which is commonly interpreted to mean “more probable than not,” or greater than 50 percent.193 In modeling terms, this conventional standard is equivalent to a FAR greater than 0.5. Significantly, a number of the weather attribution modeling studies that have been conducted to date have demonstrated FARs greater than 0.5.194
Taken together, methodological advances in climate science and the growing acceptance of statistical evidence in national courts suggest that reliance on probabilistic reasoning as proof of cause may offer a potential way forward in addressing the problem of liability attribution, both for SAI geoengineering and for climate policy more broadly. These converging trends point in the direction of an emerging, substantive alternative to conventional but-for, deterministic causation in cases of damage related to the effects of climate change. Such an alternative would allow for more definitive assessments of damage claims, as well as strengthen the ability to identify and dismiss opportunistic claims.
Yet serious obstacles stand between these promising scientific and legal developments, on the one hand, and a fully realized climate attribution system based on probabilistic methods, on the other. Some critics express skepticism that model-based techniques will ever be able to convincingly demonstrate causation.195 It would undoubtedly prove challenging to gain wide scientific consensus on the robustness of a climate attribution system, which would seem a likely prerequisite for political consensus. It would probably be even more challenging to gain international political consensus. A government opposed to an attribution apparatus would likely have little difficulty finding scientific experts to question the accuracy and reliability of such a system. Since an effective attribution system would encompass all climate damages, whether caused by climate change or solar geoengineering, political objections to liability for conventional climate loss and damage may prevent acceptance of an attribution scheme intended for SAI. These and other issues would need to be overcome in order for a SAI liability regime based on statistical models to be adopted and implemented. However, in light of progress to date, the problem of attribution does not necessarily appear to present an insurmountable barrier to crafting a workable regime.
If such a regime could be built, it is likely that the larger the SAI intervention, the easier attribution by FAR or similar methods would be, since (all things being equal) a larger intervention will create a louder signal relative to background climate noise. This has implications for the form an intervention might take. An “emergency” SAI intervention entailing a relatively large pulse of stratospheric aerosols, for example, would likely generate a higher signal-to-noise ratio than a more gradual ramping up, or “peak shaving,” approach to aerosol injection. An emergency intervention might therefore be more tractable from a liability perspective, but also more damaging, whereas peak shaving might cause less damage but elude efforts to assign attribution.
So far, we have shown that there are a number of precedents on which a liability and compensation system for SAI could draw. Treaty systems such as the Space Liability Convention and the oil spill regime demonstrate that institutional mechanisms can be developed to effectively address some of the unavoidable risks that accompany internationally accepted hazardous cross-border activities. Furthermore, methodological and legal innovations offer a possible path forward for probabilistic attribution in the field of climate liability; these same innovations would be equally applicable to questions of causation with respect to stratospheric aerosol liability.
These considerations raise a number of additional issues. As noted in the previous Section, the science of weather attribution, as embodied in FAR and other probabilistic attribution methods, is primarily focused on extreme weather events.196 In the context of SAI geoengineering, these events correspond to harms of potentially high magnitude as denoted in Table 2 above. Given the current understanding of SAI geoengineering, these possibly extreme, potentially attributable damages consist of extraordinary temperature and precipitation events such as heat waves, cold waves, floods, droughts, and severe storms. Conceivably, a party responsible for SAI could be held liable for opportunity costs if related environmental changes can be causally attributed to an aerosol intervention using probabilistic methods. Returning to the example of Arctic hydrocarbons used earlier, if computer models were able to demonstrate convincingly that changes in the Arctic (relative to a global warming scenario) were likely caused by SAI, grounds would exist for damage claims based on economic opportunities denied by Arctic refreezing. Proving the claim and obtaining compensation, however, would depend on separate judgments regarding the foresight and reasonableness involved in Arctic oil and gas investments prior to SAI deployment, as well as prior political agreement that compensation could be awarded for lost opportunities.
The essential role of attribution in liability regimes, combined with the critical part played by computer modeling in emerging climate and weather attribution methods, means that any system of liability and compensation for SAI geoengineering would lean heavily on the performance and credibility of climate models. Most obviously, models must be capable of demonstrating causation probabilistically using FAR or similar techniques in a methodologically rigorous and scientifically sound manner. This is of paramount importance from a technical point of view, and at least as important from a political perspective. Ultimately, in order for a stratospheric aerosol liability regime to work, scientists, policymakers, politicians, civil society, and global publics would all need to regard its foundational modeling system as reliable, accurate, independent, apolitical, and above all, legitimate. This is a tall order, and poses a significant challenge for any effort to build a liability system for SAI.
An important function of SAI liability would be to encourage appropriate precaution among those involved in its implementation. An effective, well-executed regime creates expectations of a durable, well-functioning governance structure among all parties to an agreement. Such expectations encourage actors to internalize norms of compliance and cooperation, and to develop behaviors that support and complement larger institutional purposes.197 In the case of a liability regime, expectations that unsafe or reckless behavior will result in significant penalties in the form of reparations can induce actors to take measures that minimize the chances of such costly outcomes. In the oil spill regime, for example, decades of effective operation have instilled oil and shipping interests, and their national backers, with the expectation that those responsible for oil spills will be held liable and forced to pay compensation; evidence suggests that, partly as a result, oil and shipping companies have made constant improvements to tanker design, oil containment systems, safety protocols, and response capabilities.198 A liability system for stratospheric aerosols would aim to produce a similar preventative effect (although achieving it via incremental regime improvements may be substantially more problematic in a higher-stakes geoengineering context).
Enforcement presents a serious challenge to a possible future SAI liability regime. If liability is established, and compensation awarded, how would a regime function to enforce compliance with such a determination? In other words, what would force a guilty party to pay? The problem of enforcement is hardly unique to geoengineering; it applies to any cooperative endeavor between states in the anarchic international system.199 With no global monopoly on the use of force to police the behavior of states and other actors, compliance with international norms and decisions can only be achieved through the exercise of power, the pursuit of interest, or the influence of institutions, or some combination of these factors.200
The innovative design of the IOPC Funds discussed above,201 in particular their intergovernmental legal status, suggests one possible way to resolve the enforcement problem for SAI liability. The disincentive of a guilty party to pay compensation in the absence of third party enforcement is obvious, but if an independent body authorized and funded by a multilateral group were made responsible for making reparations instead, the disincentive to pay and consequent need for enforcement would likely be considerably less. Indeed, lack of enforcement has been a nonfactor in the functioning of the oil spill regime202, which as described above is widely regarded as an effective system for delivering compensation to spill victims. By spreading the burden of compensation across the international community, and shifting decisions about the release of funds from national governments and finance ministries to neutral international officials insulated from national interests, the IOPC Funds have in effect depoliticized the transfer of compensation from culprit to victim.
Theoretically, this logic could be extended to findings of liability itself. That is, if the decision to deploy were taken by a multilateral body, then it rather than individual states could be assigned any liability for negative side effects of the deployment. No precedent exists for assigning legal liability to a multilateral organization, as historically all liability regimes with the exception of the state-oriented Space Liability Convention have been based on civil liability.203 But the principle of international legal personality and related concepts would seem to provide at least a minimal basis for constructing a regime based on multilateral liability. As with compensation via intergovernmental body, locating legal liability with a multilateral organization would be likely to dampen the sorts of diplomatic and political tensions that can accompany accusations of wrongdoing and demands for reparations.204
A further aspect of SAI liability with potential for institutional innovation is the form of compensation awarded to victims. Traditionally, compensation for international legal liability has taken the form of monetary payments made by those responsible for damage to those suffering loss.205 The resolution of the Cosmos 954 affair exemplifies this standard means of restitution.206 Conventional monetary payments also typify the oil spill regime, yet compulsory insurance for shipowners first introduced under CLC 69 represented a departure from past practice, and its success has been emulated by other liability systems.207 Although liability insurance is inapplicable to sovereign states (as discussed above), other novel insurance mechanisms currently being proposed for managing climate risks hold promise for transferring sovereign risks to insurance and reinsurance markets.208 Regime funds could be used to finance sovereign disaster risk insurance policies, for individual countries or groups of countries; in the event of loss attributable to SAI deployment, compensation would be paid by private insurance firms with potential support from multilateral development banks. Non-insurance mechanisms such as environmental assurance bonding might also be adapted to provide coverage for potential victims of SRM implementation.209 These and other innovative financial instruments could help to spread risk and reduce costs, particularly useful functions given the uncertain scale of damages that might result from SAI.
Such instruments might also help to depoliticize the liability and compensation process, which as noted above could also be a potential advantage of both multilateral liability and multilateral compensation designs. However, in all likelihood considerations of SAI risks, harms, and restitution will remain a highly political undertaking. Some countries might be encouraged to claim damages from SAI even in the absence of compelling evidence. Conversely, other countries might display unwarranted levels of skepticism and resistance toward SAI damage claims. Disputes over liability would likely place even greater stress on attribution modeling systems, which as noted above would already be subject to considerable technical and political strains.
The politics of SAI liability would, in the end, largely reflect the underlying ethical commitments embedded within any institutional framework. The ethics of SAI liability and compensation would ultimately revolve around questions of who pays, who gets paid, and how much.210 Should the “polluter” pay, as is normally assumed in liability regimes, or should this obligation fall instead on those who benefit most from SAI, or alternatively on those most able to pay for damage from SAI? Should victims include parties harmed directly by SAI, parties who are harmed by SAI but benefit in net climate terms, or parties suffering opportunity costs or economic loss from reduced climate change? Should compensation be based on preindustrial, contemporary, or hypothesized future conditions? Answers to these questions are not self-evident, and can only be decided at the intersection of ethics, law, and power.
Reaching political agreement on these ethical issues will be enormously challenging. Questions of fault and responsibility bedevil current negotiations on mitigation and adaptation under the UNFCCC. Coming to a consensus on which set of historical actors should be liable for damages from solar geoengineering, either inside or outside established negotiating tracks, will be immensely difficult given the significant moral and material implications of the question. Agreeing on eligibility for compensation will require resolving sensitive distributional issues between countries (developed versus developing), within countries (central government versus local victims), and between generations (immediate payout versus long-term trust fund). And agreeing on a formula for compensation will lay bare the potentially huge financial stakes of a stratospheric aerosol liability regime. Whose damage estimates will be accepted? Should compensation take into account separate spending on mitigation and adaptation? Should private flows count as compensation? These and other ethico-political controversies will present serious obstacles to constructing an effective SAI liability regime. While liability is not an insurmountable problem for solar geoengineering, neither is it a problem that is easily solvable.
This Article has examined multiple, overlapping aspects of liability and compensation as they relate to possible stratospheric aerosol geoengineering: law and practice, causation and attribution, institutional design, and sociopolitical context. The purpose of this analysis has not been to recommend any particular approach to liability (although we have identified several promising structural elements). Rather, the goal has been to demonstrate that there is considerable precedent for managing international liability of the kind that would arise from SRM intervention; and that there is evidence that the system of international liability law is now evolving in ways that should make it still more applicable. In sum, historical precedents and contemporary innovations combine to suggest workable governance possibilities for addressing the difficult problem of liability for solar geoengineering.
Experiences in other spheres have shown that the community of states can construct and operate instruments to address damages stemming from otherwise acceptable cross-border activities. Cases such as the Space Liability Convention and oil spill regime show that such arrangements can function with a large measure of success. State-based liability mechanisms, compensation funds, and other innovations such as compulsory insurance have helped resolve disputes between states and other international actors in ways that redress grievances while allowing beneficial but hazardous activities to continue. Some of these structures might prove useful in the design of a liability system for SRM deployment or large-scale research. The issue of attributing climate damages to human drivers (whether GHGs or stratospheric aerosols) will be of central importance to a liability system. Methodological advances such as FAR, and innovations in legal reasoning such as probabilistic causation, show great potential for addressing the attribution problem, but significant technical and political challenges remain to be overcome before an effective attribution apparatus can be adopted internationally.
We have shown that there is precedent with respect to legal structures. One might concede that such structures exist, but argue that the potential magnitude of SRM damages exceeds previous compensation amounts to such a degree that our analogy is false. It is impossible to provide precise estimates of SRM damages given the high uncertainties and unknown factors involved, but we have calculated $10–$100 billion as a rough approximation based on current modeling of expected damages from climate change. This estimate far exceeds the $6 million paid out under the Space Liability Convention, and is significantly higher than the $700 million paid out by the IOPC Funds to date. Yet the total aggregate compensation now available under the oil spill regime is $1.3 billion. By further comparison, the largest claim so far approved by the dispute settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organization, an intergovernmental body whose (non-liability) damage claim decisions are binding, is valued at more than $5 billion, a sum that is arguably comparable to our lowest SAI damage estimate.211 We conclude that while SAI involves potentially larger damages, SAI damages for all but the largest countries—who we presume would likely be members of any SAI regime—are within an order of magnitude of those amounts contemplated and delivered by current international compensation regimes. Given that compensation levels under these regimes continue to increase, it is not unreasonable to imagine that an effective SAI liability regime could be created.
In the end, questions about SAI liability will be secondary to more fundamental questions about whether SAI should be deployed, and whether geoengineering is desirable in the first place. These more basic questions are inherently political, and cannot be reduced to issues of jurisprudence or scientific understanding. To the extent that the possibility of a credible liability mechanism enhances the probability that broad political agreement can be reached, however, relatively narrow questions of liability and more general political and diplomatic questions about the desirability of geoengineering are inextricably bound to each other, and responses to them are likely to develop in tandem. For this reason, further research into various aspects of liability raised here and elsewhere promises to contribute to both the present, more limited discussion as well as wider attempts to reach a global consensus on climate change and geoengineering.
1 See THE ROYAL SOC’Y, GEOENGINEERING THE CLIMATE: SCIENCE, GOVERNANCE AND UNCERTAINTY 1 (2009).
2 E.g., SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENT GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE, SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENT: THE GOVERNANCE OF RESEARCH 44 (2011); Adam D.K. Abelkop & Jonathan C. Carlson, Reining in Phaethon’s Chariot: Principles for the Governance of Geoengineering, 21 TRANSNAT’L L. & CONTEMP. PROBS. 763, 799–801 (2013); Daniel Bodansky, May We Engineer the Climate?, 33 CLIMATIC CHANGE 309, 319 (1996); Lisa Dilling & Rachel Hauser, Governing Geoengineering Research: Why, When, and How?, 121 CLIMATIC CHANGE 553, 560–61 (2013); David W. Keith, Geoengineering the Climate: History and Prospect, 25 ANN. REV. ENERGY & ENV’T, 245, 275–76 (2000).
3 E.g., Alan Robock, Will Geoengineering With Solar Radiation Management Ever Be Used?, 15 ETHICS POL’Y & ENV’T 202, 203 (2012); Bronislaw Szerszynski et al., Why Solar Radiation Management and Democracy Won’t Mix, 45 ENV’T & PLAN. A 2809, 2811–12 (2013).
4 See Edward A. Parson & Lia N. Ernst, International Governance of Climate Engineering, 14 THEORETICAL INQUIRIES L. 307, 327 (2013).
5 See A. Rip & R. Kemp, Technological Change, in 2 HUMAN CHOICES AND CLIMATE CHANGE: RESOURCES AND TECHNOLOGY, 327, 348 (S. Rayner & E.L. Malone eds., 1998).
6 See Nils Markusson, Tensions in Framings of Geoengineering: Constitutive Diversity and Ambivalence 6 (Climate Geoengineering Governance, Working Paper No. 003, 2013).
7 See U.N Secretariat, Survey on Liability Regimes Relevant to the Topic International Liability for Injurious Consequences Arising Out of Acts Not Prohibited by International Law, 2 Y.B. Int’l L. Comm’n 60, 66–73, Int’l L. Comm’n, U.N. Doc. A/CN.4/471 [hereinafter Survey on Liability Regimes].
8 See id. at 67.
9 See PHILIPPE SANDS ET AL., PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 700 (3d ed. 2012).
10 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, at 67.
11 See id. at 67–69.
12 Trail Smelter Case (U.S. v. Can.), 3 R.I.A.A. 1905 (1941).
13 Corfu Channel Case (U.K. v. Alb.), 1949 I.C.J. 4 (Apr. 9).
14 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, at 65.
15 See Table 1 for an overview of selected international liability and compensation regimes.
16 See RUDIGER WOLFRUM & CHRISTINE LANGENFELD, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION BY MEANS OF INTERNATIONAL LIABILITY LAW 398 (1999); A.E. Boyle, Globalising Environmental Liability: The Interplay of National and International Law, 17 J. ENVTL. L. 3, 13 (2005).
17 See Jutta Brunnée et al., Overview of Legal Issues Relevant to Climate Change, in CLIMATE CHANGE LIABILITY: TRANSNATIONAL LAW AND PRACTICE 23, 33–34 (Richard Lord et al. eds., 2012) (discussing problems related to climate change, causation, and liability).
18 For example, of the thirty-four multilateral instruments cited by the International Law Commission (ILC) in its comprehensive global survey of
liability regimes, only one agreement (the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects) is primarily non-commercial in character. See Survey on Liability Regimes,
supra note 7, at 63–64.
19 International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage art. 3, Mar. 23, 2001, 973 U.N.T.S. 3.
20 Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy, July 29, 1960, 956 U.N.T.S. 251.
21 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, May 21, 1963, 1063 U.N.T.S. 265.
22 See JULIO BARBOZA, THE ENVIRONMENT, RISK AND LIABILITY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW 32–33 (2010).
23 Under joint and several liability, a claimant may pursue all claims tied to multiple defendants against a single defendant. If damages are awarded, defendants must jointly arrange for compensation to the claimant. See WARREN FREEDMAN, JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY: ALLOCATION OF RISK AND APPORTIONMENT OF DAMAGES 3 (1987).
24 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, Mar. 29, 1972, 24 U.S.T. 2389, 961 U.N.T.S. 187 [hereinafter Space Liability Convention].
25 See WOLFRUM & LANGENFELD, supra note 16, at 411.
26 See Frans G. von der Dunk, Liability Versus Responsibility in Space Law: Misconception or Misconstruction?, PROCEEDINGS 34TH COLLOQUIUM ON L. OUTER SPACE 363, 363–65 (1991) (discussing the distinction between state liability and state responsibility).
27 See BARBOZA, supra note 22, at 21–22.
28 See id.
29 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, at 109–10.
30 See id. at 93–95.
31 See id.
32 See id. at 94–95.
33 International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection With the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea, May 3, 1996, 35 I.L.M. 1406.
34 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, at 111–14.
35 There is no exhaustive list of defenses to tort liability with which to demonstrate this. However, there is a widely accepted principle permitting an actor to cause injury to another, without the consent of the other, in order to prevent a different harm. This principle only applies in situations where (1) it is an emergency where the actor does not have the opportunity to obtain consent and (2) the actor has no reason to believe the other would decline consent. RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS § 892D (1979). The corollary principle is that an actor is liable in a situation where there was an opportunity for consent to be given regardless of the harm that might be prevented. See Mohr v. Williams, 104 N.W. 12, 16 (Minn. 1905) (finding civil liability for assault and battery where a surgeon had consent to operate only on the right ear, but during surgery instead operated on the left ear as it was in worse condition).
36 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7 at 98–100.
37 See Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Hans Bernd-Schafer, The Core of Pure Economic Loss, 27 INT’L REV. L. & ECON. 8, 8 (2007).
38 International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation of Oil Pollution Damage, Dec. 18, 1971, 1110 U.N.T.S. 57 [hereinafter 1971 Fund Convention].
39 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, 98–99.
40 Convention on Civil Liability for Damage Resulting from Activities Dangerous to the Environment, June 21, 1993, E.T.S. No. 150.
41 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, 105–07.
42 Convention on Damage Caused by Foreign Aircraft to Third Parties on the Surface, Oct. 7, 1952, 310 U.N.T.S. 181.
43 Supplementary Convention to the Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy, Jan. 31, 1963, 1041 U.N.T.S. 374.
44 See, e.g., Jutta Brunnee, Of Sense and Sensibility: Reflections on International Liability Regimes as Tools for Environmental Protection, 53 INT’L & COMP. L.Q. 351, 357–58 (2004).
45 See INT’L OIL POLLUTION COMPENSATION FUNDS, THE INTERNATIONAL REGIME FOR COMPENSATION FOR OIL POLLUTION DAMAGE: EXPLANATORY NOTE, 4–7 (2014).
46 See id. at 3.
47 See id. at 4.
48 See, e.g., SOLAR RADIATION MGMT. GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE, SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENT: THE GOVERNANCE OF RESEARCH 14–15 (2011).
49 See Table 2.
50 See B. Kravitz et al., Sulfuric Acid Deposition from Stratospheric Geoengineering With Sulfate Aerosols, 114 J. GEOPHYSICAL RES.-ATMOSPHERES D14109 (2009).
51 See S. Tilmes et al., The Sensitivity of Polar Ozone Depletion to Proposed Geoengineering Schemes, 320 SCIENCE 1201, 1201 (2008).
52 See id.
53 See generally Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Technical Summary, in CLIMATE CHANGE 2014: IMPACTS, ADAPTATION AND VULNERABILITY 2 (Field, C.B., et al., eds., 2014), available at http://www.ipcc.c
h/report/ar5/wg2/ (summarizing likely regional impacts of global climate change).
54 See K. Caldeira & L. Wood, Global and Arctic Climate Engineering: Numerical Model Studies, 366 PHIL. TRANSACTIONS ROYAL SOC’Y A 4039, 4042 (2008) (demonstrating that a minority of regions would suffer increased disruption due to precipitation changes under SRM compared to no SRM); H.D. Matthews & K. Caldeira, Transient Climate-Carbon Simulations of Planetary Geoengineering, 104 PROC. NAT’L ACAD. SCI. U.S. 9949, 9950 (2007) (demonstrating that a minority of regions would suffer increased disruption due to precipitation changes under SRM compared to no SRM); J. Pongratz et al., Crop Yields in a Geoengineered Climate, 2 NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE 101, 103 (2012) (demonstrating that individual local areas may exhibit larger changes in agricultural yields under SRM compared to no SRM); K.L. Ricke et al., Regional Climate Response to Solar Radiation Management, 3 NATURE GEOSCIENCES 537, 537 (2010) (showing that in most regions and seasons SRM reduces disruptions due to precipitation changes compared to no SRM); H. Schmidt et al., Solar Irradiance Reduction to Counteract Radiative Forcing from a Quadrupling of CO2: Climate Responses Simulated by Four Earth System Models, 3 EARTH SYS. DYNAMICS 63, 74 (2012) (showing differentiated regional responses to SRM).
55 See B. Kravitz et al., Climate Model Response from the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), 118 J. GEOPHYSICAL RES.: ATMOSPHERES 8320, 8323 (2013); H. Schmidt et al., supra note 54, at 72.
56 See Simone Tilmes et al., The Hydrological Impact of Geoengineering in the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), 118 J. GEOPHYSICAL RES.: ATMOSPHERES 11,036, 11,036 (2013).
57 See id. at 11,044–47.
58 See id. at 11,050.
59 See Alan Robock et al., Regional Climate Responses to Geoengineering with Tropical and Arctic SO2 Injections, 113 J. GEOPHYSICAL RES. D16101, D16101 (2008). But see Juan B. Moreno-Cruz et al., A Simple Model to Account for Regional Inequalities in the Effectiveness of Solar Radiation Management, 110 CLIMATIC CHANGE 649, 661 (2012).
60 See Tilmes et al., supra note 56, at 11,047–53.
61 See G. Bala et al., Albedo Enhancement of Marine Clouds to Counteract Global Warming: Impacts on Hydrological Cycle, 37 CLIMATE DYNAMICS 915, 921 (2011).
62 H. Damon Matthews et al., Sensitivity of Ocean Acidification to Geoengineered Climate Stabilization, 36 GEOPHYSICAL RES. LETTERS L10706 (2009); Phillip Williamson & Carol Turley, Ocean Acidification in a Geoengineering Context, 370 PHIL. TRANSACTIONS ROYAL SOC’Y A 4317, 4317 (2012).
63 Daniel M. Murphy, Effect of Stratospheric Aerosols on Direct Sunlight and Implications for Concentrating Solar Power, 43 ENVTL. SCI. & TECH. 2784, 2784 (2009).
64 Ben Kravitz et al., Geoengineering: Whiter Skies?, 39 GEOPHYSICAL RES. LETTERS L11801 (2012).
65 See, e.g., Scott Borgerson, The Coming Arctic Boom: As the Ice Melts, the Region Heats Up, 92 FOREIGN AFF. 76, 80 (2013).
66 The following calculations are made based on the approximately one percent GDP climate damage estimate used by the Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy (DICE) model and the IPCC, and current national GDP estimates provided by the World Bank. See WILLIAM NORDHAUS & PAUL SZTORC, DICE 2013R: INTRODUCTION AND USER’S MANUAL 11–12 (2d ed. 2013) (indicating one percent GDP estimate).
67 See, e.g., ETC GROUP, GEOPIRACY: THE CASE AGAINST GEOENGINEERING 3 (2010), available at http://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/ publication/pdf_file/ETC_geopiracy_4web.pdf.
68 See, e.g., Climate Change Secretariat of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Climate Change: Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Adaptation in Developing Countries 5 (2007) (noting that “[d]eveloping countries are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts because they have fewer resources to adapt: socially, technologically and financially”).
69 See Jonas Anshelm & Anders Hansson, Battling Promethean Dreams and Trojan Horses: Revealing the Critical Discourses of Geoengineering, 2 ENERGY RES. & SOC. SCI. 135, 142 (2014).
70 See, e.g., AFRICAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENT GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE, GOVERNANCE OF RESEARCH ON SOLAR GEOENGINEERING: AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES 20–27 (2013); Mulugeta M. Ayalew & Florent Gasc, Managing Climate Risks in Africa: The Role of Geoengineering, GEOENGINEERING OUR CLIMATE?, July 2013, available at http://geoengineeringourclimate.com/2013/07/23/managing-climate-risks-in-africa-the-role-of-geoengineering-opinion-article/.
71 It is conceivable that, depending on institutional arrangements, strict liability for SAI geoengineering could create such powerful disincentives for individual states to carry out deployment that SAI would not be provided, even if there is universal agreement on its desirability. Such a free rider problem theoretically could be overcome by enhancing the scope and credibility of exemptions from liability.
72 See ALEXANDER WENDT, SOCIAL THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 310–12 (1999).
73 See Boyle, supra note 16, at 13.
74 See supra note 35 and accompanying text.
75 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, at 107.
76 See, e.g., KELSI BRACMORT & RICHARD K. LATTANZIO, CONG. RESEARCH SERV., R41371, GEOENGINEERING: GOVERNANCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY 5 (2013); THE ROYAL SOC’Y, supra note 1, at 5.
77 See Steve Rayner et al., The Oxford Principles 26–27 (Climate Geoengineering Governance, Working Paper No. 1, 2013).
78 E.g., James Erick Bickel & Lee Lane, Challenge Paper: Climate Change, Climate Engineering R&D, Copenhagen Consensus 2012, available at http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/sites/default/files/Climate%2BChange%2BEngineering%2BR%2526D.pdf (advocating a government-run SRM research and development program).
79 Space Liability Convention, supra note 24.
80 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, Jan. 27, 1967, 18 U.S.T. 2410, 610 U.N.T.S. 205.
81 Id. art. VII.
82 Space Liability Convention, supra note 24, pmbl.
83 Id. art. IX.
84 Id. art. VIII.
85 Id. art. V.
86 The Convention remains exceptional in that it establishes two separate standards of liability based upon where damage occurs. For impacts on the surface of the Earth and collisions with aircraft, strict (“absolute”) liability was assigned to “launching states.” But for collisions in orbit and otherwise above the atmosphere, fault liability was assigned to responsible launching states. Fault-based liability in cases of space object collision in outer space was premised on the idea that only major “space powers” would be likely to suffer such damage, these powers were of equivalent stature, and launching states were fully cognizant of the risks entailed in placing satellites and other objects into outer space. See BRUCE A. HURWITZ, STATE LIABILITY FOR OUTER SPACE ACTIVITIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE 1972 CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE CAUSED BY SPACE OBJECTS 34 (1992).
87 Space Liability Convention, supra note 24, art. IX.
88 Id. art. XIV–XV.
89 Id. art. XIX, ¶ 2.
90 Id. art. XII.
92 Id. art. X.
93 See SANDS ET AL., supra note 9, at 728.
94 See GOV’T OF CAN., DEP’T OF EXTERNAL AFF., NOTE FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, TO THE SOVIET AMBASSADOR, 23 JANUARY 1979; ANNEX A: STATEMENT OF CLAIM 924 (1979).
95 See W.K. GUMMER ET AL., CAN. ATOMIC ENERGY CONTROL BD., COSMOS 954: THE OCCURRENCE AND NATURE OF RECOVERED DEBRIS 33–35 (1980).
96 Id. at 36.
97 GOV’T OF CAN., supra note 94 at 899.
98 See HURWITZ, supra note 86, at 118.
99 See Alexander F. Cohen, Cosmos 954 and the International Law of Satellite Accidents, 10 YALE J. INT’L L. 78, 85–86 (1984).
100 See HURWITZ, supra note 86, at 125.
101 See Cohen, supra note 99, at 87–89.
102 See, e.g., HURWITZ, supra note 86, at 128–29.
103 Id. at 209.
104 See, e.g., Anne Daniel, Civil Liability Regimes as a Complement to Multilateral Environmental Agreements: Sound International Policy or False Comfort?, 12 RECIEL 225, 227 (2003).
105 MAR. L. & COM. 1, 5–6 (1973).
106 See ALAN KHEE-JIN TAN, VESSEL-SOURCE MARINE POLLUTION: THE LAW AND POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL REGULATION 288–89 (2006).
107 See COLIN DE LA RUE & CHARLES B. ANDERSON, SHIPPING AND THE ENVIRONMENT: LAW AND PRACTICE 11 (2d ed. 2009).
108 See Patrick Griggs, “Torrey Canyon,” 45 Years On: Have We Solved All the Problems?, in POLLUTION AT SEA: LAW AND LIABILITY 3, 5 (Baris Soyer & Andrew Tettenborn eds., 2012).
109 International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, Nov. 29, 1969, 973 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinafter CLC 69].
110 Id. art. III.
112 Id. art. II.
113 Calculated by the authors using historical exchange rate and contemporary inflation calculators.
114 The franc Poincare (similar to the French franc) was formerly the standard unit of account used in international liability instruments, but has since been replaced by the International Monetary Fund special drawing right. U.S. dollar equivalents for both francs Poincare and special drawing rights provided subsequently in the text are approximations in 2014 dollars. See generally JOSEPH GOLD, SDRS, CURRENCIES, AND GOLD: SEVENTH SURVEY OF NEW LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS (1987) (discussing francs Poincare and special drawing rights).
115 CLC 69, supra note 109, art. VII.
117 Id. art. VIII.
118 See DE LA RUE & ANDERSON, supra note 107, at 17.
119 See TAN, supra note 106, at 295.
120 1971 Fund Convention, supra note 38.
121 Id. art. X.
122 Id. art IV.
123 Id. art. XVI.
124 See TAN, supra note 106, at 309.
125 See id. at 291.126 See DE LA RUE & ANDERSON, supra note 107, at 13–14, 17.
127 See R. MICHAEL M’GONIGLE & MARK W. ZACHER, POLLUTION, POLITICS, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW: TANKERS AT SEA 159 (1981); Michael Faure & Wang Hui, The International Regimes for the Compensation of Oil-Pollution Damage: Are They Effective?, 12 REV. EUR. COMP. & INT’L L. 242, 245 (2003).
128 See Susan Bloodworth, Death on the High Seas: The Demise of TOVALOP and CRISTAL, 13 J. LAND USE & ENVTL. L. 443, 446–48 (1998).
129 See TAN, supra note 106, at 292, 301.
130 See id. at 311.
131 See id. at 312.
132 See id. at 318–19.
133 See id. at 313.
134 The SDR is a currency basket that serves as the unit of account for the IMF. See generally GOLD, supra note 114 (discussing special drawing rights).
135 See WANG HUI, CIVIL LIABILITY FOR MARINE OIL POLLUTION DAMAGE: A COMPARATIVE AND ECONOMIC STUDY OF THE INTERNATIONAL, U.S. AND CHINESE COMPENSATION REGIME 140 (2011).
136 See id.
137 Before the 1984 protocols took effect, the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill occurred off Alaska, subsequently driving the U.S. Congress to pass the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA-90). This legislation instituted liability limits even higher than those envisioned by the 1984 protocols, with the result that the United States again refused to ratify CLC 69 and the 1971 Fund Convention. Oil Pollution Act of 1990, 33 U.S.C. § 2701 (2012).
138 International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, Nov. 27, 1992, 973 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinafter CLC 92].
139 International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage, Nov. 27, 1992, 973 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinafter 1992 Fund Convention].
140 Id. art IV. Both instruments extended coverage for oil spill damage to parties’ exclusive economic zones consistent with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Dec. 10, 1982, 1833 U.N.T.S. 397.
141 See TAN, supra note 106, at 329–30.
142 See Bloodworth, supra note 128, at 444.
143 See Luc Grellet, Avoiding International Legal Regimes: The Erika Experience, in POLLUTION AT SEA: LAW AND LIABILITY 141, 141 (Baris Soyer & Andrew Tettenborn eds., 2012).
144 See TAN, supra note 106, at 331.
145 CLC 92, supra note 138, art. V.
146 1992 Fund Convention, supra note 139, art. IV.
147 See INT’L OIL POLLUTION COMP. FUNDS, LIABILITY AND COMPENSATION FOR OIL POLLUTION DAMAGE: TEXTS OF THE 1992 CIVIL LIABILITY CONVENTION, THE 1992 FUND CONVENTION AND THE SUPPLEMENTARY FUND PROTOCOL 3 (2011).
148 Protocol of 2003 to the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage, 1992, May 16, 2003, 973 U.N.T.S. 3.
149 See id. art. IV.
150 See HUI, supra note 135, at 182–83.
151 See DE LA RUE & ANDERSON, supra note 107, at 172–75 (describing STOPIA and TOPIA).
152 See HUI, supra note 135, at 183.
153 INT’L TANKER OWNERS POLLUTION FED’N LTD., OIL TANKER SPILL STATISTICS 2012 6 (2013).
154 See Michael Faure & Wang Hui, Economic Analysis of Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage, 37 J. MAR. L. & COM. 179, 215 (2006).
155 TAN, supra note 106, at 342.
156 See INT’L OIL POLLUTION COMP. FUNDS, ANNUAL REPORT 2013 4 (2013), available at http://www.iopcfunds.org/uploads/tx_iopcpublications/ annualreport2013_e.pdf.
157 See id. at 4, 16.
158 DE LA RUE & ANDERSON, supra note 107, at 355.
159 See TAN, supra note 106, at 287.
160 See id. at 288–89.
161 Rights of subrogation allow for payment of claims by third parties (in this case, the IOPC Funds), who then assume rights to compensation from responsible parties (insured shipowners). CLC 92, supra note 138, art. III.
162 How this would align with other emerging contributory climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund is unclear; the issue is outside the scope of this article.
163 See, e.g., TAN, supra note 106, at 342.
164 See generally Gordon L. Becker, A Short Cruise on the Good Ships TOVALOP and CRISTAL, 5 J. MAR. L. & COM. 609, 626–32 (1974) (discussing TOVALOP and CRISTAL).
165 See HUI, supra note 135, at 95.
166 See JULIE A. DAVIES & PAUL T. HAYDEN, GLOBAL ISSUES IN TORT LAW 141 (2008).
167 This is discussed below. See infra text accompanying notes 205–209.
168 See Richard W. Wright, Causation in Tort Law, 73 CAL. L. REV. 1735, 1775 (1985).
169 See generally Antony Honore, Causation in the Law, STAN. ENCYCLOPEDIA PHIL., http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/causation-law/ (last updated Nov. 17, 2010) (discussing legal causation and the “but for” test).
170 See Pak-Hang Wong et al., Compensation for Geoengineering Harms and No-Fault Climate Change Compensation 13 (Climate Geoengineering Governance, Working Paper No. 008, 2014), available at http://geoengineering-governance-research.org/perch/resources/workingpaper8wongdouglassavulescu
171 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, The Physical Science Basis, in CLIMATE CHANGE 2013 1450 (Stocker, T.F., et al., eds., 2014), available at http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/#.UwTh6vaprig.
172 See Myles Allen, The Scientific Basis for Climate Change Liability, in CLIMATE CHANGE LIABILITY: TRANSNATIONAL LAW AND PRACTICE 8, 10–17 (Richard Lord et al. eds., 2012).
1 CLIMATIC CHANGE 267, 279 (1978); see also Lance D. Wood, The Status of Weather Modification Activities Under United States and International Law, 10 NAT. RES. L. 367, 379 (1977) (explaining that the science of 1977 was not yet capable of determining what damages resulted from weather modification activities).
174 See United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Current Knowledge on Relevant Methodologies and Data Requirements as Well as Lessons Learned and Gaps Identified at Different Levels, in Assessing the Risk of Loss and Damage Associated with the Adverse Effects of Climate Change: Technical Paper, ¶112, U.N. Doc. FCCC/TP/2012/1 (May 10, 2012).
175 See generally 94 BULL. AM. METEOROLOGICAL SOC’Y (SPECIAL SUPP.) (2013) (discussing weather event attribution methods).
176 To calculate a fraction of attributable risk, models and observations are used to simulate the probability distribution of a particular climate event (such as a drought) in the current climate, and to simulate the probability distribution of the same event in a climate with a particular driver (for example, increased greenhouse gases or stratospheric aerosols). The change in the event’s probability between the two models shows the increase or decrease in likelihood that is attributable to the driver in question. See Myles Allen, Liability for Climate Change, 421 NATURE 891, 891 (2003).
177 See Peter A. Stott et al., Attribution of Weather and Climate-Related Extreme Events, in CLIMATE SCIENCE FOR SERVING SOCIETY: RESEARCH, MODELING AND PREDICTION PRIORITIES 307, 315–18 (G.R. Asrar & J.W. Hurrell eds., 2013).
178 See Chris Funk, Exceptional Warming in the Western Pacific-Indian Ocean Warm Pool Has Contributed to More Frequent Droughts in Eastern Africa, 93 BULL. AM. METEOROLOGICAL SOC’Y 1049, 1051 (2012); Pardeep Pall et al., Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Contribution to Flood Risk in England and Wales in Autumn 2000, 470 NATURE 382, 382 (2011); Stefan Rahmstorf & Dim Coumou, Increase of Extreme Events in a Warming World, 108 PROC. NAT’L ACAD. SCI. U.S. 17905 (2011); Peter A. Stott et al., Human Contribution to the European Heatwave of 2003, 432 NATURE 610, 610 (2004).
179 See Allen, supra note 172, at 17.
180 See Silke Goldberg & Richard Lord, England, in CLIMATE CHANGE LIABILITY: TRANSNATIONAL LAW AND PRACTICE 445, 465–70 (Richard Lord et al. eds., 2012).
181 Novartis Grimsby Ltd. v. John Cookson, EWCA (Civ) 1261, (Eng.).
182 Ministry of Defence v. AB & Ors, EWCA (Civ) 1317, (Eng.).
183 Sienkiewicz v. Greif (UK) Ltd., UKSC 10, (appeal taken from Eng.).
184 See Goldberg & Lord, supra note 180, at 465–70.
185 Fairchild v. Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd. & Ors, UKHL 22, (Lord Hoffman).
186 See GIEDRE KAMINSKAITE-SALTERS, CONSTRUCTING A PRIVATE CLIMATE CHANGE LAWSUIT UNDER ENGLISH LAW 171–72 (2010) (quoting Fairchild v. Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd. & Ors, UKHL 22, (Lord Nicholls), (Lord Hoffman)).
187 Seltsam Pty. Ltd. v. McGuiness NSWCA 29 (Austl.).
188 Henville v. Walker (2001) 206 CLR 459, 493, 510–11 (Austl.).
189 See FRANCOIS DU BOIS ET AL., WILLE’S PRINCIPLES OF SOUTH AFRICAN LAW 1120 (9th ed. 2007).
190 See Goldberg & Lord, supra note 180, at 230 (discussing a Tokyo district court case on Minamata disease).
191 See THE EVOLVING ROLE OF STATISTICAL ASSESSMENTS AS EVIDENCE IN THE COURTS 6–9, 124, 128, 133 (Stephen E. Fienberg ed., 1989).
192 See Eyal Zamir & Ilana Ritov, Loss Aversion, Omission Bias, and the Burden of Proof in Civil Litigation, 41 J. LEGAL STUD. 165, 165–66 (2012).
193 See CHRISTOPHER B. MUELLER & LAIRD C. KIRKPATRICK, EVIDENCE: PRACTICE UNDER THE RULES 113–15 (4th ed. 2012).
194 See Stott et al., supra note 178, at 612.
195 See, e.g., Mike Hulme, The Case for and Against Climate Engineering, OXFORD MARTIN SCHOOL (Dec. 2013), http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/ videos/view/334.
196 See supra text accompanying notes 178–179.
197 See John Gerard Ruggie, International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order, in INTERNATIONAL REGIMES 195, 220 (Stephen D. Krasner ed., 1983).
198 See Faure & Hui, supra note 154, at 215.
199 See generally KENNETH A. OYE, COOPERATION UNDER ANARCHY (1986) (discussing problems of cooperation and enforcement under conditions of anarchy).
200 See generally MICHAEL W. DOYLE, WAYS OF WAR AND PEACE: REALISM, LIBERALISM, AND SOCIALISM (1997) (summarizing leading theories of international relations).
201 See supra Part IV.
202 See TAN, supra note 106, at 342.
203 See supra text accompanying notes 24–25.
204 See generally C.F. AMERASINGHE, PRINCIPLES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL LAW OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (2d ed. 2005) (discussing legal frameworks of international organizations).
205 See Survey on Liability Regimes, supra note 7, at 103–04.
206 See id. at 104.
207 See Int’l Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, supra note 156, at 16 (giving amount of monetary compensation paid by IOPC Funds).
208 See U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mechanisms to Manage Financial Risks from Direct Impacts of Climate Change in Developing Countries, 75–82, U.N. Doc. FCCC/TP/2008/9 (Nov. 21, 2008), available at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2008/tp/09.pdf; J. DAVID CUMMINS & OLIVIER MAHUL, CATASTROPHE RISK FINANCING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: PRINCIPLES FOR PUBLIC INTERVENTION 20–25 (2009).
209 See Bidisha Banerjee, The Limitations of Geoengineering Governance in a World of Uncertainty, 4 STAN. J.L. SCI. & POL’Y 15, 33–35, available at http://journals.law.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/stanford-journal-law-science-policy-sjlsp/print/2011/05/61_banerjee_final.pdf.
210 See Tony Svoboda & Peter J. Irvine, Ethical and Technical Challenges in Compensating Harm Due to Solar Radiation Management Geoengineering 17 ETHICS, POL’Y & ENV’T 157, 162 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/ 10.1080/21550085.2014.927962.
211 This decision ruled affirmatively on allegations of illegal subsidies for aircraft manufacturing made by the European Union against the United States. Appellate Body Report, United States—Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft (Second Complaint), WT/DS353/AB/R, 11 (Mar. 3, 2012).
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Set into a wide perforation in the wearer’s earlobe (as earspools are today), this earflare frontal (a paired set with 1994.35.582) would have been anchored in place in various ways. In some cases, a bead (or beads) were set into the front of the earflare, anchoring it with the help of a set of beaded counterweights that were threaded through the earflare and hung behind the earlobe. Another possibility is that an L-shaped plug (likely made of wood) was fitted through the earflare’s central opening, or stem, from the back, holding the entire assemblage in place, snug against the wearer’s ear (for examples, see the earflare assemblages worn by the figures on 1979.206.1047).
The word "jade," when used in Mesoamerican contexts, refers specifically to jadeite. All Mesoamerican jade comes from a single source, located in the Motagua River Valley of eastern highland Guatemala. Such a restricted point of access made jade a particularly rare and valuable material, an important element in elite trade networks and economic exchange systems in the ancient Maya world.
Jade approaches 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness (diamond has a hardness of 10), so it is extremely difficult to carve. In order to transform a raw jade boulder into a polished, finished form, specialists used a combination of percussion and abrasion techniques (such as pecking, grinding, sawing, incising, and drilling). This work was repetitive, time consuming, and required a highly specialized skillset. Creating a finished piece from the rough boundaries of raw jade would have been enormously slow and difficult work, a fact that would have likely increased the value and preciousness of the final product.
This earflare frontal and its pair are carved from bright "apple green" jade, the hue most highly valued by the ancient Maya. Their delicately undulating surfaces are likely the result of the artist seeking out and following the contours of the brightest green vein within the original raw jadeite block. The soft contours also impart life to these earflares, animating them with a sense of delicate movement. If one looks closely, one also can see traces of bright red pigment, most likely cinnabar, which was probably painted onto the earflares before they were deposited in a tomb. Equated in Maya belief with blood, cinnabar was often painted onto the bodies of the dead and their associated funerary offerings in tomb contexts. When subjected to intense heat and pressure, brilliant red cinnabar transforms into bright silver liquid mercury, a seemingly magical material transformation.
Jade was considered the most precious of all materials in the ancient Maya world. Its vibrant color was likened to other precious green things, including ripening crops and the iridescent tail feathers of the quetzal bird. The fact that jade endured, unchanged, for centuries, connected it to ideas of timelessness, permanency, and longevity. When polished, jade reaches a high, glossy shine, as though the surface has been dipped in water. It is almost always cool to the touch, but when held, quickly takes on the warmth of a human hand. This process led the ancient Maya to conceive of jade as a breathing, living, animate, and ensouled substance. To the ancient Maya, then, jade was not just beautiful, exotic, and expensive, but the incarnation of water, mist, floral aroma, and living breath.
The Maya considered caves, holes, orifices, and passages of all kinds as points of entry into supernatural worlds. Earflares were seen as small-scale portals, jewel-lined pathways into the human body. Earflares are frequently shown as sites of exhalation and breath. In art, flower-shaped earflares are often depicted emitting perfumed aroma, demonstrating that they were seen as precious, aromatic flowers rendered in stone.
One of the most common Maya phrases for death, och bih (literally "to enter/go on the road"), was depicted in hieroglyphic inscriptions as a snake diving into an earflare. Notably, the high polish Maya craftsman brought to the surfaces of jades cause these ornaments to emit a high, metallic ring when they are struck. For a non-metal using culture, this would have been a rare and beautiful sound. Ornamenting the ears in jade did not just mark them as sacred pathways, but also transformed the sounds heard by the wearer into divine, sacred, perfumed, and precious phenomena.
Lucia R. Henderson
Sources and Further Reading
Fields, Virginia M., and Dorie Reents-Budet, eds. Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005. Martínez del Campo Lanz, Sofia. Rostros De La Divinidad: Los Mosaicos Mayas De Piedra Verde. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologiìa e Historia, 2010.
Miller, Mary E., and Marco Samayoa. "Where Maize May Grow: Jade, Chacmools, and the Maize God." Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 33 (1998): 54-72.
Pillsbury, Joanne, Miriam Doutriaux, Reiko Ishihara-Brito, and Alexandre Tokovinine, eds. Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks, No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2012. See pp.135-271, with special attention to pp.256-265.
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana. "Jades from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan." Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 10, No. 1. Cambridge: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 1974.
Reilly, F. Kent III. "Cosmos and Rulership: The Function of Olmec-Style Symbols in Formative Period Mesoamerica." Visible Language 24, no. 1 (1990): 12-37.
Schele, Linda, and David A. Freidel. A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. New York: Morrow, 1990.
Schele, Linda, and Mary Ellen Miller. The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. New York and Fort Worth: G. Braziller and the Kimbell Art Museum, 1986. See especially pp.90-92.
Stuart, David. "The Iconography of Flowers in Maya Art." Paper presented at the 8th Texas Symposium on Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, University of Texas at Austin, 1992. Unpublished.
Stuart, David. " ‘The Fire Enters His House’: Architecture and Ritual in Classic Maya Texts." In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen Houston, 373-425. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998.
Taube, Karl A. "The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion." Ancient Mesoamerica 16 (2005): 23-50.
Taube, Karl A., and Reiko Ishihara-Brito. "From Stone to Jewel: Jade in Ancient Maya Religion and Rulership." In Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Miriam Doutriaux, Reiko Ishihara-Brito and Alexandre Tokovinine. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks, No. 4, 134-53. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2012.
Wagner, Elisabeth. "Jade ̶ the Green Gold of the Maya." In Maya: Divine Kings of the Rainforest edited by Nikolai Grube, 66-69. Kóhn: Könemann, 2006.
[Frances Pratt, New York, until 1970]; Arthur M. Bullowa, New York, 1970–(d.)1993
Schele, Linda, and Mary Ellen Miller. The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. New York and Fort Worth: George Braziller, 1986, pp. 90–92.
Schele, Linda, and David A. Freidel. A Forest of Kings: The untold story of the ancient Maya. New York: Morrow, 1990.
Stuart, David. The Iconography of Flowers in Maya Art. Paper presented at the 8th Texas Symposium on Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, University of Texas at Austin. Austin: The University of Texas at Austin, 1992, pp. 373–425.
Miller, Mary Ellen, and Marco Samayoa. "Where Maize May Grow: Jade, Chacmools, and the Maize God." Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics vol. 33 (1998), pp. 54–7.
Fields, Virginia M., and Dorie Reents-Budet. Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship. London and Los Angeles: Scala Publishers Limited, 2005.
Pillsbury, Joanne, Miriam Doutriaux, Reiko Ishihara-Brito, and Alexandre Tokovinine, eds. Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks, no. 4. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2012, pp. 135–271, See especially pp.256–265.
Taube, Karl A., and Reiko Ishihara-Brito. "From Stone to Jewel: Jade in Ancient Maya Religion and Rulership." In Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Miriam Doutriaux, Reiko Ishihara-Brito, and Alexandre Tokovinine. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks, No. 4. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2012, pp. 134–53.
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Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99...
A celebrated German pulpit orator, b. at Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 16 March, 1445; d. at Strasburg, 10 March, 1510. Until a scientific presentation of the history of the development of the Catholic sermon appears, an appreciation of even the most distinguished pulpit orator, although based on careful investigation, can only be a preliminary labour, for the picture, however elaborate, will lack the proper background. This is true in the case of the celebrated medieval preacher to the common people, Berthold of Ratisbon, and it applies no less to the great pulpit orator of the early sixteenth century, Geiler von Kaysersberg. More fortunate is the treatment of the subject in its relations to purely literary history, for the importance of Geiler in literature can be exactly determined. According to this history he was closely connected with those humanists of Strasburg of whom the leader was the well-known Jacob of Wimpheling (1450-1528), called "the educator of Germany". Like Wimpheling, Geiler was a secular priest; both fought the ecclesiastical abuses of the age, but not in the spirit of Luther and his adherents. They looked, instead, for salvation and preservation only in the restoration of Christian morals in Church and State through the faithful maintenance of the doctrines of the Church. The scene of Wimpheling's fruitful labours was the school, that of Geiler's the pulpit.
The surname "von Kaysersberg", given to Geiler by his contemporaries, was taken from the name of the place where his grandfather, who brought him up, lived. The father was killed by a hunting-accident when Geiler was three years old; and the excellent grandfather, who lived in Kaysersberg, took charge of the education of the child, sending him to the school at Ammersweiher, near Kaysersberg in Alsace, where his mother lived. When the talented boy was fifteen years old he went to the University of Freiburg in the Breisgau, which had just opened; two years later he received the baccalaureate, and after two more years was made master of arts. He now gave lectures on various writings of Aristotle in the next semester, and in the following half-year filled the office of dean of the philosophical faculty for a brief period. In May, 1471, he went to the University of Basle, also found but a short time before, in order to study theology, and obtained the doctorate in 1475. At Basle he became acquainted with Sebastian Brant, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. While at Basle, Geiler preached his first sermons in the cathedral and greatly enjoyed his pulpit labours; the confessional, however, caused him many difficulties of conscience. Basle, nevertheless, was not to be the place where his powers were to find their permanent employment. At the entreaty of the students of Freiburg, the magistracy and citizens of that city obtained his appointment to the Freiburg University, of which he was elected rector the next year. But lecturing to students was not congenial to him; his inclination was always for preaching, and in this latter office his talents found a life-work suited to them. For a time he preached in the cathedral of Würzburg, in which city he thought of making his permanent home, but a fortunate accident changed his plans. Peter Schott, senator of Strasburg, an important and influential citizen who had charge of the property of the cathedral, urged strongly upon Geiler, now a well-known preacher, that his first duty was to the people of Alsace; accordingly Geiler resolved, notwithstanding the entreaties of the citizens of Würzburg, to settle in Strasburg, and pursuant to this decision he remained there the rest of his life.
Before this date the mendicant orders had supplied the pulpit of the cathedral of Strasburg. On account, however, of the frequent change of preachers and, above all, owing to some friction between the mendicants, and the parish priests, the cathedral chapter, together with the bishop and the city authorities, desired to have a secular priest appointed to fill the office permanently. Consequently a special position, as preacher was made for Geiler, and he filled this appointment with apostolic courage and intense zeal for souls for over thirty years. He not only preached, as required, every Sunday and feast day in the cathedral, and even daily during fasts, but also, on special occasions, in the monasteries of the city and often outside of the city. His daily life, passed in this simple round of duties, was only broken by occasional short journeys for which he apparently used his monthly holiday. Thus he frequently visited Frederick of Zollern, Bishop of Augsburg, who was very friendly to him; once he was called to Füssen on the River Lech by his patron the Emperor Maximilian, who desired his advice. He seems to have taken his short intervals of rest, when possible, for making pious pilgrimages, generally in the vicinity of his home, sometimes to distant spots. At Einsiedeln in Switzerland he met the Blessed Nikolaus of Flüe, who was even then well known; another time he journeyed to Sainte-Baume, near Marseilles, in order to pray in the grotto of St. Mary Magdalen. At home he lived very plainly, even austerely. It was only natural that a life of such incessant labour, one in which the powers were constantly exerted to the utmost and none of the comforts of ease were enjoyed, should soon wear out the bodily frame. A kidney trouble developed, to relieve which he was obliged to visit annual the hot springs of Baden; dropsy finally appeared, and he passed away on Lætare Sunday of the year above mentioned. The next day, in the presence of an immense multitude of people, he was buried at the foot of the pulpit which had been especially built for him, and of which he had been for so many years the greatest ornament.
The numerous volumes of Geiler's sermons and writings which have been published do not give a complete picture of the characteristic qualities of the preacher. God's grace had made Geiler an orator, and the aim Geiler sought, without regard to other considerations, was to produce the most powerful effect on his hearers. He prepared himself with great care for the pulpit, writing out his sermons beforehand, as his contemporary Beatus Rhenanus reports; those preparatory compositions, however, were drawn up, not in German, but in Latin. Only a very small part of the sermons that have been issued under his name are directly his. At a very early date his addresses were taken down by others and published. The best critic of Geiler's works, the well-known writer on literary history, Prof. E. Martin of Strasburg, has made the attempt, in the "Allgemeine deutche Biographie", to give a summary of Geiler's genuine writings; according to him the authenticated writings number thirty-five. Notwithstanding this rich material, a proper appreciation of the extraordinary preacher is very difficult, because it is not certain that any of the extant works give exactly what Geiler said. One thing, however, is evident from them, that the Strasburg preacher was a widely read man not only in theology, but also in the secular literature of the day. This is shown by the sermons having Sebastian Brant's "Ship of Fools", which appeared in 1494, for their theme; these sermons attained the greatest popularity. Geiler displayed, also, exceptional facility in using public events to attract and hold the attention of his hearers. In originality of speech Geiler is in form, as in time, between Berthold of Ratisbon and Abraham a Sancta Clara, and perhaps the shortest and best characterization of the greatest preacher of the early Reformation period is indicated by this intermediate position; Berthold's homeliness of address showed only occasional lapses from the proprieties of speech, Geiler yielded oftener to the coarseness of his age, Abraham exceeded his contemporaries in unfortunate errors as to form and content.
According to the testimony of contemporaries, the effect of Geiler's forcible and unusual sermons was at times very marked; but the decay of morals was by now too great for them to have a permanent effect. Geiler himself complained bitterly that neither clergy nor laity were willing to join in a common reform. A man of austere morality; he never failed to show an apostolic courage towards both high and low, and exhibited an extraordinary daring in fighting vice and degeneracy of morals. Hence his works are an important source for the history of the civilization of these degenerate times. There are no distinct statements regarding what he effected by his personal influence among his intimate friends, especially by his influence on the pious family of the senator, Schott, upon Wimpheling and Brant, who were, like Geiler, reformers in the best sense of the word, as well as, by his counsels, upon the Emperor Maximilian. Another striking merit of Geiler's oratory was that his thoughts were expressed in the language of ordinary life, which he used with unequalled skill. In his way posterity possesses, in Geiler's writings, an enduring source for the knowledge of the speech, customs, and beliefs of the common people at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is no longer necessary to take up a question warmly discussed, even in modern times, as to how a work of Geiler's came to be on the Index (cf. Reusch, "Der Index". I, 370) as in the last issue of the Index Geiler's name does not appear.
Chief sources: BEATUS RHENAUS, Vita Geileri (Strasburg, 1513); DACHEUX, Die ältesten Schriften Geilers von Kaysersberg (Freiburg, 1882); DE LORENZI, Ausgabe der Schriften Geilers (Trier, 1881-1883). See also VON AMMON, Geiler von Kaisersberg, Leben, Lehren und Predigen, (Erlangen, 1826); DACHEUX, Un réformateur catholique à la fin du Xve siècle (Paris, 1876); condensed in German tr. by LINDEMANN in Sammlung historischer Bildnisse (Freiburg, 1876); KERKER, Geilers kirchliche Haltung in Histo.-pol, Blätter (1861-62); MARTIN Allgemeine deutche Biographie; KAWERAU, in Realencyk fü r prot. Theol,; JANNSSEN, ed. PASTOR, Geschichte des deutschen, Volkes, I; PFLEGER, Sur Geschichte des Predigtwesens in Strassburg vor Geiler (Strasburg, 1907).
APA citation. (1909). Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06403c.htm
MLA citation. "Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06403c.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Peter Geiler.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
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Your Child Deserves a Strong Educational Foundation
Research has revealed that by age five, 90 percent of the brain has already developed. At The Peanut Gallery, we instill effective habits and good attitudes towards learning in our young pupils because quality preschool programs have been statistically linked to reductions in delinquent behavior and grade repetition, as well as higher test scores. Our preschool program specializes in three categories—physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development—to support this aim.
- Physical: Three- and four-year-olds learn to mold clay, ride tricycles, and jump in place while attending preschool. We applaud them for their growth! Our daycare professionals also provide learning activities that include gardening, storytelling activities, and puppet play.
- Cognitive: Most parents have no idea that their three-year-old son or daughter has twice as many neural connections—known as synapses—than they do. Who would have guessed? Researchers, for one. They proved that this excess of connections instigates a learning growth spurt that lasts until adolescence. The caveat is: the synapses that don’t receive stimulation through invigorating learning experiences degenerate and cannot be regenerated later. The Peanut Gallery Preschool provides a mixture of lessons in literacy, math, social studies, and science to get kids excited about learning and prepare their brains for years of active learning ahead.
- Socio-Emotional: Three- and four-year-olds have begun talking and forming interpersonal relationships with their caregivers and those around them. The social experiences a child undergoes at this time have a crucial impact on his or her future, so we do our best to keep interactions positive and fun. Our child care professionals emphasize speech games, lessons on sharing toys, empathizing as a means of forming emotional bonds, and communicating emotions effectively.
Your Child Can Expect to Learn A Lot at The Peanut Gallery Preschool, Including:
- Literacy Skills: Numerous studies have confirmed what educators have known for decades: reading aloud to children improves their vocabularies, brightens their imaginations, and helps them to form solid literary skills before they learn to read. Our daycare professionals use books while teaching lessons in science, cooking, and math in order to reinforce positive associations with reading.
- Future Masters of Technology: The age of technology has revolutionized education, making it much easier for visual learners to absorb information. Too much technological immersion too soon, however, can be detrimental to a child’s development. The Peanut Gallery introduces preschoolers to education-based technology, such as the Smart Board, a touch screen whiteboard, in order to train children to use technological devices as educational tools.
- Bilingual Studies: Research has shown that the best time for a person to adopt a second language occurs at ages three and four. The instructors at The Peanut Gallery weave Spanish lessons into the day-to-day curriculum to teach your child how to describe animals, food, clothing, and weather, as well as how to greet others, in Spanish.
- Fun with Fitness: Our indoor and outdoor facilities feature safe areas for children to run, play, jump, and develop their fine and gross motor skills while under supervision. We always say that strong bodies support strong minds!
The Peanut Gallery Preschool Keeps Parents Closely Connected to a Child’s Education
In addition to incorporating research-based lessons and activities and a safe learning environment, the daycare experts at The Peanut Gallery will help you to define and reach educational goals for your child. We look forward to sharing regular progress reports with you during weekly parent-teacher meetings to keep your child engaged during his or her time in preschool.
*Programs and activities may vary by school and may be subject to change without notice. Please contact your local school for additional information on school-specific programs and activities.
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No Roots--No Fruits
There is a short phrase in Greek “Kalo Riziko!” that is said to people who are moving into a new city or home. It means “may you put down good roots.” Being uprooted and moved to another place is often traumatic, especially in the case of refugees, i.e. war-torn Syria. So having a good root system is important. Some of us are old enough to remember the landmark television series titled “Roots,” which was about an African American named ‘Kunta Kinte’ discovering the story of his slave ancestors all the way back to their home country. I felt like Kunte Kinte when we travelled to Greece in 1994 to visit for the first time the tiny villages where my mother, grandmother and grandfather were born, and meet relatives I had never seen or knew before. Roots are important. That is why adopted children often seek out their birth parents who did not raise them.
Jesus is saying to us, “Kalo Riziko!” in today’s Gospel reading from the Fourth Sunday of Luke (8:5-15). “May we put down good roots!” but not in a new house but in a producing a crop.
5“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. 7And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. 8But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Yet, Jesus is not even talking about a crop of food like wheat or barley or vegetables. Explaining the parable, Jesus says,
11“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Did you hear that one sentence? 13But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
Roots are important, and the root we need to have, according to Jesus, is the root that grows from the seed of the word of God. Why? Because without the root the plant or tree cannot grow and if cannot grow, it cannot produce fruit. Our world needs a lot of good fruit, not just for physical nourishment but more importantly for spiritual sustenance. With good, deep roots we can produce the following.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23). Roots are important! In the Divine Liturgy we pray at the great litany for “favorable weather, temperate seasons and the fruits of the earth” (Great Litany). Certainly this refers to crops of fruit to feed people but it also includes the spiritual fruits of the Holy Spirit.
For Christians bearing fruit is not an option for Jesus said:
16You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. John 15:16
The consequences for not bearing fruit are very serious. Again, listen to Jesus:
18Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away. (Mt.21:18-19). The fig tree likely did not have any good roots. Roots are important!
Fr. Anthony Coniaris (“It Withered Because It Had No Root” Meet Jesus vol.2 p.95) concludes, “No Roots—No Fruits!” But if a tree does have fruit, it will be known by what type because Jesus said:
17Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matthew 7:17-20). We are known by the fruits we bear.
Good fruit can grow in our lives only if we are rooted in Christ and His Church through faith, prayer and the Eucharist. Again, listen to Jesus teach on this subject.
1"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (John 15:1-8)
Pruning sometimes feels like punishment but we must remember the trials of life are given by God to make us stronger, not weaker. The same is true of roots. Trees that are exposed to strong winds are forced to sink their roots deep into the earth to be able to resist the winds. Sometimes God uses the storms and the adversities of life to strengthen our spiritual root system. When some plants are deprived of water, their roots are forced to grow deeper and deeper in search of moisture. The whole plant is thus made stronger and able to resist serious drought later on.
Being connected to Jesus is important because 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)
Often we hear people say, “What does it matter what we believe as long as we do what is right? It matters very much what we believe, because what we do rises from what we believe. Belief is the root of action.
Jesus is new life, that requires a whole new root system. This life begins in baptism. The old infected root system of Adam is replaced by an entirely new one. The diseased infested roots of our sinful nature are amputated by God’s grace. A new, clean, disease-free, sin-free nature was implanted in us.
1There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 2The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:1-2)
Fr. Coniaris shares a quote from D. Elton Trueblood, “The terrible danger of our time consists in the fact that ours is a cut-flower civilization. Beautiful as cut flowers may be…they will eventually die because they are severed from their sustaining roots. We are trying to maintain the dignity of the individual apart from the deep faith that every man is made in God’s image and is therefore precious.”
Those in our own country who deny God, yet cling to the concept of human rights are destroying the very roots which nourish and sustain these precious human values. Cut-off from their Christian roots, human rights and human values wither and die.
In conclusion, we must remember The most important part of the Christian life is the part you cannot see, the root system, which enables us to draw upon the deep resources of God that help us prevail against the many evil pressures of life. It may be years before we realize how deeply our spiritual roots have grown as a result of the strong winds and dry periods in our lives.
7"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. 8For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
Kalo Riziko! Amen!
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Babesia microti IgG Antibodies, Serum
Clinical Information Discusses physiology, pathophysiology, and general clinical aspects, as they relate to a laboratory test
Babesiosis is a zoonotic infection caused by the protozoan parasite Babesia microti. The infection is acquired by contact with Ixodes ticks carrying the parasite. The deer mouse is the animal reservoir and, overall, the epidemiology of this infection is much like that of Lyme disease. Babesiosis is most prevalent in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Coast of the United States.
Infectious forms (sporozoites) are injected during tick bites and the organism enters the vascular system where it infects RBCs. In this intraerythrocytic stage it becomes disseminated throughout the reticuloendothelial system. Asexual reproduction occurs in RBCs, and daughter cells (merozoites) are formed which are liberated on rupture (hemolysis) of the RBC.
Most cases of babesiosis are probably subclinical or mild, but the infection can be severe and life threatening, especially in older or asplenic patients. Fever, fatigue, malaise, headache, and other flu-like symptoms occur most commonly. In the most severe cases, hemolysis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and shock may develop. Patients may have hepatomegaly and splenomegaly.
A serologic test can be used as an adjunct in the diagnosis of babesiosis or in seroepidemiologic surveys of the prevalence of the infection in certain populations. Babesiosis is usually diagnosed by observing the organisms in infected RBCs on Giemsa-stained thin blood films of smeared peripheral blood.
Serology may be useful if the parasitemia is too low to detect or if the infection has cleared naturally or following treatment.
Serology may also be useful in the follow-up of documented cases of babesiosis or if chronic or persistent infection is suspected.
A positive result of an indirect fluorescent antibody test (titer > or =1:64) suggests current or previous infection with Babesia microti. In general, the higher the titer, the more likely it is that the patient has an active infection. Patients with documented infections have usually had titers ranging from 1:320 to 1:2,560.
Cautions Discusses conditions that may cause diagnostic confusion, including improper specimen collection and handling, inappropriate test selection, and interfering substances
Previous episodes of babesiosis may produce a positive serologic result.
In selected cases, documentation of infection may be attempted by animal inoculation or PCR methods (PBAB / Babesia microti, Molecular Detection, PCR, Blood)
Performance characteristics have not been established for the following specimen characteristics:
Reference Values Describes reference intervals and additional information for interpretation of test results. May include intervals based on age and sex when appropriate. Intervals are Mayo-derived, unless otherwise designated. If an interpretive report is provided, the reference value field will state this.
Clinical References Provides recommendations for further in-depth reading of a clinical nature
Spach DH, Liles WC, Campbell GL, et al: Tick-borne diseases in the United States. N Engl J Med 1993;329:936-947
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Writing in cursive hand could be compared to a skilled martial artist, who does not think, but reacts instinctively when performing various techniques. Constant and extensive studies are the only path to mastering this script. In the history of Chinese calligraphy art, there were a few calligraphers whose cursive script skills were beyond human perception. Those were, Dù Dù (杜度, early 1st century C.E.), Cuī Yuàn (崔瑗, 77-142 C.E.) , Zhāng Zhī (張芝, died 192 C.E.), the sage of cursive hand Zhāng Xù (張旭, 8th century C.E.), who was also the creator of wild cursive hand (狂草, kuáng cǎo), Huái Sù (懷素, 737–799), the brilliant drunk monk, the Two Wangs: Wáng Xīzhī (王羲之, 303–361) , the sage of calligraphy, and his son Wáng Xiànzhī (王獻之, 344 – 386), Sūn Guòtíng (孫過庭, 646–691), also known as Sūn Qiánlǐ (孫虔禮) whose Treaties on Calligraphy (書譜) is not only a well of knowledge on calligraphy but also a bible of cursive script forms (see a fragment of this masterpieces in the picture to the left), and Xiān Yú Shū (鮮于樞, 1246 – 1302). Naturally, this list does not exhaust the list of brilliant Chinese calligraphers, who excelled in cursive script. You can view and read about the masterpieces of some of those Masters, here.
Very popular way of studying cursive script is by performing rinsho (臨書, lit. “facing and writing”, i.e. copying of masterpieces) of “Thousand Characters Essay” (千字文), an essay (written as a rhyming poem) composed of 1000 non repeating Chinese characters, in the first half of 6th century C.E., by Zhōu Xīngsì (周興嗣, died in 521), upon the order of the Emperor Liáng Wǔ (梁武帝, 464 - 549), for the sole purpose of calligraphy education. Many great calligraphers copied this text imbuing it with their own style, writing it in two, three or even more forms, one aside another. Reading and copying standard (楷書), semi-cursive (行書) and then cursive forms character after a character is considered one of the best and most proper ways of beginning and continuing studies of Chinese calligraphy.
Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
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Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. The scope of philosophy in the ancient understanding, and the writings of (at least some of) the ancient philosophers, were all intellectual endeavors. This included the problems of philosophy as they are understood today; but it also included many other disciplines, such as pure mathematics and natural sciences such as physics, astrology, and biology
An overview of some important features of the Greek civilization, which has laid foundations for the intellectual and creative endeavours of the European civilization.
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e-book enables you to access interactive reading material to strengthen the skills learned in the sessions.
Online Lab enables you to practice the application of concepts you have learnt in the sessions in the virtual environment.
Tutorials enables you to get easy learning with clear, crisp, and to-the-point content on a wide range of technical and non-technical subjects without any preconditions and impediments.
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9th Feb, 2017
As we’ve noted before at Scrap Car Network, self-driving vehicles are the next big thing in the motoring industry. All the industry’s biggest players – like manufacturing giant Ford – are pouring their resources into their own projects, desperate to stay on top of the game. Currently leading the charge is Uber, the daddy of ride-hailing apps, who have just launched their first self-driving fleet in Pittsburgh. So what does this mean for the future of public transport?
You probably know Uber’s name, and you may well already be cursing it if you’re a taxi driver. Uber uses a ride-hailing app to connect passengers with their drivers, and in just less than a decade it already boasts a massive global presence, taking a huge chunk of business from traditional taxi firms. They’ve already beaten the world’s biggest car manufacturers by being the first company to put a fleet of self-driving cars on the ground in Pittsburgh, which even as you read this are ferrying around their first batches of passengers. They’re aiming to have dozens of these cars on the roads by the beginning of next year (although right now they’ve still got human engineers monitoring things from their driver’s seats, just in case).
For Uber, the eventual idea is to eventually cut down the cost of their transport by completely eliminating human drivers from the equation. Experts say that they’ve already got the advantage on this, because they’ve got a global client base and they’ve already got all the technical infrastructure in place to make the leap. Pittsburgh, too is the ideal city for testing their cars because of its narrow roads and extreme weather – basically, if Uber can conquer the city without scrapping their cars, they know they can export the idea to a wider market.
Image Credit: Digital Trends
Hmm…good question. At the moment analysts aren’t sure if it’ll even work for Uber long term, never mind their customers. As one commentator has pointed out, their current business model is ‘genius’ – their drivers agree to take full responsibility for their own cars, which includes cleaning, upkeep and maintenance, leaving Uber with only minimal costs and just sweet, sweet profit. But self-driving cars will be fully owned by the company, bringing with them all the associated costs. Drivers will be taken out of the equation, too, but it lumbers Uber with upkeep costs. Also, the cars will be brand new, not second hand. There’s a drastically reduced market for used self-driving vehicles, and the situation would likely be more complicated when the time came to scrap their cars.
We’ve touched upon the dangers of self-driving cars in our previous blog, but it also opens up the question of complex legal challenges – if their cars are involved in an accident, who’s responsible? Uber? The car manufacturer? The software programmer? There don’t seem like any easy answers. And that’s presuming they conquer the biggest problem with their self-driving cars – giving customers the confidence to actually step inside them. As a relatively new technology, people are still pretty distrustful of the software, despite the best efforts of global companies to persuade them otherwise. Tech titans like Google and Apple have joined motoring giants like Ford, GM and Tesla in a bid to be the first to conquer the market, but it looks like they have a long way to go yet. It’ll be interesting to see what happens!
Whatever develops in the realm of public transport, rest assured we’ll still be here for all your car scrapping needs. You can read about reasons why to use us , or you can get yourself on the road immediately by going to our homepage to enter your car reg and postcode, and receive an instant scrap car quote!
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @ScrapCarNetwork
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Des Knaben Wunderhorn and the German Volkslied
in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
In his review of the first volume of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote in 1806, “By rights, every household in which cheerful people live should possess this book, and display it by a window, or under a mirror, or wherever else song and cookbooks tend to be placed, so that it may be opened at any moment of high or low spirits, when one wishes to find something harmonious or inspiring” (Jenaer Allgemeine Literaturzeitung 137-38; qtd. in Rölleke 29).* Goethe’s enthusiastic assessment of the collection can be used as a point of departure for discussing several related facets of the Des Knaben Wunderhorn and the German Volkslied in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For despite considerable criticism, the collection became wildly popular, as Goethe’s description of the book as a household staple indicates, although in fact it never became a staple literary work among the common people whose lives its songs allegedly reflected, but instead primarily influenced nineteenth-century artists, composers, and writers. Moreover, Goethe’s curious suggestion that the book be placed wherever song or cookbooks generally are displayed underscores the diverse nature of the collection. For although it gained a reputation as a unified collection of folksongs, Des Knaben Wunderhorn is in fact a random assortment of various types of songs, including hymns, children’s songs, war songs, allegorical poetry, craftsmen songs, ballads, and idylls. And as these various forms suggest, the songs treat themes ranging from the perils of the battlefield to the delights of the kitchen, and from earthly passion to heavenly devotion. In what follows, I shall discuss the nineteenth-century reception to this varied work, as well as examine the late-eighteenth-century models which Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim took as their inspiration. Because my field of specialty within German literature lies within the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, I cannot comment authoritatively on Gustav Mahler’s use of the songs; however, a few of the examples I will use in speaking of Des Knaben Wunderhorn will come from songs for which Mahler composed music.
Des Knaben Wunderhorn, commonly translated into English as “The Youth’s Magic Horn,” appeared in 3 volumes between 1805 and 1808. Its compilers were Ludwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, two of the most prominent representatives of the romantic movement in Germany. Typical of the movement, both authors were in young adulthood during their work on Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Arnim was 24 years old and Brentano 26 at the time they compiled the first volume. Arnim was born in 1781 in Berlin to a Prussian diplomat who was later to serve as director of the royal opera. His mother died three weeks after his birth, and Arnim and his only brother were raised by their maternal grandmother. He studied law and mathematics at the universities of Halle and Göttingen, and in 1801 began his friendship with Clemens Brentano. The friendship eventually led not only to fruitful literary collaboration on Des Knaben Wunderhorn, but also to Arnim’s marriage to Brentano’s sister Bettina in 1811. As for Brentano, his circumstances were rather different from Arnim’s. Whereas Arnim was a Protestant aristocrat of Prussia, Brentano was a Catholic whose family tree included Italian ancestry. The son of a Frankfurt businessman, he was born in 1778 at Thal-Ehrenbreitstein in the home of his grandmother, the novelist Sophie von la Roche. After his own attempt to go into business failed, he attended the University of Jena, where he grew acquainted with August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel, as well as Ludwig Tieck–all leading members of the romantic school. He remained in Jena until his move to Heidelberg in 1803.
Influenced by the adaptations of love songs which Ludwig Tieck had published in 1803, Brentano began to entertain the idea of jointly collaborating with Tieck on a collection of songs, although Tieck was not responsive to this idea. Also influenced by Tieck, Arnim proposed in a letter to Brentano that an academy for the popular arts be founded, in which literary, theater, musical, and dance forms of folk art would mutually reinforce each other and serve to reconcile the split between high culture and folk art. Only through such a reconciliation, Arnim believed, could the German-speaking lands achieve a national confederation and a truly national German culture. Arnim also wished to found a publishing house for the purpose of publishing folksongs, as well as a network of hostels throughout the German-speaking lands where members could learn from minstrels and street performers. To these and other suggestions, Brentano responded tactfully that he doubted that Arnim’s family would, in view of their elevated social status, allow him to engage in work which strayed so far from high culture, and he later proposed that they instead collaborate, as a more realistic start, on a collection of poems and songs. Since he had begun collecting manuscripts at the time he first envisioned collaborating with Tieck, he already had many songs to contribute to his proposed joint venture with Arnim, which he and Arnim began to discuss in earnest in 1804. The two worked in libraries and in the field collecting manuscripts in 1805, with much of the work being completed during Arnim’s six-week stay with Brentano in Heidelberg in May and June of that year. Publication of the first volume, which was dedicated to Goethe, took place at the end of 1805, although the title page of the volume listed the year of publication as 1806. Volumes Two and Three appeared in 1808.**
The significance of the collection to German literature and culture is seen in the desire which both writers held even before commencing work on Des Knaben Wunderhorn to show that German- language songs, legends, and tales from the Middle Ages to the Baroque demonstrated that a Volksgeist or “spirit of the people” had existed not only in Elizabethan England and other northern European countries, but was also to be found in German literature before what they viewed as the corrupting influence of the Enlightenment. Until the 1760s, most eighteenth-century German writers had attempted to imitate French high culture instead of focusing their efforts on creating a truly national German literature. Influenced by French neo-classicism, German authors such as Johann Christoph Gottsched did not concern themselves with creating a literature which would reflect German culture, for the simple reason that there was, in their view, no German culture to reflect. Instead of developing or reviving native legends and songs, they were primarily interested in plots drawn from classical mythology and history, and concerned themselves first and foremost with adhering to the strict literary principles set forth by seventeenth-century French critics. The plot of a drama, for example, was to follow the pseudo- Aristotelian unities, having just one setting and taking place within one twenty-four hour period.
Resistance to Frenchified German literature grew in the 1760s and 1770s. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing not only denounced what he viewed as overly pompous and declamatory French drama, but also pronounced that “true theater” should be neither for the aristocrats nor for the rabble, but for the people– “das Volk.” If any culture should be imitated, Lessing argued, it should be that of England, since in his view the works of Shakespeare represented a more genuine and natural form of poetic expression than did those of the Frenchmen Racine and Corneille. Like Lessing, the writers of the pre-romantic Storm and Stress movement saw in Shakespeare a symbol of Germanic or Northern European culture, and they also argued against the normative strictures of French neo-classicism and in favor of the pluralistic nature of folk culture. Indeed, they not only began to incorporate Germanic myths and legends into their dramatic and narrative works, but grew interested in other manifestations of folk culture, and were particularly influenced by British collections of folksongs. In the 1760s, James Macpherson had published poems which, he claimed, he had translated from Gaelic. Although the songs were purported to be about Fingal and written by his son, the third-century Celtic hero Ossian, Samuel Johnson suspected that Macpherson had at best found only fragments of songs and stories, and had fabricated the rest. Indeed, Macpherson refused to produce his originals. The Ossianic revival which Macpherson’s work spurred nevertheless influenced several German writers and intellectuals. As Goethe’s Werther exclaims in The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe’s famous novel from the Storm and Stress movement published in 1774:
Ossian has taken Homer’s place in my heart. What a world, into which this magnificent hero leads me! To wander over the heath, around me the whistling and howling winds of the storm which in the steaming fogs lead the spirits of our fathers in the dawning light of the moon…When I find him then, the sauntering grey bard who seeks the footprints of his fathers on the broad heath, and oh! finds their gravestones and then, full of lament, turns his eyes towards the dear star of the evening, which hides itself in the rolling sea, and the times of the past become alive again in the soul of the hero…O friend! I would like to draw my sword like a noble fighter, free my ruler at once from the flickering torment of slowly dying life, and send the liberated demigod my soul. (464)
Just as Werther describes Ossian as seeking his own ancestors and recording their stories, Goethe and others seek in Ossian and related Northern European heroes a link to their own distant past. In 1773, Johann Gottfried Herder’s seminal essay “Ossian and the Songs of Ancient Peoples” appeared, in which the term “Volkslied“–adapted from the English “popular song”–appears for the first time in German. Herder saw in the Volkslied the most authentic expression of poetry, and he himself compiled a two-volume collection of folksongs in 1778 and 1779; whereas Herder’s collection consisted mostly of translations of foreign songs, the songs in another collection, this by Anselm Elwert and published in 1784, were largely German in origin. It was not only Macpherson, but also the English bishop Thomas Percy, who influenced the desire of Herder and other German writers to create their own collection of folksongs. Percy’s collection was titled in full Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other pieces of our earliest poets (chiefly of the lyric kind) together with some few of later date. The three-volume collection was published in 1765, and among those who sung its praises were Oliver Goldsmith and the renowned Shakespearean actor David Garrick, who himself possessed a sizeable collection of folksongs. In the same year that it was published,
Rudolf Erich Raspe, a writer and librarian in Hannover who would later move to England and achieve fame for his adaptation of the Münchhausen stories, praised it and called for a German Percy who would collect important artefacts of German folk literature. A similar call for was made by the German writer and fellow Anglophile Gottfried August Bürger in the 1770s.
It was in many ways a desire to serve as just such a “German Percy” that propelled Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano in their own efforts to compile folksongs two decades after the Anselm Elwert’s collection appeared. In a letter of February 15, 1805, to Arnim, Brentano states that their aim should be “to undertake a reasonably priced book of folk songs…It must be a delicate balance between the Romantic and the everyday mood, it must contain religious, tradesmen’s, and common laborers’ songs, songs of the times of day and year, and humorously frivolous songs…It must be so arranged that no age is excluded; in it the better folk songs could be preserved and modern ones could be composed for inclusion” (Steig 1:132; qtd. in Hoermann 24). As this statement shows, Brentano wished to bring about a rapprochement between high culture and folk culture, and it is significant in this regard that the letter also expresses his hope that such a book would make Rudolf Zacharias Becker’s Mildheimisches Liederbuch–a work with an Enlightenment (and largely high-culture) agenda to which Brentano objected– obsolete. Like other members of the romantic school, Arnim and Brentano turned to the Middle Ages for inspiration, although it is notable that numerous songs in Des Knaben Wunderhorn have their origins in the Baroque, a period which the Enlightenment writers had abhorred. Brentano and Arnim considered both the Reformation and the Baroque as continuations of the Middle Ages, which the Enlightenment had unfortunately cut short. Arnim’s own objections to the Enlightenment are voiced in his essay “On Folksongs,” which was appended to the first volume of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. There, he speaks with fondness of childhood memories of a servant singing hymns while sweeping the floor, but laments that the Enlightenment killed such genuine poetic expressions in what he calls its “witch’s kettle of too highly esteemed knowledge.” Indeed, the difference between Arnim’s and Brentano’s goals for their song collection and those of Enlightenment writers becomes clear when one examines Christian Fürchtegott Gellert’s comments in his preface to his hymns from 1757: there, Gellert, a prominent writer of the Enlightenment and the movement known as literary sensibility, stresses that in hymns “a general clarity must reign..which nourishes the understanding” (107). Although Gellert does not discount emotion as a necessary ingredient of any hymn, his emphasis, unlike that of Brentano and Arnim in their collection of songs, is on reason. In his essay “On Folksongs,” Arnim further charges that German dramatists of the time pretended to be creating a theater for the people, while in fact they only further distanced the people from the dramatic arts. He also quotes Goethe’s description of the folksong as a genre which can be enjoyed by all classes of society. As Goethe wrote:
We have tended to call these kinds of poems folksongs for several years now, not on the basis of whether or not they were written by or for the people, but because they have in them something so sturdy and good that the essence and core of the nation understands, retains, dedicates itself to, and further transmits these things–these poems are the truest poetry that can be…they hold an incredible charm even for those of us who stand at a higher level of culture and refinement, just as the memory of youth holds such a charm for the adult. (Des Knaben Wunderhorn 321)
Significantly, this statement eschews any attempt to give a rigid definition of the folksong as a genre. Instead of mandating that a folksong must be a song generated by the experiences of the common people, Goethe leaves open the possibility that the folksong can also be written by culturally elevated authors whose experience with the common people may be only slight, as long as the song resonates with the listener or reader as “true poetry” and captures the essence of the German people– distinctions which are not easily defined. Arnim, too, avoids, giving a more specific definition of the folksong, which is significant when one considers the diversity of songs represented in Des Knaben Wunderhorn. At the time that he and Brentano were working on the collection, there was no accepted theoretical definition of the Volkslied, and the collection does little to clarify what its editors associate with the term (Rölleke 30). In fairness, however, it should be noted that the actual subtitle of Des Knaben Wunderhorn is “Alte deutsche Lieder” or “Old German Songs,” and the only references to the Volkslied occur in Arnim’s essay “On Folksongs,” which Arnim included in the collection without notifying Brentano. It is primarily because of Arnim’s essay that the collection grew famous as a collection of folksongs, even though some types of songs represented–such as the hymn– might not necessarily be included in the folk genre and were intentionally left out of previous collections, such as that by Herder. The songs chosen by Gustav Mahler reflect this diversity: they range from soldier songs such as “Der Schildwache Nachtlied,” and “Der Tamburg’sell” to the lighthearted “Wer hat dies Lied erdacht?” to the religious “Es sungen drei Engel” and “Urlicht” in Mahler’s symphonies. Because of this diversity and the lack of any accepted definition of the Volkslied, reviewers of Des Knaben Wunderhorn tended to review the work on the basis of their own differing conceptions of what a Volkslied was.
But that Arnim suggests the possibility that folksongs can be written even by authors with little experience of folk culture is significant chiefly because he and Brentano did not serve as traditional historians in their compilation of songs. Instead of simply collecting and publishing the songs, they revised and rewrote many of them, at times adding and deleting entire verses. They also included six works which were their own creations. Of the 743 songs in the three volumes of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, only one-sixth are genuine and unchanged. Particularly unsettling to critics was the fact that Arnim and in particular Brentano not only revised the overwhelming majority of the songs, but also typically gave no indication in Des Knaben Wunderhorn that revisions had been made. In addition, many well-known songs were given in nonstandard versions. For example, the famous hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (in English, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”) is included in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, but
it appears not in Martin Luther’s original version, but in the revised and longer version written by Johann Michael Moscherosch in the seventeenth century, to which Brentano made his own revisions. Not only is there no indication of which parts of the song were authored by which writer, but there is no reference given to the fact that Brentano himself made revisions. An example of revisions from the songs for which Mahler composed music is “Der Schildwache Nachtlied,” which ends with a verse which was altered by Brentano. Arnim’s and Brentano’s most unmerciful critic was Johann Heinrich Voß, who wrote soon after the appearance of volumes two and three:
With feigned innocence, the collection of old folk songs which appeared by [publishers] Mohr and Zimmer under the title Des Knaben Wunderhorn in 1806 wormed its way into favor and gained encouragement which was far too indulgent. Those who encouraged it did not suspect that since then, it has become a tangled jumble full of willful forgeries, and with much botched work slipped in…In the newly published volumes an incurable mishmash of all sorts of lumpy, sulky, dirty, and useless street songs are thrown before us, plus a few stale church songs. (qtd. in Des Knaben Wunderhorn xv)
To fully appreciate just how scathing Voß’s criticism is, it should be noted that the last line of this passage contains its own ruthless: the words “lumpy, sulky, dirty, and useless” rhyme in German, and so the passage in the original reads: “In den neuerschienenen Bänden wird ein heilloser Mischmasch von allerlei butzigen, trutzigen, schmutzigen und nichtsnutzigen Gassenhauern, samt einigen abgestandenen Kirchenhauern uns vorgeschüttet.” The “tz” sound of butzig, trutzig, schmutzig, and nichtsnutzig makes not only the content of the passage, but its very tone harsh and unforgiving. Voß’s criticism aside, it is significant that even fellow members of the romantic school complained of the unscholarly editing of the songs. Friedrich Schlegel lamented in 1808, “If only so much that is bad, so much that is native and foreign had not been mixed together! If only the arbitrary changes that are evident in several songs had not given the majority of the readers a justifiable suspicion regarding the other songs!” (qtd. in Des Knaben Wunderhorn xiv). And in a letter to his brother Wilhelm in May 1809, Jacob Grimm criticizes Arnim and Brentano’s revisions of older songs, writing, “They do not allow the old to remain old, but wish to transplant it entirely into our time, where it simply does not belong” (qtd. in Campanile 443). Grimm’s criticism is nevertheless interesting when one considers that he and his brother would be similarly chided for altering many of the fairy tales included in their collection.
The central problem with the undocumented revisions made by Arnim and Brentano was not simply that their work ignored accepted scholarly research standards, but that in ignoring these standards they gave the impression that the songs came directly from the people, when in fact much of the work was the result of their own revisions and interpolations. This impression can be seen in the opinion which Heinrich Heine expresses regarding Des Knaben Wunderhorn in his work The Romantic School: using the song “Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz'” (in English, “At Strasbourg on the Entrenchment”) as his principal example, Heine writes, “There is a peculiar magic in these Volkslieder. The artistic poets wish to imitate these products of Nature in the same way that one makes mineral water. But even if through chemical processes they get the ingredients right, the most important thing will escape them: the sympathetic power of Nature which is impossible to corrupt. In these songs one feels the heartbeat of the German Volk” (202). What Heine doesn’t realize, though, is that much of “Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz'”–like the vast majority of the songs in the collection–was rewritten by Brentano, and thus is not an accurate representation of the people and their traditions. Brentano, as an artistic poet, is thus guilty of precisely that chemical doctoring of Volkslieder which Heine accuses others of in this passage from The Romantic School. Moreover, as Heinz Rölleke, the editor of the critical edition of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, has pointed out, the majority of the songs in the collection were taken from printed sources whose authors had themselves often substantially revised songs from the oral tradition. Indeed, of the 723 songs in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Arnim and Brentano had taken approximately 340 from printed books, journals, and newspapers; 100 from pamphlets, 40 songs from handwritten codices, and 250 from contemporary contributors who either sent in or dictated lyrics to Arnim and Brentano, and many of these 250 songs were revisions from songs in old books and pamphlets (Rölleke 30). Again, the songs for which Mahler composed music represent the diverse sources from which Arnim and Brentano drew: for example, “Der Tamburg’sell” and “Es sungen drei Engel” are from pamphlets (the so-called “Fliegende Blätter”), whereas “Der Schildwache Nachtlied” and “Wer hat dies Lied erdacht?” were dictated to them orally. “Verlorne Müh” is Swabian in origin, while the “Lied des Verfolgten im Turm” is Swiss. Because the vast majority of these and the other songs in the collection were revisions from printed sources whose authors had themselves revised oral versions, the collection cannot be regarded as representative of what the people of any one locale were singing around 1800–or for that matter during any other historical period.
It is notable that the collection also failed to influence what the people were singing in the years following its appearance. Despite Brentano’s initial desire to compile “a reasonably priced book of folksongs,” the completed work was far too expensive for those whose lives its songs allegedly mirrored. In view of the scholarly criticisms of the work and the fact that it was neither representative of nor of influence on the everyday lives of the people, one might well wonder how the work could possibly have been as enormously successful as it was. First, of course, it must be borne in mind that there were many defenders of Arnim’s and Brentano’s work: Goethe, as I noted, described it as an indispensable household possession, and many other critics supported Arnim’s and Brentano’s argument that their intention had never been to create a historically accurate work. To them, the Volkslied was not a historical artefact, but a timeless manifestation of national culture. It was the task of the romantic writer, they believed, to renew and revitalize it. As Johann von Görres wrote in his positive assessment of the collection from 1810, “Whether you look upon all of the poems in this collection as if they had come into existence today or centuries ago, nothing of their essence is changed” (qtd. in Campanile 443). Writing in 1818, Arnim stated that their “highest goal” would be met if “when one of these songs touches him deeply, the thoughtful reader attempts to rid himself of all that is troubling him, and to enrich himself with all in the song that cultivates and inspires him” (qtd. in Campanile 444). For his part, Brentano wrote that he and Arnim had found it impossible while working on the collection to reconcile their own love of their work–and of the romantic notion of a “universal poetry” which is constantly renewing and revitalizing itself–with traditional scholarly constraints.
The collection also helped to turn attention to a Germanic heritage. In his praise of Des Knaben Wunderhorn in The Romantic School, Heinrich Heine writes, “Here German anger drums, here German banter whistles, here German love kisses. Here German wine and the true German tear sparkle” (202). Even though much of the collection is, of course, comprised of revisions, adaptations, and interpolations of songs, Heine conveys the impression that the songs afforded the reader a glimpse of a livelier and more unfettered German past. The same is true of the prevalent wanderlust theme in the collection. Although there is no unified theme to the songs, many of them tell of knights, gypsies, traveling apprentices, musicians and minstrels, soldiers, and hunters–and thus convey a sense of freedom important to intellectuals living in a century which would increasingly desire both liberation and national unity (Korff 166).
But Des Knaben Wunderhorn was ultimately successful not only because Arnim’s and Brentano’s conception of their task as romantic writers was accepted by many of their peers. In addition to this intellectual acceptance, it also garnered much popular acclaim simply on the basis of its imaginative title, which quickly became a slogan. The collection begins with the famous Wunderhorn poem. This poem exemplifies the revisionist nature of the collection, for it was a free adaptation from Anselm Elwert’s 1784 collection of folksongs. Elwert himself had translated an English version by Thomas Warton, who had freely adapted the song from a medieval Anglo-Norman romance. A related work from Bremen and Oldenburg in northwestern Germany, published in 1684, also had “Wunder-Horn” in its title. In the version which appears in Arnim’s and Brentano’s collection, a boy on a horse comes to the empress and gives her the magic horn, which is described as having four gold bands in which pearls and rubies are inlaid. The boy tells the empress that with just one touch of her finger, the horn will sound like bells sweeter than any harp, sweeter than women’s song, sweeter than any bird, and sweeter than the virgins in the sea. Towards the end of the third volume, in what is the last poem that Brentano revised, the image of the horn appears again. Here Brentano writes, “Der Engel mit dem großen Zorn,/ Ruft allen Menschen durch das Horn!” (“The angel with great wrath,/ Calls all human beings with the horn!”). The reference is to the Last Judgment in Matthew 24:30-31, where it is written that the Son of man in heaven “will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” The image of the horn is also represented in the frontispieces to the first two volumes of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The frontispiece for the first volume is rather simple, depicting only the boy riding his horse while carrying the magic horn. The second volume has a more elaborate illustration, which is based on a drawing of the famous horn of the city of Oldenburg. But the city in the background is not Oldenburg, but Heidelberg. The horn is nevertheless absent from the frontispiece to the third volume, which instead portrays a medieval setting in which a man and woman play musical instruments beneath a bird on a pedestal. This frontispiece, done by Ludwig Grimm, is a compilation of two medieval engravings, the man and woman taken from an engraving by Israel von Meckenem and the parrot from an engraving by Wenzel von Olmütz.
Finally, however, the popularity of Des Knaben Wunderhorn can be attributed to the influence it exerted on composers such as Mahler, Brahms, and Richard Strauß, on artists such as Ludwig Richter; and on authors such as Ludwig Uhland, Heinrich Heine, Eduard Mörike, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, to name but a few. Eduard Mörike, a later romantic writer, is most influenced by the emotional appeal and lively imagery of the collection, whereas the romantic poet Uhland is primarily known for his adoption of the colloquial, folksy tone and vocabulary which typify the songs in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, as well as for imitating the uneven meter and verse forms often found in the Wunderhorn songs. Uhland also revised and adapted several of the Wunderhorn songs. For example, his song “Der gute Kamerad” (The Good Comrade) is based on “Revelge,” one of the Wunderhorn songs for which Mahler composed music. Whereas Arnim expanded the poem, Uhland shortened it, preferring to lend more focus to the central image of the fallen drummer boy left to die on the battlefield.
It is significant in this regard that Mahler, too, feels free to revise Arnim’s and Brentano’s work. Mahler’s song “Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen” (Where the beautiful trumpets blow) is titled “Unbeschreibliche Freude” (Indescribable Joy) in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and in addition to changing the title Mahler also eliminated the last stanza, instead substituting one of his own. In this song a young man says goodbye to his lover, promising that within a year she will be his, and that their love is undying. In Arnim’s and Brentano’s version, the last stanza reads in English translation:
I wish all the fields were paper,
And the students all writing thereon,
They could write the whole night through,
And never write our love away.
Mahler’s last stanza reads:
I go to war on a green heath,
a green heath far away;
where the bright trumpets blow,
there lies my house, my house of green sward. ***
Instead of ending with an affirmation of eternal love between the couple, Mahler chooses to emphasize the young man’s departure for war and an unknown fate. This is particularly significant since there is no mention of war in Arnim’s and Brentano’s version of the song. Together with other changes which Mahler made to the Wunderhorn version, the song becomes one not of “indescribable joy,” but of pervading melancholy (Blaukopf 107).
It is important to note that the adaptations of Mahler, Uhland, and others are in full accord with Brentano’s and Arnim’s notions of a universal poetry: instead of viewing the Volkslied as a static historical artefact to be preserved, they saw in the Volkslied a living part of national culture which was to be constantly renewed and revitalized. In the sense that the Wunderhorn collection did not, as they had hoped it would, influence the common people, the collection failed; but insofar as it influenced numerous artists, writers and composers in their incorporation of elements of the folk tradition into their works, it succeeded in bringing about that reconciliation of high culture with folk culture about which Arnim and Brentano were so passionate.
Arnim, Achim von, and Clemens Brentano. Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Alte deutsche Lieder. Ed. with an introduction by Eduard Grisebach. Leipzig: Hesse, 1906.
Blaukopf, Kurt. Gustav Mahler. Trans. Inge Goodwin. New York: Praeger, 1973.
Campanile, Anna. “Rinaldo Rinaldini. Vergleichende Anmerkungen zum Wunderhorn-Volkslied und zu Christian August Vulpius’ Räuberroman.” Il confronto letterario 24 (1995): 443-57.
Gellert, Christian Fürchtegott. Gesammelte Schriften. Ed. Bernd Witte. Vol. 2. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1997.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Gedenkausgabe der Werke, Briefe und Gespräche. Ed. Ernst Beutler. Vol. 4. Zürich: Artemis, 1953.
—. Rev. of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Jenaer Allgemeine Literaturzeitung 21-22 Jan. 1806: 137-38.
Heine, Heinrich. Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke. Vol. 8/1. Ed. Manfred Windfuhr. Düsseldorf: Hoffmann und Campe, 1979.
Hoermann, Roland. Achim von Arnim. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
Korff, H.A. Geist der Goethezeit. Vol. 4. Leipzig: Koehler & Amelang, 1962.
Rölleke, Heinz. “Des Knaben Wunderhorn und seine Stellung zu Volks- und Kirchenlied.” Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie 28 (1984): 29-38.
Schade, Ernst. “Volkslied-Editionen zwischen Transkription, Manipulation, Rekonstruktion und Dokumentation.” Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung 35 (1990): 44-63.
Steig, Reinhold, ed. Achim von Arnim und die ihm nahestanden. 3 vols. Stuttgart/Frankfurt: Cotta, 1894- 1913.
* Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this paper are my own.
** For a good summary in English of the background to Des Knaben Wunderhorn, see Roland. Hoermann, Achim von Arnim.
*** The translations of these stanzas are by Inge Goodwin, and appear in Kurt Blaukopf, Gustav Mahler (107).
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Report Casts Critical Eye on Reading Recovery Program
A new report questions the success of one of the nation's most popular remedial reading programs for 1st graders.
Reading Recovery, which began in New Zealand in the early 1970's, is used with about 35,000 students a year in this country. The program aims to provide intensive tutoring to struggling young readers, thus giving them the strategies they need to succeed in the classroom.
Numerous studies over the past decade have documented Reading Recovery's success toward that end. Such success has earned Reading Recovery a spot on the National Diffusion Network, a federal program designed to disseminate effective education programs nationwide.
But in an analysis in this month's Educational Researcher, Elfrieda H. Hiebert says such data paint an "inconclusive" portrait of the program's effectiveness in raising the literacy levels of entire grades of students.
"Yes, at grade 1, these children are leaving with better oral performances in reading, but what does that mean by the time they get to grade 4?" Ms. Hiebert, a University of Michigan education professor, said in an interview. "What difference does it make to an entire grade of students?"
Flaws in Studies
Proponents of the approach, in response to Ms. Hiebert's criticisms, say the report is based on old data. They say newer data--both published and unpublished--suggest that the program is becoming more successful.
Ms. Hiebert, in partnership with other reading researchers, has been working with a few schools to develop a reading-instruction program that focuses on tutoring small groups of students and on identifying the key elements for teaching reading to entire classes.
She contends that Reading Recovery demands closer inspection because it requires a substantial financial investment. Two of the program's key ingredients--one-on-one tutoring and lengthy teacher training--are expensive propositions for districts.
The problem with some previous studies, she said, is that they are based on children in New Zealand, where the educational and cultural context differs from that of the United States. And, she said, they tend to compare the program with other remedial programs, such as the federal Title 1 program for disadvantaged children.
She also contends that the program's mechanisms for measuring children's reading success do not pay enough attention to whether they understand what they read.
For her analysis, Ms. Hiebert reviewed a 1990 study of theprogram that tracked children through grade 4; annual reports, made from 1984 to 1992 at three of the training sites that have had the program in place the longest; and a 1993 summary of previous data from all the sites using the program in North America.
By her calculations, an elementary school with three 1st-grade classrooms of 24 students each could expect to have a total of nine additional successful 1st-grade readers as a result of the program. The 4th-grade teachers would then have four additional proficient readers, she said.
Given the program's heavy upfront investment--the cost per student may be as much as $8,333 for one successful 4th grader--Reading Recovery may be a shaky foundation on which to base policy, Ms. Hiebert said.
She also said preliminary findings from other studies suggest that the program may not be as effective with groups of children from poorer families.
"An alternative route to a call for more tutors should be considered--the examination of the underlying principles of Reading Recovery and their applicability to student-teacher contexts other than tutoring," Ms. Hiebert writes. "Why are the instructional elements that have consistently been associated with high levels of literacy attainment not a given in all Title 1 programs?"
Proponents of Reading Recovery said Ms. Hiebert is correct in calling for more research on other kinds of groupings.
But, "in a gas crisis, you don't get rid of the air bags," said Trika Smith-Burke, a co-director of New York University's Reading Recovery project, referring to the program's focus on the most needy 10 percent to 20 percent of students.
"Reading Recovery and classroom instruction are meant to complement one another," said Angela M. Jaggar, the center's other co-director.
Preliminary data from the center's work with New York City schools show that the percentage of 1st graders who receive a full Reading Recovery program and become successful readers increased from 62 percent over the 1990-91 school year to 91 percent in the past academic year.
Its data also suggest that the program prevents large numbers of struggling readers from being referred to costly special-education programs--a factor Ms. Hiebert was unable to account for in the data she used.
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Out of Place Marine Fossil Disrupts Evolutionary Index
by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
A Cambrian rock layer is considered to be "Cambrian" because of the particular fossils it contains. But what does it mean when a rock layer designated as "Ordovician" contains distinctly Cambrian fossils? Paleontologists are facing that question after a recent find in North Africa.
Researchers in Morocco found fossils of Anomalocaris—a unique and until now characteristically "Cambrian" creature—in Ordovician rocks, which in some locations are positioned just above Cambrian strata. This evidently extinct animal belonged to a group of rather strange sea creatures classified as "anomalocaridids." One such marine animal was Hurdia, which had well-designed and fully-integrated body parts, including dual-function swimming flaps and gills.1 Despite their unusual appearance, no anomalocaridid looks like an evolutionary transition, and all of them look well-suited for aquatic life.
In fact, in 1994, the seaworthiness of the Anomalocaris' paired side flippers and overall body plan was tested and found to be so stable that it would have required very little brain power to manipulate. In the published study, paleontologist and Cambrian expert Derek Briggs described a remote-controlled model of a 70-centimeter-long Anomalocaris that was constructed with 11 underwater "wings," in imitation of its fossils. "The long basal attachment of the flexible lobes to the body of the model resulted in an automatic adjustment of the angle of attack in both the up and down stroke," he wrote.2 Though it has proved difficult to classify, Anomalocaris was hardly an evolutionary experiment, but was instead a well-designed swimming creature.
However, the presence of this unique fossil can no longer be used to reliably identify a rock as Cambrian. In addition to the Ordovician anomalocaridid discovered in Morocco, a lone fossil of an obvious anomalocaridid (although it was not identified as such) was described from Devonian strata in Germany.3 It had the same number of flaps, though much smaller, and the same unique circular mouth and curved graspers.
Briggs said in a Yale University press release, "The anomalocaridids are one of the most iconic groups of Cambrian animals," and while this may be true as written, the Moroccan and German discoveries have falsified the notion that anomalocaridids are exclusive to the Cambrian.4
Evolutionary thinking suggests that many creatures fossilized in lower rocks should not persist in rock layers above, since those creatures would have evolved into those forms found above them. Anomalocaris does not fit this mold.
But according to the creation/Flood model, the Cambrian, Ordovician, and Devonian rock layers were deposited early in the Flood year, as creatures that inhabited watery environments were caught up in super-size underwater mudflows. Indeed, the Yale press release stated, "The animals found in Morocco inhabited a muddy sea floor in fairly deep water, and were trapped by sediment clouds that buried them and preserved their soft bodies."4 And a recent Yale University geology department newsletter suggested that the reason why even soft-bodied Cambrian creatures were fossilized was because animals that were "overcome by current-transported sediment ended up out of reach of scavengers."5
It is obvious that a catastrophe was responsible for their fossilization, and this is consistent with the worldwide violent deaths and mud-buried carcasses that are predictions of the Flood model. In the context of the great Flood, similar creatures could have been deposited and fossilized in more than one layer, since the relevant layers do not correspond with vast ages but were all deposited during a single year. Perhaps creatures that had been living in similar ecological zones would have been caught up together in one muddy tsunami after another that formed the rock layers.
More examples of what have long been considered "index fossils" that supposedly mark certain rock strata and evolutionary "times" will continue to crop up in unexpected places, if Noah's Flood was truly responsible for these rock layer deposits.
- Thomas, B. 'Totally Strange' Hurdia a Hurdle for Evolution. ICR News. Posted on icr.org September 9, 2009, accessed June 7, 2011.
- Briggs, Derek E. G. 1994. Giant Predators from the Cambrian of China. Science. 264 (5163): 1283-1284.
- Kuhl, G., D. E. G. Briggs and J. Rust. 2009. A Great-Appendage Arthropod with a Radial Mouth from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, Germany. Science. 323 (5915): 771-773.
- Scientists Discover Fossil of Giant Ancient Sea Predator. Yale University press release, May 25, 2011, reporting on research published in Van Roy, P. and D. E. G. Briggs. 2011. A giant Ordovician anomalocaridid. Nature. 473 (7348): 510-513.
- Briggs, D. Fall 2010. Exceptionally Preserved Fossils. Geology and Geophysics News. Geology and Geophysics Department, Yale University, 5.
Image credit: Esben Horn/Yale University
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on June 14, 2011.
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The importance of web credibility according to Fogg is, “The web can be a highly credible source of information,’ but ‘can be one of the least credible information sources’” (Fogg, 2003). Credibility is an intrinsic element of a website. It must be highly regarded and considered when establishing a website as trust is the most valued commodity in the internet. You must gain the trust of your visitors if you want your website to succeed.Credibility is essential to make people click into advertisement and register for it. There are several ways on how to identify a credible website and below are some examples; check the url of the website if it starts with http:// or https:// it is highly reliable. When gaining information from the web page you must look for signs as to whether the author has the qualifications to conduct a certain research or provide a certain thesis. There are five helpful signs that can help your blog page become credible and they are
1. Keep Advertisements minimum
2.Update content regularly
3.Consider the design and ease of use
4.Be transparent on who you are
and lastly, make it easy to verify claims.
*ideas sourced from (Hart, n.d)
Fogg, B. J. (2003). Credibility and the World Wide Web. In Persuasive Technology: Using Computers
to Change What We Think and Do (pp. 147‐181). Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
How to improve website credibility. (2007, June 04). Retrieved from http://www.avangate.com/company/resources/article/website-credibility.htm
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In our world food and wealth are poorly distributed so we made a research on the most famous classic songs about world hunger and poverty. This is our work for the Expo 2015 project.
USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) was the name under which 44 predominantly U.S. artists, led byMichael Jackson and Lionel Richie, recorded the hit single "We Are the World" in 1985. The song was a U.S. and UK number one for the collective in April of that year. This super group was inspired by Bob Geldof's Band Aid.
2) "Heal the World" is a song from Michael Jackson's hit album, Dangerous, released in 1991.
The video shows poor children living in Africa.
3) "Imagine" is a song written and performed by John Lennon in 1971.
He asks us to imagine a world at peace without borders, hunger and wars. Is he a dreamer?
4) "Another Day in Paradise" is a song performed by
Phil Collins, released in 1989. It is about the problem of hunger and homelessness.
When someone asks for our help in the street, do we pretend not to hear?
5) Village Ghettoland is a song by Stevie Wonder about poverty and marginalization, released in 1976.
Our top-five list!
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As Israel gets slammed over and over again in social media during its recent conflict with Hamas, the more apparent it is that many people are not aware of what impact the small country (about the size of New Jersey) has had in the world.
Here’s a reminder, courtesy of israel21c:
Israel’s medical discoveries have already improved the lives of millions of people around the world. These include an ingestible video camera that fits inside a pill that helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders; fingertip monitors for sleep disorders and cardiac issues; and an emergency bandage that closes open wounds quickly and temporarily before further evaluation and treatment.
This year, Israeli researchers and engineers are working on a number of innovative projects that the world will benefit from, including a radiation-free alternative for breast-cancer detection; a patented lens to improve radiation therapy for cancer patients of all ages; the world’s first 3D holographic display and interaction system for use in operating rooms; the potential for restoring memory and protecting the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease; a way to preserve the fertility of young female cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy; products for families of children with autism; an “internal bra,” affixed to rib bones underneath the breasts of women with sagging breasts; shoe technologies that help people avoid falls and regain proper gait after strokes and other injuries; and technology using automatic DNA analysis to streamline the process of detecting, diagnosing and tracking infectious diseases.
Israel’s high-tech developments are already used in homes, offices and businesses around the world. Pioneering technologies include the PC anti-virus software; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP); the technology for AOL Instant Messenger; and voice mail technology. Most of the Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel, and the Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. There are more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups in Israel, which represents the highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world apart from the Silicon Valley.
Among the many developments Israeli inventors are currently working on are the world’s first mini-mobile printer; wearable technology; a way to turn smartphones or tablets into a machine that recognizes face movements and hand gestures, for use by people with disabilities; noise-canceling technology; and a device that can be plugged into the USB port of any shared laptop, netbook or desktop to transform it into a personal computer for each user.
International companies also seek out Israel for matters of security, including cyber-security and cyber-defense, and countries look to Israel for airport security technologies.
Israel leads the world in the environmental field, including innovations in solar power generation and seawater desalination. A drip irrigation system that minimizes the amount of water used to grow crops was developed by Israeli engineers and agriculturalists.
This year, Israeli engineers and researchers are working on several inventions, such as solar panels that fit inside “curtain walls” and generate solar electricity for a high-rise building while allowing light inside and a product that could inexpensively detect bacteria in food-processing plants, hospitals and municipal water supplies.
Religious freedom and civil rights
Many holy sites for multiple religions exist in Israel, and it’s only under Israeli rule that, barring security threats, all are free to practice their religion there. That’s not the case in neighboring Syria and Iraq, where Christians are being persecuted by Islamic State (ISIS) and being told to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death.
Israel’s laws guarantee equal rights for LGBT Israelis, which certainly isn’t the case in other countries in the region, where LGBT individuals face beatings, imprisonment or death.
Israel has provided humanitarian relief around the world (including its neighbors in Gaza during the current war). These include after recent floods in Serbia and Bosnia, the 2009 and 2013 typhoons in the Philippines, the 2011 earthquake in Turkey, the 2011 earthquake in Japan, the 2011 tsunami in Japan, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Israel also treats patients from around the world inside its own hospitals. In 2012, Israel hospitals took care of nearly 222,000 Palestinian Arabs, according to a 2013 report published by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit.
Meanwhile, Israel’s neighbors are currently primarily known for terrorism. Hamas, a militant Islamic fundamentalist group whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction, has ruled Gaza since 2007 (which despite the cry for #FreeGaza, Palestinian Arabs never previously had sovereignty in Gaza. It was under Egyptian rule before Israel gained control in 1967 and before that, the British and Ottoman Empires. And in 2005 when Israel disengaged itself from Gaza, it uprooted about 10,000 settlers, and left it in the hands of the Palestinian Authority).
What happened once Israel left Gaza? Hamas and other terrorists have launched thousands of rockets and mortars out of Gaza into Israel. Since its formation, Israel has transformed its land from a wasteland into thriving cities and farms. In contrast, Gaza immediately destroyed the more than 3,000 greenhouses that were meant to help Palestinian Arabs rebuild Gaza and instead of using donated concrete to build homes and businesses, Hamas built terror tunnels leading to Israeli land.
For a country that could fit into Maricopa County – and is so small on the world map that its name can’t fit inside, so it is often written in the Mediterranean Sea – Israel’s impact upon the world is phenomenal. Why does it seem to be considered such a monster on the world stage? While Israel is busy defending itself from those who aim to destroy it, Islamic militants are slaughtering hundreds daily in Syria and Iraq and many governments around the world are committing horrific human rights violations against their own people.
And yet, why are those #FreeGaza proponents only targeting Israel with their condemnations when the world can benefit so much from Israel’s survival?
Leisah Woldoff is managing editor of Phoenix’s Jewish News.
It has been nine years since Israel’s disengagement from the Jewish settlements of the Gaza Strip. About 500 of those evacuess still remain without jobs and stability, a dire predicament exacerbated by the current turmoil in Southern Israel, where many of the evacuees went to rebuild their lives. Here, Daniela Berkowitz of IMP Group writes about Jobkatif, an organization that helps bring relief to thousands of unemployed and underemployed families through vocational training, employment placement, counseling and coaching.
Itzik, a restaurant owner in southern Israel, finds himself paralyzed this summer. Normally, his café and catering company are bustling with customers. Yet this summer, because of the constant barrage of rockets targeting the region from Gaza, people are barely leaving their homes, let alone going out for a meal.
For Itzik, surprisingly, this is not grossly traumatic. While his business is suffering and he is concerned about sustaining his family and paying the bills, he remembers all the struggles he faced before he could even open his business. Itzik and his family are just one example of the thousands who relocated to southern Israel after the Disengagement of 2005.
Nine years ago, the Israeli government decided to withdraw the Jewish settlements of Gush Katif in Gaza. These families lost everything: their homes, communities, businesses, synagogues and more.
A majority of these people relocated to towns and cities in the south of Israel, which for years has been targeted by rocket fire from Gaza. Today, Israel is in a state of emergency; at least 70 percent of Israeli residents are at risk of rocket fire from Gaza and have had to experience the horror of the Code Red siren, which gives seconds’ notice before a rocket strikes.
Aside from the obvious distress that this situation brings, income is down by nearly 90 percent for businesses in the south. Many people are unable to go to work; children are staying home from school and camps. Much is left unknown.
Making ends meet
Before 2005, Itzik lived with his wife and five children in Moshav Katif. He worked in a marketing department in Beersheba and enjoyed the rural community life in Gush Katif. After the Disengagement, his life began falling apart.
“I was at home for nearly a year,” Itzik recalls, “I wasn’t able to hold down a job for more than three-four weeks, tops. Our whole financial situation deteriorated, until there was not enough money for food. You are dying to work, but you simply can’t.” Like many evacuees, there was trauma and gaining stable ground seemed worlds away.
He and his wife dreamed of opening a catering business. Slowly, they saved money and recruited customers. “I remember the first Shabbat meals that we did,” he said. “To save money, I recruited our kids to help us. The business began to turn a profit, but it was slow going,” Itzik says with a smile. In 2009, Itzik was contacted by the staff of JobKatif, an organization established for the sole purpose of assisting Gush Katif families left bereft of their livelihood to become financially independent. With some funding and advice from professionals, Itzik and his wife purchased a restaurant.
“JobKatif was a true and faithful ‘shaliach,’” he says. “They helped us and thanks to all their support, we are where we are today. They believed in us.”
More work to do
Eight-three percent of former Gush Katif residents are now employed. However, there is still more work to do, especially as the situation in southern Israel has become more severe. Because of the security situation in the south, even JobKatif needed to temporarily shut its training centers and counseling programs because people were just unable to attend. This year, the Israeli government renewed its commitment to these important endeavors and has promised to match up to 75 percent of the programming costs to help Gush Katif families find meaningful employment. But these funds are returned retroactively and dependent on JobKatif raising money from donors.
Over the past nine years, 2,500 people have found employment because of JobKatif. Among these people, 570 participated in vocational retraining courses. At least 200 small businesses are operating because of JobKatif’s startup funding and guidance. Another 202 students now are studying in colleges and universities across the country, thanks to scholarships provided by Amutat Yedidut Toronto.
To assist those remaining without work, JobKatif developed customized programs tailored for specific populations. These groups include: Bnei Menashe (Jews from India), small business owners on the threshold of success, people over 55 years old, individuals with challenges, students and employed individuals who are dissatisfied with their jobs. The organization has over one year left to accomplish its goals.
“We have nearly accomplished our mission of assisting all Gush Katif evacuees to earn a living so that they can support their families with pride and dignity, as they once did in Gush Katif,” says Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, founder and chairman of JobKatif. “We have made so much progress and with continued support, we can make sure that the burdens are eased and our brothers and sisters can live with peace of mind and stability.”
As it moves toward completing what it set out to do, JobKatif is seeking partners from across Jewish communities worldwide to join in relieving the struggles of unemployment in this difficult time.
To contribute to JobKatif’s Shabbat Chazon campaign, tax-deductible donations can be sent to JobKatif, 71-47 171st St. Flushing, New York 11365 or online at www.jobkatif.org. For more information, contact firstname.lastname@example.org or 011-972-2-547-4548. All donations will be matched 3:1 by the Israeli Government.
We received the following letter from Rabbi Bill Berk, rabbi emeritus of Temple Chai, and thought readers of our blog would be interested:
Rabbi Chernow asked me to share with you what we have been going through here in Israel. Unfortunately, I have to report to you that we’re in a war. I’m startled by my use of the “w” word but that’s what we’ve got here. Three times here in Jerusalem, we have had to run for shelter as the sirens have gone off telling us that a rocket or rockets are coming our way. It’s an unbelievable feeling. You see in your head pictures of London during World War II, and people scampering for shelter and then you realize that you are in that picture. One of my stepdaughters lives in the south. She’s got two little kids and one on the way. She and her husband often have to wake the kids in the middle of the night and carry them down four flights of stairs to the safe room. I have another stepdaughter who is in college in the south. She got a letter from her college saying, “Closed till further notice.” Imagine if kids at San Diego State or the University of Arizona got such a letter. Of course, what we have been going through is nothing compared to what the families with soldiers in Gaza are experiencing.
We are at war with an enemy who has embraced an ideology that is very comfortable with death. This is important to keep in mind when you see the heartbreaking pictures from Gaza. Hamas (we know this word from our Bible, Genesis 6:11, where we find the word means “violence” or “lawlessness”) has built a whole program around death:
1. At the beginning of this war, I was trying to keep track of how many rockets aimed at Israel’s cities Hamas had fired, but I finally gave up. It is somewhere over 2,000 rockets. I have a new app on my phone that lets me know when a rocket has been fired and where it’s headed. Let’s be clear about what this means — Hamas is targeting folks like you and me. It is AIMING AT US. If not for American and Israeli scientific skill (the Iron Dome). we would have hundreds or thousands killed and cities in shambles.
2. Hamas uses civilians and does not protect civilians. I noticed that today’s New York Times asks if this is really true. Yes, it is really true. When our army has to fire at a house where rockets have been launched from we begin by sending text messages to the people in the building. Then, we phone them. Then, we drop fliers. We ask them to leave because we don’t want them to get hurt. We have documented occasions when Hamas has asked the people not to move. They have even irritated some European governments who don’t appreciate that behavior. This is using civilians. They have children involved in the fighting and wearing suicide belts. They admit that death doesn’t bother them and that Israel’s great weakness is a reverence for life.
3. I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the tunnels we have found. There are two major reasons for these tunnels: murder and kidnapping. Thank goodness we found these tunnels. We knew about them, but did not realize the extent and how far they went into Israeli territory. We found one that ends just yards away from a kibbutz dining hall. The tunnels have one additional purpose — to hide Hamas military and political leadership. Whereas they could have built shelters for civilians (not to mention schools and hospitals and hot houses and factories), they chose instead to build military command centers. And don’t forget — we left Gaza. We don’t “rule” or “occupy” them. These tunnels are about killing and kidnapping Jews who live across the border in a country called Israel.
4. Hamas has done a good job with propaganda. They even convinced UNRWA, the U.N. agency, to hide rockets for them! I do hope this has made the front page of the New York Times. This is not exactly Eleanor Roosevelt’s vision or America’s vision of what the U.N. should be about. When they were caught, UNRWA gave the rockets back to Hamas! I think the U.N. needs to do a little teshuvah this High Holiday season. While we are at it — the American government could do a little teshuvah. I think this would have been a good time for a strong pro-Israel stance. It appears to me that, in their frustration with Netanyahu, the State Department is being a bit too supportive of some of Hamas’ claims and issues. I have my own issues regarding how Netanyahu handled the negotiations with the Palestinians, but that has nothing to do with what we face today. They are shooting at us! We have to stop the rockets and stop the tunnels. Left and right, religious and secular — we are united on this.
This is a tough time. People are subdued. Ask someone “ma shlom cha?” (how are you?) and you’ll get a sigh and a “beseder” (OK). People are honking horns less. People aren’t going out much. Many have postponed vacations. We’re staying close to the radio and TV. But I want you to know that we’re going to be fine. We’re a big mishpocha (family). Part of what drew me to Israel was this amazing sense of mishpachtiut (family connectedness). That’s part of why it hurts so much right now. We’ve lost a lot of boys and everyone feels it. Today, Batya and I went to a shiva call for a soldier who came from L.A. — he’s what we call a chayil boded (lone soldier, with no family here). 30,000 people came to his funeral! So there’s pain when you are connected. But there is so much strength. It’s a spiritual achievement to extend your love and caring further and further out. I hope you will be proud of your family here in Israel. I hope you will speak up proudly for Israel. Don’t let Hamas win the propaganda war. Speak up on behalf of life.
God willing, I’ll be in Phoenix and speak at Temple Chai on Aug. 22. I’ll talk on Israel that night.
Best from Jerusalem,
Rabbi Bill Berk
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Chai
Guest blogger Dan Gordon, an IDF reservist from Arizona, sent this post from Israel:
Years ago in my misspent youth, as a film student at UCLA, I saw a World War II documentary called “ Why We Fight.” So this is my go at it. But I’m not a good enough writer to do this one the way it ought to be done. I apologize for that up front. You won’t be able to feel what I felt yesterday in the the warm embrace of a an amazing family that lives in one of the small agricultural communities on the border they share the Hamas’ terrorist enclave in Gaza, and who have been under almost constant fire for 13 years.
I won’t be able to convey the emotion, the frustration, the courage, the grace, the anger at a world that refuses to see what’s right in front of them, the love, even for their so-called enemies, their unbelievable determination not to give in to the terror their terrorist enemies try day and night to instill in them, their determination to live their lives in peace in their own country, a right every American, Canadian, Frenchman Brit, you name it, takes for granted. And why not? Even if those countries go to war, no one is sworn to kill every last one of them. No one denies them their right simply to breathe. Besides, America’s and NATO’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in Bosnia and Kosovo are a world away.
This family’s war is literally a few hundred meters away.
Read that one again.
I didn’t say it was a few hundred miles away. Like, say you lived in L.A. and the war was in Las Vegas.
I didn’t say it was a few hundred kilometers away. Like, say you lived in New York, and it was at the other end of New Jersey.
I didn’t even say it was a mile away.
The war they face and have faced almost constantly for 13 years is about 2,000 meters, as the rocket flies, from their front door. At least, that’s the distance away from their front door that it was up until a few days ago when the first 13 terrorists popped up like zombies from graves opening up on their FRONT LAWN! Except these weren’t zombies on a cable TV series. There’s no way to switch channels on this one. These were terrorists, armed to the teeth with anti-tank missiles, machine guns, grenades, handcuffs, tranquilizers, all bent on murdering, maiming, kidnapping and taking hostage as many of them and their children as possible.
Imagine if Afghanistan wasn’t in Afghanistan. Imagine if it was on your front porch.
That’s their reality.
That’s where the war is.
Quite literally in their front yard.
You have gophers who come up out of holes and eat your petunias, let’s say?
They have Hamas terrorists who come up out of sophisticated tunnels, some of them built, by the way, with your tax dollars!
A dear friend of mine, Vicki, is married to my high school classmate who has been one of my best friends since I was a kid in Israel 50 years ago. She knows I’m “down South” in the war zone. So is her son Benji who serves as a medic in the Homefront command. She said, “Listen, if you want a shower or a chance to rest or a hot meal or even someone to wash your uniform, I have a dear friend in one of the border communities. She and her family have opened up their home to any soldiers in the area. And check with Benji and give him a ride down there, too, if he wants a break.
So I check with Benji, but he’s not getting any breaks today, not with the amount of rockets Hamas is launching against our civilians. He’s on constant alert. But I’m not that important. If I want a break, I can take it. I’d kill to stretch out on a mattress right now and take a nap. I smell a bit ripe because one tends to sweat a tad in a flak jacket. I’d love a shower and a change of uniform. So absolutely, I’m headed down to see her friend. Let’s call her Rachel. Not her real name because she asked me not to use it. So I plug the name of the community into the GPS and I’m off .
And the closer I get, the louder the sounds of war and the more I have to pull off to the side of the road and take cover from the rocket attacks. The rockets don’t bother me as much as the mortars, because there’s no warning with a mortar round. No siren, no Code Red alert on the radio, no phone app that says watch out you might just get killed if you don’t take cover in the next 15 seconds. Besides, the closer I get, the less time there is to take cover. Fifteen seconds is going to seem like a lifetime in a few more kilometers.
Now understand, I’m a former kibbutznik. I know what a little agricultural village looks like. But reality begins to change the closer I get.
The MPs have closed the road leading to this little community and the dozens of others down here. Only residents and military personal can get through. But I’m in uniform and flak jacket and show my officer’s I.D. and they wave me through, assuming obviously, I must be a fighter, a warrior on his way to take up his position on the front. In reality, I’m a lazy so-and-so, who wants a shower, a free meal and a cot.
But when I get to this little community, the thing that assaults your senses first are the sounds of battle. It’s deafening and constant. Because this is where the war is. It’s not in Afghanistan or Bosnia or anywhere else far away. It’s not even like the wars of my youth in Sinai or the Golan Heights.
It’s right here! It’s in their front yard. I don’t mean their metaphorical front yard. I mean the front yard they water. Soldiers, and not any soldiers, not sad sack, rear-echelon guys someone gave a weapon to and said “go stand guard at that latrine”-type soldiers. I mean elite combat soldiers, in full battle gear. I mean as-good-as-it-gets soldiers, weapons at the ready, helmets, flak jackets, locked and loaded soldiers. Except this isn’t an army base or some battlefield “somewhere” else, anywhere else – but here, in these people’s front yard.
I ask directions to Rachel’s house and get there and it’s locked. She’s not there. I go next door. Maybe I have the wrong house. This looks like the right one because someone has set up cots on the front porch. They’ve even put a TV outside . I’m already eyeing the cot I mean to sleep on. I knock on the door and a big-hearted woman with a smile that could light up the world comes to the door. “I’m making the pizzas,” she says, “But they’re not ready yet.”
“I’m Vicki’s friend,” I say. “She said if I was in the area …”
“What Vicki?” she says.
OK, I must have the wrong house. “I’m looking for Rachel,” I say.
“I’m Rachel,” she says.
“But you don’t know Vicki?”
“You must want the other Rachel. She lives next door.”
“Oh,” I say. “She’s not home”
“OK,“ she says. “So come on in. Sit down, rest. The pizzas will be ready soon. You want something to eat?”
This woman doesn’t know me from Adam, but I’m a soldier, so now I’m quite simply family, even though I have the wrong house, I have the right one.
The house smells of all good things. Onions and mushrooms being sautéed for the pizza, the aroma of coffee, dough beginning to bake like fresh bread in the oven.
It smells like home.
But it sounds like war.
Artillery, tank fire, small arms fire, rockets and mortars. “How can it sound like war?” I think. “She’s making pizza. She has kids and two dogs, and Vegemite, if somebody ever wanted anything like that. But it’s a home, a normal home. Except there’s a war going on, not miles away, but a few thousand yards away.”
She introduces me to her daughter and son, two of four or five kids she has. The daughter is 30 and a beauty, in that feisty, friendly, farm girl way. The son is a teenager – tall, handsome kid, very much being the man of the house while the father is away. In addition to the pizza and the onions and mushrooms being sautéed, I smell something else. I smell a story. I explain who I am, what I’m doing, and ask if I can interview her and her son and daughter about what it’s like to live literally in a war zone, under constant fire and threat of being killed.
“I don’t want to be interviewed,” she says.
The daughter says, “Come on Ima ( Mom), it’s a chance to unload, to say what’s in your heart”
“I’m not unloading anything. I’m making pizza.”
Just then on the TV, there is a some kind of an app. It shows that rockets have just hit a few miles down the road.
“Ima,” the son says, again being the man looking after his mother and older sister. “They’re coming our way.”
The mother glances at the TV. Then, she looks at her stove as if to see if there’s anything that needs attending to before the rockets begin to fall. I turn to the daughter. “What’s it like living like this?”
And the floodgates open up. I’m just someone to talk to right now. Someone whom she can tell what it’s like. The words come out staccato, pouring out of her, as if she can’t speak quickly enough to keep up with the emotion driving each word. “What’s it like? It’s constant.”
“We haven’t slept in two weeks,” the mother says, and I know I won’t have to ask another question of anyone. All I’ll have to do is listen. “I don’t know how we function. I don’t know what day it is.”
“It hurts your ears,” the daughter says, “when we’re in the reinforced room and the rocket hits, it changes the pressure or something, the shock waves, it hurts your eardrums.”
“I’ve already lost some of my hearing,” the mother says. “In this ear, I can’t hear well anymore.”
Just then the Code Red alert sounds. We don’t have 15 seconds here. We have five seconds. That’s it. There isn’t a bomb shelter outside, because you’d never get to it in time. There’s a reinforced concrete room with an iron door.
The mother moves quickly to the front door and shouts to the soldiers who are outside like a mother hen. “Boys!“ she shouts. “Get in the shelter. Now!”
Nobody messes with Mama Rachel, and no one has to be asked twice. This isn’t like it is even 10 kilometers away where people walk a little slower. Here it’s five seconds. Suddenly, the tiny reinforced room is packed with soldiers, each with his weapon, combat slung across his shoulder. People are laughing that it interrupted a good joke someone was telling. It’s the bravado of the bomb shelter, and then the building shakes and the sound is deafening and the shock wave or change in air pressure or whatever it is whacks your eardrums. One rocket, two and then another one, all of them close. Then, there’s the all clear.
“The pizzas will be ready in a few minutes,” Mama Rachel says, patting some of her olive drab, machine-gun-wearing baby chicks as they go back to their posts.
“That’s what it’s like,“ says the daughter, “and it never ends.”
The son, a teenager, says, “It’s all I’ve known my whole life. Rockets falling. Mortars.”
“Thirteen years!” says the daughter. “What country in the world would put up with that? Thirteen years of rocket attacks? Would the Americans let that happen to I don’t know, San Diego, New York? Texas? For 13 years? Would France put up with that? Would England? What do you think Putin would do? And we’re supposed to ‘show restraint.’ Show restraint?! How much more restrained can we be?! For 13 years, we’ve been under attack! Even after the last two operations in 2009 and 2012, when there was supposedly a cease-fire.”
“What cease-fire?!” the mother says. “Every month, Hamas would fire a rocket here, a rocket there, 10 rockets, 20 in a month …”
“And Israel said, ‘Well, it’s only a few rockets a week, so we can’t react to that!’” says the son.
“A few rockets a week?! Is the whole world insane?!” the daughter says, not to me, not to anyone – to God maybe. “Are they all crazy?! Listen to that, only a few rockets a week and for them that’s normal! That’s how we’re supposed to live! Only a few rockets a week! Only what they call a drizzle of rockets! And we were restrained. We didn’t do anything because after all it’s only a few rockets! And I don’t even care about the rockets! But the tunnels, now! The terrorist tunnels. Right out there!”
She points to her front door, “Right out there!”
“You know what happened here today?” the son says.
“They tried to attack again. The terrorists,” the daughter says. “They came up out of a tunnel that just opened up in the ground. The army got some of them but then said that two were still on the loose, so they tell you to go into the fortified room and lock the door.”
“Do you have any weapons in the house?” I ask.
“What weapon?!” she says. “They have anti-tank missiles with them! Anti-tank missiles that can rip a tank apart and kill everyone inside, except this isn’t a tank. It’s my home!”
“So why do you stay here?” I ask.
“It’s our home!” the son says.
“I work in the dairy,” the daughter says. “Someone has to take care of the cows. Someone has to milk them, feed them. What did the cows do to anyone? We’re farmers. We have to take care of the farm.”
The mother says, “I work in the day-care center. There are still children here. I can’t abandon them. Someone has to take care of them. They’re children. So when the army said the terrorists were out there … I don’t mean a thousand meters away, they were somewhere within a few hundred meters from here. How fast can you run 200 meters? That’s how fast they could get to us.”
“You know they want to murder us,” says the daughter, as if revealing a truly dirty secret. “You know we’re the targets, don’t you? Not the army. They want us. We’re the divine victory they could have. To murder us, to take us hostage and drag us back through the tunnels into Gaza. We’re the targets.”
“So,” says the mother, “I’m in the day-care center. I take the children into the fortified room and lock the door and say this is just an exercise. It’s just pretending. So we know what to do. Like a fire drill. I do puzzles with them, and color and promise them ice cream and all the while, I know there are terrorists out there and the only thing between them and those little children, are our soldiers, the ones you saw on the porch, the ones you see patrolling our village, and the ones who are in Gaza fighting. What do you think they’re fighting for?”
“You think this is politics?” the daughter asks. “We’re what they’re fighting for! This is our home. This is their home! Hamas wants to kill us. And they say they want to kill us! They go on television and say we want to kill the Jews! They don’t lie about it. They announce it to the whole world and, what? They don’t see ? They don’t hear.”
This beautiful girl suddenly grabs both sides of her head as if her head is about to explode with the insanity of the life she lives. “You know the story about the Palestinian boy who got the transplant here? There was a boy … from Gaza and he needed an organ transplant and the mother brings him over here to Israel so we can save her little boy’s life. And that’s fine. I say it’s fine if we can help them, if we can save a life, a child’s life? Yes, of course! Bring him. So whose organ gets transplanted? There is a Jewish boy, an Israeli boy who is killed in a terrorist attack and his father gives the OK to transplant his dead son, his murdered son’s kidney or whatever they transplanted, into the Palestinian boy from Gaza, to save his life. And they say, ‘You know who will get your boy’s kidney? It will be a boy from Gaza, from the place that dispatched the terrorist that killed your son.’ And he says, ‘Yes, I know and I want to do it. I want to do it, so they’ll see who we are and we’ll have peace. We’ll start with this boy and his mother. That’s how we’ll build the peace.’ So they do the transplant and the boy lives. And you know what the woman says? She says it on television so the whole world can see it and hear it. She’s not ashamed. She says, ‘You saved my son’s life and you Jews have a right to be angry about what I’m going to say. That’s your right and I don’t care. Because now that you’ve saved him, when my son grows up, I want him to become a “martyr” and kill Jews, as many as he can!’ That’s who we’re dealing with and the whole world hears her and says, ‘Well, you know, you’re stronger than they are so, you know, that’s OK, that’s the only way they can fight you.’ But we don’t want to fight them. We want them to live in peace and let us live in peace! And they shout it from the rooftops that they want to kill us and when one of them blows himself up, whether he kills Jews or not, their parents hand out candy and celebrate. If they kill a few Jews, they hand out more candy. But as long as he tried to kill Jews, that’s the main thing. Then you can hand out the candy. Then, they’re happy. So when I see a woman on the television and she’s crying because her child has been killed in this war, I’m a woman, my heart aches for any child who is killed. It’s awful, but I think to myself, ‘If this is the woman who wants her child to grow up so he can blow himself up while killing Jews, while trying to kill me or my mother or my brother or my neighbor, what’s the tragedy? Is it that the child didn’t live long enough to kill me? Is that the tragedy for her?! Or is it that she’s afraid that if she doesn’t raise him to kill Jews the Hamas will kill her, or kill him?’ It’s insane!! Do you hear that? It’s insane” Again, she holds the sides of her head as if her skull is about to explode, as if it can’t possibly contain the insanity of it all.
“And we don’t hate them!” she says. “Do you understand? We don’t hate them. We had good friends in Gaza. We know there are good people there and what kind of chance does a child have there to grow up not to want to kill me? That’s all he’s raised with, rocket and guns and hand grenades. They dress their toddlers up in suicide vests and take pictures of them. That’s like their Purim costume, their Halloween. ‘Isn’t that cute? Isn’t that sweet? He’s a little suicide bomber. Here we’ll take his picture and send it to grandma so she’ll be proud.’
“We know they have a gun to their heads. But what should we do when they come to kill us? When they pop up out of the ground on our front lawn and want to kill us? What should we do? And the world blames us because not enough of us are dead? That’s the crime? We built too many shelters for our people while instead of building shelters for their people they build terrorist tunnels to come and kill us? That’s our crime? That we spent money we don’t have, that we should have spent on education, to build the Iron Dome, which saves us from their rocket attacks?! And still we warn them first. We drop leaflets and send text messages and call them on the phone and say listen, ‘We’re very sorry, but we have to bomb you in a few hours so in order that you shouldn’t be hurt could you please leave?’ That’s what we do. And Hamas puts a gun to their head and say, ‘No. Go up on your roofs!’ and they celebrate their murders and they lie!! My God how they lie! Here, did you see this picture?”
She opens the Internet and shows me a picture of a Palestinian family – father, mother and child – all killed by an Israeli bomb strike. Except. she shows me that this is really a picture of a Syrian family killed by Assad’s forces, in their civil war. “That’s really bad luck, huh?” she says. “To be killed twice? Once in Syria and again in Gaza!? And the world sees it and they don’t care. They open up their wallets and say here we have to give them money so they can rebuild. Like they did after 2009. You Jews destroyed their homes. They need concrete and steel to rebuild. They’re not going to make bombs out of concrete and steel. So the world pays for it, and we let it in and no, they didn’t build bombs out of it. They built the tunnels that they dug to come and murder me and my family and my neighbors and their families. That’s what it went for! Did they build shelters for their children? Did they build schools for them? They hid their rockets in the U.N. schools! The U.N. just said it. That’s who we’re dealing with! And they fire them from mosques and crowded neighborhoods and we’re the aggressors? We’re the evil ones and they’re the poor victims?! Egypt offered a cease-fire and we said, ‘YES.’ What’s that expression? Learn to take yes for an answer? We said yes! But they didn’t have enough dead babies yet. Not enough dead Palestinian babies, not enough dead Jewish babies. And the world looks and it doesn’t see. That’s what makes me ill. Not the rockets. Not even the tunnels and the terrorists. The world looks and it doesn’t see or it doesn’t care. And we tell them, and it doesn’t matter. It’s like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. It’s insane.”
After a few moments, she calms down. “I’m glad you’re here,” she says. “I just had to get that all out. Just had to say it to somebody. Somebody who would listen. With all the tsuris (troubles), you know what? We’re not going anywhere. This is our home. Not just our country. Our home. And everyone in it is our family. I go to bed at night and I can’t sleep because I hear the gunfire and I think of those boys out there and I know they’re fighting for me! And here I am in a nice bed. Thanks to them.”
“The pizzas are ready,” Mama Rachel says and gives me a slice and then calls to the “boys.”
“Boys,” she says, “here, eat while it’s still hot.”
I was with a Golani officer. Some of the “boys” had come out for a few hours’ rest. How were they doing?
“We’re strong. The guys are excellent. We’re going to complete the mission. We’re going to destroy the tunnels, and we’re going to put a serious dent in Hamas’ day (loose translation) and we’ll be victorious. Because we know what we’re fighting for. We’re not NATO.We’re fighting for our homes.”
Golanchick is an endearing term for a member of the Golani Brigade. “Golanchick,” I say, “if you want to get a shower and some rest and maybe some pizza, I have some dear friends. The woman’s name is Rachel.”
Capt. IDF (Res)
Chaim Talmon was about an hour away from landing in Tel Aviv on July 22 when he noticed on the TV route map that the plane had turned around and was headed in the opposite direction.
He asked the steward if the system was broken. “You don’t feel when a plane turns around, it’s not like a car,” said Talmon, one of 273 passengers on Delta Flight 468, the Boeing 747 that was in the air over Greece when the news broke of a rocket landing near Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport.
The steward confirmed that the plane had turned around, but he didn’t know any further details.
“I guess I wasn’t the only one who noticed it because I noticed other people starting to ask him,” Talmon said.
About 15 minutes later, the captain came on the PA system and told the passengers that he received instruction not to land in Israel; they were headed to Paris, about six hours away.
His fellow passengers didn’t react too strongly to the news, Talmon said. “Nobody started to scream, nobody yelled. … It was like, OK, let’s see what happens. Everybody knew what was going on in Israel” and most of the people on the airplane were Israelis.
Talmon, who lives in Phoenix, was on his way to Israel to visit his daughters and their families. Before his trip, he and his wife, Carol, had collected art supplies, stuffed animals and an assortment of activities to deliver to a moshav in southern Israel, to provide children in bomb shelters with something to do. These donations, along with his personal items and gifts for his grandchildren, were distributed among a large suitcase, a duffel bag, a carry-on and a backpack. He shared his story with Jewish News via telephone on the evening he arrived in Israel. (He left Los Angeles at noon on Monday and arrived in Tel Aviv at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday. “It was a little bit crazy,” he said.)
After the plane arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, the passengers were told to stand in line at the Air France desk to arrange a flight to Israel.
After a period of waiting in line, a representative of the airline came out to report that Air France wasn’t flying to Israel and that none of the European companies were flying to Israel.
The El Al flight leaving from Paris that day only had a handful of seats left so the passengers were given choices: Fly back to the United States or stay in Paris. They continued to wait in line to make their arrangements.
After standing in line for more than an hour, the line hadn’t moved.
Some people decided to return to the United States, but Talmon didn’t want to. “It’s another 14-hour flight,” he said. “I’m so close and I’m going on vacation. And if I go back to the States, who’s going to pay my way back to Israel?”
Around 7 p.m., his daughter called to tell him that she booked him a flight on British Airways and he had about an hour to get his luggage, pick up his ticket and go to the gate, which was on the other side of the airport.
At baggage claim, he found his suitcase but eventually had to stop looking for his duffel bag so he could catch his flight. “Time was ticking,” he said. “I couldn’t miss the flight.”
So, with his large suitcase, carry-on and backpack, he ran to the British Airlines gate. At this point, it was after 8 p.m. He checked in, and then had to go through security. It took a while – they were curious about all the art supplies – but he finally got through. Now it was about 9:50 p.m. and the plane was delayed a couple of times before changing gates; he took a train to the new gate.
Once they boarded the plane, there was a security check; the flight attendants took each piece of luggage out of the overhead bins and made sure that each one belonged to a passenger. After another group of people entered the plane, the whole process was repeated. “It took until the last minute until we were supposed to take off,” he said. The plane left at 1:30 a.m.
The plane arrived in Israel at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, July 23. “The airport was half-empty,” Talmon said. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued a 24-hour ban on planes flying to or from Israel; foreign airlines soon followed. Earlier today, the FAA extended its ban and the European Aviation Safety Agency “strongly” recommended that European airlines refrain from flying there; El Al and British Airways continued their flights.
As of 11:30 p.m. today, Israel time, when he spoke to Jewish News, Talmon hadn’t heard any sirens either near the airport nor at his daughter’s home near Netanya. He was still waiting to hear about the duffel bag.
Guest blogger Dan Gordon, a lone soldier in the IDF, sent this post from Israel:
Ernest Hemingway had great advice for writers. “Write one true declarative sentence,” he said. “Then, write another.” By that standard, Papa Hemingway would be proud, indeed, of Sami Abu Zuhri’s literary prowess.
Sami Abu Zuhri is a Hamas spokesman. He summed up the current situation in Gaza perfectly. And he did it in two true declarative sentences.
“We ( Hamas) aren’t leading our people to destruction. We are leading them to death.”
That wasn’t wasn’t Israel’s Prime Minister who said that. That was an official Hamas spokesman, and he said it without apologies. Two true sentences.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed. Each and every one of those deaths, since Hamas rejected the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, which the Arab League endorsed, was completely predictable, tragic beyond words and absolutely, 100 percent preventable. Because Israel accepted that same cease-fire proposal, immediately and unconditionally.
All the killing could and would have been stopped immediately, right then and there. But as Sami said, that’s not where Hamas is leading the Gazan people.
An event occurred July 21, which may, in the parlance of our time, provide a teachable moment. Israeli forces operating in Gaza were approached by what they suspected was a female suicide bomber. They ordered her to stop. She did not and they, in retrospect, chose the correct course of action.
They shot her.
And she exploded. Or rather the suicide vest that would have killed them all exploded. This was not the first suicide bomber Israeli forces encountered since entering Gaza.
The first one was a donkey. It appeared weighted down with an unusual load on its back and was beaten by its handler in order to urge it forward, toward the Israeli troops . The handler was a Hamas operative, who, having dispatched the donkey, promptly disappeared, quite literally, according to what I heard, down a rat hole. In retrospect, those Israeli troops also chose the correct course of action.
They shot the donkey.
It too exploded, or rather the donkey-sized suicide vest with enough explosives to murder dozens of people exploded.
I bring these two incidents up because, while I have no firsthand knowledge of Hamas’ evolving policy of using beasts of burden as unwilling suicide bombers, I have, at least secondhand knowledge of Hamas’ past and evolving policy on using women as suicide bombers. I know the world’s leading expert on female suicide bombers.
Anat Berko has a Ph.D. in criminology and advanced degrees in psychology. She speaks fluent Arabic and her parents were Jewish refugees from Iraq, where their family had lived for several thousand years and from which they were expelled in the wake of the Israel-Arab conflict that made some 800,000 other Middle Eastern Jews refugees as well. (Ironically, that is almost the exact number of Palestinian Arabs who became refugees in 1948 as a result of the same conflict.)
Dr. Berko carried out the most comprehensive study of female suicide bombers and their handlers ever undertaken. She interviewed almost every female suicide bomber in Israeli custody. These were women whose suicide belts failed to detonate or who were caught before they could carry out their attacks. Her two books, “The Path to Paradise: The Inner World of Suicide Bombers and their Dispatchers” and “The Smarter Bomb: Women and Children as Suicide Bombers,” have become classics on the subject.
What Dr. Berko found was that the majority of female suicide bombers were motivated by other than ideological or religious reasons. Nor were most of them motivated by the desire for revenge or even hatred of Israel.
The majority of female suicide bombers were unwitting, unwilling or chose the path of so-called “martyrdom” as the lesser of two evils with which they were presented. There is a saying on the Palestinian street in regard to female suicide bombers: “Shahida o sharmuta?” Freely translated, it means “(Was she) a martyr or a whore?”
The reason Palestinians might say that about one who had ostensibly committed the highly praised (when it comes to men) act of “martyrdom” is because they know that in many (if not the majority of) instances, the female suicide bomber was approached by operatives of one terrorist organization or another and told that she had been seen with men other than male relatives and had thus dishonored her family. In such an instance, she would either be the victim of an “honor killing” to be carried out by her father, brother or another male relative, or she could choose to become a suicide bomber, strap on an explosive vest, blow herself up with as many Jews as possible, and thus die not a whore, but a martyr who would be admitted to Paradise, where she would sit at the right hand of the prophet, and where, by the way, she could choose her own husband, as opposed to being forced into a heavenly marriage with someone not of her choosing.
Another category that provided fertile ground for finding female suicide bombers were victims of rape and incest from within their own families. One girl was raped repeatedly by her cousins, another by her brother. Both saw the “suicide” part of suicide bomber, as preferable to the literal hell on Earth that they were living.
To be sure, there were women so enchanted with the religious notion of Paradise and its advantages over earthly life (such as not having to take care of children, never having a period and marrying the mate of one’s own choice) that they became suicide bombers for religious reasons. Others had seen relatives killed by Israeli soldiers and wanted revenge, and others, while not religious, were motivated by nationalistic reasons. But as noted these were far fewer in number than the women who were unwilling martyrs or those choosing martyrdom instead of honor killing or as a means of escaping an intolerable life.
But what I remembered was that Hamas had, at least at one time, a firm policy against using female suicide bombers. Indeed Dr Berko had once interviewed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, one of the founders and the spiritual leader of Hamas until his death in 2004 at the hands of the IDF..
Dr. Berko interviewed the spiritual leader in 1996. “At that time,” Dr. Berko told me this morning [July 22], “Yassin said, ‘I’m against sending women (as suicide bombers) because they have a special role. It is to give birth to children. There is not equality in Islam. Suicide bombing, that’s not a job for women. And then, too, we have enough men to be suicide bombers. So we are against it. We don’t use them.”
“What happened to make Hamas change it’s mind?” I asked.
“In 2002, there was the first female suicide bomber,” Dr . Berko told me. “She was not from Hamas. But it got a lot of good publicity for the organization that sent her. It got good media attention, and Hamas felt they had to compete with the other terrorist organizations who were getting all the attention because of the female suicide bombers. So Hamas didn’t want to be left behind.
“And that’s why Hamas changed its mind? Because it was effective media?!”
“Yes,” she said. “Hamas had to compete with the other terrorist organizations.”
We will probably never know what motivated the female suicide bomber who exploded prematurely thanks to an Israeli marksman. But we absolutely know the motivation of the terrorist army of Hamas and its political wing as well, which dispatched her and the donkey and which have turned their own people into human shields, and which celebrate their deaths because of the great media attention it brings them.
That is the truth, the shame, the horror. It is not my, or Israel’s or anyone else’s posturing or, Heaven forbid, amelioration.
We know it because Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas official spokesman told us so, in two declarative, Hemingway-esque sentences.
“We are not leading our people to destruction. We are leading them to death.”
Dan Gordon is a member of the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley.
With all the stories coming out of Israel recently, I have found that often the “comments” underneath the articles or Facebook posts are often just as disturbing as the stories themselves.
Where does all this venom come from and how can these commentators have such different views about the issue than I do? What have they heard that I haven’t?
Although I’m aware of the Palestinian textbooks that are used to educate Palestinian children and how those history lessons have spread hateful ideology, it wasn’t until recently that I’ve realized that those same stories are just as available to the rest of the world, thanks to the Internet.
After feeling overwhelmed by all the hatred for Israel I witnessed on social media, I recently spent some time searching for these stories that are being told. Perhaps I was naïve, but what I found shocked me.
For example, the organization What Americans Need to Know, a nonprofit started by Alison Weir, who, according to her website, is an American freelance journalist who traveled independently throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip in February and March of 2001 and found that the way the American press portrayed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was “significantly at odds with information being reported by media throughout the rest of the world.”
Her website – ifamericansknew.org – uses different methods to present her perception about the conflict. For example, there are charts comparing such things as the number of Israeli children killed by Palestinians to the number of Palestinian children killed by Israelis. I didn’t see anything about the fact that Israel sounds sirens to warn its citizens of incoming rockets so they can seek safety in the country’s bomb shelters or anything addressing reports that Palestinian gunmen often use civilians and children as human shields.
On her mission statement page, she announces that the organization’s main call for action is to encourage Americans to advocate cutting U.S. aid to Israel.
Her site also presents a paper titled “The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict,” which says that “Zionism was based on a faulty, colonialist world view that the rights of the indigenous inhabitants didn’t matter. The Arabs’ opposition to Zionism wasn’t based on anti-Semitism but rather on a totally reasonable fear of the dispossession of their people.”
The details there are very different from the history I’ve learned and Weir’s presentation of history helps explain why so many people around the world feel the way they do about Israel.
More insight on this version of history is on 1948.org.uk, describing the same people who Israelis call heroes as “Zionist terrorists” and telling a very different story of the founding of the Jewish state and its leaders and wars.
Here is an example:
The Zionist plan to transfer Palestinians out of their land was headed by no lesser character than David Ben-Gurion himself. He plotted these schemes in his own home aided by a small ad hoc group of people referred to as The Consultancy. Its aim was to plot and carry out the disposession of the Palestinian people.
At what point is history dictated? How is it even possible that there are those who deny the Holocaust, even as those who survived it are still alive? How can there be such different perceptions of the state of Israel when its entire existence has occurred in one life span?
As a child, one learns about history how it is presented to him or her and then forms a view on the world based on these facts. But that trait doesn’t often end in childhood. With today’s busy world, many people make decisions based on stories posted on their friends’ Facebook pages and don’t take the time to research other sources to form their viewpoint.
It doesn’t help that there are extremists on both sides that hurt their own cause by committing horrific acts and instances of media manipulation that portray Israel in a negative light.
On the flip side of Weir’s website are theisraelproject.org and honestreporting.com; the first is a non-partisan American educational organization dedicated to informing the media and public conversation about Israel and the Middle East and the latter monitors the news for bias, inaccuracy or other breach of journalistic standards in coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
What sources do you turn to?
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Nibiru and the Dead Sea Scrolls
An underlying assumption of mine about Nibiru is that ancient knowledge of its existence was passed down through the generations and crossed cultural lines. Thus, although the original textual references cited by Zecharia Sitchin (1) are Sumerian, Akkadian and subsequently Babylonian, the secret and holy knowledge of the Celestial Lord passed to the Egyptians, the Jews and eventually even European esoteric schools (2). The form of that knowledge has evolved over the millennia as the given culture has wrapped up the secret knowledge in its own contextual framework.
In the Messianic Era preceding Christ the Jews had a fervent expectation of the return of the Messiah to wrap up the ‘end of days’ with general Apocalypse and Judgement. The term ‘messiah’ was actually a rather generic one during Jesus’ time, and could be used to refer to the Jewish king of the House of David, or even to the High Priest (the ‘Priest Messiah’) (3). During the Roman occupation of Palestine, the expectation of the return of the Messiah also took on a political and military significance for Jews. My interest lies in whether the return of the Messiah was actually synonymous with a much older tradition, that of the return of the Celestial Lord. Did the Jewish people incorporate Chaldean beliefs about Marduk into their scriptures during their captivity in Babylon? After all, there are several similarities between Jesus Christ and Marduk. Was the expected return of the Messiah a Jewish cultural rendering of the timing of Nibiru, the Celestial Lord? If so, then Nibiru/Marduk may have been the Messianic Star, and Jewish calendars could contain clues for Nibiru’s return.
Sitchin proposed that the Jewish Count of Years dating back to 3760BC marked a perihelion passage of Nibiru (4). In order to investigate the evidence from Judaism farther, I have been looking closely at newly published data about the Dead Sea Scrolls. After all, information sourced directly from the Jewish Qumran sect during the Graeco-Roman period should hold clues about these cross-cultural mythical ties. There was clearly an expectation of the Messiah in the Qumran community and, although there are no New Testament writings among the scrolls, the later Qumran sect was contemporaneous with early Jewish Christians in Jerusalem (5).
In the scrolls the references to messianic activity seem to point to the coming of “three messianic figures: a prophet, star/sceptre and priest” (5).
The Star is alluded to in the Oracle of Balaam (Numbers 24:15-17: ‘A star shall arise from Jacob and a sceptre from Israel’), and this plurality of messianic figures fits neatly with the Melchizedek scrolls of Cave 11 which portend a “heavenly deliver (not an earthly messiah) in the form of a high priest” [original emphasis] (5). There is a conviction within the scrolls of being ‘in communion with the heavenly cult and the angels’, and the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice continues a ‘tradition of communion with a heavenly cult found in Ezekiel’ (5).
The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice
The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice are very suggestive of a glorious celestial vision, where the cherubim of the twelfth song are ‘almost indistinguishable from the wheels of God’s throne-chariot’ (5). But it’s the structure of the songs that is really interesting. They were designed to be used in worship over the first 13 sabbaths of the year.
“They also exhibit a chiastic (mirror-pattern) structure, as follows, with the first six balancing the last six in reverse order. In such structures the central element (here the 7th Sabbath song) usually provides the clue to the meaning of the whole” (5).
As can be seen from the diagram, reproduced from ‘The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls’, this leads to a diagrammatic structure that is essentially parabolic in character. Let us, for a moment, assume that God’s ‘throne-chariot’ is the returning Nibiru, a brown dwarf with its own collection of moons/planets. Does the literary parabola describe its perihelion passage? There are suggestive elements here, certainly. The first sabbath describes the establishment of angelic priesthood, the second a description of heaven and its sanctuary. These initial songs would describe Nibiru’s initial appearance and the developing celestial halo.
The 7th song would mark perihelion, where the angels are called to praise at the culmination of the literary structure. Also notice how the songs immediately pre and post perihelion describe 7 ‘chief princes’ and 7 ‘angelic priesthoods’ respectively. As Nibiru was near its closest point to the Sun, then the image of its own moons/planets would be most striking at that time, as I have described in my book (6). Are the moons equivalent to the contingent of angels and princes described in the songs? The correlation is certainly striking.
As God’s chariot-throne moves through the remaining Sabbath Songs, there is discussion of a temple veil, the one divine chariot throne with an angelic procession, and a praise of the ‘gates’. Finally, in the 13th sabbath, there is sacrifice. Nibiru’s halo is being described here as the brown dwarf moves away and dims, entering the gates back into the primordial deep. The sacrifice is its final disappearance after 3 months of the year’s first quarter. So these Songs seem to provide a framework for worship for the entire duration of the visible perihelion passage, which would amount here to about 3 months. Interestingly, the calendrical time period between Christ’s ‘birth’ (traditionally 6th January) and his sacrifice at Easter (denoted by lunar considerations) is also about 3 months, again during the first quarter of the Christian year.
There’s that number again!
The pattern of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice is highly suggestive of a heavenly event occurring over three months, related in poetic literary terms. But are there any more concrete clues suggestive of a connection with Nibiru? We find just such a clue in the Psalms Scroll from Cave 11:
“…He composed 3,600 psalms and 364 songs for singing before the altar for the continual daily sacrifice, for every day of the year, and 52 songs for the sabbath offerings, and 30 songs for the new moons, for festivals and for the Day of Atonement”. (11QPs27)
Given that 364 is the number of days of the Jewish solar calendar used by the writers of the scrolls (NB not our 365.25 day solar calendar), and that the numbers 52 and 30 are clearly used with calendar and astronomical periods in minds, then what’s the number 3600 doing there? It is given prominence by denoting the overall number of Psalms, and this suggests it is highly significant. Yet it does not correlate with any known astronomical pattern.
Except one, of course: the orbital period of Nibiru!
This is more than mere coincidence. The use of the number 3600 in this context demands an explanation as to what celestial cycle is being alluded to by the Jewish authors of these ancient scrolls. It cannot simply be brushed to one side and ignored. This argument is strengthened by the seriousness with which the Qumran community held the calendar as a whole. It appears from the scrolls that one of the main reasons that this sect withdrew from the mainstream Jewish religion was that they had a fundamental disagreement with the Temple priests about which calendar should be used. The Qumran sect favoured a solar calendar of 364 days, where all months had 30 days and four days were inserted (quarterly). This could be contrasted with the official Jewish calendar of 12 lunar months, or 354 days.
“Vigorous adherence to a solar calendar is one of the strongest arguments that the Qumran scrolls come, if not from a single group, then from groups that were closely related, and united in their opposition to a calendar sanctioned in their time by a priesthood that they regarded as corrupt, in error and doomed to destruction”. (5)
An explanation for their abhorrence of the priestly use of the official Jewish calendar might stem from their wish to ensure that festival days did not fall upon sabbaths. But the 3600 figure may require us to look at this important sectarian conflict more closely. If Nibiru’s expected return was indeed the basis for dating systems and calendars, like that of Nippur and the Jewish count of years, then the actual number of days that makes up a year is of absolutely crucial significance. Sitchin notes that the ‘intercalation’ between the solar and lunar year requires an adjustment of ‘10 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes and about 45.5 seconds’, and seems to assume that this was already made in ancient times (7). Over the course of 3600 years, the difference between the use of lunar and solar calendars makes a margin of error of about 100 years!
In other words, if the figure 3600 was originally intended to mean the number of years on a lunar calendar, then this would be equivalent to about 3500 solar years. Conversely, if the original 3600-year figure was intended to denote solar years, as we use in our calendar, but the actual count of years was carried out using a lunar calendar as its reference, then this would amount to an equivalent count of about 3700 years.
This whole issue would have taken on much greater significance as the 3600-year point drew around, as it did during the Messianic Era in Palestine. The disagreement about which calendar should have been applied to the count of years would make a difference of over 100 years. Could this explain the sheer length of time during which there was an expectation of the return of the Messiah in Palestine? Might this explain why Sitchin’s premise of 160BC as the date of the last Nibiruan passage does not coincide with an actual observed sighting? This might partially explain why the Messianic Star’s appearance was dated to a time about 160 years later, during the time of Herod the Great (although, uncomfortably for Christians, Herod was already dead when Jesus was supposed to have been born in Bethlehem. Whoops.)
If the use of a particular calendar was already so controversial 2000 years ago, then it might be difficult to date any previous event with clarity, at least on a Jewish calendrical framework. When you consider that attempts to offer a new chronology for ancient dates by, say, Immanuel Velikovsky (8) and David Rohl (9) can shift time periods by hundreds of years, then it is safe to say that we do not have a firm grip on ancient chronologies. The Dead Sea Scrolls may highlight the problems with Jewish dating methods, but they also clarify the significance of the 3600 year period, whether counted in lunar or solar years. Combine this with the sect’s expectation of the imminent return of a heavenly Messiah, and a powerful picture emerges that is in keeping with Sitchin’s general hypothesis about Planet X.
The Scrolls Controversy
It is only now, in the 21st Century, that anyone outside of a small and exclusive group of scholars has been able to gain insight into the content of the Dead Sea Scrolls (10). The data contained within the thousands of fragments discovered in the caves around Qumran had been, in the most part, jealously guarded by their assigned editors, generating conspiracy theories (11). Some readers of this essay may wonder as to whether there is a link between this lengthy withholding of information by the Qumran scholars, and the hidden knowledge of Nibiru contained within several scrolls.
Personally, I wouldn’t go that far.
The importance of certain apocryphal texts among sect members might be a more interesting line of enquiry here, and I’m certainly interested in the scrolls containing the Books of Enoch, the Book of Watchers (!!!), the Book of Astronomical Secrets and the Book of Giants (although I haven’t yet acquired copies of all these texts). This scholarly analysis of the importance of Enoch highlights the ramifications for biblical scholarship, Judaism and Christianity:
“A central feature of the Enochian corpus is the belief that sin originated in the heavenly world (no mention of Adam and Eve), that the course of human history is pre-ordained, and that the true calendar is determined by the sun, not the moon. All these tenets are also prominent in the non-biblical scrolls from Qumran. The Enoch traditions may well have been considered as authoritative by the Qumran community and other groups…Whether a form of ‘Enochian Judaism’ can be separated from ‘Mosaic Judaism’, with which it merged but by which it was largely supplanted, is an interesting and important question currently under discussion.” (5)
Now that the scrolls have been fully published, after decades of procrastination, scholars are radically reassessing the nature of Judaism before the advent of Christianity. There appear to have been a multitude of forms of Judaism within Israel during the Graeco-Roman period, and the use of either lunar or solar calendars was one of the main points of division between them. They were all expecting the end of the world, and the coming Messiah (in whatever form), and the timing of the Apocalypse depended heavily upon which calendrical system was in use, and when. Although the issue of the Roman occupation no doubt had a part to play in the messianic fervour among Jewish sects at the time, the expectation of the 'end of days' was older and more entrenched than a mere backlash against the 'Kittim', as the Romans were described in the scrolls.
The Psalm Scroll clearly points towards 3600 years as the count to the end of the world, and it is quite incredible that no other scholars than Zecharia Sitchin have made this connection. What Sitchin did not appreciate at the time of writing was the confusion of calendar systems in use in Israel, varying between various Jewish groups and over different times. So the precise date of the end of the world, thought to be imminent during the Graeco-Roman era, was under fierce debate among the different Jewish sects. This we can glean from the Dead Sea Scrolls. So we are also left in considerable doubt about this apocalyptic date, beyond the fact that it was supposed to have occurred 3600 years after the Jewish count of years began.
When the end of the world failed to occur, prophetic Judaism (perhaps based on Enochian traditions) must have suffered a crisis, possibly around the time of the sacking of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans. The early Christians, through the Gospel of St Matthew, claimed that the Star had actually appeared pretty much on schedule, during the reign of Herod the Great, but there is little actual historical evidence for this. Nevertheless, this Christian claim indicates how the Jewish calendar system was 'reset' on the basis of the Star's Epochal return. Rabbinical Judaism then emerged to produce a strict canon of Jewish thought, and the prophetic era of the old diverse Jewish beliefs ended. Until the scrolls were recently made public, the influence of Enochian Judaism in Graeco-Roman Palestine was not appreciated.
Was Nibiru the Star (12)? The scrolls suggest so, particularly the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, that appears to create a framework for the worship of an anomalous celestial event spanning 3 months. But it seems that the expectation of the Star's return was not actually coincident with an observable appearance. In my book I have outlined possible astronomical reasons for this (6). I believe that the early Pauline Christians constructed the Nativity story to mythologise Jesus as Christ the Messiah, in keeping with other pagan dying and rising gods, as well as the old Jewish traditional prophecies. We certainly cannot be sure that the Star of Bethlehem was a real astronomical event. But the scrolls go a long way towards showing that the return of the dark star lay behind the messianic prophecies and the fierce sectarian clash of opinion about the timing of the end of days.
Dark Star Magical Seal
This early seal is similar to the magical amulets of the Graeco-Roman Era, which I havepreviously associated with dark Star symbolism. This example is much older, and is thought to belong to Queen Jezebel. Interesting, then that it should include the Winged Disk in a Hebrew setting, albeit with pagan overtones. Note, in this explanation, how the Winged Disk is associated with royalty (the Sun-god Horus, also depicted here), arguably alluding to the royal association of the planet Nibiru:
"Jezebel, whose life in the 9th century B.C. is chronicled in the Bible, was married to King Ahab of Israel. As a Phoenician, the Queen was considered pagan and attempted to sway the people of Israel to abandon their God and accept her chief deity Baal, partly through forging her husband's seal on documents, according to the scriptures.
The Bible says nothing of her own seal, but archaeologists have long believed that the stone discovered in 1964 was Jezebel's, despite the ambiguity of the symbols and the name depicted on it. Multiple icons on the seal, as well as its above-average size, indicate that it belonged to a queen, the recent investigations concluded.
"The lotus (below the Horus falcon) was a symbol of gender definition and refers to a female owner," Korpel told LiveScience, "[while] the winged sun disk was a well-known symbol of royalty in and outside Israel."
Other symbols on the seal also reinforce the connection to a monarch, such as the Horus and double-cobra, a figure probably adopted from Egypt, she said."
Reference: "Royal Seal Indicates Biblical Queen Jezebel's Power" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309761,00.html With thanks to Joann
Written by Andy Lloyd, author of 'The Dark Star' (2005), 'Ezekiel One' (2009) and 'The Followers of Horus' (2010)
© 24th October 2002
1. Z. Sitchin “The
Twelfth Planet” Avon 1976 http://www.sitchin.com
2. A. Lloyd "The Secret Knowledge of Nibiru" 2001 Available from the author; and see the esoteric section of the Dark Star Theory
3. M. Baigent, R. Leigh & H. Lincoln “The Messianic Legacy” p41 Corgi 1987
4. Z. Sitchin “The Lost Realms” p268 Avon 1990
5. P. Davies, G. Brooke & P. Callaway “The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls” p200-2, 130, 163, 199, 148-9, 133-5, 127
Thames & Hudson 2002
6. A. Lloyd “Winged Disc: The Dark Star Theory” 2000 Available from the author
7. Z. Sitchin “When Time Began” p19 Avon 1993
8. I. Velikovsky “Ages in Chaos” Sidgewick & Jackson 1953
9. D. Rohl “Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation” Arrow 1999
10. For on-line access to Dead Sea Scroll texts, see http://www.piney.com/DSSIndex.html With Thanks to Brian K. Forsyth
11. M. Baigent & R. Leigh “The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception” Corgi 1992
12. Image from E. Krupp "Echoes of the Ancient Skies" p20 Oxford University Press 1983, showing Isis and Osiris as the stellar region known as the Duat, the likely location of the perihelion transit of Nibiru.
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|20th C. Antique Tibetan Monastery Buddha Double Sided Wood block. This is cool because it is 2 sided. This side has the 8 auspicios signs. And Large Tibetan Writing.
The 8 signs are: The Dharma-Wheel (Dharmachakra); it is said that after Siddharta Gautama achieved enlightenment, Brahma came to him, offered a Dharma-Wheel and requested the Buddha to teach.
The Victory Banner; symbolises the victory of the Buddha's teachings over death, ignorance, disharmony and all the negativities of this world, and victory over. The roofs of Tibetan monasteries are often decorated with victory banners of different shapes and sizes.
The Auspicious or Endless Knot is a geometric diagram which symbolises the nature of reality where everything is interrelated and only exists as part of a web of karma and its effect. Having no beginning or end, it also represents the infinite wisdom of the Buddha, and the union of compassion and wisdom.
The Conch, which is also used as a horn, symbolises the deep, far reaching and melodious sound of the teachings, which is suitable for all disciples at it awakens them from the slumber of ignorance to accomplish all beings' welfare.
The Lotus is a very important symbol in India and of Buddhism. It refers to the complete purification of body, speech and mind, and the blossoming of wholesome deeds in liberation.
The Treasure Vase; is a sign of the inexhaustible riches available in the Buddhist teachings, but also symbolises long life, wealth, prosperity and all the benefits of this world.
The Golden Fish; were originally symbolic of the rivers Ganges and Yamuna, but came to represent good fortune in general.
The Umbrella or parasol embodies notions of wealth or royalty, for one had to be rich enough to possess such an item, and further, to have someone carry it. It points to the "royal ease" and power experienced in the Buddhist life of detachment.
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Back Navigation allows the user to travel one level up in the information hierarchy.
Appearance & Behavior
There are two styles of back navigation:
- Use a text link when navigating to a detail view, or one level deeper in the information architecture. The link label should match the linked page’s name.
- Use a back button when navigating within a flow (in a trowser). On a sticky footer, the back button would use a secondary button style.
- Keep the label simple, either a plain “Back” or start with “Back to” (e.g., “Back to Invoice”).
- Place the back button to the left of the “next” or “save” button.
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There comes that time when you need to get a new computer just because the old one can’t keep up with the computing demands of new apps. This is usually a certainty, and everyone is bound to getting a new computer. What most people do not realize is that the old machines can still be of use, it just takes a little creativity and the right information source to make your old computer usable. Below we look at some of the things you can do with your old computer.
Make your old computers usable
External hard drive
Before you box your old computer and throw it in the attic, it is important to know that you can still use its hard disk to store more information. Particularly suitable for old laptops, you can buy a USB based controller that can be used to turn a hard drive into and external USB hard disk. For less that five dollars, you can acquire the controller that comes accompanied with housing. By just mounting the hard drive to the controller’s motherboard and screwing a few screws, you will have a robust extra storage device.
For those that have no idea what cluster computing is, take this opportunity to familiarize yourself with the technology. Via cluster computing, we have been able to create supercomputers that can handle more computations compared to ones operating solo. Clustering is whereby you use two or more different computers to complete computational tasks faster. By making use of cluster software, you can make your new and old computer function as one, increasing the resources at your disposal. It only takes the software, which is readily available for free, and a LAN cable.
Digital photo album
Ever heard of a digital album? Probably not. Instead of discarding your old computer, you can quickly turn it into a digital photo album to showcase your lovely photos to visiting guests of friends. By saving all your important photos on the computer, you can easily create a looping slideshow that will keep on playing until you stop it. This can be a very entertaining way to showcase your photos in the living room or other private rooms of your house.
Let’s face it, getting one of those new fancy internet TV’s is expensive. The good news is that if you have the modern television, you can quickly turn it into a smart or internet TV by leveraging the functionalities of your old computer. Computers are always years ahead in advancement compared to TVs. The chances are that a 90’s computer is way cooler compare to a modern smart TV. By making use of VGA or HDMI cable, you can use your computer as your primary source of entertainment and use the TV as the display.
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By Marty Crump
Thousands of years ago, some ancient sailors and traders visited faraway islands in the Indian Ocean. Imagine their surprise—and horror—when they saw reptiles like this one, nearly the size of gators. They probably returned home and told tales of monsters that flicked long, forked tongues in and out of drool-dripping mouths. These huge beasts might even have inspired stories of imaginary fire-breathing dragons.
Komodo (kuh-MOH-doh) dragons are lizards—the largest lizards in the world. An adult can be 10 feet long. Four large dragons placed end to end would equal a T. rex from tip to tail. But don't worry: These wild dragons live only on a few small islands within the country of Indonesia (see map).
WHAT'S ON THE MENU?
Komodo dragons eat just about any meat they can find—dead or alive—from rats to deer to huge water buffalo. They even eat cobras—and each other! And they have nasty dining manners. They slurp, slobber, and stuff their big mouths. A large dragon can devour an entire boar (wild pig) in less than 20 minutes. How piggish!
Often dragons just lumber up and down the beach, eating dead fish and turtles. But they also can run for short distances, chasing down fast-moving prey such as lizards.
DRAGON'S TOOL BOX
A Komodo dragon is well equipped for its life as a meat-eater. On the lookout for food, the dragon darts a long, forked tongue in and out of its mouth. The tips of the tongue pick up scents from the air. The dragon pokes the tongue tips into two pockets in the roof of its mouth. Nerves there sense any odors and tell the dragon whether a meal is near.
METHODS TO LIVE BY
Sometimes dragons sneak up on their prey, such as a deer asleep under a bush. Other times they ambush prey. Picture this: a large Komodo dragon lies in wait along a forest trail. As a wild boar approaches, the dragon lunges at it and bites.
Injured prey might manage to get away—but not for long. Within a few days, the wounded animal dies and its carcass begins to rot. Komodo dragons can smell the stink from several miles away. FOOD! They gather at the spot and the feast begins.
But dragons don't dine every day, as you do. On average, an adult gets only one large meal a month. But when it does eat, it eats a lot! Its stomach expands so much that a dragon can take in most of its body weight in a single meal. That would be like you chowing down four or five whole turkeys—by yourself—for Thanksgiving dinner!
Unlike you, dragons don't leave behind bones, fat, skin, and gristle. They devour all those parts, plus fur, feathers, hooves, and horns. Slimy saliva helps large chunks slide down the throat. For a Komodo dragon, drool is cool!
JAWS OF DOOM
Did you ever hear the term "dragon breath"? Perhaps it comes from Komodo dragons. A dragon's deadly drool may contain over 50 kinds of harmful bacteria (germs)—and it really stinks! The lizard also has venom glands in its jaws. The venom probably makes bitten prey go into shock—and then bleed to death.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Komodo dragons usually live alone—until it's time to find a mate. After mating, each female buries up to 30 eggs in the sand. Then, in about eight months, miniature dragons break through their eggshells. Now completely on their own, they face a world full of hungry predators—including their elders—ready to eat them.
Most of the remaining 3,000 or so Komodo dragons are protected in Komodo National Park. But sadly, some people who live there still kill dragons out of fear or because the lizards eat their goats and chickens. People also destroy parts of the forest and kill deer that the dragons need for food.
Scientists are working to better understand what Komodo dragons need to survive. With more protection, these awesome reptile giants should still be able to rule their islands for the next century and beyond.
"Dragon!" originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of Ranger Rick magazine. Click here to download a pdf of this article.
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In English, many things are named after a particular country – but have you ever wondered what those things are called in those countries?
1(fit/attack) epiléptico(fit/attack) de epilepsiashe's epileptic — es epiléptica
- A student died after developing a rare compulsive disorder that led him to seek hospital treatment he did not need for fake epileptic fits.
- He suffers from epileptic fits, lower limb motor neurone problems, illnesses relating to cerebral palsy and other neurological problems.
- It is agreed that there is a continuing risk of his suffering epileptic fits, despite taking medication.
- A side effect of his condition is that he suffers epileptic fits which recently forced him to spend time as an intensive care patient.
- In severe cases there may be weakness of the muscles, paralysis, speech disturbances, double vision or partial loss of the field of vision, and epileptic fits.
- They are also usually on medication, being prone to epileptic fits.
- During the Middle Ages, Europeans used walnuts to combat fevers, witchcraft, epileptic fits and even to prevent lightning.
- Family and friends say he was prone to epileptic fits, which were often brought on after binge drinking, though no alcohol was found in his blood after he died.
- The old charge, that he was an epileptic and that his revelations occurred when he was in the grip of epileptic fits, is now universally rejected by all serious scholars.
- The moments of crisis are filmed like epileptic fits.
- He worked as a farm labourer until he started to have a set of epileptic fits and he expired, as I say, eleven and a half years after the accident.
- While it may cause epileptic fits or heart palpitations in the uninitiated, for the dedicated they just don't make them as good as this one.
- These have not been proved to cause epileptic fits, but they can certainly be a source of irritation to other divers.
- He also suffers from epileptic fits and may have Asperger's Syndrome.
- For anyone who has not experienced one before, epileptic fits can be terrifying.
- Computer games may be worse than TV because of the patterns and frequencies they use, but either may trigger epileptic fits.
- She cannot work as she now suffers frequent, violent epileptic fits.
- Occasionally, some individuals say they have blurred vision, feelings of unreality, faints, blackouts or even epileptic fits.
- Febrile convulsions can be frightening for parents, especially as they look like epileptic fits.
- At 18 months she began to suffer regular epileptic fits, caused by a non malignant tumour on her brain.
1epiléptico masculineepiléptica feminine
English has borrowed many of the following foreign expressions of parting, so you’ve probably encountered some of these ways to say goodbye in other languages.
Many words formed by the addition of the suffix –ster are now obsolete - which ones are due a resurgence?
As their breed names often attest, dogs are a truly international bunch. Let’s take a look at 12 different dog breed names and their backstories.
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New condition but for diagonal corner crease on rear cover.
An Eighth Day View:
The three books considered in this volume constitute the principal biblical witness to Israel's early history. According to A. Graeme Auld, "they tell the story of how under Joshua the land was first taken by Israel and then apportioned to her various tribes. They tell how after Joshua there was a long period of ups and downs; of religious apostasy within the community and repeated harassment from abroad answered by a series of divinely impelled 'Judges' or 'Deliverers.' They offer some samples of life in Israel, 'in the days when the Judges ruled' or 'when there was not yet a king in Israel.'"
Carrying forward brilliantly the pattern established by Barclay's New Testament series, the Daily Study Bible has been extended to cover the entire Old Testament as well. Invaluable for individual devotional study, for group discussion, and for classroom use, the Daily Study Bible provides a useful, reliable, and eminently readable way to discover what the Scriptures were saying then and what God is saying today.
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The Scriptures offer an abundance of specific instructions about what we must do to live a good life that is pleasing to God. Sometimes, however, the Bible also teaches us by showing us what not to do.
Today's first reading and Gospel present two bad examples: the corrupt Levites and the proud scribes and Pharisees. In the first reading, the prophet Malachi scolds the Levites, and in the Gospel, Jesus chastises the scribes and Pharisees. Both Malachi and Jesus point out the many flaws of these religious leaders, give them a much-needed lesson in humility, and offer them a chance to change.
The First Reading: Malachai 1:14b – 2:2b, 8-10
The Levites were the priests of the Old Testament. Their job was to teach the Law, give the people an example of holiness, and offer the prescribed sacrifices in the Temple. Apparently, they also assumed the role of judges in conflicts between the Israelites.
In this reading, God, though the prophet Malachai, lodges several complaints against the Levites:
1. they have turned aside from the way of holiness;
2. they have caused others to falter and grow weak through bad advice or lack of proper instruction;
3. they are not keeping their side of the covenant (i.e, they are not giving themselves to God in loving service); and
4. they show partiality in their decisions (and perhaps take bribes?).
The Levites had already been punished for their misdeeds. The people who were supposed to look up to them as examples of holiness now look down on them with contempt and derision.
These wayward Levites will be subject to further chastisement if they do not turn away from their wickedness. “I will send a curse upon you and of your blessing I will make a curse,” God threatens through Malachai. Remember, though, that when God punishes, He does so to lead stubborn hearts and minds to repentance and conversion.
What must the Levites do, then, if they are to follow God's will? They must listen to God, take His words to heart, give glory to His name, change their ways, behave as children of the one God, remember that they are brothers of the people they are to serve, keep the covenant, be faithful to each other, and practice humility.
The Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12
The scribes and Pharisees were the teachers of the Law in Jesus' time. They were supposed to be compassionate and loving leaders who taught by word and holy example.
In the Gospel, Jesus lodges numerous complaints against the scribes and Pharisees:
1. they do not practice what they preach;
2. they place burdens on the people, but they do not help them carry those burdens (i.e., they create an excess of rules regulations, but they do not help the people fulfill them);
3. they are proud; and
4. they do good works only to be recognized and approved by others.
What will to happen to the scribes and Pharisees if they refuse to change their ways? Jesus warns, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.”
What, then, must the scribes and Pharisees do to please God? They must discover humility, remember that God is their Teacher, Father, and Master, become servants to others, and live in unity with their brothers and sisters.
If the Levites, scribes, and Pharisees had only listened to the Word of God and changed their ways (and perhaps some of them did), these bad examples who show us how not to live might have become our fellow travelers along the path to God.
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How to Pot an Ornamental Cherry Tree
Even if you’re short of space, you can still enjoy an ornamental cherry’s gorgeous spring blooms by planting a tree in a container.
2011, Dorling Kindersley Limited
When planting an ornamental cherry in a pot, choose a specimen grown on a dwarf rooting stock, such as M26—this will restrict its size and keep it from outgrowing its container.
- ornamental cherry trees
- weatherproof pot
- rocks or broken pieces of old clay pots
- gardening gloves
- soil- or loam-based compost
- controlled-release fertilizer
- watering can or garden hose
Step 1: Place Rocks in Bottom of Pot
You might also consider using "crocks," which are broken pieces of old clay pots, in place of the rocks. Wearing gloves, add a layer of soil- or loam-based compost, and mix in controlled-release fertilizer, following the product guidelines.
Step 2: Soak Tree Roots
Soak tree roots in a bucket before planting. Coax out any roots that are circling around the root ball, and stand the tree on the compost, ensuring it is upright.
Step 3: Plant the Tree
Plant the tree at the same level it was growing at in its original pot. Fill in with compost and firm down, leaving a 2in (5cm) gap between the rim of the pot and the compost for watering.
Step 4: Give the Tree a Good Soak
Water regularly—every couple of days in the summer—and feed annually in the spring with a slow-release fertilizer. Underplanting will add floral interest through the summer.
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In regards to planning and storing food, the icebox is among the most important devices in the home. It is essential, nevertheless, to know the role it plays in the safety of the meals you consume, and to carefully follow appropriate food handling and food protection actions in order to reduce steadily the likelihood of serious food borne illness.
The first step in proper food protection is to choose just the freshest and highest quality foods. The cleaner the ingredients are the less likely they are to be contaminated with illness causing germs. It is very important to bear in mind that the temperature of the average fridge, generally between 35 and 44 levels Fahrenheit, will retard the development of microorganisms. This heat selection won’t, however, eliminate any microorganisms that’ll already be contained in the food. That is why proper cooking techniques and cooking meats to their proposed central conditions is so important.
Of course it is very important to make sure that the fridge in your house is working properly, and keeping meals at the perfect temperatures. One of the very frequent problems encountered with refrigerators is an wrongly closing door. A door that will not seal effectively interferes with the proper functioning of the appliance ميكروويف, and can lead to food spoilage issues as effectively, because the food is incapable of stay at a cold enough temperature. Putting a small icebox thermometer near the doorway of the fridge can give you advanced warning that the seal needs to be replaced.
If the fridge is more than three years previous it might be a good idea to proceed and change the seal. The cost of that development is tiny, and replacing the seal may wind up helping you save money through paid down energy prices and less food waste. A well sealed ice box can last longer as well.
Additionally, there are other steps every homeowner will take to improve the life of both the icebox and the foodstuff it contains. Some of these ice box and food keeping ideas include:
Never keep consitently the icebox door open longer than necessary. Have a notion of what you want before starting the door. Protect meals before placing them in the icebox, applying possibly plastic cover metal foil or an airtight container. Protecting the foodstuff may help reduce the quantity of gentle it is exposed to, that will subsequently support the foodstuff last longer.
Clear the fridge. Work with a soft-bristled brush to remove cob webs. The modern appliances today have closed coil structure. Check the guide to discover where you are able to find the coils and where you are able to get access to them.
Frequently clean the inner of the fridge. Germs can however grow in there especially in between conditions that regarded “danger zone “.If you can find spills, instantly wash the spills away. Eliminate stains and spills along with they could change difficult and crusty. They are able to mark the interior of the machine as well.
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For much of the rest of the spring, students affiliated with chapters of the rabidly anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will stage events throughout the world marking “Israeli Apartheid Week.” The mission of these odious events, according to organizers, is “to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.” This year’s tagline: “100 Years of Settler-Colonialism. 100 Years of Popular Struggle for Justice.”
Has it really been 100 years since the Six-Day War, when Israel emerged from a conflict forced upon it by its Arab neighbors in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip? No — that was in 1967.
100 years refers to something else.
In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour issued the groundbreaking Balfour Declaration. This momentous document was just a single sentence long, but it shook the world:
“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
For the first time in modern history, the long-denied right to self-determination of the Jewish people was validated. Imagine the suffering that could have been avoided and the millions of Jewish lives that could have been saved from slaughter had the Declaration been implemented upon its publication. Alas, it wasn’t.
So why is SJP counting backwards to 100? It can’t be a simple affinity for round numbers (the 1967 war took place an even 50 years ago, after all). It’s because only when looked at through the lens of the Balfour Declaration, with the appearance of a great power parceling out pieces of the world, does the Zionist project look anything like settler-colonialism.
What actually happened? When Britain failed to speedily implement the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist movement sprang to action. There had been a continuous Jewish presence in the Land of Israel for thousands of years; now, it began to grow. Jews living in the Diaspora flocked there, eager to take part in the Zionist project. Jewish individuals and organizations bought land there, draining swamps, tilling soil, and building homes. This wasn’t “settler-colonialism,” it was Jewish national rebirth.
Think of it another way: settler-colonialism is a system whereby a foreign power exploits a land and its resources. But Israel’s population is a census of the persecuted; on what country’s behalf would they be colonists? When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Arab countries across the Middle East expelled their Jews — 900,000 Jewish refugees. Israel absorbed two-thirds of those fleeing Arab repression. Today, fully half of Jewish Israelis are these Arab Jews, descended from this mass exodus. Surely no one would suggest that they’re exploiting Israel’s natural resources for the benefit of countries like Iran and Syria.
Most of the rest of Jewish Israelis are of European extraction, who themselves came—or descend from those who came—to Israel fleeing persecution. When Jews escaped Europe in the first half of the 20th century, they weren’t moving to the Land of Israel for the benefit of a colonialist birth country — they were running for their lives to their ancestral homeland.
By all means, mark 50 years since the Six-Day War this June — I certainly will. I’ll rejoice that Israel and its people avoided destruction and that Jews can once again worship at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. And, as a passionate proponent of the two-state solution, I’ll pray for a final-status agreement that enables Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank. Any reasonable person must agree that while Ramallah is occupied, Tel Aviv is most certainly not. But by citing “100 Years of Settler-Colonialism,” Israel’s detractors make clear that they’re not anti-occupation — they want Israel to cease to exist.
SJP and their ilk seek to frame Israeli Apartheid Week, as well as the BDS movement, as expressions of the “popular struggle for justice,” a part of the long, honorable continuum of social justice and human rights activism, rather than an expression of anti-Semitism. I disagree. The real mission of BDS lurks in the distressing words of its leaders. Take, for example, Omar Barghouti, the founder of BDS, who insists that “Definitely, most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
In other words, as far as the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week are concerned, Palestinians have a right to self-determination in their historic homeland but Jews do not. For a group that purports to be passionate about equal rights for all, the rights of the Jewish people matter shockingly little.
Seffi Kogen is the American Jewish Committee’s) Assistant Director of Campus Affairs.
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