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Usually, people want to know the answer to this question because they want to know the process for how someone is canonized within the Catholic Church. But, before we do this, it may be helpful to see the Church’s vision for sainthood.
To answer the question directly, the Catholic Church believes that anyone can become a saint—that is someone who makes it to heaven. Whether you are a priest, a single man, a religious sister, etc., the Catholic Church calls all men and women, whatever their state in life, to seek holiness and sainthood. This idea has been given more attention recently and maybe most significantly during Vatican II and the released of the document Lumen Gentium that outlined what the Catholic Church calls the Universal Call to Holiness.
Why does the Catholic Church choose one person over another to be a saint?
Sometimes we can casually say that the Church is making him or her a saint. But, technically, the Church does not make saints; it recognizes someone who is in heaven. In addition to this, the Church is looking for folks whose lives are worth imitating and to such a degree that they should be held up as an example to the Church. Knowing these criteria can help people understanding the process for how the Catholic Church recognizes saints.
What is the process of being recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church?
This is probably the question most people are really asking when they are asking: How does someone become a saint? Here are the five steps.
5 Steps to Sainthood
First, the person’s local bishop investigates their life by gathering information from witnesses of their life and any writings they may have written. If the bishop finds them to be worthy of being a saint, then he submits the information that he gathered to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Second, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints can choose to reject the application or accept it and begin their own investigation of the person’s life. If the application is accepted, the person may be called Servant of God.
Third, if the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approves of the candidate, they can choose to declare that the person lived a life heroically virtuous life. This isn’t a declaration that the person is in heaven, but that they pursued holiness while here on earth. If this is indeed found to be the case, the person may be called Venerable.
Fourth, to be recognized as someone in heaven requires that a miracle has taken place through the intercession of that person. The miracle is usually a healing. The healing has to be instantaneous, permanent, and complete while also being scientifically unexplainable. Miracles have to be first verified as scientifically unexplainable by a group of independent doctors, then the person is approved by a panel of theologians, and then the final approval lies with the pope. If this is the case, a person is declared a blessed.
Note: Besides the number of miracles attributed to them, the difference between is a blessed and a saint is that the scope of devotion for a blessed is narrower – usually limited to a specific group of people or a particular region of the world while a saint is held up for devotion for the universal Church.
Fifth, a second miracle is needed in order to declare someone a saint. The confirmation of a second miracle goes through the same scrutiny as the first.
The five-step process is a general outline for how someone becomes a saint. There are definitely exceptions to this process and situations that may change the process as well.
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Following a natural disaster or a conflict, the lives of the people in the affected region frequently start from scratch. Food, health, infrastructure, livelihood -many areas require fast help and adapted and coordinated support. This is where the GRC can step in and use its experience in reconstruction.
Example Philippines – new houses, hospitals and schools
Since the disastrous typhoon hit the Philippines in 2013 more than 10.000 households have been given a new home or helped in repairing their home. Working together with local volunteers the German Red Cross coordinated the distribution of building materials, the building of houses and the training of the population in applying safe construction techniques. This process involves taking assessments of the local disaster risks into consideration and integrating them in an overall concept so that future events wreak less damage.
Craftsmen programmes, training and strengthening the communities
Because regions and cultures develop differently, there is no universal concept for reconstruction. Strategies for reconstruction have to be developed in a participatory approach. As a result international standards are always adjusted locally to the specifics of a respective region. Nonetheless, the German Red Cross always ensures that there is a consistent overall concept for reconstruction. Craftsmen training programmes, educational programmes for the population and advising authorities are all key aspects. Having a strong sense of community and re-establishing the normality of social life helps build the necessary foundations for dealing with the shock over the long term and helping the affected regions both regain their psychological and structural health and continued development.
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- adj. 单一的；单位的；整体的
relating to or characterized by or aiming toward unity;
"the unitary principles of nationalism"
"a unitary movement in politics"
of or pertaining to or involving the use of units;
"a unitary method was applied"
"established a unitary distance on which to base subsequent calculations"
characterized by or constituting a form of government in which power is held by one central authority;
"a unitary as opposed to a federal form of government"
having the indivisible character of a unit;
"a unitary action"
"spoke with one voice"
- Art is all about bringing together disparate things and making something unitary.
- He viewed mind as an organized, unitary, and dynamic interplay of ideas.
- unitary clause 单一子句
- unitary elasticity 一致弹性
- unitary code 一位代码,单代码,单...
- unitary ratio 单位换算比
- unitary basis 酉基
- unitary sampling 单个抽样
- unitary smooth muscle 单一性平滑肌...
- unitary operator 保范算子,酉算子...
- unitary transform 单一变换
- unitary system 一元化制度,一元系...
- unitary primary document 统一的原始凭证...
- unitary rate [经] 单一汇率...
- unitary packing 统一包装,整装...
- unitary budget 统一预算
- unitary theory 疾病一元论
- unitary matrix 酉阵
The apparent strength and actual weakness of a unitary, centralised government.出自： I. Asimov
One man one vote in a unitary system.出自：Times
- one 一
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More conceptual stuff:
As a form of “automatic” documentation that allegedly excludes the artist authorship, frankie questions notions of representation and participation. A deliberately well-exposed surveillance camera, it examines issues such as agency, control, and privacy, questioning how they effect us in a world in which every second is documented and mediated. It reflects upon the manner in which we choose to perform and present ourselves in the digital age, and how this ultra narcissistic world effects our perception of the other.
Frankie’s name is a reference to frankness – honesty, directness – and also to Frankenstein – the well known myth on the hubris of creation. It is in fact a physical version of a chat bot, hinting to The Turing Test, and the questions it entails about telling the difference between a human and a machine. frankie also references Eliza, the first 70s Chat Bot that was designed to resemble a psychoanalyst, and questions the “Eliza effect” – a phenomenon which causes people to treat an artificial being like a human being.
Who are we?
Frankie was created by Maayan Sheleff, Eran Hadas and Gal Eshel.
Maayan Sheleff is an independent curator. This year she participated in ARTPORT Residency, Tel Aviv, where frankie was born. Until recently she was the Curator at the CCA, Tel Aviv. She curated numerous projects, among them in ARTLV, the 1st Tel Aviv Biennial, the Science Museum in Jerusalem, ISCP, NY, and The Metropolitan Museum for Photography, Tokyo, exploring the mediums of moving image, performance and new media. She received several scholarships to participate in programs such as Steirischer Herbst festival in Graz, Austria, and ICI's curatorial intensive, NY.
Eran Hadas is a software developer, poet and new media artist from Tel-Aviv. He is the author of 5 poetry collections in Hebrew. He creates hypermedia poetry and develops software based poetry generators whose input is the internet. His fictitious female poet persona is considered to be the largest hoax in Hebrew poetry. He is a member of "Cultural Guerrilla", a group of activist artists that accompanies social campaigns.
Gal Eshel has an interdisciplinary background, educated in psychology, computer science and cinema. He Worked in Sun Microsystems and Intel as a software engineer, and as an editor in Israeli prime time television in various genres. Gal is currently splitting his time between creating prototypes for Intel and working as an independent robot creator in Tel Aviv.
To Art Port management, team and artists for their great support, trust, encouragement and assistance. To Yair Reshef who ingeniously hacked a television so Frankie will have a beating heart. To the wonderful Dr. Guy Hoffman who was a helpful advisor from the very beginning. To Michael fink from google Israel, Ohad Meyuhas from the Fablab in the Israeli institute for digital art in Holon, Pazit Sheleff, Mushon Zer Aviv, Shmulik from Decada, Tsila Hasin, Lior Zalmanson, Meir Tati, Ori Shechter, Tom Dor, Renana Neuman, and many other kind and valuable advisors and supporters.
Most of all to all the interviewees who trusted frankie and helped its’ research.
Photographs by Dan haimovich and Maayan Sheleff
Frankie is collecting information and learning how to improve it’s skills in every location it visits. This is only the beginning of a very experimental research project, and we hope that you will be able to see the progress as the locations accumulate. Mistakes, repetitions, ackward silences and miscommunication are not only part of being human, but also part of being a machine…
We welcome your feedback, from suggesting possible questions frankie can ask, to invitations to more venues and new adventures.
If you participated in the project, first of all we want to thank you deeply for helping frankie’s research. Please note that we don’t upload all the interviews, only the one’s in which frankie was either at it’s best or at it’s worst… but we do learn from all of them.
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Mar 1, 2016 Explore janmac12e4's board "graphite powder drawing" on Pinterest. See more ideas about Drawings, Graphite and Graphite drawings.
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Black Sabbath’s ‘Master of Reality': 8 Facts Only Superfans Would Know
Black Sabbath's 1970 self-titled debut was like nothing anyone had ever heard before, and their sophomore work Paranoid only expedited their popularity. By 1971, almost every band was creating heavy music, but Sabbath proved they still did it best when they released Master of Reality.
Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward recruited producer Rodger Bain for one final time to work on the record. The 32-minute set opens with Iommi coughing up a storm in the studio after smoking a joint during "Sweet Leaf," thus it has been hailed the pioneering album of genres like doom and stoner metal.
Released on July 21, 1971, Master of Reality has since been certified 2x platinum by the RIAA, and for good reason. Here are eight facts you may not have already known about it.
1. They spent more time working on it than its predecessors.
Ward recalled to Metal Hammer that the band were able to take more time to work on Master of Reality than they did for Black Sabbath and Paranoid. “On the first album, we had two days to do everything, and not much more time for Paranoid," he said.
"But now we could take our time, and try out different things. We all embraced the opportunity: Tony threw in classical guitar parts, Geezer’s bass was virtually doubled in power, I went for bigger bass drums, also experimenting with overdubs. And Ozzy was so much better."
2. They tuned things down.
To ease the pain after suffering a factory accident that severed his fingertips, Iommi downtuned his guitar. Butler followed suit in order to match the sound, which was sludgier and heavier than heard on their prior albums. This would pave the wave for the sound of later bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, who used drop-d tuning for their own songs and cited Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as the influencers of that decision.
3. Ozzy Osbourne struggled while recording "Into the Void."
Butler had the lyrics written out for Osbourne when it came time to record the vocals, and Iommi recalled the singer struggling with them a bit. "It has this slow bit, but then the riff where Osbourne comes in is very fast. Osbourne had to sing really rapidly: 'Rocket engines burning fuel so fast, up into the night sky they blast,' quick words like that," he wrote in his autobiography Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath.
"Seeing him try was hilarious," the guitarist added. Listen to an isolated vocal-version of the song below — the words start at the 1:43 timestamp.
4. Sweet Aftons and "Sweet Leaf."
"Sweet Leaf" is an obvious ode to marijuana. The name for the song, however, was inspired by an Irish brand of cigarettes called Sweet Aftons.
"I'd just come back from Dublin, and they'd had these cigarettes called Sweet Afton, which you could get only in Ireland," Butler once told Guitar World. "We were going, 'What could we write about?' I took out this cigarette packet, and as you open it, it's got on the lid, 'The Sweetest Leaf You Can Buy!' And I was like, 'Ah, Sweet Leaf!'"
5. Masters of misprints.
The earliest U.S. editions of the album featured a misprint in the album title, which read Masters of Reality. In addition, it read that there were 11 songs as opposed to eight, adding "The Haunting," "Step Up" and "Deathmask" as part of the track listing.
6. Iommi showcased his many talents.
The guitarist brought more to the table on this album than sick riffs. On the song "Solitude" in particular, he also played the flute and the piano.
7. "After Forever" showed a different side of the band.
Black Sabbath were known for being dark, and were accused of being Satanists in their early years. The lyrics for "After Forever" were written by Butler about Christianity, having been brought up in a Catholic home.
"It was just a bad time in Northern Ireland, setting bombs off in England and such," Butler told the Weeklings of what inspired him to write the song. "We all believed in Jesus — and yet people were killing each other over it. To me, it was just ridiculous. I thought that if God could see us killing each other in his name, he'd be disgusted."
8. It was one of their only albums to chart in the Top 10 in the U.S.
Master of Reality was Sabbath's first album to crack the Top 10 in the U.S. according to their Billboard chart history, and the only one until 13 came along over 40 years later.
Black Sabbath Songs Ranked Worst to Best (Ozzy Osbourne Era)
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Third Graders Correspond with Veterans Across the USA
December 22, 2021 by
Earlier this fall, Milton third graders also wrote thank you letters to a veteran or active military member in each of the 50 states. Their Veterans Day project provided students the opportunity to honor veterans and service members, and connected to their yearlong States project. As they wrote, the children thanked the veterans for their service to our country, and shared some of the knowledge they gained while researching their state. Many of the letters included artwork corresponding the state, and thank messages in Hebrew and English to Jewish veterans. The response from our veterans has been overwhelming! Students have been so excited to read letters that veterans sent back. In their letters, veteran pen pals thanked the children for their interest in the United States, shared interesting facts about the state they live in, encouraged the children to continue their state explorations, and even shared information about Jewish service members in history and today. Thank you to all the US Veterans who wrote to the students.
Click on the images below to access samples of the letters drafted by the students and the veterans. For privacy reasons, names have been removed.
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- Strategic management
- International business
- Entrepreneurship strategy
CURRENT RESEARCH AREAS
- Technological colaboration
- Family business
- “The impact of R&D sources on new product development: Sources of funds and the diversity versus control of knowledge debate”. Long Range Planning. (Forthcoming), (with A. Cuervo-Cazurra and A. Rodríguez).
- "International collaboration and innovation in professional and technological knowledge-intensive services".Industry and Innovation, (2018), 25(4), 408-431, (whit A. Rodríguez and L. Santamaría).
- "The asymmetric effect of institutional distance on international location: Family versus nonfamily firms" Global Strategy Journal (2018), 8(1), 22-45, (with V. Hernández and A. Boellis).
- "Does Family Involvement in Management Reduce the Risk of Business Failure? The Moderating Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation", Family Business Review (2016), 29(4), 365-379 (with A.Revilla and A. Pérez-Luño).
- “Does R&D offshoring lead to SME growth? Different governance modes and the mediating role of innovation”, Strategic Management Journal, 2016,37(8), 1734-1753 (with A. Rodríguez).
- "Inward-outward connections and their impact on firm growth” , International Business Review , (2016) 25 (1), 296-306 (with V. Hernández).
- “The effect of the magnitude and direction of institutional distance on the choice of international entry modes”, Journal of World Business, (2015), 50(1), 122-132.(with V. Hernández).
- “Understanding the innovation behavior of family firms”, Journal of Small Business Management, (2015), 53(2), 382-399 (with L. Santamaría and Z. Fernández).
- “The internationalization of knowledge-intensive business services: the effect of collaboration and the mediating role of innovation”, The Service Industries Journal, (2012), 32(7), 1057-1075 (with A. Rodríguez).
- “Service innovation in manufacturing firms: evidence from Spain”, Technovation, (2012), 32(2), 144-155 (with L. Santamaría).
- “Offshoring of R&D: Looking abroad to improve innovation performance”, Journal of International Business Studies, (2011), 42(3), 345-361 (with A. Rodríguez).
- “Hidden innovators: The role of other innovation activities”, Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, (2011), 23(4), 415-432 (with L. Santamaría and A. Barge).
- “Technological collaboration: Bridging the innovation gap between small and large firms”, Journal of Small Business Management, (2010), 48(1), 46-71, (with L. Santamaría).
- “Beyond formal R&D: Taking advantage of other sources of innovation in Low and Medium Technology Industries”, Research Policy, (2009), 38, pp. 507-517 (with L. Santamaría and A. Barge).
- “The importance of diverse collaborative networks for the novelty of product innovation”, Technovation, (2007), 27, pp. 367-377 (with L. Santamaría).
- “The impact of ownership on the international involvement of SMEs”, Journal of International Business Studies, (2006), 37(3), pp. 340-351 (with Z. Fernández).
- “The Internet: Competitive strategy and boundaries of the firm”, International Journal of Technology Management, (2006), 35(1), pp. 182-195 (with Z. Fernández).
- “The role of information technology in corporate strategy of small and medium enterprises”, Journal of International Entrepreneurship, (2005), 3(4), pp. 251-262 (with Z. Fernández).
- “International strategy of Small and Medium-Sized Family Businesses: Some influential factors”, Family Business Review, (2005), 18(1), pp. 77-89 (with Z. Fernández).
- “Internationalization of family firms”, (2014), in P. Sharma, M. Nordqvist & L. Melin, (eds.), Handbook of Family Business, Sage Publications (with Z. Fernández)
- “The challenge of R&D offshoring: implications for firm productivity” (2013), en L. Bals, T. Pedersen and P.D.Ø. Jensen (eds.), The Offshoring Challenge: Strategic Design and Innovation for Tomorrow’s Organization, Springer (with A. Rodríguez)
- “The direct impact of the normative and cognitive distances and the moderating effect of regulations on the internationalization of SMEs” (2012), New Policy Challenges for European Multinationals, Emeral Group Publishing, (with V. Hernández)
- “Dirección estratégica de la empresa familiar”, (2011), Empresa Familiar: aspectos jurídicos y económicos, Editorial Deusto, (with Z.Fernández)
- “Cooperation and innovation in the internationalisation of knowledge-intensive business services” (2010), Progress in International Business Research, Emeral Group Publishing (with A. Rodríguez)
- “Estrategias y estructuras de la empresa familiar”, (2005), Manual de la empresa familiar, Editorial Deusto, (con Z.Fernández)
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION
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« ElőzőTovább »
gains in saying that, for one or two years, his receipts were at the rate of 6000l. annually. A young lady, whose lower limbs had been paralytic from infancy, was brought to him from the country to be cured. At the end of a year, 500l. having been expended in the experiment, she returned home in the same state as when she had left it but promises were made to her that if the process were repeated it would produce the desired effect at last, and she came to London again for the purpose. The result was such as might have been anticipated. Matters went on thus for three or four years, when the delusion ceased about as suddenly as it had leapt into vigour, and the champooer found himself all at once deprived of his vocation.
The history of St. John Long is in the recollection of many of our readers. This individual had been brought up as a painter, but, finding this profession to be productive of no immediate profit, he turned his attention to the healing art. His principal remedy was a liniment, of which we believe that oil of turpentine and some kind of mineral acid were the principal ingredients. However that may have been, in common with many other stimulating applications, it had the property of producing an exudation from the surface of the skin. The physician's theory was, that all diseases depend on a morbific matter in the blood, and that the exudation from the skin was this poison drawn out by the power of the liniment. Thus extraordinary cures were made of gout and rheumatism, abscesses of the lungs and liver, and insanity. A noble lord saw a fluid resembling quicksilver extracted from a patient's head. The house in which these miracles were wrought was crowded with patients belonging to the affluent classes of society, and the street with carriages. At last some cases occurred in which the application of the liniment caused a violent inflammation, ending in extensive gangrene. One patient died, and then another, and we have reason to believe that one or two others met with the same fate. The practitioner was convicted of manslaughter. If the remedy were of any real value, we do not know that these cases proved anything but the necessity of greater caution in the use of it; for there are few agents for good which, if carried too far, or had recourse to on improper occasions, may not be agents for evil also. The public, however, did not look so far as this, and their faith in the treatment was rapidly abating when the practitioner himself fell a victim to pulmonary disease.
There is a curious sequel to this history, which has been communicated to us on good authority. But we have no wish to make individuals, who had no very wrong intentions, look ridiculous, when it can answer no useful purpose to do so. Suffice it then to say that a medical practitioner, who had a fair reputation in the district
district in which he resided in the sister-kingdom, was persuaded to occupy the house in which the liniment had worked such wonders, with a view to carry on the same method of treatment, and with the self-same remedies. The charm, however, was no more in his hands than that of touching for the evil' had been in the hands of Cromwell: the street was empty of carriages, and the drawing-room of patients, and the new-comer was soon glad to return to his former, and, we hope, more useful and profitable occupation.
These projects, with a great number of others of the same description, are now matters of history. They have lived their day, and have been long since dead and buried. But we are not to suppose that the race of them is extinct, or that this age of wealth, luxury, and leisure is less favourable to their development than those which have preceded it.
Mr. Vallance, the author of one of the works of which the titles are placed at the beginning of this article, is not the inventor, but he fills the no less useful though more humble office of promulgator of the brandy-and-salt remedy. This vast discovery was made by a Mr. Lee, an English gentleman, who, as Mr. Vallance informs us, possesses an estate of 12,000 acres of land in France (it is not said in what part), on which he resides in a castle with two gamekeepers, one chaplain, and eighty domestics. An accidental circumstance led him to a knowledge of the medicinal virtues of a solution of six ounces of common culinary salt in one pint of French brandy. Sometimes used externally, and at other times taken internally, it removes the effects of the stings of mosquitoes, gnats, wasps, bees, and vipers; it cures the head-ache, and ear-ache, and side-ache; gout, consumption, scrofula, insanity, chilblains, mortification, and about thirty other disorders:
'Mr. C. C., of Bishop's Lane, was cured of the gravel in a few days.' Richard Cowley, my boy, had his feet crushed by the fall of a window-shutter, so that the blood gushed out at his toe-ends, but, thanks to the influence of brandy and salt, he was cured in a week.'
'John Calvert, James Crowest, and Mr. L. were all dying of consumption, but recovered rapidly under the use of brandy and salt.'
Even the worst complications of disease yield to this remedy. A lady who was afflicted at the same time with a sore leg, a bad breast, an abscess in her back, another abscess under her arm, and with rheumatism, was cured of these five disorders in the course of six weeks.
But the most interesting case is that of Captain Plumb, of the Ann, London trader, who was extremely illall over his body,
inside and out, and thought himself near death.' The captain was restored to health in the course of one month.
And, as far as Mr. Lee is concerned, all these benefits have been conferred on society from no other motive than that of pure benevolence. He is not only not paid, but he actually pays for the cures which he makes, having given away in the course of one year not less than a hogshead of brandy and salt to his patients. Neither can Mr. Vallance be accused of being influenced by the desire of lucre to any immoderate extent, if we may venture to form an opinion on the subject from the following notice at the end of his treatise: As I receive a great many letters requesting advice in particular cases, I beg to state that I cannot undertake to answer any, except a remittance of one shilling be made, with a penny post-ticket to pay the postage.'
The pretensions of Homoeopathy are of a more lofty character than those of brandy and salt. The homoeopathist claims the discovery of a law of nature before unknown; the establishment of a new science; the invention of a new method of curing diseases so efficient and certain, that hereafter none ought to be held to be incurable; and he denounces the absurdity and mischief of the healing art, as it is commonly practised, in language not less vehement than that of Paracelsus, when he publicly burned the works of Galen and Avicenna as being those of quacks and impostors, exclaiming to the crowd who were assembled to witness the ceremony,-You will all follow my new system, you professors of Paris, Montpellier, Cologne, and Vienna; you that dwell on the Rhine and the Danube; you that inhabit the isles of the sea; and ye also, Italians, Dalmatians, Athenians, Arabians, and Jews, ye will all follow my doctrines; for I am the monarch of medicine!'
Dr. Hahnemann, the founder of the homoeopathic system, having been educated as a physician, was engaged in medical practice, first in a small town of Saxony, and afterwards in Dresden.* This pursuit, however, was by no means suitable to his genius. We are informed that, having acquired more reputation than profit, he was compelled to eke out his professional gains by the translation of foreign works. But his ill-success was not to con
tinue for ever.
All at once,' we quote the words of Mr. Erneste George de Brennow, the translator of the Organon,' a new idea illuminates his mind; a new career is opened to him, in which nature and experience are to be his guides. Obstacles and difficulties without number retard his solitary progress in the hitherto untrodden track; but his never-failing courage surmounts them all. The most astounding phenomena are presented
* Curie's Principles of Homeopathy,' pp. 15, 16.
to his contemplation; he mounts from one certainty to another, penetrates the night of mists, and is at last rewarded for his toil by the sight of the star of truth shining brilliantly over his head and sending forth its rays for the benefit of suffering human nature.'
It was not, however, until after the lapse of some years that Hahnemann deemed it expedient to communicate his discovery to the world. Having done so, in the expectation of better fortune than he had met with at Dresden, he changed his residence to Leipsic.
Under his new method of practice Hahnemann became the dispenser of his own medicines, thus combining the offices of physician and apothecary. This, and probably some other circuinstances, roused the jealousy of the regular practitioners. An absurd, and we may say a most unjustifiable, persecution followed, which ended in a decree against him in the Saxon Courts of Law. But what was intended for his ruin laid the foundation of his fortune. It made him and his doctrine known, and excited the sympathy of the Duke of Anhalt Cöthen,* who first offered him an asylum at his court, and then made him one of his councillors. From thence he removed some years afterwards to Paris.
Now the hitherto unknown law of nature, the grand secret which the star of truth' revealed to Hahnemann after he had 'penetrated the night of mists,' is so simple that it has been stated by him in three words — Similia similibus curantur.' Plain however as this announcement may be, we suspect that some among our readers may not at once perceive in what manner the aforesaid law of nature is applicable to the healing art, and to such obtuser intellects the following explanation may be satisfactory. A disease is to be cured by exhibiting a medicine which has the power of producing in the patient a disease of the same nature with that from which he desires to be relieved. Two similar diseases cannot co-exist in the same system, nor in the same organ. The artificial drives out the original disease, and, having done its business, evaporates and leaves the patient restored to health.
It must be owned that there is in this doctrine something which is rather startling to the uninitiated. We had never before even dreamed that we could produce a given disease at our pleasure. Besides, if the doctrine were true, bark ought to produce the ague, and sulphur the itch; mineral acids should be the cause of profuse perspirations; and jalap (as it is given to relieve certain viscera) should occasion their oppression. Nor are these difficulties got rid of by the (so-called) facts which Hahnemann
*Curie, p. 20.
offers in illustration of his principle; such as that* belladonna produces the exact symptoms of hydrophobia; that Thomas de Mayence, Münch, Buchholz, and Neimicke cured that terrible disorder by the administration of this poison; and that Rademacher cured a fever with delirium and stertorous breathing in a single night by giving the patient wine. Indeed, it seems to us remarkable that Hahnemann should not have provided himself with some better examples in favour of the doctrine which he would inculcate than those which he has presented to us, believing, as we do, that there is no opinion as to the nature and treatment of diseases, however absurd, for which some kind of authority may not be found by any one who will condescend for that purpose to grope among the rubbish of medical literature.
However, it is not so much our wish to criticise the works of the homœopathic writers, as to furnish such an analysis and exposition of their doctrines as may render them in some degree intelligible to our readers, very few of whom have, we suspect, been at the pains of looking into these matters for themselves.
Having thus satisfied himself of the truth of the maxim 'revealed to him by the star of truth,' similia similibus curantur-and that it applies not only to physical, but also to moral ailments— (in proof of which last assertion Dr. Curie-p. 79-quotes the authority of Eloisa :
'O let me join
Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine')
Hahnemann commenced another investigation into the nature and origin of diseases. He classes them under the heads of acute diseases,' which may be solitary or epidemic; medical diseases; and chronic diseases. It is with respect to the latter that he has made the most notable discoveries. Every one of them may be traced to a chronic miasm, the worst of which seems to be the itch this vulgar ailment being the real source of scrofula, rickets, and epilepsy. But the most laborious part of Hahnemann's undertakings was a series of experiments which he instituted for the purpose of ascertaining the uses and operation of medicines. Here he acted on this very just and proper principle, that, if any one were to be poisoned in the course of these researches, it should be himself, his family, and his friends, § Franz, Hornburg, and Stapf, with their eyes open, and not his unsuspecting patients. These experiments, as we are told, were continued during a period of twenty years; and some notion may
*Organon, p. 73.
Principles of Homœopathy, pp. 119-121. Curie, Principles, &c., p. 104.
Ib., p. 79.
Curie, Practice of Homeopathy, p. 40.
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Have you Educated Your Community about Emergency Markers?
We are now in the middle of Victoria’s Summer and Fire Season so it’s vital to educate visitors to your local Environments NOW.
This is to not only mitigate any potential risks but to increase public safety and protect your community.
The more confidence people have visiting your areas the more Value you bring to their Experiences.
Parks Victoria believes Open Spaces will be inundated with visitors due to severe isolation lockdowns with over 1 million local visitors in regional areas escaping to:
- See famous Tourist Attractions
- Go for a walk or hike
- Swim in lakes and oceans
- Discover new Trails
- Challenge themselves at places like 1000 steps
- Go 4WDing
- Motorbike adventures
Placing Visible markers in high incident areas is imperative as Unnamed Trails, Tracks and Roads is a huge issue for Emergency Services and those in need of help.
Even Shopping Centre’s should prepare themselves!
People sick of online shopping will be itching to go and explore new merchandise and food in the flesh. With multiple entrances, you need to make sure the public knows how to get help fast and efficiently to those in need.
The more education you provide and the more visible your markers are the more TIME YOU SAVE & SAVE LIVES.
Should you have any questions related to existing or new Emergency Markers please do not hesitate to contact us at email@example.com or 03 9466 5200.
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- Buying a new business laptop isn’t always a walk in the park. From CPU to RAM to storage to OS, there’s plenty to think about – but where do you start?
- In this buyer’s guide to business laptops, we’ll explain exactly what to look for in a new laptop in simple plain English.
- This essential guide for business owners and managers covers form factor, display, memory, storage, operating systems, warranties, and more.
Table of Contents
- Part I: Form Factor
- Part II: Display and Resolution
- Part III: Processor / CPU
- Part IV: Memory / RAM
- Part V: Storage
- Part VI: Operating System
- Part VII: Ports and Connections
- Part VIII: Build Quality and Optional Extras
- Part IX: Warranty
- The Get Support Recommendation
With more business taking place in the digital realm than ever before, having the hardware to support your company is vital.
On top of reliable hardware, your business also needs to stay agile and adaptive to change – including the option to work from, well, anywhere.
It’s here that business laptops step into the picture.
But how do you know what to look for in a laptop? How much RAM do you need? Which display resolution is best for business? And what’s the difference between an i3 and an i7 processor? We’ll answer all of these questions (and more) in this buyer’s guide to business laptops.
Let’s get started.
Part I: Form Factor
One of the most important aspects of any laptop is portability, and that all comes down to form factor. Put simply, this refers to the physical size of the laptop, including the display, the keyboard, and even the weight of the unit.
The most common form factor for business laptops in 2021 are as follows:
- 15-inch laptop: A15-inch screen is certainly a little on the large size, especially for most business users, but there are some benefits. For example, most 15-inch laptops will include a full-size keyboard, meaning you’ll also get a numerical keypad. If your day-to-day involves a lot of calculation or working with data, the keypad (plus the added screen real estate) might make a big difference.
- 14-inch laptop: A 14-inch screen is perhaps the “sweet spot” for most business users. If you and your team spend most of your day working with email, web browsers, and office applications like those included with Microsoft 365, a 14-inch screen is going to be all you need.
- 13-inch laptop: A 13-inch laptop screen is ideal if you’re always on the move. The more compact size means it’s easier to fold up and take with you from meeting room to meeting room, or use on public transport. Do note, though, that smaller doesn’t always mean lighter.
Part II: Display and Resolution
If you’re using a laptop as your daily driver at work every day, (and especially if you’re working remotely), choosing the right display is vital. Your screen is essentially the window through which you’ll get face-time with your colleagues, read your emails, work on documents, and everything else.
When it comes to actually picking out a display, we’ve already covered half of what you need already in our discussion of display size. But there’s something else to consider, and it’s actually a bit more important: display resolution.
In plain English, your display resolution is how many pixels (coloured dots) make up the image on your screen. The higher the display resolution, the more pixels you have; the more pixels you have, the sharper and more accurate the image will be. Higher resolution screens will provide clearer images and cleaner fonts, allowing you to do your work that little bit more easily.
There are several options when it comes to business laptop screens, but here are the ones you’ll most likely come across:
- 720p (sometimes called “HD ready”) is a slightly older resolution these days and, especially on physically larger screens, can produce images and text which might seem fuzzier or more blurry than other displays. For this reason, we strongly recommend you avoid buying a 720p laptop. 720p represents a grid of 1280 x 720 pixels.
- 1080p (also known as “full HD”) is probably the most widely used resolution today. It strikes a good balance between sharpness, legibility, and affordability, making it the best choice for most non-design business users. 1080p represents a grid of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
- 4K (also known as “Ultra HD”) is the highest business-grade resolution you can buy right now and it’s usually found in TVs. It’s such high resolution that you’re likely to get diminishing returns from a laptop display. It’ll look great, but on screen 15 inches or below, 1080p will look almost indistinguishable to many people. The only exception? If you’re working in graphic design or another visual industry. In that case, the more pixels, the better! Most commonly, 4K represents a grid of 3840 x 2160 pixels.
Part III: Processor / CPU
Next, let’s get under the hood of your new laptop, beginning with arguably the most important component: the processor.
Also known as a Central Processing Unit, or CPU, you can think of a laptop’s CPU as the brain of the computer. When you ask your laptop to make a calculation, open a file, or even move the mouse, it’s the CPU which interprets those commands into actions on the screen.
There’s a lot of detail to unpack when it comes to CPUs, so we’ll try to keep things as “plain English” as possible.
At a high level, you’ve got two choices in terms of CPU manufacturer: Intel or AMD. While both make solid processors, we’ll focus on Intel for this guide, as it’s what we recommend for business users.
We’re also focusing on Windows laptops here, but if you’re a Mac person, you might also want to consider Apple’s new “M1” or “Apple Silicon” processors. But that’s a blog post for another time.
For now, here are the most common options you’ll find for Intel CPUs:
- Intel Core i3 processors are entry-level CPUs with a price to match. If all you’re going to do is browse a couple of websites and answer a few emails, this might be a good option. Anything more than that, including video calls with multiple colleagues while typing notes and answering emails, and the i3 might start to struggle.
- Intel Core i5 processors are solid mid-range CPUs with excellent performance in almost all business-use scenarios. With an i5 powering your laptop, you won’t experience any slowdown or lag when working on calls with remote colleagues, watching YouTube videos, or using office apps all at the same time.
- Intel Core i7 and i9 processors are the absolute top of the pack when it comes to business-grade CPUs in laptops. They’re designed for high-performance scenarios such as gaming, video rendering, and other intensive activities which require a lot of computing power. For a daily driver business laptop? These are probably overkill. Stick with the i5.
Part IV: Memory / RAM
Okay, so we’ve taken a look at the brain of the laptop in the form of the CPU, but what about the memory?
Computer memory, or Random Access Memory (RAM), is often confused with storage (which we’ll get on to shortly), but the two are quite different.
If the CPU is the brain of the laptop, used for crunching through calculations and problems, the RAM is the short-term memory. Imagine trying to memorize a series of numbers in your head. In the context of a computer, the more RAM you have, the more numbers you can remember. In real terms, RAM allows you to have more applications open at once without slowing down the computer. Provided your memory usage is below your total installed RAM, you’ll have no performance issues – so it’s important to choose the right amount and leave a bit of headroom for those times when you’re feeling really productive.
RAM is measured in gigabytes, which are units of storage in the computer. Each application you have running will take up some of this short-term storage until it’s closed. Here are the most common options for business laptops when it comes to RAM:
- 4GB is about the lowest amount of RAM you’ll find on a modern laptop. If you’re doing the bare essentials of computing – a couple of website tabs, your email inbox, and maybe some music playing – it’ll be just about enough. But, as operating systems like Windows 10 grow and develop, you might find 4GB will become a hindrance sooner rather than later.
- 8GB is probably the sweet spot for business laptops in 2021, and it’s what we’d recommend here at Get Support if you’re looking to keep costs reasonable. 8GB gives you plenty of bandwidth to have multiple apps open at once without worrying about slowing your machine down. Music streaming, meetings on apps like Microsoft Teams, maybe Microsoft Word and your web browser should all run comfortably at the same time with 8GB/
- 16GB / 32GB+ will take you into the realms of high-performance laptops. 16GB is probably good for future-proofing your laptop, or for power users, if you don’t intend to replace it in the next 5 years, but 32GB or even more should be the reserve of high-performance power users, such as those working with video rendering and other complex workflows.
Part V: Storage
As we touched upon earlier, two key components of business laptops are often confused: RAM and storage.
What’s the difference being RAM and storage? Well, to borrow our earlier analogy of the human brain, storage is equivalent to your long-term memory. It’s where you store information for retrieval at some unspecified point in the future. The same goes for storage.
How much storage your laptop has on board will dictate how many files you can store on the drive. That’s anything from images, email attachments, installed programs (like Microsoft Office), video files, music, and anything else you might want to save.
When it comes to choosing the right storage for your business laptop, your choices broadly break down into two camps: an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an SSD (Solid State Drive).
Here’s how these two stack up:
- A Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is your traditional storage device, and is the type of storage you will have found on computers and laptops dating back over twenty years. HDDs rely on a physical disk which spins inside its housing and is read by a needle of sorts – a bit like a record on a deck. HDDs are often rated using the speed that the disc spins – 5400 or 7200 RPM, for example – but they’re still relatively slow. The reliance on physically moving parts, plus the slow access speed, means that HDDs should probably be consigned to the history books.
- Solid State Drives (SSDs) are what we strongly recommend for any business laptop user in 2021 and beyond. Unlike hard drives, SSDs don’t have any moving parts and rely instead on “flash memory”, (a bit like those USB sticks you probably have lying around), hence the term ‘solid state’. An SSD can read and write data up to 20x faster than an HDD, meaning your laptop starts faster, opens files faster, and does it all with a much lower risk of wear and tear. We strongly recommend SSDs for all business laptop users.
Part VI: Operating System (OS)
Now it’s time to take a tentative step onto the well-documented battlefield of Windows vs. Mac.
As the two most popular operating systems (OS) in the world, Windows 10 and macOS are the likely options you’ll be choosing between when buying a new laptop. In most cases, the option you choose will be the one you’re already using, (and are most familiar with), so we won’t try to reinvent the wheel here. Instead, we’ll focus on the more common operating system used by businesses, which is the Windows platform.
(That said, the Get Support team offers full support for MacBooks and other Mac computers, so don’t be afraid to ask.)
If you’ve already dipped a toe into the marketplace of Windows laptops, you’ve probably encountered the two key versions of Windows 10, as follows:
- Windows 10 Home often comes pre-installed with the laptops you find at more consumer-facing outlets, and it can be a tempting option. After all, the Home edition is cheaper, so what’s the catch? Well, Windows 10 Home does not include several features which are tailored to business users (more on that in a moment). Even worse, if you do want to use these features, you’ll have to pay to upgrade to gain access. So, what’s the alternative?
- Windows 10 Pro is what we recommend for all business laptop or desktop users. While the up-front costs might be higher than the Home edition, Windows 10 Pro includes a suite of apps and services which are ideal for business use. These include Remote Desktop access (perfect in a remote working world), Azure AD integration (to make it easy to slot your new laptop into your existing organisation), BitLocker, and more. In short? If you’re buying for business, go for Windows 10 Pro.
Part VII: Ports and Connections
Laptops might be designed to be used on the move, but that doesn’t mean you won’t sometimes need to use other devices, and it’s here that ports and connections come into play.
At this point we’ll need to briefly mention the difference between Mac and Windows laptops once more, because Apple has famously removed many of the ports and connections on their latest MacBook Air and Pro series laptops. The same goes for some of the latest Windows laptops, too. This means that, unless the device uses a USB-C connection, you’ll need an adapter (or “dongle”) to do pretty much anything. So those “plug and play” devices are now more like “plug and plug and play”.
With that covered, let’s move on to the potential ports and connections you might want to look for in a business laptop. With so many different requirements for each business, it’s important to consider what you might need from your laptop before you buy.
Here are the most common laptop ports that you might need in your day-to-day working life:
- Video connections: There are a few different video ports you’ll find on laptops, most commonly HDMI (for easy connection to televisions and other devices), but also DisplayPort (DP), which are common with multi-monitor setups. You might also find the older blue VGA connections, but they’re becoming less common, and maybe USB-C too (more on this in a moment).
- USB 2.0 / 3.0: These are the conventional USB ports which are compatible with pen drives and other USB-powered devices.
- USB Type-C: This more modern “one size fits all” USB port can be used for charging or data exchange and is likely to become more common in 2021 and beyond. As mentioned above, USB-C can even be used to carry video signals, making it a true all-rounder.
- Ethernet port: While all laptops today come equipped with Wi-Fi support, there may be times when you want to plug in to the internet the old-fashioned way. With an ethernet port on your laptop, that’s exactly what you can do.
- SD card reader: Many laptops still come with card readers installed, making it easy to insert and read SD cards as though they were portable drives. Not everyone will need this, but it can be very useful for businesses that do a lot of work with photographs, for example.
- Headphone jack: It feels strange even needing to list this as an option, but history has proven that nothing is sacred. If you use any headphones with a cable and stereo cable, be sure your new business laptop has the audio jack to support it.
Part VIII: Build Quality and Optional Extras
Before we wrap up this buyer’s guide, we just wanted to cover an aspect of buying a business laptop which is easy to overlook: build quality and those optional extras.
In many cases, you won’t just find a single laptop, but rather a line of laptops with a budget, mid-range, and high-end model within it. Very often, the differences can seem skin deep, but even a change of material from plastic to aluminium, for example, can make a big difference. Additionally, you might want to consider added extras such as a better webcam.
Here’s what we recommend you keep an eye out for:
- Materials and build quality. You might need to strike a balance here, between aesthetics and practicalities. A plastic chassis might not look as visually appealing, but it’ll be more lightweight. On the flipside, a metal chassis could be heavier, but it’ll also be more resistant to bumps and scratches.
- Internal component quality. Have you ever seen two apparently different models of laptop which look exactly the same but with vastly different pricing? In these cases, the difference is often under the hood. Take fans, for example. A cheaper laptop is likely to have lower quality fans, which will be louder and more persistent than pricier ones when cooling the laptop. Better quality components are more expensive, but they’ll perform better, more quietly, and run cooler.
- Webcam image quality and resolution. With remote working more prevalent than ever, we’re all spending much more time in front of a camera. When buying a laptop for business, you might want to consider the image quality of the webcam, too. Similarly to displays, your best bet is to go for a webcam with 1080p resolution for optimal clarity on those abundant video calls.
- Dock / port replicator. If you’re planning to use your laptop on the go, the last thing you want is to have to unplug then replug every peripheral and port each time you switch locations. You can solve this issue quite elegantly with a laptop dock or port replicator. Essentially, you simply plug in your cables and peripherals to the dock, not the laptop, then just lift it out and be on your way. When you return, re-insert the laptop in the dock and Bob’s your uncle.
- Backlit keyboard. Whether you’re working from home or just catching up on your laptop, you can never guarantee your lighting conditions. With a backlit keyboard, you can make sure you never have trouble typing – no matter how much light you have available.
Part IX: Warranty
Now that you’ve got all the info you need to choose the perfect business laptop, the final piece of the puzzle is what happens next.
What do we mean, specifically? Well, once that business laptop is in your hands, and on your lap, and in your car, and on the train, and generally on the move – anything could happen. For this reason, we always recommend that business customers choose hardware providers with reliable warranties when buying laptops.
Why do warranties matter? Consider this scenario: you’ve just invested in a new laptop for work and it’s all going well – until everything grinds to a halt and it simply stops responding. Assuming it’s not accidental damage, you’ll be covered under most warranties for a repair or replacement – but it’s the speed that matters. Most of us don’t have a spare laptop lying around, so if your provider offers what’s known as a Return to Base warranty, you’ll need to actually send the unit in for repair – and that could take weeks to get back.
For this reason, we always recommend that business users seek out warranty providers who offer an on-site next day warranty. In a nutshell, this means the provider will send out an engineer the very next day to either repair or replace your laptop. That means minimum downtime and maximum productivity – a win-win for everyone.
In terms of length of warranty, we recommend 3 or 4 years as an absolute maximum. Why? Because anything beyond this will result in diminishing returns from aged hardware. After 3 or 4 years, you’re better off simply buying or leasing new hardware rather than having it repaired.
Want to know more about the best time to replace your company’s hardware? We’ve got your covered.
Business laptops for 2021: The Get Support recommendation
Still with us? We hope so.
It’s clear that there’s a lot to dig through when you’re looking to buy a new business laptop. With that in mind, let’s finish up with a quick summary of the overall configuration we at Get Support recommend for business laptop buyers in 2021.
This won’t suit everybody, of course, but we’ve put together a checklist for a business laptop which should work well for most business users in 2021. It’s a solid all-rounder for businesses working with office apps like Microsoft 365, web browsers, meeting on video calls, and so on.
Here’s what we suggest:
- Form factor: 14-inch laptop
- Display resolution: 1080p screen resolution
- Processor / CPU: Intel Core i5 processor
- Memory / RAM: At least 8GB of RAM (or 16GB if you’re a power user)
- Storage: Solid State Drive (SSD) with at least 256GB of storage
- Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
- Ports and connections: HDMI / DisplayPort for multi-monitor setups, at least 2 USB 3.0 ports. For smaller laptops, you might also need a dongle or adapter to get these ports.
- Warranty: 3-4 years maximum, with on-site next day response
- Optional extras: Webcam with 1080p resolution, dock replicator if you’ll be moving around a lot, backlit keyboard for anytime productivity.
Looking for trusted hardware advice for your business?
As you can see, buying a new laptop for your business is far more than simply finding the cheapest and hoping for the best.
If all of this seems like a lot of work, don’t worry, because we’re here to help. All of our IT support agreements include our unique IT Director service, which gives you personal recommendations and advice on buying the right IT hardware for your business – laptops, desktops, and more.
Interested In making your next hardware purchase (or upgrade) more cost-effective and productive than ever? Call Get Support today on 01865 59 4000 or just fill in the form below.
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Courage Saves Saida
Saida did not mince action when she got wind that her father was discussing a dowry price for her to be married. She was 16 at the time, and she refused this idea. She dreamed of going to school, but she was passed over by her brother for this opportunity. This is all too common in these rural villages outside of Malindi.
These remote villages are difficult to access, and so is her ability to seek help to avoid child bride. The notion of ‘short hair’ is that you are still seen as young child. Shortly after Saida’s haircut, she joined ElimuGirls at Heri College. We love her feisty nature and knew she would be a perfect fit to our tribe of women that are empowered. Saida umbraces her new pathway of having a voice, choice, and a bank account.
Kudos to Saida’s act of courage. In this case, Saida took a brave swing at a pivotal moment in her life. She pushed her way through to the other side for fear of relenting to a practice that keeps women undereducated and shackled to a life of poverty and vulnerability. Equality and human rights should be fundamental for all, but they are not.
According to Girls Not Brides, child marriage is truly a global problem. Twelve million girls marry before the age of 18 in 3rd world countries. Child marriages are illegal in Kenya, but culturally it is still practiced in rural remote areas.
So what are the current laws on child marriage and FGM in Kenya?
Both FGM and child marriage have been illegal in Kenya since 2001 when the Children’s Act became law. Other laws such as the Sexual Offences Act, 2006, the Prohibition Of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2011 and the Marriage Act, 2014, which sets the age of marriage at 18 years, also protect girls from these practices.
How does ElimuGirls disrupt child bride rituals?
Elimu Girls disrupts this pattern by immediately elevating her position in her family to income-generator, thereby her father will not want to exchange her for a dowry. She shifts her position with economic empowerment. Rather, her father will want to keep her in his household as she will be an income-generator helping provide for the family’s education, clothing, and food costs.
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Sphingolipids are bioactive molecules involved in various celluar processes. The first step in the de novo biosynthesis of sphingolipids is catalysed by serine palmitoyltransferaes (SPT). Mammalian SPT is composed of three subunits SPTLC1, SPTLC2 and SPTLC3.
Several missense mutations in the human SPTLC1 gene cause hereditary sensory neuropathy type 1 (HSN+). HSN1 is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder that primarly affects peripheral sensory neurons. Recently our group discovered, that the underlying mutations HSN1 alter the substrate specifity of SPT, enabling the enzyme to metabolise beside serine also alanine and glycine as alternative substrates. The condensation of palmitoyl-CoA and alanine or glycine leads to the formation of two atypical sphingolipids lack the C1-hydroxyl-group, they can not be further metabolized to complex sphingolipids or degraded by the classical pathway. They are therefore considered as “dead end”metabolites.
Interestingly DoxSA occur at greatly elevated levels in the plasma of HSN1 patients compared with healthy controls and is likely harmful to neuronal cells. Since certain drugs, including several cytostatics (paclitaxel, etoposide and thalidomide) cause peripheral neuropathy, the question here was whether they increase DoxSA generation. In human embryonal kidney cells we investigated the effect on SPT activity or DoxSA formation.
We found, that paclitaxel and thalidomide have no influence on SPT activity, whereas etoposide increases SPT activity in a concentration dependent manner. Paclitaxel and etoposide, but not thalidomide, are induced DoxSA synthesis. Thus Dox SA may play a role in the development of etoposide or paclitaxel induced neuropathy. As the next step it will be important to investigate whether treatment with these neoplastic drugs increase Dox SA concentrations in vivo.
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Simply put, activated nuts that have been soaked in water for a period and then consumed in their softened state or after they've been dehydrated at low temperature. The benefits of Brazil nuts are not unknown. The Amazing Health Benefits of Pistachios. Researchers say peanuts, walnuts, and tree nuts can reduce your risk of stroke and heart attack. Salted nuts, however, are not recommended as an everyday choice due to the higher sodium content. Eating nuts on a regular basis may improve your health in many ways, such as by reducing diabetes and heart disease risk, as well as cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Eating too many tiger nuts at a time can cause abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence, diarrhea or constipation. Eating pistachios regularly keeps the body nourished with proteins, fats, nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants. © 2005-2021 Healthline Media a Red Ventures Company. Therefore, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome are strongly linked. Another study in women with metabolic syndrome observed that eating a 1-ounce (30-gram) mix of walnuts, peanuts, and pine nuts per day for 6 weeks significantly lowered all types of cholesterol — except “good” HDL (27, 28). Nuts are also rich in fibre and protein, which means they keep us fuller for longer, reducing the likelihood of overeating or filling up on junk food. In this case, the health benefits of nuts are extremely convincing. Nutritionist Leslie Beck told The Globe and Mail that eating an apple a day is perfectly safe and won't add too much sugar to your diet. Hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and Brazil nuts have fewer than 2 grams of digestible carbs per serving, while cashews have almost 8 digestible carbs per serving. The benefits of eating nuts and seeds every day If you are not eating nuts and seeds, then it's time, unless, of course, you have an allergy to them. All of them play important roles in helping your body function properly. ALSO READ: 17 Everyday Things You Didn’t Know are Slowly Killing You. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Consumption of 2 Brazil nuts daily is as effective for increasing selenium status. "We usually suggest that you mix them up if you want the best benefits because then you get all the good fats and micronutrients," Dr Brown says. Research suggests that eating nuts may reduce inflammation and promote healthy aging (39). In one study in 13 people, eating walnuts or almonds increased polyphenol levels and significantly reduced oxidative damage, compared to a control meal (7). Studies found that small, dense LDL particles may increase heart disease risk more than larger LDL particles (58, 59). Although all nuts are very healthy and nutritious foods, pistachios especially stand out because of their complete nutritional values and the great benefits they offer for our body. Eating nuts on a regular basis may improve your health in many ways, such as by reducing diabetes and heart disease risk, as well as cholesterol and triglyceride levels. And what kind of olive oil should we be buying? Nut warnings. Yet, one study on almond consumption in healthy adults observed little difference between the almond and control groups — though a few inflammatory markers decreased in those eating almonds (45). 2. Eating a few walnuts every day benefits your heart because of the high levels of polyphenols and omega-3 fatty acids. In a 12-week controlled study, people with metabolic syndrome who ate just under 1 ounce (25 grams) of pistachios twice per day experienced a 9% decrease in fasting blood sugar, on average (37). Benefits of Eating Walnuts: 1. What’s more, even though nuts are quite high in calories, research shows that your body doesn’t absorb all of them, as a portion of fat stays trapped within the nut’s fibrous wall during digestion (16, 17, 18). Why You Should Eat a Handful of Nuts Every Day. Eat a handful of Brazil nuts every day to get your daily dose of selenium. Dr Brown says although yes, some nuts require a lot of water to grow, the amount pales in comparison to the water requirements of livestock. Hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and Brazil nuts contain less than 2 grams of digestible carbs per serving, while cashews, on the other hand, have almost 8 digestible carbs per serving. Research suggests that the benefits of eating nuts and seeds every day (in moderation) include lowering the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, abdominal fat, cancer, heart disease, and lung disease. Brazil nuts are the easiest and least expensive treatment to make the hair healthy and shiny. Jones warns that it’s easy to eat too many nuts, especially because they’re so snackable. Cashew nuts can also aid your eye health too thanks to a couple more antioxidants, according to Bright Side. Thus, substituting nuts for higher-carb foods should lead to reduced blood sugar levels. ABC Everyday helps you navigate life's challenges and choices so you can stay on top of the things that matter to you. All rights reserved. What is kola nut and what are its potential side effects and health benefits? Its antioxidant profile contributes to many of the benefits listed and only about seven walnut halves daily are enough to enjoy some of its benefits. Although used as nuts in the culinary world, in the botanical world, pine nuts (also known as cedar nuts) are the edible seeds of pine trees. Mixed nuts are rich in a wide array of important … These nuts help improve heart health, reduce bad cholesterol, protect the arteries from damage, suppress appetite, boost energy and improve vision health. In general, it’s healthiest to eat nuts raw or toast them in the oven at a temperature below 350°F (175°C). How Many Brazil Nuts Should You Eat Per Day . Eating every three to four hours, limiting added sugars and saturated fats found in processed foods, and making more of your meals plant-based are also key to successful, long-term weight loss. The health benefits of nuts; This competition is now closed. That being said, nuts are usually accepted as an excellent food to eat on a low-carb diet. Almonds have consistently been shown to promote weight loss rather than weight gain in controlled studies. Peanuts according Ayurveda are pittakafa increasement food… It is called as poor people almond… When pitta kafa in body is in diminished state then peanuts are first choice for eating purpose along with food. However, the evidence is mixed and not all studies note a benefit from eating nuts in people with metabolic syndrome (38). High in Antioxidants. Their health effects may include weight loss benefits, lower cholesterol and blood sugar, and improved gut, eye, and blood vessel health. One of the major benefits of eating cashew nuts is that it reduces the risk of cancer. Do yourself a favour — buy a jar of almond butter and some dates, put some of the almond butter inside the dates, then email to thank me later. Here's how to identify whether you're actually hungry, and what healthy snacks to opt for. by Kinjal Shah | June 20, 2016, 0:00 IST. Nuts can be a choking hazard Cashew nuts can also aid your eye health too thanks to a couple more antioxidants, according to Bright Side. Interestingly, nuts may be one of the best foods for people with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. In our Food Files series, ABC Everyday takes a close look at a seasonal ingredient. Many types of fiber function as prebiotics or food for your healthy gut bacteria. Brazil nuts are packed with omega-3 fatty acids, extremely high amounts of selenium, vitamins, and antioxidants, all of which work wonders for your health. All nuts are healthy, but if you have to choose, walnuts are one of the best you can eat. These SCFAs have powerful benefits, including improving gut health and reducing your risk of diabetes and obesity (46, 47, 48). Find the answer to these questions here. Research suggests that the benefits of eating nuts and seeds every day (in moderation) include lowering the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, abdominal fat, cancer, heart disease, and lung disease. Raw nuts will have a shorter shelf life than roasted ones says dietitian Belinda Neville, but if you're an avid crunch seeker, it might be worth buying raw nut varieties and roasting them at home. Nuts are seed kernels that are widely used in cooking or eaten on their own as a snack. One of the benefits of eating more walnuts for your heart health is that they don’t cause weight gain. Similarly, some nuts — including pistachios, Brazil nuts, walnuts, and almonds — have been found to fight inflammation in healthy people and those with serious conditions like diabetes and kidney disease (25, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44). The Dieticians Association of Australia recommends including more nuts in your diet by eating them in their pulverised form aka nut butter. Your information is being handled in accordance with the, Differences between extra virgin, light and pure olive oil, Add to your cookie repertoire with this easy mix-and-roll almond shortbread recipe, Extra virgin, light or pure: The healthiest type of olive oil to buy, Turns out beans really are magical… even for dessert, The best way to snack in the afternoon (food isn't always the answer), From Otway red to Dutch cream: Your guide to the world's most versatile veggie, Blueberries: The superfood that lives up to the hype, If you're straining to poo, then you're doing it wrong. By virtue of their nutritional composition they are potent health boosters. Dr Stanton says that while it's true that phytic acid may bind to some of the minerals in foods that contain it, it's also an important antioxidant. Several studies show that macadamia nuts lower cholesterol levels as well. Eating pistachios regularly keeps the body nourished with proteins, fats, nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants. Antioxidants, including the polyphenols in nuts, can combat oxidative stress by neutralizing free radicals — unstable molecules that may cause cell damage and increase disease risk (3). In another study, people with normal or high cholesterol were randomly assigned to consume either olive oil or nuts with a high-fat meal. After Europeans discovered peanuts in Brazil, they helped to spread cultivation of this nut throughout North America and Asia. The substances are called zeaxanthin and lutein, and they can help you retain a strong level of vision. Discover the reasons that you should eat them every day in this article! Studies suggest that eating nuts may also lower oxidative stress, blood pressure, and other health markers in people with diabetes and metabolic syndrome (33, 34, 35, 36, 37). Health Benefits of Eating Cashew Nuts. They’re tasty, convenient, and can be enjoyed on all kinds of diets — from keto to vegan. When 29 studies involving nearly one million people all come to the same conclusion, you can feel pretty confident about the results. Generally, nuts will keep at room temperature for a few months when stored in an airtight container in a cool dark spot. Nuts are among the healthy food items that boost heart health, fight cancer, reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and even lead to weight loss. Brazil nuts are packed with omega-3 fatty acids, extremely high amounts of selenium, vitamins, and antioxidants, all of which work wonders for your health. This benefit only comes to pass if you eat the recommended amount of nuts every day… Though produced on the Pistaci Vera tree in the Central Asia and the Middle East, people from all around the world recommend pistas for health. Save salted nuts for parties and make raw and unsalted roasted nuts your everyday choice. Nuts and seeds are important additions to our daily food consumption. To enhance your well being hereby I enlist some of the health benefits of cashew nuts. That means, while eating one apple a day has plenty of benefits, it's safe to eat even more. Weight Loss. Inflammation is your body’s way of defending itself from injury, bacteria, and other potentially harmful pathogens. Cashew nuts are a rich source of copper that helps eliminate free radicals from the body. Eat a handful of Brazil nuts daily to notice a major improvement in the quality of your hair. The article discusses the effects of eating excess nuts and how many nuts you can eat every day. What most of us refer to as 'nuts' actually aren't nuts at all. And the healthier your metabolism is, the … Here are the top 8 health benefits of eating nuts. 4. Plus, fiber helps you feel full and reduces the number of calories you absorb from meals. The disorder occurs when the body f… These tiny gifts from Mother Nature are super heart-friendly thanks to a group of fatty acids called monounsaturated fats that protect against cardiovascular diseases. Your gut bacteria then ferment the fiber and turn it into beneficial short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). This equates to any one of the following handfuls of individual nuts: Sources: Better Health Channel, Nutrition Australia. We'll give you the facts on how to recognize symptoms, which foods to avoid, and how to treat anaphylaxis. Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT. And with less of those hunger pangs, you are likely to be able to avoid sudden binge eating and stick with your meal plan for the day. The most complicated health solutions lie in the most ordinary things and even the medical world is gradually admitting the same. They’re high in fat and calories. Along with protecting against chronic diseases and even mortality, eating nuts on a daily basis could also be beneficial for brain and nerve health. Excellent source of selenium: Most of the health benefits of Brazil nuts can be attributed to its high selenium content. Mixed nuts are common snacks for a party or a bar, but unlike many other salty foods, mixed nuts can be quite healthy. Is nutmeg safe for me to eat? Nuts are extremely good for the heart. Health benefits of Brazil nuts include protecting the heart, improving skin, preventing cancer and Alzheimer's, and aiding in weight loss. Despite being high in fat, they have a number of impressive health and weight benefits. Nuts have strong anti-inflammatory properties. To name a few: Cashew nuts are native to Brazil, where they have long been viewed as a delicacy. Other Benefits of Nuts. 8. They are filled with essential nutrients and have a number of health benefits, helping you to … Several studies do suggest that nuts do help lower one’s heart disease and stroke risk on account of their benefits for cholesterol levels, LDL particle size, artery function as well as inflammation. Nuts have received a bad rap in recent years when it comes to the amount of water required to grow them, particularly almonds and cashews. They’re widely available in grocery stores and online and come in a wide variety of options, including salted, unsalted, seasoned, plain, raw, or roasted. The carb content of nuts is considered to be of the highly variable. Here are the nuts with the highest fiber content per 1-ounce (28-gram) serving: Several studies suggest that nuts help lower heart disease and stroke risk due to their benefits for cholesterol levels, “bad” LDL particle size, artery function, and inflammation (11, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57). Some of the benefits of eating nuts is that you are less likely to die of cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, colon cancer and diverticulitis. However, the Linus Pauling Institute indicates that you’ll reap the benefits of nuts and seeds if you eat the equivalent of 1 ounce of seeds or nuts five times weekly. The amounts of saturated fat, the type of fat we should avoid, varies between nuts and has been flagged below. There are many great choices for nut butters besides peanut butter. Promote Heart Health. Be mindful of the risks when eating nuts. 5 benefits of eating cashew nuts every day. A 2018 study found a link between nut consumption, reduced weight gain, and a lower risk of obesity . One large study assessing the effects of the Mediterranean diet found that people assigned to eat nuts lost an average of 2 inches (5 cm) from their waists — significantly more than those given olive oil (11). "In the context of a varied diet, there's no need to 'activate' the nuts," she says. What Are the Benefits of Eating Pistachios. The substances are called zeaxanthin and lutein, and they can help you retain a strong level of vision. This article reviews the evidence on whether nuts are weight loss friendly or fattening. For people with Crohn’s disease and slower digestive systems, an intestinal blockage may occur. Use nuts and seeds to add texture to smoothies or pureed soups -- simply add ground flaxseeds directly to your meal, or soak other nuts and seeds until soft and then blend into your food. Pistachios have been shown to lower triglycerides in people who are obese and those with diabetes. In population-based study, eating nuts is good for health ,a study of 86,000 women by British medical scientists found that those who ate 20g of nuts a day were 35 per cent less likely to have a heart attack than those who ate less than 5g a week. Nutmeg vs. Tree Nuts: What’s the Difference? It's no secret that the peanut has been nothing more than an imposter, a legume seizing our throats and making us itchy since who knows when. For instance, while the nutrition facts on a package of almonds may indicate that a 1-ounce (28-gram) serving has 160–170 calories, your body only absorbs about 129 of these calories (19). One study found that walnuts have a greater capacity to fight free radicals than fish (4). She says that if a person had to rely solely on nuts to survive, soaking nuts to reduce phytic acid may have some advantages; however, it would also reduce some of the B vitamins found in nuts. Some research suggests that pistachios aid weight loss as well (12, 13, 14). Everyday consumption of cashew nuts supplies various health benefits. The recent EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems recommends upping our nut consumption for both health and environmental reasons. Nuts offer beneficial vitamins and minerals in varying quantities, and eating a variety ensures we're reaping the benefits of each. Nut 'meals' or grounded up nuts can be used as an alternative to flour, making them a great gluten-free option. Type 2 diabetes is a common disease affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Brazil nut oil is also used in shampoos, conditioners and hair treatments. Aim to eat those in the amber and green bands most of the time and enjoy those in red category … First off, they’re low in carbs and don’t raise blood sugar levels much. The cholesterol-lowering power of nuts may be due to their high content of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. 12. The health benefits of nuts. Studies have shown that those of us who eat nuts regularly, tend to gain less weight over time than those who don't. People in the nut group had better artery function and lower fasting triglycerides than the olive oil group — regardless of their initial cholesterol levels (51). High in Beneficial Fiber. 5 benefits of eating cashew nuts every day. Research shows that the antioxidants in walnuts and almonds can protect the delicate fats in your cells from being damaged by oxidation (5, 6, 7). The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend a daily serving of 30g of nuts. A variety is best Nuts and nutrients: Almonds: High in protein, vitamin E and especially high in calcium; Brazil nuts: High in fibre and the richest known source of selenium Ones that are high in polyunsaturated fats like walnuts, pine nuts and Brazil nuts are best consumed quickly or stored in the fridge or freezer to ensure they remain fresher for longer, says Dr Brown. Talking about the benefits of eating almonds everyday she adds, "They are sources of unsaturated fats, high-quality vegetable protein, fiber, minerals, tocopherols, phytosterols, and phenolic compounds. Interestingly, one study on the Mediterranean diet found that people who ate nuts had a significant decline in small LDL particles and an increase in large LDL particles, as well as “good” HDL cholesterol levels (11). Stick to 6–8 nuts a day. A review of 5 human clinical trials found that the unique combination of polyunsaturated acids in walnuts boost cardiovascular health. Get our newsletter for the best of ABC Everyday each week. Vitamin B6 – The other name of vitamin B6 is Pyridoxine. Newsletter. Though they’re considered a high-calorie food, research suggests that nuts may help you lose weight. "There is also some evidence that phytic acid may have anti-cancer properties," says Dr Stanton. An exhaustive medical analysis has revealed the amazing health benefits of nuts. Heart-Health Benefits A 1-ounce serving of pistachios, or about 49 kernels, provides you with 13 grams of fat — one of the lowest fat contents of all nuts. Brazil nuts contain an active enzyme called “triodothyronine” which helps to produce the active thyroid hormone. Pistachio nuts are one of the most beneficial nuts from the cashew family. By Kerry Torrens – Nutritionist. Tree nut allergies are common and can be serious. These tiny gifts from Mother Nature are super heart-friendly thanks to a group of fatty acids called monounsaturated fats that protect against cardiovascular diseases. Which is just as well, because they're also more expensive to buy than regular nuts — which are already steep! Plus, learn…. Fortunately, you can buy most nuts from the store already shelled and ready to eat. Mixed nuts are rich in a wide array of important … Here are some of the most commonly consumed nuts: Though peanuts are technically legumes like peas and beans, they’re usually referred to as nuts due to their similar nutrition profile and characteristics. Benefits of pistachios. Prevents blood diseases Limited quantities of cashew nuts, when eaten regularly, can help in preventing blood diseases. In one 12-week study in obese people, those eating pistachios had triglyceride levels nearly 33% lower than in the control group (14, 22). The carb content of nuts is highly variable. More recently, cashews have become popular throughout the world for their delicate flavor and extraordinary health benefits. This is particularly important if you have high blood pressure. Brazil nuts are very beneficial for treating Acrodermatitis enteropathica, a rare inherited disorder. You can eat 2 Brazil Nuts a Day. From raw versus roasted to whether you need to know or care about activated almonds, here's everything you need to know about eating nuts. However, not all nuts are created equally. Prevents blood diseases Limited quantities of cashew nuts, when eaten regularly, can help in preventing blood diseases. One ounce (28 grams) of mixed nuts contains (1): Some nuts are higher in certain nutrients than others. Research published in the journal “Food and Function,” found that walnuts have more polyphenols — a healthy antioxidant — than other nuts, such as brazil nuts, pecans, and almonds. It contains high amounts of omega 3 fatty acids, which stimulate the production of sebum in the scalp, conditioning the hair naturally. Metabolic syndrome refers to a group of risk factors that may increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Beck suggests aiming to consume two to three servings of fruit every day. In fact, one study found people who ate a handful of nuts a day were likely to live longer than those who didn't eat nuts. Make these nuts an every-once-in-a-while versus everyday nut (unless you're just eating one a day). One study suggests that increasing fiber intake from 18 to 36 grams daily may result in up to 130 fewer calories absorbed (49, 50). You only need to eat 1 or 2 Brazil nuts every day to get the recommended daily allowance of selenium. If you've ever wondered what the hell an activated almond is — rest assured, we've got you covered. According to science, pistachios are: 1. In one study in overweight women, those eating almonds lost nearly three times as much weight and experienced a significantly greater decrease in waist size compared to the control group (15). It assists in the maintaining mood. Nuts are high in fat, but much of it is the heart-healthy variety. However, chronic, long-term inflammation can cause damage to organs and increase disease risk. If you like to eat nuts, pistachios are one of the healthier options. In this article, I will explain the various benefits of taking the cashew nuts on regular basis. Let’s start with the introduction of almonds before going to benefits. Introduction of Almonds . Is it OK to eat pistachios everyday?, Read on to know about 10 amazing health benefits of pistachio nuts…. 14 In fact, one study actually found that those who consumed 43 gm of almonds a day experienced less hunger and had a lower desire to eat than those who did not. May Lower Cholesterol. 3. A 2018 study found a link between nut consumption, reduced weight gain, and a lower risk of obesity . Here are 10 science-backed benefits of eating pistachio nuts. This nutritious high-fiber treat may even aid weight loss — despite its high calorie count. 5. Cashew nuts contain an array of minerals and vitamins, including vitamins E, K, B6, copper, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, iron, and selenium. "Some studies show that if you roast nuts at really high temperatures, you'll lose nutrients but if you're roasting at lower temperatures at home, the losses are negligible," Dr Brown says. Research suggests that eating nuts may: Lower your low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad") cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which play a major role in the buildup of deposits called plaques in your arteries Improve the health of the lining of your arteries … Yes, most nuts are full of fat but it's "good fat" (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated), with the exception of coconuts, which are very high in saturated fat (bad fat), says Dr Stanton. They are one of the nuts with most fiber and healthy fats, and they are also rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins and essential fatty acids. In one trial, a moderate-fat diet including macadamia nuts reduced cholesterol as much as a lower-fat diet (29, 30, 31, 32). That being said, nuts are generally an excellent food to eat on a low-carb diet. The recommended serving is 2 to 3 tablespoons daily. What’s more, they’re delicious, versatile, and fun to eat. Learn about symptoms, risks, and treatment. Learn the benefits of these alternative nut butters. For instance, just one Brazil nut provides more than 100% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for selenium (2). People with tree nut allergies may wonder: Is nutmeg a tree nut? Natural_Cures "Eating a handful of nuts a day can keep the doctor away”. 5. Brazil nut also contains fiber which helps to reduce the cholesterol level. 10. "They're the 'trendy' choice with no real evidence of benefits," Dr Stanton says. Research has proven its benefits can help prevent many chronic diseases. As long as you eat them in moderation, nuts make for a tasty addition to a healthy, balanced diet. From how we eat it, where to find it, and the best ways to enjoy it at home. So which types of fats are best? Eating nuts in place of refined carbohydrates It helps you deal with various health issues including brain function, high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, inflammation, skin and hair related issues. Mixed nuts are common snacks for a party or a bar, but unlike many other salty foods, mixed nuts can be quite healthy. Talking about the benefits of eating almonds everyday she adds, "They are sources of unsaturated fats, high-quality vegetable protein, fiber, minerals, tocopherols, phytosterols, and phenolic compounds. Nuts are packed full of beneficial nutrients that may reduce your risk of many diseases. However, studies in older people and individuals with metabolic syndrome found that walnuts and cashews didn’t have a big impact on antioxidant capacity, though some other markers improved (9, 10). Eating just 6–8 Brazil nuts every day can keep your heart healthy, prevent cancer, improve skin, promote thyroid balance, treat Alzheimer's, and promote your bone and dental health. Studies conducted by Dr Brown found there was no difference in the cholesterol lowering properties of roasted nuts compared to raw nuts, when roasted for 10 minutes at 140 degrees Celsius. There’s a long list of benefits you can acquire from eating nuts and seeds. Pistachio nuts are one of the most beneficial nuts from the cashew family. 2020-05-07 Browse times: 28. According to recent research, eating nuts may help some people to gain less weight. by Kinjal Shah | June 20, 2016, 0:00 IST. Moreover, overconsumption also not a good one. And according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, consumption of nuts and seeds may help reduce the risk of heart disease. Good for hair Copper found in nuts is also good for hair, helping it remain bright and strong. research clearly shows they're really good for us, likely to live longer than those who didn't eat nuts, EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. 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Wadi El Natroun, EGYPT
- Site: Wadi El Natroun Cultural Landscape
- Keywords: Egypt Cultural Landscape, Wadi El Natroun, Lake Fasida, Lake Umm Risha, Lake Al-Gaar, Lake El-Zugm, The Monastery of Deir abu makar ( st. Makarous), The Monastery of Deir Anba bishoy ( St bishoi), The Monastery of Deir el Surian, The Monastery of Deir EL Baramous, threatened species, Salt Marsh Depressions, the Gravel Desert.
1. OFFICIAL CLASSIFICATIONS AND CATEGORIES
1.1 National and International Classification Lists
Wadi El Natroun is in the Tentative List of UNESCO, with the name ““Southern and Smaller Oases, the Western Desert” and date of Submission: 12/06/2003, Criteria: (vii)(viii)(ix)(x), Category: Natural, and Ref.: 1808. Also, “The monasteries of the Arab Desert and Wadi Natrun” is in the Tentative List of UNESCO, with Date of Submission: 28/07/2003, Criteria: (ii)(iv)(v), Category: Cultural.
1.2. Cultural Landscape Category/Tipology
Organically evolved landscapesRelict (or fossil) landscape
Associative cultural landscape1
1.3. Description and Justification by Med-O-Med
Wadi El- Natroun is located 100 km to the north west of Cairo, it is a natural depression in the western desert that consists of salt lakes and salt flats laying in the desert. Wadi el Natroun was very important to the ancient Egyptian since it was where they extracted the Natrun salt. Indeed and become more important during the early era of Christianity in Egypt. Today it is the centre of many monasteries dating back to the fourth century AD. It has many natural and cultural components to be considered as a Cultural Landscape: -Natural components: There are about 20 lakes are found in the central part of the Depression. Some of the principal lakes are: Lake Fasida, Lake Umm Risha, Lake Al-Gaar, Lake El-Zugm. There are two main ecosystems in Wadi Natroun: (1) Salt Marsh Depressions and (2) the Gravel Desert. These comprise: (a) reed swamp vegetation and (b) salt marsh vegetation, which is in turn divided into dry salt marsh vegetation and wet salt marsh vegetation, and (c) halfa vegetation. As to animals, 173 vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians) have been recorded. Birds alone are 117 species. There are two bird species here that are included in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, the Marbled Teal and the Great Snipe. Also five mammals are listed on the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, one of which being the endemic Flower’s shrew, Crocidura floweri. Efforts should be directed to protect the habitats of reptiles, particularly the Grass Loving Lizard, Philochorus intermedius, endemic and recorded only from Wadi Natroun. Wadi Natroun is notorious for being the endemic spot in which the liver fluke, Fasciola, which attacks sheep and occasionally humans, exists. The Wadi Natroun is a focus of endemism of this fluke, from where it spreads to the Delta when flocks of sheep are brought sometimes here for grazing. -Cultural components: Since the time of St. Antonios of Egypt, and for the last 17 centuries, the Wadi Natroun was a haven for monasticism. It was called in ancient Coptic texts the Wilderness of Shit (the soul). Several Monasteries were built and rebuilt over that time, but now only four exist. The monks spent their time in basket weaving, using the reeds, and salt extraction. Now they reclaim land surrounding the Monasteries and use high technology for farming, and for publication of theology books and manuscripts. The Monasteries are rich in works of religious art and in ancient manuscripts. They are called: The Monastery of Deir abu makar ( st. Makarous), The Monastery of Deir Anba bishoy ( St bishoi), The Monastery of Deir el Surian, The Monastery of Deir EL Baramous.
2. NAME / LOCATION / ACCESSIBILITY
- Current denomination Wadi El-Natroun.
- Current denomination Wadi El-Natroun.
- Original denomination Wadi El-Natroun.
- Popular denomination Wadi El-Natroun.
- Address: Wadi Natrun (Wadi al-Natrun, Wadi el-Natrun, Wadi el-Natroun) is a northwesterly oriented desert depression about 60 kilometers long located in the Western Desert near the delta about 90 kilometers northwest of Cairo.
- Geographical coordinates: 30°17' N / 30°02' E - 23°10' N / 31°25' E
- Area, boundaries and surroundings: Wadi El-Natroun Depression is a narrow depression located in El-Beheira Governorate, in the Western Desert, west of the Nile Delta, approximately 110 km northwest of Cairo and 90 km south of Alexandria, in a NW-SE direction. It is an oasis rather than a “wadi”. The name wadi was gained for its longitudinal shape. It is about 23 m below sea level.
3. LEGAL ISSUES
- Owner: New Valley Governorate, Matrouh Governorate and Beheira Governorate.
- Body responsible for the maintenance: New Valley Governorate, Matrouh Governorate and Beheira Governorate.
The alkali lakes of the Natron Valley provided the Ancient Egyptians with the sodium bicarbonate used in mummification. The region was and remains one of the most sacred regions in Christianity. Between the 4th and 7th century A.D., the region saw hundreds of thousands of people from the world over join the hundreds of monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, centered on Nitria, Kellia and Scetis (Wadi El Natrun). The desolate region became a sanctuary for the desert fathers and for cenobitic monastic communities. The solitude of the Nitrian Desert attracted these people because they saw in the privations of the desert a means of learning stoic self-discipline (asceticism). Thus, these individuals believed that desert life would teach them to eschew the things of this world and allow them to follow God’s call in a more deliberate and individual way. Saint Macarius of Egypt first came to Scetis (Wadi El Natrun) around 330 AD where he established a solitary monastic site. His reputation attracted a loose band of anchorites, hermits and monks who settled nearby in individual cells. Many of them came from nearby Nitria and Kellia where they had previous experience in solitary desert living, thus it was not so much a place of innovation but a consolidation of some like-minded monks. By the end of the fourth century, four distinct communities had developed: Baramus, Macarius, Bishoi and John Kolobos. At first these communities were groupings of cells centered around a communal church and facilities, but over time developed into enclosed walls and watchtowers. As in Nitria and Kellia, Scellis was subject to raids from desert nomads, and they experienced internal fractures related to doctrinal disputes in Egypt. The monasteries flourished during the Muslim conquest of Egypt (639-42), but in the eighth and ninth centuries it came into conflict with Muslim rulers over taxation and administration concerns. While Nitria and Kellia were eventually abandoned in the 7th and 9th centuries respectively, Scetis continued throughout the Medieval period. Some of the individual monasteries were eventually abandoned or destroyed, but four have remained in use to the present day.
5. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
5.1. Natural heritage
- Heritage: Rural
- Geography: Plain
- Site topography: Natural
- Climate and environmental conditions: No details.
- Geological and Geographical characteristics: Tectonic forces played an important role in the formation of the Wadi El-Natroun Depression. Several fissures and faults resulted from these forces as easy passages for underground water which carries soluble components of the rocks underneath, leaving residual deposits on the surface, mainly of sodium carbonate (natron, hence the name Natroun). This natron was at the basis of the soap industry in Europe till the middle of the 19th century, when the method used by the Frenchman LeBlanc, who discovered how to produce it synthetically, became widespread. The morphology and geochemistry of saline lakes in the Wadi El Natrun depression were studied. All lakes had pH values of 8.5–9.5 and a salinity from 283 to 540 g/L. The main ionic components were sulphate, chloride, carbonate and sodium. Traces of magnesium were also present. The water of the lakes is of the Cl− to SO 4 2− −Cl− type. Increased Cl− in Wadi El Natrun brines can increase metal solubility due to the formation of soluble chloro-complexes of trace elements. The metal concentrations decrease in the order: Pb>Cu>Cd>Ni>Zn >Fe>Mn. The characteristics of Wadi El Natrun saline lakes are compared with those from other saline lakes.
There are two main ecosystems in Wadi Natroun: (1) Salt Marsh Depressions and (2) the Gravel Desert. These comprise: (a) reed swamp vegetation and (b) salt marsh vegetation, which is in turn divided into dry salt marsh vegetation and wet salt marsh vegetation, and (c) halfa vegetation. This differentiation is due to soil salinity and level of ground water. Depending on the relief, the following habitat conditions are recognized: · Localities with the lowest relief have a continuous underground water supply, and predominating swamp conditions. These localities represent the typical reed habitat. · Where the water table is shallow, the soil is darkish brown and very rich in organic matter. High evaporation and lack of rainfall lead to increased salinity. Under such conditions the wet salt marsh habitat is formed. Where the sandy soil is relatively dry but still saline and organic matter content is low, the habitat of dry salt marsh is formed. · Halfa (Imperata cylindrica)grassland, the types of vegetation in this habitat are sand terraces or sand dunes. · The gravel desert habitat, surrounding the Wadi Natroun Depression, is a part of the gravelly Western Desert landscape dissected by drainage runnels varying in size. Plants in this sand-gravel desert depend mainly on the amount of the scanty rainfall. A noticeable feature of this habitat is the mosaic pattern of the vegetation, suggesting that the plants are affected by several interacting factors, other than rainfall alone. Only 46 plant species were recorded in the Depression. Of these, 42 are perennials and only 4 annuals. They represent about 2.3% of the total flora of Egypt. The most striking observation is that the highest richness is reached in the dry salt marshes and the gravel desert, both habitats being characterized by strong heterogeneity of microsites. The gravel desert habitat, surrounding the Wadi Natroun Depression, is a part of the gravelly Western Desert landscape dissected by drainage runnels varying in size. Plants in this sand-gravel desert depend mainly on the amount of the scanty rainfall. A noticeable feature of this habitat is the mosaic pattern of the vegetation, suggesting that the plants are affected by several interacting factors, other than rainfall alone. Only 46 plant species were recorded in the Depression. Of these, 42 are perennials and only 4 annuals. They represent about 2.3% of the total flora of Egypt. The most striking observation is that the highest richness is reached in the dry salt marshes and the gravel desert, both habitats being characterized by strong heterogeneity of microsites..
As to animals, 173 vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians) have been recorded. Birds alone are 117 species. Most of them are passerine or winter visiting water birds, since the Depression is a link in the chain of water spots along their migration routes. Cyperus laevigatus dominates the wet salt marshes on the eastern shores of the lakes, creating one of the most characteristic and attractive habitats for water birds. It is important for Common Cranes. The most common birds are Shelduck, Great Snipe, Curlew, Little Stint, and Kittlitz’s Plover, which may reach 1200 individuals in winter time. Such significant bird populations in Wadi Natroun are of considerable economic importance as they represent an attraction for eco-tourism. Birds play also an important role in food chains in this area. The bird fauna in Wadi Natroun is under stress due to hunting parties sport and trapping for trade, although most of these birds are under legal protection. The Marbled Teal, was a breeding bird in Wadi Natroun untill 1912. There are two bird species here that are included in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, the Marbled Teal and the Great Snipe. The Graceful Warbler, Wadi Natroun form, is endemic here. Wadi El-Natroun has been designated one of Egypt’s 34 Important Bird Areas Mammal species are 31, reptiles 24, and only one amphibian. Hunting parties are common in the inland desert, for hares and foxes. Five of these mammals are listed on the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, one of which being the endemic Flower’s shrew, Crocidura floweri. Efforts should be directed to protect the habitats of reptiles, particularly the Grass Loving Lizard, Philochorus intermedius, endemic and recorded only from Wadi Natroun. Wadi Natroun is notorious for being the endemic spot in which the liver fluke, Fasciola, which attacks sheep and occasionally humans, exists. The Wadi Natroun is a focus of endemism of this fluke, from where it spreads to the Delta when flocks of sheep are brought sometimes here for grazing.
Land uses and economical activities:No details.
Agricultural issues or other traditional productions and their effect on the landscape:The papyrus of the Ancient Egyptians, Cyperus papyrus, was rediscovered in 1968 there, and the Wadi Natroun is still the only place in Egypt where papyrus exists in a natural state. Individuals of this small population were tried to revive the papyrus paper industry in Egypt about 40 years ago, but they proved inadequate, and other taller individuals were brought from Lake Chad and southern Sudan and replanted on the Nile banks in Cairo. These new plantations are the basis of the now flourishing papyrus paper trade in Egypt.
5.2. Cultural Heritage
A) Related to current constructions, buildings and art pieces in general
Architectonical elements /Sculptures:
The Monasteries of the Arab Desert: Arid and mountainous, the Arab Desert stretches its great lonely spaces from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea. The monasteries of St. Anthony and of St. Paul are about 10 km south of Zafarana, a place on the western shore of the Red Sea (about 230 km south-east of Cairo). The first monastery is on the flank of Gabal al-Alaa al-Qibliya, there where the cave of St. Anthony is located and where he lived until his death in 356 AD. The second monastery is slightly further to the west on the same mountain where St. Paul lived for 60 years according to the legend (at the beginning of the IVth century AD). B/ The Monasteries of Wadi Natrun The Wadi Natrun is a 25 km long depression in the western desert half-way between Cairo and Alexandria where there are about a dozen saline lakes, two of which, the Bouhaïret el-Gounfadiya and the Bouhaïret el-Hamra, provide natron, the sodium carbonate used by the Pharaohs for mummification. Only four out of the fifty Coptic monasteries which existed in the past have survived to the present day. One is the St. Macarius monastery (Deir Abu Makaria) 94 km south-last of Cairo and the three others, the monastery of the Romans (Deir el Baramos), the monastery of the Syrians (Deir es-Souriyan) and the St. Pshoï monastery (Deir Amba Bichoi) are 10 km away from the first monastery. A/ The Monasteries of the Arab Desert 1-The St. Anthony monastery (Deir Mar Antonios) This is the oldest monastery in Egypt. St. Anthony, with St. Pacomius (287-347 AD) were one of the first leaders of the Church, and founders of Christian monasticism. Towards the end of the IIIrd century Anthony (251-356 AD) abandoned his property and retired into the Arab Desert to live there as a hermit. He chose the Gebel el Qalaa el-Qibliya to come closer to God and lived in a cave where his disciples founded a monastery. The first reference to a monastic organisation only appears at the beginning of the VIIth century. Then, very quickly, a village with its church, its chapels, its bread oven, its mills, cells and its gardens grew up around the cave. This layout has survived up to the present day sheltered within an over 10 m high perimeter. It has been restructured several times but there are still authentic vestiges left illustrating the successive artistic and cultural inputs of the past centuries. Description A big square tower with a storey has several chapels, one of which is dedicated to St. Michael and another one to St. Anthony. The church, built on top on the Saint’s tomb, has a square narthex and a square chancel. It has frescoes from the XIIIth century representing Saints on horseback, archangels and in the small adjoining chapels, the first patriarchs of Alexandria. Access was with the help of a pulley as in a fortress. Two wheat flour mills recall the importance of agricultural work in monastic communities. 2-The Monastery of St. Paul (Deir Mar Boulos) Born in Thebaid around 225 AD, Paul became a hermit to escape from the persecutions of Christians under the emperor Decius which started in 249 AD. He crossed the desert and settled in a cave on the flank of Gabal el Qalaa el Qibliya, an inhospitable mountain scorched by the sun. He left numerous disciples behind at his death who, to perpetuate his memory, set up a community on the site of his tomb which became the nucleus of the present monastery. Description Smaller than that of St. Anthony, the St. Paul monastery had undergone less changes and today seems to be hemmed in with all its buildings within a medieval precinct. A square tower, a refuge for the monks in case of an attack, has chapels as at St. Anthony’s, and also cells, storerooms and water supplied through an underground canal from the monastery’s well. St. Paul’s church is decorated with numerous paintings from the XVIIIth century, including those of saints on horseback, namely St. George, St. Theodore and Michael the Archangel striking at the demons. On the church roof is a chapel. The church of St. Mercurius is located slightly above the St. Paul’s church. B/ The Monasteries of Natrun 3-The Saint Macarius Monastery (Deir Abu Maga) Looking like an imposing fortress which had been constantly redeveloped throughout the centuries, this monastery was founded in the IVth century. Macarius, after visiting the monastery of St. Anthony in the Arab Desert when he lived for a few years in the company of the Holy Hermit, decided to withdraw to Wadi Natrun to live a life of contemplation in his turn. He died in 390 AD leaving behind disciples who continued living as hermits, in almost total isolation. Very quickly many isolated hermits settled in the region, then fifty monasteries were established. Four of these monasteries survived hitherto. The most important and the biggest in Wadi Natrun and probably in the whole of Egypt is that of Deir Abu Maqar (St. Macarius). Built in the IVth century sacked in the Vth century, it developed remarkably in the VIth century, due to the fact in particular that it was used as a refuge by the Coptic Patriarchs of Alexandria who had been banished by the Melkite Church and by the Byzantines. In 866 the church was rebuilt and the ramparts consolidated and thanks to such works the monastery was able to survive to the present day. An imposing tower with three floors which was used as a refuge by the monks in case of an attack, has four chapels, cells, store rooms, a mill and a well. The relics of St. Macarius, St. John the Baptist and the prophet Elisha are fervently venerated there and behind its austere appearance the monastery has retained traces of some of the greatest monuments of the Coptic church. Description· The Church of St. Macarius is the most important and the oldest in the monastery. In its main sanctuary is a mural painting of the tetramorph (the symbolic representation of the four evangelists) from the VIIth century. The cupola of the chapel of the diacomicon rejoins the square plan through the Persian arch pendentives from the Xth or the XIth century. This old architectural part was retained when it was restored about fifty years ago.· The Church of the Forty Nine Martyrs recalls the massacre of the monastery’s monks by desert plunderers in 444. Since the Council of Chalcedon, the chapel of “myron” has been used for the preparation of the holy oil (myron) to be used by the whole Coptic Church. Above the main altar, the cupola rejoins the square plan thanks to pendentives reclining on trefoil arches (Arabo-Moslem tradition)· The church of St. Apaskhiron has been greatly restored but has still retained a curious cupola with pendentives such as can be seen in buildings of the VIIth century. 4-The Monastery of St. Pschoi (Deir Anba Bishoy) Founded by St. Pschoï, a disciple of St. Macarius, it has five churches within a walled enclosure. The main church is that of St. Pschoï which probably dates back to the IXth century and which is used only in the summer whilst the church of the Virgin to the south-east, close to the Iskhurum church, is used in the winter and a drawbridge makes it possible to reach the storeys of the tower where the church of the archangel Michael is to be found and which contains icons from the XVIIIth century. 5-The Monastery of the Syrians (Deir al-Suryan) Founded in the VIth century, it was occupied by Syrian monks until the XVIth century. The church of the Virgin, built in about 980, which is the main church of the monastery, has a mural painting representing the Ascension, from the Xth century. From the same century is the ivory screen of the iconostasis representing religious scenes, portraits and geometric designs. Other impressive frescoes decorate the semi-cupolas of the chancel. The Church of the Holy Virgin Mary contains relics. It is close to the churches of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, of St. Hennis and St. Marutha (XVth century). Hundereds of old manuscripts are kept in the library of the monastery. 6-The Monastery of the Romans (Deir al-Baramus) The Theodore (Anba Tardus) church is no longer in use. It is next to the chapel of St. George and the St. John the Baptist church was added in the XIXth century. The three-storey tower has some vestiges from the VIIth century whilst the St. Michael church has admirable frescoes from the XIIth century.
In the case of gardens: original and current style:It is not the case. See point 5.1.5.
B) Related to ancient remains
C) Related to intangible, social and spiritual values
- Languages and dialects: Egyptian
- Lifestyle, believing, cults, traditional rites: Some of the most renowned saints of the region include the various Desert Fathers, as well as Saint Amun, Saint Arsenius, Saint John the Dwarf, Saint Macarius of Egypt, Saint Macarius of Alexandria, Saint Moses the Black, Saint Pishoy, Sts. Maximo and Domatios, Saint Poimen The Great and Saint Samuel the Confessor.
Condition: environmental/ cultural heritage degradation:There are direct and indirect causes for species impoverishment in the Depression, related mainly to the ways in which Man has used natural resources through time. Continued uncontrolled wood-cutting, overgrazing, establishment of fish farms, rainfed farming for annual crops, and land reclamation for irrigated agriculture, have dominated the Depression for many centuries, but have become very intense in the last decades. The net result has been the reduction of vegetation cover and the impoverishment of the flora. There are two bird species here that are included in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, the Marbled Teal and the Great Snipe. Also five mammals are listed on the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, one of which being the endemic Flower’s shrew, Crocidura floweri. Efforts should be directed to protect the habitats of reptiles, particularly the Grass Loving Lizard, Philochorus intermedius, endemic and recorded only from Wadi Natroun.
Quality of the night sky, light pollution and possibility to observe the stars:Deserts are privileged sites to breath in silence, to find ourselves and to observe the pure beauty of nature, including the stars that are brighting in the night sky, free of light pollution.
Perspectives/Views/ Points of interest/Setting:
-Wadi EL Natroun Depression. -The monasteries already mentioned in this file.
Universality:Wadi El- Natroun is located 100 km to the north west of Cairo, it is a natural depression in the western desert that consists of salt lakes and salt flats laying in the desert. Wadi el Natroun was very important to the ancient Egyptian since it was where they extracted the Natrun salt Though there appears to be few ancient sites in the Wadi Natrun from the Pharaonic period of Egyptian history, it was nevertheless an important area if for no other reason than its abundance of Natrun, a naturally occurring combination of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, which was used in mummification, and soda (sodium oxide), used for glass manufacturing. Natrun was also important in ancient Egyptian medicine, rituals and crafts. The natrun occurs in solution in the lakes, forms a crust around the edges of the lakes and in deposits on their bottom. The area continues to be a source of Natrun today. Indeed and become more important during the early era of Christianity in Egypt. Today it is the centre of many monasteries dating back to the fourth century AD. Wadi Natroun is also an area known for bird watching. It contains a series of nine small lakes (total area over 200km), scattered along its general axis. Typha swamps occur at localities along the shores of the lakes where there is a plentiful freshwater supply. Juncus and Cyperus dominate the wet salt marshes on the waterlogged eastern shores. The latter species carpets most of the marsh areas in a dense cover that does not exceed a few centimeters height because of severe grazing pressure. This, however, creates one of the most characteristic and attractive habitats for water birds.
Historical and graphical data (drawings, paintings, engravings, photographs, literary items…):
Wadi El Natroun Cultural Landscape is included in The Cultural Landscape inventory runned by Med-O-Med.
http://www.unesco.es http://en.egypt.travel/attraction/index/wadi-natrun http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/wadinatrun.htm http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/cds/cfi/wadinatrun.html http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/eg/oesterhelt/web_page_list/Org_Napha/index.html -Amany G. Taher. Inland saline lakes of Wadi El Natrun depression, Egypt. -International Journal of Salt Lake Research. Volume 8, Issue 2, pp 149-169, 1999. -Giddy, L. Egyptian Oases: Bahariya, Dakhla, Farafra and Kharga during Pharaonic Times, Warminster, Aris & Philips, 1987. -Jackson, R. At Empire’s Edge: Exploring Rome’s Egyptian Frontier, New Haven et Londres, Yale University Press, 2002. -Thurston, H. Island of the Blessed : the Secrets of Egypt’s Everlasting Oasis, Toronto, Doubleday, 2003. -Vivian, C. The Western Desert of Egypt: an explorer’s handbook, AUC Press, le Caire, 2000. -Wagner, G. Les oasis d’Égypte à l’époque grecque, romaine et byzantine, d’après les documents grecs, Le Caire, Recherches de papyrologie et d’épigraphie grecques, 1987.
Compiler Data: Sara Martínez Frías.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Blue River Technology has announced it has raised $10 million in Series A-1 funding led by Data Collective Venture Capital. Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors joined the round as a new investor, and existing investor Khosla Ventures also participated. With this new funding, the company plans to further expand its engineering team and product offering.
“Blue River has taken huge strides towards reinventing food production in a world of growing populations and scarce resources”
Over the past three years, Blue River Technology has developed and successfully commercialized revolutionary robotic systems that unlock greater yield potential in agriculture. Rather than the current approach of applying chemicals inefficiently across entire fields, Blue River is building a future in which “every plant counts” – where the needs of each plant are measured and inputs are applied precisely in the required dosage. Blue River’s first commercial application is used to identify and precisely eliminate unwanted plants in lettuce production. The company is also working to extend its innovative plant recognition systems and big data techniques for application with row crops like corn and soybeans, which can benefit from phenotyping for crop breeding as well as precise weed control.
“Blue River has taken huge strides towards reinventing food production in a world of growing populations and scarce resources,” said Jorge Heraud, co-founder and CEO of Blue River Technology. “With our new funding, we’re looking to hire passionate engineers and scientists to help us advance the boundaries of computer vision, machine learning, robotics and agriculture in order to solve real-world problems.”
“Blue River is taking a very innovative and practical approach to solving one of the world’s top problems – how to produce more food in a responsible way,” said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. “I’m impressed by how quickly the company brought its first product to market and how successful it has been. This high-caliber Blue River team has assembled leading experts spanning both cutting-edge technology and agriculture, and I believe they are in a great position to lead the next generation of environmentally-friendly precision agriculture.”
“Blue River is leveraging three important trends: machine learning, data-driven agriculture and robotics,” said Matt Ocko, founding partner of Data Collective Venture Capital. “This approach has the potential to revolutionize how we produce food in the near future.”
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How does a dedicated entrepreneur grow, adapt and stay successful in today’s digital world? One way: online lectures you can learn from anytime, anywhere.
There’s no denying it: Taking a risk on a new business venture or other enterprise can be extremely daunting. After all, according to a recent piece by USA Today, only around 20% of businesses survive their critical first year.
What does it take to become one of these prosperous few? While there’s no single, tried-and-true way to business success, one way to start is by continuing your education.
Because innovations in business keep happening, it’s critical for entrepreneurs to constantly hone and evolve both their hard and soft skills. And online lectures from The Great Courses Plus make learning these skills more accessible than ever before.
With The Great Courses Plus, you don’t need to put yourself through business school again. All you need is a willingness to learn and to embrace the “a-ha! moment” at the core of growth and transformation.
So how, exactly, can The Great Courses Plus help you as an entrepreneur? Here are five entrepreneurial skills their engaging online lectures cover.
1. Coding and Programming Skills
Now widely taught in schools — even in elementary schools — computer programming is an eminently learnable skill that gives you unrivaled problem-solving power you can apply in all areas of business and life. Simple, general-purpose computer languages like Python can be readily grasped, thanks to online coding and programming tutorials from The Great Courses Plus. They allow even complete beginners to write short pieces of working code, while also taking the mystery and complexity out of more complicated scripts.
2. Foreign Language Skills
Ours is a truly interconnected business world, which means knowing foreign languages can help give you an edge over competitors. And online courses from The Great Courses Plus are perfect ways to learn languages such Spanish or French without the boredom and frustration that come from dry textbooks. Their online language courses take you “under the hood” of languages and make it easier than ever to master key concepts of grammar, culture and vocabulary that can prepare you for a wide range of business — and everyday — situations.
3. Financial Skills
With record-breaking highs one minute and economy-rocking lows the next, financial markets can be daunting even for the most seasoned entrepreneur. That’s where The Great Courses Plus comes in. Their online courses in finance and investing make excellent primers on financial markets: from their functions, strengths and possibilities to their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. By exploring how money moves around the world, you’ll not only gain a new appreciation of financial products and services available to you — you’ll discover just how crucial you as an entrepreneur are to the functioning of the entire system.
4. Mindfulness Skills
Business is a high-stakes, high-stress environment. And it can quickly take its toll on even the hardiest entrepreneur. Online mindfulness courses from The Great Courses Plus reveal the science behind mindfulness in compelling detail and demonstrate its application to an extraordinary range of human problems — including many of those faced by entrepreneurs trying to succeed in business today. They can teach you how neurobiological changes benefit your mind and body, how ancient practices like meditation and yoga are now profoundly influencing the contemporary world, and practical ways to use mindfulness techniques almost anywhere you happen to be.
5. Public Speaking Skills
Some entrepreneurs have a deep fear of public speaking, or they think it’s an intuitive talent that can’t be learned. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, especially when time-tested techniques and strategies are readily available to learn online from The Great Courses Plus. Their courses and lessons in public speaking can illuminate one of the most important skills in your personal and professional life. Finally become the confident public speaker you’ve always wanted to be. Or just get fresh advice on how to boost your public speaking skills.
Never Stop Learning
As any entrepreneur knows, learning is as much about growth as it is about facts. And educational researchers are becoming more and more interested in the effects of lifelong learning and the difference it can make in your life.
So if full entrepreneurial potential is something you’re after, here’s a bonus tip for you: Always keep learning. And The Great Courses Plus can put knowledge and insights well within your reach.
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Some fathers respond to miscarriage with intense grief, while other fathers don’t seem to feel any grief at all. There is an extremely broad range of emotions that fathers experience and often they are more bereaved than they let on. Generally, it appears that the farther along in pregnancy when the miscarriage occurred, the more time and opportunity fathers had to become attached to their babies; the longer the pregnancy, the deeper their grief is. If they saw their baby’s image on ultrasound or heard the heartbeat, they may have connected with their baby in a more tangible way. Even fathers who didn’t have a deep attachment to their unborn babies and who don’t seem deeply affected over the miscarriage, feel an array of emotions and may have trouble coping.
Men may have more difficulty expressing their emotions and may not show disappointment or sadness in front of others, but instead hide their feelings and grieve alone in private. They may think they need to stay strong for their partners and those that need them and that they shouldn’t express their own grief and pain. Because of this, many fathers may busy themselves with work, sports or other activities in an effort to deal with their grief. Men tend to look for more physical ways to express and work through their pain. Keeping feelings bottled-up inside ultimately hinders the healing process.
Some fathers concern for their partner’s well-being outweighs their feelings of grief. If they were present when the miscarriage occurred, they may have seen their partner in distress and frightened, having to helplessly stand by as she went through the physical aspect of miscarriage. Many men feel as if they need to “fix” the problem and protect their partners from hurt and pain. They may feel as if they need to take care of their partners, but are sometimes at a loss as to what to say or do to ease the pain, which likely leads to feelings of inadequacy.
Men, just as the women experiencing a miscarriage, need to talk about their losses and their feelings and need someone to care and listen to them. Many times, fathers are overlooked in the midst of a miscarriage and all the sympathy is expressed towards the mother. It’s crucial that fathers get emotional support as well. It’s very important for parents to communicate their feelings to one another, as well as for the father to reach out to a close friend or even a counselor, if necessary. Fathers can get depressed, too, following a miscarriage and need support.
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Research Papers on Rape in Race, Class & Gender
Research on rape and race, class and gender can be acquired from the writers at Paper Masters. Use the book that Angela Davis writes about the Myth of the Black Rapist called Women and Race and Class.
Rape is a crime of violence, domination, hatred and control which manifests itself sexually. That is, men rape women to express dominance or ownership, to express hatred, to control women, and that the sexual nature of the act is secondary to these factors.
There are a number of topics concerning Race, Class and Gender which deal with rape:
- Is rape as a crime of discrimination?
- Are white-on-white rapes parallel to the rape of Black women by white men (whether as a slave women or post emancipation as a free women)? Why or why not?
- Do the stereotypes perpetuated in the American dialect of English rationalize or enable the society sanctioned rape of black women?
The social system of the United States is not unlike most societies where social relations are determined by political, cultural, economic and environmental elements. The sex/gender systems that are evident today are not excluded. Gender has consistently been organized around family, labor, economy and religion. These elements are also responsible for the organization and regulation of sexuality in this country.
According to research by Paper Masters, the combination of an expanding female work force and the social preoccupation with sex and sexuality has contributed largely to the dramatic increase in “sexualized” occupations such as prostitution, stripping and exotic dancing as well as to the preponderance of provocative representations of women in the media and advertising.
Unfortunately, the components of masculinity and female sexuality have worked together toward establishing an alarming social behavior. It is the same society that experiences little difficulty or hardship in attaining or paying for material necessities that makes similar provision for paying for and achieving sexual satisfaction from the expansive proliferation of profit-related sex venues – the majority of whose employees are female.
This depersonalization of sex and sexuality has contributed largely to one very distinct aspect of male violence against women – rape. According to Sanday, “rape is an act in which a male or groups of males sexually assault a woman” however she concedes that it is not confined solely to acts against woman and can occur with women assaulting men and men assaulting men. Sanday also disputes earlier assumptions that rape is a manifestation of the male nature and suggests that it is, in fact, a cultural or sociological response.
From the association of four exclusive studies on rape, Sanday offers four general hypotheses on how cultural or sociological response correlates with the act of rape. They are:
- Sexual repression is related to the incidence of rape;
- Intergroup and interpersonal violence is enacted in male sexual violence;
- The character of parent-child relations is enacted in male sexual violence;
- Rape is an expression of a social ideology of male dominance.
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The synthetic biology firstly refers to the design and fabrication of biological components and systems that do not already exist in the natural world and to the redesign and fabrication of existing biological systems. The link of computational tools to cell-free systems, converts to synthetic biology is an emerging field expert to build artificial biological systems through the combination of molecular biology and engineering approaches. Herein, most findings describing the differences between in vivo and in vitro reactions and systems have been extensively described. The specific applications of computational tools to the design of an in vitro gene expression platform known as the artificial cell, its components and the strategies developed to predict activities of processor modules and to control the expression of genes have been discussed in detail. Potential applications of artificial cells in drug delivery, in biosynthesis, among others, have been described. Two sources of models for the possible developing of the computational toolbox for cell-free synthetic biology include: i) Physical models of single cellular components able to be created from original principles, guiding to focus on tools to predict structure and dynamics of particular components; ii) A wide-range of mathematical models for predicting system dynamics of natural cells. Regarding modeling algorithms, there is a broad kind of models available for synthetic biologists and some areas of potential growth identified for researchers interested in developing tools for cell-free systems. Among them, deterministic, exploratory, molecular dynamic, stochastic, all atom models, among others, have been described and discussed. By using computational models to set up quantitative differences between in vitro reactions and in vivo systems, could identify specific mechanisms in living organisms to be further used in in vitro reactions in order to facilitate their processes. Thus, computational modeling would bridge the gap between in vitro and in vivo reactions.
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Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran Alvin K. Dickson, who helped rescue a trapped infantry unit during the Battle of the Bulge.
Alvin Dickson, an Ohio State Buckeye, went down to the draft office upon graduation and told them he was ready to serve. This was after previously requesting a draft deferment so that he could finish his degree. Dickson had to wait, but the Army called him to service in August 1942, just two months after graduation.
Out of some, 4,000 in his regiment, only 14 were singled out to go to officers’ training, and Dickson was one of the 14. After officer school, he went to school again to become a motor officer. He completed his training and transferred to the 11th Armored Division. With the continued training Dickson received, he didn’take it to Europe until the middle of 1943. After working in England ensuring troops had gasoline and ammunition, he went to transport equipment for General Eisenhower to Paris.
Dickson arrived in Normandy three months after D-Day. He recalled seeing tanks and equipment from both sides just left standing there.
On Jan. 14, 1945, Dickson’s unit received an urgent call to unload ten trucks and head to Bastogne. Once there, they had entered what would be known as the Battle of the Bulge. Dickson’s unit defended the highway so that reinforcements and supplies could make it in to Bastogne, and any wounded could make it out. That day, Dickson helped to rescue a trapped infantry unit who was “under very heavy shellfire.” For this, he received a Bronze Star Medal.
Dickson was one of eight U.S. Veterans from the Battle of the Bulge, who, at the battle’s 70th anniversary award ceremony held by the Boynton Veterans Council, received France’s highest distinction, the Order of Légion d’Honneur medal from the consul general of France, Phillppe Letrillart.
Upon his death on April 17, 2017, Dickson still counted his time serving in the Army as one of his proudest accomplishments.
We honor his service.
Do you want to light up the face of a special Veteran? Have you been wondering how to tell your Veteran they are special to you? VA’s #VeteranOfTheDay social media feature is an opportunity to highlight your Veteran and his/her service.
It’s easy to nominate a Veteran. Visit our blog post about nominating to learn how to create the best submission.
Editor: Alexis Bauer
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A friend recently asked me for some advice on hydration during long runs and racing. She was curious about how much water/sports beverage she should take in during training and an upcoming half marathon, so I thought I would share some information I collected in addition to my own personal experience.
Your best defense is a good offense, and this definitely applies to proper hydration. As runners, the goal is to keep ourselves properly hydrated throughout the day. The easiest way to test this is by looking at your pee. Is it almost clear or very light colored? If so, you are keeping yourself well-hydrated. If you see a dark yellow color, you need to be taking in more fluids.
So, how do you know if you should be drinking water or a sports drink?
Generally, for runs under one hour, water is fine for hydration. When you start running longer than one hour, your hydration should come from a sports drink. You will need the sports drink to provide you with carbohydrates and electrolytes. Sports drinks can be Gatorade, Powerade, etc. I started using nuun a couple of weeks ago. I like the nuun because it only contains eight calories but has all the electrolytes you need (I get the necessary carbs from my sport beans). It’s a tablet that you just drop into your water bottle and go.
How much water/sports drink to you need to take in over the course of a run?
You should aim for 5 to 12 ounces every 15 to 20 minutes of your run (source). Personally, I don’t take my water bottle along for runs of five miles or less during the cooler weather. However, if I am on the treadmill or running in warm weather, I definitely do! During longer runs, you can either plan your run around water stops, stash bottles along your route, or invest in a Fuel Belt or similar system for carrying your hydration.
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Crypto cross-border payments, explained
How do crypto cross-border payments work?
These transactions are executed using blockchains — eliminating the need for banks, who often slow payments down substantially.
Let’s imagine that you’re in Spain but want to send funds to Africa. The first step involves converting fiat currency into a digital asset of your choice. A wide range of websites and platforms exist that serve as an “on-ramp” — meaning purchases can be made using bank transfers and credit cards.
This cryptocurrency can be held in a secure wallet. When it’s time to make a transfer to your friends, they can give you the address for their wallet — comparable to the account number you’d get at an old-fashioned bank. These addresses can contain dozens of characters, so transcribing them carefully is crucial.
Once funds have arrived in an account, the recipient has several choices. They can either convert the crypto to fiat and withdraw it, or swap it for a less volatile digital asset such as a stablecoin.
What advantages does crypto offer over fiat?
It’s cheaper and faster… and could also help clamp down on money laundering.
There’s a lot of excitement surrounding how crypto could transform cross-border payments as we know it — making remittances, where workers in foreign countries send funds to their loved ones back home, much less expensive.
At present, the World Bank estimates that remittances sent through fiat channels result in average fees of 6.75%. For someone on a modest income, this can take a substantial chunk out of their earnings. Although this is less than the 9.67% charged in 2009, there’s still a long way to go. In the early 2010s, the G8 and the G20 set a target of slashing remittance costs to 5% — and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals also set a target of 3% by 2030.
Cryptocurrencies could help these goals be realized much faster. According to figures from Deloitte, blockchain has the potential to reduce transaction costs by 40% to 80%. But the advantages may not end here. Currently, it can take three to five business days for funds to clear through old-fashioned wire networks — not ideal for someone who needs money in a hurry. But on certain blockchains, it’s possible for payments to be confirmed in seconds.
The advantages may not end here. As Deloitte notes, blockchain transactions can be data rich — meaning that metadata can be transmitted from end to end. All of this can help clamp down on money laundering and terrorist financing, two areas of concern for regulators. Many crypto platforms have introduced Know Your Customer checks to verify users, too.
One crucial benefit that cryptocurrencies can offer is unlocking access to financial services for the unbanked. Research suggests that 80% of consumers in sub-Saharan Africa fall into this category — and worldwide, a total of 1.7 billion people don’t have a bank account. There can be a multitude of reasons for this. Financial institutions may not operate in their geographic area, these services could be too expensive, or consumers may have a lack of trust.
How much money is sent around the world using crypto?
Digital assets have a modest market share of overall cross-border payments — but demand is growing.
According to Juniper Research, international digital remittances are set to surge to $525 billion by 2024… a 102% rise from where they were in 2019. This figure includes fintech platforms that solely deal in flat.
“Utilizing a blockchain-powered network, operators can offer their users a much faster, cheaper and more transparent service,” the authors said.
This view has been echoed by BlockData, which recently revealed that blockchain-based transactions are typically 388 times faster and 127 times cheaper than traditional remittances.
It’s a fast-moving industry, and it’s difficult to put an exact number on the volumes of cross-border payments made using crypto. However, figures from Clovr showed that 15% of those who made remittances from the U.S. in 2017 used a digital asset such as Bitcoin — making it more popular than prepaid cards, checks and cash. When it comes to business-to-business payments made via blockchain, this figure stood at $171 billion in 2019, but Juniper Research estimates that this will exceed $4.4 trillion in just four years’ time.
What are the downsides to using crypto?
The likes of Bitcoin often get criticized for being too volatile, and some say blockchain technology is too difficult for everyday consumers to understand.
It’s important to note that there’s one factor that will determine whether or not crypto-based cross-border payments are cheaper: the digital asset that’s being used.
Making transfers using Bitcoin and Ether can be expensive, especially during times of peak demand. Ethereum has been overwhelmed by transaction volumes on multiple occasions over the years — fueled by a rise in demand for collectible cats and decentralized finance. Addressing scalability concerns is going to be crucial if cryptocurrencies are going to be used more widely for remittances. Ripple, which doesn’t have a blockchain, offers solutions that are designed to make cross-border payments less expensive through the XRP asset. Several banks are already on board, and Ripple claims that it can process 50,000 transactions per second.
Crypto will only help to solve financial inclusion provided that those who stand to benefit most from remittances can be educated about how digital assets work, and have access to internet-enabled smartphones so they can access their funds. There are reasons to be optimistic here. As we mentioned earlier, 80% of consumers in sub-Saharan Africa are unbanked, yet 91% own a mobile phone — and smartphone adoption is rising. On the continent, mobile payments are also exceedingly popular, meaning that the leap to crypto-based transactions may not be a big one.
The final challenge concerns regulation. Industry executives have warned that more crypto regulation is coming, with the European Union recently announcing plans to comprehensively monitor the market in just four years’ time. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a ban on digital assets is on the horizon — indeed, many lawmakers have acknowledged that they can have advantages in reducing the costs associated with cross-border payments. As a result, some are exploring whether they should launch their own central bank digital currency.
How can you easily, securely store and exchange cryptocurrencies?
By using a platform that has a carefully cultivated reputation for keeping digital assets safe.
Crypto platforms are emerging that aim to make cross-border payments far less expensive than what many of us are accustomed to.
One of them is Changelly PRO. The company firmly believes that cryptocurrencies offer far greater levels of transparency than traditional financial institutions, and this will help instill confidence among consumers. Dozens of trading pairs are offered across the world’s biggest digital assets.
The platform is aiming to level the playing field by offering zero deposit fees, as well as competitive fees when funds are withdrawn from an account. This is coupled with an easy-to-use, intuitive interface — and 24/7 support for users around the world. Changelly PRO says its priority is making crypto simple, and offering cutting-edge solutions that beginner and professional traders alike will find advantageous.
Education is another area that Changelly PRO is hoping to address. To ensure that newcomers can get the most out of the service, in-depth learning materials cover everything from setting up an account to keeping it secure.
In September, the platform unveiled a brand-new iOS app for iPhones, giving users the freedom to complete transactions while on the move. This will also prove advantageous for those who don’t use a computer.
With demand for remittances unlikely to subside, crypto-focused platforms are likely to play an instrumental role in delivering a fairer deal for consumers. This could help inject some much-needed competition in the space, forcing traditional institutions to innovate.
Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.
This post first appeared here: https://cointelegraph.com/explained/crypto-cross-border-payments-explained
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<mathematics> The cardinality of the first infinite ordinal, omega (the number of natural numbers).
Aleph 1 is the cardinality of the smallest ordinal whose cardinality is greater than aleph 0, and so on up to aleph omega and beyond.
These are all kinds of infinity.
The Axiom of Choice (AC) implies that every set can be well-ordered, so every infinite cardinality is an aleph; but in the absence of AC there may be sets that can't be well-ordered (don't posses a bijection with any ordinal) and therefore have cardinality which is not an aleph.
These sets don't in some way sit between two alephs; they just float around in an annoying way, and can't be compared to the alephs at all.
No ordinal possesses a surjection onto such a set, but it doesn't surject onto any sufficiently large ordinal either.
|< Previous Terms||Terms Containing aleph 0||Next Terms >|
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If you plan on starting a project car of any sort, you will most likely need auto body repair supplies. If you’re an auto body professional, the list of supplies and tools you’re going to need will be quite large. However, if you’re someone who wants to get into project cars in their garage, the list will be much shorter. As the use of some of the more specialized tools requires extensive training. Below you will find a list of tools and supplies you will need, with brief descriptions of their use.
The list of tools you’ll need for doing minor body repairs to project cars includes all the tools you’d normally need for doing the rest of the project. These include screwdrivers, wrenches, ratchets and sockets which you’ll need for removing body parts or pieces to give yourself access to the area needing repair. Some of the other tools you’ll need include:
Rotary or orbital sander to sand out rust and paint.
Hammer set-Different types of body repairs use different types of hammers. However, a general purpose ball peen hammer will suffice.
Body blocks-These are blocks of specially shaped wood or other materials that you use to soften blows to the body part with the hammer and to back up the side of the metal opposite the hammer.
Slide hammer-Also known as a dent puller, these are indispensible for puling dents out.
No body repair can be accomplished completely with tools such as hammers and sanders. There will occasionally be times where you’ll need to finish a repair by the use of fillers. Some of the supplies that you‘ll need will include the following:
Sanding blocks-Used for fine sanding of flat body panels.
Sanding pads-These you’ll need for the rotary or orbital sander for larger areas.
Body filler-This is referred to as Bond-O and is used to fill imperfections in your hammered or pulled repair.
Gloves-You will need impermeable gloves for handling some of the chemicals you’ll be using.
Respirator-You will need at least air masks to keep the dust from sanding out of your lungs. Bondo-O can damage your lungs severely if inhaled in quantity.
Safety glasses-If you buy the right respirator, these will be built in. If not, you need something to protect your eyes.
Rust blocker-This is a chemical that either transforms rust into a material that will accept paint and block further rusting. The best product is called Rust Mort. When applied, it converts rust into a polymer that will accept paint and stops the rust from continuing to ruin the metal. This is indispensable when working on older cars.
Shop rags-You’ll need a good supply of these to clean up messes and spills.
Drop cloth-This will protect the floor or ground in your work area from spills and such.
Above you have been given partial lists of the tools and auto body repair supplies that you will need when working on automotive rebuild and restoration projects.
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Slowly Moving Rivers
I walked by the mill-race today, and the water moved lazily past me. It was almost as if the river said to me “I have nowhere to go in particular, but something magnetic compels me into motion.”
I, too, was stuck. I had nowhere in particular to go, insofar as I had all afternoon to write, and only wanted a few good words, maybe just 450 when I can easily write 4500 in that amount of time. 450 well-placed words, rather than 4500 aimless ones, is better. I felt that I wasn’t moving much, so I went for a walk instead.
Sometimes peoples’ progress is imperceptible, or so slow it almost drives you crazy. Like a slowly moving river, their approach is wide rather than narrow, they aren’t shooting through the rapids.
They wind around, rather than going in a straight line.
Their path is full of algae, even fallen branches, sometimes trash – shiny, empty skins of old Doritos bags, Pepsi cans sitting sideways, their mouths half-filled with muck. They aren’t moving fast enough to sweep the debris.
Are they getting anywhere at all? Does it even matter to them when the world around cries out with urgency?
I thought the river was in a conversation and it would turn out that the river was the listener today, but this is not the case. Today, the river was the one being listened to. Nearly stuck, almost a pond.
But not quite. Gravity continued to gently play her part, softly drawing the river north, never screaming or begging for much motion; just a little, continuing the flow, and it would be enough.
When we’re listening, and hoping for progress, and inviting people to move, we must remember that an aqueduct such as the Pont du Gard has a drop of 34 cm over a kilometer; that the river in my town is only 801 feet above sea level and has plenty of time to get there with very little gradient.
Vitruvius, a first century civil engineer, recommended no more than a drop of 1:4800 for an aqueduct. That’s because too much drop puts undue pressure on the system and causes more rapid deterioration of the entire system.
It’s easy to panic when we think that there isn’t time.
But there is time. Be like gravity, a slow steady pull. Even those who don’t seem to be moving very fast will one day get to the ocean. Your 375 words will be like 375 cm of drop in an aqueduct. Don’t try to use gravity too fast; the system may degrade from pressure and erosion.
When things move slowly (and you move beside them slowly) you’ll see things a rushing river or a dead sprint might not give you: two turtles sunning on a log. Four ripe blackberries you can eat. A robin with a worm. Slowly, you have the ability to avoid getting goose crap on your shoes. Slowly, you’ll see a duck kicking her way upstream. Slowly, the river gets where it’s going and you don’t miss the scenery, either. It’s two for the price of one.
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Kids and teens can learn to become great money managers thanks to a new exhibit that debuts at Washington-Centerville Public Library on September 21st. Money $marts, an interactive, traveling exhibit designed and constructed with the help of Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, teaches kids and teens about earning, saving and spending money.
The exhibit, which remains on display at Centerville Library at 111 W. Spring Valley Road through October 31st, gives parents a great opportunity to talk to their children about being financially responsible. Four panels, addressing money concepts appropriate for children and teens ages 3-18, feature fun financial games and interactive elements to create a hands-on experience.
A series of programs and contests will reinforce the exhibit’s financial literacy concepts and serve as a springboard for parent-child conversations about financial responsibility. Programs include a game night where teens can play money-based board games to test their pricing knowledge in a “shopping spree” and a parent/child program featuring money-related activities and crafts. Money-themed kits of library materials are also available for checkout.
Oct 2nd 7-9pm After-Hours Teen Game Night
Join us for an after-hours night of games to see how money smart you are! Participate in a “shopping spree” to win prizes, play jeopardy, trivia, board games, and video games while you eat snacks and spend time with friends. Open to grades 6 – 12.
It’s never too early to start teaching children about money! Enjoy parent/child activities centered around counting, making, and saving money. For Preschool – Grade 5.
After its debut appearance at the Centerville Library, the exhibit will travel to the Springfield location of Boonshoft Museum of Discovery where it will be on display November 6 – January 3, 2016. After that time, schools and other libraries throughout the region may reserve the exhibit for display by contacting the Library at 433-8091.
This exhibit and related programs are made possible by a grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation through Smart investing@your library®, a partnership with the American Library Association. Washington-Centerville Public Library was one of 21 recipients nationwide to be awarded a Smart investing@your library® grant by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association (ALA). “The Library is honored to be part of such an elite group, and we’re excited to improve patrons’ access to and understanding of financial information,” said Shelly Peresie, Youth Services Team Leader and project principal for the grant.
For more information on the Money $marts exhibit or related programming, visit www.wclibrary.info or call the Centerville Library at 433-8091.
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To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art. ~Chinese Proverb
Running a website teaches you many things, and few of them is what not to do while starting an eCommerce site. Research is one of the most important aspects when it comes to running a website. You have to follow the crowd to kick-start your business. Here are few trends which you can follow while you develop your first website:
Responsive Website Design
Gone are the times when users spend hours browsing a website for their desired products. Now users are equipped with Google and they have websites which are easy to navigate. In the past two years there is so much buzz about responsive website design. What exactly is responsive website that engages a user so much? The answer is a website which operates on your smartphone with the same efficiency as on your laptop. There are companies doing wonders in developing a responsive website. And Branex is surely one of them.
Clutter free website
As the famous notation goes “Keep It Simple” This statement applies to eCommerce website too. No matter how many products you’re offering, make sure your site is organized in a clutter-free manner. Consumers now days are smart enough to abandon the slow website and shift any other website which is saving their time. So, as a company, it’s your duty to get the bugs fixed in your website and make it simpler, yet user-friendly. Yes, user friendliness is one of another trend which is making so much buzz these days. From the last few years, Amazon making so much effort in user friendliness, their sale are skyrocketing with an hourly rate.
Food Delivery on the go
In the last two years, online food delivery services took a leap in Pakistani market. With the emergence of FoodPanda and EatOye, dozens of companies followed the trend. But as they say, if you don’t have something good to offer, don’t start it. But if you have that passion or if you’re a foodie than just go for it. Start with a blog and turn in into the full-time website. Share your favorite dishes, share funny experiences or follow the trend and star delivering food right from your kitchen.
Easy Cart system
Amazon has introduced one-step checked which created waves in the eCommerce industry. And smartly Amazon made it a patent; this turned out be a very genius step by Jeff Bezos. Now you can see others following the trend of making their check-out page easy. Shopify made is evident by its popularity the importance of the simple check-out system. So, make sure you test your check-out for both speed and simplicity.
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Projects that focus in relation to the needs from the customer generally have got more powerful outcomes than those that focus on the product itself. As a result the desire to keep a customer happy is undoubtedly paramount to most project executives – they know that the customer will need to sign-off on the completed job and if they are not pleased considering the end-result then your task are not regarded a success. Nonetheless on the other palm task management director also offers to keep a good grip on finances as well as the project schedule, which by natural means means handling requests just for change. If the scope from the project begins to diverge greatly from the original requirements then this client may be completely happy with the completed product but they will absolutely certainly not be happy with the budget and time over-run. Just how does indeed a project manager put the client’s wants first when they want to change details of the job part-way through the timetable but even now be capable of deliver a top quality product about budget, promptly and within just scope?
Job managers on a regular basis face this kind of challenge and the skills found in managing persons, budgets, plans and deadlines are most vital by many of these times. Consumers carry out not constantly appreciate the results of a seemingly simple adjustment. When a switch is quizzed once the job is already happening this can become considerably more expensive to put into practice than whether it had recently been inbuilt at an in the past stage. Job plans normally have many duties running in parallel and often possess complicated inter-dependencies so any change can result in huge risk to the powerful completion of the project. But it surely would always be unsuspecting to imagine transform by no means takes place within a project or perhaps that sought after adjustments are always not important to implement, which is, of course, so why change control is considered this kind of important component to a job and the greatest responsibility of the job manager. Task managers whom are used to coping face-to-face with clients are aware that this is not really acceptable to turn down a change request without an extremely great reason that can end up being supported with information. Even more usually the job executives will accept the enhancements made on order to display that they are supportive and adaptable and adding the consumers wants first. But also in buy to reduce the result from the requested switch they will will should have a very good task management process found in place and the best job managers will usually try and negotiate a shortcuts within just the brand-new request to cut back its impact on the complete task or perhaps advantage the new requirements with an example of a smaller top priority that was already factored into the blueprint.
So what is a good method to execute a big change control process? Firstly, it is important that right from the start for the project everybody involved is aware that virtually any change in requirements must be documented through a formal modify request. Every single adjustment ask for submitted ought to in that case be researched to ensure that some of those changes that are actually necessary or perhaps suitable are in fact accepted. The purpose of the procedure is to not ever prevent change but to control this in order that it will not jeopardise the success of the project. Quizzed changes can be the end result of tips that include arisen just caused by looking at progress in a task in reality. A large number of people believe that it is hard to think completely in the get quit of in order to link completely to blueprints, models or prototypes so it is essential to recognise that a large number of modification desires can lead to a better last product. It is actually, of training course, also important to be in a position to distinguish between a change that may improve the end-product and the one which is unacceptable and will simply serve to put off delivery for the final merchandise. So an alteration demand happens to be submitted and evaluated and deemed to get well worth examining further more. The next phase is to produce an estimate of just how lengthy the change will take to implement and how this is going to impact the existing routine, and also to weigh up the advantages of producing the change with reverence to the drawbacks. Every of these guidelines should be revealed and mentioned with the consumer.
Whenever it can be arranged that the adjustment should go ahead it is essential to consent, as well, any kind of embrace finances or extendable for the conclusion date mainly because part of the formal agreement towards the change. Whenever no more hours or money can be specific and the consumer still needs the switch then this is the time to discuss a trade-off with an additional, less important task. In lots of businesses unique ideas may be formed and developed rapidly so resistance from change is never an choice. Rather, to remain competitive an operation and its project managers should be able to manage changes in projects in an economical way. Because of this change administration processes happen to be vital designed for the delivery of good projects and why modification management is undoubtedly part of many job managing teaching courses found in methodologies just like PMP, PRINCE2 and APMP. Change is a fact of life practically in projects, but how it truly is controlled and managed is crucial to the achievement of the task and to a happy customer. Pertaining to more facts reading here vinmandens.dk .
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Bold was a fox cub who appeared in the children's show, The Animals of Farthing Wood. He was a lively little fox who was always ready for adventure and challenge. His age is unknown, possibly 1 year.
Bold was born in White Deer Park by Fox and Vixen. He had three other siblings: Dreamer (deceased), Charmer, and Friendly. He spent his days playing and exploring the word around him.
A few months later, Bold was busy playing with his siblings when he heard Fox howling. Vixen, who had a dead mouse in her jaws, asked where Dreamer was. She gathered up the rest of the cubs, including Bold, and went to find her mate. She was shocked to find Dreamer lying dead next to Fox. They believed Scarface was responsible for the death of their daughter. Vixen was worried about this happening, but Bold didn't really care. He was curious about the world around him, so he wanted to explore White Deer Park a bit. Vixen was worried about something happening to him. She wanted Bold to stay with her so he could be safe. Bold simply said "Doesn't bother me," and tried to run away, but Fox stopped him in his tracks. The two got into an argument, with Bold talking back to his own father. A few minutes later, he walked away while Fox wasn't looking.
Bold happened to be passing by Scarfaces' territory when one of the blue foxes pushed him down a hole. They threatened to harm him and wanted him to stay put until Scarface came back. He thought about how to escape. While another fox was guarding the den, Bold called for help. When the other fox peeked into the burrow, Bold pretended to be injured and said that he was dying. The other fox tried to get Scarface when Bold dashed out of the den and went back home. A few days later, Bold's curiosity struck. He wanted to explore some more, but this time he wanted to see life outside White Deer Park. Fox caught him before he left, leading to another argument between the two. This argument turned into something about fighting Scarface. Bold refused to listen to Fox. He crawled under the fence leaving behind a bit of his fur. Fox was beyond furious, but he didn't leave White Deer Park.
Bold walked out of the park's boundaries and sniffed the air. He began to run and look for food. He came to a tree with a vole, which he was about to eat. Suddenly, a crow named Robber recommended a safer place to eat since there were hunters nearby. Bold looked at the fox pelts on the fence and cringed. He dropped his food and ran away. On the way, he was accompanied by a badger named Shadow. Shadow was ahead of Bold when she disappeared for a few minutes. Bold wondered where she was and decided to look for her. He heard her crying for help and decided to follow the sound. He found her stuck in a bear trap and wanted to help her out, but a hunter was coming. Shadow told Bold to save himself and go away, but the brave fox refused to do so. He chewed on the wire until it became loose. The hunter was inches away from the mammals when the trap flung open, injuring Bold's eye. The two quickly ran away. Shadow asked why he saved her. Bold said that the trap was meant for him.
Shadow was heading towards home and Bold was about to explore some more when the same hunter picked up the gun and shot him in the leg. He was okay though. He got up and shook the injuries off like they were nothing. However, he knew that he would be unable to hunt. The next day, Bold found Robber and told him about his injuries. Robber suggested getting a mate to hunt for him. He went to a nearby den and thought about it. As he thought, a person was using a shovel to fill up the burrow. They didn't see Bold and accidentally hit him in the head, leaving an unhealed crack in his skull. The frustrated fox moved out of the burrow to find a mate.
Bold traveled to an urban area in hope to find a mate. He peeked through a fence when something, or someone, caught his eye. He turned around to see a beautiful red fox munching on some leftover food. Bold smiled at the fox. His future mate saw him and started to walk away. Bold was hopeless even though he never got the chance to talk to the fox. A few hours later, he tried again, but this time he jumped through the fence and introduced himself. The red fox introduced herself. Her name was Whisper. They talked a bit before deciding to be friends. They made a pretty great team.
When breeding season came, Bold and Whisper mated. Bold told Whisper about White Deer Park and what a beautiful place it was. The female red fox demanded that the cubs would be born there, forcing Bold to make the journey all the way back home. This put the foxes through a lot. Bold was getting skinnier by the day, but Whisper kept on nagging. Bold followed reluctantly followed her and faced malnutrition and dehydration. His injuries were getting worse and he was getting fed up with everything. When they were halfway there, they stopped to take a small break. Bold was having a hard time moving and Whisper was getting worried. She checked on Bold to make sure he was okay. Meanwhile, two whippets or greyhounds were busy chasing a rabbit. Bold watched the dogs kill their prey wishing that he was as fast and healthy as they were. The dogs saw Bold and started to growl. They were about to kill him when Whisper and Robber attacked them. Bold was saved, but he still had to make it to White Deer Park.
- Many days passed and Bold was without food or water. His injuries were killing him and stressing him out to the point that he almost lay down to die. Whisper encouraged him to go a little longer, which he did. By the time they made it back home, Bold was nothing more than a living skeleton, every bone in his body visible. Despite being very hungry, he decided to let nature take its course. One day, he was laying next to the fence that he crawled under many months ago, barely able to stand. Robber happened to be in White Deer Park and saw his friend looking dead. Whisper was going to look for food for Bold, but the dying fox decided to crawl away and hide. Robber followed. Bold told him not to tell anyone where he was. Whisper came back with a dead rabbit. Bold was missing in action, so Whisper got really worried and went to find Fox and Whisper. She finally found them as they were talking about the recent death of Scarface. Whisper came to them in tears and told them about her mate's condition. She refused to watch her mate die, so Fox and Vixen started to look for Bold. They found him lying in a corner sleeping. He woke up to see Vixen in front of him. She told him everything was going to be okay. Fox followed as well. He tried to encourage Bold to stay alive with some exciting news. Bold just tanked him. Fox, who was on the verge of tears, told his son how proud of him he was. Bold nodded before taking his last breath, putting his head down and exhaling. Fox and Vixen started to mourn Bold, who technically committed suicide. Whisper was heartbroken, but she was happy that Bold's blood would be in the cubs.
- There are many fan-theories that Bold faked his death. He was always a prankster, plus, there have been sightings of the character in episodes that took place after his "death".
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- 6/8/21-VISITORS TO BEGIN PAYING FOR PROTECTION & CONSERVATION OF THE OCEAN (HONOLULU) – The establishment of a Hawai‘i Ocean Stewardship Special Fund will provide more consistent and reliable support for the conservation, protection, restoration, and management of Hawai‘i’s precious and endangered marine resources.
- 6/8/21-MARINE RECREATIONAL FISHING LICENSES REQUIRED FOR NON-RESIDENTS (HONOLULU) – Today, Gov. David Ige signed House Bill 1023 into law. It establishes and requires a marine recreational fishing license for all non-Hawai‘i residents. Visitors will need to purchase this license in order to fish from the shoreline or a boat in Hawaiian waters.
- 6/8/2021-GOVERNOR IGE SIGNS NINE BILLS TO PROVIDE PROTECTION OF HAWAI‘I AQUATIC RESOURCES(HONLULU) – Nine bills passed by the Hawai‘i State Legislature this year were signed into law this afternoon by Gov. David Ige. “On this World Oceans Day, Hawai‘i again shows great leadership in grappling with the threats and challenges our precious marine environments face. I deeply appreciate the legislature’s support of these measures which collectively advance protection, management, and stewardship of ocean resources well into the future,” Gov. Ige said.
- 6/7/21-ONE COMMUNITY FIGHTS FIRE AS ANOTHER IS FIRE WISE (HONOLULU) – As rural residents on Hawai‘i Island feared they could lose their homes overnight, suburban residents in East O‘ahu demonstrated today their proactive approach to making sure wildland fire does not strike their neighborhood.
- 6/3/21-NEW HOTLINE ESTABLISHED TO REPORT DERELICT FISHING GEAR (HONOLULU) – The State and four non-profit organizations have teamed up to create a new statewide number to report marine debris. Derelict fishing gear, like nets, is responsible for entangling marine life like turtles and humpback whales.
- 6/3/21-HANA BOAT RAMP AND WHARF IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (Hāna) – Improvements to the Hāna Boat Ramp and wharf will result in construction and closures that may impact boaters beginning the last week of June. The boat ramp will be closed for approximately 8 days starting around July 12 (date is subject to change) while new precast panels will be installed at the top of the boat ramp.
- 6/1/21-VIRTUAL TALK STORY HIGHLIGHTS CONCERN OVER KAUA’I FOREST BIRDS(KAPAʻA)–Hosting its 4th virtual “Forest Friday” conversation on June 4 the Kauaʻi Invasive Species Committee (KISC) and Kauaʻi Forest Bird Recovery Project (KFBRP) plan to address dwindling forest bird populations on Kaua’i. This month’s topic is: The skies are empty and the forest is quiet. Is it too late to save our native forest birds?
- 6/1/21-MĀNOA FALLS TRAIL REOPENS ON NATIONAL TRAILS DAY(HONOLULU) – One of Hawaiʻi’s most popular trails will be reopening soon, just in time for National Trails Day. The DLNR Nā Ala Hele Trail and Access Program, part of the Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) will reopen the Mānoa Falls Trail on June 5, 2021. The popular trail was originally closed in July 2019 for the installation of a rockfall hazard mitigation fence next to the falls. With the trail closed for the fence installation, Nā Ala Hele also installed some long overdue trail safety improvements.
- 5/12/21-KAIMANA BEACH OCEAN-GOERS RISKING THEIR SAFETY, KEIKIS’ SAFETY WHILE MONK SEAL AND PUP ARE AROUND(HONOLULU) – Hawaiian monk seals resting on beaches always attract a lot of attention, particularly when it is a mom and her newborn pup. A well-known, 10-year-old seal, Kaiwi, gave birth to her fourth pup two weeks ago at Kaimana Beach on the edge of Waikīkī. Just like in 2017 when a seal named Rocky, pupped a seal which was named Kaimana, the recent pair have become quite an attraction.
- 04/28/21-SWEEP OF FORMER UNCLE BILLY’S HILO BAY HOTEL FINDS NO ONE INSIDEDEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES News Release DAVID Y. IGE GOVERNOR SUZANNE D. CASE CHAIRPERSON For Immediate News Release: April 28, 2021 SWEEP OF FORMER UNCLE BILLY’S HILO BAY HOTEL FINDS NO ONE INSIDE (HILO) – Officers from three law enforcement agencies conducted a dawn sweep of all 146 rooms at the former Uncle Billy’s Hilo […]
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Fire pits are a great way to enhance your outdoor space. Leave them as they are and you have a unique art piece that brings out your property’s character. Build a fire in them and you can see what makes Fire Pit Gallery’s fire pits phenomenal. To get your fire going, follow these easy tips for the best burn.
Select the Best Firewood
The best wood to burn is wood that has been properly prepared. Seasoned wood is a great option because it burns more efficiently. There’s less wood consumption with seasoned wood and there’s also less particulate matter emission. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it could take at least six months for wood to be properly seasoned. You can tell if the wood has been seasoned well when its color is darker, when cracks are visible at the end of the grain and when it emits a hollow sound when smacked by another piece of wood.
If you need firewood immediately, or you’re not interested in seasoning wood yourself, check your area for local retailers who offer firewood. Remember to check for the same signs of well-seasoned woods listed by the EPA.
Avoid Harmful Woods and Materials
It is vital to not burn plywood, treated wood and any wood with glue on it. These examples can release hazardous, toxic chemicals into the air and potentially harm people’s health as well as the environment. Burning garbage, plastic and colored newspapers or magazines will also release harmful chemicals. Wet, diseased or greenwood should also be avoided when looking for material to burn.
Start Your Blaze
Just as you would avoid burning wet wood, also do not burn wet tinder and kindling. To get your fire started, look for dried materials like dead grass, twigs or leaves. Use these items to get your wood burning and once your firewood has started to burn, add more until your blaze is the size you want.
Remember to always keep an eye on your fire pit when there’s a fire burning. Even when the flames have died down, completely put the fire out before leaving it. To keep a well-maintained fire pit and prepare it for your next burn, remember to empty the ashes from your fire pit.
Tell us how you get your fire started in the comments below or connect with us on our social media channels.
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There must be an omen before the wheel of the mixer falls off. As long as daily inspection is done and abnormal conditions such as broken wheel bolts of the mixer are found regularly, do not continue driving. If the tire needs to be replaced during driving, and the incorrect operation during tire replacement may cause the wheel to fall off and cause a major traffic accident. When changing tires, the wheel bolts and nuts must be used correctly for inspection. The wheel falling off accident of the mixer truck can be avoided.
The driver can also conduct self inspection, and visually check whether the bolts and nuts of the wheels of the mixer truck are complete, rusted, cracked or damaged. Check whether the wheel bolts of the mixer truck can start from whether the protruding dimensions of the wheel nuts are consistent. If there are uneven conditions, it may cause the nuts to loosen or the bolts to break.
The falling off of mixer tire is mainly caused by bolts and nuts, but the tire carcass should also be paid attention to. At ordinary times, the driver should check whether the tires have cracks, damages and abnormal wear, check the depth of tire grooves, and measure whether the tire pressure is within the specified range.
If you drive under the condition of abnormal tire pressure of the mixer truck, it may cause the tire of the mixer truck to explode or burst, which will also pose a certain danger. Driving when the tire pressure of the mixer truck is very low or continuing to drive after shooting will increase the pressure of the wheel bolts of the mixer truck, which may lead to bolt breakage and tire falling off accident of the mixer truck.
In addition, on weekdays, pay attention to regularly check whether the mixer tires are pricked, scratched, and whether there are protrusions caused by broken wires. Change the position of the vehicle tires or replace them according to the situation; Tyres should be replaced after three years or 80000 or 90000 kilometers. Frequently check the tire pressure of the mixer truck to keep it within the standard range. In addition, filling nitrogen into the mixer tire can keep the tire pressure stable and reduce the probability of tire burst.
Do not deflate or splash water on the tire to dissipate heat, which will cause the tire tread and sidewall rubber layer of the mixer truck to burst due to uneven shrinkage. When the temperature of the mixer truck tire rises, the mixer truck should be parked in a cool place to cool the tire naturally.
When the concrete mixer has a flat tire on the highway, don't panic, don't step on the brake violently, control the steering wheel with both hands, don't turn the direction sharply, let the mixer continue to drive a short distance along the original driving direction, and then gently brake; When the speed naturally slows down, turn gently and stop in the emergency lane; Turn on the double flashing light and place the warning sign 150 meters behind the mixer.
The above is the relevant content of the question answer. I hope it can help you. If you still have any questions about this problem, you are welcome to follow our website http://www.zkhntjbj.com And consult our staff, will serve you wholeheartedly.
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Top Safety Measures for Winter Driving Conditions
With the longest stretch of winter weather faced by the Pacific Northwest in years, road safety is on our minds. When the season is finally over, we are likely to find that there were more car accidents this winter than the previous one that had mild weather. On average, more than 116,000 Americans are injured and over 1,300 are killed on snowy, slushy or icy pavement every winter.
Safety measures for winter driving conditions
Cities with consistent winter driving conditions take the precautionary step of salting the roads before the first snow fall.
A Marquette University study analyzed the effect that road salt has on highway accidents in snow. They found that road salt reduces car crashes by 88 percent and personal injuries by 85 percent. The cost of salting the roads was well under the price tag of the cost of the thwarted accidents.
Because the Pacific Northwest doesn’t traditionally have a lot of snow fall, the cities do not salt the roads. If this year ends of the marking the beginning of a change, salt may be considered in the future.
Many drivers choose to have their tires siped: the practice of cutting extra slits cut into their tire treads to increase traction on slippery roads. Drivers should expect to pay about $15 per tire at a car dealership. There is some question, though, as to whether tire siping really increases traction.
Consumer reports ran a study to see whether siping makes any difference. They tested two performance all-season models, an H-rated Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus and a V-rated Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S, with and without siping.
The results found that the siped tires of both models showed “modest but measurable improvements in snow-traction and ice-braking performance.” On the down side they found that braking distances on wet and dry pavement increased by a few feet. Another pitfall to consider is that siping can void your tread-wear warranty. Consumer reports advises to skip siping despite the modest increase in traction.
Winter driving tips
The majority of car accidents can be avoided with defensive driving techniques and other safety tips. Some of the driving tips are relevant no matter the weather but they become even more important during winter road conditions. AAA recommends the following winter driving tips:
- Make sure your tires are properly inflated.
- Keep your gas tank at least half full.
- Make sure to get a full night’s sleep before setting out in winter driving conditions.
- Try to avoid parking on hills /using your parking brake in winter weather conditions.
- Never use cruise control in slippery conditions.
- Always look and steer in the direction you want your car to go.
- Drive under the speed limit.
- Take turns very slowly.
- Apply the brakes gently.
- Read your owner’s manual for the best way to apply the brakes if your car begins to skid.
- Always wear your seat belt.
- Avoid any distractions including cell phones, eating food or applying makeup.
If you or a loved one is dealing with an accident or injury, you have enough on your plate. Let an experienced accident attorney fight for the full compensation that you deserve. It is not uncommon to receive a settlement from the insurance company that is five to ten times bigger with the help of a lawyer. Call the caring accident attorneys at Tario & Associates, P.S. in Bellingham, WA today for a FREE consultation! We have been representing residents of Whatcom County, Skagit County, Island County and Snohomish County since 1979. You will pay nothing up front and no attorney fees at all unless we recover damages for you!
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Alier, Max, and Martin Kaufman, 1999, “Nonrenewable Resources: A Case for Persistent Fiscal Surpluses,” Working Paper 99/44 (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Auty, Richard, and Alan Gelb, 1986, “Oil Windfalls in a Small Parliamentary Democracy: Their Impact on Trinidad and Tobago” in World Development, Vol. 14, No. 9, pp. 1161-1175.
Chalk, Nigel, 1998, “Fiscal Sustainability with Non-Renewable Resources,” Working Paper 98/26 (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Gray, Dale F., 1998, “Evaluating Taxes and Revenues from the Energy Sector in the Baltics, Russia, and Other former Soviet Union Countries, Working Paper 98/34 (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Hogan, Vincent, 1998, “Fiscal Sustainability with Hydrocarbon Rents (Trinidad and Tobago),” unpublished IMF memorandum (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Liuksila, Claire, Alejandro Garcia, and Sheila Bassett, 1994, “Fiscal Policy Sustainability in Oil-Producing Countries,” Working Paper 94/137 (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Nellor, David C.L., and Emil M. Sunley, 1994, “Fiscal Regimes for Natural Resource Producing Countries,” Paper on Policy Analysis and Assessment 94/24 (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Sunley, Emil M., 1998, “Production-Sharing Arrangements,” unpublished IMF memorandum (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Tersman, Gunnar, 1991, “Oil, National Wealth, and Current and Future Consumption Possibilities,” Working Paper 91/60 (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.).
Prepared by Janet Stotsky. This study draws upon some initial work done on this topic by Vincent Hogan.
This figure excludes payments of dividends from state-owned natural resource companies to the budget.
Fiscal instruments differ in the degree to which revenues vary as a result of changes in the price of the resource and other market perturbations.
An average is used to remove the influence of year-to-year fluctuations in these ratios owing to changes in the price of oil, changes in the tax law, and other factors.
A comparison to other oil producers was limited by the availability of comparable data.
In all these countries, for comparability, tax revenues do not include payments of dividends from state-owned enterprises operating in the energy area.
The government controls the pace of development indirectly through granting rights to private producers to explore and develop resources and through the tax and regulatory system it establishes.
This formulation ignores the government’s existing nonpetroleum assets. These assets would mainly comprise the government’s equity share in state enterprises, some buildings, and some financial assets. Existing debts are netted out of the measure of petroleum wealth.
In reality, the government is limited in its ability to generate revenue from energy resources by the production levels chosen by the private sector. However, if it is assumed that the government could borrow against future revenues, then the production constraint should not unduly constrain fiscal decisions.
This share reflects the fiscal regimes that apply to oil and gas production. In principle, it would be desirable to use a “representative” share, but given frequent changes in the price of petroleum and in the fiscal regimes, it would be difficult to denote any year as necessarily representative. The ratio used in these simulations is derived from an examination of total revenues from petroleum as a share of output in the industry over the period 1994-97, which yields the average ratio of 21 percent.
The price assumptions are based on WEO estimates.
Since prices for petroleum are currently relatively low and they are assumed to remain constant in real terms, this assumption places a relatively low value on petroleum assets.
This figure is between the historical returns on stocks and bonds in the U.S. during this century.
These rates are approximate for 1998 and are projected to continue through the period of the simulation.
The current balance includes only current expenditures and current revenues. It does not include capital expenditures or privatization revenues in the measure of the deficit.
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“The unexamined life is not worth living” is Plato’s famous answer to the importance of studying philosophy. Philosophy spans across time and subject. Philosophers ask all manner of curious questions: What exists? How can we know? What is beauty? How should we act? And yet, we question those answers. What are you curious about?
Philosophy holds a special place, second only to theology, in the Catholic intellectual tradition because of its commitment to exploring the ultimate meaning of life, the place of the human person in relation to all other reality, and the responsibility that each person has toward others. A foundation in philosophy helps people approach their career, or any aspect of their life, in a more reflective way. It can serve students well as a chosen major or as an additional field of study.
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Judged the best - Cadillac LaSalle 1st place winner - CCCA Junior and Senior winner. The LaSalle was sold as a companion marque to Cadillac from 1927 to 1940. The two were linked by similarly-themed names, both being named for explorers. Alfred Sloan surmised that the best way to increase market share was to develop "companion" marques that could be sold through existing sales networks. Under the plan, Cadillac, which had seen it base prices soar in the heady 1920s, was assigned LaSalle as a companion car to fill the gap that existed between itself and Buick. What emerged as the LaSalle in 1927 widely regarded as the beginning of modern automotive styline, and its designer, Harley Earl. Prior to the LaSalle, design changes were determined by engineering needs. Earl, who had been hired by Cadillac General Manager Lawrence P. Fisher, conceived the LaSalle not as a junior Cadillac, but as something more agile and stylish. Influenced by the rakish Hispano-Suiza roadsters, Earl's LaSalle emerged as elegant counterpoint to Cadillac's larger cars, and unlike anything else built by an American automotive manufacturer. Built to Cadillac's high standars, the LaSalle soon emerged as a trend-setting automobile within GM, and Earl was eventually placed in charge of overseeing the design of all GM vehicles. This exceptional car was the subject of a comprehensive nut and bolt restoration in the early 90's, has been properly stored since, and the vehicle still presents as a freshly restored car. Having recently garnered a Senior first place award in CCCA judging and a National first in Cadillac LaSalle club competition, the car has passed muster by the most discriminating judges in the world with flying colors. The beautiful lines of the car are complemented by the dual sidemounted spares with chrome mirrors, matching trunk and trunk rack, a chrome grille guard, and painted wire wheels with chrome center caps. Inside the roomy interior, all fabrics and carpets are excellent, and the elegant dashboard is outstanding with a functioning clock and a full complement of gauges. The engine bay presents the early V8 very nicely, and the car runs and drives superbly and is capable of long distance touring with no additional sorting. In 1930, LaSalle was actually outselling Cadillac, and it's now wonder why when you look closely at this fine example. Complete video of this vehicle available. Call our classic car division at 815-385-8408 for video and/or vehicle information.
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Favorite Inspiring Quotes
Commentary by Peter Shepherd
Discipline is doing what you know needs to be done, even if you are tempted to be lazy or do otherwise. The way to get over inertia is to remind yourself of the need, the good reasons for doing it now. And to remind yourself how satisfied you will feel when you have indeed done it.
Starting with unconscious incompetence, in learning a new skill we progress to conscious incompetence as we begin to practice a skill we have decided to learn. Then we move on to conscious competence as we master the skill - this is where discipline is required. And finally we arrive at unconscious competence when we need to give the skill very little attention at all, such as when we drive a car. Without that discipline we do not gain the desired ability.
The distance between dreams and reality is called discipline. As Zig Ziglar says, "It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through."
Remaining mindful instead of impulsive and distracted, you can stay on the path true to your conscience and caring.
Brian Tracy sums it up... "Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity."
Here’s some further reading on this theme...
I think it was Goethe who noted that, "Well begun is half done." As we begin a New Year, I want to encourage you to make it better, richer, more fun and more fulfilling than ever before--your Best Year Ever! But I also want you to be smart and effective about it. Remember, the poet suggest "Well BEGUN is half-done." Let's Start Smart! Continues
Did you find this page helpful? Share your thoughts and suggestions with your Facebook or Twitter friends below...
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The Trump Administration came under fire when the policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S. southern border was first introduced. Images of children in literal cages exploded across news feeds online and on every cable television network – even Fox News, a network that has been the friendliest of all to the Trump Administration. The fact that Fox could not ignore these stories was quite ominous for Donald Trump, and would foreshadow things to come.
The backlash was swift and bipartisan, and the Administration was forced to backtrack, with Trump eventually signing an order to end the policy. The now-former Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielson, became the face of the policy that was largely seen as cruel. This perception eventually culminated in Secretary Nielson being heckled and forced out of a restaurant by people protesting the Trump Adminstration’s border policies.
These events occurred during the Summer of 2018, but now the family separation issue is back in the news, because it has been reported that Secretary Nielson, who recently resigned from the Trump Administration, perhaps was not tough enough in her treatment of immigrants at the southern border to satisfy Trump. The perceived cruelty of the policies regarding immigrants at the border has not been good politically for Donald Trump and his administration. To that end, he chose to claim that President Obama had a child separation policy, saying:
“I’m the one that stopped it. President Obama had child separation.”
This statement came during a press availability prior to Trump’s meeting for photographs with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. When an inquiry was made as to the intention to continue to deter illegal border crossing with family separation policies, Trump responded, “We’re not looking into it.”
Then, he doubled down on his previous statement regarding President Obama’s policies, along with implying that the notoriously dangerous journey is an easy one:
“I’ll tell you something, once you don’t have it that’s why you have many more people coming. They are coming like it’s a picnic, like, ‘Let’s go to Disneyland.’ President Obama separated children. They had child separation; I was the one that changed it.”
As could have been predicted by the events of the original explosion regarding this policy, was too much even for Fox News. One host on the conservative network, Shepard Smith, could not take Trump’s lies with regards to this policy. He announced that he would be “separating rhetoric from reality when it comes to immigration in America” during his time on the air. Smith then proceeded to fact-check Trump’s claims regarding the child separation policy, and inform his viewers of what really led up to the images of children in cages that the entire world was so horrified by.
Smith said, “after President Trump issued the zero tolerance order, officials did separate children from their parents. Some families have not yet been reunited. ”
Smith then delivered the final, blunt fact-check for anyone who still believed that it was the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration, that started this policy:
“The Trump administration did separate families. The Trump Department of Homeland Security estimates more than 2,300 children had been separated from their families by last spring. The Trump administration did detain children in cages.”
Even Fox News called out Trump on his lies about Obama separating children!https://t.co/NHgr9HnZY9
— Hear Me Roar (@Stop_Trump20) April 10, 2019
The Fox News network is quite pro-Trump, but facts are facts, and apparently they saw this as too egregious a violation of the public trust to let go.
What's Your Reaction?
Shannon Barber is a progressive queer feminist and budding political scientist. She is passionate about issues of social justice, including but not limited to racial equality, criminal justice reform, pro-Black politics, and LGBTQ equality. She hopes to change the world, one mind at a time.
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« ElőzőTovább »
E. How foolish that was!
Mrs. F. Yes; the girl had not the least presence of mind, and in consequence thereof, lost all recollection, and became entirely useless. But as soon as your aunt came up, she took the right method for preventing the mischief. The cap was too much on fire to be pulled off; so she snatched a quilt from the bed, and flung it round Mary's head, and thus stifled the flame.
E. Mary was a good deal burned, though.
Mrs. F. Yes, but it was very well that it was no worse. If the maid, however, had acted with any sense at first, no harm at all would have been done, except burning the cap. I remember a much more fatal example of the want of presence of mind. The mistress of a family was awakened by flames bursting into her chamber. She flew to the staircase; and in her confusion, instead of going up stairs to call her children, who slept together in the nursery overhead, and who might all have escaped by the top of the house, she ran down, and with much danger made way through the fire into the street. When there, the thought of her poor children rushed into her mind; but it was too late. The stairs had caught fire, so that nobody could get near them, and they were burned in their beds.
E. What a sad thing!
Mrs. F. Sad indeed! Now I will tell you of a different conduct. A lady was awakened by the crackling of fire, and saw it shining under her chamber floor. Her husband would immediately have opened the door; but she prevented him, since the smoke and flame would then have burst in upon them. The children slept in a room opening out of theirs. She went and awakened them; and tying together the sheets and blankets, she let down the children one by one. Last of all, she descended herself. A few minutes after, the floor fell in, and all the house was in flames.
E. What a happy escape!
Mrs. F. Yes; and with what cool self-possession it was managed! For mothers to love their children, and be willing
to run any hazards for them, is common; but love alone will not prompt what should be done in moments of danger and alarm. A lady, once, seeing her little boy climb up a high ladder, set up a violent scream, that frightened the child, so that he fell down, and was much hurt; whereas, if she had possessed command enough over herself to speak to him gently, he might have got down safely.
E. I am afraid I should do the same, if I should see one of my little brothers on a high ladder.
Mrs. F. Then you would not be doing a wise thing. The occasions which most try one's presence of mind are those in which the danger presses upon others as well as upon ourselves. Suppose a furious bull were to come upon you in the midst of a field. You could not possibly escape him by running, and attempting it would destroy your only chance of safety.
E. What would that be?
Mrs. F. I have a story for that too. The mother of that Mr. Day who wrote Sanford and Merton was distinguished, as he also was, for courage and presence of mind. When a young woman, she was one day walking in the fields with a companion, when they perceived a bull coming towards them, roaring and tossing about his horns in the most tremendous manner.
E. O, how I should have screamed!
Mrs. F. I dare say you would; and so did her companion. But she bade her walk away behind her as quietly as she could, while she herself stopped short, and faced the bull, eying him with a determined countenance. The bull, when he had come near, stopped also, pawing the ground and roaring. Few animals will attack one who steadily waits for them. In a few moments, she drew back some steps, still facing the bull. The bull followed; she stopped, and then he stopped. In this manner, she made good her retreat to the stile* over which her companion had before got. She then turned and sprang over
it, and got out of danger.
* Stile, a set of steps by which a hedge or fence is passed over.
E. That was bravely done, indeed! But I think very few women would have done as much.
Mrs. F. Such a degree of cool resolution, to be sure, is not common. But I have heard of a lady in the East Indies who showed at least as much. She was sitting out of doors with a party of pleasure, when they were aware of a huge tiger that had crept through a hedge near them, and was just ready to make his fatal spring. They were struck with the utmost consternation; but she, with an umbrella in her hand, turned to the tiger, and suddenly spread it full in his face. This unusual assault so terrified the beast, that, taking a prodigious leap, he sprang over the fence, and plunged out of sight into the neighboring thicket.
E. Well, that was the boldest thing I ever heard of.
Mrs. F. I can tell you of still another instance of courage and presence of mind shown by a lady, the great-grandmother of Miss Edgeworth, whose stories you are so fond of reading. She was living in Ireland, and once had occasion to go, at night, to a garret at the top of the house, for some gunpowder, which was kept there in a barrel. She was followed up stairs by an ignorant servant girl, who carried a bit of candle, without a candlestick, between her fingers. When Lady Edgeworth had taken what gunpowder she wanted, had locked the door, and was half way down stairs again, she observed that the girl had not her candle, and asked what she had done with it. The girl recollected and answered that she had left it sticking in the barrel of black salt! Lady Edgeworth bade her stand still, and instantly returned by herself to the room where the gunpowder was; found the candle as the girl had described; took it carefully out; and when she had reached the bottom of the stairs, fell on her knees, and thanked God for their deliverance.
E. I am afraid I could not have done what either of these ladies did.
Mrs. F. You are not likely, my dear child, to meet a tiger, or live in a house where a barrel of gunpowder is kept; but
in every one's life there are occasions in which presence of mind is important, and I hope you will always be able to meet them.
J. R. CHANDLER.
I FOLLOWED into a burying ground, in the suburbs of the city, a small train of persons, - not more than a dozen, — who had come to bury one of their acquaintance. The clergyman in attendance was leading a little boy by the hand, who seemed to be the only relative of the deceased.
I gathered with them round the grave; and when the plain coffin was lowered down, the child burst forth in uncontrollable grief. The little boy had no one left to whom he could look for affection, or who could address him in tones of parental kindness. The last of his kinsfolk was in the grave, and he was alone.
When the clamorous grief of the child had a little subsided, the clergyman addressed us with the customary exhortation to accept the monition, and be prepared; and turning to the child, he added,
"She is not to remain in this grave forever. As true as the grass, which is now chilled with the frost of the season, shall spring to greenness and life in a few months, so true shall your mother rise from that grave to another life a life of happiness, I hope."
The attendants then shovelled in the earth upon the coffin, and some one took little William, the child, by the hand, and led him forth from the lowly tenement of his mother.
Late in the ensuing spring, I was in the neighborhood of the same burying ground, and, seeing the gate open, I walked among the graves, for some time, reading the names of the dead; when, recollecting that I was near the grave of the poor widow, buried the previous autumn, I turned to see what had been done to preserve the memory of one so utterly destitute of earthly friends.
To my surprise, I found the most desirable of all memorials for a mother's sepulchre; little William was sitting near the head of the now, sunken grave, looking intently upon some green shoots that had come forth, with the warmth of spring, from the soil that covered his mother's coffin.
William started at my approach, and would have left the place. It was long before I could induce him to remain ; and, indeed, I did not win his confidence until I told him I was present when they buried his mother, and had marked his tears at the time.
"Then you heard the minister say that my mother would come up out of this grave," said William.
"It is true is it not?" asked he, in a tone of confidence. "I most firmly believe it," said I.
"Believe it!" said the child; "believe it! I thought you knew it. I know it."
"How do you know it, my dear?"
"The minister said that, as true as the grass would grow up, and the flowers bloom in spring, so true would my mother rise. I came a few days afterwards, and planted flower seeds on the grave. The grass came green in this burying ground long ago; and I watched every day for the flowers, and to-day they have come up too. See them breaking through the ground. By and by mother will come again."
A smile of exulting hope played on the features of the boy; and I felt pained at disturbing the faith and confidence with which he was animated. "But, my little child," said I, "it is not here that your mother will rise."
"Yes, here," said he, with emphasis: "here they placed her, and here I have come ever since the first blade of grass was green this year."
I looked round, and saw that the tiny feet of the child had trod out the herbage at the grave side, so constant had been his attendance. What a faithful watch-keeper! What mother would desire a richer monument than the form of her only son bending, tearful, but hoping, over her grave?
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Covid survivors are at a 63% increased risk of having a heart attack within a year — regardless of their age or how ill they were, a major study suggests. American researchers looked at medical reports of more than 150,000 infected people and compared them to a control group of 11.5million who had not tested positive.
The risk of heart failure, heart disease and strokes was ‘noticeably’ higher in the 12 months after catching the virus. Those who had beat Covid were 55% more likely to suffer a heart complication compared to the uninfected. The Washington University researchers fear Covid will lead to millions more heart problems in the coming years.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, shows heart problems were even spotted among people who had a mild infection and were previously healthy. They were compared against a control group of 11.5million people who had not been infected. The participants were followed for 11.5 months, roughly. The overall risk of a heart complication was 55% higher but varied for different conditions.
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THE FOUR-WAY TEST
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Comments from Naish Shah, member of the Rotary Club of Naperville / Downtown…
On November 21, 2015, a team of Rotary Club members and Rotary International employees will be joining the Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko on a 104-mile bike ride to raise contributions help end Polio around the world. This “Miles To End Polio” initiative of Rotary International will occur during the El Tour De Tucson bike event in Arizona.
As a member of the Rotary Club of Naperville-Downtown and an employee of the Rotary International headquarters, I’ll be joining this team. Inspired by the Rotary’s motto of “Service above Self,” I joined Rotary International and the local Rotary Club of Naperville-Downtown in 2013.
The fight to end Polio around the world has a special meaning to my family and I. Two of my first cousins died of Polio in India at young adulthood; one at 21 and one at 19. It is so unfortunate that the children of one brother died of a preventable disease while the children of another brother did not because they had access to the Polio vaccine. That is why this fight is so important since we can prevent Polio from striking any child or adult by getting the vaccine to them.
The team of Rotary International riders has been raising contributions for the fight against Polio since August with a goal to raise $1.3 million.
If you would like to contribute to the Rotary International’s Miles To End Polio initiative, fill out the form below.
Your contribution will help Rotary create a Polio-free world.
(Updated November 2015)
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Volkswagen intends to invest $74-billion in the electric and autonomous car technologies expected to reshape the industry – and said it would make battery-powered vehicles more accessible to mass-market auto buyers by selling its new I.D. compact for about what a Golf diesel costs.
The investment plans for the next five years aim to make Volkswagen “a worldwide supplier of sustainable mobility,” chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said Friday. He added that the company is in talks with Ford about possible co-operation in making light commercial vehicles.
Established auto makers as well as several U.S. startups are rolling out electric models to compete with Tesla , currently the market leader. Auto companies need electrics to meet new environmental standards in many countries.
In Europe, manufacturers need to sell more battery-powered cars to meet tougher EU limits on carbon dioxide emissions that come into force in 2021 and aim to fight global warming. Auto makers like Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW risk penalties of thousands of euros per vehicle if they can’t meet requirements for lower average emissions.
Authorities in China, where Volkswagen gets much of its profit, have also mandated a bigger share of electrics and hybrids.
Yet right now, such vehicles remain a niche market due to higher price and lack of places to charge. Battery-only vehicles were only 0.6 per cent of the market in the European Union last year. They are running from 1 to 2 per cent of U.S. new-vehicle sales so far this year.
Major new models unveiled in recent weeks from Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Volksagen’s Audi brand have been expensive SUVs; Audi’s e-tron starts at a German price of /////EURO SYMBOL///// 80,000 ($120,000). The starting price for Tesla’s Model X is around $106,000 while the Model S starts around $98,000.
VW’s upcoming I.D. compact could take mass-market buyers from Tesla’s Model 3, a mass-market car with a base price of $46,000 before tax credits. In reality, though, you can’t order one yet for less than $60,000.
Mr. Poetsch said the I.D. compact would be about the cost of a Golf diesel today, which is priced at /////EURO SYMBOL///// 23,875 ($35,800) in Germany, according to Volkswagen’s website, and goes up as options are added. The next model up the scale starts at /////EURO SYMBOL///// 30,625 ($46,000).
General Motors, Nissan and Mitsubishi already are selling mass-market electric vehicles, but they’re still more costly than cars with gasoline engines, and they haven’t sold in great numbers.
Higher cost is one reason consumers are not yet buying purely electric vehicles in large numbers. The lack of charging points is another, leaving many owners of electric vehicles to use them mainly in cities or for shorter trips. Volkswagen and other automakers are working together on building a freeway network of fast-charging stations to enable longer trips with battery powered cars.
Chinese automakers as well as U.S. startup companies also are getting into the electric car market. Rivian, a Detroit-area company, plans to unveil a high-end electric pickup and SUV later this month, to go on sale in late 2020. Lucid Motors, a Newark, Calif., startup whose leadership includes six former Tesla executives, plans to deliver its first cars in 2020 as well.
The shift to electric cars is a big one for a company the size of Volkswagen, which has more than 600,000 employees and makes about 10 million vehicles a year.
It is converting three of its German plants from internal combustion to battery car production as it pivots away from diesel vehicles in the wake of its emissions scandal. It says it will increase the number of electric models from six now to more than 50 by 2025.
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THE LAW OF THE UNFORESEEN, Poems by Edward Harkness. Pleasure Boat Studio, 3710 SW Barton St., Seattle, WA 98126, 2018, 116 pages, $14, paper, pleasureboatstudio.com.
In the cover notes, Anne Pitkin describes Ed Harkness’s poems as riding “a current of melancholy, a certainty of loss which deepens the vitality.” A northwest native, Harkness writes about his travels at home and abroad and reaches back through time to share the paths his ancestors took before him. And, in this poem, Walt Whitman joins the chorus.
Today’s poem suggests a great poetry prompt. What would happen if you invited a poet from the past (Dickinson, Rilke, Yeats?) to join your morning walk? What will they notice that you might otherwise miss? What snippets from their poems might you weave in? What will the two of you talk about as you meander?
Whitman Reading by Moonlight
Walt Whitman pads around on the lawn
in bathrobe and slippers. Moonlight
silvers the lilac tree by the dooryard,
the flowers long gone from lavender to rust.
He opens his notebook to read a recent draft,
the title appearing as–he can’t make it out–
“Growing Broken Berry,” it looks like.
Back in bed he sees himself forlorn,
alone on the stern, riding the Brooklyn Ferry,
his shirt collar turned up, his fingers
clutching the brim of his straw hat.
He opens his notebook and reads aloud
by moonlight a draft, its working title:
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” In bed,
staring at the blank screen of the ceiling,
he watches himself tear out one page
from the notebook, then another.
When he releases them, they rise like gulls
aloft on the back draft, awhirl in a billow
of coal smoke and steam. Pages flutter
ungainly, as if wounded, alighting
on the wake’s white fire where they swim,
swirl, flatten and disappear
into the black waters of the Hudson.
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Vertigo is a condition in which individuals experience sensations of moving or spinning even when they stand completely still. Vertigo has a variety of causes, including inflammation of the inner ear, vestibular neuritis, head injury, and migraines. Individuals may also experience temporary vertigo when travelling on a boat, airplane or car, or when they have been through a strong earthquake. Symptoms of Vertigo include loss of balance, nausea, earache, blurred vision, and problems walking or standing properly. Vertigo is treated based on the underlying cause of the disease, and common treatment options include antibiotics and physical therapy.
Vertigo Bioinformatics Tool
Laverne is a handy bioinformatics tool to help facilitate scientific exploration of related genes, diseases and pathways based on co-citations. Explore more on Vertigo below!
For more information on how to use Laverne, please read the How to Guide.
We have 1219 products for the study of Vertigo that can be applied to Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, Flow Cytometry, Immunocytochemistry/Immunofluorescence, Immunohistochemistry, Western Blot from our catalog of antibodies and ELISA kits.
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The COVID-19 pandemic had strong economic and social impacts that have exacerbated the problems of inequality between rich and poor. While the wealthier classes were able to preserve their jobs and work remotely, many low-income workers lost their sources of income overnight, or saw their incomes shrink dramatically. This increase in inequality, coupled with large fiscal … [Read more...] about Can a wealth tax reduce inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean?
With the outbreak of the pandemic, fiscal balances in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) deteriorated and public debt increased significantly. When combined with the expected slowness of economic recovery, this will put significant pressure on the sustainability of public finances for countries in the region. Given this scenario, these countries urgently need to develop and … [Read more...] about Latin American and Caribbean countries must adopt a pro-growth fiscal strategy to avoid falling into a debt trap
There is an urgent need to reduce labor informality to encourage inclusive growth after the pandemic is over in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Labor formality boosts government revenue and targeting of transfers, increasing productivity and curtailing poverty. Given that the region has one of the highest labor informality levels in the world, targeting informality is … [Read more...] about Now it is the time to Foster Labor Formalization in Latin America and the Caribbean
As is well known, COVID-19 is highly contagious and has a higher mortality rate among at-risk groups than other similar viruses. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) the first contagion case was registered in late February 2020 and by April 20 the number of people infected was 100,000-plus, with 5,300 dead. Unfortunately, these figures quickly became outdated. The outburst … [Read more...] about Policy and fiscal management during the pandemic and post-pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean
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Biobased production systems (BBPSs) around the world are subject to unpredictable shocks as well as prolonged stress at multiple spatial and temporal scales, testing their resilience. We refer here to BBPSs as social-ecological systems that combine social organization, human technology, biological processes, and ecological systems and deliver services for the production of food, fiber, and fuel (Ge et al. 2016). The sources of shocks and perturbations range from climatic change and animal diseases to volatile commodity prices, geopolitical conflicts, and societal protests, e.g., over animal welfare or the allocation of land and water (Steffen et al. 2007, Bues and Theesfeld 2012, Sage 2013, Zoomers et al. 2017, Vij et al. 2018). The loss of resilience can transform BBPSs into unhealthy social-ecological systems that can no longer deliver their ecosystem-based services (Lamine 2015, Ge et al. 2016).
Many factors contribute to the increase or decrease in BBPS resilience. Nowadays, various scholars emphasize that disconnects between farming and urban systems are an important cause of decreased BBPS resilience (Sundkvist et al. 2005, Qviström 2007, Zhang et al. 2007, Eakin et al. 2009, Cumming et al. 2014, Lamine 2015, McKinnon et al. 2019). In farming systems, the important roles are played by farmers, farmers’ organizations and cooperatives, knowledge institutes, suppliers of resources, and food processing and distribution organizations. Urban systems include not only consumers and neighbors, but also political agents who can raise their voice and (de)legitimize farming methods or policy measures. Simple examples of disconnects include consumers lacking information on the various impacts of production systems and consumers’ preferences not reaching farmers. Cumming et al. (2014) predicted that mutually reinforcing processes of technological change, population growth, and urbanization would lead to disconnects between farming and urban systems that would increasingly crowd out connects. These disconnects would disrupt information flows that safeguard services linked to food production, potentially leading to collapse in terms of ecological degradation, rural poverty, and even famine in some regions of the world (Cumming et al. 2014).
To address resilience problems that arise from disconnects, many scholars emphasize the need for new institutional arrangements to reconnect the manifold actors in farming and urban systems (Ostrom 1999, Cashore 2002, Termeer et al. 2013, Sonnino et al. 2014, Cretella and Buenger 2016). Sundkvist et al. (2005:233) state that, “When feedback loops are loose and less direct, there is a need to develop or strengthen institutions that can handle large geographical and temporal distances.” The underlying argument is that connects and disconnects are mediated through institutions, defined as the rules that shape societal interactions (March and Olsen 1989). However, to evaluate and design alternative institutional arrangements, a more in-depth understanding is needed of how institutions influence resilience, by both enabling and constraining connects. More broadly, the institutional mechanisms that underlie the main resilience problems tend to be underemphasized (Biesbroek et al. 2017).
Against this background, this explorative paper seeks to address the question: How do institutions influence resilience in complex BBPSs through shaping connects and disconnects? It first presents a theoretical framework that defines the key concepts of resilience, institutions, and connects and conceptualizes the mutual interrelations. This framework is used to re-examine a rich and well-documented historical case: the intensification of the pig livestock sector in southern Netherlands from the 19th century to the present day. Such a historical analysis is most suited to elucidating institutional mechanisms. The paper concludes with a discussion of the patterns identified in the case study and a more general conclusion about the lessons learned and their consequences for ideas about reconnecting institutions.
The concept of resilience was originally coined by ecologists to analyze nonlinearities, critical thresholds, and irreversibility in ecological systems (Anderies et al. 2013). Nowadays, resilience has evolved into a powerful concept used in many disciplinary fields. As Biesbroek et al. (2017) have argued, caution is required when the concept of resilience is being applied to analyze broader societal or social-ecological systems rather than merely ecosystems. The structural complexity of ecological and social systems can be analyzed with similar terms, but the feedback processes are incomparable because of agency, e.g., the capacity of human beings to behave strategically, to include and exclude, to imagine, and to enhance collective action (Davidson 2010). The concept of resilience can be meaningfully applied to societal systems only if it deliberately includes and elaborates on human agency (Biesbroek et al. 2017) and if it provides normative clarification, because in social systems resilience is not necessarily the preferred response of all actors (Davidson 2010). Because institutions guide the behaviors of actors in societal systems, they thus also influence the resilience of these systems. In this context, we present a framework to analyze dynamic relations between institutions, connects/disconnects, and resilience. It is important to note that we do not analyze the resilience of institutions themselves but how they influence BBPS resilience through shaping connects and reconnects.
In general, resilience is understood as the capacity of a system to respond to perturbations while continuing to perform its basic functions. A resilience analysis always starts by addressing the question of “resilience of what to what”: what is the system and what are the perturbations (Carpenter et al. 2001)? We analyze BBPSs, but it is crucial to identify the system boundaries of each case in more detail. Our case, for example, focuses on a specific farming system (pig husbandry) in a specific region (southern Netherlands). It includes trade-offs between this system and other economic sectors in this region (industries in cities) and other parts of the world (fodder production in Brazil). Perturbations, consisting of either strong shocks or persistent stress, can push a system toward a tipping point where it can no longer maintain its previous state (Holling and Gunderson 2002, Reyers et al. 2018). In the context of BBPSs, perturbations can emerge from internal or external economic, social, or physical processes. If the BBPS is not able to respond to the perturbations, it may lose its ability to deliver certain ecosystem-based services, including food, fodder, or fiber production, clean water, climate regulation, biodiversity, pest regulation, or attractive landscapes (Cumming et al. 2014, Ge et al. 2016).
Because resilience has become a broad cluster of concepts, we follow various authors (Davidson 2010, Folke et al. 2010, Anderies et al. 2013, Meuwissen et al. 2019) who have distinguished three subcapacities of resilience: robustness, adaptability, and transformability. These dimensions differ in terms of timescale and depth of change. Robustness or persistence is the capacity to maintain the same functions and desired levels of outputs despite the occurrence of perturbations; it is the ability to bounce back or return to a previous equilibrium (Urruty et al. 2016, Reyers et al. 2018). The focus is on continuation of the status quo with marginal adjustments. Adaptability is the capacity to respond to shocks and stresses by adjusting internal processes. It allows for new developments along current trajectories and without changing the dominant logic of operation (Folke et al. 2010). Transformability is the capacity to create a fundamentally new system to capture novel opportunities or respond to either severe anticipated/unanticipated shocks or enduring stress that make the earlier system untenable (Walker et al. 2004, Olsson et al. 2006, Westley et al. 2011, Termeer et al. 2017). What emanates from the process of transformation might be an entirely different system. This implies that authors who relate resilience to maintaining also a degree of identity (e.g., Gupta et al. 2010) might qualify transformation as not resilient.
Institutions are rules that shape patterns of political, economic, and social interactions, without determining them (March and Olsen 1989, North 1991, Williamson 2000). The rules can be formal governmental policies and informal social patterns of engagement; they can be visible or latent; and they can generate productive and innovative as well as destructive and perverse outcomes (Geels 2004, Arts 2006, Ostrom 2009). If we refer to a ministry, a cooperative, or an environmental NGO, it refers to actors embedded in institutions.
Institutions are constructed, validated, and adjusted in interactions between actors operating at different scales of time and place. Their functioning is in manifold ways linked to the exercise of power, defined as the ability to have an effect upon the context that defines the range of societal actors’ possibilities (Hay 2002). The structural power dimension of institutions refers to the (unequal) social distribution of material and immaterial resources (Bachrach and Baratz 1962, Thelen 1999). Institutions also embody specific ideas and privilege, and support or oppress specific ideas. This is referred to as ideational power, which affects people’s beliefs and values (Carstensen and Schmidt 2016). Examples include social pressure in a local community, the influence of the Catholic Church, or the promotion of technologies.
Institutions designed and negotiated at one point in time affect subsequent choices, creating institutional trajectories or path dependencies, because every generation typically inherits institutions that reflect previous actors’ preferences, circumstances, and power configurations (Thelen 1999, Pierson 2004, Duit et al. 2015). Institutions change slowly and incrementally consequent to lock-ins (Pierson 2004). Institutionalized rules often reproduce or reinforce structural or ideational power (Lukes 1974) or can become a source of power in themselves. Therefore, existing power structures often constrain institutional change. Despite this conservativism, institutions can develop as a result of changes in environmental conditions, shifts in power balances, or unanticipated effects, in particular at critical junctures (Pierson 2004). If a BBPS is not sufficiently resilient to perturbations, the loss of key functions might trigger a critical juncture that enhances adjustments, and hence might function as a window of opportunity for institutional change (Westley et al. 2011, Duit et al. 2015). However, such change requires awareness of the expected loss of key functions and hence effective feedback patterns.
In a BBPS, as in all complex systems, all actors continuously make choices (including doing nothing) based on input obtained from the social and ecological systems with which they are interacting. These feedback loops are enabled by connects between different parts of the system. In the case of disconnects, actors are separated in place or time from the direct or indirect consequences of their own activities, and feedback loops are consequently interrupted. Local food systems, for example, have tight feedback loops in which consumption and production activities, consumers, and producers, or economic, environmental, and social effects are closely connected (Sundkvist et al. 2005).
Because most BBPSs transcend local boundaries, more direct feedback loops need to be replaced by other institutionalized feedback mechanisms to avoid disconnects. Sundkvist et al. (2005:225), for example, emphasize “the need to establish or strengthen institutions for managing feedback information between the various parts of the system,” and Anderies et al. (2013) refer to rules that translate information about a system into action that feeds back into the system. Needless to say, that information is not directly related to behavioral change; it is only one of the drivers in a complex process (e.g., Vatn 2005). In the literature, most emphasis is placed on managing information, but, in our framework, we include connects that are organized through material and financial flows (Hull et al. 2015). Information flows in BBPSs involve transmitting and updating knowledge about products, production systems, externalities, price signals, behavior, and preferences (Ge and Brewster 2016). Financial flows consist of payments, credit terms, taxes, and subsidies (Ge and Brewster 2016). Material flows include any type of matter, resulting from biological, chemical, and physical processes (Hull et al. 2015). Institutions influence flows in many ways, not least through institutionalized rules on access to material, financial, and informational resources (for example, Moulier-Boutang 2011).
To analyze connects and disconnects, we therefore need to look in particular at institutionalized alignments or misalignments between these three different types of flows. For example, if commercial and trade laws facilitate material and financial flows but intendedly or unintendedly restrict information flows about their effect on common pool resources, negative external effects of the commercial transactions will be invisible to many market participants, thereby disconnecting the trading parties from those affected by deteriorating common pool resources (Cosens et al. 2014). Disconnects are further exacerbated if the rules on resource use are not well aligned with local needs, if those affected by the use of a resource have little or no influence on these rules, if material and financial flows are not well monitored, if transaction costs to remedy disconnects are high, and if local rules are not well aligned with higher level institutions (Ostrom 1999). Consequently, connects and disconnects are both manifestations and sources of structural and ideational power.
An institutional analysis is helpful not only to analyze new reconnects, but also to understand which historical institutions caused them. Sundkvist et al. (2005) identified four drivers for increased disconnects between farming and urban systems: intensification, resulting in separating food production from local ecosystems; specialization, leading to separating plant from animal production; distancing, food traveling longer distances; and homogenization, resulting in the loss of local knowledge. Although these developments result from individual decisions of farmers and other business actors, they are predominantly guided by institutions that promote the paradigms of intensification, specialization, and homogenization through structural and ideational power.
We use a well-documented historical case study of pig livestock intensification in southern Netherlands to explore how institutions influence connects and disconnects in complex BBPSs. After benefitting from the Dutch Golden Age in the 16th and 17th centuries, agriculture in southern Netherlands experienced a long period of stagnation in the 18th and 19th centuries. Manure was the limiting factor for subsistence farming on poor heathlands and sandy soils. From the late 19th century, however, incentivized by growing demand from cities in England and the Ruhr area in Germany, southern Dutch farmers greatly expanded livestock farming (mainly pigs) by using imported feed that made them less dependent on their own poor soils. Pig farming evolved into a gigantic intensive livestock industry with even more pigs than inhabitants at its zenith in the 1990s. Before 1900, most farmers had one pig for household consumption, whereas nowadays the average number of pigs per farm is 2400 (Van der Heijden and Cramer 2017).
During this period, the pig livestock sector in southern Netherlands faced many internal and external perturbations and went through different stages of development, including major institutional change. From a comprehensive literature analysis, we have distinguished five developmental stages that each include a sequence of specific economic, social, and ecological perturbations (see Table 1). Although the period 1920–1945 includes many perturbations, commonalities in institutional and response patterns prevail, so that we decided to present it as one stage.
Despite pig livestock intensification in southern Netherlands being a well-documented case, it has not been analyzed through the conceptual lens of resilience. The data have been derived from all published literature on the subject, e.g., all reports, papers, and books that provide a broad historical analysis of the pig husbandry from a social science perspective (key references: Termeer 1993, Bekke et al. 1994, Frouws 1994, Van Zanden 1994, Wiskerke et al. 2003, Bieleman 2010, Bijman et al. 2012, van Lieshout et al. 2013, Bijman 2018). This was complemented by the knowledge and experience of the authors in this field.
For each stage, we use our theoretical framework to explain how the BBPS, the regional pig livestock sector, responded to the main perturbations; how these perturbations and responses affected institutions, connects, and disconnects; and the consequences for BBPS resilience along the dimensions of robustness, adaptability, and transformability. From a BBPS perspective, the level of analysis is the whole system and its overall ability to deliver public services and maintain common pool resources, not the resilience of individual farms.
An important limitation of this study is the fragmentation of sources. Although the various stages of the case are well documented, none of the sources covers the entire period, and none of them has presented and interpreted the data from a resilience perspective. Furthermore, we present only a very brief account of a very complex and long period. The main aim of the case study is to show the usefulness of the theoretical framework by analyzing some overall patterns, providing orientation for future comparative and more in-depth studies.
Between 1870 and 1880, Europe experienced several major agricultural crises. The Midwest of the USA had been colonized in the 19th century, and new railroads and steamboats brought grains to Europe. Grain prices decreased drastically, and many Western European farmers shifted to livestock production (van Zanden 1994). Germany and the UK became major export markets demanding light pigs of 40–65 kg, the so-called London piglets. This market was attractive for small farms because less working capital and land was required, and many more or less landless persons were able to start a small farm (Bieleman 2010).
Early initiatives to improve the organization of the agricultural sector date from the mid-19th century. Agricultural societies were founded at the provincial level by the powerful bourgeois elite and wealthy farmers (van Zanden 1994). In southern Netherlands, the Catholic farmers’ organization became the most influential. This movement was strongly directed by the Catholic Church, which lent legitimation to the new institutions and their ideational power (Bijman 2018). As a response to the agricultural crisis, the farmers’ organization initiated the foundation of cooperatives through which small farmers collectively purchased and traded, thereby increasing their structural power (Bijman 2018). The cooperatives used the window of opportunity caused by the crisis and organized a pig-feed supply transport infrastructure with the nearby Rotterdam harbor (Bieleman 2010). After 1880, the Dutch government also began to facilitate agricultural production by providing education, extension, and research (van Zanden 1994), thereby executing strong ideational power by promoting pigs as well suited for small farms and economically very efficient because they could recycle many sources of waste. Furthermore, the Netherlands’ adoption of policies to prevent the overexploitation of heathland limited opportunities to increase arable land and thus indirectly promoted pig husbandry (Bieleman 2010).
Cooperatives enhanced financial and material flows between farmers and urban systems. These institutions were efficient in aggregating supplies from remote rural regions in southern Netherlands to far-away markets in urban areas in Germany and the UK, and in bargaining feed for livestock (Bijman et al. 2012). Material flows were balanced with ecosystem services. The increasing volumes of manure were used as fertilizer for the poor sandy soils. The use of waste for fodder connected pig farmers with urban waste processors. The cooperatives mediated information flows on prices and demand, but not on social and cultural developments. Urban artists, living in dirty and poor cities, played an important role in such information flows by enhancing a process of romanticizing the countryside, thereby creating imagined connects but informational disconnects (Bieleman 2010).
The depressed agricultural prices in the 1880s were a major perturbation that could have brought misery and collapse with overexploitation of heathlands, but effective management rules for the commons prevented this. The newly formed farmer cooperatives became crucial institutional arrangements for reconnecting farmers with urban centers and coping with overseas market-related perturbations. The cooperatives, built upon earlier organizational efforts by the bourgeoisie and wealthy farmers, were based on rules providing membership and access to resources. Investment in research and extension created a new dominant farming paradigm with ideational power and further incentivized the reorganization of the livestock sector. Altogether, these newly formed institutions enhanced the transformative capacity of the sector, leading to an increase in livestock and farm income without breaking the ecological feedback loops.
This a dynamic period, including times of wealth and optimism, deep economic crisis, and a war. After World War I, farming was hit by new perturbations as trade resumed and many men entered farming because of the lack of employment outside agriculture, resulting in (land) fragmentation (Bieleman 2010). The situation deteriorated with the economic depression after the 1929 Wall Street crash and the abandonment of the gold standard by the UK in 1931. Farm income fell to very low levels and alternative income opportunities disappeared (Bijman et al. 2012). The situation was further exacerbated during World War II, with increasing food shortages across Europe and the German occupation of the Netherlands.
The cooperatives and farmers’ organizations, established in the previous period, were able to counteract some of the negative effects of fragmented and unstable international markets by using structural and ideational power. They established an institute for agricultural economics to show policy makers and the general public how bad the situation was and successfully advocated a specific agency to support small farmers (Bijman et al. 2012). Their powerful lobby facilitated a strong government response with the introduction of a crisis pig law, which reduced supply and guaranteed minimum prices (Bijman 2018). This shift from a noninterventionist economic policy to strict regulation continued during the war years (Bijman 2018). Besides these agricultural policies, governmental research and extension agencies continued to stimulate technological innovation, exercising strong ideational power (Bieleman 2010).
The economic crisis and WWII disconnected farmers from many material and financial flows that had enabled their economic revival in the previous period, in particular feed imports and export markets. This resulted in poverty, the slaughtering of animals, and a breakdown in production, to the extent that strong government interventions were supported by all political parties (Bijman et al. 2012). The intervention policies disconnected supply and demand decisions from information flows and connected them to authoritative decisions by the government. The food shortages during WWII and the German occupation further reinforced the connection between government information about nutritional needs and authoritative decisions about resource use and food distribution. Simultaneously, food shortages somewhat reconnected broken feedback loops, because citizens increasingly visited farms in search of food (Bieleman 2010). This created an acute awareness of interdependencies between urban and rural areas that lasted for decades.
Overlapping political, economic, and social crises could have led to the collapse of the pig livestock sector. However, the livestock sector in southern Netherlands showed remarkable resilience and high adaptive capacity in the face of serious perturbations. Building on established institutions of farmers’ cooperatives, research institutes, and extension, and supported by governmental interventions, the system replaced unviable connects (depressed markets, interrupted international trade) with new ones (managed markets, bartering prices) and was able to maintain food production services, albeit at a lower level than before. During this period, nothing was reported about environmental or ecological trade-offs.
World War II left the Netherlands with significant war damages. Farmers faced the choice of migration to the industrializing cities, emigration, or rebuilding their farms with support from the U.S. Marshall Plan. With the industrialization and rebuilding of Western Europe, farm labor became scarce, resulting in increasing labor costs (Bieleman 2010).
The strong presence of the state from the previous stage continued. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food Supply issued an extensive agricultural policy to feed the country and to create an income source through exports (van Lieshout et al. 2013). In 1958, agricultural market and price policy was transferred to the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Effective lobbying by several supply-chain actors led to the exemption of citrus pulp, tapioca, and soya, which were used as feedstuffs, from CAP import levies (Bijman et al. 2012). The sector was also strongly supported by governmental services for education, extension, and research that promoted specialized intensive livestock farms and disincentivized mixed farms (Bieleman 2010). The ministry collaborated intensively with the farmers’ organizations and cooperatives, sharing a modernization paradigm of mechanization, specialization, and larger scale farming (Frouws 1994, van Lieshout et al. 2013). This institutional support (structural power) and the shared modernization paradigm (ideational power) provided a strong basis for revitalizing and transforming the pig livestock sector (Frouws 1994).
The food shortages during WWII had reminded urban dwellers of the importance of agriculture and the crucial position of farmers. This gave the ministry the opportunity to extend the crisis-based agricultural policy as a general agricultural support policy with the aim of “no more hunger.” It later also legitimized the upscaling of these policies to European agricultural policy. These policies connected farmers with important material flows, i.e., animal feed, and financial flows, i.e., state and EC subsidies, that enabled their economic revival, as well as increasing market incomes. Specialization and economies of scale were increasingly based on feed imports, and this facilitated a “landless” type of farming with high added value (Bijman et al. 2012). However, the specialization and intensification also contributed to growing disconnects, e.g., between overseas fodder production and environmental effects in southern Netherlands or overexploitation problems in feed-producing (tapioca and soy) countries overseas. The more local environmental issues were not yet a disconnect: the bad smell from pig farms was framed as “healthy rural air,” an exercise of ideational power that reinforced a positive identity frame for farmers. Effects on local water quality and nature areas had not yet materialized, because it takes time for soils to become saturated with phosphate or for the effects of air pollution to accumulate. Early warnings in scientific reports about, for example, the growing manure surplus were dismissed (Termeer 1993, Frouws 1994).
A combination of powerful, long-standing institutions and new forms of organized institutional support enabled a rapid transformation process that went beyond mere recovery and significantly altered the social, economic, and ecological logic of operation of the Dutch pig production system. This transformation was predominantly framed as a great success. Ecological concerns slowly entered the public domain but did not receive much media attention. By the end of this period, the main institutions used their structural and ideational power to disregard early signals about overproduction and adverse ecological effects that did not fit their agricultural modernization paradigm.
The intensification of pig livestock production led to growing societal and political concerns about the negative consequences of agricultural modernization, such as overproduction, environmental pollution, animal diseases, and animal welfare issues (Wiskerke et al. 2003). From the late 1970s, the CAP system of market support increasingly led to overproduction and increasing costs for market intervention. Reports indicated that the excessive use of manure saturated soils with phosphate and led to air and water pollution with nitrates and ammonia (Termeer 1993). Animal welfare entered the agenda with a critical assessment of the dense housing systems for pigs and poultry. In 1997-1998, a massive outbreak of swine fever hit the Netherlands. The many societal concerns increasingly delegitimized intensive pig husbandry, questioning its “license to produce” (Breeman 2006).
The strong institutional collaboration from the previous period developed into a closed neo-corporatist policy community dominated by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, farmers’ organizations, and agricultural specialists in parliament (Bekke et al. 1994, Frouws 1994). This community was united by the modernization paradigm and exercised strong ideational power, marginalizing alternative ideas (Wiskerke et al. 2003). The previously powerful cooperatives and farmers’ organizations displayed a history of failure to self-regulate manure problems (Termeer 1993). Weakened manure regulation was introduced piecemeal between the early 1980s and the millennium, ushering in a complex, often ineffective, accumulation of EU and national policies. To combat swine fever, 12 million pigs were culled, some in eradication efforts but most for associated welfare reasons, at a total cost of €2.3 billion (Meuwissen et al. 1999). In response, national legislation was introduced to control and limit the growth of the pig production sector. Under financial pressure, the Ministry of Agriculture privatized its extension and research service in 1998 (Bijman et al. 2012). What farmers called innovative pig livestock farming systems was publicly denounced as “industrial farming,” indicating a shift of ideational power from industry to public interest groups (Termeer 1993). The hegemony of the agricultural modernization paradigm vanished, and fundamental public controversies about the pig livestock sector emerged.
The closed agricultural policy community and sector institutions contributed to disconnects between farming and urban systems. Whereas previously nonagricultural groups were not interested in agricultural policies, during this period they were deliberately excluded (Termeer and Werkman 2011). Attempts to hide negative trade-offs and thus disconnect material and information flows became counterproductive. Environmental and welfare NGOs stepped into this void and organized information flows about the effects of pig husbandry systems on environmental pollution and animal well-being. The swine fever outbreak and the accompanying media attention unintentionally resulted in a radical disclosure of information. Swine fever opened the eyes of many urban dwellers and created a broad public awareness of the realities inside pig sties. Sanitary measures to prevent bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) limited the use of animal-origin waste for pig fodder, and feed sources shifted radically from industrial waste products to tapioca and soy. This exacerbated the disconnects between international material and information flows, resulting in blocked feedback loops between deforestation (in Latin America and Thailand) and environmental pollution and animal well-being (in the Netherlands).
The manure problem, the problematization of animal welfare in the pig livestock industry, and the swine fever outbreaks strongly challenged the authority of pre-existing institutions, in particular their ideational power. However, despite the growing external critique, the sector remained economically robust, enjoyed continuing institutional support, and maintained enough structural power to marginalize or outmaneuver critics. Despite some internal attempts to reorganize the production system, the focus was on persistence and robustness, although for an increasing number of people it had become clear that the system was unsustainable. The increased demand for tapioca and soy contributed to the gradual collapse of virgin forests overseas, with negative environmental and social impacts. Finally, the immense fallout of the swine fever crisis indicated a systemic failure to deal with new forms of perturbations. Overall, the system actors used their ideational and structural power to relocate resilience issues to other places and into the future, exploiting informational disconnects and favoring robustness over transformability.
The more restrictive policies for the pig industry issued in the previous period induced growth inter alia in the goat sector. However, in 2007, an outbreak of Q-fever, a zoonosis originating in goats, caused over 75 human deaths in southern Netherlands and also affected inhabitants in metropolitan areas. The Q-fever crisis brought into the spotlight other livestock-related health problems such as the MRSA bacterium, antimicrobial resistance, other zoonosis outbreaks, fine particles, and increased risks of pneumonia (Health Council 2012). Further restrictive regulations, including on animal health and manure, reduced the sector’s profitability, resulting in fewer farms with more livestock, quickly labelled as “mega-stables” that became highly controversial (van Lieshout et al. 2013). Many pig farmers quit during this period. New challenges entered the agenda such as adaptation to climate change, CO2 reduction, and biodiversity loss, amplifying overlapping risks of human health, economic viability, and ecological degradation.
In 2000, the Ministry of Agriculture tried to open up the closed policy community, announcing that the relation between the ministry and the agricultural sector had changed and allocating an important role to consumers, citizens, and society (van Lieshout et al. 2013). However, it responded only slowly to the Q-fever incident, indicating that ideational power still swayed incumbents to protect the industry’s vested interests. The general public perceived the response as too little too late, and as only increasing the distrust in agricultural institutions (Termeer et al. 2016). The bad smell was no longer perceived as healthy rural air but as a health hazard, indicating a shift in ideational power. Citizens organized to ban intensive livestock production from their village or province. After intensive media coverage and political debates, local governments (municipalities and provinces) issued restrictive measures against further increases in livestock. Decades of environmental and societal critiques had undermined the ideational and structural power of agricultural-interest organizations in favor of environmental, animal welfare, and health groups.
Paradoxically, the concerns over health and animal welfare contributed to reconnecting information flows, i.e., sharing information about health risks, between farmers and urban dwellers, a process that became particularly tangible at the local level (Termeer et al. 2016). The farming sector now had to face its implications for ecology, animal welfare, and public health. Not only urban dwellers who had moved to the countryside criticized their neighboring farms, but also traditional inhabitants of rural areas. Later, multinational corporations based in the province entered the debate because they depend on an attractive countryside for housing to attract talented employees. The province initiated compulsory dialogues between farmers and their neighbors to restore trust as a condition for building permits; this could be described as a province-enforced grassroots reconnect. Innovative arrangements emerged that deliberately aimed to reconnect cities with food and agriculture, for example, Agri Meets Design, television food chefs, youth food movement, city farming projects, or more environmentally or animal-welfare-friendly farmers marketing their meat under special labels. Even supermarkets now require higher levels of animal welfare and environmental standards from their farm-sector suppliers. All these initiatives enhanced information flows between cities and the countryside and shifted ideational power toward new concerns beyond growth and intensification. However, most farmers perceived operational growth as the only way to meet the demands of retailers, export markets, and banks, indicating a financial disconnect that moved economic power away from farmers. Having to pay off long-term investments, farmers experienced lock-ins and the paradox that citizens disapproved their production methods but were not willing to pay more for meat with higher environmental and animal welfare characteristics, so that financial flows were not well aligned with informational flows (Fresco and Poppe 2016).
During this period, disconnects that were institutionalized in earlier periods created perturbations that tested the resilience of the pig sector in southern Netherlands: animal well-being, animal diseases, manure problems, and Amazonian deforestation were material disconnects that could no longer be hidden behind informational disconnects. Re-established informational connects undermined the ideational power of the closed agricultural policy community and its modernization paradigm, ushering in incremental institutional change through environmental, health, and animal welfare regulation. Even maintaining the status quo required significant adaptation. Many farmers, lacking both robustness and adaptability, quit. For those who stayed, contradictory resilience strategies have emerged. On the one hand, powerful market forces and agricultural lobbies aim to maintain robustness by mobilizing buffer resources and externalizing social and environmental costs. On the other hand, new actors within and outside the sector create manifold transformative innovations in reconnected niches in regions, value chains, or cities. However, it is difficult to upscale the seeds of transformative change because of lock-ins and path dependencies caused by the inertia of structural and ideational power and the institutional heritage of previous historical periods.
In the case study, we have used our framework to analyze how institutionally shaped patterns of connects and disconnects affected the resilience of the pig sector in southern Netherlands and which types of resilience were enabled and constrained over time. Below, we discuss the main patterns and mechanisms identified.
All periods show the mechanism of perturbations followed by institutional upheaval, a pattern that is also described by Newman (2000). In the earlier periods, the main sources of perturbations were social, political, and economic disasters, whereas in the post-WWII era environmental and human health risks became more prominent. The case shows that sudden shocks, such as a war, a sudden market disruption, a stock market crash, or a disease outbreak had greater effects than what Rosenthal et al. (1989) referred to as creeping crises, such as environmental pollution, climate change, or increasing societal concerns about animal welfare. Creeping crises imply a temporal delay in feedback, cause fewer visible stresses, and are more likely to produce contested evidence, which all result in postponed responses.
The institutions that developed in response to perturbations enhanced the tightening of some connects or feedback loops while loosening or even interrupting others. Connects and disconnects between farming and urban systems exist simultaneously, but there is a tendency for an increasing number of disconnects to crowd out connects, what fits the conclusions of Cumming et al. (2014). A related pattern is the tendency for institutional changes to result in trade-offs rather than synergies between material, financial, and information flows. Cooperative formation in the first stage, for example, helped to mediate material and financial connections between farmers and city consumers, but it also resulted in romanticized images (artists’ paintings) of farming consequent to broken direct interactions and thus broken information flows between farmers and urban dwellers.
Another mechanism is the globalization of commodity markets resulting in new connects and disconnects between production and consumption areas. The agricultural policy framework increasingly reinforced this pattern by enabling financial and material flows between Dutch farmers and overseas sources of feedstuff, but it simultaneously restricted information flows about their effects on deforestation and manure surplus problems, thereby disconnecting the benefitting parties from those facing the detrimental effects. Initially, this informational disconnect was unintended, but, when these problems were high on the political agenda, it became a deliberate strategy because benefitting parties had an interest in hiding this information. Connects and disconnects also emerged as delayed and unintended effects of institutional reforms. For example, the policies to combat swine fever by culling millions of pigs unintendedly opened the eyes of urban dwellers and thus reconnected information flows between the farm sector and citizens; this in turn triggered new policies to restructure the pig sector. Regarding all flows, changes from connects to disconnects or vice versa can even constitute new perturbations.
The patterns of connects and disconnects affect differently the main resilience dimensions of robustness, adaptability, and transformability, and include various trade-offs. The specific quality of the connects is more important than the number of connects. Material and financial connects enhance adaptability by providing access to resources as well as undermining robustness by exposing a system to superior competitors. Informational disconnects about negative environmental effects appear to strengthen robustness (and thus focus on the short term) but undermine adaptability and transformability (which is more related to the long term). New informational reconnects may form breeding grounds for transformability but risk financial disconnects through investor and customer responses, thereby undermining robustness. The effects of the same institutions on resilience dimensions also show dynamic effects over time. The cooperatives installed in the first stage were very important in shaping connections that enhanced transformability. In the second stage, these cooperatives played an important role in preventing collapse during WWII. Subsequently, they formed an important institutional breeding ground for another transformation period in the context of the post-WWII recovery. However, in the fourth stage, these previously successful institutions tried to preserve a privileged status quo by establishing disconnects that almost resulted in a collapse. That this collapse did not happen is the result of another important pattern, that is, that each period displayed a distinct mixture of all three types of resilience capabilities. In the fifth period for example, we observed not only signs that indicate collapse (deforestation, Q-fever), but also signals of robustness (production levels are maintained and many farms still continue), adaptability (mega-stables), and transformability (urban agriculture).
Another pattern is the increasing institutional complexity over time. The need for suitable feedback loops and thus resilience is an important driver of institutional complexity. The layering mechanism, as described by Thelen (1999) provides another explanation, meaning that old institutions are not replaced by new ones, but that new elements such as actors, rules, or policies are attached to existing institutions and so gradually change their status, structures, and outcomes. As the legacy of previous interactions and historically entrenched power relations, new agricultural institutions were layered on top of old institutions, a finding similar to Feindt and Flynn (2009). Part of this complexity is the emergence of parallel institutions or institutional redundancy. The WWII period, for example, showed the simultaneous emergence of government-led food production and distribution systems and local self-supporting farming systems that contributed to high levels of adaptability during this perturbation-filled period. This institutional complexity makes it hard to distinguish connecting and disconnecting mechanisms, as they may coexist and are simultaneously in a constant battle for prevalence. However, our case also supports the ideas of Ostrom (2008) and Folke et al. (2010), who emphasize the importance of institutional variety and redundancy as key prerequisites for resilience.
Finally, and in line with earlier work on the importance of agricultural policy paradigms (Daugbjerg and Feindt 2017, Feindt 2018), our case study identifies ideational power as an important factor in explaining institutional change and inertia. Ideational power reinforced path dependencies centered around disconnects while limiting space for the creation of new connects. In our case study, crucial junctures of institutional change were always accompanied by a shift in ideational power, for example, toward the Catholic Church in period 1, the modernist paradigm and corporatist arrangement in period 3, and the various nonagricultural actors (environment, health, welfare, food) in period 5. Ideational power has also a strong influence on the ability of institutional innovations to move from isolated incubator examples to influencing broader system change (Geels 2004).
To summarize, the application of our framework to the pig sector shows that, in the long run, resilience depends on a variety of institutions that connect information, material, and financial flows in a well-aligned way. It also suggests that a combination of perturbations, institutional layering, and shifts in ideational power is an important institutional mechanism for resilience in general and transformability in particular. The emergence of small-scale transformative change in a variety of reconnected niches, as identified in stage 5, might indicate a model for a broader reconnect as described by Termeer et al. (2017). This also links to the concept of bricolage, the rearrangement or recombination of institutional principles and practices in new and creative ways (Campbell 2004), and to the importance of strategic alliances between traditional and non-traditional actors as part of transformation (van Zwanenberg et al. 2018).
Disconnects between farming and urban systems are perceived to be an important cause of decreased resilience of BBPSs. We aimed to analyze how institutions influence resilience in complex BBPSs through shaping connects and disconnects? For this purpose, it integrated elements from institutional and resilience theory into a new framework. This framework includes relationships between four key concepts: perturbations; institutions, including structural or ideational power; connects and disconnects organized through material, financial, and informational flows; and resilience along the dimensions of robustness, adaptability, and transformability. This framework is applied to the historical case of pig livestock intensification in the Netherlands from 1870 to 2017.
Using the framework, we identified key junctures of perturbations as triggers for system reorganization. The institutions that developed in response to perturbations in turn shaped connects and disconnects, but these effects were dynamic and changed over time. Understanding these patterns can be useful for understanding the broader resilience dynamics of farming systems, and of BBPSs more broadly. If a BBPS is undergoing a period of perturbations, a focus on strengthening existing institutions may enhance robustness, whereas transformation is best enabled by institutions that allow more space for experimentation and innovation.
Our findings could enrich current debates on reconnecting urban and farming systems, in which a focus on the relocalization (e.g., Eakin et al. 2017) and the certification (e.g., Cashore 2002) paradigm seems to dominate. Although local institutions operate at the same temporal and spatial scale as the feedback signals, they do not fully address the diversity of interdependencies in BBPSs and therefore fail to effectively reconnect farming and urban systems (see also Sundkvist et al. 2005, Lamine 2015). Voluntary certification schemes may disclose information but are only successful if linked to material and financial flows, or even to regulation. Institutional complexity in terms of layering, redundancy, and bricolage is crucial for resilience, in particular in times of major perturbation. This is coherent with Ostrom’s ideas about overcoming scale mismatches by building arrangements from the lowest level up to the entire interconnected system (Ostrom 1999). Consequently, building resilient BBPSs requires a variety of reconnecting institutions that involve local food networks, consumer-supported agriculture, urban farming, and locally sourced school food, as well as global roundtables, certifications schemes, trade policies, regulations, and so forth. This calls for refraining from a focus on local reconnects or certification only and for a tolerance of institutional complexity.
Despite its usefulness, the framework also has some weaknesses. The first relates to our main conclusion of dynamics and complexity. It is very difficult to describe all these dynamics and underlying mechanisms in a medium that is itself static. A possible next step in this research is to investigate these dynamics and mechanisms by “growing” them in a miniature version of the system. This is in fact inherent in the method of generative social science (Epstein 2006). A technique for doing this is agent-based modeling (Gilbert 2008), including modeling social dynamics (Hofstede 2019). An agent-based model is thus a living hypothesis about the system under study. Agent based modeling of the essential dynamics of the system allows to run the system thousands of times with different parameter settings that mimic different hypotheses or different scenarios. This in turn allows to explain the various relations and test hypotheses about how the identified mechanisms relate to resilience. A model of the case that focuses on spatial relationships and includes institutions is currently being developed.
The second weakness is the issue of boundaries. Although we tried to define the boundaries of the case study in terms of a specific farming system (pig husbandry) in a specific region (southern Netherlands) and took linkages with metropolitan consuming areas or fodder producing regions into account, we were not able to fully address externalities. Further research, in particular studies that analyze new reconnecting arrangements, should include these externalities. Otherwise, reconnects and increased resilience at the local level might result in loss of resilience far away. Here too, agent-based modeling might contribute.
The research was supported by the strategic investment fund of Wageningen University and Research
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Ostrom, E. 1999. Coping with tragedies of the commons. Annual Review of Political Science 2:493-535. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.493
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Qviström, M. 2007. Landscapes out of order: studying the inner urban fringe beyond the rural-urban divide. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 89(3):269-282. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0467.2007.00253.x
Reyers, B., C. Folke, M.-L. Moore, R. Biggs, and V. Galaz. 2018. Social-ecological systems insights for navigating the dynamics of the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 43:267-289. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-110615-085349
Rosenthal, U., M. T. Charles, and P. 't Hart, editors. 1989. Coping with crises: the management of disasters, riots and terrorism. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, USA.
Sage, C. 2013. The interconnected challenges for food security from a food regimes perspective: energy, climate and malconsumption. Journal of Rural Studies 29:71-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.02.005
Sonnino, R., C. L. Torres, and S. Schneider. 2014. Reflexive governance for food security: the example of school feeding in Brazil. Journal of Rural Studies 36:1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2014.06.003
Steffen, W., P. J. Crutzen, and J. R. McNeill. 2007. The Anthropocene: Are humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature? AMBIO 36(8):614-621. https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2
Sundkvist, Å., R. Milestad, and A. Jansson. 2005. On the importance of tightening feedback loops for sustainable development of food systems. Food Policy 30(2):224-239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2005.02.003
Termeer, C. J. A. M. 1993. Dynamiek en inertie rondom mestbeleid; een studie naar veranderingsprocessen in het varkenshouderijnetwerk. Vuga, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Termeer, C. J. A. M., H. Dagevos, G. Breeman, and A.-C. Hoes. 2016. Maatschappelijk vertrouwen in de varkenshouderij. Deel 1 - Managementsamenvatting en conclusies. Wageningen, The Netherlands. [online] URL: http://edepot.wur.nl/279565
Termeer, C. J. A. M., A. Dewulf, and G. R. Biesbroek. 2017. Transformational change: governance interventions for climate change adaptation from a continuous change perspective. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 60(4):558-576. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2016.1168288
Termeer, C. J. A. M., M. Stuiver, A. Gerritsen, and P. Huntjens. 2013. Integrating self-governance in heavily regulated policy fields: insights from a Dutch farmers’ cooperative. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 15(2):285-302. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2013.778670
Termeer, C. J. A. M., and R. A. Werkman. 2011. Changing closed agricultural policy communities. Critical Policy Studies 5(3):283-298. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2011.606301
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Van Zwanenberg, P., A. Cremaschi, M. Obaya, A. Marin, and V. Lowenstein. 2018. Seeking unconventional alliances and bridging innovations in spaces for transformative change: the seed sector and agricultural sustainability in Argentina. Ecology and Society 23(3):11. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10033-230311
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Zoomers, A., F. van Noorloos, K. Otsuki, G. Steel, and G. van Westen. 2017. The rush for land in an urbanizing world: from land grabbing toward developing safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and landscapes. World Development 92:242-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.11.016
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About power plant
Using water with high hardness and suspended particles in power plant equipment causes major problems during operation. In this regard conserving the facilities in power plants like heat exchangers, boilers, pumps and etc. are design necessities.
As a matter of fact utilizing efficient equipment in the packages such as cooling towers, results in reducing footprint, more system life span and reduced energy consumption.
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Just because the kids are going back to school soon, doesn’t mean the summer is over, at least not for your lawn and trees. In fact, we are just embarking on the best growing weather you can ask for when it comes to your lawn.
After a tough summer of heat and drought stress, fighting the difficult battle against weed grasses (like bentgrass, annual and rough bluegrass, crabgrass and the like), fertilizing just to keep the grass you do have and watering just to keep the lawn alive, THIS is when your hard work starts to pay off!
The nutrients are in place, the weed grasses and broadleaf weeds have been weakened. Now it’s time to continue with your proper care regimen of frequent mowing and deep watering, over-seeding, as well as repairing and renovating weaker areas in your lawn.
After all, grass grows actively until the ground freezes which can be as late as December in Southern Ontario! That’s right, the top growth might slow down by early November, but the roots will keep growing and building up reserves to fight back with a vengeance next spring!
Here’s a quick recap of what to focus on:
1. Mow frequently- every 5 or 6 days, often enough to make sure you never remove more than 1/3 of the blade. If you don’t have many weeds and are mowing often enough, you can leave the clippings on the lawn- which makes this job even easier.
2. Mow high- 3″ is the ideal height for Kentucky bluegrass and perennial rye-grass if you want to crowd out the weeds and undesirable weed grasses. Don’t work against your selves, these grasses were meant to be this height, you can’t change it!
3. Water deeply- proper watering through the late summer months is essential.
4. Fight the weed seeds!- Bag your lawn clippings if the weeds are in seed (flowering), this prevents working against yourself.
5. Rip out the Crabgrass- Crabgrass is an annual plant, so it doesn’t even matter if you get the root system out. It’s going to die after the first frost. The goal here is to remove the seed heads that can put out 100’s of seeds per plant that will grow back next year, if you let them have their way! Don’t let the seeds stay- rip them out too!
6. OVERSEED – anytime through the late summer and early fall is a great time to seed bare spots or areas that contain weed grasses. Be sure to vigorously rake to rip out what you can of the old stuff, loosen up the top inch or 2 of soil, spread the seed, step on it and keep it moist!
7. The goal here is to get your lawn back into shape so you can return to the #1 position on this list, and in the neighbourhood hierarchy of lawn heroes!
PS. Don’t forget your trees, After a long hot and dry summer, Your trees are thirsty and can use a nice deep watering using LawnSavers slow drip method. You may also want to consider deep root feeding them this fall!
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Raising The Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream
Listen to story:
Download: mp3 (Duration: 20:41 — 18.9MB)
FEATURING ANDY STERN – What would you with your life if you didn’t have to worry about earning a salary and your most basic needs were met? That is a question that only the independently wealthy in our country have the luxury of contemplating. You might become an artist, a writer, a tech innovator, a chef – the possibilities are endless.
But of course you can’t imagine such things. You and I have to worry about where we get our health insurance, how we might juggle two jobs to make ends meet, how we are going to pay for child care or rent. A vast majority of Americans are stuck working in an economy that is not working for them – one where jobs are part time, pay is dismal, the so-called “gig-economy” is ever dominant, and unionization is stagnant.
Andy Stern, former president of one of the nation’s strongest unions, SEIU, has offered the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) as a solution to our rapidly transforming economy. Citing the increasing replacement of human workers with an automated workforce, Stern, in a new book, has made a strong case for why we need a universal basic income now more than ever.
Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a 2.2 million strong organization. He served on the Simpson-Bowles commission and is currently the Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow at Columbia University’s Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy. He is the author of Raising The Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream.
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Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water. It can be very helpful in preventing and treating diseases.
Tea leaves contain calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, vitamins, tannins, chlorophyll and caffeine. The Red RedRuby International Co offers the highest quality varieties of tea and herbal teas for the benefit of its consumers
This tea relieves stress and helps improve sleep quality. It contains the following herbs:
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Curriculum and Instruction | Early Childhood Education | Educational Methods | Elementary Education | Elementary Education and Teaching | Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education | Science and Mathematics Education
This series of activities invites students to engage in a design challenge that elicits mathematical and scientific thinking. In the first activity, the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires will be used as a catalyst to discuss the engineering design process as experienced by the protagonist, a little girl. Suggested questioning techniques and inferential reasoning strategies will focus on the trials and tribulations, frustrations, and successes achieved by the little girl. Additionally, discussion prompts are included to provide students an opportunity to reflect on the little girl as a mathematician and scientist as she takes action and makes decisions throughout her design journey. This book is utilized at all grade levels to introduce the subsequent activity.
In the kindergarten activity, students will focus on constructing a vehicle to carry a pet the longest distance down a ramp. Learners will begin by exploring a set of Brickyard Building Blocks materials, determining how they could be utilized in building a vehicle, and then working cooperatively to construct their pet transport. After testing their vehicle and measuring the distance each prototype has traveled, students will analyze the class data while discussing which vehicles traveled the furthest, shortest, and what characteristics of a design may contribute to the vehicle’s performance.
In the first-grade activity, students will use Brickyard Building Blocks in addition to common materials to complete the given design challenge. Students will examine the performance of their vehicle by measuring the distance it travels using non-standard units, and compare their data to that of their peers.
The second-grade activity uses common materials to address an engineering design challenge: make a “magnificent” transportation vehicle for an animal passenger that can travel a minimum distance of 1 foot past the end of a foam ramp when released at the top of the ramp. In addition, students will analyze the “cost” of building their animal transport vehicle and will collect and analyze distance data to determine which design features of the various vehicles built led to the longest travel distances.
Herlehy, Lindsey and Togliatti, Karen, "STEM Storytelling: Using Picture Books to Integrate Mathematics - "Dare to Tinker"" (2018). Publications & Research. 14.
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Early Childhood Education Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons
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Doc:NIST SP 800-53r3 Appendix F/CM-6
CM-6 CONFIGURATION SETTINGS
- Control: The organization:
- a. Establishes and documents mandatory configuration settings for information technology products employed within the information system using [Assignment: organization-defined security configuration checklists] that reflect the most restrictive mode consistent with operational requirements;
- b. Implements the configuration settings;
- c. Identifies, documents, and approves exceptions from the mandatory configuration settings for individual components within the information system based on explicit operational requirements; and
- d. Monitors and controls changes to the configuration settings in accordance with organizational policies and procedures.
- Supplemental Guidance: Configuration settings are the configurable security-related parameters of information technology products that are part of the information system. Security-related parameters are those parameters impacting the security state of the system including parameters related to meeting other security control requirements. Security-related parameters include, for example, registry settings; account, file, and directory settings (i.e., permissions); and settings for services, ports, protocols, and remote connections. Organizations establish organization-wide mandatory configuration settings from which the settings for a given information system are derived. A security configuration checklist (sometimes referred to as a lockdown guide, hardening guide, security guide, security technical implementation guide [STIG], or benchmark) is a series of instructions or procedures for configuring an information system component to meet operational requirements. Checklists can be developed by information technology developers and vendors, consortia, academia, industry, federal agencies (and other government organizations), and others in the public and private sectors. An example of a security configuration checklist is the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) which potentially affects the implementation of CM-6 and other controls such as AC-19 and CM-7. The Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) and defined standards within the protocol (e.g., Common Configuration Enumeration) provide an effective method to uniquely identify, track, and control configuration settings. OMB establishes federal policy on configuration requirements for federal information systems. Related controls: CM-2, CM-3, SI-4.
- Control Enhancements:
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WHATSAPP'S chief has blasted Apple over its plans to check iPhone users' photos for child sex abuse imagery.
In a series of tweets, Will Cathcart said that his messaging app would not be adopting the safety measures, calling Apple's approach "very concerning".
- Read all the latest Phones & Gadgets news
- Keep up-to-date on Apple stories
- Get the latest on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram
Apple last week unveiled plans to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse.
The move has drawn applause from child protection groups but raised concerns among security researchers and tech experts.
Those concerned claim the system could be misused – particularly by governments who may be looking to spy on their citizens.
Following the unveiling of the plans on August 6, Cathcart tweeted: "This is the wrong approach and a setback for people's privacy all over the world.
"People have asked if we'll adopt this system for WhatsApp. The answer is no."
The tool, called neuralMatch, is designed to detect known images of child sexual abuse and will scan such images before they are uploaded to iCloud.
If the system finds a match, the image will be reviewed by a human.
Once child sex abuse content has been confirmed, the user's account will be disabled and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified.
Separately, Apple plans to scan users' encrypted messages for sexually explicit content as a child safety measure, which also alarmed privacy advocates.
The detection system will, however, only flag images that are already in the center's database of known child sex abuse images.
Cathcart continued: "Child sexual abuse material [CSAM] and the abusers who traffic in it are repugnant, and everyone wants to see those abusers caught.
"Apple has long needed to do more to fight CSAM, but the approach they are taking introduces something very concerning into the world.
"Instead of focusing on making it easy for people to report content that's shared with them, Apple has built software that can scan all the private photos on your phone — even photos you haven't shared with anyone. That's not privacy.
"We’ve had personal computers for decades and there has never been a mandate to scan the private content of all desktops, laptops or phones globally for unlawful content. It’s not how technology built in free countries works."
Tech companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others have for years been sharing digital fingerprints of known child sexual abuse images.
Apple has used those to scan user files stored in its iCloud service – which is not as securely encrypted as its on-device data – for child sex abuse imagery.
The company has been under government pressure for years to allow for increased surveillance of encrypted data.
Coming up with the new security measures required Apple to perform a delicate balancing act between cracking down on the exploitation of children while keeping its high-profile commitment to protecting the privacy of its users.
Apple said the latest changes will roll out this year as part of updates to its operating software for iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches.
"Apple's expanded protection for children is a game changer," John Clark, the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said in a statement.
"With so many people using Apple products, these new safety measures have lifesaving potential for children."
Meanwhile the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the online civil liberties pioneer, called Apple's compromise on privacy protections a shocking about-face for users who have relied on the company's leadership in privacy and security.
More than 50,00 people have signed an online petition to stop the plans, including security and privacy experts, researchers, legal experts and more.
Matthew Green, a top cryptography researcher at Johns Hopkins University, warned that the system could be used to frame innocent people by sending them seemingly innocuous images designed to trigger matches for child pornography.
That could fool Apple's algorithm and alert law enforcement, Green said.
He added that researchers have been able to trick such systems pretty easily.
Other abuses could include government surveillance of dissidents or protesters.
"What happens when the Chinese government says, 'Here is a list of files that we want you to scan for,'" Green asked. "Does Apple say no? I hope they say no, but their technology wont say no."
Best Phone and Gadget tips and hacks
Looking for tips and hacks for your phone? Want to find those secret features within social media apps? We have you covered…
- How to get your deleted Instagram photos back
- How can I change my Facebook password?
- How can I do a duet on TikTok?
- Here's how to use your iPhone's Apple logo as a BUTTON
- How can I change my Amazon Alexa voice in seconds?
- What is dating app Bumble?
- How can I increase my Snapchat score?
- How can I test my broadband internet speed?
- Here's how to find your Sky TV remote in SECONDS
In other news, a Google Maps fan has spotted a "secret" military base tucked away in the middle of the Sahara desert.
Samsung has teased a glimpse of the design for its highly anticipated Galaxy Z Fold 3 smartphone.
And, the next iPhone will come in a new pink colour and start at just under £800, according to recent rumours.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]
Source: Read Full Article
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Fires are dangerous and can spread rapidly. Smoke- and fire-protection are therefore essential, particularly in public buildings in which many people frequent whether it be hospitals, schools of public offices. That is why it is vital to section off corridors and hallways into separate fire compartments by installing fire-resistant doors and fixed fire-proof glazing, They help to hold back fire, smoke and intensive heat as long as possible, so that important escape routes can be used.
We at Metallbau Medoch GmbH are specialized in preventative fire protection. We are certified according to DIN ISO 9001 and are a member of the quality-surveillance-association Fire-Resistant Doors, Lower-Saxony/Bremen/Saxony-Anhalt e.V. as well as a member of the European Welding Specialist, not to mention being TÜV certified since 2004. We produce fire-resistant doors and fire screens to the highest standards in our state-of-the-art workshop. Our products are delivered with compatible certificates.
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https://www.metallbau-medoch.de/smoke-fire-protection/
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A lovely baby boy blanket created using a combination of single crochet, chains and the bobble stitch. The addition of a ribbed border gives this blanket a lovely finish. The pattern uses two different coloured yarns: one for the bobble row and border and a different one for the rest of the blanket. You can use colours of your preference to adapt your blanket to your style.
The combinations are endless and the result always very pretty. You can use a variegated yarn for a stunning result (as in the blanket pictured in the pattern) or use different colours for the bobble row creating a rainbow or colour gradient effect. It is the perfect gift for a new baby! However, the pattern can be adapted to your preferred size so this would fit anyone, from babies to adults.
The blanket pictured in the photos measures 113cm (length) x 83cm (width), including the border. The amount of yarn specified below is for making this size blanket. Gauge is not particularly important for this pattern. If your tension is consistent throughout the blanket, this will provide you with a symmetrical shape for your blanket. If you are looking to crochet a blanket which is of similar size to the one pictured in this pattern the gauge for a 10 x 10 cm square should be 20 stitches by 18 rows.
What you will need:
- A size 4 crochet hook
- 5 skeins of King Cole Cherish DK – Colour Bubblegum (1119) – Colour A
- 3 skeins of King Cole Cherished DK – Colour White (1410) – Colour B
- 1 tapestry needle
About the pattern:
- The pattern repeat is 14 chains plus 2. Chain sets of 14 chains until you are happy with the width. This will be the width of your blanket. Once you have reached your desired width, chain a further 2 chains.
- To create the pattern, crochet 11 rows using a combination of single crochet / chain one. The 12th row is the bobble row. Then continue with another 11 rows of single crochet /chain one.
- To crochet the blanket pictured in this pattern, 140 chains plus 2 are needed. Use Colour A for your chains.
- Abbreviations (US terminology):
- Chain – CH
- Slip stitch – SL ST
- Single stitch – SC
- Bobble stitch – BO
- ROW 1: Still using Colour A, single crochet (SC) in the second chain from hook. Chain 1 (CH 1) and skip the next chain. SC in the next chain. Continue in this way along the entire chain. When you reach the last two chains, you should CH1 and SC in the last stitch. You should have 141 stitches. CH 1 and turn.
- ROWS 2-11: Repeat ROW 1. Essentially, you will be doing a SC on top of the SC of the previous row and CH 1/skip chain on top of the previous CH 1/skip chain. Fasten off colour A.
- ROW 12: Using colour B, BO in the first stitch and continue with SC 13. Repeat this 10 times. BO in the last stitch. In the same stitch do a slip stitch (SL ST). Fasten off colour B. Attach colour A, CH 1 and turn.
- ROWS 13 – 23: Repeat ROW 1. Fasten off colour A.
- ROW 24: Using colour B, SC 7, *BO, SC 13. Repeat from * until you have 8 stitches left. BO in the next stitch, SC in the remaining stitches. SL ST in the last stitch. Fasten off colour B. Attach colour A, CH 1 and turn.
- Repeat ROWS 1- 24 until you are happy with the length of your blanket.
- To finish off your blanket, repeat ROW 1 for 11 rows. This will make your blanket symmetrical. To create the length of the blanket pictured in this pattern, repeat ROWS 1-24 7 times. Then repeat ROW 12 and repeat ROW 1 for another 11 rows. Fasten off your yarn.
- Weave in your ends.
Here is a video tutorial for making the bobble stitch:
To create the border:
- Using Colour B, SC around the blanket. Add 3 SC to each corner. SL ST when you reach the start of your SC row. Repeat once more and fasten off your yarn.
- Still using Colour B, attach your yarn on one corner and CH8. SC in the second chain from hook. SC across the rest of the chains towards the blanket. You should have 7SC.
- To attach the border to the blanket, SL ST in the next two stitches. Turn your work and SC in the front loop of the next 6 stiches. Do a normal SC on the last stich. CH 1, SC 1 and SC in the front loop only in the next 6 stitches. Connect your border to the blanket by SL ST in the next two stitches.
- Continue in the same way across the side of the blanket. On your last 7 SC row, SL ST only once. Fasten off your yarn.
- Repeat the same on the opposite side of the blanket. Then tackle the two remaining sides in the same way by attaching the yarn at the edge of the border previously created.
- Weave in your ends.
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Stay Safe. Be Informed.
Holt Fire District provides a number of outreach services and programs for the community designed to educate and inform children and the public about fire prevention and safety.
From educational classes to safety checks, Holt Fire District considers it our duty to keep citizens of all ages aware and protected.
Provide superior fire protection to the Holt community through education, training, pride of ownership and community awareness
Educate the community in fire protection
Educate the volunteer firefighters to be able to provide the highest quality of service
Train the firefighters using the latest technology available so they may serve their community to their fullest
Have a fire department where all personnel have input into the direction of the department, thus giving everyone pride in the organization
Educate the community in current fire protection needs and the direction and growth of the department
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Jump to Main Content
Phytoplankton dynamics and species diversity in a shallow eutrophic, natural mid-altitude lake in Himachal Pradesh (India): role of physicochemical factors
- R. Jindal, R.K. Thakur, Uday Bhan Singh, A.S. Ahluwalia
- Chemistry in ecology 2014 v.30 no.4 pp. 328-338
- Ankistrodesmus falcatus, Arthrospira, Chlamydomonas, Chlorella vulgaris, Eudorina, Euglena, Microcystis aeruginosa, Navicula, Oscillatoria limosa, Oscillatoria princeps, Oxyuris, Scenedesmus, Spirulina, Synedra ulna, World Health Organization, alkalinity, biochemical oxygen demand, carbon dioxide, chlorophyll, drinking water, irrigation water, lakes, nitrates, perennials, phytoplankton, pollution control, species diversity, surveys, temperature, India
- Rewalsar Lake, a mid-altitude, shallow and recreational water body located in the north-western Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh (India) was studied through monthly surveys in two consecutive years (March 2008 to February 2010). Forty-seven species belonging to seven groups of phytoplankton were identified from the lake. Microcystis aeruginosa and Synedra ulna exhibited a perennial habit. Ankistrodesmus falcatus, Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus bijugatus, Chlamydomonas reinhardi, Eudorina elegans, Navicula cuspidate, Synedra ulna, Euglena acus, Euglena oxyuris, Spirulina gomontii, Oscillatoria princeps and Arthrospira khannae were abundant, and Oscillatoria limosa and Microcystis aeruginosa were highly abundant. Twenty-one important criteria were studied, for example, temperature, free carbon dioxide, biochemical oxygen demand, total alkalinity, nitrate, silicate and phosphate, which provide an idea of the portability of water for irrigation and drinking purposes as per the permissible limits given in World Health Organization, Indian Council of Medical Research and Indian Standards Institute standards. Pearson's correlation revealed a significant relationship between physicochemical parameters and different algal groups. Both plankton and chlorophyll a showed a bimodal pattern of fluctuation. High annual mean concentrations of chlorophyll a (mg L ⁻¹) were recorded as 11.44 in 2008–09, and 11.04 in 2009–10. As per the Palmer pollution index, 13 pollution-tolerant algal species with a pollution score of 37 were observed. The Central Pollution Control Board categorised the water at Rewalsar Lake as ‘D–E’.
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https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/1221769
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Are we really, as David Cameron claimed in his Christmas message, a country shaped by 'Christian values'? Yesterday’s Evening Standard poll – which found that shopping is three times more integral to Britons’ Christmas than going to church – makes you wonder what the phrase even means.
It doesn’t just mean do-goodery, though that is important. About 10 million Britons get help from a church-based group every year. If you see a queue of homeless people in a town centre at about 6 o’clock in the evening, you can bet there are a bunch of God-botherers handing out sandwiches at the other end of it. Where there is poverty, physical illness, mental illness, unemployment, the people who see it and respond are disproportionately likely to be Christians; realistically, the social fabric of the country would collapse without them.
But Christianity doesn’t only benefit people obviously in need of support. A 2014 report by the think-tank Theos noted that the churches’ contribution means something more than providing services which the state doesn’t. They also embody qualities which are hard to find anywhere else: perhaps above all, neighbourliness, a sense that we belong to each other. ‘In fractured communities’, the report observed, ‘within an increasingly individualist and lonely society, churches simply provide ways for people to come together.’ Churches preserve ways of thinking and living which everyone can draw from.
This point is well-made in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, which was on ITV the other night. Alan’s station, Radio North Norfolk Digital, is being taken over by Gordale, a nightmare parody of corporate values: they have the lame phrases (‘Be the Brand’), the philistinism, the inability to understand that there might be more to life than making a profit. But Alan himself succumbs to Gordale's values: he will sacrifice his friends in order to be a star. He is only dragged back when the film’s token Christian, a vain and judgmental character called Lynn, reminds him of Jesus’ saying about gaining the whole world and losing your soul. It’s the turning-point of the film.
Of course, nobody really thinks that profit is the most important thing. But Christianity, so deeply worked into our institutions and our language, preserves that sense better than the British Humanist Association or the Home Office can ever hope to. Neighbourliness and compassion may be universal values, but the churches do a lot to make them concrete: which helps to explain why people still want Christianity at weddings and funerals.
All of which is less important and interesting than whether the thing is true: whether Christmas commemorates the greatest eruption of truth, beauty and goodness into the world that has ever been seen, or whether it is a made-up story which no honest person over the age of seven could believe. Still, for those on either side – and the majority in the middle – there are plenty of reasons to show each other some peace and goodwill.
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I couldn’t believe my eyes. This afternoon, as I was relaxing in my back yard I glanced up and there they were. Look carefully and you will see them too; they’re so beautifully camouflaged that it’s hard to make them out. Can you see the purple bush in the background on the right side of the photo? A little to the left of that purple flower and a tiny bit upward you can see what I saw. Two tiny green finches sitting on the tomato plant stem.
Wow; a rare sighting. we said to each other. Where did they come from? Could they have escaped from a neighbor’s home cage? Have they migrated here from a foreign rain forest where they were never before seen by humans? Neither of us had ever heard of green finches. You can barely make out their shape. I had to get this picture or nobody would believe me.
So I tried to move nearer without scaring them away. I wanted to get a closer shot.
Is this any clearer? Can you see those little green birds on the tomato branch? They’re sitting on the right stem. This was intoxicating! So far I had gotten two photographs of them and they were not skittish; I had not frightened them away. I zoomed in so close that I saw that what looked like a purple bush were blooms from a hosta. And they weren’t purple; they were white. I’ll try a really close shot this time.
So I did. As I got closer I discovered that Mother Nature had played her little joke on me.
There were no green finches sitting on a tomato bush. All there was were two tomato leaves sticking straight up in the air, looking all the world like birds: instead of leaves.
How disappointing! Sorry for playing this joke on you, but I had to share
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By Paul Homewood
CBS have a report on rising sea levels at Tangier Island, in Chesapeake Bay here
The video is worth watching. The CBS reporter makes the usual attempts to blame it on “climate change”, but the locals know too much to fall for that old pony.
They know that sea levels have been rising, and land eroding, since 1850.
And they are right. Tide gauges in the area, such Sewell Point, Norfolk, confirm that sea levels have been steadily rising for a long time, long before recent rises in emissions of CO2.
The rate of rise is 4.6mm/yr, nearly three times the global rate. But there is a very good reason for this – the land is sinking.
Chesapeake Bay is the site of an ancient impact crater, caused by a comet or meteor. As a result the land has been subsiding ever since. Estimates by proper…
View original post 78 more words
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Land affordability continues to be a key challenge in Kenya given the current high cost of funding and unavailability of financing, amid rising property prices.
As a result, one-third of the public sector and urban wage earners live in rented and inadequate housing.
This scenario extends to commercial property ownership where SMEs operate from. According to land dealers at Zerohero Properties Limited, buying land remains the ideal decision for SMEs, listing numerous advantages.
“SMEs hold the potential of expanding as their business expands and this necessitates a holding land space that is cheaper to maintain, therefore, buying land earlier as a long-term strategy is a wise and good idea; The land is a valuable resource even in a business as it does offer self-financing through banks for boosting business capital,” notes Joseph Kinyua, the director Zerohero Properties Limited.
“Again land purchased earlier attracts less price and it appreciates with time. In case of economic/business recession, purchased land can be sold at an appreciated price to mitigate the recession business depression,” he explains.
In 2017 affordable housing was included as one of the national government’s pillars of growth in the President’s Big Four plan aimed at promoting long-term economic development. The plan focused on delivering 500 000 housing units for the lower- and middle-income population segments by 2022, to address the large housing deficit.
To this effect, several initiatives have been established such as the formation of the Kenya Mortgage Refinancing Company (KMRC) whose main the function is enhancing mortgage affordability by enabling long-term loans at attractive market rates through the provision of affordable long-term funding and capital market access to primary mortgage lenders such as banks and financial cooperatives.
Another initiative is the establishment of the National Housing Development Fund (NHDF) which was established under the Housing Act 2018 Section 6 (1), and is controlled by the National Housing Corporation (NHC) as provided for in the Housing Act, Cap 117.
According to Kinyua, “the government should consider the SME sector in the housing agenda through offering controlled grants towards investing in land, setting up interest-free loan to SMEs and startups that wish to buy land, capping interest rates for commercial bank towards financing land ownership, make land registries more accessible and affordable as well as putting up effective land boards to monitor land transfers to protect SMEs from falling to fraudulent deals and lose their savings.”
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Atlanta has been called the “best city in the nation to be an artist,” and today Mayor Kasim Reed announced his desire for a dedicated funding stream to boost that rep: a one-tenth of a penny increase to the city’s sales tax.
“Our small- and medium-sized groups, our young and emerging arts, need additional support,” he said during his “state of the city” speech, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. “We need to give back to the creative community that gives so much to our city.”
In the November election, Atlanta voters approved two other sales tax increases, related to transportation, to bring the city’s sales tax to 9 percent, the AJC reports. One of those taxes, effective for 40 years, could raise $2.5 billion for the region’s rapid transit system; the other, effective for five years, would raise an estimated $300 million for city projects.
The Georgia General Assembly would need to authorize a referendum for the arts tax, according to the Atlanta Business Journal, and the legislation will be modeled after a Denver arts tax, which brings in about $50 million annually. As Next City has previously covered, that tax (particularly a recently proposed funding re-allocation) has its share of critics. Nevertheless, it passed easily last year.
In 2014, reporter Nate Berg examined for Next City how cultural institutions in cities across the U.S. have faced financial crises since the recession, and the innovative ways some have managed to stay afloat. “For arts and cultural institutions today, survival hinges on entire ecosystems of individuals, organizations, governmental entities, taxing structures and special programs,” he wrote. “Even mayors are getting into the act, with more cities than ever before creating offices of arts and cultural affairs to support public art and local cultural programming.”
Reed’s plan comes at a time when artists and arts supporters are nervously awaiting details on President Donald Trump’s federal budget plans. Reacting to a report in January that his administration is considering the elimination of the National Endowment of the Arts, many are already mobilizing to protest such a cut.
Rachel Dovey is an award-winning freelance writer and former USC Annenberg fellow living at the northern tip of California’s Bay Area. She writes about infrastructure, water and climate change and has been published by Bust, Wired, Paste, SF Weekly, the East Bay Express and the North Bay Bohemian
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For last few years, people are increasingly looking forward to applying eco-friendly stuffs in their daily life style. Non-plastic and eco-friendly products are largely replacing those all having been affecting our environment. In addition to the efforts supporting healthy eco-system, several companies in China and across the globe have started introducing paper bag instead of plastic one. If we see, we have a lot to do with bags regardless of whether we are going to shop or carry stuffs for domestic uses. Besides, gifts are being offered or taken wrapped with attractive plastic bags. In the fast pacing world, we do not even manage to know the adverse impact of plastic bags.
Paper gift bags in China are earning much of popularity these days. People find them easily to purchase at cheaper price, as they don't involve huge production costing. Besides, attractive colors and designs are also making the bags distinct from others available in Chinese market.
The importance gift bags can not be measured at all, as they are being used for several occasions such as marriage, anniversary, birthday parties and many more. Especially in the kid's parties, attractive gift bags do play very vital role in creating pleasing ambiance for children. Bag printing companies in China are well aware of kids' imagination, as the printed gift bags amuse kids in many ways. On the other side, the companies have also mastered their skill to print customized gift bags in accordance with theme and concept of occasion. These days, people are fond of having bags imprinted with specific name or text. Especially when it is related to party, the guests look forward to printing the gift bag with host's name so as to infuse something special to the gift sharing.
It may sound difficult to turn eco-friendly when everything is, to some great extent, affecting our environment; but when we all take a small step collectively accepting paper bag, it will actually be a great contribution to the eco-system.
If you are looking forward to contributing to our planet with a firm commitment, you should include paper bags in your daily life affairs. For attractive bags, you should get in touch with expert and experienced printing companies in China. Make sure that the select company involves high-end technology for the assignment. Besides, it should be committed to complete the work within proposed time line.
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https://amp.sooperarticles.com/be-kind-to-environment-this-season-using-paper-gift-bags-in-china-1270543
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Have you ever seen Indian block printed fabric? I’m sure you’ve seen the muddy and dull bed spreads and tablecloths at Pier One or Cost Plus stores. These products are nothing NOTHING like the real thing. We went to Pipar to see the master block printers at work. The man in charge of the block printing in Pipar is a master block printer whose family has been in the business for 150 years.
Here he is with Kiran, who planned the trip.
You can see how brilliant and clean the colors and patterns are in these well-executed prints.
The pie plates above hold the natural dyes used in the process. The dyes come from plants, stones, and minerals.
In the next picture, you see a man making the first printing pass. He dunks his block in the dye and presses it onto the cloth.
When he’s finished with a section, he sprinkles the stamped cloth with sawdust. The sawdust prevents the design from smudging when it goes into the dye bath.
Two men lower cloth into an indigo dye bath. The master told us they never change out the dye; they top it off when it gets low!
“Hey! I thought indigo was blue!” Well, so it is when it dries, but in the dye bath, it’s green. The cloth begins to turn blue as soon as it is stretched out in the air. In the next photo, two women carry wet fabric to the drying yard.
The fabric will be completely blue by the time it is spread on the ground.
Counter clockwise from the right: Stamped, dyed, completed. The fabric goes through several stages of stamping and dying to get the various colors and shades.
Here’s Kalyani with some more beautiful prints.
Besides visiting all the textile producers, we had a chance to shop, eat, and have experiences any Indian person would have, including a ride in a Tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is the same as the autorickshaw I’ve described in previous entries. Up here, they’re tuk-tuks. Wherever they are, they are crammed to the bursting point with people.
Brigitte took this shot as she was RUNNING behind the moving tuk-tuk trying to jump in. She made it…whew! There were six of us in it. The driver said he could fit in THREE more! Wow.
If you ever get the chance, you must go to Rajasthan. You’ll get a big welcome from everyone.
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https://monareese.com/rajasthan-by-car-part-ii/
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This is something I've been meaning to bring up on the site for awhile, and the recent thread on ADD really got me thinking about it. I'd really rather this didn't turn into a flame war over whether or not ADD is real; for my purposes it doesn't matter. For what it's worth, I received several very thought provoking PM's on both sides of the issue after the comments I made on the above mentioned thread.
What I'm increasingly concerned about is whether or not I should be thinking about drugging my kids so they're not at any competitive disadvantage in their respective marketplace (at the moment, grammar school). My concern is that, no matter how naturally gifted your kid might be, he's gonna look like a utility shmoe batting next to a juicehead like Mark McGuire or Barry Bonds. Academically speaking, of course.
To complicate matters, there's a difference of opinion in my own home. For those who don't know, I have two boys aged 7 & 8. They were raised in a Russian orphanage until we adopted them at 3 & 4, respectively. So they had a lot to overcome right out of the gate, not the least of which is the fact that neither of them had ever heard a word of English before the first time I said hello.
Their development has been nothing short of remarkable. Studies have shown that children raised in Russian orphanages lose an average of 10 IQ points for every year they're there from age 3 on. Both my boys are able to speak, read, and write English at their grade level and they're lower-middle of the pack in the math (my older boy is actually beginning to grasp mathematics at an accelerated pace).
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Louisiana Public Square: Symbol or Statement - History in Public Spaces
Airs Sunday, August 2, at 6 p.m. The recent controversy in South Carolina over displaying the Confederate battle flag has sparked a dialog across the nation on the appropriateness and appropriate places for this icons of the Civil War Era. Is the display of Civil War statues and flags in public justified or do they belong only in museums? After the racially motivated violence in Charleston, South Carolina, state governments around the South are reevaluating the display of the Confederate battle flag on public grounds. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is calling for input on the removal of Civil War memorials. What should be the role of state and local government in regulating these symbols? Is the display of Civil War statues in public justified or do they belong only in museums?
How does free speech factor into the debate? Louisiana Public Square looks for answers on “Symbol or Statement? History in Public Spaces.”
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CC-MAIN-2022-33
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The fighting has set off a large-scale humanitarian crisis as civilians are bombarded daily and areas are cut off from receiving aid.
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president of the United States, was roundly mocked on Thursday when he appeared not to know what Aleppo was during an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Far from being an obscure aspect of a remote civil war, the crisis in Aleppo has had ripple effects across the globe as refugees fan out across Europe to flee the conflict. And as the US has been working with Russia in hopes of brokering a ceasefire in the city, Russian planes have been carrying out airstrikes in support of Assad.
The suffering in Aleppo is almost indescribable. Clarissa Ward, a CNN correspondent who has reported on wars for more than a decade, testified before the UN Security Council last month, saying that in all of her experience covering war she has "never seen anything on the scale of Aleppo."
"This is what hell feels like," she said.
Below, we've outlined some key information about the city's significance in Syria.
The siegeAleppo is the epicenter of fighting between President Assad and the rebels seeking to oust him.
Syrian government forces are concentrated in the western half of the city and rebels control the eastern half. Control of the surrounding province shifts, with the Syrian army controlling eastern areas and rebels controlling western areas.
Both rebel-held areas and government-held areas of Aleppo have been under siege in recent months.
The fight for Aleppo is part of the larger Syrian civil war, which began in 2011. Since then, Assad has used nearly every means to quash the rebellion.
Five years into the conflict, jihadists have also laid roots in the country. ISIS and affiliates of Al Qaeda have both been laying groundwork for the creation of an Islamic emirate in Syria. But the city of Aleppo itself is split between Assad's forces and other rebel groups.
Because of the fighting between Assad and the rebels, large areas of the city, which still have millions of civilians living in it, has been cut off from receiving crucial aid (including food, water, and medicine) that would help keep people alive. Last month, a top UN official called Aleppo the "apex of horror" in Syria.
Russia entered the conflict last year to help Assad's forces, and Iran has also aided the regime.
Aleppo has been in the news lately as the US attempts to work with Russia to broker a ceasefire that would allow aid to get through to besieged areas.
Of particular concern to the US is Russia's involvement in the Syrian conflict.
While Russian officials insisted when they got involved in the war that they were there to fight terrorist elements in Syria, they've largely been targeting other rebels who oppose Assad.
Aleppo is one example. The Syrian government spelled out a plan in July to gain more control over rebel-held areas with help from Russia. And Russia has contributed to the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo by helping to cut off outside access to rebel-held areas and targeting civilians with airstrikes.
Russia and the US are in some ways on opposite sides of the conflict. The US has made repeated calls for Assad to leave power but has declined to get involved directly in his ousting. The US has, however, targeted terrorist groups inside Syria.
ISIS and Al Qaeda also oppose Assad's rule and fight his forces, so the Syrian army has been fighting on multiple fronts. Still, since the moderate opposition, which is becoming increasingly radicalized the longer the war drags out, is the biggest threat to Assad's legitimacy as a ruler, his forces have focused most on them.
Strikes on civilians
What makes Assad's rule so brutal is his unabashed willingness to target innocent civilians. And his brutality has been on full display in Aleppo.
Assad and his allies, including Russia, have targeted markets, hospitals, and other areas where civilians gather. Snipers have targeted doctors and emergency workers near medical facilities.
Samer Attar, a surgeon who lives in Chicago and has worked recently in Aleppo, wrote a column for The New York Times last month describing the horrors he's seen in the city's hospitals.
Here's an excerpt:
"My weeks in Aleppo are intense. In Chicago, where I specialize in surgical oncology, I see one patient at a time. In Aleppo, I see 20 at once. You live your life one massacre to the next: of children at school, or of families sleeping at home or shopping at a market. We hear the jets screech by, the helicopters whirring in the sky, the mortars launching, then the bombs exploding. Followed by sirens and screaming.
"The screaming seems never to end, some days. So many people pushing through the entrance. There are never enough beds, so patients have to share gurneys or lie on the floor. Sometimes, there is no place to step, with patients lying on floors smeared with blood and strewn with body parts."
Suffering in Aleppo recently captured the attention of the world when a photo and video of 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh (pictured above) being pulled from the rubble of his home near Aleppo went viral. The boy's home had been hit by an airstrike carried out by either the Syrian government or Russian forces.
Another point where US foreign policy comes into play in Aleppo is chemical weapons.
Just this week, a rebel area of Aleppo was hit with a suspected chlorine gas attack. Aid workers have attributed the attack to Assad's forces.
The Obama administration has touted its negotiations to remove chemical weapons from Syria as a major diplomatic achievement, but a recent UN report found that Assad's forces used chemical weapons against civilians in 2014 and 2015 in violation of the deal. Russia participated in the negotiations and helped broker the deal.
Dozens of civilians are suspected to have died in the latest chemical-weapons attack.
The constant bombardment that Aleppo has faced over several years has resulted in widespread destruction. It's unclear how what was once Syria's most populated city will be rebuilt once the war ends.
These photos give a sense of the scale of destruction:
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Jack London’s short stories in the Post concerned adventurers, criminals, working men, society folks, and — sometimes — wild animals. In “The Hobo and the Fairy,” from 1911, London tells the heartwarming tale of a homeless man and a bright-eyed, middle class child as they form an unlikely bond on a warm October’s day.
Published on February 2, 1911
He lay on his back. So heavy was his sleep that the stamp of hoofs and cries of the drivers from the bridge that crossed the creek did not rouse him. Wagon after wagon, loaded high with grapes, passed the bridge on the way up the valley to the winery, and the coming of each wagon was like an explosion of sound and commotion in the lazy quiet of the afternoon.
But the man was undisturbed. His head had slipped from the folded newspaper and the straggling, unkempt hair was matted with the foxtails and burs of the dry grass on which it lay. He was not a pretty sight. His mouth was open, disclosing a gap in the upper row where several teeth at some time had been knocked out. He breathed stertorously, at times grunting and moaning with the pain of his sleep. Also, he was very restless, tossing his arms about, making jerky, half-convulsive movements and at times rolling his head from side to side in the bum. This restlessness seemed occasioned partly by some internal discomfort and partly by the sun that streamed down on his face, and by the flies that buzzed and lighted and crawled upon the nose and cheeks and eyelids. There was no other place for them to crawl, for the rest of the face was covered with matted beard, slightly grizzled, but greatly dirt-stained and weather-discolored.
The cheekbones were blotched with the blood congested by the debauch that was evidently being slept off. This, too, accounted for the persistence with which the flies clustered around the mouth, lured by the alcohol-laden exhalations. He was a powerfully built man, thick-necked, broad-shouldered, with sinewy wrists and toil-distorted hands. Yet the distortion was not due to recent toil, nor were the calluses other than ancient that showed under the dirt of the one palm upturned. From time to time this hand clenched tightly and spasmodically into a fist, large, heavy-boned and wicked-looking.
The man lay in the dry grass of a tiny glade that ran down to the tree-fringed bank of the stream. On each side of the glade was a fence of the old stake-and-rider type, though little of it was to be seen, so thickly was it overgrown by wild blackberry bushes, scrubby oaks and young madrofia trees. In the rear a gate through a low paling fence led to a snug, squat bungalow, built in the California Spanish style and seeming to have been compounded directly from the landscape of which it was so justly a part. Neat and trim and modestly sweet was the bungalow, redolent of comfort and repose, telling with quiet certitude of someone that knew and that had sought and found.
Through the gate and into the glade came as dainty a little maiden as ever stepped out of an illustration made especially to show how dainty little maidens may be. Eight years she might have been, and possibly a trifle more, or less. Her little mist and little black-stockinged calves showed how delicately fragile she was; but the fragility was of mould only. There was no hint of anemia in the clear, healthy complexion or in the quick, tripping step. She was a little, delicious blonde, with hair spun of gossamer gold and wide blue eyes that were but slightly veiled by the long lashes. Her expression was of sweetness and happiness; it belonged by right to any face that was sheltered in the bungalow.
She carried a parasol, which she was careful not to tear against the scrubby branches and bramble-bushes as she sought for wild poppies along the edge of the fence. They were late poppies, a third generation, which had been unable to resist the call of the warm October sun.
Having gathered along one fence she turned to cross to the opposite fence. Midway in the glade she came upon the tramp. Her startle was merely a startle. There was no fear in it. She stood and looked long and curiously at the forbidding spectacle and was about to turn back when the sleeper moved restlessly and rolled his head among the burs. She noted the sun on his face and the buzzing flies; her face grew solicitous and for a moment she debated with herself. Then she tiptoed to his side, interposed the parasol between him and the sun and brushed away the flies. After a time, for greater ease, she sat down beside him.
An hour passed, during which she occasionally shifted the parasol from one tired hand to the other. At first the sleeper had been restless; but, shielded from the flies and sun, his breathing became gentler and his movements ceased. Several times, however, he really frightened her. The first was the worst, coming abruptly and without warning. “How deep! How deep!” the man murmured from some profound of dream. The parasol was agitated, but the little girl controlled herself and continued her self-appointed ministrations.
Another time it was a gritting of teeth, as of some intolerable agony. So terribly did the teeth crunch and grind together that it seemed they must crash into fragments. A little later he suddenly stiffened out. The hands clenched and the face set with the savage resolution of the dream. The eyelids trembled from the shock of the fantasy, seemed about to open, but did not. Instead, the lips muttered:
“No! No! And once more, no! I won’t peach.” The lips paused, then went on. “You might as well tie me up, warden, and cut me to pieces. That’s all you can get outa me — blood. That’s all any of you-uns has ever got outa me in this hole.”
After this outburst the man slept gently on while the little girl still held the parasol aloft and looked down with a great wonder at the frowsy, unkempt creature, trying to reconcile it with the little part of life that she knew. To her ears came the cries of men, the stamp of hoofs on the bridge and the creak and groan of wagons heavy-laden. It was a breathless, California Indian-summer day. Light fleeces of cloud drifted in the azure sky, but to the west heavy cloudbanks threatened with rain. A bee droned lazily by. From farther thickets came the calls of quail and from the fields the songs of meadowlarks; and oblivious to it all slept Ross Shanklin — Ross Shanklin, the tramp and outcast, ex-convict 4379, the bitter and unbreakable one who had defied all keepers and survived all brutalities.
Texan-born, of the old pioneer stock that was always tough and stubborn, he had been unfortunate. At seventeen years of age he had been apprehended for horse-stealing. Also, he had been convicted of stealing seven horses that he had not stolen, and he had been sentenced to fourteen years’ imprisonment. This was severe under any circumstance, but with him it had been especially severe because there had been no prior convictions against him. The sentiment of the people who believed him guilty had been that two years was adequate punishment for the youth, but the county attorney, paid according to the convictions he secured, had made seven charges against him and earned seven fees, which goes to show that the county attorney valued twelve years of Ross Shanklin’s life at less than a few dollars.
Young Ross Shanklin had toiled in hell; he had escaped more than once and he had been caught and sent back to toil in other and various hells. He had been triced up and lashed till he fainted, had been revived and lashed again. He had been in the dungeon ninety days at a time. He had experienced the torment of the straitjacket. He knew what the hummingbird was. He had been farmed out as a chattel by the state to the contractors. He had been trailed through swamps by bloodhounds. Twice he had been shot. For six years on end he had cut a cord and a half of wood each day in a convict lumber camp. Sick or well, he had cut that cord and a half or paid for it under a whip-lash, knotted and pickled.
And Ross Shanklin had not sweetened under the treatment. He had sneered and cursed and defied. He had seen convicts, after the guards had manhandled them, crippled in body for life or left to maunder in mind to the end of their days. He had seen convicts, even his own cellmate, goaded to murder by their keepers, go to the gallows cursing God. He had been in a break in which eleven of his kind were shot down. He had been through a mutiny where, in the prison yard, with gatling guns trained upon them, three hundred convicts had been disciplined with pick-handles wielded by brawny guards.
He had known every infamy of human cruelty and through it all he had never been broken. He had resented and fought to the last; until, embittered and bestial, the day came when he was discharged. Five dollars were given him in payment for the years of his labor and the flower of his manhood. And he had worked little in the years that followed. Work he despised. He tramped, begged and stole, lied or threatened, as the case might warrant; and drank to besottedness whenever he got the chance.
The little girl was looking at him when he awoke. Like a wild animal, all of him was awake the instant he opened his eyes. The first he saw was the parasol, strangely obtruded between him and the sky. He did not start or move, though his whole body seemed slightly to tense. His eyes followed down the parasol handle to the tight-clutched little fingers and along the arm to the child’s face. Straight and unblinking, he looked into her eyes; and she, returning the look, was chilled and frightened by his glittering eyes, cold and harsh, withal bloodshot, and with no hint in them of the warm humanness she had been accustomed to see and feel in human eyes. They were the true prison eyes — the eyes of a man who had learned to talk little; who had forgotten almost how to talk.
“Hello!” he said finally, making no effort to change his position. “What game are you up to?” His voice was gruff, and at first it had been harsh; but it had softened queerly in a feeble attempt at forgotten kindliness.
“How do you do?” she said. “I’m not playing. The sun was on your face and mamma says one oughtn’t to sleep in the sun.”
The sweet clearness of her child’s voice was pleasant to him and he wondered why he had never noticed it in children’s voices before. He sat up slowly and stared at her. He felt that he ought to say something, but speech with him was a reluctant thing.
“I hope you slept well,” she said gravely.
“I sure did,” he answered, never taking his eyes from her, amazed at the fairness and delicacy of her. “How long was you holdin’ that contraption up over me?”
“O-oh!” she debated with herself; “a long, long time. I thought you never would wake up.”
“And I thought you was a fairy when I first seen you.”
He felt elated at his contribution to the conversation.
“No, not a fairy,” she smiled.
He thrilled in a strange numb way at the whiteness of her small, even teeth. “I was just the good Samaritan,” she added.
“I reckon I never heard of that party.” He was cudgeling his brains to keep the conversation going. Never having been at close quarters with a child since he was man-grown, he found it difficult.
“What a funny man not to know about the good Samaritan! Don’t you remember? A certain man went down to Jericho — ”
“I reckon I’ve b’en there,” he interrupted.
“I knew you were a traveler!” she cried, clapping her hands. “Maybe you saw the exact spot.”
“Why, where he fell among thieves and was left half dead. And then the good Samaritan went to him and bound up his wounds, and poured in oil and wine — was that olive oil, do you think?”
He shook his head slowly.
“I reckon you got me there. Olive oil is something the dagos cooks with. I never heard it was good for busted heads.”
She considered his statement for a moment. “Well,” she announced, “we use olive oil in our cooking; so we must be dagos. I never knew what they were before. I thought it was slang.”
“And the Samaritan dumped oil on his head,” the tramp muttered reminiscently. “Seems to me I recollect a sky pilot sayin’ something about that old gent. D’ye know, I’ve been looking for him off ’n’ on all my life and never, scared up hide or hair of him. They ain’t no more Samaritans.”
“Wasn’t I one?” she asked quickly.
He looked at her steadily, with a great curiosity and wonder. Her ear, by a movement exposed to the sun, was transparent. It seemed he could almost see through it. He was amazed at the delicacy of her coloring, at the blue of her eyes, at the dazzle of the sun-touched golden hair; and he was astounded by her fragility. It came to him that she was easily broken. His eye went quickly from his huge, gnarled paw to her tiny hand, in which it seemed to him he could almost see the blood circulate. He knew the power in his muscles and he knew the tricks and turns by which men use their bodies to ill-treat men; in fact, he knew little else and his mind for the time ran in its customary channel. It was his way of measuring the beautiful strangeness of her. He calculated a grip — and not a strong one — that could grind her little fingers to pulp. He thought of fist-blows he had given to men’s heads and received on his own head, and felt that the least of them could shatter hers like an eggshell. He scanned her little shoulders and slim waist, and knew in all certitude that with his two hands he could rend her to pieces.
“Wasn’t I one?” she insisted again.
He came back to himself with a shock — or away from himself as the case happened. He was loath that the conversation should cease.
“What?” he answered. “Oh, yes; you bet you was a Samaritan, if you didn’t have no olive oil.” He remembered what his mind had been dwelling on and asked: “But ain’t you afraid?”
She looked at him as if she did not understand.
“Of — of me?” he added lamely.
She laughed merrily.
“Mamma says never to be afraid of anything. She says that if you’re good — and you think good of other people — they’ll be good too.”
“And you was thinkin’ good of me when you kept the sun off,” he marveled.
“But it’s hard to think good of bees and nasty crawly things,” she confessed.
“But there’s men that is nasty and crawly things,” he argued.
“Mamma says no. She says there’s some good in everyone.”
“I bet you she locks the house up tight at night, just the same,” he proclaimed triumphantly.
“But she doesn’t. Mamma isn’t afraid of anything. That’s why she lets me play out here alone when I want. Why, we had a robber once. Mamma got right up and found him. And what do you think! He was only a poor hungry man. And she got him plenty to eat from the pantry; and afterward she got him work to do.”
Ross Shanklin was stunned. The vista shown him of human nature was unthinkable. It had been his lot to live in a world of suspicion and hatred, of evil-believing and evil-doing. It had been his experience, slouching along village streets at nightfall, to see little children, screaming with fear, run from him to their mothers. He had even seen grown women shrink aside from him as he passed along the sidewalk.
He was aroused by the girl clapping her hands as she cried out: “I know what you are! You’re an open-air crank. That’s why you were sleeping here in the grass.”
He felt a grim desire to laugh, but repressed it.
“And that’s what tramps are — open-air cranks,” she continued. “I often wondered. Mamma believes in the open air. I sleep on the porch at night. So does she. This is our land. You must have climbed the fence. Mamma lets me when I put on my climbers — they’re bloomers, you know. But you ought to be told something. A person doesn’t know when they snore because they’re asleep. But you do worse than that. You grit your teeth. That’s bad. Whenever you are going to sleep you must think to yourself, ‘I won’t grit my teeth; I won’t grit my teeth,’ over and over, just like that; and by-and-by you’ll get out of the habit.
“All bad things are habits. And so are all good things. And it depends on us what kind our habits are going to be. I used to pucker my eyebrows — wrinkle them all up; but mamma said I must overcome that habit. She said that when my eyebrows were wrinkled it was an advertisement that my brain was wrinkled inside and that it wasn’t good to have wrinkles in the brain. Then she smoothed my eyebrows with her hand and said I must always think smooth — smooth inside and smooth outside. And, do you know, it was easy. I haven’t wrinkled my brows for ever so long. I’ve heard about filling teeth by thinking, but I don’t believe that. Neither does mamma.”
She paused, rather out of breath. Nor did he speak, Her flow of talk had been too much for him. Also, sleeping drunkenly, with open mouth, had made him very thirsty; but, rather than lose one precious moment, he endured the torment of his scorching throat. He licked his dry lips and struggled for speech.
“What is your name?” he managed at last.
She looked her own question at him and it was not necessary to voice it.
“Mine is Ross Shanklin,” he volunteered, for the first time in forgotten years giving his real name.
“I suppose you’ve traveled a lot.”
“I sure have, but not as much as I might have wanted to.”
“Papa always wanted to travel, but he was too busy at the office. He never could get much time. He went to Europe once with mamma. That was before I was born. It takes money to travel.”
Ross Shanklin did not know whether to agree with this statement or not.
“But it doesn’t cost tramps much for expenses.” She took the thought away from him. “Is that why you tramp?”
He nodded and licked his lips. “Mamma says it’s too bad that men must tramp to look for work; but there’s lots of work now in the country. All the farmers in the valley are trying to get men. Have you been working?”
He shook his head, angry with himself that he should feel shame at the confession when his savage reasoning told him he was right in despising work. But this was followed by another thought. This beautiful little creature was some man’s child. She was one of the rewards of work.
“I wish I had a little girl like you,” he blurted out, stirred by a sudden consciousness of his newborn passion for paternity. “I’d work my hands off. I — I’d do anything.”
She considered his case with fitting gravity. “Then you aren’t married?”
“Nobody would have me.”
“Yes, they would — if — ”
She did not turn up her nose, but she favored his dirt and rags with a look of disapprobation he could not mistake.
“Go on!” he half shouted. “Shoot it into me! If I was washed — if I wore good clothes — if I was respectable — if I had a job and worked regular — if I wasn’t what I am.”
To each statement she nodded.
“Well, I ain’t that kind,” he rushed on. “I’m no good. I’m a tramp. I don’t want to work — that’s what. And I like dirt.”
Her face was eloquent with reproach as she said: “Then you were only making believe when you wished you had a little girl. like me?”
This left him speechless, for he knew, in all the deeps of his newfound passion, that was just what he did want.
With ready tact, noting his discomfort, she sought to change the subject.
“What do you think of God?” she asked.
“I ain’t never met Him. What do you think about Him?”
His reply was evidently angry and she was frank in her disapproval.
“You are very strange,” she said. “You get angry so easily. I never saw anybody before that got angry about God, or work, or being clean.”
“He never done anything for me,” he muttered resentfully. He cast back in quick review of the long years of toil in the convict camps and mines. “And work never done anything for me neither.”
An embarrassing silence fell.
He looked at her, numb and hungry with the stir of the father-love, sorry for his ill temper, puzzling his brain for something to say. She was looking off and away at the clouds and he devoured her with his eyes. He reached out stealthily and rested one grimy hand on the very edge of her little dress.
It seemed to him that she was the most wonderful thing in the world. The quail still called from the coverts and the harvest sounds seemed abruptly to become very loud. A great loneliness oppressed him.
“I’m — I’m no good!” he murmured huskily and repentantly.
But, beyond a glance from her blue eyes, she took no notice. The silence was more embarrassing than ever. He felt that he could give the world just to touch with his lips that hem of her dress where his hand rested, but he was afraid of frightening her. He fought to find something to say, licking his parched lips and vainly attempting to articulate something — anything.
“This ain’t Sonoma Valley,” he declared finally. “This is fairyland and you’re a fairy. Mebbe I’m asleep and dreaming! I don’t know. You and me don’t know how to talk together, because, you see, you’re a fairy and don’t know nothing but good things — and I’m a man from the bad, wicked world.”
Having achieved this much, he was left gasping for ideas like a stranded fish.
“And you’re going to tell me about the bad, wicked world,” she cried, clapping her hands. “I’m just dying to know.”
He looked at her, startled, remembering the wreckage of womanhood he had encountered on the sunken ways of life. She was no fairy. She was flesh and blood, and the possibilities of wreckage were in her as they had been in him, even when he lay at his mother’s breast. And there was in her eagerness to know.
He said lightly; “This man from the bad, wicked world ain’t going to tell you nothing of the kind. He’s going to tell you of the good things in that world. He’s going to tell you how he loved hosses when he was a shaver, and about the first boss he straddled, and the first hoss he owned. Hosses ain’t like men. They’re better. They’re clean — clean all the way through and backsgain. And, little fairy, I want to tell you one thing — there sure ain’t nothing in the world like when you’re settin’ a tired hose at the end of a long day, and when you just speak and that tired animal lifts under you willing and hustles along. Hosses! They’re my long suit. I sure dote on hosses! Yep. I used to be a cowboy once.”
She clapped her hands in the way that tore so delightfully to his heart and her eyes were dancing as she exclaimed:
“A Texas cowboy! I always wanted to see one! I heard papa say once that cowboys are bow-legged. Are you?”
“I sure was a Texas cowboy,” he answered; “but it was a long time ago. And I’m sure bow-legged. You see, you can’t ride much when you’re young and soft without getting the legs bent some. Why, I was only a three-year-old when I begun. He was a three-year-old too, fresh-broken. I led him up alongside the fence, dumb to the top rail and dropped on. He was a pinto and a real devil at bucking, but I could do anything with him. I reckon he knowed I was only a little shaver. Some hosses knows lots more’n you think.”
For half an hour Ross Shanklin rambled on with his horse reminiscences. Then came a woman’s voice.
“Joan! Joan!” it called. “Where are you, dear?”
The little girl answered; and Ross Shanklin saw a woman, clad in a soft, clinging gown, come through the gate from the bungalow.
“What have you been doing all afternoon?” the woman asked as she came up. “Talking, mamma,” the little girl replied. “I’ve had a very interesting time.” Ross Shanklin scrambled to his feet and stood watchfully and awkwardly. The little girl took the mother’s hand; and she, in turn, looked at him frankly and pleasantly, with a recognition of his humanness that was a new thing to him.
In his mind ran the thought: “The woman who ain’t afraid!” Not a hint was there of the timidity he was accustomed to see in women’s eyes; and he was quite aware of his bleary-eyed, forbidding appearance.
“How do you do?” She greeted him sweetly and naturally.
“How do you do, ma’am?” he responded, unpleasantly conscious of the huskiness and rawness of his voice.
“And did you have an interesting time too?” she smiled.
“Yes, ma’am. I sure did. I was just telling your little girl about hosses.”
“He was a cowboy once, mamma!“ she cried.
The mother smiled her acknowledgment to him and looked fondly down at the little girl.
“You’ll have to come along, dear,” the mother said. “It’s growing late.” She looked at Ross Shanklin hesitantly. “Would you care to have something to eat?”
“No, ma’am; thanking you kindly just the same. I — I ain’t hungry,”
“Then say goodby, Joan,” she said.
“Goodby.” The little girl held out her hand and her eyes lighted roguishly. “Goodby, Mr. Man from the bad, wicked world.”
To him, the touch of her hand as he pressed it in his was the capstone of the whole adventure.
“Goodby, little fairy,” he mumbled. “I reckon I got to be pain’ along.”
But he did not pull along. He stood staring after his vision until it vanished through the gate. The day seemed suddenly empty. He looked about him irresolutely, then climbed the fence, crossed the bridge and slouched along the road.
A mile farther on he aroused at the crossroads. Before him stood a saloon. He came to a stop and stared at it, licking his lips. He sank his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a solitary dime. “God!” he muttered. “God!” Then, with dragging, reluctant feet, he went on along the road.
He came to a big farm. He knew it must be big because of the bigness of the house and the size and number of the barns and outbuildings. On the porch, in shirtsleeves, smoking a cigar, keen-eyed and middle-aged, was the farmer.
“What’s the chance for a job?” Ross Shanklin asked.
The keen eyes scarcely glanced at him.
“A dollar a day and grub,” was the answer.
Ross Shanklin swallowed and braced himself.
“I’ll pick grapes all right, or anything. But what’s the chance for a steady job? You’ve got a big ranch here. I know hosses. I was born on one. I can drive team, ride, plow, break, do anything that anybody ever done with hosses.”
“You don’t look it,” was the judgment.
“I know I don’t. Give me a chance — that’s all. I’ll prove it.”
The farmer considered, casting an anxious glance at the cloudbank into which the sun had sunk.
“I’m short a teamster and I’ll give you the chance to make good. Go and get supper with the hands.”
Ross Shanklin’s voice was very husky and he spoke with an effort:
“All right. I’ll make good. Where can I get a drink of water and wash up?”
Featured image illustrated by C.D. Williams
Will Levington Comfort became a war correspondent after serving in the Spanish-American War, paving the way to a career as an adventure writer. Willimina Leonora Armstrong, under the pen name Zamin Ki Dost, wrote poems and stories about India after spending time there as a medical missionary at the end of the 19th century. The paralyzed Armstrong penned her stories with the help of Comfort. Their short story “Bear Knob” depicts two rangers in an Indian forest investigating a supposedly dangerous family of bears.
Published on January 10, 1920
Carver, the young Englishman of the forest reserve, whose experience with the deadly karait has been told, was returned by his department to the mountain station above Carlin’s bungalow near Murree. He was given a native deputy, who occupied Beattie’s little cabin across the summit. Carver was rather slow rounding-to after the tragedy and had been permitted for several weeks to remain below for weekends at the Deal bungalow. Skag’s work among the wild animals had become intensely interesting to him. It had been the wedge of their acquaintance on the top rock that first day when they discussed the little venomed one together. The Englishman had never particularly developed his latent knowledge of animal lore, but unquestionably had a way with the little creatures which fascinated the American more than any hunter’s prowess. Skag walked up the path one early morning and joined Carver at the karait’s rock before it was warmed in the sun.
“The little beggars took themselves off after Beattie and their mother had it out together,” Carver explained.
He spoke lightly enough, but the death of his senior officer had dug into the very center of his vitality, so that it was almost a miracle that he fully regained his faculties again. Even now he had a way of looking off into the distance when left alone too long that had warned Carlin of his need for companionship. So Skag stood by closely but unobtrusively, joining him up at the station at least one day in the midweek.
“And you haven’t seen the baby karaits since the mother left them?” he was saying.
“Not a wiggle.”
“And what about the rest of the outfit?”
“You mean her mate?” Carver asked.
“Never was here,” Carver remarked. “Away on foreign business. Off and on for eighteen months I saw her. Twice she hatched a handful of little blue eggs, and presently you’d see the young fiends following her round. She would open her throat for them to leap into if I went too near. But I never saw their father:”
For a long time, the two men looked away across the valley to the slopes of the great mountain that commanded the eye from almost any position in Murree and vicinity. The midslopes were mainly a tight weave of green, broken by occasional great forest trees. The crags began farther toward the summit.
“If you watch long enough you will see bear — black bear — in that big brown patch where the grade is easy.”
He pointed across the valley to a spot on the great mountain slightly below their present eminence. The easy grade that he spoke of was like a big knob on the mountain side.
Its upper surface looked as if it had been burned or trampled recently.
Skag settled himself comfortably, as if to say his fault was rarely in not looking long enough for an object, but Carver observed that it was his experience that the bears only appeared afternoons.
“How far is it over there to the knob?” the American asked.
“Nine or ten miles airline.”
“And the paths?”
“We keep them open after a fashion. I’m supposed to ride over there once a fortnight.”
“A full day’s ride?” Skag questioned.
“Yes, and another to get back,” Carver replied.
“You say a horse can handle himself up and beyond the bear knob?”
The other nodded.
“I’m expecting a horse in a few days. Ian Deal has an Arab he wants me to use. We’re staying in Murree three months longer. I never really got acquainted with bears — even in captivity.”
Carver relished the possibility of an excursion and set himself to prevent Skag’s interest suffering from neglect.
“That knob has been the summer place for one family of bears for a generation, according to the natives. They say that the old sire is losing his morals — that the mother can’t live with him in cub time. For three or four seasons, the natives say, there have been two young in the family — then presently one is missing. The old girl has managed to raise only one for three seasons.”
“Does the male destroy the other one?”
“Evidence circumstantial.” Carver said whimsically. “I’m telling you how it looks to the natives and from this distance across the valley. I’m their nearest white neighbor, you understand.”
“The mother must have her work pretty well cut out to save one cub, if the old one is really ugly.”
“A native young man studying for the Christian ministry informed me seriously that the father bear was an unnatural parent. We really need to look into the matter.”
They watched the distant knob for a long time as they talked without a movement being noted there. Skag started down the path toward Murree, saying: “A real investigation calls for a close-up anyway. But tell me, could one use a dog on a trip like this?”
“An objectionable dog,” Carver answered. “Certainly not Nels.”
“No dog would stand a show with a full-grown black bear of the Hills. I’d hate to see a man-dog like Nels hugged to death by a cub-killer.”
Among the various things to ride on the face of the earth, Skag had tried many. He had done real camel service — days of travel from dawn to dusk, days that forgot themselves in more days. You don’t know what a camel is from a ride or two. Everything in a man, even the structure of his being, hates and cries out against the camel-thing in a period between the first few sittings, while the novelty lasts, and the real adjustment which requires weeks of caravan life. A man has to be born again, at least to be made over on the outside, to strike the rhythm for a long caravan stretch. The camel smell dies out from sheer familiarity; camel sounds cease to be heard because they have worn the delicacy off the eardrum through repetition. A sort of soft insanity takes the body and mind of a white man before he is camel-broke. Nothing in reason could ever give to the lurch or parry the pitch of the camel stride.
And Skag had been present on a racing elephant. It is hard to urge the usual captive hathi up into his real speed, but in certain cases it can be done. Gunpath Rao had actually run with Skag in his howdah. It had taken the marvelous young prince of the Hurdah stockades nearly twenty-four hours to get his gears to high speed, but in that final rousing the result was so fast that anything but an elephant or a locomotive would have left the ground for more than safety intervals. The tendency is markedly to rise in velocity like that.
Days with the circus had not permitted Skag to miss many experiences in the way of sitting creatures even partially designed to carry men and boys — mules, llamas, zebras, even a boy-loving old bull moose. And yet one of the real external joys of his life was to step into the saddle of the black Arab Ian Deal had sent.
In that first half hour in the mountains he knew what riding really meant. The Arab squared his shoulders when warmed to full trot on a straight stretch of road, arched his neck and folded up and under his front hoofs with a rhythm and power that filled the man with exultation and broke a seal somewhere in his chest, letting in more life.
Three or four miles away on the rolling roads he had a clearer sense than ever before what life meant — the joy of it — of what life might be made, and the great pulsing zest of physical well-being. The heat and magnetism surged up to him from under the saddle and from the mane and shoulders. It was like the dance. He knew that the mount loved it as he did and was changing great drafts of cool mountain air into bridled action but unbridled joy.
“I have ridden always,” he told Carlin as he came out from the bath a little later — “ridden many mounts not half so bad, but I never quite knew what a horse could be until today. Why, Carlin, I couldn’t let the groom take care of him when we came in. I had to rub him down myself, and this Arab prince seemed aware that it was a privilege.”
She sat down, not laughing aloud, but smiling as if trying to hold him in his present joy and not break in upon further words.
He was riding with Carver along the narrow, tangled, winding paths on the way up toward bear knob. They carried blanket rolls, saddlebags well stocked and grain for a sparse three days’ feeding. The grade was easier than it appeared from the lesser summit across the valley. There were aisles between the great deodars where the shade was so dense that there was little or no small growth below. They would halt from the sheer joy of the silence and say nothing to each other, after the manner of men; halt in that cathedral dimness until the spell was broken by a bird song, every vibration of every note clear as an etching. In one of these colonnades of majestic trees Carver stopped at length.
“There’s no better place for a camp than this,” he said. “The bear knob is directly above. We can’t leave the horses any nearer their premises.”
“You spoke of a spring,” Skag said.
“Just a little ahead in a tangle of vines. We’re near enough with the horses. You see, the bears come down to drink.”
They picketed, then did some steep bits of climbing among the crags to reach the knob. That which had looked like a tiny kitchen garden from across the valley was now before their eyes, a sunburned, semi-open stretch of several acres. Rock was very close to the surface, many boulders jutting through. Trees were sparse and low because of the shallow soil. Thickets and berry bushes skirted the edges of the open area, and among the great rock piles in the center were many possibilities for natural dens.
After three hours in a screened thicket that commanded the main surface of the knob, Carver slowly reached for his right ankle and drew it out from under him, using both hands. He placed the long leg straight on the ground in front and went after the other. With pained face he waited for the blood to flow into the sleeping members. Then he drew out his watch and held it to Skag, pointing with impressive finger at the hours that had passed.
Skag smiled. The sunlight was in and through him. His eyelids were lowered a trifle sleepily, but that hardly expressed the look of them. The eyes themselves were different — their look somehow out of physical focus, the pupil dilated slightly, as if centered upon a film or shadow too faint for the optic nerve quite to delineate. Carver had changed his position twenty times; Skag not more than once an hour. Moreover, he had not been conscious of strain, and Carver was exhausted.
“You can have ’em,” he whispered monotonously. “Why, I’d rather have a stroll down on the mountainside than a whole pageant of bears! I’d rather have a cigarette than a three-ringed circus of assorted bears. Also I need tea — strong, red, unboiled tea, made of soft spring water — more than any essential knowledge or revelation about High Hill bears.”
Skag held his smile. The other slid himself back out of sight.
Creatures of the wild move in mysterious ways. It was past midafternoon and fully an hour after Carver left before the den of rocks gave forth any life. There was a moment when a certain shadowed entrance was empty, and the next it was filled. There was a field of sun glare between Skag’s eyes and the blotch of shadow which had become darker and was now taking form.
The old dame was standing there. Skag’s mind must have rejected the image at first because of the long waiting. But certainly she was standing there now in thin faded coat and full late-summer fatness. Then she sat. It was easy for her. She quietly rolled back like a rag doll with a head of cotton stuffing and a body which concealed a billiard ball. She didn’t even rock, but the little chap had to roll over and shake himself to be sure he was all out of the den after squeezing past her in the doorway.
There was an interval in silence while the cub further tried himself out in front and his mother with folded hands surveyed the remains of the day. Then suddenly she was bowled over from behind — completely sprawled and walked on — and now standing in front of her and towering over her son was Himself. Life was very real and blithe to Skag, watching in the thicket not more than seventy yards away.
In the next two hours the two grown bears fed from the fringes of thicket on the knob. There were berries and bark and various podded seeds, which is garden truck for the big slow-feeding hibernators — hours of sniffing and threshing and pawing over to make a meal. Meanwhile the baby had no such trouble. He was warm fed before emerging from the den. This was still his mother’s affair anyway. All the shift he had to make for himself was in the spirit of exploration and discovery. He found the world enticing from all angles and hadn’t any particular use for alarm. That was left to the elders also.
He became infested with briers and squealed for his mother to come. She combed and carded him patiently enough until he did it again. Then she stood him on his head and thumped. Presently he sat down on his elbows and pawed into a decayed log. When he was tired with one little padded mit he tried the other. It was some distance from Skag’s screen, but the man now sensed what the end would be.
Red ants! They were doubtless swarming over the little chap before his absorption was broken. It would take some time for them to penetrate his inner coat, but penetrating is what red ants do best.
The little bear sat up and screwed his head round as if listening to himself. Then he stretched high on all claws looking back at different angles. The red ants had penetrated. They were connecting with pure tender cub meat at the roots of a thousand hairs. One small son became so intensely occupied with himself that for a moment he forgot to make sounds. Never before in all his interesting life had so many things been the matter with him at once. He got a sort of head spin working and out of the dusty shine of it. Skag presently heard his screams.
At this point, the mother bear crossed the knob.
Moreover, she came with purpose. She appeared to interpret the trouble from the nature of the screams. Past doubt she knew that log.
There are heroic treatments for Himalayan red ants. A gas tank is good, or a leap from a pier. Not having these at hand, the mother first of all broke the head spin and snatched the small one from the ant city and environs. Then she puddled and pestled him for many minutes in deep dust and took him to her heart.
“Carlin would appreciate that,” Skag muttered softly, letting out a long breath.
Now Himself was walking round his mate as she mended and mothered the grief of the cub. From a distance he appeared actually concerned and attentive, but Skag had seen him emerge from the den over her body — she taking the count after his wallop from behind. Also, he had not put out of mind the bad record concerning this parent which Carver had taken from the natives — the missing cubs and the gossip that involved extended estrangements between him and his mistress. Yet she seemed to hold no grudge against him now nor any alarm.
This mystery deepened. She plumped the infant down and went about her feeding. The little chap grieved a bit, finding himself alone, and scratched himself resentfully from various rests. But presently the broad sun-bright world took him again and he set out for a long walk — this time straight in Skag’s direction.
He couldn’t have been more than three months old. He was very black and round and perfect — still a soft one, in baby teeth and baby fuzz — so perfectly healthy that neither dirt nor grief could long adhere. He merely took the essence of his adventures, shedding the bumps and messes with a kind of winged ease — the plan of the universe being for joy, as he read it. Every passing wind fluffed and groomed him. Only occasionally, he stopped to scratch, trying a new method.
On he came in increasing delight in himself, alternating two and four feet, and very friendly with the ground. And now his figure was lost in the bushes not forty feet away from Skag’s screen. The man’s eyes were called presently across the knob to where one of the large bears was standing, head and shoulders above the small growth on that side. The great head moved slowly round, plainly searching the open for the little one. This was the old male evincing sudden concern for the cub.
Slowly and one-pointedly he crossed the area more or less in the small steps of the straying one. The point to Skag just now was how near the old one would come to him before finding the cub. Across the knob he saw the mother bear rise to her haunches. She could not have missed the purpose of her lord. Apparently she approved of it, for she dropped down and quietly resumed her feeding.
This to Skag was extraordinary, but he was by no means so occupied in the tension of the predicament as not to take a good look at the sire as he approached. Large, rotund, but with beaming countenance, as utterly far from anything malignant in appearance as a sun-bear toy. There was something of the aspect of an old doctor about him, one who had done so many good things for people for so many years as actually to have forgotten any other way to live.
The baby bear was very close, and his father might be expected to sense an intrusion before he reached the cub. Skag held himself quietly in hand, not moving a muscle, putting away the panic impulses of the mind one after another. The big bear halted at the edge of the thicket, sniffed, his manner changing to a sort of puzzled concern, but not in the least aggressive. There were low sounds in his throat, but far from growls. His son heard them, but this hedged-thicket life was quite as absorbing as outside. He was not in the least minded to go without force. The other sniffed querulously and plunged in. There was a squeal, but not from pain; rather the plaint of one dragged away from delightful activity. The two emerged together into the area side by side, crossing toward the mother, still quietly feeding across the knob.
Skag saw the gleam of firelight as he entered the darkness under the deodars. Carver had supper ready and the horses were feeding in grain bags.
“That’s a much-maligned old male,” Skag muttered a second time. “I’m not saying he’s above having wicked spells now and then, but he doesn’t look the part. Nothing meat-fed about his eyes.”
“He has a season’s work mapped out to undo his reputation with the natives,” Carver said.
“I’m far from sure he’s what they think,” Skag added quietly.
“But you say he knocked the madam down when he cared to come out.”
“Yes, and stepped on her. But I’ve been thinking that might be mere household usage in the High Hills. She didn’t hold it against him. I’m far from sure he’s a cub killer. He crossed the knob to collect the straying youngster and the mother went unconcernedly on with her feeding on the far side. Moreover, the cub himself isn’t afraid of his father.”
There was little sleep that night. There were sounds from the spring not to be interpreted. Skag had felt it necessary to tie the Arab short lest he burn himself on a long tether. He had been well grained since he could not pick any feed in the night, but he shivered as he stood, not with cold but with restlessness. Carver intimated that there were disadvantages about using a drawing-room mount for field work, but Skag surprised him by turning the Arab loose altogether.
Now the black one came even closer to their fire, instead of straying, and Skag felt the sweat of fear upon him. Carver was inclined to regard him as a bit oversensitive from prolonged and perfect stable care, but Skag knew something strange was in the air. He tried to listen with the same keen apprehension that the stallion did; tried to get the meaning from the winds that brought a troubling message to the keener nostrils of his mount.
The next morning, Skag minutely examined the spring. It was too leafy and tangled for him to discover any secrets, and where the water flowed under the vines all but the pebbles had been washed away. In the afternoon he went with Carver to the screen, but a second time the Englishman used up his inclination to wait before the bears appeared. Skag had had two hours of his sort of quiet sport and was more than ever convinced of the beneficence of the old male, when he thought he heard a shot and cry from someone far below. The bears were across the area and it was safe for him to leave.
Camp was strange even at a distance. The afternoon was still luminous, though the sun had gone down behind the big mountain. He missed the horses from under their tree. Carver did not answer his call. The Arab’s halter shank was broken at the knot and the long tether of Carver’s beast was gone, picket and all. Ashes and embers of the fire, now cold, had been threshed over the camp. There was blood upon the ground. All the play was gone from the still upper spaces; the clutch of grim finality was at Skag’s heart. Was it Carver? Was it the Arab?
Chilled and bewildered, Skag followed the spattered trail down the slopes, knowing he would not have far to go, because of the extent of the black-red waste upon the stones. And now queerly enough a certain pale hopeless look recurred to him from Carver’s face. It was a haunting sense of secret failure which Skag had never analyzed before, but it roved unmistakably now like a ghost before his eyes — the face of a man whose luck has been bad so long that he has come to expect no better. Skag wondered coldly why Carver’s hidden weakness came to him now. This wasn’t man blood. There was too much of it, if no other reason.
And now he saw the hump on the ground — a sudden revelation in the shadowed green. The strange laxity of a body in death always causes a start. It touched familiarly some inner sense quicker than the registration of the eye. The flanks were lying toward him. It was Carver’s pony — the head pulled forward to the knees. The throat was slashed open, the shoulders torn on each side, the spine laid open above the kidneys. The picture of what had occurred unfolded to Skag. The throat had been opened at the first stroke. That had happened above at the camp. The pony had broken loose and raced down slope until he fell.
The thing had come with him. The thing had not fed, unless a blood drinker. Perhaps it had been frightened away by Carver after the kill was made. And Carver had doubtless followed the Arab.
Now Skag’s eyes as he stood in intense silence caught a sudden speckled brightness above and to the right of the camp near the spring. It was a flash of mysterious gold light in the shadow — hardly like a body, but sinister in effect. Skag stood a moment longer, but saw nothing. Then with utmost stealth he made his way back along the ugly trail to the camp and above, circling round to a position above the spring, keeping covered in thicket but clear of the low-branched trees.
The bears had come down to the water. Skag was certainly puzzled at this moment. That gold flash in the shadow had nothing to do with bears. He saw the two broad black backs in the darkening green where the water washed the stones. He stared that way for several seconds trying to locate the cub. Then the old bears lifted their heads to peer over the thickets. They were looking for the cub too. The mother grunted impatiently. Skag could tell it was she by the waistline.
Now the two little curved front paws appeared, going somewhere, from the thick tangle round the spring to the open under the deodars toward camp. He had explored the thicket by the spring and found it tiresome. He approved of the broad dim aisles before him. Possibly there were enticing flavors in the air from the remains of the man camp. The mother grunted loudly again, but this only quickened the call abroad. Skag wasn’t in the mood for this sort of thing. The bears might go back to the knob as soon as they liked this once. The man wanted Carver — word from Carver and the Arab, and the meaning of the thin gold flash in the shadows.
Right then he got it — an apparition in gold and brown — a huge cat thing from the thicket below the spring, sleuthing the baby bear. This was Skag’s first look at the jaguar in India, as hard to find as the planet Mercury with the naked eye, the most secret and skulking of the great cats. Now the vile head moved roundly as he watched and stalked the cub — in a sort of half circle on a swivel that caught — all the bloodthirst and hate and secrecy of the jungle in the movement — lemon-green eyes of that cold which is on the other side of death, and writhing lips. The jaguar was mad and careless. He had failed to kill the night before. He had made a day kill just now and been driven away.
Skag suddenly loved that baby bear like the child of an old neighbor. The little chap was making straight for the man camp and one of its parents at least was still back at the spring. Skag had a pistol, but it is characteristic that his fingers reached first for a stone.
His movement to throw — and only the hand was visible — was caught by the cat before the stone left his fingers. The stone went wide. To the surprise of Skag, the beast crouched and held his place. Now the baby bear turned and there was a bleating cry from the red mouth — utterly startled and hopeless. The big cat was flattened to spring — the ears rubbed back, the whole figure seemingly fanned in a great wind.
Just at this instant Skag stood up. For a second time he broke the concentration of the killer that faced him fifty yards away.
And then the roar. That in itself was a revelation from the animal world. It was short. It was low as a grunt and yet held that impossible pitch, ripping forth as if bringing the heart of the mountain with it.
Skag’s standing up that instant had held the jaguar’s eyes long enough to give the great male bear advantage for his charge — a vast hurling forth from the thicket. The jaguar, caught too abruptly to run, turned, but did not rise — hugging the ground like a reptile, his body in a half curve like a scimitar. He reeled over on his back as the bear took and folded him in. And now the old sire screamed with pain. It was like taking to his chest two hundred pounds of molten metal — metal that must be crushed cold and very quickly before it burned too deep. To Skag from the distance it seemed that the bear was insanely threshing himself upon the ground. When he rose at last the gold-brown shadowy thing dropped from him and lay soft and stretched.
Skag’s eyes hurt from straining through the shadows. The mother went to her lord and helped to cleanse his wounds, taking his huge head in one paw and pressing it against her neck as she washed the hideous slash across his face. For many minutes she worked, the little chap coming close and watching with a dutiful attitude altogether strange. Night intervened before Skag heard the three pass the spring on their way up to the knob.
Skag meant only to pause at camp long enough to build a fire. It might possibly help Carver in, but the young Englishman’s hail was heard as the first smoke rose.
They looked at each other for a moment, silenced by so much to say.
“Your Arab is doubtless running yet,” Carver remarked. “No chance to come up with him, so I hurried in.”
He sank down, dropping his head on a saddle roll. His voice was very weary as he went on:
“It was strange — just staged to get a man’s nerve,” he muttered. “Why, Hantee, the thing couldn’t have looked dirtier. I was on the slope coming down to camp from your screen just as the jaguar dropped from a tree branch to my pony’s back. Both horses broke loose and the big cat rode my pony down the mountain. That’s the ghastly unforgettable part — to be ridden by that thing until he fell.”
“I saw that it must have been like that,” Skag answered, remembering the roweled shoulders and back. “And then you fired? “
“Just one shot, altogether out of range, as the beast stood over the fallen pony. He vanished. There was nothing to do after that but go after the Arab.”
“That’s a bad cat,” Skag muttered. “Possibly watched us all night from one of these trees. Yes, it was his taint in the air that disrupted the mount.”
Carter shivered, vetoing any idea of supper.
No, you wouldn’t be able to bring the Arab back here,” Skag added. “Not with blood on the ground and that thing lying below.”
“What thing — you mean the pony?” Carver asked wearily.
“No, the cub killer,” Skag said.
“Is — is the old father bear lying down there?”
“No, and the father bear is not the cub killer, but a most natural and estimable parent. I mean that bad cat you shot at. You spoiled his gorge from the pony and he went after the cub bear just a few minutes ago. Bear family was down to the spring, you see.”
“Carver,” Skag added, “there never was a straighter or quicker finish for a yellow cat, but I think I’ll feel better inside the head when that bear roar dies out — the roar when he charged — and the picture that followed.”
They had to wait for daylight to descend the mountain. The Arab had not gone back to Murree, but met them on open ground a half mile down the path — used up a bit, but not seriously harmed.
“I think he would have come in to camp,” Skag said, “except for the taint in the air.”
Carver did not answer, and Skag added with a smile: “I’m sorry about that brave little beast of yours, but for the rest — it’s been a rich two days.”
Illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull
American lawyer and writer, Arthur Train, was a prolific author of legal thrillers. His most popular work featured recurring fictional lawyer Mr. Ephraim Tutt. In “The Lost Gospel,” an explorer searches the Egyptian desert for lost artifacts that will prove or disprove his faith.
Published on June 7, 1924
For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
“The trouble with Christianity,” said Ismail Bey, “is that it is utterly unpractical.”
“The trouble with Christianity,” said Count Poldolski, “is that we do not really know what Christ taught.”
“The trouble with Christianity,” said Rhoda Calthrop, “is that it has never been tried.”
The party, following the wake of fashion, had come up from Cairo on Calthrop’s dahabeah to see the recent excavations in the Valley of the Kings, and the Cheetah, on whose awning-covered deck they were sitting, was moored along with a hundred other pleasure craft on the east bank of the Nile a mile above Thebes. Ismail Bey waved a sleek white hand across the turbid river toward the red-brown fields that stretched to the Libyan Hills. Under the cobalt arc the whole Egyptian world of palm-rimmed bank, of broken column and ruined temple, as well as the turgid current of the Nile itself, was a welter of dazzling gold, flushed with scarlet and streaked with purple.
“On these sands can be traced the history of all the ancient civilizations — of Assyria and Babylon, of Macedon, Greece and Rome — and of all the old religions.
“Nothing remains of any of them.”
“I thought you were a good Mohammedan, excellency,” commented his hostess.
“I am,” answered Ismail Bey quite calmly. “I obey the sheri’s, I pay the charitable tax, I say my prayers five times a day, I fast during Ramadan, and I have even made the pilgrimage to Mecca. What more is necessary?”
“Faith!” replied Miss Calthrop.
The Egyptian laughed.
“I am a graduate of Balliol,” he said. “All sensible men believe the same thing. What it is no sensible man ever tells.”
“But Christianity remains!” protested the beautiful Princess Zeeka.
“What you call Christianity!” retorted Poldolski. “But does anybody know what Christ really preached? The Gospels are not contemporaneous. They were written many years after the events chronicled therein occurred.”
“Christ gave us a spiritual ideal,” answered Miss Calthrop gravely, “to which we hope the world may some day attain.”
The breeze from the south was stirring the ripples among the sand bars to lavender. Hoopoes and wild pigeons flew downstream — imps fleeing the gates of Paradise, marking the channel to silent boats with widespread lateen sails on their way from Aswan to Cairo and Alexandria, black lacquer on a yellow screen. From an adjacent dahabeah came the insistent rasp of a phonograph playing Papa Loves Mamma. The escarpments to the west smoldered, spraying the sky with gold.
“How mysterious the Nile is!” the princess murmured. “No wonder it is worshiped as a god!”
The Egyptian’s eyes narrowed.
“The Nile,” he replied, “like religion, is born amid the fierce passions of savagery, in the midday darkness of primeval growths, in the ruthlessness of credulity and fanaticism and the strange worship of beasts in the likeness of men — ” He half closed his lids and let the smoke curl slowly from his nostrils as he watched the rose-tinted oval face of the princess. “And like all religions, it eventually disappears.”
“But Christianity does not!” The eyes of the princess were smoldering.
Ismail Bey shrugged.
“If Poldolski is right, your true Christianity may have disappeared already. I do not wish to give offense, my friends; but did not Christ teach self-sacrifice, nonresistance and forgiveness of wrongs? Did he make any distinction between individuals and nations in his teachings? Well — I am, it is true, a Mohammedan — a barbarian, if you will — but to me there is something curiously inconsistent in the application of these doctrines among what you would call the more civilized nations. It is not enough to say that Christ did not mean literally what he said. Does anybody claim that the Prophet Moses or the Prophet Mohammed did not mean exactly what he said? Listen!”
From the circle of sailors seated cross-legged in the bow of the dahabeah came the monotonous thump of a daraboukeh. “Al-lah!” they chanted fiercely. “Al-lah! Al-lah! Al-lah!” The cry rose harsh and nasal in the silence of the sunset.
“Those down there do not doubt that when they die they will go instantly to Paradise,” said the Egyptian.
“That is my point, excellency,” agreed the Pole. “The words of the Koran came from the lips of Mohammed. Christ did not write the Gospels. His meaning has always been the subject of controversy. It is conceivable that the discovery of a new Septuagint might change our entire viewpoint.”
“Like that found by Tischendorf in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai,” suggested Professor Troy of the Azar. “Such manuscripts occasionally turn up. There must be hundreds of them hidden away in ancient libraries or among unexcavated ruins. Our three chief sources of knowledge concerning Christ’s teachings are the Alexandrian manuscript in the British Museum, Codex A, as we call it; the Vatican manuscript at Rome, Codex B; and the Sinaitic, Codex Aleph, at St. Petersburg; and they all range from about 300 to 450 A.D. But the prior existence of certain others is well established — the Lost Gospel referred to by Saint Hermanticus, for example.”
Major Bagley, of the Camel Corps, put down his glass.
“Oh, I say! Have you heard of that too? I always thought it was just another Arab yarn, like the vanished oasis of Kurafra.”
“It’s more than a yarn,” replied Professor Troy. “There are many references to it in the writings of the Fathers. The Fifth Gospel is alleged to have been written in Latin by a member of the household of Pontius Pilate. It is a tradition, you remember, that Procula, Pilate’s wife, secretly visited the Saviour in prison before his crucifixion and became a convert. The story is somehow mixed up with that.”
“What is supposed to have become of this Lost Gospel?” asked Miss Calthrop with interest.
“It is said to have been brought to Egypt, where it disappeared. What have you heard about it, Bagley?”
“I’ve heard such a story, or its first cousin, told around many a caravan fire in strange places,” answered the officer. “Curiously enough, it is usually associated with the legend of Kurafra — the City Devoured by the Sand, as the Bedouins call it. The desert is full of such tales.”
“It always gives me a funny feeling to hear the Arabs refer so casually to historical characters — almost as if they were still alive,” remarked the hostess as she handed Ismail Bey his tea. “But in Egypt the past and the present are one.”
From behind the high bank against which the Cheetah was moored came the syncopated warbling of a flute, closer at hand the creaking of the shadoofs used in the days of Amenhotep. A procession of fellahin carrying tools and baskets, of boys on donkeys, of female figures bearing jars upon their shoulders, moved along the edge of the bluff — children of the Pharaohs sprung to life from the temple walls.
The hostess’ brother, Hugh Calthrop, who had been sitting by himself in the Cheetah’s stern, arose and came forward with a paper in his hand. He was an emotional young fellow, given to doing things on the spur of the moment.
“Look here,” he said, pulling his short mustache nervously, “this is certainly very queer.” He poured himself out a drink.
“Did any of you ever know Paul Trent?”
“I seem to have heard the name.” Professor Troy rubbed his chin as if to stir the magic lamp of recollection.
“Of course,” answered Miss Calthrop. “He used to come to our house in Chicago almost every Sunday afternoon. But wasn’t he killed in the war?”
Calthrop held up the paper.
“I have just had a letter from him!”
“From Paul?” exclaimed his sister incredulously. “But he has been dead ten years!”
“Exactly. This letter which you saw handed to me not ten minutes ago by Yussuf was written to his mother in January, 1914. It’s been wandering around ever since.”
“How is that possible?” asked the Princess Zeeka.
Ismail Bey glanced at her quizzically.
“When you know Egypt better, dearest lady, that will not surprise you.”
“I do not care to know Egypt any better,” she answered coldly. “Please tell us about the letter.”
Calthrop pulled a chair into the group and sat down.
“It’s certainly weird — a voice from the dead and that sort of thing. Trent was a young Egyptologist of Chicago University, out here on his sabbatical. He wanted to do a little original work, and I let him have some money. The last I heard he was in Jerusalem. Then came the war. I assumed, naturally, he’d managed to enlist, and thought no more about it. Anyhow it would have been no time to hunt for missing archeologists. But when the show ended Trent didn’t turn up. Meantime his old mother — who always refused to believe that he would not come back — died herself. I was her executor. The State Department made some sort of an investigation and traced him as far as Bukara in company with a German named Harnach-Hulsen. They simply vanished into the desert.”
“But the letter!” cried the princess. “From where did your friend mail it?”
“It was written in the desert and given to a passing caravan for Siwa. Heaven knows what happened to it. Perhaps the Arab put it in his pocket — if Arabs have pockets — and just forgot it. Or it may have been tucked into a pigeonhole in Bukara or Siwa, or left lying around until it was picked up by somebody who decided that the easiest thing to do was to stick it in the mail — as perhaps it was.”
“But how does it come to you?” asked Professor Troy.
“Because, having been delivered through the mail to Mrs. Trent’s address in Chicago, it has been forwarded to me here as her executor.”
“After all,” commented Ismail Bey, “ten years is not so long for a letter to go ten thousand miles. That is a thousand miles a year. Out here we should call that fast.”
“I will read you the letter,” said Calthrop.
“WESTERN DESERT, BUKARA.”
January 6, 1914.
“‘Dearest mother: You will already have got the letter I mailed you from Cairo on Christmas Day, and learned how at the monastery of the Benedictine Monks of Beuren in Jerusalem I had the luck to stumble upon Max Harnach-Hulsen, the famous German Egyptologist, who became tremendously interested in my theory that Roman and possibly Persian remains would very likely be found in the Libyan Desert north of the Oasis of Beharieh in the direction of the Fayum. My funds were getting rather low and to my great delight he agreed to join forces with me. Otherwise I couldn’t have gone. It appears that the Emperor William II personally is putting up for him and so of course he had first to wire Berlin. Meantime we went on by rail to Cairo for the holidays, and there I found your dear little present. I shall always wear it, mother dear. Thank you a thousand times.
“‘Well, a few days later H-H got a reply from the Kaiser, offering to supply all the necessary funds on the condition that the funds should go to the University of Berlin or, as he put it, “to my people.” That seems fair enough. And I may say there has been no lack of money. Well, we made our arrangements and got off by rail before New Year’s to Medinet-el-Fayum and from there to Beharieh, making the balance of the journey to Bukara by motor and camel. Here it really looked as if we might be badly hung up on account of the difficulty of finding any camels not infected with hump disease. However, H-H, who is an authoritative person, an officer in the Landwehr, went to the gendarmerie and saw the omdeh and made a big noise about the Kaiser, and the first thing I knew we had all the camels we wanted — beautiful slender hajins such as one never sees except in the desert. So this is really goodbye.
“‘I like H-H immensely in spite of his gruff manner, which really doesn’t mean anything. He is a big, reddish man about six feet two, with cropped hair, a thick neck and very large hands and feet, a man of iron — physically and intellectually a reincarnation of what I imagine Bismarck to have been. He is very chummy with the Kaiser and belongs to a sort of dining club of which General von Bernhardi, Admiral von Tirpitz, and the Prince-Bishop of Breslau also are members. He has shown me several very intimate letters from William II, whom he admires extravagantly. In fact he classes him with Hammurabi, Moses, Abraham, Mohammed, Charlemagne, Shakspere and Lincoln.
“‘Well, he may be everything H-H says, but as I don’t know the gentleman, I’m no judge. Anyhow, he must be a clever chap. H-H is obsessed with the idea that there is danger of the Germans, who used to be the best fighting men and most warlike nation in Europe, becoming what he calls a too peace-loving nation. He says that what they need is a shock to reawaken their warlike instincts. I can hardly keep my face straight when he is getting off this bunk. In some ways I feel that H-H isn’t much more sympathetic to me than one of our Arab camel drivers. But he is a regular he-man for all that, and we are great pals. So, good-by again, mother.
Your loving son,
Calthrop turned the letter over dramatically.
“Now listen to what is written in pencil on the back:
“‘Dearest mother: We have made the greatest find in history. I cannot say more now, but we shall both be famous. I am forbidden to reveal its nature, but you will soon learn. We are about two hundred kilometers from Bukara. I have promised Harnach-Hulsen not to say where until we make a formal announcement. I have just time to scratch this off and give it to a passing Bedouin who is on his way to Siwa. God bless you, mother. Hur-rah! Hurrah!
A gray dusk distilled itself along the canals; the surface of the Nile was a steel mirror clouded here and there by the breath of the night wind. A felucca came down midstream, a ripple spreading wide from her bows, her oars swinging to a muffled chantey that might have been the barbaric ritual of some equatorial deity.
“Bismillah!” muttered the Egyptian. “I wonder what they found.”
“God only knows what they found,” answered Calthrop. “But I am going to find out.”
“Hugh,” cried his sister, “you don’t mean you are going to — ”
“Yes — tomorrow. I’m starting for Beharieh, not in the hope of finding Trent, because of course he’s been dead ten years — but of finding what he found.”
There was no sound but the clutch and whisper of the current along the dahabeah’s sides.
“You’d be crazy to try anything of the kind!”
Bagley tossed his cigarette overboard definitely.
“There’s not a drop of water between Bukara and Siwa, and none in the direction of the Fayum. Rohlfs nearly died there in ’72. Our flyers have scoured the desert in every direction around there for five hundred kilometers. Besides,” he added, “I doubt if the frontier districts administrator would give you a permit.”
“All the same, I’m going!” declared Calthrop. “But I won’t risk anybody’s life but my own. I shall go to Bukara, look up some of the Arabs that went with Trent and start out from there. You couldn’t expect me to do anything else!” he exclaimed.
The princess looked at him meaningly. “No,” she said; “no one could expect you to do anything else.”
Calthrop thrust the letter in his pocket and stood up.
“I’m going down to collect my duffel,” he remarked. “The Cairo train leaves at nine.”
He walked alone to the stern again. The Nile was jet. Night had fallen. To his excited imagination it seemed alive with mysterious noises — faint cries and distant shoutings, the neighing of horses, the tramp of legionaries, the crash of arms, the rumble of chariot wheels; while from the bow came the never-ceasing throb of the daraboukeh and at intervals the lonely cry of “Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar! La ilaha illa-llah!”
“In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful: I On the blessed day of Friday, 28th Rabia eth Thani, 1332, there came to our town Bukara the honored Max Harnach-Hulsen, the German, professor of the honored Zawia of Berlin, and also the honored Paul Trent, the American, professor of the honored Zawia of Chicago in the Etats-Unix, and they are carrying the orders of the great and honored General Sir Martin Crafts; and according to the exalted orders we met them with great honor and hospitality and congratulated them on their safe arrival to us. We hoped that God may be exalted, would grant success to their efforts, and return them safe and victorious in the best condition for the sake of the Prophet.
“(Signed) “The Second Adviser of Bukara, Amed El Sussu, May God forgive him.
“The Judge, OSWAN EL BARASSI, May God forgive him.
“The Adviser, SAYED MOHAMMED IBU OMAR EL FADHILL, May God forgive him.
“The Wakil of the Sayed at Bukara, MOHAMMED SALEH EL BASICARI, May God forgive him.”
Thus had read the only official record of the visit of the two archaeologists to the town of Bukara; the only record, in fact, since although Calthrop had stayed there a week he had found no other clew to them. Yet unless all the Arabs who had accompanied Trent and Harnach-Hulsen had died of thirst, one or more of them should be still living in the oasis. He was in the absurd position of having a caravan on his hands and with no idea of where he wanted to go. Inquiries of the omdeh elicited only the customary shrugs and the positive assurance that there were no archaeological remains in that part of the country, for in spite of the difficulty of travel every inch of the Western Desert under the control of the frontier districts administration — which was responsible for the safety of all country not watered by the Nile between the Sudan and the Mediterranean — had been covered time and again by the Camel Corps Patrol. Those who had followed the regular caravan routes to Siwa, to Taizerbo, to Kebabo, on the way to the Tebu or Lake Chad, or to Dachel on the south, had never heard even so much as a whisper of any such place as Kurafra.
And then the omdeh ventured to give Calthrop a piece of advice. Why not, he suggested, instead of starting off blindfold into the desert, without any definite objective, enlarge his caravan and make the trip to Siwa, the ancient site of the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, where he could visit and photograph the rock tombs of the Karit-el-Musabberin, the temple of Aghormi and the ruins at Ummebeida?
Calthrop thanked him and let it go at that. Eventually he caused it to be known throughout the bazaar that he would pay one hundred pounds gold to anyone who would guide his caravan to where he could find any trace of the missing men. Then and then only did Mohammed Ali Ibrahim ben Rahim make his appearance, a desiccated Berber with a skin like a lizard’s, and eyes as sharp and glinting.
“Not of my own knowledge,” he protested, “but by that of my sister’s son, Mohammed Yussuf el Bulaki, the peace of God be on him. For he is no longer living, being taken in his sixty-first year, while I, full of years, am still alive at eighty-two. Neither did I hear it from his own lips, but by hearsay from my sister Fatima, after her son, my nephew, was dead; for I was then dwelling at Siwa, where my grandsons were in attendance at the Zawia, and I heard it from her after she was a widow and had come to dwell with me. Nevertheless, by the accuracy of her repetition am I able to guide the gentleman’s caravan to the spot described by my nephew, for he noted the course by Jerdi, as we call the North Star, in its relation to certain other minor stars and by other methods which it is not necessary to go into.”
And now it was sunset of the fifth day out from Bukara.
“Adaryayan!” shouted Ibrahim. “We have arrived, oh, sick ones!”
The caravan halted in the hatia in the lee of the dunes and two of the baggage camels dropped to their knees. Calthrop, mounted on a fast hajin, had ridden on ahead and was already on the top of the next gherd. As far as his vision carried, one snow-white dune lifted beyond another. All day long they had climbed ridge after ridge under a sun that scorched through helmet and kufiya alike, until now the dispirited camels trailed their heads and gave off that acrid odor which is the inevitable concomitant of thirst. They had had nothing to eat since the third day, when the prickly, juiceless bush of the Mehemsa, sometimes found under the ridges, had entirely disappeared. Now the poor beasts struggled along, limping and wavering, and when they stopped tried to eat the stuffing of the baggage saddles. “Haya alla Salat!” came the call to prayer from below.
“Haya alla Salat!”
Already the Arabs were at their devotions — making kibla, as it is called — washing their hands in the sand, prostrating themselves, and praying with a quick glance over each shoulder and a muttered ejaculation to drive away the evil spirits supposed to be lurking behind them. To Calthrop, sitting alone upon his hajin and looking down upon them from the top of the gherd, it no longer seemed fantastic that these children of the desert should people it with jinn and houris, see the finger prints of Allah upon the drifting sands and hear the voices of his angels in the lisp of the night wind along the wadis.
The setting sun burning upon Calthrop’s back told him that he, like the rest of them, was facing the sacred Kaaba a thousand miles away, toward which amidst this desolate waste of sand they turned as unerringly as the compass needle swings to the magnetic pole. He had always thought of the desert as a dead thing like the surface of the moon; odorless, silent, for the most part motionless; a place of intolerable solitude. To his surprise he had found it quite otherwise, even amid the fantastic desolation of the apparently lifeless dunes. It had not amazed him to find the flat stony plain about Bukara spotted with gray gorse, a grazing ground for sheep and camels, to see long lines of hamlas come stalking over the horizon’s rim laden with ivory and feathers from Wadai and Lake Chad, to find the news of the Near East discussed with passionate earnestness by fadhling caravans; in a word, to find the Western Desert teeming with activity. But what astounded him was that here, far from the routes of the Jalo, Anjela, Siwa, Jaghabub and Darfur caravans, amid the weird, curly hummocks that stretch like an ice flow between Bukara and the Fayum, frequented only by the scattered descendants of the fierce bandits who lurked there in the days of the Romans, where all vegetable growth is extinct and not even a desiccated bush breaks the blinding smoothness of the surface, where no jackal or cony can survive, and where water does not exist — that here he should feel no loneliness, but on the contrary a curious sense of familiarity with it all, as if he had been born, lived and perhaps died there. He was filled with an exalted sense of the power and mystery of God, the unity of all things physical and spiritual, of being guided and directed, of his own essential participation in the affairs of an unseen world. The wind bore across the ridges a faint odor of myrrh, a curious scent of the desert, of the untarnished earth itself; it lifted the white sand from the crests of the gherds and sent it trickling, sifting and whispering in tiny avalanches down into the hatias, seeming to drive the snowy dunes before it like the billows of a mighty sea that swept on and on, irresistible, relentless, inevitable, like the tide submerging whatever came in its way. Indeed, Professor Troy had said that the gherds did move and for that reason were known as traveling dunes; that once the whole Libyan Desert was a well-watered and fertile country supporting a considerable degree of civilization, but that gradually the desert sea that washed the southern edges of its oases had encroached upon and smothered the inhabitants, filling their cisterns, absorbing their lakes, blotting out their villages and towns, rising higher and higher until it submerged even their temples and their hills, driving the population toward the seaboard on the one hand and the Nile upon the other.
From the hatia rose the pungent scent of dung-fed fires and the grumbling roar of the camels. The black goats’-hair tents had been pitched and the water girbas and bales of supplies arranged in a zareba, or hollow square. Supper would be ready in a few minutes. Calthrop was ready for it in spite of his swollen tongue, his burning throat, his inflamed eyes and his cracked lips and gums. He had expected and discounted all that. What he had not fully previsioned was the vast waste of sand through which now for nearly a week the camels had patiently struggled up and down, slipping and sliding, sinking at times almost to their knees. There were no tracks of any sort. Whatever wandering Bedouin might pass that way left no trace behind him — spurlos versenkt. The sun, the wind, and Jerdi, the North Star, are the only guides in this part of the Western Desert. Yet the guide, Mohammed Ali Ihrahim ben Rahim, had never faltered. But another day and they must find water. The camels could last but three or four more at most.
He swept with his glasses the sea of foaming breakers that came rushing toward him, one behind the other, higher and higher. A wisp of sand curled lightly along the top of the gherd like a whiplash. The hajin raised its head, which it had lowered almost to its knees, and wriggled its cushioned lips. It, like its rider, felt a call to something. Then the light dimmed to purple and at the same instant his eye caught a gara, or tabular hill, strangely rectangular in this tipsy curving world. It might, of course, be a trick of shadow, but he knew that a straight shadow can be cast only by a straight line. He looked again. Behind the gara, clearly defined against the side of one of the gherds, was a pyramidal gray patch. He glanced back over his shoulder. The sun was sinking in a whorl of flamingo feathers. The cohorts of the gherds gleamed with purple and gold. Calthrop tightened his rein and plunged down the other side of the dune, urging his hajin to top speed.
There is no twilight in the desert. The sun dies in a single iridescent moment. Yet, when, ten minutes later, Calthrop pulled in his sweating hajin there was still light enough for him to determine that what towered above him against the pale saffron of the afterglow was beyond peradventure the peak of a pyramid. In three tiers it rose to a point fifty feet above the floor of the hatia, terminating in a single massive block. On three sides the engulfing sand rose nearly to the top, then fell away sharply on the fourth, revealing cracks and apertures almost large enough to permit the passage of a human being.
Breathless, he peered through the dusk along the hatia. Surely it had a curious and significant regularity of form — this sandy ravine in the lee of the gherd — like a giant avenue. He hobbled the hajin and walked along the hatia for a hundred yards until, climbing imperceptibly, he found himself standing upon the top of the gara. His hobnails grated harshly; he kicked and struck stone; he was standing upon the pylon of a submerged temple. Kurafra!
He stood there stirred to his heart’s core at the visions conjured by his imagination. Here beneath his feet Amenhotep or Rameses the Great, or possibly even Nimrod, the Assyrian conqueror, had marked the western boundary of his kingdom. Here under the lash had strained thousands of slaves, glistening black giants from Ethiopia, from Numidia and from the distant oases of the west. Here some proud monarch, now a mummy, had raised his shrine to the great Ammon and, reclining with his queen like an Egyptian Canute upon the rim of the desert sea, had looked out across the sandy waves and bidden them to advance no farther. How they had mocked him!
The line of light on the western horizon had vanished. Like lamps turned on by an unseen hand, the firmament unexpectedly blazed with stars. Above, the night was girdled with a sash of silver dust.
Calthrop realized that he could not possibly find his way back to the camp in the dark, but the Arabs would know that he must be nearby and he could rejoin them at daylight. With blanket, haversack, canteen and shamadan, or wind candle, he could be perfectly comfortable. Flashlight in hand, he began looking for a likely spot to sleep. Throwing the circle of light along the surface of the pyramid, he examined the crevices until he found one large enough to creep into, and then worked his body through the aperture and crawled along, turning the ray of light ahead toward the interior. Reddish brown, the rough sandstone leaped toward him, then the gleam lost itself in darkness to reflect a darker surface some thirty feet distant.
Getting to his feet again, Calthrop fished his baggage through the crack behind him, and clasping it in his arms crept along the sandy floor into the chamber, or hollow, under the dome. Clearly he was not the first to be there, for in one corner lay the charred remains of a fire and not far off the skeleton of a sheep. There was also about half an alof, or bundle of fodder, and this he took outside and tossed to the hajin. Then he lit the shamadan, spread out his blanket and prepared to make himself at home.
By the time he had eaten the contents of his haversack, drunk the hot coffee from his vacuum bottle and lit a cigarette he was in a mood of exultation. It was reasonably certain that he was sitting in one of the pyramids that fringed the once-fertile strip watered in ancient times by the great Wadi al Fardi, which had flowed through Taizerbo to Jaghabub and thence past the oasis of Siwa to the Nile. Henceforth Kurafra would no longer be a myth but an actuality. But for how long? As vain to attempt to dam the ocean as these steadily advancing dunes of sand. Another year or so and pyramid and temple might disappear forever.
Lifting the shamadan above his head, Calthrop examined the walls. They were devoid of ornamentation. This upper chamber obviously had played no part in the religious functions of the priesthood of Amon-Ra. There was no means of telling whether the last visitor had been there ten, ten hundred, or ten thousand years ago. Higher up where the walls drew closer together it was harder to see, and Calthrop, who was an agile climber, managed to get a few good handholds and swing himself up nearly to the capstone. For a moment, badly winded, he hung there in the darkness like a bat, looking down between his feet at the glow from the shamadan. Then holding himself by one hand while he braced himself with his feet, he peered with the flashlight into every aperture.
Everywhere it caught on rough ocher-red surfaces except one, where some smaller stones had been heaped together. Pushing them aside he disclosed a blackened box, or receptacle, about eighteen inches square. His position was awkward; he had but a single free hand and that held the light, and as he shifted the object to his shoulder his foot slipped. For a moment or two he swung there and then fell heavily to the floor below, striking his head a violent blow against the edge of his find.
When he came to himself he found that he was severely bruised from head to foot and suffering from a sprained wrist. The flashlight was smashed to atoms. He lay there several minutes more, trying to collect himself, while the wind shrieked and roared through the cracks of the pyramid.
The gibleh had brought the sand storm and it was evidently centering among the ruins of Kurafra. And then Calthrop remembered the casket, and in spite of his pain crawled to his knees and shifted the light from the shamadan this way and that along the floor until he found it lying unharmed nearby. The hide of which it was made was black with age and hard as iron, and the peculiar shapelessness of the affair gave it somewhat the appearance of an enormous dried shark’s egg. With the shamadan elevated upon his haversack, he sat down and lifted the casket upon his knees. As he did so he found that he was trembling.
“Nonsense!” he said aloud. “It’s probably empty anyhow!”
His heart beat like a tom-tom as he grasped the cover, and when he attempted to lift it the leather hinges broke, discharging a small cloud of fine dust. Raising the shamadan above his head, Calthrop looked inside.
“I lifted the shamadan above my head and looked inside,” said Calthrop. “Try to picture to yourself what a tremendous moment that was for me! I was pretty well done after six days on camel back. I’d traveled nearly two hundred and fifty miles. I’d fallen twenty feet and given my head a beastly knock. I’d just discovered the ruins of a city that no white man knew existed. I was more or less lost in the heart of the Libyan Desert. I didn’t know whether I was ever going to get back or not, and I had a queer feeling that I wasn’t alone in the place. I can’t explain it.
“All those elements combined to give the performance a curious feeling of unreality. Was I there, or was I dreaming it? Or was I someone else? Was I sitting cross-legged inside a pyramid five thousand years old, holding this thing on my knees, or where was I? And outside the gibleh was shrieking like all the demons of hell let loose, and the sand came rattling and sifting through the cracks and swirling across the floor. The shamadan flickered and burned blue. I seemed to hear shouts and screams all around, above and below. And that box wasn’t mine! Yes, I confess it, I hesitated a few seconds before lifting the cover. And then I did! At first I couldn’t make out anything, and then I saw there was a mess of papers and — Well, I’ll show you what I found, exactly as I found it.”
Calthrop got up from the dinner table at which they were seated and went to his cabin. He had returned from his trip only that afternoon, but the members of the party had already learned the details from General Hunter of how the caravan had nearly perished of thirst seven days from Bukara, had been found by a flyer sent out by the Frontier Districts Administration, and how Calthrop himself had been finally rescued by a troop of the Camel Corps Patrol under Major Bagley himself.
He was hollow-eyed, burned black, with cracked lips, almost a wreck, but obviously laboring under an exhilaration that approached hysteria. Something had happened to the man; something that had profoundly affected him; something concerning which they had not cared to ask him.
He returned, carrying the casket in his arms, and they watched him breathlessly as he held it above the candles. The only sound was the lap of the current against the river bank, the scream of the frogs, the chanting of the sailors, to the faint pulsations of the daraboukeh. Through the plate-glass windows of the saloon a white moon looked in upon a table decorated with flowers and silverware. The Princess Zeeka, smoking a tiny cigarette in a long jade holder, sat with her chin in her hands, her elbows among the wineglasses, her eyes fastened expectantly upon Calthrop’s face.
“Move those glasses, will you?” he said to his sister. “Push the candles nearer together please, excellency. Yes, I want you all to have the story just as it unfolded itself to me, step by step. What that box contained might have changed the whole history of civilization!”
He waited while Miss Calthrop arranged the glasses, then placed the box in the center of the table and opened it.
“This is what I found!”
And Calthrop held up to their astonished gaze a Roman short sword and scabbard, with its accompanying belt, thickly studded with semiprecious stones. Even after two thousand years the facets of the jewels reflected the candlelight undimmed. Professor Troy examined it carefully.
“Extraordinary! It is of the time of Tiberius. Congratulations, Calthrop. You’ll be famous. Even the coins of Hadrian found in the Fayum created a sensation, and they were nothing to this.”
But the princess looked slightly disappointed.
“I see that you were joking,” she said. “All you meant was that a sword might have changed the destinies of Europe.”
“Wait a moment,” he answered excitedly. “No, I did not refer to the sword, but to something else — that the box once contained.”
“What was that?” asked Ismail Bey. “And what has become of it?”
“These will tell you,” he replied, lifting a bundle of letters. “Do you read German easily?” he asked the princess.
“I do not like to read German,” answered Zeeka.
“Give them to me. I will make a try at it,” said Professor Troy. “I spent three years at Heidelberg in my extreme youth.”
“How soiled they are!” exclaimed the princess. “I am glad I do not have to read them.”
“Do you remember our conversation about Christianity the evening before I left,” went on Calthrop, “and how the professor told us about the legend of the Lost Gospel, and suggested that — ”
“By George, Calthrop!” exploded Troy. “This is a letter from William Hohenzollern, former Emperor of Germany!”
“That does not interest me in the least,” remarked the princess.
Troy wiped his glasses and spread the crumpled sheet upon the snowy damask before him. “Listen,” he commanded,
“‘AT THE MANEUVERS,
“‘August 20, 1913.
“My dear Harnach-Hulsen: I trust that by this time you are safely at Jerusalem. You remember our interesting talk about a year ago, when Cardinal Kopp, Prince-Bishop of Breslau, and our friends Von Tirpitz and Von Bernhardi were present, and we discussed the biological aspect of war. At that time your remarks struck me as of great force. When you have the time I should be glad to have you set them down in writing. I shall see that they are disseminated through the proper educational, military and ecclesiastic channels, in order that the virility of my people may not be permitted to decay through the insidious and demoralizing influence of an effeminate desire for peace which dominates our age and threatens to spoil the soul of the German people according to its true moral significance. War is not merely a necessary element in the life of nations, but an indispensable factor of culture, in which a truly civilized nation finds the highest expression of strength and vitality.
“‘In answer to the query in your last letter, I distinguish between two different kinds of revelation — a progressive historical revelation and a purely religious one, paving the way to the future coming of the Messiah. As to the first, there is not the smallest doubt in my mind that God constantly reveals himself through the human race created by Him, through some great savant or priest or king, whether among the heathens, Jews or Christians.
“‘The second kind of revelation, the more religious kind, is that which is introduced from Abraham onward, slowly, but with foresight, all-wise and all-knowing, the actual revelation of the Almighty.
“‘Is not His Word our authority? Delitzsch, as a good theologian, should not forget that our great teacher Luther taught us to sing and believe, Das Wort sie sollen Lassen stehn.
“‘It must be our guide, until the Messiah, announced and foreshadowed by the prophets and psalmists, shall at last declare himself. In what form or when the Messiah.may appear no one knows. It may be in the far future or he may be on earth among us even now, unrevealed save to those who perceive and understand, beggar or emperor. But the day arrives!
“‘Unfortunately the condition of her majesty has become worse. My heart is filled with the most grievous sorrow. God with us!
“‘With heartiest thanks and many greetings, I remain always,
“‘Your sincere friend,
“‘WILLIAM I. R.’”
“A characteristic epistle, but not highly illuminating,” declared Ismail Bey. “What else have you got there, Calthrop?”
“Did not this same emperor recently remarry?” the Princess Zeeka inquired of Troy.
The professor ignored her, for he regarded her as a bore. Besides, he was engaged at that moment in wondering whom William had in mind in penning the words “beggar or emperor.”
“Yes, dear lady, he did remarry,” answered Ismail Bey. “But having deprived him of the occupation of war, you should not begrudge him the consolation of love.”
“The next in order is Harnach-Hulsen’s answering letter to the Kaiser,” said Calthrop. “Will you help us out again, professor?”
“I knew Harnach-Hulsen years ago at Heidelberg. I recall him chiefly as a duelist for the Saxe-Gothas. He had quite a record.”
“Well, here is his letter. It is a long one. Take your time.”
Professor Troy drew his chair toward the table so that the candlelight fell upon the bundle of sheets in his hand. They were covered with a fine running script.
“He dates his epistle from the Pyramid Emperor William II,” he remarked dryly, glancing at his host.
“‘Jan. 29, 1914.
“‘Imperial and Royal Majesty and All-Highest Lord: With most humble gratitude I acknowledge Your Majesty’s wire received at Cairo. I can already say without egotism that Your Majesty’s interest in this expedition has borne surprising fruit. I have in fact made discoveries of the highest archeological importance, in their way rivaling those of Schliemann.
“‘To take matters in order: After leaving Bukara we proceeded northeastwards toward the Fayum for five days without finding water, although assured by our Berbers that there were desert wells within a distance of two hundred and fifty kilometers. They may have had some sinister plan. I do not trust these people. The only way to get along with them is by dominating them absolutely. The traveling was exceedingly difficult owing to the immense dunes of white sand thrown up by the wind, which drift quite a long distance each year. To cross these dunes is slow and exhausting work, and it is better where possible to follow the hatias between them and to cross at the low places. It is hard to shape any very definite course.
“‘However, on the seventh day, about sunset, when our camels were giving signs of exhaustion, I thought I saw from the top of one of the dunes, at a distance of about a mile, something projecting from the sand that looked like an outcropping of limestone. To my great excitement this proved to be the top of a small pyramid almost entirely submerged; and shortly, at about the right distance, we came upon the two pylons of a temple. It is probable that had we not discovered these they would have been obliterated entirely by the moving sands within a few years.
“‘Here we established our camp and, having measured and photographed the surface remains, began excavating on the side of the pyramid toward the temple, where the stones appeared to have been previously tampered with.
“‘We are proceeding slowly also to excavate the outer surface of the pylons, and have already laid bare not only the usual hymns to Amon-Ra and Sebek, the crocodile god, but also inscriptions made during the reign of Darius and added to by Nektanebes, as well as a Greek inscription in sixty-six lines dating from the second year of the reign of the Emperor Galba, A.D. 69. We have named the pyramid, subject to your gracious permission, the Pyramid of the Emperor William II.
“‘We broke very easily through the outer wall of the pyramid and found a rough passage leading to an unfinished empty chamber. Charred embers and a roll of matting upon the floor showed that robbers had once used it for a hiding place. Concealed in a recess, we found a small chest containing a jeweled belt and short sword, a few gold coins and a papyrus many meters in length. This last appears to be a sort of journal, in the form of a letter addressed to the Emperor Tiberius at Capri by one Gaius Marcus Claudius Silenus, a Roman gentleman traveling in the East under the imperial protection. The Latin text is hard to decipher, probably owing to the fact that it was written in many different localities and under varying conditions. I am translating it as fast as I can with due regard for our other work.
“‘The manuscript is dated at Thebes, in the seven hundred and sixty-sixth year of the founding of the city of Rome, and after the customary complimentary salutations to Tiberius begins with a brief statement that the writer, having killed many crocodiles and lions — these last with the aid of hunting cheetahs of the celebrated breed trained by the Ptolemys — has learned of the ruins of an ancient city called Kurafra lying on the edge of the Western Desert, which he contemplates visiting.
“‘He then proceeds to give a long and unnecessarily detailed account of his travels in Cappadocia, Armenia and Syria, where he was the guest of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, on his way to Caesarea to stay with his cousin, Claudia Procula, wife of Pontius Pilatus, the procurator of Judea. He describes Herod as a drunkard, unfit for kingship, and laboring under the delusion of being the Messias of the Jews, and declares that he caused the murder of Iokanaan because the latter denied the truth of his claim. I regard this as of some historic interest, as it is in flat contradiction of Josephus.
“‘I find the work of translating the papyrus most fatiguing, as I have broken my reading glasses. The manuscript contains a description of the miraculous healing of Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s chief steward, by the thaumaturge known as Jesus, or Joshua, of Nazareth, whom Iokanaan had proclaimed to be the Messias of the Jews, and who was working many miracles throughout Galilee and Samaria. Silenus writes that there is no question about the authenticity of the various cures, since Chuza and Joanna are truthful people, as is also Jairus, a prominent citizen of Capernaum, whose little daughter was brought back to life by the prophet. He also tells how a Jew named Lazarus was similarly raised from the dead, and recounts many restorations of lepers, paralytics, palsied, deaf and dumb, and those officially certified as insane. He describes the great excitement attendant upon these miracles, and mentions a letter that he has received from Claudia Procula, his cousin, asking him to look into the matter with a view to the possibility of inducing the prophet to come to Jerusalem to try to cure Pilate of diabetes.
“‘Silenus then tells of how he went on in the company of Herod Antipas, Herodias and Salome, her daughter, to Jerusalem, where Pilate, who had come up from Caesarea for the Feast of the Passover, was occupying the palace of Herod the Great. He describes how annoyed Antipas is at finding the palace in which he was brought up as a boy commandeered by the Romans and how it has resulted in a certain coldness between himself and the tetrarch, whom he had just been visiting on the friendliest terms. Here he finds to his surprise that his cousin Procula is already, without as yet having seen Christ, more than half a convert to his teachings, fully believing that he is the long-foretold Messias of the Jews. He also related how Pilate is very unpopular with all classes, but particularly the Pharisees, and how they are always plotting his removal by trying to lead him into acts giving the impression that he is disloyal to the emperor.
“‘Then comes a description of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the temple, and of his accusation by the officers of the Sanhedrin of treason to Caesar, as a result of which he is placed under arrest and brought before Pilate.
“‘Next follows an account of how Silenus is sent secretly to Christ with an offer of freedom if he would cure Pilate of disease, which is refused, and of the trial of Christ, with its background of political plot and counterplot. Pilate, fearful that unless he accedes to the demand of the Sanhedrin and turns Christ over to them he will be accused of treason to Rome, recalls the presence of Herod in the city and accordingly seeks to escape responsibility for either the release or the delivery of the prisoner to the Jews by sending Silenus to Herod with the suggestion that, as Christ is a Galilean, he comes within the latter’s jurisdiction. But the tetrarch is too wily to be caught and sends the prisoner back to Pilate at the praetorium, inwardly pleased at the dilemma in which the Roman procurator finds himself.
“‘Silenus describes how Pilate, realizing that he cannot evade his duty, becomes greatly disturbed, and representing that he will take the case under advisement sends Silenus to Christ to interrogate him as to his actual doctrines and to determine whether they are treasonable. Procula, unknown to her husband, insists on going with him. They find Christ in a dungeon of the Sanhedrin and have a lengthy conversation with him. They also seek him out later and continue the discussion of various phases of his doctrines, more particularly with respect to the ultimate determination of contested issues.
“‘I cannot say that these alleged interpretations of Christ’s philosophy, even if genuine, add anything to the German theory of culture so often elucidated by Your Royal and Gracious Majesty to Von Bernhardi, Von Tirpitz and myself. In fact it may so easily cause a natural confusion and misunderstanding as to our biological point of view that it perhaps would better be suppressed in the higher interests of the state. I am in grave doubt as to what course to pursue, as any suspicion of our discovery on the part of the public would doubtless result in the demand for a complete disclosure, the refusal of which might arouse unfavorable inference.
“‘Would that Your Gracious Majesty were here to direct my thoughts into harmony with the purposes of Almighty God! I am writing this letter in the unlikely hope that I may be able to transmit it to Bukara by some passing caravan.
“‘To my great satisfaction, I learned from your telegram that there had been an improvement in the health of Her Majesty. May God help further.
“‘With the deepest respect, unlimited fidelity and gratitude, I am, All-Highest, Your Imperial and Royal Majesty’s most humble servant,
“Mashallah!” shouted Ismail Bey. “Where is this papyrus?”
He started to look into the casket, but Calthrop restrained him by a touch upon the shoulder.
“A moment, excellency, if you please! Let us take one thing at a time. There is still one other paper — an unfinished letter from Trent to his mother. That letter I will read to you myself:
“‘Jan. 29, 1914.
“‘Dearest mother: At last I can tell you the marvelous news! We’ve found Kurafra! Do you realize what that means? You can’t blame me for being excited. Who wouldn’t be? But Kurafra is nothing to what we found there! Our caravan had a terrible time crossing the dunes, and we were nearly all in when we found the pyramid that marks the site. Of course we both went nearly crazy. I’m sure Harnach-Hulsen would have got drunk if there had been anything to get drunk on but laghbi. As it was, he made a long speech and toasted the Kaiser in lukewarm coffee. Then he had a sort of dedication ceremony and baptized the pyramid. “I name thee Wilhelm der Zweite.” It was funny as anything, although he took it dead seriously.
“‘I didn’t grudge it to him, for I found the Lost Gospel! H-H didn’t! He may claim to, but he didn’t! I got climbing around inside the peak of old Wilhelm Secundus, and there it was, in a box, where it had lain for nineteen hundred years! You see, Marcus Claudius Silenus, who wrote it to send to the Emperor Tiberius … evidently hadn’t time to finish it at Jerusalem and so he took it along with him when he started off to hunt for Kurafra in 31 A.D. H-H says that what undoubtedly happened was that Silenus was murdered by robbers who hid their booty in the pyramid and forgot to come back for it, or were killed or something.
“‘Anyhow, we’ve got it! And it’s the greatest find since the Sinaitic parchment, the Codex Aleph as they call it, and infinitely more important. For it is an actual Fifth Gospel, in which the writer has written down with the greatest care the exact words of Christ about a lot of things that have always been the subject of argument. For example, regarding the individual ownership of property. But, far more important, his ideas about war! This wonderful old papyrus is going to change everything. The language is so simple, yet so beautiful and convincing. Only to think that the fingers that wrote the letters that are lying now before me had just touched those of Jesus! I can’t sleep. I can hardly eat. With this direct revelation and injunction from Christ’s own lips, there can never be any such thing as war again!
“‘Harnach-Hulsen does not seem very well. I am afraid the heat has done him up. He has been acting very queer and grouchy for a couple of days. He — ”
“Why did he not finish the letter?” asked Zeeka.
“That you must judge for yourself.” Calthrop placed the letter with the others and poured himself a glass of brandy and soda.
“Now to go back a little, let me resume my narrative. I’ve told you how I fell with the casket in my arms and hit my head and probably passed out for a while; and how I finally came to, grubbed around for the box and opened it. Finding the sword, of course, gave me a stupendous kick; but naturally it was nothing to the thrill I got out of the letters. I’d give a lot to be able to paint the thing for you exactly as it was.”
He hesitated, put down his glass and fumbled for his words.
“You see, a very queer sort of thing happened. I’m the last person in the world for that kind of an experience. The wind was raising Cain all around and through the pyramid and the flame of my shamadan kept flickering — what’s the word they use? — ‘guttering,’ I guess — and made weird shadows all over the place and gave me a feeling that I was not alone in there. I could feel — presences — emanations or something. And as I read the letters — it’s hard for me to explain — I can only describe it by saying that I lost my time sense; or rather, as it were, I saw time as a whole — going both ways at once. I — well, I seemed to be detached from the whole business. It was as if everything had telescoped — reversed itself or something — and turned inside out. It was quite weird, I can tell you.”
He shut his eyes and passed his hand across his forehead.
“Of course the bang on my head had something to do with it, no doubt — exhaustion and all that — but I found myself looking very intently at the flame of the shamadan. I suppose there is such a thing as autohypnosis. Anyhow, at first it seemed to be just a blur of radiance. The air was full of flying sand and the flame danced and wavered and tore at the wick — and right there It — whatever It was — happened.”
He pulled one of the candles in front of him. Through the window a broad, glittering moon path lay like a silver drugget across the Nile. Calthrop pointed into the flame.
“As I looked,” he said slowly, “the blur focused — if you get what I mean — and everything became very clear — and distinct — and still — and small. I seemed to be inside the flame, looking out, and at the same time to be outside looking in, and seeing myself in there looking out, as if the whole thing were going on at the wrong end of a spy glass and I had gone through. I know it sounds quite mad.”
He laughed nervously.
“Anyhow, it was all more like feeling than seeing; a visual awareness, if there is such a thing, that I was sitting there inside that blooming pyramid in the middle of a sandstorm fishing inside the box by the light of the shamadan. And I felt sure — you’ll probably think me an utter idiot — that there was something in there near me that I can’t possibly describe. The flame burned up bright again until the inside of the pyramid was bright as day and I could see right through it as if it had been made of glass. And out of the middle of the light a great thing like a gigantic seesaw ran up through the pyramid into the sky — into eternity. It said ‘Don’t touch it!’ Then I knew that It was myself and that the seesaw was Time. I found that I was sliding along it, faster and faster, until I was shooting out into space with the velocity of light. As I flew I saw everything that ever happened. You’ve seen those moving pictures that illustrate Einstein’s theory, showing a human being shot into space at such a rate of speed that he goes flying back through the centuries, overtaking and passing the former years? Well, it was like that, you know. I saw everything that ever happened — only backwards.
“I saw the desert floor sinking lower and lower and the pylons of the temple lifting higher and higher, until temple and pyramid both stood free and clear of the sand and joined by a long avenue of sphinxes. I saw caravans of camels and Bedouins on fast hajins — hawk-faced men with cruel mouths — coming and going. I saw the pyramid being built and the slaves dragging the stones into place up an inclined spiral plane that wound around it. The country was soft and green and covered with palm trees, and the air was sweet and laden with moisture. And then I came rushing down aslant time again and seeing it all forward instead of backwards, the desert sand drifting in, the pylons and the pyramid sinking back, back, until I was looking into a fire surrounded by a circle of peering Arab faces, and then I saw that the fire was my own shamadan and the circle of faces was the same face repeated over and over again — the face of old Ibrahim, who was sitting cross-legged there behind me.”
Calthrop laughed again — apologetically.
“How he had found his way there across the dunes in that sandstorm I can’t imagine, but there he was, and his presence gave me considerable relief. He said that he had stood outside for a long time and shouted to me, but the wind must have carried away his voice. I had begun to feel very chilly. Ibrahim went snooping back in the darkness and came back presently with a handful of brush and a few cakes of camel dung, with which we built a fire, and then I pulled out my brandy flask and mixed a couple of stiff drinks with the water from my zemzemieh. He showed no reluctance about taking it.
“Did you ever see an Arab partly boiled? It’s a very curious sight. I fancy we were both pretty well lit up. At all events, he told me the story of his life, and whenever he showed signs of weakening I’d give him another drink. He was eighty-two years old, he said, and had seen many, many things. I let him run on, and by and by he got down to what I was after.
“It was, he said, in the thirteen-hundred-and-thirty-sixth year of the Hejireh that there came to their town of Bukara a red gentleman, a khawlija el hamri, named Harnach-Hulsen, and a white gentleman, a khawaja el abiad, named Trent. When, however, they learned that these gentlemen sought to find Kurafra the Forbidden City, which Allah had caused to disappear, they were afraid and refused to go with them; but eventually the strangers overcame their fears with gold, and they went. Then he, Mohammed Ali Ibrahim ben Rahim, from the knowledge handed down to him by his great-grandfather, who had it from his great-grandfather, led them here in five days’ journey, to their great joy. Now, there was at that time a well in this place which has since filled with sand.
“Accordingly they made their camp at the other end of the hatia beside the well, but the two gentlemen pitched their tent outside the pyramid and Ibrahim remained with them to serve them. Each day they superintended the digging, and transcribed what was written upon the walls of the temple and made photographs. At night they were busy inside their tent. When they found the chest inside the pyramid they were both very much excited and abandoned everything else in order to decipher the parchment. They sat about all day, and because of the heat in the tent they went inside the pyramid and worked there, coming out at evening and mealtimes.
“Then one night they had a violent row. Ibrahim did not know what it was about, but he felt sure it had something to do with the papyrus. It was a still, moonlit night and the Arabs could hear the red gentleman shouting inside the tent at the other end of the hatia. They, of course, did not know what he was saying; but they could make out references to the Prophet Christ and the phrase ‘mahr ve khareb,’ signifying ‘annihilation.’ The voices rose higher and higher, until the Arabs became very much terrified, and at length the two gentlemen came out of the tent. The khawaja el abiad had the box in his arms and the khawaja el hamri was trying to take it away from him. The struggle became so violent that the entire contents, including the sword, fell out upon the sand. The white gentleman grabbed the papyrus, thrust it behind his back and began pleading with the red gentleman. But the latter seemed to have gone mad, for he picked up the sword and drove it through the white gentleman’s breast. Then he wrenched the papyrus out of the hand of the dead man and threw it into the middle of the fire.”
Calthrop’s lips quivered as he reached into the box and removed a blackened stick to which adhered a charred irregular strip of parchment about two inches wide.
“Ad Tiberium Cmsarem Imperatorem Capreae,” spelled out Ismail Bey. “Magistro Meo Salutem Mashallah! It is a part of the letter to Tiberius!”
“The Lost Gospel!” whispered Calthrop. “All that is left of what might have changed the destiny of the world!” And he burst into tears.
There was a prolonged silence. The princess laid her hand gently on Calthrop’s arm. Her own eyes were wet.
“Do not cry,” she said. “Please do not cry!”
“I’m sorry,” he answered. “I’m a bit strung up.” He ground his handkerchief into his eyes. “Well, after Harnach-Hulsen had burned up the papyrus he went back into the tent, and Ibrahim and the other Arabs ran away. When they came back in the morning Trent was dead and Harnach-Hulsen was still in the tent.”
He stopped and took a sip of water.
“And what became of the German?” asked Imail Bey.
“That is highly significant,” said Calthrop. “When the Arabs realized what had happened they were so fearful lest they should be accused of the murder that they killed Harnach-Hulsen and buried the two of them in the same grave.”
Again he paused.
“So the world will never know — ” began his sister as she stared at the fragment of burnt papyrus. Somehow the past seemed very close to all of them — the past which is part of the present, and of the future. From the neighboring dahabeah floated laughter, the tinkle of silver upon glass, the wheeze of the phonograph playing The Barnyard Blues, while myriad frogs shrilled in the shadoofs — lineal descendants of the same batrachians that had sung to sleep the infant Moses and acclaimed his finding by the daughter of the Pharaoh. A great star hung like a sconce of liquid fire over the Temple of Karnak — just such a star as had guided the Magi to the manger of Bethlehem, where lay the infant Christ.
“There isn’t much more to tell,” said Calthrop at length. “Ibrahim said the rest of the Arabs had never returned to Bukara and that he himself had lived in Siwa for five years before going back to his family. His story had pretty well knocked me out. The wind was shrieking outside the pyramid, the fire was almost dead, and it was getting terribly cold in there. I wouldn’t have cared if Eblis himself had been waiting for me out there in the hatia. I threw the things into the casket, bundled up the rest of my stuff and told Ibrahim that I was going back to the caravan no matter what. He protested at first; but finally he gave in, and we went out and found the camels huddled against one another, half buried in sand. The wind nearly tore me off my beast’s back, and whirled my blanket and raincoat in flapping circles above my head. The air was a thick sheet of stinging, biting dust and grit that cut like glass. The screaming gusts seemed to tear my eyes from their sockets. All sense of direction was blotted out, like the sky. One could only feel.
“I don’t know how we ever made the caravan or how we managed to stick it out when we did. But eventually the wind died down, and by dawn the sky was clear and the air still. By nine o’clock the heat had become suffocating. We were seven days from Bukara, and without water our chances of getting back there were small. While the Arabs were packing the camels I climbed up to the top of the gherd from which I had spied the pyramid the night before. What I’m going to tell you isn’t the least queer part of it all either. There wasn’t a sign of either temple or pyramid left! During the night the sand had completely covered both. The desert had finished its job!”
He lit a cigarette at one of the candles.
“Bagley’s told you the rest, of course — how they spotted us with a flyer and the Camel Corps Patrol picked us up about ninety kilos out of Bukara. You can bet I was glad to see them! I had to abandon my caravan but they gave me a fresh hajin and — Well, here I am!”
He began gathering up the papers. Ismail Bey watched him, frowning. “An efficient person — from his own viewpoint — this Harnach-Hulsen,” he mused. “But the world would never have accepted it.”
“Very efficient; very learned,” agreed Professor Troy. “And if you will believe it, as a young man, very sentimental.”
“Didn’t he write a book on Civilization and Decay?” inquired Rhoda Cafthrop.
“Yes; and in it he gave warning of the danger to civilization of the rising tide of barbarism. The Kaiser gave him the Black Eagle for it,” said Troy.
“How beautiful the sword is!” exclaimed the Princess Zeeka. “How the hilt sparkles! I know many of the stones. We have them in Russia, set in our icons. There is beryl and topaz and turquoise and lapis lazuli. Even a sword can be very beautiful.”
Ismail Bey, holding it under the candles, drew the blade part way from the jeweled scabbard. The princess examined it eagerly.
“How bright it is, in spite of its great age!” she said. “Is it not strange for such an old sword to be so blight?”
The Egyptian turned it slowly. The silken shades of the candles tinged the blade a dull red.
“What is that thin black line under the hilt?” asked the princess.
Ismail Bey glanced at her through his eyebrows.
“That, dear lady,” he answered reverently, “is the blood of a very gallant gentleman.”
For several minutes there was no sound save the chirping of the frogs and the melancholy challenge, “Allahu akbar! La-ilahah! Al-lah! Al-lah!”
Then a footstep clattered in the passage, and Hawkins, the wireless operator, immaculate in white duck, entered, cap in hand.
“Beg pardon,” he said, “but Jerusalem is broadcasting, and — the French have just entered the Ruhr!”
Featured image: Illustrated by James H. Crank / SEPS.
Florida journalist and activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a fierce advocate for the preservation of the Everglades. In addition to her stories on the environment, Douglas wrote fiction for the Post that won the O. Henry Prize. One such story is “The Peculiar Treasure of Kings,” a yarn about an aged sailor who finds himself on a bark with a captain who is at once a stranger and close family.
Published on November 26, 1927
Whenever old Johnny Mathew had to rest his face from its enforced habit of cheerfulness he came and sat alone on his favorite bench in the little park at Charlotte Amalie, where his mild seaman’s eye could look out over the shimmering translucence of the bay, where the ships lay lightly. Over him and over the statue of some forgotten Danish prince in a cast-iron Prince Albert coat, a flagstaff pushed a bright American flag up into the steady wind from the Caribbean. It was a comfort to let his face sag and his eyes show their weariness that was often very like desperation, here where no one could notice him, among the raw red croton bushes and the tall upcurving coconuts. Today even his shoulders sagged under his worn cotton coat, and his neatly trimmed gray head drooped to his chest. Old Johnny had had a shock. He had seen his son.
He was on that bark out there in the harbor, the bark Mary Parsons, which three days ago, to his excitement, had moved beautifully under her own canvas to an anchorage among the coal steamers, stately as a lady and splendid as new hope. She was that to him. She meant that he might be able to get a berth on her, any sort of job, to escape from this fear he had of being sent back to the States by the authorities, shamefully, as a pauper. The small wad of money he had left after being discharged from the hospital here would not last another month, and his hopes of getting anything to do on any of these casual steamers that stopped for an hour or two were dwindling with it.
He knew steamships well enough. But like the old sailing man that he was, secretly he had a contempt for them — for steamships that battered and reeked their dirty way among the boom and slide of clean oceans which only sails, to his old-fashioned way of thinking, were fit to serve. The Mary Parsons was bound to Rio with lumber, he found out; but off St. Thomas her captain had been taken dangerously ill and she had put in here so that he could be operated on at the hospital while she communicated with her owners. She was waiting now for orders. And John Mathew’s own son, the son that Annie had made him promise never to hunt up or try to know, was the Mary Parsons’ second mate.
He had noticed the boy for the first time yesterday morning, when he had had himself rowed out to the ship to speak to the mate about a berth. The feel of the ship under him, after these sickly months of earth, the orderly lift of her cordage over his head, had made him happy, although the mate had not been encouraging. He was genial enough about it, to be sure, with a surly sense of power already in the swing of his thick shoulders and his thick hands, and old Johnny had lingered to promote the general friendliness with one or two of those sprightly yarns he carried under his tongue, which often won him dinners from the men from the ships.
The mate, with the command of the Mary Parsons so nearly in his grasp, was ripe for friendliness. Old Johnny was a seaman and no beach comber, he could feel him thinking. As a result, old Johnny spoke as an expert of the chicken at Yellow Charlie’s and of Yellow Charlie’s admirable habit of slipping a little very old Jamaica rum to the elbow of anyone he knew was right. That fixed everything. The mate promptly wanted to be shown.
So old Johnny had started for the ladder, feeling fairly cheery and looking thoroughly sprightly, when he saw the second mate. The thing that startled him was nothing he could put his finger on. It was just a whiff of something familiar in the look of that lean brown youth coming silently down the deck, with a still gray eye and a shut look to his mouth, as if something hot and dogged in him pulled tight at his lips, which might have been more restless than he cared to show. The older, smaller man stood for a moment at the ladder top, caught by that look of something that he had known. The second passed him with a cool glance full in the eye, not bold so much as measuring, and the image of him stuck in old Johnny’s mind in spite of his deeper concern.
He met the mate at the boat landing as the dark slid down the mountainside, and he saw that the second had come along in the boat too. Old Johnny talked easily as he led them up the cobbles, under the wooden galleries, past open doors and windows where lamplight splashed across the murmurous dark. They climbed among the heavy scent of jasmine and frangipani, and the tropic night hummed like Africa below the firm sound of their boots. Old Johnny hardly noticed what his tongue was saying because of the way his disturbed mind darted about the silent young figure at his shoulder. What was it about the boy?
Then over a table with the lamp on it, in the bare second-floor room at Yellow Charlie’s, with the night wind bulging the flowered cotton curtain and the sound of feet shuffling by on the stones below, he had heard the mate say, “Mat Brandon here’s our second, Mr. Mathew. I don’t know’s I told you.” And in the moment in which the boy had stretched a hand, silently, to his, he had seen that scar in the left eyebrow.
It was only a thin white line that cut it sharply in two and went up the forehead an inch — an old scar, almost unnoticeable. But at the sight of that, old Johnny’s body shivered with an unforgotten chill. He had caused that scar himself. It was a memory that turned him sick, even now, in his bed nights. The baby had slipped through his fingers as he held him high one time he had come home a little drunk. He remembered how he had been snatched from a jovial mist by the sight of the little thing bleeding where his forehead had struck the edge of a table. Nothing of anything that he had done, all his life, had been so bitter, so remorseful, so remorseless, as memory of that. His forehead was wet now, suddenly thinking of it.
It was his son, right enough — Mathew Brandon; a son a man could cotton to who had that empty place in him for something to be proud of. When a man’s given up his house and his family, and the place where he grew up and the right to his memories and his name, he has that empty place in him. John Mathew, who had been John Mathew Brandon, thought of that, looking at that scar. Then he rapped on the table smartly to let Yellow Charlie know he had brought him some more customers.
The mate found the chicken good and the old Jamaica rum much to his liking, and his red face turned a slow purple as old Johnny, who did not let himself drink much, kept up the talk that seemed always to be expected of him. The second mate, that young Mat Brandon, who from across the table grew to look more and more like his own grandfather but for the mouth and chin that were his mother’s, did not drink much either. Old Johnny could not decide what that chin on the boy might mean. But he did see that he was like his mother in one thing. Under that quiet he was high-strung. The stillness of his body was almost rigidity. His nerves were tight as fiddle strings under a waiting restraint.
The mate was drinking heavily and boasting now — boasting about the captain’s illness and his own chance at the command. Drunk, he was a sloppy brute. Old Johnny saw that he would be blind drunk and helpless in another fifteen minutes. There was no use in his staying. He said so to Mat Brandon, who nodded carelessly, his gray eyes intent, dark in his waiting face.
Old Johnny’s knees were a little shaky, going slowly down the twisty cobbled street, in the soft vast and blackness of the night. He had a clean bare room in an old Danish house and he was glad to get there, worn out with all this unexpectedness. But the important thing was still that he should get away on that ship. If the captain did die, there would have to be changes. He wouldn’t like that mate for captain, but that was not the point. And whatever promises he had made Annie about not ever seeing the son, whom she considered he had disgraced by his drinking, his lightness, his habit of slipping off to sea without her permission, his being undependable and uproarious, had nothing to do with his own necessity now. Poor Annie. She was such a hard-working, righteous woman. She had that dreadful habit of denying to a man even his last scant measure of self-respect.
He was thinking about that still, sitting on the bench among the crotons, staring out at the bark Mary Parsons, full in the diamond radiance of the light. Or rather, he was not so much thinking about his self-respect as feeling it there in him, the very center of himself. He had been uproarious and undependable, as Annie had said. He had got drunk and wasted money and had disreputable friends. He had had a habit of letting responsibility slip out of his grasp, and the morning sea with the sun on it and men’s laughter and the moving sails of ships had set a wild gayety burning in him — burning in his veins with the conviction that life was nothing to get so solemn about. Even now that he was nearly old, he felt that way still, often, all by himself in the sunshine.
But nobody would give command of a ship to a small man and a laugher. He knew he worked better for someone else. As a mate he wasn’t bad. He could handle men well enough. He could stow a cargo cunningly to favor the nature of the ship. It had been Annie’s chief complaint against him that he had no ambition, no drive — that he was soft.
Well, he had certainly been soft to promise what she wanted of him, to give up the house to her, and his name — and the boy. But on the other hand, it was the least he could do for her if she felt like that. What difference did it make? He knew that in this world he was too proud to explain himself or ask favors or hoard bitterness for things long done. Maybe men did not succeed like that. But any other was simply not the way he thought, that was all.
Abruptly now he looked up and saw his son striding intently along one of the paths, even as he was thinking about him. He walked frowning at the ground. A good tall boy, old Johnny thought with a throb of pleasure, broad-shouldered for all his slenderness. He wished that he knew what the thoughts were behind the narrowed eyes, and what the tight mouth would become in an emergency.
As he looked the other saw him and strode up. “There you are,” he said quickly. “I was just wondering how I could get a hold of you. We’ll need you on the Mary Parsons. Captain Caddogan died this morning — and the mate’s disappeared. He was so drunk I had to leave him there. I cabled the owners and they told me to take the ship out at once, as captain.”
The older man stared up at the narrowed gray eyes, a little darker than his own, which looked down at him unwinkingly. There was a fixity about the boy’s face, as if he was more excited, secretly, than he would let appear. What he said had so surprised old Johnny that he stared up, unwinking, too, with something of that same fixity. It was as if the boy shared some secret knowledge with him, but for the life of him old Johnny did not know what that could be. All he could say was, “You’re — captain?”
“I’ve had my master’s papers for a year,” the other said firmly. “The owners knew that. They knew I was looking to better myself if the chance came. The mate should have known, the thick fool. They want the captain’s body shipped back to his wife. So we’re taking the ship out at five this afternoon.”
“You’ve got a berth for me on her?” old Johnny said slowly, to be certain, in all this welter of thoughts.
“That’s what I’m telling you — first mate,” young Mat said impatiently. “It’s a good thing for you and it’s not a bad thing for me to find you here. The papers are ready to be signed at the port office, as soon as you can, Mr. — er — I forget — ”
“Mathew,” old Johnny said, with his jaw out and his eyes bright — “John Mathew. I can be ready in half an hour.”
“Then get aboard as soon as you can, Mr. Mathew,” his son said, and turned on his heel. “We’ve lost time enough as it is.”
That was how John Mathew came to be standing at last by the lee rail of the Mary Parsons in the late afternoon, with the water of the open sea growing indigo ahead. The ship moved leisurely as she came out from between the sun-scorched headlands of the harbor, with the tug beside her, out until her spread sails, saffron with sunset, filled with the plumping steady force of the trades.
The new captain stood by the weather rail, casting his intent gray glance aloft with the swelling canvas and forward to the sea roughening to sapphire beyond the lifting bowsprit. Old Johnny observed him so, and the men forward who had brought the anchor up smartly under the ring of his own voice, lusty with old power and new relief, and were now coiling down the ropes for running — observed the whole ship with a heart so light it was positively giddy. He told himself that a man escaped from hanging could feel no more thankful than he did. It ran from his warmed heart over his elderly, wiry body, down to his heels, like the stirrings of youth.
With the work of getting the ship clear of the land well done, he could pause for a minute, like this, standing silently by the lee rail, to feel that foolish young jig and giggle in his breast. He dared swear to himself at that moment that he felt gayer and lighter-hearted than that surprising son of his, looking solemn over by the weather rail.
Now that he had time to think of this, free of anxiety, the situation was ridiculous. It tickled that easy sense of the ridiculous in him, the light ability for laughter, which poor Annie had found so hateful. He had to call his own son “Sir” whom he’d seen in diapers. It was good as a circus, when you came to think of it. Maybe about the hardest thing he’d have to do would be to keep his face straight.
And to think, besides, that he had never once had a smell at a command, not once in his life, and this young whippersnapper had calmly walked up and had one tossed in his hat. But then, of course, young bub there had probably his mother’s gift of wanting things fiercely. That was one good way of getting them, if you happen to want them. Old John admitted to himself cheerfully that he was not made that way. A first mate’s berth now, with somebody to take the worst of the responsibility, a good ship like this one under his heels, a crew like that one forward that the other first mate had put the fear of God into, and that wasn’t so bad, as crews went — well, he wouldn’t ask much more than that. And it was decidedly something interesting — more than interesting — that his son was captain here. It gave him a feeling — he hardly knew what it was, except that it was pleasurable. Poor Annie! How she would hate it if she knew he was here, like this, with the heels of his heart jigging and life once more running warmly in his veins.
The ship listed slightly and surged forward, having left all sounds of land behind her and filling her decks with the pleasantly prophetic murmur of full sails and taut cordage and a long wake curving and whitening behind to the already half-forgotten purple bulk of St. Thomas. Old Johnny gave no more than that one backward glance of his eye along the wake at those months of desperation behind him. It was not his way to clutter up his mind with old worries. He was more absorbed in the joy of his deliverance, which grew lustier with every blue wave that went under the forefoot, as if now for the first time he could see how he had snatched his very heel out of the sprung trap of poverty and sickness and old age. It might close on him yet, later. But it had not got him this time, by ginger, and it would be a long time before it had another chance!
The young captain walked his place on the deck and the elderly mate walked his, with their eyes occasionally up and always forward and their faces showing no more than the firm sound of their own boot heels on the planks what thoughts were turning and turning in their heads. Old Johnny went below presently to his supper, on the table that was like so many ship’s tables, under the skylight that was like so many that he had known, and he was served by a steward who might have been any one from a number of ships he could remember, looking back down the long alley of his years. The steward, more specifically, was Greek, with a flabby fat face smudged with a shaven beard like charcoal dust on his jowls, and flabby fat hands. The food was nothing to boast of, but old Johnny would not have it changed for Yellow Charlie’s finest chicken, for anything in the world. He slept heavily later, in the berth that had belonged to the red-faced mate, heavy as a runner exhausted with victory.
He woke easily, as his habit was, to take his watch at midnight, and went on deck lively as a cricket. Yet now that he had slept on his happiness and his sense of escape, he found his thoughts moving, as they had in their sleep, with a kind of deep concern about the figure of his son. On deck, the night was soft and huge and quiet, with the ship moving like a lighted shadow below the great shadows that were sails against the stars, and he could speak quietly to the man at the helm and see to the course and recognize with a quick glance the set of the sails and the quiet figures of his watch forward, even while his deeper thoughts went on.
It was certainly strange to think of having a son, a grown son, a son who followed the water and was the captain of a ship at his age — twenty-four, was it, or twenty-five? It was strange to have a human being near him linked by the cobweb ties of old memories, pain and dreariness and forgotten gleams of delight. It was not so much the thoughts of the past disturbed him, walking slowly and observantly by the weather rail, as that he found himself absorbed, more deeply than he had ever remembered being, in a sort of concern about his son. It was like a slow insatiable curiosity.
What sort of man was he? — that was the whole question. What things did he have in him, in the tough woven fiber of his own individuality, that he had had from his father or from his mother? What was there of his own, besides the unknown fusion of his grandfathers and his great-grandfathers? Would he, in a temper, go screaming mad the way his mother did, or like his Great-uncle Joshua on the Brandon side, who used to get sick to his stomach when he fought? Would he stand up to things and endure them without a word, like his grandfather on his mother’s side, or would he give way under the stress of sober burdens, like his own father?
Old Johnny brought himself up against the rail with the force of that. No, by ginger, he wouldn’t want his son to be the sort of man he was! No! No, by heaven! He saw himself at that moment too clearly. He was what he was, and he would stand for anything that came to him as a result of it — stand and not murmur and not regret. But he did not want his son to be like him. There would be no pride for him in learning that his son was like him. But if he were better, if he could prove himself better, better able to meet life on its own terms, more complete, more master of himself, more of a — well, of a man — ah, there would be pride for you!
Old Johnny threw his head back, and his shoulders, as a little shudder of revelation struck him, thinking what it would be like to be as proud as that. If what Annie was, that difficult, righteous, high-strung woman, and what he was could fuse somehow into the body and being of this son so that he could be a new being, made of them both and of all their shadowy trails of forbears, but a better one than either — great jumping Jupiter Amon, old Johnny saw blindingly, that would be — why, that would be — along with food and work to do that you could do, on a good ship — well, that would be about all a man could ask for!
It was a damn sight more than he had ever thought to ask for, he told himself soberly, watching the stars wheel and giving an ear to the creak of cordage and the rushing sound of water under the driven bows, slow deep rollers foaming along timber, that answered to the same deep chord in him who had heard it so almost all the years of his life.
When the new second mate of the Mary Parsons, who had been the boatswain, a Swede, a thin chap with a long bony head and knobby hard hands, awkward on the end of stringy arms, came up to relieve him, with the light from the binnacle flashing up on his long gold eyeteeth and his tow-colored eyebrows as he glanced down to read the card, old Johnny went below to his berth, sobered with the weight of so much thinking. The last thing he thought of, rolling over in his bunk, was that he hoped to God he wasn’t going to turn sentimental. At his age that would be hard to bear.
The dazzling morning brightness splashed through the open skylight on the cups and plates that the steward was laying for breakfast. Old Johnny glanced up through the opening at the piled white of the canvas and at the compass swinging over the captain’s place, assuring himself that nothing much of importance about the ship had been changed while he slept. The wind was holding well. The young captain dropped down the stairs from the after deck, where he had been having a look around for an hour or two, in his pajamas and nodded at his first mate, standing quietly by his chair.
“Fine morning, sir,” old Johnny said, repressing violently the muscle in the corner of his mouth that would twitch. “I see the wind’s holding.”
“Good wind, all right,” his son replied absently, sitting down. “Hey, steward, what’s the idea? The bacon’s burned and my knife’s not clean. Is that coffee hot, Mr. Mate? No, I thought not. Take back this dishwater, steward, and tell the cook to pull himself together. Perhaps you both think you can get by with this as you did when the other captain was sick. I’m giving you fair warning now. I’m not going to have anything dirty or slovenly on my ship. If you can’t scour the knives, there’s plenty men forrard who’d be glad of your place. I want this whole place swept up and the finger marks washed off the door paint. At eleven I shall inspect your pantry and you can warn the cook I shall look into the galley. Send the carpenter aft and have him fix that loose hinge on my door. Snap into it now!” His mouth shut and he sugared his oatmeal deliberately, and old Johnny dipped into his, still checking his wild desire to laugh.
That was Annie’s very housecleaning eye the boy had on him. She used to be death on finger marks on the door paint. But it was a good thing in a ship captain. No sense to letting things go slovenly. That red-faced mate, who had thought himself so sure of this command, would hardly have noticed if the knives had never been washed.
What had happened to that mate, by the way, old Johnny thought suddenly, as the subdued steward brought him a smoking cup of coffee. Drunk and disappeared! What did the boy mean by “disappeared?” Surely he couldn’t mean done away with! Old Johnny glanced slowly at the young captain silently inspecting the new platter of bacon, and studied that tight mouth and that jaw. Was it a jaw that would not stop at anything when there was something he wanted?
Old Johnny had hardly thought of that before because he had had so much else to think of. Men had got drunk and men had disappeared, to his knowledge, before this. But he had seen this boy’s face that night, watching the red-faced man turn swinish and sodden, and the memory of that look on it — that intent, high-strung, very nearly dangerous look — struck him now with a light chill. There was the same face at the head of the table, still intent, still silent, but now it had a ruddy color under the brown, and the mouth had smiled at him.
The boy was wearing the first day of his command with an unmistakable joyousness under the restraint of his position. Yet what had he done to bring him to it? It troubled old Johnny more than he liked to confess. Was he growing squeamish as well as sentimental in his old age? What difference did it make to him? He was here, wasn’t he?
It was pleasant to be on deck in the broad brilliance of the morning, with the ship racing forward splendidly over a sea of ridged and dazzling indigo. The intent face of the captain was there by the weather rail. And presently he was ordering more sail crowded on. Old Johnny snapped with vigor into his work, letting his head blow clear of thoughts. The jib boom thrashed steadily at the southward horizon. The deck bustled.
When the work of spreading the additional canvas was done the captain ordered the standing rigging overhauled, replaced and repaired, and told old Johnny privately that if that didn’t keep the men busy enough he could have out the chipping hammers and get at the cable. Old Johnny saw that there was something working at the boy behind his tight mouth and his narrowed eyes — something that drove him as he was driving the men and the ship.
Well, that was all right, the mate thought mildly, getting into the stride of his job. The boy seemed to know his stuff. He had ambition. If it was work he wanted old Johnny could supply it for him. It was good to get at it again after all these months. In no time at all he had the decks humming with orderly activity. The men weren’t a bad sort. He let them have a joke or two now and then along with orders and liked the way they took to it. He was getting to know the members of the crew as individuals, recognizing an old hand and a good worker here and there, recognizing which ones would shirk in a pinch and which ones could be depended on.
There was a little red-headed feller in his own watch who made him laugh, he was so like a monkey. Restless like a monkey and always on the grin. But a smart hand, none better. He knew well that what often seemed like freshness and impudence from a man like this was only a kind of nervous energy. Give a feller like that a pace to set the others and he’d have them all looking lively. That kind would work harder on a joke at the right minute than for a dozen belaying pins ready up the sleeve. Not that old Johnny wouldn’t be there with a blackjack anytime he had to. But he never liked that way.
The captain was certainly driving that ship. Morning after morning the mate found him crowding on every thread she could bear. Day after day she went booming down the latitudes with a bone in her teeth and a white wake boiling astern. And day after day the small elderly mate, caught up into the accustomed routine of a ship, the orderly sequence of watches, the work of the day and the work of the night, found himself accustomed to the hidden things which worked in his mind, about the captain, who was strangely also his son.
He knew little more about him than he had learned at first. He had turned no more pages in what was practically a book closed and locked to him. The boy was there, intent on his work, vigilant, unsparing of himself, a capable master. His driving force might often seem like a force that was driven. His mouth never was allowed to slip into restlessness. What he thought — by the captain’s rail in the captain’s watches, shut in his own room nights, pacing the deck in some tranquil hour of loneliness before sundown, when the sea was roughened lightly by the good following winds — old Johnny could not guess.
But one thing the mate did know, and that was that in spite of himself he was growing proud of that boy. Day by day the warmth of that lifted in that empty place in him — lifted until the elderly man thought often he must be all lighted up with it like a church on fire. It caught him unexpectedly, in a long night watch or moving among the men or swapping yarns with the second mate. It crept over him suddenly like day out of the sea, and there he would be, in a breathless moment, blazing with pride.
He was proud of the ship, too, and the way the men were working, but he could talk about that pride. They were all proud of that ship, and they talked about it — the watch off duty forward, and the mates aft, having another cup of coffee after supper, with their elbows on the table and their eyes turning automatically now and then through the open skylight to the high piled sails, ruddy with the dregs of a great tropic sun. But the other pride was a secret thing, a thing he had all to himself, to hoard and hug to himself, rolled up in his bunk or walking silently by the helmsman, in the long nights or the blue, amazing afternoons.
Then the northeast trades, blowing fitfully over a sea smooth as bright hot pewter, failed. The ship rolled a little on the long polished swells, her yards creaking, her empty sails slatting. The sky was stainless; an infinity of blue burned a fierce white at the zenith, where the bare sun smoked. The ship’s rails were scorching to the hand. Her shadow lay short under her bows, blue fire, through which the dolphins arched their backs. Only smudges of light airs darkened idly the immense platter of the sea. The lowered careless voices of the crew at work in whatever shade they could find sounded loud in the dazzling stillness.
Young Captain Mat Brandon stood and clutched the poop railing with stiffened fingers. His forehead was ridged under his visor. The mate, with that quick old glance of his that always included the figure of the young captain in his observation of the ship, saw that the dark gray eyes glittered. From time to time he strode to the rail to see if in some vagrant air the ship had steerage way. But she lay heavily, with the swells hissing up and down her sides, as if she were anchored.
“The Old Man’s taking it hard,” the second mate muttered to the first, meeting him below the poop.
Old Johnny had no temptation to smile now at the humor in calling the captain that. He was used to it by now. He only frowned a little himself and changed the subject uneasily. He was uneasy, not so much at the hot calm itself — he’d lived through dozens — but at the mounting tension he felt in the boy. He could read every inflection of his, every muscle twitch, every suppressed, smoldering gesture. Annie had been like that. He had always been able to read the storm signs days before. Old Johnny would turn from his involuntary study of the young face with a half sigh. It wouldn’t do for him to be too much like his mother.
It was a long day before the captain would acknowledge that the wind had failed. He could not believe it — he would not at first. It was only a temporary lull. No wind could flat out so completely. The mate saw the growing bitterness in the boy, as if the weather were a personal injustice. Yet the steely hours wore on, burning and absorbed. The sun glared to westward slowly, with the round metal of the ship’s bells hurrying after. Behind the captain’s back, the man at the helm, one hand upon the unmoving wheel, whistled idly and long drawn out for the wind which did not come.
That night there was a moon — a great hot lopsided thing, slitting the hot black circle of the sea to lay its incandescence on the unwrinkling water and upon the ship. Her decks were bleached bone white with it, and the sails hung white and the shadow of the rigging lay across the decks, black barred like iron. The ship moved and dipped to the unseen milky swells alongside and all her sails slatted dismally. The watch off duty gathered on the fore hatch and men sang in a straggling chorus to the gasp of an accordion someone had brought on deck. The glaring white of the moon fell upon huddled naked shoulders and sprawling legs, and old Johnny could make out colors in the luminance, the dull blue of dungarees, the red of a mopping bandanna.
The captain’s boot heels sounded loud upon the planks. He stopped by the rail and spoke suddenly, gnawing his lip: “Damn that accordion! I always hate the things. I suppose that red-headed idiot’s playing it. That’s him yowling off key. I’d like to see his jaw knocked shut for once.”
“He’s a good hand enough,” old Johnny said mildly after a pause. It was the undertones of the boy’s voice he hated — too ragged, too much like Annie’s — not like the master of a ship.
“Of course you’d put in your oar for him,” young Mat said violently. “You and he are as thick as thieves. It’s the grinning way he acts I can’t stand. Smart Aleck. I’d like to smash that blasted accordion.”
“Got no call to interfere with a man off duty,” old Johnny insisted stoutly.
The captain said vehemently, “Aw, you’re an old — ” and stopped himself abruptly. “Listen!” he said. “Is that wind?”
There were no sounds except of the slack sails and the men’s voices forward. Around the horizon, below the blistering radiance of the moon, the stars burned steadily, like the lights of far-off ships. There was no wind. The captain ground his teeth on his burst of talk. The old mate kept silent. The captain resumed his dogged walk.
An hour or two later he stopped abruptly and said,” I shan’t go below much until the wind comes.”
He was on deck a long time. Old Johnny, coming up after the deep refreshment of his sleep, washed and sprightly, saw him having his morning coffee under the awning, his eyes reddened slightly with sleeplessness, his hair on end. The crew were cheerfully washing down the deck with a great splash and glitter of water from the brimming buckets. The redhead made some sort of joke behind his hand to the man next him and glanced aft at the captain, and the old mate hoped that Mat had not noticed it. The man was harmless enough and his joking was even valuable. Old Johnny had seen before this what heat and calm and inactivity could do to the raw nerves of men. He tried to keep them healthily busy.
He wished with all his heart he could do the same thing for the boy there, eating his heart out for wind for his first ship.
But all day there was no wind, and the next, and the next. Not a hatful, not a capful, not even a decent handful of air, to stir the heat which quivered up from the decks, where the glue between the planks melted and bubbled slowly. The men, stripped to their waists, went about their work with the sweat shining on their brown muscles, yawning in the widening or narrowing shadows of the sails. On the unstirring plate of the sea the shadows of the topmasts, like blades of a sundial, lengthened and wheeled and shortened under the sun.
The maddening futility of the dead calm was drawing the crew into silent and uncertain tempers, as old Johnny had known would happen. Tension seemed to spread to them from the gaunt young figure of the captain, his somber face drawn and blackened by the breathless sun. He would stare with blistered eyes at the blazing surface of the ocean, standing by the rail so long and so rigidly that the crew glanced up at him more often than ever, and whispered among themselves. Sometimes he paced doggedly, sometimes he dashed below for a mouthful of water or a bite of food taken hastily, glancing up through the skylight to see if the wind had come in his absence from the deck.
Among the crew bad feeling bred, and endless small explosions of wrath. Old Johnny played endless games of double solitaire with the second in the breathless nights, feeling the heat as nothing beside the mounting tension on the ship. His bright observant eye saw everything. In a low voice, so that it would not annoy the captain, he spun long picturesque yarns that kept the second mate’s blue eye bulging and drew the cook and the steward to the pantry threshold, with their eyes eager and their mouths grinning. He loved to hold them like that by the color and cunning of his words. It kept them good-natured — and him too.
But he could do nothing for the captain. That was about what it meant to be captain of a ship. Nobody could do anything for you. It was all on your shoulders. The fact of that was an isolation. That was why old John had never had any hankering after a command. He liked to be closer to people than that. But now, without any interest or desire on his part, it was almost as if he shared the feelings of command through the nerves and body of his son. It was a curious feeling of double existence, and it made it worse that he could not substitute for the younger tension his own older stability and understanding. He grinned often at the irony of it. But there it was, and it got worse.
The captain was taking his balked will out on the crew in irritating and — or so it seemed to the mate — unreasonable orders. He lashed at them unexpectedly for almost invisible faults. And the small red-headed man was his particular victim. He kept him down painting the sail locker by the light of a lantern all one stifling day, from which the mate later had to haul the man, nearly all in, on a pretext. The uncertain tempers of the crew flamed at what they considered persecution, and furious looks and mutterings were turned aft toward the figure of the captain. The mate walked steadily among the men at work, with his voice steady and his eye cool, and that night at supper took without a word a burst of anger from the captain. He did not mind the anger. He was only deeply worried that the boy should have himself so little in hand.
Three days more — four days, and no wind but a light current of air which carried them southward for an hour and dropped them in the same center of the same brazen, unchanging circle, that went white with sun or purple black with the sun’s passing, like a slow shutter turned on and off. Tension ran like a red-hot wire through the men cooped forward between the blistering bulwarks. One corner of the captain’s mouth slipped from its tightness and he gnawed it endlessly.
That night, in the middle of his own watch, when the captain had been below for an hour trying to get some sleep, old Johnny had a sudden impulse to go below also. Or perhaps he only wanted to reassure himself that the captain was asleep. The second mate’s snores were vibrant from his own room. But in the dim stifling light of the cabin, with the lowered lantern and the starlight streaming in, the old mate stopped abruptly and felt his knees tremble.
The door of the captain’s room was open. There was a dim light in there also. The captain was standing with his back to the doorway and he was pouring something out of a long bottle into a glass.
Right then old Johnny knew how badly the boy wanted that drink, because he wanted one himself with every fiber of his old body. He had never needed a drink so badly in his life. He could have snatched the bottle from the hand and drunk from it with the sudden hot force of the desire that burned him. Yet that familiar pose, the tiny sound of liquid pouring, was like acid eating into him — because it might be that in this the boy was like him. If he were like him, old Johnny knew, and clenched his hand on the table edge to realize, that one drink was not going to be enough. The warm relaxing that would work along the fingers, the blurring of the painful edges of reality, the delicious approach of oblivion along jangling nerves — old Johnny knew all that. He ached for it at that moment. But it meant drunkenness. His old fist slammed on the table. Not drunkenness for the captain of a ship!
The sound startled the tall young figure. He turned around, the bottle in one hand, the brimming glass in the other. In the half-light, his eyes met the fixed gaze of the old man with a desperate glassiness.
The older man said slowly, “I wouldn’t, sir, if I were you. It’s tough on you. I can see that. And a drink would go good. I’ll say that myself. But I wouldn’t if I were you.”
The glassy eyes held his as he spoke with nothing in his face or voice but quietness — no tension, no accusation. He thought for a moment the boy would raise the glass to his lips and drink anyway, from the spasm that contracted the face suddenly.
But presently he dropped his eyes to the glass as if he had not seen it before and said huskily, “What’ll I — do with it, then?”
“Throw it out the porthole,” old Johnny said evenly. “And the bottle with it. There’ll be better bottles in Rio, when we’re off the ship.”
They listened to the small splashes in the dark sea outside there and the old man ached a little at the face young Mat turned to him. There were deep lines of sleeplessness in it, but the eyes were not the hot ones of a thwarted drunkard so much as the bewildered ones of a little boy.
“Come up on deck, sir,” old Johnny said, and if his voice was tender he couldn’t help it. “It’s stifling down here. I’ll have your canvas chair brought up. You’ve got to let yourself go a little, you know. This calm won’t last forever.”
The night was at least quiet, up there — so quiet it seemed they could hear the dew dripping from the sails. The air was lukewarm, like half-cooled tea, but at least it could be breathed. Men forward, sleeping half naked on the fore hatch, moved arms or legs uneasily and the watch about the deck were listless drooping shadows.
Old Johnny had the captain’s canvas chair set in the deep shadow of the rail. But for a while the boy stood with his elbows on the broad rail, and old Johnny put his elbows on it and leaned beside him. Down in the milky gray of the sea alongside phosphorus stirred with little stirrings of the surface, soft brightness licking along the still timbers. Old Johnny wrenched his mind hastily from his thought that that rum bottle might be floating down there, bobbing about, where it could be picked up with a bucket on a line. The boy’s shoulders were beside his.
Old Johnny found himself fumbling in his mind for the most gorgeous, the longest-winded yarn he knew, and slowly found it, glittering, in the depths of his memory. He began to pay it out gently, every word in its right place, the suspense built up with little pauses. Under the stir of its events laughter ran like a healing flame. It was the best tale he knew, and he told it of himself and Bill Broadhead — a tale of a ship derelict and haunted in tropic seas, an old stocking full of pearls, an island of hidden temples and birds like blazing emeralds, and Bill Broadhead fighting with a cutlass up ruined stairs in moonlight, that led to women’s laughter and a huge escape. He knew, as the young head beside his was held rigid in the glamour he cast cunningly, like a net, that he had never told the tale better in all his life. He knew he had never told it with so serious an intent.
When it was over and the hour was gone he stayed silent until the boy beside him moved with a half sigh, moved and stretched and grinned.
“That was one swell yarn,” he said lightly, and his face was easy in the glow of the starboard lantern — “one swell yarn. A stockingful of pearls, eh? I bet that feels nice in the hand. Wow! I guess I must be sleepy.” The canvas chair creaked a little under his weight. Old Johnny did not move from the rail. The idle sails slatted a little with the movement of the ship. Presently he turned around and looked over at the long figure in the chair. It was still, and a hand was heavy on the deck. The captain was asleep. Old Johnny stood there, not moving a finger, staring down. Deeper than the awakened desire for drink an ache moved in him. There was something about those young bony knees that broke his heart. It was as physical as that, as if something clutched and tore his heart wide open. The worst of it was, he could do nothing to help him — not one thing.
The actual pain of that astonished him. He would not have believed he could feel like that about anyone. It drove him back to his need for a drink. He felt as he had used to, coming off a long dry voyage, burning up with thirst. Well, he’d just have to go thirsty, that was all. He’d thrown away his chance, he told himself with grim humor, and it wouldn’t do for the mate to be seen fishing off the poop with a bucket. He’d have to drink water, and like it, and pray for wind. He did, at that.
The next night there was a fight forward, sudden as the breaking of a stretched wire. Old Johnny had been expecting it. The men came tumbling from the forecastle to form a muttering rampart about the locked dark figures swaying and grunting and grappling in the shadow. The captain watched with a furious face, but old Johnny strolled forward. The men were not too intent to make way for him, and he stood there watchful and alert.
They were not fighting with knives, he was glad to see. There was the thud of bare feet on the deck and the smack of honest blows on bare flesh. The circle of the men shifted with the shifting of the fighters. And in a gasping bit of silence, when the slippery bodies clinched and fumbled, old Johnny raised a remark or two, the heavy broad wit men liked, and listened appraisingly to their sudden roar of laughter. Presently, in another pause, amid more laughter, the men were separated and helped off to wash. Old Johnny strolled aft again, with the relaxed voices of the crew behind him, drowsy as bees after a swarm.
The captain’s eye was a dark coal as he went up the ladder. “I won’t have fighting aboard my ship,” he snapped. “Another time you can have them clapped in irons. I won’t have it, I tell you!”
“Just a scuffle,” the old man said easily. “Ought to have boxing gloves aboard — take the edge off them.”
“I begin to think you’ve a poor idea of discipline, Mr. Mate,” the captain said furiously. “How’d you expect me to run this ship with a soft crew that isn’t taught a proper respect for their officers?”
The old man looked him mildly in the eye. “They’ll work all right,” he said. The captain snorted and walked away. Old Johnny looked after him reflectively. Now the boy’s mother, after that, wouldn’t have spoken to him for three days.
But he had not to wait that long. For that afternoon the sea darkened fitfully in long widening fans, and wind moved, ruffling and undependable, about the ship. The sails filled slowly to a fresher breeze that presently blew west by south, blowing away the stifling exhalation that hung about her. The ship answered the helm. The watch sprang smartly to trim the yards, and the captain, hearing the shouts of the mate, the thud of feet and the creaking of tackle, let all the tension slip from his face in one long grin. But no sooner was the ship an hour or two upon her course than the wind drooped and died, and the ship lay again becalmed. In another hour a breeze sprang from a totally different quarter, so swiftly that the ship was almost taken aback. The yards were squared. The ship heeled slightly on another course. And in four hours more, in a glassy moment of twilight, the breeze left them altogether.
So it went for five days of variable, inconstant, heartbreaking airs. The captain chewed his lips over his charts and at his sights, and his face was drawn and dark. The men dropped into their bunks after duty, worn out mentally as well as physically by the constant fret of labor that did no good. And the old mate began to know that he was old. There were twinges in his back after a long watch, such as he had never felt in his life before, and when he went below to his bunk his legs felt a thousand years in them. His vigilance, his spring, was outwardly as good as the younger man’s. But inside him it was as if a bell had been struck. Yet with all the force of his inherent pride he fought all that off, aches and slowing up and sleeplessness and an unresting, burning desire for a drink. His jaw was tight and his eye was keen. The captain did not call him easy now.
At last, after a night of dead calm, the ship began to move steadily forward. The light was pearly, the greenish waves edged with slate. As the day gathered under slow gold swords striking upward behind low clouds and across a long sea, the breeze freshened and the foresail filled. The captain and both mates stood on deck to watch the ship go forward in the new clean light and it was as if a tight band had snapped from about their chests. They were out of the doldrums at last.
“It will hold,” the captain said, with sleeplessness bleary on his eyelids. “Call me if it doesn’t.” And he went below.
After four hours the captain came on deck again. The wind was fresh and strong. The cordage hummed. On the yards the great spread of canvas held stiff overseas foaming in sapphire, touched with frothing vivacious lines of white. The captain’s face was scrubbed and jubilant, but the driving force, new-lighted, blazed in his eyes.
Now the Mary Parsons moved steady as a steamer under the roaring glorious south trades, and old Johnny gloried to see her go, never once relaxing that cautious grip he had upon himself. It would not be two weeks to Rio in this wind.
There was a week left — five days — four days. The crew were tidying up the ship for port, scraping teak, polishing brass, painting interminably. A pleasant sense of journey’s end ran about them. Only the captain did not relax in it. He was still feverish to make time, to get the voyage done.
What happened thereafter happened like a clap of thunder on a clear day. There were only three days left before making port and already the wind was shifting a little, tainted with the land. To westward a sullen bank of mist lay low like dirt-colored mountains.
Old Johnny came on deck in the middle of his watch below the next morning, drawn by the changed color of the light and the abrupt motions of the ship. It was racing and bucking against a sea of fretted heaving milk under the damp blast of a sullen southwest wind. The helmsman stood stiffly, his anxious eyes on the sails, fighting the jerked rudder. But the captain had not shortened sail. The watch forward were gazing at the sea and at the sails, and then aft, as if awaiting an order. The captain stood like an iron post by the rail and his face was iron.
Old Johnny hurried up with the wind in his blinking eyes. “What about shortening sail?” he shouted. “I don’t like the look of that. It feels like a pampero.”
“Pampero your eye!” the captain snapped. “You’re getting old, Mathew. You’re losing your grip. Want me to run before every little squall, do you?”
“But look!” The mate clutched the younger arm.
The bank of dirt-colored cloud was climbing the sky fiercely. Through it lightning spread in seams and below it the sea went the color of dirt. The ship plunged and pitched in the damp uncertain air that pushed the men in the face. The captain tightened his jaw and shook off the hand impatiently, turning his back to the wind.
Then — pandemonium. Old Johnny was aware of a vast force which fell like a stone upon him and upon the ship — a force demoniac and shrieking before which the ship reeled violently. Above in the screaming murk a sail blew out like a shot from a cannon. In the constant ghastly flicker of lightning he saw it flash whitely once down the wind. He was struggling to turn his body about and open his eyes and shout an order. But his voice was crammed back into his lungs. The slant of the deck before him was a high hill, racing with stinging rain.
The ship righted herself with a long shudder and the wind caught her, and forward there were crashings and poundings and a boil of sea over the weather rail. As he stared wildly through half-opened eyes he saw the fore-top gallant sheet give way. The gallant sail straightened out like a plank, straining the mast until it quivered and bent. In the instant the fore-royal and gallant yards broke off with a shrieked crashing, toppling down on the streaming deck among the hissing flight and tangle of ropes. One man was knocked down like a belaying pin and rolled into the lee scuppers. The others scattered where they could. The debris hung half over the lee rail, bumping dangerously, and the ship listed to it under the ghastly foam pouring over the lee rail.
The captain’s voice, that strained the blood vessels on his forehead, lifted faintly across the wind. “All hands! Leggo main royal and gallant halyards! Lively! Another blow — ”
The men swarmed to the order, slipping and struggling and catching at the fife rail as the ship reeled, shuddering, and the roused sea struck viciously.
“Axes!” the captain bellowed through cupped hands. “Axes — wreckage — adrift!” And with the old mate at his heels he raced down the ladder.
They were immediately above their knees in the sea that shipped regularly over both rails. Old Johnny gasped with the cold of it and the wrenching blows of it on his body. The murky light was lifting and now it seemed that the wind struck with less force, but it was a back-breaking job to swing axes and keep footing. Old Johnny heaved his with the packed force of every muscle and his son’s heaving shoulders were beside him, in the tail of his eye.
The wind screamed suddenly and behind the captain’s head a huge sea lifted a dirty edge over the rail. It crashed inboard, shaking the ship. Old Johnny had dropped his ax and clutched the rail, but almost as it toppled he looked for his son, letting go his clutch to leap toward him, yelling, “Mat, look out!”
He felt a terrible wrenching heave and under the ton of cold water that fell on him something that might have been a rope caught him about the knees. The world heaved violently, whirling, and became a seething drop into darker water, bottomless. He gulped wet bitter salt, whirling and staring into boiling dark depths. Something crashed into his ribs and the pain sent him dizzy, even as he had a flashed glimpse of the ship to windward, and a gulp of air. He clawed the air with a dripping hand and shouted. “Mat — Mat!” he yelled, and yelled again, before he was knocked into blackness and oblivion.
When he came back into the world, it was slowly, among mists of weakness that were curiously delicious. His body was a vagueness in which he floated and in his fogged glance grew slowly the familiar white-painted planks with bolts in them above his head. He recognized that the ship was moving easily, even as he knew the handles of the chest of drawers built across the wall at his feet. Oblivion caught at him from time to time, and he sank back into it gratefully, among thronging hints of dream. But clearer and more persistent than those were the drawer handles and the white-painted bolts and something round and whitish that slowly became the steward’s face, before it changed to the face of his son, the captain of the ship.
He was broad awake then and his body was a battered thing between immovable tightness, but he could look about him with clear eyes and a clear head and see his own gnarled old hands on the blanket and the buttons on his son’s coat. He grinned slowly.
“It feels as if I got run through a meat grinder,” he said. “How’s the ship?”
“Booming along in,” Mat Brandon said cheerfully.
The old man took a long slow look into the boy’s face. There was an untidy bristle of beard on it, and it was white and lined deeply with fatigue. But the locked look was gone from the mouth and there was no fever in the gray eyes that met his calmly. New warmth ran through old Johnny as staunch as his own heart’s beats. He liked the released look on that face — by ginger, he liked it!
“You’ve got a couple of busted ribs on you,” the captain of the ship was saying. “The steward and I fixed them up as well as we could according to the book, but I’ll be glad to get you ashore to a doctor. We’ll be in tomorrow sometime. How do you feel?”
“Comfortable, ’s a matter of fact,” old Johnny said. He was discovering that he must not breathe too deeply. An arrow of pain lay there, as if in waiting. And he was growing aware of many aches. “How’d I get aboard?”
“That red-headed feller,” Mat said. “He jumped after you like chain lightning and we slung him a rope. His collar bone’s broken. You know I — it’s funny, but I’ve been wishing right along, since then, that I had gone over for you myself.”
“Crazy,” old Johnny said slowly, trying to stiffen his lips against a grin. He was watching the boy’s unconscious face through half-shut eyes. “That’d been a fine thing to do, and you the master of a ship!”
“Yeah,” the boy said slowly. His elbows were on his knees and his eyes were on his loosely clasped fists. “Of course I knew that. But you know I’ve been thinking — it was my fault we got overtaken that way. I was wild not to lose any more time.”
“Aw, those pamperos — you can’t ever tell about them. You’ll have to remember you got to keep your eye peeled along this coast. And you’re right about being wild. You’ve been kinda too strung up tight all this trip. You better not be like that another time.”
“I know,” Mat said shamefacedly. “I don’t know what got into me. But I guess I got to worrying about that mate. I’d sort of like to tell you about the mate.”
“No need to if you don’t want to,” old Johnny said briefly, with his eyes screwed tight and his heart thumping.
“I been wanting to all along. It kinda got into my head that you thought I murdered him — or something. And then I got to worrying about what the owners would do if they heard about it. That’s why I was so wild when the wind failed, and afterward, when there was a chance to make up the time. You see — the mate got himself drunk. You remember. You were there. But then I got him drunker than that and I had him hidden. That Yellow Charlie had him taken to a shack out in the jungle somewhere. I paid him. He wasn’t hurt any. You see, I wanted the ship more than he ever did. It was a rotten trick, of course. But I’m not sorry.”
“What you going to do about it?” old Johnny said suddenly, opening his eyes.
“Nothing yet,” he said, meeting the old man’s eye firmly. “There’s nothing sensible yet to be done about it, except going up and telling the owners just how it was when I get the ship back to New York. Maybe the mate’s made a howl by this time. I don’t care. I’m going to prove to them I can handle the ship for them better than he could. And I want to say — I’ve got a lot to thank you for. You’ve taught me an awful lot.”
“Aw, shucks!” old Johnny said weakly, shuffling his hands on the blanket. “You were only a stiff kid. Man’s got to grow some to be a captain. I followed the water and learned the different ways of captains before you were born. And you’ve grown. I can see that. You’ll be a good one. It’s like you had good seagoing blood in you and a will to do things well and smartly. Only you don’t need to take things so high-strung.”
“I’ll tell the world you get steadied,” Mat said absently. “I feel years older. I wish you were going to be along on the voyage back.”
The old man looked steadily at a bolt over his head. That’s right. He’d be in hospital again. And after that — The slow pain dug into him at his deeper breath. Oh, well, why worry?
“Maybe you’ll drop me a card from New York,” he said. “I’ll be curious about — the ship.”
“I’m going to do that,” Mat said slowly. “I’m sure going to do that. And you’ll write me when you get well, whether you get another berth or not. It might be — we might ship together sometime again.”
“I won’t be holding many more mate’s jobs,” old Johnny said calmly. “I’m pleased to know you’d like to, though.”
“Well, you’ll let me know,” Mat said, getting up. “I’d kind of like to know. I’ll tell the steward to bring you some soup.” In the door, he stood a moment and turned back. “You’ve never said” — he spoke slowly — “whether you’ve got any folks or not that you could go to. I’ve wondered. Haven’t you got somebody — a son — somewhere?”
The grin that spread over old Johnny’s face at that could not by any force of his be repressed. His eyes leered a little in sheer delight at the joke of it as he looked up into the other’s concerned face. Poor Annie, how she’d hate it if she knew how her son stood there, looking down at him with anxiety and — yes, there was no doubt of it — with affection. How she’d hate to know that her worthless husband was actually being cared for by her son. Well, he’d keep his promise to her.
“No,” he lied cheerfully, “I haven’t got any son.”
After Mat had gone out he lay there, wrapped in comfort, his mouth still twitching at the thought of it with something very like a giggle. Deep down in the place where his pride lived, that would not let him explain or regret or ask quarter from his world, the increased flame of it lifted in a great warming glow.
He’d been weak and mistaken and foolish in his time. He’d been proud, without having much of anything to be proud of. But now, he thought, a king couldn’t be any prouder than he was or had the right to be. Now, by Jupiter, he was the father of a man!
Featured image: Illustrated by Anton Otto Fischer.
Edmund Gilligan wrote for the The American Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Argosy, and the Post between 1956-1962. His short story “One of Us Must Die” covers the enthralling tale of a crew battling the sleet-chilled Atlantic waters while at sea.
Published on September 8, 1962
By lamp-lighting time alongshore, the Medea of Gloucester lay sound asleep at the herring wharf in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where the Roseway River empties into the Atlantic. The schooner had hurried across the Bay of Fundy under a whole mainsail because she had never gone fishing so late in the year, and her people wished to find shelter to size things up. There had been signs of bad weather far behind her. Off Cape Sable, her landfall, she had found more reasons to hurry. The westerly wind had become curiously dry, and the barometer had risen. Later she had sighted hurricane rollers rising out of a very long swell. When she swept along the western edge of Roseway Bank, the squally halo around the first quarter moon had vanished, and the barometer had fallen to “Fair.” So she slept in peace, the uneasy peace of November.
Huddled under the eaves of the icehouse, three dark-clad men gazed at the Medea as she lightly rose and fell to bow line and stern line, her iron gear atinkling. By moonlight and starlight the Medea displayed her old-time beauties: bottle green hull, cherry-stained bulwarks, white crosstrees and her name in gold, mildly gleaming under skeins of frost. Those men knew the Medea well enough, and they knew why she lay there: to buy their herring in the morning to make bait for the halibut on far Banquereau, which was her workshop. Herring they had in plenty on ice, and the sale meant much to them, coming so late in the season. They would have a little more Christmas money. They understood that the Medea had dared to make a November voyage for the same purpose. There had not been much money earned that fall on the Grand Banks; the price of halibut had been too low at Boston. Now it had risen.
Talking of these matters, they crossed the wharf, took a kindly look at her mooring lines and walked up the lane, praising the fatness of their herring and declaring the Medea’s skipper surely would be pleased when he ran his testing thumb down the herring bellies and found them fresh.
In the galley of the Medea, aft of her forecastle where eighteen of her dorymen slept in their tiered bunks, one man stayed merrily awake. He was her cook, known to the Grand Bankers as “Long Tom” because his handsome head, well silvered now, lay so far from his feet. The dorymen asserted that in any kind of fog he couldn’t see his boots. He answered that his boots weren’t worth such a difficult glance anyway.
Tom had finished his ordinary chores. Mugs and dishes were washed and put away, his pans scoured. He had just taken twenty loaves of bread out of his great oven. In there now his apple pies were already adding a cinnamon bouquet to the other delicious fragrances. He had yet to brush the top crusts with a gull’s feather dipped in butter. The feather and butter were at hand.
At the moment, Long Tom was resisting temptation of the worst kind — one offered by himself. He was a cook who enjoyed his own cooking. In fifty years of labor in that one galley he had never tasted a dish which he could not praise. And he tasted all that he made. Even when he hard-boiled fifty eggs for the shack locker, where dorymen coming off watch could “mug up” on tea and cookies, he always ate one or two to make sure. His chocolate cake had made the Medea the envy of the Gloucester fleet. Such cakes bore fudge icing, and Long Tom couldn’t tolerate an icing less than half an inch thick.
His present temptation had a chocolate nature too: precisely, a yard-square tray of fudge cooling on a shelf under the half-open port. He had used the last of his Jersey cream for it, and he had put into it an array of excellent English walnuts. He had a benevolent purpose in mind, and he intended to carry it out when the fudge had hardened enough to be cut. He had to combat his desire to taste. To that resistance he carried all the force of his plumpness and of his agile mind.
At such a crisis Long Tom took refuge in the Bible, not exactly for instruction but chiefly to employ his mind. The Book of Job had served him well a thousand times. Long Tom had never quite settled the question of Job. “Patience of Job, do I hear you say? Why, he don’t strike me as being a model of patience. What answer did he make to his chum? ‘Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?’ And didn’t he come out all right in the end? Aye, there’s something of a sea lawyer about that man. Shouldn’t be surprised if he’d once been before the mast — and a poor cook in the galley.”
When he had beguiled his heart by thoughts of Job and Satan, he turned in a soberer mood to The New Testament, in which he always read much during the Christmas season. “Matthew, Mark, Luke or John?” He chose John, and for a time he sat enthralled, because these were saints whose hearts spoke well to his. He placed the Bible in its tin box and turned to the cutting of the fudge. He had all but finished when Satan whispered, “My dear Job — I mean, of course, my dear Tom — isn’t that a rather odd-looking piece over there south by east, a little east? I mean that one with a whole kernel in it.”
After he had eaten it and savored each crumb to the last, Tom looked behind him quickly and seemed surprised. “Well, now, I really didn’t have to do that. I knew it was good, very good.”
He filled three plates with fudge and climbed the companionway step by step, carefully. On the way aft he paused in the lee of the starboard nest of dories and measured the starry night. The Pole Star burned fierce as a bonfire, and he could make out even the faint stars of the Little Bear, so clearly they shone in the winter hovering aloft. He passed to the cabin and went below into its dusk. He put the plates down and rapped his knuckles against the great lamp, burning low in its gimbals. It was his duty to keep lamps trimmed and full.
In the starboard bunk Captain Matthew Duane lay asleep, his boots near at hand, ready, even in harbor, to be jumped into. Under the black curve of his moustache his lips shaped a stern word. He frowned and gently struck his mouth, just as if it had spoken of its own accord and had vexed him mightily in his dreams. “I’d give a lot to know what he said,” whispered Tom. He gave a plate of fudge. The skipper whispered again and began to turn over, his secret kept.
Long Tom stepped lightly to the port bunks. In the lower one lay Dick Rodney, the oldest hand in the Medea and the best sailing master ever she had. She liked him, that vessel did, and willingly performed things for him that she would not for others, especially when close-hauled and beating to windward to hit the lively Wednesday market at Boston. Neither chick nor child did that man have, as they used to say of bachelors in the bygone days. On the Medea’s tenth birthday he had come aboard, a greenhorn, and he had never left her even to lay off one trip. The sea and the oars and the hauling of halibut had shaped him into the Atlantic style: heavy-shouldered, lithe in the long legs and able, very able, in the many uses of the great frost-scarred hands calmly folded together in the grace of dreamless sleep. Dark hands they were, half again as large as the cook’s, and his were not a boy’s hands by any means.
“Happy birthday, Dick,” whispered Long Tom, although it wasn’t anybody’s birthday and he was just trying to entertain himself. “Happy birthday — and may you have another one very, very soon.” He placed Dick’s portion at the foot of his bunk, where his pipes lay in a rack of white porcelain, an ancient thing with odd English words on it that had been fished up one day on Sable Island Bank.
In the upper bunk a man lay awake. Long Tom had no difficulty in standing face-to-face with him; he was tall enough for that. Such wakefulness surprised Tom not at all. He had expected it; in fact, this doryman — greenhorn, rather — was the reason for his night visit. He knew well enough what must be the thoughts of a youngster on his first trip to stormy Banquereau — and in November. He had known the lad’s father, Dennis Nolan, a good man in a vessel and, in a dory, the best of dorymates. Now he saw in the gazing eyes and the thick wheaten-colored shock of hair the father’s eyes and the father’s head. The young man’s forehead shone white in the dim lamplight because he had been living ashore. On the voyage across Fundy, Long Tom had watched the new hand with affectionate care and had helped Dick Rodney in the schooling of him, for Dick took charge of the greenhorns one by one through the Grand Banks seasons. This one now required something more than lessons in seamanship.
“You don’t sleep, young man?”
“No, sir, I don’t. I’ve been thinking — and it keeps me awake.”
“You’ve Dick Rodney for a dorymate, and he’s taught you well coming over, so you’ve no cause for worry, David.”
“You both been good to me, cook.”
“And I brought something for you right now.” He held out the plate. “Just you take some of this, David, for I know you’ve a sweet tooth, and a sweet tooth satisfied — ah! that puts a man asleep. So I guess you’ll be all right, young man, if now you take another piece and fall asleep and sort of work up an appetite for breakfast by the right kind of dreaming. Aye, the young need sleep. And so good night.”
In the afternoon, after her bait had been stowed in ice, the Medea took the tide that served her. Under headsails only, she passed through the harbor entrance and, once outside, laid on all her muslin and was soon running free to the chosen fishing grounds.
Now, standing among the other dorymen on her streaming deck, young Nolan learned to cut bait in the larger chunks required when a vessel is rigged for halibut. Dick Rodney stood by him and showed him how to thrust the chunks onto the big Norway hooks, hanging a fathom apart on shorter lines tied to the main line of the trawl. He taught him the skill of coiling the baited hooks on squares of canvas to be lashed into bundles called “skates.”
“And once a halibut has taken hold,” said Dick, “he ain’t hard to haul — not in winter, I mean — because we’ll be fishing in eighty fathoms maybe, and he’s dead beat by the time he tugs all that way. Now in summer, when you take fish in forty fathoms, they have a short fight coming up and come to the gaff strong and frolicsome. You understand me, my boy?”
“Yes, Mr. Rodney.”
“Ah, you must drop the ‘Mister’ now, David, though it’s real respectful like of you and all right in the beginning and shows your good breeding, but now you must learn to call me ‘Dick’ because we’re dorymates now and forever friends, the best of friends, depending entirely one upon the other in the dory. Besides, you may be calling out a warning sudden like, and ‘Dick’ is the quick word.”
“I’ll do so, Dick.”
Before sunset the westerly wind became very cold and a fine rain fell, almost a mist. Everything cleared up for a time, and the sunset took on a violet coloring. Before the sun really got down, a cloud bank under it changed to a purple hue. Squalls burst out of that bank and ripped along the horizon, making quite a rumpus over the tide rips. Despite the unsteady nature of the weather, the Medea plunged into the dark night and, without taking a reef or changing course, crossed the Sambro Banks and swung away until she changed course to go along the southern edge of Sable Island Bank.
During this sailing toward the Gully of Banquereau, where the gear must be put to work, Dick drilled his greenhorn hard until he knew the use and place for each tool of their trade: bailer and water jar, bucket and food tin, the gaff to hook fish and the gobstick to club big ones. He showed him the bottom plug of their dory, which is knocked out when the dory is hoisted aboard. “In this way, lad,” he said, holding up the plug in his right hand, “brine and blood can be hosed out through the plughole and — watch now! — in this way the plug is jammed into place before we lower again.”
Obedient to this order shouted by Captain Duane near the helm, Dick Rodney’s dory, No. I of the starboard nest, came swinging out, and the dorymates went down in it for the opening of a brisk campaign.
Young Nolan sat to the oars and took the direction of the set from the captain’s extended arm: southward. Dick sent down the first anchor to hold the trawl, and after it he flung the buoy carrying the dory’s flag. He took up his heaving stick, a willow wand cut in the marshes of home, and began the deft lifting and tossing of the baited hooks, coil after coil. The baits sank, score by score, down to the halibut roving along the hills and valleys of the ocean floor. With the first skate down, Dick tied on another string, and young Nolan rowed on, eagerly watching the clever hands, the great arms and shoulders bending, swaying at their tasks.
Meanwhile, the Medea, under jib and jumbo, glided northward, dropping the other dories. She came jogging back again, and at eight o’clock, when the sun was well up, she gave the fishing signal : two whirls of her horn crank.
“And now I’ll haul, lad.”
Wearing the white cotton gloves of his trade, Dick laid the trawl line over the wheel of a gurdy set near the bow, and he bent down to haul. The first few hooks came up untouched; the next one brought from him a cry of dismay.
“Dogfish! Drat ‘em!” He slatted the twisting fish against the gunwale and knocked it off. Over the quiet sea came the same slatting noise repeated in other dories, a dismal sound for all hands because it showed that the useless dogfish were swarming below. The shouts of anger soon ceased. The dogfish had fled before the voracious halibut.
“Greenhorn luck, lad! Here he comes!” Its eyeless side uppermost, a halibut five feet long slanted violently to the surface, its snout tugging hard against Dick’s strength. It thrashed in such force that a torrent of foam quite concealed its mottled, rust-hued length. For an instant it floated in an idling way and then turned over ponderously until the two eyes on its right side stared upward dully. Driven by a quick frenzy, it tried to dive. The tight line checked the halibut’s thrust, and at that moment Dick swung the gaff down into the space between the eyes. He hauled on the gaff with both hands until the fish came over the gunwale. Dick struck three times with his gobstick before the fish ceased to struggle.
For the next three days Dick and young Nolan labored from daybreak until moonrise over their trawls, and often they pitchforked their fish aboard the Medea by the light of oil torches on her deck. On the fourth day Dick let his dorymate make his first haul, and up the fish came, hook after hook. Each conquest excited young Nolan until he laughed aloud and struck the gaff so fiercely that Dick had to caution him to take it easy because the dory had almost a full load.
“Hey!” Young Nolan shouted in amazement at the repeated surge far below of a fish that drew the gunwale down. An immense halibut had taken the last bait, and the gashing steel drove it rampaging down and away, back and forth. “Ah, Dick, he’s thundering big!”
Foot by foot, fathom by fathom, the fish yielded to the unfaltering strain on the line. Despite the freezing wind, and the sleet-chilled water, young Nolan sweated over the gurdy. His breath blew vapor out and he gasped harshly. He bent far down to renew his hold on the line and heaved so strongly that the fish came swerving to the foam. Maddened by the hook, it flung its bulk grandly against the dory. In falling, the halibut struck a blow with its tail that actually drove the dory off in a sideways glide.
“Now then, David!”
At Dick’s signal young Nolan swung the gaff high and swung it down and into the massive head. This first blow stunned the fish. It lay sluggish, and thus young Nolan got his chance to club it three times with the gobstick. The fish shuddered its fathom length. Its tail sagged and its gills spurted water with an odd choking sound. The fish rolled on the surface, and they saw that it was by far the greatest yet taken by the Medea. No one man could haul such a fish over the gunwale. Dick lifted his own gaff, drove its blade into the thickest part of the tail, and hauled.
At that very instant, from far off, where the Medea sailed among the other dories, there came the wail of her horn, three times howling the danger signal: Cut! Cut all gear!
One upward glance revealed to Dick the onrush of a squall in which streams of sleet glittered. A November northwester had caught up with them at last. Out of blue water there had risen a black, whitecapped sea. A second comber bulged in its wide path. Both seas joined and doubled in a wave that exploded against the dory. Even such an assault could not overwhelm a Gloucester dory. Its high sides and solid gunwales had been designed, through the Grand Banks centuries, to withstand such shocks and to yield sturdily before them. So their dory slid off smoothly. Half-hidden in the welter of that sea, Dick shouted the Medea’s signal: “Cut! In the name of God! Cut your gear, David!”
Young Nolan had already obeyed the Medea. In a sweep of his bait knife he sliced the line that held the halibut. At this sudden end to the strain, the halibut’s head sank down with such force that the gaff sprang free and rose in David’s hand lightly into the darkening air. Carried high above the gunwale by the sea, the halibut strove hard for a diving thrust of its tail. This furious action had the effect of raising its head once more. In this position it thrashed its tail and head in a vaulting action out of the water and into the air. It fell, and its great mass struck full along the gunwale. The dory turned over.
In the moment before the gunwale sank, young Nolan had tottered in his place, both hands upraised, the bloodied gaff against his yellow storm hat. In the same tick of time Dick had flung himself backward across the mound of fish in an effort to trim the dory and counterbalance the force of the falling halibut. He failed. The other gunwale came up violently. They were pitched outward into the sea.
The sea rolled over them. A second comber followed. Very soon nothing could be seen except the flat bottom of the dory. A ripple of foam spread down the bottom and split against the bottom plug, a battered cylinder of wood two inches high, three broad.
The halibut came up and swam awkwardly this way and that. It plowed through foam and flotsam — bailer, oars, mast — and reddening water ran out of its jaws. The fish sounded. A buoy swam up, struck an oar and swept away on the tide. A white-gloved hand reached out of the water, grasped at the buoy, failed and began a clumsy openhanded thrashing. Dick Rodney came up — first his hand, then his storm hat and at last his gasping mouth, spurting water. Burdened by thick winter clothes and by his boots full of water, he could make no headway.
The dory swung toward him. He flailed the water frantically with his arms. His hands clawed at the bottom of the dory and slipped off. The dory sank with a falling sea. He lunged once more and reached up for the bottom plug, the only thing on which a man could lay hold. In the crook of two fingers of his right hand, he drew himself out of the water. He lay moaning on the flat bottom, his face turned to the unlighted clouds.
Soon the strain of clinging to the plug weakened his grasp. His hand was too big for it. There wasn’t enough wood for his hand to ply its strength. He seized the plug with his left hand. He spewed water, and sucked in air rapidly. As if the neardeath had dulled his heart and senses, he lay sprawled, one boot dragging in the sea. “Ah, thank God, thank God!”
At once, his gravest duty brought him up to his knees. He looked wildly around, then carefully. He saw nothing. A thick gray vapor rolling in from the west drew over the water where the Medea struggled to find her dories. Dick shouted, “David! David!”
Not waiting for an answer, he made one up for himself — that his dorymate had not risen and must be drowning under the dory, where the trawl had caught him. Dick slid off the bottom. Holding to the gunwale, he let himself go down until he could reach into the dory. He came up to breathe. At the third trial his hand found a living thing. He laid hold and drew it toward him. A hand in there seized his arm. Dick bore backward and came up with young Nolan in his grasp. Dick tried to seize the plug, and, as before, a subsiding sea brought it near. He drew himself onto the bottom. He dragged young Nolan to his side and held him close while the water seeped out between the young man’s clenched teeth.
“Breathe, lad, breathe! Safe and sound!” His hand clamped on the plug, Dick made a desperate venture into the lamed consciousness of that young body. He struck young Nolan’s mouth a shrewd blow and rolled him over. The seeping of water became a rough belching. The fog closed over them, a sign that the gale was swinging away to the northward.
David spoke. “It was the fish, Mr. Rodney. Not me.”
“Aye, the fish!” The dory tipped. Under the force of the washing sea, young Nolan slid down and almost into the water. Dick shifted his weight to trim the bottom. When it lay level, he drew young Nolan back. The dory began to slant the other way, and again young Nolan slid down. Dick tried to sink his fingernails into the boards. This he couldn’t do. Another sea struck over them. They lay a time underwater. A cross sea sluiced under the stern. This rising forced young Nolan toward the bow.
“Hold to my arm, lad.”
The other obeyed. In a moment of ease, while the dory rode nearly level, Dick changed his grasp on the plug from his right hand to the left. The strain had become intolerable under the weight and thrust of two bodies depending on his two fingers. Seeing this, young Nolan stared at the narrow hold of Dick’s hand on the wood. “Even you, Dick — you can’t do it.”
“Change your grip to my knee, David. Hold hard now.”
The flooding tide began to turn the dory round and round. Soon the whirling action became so strong that they sagged in a heavier way, and Dick’s grasp on the plug began to weaken rapidly. His fingers slipped from the sodden wood, and they were sliding into the sea when the dory floated level again. Dick renewed his hold.
He could not long maintain it. Had the plug been the size of an oar handle, nothing save death itself could have broken his grasp. His two fingers might keep him safe until the Medea came in her search. Two fingers could not hold two such men. They could save only one.
The wounded halibut came alongside and died. The dorymen began their prayers, muttering together in the overwhelming salt, in the dark of night. Young Nolan cried out, “God have mercy on my soul!” And, “Ah, my poor mother!” Thereupon, he let go his grasp on Dick’s knee and let himself fall down the tipping dory. He had made his choice.
That choice was not acceptable to Dick Rodney. He caught young Nolan at the edge and took his hand and forced the slender fingers into place around the plug. Three of the fingers took good hold.
“Hear me, David? Do you hear me? I’ll swim to yonder buoy and save myself. Hold on desperate and she’ll come to you. And to me.” Saying this, he rose to his knees. He bowed his head in brief prayer. He bent down to young Nolan and said, “The Lord be with you, David. I’ll be on my way now.” He plunged into the sea, and the sea received him.
Long after nightfall the oil torches on the Medea’s deck flared yellow in the west, where she sailed in the traditional circle of search, closing in spoke by spoke to the position that No. 1 dory had taken. The schooner had a hard time finding the other dories in that fog. Now she swept round and round until she picked up the first buoy of No. 1’s trawl, then the second. Very soon a man aloft made out the dory, where it had drifted — well away from its trawl buoys — and they took young Nolan off it.
The first thing they had to tell him was that there had been no buoy near to keep Dick Rodney up. They told him that even the strongest swimmer could not have lived in that sea, and more — that Dick could not swim a stroke. Nor could any man in that vessel. Dorymen refused to learn because nothing could help a heavy clad man in the waters they worked in.
These matters were gently explained to him while he lay in the captain’s bunk, where he could be better tended by the captain and Long Tom. Those two understood quickly enough that their greenhorn had been badly hurt, not in the body but elsewhere — the place of grief. He made no answer to their patience. Nor did he change the stare of his eyes or the firm set of his mouth. He could not sleep — or would not. He neither ate nor drank.
All the first night, after the Medea had swung away on the wearisome beat to windward and to home, young Nolan lay there, his eyes apparently set on the lamp swaying to the schooner’s sway. Long Tom saw that this was not a true gaze, because, when he stood between the lamp and the bunk, the eyes kept on gazing. Thus young Nolan became a mystery to their hearts, one that they had found obscure in their Atlantic myths and legends. They believed he did not wish to live. His face became a white mask when the wind burn faded, and his eyes grew larger in the gauntness changing his cheek. He frightened them. Only his voice — a word — could guide them to his inwardness. He did not say it.
At midnight a change came in the wind; it hauled around until it blew fair for the Medea and once more sent her running free toward her landfall far away. She sailed quietly now; the wind flowing off her sails made the only music. This agreeable change relieved Captain Duane’s anxiety for the other men, who had been handling sail so often. So he sat in the galley with Long Tom and talked in whispers of a sentence by a doryman at dinner: “Too bad. He had the makings of a good doryman.” After saying that, the doryman had taken the watch in the cabin while the captain and Long Tom were at dinner, and he had since gone aft again to watch David’s face. Captain Duane whispered, “They have given the youngster up? Is that it, Tom?”
Long Tom’s answer was cut off by the hasty return of the doryman. “Captain, the poor lad has spoken.”
“What words, eh? Tell us that, Jock.”
“‘Why?’ And that’s all. Just ‘Why?’ “
The captain stepped forward in an eager movement. “And I am just the man that can answer that word!”
Long Tom held Captain Duane back a time while he made a pot of fresh tea and cut a thick slice of bread. He buttered the bread and then poured honey over it. They went aft and stood by the bunk where young Nolan lay — unchanged, impassive.
The captain said, “You hear me, David? Do you at last ask why? And will I not give you the answer? Not mine, but another’s. Were you not sworn friends with Dick Rodney? Dorymates that must cleave to each other even to death? Then —”
Young Nolan had not seemed to be hearing or seeing. Yet, at the last question, his immobility broke. His right hand rose in a plea for silence. His eyes became expressive, and his expression one of bewilderment. He whispered a word. They could not hear it. They bent forward anxiously.
“Eh?” whispered the captain. “What’s that, David?”
They heard: “I did so cleave. I made the offer first, captain, I was ready.” He gave up and passed into a profound reflection, as if he understood for the first time the true meaning of the moment when he had taken his hand away from Dick Rodney’s knee.
At the revelation of this secret, the captain’s eyes turned to Long Tom’s. They looked deeply at each other, not in the earlier questioning way, but in the way of wonder. And this soon changed to a kind of sober joy.
The captain said, “Even so, even so.” In renewed eagerness he sought the words he wished to recite. “Then all the better is the answer, David, and I give it word for word: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Ah! Were you not at that moment a friend, indeed? Was not his deed friendly?”
His voice loud in the certain power of words that had triumphed down the ages, he laid down the sacred law. In his belief that there could be no task now except the restoration of David’s physical being, his right hand changed from its gesture of entreaty to a sign toward the bread. Nevertheless the sublime words failed, and his own words counted for little.
“Why?” Young Nolan raised his voice to clearness in his tenacious pursuit of an answer. “Oh, he never laid eyes on me before this trip! Oh, my God, why?”
At this, the cry of Job, Long Tom stepped forward and, laying his hand on young Nolan’s forehead, said, “I will answer you, David, and it is my own answer. But first drink this and eat this bread.” He lifted the young man’s head and waited until the mug was empty and the bread gone. He then said, “Listen. This is the holy time of year for the giving of gifts, one friend to another. Didn’t you tell me you was going to give Dick a pipe with a meerschaum bowl for his Christmas? Once we’d sold our fish and had our settlement day and our pay? Aye, you did! Now I hear you offered him another gift — your life. And, Dick, he has given you that very gift. ‘Twas all he had to give — his life. Do you now refuse it, David? No! Take his gift and treasure it all your days. This is Long Tom’s word.”
Young Nolan’s eyes closed. He fell back sighing, and his lips loosened in a return of tenderness. He said, “By the Lord Christ — yes! I will treasure his gift. Forever and one day more.” And he fell into the saving sleep.
Featured image: Illustration by Carroll Jones (©SEPS)
Richard Matthews Hallet is best known for his sea stories, no doubt inspired from his life growing up on the Atlantic Ocean in Maine. His life of writing ocean adventures was nearly an impossibility — until his story “The Black Squad” was picked up by the Post in the early 1900s, saving his career. After his first story was published, he continued to write adventure stories for the Post, one of the best being “Misfortune’s Isle” which has since been adapted into several radio and film programs using Hallet’s Island as the location for their eerie tales.
Published on November 9, 1929
C’aptain Arad’s first glimpse of the Doha Delfina Crispo showed him a soul imprisoned. The rebellious eye, the rich mouth shadowed by black hair, the very pose of her slim body in the open carriage, were all eloquent of her captivity. She was the wife of Don Narciso Crispo, captain general of Zamboanga, but now resident in Manila — a little monkey of a man, yellow as a faded sunflower from jaundice, and with a limp acquired from a drunken fall into a tiger pit outside of Singapore. Ambitious and romantic, Doha Delfina had nothing to do but rise at eleven in the morning, take chocolate, hold her soul firm, and through a broken oyster shell in the oyster-shell window of her balcony watch the black soldiers, the cigar makers and ship captains filing past.
Half-breed women — those mestizas with the magnificent hair and the hint of China in their eye corners — could vary the monotony by leaning out occasionally to spit at a mark with betel-nut juice — say, for choice, the sombrero of a passing caballero. Dona Delfina, a woman of rank, had to content herself with French and Spanish novels, and an occasional cigar. She remained in advanced dishabille until four in the afternoon, usually. When an earthquake had moved the upper walls of the house on its beams — they stuck out four or five feet, so as to give what Arad called margin enough to veer and haul on — she had been perhaps the only woman in Manila who had not rushed into the streets beating her breast and crying, “Misericordia! Don Jorge, misericordia!” Her heart, no doubt, had stopped in her bosom, but she had only bowed her head and prayed to be engulfed, snatched bodily away from such a hateful destiny.
The satirical earthquake had contented itself with putting a queer kink into the cathedral roof, overthrowing the bull-ring parapets, and bringing down one of the eight arches of the iron bridge over the River Pasig. After that, everything was as before. The cathedral bells tolled at stated times, the clack of stone hammers beating out tobacco leaf was resumed in the tobacco factory, and at four o’clock, when the sea breeze revived, carriages in an endless chain began to revolve on the Calzada — the boulevard just outside the walls on the bay side of the town.
These carriages were called the shoes of the country — in fact, no woman of rank could walk so much as a hundred paces — and Doha Delfina’s shoe was drawn by two gray Manila ponies, one bestridden by a postilion in shiny black leggings, a spur on his left heel, tight shorts, a spicy jacket, and a hat as hard and black as a japanned-iron coal scuttle. Doha Delfina would usually be looking past this individual’s ears at the shipping in the bay. Certainly every size and shape and intention of ship was there, a quaint intermingling of chain, hemp, grass rope, coir and bamboo cables; and among these Arad’s ship, the Water Witch of Salem, was not the least conspicuous, with her black hull and painted ports, her rigging freshly tarred and rattled down, and the house flag flying at her peak.
“They tell me these Spanish women wear no stockings,” Arad’s friend, Captain Michael O’Cain, was muttering in his ear.
Arad replied somberly, “How is a man going to tell? You shouldn’t lean so hard on hearsay, Michael.”
Orderlies in powder-blue uniforms, cocked hats and jack boots, with heavy carbines on their shoulders and long steel swords jangling at their sides, were riding up and down madly, keeping order. The sun was sinking now, and one of these orderlies blew a blast on a trumpet. As if by a flourish of magic, the line of carriages, headed by the captain general and the archbishop of Manila, stopped; the military band of black soldiers was hushed; and by common consent, all — gentlemen, orderlies, soldiers and servants — took off their hats gracefully to repeat a silent vesper prayer. Captain Arad saw that Doha Delfina still sat erect, unmollified. She was bareheaded, her shoulders narrowed under her black mantilla, the last gleam of the sun’s upper limb reflected in her eyes. The fierce warrior’s head of Jamboo, the interpreter, was just beyond her, fixed in an attitude of attentive worship, but his divinity was nearer, evidently, than the flaming skies.
Now the prayer was over and the slow movement of dished wheels on the yellow road was resumed. Doha Delfina passed Captain Arad so close that she might have touched him with that fan showing a picture of a fallen bullfighter; instead she masked her mouth with it, but her eyes smiled. Don Narciso was half asleep at her side. If that little yellow man should die, Captain Arad thought, Delfina, unlike the Fiji Island women, would not be found imploring his relatives to strangle her, so that she might follow him into the beyond.
By a queer chance, that very night Don Narciso was all but throttled in his bed by robbers, or more likely pirates, who had succeeded in swarming over the city walls. He was rescued just in time by the big halberdier stationed outside his door; but the pirates were in sufficient force to escape without loss of any of their number. In the morning the bay was peaceful, but the scandal of pirates actually attacking a town of these dimensions while it slept was being discussed on every corner. Captain Arad waited in person on Don Narciso, sat with him beard to beard — as Narciso himself said — in the sala of his stone house.
“I am glad,” the trader began, “to see that these rascals after all have done you no great damage, Excellency.”
Don Narciso, sitting in a white nightcap, felt of his throat.
“A man who is afraid to die never truly lives,” he muttered, with a miserable attempt at boldness, but he could not keep a tear from trickling over the lacquered surface of that famous glass eye, blown and colored and inserted for him by the celebrated Doctor Pablo.
“True,” the Yankee shipmaster agreed. “But even if these pirates are run to earth, opportunities for dying will be plentiful enough for any man placed as Your Excellency is. If you let them run wild, in the end there’s nothing they won’t attempt. Here you are, for example, in a modern city, protected by a wall and ditch, drawbridges, gates, sally ports, soldiers, with a watch set every night; yet the beggars break in and all but choke the life out of you personally.”
“Maledictions and fatalities,” Don Narciso breathed.
“Fatalities. Exactly. A broadside of my thirty-two pounders in the middle of them will furnish fatalities enough.”
“But they have escaped.”
“Not without leaving a clue. My kind friend Jamboo, Yang-Po’s interpreter, picked up one of their muskets on the shore this morning. An English musket with the Tower stamped on the lock. By a private mark I know it for a musket I traded myself to a pirate — Seriff Sahibe. I know his nest. It’s a river mouth on the coast of Borneo. You’ll know it by an island there with a queer Malay name, but the English of it is Misfortune’s Isle.
“Misfortune’s Isle. But that is the island — the island — ”
“Of the upas tree, you are going to say. Exactly. What harm? The stories about that tree are nonsense. It will neither singe the hair nor numb the faculties of those who lie under it. The Dyaks extract a poison from it, I admit, to tip their arrows with, and they worship the tree, naturally; but these other stories are pure invention.”
“But I am told that the river’s mouth is stockaded,” Narciso objected.
“We can get round that. Lash whaleboats to the piles at low tide, and as the tide rises the buoyancy of the boats will pluck the piles out like so many radishes.”
“But our arms. The weapons of my soldiers. Half the time our guns miss fire; the percussion caps are abominable. The least moisture, a squall or a fall of dew, and we are helpless. We are forced to make our own powder, since the government of Spain forbids the importation of powder into Manila.”
“That reminds me of my friend Billy Sturgis,” Arad laughed. “His owner furnished him with nothing but quakers — wooden guns, Excellency, painted black — but he smuggled aboard four actual cannon, with ball and powder answerable; and with these he beat off pirates in the China Sea and saved ship and cargo. His owner made him pay freight on the cannon both ways, when he heard of it.”
“I am as much in earnest as those eight thirty-two pounders aboard my ship. I tell you, I have guns and powder enough to blast Misfortune’s Isle out of the water, upas tree and all; but — I am only a trader. Ugly stories of tyranny could easily get afloat if I effected this without official cooperation. My owners wouldn’t like it. They would argue that I had gone out of my way to unlatch those guns. I should be worse off than Billy Sturgis. Now, if I can say that you, señor, commandeered my services, I am on better ground.”
“Who are these pirates?”
“A league of three forces, principally. There are Malays headed by Seriff Sahibe; there are Dyaks — head-hunters — under Gapoor; and there is that misplaced band of Chinamen — convicts — who seized the junk in which they were being transported from Hong-Kong to Singapore. Jamboo tells me they are all members of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth. Our friend Yang-Po — the Captain China — is the head of that organization, it so happens. He tells me it was founded by him to set crooked things straight. Yang-Po owes his life to me. His junk is in the bay, and he agrees to pilot us into the shadow of Misfortune’s Isle. My friend O’Cain, if you consent, follows us in my ship, the Water Witch.”
“And do not forget, Don Narciso!” Doila Delfina cried — she had suddenly come on the scene, exquisitely girlish in flowered English muslin with a gardenia blossom in her hair. “We heard only yesterday that Spain will make any man count of Manila who will rid these waters of pirates.”
“But suppose Yang-Po cannot persuade these Chinamen,” Narciso faltered.
“Well, what are a few Chinamen more or less? Knock ‘em down; they’re only tea and rice. Set me ashore at that stockade with two loaded pistols,” the trader said sternly, and with cunning grandiloquence suited to the Spaniard’s needs, “have I not still an advantage? Do I not stake my one life against two others?”
“Ah, Dios,” Delfina murmured in a tone of worship, “quel hombre!”
What a man. This murmur turned the edge of all Narciso’s arguments. He was in the miserably equivocal position of an arrant coward with a widespread reputation for courage and an ambition to maintain it. His restless wife had three times already, on the coast of Chile, goaded him into lucky undertakings. As he sat now, he was Knight of the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Saint Hermenegildo, and of the Military Order of San Fernando, and decorated with seven more crosses of merit for war services — once removed — in the campaigns of both hemispheres.
“But you, señor captain — what have you to gain?” he finally demanded.
“Trade. I don’t want to conceal anything. This river is full of gold and antimony ore, and the limestone cliffs of the island, I am told, contain edible birds’ nests. My friend Houqua at Canton loves bird’s nest soup. He will give me a shipload of raw silk and broken silver in exchange.”
Don Narciso got up hastily and said he would consider the proposition further. Flanked by huge halberdiers and standing at the head of a broad damp flight of stone stairs in his earthquake proof house, he shouted down to the retreating Arad the various honors imparted, the signal obligations conferred by Arad’s presence, by the mere shadow of his shadow, on this house and on the family of which he, Don Narciso, was the least considerable member. Dona Delfina stood darkly, ravishingly limned against a lime-washed wall. Captain Arad was stirred; he felt a wash of subtle emotion in his blood. It was as if he had glimpsed under a flying moon the wings and heels of a superb China trader, going with the strength of the monsoon, and suddenly sliding up onto a coral shoal and sticking fast, so that no press of canvas could snatch her off into the deeper water.
“Adiosito,” her lips had fashioned noiselessly — a little farewell. A farewell with the ghost of a return in it. At Felipe Bustamente’s noisy boarding house, when O’Cain roared “Does the lady wear stockings or not?” Arad said somberly, “No matter for that. She has a soul, Mike.”
When he found, after the expedition had started, that Dofia Delfina had stowed herself away aboard Yang-Po’s venerable junk, Captain Arad wished he had not thought so much about the lady’s soul. This piece of folly on her part was a threat to trade. If Don Narciso knew she was aboard, he would be quite capable of turning the ship’s head for Manila. As it was, he had almost beat a retreat when they had lost sight of the Water Witch in a squall.
It was on the night following that Dofia Delfina, barefooted, in the half-breed’s costume of blue-and-white-striped pantaloons and a straw-colored pills shirt, put herself in Captain Arad’s way. This was in the waist of the ship, near the big pole mast, and in the shadow of one of those enormous bell-mouthed cannon. She hungrily filched a cheroot from the pocket of his coat. She had, she whispered, got herself brought aboard as a sack of feathers. Was he surprised? But she would contrive to make herself useful, she assured him. She would stay concealed until Don Narciso’s knees showed signs of buckling under him, and then Captain Arad would see how she could stiffen him. One way or another, she had been present at all his campaigns, and always with good effect.
“Is his nerve still good, after last night’s squall?” she inquired.
“Not too good. He fell and bruised his hip.”
“If it had not been for those feathers in which I came,” Delfina said, “I should be nothing but bruises now. It was worse than the earthquake — this squall of yours. Then, when I heard the cannon fired, I thought the pirates had attacked us.”
“We fired that shot to shatter a waterspout.”
“And you succeeded?”
“Yes. At least we got the contents of the spout, but in the form of heavy rain, instead of solid water. But the plague of it is, the rain got through the decks into-the powder tubs. Our powder is useless — all except that in the firecrackers. But there’s no going back. We haven’t water enough left. And everybody got so excited over the waterspout that nobody thought of catching water when it fell — or nobody but me, and I prefer river water.”
“Keep in this bag of feathers one more night, and I will make you a grandee of Spain,” Arad muttered. “Condesa.”
“Ah, condesa. That is good.”
“But now I must get up where I can watch Yang-Po’s piloting.”
“Buenas noches,” Delfina whispered, and blew smoke deliberately into his ear. “How well this title would become you, señor — el conde. The great count with his black hair, and this mouth which it is certain you have inherited from your mother. It is so very sweet. Ah, adiosito.”
The foot of the bamboo ladder he ascended had pasted on it a red label in the Chinese, reading, “May the going up be peaceful,” but with Delfina’s smoke — her fire — hot in his ear, he couldn’t at once recompose himself.
Yang-Po, the Captain China, had been smoking opium, and now, to keep himself awake, had knotted his pigtail to the rigging above his head. He swayed like a hanged man with each motion of the junk, but each time they swam past one of these black headlands, the helmsman sent Jamboo, the interpreter, to touch the Captain’s shoulder. Whereupon the Captain would look at his chart and order a cock sacrificed to the Queen of Heaven. The chart, unrolled at his feet, was on peach-colored rice paper, and showed the one proper courses straight track — with serpents and dragons writhing out of the deep on every hand. Arad, glancing over Yang-Po’s shoulder, went a little cold to see that on this chart Siberia was jammed up close against Africa, with disastrous effect on the two or three surrounding oceans. Still, it was likely that Yang-Po knew his ship’s footing in these waters.
But Don Narciso appeared to have his doubts.
“You are sure this man knows where he is going?”
“He cannot fail,” Arad said. “I know him of old. I met him first when he was a student at Canton, a literary graduate of the third degree. That, of course, is a guarantee that he has learning enough to fill five carts. Later he was one of the keepers of the temple of the Silver Moon off Lin Tin, and he used to come out and beg rice of us when we were bound down the China Sea.”
“Beg? Beg, you say?”
“This rascal was born begging. Whenever we smoked the rats out of the ship he was at hand to catch them when we threw them overboard. A forehanded man, Excellency. Later he was foolish enough to sell us, out of the Number One Temple at Honan, the sacred hog that was being kept to die of its own fat. We bought it for opium, and that came to the emperor’s ears. Our man wasn’t judged fit for strangulation after that. They crammed the wooden collar over his ears instead; that thing was four feet across any way you measured it. Yang-Po couldn’t lie down, he couldn’t feed himself, and the penalty is strangulation for feeding anybody in the collar, as you know. I found him in a ditch, took him aboard the Witch, got the ship’s carpenter to saw the collar off, and gave him rum and salt horse. You see whether he is obligated to me.”
“It was after that that he joined the Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth?”
“Yes. He and this fellow Jamboo joined forces, got a fast sampan, and preyed on the Chinese market boats and petty traders coming into Batavia — those fellows who do smuggling business with the Dutch monopolists. Our friends got some pretty rich hauls. Molucca spices, coffee and pepper from Sumatra, gold dust, camphor, slaves and rattan from Borneo, tin from Banca, tortoise shell and dye woods from Timor. You can imagine they weren’t long in getting to be pretty respectable citizens, Excellency. Jamboo was busy learning all those languages; and, in fact, I believe the fellow knows the very language of the birds; he will tell you what the trees are whispering in these plaguy rivers.”
“You say they are pirates themselves?” Don Narciso said, aghast.
“Not any more.” Arad laughed. “Not since they got hold of this junk. No, they are traders, like myself. This very voyage, for example, the junk is full of — sacks of feathers,” he dropped out with a grim twist of his mouth and a look over his shoulder at the crooked pole mast of ironwood with the bark only half scraped off. “You will find, Excellency,” he went on, quoting Byron, a favorite of his, “that this Captain China is as mild a man as ever cut a throat.”
Don Narciso brought out, with a quaver, that they ought not to close with these pirates before sighting the Water Witch, lost sight of in last night’s squall. “Our powder is useless, remember,” the captain general of Zamboanga said.
“That may be a providence. These gun barrels are cracked, and wound with nothing but bolt silk. The touch holes are as big as the muzzles. Two men were injured destroying that spout last night. Better, in any case, trust to stabbing knives.”
The fierce Jamboo, in his quilted fighting clothes, came direct from the helmsman to say that Misfortune’s Isle was now in sight. Yang-Po untied his pigtail, picked up from the chart his supper of salt, dried vegetables and rice in a coconut shell, and lifted the canopy of red cloth over the compass. The little whirligig of a man there, carved out of sapan wood and fixed to the huge needle, kept on pointing his finger north. The limestone cliffs of Misfortune’s Isle were close enough for them to see the broken coral belt at its foot, gleaming in wicked white patches against a black background of mangrove jungle on shore.
“Do we attack tonight?” Jamboo inquired, grounding his spear on the deck. His bronze head with its cluster of godlike curls moved closer. Arad, remembering the look of worship he had cast at Delfina on the Calzada, thought it would be just as well if Jamboo, as well as Don Narciso, remained in ignorance of her presence on board. Jamboo was a waif, he did not know his own father or so much as the place and hour of his birth; but to an imaginative man, this may have advantages. These slumberous watches, when he had had nothing to do but shake awake that stuffed figure of the hanging Yang-Po, it had been easy for Jamboo to imagine himself the son of a king, or perhaps a pirate by descent, as he was one already by taste. What if he were the son of Serif Sahibe himself, and so in his own person the inheritor of these resplendent gardens of the sun and master of fierce lives? Yet, in fact, he was only an interpreter.
“Attack? There is no hurry,” the Captain China yawned. “The coiling Peach Tree of the Royal Lady of the West was three thousand years before it had a blossom, and another three thousand before it bore fruit. Who knows whether it will be necessary to attack, venerable elder brother?”
“But if we do not attack the tiger in his den, how shall we have his cubs?” Jamboo insisted.
“I have been dancing with women in the palace of the moon. I cannot answer questions,” the Captain China said. “Sacrifice a cock,” he ordered, “to the Queen of Heaven.”
In the storm just passed, the Queen of Heaven, sitting in her apartment aft, cross legged in a ribbed and gilded shell, had toppled, and would have fallen if some of the sailors had not, with their profane hands, held her in her place.
“She is weak!” Jamboo had cried.
“She is angry, perhaps,” the Captain China had suggested. On either hypothesis, it would do no harm to shore her up.
The other omens were not too auspicious. The waterspout was nothing in itself, but the bursting gun had made the cannoneers timid about serving the other guns. Moreover, Don Narciso’s black soldiers had been wretchedly seasick the whole time, and some had filed the sights off their guns because of a tendency to catch in the clothing in rough weather. Again there were signs that the typhoon was not yet done with them — as, the sinking of pale phosphorescent moons through the water at night, a spotty haze following a red sunset, the haze alternating with clear patches in which the summits of the hills showed black, and finally an irregular swell across the oily face of the waters. If that Bully of the North meant to resume his antics, it would be well to have an anchorage, the Captain China said.
The upshot was, they put the junk fairly into the shadow of Misfortune’s Isle. When the limestone cliffs seemed ready to fall on the decks, Yang-Po made a motion of his hand, and there followed the splash of the junk’s huge, wooden, single-fluked anchor, weighted with stones. This was echoed by a single ominous note from a gong hidden at the heart of a banyan tree on the right bank of the river. Yang-Po answered with three peals on a gong of his own, and all was quiet.
Morning showed the two yellow tablelands of Misfortune’s Isle not a biscuit’s toss away. In the cleft or notch between them was set a pinnacle rock shaped like a ninepin, and reeling as if for a fall. At the foot of Ninepin Rock stood the upas tree, a mighty tan-colored trunk rising sixty feet without a branch, and crowned with a thick tuft of glossy dark green foliage. Even by morning light, the great poison tree, with its clustering legends, had something eerie, ominous, about it. It stood solitary on its blasted island. Not another tree, not so much as a shrub or spear of grass, was visible there, from the sinister circular halls high on the table-lands, where the Dyaks hung and smoke-dried heads, down to the beach of black volcanic sand at the foot of the upas tree.
Even Arad, getting into the lowered whaleboat with Jamboo and the Captain China, was glad to turn his eyes away from that tree and toward the river’s mouth, where morning was breaking in a hot golden haze back of the stockade closing the channel to anything larger than a proa. The lookout banyan tree on the right bank was full of bamboo ladders, and red monkeys hung chattering from the rungs of these. The tree was deserted, except for the Hue flash of the day-flying moth and the flit of leaf-green pigeons with blood-red eyes and feet. The whaleboat passed so close that Arad, standing in the stern sheets, could see the gleam of scarlet figs with honey drops at their tips; and in a few more strokes, they were in the shadow of Seriff Sahibe’s house.
The proa called the Singh Rajah, its brass swivels shining in the sun, was moored abreast of this house and was crowded with men. But nobody opposed Yang-Po’s going on into Seriff Sahibe’s house. This house, perched thirty feet over the water on slender legs, they entered by a ladder of notched logs leading to a hole in the floor. An alligator basking on a stone shelf half in and half out of water slid into the mud like something rolled on casters.
Seriff Sahibe himself was in an antique tunic of chain mail and a helmet decorated with bird-of-paradise feathers, but his legs were bare. He was sick, and lay on a bamboo platform raised a foot or more off the floor, since before now Dyak slaves and others had been known to circumvent the guardian alligator and thrust the tips of poisoned spears through the bamboo flooring, with its flimsy snaking of rattan, and into the bodies of unsuspecting sleepers.
Gapoor, the Dyak chief, was also here. His huge brass earrings he had turned up and toggled against his skull by a tiger tooth thrust through the upper part of the ear itself. This would prevent a sword from shearing the ear from his head, and was a warlike sign, which Jamboo and the Captain China recognized by merely squatting on the floor instead of sitting cross-legged. Both had previously eased their sarongs up over the handles of their stabbing knives.
Gapoor’s Sulu wife, in yellow clothes, and fair as an Italian, with her forehead shaved to match the narrow double arch of hair-line brows, offered betel-nut juice out of a silver mortar. All but Yang-Po drank, and nothing broke the decorum of Jamboo’s harangue except now and then the alligator’s rubbing his scales against the bark of the house posts, or once suddenly snapping to his jaws, which might have been wide open for ten or fifteen minutes through sheer laziness or inattention.
More insidious was the occasional creak in the rafters, a subtle swaying of the whole house on its attenuated legs; due, Arad found, to the weaving and looping, in the dark overhead, of Serif Sahibe’s pet anaconda, whose body was as thick through as a strong man’s upper leg. There was apparently no end to him. He did nothing worse, actually, than dislodge a couple of centipedes from the thatch; but once or twice Arad knew, by a sickening odor and an arrested expression on the handsome face of the Sulu wife, that the seeking head of this pet was within a foot of his own. If the conversation, through any blundering of Jamboo’s or through Gapoor’s misinterpreting the most innocent words, took a wrong turn, who could answer for the disposition of those giant black folds?
But so far Jamboo was doing very well. He explained to Seriff Sahibe that the white shipmaster had come to trade, and would pluck the riches of the limestone caverns of Misfortune’s Isle to gratify his Chinese friend Houqua’s palate for bird’s-nest soup.
Seriff Sahibe played with his toes and asked why the shipmaster had not come in his own ship? That was pertinent, and Jamboo replied glibly that the shipmaster’s ship was refitting at Manila, and that the Captain China was his friend and knew these waters. Seriff Sahibe fluttered his lids. Perhaps he thought it more likely that the Captain China had been retained to detect frauds. The Captain had a gift that way, as was known. If the Dutch at Amboyna hung their clove bags over water to increase their weight by absorption, Yang-Po would know it by squeezing the cloves in his fist. Again, if the Hong merchants at Canton offered, as tea, chopped elm and willow leaves dyed with Prussian blue, or if the traders at Bombay adulterated opium with pounded poppy leaves and camels’ dung, Yang-Po’s counsel was invaluable. He knew, too — this literary graduate, with his five cartloads of knowledge — how to test the purity of camphor; and he could tell gold from brass filings by simply picking up the stuff on his wet finger ends.
Whatever his thoughts, Serif Sahibe listened politely. The Captain China seemed innocence itself. He accompanied Jamboo’s remarks with lifts of the brow, shrugs, head slants and polite hissings, but the pirate knew that members of the Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth had to be watched for small signs. Fatalities might result from not knowing the difference between Yang-Po’s twirling his cue from left to right and from right to left. But only men born to set crooked things straight would know how to interpret it if a silver cup containing betel-nut juice should be lifted with three fingers instead of two, or set down untasted on the flat of a war drum. Certainly the Captain China had not drunk his liquor, which was a breach of etiquette, and he had not sat cross-legged in the presence, which was a worse breach.
When the conference broke up, everyone was as wise as when it started, but the whaleboat returned safely to the junk. That night Jamboo deserted, and despite peril from ranjows — sharpened bamboo stakes concealed in the ground, with poison at their tips — made his way, it was known later, to the Malay camp.
“Ten thousand bushels of sorrow, how could I suppose this?” the Captain China asked Don Narciso.
“Pick up the anchor and make sail,” the captain general urged. “This man will tell them the truth about us.”
“There is one truth torture cannot wring from him, because he does not know it,” the Captain China said sleepily. “That is, that we are, aground here, on stiff green mud. There is no moving.”
“No moving?” Don Narciso gasped.
“No moving. It is best to retire and take opium.”
Don Narciso fell back a step, fetched up on the point of his sword, and muttered, “Perdido” — lost. Standing in hot sunshine, which struck also those cliff faces of Misfortune’s Isle, and the snake-green leaves of the ghastly upas, Don Narciso cast a horror-stricken look about him. Nature perhaps had joined man’s conspiracy against his life. He put a hand to his throat. This air was next to impossible to breathe. It might be nothing but a distillation of those venomous leaves, dropped into a man’s blood stream.
“Some kinds of trouble can be avoided by fleeing with a bag of dogwood tied to your arm and drinking chrysanthemum flower wine as you run, but this is not that kind of trouble,” the Captain China informed Don Narciso. “Excuse me, august one, if I spend a part of this evening dancing with the women in the palace of the moon.”
This was the same as smoking opium; and the helmsman brought him his pipe. Narciso shut himself into his cabin, and Captain Arad was able to seek out Delfina, who lay in the shadow of the giant mat sail, crumpled across its two horses.
“The Witch is not in sight?” she whispered.
“No. But there is worse news. Jamboo, the interpreter, has betrayed us.”
“He has gone ashore.”
“That is perhaps to spy. I must tell you my secret. It was Jamboo who brought me aboard personally on his shoulders in that bag of feathers. He is my slave; he has no thoughts except what I put into his head. ‘It was I who got him to put into your head the very idea of this expedition, senor. Confess, he was the first to approach you on the subject.”
The first. This was true. It had been Jamboo who brought him that English musket and suggested the availability of Yang-Po’s junk. Delfina’s mirthful eyes gleamed very near.
“You say that you —”
“I. Yes. I was bored to the whites of my eyes in that sleepy Manila. I prayed for anything — pirates, a change of husbands. Then Jamboo came with that musket, and I had sent him to you before I thought twice.”
“You see. He worships me,” Delfina explained with a confident motion of her lips.
“Worse and worse. He must think his chances of acquiring you outright, without let or hindrance, are better from the other side. It’s probable now he has bartered away what information he has for the promise of you. No doubt he will go right on worshiping you after he has taken you up into his bamboo house and set you to pounding betel nut,” Arad went on a little ferociously. “They worship white women here traditionally. The story is that they have got one penned up in this cursed tree hanging over our heads, but I don’t know.”
“You frighten me!” Delfina cried. “You think, señor”
“I frighten you too late. And I don’t know what I think. I think the earthquake should have swallowed you. I think I ought to let these Dyaks have you. They know how to treat infidelity.”
“Infidelity? Señor — señor!”
“Isn’t that the name for it, when a wife tries to get rid of her husband by taking advantage of his weakness for titles? These Dyaks, for a less offense, would bury you to the waist and stone you with medium sized stones. That’s the penalty in their code. Well, is Jamboo’s worship worth this? I suppose you return it. No doubt you two will live together happily, once Don Narciso’s brains have been eaten and his head hung in the smokehouse.”
“You are beside yourself,” Delfina cried faintly. “How can you doubt that it is you I worship? From the very instant of my vesper prayer, senor
Doha Delfina was as silent as if he had closed his hand about her throat. There was a sound of guitars forward in the hands of the Indian chamber band, playing to keep Don Narciso’s spirits up. This gust of music died, and there was nothing but a spluttering of firecrackers, a creaking of the bamboo quarter galleries under the tread of yellow feet, a bubbling of oil in the cook room. They were boiling it in three cast-off whalers’ try-pots, to pour down on the heads of pirates. Captain Arad, looking down at Delfina’s dark slenderness, saw her shoulders move. She was sobbing quietly. He felt like a warrior whose best weapon has been struck out of his hand in the very hour of battle.
“Come,” he said softly. “I must get you out of this ship before the attack.”
It was dark enough on the table land over the upas tree, but Arad went fast, scarcely waiting for Delfina to get her breath. She was sopping wet in her striped silk pantaloons and piña shirt; but she had swum away from the ship’s side with her head well out of water, unwilling to get her hair wet; and now, withdrawing thorn hairpins, she let the dry hair down round her modestly.
Captain Arad had a coil of rattan rope on his arm and a canvas bag in his fist, with food, torches and water. The climb here by that series of notched logs hung against the face of the cliff had not been easy. The notches in the logs were far apart, forcing him to bring his knee practically to his chin for each step; and most of the way he had carried Delfina, lashed bodily against his back with a few turns of the rattan.
“Here’s the mouth of that cave I spoke of,” he said, barring her way with his arm. “It’s crammed full of birds’ nests, and there may be a bat or two, but nothing to frighten you. You’ll have food and water, and rope to help you down when the time comes. I’ve told you that we are as good as dead men on the junk. Jamboo, your friend, has told those beggars that our powder is worthless; and they outnumber us ten to one. But there’s still a chance to save O’Cain’s skin and yours. I don’t know what’s delaying him. He may have struck on a shoal; he may have foundered. Well, say he has; say he’s sitting in an open boat now with the salt stinging him and only a pillow case of moldy bread between his knees, he’s still making for the island.”
Delfina didn’t answer, and Arad, prodded by the mention of O’Cain, asked out of a clear sky, “Do you wear stockings in Manila?”
Delfina had seemingly not heard one syllable of this. She murmured, her lips stiff with horror, “I cannot be left here. Señor, no, no. I had rather the poison of the upas killed me. . . How near it is. It is not twenty feet down to Ninepin Rock, and from there I could easily jump into the top of the tree. . . Señor captain, I am growing numb already. I cannot feel my toes; my hands are cold. Do you not feel yourself a dreamy something here, as if — as if our souls had slid out of our bodies?”
“No. The soul is the grain, the body is the sack containing it, Yang-Po says. When the grain — the soul — is out, the sack loses its shape. But you are evidently still in possession of your soul, señora. You will be able to give O’Cain his signal.”
“I had forgotten. . . They say there are no fish in the waters round this island, and that birds flying over it drop dead.”
“Birds are mortal. They must drop dead somewhere.”
“Still, nothing is growing here. Not so much as a shrub.”
“I don’t deny this tree has poison. Its sap is a kind of yellow froth, and Dyaks put it in a hollow reed with ten folds of linen round it. But it’s nonsense to say it poisons the air or withers the soul.”
“Still, the manchineel —”
“I know. But a drop of dew from the manchineel must actually fall on your skin to blister it. There’s another tree — I forget its name, but it shakes like a reed if you touch it, and it will wrestle you down if you pick it up by the roots. For that matter, I’ve seen fire coming from the camphor tree in Houqua’s gardens at Canton, but it’s a queer kind of fire that won’t even singe the hair.”
Yang-Po’s junk, hung all round with scarlet lanterns, gleamed in the blue abyss under their heels, and in the shadow of the upas tree.
“At least, do not leave me for a moment,” Delfina murmured pathetically. She tiptoed dangerously near the edge of the cliff, and Arad, with a restraining arm around her, felt her hair like the brushing of black flame against the back of his hand. “You say a woman is supposed to be imprisoned in this tree?”
“A white woman, the story is. She had sinned. The bitterness of her tears mingling with the sap is what gives the poison strength. Her imprisonment is her power.”
“Her power for evil!” Delfina cried, shuddering closer.
“Well, anyway, as long as she’s nipped here, just so long these fellows go on getting a first-class poison for their blow pipes. But it’s on the cards, they all admit, that sooner or later she’ll escape. And that, if I’m any judge, will knock them cold as a gun. . . I must get back,” he muttered, without, however, stirring hand or foot.
“No, señor,” Delfina said in a very small voice.
There must certainly be some subtle poison in this tree — or was it the poison of Delfina’s iron little will? It was the sort of poison that forces a man to ply himself with arguments. Why, after all, should he return to the junk? Why stir himself to save the life of that opium-fogged literary graduate or the still less useful captain general of Zamboanga? It was better looking down from this safe aerie, with Delfina’s head ever so lightly posed against his shoulder. . . But where could she have learned that habit of the Dyak women of binding up flowers in the hair at night, so as to impart a fragrance to the strands? . . . He breathed deep.
“I will not have you killed before my eyes,” Delfina faltered, and grew heavy in his arms.
“If I am killed, my thousand pieces of gold,” Arad whispered, using the words of the Malay warrior to his principal wife on parting, “wind about me this yellow sash from your waist, strew my body with petals from your hair, let my sightless eyes feel your salt tears, and may my ears hear the whisper of your faithful soul, borne to me on the winds of the eternal.”
“You tear me in pieces. . . Señor, they are doomed. Let them die, and let us die here by ourselves, apart, in a day or two — under God’s frown. Or possibly, if God wills —”
“You are a worse poison than the upas!” Captain Arad shouted. He thrust her away from him into the cave’s narrow mouth. Before the drumming of the swallows’ wings had died, he was over the cliff’s edge and halfway down that dangerous log ladder.
The Captain China, very somber in his mulberry-colored jacket, had with difficulty brought himself back from the arms of those women in the palace of the moon. What he saw on board the junk inclined him to return forthwith to that celestial employment, which had no moral reckoning. The cannoneers were piling up lumpy cannon balls of malleable iron between the guns; the largest of which, cracked from end to end of its barrel, but tightly wrapped with many windings of a good quality of silk, had a red label on the breech which read, The Solitary Idea. But the solitary idea of this gun was to frighten the enemy by posing in the mere likeness of a gun, as Yang-Po well knew.
Brass oil cups with floating cotton wicks burning in the bottoms of buckets threw a weird light into the sweating yellow faces of the stone carriers, who were piling huge boulders and red lacquered stinkpots in the quarter galleries; and the black soldiers of Don Narciso were aiding with noisy prayers.
Don Narciso himself, the fierce gleam of his undaunted glass eye within a foot of the Captain China’s face, cried out, “Are no measures to be taken?”
The Captain China said, “Ter-Haar, thou son of a burnt mother, hand here the rice spoon.”
A cosmopolitan spirit, he believed that superstitions, like religions, had their grain of truth. Ter-Haar, a Malay seaman, brought a huge wooden spoon to which lumps of rice still clung; and the Captain China muttered an incantation which would have dropped the arms of Dyak rowers at their sides if it could have been brought to their attention. But in the very midst of it the Captain China’s head fell forward, he lapsed for whole heartbeats into that favorite world of his, more vast and inconclusive, whose parapets swarmed with women of the moon. Their eyes were like sloes and their fingers twined in his pigtail. Still the earth would not let him go.
“If our enemies prevail after all these exertions, it is just. It is because we have maltreated them in a former life,” he muttered sleepily. Arad shook him savagely.
“This ship is bedlam!” the Salem master cried. “What are those devils yelling for down there?”
“They are giving orders,” the Captain China said, as if already asleep and answering some question put to him in a dream. “They are all commanders in their own right.”
He sank to his knees. Arad, seizing his pigtail, took a hitch with it to a piece of ratline stuff overhead. Yang-Po, his heels off the deck, smiled beatifically, and remained hanging, with his head fallen forward and his arms folded on his chest, in the customary attitude of a pilot.
“Your kindness to me,” he said faintly, “is like the touch of spring on a dying tree.”
“Hist! They are coming!” Don Narciso cried to Arad. There was a moment of comparative quiet, but even so, the rolling of a Malay oar in its rattan grommet could hardly have been distinguished from the sound of a fish jumping for a moth. The dazzle of lights necessary to the Chinese in battle made it impossible to see a dozen feet away from the junk’s side.
“These fools,” Arad muttered, “will probably dump all those stones into the water at the first rattle of an oar.”
“What — what tortures do these tribes use with prisoners of war?” Don Narciso asked thickly.
“They have no invention, really,” Arad answered, staring toward the mangrove jungle. “Ordinarily they bind a man face down to a bamboo platform with a hole in it just at the fifth rib; and a sharpened palm shoot just under the hole grows into the victim’s heart. Nature is swift here. The palm shoot kills in from twelve to twenty hours. If they have a little more time they smear a man’s naked body with wild honey and hold him crushed down against an ant’s nest. That is more artistic.”
Don Narciso pulled at the ends of his mustache in quick succession with the same hand.
“The thing is, not to be caught. And let me warn you now, Excellency, against those long poles of theirs ending in flesh hooks. When they get close enough, they shove these things over the rail and drag you overboard, like spearing eels. Keep in the middle of the deck until the stinkpots have been thrown.”
The gong in the distant banyan struck once. Captain Arad ran down three or four bamboo ladders and came to the guns. The gunners stood waiting in white clothes, with crimson symbols for victory and happiness scrawled on their backs, and matches smoking in their hands. The powder tubs were uncovered, but since the powder was hopelessly bad, there was no harm in that. Through an open sea door, Arad could see the Queen of Heaven, with countless cups of cold tea untasted at her knees. Centuries ago, a virgin, she had saved her brother, who was on the point of drowning, and had been deified. This accounted for these prostrations, thumpings, decapitations of fowls, and the knocking of already flattened noses on the teakwood deck.
A voice cried in Arad’s ear, “Do you not hear, my officer, that wailing cry of a night bird? That will guide them. If it is in front of them, they retreat; but if it is behind them, they advance.”
A heart-stopping yell all ‘round the junk, with a mad outburst of gong music, showed how the pirates had taken advantage of that bird’s advice. Jamboo was known to be able to interpret cleverly the language of birds, and he would naturally favor an attack. The Chinese ship comrades yelled “Hi-yi-yi!” and began to roll their boulders overboard. They also rushed up to the galleries giant ladles of boiling oil, slopping over at the edges. And they threw thousands of firecrackers. But they could see nothing — not so much as the shapes of those murderous proas — and they were in too much of a hurry to be rid of their boulders. It was unlikely that Seriff Sahibe had risked more than a handful of his proas to draw this clumsy fire of stones. Even now a splash and roll of oars showed that he was in retreat.
“We have beaten them off!” Don Narciso cried, running to the ship’s side.
“It took the whole of our artillery to do it,” Arad reminded him. “They have simply drawn our fang. They’ll be back before we have time to boil more oil.”
“Where shall I take my stand?” Don Narciso asked fearfully.
“Ask the Queen of Heaven,” Arad answered.
The proas were closing with the junk again; and out of nowhere, at the end of a shining bamboo pole sliding along the rail over the cold, stiff-necked cannon, a hideously pronged flesh hook appeared. It drifted straight for Don Narciso. The unlucky captain general was paralyzed with horror. It was plain that he was not going to be able to exert himself to dodge this hook, and Arad got a hand in his collar and yanked him to his knees. The hook passed over their heads; and staring up at it, those two looked straight into an unexpected burst of yellow fire, coming from the limestone cliffs of Misfortune’s Isle.
“It’s the upas tree!” Arad shouted.
In fact, it was the upas tree that had mysteriously broken into flame. It was a giant torch, a deadly wand, flourished over their heads, destroying the secrecy of the attack and touching the hearts of warriors cold in the very heat of battle ardor. The blood-shot eyes of those followers of Seriff Sahibe rolled in their heads; for they had seen a sight which filled them with despair and terror. There was a recoiling clash of oars, spears and muskets, an indescribable banging of gongs. When the Chinese up the river had tried to frighten away a plague of locusts by beating on gongs, and again, when they had tried to banish an eclipse of the moon by the same means, the Dyaks had sneered; but they had reason now to call on all their gongs. For not even Arad’s phlegmatic western eyes had failed to see, rising as if out of the heart of the flame itself, and drifting fast, with wide-flung arms and streaming hair, a woman shape vanishing against the limestone cliffs.
And not even Arad was certain, for that second, that this was not the upas prisoner, the very soul of poison, escaping, and in a mood to call down tardy vengeance from the black skies.
Captain Arad and Captain Michael O’Cain sat with the old Hong merchant, Houqua, in his gardens at Canton. Houqua’s house was like a string of Pompeiian villas, delicately carved and gilded, hung with horn lanterns ending in red silk tassels. Priceless silk paintings adorned the walls, and here and there was scrawled in thick brush strokes the symbol of happiness.
The three friends sat outdoors by night at a black lacquered table under an ancient camphor tree. This terrace was paved with polished granite, and granite blocks of high luster edged the fish pond, where lotus leaves floated and where a company of eight ducks were performing figures to the music of a bamboo flute. This flute was in the hands of an entertainer — one of the Disciples of the Pear Garden — in an opposite pavilion. Arad got up restlessly and strolled to the water’s edge.
Lanterns were everywhere. They hung from the ivory balustrade of the steep little bridge over the fish pond, from the eaves of the house, from the lower branches of the camphor tree and from the two stone towers on the river’s bank. The bank itself was paved, but with rough granite, the blocks dogged one to another with iron dogs, and sloping gradually under water.
“Pulo Chalacca — that was the name of it,” O’Cain muttered to Houqua. “Misfortune’s Isle. ‘Tis well named. Jamboo, I hear, was stoned to death with medium sized stones — no one of them, mind you, big enough to kill him outright; but in the end they wore him down. Those pirates ran away so fast they left Seriff Sahibe’s pet anaconda behind them, and took the women and children in the old proas. Yang-Po is nothing now but a chambermaid for the birds’-nests caves; he goes around burning sulphur in them and making inducements to the birds to build again. ‘Take little and give much’ — that’s his motto now.”
“And Doha Delfina?” Houqua inquired.
“Well, she got back her little man with the glass eye, it’s true, but still and all, there she is in Manila, and goes out at four o’clock, when the sea breeze springs up, and the little postilion ahead of her in his shiny hat on the gray horse’s back. Maybe once a week she can watch the half breed women, with their hair down, waltzing with their chins on their partners’ shoulders — but what does that avail?
“And there’s Arad, here, Houqua. I’ve had Chinese doctors to him; they’ve taken his pulse in both arms from the wrists to the shoulders. There’s some out about him, and they don’t know what. Misfortune’s Isle — that’s the long and short of it. Maybe I was well out of it. Still, I would have given a shipload of broken silver for a sight of that prisoner in the tree, breaking loose in her glory and flying free at the end of that rope tied to Ninepin Rock. Whatever the custom in Manila, Houqua, she wore no stockings there. It was necessary to the scheme to have her looking like an immortal. And haven’t I heard you say yourself we shall have no clothes in heaven, because, although bodies have souls, it’s not likely that clothes have souls to match? Or if they do, who’s to guarantee that the clothes will die with the body, and not sooner or later?”
“There are no soulful garments,” Houqua agreed, tracing a symbol of happiness in the air with his pipe stem.
“Right. So there was I, a week late in the Witch, what with her grounding and ourselves dropping her guns over the side and buoying them, and rolling all the provisions and water casks aft to work her off, and then fishing up the guns again. All I got was hearsay. Narciso Crispo’s expedition, when I got there, would have been just a collection of heads hanging in the head halls with tufts of grass in the ears and orange cowries for eyes, if Dona Delfina hadn’t put that upas to the torch. Well, it’s certain the king will send them out a patent of nobility. They’re grandees of Spain this minute; Narciso is as good as Count of Zamboanga. And why not? Oughtn’t a man to be ennobled for seeing his wife float head-first out of a burning tree on a desert isle, and he with not the first suspicion of her being there? It was enough to blind him in his glass eye, and I told him so.”
It was strange, Houqua said. Yes, certainly it was Number One curio pigeon. Strange business. He had heard tell of the upas poison.
“You have an art with trees yourself,” O’Cain said, pointing at a maidenhair with fan-shaped leaves. This tree had been tortured into the likeness of a pagoda by confining its roots in stone crocks, and by other means. Here and there on the terrace were other trees, trimmed in the images of fish, camels and elephants. “You can all but make trees weep with the torture, as you do your women; but you do not know how to confine a woman in a tree. It’s a wonderful poison results, they say, when it’s quickened with lime juice. It works with a sharp burning in the head, and death. Its criminals condemned to die, they tell me, that are sent to tap the poison; and they give them leather hoods to put over their heads, and tell them to go toward the tree with the wind at their backs; and even so, only one in ten returns.
“Well, is Captain Arad poisoned then? He’s still about on his feet. Here he is with every reason to feel satisfied — a saving voyage, with the brotherhood digging antimony ore for him at Pulo Chalacca, and he with birds’ nests worth their weight in silver. . . Hist, here he is.”
“Birds’ nests,” Arad repeated, stepping out of the shadow of the camphor tree, which had a play of silver sparks out of its twigs and leaves. “We had better stick to birds’ nests, Mike. The raw nest, after the bird has flown, but before the egg has been laid. And I can sell you nests, Houqua, as big as a quarter orange, some of them, at forty Spanish dollars the pound.”
Houqua blinked his eyes. Across the fish pond one of the Disciples of the Pear Garden cracked his whip, and the performing ducks turned as one duck and swam toward him like mad.
“The last duck gets a taste of the whip!” O’Cain chortled.
“Why? There has to be a last duck,” Arad muttered darkly.
“Which proves the necessity of punishment on this earth!” O’Cain roared.
Bird’s-nest soup was put before them in three blue bowls. Arad dipped a spoon into this fabled soup. It would, Houqua assured him, put fat around the ribs, make old men young and young men able, and perform other marvels, such as making pirates homeless and filling the coffers of Salem merchant princes on the other side of the world. Yet it seemed to Arad that, considering how hard it was to get, the soup was rather tasteless. His thoughts were far away. He asked himself how these two could agree so glibly that garments — say, the flowered muslin or the striped pantaloons of the valiant Delfina — had no soul. As well say there had been no soul in that out breathed “Adiosito” from the cave’s mouth — farewell for a little, with that wraith of a promise of return in it. And as if he had been himself the last duck, the trader felt across his own shoulders the crack of the whip, and was aware that the upas poison, in some form, was in his veins, only not quickened; and that it had a power to tarnish the most gilded triumph.
Featured image: Anton Otto Fischer
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Households in Cardiff will soon be heated from a waste-to-energy facility.
A new £26.5 million district heating network, which will use underground pipes to transport heat from an energy recovery facility to businesses and homes in Cardiff, has secured £15 million to begin the first phase of works.
The new project, which claims to be ‘the first of its kind’ in Wales has received an £8.6 million loan from the Welsh Government and a £6 milion grant from the UK Government.
Cardiff City Heating Network will use heat generated at Viridor’s Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) at Trident Park, which diverts approximately 350,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste from landfill every year.
The plant generates enough electricity to power around 68,448 households.
Buildings connected to the network will no longer need to use gas for heating, slashing energy bills and the city’s carbon emissions.
The first phase of the heat network will initially provide heating to large buildings in the city, including the County Hall and could be fully operational within two years of installation works beginning.
Cabinet Member for Clean Streets and the Environment, Councillor Michael said: “Analysis shows that if all the heat available from the plant is fully utilised, we could save 5,600 tonnes of carbon each year and the customers signed up to the network could cut their annual energy bills by 5% on average while reducing their heating system’s carbon emissions by up to 80%.”
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The reason for writing this blog is not to purposely bash Facebook (okay, a little bit). I don’t resent the success of the social media platform. I even loved that David Fincher movie from 2010 (The Social Network), although I don’t think Zuckerberg and his palls liked it so much. And talking about Zuckerberg, I have nothing against him. I admire him even. However, I just feel and believe that Facebook is not so good for people. Here’s why:
1. People chat about horseshit
If you read the average Facebook page, how many substantial posts can you find? I think your IQ drops 5 points with every visit. If this is a representation of mankind, than I arrogantly feel a bit like Albert Einstein in WWII who wrote; ‘I often wonder: what idiotic race am I part of?’
2. It makes people socially lazy
Okay, so Facebook reminds you of birthdays of friends of family members, great. But rather than calling them up, sending them a card or buying them a present, people congratulate their friends and family members ON bloody Facebook. That is the laziest social gesture ever. Yes, I heard the argument; ‘but if it makes your life easier, why not make use of it?’ The answer is easy: Because before there was Facebook you didn’t congratulate them either. You completely forgot their birthdays! So are they supposed to be happy to receive a message from you? Off course not. If the effort is zero, it doesn’t mean jack shit.
3. It shows that a lot of people are just selfish jerks
A while ago, I was checking out profiles of old colleagues (that’s one thing Facebook is good for, spying), and I found one who recently lost her daughter in the final stages of her pregnancy. She posted a picture of herself on which she looked very sad. She also posted a card with the baby’s name on it and the date of birth and death (it was the same day).
How many people responded to this message? Perhaps 8. And I am not even talking about the most supportive comments either. One person said; ‘if you ever need help, you know where to find me.’ Jerk. How often do you see the most lame ass shit on the web get a hundred likes or more? All the fucking time. But when people post something that really comes from the heart, that shows what life is all about, most people couldn’t give a shit.
4. It makes idiotic suggestions on who to connect with
Just because I checked out some profile doesn’t mean I want to befriend somebody! Please stop with these ridiculous suggestions, FB. You are terrible at it, so you might as well stop before you annoy me away. Also, it makes your mailbox explode. FB, if you have to make awful suggestions on who to befriend, at least only do it once. I don’t want multiple suggestions on one day, and especially not the same lame ass suggestions more than once. And while I am at it, don’t mail me about the idiotic updates my friends posted.
5. The past is the past
Facebook makes you connect with people from your past. Or at least confronts you with their ugly faces on a daily basis. There are reasons you don’t see them anymore, and in 99% of the cases it is absolutely fine if it stays that way. It is bad for your mental health to keep stirring up people and events from the past for who you have no place in your current life and mind.
So why keep Facebook? Yes indeed. Why? It takes a chunk of your valuable time, makes you anxious, and hardly offers anything in return. Not even talking yet about the privacy violations. There must surely be better ways to stay in touch with your friends.
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Voters and political parties can nominate candidates to contest an election. Before you stand in an election, learn the rules for nominations, campaigning, advertising, expenses, expense limits, and donations.
If you’re an electorate candidate, you can advertise and campaign to encourage people to vote for you. Different rules apply depending on who the advertisement is promoting and the medium it’s in.
As a candidate, you’re also responsible for staying under your advertising expense limit, keeping a record of your expenses and donations, and reporting them to us after the election.
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By Emily Olsen
Russian soldiers that have been invading Ukrainian towns this spring appear to be fired up about the critical need to capture NAZIs. They have been indoctrinated to believe, falsely, that their neighbors to the south are a threat to Russia because fascist NAZIs are taking over the country.
Upon bombarding towns such as Bucha, where Russian soldiers are accused of killing hundreds execution-style, the invaders have demanded to know where the NAZIs were, but residents who insisted that there were none suffered an immediate fate, according to survivors.
The Washington Post reported that some of the soldiers have referred interchangeably to NAZIs and the right-wing Azov Battalion group in Ukraine. Despite the existence of such an extremist group there, Ukraine successfully held a democratic election in 2019 where Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former actor/comedian, became the president. Like David against Goliath, Zelenskyy has done an incredible job defending his country against the sustained Russian assault against all odds.
Recently Boyd Matheson, host of “Inside Sources” on KSL Radio, identified Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian or autocrat, and he mirrored the message of leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that have announced their solidarity with Ukraine. Putin has been the leader of Russia for 20 years, and his unprovoked attack on Ukraine, that has been at the center of the world stage for weeks now, indicates his absolute power over his subjects.
One recent study of 14 authoritarian state leaders, including Putin and the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, found that they were less caring or trusting of others. They were less emotionally stable compared with less autocratic leaders. They also scored higher on antisocial, “dark personality traits,” such as Machiavellianism (manipulative and deceptive), narcissism (grandiosity, superiority and entitlement), and psychopathy (low empathy, aggression and impulsivity), according to TheConversation.com.
Some believe that Putin, a former KGB agent, has leftover ideals from the Cold War to regain the territory of the former Soviet Union. It’s hard to believe that the former President Donald Trump continues to praise Putin in conservative media outlets despite undeniable evidence of the needless and devastating destruction occurring in Ukraine.
The message you receive from the media varies greatly depending on where you get your news. The media is powerful, and leaders like Vladimir Putin desire to manipulate the message that is piped out to people.
We Stand with Ukraine
Darlene McDonald, U.S. Congressional candidate in the Utah 4th District, stands with Ukraine, and she supports President Biden in his efforts to equip the Ukrainian army with needed artillery. It is a dance to help Ukraine without provoking Putin, armed with nuclear capabilities, to direct his Eye of Sauron towards the United States or its NATO allies.
Putin has demonstrated his ability to decimate communities with his devastating acts in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere, but we must help to curb this bloodshed. In a time of war, the United States must stand united as a matter of national security. The devastation in Ukraine is impacting our economy, our markets and our supply chain. As we protect Ukraine, we will be protecting our allies and our homeland.
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Our mission is to understand the principles of community and population ecology
of forest insects &
to provide real-life solutions for forest conservation and sustainability
We are a dynamic group of forest health scientists working at the cutting-edge of our field. We believe that scientific innovation and breakthroughs are keys to solving many of world's critical problems.
Our research focuses on many aspects of disturbance ecology, insect-plant interactions, community ecology, chemical ecology, and invasion biology of native and non-native forest insects.
Join us on the paths to scientific discoveries & to make a real difference in the conservation and management of forests worldwide. We welcome highly driven and energetic people to our group.
A paper on modeling of southern pine beetle outbreaks is now in press.
A paper on bees in Costa Rica is also in press.
Keith Caprio passed his oral exam for the MFR degree - congratulations.
A paper on modeling of wind disturbances has been accepted in Landscape Ecology.
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It’s been almost a week of lockdown now and people are getting more and more stir crazy and more and more terrified of going to the grocery store in case they might contract the virus on their one trip out of the house per day.
Featured Image VIA
However, there is some good news here as an immunologist has come out and stated that the chances of getting COVID-19 from grocery shopping are actually pretty small. Dr Kingston Mills is the Trinity College Dublin Professor of Experimental Immunology and had the following to say about the risk from leaving your house to go to the shops:
I think the extent of the risk of picking up the virus when shopping is very small.
I think if you are sensible, perhaps use gloves if you are going shopping and then dispose of them when you take them off but more importantly just wash your hands.
People have said maybe they should wash the wrappings on them.
My advice would be use your gloves, take off the wrapping, dispose of them and everything should be fine but quite frankly these are low risk in compared to being in contact with someone that’s infectious.
That’s a far more important message to get across and it comes back to distancing yourself from people who are potentially infected rather than picking it up from shopping.
I guess that’s good to know isn’t it? Still obviously a bit of a faff doing that every time you go out, but definitely better than getting the virus. Wash your hands.
For more of the same, check out Ronda Rousey talking about anal sex during the Coronavirus crisis. Yuck.
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For years, they have been the most frequently chosen cars - both passenger cars and trucks. The states compete here mainly with Japan.
It has been assumed that the overseas vehicle is difficult to maintain. This was probably due to the associations that the States themselves evoke. In fact, these cars have a simple structure that can be easily repaired. It is worth noting that this does not affect their durability. These are vehicles considered indestructible. US car parts are also of good quality, and the companies selling them are popping up in the European market like mushrooms. Owning a car from America is more and more possible for many people - it ceases to be a dream that is difficult to fulfill.
Car parts, appropriate accessories and gadgets are elements that a true automotive fan remembers - not only American cars.
Perhaps it will also happen
If we are the owner of an American car, we certainly had a problem with buying parts for cars from the USA at least once. Today it is much easier than in the past, but it still happens that the owner of a car bought in the US has a problem. This is, of course, due to the fact that American cars are still not very popular in our country, although there are many of them today.
The number of American cars in our country has a certain influence on the availability of parts for cars from the USA. Simply then, car repair shops or parts stores are more likely to bring them to our country, because they know they will sell them. If they are not sure that they will sell a given part quickly, they will be less willing to invest in it.
Of course, you can buy American parts. In fact, we'll finally find every part we need. Sometimes we just have to spend a little more time on this task. Perhaps it will also be associated with a greater expense.
If we have an American car, then
If we have an American car, we probably buy parts for cars from the USA from time to time. It's just that even American cars break down and sometimes need repair.
In some cases, car parts are very expensive. Sometimes it happens that their replacement is simply not profitable. Better to decide to sell the car and buy a new one. Of course, this is not always possible.
If we have a car that is many years old, unfortunately it may be the best model in the world, but it will break down anyway. It's just that all parts in a car wear out over time. Regular replacement may keep the car operational for longer, but this does not guarantee that we will drive it for the rest of our life. Sometimes we will have to say goodbye to the car faster, because its repair will not be profitable. The parts will be too expensive and the value of the car drops significantly over the years. Of course, if we want, we can try to repair and still drive the old car.
Corresponding parts are produced for each car model. Therefore, the prices for car parts can be different. If we have a popular car model, we will probably pay relatively little money for parts for it. If, however, we need parts for cars from the US, unfortunately we have to reckon with the fact that we can pay a little more for them.
American cars are now much more popular in Poland than in the past. However, European cars still dominate and parts for such cars are more easily available and, as a result, cheaper. If we have an American car, we must be aware that its repair can sometimes be very expensive. Of course, a lot depends on the car model and what part is needed.
Sometimes it is worth looking for the part you need in online stores. It may turn out that we will find a store whose offer will be attractive to us and we will pay much less than in a car repair shop. You only need to spend some time searching.
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[Relevant documents: First Report from the Environmental Audit Committee, Session 2007-08, HC 76-I; Fourth Report and Fifth Special Report from the Environmental Audit Committee (Government Responses), HC 528 and HC 644.]
Mr. Tim Yeo (South Suffolk) (Con): I am delighted that the Environmental Audit Committees report on biofuels, written earlier this year, has been selected for debate this afternoon. I welcome the Minister to his place, and I look forward to debating the important and topical issues raised in the report. I am delighted to see two of my colleagues from the Committee here as well.
Almost three years ago, the Environmental Audit Committee decided to make climate change its main theme during this Parliament, in recognition of the growing urgency of the threat of climate change and the cross-departmental nature of most issues relating to it. It did so also in recognition of the overriding need, supported by the latest scientific evidence, to keep greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at levels low enough to avoid dangerous and irreversible climate change.
As part of that work, the Committee decided to explore the role of biofuels in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport. Almost a quarter of the UKs emissions come from transport, and that figure excludes emissions from international aviation and shipping. In passing, I stress the Committees view that the continued exclusion of aviation and shipping threatens to undermine other efforts to tackle climate change. I hope that that will soon be corrected. The Climate Change Bill, whose Second Reading will take place in the House next week, could provide the first opportunity to recognise that international aviation and shipping should be brought within the calculations.
Transport is the only sector in which carbon dioxide emissions were significantly higher in 2005 than in 1990: they increased by 11 per cent. during that period. The Government have backed biofuels because they see them as one means of reducing transport emissions. The idea is that mixing biofuels made from crops with fossil fuels will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport.
As biofuels policy touches on climate change, agriculture, transport, technology, trade and a host of other issues, the report, like many of our other reports, considered issues that cross departmental boundaries. We found that although biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the potential environmental impact of supporting biofuels was not adequately considered before the policy was introduced. We concluded that biofuels are not the best way to
reduce emissions using the UKs bioenergy resources, and that there are other, better and more cost-effective ways to reduce emissions from transport.
As most biofuels are produced intensively from agricultural feedstocks, a large increase in demand for such feedstocks might have serious environmental consequences. Natural England recently reported that the natural environment is much less rich than it was 50 years ago. That is due in part to the damaging impacts of agricultural intensification. We found that biofuel support mechanisms are likely to increase the value and therefore the production of intensively farmed crops, adding to the damage that has already been done. We have seen what impact high commodity prices can have in terms of the loss of the set-aside land important for wildlife. It could also cause increased use of pesticides and fertilisers and lead to water shortages. At some point, commodity prices might become so high that farmers choose to opt out of agri-environmental schemes altogether, reversing the environmental improvements that such schemes have so far delivered.
Perhaps more seriously, the policy might also have global environmental impacts. Biofuel feedstocks are internationally traded commodities. Palm oil is one example. Although only a small fraction of palm oil is used to make biofuels at present, existing demand already creates a significant incentive to destroy highly biodiverse rain forests. The United Nations estimates that the combined effects of logging, fire and palm oil production could result in the total destruction of Indonesias lowland rain forest as soon as 2012. It is therefore utterly wrong to intensify the pressure by creating another market for palm oil, and it is doubly wrong to do so in the absence of effective safeguards to prevent deforestation.
The impact of deforestation is extremely serious. It has been calculated that between 2008 and 2012, deforestation will cause the release of 40 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. That is more than the total emissions from aviation from its invention until at least 2025. The Government have argued that their biofuel targets are cautious, but meeting the UKs 5 per cent. by 2010 biofuels target could require anywhere between 10 and 40 per cent. of this countrys arable land. Using that much land to produce biofuels to meet even that relatively low target, when the impact on emissions would be marginal at best, is simply not justified.
The Government argue that sustainability standards will prevent such environmental impacts. Our report concluded that that is unlikely to work. Research commissioned by the Swiss found that in many cases, the damage caused by fossil fuels might be less than that caused by some biofuels in terms of acidification, fertiliser and pesticide use, biodiversity loss and air pollution. As a result, Switzerland supports only those bioenergy technologies that have a smaller environmental impact than fossil fuels, which excludes nearly all of them. The European Environment Agency came to a similar conclusion, recommending that conventional biofuels should be phased out and replaced with biomass crops that cause less environmental damage. In terms of biofuels international impacts, there is no effective international system to prevent deforestation or ensure sustainability. Despite that, the Government and the EU press ahead with their policy, ignoring the damage that it will cause.
It could be argued that the negative environmental impacts might be justified if biofuels provide an effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. After all,
climate change could have even more disastrous impacts for the natural environment. However, in our inquiry, we discovered that biofuels could be one of the worst ways to use land and bioenergy resources to tackle climate change. In some cases, we found that biofuels might even increase emissions. It is important to follow policies that ensure that land is used effectively to mitigate climate change. To do so, they must ensure that the full range of possible land uses for mitigation is considered, such as maintaining carbon-storing habitats or even recreating habitats on agricultural land.
If forests are cleared to produce biofuels, it could take up to 50 or even 100 years for the biofuels produced to make up for the initial release of carbon. Reforesting land can also sequester two to nine times more carbon over a 30-year period than using biofuels can save. Natural habitats deliver cost-effective carbon mitigation and deliver wider ecosystem service benefits. Perhaps there should therefore be greater emphasis on a biological rather than technological solution.
If it is decided that bioenergy production can be justified in an area, the most effective bioenergy crop should be chosen. The Government have done work on the subject. In developing their biomass strategy, they found that biofuels are the least cost-effective way to use bioenergy to reduce greenhouse gases. Growing biomass crops such as miscanthus and burning them to produce heat and electricity can reduce emissions by more at a lower cost than using the same land to produce transport biofuels. For example, if a farmer uses wood chip grown on their land in a boiler, the cost to reduce carbon dioxide by 1 tonne is £36, but if the same farmer grows wheat to produce biofuel, it might cost as much as £152 to reduce carbon dioxide by the same amount.
In addition to the cost benefits, biomass crops also tend to have lower environmental impacts, and greater volumes can be produced sustainably. Although in some specific cases biofuels might reduce emissions more than biomass, current policy fails to ensure the most efficient use of our finite bioenergy resourcesresources that could make a significant contribution to low-carbon energy production if used appropriately.
If we do not use biofuels, how should we tackle the problem of transport emissions? It would appear that policy measures such as behaviour change, better land-use planning, modal shift, eco-driving and simple fuel efficiency might be more effective and cheaper. The Commission for Integrated Transport calculated that such policies could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport significantly without the environmental risks associated with biofuels. We do not say in our report that there is no future role for biofuels. So-called second generation biofuels not produced from conventional crops could have smaller environmental impacts and greater greenhouse gas savings. However, as the Royal Society recently pointed out, current policy will do little to stimulate their development. Instead policy will tend to stimulate and create an incentive for existing environmentally damaging technologies. An OECD report concluded that it is likely to be more cost-effective to support research and development into second-generation biofuels than to create markets for first-generation biofuels.
Such concerns led the Committee to call for a moratorium on biofuels. We felt that until the technology improves, robust mechanisms for preventing land use change are introduced and international sustainability standards agreed, there is not enough justification to carry on with the current policy. However, the impact of biofuels on food prices has further added to the need for a fundamental reassessment of the policy. In April, the International Monetary Fund reported that food prices have increased by 45 per cent. since the end of 2006. There have been riots in some countries as poor people find that they cannot afford basic foodstuffs. Although biofuels are not the sole reason for those price increases, the IMF concluded that biofuel production was seriously affecting food markets. Some 20 to 50 per cent. of certain feedstocks in major producing countries are being diverted to biofuels. The IMF also concluded that less ambitious biofuels policies would lower pressure on food prices.
To their credit, the Government have asked the Renewable Fuels Agency to consider food prices and other indirect impacts of biofuels. I look forward to the report, and trust that the Government will heed its recommendations. Having said that, although I welcome the fact that the Government are seeking to shed more light on the impacts of biofuels, I am concerned that the review will not necessarily investigate all the issues raised in the Committees report. The scope of the review seems to take it as read that biofuels are an appropriate policy measure. It appears to focus on what measures would be required to lessen the negative impacts of biofuels, rather than on whether biofuels should be supported at all. I seek an assurance from the Minister that the review will examine the wider rationale for supporting biofuels.
We heard in the course of our inquiry that policy makers in the UK and European Union initially believed that biofuels would provide an ideal alternative to farming subsidies as well as delivering environmental and fuel-security benefits. Unfortunately, it turns out that the benefits might largely fall to arable farming, and not in a way that delivers a sustainable outcome. By failing to move away from supporting conventional intensive crops, the UK and EU have failed to ensure that overall land management becomes more sustainable and that we get the most out of our bioenergy resources.
Ultimately, I feel that the Government are in a difficult situation with regard to biofuels. Other EU countries might be reluctant to reform the policy because of the impact on their agricultural sectors. Only robust evidence will counter their arguments. We need to produce conclusive evidence that demonstrates how we can make the most of our sustainable bioenergy resources. That might indeed conclude that there is a role for biofuels, but it might also conclude that support should be given to other bioenergy technologies or to ecosystem management. More emphasis should also be placed on other ways of cutting emissions from road transport, including accelerating the switch to lower-emission vehicles.
Climate change is too big and urgent a problem to make ill-informed policy decisions. More information is needed to ensure that greenhouse gas emission reductions are maximised in the most cost-effective way and to ensure that the UKs fledgling bioenergy industry develops in a way that gives it a sustainable, long-term future. I urge the Minister and the Government to take on board
the reports recommendationseven those that they have not initially welcomed publicly. I commend the report to the Chamber.
Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent, North) (Lab): I welcome this opportunity to discuss the Environmental Audit Committees report, Are Biofuels Sustainable? I thank our Chairman, the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo), for presenting such an informed summary of the Committees detailed work. I am really pleased to see so many Committee members here today and that so many people want to speak. I hope that my contribution will support the Minister in the leadership role that we feel he ought to take in Europe.
Without standards for sustainability and safeguards to protect carbon sinks we believe policies that encourage demand for first generation biofuels are damaging. We reiterate our case for a moratorium on policies aimed at increasing the use of biofuels and urge the Government to resist attempts to increase EU biofuel targets.
Earlier this week, we debated energy from renewable resources and the strength of the European Scrutiny Committees report. What came out of that debate was that it is essential to have the right environmental objectives, but that if we do not get the instruments right, we will undermine the whole principle of environmental sustainability. We need environmental objectives and we must do all we can on renewable energy, and sustainable transport and energy, but if the outcome is flawed and brings with it unintended consequences, as are only now coming to the fore, we shall be doing the environmental movement a great disservice.
It is time that the Government took a deep breath and considered how they can use the evidence and scientific base set out by our Chairman to inform the debate taking place on the international and European stages. I make that point in light of the fact that this week is the European Parliaments green week. I would like to share with hon. Members the opening speech made by the Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, when he set out all the different debates taking place in the European Parliament and Commission. He said:
European environmental policies have delivered immense benefits to Europes citizens. Their air is cleaner, their beaches and rivers are cleaner and pollutants such as lead in petrol have been banned.
sometimes we need to take a step back and look at just how far we still are from a model of development that is genuinely sustainable...Biofuels are a good example. This single term covers a wide range of products that are, in fact, very different in their impacts. The carbon saving a biofuel offers compared with a mineral oil fuel can vary from well over 50 per cent. to virtually zero, depending on what kind of biomass it is made from and where this is grown. The same factors make for big variations in the extent to which biofuels add to pressure on land resources or contribute to pushing up food prices. It is for these reasons that the European Union is drawing up binding environmental and social sustainability criteria that biofuels sold in Europe will have to meet.
I know that the Minister takes these things seriously, because many of the issues that we are raising today were flagged up during the statutory instrument proceedings, at which we were both present. Many of the concerns that subsequently became evidence in the Committees report were present in that debate. It took place a couple of months ago, and now we have the weight of our Committees report, which I hope will give the Minister ammunition when he takes part in all those debates in the European Commission, so that he can use our evidence and share our concern that, at the very least, there should be a moratorium.
I am conscious that over the weekend there is an EU Energy Council, at which the Government will be present. I should like the Minister, during todays winding-up speech in response to the report, to say how he will use the Gallagher report, which the Government commissioned, to inform the EU Council debate this weekend. I should like him to confirm for the record the current situation with the Gallagher report, because my understandingborne out by the statutory instrument debate about renewable transport and the fuel obligationwas that the Government would conduct various reviews and ask Ed Gallagher to produce the report, which he would then use to help us reach the sustainability standards that we want.
I understand that the report is due out on 26 June, but I understand from Friends of the Earth that a draft presentation of it took place earlier this week, or last week. We shall not have seen the full draft report before those important discussions in Europe, so I simply want the Minister to comment further on its terms of reference, and to share with us the reason why the draft report has not been made available in full, and whether it expresses any concerns that support our Committees recommendations in response to the wide-ranging evidence that we received.
The most important point is that we must have sustainability standards. If we are to have them by 2011, and we are introducing the obligation for biofuels but do not have the sustainability standards in place now, that will have a real impact and undermine all that we are trying to do. It might stop us developing other transport policies that could get us to where we need to be without going down that route. It is also essential that the industry has some certainty and knows which direction to take.
The most important thing is that we establish the sustainability criteria, and then we can see exactly what part biofuels have to play. In the meantime, I urge the Minister to look very seriously indeed at our proposals for a moratoriumat least until we have those standards.
Mr. Nick Hurd (Ruislip-Northwood) (Con): It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr. Amess, and to register my support for the report by the Committee, on which I serve. I apologise in advance, because I shall have to leave the Chamber before the end of the debate.
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7th February 2020
Writing: Hermione Peart (Year 12)
Editing: Rishi Shah (Year 13)
Last Thursday, DCGS students were introduced to the incredible work undertaken by the Anthony Nolan charity. Students were encouraged to become potential lifesavers as part of a campaign to educate young people about blood, organ, and stem cell donation.
The charity was founded in 1974 by Shirley Nolan whose son Anthony was in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant. Today the register has over 720,000 potential donors on it.
The organisation thanked the school for its 'fantastic support', and highlighted the importance of 'dispelling myths surrounding donation'.
This is the first year our school has hosted a presentation from Anthony Nolan’s education programme, The Hero Project, and we achieved a record high of 93 students participating.
It is humbling to have been given the opportunity to engage with such transformative work. For more information, do visit their website below, or speak to one of the Sixth Form welfare ambassadors.Click here for more information:
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Wife and Widow in Medieval England
Examines the role of women in medieval law and society
Praise / Awards
"What makes Wife and Widow exceptional is the emphasis it lends to problems of legal and social change in the later Middle Ages. . . . The detail, along with the spirit of collaboration displayed by the [contributors], make Wife and Widow a truly engaging and distinguished book."
—Elaine Clark, University of Michigan, Dearborn
"This collection of essays by a distinguished group of legal and social historians is dedicated to the memory of Michael M. Sheehan, a pioneer in the use of canon law and ecclesiastical court records to examine the social history of medieval marriage. Fr. Sheehan would have been particularly pleased by the signs of collegiality, scholarly cross-fertilization, and editorial care evident in each essay's frequent references to other works within the volume; this practice is one more collections of essays would do well to emulate."
—American Journal of Legal History
". . . each contribution provides important food for thought and grist for the continuing debate on the role of women in history."
"Wife and Widow in Medieval England give intriguing insights into the circumstances facing wives but more especially widows in medieval England. . . . [T]hey raise thought-provoking issues."
". . . will be enlightening to anyone interested in women in medieval England or in English legal history."
—Journal of British Studies
"Women's legal rights affected many more lives than just that of the widow. A woman's success or failure in defending her dower rights affected the very future of her family. By examining the experience of women with the law, the volume has opened a window on the experiences of medieval society as a whole."
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Tips For Safeguarding Your Financial Information
It is very important to be cautious about your financial information as this is one key thing many of the cyber criminals across the world are targeting to steal from the public. The leakage of the financial information is one great cause of increased theft cases across the world and thus the reason why it is crucial for a business or an individual to safeguard his or her financial related information. There are some key steps for protecting your financial information that can greatly help keep your cash safe and prevent any case of theft from the hackers and other forms of cyber criminals. The following are some of these top tips that will help to safeguard your financial information.
It is very important to be aware of the high risk of using unsecured public Wi-Fi as this can greatly expose the cyber criminals to your financial information and thus resulting to a lot of risks like loss of your cash. Most of the public Wi-Fi connections that are not secured make it easy for the cyber criminals to intercept the financial information of the people. Accessing your financial information is one way of exposing your logins to the cyber criminals something that can put your cash into great risk of getting lost or stolen. Your home’s Wi-Fi should also be very protected or secured from any illegal interference from the cyber criminals and thus important to use the wireless encryption for its security. The other very important tip for safeguarding your financial information is by choosing the passwords very wisely. One reason why it is very important to be wise when choosing passwords is so as to avoid any hacker from cracking into your account and stealing your financial or personal information. When creating your password, make sure that you include both letters, numbers and unique symbols here that no one can easily think of.
It is also important not to rely on only one password. It is also important to make sure that in your wallet, you do not carry any sensitive information like ATM cards, social security cards and other documents that might be having your personal and financial information. You can also leave your wallet and other documents containing your financial information at home and master the passwords and other key things about your personal information.
OPS security guards are very important especially during occasions where many people are likely to attend since they safeguard the guests’ wallets. The other very important tip for safeguarding your financial information is by doing online shopping with great care since not every website that offers online products to the people is safe. A good and a reputable website should have an address which has a padlock icon and a correct URL and if it lacks these, then do not go on with the online shopping. Credit cards are generally protected from frauds and thus the best means of making payments.
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Joomla comes with multilingual assist and the perfect CMS construction that updates mechanically. In addition to that there’s a massive neighborhood help for the developments. So any time a Joomla staff is unable to debug or update the developments, the community is a good help. Let them realize how your discovery and/or invention helped and can assist folks turn out to be smarter, work higher, and extra efficient. Let them realize how the financial assistance played and can play a major contribution.
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However It’s possible you’ll ask how does this cloud architecture help in decreasing costs and allowing capability to increase with out prohibitive will increase in costs? The cloud is usually defined as a mode of computing that delivers self-provisioned, automated IT capabilities as providers to users on an as-needed and speedy foundation. It is usually managed by an off-website I.T. administration company.
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Kenyan filmmaker Judy Kibinge says the biggest challenge as a filmmaker in the industry is that art is not a priority in Kenya.
Kibinge has won many awards and recently, she has been crowned the Kalasha International Awards Lifetime Achiever for her contribution to the local film industry.
BOLD And TRUE | Radio Africa's fastest and most exciting hub of Lifestyle and entertainment news.
Speaking to Mpasho.co.ke, Kibinge said she hopes one day the Kenyan government and its people will realise that filmmaking inspires generations in so many ways.
"We would change ourselves and become more coz that is who we are."
"Filmmakers go through so much and I think, the very first one is a lack of understanding of what is the importance of films," she said.
"There is a reason we see America the way we do. It is because we've seen their films since we could speak and we could open our eyes, no matter where we were raised at.
"We see America very ahead, not coz films translate what America is and what Americans want to project America to be."
She further explained that most countries have real respect for storytellers and for creators and artistes.
"You walk around and every building and statue speaks to you. Because the parks are designed in certain ways," she said.
"These are countries that respect their art. Here, I think we have so many needs and the feeling is that artistes come after we develop, but there is something that has been misunderstood.
"Those artistes create a mirror in front that allows us to develop and become who we are supposed to be. A country that doesn't support its artistes is poorer in some ways."
Judy's film themes mostly edge towards women, around social taboos and violence in developing countries.
In 2009, her documentary film ‘Coming of Age’ won the Best Short Documentary category in the Africa Movie Academy Awards.
‘Dangerous Affair’ also won an award at the international Zanzibar Film Festival.
In 2017, the seasoned creative was chosen to be an Oscar judge by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Science for the categories of documentary, international and animation.
She also founded Docubox, a Nairobi-based film fund that provides grants and support for African filmmakers.
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It was a classic Washington networking party. Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and chief executive officer of FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto trading platforms, held court on a February evening in a private room at the Park Hyatt hotel on the edge of Georgetown. Drinks flowed from an open bar, and hors d’oeuvres were served to the clutch of congressional aides, financial lobbyists, and former regulators. The goal of Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old billionaire, was to showcase his new lobbying operation—and to persuade influential Washingtonians that crypto needs more regulation.
It may seem strange that a crypto magnate is seeking federal oversight. But as lawmakers and bureaucrats grapple with how to police a fast-growing and risky $2 trillion market, new rules seem inevitable. In March, President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to work out policies on crypto. Bankman-Fried, whose company last year bought the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s basketball arena, is pushing his own ideas of what regulation ought to look like, as well as who his main watchdog should be.
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It remains unclear why Fenster was detained at the airport and it is unknown whether he has been charged with a crime. He has not had any contact with his parents, lawyers or officials at the US embassy in Yangon, who have tried to visit him, a state department official told CNN Business.
Frontier Myanmar said they understand he is being held in Insein Prison, Myanmar’s infamous clock-shaped penitentiary north of Yangon known for holding political prisoners and having a decades-old reputation for mistreatment and brutal conditions.
Life in Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s post-coup Myanmar has become near impossible for media workers, with many forced into exile abroad or fleeing to rebel-controlled areas in the jungles as they expose the junta’s crimes. Those who remain in the cities have gone into hiding and swap safe houses every few days to avoid arrest. Despite the dangerous conditions, many of Myanmar’s journalists continue to deliver vital information to the public and the rest of the world.
Not all manage to evade the authorities. Most recently, journalist Aung Kyaw with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and Zaw Zaw, a freelance journalist with outlet Mizzima News, were sentenced to two years in prison for spreading misinformation.
“All the reporters, all the journalists are leaving this country,” Buddy Fenster said his son told him. “I got a feeling he thought it may be time to start heading home.”
Fenster isn’t the only foreign journalist to be locked up, nor the only US citizen. Nathan Maung, a US citizen and co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online news site Kamayut Media, was detained on March 9 alongside co-founder and producer Hanthar Nyein, and remains in the notorious penitentiary.
Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi was detained in April and charged with spreading false news. He was held in Insein Prison before being sent back to Tokyo in May. Polish reporter Robert Bociaga was detained in March and released without charge weeks later.
The junta’s arrest of journalists — and refusal to release information about many of their cases — demonstrates the level of impunity and lawlessness Myanmar’s military operates under as it seeks to assert control over the country.
What happened to Nathan Maung
Nathan Maung’s Kamayut Media covered the junta’s arrest and killing of peaceful protesters, as well as the rise of the civil disobedience movement against the coup. Seven military trucks of soldiers stormed the outlet’s office on March 9, blocking entrances to the street as they arrested the two journalists, eyewitnesses said.
Two sources close to the pair and familiar with their treatment said Nathan Maung and Hanthar Nyein were subjected to torture during a two-week stint in an interrogation center before they were transferred to prison.
The two sources said the pair were kept in adjoining rooms so they could hear each other scream during interrogations. They alleged the two journalists were beaten, denied food and water for days, and blindfolded so they couldn’t tell the difference between night and day. After five days, they were forced to kneel on blocks of ice until they had melted, the sources said.
Myanmar national Hanthar Nyein was forced to hold ice on his arm — if he moved, he was hit with a pole or the back of a gun, the sources said
The sources with information on their treatment spoke to CNN Business on the condition of anonymity, due to their fear of retaliation.
CNN Business reached out to Myanmar’s military for comment but has not received a response.
The US State Department said in a statement it was “deeply concerned over the detentions of US citizens Daniel Fenster and Nathan Maung.”
“We have pressed the military regime to release them both immediately and will continue to do so until they are allowed to return home safely to their families.”
Both Nathan Maung and Hanthar Nyein thought they would die in the interrogation center, the sources said. But they survived, and were transferred to Myanmar’s main prison, Insein.
Built more than 130 years ago during the British colonial era, Insein Prison became notorious — and feared — for its overcrowded and inhumane conditions, mental and physical torture, and terrible sanitation, food and healthcare, particularly under military rule.
Following uprisings in 1988 and 2007, Insein became packed with thousands of political prisoners including prominent democracy activists and journalists. Ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent time there in 2003 and 2009.
Bo Kyi, joint secretary and and co-founder of the AAPP, served two sentences in Insein following the 1988 uprising and said conditions there were “like hell.”
“We were not allowed to read or write. They wanted to destroy our intellect. We did not receive proper medicine, no treatment for injuries,” he said. During his second stint there in 1996, he said he was beaten every day for two weeks. “Many people died at Insein,” he said.
After leaving Insein, Bo Kyi fled to neighboring Thailand and now advocates for current and former political prisoners and their families, through the AAPP.
Inmates have limited contact with the outside world, including their families. “Lawyers are struggling to even get access and when they do they are harassed,” he said. “Family members have had to go into hiding.”
Sometimes it’s hard to even verify who is being held at the prison.
“There is great concern for the people who are believed to be in Insein but might be in unknown locations. They could be brutally tortured or already killed. If we can’t verify where they are, no one can monitor their condition,” Bo Kyi said.
Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi, who was detained in Insein in April, told CNN the political prisoners are kept separate from other inmates. Some are kept in a building with 14 cells and 11 prisoners — as he was with Nathan Maung and later Hanthar Nyein. There the isolated cells are 4 meters long by 2.5 meters wide.
Others are held in one room with more than 100 people packed in together. “There is a very small place to sleep, and some describe that they can not move,” he said.
Kitazumi said everyone was desperate for news from the outside, from the embassy or lawyers, so they would share bits of information they picked up such as the result of the ASEAN meeting on Myanmar.
Kitazumi said Nathan Maung would keep checking he could move a finger on his left hand after guards slammed his handcuffed wrists against a table, he said.
“I did not have experience of torture myself,” Kitazumi said. “A lot of political prisoners have experience of torture, from 24 to 48 hours of no sleep.”
Kitazumi described Nathan Maung as a “cheerful person” who “had a lot of knowledge about the history of Myanmar” and was a “film director who talked about his favorite movies,” he said.
Conditions in the cells were stifling. April and May are among the hottest months in Myanmar and the brick cells had little ventilation, let alone air conditioning.
“It was very hot during the daytime outside and in the cell. I remember Nathan Maung was always spraying water on the ground to try and cool down the cell,” he said. “Our building is made from brick and what happened in the prison, the brick keeps the heat even at night, so it was very hot.”
He described a chaotic court process in the prison, with overworked judges hearing case after case of those detained by the military. Embassy officials were not allowed to attend court; neither were members of the public, he said.
Kitazumi spoke of the guilt of being a foreigner and lucky enough to leave prison, but having to leave others behind. It was a feeling shared by Nathan Maung, he said.
“Of course they want to be released. However, he said that he would feel guilty to be released early for his US citizenship. He is worried about Hanthar and the other political prisoners,” he said.
A letter to the outside
Kay Zon Nway, 28, is a journalist for local media outlet Myanmar Now, who has been held in Insein since February 27.
A family member told CNN Business they are concerned about her well-being in prison and said they have not been able to meet nor speak with her since her detention more than three months ago.
Her family members have only snatched glimpses of her when she appeared for a court hearing held via video link. Their only communication is through letters they are allowed to send to each other just once a month.
The family member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to safety concerns, is increasingly concerned that Kay Zon Nway’s mental health is deteriorating due to the harsh conditions inside the prison. “Her nervous system is weak and her toes and fingers are stiff. She is suffering mental health issues because she was put in isolation,” they said, adding that she also has stomach problems due to the food.
Kay Zon Nway, who is Muslim, was put in isolation when she started fasting for Ramadan — the guards believed she was on a hunger strike, the family member said. Myanmar Now reported that her lawyer told her family that prison officials later said she had been isolated in error, saying they had mistaken her for someone else.
“She can go crazy if this condition continues. They pressured her a lot inside the prison, they were telling her that people on hunger strike will only be released when they die,” the family member said.
It has become increasingly difficult to send supplies to the prison, the family member said. Prisoners given a meal a day, they said, but even with the food her family sends, it’s not enough.
“They can get hot water in the prison to make coffee or instant noodles. We used to send her food daily but the prison changed the rule and we could only send her food once in 15 days. Only dried snacks last for two weeks; not the normal food, as they don’t have a freezer or microwave to warm up the food,” the family member said.
In a letter sent on March 5 to her family and seen by CNN Business, Kay Zon Nway writes about her upcoming hearings and gives an insight into prison life. She asks her relatives to send things from the outside, like shampoo, face wash, Tiger Balm, a bed sheet, a new towel, and Michelle Obama’s autobiography. She said she has difficulty eating the prison food and asks her relatives for fresh fruit and home cooked meals.
It’s clear from the letter Kay Zon Nway is concerned for her family, telling her relatives to use her money for home expenses and for trips to see her when they can. She urgently wants to be updated on her court cases and reassures her family they will see each other soon.
Like all relatives of loved ones locked up since the coup, they just want them to come home.
“I only want her to come back alive,” the family member said.
It’s a feeling Danny Fenster’s parents share.
They, like the parents of thousands of others ensnared in the post-coup crackdown, are terrified for their son, trapped and held at the whim of a military that sees reporting the truth as an existential threat that must be extinguished.
Salai TZ contributed.
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[RC Wing Sailboat Project] Final Testing
Final testing of the third prototype of the wing sail
Originally Published Spring 2011 as part of my capstone engineering design project at Brown University
The first goal of the final testing was to see if the shrink wrapped balsa wing would meet the performance requirements that I set. I also wanted to get data on what angle of attack and flap angle produced the best results at each apparent wind angle. This data could then be used by the person sailing the boat as a basic trimming guide.
Final Performance Requirements
- For apparent wind angles of 0–90deg (0 deg is in the direction of motion of the cart), the wing sail should create at least 50% more forward pulling force on the cart than the soft sail.
- The wing sail should be able to create forward pulling force on the cart at closer apparent wind angles than the soft sail.
The set up was basically identical to the second prototype testing. One difference was that I wrapped the wheels of the cart with a strip of duct tape to prevent side slipping, which seemed to work better than the masking tape and rubber bands I tried before. I also used a different scale, which could not read negative values. Therefore I took the reading on the scale once the fans were on an subtracted it from the original mass of the weight. Additionally since I was only testing apparent wind angles of 90deg and less, I added an extra testing angle at 65 degrees (and got rid of the 120deg).
For each set up I tried to keep the fans running as long as possible so that any fluctuations in voltage or motor temperature wouldn’t skew my data.
Shrink wrap covered balsa wing
For the balsa wing at each apparent wind angle I played around with the angle of attack and the flap angle to find the maximum lifting force. At each trim I would do a few trials to see how much weight the cart pulled. This was accomplished by pulling the cart back until the scale read 499g and then letting it go again to pull the weight up and reading the scale. I then took the average of these trials. I did this at each of the different angles of attack and flap angles that I tried. After I determined which one of those trims performed the best, I set the wing up that way again and attempted to recreate the results. This was somewhat difficult because setting the angle of attack to within a few degrees was not easy with the protractor I had. There were also other error factors that came into play, like the rolling friction of the cart and fluctuations in the fans. If I were to do more testing I might figure out a more accurate way to measure the angle of attack. However this is not going to be the most accurate testing ever because of the fact that the fans don’t produce a uniform flow of air in one direction. The main goal of the testing was to prove the wing would perform better than the soft sail. Finding the trimming angles was only a secondary task.
For the soft sail I basically just played with the trim of the main and jib at each apparent wind angle until I found what created the most lift force. I didn’t need to worry much about the effects that each change in the trim made because I’m not trying to write a trimming guide for the soft sail.
Results and Discussion
As can be seen in the table above the shrink wrapped balsa wing sail met my first final requirement of creating at least 50% more forward pulling force than the soft sail. It just made the cut off for 90deg and far exceeded the requirement at 65 and 45 degrees. This trend in the data shows that the wing sail creates an increasingly greater amount of pulling force as the apparent wind angle decreases.
The data also meets my secondary requirement that the wing sail would create forward pulling force at an apparent wind angle closer than the soft sail. This is shown by the fact that the wing sail created about 56g of pulling force at 30deg while the soft sail produced none.
Below is a chart that gives the angle of attack and flap angle that produced the maximum forward force at each apparent wind angle. This information would be a good guide so that someone could trim the wing for the best performance at these angles. As discussed in the procedure this is not the best data because the angle of attack was not the easiest to measure just using a protractor. Also because of fluctuations in the fans, friction on the testing cart wheels, and other such errors fine tuning the wing was difficult. It is only intended to be a guide.
I took video of the max lift force for the wing and soft sail at each angle of attack, for documentation that I completed my requirements. The first two videos are the wing and soft sails at 90 deg angle of attack.
In each video you can see the fans are running and the scale is showing the reduced weight of the 499g mass due to the forward pull of the cart. The scale reads 253g. So 499–253= 239g of lifting force as written above. The scale in the soft sail reads 344g, so 499–344= 155g of lifting force.
In the wing sail test you can see a value of 443g on the scale which leads to 56g of lifting force. In the soft sail test you can see that the sail is mostly luffing in the wind from the fan. there is a decent amount of sideways force created, but not enough forward force to overcome the friction of the cart and register a weight on the scale.
Here is a PDF of the final testing data. FinalTestingData.pdf
Continue Reading about the Project here
Originally published at http://engin1000.pbworks.com.
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - It's been suggested that Mohs surgery for non-melanoma skin cancer in patients with limited life expectancy may be associated with needless risk and discomfort. But a new study finds that untreated skin cancer in the elderly may be associated with functional loss, pain and disfigurement.
The research team studied 1,181 patients older than age 85 years who were referred for Mohs surgery. The vast majority (91.3%) had the surgery, with only 8.7% receiving an alternative treatment.
Patients receiving Mohs surgery were more likely to have tumors on the face (68.5% vs. 25.2%; P<0.001) and nearly four-fold more likely to have high functional status (57.0% vs. 15.5%; P<0.001).
The three most common reasons cited by surgeons for opting to proceed with Mohs surgery in patients age 85+ were patient desire for treatment with a high cure rate (66.0%), good or excellent patient functional status for age (57.0%), and high risk associated with the tumor based on histology (40.2%).
In a paper in JAMA Dermatology, Dr. Murad Alam with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and colleagues say their study included a large number of geographically diverse centers and is one of the largest prospective cohorts of older people undergoing going skin cancer surgery.
"These findings suggest that timely surgical treatment may be appropriate in older patients given that their tumors may be aggressive, painful, disfiguring, and anxiety provoking," they write.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/3MRvdS8 JAMA Dermatology, online May 25, 2022.
Reuters Health Information © 2022
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This guide explains X.25 Networking by comparing X.25 to networks with which the reader may be more familiar, namely TCP/IP Networks (such as the Internet) and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
What is an X.25 Network?
An X.25 network provides a entail by which one X.25 DTE ( a Terminal or Host of some kind ) can exchange data with one or more other X.25 Host, on the other side of the network .
Data is carried within individual packets – X.25 is frequently referred to as a Packet Switching Protocol. This makes it similar to a TCP/IP network – the dispute is that IP networks employ a Connectionless protocol : each package is routed according to the information within that package ( typically by using the Destination Address ). By contrast, X.25 is a Connection-Oriented protocol : the routing information used by the network is carried only in the packets used to establish the connection ; thereafter addressing information is not required. This does, however, mean that the X.25 network switching nodes need be aware of each connection, unlike IP routers .
The X.25 protocol is divided into 3 layers ( or Levels ) ; TCP/IP, on the other hand is divided into 4 layers .
Each of these layers is freelancer. The Physical layer includes the mechanical and electric view of communications – in other words, cabling. The X.25 Data Link Layer provides the authentic connection between the DTE and the DCE ( or Network ), and the X.25 Packet Layer Protocol ( PLP ) provides the information necessary to make and maintain a connection across the network.
Reading: X.25 Networking Guide
It ‘s probably most useful to think of Layer 1 as being the physical connection to the network NTU or modem, Layer 2 as being the logical Link between the DTE and the local network switching node, and a Layer 3 Virtual Circuit as being the association to the remote control DTE .
An X.25 Network User Address ( NUA ) is much like a telephone number, being a drawstring of digits, and can be up to 15 digits in length. The NUA on a typical network will be 12 digits in length, with another 2 digits for the subaddress .
More details on X.25 Addresses
X.25 Data Transfer takes place within the context of connections, known as virtual Circuits. There are 2 types of Virtual Circuit :
- Switched Virtual Circuit (SVC)
- Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC)
An X.25 SVC is very exchangeable to a Telephone Call – one party initiates the connection ( the “ calling ” party – or “ node ”, to use TCP/IP terminology ), and the other party receives the connection ( the “ called ” party or “ server ” ). The node supplies the address of the server, much like person making a telephone call has to dial the call number of the called party. An X.25 SVC is consequently a lot like a TCP/IP joining .
More about SVCs
A PVC is reasonably akin to a call hotline that goes to a individual pre-defined finish, except that there is no Call setup – data can be sent immediately, quite than having to wait for an suffice. This does, however, mean that there is a trouble knowing whether anything is salute at the other end of the connection when datum is transmitted .
More about PVCs
Unlike PSTN, with an X.25 network it is possible to make several virtual circuits simultaneously – this is because X.25 connections can be multiplexed down a single X.25 link. Multiplexing is achieved by splitting the yoke into coherent Channels.
Read more: Best Hosts for Bootstrap Projects
X.25 is a dependable protocol, and was designed for use with networks with meaning error rates on each link. With TCP/IP, error convalescence is throughout ( any retransmissions take between the client and the waiter ). TCP/IP therefore does not require a reliable connection layer protocol like LAPB, With X.25, each connect has error recovery procedures .
An X.25 network consequently performs better than TCP/IP when there are meaning erroneousness rates on the links. The downside is that X.25 networks can not forward the packets until they have been wholly received, resulting in transit delays. TCP/IP therefore performs better than X.25 when mistake rates are low – error rates are typically very moo on modern networks .
More data on the X.25 Data Link Layer .
Data Transfer & Packetization
Another key dispute between TCP/IP and X.25 is that TCP data transfer is stream-based, whereas X.25 datum transfer is packetized. This is a concept that often catches out raw users of TCP – fortunately with X.25, when you send a forget of bytes, that lapp number of bytes is delivered to the far end as a single block. By contrast, with TCP, if, for example, transmitting 2 blocks of 2000 bytes, the distant peer might receive it as a single block of 4000 bytes, or more probable, as 3 or more classify blocks .
That ‘s not to say that the X.25 datum does n’t get split up – many X.25 Data Packets may be required to carry the block of 2000 bytes in the exemplar above. The difference is that the X.25 Data Packets can be chained together by use of something called the “ M-bit “, therefore allowing the receiver to link them together again .
many applications using X.25 trust upon X.25 ‘s ability to preserve the boundaries of blocks of data ( although it is of course besides possible to use X.25 to implement a elementary character stream ) .
In orderliness to achieve the lapp effect over TCP, an extra encapsulation layer is required, such as Cisco ‘s RBP ( Record Boundary Preservation ) protocol. There are very many others ways of encapsulating data blocks over TCP, however, which is why conversion between X.25 and TCP is not aboveboard, and the argue for the universe of the FarSync TCP-X25 Gateway, which supports a number of different encapsulations, including Cisco RBP .
IP Over X.25 – RFC-1356
It is possible for an X.25 net to carry TCP/IP data. This is normally accomplished using the rules defined in RFC-1356. This is useful where an existing X.25 network is used to form the anchor of separate of a TCP/IP network. In this case, the entire X.25 network would itself be as Layer 2 ampere far as TCP/IP is concerned .
X.25 virtual circuits can be carried over a TCP/IP net – this is done using the XOT protocol, RFC-1613. This is utilitarian where an X.25 network has been replaced, but the X.25 terminals and hosts are required to continue to work unchanged.
Read more: Cannot modify header information
For XOT, TCP/IP replaces X.25 level 2. however, there is a discriminate TCP association per X.25 Virtual Circuit, so it ‘s not precisely the same as running X.25 Layer 3 running on directly on clear of TCP .
arsenic well being used to connect to a network, X.25 can be used point-to-point. Point-to-Point X.25. This is normally deployed when connecting to an bequest host computer, and it ‘s besides useful to be able to connect in this way when testing a terminal or host, in the absence of an X.25 network .
When used Point-to-Point, one conclusion of the connection must be a DTE, and the other a DCE. To confuse matters, the DTE/DCE configuration is potentially freelancer at each of the 3 X.25 layers ; it ‘s a good mind ( if you have the choice ) to configure all 3 layers to be the same type .
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20185001(en)/05-Collateral Effects of the Formative Transition: The New Culinary of the Marine Hunter-Gatherers in the Atacama Desert
COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE FORMATIVE TRANSITION: THE NEW CULINARY OF THE MARINE HUNTER-GATHERERS IN THE ATACAMA DESERT
EFECTOS COLATERALES DE LA TRANSICIÓN AL FORMATIVO: UNA NUEVA CULINARIA ENTRE LOS CAZADORES-RECOLECTORES MARINOS DEL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA
Itaci Correa, Carolina Carrasco, Benjamín Ballester and Francisco Gallardo
In the Antofagasta region, the Formative Period is defined by important socio-economic transformations related to the gradual abandonment of the hunter-gatherer way of life. Even though marine hunting and gathering continued to play a fundamental role for the arid coast inhabitants, they still experienced significant cultural changes, such as the incorporation of a foreign cooking technology. The analysis of a sample of vessels offered in coastal tumuli cemeteries (2.500-1.200 cal BP) allows us to postulate that the adoption of ceramic in the coast was related to a new culinary of cultivate vegetables, which were integrated as a supplement to the traditional marine meat diet. The incorporation of these new recipes can be seen as a collateral effect of the “formative” process lived by the inhabitants of valleys and oases from the interior desert, within a shared sociocultural construction process between people living in the coast and in the interior.
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27 Iyar: 42nd Day of the Omer
Week Six: COURAGE
Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al s’firat haomer.
Blessed are You, LORD God, ruler of the Universe, who hallows us with the mitzvot, commanding us to count the Omer.
Today is the forty-second day — six weeks of the Omer.
Some days I feel very stuck in my patterns, the same stories about myself that I repeat to myself and others on a loop. While this habit may serve me to some extent, the reality is that it’s not who I am. It’s who I was. These stories of personal defeat and failure, of wild personal success and triumph, are the records of my life that play endlessly on repeat. Rabbi Kedar teaches, “We cling to the weight of our lives, thinking it saves us, grounds us, keeps us from drifting too far from our past. But drift we must, if what holds us down keeps us down” (Kedar, pg. 139).
What if I had the courage to “find a way to live beyond the boundaries” of my stories, my stuckness? Because within the well-tended fence of our spud we hold on to so much that we no longer need” (Kedar, pg. 139). What purpose do these “stories” actually serve for me? Every time I repeat these stories, I vocalize and unconsciously internalize my perceived limitations; not letting possibilities for my life actually unfold naturally. Rabbi Kedar breaks it down even further: “…with all the strength and might that you have, dare to live, to be whole again, not fragmented by memory and pain” (Kedar, pg. 139).
May I have the courage to let go of the weight of the repeated personal stories that I tell myself, that limit my potential. May I have the courage to be my whole self, my authentic self, even if it doesn’t match my stories.
And so it is. Amen selah.
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Mushrooms are famous for their delicious taste. They are rich in nutrients. Most people love to eat mushrooms. If you are thinking about whether you can provide your ducks with this delicious food, this article is for you.
Yes, you can feed your duck with mushrooms. However, there are certain precautions.
Types of Mushrooms for Ducks
In broader classification, there are two types of mushrooms. One is cultivated and the other is wild-type mushrooms found in the woods.
Safe and poisonous Mushrooms
The cultivated mushrooms found in stores are safe. The wild mushrooms can be poisonous not for only humans but also for ducks.
Edible Mushrooms for Ducks
Mushrooms that are safe for you are also safe for your ducks. It means you can provide your duck with cultivated mushrooms. Better to avoid wild mushrooms for the safety of your ducks.
No, not all kinds of wild mushrooms are poisonous. But differentiating safe from poisonous requires special knowledge and understanding. If you are lacking it avoid wild mushrooms at all.
Poisonous Wild Mushrooms
Only 20% of wild mushrooms are poisonous. Eating such mushrooms can cause diarrhea, lethargy, weakness, or even fatal enough to take the life of your ducks. A few poisonous types of mushrooms are:
- Death Cap mushrooms
- Autumn Skullcap mushrooms
- Web caps mushrooms
- Destroying Angels mushrooms
Nutritious Value of Mushrooms for Ducks
Edible mushrooms are rich in nutrients and contain multiple vitamins. Some prominent of them are:
Mushrooms are rich in Vitamin B1. It can improve the performance of your ducks’ brain, heart, and stomach.
Niacin in mushrooms enhances the walking capacity by strengthening the joints and legs of your ducks. Lack of Niacin can weaken the legs of your ducks. Read relevant Can Ducks Eat Celery?
Vitamin C in mushrooms is a great source of antioxidants. It improves the immune system of your Duck and also improves the healing process.
Mushrooms contain calcium. It can provide vital strength to the bones of your duck, It also improves the quality of the egg of your duck. Bananas for ducks are alternative to calcium.
Here are a few other nutritional components of mushrooms.
- Mushrooms can prevent your ducks from anemia due to the presence of iron.
- Potassium in mushrooms has positive effects on the cognitive ability of ducks.
- Eating Mushrooms can improve the digestive system of your ducks. The soluble fibre in Mushrooms smoothens the bowel moment of your ducks.
- Mushrooms contain proteins that create enzymes and hormones in the body of your ducks.
- Mushrooms prevent you ducks from excessive weight. Low sugar contents in mushrooms are responsible for keeping your duck sleek and slim.
Can Ducklings eat Mushrooms?
Yes, baby duck can also eat cultivated mushrooms. But these tiny creatures have to wait for four weeks after their hatching from eggs.
After four weeks your ducklings require 22% proteins in the diet. Eating Mushrooms can provide the required source of protein.
Raw or Cooked Mushrooms for Ducks
Your ducks can eat both plain and processed mushrooms. Mushrooms can be boiled or roasted. Provide a minimum amount of salt and oil to prevent unwanted consequences on your ducks.
There are dozens of mushrooms safe for feeding your ducks. Some of them are:
- White Button Mushrooms
- Oyster Mushrooms
- Black Trumpet Mushrooms
- Porcini Mushrooms
Precautions in eating
Mushrooms should not be provided as a basic diet for your ducks. It should be given as a treat or supplement to your ducks.
Your ducks should eat the tasty mushrooms only once or twice a week, not more than that.
After boiling mushrooms wait for at least 15 minutes. Provide mild or cool mushrooms to your ducks, not a hot one that can sore the mouth of your ducks.
Tasty and nutritious mushrooms can provide greater benefits to the health of your ducks. You have to be careful to avoid wild and poisonous mushrooms that can be fatal to your ducks.
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Food prices are a matter of life and death to many in the developing world. Financial markets that should be helping food growers and processors to manage their risk and set prices have become a potential threat to global food security. Deregulated and secretive agricultural commodity derivatives markets have attracted huge sums of speculative money, and there is growing evidence that they deliver distorted and unpredictable food prices.
Financial speculation can play an important role to help food producers and end users manage risks, but in light of the harm that excessive speculation may cause to millions, action is required now to address the problem. This briefing explains what has gone wrong with financial markets and what could be done to fix them.
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Ana Allegretti, Ph.D., OTR, assistant professor of occupational therapy at UT Health San Antonio, will be among five honorees enshrined in Morgan’s Wonderland Wall of Fame Sept. 30.
Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio is the world’s first theme park designed with special-needs individuals in mind and built to be enjoyed by everyone. Dr. Allegretti specializes in mobility solutions for children with special needs.
Her Go Baby Go project has provided modified ride-on toy cars for young children with disabilities. The cars enable the children to move themselves independently and participate in play activities, in many cases for the first time in their lives.
In partnership with the Children’s Rehabilitation Institute of Teletón USA, Dr. Allegretti provides the cars to the child and family at no charge, thanks to securing grant funding. She also played an important role in preparing for the opening of Morgan’s Inspiration Island splash park, fitting new waterproof wheelchairs to ensure safety and mobility for park guests.
The “Free to Soar” Gala and fundraiser on Sept. 30 will include a silent auction, dinner and other festivities in the Morgan’s Wonderland Event Center. Lara Logan, CBS News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent, key contributor to the TV network’s “60 Minutes” newsmagazine and advocate for the special-needs community, will be the featured speaker.
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What is your view of creating or altering genes of an organism in relation to natural creation by God? Explain your answer.
pasagot po brainliest sa makasagot yung maayos po
report pag hindi maayos ty
because no ones can hit the power of God because he made all the organisms and environment that develop by the scientist when people study hard in science
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SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are public investment vehicles that are created by a group of investors looking to merge with a private company to bring that company public. SPACs aren’t a new concept, having been around since the 1990s. Recently, however, there’s been a boom in interest in them.
SPAC activity set a record in 2020, with 248 deals representing $83.3 billion taking place, up from 59 deals representing $13.6 billion in 2019. And in 2021, SPAC investment continues to gain momentum.
The growing interest in SPACs is driven by complementary forces. On the one hand, many businesses, particularly in the technology sector, see them as a faster, more efficient and less cumbersome way to take a company public than by a traditional initial public offering (IPO). On the other hand, investors are looking for a new source of yield. This year had already seen 366 SPACs raising $112.7 billion by early July, according to SPAC research.
Of course, with the rise in SPAC activity comes an increase in SPAC litigation. In the first half of 2021 there have been 14 new securities class-action lawsuits involving SPACs, with more than half alleging that potential targets defrauded investors by misrepresenting their product’s viability, according to the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, which began tracking SPAC filings two years ago.
While it is true that there has been an increase in lawsuits, managing the SPAC process properly can reduce the risk of litigation. It can also increase the chances of achieving a positive result from a SPAC deal placement. If risk management efforts are included in the narrative at underwriting meetings, those involved in SPAC transactions can help secure comprehensive directors and officers (D&O) coverage to transfer risk.
The Rise of SPACs
In recent years, SPAC structures have evolved in ways that make them more attractive to private companies looking to go public.
In its early stages, a SPAC raises funds from investors through its own IPO. When it identifies an acquisition target, it enters into a “de-SPAC” transaction after appropriate due diligence, typically acquiring the private business with cash or SPAC equity. This essentially takes the private company public in the process.
Part of the reason for the increase in SPAC litigation is the sheer increase in the number of transactions. In some cases, transactions might have been premature — before a target company was ready to go public. But an entrepreneurial plaintiff’s bar noted that increased interest in SPACs from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is likely a factor in the increase in litigation as well.
In fact, the SEC announced in mid-July 2021 that it had reached a civil settlement in a case about a SPAC transaction involving a start-up space company. Regulators contended that investors had been misled about the state of the acquisition target’s propulsion system because the SPAC fell short in its due diligence.
Other recent examples of SPAC litigation include class action cases and securities lawsuits alleging that SPACs disclosed misleading or inadequate information about acquisition targets; submitted incorrect accounting for warrants; and violated securities laws. These cases were usually brought to court by shareholders and investors.
With an increase in litigation comes a potential increase in D&O claims because SPAC leaders find themselves among the targets of lawsuits. Those increased claims could very well contribute to further pricing impacts for SPACs and de-SPACs in the D&O market.
Types of SPAC Litigation
Litigation around SPACs can typically be grouped into three categories:
- Filings regarding the SPAC IPO, which are uncommon thus far
- Litigation challenging the de-SPAC transaction
- Filings after the de-SPAC process, much like traditional securities class actions, with shareholders claiming inadequate or inaccurate disclosure, or that the company didn’t perform at the level investors were promised
The second and third types of litigation — around the de-SPAC transaction or after the de-SPAC process — have proven to be the most common. Most post-transaction litigation is typically filed in federal court and comes with significant defense costs or sizable settlement amounts that are often in the tens of millions of dollars or higher. Litigation in state courts, particularly in New York, typically involves merger objection cases that attempt to prevent transactions from moving forward.
The SEC’s position on SPACs and investor protections versus those applied to traditional IPOs is clearly evolving, which is getting the attention of the lawyers of plaintiffs. It is also getting the attention of D&O underwriters considering writing coverage for de-SPAC transactions.
D&O Insurance and SPACs
D&O coverage generally responds to SPAC-related litigation in the same way it would to a lawsuit involving traditional IPOs, though there could be additional complexities regarding a SPAC deal.
Coverage disputes regarding the de-SPAC transaction are a potential source of problems, with post-transaction claims being particularly complex. Post-transaction, there may be up to three D&O policies in place: a SPAC runoff policy, a policy covering the de-SPAC public entity, and a runoff policy for the formerly private company. There might also be a D&O policy for the new public company going forward. In that environment, it is possible that multiple policies will be needed to respond to post-transaction litigation. In this complex framework, it is essential to make sure there aren’t any gaps in the coverage among the various policies.
There are also different considerations when approaching D&O markets for SPACs versus de-SPACs. For a SPAC, D&O underwriters focus on issues such as, but not limited to, potential conflicts of interest, warrants allowing investors to purchase additional shares, management and the board’s due diligence experience, details of the target search, and the experience needed to make the right decisions regarding acquisition targets.
For the de-SPAC, underwriters look at, among other things, whether the company is ready to conduct itself as a public company; they also look at its financial strength and its ability to execute on its financial vision. In both cases, the bottom line is demonstrating strength in those areas to underwriters.
While D&O underwriters have grown more comfortable with traditional IPOs, many are still analyzing the potential risk exposure for SPACs and de-SPACs.
There is litigation history around IPOs that doesn’t exist around SPACs and de-SPACs, leading to uncertainty that can make D&O underwriters hesitant to take on SPAC risks. Given that uncertainty, those looking to purchase D&O for SPACs or de-SPACs need to position themselves favorably in underwriting meetings; such meetings are a critical opportunity to showcase the company and its management to underwriting teams. The key is to differentiate a given SPAC or de-SPAC from others in the same space, particularly from those involved in litigation. For example, leaders can do so by demonstrating a lack of conflicts of interest, explaining their due diligence experience, sharing their history identifying acquisition targets and executing transactions and, on the de-SPAC side, showing public company experience.
SPAC litigation exists, and it is increasing as SPACs become more popular. But organizations that understand the factors contributing to litigation can take steps to address them and help manage risk. Then those organizations can showcase their efforts to D&O markets to help secure coverage across the SPAC life cycle.
"Securities Class Action Filings 2021 Midyear Assessment,” Cornerstone Research
“The SPAC Explosion: Beware the Litigation and Enforcement Risk,” JD Supra
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The ailing economies of Europe and the US notwithstanding, Asian airlines continue to grow and upgrade their fleet in anticipation of a stronger performance in the second half of 2012 and beyond.
Many of Asia’s airlines have garnered top accolades around the world and, apart from inflight service and food, a key contributor to this trend is their younger fleet of more fuel-efficient aircraft, which helps reduce downtime and the cost of maintenance.
Not surprisingly, Asian carriers are the first to operate new aircraft types such as the Airbus A380 (Singapore Airlines) and the B787 Dreamliner (All Nippon Airways) and feature strongly in the order books of the B747-8 Intercontinental and A350XWBs.
By the end of November 2011, a total of 1,745 aircraft were operated by airlines in China, 148 more than the previous year.
Air China is one of the three major Chinese airlines, the other two being China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Air China currently operates 297 aircraft and has outstanding orders for another 129 aircraft.
Of its current fleet, 120 aircraft are based at Beijing Capital Airport, 27 at Tianjin Binhai Airport, nine at Hohhot Baita Airport, 66 at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, 30 at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, 24 at Hangzhou Airport, six at Wuhan Airport, three at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and one at Tianjin Airport.
Air China also established a joint venture in August 2010 with Dalian Airlines, operating two B737-800s based at Dalian International Airport. Another subsidiary operating 10 business jets of various types was recently re-branded as Beijing Airlines. These aircraft are offered for charter.
Cathay Pacific Airways has thus far refrained from joining its competitors in ordering very large aircraft (VLAs) such as the Airbus A380 or Boeing 747 Intercontinental even as home-grown competitor Hong Kong Airlines – with the backing of the Hainan Airlines group – has ordered 10 A380s valued at USD3.8 billion.
Cathay Pacific’s CEO John Slosar said: “Both the 777-300ERs and A350s will form the backbone of our long and ultra-longhaul fleet, enabling Cathay Pacific to replace older, less fuel-efficient aircraft progressively. We will continue to evaluate all available aircraft models for our fleet needs beyond this decade but for now the fleet mix suits our business model perfectly.”
The retirement of the aging B747-400 and A340-300 fleet will pick up pace as more B777-300ERs are delivered. Cathay expects to fully retire the former by the end of the decade.
From January to November 2011, combined report by Cathay and subsidiary Dragonair shows strong growth on flights to North America and South-east Asia – 14.5 and 11.8 per cent respectively. A new air services agreement between Hong Kong and Taiwan has boosted expectations of more flights between the two. Cathay now operates 108 weekly services to Taipei and hopes to add frequencies to Taipei and inaugurate services to other Taiwanese cities. Dragonair runs thrice-daily to Taipei and six-daily flights to Kaohsiung.
The make-up of Air India’s existing domestic and regional fleet is very much the product of its merger with Indian Airlines, while its order frenzy in the last few years has resulted in a flurry of wide-body aircraft deliveries that seem to surpass its needs.
With a fleet of B787-8 Dreamliners on the verge of being delivered – one each in January, March and April and two each in May and June – Air India has decided to sell some of these and lease them back, a move that will ease its cashflow. It has also issued a tender to lease out five B777-200LRs for a period of eight to 10 years as well as a pair of B747-400s.
Air India’s fully-owned LCC subsidiary, Air India Express, operates a fleet of 21 B737-800s.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has approved Air India’s restructuring plans, a move that paves the way for the airline to access government funding of up to Rs30,000 crore (about US$5.6 billion) over a 10-year period.
Last year, Air India terminated its practice of operating flights from various Indian cities to Frankfurt, where passengers transfered onto various Air India flights heading to destinations in North America. Such transfers now take place at New Delhi. During the year, Air India’s preparation for entry into Star Alliance was terminated as a result of the airline’s failure to meet some of the alliance’s stringent entry requirements. Recent press reports suggested that representatives from Air India and Star Alliance were back at the negotiation table.
Air India’s domestic operation accounts for 17.4 per cent of the domestic aviation market, third after the Jet Air group (Jet Airways and Jetlite) and IndiGo Airlines with a marketshare of 27.1 and 19.8 per cent respectively.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of All Nippon Airways (ANA), a milestone which traditionally is referred to as kanreki, a return to second infancy and one’s birth sign.
The airline triumphed the negative effects of the Japan earthquake of March 2011. It also ended the year with three Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners – the first airline in the world to operate this technologically-superior airplane.
Over the past few years, ANA, like many other Asian carriers, has been replacing its B747-400 fleet with more fuel-efficient B777-300ERs. Today, a handful of B747-400Ds are operated exclusively on domestic routes. ANA has committed itself to a total of 55 B787 Dreamliners and continues to eye the Airbus A350 XWB with strong interest. A plan announced in April 2008 to acquire the Airbus A380 was shelved later that year. Vice president for the Americas Satoru Fujiki said: “We are evaluating both the B747-8 Intercontinental and the A380 but we do not have any plans to introduce these big aircraft until we are more confident about stability and growth of the world economy and how these planes fit into the Japanese market.”
ANA continues to tap into the new opportunities offered by Haneda Airport. Services through this airport are reportedly popular due to its location nearer downtown Tokyo and convenient rail links. The dual-hub strategy resulted in a 31.1 per cent growth in international revenue during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011. Going forward, ANA faces greater competition not only from a growing number of international airlines, including those from the Middle East, but from Japan Airlines, which has emerged from its re-organisation a stronger, leaner and profitable airline.
With over four years of A380 operation under its belt, Singapore Airlines adds this month Frankfurt and New York-John F. Kennedy Airport to the list of destinations served by this super jumbo. With this, another two B747-400s were decommissioned, sold to Transaero Airlines. Melbourne will be the final destination served by the B747-400 until the A380 takes over in late March. This will bring to an end 38 years of B747 passenger service since 1973. Barring any delay, the final five of SIA’s fleet of 19 A380s will be delivered by the third quarter and it holds an option for another six.
SIA’s nonstop flights to Los Angeles and New York continue to be the world’s longest commercial air routes. These use the Airbus A340-500 in an all business-class 100-seat configuration. As SIA’s fleet of B777-200s shrinks further – and as many as 10 of these aircraft are earmarked for its LCC subsidiary Scoot, the A330-300s becomes the backbone of its short- and medium-haul fleet.
SIA’s alliance with Virgin Australia has given it an all-important and much sought-after foothold in the Australian market. SIA and fully-owned subsidiary SilkAir have also beefed up their operation to Greater China with SIA now operating 70 weekly services to mainland China and 49 weekly services to Hong Kong, and SilkAir operating a further 27 weekly services to six second-tier Chinese cities.
SIA has also steadily added flights to India, now operating 51 weekly services to six Indian destinations while SilkAir operates a further 34 weekly services to seven Indian cities.
Thai Airways International (THAI) will join the A380 club in September when it receives its first 507-seat A380. This will initially be deployed on regional flights to Hong Kong before eventually serving the Bangkok-Frankfurt route. Subsequent deliveries will allow for A380 operation to London-Heathrow and Sydney. The injection of capacity by the A380 may be untimely as the airline is reportedly already struggling to fill the B747-400s presently deployed on these routes. THAI’s new regional airline, Thai Smile, will operate the A320 aircraft. The airline decided to call off an LCC cooperation with Tiger Airways, confirming what has been speculated for months.
Like most of its Asian counterparts, THAI is facing multiple challenges posed by high fuel prices, reduced demand from Europe and North America, and increased competition from Middle Eastern carriers which have deployed larger aircraft on the Bangkok route. After braving the negative impact of political riots in recent years, THAI’s hopes of turning its fortunes were dented by floods in and around Bangkok last year.
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Paris: China is poised to overtake the US as the world's largest economy this year, earlier than expected.
“The United States remained the world's largest economy (in 2011), but it was closely followed by China” once data was adjusted for comparison on a standard basis, the World Bank said on Wednesday.
Fresh research by the International Comparison Program (ICP), coordinated by the World Bank, considered the real cost of living and purchasing power in countries around the world as the best way of comparing the size of different economies.
The research revealed that the size of the Chinese economy in 2011 was 87% of the US economy, up from 43% in 2005 when the last comparison was made.
According to the research, for growth between 2011 and 2014, that would put China ahead of the US this year.
The US has been the world's largest economy since the late 19th century, and economists previously thought it would not be knocked off the top spot until 2019.
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Death is not a dirty word.
I hope this title doesn’t scare you off from reading the first article from our ‘Pastor’s Pen’. My prayer is that these articles will be encouraging, edifying and helpful to the body life of New Life Church.
In 1865, Spurgeon began publication of The Sword and the Trowel, a monthly magazine which not only contained valuable materials on the Scriptures, but also served as wonderful tool to help communicate his pastor’s heart to his own congregation. In the same manner, I pray these articles from the ‘Pastor’s Pen’ will help us as a ‘faith family’ conform into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, and love him more.
The last few months for my family, while on furlough have been conflicted. We always looked forward to spending time with our families and reuniting with them and our friends. But this trip we knew would be different. Before we left, my 14 year old niece was being treated for a rare cancer, Keri’s uncle was struggling with brain cancer and her father was battling with lung cancer. We expected this trip to be difficult and we have not been disappointed. Since then, we have attended Keri’s uncle’s funeral and soon will be preparing for her dad’s.
During this time, we have had to spend a lot of time counselling our children, helping them understand death, the curse of sin as well as their own feelings and how to respond in a biblical way. It has been difficult, not because death has been a stranger to our family (we have been exposed to death in many graphic settings in India), but because it has been close family that have died.
So here are five lessons that I have learnt and shared with my family during this time (with the help of Puritan, John Flavel). I trust these lessons will be beneficial to you.
- Death is harmless to the people of God.
Death is a prerequisite for Christians to enter heaven. It shouldn’t be something that we are afraid of but an event we should look forward too. Only those who are trapped in their sins have hell to fear, as John Flavel says “If you were to die in your sins; if death were to reign over you as a tyrant, to feed upon you as a lion does upon his prey; if death to you were to be the precursor of hell—then you might reasonably startle and shrink back from it with horror and dismay!”
- Death is necessary to fit you for the full enjoyment of God.
"While we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." If we are to enjoy God fully, we have to go through death, it cannot be avoided. Consider how John Flavel so eloquently describes it. “And who would not be willing to die for the perfect enjoyment of God? I think one would look and sigh, like a prisoner, through the grates of this mortality—"O that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest!" Indeed most men need patience to die; but a saint, who understands what death will introduce him to, rather needs patience to live. On his deathbed he should often look out and listen to his Lord's coming; and when he perceives his dissolution to be near, he should say, "The voice of my beloved! Behold he comes, leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills!"
- The happiness of heaven commences immediately after death.
It may seem obvious, but I guess we need to ask this question, ‘Do we desire to be with Christ?’ When speaking to my family, I was reminded of the need to help them and myself ‘see’ beyond this material world that surrounds us, ‘for we walk by faith, not by sight’. Our ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ (Heb. 11:1). Flavel points out that, “it would have been folly for Paul to desire to die, for the enjoyment of Christ; because he would have enjoyed more in the body than he could have enjoyed out of it...as soon as death has passed upon you, your soul will be swallowed up in life. When you have once loosed from this shore, you shall be quickly wafted to the shore of a glorious eternity!”
- By death, God often removes his people out of the way of great troubles and temptations.
Death is designed to relieve us from the physical, emotional and mental pain and suffering that is connected to this corrupt world we live in. Once we die we will also be delivered from the indwelling sin which constantly troubles and grieves us as believers. Flavel asks, “Thus you will be delivered from all temptations from whatever source; from bodily illnesses and failings; and from all the afflictions and sorrows of this life. The days of your mourning will be ended, and God will wipe away all tears from your eyes. Why then should you not hasten to depart?”
- Why are you unwilling to die?
John Flavel asks these final questions, “If you still linger, like Lot in Sodom, what are your pleas and pretenses for a longer life? Are you concerned for the welfare of your relations? If so, are you anxious for their temporal support? Then let the word of God satisfy you: "Leave your fatherless children to me, I will keep them alive, and let your widows trust in me." Luther says, in his last will, "Lord, you have given me a wife and children, I have nothing to leave them, but I commit them unto you. O Father of the fatherless and Judge of widows, nourish, keep and teach them." Perhaps you are concerned for the spiritual welfare of your relations? Remember that you cannot convert them, if you should live; and God can make your prayers and counsels effectual when you are dead. Perhaps you desire to serve God longer in this world. But if he has nothing further for you to do here, why not say with David, "Here am I, let God do what seems good to him." He is calling you to higher service in heaven, and can accomplish by other hands what you desire to do further here. Do you feel too imperfect to go to heaven? Consider that you must be imperfect until you die; your sanctification cannot be complete until you get to heaven.
But,' you say, 'I lack assurance; if I had that I could die easily.' Consider, then, that a hearty willingness to leave all the world to be freed from sin, and to be with God—is the direct way to that desired assurance; no carnal person was ever willing to die upon this ground.”
I am sure that living in the Middle East, away from your near and dear ones presents a unique set of problems and challenges when confronted with death. Perhaps, living as an expat in a foreign land has helped you understand a little better than most, that our home is not on this earth and “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Php. 3:20). I sincerely hope that these thoughts on death would encourage your faith, and help you to glorify God and enjoy him by remembering that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him”. (Heb. 11:6).
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Year-Over-Year(redirected from Year On Year)
Also found in: Dictionary, Medical, Acronyms, Idioms.
Related to Year On Year: Year to date
The measure of performance in one year compared to the previous year. This is done so that growth or decline might be measured. For example, one might compare sales in 2009 to those in 2008. If a company sold 1,000,000 widgets in 2008 and 1,250,000 in 2009, this indicates 25% growth in sales, and is a positive sign for investors. See also: Quarter.
Farlex Financial Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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The purpose of the work is to understand the long-term effect of the impact gardening process of impact melt at the near-surface of the Moon. Current computational capabilities make it feasible to simulate accumulation and displacement of impact melt by the Monte Carlo model, and thus to build a picture of the time evolution laterally and longitudinally.
By tracking the creation and presence of melt, we can understand how the impact melt is mixed into the regolith, and what abundances of melt with different ages could be expected in surface samples. Comparing the simulation results with the age-dating results based on the lunar samples, the knowledge of lunar impact history will be improved. This aspect is very much tied to our previous work, where we studied crater formation rates and concentrated on refining the crater-dating method.
Most recent results:
Lunar megaregolith mixing by impacts: diffusion of the highland materials and the implications on the origin of the nonmare component in the lunar mare samples
Tiantian Liu1,2, Greg Michael2, Kai Wünnemann2,3, Jürgen Oberst1,4
To investigate the origin of abundant nonmare component found in the collected lunar mare soil samples, we developed a numerical model to investigate the diffusion of nonmare material on the Moon. It is found that almost the entire mare regions are mixed with nonmare material with the average fraction of ~0.2. In the regions near the mare/highland contact, the nonmare abundance has no strong correlation with the distance with the fraction of ~0.3, but in the regions further than ~100 km away from the boundary, it falls rapidly with the fraction smaller than 0.05. The contact of the mare and highlands regions is still apparent on present, although the boundary of the older mare surface is getting blurred. By comparing with the estimate of the lunar mare samples, we speculate the plausible origin of the collected nonmare component: more than 50% of the nonmare component in the Apollo 15 and 17 samples is caused by the downslope slumping or lateral transport of the nearby massifs; more than 75% of nonmare component in the Apollo 12 mare samples is derived from the mixing of the ejecta of Copernican crater; both the Apollo11 and Luna 16 samples contain the comparable amount of the vertically and laterally transported nonmare component.
Figure (a) Global distribution of nonmare component, where the darker color indicates the less abundance. Red stars show the location of sampling sites. (b) Histogram of the fraction of nonmare component of the mare regions. (c) Predicted fraction of nonmare component at the sampling sites versus distance from the mare/highland boundary, where the grey dashed rectangles are the expected value and the red dots are the results from the lunar soil samples (Rhodes 1977).
Liu, T., Michael, G., Engelmann, J., Wünnemann, K., Oberst, J., 2018: Regolith mixing by impacts: Lateral diffusion of basin melt. Icarus, Vol. 321, pp. 691-704. 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.12.026
Yue, Z., Michael, G. G., Di, K., Liu, J., 2017: Global survey of lunar wrinkle ridge formation times. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 477, pp. 14-20. 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.07.048
03. 2019, LPSC, Texas, USA, oral presentation
12. 2018, AGU Fall meeting, Washington D.C., USA, oral presentation
09. 2018, EPSC, Berlin, Germany, oral presentation
07. 2018, CNSA-ESA Workshop, Amsterdam, Netherlands, oral presentation
05. 2018, European Luna Symposium (ELS), Toulouse, France, oral presentation & poster
10. 2017, Paneth Colloquium, Nördlingen, Germany, oral presentation
09. 2017, EPSC, Riga, Latvia, oral presentation
05. 2017, ELS, Münster, Germany, oral presentation
03. 2015, LPSC, Texas, USA, poster
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How to straighten natural hair for black girls . To make your natural hair become straight or put in order again . It involves hard work and patience. But when you do it right, you will be left with a glowing, supply , soft and straightened natural hair.
Beauty schools don’t teach anything about natural hair. Most black women know nothing about their natural hair, since most women grew up with relaxed hair. That’s why majority are not informed on how to keep their natural hair healthy, straighten and glowing.
Before we delve deeper on how to straighten natural hair , I would love to show you some things
You will learn from this article. You will understand healthy and effective procedures on how to straighten natural hair .
Which are :
● Importance of leave in conditioner treatment
● How to reduce hair damages on natural hair
● How to use flat iron to straighten natural hair
● Healthy foods that help to strengthen natural hair
How To Straighten Natural Hair
1 ● Importance of leave in conditioner :
Apply a reasonable amount of leave in conditioner on your natural hair. You have to deep condition
your hair before you strengthen it . When you deep condition your natural hair, it provides enormous protection from heat. It also protects your natural hair from breaking and restores moisture as well. This step is vital on how to straighten natural hair.
2 ● How to reduce natural hair damages
African hair is quite dry and brittle. Natural hair is as fragile as an egg and just as cumbersome.
It should be handled with great care . Some common practices can make the natural hair to weep, throw tantrum and bleed easily.
Here is a scenario……
Amanda is a small town girl who just read some gibberish post on how to straighten natural hair. After reading the post on how to straighten natural hair. She began to wash her natural hair with sulphate shampoo everyday.
After which she uses flat iron with enormous heat to straighten her natural hair and also combs her hair roughly. After sometime ,
Amanda notices her hair breaking and being disrespectful . Her natural hair stopped to bloom and glow. Rather it gets crabbier everyday.
Her natural hair cried ! It’s too hot , I’m losing my edges . Please tell me , what have you done to me ? I have lost my glow , I have lost my shine , I have failed to bloom !!
Do you know why her natural hair couldn’t glow , is breaking and losing its bloom?
I shall tell you why !
3● Comb your natural hair stealthily
You must not bother your natural hair by applying enormous force while combing it. This should be taken seriously on how to straighten natural hair.
See your natural hair like a beautiful rose flower in a floral garden. Your natural hair deserves to be treated in a calm and friendly manner. Excessive combing can strip the protective cover of your natural hair . Don’t be like Amanda who has made her hair lose its glow and bloom.
4● How to use flat iron to straighten natural hair
Well I have a question.
What do you put on natural hair before flat ironing?
How can you straighten without damaging it ?
It is quite simple people!
Before you use flat iron , make sure you apply heat protectants .
They provide a barrier between your natural and the heat. Thereby keeping your natural hair
safe and strong. You see that ? This advice should be greatly appreciated on how to straighten natural hair.
Hair protectant can be in spray form or cream form .
Also when using a flat iron , make sure you regulate to the lowest setting. The higher the heat you use on your natural hair , the greater the damages.
You see , Amada actually used a flat iron on her natural hair without applying heat protectant.
She also used too heat , she didn’t regulate the flat iron thereby causing her delicate natural hair to lose it’s glow , supply and break .
5● Healthy food that would help to strengthen natural hair
For your natural hair to be in a glorious state , there are certain foods you can consume to make it glow and strengthen. These are foods rich in vitamin B , protein, folic acid etc.
This food will go a long way , never take this information on how to straighten natural hair for granted, food are like manure to the hair. Show me a good hair and I will show you a healthy eater.
Take This Home ( On How To Straighten Natural Hair )
• Dry natural hair causes enormous breakage. Comb only when damp.
• It is paramount to use a good wide – toothed comb to stealthily comb your natural hair.
• When knots form , do not wait until shower time . Simply use spray bottle of water ,apply conditioner or oil the knot and ease it with your hand.
• Heat tools like straightening iron or blow dryer damage natural hair . If you must use it , make sure you regulate the settings to the lowest.
• Make sure to seal your natural hair with oil or butter ( coconut oil or shea butter) after you apply leave in conditioner.
• Handle the edges of your natural hair, the hair at the nape of your neck and the hair around your temples gently. The hair in these areas can easily break .
• Wear protective styles like braids , cornrows, Bantu knots and twist . They keep your natural hair in place and minimize friction.
• Before you flat iron your natural hair make sure you apply heat protectant to avoid breaking.
• Make sure you keep your natural hair hydrated by daily intake of plenty of liquid. Drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of water every day. Also take some healthy beverages and juice.
• Eat lots of nuts , fatty fish , avocados, honey ,eggs and vegetables . Because it makes your natural hair not to develop too much oil, it also makes your natural hair not to break .
• The ideal pillowcase to use when sleeping is silk or satin. Other materials absorb moisture from the hair and cause breakage of the natural hair.
These simple procedures I share in this article are just the right information you need on how to strengthen your natural hair .
Give your hair all the straightening it deserves !
Hope you find this article on How To Straighten Natural Hair really fascinating?
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