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Reading (and Scaffolding) Narrative Texts
Students need to learn the purposes and methods of narration in order to understand the narrative framework and to eliminate frustration when they read. When students know the narrative elements, they can more easily follow the story line and make successful predictions about what is to occur. In addition, understanding these elements develops higher-level thinking skills.
Narrative text includes any type of writing that relates a series of events and includes both fiction (novels, short stories, poems) and nonfiction (memoirs, biographies, news stories). Both forms tell stories that use imaginative language and express emotion, often through the use of imagery, metaphors, and symbols. Students need to know how narrative texts work and how to read them, because stories are used for many important purposes. The purpose of narrative text is to entertain, to gain and hold a reader's interest; however, writers of memoirs and novels often relate complex stories that examine universal ideas, events, and issues. In addition, speakers, advertisers, and politicians use stories to persuade us to accept or reject an idea.
In effect, students need to learn the purposes and methods of narration in order to understand the narrative framework and to eliminate frustration when they read. When students know the narrative elements, they can more easily follow the story line and make successful predictions about what is to occur. In addition, understanding these elements develops higher-level thinking skills. For example, the complications in a plot are related to cause and effect, and awareness of character's motives can lead to analysis.
All in all, the narrative form is unique, because authors relate ideas they want to express about how people behave and what they believe. These ideas, or themes, generally relate to universal truths and make connections to the reader's experiences.
Scaffolding strategies for narrative text
Teachers can use the following techniques to introduce the narrative form.
1. Focus: Themes
a. Ask students to do pre-writing about a theme.
Examples: List four of your fears; be ready to discuss one. Write about a time you experienced fear.
b. Ask small groups to make posters related to a theme or themes.
Example: Students can define a theme, identify positive and negative examples, create a symbol, and write a one-sentence assertion about the theme.
2. Focus: Conflict
a. Ask students to identify modern values and record their answers.
b. Have the class identify the values that are evident in the narrative.
c. In small groups, have students determine how the characters' values cause conflict.
d. Create a series of questions, each starting with the word suppose, that relate to a character's conflicts and complications.
Example: Suppose you were not allowed to see the one you loved?
3. Focus: Features
a. Ask students to copy lines from the narrative that relate to the conflict or characters; break the lines into three parts, and write each part on a different color index card. Mix the cards together, and then ask students to work together to find complete lines. Then have them read the line aloud and make a prediction.
Line 1: "That's true." She hesitated.
Line 2: "Well, I've had a very bad time, Nick,"
Line 3: "and I'm pretty cynical about everything." (The Great Gatsby)
b. Ask students to make predictions about the title and/or illustrations in the text.
Example: What does the title, A Separate Peace, suggest?
4. Focus: Characterization
Utilize the AWAIT strategy. To teach the methods of indirect characterization, have each student create an image of a character. Each image should include the following details:
Appearance: What does the character look like? Wear?
Words: Create a line of dialogue that the character would say.
Actions: Make the character do something (e.g., run, hit a ball).
Interactions with other characters: Write a sentence that creates a conflict between the character and someone else.
Thoughts: Create a thought bubble; record the character's thoughts in the bubble. In addition, have each student write a one-line assertion stating what the character is like. Students can easily remember indirect characterization by learning the acronym AWAIT.
5. Focus: Setting
Use the graphic organizer in the figure below to teach the functions of the setting. Ask students to create an example for each function.
Function of Setting
Sejnost, R.L. & Thiese, S.M. (2010). Building content literacy: Strategies for the adolescent learner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Comments and Recommendations5 comments | | <urn:uuid:38c07aa5-a90f-493b-9739-3401afe5b169> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://www.adlit.org/article/39884/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982294158.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195814-00227-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924366 | 978 | 4.15625 | 4 |
There are many great ways of accessing and downloading music, film, TV and video safely online and it is important that children and young people understand how to download content legally. This advice page provides introductory information about how to enjoy entertainment online in a safe and legal way.
1. Music, film and TV on the internet - what you should know:
Copyright law applies to downloading, sharing and streaming just as in the world of physical CDs and DVDs. If you make music, film or TV content available to others on a file-sharing network, download from an illegal site, or sell copies without the permission of those who own the copyright, then you are breaking the law and could face penalties. For more information on copyright, read our useful guide.
2. Staying tuned in while staying legal:
There is a wide choice of legal sites where you can download or "stream" (transmit over the internet) music, film or TV content. Some are stores where you can buy downloaded tracks, albums, TV shows, videos or films to play on a computer, or a portable device or on a music player, like iTunes. Others charge a monthly subscription fee and let you stream from an internet-connected device at any time, like Spotify or Netflix. Some services provide entertainment for free, supported by advertising.
3. What you can and can't do with music, film and TV online:
It is illegal to upload or download copyrighted files without permission from the person who owns the rights. File sharing services can, in theory, be used legally, but, in practice, nearly all the content on them is illegal. The only safe way to use them legally is to be sure you are sharing materials that are not protected by someone else's copyright, although most material is copyrighted. If your child is making a Youtube video and wants to put music behind it, it is important they search for “royalty free music” or “creative commons music” which are free, but usually states that you must acknowledge the source of the music. Some content is free and exists in the public domain, which means the exclusive intellectual property rights have expired or the original creator has given permission for the content to be enjoyed for free. Examples include the works of Beethoven, or the works of Shakespeare. Intellectual property rights are country dependent, and material that is in the public domain in one country, may not be in a different country so it is important to check. Some content is marked with a Creative Commons license that clearly explains how it can or cannot be used by others.
4. Staying safe and responsible:
Illegal file-sharing programmes and websites pose greater risks to your computer or mobile phone than legitimate sites. Users often unwittingly download viruses or spyware and can inadvertently share personal computer files and information. Some files are purposely misnamed on file-sharing and peer-to-peer networks to trick people into downloading them.
5. Tips for parents:
- Are you aware of how your children are using their devices to access music, film and TV? Talk to your children about their online activities so that they understand why it's important to use legal sites online.
- Speak also about the moral issues – if you are getting something for free that you know you should pay for – is that right? It is also worth discussing with them what the consequences would be for the whole family if they were caught breaking the law, as it is usually the bill payer in the house who receives a caution if your internet service provider (ISP) suspects a household of illegal downloading.
- If you are unsure of a certain site, visit Get it Right from a Genuine Site which lists the legal ways you can download film and music. | <urn:uuid:cb17cb0a-5df8-4c17-a594-c95127dc5ecf> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/hot-topics/music-downloading | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251700675.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20200127112805-20200127142805-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.94579 | 762 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The world will have only 60% of the water it needs in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource, a UN report warns.
Many underground water reserves are already running low, while rainfall patterns are predicted to become more erratic with climate change. As the world's population grows to an expected nine billion by 2050, more groundwater will be needed for farming, industry and personal consumption.
The report predicts global water demand will increase 55% by 2050, while reserves dwindle.
Having less water risks catastrophe on many fronts: crops could fail, ecosystems could break down, industries could collapse, disease and poverty could worsen, and violent conflicts over access to water could become more frequent.
"Unless the balance between demand and finite supplies is restored, the world will face an increasingly severe global water deficit," the annual World Water Development Report said, noting that more efficient use could guarantee enough supply in the future.
The report, released before World Water Day 2015, calls on policymakers and communities to rethink water policies, urging more conservation as well as recycling of wastewater. Countries may also want to consider raising prices for water, as well as searching for ways to make water-intensive sectors more efficient and less polluting, it said.
About 748 million people worldwide have poor access to clean drinking water, the report said, cautioning that economic growth alone is not the solution – and could make the situation worse unless reforms ensure more efficiency and less pollution.
World Water Day has been observed on 22 March every year since it was established by the UN General Assembly in 1993.
The idea is to make people think twice about how much water they waste. People who have plentiful access to water are encouraged to try not turning on their taps all day. | <urn:uuid:f8e35ba6-da10-4006-9270-04ff51d929a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/world-water-day-2015-photos-make-you-think-twice-about-wasting-this-precious-resource-1492907 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988717963.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183837-00180-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963969 | 354 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Is Social Media Damaging Your Eyes?
Over-use of digital devices can cause macular degeneration. Opticians have spoken out against over-exposure to screens on devices such as smartphones and tablets. A recent survey has shown that under-25s check their phone at least 32 times a day, and many people report feeling unsettled and anxious if separated from their phone. Most adults spend as much as seven hours a day in front of a screen. As a culture we spend a vast amount of time checking social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, and some see this as an unhealthy form of addiction.
Negative Effects of Blue Light
The blue light emissions (also known as HEV or high-energy visible light) from screens are responsible for damage to the eyes, and modern small-screen devices tend to be held much closer to the face than is recommended. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/26780069/smartphone-overuse-may-damage-eyes-say-opticians for a more detailed discussion of this.
Deterioration of Vision
It’s sometimes referred to as digital eye strain or computer vision syndrome, and there are a number of early warning signs which if treated early could save your sight. Symptoms such as dry eyes, watery eyes, headaches and light sensitivity can be early warning signs of permanent damage or macular degeneration. This can eventually lead to blindness. Short-sightedness can also be caused by working on screens too close to the face.
How to Protect Your Eyes from Screen Damage
In order to avoid straining the eyes, opticians recommend taking frequent breaks from screens and making sure you blink enough whilst using screens. It is also crucial to get your eyes tested regularly to pick up any early signs of damage.
Opticians can take the strain off their patients when it comes to remembering their eye check, however. Many now use optician software to automatically recall and remind patients to attend an appointment. Another advantage of some specialist optician software is that it contains built-in lifestyle questionnaires which could help practitioners to identify patients particularly at risk from the effects of extensive screen time.
Millennial Generation Are High-Risk
A report by the Vision Council found that 37% of Millennials (born after 1980) were spending more than nine hours a day on screens. This trend is fuelled by social media addiction and is thought to be responsible for the worldwide epidemic of short-sightedness. | <urn:uuid:0d584d18-d941-45de-a680-077d33d3929a> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://therecreationplace.com/reviews/is-social-media-damaging-your-eyes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710916.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221202215443-20221203005443-00498.warc.gz | en | 0.953127 | 510 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Image source: stock.xchng.com
If you are buying everything you think you need to outfit your garden, you are not only wasting your money but missing a great opportunity to reuse, reduce, and recycle. Here are a few tips and tricks for having a "green" garden.
- When staking a new tree in the yard, cut up old bicycle tires to cushion the wires which hold the young tree taught against the wind. Place between the wire and the tree bark before tightening the wires.
- Great recycled containers for starting plants are those in which berries are sold at the supermarket. Use the ones which already have drainage holes in the bottom. Just be sure to set the container on a dish or tray to keep it from leaking onto the surface below when you water it.
- If you are worried about gourds falling off trellised vines, use old nylon pantyhose cut from the briefs to cradle the vegetables. Stretch out the center of a leg and place the gourd in it, then tie the ends to the trellis to secure. (Yes, some people still wear these.)
- Speaking of trellises, you should never have to purchase a ready-made trellis if you have woods nearby. Simply cut young saplings to length and nail them together in a pattern of your liking. Leave plenty of room at the bottom for driving securely into the ground. Whittle the ends to a sharp point for easier insertion into the soil. Prop the smaller trellises against a wall or other hard surface for extra support. These can be quite stylish.
- Paths between rows may be kept weed free by placing newspapers along the walk. Wet them down to keep them from blowing about. Once they have been soaked, they will generally stay put. If not, sprinkle a little soil or sand on them.
- A compost bin can be made of many different recycled materials, but our favorite is used wooden pallets. Set the pallets on end in a square and bind them together with wire coat hangers. Leave one corner easy to untwist and open it like a gate to turn or access the compost as needed. However, our resident master gardener (our daughter) just left the fourth pallet off and it works fine that way as well.
- To extend your gardening days in cooler climates, use old storm windows to fashion a cold frame. Any used glass will work, however. Build a simple wooden box with a sloped top to fit the size of the window. Some folks fasten their window to the top of the box with hinges, but we just set ours on top. We remove the window on warmer days and prop it up with a stick or piece of brick to ventilate it.
- Watering your garden couldn't be easier with an old garden hose. I'm talking about one with holes in it. Instead of purchasing soaker hoses, just poke holes in an old hose which has seen better days. Put in as many holes as you need for the flow you want, then snake the hose in and around the plants. Turn the water spigot on low flow and let it do the work for you.
- For container gardening, instead of purchasing new containers, you can save money by using things you would otherwise put out to the trash. For instance, a large, plastic bin with a hole in the bottom is an excellent choice, as are bulk detergent bottles with their tops cut off, coolers with missing lids, five-gallon buckets, and even old dresser drawers. Be sure to drill drainage holes in the bottom, and you're ready to fill and plant.
- Composting is the most "green" way to recycle in the garden. Nothing taken from the earth should be in a land fill. Scraps from peeling fruits and vegetables should always go back into the garden by way of the compost pile if you aren't feeding them to animals. Other materials suitable for the compost bin are coffee and tea grounds and their filters, clean shredded scrap paper, dryer lint, egg shells, hair from trimmings, sawdust, wood ashes (not too many), most leaves, and natural-fiber rags and clothing cast offs (shredded). More information regarding how to compost, including lists of what to add and what not to add, may be found at the United States EPA website:http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/rrr/composting/index.htm | <urn:uuid:e49af2ce-0cb2-46ed-8450-580828a8a251> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://ehomebody.blogspot.com/2013/06/10-ways-to-make-your-garden-green.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246661733.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045741-00123-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942675 | 935 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The Lysiloma tree, also known as the feather bush or fern-of-the-desert, stands out with its wide canopy of branches and multiple trunks. It belongs to the Fabaceae family of plants, which includes white clover, rattleweed, Judas tree, butterfly pea, Kentucky coffee tree and French honeysuckle.
The Lysiloma tree grows to a height of about 20 feet and about the same width. The flowers are small, creamy white and grow in clusters. The fruit is a hard bean pod that grows 4 to 6 inches long.
Lysiloma is hardy only in USDA zones 9 and 10, the two hottest zones in the continental United States. The tree needs full sun and tolerates most types of well-drained soil.
Dig a hole twice the width and 1 1/2 time the height of the root-ball container. Set the root ball at ground level, and fill in the hole with a mixture of soil and fertilizer .
The Lysiloma tree serves as a small light-shade tree used in transitional garden-desert planting.
The Lysiloma tree is messy. Don't plant it around pools or lawns because fruit pods, flowers and leaves will litter the ground. | <urn:uuid:ca4ecd65-a704-4934-be02-a01cf1965cb0> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://www.gardenguides.com/77372-lysiloma-tree.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267162385.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20180925182856-20180925203256-00048.warc.gz | en | 0.9219 | 260 | 2.875 | 3 |
When Stanley Bagg signed a contract to excavate the Lachine Canal in 1821, it was the largest and most complex job he had ever taken on. Although he was just 33 years old, this Montreal entrepreneur and his business partners had gained enough experience from a series of projects for the British Army that they were able to land the contract of a lifetime.
|Stanley Bagg, 1788-1853|
Stanley Bagg was born in Massachusetts in 1788 and moved to Lower Canada with his family around 1795. He grew up in La Prairie, across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal, where his father ran an inn. In 1810, when he was 22, Stanley and his father opened the Mile End Tavern at a crossroads just north of the city. The tavern was a great place to make business contacts, and by this time, Stanley was already selling firewood to the British Army.
The army played a huge role in Montreal’s economy at that time. Britain had reorganized its defences of British North America after the American Revolution. In the past, a fort on the cliffs of Quebec City overlooking the St. Lawrence River had protected the colony from attack. Now there was a long southern border to defend, and Montreal played a key role in protecting its own location, and in moving troops and equipment to Upper Canada. The army needed firewood to keep its soldiers warm, fresh beef and flour to feed them, and people with horses, carts and bateaux (flat-bottomed river boats) to help with transportation. Large and medium-sized local suppliers bid against each other for these contracts, then usually subcontracted the work to smaller enterprises.
The outbreak of war with the United States in 1812 led to a boost in military spending and provided Stanley with his first big business opportunity. In December 1813, he and business partner Oliver Wait signed a contract to transport sixty long guns (cannons) from Montreal to Kingston, on Lake Ontario.
The contract paid well, but it was a risky undertaking, not only because of the danger posed by the enemy; if they failed to deliver the cannons safely and on time, they would be penalized. The fact that the job was to be done in winter posed an additional challenge. Normally, goods were transported on the water, but the St. Lawrence marked the border between the U.S. and Canada for much of the distance between the two cities, so the cannons were transported on the winter road, hidden from the enemy by the trees. Stanley and Oliver subcontracted the task to others, and the cannons arrived intact.
Over the next several years, Stanley was involved in a variety of projects. He and Oliver transported several large anchors to Kingston for the military, and Stanley contracted to sell beef to the army (the meat was supplied by his future father-in-law, butcher John Clark,) but most of his activities were in the civilian sphere. He ran the tavern and the farm on which it was located; he bought, sold and rented buildings in and around Montreal; he had a share in a steamboat called Car of Commerce; and he was a partner in an unsuccessful dry goods business. For fun, he built a race track near the tavern. Then, in 1818, he placed a notice in the newspaper indicating he planned to move to Upper Canada and sell all his properties in Montreal.
A year later, he had discarded that idea and seized new contracting opportunities with the army. Stanley got married in Montreal on August 9, 1819. Five days later, he and Oliver Wait signed a contract with the army’s engineers to level Montreal’s Citadel Hill. The citadel, where arms and ammunition had been stored since the days of New France, was located in a heavily populated area of the city. The army realized this was dangerous and decided to demolish the building and level the hill. Stanley and Oliver contracted to remove 48,000 cubic yards of earth from the hill and dump it into a hollow area nearby.
The army replaced the old citadel with two new forts, with construction beginning simultaneously in 1819. Stanley, with Oliver Wait and two other partners, Andrew White and Thomas Phillips, worked on both projects.
|Parks Canada tour guide, Fort Lennox|
One of the forts was on Saint Helen’s Island, in the St. Lawrence River near the port, well located to protect the city from an attack by the Americans. The initial phase of this three-year construction project included a blockhouse, powder magazine and storehouses. In the summer of 1821, Bagg and Wait obtained a series of contracts to supply 300,000 bricks and 5,000 cartloads of sand, as well as large amounts of stone, lime, pine, oak and cedar for the new fort.
The other project, Fort Lennox, was on Île aux Noix, on the Richelieu River not far from Lake Champlain and the American border. The French had also used Île aux Noix to defend New France, but the old fortifications were no longer adequate. Stanley and his partners agreed to provide timber and other construction materials for Fort Lennox.
They had not completed these contracts when, in the summer of 1821, there was a call for tenders to excavate the Lachine Canal. The foursome (Bagg, Wait, White and Phillips) were not canal builders, but neither was anyone else in Montreal. What they did have was the experience managing people and moving material required for this huge project.
Photo credits: private collection; Janice Hamilton
The main source of this material about the army is an unpublished article by Sherry Olson and Jean-Claude Robert, “Wheelbarrows for His Majesty: the Commissariat and its Contractors in Early Nineteenth-Century Montreal.” The authors based their research on contracts and agreements, many of which were handled by notary Henry Griffin. The agreement to transport guns is the act of Griffin 187-372, 9 December 1813. For the contract regarding the leveling of Citadel Hill, see Griffin 187-2745, 14 August 1819. You can search the indexes to notarial documents online at http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/notaires/. Some acts have now been digitized.
Olson, Professor Emeritus of Geography at McGill University, became familiar with the Bagg family while researching a book about the demographics of 19th century Montreal. Written with co-author Patricia Thornton of Concordia University, the book is Peopling the North American City, Montreal 1840-1900. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011.
During the War of 1812, anyone who had been born in the United States and wanted to remain in British North America had to swear an oath of allegiance to the king or leave. Both Bagg and Wait were American-born, so they must have been very trustworthy subjects of His Majesty to be allowed to transport arms.
To see a cannon of the type that Bagg and Wait contracted to transport, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISpTzv_nMas. In this video, a 24-pounder long gun is loaded and fired in a demonstration at Fort Wellington, Prescott, Ontario, however, the comments below suggest that the boom in the demonstration was disappointing.
On March 7, 1818, the Montreal Herald ran an ad in which Stanley Bagg announced he was leaving for Upper Canada and wanted to sell his investments and settle his accounts in Montreal.
I do not know why he wanted to leave, or what made him change his plans.
You can visit the Stewart Museum, located in what was once the arsenal of the fort on St. Helen’s Island. See www.stewart-museum.org/en/st-helen-s-island-heritage-site-71.html. Today, Île Sainte-Hélène is home to Parc Jean-Drapeau. In the 1960s, it was one of the sites of Montreal’s world’s fair, Expo 67.
Fort Lennox National Historic Site, less than an hour from Montreal, is also a great destination for a family outing. Take a picnic. See http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/qc/lennox/index.aspx. Also of interest is Andre Charbonneau’s book The Fortifications of Île aux Noix: a portrait of the defensive strategy on the Upper Richelieu Border in the 18th and 19th centuries. Ottawa: National Historic Sites, Parks Canada, 1994. It can be ordered from www.globalgenealogy.com. | <urn:uuid:f4b6bad9-c63e-4aa7-807f-f63417532d20> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://writinguptheancestors.blogspot.ca/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131298080.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172138-00024-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975545 | 1,815 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Course Title: Biology 326: Cytogenetics
Faculty: Professor Le Paliulis
DP&S Liaison: Brianna Derr
Tools: MacBook Pro, LED Lights, WebCam, Tripod, iStopMotion, iMovie
Biology professor Le Paliulis asked her students to demonstrate understanding of course content by producing a Cytogentic stop motion film. These films animate a chromosome process, structure, or seminal experiment in Cytogenetics. To create a stop motion film, the creator moves an object one frame at a time. Upon playback the individual frames appear to move fluidly.
Students also learned about multi-modal storytelling. Multimodal storytelling teaches students to engage with content beyond the written word by combining images, narration, and music. All of these individual elements work together to tell a story. Students also wrote scripts, produced storyboards, and learned about digital literacy and media fluency.
Examples of student films: | <urn:uuid:701c544d-b675-4676-8112-04b6e4c44f31> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | http://dps.bucknell.edu/2015/10/02/cytogenetics-stopmotion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676593378.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20180722155052-20180722175052-00354.warc.gz | en | 0.891001 | 201 | 3.171875 | 3 |
In Act 3, Juliet says, "O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face! Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!"
What does this mean? I know there are oxymorons in this quote, but I don't get it. It's from Romeo and Juliet.
1 Answer | Add Yours
In Act III Scene I, Romeo kills Tybalt--Juliet's cousin--since Tybalt killed Mercutio. We also know that Romeo & Juliet are now married (in a rather hasty and secret ceremony). When the nurse brings news that Romeo slew Tybalt, Juliet responds with the words you mentioned, and a few more.
In her mind, she is hoping she has not been deceived by this Romeo guy; in other words, he might have a "flow'ring face" (meaning "handsome"), but actually have a "serpent heart" in him that would be cruel enough to slay her cousin.
Most of this emotional rant deals with contradictions, or oxymorons, as she tries to understand why such a great guy might kill Tybalt. In other words, he might be "beautiful", but he could still be a "tyrant"; he might be "angelical", but still be a "fiend". Basically, her mind is trying to process whether he is good or evil.
We’ve answered 319,415 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:5ef8026d-b1fe-4470-b909-1e85f51be45d> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/act-three-scene-ii-juliet-says-o-serpant-heart-hid-247743 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860111592.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161511-00126-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969517 | 310 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Right now, the Internet of Things is controlled by a thousand little apps that mostly live in your smartphone, each with its own UI. But what would a universal UI for the IoT look like? In the mind of interaction designer Marc Exposito, it looks like a children’s drawing on a magic piece of digital paper that can control the real world around you.
According to Exposito, who completed the project as part of his final bachelor’s thesis in La Salle Campus Barcelona’s Seamless Interaction Group, DrawIt was created to help reduce the “mental load” of the Internet of Things–which forces users to learn a new interface for every single smart device they add to a home. Exposito thought that the ideal interface for the Internet of Things would allow people to more intuitively interact with their smart devices, and what’s more intuitive than drawing? “Drawing is a natural way to express ourselves as human beings,” he says.
DrawIt works by representing all of your IoT devices–your Philips Hue lamp, your Nest thermostat, your Bluetooth speaker, and so on–as a simple shape, like a circle or a triangle. Loading up the app for the first time, DrawIt looks like any other tablet-based doodling app. But when you draw something in DrawIt, it controls one of the smart objects in your home, depending on your artistic flourishes.
For example, by drawing a triangle and then coloring it in, you could turn on an LED light and then shift the mood lighting to purple. How does DrawIt know that a triangle represents the light? You train it by pointing your tablet’s camera at the smart object you want to control, and then drawing the shape you want to represent it.
But in addition to just controlling one device at a time, DrawIt can also be used to link devices together. Say you have a Bluetooth speaker and an LED light, represented by a circle and a square. In DrawIt, you can draw a line between those two shapes to connect them–so that when you raise the volume on the speaker (which you do by tapping the circle, then pinching it out to make it physically bigger) the light from your smart lamp gets brighter. Conceptually, at least, you can network all your home’s smart objects together in this way, controlling them all simultaneously by constantly elaborating on a Rube-Goldberg-esque drawing.
Like Methodo, another universal controller for the Internet of Things, there’s nothing technologically impossible about DrawIt. It remains a concept right now simply because there’s no standard language for the Internet of Things (like HTML, or Wi-Fi) that allows a single set of commands to control all devices.
But if the Internet of Things is ever going to fulfill its promise and make our homes smart, that standard language will eventually have to evolve. And then, concepts like DrawIt won’t seem so far-fetched or futuristic. They’ll simply be one of many ways in which we can control our homes. | <urn:uuid:98df2eba-c7ee-4ab5-a304-0ee3026b544f> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.fastcodesign.com/3060263/a-universal-interface-that-you-control-by-doodling | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818693866.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170925235144-20170926015144-00640.warc.gz | en | 0.934682 | 645 | 2.8125 | 3 |
flyting was our Word of the Day on 11/17/2009. Hear the podcast!
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
Did You Know?
Flyting in 15th- and 16th-century Scotland is analogous to a modern-day rap competition during which rappers improvise clever disses and put-downs against their opponents. Similarly, the makars (a Scottish word for "poets") engaged in verbal duels in which they voiced extravagant invectives in verse against their rivals. The base of flyting is the ancient verb flyte (also spelled flite), meaning "to contend" or "to quarrel."
Origin and Etymology of flyting
First Known Use: 1508See Words from the same year
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up flyting? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). | <urn:uuid:a5863fdf-2675-43b8-aeb3-8469fe9a2215> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flyting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647892.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20180322151300-20180322171300-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.952131 | 193 | 3.203125 | 3 |
What women talk about
Robin Lakoff (1975): Women's vocab includes trivial words because they are relegated to decisions about such trivial things
Mira Komarovsky (1962): 58 working class USA couples, women spoke about family, personal matters. Men spoke about money, business, sport, work, local politics.
Jennifer Coates (1996): Men prefer topics that allow participants to take turns at being the expert. Women are more personal.
Deborah Tannen (1992): Men usually assume role of information giver or fixer because this reinforces strength and status.
Robin Lakoff (1975): Adds uncertainty to a statement so a speaker doesn't impose her point of view
Pamela Fishman (1980): Women use 3 times more tags. NOT because of uncertainty but because they were trying to keep the conversation going.
Janet Holmes (1984):
- Modal Tags - seek information
- Affective Tags - softening/concern
- Facilitative Tags - drawing listener in
- 61% modal tags used by men, 75% facilitative tags used by women
Cameron & Coates (1988): Monitor whether others are in agreement. Respect the face needs of others when discussing sensitive issues
Jennifer Coates (1996): Men use questions to seek information from each other
Intensifiers, Qualifiers & Competition
Robin Lakoff (1975): Avoiding strong statements or committing to an opinion. Uncertainty.
Dale Spender (1980): Show uncertainty when used by women but certainty and authority when used by men.
Cameron & Coates (1988): The adversarial style of conversation where speakers vie for turns and where participants are more likely to contradict each other than build on each other's contributions
Hedges + Imperatives
Robin Lakoff (1975): Punctuate speech with uncertainty
Fishman (1980): Women use 'you know' 5 times more than men. NOT uncertainty but again doing conversational work.
Cameron & Coates (1988): Help statements to become negotiable and even retractable, depending on the rest of the group's comments.
Jennifer Coates (1996): Men hedge less
Deborah Tannen (1992): Men use more. Use them to their sons more than daughters. Women used cloaked imperatives... "Let's"
Hypercorrect Grammar + Co-operation
Robin Lakoff (1975): Women more likely to comply to grammatical rules
Peter Trudgill (1970): Norwich study showed women using correct pronunciation
Jenny Cheshire (1970s): Reading Study - Even at an early age females are using more standard forms
Cameron & Coates (1988): Refers to a particular type of conversation, where speakers work together to produce shared meanings
Silences + Minimal Responses
Zimmerman & West (1975):
- Single sex conversation - 1.35 secs
- Mixed sex conversation - 3.21 secs
- Women kept being interrupted so spoke less
Deborah Tannen (1992): Women see listening and supporting as essential to group bonding. They assume a turn will be granted
Coates (1988): Women make well-placed minimal responses but the men make them too late. This indicated a lack of interest and support, which led to women falling silent. | <urn:uuid:764238be-1d2f-4bf5-9c79-22d987bd2c28> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://getrevising.co.uk/revision-cards/gender_in_conversation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824775.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20171021114851-20171021134851-00415.warc.gz | en | 0.835892 | 682 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Based on a 2002 paper by Chuang et al., I'm trying to understand the math for calculating 'drop-cutter' toolpaths (Julian Todd also has a lot to say about the drop-cutter approach). The basic idea is that the x,y position of the cutter is known, and it is dropped down along the z-axis until it touches a triangulated surface. A complex surface is built up of many many small triangles, but the algorithm stays the same.
For each triangle there are seven items the cutter might be touching: three vertices, three edges, and one facet (the triangle surface). It looks like a contact point with a vertex is the easiest to calculate, so I'm starting with that. I'm hoping to post part 2/3 and 3/3 of this post soon. They will deal with the facet and the edges.
I'm using this fairly simple cutter definition C(R,r) where R denotes the shaft diameter and r the corner radius. The three basic shapes that can be defined this way are shown in the picture. A more elaborate model would include tapered cutters, but I think I won't bother with that now... A cutter thus consists of a cylindrical part or a toroidal part, or both. That means I need six different functions in total for this algorithm:
- Cylinder against vertex
- Toroid against vertex
- Cylinder against facet
- Toroid against facet
- Cylinder against edge
- Toroid against edge
Here's how I think no 1 and 2 work.
Assume the vertex we are testing against is at (x, y, z) and say the cutter is at location xe,ye. We are looking for the cutter z-coordinate ze so at the end when the cutter is in contact with the vertex it will be located at (xe, ye, ze) .
Calculate the distance in the xy-plane from (xe, ye) to (x, y):
q = sqrt( (xe-x)^2 + (ye-y)^2)
Now if q > R the vertex lies outside the cutter and we should report an error or just skip to the next triangle/vertex.
If q <= R-r the vertex lies under the cylindrical part of the cutter and we set ze = z
If (R-r) < q <= R the vertex lies under the spherical/toroidal part of the cutter. This picture should explain the geometry:
The cutter can be positioned a distance z1 lower than z. To calculate z1 we need z2. It can be found by noting that (x ,y, z) should lie on the toroidal surface:
(q-(R-r))^2 + h2^2 = r^2
or h2 = sqrt( r^2 - (q-(R-r))^2 )
so now h1=r-h2 and we found ze = z-h1
A quick test in matlab seems to confirm that this works:
here a ball-nose cutter is dropped down along the dashed line into contact with all three vertices (red, blue, and green stars), and finally it's positioned at the highest ze found (red dot).
Well, that was easy. Now onto the facet and edge tests! | <urn:uuid:63bcd8f6-0941-4703-8118-d5a61b6ea7ea> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | http://www.anderswallin.net/2007/06/drop-cutter-part-13-cutter-vs-vertex/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057416.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20210923013955-20210923043955-00143.warc.gz | en | 0.95054 | 706 | 2.671875 | 3 |
MIDDLEBURY — Barely one year after a tsunami devastated a portion of Japan’s northeastern coast — causing one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history — Masahir Takada made his way to Middlebury, further cementing his relationship with Vermonters who reached out to Japan after the disaster.
Takada is a tea master from Uji, Japan, the birthplace of Japanese green tea (see sidebar), who came to the U.S. this year to meet with his many tea contacts and extend a warm thank you for all of their support since the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. Before arriving in Middlebury last month to hold demonstrations at Stone Leaf Tea House and Middlebury College, he made an appearance at the San Francisco Tea Festival.
Uji, which is located in western Japan’s Kyoto prefecture, was not directly affected by the tsunami. But after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record — magnitude 9.0 — triggered the most devastating tsunami in Japanese history, Takada worked day in and day out for much of the past year to help thousands of people who were left homeless and without families.
Not all green tea is made alike
What’s the difference between Chinese green tea and Japanese green tea? The way in which oxidation is stopped.
First, it’s important to understand that what distinguishes green tea from black tea is the tea’s level of oxidation. Green tea is the least oxidized of all tea categories and black tea is the most oxidized. Oxidation occurs when we bite into an apple and it turns brown. The same thing happens to tea when its cellular structure is broken and exposed to oxygen.
All green teas remain green because oxidation is halted at an early stage — generally, several hours after the leaves are picked. Heating the leaves to the point where the oxidizing enzymes are deactivated stops this process.
The main difference between Chinese green teas and Japanese green teas is how this oxidation is halted.
In China, tealeaves are roasted using a range of different methods, where in Japan they’re steamed. Chinese green teas are often characterized by a roasted honey flavor, where Japanese green teas exhibit more of a bright oceanic or seaweed element.
Either way, both kinds of green teas and many other teas that come from the tea plant species — camellia sinensis — are packed full of carcinogen-fighting antioxidants that have been proven to help humans detoxify their bodies.
When a German friend of Takada’s reached out to him after the natural disaster, Takada initiated what he calls “phase one” of his aid project — emergency packages. Using funds raised by the friend — whom Takada knows through the Japanese martial art of kendo — Takada created packaged sets of necessities: bulk rice, clothes, medicines, various foods and other provisions. The rice was from his own fields and other supplies were gathered from stores across the country.
“Fortunately, I had a lot of stock at this time, so I sent a lot of rice,” he said.
To receive and allocate these packages, Takada had point people in the Japanese cities of Sendai and Ishinomaki, places that were hit especially hard by the tsunami.
Phase two of the project is what brought him to Middlebury — tea.
Using the world’s most widely consumed beverage — and a centerpiece of Japanese culture — Takada delivered foreign sentiments of hope to those in need of encouragement.
“After this donation from the kendo people, I started to make another donation (on behalf of) the many teashops in Europe and the United States,” said Takada, who ships tea to high-end tea shops around the world.
Takada sent thousands of small tea packets, containing Japanese green tea, to these teashops, among them Middlebury’s Stone Leaf Tea House. On each packet was a space to write a note. The packets of tea were, in effect, postcards for families in need to receive warm wishes and tea.
“Each card had messages in English, Italian, French and many other languages,” he said. “On the backside I explained the meaning behind the project and sent it up north.”
Customers at Stone Leaf and the other teahouses were urged to write their message to the Japanese affected by the earthquake and tsunami and send the packets back to Takada.
In total, more than 2,000 tea postcards reached earthquake victims, including more than 200 from Stone Leaf customers and friends. Takada funded this part of the project. It was not aimed at attracting big donations, he said, that just wasn’t the point.
“The people who live in the foreign countries wanted to do something for Japan. This way people are directly attached to people … no big donations will disappear to some place,” he said. “Tea is the bridge between countries.”
To many, a little packet of tea might not seem like much to victims of a natural disaster. But to a society like Japan’s, where the smallest of gestures can carry the weight of the world, this notion spoke loudly about the feelings of foreign nations for the Japanese people, said Takada.
The Japanese scholar Kakuzo Okakura addressed this in his 1906 classic, “The Book of Tea.”
“Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others,” he wrote.
DEVASTATION AND RECOVERY
On a sunny day in the Middlebury teahouse in mid-March, over a pot of steaming tea, Takada flipped through a slideshow, recounting the devastation that followed the tsunami.
He showed pictures of crushed cars and leveled houses in Ishinomaki.
“This is the worst city,” he said. “Everything was destroyed.”
He showed a picture of the kendo dojo in Sendai.
“Some of the people lost their houses, but they still continued their practice,” he said. “It makes their spirit strong. If they stop this practice, maybe they’d lose the power.”
When asked if the tea regions were harmed, he replied, “Not by earthquake damage — by nuclear damage.”
As is well known, the nuclear power reactors in Fukushima, Japan, lost electricity to power water pumps and some of the nuclear materials began to overheat and disperse radioactivity.
While Uji’s tea and western Japanese tea regions were left untouched by the radioactivity, higher levels of radiation were discovered in coastal tea regions along the east side of Japan, including parts of Shizuoka, the country’s largest tea producing region.
The devastation wrought by nuclear contamination from the crushed Fukushima Daiichi reactor has left a sour taste in the mouths of the Japanese. Only two of the country’s 54 reactors are currently operating, and the government is looking to renewable sources of energy for the future, said Takada.
One year later, Japan is still reeling. Much of the Northeast is rebuilding from scratch, and dealing with nuclear contamination on such a massive scale presents many difficulties. Takada said citizens are concerned that the government will try to store the waste from the nuclear reactors in their cities.
Recovery has also been slower than expected because the government must now carry out city planning with new challenges in mind. In many cities, the government will no longer permit residential development along the coast, said Takada.
For those families and people whose homes were destroyed, Takada said they’re living in government housing.
“Everybody is doing their best to recover,” he said. “For the people who lost it all, most people are living in just a simple house that was built by the government. But the conditions are not so good. They want their own houses.
“They are recovering step by step.”
Reporter Andrew Stein is at [email protected]
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Copyright 2011 Addison Independent | 58 Maple Street, Middlebury, Vt. 05753 | All Rights Reserved
Site Development by Surf New Media | <urn:uuid:b7294541-f968-4d44-a2db-8720f2d228f8> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://addisonindependent.com/201204tea-sends-message-hope | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464051342447.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524005542-00202-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961788 | 1,764 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Yummy Edible Frozen Excavation Sensory Play for Kids!
To make your own edible frozen excavation, you’ll need:
- berries or fruits, fresh or frozen
- ice cube tray
- a big freezer-safe container
- a freezer
- toy/child-friendly hammer, pliers, screwdriver, etc
Fruits maybe blueberries, black raspberries, or grapes. Add them to an ice cube tray partially filled with water and freeze them.
Can also use bigger freezer-safe container to make a giant block of “treasure” for them to uncover later. If you don’t have an ice cube tray handy, you could just make one or more bigger frozen fruit blocks.
The children tend to snack on as much of the fruit as they do “burying” them.
When the “treasures” are mostly frozen, add them to a cake pan to combine them all together.
You can put the cake pan with water in the freezer to get chilled for a little bit before adding the fruit. This method works really well for bigger containers. | <urn:uuid:f5b35486-c519-476a-a59b-bd56f5561375> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://momsandtots.co.za/frozen-excavation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038072082.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20210413031741-20210413061741-00493.warc.gz | en | 0.931712 | 234 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Chemists say that caesium is the most active metal in the world. The metal is used in spacecraft propellants and atomic clocks. The highly-reactive metal is also employed for radiation therapy of the cancer patients.
However, caesium is one of the most unpredictable metals as well given that it transforms itself and can wreak everything around it by exploding.
Caesium is one of the softest and the most reactive metals included in the periodic table. When exposed to open air, the metal ignites spontaneously. Even if caesium is dipped in water as cold as -116 degree Celsius ( -177 degree Fahrenheit), it will explode.
On top of it all, caesium does not occur abundantly in nature and thus, is even more expensive than gold. Caesium also transforms its shape and produces beautiful, metallic snowflakes as its temperature is varied.
You can see various experiments with Cesium tried by the YouTuber Thoisoi in the video below: | <urn:uuid:519a41c8-cb3a-4d4f-b156-cc86f7e479b7> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://wonderfulengineering.com/watch-the-most-active-metal-in-the-world-wreak-havoc-when-added-to-water/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189239.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00342-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952299 | 204 | 2.734375 | 3 |
- A very large bivalve mollusk that occurs in the tropical Indo-Pacific.
More example sentences
- Family Tridacnidae: several species, including Tridacna gigas, which is the largest living shelled mollusk
- The red-plumed tubeworms and giant clams were nowhere to be seen.
- The photograph below actually depicts a giant clam, Tridacna, from the south Pacific, but notice the pink encrusting material on the outsides of the shell.
- Whales, sea turtles, crocodiles, giant clams, manta rays, and dugongs also ply the peninsula's waters.
More definitions of giant clamDefinition of giant clam in:
- The British & World English dictionary | <urn:uuid:b3b597a3-5e9d-460b-ae19-ccb9a00250a9> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/giant-clam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999639602/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060719-00064-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891395 | 160 | 3.484375 | 3 |
If you are looking for an effective and affective SEL-based curriculum for your students to access remotely, in these days of school closure, look no further! Everyday Circles is 180 pre-planned activities and strategies that students can engage in to focus on
- social awareness
- relationship skills
- responsible decision-making
Peace Learning Center, HEART, and Tribes Learning Communities came together in 2018 to fill a need seen in classrooms, and especially now, in communities. Compassion, empathy, reflective practice, and academic skills all find a place in Everyday Circles through a thoughtful and engaging approach to learning skills students need to help them in school and beyond.
Many teachers and parents are looking for a resource to engage students and enhance online learning. https://tribes.com/everydaycircles/ offers you six activities to try for free, as well as an easy-to-download electronic version. | <urn:uuid:f3ac5339-14a8-4457-a735-921cb82fb2d8> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://peacelearningcenter.org/everyday-circles-easy-and-every-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662517018.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20220517063528-20220517093528-00248.warc.gz | en | 0.953909 | 200 | 2.875 | 3 |
By Nick Schneider
Aphanomyces root rot (Aphanomyces euteiches) has been identified as a significant alfalfa disease for over 20 years now. Alfalfa is known to be susceptible to numerous root diseases including Bacterial wilt, Fusarium wilt, Phytophthora root rot, Pythium, Verticillium wilt, and Aphanomyces. In Wisconsin, the two primary seedling blight/root rot diseases that can significantly impact alfalfa stand establishment are Aphanomyces and Phytophthora. Both diseases are caused by oomycetous fungi that are especially present in wet or poorly drained soils.
Aphanomyces has presented a particular challenge because there are at least two significant races that are detrimental to alfalfa. As a result, alfalfa needs to be screened for resistance to Aphanomyces Race 1 and Aphanomyces Race 2. Aphanomyces Race 2 is widespread with cases identified in Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Iowa, Kentucky, and Wisconsin (Malvick 1998). Race 2 is considered more virulent (Peters and Grau 2007). Recently, alfalfa genetics suppliers have been releasing new alfalfa varieties with Race 2 resistance which typically conveys resistance to Race 1.
How is Aphanomyces identified?
In new seedlings, symptoms often appear in the form of stunted, yellow plants with overall poor root development and few lateral roots. Infected seedlings develop yellow cotyledons and chlorotic first true leaves (Undersander et al. 2004). Aphanomyces root rot is distinguishable from pathogens such as Phytophthora and Pythium because these two diseases cause a more rapid wilting than Aphanomyces (Undersander 2007).
Seedling death is more commonly caused by Phytophthora than Aphanomyces. Roots and stems of Aphanomyces infected seedlings initially appear gray and water- soaked, and then turn brown. These seedlings will remain upright (Grau 1990). In established stands, Aphanomyces reduces yield due to poor root growth and less nodulation. Infected mature plants are slow growing in the spring after breaking winter dormancy and rebound slowly after harvests (Grau 1990). Stand longevity is reduced when this pathogen persist in established plants.
Currently two races of Aphanomyces are recognized. Race 1 is relatively widespread throughout alfalfa- producing regions in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Alfalfa varieties resistant to this variant of the pathogen became readily available to alfalfa producers in the 1990’s. Failures in the performance of Race 1-resistant breeding lines/varieties led to the discovery of Aphanomyces Race 2, and subsequent development of Race 2-resitant alfalfa varieties. While Race 2 was first found primarily in southwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota, in recent years, Race 2 has been reported elsewhere in Wisconsin. More disturbing are reports of failures of Race 2-resistant varieties, suggesting the existence of additional races.
The most accurate way to determine the presence of Aphanomyces Races is to submit soil samples to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic. Since soil bio-assay techniques are used, adequate time is required to process a sample: at least 30 days. Approximately one cup of soil should be gathered from 25 locations throughout a field and then combined for a total volume of at least 1 to 2 gallons. Samples should be collected from the upper 6 inches of the soil profile. If samples can not be immediately submitted to the UW Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic, then they should be kept cool or frozen until they can be delivered.
How common is Aphanomyces?
The UW Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic, in partnership with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, has been conducting a survey of Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota agricultural fields to determine which, if any, races of Aphanomyces are present in alfalfa production areas. The survey will eventually include samples from 300 fields. The survey also provides information on the presence or absence of Phytophthora in the sampled soils. The goal of the survey is to not only identify the distribution of Aphanomyces Race 1 and Race 2 in the region, but to also document and further study locations where Race 1 and Race 2 resistance fails. Over half of the projected 300 samples have currently been analyzed. Soil collection and testing will continue throughout 2008.
Preliminary results have shown a considerable prevalence of Aphanomyces Race 2 in the fields submitted. More than three times the number of soils have tested positive for Aphanomyces Race 2 than have tested positive for Aphanomyces Race 1. Race 2 positive soils have been detected in all regions of the state. The number of soils testing positive for Phytophthora is approximately equal to the number of samples that have tested positive for Aphanomyces Race 1.
The soil bio-assay used in this survey includes two different types of alfalfa that are resistant to Aphanomyces Race 2. The two breeding lines/varieties have been developed from different sources of resistance, and appear to be performing differently in some soils. This finding is of particular interest when considering the possibility of the existence of an additional race(s) of Aphanomyces in Wisconsin soils. Additionally, more than 1⁄3 of the soils tested have either shown poor growth across all breeding lines/varieties used in the assay, or a weakness in all resistant varieties in comparison with the standard susceptible variety.
This uniformly poor growth could indicate the presence of an unidentified race of Aphanomyces or presence of another currently unidentified pathogen.
In summary, initial results of the survey suggest a high frequency of Aphanomyces Race 2 in Wisconsin. There is currently no visible geographical pattern to the pathogen distribution, although this will be re-evaluated as additional soil samples are tested. Resistant varieties performed poorly in soils from several fields and these fields warrant follow-up and additional testing, as these fields may contain an additional race(s) of Aphanomyces or other pathogens of interest. As the survey and follow-up testing is completed, further information will be made available to the public.
What steps can I take to manage Aphanomyces?
- Scout and sample for Aphanomyces in alfalfa.
- If Aphanomyces is present, then select alfalfa varieties with resistance to the Race that is present. Selecting a variety with Race 2 resistance will typically protect against both Aphanomyces Races.
- If seedlings of varieties of Aphanomyces Race 1- and 2-resistance show seedling blight symptoms, submit a soil sample to the UW Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic.
- Review the annual Forage Variety Update for Wisconsin (A1525) to identify varieties with Aphanomyces Race 1 and Race 2 disease resistance ratings adequate for your farm (Undersander et al, 2006).
- Adopt land conservation practices that discourage standing water.
- In wet locations, either plant alfalfa varieties with high disease resistance ratings or consider planting a more suitable forage species. | <urn:uuid:a7d5b88f-7e71-4acf-afbc-1e225160981e> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.farms.com/news/aphanomyces-races-in-alfalfa-116855.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703511903.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20210117081748-20210117111748-00004.warc.gz | en | 0.919678 | 1,502 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Date & time: Tuesday, 13 October 2020 at 17:00 (Central European Summer Time)
- Justin Burton, Product Manager SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids
- Marie Planchard, Engineering & STEM Education Advocate, Dassault Systèmes
Description: Teachers and parents need creative ways to engage their students in fun, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) activities and learning. SOLIDWORKS® Apps for Kids introduces children from ages 4 to 14 to the excitement of imagining and designing their own creations.
SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids is a free of charge resource that inspires young thinkers and gives them the tools to turn their wildest creations into reality. A web-based collection of apps, available for tablets and other mobile devices, such as Shape It, Style It, Mech It, Capture It, Show it and Print It, allows children to get inspired about design in a fun, exciting way and then share their ideas with others.
For the Educators:
Using the Apps for Kids Classroom interface, educators can create and organize self-contained workshops/lessons in an exciting and easy-to-use environment. Educators who sign up for Apps for Kids Classroom have taken advantage of these invaluable features:
- Invite other teachers to your organization
- Easily set up and manage student accounts
- Share content directly with a class of students
- Fun and diverse lesson plans that are based on current curriculum standards
- Lesson plans specifically designed for different age groups
- A secure and private environment for students and educators to collaborate
What participants learned in this webinar:
Marie, a public engineering educator for over 10 years, provided examples of STEM competencies in Apps for Kids and how educators have used these apps in and out of their classroom.
Justin developed and designed two examples, the key chain for an individual student and the bridge, a team project for multiple students to design and collaborate.
Call to Action: Register for free - Apps for Kids Classroom www.solidworks.com/a4kclassroom
Learn More About Apps for Kids Classroom: www.solidworks.com/a4kclassroomweb
Educator Example: Teacher Jackie Tan, South Tahoe Middle School, Nevada USA, Blog.
STEM Alliance http://www.stemalliance.eu
The STEM Alliance brings together Industries, European Ministries of Education and education stakeholders to promote STEM (Science [Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology], Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and careers to young Europeans and address anticipated future skills gaps within the European Union. | <urn:uuid:be7ab5dc-2618-4dfa-9571-a216b32c010b> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | http://www.stemalliance.eu/it/webinar-dassault-systemes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618039610090.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20210422130245-20210422160245-00003.warc.gz | en | 0.892782 | 535 | 3.125 | 3 |
St Lucia celebrated National day on December 13 with its traditional Festival of Lights. As the name suggests, the focus is on cultural presentations using the light imagery. This year’s theme was “Illuminating our achievements—Our Vision.” A large crowd filled Derek Walcott Square in Castries to hear the Cecilian Rays sing. Other performers included the Culture Flames, AVAD Dance group, Helen Folk Dancers (pictured above), Llewellyn Gill, Hubert “Breeze” Fevriere and Mamai La Caye, Ziggy, Blaze, Platinum George and Lightening Stars Dance Troupe. The performances were followed by a spectacular light display and the much anticipated lantern parade.
The festival honors the island’s namesake. Saint Lucy, also known as Saint Lucia, (283-304), a wealthy young Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint by Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians. Her feast day in the West is 13 December, by the unreformed Julian calendar the longest night of the year; with a name derived from lux, lucis “light,” she is the Patron Saint of the blind.
For a fuller report, plus photographs, go to http://stluciastar.com/content/archives/9490 | <urn:uuid:3da3e40a-034f-4e98-8f17-7fe4f293ee46> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://repeatingislands.com/2009/12/19/st-lucia-celebrates-festival-of-lights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178376006.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20210307013626-20210307043626-00011.warc.gz | en | 0.923319 | 271 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Tuesday, April 27, 1999 Published at 16:39 GMT 17:39 UK
New rules to save water
New regulations to curb water usage
The design of washing machines and toilets in England and Wales will have to be changed under new laws aimed at cutting water consumption and improving its quality.
Environment Minister Michael Meacher unveiled the water-saving initiative on Tuesday. It includes:
Water companies will receive official notification of the new rules governing products which use high volumes of water - but it will be up to individual firms to decide whether to make metering a condition of having a power shower.
The increased demand for water has heightened the risk to wild life and the environment. Increasing water extraction from rivers has often been disastrous for wetland habitats vital for birds, animals, insects and plants.
Fears that water-saving reduced-flush toilets might pose a health risk were discounted by UK Water Chief Executive, Pamela Taylor.
"We are [now] satisfied that today's toilet designs using lower volumes of water do not jeopardise health or hygiene," she said.
The regulations come into force on 1 July. Similar legislation is expected in Scotland.
The changes are intended to conserve precious supplies. Metering in some areas could lead to lower bills for consumers if toilets, washing machines and dishwashers use less water.
The new safeguards will also tighten up the protection of water supplies, preventing contamination of the main supply by the backflow from industrial and domestic users.
Michael Meacher said: "The water regulations will not only protect our water supplies from contamination and misuse, but they will also ensure the conservation of water in both the short and long term.
"They show that we can both regulate and encourage innovation, by taking a less prescriptive approach."
UK Politics Contents
A-Z of Parliament | <urn:uuid:1bde8cc4-8d03-4d79-ba21-660aaf9e01dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/329695.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738662159.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173742-00092-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944644 | 369 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Pickleball is a racquet sport that was originally designed as a cross between tennis and badminton. The game was invented by Joel Pritchard in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
While indoor and outdoor pickleball can be played on the same court, they do differ in some ways. Indoor balls are usually lighter and less bouncy than their outdoor counterparts. These balls also have a different bounce pattern and flight trajectory. Outdoor balls are heavier and higher bounce than their indoor counterparts.
Pickleball is played with different types of indoor vs outdoor balls, pickleballs are often made to look like whiffle balls and their holes make them much lighter than the average volleyball.
The USAPA grants different specifications for the ball that is appropriate for indoor vs outdoor play. The differences include size, weight, bounce, hardness and number of holes. There is a wiggle room granted in these specifications to tailor the ball to various types of playing areas
Pickleball ball colors are all over the map, so you’re certain to find one you like. Yellow, orange and bright green are some of the most popular color balls.
Made from harder plastic
More heavy and less effected with wind
Smaller but more holes around 40
Allow for harder hitting
Will be harder in the cold, softer in the heat
Requires frequent replacement because of bounce on rough surface.
This ball is specifically designed for indoor court surfaces where the air is still.
Larger yet fewer holes about 26
Around 0.8 ounces weight
Goes soft on more usage
It’s prudent to always keep a spare ball ready for when you might lose one. Balls can get out of round and crack sometimes and it is wise to have backup of the same type/color of the ball.
Even though outdoor pickleball sets have a longer lifespan, they do wear and tear over time. When the ball becomes defective, if will either crack or loose round surface.
Indoor pickleballs on the other hand can become soft with more play and may need to be replaced.
Read review of best pickleballs. | <urn:uuid:8d23fc71-1860-42d2-9cae-e6257fbc5e88> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://recroompick.com/difference-indoor-outdoor-pickleballs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499700.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20230129044527-20230129074527-00176.warc.gz | en | 0.956902 | 467 | 2.71875 | 3 |
A filter is a type of screen that allows liquids or air to pass through while trapping sold, unwanted substances:
- An air filter removes dirt in the air as it goes through a machine.
- A gas filter in your car traps impurities found in gasoline.
- A coffee filter is used in a coffee maker. The filter allows water to pass through the coffee grounds.
- I have to change the furnace filter in my house every few months because it gets dirty.
- A vaccum cleaner has a filter that traps very small particles of dirt and dust.
- Saltwater must go through a filtration process in order to separate the salt from the water. (The word "filtration" is also a noun.)
These are coffee filters.
It's possible to use "filter" as a verb. In this case, it's in reference to the screening or selection of people or things.
- Applicants for jobs are filtered through the interview process.
- The media act as a filter for stories that are fake.
- Football tryouts filter out the players who aren't good enough to make the team.
- Immigrants who enter the United States are filtered though Homeland Security which checks people for criminal backgrounds.
Click here to learn more vocabulary.
Date of publication: December 8, 2016 | <urn:uuid:67b9d6b2-dcf5-4d23-a789-1984759feda3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://learnamericanenglishonline.com/Word%20of%20the%20Day/2016/December/filter.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280425.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00019-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951785 | 271 | 3.21875 | 3 |
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Transcript of Middle ages
Late Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
First barbarian kingdoms. 5th - 9th centuries.
First european nations
Great extensions of land granted to a vassal in return for military service.
These were the territories that once were part of the Western Roman Empire.
Land for agriculture, forest, hunting, villages, churches, lakes, etc.
Vassalage. Lords and vassals.
King on top of the hierarchy?
The main activity was agriculture. the base for subsistance during the feudalism.
Trade was minimal.
Fishing and cattle raising were complementary activities.
Production of goods was minimal and only used to satisfy everyday needs.
Hierarchichal society that wouldn´t allow movility.
Lords and Clergy
Knights and noblemen
System of life-long relationships in which warriors swore an oath of loyalty to their leader. They fought for their chief, and he in turn took care of their needs. By the eight century, an individual who served a lord in a military capacity was known as a vassal.
Serfs were loyal to their lords as well, and they received protection, food and shelter (which were produced by their own work)
Minimal authority from the king.
Real power was hold by the different lords, and the king had practically none intervention in regular people´s lives.
Knowledge, science and philosophy belongs to the Church.
Only members of the church and some male nobles were allowed to study.
Monasteries were the "temples of knowledge".
Manuscripts were written there.
Libraries were there.
Overpopulation of fiefs.
Stability in Europe.
Obsolescence of vassallage.
Revival of trade.
Better techniques for agriculture.
Boroughs or burghs
The growth of cities diversify jobs: craftspeople and artisans.
Circulation of money!
Surplus! (you will use this in Economics.)
Fairs for trade. New land and sea trade routes.
Commercial capitalism. (CENEVAL TOPIC)
Guilds. Masters, apprentices.
Expansion of cultivable or arable land.
They cut trees!
Use of iron
Heavy wheeled plow (carruca)
Power of water and wind (Mills)
Three field system of crop rotation.
Development of a new urban and rural social hierarchy
Knights and clergy
Peasants (free) and
Nobles and lh
Rich merchants, masters, craftsmen and professionists.
Small merchants, artisans, apprentices , etc.
Monarchies become stronger.
Kings establish strategic alliances with the church and with merchants.
This is the beginning of the nation-states.
Universities!!!!!! in the most important cities of Europe.
They are directed by the Church.
Exclusively for upper classes.
Curiosity for sciences and critical thinking emerge.
Arts, Law, Medicine and Theology.
War! which one? (waaaaaaaaaaaar)
Decline of the church: the Great Schism. | <urn:uuid:edc184b5-3176-404c-ab76-cc9633e0e04c> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://prezi.com/vddmngswlsor/middle-ages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689775.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170923175524-20170923195524-00506.warc.gz | en | 0.927911 | 797 | 2.75 | 3 |
Article written by Teona Lavrelashvili, Schuman Fellow in the European Parliament, Visiting professor in Georgia
In democratic political systems political parties are traditionally considered as indispensable part of the political process. It is conventional wisdom that in such systems political parties articulate interests of various social groups, and aim at reaching power in order to ensure that those demands stemming from people are fulfilled, by enacting policies that reflect their values, ideology, political agenda, and vision. It is further argued that in a democracy any segmental interests of society can be reflected, expressed and promoted through political pluralism, while political parties serve as main instruments for this.
However, along with creation of political parties as an institute, there emerged opinions that alternative organisation and expression of public preferences within a democratic political system is not just possible, but maybe even preferable. Recent political developments in many Western societies clearly challenge the existing political patterns and question the legitimacy of political parties as dominant political institutes.
First of all it is a fact that electoral participation is dwindling as less and less people express their willingness to participate in party politics or support any parties. When polls reveal the total percentage of the electoral participation that rarely exceeds 50% or 60% in the best cases, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify the decision-making by the elected politicians in the name of democracy, as the core principle of democracy – legitimacy through representation – is violated. Roughly said, elected politicians may represent just a half of adult citizens whereas another half remains underrepresented.
The reason for decreasing political participation varies across cultures and countries, however, two tendencies might be singled out. First, increasing numbers of citizens become frustrated and cynical toward the political process considering most politicians to be corrupt while their narratives as populist lies – as frequent political scandals, easily and quickly spread around by electronic and social media strengthen such perceptions;
Second, as societies and communities get more complex and multifaceted, while citizens become more individualistic and self-sufficient with increasingly diverse interests and needs, the population gets progressively de-aligned from general political values, party agendas, rhetorics and ideologies that look excessively rigid and alien, but also so similar to one another. Voters, if they even decide to vote, choose to support those political parties, which would serve their current and short-term individual interests in a better way. Such political consumerism prompts political parties to adjust their behaviours and rhetoric vis-à-vis new and diverse demands from non-homogenous societies, and in an attempt to pragmatically redefine their ideological stances, ideological difference among traditional parties (along the left-right spectrum) becomes even thinner and focus on a range of issues that blur the traditional ideological definitions, while these differences move to more concrete matters such as specific foreign, environmental or taxation policies. Such ideological rapprochement and blurring does not seem to be a good solution for reviving the popularity of party politics, because the level of citizens political participation remains low.
While it is believed that citizens’ political participation contributes to the quality of democracy and legitimises the government, underrepresented individuals may choose some other ways of expressing themselves, which may promote political passivity and indifference, but may also nourish radicalism, xenophobia, asocial behaviour, or even terrorism.
While political parties have undergone modest real change throughout decades, technological progress makes the old search for non-party political alternatives increasingly realistic: on one hand making it easier to turn individual political participation such as voting a simple procedure by introducing opportunities for distance voting through internet or other means; on the other hand, new opportunities are offered by internet-based social networks to self-organise and mobilise public support by groups of individuals around certain issues and policies without the need to get involved in party politics.
Currently, such issue-based self-organisation is mostly used for campaigning, e.g. organising mass protests or crowdfunding for some initiatives. However, one may expect increasing institutionalisation of interaction between such ad-hoc and issue-based self-organised groups and campaigns with existing political structures, such as political parties.
As political parties appear to be rigid and sometimes even obsolete institutions, non-party political activism is expected to get increasingly integrated into the political process ensuring wider public participation and therefore more legitimacy to respective political decision-making in some areas, reviving the ancient tradition of agora and direct democracy.
Ongoing technological progress emerged not only as facilitating factor of these types of initiatives to be possible, but also is a pushing factor for these changes. Technological tools are also available, but what is needed is a new political philosophy that would expand and enrich the currently existing range of political instruments for democratic procedures and decision-making.
However, the challenge is also clear as direct democracy realised in primitive form of permanent referendum may involve public participation in making decisions in areas where professional knowledge and skills may be needed, or are simply necessary – the problem resolved in representational democracy by professionalising politics and governance. Therefore, non-party politics should by no means replace representational democracy, but it should rather refine the system of voting not simply based on party affiliation but rather on the profile of competence and opinions with regards to certain ranges of policy issues. Again, such approach may mean the weakening position of the proportional voting system and replacing it by majoritarian electoral systems, which possess well-known deficiencies too. It is early to think of any concrete solution to existing challenges, but one thing is clear – current trends prompt political scientists to look for the ways as to how optimise the mechanism of, on one hand institutionalising the interaction of ad-hoc groups with existing political institutions, and on the other – how to design political procedures so as to enable stronger presence of non-party representational politics, at the same time avoiding the deficiencies and dangers of over-relying on direct democracy approaches facilitated by technological progress.
Ideologised politics should empty some more room for the issue-based politics, which means both functional as well as institutional changes: political parties should deal in real time with the issues emerging in the society; while they should also give up monopoly over political process and provide the issue-based ad hoc associations of citizens more opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. Democratic pluralism may be interpreted as not just providing choice in political actors, but also choosing the nature of such actors and the mechanism of exercising political power. By admitting that political parties should not be the only game in town any more, democratic governance may become more functional for the service of citizens. | <urn:uuid:862b4d01-04a1-4196-a060-66ca256c700b> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://europeanpost.co/party-politics-should-not-be-the-only-game-in-town/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247499009.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20190221031117-20190221053117-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.952755 | 1,323 | 3.21875 | 3 |
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People are 10 times more likely to develop a CVST blood clot after catching Covid than after getting a vaccine, an Oxford study has found.
But researchers say the risk is significantly higher after coronavirus than it is after any of the Covid jabs.
The benefits of getting vaccinated are far higher than the risks, they insist, because the chance of getting a clot is still vanishingly rare and mass vaccination will protect millions of people – both those who get the jabs and the people around them.
Scientists at Oxford University studied data from the US to work out how often people were diagnosed with CVST after testing positive for coronavirus.
They estimated the rate was 39 cases per million people – 0.0039 per cent, or one in every 25,641.
The rate for people who had Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccine was about four in a million – 0.00039 per cent or one in 250,000.
And, based on European data but not this study, they added that the risk after AstraZeneca appeared to be five in a million – 0.0005 per cent or one in 200,000.
‘The key message is that the risk of this particular event is actually much lower than if you get Covid or someone else gets Covid,’ said Dr John Geddes of the university’s biomedical research centre.
The Oxford study’s calculations suggested the rate of CVST is 39 in a million among people who have tested positive for Covid-19, compared to between four and five per million after vaccination
The risk of portal vein thrombosis, a type of blood clot in the liver, was also significantly higher after Covid-19 than after vaccination, the data suggested
Experts say the risks of not getting vaccinated against Covid are far greater than any risk of having the jab (Pictured: A man being vaccinated in London yesterday, April 14)
The study looked at the risk of developing a CVST clot within two weeks of either being diagnosed with Covid or the flu, or taking the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
It involved records from 500,000 people, most of them in the US.
No new data were collected about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the main one concerning drug regulators, because it isn’t used in the US. The purpose of the study was to work out the risk of CVST after Covid, which isn’t well understood.
The study found that the rates of the clots in people who had caught Covid were significantly higher than in people who had been vaccinated.
Pfizer or Moderna’s jabs, which are based on the same synthetic mRNA technology, had a rate 10 times lower than in the Covid patients.
And European Medicines Agency data suggests the risk for AstraZeneca’s jab, which contains a live cold virus, was eight times lower.
WHAT IS CVST?
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an extremely rare type of blood clot in the brain.
It may also be abbreviated to CSVT or just CVT – they are all basically the same.
It occurs when the vein that drains blood from the brain is blocked by a blood clot, resulting in potentially deadly bleeding or a stroke.
Symptoms can quickly deteriorate from a headache, blurred vision and faintness to complete loss of control over movement and seizures.
John Hopkins University estimates it affects five in a million people in the US every year, which would suggest 330 patients in Britain suffer from the condition annually.
According to the university, it can affect patients with low blood pressure, cancer, vascular diseases and those prone to blood clotting. Head injuries can also trigger the condition.
Britain’s regulator said CSVT is so rare they aren’t even sure how common it is in the general population.
CVST is a condition in which a clot develops in a vein leading out of the brain, which can cause a stroke.
Drug regulators are particularly worried about this condition developing alongside a reduction in blood platelets, but the researchers didn’t have detailed enough data to study this specifically.
Professor Paul Harrison, a psychiatrist and one of the researchers on the study, said: ‘We’ve reached two important conclusions. Firstly, Covid-19 markedly increases the risk of CVT, adding to the list of blood clotting problems this infection causes.
‘Secondly, the Covid-19 risk is higher than see with the current vaccines, even for those under 30; something that should be taken into account when considering the balances between risks and benefits for vaccination.’
Britain’s medicines chiefs decided not to give the AstraZeneca jab to under-30s any more because they weren’t sure that their Covid risk was significantly higher than their risk from the vaccine.
But this study found that younger age groups were still far worse affected after Covid-19.
In total 30 per cent of the CVST cases were found in people younger than 30.
This suggests that even if vaccines do increase the risk of CVST in younger people – as experts suspect – Covid-19 increases it more.
Dr Max Taquet said in a briefing: ‘My best guess is that age is not going to have an impact. CVT occurs across the age range. There’s not more cases of CVT in younger patients.’
The team said they had sent the data to Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, but added: ‘It’s not our job to make policy or change it’.
On whether the potential risk of getting a vaccine was worth it for people living in areas with low Covid rates, the researchers insisted jabs were the top priority.
Dr Taquet said: ‘You might live in an area with no Covid cases, so you might think you don’t need the vaccine, but to keep it at zero you need people to take the vaccine.’
Professor Harrison added: ‘All the evidence we have is that the risks of Covid are very much greater than anything [linked to the vaccine].
‘You might think you’re not going to catch it but anyone can get it.’
The study is published online but has not yet been reviewed by a journal. | <urn:uuid:31fa4d05-85ed-4bbb-9c17-f9054f89f092> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://trendswide.com/coronavirus-study-finds-cvst-blood-clot-risk-is-10-times-higher-after-covid-than-after-vaccination/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335350.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929100506-20220929130506-00391.warc.gz | en | 0.967307 | 1,352 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Image copyright Christian Aid/Leah Gordon
This original sculpture by a group of Haitian artists represents their continuing struggle for freedom and human rights. The sculpture was commissioned by international development charity Christian Aid and National Museums Liverpool to mark 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007.
The Freedom! sculpture, made out of recycled objects such as metal car parts and raw junk found in the dangerous slums of the capital, Port-au-Prince, was created by young Haitians and sculptors Eugène, Céleur and Guyodo from Atis Rezistans in collaboration with Mario Benjamin, an internationally renowned Haitian artist who has represented his country at Biennials in Venice, São Paulo and Johannesburg.
Freedom and slavery in Haiti
Despite the fact that Parliament abolished the slave trade in the UK 200 years ago, global inequalities still exist today. It is no longer legal for people to be traded as commodities. But millions of people in places like Haiti, are still forced by poverty to work in unhealthy, dangerous – even life-threatening – conditions.
Haiti became the first black republic as a result of the first successful slave revolt. Today, however, because of unfair terms of trade and hefty international debt repayments, Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere with 82 per cent of the rural population living below the poverty line according to the UN and 70 per cent of the population is unemployed.
Unfair terms of global trade make it impossible for local farmers to compete with food imports from richer countries. Haiti is a stark example of this kind of economic injustice, which makes many thousands of people flood into the cities to find jobs. But few find work and with no source of income many succumb to the temptation to use guns as a means of survival.
To incorporate a sense of what freedom and slavery means to people in Haiti today, the artists held workshops with young people benefiting from the work of APROSIFA, a Christian Aid-supported organisation in Haiti set up to provide basic education, run health clinics and work towards an end to gang fighting.
Ronald Cadet, one of the young collaborators said:
"People don’t have chains on their arms and legs now, but people still have chains in their minds. When you have problems getting enough food, housing and education, you are not living in a free country."
But, he said, working on this project made him see there was hope and "strength in being united."
Rose Anne Auguste, the founder of APROSIFA, said:
"When you live in shanty towns you can feel like you have no right to culture. It is sad that Mario Benjamin had to teach these kids to visit museums. Their parents are too busy surviving to take them to museums."
Mario Benjamin, in the role of artistic director for the Freedom! sculpture said:
"For me, it was very important to show that slavery has always been part of civilisation. My ambition was that we would create something that is quite universal, that is about suffering, hoping, fighting, what humanity has been about all the time."
UK tour in 2007 to mark the abolition bicentenary
The sculpture was first displayed at the Merseyside Maritime Museum from 26 February to 18 March 2007, before embarking on a UK tour to Stratford Circus Arts Centre in London, The Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Bristol and The Eden Project, Cornwall. It became a permanent exhibit in the International Slavery Museum when the venue opened on 23 August 2007. This is an appropriate date as it is Slavery Remembrance Day, the day which commemorates the anniversary of the uprising of enslaved Africans in Haiti in 1791. | <urn:uuid:5b6878d4-e534-4bc0-b277-573a42c73634> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/collections/freedom_sculpture/index.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644059455.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025419-00047-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960023 | 751 | 3 | 3 |
"She was illumined, and a Muse was born . . ."
WHEN WE THINK OF LOVE SONNETS, most of us think of the sappy ooze of lyricists or the flavorless mush in greeting cards. But when they were first written in the 14th century, their intent was much different.
It all began with Francesco Petrarch in 1304. Like his predecessor Dante, Petrarch was a devout Catholic. He too was exiled from Italy with his family due to civil unrest. Once in France, Petrarch’s father had a successful law practice, and the family prospered, so much so that he arranged the best education money could buy at the time—private tutors. By age 16, Petrarch dutifully followed in his father’s footsteps and studied law first at Montpelier then at Bologna.
Legend tells that since his father was supplying an allowance to Petrarch, he often made surprise visits at university. One such afternoon, Petrarch was quietly reading a book in his rented room when his father suddenly arrived. Enraged at the number of books Petrarch had purchased with his allowance, he promptly threw them out of the window and into the street below.
Now throwing around books at this time was no light matter. Before the printing press, many books were hand-copied and sewn together at great cost. If the story is indeed true, Petrarch likely spent a month’s allowance on one book alone. His personal library held copies of Homer’s Iliad, Cicero's Rhetoric, as well as Virgil’s Aeneid, all of which he loved dearly. Meanwhile, his father set fire to the small stash in the middle of the street. Any passerby would know the value of that fire, and naturally disheartened, within a few months Petrarch quit law school and promptly announced he was going to be a writer and poet and take his ecclesiastical orders. Some biographers say that his father died before he could quit; others that Petrarch was simply dissatisfied with the untruthfulness of the law as a whole.
Petrarch did pursue his minor orders and began to write, and this is where the sonnet as a form was born. The story he tells lies in Sonnet 3. He was in Avignon at service on Good Friday in 1327, "the day the sun's ray had turned pale," a day of “universal woe,” when a light from the cathedral window shone on a woman rows in front of him. It was Laura de Sade, who was already wed or soon to be by most accounts. She was illumined, and a Muse was born. They likely never met or spoke from that moment, but Petrarch wrote hundreds of sonnets about her and to her.
The thing is Petrarch was not some obsessive stalker, but a man instead who knew love in a different way. That God revealed her to him on Good Friday was everything. For him, Petrarch's unrequited love for Laura was about directing his soul, "From her to you comes loving thought that leads, as long as you pursue, to highest good . . ." (Sonnet 13).
for the complete article, please see Petrarch's Love Sonnets at The Imaginative Conservative. | <urn:uuid:17acb2c1-07cf-45bf-8935-061c530db45a> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://www.christinenorvell.com/blog/the-sonnets-upon-us-part-i | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039745800.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20181119150816-20181119172816-00178.warc.gz | en | 0.992569 | 693 | 3.5 | 4 |
Warming seas create a massive chemistry experiment
Rising acidity in oceans and accelerating wind patterns may lead to unexpected changes.
Global warming of the sea is affecting the atmosphere and ocean in subtle ways, adding a new dimension to the concept of global change.
As carbon dioxide accumulates in the air, more of it dissolves into the sea. This gradually increases sea-water acidity. Biologists have been concerned about what this could do to corals and other animals that have adapted to live in fairly constant marine conditions. Now scientists also have to take account of changes to seawater chemistry.
Keith Hester and colleagues, who are exploring ocean acidity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing, Calif., explained this new perspective earlier this month in Geophysical Research Letters.
"The waters of the upper ocean are now undergoing an extraordinary transition in their fundamental chemical state at a rate not seen on Earth for millions of years, and the effects are being felt not only in biological impacts but also on basic geophysical properties, including acoustics," they note.
Seawater chemistry affects how water absorbs sound. It's a poorly understood process in which a variety of chemical interactions determines how molecules absorb sound at specific frequencies. Increasing seawater acidity favors transmission of low- to mid-frequency sound. Marine mammals rely on sound in this range to communicate and to find food and mates.
According to the MBARI announcement, its research team estimates "that sound already may travel 10 percent farther in the oceans than it did a few hundred years ago." The team projects that by midcentury, sound may travel as much as 70 percent farther than it does today.
It's unknown how this might affect the behavior of marine mammals. But this research, as the announcement points out, "shows once again how human activities [such as CO2 pollution] are affecting Earth in far-reaching and unexpected ways."
You can say that about the reach of sea surface warming into the tropical stratosphere, an atmospheric layer that begins seven to 10 miles above ground and extends to approximately 30 miles. Circulation of air and moisture that rises in the tropics into the stratosphere spreads out and then sinks back down in higher latitudes. This wind pattern, a basic aspect of our climate system, is called the Brewer-Dobson circulation. Global warming is apparently changing this pattern in ways not fully understood. In a research review in Science two weeks ago, Rudolf Deckert and Martin Dameris at Germany's Institute for Atmospheric Physics note that this basic circulation seems to be accelerating.
This development would not only change key physical aspects of atmospheric circulation, it could also redistribute and otherwise change the chemical composition of the air from the stratosphere down to the ground.
"[The] Brewer-Dobson circulation is likely to intensify in a future climate with higher SSTs [sea surface temperatures], with implications not only for the chemical composition and climate of the stratosphere but also at Earth's surface," the review authors explain.
It seems that CO2 pollution is not only an inadvertent climate experiment, it's also the biggest chemistry experiment we've ever run. | <urn:uuid:60efabb1-f4fe-4ee0-9e69-75205f06304b> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Tech/2008/1016/warming-seas-create-a-massive-chemistry-experiment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119645920.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030045-00233-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935863 | 648 | 3.796875 | 4 |
How long do they live? Like most tortoises, there’s no direct answer. Some have lived in captivity for up to 127 years and a few articles mention evidence of one being 200 years old, but I could not track down a source for this claim.
Where are they found at? The spur-thighed tortoise can be found from West Asia, North Africa, to the Mediterranean . See Figure 1.
What do they look like? A lot like a tortoise with spurs on its thighs. They grow to be around 5 to 8 inches long and similar to all tortoise species they are heart melting adorable. See Figures 2, 3 and 4.
What do they eat? They are herbivores (vegetarians) that seem to prefer munching on flowers, but the random snail or insect may get eaten accidentally.
How do scientists know how old they are? They must know the date of hatching since growth rings are not all that reliable. In other words, you may see one in the wild that is 120 years old, but there’s no way to really know.
How do they reproduce? By sexual reproduction between a male and female. The female can lay multiple clutches of eggs with only one mating, but sexual maturity ages for male and females are unknown .
So what are we lacking? When do these long-lived tortoises reach sexual maturity or stop reproducing (if they stop)? No nuclear genome information is on NCBI, but the complete mitochondrial genome is available here.
Conservation status: Vulnerable . Major threats being us and our contribution to habitat destruction. Oh and folks removing them from the wild to sell as pets, which is illegal and an awful practice, so stop it people.
Please contact me if you any information about how these adorable creatures avoid the sands of time. Also, any information about their genome would be greatly appreciated.
- Encyclopedia of Life. Mediterranean Spur-Thighed Tortoise. http://eol.org/pages/1055221/details. Accessed 9/17/2016.
- The IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/21646/1. Accessed 9/17/2016.
- The Tortoise Trust. http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/kandb.htm. Accessed 9/17/2016. | <urn:uuid:940a562d-9ab2-46c1-abc6-db232bd0f952> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.clarecanfield.com/testudo-graeca/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608107.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20170525155936-20170525175936-00138.warc.gz | en | 0.911603 | 498 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Have you heard that doctors now recommend that African-Americans begin screening for colon cancer age 45, which is 5 years earlier than the recommended age for other populations? On average, African-Americans are diagnosed with colon cancer at a younger age.
In observance of Colon Cancer Awareness Month, Capital Digestive Care is launching a new microsite to spread the word about the urgent threat of colorectal cancer in the African-American community. ACancerTooCommon.com, links readers to up-to-date infographics, videos, resources and personal stories about colorectal cancer prevention and African-Americans.
Here are some quick facts from ACancerTooCommon.com:
- African-Americans have a 20% higher chance of being diagnosed with colon cancer.
- African-Americans are more likely than other groups to die from colon cancer.
- Colon Cancer is the third most common cancer among African-American men and women.
- When screened properly, colon cancer is 90% preventable.
This isn’t the first time that Capital Digestive Care has been active in the lives Washington metropolitan area residents through programs designed to improve health and awareness. We recently partnered with Cigna and University of Maryland’s School of Public Health Equity for the HAIR (Health In-Reach and Research) initiative to reach out to African-Americans through barbers and hairdressers who were trained to talk to their clients about the delicate issues of colon cancer and colonoscopies. For more information, download our Colon Cancer Screening and Prevention fact sheet. Click here to find a gastroenterologist in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. | <urn:uuid:c730aef3-59df-4381-a186-ef170b4df0bc> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.capitaldigestivecare.com/news-resources/news/african-americans-colon-cancer-a-cancer-too-common | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146186.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226023658-20200226053658-00361.warc.gz | en | 0.933975 | 339 | 2.609375 | 3 |
When it comes to software, database systems are beneficial in many ways. They offer us to keep our data organized and a fast way to access them. However as the number of components in a software project increases, it gets harder to preserve the organized structure. In situations like this, visualizing the scheme helps to understand the structure and the relations between the tables.
PostgreSQL Autodoc provides simple tools for description of the PostgreSQL databases in various formats such as HTML, DocBook, Dia and GraphViz. Although I do not have a complicated database scheme in my GSoC project, visualization shortened the time spent creating mock-ups. In order to generate a graphic in PNG format, first we need to install PostgreSQL Autodoc:
yum install postgresql_autodoc
Then we create a GraphViz compatible description of our database:
postgresql_autodoc -t dot -h hostname -u username -d databasename --password
Finally using the dot utility from GraphViz, we can export a PNG image:
dot -Tpng databasename.dot -o image.png | <urn:uuid:a295088b-4e6a-4583-9fb8-52a98fddbe4d> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | http://www.onurguzel.com/graphical-visualization-of-databases-with-postgresql-autodoc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027318952.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20190823172507-20190823194507-00099.warc.gz | en | 0.817911 | 236 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Monday, June 16, 2014 Sivan 18, 5774
by Frieda R. F. Horwitz
There has not been a steady continuous status quo on the Mount since the Israeli victory in June 1967. Rather, there been a continuous erosion of Jewish presence and rights of the said status quo, aided and mistakenly abetted by the Chief Rabbinate and Israeli police in their quest to maintain what they define as religious behavior and public order
Many articles have recently been written about tension on the Temple Mount, highlighting Muslim youth rioting, and disputes over sovereignty. Innumerable other articles from other Israeli and foreign journalists have also been written about changes being demanded in the “so-called” status quo” from Jews wishing to pray on the Temple Mount. Pepe Alalu was recently quoted to say that “this is about Jewish provocateurs who go to the site solely to incite conflict”. Since when does choosing to pray on the Mount – the focus of Jewish prayers for 2000 years -amount to a provocation?
The issues seem to revolve around four major points:
1. What is the status quo on the Temple Mount since June 1967 and unto this day? Has it been static or has it changed on both sides?
2. Is the entire Temple Mount part of the so-called status quo – or only the Dome of the Rock and al-Aksa Mosque, built in the early 8th century?
3. Is Jewish prayer, Jewish religious dress and group visits a fundamental right of religious expression in Israeli democracy –or a “provocation”, as too many public figures have inexplicably called it?
4. Unusual police behavior and attitudes towards religious Jews on the Mount.
The so-called status quo:
In 1967, soon after the Israeli victory in the Six Day War, Minister of Defense Gen Moshe Dayan, gave back the keys to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa to Jordanian Wakf leaders as custodians to those sites. But those two buildings are not equivalent to the entire Temple Mount – and making that equation has led to extremely diminished Jewish religious rights over the years.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1967, and reiterated since then, that Jewish groups and individuals indeed had the right to pray on the Mount, but subject to police determination of “public order needs”. Thus the Jerusalem police commander, who may or may not have any Jewish religious knowledge, has become the daily arbiter of permitted Jewish behaviors and procedures on the Temple Mount, the holiest place in Jewish culture and civilization for more than 2,000 years since the destruction of the Holy Temple in 70 CE.
The Chief Rabbinate in 1967 then announced its policy to forbid Jewish presence on the Mount, given that the exact location of the Holy Temple is unknown. They preferred that no one go on the Mount and possibly traipse on holy ground. A prominent plaque is on display at the entrance to the Mount, vociferously discouraging Jewish presence on the Mount – and left the Mount to the supervision of the Moslem Wakf.
The Wakf Muslim Religious Trust, affiliated with the Jordanian government, was granted custodial responsibility for inside the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa mosque – not the entire Mount and certainly not the space underneath filled with Jewish antiquities from the Second Temple, photographed in 1967 but never archeologically excavated. Indeed, political tension has existed for some time between the Jordanian government and the Palestinian Authority over the authority to appoint a local religious leader responsible for these sites.
And is the entire Mount holy to Islam, a counterpoint to Jewish claims that the Temple Mount has always been its holiest site? Continual concern over Al-Aksa Mosque is expressed, which is of zero interest to Jews. Moslem rulers in centuries past blocked up the Hulda Gates, taking seriously the Jewish belief that the Messiah will come to Jerusalem via that entrance to the Temple Mount – certainly a tangible indication that the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount was acknowledged by Moslem political rulers.
Waqf historian Aref al Aref asserted in his 1929 publication, A Brief Guide to the Haram al-Sharif, that the Mount’s “identity with the site of Solomon’s temple is beyond dispute. This too is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt and peace offerings.”
However, the Palestinian Authority created a diplomatic scandal in November 2010 when it published a study declaring the Western Wall was not a Jewish holy site at all, but part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque! “This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction”. The U.S. State Department called this “factually incorrect, insensitive and highly provocative.” Many Palestinian Authority officials repeatedly proclaim that no historical basis for Jewish claims to the Temple Mount exists.
Since when did the entire Mount become holy – and even “holier” due to its role in the political aspirations of local Arabs, supported by Moslems world-wide? Since when did its status as the third holiest place in Islam become conventional wisdom? How can the Mount be holy to Islam when children play football freely on the Mount and families?
Has anyone seen children playing at Mecca or Medina, or in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron? No – and was this the status quo in 1967- 2000? The answer again is No.
The Temple Mount:
The post modern age abounds in sharply curtailed memories, with any event older than five years – the age of a functional computer – seen as old as a century. There have been extreme changes in the status quo since 1996, and even more so, since 2000. From 1967 until September 2000, Jews went up freely to the Temple Mount, with prayer books and prayed silently at will. No one searched for prayer books and absolutely no one checked whether silent prayer was being uttered. Several groups of distinguished rabbis prayed together in groups, on a regular basis, quietly but without prayer books. But no group of rabbis can come today to pray on the Mount. Instead, the status quo on the Temple Mount today has very limited Jewish prayer rights.
Four major events caused a changed the status quo.
1. In 1996, the Wakf requested permission from the Israeli government to do renovations under the Temple Mount, and expand Moslem prayer space under the Dome of the Rock. This permission was standard process since 1967 for any kind of repairs or renovations on the Temple Mount. In the context of negotiations between Ehud Barak’s government and the Palestinian Authority, permission was requested and received from the Israeli government. BUT, in a striking departure from the status quo heretofore, no on-site supervision occurred by the Antiquities Authority, the police or the Jerusalem municipality – all of whom stood by as massive destruction occurred in the area known as Solomon’s Stables under the Mount. Irreplacable First and Second Temple artifacts were bullzoed and trucked out in massive amounts to the municipal dump site.
Was this a deviation from the Status quo? Absolutely Yes. What then was the Israeli government response? Not a return to the previous status quo, not an injunction against further work or legal charges brought against anyone. Rather, the government retreated to a new “status quo”. Moslem leaders saw the lack of Israeli intervention and thus emboldened, further pushed the limits of the new so-called status quo. That new status quo now includes the reality of Palestinian and Hamas political rather than Israeli flags flying on the Mount.
2. In 1996, a northern exit from the underground Tunnels under the Temple Mount was created, in agreement with Wakf officials, to enable visitors to exit directly into the Old City and not return to the starting point near the Wailing Wall Plaza; despite the agreement, supposedly “spontaneous” rioting was staged – and the Israeli government caved in, not opening that exit to this day.
3. Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount with a large retinue of police in September 2000 and rioting again broke out – serving as a now acknowledged pretext for Yasser Arafat to launch the second pre-planned intifada, thus ending the Camp David negotiations with President Clinton. The police then arbitrarily again changed the status quo after this visit – and rewarded the rioters by closing the Mount to Jewish religious presence for three years. In 2003, Tzachi Hanegbi was convinced to open the Mount to Jewish individuals on alimited basis – small Jewish groups or individuals can go up on the Mount during morning hours and one afternoon hour–with severe new restrictions.
4. Pres Bill Clinton suggested in the Camp David negotiations to divide the holy space of the Temple Mount by giving all of the upper Temple Mount to the Wakf and the Wailing Wall to Israeli sovereignty – a suggestion not at all accepted by the Israeli government. Indeed, the Wakf then responded that the Wailing Wall Plaza was as holy to them as Al-Aksa itself – a false claim again being repeated today!
“Riots” have been consistently used by Moslem political leaders since the British Mandate in Palestine, to ensure that control of the Wailing Wall and the Mount remain in Moslem hands. In the1920’s and 30’s, “spontaneous” riots were used to pressure the British to not allow Jews to sit while praying at the Wailing Wall. The same tactic is being used again about any changes on the Temple Mount; planned “spontaneous” rioting ensures that today’s already eroded “status quo” remains unchanged.
The Israeli government has repeatedly capitulated to this rioting over the last two decades – as it did until recently to Taliban-like wreckage and rioting at Joseph’s Tomb, which was then turned into a Moslem mosque! Similar behavior has also been attempted at Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, proclaimed by Moslem political leaders as an Islamic site.
As Palestinian religious and political leaders continue to vociferously announce that there are no Jewish claims to either the Wailing Wall or the Temple Mount, the Israeli government – which never published an official brochure about the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount – responds minimally, even while discussions occur in the Knesset.
Absurd and bizarre police behavior on the Temple Mount: Police protocols in democratic Israel require the arrest and removal of the person who commits an offense or crime. But, in the case of the Temple Mount, when Moslem rioters go wild on the Mount, the police remove the Jewish victims of the rioting and let the rioters roam free – in contradistinction to police behavior anywhere else! Anyone arrested in democratic Israel is always entitled to legal representation and a written document detailing the accusations. Does this occur on the Temple Mount? An extraordinary No!
Since 2003, in the new status quo, Israeli police check Jews in religious dress and their bags before entrance to the Mount, not allowing Jews to enter the Mount with prayer books. An over-zealous policeman recently even asked a young tourist to remove his kippah so as not to offend Moslem sensibilities! Status quo – Absolutely Not.
In their determination to maintain “public order”, the police have developed an obscene relationship with the Wakf ‘s employees on the Temple Mount, who inform, supervise and monitor anything that looks like Jewish prayer on the Mount – especially Jews who can be visually described as religious. If they so determine, they report to the police who essentially act as enforcers for the Wakf! Police remove any individuals who give any offence to the Wakf from the Mount and are not allowed to return – without any due process. This absurd and obscene protocol shouldn’t be tolerated at Judaism’s holiest site.
In the Middle East, religious interests go hand in hand with political needs, as limits are pushed to see what governmental responses and world-wide public opinion will tolerate. For more than a decade – a lifetime for youth born after 1996 – a generation of Arab youth has grown up to see Israeli police ruthlessly check Jewish visitors, while Wakf members are permitted to monitor Jews and Jewish prayer on the Mount. Palestinian youth and their families are accustomed to regard the Mount as a public garden, where they legitimately play ball and have picnics.
Is it any wonder that the Arab street does not believe the Mount to be Judaism’s holiest spot? People respond to what they experience and see, not to what they are told. The clear message being experienced and transmitted is that Jewish prayer is seen by Israeli police, as illegitimate – so why should Moslems accept it as legitimate?
In an interfaith group I belonged to, an Arab student from Al-Kuds University asked me why Jews care about the Temple Mount – he said he knew that the Jewish people are very concerned about graves, like Rachel’s Tomb, Joseph’s Tomb or the Tomb of Patriarchs in Hebron, (the latter of which has shared prayer space with Moslems since 1967). But, he asked, what connection Jews have to the Temple Mount which has only Islamic graves! It was a very clear instance of how messages can be perceived. Is that the message that we wish to present – that graves in Hebron and elsewhere in Israel are more important than access to the Temple Mount?
Our Chief Rabbinate needs to urgently rethink its policy of forbidding Jews from entering the Mount, and decide whether determined violent Moslem behavior on the Mount is preferable to encouragement of mass Jewish prayer visits. Jews have a legitimate yearning to pray in the closest place to God, a place that our prayers have focused on for 2000 years. Passion, ownership and enthusiasm can be shown in many ways – do Jews need to respond by rioting to show that This Place is important to us in a visceral way?
A status quo doesn’t remain static – it either becomes formalized or deteriorates in some way using both facts and fiction. Changes in the status quo can and should move in both directions, if both are seen as legitimate. The issue is not Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount as recently discussed in the Knesset– the issue is how that sovereignty is expressed by the Israeli government in these turbulent times of peace negotiations. Police need new directives now about freedom of Jewish religious expression at the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest location. Police do not set policy, but they do enforce it – be it on the Mount, the Wailing Wall or elsewhere.
Our government must not allow “rioting” to determine policy. The time has come to push back the current status quo “envelope” to tangibly clarify our position and Jewish prayer experience on the Mount – or we risk losing our fundamental rights to our holiest site by our confused official actions.
Frieda Horwitz, a student of international affairs and non-profit professional, has lived in Jerusalem for more than 25 years. | <urn:uuid:9a430831-39c1-4c2c-b5ba-0a92bf6c4a27> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://www.templeinstitute.org/archive/16-06-14.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501174135.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104614-00146-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956644 | 3,112 | 2.84375 | 3 |
When thinking about their future, what do kids want the most?
Via Yalda Uhls:
In line with Greenfield’s (2009) theory of social change and human development, current popular preadolescent TV shows suggest that fame, an individualistic goal, is an important and achievable aspiration (Uhls & Greenfield, 2011). Such messages may be particularly salient for preadolescents, ages 10-12. This study used focus groups and mixed analytic methods (qualitative and quantitative) to examine how popular media, passive and interactive, are interpreted by preadolescents and how their interpretations relate to their media practices and future goals. Quantitative analysis revealed that fame was the number one value, selected as the most important value for participants’ future goals significantly more frequently than expected by chance. Qualitative analysis of focus group discourse suggested that (a) youth absorb messages in their media environment regarding fame as a future goal and (b) their interpretations of these messages highlight the importance and value of public recognition. Enacting the value of fame, the majority of preadolescent participants use online video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube) to seek an audience beyond their immediate community.
Source: “The value of fame: Preadolescent perceptions of popular media and their relationship to future aspirations.” from Dev Psychol 2011 Dec 19.
Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. | <urn:uuid:31ef1340-56b4-4ca7-82d2-82fcc2809e64> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/01/when-thinking-about-their-future-what-do-kids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141750841.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205211729-20201206001729-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.906658 | 294 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Typing merely by thinking - plugless brainjack kit invented
Socket in your head? Touchscreen? Get with it, grandad
Boffins in America say they have developed a portable, direct brain-to-computer interface - and there's good news for all you cyberpunks out there, as it requires no dangerous, risky plug into your skull.
The new tech, according to its developers, requires nothing more than ordinary electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes touching the scalp. A team of brain brainboxes led by José Contreras-Vidal say they have managed to determine, purely from EEG recordings, just what buttons test subjects were pressing on a keypad, mapping their hand movements in 3D to do so.
"Our results showed that electrical brain activity acquired from the scalp surface carries enough information to reconstruct continuous, unconstrained hand movements," says Contreras-Vidal.
The new kit has obvious implications for letting those who have lost limbs control prosthetic replacements, or allowing paraplegics to direct powered wheelchairs or other kit.
"It may eventually be possible for people with severe neuromuscular disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), stroke, or spinal cord injury, to regain control of complex tasks without needing to have electrodes implanted in their brains," comments Dr Jonathan Wolpaw, a government doctor who wasn't part of the development team.
Hard wiring into the brain, popular though it is in science fiction, is in reality bad news as it offers the likelihood of damage and a dangerous channel for infection through the brain's many protections. In general, medical boffins aren't even allowed to research such tech on humans unless hardwired electrodes have had to be inserted for other reasons. Hence the interest in methods which require no holes in the skull and protective membranes.
Kit like this would also, of course, be likely to spread outside medical uses if it could be made simple and affordable - which doesn't seem unlikely on the face of it. According to Contreras-Vidal and his team, most of the useful information in mapping hand movements came from just two electrodes of the 34 they placed on their test subjects, the ones on the primary sensorimotor cortex and the inferior parietal lobule.
One day, a relatively simple headset may allow a person to manipulate a cursor and enter text without benefit of such antique interfaces as mouse, keyboard, voice-control or touchscreen - so freeing up his or her hands for critical tasks such as drinking coffee or scratching.
Truly a brave new dawn is upon us. Contreras-Vidal and his colleagues' paper is to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience. ® | <urn:uuid:f16b8903-1cab-40d8-b05b-4c9fdf719f5b> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/03/plugless_brain_jack/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394011250185/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305092050-00060-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950978 | 551 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Stephen Hawking Counsels Caution in Contacting E.T.
If intelligent alien life forms do exist out in the vastness of the space, they might not be the friendly cosmic neighbors the people of Earth hope to find, famed British scientist Stephen Hawking says in a new television series chronicling his work to explore the secrets of the universe.
An advanced spacefaring extraterrestrial civilization could end up wandering the universe in enormous spaceships on the prowl for vital materials after consuming the natural resources of their own world, Hawking explains in an episode of the show “Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking,” which premiered April 25 in the United States on the Discovery Channel.
“Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they could reach,” Hawking said. “If so, it makes sense for them to exploit each new planet for material to build more spaceships so they could move on. Who knows what the limits would be?”
In the four-part series, Hawking explores topics such as aliens, time travel and the origin of the universe.
In one episode, he suggests an alien species could be capable of harnessing solar energy to open up a wormhole in space to travel to distant parts of the universe.
“It might be possible to collect the energy from an entire star,” he says. “To do that they could deploy millions of mirrors in space, encircling the whole sun and feeding the power to one single collection point.”
Hawking, one of the world’s most famous scientists, is a British theoretical physicist and former professor at Cambridge University in England. He gained fame through his bestselling book “A Brief History of Time.”
Hawking is almost completely paralyzed from the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He communicates through an electronic voice synthesizer.
In 2007, Hawking got a taste of spaceflight during a trip aboard a modified jet that allowed him to experience the sensation of weightlessness as the aircraft flew in a series of parabolic arcs. | <urn:uuid:f5681d5d-dd53-40d7-b877-fda642a22187> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://spacenews.com/stephen-hawking-counsels-caution-contacting-et/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104676086.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220706182237-20220706212237-00499.warc.gz | en | 0.94101 | 434 | 2.640625 | 3 |
What is Blood Pressure (BP)?
It is the force of blood against the arteries. Your heart creates this force as it pumps blood to all parts of your body. The top number (systolic) measures the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats. The lower number (diastolic) measures the pressure while your heart rests between beats. Normal BP is below 120/80 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury). If you are an adult and your blood pressure stays between 120-139/80-89 you have prehypertension (high blood pressure ).You are considered hypertensive if your BP is above 140/90. People with diabetes or kidney disease are considered hypertensive if their BP is higher than 130/80.
What Does Hypertension Do To Your Body?
High blood pressure increases the work of your heart and arteries. Your heart pumps blood with more force anI;!if this continues for some time your heart can enlarge and your arteries will harden and become less elastic. High blood pressure increases your risk of stroke and can damage your kidneys and eyes. If you have hypertension that is poorly controlled you are three times more likely to develop coronary heart disease and six times more likely to develop congestive heart failure and seven times more likely to have a stroke.
Can You Tell When Your BP is High?
High BP usually has no symptoms. About 90-95% of the cases of high blood pressure have no known cause. People with severe high BP may complain of headaches, visual disturbances, nausea and vomiting.
What Are the Risk Factors for High Blood Pressure?
A family history of high BP, aging, overweight, eating too much salt, and lack of exercise increases the risk for developing high blood pressure
What Can Be Done About High Blood Pressure?
Your doctor will decide what approach you need to follow to treat your hypertension. Medication is often needed to get your BP under control. Often you will need 2.or 3 drugs to control your hypertension. In addition, keeping your weight in a range that is ideal to your height is important. Increasing activity will help to keep you at your ideal weight.
Medications: There are many medications that can help control high blood pressure. Some medications that may be prescribed for you include:
- Diuretics: Also called water pills which will decrease sodium in your system that can increase the amount of urine the body produces. This helps to eliminate extra fluids and sodium and reduce your blood pressure.
- ACE Inhibitors and Angiotension/Renin Blockers(ARB’s): These drugs work by helping to stop the body from reacting to certain hormones that cause negatives effects on the heart and blood flow. Ace Inhibitors are considered vasodilators because they dilate or widen blood vessels and lowers BP.
- Beta-Blockers: These drugs help keep the heart from beating faster to make up for its weak pumping action. They allow the heart to respond to stimulation with a slower heart rate, and they also help to lower blood pressure.
- Calcium Channel Blockers: These drugs relax the arteries and thereby reduce BP
Lower the amounts of salt in your diet: Eating salt makes the body retain water. This can raise your blood pressure.
- Watch for the hidden amounts of sodium in food
- Read food labels for sodium content and remember that total sodium for the day should be no more than 2,400mg and preferably closer to 1,500mg
- Take the salt shaker off the table
- Use other seasonings that do not contain salt or sodium. Season with herbs, garlic or onion powders, or lemon juice
- Avoid ready-to-eat foods such as canned soup, processed meats, cheeses, frozen dinners as they contain sodium
- While eating at restaurants, ask that food be cooked without added salt | <urn:uuid:c429a7c3-63e8-4adb-b659-0ceb084c875c> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://madisonavenuecardiology.com/hypertension/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549429548.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727222533-20170728002533-00494.warc.gz | en | 0.924303 | 784 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Older Adults Not at Increased Risk for Death Due to Being Overweight
First, the good news. The link between body mass index and the risk of death among older people has been found to be weak. Body mass index, or BMI, is a number calculated from a person’s weight and height that is a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people. It is used to screen for weight categories that may be precursors to health problems.
Because it had been known that young and middle-aged people who were overweight ran a higher risk for death, it was assumed that the same was true for older people. This turned out to be erroneous. It has been discovered that the risk of dying is higher only for those older people who are severely obese.
So, congratulations to those older people who are overweight. Life will go on. But before you break out the party favors, you might want to know that although life will go on it may not go on in a business as usual way. It has also been pointed out that older people who are overweight have a markedly increased risk for problems with mobility and addressing the simple tasks of every day living. Although people are experiencing greater longevity, the benefits of those additional years are being impacted by a compromised quality of life.
Disability Among Older Adults Due to Obesity
When health data from 1988-1994 was compared to data from 1999-2004, it was discovered that functional impairment increased 43 percent among obese adults who were 60 years old or older. The functional impairment referred to effects the most basic of activities such as climbing ten steps or simply bending over.
In addition, obesity is related to medical conditions that are risk factors for disability such as osteoarthritis of weight-bearing joints or diabetes.
People are growing obese at younger ages but improved medical care has increased longevity. Therefore, people are obese for longer periods of time and increase the potential for disability.
Obesity is a Global Problem
Obesity is a global phenomenon and, as such, the patterns first detected in the West are now cropping up in points beyond the borders of the United States. Elderly people in Latin America and the Caribbean are now becoming more likely to suffer from obesity-related disabilities.
A paper published by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston noted that data collected from six Latin American cities showed that obese seniors were now more likely to have significant problems with walking, bathing, dressing, eating, and toileting.
It is believed that the recent surge of obesity in Latin America and the Caribbean is due to people moving from rural to urban areas and changing their diets and other aspects of their lives to a more Western model. Should the trend continue, then the elderly in Latin American countries will begin to experience the chronic medical conditions associated with obesity such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Living life well-fed,
e! Science News - http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/07/27/obesity.rise.linked.disability.increase.among.elderly.latin.america.and.caribbean
Science Daily - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080821110117.htm
Today’s Senior Network - http://www.todaysseniorsnetwork.com/Obesity_associated_Problems_Elderly.htm
Published On: November 12, 2012 | <urn:uuid:4776ea72-22f5-430e-97b5-5612dabdd80b> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.healthcentral.com/obesity/c/276918/157151/disability | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171706.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00226-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965032 | 704 | 3.21875 | 3 |
To protect Californians against the current epidemic levels of pertussis (whooping cough) health experts at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today broadened recommendations for immunizing against pertussis and reiterated the importance of getting vaccinated.
“We are facing what could be the worst year for pertussis that this state has seen in more than 50 years,” said CDPH Chief of the Center for Infectious Disease Dr. Gilberto Chávez, who also is the state’s epidemiologist. “We are urging health providers to broaden their use of the pertussis vaccine and we are urging Californians to take the simple step of getting vaccinated to prevent pertussis.”
In addition to the typical series of childhood pertussis immunizations, CDPH now recommends an adolescent-adult pertussis booster vaccine (Tdap) for:
• anyone 7 years and older who is not fully immunized, including those who are more than 64 years old,
• women of childbearing age, before, during, or immediately after pregnancy, and
• other people who have contact with pregnant women or infants.
“Considering that immunity from pertussis vaccine or disease wears off and that most adults are susceptible to pertussis, now is the time for Californians to get immunized to protect themselves and their families,” said Chávez. “In particular, all family members and caregivers of infants should get the booster vaccine.”
California physicians expressed support for the new expanded vaccination guidelines. “Pediatricians are extremely concerned about the pertussis epidemic in California,” said Kris Calvin, Chief Executive Officer of the American Academy of Pediatrics, California. “We appreciate and fully support CDPH’s efforts.” Family physicians are equally concerned. “The new recommendations will help tremendously in addressing pertussis prevention,” said Jack Chou, M.D., president of the California Academy of Family Physicians. “We support the efforts of the California Department of Public Health.”
Pertussis has reached an epidemic level in California. Through July 13 of this year, 1,496 cases of pertussis were reported, a five-fold increase from the same period last year when 304 cases were reported.
Five infants, all under three months of age, have died from pertussis this year. Unimmunized or incompletely immunized young infants are particularly vulnerable.
The pertussis vaccination series can begin when an infant is 6 weeks of age. Infants, however, are not adequately protected by vaccination until the initial series of three shots is complete. The series of shots that most children receive wears off by the time they finish middle school. Neither vaccination nor illness from pertussis provides lifetime immunity. For new mothers and anyone with close contact with infants, CDPH is providing Tdap vaccine at birthing hospitals, community health centers, Native American health centers and local health departments.
A typical case of pertussis in children and adults starts with a cough and runny nose for one-to-two weeks, followed by weeks to months of rapid coughing fits that sometimes ends with a whooping sound. Fever is rare.
California has taken the following steps to combat pertussis:
• Confirmed pertussis to be at epidemic levels in California, in line to break a 50 year record for recorded cases.
• Implementation of a free postpartum tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) program for hospitals with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
• Promoted the infant “cocooning strategy,” wherein individuals in close contact with infants are vaccinated.
• The development of bilingual educational materials for distribution to local public health departments, hospitals, and healthcare providers; news releases to inform the public, and conducting statewide round-table meetings with ethnic media.
• Development of clinical guidance materials to 14,000 healthcare providers as well as the California Medical Association and the California Hospital Association.
• Partnering with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a pertussis investigation in the Central Valley region.
Complete information about the Department’s response is available here. | <urn:uuid:d53e608f-939f-4a88-bc7d-67bd0ea6a47b> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/PH10-048.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416400379555.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20141119123259-00011-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941518 | 890 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The principal industrial zone in the borough, straddling the River Cray and the former Roman road of Watling Street, between Bexleyheath and Dartford, Kent
Crayford Marshes have been the site of important archaeological finds, including rhinoceros bones, and evidence of an Iron Age settlement has been uncovered. Crayford was probably the site of the Roman settlement of Noviomagus, although other authorities place it at Coney Hall, in West Wickham.
The Battle of Crayford, which took place in ad456 or 457, played a decisive role in the formation of the kingdom of England, when Hengest’s Anglo-Saxons drove Prince Vortimer’s Britons out of Kent. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that 4,000 men were slain.
Domesday Book recorded the presence of a church, which was replaced by the present church of St Paulinus around 1100, since when it has been much altered.
The first manor house was built to the north-west of the church in the 14th century, when the town was granted a charter to hold an annual fair. The presence of the freely flowing river brought thirsty industries such as tanning, while barges were built at Crayford Creek. Huguenot refugees established the first calico bleaching works in the late 17th century, and later printed silk here.
The present manor house (shown in the photo above) is believed to have been constructed in 1816 using the materials from an earlier building dating from around 1768, some elements of which still remain. The house has an observatory in its grounds, operated by Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society – and there’s a bowls club too. Until recently the house itself served as an adult education centre but at the time of writing its future use is uncertain. Plans to make the manor house a hub for the borough’s voluntary sector were reported as being under discussion in February 2017.
Crayford station opened in 1866. Machine guns and other armaments were manufactured north of Crayford Road, first by Hiram Maxim and from the end of the 19th century by Vickers, which also built some early flying machines. The company employed more than 14,000 workers during the First World War.
New Ideal Homesteads and other local builders laid out housing estates in the 1930s, but the location did not prove especially attractive to potential buyers. Vickers left Crayford in 1969 and its place was taken by distributors and small-scale manufacturers, the best-known of which is Caterham Cars. A former British Telecom site has been redeveloped as Optima Park.
Crayford greyhound stadium was relocated westward in 1985 to make room for a leisure centre and Sainsbury and Homebase stores. Developments like the Tower retail park have drawn shoppers away from the High Street and Waterside but Bexley council would like to refocus the centre on Crayford Bridge, ideally adding ‘features of interest’ and creating a new public park or open space.
The occult novelist Algernon Blackwood was born at the manor house in 1869.
Postal district: Dartford DA1
Population: 11,226 (2011 census)
Station: Southeastern Trains (zone 6)
Further reading: Frances Sweeny, Memories of Erith and Crayford, Bexley Education and Leisure Services Directorate, 2002
Websites: The Fabric of Our Town (a social history of textile printing in Crayford), Ideal Homes (London suburban history site) | <urn:uuid:e5b28279-312e-4c7a-a953-807d65c96107> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/crayford/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232257481.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20190524004222-20190524030222-00458.warc.gz | en | 0.97327 | 750 | 3 | 3 |
Written by Geoffrey Heptonstall
Asked about the structure of poetry, Robert Frost, so the story goes, reminded his audience that Homer wrote in hexameters because his work needed a disciplined technique. The implication is that Frost was magisterially ruling on the necessity of tight metrical form. But we know that Frost advocated no such thing. Looking at work by his English friend, Edward Thomas, Frost showed how Thomas’s prose might easily be turned into verse. Thomas was amazed. He never had thought of himself as capable of poetry. Frost released a gift within his friend, the gift by which Edward Thomas is remembered now. It was free verse, but none the less verse. It had the feel of poetry in its rhythm and imagery.
The quest for magisterial strictures in poetry misses the point. Homer wrote in the tight metrical form of hexameters because he was writing work, in Greek, to be recited, just as Shakespeare wrote for performance. The written text was secondary. Shaw once remarked that all we have of Shakespeare are prompt copies. All we have of Homer is an inscription of a long tradition of aural recitation, with all the variations and improvisation such work entails. So much is now lost. The work was spoken, and only survived if remembered. So, of course, a mechanism for holding the verse in memory was essential.
The question of free verse is an old one. The matter ought to be resolved by now. There ought to be general acceptance. But, as with James Joyce and Picasso, the debate rages as if a century had not passed, as if nothing had been decided. That may not be such a bad thing: better to have debate and dissent than a monolithic orthodoxy. General agreement is another matter; it allows for discussion, for consideration of what needs to be considered. Strict adherence to the rules is a warrant for mediocrity.
There is a lot of good poetry being published, but most poetry submitted is mediocre. Poetry is the one form everyone supposes they can do. It looks easy, like playing the drums looks easy. It is easy to write badly. It is easy to write prose in an affected arrangement of lines. The poetry is not in the structure, but in the nature. Behind the words are unspoken words. The poetry is in the distillation of language to its crystalline essence. The essence of language is metaphor. Poetry is metaphor. A poem is a weaving of metaphors into a pattern. The more interesting patterns bear the signature of the weaver.
In the aftermath of Modernism we cannot write as if a revolution had not occurred, a revolution of extraordinarily creative generosity which we are fortunate to have inherited. We can discard the perverse dynamic that led to fascism. We can ignore the banalities of bourgeois realism. What we have is the freedom to experiment. We have the obligation re-create the world as a liberating experience. We open the doors every time they close. Our perceptions are open to the relentless challenges of expressive language.
Free verse does not circumvent the need to respond to the challenges it offers. Picasso’s caution that after him would come many charlatans is true for all Modernism. Frost’s much-quoted remark that free verse is ‘playing tennis with the net down’ may be revised as ‘walking the tightrope without a net’. Put like that free verse becomes the supreme challenge of poetry. It is interesting to learn that Frost suggested an alternative word for form in poetry is performance. In contractual law performance is deemed to be the fulfilment of an obligation in a manner that releases the performer from further contractual liabilities. To perform is to find a means toward liberation. Say the appropriate words in the appropriate way and you are free.
Of course free verse is not free of all obligations. It has to adhere to some common understandings of what is meant by poetry. The intensity of language is one mark of contrast between poetry and prose. The potent imagery is another. There are resonances of language that are peculiar to poetry. Technique is only a part of it. Hebrew poetry had no metre. Some Classical Chinese verse used irregular metre. Even the Shakespearian iambic pentameter was adaptable, as John Livingston Lowes demonstrated. Shakespeare did not keep to the strict regulation of metre because it proved contrary to the meaning and power of the language employed.
Not all Modernist poetry was written in free verse, but the breaking of bounds, the adoption of abstract forms and arcane allusions, denote another freedom from the exhausted and archaic conventions of a debased late Romanticism.
‘I have never been able to retain the names of feet or metres, or to pay proper respect to the accepted rules of scansion.’ There may be those even now who are scandalized by the apparent ignorance and stupidity of this confession. It seems to show no feeling at all for form, and no respect for the tradition of which all literature must adhere in some way. So T.S. Eliot was wrong to speak as he did? The context of his confession, The Music of Poetry, shows great concern for form and tradition. It shows also how Eliot learned his craft by intuitions about the poetry he read. He not only read the poetry: he absorbed it. He took it into his sensibility and refined it in the aesthesis of his creative practice. Eliot’s experimental style was not a denial of tradition, where tradition was vigorous, but a response to it. The radical goes to the root of matter. Eliot’s political conservatism, however orthodox he may have declared it to be, cannot evade the aesthetic revolutionary in the pin stripe suit.
The defence Eliot made of Kipling, a defence echoed by George Orwell, may be considered a special case, as Kipling himself was a special case. It is difficult now to engage with Kipling, harder yet to appreciate any qualities he may have displayed. The imperial shadow proves chilling. Kipling’s verse is anything but vers libre. It is neither Modernist nor contemporary. The sentiments are Nineteenth Century in a narrow and discredited way. The technique, however, is interesting. Kipling’s use of music hall styles and language predicts (and perhaps influenced) the infusion of popular culture into poetry. It was the use of ordinary speech, not the language associated with ‘poetic’ style that distinguishes Kipling. Eliot himself was to use ordinary speech (the barmaid’s monologue in The Waste Land, Sweeney Agonistes).
By 1950 Charles Olson was confident in declaring sound in a poem to be more important than sense. He spoke of Modernist poetry as ‘the revolution of the ear.’ The musical phrase had replaced the metronome. Vers libre had begun the task of liberating poetry from the corsetry of correct form. What Olson named projective or open verse was to develop the revolution of 1910: ‘Verse now, 1950, if it is to go ahead, if it is to be of essential use, must, I take it, catch up and put into itself certain laws and possibilities of the breath, of the breathing of the man who writes as well as of his listenings.’ Because one perception leads to another perception in a seamless flow of sensation, the poet must discard the strictures of closed form in favour of a transfer of energy to ‘keep it moving as fast you can, citizen.’
What is essential to the technique of open verse is the syllable. ‘It is by their syllables that words juxtapose in beauty, by these particles of sound as clearly as by the sense of the words which they compose.’ Relieved of its strictures, poetry may discover its radical energy in its essential being. It may tend towards the choriambic line. That is natural and intuitive discovery. The consciously inherited line is exhausted, whereas the potential energy in the syllable may be, to the human imagination, infinite. ‘What does not change is the will to change.’
Olson was writing in 1950. The idea of open verse is a manifesto, a testament rather than a dogma. It is open to challenge, but it cannot be ignored. It has not been ignored. It need not be accepted in its entirety, but it has to be taken into account. The alternative is to write as if nothing had happened after 1900 but a riot of confusion. An aesthetic of the genteel and the parochial may produce well-observed and elegant verse, but that is to impose a limitation against which the dynamic of poetry always will be straining to break free.
‘The Movement’ British poets of the Fifties are a case in point. Thom Gunn’s strict adherence to traditional metre worked against the innovative themes and language of his early work. Sharply-observed poetry of contemporary urgency, like Elvis Presley – ‘He turns revolt into a style.’ – cried out for the liberating dynamic of a form more open to the possibilities contained within the subject matter. Gunn did break free. The alternative prospect was a slow absorption into a world so safe that nothing happens. This world of predictable words in familiar arrangements may be where the fees are high and the public profile is large, but it is not where the poetry is, citizen.
Text © Geoffrey Heptonstall
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Thanks for this description of poetries shifts and influences. | <urn:uuid:852fb702-712e-44fa-b22d-e38b023ca232> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://edgeofhumanity.com/2023/03/18/free-for-all/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949533.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331020535-20230331050535-00638.warc.gz | en | 0.968299 | 2,130 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Thanks PediaQ for this helpful blog on the dangers of snake bites in Texas, and what to do if snake bites occur!
“It’s summertime in Texas! The days are getting longer and warmer. The trees and flowers are blooming. With the days getting warmer, it’s time to start looking out for snakes! Snakes, being cold blooded, rely on their environment to be warm in order for them to be more active. Snakes are slower in the mornings since it is usually cooler. This has brought close encounters with snakes and resulting snakebites. Some children (and adults alike) will see a snake stretched out and perfectly still trying to soak in the warmth of the sun. Assuming the snake is dead or injured, the child will pick up the snake and OUCH! The bite happens. As scary of a scenario as this is, there are few fatalities from snakebites each year.
What Venomous Snakes Are In Texas?
Copperhead: The adult Copperhead has reddish brown bands on a lighter colored body. But juvenile Copperheads have grey bodies and bands and have not developed their distinctive copper color so they are often picked up accidentally. Copperheads like to hide under leaves and logs and try to blend in and hide in their environment. Although typically not aggressive, Copperheads will strike to defend themselves without warning.
Cottonmouth: Also called Water Moccasins, Cottonmouths get their name for their white mouths that they open and display when threatened. Their bodies are heavy and dark brown to black with dark bands. Young Cottonmouths have brightly marked bands and have yellow on the tip on their tails. They tend to be more aggressive than other venomous snakes, but very rarely chase after humans.
Rattlesnake: Known for their famous tails, Rattlesnakes are probably the most recognized of the venomous snakes. Rattlers will give a warning by rattling their tails and try to escape before striking. Rattlesnakes can be found from the rocky desert areas of Texas to the eastern pines. The Western Diamondback has some of the most potent venom of all the snakes in Texas. But once again, encounters and fatal bites are quite rare.
Coral Snake: Did you know that the Coral Snake is related to the Cobra? Coral snakes are found in the southeastern part of the state in woodlands and the coastal plains. They are brightly colored snakes with a broad black ring, a narrow yellow ring and a broad red ring. The red and yellow rings always are next to each other for this snake. The Milk snake has similar markings but is harmless. A way to remember the Coral snake markings is ‘Red on yellow, kill a fellow; red on black, venom lack’.
How to Avoid a Snake Bites
What to DO IF a Snake Bite Occurs
In closing, if you see a snake just let it be. Snakes, both venomous and nonvenomous, are important to nature. They keep the rodent population in check and small snakes eat bugs and other pests. Enjoy the beautiful weather but be aware that snakes are also out enjoying the warm weather as well.” | <urn:uuid:40185852-5caa-441a-8eff-2282418645ef> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://southlake.trustingconnections.com/snake-bites/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948592972.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20171217035328-20171217061328-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.956403 | 655 | 3.421875 | 3 |
The Goal: Promote Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women
What Do We Want To Achieve?
- To eliminate gender inequality in education at all levels
What Have We Already Achieved?
- We have achieved parity in access to primary education for boys and girls
- In 2012, women occupied 19.7% of the seats in single or lower houses of national parliaments
- 117 countries have passed laws regarding wage equality
What Challenges Remain?
- Only 9 of the 151 heads of state and 11 of the 192 heads of government are women
- Women represent two-thirds of the illiterate population in the world
- More than half of the women who work have unstable or vulnerable work conditions
- October 6, 2012Kulanayake K. Laith Holds A Position of Responsibility in Government - Sri Lanka, together with UNDP, has undertaken a leadership training program for women. 23 of the 30 participants have managed to hold office in local government. And while 80.8% of countries and include policies on … Continue reading
- September 22, 2011Success Stories From Asia and the Pacific - With 5 years remaining until 2015, we are at the critical junction for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Marking the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Declaration, heads of states will once again gather … Continue reading | <urn:uuid:921e2792-dfc9-4e5f-9233-0dc9c29822bc> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.endpoverty2015.org/mdg-success-stories/mdg-3-gender-equity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644065330.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025425-00224-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912656 | 275 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Classical economics is the original school of economic thought first developed by Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, 1777). It lay out many principles of economics that were then to be built on by the neo-classical school. The neo-classical school is the current dominant school of microeconomic thought. Classical economics looks at value and distribution theory: goods and services are valued at the cost it took to create them (labour theory of value).
Neo-classical economics as instead of believing that prices are determined from the cost to create the good, it focuses on the value consumers and firms place on the good. As such, it looks at interactions between supply and demand in a market as being the determinant of price. Classical economics was still very close to social analysis whereas Neo-classical economics introduced many concepts that made the discipline more "scientific". | <urn:uuid:0e825541-0ede-4555-a22e-d9eb51730ad5> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.queryhome.com/business/1817/what-difference-between-classical-classical-macroeconomics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400206329.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20200922161302-20200922191302-00365.warc.gz | en | 0.975804 | 175 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Unfortunately, ageing hedgehogs is not a simple task. Eye lenses are known to increase their dry weight progressively and can provide a useful index of relative age, but this technique requires a freshly dead animal. In Hedgehogs, Nigel Reeve notes that low-power dental X-rays can be used to assess the degree of epiphyseal fusion of the forelimbs, this is where cartilage at the end of long bones ossifies, but this is complete by 18 months, making the technique useful only for youngsters.
Currently, the most reliable technique involves ventrobuccal (lower jaw) sectioning to count the periosteal growth rings. Changes to calcium metabolism during hibernation results in a slowing of bone deposition in the periosteum, the thin connective tissue membrane covering the bones. When the bone is cross-sectioned and stained rings can be seen. The rings vary in size but work in much the same way as tree rings; a ring represents one year. Even this method is not 100% accurate because physiological stress such as pregnancy or illness can cause ring formation; changes in climate that affect hibernation duration can also alter ring development. Perhaps most importantly, the technique cannot be performed on a live animal.
In some instances, it may be possible to estimate an animal’s age based on obvious morphological features, including claws and teeth. Both wear down throughout the animal’s lifetime so strong pointed claws and sharp, barely worn, teeth usually signify a yearling, while old age is often indicated by cheek teeth worn and covered with tartar. Unfortunately, these have their limitations. Animals feeding in gritty soils will experience a more rapid wearing of teeth than those foraging in more peaty habitats, for example. Old individuals often have a 'gingery' tint to their fur, but this is of limited use as an aging tool.
Based on analysis of 83 road-kill hedgehogs, a team led by Amy Haigh at University College Cork in Ireland found that adults had a hind foot length greater than 36mm (1.4 in.), a body length of more than 160mm (6.3 in.), a jaw length exceeding 45mm (1.8 in.) and fully-grown spines; animals with measurements below this and with growing spines were considered juveniles, less than a year old.
The average age for a wild hedgehog is widely cited in the literature as five or six years (most probably living only three or four years) and the upper age limit about nine years old. Amy Haigh and her colleagues had two males aged eight and two females aged nine in their sample. More recently, as part of her Ph.D with the University of Southern Denmark and Naturama, Sophie Lund Rasmussen, currently based at Pindsvineforskning Hedgehog Research in Denmark, autopsied nearly 700 wild hedgehogs from across the country. Remarkably, when the jaw of one male hedgehog that died after being taken into care when it was found in a garden in Silkeborg was sectioned, the animal was estimated to be 16 years old. Additionally, one animal was 13 years old and several others had jaw sections suggesting they were between 9 and 11 years old. The data have yet to be published, but they appear to represent the oldest empirically-confirmed records for this species in the wild. The average age in the same dataset was two years old.
In his compendium on the longevity of mammals in captivity, Richard Weigl gives the oldest captive hedgehog as a male born in Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in 1984 that died in September 1995 at 11 years and eight months old. In a 2005 paper in the German anatomical journal Kleintierpraxis, Wilfried Meyer and Klaus Pohlmeyer at the Anatomisches Institut in Hanover counted 15 rings in the jaw of an “old female” hedgehog kept in captivity; a sixteenth ring was apparently ambiguous. This post mortem suggests that hedgehogs have the potential to reach at least 15 years of age and, to the best of my knowledge, represents the oldest verifiable age for a captive European hedgehog on record. | <urn:uuid:3f353632-63d8-4faf-bd12-d9445512adee> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/european-hedgehog-ageing-longevity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655882634.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20200703153451-20200703183451-00333.warc.gz | en | 0.962022 | 861 | 3.75 | 4 |
In 2010, Dr. E. Ann Clark, a retired Associate Professor from the University of Guelph‘s Plant Agriculture Department in Ontario, Canada, wrote the following paper demonstrating the logic behind organic agriculture as the best choice in a post-oil future.
Think about it: the current agri-food system was designed around the use of fossil fuels—to bring seeds and fertilizers to the farm, to prepare the soil, to seed, fertilize, harvest and deliver the raw crop to central distribution points, to transport the crop to processors / manufacturers, and then to transport the processed food or grain back to grocery stores and end users.
Can this reliance on oil at every step of the agricultural process remain sustainable long-term?
She likewise believes “growing organic” is not the only solution to achieve true sustainability. De-emphasizing annual and mono-cropping, along with a re-integration of livestock, are equally necessary to mimic the principles that sustain Nature as well as to dramatically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
As she says, “although the onset of the post-oil era is unclear, the time is now for research, extension, and education to prepare the way for it.”
We encourage you to read her entire paper below:
Organic will be the conventional agriculture of the future, not because of wishful thinking or because it is the right thing to do, or because of some universal truth revealed from on high. You don’t need to be a utopian to see the agricultural landscape of the future dominated by organic practitioners—whether in the city or in the country—if you stop to ask yourself…
Why are we not organic now?
How did we get to where we are now, and not just in farming but in the entire agri-food system?
How did we evolve an agri-food system so centered on specialization, consolidation, and globalization?
What drove us to an agri-food system that reportedly consumes 19% of the national energy budget—but only 7 of the 19% are used on the farm, with the remaining 12% incurred by post-farmgate transport, processing, packaging, distribution, and meal preparation? (Pimentel, 2006)
Is this all the result of Adam Smith’s invisible hand—an inevitable and inescapable result of the unfettered free market or other universal principle in action—or is there more to it?
This paper will present the argument that the future is organic because the design drivers that have shaped and molded the current agri-food system are changing, demanding a wholly new, and largely organic, approach to agriculture.
Efforts to make the current model “less bad” / more sustainable are counterproductive because they dilute and deflect the creative energy and commitment that are urgently needed to craft productive, ecologically sound systems driven by current solar energy (Pollan, 2008). Although time does not permit coverage, post-oil design drivers will also necessarily demand not just organics but novel agri-food systems that emphasize:
- Local/decentralized food production
- Seasonal consumption expectations of…
- Minimally processed foods
Evidence will be presented below to show that organic is not enough, however. Ecological soundness will require a de-emphasis on annual cropping coupled with re-integration of livestock, both to mimic the principles that sustain Nature and to dramatically reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
(CONTEMPORARY) AGRICULTURE WAS NOT DESIGNED TO BE SUSTAINABLE
The design of contemporary agriculture did not evolve in a vacuum. McDonough and Braungart (2002) said that “Design is the first sign of intention.”
So what was today’s agriculture system designed to do? It was designed primarily for one thing: to export vast quantities of undifferentiated, raw commodities. Today’s recipients are ADM, Cargill, Smithfield and Tyson. (Agriculture performed other services as well – sustenance, good place to raise a family, and a way to make a living.)
Those seeking to ensure food production in a post-oil future must first explicitly acknowledge that agriculture was never designed to be sustainable—not ecologically, not economically, and not socially sustainable, at least for primary producers—because it was designed to do things which are incompatible with sustainability.
Thus, efforts to adjust, refine, or otherwise tweak contemporary agriculture to sustain productivity are starting from a flawed design.
The current agriculture system is intrinsically unsustainable for the same reason that it takes a toothbrush 500 years to break down in a landfill: because landfill breakdown was not a design driver in the development of a toothbrush.
Likewise, the 20,000 square kilometer (and growing) hypoxic zone at the mouth of the Mississippi (USGS, 2009) exists because the retention of Nitrogen and Phosphorus on corn farms was not a design driver in the development of our current agricultural system.
Export-oriented agriculture is completely incompatible with ecological soundness, because unlike Nature, nutrients flow linearly away from the farm and don’t return – whether exported to Waterloo County or to Germany.
The issue is design. The question is whether the current flawed design can be refined to enable sustained food production in the post-oil era – or not. And if not, then what do we replace it with?
Although the time of onset of the post-oil era is unclear, the time is now for research, extension, and education to prepare the way for it.
TWO HISTORIC DESIGN DRIVERS
The two inter-related drivers which have created today’s conventional agri-food system were Cheap Energy and the pervasive Externalization of Costs, neither of which can persist for much longer:
1. Cheap Energy
Without further elaboration, I will take as a given:
- that Hubbert’s Peak is not a bad joke,
- that there are no viable alternatives to oil (Kunstler, 2006; Homer-Dixon, 2009; and Rubin, 2009), and hence, it follows
- that academic curricula can no longer justify an agri-food system that burns up millions of years of accumulated energy to grow, process, transport, store, package, and sell a few hundred years of food.
Why was cheap oil such a pivotal design driver? Hindsight reveals that cheap energy was foundational to the transitory, apparent economic competitiveness of bigness, a premise which in turn, facilitated the specialization, consolidation, and globalization which dominate our time.
You don’t feed a million head of cattle in Feedlot Alley near Lethbridge, AB to feed Lethbridge (pop. 85,500). You have a million head on feed because you fully expect to ship beef and be economically competitive with beef producers across the continent. You have every reason to expect this because the energy cost of transport has been tiny—relative to the economies of scale you’ve captured [and because you are not obliged to cover the cost of the massive pollution and risk to human health that evolves from high density confinement; see below].
The opportunity to ship and extract profit over geographically large areas gives a distinct advantage to those willing and able to consolidate to mega-scale proportions for production and processing.
Specialized businesses tailored to producing vast quantities of bulk, homogenous product necessarily exclude or co-opt smaller scale operators by driving down prices, narrowing the profit margin, and forcing farmers to ‘get big or get out’.
For this reason, the cheap energy that enables bigness is very much the driver for the specialization/consolidation/globalization trajectory that has so marked our recent past.
2. Externalized Costs
The historical willingness of society to allow or even encourage externalization of costs to the environment and to society as a whole also encouraged bigness, as in Feedlot Alley. When the price paid at the store does not reflect the true costs of production or processing, consumers are given a false perception of how cheap and easy it is to produce food, fly to Tahiti, or air condition our homes. And it is not necessarily a straightforward process to relate adverse externalized costs back to the original source.
What is an externalized cost? I’ll illustrate with a final exam question from my Crop Ecology course:
“You are an Illinois corn farmer, sitting at your kitchen table, staring in disbelief at a letter to you from the Governor of Louisiana. It is a bill for $253,476.15 as your share of the cost of cleaning up the 20,000 square kilometer – and growing – hypoxic zone at the mouth of the Mississippi. USGS studies have conclusively demonstrated the dominant role of Nitrogen and Phosphorus runoff from corn land in the Mississippi watershed in causing this problem. Your assignment is to frame a polite response, indicating the various strategies you have implemented to retain nutrients on your farm and thus avoid paying the bill.”
The magnitude of costs externalized by contemporary agriculture is staggering. Pretty et al. (2000) conservatively estimated that UK agriculture externalized £208/ha of arable and pasture land, equivalent to 89% of net farm income. Using the approach of Tegtmeier and Duffy (2004), MacRae et al. (2009) reported an annual, externalized cost of $145 million from Ontario agriculture.
The wave of legislation and market-driven challenges to once common agricultural practices, as promulgated by Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and others through such media as King Corn and Food Inc., reflects growing societal alarm with costs externalized by agriculture.
As the proverbial chickens come home to roost, whether in the form of hypoxic zones (USGS, 2009) or pathogens, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and other drug residues evolving from CAFOs (Orlando et al. 2004; Fremaux et al. 2008; Khan et al., 2008; Martinez 2009; Mulvey et al. 2009; Schmidt, 2009) or birth defects from biocide use (Winchester et al., 2009), society is awakening to the full meaning of ‘externalized costs’.
- If every farmer had had to absorb all of the costs routinely externalized on farms today, many common practices would be unimaginable because they would be prohibitively expensive, and
- If farmers were paid for all the downstream benefits society receives from ecologically sound management, such as clean air and water, robust and functional biodiversity, and food free of pharmaceuticals, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and human pathogens, many practices common on organic farms would be ubiquitous on conventional farms as well.
The point of the above is that neither of these interrelated design drivers—Cheap Energy nor Externalized Costs—will pertain in the future… the near future.
Furthermore, the faltering of these historically all–powerful design drivers frees us of the need to labor within the debilitating and dehumanizing constraints of today’s model. When the price of fuel is high, small-scale Ontario organic producers won’t be fighting an uphill battle to compete economically with industrial-scale organic exporters in California.
Anticipating the end of cheap oil gives us the freedom, and indeed the responsibility, to conceive, validate, and refine alternative designs driven by a new suite of predictable design drivers.
THE KEY DESIGN DRIVER OF THE FUTURE AGRICULTURE SYSTEM
So what will drive the design of agriculture in the future? Arguably, the overriding design driver, from which everything else will follow, will be the displacement of systems that are dependent on stored fossil fuel with systems that center on current solar fuel (Pollan, 2008). In simplest terms, living on current rather than stored solar energy is an absolute prerequisite to inter-generational equity – enabling our children, and indeed all of the earth’s children, to be sustained in the future.
Crafting agri-food systems to meet this goal will demand a massive reconsideration of what we intend to do, and how we’ll do it. And the time to rethink such an overhaul is now.
THE FUTURE IS ORGANIC
To support the claim that the future is organic, we must first clarify what is meant by the term organic, and then rationalize why organic is suited to meeting the demands of farming on current solar energy.
What is Organic?
As defined today, ‘organic’ is just a set of scale-neutral production practices – a set of rules for ecologically sound and humane food production and processing.
Compliance with standards derives from annual audits by independent certifying bodies (CB), costing individual farmers hundreds to thousands of dollars a year. The CB, of which there are currently 6 in Ontario, are themselves certified by a Competent Authority – which in Canada is the CFIA. The newly minted organic standards are far from perfect, and are by no means followed perfectly on all farms – yet.
But unlike other common terms, such as regenerative, alternative, and sustainable, there are actual standards by which different people can look at the same farm and agree that it is or is not in compliance with the label ‘organic.’
Keep in mind that there is nothing in organic standards that could not and should not be done on conventional farms. In a review paper, Stockdale and Watson (2009) noted that the higher biological activity, biodiversity, and biofertility of soils under organic management derive not from organics, per se, but from the higher amount and quality of organic matter added to the soil in organic systems.
Anyone can rotate crops, compost manure, and treat livestock humanely. Anyone can tailor cultivation equipment to manage weeds. The same equipment is used, and in the absence of targeted breeding, many of the same crop varieties and livestock breeds are used.
What sets organic farmers apart, however, is that they actually do these things not just because they should, but because they must – for both functional and auditable reasons.
For example, complex crop rotations are not just for show. On an ecologically sound farm, crop rotation is a tool of production, indeed, the center pivot of production tools. Crop rotation serves to manage weeds, soil nutrients, soil and hence plant health, promote water infiltration and storage, discourage pest proliferation, and build soil. This is not arcane dogma but a pragmatic form of agriculture designed to capture the ecological benefits served by biodiversity in Nature.
In sum, organic standards codify ecologically sound production practices, with mandated practices affirmed through obligatory annual, third party audits.
Why Will Organic Become Mainstream?
Organic will predominate in the future because:
- Rising energy costs will preclude continued reliance upon energy-dependent inputs. Synthetic Nitrogen alone currently accounts for about 40% of the energy budget of grain crops, encouraging a shift toward biological N fixation, but also toward less extreme levels of labile Nitrogen.
- The rising costs of ‘fixing symptoms’ created by ecologically dysfunctional production systems will demand less intrusive, more ecologically sound approaches. For example, the weeds promoted by simple crop rotations will be viewed as a symptom of an unsound system, rather than as a problem. The solution then is not just to kill the weeds which will just reappear next year, but to strategically design rotations and other practices to narrow the weed niche.
- Organic practices are designed to internalize costs of production, reducing or eliminating the off-farm impacts objectionable to society
To illustrate the concept of internalizing costs, stockless organic horticultural farmers surveyed by Clark and Maitland (2004) actually marketed hort crops from a given field just 4 years in 10.
In effect, they sacrificed hort crop income to grow hay, grain, or other service crops to add or scavenge Nitrogen, suppress weeds and pests, and improve the soil. Organic practices are designed to internalize costs which are routinely externalized by conventional farming. Organic farmers do not ask society to absorb the cost of antibiotic resistant bacteria entering the food chain (Martinez, 2009) or endocrine-disruptor impacts on stream organisms (Orlando et al., 2009) or birth defects deriving from biocide use (Winchester et al., 2009).
As reviewed by MacRae et al. (2004), EU nations subsidize ecologically sound management exactly for this reason – to pay farmers for the extra costs incurred in order to internalize costs of production. Farmers are paid for societal services beyond the market-driven premium paid by individuals. Thus, ecologically sound management will be advantaged when input costs become prohibitive, and when society rejects the costs externalized by contemporary farming.
What About Organic Yields?
One argument often heard for rejecting organic approaches to food production is the perception that high yields depend integrally on resource-intensive inputs. We have become so entrained to the notion that fertilizers and biocides are essential to high crop yields that many reject even the notion of high organic yields.
When studied systematically, however, organic yields can be quite comparable to conventional yields, particularly after the 3-5 year transition interval.
In the state of Maryland, USDA researchers (Cavigelli et al. 2008) reported 6-year yields in corn, soy, and wheat under conventional (no-till and chisel plow) and organic management (2, 3, and 4 (+)-year rotations). During the initial transition interval, organic corn yield in the longest rotation was 24% lower than from conventional yield, an effect which was attributed largely to insufficient Nitrogen and weed control issues (73 and 23% of yield reduction, respectively). Organic soy yield was 16% lower than conventional, but wheat yield did not differ between systems.
After the transition interval, Pimentel et al. (2005) found no difference in corn yield or in soy yield between conventional and organic systems in a 21-year trial conducted in PA. Similarly, over a 9 year interval in Iowa, Delate et al. (2008) showed no significant difference in yield for corn, for soy, or for wheat yields when grown in conventional versus organic systems.
Clearly, organic management is able to provide on-farm Nitrogen and pest control comparable to what is purchased off-farm in conventional systems. However, it must be noted that the longer rotations typical of organic management mean corn is only grown once in 5 or 7 years, compared to every other year in a typical corn-soy rotation. Thus, total corn production in 10 years time would be less in an organic system.
Can Organic Feed the World?
Let’s ask this question a different way. Can conventional agriculture continue to thrive? Consider…
- The dependence of conventional farming on inputs derived from diminishing and increasingly costly supplies of fossil fuels,
- The depletion of nonrenewable reserves, such as Phosphorus (Cordell et al. 2009)
- The adverse priming effect of synthetic Nitrogen on breakdown of soil organic matter (Mulvaney et al. 2009) and on nitrous oxide emissions (various, in Clark, 2009)
In other words, are current conventional yields an appropriate standard against which to compare organic yields, given that such yields will not be even remotely sustainable in the post-oil era?
Furthermore, organic and low-input yields reportedly already surpass conventional yields in the Third World (Badgley et al. 2007). According to the UNEP-UNCTAD (2008), the issue in the third world is not ‘how to feed people,’ but rather, ‘how to end poverty and hunger.’
Organic farming is viewed there as an enabling or empowering vehicle for social change and development, not just as a way of producing food. How you frame the question predetermines the range of possible answers. The answers to ‘how to end poverty and hunger’ are quite different from ‘how to feed the world.’
WHAT ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY?
It is argued by some that organic is conceptually narrowing; too limited to justify an academic curriculum, and that a broader focus on sustainability is enough. The problems with sustainability are several:
- In the much-cited Brundtland Report, “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” – which means exactly what? Except in the broadest sense, how do these words inform and give direction to curriculum to actually prepare people for a post-oil future?
- Chuck Francis of Nebraska says that sustainability is ‘too good a word’, having been co-opted and used by anybody and everybody, to mean whatever they want it to mean. Without an accepted definition, it is a word without meaning. On what basis can one decide if growing corn for ethanol or adopting conservation tillage or precision agriculture is, in fact, genuinely sustainable? Or even less bad? Sustainability, arguably, is a ‘feel good’ word. However, because it means whatever you want it to mean, it does not lend itself to constructive engagement when such action requires a population of people to accept fundamental change. Academically, it lets us look like we are ‘doing something’ constructive, when in fact, we are just spinning our wheels.
- From a comparative perspective, pretty well every school has courses or programs dealing in some way with sustainability, often from a social perspective. Guelph’s unique advantage, as an agricultural school, is it’s capacity to create, examine, and validate the biophysical soundness of agri-food systems. Defaulting to a program on sustainability would obscure this unique advantage in functional expertise, and ultimately, in Guelph’s relevance to future agriculture.
- Bill McDonough, award-winning architect and designer (http://www.mcdonough.com/) views sustainability as a flat, stagnant, and uninspiring call to action, using the analogy of:
Q – “So, how’s your marriage?”; A – “Well, it’s sustainable”. McDonough says that we need to vision, dream, and aspire to more than just incremental modifications that let the current system be ‘less bad.’ He states:
“What if humans designed products and systems that celebrate an abundance of human creativity, culture, and productivity… so intelligent and safe (that) our species leaves an ecological footprint to delight in, not lament?”
What indeed? As applied to date, research and education on agricultural sustainability have tended to focus on making the existing system “less bad.”
For example, the harms of biocides are increasingly recognized, encouraging efforts to reduce their use through scouting to monitor pest levels and establish thresholds for applying biocides. This is supposed to enhance sustainability.
But recall that agriculture was never designed to be sustainable.
To illustrate the flaw in this logic, note that McDonough and Braungart (2002) have no use for recycled paper, which they call ‘slow motion waste’. Paper was never designed to be recycled, such that efforts to do so consume large amounts of water, chlorine and other chemicals, leave large amounts of toxic sludge, and never recover the original fiber quality —a cradle to grave approach.
So their book, Cradle to Cradle, is made of plastic made to look like paper. It is designed so that when the lifespan of the book is finished, the ink can be lifted off into the ink pot, the plastic goes back to the plastic pot, and a new book can be recycled without waste. No waste. Not less waste. No waste.
Who are these guys? Seem farfetched? Implausibly futuristic? Then recognize that their company is hired by the likes of John Deere, Ford Motor Company, Nike, and Wal-Mart to design buildings, complexes, and systems. Their focus is on design, and their way-out-of-the-box methods work.
Is making an inherently flawed system “less bad” (analogous to tweaking the process of recycling paper) the best that Guelph, the top agricultural school in Canada, can come up with, or do we welcome the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to exploring entirely novel approaches?
In other words, and with thanks to an anonymous author, when you find that you are riding a dead horse, do you buy a stronger whip, appoint a committee to study the horse, announce a new funding program for dead horse performance, or do you just get a new horse?
BUT ORGANIC IS NOT ENOUGH FOR POST-OIL AGRICULTURE
So what would ecologically sound, post-oil agriculture look like? Organic? For sure. Of necessity. But organic according to contemporary North American organic standards is not enough.
Humans have a long history of farming themselves to extinction, long before GMOs or biocides or synthetic fertilizer were invented. So the issue of resolving the problem of ecologically unsound farming is more than just replacing these inputs with rotations and composting. Organic standards do indeed help us to avoid many of the needless harms we’ve imposed upon ourselves in recent decades.
But as much as it pains me to say it, as practiced today, some (most) organic farms are still ecologically unsound.
Why? Several issues can be mentioned, not least the one-way nutrient movement embodied by export-oriented agriculture, but in the interests of time, we’ll consider one:
I would suggest that the over-reliance on large-seeded annuals in agriculture is the root cause of the unsustainability of agriculture, historically and today.
What’s Wrong with Large-seeded Annuals?! If we accept:
- that Nature is the only true and certain model of ecological soundness
- that the type of vegetation adapted to much of North America is perennial – trees and grasses
- that agriculture is an inherently unnatural system, and
- that to approach ecological soundness, agriculture must emulate the principles that sustain Nature; and further…
then I put it to you that ecologically sound agriculture – including organic agriculture – will necessarily rely less on annuals and more on perennials- with a central role for grass-fed livestock. And let me re-affirm that this does not mean less vegetables, as these account for barely 2% of arable land in Ontario. The problem is the predominance of large-seeded annual grains, which currently occupy over half of the arable land in Ontario, grown largely although not solely for livestock feed to enable the confinement industry.
Most of global nutrition today comes from barely a dozen crops, with large-seeded annuals like corn, rice, and wheat accounting for the lion’s share. So what?
- Annuals introduce periodicity into nutrient cycles, leaving gaps early and late in the year that coincide with times when precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration and the net direction of water movement is downwards. Perennials more effectively cover off these leaky intervals with active nutrient cycles earlier and later in the year
- Annuals require bare soil. Nature has evolved strategies, such as the soil seedbank, seed rain, and laterally encroaching vegetation to keep the ground covered. Keeping soil bare, apart from the sown crop, means perpetual war with Nature, whether through tillage or herbicides. A perennial grass sward, however, behaves a lot like Nature, keeping the ground covered year-round, and with an economically valuable crop.
- Annuals are almost always sown in monocrops, impoverishing the plant biodiversity so vital to many of the functions that sustain natural ecosystems, including controlling pestiferous populations. Perennial grass swards, in contrast, quickly become biodiverse even if sown to just a few species, and are thus better able to sustain ecosystem functions.
- Annually re-setting a field back to the pioneer stage loses the accumulating advantages of succession, which include building soil organic matter and nutrients, with follow-on benefits in water conservation, risk management, and disease/pest control. Again, perennials intrinsically capture these advantages, which is why withholding land from cultivation under a perennial grass sward actually builds and regenerates soil damaged by annual cropping
- Modern agriculture linearizes nutrient flow, extracting nutrients to deficit in one place and concentrating them to excess in another, generating both scarcity and excess. Real sustainability demands nutrient return – popularized as Howard’s ‘Law of Return.’ Exporting an acre of land as meat, milk, or eggs means a fraction of the implied nutrient export of grain or vegetable crops.
The large-seeded annual growth habit is adaptive primarily in Mediterranean climates which are characterized by protracted summer drought. Allowing annuals to become so prominent in North America, where a perennial growth habit is adaptive, necessarily exposes ecological disjuncts or incompatibilities.
I put it to you, then, that whether fruit and nut trees or grass swards, perennials will have to account for a much larger share of the agricultural landscape if our goal is ecologically sound agriculture.
And be very clear, this reasoning pertains whether it is barley or soybean, conventionally or organically grown, and arguably, independent of tillage practices.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, conservation-tillage practices are demonstrably effective in sequestering carbon and improving soil organic matter only in some agro-climatic regions (Gregorich et al., 2005). Using conservation-till practices in order to prolong annual cropping is at best a weak proxy for the robust benefits – both to the farm and to the global issue of GHG abatement (Clark, 2009) – of withholding land from cultivation under a perennial sward.
Designing for the post-oil future means tailoring agricultural crops, practices, and expectations to the soil, climatic, and managerial constraints of each region. And for much of North America, that means a whole lot less annual – and especially grain – cropping. In other words, tailor the agriculture to fit the environment, rather than trying to shoehorn-in annual crops into an environment suited to perennials.
But What about All That Grass?
Perhaps we can agree that ecological soundness depends on emulating the principles that sustain Nature, the only true and certain model of sustainability, and for much of North America, the native vegetation is perennial – not annual. But humans don’t do well on grass or bark. This is where livestock come in, as a bridge to convert perennial grass swards – which are essential for ecological sustainability – into human-usable products.
Livestock provide the economic justification for ‘doing the right thing’ by the planet – and for human sustenance.
To illustrate the concept of livestock as a bridge, I once saw a pile of termite nests near a dwelling, deep in the rainforest of Nicaragua. The home had screenless window openings, and was in an area infested by night-flying mosquitoes carrying not just malaria but dengue fever. Each night, one of the termite nests – which look like a large rugby ball – was placed upwind of the house, set on fire, and allowed to smolder and smoke for hours to discourage downwind mosquitoes. The resident hen, chicks in tow, capitalized on the free lunch by scratching continuously at the termite nest, teaching the chicks to gobble up the termites as they tumbled out of their smouldering home.
In effect, the chicken filled a missing link in the transformative chain of nutrition that started with a wholly inedible product – decaying wood – passed through the termites and chickens, and culminated in eggs and ultimately meat for the farm family.
But does this reasoning mean replacing all those annual vegetables we like and need with even more meat, milk, and eggs than we already eat? No.
The grass ley system formalized by Stapledon and Davies (1948) facilitates the production of needed annuals by rotating annuals for direct human use with perennials to be grazed or conserved for livestock.
In this system, an interval of 1 to several years under perennial sod is rotated with an interval of 1 to several years of annual crops, to produce what we need while at the same time, meeting the needs of Nature.
Is there enough land to support grassland ley farming in Ontario? Because over half of all arable land in Ontario grows grain for livestock, a return to traditional mixed farming simply means switching to a more grass-based ration for whatever livestock can be justified on the post-oil landscape.
Some have argued that we should stop growing livestock entirely, or at a minimum, eat less meat. While eating less meat is hard to argue with, I would argue that livestock – because of the forages they consume – are in fact a critical foundation to ecological sustainability. But I refer not to livestock in confinement, but rather, livestock as service providers.
Photo from EcoFilms Australia
The exclusion of livestock from many farms, including many organic farms, challenges ecological rationality and exceeds the forgiveness limits of Nature. Yet many contemporary organic farms are nonetheless pursuing unsustainability by choosing to be stockless.
Organic standards have been interpreted to permit the same commodification and polarization of crop and livestock farming which have proven to be so problematic on conventional farms. Yet mixed crop:livestock agriculture was the norm not even 100 years ago. As argued by no less an authority than Sir Albert Howard (1943), one of the founders of what has become organic farming:
“Mother Earth never attempts to farm without live stock; she always raises mixed crops; great pains are taken to preserve the soil and prevent erosion; the mixed vegetable and animal wastes are converted into humus; there is no waste; the processes of growth and the processes of decay balance one another; ample provision is made to maintain large reserves of fertility….”
Livestock perform many services for us. Livestock are more than a source of meat, milk, and eggs. We need to take a step back and see the bigger picture, employing livestock to reconcile the divergent demands of ecological soundness with the needs of human nutrition.
GUELPH UNIVERSITY’S UNIQUE ROLE
Gomiero et al. (2008) noted that universities have done little, in research or in education, to build the population of skilled organic farmers needed for the future. Based on sustained trends, MacRae et al. (2009) estimated that the number of organic farmers in Ontario will need to increase more than 10-fold over the next 15 years, just to keep up with projected demand for organic food.
As the premier agricultural school in Ontario, and arguably, in Canada, Guelph has a unique responsibility to contribute to redesigning the agri-food system. Guelph’s pioneering B.Sc.(Agr) Organic Agriculture major is explicitly designed to to prepare people – philosophically and functionally – for fundamental changes to how we will live and farm in the soon-to-be post-oil future.
1. The future, which is coming faster than most of us appreciate, will be organic.
2. Agriculture, as much of modern society, evolves in response to forces or drivers. Arguably, the dominant drivers in our recent past were cheap oil and the willingness of society to tolerate costs externalized by seemingly efficient mega-scale production and processing.
3. Drivers change, and the system they drive necessarily also changes. Post-oil realities will advantage small-scale, organic, locally-sourced, seasonal, and minimally processed food, just as cheap oil selected for bigness, resource-based production, globalization, and processing/packaging/refrigeration.
4. For much of North America, agriculture – including organic agriculture – is not ecologically sustainable, in part due to the absence of perennial forages, and hence, livestock to convert the forage into human-consumable food.
5. The sooner that academics and government policymakers acknowledge the implications of post-oil for the structure and function of agriculture – and education in agriculture – the easier it will be to design and educate for the future.
1. As a concept, ‘sustainability’ rests on economic and social 1 as well as ecological ‘legs’. For the present talk, however, the focus will be on ecological soundness.
2. Everything else will include the design of cities, for example. What is 2 the upper limit of population for a city that feeds itself on current solar energy? A million? A hundred thousand?
3. plants that live 3 or more years, including 3 most fruits and nut-bearing trees,
4. horses, cattle, sheep, and goats evolved to consume grass and some woody species; pigs can consume diets largely or wholly made of grass, while grass can be part of a diet for chickens and turkeys
5. And fruit, which occupy 1% of arable land in ON, are biennial or perennial already
• Badgley et al. 2007. Organic agriculture and the global food supplly Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22(2):86-108.
• Cavigelli et al. 2008. Long-term agronomic performanc eof organic and conventional field crops in the mid-Atlantic region. Agron J. 100(3):785-794.
• Clark, E.A. 2009. Ch. 5 Forages in organic crop-livestock systems. pp. 85-112 In: C.A. Francis (ed) Organic Farming: The Ecological System. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI 378 pp
• Clark, E.A. and K. Maitland. 2004. On-farm Survey of Organic Farm Practice in Ontario 2001-2003. 109 pp. Unpublished.
• Cordell et al. 2009. The story of phosphorus: global food security and food for thought. Global Environmental Change 19:292-305
• Delate et al. 2008. Beneficial system outcomes in organic fields at the long-term agroecological research (LTAR) site, Greenfield, Iowa, USA. 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy June 16-20, 2008. http://orgprints.org/12441
• Fremaux et al. 2008. Long-term survival of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in cattle effluents and environment: an updated review. Veterinary Microbiology 132:1-18
• Gomiero et al. 2008. Energy and environmental issues in organic and conventional agriculture. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 27(4):239-254.
• Mulvaney et al. 2009. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers deplete soil nitrogen: a global dilemma for sustainable cereal production. J. Environmental Quality 38:2295-2314.
• Gregorich et al. 2005. Greenhouse gas contributions of agricultural soils and potential mitigation practices in Eastern Canada. Soil and Tillage Research 83:53-72.
• Homer-Dixon, T. 2009. Carbon Shift. Random House Canada; 240 pp
• Howard, Sir A. 1943. An Agricultural Testament. New York: Oxford Univ Press, 253 pp. Clark (2010) – 14
• Khan et al. 2008. Chemical contaminants in feedlot wastes: concentrations, effects and attenuation. Environment International 34:839-859.
• Kunstler, J. H. 2006. The Long Emergency. Grove Press. 336 pp
• MacRae et al. 2004. How governments in other jurisdictions successfully support the development of organic food and farming http://www.organicagcenter.ca/DOCs/Paper_Supports_Version2_rm.pdf
• MacRae et al. 2009. Ten percent organic within 15 years: policy and programme initiatives to advance organic food and farming in Ontario, Canada. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 24(2):120-136
• Martinez, J.L. 2009. Environmental pollution by antibiotics and by antibiotic resistance determinants. Environmental Pollution 157:2893-2902
• McDonough, W. and M. Braungart. 2002. Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, NY.
• Mulvey et al. 2009. Similar cefoxitin-resistance plasmids circulating in Escherichia coli from human and animal sources. Veterinary Microbiology 134:279-287.
• Orlando et al. 2004. Endocrine-disrupting effects of cattle feedlot effluent on an aquatic sentinel species, the Fathead Minnow. Environ. Health Perspectives 112(3):353-358.
• Pimentel et al. 2005. Environmental, energetic, and economic comparisons of organic and conventional farming systems. BioScience, 55(7), 573-582.
• Pimentel, D. 2006. Impacts of organic farming on the efficiency of energy use in agriculture. An Organic Center State of Science Review.
• Pollan, M. 2008. Farmer in Chief. New York Times 12 Oct 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
• Pretty et al. 2000. An assessment of the total external costs of UK agriculture. Agricultural Systems 65:113-136
• Rubin, J. 2009. Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller. Random House Canada 304 pp
• Schmidt, C.W. 2009. Swine CAFOs and Novel H1N1 Flu: Separating Facts from Fears Environmental Health Perspectives 117(9):A394-A401
• Stapledon, Sir George and W. Davies. 1948. Ley Farming. Faber
• Stockdale, E.A. and C.A. Watson. 2009. Biological indicators of soil quality in organic systems. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 24(4):308-318.
• Tegtmeier, E.M. and M.D. Duffy. 2004. External costs of agricultural production in the United States. Int’l. J. Agricultural Sustainability 2:1-20.
• UNEP-UNCTAD 2008. Organic agriculture and food security in Africa. http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditcted200715_en.pdf
• USGS. 2009. Nutrient Flux for the Mississippi River Basin and Subbasins http://toxics.usgs.gov/hypoxia/mississippi/nutrient_flux_yield_est.html
• Winchester et al. 2009. Agrichemicals in surface water and birth defects in the United States. Acta Paediatrica 98:664-669.
Written by E. Ann Clark, Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario. (email@example.com), presented at the Annual Guelph Organic Seminar Series on January 14, 2010, at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario. Dr. Clark was an Associate Professor in Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, with specific interests in organic and pasture production systems, and in risk assessment in genetically modified crops. She taugh numerous undergraduate courses, directs the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming, and co-coordinates the B.Sc.(Agr) Organic Agriculture major. In addition to her teaching and research responsibilities, she was also a frequent invited speaker at scholarly and producer conferences. Now retired, she is custom grazing a herd of Red Angus cow/calf pairs, to be followed by other selected enterprises to explore the feasibility of post-oil farming at her grass farm in Warkworth, Ontario, Canada. View a list of her publications here; read more about her opinion on the subject of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in this article >
This text is the property of the author, E. Ann Clark. It may be downloaded or reproduced in whole or in part by any member of the academic community for the purposes of discussion, debate and quotation and may be placed on web sites or on chat lines so long as this copyright notice is included. It may be reproduced on the Internet so long as no charges are levied for its use. It may not be reproduced for sale in any form anywhere without the express written permission of the owner. | <urn:uuid:b560c695-f7b8-4a61-977d-d6b6de678f9a> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://gmo-awareness.com/2014/01/04/the-future-is-organic-but-its-more-than-organic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718303.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00203-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92634 | 9,271 | 2.78125 | 3 |
It's necessary to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist regularly in order to keep your eyes in good working order. Diseases and conditions of the eye can often be treated successfully if caught early. Eye professionals recommend that everyone see an eye doctor at least every three years. Many people should see their eye doctors more often. According to the American Optometric Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, factors such as age, eye health and family health history determine how often one should have a complete eye exam.
Children should have eye exams as part of their routine medical preventative care. Babies should have their eyes checked at six months to screen for eye diseases. Beginning at age 3, children should have their vision checked every one to two years by their pediatrician at their regular well-child visits, or by an optometrist. Certain factors may cause a child to be more at risk for eye conditions and diseases, and may warrant earlier or more frequent vision screening tests. These include having been born prematurely, developmental delays, having crossed eyes, having sustained an injury to the eye, and having a family history of eye diseases. If your child has any of these conditions, speak to his pediatrician to find out how often he should have his eyes checked.
Adults Age 20 to 39
Adults who wear eyeglasses or contact lenses must see their optometrist every year in order to keep their prescriptions current. Adults who don't require corrective lenses can go two to three years between vision screenings as long as they aren't experiencing vision or eye problems. Certain problems may warrant more frequent vision checks. These include dry or itchy eyes; seeing distorted images such as spots, wavy lines or flashes of light; and eye pain. If you have hypertension or diabetes, you may also need to have your eyes checked more often.
Adults Over Age 40
Adults should have an eye exam at age 40 to screen for age-related eye diseases such as cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma and presbyopia. This screening can also detect early signs of diabetes, high blood pressure and other diseases. After this screening, adults with no eye conditions or corrective lenses should see their eye doctor every year or two for routine vision checks. Those who have any vision changes or conditions listed above should ask their physician how often they need to have their eyes checked. Beginning at age 60 or 65, patients should begin having annual eye exams to check for vision changes, eye diseases and other conditions that may affect the eye. | <urn:uuid:c9935dba-0ed6-483f-ba93-a86b44555ac3> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | http://www.cabarruseye.com/our-services/comprehensive-examination/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027323328.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20190825105643-20190825131643-00313.warc.gz | en | 0.971943 | 516 | 3.265625 | 3 |
This four-volume reference explains mathematical concepts and provides a historical overview of the field in language appropriate for middle school through high school students, or for general readers. Separately indexed, each volume is about 220 pages and devotes 35 pages or so to an identical glossary and topic list probably a useful feature for student readers who might not make the effort to refer to a separate volume. Entries are alphabetically arranged and discuss topics related to the uses and effects of math in daily life; its role as a tool for measurement, data analysis, and technological development; important people; and careers. Each entry is signed and includes a brief bibliography. Entries range from a half page to several pages and are abundantly illustrated. | <urn:uuid:24173bed-aff5-4c21-a48b-9ed0a9a19af2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.bplonline.org/virtual/subjects/Default.aspx?s_page=31&s_section=13&tag=1_296 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282937.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00028-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939253 | 146 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Te Kura Toi Tangata School of Education /The University of Waikato
What about retroduction and abduction?
Have you heard of an approach to research analysis called retroduction? Johnny Saldaña’s interpretation of retroduction is looking to the history of what is happening now, however, Miri Levin-Rozalis, interprets retroduction as an iterative step-by-step process of turn taking between deductive and inductive approaches. Turn-taking in a conversation between evidence and theory is how Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmerman see abductive analysis.
Abductive analysis, as I think of this approach, may be familiar to readers of detective stories. In a Qualitative Inquiry (QI) journal article I wrote on abductive analysis, I refer to Fred Vargas’ novels. Commissaire Jean Baptist Adamsberg, a main character in these books, first familiarises himself with all the evidence related to a current case. He then takes a long walk and ideas ‘slippery and tangled’ sprout ultimately leading to progress in solving the crime. In the 2001 novel, Have Mercy On Us All. . .
his long walks often left him with the feeling that not entirely uninteresting notions had started to squirm inside his head … germination is germination whatever you say, and once you’ve got your idea it doesn’t matter two hoots whether it grew on a clean piece of blotting paper or on a rubbish tip.
To become familiar with the evidence is important and so is getting away from the desk. Other authors have also linked the crime-solving processes of detectives to forms of abductive analysis (author P. D James, for example, is mentioned by Levin-Rozalis in the article linked above).
In my article I quote Sven Brinkmann who describes abduction as a way to think about qualitative analysis. Brinkmann argues this approach “is neither data driven nor hypothesis-driven … but by astonishment, mystery, and breakdowns in one’s understanding”. Data driven approaches, for example phenomenological or grounded theory approaches are inductive. Hypothesis-driven or theory-driven approaches are deductive, and use conceptual or theoretical frameworks. Abductive reasoning arises from what captures our attention in a given situation (e.g. surprises, puzzles, or shocks) and is typically something the researcher identifies as ‘problematic’. Brinkman explains that both induction and deduction “address the relationship between data and theory”, whereas “abduction is a form of reasoning that is concerned with the relationship between situation and inquiry“.
Not only has abductive analysis been linked to processes detectives use to solve crimes, but conditions for this type of reasoning are often also mentioned. In a book by Leif G.W. Persson, readers are told that Police Superintendent Lars Martin Johansson “found running for exercise difficult. What bothered him was not the physical activity itself but simply the fact that he couldn’t think while he ran: a pure waste of time, in other words. On the other hand, he thought very well while walking”. Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow actually identified 17 minutes per mile as the strolling speed that enables him “to think and work”. In Kahneman’s view “the mild physical arousal of the walk may spill over into greater mental alertness”. The fictional Johansson, however “did his best thinking while swimming.”. I also find ‘swimming’ (cough). . . or floating about in the Whaingaroa Harbour at high tide conducive to productive ideas in abductive analysis.
What conditions do we need to conduct abductive analysis?
Characterising exercise as defamiliarisation or turning away from evidence emersion—and the computer-in analysis work, I propose three conditions necessary for abductive analysis: That is, these are the conditions that may increase the likelihood of connections, patterns and insights becoming untangled from the evidence gathered and occurring to researchers:
- Time: The abductive process takes time for researchers to become very familiar with the research evidence, and researchers need time out to turn away from the familiar in order to make new connections. Time requires patience: patience with our evidence, with our research project and with ourselves. Siobhan O’Dwyer, Sarah Pinto and Sharon McDonough (2018) describe the types of time pressures on researchers and the production of research outputs. There are also constraints related to space in terms of the structure and length of acceptable texts evident in guidelines for authors provided by journal publishers.
- Value Prompts: Researchers need to be open to notice, recognise and respond to prompts, tuning-in, and valuing influences on our thinking during the research process. Prompts might be palpable as tingles, nagging out-of-reach notions or hunches. Prompts may come to the surface for a researcher during a break from the analysis desk, from a conference presentation, within the pages of a novel, while daydreaming or swimming. The limited information on qualitative analysis available in published research articles where authors have categorised evidence into ‘themes’ suggested this process is straightforward or tidy. There is often little detail available on how the labelling of presented themes occured. We might read that “analysis was conducted using NVivo”. However, as Tavory and Timmerman articulate “The glaring misconception about these programs is that they conduct the analysis for the researcher. They do not.” Analysis involves not just actions of organisation, catagorisation and retrieval but also intellectual deliberation and discernment.
- Backward Map: Researchers undertaking analysis need to trace the logics-in-hindsight of any inference, tracking backwards from the patterns that have possibilities using evidence to indicate the path to any new knowledge. Questions are included in my QI article that researchers can ask when they have an idea and then turn back to their evidence. I also ask that researchers be comfortable with greater transparency about how inferences and insights result from analysis.
Above all, valuing time and space for thinking and deliberation is an important aspect of quality research processes and outcomes. Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber’s book is a call to slow down and engage more deeply. They remind readers to “protect time to think critically and creatively” and “what we need are the conditions in which to think, to become engrossed”. I advocate here for researchers to take time for analysis, to acknowledge influences on our analysis, and to complete backward mapping. Providing more transparency about how analysis was conducted is useful in any published records. These conditions are likely to benefit all research analysis and subsequently the potential impact of qualitative research.
Kerry Earl Rinehart is a senior lecturer in Te Kura Toi Tangata Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research interests are how people experience teaching, learning, and being judged; educational uses of digital technologies; and Postgraduate Education research. She is Co-Editor of the online open access journal, Waikato Journal of Education, a publication of the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research. | <urn:uuid:3f639f53-7dc0-4262-82c4-e23ce0ca6f35> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://nzareblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/25/abductive-analysis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703531335.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20210122175527-20210122205527-00450.warc.gz | en | 0.943343 | 1,520 | 2.78125 | 3 |
They're on opposite sides of the world, but two mountains that are sacred to the tribal communities that live near them are up against a similar threat: giant mines that would bore into the mountains and damage surrounding environments.
Canadian firm Revett Minerals plans to open up a $300 million silver and copper mining project under Chicago Peak, which has been traditionally used by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes for praying and fasting.
So the tribes are trying to get the peak listed on the National Register of Historic Places, because lying within the federally designated Cabinet Mountains Wilderness—which is protected from vehicles as well as logging and mining—isn't enough since the minerals were identified, the New York Times explains, before the 1964 Wilderness Act. And so Revett Minerals got approval for the project.
More from The Times:
The company plans to build the entrance to the mine outside the wilderness boundary and tunnel under the protected lands to reach the copper and silver beneath the base of the peak. The mine is expected to produce six million ounces of silver and 52 million pounds of copper a year.
That’s far greater than the yield of the nearby Troy Mine, also run by Revett Minerals, which produces an average of 1.4 million ounces of silver and 1.5 million pounds of copper annually.
The mine would also include a tailings pond, mill and wastewater treatment facilities.
“Chicago Peak is a very sacred site with many stories,” Kootenai Tribe cultural preservation officer Francis Auld told the Missoulian. “It is a place of sustenance and it is one of the last untouched places where the Kootenai can visit and reconnect with our cultural history. We don’t want to end up with a hollowed-out mountain.”
The project's estimated life span is 35 years, according to Revett's CEO. It's less clear if he's estimated how long the subsequent environmental problems would last or if he has a plan for cleanup of the contamination that occurs at so many other mines.
In India, a struggle that Mat has written about before continues: British firm Vedanta Resources wants to mine bauxite under the remote Dongria Kondh people's "mountain of law," which they worship as the seat of their god according to Survival International, which adds that members of the tribe call themselves Jharnia—"protector of streams."
More about the project from Survival International:
To the Dongria, Niyam Dongar hill is the seat of their god, Niyam Raja. To Vedanta it is a $2billion deposit of bauxite.
Vedanta’s open pit mine would destroy the forests, disrupt the rivers and spell the end of the Dongria Kondh as a distinct people.
But in this case, it's not a matter of the government siding with the company or upholding outdated laws. Again from Survival International:
The Indian government has refused to grant final clearance for Vedanta’s mine, choosing to place the Dongria Kondh’s rights above the company’s balance sheet.
But Vedanta has refused to respect the wishes of the Dongria and the government. The battle for Niyamgiri is now back in the Supreme Court of India.
The fate of the Dongria Kondh and their sacred mountain once again hangs in the balance.
Check out this video to learn more: | <urn:uuid:3d44620c-f61e-4658-824e-3e12dbecaa04> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/foreign-companies-pursue-mine-sacred-mountains.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125948047.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20180426012045-20180426032045-00538.warc.gz | en | 0.955512 | 717 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Interference can be anything or any form of an unwanted thing that can be a form of disturbance to anything.
As far as a security camera is concerned, interference can be a form of noise that disturbs the image or videos recorded by a security camera.
This form of noise can cause issues with the images and videos seen in the cameras. They can come in the form of a thwart on the monitor where you watch your images and videos.
They can also be dotted lines either horizontally or vertically that can reduce the quality of the image you want to see or make you not understand or interpret the images.
Moreover, this interference can come in both professional and standard security cameras; this is to say that they cannot be avoided.
The interference that comes in the form of noise would definitely reduce the quality of images and footage that are being seen on or watched on the camera.
Many things can cause interference, which in turn becomes noise. At the process of this article, we will discuss this interference on security cameras in detail.
What causes interference on security cameras is too much lightning, power supply, the camera lens, the camera’s quality, the video and image resolution, the way the cameras were mounted, some forms of connections on the camera, and how the cameras are being handled.
They are factors that cause interference seen on security cameras, and if they are not handled with care, they will damage what you need to get from the security camera entirely.
That is why it is important to have a good understanding of your security cameras and how they are supposed to be handled to avoid any form of interference that would cause challenges and distort the images and videos seen in the camera.
Interference on Security Cameras: An Overview
Interference is a noise that can be seen on a security camera. They can come in many ways, and this would cause a form of distortion to the information you intend to get from the security cameras.
Interference on security cameras has been in existence since the advent of cameras and would likely continue to be in existence. It can be dated back to the 1960s when ghosting was first sighted on security cameras. Some people claim to have even seen orbs on their security cameras.
This interference seen on security cameras can be either manmade or technical faults encountered by the security cameras. Some of them can also occur as a result of nature in the particular place where the security cameras are mounted.
All these are vital and should be well taken care of before purchasing your cameras and fixing them.
The natural occurrences can be a result of dust, airs, dirt, and other forms of things floating in the air. It can also be a result of excess natural rays of sun seen in an environment.
The man-made issues can be a result of not setting your environment well before installing or grounding your cameras. If this is not well done and taken care of, there would be interference on your security cameras.
The technical issues can be a result of the quality of cameras, the brand of cameras, the type of lens and shutters they came with, and other things.
All these constitute what is known today as interference on security cameras. They should be paid detailed attention to enable your cameras to serve you the purpose they were bought and installed.
Causes of Interference on Security Cameras
Here are what causes interference on security cameras, they are:
1. Wrong Power Supply System
Security cameras need to be supplied with enough power to enable them to function well and optimally. In this case, you must look out for the manufacturer’s guide to see the amount of current needed to power your camera and make it work the way it is supposed to.
The voltage is as important as whatever thing you can think about. Without this, there would be some form of interference on your security camera images and videos at last.
This is to say that the current and amount of voltage used on your security camera are important and should not be joked with at any time.
Some cameras might require up to 14VDC, enabling them to function well, while some may require less voltage to make them work. In this case, you must ensure that your cameras get the required amount of voltage they need.
Also, the current should not joke with, if your camera was supposed to have up to 3 amperes to help them work, do not give them less than that because if you do, there would be interference on your security cameras.
2. Poor Cables
As important as the current and voltage are to your security camera, so are the cables to be used. It is advised to use recommended cable and not just any type of cable for connection on your security cameras.
There are cables like the UTP and the Coaxial cables; if you are using either of these, you must ensure to follow up to the standard recommended and know the distance to which the cables are supposed to be to avoid them cause issues of interference for your camera.
3. Camera Quality
This is important because they can cause your security camera interference, depending on which camera you are using. Poor quality cameras would definitely give you poor and low images.
So it would be good to go for the best and not just for what everyone is going in for.
Ensure that you get cameras from good brands and names and the type that have a good warranty and technical support system so you can contact them when any form of issues comes up from it.
This is very important for your cameras; ensure that you use the best types of converters to give you good quality images and footage.
Suppose you are making use of something like the Coaxial cables with baluns. In that case, you must ensure that those converters are so compatible with your HDTV, AHD, and other accessories your security camera would require.
This should be paid thorough attention to without delay because they constitute what you would see on your monitor as images and videos.
The level of lightning in the environment where your camera is mounted or installed is so important as well. Ensure that you have enough light and the recommended form of light in the place where the camera is installed.
It is important to have good forms or illumination so your cameras can capture images and videos that are clear even at night without showing you dotted lines and other things.
Remember that some cameras that have good sensors would automatically convert the amount of light they need to how they would use it, while some would not be able to do so.
6. Poor Connections
The poor state of connections is what causes interference security cameras. This is why it is so important and proper to make good use of professionals to get these things done for you.
It is better to get it right at the first time other than making mistakes that you would regret tomorrow because you used amateurs to make the connections.
The connection would affect your security camera’s operating system, which would result in the type and quality of images and videos seen on your monitor.
This is very technical and the key to how your security camera is going to work and the type of footage it will give you. Once your cameras are not well grounded, you are in to get all forms of interference on your screen.
While grounding your cameras, use professional camera handlers’ services; ensure that they ground the DVRS and other sources of power of your camera in a well-detailed manner to avoid any form of an issue coming from that angle.
8. Warm-up of Your Camera
Heating can cause issues of interference with your security camera. Once your security cameras start heating or warming up, interference would definitely be the end result. In this case, you need to ensure that there are good forms of ventilation and passage of air anywhere you are setting up your security cameras.
These are what causes interference on security cameras. Moreover, there is no logic that says you would not be able to encounter any form of interference on your security cameras despite the quality of the camera you are using. But the interference can be avoided by following the steps explained below.
How to Stop Interference on Security Cameras
Here are how to stop interference on security cameras:
- To stop interference on your security cameras, ensure that you have a good metering apparatus to use and check the voltage of the cable you are using for your security cameras.
- Ensure that all forms of photocells on the cameras are well covered and coated to enhance the level of force from the camera’s IR LED to enable your cameras to have the best type of power.
- Ensure that you have the best types of connections handled by professionals.
- Do not allow people who will connect it to make use of any form of a bad connection.
- Make it clear who will connect them for you that you would not want any form of a strand of foil braid to contact the center copper core you are using for your security wire connections.
- Always check your wires and ensure they are in the right form and in good positioning—both for the HDMI, AV, and others.
- Ensure that there is good lighting to give your cameras good illumination, and try as much as possible to eliminate all forms of obstruction on your security cameras to enable them to function well.
- Ensure that the ground loop isolator of your security camera is well kept in its place. This is very important and vital.
- All these are few steps to stop any form of interference on your security camera anytime.
Disadvantages of Interference on Security Cameras
- Low Images and Videos: Interference would definitely give birth to low-quality images and videos on your security cameras. They would make the pictures not appear clear and good. And no one would want to experience such on their security cameras due to the high sensitivity of the information you would need to get from them.
- Inability to Interpret Footages and Images: Bad and low-quality images and video may not be interpreted well, and you may end up not using them for what information you intend to use them for.
- May Not be Able to be Used for Investigation: The police and other security agencies would not carry out any reasonable investigation that would yield to catching up with the culprits or criminal elements that may have invaded a place.
- Cost: The amount of money used in maintaining the security camera would be a waste because the cameras have not served the purpose of installing them.
- Inability to Claim Insurance Benefits: Insurance benefits can only be given when you are able to present good and interpretable footage from your security cameras, but here the reverse would be the case because your claims would not have any form of proof that would guarantee insurance benefits.
Before buying a security camera, know the best brands in town and probably know what works best amongst the best. Ensure that you are ready and have your place well set before buying and installing them. Most importantly, make sure you use professionals’ services to handle the grounding and other installations to avoid any form of interference on your security cameras. | <urn:uuid:ed90f60d-8cda-46f5-bca2-e546a63ee197> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://getbestcameras.com/what-causes-interference-on-security-cameras/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964358233.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20211127193525-20211127223525-00441.warc.gz | en | 0.958548 | 2,280 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Charles Dickens’s last completed novel was Our Mutual Friend; it was serialized into twenty parts between 1864 and 1865. Our Mutual Friend has been hailed (in many a book blurb) to be a paradigmatic shift in Dickens’s writing; it would bring a new age and development, so to speak, in English literature. Unfortunately, we can never know this because Dickens died whilst writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens’s take on the mystery novel. In a friendly rivalry, he was trying to show Wilkie Collins what a mystery looked like–Collins’s famously wrote The Moonstone (it’s pretty good), TS Eliot claimed that Collins, here, invented detective fiction (throwing shade on Edgar Allan Poe). But, let’s return to Our Mutual Friend (OMF).
OMF begins on the cold River Thames, with a young girl and father in small boat that easily could be overturned in the waves. The young girl persists, against her father’s demand, in rowing the boat because she does not want to be next to the body. The dead body. The characters, aside from the body, sweep the river to find flotsam and jetsam–collecting what they find and pocketing what they may. Who is the dead body? Well, we will have to wait before we find out.
In the following chapter, we are introduced to the Veneerings–a couple who are entrenched in polite society. Obviously they are new money, their furniture isn’t old stock, it is new, covered with the fresh veneer of ready money. Dickens doesn’t relent with this pun, and he introduces their entrance into society, a Mr Twemlow, as a table–filled with many leaves. Twemlow is important to them because he provides their access to society, to the right types of people, and the right connections; but he is paraded like an expensive, well-laid, set of furniture, collected and displayed when one must impress. The Veneerings are throwing a fancy dinner party, with the usual incompetents present and two lawyers, who absolutely hate their profession.
A young boy brings news to the party and to one lawyer in particular–Mr. Mortimer Lightwood–that a body has been found. Who is the body, one might ask? Well, the rich are always in the know, aren’t they? *taps nose knowingly* It is the body of the young man that Mortimer had just been discussing, as polite gossip, at the dinner party. His father, a rather unlikeable but wealthy man of the Dust industry (laugh again). Dickens’s humorous narrative style informs us that the father disowned both of this children, his daughter for not marrying the right man and his son for defending the daughter. The son jumps ship, literally, and goes to the Cape to make wine. The father dies, in the meantime, and leaves his estate and money to his son, on the condition he marries a girl (we know not yet who). There is a provision in the will for a servant of the household. Should the son not followthrough with his dead father’s matrimonial wishes, the servant will inherit all.
THE HARMON MURDER
All are convinced that the man found, John Harmon, was murdered. But there is no concrete evidence to point at any guilty party. The money he travelled with is missing. He does not have any identification on his person, but is identified by the ship’s captain, the same ship off of which he fell.
But Dickens does not disappoint. Bella Wilfer is said matrimonial conditional bride that would direct the Dust funds into Harmon’s dead pockets. She is depicted as a hysterical woman, biting her hair and acting outrageous. Despite this trope-ish depiction of a young, unmarried, and, therefore, hysterical woman, Bella is astutely able to describe the perils of being poor and the unbearable, prison-like sentence poverty casts upon its bed fellows.
A plot twist is born. A young man arrives to rent the front room from the Wilfers. A young man who bears a startling resemblance to the dead John Harmon.
Indeed, there are other characters to touch upon, such as the family who finds John Harmon, Gaffer, Lizzie, and Charley Hexam–father, daughter, and son, respectively. But, I will save them for later serial section.
There are 20 divisions of OMF, so I will be following that structure. Instead of breaking down the plot for each section, I will likely do something creative in response to what I have read. If I feel I have to explain a plot section, I will append a little summary. | <urn:uuid:1af5567d-773f-4d03-8cd8-9bc1c1f91326> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://katrinaeve.com/tag/our-mutual-friend/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912201812.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20190318232014-20190319014014-00222.warc.gz | en | 0.969303 | 992 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Last week, I posted “Ethically Sharing Children’s and Young Adult Literature Online.” The point of my post was to make a case for why educators and librarians, in particular, should continue to model respect for the exclusive rights of the copyright holder… even during the current crisis. In this post, I am suggesting ways to do that.
Fair Use = A Librarian’s / Educator’s Perspective
I have heard from a number of School Librarian Leadership.com readers that they do not agree with my perspective and have already posted or have plans to post complete picture book readings or daily chapter book readings on the open Internet. I agree that authors and publishers will most likely not sue them for copyright violations, but for me, that is not the point.
There are a number of copyright experts who proclaim these recordings would fall under Fair Use Guidelines during the pandemic and advise educators to proceed with confidence. Some believe these freely distributed educational recordings should always be allowable under fair use. For two articles written from those perspectives, read:
Jacob, Meredith. (2020). “Reading Aloud: Fair Use Enables Translating Classroom Practice to Online.” (includes a link to register for a webinar Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 1:00 p.m. EDT).
Otsman, Sarah. (2020, March 24). “Online Story Time & Coronovirus: It’s Fair Use, Folks.” Programming Librarian.org.
From a Copyright Holder’s Point of View
As a copyright holder myself, I take another view. I believe that creators, whether they are famous authors, little known authors, or student authors, should retain the rights that are given exclusively to copyright holders, even in this crisis.
“Copyright provides the owner of copyright with the exclusive right to
- Reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
- Prepare derivative works based upon the work;
- Distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease, or lending;
- Perform the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic work; a pantomime; or a motion picture or other audiovisual work;
- Display the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic work; a pantomime; or a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work. This right also applies to the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work.
- Perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission if the work is a sound recording.
Copyright also provides the owner of copyright the right to authorize others to exercise these exclusive rights, subject to certain statutory limitations” (U.S. Copyright Office).
I am the author of four published picture books as well was professional books for educators and librarians. Two of my picture books are written in rhyme. I have heard adult readers butcher my work by reading it in a strict singsong cadence as one might recite “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Listening to my work presented in this way is personally painful.
In 2011, I published a VoiceThread partial reading of Sing Down the Rain for a Book2Cloud Challenge offered by David Loertscher. The reading includes the book’s artwork created by Michael Chiago; I purchased Michael’s paintings as well as the copyright to those illustrations. I have not recorded a reading of the poem in my picture book for the families of young children. I do not own the copyright to the illustrations in Read to Me/Vamos a leer.
Ethical Ways to Connect to Our Students and Families
I realize that many educators and librarians want to make personal connections with their students and families during these uncertain times. An educator’s recording of a read-aloud published behind password protection or on a publicly accessible platform would not be interactive without youth present. I don’t see the advantage of educators recording themselves when so many authors, illustrators, and publishers are stepping up within their copyright holder rights “to authorize others to exercise these exclusive rights, subject to certain statutory limitations” (U.S. Copyright Office).
Using technology tools, especially those that can be easily accessed on smartphones for students and families who lack computers and tablets, is a laudable goal. I believe there are many ways to keep those connections going AND to honor the exclusive rights given to copyright holders. Here are a few ideas.
The read-aloud resources on last week’s blog post are ethically shared resources that could be used to substitute for the educator’s read-aloud. (Many others have been made available since that post.)
- Educators can create an introductory homemade video that welcomes viewers.
- In their introductory videos, educators can also share public domain songs, fingerplays, movement activities, or make other connections to the author’s video recording as they would in a face-to-face storytime.
- They can invite listeners to use comprehension strategies such as “before you watch this video or listen to this podcast, what do you already know about…” Or “after you watched this video, think about… Do you want to phone someone (maybe a friend or relative) or write a letter to someone to tell them about this story and what it made you think of?”
- Educators can offer a public space (a blog, wiki, social media platform) for listeners to share their responses to the reading.
- Educators can record booktalks and create book trailers (while observing copyright), or use trailers provided by publishers/authors. They can link talks and trailers to the ebooks to which students have access. Later, they can repurpose these talks and trailers as ethical examples for students to view when creating their own talks and trailers from home or when back at school in the physical space of the classroom or library.
- Your ideas? Please post in the comment section below.
Honoring the Rights of Our Heroes
We librarians are fans of authors/illustrators. We stand in long lines at conferences to get books signed for our students (and for ourselves). We follow children’s and young adult literature creators on social media. We hold author/illustrator events in our libraries and promote, promote, promote the work of our author-illustrator heroes.
As noted in the SLJ article “Publishers Adapt Policies to Help Educators,” most publishers are asking that our personally made and published recordings of their copyrighted material be available behind password protection. (This is always an application of Fair Use; the password protection is like closing the door to your classroom or library.) Publishers such as Scholastic have given specific instructions to inform them of the publicly published work and have given a sunset time when educator-made videos must come down.
Considering the current copyright provisions and fair use guidelines, I believe that we must consider both perspectives, those of the creators and our own educator perspective, as we negotiate this challenging time. As librarians, I believe we must hold ourselves to a higher standard. If you don’t agree with the exclusive rights of copyright holders, work to change them. If you apply the temporary exemptions offered by publishers, follow their guidelines and pull down your videos when requested to do so.
I hope we can work together to come up with long-term solutions that allow us to connect with our library stakeholders electronically, provide them with remote literature-centered literacy services, and still honor the intellectual property rights of creators.
And let’s make sure that those solutions address the technology gap as well as the needs of youth with disabilities.
Wishing you all the best as you stay safe and healthy,
“Copyright Basics.” Copyright.gov. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf
Clkr-Free-Vector-Images. “Copyright Media Warning Exclamation Point.” Pixabay.com. https://pixabay.com/vectors/copyright-media-warning-exclamation-40846 | <urn:uuid:557a08fc-ff53-413d-8961-6aebd0952cbb> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.schoollibrarianleadership.com/2020/03/30/applying-fair-use-and-honoring-copyright-during-a-crisis/?replytocom=247 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662546071.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220522190453-20220522220453-00015.warc.gz | en | 0.93439 | 1,727 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Discover how to combine, create and manipulate shapes to produce a glowing and vibrant piece of art
Start by opening an image of a subject from the FileSilo. Ensuring Shape Layer is selected, use the Ellipse tool to create a circle around the model’s head. Then grab the Pen tool to draw her chin and jaw line. Click the + key to draw two or more shapes in one shape layer.
When you created your first shape, you will have noticed a shape layer appear in your Layers panel. Double-click on this layer to bring up the Layer Style window. Select Gradient Overlay and click on the gradient bar, make a off-white to light blue gradient and hit OK.
Use the Ellipse tool to draw a long oval from the top of the head to just above her jaw. Add a purple to blue gradient to the oval and alter the Scale to 150%. Finally, change the Opacity of this layer to 80%.
Use the Pen to draw an eye socket. Select the shape using the Path Selection tool, then hold down Alt/Shift and drag the shape to the left of her face. Now go to Edit>Transform Path>Flip Horizontally to mirror the shape. Add the same gradient as step 3, this time change the gradient’s blend mode to Multiply and set Fill to 0%.
Duplicate the head shape layer and move it above the eye socket layer. Then go to Edit>Transform>Scale and in the tool Options bar, click the middle-top square. Set the Vertical Scale to 98%. Finally, modify the shape layer’s colour to light pink and change its blend mode to Soft Light.
Use the Pen to draw a half oval, complete the shape by drawing two points at the base. Now give this shape a light pink to pink gradient, make the gradient’s blend mode Multiply and the Fill 0%. Draw a purple diamond from the Custom Shape tool and change the blend mode to Overlay and set Opacity to 80%.
Draw a half oval frame with a pointy tip using the Pen. As in step 4, duplicate and mirror the shape. Next, use the Path Selection tool and hold down Shift to select both shapes, then click the Combine button from the top bar. Add a navy to dark purple Multiply gradient and make the Fill 0%.
With the Ellipse tool, draw a light blue oval for the tip; set the Opacity to 80%. Then use the Pen to draw the bridge of the nose, making it purple. Now draw two navy nostrils and finally draw an airplane shape over the top part of the bridge and make its Opacity 80%.
Use the Pen to draw the eyelid and eyebrow. Use similar gradients and colours from previous steps. Draw white tears and select an Outer Glow layer style set to: Opacity: 70%, Color: #00ffff, Spread: 5% and Size: 20px. Finally draw on her lips and use the diamond shape for her philtrum.
It will look better if your illustration is symmetrical, so whatever features the model has two of, just draw one, duplicate it and then flip it. For example, with the eyes, place all the shape layers into a folder, go to Edit>Transform>Horizontal Flip, then use the Move tool to move the shapes into place.
Create a new layer and grab a soft brush at 50% Opacity and pick out a bright pink. Lightly paint over both sides of her cheek. Double-click the layer to bring up the Layer Style window and select Outer Glow. Use the default settings but alter the Opacity to 50% and Size to 98px.
Create a mask on the brush layer to ensure that only her face is affected. Firstly, Cmd/Ctrl-click on the vector mask thumbnail of her face shape layer to create a selection around it. Then select the painted layer and click Add Layer Mask from the bottom of the Layers palette.
Start by using the Pen to draw a basic headband and make it pink. Then grab the 5 Point Star from the Custom Shape tool. Once drawn, go to Edit>Transform Path>Distort and drag a corner handle to stretch the bounding box to distort the start to fit on the headband.
Draw and distort three more stars and bring up the Layer Style window. Use these settings for Inner Glow; Opacity: 75% select Edge, Choke: 86% and Size: 81px. And these setting for Outer Glow: Opacity: 70%, Color: White, Spread: 5% and Size: 20px.
Use the Pen to draw the base shape of her hair, and then draw a few individual strands of hair. Vary the colours from blue to bright pink and change the blend mode on all the stand layers to Color Dodge and Opacity to 30%. Then, as in steps 12 and 13, create and mask glowing brushes.
Start by using the Butterfly shape from the Custom Shape tool. To avoid having multiple shape layers, click on the + key every time you add a new butterfly. Create yellow, blue, pink and green butterflies and ensure they are different sizes. Rotate a few by going to Edit>Rotate.
Change the shape layers of the butterflies to Color Dodge and change their Opacity to 40%. Then add an outer glow using these settings; Opacity: 75%, Color: use the colour of the butterflies and Size: 35px. Add an inner glow and alter the settings to; Opacity: 26% and Size: 38px.
Using the previous steps as a guide, use the Pen to draw the body of the model. Plus use the heart frame and heart from the Custom Shape tool to draw on the glow tattoos, plus the Ellipse tool to draw her necklace. Also add the glowing brush effect from steps 11 and 12.
Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color and make it purple. Grab a soft brush at 50% Opacity and paint a few spots of magenta on one layer, another with cyan, a third with yellow and the fourth green. Create a final layer above all these layers and paint a few spots of magenta.
Create a new layer and add a white outer glow. Set Opacity: 100% and Size: 100px. Grab a soft 10px brush at 50% Opacity. Then in the Brush panel, use all the default settings by checking the following boxes: Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Transfer, Wet Edges and Smoothing. Now dot a few stars around the canvas.
Start by creating a black Solid Fill layer, make the blend mode Multiply and then add a layer mask to it. Now grab a soft brush at 100% Opacity and Size: 2500px and click on the centre of your mask a few times to rub away the centre of the black fill.
Firstly go to Layer>Adjustment Layers>Hue/Saturation and make the Saturation +50. Then go to Layer>Adjustment Layers>Brightness/ Contrast and make the Contrast 75. By doing this, your illustration will become that little bit more vibrant and give it some depth by boosting the colours. | <urn:uuid:e8a16b7c-2fd0-413c-9c97-3c374cd454f1> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/blog/tutorials/construct-an-illustration-using-shapes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154408.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20210802234539-20210803024539-00068.warc.gz | en | 0.865705 | 1,486 | 2.9375 | 3 |
List of Foods That Constipate Toddlers
Your child might be suffering from constipation if he has dry, hard stools, pain in passing stools, streaks of blood on the outside of the stool or even abdominal discomfort 1. Toddlers are still discovering a wide variety of foods, but some of those foods might actually be causing your child’s constipation 1. Consider reducing or eliminating the following foods if you suspect constipation is an issue for your toddler 1.
Keeping Kids Healthy says that dairy products, particularly milk and cheese, can cause constipation 1. If your toddler is new to cow’s milk or other dairy products, introduce these foods slowly and watch for any signs that your child is constipated. If your child is drinking more than 12 to 16 ounces of cow’s milk per day, that might be the cause of her constipation 1. Keeping Kids Healthy says that switching to soy milk might help your child’s constipation, but discuss this switch with your doctor, as soy is a major allergen 1. Make sure that you’re also giving your child plenty of water and fruit juice in her cup to combat constipation 1. AskDrSears.com, the website of the Sears family of pediatricians, recommends adding flax oil to your toddler’s milk if you think that milk might be the culprit. Your toddler can have one tablespoon of flax oil a day. You also could sprinkle one tablespoon of ground flaxseed into a smoothie or onto your child’s cereal in the morning. Like flax oil, flaxseeds help ease constipation, but unlike flax oil, flaxseeds also have fiber, which also will help 1.
Eggs and Meat
The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse says that one cause of constipation is eating foods that are low in fiber, such as eggs and meat 1. Because these foods are high in protein and low in fiber, they can cause your toddler to be constipated. While protein is necessary for your toddler, consider pairing these foods with fiber-rich foods and a large glass of water to help ease constipation caused by protein intake 1. Fiber-rich foods include whole grains, raw, unpeeled fruits and vegetables, bran and popcorn.
Some Fruits and Vegetables
Cooked carrots and bananas can be constipating for your toddler, and high-fiber fruits and vegetables also have the potential to be constipating without an adequate amount of water intake. Make sure your child is eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. You might find that pears and prunes will help your child’s constipation 1.
Some High-Fiber Foods
AskDrSears.com says that while high-fiber diets are necessary for easing constipation, the problem could worsen if your child doesn’t also increase her water intake 1. When your child doesn’t drink enough water, her colon takes water from waste products, which causes stools to harden. For fiber to correctly empty the intestines, it needs ample amounts of water to do its job.
- Ryan McVay/Stockbyte/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:ec59a1dc-857c-4f56-af64-3e103f2dc164> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://howtoadult.com/list-foods-constipate-toddlers-6383225.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371620338.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20200406070848-20200406101348-00249.warc.gz | en | 0.944849 | 661 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Aracy, the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, is holding a Resilence in Children consultation session for professionals who work with children and their families, in Queensland.
Building resilience in children helps them cope and even thrive when life presents them with challenges or adversity. Building resilience also has potential broader benefits to society, through reduction in costs of mental health treatment and improving community participation by individuals.
But what does it mean to say that a child is resilient? What does it look like when a child has or lacks resilience? In what ways can we best understand the concept of resilience and build resilience in Australian children aged 0-12? A new national children’s resilience project is focusing on these questions is seeking input from professionals working with children and families.
The project aims to assist in the development of interventions that promote resilience in children by working to build more consensus on defining, measuring and building resilience in young children.
At each session, the Aracy team will share the latest thinking in children’s resilience research and facilitate a discussion. Your valuable input will:
- be an important part of our developing research,
- help clarify and make sense of the recommendations, and
- inform the development of a new national ‘guide to child resilience’ for professionals who work with children and families, focusing on the feasibility of the guide and ensuring its relevance and appropriateness for use in real-world practice settings.
Workshops will run for approximately 2.5 hours.
The session will be held on Thursday 27 April, between 10:30am and 1pm, at Robina Community Centre, on the Gold Coast.
For more information or to RSVP, please contact Child Resilience team at ARACY on 02 6248 2400 or email@example.com | <urn:uuid:628b55dc-a448-4152-a1af-c43d3a390a88> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://communitydoor.org.au/news/resilence-in-children-consultation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257645413.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20180318013134-20180318033134-00193.warc.gz | en | 0.92872 | 370 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Palm effect on health has been a topic of debate since it first entered the US market in the 1980s, where soy bean oil is widely used for cooking.
In the following years, palm oil was described as “unhealthy” and “hazardous”, even though it is widely used in palm oil-producing countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
It didn’t take long for palm oil producers to support and produce a body of research to discount these claims, resulting in confusion, which still prevails among consumers worldwide. Today, if one asks whether palm oil is healthy or unhealthy, the best answer is probably “it depends”.
In this article, we attempt to answer some questions about palm oil by looking at some of the common myths surrounding it.
Myth #1: Palm oil and its products are unhealthy because they are high in saturated fat.
Palm oil has higher levels of saturated fat compared with other plant oils such as olive oil and sunflower oil. Saturated fat is commonly found in animal fats and excessive consumption can raise total blood cholesterol levels, which can raise the risk of heart disease.
However, it also contains mono-unsaturated fats and small amounts of polyunsaturated fats, which are generally considered “good” fats that can help improve blood cholesterol levels and decrease our risk of heart disease. Therefore, the effect of palm oil on health and cholesterol levels is generally viewed by scientists and nutritionists as neutral.
There are two types of edible palm oil – red palm fruit oil (commonly called palm oil) and fractionated palm oil. Palm oil contains about 50% of saturated fats while fractionated palm oil can contain up to 80% of saturated fats.
According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), palm oil is different from palm kernel oil, which contains about 80% of saturated fats. “Palm oil is mainly used for edible purposes, while palm kernel oil is used for non-edible purposes such as making soaps, cosmetics and detergents,” says the MPOC in its webpage on frequently-asked questions about palm oil.
Myth #2: Palm oil is used to make margarine, which usually has trans fat. Thus, palm oil must also have trans fat.
Trans fats are formed by adding hydrogen to unsaturated fats that are mostly found in plant oils. This process, called hydrogenation, helps plant-based oils achieve the semi-solid states needed for the manufacturing of margarines, as well as confectionery and bakery products.
Various studies have shown that trans fat can increase our bad cholesterol levels and lower good cholesterol levels. In turn, this increases our risk of developing heart disease and stroke.
Most margarine products contain trans fat, but margarines made from palm oil are trans fat-free as the oil is naturally semi-solid at room temperature. Hydrogenation is thus unnecessary to make it more solid for the production of margarines and other products.
Myth #3: When palm oil is used to fry food, it can become toxic.
Palm oil is a naturally stable plant oil that can remain stable at frying temperatures of between 160°C and 200°C. Studies have found that palm oil can maintain its chemical composition at very high temperatures, making it suitable for frying and baking foods at those temperatures.
The oil can also resist oxidation at high temperatures. Oxidation is one of the chemical processes that make oil rancid.
Myth #4: Palm oil is not nutritious because it’s just fatty acids.
Besides fatty acids, palm oil also contains high levels of carotenoids and vitamin E. Carotenoids are natural pigments found in plants, which act as antioxidants when we consume them. Palm oil contains high concentrations of beta and alpha-carotene, which can be converted by the body to produce vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for our vision and immune system.
Palm oil also has antioxidant activity due to its vitamin E content. However, repeated use of palm oil through frying may decrease the level of these nutrients.
Myth #6: As palm oil does not contain trans fat, all palm oil-based products are good.
Even though palm oil does not contain trans fat, it is still high in saturated fat. Therefore, we should exercise moderation when consuming it. While palm oil is stable at high temperatures, repeated use of it can lead to the release of unhealthy substances such as free radicals and the decrease of nutrient levels.
As a rule of thumb, the Malaysian Dietary Guidelines recommends a limit of total fat intake to 20-30% of our daily calorie intake. This should be fulfilled by consuming healthier fats like unsaturated fats (from plant-based oils) and avoiding trans fats (animal fats).
To gain the nutritional benefits of different oils, we should use a healthy mix of palm oil, other plant-based oils and some animal fats moderately and appropriately.
> This article is courtesy of Nestlé.
Source : The Star | <urn:uuid:7fd5528a-125f-4787-b750-1fbf0258c8fb> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://mpoc.org.my/debunking-the-common-myths-about-palm-oil/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250589861.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20200117152059-20200117180059-00007.warc.gz | en | 0.96236 | 1,032 | 3.28125 | 3 |
I teach 7th and 8th grade students and have them for 2 years (loop with them). Since I have just gotten basic understanding of LEGO Robotics and Toolblox, I'd like to teach LEGO Robotics to 7th grade and Toolblox to 8th so that by the end of their 8th grade year, they'd know both. LEGO Robotics is more applicable for me to 7th graders because I think it'd go well with speed, force, motion and position. Toolblox is more applicable for my 8th graders because I teach chemistry, food webs and energy and I think they can really get creative with that. This page will help me to create a timeline over the course of the year so that my students gain the knowledge and skills to use Toolblox.
September - 1. Fastest way to enter the classroom (traffic jam theory), 2. What is a model? Why is it useful? (Draw first, make prototype), 3. Using instructions to communicate (programming), 4. Using symbols to communicate (video game "X" button means act/do in all systems, have students think about common symbols that have same meaning everywhere, in classroom, school), 5. Creating a program on paper for a task or game (getting through a maze).
October - 6. What is computer programming? 7. Universal systems model: goal, inputs, processes, outputs, feedback, 8. Intro to Scratch 9. Human robots (create large signs to use as an activity), 10. Scratch Challenge 1. 11. Scratch Challenge 2. 12. Scratch Challenge 3. 14. Intro to Toolblox
I am in the process of designing lesson plans that build this into a year long Engineering/Technology section in my Science class. Each # identifies a new lesson.
Starting with a starter game, have students modify a game to create a model or game that demonstrates understanding of a Science Standard.
Life Science, Standard 15: Explain how dead plants and animals are broken down by other living organisms and how this process contributes to the system as a whole.
Life ScienceStandard 16: Photosynthesis....
Physical Science 14: Recognize that heat is a form of energy and that temperature change results from adding or taking away heat from a system.
Physical Science: Explain the effect of heat on particle motion through a description of what happens to particles during each phase. | <urn:uuid:e6150933-e225-4769-befb-aa150de7cbca> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.slnova.org/resources/kareens-page/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496670601.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20191120185646-20191120213646-00333.warc.gz | en | 0.932891 | 490 | 3.65625 | 4 |
JIMMY Sentence, Example and UsageExamples and usage of JIMMY in prose and poetry
Usage of "JIMMY": Examples from famous English Poetry
To better understand the meaning of JIMMY, certain examples of its usage are presented.Examples from famous English prose on the use of the word JIMMY
"‘thanks, jimmy"- The word/phrase 'jimmy' was used by 'J. K. Rowling' in 'Harry potter and the half blood prince'.
"Jimmy always liked it better down east"- 'F. Scott Fitzgerald' has used the jimmy in the novel The great gatsby.
"Where have they got jimmy’1 free ebooks at planet ebook"- To understand the meaning of jimmy, please see the following usage by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The great gatsby.
Usage of "JIMMY" in sentences
- This term jimmy was used by Matt Strother in the Poem Amongst the vines.
"In Britain they call a jimmy and jemmy" | <urn:uuid:f9e8526d-59a9-424f-be50-bfce119eee4f> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://shabdkosh.raftaar.in/Meaning-of-JIMMY-in-Hindi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189032.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00185-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912031 | 230 | 2.734375 | 3 |
LA: With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
LA: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
LA: Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
LA: Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
LA: Participate in shared research and writing projects.
SCI: Investigate and explain that for an object to be seen, light must be reflected off the object and enter the eye.
VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.
VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas. | <urn:uuid:14aad7a1-35cf-4728-8b6d-c5ae912c13d3> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.crayola.com/for-educators/lesson-plans/lesson-plan/seeing-yourself.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948588251.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20171216143011-20171216165011-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.87884 | 173 | 3.5 | 4 |
The Maine Coon is a natural breed cat that developed in Maine, a state in the United States. The Maine Coon is the State Cat of Maine.
Maine Coons are known for their large size and friendliness. Maine Coons are one of the most popular cat breeds in the United States.
Origins of Maine Coon Cats
The exact origins of Maine Coon cats are unknown and several competing hypotheses have been suggested. Some of the more believable stories suggest that the Maine Coon origins stem from cats that arrived after crossing the Atlantic from Europe.
In The Book of the Cat by Frances Simpson (1903), she writes (page 325), “From my earliest recollection I have had from one to several long-haired cats of the variety often called Maine cats. As to how and when they came, I would say, like Topsy, they just “groomed” for their advent reaches far back beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant.”
The specific traits that make Maine Coons a recognizable breed developed through natural selection.
Maine Coons are one of the oldest naturally developed cat breeds in the United States and originated from the Northeast region of the United States. The Maine Coon name has evolved over time, with earlier names being Maine Angora and Maine Cats.
The most recognizable feature of the Maine Coon is the size. Along with the Norwegian Forest Cat, Maine Coons are one of the largest-sized domestic cats.
Adult Maine Coons on average grow to be between 10 – 16 inches tall. This is much taller than the average domestic cat at around 9 – 10 inches.
Maine Coons are also much longer than the typical house cat. Maine Coons average in length between 30 – 40 inches.
Maine Coon Fur
Maine Coons have shaggy medium to long fur and a well pronounced tail. Their thick coats help to keep the Maine Coon warm during the very cold Maine winters.
The large, tufted paws also help to keep the cat warm when walking over snow and ice. The large paws and tufts also function similar to snowshoes to keep Maine Coons from sinking into the snow.
The large ears of the Maine Coon are also tufted for warmth.
While the earliest Maine Coons were mostly brown in coloring, today Maine Coons come in all colors thanks to purposeful breeding. Maine Coon cats have 75 different color combinations and two different tabby coat patterns: classic and mackerel. The only color pattern that Maine Coon cats don’t have is Siamese (pointed).
Polydactylism in Maine Coon Cats
What are Maine Coons Known For?
Maine Coons have the nickname, “gentle giants” because they are known for being very people oriented and friendly. Some people liken the personality of Maine Coons to dogs because of how affable they are.
Maine Coons are also very intelligent cats and can be trained.
Unlike many domestic cats, Maine Coon are also know for their love of water. Maine Coons enjoy playing and being in water.
Best Cat at the First Major Cat Show
The first major cat show of general interest, the National Cat Show, was held in May of 1895 in New York City. The neutered male Maine Coon, named “Cosey” (sometimes written as Cosie), won over the judges at the first National Cat Show. A NY Times article from May 10, 1885 notes Cosey as wining first place in the Tabby, Any Color, No White category and notes on May 11, 1885 that Cosey was offered $10 in Gold and silver medal for best cat in show.
The entry in the catalog for the 1895 National Cat Show list Cosey as being a 1 year 9 month old black and gray tabby Angora.
While some sources listed Cosey as a female cat, articles written around the time refer to Cosey as a “he”. The March 5, 1986 edition of The NY Times listed Cosey as winning a First in the “Tabby, Any No, but With No White” under the Long-Hair Gelded Cats category, further supporting the contention that Cosey was a male Maine Coon cat.
Maine Coons Nearly Became Extinct
The introduction of Persian cats resulted in the declining popularity of the Maine Coon cat in the early 20th century. By the 1950s, the population of Maine Coon cats was so low, people were worried they might become extinct.
In 1968, the Maine Coon Breeders and Fanciers Association was formed in order to promote and repopularize the cat breed. The Maine Coon has since rebounded and has, once again, become a favored cat breed in the United States.
In 2020, the Cat Fancier’s Association named the Maine Coon as the third most favorite cat breed with Persians in fourth place.
Maine Coon Rescue
The Maine Coon Rescue is a 501c3 non-profit organization that rehomes Maine Coon and Maine Coon mix cats across the United States.
Cosey (c 1883). (n.d.). The History Project – CFA Foundation. https://cat-o-pedia.org/cosey.html
Maine Coon cat (n.d.). The Cat Fanciers’ Association. https://cfa.org/maine-coon-cat/
Simpson, F. (1903). The Book of the Cat. United Kingdom: Cassell, limited. | <urn:uuid:c09c6f9c-fe64-4ce2-af8e-319c2f81fb9d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.explorecats.com/facts-about-maine-coon-cats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334591.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925162915-20220925192915-00586.warc.gz | en | 0.952058 | 1,186 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Osteoporosis is a disease in which bone becomes extremely fragile. Bone is a complex living tissue that can be weakened by poor diet and lack of exercise.
As we age, bones begin to break down faster than new bone can be formed. Osteoporosis removes minerals from bones until they become so weak and brittle that they fracture very easily. Actions such as bending to pick up a newspaper, lifting a vacuum, or even coughing can cause a fracture. Some fractures, such as hip fractures, may require hospitalization or major surgery, and may result in disability or even death.
*Recommended guidelines only. Consult with your physician.
Osteoporosis is painless in its early stages. However, some people experience these symptoms:
Stay in Touch: | <urn:uuid:9d2ddc98-95f3-4595-8b14-e024b688e5c1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.lifelinescreening.com/What-We-Do/What-We-Screen-For/Osteoporosis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280280.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00524-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965158 | 158 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Gibbous ♑ Capricorn
Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 4 days on 1 April 2064 at 17:40.
Moon rises in the evening and sets in the morning. It is visible to the southwest and it is high in the sky after midnight.
Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1883" and ∠1917".
Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2064 after 24 days on 1 May 2064 at 02:08.
There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.
The Moon is 20 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 794 of Meeus index or 1747 from Brown series.
Length of current 794 lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 17 minutes. It is 2 hours and 24 minutes longer than next lunation 795 length.
Length of current synodic month is 4 hours and 33 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 2 hours and 30 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠181.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠206.1°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
5 days after point of perigee on 1 April 2064 at 05:29 in ♎ Libra. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 7 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 14 April 2064 at 02:09 in ♓ Pisces.
Moon is 380 628 km (236 511 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 7 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 406 249 km (252 431 mi).
8 days after its descending node on 29 March 2064 at 11:52 in ♌ Leo, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 4 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 11 April 2064 at 08:46 in ♒ Aquarius.
22 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
At 15:48 on this date the Moon is meeting its South standstill point, when it will reach southern declination of ∠-27.645°. Next 14 days the lunar orbit will move in opposite northward direction to face North declination of ∠27.520° in its northern standstill point on 21 April 2064 at 08:45 in ♊ Gemini.
After 10 days on 16 April 2064 at 19:02 in ♈ Aries, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy. | <urn:uuid:1f44db95-09bd-4b1a-87d8-7eae99fe5174> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://lunaf.com/lunar-calendar/2064/04/06/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267863407.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20180620011502-20180620031502-00442.warc.gz | en | 0.898433 | 713 | 2.53125 | 3 |
| Fiction over fact|
|How it didn't happen|
National mysticism is a form of pseudohistory in which religious or supernatural claims are incorporated in the national history of an ethnic group. It can be considered a mix of religion and nationalism. National mysticism is popular because it serves as a divine justification for ethnic bigotry.
National mysticism goes further than just nationalist myths. Beliefs such as "the United States has always been the ally of free peoples worldwide," "China is the center of the world," and "Russia never wanted a war; it has only fought wars when forced to out of self-defence," while both myths and national in their character, are not national mysticism. For these types of claims to rise to the level of national mysticism, a divine element, such as the fulfillment of a God-given mandate, needs to be a central element in the discourse.
National mysticism is often associated with ancient civilizations, as many later civilizations had monotheistic religions that prevented national mysticism from taking on too much of a religious character. The foundational myths of the Aztecs and the Romans are obvious examples of national histories that are more mythological than factual while the imperial dynasties of Egypt and the Inca empire, for example, claimed descendance from the gods. In ancient China, the Zhou dynasty invented the "mandate of heaven," claiming that heaven gave a ruling dynasty a mandate because they were good. If the dynasty was overthrown, it was because the ruler had become wicked and a new mandate was given to the over-throwers (this was used primarily as a justification to overthrow a dynasty). The origin of the Chinese state, therefore, was attributed, beginning with the Zhou, to an original mandate of heaven. The Old Testament is an example of Jewish national mysticism, while the sun language theory, which claims that all of the world's languages descend from proto-Turkish, was defended by the Turkish state into the 1920s and 1930s.
Other notable examples include the occultist beliefs of several high-ranking Nazi leaders, and neo-Nazis tossing around asinine references to ancient origins of "Aryan" people in Ultima Thule, Atlantis, seeing themselves as being descendants of Odin or the real descendants of Abraham, or ascribing prophet or demigod status to Hitler.
Anthropological Marxism in part utilizes national mysticism in its theory to explain societal evolution. To Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the theory's founders, the ruling class of a society creates and maintains the ideology of the society in order to control the lower classes, maintain power, and resist change (this is not surprising given that Marxism was formulated in the heyday of romantic nationalism). Part of an ideology, especially in more ancient societies, would be the the origins of the state, which the upper stratum of society mystifies to maintain a false consciousness in the lower classes, according to the theory.
National mysticism still plays a role in contemporary politics.
- The Serbian cultus around the Battle of Kosovo Polje of 1389, in which a Serb-led Christian coalition was defeated by the Ottoman Army.
- Similarly, Croatians perceives themselves as the historical Antemurale Christianitatis, often skillfully indulging in quote mining to prove it.
- The Hindutva movement in India. Hindutva advocates propagate the pseudoarcheological and pseudohistorical Indigenous Aryans theory.
- The Romanian nationalist ideology of Protochronism. Some Protochronists take their obsession with Romania's past to such an extent that they worship the Dacian god Zalmolxes.
- Thracomania, a Bulgarian alternative to Protochronism.
- The Aztec founding myth, while not usually accepted as an actual event, still holds an important position in Mexico's national symbolism.
- The personality cult around the Kim family in North Korea falls into this, especially with its claims of supernatural occurrences surrounding Kim il-Sung during his rise to power. Some of their woo also lionizes Koreans as "the cleanest race" and other such rhetoric, inherently superior to all others. This is allegedly to the point that women who become pregnant by Chinese men have been forced into having abortions, as otherwise this pollutes the "pure" Korean gene pool.
- In the United States, claims that the United States Constitution is a God-ordained document, and that the nation's expansion from "sea to shining sea" was the will of the Lord, persist despite the United States never being mentioned in the Bible.
- Some of the crankier forms of Asatru dip into this, especially in Scandinavia, the homeland of Norse mythology. Such national mysticism was heavily influential upon the black metal scene in the '90s, and often painted Christianity as a foreign invader that had oppressed the "true" religion of the Nordic people.
- Some nationalist English organizations, such as the Anglo-Saxon Foundation and Woden's Folk, are quite obsessed with Germanic paganism.
- American exceptionalism
- Civil religion
- Historical determinism
- Manifest destiny
- Pagan survivals
- Polytheistic reconstructionism
- Marxist Anthropology The University of Alabama Department of Anthropology
- Hubbes Laszlo-Attila (December 19, 2011) "A Comparative Investigation of Romanian and Hungarian Ethno-Pagan Blogs" | <urn:uuid:e9791fa6-e024-4c62-b9d5-9fbe225b5728> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/National_mysticism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912203947.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20190325112917-20190325134917-00179.warc.gz | en | 0.950509 | 1,108 | 3.109375 | 3 |
New guidelines relating to healthy blood pressure levels from some of the most important medical associations in the country were recently announced. These new criteria have important implications for the health of many Americans because they indicate that many more people may be suffering from high blood pressure than previously known.
Overview of the new blood pressure guidelines
Recently, researchers from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Health Association (AHA) unveiled a new set of guidelines that govern the healthy range of blood pressure in adults. Previously, high blood pressure, or hypertension, was not diagnosed until the patient had a systolic reading of 140 or more, and a diastolic reading of 90 or more.
Now, those thresholds have been lowered, resulting in nearly half of the adult population in the U.S. meeting the new criteria for a hypertension diagnosis. According to the new guidelines, systolic readings between 130 and 139, and diastolic readings between 80 and 89 indicate stage 1 hypertension. Similarly, Systolic readings between 120 and 129, and diastolic readings below 80 indicate elevated blood pressure.
What these changes mean for your heart health
Maintaining a healthy blood pressure is crucial for your long-term cardiovascular health. High blood pressure not only increases your risk of heart disease, but it also makes you more likely to develop atrial fibrillation as well. AFib increases the chances that you could suffer a potentially deadly stroke, meaning the new standards for blood pressure are crucial to understand. If you are one of the people who have hypertension based on these new blood pressure guidelines, it’s important to consult with a doctor as soon as possible to determine what kind of treatment is necessary.
Tips for managing high blood pressure
Medication is often used to treat hypertension, but there are also several lifestyle changes that doctors typically recommend that can help stabilize blood pressure. These tips can also be helpful if your blood pressure is in the “elevated” range, also known as pre-hypertension. These activities include:
- Getting proper exercise
- Quitting smoking
- Eating a reduced-salt diet that includes high amounts of fruits and vegetables
If you or a loved one are living with a heart rhythm disorder, contact Heart Rhythm Consultants. Dr. Dilip Mathew is board certified in Cardiology & Cardiac Electrophysiology and has been serving patients in Sarasota and surrounding cities including Port Charlotte, Venice, Tampa and Sun City Center for over a decade. | <urn:uuid:6ace853b-722e-4a73-90ec-41e5cb305e31> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://www.heartrhythmdoc.com/medical-experts-issue-new-blood-pressure-guidelines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439739177.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20200814040920-20200814070920-00329.warc.gz | en | 0.949342 | 509 | 2.96875 | 3 |
In July 1940, Churchill set up the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to conduct warfare in Europe by organising espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines. In its early days SOE also served as the core of the Auxiliary Units, a British resistance movement which would act in case of a German invasion.
These top-secret Auxiliary Units of six to eight carefully selected men operated all over Britain – estimated at about 3500 men in all. The units were especially active here in the North East, which is why the area is blessed with the remains of several secret bunkers and bases. Patrol leaders were often schoolmasters, while the bulk of recruits were farmers or farm workers, who had the necessary detailed knowledge of their local area.
Although members of local Home Guard platoons found their way into the Auxiliary Units there was not really much contact at any level, although some very senior Home Guard officers may have known about the Auxiliary Units as some of their individuals with the necessary qualities were being ‘poached’.
The Intelligence Officer for the North East of Scotland / Aberdeenshire was Capt. Reginald Gordon-Lennox, who was from the Scots Guards and based at Blairmore House at Glass near Huntly.
Pictured: Military personnel at Blairmore House 1942 (possibly Capt Gordon-Lennox in the car). | <urn:uuid:e14b1d06-ad7b-4042-88ba-ec29f356f62e> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://www.foggieloan.co.uk/virtual-museum-2/wartime-2/auxiliary-units/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187820930.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20171017072323-20171017092323-00366.warc.gz | en | 0.986223 | 276 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Nano-Hydroxyapatite: Is It Safe for Your Family?
Nano-Medical Hydroxyapatite is showing up in toothpastes as an alternative to fluoride. It is a gold standard ingredient for oral health products in Japan known to combat tooth decay by remineralizing and repairing teeth. Researchers have even started testing its use in sports drinks in the hopes of tackling the rise in adolescent tooth decay due to the increased intake of acidic or sugary drinks.
But how safe is it? What studies have been conducted concerning its application and effectiveness as a substitute to fluoride and how can you decide if it’s safe for you or your family?
What Is Hydroxyapatite?
Hydroxyapatite is a biocompatible material naturally occurring in our bones, teeth, and saliva as a mineral form of calcium apatite. It is used by our saliva to remineralization our teeth, making up 97% of our tooth enamel, 70% of detine, and 60% of our bones. The synthetic version is called nano-hydroxyapatite (Nano-HAp). Shown to help remineralize and repair teeth and bones, it is used in the field of dentistry, orthopedics, and osteopathy, found in products, and used in treatments.
But where does it come from and how exactly does it remineralize or repair teeth?
Where Does It Come From?
The first medical application of hydroxyapatite was in 1970 by NASA for astronauts returning from their missions and the zero gravity environment of space. Experiencing significant loss in teeth and bone mass on return, hydroxyapatite was used as a biomedical treatment to help repair and remineralize both. Acquiring the patent from NASA in 1978, Sangi Co Ltd in Japan introduced the first commercial use of hydroxyapatite as the main ingredient for their enamel-restoration toothpaste, which is still sold today.2
Where Is Nano-HAp Found?
Due to its biocompatibility by being present in our bodies, medical and dental applications of Nano-HAp are prevalent. Its remineralizing capabilities provides growth and regenerations capabilities resulting in its use as a biomaterial ingredient in both medical and dental products and treatments.
Some products that use Hydroxyapatite include:
- Nutritional Supplements
- Medical Paste & Powder
- Dental Abrasive
Some treatments that use Hydroxyapatite include:
- Artificial Teeth and Bone
- Tissue Repair
- Orthopedic Implant Coatings to improve biocompatibility
- Protein-binding agent for Chromatography & Bacteria Culture
What Does the Toothpaste Taste Like?
Various flavors are available in toothpaste that contains Nano-HAp that mirror those of traditional fluoride flavors, such as the traditional spearmint. Children’s flavors are available such as “Watermelon,” “Bubblegum,” and “Berry” and are more subtle feature lower concentrations of Nano-HAp. The consensus from users has been there is no difference in flavor when compared to fluoride products although it is less harsh than fluoride. The biggest difference is not taste, but how it makes their teeth feel.
How Does Nano-HAp Feel on Your Teeth?
Going beyond what it tastes like, the real difference users state about using Nano-HAp over fluoride toothpaste is how it makes their teeth feel. Ask any users or search through the product review sections of Nano-HAp toothpaste and you will discover people stating it makes their teeth feel:
- Less sensitivity to hot or cold
Thinking and feeling something works is a start, but what is the sciences and research to prove or disprove what people are saying about Nano-HAp toothpaste?
Is It a Marketing Scheme or Does It Really Work?
Using Nano-HAp is said to help remineralize and repair teeth and bones, which in theory it seems to work. Hydroxyapatite remineralizes teeth by replacing lost minerals such as calcium and phosphates caused by high levels of acid or bacteria. Remineralization takes place when filling the microscopic cracks in our teeth created by tooth decay, and used in our saliva to do just that for our teeth. This is said to help repair teeth damaged by cavities while preventing cavities by breaking down first before it reaches tooth enamel. Bonding to proteins such as plaque or bacteria when brushing your teeth, hydroxyapatite is an antimicrobial agent and also tackles plaque, leading to the conclusion that it actually does what it says it is capable of doing.
How Does Nano-HAp Compare to Fluoride?
Fluoride has been a proven cornerstone for oral care since 1912. Products featuring Nano-HAp focus on restoring and remineralizes teeth, compared to fluoride working on remineralizing teeth via our salvia. In regard to protecting teeth prevent tooth decay, Nano-HAp is less resistant to acid than fluoride. Fluoride creates a dense zone of protection above whereas hydroxyapatite penetrates to the very bottom.
Considering users state it makes their teeth feel stronger, what research can back-up these claims? A research study published June 2011 in the Journal of Dentistry found “toothpaste(s) containing Nano-HAp revealed higher remineralizing effects compared to amine fluoride toothpastes”.3 This is backed by a study conducted 2016 published in the Indian Orthopedic Society Journal investigating remineralization of nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste versus conventional fluoride toothpaste finding “Nano-HAp toothpaste (Aclaim and Apagard) on daily application will provide maximum protection against enamel demineralization in orthodontic patients when compared to fluoride toothpaste (Colgate Total)”.4
Further research reveals different findings with a separate study published 2018 in the Journal of Contemporary Dental Practice investigating remineralization (specifically for younger permanent teeth and with the inclusion of pH balancing) that found “there was no significant difference found between fluoride varnish group and Nano-HAp paste group.”5 This leads us to the conclusion that although a viable alternative to fluoride, research has not confirmed Nano-HAp products as superior but instead, recommended them over fluoride in certain situations.
Is Hydroxyapatite Safe?
Being a naturally occurring organic material within our bodies means it is biocompatible and safer than most other dental products or treatments on the market. This means it does not induce toxicity such as the issue of overexposure and ingestion of fluoride known as fluorosis nor inflammation when it is used to spur bone growth & tooth repair. Although rare allergic cases have been reported, the primary issues with Hydroxyapatite come into play when it is being taken as a supplement. Issues that can arise in this instance includes: headache or fatigue, dry mouth, frequent urination, flushing or sweating, and stomach discomfort.
Being a non-toxic and biocompatible material means it can be ingested, making it in many respects safer for human consumption over other dental products. Studies have been conducted around the world including a number in Japan by the Sangi Co LTD to demonstrate its effectiveness and safety with children. Majority of results indicated not only is it safe for children, but in some cases recommended. In the previous study referenced from the Journey of Contemporary Dental Practices it concluded: “Nano-HAp is a favoured alternative to fluoride specifically for patients requiring a lower fluoride concentration – such as children, pregnant women, or those at high risk of dental fluorosis.”5
What Are the Benefits?
If deciding to use products featuring Hydroxyapatite, there are a number of benefits. Its ability to stimulate bone growth, remineralization, and biocompatibility has made it a favoured ingredient in both dental and osteo products and treatments.
Some of the benefits from using Hydroxyapatite includes:
- Makes Teeth Whiter, Translucent, and Glossier
- Reduced Tooth Sensitivity and Pain Relief
- Antimicrobial & Fights Soft Tissue Infections (Fights Pathogens such as P Gingivalis & Candid)
- Helps fight and prevent cavities
- Remineralizes and repairs teeth
- Bonds bones
Recommendations for Use
When using toothpaste that has Nano-HAp, mouthwash or flossing should be done first as it is not recommended rinsing immediately after brushing your teeth. This allows time for the active ingredient Nano-HAp to penetrate and do its job. Heavy and long time coffee drinkers or smokers have indicated it helps whiten and brighten their teeth to reverse yellowing, making Nano-HAp toothpaste a good consideration if you find your teeth are looking transparent and want an alternative whitening option.
Products featuring Nano-HAp offer another way to remineralise and protect teeth aside from traditional fluoride products. With today’s families ingesting foods and beverages that are higher in sugar or acidity, the prevention of tooth decay is a critical challenge for dental professionals. Shown to be a comparable substitute for fluoride, research indicates that toothpaste containing Nano-HAp is safe for children and has been the gold standard in oral health in Japan for over 40 years.
Whether using toothpaste with fluoride or Nano-HAp, it is recommended to be used in conjunction with proper oral care habits such as avoiding certain food and beverages (high in sugar, starches, acid), brushing twice daily, mouthwash, flossing, and regular visits to your dentist. Consult your dentist about whether using products with Nano-HAp is right for your or your family, how to use them properly, and contact us directly as we’re happy to answer any questions to make oral care easy instead of a chore.
Next Steps to Achieving a Beautiful Smile
While following these dietary tips is a great step towards a healthy mouth, it’s just a part of the bigger picture. Be sure to follow other oral hygiene procedures such as brushing, flossing, and visiting your dentist every six months.
To schedule a check-up or cleaning, call us at 904-269-6558 or fill out our online form.
1 Pepla, Erlind. “Nano-Hydroxyapatite and Its Applications in Preventive, Restorative and Regenerative Dentistry: a Review of Literature.” Annali Di Stomatologia, 2014, doi:10.11138/ads/2014.5.3.108. Published in the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Article from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4252862/
2 “What is Nano Medical Hydroxyapatite.” Nano Medical Hydroxyapatite | Oral Science, www.oralscience.com/en/ingredients/mhap/.
3 Peter Tschoppe, Daniela L. Zandim, PeterMartus, Andrej M.Kielbassa. Enamel and Dentine Remineralization by Nano-Hydroxyapatite Toothpastes: A comparative In vitro study. Journal of Dentistry 2011;Vol.39, Iss.06;430-437. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300571211000832
4 Singh A, Shetty B, Mahesh C M, Reddy VP, Chandrashekar B S, Mahendra S. Evaluation of efficiency of two nanohydroxyapatite remineralizing agents with a hydroxyapatite and a conventional dentifrice: A comparative In vitro study. J Indian Orthod Soc [serial online] 2017;51:92-102. Available from: http://www.jios.in/text.asp?2017/51/2/92/204602
5 Y: Daas I, Badr S, Osman E. Comparison between Fluoride and Nano-hydroxyapatite in Remineralizing Initial Enamel Lesion: An in vitro Study. J Contemp Dent Pract 2018;19(3):306-312. Available from: http://www.jaypeejournals.com/eJournals/ShowText.aspx?ID=13404&Type=FREE&TYP=TOP&IN=_eJournals/images/JPLOGO.gif&IID=1044&Value=24&isPDF=YES | <urn:uuid:8d2b5c58-d54f-4ca9-ab43-4c5797eeaeba> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://eagleharbordentist.com/nano-hydroxyapatite-safe-for-family/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964362879.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20211203121459-20211203151459-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.913706 | 2,671 | 3 | 3 |
Just the word “espresso” itself indicates speed, a special purpose, and made to order. The concept of the espresso is best summarized with the saying “the consumer not the espresso must wait.” If the espresso is left to wait for consumption, the foam dissipates and the art of the espresso is lost in the dry wallsof the cup and the patchy surface of the drink. Additionally, the smoothness of the taste is lost.
Italian Espresso: a small cup of concentrated brew prepared on request by extraction of ground roasted coffee beans with hot water under pressure for a defined short time.
While it might not be entirely necessary to understand the intricate chemical and physical structures of the coffee bean, the basics should be understood in order to adequately appreciate the art form of grinding the coffee bean. Whether it’s being ground mechanically or manually, the ultimate goal is to break the bean into smaller particles to create more surface area to allow a better infusion of flavor into water.
In addition to its dependency on good water and a quality roast, the brew is also largely dependent on a sound grinding process. Within realm of grinding, there are several... | <urn:uuid:60d81a45-16f1-4483-b46b-75e040ba76a8> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.espresso-services.com/espresso-blog/topic/commercial-coffee-grinders | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510427.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20230928162907-20230928192907-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.936859 | 239 | 2.546875 | 3 |
HOUSTON, Texas -- Six-year-old Valentin Marroquin went from being apparently healthy one moment to battling leukemia the next. As his mother Rosario Marroquin started searching for answers, she kept coming back to their Houston, Texas, neighborhood, and the stench that often envelops it.
Valentin Marroquin of Houston, Texas, was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of six.
"We're the stinky neighborhood," she said. "But we've gotten so used to it that we don't know that's just how we smell."
The Marroquin family lives in the Manchester area of Houston, next to the Houston ship channel, the largest petrochemical complex in the United States. Day after day, oil refineries and petrochemical companies pump hazardous pollutants, including known cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and 1-3 butadiene, into the air.
"I'm not ignorant," Rosario told CNN. "Kids get sick in the country in the fresh air, but this had something to do with it." See the source of the smell they fear »
No one can say for certain that Valentin's illness was caused by the air he breathed, but earlier this year, the University of Texas released a study showing that children who live within two miles of the ship channel have a 56 percent greater chance of getting leukemia than kids living elsewhere.
It's the first study showing an association between the channel's air quality and childhood leukemia. The health risks from the shipping canal are not limited to cancer. The chemicals in the air can cause other serious health problems, such as respiratory diseases and birth defects.
Tom McGarity, a professor of environmental law at the University of Texas, believes such conditions are allowed to persist because 90 percent of the people who call the ship channel home are Hispanic and many of them are poor.
"If these plants were omitting these kinds of levels in River Oaks, it wouldn't be happening, I promise," he said. River Oaks is one of the more affluent communities in Houston.
The connection between poverty and poor environmental conditions is not limited to Texas. In many of the countries visited for CNN's "Planet in Peril" documentary, such as Cambodia, Thailand, Madagascar, Chad, China and Brazil, it is the poor and disenfranchised who bear the brunt of environmental burdens.
A similar dynamic plays out in the United States, where class and very often race can determine where one lives. In 2005, for example, The Associated Press reported blacks were 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution was suspected of posing the greatest health danger.
"It's really mind-boggling that we could kind of write off, you know, a whole section of our society," said Majora Carter, founder of the Sustainable South Bronx, which fights what Carter calls "environmental racism" in New York and around the country.
"No one should have to bear the brunt of environmental burdens and not enjoy any environmental benefits, and right now race and class ... really determine the good things like parks and trees or the bad stuff like waste facilities and power plants," she said.
Michael Honeycutt, chief toxicologist for the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality, says progress has been made in reducing toxins around the Houston Ship Channel.
There is "one third less pollution in the Houston Ship Channel this year, compared to last year, because of our approach of bringing companies in, telling them what we want," Honeycutt said. "And we're seeing those reductions."
"Our job is to protect human health and the environment," he said. "What's happened is it's issues of timing -- what's a safe level, what's not a safe level." Honeycut said scientists are generating new data all the time and that certain emissions or areas formerly thought to be safe may no longer appear to be.
Houston Mayor Bill White has pledged to reduce the level of air toxins for communities along the ship channel.
"We will have both the political and legal battle with the industry until we get widespread agreement to do so," White said.
A Rice University study released in 2006 showed that Houston has a higher concentration of benzene and 1-3 butadiene than anywhere else in the United States. The annual average of 1-3 butadiene, a carcinogen, was at least 20 times higher than any other city in America.
Companies in the ship channel told CNN they've started voluntarily limiting their emissions. They also point out that they haven't broken any laws. There are no laws in either Texas or at the federal level that limit the amount of hazardous air pollutants these companies pump into the air.
There is an effort under way to get a law passed in Texas, but Professor McGarity said it's going to be an uphill battle because the oil and chemical industry has deep roots in Texas.
"That's going to be reflected at the top among the political appointees who are more part of this, shall we say 'Wild West' culture, where anything goes," he said.
Now 10 years old, Valentin's cancer is in remission, and he and his family still live in the neighborhood they think poisoned him, but they are speaking out about their experience. The Maroquins say they haven't left because they can't afford to go anywhere else.
"When you're sitting out there, when you're watching them playing, you think, is it going to happen?" Rosario asks. "Are they breathing it now?" E-mail to a friend | <urn:uuid:b9e8dcb2-9afc-4e16-af47-32b1989618a9> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/18/poor.environment/index.html?iref=nextin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738662705.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173742-00051-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971807 | 1,139 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Prairies, savannas, woodlands and wetlands offer an impressive array of habitat for birds, wildlife and plants. In the prairie, you'll find native plants such as prairie dropseed, big bluestem, goldenrod and smooth rose. The woods, sitting atop the bluff lands of Lake Michigan, contain large stands of white, bur and black oaks.
Five state endangered species take refuge here––one is so rare its existence in the nation is threatened. Our ecologists and volunteers give special attention to these species, but also work hard to protect and restore the preserve's many other habitats. We've planted more than 1,000 native trees and shrubs here. We also use several techniques to keep non-native species at bay, such as controlled burning and selective clearing.
Lyons Woods is a birder’s paradise and part of the Lake Michigan flyway. Migrants that pass through during spring and fall migration are northern goshawk, townsend's solitaire, and white-winged crossbill.
It also has one of the highest diversities of breeding warblers of any natural area in Lake County, including the common yellowthroat, the blue-winged warbler and the ovenbird. An observation deck makes it easy to view the variety of bird species and other wildlife found here.
In winter, the evergreen grove by the parking lot often shelters several birds not normally seen this far south, such as the long-eared owl. Once a tree nursery, the evergreens are not native to this area. | <urn:uuid:154c0456-da22-4d60-bab1-1eace0fd7896> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.lcfpd.org/lyons-woods/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510781.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001041719-20231001071719-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.95999 | 321 | 3.421875 | 3 |
What terrors await us in the depths of the ocean? Giant spider crabs? Grotesque goblin sharks? …animate spaghetti?
Sure, why not? A video showcasing a bizarre underwater spaghetti creature was uploaded to YouTube on August 6, 2015.
The creature, filmed by workers affiliated with the oil and gas company BP on June 15, 2015, was located near the coast of Angola, a country in southern Africa. Stunned by its pasta-like features, the crew took to calling it the “Flying Spaghetti Monster,” in reference to the satirical religion Pastafarianism (or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).
The creature was later identified by the National Oceanography Centre’s SERPENT Project. It’s a type of animal known as a siphonophore, specifically Bathyphysa conifer, which lives deep in the ocean. This one was found 1,325m (over 4,000ft) below.
What’s most interesting about Bathyphysa conifer is that it’s a “colonial animal,” which according to the Christian Science Monitor is made up of “many different multicellular organisms known as zooids.” Together, these zooids form a larger, more complex organism — in this case, one that looks like some kind of spilled spaghetti abomination. | <urn:uuid:65ad342d-a1b4-430c-8faf-4aa72996ad36> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.strangerdimensions.com/2015/08/17/bp-crew-videotapes-spaghetti-like-monster-near-angola/?replytocom=8411 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400196999.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20200920062737-20200920092737-00342.warc.gz | en | 0.961524 | 281 | 2.6875 | 3 |
And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:27-30)
Carrying For Others
The New Testament Christians did not have a lot of history to look back on for examples or admonition. What they did was fresh, new, and learning as they grew as children of God. On the Day of Pentecost, the first converts were devout Jews. The first disciples of Christ came from the people of Abraham. Gentiles were brought into the kingdom later and a melting pot of cross-racial, social-economic blending of cultures made up the infant church. Growing in their relationships, early Christian learned how to care for one another putting the prejudices of the past behind them. It was not easy. Many of the appeals of the early writers exhorted the Christian not to think of themselves more highly than they should but have the mind of Christ. This was a spirit of sacrifice for their fellow saint supplying the needs of suffering Christians.
The famine that happened in the days of Claudius Caesar highlighted the love brethren had for one another. It is easy to stay disconnected from the problems of those who live far away but this was not the case of early Christians. The disciples, each according to their need or ability, sent relief to their fellow brethren. Whether they knew who these people were is not likely. It did not matter. Their fellow Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ, were in need and that is all that mattered. Brotherly love comes from a heart that wants to help the ones in need. Some disciples could give more than others but the amount was not the lesson. The disciples of Antioch decided to do what they could with what they had to care for the needs of those who were in dire want.
Jesus taught the lesson of the man who helped his fellow man left for dead by robbers. Human nature is on display in this parable when you have the heart of the thieves who say, “What is thine is mine, we will take it.” There are a lot of people like that in the world. The only thing they want out of life is what they can take. And then there is the spirit of the priest and Levite who walk by the injured man with little concern. The priest completely ignores the man and the Levite comes over to see the condition of the man but does nothing. Their spirit is likened to those who say, “What is mine is mine and I will keep it.” This spirit is prevalent among many. There is no love to help others. They blame the man who should not have been on the road in the first place allowing himself to be robbed and so he must suffer the consequence. Finally, a man comes on the scene from a mongrel nation, despised by the Jew, hated because of their half-breed heritage of Jew and Gentile. A Samaritan sees the injured man dying on the side of the road and has compassion. He binds up the wounds, carries him to an inn where he will stay with him all night and leaves the next day paying for all expenses and promises to return to make certain the injured man is well cared for. He did all he could do according to his ability and he cared for his fellow man.
The spirit of a Christian is seeing the sacrifice of Jesus and all He gave for the redemption of man. God’s children are compassionate and caring for others. The early disciples gave of their means to their fellow saints. They did not have much to give but those in the famine had nothing. Being a child of God is an example of benevolent living and giving. The heart is filled with love for others and the hand is the ready agent of change for those who need relief. A great famine afflicted the whole world but the saints in Judea received the love of God through the benevolent hand of their brethren in Antioch. People caring for people. What a wonderful story of love.
Sympathy is your pain in my heart. (Anonymous) | <urn:uuid:5f99a1a2-9b32-4921-ad4b-170ff4c09f57> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://heatonkent.com/2017/02/23/carrying-for-others/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583745010.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20190121005305-20190121031305-00273.warc.gz | en | 0.984467 | 898 | 2.625 | 3 |
1859 - 1873
1859 Courthouse Improvements
In September 1859 the courthouse underwent some improvements “determined by the County Court.” The front and rear doors were removed leaving only one entrance to the building, the one facing the “law offices” in the court yard. The Rockingham Register commented that the changes “might add to the comfort of persons in the building, but they will by no means improve the outside appearance of the court house.”
The Telegraph Office
The court yard was the site of numerous small buildings over the years. Some of these were commercial in nature and not part of county government. One of these buildings was the Western Union telegraph office on the southeast corner of the square. This small, brick building was originally intended to be the office of a county official, but it was soon converted for use as a telegraph office when Harrisonburg was connected to the outside world by telegraph lines. George Ribble, Frank Robinson, and Allan Thompson were the telegraphers.
A Town Clock
In 1868 the editor of the Register lamented the fact that there was no town clock in all of Harrisonburg. He called for one to be installed in the steeple of the courthouse, stating that one there would be both “useful and ornamental. . . . The money could be raised easily.”
The much-needed clock was soon installed in the courthouse tower. Twenty years later, in January 1888, the courthouse clock was the villainous character in an event that could easily have turned tragic. Weights, which powered the clock and were described by The State Republican as “huge,” loosened from their chains and fell under the inevitable pull of gravity toward mother earth. The massive weights crashed through every floor of the courthouse and ended up lodged in the earth under the ground floor. Fortunately, no one was injured. The newspaper commented tersely, “Such death traps should be abolished.”
One may have noticed that several of the writers quoted thought of the courthouse yard as a park, a meeting place for leisurely congregating and passing the time. State laws had been passed requiring court yards to be convenient places for gathering.
After leaving office, county surveyor and former Superintendent of Schools Jasper Hawse spent considerable time and effort resurveying the original courthouse square and its metes and bounds.
*Excerpt from Dale MacAllister’s Courthouse Square in Early Harrisonburg and Activities Connected with Court Days. | <urn:uuid:f67eb6bc-8f9c-4302-b543-921e67027ddd> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.rockinghamcountyva.gov/391/1859---1873 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662550298.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20220522220714-20220523010714-00133.warc.gz | en | 0.979958 | 517 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Aging is one of the most typical indicators of hearing loss and let’s be honest, try as we might, we can’t stop aging. But were you aware hearing loss can lead to health issues that are treatable, and in some cases, can be prevented? You may be surprised by these examples.
A widely-quoted 2008 study that studied over 5,000 American adults discovered that diabetes diagnosed people were twice as likely to have some level of hearing loss when mid or low frequency sounds were utilized to screen them. High frequency impairment was also likely but not as severe. The investigators also determined that individuals who were pre-diabetic, in a nutshell, individuals with blood sugar levels that are higher, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes, were more likely by 30 % to have hearing loss than people who had healthy blood sugar. A more recent 2013 meta-study (that’s right, a study of studies) discovered that there was a consistent connection between hearing loss and diabetes, even while when all other variables are accounted for.
So it’s solidly determined that diabetes is associated with a higher risk of loss of hearing. But why would diabetes put you at increased chance of suffering from loss of hearing? Science is somewhat at a loss here. Diabetes is associated with a wide range of health problems, and particularly, can result in physical harm to the extremities, eyes and kidneys. One theory is that the the ears may be similarly impacted by the condition, damaging blood vessels in the inner ear. But it could also be associated with overall health management. A 2015 study underscored the link between hearing loss and diabetes in U.S veterans, but most notably, it found that individuals with uncontrolled diabetes, in essence, that those with untreated and uncontrolled diabetes, it discovered, suffered worse. It’s important to have your blood sugar checked and talk with a doctor if you believe you could have undiagnosed diabetes or may be pre-diabetic. Also, if you’re having trouble hearing, it’s a good idea to get it tested.
All right, this is not really a health issue, since we aren’t dealing with vertigo, but having a bad fall can start a cascade of health concerns. And though you might not think that your hearing would affect your possibility of slipping or tripping, research from 2012 found a substantial link between hearing loss and risk of a fall. Investigating a sample of over 2,000 adults between the ages of 40 and 69, researchers discovered that for every 10 dB rise in hearing loss (as an example, normal breathing is about 10 dB), the danger of falling increased 1.4X. This relationship held up even for those with mild loss of hearing: Within the past year individuals with 25 dB of hearing loss were more likely to have fallen than individuals with normal hearing.
Why should having trouble hearing cause you to fall? There are quite a few reasons why hearing problems can lead to a fall other than the role your ears play in balance. Though this research didn’t delve into what had caused the participant’s falls, it was suspected by the authors that having difficulty hearing what’s going on around you you (and missing a car honking or other important sounds) might be one problem. But it could also go the other way if problems hearing means you’re paying more attention to sounds than to what’s around you, it might be easy to trip and fall. What’s promising here is that treating hearing loss could potentially minimize your chance of having a fall.
3: High Blood Pressure
Multiple studies (such as this one from 2018) have revealed that hearing loss is linked to high blood pressure and some (including this 2013 study) have established that high blood pressure may actually accelerate age-related hearing loss. Even after controlling for variables such as noise exposure or if you smoke, the link has been rather consistently discovered. The only variable that matters appears to be sex: The connection betweenloss of hearing and high blood pressure, if your a man, is even stronger.
Your ears aren’t part of your circulatory system, but they’re pretty close to it: along with the numerous tiny blood vessels inside your ear, two of the body’s main arteries run right near it. This is one explanation why individuals who have high blood pressure often suffer from tinnitus, the pulsing they’re hearing is actually their own blood pumping. (That’s why this kind of tinnitus is called pulsatile tinnitus; it’s your own pulse your hearing.) The main theory behind why high blood pressure can accelerate loss of hearing is that high blood pressure can also do permanent damage to your ears. Each beat has more pressure if your heart is pumping harder. The smaller blood vessels in your ears could possibly be injured by this. Through medical intervention and changes in lifestyle, high blood pressure can be managed. But if you believe you’re suffering from hearing loss even if you believe you’re not old enough for the age-related stuff, it’s a good idea to consult a hearing care professional.
Danger of dementia could be higher with loss of hearing. A six year study, begun in 2013 that followed 2,000 individuals in their 70’s found that the chance of cognitive impairment increased by 24% with just minimal hearing loss (about 25 dB, or slightly louder than a whisper). 2011 research by the same researchers which analyzed people over more than ten years found that when the subject’s hearing got worse, the more likely it was that he or she would get dementia. (Alzheimer’s was also discovered to have a similar link, though a less statistically significant one.) Based on these findings, moderate hearing loss puts you at 3 times the risk of a person who doesn’t have hearing loss; one’s danger is nearly quintupled with extreme hearing loss.
However, though researchers have been successful at documenting the connection between cognitive decline and hearing loss, they still aren’t sure as to why this occurs. If you can’t hear well, it’s hard to socialize with people so in theory you will avoid social situations, and that social withdrawal and lack of mental stimulation can be incapacitating. A different hypothesis is that loss of hearing overloads your brain. Essentially, because your brain is putting so much of its recourses into understanding the sounds around you, you might not have much energy left for recalling things such as where you put your medication. Staying in close communication with friends and family and keeping the brain active and challenged could help here, but so can treating hearing loss. If you’re capable of hearing clearly, social situations become much easier to deal with, and you’ll be capable of focusing on the important things instead of trying to figure out what someone just said. So if you are coping with hearing loss, you need to put a plan of action in place including having a hearing test. | <urn:uuid:17917ac1-c531-443d-a766-59ad9128ae5c> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.cchaid.com/hearing-loss-articles/several-medical-conditions-have-been-associated-with-hearing-loss/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540525598.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20191209225803-20191210013803-00385.warc.gz | en | 0.968931 | 1,449 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Not long ago Imja Lake was Imja Glacier. What that means for the people of the area, and the world as a whole is the centerpiece of Alton Byers and company’s latest expedition high in the Himalayas to a remote region of Nepal, just a few miles from Mount Everest.
A long-time NG explorer himself, Alton is joined by a diverse team of researchers including NG Emerging Explorer T.H. Culhane and NG Fellow Chris Rainier. Culhane is focusing on bringing homegrown renewable energy to the people of the region, while Rainier is helping to get people access and training on hi-tech social tools to help them share their stories and be part of the global conversation about our world and how we live in it.
The core of the geological research though is Imja Lake itself. As a glacier it deposited tons of rocky rubble into giant moraines surrounding itself. While the glacier itself has now melted and become the lake, there is a chance that the moraines that hold the lake back might in fact still be made partly of large icy cores. If so, and if those cores melt, the moraines could weaken, allowing the lake to escape, resulting in a potentially catastrophic flood for the communities below.
Using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) the team is searching for these icy cores, and working to discover more about the entire system of lake, mountain, and valley.
While all this is going on, the team is also busily blogging every day. Follow their updates at Adaptation Partnership and learn how people and the land itself are adapting to our changing climate in one of the most extreme environments on Earth.
Learn More About the 2011 Imja Lake Expedition | <urn:uuid:7c25f215-ec3e-466c-8074-534c6873abe1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/05/25/a-new-lake-renewable-energy-and-cultural-preservation-at-the-top-of-the-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700212265/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103012-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946895 | 356 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Dubai: Marine scientists at Atlantis, The Palm, took the first steps on Thursday toward creating a new colony of seahorses to help rejuvenate diminishing native herds of the tiny creatures in UAE waters.
Looking much like the proud father, Dennis Blom, manager of the Lost Chambers at Atlantis, plunged into the clear blue waters off Port Jebel Ali with two plastic bags filled with 50 rare newborn seahorses he gingerly raised in nursery tanks at the hotel marine sanctuary.
On a glassy sea in late morning, Blom then swam to the seabottom three metres below and delicately released his tiny charges, whose scientific name is Hippocampus Hystrix, into thick croppings of dark green seagrass flourishing in the protected waters of a nearby deserted beach.
“As soon as they were in the seagrass, they disappeared,” said Blom after resurfacing near a support vessel loaned to the project by Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG).
The disappearing trick is an innate survival skill in which seahorses’ outer appearance can be changed to emulate the colours and patterns of their environment to give the marine animals superb camouflage.
At a length of roughly four centimetres, the newborn seahorse fry need every evolutionary advantage against larger predators that they can muster in order to survive to adulthood where they can reach 10cm in length and live for up to three years in the wild.
The seahorse release project is important, Blom said.
“Seahorses are native to UAE waters and they are protected in their home waters,” he said. “With projects such as this, hopefully we can increase their numbers. Before, there used to be a lot of them.”
The release site is an ideal setting for the seahorse colony project because the seafloor has large swathes of natural seagrass, a natural home in which the seahorses can hide. Strong tidal flows in the area will ensure that there is lots of natural live food for the seahorses to establish a sustainable colony, Blom said.
“There is a lot of food around here, the low tide brings in a lot of food and it will help them in the long run,” he said. “We are trying to bring back a whole colony here to re-seed other new colonies.”
The project has received the full backing of Trakhees -- Environment, Health and Safety (EHS).
Marine colleagues at Atlantis, The Palm, are rooting for the new seahorse conservation project.
Steve Kaiser, vice-president of Marine Sciences and Engineering at Atlantis, said any project aimed at repopulating depleted marine stocks raises the hopes of everyone.
“The birth of any threatened species helps us further our goal of educating and enlightening people about marine life and ecosystems,” said Kaiser.
“By releasing a number of these new seahorses into the Gulf, we hope to help bring their numbers back from the brink.”
Blom, meanwhile, said that the 50 seahorses released into the wild were only fed live food since hatching to help boost their introduction into the wild where they will continue to eat zooplankton in the lazy ebb and flow of Gulf underwater currents.
As part of this year’s successful breeding program of the species at Atlantis aquariums, about one third were released into the wild while a further 100 seahorses born and bred at Atlantis are being raised in a small protected aquarium designed to help raise public awareness about the endangered species.
Inside the The Lost Chambers Aquarium, two species of seahorses, the Hippocampus Hystrix and Hippocampus Reidii, are on display for curious public visitors.
Atlantis marine scientists encourage visitors to help endangered seahorses, not hinder them by purchasing dried seahorse products used for medicine or for decoration.
• The males carry seahorse eggs for about one month before they hatch
• Seahorses are monogamous and stay their entire lives with their partner
• Seahorses perform intricate dancing rituals in the water before mating
• Juveniles are exact replicas of the adults at birth and are about five-six mm in length.
SOURCE: Atlantis, The Palm | <urn:uuid:7fd93026-6dd4-4e13-a3e6-f99dc44a0b50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/atlantis-releases-herd-of-seahorses-into-gulf-1.1068019 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702957608/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111557-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947375 | 892 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On Sunday, January 29, 64th World Day of Leprosy, during the Angelus Pope Francis recalled the anniversary with these words: "Today we celebrate the World Day of Leprosy. This disease, although declining, is still among the most feared, and affects the poorest and the most marginalised. It is important to fight this disease, but also the discrimination it engenders. I encourage all those engaged in assistance and social rehabilitation of people affected by leprosy, to whom we assure our prayer".
The Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Peter Turkson, published a message entitled "Eradication of leprosy and the reintegration of people afflicted by hanseniasis: a challenge not yet won" in which he stated "we should all commit ourselves – and at all levels – to ensuring that in all Countries policies relating to the family, to work, to schools, to sport, and policies of every other kind, that directly or indirectly discriminate against these people are changed, and that Governments develop implementing plans that involve people with this disease". If "strengthening scientific research in order to develop new medical products, and obtain better diagnostic instruments in order to increase the possibility of early diagnosis, is fundamental, is also necessary that "a person who has been cured of this disease must be reintegrated to the full into his or her original social fabric: his or her family, community, school, or work environment". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 30/01/2017) | <urn:uuid:2c1c2c8a-a208-4bdd-b7e4-035313c0c503> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://www.fides.org/en/news/61620-VATICAN_To_fight_leprosy_but_also_the_discrimination_it_engenders | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823621.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20181211125831-20181211151331-00074.warc.gz | en | 0.955732 | 329 | 2.625 | 3 |
Most household spiders are generally harmless to humans and common pets. There are dangerous spiders in the area, however, and one is a common local spider: the black widow.
A Common Danger: The Black Widow Spider
Black widow spiders are known for the menacing red hourglass shape found on the undersides of their abdomens. They are, as their name suggests, otherwise pitch black, sometimes with lighter or reddish coloration in their leg joints. They hang out in dark areas, though, so it's difficult to notice the signs of a black widow in your home. However, it is helpful to know where these spiders like to hide and what other things you can use to identify them:
Dark places: Black widows prefer dark areas like holes or openings formed by other animals. Not only do these areas hide their black bodies, but black widows are nocturnal creatures, and these environments allow them to lie in wait.
Wooded areas: In nature, black widows prefer dark, wooded environments to spin their webs, so they will look for similar areas in or around a home. Under porches, within woodpiles, and down in basements or garages are common places for them to hide.
Webs: Black widows spin very wide webs that blanket entire corners or gaps to catch as many bugs as possible. Their nesting webs are a bit thicker and more compact, with egg sacs that appear as silken bulbs folded in the center.
Black Widow Bites
The most important thing to know about black widow spiders is that their bites can be extremely dangerous. While most people won’t die from a black widow bite, their venom is potent and can result in serious reactions. Black widows aren’t aggressive spiders, typically, and will only bite if provoked, which is why it pays to know where they like to hide so you can avoid these areas.
If a bite occurs, it will appear as a reddened welt on the surface of the skin. Some people might feel the prick of the initial bite, others may not notice until after symptoms begin to develop. After several minutes, a victim will notice pain in areas that are not localized to the bite itself: abdominal pain, chest pain, and muscle spasms are common. Other signs include dizziness, nausea, weakness, fever, and headache.
It’s important to seek medical attention immediately after you notice the first signs of a bite since some people can have more serious reactions than others. Some can have allergic reactions to the compound in the venom, while others with existing health conditions or weakened immune systems can have worsened symptoms brought on by the bite.
Black Widow Prevention Tips
Keeping your home and yard free of black widows is all about reducing the factors that attract them inside in the first place:
De-webbing: Disturbing the feeding webs of a black widow can be a way to disrupt its food cycle and force it to look elsewhere. However, you run the risk of getting bit if the web you’re disturbing is a breeding web containing eggs, or if a black widow is nearby to catch some prey. This is a step best left to professionals.
Harborage Points: Along this same line of thinking, you can generally curb the number of places that a black widow can spin a web. Keeping vegetation trimmed low, with tree branches not too splayed out for easy web-work, is a good yard maintenance step. Also, look for ways to block or eliminate corners or holes where webs can easily be spun.
Crack sealing: While some cracks or holes may be too small for black widows themselves, they are likely not too small for the other kinds of bugs that spiders hunt. Reducing entry points into your home for bugs of all kinds will reduce pest populations in general.
ProActive Peace Of Mind
As with all pest problems, professional solutions are the only way to achieve total peace of mind. A trained pair of eyes from an expert will search all the places for bugs that are masters of stealth. With black widows, there is a heightened need for preventative care. You don’t want to risk you or your loved ones becoming a victim of a black widow bite, so it’s best to leave the crawling around in the dark to the professionals.
Don’t risk the dangers of black widow infestation on your property, turn to ProActive Pest Control for proper prevention and removal. | <urn:uuid:77e657d6-6cc3-4010-a7ac-6b22db3c3f63> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.beproactivepestcontrol.com/blog/post/are-there-dangerous-spiders-in-tracy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600401617641.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20200928234043-20200929024043-00245.warc.gz | en | 0.936997 | 913 | 3.125 | 3 |
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Kay Yow, a pioneering women's basketball coach, discusses her childhood in Gibsonville, North Carolina, and her early experiences playing basketball. She discusses her experiences as a coach, her philosophy of leadership, and the challenges facing women's athletics.
Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Ellen Gerber received her doctorate in physical education and taught in northern colleges before attending the School of Law at the University of North Carolina during the mid-1970s. After her graduation, she accepted a job with Legal Aid. She describes her careers in physical education and law and discusses in detail her advocacy of women's issues.
The first woman to serve in a cabinet-level position in North Carolina, Grace Jemison Rohrer first became involved in politics in the 1960s, organizing the Republican Party in Forsyth County, North Carolina. Rohrer later joined forces with Democratic women in order to establish the North Carolina Women's Political Caucus (NCWPC) in 1971. In 1973, Governor James Holshouser appointed her to serve as the Secretary of Cultural Resources. Throughout the 1970s, Rohrer advocated for women to have a more active role in politics, and she actively supported the Equal Rights Amendment.
Ruth Dial Woods describes growing up as a Lumbee Indian in Robeson County, North Carolina, in the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1960s, Woods participated in the civil rights and women's liberation movements. In 1985, she was appointed to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, where she worked to promote equality for minority students.
Civil rights activist Suzanne Post speaks about what motivated her commitment to social justice. Though she is best known for her work to overcome race-based segregated education in Louisville and to launch Louisville's Metropolitan Housing Coalition, Post insists that her most important work centered on women's rights.
In this interview, Vivion Lenon Brewer explains how her awareness of racial disparities caused her to support school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas. She discusses her leadership in pushing politicians to reopen the closed public schools during the 1958-1959 Little Rock school crisis. | <urn:uuid:6e14ac4e-27e2-4aca-bdfb-365afd09f013> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/browse/themes.html?theme_id=5&category_id=20&subcategory_id=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802771384.149/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075251-00161-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973666 | 429 | 2.734375 | 3 |
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When kids anticipate "going to the doctor," many become worried and apprehensive about the visit. Whether they're going for a routine exam or illness, kids are likely to have fears.
If you detect anxiety from your child about going to the doctor, encourage him or her to to tell you about their fears. Then, address their concerns using age-appropriate language. "In the exam room, children can be quite sensitive to their parents' emotions. Having a calm, positive, reassuring attitude can reduce your child's anxiety," advises Carlos Lerner M.D., medical director, Children's Health Center, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA.
When explaining the purpose of the appointment, talking about the doctor in a positive way helps promote the relationship between your child and the doctor. Explain that the purpose of a regular "well-child visit" is to see how he is growing and developing and to make sure that his body is healthy. If she is not feeling well, tell her that a doctor can help find out what is wrong and how best to treat it.
When you call to make the appointment, you can ask to speak to the doctor or a nurse to find out, in a general way, what will take place during the office visit and exam. Then you can explain some of the procedures and their purpose in gentle language.
Children can cope with discomfort or pain more easily if they're forewarned, and they'll learn to trust you if you're honest with them. If you don't know much about the illness or condition, admit that but reassure your child that you'll be there and that you will both be able to ask the doctor question. Write down your child's questions to bring with you.
Common Fears and Concerns
Choosing the right doctor for your child
Because your doctor is your best ally in helping your child cope with health examinations, it's important to carefully select a doctor. Of course, you want one who's knowledgeable and competent. However, you also want a doctor who understands kids' needs and fears and who communicates easily with them, in a friendly manner. | <urn:uuid:c3bc6ff0-45f6-4cc9-b4da-31238d8e855a> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://robbreport.com/health-and-wellness/prevention-treatment/ucla-health/ucla-health-how-do-i-prepare-my-child-doctors-visit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207929899.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113209-00082-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974347 | 435 | 2.703125 | 3 |
According to a recent study published by the Governor’s Highway Association, “the number of pedestrian fatalities in the United States (U.S.) increased 25 percent from 2010 to 2015, while at the same time, total traffic deaths increased by about six (6) percent. Pedestrians now account for the largest proportion of traffic fatalities recorded in the past 25 years. Earlier studies by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), based on preliminary data reported by State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs), were the first to predict recent increases in pedestrian fatalities”.
The study will point out a variety of ways to increase pedestrian safety. At MPH, we know, based on other specific studies and case history, that a very affordable and effective way to increase pedestrian safety is through the use of radar speed signs and trailers. Radar speed signs and trailers are proven to reduce the speed of vehicles which is why they are deployed very often in places such as school cross-walks and other key areas with high pedestrian traffic. Agencies can also benefit from their use by reducing traffic enforcement man-hours, increasing public awareness and goodwill by responding to citizen complaints, in addition, with our SpeedView Traffic Computer onboard, agencies will benefit from accurate traffic studies which provides the data needed to send officers to critical areas at the right time periods for enforcement. | <urn:uuid:9673a047-3a73-4ba4-ae34-1df6702216bc> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.mphindustries.com/agency-pedestrian-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195527907.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20190722092824-20190722114824-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.966753 | 272 | 2.90625 | 3 |
10 colloquialisms in English, knowledge of which is indispensable
Real English is not at all the same as in textbooks. Speech of native speakers is natural and consists of a lot of abbreviations. Here are ten of them, without knowing which you, in your opinion Lifehacker can not do.
| ˈꞬɑː.nə | = going to - going to do something.
We're gonna get married. = We're going to get married. - We're going to get married.
The gonna version sounds a lot easier. Moreover, you can omit the verb to be (we gonna get married), if, of course, your internal censor allows it.
| ˈWɑː.nə | = want to / want a - want to do something / want something.
The abbreviation wanna is used in two ways: when we want to do something and when we just want something. In both cases, wanna is used instead of want to and want a:
- Do you wanna come to my place for dinner? = Do you want to come to dinner? - Want to have dinner with me?
- I wanna birthday party. = I want a birthday party. - I want a birthday party.
| ˈꞬɪm.i | = give me - give me / give me.
This acronym is familiar to many from the song. Gimme More Britney Spears and ABBA band compositions. For friendly communication, it is appropriate to say:
Oh, come on, Pat, gimme a break. - Oh, Pat, that's enough! Give a break!
| ˈLɛmɪ | = let me - let me.
The abbreviation lemme is consonant with gimme, used as follows:
Lemme take care of her. = Let me take care of her. - Let me take care of her.
| ˈKaɪ.ndə | = kind of - type / view of something; like, like, to some extent.
Very frequent conversational abbreviation. Basically, kinda is used in two cases. First, when you need to say or ask about a variety of something:
What kinda music do you like? = What kind of music do you like? - What kind of music do you like?
And a more colloquial version, for which kinda sounds more appropriate than kind of. Here are some examples:
- Actually, that's kinda cool. - Actually, it's kind of cool.
- Well, I kinda like someone. - Well, I kind of like someone.
| sɔːrtʌ | = sort of - sort of, sort of, like.
Similar to kinda:
- She's sorta out on her own. “She seems to be on her own.”
- That's sorta their thing. - It's like their chip.
| eint | = am / is / are not; have / has not - negative particle "not".
This abbreviation is useful to know, but not recommended. Carriers it is recognized too informal, colloquial. You may think that ain't came from American slang, but in fact its roots go much deeper - right in London Cockney.
Ain't quite emotional, so often found in various songs. From recent recall Ain't your mama Jennifer Lopez:
I ain't gon 'be cooking all day, I ain't your mama! = I'm not your mama. - I'm not going to cook all day, I'm not your mom!
| eˈlɑːtə | = a lot of - a lot of things.
Like all of the abbreviations listed above, a lotta turned out in the process of rapid pronouncing and merging sounds. It is very popular, and you just need to know it! And to use it like this:
Hey, you askin 'a lotta questions. = Hey, you're asking a lot of questions. - Hey, you ask a lot of questions.
And in the case of the plural, instead of lots of we can say lotsa:
I have lots of computer games. = I have lots of computer games. - I have a lot of computer games.
| dəˈnoʊ | = do not know - I do not know.
So casually you can answer the question in an informal setting.
Dunno, Mike, do whatever you like. = I don’t know, Mike, do whatever you like. “I don't know, Mike, do what you want.”
You can use dunno with a pronoun, and without.
| kɔːz | = 'coz =' cos = 'cause = because - because.
Apparently, it is difficult to articulate not only English learners, but also native speakers themselves. Otherwise, why so mock the word?
I like him cuz he's pretty. = I like him because he's pretty. - I like him because he is pretty.
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Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? Subscribe to our page in Facebook. Choose the "Display Priority" option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram - there are many interesting things. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily Woman и ForumDaily New York - there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information. | <urn:uuid:66b9ddbb-08f6-4c6a-88c9-727e894ffa48> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.forumdaily.com/en/10-razgovornyx-sokrashhenij-v-anglijskom-bez-znaniya-kotoryx-ne-obojtis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104542759.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220705083545-20220705113545-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.93057 | 1,386 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Previewing pages 1, 2 of actual document.
Southern opposition to Reconstruction attempts and the North's reaction.
- Lecture number:
- Lecture Note
- Texas A&M University
- Hist 106 - History Of The U S
Unformatted text preview:
HIST 106 1st Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture 1. Unresolved Questions / Issues after the Civil War 2. Reconstruction • Early Ideas under Lincoln • Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867) 3. Andrew Johnson 4. Debates over the Treatment of Former Confederates 5. The Black Codes • Radical (or Congressional) Reconstruction (1867-1877) 6. Goals 7. The Freedmen’s Bureau 8. Reconstruction Acts of 1867 9. Johnson’s Impeachment 10. Mixed Record 11. African Americans Experience Reconstruction • Meanings & Realities of “Freedom” Outline of Current Lecture 1. Redemption: Opposition to Reconstruction in the South • Strong Southern Dislike of Reconstruction Governments • Terrorism to Recreate & Reinforce White Supremacy • Establishment of a New Race and Class-Based Labor System: Sharecropping 2. Retreat: Northern Retreat from Reconstruction • Depression of 1873 3. Economic Issues Take Precedence • Pessimism over the South’s Ability to “Reconstruct” & to Treat African Americans Equally 4. Fate of Southern Reconstruction Governments & the “Mississippi Plan” • Presidential Election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 Current Lecture Redemption Opposition to Reconstruction in the South • Strong Southern Dislike of Reconstruction Governments • These were a humiliating reminder of defeat • They were strongly against northern military occupation • Never more than about 7k troops stationed in the reconstruction areas • These governments started spending money, which meant rising taxes and state debt • Democrats accused them of corruption and irresponsible spending • Also felt federal governments gave special privileges to blacks • Most whites simply could not accept the idea of blacks as equals • Had to endure major cultural shif • When last of troops lef, major white backlash • Terrorism to Recreate & Reinforce White Supremacy • Wanted to put blacks back into pre war status • KKK (Ku Klux Klan) • Founded in TN in winter of 1866 by 6 confederate vets • Supposedly a social club • Secret meetings, elaborate ceremonies, and members wore disguises • Soon took on more sinister nature and become terrorist group of the democrats • Original group had high society members (elite of white southern society) • Nathan Bedford Forrest (Cofounder) • John B. Gordon (Georgia Klan Leader) • Loose knit umbrella for independent local groups that shared common goal (white supremacy) and common tactics • Targeted blacks that had gained power (land owners and those that stood up to plantation owners) • Burned black freedom symbols (churches, schools) • Wanted to keep blacks out of politics • Broke up coalition of republican southerners • Carpetbaggers and scallywags were also targets • Terrorism devastated republican party • Response: Grant and congress in 1870-1871 enforce civil rights acts • Congress enacts “KKK Act” allowing federal government to intervene when states fail to properly persecute those that were keeping others from voting and denying rights • KKK reign was short lived afer this • Klan fades away, until revived during 19-teens • Other white supremacy groups emerged with the same goal: to restore white power in southern state • Establishment of a ...
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Living in this world is a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes we experience positive things while at times, we experience negative things. In whatever way we view it, we all experience the same things. However, some people are simply born lucky as they seem to experience all the pleasurable things but for the unfortunate ones, they almost always feel disappointed, depressed and unlucky. Hence, some view the world as cruel.
No matter how some people think that everyone is equal, it is not really the case to some. People have different experiences and people have diverse perspectives in life despite living in the same world. That is how life is.
Some people experience unpleasant things that may seem unimaginable but nevertheless, it still happens. But why do some people still feel happy despite all the hardships and disappointment? While some people feel rather depressed and frustrated in experiencing the same? Life can be a blur sometimes that is why people ponder over so many questions everyday.
With all these, people really have different emotions and they express these feelings differently as well. Despite living in the same world, people view themselves differently. Thus, affecting how they view the world as well. Naturally, when a person views himself as a pessimist, a depressed person or a worthless person, he would also feel the same way toward the people around him and his environment because what we feel deep inside us definitely affects our overall point of view and sense in this world; hence, the belief that how we feel about ourselves affects how we see the world.
Truthfully, living in this world is all about perception. We all have different perspectives because we are all unique. People’s perspectives differ from each other, with some falling on the positive side while falling on the negative side.
Whichever side your perspective is, it is solely yours because you are the creator of that perspective. Other people may have an impact on the way you see yourself but they cannot entirely change your perspective about yourself and of the world.
If you have experienced a lot of unpleasant things in life, it is your choice whether to get stuck in it or to be free from it. In this life, it is normal when a person gets locked up in a situation. If this situation evokes negative emotions and feelings, he will also see himself in a negative light such as being worthless and he would naturally view the world as a place unworthy as well.
What people are mostly unaware of is that it is important to let go of these unpleasant feelings because we do not live in the past, we live in the present. If we let ourselves get stuck in a negative situation with negative feelings, we will also have the tendency to view the world from the same perspective that we made our pessimism.
When a person is sad about something, everything else around him seems to be well fitting to his current emotion. It is because the way he views himself at the moment and the instances that he is in also makes up for the world he lives in. It is important to realize that all the perspective and thoughts that we have about ourselves affects how we live our lives.
Consequently, if the way we live our lives is affected then it will also influence the way we see the world. Hence, learning to let go of an unpleasant situation and feeling is essential to be able to live this life fully.
We are the ones who control our lives, how we react to our experiences and feelings and how we deal with them. Certain experiences are unavoidable and feelings cannot be controlled because they are emotions that are part of being humans. What we can do as the main controller of our lives is to set how you want to view yourself carefully. It is pivotal in this life to focus on bettering yourself before anything else because it is your life that makes your existence in this world worthwhile and how you view yourself can affect everything around you.
If positive things happen to you, you naturally accept them wholeheartedly. So also do the same and be open-minded in accepting all your flaws and the negative experiences that you have because they are part of who you are. Every little thing about you is what comprises the way you live your life and how you see the world. Just imagine living in this world as someone who is accepting of everything, as someone who is optimistic and hopeful to what life offers. If you view yourself as a happy person, you are also in a way embracing everything that surrounds you even the bad ones. Thus, having a general positive point of view in life.
The Feel Good About Yourself CD contains 3 specially selected hypnosis sessions.
selfesteem awareness is supported by our participation in affiliate programs. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. We also participate in programs from Clickbank, and other sites. selfesteem awareness is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. | <urn:uuid:8d319857-42bf-405b-80ee-95ddf9b77325> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.selfesteemawareness.com/how-we-feel-about-ourselves-affects-how-we-see-the-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337663.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005172112-20221005202112-00041.warc.gz | en | 0.968492 | 1,001 | 2.703125 | 3 |
April 12, 2013
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More evidence stacks up about what motivates people, including in the workplace. One thing that all the research shows about how to help people feel good at work is that motivation is a complex issue. It is not about money or joy or fun or an easy life. The things that are important include the challenge of overcoming difficult problems, a sense of achievement and an understanding that the work they do is acknowledged and makes a genuine contribution. The one thing to avoid is futility and the thing to aim for is meaning even in small ways. All of this research challenges the assumption that people are essentially economic creatures and that we can make them feel better by making isolated changes to their working environment. | <urn:uuid:f8e6b6d6-c549-4b20-b015-9914a8e648af> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://workplaceinsight.net/feel-good-at-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655896905.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20200708062424-20200708092424-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.930162 | 254 | 2.53125 | 3 |
|Institution:||Texas A&M University|
|Keywords:||urban sprawl; disaster resilience|
|Full text PDF:||http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/157857|
In the wake of ever increasing numbers of natural disasters around the world, further exacerbated by climate change and our growing alarm and vulnerability to them, the notion of resilience has become an important topic within disaster research. Studies have shown an important influence of the built environment, such as urban sprawl, on disaster resilience. This study is an attempt to address the growing danger we face from natural disasters, by examining the role of urban sprawl with respect to community resilience. It identifies indicators and measurements of urban sprawl and disaster resilience with the goal of deriving relationship between the two. Furthermore, the study inquires whether such a relationship varies across different regions in the United States. Using the data from 994 counties in the United States, this study examines associations between urban sprawl and disaster resilience, using correlation analyses (i.e. Pearson?s R, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regression analysis) The result shows a negative relationship between urban sprawl and disaster resilience, which means that disaster resilience is higher in counties with more compact development patterns. Also, the Northeast region was shown to have a stronger relationship than the West, suggesting that the relationship between urban sprawl and disaster resilience varies across regions. Advisors/Committee Members: Lee, Chanam (advisor), Van Zandt, Shannon (committee member), Saravanan, Ramalingam (committee member). | <urn:uuid:682bb68a-dc9a-42ab-a3ae-12078d610701> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | http://www.dissertation.com/abstracts/2063930 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027313259.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20190817123129-20190817145129-00460.warc.gz | en | 0.89662 | 327 | 2.640625 | 3 |
I have done an experiment named parallel action experiment, which shows the movement of a test coil in a magnetic field that is not allowed by Lorentz force law. Please see the video
The setup of this experiment is shown in Figure 1. The test coil carries a current that is influenced by the magnetic field B created by the magnet. The test coil, which is plane and perpendicular to its axle of rotation, can turn only in its plane. The video shows, when the current flows, signaled by the blinking of the led, the coil rotates in its plane.
Does Lorentz force exert a force parallel to the current? NO. However, this experiment shows that, YES, it does exist a force parallel to the current. This experiment makes a plane coil turn in the magnetic field of a magnet. The axle crosses the plane of the coil perpendicularly in the center. Only force parallel to the current can make it turn.
First photography: Will this coil turn?
Second photography: The coil and the magnet.
Third photography: The led will turn on when current flows in the coil. The referential system of the setup.
In my Lorentz perpendicular action experiment, (see Lorentz perpendicular action experiment and Lorentz force law, blogspot academia) the movement of a test coil proved experimentally that the magnetic force on it does not verify the Lorentz force law and in consequence, showed a flaw of the law.
In this experiment, the magnetic field of a magnet exerts a force on the test coil and makes it turn (see Figure 1). According to the Lorentz force law, the test coil should turn about the axle whether it is parallel to x-axis or y-axis. But the experiment showed that it does not turn when the axle is parallel to y-axis.
In the following, I will explain the experimental result using the corrected law of magnetic force that I proposed in Correct differential magnetic force law, blogspot acdgemia, and show that this law describes well the movement of the test coil. | <urn:uuid:15faed84-6f36-4660-8db9-8b00e93e5558> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://blogs.scienceforums.net/pengkuan/2013/03/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473690.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222030017-20240222060017-00731.warc.gz | en | 0.930205 | 424 | 3.25 | 3 |
Transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito, malaria is a common, potentially fatal parasitic disease that is present in approximately 100 countries - mainly in Africa, South America, Asia and the Pacific. There are five strains of malaria that can infect humans (the most severe is caused by Plasmodium falciparum) and transmission occurs mainly between sunset and sunrise. There is no vaccine, only preventative anti-malaria drugs and mosquito bite avoidance.
Malaria remains a major problem in the world’s tropical regions. Each year, more than 215 million new cases occur world-wide and 435,000 people die from malaria. Many cases are recorded among travellers.
When considering the risks of malaria it’s important to:
- Know the malaria-infected areas of any countries to be visited.
- Be familiar with all the insect bite-avoidance measures available - and practise them.
- Seek medical advice prior to travel regarding anti-malarial (prevention) medication options, including how to take medication so as to maximise its effectiveness and minimise any possible side-effects. For some travellers, malaria treatment medication may be recommended to treat the disease as adequate medical facilities may not always be available.
- Seek medical attention promptly if malaria infection is suspected - even if you have been taking anti-malaria medication.
What is Malaria?
Malaria is a parasitic disease spread by the female Anopheles mosquito. There are five species of plasmodium (malaria) parasites that can infect humans:
Falciparum is the most serious and causes 95% of malaria deaths.
The different strains can only be distinguished by microscopic examination of the blood. After being released into the blood stream, the malaria parasites travel to the liver to begin cycles of reproduction. This process lasts 6-12 days, depending on the species. The infected person will still feel well during this incubation period.
Each malaria organism grows into a large cell containing thousands of malaria parasites. These burst, releasing the parasites into the blood stream where they enter red blood cells and again start to multiply. The bursting of the infected red blood cells corresponds with the onset of typical malaria symptoms – high fever, shivering and sweating. Symptoms can be variable and non-specific and may include headaches, lethargy, muscle pains, abdominal discomfort, diarrhoea, coughing, jaundice (yellowing of the skin), confusion and, in latter stages, possible coma and death.
Malaria symptoms can be difficult to distinguish from influenza or other tropical diseases such as dengue fever, travellers' diarrhoea or typhoid fever. Essentially, any febrile illness which occurs following travel to a malaria-infected area should be considered to be malaria until proven otherwise. A thorough medical assessment is essential. Symptoms usually occur one to three weeks after infection but can occur up to a year following exposure to the disease.
Malaria may occur even when taking anti-malaria tablets. Anti-malaria medication is not designed to prevent infection, rather to prevent a classic, potentially fatal case of the disease.
While diagnosis is achieved with a blood test, several tests may be required. Treatment may involve a regime of one or more medications administered in a clinical setting. Generally, local doctors and medical clinics practicing in malaria-infected regions are experienced in treating the disease and will recommend an appropriate course of medication.
Where is it found?
Malaria transmission occurs in large areas of tropical countries: Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and parts of the Pacific.
Transmission is generally higher in rural areas (though urban cases occur in many cities, notably in India and Africa) and during the wet season when mosquito populations increase.
Advice concerning the local malaria risk is essential for all travellers.
Risk to travellers
The risk of malaria to travellers may vary markedly from one area to another and also varies with season, length of stay, type of accommodation, extent of outdoor activities and other factors. Malaria is usually not a risk at altitudes above 2,000 metres but this may differ by country. There are some groups who are at particular risk of getting severe malaria:The risks for children under five years and pregnant women should be carefully considered before travel to malarial areas is contemplated.
Prevention of malaria
Life-threatening cases of malaria can be prevented by:
- Awareness of malaria-infected areas in each trip.
- Preventing mosquito bites (see separate section)
- Taking anti-malarial medication, when appropriate.
There are several different types of medication available to prevent malaria. The appropriate choice should be determined by considering:
- areas to be visited and the type of malaria present.
- nature and length of trip being planned.
- traveller's medical history.
No anti-malarial medication is 100% effective - preventing bites through the use of insect repellent and a bed net, if required, remains crucial. There is no vaccine available. Local populations in malarial areas usually have partial immunity and may therefore be less susceptible than travellers.
Each anti-malarial medication has advantages and disadvantages. The options are outlined below to provide a better understanding of why each is recommended in different circumstances.
There are possible side effects with all medications. Usually these are not serious, but it is advisable to be aware of the possibility of uncommon, but potentially serious reactions which should be discussed with your Travelvax clinic or other travel health provider.
Mosquito avoidance measures
The risk of insect-borne diseases is greatly reduced by minimising the number of bites you receive. In the tropics, mosquitoes not only spread malaria, but also other diseases such as dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever. Ticks and sand flies can also spread disease, both in the tropics and other regions of the world.
Most mosquitoes feed predominantly at dusk and dawn. Malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquitoes are night feeders and are active from dusk till dawn, however Aedes mosquitoes, which transmit dengue fever and chikungunya, bite mainly during the day (but they may also bite at night in brightly lit surroundings).
Some of the avoidance measures recommended by Travelvax include:
- Wearing long-sleeved shirts and trousers during risk times (light colours are better than dark).
- Avoiding scents and perfumes – they attract mosquitoes.
- Applying mosquito repellents containing 30% DEET, Citriodiol (oil of lemon eucalyptus or PMD) or Picaridin to exposed areas of the skin, especially after swimming or if you have been perspiring. Be sure to treat all exposed skin.
- Sleeping under a mosquito net if not in screened or air-conditioned accommodation.
- Using the insecticide Permethrin to impregnate bed nets and clothing (available from your nearest Travelvax clinic). Safe for use near children. Call 1300 360 164 for more advice.
NB. Using essential oils and taking garlic or vitamin B1 has not been proven to provide effective protection. | <urn:uuid:98bafa59-ac78-461b-a6d2-6bfbfee41896> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.travelvax.com.au/holiday-traveller/malaria | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496670987.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20191121204227-20191121232227-00304.warc.gz | en | 0.917491 | 1,478 | 3.90625 | 4 |
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Is your "Implant Specialist" a Prosthodontist? JUST ASK! Or go to GotoaPro.org
Before development of dental implants, dentures were the only alternative to replacing a missing tooth or teeth.
Implants are synthetic structures that are placed in the area of the tooth normally occupied by the root. Implants are anchored to the jawbone and act as a foundation for an artificial tooth or permanent bridge. In some cases, implants can be used to attach dentures.
Most patients are good candidates for dental implants. In all cases, dental implants require strict oral hygiene.
Implants are so well designed that they mimic the look and feel of natural teeth. Implants are usually made of a biocompatible material like titanium or a biocompatible ceramic.
Surgery is necessary to prepare the area for an implant and place the implant in the mouth. Following the procedure, a period of time is required for the implant to take hold and for bone tissue to build up and anchor the device. In some cases, metal posts are inserted into the implant during a follow-up procedure to connect the tooth.
Implants most commonly require only minor surgery, patients are administered anesthesia (local or IV sedation if desired). If necessary, antibiotics are prescribed to stave off infection following the procedure.
Like any restoration, implants require diligent oral hygiene and proper care to ensure they last a long time.
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Dental Implants – Your Best Option For Replacing Teeth Dental implants have many advantages over older methods of tooth replacement like bridges and dentures — from the way they function and feel to the way they look and last. Vigorous research has documented and confirmed that in the right situations, dental implant success rates are over 95%. It is no exaggeration to say that they have revolutionized dentistry. They may even change your life... Read Article
The Hidden Consequences of Losing Teeth For those missing even one tooth, an unsightly gap is actually the least significant problem. What's of far greater concern is the bone loss that inevitably follows tooth loss. Dental implants can preserve bone, improve function and enhance psychological well-being. Learn how implants serve both as anchors to support replacement teeth and preserve bone... Read Article | <urn:uuid:cf36e828-0dcb-4da4-b561-8cc03451150d> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.dentaldesigngainesville.com/dental-implants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057329.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20210922041825-20210922071825-00169.warc.gz | en | 0.895123 | 524 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Did you know Greenland is approximately 14 times smaller than the great continent of Africa, even though both appears to takes the same amount of area on the map? That’s because maps are intrinsically inaccurate. It is impossible to accurately represent the surface of the earth on a piece of paper because the earth is spherical while a map is flat. Imagine peeling an orange and pressing the orange peel flat on a table - the peel would crack and break as it was flattened because it can't easily transform from a sphere to a plane. The same is true for the surface of the earth and that's why we use map projections.
All map projections distort the surface in some fashion. Depending on the purpose of the map, some distortions are acceptable and others are not; therefore different map projections exist in order to preserve some properties of the sphere-like body at the expense of other properties.
A very famous projection is the Mercator Map.
The Mercator projection was invented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant course. On his map, lines of latitude and longitude intersect at right angles and thus the direction of travel - the rhumb line - is consistent. While the linear scale is equal in all directions around any point, the Mercator projection distorts the size and shape of objects as we move from the Equator to the poles.
On Mercator's map Antarctica appears to be the biggest continent that wraps around the earth and Greenland appears to be just as large as Africa. Alaska appears to take as much area on the map as Brazil, when Brazil's area is actually more than 5 times that of Alaska.
Even though Mercator never intended his map to be used for purposes other than navigation, it became one of the most popular world map projections due to its unique properties. A better attempt to solve the problem of showing the whole globe as a flat image was made by Arthur H. Robinson in 1961. He created the Robinson projection where he discarded existing projection rules to create a map that is visually attractive.
During the 20th century, the National Geographic Society, various atlases, and classroom wall cartographers adopted the rounded Robinson Projection. Later, the National Geographic Society switched to an improved version – the Winkel tripel projection, which is now followed by many educational institutes and textbooks.
Below are some map comparison tools that allows you to grasp the true size of a country or region by overlaying maps of different regions over each other.
OverlayMaps lets the user compare the sizes of different countries, states/provinces, lakes/rivers and other landmarks around the world. There are a few drawbacks of OverlayMaps such as the inability to compare sizes of continents, and custom regions. The collection of rivers and lakes is also rather poor.
This is another map comparison tool that lets you compare both countries and continents against each other. Unlike most map comparisons tools, MapFight doesn’t use accurate maps or satellite images but a rough form of the country, but it does the job. It also tells you how big or small the compared regions are using figures.
MAPfrappe is a similar tool but with the advantage that you can actually define your own area to compare.
MAPfrappe uses two Google Maps. Click on the top, “Reference” map to draw an outline around the region you wish to compare. As you draw your outline in the top map, it appears at the center of the bottom map. You can drag and zoom the bottom map to anywhere in the world to compare, and the outline stays in the center of the map.
BBC Dimensions (previously on Instant Fundas) is an excellent size comparison tool. Here you can’t define your own region but it has a huge collection of areas for comparison. Aside from countries and capitals, you can select from a wide range of important objects and historical events, environmental disasters, festivals, ancient world monuments, festivals and spectacles and even space objects like the moon. You can map the Apollo 11 moon walk or plot the Mars rovers tracks around your home and neighborhood.
BBC Dimension is based on Google Maps and hence it understands most place names, street names and zip codes that Google maps understands. | <urn:uuid:a052c169-70be-44a8-9113-7e40d149d048> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://www.instantfundas.com/2012/07/4-tools-to-compare-true-size-of-maps.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917125849.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031205-00235-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938805 | 888 | 4.34375 | 4 |
Quiz: Part 2: Act 1, Scene 7 | Part 2: Act 2, Scene 1 to Part 2: Act 3, Scene 2 | Part 2: Act 3, Scene 3
|Name: _____________________________||Period: ___________________________|
This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
Directions: Circle the correct answer.
1. What historical twentieth century event happened the day God abandoned the Angels?
a) The Great San Francisco Earthquake
b) The Stonewall Riots
c) Black Tuesday
d) V-J Day
2. In Act 3, Scene 4, which of the following is not a place Louis mentions as a hot bed of homosexual mating?
a) Central Park
b) Fire Island
c) Jones Beach
d) St. Mark's Baths
3. How is Prior's sight deteriorating?
a) He is losing his depth-perception
b) He is blind in his left eye
c) He is becoming color-blind
d) His peripheral...
This section contains 369 words|
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:c3b566df-4b02-4a19-baaf-52b09c9abac8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/angelsamerica/quiz9.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706121989/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120841-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.81544 | 243 | 2.59375 | 3 |
More Kinds of Setting¶
Remember, a build definition creates a list of Setting, which is then used to transform sbt's description of the build (which is a map of key-value pairs). A Setting is a transformation with sbt's earlier map as input and a new map as output. The new map becomes sbt's new state.
Different settings transform the map in different ways. Earlier, you read about the := method.
The Setting which := creates puts a fixed, constant value in the new, transformed map. For example, if you transform a map with the setting name := "hello" the new map has the string "hello" stored under the key name.
Settings must end up in the master list of settings to do any good (all lines in a build.sbt automatically end up in the list, but in a .scala file you can get it wrong by creating a Setting without putting it where sbt will find it).
Appending to previous values: += and ++=¶
Assignment with := is the simplest transformation, but keys have other methods as well. If the T in SettingKey[T] is a sequence, i.e. the key's value type is a sequence, you can append to the sequence rather than replacing it.
- += will append a single element to the sequence.
- ++= will concatenate another sequence.
For example, the key sourceDirectories in Compile has a Seq[File] as its value. By default this key's value would include src/main/scala. If you wanted to also compile source code in a directory called source (since you just have to be nonstandard), you could add that directory:
sourceDirectories in Compile += new File("source")
Or, using the file() function from the sbt package for convenience:
sourceDirectories in Compile += file("source")
(file() just creates a new File.)
You could use ++= to add more than one directory at a time:
sourceDirectories in Compile ++= Seq(file("sources1"), file("sources2"))
Where Seq(a, b, c, ...) is standard Scala syntax to construct a sequence.
To replace the default source directories entirely, you use := of course:
sourceDirectories in Compile := Seq(file("sources1"), file("sources2"))
Computing a value based on other keys' values¶
Reference the value of another task or setting by calling value on the key for the task or setting. The value method is special and may only be called in the argument to :=, +=, or ++=.
As a first example, consider defining the project organization to be the same as the project name.
// name our organization after our project (both are SettingKey[String]) organization := name.value
Or, set the name to the name of the project's directory:
// name is a Key[String], baseDirectory is a Key[File] // name the project after the directory it's inside name := baseDirectory.value.getName
This transforms the value of baseDirectory using the standard getName method of java.io.File.
Using multiple inputs is similar. For example,
name := "project " + name.value + " from " + organization.value + " version " + version.value
This sets the name in terms of its previous value as well as the organization and version settings.
Settings with dependencies¶
In the setting name := baseDirectory.value.getName, name will have a dependency on baseDirectory. If you place the above in build.sbt and run the sbt interactive console, then type inspect name, you should see (in part):
[info] Dependencies: [info] *:baseDirectory
This is how sbt knows which settings depend on which other settings. Remember that some settings describe tasks, so this approach also creates dependencies between tasks.
For example, if you inspect compile you'll see it depends on another key compileInputs, and if you inspect compileInputs it in turn depends on other keys. Keep following the dependency chains and magic happens. When you type compile sbt automatically performs an update, for example. It Just Works because the values required as inputs to the compile computation require sbt to do the update computation first.
In this way, all build dependencies in sbt are automatic rather than explicitly declared. If you use a key's value in another computation, then the computation depends on that key. It just works!
When settings are undefined¶
Whenever a setting uses :=, +=, or ++= to create a dependency on itself or another key's value, the value it depends on must exist. If it does not, sbt will complain. It might say "Reference to undefined setting", for example. When this happens, be sure you're using the key in the scope that defines it.
It's possible to create cycles, which is an error; sbt will tell you if you do this.
Tasks with dependencies¶
As noted in .sbt build definition, task keys create a Setting[Task[T]] rather than a Setting[T] when you build a setting with :=, etc. Tasks can use settings as inputs, but settings cannot use tasks as inputs.
Take these two keys (from Keys):
val scalacOptions = taskKey[Seq[String]]("Options for the Scala compiler.") val checksums = settingKey[Seq[String]]("The list of checksums to generate and to verify for dependencies.")
// The scalacOptions task may be defined in terms of the checksums setting scalacOptions := checksums.value
There is no way to go the other direction. That is, a setting key can't depend on a task key. That's because a setting key is only computed once on project load, so the task would not be re-run every time, and tasks expect to re-run every time.
// The checksums setting may not be defined in terms of the scalacOptions task checksums := scalacOptions.value
Appending with dependencies: += and ++=¶
Other keys can be used when appending to an existing setting or task, just like they can for assigning with :=.
For example, say you have a coverage report named after the project, and you want to add it to the files removed by clean:
cleanFiles += file("coverage-report-" + name.value + ".txt") | <urn:uuid:f5d210f2-a2d9-4433-81e6-75a0e4bee642> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.scala-sbt.org/release/docs/Getting-Started/More-About-Settings | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164653483/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134413-00035-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.858187 | 1,366 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The Curious Case of Bartolomé de las Casas
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
The man some call the world’s first human rights advocate may have also promoted the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
No saints were they, the conquistadors. Throughout the New World, they killed, tortured and enslaved Native Americans, pillaged their towns and ruined their land. Today we know about this brutality largely because of one man: Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), a Spanish priest who witnessed and publicized his countrymen’s atrocities. Some call the friar the world’s first human rights advocate; others, the Apostle of the Indians.
In Las Casas’ telling, the natives were virtuous innocents, and the conquistadors were bloodthirsty sadists. “From the beginning, the Indians regarded the Spaniards as angels from heaven,” he wrote in The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account.
Everywhere he went, the priest heard horror stories that he committed to paper in stomach-churning detail.
In addition to Hispaniola (home to present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Las Casas journeyed to or lived in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. Everywhere he went, and from many places he didn’t, the priest heard horror stories that he committed to paper in stomach-churning detail: how the Spanish stabbed and dismembered pregnant women, tore babies from their mothers’ breasts and threw them into canyons, burned chieftains over long-smoldering flames, and trained their dogs to eat them
Though Las Casas may have exaggerated — he meant to shock the authorities into action — most historians accept the bones of his story: The Spanish perpetrated atrocities and killed on a mass scale. In 1542, he won a fleeting victory with the passage of the New Laws, which provided for the gradual abolition of encomienda, a system that effectively permitted slave labor. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the New Laws proved deeply unpopular in the Americas: Colonists rioted, governors flouted them and Las Casas was shot at. The laws were soon repealed.
Las Casas had other tools in his arsenal. Among them was his status as Bishop of Chiapas. There he wrote a manual for confession that instructed priests to not allow slave owners to take confession. Not long after, though, the manual was confiscated and Las Casas, unpopular in the New World, was recalled to Spain. There he turned to writing and debate — it’s a wonder that he escaped the snatches of the Spanish Inquisition — and on the day he died, at 82, he voiced regret for not having done more for the Indian cause.
Las Casas hadn’t set off for the New World with humanitarian aims. For his first years there, he was an ordinary slave-holding settler. But after witnessing (some say participating in) the Spanish conquest of Cuba and hearing the sermons of abolitionist priest Antonio Montesinas, Las Casas converted to the Indian cause.
Perhaps convert’s zeal is to blame for Las Casas’ biggest misstep and the longest-lingering cloud over his career: advocating for the importation of African slaves to replace Indian ones. To be sure, many church critics of Indian slavery did, too. Later in life, Las Casas would recant. And it’s not clear whether Las Casas’ espousal of African slavery had an actual effect.
Still, that blip disconcerts and deeply. It’s hard to reconcile Las Casas’ passionate humanitarian defense of Native Americans with his inability to see everyone as human, and it’s hard to fathom how someone who was so ahead of his peers on human rights could be so backward. But it’s a good reminder: Even those who see best sometimes have blind spots.
This OZY encore was originally published Oct. 12, 2013. | <urn:uuid:941b1d81-5588-47c8-9491-0393a165d719> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://www.ozy.com/flashback/the-curious-case-of-bartolome-de-las-casas/1442/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439735958.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20200805124104-20200805154104-00450.warc.gz | en | 0.955295 | 838 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Any information about epilepsy day?
International Epilepsy Day is a special event which aims to promote the awareness of epilepsy. Every year on the second Monday of February people in more than 120 countries will organize different activities to highlight the problems faced by patients with epilepsy.
The International Epilepsy Day is a joint initiative by two organizations: the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE).
The aims of the International Epilepsy Day are to give supports to patients with the disease, to promote public awareness by holding publicity campaigns and to support research to find new treatments.
Keywords: epilepsy day; national epilepsy day | <urn:uuid:853c65c2-fc1f-4d48-a79c-f9926535aebe> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://pointclickcares.com/any-information-about-epilepsy-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988775.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20210507090724-20210507120724-00189.warc.gz | en | 0.915212 | 138 | 3.234375 | 3 |
August 9, 2011: The Berlin Wall marks its 50th anniversary later this week.
by Leslie Hossack
So we’re stuck in this ridiculous situation. It seems silly for us to be facing an atomic war over a treaty preserving Berlin as the future capital of a reunified Germany when all of us know that Germany will probably never be reunified. -President John F. Kennedy to his aides, 1 June 1961
Berlin is the most dangerous place in the world. The USSR wants to perform an operation on this soft spot to eliminate this thorn, this ulcer. -Premier Nikita Krushchev to President John F. Kennedy at their Vienna Summit, June 1961
Berlin Wall Detail # 3, from The Wall, Niederkirchner Strasse, Berlin 2010
The two image details shown here are taken from my photograph entitled The Wall, Niederkirchner Strasse. The original photograph is a construction, not a stitch. It measures eight feet long and is currently on view in my exhibition CITIES OF STONE – PEOPLE OF DUST at the Red Wall Gallery in Ottawa until September 2nd.
This photograph is intended to simulate a walk along the Berlin Wall today, 50 years after it first appeared. I plan to post two different details everyday this week, leading up to Saturday when I will post the entire image at 2 a.m. to coincide with the time that the Berlin Wall was born on August 13th, 1961.
Berlin Wall Detail # 4, from The Wall, Niederkirchner Strasse, Berlin 2010
© Leslie Hossack | <urn:uuid:b367de0c-7863-45b0-9ba8-f6681969fa29> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://hautevitrine.com/2011/08/09/august-9-2011-the-berlin-wall-marks-its-50th-anniversary-later-this-week/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187825141.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20171022041437-20171022061437-00253.warc.gz | en | 0.932403 | 331 | 2.578125 | 3 |
government in Latvia
TITLE: Latvia: Political process
SECTION: Political process
...Latvian population, those wishing to become citizens are required to pass a Latvian language test. Until the late 1980s, when several prodemocracy groups united as the Popular Front of Latvia, the Communist Party of Latvia (Latvijas Komunistu Partija; LKP), like its counterparts in the other republics of the Soviet Union, was the only source of political power, under the Communist Party of the...
TITLE: Latvia: The Soviet occupation and incorporation
SECTION: The Soviet occupation and incorporation
The ruling Communist Party of Latvia in the 1950s was disproportionately composed of immigrants. A concerted effort to nativize the party, especially its ruling cadres, triggered a purge in 1959 of Communist Party high-level officials who were accused of Latvian nationalism. These officials were replaced by First Secretary Arvīds Pelše and his successors Augusts Voss and Boriss... | <urn:uuid:3edc8013-33e4-4e43-936b-4691168a780a> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.britannica.com/print/topic/129263 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422121914832.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175154-00170-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963009 | 207 | 2.625 | 3 |
Replacing Broken Windows
During a CNBC interview, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said that Japan’s massive earthquake “…may lead to some temporary increments, ironically, to GDP, as a process of rebuilding takes place.”
Commenting on the interview, the WSJ reminds us that 19th century economist Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) said “destruction is not profitable,” because disaster recovery replaces what was lost. So, although GDP could surge, national wealth is not necessarily any more and could indeed be less than it was before disaster struck.
The Economic Lesson
Calling it “the fallacy of the broken window,” economist Bastiat questions the assumption that a broken window can be an economic blessing. He agrees that a glazier would receive, for example, 6 francs to fix it. However, he then says, “…if…you conclude…that it is good to break windows, that it helps to circulate money…I am obliged to cry out: That will never do! Your theory stops at what is seen. It does not take account of what is not seen.”
Bastiat then points out that the money given to the glazier would otherwise have been spent on new shoes or a book. And, having been able to spend the 6 francs on a new pair of shoes, their owner would have had new shoes and the old, unbroken window. | <urn:uuid:6ed86570-1670-477a-b943-55021f8cd132> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.econlife.com/replacing-broken-windows/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651727.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00173-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968718 | 299 | 2.71875 | 3 |
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